Atlanta Braves Spring Chop: Notes from the end of the off-season

By it’s very definition, this is the last ‘Spring Chop’ of the year… so it’s time for some thoughts about what we’ve seen.

The Atlanta Braves are poised for a curious season.  Everything seems pointed toward 2019, but 2018 should not be a ‘lost’ year, either.

It is rare for teams to go from something in the 70+ wins level straight to the 90+ wins required for division and playoff contention, so we would all really like to see a marked improvement from the last few seasons of 79, 67, 68, and 72 wins.

Before this streak of 4 stumbles in a row, this proud franchise went from 1991 through 2013 having losing records only twice:  2006 (79-83) and 2008 (72-90).

I’m on record expecting 77 wins.  But I’m greedy.  I want to be wrong – I want to see more.  If 2019 is the turnaround year, it would be great to see that start from a winning platform.

Marketing Fever… catch it

Last night was a contrast that was… frankly inexcusable.  I don’t know if it was Fox Sports that couldn’t be bothered or that the Braves that didn’t push this, or … what.

Here we have a lineup full of the prospects that we want people to get to know and embrace against the 2018 Atlanta Braves – more or less – and the game was a rumor to all of those outside of the signal strength of 680 The Fan.

It wasn’t televised.  It wasn’t on the Braves’ radio network (unless there was some rural station carrying that I’m unaware of).  It wasn’t streamed on the internet.

You want to know why young fans don’t follow the game?  It is because MLB limits its own inventory of the product.

Fans are extremely mobile in this day and age.  They want access to want they want on any device, any place, at any time.  Blackout territorial rules hinder made decades ago hinder access.  The MLB Network channels (cable and radio) help, but they aren’t panaceas.  Heck, I’d augment that with another channel entirely dedicated to live games and replays of games.

Heck, much of Los Angeles still can’t see the Dodgers – one of the best teams in baseball.

Want to expand your brand, MLB?  Don’t do stupid things like hiding your best assets:  the players.

Case in Point

All over twitter this morning, I’m seeing two images.  Here’s one (yes, I picked one not written in English just to annoy certain ‘speak English!’ criers out there)….

…and here’s the other:

Zero-zero game, 2 outs, bottom of the 9th…BOOM.

Two observations:

• The moment was great for Vlad Jr, but made even better because his dad had him hanging around with him – often – in Montreal as a child.  The White Sox were wrong to deny this to Adam and Drake LaRoche.
• The game was televised.  Sure – we didn’t have that Acuna-walk-off moment in Atlanta last night, but Cristian Pache hit 2 homers… the first 2 he’s ever hit as a professional.

He Said/He Said

So about that contract offer to Ronald Acuna, Jr…

Speaking through his interpreter: “To be honest, I’m not sure where that came from.”  The next words were kind of curious, though (with emphasis):  “I haven’t seen the contract… nobody has talked to me about that.”

You could almost interpret those words to mean “there could be something going on, but I haven’t heard about any details”.

I don’t know that a 20-year-old ballplayer would yet be savvy enough with the media to be trying to nuance things that closely, but for what it’s worth, the answer wasn’t an out-and-out statement to say ‘nothing is happening here.’

Reporting from the Scene

I will be in Atlanta tomorrow for Opening Day, courtesy of Chevrolet and their promotions department.  They are sending me in style, too:  a Chevy Suburban!   I’ll be in the nosebleed general admissions section, but hey – it’s in the stadium and it will be March 29.

This will be my first visit to SunTrust Park, so I’ll take lots of notes about the experience and be sure to relay them – the good and the bad – to y’all.

I haven’t said this enough in the past year or more:  thank you, our readers, for sticking with us.  Hopefully at least most of the content we share to you in these pages is helpful/useful/interesting/informative.

Next: That Futures Game? We tried to get some info out...

We know there’s a lot of places you can chose to spend your time in your craving for more information about the Braves… we sincerely appreciate that you have chosen to spend some of that time with us.