Atlanta Braves: How I Will Remember the 2020 Season
Now that the 2020 season has ended for the Atlanta Braves, we take a look back at what we will remember most about this wild ride.
I’ve had time to deal with the disappointing of the Atlanta Braves blowing a 3-1 series lead in the NLCS to the Los Angeles Dodgers. And now it’s time to reflect on what I’ll remember most from the 2020 season.
Hopefully, we’ll all look back and remember this as the season that Freddie Freeman finally won an MVP award. He’s been so close on several occasions and it would be a travesty for him not to win it in 2020.
What’s even more incredible to that story will be the fact that he barely made the start of the season as he dealt with serious COVID-19 issues.
Wouldn’t it be fitting though for a player who dealt with COVID-19 issues be the one to win an MVP in this ‘year of the COVID?’
I’ll also just remember this as an unfortunate year of injuries for the Braves.
A lot of teams dealt with injuries in 2020, which I think a lot had to do with the ramp-up in the first spring training, and then a long layoff, and then a quick ramp-up to start the season again.
But the Braves dealt with a lot of significant injures to key players.
Once Mike Soroka went down I felt like our shot at winning a World Series ended. That ultimately might have been the case as the Braves ran out of starting pitching against the Dodgers; although, the offense was just as much — if not more — to blame for blowing that series.
Then there was also the $18 million man in Cole Hamels who threw a total of 3.1 innings with the Braves.
It’s hard not to look back on this season and think about what could have been with those two starters in the postseason rotation.
But it wasn’t just the pitching that got hurt, two of the Braves best hitters in Ronald Acuna Jr. and Ozzie Ablies struggled with wrist injuries much of the year.
Acuna never really seemed to recover from his and it was evident he was still hurting in the postseason.
Albies had a pretty big wrist guard on during the playoffs so it was clearly still affecting him as well.
As we know from the past with Freeman, the only real treatment for a wrist injury is rest. Unfortunately in this short season, there wasn’t much time for that to happen.
Despite all that, I’ll remember how great of a job Brian Snitker did battling through those injuries and still winning the NL East and finishing with the third-most win in the National League.
And while the postseason didn’t end the way we hoped, the Braves still managed to advance through two rounds.
I’ll remember how lights out the pitching was through the first two series, shutting out the Reds in the Wild Card round.
On the flip side of that, I’ll remember how frustrating this offense was at times. Yes, they hit a lot of home runs and scored a ton of runs. But then they’d also strikeout a ton and go on dry spells like they did in the last three games of the NLCS.
And then I think what a lot of people will remember about this season is Marcell Ozuna and the energy he brought to this team.
I don’t think he’ll be back as he had an amazing season for the Braves that will likely run his price up too high to stay in Atlanta. But it was a joy to see him here in 2020 and the excitement he brought every night.
Those are the things I’ll remember the most when I look back on the 2020 season for the Braves. Let me know in the comments below how you’ll remember the 2020 season.