Atlanta Braves news and links: Braves return from rain delay with roar

BRAVES NEWS

Atlanta roars back to beat Philly in rain-delayed encounter

The Braves and Phillies had a long night at the ballpark on Tuesday night, but it ultimately ended with the home team rallying big-time in order to pick up yet another September win. The first part of this game went about as badly for the Braves as possible, as they were down 6-0 at one point. Once play resumed at 10:50 PM ET following a lengthy rain delay with Atlanta down 6-1, the Braves turned it all around. They rallied with four runs in the sixth, and two runs in the eighth to completely overturn the deficit and finish up as 7-6 winners.

Braves trade Gordon Beckham to Giants

In a bit of a strange move, the Braves have traded Gordon Beckham to the San Francisco Giants in exchange for infielder Rich Rodriguez. It’s not too strange for the Braves — Beckham is definitely not part of the Braves’ long term plans. The timing was just weird, and he won’t be eligible for the Giants’ postseason roster, so they’re only getting Beckham for six days. Our friends at McCovey Chronicles are confused.

As generic depth for six games? Okay, fine. Maybe there’s something we don’t know about Gillaspie, Tomlinson, or Adrianza, if not all three. But if you’re going to go to the trouble to make a 40-man roster move, why not give the gig to someone already in the system? Grant Green, for example.

Dunno. The trade itself isn’t going to hurt, as it’s likely just for cash, but the Giants either have to designate someone for assignment or place someone on the 60-day DL to make room on the roster. If it’s the former, that seems absurd, regardless of the career prospects of the player exposed to waivers. That risk, any risk at all, can’t be worth six games.

If it’s the latter, well, huh.

Braves All-Turner Field team is unveiled

We’re currently in the midst of the final week of Turner Field’s existence as a baseball stadium, so the team has released the results of the voting for the Braves’ All-Turner Field team. Most of the choices were pretty straightforward, and then you have choices like Brian Jordan being selected as the right fielder ahead of Jason Heyward and Gary Sheffield. Alright then!

MLB NEWS

Martin Prado signs contract extension with Marlins

Well, the third base free agent market got thinner yesterday when it was announced that All-Turner Field utilityman Martin Prado had signed a contract extension with the Miami Marlins. Prado will be staying with Miami on a three-year, $40 M contract, and this is after he was traded from the Yankees before the 2015 season. So yeah, if you were one of those people who wanted to see a reunion between the Braves and Prado, it’ll only be happening whenever the Marlins come to town or vice versa.

He has contributed approximately 6.3 fWAR in his two seasons in Miami, providing above replacement level work both up at the dish and in the field. This season has seen Martin hit .305/.360/.415 with seven homeruns, 37 doubles and 73 runs batted in.

The deal (three years, $40 million dollars) seems reasonable and is probably close to what he would’ve fetched on the open market, where he was certain to draw keen interest. The Marlins are banking on him continuing to provide an above average bat near the top of the lineup through ages 33-35, but they’re also re-signing a guy who has become the unofficial team captain, and when stories began to come out late last year about Prado’s leadership, you knew it was only a matter of time before the two sides got this done.

Dodgers will face Nationals in NLDS

The NLDS matchups for this season are set in stone — the Cubs will face whoever decides to go ahead and take the spot as the sacrificial lamb Wild Card winner, while the Dodgers will be taking on the Nationals. The only thing that has yet to be decided in the latter series is which team will have home field advantage. Right now, the Nationals have the edge, but the Dodgers have steadily been creeping up on them and could very well snatch away home field by the time the season ends on Sunday.