Atlanta Braves 2017 Spring Schedule

The Full Spring Schedule is now out… it’s a little different from usual as the road trips are getting longer and the local teams are getting fewer.

The Atlanta Braves will begin to report to their Disney World Spring Training complex in early February.  One of manager Brian Snitker’s fun tasks will be the assignments for road trips… which are definitely going to be getting longer this season.

The general rule is that teams are expected to take at least 3 of their ‘regular 25-man roster’ (whatever that happens to look like in February) on Spring road trips.  Traditionally, the rookies and the invited farmhands make those trips… the veterans have to be told to go.

The big change this season is that the Astros and Nationals are no longer located in relatively nearby Kissimmee and Melbourne. They are now down in West Palm Beach – a solid 2½ hours away.

As a result, the Braves are loaded up with games against their only remaining mid-Florida neighbor:  the Detroit Tigers.  In fact, Atlanta will only see the Astros and Nats a total of three times this Spring – and Houston will be coming to Disney World on one of those occasions.

Here’s the schedule:

You can download the image from the tweet, linked above.

Note that the World Baseball Classic runs through the middle of this schedule… March 6-22.  That will undoubtedly cause some disruptions – particularly if some rumors on participants come to pass.

Dates of Note

• Pitchers and Catchers reporting deadline:  Feb 14.
• Position Players reporting deadline:  Feb 17.
• First Game:  Feb 25.
• Last Game:  March 31 in SunTrust Park.

There are 3 off-days – that’s a lot.  There is only 1 split-squad day.  That’s a surprise, too.

Still at Disney

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This is the final year of the Braves’ original lease at Disney World… but they got too late of a start on trying to locate a new landlord.  Had that been started around the time Frank Wren was let go, then we’d probably be having a whole ‘nother conversation now… about West Palm.

At this point, there’s still nothing definitive… except that the team will be back at Disney in 2018.

Now that elections are over – the local governmental ones around Florida, in particular – the Braves will need to take stock of who is still in place, who is new, and where they may have the best chance of convincing a locality that having the Braves as a tenant is a good thing for their area.

They will need to move fairly quickly to get things going by 2019… but the pace in government tends to be glacial.

So until we hear differently… it’s back to Disney World.

Next: Wonder if MLB and Kate Will... uh, Kiss and Make Up?

And for this next year… it all starts in less than 90 days!