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I’m actually not as assured as I used to be once I made this prediction in March. Olson is on tempo to hit 52 homers, which might eclipse Andruw Jones’ franchise document (51). Acuña is on tempo for 38 and Riley for 28.
Why it would nonetheless occur: Acuña homered eight instances throughout the first 15 days of August in 2018 and tallied 10 homers throughout the identical span the next 12 months. It’s attainable he may get pleasure from one other a type of early-August tears and set himself up for the second 40-homer season of his younger profession.
As for Riley, he homered as soon as each 10.6 at-bats in July 2021 and as soon as each 9.45 at bats in July 2022. Slightly altering a borrowed line from the good Toby Keith, historical past exhibits us Riley could be on the brink of gentle up opposing pitchers’ worlds prefer it’s the month of July.
My second prediction was Acuña could have a 40-40 season.
Acuña is on tempo for 38 homers and 72 stolen bases. You learn above why I’m nonetheless assured he’ll attain 40 homers. The most attention-grabbing growth can be the place he leads to the stolen base class. Otis Nixon set the trendy period franchise document with 72 steals in 1991.
I’m going to foretell Nixon will stay the one Braves participant since 1900 to tally at the least 70 steals. But I feel Acuña may develop into the primary participant in AL/NL historical past to have a 40-60 season. Even if he falls brief within the homer class, he may find yourself with the primary 30-60 season in AL/NL historical past. The solely two 30 homers-50 steals seasons have been produced by Barry Bonds (1990) and Eric Davis (1987).
My third prediction was the Braves could have one other 100-win season.
Had I identified Max Fried and Kyle Wright have been going to mix to make 10 begins (eight of the wholesome selection) within the season’s first half, I wouldn’t have made such a ridiculous prediction. But with out two of their high starters, the Braves are on tempo for 107 wins, which might eclipse the franchise document (106) set in 1998.
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