Atlanta Braves News: The Morning Chop, Uber and Waze Partnership, The Jones Boys HOF Bid In 2018?
By Jeff Schafer
Braves reveal more game day traffic plans, Waze partnership
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: Who’s ready for the Braves 2017 season?!? I’m getting there, but after seeing the photos released about a week ago of the SunTrust Park it looked as though lots of work still needed to be done. With really just over two months before the Braves take the field, many things (just judging by photos) looked not completed. Anyway Uber and Waze coming on board is awesome. At the new park, it will have a designated Uber drop-off/pick- up zone on Windy Ridge Parkway. With Uber becoming more and more popular, this is a amazing idea and should be a very popular choice by fans. Especially those who enjoy a few brews at the old ball park.
The Atlanta Braves and Cobb County officials released a traffic plan for game days and announced additional game day parking spaces, a Braves-operated game day shuttle, the launch of A-List season parking sales and new partnerships with Uber and Waze.
Last fall, the Braves, Cobb County Department of Transportation, Cobb County Police Department and Kimley-Horn provided an overview of the collaborative approach to transportation management, unveiling plans to return the starting time of games to 7:30 p.m. and detailing the 14 primary access points to SunTrust Park. VIDEO HERE.
The Cobb County Police Department will have uniformed officers at about 30 intersections around the ballpark to help support game day travel. Access in the surrounding area will include contraflow lanes – reversing the traffic flow of designated lanes before and after games – and the construction of a dedicated exit lane from Interstate 285 that funnels into The Battery Atlanta.
Could two Braves enter Hall of Fame in 2018?
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: The Hall of Fame year is finally approaching…the Chipper year! Next year will be the first year that Chipper Jones is eligible to be inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame as he retired after the 2012 season. He should (almost guarantee) be a first-year HOFer.
The Jones boys could go into the Hall together! How cool is that? I had forgotten he stopped playing in the MLB in 2012. Andruw played two years in Japan so maybe that threw me off a little. He officially stopped playing professional baseball in 2014, but in the MLB in 2012. Would be great if both Chipper and Andruw would go in together. The five-time NL All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove winning has the stats to make it into the Hall, but maybe not in the first year.
Instead of Andruw — or hell let’s put them all in next year — Fred McGriff should be put into the Hall of Fame in 2018!
Two former players become eligible on next year’s ballot: Andruw Jones and Chipper Jones.
Andruw Jones played 12 years for the Braves, from 1996 to 2007, and during that time earned 10 consecutive Gold Glove awards and five All-Star selections. The center fielder hit 434 home runs.
An eight-time All-Star who finished in the top 10 in MVP balloting six times, Jones retired as the Atlanta-era Braves career leader in most major hitting categories, batting .303 with 2,726 hits, 468 home runs (third all-time for switch-hitters), 1,512 walks, 1,623 RBIs and 1,619 runs in 2,499 games. He had a .401 career on-base percentage, a .529 slugging percentage, 549 doubles, 150 stolen bases and more walks than strikeouts (1,409), never striking out 100 times in a season.
Next: Braves Ozzie Albies Working Out In Florida
2017 Prospect Watch: Top 10 left-handed pitchers
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: Not too shabby…two Atlanta Braves starting pitching prospects in the top 10 of MLB Pipeline’s top 10 left-handed pitchers. We’ve got many lefties in our farm system and all have very high upside. Tomahawk Take’s Scott Ferris did an article looking at all of our lefties in the minors, take a look! 2016 was just the beginning, 2017 our lefties (and other minor leaguers) will explode onto the scene. When MLB Pipeline does this same article in 2018, it’s a good chance the Braves will have Newcomb and Allard again, Max Fried, Luiz Gohara, Joey Wentz and Kyle Muller all on or very close to being on the list.
MLBPipeline.com will unveil its 2017 Top 100 Prospects list on Saturday, Jan. 28, with a one-hour show on MLB Network at 8 p.m. ET. Leading up to the release, we look at baseball’s top 10 prospects at each position.
4. Kolby Allard, Braves
A back issue allowed Allard to slide to the middle of the first round in 2015, much to the delight of the Braves’ scouting staff. Atlanta held him back until June last year and he really took off at the end of the season, pitching brilliantly as his Rome club won the South Atlantic League title. The gloves could come off in 2017.
9. Sean Newcomb, Braves
There is no question about Newcomb’s stuff, leading the Double-A Southern League in strikeouts in his first season with the Braves after coming over from the Angels in theAndrelton Simmons trade. His fastball-curve combination could get big league hitters out now, but he’ll need to show better command and control to reach his ceiling as a starter.