Talking Chop, an Atlanta Braves community

Mr. Scorekeeper, I beg to differ. This is NOT an error. Watch it several times. Ball hits bat at :05. Run scores at :08. Desmond has about 2 seconds to field, transfer and get the ball home. Impossible. Look at his motion - he knows that if he plays the ball properly, he has no chance. He short arms the throw in a effort to beat the speedy Simmons. Let's give credit where credit's due. Infield single and RBI to Pastornicky, scoring Simmons.

I was checking out all of the minor league affiliates' promotions schedules and I stumbled across the Gwinnett Braves new blog. It just launched today and could be a cool place to find info throughout the season.

I hadn't heard about this before. Is this just a case of 'Best Off-Season Ever' or is there something legitimate here about JJ's health moving forward? Maybe this will help get a full season from him? Quote from Article that most intrigued me: "Jurrjens is especially excited for a fresh start. He went just 1-3 after being selected for his first All-Star Game and was mentioned prominently in trade talks over the winter. But he’s still in Atlanta, eager to get in full season now that doctors have discovered the underlying cause of his lingering knee problems—a shorter-than-normal joint in his right big toe, which caused his ankle to turn outward and put more street on the knee. After being fitted with orthotics, the pain was gone in a couple of weeks. "I feel like I’m a brand new kid," said Jurrjens, who just turned 26 this past weekend. "I’m happy I’m here and I’ll be trying to help the team as much as I can."

I got a huge kick out of this- Squidbillies does a spoof of the "Home Depot Tool Race" they have at every home game.

has a chapter about a rosterbatory idea to trade for Luke Scott with the Orioles.... hope I did this right!

Hallelujah, praise the Lord, Damon is going to Detroit! Finally we can stop the speculation, grant Diaz job security, and hopefully start discussing things that matter. w00t!

The key thing I see here is a blatant overvaluing of Melky and his ability to block Heyward. I don't know how of much of this is just Bowman's speculation and how much he got from the horse's mouth, but he seems to think if Melky has a good spring that the team may keep Heyward in AAA and use Melky in right, at least for a couple of months. I think most of us would agree that whether Heyward is our new right fielder is entirely upon Heyward's shoulders, not Melky's. If he hits this spring, he's in. If he doesn't have a good ST for whatever reason, then we reluctantly send him to AAA and use Melky in the short term until we deem he's ready. There is no way Melky is valuable enough as a starter to beat out Heyward in principle just by having a good spring; if there is a just God in the universe then Bobby and company know he doesn't have the stuff to be leaned on as a starter and this is really just Bowman talking out of his ass.