I'm always impressed at how young players in baseball stick together and share in the ups and downs of the baseball season. Jason Heyward and Freddie Freeman did this last year when they both lived together as roommmates around Atlanta. Tommy Hanson and Kris Medlen lived together. Brian McCann and Jeff Francoeur lived together when they came up through the system. Now it appears that two pitchers competing for the final spot in the starting rotation, Brandon Beachy and Mike Minor, will be rooming together this year. From DOB:

Either way, both of the roommates — Minor and Beachy will share an apartment this season — figure to pitch in the Braves’ starting rotation this season, possibly together.

Freeman was able to learn a lot from Heyward last year by simply watching Jason go through the rigors of his first full Major League season. This will likely be the case with Minor and Beachy this season, as one of them watches the other handle the duties of a Major League starter.

We're all looking for the next up and coming out of nowhere Braves starter, and that could be 2008 fifth-round pick Jacob Thompson. Here's a tweet from Bill Shanks (in keeping with the roommate theme):

Who could be this year's Brandon Beachy? Perhaps Jacob Thompson, who was Beachy's roommate last year for a while. His stuff is improving.

Yes folks, Braves pitching depth is so vast that many forgotten players emerge year after year. Last year it was Beachy and Venters, the year before it was Medlen, and before that it was Charlie Morton.

• In other Braves starting pitching news, MLBTR has a nice rundown of the MLB clubs that might be interested in Rodrigo Lopez and/or Kenshin Kawakami. The Brewers seem to be the most likely destination for one of them at this point.
• Here's a nice little local article about Braves minor leaguer Michael Broadway. It gives some great insight into how much (or how little) minor league players make.