Things to continue to crank up for the Atlanta Braves as we are now just a week away from Opening Day. We'll start with the spring training game which saw Jared Shuster pitch pretty well and Matt Olson hit yet ANOTHER home run (he leads everyone this spring training with seven) as the Braves tied the Mets 2-2.
Immediately after the game, the Braves made the expected move to send Michael Soroka back to the minor leagues. Expected to be a leading contender for a spot in the Braves' rotation, a hamstring injury cost Soroka early on in camp and he wasn't able to get cranked back up in time to be a factor out of camp. Hopefully he can show out at Gwinnett and stay healthy, because if he does, he should be back up in the big leagues this season.
More Atlanta Braves News
The big news that came out yesterday was in regards to the Braves bullpen. Raisel Iglesias is one of the anchors of the Braves bullpen, but the team is going to have to figure out how to operate without him for a bit as it was announced that Iglesias was going to start the season on the injured list due to inflammation in his throwing shoulder.
Meanwhile, MLB decided to make some slight changes to the new rules being put in place. The players certainly have some fundamental concerns with the new rules, but the league only made some minor tweaks as they want to see how things play out over a larger sample of games before making any big adjustments.
We also got the news yesterday that Rico Carty and Fred Tenney are being elected to the Braves Hall of Fame. Really nice to see a couple of underappreciated Braves greats getting some love from the organization.
MLB News
The Phillies got some devastating news yesterday after what looked like a completely innocuous play in a spring game. Rhys Hoskins went down in a heap and had to be carried off the field after trying to field a grounder and it was revealed that he tore his ACL and is going to be out for quite a while. Being without Hoskins as well as Bryce Harper for a big chunk of the season is a big blow to the Phillies' lineup.
The Reds also got some less than great injury news as old friend Lucas Sims and Luke Weaver are expect to open the season on the injured list. Weaver is dealing with the dreaded forearm tightness while Lucas has been experiencing back spasms.