Atlanta Braves Bits and Pieces
By Fred Owens
Atlanta Braves Bits and Pieces – Tidbits you may have missed
The All Star Break slows the news around most teams but there are a few minor things happening with the Atlanta Braves.
He Damaged A Petal?
Tyler Flowers left Saturday’s game with what was described and a left hand strain. That sounded odd at the time, I’ve sprained my wrist and strained a muscle or 10 but how do you strain your hand? According to Mark Bowman, Flowers had been having trouble with his left hand for over a week after being hit on the hand by A J Ramos during the Marlins’ game on 3 July.
An MRI on the aching appendage was set for today and If a DL trip is needed the Braves would have to call up a catcher to back up A.J. Pierzynski . Normally Anthony Recker would be the guy to get the call but Bowman says he was placed on Gwinnett’s temporarily inactive list with a non-health issue on Wednesday. So the Braves could be stuck with Blake Lalli. If you get the idea Lalli isn’t a great catcher you’re right.
The G-Braves played 91 games this year Lalli caught 22 of them. Ryan Lavarnway and Recker picked up the bulk of the catching as Lalli played first base. So far this year he’s had 228 PA in 68 appearances and posted a .190/.240/.246/.486 line with one home run. Let’s all pray Flowers recovers quickly.
Adding any other catcher would mean a roster move although the Braves could simply move Mallex Smith to the 60 day DL.
Shae the Right Things
The Bowman piece also had updates on the walking wounded on the pitching staff. I’ll cut this short, details in the previously linked piece.
Shae Simmons shoulder – say that 10 times quickly – hasn’t been barking since he began throwing off a mound. In case you’ve forgotten here’s a video of his major league debut.
Eric O’Flaherty made three successful rehab appearances at Rome but Bowman opines that the trifecta of lefties now in the pen might make EOF expendable.
Williams Perez started throwing again last week but hasn’t yet moved to throwing off the mound so he won’t be back quickly.
It’s looking like the end of July is the soonest John Gant could return. The oblique heals slowly and rushing him makes no sense.
How’s the New Blood doing
The Braves added 27-year-old righty Maikel Cleto from the Mexican league on a minor league contract back on July 2 likely because he has a big arm and the fact that he had 16-to-1 K/BB ratio in 14 innings this year. Since coming to Gwinnett he’s made three appearances of one inning each, faced 14 batters and struck out five without a walk./
Former wandering Braves Omar Infante returned to the fold on 30 June. Since then he’s made five appearances and made it to the plate 23 times posting a .318/.348/.409/.757 line.
That’s A Wrap
As I said in the beginning not much news around the ASB but we try to get what there is out there for you to chew on . If there’s something you’d like us to address, simply Tweet me and I’ll see if I or one of the other writers can drag something together for you.
Meanwhile keep stopping by the Take to see what’s going on.