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ESPN's Kiley McDaniel believes in Austin Riley

ESPN baseball writer Kiley McDaniel talks about young third baseman Austin Riley

Austin Riley got off to a tremendous start to his big-league career. He hit .324 with a .368 on base percentage, nine home runs and 25 RBI in his first 76 plate appearances.

His fast start helped get the Braves on track in late-May, early-June last season, as they went 12-6 in those 18 games.

Unfortunately, Riley came back down to Earth. He hit only .192 after that torrid start, with nine home runs and 24 RBI but in 221 plate appearances.

But in Riley’s minor league career, he always did better the second time around or when he reached the next level. In 2017, Riley hit just .252 for High-A Florida, but when he was promoted to Double-A Mississippi he hit .315.

Then when the Braves returned Riley to Mississippi in 2018, he hit .333 before being promoted to Triple-A Gwinnett, where he hit .282. And when Riley started the 2019 season back in the International League, he hit .293 with 15 home runs in 194 plate appearances before being promoted to Atlanta.

So, will Riley learn from his struggles and his strikeouts late last season and take that next step once the game resumes? He hit .357 in spring training for the Braves with a .438 on base percentage. That was a good sign that Riley was going to break out once again and show some consistency.

And then the game hit the pause button.

When it returns, Riley will still have to beat out Johan Camargo, who wants his old job at third base back.

It should be a good competition, and Riley will likely be determined to prove he’s ready to take over the position for good.

Listen to The Bill Shanks Show weekdays at 3:00 p.m. ET on Middle Georgia’s ESPN. You can listen online at TheSuperStations.com. Follow Bill on Twitter at @billshanks and you can email him at thebillshanksshow@yahoo.com.