Braves News: Ranking the NL East aces, Bally Sports bankruptcy, more
By Eric Cole
With the NFL conference championships going on later today, fans of the Atlanta Braves are likely to be a bit distracted today. Fortunately, you didn't miss much yesterday as it was pretty quiet on the Braves front after a busier Friday with the extension of Brian Snitker.
One piece of news that we haven't touched on yet is the impending bankruptcy of Bally Sports/Sinclair Broadcast Group. There are a lot of potential ramifications for the Braves as this bankruptcy process plays out (some arguably good, some bad) and our friends over at Battery Power put together a great write-up on where things stand and what is at stake right now.
More Braves News
Elsewhere on the site, we took a look at the state of the top of each team in the National League East's rotations going into 2023. Four of the five teams teams in the National League East have high-end frontline starters and that doesn't count the Nationals who have Stephen Strasburg who has at least been THAT guy before he was hurt. Ranking each team's "aces" was difficult, but it also underscored the importance that rotation depth is going to have this coming year because so many teams have at least one big time guy.
Finally, we finished up our Atlanta Braves manager rankings in franchise history with our number one pick, Harry Wright. In the late 1800's, Wright was one of the most well-known guys in all of baseball and his stewardship of a brand new league and the subsequent imposition of rules changes helped make baseball what it is today.
MLB News
While things across the league were quiet on Saturday, we did have some news regarding the Rays and their attempts to negotiate yet another contract extension. Yandy Diaz is yet another Tampa player that is set to hit arbitration this year, but it looks like the team is going to try to avoid a hearing with him as the reports are that the two sides are close to a deal on a three year contract extension with him that also includes a club option.
This is also a fun time for every site that produces content to put out some evergreen stuff for baseball fans to enjoy all year long. MLB Pipeline is no different as they took a crack at ranking the best prospects from the last decade. While I have some strong disagreements with their rankings, it is still a really fun look back.