Talking Chop

Here's a look at the major stories in the world of the Atlanta Braves for the week ending on November 1st:

  In the Press...

• John Sickels released his top-20 Braves prospects for 2010.
• The Braves hired former major league pitching coach Dave Wallace as their minor league pitching coordinator.
• Chipper Jones was interviewed by Forbes.com.
• It was reported by several different sources that Tim Hudson was close to a contract extension with Atlanta.
• David O'Brien gave us an update on how our prospects are faring in the Arizona Fall League.

At Talking Chop...

• Talking Chop was the first to report that Jason Heyward would return to Atlanta to have his injured hamstring examined. It was later learned that he would not be returning to the AFL, and will instead use the winter to recover.
  
• We reviewed the 2009 season of center fielders Nate McLouth and Jordan Schafer and outfielder Matt Diaz.
  
• CB reviewed the top-5 minor league center fielders and the top-5 minor league right fielders in the Braves organization.
• The bloggers of Talking Chop conducted two round tables about the state of the left fielders, center fielders, and right fielders in the Braves system.

Notable FanPosts and FanShots...

• royhobbs gave us a pictorial recap of the 2009 season.
• Sid Bream's Moustache shared a link about the source of baseball's magic mud.
• TradeAndruw linked to MLBTR's off-season outlook for the Braves.
• traphicg thinks that the hiring of Mark McGwire as the Cardinals hitting coach paves the way for Chipper Jones to one day be the Braves hitting coach.
• schaef888 was nice enough to recap a fan chat by prospect guru Jim Callis.