MLB’s Next Bash Bros? Meet Baby Braves Phenoms Ronald Acuna Jr. and Ozzie Albies

Before becoming the Braves manager, Brian Snitker spent two decades helping to develop prospects in the minor leagues, where baseball is all about kids and potential. He had a 20-year-old David Justice on his team, a 21-year-old Brian McCann, a 21-year-old Rafael Furcal.

Every day, he was excited to see them play.

Kind of like now. Kind of like with 20-year-old Ronald Acuna Jr. and 21-year-old Ozzie Albies, the young duo Snitker has atop his lineup this year. Kind of like that, except these guys are doing it in the major leagues.cheap nfl jersey

“It’s like you can’t wait to get to the ballpark to watch them play,” Snitker says.

They’re exciting. They’re energetic. They’re the two youngest position players in the majors, and they’re two of the biggest reasons to start taking the Braves seriously as possible contenders this season and as a definite threat to win big things in the years to come.

Baseball is getting younger. We all know that. You can win big with kids, the way the 2016 Cubs won a World Series with 22-year-old shortstop Addison Russell or the way the Astros won a year later with Carlos Correa, who had just turned 23.cheap nfl authentic jerseys

And while the Braves may not have the pitching to win a World Series right now, they find themselves atop the National League East in part because of Acuna and especially Albies, who may have been the best player in the entire league in April.cheap authentic nfl jerseys

Albies hit nine home runs in the season’s first month, tied for most in the National League. He led the league with 12 doubles and impressed at second base.

Acuna joined the Braves on April 25 after spending the season’s first three-plus weeks at Triple-A Gwinnett. He hit his first home run a day later, and through 13 games is hitting .302 with a .917 OPS. He has already hit two tape-measure home runs, a 451-foot shot off the Mets’ Jason Vargas on May 3 at Citi Field and a 434-footer off Blake Snell on Tuesday at Tropicana Field.Even for opponents. “I love to see those guys play,” Mets infielder Jose Reyes says. cheap nfl jerseys from china

It’s a cool story, and not just because we’re always drawn to youngsters who look like they’ll be the next generation of baseball’s biggest stars. It’s fun because Albies and Acuna are such close friends, a kid from Curacao and a kid from Venezuela who signed with the Braves nfl cheap jerseys a year apart but quickly became as close as two players could be.

“We’re like brothers,” says Albies, the 21-year-old second baseman from Curacao. “Right away when we met, we were good with each other.”

They met soon after Acuna signed in 2014. He wasn’t well known then and had signed for just $100,000 in an international market where other players were getting as much as $3.2 million.

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