Bally Sports Broadcaster Paul Byrd joined Dukes & Bell to talk about opening day on Thursday for our Atlanta Braves and how should the team use star outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. once he returns from injury?
When asked how the Braves should use Acuna coming off his ACL injury.
“I love Ronald Acuna Jr. man, he makes me nervous just running out a groundball because he only knows one speed, that’s what I love so much about him is he hits first base had. So how do you throttle him back,” Byrd said. “It’s kinda hard to do that because he only knows one way to play, you can’t play the game easy, so I would be more cautious with him on the entry. I would give him a few days off as he enters in, let him ease back in, I don’t want to send him out there and say ‘hey take it easy when you take the field’ because he can’t do that, so I’m very cautious with bringing him back in.”
Byrd talked about how the team shouldn’t rush Acuna back.
“You guys know how stacked this team is, this team won a World Series last year without Ronald Acuna Jr. so if this is the superstar, this is the next Roberto Clemente, the guy that is sweating and dropping tools all over the place and so fun to watch. As Mike Trout said the funnest most exciting player to watch in the game, I take my time with that guy and I worry about the next fifteen years, I don’t worry about how soon I can get him back in April.”