The first two stops on the Braves' 10-day trip demonstrated how they measure up against the National League's best and worst teams.
They swept a three-game series from the worst team, the Miami Marlins, last weekend. Cumulative score: Braves 19, Marlins 5. And then they were swept in a three-game series by the best team, the Los Angeles Dodgers. Cumulative score: Dodgers 23, Braves 7.
So the Braves are 3-3 on the trip, with four games remaining tonight through Sunday at Arizona.
It’s still early in the season, but not too early to notice the Braves’ cumulative record against all teams other than woeful Miami: 13-18.
The past three games in L.A. marked the third time this season the Braves have been swept in a series. The Phillies swept three games from the Braves in Philadelphia to open the season, and the Diamondbacks swept three at SunTrust Park.
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A glance at the Gwinnett Stripers' statistics shows surprisingly high ERAs for some of the Braves' pitching prospects: Kyle Wright 8.66; Bryse Wilson 5.68; Touki Toussaint 5.63; Kolby Allard 4.20.
Wright was called up to the Braves on Wednesday to provide a fresh long-relief option.
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Georgia's 2019 men's basketball recruiting class is in unaccustomed territory: ranked in the top 10 nationally.
The group is ranked No. 6 by Rivals, No. 8 by 247Sports and No. 9 by ESPN.
Georgia announced its latest signing Wednesday: Sahvir Wheeler, a 4-star point guard from Houston.
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A sign-of-the-times tweet from the great Dale Murphy:
There have been just nine complete games pitched in the major leagues this season, and no team has more than one. The Braves’ pitchers have none.
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Something to keep in mind when the Braves and Hawks' local TV contracts come up for renewal:
Sinclair Broadcast Group, which has a deal to buy Fox Sports South, Fox Sports Southeast and 19 other regional sports networks across the country, likes the idea of teams owning minority stakes in the networks that carry their games.
"We are inheriting in the portfolio several RSNs that already have minority team ownership," Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley said on a conference call this week. "We expect that to be a core tenet of renewals going forward because we do think that aligns interests better."
The Braves’ current TV contract runs until 2027. It isn’t known when the Hawks’ deal expires.
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And finally, three Leadoff links:
> 1. How much revenue does Georgia Tech estimate it can generate from its upcoming series of football games at Mercedes-Benz Stadium? Ken Sugiura has the answer and a lot of other details about the deal here.
> 2. Mike Budenholzer is the NBA coach of the year again, this time with a superstar on his team, Mark Bradley writes.
> 3. Atlanta United won its third consecutive game Wednesday night, defeating Toronto 2-0 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium before an announced 42,537 ("tickets distributed"). Read Doug Roberson's report on the game here.
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