Atlanta Braves Spring Chop for a Wednesday ‘pie day’
So go have a pie today on Pi day – 3.14 on your calendar. One of my favorites was the peanut butter pie from a long gone restaurant in Melbourne, FL named ‘Pop’s Casbah.’ Let’s check the notes for this morning.
In the wake of comments from Alex Anthopoulous that the Atlanta Braves are still “engaged” in the market for a veteran outfielder via either a trade or a signing, there’s this from various sources as reported on the MLB Trade Rumors site:
"The Mets have received recent trade interest in Juan Lagares and “haven’t ruled out” a trade of the defensively gifted center fielder, reports Mike Puma of the New York Post. Per Puma, at least one AL club has maintained interest in Lagares into the middle portion of Spring Training."
They went on to say that the Oakland A’s are not among teams of interest. Nobody has mentioned the Braves, so I will go ahead and make one bold statement: AA isn’t looking for Lagares.
It’s about the money – Lagares is on a 5 year contract that lasts through next year: $6.5 million in 2018, $9 million in 2019. His decision to sign such a contract turns out to be a really good one for him, considering that he might be scratching out $1 million deals otherwise as a glove-only-defensive-4th-or-5th-outfielder.
But none of that works for Atlanta, as they need somebody who is … and I don’t really like this term here, but it does fit… ‘disposable’.
I will tell you who I think could be a fit among the unsigned free agents: Jose Bautista. His hitting is generally poor and his defense is bad, but he also has a history of driving in runs with 23 homers even last season while hitting only .203. Then there’s also the obvious connection to AA via Toronto.
Note this tidbit on his fangraphs.com page: “RotoWire News: Bautista is considering retirement, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag Sports reports. Bautista has a couple of offers of around $1 million, but is seeking a larger offer in order to continue his career. (3/8/2018)”
There was a strong rumor that Bautista was trying to get the Rays interested in him. The Braves would be the next-closest/most likely fit for him.
Tuesday’s Game
The Braves actually outhit the Blue Jays 15 to 13 yesterday, but that didn’t quite translate to the first column on the scoreboard as Toronto – the visiting version of that team – plated 13 runs vs. 6 for Atlanta.
The words this morning about the pitching efforts are frankly a little bizarre sounding to me. Things like this:
and this:
(I’m looking at the Snit comment – not the bit about Austin Riley).
That’s all well and good – and I am very happy to hear (yesterday) that Scott Kazmir is feeling no lingering effects from his 2017 injuries – but when you can’t dent 90 mph on the radar gun any longer, being ‘sharp’ on the mound is going to be a requirement, not an option.
Again, the Braves won’t need a 5th starter for a while, so if Kazmir still has rust to sand down, then he’ll have the time to get that done.
The better news? Freddie Freeman and Ronald Acuna Jr. both went deep. Acuna also managed to prevent this score (and Kazmir’s line) from being even worse by saving a grand slam.
Just Noting
Tim Tebow was reassigned to the Mets’ minor league camp yesterday. He was 1-for-18 with 11 strikeouts in 7 games.
Ryan Schimpf: with the Braves, he is now 0-for-10, with 8 strikeouts, 2 walks, and 2 balls otherwise put in play. For the entire Spring, Schimpf is now 0-for-24 with 16 punchouts and 3 walks.
Honestly, I think we may need to come up with something like the ‘diamond sombrero’ to describe his K-rate (nearly 60%). This is easily the worst I can recall – and a lot of that was against minor league pitching.
Next: Building from the mound or the bat rack?
Today’s game: the Phillies, once again from Disney World. 1:05pm start.