Braves Spring Training news and roster competition

Completely misses the point.

If at whatever point he's needed he'll be called up. If they were worried about his clock at all, one of Bourn or Bonifacio would have been kept as a left-handed option in CF rather than Stubbs or Francoeur.

I don't think anyone's ever suggested we may keep Mallex down to keep his clock from starting. He'll be 23 soon and has never been seen as the kind of guy you're extremely worried about losing or having to pay too early.

I like Mallex but even I see him as a guy who has good value for 4-5 years or so, at best.
 
Sure would be nice if whoever's in charge of the official website would clean up the roster page - seems a bit stupid to have all the NRIs on there at this point. Apparently there was a different Nate Freiman that we traded for Tyler Moore (they don't even have the trade listed on the transaction pages).
 
Hmm. Not digging of Gant in the bullpen. Stretch him out.

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I thought the signing of Bonifacio was puzzling last winter and it's more puzzling now. I would have kept him over Stubbs (I've never understood the infatuation with Stubbs at any point in his career), but the signing made little sense in the first place given that they had just signed Beckham. I'm guessing we are going to see a lot of shuffling throughout the year. Olivera not being able to handle 3B makes things a lot more complicated.
 
I'm assuming that Stubbs will be used in late game situations as a pinch runner/defensive replacement in left. Beckham might also be a late game defensive replacement at third.
 
Likely just using him there until another lefty RP can be signed and Chacin is added.

I see the LHRP situation very much linked to Jose Ramirez. When we need to go back down to 7 RPs on 4/12, Ramirez would be the one in jeopardy of losing his spot if we added an MLB LOOGY. So if the FO is bullish on Ramirez' future, I could see them just adding the best available veteran that will take an MiLB deal as injury insurance. If they're lukewarm on Ramirez, I could see them signing a LOOGY to an MLB deal in the next 48 hours and optioning Gant down. In the latter scenario, we'd have to expose Ramirez to waivers on 4/12 (barring any bullpen injuries).
 
Is Stubbs a better defender and faster than Bourn? Maybe they felt they can flip stubbs but nobody will take on Bourn's contract.
 
Let's not forget that Stubbs just had a year in 2014 where he posted a .821 OPS... caveat was that is was in Colorado. However, he's always had the pedigree and that was the first year he was truly just a platoon/situational player (it obviously benefits him being a situational guy). I don't know if we should count last year... he struggled but also didn't play very much. I'd much rather have him than Bourn who has struggled to be relevant since 2012. Stubbs is a nice power bat off the bench as well as a very good defender/base runner. Bourn is a one trick pony who can't even do that one trick well anymore.
 
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