Atlanta Braves: photo day is a chance to be a little… creative

Some photographers can’t help themselves… and neither can some players.  The annual Photo Day can bring out the characters in both.

Yesterday was Photo Day for the Atlanta Braves.  This is the time in which photographers get the ‘official’ shots that are passed around to various media outlets for publicity, for news stories, for – well, pretty much any news about each player.

Some photos are a bit different than others, though and many more are taken than those used for media purposes.

These ‘different’ pics can be a function of the ‘theme’ that a given photographer wants to use.  The one handling the Los Angeles Angels liked to do hat tips this year, for instance.

Sometimes the personality of the players just bubbles to the surface… and sometimes they just get some oddly goofy-looking pics.

There’s the serious shots… and the not so serious ones.

Freddie Freeman’s big grin came out well this year, as you can see.

But some of the other shots… or attempts thereof… were a bit different.

The Fake

Here’s one example:  in this case it’s hard to know if Troy Tulowitski was doing a spoof on the photographer or if the guy behind the camera was just clueless:

This next one – of outfielder Paulo Orlando – is representative of the theme that photographer Christian Petersen opted to use for many of the Kansas City Royals – basically that they were finishing the process of getting their gear on.

Below, is a shot of A.J. Minter.  Believe me, that’s him behind the ball.  Rob Carr, who did the Braves pictures yesterday, liked this idea of having pitchers hold a ball out in front of them.  In this instance, he decided to focus on the ball and not the holder.

That might be a good idea for batters facing Minter this year, too.

Other photographers have pitchers holding baseballs in other odd positions.  The Angels snapper probably wins the day on his idea, which kinda had them at least holding their arm in a realistic pitching move.

Nuttiness Ensues

Among the more… let’s say “eccentric” personalities during picture days of days’ past has been Peter Moylan.  I haven’t seen his shot for this year yet (has yet to be posted), but here’s one from 2009.

It does look like Jeremy Jeffress might be a possible ‘personality heir apparent’ to Peter’s annual work once the Braves’ reliever finally retires:  if Ervin Santana’s catch line is “Smell Baseball”, Jeffress is raising that to a whole ‘nother level.

Finally, we leave you with a shot that looks like a typical player shot from the late 1800’s.

That’s at least a 70-grade moustache there on righty-pitcher Daniel Mendgen.  Plus-plus waxing work for sure.

So this is – clearly – a lighter post than usual, but even ball players can’t spend all of their time getting ready for the season during Spring Training.

Next: Rio's Relocation should be Rethought?

One wonders, though, just how long some of these camera-wielders spent on their own pre-Spring work to get ready for this!