Wiedmer: Don't give up on the Braves just yet

Atlanta Braves' Tyler Flowers (25) drives in a run from third with a fielder's choice to Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman Adam Frazier in the tenth inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Sunday, April 9, 2017. The Pirates won in ten innings 6-5. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Atlanta Braves' Tyler Flowers (25) drives in a run from third with a fielder's choice to Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman Adam Frazier in the tenth inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Sunday, April 9, 2017. The Pirates won in ten innings 6-5. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

It's easy, perhaps too easy, to trash the Atlanta Braves a mere six games into a 162-game schedule.

Sure, they've won only one of those starts and no team in either the American or National League has won fewer.

There's also their negative run differential (-12), which is surpassed in ineptness only by the San Diego Padres' negative 17.

Beyond that, those 18 total runs they've scored are the fewest in all of baseball, and only four NL teams have surrendered more than the Braves' 30 runs to date.

And if you're wondering how bad it would have to get before rumblings begin to surface about the job security of manager Brian Snitker, it was mid-May of a year ago that the club canned Fredi Gonzalez after a 9-28 start. If you want to extend this 1-5 beginning to 37 games, you'd basically be looking at 7-30 on the high side.

Yes, this year's start is actually on a worse pace than last year's opening six weeks, though Atlanta lost its first nine a year ago.

But there's also reason for hope as the Braves visit Miami tonight and Wednesday before finally getting to officially christen SunTrust Park on Friday night against those similarly struggling Padres.

There's No. 1 pitcher Julio Teheran, whose ERA is a perfect 0.00 after two starts despite failing to be rewarded with a win in either outing. There's the four or more runs the offense scored in all three games at Pittsburgh, despite being swept.

There's the not-so-little fact that much-relied-upon batter Matt Kemp didn't play the final two games in the Steel City, which surely hurt the offense, though what really hurt the Braves was defense, since Atlanta made two errors in each of its three games against the Pirates.

The very fact that the Braves have yet to play a home game should also count for something. Of the seven major league teams that entered Monday having not yet seen their own ballpark, only the world champion Chicago Cubs were above .500 (4-2). The Indians and Marlins were 3-3. Everyone else was somewhere between 2-4 and 1-6 (the Seattle Mariners).

Until these Braves have settled into what many expect to be a hitter-friendly SunTrust, it's at least a wee bit premature to speculate on how good or bad this season will become.

Lastly, there's the savvy signing of former Philadelphia Phillies slugging great Ryan Howard last week. The 37-year-old tater masher isn't what he once was, but as Braves general manager John Coppolella told MLB.com regarding the signing: "There was no real risk on our end. (Ryan's) a great makeup guy. He's good with young kids (just breaking into the big leagues). If it works, it's great. If it doesn't, it's not a big-league contract."

And, Coppolella might have added, in what many considered the worst season of his 14-year career last year, Howard still clubbed 25 homers.

Of course, the bullpen - long a Braves shortcoming - is again struggling, blowing not one but two save opportunities in the 6-5, extra-inning loss at Pittsburgh on Sunday. Yes, the flame-throwing Mauricio Cabrera - he of the four-seam 100.5 mph fastball - has yet to play. And the thought of facing Arodys Vizcaino in the eighth followed by Cabrera in the ninth - should the baseball gods allow such a 1-2 punch in the near future - could not only deliver Teheran a few wins but also allow all the starters to relax a bit.

But no one knows when or if Cabrera will return to action, and until then the bullpen may continue to be a mystery that's not likely to have a happy ending.

Then again, isn't it always something with the Braves? Even in their salad days throughout the mid-1990s the bullpen was often suspect, as was timely hitting.

Through six games both of those have been unsteady, but no more so than the defense, which has surrendered those six errors in the last three games. Those buttery fingers caused former Tennessee Vol R.A. Dickey - the 42-year-old knuckleball pitcher who also saw catcher Kurt Suzuki charged with three passed balls while attempting to catch him on Saturday - to note: "We're sloppy. We need to tighten it up a little bit. We're playing pretty good baseball if we just tighten it up a little bit."

Tightening it up "a little bit" sounds easily doable. If a tweak here and a tweak there is all the Braves need to turn sloppy into sublime, to flip this 1-5 road start into a 6-1 homestand starting Friday, Atlanta might yet become a party pooper for the rest of the National League.

But the following thought from Snitker shouldn't be ignored, if only because the general theme seems to have been repeated so often these last few seasons in the Big Peach.

Said the Braves skipper after Sunday's giveaway, as quoted by MLB.com: "There have been just a number of things we've done the first week of the season that you can't do and expect to win games."

Especially when your margin for error would appear to be as small as the Braves' again seems to be.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com

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