When the Yankees parted ways with former scout Gordon Blakely this offseason there wasn't much press about it. When I did a search on the blog to see if I even wrote about it I found just one article, not the article stating that he left but an article where I just lumped it into the Trey Hillman Hired by Houston article. This was not on anyone's radar but after an offseason where the Braves cherry picked and picked off many former Yankees prospects maybe it should be on our radar now.
Many former Yankees including Manny Banuelos, Chien-Ming Wang, Zoilo Almonte, Corban Joseph, Francisco Rondon, Jairo Heredia, Eury Perez and Jose Veras among others are currently in Atlanta Braves spring training camp. While there aren't any All Stars on this list and while I acknowledge that all of them but Banuelos were acquired because they were allowed to be free agents for good reason this may be the beginning of a trend in Atlanta.
Blakely was the man who signed Robinson Cano. What that means now doesn't mean what it mean't back about 10 years ago but I think the former Yankees scout is trying to find lightning in a bottle again at the Yankees expense. If any team can take a reclamation project and turn them into a serviceable MLB piece it's the Atlanta Braves so remember that list above. You may be seeing their names soon.
