The Atlanta Braves are off to a hot start at 7-4 and in first place in the NL East. The team is playing well in all aspects of the game. A depleted starting pitching staff has been patched together with youngsters the first two weeks and is about to regain Kyle Wright and Max Fried.

While Braves fans rejoice for the return of the ace and his noble steed, we are here to review the magnificence of the Atlanta Braves and their ability to get on base so far in 2023.

The Atlanta Braves 2023 OBP Stats

Atlanta Braves are tied for 5th in the league in walk percentage.

The Braves are currently in sixth place in team OBP (.347), just getting edged out by Milwaukee (.348).

In our recent game recap Braves Score Yesterday, we displayed the following graphic… which we will shamelessly display once again right here.

Sean Murphy leads all catchers in walks with eight, despite the fact that his 33 plate appearances are 13 fewer than second-place Adley Rutschman‘s.

Matt Olson is currently tied for second in all of baseball with 10 walks, he is just one walk behind the leader. Meanwhile, Olson is batting .333 with eight extra-base hits and 11 RBI.

Austin Riley’s Career Walk Rates

2019: 5.4%
2020: 7.8%
2021: 7.9%
2022: 8.2%
2023: 14.3%

Austin Riley‘s career walk rates just keep climbing. I know it’s a small sample size so far this year but we could be looking at the early stages of Austin Riley’s next big step. The guy was already an MVP caliber player last season, so that’s saying a lot.

Ronald Acuna Jr. is doing Acuna things this season as he looks 100% healthy. Acuna Jr. has always been an on-base beast. Last season was his lowest walk-rate since his rookie year. His walk rate was 9.9% in 2022. Acuna reached incredible highs in the 2020 Covid-shortened season when he walked in an astounding 18.8% of his plate appearances. Good grief! His 11.3% walk rate this year comes as no surprise but his 15.1% strikeout rate does.

While I’m not holding out hope for Orlando Arcia to maintain this sort of pace, it is really nice to see the early contributions from the talented shorstop. He never quite lived up to the hype with the Brewers. Perhaps the change of scenery and being surrounded by all-world talent is just what he needed. Cross your fingers!