Zack Greinke’s spring debut!"It’s way too early to b

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e reading anything into this , but I do note that Carson Kelly will be catching Zack Greinke today. It seems that Greinke has a VERY strong preference for working with one catcher. Last year, every single pitch in the 207.2 innings he threw, was to Jeff Mathis behind the plate. It could well have been the same in 2017, except for the injury to Mathis which forced Greinke to throw to Iannetta instead. [Small sample size, but his ERA was 0.22 higher, and opponents’ OPS 35 points up, despite a BABIP which was a dozen points lower] In 2016 , it was almost always Welington Castillo, and even before he was a D-back, Greinke tended to have a personal catcher. Whether today’s line-up indicates Kelly has been tagged as “the man” or if this is just the first in a series of auditions, we’ll have to wait and see. I’ve no doubt Greinke has been throwing on the backfields to the other candidates, John Ryan Murphy and Alex Avila. Though neither of them have ever caught him in a game situation, so don’t have any real leg-up on Kelly in this particular race. However, if Kelly also catches Greinke next time he starts , which should be over the weekend, we can probably start thinking the position of personal catcher has been filled. One imagines the team will want to give whoever it is, as much time as possible, to work with Zack in game situations. A federal grand jury has launched an investigation into Major League Baseball's international dealings, according to Yahoo Sports' Jeff Passan.A full list of those being investigated has not been made public, although Passan reports at least one ex-Atlanta Braves official and people involved in the signing of Cuban phenomHector Olivera have beensubpoenaed.Olivera initially signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers on asix-year, $62.5 million dealin May 2015 before being traded to the Atlanta Braves two months later. He made 30 total appearances across the 2015 and 2016 seasons for Atlanta , but didn't appear again for the team after April 2016, when he was arrested following allegations of domestic violence.He was subsequentlysuspendedfor 82 games by MLB and served 10 days in jail after being found guilty on a domestic assault charge in September 2016.Olivera is not currently on an MLB roster.MLB teams have expanded their international presence over the years, with all 30 clubs possessing academies in Latin America. The Dominican Republic, Cuba and Venezuela are among the countries in which organizations scout and look to acquire talent from.Although the international players are not subject to the amateur draft, there are rules and limitations teams must adhere to when pursuing a player:Teams are allotted an international signing bonus pool each year and are allowed trade that money. Overspending, however, can result in penalties , such as being limited to a lower amount of international spending money.In November 2017, Major League Baseball came down hard on the Braves for their dealings with international signings. Atlanta lost 13 international prospects and a third-round pick and will have strict limitations on its international spending for a three-year period.Former Braves general manager John Coppolella was placed on MLB's permanently ineligible list, andformer special assistant Gordon Blakeley received a one-year suspension.The league found the Braves to have "circumvented the international signing rules during each of the past three signing periods," perMark Bowman of MLB.com, including reporting lowersigning bonuses than had been agreed with players.Passan noted that FBI agents andDepartment of Justice lawyers are involved in the grand jury investigation. So far, multiple people have reportedly agreed to cooperate with authorities.

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