ESPN Chalk's Joe Peta is sharing his season win total projections for every MLB team, including a reason for optimism and pessimism.
Plus, he recommends an over/under play, or a pass. This is the entry for the Atlanta Braves.
Atlanta Braves
Reason for optimism: Andrelton Simmons, Freddie Freeman and Craig Kimbrel are young enough to still be valuable assets the next time the team is poised to win 90 games.
Reason for pessimism: The front office in charge of constructing the next 90-win team is paying $28.25 million to Dan Uggla and Melvin Upton this year.
It's often easy to see an impending drop-off in production, like with the Houston Astros a decade ago, or, more recently, the Philadelphia Phillies. Some combination of age and unsustainable elements of performance signal a peak in a team's fortunes before the collapse begins. Then, there's the downfall of the Braves.
Atlanta averaged 95 wins a year in 2012 and 2013 and did it with one of the youngest rosters in the majors. The Braves' run differential didn't simply support those results, in 2014, it was so strong (plus-140) that it suggested 98-win talent. Entering last year, the Braves had averaged 90 wins a season for the prior five and had nothing but peaking twentysomething talent in the starting lineup. Atlanta's defense was top tier, the bullpen defied regression (third, first, second and first from 2010 to '13, respectively) while closer Kimbrel posted three years of the most dominant results ever recorded by a modern-day pitcher of any kind.
Yet, here we are on the eve of the 2015 season and the Braves have a legitimate claim as the second-worst team in the National League (the Phillies are on an island by themselves.)