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Talking Chop

https://www.talkingchop.com/ | 500 entries published

Your one stop shop for everything Atlanta Braves

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2025 Atlanta Braves Player Review: Michael Petersen

We’ve kept saying it in some of these earlier reviews: the Atlanta Braves set a record this past season for the number of players used in a single season. Michael Petersen was one of the many players the Braves relied on for a short period of time while dealing with injuries. It was interesting how […]

2 months ago | 3 reads

Could Chris Sale have won the Cy Young but for injury?

Before the 2025 season started and quickly started drifting off the rails, the masthead did a set of preseason predictions. Mine were… really bad. But one thing I remember was that I had Tarik Skubal and Chris Sale repeating as Cy Young Award winners. Well, Skubal played the part, becoming the first repeat winner since […]

MLB

2 months ago | 0 reads

Braves News: Player reviews, Cy Young winners, more

The offseason churns on, with Tthe Braves continuing to signal significant additions this offseason. While Anthopoulos was more careful, as he is, in setting expectations for payroll than Terry McGuirk was in setting the aim of a top 5 payroll. Anthopoulos was not shy in setting roster expectations, however, as he reiterated the goals of […]

2 months ago | 2 reads

Tarik Skubal and Paul Skenes are your 2025 Cy Young Award winners

Surprise, surprise! Detroit Tigers left-handed pitcher Tarik Skubal has attained his second consecutive American League Cy Young Award. This makes him the first American League winner to go back-to-back since Pedro Martinez in 1999 and 2000. And first back-to-back winner in general since Jacob deGrom in 2018-19. Simultaneously former 2024 Rookie of the Year Paul […]

2 months ago | 4 reads

2025 Atlanta Braves Prospect Reviews: Luke Waddell

How Acquired Luke was drafted by the Braves in the fifth round of the 2021 MLB draft out of THE Georgia Institute of Technology. What Were Expectations? Entering his fifth year as a professional, Luke did not have too many expectations, especially following his 2024 season where he hit just .235/.317/.322 in 111 games for […]

2 months ago | 2 reads

2025 Atlanta Braves Prospect Reviews: Jesús Bastidas

How Acquired Jesús was acquired via a trade from the Houston Astros for cash considerations on August 7th. What Were Expectations? There were not any expectations for Jesús, given the fact that he was acquired during the season! He was acquired for depth in the organization due to multiple injuries in the organization at the […]

2 months ago | 5 reads

2025 Player Reviews: Sandy León

Veteran backstop Sandy León made his first appearance in MLB since 2023, after spending much of the year as the third catcher on Atlanta Braves’ organizational depth chart. How acquired León was well-traveled when Atlanta signed him on April 2, 2024 after he failed to make the Kansas City Royals roster. He’d played in more […]

2 months ago | 4 reads

How many serious-money additions will the Braves make this offseason?

(This is not a Big Board question, because the contours are too vague to penalize people for being “off.”) By the by, it appears that Alex Anthopoulos spoke to reporters yesterday. While I haven’t seen a broad summary of his remarks, we have teeny-tiny snippets like: If you take it at face value, this suggests […]

2 months ago | 1 read

This Day in Braves History: Freddie Freeman is named N.L. MVP

Braves Franchise History 1923 – The Boston Braves acquire outfielders Casey Stengel and Bill Cunningham as well as shortstop Dave Bancroft from the New York Giants in exchange for pitchers Joe Oeschger and Bill Southworth.  2015 – The Braves trade shortstop Andrelton Simmons and catcher Jose Briceno to the Angels in exchange for shortstop Erick […]

2 months ago | 12 reads

Braves News: Coaching staff finalized, Spencer Schwellenbach, and more

The Atlanta Braves officially announced their finalized coaching staff on Tuesday. Tommy Watkins, Dustin Garneau, Darnell Coles, and Tony Diaz rounded out the major league staff. Watkins will serve as third base coach, Garneau takes over as catching coach, Coles joins as assistant hitting coach, and Diaz comes aboard as a major league coach. The […]

2 months ago | 2 reads

Spencer Schwellenbach is now pain free per Alex Anthopoulos

Jon Morosi reporting from the GM meetings conveys that Alex Anthopoulos has shared Spencer Schwellenbach’s new pain-free status after ending his season on the IL with a fractured throwing elbow. It was a very unusual injury for a pitcher that does directly impact the throwing arm, but will hopefully not have any long-term effects. This […]

MLB

2 months ago | 1 read

Offseason open thread: November 11

A lot when down today for a holiday. Drake Baldwin won the Rookie of the Year, and the guys have some great analysis about who might be available with the pick that comes with it. The Braves fleshed out their coaching staff. I mean whatever, I guess we’re walking and bunting now. There were three […]

2 months ago | 3 reads

2025 Atlanta Braves prospect reviews: Ethan Bagwell

How was he acquired? Atlanta chose Bagwell out of Collinsville High School (Ga.) in the 6th round of the 2024 draft, using the 191st overall selection on the righty. As a result, Bagwell received a signing bonus of $822,500, which was significantly over-slot for his draft position, in order to keep him from his commitment […]

2 months ago | 3 reads

2025 Atlanta Braves prospect review: Jim Jarvis

How was he acquired? Drafted by Detroit in the 11th round of the 2023 draft out of the University of Alabama, Atlanta acquired Jarvis in a trade for Rafael Montero at the trade deadline. Expectations for 2025 Seeing as though he was acquired via trade halfway through the season, the expectations for Jarvis were relatively […]

2 months ago | 2 reads

Drake Baldwin’s ROY Means Extra First Round Pick for Atlanta Braves

In case you were not already aware, many Atlanta Braves fans had been eagerly awaiting last night’s news of the National League Rookie of the Year Award being awarded to Drake Baldwin since early last spring. This is not because they cared only about Baldwin getting an award, rather the award comes with an extra […]

MLB

2 months ago | 0 reads

Braves finalize 2026 coaching staff, shift Tony Mansolino to bench coach

The Atlanta Braves have finalized their coaching staff for the 2026 season with new manager Walt Weiss. There is a lengthy press releases to announce the moves, but here’s the I-can’t-read-size-six-font version. Tim Hyers will return for his second year as hitting coach, as expected. It was an uneven first year under Hyers, but the […]

2 months ago | 0 reads

2025 Player Reviews: Hayden Harris

For multiple seasons now, whenever someone in the Atlanta Braves bullpen struggled, or even when they didn’t, we’d hear a familiar refrain: “When will they call up Hayden Harris? Why hasn’t Hayden Harris been called up yet?” Well, the second one is hard to answer, but the answer to the former was apparently “late in […]

2 months ago | 2 reads

How mad would you have been if Drake Baldwin didn’t win Rookie of the Year?

I absolutely did not remember that Rookie of the Year was being announced yesterday. If I had, a variant of the title of this post would’ve been yesterday’s question. At that time, whether justice would prevail or not was still uncertain. Right now, we can all celebrate. Something good happened this year, hooray. But, what […]

2 months ago | 2 reads

This Day in Braves History: John Smoltz wins the N.L. Cy Young Award

Braves Franchise History  1995 – Gaffney Street, near the former site of Braves Field in Boston, MA, is renamed Harry Agganis Way, after the former Boston University and Boston Red Sox star, who died during the 1955 season. 1996 – John Smoltz, who won a major league-high 24 games for the Atlanta Braves, wins the […]

2 months ago | 2 reads

Drake Baldwin wins 2025 NL Rookie of the Year Award

For the 10th time in Atlanta Braves franchise history and for the third time since 2018, the National League Rookie of the Year is an Atlanta Braves player. Drake Baldwin joins a list that includes Earl Williams in 1971, Bob Horner in 1978, David Justice in 1990, Rafael Furcal in 2000, Craig Kimbrel in 2011, […]

2 months ago | 3 reads

Braves adding Tommy Watkins to coaching staff, per reports

The Atlanta Braves seem primed to add long-time Minnesota Twins coach Tommy Watkins to their coaching staff per multiple reports. Dan Hayes of the Athletic was first to report the news earlier this afternoon. As Aaron Gleeman of the Athletic noted, Watkins had been with the Twins for 27 years. Reporting on the Braves side […]

2 months ago | 4 reads