• 03:23 AM ET  05.15
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 I was reminded of something last night while watching baseball on ESPN: the Atlanta Braves are a great baseball team.  Forget about statistics for a minute, forget about the scoreboard and just watch the way the Braves move around the field.  

They play organized defense with all players on the same page at all times.  Every hitter on the team comes to the plate with a game plan, a real strategy involving the entire team.  On top of all this, they are walking around the field with a confident look, like they know they are gonna win, or better yet, they know they are the better team whether they win today or not.

The Braves won 14 straight NL East titles for a reason.  They are a top notch baseball organization full of real professionals.  Every once in a while in sports you can just see that a team plays well together and plays for one another, that they are comfortable and confident on the field together.  I saw that tonight in the Braves players.

Throw in the fact that they have Chipper Jones, the hottest hitter in baseball, on their team, and they just might have the makings of some winning baseball that leads to another NL East title.

The great thing about them from a betting standpoint is that nobody talks about them, at least not like they talk about the Yankees or the Tigers or the Mets.  The Braves are better than all those teams, yet they remain under the radar.

If I were a bettin' man, I think I would just latch on to the Braves for a while.  They play today as +165 underdogs in Philadelphia.  Chuck James goes for the Braves and Cole Hamels goes for the Phillies.  Hamels hasn't been at his best lately, and if he makes mistakes to the hot-hitting Braves lineup, they will make him pay.  

Who knows what to expect from James.  He is off to a rough start to the year, but he is capable of pitching well.  If they win, they will pay an underdog price; if they lose, they head home for their next eleven games.  They will most likely make up the loss in their home park. 

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