Atlanta Braves Morning Chop, Wedding Edition
A Free-man No Longer
Freddie Freeman is getting hitched today. If that had slipped your mind, then no worry – you can still send a gift. In fact, here’s a link to the happy couple’s bridal registry. Lots of choices available.
Yes, Freddie and Chelsea Goff are to be married today in Roswell. Jason Heyward was providing the necessary support for his buddy yesterday morning with a nice send-off:
I do have to wonder whether we’ll end up seeing any video clips from the reception with Freddie … uh, “dancing.” It did seem, though (at Dan Uggla‘s wedding) that he came prepared: complete with sneakers. Much easier to do the footwork. If only he was that nimble around first base.
With that, we offer our congratulations to Freddie and Chelsea. Oddly enough, while Freddie may no longer be a “free man”, Chelsea is about to become one.
Reliever Jonny Venters released by the Atlanta Braves
JACOB MISENER / CALLTOTHEPEN.COM
A former elite setup man, Jonny Venters has now come full circle after the Atlanta Braves released the 29-year-old on Friday after designating him for assignment earlier in the week.
The move, which was announced via the MLB.com transactions page, comes after Venters failed to make an appearance at either the Major or Minor League level in each of the past two seasons. His last campaign, which came back in 2012, was not quite up-to-par with his All-Star-caliber performance of 2011, but he still posted a respectable 3.22 ERA and 3.76 FIP across 66 appearances for the Braves.
In 2011, the southpaw was utterly dominant, appearing in 85 games totaling 88 innings, posting a minuscule 1.84 earned run average, while averaging 9.8 strikeouts per nine, en route to his first career All-Star selection in just the second season of his big league career. He broke onto the scene in 2010 by finishing eighth in the National League Rookie of the Year Award voting, making 66 appearances with a 2.69 FIP and 1.205 WHIP across 83 innings.
Atlanta Braves’ park factor
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In Cobb County, Georgia, just 20 miles to the north of Turner Field, the Atlanta Braves’ new ballpark is beginning to rise out of the dust.
But it’s already clear that it isn’t only the ballpark that’s under construction.
It’s been four days since the Braves traded away Jason Heyward. They have “FOR SALE” signs slapped on Justin Upton and his underachieving big brother, B.J. They don’t just have a million balls in the air. They could be ready to fly the biggest air show in Georgia.
“Believe me,” said their esteemed new president of baseball operations, John Hart. “It boggles the mind how many different directions we could go.”
But it isn’t only Opening Day 2015 the Braves are thinking about. It’s also Opening Day 2017, when the gates of SunTrust Park open, surrounded (theoretically) by an array of shops, restaurants, hotels and businesses that will make it “not just a new ballpark,” Hart said, but “an entire destination spot.”
It’s the baseball team, though, that needs to be the marquee attraction. And that invigorating assignment has been dropped into the lap of Hart, who is now back in the team-building biz after nearly a decade of living what he laughingly calls “the perfect life” as a consultant, special advisor, broadcaster and part-time golf-ball masher.
[ much more at the link above ]
[ Editor’s note: this article sums it up nicely – in Cleveland, Hart could afford to blow it all up and await the rebuild. But Atlanta fans have gotten used to winning… and thus Hart is trying to figure out how to balance ‘competitive’ with ‘resurrected’. Fortunately, I suppose: he does have tools to work with. We’ll have to wait and see how he ultimately uses them. ]
Atlanta Braves Morning Chop