Mark WiedmerA few minutes after new Atlanta Braves pitcher and former Tennessee Volunteer R.A. Dickey wrapped up his relief work in Friday night's exhibition win over the New York Yankees, the 42-year-old knuckleballer said of this upcoming season: "Tonight you're seeing our lineup the way it's going to play in the regular season. And it's exciting."
The 8-5 victory over the Yankees - even if it doesn't count for anything more than pride and a happy unofficial opening night for stunning SunTrust Park - indeed was exciting.
There was the three-run homer off the bat of Freddie Freeman, who exits spring training having batted .500. There was Jace Peterson's three-run double that basically locked up the win. Dickey, the 2012 NL Cy Young Award winner, looked strong. So, too, relievers Arodys Vizcaino and Jim Johnson, who got the save.
But all that good work before the home folks only improved the Braves to a final mark 9-22-2 for the exhibition season. The real season begins at 1:10 p.m. Monday in New York against the Mets. The official home opener at SunTrust doesn't arrive until Friday night, April 14.
Even now, one day from their opening day, Braves officials still are trying to decide who will make their regular-season roster. Will the Braves elect to go with a seven-man bullpen as it appeared they were leaning on Friday? Or will they up that to eight, as they did at times a year ago?
"Guys are still in play," manager Brian Snitker told MLB.com late last week. "We talk about it every day, and it will probably go down to the end."
Said club president John Hart during Friday's game telecast as he discussed the team's immediate options: "What do we do with eight pitchers in the bullpen? We did a pretty good job when we went to eight pitchers last season. (But) everybody we have (position players) likes to play. They like putting on that uniform. We've got a lot of competitors out there."
Give the Braves credit. After a truly horrific start a spring ago (9-28) that cost then-manager Fredi Gonzalez his job, the promotion of Snitker from Class AAA Gwinnett gradually steadied the team, leading to a final record of 68-93, but also an 18-10 mark for September and October.
And that late good run, plus the continued sizzling bat of Freeman, the promise of a full season with veteran Matt Kemp and the arrival of Golden Glove second baseman and Atlanta native Brandon Phillips from the Cincinnati Reds has none other than Snitker telling the Atlanta Journal Constitution: "I don't want to just come out here and get better. We're already better. If our focus isn't winning the division, then we're wasting our time here."
Some of this is the natural high of spring training. Everybody's a pennant contender in spring ball. Even the Braves.
But some of it may also be rooted in sterner stuff. For as bad as Atlanta was early last season against a nightmarish schedule in the opening month, it finished a quite respectable 37-43 on the road. Beyond that, the offense - as it showed against the Yanks - is capable of big things, especially if Freeman repeats the season he had a year ago when he batted .302 and clubbed 32 home runs.
Yes, the pitching is considered weak overall. USA Today recently ranked the Braves' arms 23rd among the 30 MLB teams, apparently unimpressed with opening day pitcher Julio Teheran, Mike Foltynewicz and offseason acquisitions Bartolo Colon, Jaime Garcia and Dickey. But even that would be a slight improvement from last year, when Atlanta's pitching staff finished 24th in the majors.
There's also this statistical gem regarding the pitching staff: Reliever Mauricio Cabrera averaged 100.5 mph with his four-seam fastball in his debut season, which trailed only Aroldis Chapman's 100.9 mph in that category. Then there's Dickey, whose four-seamer was one of the five slowest in baseball at 82.8 mph. Imagine those two going back-to-back in a game.
Another cautionary note: As promising as the bats look today, the Braves were 14th among 15 National League squads in hitting last year.
Of course, that was also with Kemp on the roster for a limited time, Phillips not around at all and Freeman in a horrific slump at the start of the 2016 season.
Even SunTrust Park might ultimately help this team if it doesn't equally hurt the pitching staff.
After his Friday night homer, Freeman remembered the 390 feet from home plate to the right-center power alley at Turner Field as opposed to the 375 feet at SunTrust and said, "That would not be a home run last year. It's definitely a nice feeling. It looked like it was carrying tonight, so hopefully it continues."
At least one Vegas oddsmaker believes the losing will continue, predicting the Braves will win 71.5 games this season, which would mean a third straight 90-loss year.
And that would quickly take the shine off shimmering SunTrust. But as Freeman discussed Friday's win, he told the media, "Even though it was spring training it felt like a real game today. And we played good baseball, too."
If they can play good baseball for 162 games, the prediction from here is that they'll go 83-79.
It won't get them to the playoffs, but it should give Braves Nation a reason to return to SunTrust Park a year from now for more than the stadium itself.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com