After trade deadline, are these Atlanta Braves better than last year's World Series champs?

Now that Alex Anthopoulos has sprinkled his magic dust on the Braves roster, the real baseball season can begin. We found out last year that the Braves don’t always kick it into gear until we start to smell football in August.

And like last year, they’ll play the last two months with more reinforcements provided by their general manager.

Anthopoulos is good at this. He once again made a series of trades without making anyone wince at the price. Well, okay, Jesse Chavez had pitched so well that you hated to see him go.

But to trade Chavez and Tucker Davidson, a fringe prospect who had a career earned run average of 5.11 in his nine MLB games for another team’s closer? Yeah, that was a no-brainer.

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The Braves are now positioned for another run in October. There are no guarantees in the baseball postseason. A team simply has to get hot in order to win the trophy. All you can do is have a roster that will have a chance, and then let the games play out. Yes, that’s about all you can do.

This roster has a chance, as good a chance as any defending champion in the last several years. It’s hard to believe that this year’s roster is actually better than the one the Braves had last year when they won it all, but it is. The starting rotation is stronger, deeper (like six deep), the bullpen is now ridiculously strong, and the lineup can at times be the best in the sport.

While Braves fans everywhere should owe Will Smith a debt of gratitude for what he did last October, he needed to go. And for the Braves to get Jake Odorizzi, a solid middle-of-the-rotation starting pitcher for him was truly incredible.

Smith had slipped so much behind A.J. Minter, Tyler Matzek and the incredibly talented Dylan Lee that some wondered if he would be let go if the Braves got another reliever in a trade.

Odorizzi can provide tremendous insurance in case one of the young starting pitchers start to run out of gas in the dog days of summer. Maybe Kyle Wright and Spencer Strider don’t have that issue, and maybe Ian Anderson will continue to pitch the way he pitched on Sunday.

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But if not, Odorizzi will be around to pitch in double-headers and space out the innings to keep everyone fresh until October.

And then there’s Raisel Iglesias. Again, the Braves got another closer for a bullpen that already has one (Kenley Jansen) and will soon get another back from the injured list (Kirby Yates).

That trio ranked first (Yates), fifth (Iglesias) and eighth (Jansen) in saves in the Majors just three years ago, and now they will be in the same bullpen for the next few months.

Anthopoulos remembers well how the Braves won it all last year, with a stingy bullpen that got big outs every game. Write this bullpen out on paper and you will see perhaps the best in the game. Why change the formula if it worked last season?

Some may wonder if the Braves did enough to improve the offense. Grossman is another lottery ticket to see if he can find his bat in an Atlanta uniform.

He was hitting .205 for the Tigers in 273 at bats, but remember Jorge Soler was hitting .192 for the Royals when the Braves got him last year at the trade deadline and he wound up hitting the most important home run for the Braves this century.

Grossman can hit lefties, however, and could be valuable in a platoon with Eddie Rosario.

The Braves need a few guys to get going at the plate, and that list is led by Ronald Acuna, Jr. Maybe he’s missing his buddy Ozzie Albies. Maybe he’s not fully recovered from his knee injury. Maybe Acuna just needs more time to get it in gear. And if he gets on one of his tears, Acuna could have an Austin Riley-type month and put this team on his shoulders.

Marcell Ozuna is showing signs he’s coming around, which is much needed considering his lackluster first four months of the season. And when Albies returns, likely in September, the Braves will be better. Even with Orlando Arcia doing okay, Albies has been missed – as much for his presence on the field as his ability at the plate.

Finally, to be led by an MVP candidate like Riley will only help. If he can keep up this torrid pace, he’ll not only be the leading contender for a big award for his mantle, but he could lead the Braves to another fantastic month of October baseball.

Oh, and those two Atlanta boys, first baseman Matt Olson and shortstop Dansby Swanson, are pretty good, too.

The Braves’ 39-14 record in June and July proved they were ready to make another run for it. Then the last few days, Anthopoulos again rewarded the team for being close with trades to make the roster better.

Will they repeat? Who knows?

Who ever knows about a baseball postseason?

But the Braves looked poised to have a chance, which is all you can ask for.

Listen to The Bill Shanks Show, weekdays at 3:00 pm on TheSuperStations.com. Email Bill at thebillshanksshow@yahoo.com.  

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Atlanta Braves trade deadline moves make them world series contender