LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Andruw Jones arrived on Thursday to serve as the first guest instructor at Braves Spring Training this year. The 10-time Gold Glove Award winner will spend time with Cristian Pache, the rising prospect he labeled as the organization’s top defensive outfielder.
Jones will also assist Johan Camargo and Austin Riley, a pair of infielders who are expected to see some time in the outfield during the Grapefruit League season.
“[Jones] is going to be here for a few weeks,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “It will be good to utilize his experience and everything he’s got. He’s more than willing to help those guys.”
Camargo’s role as a super-utility player could lead to him logging time as an outfielder. The Braves are going to give Riley outfield instruction in case there is a point this season where they need to find a way to add his bat to the lineup.
“I want to get [Riley] some work in the outfield before we get him in there for a Spring Training game,” Snitker said. "We’ll get him some drills. It might be a while before he gets out there, if he does.”
Chipper Jones, Dale Murphy and Fred McGriff are among the other former Braves expected to serve as guest instructors during Spring Training this year.
Motivating memory
Snitker delivered his annual motivational speech before his team went through its first full-squad workout Thursday morning at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports complex. While Snitker’s words might have given the defending National League East champs of sense of what the manager expects, Charlie Culberson believes additional motivation can be drawn from the nonchalant manner in which the Dodgers celebrated ending last year’s NL Division Series at SunTrust Park.
“It left a sour taste in my mouth, because they were out on the field and not really celebrating because they kind of knew they were supposed to be there and supposed to win,” Culberson said. “I sat there and watched a little bit, because I was on that side for a couple years with them. That’s where we need to be and hopefully our guys take notice of what it felt like -- what it felt like to win a division and celebrate, but also, what it felt like to lose. That should provide some fire for all of us.”
Competitive fire
Now that the full-squad workouts have started, Braves pitchers have the opportunity to throw live batting practice sessions against their position-player teammates. This usually leads to the observation that the pitchers are ahead of the hitters, who are often just tracking pitches this time of year.
Right-hander Kevin Gausman said that concern for hitting a teammate with a pitch creates some hesitance from the pitcher. But at the same time, he says the matchups are actually more competitive than they may appear.
“All of us have a little monster in us that helped us get to this point,” Gausman said. “It’s that competitive nature.”
When Gausman struck out Manny Machado to strand a pair of runners in the third inning of the Braves’ Game 3 victory over the Dodgers, he leaned on some of the experience he drew from throwing live batting practice against his former Orioles teammate just seven months earlier.
“Those are things you don’t think about at the time, but when I got the chance to face him [in the playoffs], I had the benefit of knowing I had faced him before,” Gausman said. "You might not be as aggressive as you would be during the regular season. But the first big swing they take, you think, ‘OK, here we go.’”