Medlen is not on the 40-man roster, which led to speculation that Charlie Morton, who is, would get the call if Reyes faltered. But the Braves are currently at 38 players, so Medlen can easily be added.

Medlen had an interesting spring in that the Braves used him for an inning or slightly more late in games until almost the end of camp. He was a reliever exclusively at Class AA, then was switched to a starter; it appeared the Braves were considering breaking camp with him in the bullpen. That didn't come to pass.

Then there's the fact that Medlen is jumping ahead of Tommy Hanson, the organization's top prospect.

How did Cox make this decision?

He didn't.

"I always leave that up to the front office," Cox says. "The scouts, and the manager and the pitching coaches down there. They know more than I do."

But Cox does know that Medlen's been pitching the cover off the ball.

"He's got three plus pitches," Cox says, "and he's quick as a cat. I think he's picked off five guys. That's hard to do for a right-hander."

As for Reyes, Cox says, "We'll stick him in the bullpen, see what he can do out there. He gets so close to getting it consistently, then for some reason or other it wanders away."

BRAVES 4, DIAMONDBACKS 3: The Braves didn't hit all that well but with the Diamondbacks' defensive lapses, but they didn't have to. And after LHP Mike Gonzalez blew the 3-2 lead in the ninth, SS Yunel Escobar came through with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly. RHP Javier Vazquez pitched beautifully -- 10 strikeouts -- but again didn't get the win.