They say there’s always a formative memory in your childhood that nudges you in a specific direction.
See, I’ve always loved great defensive centerfielders. As you can imagine, growing up with the Braves in the 80s and the 90s was the best time to be a fan of outfield defense. I was born while Dale Murphy roamed the Fulton-County Stadium outfield, winning back-to-back MVPs, five consecutive Gold Gloves, four consecutive Silver Sluggers, and generally being the best centerfielder of the 1980s. I wore #3 in t-ball because of him.
And then Andruw Jones came along.
I was just barely a teenager for Andruw Jones’ two-homer night in game one of the 1996 World Series. I spent my middle and high school days watching him run down flyballs in both gaps like it was a walk in the park. It felt like he didn’t get the credit he deserved because it looked easy to him. He understood precisely where the ball was going to be, based off the pitch being thrown and the hitter at the plate and preternatural instincts that set his feet in motion before the batter had even gotten the ball in play. Where other guys dove, he glided over and made what felt like a routine catch.
Generational greatness.
And then suddenly, he was gone. A free agent after the 2007 season, while I was in college, he signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers and I just didn’t understand.
He might be the greatest defensive centerfielder who ever lived. Why do you let him leave in free agency?
Looking back, it’s obvious that he wasn’t the same player at 31 that he was at 21. With sudden and drastic weight gain when he reported to Dodgers camp resulting in nagging injured list stints, Andruw produced just 6 fWAR from the age of 30 through the end of his career.
But that question - why did they let him walk? - was a formative moment for me.
That was probably the first time I started thinking about baseball differently. It made me want to understand the game more. Not as a fan, but as a general manager.
I’ve always wanted to design things, which tracks with a lot of my childhood hobbies. When I was in elementary school, I used to design mazes on graph paper. When I played the card game Magic: The Gathering through middle and high school, I was designing decks.
And baseball - configuring a defense, or a lineup, or even a full roster brought me joy. Being able to defend it, or even sell it, to my friends was even better.
I can still remember sitting in my sweaty college rental house with no central air in South Georgia, listening to Joe and Skip and Pete call games on the radio, and thinking, “I don’t need much more in life than this.”
(Not true: I needed an air conditioner. I finally got a window unit, after classes ended in May and I could pick up more hours at work.)
In a lot of ways, that was the genesis of Braves Today. The questions started simple: “Why did they let Andruw Jones leave?” They got more complex: “I knew they had to move Chipper Jones from left field back to third base in 2004 because Mark DeRosa wasn’t cutting it. But why stop using Eli Marrero in left field in favor of Charles Thomas?”1
Baseball in general, and Braves baseball in particular, has been the background noise of my life. The rhythms of 162 games and baseball on the radio (or TBS) every day build attachment in a way that a once-weekly football game just can’t do.
I felt like Joe, Pete, and Skip were my family, three uncles with really cool jobs who I talked to every day.
And I’m a gift giver. There’s an idea in relationships of ‘love languages’ - the way you naturally express and receive love.2
My love language is gifts - not just physical items, but sharing things.
I love baseball, and so I naturally want to share it with the world.
Couple that with a passion to understand it as deeply as possible, encompassing everything from a front office’s perspective to even the physics behind the bat and ball interacting, and you’re left with something special.
Braves Today.
I do what I do because I want to share baseball with you, the why of it and how it works and why this team we love does the things it does. Because I love the game as a whole, and I can’t help but be romantic about it.
That’s why I probably come across as “grossly optimistic” at times3 - I love the game and am always looking for the good in it, even in bad or ugly situations.
Baseball is back, and this season has a million incredibly intriguing storylines, not just for the Braves but for the sport as a whole. That daily rhythm is returning - spring training was a nice aperitif, but now we’re getting to the main course: The regular season. Baseball every day, from midday through nighttime, for 187 days.
And this year, Braves Today is going to reflect that rhythm more than ever.
You’ve gotten a taste of it in spring training with The North Port Report. We’re keeping that same cadence. Here’s what I’m hoping to do this season:
Every game day, the plan is to put out two things related to the game. The first is a game preview: Probable starters, with a breakdown of their arsenals and what they like to do on the mound. The expected lineup, with who has good or bad performance against this pitcher or something he likes to do. How to watch, etc. There will be a podcast to accompany this, likely a shorter ten-minute version.
After the game, we’ll drop “Today’s Three Things,” our recap format built around three takeaways from every game:
The Turning Point
The Player of the Game
What You’ll Be Talking About
The deep dives aren’t going away, either. Those are still part of the deal. Every weekday, first thing in the morning, a dive into something that stands out, isn’t going well, or was overlooked by most.
That’s a lot of content. To support that level of coverage, most deep-dive analyses will now be for paid subscribers. There will be occasional free deep dives, often on team off days, but for the most part, those will be behind the paywall.
So, to recap:
FREE: Game coverage, both pre- and post-game; occasional deep dives
PAID: The bulk of our major league and prospect analysis every week.
The goal for me is to sustainably keep this going. Reserving the deepest, most researched pieces for our paid subscribers is a way for me to ensure that the quality of that work remains at its current level.
The bigger goal for me is to bring you into that cadence with me. Having a daily connection to this team, understanding what’s happening and why, is how I feel part of the season, not just watching from afar.
This is my way of staying connected to the team I grew up with. If it’s yours too, I’d love to have you along for it.
If you’ve ever built your summer around this team, this is for you.
This is Braves Today.
The answer here was that Marrero was a 30-year-old journeyman with little power, while the 25-year-old Thomas hit .358 in Triple-A Richmond prior to the call-up and they wanted to see if it’d translate to the majors.
It did not.
They did package Thomas in a trade to get Tim Hudson, though, so it wasn’t a complete waste.
For those of you interested: Gifts, acts of service, physical touch, words of affirmation, quality time
That’s a direct quote from a complaint I received recently. They wanted me to complain more, I guess?
Love your work. I'm a big fan. Hope you get all the support you need.
Not enough baseball. Too much about you. Maybe that's your schtick, but I'm unsubscribing.