Atlanta Braves news and links: The "Retire 25" movement picks up a bit of steam

BRAVES NEWS

Kolby Allard makes organizational debut

The Braves' first round pick in the 2015 draft finally made his first appearance on the mound as a member of the Braves' organization. The 17-year-old lefty struck out the side in his one inning of work for the GCL Braves. I'd say that that's a pretty solid debut, right? Also, shouts out to Allard for following us on Twitter. We see you!

Sporting News: It's time to retire #25, Atlanta

Meanwhile, the movement to get the Braves to pay more of a tribute to legendary center fielder Andruw Jones is getting a bit more traction. In yesterday's News and Links,we made note of the fact that even though Andruw's technically still active in the game, that doesn't mean that the Braves shouldn't get on trying to give him some sort of honor: Whether it's retiring his number (either by officially doing it or giving it a "cold" retirement), putting him into the team Hall of Fame, or both. As it turns out, Jason Foster of The Sporting News is in our corner (and he gave one of our articles from last year a shout-out, to boot!):

The team has retired Murphy’s No. 3 and Chipper Jones' 10, along with all Hall of Famers associated with the team. But in the years since Jones left Atlanta, No. 25 has seen a revolving door or names, having graced the backs of replacement-level players including Ryan Church, Barbaro Canizares, Juan Francisco and Joey Terdoslovich. This season, it’s worn by Cameron Maybin.

Yes, Jones isn’t officially retired, but there’s precedent for the Braves to retire his number anyway. The team retired Phil Niekro’s 35 in 1984, a year after he left Atlanta and three years before he called it quits. Also, Murphy’s 3, Glavine’s 47, Maddux’s 31 and Smoltz’s 29 went unused after they left for other teams but weren’t retired officially until years later.

For many Braves fans, keeping No. 25 in circulation is, at best, a gross oversight and, at worst, insulting.

"Andruw Jones was better than any Atlanta position player who didn’t go by the moniker of 'Chipper.' Andruw was better in Atlanta than Dale Murphy, he was worlds better than Brian McCann, Fred McGriff isn’t in the same category at all. Hank Aaron had his best years in Milwaukee and wasn’t as valuable in Atlanta as Andruw was," Braves blog Talking Chop wrote in 2014.

Chipper Jones approves of the Braves rebuild process

In other news, another Jones who is universally loved across Braves Country made it into the news again. Chipper Jones was at the Alumni Weekend celebration and the AJC asked him how he felt about the rebuild. While there's a solid chunk of the fanbase that's pretty angry about how John Hart and co. are going about rebuilding the team, Chipper seems to be fine with how it's going, so there's that.

Before Braves alumni softball game on Saturday, [Chipper] was asked if he'd talked to Hart in the wake of all of those trades.

"Nothing more than to say, ‘Hey, I think you are doing a good job," Jones said. "I’ve got to give him a lot of credit. It’s hard to come into a new organization and just rip it up from top to bottom. But I agree with him that was probably what needed to happen.

"There is no sense in teetering on the fence: Do we rebuild, do we keep the team together? He chose to rebuild and he ripped it up from top to bottom. That’s the way to go."

Check out the minor league report

MLB NEWS

Jose Peraza hits a triple in his Major League debut with Dodgers

One of the reasons why the Braves sent former top prospect Jose Peraza to the Dodgers was because they felt he wouldn't be Major League-ready anytime soon. Clearly, the Dodgers disagreed with that evaluation because Peraza made his debut with the Dodgers last night and started, batting 2nd and playing 2nd base. Granted, he got called up due to an injury to Howie Kendrick, but the fact of the matter is that Peraza is now in the big leagues. That's kind of a big deal. Anyways, here's a link to Peraza's first career hit: A bloop triple.

Cueto picks up first win as a Royal

Johnny Cueto was absolutely electric for the Kansas City Royals on Monday night against the Tigers. He struck out eight and only gave up four hits in a complete game shutout of Detroit. That's one heck of a way to tally your first win for your new team, right? Anyways, the Royals are currently cruising towards the Postseason. They're 23 games over .500, eleven games up in the division, and five games ahead of everyone else for the best record in the AL. It's safe to say that their defense of the AL Pennant is going well, and their chances are even better now that they've got a true ace in Cueto in their employ.

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