Braves’ Jackson delivers in AFL victory
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: Miss Atlanta Braves baseball already? You’re not alone! But we’ve still got players playing! The Arizona Fall League has a few big names playing this 2017 season. Ronald Acuna, Alex Jackson, Austin Riley, Max Fried, Corbin Clouse and Touki Toussaint.
Fried and Acuna have got most of the attention, but Jackson has crushed the ball. The 21-year-old went 4-5 at the plate on Wednesday with two RBIs and two runs scored. He’s now batting .381 in the AFL.
#Braves Alex Jackson just went yard in #AFL. He knew it was gone immediately. pic.twitter.com/0uEygYcaGd
— William Boor (@wboor) October 18, 2017
This could go down as one of the best moves John Coppolella made during his tenure with the Braves. The Braves moved him back to catcher after he was traded from the Seattle Mariners — they put him in the outfield after drafting him in 2014 out of high school.
Since I’m here, I’ll go ahead and give you these stats too…Acuna is batting .286 with an on base percentage of .423. Riley is batting .250 but hasn’t played since October 13…I’m looking into why this is.
"Alex Jackson‘s breakout season is continuing in the Arizona Fall League.After setting a career-high with 19 homers in 96 games this season, Jackson showed some of his power with a two-run homer in the Peoria Javelinas’ 6-4 win over the Surprise Saguaros on Wednesday afternoon."
"“[I was] just going up to the plate, looking for a good pitch and hoping to put a good swing on it,” the Braves’ No. 16 prospect said. “When you stick with that plan good things happen. I was able to see the ball well today and I put a good swing on it.”"
Nashville knuckleballer R.A. Dickey to decide by Nov. 14 whether he’ll return to Braves
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: The Atlanta Braves will have to make many decisions this 2017-2018 offseason and many questions will lie in the starting rotation. What will it look like, who will be the five that start the season in the rotation. As we came to the conclusion of 2017, many names could be up for those positions inside the rotation. Like all things, the questions will work themselves out in time, but one decision this offseason will not come from the words of the front office.
The choice to retire or not retire for R.A. Dickey. He holds that power. The Braves and Dickey do have a team option for 2018, but Dickey could always decide to hang up the cleats. Dickey will be entering the year he would play as a 43-year-old man — turns 43 on October 29th — and it would be his 16 year pitching in the MLB.
Dickey pitched well for the Braves in 2017, with an ERA of 4.26 and a 10-10 record in 31 starts. He had 136 strikeouts and walked only 67 hitters. He was the most consistent pitcher in the Braves rotation this past year. To have the veteran back in 2018 would be a plus for the Braves not only on the mound but within the clubhouse. Right now, the Braves need any and all good leadership they can get.
"Nashville’s R.A. Dickey — at 42, the third-oldest player in Major League Baseball — is considering hanging up his cleats, he told Tennessean Wednesday morning.“I’m going to the beach, and we’ll sit down as a family and talk about what’s next,” he said after speaking to the annual fundraiser breakfast for Faith Family Medical Center, which provides free or deeply-discounted medical treatment for Nashville’s uninsured and under-insured.Dickey has been pitching in the major leagues since 2001 when he signed with the Texas Rangers. He revived his career in 2005 by becoming a knuckleballer, one of only a handful in the league."
Dayton Moore still won’t comment on Braves opening
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: So obviously the role of the General Manager of the Atlanta Braves needs to be filled. Is Dayton Moore still on the list of candidates? I would hope so. But in Gabriel Burns’ article on AJC, he mentioned that Moore hadn’t yet been contacted about the position by the Braves. Now is that Moore just playing it safe or have the Braves really not reached out to him yet?
It’s going to take a lot for the Braves to reach a deal with a guy in a pretty good spot. He just won a World Series with a team that had been awful for a while and signed a contract extension last year. He also grew up a Royals fan.
The GM position has been open for 17 days now (John Coppolella was forced to resign on October 2, 2017) and I still have yet to apply. Maybe I should get on that…
"Dayton Moore may be a preferred candidate for the Braves’ open general manager position. However, the Royals’ top baseball executive has been unwilling to talk about a possible return to the organization where he began his career. Moore again declined to address the topic during a press conference in Kansas City Wednesday."
"Moore, the Royals’ president of baseball operations and general manager, initially addressed rumors of a return to Atlanta by saying he’s focused on the job at hand. During a scheduled press conference Wednesday, Moore was again asked about the Braves opening."
"“I get the connection there, because that’s where I started in this game,” Moore told reporters. “So it’s very natural for someone to ask that question … but again I don’t think it requires me to comment at this point or needs me to comment further.”"