Ron Washington on Vaughn Grissom: I know he can do the job

• Sports

Braves third-base coach Ron Washington is a person who wants only the best from his players. He is a great motivator, and we don't have to say much about his influence. This time, the topic was, Vaughm Grissom, as well as the opinion of Washington, on whether Grissom can be Atlanta's starting shortstop.

Ron has no dillema about that. “I’m not thinking he can do the job, I know he can do the job,” Washington said, as quoted by mlb.com “But he has to come up in here and he has to win a job. We’re not giving him anything.

We just tried to get him ready to compete, and he’s ready to compete”. Washington wanted to make sure he found the right player. He does not doubt Grissom's talent and believes that fans and others will only see what they need to see.

“When they talked about maybe they wouldn’t be bringing Dansby back, I just wanted to make sure with every option we had, we could do something with it,” Washington said. “This kid is talented. I just felt if I could spend some time with him over the winter, we can get him ahead of the curve.

And believe me, just watch. Just watch”.

Ron Washington on Vaughm Grissom

Grissom is still not a complete player, but with effort and commitment, he can become one. “We’ve got to watch him grow,” Washington said.

“He doesn’t have it all yet. But he has enough right now to challenge for a job. And in my opinion, he has enough to take the job and run with it”. Grissom didn't know much, but he wanted to learn. When you are committed to what you do and have passion, then everything is possible.

“He was more or less trying to show you that he was a smart kid and that he knew a little bit about baseball,” Washington said. “But he only was able to do what he knew. When you take what he knew, and you put it at the big league level, he didn't know [anything].

He knows something now. But then he didn’t. He was surviving. If we were to have to put him at second base right now, he’d be a [heck] of a second baseman because of all he learned”.