Morning Chop: Atlanta Braves News 1/24
March 04, 2013; Port St Lucie, FL, USA; New York Mets outfielder Marlon Byrd 6) bats as Atlanta Braves catcher Christian Bethancourt (57) catches in the spring training game at Tradition Field. Atlanta defeated the New York 4-2. Mandatory Credit: Brad Barr-USA TODAY Sports
Staff Post: Catchers to Avoid in 2014
The Fake Teams fantasy baseball staff offer you some catchers that you should avoid in your 2014 fantasy drafts, including Brian McCann, Evan Gattis, and others.
en preparing for your fantasy baseball drafts, it is a must to have a draft strategy, and on Wednesday, Zack Smith broke things down for you to assist you in your fantasy catcher draft strategy. We have also provided you with our Top 30 catcher rankings for 2014:
Included in the rankings above, we provided 2014 projections for almost every catcher ranked, courtesy of Daniel Schwartz from Fake Teams and Rotobanter.
In addition, Daniel Kelley provided you his catcher breakdown using his new fantasy stat called Equivalent Fantasy Average, or EFA. You will be surprised to see which catcher has the highest projected EFA for 2014. Check it out.
You can’t take hometown out of Billerica’s Tom Glavine
Around here, he’s not just Tom Glavine. He is, and always will be, Billerica’s Tom Glavine.
He’s the local kid who made that nearly impossible leap from the frigid springtime ball fields of New England all the way to the big leagues, all the way to the World Series, all the way to 300 career victories . . . and, now, all the way to the Hall of Fame.
It would have been a better story had Glavine exhibited this greatness as a member of his hometown Red Sox, but the 1984 amateur draft didn’t turn out that way. The Sox selected an Oklahoma State outfielder named Scott Wade in the second round, and five picks later the Atlanta Braves grabbed this Glavine kid from Billerica High.
Sims, Bethancourt land on Top 100 Prospects list
ATLANTA — A spotlight has shone on Lucas Sims since the Braves selected him in the first round of the 2012 First-Year Player Draft. But the 19-year-old right-handed pitcher will now have to deal with the added attention that comes with being considered one of baseball’s top pitching prospects.
Sims ranks 60th on MLB.com’s Top 100 Prospects list, which was revealed Thursday night. The only other Braves representative on this list is catcher Christian Bethancourt, who was ranked 82nd.
Bethancourt, who also ranks as MLB.com’s sixth-best catching prospect, returns to this list for the first time since 2012. Julio Teheran stood as the only Braves representative on this list last year.
Braves will close Friday on $34M land purchase
he Atlanta Braves will close Friday on the purchase of land for their planned new stadium and mixed-use development in Cobb County, team officials said.
The Braves will pay about $34.2 million — $600,000 per acre — for a 57.1-acre parcel of undeveloped property near Cumberland Mall. The team has held an option since early last fall to buy the land from Bethesda, Md.-based real-estate titan B.F. Saul Co.
The Braves plan to build the stadium on the back 15 acres of the property and, if the project goes as they hope, use the rest for a complex of shops, restaurants, bars, offices and residences that would lead from Cobb Parkway to the ballpark gates. Both the stadium and development are scheduled to open in 2017.
To put the price of the land in a baseball context: It is roughly equivalent to two years’ salary for Brian McCann, the former Braves All-Star catcher who left the team this winter to sign a five-year, $17 million-per-year contract with the New York Yankees.
Happy Birthday, Mark Wohlers
Mark Wohlers: Born 1970
One of the hardest-throwing relievers of the ’90s (or any era), Wohlers got the final out of the 1995 World Series for the Braves, but his career is still prone to some what-ifs.
What if he had developed a little more quickly into the Braves’ closer?
What if he hadn’t thrown that hanger to Jim Leyritz?
What if he hadn’t developed Steve Blass disease?
Wohlers first reached the majors in August of 1991, just 21 years old. He appeared in six postseason games and looked like the future closer with his 100-mph fastball. But he spent part of the next two seasons in the minors, still trying to master his control, although he was on Atlanta’s postseason roster both years.
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