Baseball life is good for the Atlanta Braves at the moment. They’ve already put a gap between them and the rest of the division and the gap keeps growing between them and the Phillies and the Mets as well. The vibes are very positive and the week ahead for the Braves could be a promising one if everything goes according to plan.
With that being said, there’s always reason to take any opponent seriously — and yes, that includes the Colorado Rockies, who would love nothing more than to make a statement
of their own at the expense of our Braves. Before Atlanta can get to Colorado, they’ll have to deal with one of the main favorites in the AL Central and their All-World caliber pitcher in the form of two-time defending AL Cy Young Award winner, Tarik Skubal. It’s time to take a look at what’s in store for the Braves for this coming week.
April 28-30: Detroit Tigers
Current Record: 15-14 Projected Record (via FanGraphs): 85-77
Don’t let Detroit’s current record fool you — this’ll likely be a tough series for the Braves and it’s mostly due to the fact that they’ll be catching three really good starters from the Tigers. Casey Mize will be entering his start on Tuesday with a very good track record so far. He’s made five starts and he’s given up one or fewer runs in four of those starts. Framber Valdez’s metrics (particularly his xERA and xBA) suggest that the Braves could do some damage against him but if they get stuck in a ground ball vortex against him on Thursday afternoon, watch out.
Tarik Skubal is, well, Tarik Skubal. Granted, he has had a couple of starts where he’s looked human but if he gets on a roll, it’ll basically just be a matter of waiting until Detroit’s currently-struggling bullpen gets involved and hoping that Bryce Elder continues to do a good job of limiting runs, himself.
When it comes to Detroit’s lineup, they’ve got a nice little core going. Kevin McGonigle is the new hotness around here and the 21-year-old has gotten off to a blazing start at the plate as a big leaguer. Riley Greene has also done his fair share of mashing as well. Kerry Carpenter leads the team in homers and Dillon Dingler is not to far behind him as well. Colt Keith has also been getting his fair share of knocks when called upon. This will be similar to what the Braves had to deal with against the Nationals, as Detroit has some eerily-similar plate numbers to what Washington is putting up right now. If that’s the case, then Elder, Martín Pérez and JR Ritchie will have their hands full trying to keep this lineup quiet.
Tuesday, April 28 at 7:15 p.m. ET (BravesVision)
Wednesday, April 29 at 7:15 p.m. ET (BravesVision, TBS (out-of-market only))
Thursday, April 30 at 12:15 p.m. ET (BravesVision)
May 1-3: Colorado Rockies
Current Record: 13-16 Projected Record: 65-97
As usual, the Rockies are probably going to end up being not-so-good this season. With that being said, this series will take place in Colorado and whenever that’s the case, anything is on the table as far as results go. If you don’t believe me then go ask the Dodgers, who ended up leaving Denver with “just” a four-game series split — and they had to salvage that split too, as the Rockies got up 2-1 in the series on them! I’m not saying that to say that Coors Field is a fortress or anything like that but the Rockies have been playing some decent baseball at home so far and they’ll also be thrilled to be back home after a road trip sent them to New York this past weekend (thanks for the sweep, Rox) and Cincinnati in the midweek series.
With that being said, this is totally doable for the Braves to pull off a series win. So far, the Rockies have only produced a team wRC+ of 89 at Coors Field, where they’ve hit a combined .275/.334/.444 with a team wOBA of .344. Meanwhile, the Braves on the road have hit .258/.328/.458 with a .346 wOBA and a wRC+ of 117. The main difference is the power hitting — Atlanta’s carrying an Isolated Power number of .200 on the road while the Rockies have only hit for .169 Isolated Power within Coors Field. If any slugfests do break out, I’d like Atlanta’s chances in them. Still, you’d like to see the Braves make sure that guys like Mickey Moniak, Hunter Goodman and Troy Johnston stay quiet.
It’ll come down to Atlanta’s pitching staff keeping the Rockies under control and preventing Colorado from sticking around and making things interesting (in a bad way). The good news is that they’ll likely have Chris Sale going for that series and Spencer Strider’s most recent rehab start went very well so he could be activated in time for this series as well. We’ll see who is the third for that rotation since Walt Weiss has indicated that they’re essentially going on a series-by-series basis when it comes to the starting pitching but you have to like Atlanta’s chances if those two guys will be going for them this weekend. We’ll see what happens!
Friday, May 1 at 8:40 p.m. ET (BravesVision)
Saturday, May 2 at 8:10 p.m. ET (BravesVision)
Sunday, May 3 at 3:10 p.m. ET (BravesVision)
