BRAVES NEWS
Wisler pitches four shutout innings in rain-cancelled game
The Braves and Phillies were able to get four innings of baseball in at Lake Buena Vista yesterday evening before storm clouds rolled in and washed away any chance that the two presumptive frontrunners for the #1 pick in next year's draft could play a full 9 innings. The good news is that those four innings were enough for Matt Wisler to show that he's rounding into regular season form. He pitched four shutout innings and only gave up two hits and two walks during that span.
Braves were involved in three-way trade talks involving Jonathan Lucroy
The Braves and Brewers C Jonathan Lucroy were linked in trade talks at points during last season, and those trade talks continued with another team getting involved -- the Houston Astros. Apparently the three teams were discussing a trade last month, and according to MLB Trade Rumors, Houston would've been the likely destination for Lucroy instead of Atlanta. Either way, it's a bit of a shock that Lucroy has yet to be moved, and there's still a chance that a deal could happen between now and the deadline.
Hart, Braves excited about impending decision on Swanson and Albies
Braves President John Hart talked to FOX Sports South about the team's plans for Ozhaino Albies and Dansby Swanson. Predictably, Hart is pretty excited about having those two prospects at his disposal, and he appears confident that even though only one of them can play shortstop, either of them would be able to handle a transition to second base if they had to make it.
The team rotated Swanson and Albies between the two positions before they were sent to minor-league camp last week, and it's an option that Braves president of baseball operations John Hart is not ruling out as the season nears.
"I think we've looked at it two different ways," Hart said on Thursday. "One: Do we start them both at the same level and we play one guy at shortstop for a week and the other guy at second base and let them get a feel for both? Let them kinda come up together? Or do we say, 'We have a great gift here and we've got two outstanding shortstops,' separate them, let them both play, look up sometime at midseason, sometime in mid-July and try to make a decision then?
"That's yet to be determined."
Braves will have ongoing countdown of home games on outfield wall
The Braves' 20th and final season at Turner Field will include a countdown tracker on the left field wall. After the fifth inning of every home game, the Braves will remove a number, and they're going to make a mini-event out of it, too. Special guests will be on hand for each number removal, and this obviously includes former players like Chipper Jones removing #10, Tom Glavine removing #47, and Dale Murphy removing #3.
MLB NEWS
Diamondbacks want extensive repairs to Chase Field, or they will leave
Meanwhile, the Braves may not be the only team in baseball with plans of moving out of a stadium that wouldn't be legally old enough to drink if it was a human. The Arizona Diamondbacks have reportedly expressed major concerns about the state of their home ballpark Chase Field, to the point where they are threatening to leave 18-year-old Chase Field for a new stadium.
John Gambadoro is now reporting that the Diamondbacks are "expected to take Maricopa County to court over [its] inability to keep ballpark fit to play baseball." Hall also says the team want to stay both downtown, and at Chase Field. Though quite how that expressed intention, fits the letter at the top of the paragraph, and its desire "to move and play Diamondbacks’ baseball games in a location other than Chase Field," is a little hard to see. But this may be a negotiating ploy: it's a great deal harder to haggle if you don't demonstrate you're willing to walk away from the store.
Considering the acrimonious relationship that Arizona taxpayers currently have with their local NHL team, I don't think that this news is going to go over well with the citizens there.
Yoenis Cespedes gives up inside-the-park home run in hilarious manner
Welcome to spring training baseball, where moments like this can be laughed at in a gleeful manner instead of being laughed at in a "haha please shoot me now" manner. Mets OF Yoenis Cespedes was chasing down a fly ball in center field when the ball landed at the base of the fence. Cespedes claimed that the ball was stuck, but it was clearly visible and could've been picked up. As a result, the Astors ended up taking advantage of the confusion and scoring an inside-the-parker. The most important thing I gleaned from this is that after all of the vehicle shenanigans and pig drama, Cespedes has clearly grown tired of Grapefruit League action and is ready to go up north and start playing some real baseball.