Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: News and More

It’s an off-day for the Braves after a rough Spring week while a few of their players are now off to do their World Baseball Classic thing.  So here’s a few newsby bits to fill our space and time until baseball returns.

Several Atlanta Braves items of interest this morning:

Local Opportunity

This could be a little late (yes, it’s happening right now), but for those in the downtown Atlanta area near Atlantic Station, you might have a chance for some goodies this morning… 17th St NW just west of the I75/85 split.

The Grass is Installed!

Three observations here:

• Doesn’t it really look like a major league park now?
• Check those site lines… while the photo is clearly distorted a bit (by intention), you can see that the upper decks are truly closer to the action than before.
• Also check that foul territory… it really is more limited than at Turner Field as we feared!

Stock Up, Stock Down

First roster cuts could come soon… possibly today during the off-day.

You can’t necessarily win a job by your performance during Spring games… but you can definitely lose one, and there have been some sketchy pitching performances in the last week that have led directly to the 2-8 record that the Braves now have – which ranks as the worst in the majors right now.

Rough Starts

• Patrick Weigel.  Wasn’t going to make the club regardless, but got beat up this weekend at the hands of the Red Sox… though following hurler Lucas Sims didn’t help him out, either.  Still, he’s getting his taste here, and did well in an earlier outing.

Update:  this is of note… seems Weigel could have sued some behind him for lack of support.

• Chaz Roe.  No idea what’s going on with him early on, but he’s just not getting anyone out.  ERA 63.0 and a WHIP of nine.
• David Hale. Was signed back on a minor league deal late in the week and was immediately baptized in fire.  Got one batter out, walked one, yielded 2 hits and 2 runs.  He will get at least one more shot, though.
• Sam Freeman, John Danks, Michael Mader… more ugly numbers.
• Sean Newcomb.  The good news?  Zero walks.  But I have to wonder if he was told to sacrifice results for the sake of putting the ball in the hitting zone.  6 hits in 1 inning and 4 runs.  K’d one batter.

Better Reports

More from Tomahawk Take

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• Atlanta Braves Sign Joshua Fuentes to Minor League Deal
• Braves News: New Year’s Eve comes with several questions about the 2023 Braves

• Mauricio Cabrera.  2 walks in 3 innings, but also 3 K’s.  He has been playing with fire, though, giving up 3 hits, but no runs.
• Jesse Biddle, Paco Rodriguez.  Nice to see both finally get on the field… and both are doing well.
• Eric O’Flaherty has thrown 3 innings on 3 days and given up zero runs as well.  Nice.
• Arodys Vizcaino did give up a run, but reportedly looked very good in his pair of mound stints.
• Jim Johnson was even better:  1 walk, 2 K, zero hits, zero runs in 2 innings.
• Max Fried, Josh Collmenter, Luke Jackson, and Rhiner Cruz:  all off to excellent starts with no runs allowed.

Next: Yesterday's News

That’s enough for now… we’ll continue to monitor Braves news as we always do!