Braves News
Braves can't cool off the Mets; Get swept out of New York
Talking Chop's Demetrius Bell recaps Thursday's afternoon's 6-3 loss by the Braves to the Nw York Mets. Julio Teheran struggled to get comfortable and Atlanta's bullpen faltered yet again. The Mets continue their torrid stretch with their 11th straight win.
Teheran unable to find grip in chilly conditions
Julio Teheran struggled again on Thursday allowing four runs in 4 1/3 innings while walking five. Later, Teheran admitted to MLB.com's Mark Bowman that the chilly conditions in New York affected him.
"I don't like to make excuses, but [the weather] was affecting me a little bit," Teheran said. "I couldn't find my grip."
Hot-hitting catcher Pierzynski gets increased playing time
Catcher A.J. Pierzynski was back behind the plate on Thursday for Atlanta and continued his torrid stretch at the plate. Pierzynski was 2-for-4 in Thursday's loss to the Mets raising his average to .407 for the season. He is 11-for-27 over his past seven games at the plate.
Shelby Miller is trying something different
Beyond the Box Score's Nicolas Stellini takes a closer look at this season's hot start by Braves pitcher Shelby Miller. Stellini points out how Miller has scrapped his change up this season and is throwing more sinkers and cutters in an effort to keep hitters off balance.
Miller has all but disposed of his changeup, and it's possible that the one (one!) changeup that he's thrown was a misidentified cutter or sinker. Because he's realized that his changeup isn't going to cut it, Miller's taken the Nathan Eovaldi route of "Screw it I'll just throw cutters." He's also throwing a lot more sinkers, which gives him three different fastballs with different movement to throws to hitters. He's also throwing his pitches in different places.
MLB News
Taking Baseball's Pulse: Checking up on the trends transforming the game
Grantland's Ben Lindbergh takes a closer look at some April trends from scoring to the progress made at speeding up the game. The article is a deep dive with plenty of good info and is certainly deserving of a read when you have the time.
Manfred: Rose will be allowed to be part of the All-Star Game
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said on Thursday that Pete Rose will be allowed to be a part of the 2015 All-Star Game which will be held in Cincinnati.
"I've agreed with Mr. Castellini that we're going to have a conversation about what specific kind of participation the Reds are interested in, and we have not had that conversation yet," Manfred said Thursday during a meeting with the Associated Press Sports Editors. "You can rest assured that he will about allowed to participate in some of the activities."
The Royals and White Sox had a benches-clearing fracas, five players ejected
For no good reason, the Kansas City Royals are becoming the bad boys of Major League Baseball. No matter what side you were on in the Royals-A's dustup over the weekend involving Brett Lawrie, its going to be hard to look at this incident and find fault with anyone other than Yordano Ventura. Apparently now its not cool to hit a one hopper back to the mound if Ventura is pitching. Take a look for yourself.