Photo by TarheelBornBred, CC0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe Braves Are the Best Team in Baseball
I've been saying best in the NL since April. The rest of the sport just caught up.
The Braves are the best team in baseball and I'm tired of qualifying it.
I've held at 92% best in the NL since April 25. The Phillies are 8.5 back. The Mets are 11 back. That conversation has been over for weeks. But I kept the frame narrow because the Dodgers existed and the Yankees existed and it was April.
It's not April anymore.
26-12. Best record in baseball. .684 winning percentage. And the receipts aren't just the record.
The Braves are second in the majors in batting average at .272. Top three in OPS at .802. Most runs scored in baseball with 212. Run differential of plus-79 -- best in the sport by a mile. This isn't one thing going right. This is everything going right at the same time.
I'm 80% sure this is the best team in baseball. New claim. Broader scope. And I'm being conservative.
Here's the escalation logic. At 92% best in the NL, I was comparing them against the Phillies, Dodgers NL edition, and whoever else wanted the conversation. At 80% best in baseball, I'm comparing them against the entire sport. That means the Yankees. That means the Dodgers. The number is lower because the field is wider. Not because the evidence is weaker.
CBS Sports says they're number one. BetMGM says number one. The Big Lead says number one. The Eastern Herald says number one.
ESPN has them third.
Third. Behind the Dodgers and Yankees. I need someone at ESPN to explain to me what metric -- what single metric -- puts a team with the best record, the best run differential, and the most runs scored in the sport behind two teams that have fewer wins. I'll wait.
Chris Sale is pitching like it's 2024 again. 6-1 with a 2.14 ERA and 49 strikeouts. Bryce Elder has a 0.77 ERA that looks like a typo. Matt Olson is slashing .308 with 13 homers and a 1.077 OPS. And they're 14-5 on the road, which is the part that should scare everybody.
Yes, they lost their first series of the season to Seattle. Yes, Acuna is on the IL with a hamstring. I had these facts when I held at 92% in the NL five days ago and they didn't move the number then. They don't create one now.
The whole sport knows. ESPN just hasn't updated the spreadsheet.
Sale goes tonight at Dodger Stadium against Sheehan. 10:10 PM. If you still need convincing, turn it on.
I don't.
The Tilt
Every power ranking in America agrees the Braves are the best team in baseball except ESPN, and ESPN is wrong.
— Dex Ponce
What's your take?
Keep Reading
The Quiet Math of Winning Every Week
The Atlanta Braves have not lost a series in 2026. That sentence doesn't land the way a five-game winning streak does, or a no-hitter, or a walk-off grand slam in a man's first game wearing the unifo
Nine-Point-Eight-Two and the Decision It Makes for You
José Suarez lasted 1.1 innings against the worst offense in baseball. Some data points take sixteen games to clarify. This one took four outs.
Zero Earned Runs and the Ghost on the Other Mound
Bryce Elder threw seven innings, allowed zero earned runs, struck out eight, and lost. The man who beat him was wearing a different uniform than the one where his career almost ended twice.