Memo to the Braves: The National League is there to be seized

Brandon Patrick McCarthy was born July 7, 1983 in Glendale, Calif. McCarthy graduated from high school in Colorado Springs and attended Lamar Community College in Colorado. The nickname for Lamar's sports teams is the Runnin' Lopes, as in antelopes, not Davey Lopes. McCarthy was the 510th player drafted in 2002, by the White Sox in the 17th round. McCarthy made his major league debut May 22, 2005 for the White Sox. Before the Braves acquired McCarthy on Dec. 16, 2017, he played for the White Sox, Rangers,

The Braves moved into first place May 2. They’ve been there since. They’ll be there when they leave Philadelphia. Their lead has never been more than 1-1/2 games, which is what it was as of Wednesday morning, but it remains a lead.

It’s not as if the Braves sit atop a division of mediocrities. The Mets occupy fourth place in the National League East; they’d be leading the West. The Braves continue to hold the league’s best record, albeit by percentage points over Milwaukee. They continue to hold the league’s best run differential, albeit by one run over the Cubs.

The Braves haven’t spent a day under .500 this season. They’ve lost two of their first 15 series. Their longest winning streak is five games. Their longest losing streak is three games. Apart from that blip against San Francisco, they haven’t lost even two in a row in a calendar month. They’ve been a very good – and very consistent – team. They aren’t apt to go away anytime soon.

They’re baseball’s happiest story, but they’re also part of a bigger story. The established order is fraying. The Dodgers, who’ve won the West five years running, hold the 12th-best record in a 15-team league. The Nationals, who’ve won the East four times in five years, are third in their division and were swept by the Dodgers over the weekend. The Cubs are going for a third consecutive Central title, having averaged 97.3 wins over the past three seasons; they’re in third place, on pace to win 90.

The longstanding NL tent poles are teetering. There’s room to move in a league that hasn’t seen much movement since the Cubs got good in 2015. The best teams in baseball – Red Sox, Yankees, Astros – work elsewhere. There’s no reason a good young team can’t cut a swath across the National League; indeed, the Braves and Phillies already have. There should be no reason such teams couldn’t make deep autumn runs Somebody has to play the Red Sox/Yankees/Astros in the World Series.

Apologies for the long windup, but now we come to today’s thought: There’s no reason that somebody can’t be the Braves.

To borrow from a TBS documentary of decades past: Yes, it’s a long way to October. But with the ongoing upheaval, NL clubs must recalibrate. What everyone figured would happen hasn’t happened and might not. The Nationals, Cubs and Dodgers are a collective five games under .500. The Braves are 11 games above .500. We’re within sight of Memorial Day, traditionally the season’s first checkpoint, and the growing feeling is that this season could yield something more than a warm feeling. It could yield a pennant.

That’s not being fanciful. At this moment, what team in this league looks better? Over the first 47 games – that’s almost 30 percent of a season – no team has BEEN better. The Braves’ realistic hopes entering 2018 surely involved modest improvement, but there’s no need for modesty now. We can no longer say that guys are playing miles above their head. Ryan Flaherty and Preston Tucker are no longer everyday presences. Dansby Swanson and Ronald Acuna aren’t hitting .300 anymore. And still this team leads the league in runs and batting average and is second in OBP and slugging.

The pitching has been good enough. Its ERA is eighth-best in the majors. Trouble is, it’s seventh-best among NL clubs, which still isn’t bad, but isn’t quite stellar. The Braves have essentially gone this season without a regular No. 5 starter – Anibal Sanchez and Mike Soroka have taken turns; both are on the disabled list – and now Luiz Gohara, just up from the minors after he was injured in spring training, gets to try. The bullpen has stabilized, but it’s a bullpen that scares Braves fans more than it does opposing hitters.

On the job since November, general manager Alex Anthopoulos has made one splash trade, and that was a mutual salary dump – though it did yield Brandon McCarthy, who’s 4-0 against Philadelphia, which is why the standings look the way they do. To his credit, Anthopoulos resisted any urge to sell any significant parts of the inherited farm system and found value in Flaherty, Tucker and maybe Sanchez. (Less so in Jose Bautista, but that was a flyer.)

Anthopoulos hasn’t so much shaped this team as curate it, but that period of watchful waiting figures to end soon. He doesn’t need to do a lot, but some things need doing. Third base remains the hole in an otherwise strong everyday eight, though Austin Riley isn’t far off. There are enough good arms – Gohara has a great arm – to forge a rotation from what’s on hand, but that assumes Julio Teheran’s worst-on-the-staff FIP (fielding independent pitching) of 5.04 doesn’t catch up to him. Every bullpen can stand upgrading, this one more than some.

Teams tend to wait until July to get serious about trades, but a big June could put these Braves in pole position for October. There’s a good team out there already. With a tweak or two, this could become a division winner and maybe more. (Mark Lemke mentioned last week the outsize impact in-season addition Alejandro Pena had on the 1991 Braves.) Nothing says those tweaks have to come after the All-Star break. In the Braves’ case, seizing the day might mean seizing a trophy.