Atlanta Braves Morning Chop

Rob Manfred is on a crusade… that nobody really cares about but him. Fortunately there’s some actual baseball news out there to talk about today.

The Atlanta Braves are done with the preliminaries – everyone is in camp, photo day is done, daily drills are in progress. Games start Saturday afternoon. So here’s a few things of interest to keep us occupied until then:

Top 32 Prospects: Atlanta Braves

ERIC LONGENHAGEN / FANGRAPHS.COM

[Ed. note: okay, yes – it’s yet another prospect ranking. Yet this one has a quite different spin on it… one that’s quite interesting in places.

This is a very lengthy treatment of the Braves’ farm system, and I do recommend it to you, but here is Longenhagen’s prospects chart as a teaser: ]

Rk	Name	Age	Highest Level	Position	ETA	FV
1	Dansby Swanson	23	MLB	SS	2017	65
2	Ozzie Albies	20	AAA	2B	2018	60
3	Ronald Acuna	19	A	CF	2020	55
4	Kolby Allard	19	A	LHP	2019	55
5	Kevin Maitan	17	R	3B	2021	55
6	Ian Anderson	18	R	RHP	2021	55
7	Max Fried	23	A	LHP	2018	55
8	Luiz Gohara	20	A	LHP	2019	55
9	Mike Soroka	19	A	RHP	2020	50
10	Cristian Pache	18	R	CF	2020	50
11	Sean Newcomb	23	AA	LHP	2018	50
12	Joey Wentz	19	R	LHP	2021	50
13	Touki Touisaint	20	A	RHP	2019	45
14	Patrick Weigel	22	AA	RHP	2018	45
15	Travis Demeritte	22	A+	2B	2019	45
16	Kyle Muller	19	R	LHP	2020	45
17	Ray-Patrick Didder	22	A	OF	2019	45
18	Dustin Peterson	22	AA	LF	2018	45
19	Brett Cumberland	21	R	C	2019	40
20	A.J. Minter	23	AA	LHP	2017	40
21	Drew Harrington	21	R	LHP	2019	40
22	Derian Cruz	18	R	SS	2021	40
23	Yunior Severino	17	R	SS	2022	40
24	Alex Jackson	21	A	C	2021	40
25	Rio Ruiz	22	MLB	3B	2017	40
26	Dylan Moore	24	A+	UTIL	2018	40
27	Mauricio Cabrera	23	MLB	RHP	2017	40
28	Austin Riley	19	A	3B	2021	40
29	Bryse Wilson	19	R	RHP	2020	40
30	Ricardo Sanchez	19	A	LHP	2020	40
31	Jonathan Morales	22	A	C	2019	40
32	Randy Ventura	19	R	RF	2020	40

Still No Grass in Sight

February 22nd… in 37 days, there’s an exhibition game being played against the Yankees at SunTrust Park. And as you can see from the site’s live webcam, there’s still not a blade of grass to be found.

Reminder: Single-game Tickets

You can already get 6-game sets of tickets from the Braves, but the date set for individual games is March 10th… unless you go to the scal… er, professional ticket vendors like Stub Hub.

Atlanta Braves partner with Ryan Seacrest Foundation

PHIL W HUDSON / ATLANTA BUSINESS CHRONICLE

"The Atlanta Braves and the Ryan Seacrest Foundation (RSF) partnered to support the foundation’s work with children’s hospitals throughout the country, including Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.…seacrest’s sister, Meredith Seacrest, said her entire family is delighted that they were able to create the “meaningful partnership” with the Braves.“Our work at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and at other pediatric hospitals across the country wouldn’t be possible without partnerships like the one we have with the Braves – we are so grateful,” she said in a statement.Plans are underway for an annual concert fundraiser at The Coca-Cola Roxy Theatre in The Battery Atlanta, along with other new programs. … Braves player and musician Chase d’Arnaud (interview with d’Arnaud here) linked up with James David Carter at Seacrest Studios at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Feb. 9 to perform for patients and families."

[Ed. note: for all of the press we see about the ‘bad’ stadium deal or ‘billionaire owners’ and the like, these stories just don’t come up enough.

Note that this is not only the team getting involved with a Children’s Hospital project, but there are also players getting involved as well.

More from Tomahawk Take

Frankly, it’s hard for these guys to carve out time – especially in season – to support causes like this. Baseball is truly a full-time effort, and their participation is hardly insignificant to any such cause.

As the father of a cancer survivor, I’ve seen firsthand some of the volunteer efforts from many people – not just sports personalities. So many go way out of their way to try and provide a respite to the treatment and recovery process for these kids.

So to all of these heroes: thank you!

Best Thing You’ll See Today

Finally, we leave you with this – be sure to turn up the music and watch with a close friend.

The camera loves you when you're #BigSexy 😎 pic.twitter.com/IgA9ZHHiHg
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) February 22, 2017

Coming soon to a suburban Atlanta stadium near more of you than the last stadium was.