Derek Lowe

With five All-Stars and 50-plus wins before the break, the Atlanta Braves look very strong going into the second half of the 2010 season.

They’ve combined their stellar pitching staff with timely hitting (16 wins in their last at-bat before the All-Star Break) and have steered clear of the Phillies and Mets to jump out to a 4-game lead in the NL East.

It's a wonder seeing a starting pitcher winless this far into the season. After 13 or 14 starts, one would expect several wins, losses, and no decisions from them. When you're paying a guy over $7 million to pitch for your team, you expect a few wins, especially if your team's in first place.

The Baltimore Orioles feel this way about Kevin Millwood, certainly. He has 14 appearances, a 5.16 ERA, an 0-8 record, and leads the American League in home runs and hits allowed. It could be that his career is nearing his end.

When Frank Wren replaced John Schuerholz as General Manager a couple of years ago, Braves’ fans were undoubtedly skeptical that he could come in and make such a difference. I think now that even the skeptics can be silenced by the performance of Frank Wren in building a ballclub that can be defined by words like "deep," "versatile," and "talented."

Tonight showed just how those words ring true about the 2010 Atlanta Braves.

Just to prove how random, and therefore essentially worthless, wins are as a statistic, check out the numbers of two pitchers below.

Pitcher #1 - 4.86 ERA, 1.46 WHIP, 35 strikeouts, 29 walks and 63 innings pitched in 11 starts.

Pitcher #2 - 4.66 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, 32 strikeouts, 15 walks and 56 innings pitched in 10 starts.

As the month of May is drawing to a close, it’s hard to believe that coming into this month the Braves were in last place and just a game removed from a nine-game skid.

It almost feels like we are in a different season.

After a decent start to the month, the Braves caught fire—and have won five out of their last six series (the other series was a 1-1 split between the Braves and Mets).

I feel like the baseball season is halfway over already.

I know, the Braves are only 14 games into the year, but doesn’t it seem like so much has happened?

First there was Opening Day—Derek Lowe being Derek Lowe, a packed crowd at Turner Field, and of course, the monster homerun hit on the first swing of Jason Heyward’s career.

The Atlanta Braves are 10 games into the season, and they sit at 6-4 after winning their first game against the Rockies.

Here are some thoughts from the first week and a half of the year.

Martin Prado Keeps Hitting

Prado has been a hit machine thus far. At the beginning of the season, you could count me among those skeptical that Prado was as good as he showed us in 2009.

1. Introduction

I am very tired of hearing about the snap judgment about Derek Lowe; an ace pitcher that Atlanta Braves signed him for a four-year, $60 million deal.