It’s time to start thinking about Atlanta Braves baseball, and not just because there has been very little to cheer when it comes to college and professional sports in this state in 2012. Pitchers and catchers reported to spring training last Sunday and position players reported on Friday.
After last season’s epic collapse, the Braves and their fans obviously can’t wait to get out there and erase the demons of 2011. Experts, however, are telling us—again—to “wait ‘til next year.” And why not? Atlanta did next to nothing in the offseason while the Marlins and Nationals went out and spent heaps of cash. The Phillies aren’t getting any younger and they will be without Ryan Howard for a while, but they are still the Phillies.
That being said, the Braves did not have to make radical changes and thus the front office did not panic. They just have to hope…for Dan Uggla to hit better than .233 this season, for Jason Hayward to hit better than .227, for Martin Prado’s 2010 self to return and for Chipper Jones, Tim Hudson, Tommy Hanson and Jair Jurjjens to stay in one piece. Technically the Braves do not have any newcomers of note (aside from shortstop Tyler Pastornicky), but Hayward and Prado were basically a wash last season and same goes for Uggla’s first half and Jurjjens’ second half.
A lot has to go right for the Braves to contend this season, and I mean a lot. But spring is rapidly approaching and this is the time of year when we just have to think everything will, in fact, go right. Wait ‘til this year!
HOW BAD IS TECH? …
I can’t figure out the Georgia Tech men’s basketball team. I mean, obviously the question isn’t whether or not the Yellow Jackets are good. Everyone knows they are downright wretched. But I can’t decide if they are the worst team in all of Division I or if they are simply the worst team in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
On one hand, Tech has wins at Georgia and at N.C. State. Georgia is bad but not terrible and N.C. State is actually on the NCAA Tournament bubble. The Jackets also beat Virginia Commonwealth (a Final Four team in 2011, 23-6 this year having won 12 of its last 13 games) by 13 points. Some of their losses have been respectable, too: seven points to Duke, two points at Clemson and one point on an overtime buzzer-beater at Virginia Tech.
At the same time, though, Georgia Tech has some inexplicably woeful bullet-points on its resume. Brian Gregory’s squad lost to Alabama by 25, got blown out 70-38 at home by Virginia and just got clobbered 56-37 at home by Clemson on Tuesday. The Yellow Jackets are dead last in the ACC at 2-10 (yes, behind even Wake Forest!). Of 344 Division I basketball teams, they are 311th in points per game (61.0) and 314th in assists per game (10.7) as of Wednesday.
Glen Rice Jr.’s indefinite suspension certainly does not help matters, but it isn’t the difference between mediocrity and bottom-feeding. Rice may be the top threat for Georgia Tech, but he would be nothing more than a nice role player for any upper-echelon ACC team or any NCAA Tournament team.
Speaking of the ACC, this is not exactly an ideal year for the conference tournament to be held right here in Tech’s own Philips Arena home. Oh well.
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