Minor league baseball is more about the grind than the game, but for newly-promoted Braves phenom Ronald Acuna, it’s been a very interesting time over the past few months.
It’s hard to imagine what might have transpired in Ronald Acuna‘s life had he not suffered a hand injury last Summer. But the Atlanta Braves have made sure that the lost time was made up quickly.
Some players’ off-seasons are used for downtime; some for rehab; still others for taking the odd job to help fill the gaps from their meager wages.
For Acuna, it was travel. It’s a bit unorthodox, but Acuna was a member of the Melbourne Aces of the Australian Baseball League for a few weeks last December – even garnering All-Star honors in the process.
The Aces finished as the best team in the league, but not before Acuna had jetted off – back to the US for more work.
He was at Disney with the rest of the minor leaguers for Spring Training, then moved down the road to start with the A+ Florida Fire Frogs – playing in just 28 games there before being promoted to AA Mississippi.
But his last week has made all of that seem like play time at the Day Care center.
The Most Interesting Man in Baseball?
It’s a bit nutty to think of this 19-year-old Venezuelan (he doesn’t turn twenty until the week before Christmas) as knocking on the door of the majors, but check this out:
- July 3rd – Mississippi finishes up a series with Chattanooga at Pearl, MS. He goes 2 for 4 with a pair of stolen bases.
- July 4th – Mississippi in Mobile, Alabama. He plays 4 games, going 6 for 16 in the series with 2 homers.
- July 8th – Didn’t play. Oh… that’s because…
- July 9th – He’s in Miami for the Futures Game, wowing observers with the most homers for the ‘World’ team and showing off his arm.
- July 10th – Now he’s back at Pearl as the M-Braves open with Jacksonville. I suppose he can be forgiven for going 0-4 the first night.
- July 12th (last night) – 3rd game with the Jumbo Shrimp (yes, seriously): 3 for 4 with two doubles. That’s 4 for 12 on the series. He’s hitting .326/.374/.520/.894 in 57 AA games.
- July 13th – He gets promoted again… and is expected to join the Gwinnett Braves in Charlotte, NC tonight for his first AAA game.
10 days. 4 cities. 4 city changes. 2,443 miles.
If he’s driving today, the most logical path to get to Charlotte goes through Atlanta and the northern tier of the Perimeter. Right past SunTrust Park.
The next time he’s promoted, he won’t need to pass that stadium.