Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: On a Mission?

This 2017 version of the Atlanta Braves are still a team in transition and thus are being overlooked by a whole host of people. They’re okay with that.

It’s also not changing their approach. In fact, there’s a chance that some ‘attitude’ might be at work at the Atlanta Braves take the field for their first spring contests at the end of the week.

Even Las Vegas is ignoring the Braves… which they could probably be forgiven for, given back-to-back seasons with 68 and 67 wins. In both of those years, the “under” would have won, as the over-under wins were around 73-74 each year.

So for 2017, the expectation numbers have actually been lowered further:

World Series odds: 125:1 (7th worst)
World Series omnibus list: from 80:1 to 150:1
2017 wins: 71.5
USA Today Wins: 70

Somehow, I don’t think those numbers are impacting how this team is going about its business of getting ready for the season:

Individual work for Freddie Freeman with Ron Washington this morning. #Braves are putting in the time, something that is readily apparent. pic.twitter.com/SOoJsaM6iE
— Grant McAuley (@grantmcauley) February 20, 2017

That's Matt Kemp doing agility drills with a trainer, one hour after #Braves workout ended. pic.twitter.com/NPDRSzMjKw
— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) February 19, 2017

These aren’t players doing extra work to try and impress the coaches for a chance to make the team. These are the offensive leaders of the club.

Nobody was really supposed to notice these things going on … but notice was paid anyway, thanks to a couple of reporters that were paying attention (it wasn’t just these two, either).

But when the clubs stars – the leaders – do this extra work, it becomes infectious around the clubhouse. It gets into the culture. It gets into the attitude.

Around the Diamond

It is clear that scenarios exist that would see some of the stop-gap veterans on this team traded around mid-season. Such moves would have a decent chance of impacting the bottom line win total.

But there’s also a scenario in which Coppy might want to ride these horses to the end. A look around the projected lineup by position could tell you why:

1B – Arguably the best at the position in the NL,

Freddie Freeman

is already getting after it, as noted above. It would be hard to repeat his 2016 breakout, but a full season of consistent support might make that happen.

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2B – Sean Rodriguez was going to be an upgrade here offensively; Brandon Phillips should be that on both sides of the ball – and he might very well come in with something to prove.

SS – Erick Aybar was a disaster, so Dansby Swanson would be an upgrade no matter what. But as it stands, there’s a chance of him being the single best upgrade on the field and the odds-on ROY favorite.

3B – We haven’t heard much on Adonis Garcia thus far – or Rio Ruiz, for that matter. But at worst, defense might be slightly down here.

C – It would be good if Tyler Flowers can maintain his hitting this season, but we’ll take the slight uptick from Kurt Suzuki over A.J. Pierzynski.

LF – So what if Matt Kemp looks like the 2012 version of himself (3.2 WAR)? That’s essentially what we saw from him after coming to Atlanta. Early signs suggest that he’s in the shape to maintain that for the year.

CF – If we can keep Ender Inciarte on the field all year, that might be enough. His last 3 seasons of fWAR have been 2.7, 3.3, and 3.6… and he’s still just 26 years old. A slight uptick again this year?

RF – Nick Markakis may have to adjust to being a bit further down in the batting order, but in 2016, he was doing that: all of his 13 homers came when batting 4th or 5th in the order. He might go 5th or 6th this season, but he morphs into a run-producer when placed there. That might work.

So there’s definite, projectable upgrades at 2B and SS with lesser upticks at every other position except 3B.

Beyond that, virtually the entire pitching staff should also be better… so all of that suggests a team that’s hitting, scoring, and holding the opposition down enough to win early and often.

Next: Rizzo Better Than Freeman? That's Cute

It seems this club already is believing that, too.

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