{"id":645340,"date":"2026-03-26T22:06:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T22:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/645340\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T22:06:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T22:06:27","slug":"walt-weiss-braves-will-be-much-more-aggressive-base-runners-this-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/645340\/","title":{"rendered":"Walt Weiss: \u201cBraves will be much more aggressive base runners this season\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier today, we discussed the big news of the day from Walt Weiss\u2019s press conference where he stated that Drake Baldwin would be the starting DH for Friday\u2019s Opening Day game for the Atlanta Braves. I also mentioned that that wasn\u2019t all he talked about, as he spoke at length about his thoughts on the team with the regular season opener less than 24 hours away.<\/p>\n

Weiss was asked about moving Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. to the leadoff spot and Weiss stated that Acu\u00f1a leading off helps to \u201cset the tone for our offense. It\u2019s become part of his identity.\u201d Weiss went on to compare Acu\u00f1a to a former teammate of his: Rickey Henderson. \u201cI played with Rickey Henderson for four-to-five years and I saw the impact he had at the top of the lineup and Ronald is like that in a lot of ways. He can take over a game and set the tone for us every night. We didn\u2019t have to hit a homer to lead off a game but just getting on base and the havoc he creates right out of the gate, that\u2019s what I like about having him lead off.\u201d<\/p>\n

I then asked Weiss about how he feels at this particular moment about his objective of improving the team\u2019s base running going forward. Weiss responded by saying that he felt good about the offense and how he wants it to be more \u201cmultidimensional\u201d in that regard. \u201cOver the past several years, we\u2019ve lived and died by the home run and we\u2019ve been really good doing it. Last year was a little different and when you don\u2019t hit the ball in the seats and you\u2019re so reliant on that to score runs, it\u2019s not very pretty. It makes you look flat. We need to be able to explore a variety of ways [to score] and the base running thing is going to be a big part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ATLANTA,<\/a><\/p>\n

ATLANTA, GA – MAY 27: Michael Harris II #23 of the Atlanta Braves smiles at Luis Garc\u00eda Jr. #2 of the Washington Nationals after stealing second during the seventh inning at Truist Park on May 27, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Kevin D. Liles\/Atlanta Braves\/Getty Images) Getty Images<\/p>\n

He then went on to talk about new first base coach Antoan Richardson\u2019s potential impact on the base running. \u201c[Antoan] knows how important the base running aspect is to me and we all know it\u2019s very important to him and he\u2019s made it important to the players.\u201d Weiss then went on to make a cross-sport reference to how important the base running is to the success of any given offense. \u201cI look at the base running like special teams in football. It doesn\u2019t get all the glory that the offense and defense might but a lot of times, it\u2019ll win you games. I\u2019m very, very, very in tune with how we run the bases. I think you\u2019ll see a much more aggressive team on the bases this year.<\/p>\n

Before Walt Weiss came out to talk to us in the media, Matt Olson came in to take questions and he was asked about how the base running could potentially compliment the rest of the offense. \u201cThe thought of Antoan popped into my head,\u201d said Olson. \u201cHe\u2019s clearly somebody who is good at what he does and he instills confidence in the guys who are baserunners to go and get opportunities when they arrive.\u201d I thought it was a little bit humorous that Olson referred to his teammates as \u201cthe baserunners\u201d since I can\u2019t imagine we\u2019ll be seeing Olson out there stealing 50 bags this season.<\/p>\n

Still, he feels pretty confident about how the offense is looking heading into this season. \u201cI think we look at our lineup and you gotta like it on paper, every single day you look at it,\u201d continued Olson. \u201cWe gotta have more than one way to win games \u2014 it\u2019s not going to be go clip five-to-six homers in a game. I feel like spring training was great when it came to moving the line. I had some homers and there were very few throw-away bats \u2014 especially early on when you haven\u2019t seen pitching. Getting back into the swing of things is kind of tough to do but I\u2019m excited about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ATLANTA,<\/a><\/p>\n

ATLANTA, GEORGIA – SEPTEMBER 08: Matt Olson #28 of the Atlanta Braves hits a solo homer in the eighth inning against the Chicago Cubs at Truist Park on September 08, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox\/Getty Images) Getty Images<\/p>\n

One of the hottest topics surrounding the Braves is the lack of experienced (and healthy) starting pitching at the moment. We did get news that Grant Holmes will probably be starting on Sunday, with Reynaldo L\u00f3pez presumably going on Saturday and of course Chris Sale getting the Opening Day nod. I asked Sale about whether or not he could use his experience of bouncing back from his fair share injuries to relate to his fellow starters who are currently dealing with injury woes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely,\u201d responded Sale to my question. \u201cIn a weird way, I feel like I\u2019m better at [giving advice for] that than the pitching side because some of the Xs and Os that stuff, I don\u2019t really know the mechanical side\u2026but I do know how to bring guys back away from the edge a little bit when they get hurt because I\u2019ve been through it. I know what it can do to you. I know what it feels like physically to be hurt but I also know the mental side and how tough that can be as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued on by stating that \u201cAs athletes, we don\u2019t plan for that. We have to work, we have to compete, we have to produce and\u2026you don\u2019t ever really think about the bad stuff happening because you\u2019re just so locked in on all the stuff you need to do. So it can be tough \u2014 especially when you\u2019re young.\u201d Sale expounded on that though by saying that he actually felt \u201clucky\u201d to get hurt when he was older and that \u201cI don\u2019t know what it would be like trying to get your foot in the door and then having to deal with some of these injuries on top of that. I just try to be there for those guys like my teammates were for me and let them know that this is a process sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ATLANTA,<\/a><\/p>\n

ATLANTA, GA – APRIL 07: Chris Sale #51 of the Atlanta Braves walks to the bullpen before the game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Truist Park on April 7, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Matthew Grimes Jr.\/Atlanta Braves\/Getty Images) Getty Images<\/p>\n

Sale completed his thought on the matter by stating that \u201cThere\u2019s going to be good days and there\u2019s going to be bad days but every day is one step closer to the field so every day should be looked at as a good day.\u201d If that\u2019s the mindset that Sale had when he was bouncing back from his various ailments then it really does go a long way to showing how Sale was able to reach the level that he has here in the latter stages of his career and hopefully his fellow pitchers can be able to take some of that with them as they try to come back from their own injuries.<\/p>\n

There was a workout following the presser and it was certainly nice to see the squad getting in one last piece of action before going back into the clubhouse and calling it a day before Opening Day tomorrow night. Hopefully everything comes together and we\u2019ll see the Braves get off to a winning start in front of a home crowd, for once.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier today, we discussed the big news of the day from Walt Weiss\u2019s press conference where he stated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2394],"tags":[191,46,4206,4166,5,192,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-645340","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-braves","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-braves","10":"tag-atlanta-braves-news","11":"tag-atlantabraves","12":"tag-baseball","13":"tag-braves","14":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116297754684555918","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}