Sports Page Atlanta

Midway through Spring Training, and one question mark that isn’t talked about much is the future of Scott Thorman on the Braves roster. Out of options, and coming off a disappointing year that saw him be handed the starting 1B job, only to play so poorly that the Braves were forced to trade for Mark Teixeira (not that they minded), Thorman is struggling this spring and might be on the way out. The Braves can send him to AAA, but since he is out of options, every other team will have the chance to claim him, which will likely happen due to the Canada-native’s massive raw power. Thorman has a tendency to crack when pressured, as we have all seen numerous times over the last few years when he grounds out and proceeds to try to slam his helmet through the Earth’s core. That’s not the quality the Braves need in a player who will most likely be one of the primary left-handed bats off the bench.

So, if Thorman does go, who gets the backup 1B role? Nobody in the system is major-league ready yet. So, the smart money is on a free agent, like Juan Rivera. Of course, they could go the traditional route and re-sign the ageless wonder Julio Franco (JUUUUUUUULIOOOOOOOO!!!), but I don’t see that happening.

One man making a name for himself in camp is Joe Borchard. The non-roster invitee and former Stanford Cardinal quarterback is sporting a .375 average with 11 RBI so far this spring. There are rumblings that he has impressed enough offensively to head north with the big club in late March. The only hold up being the fact that he is mainly an OF and has very little 1B experience. It wouldn’t be surprising, at all, to see Borchard getting more and more time in the field at 1B this spring, because, even though it’s spring, offensive numbers like that are hard to ignore.
photo credit: dbadair

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 7:28 pm and is filed under Atlanta Braves. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.