Getting pumped! Upton, Upton, Heyward

[cheekimonk]

23yo Jason Heyward
25yo Justin Upton
28yo BJ Upton

The Braves not only have what could prove to be one of the greatest outfields of all time...they have it for several years potentially.

The standards (off the top of my head)?
'61 Yanks: Mantle, Maris, Berra
mid-90s Indians: Albert Belle, Lofton, Manny
mid-90s Expos: Larry Walker, Moises Alou, Marquis Grissom
late-80s Pirates: Bonilla, Bonds, Van Slyke
mid-60s San Fran Giants: McCovey, Mays, Felipe Alou
early-00's Braves: Andruw Jones, Chipper, Sheffield

Hard to imagine surpassing that '61 Yankees trio, but the potential is there to be Top 5 all-time. What outfields did I miss? What do you non-Braves fans think is in store for this crew?

[felipe]

Garfield...Moseby...Bell...Toronto

And if the Miami marlins are any indication...

[agrudez]

I've been a fan of Heyward for a awhile (as a Phillies fan) despite his struggles (he's younger than me so he gets a pass, haha), but the Upton brothers - not so much. Justin has the potential to be a BIG bat, but he has been pretty inconsistent (though to be fair he is still pretty young himself) and his home v. away splits (.937 v. .731) are VERY concerning to me. Meanwhile, BJ hasn't put up a good season in 4 years and only has 1 real great season (his rookie year) 5 years ago... I was ELATED when the Phillies lost the bid for him... he isn't even that good of a fielder and that OBP would have driven me CRAZY - bad, bad, bad contract, imo.

So, I get the hype, but you are putting this OF in the 'best ever' category when their career average OPS+'s are 105, 116 and 117 respectively... that is as premature as you could possibly get. Statistically, they are right on par with the '08 Phillies' OF (and about 10 steps behind defensively) of Burrell (116) -Victorino (102) -Werth (118) and we didn't even like them that much.

Personally, I think the Nats are the real deal, but the Braves will be fighting with the Phils for second place in the NL East all season and I'm a bit doubtful either steals a wildcard, tbh.

[recte44]

Very hit or miss (literally, that's going to be a LOT of strikeouts). Can Heyward get himself right again? Justin has been on a weird three year decline. BJ has always been more athlete than ballplayer, too.

If they ever put together their tools into production, watch out.

[cheekimonk]

Justin Upton leads MLB w/ 8 HRs after last night and has a ridiculous 1.304 OPS (.404 OBP, .900 SLG)

26yo rookie C Evan Gattis can't keep up a 1.007 OPS, but 3B Chris Johnson was an excellent pickup from Houston with a .978 OPS that is not far out of the dev curve for him.

Bravos are 12-1 with Uggla (.693 OPS), B.J. (.511), and Heyward (.562) yet to heat up...although all 3 have multiple homers in the last 4-5 games.

I'm a huge skeptic of April shinies, but here are key things that are hard to fake and point to a special season:

1) Take out Julio Teheran's 2 starts and the Braves have a team ERA of 1.19. That's with LH specialist Johnny Ventners temporarily on the shelf and Brandon Beachy due back in June.

2) Offensively it remains to be seen, but I think it's clear that Upton/Upton/Heyward will make a case for at least one of the best defensive OFs this century. Range factors of 1.85 / 2.33 / 1.92 and UZRs of +1.4 / +2.6 / +3.0 help explain part of the pitching staff's dominance. The one error between them was a line drive right at B.J. that he took his eye off of at the last second.

3) Balance!!! I had actually considered this a nice change but not likely to have that much impact. But Nats' manager Davey Johnson mentioned it over and over again leading up to his team's 3-game homestand vs the Braves this past weekend. Last year ATL had Freeman, McCann, and Heyward who are all LHB. Add the fact that Chipper had more power from the left side and Juan Francisco also hit lefty and, in Johnson's words, the lineup was too easy to attack. Just the addition of B.J. and Justin, with the performance of Evan Gattis, turned it from "easy" to "nightmare."

4) Speaking of Washington, here's a squad that was the 2nd favorite subject of the 2013 Hype Machine (with the Blue Jays being 1st). Everyone wants baseball to take off in D.C. and that includes me. But the Nats are a young team, and the way the Braves came to their place and won G1 with back-to-back tying and winning HRs before dominating G2 & G3 for the sweep, that has to have gotten in their head. Those are things that seem trivial ("Just 3 games, fellas. Long season ahead.) but that tends to creep back into players' minds when the opponent starts a comeback or puts 2-3 runs on the board in one inning in a future game.


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[felipe]

Dunno...its a long season...and the Nats got lots of time to feed off of that series. I don't think the comparisons to the '86 Mets are that far off...It should make for a magical season, anyways

Now, how about thsoe 'Stro's?

[Greeney03]

It's April and it's the Braves. Just saying.

[felipe]

Hmm..maybe Ben knew what he was talking about

[leejay56]

2013 Dodgers: Puig, Kemp, Crawford and Either