Check out the active starting line up, you may recognise 3 names.

John Smoltz 2 strait complete game wins in the last week. My favorite Brave ever he can't really be the best because of Hank Aaron and all but he's right there. Awesome versatile pitcher.

Andrew Jones, 12 HR's in the last month and he's carrying the team. He's always been really streaky and at this point when they need him he's red hot. 24HR's this year and he's only 10th in the All Star voting I think that's kind of disgraceful. Oh well.

It will be nice to get Hudson, Thompson, Hampton, and Larry Jones back after the AS break.

I thought only Mets fans called him Larry.

I'm just happy he changed his theme song from Crazy Train.

they're going to win the division and bobby cox will win manager of the year.

good call. I think so too.

jones is on fire..i love that guy..great all around player

pretty much everyone does, though met fans do it the best, to be honest.

the braves are the best team in the east, and it's not really close. the phillies can't pitch, the mets are the definition of average, and the marlins can't hit. the natspos are the definition of average. they're pathetically lucky, as they've been outscored this year and still have a record well above .500, which just doesn't happen over the course of the season. kelly johnson will be an all star at some point, wilson betemit will probably make an all star team or two, and brian mccann is one of the top two or three catcher prospects in baseball, if not the best. furthermore, the pitching staff is in ruins and still doesn't give up many runs. with hudson coming back possibly before the break, thomson shortly thereafter, and hampton feeling better, things are looking very good on that front, especially with furcal or prospects to offer as trade bait for a reliever.

oh, and ryan langerhans might be the best defensive right fielder the braves have had during their streak.

The next 7 against Philly and the Marlins will be fun to watch.

wow, I pretty much agree with all of that. I love watching the prospect players. Charles Thomas was the reason I went to the ballpark last year. Langerhans is almost as fun as Andrew Jones in the outfield. Betemit is way better than I expected this year. Marte is about a year off I think, he is likely Larry's eventual replacement. If it weren't a contract year and Furcal's average weren't in the .220's I'd feel better about our prospects of trading him and picking up a reliever. Even when things weren't looking good a couple of weeks ago I was hoping they wouldn't trade the younger guys for relievers. As it stands Furcal's stock is going down a bit and the Braves might get to keep him. Dan Kolb has been a tremdous bust, but if he ever decides to throw strikes again he'll be ok, with Reitsma doing an adequate job as of late. I love the vindication for Jones. I hope the new batting stance will continue to provide good results consistantly. He really is a cool guy. I got to sit next to him at a falcons game a few years ago. He's genuinely a nice, friendly guy, even if he's hitting .220 he's still saving runs with his defense in center field. Even though they've only won 1 WS title in the past 15 years, it's been a joy to watch what Bobby Cox, Leo Mazzone, John Scherolz and crew have been able to put toegther. It's not 1991 anymore and I'm not 12 but I still love seeing the young guys play and find a way to get it done.

andruw: 12 hr last 15 games

i watched the rangers series a couple weeks ago. i saw kolb throw two bullpen sessions before games with mazzone. he could barely get the ball over the plate throwing to bobby dews. it was pathetic. but bernero's even worse. i doubt either of those guys throw a lot more for the braves this year.

as for furcal, if he's traded it will be to somebody like the twins, who need a ss and have a bunch of relievers they can give up. furcal's drunk ass won't be playing in atlanta next year anyway, as betemit will be the starting ss, whether he can play defense or not.

this offseason is going to be very interesting. i think 06's starting infield will be marte and betemit on the left side, with giles and chipper manning the right side. johnson should stay in left, with andruw in center. i'm not sure about right field. it might be another year of platooning langerhans with a veteran, or maybe they'll trade laroche and prospects for a power hitter. i think they'll let estrada walk and have mccann and pena catch. they also have jared saltalamacchia in the system, and he should be ready for 07 or thereabouts. francoeur is a wild card in the outfield as well, but i doubt he's ready next year.

the pitching shouldn't be a problem either, with smoltz and hudson at the top and davies, hampton, thomson, chuck james, horacio, anthony lerew and loads of guys available in trades and free agency available.

but that's next year. this year the team is fine, except for having too many infielders. the bullpen will be shored up by the middle of august, probably with more than a little help from chuck james, who lefties can't hit at all. and if roman colon continues throwing shutout baseball for six inning stretches who knows.

oh man if roman colon could do that every night. He did earn another start this week aparently.

There was talk a few weeks ago about maybe trading Furcal for Shannon Stewart from the Twins but that was when people thought they needed another bat in the outfield. They certainly won't pay Furcal as the payroll gets smaller next season. I would not be suprised to see hampton go either. I'm sad to see Hampton go, I like him, but they can't afford his salary and it's kind of cool to see how they will get it done. Imagine if the Mets had actually procured Delgado instead of Meinkavich, they might be a bit better, if they never played the Braves.

Jeff Francouer is still in the pipeline, I believe in Double A now. I'm not sure how far along he is but I know he's a valued outfielder and a local kid. He could come up next season.

francoeur has power and lots of tools, but he's not ready. he has no discipline whatsoever, but he's improving everything else. he's the opposite of johnson, pretty much.

furcal for stewart wouldn't make sense to me. it'd be lateral at best because stewart is pretty overrated. about hampton, i've read the braves have been paying his salary at the same rate each year for accounting purposes. i don't know if that is true or not, but if it is his salary won't be quite as big of a burden over the next few years. i agree though, it would suck to see him go. he's about the best fourth starter in the league.

if the braves pull it out this year it might be a while before anyone has as much of a shot as they do right now.

I'm new here but already happy to see some Braves love goin on. I agree with most of what I've read except the part where we win the division. What the Braves have done this season is a testament to the coaching staff and the leadership of our vets, but we're simply not this good. Philly and Florida both have better teams but I think the Marlins will represent the NL come October. Pierre and Lowell are slowly starting to come around and Beckett should be back on the mound Thursday. With a staff of Beckett, D-train, Burnett (who I hear is on the block), and this new kid, Moehler, they have a dominant staff. Their lineup has two of the best table-setters in the game and 2 monsters to knock them in. Lowell, Encarnacion, and LoDuca won't set the world on fire, but they're good enough to give support. And when Mota works out his problems, their bullpen will be solid. I don't like the Marlins, but I just think they have the best team on paper.

As for the Nats, they might be the feel good story of the season, but come on....reality should hit them about as hard as it will hit Derek Lee in the near future!!! They can only win so many one run games before their luck runs out. With all that said....GO BRAVES.....I'll definitely be rooting for our 14th straight.....just not expecting it!

where you're wrong is about how good the braves are. pretty much everybody on the team has performed exactly how they'd be expected to except andruw and furcal. andruw's been a little better and furcal has been worse. everyone else, pretty much what is expected. this is a very solid team that is better than anyone else in an average division.

you said it yourself, florida is relying on a guy in brian moehler who couldn't get past AA last year with atlanta.

I think you all underestimate the Marlins offense. Cabrera, Lo Duca, Pierre and Castillo will get it together as will Lowell (or will be good trade bait). There's some bullpen questions, there's some 4th and 5th starter questions. But they have a great manager and their strengths can match up with anybody else's at least in NL, I think.

their offense is the most overrated in the league. other than cabrera and delgado everyone else is pretty average or below average.

Respectfully disagree with you there. I believe that honor goes to St. Louis. Just because Albert Pujols is the greatest hitter of our generation doesn't mean his lineup is as advertised. Eckstein and Grudz are horrible as table-setters and Reggie Sanders will not keep his solid hitting up. Edmonds is a bad fart away from the DL and Rolen's best years are behind him. I think Florida is for real and will represent the NL come World Series time.

what do you look for in an offense?

Grudz is over .300 currently is he not?