5 Things I Learned At Spring Training

Champion Stadium, Kissimmee, Florida - March 13, 2018

Spring Training experiences are a lot like snowflakes. No two are exactly the same.

For those who don't know my annual trip to Spring Training has become, with the possible exception of Christmas, my favorite week on the calendar. It's rare to be in an environment where everyone wants to be there and everyone is happy. To paraphrase Terence Mann in 'Field Of Dreams': It's as if everyone has dipped themselves in magic waters. 

There's no stress of winning or losing. There's just sun, fun and glad tidings all around. 

For me it all started ten years ago on a trip to visit a friend. I realized I could squeeze a Braves Spring Training game into the trip and did. A decade later the baseball is the reason for the trip. Everything else is a distant second. The only thing I hate about it is that it somehow took me three decades to discover. I want all of those missed Spring Trainings back! 

While it's basically what I like to call "Grownup Spring Break", I also use the time every year to get a sneak peek at my beloved Atlanta Braves. If you know me well enough you know that my fandom makes me the opposite of a "homer". I tend to view the team through a more skeptical lens than most. The exception was last year when I thought the team should have been a Wild Card contender if enough "what ifs" went their way. And they were...until collapsing after the All-Star break.

Anyway, each year a handful of things stick out to me about the team and the franchise. Here are the 5 Things I Learned At Spring Training 2018:

5) Learn To Spell Foltynewicz - Because you're going to be talking about him a lot this year. Much has been made about the Braves question marks in the starting rotation. 1948 Boston Braves were led by the rallying cry, "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain". I don't know anything that rhymes with Teheran and Foltynewicz, but that's sort of the way the Braves rotation stacks up at the moment.

Foltynewicz appears ready to put it all together in his fourth season in the big leagues. He has, at times, shown overpowering stuff reminiscent of John Smoltz. At others, but his own admission, he's allowed mistakes to snowball into big innings.

This spring he was as close to perfect as you can be. On our second day in Florida Foltynewicz dominated the Pirates allowing just two hits over four innings. He didn't allow an earned run until the final day of Spring Training. A breakout season from Foltynewicz would go a long way toward getting this team in the postseason hunt this year. 

4) Will The Real Dansby Swanson Please Stand Up? - It's been a tale of two seasons for the Braves' shortstop. His average fell 70 points last year from his debut in 2016. The Braves now admit the rushed him into being a "face" of the franchise and the pressure clearly got to him a year ago.

His results this spring are similarly a mixed bag. He hit just .208, but with two homers and  four RBI. He also stole three bases, which equaled his number from all of 2017. I paid particular attention to Dansby during our trip and one thing I noticed is that, when he wasn't in the game, he sat with the manager and coaches most of the time. He seemed to be listening intently soaking in every ounce of knowledge he could. I see a bounce-back season from Dansby. If it happens he and Ozzie Albies will form one of the more formidable middle infields in the game.

Editor's note: When watching Dansby, be sure you are actually watching Dansby. From a distance he and newcomer Charlie Culberson are almost indecipherable. 

Ronald Acuna, Jr. prepares to bat against Pittsburgh at LECOM Park in Bradenton, FL - March 10, 2018

3) In Ron We Trust - Each year there is a prospect that grabs my attention whose progress I can't wait to follow en route to Atlanta. I remember when it was Andrelton Simmons. Then Dansby.

This year I knew who it was before I got there. Ronald Acuna entered the spring ranked as the number one prospect in baseball and did not disappoint. We saw him hit two home runs during our trip, one of which would have gone through the outfield wall if it hadn't cleared it versus Toronto.

Overall he hit .432 with four home runs, 11 RBI and four stolen bases...which got him sent to the minors. Well, THAT didn't get him sent down. A weird Major League Baseball rule that will allow the Braves to control Acuna for an extra year if he spends the first two weeks of this season at AAA got him sent down.

He will be eligible to make his major league debut on April 13th. If the Braves can tread water through a brutal schedule the first couple of weeks of the season with the likes of Preston Tucker and Lane Adams manning left field, the addition of Acuna would be like making a blockbuster trade or signing a top-tier free agent in the middle of April.

2) In Ron We Trust (Part 2) - One of my favorite parts of the last few Grapefruit League trips has been watching Ron Washington coach. He's as affable as they come. Last year, unsolicited, he gave us a ball. He tried to again this year but one of those extended nets meant to protect people from themselves got in the way. Don't get me started on the extended nets.

Anyway, Washington is a gem. We usually sit down the third base line to watch him coach, eat peanuts (LOTS of peanuts) and interact with him between innings. By all accounts he is tireless in helping the Braves youngsters develop, routinely on the field running drills hours before anyone else. My opinion is he's the best manager in baseball not currently running a club.

That brings me to this: With few exceptions most Georgia football fans regard Mark Richt very highly for what he meant to the program. An increasing number of them simply came to believe the team had hit a ceiling under him. The administration didn't want to miss out on Kirby Smart, so a move was made.

A similar situation could develop at SunTrust Park this summer.  I absolutely adore Brian Snitker and think he should be given a very long leash to become the long-term manager. It's the least the franchise can do considering he's devoted his life to the Braves. Ideally the Braves improve drastically this year and he goes on to bring another World Championship to Atlanta.

That said, if things go the other way, the Braves may be forced to make a decision before another club steals Washington out from under them.

Disney's ESPN Wide World of Sports. Spring Training Home of the Atlanta Braves

1) Dissing Disney - Look, I love Disney. We went to the Magic Kingdom on this trip for the first time since I was five and I had the time of my life. Holding your Spring Training at "The Happiest Place On Earth" is another thing entirely.

It all made sense when the Braves and Disney started this relationship in the mid-90s. The Braves were "America's Team" on TV screens across the country every night on the Superstation. They'd also appeared in four of the previous five World Series, winning it all in 1995. What better place for America's Team than America's favorite theme park?

But over the years Disney's Wide World of Sports has become more of a mecca for amateur sports, from cheerleading to lacrosse to basketball. For Braves fans this is a huge headache. Just to get into Champion Stadium to see the Braves play one must wind one's way through thousands of people you might see if you click on ESPN at 7am on a Sunday. While it can be fun to watch overbearing cheer moms live vicariously through their daughters, it's annoying when you're just trying to catch a game.

It also doesn't feel like the home of the Braves. Other than an "A" painted on the field and a sign on the outfield wall it's pretty generic. Meanwhile other Spring Training sites proudly claim their team with signs hanging from lamp posts, banners...you name it.

Add to that that everything from tickets to concessions has Disney prices instead of normal Spring Training prices and the Braves' impending move to North Port in 2019 can't come soon enough.

In conclusion, it's never good when one of the team's own writers enters the season saying breaking even would be an accomplishment. Much of that is based on the lack of headline-making moves by the front office during the off-season.

I feel about this team much the same as I felt about last year's team before Opening Day. IF a lot of things go their way they can be in the mix. Last year none of the "ifs" panned out. But with another year for the young prospects to mature, a bounce-back season from Dansby Swanson and the addition of Ronald Acuna I think this team can make things interesting this summer. Last year's team started out strong and fizzled. I think this year's team starts slow and gets better and better as the season progresses, not unlike...dare I say it...the 1991 team. Like that year pitching dominated in Spring Training. And unlike last year I think the front office will be willing to make key additions if this team is in it at the All-Star break.

My prediction? 84-78 and a possible Wild Card.

Thanks For The Memories

Timing is everything.

The first year I was old enough to remember being an Atlanta Braves fan was the year after they won the National League West. I came along at the beginning of a downward spiral that would see them finish last or next-to-last six straight years. The year of my thirteenth birthday they lost 106 games and finished 39.5 games out of first place. Let that sink in. In a season of 160 games (two rainouts weren't made up), they managed to finish nearly 40 out of the playoffs. The Braves like to tout themselves as the oldest continually operating franchise in baseball. The only year worse than my thirteenth? When they lost 107 games...as the Boston Rustlers...in 1911.

There was a running joke in Atlanta back then about winning a contest. First prize? Two free tickets to a Braves game. Second prize? Four free tickets to a Braves game.

But I was hooked for life. I loved the game (still do). I loved the team (still do) and I loved watching Skip, Ernie and Pete every summer night on TBS (wish I still could).

From left: Skip Caray, Ernie Johnson and Pete Van Wieren

Turns out, as we are unfortunately learning again, the benefit of being lousy is that you get the top pick in the following year's draft, meaning you get to pick the best amateur player in the world. During the summer of my fourteenth birthday, thanks to 97 nights of disappointment the summer before, the top pick belonged to the Atlanta Braves.

As is currently the case, the Braves were using their picks to stockpile young arms (see also: Glavine, Tom and Avery, Steve). That year the top young pitcher in America was a Texas high schooler named Todd Van Poppel. The story goes that the Braves wanted Van Poppel, but Van Poppel wanted nothing to do with the Braves. He made it clear he would not sign with the cellar-dwelling Braves if they drafted him. I remember as a teen growing up in Gwinnett County thinking, "If he doesn't want to come to Atlanta then we don't want him to come to Atlanta". Instead he ended up going to the defending World Champion Oakland A's with the fourteenth pick.

The rest is (Braves) history, as they say. Atlanta turned its attention to a high school shortstop in Florida named Larry Wayne (Chipper) Jones, on whom they used that No. 1 pick. Had Atlanta not lost 97 games the previous summer they might have gotten Van Poppel, who spent his major league career bouncing from team to team winning just 40 games in 14 seasons. Instead the Braves got a future Hall of Famer who spent his entire 19 year career in Atlanta and has repeatedly said "I never wanted to play anywhere else".

Four years later I was a freshman in college and the Braves had gone from worst-to-first, won three consecutive division championships and captured the hearts of the nation via the Superstation. By that year Chipper was the top prospect in the Braves organization and ready to become the Braves' regular leftfielder. But the baseball gods had other plans.

I was watching that spring training game against the Yankees on my little 13-inch dorm room TV, anxious to see the prospect play for the first time, when he landed awkwardly while running out a play at first base and crumpled to the ground. Torn ACL. His rookie season over before it began.

You know when you hear about the Braves' string of 14 consecutive division championships from 1991 to 2005? Well it would have ended at three were it not for the players' strike of 1994. The Braves were six games behind the ridiculously loaded Montreal Expos when the season came to an abrupt halt. The Braves had lost 6 games in the standings in the previous three weeks and were headed in the wrong direction. Montreal would have won the National League East that year, but either greedy owners or ungrateful players (depending on which side you were on) intervened and no one won anything that year (especially not us fans).

So rather than burst onto the scene in that ill-fated 1994 season, Chipper assumed his full-time role in the Braves lineup in 1995. You may have heard of 1995. To this day it's the only championship season in Atlanta sports history. Chipper was named Rookie Of The Year, hit two home runs in his first postseason game and took his first steps down the road to Cooperstown.

1995 World Series (cleveland.com)

Timing is everything.

I can't imagine what winning a championship in your rookie season does to a player, but I have to imagine you expect there will be more. As fans, we assumed there would be many more 1995s. But there haven't been. You know the rest. The Braves' frustrations have been well documented: 14 consecutive division titles (with the above mentioned exception), 5 National League pennants...and only one World Series trophy to show for it before Chipper retired after the 2012 season. He was National League MVP in 1999...but the Braves were swept by the Yankees in the World Series and haven't been back since.

Along the way there were too many big hits to recall (often against the Mets, so much so that he named one of his children "Shea" after the Mets' former home). There were impossible-to-believe plays at third base and, yes, even a few in left field. There was the home run in front of the home crowd at Turner Field during the 2000 All-Star Game. And then there was the Grand Finale...

After 467 career home runs, and six months after he announced that the 2012 season would be his last, Chipper stepped to the plate late on the Sunday afternoon of September 2nd trailing the much-hated Phillies 7-5 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. His three-run home run off of the then-virtually-unhittable Jonathan Papelbon earned that season's "Walk-Off Of The Year" in the Greatness In Baseball Yearly (GIBBYs) Awards. He would have 70 more official at-bats as a major leaguer after that day, but that would prove to be his final and, in his words, most ecstatic home run.

"Nothing beats that," he was quoted as saying later that night. It was Roy Hobbs knocking out the stadium lights in his last at-bat, with the role of the lights being played by the Philadelphia Phillies.

Saving his best for last.

Timing is everything.

The following season the Braves retired Chipper's number 10 at Turner Field. During his acceptance speech he was sure to thank Todd Van Poppel. Every Braves fan of a certain age still does.

Braves retire Chipper Jones's No. 10 (AJC)

We didn't know it at the time, but that was the beginning of the end for the Braves as we knew them. The Chipper-less Braves won the East again the next year but broke our hearts in walk-off fashion in the Division Series in L.A. In 2014 they lost 16 of their final 20 to miss the playoffs, which led to the complete rebuild in which we currently find ourselves.

This year we are told there is hope. A new General Manager. A new top prospect in all of baseball. Sounds familiar. Sounds like 1991. Maybe this is the year our dreams in Spring Training finally become October reality. Maybe this is the year we reclaim our rightful spot in the postseason. Maybe the Braves' return to baseball royalty will coincide with Chipper joining baseball's most exclusive club.

After all, timing is everything.

The Week That Wasn't

The lamp. 

The lamp was the first thing I saw when my eyes opened Monday morning. I was hoping it wasn't Monday morning. I was hoping it was, say, Wednesday and I'd slept through Monday and Tuesday. But it was Monday. It's not Monday's fault that it comes after Sunday. It's just that this particular Monday came after that Sunday. 

I don't really remember a lot about Monday. But I do firmly believe that there's an Everybody Loves Raymond episode to cover almost any situation in life and, in this case, it would be the episode during which Robert and Amy get married. 

I won't bore you with a recap of the entire episode. If you want to watch it click here. Suffice it to say that the ceremony didn't go well and during the reception Ray gives a great speech trying to smooth everything over. The long and the short of it is that our brains work like a filtering device and the further you are from a situation the more positively you remember it.

Monday I was not far enough removed from the situation, and now my brain has edited Monday out.

I was off on Tuesday so I lay on the couch. I took three separate naps in a 10-hour span. During the parts that I was awake I avoided anything that might possibly address the situation. That meant no sports, no news, no late night talk shows...basically I could only watch things that had already aired on TV at least 24 hours prior to me waking up and seeing the lamp. 

Enter TBS. 

What once provided me with lasting childhood memories of Braves baseball was now my escape from sports of any kind. I ended up binge-watching New Girl. I'd never seen an episode and now I'm almost a full season in (no spoilers, please). It doesn't get much more non-sports than that, except for the fact that one roommate once played pro basketball in Latvia.

That night I put my "no sports" pact with myself on hiatus long enough to watch Georgia try to salvage its gut-punch of a season against Florida. 

Back to TBS.

By Wednesday the scene in my apartment was pretty dire. The blurry green image in the picture below is a pack of provolone. When I woke up that morning that was the only food remaining in my fridge, and I'm pretty sure its expiration date had long passed. 

I decided to leave my apartment for the first time since the situation presented itself. Not only did I go outside, I went for a 2.5-mile run. Turns out, you can't outrun a situation. It will catch you when you stop. 

I also went back to work, which turned out to be somewhat therapeutic. You never know how well your co-workers actually know you until a situation presents itself. In this instance, no one spoke to me or made eye contact for the first five hours I was there. 

They know me pretty darn well. 

I came home that night to the movie Uptown Girls on TV. Don't know it? Neither did I. But I watched the last hour because I was pretty sure it was safe. Not a bad flick, actually. Then a few more episodes of New Girl on Netflix. No chill, just bed.

The only good thing about Thursday is that it was both my Tuesday and my Friday at work. After a few more episodes of New Girl it was actually Friday and I'd been looking forward to this particular Friday for a few months. That's because this particular Friday I was seeing Bon Jovi live for the first time in more than a decade. I've loved Bon Jovi since, let's see, fifth grade?

Unfortunately this concert was at Philips Arena. Philips Arena is next to another arena, and that arena that used to represent such joy now represents the situation that gives me night terrors. So I did what they do to horses to keep them from getting spooked: I blocked my vision from the offending spectacle.

Yes, by Friday I was a frightened horse.

Then a funny thing happened. I found out that it's almost impossible to have a negative thought in your head while 20,000 people are singing "Livin' On  A Prayer" in unison at the top of their lungs.

Then another thing happened. A wonderful visit with my family on Saturday presented an opportunity to acknowledge the situation verbally for the first time since it presented itself.

Then yet another thing happened. An impromptu visit with some very close friends on Sunday, who are also very close to the situation, allowed me to finally talk through some things with people who know exactly where I'm coming from. I didn't know it at first, but it was the first time they had addressed the situation as well.

Does that mean I'm all better now? Of course not. But it's a start. 

So here we are, a week later.

In the end, the one thing I keep coming back to about this week is the closing line in Uptown Girls: "Every story has an end. But in life every ending is just a new beginning."

I need that to be true, because the situation that presented itself last Sunday night didn't just ruin Sunday night. It ruined about five months of wonderful memories that will now be tainted the way a wonderful relationship can be by a bad breakup. 

I've been through my share of breakups over the years and I've learned one thing: Like Raymond said, the further you are from the situation the better you feel.

In a month I will leave for my annual trip to Braves Spring Training. Hopefully by then I'll be ready to be disappointed all over again. 

Or maybe I'll just buy a new lamp. 

What I Learned At Spring Training

It's been a while since I've written one of these. And what better time to start again than Spring Training? It's the time when everything begins anew and anything is possible.

As I do every year, I spent the better part of this week in Florida following the Braves at Spring Training. If you love baseball, you don't need to put Spring Training on your bucket list...you need to put it on your "every year no matter what else is going on" list. I went for the first time in 2008 because I happened to be in the Orlando area and I will never miss another.

Spring Training is the closest adults can come to reliving Spring Break: One hundred percent fun with zero responsibilities. I'm not rubbing it in, I'm trying to inspire you to go. Or don't. The more people that show up the harder it is to get tickets. You know what? Stay home. Home is good.

Anyway, this post is pretty esoteric. If you're not a die-hard Braves fan you should probably stop reading now. For the rest of you, I thought I'd list a few things I learned in Lake Buena Vista this week as we get ready for that holiest of days: Opening Day.

While I make my living in the news business, I was anything but a reporter this week. So I didn't have access to the locker room, nor did I get any insight from players, coaches or officials. I did take several selfies with various points of interest in the background. My point is, this is a fan's perspective, but not just any fan. No one has followed this team closer for the last 30 years than I have. If I need to I'll show you every scorecard from the 1991 Worst To First season to prove it. While my colleagues in the press box can provide the inside scoop, they can't give you the feel from the cheap (and not-so-cheap) seats.

Here are 5 Things I Learned At Spring Training:

1) The Need For Speed - I remember going to Spring Training last year and being very impressed with the Braves new "small ball" approach. I thought Eric Young, Jr. was going to be a breakout player. I was wrong, but the team was much more entertaining than watching the Uptons stir up a gale force wind every night the year before. Don't forget the Braves were only 6 games out in late July last year before Jason Grilli got hurt and management used that as an excuse to pull the rug out from under the team...and us. This year's lineup is like last year's on steroids. Okay, bad analogy in baseball. But what I mean is this lineup has the chance to be a LOT of fun to watch. There's a lot of speed and Fredi Gonzalez is not afraid to use it. When someone reaches base, it's not a matter of if, but when they will be running. That approach created a number of runs during my stay. When a walk usually ends up on second, almost every base hit is an RBI. Most preseason periodicals I've read say some variation of "there's nothing in this lineup other than Freddie Freeman". These people are morons. This lineup is fun and you will enjoy watching it.  My only concern is third base. Adonis Garcia did homer while I was there, but didn't do much else. I was hoping Gordon Beckham would recapture his UGA magic, but he was less than spectacular. This could be a glaring weakness in an otherwise solid starting eight.

2) Pitching and Moaning - Here's where the preseason pundits seem to be dead on. The pitching is miserable. This was the team's downfall last year. The Braves simply could not hold a lead...and they couldn't during my week at Spring Training either. And it wasn't low-level rookies giving up all the runs. Setup man Jim Johnson got tattooed more often than a sorority girl on spring break. One of my sleeper picks to have a big year, Jhoulys Chacin, gave up a run in every inning I watched him pitch. And I'm pretty sure somewhere Manny Banuelos is still trying to get out of the first inning of Saturday's game. Now, this is a small sample size, but it does feed the fear that this pitching staff has issues. The one bright spot was Julio Teheran. He was dominant during my stay. But after him I have very large worries about the rotation. Like I said, I like the lineup, but I don't like it enough to believe it can score nine runs a night to win.

3) Fight For Your Right To Inciarte - Meet your new favorite player: Ender Inciarte. He only played two games during my trip, but it was enough to let me know you're going to enjoy watching him play every day. The Braves' haul from the Shelby Miller deal has been well-documented, but Inciarte may prove it to be even better than expected. He can flat-out go get it in center field. I honestly think he might be better defensively than Andruw Jones. Granted, I was never much of an Andruw fan, but you get the point. He will make an immeasurable difference at the top of the lineup. He appears disciplined and aggressive at the same time. And he can fly. I really liked Cameron Maybin, but I will readily admit Inciarte is a huge upgrade with All-Star potential. The Gold Glove should be his to lose this season. And speaking of that Miller trade...

4) Everybody Loves Dansby - No one had bigger rock-star status at this Braves camp than shortstop Dansby Swanson. If everything works out as planned, I predict this guy will be the face of the franchise over the next decade, not Freddie Freeman. Part of it is, well, his actual face. Pretty much every female fan in eyesight was on the edge of her seat every time he came to the plate...and it wasn't because there were runners on base. Secondly, he's really good. There's a reason he was the number one pick in the draft last summer. He made a handful of Andrelton Simmons-type plays while I was in Florida and actually appeared ahead of schedule at the plate. But what makes him different than every other player in camp (with the possible exception of Jeff Francoeur), is that he really, truly loves the Braves and the city of Atlanta. He is living his dream. Atlanta pro sports needs that. If you haven't read his thoughts on this subject, you need to. I'm glad I went to Florida when I did this year, because he was sent to the minor league camp the day after I left (along with Ozzie Albies and Mallex Smith, who were also fun to watch). But I sincerely hope he's in Atlanta at some point this season because, frankly, I can't wait.

5) Everybody Hates Disney -  The Braves' complex at the ESPN (formerly called Disney's) Wide World Of Sports used to be the crown jewel of Spring Training baseball. When the place opened, the Braves were its biggest draw. But now it's home to every amateur baseball, lacrosse, cheerleading, tennis and/or lawn darts competition for which ESPN can find room on its schedule. What that means for you, the Braves fan, is having to fight your way through traffic that will remind you of I-285 at 5:00 on a Friday and then thousands of people Braveheart-style just to get to the front gate of Champions Stadium. It also means paying two-to-three times as much for a ticket as you would at Turner Field for a game that ACTUALLY COUNTS. That's because Disney sets all of the prices, not the Braves. And it's one of the main reasons the Braves want out once their lease is done in 2017. Unfortunately they're having some trouble finding a new home, which means we may be stuck at Disney longer than any of us hoped. Another reason they want to move is location. Once the Astros leave Kissimmee for West Palm Beach after this spring, the Braves will have just one opponent within an hour's drive (the Detroit Tigers in Lakeland...45 minutes away). The Braves want to move closer to the Tampa area where the Blue Jays, Phillies, Yankees and Tigers would all be right next door, or possibly back down to South Florida where there is a cluster of teams as well. For the fan, this is a huge consideration. You want the Braves as close to as many teams as possible so you can see as many stadiums and games as possible during your trip.  This week we saw the Braves play in Lakeland and Kissimmee in addition to Disney. But after this year that won't be possible. This team and its fans can't get away from Disney fast enough.  I will say one thing in Disney's defense: Parking for games is free. It's the only free parking I've encountered at pretty much any sporting event I've ever attended above the high school level. It's a nice touch, but considering the price of everything else at the complex Disney should actually pay YOU to park.

Bonus Observation - Bucket hats are everything at Spring Training.

As for what I think will happen with the Braves this season, I'll save that for a couple of weeks. I have to have SOMETHING to write about. I will say this, I don't think it's going to be AS bad as the experts think.

Of course, the experts think it's going to be pretty bad.