Braves-Nation.com

It's that time again. I was too busy with other things to post the confidence poll last Wednesday, so you get it today. Since our last poll, Spring Training games have started and the Braves have been playing well. Jason Heyward has convinced everyone who wasn't already convinced that he will be the next Braves star. The pitching has been excellent through the first week of spring games, as well. Off the filed, the Braves signed Dominican shortstop Edward Salcedo to a record contract for the Braves. Reports about his talents already place him in the Braves top five prospects.

Our last confidence poll (2/17) came in at 77.64%, up from 76.14% on February 3rd. It will take a couple more cycles of voting before we're able to chart it out on a graph, but until then, I will list the results so that we can keep track of it in one way or another. ...

Often times when talking about the top rotations in baseball, we hear things about teams having a dominant 1-2 punch. Baseball fans have heard a lot about Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain out in San Francisco and the duo of Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright in St. Louis. Now the duo in Seattle -- Felix Hernandez and Cliff Lee -- will join them as one of the best combination atop a starting rotation in all of baseball. But which pitchers would make up the Braves 1-2 punch?

Unlike most other rotations, the Braves have balance from top to bottom, but I feel like there are three that set themselves apart from the other two. I think it's obvious that if Braves fans were picking their best two pitchers, it'd come from the group of Tommy Hanson, Tim Hudson and Jair Jurrjens. If that's the case, how much of a luxury is it to have pitchers like Derek Lowe and Kenshin Kawakami making up the back part of the starting rotation? ...

The race to make up the seven men that will open the season in the bullpen is always one of the more intriguing battles in spring training. This year, it seems to be one of the only position battles for the Braves. Right now, the team is set in their starting rotation and the starting position players are all but set in stone -- as much as it can be without coming out and saying, "we're giving the 20 year old the job".

With the starting rotation and starting position players in place, that only leaves the bullpen and the bench. On the bench, we already know that David Ross, Omar Infante, Eric Hinske and Melky Cabrera have their places locked down. That leaves just one spot to fight for as a position player. ...

A Braves source has told MLB.com's Mark Bowman that the Braves are "close" to a deal with 18 year old Shortstop prospect Edward Salcedo. Salcedo a 6 foot 3 inch Shortstop from the Dominican Republic could be reporting to the Braves' Spring Training rookie camp soon.

The Associated Press reports that Salcedo reached an agreement with the Cleveland Indians in 2007 for $2.3 Million dollars but the contract was voided when it was found out that Salcedo claimed he was born in 1989. ...