We have given the great Mark Bradley a well-deserved vacation, so Atlanta Journal-Constitution Sports Editor Chris Vivlamore will take over his Monday/Friday newsletter this week. As Mark wrote in his initial newsletter back in May, “Give the kid a chance, will ya?” I’d ask the same.
Time to make a trade
It seems now, certainly, the Braves won’t stand pat at the Major League Baseball trade deadline, which is less than two weeks away on Aug. 2. An outfielder and a starting pitcher may have been at the top of the Braves’ wish list before Sunday. Come Monday, those two positions figure to need an upgrade.
The Braves got bad news Sunday with the season-ending injury to outfielder Adam Duvall, who suffered a torn tendon sheath in his left wrist during Saturday’s game.
As our Justin Toscano noted, Duvall began the season as the club’s starting center fielder but had recently been splitting time in left field with Eddie Rosario. Duvall is a power bat but hadn’t yet hit his stride this season, batting .213 with a .677 OPS. He had 12 home runs and 36 RBIs.
And then, right-hander Ian Anderson had another disappointing outing Sunday. Anderson allowed five runs in the first inning and was charged with seven over three innings in a 9-1 loss to the Angels.
Anderson has been inconsistent this season and admitted to being frustrated. “It’s been tough,” he said. “It’s been tough probably all season, honestly. Just not performing the way I want to. Probably the worst stretch of baseball I’ve had in my life.”
Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos has shown a willingness to make moves at the trade deadline. You can point directly to the moves he made last season as the major reason the Braves won the World Series.
The Braves have done a remarkable job to trim the Mets’ division lead to fewer than two games. In fact, the Braves entered Sunday with a chance to take the lead outright. This figures to be a battle the rest of the season. However, should the Braves make the playoffs as a division winner, again, or a wild card, there are areas of concern.
It’s time for Anthopoulos to work his magic again.
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Clown show
Baseball is a clown show. Or at least it was Sunday.
One day after the Nationals’ Victor Robles was called a “clown” by the Diamondbacks’ Madison Bumgarner, he wore a red nose in the dugout. Gotta have a little fun.
Here is the background. Trailing 7-1 on Saturday, Robles homered off Bumgarner, who took exception to the celebration. After the game, the pitcher said, “He’s a clown, golly. No shame. No shame. It’s 7-1. You hit your third homer of the year and you act like Barry Bonds breaking the record. Clean it up.”
Robles responded, “If he doesn’t want anyone hitting a home run against him or having any issues with that, then just striking people out or making better pitches to where he doesn’t have to worry about that.”
To accentuate his point, Robles donned the round red nose Sunday and was caught on television cameras. Subtle, very subtle.
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At the top of the draft
Something remarkable slipped by me last week. Hey, it happens. During the first round of the Major League Baseball amateur draft, outfielder Druw Jones was selected No. 2 overall by the Diamondbacks. That’s not what missed my attention – but who could blame me with the interminable televised draft show? The son of former Braves outfielder Andruw Jones played high school baseball at Wesleyan School. That means that metro-Atlanta high school athletes were taken in the top three of the MLB, NFL and NBA drafts this year.
By the way, according to MLB.com, Jones immediately reached agreement with the Diamondbacks with an $8.1 million bonus. That’s the record for a bonus, breaking the mark of $7.7 million established in 2019 by Bobby Witt Jr., also the son of a former major leaguer, with the Royals.
We all remember that Travon Walker was selected No. 1 overall by the Jaguars in the NFL draft in April. The University of Georgia outside linebacker is from Thomaston and played at Upson-Lee High.
There was great speculation before the NBA draft in July that power forward Jabari Smith would be the top overall selection out of Auburn. The Sandy Creek High graduate ended up being selected by the Rockets with the No. 3 pick.
So, Georgia high school athletes went 1-2-3 in the major professional drafts. I find that impressive.
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This makes me laugh
Credit: Carolyn Kaster
Credit: Carolyn Kaster
Mike Flynn is an assistant athletic director at Georgia Tech. And, no, he is not that Mike Flynn.
It seems that some on Twitter often confuse the Tech assistant AD with the former national security adviser of the United States. The latter Flynn has been in the news recently, as you might have heard.
Every once in a while, someone will reach out to Flynn (@MFlynnGT) thinking they have contacted the lieutenant general. AAD Flynn will often engage the confused tweeter in good humor, even as their original sentiment can be quite rude or graphic. Flynn includes the hashtag #MikeFlynnProblems in his answers.
One recent tweeter acknowledged his mistake with a “my bad.” Flynn responded: “No sweat. Happens all the time. I just try to have fun with it!”
Indeed.
It’s easy for me to laugh. I don’t really have #ChrisVivlamoreProblems on Twitter.
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