BRAVES NEWS

Braves make five picks on Day 1 of 2015 MLB Draft

The Atlanta Braves were super-busy on the first day of the 2015 MLB Draft, as they owned five of the first 75 picks in the draft. Beforehand, the team let it be known that they were going to be a bit less "safe" when it came to their draft strategy, and it shows; All of the players that the Braves selected on Monday are of the "high-ceiling" variety, and it's pretty clear that the Braves believe that their minor league system can eventually turn these guys into diamonds.

Braves bullpen blows another lead

Meanwhile in the big leagues, it was a familiar story for our Braves. The guys had a lead late in the game, then the bullpen entered the game and the lead was soon gone. Ho-hum! The old Braves had themselves a nice night; Melvin Upton Jr. scored the run that sent the game into extras, and Craig Kimbrel recorded save #200 of his career.

Kimbrel: "No hard feelings towards Braves"

Speaking of Kimbrel, the former Braves closer expressed no hard feelings towards the Braves after they traded him in the winter.

"I have a ton of great memories here," the Padres closer said. "We were able to do a lot of good things on the field the five years I was here, and I'll never forget those and all the fans that have always been so good to me."

Kimbrel, who turned 27 before the season, was anticipated to be the Braves' long-term closer, but he says he understands the nature of the trade.

"The way that baseball is today, there's moves that are made for organizational purposes. Me and B.J. [Upton] being traded was one of them. That's just how I look at it.

"There's no bitterness towards the organization. I still love a lot of the guys over there, and still have great friendships with the guys and guys in the front office. So, bitterness? No. But when I get out there and pitch tonight, it's going to be exciting. It's going to be a lot of fun."

Braves call up reliever David Aardsma

With that being said, the Braves are beginning to suffer from the fact that they significantly weakened their bullpen by trading Kimbrel and others during the offseason. This is evidenced not only by all of these blown leads but by the fact that the Braves have now called upon David Aardsma to be a reliever. Aardsma was recently signed on a minor-league deal, but it was clear that he'd be coming to the big league squad sooner or later. Now, here's a quick tidbit on the state of flux that the Braves' bullpen is currently in:

With David Aardsma joining the Braves bullpen today, Atlanta will use their 21st pitcher of the season. They only used 20 all of last year.

— gondeee (@gondeee) June 9, 2025

Atlanta needs more production outside of Freddie Freeman

As expected, Freddie Freeman is currently the offensive linchpin of the Atlanta Braves. He's hitting .304/.372/.521 with 10 HRs and 146 wRC+. That'll get the job done for any team, but compared to the rest of the Braves, he's Barry Bonds. Outside of Nick Markakis, Cameron Maybin, and pre-injury Kelly Johnson, the rest of the squad is scuffling offensively. Again, this was expected, but it's still rough to watch.

What all of those numbers mean is that despite Freeman almost single-handedly carrying the offense, the Braves have been mostly competitive in a season where everyone expected a regression. It also means Atlanta can be even better if they get some support for their slugger. The question is, who can even provide that support?

Check out our minor league report

MLB NEWS

Diamondbacks select Dansby Swanson with #1 overall pick in MLB Draft

The Diamondbacks wasted little time on Monday night as they went ahead and selected what was considered to be the best bat in all of college baseball with the first overall pick in the MLB Draft. Dansby Swanson will be a shortstop, and scouts project him to have power that will have him at about 10-15 HRs a year at the MLB level. For a shortstop, that type of power is invaluable, which is why the D-Backs will probably be extremely pleased if the Vanderbilt standout fulfills his potential.

Matt Holliday injures his quad as Cardinals get blown out by Rockies

Monday night was an awful night on the field for the Cardinals. Not only did they get demolished 11-3 by the Rockies, but they may have lost Matt Holliday for an extended period of time. Here's what Holliday means to the Cardinals:

Here are the number of games Matt Holliday has played in in each season of his Cardinals career thus far:

• 2010: 158
• 2011: 127
• 2012: 157
• 2013: 141
• 2014: 156
• 2015: 52 (of 58 games)

In those seasons, he has never put up a season wRC+ lower than 132. He's as consistent as they come these days--so much so, in fact, that last month Ben Lindbergh of Grantland wrote an encomium to the left fielder he called the "Leaderboard Lifer" while Tony Blengino of Fangraphs wrote a similar article just this past offseason: "Matt Holliday: The Game's Most Underrated Star."

Yeah, if there's one player that the Cardinals really don't want to see injured, it's Holliday.

Royals fans are stuffing the AL All-Star ballot box

On Monday, MLB's PR department released its latest update on AL All-Star voting, and with the way things are going, the game may end up being "The 2015 MLB All-Star Game: Starring, the Kansas City Royals."

SEVEN @Royals are in line to start after the 3rd @esurance #ASG AL ballot update. http://t.co/ulRu5EmD7c #ASGWorthy pic.twitter.com/Je6pf8ErfN

— MLB (@MLB) June 8, 2025

I mean, props to Royals fans for doing their job, but bruh: This is ridiculous. It appears that winning the AL pennant has woken a sleeping giant in Kansas City.