Atlanta Braves

By Dave Cameron This afternoon, I mentioned that there may be an opportunity for teams to improve their rosters through diversification rather than purely pursuing upgrades. Let’s take a look at one of the specific opportunities and how this could work practically. Atlanta, Left Field The Braves want t...

By cbwilk The fact is, most effective Major League relievers are converted starters. But, that's no reason to ignore the crop of pitchers performing primarily as relievers in the Braves' Minor League system, as the tops names are each not only talented but have succeeded as they've moved up the lad...

By gondeee It seems like some of the bitterness of the Braves' decision to cut Tom Glavine (evident in this picture from June 5th of this year) has finally left the future Hall of Fame pitcher. Yesterday, Nov. 19, on ‘SIRIUS XM’s MLB Home Plate’ channel, hosts Seth Everett and Jim Duquette spoke with Tom...

By gondeee Middle relief is never a sure thing in baseball. The Atlanta Braves have been lucky in the past to have cobbled together good middle relief corps. They haven't been so lucky the last few years, but last year they did a decent job of assembling good middle relievers while working around some in...

By gondeee If Rafael Soriano was the Atlanta Braves closer that came out of the gate strong and finished poorly, then Mike Gonzalez is the opposite -- the closer who started out poorly and finished strong. Gonzalez was in the co-closer role out of spring training, but he was clearly favored by Bobby Co...

By gondeee Soriano had an 87% save percentage, while the Braves relief core (which included Soriano) had a paltry 63% save percentage. In converting saves, Soriano had a higher save percentage than Jose Valverde, Jonathan Broxton, Fancisco Rodriguez, and many others. Those 6 losses and 4 blown sav...

By dobrien@ajc.com Braves' starting pitcher, who went 11-4, 2.89 ERA in 21 starts, got two first-place votes and 37 points.

By dobrien@ajc.com Now that the Braves' starting rotation and Tim Hudson's surgically repaired arm both appear stronger than they've been in several years, Hudson hoped to stick around to see how far they could take things.

By yondaime4 Bret Oberholtzer started his second year in the Braves organization pitching for Danville and pretty much dominating the Appy League. He went 6-2 with a 2.01 ERA and a 56-6 K/BB rate in 67 innings pitched. The Braves took him in the 8th round of the 2008 Amateur Draft after the Mariners failed t...

By gondeee Atlanta Braves starter Kenshin Kawakami took one month of the regular season to adjust to American baseball. His April starts produced a 7.06 ERA. While it was only four starts, including one really bad start, Kawakami made the adjustments and compiled ERAs of 3.03 and 3.33 the next two months...

By dobrien@ajc.com Atlanta could likely try to trade starter Lowe (above), Vazquez or Kawakami.

By dobrien@ajc.com Veteran reliever Scott Proctor has signed a one-year minor league contract with the Braves, who will invite him to spring training with the hope that he can return to form following ligament-transplant elbow surgery in May 2008.

Related articles from FOXSports.com News for Braves and more.

By gondeee Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Jair Jurrjens was good in 2009, but was he really a whole run better -- as he ERA from last year (3.68) to this year (2.60) showed? There are many Braves fans who are ready to anoint Jurrjens as the next in the great line of Braves starters, but to borrow a phrase fr...

By royhobbs Overall, Javier Vazquez is one of five total pitchers in all of Major League Baseball (Grienke, Haren, Shields, Wainwright) to achieve this feat.  Regardless of the wins and losses, there's something to be said about a pitcher who comes out consistently, does his job, and does it well.  Re...

By gondeee One of the most disappointing story lines of the 2009 season for the Atlanta Braves was the failure of center fielder Jordan Schafer. Going into spring training he was competing with two other guys, both with major league experience, Josh Anderson and Gregor Blanco. Schafer had such an imp...

By gondeee It's hard to describe the season of Atlanta Braves center fielder Nate McLouth. He wasn't bad, he wasn't really that good, he was just average. Of course, after the last few seasons of below average center fielders, it is nice to finally have one who is at least average. None of this is to say tha...

By gondeee I am excited to be exclusively displaying the work of artist Chris Speakman, who allowed me to use these two prints of Chipper Jones. Speakman is licensed by Major League Baseball to create and sell "1940's propaganda style" limited edition hand made screen-prints on paper. He is currentl...

By gondeee Oh, Yunel, you bubbly fidgeting wonderfully frustrating player... It seems the first thing that people think of when they think of Atlanta Braves shortstop Yunel Escobar are his idiosyncrasies on the field and in the batter's box. When Tom Glavine returned to the Braves in 2008, he initiall...

By the end of the year, The Braves were a very different team than they trotted out on Opening Day. Most of the change, however, was on the field rather than on the mound. The additions of Tommy Hanson and Tim Hudson were important, but on the whole the pitching staff didn't change that much from...

By cbwilk Prior to the 2009 season, there was speculation that Martin Prado could perform well enough to replace Kelly Johnson as the Braves' starting second baseman. This speculation was based on the idea that Prado's presence could allow the Braves to trade Johnson, who had shown himself to be on...

By gondeee Adam LaRoche should be the guy manning first base for the Atlanta Braves next season. Coming up tomorrow, the top-5 minor league first basemen in the Braves system, and a first baseman's round table between the bloggers here at Talking Chop.

By gondeee As part of season reviews for major league players and top prospect ranking for minor league players, we here at Talking Chop thought it would be a fun idea to get all of our bloggers together with the help of Google Docs and debate the various aspects of each position in the Braves organizat...

By dobrien@ajc.com NEW YORK - One more season as Braves manager for Bobby Cox and that's it. After 2010 he's taking his 2,400-plus wins and cigars and leaving the dugout.

By dobrien@ajc.com Early this season no one seemed certain if Braves catcher Brian McCann would ever see clearly again, much less be a 90-RBI man again.

Related articles from Online Athens, ajc.com and more.

Baseball America named Braves outfield prospect Jason Heyward the minor league player of the year Friday.

Related articles from Braves Journal, Online Athens, Yahoo! Sports, ajc.com and more.

Each time the stage lights shine brightest on Kenshin Kawakami, the Braves pitcher responds with one of his best performances. . . .

DENVER — Matt Diaz has been of the league's hottest hitters in recent weeks, and Jeff Francoeur has been one of the league's worst-hitting outfielders all season. But Francoeur was back in right field Thursday, his second consecutive start since Diaz ended a streak of five consecutive mu...

By Marc Hulet The Atlanta Braves system has a few bigger names in the top half of the system, but the strength is in the depth. Things could look even better by the end of 2009 if a few of the sleepers wake up. AAA/AA Tommy Hanson has already been written about a fair bit around here. He had a [...]

By sportsslash Fandom: MLB/Braves Pairing: Jeff/Brian Rating: R Disclaimer: This is not in any way intended to represent reality. Summary: Brian makes it to the honeymoon suite, one year after Jeff left it behind. Jeff wanders New Zealand aimlessly. ...

By Mac Thomason Could the 2008 Braves have won the division? Sure. This wasn’t really a 72-win team, not when Hudson was healthy and Teixeira was at first base. At worst, it was a .500 team, and a .500 team can win the division with a little luck. But all the Braves’ luck was bad — this team had the karma of a arbitrage...

By Alex Remington Tonight, the bases may not be loaded, but a lot of Atlanta Braves fans will be, toasting Skip’s health, shouting “Braves win!” together, and remembering every goofy smile Skip was able to steal from sadness, back when it was fun. Thanks for the laughs, Skip. We’ll miss you.

Hosts Andrew Kappes and Brandon Rosage picked apart the winners and losers from the trade deadline, focusing on teams like the Pitsburgh Pirates, Florida Marlins, Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds, who stockpiled new talent for the pennant race and the future. The discussion also loo...

Atlanta lost Chipper Jones and Tim Hudson to injury in the same game Wednesday, leaving “The Pitch, presented by Liveboard” to wonder if the team’s quandary hanging between out-of-contention and in-contention forces their hand as sellers, with Mark Teixeira as their prize bait.

By gondeee Matthew Price (34), RHP – Another pitcher, this time from an Atlanta-area prep high school. Adam Bullard (43), RHP – Still just a junior at a four-year school in North Carolina, this unranked pitcher will likely stay in school. Taylor Hart (44), RHP – An unranked pitcher in Georgia from Madi...

By gondeee Zeke Spruill (2S), RHP – This is the high school pitcher many people thought the Braves might take with their first selection in the draft at number 40. He ends up falling to the Braves with their third pick at number 70 overall. Spruill was rated by Baseball America as the 66th best prospect in...

The Pitch kicks off MLB’s third week of regular season play with banter from a weekend that saw ageless ace Greg Maddux carve up the Dodgers, Francisco Liriano stumble in a “rehab” start, Tom Glavine fall off of the Braves’ rotation and the-Detroit-team-that-shall-remain-nameless co...

In the hour before the Braves and Nationals fired off their first pitch of the 2008 campaign and brand new Nationals Park, The Pitch unleashed its ‘08 predictions for the MLB season’s division, wild card, World Series and award winners.

By gondeee From friend of the site, RehabReject, over at his blog tbaatil, comes a link to an interview that John Smoltz did yesterday morning on the Dan Patrick radio show. Clearly, Patrick is simply interviewing the same people I interview. Really though, it's a good interview -- a lot of good nature...

By Will Schaffer I’ve been saying it all off-season and I’m sticking to it; I think Brayan Pena will be the backup firstbaseman.  Not only can he play first and third, but it would allow the Braves to keep on Javy Lopez without worrying about what to do if he doesn’t produce, while also giving them a decent defe...

By Will Schaffer Q: Jeff Locke recently told us that you along with Jason Heyward were the two toughest hitters he’s ever had to face. As a hitter, who is the toughest pitcher you’ve ever had to face? A: Locke would have to be one of the toughest i have had to face but luckily he is on my team and I only have to worry a...

By Will Schaffer These two really attest to the depth of Atlanta’s farm system. There are a lot of very high potential young guys just starting to realize that potential, which means in a few years, this system could be rich with elite talent. If you told me last year that the Braves would trade away the amount t...

By Will Schaffer 2007 for the Braves’ farm system was marked by big breakouts. Jordan Schafer, Brandon Jones, Jo-Jo Reyes, and others stepped out from the shadows of relative anonymity and took their place among the premier prospects in baseball. Which Braves prospects should you look forward to taking b...

By Kristi Dosh 10.  Thou shalt not leave the game before the final out is recorded. Here we are in the offseason and all I can think about when I’ll get to go to my first game.  I played around with a poem about the 2008 Braves this morning, but it needs more work.  I got to thinking about my pet peeves when it comes to...

By Brandon Rosage The Pitch: Oct. 12, 2007 Bringing back the weekly MLB talk program, “The Pitch” relaunched Friday on MVN Radio with Joe Aiello and Brandon Rosage. We look at Jeff Francis’ NLCS Game 1 gem, Brandon Webb’s inability to dominate Colorado, Justin Upton’s interference play and the pitiful booi...

Chipper Jones likes interleague games, playing in ballparks he hasnt seen before and opposing teams the Atlanta Braves seldom face.

Atlantas Bobby Cox moved past Sparky Anderson into fourth place in career managerial victories when the Braves beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 92 on Saturday night, Coxs 2,195th victory in the majors.

Dale Murphy was in his last season with the Atlanta Braves in 1990 when a skinny high school shortstop walked into the clubhouse.

Chipper Jones was held out of the Braves lineup for the third consecutive game Sunday because of a sore muscle on his right side, but he doesnt think the injury is serious.

  Sports  March 11, 2006   mlb notebook Glavine upset with Braves GM In his new book, Schuerholz discloses details of veteran pitcher's contract negotiations Tom Wood Pontiac GMC Mazda 2006 Mazda Tribute $219/mo 2006 Savana Luxury Van $26,995 Coast to Coast Quality Luxury Import...

By Associated Press KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- Tim Hudson will start Opening Day for the Atlanta Braves. The change in the rotation comes with the blessing of 2005 Opening Day starter John Smoltz, who says it's time to pass the honor to Hudson. Smoltz Hudson "Huddy is Opening Day starter for the future here," Smoltz said....