Atlanta Braves Afternoon Chop… ‘the day after’
Carolina Mudcats become an Atlanta Braves affiliate
STAFF REPORTS / GWINNETT DAILY POST
The Atlanta Braves announced Monday that the club’s Class A Advanced team, the Lynchburg Hillcats, will move from Lynchburg, Va., to Zebulon, N.C., beginning in 2015. The city of Zebulon and the Braves have reached an agreement on a two-year Player Development Contract.
The Advanced-A team will be known as the Carolina Mudcats and will remain as a part of the Carolina League. The club will play at Five County Stadium, which is located approximately 25 miles east of Raleigh, N.C.
Braves tab John Hart as GM as both seek return to glory days
[Editor’s note: that’s a substantially misleading headline – and much of the story. He’s still an ‘interim’ guy]
GEORGE DIAZ / ORLANDO SENTINEL
John Hart is leaving a perfect gig because he couldn’t resist the perfect gig.
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That AARP card just takes up valuable real estate in his wallet, burning a hole in his work ethic. At 66, Hart isn’t defined by the usual leisurely expectations. After a long and distinguished career as a baseball “lifer,” Hart had settled down into two cozy commitments as a senior adviser with the Atlanta Braves and a studio analyst with the MLB Network.
But then the Braves starting breaking bad, and his best friend, Braves president John Schuerholz, called in a favor:
“Can you help us get this thing right?”
And so Hart — with multi-layered Central Florida roots dating back to his high schools days at Winter Park — will replace Frank Wren as the Braves general manager. It’s an interim job, with little pressure. Maybe for a year, or two, involving a lot of house-cleaning, getting rid of bad contracts (and players), with little expectations that this thing is going to get turned around quickly.
…
“Some dynamics are in place with some bad contracts,” Hart said, alluding to B.J. Upton, who signed a five-year $75.25 million contract in November 2012 and has been stealing money for two years.
“But we’re not like the Yankees where you can pave over your mistakes. The team has decisions to make, and then maybe take a step back to take two forward. If we’re meant to make another run at it, we’ve got to spend some money.”
Braves close bad season with only series win of September
PHILADELPHIA – Emilio Bonifacio led off Sunday’s season finale with a homer against Cole Hamels, which gave the Braves one more hit and one more run than they had in the entire game when faced the Phillies pitcher on Sept. 1.
And so, the last game started well for the Braves, who added another run in the second inning and then watched James Russell and four fellow relievers make the lead stand for a 2-1 win at Citizens Bank Park that gave the Braves their only series win of September.
Craig Kimbrel converted his 26th consecutive save opportunity by striking out the last three batters after a leadoff single in the ninth inning, giving him a National League-leading 47 saves for the season. Kimbrel has led the NL in saves or at least tied for the lead in all four of his seasons as a closer.
The Braves put a lid on a disappointing season and a dispiriting September by finally winning consecutive games for the first time since late August. They went 7-18 in September and finished the season in a second-place tied with the Mets in the NL East, two games ahead of the Marlins and 18 behind the division champion Nationals.
Russell, making an emergency start after Alex Wood was scratched Saturday with forearm tightness, pitched four scoreless innings of two-hit ball with one walk and four strikeouts. Not bad for a reliever who was 0-5 with a 9.33 ERA in his only previous five major league starts, all in 2011.