Good Times on the Mound: Early Spring Training 2017

Early bullpen with coach Marty Reed looking on

We’re posting this so that those of you who follow Jesse with a subscription here get a heads up. He is scheduled to throw an inning tomorrow (Saturday, March 4) in his first competitive game since August 2015. It’s just spring training, but still…

Baseball’s a funny game. That inning will be in Clearwater against the Philadelphia Phillies. You can watch it if you are either in the Phillies’ viewing region or have a subscription to MLB.TV. Game time is 1:05 p.m. We don’t know what inning the Braves want him to go in.

Some of us were down in Orlando last week and got to watch Jesse finally throw against live hitters for the first time in 18 months. He faced Nick Markakis, Freddie Freeman, and Matt Kemp in practice. Jesse threw about 15 pitches, mostly in the zone. He looked quite ready to compete. We watched him throw in a sim game three days later as well. Again he looked strong and ready, his motion was loose, free, and easy. No arm pain to speak of, according to him, and as long as he kept the ball down the hitters were struggling to get their barrels on the ball.

We’ll have more to say after tomorrow’s outing in Clearwater. Just wanted those of you who have committed your email addresses to Jesse to know you may be able to catch a glimpse of him in your living rooms this weekend.

Go Braves! Chop On!