ATLANTA — The Braves have high expectations once again as the baseball season kicks off the 2023 season Thursday.
Atlanta is in Washington for their first game of the season against the Nationals, a 1:05 p.m. start time in D.C.
Meanwhile back home, Braves fans are dreaming of big things ahead. By a fairly wide consensus, Atlanta is pegged to be one of the handful of best teams this year - and a World Series contender.
ESPN has the Braves with a projected record of 94-68, with 85% playoff odds and 10.5% World Series odds - second best of any team, after the New York Yankees. The analytics website FiveThirtyEight gives them the fourth-best odds of winning the World Series among all 30 teams, at 9%.
But what do the experts closer to home think? We polled 11Alive Sports Reporter Maria Martin, 92.9 The Game Braves reporter Grant McAuley and 92.9 The Game's Joe Patrick for their takes on what we might see from Atlanta in 2023:
2023 Braves predictions
Wins
The Vegas over/under on Braves wins for 2023 is 96.5 - and we've got three overs.
- Maria: 98
- Grant: 97
- Joe: 99
Team MVP
Will Ronald Acuña Jr. reclaim his place in the game's upper echelon of superstars? Might it be Austin Riley, or Ozzie Albies, or Matt Olson who leads the team? Here's who we're saying:
- Maria: Ronald Acuña Jr.
- Grant: Ronald Acuña Jr.
- Joe: Matt Olson
Team Cy Young
We'll be honest - not much mystery here.
- Maria: Max Fried
- Grant: Max Fried
- Joe: Max Fried
Team breakout star
Do you prefer a bounceback candidate like Eddie Rosario or Marcell Ozuna? Or are you eyeing a young guy to replicate what players like Michael Harris II and Spencer Strider did last year?
- Maria: Orlando Arcia
- Grant: Eddie Rosario
- Joe: Jared Shuster
Off the wall predictions
11Alive's Jonathan Raymond spins up a few predictions that are perhaps unlikely, but hey, what's the fun of predictions if you don't go out on a bit of a limb?
- Orlando Arcia sticks the whole year at shortstop: Everyone's expecting that Vaughn Grissom will be back sooner rather than later to take this place, but let's just envision a scenario focused on Arcia - where he plays really, really well. He's got a pretty high-caliber glove, which will play in his favor for an extended run holding down shortstop, and he was actually slightly above average with the bat last year (at least by measures such as OPS+.) Arcia also was excellent in the Division Series last year against Philly, and had a hot spring. Keep in mind there were once high expectations for Arcia - once upon a time he was a top-10 prospect, ranked even ahead of the departed Dansby Swanson. Maybe his bat is lined up for a true breakout at age 28.
- Alex Anthopoulos trades for a left fielder: This isn't a knock on Rosario's chances to put together a good season offensively, or ruling out that Grissom could wind up getting converted to an outfielder. But the hunch here is eventually the Braves will want more of a plus glove in left, and more to the point, the market will be favorable for Anthopoulos - between names like Tyler O'Neill, Bryan Reynolds, Ramon Laureano and Ian Happ, there's a lot of options and, as such, a lot of lanes for Anthopoulos to find a deal he likes.
- Ian Anderson? Jared Shuster? Dylan Dodd? No, Darius Vines: You may not have heard much of Vines yet, but he's also not quite anonymous. MLB.com has him as Atlanta's eighth-best prospect, a seventh-round pick in the 2019 draft who reached AAA for the first time last year. He struck out 127 batters in 107 innings at AA last year and had a strong debut in Gwinnett, with a 3.21 ERA in 33 2/3 innings. He doesn't have the most velocity in the world, but he's got an easy delivery with a very pretty changeup. Atlanta has a handful of advanced young candidates to fill in at the back of the rotation, and we're gonna throw Vines' name into that mix as one to keep an eye on.