Through the blogosphere, Mets fans have been clamoring about being afraid of the Braves.  Personally, I don’t get this fear at all.  I would like to interject a little bit of reality to this irrational fear.  First and foremost, this is not 1995 or 2000 or even 2005.  

These Braves lack a bullpen.  Heck, they lack a closer!  These Braves lack a center fielder that seemed to catch anything hit in the air.  If you don’t think that’s important, ask anyone one of the pitchers over the past decade on this team.  This is a Braves team that so far this year has yet to hold a lead in a close game due to a bullpen with a 5.40 ERA and a 0-3 record.  The closer of this team can basically be described by a dart board.  Who should come into the 9th Bobby Cox?  I don’t think he knows either and I don’t blame him.  The plight of the bullpen can best be described by what I saw last night in the Braves extra inning loss where Bobby Cox had to put a pitcher in the outfield to allow him to pitch again later in the inning.  They ended up losing anyway.  

This is a Braves team that has already lost Mike Hampton to injury before even entering a game.  Not exactly a surprise.  This is a Braves team relying on a declining Tom Glavine and an already injured 43 year old John Smoltz.  I can promise you that if these two were on the Mets, the media would be claiming that both of these pitchers would never make it through the season.  However, because they are Atlanta, clearly the Braves can win the East according to some at ESPN.  The only pitcher who I feel is a challenge for the Mets is Tim Hudson, who goes tonight.  However, unless Hudson goes 9 inning tonight, the Mets have a great shot of taking out the Braves with that bullpen.  All John Maine has to do is keep the Mets in the game, which he is more than capable to do.

The Braves due have an explosive and impressive offense, however this offense lacks a true lead off hitter in my opinion.  They have power and will have the capability to mount a rally, but they aren’t at the level of the Mets nor the Phillies.  Once again, the lack of Andruw Jones in the middle of that line up will be noticed.  

All in all, from almost every aspect, the Mets are a better team by far.  The Mets have the best pitcher in baseball and two very impressive young pitchers that are coming into their own in Maine and Perez.  The Braves do not.  The Mets have a very strong bullpen, which (and I know it is only one series) is the best in the National League.  Oh yeah, and the Mets have a closer.  

This fear of the Braves is irrational and stems from the trauma that we all experienced in the 90’s and early 2000’s.  We will see this weekend that the Braves are pretenders and the real competition is not any team in the National League East, but the Mets themselves.  It was the Mets that defeated the Mets last year with bad play and unfocused players.  Nothing more than that.  Meanwhile, the Braves are nothing more than a .500 team when all is said and done.