The Daily Chop: Bill Bartholomay passes away

Major League Baseball lost an important figure in the history of the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday when longtime team chairman Bill Bartholomay passed away. Bartholomay was responsible for moving the Braves from Milwaukee to Atlanta and later served as the team’s chairman after selling the club to Ted Turner. Bartholomay had been a fixture at team events over the past 40 years and was recently in attendance for the dedication of Hank Aaron Way at the Braves’ new spring training complex in North Port. The Braves inducted Bartholomay into the team’s Hall of Fame in 2002 and released a statement in regards to his passing on Thursday.

More Braves News

Talking Chop’s Cory McCartney broke the best season in Braves history at each position in his weekly Starting Nine column. There is quite a bit of Hank Aaron and a couple of surprises along the way.

The Athletic’s Jeff Schultz caught up with Braves manager Brian Snitker to discuss how he is passing the time with no baseball.

With the 2020 Opening Day postponed, MLB.com organized a 30 game #OpeningDayAtHome schedule and streamed one key game for each team on Thursday. For the Braves, it was Game 3 of the 2018 NLDS against the Dodgers that featured a big grand slam home run by Ronald Acuña Jr.

MLB.com reporters have been busy ranking the five best players at each position for each team starting with the catcher position earlier this week. On Thursday, MLB Pipeline released their list of the most-hyped catching prospects since 2001. Jarrod Saltalamacchia made the list for the Braves who ranked 16th on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 list in 2006.

Wayne Cavadi continued his prospect retrospective series on Thursday with a look at Tyrell Jenkins whom the Braves acquired in the Jason Heyward deal and later traded away for Luke Jackson.

Finally, in our first FanPulse voting results of 2020, voters remain optimistic that we will see some sort of a MLB regular season but what it will ultimately look like and when it might start is much less clear.

MLB News

Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association are continuing to negotiate an agreement that includes a framework for what will happen in regards to players salaries, service time, the draft and other items for a shortened 2020 season. ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel reported on Thursday that the 2020 MLB Draft will likely be moved back to July and will be shortened to somewhere between 5-10 rounds. The arrangement would also include signing bonuses that included a small up front payment with larger amounts deferred. This could lead to a lot of high school prospects heading to college and a lot of mid-tier college talent to return to school. (UPDATE: The MLB and MLBPA struck a deal late on Thursday.)

FiveThirtyEight writer Travis Sawchik takes a closer look at home much time pitchers will need to get themselves ready for a truncated regular season. Spoiler alert, they will probably need more time than they are going to get.

Good news here! Rangers outfielder Willie Calhoun has been cleared to resume baseball activities again. Calhoun suffered a broken jaw after he was struck in the face by a pitch during a spring training game on March 8.