On the Braves’ charter flight from Denver to Detroit late Wednesday, hitting coach Greg Walker mentioned to manager Fredi Gonzalez that he might want to consider batting Dan Uggla second.
“I told Walk, we just left Colorado and I know that stuff (marijuana) is legal out there, but did you bring some on the plane?” Gonzalez said Friday.
The manager was joking, because he actually thought the idea had merit, and Uggla was in the lineup in the two-hole for Friday night’s interleague series opener at Detroit.
Uggla was his regular No. 2 hitter in 2007 when Gonzalez managed the Marlins, and also hit second for the Marlins in 2006 as a rookie when Joe Girardi managed the team.
“Hitting second, I’m excited about it,” said Uggla, who lugged a .175 average into Detroit, but felt a lot better at the plate this week at Colorado after making an adjustment in his swing.
At Walker’s suggestion, he lowered his hands and got the bat upright, after watching video and seeing how much the bat had “flattened out” at the beginning of his swing and how his hands weren’t getting into a hitting position quickly enough.
In the two games he played against the Rockies, he homered Tuesday and had his first double and first multi-hit game of the season Wednesday. He missed the last game in Pittsburgh on Sunday with a strained calf, and Gonzalez kept him out of the second game in the doubleheader because of it.
“(Batting second) will give me a chance to hit behind the runners a lot,” Uggla said. “Early in my career when I was hitting second, I think that helped me out more than I probably knew it did.”
Uggla hit .282 with 27 homers and 90 RBIs in 2006 and .245 with 31 homers and 88 RBIs in 2007. His on-base percentages those two seasons (.339 and .326) were lower than the .348 he posted last season, when he hit a career-worst .220 with a career-low 19 homers, but had a career-high 94 walks to tie for the NL lead.
“He draws bases on balls,” Gonzalez said. “We need somebody to get on base today in front of Justin (Upton), so why not? Walk and I talked about it on the plane ride here a couple of days ago. You know me, I listen to the coaches.
“For every reason there’s not to, there’s a reason to put him in there.”
Uggla was tied for ninth in the league with 24 strikeouts before Friday, but also was tied with Upton for the team lead in walks with 12. Ten of Upton’s major league-leading 11 home runs were with the bases empty.
Braves No. 2 hitters ranked last in the league in average (.138) and OBP (.263). Jason Heyward had 58 of the team’s 80 at-bats in the two-hole, batting .121 before he went on the 15-day disabled list after an emergency appendectomy Monday in Denver.
McCann begins rehab with a bang: Braves catcher Brian McCann hit two-run homers in the first two official at-bats of his first injury-rehab game Friday for Class-A Rome in Greensboro, N.C.
McCann, who had shoulder surgery Oct. 16, is expected to have anywhere from 9-12 rehab games before being activated from the disabled list to rejoin the big-league club, Gonzalez said. The way he hit Friday, it’ll be interesting to see if the Braves wait that long.
Gonzalez said McCann would play three games this weekend at Greensboro, then one home game for Rome before moving to Triple-A Gwinnett, Gonzalez said.
Beachy takes next step: Brandon Beachy threw five minutes of batting practice Friday afternoon, the first time the Braves pitcher has faced hitters since having "Tommy John" elbow surgery in June. Beachy mixed in all his pitches in the session, with Andrelton Simmons batting against him Friday afternoon at Comerica Park in Detroit.
“I’m letting it go as much as I can right now, I guess, without trying to blow it out by any means,” Beachy said. “I’m not there yet, obviously. But I believe the strength will come.”
The right-hander could begin a rehab assignment within a few weeks and hopes to be ready to rejoin the Braves in late June around the one-year anniversary of his surgery.
Simmons said: “He looked good. His fastball looked pretty heavy. His breaking stuff was moving. I mean, you wouldn’t know that he just started throwing. You wouldn’t notice.”
