Yesterday, The Defense Didn’t Rest

Hello again everyone! I’m once again coming to you from Sumter, SC. It’s been a beautiful day today with the thermometer in the 60’s and the optimism off the charts! And i knew for sure that I was back down south when I caught the unmistakable aroma of wild onions being chopped by lawn mowers! Who knew you could actually miss something like that?

But, back to baseball, I left you guys hanging yesterday, asking you to think about what you saw from the defense yesterday. The thing that I saw was something that Chipper alluded to, but in reference to the entire team. That something was swagger.

Yeah, it amazed me, too. And, for those of you who didn’t see the game, this isn’t an April Fool’s Day joke. When Alex Gonzalez made an outstanding stop to bail Derek Lowe out of his first jam of the season, it was almost like the team let out a deep breath and relaxed a bit. Then Chipper made a couple of nice stops (nothing dramatic, just solid). Prado ran a ball down deep in left. McCann nailed an attempted base stealer with authority. It seemed like the question marks were all looking positive. Then Freddie Freeman made not one, not two, but three really nice plays at first. His message to the rest of the infield was clear: throw the ball in my zip code and I’ll catch it. His play was saying “believe it, boys, we are good”.

In one game the attitude went from “I hope I can” to “I think I can” to “I know I can”. At the level of skill these players have, the mental aspects of catching and throwing are really important. Last year, the Braves had little confidence in their fielding. Yesterday, the Braves began to show the doubters that they are wrong. More importantly, they began to believe that the doubters are wrong. And most importantly, Freeman laid down the gauntlet. They were relaxed and confident. They had swagger. And, given the pitching staff the Braves have, I think this will prove to be more significant that the HR Heyward hit.

I know, it’s one game and proves nothing. But, in my opinion, confidence is contagious. And it looked to me like the Braves were all catching “it”. What did it look like to you?