2004 Braves vs. 2003 Braves

Last year the Braves were an offensive juggernaut, with good starting pitching, and a below average bullpen. They won 101 games. They were awesome, and that is a fact, not an opinion.

But this year, after losing multiple great players, they are in first place again, with 69 wins, and are still dominating their opponents in the NL East. How can this be?

Let's compare this year's team with last year's. I will compare each offensive players hitting line(AVG/OBP/SLG) and VORP this year, with those same stats last year. And I will compare each pitcher's ERA and VORP from this year to last year's.

This will be sorted by position.

Offensive Players

2004 CF - Andruw Jones - .269/.358/.505-- 33.4 VORP
2003 CF - Andruw Jones - .277/.338/.513-- 46.3 VORP

2004 RF- J.D. Drew - .298/.414/.575-- 55.0 VORP
2003 RF - Gary Sheffield - .330/.419/.604-- 87.4 VORP

2004 SS - Rafael Furcal - .285/.353/.435-- 32.4 VORP
2003 SS - Rafael Furcal - .292/.350/.443-- 57.6 VORP

2004 3B - Chipper Jones - .241/.348/.476-- 19.2 VORP
2003 3B - Vinny Castilla - .277/.310/.461-- 14.3 VORP

2004 C - Johnny Estrada - .330/.387/.491-- 38.9 VORP
2003 C - Javy Lopez - .327/.378/.687-- 78.1 VORP

2004 2B - Marcus Giles - .300/.375/.423-- 19.5 VORP
2003 2B - Marcus Giles - .316/.384/.526-- 69.6 VORP

2004 LF(2 Players) - Eli Marrero - .327/.376/.556-- 19.0 VORP
--------------------- Charles Thomas - .304/.345/.452--5.9 VORP
----------------------Combined VORP-- 24.9
2003 LF - Chipper Jones - .305/.402/.517-- 54.9 VORP

2004 1B(2 Players) - Julio Franco - .283/.356/.422-- 12.5 VORP
--------------------- Adam LaRoche - .253/.310/.428-- 5.3 VORP
---------------------Combined VORP-- 17.8
2003 1B(2 Players) - Julio Franco - .294/.372/.452-- 13.3 VORP
--------------------- Robert Fick - .268/.335/.418-- 14.3 VORP
---------------------Combined VORP-- 27.6

2004 Offensive Players Total VORP-241.1 (10 Players)
2003 Offensive Players Total VORP-450.6 (9 Players)


2004 Starting Pitchers
John Thomson - 4.49 ERA, 10.3 VORP
Russ Ortiz - 3.49 ERA, 38.1 VORP
Mike Hampton - 4.74 ERA - 11.6 VORP
Jaret Wright - 3.26 ERA, 27.5 VORP
Paul Byrd - 4.11 ERA, 8.1 VORP
2004 Starting Pitchers Total VORP-95.6

2003 Starting Pitchers
Greg Maddux - 3.96 ERA, 26.1 VORP
Russ Ortiz - 3.81 ERA, 33.3 VORP
Mike Hampton - 3.84 ERA, 29.2 VORP
Horacio Ramirez - 4.00 ERA, 24.3 VORP
Shane Reynolds - 5.43 ERA, 1.8 VORP
2003 Starting Pitchers Total VORP-114.7


Relief Pitchers (Top 6 Based on number of Innings Pitched)

2004 Relief Pitchers
Chris Reitsma - 3.64 ERA, 12.8 VORP
John Smoltz - 1.84 ERA, 27.4 VORP
Juan Cruz - 2.44 ERA, 16.8 VORP
Antonio Alfonseca - 3.06 ERA, 13.6 VORP
Travis Smith - 7.03 ERA, -3.4 VORP
Kevin Gryboski - 2.56 ERA, 7.5 VORP
2004 Relief Pitchers Total VORP-74.7

2003 Relief Pitchers
Trey Hodges - 4.66 ERA , 3.0 VORP
John Smoltz - 1.12 ERA, 31.1 VORP
Roberto Hernandez - 4.35 VORP, 1.4 VORP
Ray King - 3.51 ERA, 6.8 VORP
Jung Bong - 5.05 ERA, 3.6 VORP
Kevin Gryboski - 3.86 ERA, 5.7 VORP
2003 Relief Pitchers Total VORP-51.6

The only gain the Braves have over last year is in their bullpen. Their starting pitching is worse, and their offense now is like a little league offense compared to last year.

It does not take a genius to figure out that the Braves were much better last year, anybody could figure that out without the stats. But the harder thing to figure is, why are they still a good team at 69-53, 7.5 games ahead of the Marlins for first place in the NL East.

The only way the Braves can still be a good team this year is simply their bullpen. While last year, the Braves were putting up so many runs offensively, their below-average bullpen did not hurt them, this year their offense isn't nearly as good, but when they do have leads they have a bullpen to protect it. I think that if last years bullpen were on this years team, the Braves would be much worse.

The bullpen is the biggest reason, but also, their starting pitching this year, although not as good as last year, is good enough to keep them in games, and also win a few.

And lastly, even though this offense is terrible compared to last year's, one should think about how bad it could have been after the losses of Lopez, and Sheffield. When you think about that, this offense is performing extremely well. And you can credit that to Johnny Estrada, J.D. Drew and Eli Marrero.

Just goes to show how important a bullpen is to the success of a baseball team.

Credit the whole Braves organization for continuing a 10 year run of success, even when times looked grim.

Frank Bundy III