Atlanta Braves News: Night Cap, New Pitching Sleeve, Frank Wren A Frontrunner??
BASEBALL PITCHERS COULD SOON WEAR A SLEEVE WHICH WARNS OF FUTURE INJURIES
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: Two guys from Rice University believe that they have designed a device that a pitcher would wear on his throwing arm that can determine if an injury could happen. This could be a huge development in the game of baseball. The sleeve is made to prevent serious arm injuries and help avoid Tommy John surgeries. These will start at the high school level, but could make it’s way to the pros. They start at $250 and will have a $10 per month subscription fee for the software. Could be cool, I’m looking forward to seeing how well these work.
Ziel is a sleeve a pitcher would wear on their throwing arm and is the work of two Rice University engineers who believe that the use of muscle sensors and motion trackers could prevent or warn of long-term injuries before they even happen. Simply, the sleeve is designed to help pitchers and coaches identify harmful pitching.
Young pitchers are throwing harder pitches and more pitches at younger and younger ages. Ziel is specifically designed to help younger athletes, such as high school pitchers, track their technique and their muscle exertion through the sleeve which sends data to the user’s smartphone. Using the data, a pitcher will know something is wrong in their technique or that they need to rest before damage to the arm actually occurs.
Ziel Solutions, the company behind the product, has already rolled through a number of prototypes, but hopes to have a unit available for shipment in 2018. This first version will specifically be targeted to high school athletes in the hopes of reducing the number of severe injuries which occur to young pitchers. The company states that 60% of high school pitchers suffer from a debilitating arm injury and half of those athletes either don’t return to baseball or have a limited career.
Frank Wren “Leading Candidate” For Red Sox’s GM Job
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: After the Arizona Diamondbacks named Mike Hazen their general manager, hiring him away from the Boston Red Sox, the Sox will now be looking to fill that position. Early rumors are that Dave Dombrowski will look towards his close friend and former coworker (together in both Montreal and Miami), Frank Wren. Remember that name? Wren was the Braves GM prior to the John Hart and John Coppolella show. In my opinion, this would be a huge mistake for Boston, but it could be just what they are looking for. He does have a lot of experience and pretty good at getting guys signed. Wren served as the Red Sox’s senior vice president of baseball operations in 2016. We’ll see pretty shortly if the Red Sox will hire Wren for their GM position.
The 58-year-old Wren has extensive experience as an executive, including runs as the GM in Baltimore and Atlanta. Both stints ended in firings for Wren, whose tenure atop the Braves (2007-14) was much longer than his reign with the Orioles (1998-99). In Wren’s seven seasons as the Braves’ GM, the club finished over .500 five times and earned three playoff berths. Shortstop Andrelton Simmons, closer Craig Kimbrel, catcher Evan Gattis and left-hander Alex Wood were among the players the Braves drafted under Wren, who later inked Simmons, Kimbrel, first baseman Freddie Freeman and starter Julio Teheran to extensions that have worked out well (of that group, only Freeman and Teheran remain in Atlanta).
Wren’s time as the Braves’ boss certainly had blemishes, including allocating significant money to outfielder Melvin Upton Jr. (five years, $75.25MM), second baseman Dan Uggla (five years, $62MM) and third baseman Chris Johnson (three years, $23MM). Their inability to live up to those deals contributed to Wren’s firing. In 2014, Wren’s final season in Atlanta, the offensively challenged Braves stumbled to a 27-40 second half after going 52-43 before the All-Star break.
Dempster: I never turned down Braves deal
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: The trade that never happened…getting close to the trade deadline in 2012, the Braves were extremely close to trading for Ryan Dempster. The Braves would have sent Randall Delgado to the Cubs in exchange for a rental with Dempster (contract ended that season). When the trade didn’t go through (Dempster said no to the Braves) the Cubs and the Rangers made the deal. The Rangers got Dempster and the Cubs got Kyle Hendricks. Yep, game two starter for the Cubs.
Dempster, who was dealt by the Cubs to the Texas Rangers minutes before Tuesday’s non-waiver trade deadline, said he just wanted time to think about the proposed trade to Atlanta, which would have netted Chicago 22-year-old pitcher Randall Delgado.
“All I said was I would be open to going to a team … my kind of specifications for going anywhere was going to a winner,” Dempster said Wednesday on “The Waddle & Silvy Show” on ESPN 1000. “If I was going to leave this situation with the Cubs that I have been with for so long, I wanted to go somewhere that had a real good chance of winning.”
“It came out like I was turning down trades left, right and center and the truth of the matter is I never really turned down any trades until the very end when I said yes to Texas.”
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