A Few DYK's Heading into the All-Star Break

Hopefully sometime soon I'll post a full breakdown of the Braves first half in 2009 compared to 2008, but in getting ready to write that article here are a few "Did you know's" that I ran across. These facts are current as of 7/11/2009:

Did you know....

1. That Mark Teixeira hit 9 homeruns and had 23 rbi's in June of last year?  His homerun total for June would tie him for the season lead this year with Chipper Jones.  his 23 rbi's would be the 7th highest season total this year.

2.  That Javier Vazquez, Derek Lowe, and Jair Jurrjens have all already made at least as many starts (18) as Tom Glavine and John Smoltz made combined in all of 2008.  Kenshin Kawakami needs just 2 more starts to join this club.

3.  That Javier Vazquez's 136 strikeouts this year would be just 3 short of the team high for all of 2008 (Jair Jurrjens with 139).

4. That Gregor Blanco lead the team with just 13 steals last year, and that nobody on the team this year is on pace to beat that total while in a Braves uniform (Nate McLouth had 7 steals for the Pirates before coming over).

5. That Greg Norton hit 7 homeruns in 171 at bats last season.  His AB's per homerun (24.43) is lower than any Braves regular this year, and David Ross is the only player on the roster with a better rate.

6. The Braves already have 6 more one-run wins this year (17) than they had in all of 2008 (11). 

7. That Rafael Soriano (12 SV's) is just 2 saves short of last year's season leader (Mike Gonzalez, 14).

8. That the Braves have allowed 0 or 1 runs 16 times this season.  They did that a total of 20 times last year.  They're just one shutout shy (with 6) of last year's total (7).

9. That the Braves are giving up more runs per game in the first-half this year (4.26) than they did in the first half of last year (4.03).

10. In losses this year, the Braves batters have hit .225/.292/.322 (BA/OBP/SLG) which is remarkably similar to last year's .223/.298/.324.  However, in wins this year, the Braves have hit .296/.370/.468 which is noticeably lower than last year's .326/.400/.507.