The Atlanta Braves were in action again yesterday against a pretty stacked Mets lineup (for a spring training game), but Kolby Allard and Dylan Dodd were shut New York down as the Braves ended up winning by the score of 6-2. Vaughn Grissom had yet another productive day at the plate as he looks to officially lock down the shortstop spot and Eli White continued his hot start to spring training with a two run homer.
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One topic that is on some folks minds is what the Braves should do with Marcell Ozuna and when. Ozuna's start to spring training has been...uninspiring so far and he still carries the same off the field baggage. Manager Brian Snitker was asked about Ozuna and his answer was a blunt one. Ozuna will be playing for the Braves in 2023, but how much playing time he actually ends up getting is going to be on him.
Finally, we posted some of our first impressions of baseball's pitch clock rules so far. There have certainly been a couple rough spots as everyone gets used to the rules, but overall the new rule has been a positive for increasing pace of play and should making the viewing experience better overall.
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However, there have been some....extreme cases when it comes to the pace of play with the new rules in place. Case in point: Yankees reliever Wandy Peralta worked about as quickly as any pitcher you will ever see as he struck out a batter in less than 20 seconds. This is certainly an outlier case, but it will be interesting to see which pitchers use the new rules to their advantage in 2023.
The Cubs got some less than good news yesterday as it was reported that is was very likely that Seiya Suzuki was going to open the season on the injured list. Suzuki had an MRI which revealed an oblique injury. While it seems like it is just a strain, obliques are notoriously tricky when it comes to healing so Suzuki's availability on Opening Day is looking pretty rough.