TalkingChop

Photo by Wesley Hitt/ We continue our minor league roundtable Every season there are guys on the top prospect list that we circle in the hopes to get early looks at them. Be it due to information we have from within the organization, an interesting stint in rookie ball, or a player coming back from injury there are always a few that tickle our fancies early in the season. So on the second installment of the prospect roundtable the Battery Power crew will answer who they are looking forward to seeing this season and who you should be watching as well. Which player...

More like Michael Swoleroka, am I right? | Mike Watters-USA TODAY Sports Michael Soroka’s back, everyone! Michael Soroka made his long-awaited 2023 Spring Training debut on Wednesday afternoon as the Braves socked a 5-3 win over the Tigers in in Lakeland, FL. Orlando Arcia reached base three times and drove in four of the Braves’ five runs, including a three-run homer, just a couple of days after becoming the de facto Opening Day starter at shortstop. Let’s start with Soroka. Working on a low pitch limit of around 35, the righty faced eight batters and retired...

Photo by Michael Reaves/ Michael Soroka returns to action! The Atlanta Braves will begin the final lead up to Opening Day Tuesday when they return to action against the Detroit Tigers. Michael Soroka will finally make his long anticipated Grapefruit League debut for Atlanta while Detroit will go with right-hander Matt Manning. Soroka was slowed through the early parts of the spring due to a sore hamstring. The Braves rightfully chose to play it safe with him and he will make his debut Tuesday after ramping up in recent weeks. Soroka will begin the season in...

Photo by Ronald Martinez/ Braves’ matchups against the Padres, Astros and Mariners Major League Baseball and Apple Wednesday announced the return of “Friday Night Baseball” for the 2023 season. The weekly doubleheader will be available to Apple TV+ subscribers with no local broadcast blackout restrictions. The Atlanta Braves will be featured prominently with three matchups among the schedule through the end of June. Those games are: April 7 vs. Padres - 7 p.m. ET April 21 vs. Astros - 7 p.m. ET May 19 vs. Mariners - 7 p.m. ET New to the broadcast this season is...

Photo by Mitchell Leff/ Trea Turner now plays for the Phillies. We will never know peace again. The 2022 Philadelphia Phillies single-handedly “justified” the expanded Postseason format when they finished a distant third place in the NL East with 88 wins, but secured the final Wild Card spot and proceeded to make it all the way to Game 6 of the World Series. Perhaps realizing that they’ve suddenly got a window of opportunity here, the Phillies didn’t rest on their laurels and instead got busy upgrading their roster ahead of this upcoming season. Expectations...

Photo by Mitchell Layton/ Braves Franchise History 2008 - Javy Lopez announces his retirement. Lopez hit 260 home runs in his career and set the single-season home run record for catchers with 43 in 2003. He appeared in over 1,100 games with Atlanta while hitting .287/.337/.491 with 260 home runs. He had stints with Baltimore and Boston after leaving Atlanta. 2012 - Chipper Jones announces that he will retire at the end of the season. MLB History 1962 - A former member of the New York Giants says that Bobby Thomson’s home run was aided by a sign-stealing clubhouse...

Photo by Daniel Shirey/WBCI/MLB Photos via News and notes from Tuesday The World Baseball Classic wrapped up on Tuesday night after a championship collision between Team USA and Japan. Japan won its third WBC Championship title after its 3-2 defeat over USA. Undefeated Team Japan secures its 3rd #WorldBaseballClassic title! pic.twitter.com/ehM62luyw9— World Baseball Classic (@WBCBaseball) March 22, 2023 Japan was composed of several notable players, including two-way player Shohei Ohtani and pitcher Yu Darvish. The game came down to a matchup between Ohtani and...

Photo by Mary DeCicco/WBCI/MLB Photos via Team USA vs. Team Japan, for all the quadrennially-available marbles I don’t know how tonight’s WBC final will stack up against Japan’s epic comeback win against Mexico from last night. It seems improbable that it’ll be a game featuring similar excitement, but you never know. The U.S. looked vulnerable at times earlier in this tournament, but beat Venezuela and then clobbered Cuba to vault itself into the championship game for a second straight WBC. Japan looked unstoppable, got sucker punched by Mexico, but then pulled...

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports The Battery Power crew answers the question on which players will see their stock improve the most this season We are less than two weeks away from Triple-A opening day on March 31st, and Battery Power’s prospect crew will be spending this week answering a series of questions to preview the season. This will be a great opportunity to get a few of the burning topics answered while also introducing you to our new look minor league staff. Garrett Spain has been with Battery Power now since 2015 and is taking over the reins of the minor...

Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports Roster moves leave the position in Orlando Arcia’s hands to start the season No Vaughn Grissom after a winter of prepping him. No Braden Shewmake after his late push. The Atlanta Braves will instead go with Orlando Arcia at shortstop to start the season. What happened? Grant McAuley and Cory McCartney try to make sense of the Braves’ stunning decision. Subscribe to the Battery Power YouTube channel and turn on notifications to get alerts on every new episode.

Photo by Rob Leiter/MLB Photos via Monday’s moves pretty much answered every question for the Opening Day roster. The Atlanta Braves will enjoy their final off day of the spring Tuesday and with just over a week of Grapefruit League action remaining, the team’s roster is taking shape for Opening Day. The Braves answered many of the questions that were lingering Monday night with a surprising round of cuts that included not only Vaughn Grissom and Braden Shewmake, but also Jordan Luplow and Nick Anderson. Barring an unforeseen trade, those moves have siphoned much...

Michael McLoone-USA TODAY Sports The Marlins don’t look terrible on paper, but they’re in a tough division and don’t look particularly good, either. Despite an above-average rotation that benefited immensely from eventual NL Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara, the Marlins posted a disappointing 69-93 record in 2022. Aside from a 31-29 finish and a playoff berth in the shortened 2020 season, they haven’t finished above .500 since 2009, and have five sub-70-win seasons since then. Last year, ti was the offense that did them in — a terrible 3.62 runs per game,...

Photo by George Rinhart/Corbis via MLB History 1908 - Ty Cobb signs with the Detroit Tigers for $4,000 and will receive an $800 bonus if he finishes the season with a .300 batting average. 1921 - Gene Paulette is banned from organized baseball for throwing games. 1931 - The Chicago White Sox and the New York Giants are the first major league teams to play a night game. 1957 - Major League Baseball will receive $9.3 million for TV and radio rights for the upcoming season. 1962 - The Philadelphia Phillies retire Robin Roberts’ No. 36. 1968 - Kansas City’s...

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports Plenty of significant roster decisions were announced by the Braves on Monday. What a wild day of rester decisions for the Braves. Many of the best performing options of positions of need for Atlanta were sent to Triple A on Monday, an indication that the Braves are looking to keep as much talent on their 40-man roster as possible. However, especially at the short stop position, it seems puzzling that the best option was not given the nod as the guy in 2023 after plenty of build up during the offseason. Shawn Coleman looks at all of this...

Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports Orlando Arcia looks to be the starting shortstop in 2023. Monday was supposed to be rather significant due to Kyle Wright making his spring debut. That did happen, with the fact that he simply made it through the start healthy being the a true measure of success, which he did. However, the main news of the day was several significant roster decisions, including Vaughn Grissom and Braden Shewmake heading to Triple A. The Braves today optioned RHP Nick Anderson, INF Vaughn Grissom, INF Braden Shewmake, OF Jordan Luplow and OF Eli...