Larry Brown Sports

B.J. Upton reportedly has agreed to sign with the Atlanta Braves, multiple outlets have said.

The 28-year-old free agent center fielder and his agent reportedly spent much of the day on Wednesday in negotiations with the club. David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the sides haggled over a guaranteed sixth year Upton was seeking. O’Brien says the team would not go six unless it was an option year. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale says the deal is five years for between $70 and $75 million. Upton has to pass a physical first before the deal becomes official.

Upton also changed his Twitter avatar to an Atlanta Braves logo on Wednesday, indicating he has agreed to a deal with the team.

Upton is a former No. 2 overall draft pick who first saw action in the bigs as a 19-year-old with the Rays in 2004. He showed the potential that made him such a high draft pick when he hit .300 with 24 home runs in 2007. However, his batting average has been a big concern since then; he has failed to hit above .246 the past four seasons, and has struck out over 160 times each of the past three years.

Still, Upton possess skills few others in the majors do. He has elite speed that has helped him steal at least 30 bases per season each of the last five years, and he also has good power for a center fielder (he hit a career high 28 dingers last season). Upton plays excellent defense in center, and should be a good replacement for Atlanta which is losing Michael Bourn in free agency.

Though I’m not a big fan of Upton because of his maddening inconsistency at the plate, he is a solid all-around ballplayer who should help the Braves.

Chipper Jones is trying to squeeze every last inch out of the final season of his 18-year MLB career. If that means joining the rookies and dressing up like a moron, so be it.  As you can see from the photo above that Braves pitcher Peter Moylan shared on Twitter, the Braves made their rookies dress up in dumb Halloween costumes recently and Chipper joined them.

Chipper is likely going to miss having fun with the young guys, so you can understand why he wanted to partake before he officially hangs up the spikes. I’m sure it helped that the Atlanta rookies got to wear fun “Dumb and Dumber”suits and dress up like Scooby Doo rather than being restricted by a leotard or parading around Times Square in a speedo.

H/T FairWeather Report

This past weekend, the Braves hosted an alumni weekend celebration event at Turner Field for former players and coaches. John Sullivan, a former bullpen coach who was with the team for two seasons in the 1980s, was on the guest list. He never got his invitation. An unidentified impostor received Sullivan’s invitation in the mail, and rather than do what your everyday honest citizen might do, he decided to play along. The fake John Sullivan accepted the invitation, grabbed a No. 8 Braves jersey and headed out to the ballpark for the experience of a lifetime

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the impostor enjoyed a weekend of free hotel, drinks, food and fun. During the alumni softball game, former Braves reliever Jose Alvarez estimated that “Sullivan’s” bat speed was no quicker than 30 mph. Not wanting to be rude, Alvarez and some other former players and coaches kept quiet and assumed Sullivan was dealing with some health issues.

The fake Sullivan claimed to be a former player. Alvarez says former Braves manager Bobby Cox was embarrassed he didn’t recognize the impostor because he never forgets a former player. When Cox finally asked someone who the gentleman was and was told it was John Sullivan, he knew something was up.

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National radio host Todd Wright attended a Braves spring training game at Champion Stadium in the Disney/ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex last weekend and noted the late inning beer special offered at a concession stand:

A food and beverages rep from Disney’s Wide World of Sports told LBS the beer discount is called the “Throwback Special,” and is available during the sixth inning of every game. Three types of beers — Natty Light, Miller High Life, and Pabst Blue Ribbon — are discounted from their regular price of $6.50 to $3.00 during the sixth inning.

Though we appreciate the team/stadium trying to make things more affordable — Wright notes that they generously offer free parking for fans — we’re confused by the contradictory nature of the discount. Alcohol sales are suspended after the sixth inning because they don’t want people driving home drunk. Yet they’re cutting the price of beer in half during the sixth to encourage people to get all their drinking in then.

Disney has earned a reputation as one of the most family friendly companies in the world and their theme parks are supposed to be some of the happiest places on earth. I can’t imagine them sending a more contradictory message. It’s unwise to promote late-inning drinking at the ballpark before fans drive home. If you’re going to discount beers at all, do it very early in the game and limit the quantity.

Looks like we can add the Braves to the list of MLB teams that are going for a new look this upcoming season.  Once again, retro is the way to go.  Personally, I like the trend.  To this point we have seen three teams unveil a new, retro-style uniform for 2012.  The Mets did very little to change their uniforms and make them more classic looking, simply removing the outline from their jerseys.  Then, there was Toronto announcing they were going back to their old uniforms, which in my opinion kick the crap out of the futuristic ones they had been rocking in recent years.

The Braves jersey you see above was recently featured on OnTheField.com, but the link has since been removed.  Apparently the Braves were saving the unveiling of their new cream-color jerseys for a special occasion.  In any event, these looks pretty sweet.  Also, I like the idea of making the jerseys just a home alternate so they retain some of their luster.  Keep the retro-looking jerseys coming.

H/T to Big League Stew for capturing the photo and sharing it with us

The Atlanta Braves blew an 8.5 game playoff lead in September, but you could consider them lucky. Thanks to the Red Sox’s historic collapse, the failures of the Braves have been somewhat overlooked. Not anymore.

Allow us to enjoy this moment of schadenfreude shared by SI Hot Clicks:

I tend to mix up my idioms from time to time, but I believe there is some sort saying about horses and carts. Maybe some of the Braves players could provide some assistance for me. Not like they have anything better to do.

While team like the Chicago White Sox have a struggling bullpen that’s giving Ozzie Guillen stress issues, other teams actually have a solid relief crew. You can look at the Yankees who have the unhittable Mariano Rivera and setup man Rafael Soriano, the Indians have the Perezes and Tony Sipp who have yet to allow a run, and the Padres have been pretty tough the past two years. But the team that stands out to me is the Atlanta Braves, who despite losing Billy Wagner, may have the best 8th and 9th inning combination in baseball.

Craig Kimbrel and Jonny Venters are the 9th and 8th inning pitchers for the Braves, and they’re both second year flame-throwing youngsters from the South. Kimbrel was a 3rd-round pick by the Braves in 2008 out of Wallace State Community College. The Huntsville Alabama native spent time at all levels of the minor leagues and gave up just 40 runs in 151 career minor league innings. He averaged over 14 strikeouts per nine innings in the minors, whiffing 242 batters while closing 51 games. After mowing down batters in Triple-A last year, he was called up to the Braves where he gave up just two runs in 20.2 innings, striking out 40 batters.

This year it’s been more of the same.

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