Atlanta Braves already picked to win division by baseball-reference

You might be surprised, but there’s at least one statistical projection tool out there already touting the Atlanta Braves to repeat as the NL East champs.

At a 24-21 record, if the 2019 season ended today, the Atlanta Braves would fail to make the playoffs. They would be the first team out, losing in the Wild Card race to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

That’s not how baseball-reference.com thinks things are going to end up, though.

Among seemingly all things stats, BR maintains an ‘advanced standings’ page, complete with things like strength of team and playoff odds with best/worst scenarios.

At the heart of this is their ‘Simple Rating System‘, which gives an indication of their belief of each…