Meat and Potatoes: Atlanta Braves Weekly Recap 3/12 to 3/18

Welcome to the 3rd edition of “Meat and Potatoes,” your new go-to for a weekly recap of Atlanta Braves news, notes and links. Posted every weekend.

The Lead

As I see it, the top story from the week is the roster moves that have whittled down the enormity of the Atlanta Braves Spring Training roster. Since last Saturday, the club has made a great deal of moves, and the list of players in major league camp now stands at 41. Our newest wordsmith Josh Brown made a deeper dive into the most recent round of cuts than I’ll get into here, and he also provided a sweet updated list of the Spring Training roster. Check that out.

Here is a quick list of the Braves players that were removed from said roster this week:

Optioned:

Mauricio Cabrera, Daniel Castro, Casey Kelly, Tyrell Jenkins, Danny Burawa, Chris Withrow, Matt Marksberry, Mallex Smith

Assigned to Minor League Camp:

Lucas Sims, Aaron Blair, Ozzie Albies, Dansby Swanson

Released:

Kyle Kendrick, Chris Volstad, Evan Rutckyj (via Rule 5 procedures)

So yeah. That’s a lot of moving and shaking. You can find more details on those transactions and others here, from the official Braves site. 

So what?

Many of these moves were expected. It was fun to pull for some of our young stars of the future (fingers crossed, baby!) making the Opening Day roster, but there really weren’t any reasons to expect the likes of Smith, Swanson and Albies to break with the big league club. However, there is a real chance that we will see those fellas, as well as guys like Sims and Jenkins, before the end of 2016. Kris Willis of Talking Chop explored that idea here.

Perhaps less expected is the Rutckyj move. The former and now again Yankee was one of the few lefties in camp vying for a bullpen spot. He had a free pass problem this Spring, but I was still loosely convinced that he would get a chance to stick on the roster. I wrote as much in my bullpen update this week here.

But alas, Rutckyj and his inexplicable name pronunciation are now gone, and the competition for bullpen spots is heating up as the field of contestants thins. Looking specifically at LHP, we seem primed to start the year with Ian Krol and Alex Torres. Which is a little unnerving, because Krol has been been quite bad this Spring. Like, 8 ER in 5.1 innings bad. However, as DOB pointed out here for the AJC, Krol is facing more RH hitters during his Spring appearances than he will during the season.

Krol’s career R/L splits: 3.71 FIP vs. lefties, 6.19 FIP vs. righties.

News and Notes

• Mike Foltynewicz and Jason Grilli are back, baby! I mean, they both gave up homers in limited action, but Spring numbers only matter to us if they are good Spring numbers, am I right? Grilli discussed his return here. Read more from the AJC on Folty joining the battle for starting rotation spots here.
• Freddie Freeman hit two home runs on Wendesday, though one of them bounced off of an outfielders glove. Which was hilarious. Either way, the wrist problems are looking like a thing of the past. Keep doing whatever superstitious things that you’re doing to make sure though, Braves Country. We can’t take any chances.
• It seems that Fredi G is considering using a platoon of 3 closers. This sounds strange, but it isn’t an unheard of strategy in the modern game. And when you consider that Grilli is on the last season of his contract, and Arodys Vizcaino seems to be the closer of the future, it makes sense. Stat heads would certainly agree that the highest leverage game situation often isn’t in the 9th inning anyway.

Click on through to continue reading Meat and Potatoes 3!

Next: More News, Notes, and LInks

More Atlanta Braves News & Notes.

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• In a good sign for what could be a shaky starting rotation for the Braves, Julio Teheran had an excellent start against the Rays this week, as Brad Rowland of Talking Chop described. He went 4 scoreless innings in a mere 34 pitches.
• John Gant was not part of the last round of roster cuts. In a somewhat surprising development, Gant seems to be viewed by the Braves as at least equally likely to impact the big league club as guys like Sims and Jenkins. Well, Benjamin Chase of these pages isn’t surprised, actually. He wrote about Gant’s roster survival here.
  • If Gant is indeed an underdog for a spot in the 2016 rotation, he would join what is looking like a competition for 2 remaining spots between himself, Folty, Williams Perez, and Manny Banuelos. Perez could find himself in the bullpen, as well.
• Michael Bourn and Nick Swisher are still Braves. I’ve been predicting that Swisher will be cut and that Bourn will stick on the team. Of course, one can see reasons to keep both players, and there is still time for a late Spring trade that would move one or both players. For what it’s worth, Bourn told Mark Bowman that he is comfortable with mentoring younger players, but that he’s here to play hard and win.
• Jeff Francoeur has been playing some center field. I personally see little point in this; Frenchy has been grading out as an average to below average right fielder for several years. He would be a lousy option in CF, but I guess the Braves want to kick the tires and see just how lousy.

• It seems that Francoeur and Emilio Bonifacio are in competition for a bench job. Francoeur provides some right-handed pop off of the bench, but Bonafacio carries versatility and superior defense. If Bourn is around though, Bona’ may be redundant anyway. This, along with what the Braves decide to do with the infield bench situation, remains an interesting Spring storyline.
• The Braves released a rendering of SunTrust Stadium and revealed that there will be some interesting outfield dimensions and wall heights. Alan put together an excellent piece highlighting the interesting stuff, as he typically does.
• Players gonna play: Pitching prospect Max Fried made saw his first game action since Tommy John surgery! Cuban Dian Toscano also saw his first game action and collected his first hit! He exists, as our own Fletcher Batts assures us!
• Braves rookies competed in a talent show of sorts this week, and it was hilarious. Our own Jeff Schafer compiled some of the best photos of the event here. You can see some video from last year’s show here. And last, some tweets I included for your convenience:

• The Braves participated in MLB Snapchat Day. Not sure what such a thing might entail? You are not alone. Don’t worry, Fletcher Batts has got you covered here. Here’s a little taste:

Click to Slide 3 for my weekly rundown of interesting links from around the league!

Next: MLB Links From Around the League!