Tuesday Links

Mark Bowman blogs that Jason Heyward still has limited range of motion in the left thumb that he injured last May. Heyward had this to say:

"I still can't bend it anywhere close to where it was before.  I don't know if I ever will be able to do that.  But I know it's not holding me back from hitting."  

It's worth keeping an eye on, but if he managed to hit .273/.393/.456 when it was hurting him, then it's probably not something we should be too worried about at this point.


In front office news, the Braves signed veteran RHP Rodrigo Lopez to a minor league contract on Monday. Dave Cameron of FanGraphs.com quipped that the "Braves essentially got Bronson Arroyo Lite for free, while Bronson Arroyo Home Premium cost as much as much as Paul Knoerko... A lot of teams could have used a guy like Rodrigo Lopez at the back-end of their rotation, especially at an asking price not that far over the league minimum."


Dave O'Brien reports that Craig Kimbrel's stuff was looking pretty nasty during a Tuesday throwing session.


Oh, and some guy named Chipper says that he'll be ready to play on opening day.