BRAVES NEWS
Inciarte wins Gold Glove for second straight year
Ender Inciarte was one again one of the lone bright spots for the Atlanta Braves and while his defensive metrics may have indicated that he wasn’t as good in 2017 as he was in 2016, it was still good enough in the eyes of the award voters to give him the National League Gold Glove in center field for the second-straight season. Either way, we’re all proud of Inciarte and as long as he continues to be a plus-defender in center field, the awards and recognition will continue to roll in.
Sherman: Don’t expect punishments until after GM Meetings
It’s looking like we’re going to have to wait even longer for MLB to announce the anxiously-anticipated punishments that the Braves are surely going to receive for their improprieties in the international market. According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the announcement should come at some point after next week’s GM Meetings in Orlando but before next month’s Winter Meetings in the same city. If I had to guess, it’ll probably come either the week after Thanksgiving or the first full week of December. Either way, we’re going to be waiting a bit longer for the results of this investigation to become public.
Plus, there was this interesting bit of information concerning John Hart from Sherman to go along with this news:
If Glass does not change his mind in the short term [with regards to Dayton Moore], the Braves in the next week or two are expected to pivot and hire a GM from among a group that has been quietly interviewing the past few weeks.
Currently, Hart is not expected to be penalized by MLB for having a role in the misdeeds, which are expected to cover areas outside the international forum as well. However, it would be no surprise if ownership wants a clean break from the previous regime and moves on from Hart after a new GM is hired.
Braves receive minor connection to free agents
Free agency is underway, and the Braves have been linked to a couple of big names — even if it’s just MLB Trade Rumors making an educated guess that the Braves will sign Mike Moustakas. Meanwhile, the crew at MLB Network Radio decided to make a prediction of their own and two of their analysts believe that the Braves are going to take a shot at signing Jake Arrieta this offseason. Granted, that’s two out of 15, but hey, it’s a start!
Free Agency is less than a day old, and here are our host & analyst predictions of where the top FA's will end up pic.twitter.com/dcukm0dV3L
— MLB Network Radio (@MLBNetworkRadio) November 7, 2017
MLB NEWS
Roy Halladay dies in plane crash at age of 40
In stunningly sad news, one of the top pitchers of his generation passed away far too soon. Roy Halladay was an avid pilot and unfortunately one of his flights went horribly wrong and he didn’t survive a plane crash. Both Philadelphia and Toronto lost a major part of their baseball history today, and Grant Brisbee wrote at length about how the game itself lost someone who should have been around long enough to be one of the game’s great ambassadors. Instead, all we have now are memories of his feats and while it’s nice to remember what he’s done, it’s still sad to know that his family and friends have lost someone who seemed to be a great person.