Atlanta Braves New: Morning Chop Heyward’s Message To The Fans
By Jeff Schafer
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: Jason Heyward delivered a nice thoughtful message to the fans of the Atlanta Braves on Monday night. It’s definitely sad to see him not be a part of the Braves organization and even worse watching him in the NL wearing a different uniform.
"To: MY ATLANTA, GEORGIABraves fans, coaches, teammates, #BravesCountryWhile it may not have worked out long term I’m very blessed to have played at HOME for the same Organization I was invested in as kid growing up in McDonough, Ga. Played for The Great Bobby Cox, said farewell to a first ballot Hall Of Famer Chipper Jones after an unbelievable career. I made many great friends and became as close as family with most. Thank you for that. Thank you for applauding my effort and passion for the game of baseball. Thank you for acknowledging my love for rockin The “A” on my work hat. Been a pleasure to have called HOME my workplace. As we part ways know that the memories will be carried with me for the rest. Reaching out to say that I won’t forget where I’m from and you’ll always see me playing the game I love with passion and heart. Knowing and appreciating the fact I had the pleasure of creating heartfelt memories with so many people the past 5 years. Thank you again for your heart, thank you for the motivation and excitement.THANK YOU for the LOVE22"
St. Louis GM John Mozeliak, Analysts talk Jason Heyward trade
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: On the front page of the newspapers this morning, St. Louis Cardinals’ fans are going to be ecstatic about this trade. They get a guy who plays everyday with great speed, defense and potentially a player with power and contact. Also, they get a relief pitcher who they are probably pretty happy about…little do they know the up and down struggles he had as a Brave. Even though our bullpen wasn’t a strong point of the 2014 season, giving up Jordan Walden will not hurt us moving into 2015.
"“It’s an exciting day for us. For the last several years we’ve always talked about development, we’ve talked about controlling our own players, and having that cost certainty moving forward. But we did feel like after the events of this offseason we had to do something different; we had to look at a way to add an impact player to our club. We certainly understand that it could potentially be for one year. Hopefully it’s not.“We really felt that this might be the best way to improve our team. Really make a change about how you think about the St. Louis Cardinals for 2015. The acquisition of Jason Heyward and Jordan Walden really answers two things that we needed. One is an impact everyday player and the other one is a reliever who can pitch late in the game so we felt like we accomplished both. Giving up players like Shelby Miller and Tyrell Jenkins is not something that we’ve come accustomed to in that it’s not something we always like to do.”"
Braves could be one of worst teams in 2015
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: I hate to say this but David Schoenfield could be right with his 2015 predictions. The Braves lineup looks bad right now and doesn’t look like John Hart has interest in improving the current MLB team at this point. We are rebuilding. Braves fans, lets be patient and hope Hart’s plan works out for the best.
"So it looks like the Braves will be building for 2017, when they move into their new park in suburban Cobb County. Freeman is signed through 2021, Simmons through 2020 and Teheran through at least 2019, so that is the foundation. The Braves could even consider trading Kimbrel, who is signed through 2017 with a 2018 club option. You don’t need an elite closer on a bad or mediocre team, and Kimbrel has been the game’s most dominant reliever for four years. Trading him could bring back a nice haul of young talent to help restock a weak farm system.Add it up, factor in that the Nationals, Mets and possibly the Marlins should be strong playoff contenders in 2015, and the Braves could go from 96 wins in 2013 to 90 losses in 2015."