ATLANTA — So you want to be a Major League Baseball player? It's not as easy as it seems.
Just ask Mike Minor. The left-hander won his first three decisions after being called up last summer, but he hasn't tasted victory since Aug. 31. At times, Minor has been solid and just hasn't received the run support. Other times, such as Thursday against the New York Mets, he's struggled. One thing he mentioned to me recently was just how much of an adjustment it is for young players to adapt to baseball's highest level. "Nobody really knows until you're here, what really happens inside a clubhouse or on the field. You can see, from the outside, you can kind of see things, but you can't see every day what you have to go through ... the way you have to act with the media around you and what you have to say, what you can't say. I'm still learning a lot of that stuff too ... still being a rookie and still learning a lot ... trying to be around the older guys and see what they have to say."
Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez agreed with the fact young players called up from the minor leagues have more on their minds than just their on-field jobs. "It's almost not the baseball end of maturing ... how you handle yourself outside the clubhouse. The other stuff that gets thrown at you. ... You've got to live it. You've got to experience it, whether it's expectations with handling the media ... all the attention you get in the Major Leagues. I tell these young guys, if you don't perform up here because you're dealing with commercial shoots, you're trying to deal with ESPN people, trying to do all these interviews, when you get sent down because you didn't perform, I guarantee you these guys ain't going down there. So make sure when you come up here, take care of business first. That's something they've got to experience."
Minor pitched 4 1/3 innings and surrendered five earned runs on seven hits and earned another no-decision on Thursday.
Written by: Anthony Amey, WSB-TV Sports Anchor/Reporter
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