The All-Star Game is the proverbial halfway point of the season, but if we're being technical about it, with over 81 games down, we're already there.
At 48-34 the Braves lead the National League East by a healthy 6 1/2 games, giving them the largest advantage of any division leader.
"We couldn't be in a better place, really," said Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez. "Here we are complaining and every team's got something, whether you don't pitch good enough or you don't hit or you strikeout. There's not a perfect team out there. We're in first place and we're pitching good and we feel like we still haven't swung the bats like we're capable of swinging."
It's been a charmed first half for Atlanta, which is facing these five truths as it continues to mark off the second 81 games of 2013.
We've seen home runs (102 to be exact, third-best in baseball) and we've seen strikeouts (723; second in MLB). We've seen a team that has gone 44-9 in games when it goes deep at least once and 4-25 when it doesn't.
But for all that emphasis placed on the hitting, the Braves are second int the majors in overall ERA (3.19) and bullpen ERA (2.68) and their starters rank fourth (3.41). Opponents are hitting just .241 against the entire staff (third in MLB).
"When you've got the kind of offense we have you need some stability and I think the stability has been in the pitching," Kris Medlen said.
Mike Minor (8-2, 2.98 ERA) has cooled of late but he continues to be the de facto ace, and could be headed for his first All-Star Game appearance, while Medlen has overcome a 1-6 start to win four of his last five starts and Tim Hudson has a 1.82 ERA in five June starts.
Paul Maholm has been up and down, winning three of his last seven starts, but rookie Julio Teheran bass stepped up, lowering his walks and increased his strikeouts in each month, going from eight walks and 20 strikeouts in April to five and 24 in May and four and 37 in June.
The home run/wins figure truly comes into play when discussing run support, something that hasn't been a constant for the Braves starters and which has at times made their performances go to waste. They are receiving an average of 4.2 runs per game, below the league average of 4.1, with Medlen getting just 3.1 and Hudson 3.5.
"When the staff goes out there and gives up one or two runs, it's like that for every team, some times your'e going to get shut out by a good pitcher on the other side," Medlen said. "It's kind of how the offense has gone this year, but I think the pitching has been the glue that's held everything together."
All that love for the pitching staff aside, it's Freddie Freeman that was the Most Valuable Brave over the first half.
The first baseman leads the team in hits (81), RBI (53) and OBP (.384) and has nine home runs and a .307 average. He's also fourth in the majors and second at his position with a .422 average with runners in scoring position.
All this comes despite his missing 13 games with an oblique strain.
"He's been our horse all year," said second baseman Dan Uggla. "Justin (Upton) carried us in April, but Freddie's really come on since he came back off the DL. That's the type of player he is and he's just starting to scratch the surface of his talent level and he's starting to figure that out and how good he is."
This winter, we looked at the Freeman trending toward a third-year breakout a la Reds first baseman Joey Votto.
The two had similar numbers through their first two years, Votto had 49 HRs with 168 RBI and a 140 OPS+, while Freeman totaled 44 HRs, 170 RBI and a 114 OPS+. While Freeman may not be an NL MVP at the end of this season in Year 3, he is, like Votto, joining the elite 1Bs.
Freeman is on pace for his first 100-RBI season, as well as career highs in average, OPB and OPS. Despite what the sabermetrics say, or don't' say, about his acrobatic defensive plays -- he is 17th among first baseman in UZR (minus-2.8) and 13th with one defensive run saved -- he's been the Braves' most consistent fielding presence next to shortstop Andrelton Simmons.
The offseason hyped centered around an outfield with three young stars with 20-home run/20-steal potential. But so far, Jason Heyward, B.J. Upton and Justin Upton have yet to all be clicking at the same time.
Justin Upton owned April, winning NL Player of the Month has he set a franchise record for home runs. But he hit his last home run June 12, with the last one at home coming May 17. Since June 1, he's hitting .226/.336/.280.
Meanwhile, Heyward has improved dramatically after a rough first two months hitting .312/.370/.495 in June, while B.J. Upton also fared far better than in April and May with a .238/.359/.452 slash line.
Taking into account that Heyward did miss 23 games with an appendectomy, the the group has all hit safely in the same game just five times and 21 times two of them have had a hit.
The Uptons have both been in the lineup 66 times and in just 18 of those games have they both hit safely and in 48 of those games, at least one of them has gone hitless.
The Braves have been helped by the fact that reserve Jordan Schafer has provided a boost when he's in the lineup, hitting .309 with a team-high .397 OBP, but the fan base is waiting to see that Up, Up and a Hey outfield play to its potential.
The aforementioned bullpen has succeeded despite losing innings eaters Eric O'Flaherty and Jonny Venters to Tommy John surgery. While it's come with strong performances from David Carpenter, Cory Gearrin and Anthony Varvaro, and, of course, Craig Kimbrel, who is second in the NL with 23 saves.
But it's Jordan Walden who has supplied the bite that the Braves could have lacked leading into Kimbrel without O'Flaherty and Venters. But he's struck out 29 batters, while walking five in 27 1/3 innings with a 2.63 ERA and a .214 batting average against and the righty is holding left-handers to a .201 average.
When the Braves traded starter Tommy Hanson to the Angels for Walden this offseason it seemed an odd move that the franchise would take from its surplus of starers to add to an Atlanta's already dominant bullpen, especially given the needs at other spots at that time.
It's unlikely general manager Frank Wren possesses a crystal ball to foresee injuries, but given the O'Flaherty/Venters losses and that Hanson has been less than stellar (4-2 with a 5.10 ERA), it looks like a genius move as we hit July.
At Turner Field, the Braves are an impressive 28-11 at home, the best record in baseball, but they're a sub-.500 team on the road, a 20-23 mark that includes troubles against division leaders.
Atlanta dropped three of four at Pittsburgh, it was swept at Detroit and it lost two of three in Arizona.
"There's no excuse because every team has to do it, but traveling's hard," Medlen said. "It's just one of those unexplainable things. We hadn't won a Monday game last year (in so long of a period), just weird stuff that goes on. We've played some tough teams on the road too.
The all-or-nothing tendencies of the offense have been at their most glaring away from home, because while the Braves have hit 52 home runs on the road compared to 50 in Atlanta, they also have 73 more strikeouts in those games and an OBP that's 0.024 points lower.
Then there's the staff, which has a 3.90 ERA away from home, along with an opponents' .261/.326/.414 slash line and a 2.43 ERA and .220/.273/.328 line in the Ted.
Outside of Minor, who has actually been stronger on the road with a 2.63 ERA on the road and a 3.33 one at home, the Braves' other starters all have much higher ERAs outside of Atlanta.
It's at its most glaring with Maholm. He jumps from 5.09 away and 1.80 at home and in those road games he's walked 22 batters in 10 starts compared to five in his other six outings.
