BRAVES NEWS
Camargo leads the way as game ends in a tie
Welcome to spring training, where a tie game following nine innings results in both squads calling it a day and heading for the golf course or whatever it is baseball people do after their spring training duties are done for the day. The Braves and Pirates played to a 3-3 tie on Tuesday afternoon and Johan Camargo’s solo dinger in the bottom of the seventh inning was what tied the game for good.
Mark Bowman reported from the scene at Lake Buena Vista and noted that Camargo’s performance so far in these early days has given him the inside track on the third base job.
Braves were interested in Revere
Earlier this week, Ben Revere signed a minor league deal with the Cincinnati Reds. I pointed out how far his star had fallen after going from being a solid outfield option to being a potential bench option for the Reds. I should not throw stones from a glass house because the crew over at Tomahawk Take pointed out that the Braves were also interested in the outfielder.
Allard: Prospect rankings don’t matter, title banners do
If anybody knows anything about being a highly-rated prospect, it’s the bevy of prospects in the Braves system who have received plenty of plaudits for their efforts on the farm and their potential as major leaguers. As David O’Brien pointed out in this article for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Kolby Allard would be one of (if not the top) pitching prospects in most systems, but here he’s in the pack. Either way, Allard himself doesn’t care about where he ranks — he cares about improving and helping the big league team win games once he makes it.
“I mean, I don’t think anyone in here really cares who’s No. 1, who’s No. 2,” he said. “That doesn’t really matter. Everyone’s goal is to get up to Atlanta and try to win as many ballgames as possible, and I think that goes back to getting good guys in the clubhouse – no one cares about that status. Just the ultimate goal is to hang banners in Atlanta. All the guys (in the organization) I’m close to, all the young guys, that’s kind of what everyone talks about, it’s what we all want.
A quick progress report on the Braves
I’m guessing that you probably wouldn’t expect to see a publication like the San Diego Union-Tribune covering the Braves, but here it is. They’re actually going through and doing progress reports on each team and Jeff Sanders was tasked with rounding up the Braves and their activity during this past offseason. If you’ve been out of the loop until reading this very post, then this is the article for you.
MLB NEWS
Rangers sign Lincecum on major league deal
Apparently Tim Lincecum’s showcase went really well. Not only were there rumors that plenty of teams were interested in The Freak following the showcase, it appears that the rumors were indeed legit. The Rangers have signed Lincecum to a one-year major league deal and it appears that Texas may be trying to use him as a reliever — maybe even a closer.
Union files grievance against handful of teams over revenue-sharing spending
Meanwhile, the MLBPA is once again coming after some of the “cheaper” teams for the way they’re utilizing the money that they’ve gotten via revenue-sharing. USA Today is reporting that the union has filed a grievance against the Athletics, Marlins, Pirates and Rays over that very subject and if the comments from J.A. Happ to USA Today are any indication, they’re taking this deadly serious.
The union’s complaint regards both the 2017 season and the current off-season.
”Hopefully, we’ll get to the bottom of it,” Blue Jays pitcher J.A. Happ told USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday. “It’s been disappointing to see how the off-season has played out for a lot of guys. There’s a lot of really, really good players who can help a lot of teams that are unsigned still.
”You always wonder why that is.”