Braves season recap

Braves Season Recap
Henry Laseter
        The Braves draft plan was to get very strong hitting in early rounds and find some little-known but solid pitchers. The draft went more or less according to plan, with Atlanta signing bit bats such as Troy Tulowitzki, Jayson Werth, and Ryan Braun.  They also drafted their opening day starter Tanner Roark In the eighth round.  The majority of the contracts they extended made up the Braves' bullpen, which was a strong point throughout the year.
       Through the first half of the season, the Braves were painfully consistent, seeming unable to go on a win streak, yet not getting swept in any series. The season opened against the Dodgers. Despite their daunting lineup, few runs were scored by Braves, and the Dodgers won.  The Braves made a late-inning comeback to win the second game, and they found themselves somewhere that would become very familiar for them: the .500 mark.
      In their second series of the season, two important factors became evident. The first was that Joey Terdoslavich should become the Braves' closer. Terdoslavich was the Braves' most pleasant surprise of the year, pitching consistent shut-down ballyhooing hour the season.  The second factor was the one that derailed the Braves' season: Freedie Freeman. Sporting a WAR of -4.5 in a 19-game season, Freddie Freeman became the least valuable player in MLB history. In a game against the Pirates, Freeman stepped up to the plate with the Braves down two and runners on first and second, nobody out. Freeman hit a liner to shortstop, who stepped on second and fired to first for a triple play. Freeman would get a chance for redemption in the ninth, coming to the plate with runners on second and third as the tying run, a situation where it seemed he couldn't cause any outs other than his own. However, he hit a liner to second this time, and the second baseman flipped to the shortstop at second for a double play.  David Wright, the next batter, hit a homer, which would be tied the game had Freeman struct out.
       The Braves neither won or lost a series through their first ten games. Due to American League dominance in interleague play, this set up the Braves for a playoff spot. However, they were swept by the Reds in one of their low points of the season. Freddie Freeman hit a soft grounder to second, setting up base runner David Wright to get injured by the shortstop sliding into second, the second time David Wright was injured with Freeman batting. The Braves found themselves in fourth in the NL, two games out of a playoff spot. They would split a series with the Dodgers before starting their only win streak of the season.
       The Braves began their late season tare against the Red Sox. At this point, it finally seemed that the Braves high-powered offense was finally clicking. The a braves hit back-to back homers in the ninth of game 1, winning 6-3, and they won in a blowout in game two, 9-2. Even Freeman contributed to the offense, hitting two homers in the final game of the series. Finding themselves in position to make the playoffs, the Braves traveled to Saint Louis and swept the Cardinals, this using their pitching to win games by scores of 3-2 and 1-0. After clinching a spot, the Braves lost their final regular season game to the Nationals.
       The Braves gave up 6 first-inning runs in their playoff game against the Reds, and it was an upward battle from there. They battled back to 6-5 from a three-run homer by Jayson Werth and a two-run double by Khris Davis. However, in. Position to tie the game or take the lead, Freddie Freeman came to the plate in the seventh with tp runners on second and third and two down. He hit a hanging curveball that didn't move at all, but he hit it softly to second, making the third out of the inning.
        I think our strategy for picking the team worked well. Our plan was to pick some of the league's best hitters in the draft, hopefully finding all the pitching we need from our own team. It went as planned, I thought, as we ended up with an incredibly strong bullpen, a strong lineup, and a decent rotation. However, our lineup was never quite good enough to be dominant, and it resulted in a lot of split series. In the future, when I see someone who hinders a team as much as Freddie Freeman did, I wouldn't hesitate to bench them.