Hot 'Lanta

The Atlanta Braves have the most commanding lead in the NL Wild Card race this season, at 8 games. They are 7-3 in their last 10 games, and oh by the way, could be the kryptonite to the Phillies Superman squad.

All season long the Braves have had to listen to the praise given to their NL East counterparts, the Phillies. All season long they have been chasing down the same dynamic lineup. All season long, they've been quietly winning and now, are running away with the Wild Card. Chipper Jones has been playing with a renewed sense of passion after an injury plagued 2010 campaign. Sure his numbers are down against his career statistics, but he no longer has to be "the man" in Atlanta. Long gone are the days of 38 Homeruns, 102 RBI's and a .330 average (2001) - but he now has bats surrounding him in the lineup and depth on this ball club that this blogger hasn't seen since the days of Otis Nixon, David Justice and Ron Gant.

If ever there was a team with an evenly distributed offense, it is the Braves. You have pop in your bats care of Dan Uggla, Brian McCann and still on occasion Chipper Jones. You have great speed and potential from Michael Bourn and Jason Heyward. On top of that, you have a potential Rookie of the Year in Freddie Freeman playing first base.

Though the pitching staff doesn't reverberate quite like the Glavine, Maddux, Smoltz days - having Hudson, Lowe and Jurrjens is not a bad second option. Especially given the defensive capability backing up the pitching staff. As a loyal Boston fan, its hard to come up with a better defensive shortstop than Alex Gonzalez. He is a rock for the Braves infield.

In the home stretch of the 2011 season it is going to be a lot of fun to watch how the Braves and Phillies finish out and even more fun to see these two teams go head to head in the playoffs. As it stands right now the season series is dead even, both teams taking 6 games a piece. They have 2 3-game series remaining in the month of September. One in Philly from 9/5 - 9/7 and then the season finale, in Atlanta from 9/26-9/28.

That is what has fascinated me thus far about this rivalry. Philadelphia has handled all of the other competition, but Atlanta just won't go away. With these teams built as complimentary to one another as they appear to be, a 7-game series is most likely going to happen. In that event I do think we are going to see some rather impressive baseball.