Atlanta Braves news: Acuna leads Atlanta’s “prospect wave”

BRAVES NEWS

Atlanta set to “ride prospect wave” into 2018 and beyond

As we enter the last few days of 2017, USA Today has decided to take a look at what’s in store for teams in 2018. That includes our Atlanta Braves, who have had an eventful offseason so far. Dylan Sinn took stock of the team at the moment and also wrote about the team’s top five prospects, which obviously includes Ronald Acuna.

SunTrust Park: Good for Braves, bad for local taxpayers

There’s no question that the Braves are benefiting from their shiny new stadium in the Atlanta suburb of Cobb County. The team will probably use the money that they make from SunTrust Park and The Battery and re-invest it into baseball operations. That’s great for the baseball team, but it sure seems like the taxpayers who currently paying for the stadium aren’t going to see much return on their investment. Meris Lutz of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on how the stadium is affecting the rest of Cobb County.

J.C. Bradbury, an economics professor at Kennesaw State University, said the projected economic impact of the stadium was never methodologically sound. More recently, the county has approved employee raises, new parks and large projects with no operating budget.

“It’s not just the Braves,” Bradbury said. “It is an excess expense, but the cost of a lot of things has gone up.”

MLB NEWS

Reds sign reliever Hughes

Yesterday may have been the day after Christmas, but that didn’t stop the Cincinnati Reds from getting a bit of business done. The Reds signed 32-year-old reliever Jared Hughes to a two-year deal worth a guaranteed $4.5 million.

The ground-ball specialist posted a strong 3.02 ERA in 59.2 innings for Milwaukee last year, with numbers strikingly similar to his 2016 season, when he notched a 3.03 ERA in 59.1 innings for Pittsburgh.

Astros first base coach almost died during title celebration

Normally, championship parades and celebrations are supposed to be a day of universal happiness for the team that is fortunate enough to get to celebrate it. With that being said, there was a good chance that the Houston Astros’ title celebration would have been remembered for something extremely sad after first base coach Rich Dauer (who was going to retire after the season anyways) suffered a serious head injury following a fall the night before. Ken Rosenthal wrote at length about how Dauer managed to survive and how this all unfolded without the public knowing until now.