Well hello, Atlanta Braves fans! It wasn't quite as busy a news day yesterday as it was on Friday. For the moment, it appears that players are settled into their spring training routine and are currently trying to get adjusted to the new rules changes put in place by MLB for the 2023 season and beyond.
One player who has been throwing live BP with the pitch clock and has reportedly looked good so far is Ian Anderson. There are reports that Ian has been toying with adding a new pitch to his arsenal, but we took a deeper dive to explain why the real thing that Ian needs is a better fastball in 2023. Ian is certainly not a hopeless case as he is incredibly talented, but he is going to need more out of the pitch if he wants to stay an effective big leaguer.
More Braves News
Elsewhere on the site, we had a trade retrospective piece go up on the move that sent Justin Upton to the Padres way back in 2014. The Braves made a ton of moves back then during the rebuild, but this was was so consequential that we wanted to see where all of the pieces in the trade are now. Spoilers: one of those pieces has been critical in the Braves' run of success over the last several years.
Finally, the Braves announced their minor league coaching staffs for the 2023 season. We still have a lot of familiar faces down in the minor leagues, but several of them got moved up to different levels. Fortunately for Rome Braves fans, Bobby Moore remains at Rome where he has become a bit of an institution.
MLB News
Elsewhere in the league, we got some arbitration updates as the Mariners won their arbitration case against Teoscar Hernandez. It is always a little weird when you have to take a guy you just traded for to an arbitration hearing, but Hernandez will still get a healthy raise to $14 million for 2023 despite the loss. The Angels also had a pair of arbitration results announced as they won against Gio Urshela, but lost their case against Hunter Renfroe. Both players are set to become free agents after 2023 and the Angels will need both of them to perform well if they have any hope of competing for a playoff spot.
We also got a really nice piece from our friends at MLB.com about how the White Sox are doing their best to rally around reliever Liam Hendriks who is currently being treated for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Despite the fact the guy is undergoing chemotherapy, he is still showing up to camp and has even been throwing bullpens. It is basically impossible to not root for the guy.