A throwaway today, but I can at least provide some interesting-ish context.
The Braves were third in homers through April, and pushed up to second in May. Then June happened and June was June, and the Braves fell all the way down to 12th. Their July homer binge, driven in part by so many pulled flies down the line, kicked them back up to fourth. They dropped to seventh by the end of August, which is where they sit right now.
There are about three weeks left in the season. Four teams (Mets, Athletics,
Dodgers, Orioles) are less than ten behind the Braves. The White Sox and Astros are less than ten ahead of the Braves. The overall spread of homers-per-game in the league goes from 1.4 (Cubs) to 0.9 (Brewers); with 18 games left, it seems unlikely that the Braves will catch the currently-fourth Yankees (13 more homers right now) or fall as far back as the 12th-ranked Phillies (12 fewer homers right now). But, they’re also not quite on a homer binge right now (the opposite really) so that tilts the calculus a bit.
I’ll say they finish tenth, which will end up being a veiled reference to the fact that they have easily top-ten homer skill but faltered in execution pretty badly for long stretches over the course of the season.
