David Ross to start in place of Brian McCann against St. Louis Cardinals - MLB Update
It has been announced that Atlanta Braves will prefer David Ross instead of Brian McCann for doing the catching job against St. Louis Cardinals on Friday for the Wild-Card game.
McCann had a horrible season with an unimpressive batting average. Shoulder injury and hamstring problems have made it extremely difficult for him to put up quality performances at the plate.
Missing such an important game will be disheartening for McCann, who desperately wants to take the Braves to heights in the current season after they collapsed last year. McCann was among the players that experienced that epic decline in the month of September
last year and caused the humiliating failure of the side.
In light of this, he will love to be a part of the team which is all set to remove forgettable last year memories and is on the way to do something amazing in the post-season.
The Braves have everything in their artillery that can ensure them playing the Division Series and then moving ahead for winning the World Series. Even without McCann who remained an important component of the side for many years, the Braves are a formidable
opposition.
Ross has performed reasonably well in the absence of McCann. He will be looking to help the team win the Wild-Card game against the Cardinals.
However, the entry of Ross does not mean that he will play throughout the post-season. Braves’ manager Fredi Gonzalez has clarified that McCann will be considered in the matches ahead.
"I think going forward Mac will catch, obviously, in a longer series, a five-game series or even a seven-game series if we get that far," Gonzalez said. "We'll play the matchups."
Talking about the decision of considering Ross in place of McCann, Gonzalez has elaborated that the former is efficient with regard to defence and can be extremely useful in throwing Cardinals out.
"Defensively, we know how well (Ross) can throw people out," Gonzalez said. "The Cardinals have a tendency to put people in motion a lot. With the combination of (Ross) and Medlen, maybe we have an opportunity to shut that down a little bit."
As the match starts, it will be interesting to see how Ross rewards the confidence of his manager.
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