There is a general understanding about what’s going to happen when a high-profile, and certainly balloon-salaried, athlete struggles. He is going to get beat up. He is going to read ugly stories and hear ugly comments and morph into a human punctuation point for any negative commentary about the team for which he plays.
Dan Uggla is a punching bag. He has been for most of the past two seasons with the Braves. He was left off the playoff roster in October, which would be a difficult situation for any professional athlete, let alone one who arrives with the high expectations that follow a $62 million contract.
“I was in a bad place last year. A real bad place,” Uggla said Saturday. “Somehow I hit 22 homers. Don’t ask me how.
“It was awful. And the second half of 2012 was awful. I got into so many bad habits. It’s not just that my swing was messed up. My legs were messed up. My head. I was a mess. Something would work in the (batting) cage but not the game. I was like, ‘Why isn’t this working?’”
It’s a new year, a new spring before a new season. Uggla is still a Brave. That in itself is news. With two years and $26 million left on his contract, the safe belief is that general manager Frank Wren tried all winter to trade Uggla and alleviate the organization of at least a portion of his remaining salary.
These matters are seldom acknowledged in public.
But Uggla acknowledges even he had “a few doubts” that he would be in camp with the Braves, adding, with just the right touch of humor, “I’m sure my value wasn’t the best right now. It probably wasn’t easy to get a deal done.”
Assuming there’s no unexpected change in the trade market, Uggla will open the season as the Braves’ starting second baseman. With Ramiro Pena (shoulder) and Tyler Pastornicky (knee) both coming off surgeries, it’s not like the Braves are flooded with options, anyway.
But let’s roll this back a little. Is it so implausible that Uggla can rebound after seeing his batting average steadily decline since leaving Florida four years ago (from .287 to .233 to .220 to .179)? He still has power. He’s in shape. He’s not breaking down physically. He’s motivated.
Uggla actually oozes with so much confidence right now — and, granted, even spring games haven’t started yet — that he said, “This year’s going to be a different story.”
Hitting coach Greg Walker said he has been impressed with Uggla’s “balance and timing,” adding, “Some guys start struggling in their 30s and you think, ‘They’re losing it.’ That’s not Danny. It’s still in there. He’s a beast.”
The bounce-back question eventually will be answered. But there are a few things worth noting about Uggla. He cares. He works hard. Throughout the struggles and the criticism and the relative public humiliation of manager Fredi Gonzalez leaving him off the playoff roster, Uggla has been classy and suffered in relative silence.
He remains one of the more popular players in the clubhouse and approachable with the media, which isn’t easy when he knows every question will boil down to, “Why do you stink?”
It’s common in sports for athletes to become bitter and/or withdrawn when they’re forced to endure what Uggla has gone through. Some lose the “want” in them. They project the attitude, “Whatever. I’m still getting paid.”
That was Mike Hampton. That’s not Dan Uggla.
If Uggla had let the benchings and criticism get to him, he said, “That’s when you find yourself alone. The last thing anybody wants to do is hear you whine, ‘Oh, I’m getting screwed.’ There’s really nothing to say. Look at yourself in the mirror. I knew what my numbers were last year. I’m not going to come in and complain to my teammates. Wear it like a man. Go about it like a man.”
It hurt him to watch the division series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. But he made the decision to come to the stadium, take batting practice and travel with the team, anyway. Not going “would’ve been taking the easy way out,” he said. “I wanted to be there with my teammates.”
Throughout it all, he has leaned on his wife, Janette (they were married in December) and some of his close friends, including current or former teammates Chipper Jones, Freddie Freeman, Brian McCann, Gerald Laird and Eric Hinske. Uggla said he was golfing with Hinske when the subject of the playoffs came up.
“Hinske has a unique talent in being able to say things to you without being offensive and making you laugh,” Uggla said. “He was like, ‘So how was that being left off the roster? I said, ‘It sucks.’ He was like, ‘Yeah, it happened to me twice.’”
Uggla and Gonzalez also spoke this winter. Gonzalez was concerned that their relationship had been damaged and there would be lingering resentment going into spring training.
“There always is (concern),” he said. “But for me, it’s a decision I had to make for the team. It’s over with.”
Uggla is anxious to get started. He gained at least 10 pounds in the offseason through pure caloric intake after dropping to as low as 195 last year, down from his previous playing weight of 210 to 215. He said he’s not using the previous weight loss as an excuse, but said, “This is where I’m most comfortable.”
Watching tape of his at-bats revealed a number of flaws, primarily with the weight shift on his legs. (“Hitting is like golfing. It all starts with the legs,” Walker said.)
Uggla said he isn’t worried about mental scars from last year. He said he “had years in the minors when I was hitting one-whatever” and overcame it.
He acknowledges, “It has been a grind. But I’m at a point in my career where I know what I’m capable of doing. I know what I’ve done. I know I’m not done being able to do that. You just have to try to keep a positive mind.”
Publicly, he’s probably lost the benefit of the doubt. There’s something to be said for his desire and will to win it back.
