ATL PM: Atlanta Sports News 6/1

Jan 20, 2013; Atlanta, GA, USA; Atlanta Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez (88) celebrates a touchdown against the San Francisco 49ers during the second quarter of the NFC Championship game at the Georgia Dome. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

What’s up everyone and welcome to June. In today’s links we get a mix of Braves, Hawks, Falcons and some Georgia Tech stuff as well. Also, I wanted to introduce something new for the ATL AM/PM’s to make them a bit more involved for the readers. Polls! We’d love to hear what you guys think about the latest Atlanta sports news so we are going to start doing polls on a regular basis.

It’s an easy way for you to let us know what your thinking without having to log in and comment… but if you feel strongly about something please feel free to do that as well.

Our first poll is centered around the Juan Francisco DFA news:

Now, let’s get to the links.

MLB–Fredi Gonzalez has been “resting” BJ Upton a lot lately, but recognizes that he is going to have to get some playing time if he is going to get out of his prolonged slump:

"“I’m a believer that to get out of the funk, you have to play,” Gonzalez said. “There’s not a magic number or anything like that. The thing you feel good about is, the guy works hard. I think if you spend too much time not playing, when you put him in there, it might be even worse, because all of a sudden, he hasn’t seen live pitching.”Including Friday night’s series opener against the Nationals, Upton has been out of the starting lineup in five of the last seven games the Braves have played.“He understands to a certain point,” Gonzalez said. “Good players want to play. We’ve had conversations. He’s making the adjustments.”"

AJC–Tony Gonzalez has been named the 47th top player in the NFL according to his peers in the NFL:

"Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez, a future Hall of Famer, was revealed as the 47th best player in the league on The Top 100 Players of 2013 show on NFL Network on Thursday.Gonzalez led the Falcons in catches last season with 93 for 930 yards and eight touchdowns. He was selected to the Pro Bowl for the 13th time in his career.Gonzalez, who was the first Falcon to crack this year’s list, currently ranks second in NFL history with 1,242 career receptions and his 103 career touchdown catches are the sixth most in league history."

AJC–The AJC interviewed Gregg Popovich on Danny Ferry and Mike Budenholzer… part of the Q & A is up on the site now, with more to follow:

"Gregg Popovich knows what is in store for the Hawks – specifically the relationship between general manager Danny Ferry and new head coach Mike Budenholzer.The long-time Spurs head coach, winner of four NBA titles from 1999-2007, worked with Ferry during his three stints with the Spurs, two in the front office and one as a player. Popovich recruited Budenholzer at Pomona College, gave him a non-paying job with the Warriors and brought him to the Spurs 19 years ago.As part of an exclusive interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Thursday, here is one question and answer from Popovich. (More of the interview can be found in a Sunday story by Steve Hummer and in the coming days.)"

DawgSports–chuckdawg looks at Georgia Tech’s 2012 season:

"Wait? I just told you Georgia killed Tech. But look at those numbers: GT had more first downs, more total yards, almost twice the rushing yards, almost half the penalties, more 3rd down conversions and 40 to 20 minute time of possession! PAUL JOHNSON MUST BE A GENIUS! There is clearly no way that Georgia could have won this game so hugely.So how did we do that? Well, first, this is exactly what you want to do against that triple option attack, slow it, stop it and run our highly effective offense. And as we start peeling away the stats, we see one that stands out is 3rd down conversions. We simply didnt have that many attempts. Which means we were gaining on big plays routinely. So, let’s look at our players:"