The Pitching Staff Gets to Work + Acuña Jr. Discusses His Return | Behind the Braves Season 5 Ep. 2

I've been doing this with the brakes since 91. The reason I like doing it is it's a challenge. You against Mother Nature most of the time so you're not going to really beat Mother Nature. You have to figure out ways to get around Mother Nature so you can keep going. I will continue to do this until my body says I can't do this anymore. I'm the kind of person that it looks good but it's not good enough. I keep pushing for better and better. You always have problems that you have to overcome. So it's always a thinking game on top of a physical game. It's just like playing the game. You always have to make adjustments and go with it from there. These guys are at the top of their game so you want them to be able to come out here and just concentrate on what they need to do. I want their minds to be on getting ready for the season. Pitching is supposed to be a very fluid and effortless competitive state. The end goal is to help the big league team win games. You look at Strider, you look at Ronald, you can see that fire they have. You know we got the energy. They bring the energy and I'm going to help my team win the World Series. You're welcome, buddy. I'm glad to be here in the sun. This is probably the biggest itch I've had in a while just from a getting back after it standpoint. I started playing when I was like three years old. I think my mom signed me up to just get me out of the house and just from the beginning I think I loved it. You know days you'll look back on and wish you had again. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't enjoy coming to the park every single day with a smile on my face. Knowing that when I was seven years old that I was dreaming of this very moment. For me baseball is my life. I really cherish these moments that I have. So sweet. People ask me about the length of spring training. Does it need to be as long as it is? Well for the position players, no. Those position players could be ready in probably two, three weeks and be ready to go north and play. The pitchers need time. You think about the demand pitching puts on your body, puts on your arm, puts on your mind. That time for pitchers and catchers to develop that chemistry is crucial for your success over the course of a regular season. Working with their pitching coach, it's absolutely vital. Rick's one of the best in the game. To have him out there every single day is such a steadying presence and he's a guy who's done it for a very long time and been one of the best for a very long time as a pitching coach. I think the number one thing for me is to get these guys to really learn about themselves, right? You know, I have a belief that the greatest gift a pitcher can give himself is to know himself and to know himself as well as anybody. The more you know about yourself, the better you're going to be. There are so many opinions and so many people constantly wanting to give you information. A lot of the times it's good. A lot of times it's right, but it's not framed the way you need it. So for Cranny, he is somebody that of all the coaches I've ever been on really understands the timing of approaching a player, of what they need to hear when more so than anything. And that's why so many guys have flourished with him around and love having him around and why he's such an effective coach. And he understands that pitching is supposed to be a very fluid and effortless, thoughtless, competitive state. And the more you're thinking about the wrong things, the harder it is to think about the right things. So he's very good at pinpointing at the right time what you need to hear. I think baseball is about love in the process. There's no sport I know of where you have to endure failure to the extent that you do in baseball. In the midst of great failure and frustration and criticism, coming to the field, doing the work, things being difficult, having to confront challenges and problems, figure things out and learn. You've just got to love that internal process. Beautiful. Baseball has a great way of weeding out people who can't do that. You know, it's a very unforgiving game. You know, you can do everything right and get a bad result. And it can be, it can be ruthless. Lopez has been unbelievable. He had thrown 32 or 33 starts two years in a row, so we knew he could do it. So now it was just a matter of building him, right? So now seeing him come in now, he feels much more comfortable with what he's doing. And now he's kind of putting the whole package together from the start. Like for me, like first three outings, it's like showing them that I can be a starter again. So there was a little bit of pressure on that time. Reynaldo Lopez, he won that fifth starting job in camp and now his Braves debut. Lopez fires. Struck him out. Blew it right by him at 97. He got him. Right there at the knees. After that, like that was released. And then to me, like no pressure after those three outings. My focus is try to do the same as last year. And then the difference is just some work to throw 200 innings this year. So that's my focus. This year. And to be ready. He has been training and ready to go to the season. The other day was really great. The only thing on your football, you know, I just land over here. That's it. I love when you go into the stretch, the way you're loading now. So much better too. I mean, you were in your leg. It was so good. It was a, it was, it was totally different. You know what I mean? And it's perfecto, man. Really, really good. You know, we have high expectations and we have a lot of talents. And then the only thing we need is to be healthy, like the whole year. And then we can see the difference. Oh yeah. I love spring training, but it's a tough time for me because I worry about it a lot. So much of it's about health, right? It's, we have to keep them healthy. We know that we're going to be successful based on our health and making sure that they are healthy moving forward. Spencer Strider, he knows his body extremely well. It would be great to have him for opening day, but I think that the biggest question is, is how do you hold up over the course of the entire season? I think that last year is a really good one at a macro and micro level, just to try to break down and understand what didn't go well, what did go well, and how you can build on and kind of redirect things for this year. You know, what hard work really should guarantee you is not outcomes, but is honesty. How good am I, really? And, you know, what is holding me back? Why am I succeeding? What are my strengths? What are my weaknesses? Doing everything to the best of your ability all the time. Your preparation, your recovery, you know, the specifics of what you're doing, the quality of it. All of that is just going to let the things you can't control kind of speak for themselves, and then you've taken care of what you can't. And now you can judge the outcomes a little bit more honestly and objectively and say, well, this is something I need to get better at because I've taken care of all this other stuff. Spencer Strider is an absolute weapon. He is that dominant, his stuff is that good, and he's that good between the ears. That has manifested itself into him being one of the most dominant pitchers in our league. Two balls, two strikes, two out. Swing and a miss, strike three. Strider has struck out four in a row. Strider's 3-2 on the way. Got him. Spencer Strider doing Spencer Strider things. Got him. Fox, he is just flat out electric. Appreciate it, man. Good luck on the season. Appreciate it. Talent is obviously a big subject going into every season for every team. I think that if there's one thing we've learned as a group while I've been here, it's that at the outset, evaluation and statements and things about our potential, like, who cares? I mean, of course we have potential. Every team in the big leagues has potential. What we have that we need is an opportunity, and then we need to commit to a process that is going to get us the best opportunity we can at the end of the season to achieve what we want. I mean, that's ultimately what it's about. So, of course we're talented. Of course we have the pieces we need to achieve what we want to. But talent is not everything. We're working hard, but we've got to work smarter. We've got to work focused. And weather adversity and injuries and whatever the season throws at us that we can't control, completely focusing on and optimizing what we can't control. You know, one of the things that is so much fun when you get to spring training to see where a guy's at and how they grow and develop. The young players that, you know, we've asked a lot of early in their career, and you just see every year they come, they're more relaxed. They have a better idea of what they're doing, and they're growing. They're getting better, which is what development's all about. I think in spring training, just being around the big league guys, you just try to learn as much as you can. I mean, being around Murphy and Darnot the last couple of years, and all these catchers here who have a ton of experience are just, you just try to learn as much as you can from them. Kind of even keel all the time. I'm excited to be around the field, excited to be with my teammates and have a good time playing baseball. It's cool to be on those prospect lists and everything. It shows that what you're doing is paying off and people are noticing, but I mean, obviously the end goal is to help the big league team win games. That's the great thing about spring training. You can lay eyes on guys that you know are going to A ball, double A, triple A, and kind of forecast. Maybe we could see him as a call up. It's been an incredible learning environment. I mean, they've treated me super well from the day I got here. Wanting me to get better in every way and being great people, like the coaches are incredible. All the players here are incredible. The front office staff is awesome. So I'm super lucky. I got drafted by the Braves and it's just been a great experience. In my mind, I go to Spencer Schwellenbach a year ago. Spencer Schwellenbach was one of my favorite storylines of the regular season. This time last year, I did not know anything about Spencer Schwellenbach. This young right-hander is in total command of every pitch. With all the injuries that we had, I knew that there was going to be an opportunity at some point in the year that I could hopefully get a chance to contribute. When my name was called, I took full advantage of it and cherished every single day, every moment that I had. I was the young guy asking as many questions as I could and just getting to know everyone. It made it a lot easier for me to just go out there and be comfortable. Early, it was the less information, the better. As the starts went on, I realized why would I not want to know as much information on each hitter and each player as I could. I started to do my own research on hitters. I started to talk to the catchers, the coaches, any information that I could get to give me a better chance to succeed. Last year, it was like I added so many pitches. I'm still working on this pitch or working on that pitch throughout the season. In my bullpens between starts, it's like, which ones are you going to throw? You have 15, 20 pitches to do that. This spring, we want to get these pitches so locked in that I can go a whole three days without throwing them and then still be locked in for the game. I think that's just the biggest thing. He wasn't even on the radar. Alex had said, hey, this kid's throwing the ball pretty doggone well, you know. We looked at a little video, you know, and we're thinking about possibly calling him up. The one thing about Spencer is he does what a lot of guys wish they could do in the big leagues. He relentlessly pounds and strikes them. He's got to be one of the top guys in first pitch strikes and getting ahead and getting to two strikes really quick. And then you put the stuff behind it. To me, it's any pitching account for a power pitcher. That's pretty impressive. So now it's just, now he just refines his, you know, some thought process and hitters can't eliminate anything on him. That to me is really one of the main reasons why he has such success. He just, he's relentlessly in the strike zone. I can't think of another player that I've seen develop as rapidly over the course of one season as what we saw with Spencer Schwellenbach last year. He was no longer the same guy. He was developing new pitches on the fly last season. It really gives you lots of excitement. He showed that in the short amount of time that we saw him at the big league level last year. Just imagine what he could be this season and beyond. Right? Really nice. In my head, I'm like, I'm going to pick now. And I'm like, I didn't even hold yet. You'll start to really get used to it. Really good, man. You got so much accomplished today. Yeah. Right? And you got into your rhythm, right? Just like... Yeah. My slider's my best pitch and I had no idea where that was going today. If I did, it was like... Yeah. And that's, I got to learn how to pitch without... Yeah, you did. I wouldn't say your slider's your best. I mean, yes. You know what I'm saying? But I tell you what, I would say it's a combination. Yeah, that's good. Perfect. Just watching these guys work every single day. They're out in the field doing what they need to do. You can see that fire they have in them. You look at Strider, you look at Ronald. Those guys are in there every single day doing everything they can to get back to how they were. These guys are working their butt off to get back to where they want to be. We got to do the same thing. For me, baseball is about everything. It's my life. The first injury in 2021, that's terrible. I don't think about nothing, just working in the clinic in L.A., sleeping, eat. That's the routine every day. That's ball, ball, ball, ball. The second injury, I take more easily because I know what's coming. I need to work, like working a lot every day with the trainer, in the gym, and working a lot. Last year, for me personally, that's terrible because I got injured, you know. The injury, that's part of the game. Everybody, sometimes you got injured, you need to work a lot to come back better than ever. And that's what I need to do. Yeah, I'm good, I'm good. I feel great. That's the priority. Do my stuff, my jewelry, running, change direction, play defense, and play in the game. That's it. How'd you feel? Good. Good? All right, so here's what I'm looking for, right? First movement, where's your center of mass go? Perfect, right? See that? Going towards second. See that chin? See how you pull back like that? Good starting position there. At that point, you just got to go. Right? See how your head's going to slow you down a little bit? Once you make that decision, you got to go. Good. Nice work. We got one more. Yeah, so think about this, right? If I'm here, I got to get my head towards second, all right? So if I'm in this position here, you're loaded. Everything's good here. But if I'm looking here, it's too slow. I got to think about what to go. Once you decide, you just got to go. Whatever I want? Yeah. Almost my baby. My goal, I just want to stay healthy. That's it. I just want to stay healthy, help my team, help my teammates winning a lot of games, and play hard. You know, we got the energy. They bring the energy. And we put all together. And I'm here for one reason, you know? I need to play hard. I need to play better every day. Because I never know when one person see me for first time. I need to put the shot, you know? That's what I need to do. That's what everything's about. It's what are we trying to do? We're trying to win the World Series. I'm going to help my team winning a World Series. This is a whole group effort. 2025 is about winning. End of statement. That's what we want to do. A lot of players coming back. And there's expectation, which everybody loves. Rob a home run or hit a home run. It's going to always be rob a home run.