NL Moves Impacting the Oakland A’s: Atlanta Braves

Feb 16, 2014; Lake Buena Vistas, FL, USA; Atlanta Braves pitcher Wirfin Obispo (62) stretches during spring training at Champion Stadium.. Mandatory Credit: Jonathan Dyer-USA TODAY Sports

The Oakland A’s are set to face the Atlanta Braves during the 2014 season. That means that the moves the Braves are making are going to impact the Oakland A’s even if by just a few games. So let’s take a look at what the Braves have been doing and see how they are going to affect the Oakland A’s.

The main thing that the Atlanta Braves are doing is extending most of their players. When the A’s face them, they’ll be facing the same core group of guys that were in Atlanta last year. The Braves matched the Athletics with 96 wins the last season, and 94 the season before. These teams are equal when it comes to winning, so it’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out. So this match up basically comes down to two teams with recent success, who still bring back their basic core group of guys.

The Braves are one of the teams that we face that is a bigger threat. If the A’s are going to beat the Braves in the 2014 season it is going to be difficult. The Braves are a great team and they will give the A’s a run for their money. They haven’t made that many moves, all of their moves involve locking up their talent, but by simply doing that they have set themselves up for success. That is going to impact Oakland by handing them a loss or two. I hate to predict the A’s losing but this Braves team might be one of the teams to hand the A’s one or two of them. Since they are equal teams, it will all depend on who’s getting hot and if there’s a slump and factors of that nature. My prediction, they end up tied, both will win and lose to the other team the same amount of times, because they are both very talented ball clubs.