Eight-year-old Eddie Richardson begins every day with Cheerios and box scores.

He not only checks on his favorite player, Chipper Jones, but he zooms in on Ty Wigginton, third baseman for the Houston Astros. And Jose Arredondo, a relief pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels ... and every other major league player whose daily stats are listed in the newspaper. All 750 of them.

(ENLARGE)

Eddie Richardson spends his mornings with the box scores.

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Eddie claims to know every team's roster, a feat that requires attention to injuries and trades, players being sent to the minors and players going on the disabled list, meaning of course, he knows our Braves very well.

So we threw a few Eddie's way. And these were no softballs.

• Left field, San Diego Padres?

"Scott Hairston"

• Who is Andrew Sisco?

"Pitcher, Chicago White Sox, on the DL"

• Seattle Mariners, first base?

"Miguel Cairo"

For years, Eddie, who started reading at age 4, quietly studied the newspaper every morning.

His dad didn't realize his son's talent with baseball stats until last summer.

"By third day of golf camp, all of the golf pros surrounded Eddie and they kept quizzing him on baseball and they couldn't stump him," said his father, Ed Richardson. "The golf pro pulled me aside and said, 'This is not normal.' "

It's actually quite extraordinary especially when you consider Ed Richardson is not much a fan of baseball himself — though Eddie is changing that.

"Instead of me teaching him the game, it's the reverse," Ed Richardson said. "He is making me a fan of the game."

On Friday, Eddie, a rising third-grader from Smyrna, will get a chance to meet some of the players before the 7:30 p.m. home game against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Eddie, who was a pitcher for his little league team, the Bats, also has some thoughts on how to turn things around for the Braves. He said early Tuesday the Braves "need to make a big trade."

He expected Mark Teixeira would likely be one of those traded.

As usual, he was right. A few hours later Tuesday, Teixeira was traded.

GO ASK EDDIE

How do you measure up to this 8-year-old fan? Here are some questions we asked young Eddie:

• Texas Rangers, left field?

"Brandon Boggs"

• Minnesota Twins, center field?

"Carlos Gomez"

• What position does Placido Polanco play?

"Detroit Tigers, second base"

• What position does Luis Vizcaino play?

"Colorado Rockies, pitcher"

• Florida Marlins, shortstop?

"Hanley Ramirez"

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