Braves On The Verge Of Reaching .500 As A Franchise

From SABR member Chris Jaffe at The Hardball Times on May 23:

It’s on the verge of happening.

Something that hasn’t happened in the baseball world within the memory of nearly all living baseball fans could (and should) happen sometime this season—and it could happen as early as this week.

What is this mystery event? Simple: The Braves might become nine games over .500 on the year.

Wait, that’s anything but unprecedented. They made it to and beyond nine games over .500 last year. And the year before that. And 18 of the last 20 seasons in all. Who cares if they are nine games over .500 this year?

Well, if they get nine games over this year, it has a larger implication. You see, when the 2011 season began, the Braves’ all-time franchise record stood at 9,945 wins an 9,954 losses, so making it nine games over .500 for this season gets them to the great mid-point in all franchise history—a perfect .500 record.

And that is something that hasn’t happened in quite a long time.

Read the full article here: http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/10-things-i-didnt-know-about-the-braves-all-time-record1/



Originally published: May 23, 2011. Last Updated: May 23, 2011.