Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Despite Chipper Retiring, Braves Future Still Looks Bright


This entire baseball season as an Atlanta Braves fan has been dedicated to the farewell tour of future hall of fame third baseman and Braves legend Chipper Jones, who is going to be sorely missed following his retirement.

However, while watching Sunday night’s game between the Braves and the San Francisco Giants, which Chipper did not start in, but did receive a pinch hit farewell appearance late in the game I was struck by the realization that even though Chipper is going to be missed that the Braves still have a very, very bright future.
This realization came to me late in the game when the Braves young sluggers right fielder Jason Heyward and first baseman Freddie Freeman connected on back-to-back home runs off of Giants reliever Clay Hensley.

As long as the Braves can keep all of their young talent together for years to come (including perennial all star catcher Brian McCann and their very talented pitching staff) this Braves team shouldn’t miss a beat heading into the future without Chipper Jones (as hard as that may be to fathom). I’m very grateful that these young guys like Heyward and Freeman have now had a few seasons under Jones’ tutelage to teach them the right way to play the game: the Chipper Jones way.

I honestly can’t think of too many teams with a young duo as talented as or more talented than the Braves have with Heyward and Freeman. The Angels with Mike Trout (possibly just the third player to ever win rookie of the year and MVP in the same season this year) and Mark Trumbo are the only other team that I can think of.

I’ve had a blast watching Chipper play the game ever since I became a fan of his, the Braves and baseball in general in Jones’ rookie season of 1995. I look forward to developing this kind of relationship with Heyward and Freeman going into the future. If these two kids play up to their potential we might be watching two more future hall of famers in the making.  

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