LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Ready or not, the Braves open the Grapefruit League schedule Wednesday with a 1:05 p.m. home game against the Tigers at Champion Stadium.
Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said his charges are antsy to tee it up despite only five days of official full-squad workouts so far, including one shortened by rain Saturday. Braves pitchers and catchers began workouts Feb. 14, and many of the team’s other position players were in camp working out informally at least a week before then.
“We’re ready to play games,” Gonzalez said said. “You can tell that already. These guys are highly competitive athletes. You’ve got to throw them a different color uniform, because if not they’re just going to go crazy. I think we’ll be ready to play. So will the Tigers, I think. There’s only so much PFPs (pitchers’ fielding practice) and fundamentals you can do without letting them compete a little bit.”
“I’ve been here since the 7th or 8th (of February) and some of them were already here. So they’re looking for a different color uniform to break the monotony.”
Gonzalez said he would announce pitching plans for the first several spring-training games on Monday.
The Braves play the Tigers again on Thursday afternoon at Lakeland, then are back in Lake Buena Vista for a Friday night (6:05) game against the Astros. That’s the earliest in recent memory that the Braves have had a spring-training night game.
