MLB NEWS
No Yelich for Atlanta as Milwaukee swoops in
The Christian Yelich sweepstakes are over and the Milwaukee Brewers are the team that ended up acquiring the former Marlins outfielder. The Brewers had to pay a pretty steep price in order to get him (and the Marlins made out very well in this deal when it comes to prospects, it has to be said) but for a team that came relatively close to toppling the Cubs in the NL Central, this could be part of what gives them a boost in potentially getting over the hump and making it back to the Postseason.
As far as the Braves were concerned, it turns out that they may have been spooked by Miami asking for Ronald Acuna in trade talks because they weren’t one of the “finalists.”
Again there were like 20-25 teams in on Yelich. Only Brewers and Blue Jays made a dent. All other teams not close. Two team race in the end.
— Craig Mish (@CraigMish) January 25, 2018
Brewers add Cain to their outfield as well
Milwaukee wasn’t done with the Yelich trade. Shortly after the trade was announced, news broke that the Brewers had also signed free agent Lorenzo Cain to a five-year, $80 million contract. While the Brewers now have an outfield surplus that may put Domingo Santana on the trade block, it does mean that Milwaukee has now built one of the best outfields in baseball in the blink of an eye.
HALL OF FAME NEWS
Chipper expresses gratitude for people who helped him in his career
The spotlight is still on Chipper Jones after he made it into the Hall of Fame at the first time of asking with 97.2 percent of the vote. Braves beat writer Mark Bowman was there to cover a press conference in Manhattan with the other Hall of Fame inductees and Chipper focused on the help that he received on the way to getting into Cooperstown.
Blessed with incredible eye-hand coordination, tremendous athleticism and a Ted Williams-like understanding of the art of hitting, Jones certainly might have become a Hall of Famer even if he hadn’t had the chance to spend the entirety of his 22 professional seasons within the Braves’ system. But it’s nearly impossible to think about his career unfolding without the strong influence provided by Terry Pendleton, David Justice, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine, Bobby Cox and the other Braves figures who welcomed him to the Majors in 1993 and then kept his ego in check once he returned from a torn ACL to begin his reign as Atlanta’s third baseman in 1995.
Chipper recalls first meeting with Mickey Mantle
Chipper Jones’ admiration of Mickey Mantle is well-known and I can’t imagine how cool it must be for Chipper to know that he’s now officially in the same fraternity as the player that he admired as a kid. However, back in 1992 Chipper probably only dreamed of reaching this level but that was also when he got to meet his idol for the first time. As he recounted to Cory McCartney of Fox Sports South, the meeting was a bit awkward but definitely worth it for the soon-to-be Braves legend.
In related news, here are a couple of videos of Chipper crushing the Mets with a couple of multi-homer games back in 1999. The second video is especially interesting since it came at a crucial juncture late in the 1999 season and it explains why Mets fans loved to hate the player.
BRAVES NEWS
Acuna receives even more praise from prospect rankings
MLB Pipeline recently released their list of Top 10 outfield prospects across baseball and in news that shouldn’t be a surprise at all, they believe that Ronald Acuna is the best outfield prospect in all of baseball. We already have an idea of how good Acuna could be and the crew at MLB Pipeline continued to illustrate just how high the ceiling is for Acuna.