LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Much attention will be paid this spring to the two Braves hitters who struggled mightily last season, B.J. Upton and and second baseman Dan Uggla. Uggla has hit all week with other early arriving position players, while Upton has continued workouts at home in Tampa.
So far, hitting coach Greg Walker and other Braves coaches are encouraged by what they’ve seen.
“I went down to see B.J. a couple of weeks ago,” Walker said. “He looked great, a lot more efficient (with his swing). Of course it was in the cage with flips (balls tossed from a few feet away). It’s too early to make any bold statements, except that I like where everybody’s at mentally, and I like where everybody’s at physically. So now we’ll start spring training and see how it plays out.”
“(Assistant hitting coach Scott Fletcher) saw Uggla in Atlanta some. I know Danny well enough that I knew how he was going to approach the work. I knew who he was hitting with in Atlanta, and I knew he’d come down here ready to play. And my first impression is, he’s ready to go
“It is what it is. It’s the second day, and they’ve not even officially reported. But it’s important to see where they’re at. And it doesn’t take long to see, ‘OK, that looks good.’ And yesterday his timing and balance were very much improved. And I asked all the coaches individually, who’d you like today? And every one of them said, ‘Dan Uggla looked fantastic.’ So, we’ll see. When we start hitting off live pitching we’ll see how it plays out.”
