Isn’t this exciting? The Atlanta Braves are set to open their first baseball only facility at Sun Trust Park! The Buck & Kincade Show will be live from the ballpark on Thursday and Friday.

Braves players like Freddie Freeman and Matt Kemp are anxiously awaiting the opportunity to test out the new digs, with a bat in their hands. Will the ball jump? Is it going to be more of a homerun park? Wind studies have been done, but these guys would rather take some BP and see what the deal is… and the pitchers will be checking it out closely too!

I must admit, the idea of getting a few BP swings in would be fun! Might pay to get that opportunity, but I’ll settle for just having my own parking spot.

So, we’re counting on two over-40 starting pitchers to take the ball thirty times and pitch close to 200 innings…Colon and Dickey are going to have to hold up, if our Braves are going to make some noise this season in the NL East. Both claim to be ready, after not-so-impressive spring training performances (veteran pitchers work on pitches in ST, instead of focusing on shutting the opponent down. Why? The games don’t count). I’d settle for Bartolo & R.A. picking up the slack for a few months and then, handing the ball to Newcomb & Fried later this season.

Teheran & Foltynewicz appear ready to get out of the gate quickly. Folty’s Orlando performances might be the most encouraging thing about the spring games. Best case scenario: Folty has a breakout season. Obviously, Garcia is the wild-card with the rotation. Stay tuned.

The Braves bullpen appears to be solid at the end, with Johnson & Vizcaino closing games out, but I’d feel a lot better about things if Mauricio Cabrera wasn’t experiencing elbow soreness. Let’s hope that isn’t anything serious. We need that flamethrower getting guys out.

I continue to believe this line-up will score more runs, than the one we witnessed most of last season. Sure hope the runs come in bunches early! See you at SunTrust Park!

-Buck Belue
Co-Host – “Buck and Kincade”
@buckbelue8