Smoltzy - FUCK

Gif of Chipper in HS.

Still has the exact same stance.

Classy way to go out Chipper, way to handle it professionally.

So about the fantasy league. The new guys essentially wont have keepers which isnt exactly fair. any idea how to make it fair? I can set the draft order with them picking first and pull our names randomly.

I'm pretty sure we will just have three rounds where we are the only ones who pick.

will it do it that way seriously? if thats the case then ill just roll with it and let it take care of itself. That has been the holdup so far.

Don't know about Yahoo, but thats the way our CFB keeper league worked on u-sports.

we need one more team

all keepers have to be chosen by sunday or ill choose them for you. select two players.

for the new guys if the draft order doesnt give them extra first round picks, then we'll have to figure out a way to make it fair or figure our how to make the buy in fair for all.

Two players? Sheeeeiiitttttttttt

Adios Adrian Beltre

Friends :-)

2? Boooooooo want 3.

Actually looks quite a bit different now. Looks unnatural...his righty side really wasn't a GREAT side until he worked with Don Baylor.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/spring2012/story/_/id/7723234/chipper-jones-retire-2012-season

Awesome story

Can somebody c/p the article?

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Chipper Jones has seen enough baseball history to recognize it when it hits him right between the eye-black. His decision to retire is less about achy knees and diminished skills than an acknowledgement that even fairy tales must eventually end. Jones still remembers how messy things got when Tom Glavine and John Smoltz left Atlanta, and he vowed not to subject the Braves to what he calls the same "PR nightmare" all over again.

But Jones did swap one inconvenient truth for another by calling it quits. Over the next six months, he'll be free to visit parks throughout America without reporters coming over and grilling him on his baseball future -- or feeling guilty when the questions spill over to his teammates.

On the other hand, he's now guaranteed to be up to his eyeballs in golf clubs, fishing equipment, Cuban cigars and Chipper Jones portraits to hang above the fireplace. If things get too crazy, he might even look up in the stands later this summer and see people cheering in New York and Philadelphia.

Starting April 5 against the Mets at Citi Field, the Chipper Jones farewell extravaganza will be under way. And who knows how crazy things will get when the sentiment starts flying.


[+] Enlarge
AP Photo/Paul SancyaChipper Jones, left: "I don't need any rocking chair tours or anything like that."

"I don't need any rocking chair tours or anything like that," Jones said. "If somewhere along the line somebody wants to thank me, that would be good enough. But I'm not doing this for a farewell tour. I want to get this out of the way, because it's been weighing heavy on me for a long time."

Two hours before a routine Braves-Marlins game Thursday, Jones retired to an upstairs concourse at Champion Stadium and eased his burden. He laughed, cried and waxed philosophical without the benefit of any notes. With Bobby Cox and Fredi Gonzalez seated to his left and John Schuerholz and Frank Wren to his right, he saw his baseball life flash before his eyes.

Eighteen big league seasons. Seven All-Star appearances. A slew of division titles and a World Championship. A .304 career batting average and a Most Valuable Player Award. And all in the same zip code. His cup runneth over.

"There have been times when I probably could have gone out on the free-agent market and seen if the grass was greener," Jones said. "But I really didn't think that it was. I never wanted to play anywhere else. I'm a Southern kid, and I wanted to play in a Southern town where I felt comfortable. And I felt comfortable from day one in the Braves organization."

Jones' legacy is special, of course, because he symbolizes something so rare these days -- the All-American kid who found a home with a franchise and never left. He grew up in Pierson, Fla., the "Fern Capital of the World," and was deemed a can't-miss prospect at the Bolles School in Jacksonville, but the Braves didn't decide to draft him first overall until high school pitcher Todd Van Poppel told them he was determined to attend the University of Texas.

Cox, Atlanta's general manager in 1990, traveled to Jacksonville to watch Jones play. In those days, Cox told scouting director Paul Snyder to refrain from identifying which prospect they were looking at during pregame stretching, because it might color his perception from the outset. So Snyder remained silent, Cox scanned the line, and it took him about 10 seconds to pick out the phenom in question.

"They didn't have numbers," Cox said. "They were working out in their T-shirts. I said Paul, 'He's the third guy in the first row from the right.' And Paul said, 'You finally got one right.' That was Chipper Jones. He stood out like a sore thumb."

Jones had one of the best days of his baseball life, and the Braves selected him first overall ahead of California high school outfielder Tony Clark. Shortly thereafter, Atlanta sent two scouting emissaries to the Jones house to meet with Chipper and his father, Larry Sr. The Braves offered a $250,000 bonus, the Joneses asked for $300,000, and the two sides split the difference at $275,000.

The rest is switch-hitting history. With 454 career homers, Jones ranks third among switch-hitters behind Mickey Mantle and Eddie Murray. He is also third in career OPS (at .935) behind Mantle and Lance Berkman. After Jones delivered his retirement speech Thursday, Cox said he should just save it and recycle it when he goes into Cooperstown on the first ballot.

"Bobby took a flyer on me, and I've spent the last 23 years every day trying to make him proud -- and not to have him answer questions about why he took some young punk from central Florida with the No. 1 pick," Jones said. "I was lucky enough to play 17 seasons under Bobby Cox. He's the greatest manager any of us will ever know."

Amid the big-picture reflections, it's funny which little things stand out when a man finally has a chance to exhale. Jones' eyes welled up Thursday when he acknowledged wife, Sharon, and his young sons. His voice cracked when he thanked his agent and best friend, B.B. Abbott. But the tears really began to fall when he gazed to his left and saw Tim Hudson, Dan Uggla, Jason Heyward and the Atlanta teammates who showed up for his farewell speech.

“
I never wanted to play anywhere else. I'm a Southern kid, and I wanted to play in a Southern town where I felt comfortable. And I felt comfortable from day one in the Braves organization.
” -- Chipper Jones

"I've been thinking about retirement for quite some time, and I probably have to say the No. 1 reason that I didn't is because of you guys," Jones said. "It's been a pleasure to come to work and play with you guys. Day in and day out you kept me young -- as young as a 40-year-old man can be."

Through the years, Greg Maddux and many other Braves referred to Jones by his given name of "Larry" rather than Chipper. Now that he's 39 going on 40, Fredi Gonzalez calls him "Battle Ax." But life in the twilight years has been less of a joking matter of late. Jones has undergone five knee operations and reached the point where every time he charges a bunt or hustles down the line to beat out a chopper, someone in the dugout or an upstairs executive suite instinctively cringes. He has surpassed 140 games in a season only once since 2003.

Jones began pondering the idea of retirement early in spring training, and it built an inexorable momentum. Ten days ago he went around the clubhouse, looked his teammates in the eye and told them it was going to happen, but asked them to keep it quiet while he got his "ducks in a row." On Monday, he went upstairs to Frank Wren's office and made it official.

The only certainty is that there's no turning back. The Braves have a $7 million contract option on Jones for 2013. The deal vests if he appears in 123 games this season, and can increase to $13 million if he appears in 140 games. But Jones gave little or no thought to money when he decided to retire. He wasn't thinking about the 46 homers that he needs to reach 500 or the 385 hits that could bring him to 3,000, either.

"Chipper could be at 495 home runs, and he'd still walk away if that's what was in his heart," Abbott said. "He's truly at peace with this decision. He's not going to do a Brett Favre."

So what comes next? Jones will try to send the Braves out in style in 2012, then spend lots of time at Little League and flag football games. Long term, he lacks the patience, aptitude or interest in managing. But he's passionate about the art of hitting, and it wouldn't surprise anyone to see him working in a major league batting cage in a few years.

He leaves it to others to determine his legacy, but there's some nice generational symmetry at play here. Larry Jones Sr. idolized Mantle and taught his son Chipper to switch-hit in the good old days at Stillmeadow Farm in Pierson, behind the family haybarn and the garage. Young Chipper followed Eddie Murray as a kid. And you can bet that today some aspiring big leaguer in Georgia or Florida is digging his toe in the batter's box from both sides of the plate and fantasizing that he's Chipper Jones.

"It blows my mind every time I drive to the stadium and see a family of four walking down the street with the No. 10 on their backs," Jones said. "To think a kid could be taking practice in his backyard with his father doing all the same things that I did -- and trying to emulate me -- that's about as good as it gets."

That I will be in attendance for....

I'm getting tix pretty soon for the Chipper home finale I think.

Not unreasonable, IMO.

Welp, bye McCann.

Atlanta Braves

Chipper: Swag and substance, greatest Brave of ATL era

10:23 am March 23, 2012, by David O'Brien

Four decisions over four decades that were most beneficial to the Atlanta Braves: Bill Bartholomay moving the team from Milwaukee to Atlanta in the 1960s, Ted Turner purchasing the team to keep it in Atlanta for his Superstation WTBS in the 1970s, Bobby Cox’s return to Atlanta in the 1980s and …
Todd Van Poppel telling the Braves, who had the first overall pick in the 1990 draft, that he wouldn’t sign with them if they selected him.
The spurned Braves instead turned to a high school shortstop named Larry Wayne Jones Jr.
Van Poppel went on to fashion a 40-52 career record and 5.58 ERA in and 359 games (98 starts), never winning more than seven games or saving more than two in any of his 11 seasons.
As for Chipper Jones, he’s entering his 19th and final season with the Braves and is the only switch-hitter in history with at least a .300 average and 450 home runs. Among switch-hitters, his 454 homers rank third behind Mickey Mantle and Eddie Murray, and his .935 OPS ranks third behind Mantle and Lance Berkman.
He is a certain future Hall of Famer, and a first-ballot choice in the view of a majority of writers that I’ve asked around the country.
In my opinion he’s also the best Brave of the Atlanta era, and ranks behind Hank Aaron as the second-best Braves position player in history. (The Hammer played only nine of his 23 seasons while the team was in Atlanta, and Greg Maddux spent 11 of his 23 seasons in Atlanta, which is why I give the Atlanta-era edge to Chipper over those two baseball luminaries.)
Cox likes to tell the story of how as GM in 1990, he went to Jacksonville, Fla., with longtime Braves scouting guru Paul Snyder to see Chipper, whom the Braves were considering taking with the No. 1 pick. Cox hadn’t seen enough pictures of him to recognize him by face, and told Snyder not to tell him which one Jones was from among the Bolles School players who were working out in T-shirts sans names or numbers.
Cox says it only took him a matter of seconds to pick out Jones. He just had that air about him. The way he carried himself.
As the kids say today, he had swag.
He still does, one month from his 40th birthday.
And he’s about as smart a baseball mind, and as candid, honest and entertaining an interview as any athlete I’ve covered, even if he occasionally finds a reporter to be a bit overzealous.
Chipper’s first major league season (other than a September callup) was 1995, which was also my first season as a major league beat writer. I was covering the Florida Marlins then, and I remember the first time I saw this hotshot kid from the Florida sticks, the one who’d blown his knee out a year before during spring training, delaying the arrival of the Braves Golden Child.
Like most outsider observers, the first thing you noticed was the confident way he carried himself. Perhaps a bit cocksure for someone so young. And then after you watched him play a game or two, you realized there was more substance than style.
He was the real thing.
As a beat reporter, I’ve had the good fortune of covering a handful of professional athletes and coaches/managers while they were bonafide icons in their cities: Dan Marino and Don Shula with the Dolphins; Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Chipper Jones and Bobby Cox with the Braves.
None was bigger than Marino and Shula in Miami, or Chipper and Bobby in Atlanta.
I covered Marino and Shula near the end of their long run in Miami. I got to see Chipper and Bobby while they were still near the top of their game in Atlanta.
Chipper totaled 53 homers and 206 RBIs during the first two seasons I covered the team in 2002-2003, and posted .920 or better OPS totals in six of the first seven seasons I was on the beat, though his games-played began to slide in 2004.
That’s one thing that people seem to forget about Jones — what a remarkably durable player he was for the first half of his career. After playing 140 games and helping the Braves win the World Series as a rookie in 1995, he averaged more than 157 games played in eight seasons from 1996 through 2003.
That included seasons of 158, 159 and 160 games played.
But what I’ll always remember is how he made playing the game so well look so easy. Seldom have we seen a great player make hitting look so natural, so innate. Chipper is the proverbial guy who could fall out of bed (or out of a deer stand, as it were) at the end of winter and hit .300.
He worked a lot harder at hitting than most people realize. He was old school in that he didn’t spend the winter — at least not for most of his career — working out with a personal trainer and watching everything he ate, then coming to camp with a six-brick midsection or the body of a tight end.
But he worked plenty in the offseason on his hitting. Because while he could roll out of bed and hit better than plenty of major leaguers, he couldn’t roll out of bed and hit .304 with a .402 OBP and .533 slugging percentage in more than 10,000 plate appearances and nearly 2,400 games.
That’s where his career numbers are today. And I crunched some stats, out of curiosity, to see what it might take to bring his average below .300. Folks, he could go 100-for-450 (.220) this season and still be a career .300 hitter.
That says plenty about the body of work that Chipper has produced.
The man hit .364 with a .470 OBP at age 36. And hit .309 with a .390 OBP, 30 homers and 110 RBIs at age 24.
He hit 41 doubles as a 25-year-old, and 42 doubles as a 36-year-old.
By the end of this season, he will have made about $170 million playing baseball. But he could have made plenty more.
He’s had his best friend since childhood, B.B. Abbott, as his agent. Not Scott Boras, who could have advised Chipper to take much larger contracts a couple of times as a free agent rather than stayed in Atlanta.
Abbott knew Chipper was most comfortable and productive playing in Atlanta for Cox. Chipper and B.B. worked with the Braves — they restructured his contract once to take some immediate burden off the team so they could make a run at other free agents — and made it workable for him to stay here and be the face of a franchise, a career-long Brave at a time when the only guys still doing that with one team were Cal Ripken Jr., Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera.
Jeter and Rivera don’t really count, do they? I say that because they’re with the Yankees – it’s not like they could have gone to another team for a bigger contract.
Perhaps the Braves gave Chipper a bigger extension – three years, $42 million – a few years ago than any other team would have offered at that point, given his declining health and playing time. But if there was any gold-watch aspect to that contract – and remember, Chipper hit .364 in 2008, and posted plus-1.000 OPS totals from 2006-2008 in a combined 1,611 plate appearances — then it was a pittance compared to what he’s given the Braves.
One stat or fact about Chipper that I always found amazing: From Little League through 2005, he never finished a completed season on a team that wasn’t in first place. At any level. Ever.
Think about that.
That’s winning.
Swag, yes. But more than anything else, substance.

What the Braves said about Chipper Jones


By Chris Vivlamore
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“It’s an honor for me to say I’ve been able to play with him for eight years. I grew up — this probably isn’t going to make him feel real good — but I grew up watching him play. Being able to play with him and Bobby Cox and John Smoltz and all those guys who put this organization on the map, it’s not only an honor for me but everybody who had the experience of playing here.” — pitcher Tim Hudson
“What stands out for me, when he came to the plate you felt like you had a good chance to win. You felt like you had a good chance for something special to happen when he came to the plate.” — general manager Frank Wren
“From a selfish point of view, I wish he could play forever.” — father Larry Jones Sr.
“I’ve been the lucky one for all these years to have players like Chipper Jones. It made my career, the guys that Chipper played along, I never would have lasted if we didn’t have guys like Chipper Jones.” — former manager Bobby Cox
“This is a most significant day for the Atlanta Braves organization. He has had 18 remarkable years, and we all hope his 19th is even more remarkable. What a fitting way it would be for him to go out as a champion, as he has been for his entire career.” — president John Schuerholz
“There were a couple times during the course of last year, when I would say ‘Hey, I’m having this little issue here [with a player] and this is what [I want.]’ He said ‘I’ll take care of it.’” — manager Fredi Gonzalez
“It’s been one of the biggest honors of my career to be able to play alongside him. I’ve always told people the coolest thing was to be able to play for Bobby Cox. Right up there beside that is to play with Chipper Jones and have him toss me the ball before every inning. It’s pretty special. I’m glad I’ve got one more year. I came up in 2010 at the end of the season and he was hurt. He asked me if I had time for him to give me some pointers. I thought ‘Chipper Jones is asking me if I’ve got time for me.’ Of course. He gave me some pointers just what he saw then and there.” — pitcher Brandon Beachy
“There are certain people you know who they are. ... I put it like this, if you see one player play for one organization for a long time, nine times out of 10 they are probably going to be a Hall of Famer.” — outfielder Michael Bourn
“It’s an honor to play with a future Hall of Famer. He is one of the best switch-hitters in the game. My first couple of years, when we had meetings he would say stuff. Guys like that you listen to.” — pitcher Jair Jurrjens
“It meant the world for me to play with him. He helped save my career with some hitting advice six or seven years ago. He’s meant a lot to my baseball career. I’m happy for him that he’s made the decision this easily this early in the season.” — outfielder Matt Diaz
“To say that you played with a player of that caliber, not many people can say that. It’s special for me because I’ve built a friendship with him. … There are a lot of things he’s talked to me about hitting that have helped me out. There is not a whole lot I can say to him to return the favor.” — second baseman Dan Uggla
“My locker has been next to his for three years now, and I’ve learned a lot from him picking his brain. … We are friends. We get on each other. We rip on each other. We got on each other from the moment he gets to the clubhouse until he leaves. That’s what he loves. He wants to be one of the guys and not like he is the Hall of Famer.” — outfielder Eric Hinske
“I told him I’m going to tell my kids one day that you are the one that inspired me to be the person I am right now.” — outfielder/infielder Martin Prado
“When he speaks, you better listen because he is giving out some knowledge.” — catcher David Ross
“He has done a lot for the game of baseball and this organization. He is definitely the glue to this family.” — outfielder Jason Heyward

Minor's scoreless inning streak snapped...bad start so far, but was bound to happen eventually.

Eh, I think that's pretty unreasonable.

minor might of not looked good today, but we have been scoring some runs. maybe we can do that during the season.

Reading those chipper articles

Negative, but those three teams ahead of us are good.

soooooo chip tore meniscus in his knee and is having surgery? wtf

David O'Brien ‏ @ajcbraves
#Braves 3B Chipper Jones will have arthroscopic knee surgery, tore meniscus on Thursday.

David O'Brien ‏ @ajcbraves
#Braves Chipper hopes to be back for home opener, but might be out longer.

Atlanta pro scouting director John Coppolella said the Braves and their scouting staff try to target minor league free agents with upside—athletic players under age 30 with some history of performance and consider it a bonus if they have major league experience. In fact, the Braves in recent years have mined the minor league free agent market for contributors as well as any organization. Outfielder Jose Constanza helped fill in for an injured Jason Heyward last August and September; Brooks Conrad served as a key pinch-hitter and provided depth at second and third base the year before; righty reliever Jairo Asencio struck out 11.5 batters per nine innings last season in Triple-A and has the stuff to succeed in the majors; and the Braves used another righty reliever, Juan Abreu, in their trade for Michael Bourn last July.

All four signed as minor league free agents.

To search for players who might have untapped upside—to find the next Guzman or Jones, perhaps—I applied a basic set of criteria to this offseason's minor league imports. To qualify for this search, a player must:

1) receive a non-roster invitation to big league spring training
2) have fewer than three years of major league service
3) be younger than 29 as of April 1

Those who fit this description tend to be players who have some growth potential remaining—most players peak between ages 26-28—but who are not household names. Even though these players do not appear on 40-man rosters now, some of them might make the jump during the season.

Let's dive right in, focusing on the 10 teams in baseball's Eastern Divisions in this installment. Spring scouting reports appear for select players, under the header Scout's View.

As always, an asterisk (*) signifies lefthanded batter/pitcher and a pound sign (#) denotes switch-hitter.


ATLANTA BRAVES
Just missed the cut: LHRP Dusty Hughes (age 29)



CF Luis Durango#
Age: 25. Acquired: Minor league free agent.
Best Attributes: A slashing hitter with at least a 70 speed on the scouting scale, Durango has swiped 107 bases in the minors the last three years. He plays center and left field but lacks the arm for right.
MLB Experience: He's gone 19-for-65 (.292) with seven walks and zero extra-base hits in three cups of coffee with Padres and Astros from 2009-11.
Last Prospect Handbook: Padres No. 25 in 2010.

Scout's View: "He's looked faster than the Braves' other two speed guys Bourn and Constanza this spring. He doesn't have the same upside offensively, but he's a good National League player because he can play all three outfield spots, hits from both sides of the plate, and has 80 speed."



RF Jordan Parraz
Age: 27. Acquired: Minor league free agent.
Best Attributes: Parraz has a strong arm and good power on contact, particularly versus lefthanders, batting .294/.382/.468 (.175 ISO) with eight homers in 291 PA against Triple-A southpaws the past two seasons.
MLB Experience: He spent 2010-11 on 40-man rosters for Royals, Red Sox (for an instant) and Yankees but received no callups.
Last Prospect Handbook: Royals No. 19 in 2010.

Scout's View: "His best tool is his arm, which is easily plus and maybe more. He doesn't really do anything badly, but outside of throwing he doesn't really excel in any one area either. He hits for average, shows you some pop, runs fine, and plays with a lot of energy. He misplayed a couple of balls this spring, but having seen him in the past he's a competent defender—and, for me, an underrated player."



RHRP Jason Rice
Age: 25. Acquired: Minor league free agent.
Best Attributes: He sits 94-95 mph with loose arm action and isn't afraid to challenge batters, but 5-foot-10 stature and inconsistent curveball has limited his upside to this point.
MLB Experience: None, though he spent time on the Athletics' active roster last August, following his trade from the Red Sox for Conor Jackson.
Winter Bonus: Served as closer for Hermosillo of the Mexican Pacific League, notching nine saves and a 20-10 K-BB ratio in 19 innings.
Last Prospect Handbook: No appearances.

Scout's View: "Rice reminds me a lot of Anthony Varvaro, who the Braves claimed off waivers last year. He's kind of a late-bloom type guy with a really good arm who can spin a breaking ball. We heard he was touching triple-digits in Mexico this winter and tried like hell to sign him."



RHRP Adam Russell
Age: 28. Acquired: Minor league free agent.
Best Attributes: Included in separate trades for Jake Peavy and then Jason Bartlett, Russell continues to intrigue organizations with his 6-foot-8 frame, mid-90s fastball and power slider. He handcuffed righthanded batters (.230/.307/.333 in 374 PA) while in Triple-A.
MLB Experience: He appeared in a career-high 36 games with Rays last year, but finished with 1.56 WHIP and 13-20 K-BB ratio while working as reliever. Also pitched for 2008 White Sox and 2009-10 Padres.
Last Prospect Handbook: White Sox No. 27 in 2009.

Scout's View: "Russell remains an enigma to me as a guy with a huge body and a big arm who always underachieves. He creates great leverage with his fastball, which we have seen 94-97 (mph) all spring—but below-average control and command, particularly of offspeed stuff. It's all there for him to put it together, but it just hasn't happened yet."



2B Drew Sutton#
Age: 28. Acquired: Minor league free agent.
Best Attributes: A switch-hitter with extreme positional flexibility (second base, shortstop, third base and both corner outfield spots), Sutton swings with authority from the right side and possesses gap power. He's hit .310/.383/.500 in 232 PA versus lefties in his International League career.
MLB Experience: He's a .258/.322/.403 hitter during three brief trips to the big leagues with the Reds, Indians and Red Sox, though he has put up a solid .805 OPS in 838 Triple-A PA.
Last Prospect Handbook: Astros No. 8 in 2009.

Scout's View: "He's a better defender and hitter (than former Braves Brooks Conrad) but with less power. He doesn't run well, but he's good good instincts and hands and his positional versatility is a definite plus, although it might be a reach to play him too much at shortstop. I like his swing better from the left side, but he works counts from both sides of the plate and provides occasional pop."

SIAP

International Review: NL East

By Ben Badler
March 19, 2012


E-mail Print

See also: International Review: National League West
See also: 2011 International Spending By Team
See also: Top 30 International Bonuses Of 2011
See also: Top 25 All-Time International Bonuses

July 2 eligible six-figure signings are players who became eligible to sign last year during the July 2 international signing period as 16-year-olds. The "other six-figure signings" include players who signed in 2011 but had been eligible to sign prior to 2011.

Atlanta Braves
Top signing: OF Victor Reyes, Venezuela, $365,000.
July 2 eligible six-figure signings: OF Jesus Heredia (Dominican Republic), Iosif Bernal (Panama), SS Luis Monasterio (Venezuela), RHP Jesus Jones (Dominican Republic), RHP Francisco Gonzalez (Venezuela).
Other six-figure signings: RHP Darrel Leiva (Nicaragua).

Atlanta's three best prospects are all Latin American. While righthander Arodys Vizcaino came to the Braves through a trade, righthanders Julio Teheran and Randall Delgado were both products of Atlanta's international scouting department. The Braves' most expensive international signing last year was 17-year-old Victor Reyes, a 6-foot-3, 185-pound switch-hitter who signed for $365,000 out of Venezuela on July 2. Reyes trained with Ricardo Petit, who is the brother of Rolando Petit, the Braves' assistant director of Latin American operations based in Venezuela. Reyes stands out for his size and power potential. He runs well for now, though as he fills out he figures to slow down and projects as a corner outfielder with an average arm.

Like Reyes, Venezuelan shortstop Luis Monasterio also trained with Ricardo Petit. Monasterio, 17, signed for $230,000 in July and is a 5-foot-11, 180-pound spray hitter who works the alleys with his righthanded stroke. With his frame, he could add another 20 pounds and grow into some power. While he has good hands and a strong arm, he's around an average runner and could end up sliding to either second or third base dependng on how his body develops.

Jesus Heredia, who signed out of the Dominican Republic in July for $280,000 is 6-foot-2, 170 pounds and is a quality defender in center field. He has good speed and at least a plus arm that's already among the best in the Braves organization. Heredia, 17, doesn't have Reyes' power potential but he can work the gaps from the right side and should be able to take advantage of his speed.

The Braves scout Panama better than anyone, and their prize this year from the country is 17-year-old outfielder Iosif Bernal (), who trained with Emilio Sempris and signed for $230,000 on July 2. Bernal is big and physical at 6-foot-3, 200 pounds and projects as a power righthanded bat. He doesn't load his hands much, but he has hit in games and shows the ability to drive the ball with authority with good bat speed. His arm grades out around average and he's a 50 runner on the 20-80 scale for now, but with his size he projects as a left fielder.

Jesus Jones ran the 60-yard dash in 6.6 seconds when he was an outfielder in the Dominican Republic, but he raised his stock by moving to the mound and signed with the Braves for $125,000 in July. A 16-year-old righthander from Santo Domingo who trained at La Academia, Jones is a lanky 6-foot-3, 185 pounds. He was throwing in the high-80s and touched 90 mph as July 2 approached, and his velocity has continued to increase. His athleticism has helped him make the transition to the mound and he shows a breaking ball with three-quarters action.

The Braves blanket Latin America's less heavily-recruited countries outside of the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, including Panama, Colombia and Nicaragua. The Braves signed a few players last year from Nicaragua, most notably righthander Darrel Leiva for $120,000 in July. Leiva, 17, is 6 feet, 185 pounds and is a strike-thrower with good pitchability. He was pitching at 87-89 mph when he signed but now gets his fastball into the low 90s and mixes in a curveball as well. Venezuelan righthander Francisco Gonzalez, a 17-year-old who signed for $100,000 in July, is 6-foot-1, 180 pounds with a fastball that was up to 89-90 mph when he signed and now reaches a few ticks higher, along with a curveball and a changeup that he's still working on.

One sleeper from last year's class could be Luis Merejo, a 17-year-old Dominican lefty who cost the Braves just $65,000 in October. Merejo throws 88-91 mph, touches 93, flashes an above-average curveball and changeup and has good command for his age. He's advanced enough that he's expected to debut in the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League.

I'm sure glad we got a LF this offseason..............................

I've never had much of a desire to do fantasy, but I agreed to play with a couple of buddies this year. Any draft tips?

Not surprised one bit.

Bought mine last night. Gonna be a sad day.

didn't he tear his meniscus last year too? Is it the same knee?

I was hoping he would be hanging out in FL this week for Spring Training. Going to the the Braves and Yankees play. that Chipper will be off having knee surgery.

DOB said he tore it during a stretching drill

Jesus Christ. If I didn't love him so much, these last 3-4 years would make me hate him.

Braves really have done well. It's a shame nobody gives a shit because the "major" moves are lacking so much.

/frankwrenmove

The White Sox traded minor league infielder Greg Paiml to the Braves for cash considerations, tweets Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune. Paiml, 27, played in 108 games for the White Sox's Double-A affiliate in 2011 and spent 80 of those games at shortstop.

Hoping he's a minor league replacement for Sutton, who I want to break camp with the big club.

Celebrating Chipper

By Rembert Browne on March 22, 2012 6:59 PM ET Scott Cunningham/Getty Images
Earlier this afternoon, Larry Wayne "Chipper" Jones Jr. announced that the 2012 MLB season would be his last.
From now until, hopefully, October (come on Braves, Win Just One More for the Chipper), his well-deserved farewell tour will consist of analysts discussing his legacy and his place among the greats. There's the accolades and statistics, be it the 1995 World Series championship, the 1999 NL MVP award, the record-tying 14 consecutive 20-plus home run seasons to start his career, as well as the seven All-Star games and 450 home runs (both "and counting"). There's the discussion of "greatest switch-hitter" and whether he is inarguably third behind Mickey Mantle and Eddie Murray, or whether a case could be made for him sneaking into second. And there's the first-ballot Hall-of-Famer conversation — whether it's a no-brainer or should he wait a year.

There are also discussions about how to measure Chipper's success and importance in this current era of baseball. Does he deserve even higher praise for excelling in the Steroid Age, as someone that has never been connected with being a user? (Even though he recently admitted to considering it.) Also, in this age of athletes fleeing their original teams to join superstar squads, how impressive is it that Chipper spent his entire post-high school baseball career — 22 years — with the Atlanta Braves organization? Is that just a good storyline or is that an actual accomplishment?
As important and predictable as these conversations are, as a life-long Braves fan and certainly not a baseball analyst, none of them really exemplify what Chipper Jones represents as a player. For me, Chipper will always represent a throwback to the regular-looking guy who happens to be extremely good at baseball.
When I see Chipper Jones and I hear him talk, I can't help but smile, because without the jersey, he could easily be a pretty large guy who works in the rifle section at Walmart. He's this Southern guy who has spent his entire life in only Florida and Georgia, he deer hunts in the offseason, and for Chrissakes had an 18-month moment of weakness with a Hooters waitress. There are millions of country dudes in America who fit that exact description; he just happens to be the one who should go down as his city's finest baseball player.
This past December, I attended an Atlanta Hawks game with some friends and lucked into some seats moderately close to the floor. After the first quarter of just dismal basketball between the Hawks and the Washington Wizards, I got up to get a drink. When I came back, I noticed there was a sizable crew of children in our row, wreaking havoc across a seven-seat buffer zone. To the left of all these kids, Chipper. We were standing up at the same time and I was floored to see how massive of a guy he was. Sure, I knew it was all muscle, but it wasn't that freakish-Dwight Howard-LeBron James I-Look-Like-an-Action-Figure build. The only way I can describe it is "grown-man strength." You know, the kind you get when you cut down six trees in the morning, drag each log back to your home a mile away in the afternoon, and then chop them into smaller pieces of firewood that evening so that your family can stay warm for a week. And then you do the same thing the next week. For 22 years. I'm not claiming this is how Chipper Jones weight trains, but something about him on an elliptical wearing headphones and watching Guiding Light will never be an acceptable image.
Chipper has always represented that athlete who could have thrived playing in any era of the league, even in its earliest, most technologically primitive days. While I'm sure he still takes advantage of all the bells and whistles at his disposal, watching him for almost my entire lifetime, he always seemed like the guy who just woke up, made some breakfast, drove his truck to the stadium, put on his jersey, and went out to play some baseball simply because he loved it and was good at it. It's a rare, beautiful quality to exude, that lost art of just going to work.
This is a wonderful time for him to make a classy exit. With a young guy on the team in Jason Heyward that shares some of his Casey at the Bat tendencies as well as a similar personality that might keep him on the same team for two decades, it will be fun watching Chipper pass the torch while finally getting the respect he deserves. Celebrating the athlete who simply showed up for work more often than not and did things to make his team competitive happens every blue moon. I'm just glad the next time it happens, it will be for Larry.

I really like Terdoslavich's swing from both sides of the plate. For that reason, I absolutely believe in his bat.

Let's hope the glove at 3B catches up.

Braves trade 3/24

• mrwright
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Posted: Today 4:50 PM
Braves trade 3/24


The White Sox traded minor league infielder Greg Paiml to the Braves for cash considerations, tweets Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune. Paiml, 27, played in 108 games for the White Sox's Double-A affiliate in 2011 and spent 80 of those games at shortstop.

"Owww" is never an indicator of health and well-being.

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• BillShanks
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Posted: Today 10:52 PM
RE: Braves trade 3/24


This should tell you the player who was penciled in for shortstop in Mississippi (Simmons) is going to be playing somewhere else - Gwinnett or Atlanta.

Don't forget to set your keepers today. If you don't have keepers then we'll figure out how to make the league fair for you(rammer jammer). Also, I know we have an uneven amount of teams. I have one guy who holds priority, but if you want in and he doesnt respond today then it's yours. Inbox me your email address and be ready to sign up today. The next guy in order will receive an email by 3 pm est.