The Braves have signed Lance Niekro, the son of former Brave pitcher Joe Niekro and the nephew of former Brave legend Phil Niekro, to a minor league contract. The most interesting part of this signing is that Niekro, who has spent his 9 year career as a first baseman and third baseman was signed as a right handed pitcher.

The 30 year old only played 17 games last season for Houston's AAA team after spending the rest of his career in the Giant's organization and you'd have to assume that the rest of the season was spent in an effort to convert him into a pitcher. You'd also have to assume that, given his family history, that the youngest Niekro is also going to be a knuckleball pitcher.

It's hard to say what kind of an impact, if any he's going to have with the Braves, heck it's hard to say that he'll even make one of the minor league teams as a pitcher, but if he has success it could be a pretty interesting story.