For the previous three decades, no Major League Baseball team has dominated its division like the Atlanta Braves have in the National League East.
The Braves have won 18 NL East titles in the last 29 years, a streak unmatched by any team in recent memory, even the powerhouse New York Yankees, who have suffered slightly in recent years.
Atlanta has already won their division for a record sixth straight season.
And the Braves are off and running this season as well, attempting to keep that streak alive.
They are once again atop the NL East, with the greatest win-loss record in all of MLB.
So, what is the secret to the Braves’ success?
“It’s a cultural thing,” said Atlanta third-stringer Austin Riley. “It’s passed down from the players that came before you. Everyone gets into the Braves’ process.”
“It started back with Chipper Jones and those guys [in the late 1990s and first decade of this millennium] and It’s a way of going about your work.”
“You learn,” Riley added, “what you need to accomplish as a professional athlete. They understand how you must prepare to play 162 games.
Older team leaders pave the way for younger players, who develop and mature before teaching their younger colleagues how to play baseball the Braves way.
For example, the Atlanta Braves take routine drills such as infielders taking ground balls and outfielders chasing down fungos very seriously.
“You try to get better every day,” Riley explained.
“I learned from Freddie Freeman [former longtime Braves slugger now with the Los Angeles Dodgers],” said Riley. “I learned from him.”
“I learned from Freddie Freeman [former longtime Braves slugger now with the Los Angeles Dodgers],” said Riley. “I learned from him.”
“And now that I’ve been around for a few years I try to help out the new guys myself.”
Riley has learned much from his predecessors.
Last year, he had a strong offensive season, hitting 37 home runs, driving in 97 runs, and batting a respectable.281. He also played decent third base for Atlanta.
The Braves’ success over the years, however, has been built around superb pitching.
Atlanta first built their team in the mid-1990s around strong pitchers like as Greg Maddox, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz, all Hall of Famers.
Current outstanding pitchers Spencer Strider, a rising superstar who won 20 games in 2023 but is currently sidelined with an elbow injury to his throwing arm, Max Fried (8-1 a year ago), Bryce Elder (12-4 in ’23), and proven veteran Charlie Morton continue that legacy.
Brian Snitker, 68, is in his ninth season as Braves manager and is in charge of the entire operation.
You could describe him as a cross between an old school person and a new generation analytics captain.
“I think having all that information at hand is great, it helps” Snitker said. “But in situations where it comes down to one or the other, I always go with my gut feeling based on all my experience.”
The Braves won 104 games and were the most successful MLB team in 2023. However, the Braves were defeated by the upstart Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Division Series for the second year in a row, both times by a score of 3 games to 1.
Throughout those seasons, the predominantly right-handed Braves pitchers were vulnerable to the Phillies’ left-handed hitting lineup.
So, to help prevent such a predicament in the future, the Braves signed lefty Chris Sale, a former Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox ace.
However, Sale, now 35, has not had the same level of success as in the past. But he appears to be healthy again, and the Braves decided to take a chance on him.
So far, the move is paying off. Sale currently has a 3-1 record and a 3.69 ERA.
The Braves feel a more lefty-on-lefty approach will help them if they face the Phillies again in the postseason.
In 2018, Sale won the World Series as a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. “I got one in the American League,” said an ecstatic Sale. “Now let’s get one in the National League.”
If he does, he’ll most likely do it the Braves’ way.
