Only TC related because a chunk of people have lobbied for him to be a Brave. Chicago got minor league pitchers Simon Castro, a right-hander, and Pedro Hernandez, a left-hander.

Any ideas on how this affects SC? Considering these penalties, I wonder what SC's will be.

Yu Darvish is going to make himself available to MLB teams through the same bid process used by Ichiro and Daisuke. I can't imagine the Braves going after him, but it will still provide an interesting story for MLB.

Wonder what the OBC will do now for his offense.

I think we all saw this coming at some point.

Welcome to Syracuse and Pitt.

I think if we're going to do this, we might as well go ahead and grab two other teams too. Looks like it's heading that way anyway.

Not Braves related, but still an interesting article from Joe Pos on wins. He hits how I think most of us feel exactly -- wins are interesting and fun to look at, but have little value.

Jonah Keri has some interesting things to say about the Braves that will leave most of us here nodding our heads. My favorite:

"Bruce Bochy's outmanaging Ron Washington wasn't the only reason the Giants beat the Rangers in the World Series last fall. But it did help. Braves fans better hope their team's playoff life doesn't come down to a managerial battle of wits."

Joe Pos has an interesting article on the All Star Game. I especially liked this line:

"Don’t reduce the fans’ role in the game — INCREASE it. I cannot believe that baseball does not allow hometown fans to choose their representative. Why wouldn’t they do that? A Final Fan vote for every team, let them choose their representative. And then give the managers the power to fill out the team. How is this hard at all?"

I think that is an interesting premise. Not really sure how it would be carried out -- I guess voting could only be done at the ballpark or maybe your email address is tied to a team. What do you guys think?

Not Braves related, but still baseball and July 4th related. Nice, short story about a former Red minor leaguer who is now in Iraq.

As unfortunate as the recent Posey incident was, many of us have looked at the national outcry and wondered why that outcry happened with Posey and not some of the other many catchers who suffered similar fates.

Jayson Stark addressed that in his recent column, as well as how likely it is that a rule change will take place.

Title says it all.

This isn't Braves related, but I thought it was interesting anyway. She might not be the first to do it, but she's the first I've seen and apparently it's causing some controversy.

Interesting article on defensive metrics with a little history and how teams are starting to embrace the new data.

I thought this was an April Fools joke at first...

FW may have just pulled off another Tex deal...

It's purely a rumor at this point, but what do you guys think of Gonzalez? He has played every IF spot (but mostly 2B, SS and 3B) and has one game in the outfield.

If you like him, what do you think the Braves should give up to get him?

Looks like Smoltzie is giving golf another go, this time on the Nationwide Tour.

Joe Pos does one of the best jobs I've seen supporting the case for advanced stats. He explains some of the big ones and uses batting average as a case for why the traditional stats leave a lot to be desired.

This article might be the clearest, best explanation I've seen -- not surprising considering it's from maybe the best baseball writer around. It should be required reading for TC membership

h/t goes to BtBS.

Nothing too surprising here. They seem to lean toward MLB-readiness vs. ceiling.

Nice little article about the transition, or almost lack thereof, of Bobby to Fredi.

Quote:
"Then, this spring, at least until the games started, the two Braves managers of past and present had lunch with the two Braves general managers of past and present, John Schuerholz and Frank Wren, nearly every day."

...what I would do to be at one of those lunches...

Here's a story from Gordon Edes about our former catcher/prospect overcoming some psychological issues. Usually, I'm all for getting help when you need it, but this story seems a little bizarre to me.

I hope no one else has posted this elsewhere (didn't see it). I think is the first time (I've seen) Fredi say that using both guys in the ninth is a possibility.

This isn't specifically Braves related, but I thought it might provide for a good debate.

Jayson Stark released his yearly most underrated team. In a tweet, he said he considered Martin, but instead went with Ian Kinsler,while TC's favorite Nats third and first basemen did make it. What do you guys think?

Former Tiger Kris Benson calls it quits. It's too bad that his pro career didn't turn out like his college career.