The Atlanta Braves continue a trend from last season into Spring Training. As of Sunday morning, the starting pitching leads MLB with a 2.60 ERA.
They narrowly edged out the Detroit Tigers (2.70) for the lead. When compared to teams in the National League, it’s not a contest. The San Francisco Giants are in second place with a 3.31 ERA over in the Cactus League.
Last season, the Braves rotation had the best ERA in the National League (3.58) and were third across all of MLB.
Among the Braves starters, Chris Sale and Ian Anderson highlight the rotation in this category. Sale has yet to allow an earned run in six innings pitched. Anderson has allowed one run over eight innings pitched.
Along with the low ERA, they are tied with the Los Angeles Angels for third in opponent’s average (.221). They are also one of two teams that have a starting pitching staff that has yet to allow a home run (Tampa Bay Rays).
However, beyond these key stats, there are some underlying stats that they struggle with. Currently, they’re middle of the pack in WHIP (1.33) and are near the bottom third in strikeouts (22nd) and walks allowed (26th).
There are a couple ways this could go based on them having a strong ERA but also lacking elsewhere.
One way this could go is that these stats catch up to them in the run column and that staff ERA starts to creep up. While certain stats such as strikeouts don’t indicate success, walks do. For example, besides the Houston Astros (3.25) no team with at least 15 walks allowed at this point in Spring Training has an ERA below 4.66.
However, there is an argument to be made that since the Braves get the job done despite the lacking numbers, they could be in for an insane level of run prevention once they sort these out. They get baserunners in better control and this could be an even more dominant staff.
