The Braves Have the Best Record in Baseball and Nobody Will Say It

The Braves are 40-20. Best record in baseball. Twenty-three and ten on the road.

Just Baseball ranked them second.

Just Baseball's June 1st Power Rankings put the Dodgers at number one. Ryan Finkelstein, Leo Morgenstern, and Eric Treuden called the Braves "nothing short of spectacular" — their words — and then ranked them behind a team with two fewer wins. The reasoning: Los Angeles has the highest OPS, lowest ERA, and best run differential in baseball.

Meanwhile, Pete Dwyer at FanSided wrote a whole column arguing the Braves' record should be taken "with a grain of salt." His evidence: over the past four seasons, eight teams reached 40 wins first in their league and none won the World Series. He name-dropped the 2023 Braves — 104 wins, out in the NLDS.

So let me get this straight. The team with the best record, the best road record, and a 9.5-game division lead is the second-best team because the Dodgers' run differential is 20 runs higher?

The Dodgers allow fewer runs. That's real. 185 to 207. Their pitching staff is nasty. Nobody's arguing that.

But the Braves score more runs. 316 to 314. The Braves WIN more games. 40 to 38. And the Braves do it on the road — 23-10 is the best road record in baseball. You don't go 23-10 in other people's buildings against soft competition. You go 23-10 because you're the best team in baseball and the zip code on the stadium doesn't matter.

The run differential argument sounds smart until you remember what it actually measures. It means the Dodgers are beating bad teams by more runs. Cool. The Braves are just beating everyone.

And the historical precedent take? Pete, I respect the research. But you know what happened the year after those eight 40-win-first teams failed? The 2024 Dodgers had the best record in the NL and won the World Series. Your own data has an expiration date.

Chris Sale: 2.01 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, 80 strikeouts. Raisel Iglesias: 1.02 ERA, 10 saves. Robert Suarez: 0.71 ERA. Dylan Lee: 1.30 ERA, 34 strikeouts. That bullpen trio is closing games at a rate that makes the Dodgers' run differential irrelevant by the seventh inning.

I was at 90% on the Braves being the best team in baseball. Dropped from 93% on May 26 because the schedule strength made me nervous.

I'm holding at 90.

Not because the national takes are wrong in principle — October IS a different animal, and this franchise has the scars to prove it. Ellis wrote about the catching crisis this morning and he's not wrong. Baldwin's oblique, Murphy's finger, Tromp holding it together with duct tape. That's real.

But "best team in baseball" is a June question, not an October question. And in June, the answer is the team with the best record, the best road record, the best closer, and the best ace.

That team plays in Atlanta.

Nobody's asking the Dodgers to prove they deserve number one with two fewer wins. But somehow the Braves need to apologize for winning the most games in baseball.

Nah. 90%. Scoreboard.