Home of the M-Braves

Before I get into my review of the AA Mississippi Braves and their ballpark Trustmark Park, I want to give thanks to the organization for showing me a great time and getting me all the info I wanted. This is the first of many trips this year on the “2009 Bravescast Roar Trip”. Next we’ll be sending a review from Rome Georgia’s State Mutual Stadium and the Single-A team the Rome Braves. Here is my review from AA Mississippi.

Ballpark & Field: The ballpark is named Trustmark Park and holds about 5,550 fans and has seat from home plate to both foul poles. The stadium is still in great condition considering it was opened only 4 years ago in April of 2005. It reminds me of Rome’s stadium a lot. I think the biggest eye catcher is the huge “Berm” extending over from center to left field. This is a great place to watch a ball game or relax and spend some time. I quickly noticed that there are a lot of covered picnic table areas in the park included a large one along the right field line and a left field line beyond the fence. The right field area has a full service Restaurant/Grill area. There is also a large kid’s inflatable air slide area. Beside that is the large centerfield concourse is the merchandise store. The store has a few HD TV sets in it playing the Atlanta and M-Braves games. The park also features a 16 by 21 ft. video board with a full in-house video feed. I was fortunate enough to get to visit the Braves clubhouse. The clubhouse is small in comparison to Atlanta’s but is large enough to accommodate the whole team. There is nothing exotic in the clubhouse, but it does have several HD TVs, couches, card tables and a work out area near the showers. It’s a very nice clubhouse for a minor league facility. Overall the field its self looked as good as I have ever seen a field look. Green grass with no flaws and a smooth looking infield too. The Braves dugout is down the 3^rd base side and visitors down the right. Both bullpens are out of play which is much safer but not always common in the Minor leagues.

City and Staff: The location of the ballpark is a key in Mississippi. The official city of location is Pearl, Miss but other large towns sounding the park are Jackson and Brandon Mississippi. The stadium is located right off of interstates I-20 and I-55. The stadium sits directly across the street from a gigantic Bass Pro Shop which is a popular place on the weekends. The tri-city area is large into sports, and I was told that there is a lot of high school and college sports tournaments held in the area. A couple of college teams were staying in the same hotel I was one night. As for the staff, I could not have asked for a better experience. The media relations manager, Nicholas Skinner took me around the park, in the clubhouse and press box. He also sent me home with interviews, pictures and a couple of media guides and souvenirs. The night that I went was “Mini Plague Night”. The plague featured a tribute to the 2008 Southern League Championship won by the M-Braves. I also got a chance to meet the radio play-by-play broadcaster Ben Ingram. He gave me a bunch of info on the team, the area, and the media in the Greater Jackson area. I listened to him broadcast the game and he is a pretty good broadcaster. Check him out some times on the live audio provided at www.mississippibraves.com .

The 2009 Team: Talking with M-Braves manager Phillip Wellman, he expects big things out of the 2009 team. They are coming off a Championship year, and return a heavy load of starters from last years club. The new additions are mostly added from the Myrtle Beach team that won 89 games and both the first and second half titles. The team has gotten off to a slow start, but the same thing happened least season before pulling it all together at the end. Some key names to watch are position players; Brandon Hicks, Eric Campbell,  Gorkys Hernandez, and Matt Young. The pitching staff will be lead by pitchers; Rudy Darrow, Stephen Marek,   among others. We will keep are eye on the team and feature players throughout the season that are producing productively.

All in all, the five hour trip to Mississippi was well worth it. I look forward to going back later this year or maybe next season. We do plan on covering the Mississippi team again on the road in Chattanooga TN, or Birmingham Al. If you are in any other these areas I would encourage you to get a sneak peak at the Braves of the future. This weeks will begin are first Minor League focused show call Bravescast “Minors to Majors”. Please give it a listen.

Mississippi is the 1st stop in 09.

As part of some of the new things coming to Bravescast in the 2009 season, we are proud to announce the first stop on the 2009 “Bravescast Roadtrip”. I will be headed out to Pearl Misssissippi to cover the Braves Double-A minor league affiliate. I hope to speak with some of the future in the Braves organization. There will be some names you may recognize and some that you may have never heard of before. I will also post some pictures of the Mississippi Braves’ Trustmark Park.  This stop will be one of many that we will make in the 2009 season. We hope to visit all 4 Minor League home ball parks, and even catch a couple of games in road cities as well. As part of the new chances in coming weeks, we will introduce a second Bravescast show weekly week called “Minors to Majors” featuring a look into the Minor Leagues as a whole and spotlighting a individual player each week. This show will also mark the return of the hosts’ individuals segments which are; Pats Pet Peeves, Bert’s Trivia, and Jereme’s Fantasy update. Look for these changes in the next coming weeks and as always thanks for listening and logging onto Bravescast.

Not in the so far off future the Braves will be in Atlanta and on the way to hopefully a terrific 2009 campaign and a march to the playoffs for the first time since 2005.  Until then we have to make due with what is going on right now.  Going back in forth for the best record in spring training the Braves look promising but should that leave us concerned?

I have grown up thinking that only the teams with great records in spring only means that they are positions on that team that is wide open for players to grab.  For the first time in a few years this spring really has given us that kind of spring.  As of now center field is still open, we still have a ton of pitchers battling out for a few spots.

Thanks to the WBC, congrats to team Japan, we got to see the future in a sense in the outfield and first base in Hayward and Freeman.  Thanks to a few media outlets America knows about the most important one Hanson.  We got to see a few more people thanks to a ton of players gone.

Finally things are getting easier for us who writes about the team because now Cox and other coaches are sending people down to the minor camps.  Those three players that I just mentioned and Hicks and Jo Jo Reyes are gone on assignments.  Not only for us here at Bravescast but for our fans it’s easier to pick out 25 for the opening day roster for the contest.  For me it is still going to be tough but I think I have a formula.  Or maybe not it will probably come down to a few guesses but hey it should be fun.

So go ahead write down your 25 man roster and send it on in.  It shouldn’t be that hard if you have followed the team this spring and the off season.  Come on and join us as co-hosts for an upcoming show it should be a lot of fun.  Good Luck.

Can you "Pick the Players"?

Bravescast is offering their first ever Pick the Players Contest. Can you predict the Atlanta Braves Opening day 25 Man Roster? Contestents can leave their roster in the comment box below or e-mail us direct a hosts@bravescast.com. To enter the contest select the 25 Braves players that you think will be op the opening day roster. Please separate your pitchers and position players and list the starters in the order you think they will pitch. Also tell us your starting 8 players and bench players. Entries can be made till 11:59pm Thursday April 2^nd. The person with the most names on the roster will win. We will be giving away a chance to co-host a show, join the Bravescast fantasy league, and a Bravescast t-shirt. In the event of a tie the tie-breakers will be in this order. Starting 4 pitchers, starting centerfielder opening day, and entry sent in the earliest. We will notify you as the winner on the website on Friday April 3^rd. The winner can then contact us and we will handle the rest. Only 1 entry per person please!

Griffey Picks the Seatle over Atlanta

It has been said on this podcast over and over how the media and especially the newspaper here in Atlanta is not the best.  Well here is a shocker as if you didn’t know Griffey is headed back to Seattle and not the Braves.  Why you ask?  I don’t know but here is a good guess, the AJC!

We sports fans here in Atlanta only have one option to read about things happening with our sports teams.  Anyone who knows knows not to put all of your eggs in one basket while trying to run down a hill or something like that.  Well a couple of writers here proclaimed Jr. was a Brave days before the man even signed a contract!  So you are telling me veteran writes for a city paper gets paid on assumptions?  Sign me up, no wait just give me a pay check. 

This is not the first time the Atlanta media has got ahead of the actual news.  Remember a few short months ago Escobar was gone and we had an ace to head up our rotation.  We talked about that for months until it was confirmed he was headed to the Cubbies just before he was actually staying in San Diego.  But what went wrong with the Kid? 

I don’t get paid to do this so I will not try and mess this up just write down what might have swayed his decision.  A couple days ago he was coming here.  He really wanted to play for arguably the best manager in the game today and he lives in Orlando.  His daughter is playing basketball in Atlanta and his son plays football in Florida just an hour or so from the busiest airport in the country.  So what gives?  After all of his years in the game he still has a heart and he actually cares about the fans.  The fans in the wrong city maybe but he cares.  Sorry Seattle.

Maybe he is still a shy kid and when he saw in big bold letters in the AJC about is days as a Brave before anything was settled unnerved him.  Can you blame him?  Just think as the pressure a Major league player has when he signs with a team; just multiply that because he is on your team before he is on your team.

Frank Wren caught all kind of grief because big name players slipped through his hands and then he went on a spree and got players for this team.  A reprieve maybe but this is not on Frankie.  To me this goes on the media and the writers on their assumptions.  I know these guys get paid to break big stories but if you have to go to the player’s best friend’s neighbor to get it well you should be doing blogs and podcasts not getting paid.  It is called a rumor for a reason.  If you put all the rumors in the paper well you would have to leave out the comics and the obituaries.