Braves News: Spring training updates, current rotation favorite?, more
Now that the Atlanta Braves have been in camp for a while and have a few full days of workouts and live BP under the belts, things have settled down a bit on the news front. While there was plenty of fun footage from camp, overall we weren't exactly overwhelmed with "news" per se.
However, we still wanted to make sure you all had a place where you could actually see what has been going on in camp, so we put together a little "scenes from Spring Training" piece. Ronald Acuna Jr. remains both a ridiculous athlete and also hilarious and both Spencer Strider and Max Fried look good in the early going on the mound.
More Braves News
One of the main roster competitions this spring for the Braves is for the fifth spot in the rotation and things are getting a bit more wonky there. With Mike Soroka's delayed start because of a minor hamstring issue, this is a hard race to handicap until we actually see how Soroka, Ian Anderson, Bryce Elder, and others actually look on the mound in spring games.
Finally, apparently Ehire Adrianza is already looking ahead to his post-playing days as he is trying to position himself to work in a big league front office someday. He is currently working on getting a bachelor's degree and his goal is to stay in the game as an executive once he retires from playing (although he still has a ways to go).
MLB News
While Albert Pujols' playing days came to an end last year with the Cardinals, it looks like he is heading back to a different former team in an advisory capacity. It was reported yesterday that the Angels were bringing back Pujols as a special assistant. Apparently Pujols signed a 10 year personal services contract when he originally signed with LA all those years ago and while the Angels did release Pujols, Albert still wants to honor that deal. It certainly can't hurt to have a guy of Pujols' stature around to help out, especially with younger players, as needed.
Matt Strahm has a hilarious hobby. While collecting baseball cards is hardly unusual, even amongst players, I am not sure that there are many big league pitchers collecting cards of guys who homer off of them. While Strahm appears to be an avid collector, the home run club is a more exclusive group as a total of 39 players have hit homers off of him in his career. Apparently the current focus is on a Charlie Blackmon rookie auto where he doesn't have a beard. Good luck, sir....I respect it.