CTOD: Atlanta Braves

If the Mets are the most tumultuous team in MLB then the Atlanta Braves may be their bizarro world counterpart. Although every team faces questions and concerns going into the regular season, the Braves, like in years past, seem like beacons of consistency.

On offense, it is difficult to find players whose performance is more consistent over the past few years than Brian McCann, Dan Uggla, and the under-appreciated Martin Prado. Jason Heyward was as amazing as advertised, aside from an injured thumb in June and July, and showed he is capable of MVP caliber play. Add a healthy Chipper Jones, who is absolutely raking this spring, and the Braves lineup looks as balanced as any in the NL.


On the rubber, the Braves also feature a solid, although not spectacular, pitching staff. Derek Lowe was lights out down the stretch last year, and thus far in the spring, thanks to what he claims is an adjustment in his curveball. Although D-Lowe may get all the fanfare for being a ground ball pitcher, it was actually teammate Tim Hudson who led MLB in ground ball percentage last year - his 64% GB ratio leading the next best in the league by over 5%. However, while Lowe and Hudson have both spent time at the top of the Braves rotation in the past, it is youngster Tommy Hanson who is eventually expected to emerge as the ace of this rotation and he looked more than capable in his first full season last year.

So here are the big questions for the Braves in 2011: Is Chipper capable of lasting an entire season? Will Tommy Hanson show signs of fatigue after jumping 75 innings in his second season? How will D-Lowe and Hudson handle Uggla - a notoriously poor fielder - handling all those ground-balls? Finally, can Jair Jurjjens stop his slow decline and return to previous form?

However, none of these questions really contain the possibility of derailing the Braves season. As stated before, the Braves seem exceptionally well balanced and positioned to handle a few bad breaks should they arise.

Prediction: 1st in NL East. The Phillies rotation gets all the hype, but this Braves team is deep on both sides of the ball.

Surprise Player: Craig Kimbrel.

Please, check out those K numbers. Last year, in his first 20 innings of MLB service, Kimbrel struck out 40 batters.  A quick glance at his minor league numbers displays that this kind of performance has been par for the course throughout his professional career. Bill James' projections have him at exactly 100 K's this year. Overall, this hard throwing country boy looks poised to run away with the Braves closer position and quickly make fans forget about the now retired Billy Wagner.