You are soooo close, physically and professionally. Less than 40 miles away lies the ballpark nobody wants anymore but nevertheless looks to you like Xanadu rising just off the Downtown Connector. Paradise with a 5,600-square-foot video board. Turner Field, for a few more months, beckons.
If you are a Gwinnett Brave and you are among the handful of top prospects assigned there, you know you have come along at a time rife with opportunity.
You have heard everyone talk about how loaded the Braves’ minor league system is now, compared with how fallow it was just a couple of years ago. And how everything rests on advancing prospects up the chain and into the big league clubhouse.
You have have seen several of your number already whisked up to the clouds — ready or not there went Mallex Smith and Daniel Castro. Could you be next?
“I tell them every year: You guys are in play. Don’t worry about it if you’re not on the (major league) roster. Because these guys are really good at finding a roster spot. They’ll find a spot if you do something to stand out,” Triple-A Gwinnett manager Brian Snitker said.
Those words seemed to carry even more weight in this rebuilding year.
“What a great place to be for a player, knowing that you are in the mix, in the fold. If you do good, you have a chance. You can’t ask for anything more than that,” he said.
In the meantime, these prospects line up and deal with their proximity to Atlanta and the excruciating nearness of reaching their major league summit as best they can.
For pitcher Tyrell Jenkins, No. 34 in your Gwinnett Braves program and No. 8 on the list Braves prospects according to MLB.com, that means squinting very hard and focusing only on today.
“It’s really hard knowing you’re this close, most of us living in Atlanta. You get a taste of it just being down that way,” he said. “But for the most part we’re here for a reason, you got to get a little work in. Day by day, with each start, we’re all getting better, and we’re all getting a step closer. Trying not to jump the fence too soon is one of the hard things.”
Friends have asked Jenkins, who broke in a Triple-A last season, to go to a game in Atlanta on the exceedingly rare occasion when the Gwinnett Braves schedule didn’t conflict. He has politely declined.
“I’m not going to go to a (major league) game unless I’m in uniform and I’m pitching,” he said.
“It would kind of be embarrassing to watch a team you’re trying to be on and you haven’t made it yet. I feel like I have to earn that, to be in that ballpark and in that clubhouse with those guys.”
Third baseman Rio Ruiz this week journeyed downtown, but it was only to further his transition from native Californian to Southerner by taking breakfast at the Flying Biscuit. Otherwise, he figures it does him little good to look toward Turner Field and what’s happening inside.
“That’s not my team right now,” said Ruiz, just 21 and on a tear at the plate for Gwinnett at the moment (hitting .367, six of his 18 hits for extra bases, through Wednesday).
Watching the Braves, waiting for the latest stumble in the bullpen or the next injury to open a door doesn’t seem to be the most productive use of time for this bunch.
As it is, there is ample push and pull on these players, from all levels of the Braves’ system. Especially the pitchers. There is a competitive friction that should keep all of their blades honed.
“Every day with this rotation we have here it’s a competition to go out and see if you can compete with what the guy the night before did. It’s fun to be around,” said starter Aaron Blair, who made his most convincing case for a spot with the Braves by throwing seven no-hit innings for Gwinnett on Tuesday.
Whatever their position, wherever they came from, however long it takes to break through to some team, there is but one common vision of the future for these oh-sooo close players.
As Ruiz talks about his father, he spells it out so all can understand: “The story goes with him that the first son he had was going to be a baseball player. That was going to be his project. It’s working out pretty well for him so far. He got me to minor league baseball. And hopefully one day he can answer that call where I’m telling him I’m going to be a big leaguer.”
