Atlanta Braves News: The Morning Chop Hector Olivera and Super Bowl XLIX Sunday
By Jeff Schafer
Hector Olivera Works Out For Top Braves Officials
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: The Atlanta Braves sent top scouts down to the Dominican to watch Hector Olivera. He is a talented 29-year-old second baseman or third baseman. Earlier this offseason, the Braves signed Cuban outfielder Dian Toscano from the same camp as Olivera. He ranked as the No. 6 player in Cuba player in late 2014 and left the country the following month. He had been one of the top performers in Cuba’s Serie Nacional and played on the Cuban national team. On February 11, Olivera is scheduled to have another open workout.
"Today the Braves had a private workout for Olivera in the Dominican Republic. Several top Braves officials were in attendance, including manager Fredi Gonzalez and assistant general manager John Coppolella. Special assistants Gordon Blakeley and Roy Clark, two of the organization’s top scouts, were also there to watch Olivera.Olivera, who is likely to sign as a second or third baseman, could fit at either position for the Braves. The team is weak at second base, with Alberto Callaspo, Jace Peterson, Phil Gosselin and Kelly Johnson among the candidates to play there. The Braves do have Jose Peraza, a talented hitter with premium speed who finished the 2014 season in Double-A, but he’s not ready to start the year in Atlanta, though he could get there by the end of the season."
Atlanta Braves Place Four Players On MLB.com’s Top 100 Prospects List
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: After months and months of John Hart “restructuring” the Atlanta Braves entire organization, the Braves finally have a solid core in the minor leagues. While filling out our top 20 list of prospects on Tomahawk Take (will debut early this month), it was extremely difficult to rank the players…unlike last year. The minor league teams will look more like they did in the 90’s where the Braves had continual players progressing through the system.
"Jose Peraza, Michael Foltynewicz, Christian Bethancourt and Lucas Sims stand as the four Braves included in MLB.com’s latest Top 100 Prospects list, which was announced Friday night. Atlanta had one representative (Julio Teheran) on this list entering the 2013 season and two (Bethancourt and Sims) entering the ’14 season.Peraza’s meteoric rise has vaulted him from unranked status to the 38th spot on the updated list. The other three — Foltynewicz (78th), Bethancourt (93rd) and Sims (94th) — rank among the last quarter of prospects to make the esteemed list."
Hundreds of fans lose out on Super Bowl 49 tickets
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: The last day of football for the 2015 season is here and just like that we’re one step closer to pitchers and catchers reporting, Spring Training, and actually meaningful MLB games! Everyone will be watching the game tonight – maybe for the football, or the commercials or maybe for Katy Perry during the halftime show – but not everyone will be watching at the stadium. CBS and ESPN are reporting that people who thought they punched tickets for the big game have actually been caught in something called “short-selling.” This is actually for the safety of the NFL so that the Super Bowl will indeed sell out and have butts in the seats. However, the game will be great and almost everyone will be watching.
"It’s not a Super Bowlwithout hundreds of fans losing out on Super Bowl tickets.According to ESPN sports business reporter Darren Rovell, we’ve reached that point this year, just days before Sunday’s game. A number of fans bought tickets from brokers and secondary sites following the NFC and AFC Championship Games that those resale sites never had in possession. It’s a common practice, called short-selling. They sell tickets to Sunday’s game in advance, with the plan of buying the actual tickets four or five days before the event and make a profit on the margin. Too many people did that this year and when it came time for short-sellers to buy, the tickets were too expensive. As a result, these profit-makers backed away from the market once they realized they would be buying them at a loss.Although Rovell couldn’t put a number on the amount of people that were affected by this, he did dish out some sad stories."