Braves News: Jared Shuster has strong spring start, breakout candidates, more
The Atlanta Braves had a late spring training game yesterday and it was largely one would all rather forget. Despite getting an early 2-0 lead thanks to a Kevin Pillar home run, the Red Sox would put up 10 unanswered runs and finished off the rout with the Braves offense shutting down the rest of the game.
The good news from last night was that pitching prospect Jared Shuster was a definite bright spot. Shuster threw three scoreless innings with one walk and four strikeouts. It was particularly nice to see Jared pitching effectively up and out of the zone with his fastball. If he can keep that up, that changeup of his is just gonna get more and more effective and he could be something.
More Braves News
Elsewhere on the site, we took a look at three Braves players who could have breakout seasons. It is hard to identify actual breakout candidates on this Braves roster full of guys who have already broken out, but there are still some guys that could take that next step.
MLB News
The World Baseball Classic is officially underway and we had out first big game. The Netherlands took on Cuba late last night and both teams are among the favorites to make a decent run in the tournament. Thanks to a two run single by the Braves' Chadwick Tromp, the Netherlands were able to secure a 4-2 win.
Meanwhile, the Rays are trying to keep one of their top prospects in the fold for the foreseeable future. Curtis Mead has turned into one of the better hitting prospects in all of baseball and despite the fact that he has yet to make his big league debut, the Rays are very interested in locking him up. It was reported yesterday that the two sides have been talking about an extension. It is always a bit risky to give a financial guarantee to a guy that young, but Mead was already added to the Rays' 40 man roster and he looks like he could be something special.
The Astros have not been quite so lucky as they have so far not been successful in trying to extended Framber Valdez and Kyle Tucker. While the sides are further apart in the Tucker talks than Valdez, there are real gaps between the team and both players. It sounds like we will know very soon whether or not an extension will happen before the season.