Braves Spring Training Notes

I've spent much of the last few hours sitting on the Braves dugout bench during batting practice next to Bobby Cox shootin the sh*t... oh, what a life. He's got Brian McCann hitting fourth today and Troy Glaus hitting fifth, but Cox said there was nothing to that and he's just tinkering for the sake of tinkering. "That's where he hit last year," said Cox about McCann.

Cox still has plenty of confidence in Jo-Jo Reyes, and it looks like they'll keep him around in big league camp until the end regardless. Bobby didn't give any hints about who he's leaning towards with regards to the last two spots in the bullpen. He keeps saying "it's wide open." He also didn't give any indication that the team needs any additional pieces, saying in not so many words that all the pieces they need are here in camp. So that lessens the possibility of an end of spring trade. That, and the fact that all of the relievers on the bubble have options left, so there's no need to trade anyone away if they don't make the team.

Braves PR director Brad Hainje came in the dugout and said that Jason Heyward had just hit his car. It turns out that Heyward cracked the glass on the passenger's side rearview mirror, Eddie Perez confirmed that it was Heyward's shot, as McCann was also sending some homeruns that way today. Hainje's quote about Heyward hitting cars was pretty priceless, "Like the grim reaper, you don't know when or how, but he's going to get you." I commented that Heyward is now adding precision to his repertoire, instead of just aiming for big windows, he's zeroing in on small little review mirrors.

Glenn Diamond let it slip that John Smoltz is planning on coming down at some point. It seems that he's coming down for some kind of "meetings," but that he will likely stop by Braves spring camp.

Most of the players were doing an autograph session after batting practice, so I didn't get to talk to too many of them. I did git a few minutes each with Brandon Hicks and Craig Kimbrel. I'll also have some more on Jordan Schafer's injury later on. Nothing bad, he's basically just taking it slow.