The Atlanta Braves are somewhere in the middle of rebuilding and retooling, but pitcher Alex Wood made it clear that the team is banding together amidst talk of an upcoming down year at Turner Field.
"We have a group of guys who kind of have a chip on their shoulder,'' said left-handed pitcher Alex Wood, one of the few assured holdovers from the 2014 squad, via Paul Newberry of the AP. ''Guys that want to come out and show what they can still do and show what they're going to do for us younger guys down the road. It's exciting to go in with a chip on your shoulder. I think it's going to bring a lot of guys on this team together.''
Even with the glaring losses of players such as Justin Upton, Evan Gattis, and Jason Heyward, Wood says that the very game of baseball itself plays to the advantage of the Braves.
''That's the great thing about baseball. You don't have to have to have nine superstars,'' Wood said. ''We're going to play a different brand of baseball. We'll probably play a closer brand of real baseball. I guess I'm kind of old school - I guess it's the coaches I had growing up - but I think we're going to be a team that really does the small things right. Partially, because we're going to have to. But partially, because I think that's the way this team has been put together.''
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