In the middle of what\u2019s been an incredibly tumultuous season to this point for the Braves, there was recently a controversy involving Jarred Kelenic, Brian Snitker, and Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr.<\/p>\n
For those who somehow missed it, Kelenic pimped a single in a tie game and was thrown out at second. Brian Snitker didn\u2019t notice, and even when he did, he decided there was no punishment necessary. Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. then chose to take to Twitter to air out his displeasure with the situation because of a time he was benched for doing the same thing six years ago.<\/p>\n
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All of it was an abysmal look for the Braves, and Jeff Francoeur felt like it was his responsibility to throw gasoline on the fire with these comments on 680 The Fan.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me start with this, there are 26 guys in that locker room that are busting their ass every single day, and they are taking crap from all of us, all the national media\u2026 And those guys are trying their butts off every single day,\u201d Francoeur said on 680 The Fan. \u201cYou finally get something going in your direction and you got a guy who is supposed to be your teammate tweeting, probably out in LA, something that is completely meaningless and stupid\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cRonald Acu\u00f1a Jr. was warned time after time after time, let\u2019s talk like 10 times, to run before he ever got yanked. This is the first time Jarred Kelenic has ever done it\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cRonald basically buried a teammate. This wouldn\u2019t have been a national story, ya\u2019ll probably wouldn\u2019t have even talked about it Monday if he did not mention it in a tweet\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cIf ya\u2019ll want even more context, let\u2019s go back to 2019. We all remember when the Marlins hit Ronald about 10 times. I didn\u2019t see many players out their sticking up for him, who was the first guy out of the dugout\u2026 Snit was the first one out there\u2026 And I\u2019ll say this man, I learned from the best in Bobby Cox. I love that man, and he used to always tell me there\u2019s nobody bigger than the A\u2026 We won a World Series without Ronald, we went to the playoffs with Ronald. You don\u2019t have to have him\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Harsh words from a man who has never shared the dugout with Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. However, someone who has recently came to his defense. Dansby Swanson had this to say on the Diggin\u2019 Deep Shows.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo Ronald\u2019s credit, I don\u2019t think people realize how awesome of a dude he is, and if you go watch throughout the playoffs (2021 season) how engaged he was, like he was in the dugout,\u201d Swanson said. \u201cPeople don\u2019t see those things, but we knew it and felt it. Having the good energy of everyone in the dugout believing that we can do this no matter who it is, who is hurt, who is healthy; We all just had one common goal of belief and bought into it and just became like a freaking juggernaut.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s much more like it from a player in Dansby Swanson who has been a consummate professional since his college days.<\/p>\n
The thing that irks a lot of the fan base when it comes to Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. is that it always seems as if people inside the organization are eager to put him down. Freddie Freeman was notoriously hard on Acu\u00f1a early in his career, and Brian Snitker didn\u2019t mind piling on. That\u2019s where a lot of this animosity from Acu\u00f1a stems from in the first place, so it\u2019s nice to see someone with an opinion as respected as Dansby Swanson\u2019s take his side publicly.<\/p>\n
Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. may rub people the wrong way at times. He makes mistakes like the rest of us, but at the end of the day, he\u2019s been a great teammate throughout his time in Atlanta and has one goal in mind \u2014 to deliver the Braves another World Series.<\/p>\n
\u2014<\/p>\n
Photographer: Rich von Biberstein\/Icon Sportswire<\/p>\n In the middle of what’s been an incredibly tumultuous season to this point for the Braves, there was recently a controversy involving Jarred Kelenic,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":50961,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\nShare The Love<\/h3>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"