Month: June 2020

Braves 2020 roster perdictions

With Major League Baseball finally starting back, I’m going to share my 2020 lineup, starting rotation, and bench for the Atlanta Braves.

LINEUP:

  1. Ronald Acuña Jr.-RF
  2. Ozzie Albies -2B
  3. Freddie Freeman -1B
  4. Marcell Ozuna- LF
  5. Dansby Swanson -SS
  6. Nick Markakis -DH
  7. Johan Camargo -3B
  8. Travis d’Arnaud -C
  9. Ender Inciarte -CF

With the Designated Hitter coming to the National League I think it gives more depth to the team’s lineup and gives veteran players a chance to play everyday without having to play defense. I think that the braves will play Ozuna in left field to start off the season, and if his offensive numbers aren’t very good they might place him in the roll as Designated Hitter and give someone like Nick Markakis or Adam Duvall a chance to play Left Field.

STARTING ROTATION:

  1. Mike Soroka
  2. Cole Hamels
  3. Max Fried
  4. Mike Foltynewicz
  5. Sean Newcomb

While Felix Hernandez showed great potential in the beginning of Spring Training before the baseball season was postponed, I still think that the Braves will go with Newcomb because he stepped up in his roll in the bullpen last season and improved his walk-to-strikeout ratio. I also believe that, given the time that it has taken baseball to come back, Cole Hamels’ shoulder will be fully healed and he will be ready to pitch for the Braves in 2020.

BENCH:

  1. Charlie Culberson
  2. Adam Duvall
  3. Austin Riley
  4. Adeiny Hechavarria

With the 2020, 60 game season staring off with a 30 man roster, I think the Braves will put Austin Riley on the bench. However, when the roster goes down to a 28 man roster I think he will not be on the bench after that. I definitely think that Hechavarria will be on the bench given his defensive abilities.

At the end of the day, even if my predictions aren’t correct, Braves baseball is back! Even though the games are fanless, and there is no high fiving, the most important thing to celebrate in the MLB is that there will be baseball!

Will There Be a 2020 Season

With COVID-19 still impacting the world, I thought I’d write about my thoughts on COVID-19’s impact to the game and my thoughts on if there will be a 2020 season.

Will There be a 2020 season?

Obviously the MLB organization is trying their best to make a 2020 season possible, even if that means fanless games in Arizona and Flordia. Honestly, if baseball does return it will probably be games in Arizona and Florida with a shortened season of 60-80 games and no fans. But, with no fans I begin to wonder if baseball returning has a purpose?

Obviously the players play the game of baseball because, one, its their job, and two, they love it. But without fans in the ballpark cheering them on and shouting their name every time they step up to the plate, they don’t have that extra determination; that extra push to keep them going through all nine-innings, to walk away with a win.

If I could, given the current circumstances, have decided what the 2020 season would look like and how it was played, I would have every team play 60-80 games and play only the teams in their division. The winners of each division would then have playoffs. It would be a short and “smaller” season, but it would still allow for the game to go on! I would also have fans at the games to give the players/teams motivation to win and play at their very best. But, in the end it’s not my opinion that counts… it’s the commisoner of baseball and the MLB team’s desicon.

But, even if they did let fans in the stadium, they wouldn’t allow everybody because they would all be too close to each other and everyone would be risking everybody else’s safety and health. It seems, possibly, that there really is no good solution for this year.

In the end, I hope that baseball will come back with fans able to go to the games and the season to be as long as possible. I miss my Braves! But right now, I don’t know how much hope I still have left as a fan who’s trying to be realistic about there being a 2020 season at all.