This story was excerpted from Mark Bowman’s Braves Beat e-newsletter. To learn the complete e-newsletter, click on right here. And subscribe to get it repeatedly in your inbox.
When Vaughn Grissom rejoined Atlanta’s roster firstly of this previous weekend’s sequence in Kansas City, he expressed what he was feeling when he discovered he had not received the beginning shortstop job and would start this season with Triple-A Gwinnett.
“I knew there was still some marinating to be done,” Grissom mentioned. “It felt good knowing I had done a decent enough job, but you can’t be just decent.”
With Orlando Arcia sidelined for at the least a pair weeks with a microfracture in his left wrist, Grissom goes to need to show he may be greater than only a first rate defensive shortstop. If he can accomplish that, he’ll silence the critics who’ve questioned whether or not he has the vary essential to be an on a regular basis shortstop on the huge league stage.
“That’s like part of every athlete’s dream is to prove everyone wrong,” Grissom mentioned.
It’s additionally a part of each athlete’s dream to return by means of within the clutch like Grissom did on Sunday, when he delivered a decisive go-ahead single within the ninth inning of a 5-4 win over the Royals. His opposite-field single allowed the Braves to finish a three-game sweep and lengthen their profitable streak to 6 video games.
It’s good to see Grissom’s vitality again throughout the Atlanta clubhouse.
Quite truthfully, he was positioned in a tricky place up to now few months. Though it appeared like the percentages have been in opposition to him breaking camp as Atlanta’s beginning shortstop, many media retailers tabbed him as the favourite throughout the winter months and caught with that storyline deep into Spring Training. It appeared just like the narrative ought to have been at the least subdued sooner than it was.
With that being mentioned, Grissom dealt with the demotion in knowledgeable and efficient method. Instead of sulking, he hit .366 with a 1.044 OPS over 48 plate appearances for Gwinnett.
“I was having success, but we weren’t winning,” Grissom mentioned. “That’s the main thing. We had a couple guys that were playing well, but we weren’t stringing it together. So, I have mixed feelings or mixed emotions with that.”
The jury remains to be out on Grissom as an on a regular basis shortstop. But feedback like this mixed with moments like final 12 months’s remaining common season at-bat (seven consecutive two-strike fouls with two outs within the ninth inning of a recreation that didn’t have an effect on the playoff standings) create additional motive to suppose he’s certainly the sort of man you need filling some function in your group.
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