Tag Archives: Braves

One Inning and Miles to Go: Braves vs Phillies Spring Training 2017

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Pitching against the Phillies, spring training 2017.

One of baseball’s quirks is that players have to take everything  — EVERYTHING! — one pitch at a time. Doesn’t matter if you’re hitting, fielding, catching, running the bases, or pitching. That quirk gets its completion in the fact that players are judged over the long haul. Statistics show the results of one pitch at a time over the course of six or seven months. Or even one pitch at a time for years and years and years.

Yesterday, Jesse Biddle came back after 555 days of dealing with a torn elbow ligament — resting, surgery, rehab and extremely patient ramping up — to finally get some time on the mound Continue reading →

Good Times on the Mound: Early Spring Training 2017

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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!

Life Before Spring Training 2017: First Stop, Orlando

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Rest for yet another member of baseball’s Tommy John Brotherhood began on October 5, 2016. In early October Jesse was told not to touch a ball until he got the word from the Braves front office. He’d gone through a long season of rehab at the Braves’ facility in Orlando (Tommy John surgery was in October of 2015).

It was a wild ride, to say the least in that part of the world last year: hurricanes, murderous alligators, the Pulse nightclub, and Christina Grimmie. Look it all up. When last year began, Jesse had no idea what was about to happen except that he needed to take care of his elbow and stay in shape.

But the 2016 season began with his trade by the Phillies to the Pirates. That was surprising and frustrating, to tell the truth, but Jesse and the Pirate staff got along great and team executives in the front office were high on what Jesse could do for them once he recovered from his surgery. Alas, the Pirates needed to cover 3rd Continue reading →