Atlanta Braves Podcast S2E7: watching that waiver wire

Better late than never for the bench?  This week’s podcast looks at the myriad ways the Atlanta Braves are trying to fill out a roster on the cheap… plus the week’s news.

The Atlanta Braves are about to play their first Grapefruit League game of the year — the next milestone that leads us toward the 2021 season.

Per usual, there’s a few guidelines for these Spring games:

• Get your work and your “reps” in
• Don’t worry so much* about the results
• Don’t get hurt

Except there’s that asterisk thing… there’s always a few players on the field who know they need to make an impression.  And Braves manager Brian Snitker has declared that he’s taking his best 26 players North in April… not just those who feel they have a spot locked up.

We’ll have to see closer to April 1st whether that statement was its own April Fools joke or not, but this is clearly a team with high expectations for out-doing their results from 2020.

Expect more Atlanta Braves roster changes

Alex Anthopoulos is now in his element:  streaming waiver wire claims like he’s picking up items at the All-you-can-eat hotel breakfast bar… if there is such a thing anymore.

This is something he’s really good at:  holding that 40th position on the 40-man roster as a “DFA” slot while watching the waiver list like a hawk:  it can help the organization fill out a AAA roster for Gwinnett, but by taking the best of the ‘castoffs’ from other clubs, he supports his major league team with several players that can be used as emergency replacements when injuries (or COVID) come up.

So we discuss that, the chances of Austin Riley having a “breakout” season, and an update on Mike Soroka‘s progress.

If you’d like to listen to the podcast now, then here’s a quick way to listen directly:

Alternately, you can download it for later listening with this link, or also grab it from your favorite podcast subscription service.

Regardless, this next week marks the point at which we can guess less and start actually observing more, for by this time next week we’ll have some game action (of a sort) to discuss!

Spring is coming… and so is Atlanta Braves baseball.