First baseman Freddie Freeman spoke with the media on Monday prior to the Braves’ exhibition game against the Yankees at SunTrust Park.
Freeman dissected the lineup, analyzed the new coaches, talked up the competition and more:
On the top of the lineup:
“Ender (Inciarte) and Ozzie (Albies), I think you can pencil them in for pretty special years. They’re very dynamic. They can keep the pressure on you in all different aspects. Obviously Ender getting 200 hits last year, it’d be nice if he can do that again. Ozzie, the little small-sample size we got out of him last year was pretty exciting. So it’s going to be a good top of the order.”
On the middle of the order:
“We’ve got the middle of the lineup, we’re not going to beat you with the long ball but we’re going to do the little things. Hit-and-runs, go first-to-third, so we’ve got a lot of different ways we can beat you. We’re all going to put it together this year.”
On new first base coach Eric Young Sr.:
“You see it in spring training. We were either one, two in stolen bases and that’s all him. That was the goal. Doesn’t matter if you fail in spring training. You just have to try and see what you can do in spring training. You can attempt it in regular season, a lot more guys are stealing. I could’ve gone a couple times, try to do that in spring training. There are lots of opportunities to steal bases and that’s what they want us to do and that’s on EY.”
On new coaches Walt Weiss (bench coach), Sal Fasano (catching) and Young:
“They’re fantastic. Walt, Sal and EY, they’re great. I think everyone knows about Sal. All the catchers love him and so do we. He’s pretty much a coach for everybody. He knows so much about baseball. And Walt being the Rockies manager, a lot of respect.”
On the importance of winning home games:
“It’s big. You want to feel like you’re on top here, and obviously we haven’t been able to do that the last few years. We’ve got a great atmosphere, great fans. I think this year we’ll really turn it around. We’ve got a great group of guys here. Ultimately you want to have a winning home record and I’m hoping we can have that again.”
On the National League East:
“I think the National League East is the hardest division in baseball. I really do. Starting pitchers up and down, you never get a night off. Everybody in this division has their work cut out for them. You know it’s going to be a tough division but we can stack up and if we do the little things right, we can be right there.”
