Good morning. This is LEADOFF, today’s early look inside Atlanta sports.
Add veteran pitcher Brandon McCarthy to those extremely impressed by the Braves’ young pitching talent.
“Some really, really, really good arms,” McCarthy said Wednesday, based mostly on what he has seen from watching the young pitchers throw bullpen sessions and live batting practice. “To see them up close is really impressive.
“There just seems to be a long wave of guys that all have really good stuff, and that goes (from) the bullpen to the young starters.”
McCarthy, 34, acquired by the Braves from the Dodgers in the financially driven Matt Kemp trade in December, is in the final year of his contract, meaning he probably won’t be here when much of the young talent graduates to the big leagues. That context has occurred to him, too.
“It’s fascinating for me, being old, knowing that I’m going to be out and these guys are going to be here in a couple of years and what the long term is going to look like here,” McCarthy said. “Because some of them look just really advanced for their age.”
I asked who in particular has caught his eye, and McCarthy responded without hesitation:
“(Mike) Soroka, I think, is the one. I’ve watched (him throw) a bullpen (session), and it didn’t look like a 20-year-old throwing a bullpen. And this isn’t to knock any of the other guys I haven’t watched as close, but it was well-commanded, everything was just where (he) wanted it to be.
“Watching him in the weight room, he looks like a guy that is a big-league rotation guy that just has it together, knows what he’s doing.”
ALSO: McCarthy was sharp in three-inning exhibition debut with Braves, Gabriel Burns reports.
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Atlanta added another neutral-site college-football game to its lineup Wednesday with the announcement that the annual MEAC/SWAC Challenge will be played at Georgia State Stadium beginning this year.
The move to Atlanta puts the early-season event in the same city as the end-of-season Celebration Bowl, which matches the MEAC (Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference) and SWAC (Southwestern Athletic Conference) champions.
Other neutral-site college-football games played annually in Atlanta are the Chick-fil-A Kickoff, the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl and the SEC Championship game.
See full story here.
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ICYMI: Falcons will hire consultant to assess Mercedes-Benz Stadium egress issues.
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