Drake Baldwin Mashes Again as Braves Take Series Over A's
Scott Coleman and Brad Rowland host Episode 355 of the Hammer Territory Podcast and react to the Atlanta Braves taking the series over the Athletics to improve to 4-2 on the season. They discuss Drake Baldwin's incredible start to the season, Chris Sale gutting through an illness, some woes with runners on base, a poor start from Jose Suarez, and much more. They also preview the upcoming series with the Arizona Diamondbacks as the Braves hit the road for the first time.
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Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Hammer Territory Podcast.
Speaker 1: This is episode three five five. Mynam miss Brad Ryland,
Speaker 1: and I'm joined on this Wednesday. It's April fools Day,
Speaker 1: but no fools here, Scott's it's Scott Coleman. What's going on?
Speaker 2: Hello, Brad? So I have a stat for you right
Speaker 2: off here at the top of the podcast. So, with
Speaker 2: a win on Wednesday, the Atlanta Braves picked up their
Speaker 2: fourth win of the season. Last year, it took fifteen
Speaker 2: games for the Braves to win four games. That kind
Speaker 2: of says it all. That reminds us how terrible things
Speaker 2: were this time of year ago. But also it's been
Speaker 2: a a mostly good start to the season, and it
Speaker 2: has not been a perfect start by any means. And
Speaker 2: we're going to talk about both the good and the
Speaker 2: bad from the last couple of games. But hey, four
Speaker 2: and two, you took care of business at home, you
Speaker 2: won the first two series of the year, and now
Speaker 2: you head out west and try to keep the momentum going.
Speaker 1: That's right, and it's good perspective to remember that because
Speaker 1: with the Braves winning the first two series, which is
Speaker 1: you know, it's an old kind of an old school
Speaker 1: thing to think about stacking series wins. But it's also
Speaker 1: true if you just win every series, you're gonna be
Speaker 1: in great shape. And the Braves have done that so
Speaker 1: far through two series. And it hasn't been great like
Speaker 1: you always said across the board, but there have been
Speaker 1: enough highs, enough taking care of business aspects to get
Speaker 1: four victories in six games. And uh yeah, a harsh
Speaker 1: reminder of last year, but also a good reminder of
Speaker 1: context for this year to not be necessarily terribly pessimistic
Speaker 1: about a four and two starts. Four and two is
Speaker 1: four and two is four and two, right like, it
Speaker 1: all counts the same and encourage through that lens. We
Speaker 1: should say at the top of our podcast, we are
Speaker 1: Hammer Territory, engineered by Fast and All and we're also
Speaker 1: part of the Foul Territory network of podcasts. If you're
Speaker 1: an Atlanta Braves fan, you found the right place subscribe
Speaker 1: to our podcast Apple, Spotify, YouTube, et cetera. But we'll
Speaker 1: dive in now to the last couple of days of
Speaker 1: Braves results. We had a show on Sunday and a
Speaker 1: show on Monday, so listen to those episodes as well.
Speaker 1: But a dealer's choice Scott, you threw me a curb
Speaker 1: off the top, which I always appreciate on a baseball podcast.
Speaker 1: Do you want to talk about the fun game of
Speaker 1: the last two games or the nots of fun game?
Speaker 1: First your call.
Speaker 2: Let's let's keep it positive. Let's talk about Wednesdays, because
Speaker 2: Tuesday was kind of a stinker, so let's talk about
Speaker 2: the more enjoyable baseball game of the two.
Speaker 1: We are on the same weblink there so as we're
Speaker 1: talking to you all, it's Wednesday evening and earlier today
Speaker 1: the Old Businessman Special like a noon start, nine am
Speaker 1: start for Scott Coleman breakfast Baseball on a Wednesday. The
Speaker 1: hero of the day, let's just start with this. Drake
Speaker 1: Baldwin has been out of his mind so far this week.
Speaker 1: He has been clearly the standout of the offense, and
Speaker 1: he was the clearest standout of the game today. He
Speaker 1: broke the seal with the first run scoring hit in
Speaker 1: today's game, as two run single braves have been flailing
Speaker 1: prior to that, and then he broke the game open
Speaker 1: in a big way after that. And through six games,
Speaker 1: Drake has a like a twelve hundred oops like he's
Speaker 1: been outrageous and so much for any talk about sophomore SLUMPU.
Speaker 1: Drake Baldwin star basically man.
Speaker 2: I mean, we all had high hopes for Drake Baldwin
Speaker 2: in year two, but he's unbelievable. I mean, he's been
Speaker 2: by far and away the best player on this team
Speaker 2: through the first week. I looked at Fangraft's War leaderboard
Speaker 2: a little bit earlier. He's like eleventh in all of
Speaker 2: baseball in War and has just been everything you could
Speaker 2: have hoped for and more. And Drake is really the
Speaker 2: one guy who's also been hitting with runners in scoring position,
Speaker 2: which is something that to be blunt. The rest of
Speaker 2: the team has really been pretty poor at other than
Speaker 2: maybe Dom Smith, but I mean just I think the
Speaker 2: encapsulation of Drake Baldwin's first week was an eleven pitch,
Speaker 2: two run, two out double that kind of broke the
Speaker 2: game open for the Braves on Wednesday, just a phenomenal
Speaker 2: at bat, stayed alive as he always does, never gives
Speaker 2: away in a bat. He is just such an impressive player.
Speaker 2: He does a totally fine job behind the plate as well,
Speaker 2: commanding the pitching staff and keeping everything in front of
Speaker 2: him Like this kid in year one, Baldwin surpassed every expectation.
Speaker 2: And it's only a week and we'll say that one
Speaker 2: more time, but you're running out of good things to
Speaker 2: say about Drake Baldwin the way he's been playing.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I mean even could have even been bigger, honestly
Speaker 1: at a home run rob today. Basically the Braves head
Speaker 1: I think you had this stat in our notes. The
Speaker 1: Braves have been over fourteen friend of sportmanosition until that
Speaker 1: Baldwin hit in the second ending today, Like he's really
Speaker 1: been the only one of the top guys who's had
Speaker 1: it going so far this week. Now that has to change.
Speaker 1: We all understand that that Braves can't really live with
Speaker 1: a full season of guys like Ronnie and Olsen not
Speaker 1: being themselves, but it is a reminder of how good
Speaker 1: Drake has been and also that the Braves are still
Speaker 1: four and two with him being the only one of
Speaker 1: the kind of core pieces that hasn't going so far.
Speaker 1: Granted that that's nice supporting stuff from you know, Yustremski, Dubon,
Speaker 1: obviously Dom Smith, who's the hero the other day. Those
Speaker 1: guys have been good, but it's really been Drake and
Speaker 1: Drake alone at the top of the lineup, and it's
Speaker 1: been enough so far because of whether they've timed things
Speaker 1: and pitched on the right days and all those things.
Speaker 1: So got to fix it elsewhere. But it's likes to
Speaker 1: have a star catcher to kind of get you through
Speaker 1: a slow week otherwise.
Speaker 2: And at this point, like eventually the Braves are probably
Speaker 2: going to have to give Drake a day or two off.
Speaker 2: But you can't take his bat out of the lineup
Speaker 2: right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean Alex said, I think Alex said on
Speaker 1: that radio interview pre season that they were going to
Speaker 1: try to play them all thirteen to the first thirteen games,
Speaker 1: which is not what you would normally think for a catcher.
Speaker 1: But maybe you give him a couple extra DH days,
Speaker 1: maybe you play Jonaheim more than you maybe want to
Speaker 1: right now in order to just keep Drake fresh. But
Speaker 1: I can't see him taking him out of the lineup.
Speaker 1: I mean, I would be can you I meation the
Speaker 1: reaction if he didn't play like tomorrow or something, People
Speaker 1: with people with panic in the streets, which is kind
Speaker 1: of funny for a guy who's literally a catcher, Like
Speaker 1: catchers don't play every day. I what's you're cal Raley
Speaker 1: and you're an alien. You don't play every single day,
Speaker 1: but he might for as long as they need him to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean clearly, the MVP on the hitting side
Speaker 2: the first week of the year for the Braves Drake Baldwin.
Speaker 2: And the MVP on the pitching side, for my money,
Speaker 2: was Chris Saale, who was really good again on Wednesday afternoon.
Speaker 2: Apparently was sick as a dog coming into the start.
Speaker 2: And you know, especially when we know how thin the
Speaker 2: Braves pitching staff is right now, especially the rotation, it
Speaker 2: sounds like Sale almost didn't pitch on Wednesday afternoon. After
Speaker 2: the game, they asked Walt Weiss about Sale and Walt said, quote,
Speaker 2: he was sick as a dog. We didn't know if
Speaker 2: he was gonna be able to make the start. Was
Speaker 2: hoping to get three innings out of him. It was
Speaker 2: touch and go before the game. True to form, he
Speaker 2: takes the ball and goes out there and gives us
Speaker 2: six innings and one hit. Chris Sale is a tough
Speaker 2: guy like this.
Speaker 1: He is a.
Speaker 2: Gamer in the best way imaginable. I mean, would anyone
Speaker 2: have blamed Chris if he's like, hey, I can't go.
Speaker 2: I feel like crap, like no, but it would have
Speaker 2: made the Braves really scramble on Wednesday afternoon.
Speaker 1: He's one of those guys too, And this is not
Speaker 1: a spreaking any ground, but he's super competitive. Everyone knows
Speaker 1: that about Chris Sale, like he's kind of a maniac,
Speaker 1: and I mean that in a endearing, loving way. And
Speaker 1: I think that he would have had to be unable
Speaker 1: to walk to not pitch, would be the feeling I
Speaker 1: always good for Chris Sale, and it's I thought it
Speaker 1: was funny that Weiss was like, yeah, we want to
Speaker 1: get three eggs out of him, and he throws six,
Speaker 1: and not that he was his absolute peak self, but
Speaker 1: it's kind of funny to say that he gets through
Speaker 1: six innings with one hit aloud beat without being his
Speaker 1: peak self. And I always facing the a's, but they
Speaker 1: have real hitters in that lineup. It's not the a's
Speaker 1: from a few years ago that were a total disaster.
Speaker 1: You know, there was some panic I saw. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you saw this as well, when Sale was
Speaker 1: throwing a little bit softer than usual early in the start,
Speaker 1: and actually our colleague and co host Steven Tolbert told us,
Speaker 1: I think also said this in public as well. Sale
Speaker 1: like pretty much throttles off within a start as much
Speaker 1: as or more as more than anybody in baseball, Like
Speaker 1: he just kind of knows what he can can get
Speaker 1: away with and what he can't. And I was encouraged
Speaker 1: by that because Steven's smart. But then I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: then sail through like a ninety five minter our fastball
Speaker 1: by somebody, and I was like, Okay, he has enough
Speaker 1: to get through the start. And he wasn't just like
Speaker 1: broken because you know, he started seeing eighty nine on
Speaker 1: the radar gun for four seamers and it's like, oh man,
Speaker 1: not this, not today. And then it all makes sense
Speaker 1: later when you find out that he was so sick
Speaker 1: because nobody knew that. I mean the broadcast didn't know,
Speaker 1: Like nobody knew that inside of the game, so I
Speaker 1: remember they knew, she didn't say anything. Regardless, It was
Speaker 1: quite a Chris Sale day in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1: And I mean that in the highest possible regard. He's
Speaker 1: just an absolute dog. He's just so much fun.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so good and a gamer in every way. And now,
Speaker 2: through two starts this first week of the season, Chris
Speaker 2: Sale has allowed one run in twelve innings to begin
Speaker 2: the season. It was on Wednesday. His lone blemish was
Speaker 2: a solo home run to old friend Shay Lngaliers actually,
Speaker 2: who's turned into like a really nice big league catcher
Speaker 2: the last couple of seasons. So good on him. But man,
Speaker 2: just we feel really good every time Chris Sale takes
Speaker 2: the ball, and even when Chris Sale isn't feeling good,
Speaker 2: apparently he's still good enough to go out there and
Speaker 2: throw six nearly perfect innings. And just can't say enough
Speaker 2: about this guy.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Scott. In a second, I want to dive into
Speaker 1: a couple more notes from Wednesday's win, and then we
Speaker 1: have to talk about, unfortunately the ugliness from Tuesday and
Speaker 1: to look ahead to the rest of the week. We'll
Speaker 1: get into all of that and more after It were
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Speaker 1: All right, Scott, let us discuss a little bit more
Speaker 1: from Wednesday, And I have to say the beginning of
Speaker 1: Wednesday's game was kind of tilting. The Braves won this
Speaker 1: one comfortably, but if you checked in on people that
Speaker 1: were watching this one early on on Wednesday afternoon, it
Speaker 1: was a little bit frustrating. Luis Severino was the pitcher
Speaker 1: for the A's in this game. He actually is their
Speaker 1: best pitcher, number one starter that we actually talked about
Speaker 1: the Braves maybe training for this winter. They didn't do that, obviously,
Speaker 1: but he walked five in the first two innings of
Speaker 1: this game, and the Braves came very close, like drake
Speaker 1: ballwin doesn't exist, close to not scoring a run despite
Speaker 1: driving drawing five walks in two innings, and Steven actually
Speaker 1: had this step first. It's kind of funny. Through three
Speaker 1: innings the Braves had fifteen played appearances, twelve of them
Speaker 1: were strikeouts or walks, which is kind of crazy to do.
Speaker 1: And again, the Braves were winning because Drake had the
Speaker 1: one come through two out hit, but it really should
Speaker 1: have been a lot more comfortable than it was. The
Speaker 1: Braves really did let a lot of things slip through
Speaker 1: their fingers early in the start, and kind of we're
Speaker 1: fortunate that Sales as good as he was and Drake
Speaker 1: exists basically, so.
Speaker 2: I think this offense right now is in a really
Speaker 2: interesting place and you can kind of be glass half
Speaker 2: full and you can be glass half empty if you
Speaker 2: want to be glass half full. This team has done
Speaker 2: a really good job of getting on base.
Speaker 1: They're drawing walks.
Speaker 2: It feels like every inning they have one or two
Speaker 2: runners on we'll talk about how many runners they left
Speaker 2: on base and Tuesday night's loss, and then early on
Speaker 2: in the game on Wednesday they had a ton of
Speaker 2: runners on base, and you would hope that if they
Speaker 2: continue to get runners on base even though they are
Speaker 2: not scoring them, if you want to be optimistic, eventually
Speaker 2: the law of averages is going to play out and
Speaker 2: the Braves will start to score and capitalize on these
Speaker 2: multiple scoring opportunities they've had the last couple of games.
Speaker 2: But if you want to be glass half empty, and
Speaker 2: if you want to be negative, you can say this
Speaker 2: feels a lot like last year, where the Braves are
Speaker 2: just god awful with runners in scoring position god awful
Speaker 2: and high leverage. And there's been a lot of that
Speaker 2: early in the year, even though the team is four
Speaker 2: and two, and especially once the competition gets a little
Speaker 2: bit better, it feels like the Atlanta really needs to
Speaker 2: figure out a way to just try to be a
Speaker 2: little better when runners get on base, because you're only
Speaker 2: going to get so many opportunities. And if you're oh
Speaker 2: for fourteen like they were at one point with runners
Speaker 2: in scoring position like that, that's just obviously not good enough.
Speaker 1: For sure, And you know, small stable size caveats supply. Obviously,
Speaker 1: I don't think that guys like Ronnie and Olsen are
Speaker 1: going to be this like they've struggled so far. They're
Speaker 1: gonna be awesome. They're always awesome. Not worried about that
Speaker 1: at all. But you're right, it is to go on
Speaker 1: the encouraging side of there. Of that point you just made,
Speaker 1: the Raids are a top eight in all of baseball
Speaker 1: and on base percentage. Right now, they are drawing locks.
Speaker 1: They have a three thirty team OVP right now. That's
Speaker 1: totally fine and good. So that is encouraging. You would
Speaker 1: think that they will time some stuff a little bit
Speaker 1: better once Drake probably cools off a tad bit, not
Speaker 1: all the way, because he's gonna be good no matter
Speaker 1: what I think. But yeah, there's stuff to get in there. Oh,
Speaker 1: by the way, you and I talked about abs fun
Speaker 1: on Sunday. On the bright side, Ronnie won a challenge
Speaker 1: on the first split appearance of the game. On the
Speaker 1: not so bright side, he got picked off right away,
Speaker 1: which is kind of funny, but hey, they didn't. It
Speaker 1: was both challenges right away in this game. Yeah, progress,
Speaker 1: baby steps, there you go. I will say, man, the
Speaker 1: base running has been pretty rough this first week. Like
Speaker 1: I know, it's crazy because like Antoine Richardson like got
Speaker 1: came with such a such high esteem from the Mets
Speaker 1: and I'm not ready to throw that away. But if
Speaker 1: you search his name right now on Twitter, it's not
Speaker 1: not kind to him through six games. I don't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, the Braves have been flat out bad
Speaker 2: on the basis they've been picked off a couple of
Speaker 2: times that stolen bases have not been very effective, or
Speaker 2: at least not to the level that you would like
Speaker 2: them to be successful. I don't know. I mean, again,
Speaker 2: it's small sample theater. If this happened in the middle
Speaker 2: of August, we'd probably note it. But again, it's still
Speaker 2: so early that I think it's fresh and everybody is
Speaker 2: noticing things like, hey, we have this new first base
Speaker 2: coach who came with a ton a ton of resume
Speaker 2: work of being really really good with base runners, and
Speaker 2: the Braves just haven't been there. Maybe Antoine Richardson is
Speaker 2: trying out some new things, or they're so kind of
Speaker 2: learning how to work with him at first base whenever
Speaker 2: they get on base. I don't know. But regardless of
Speaker 2: what the situation is, the Braves need to kind of
Speaker 2: figure some things out and stop giving away outs on
Speaker 2: the base paths.
Speaker 1: Yes, they do, and we can leave it there for now,
Speaker 1: but it's something to at least keep an eye on
Speaker 1: in the future, because that was one of the appeals
Speaker 1: of this team is they do have like they have
Speaker 1: some guys who can run, and they can they can
Speaker 1: stretch some stuff out, and you know, Ronnie usually is
Speaker 1: great at that et cetera, and they thought that that
Speaker 1: very well so far this season. One other note that
Speaker 1: I want to make sure we get to is that
Speaker 1: Walt Weiss used Robert Suarez in the seventh inning today
Speaker 1: with a four run lead, and that turned some heads.
Speaker 1: I got people asking me about it. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you did as well. I thought it was interesting.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying I loved it or hated it, but
Speaker 1: I thought it was interesting in that Robert Suarez is
Speaker 1: very good and crucially, they's had their best hitters up
Speaker 1: in the inning, which is like kind of new school
Speaker 1: to have, you know, used one of your top two
Speaker 1: relievers in that spot. I know they're up by four,
Speaker 1: if they're by one, I would like be like applauding, honestly,
Speaker 1: be like, yeah, absolutely do this. What did you make
Speaker 1: of that decision? And we won't do every single one
Speaker 1: of these aul season long for everybody. Just we're learning
Speaker 1: about Walt west Doll. We're still learning what he's going
Speaker 1: to be doing. Is it's April first.
Speaker 2: I like the move a lot, and I think traditionally,
Speaker 2: of course, you want to save your closer for the
Speaker 2: ninth inning and your setup man for the eighth inning.
Speaker 2: But I think it's fair to say that Robert Swarez
Speaker 2: is probably the best, most naturally talented, most gifted reliever
Speaker 2: in this bullpen so far. And you know, to see
Speaker 2: Weiss use Suarez in the seventh when you were gonna
Speaker 2: face probably the toughest three hitters that you were potentially
Speaker 2: going to face the rest of the game. Like, I
Speaker 2: like the move and I like that Walt is able
Speaker 2: to think outside the box a little bit, and that's
Speaker 2: maybe a little bit of a deterrent from Brian Sitker
Speaker 2: and the way he managed his bullpen. But yeah, I
Speaker 2: was encouraged. And then Dylan Lee was really good in
Speaker 2: the eighth inning as well, and I feel good about
Speaker 2: that trio with a Glaciers in the ninth. But yeah,
Speaker 2: when I saw that, I was like, oh, all right, well,
Speaker 2: I mean he has some juice here, Like he gets it.
Speaker 2: Sometimes the biggest at bat of the game is not
Speaker 2: going to always come in the eighth of the ninth inning,
Speaker 2: and I thought it was an encouraging sign to see
Speaker 2: it early in the year.
Speaker 1: That is also my takeaway. The old reason why I
Speaker 1: had any caveat at all is because they're in the
Speaker 1: stretch of thirteen games, thirteen days, and like, maybe you
Speaker 1: didn't have to go to sores in that spot, but
Speaker 1: I'm with you, and like, if this is that's the
Speaker 1: way you should approach, not even a playoff game, but
Speaker 1: like a high leverage game, Like, hey, your best reliever
Speaker 1: should be facing the best players on the other team
Speaker 1: in a somewhat high leverage spot, and the Brays were
Speaker 1: in that today. And also this is kind of secondary
Speaker 1: to that decision. But I think it's also encouraging that
Speaker 1: it seems like he understands Dylan Lee as their third
Speaker 1: best reliever, which has not always been the case. We've
Speaker 1: kind of complained about Dylan Lee's lack of high leverage
Speaker 1: usage at times. It seems like through a week that
Speaker 1: wal Wise understands that he's their third best reliever because
Speaker 1: he is. I mean, it's it's Aglesias Suarez, and that
Speaker 1: it's it's Dan Lee's their best lefty and also their
Speaker 1: third best reliever overall. Using him in the eighth inning
Speaker 1: is like a tacit acknowledgement. Again, in between Suarez and
Speaker 1: Ecclesias is kind of a sign that he agrees with
Speaker 1: at least me on that point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the Brad Rowland stamp of approval.
Speaker 1: Well, I don't, I don't. I don't want to. I
Speaker 1: don't want to look you in if you didn't agree
Speaker 1: with me. That's what I was trying to say. But
Speaker 1: doing Lee's good, I mean, that's not like you used
Speaker 1: to anybody that falls him closely. But he's still really underrated.
Speaker 1: I feel like in a lot of circles and clearly
Speaker 1: is their third best reliever.
Speaker 2: So yeah, their'sty hey. First week the bullpen has been
Speaker 2: pretty good. And sure there was a there was a
Speaker 2: hiccup or two. The Royal Series wasn't perfect, and then
Speaker 2: there was a little bit of a mishmash of relievers
Speaker 2: who pitched on Tuesday night's game. But overall, I think
Speaker 2: you feel pretty good about this bullpen and man alive.
Speaker 2: Robert Swarez might throw some of the easiest one hundred
Speaker 2: mile an hour gas I think I have seen in
Speaker 2: a long time, Like he looks like he's taken warm
Speaker 2: up throws out there and it's ninety nine and then
Speaker 2: it's one hundred and then it's ninety eight and really
Speaker 2: electric stuff. A strikeout on Wednesday of I think Jeff
Speaker 2: McNeil elevating the pitch in the zone like it was
Speaker 2: just good morning, good afternoon, good night. I mean, he
Speaker 2: is out there with that big fastball and he's not
Speaker 2: afraid to use it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's thirty five years old and he is just
Speaker 1: you're right, easy, it's easy heat here. What about the
Speaker 1: bullpen overall? I just looked this up. The Braves have
Speaker 1: a one point twenty seven ERA with their bullpen in
Speaker 1: about twenty one innings this week. Again, that's a small
Speaker 1: sample size, but under the hood also was good. Twenty
Speaker 1: one strikeouts and two walks from relievers. I mean Martin
Speaker 1: Perez we'll talk about in a second, was part of
Speaker 1: that as well. But man, you can't ask for more
Speaker 1: from the bullpen, so knock on wood. But I feel
Speaker 1: pretty good about that unit at the moment.
Speaker 2: Yeah, me too, And we felt good about it coming
Speaker 2: into the season, and sometimes it's just nice to have
Speaker 2: your priors confirmed. And again, six games, we're not gonna
Speaker 2: can't just guarantee this bullpen is going to be great
Speaker 2: the rest of the way. But I feel good about
Speaker 2: this bullpen. And they have people waiting in the wings
Speaker 2: in Gwinett as well. Whenever they need to call upon
Speaker 2: them one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Tuesday's loss while we're here and have
Speaker 1: five to loss their one loss of the series to
Speaker 1: the A's. There was a debate all the way up
Speaker 1: so the morning it seemed like about who was going
Speaker 1: to start the game on Tuesday. We kind of knew
Speaker 1: it might be a tandem between Jose Suarez more team Perez.
Speaker 1: It seemed like the beat guys were thinking it might
Speaker 1: be Perez starting, but it wasn't ended up being Suarez starting.
Speaker 1: One was good and one was bad. What were your
Speaker 1: thoughts on that, on that pairing as as the Braves
Speaker 1: to try to pass this together at the moment.
Speaker 2: I think you said it perfectly. One was good, one
Speaker 2: was bad. The bat Yeah, the bad.
Speaker 1: There you go.
Speaker 2: That's all folks. Come back next week for hard hitting
Speaker 2: analysis here with Brad and Scott. Jose Suarez. He did
Speaker 2: have six strikeouts over three and two third innings and
Speaker 2: got a decent amount of swing and miss, but man,
Speaker 2: five hits, four runs, three walks, couldn't get through the fourth.
Speaker 2: Not impressive for a guy who I really don't have
Speaker 2: much hope And I mean if you would have asked
Speaker 2: me blindly, all right, Scott Tomorrow's Game seven of the
Speaker 2: World Series. Would you start Jose Suarez or would you
Speaker 2: start Martin Perez? I would have told you before the
Speaker 2: game I would have started Martin Perez. And you know,
Speaker 2: Perez threw the ball really well four and a third innings,
Speaker 2: only two hits, no walks, struck out three. And this
Speaker 2: is a veteran guy, a boring veteran, but somebody who
Speaker 2: has had some success in the majors over his long career.
Speaker 2: So my hunch is that the Braves as of this
Speaker 2: moment have a TBD on Sunday afternoon out in Arizona.
Speaker 2: My hunch is that Martin Perez will make that start
Speaker 2: and we will just hope for more success. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I just I have no real interest in seeing Jose
Speaker 2: Suarez throw baseballs for the Atlanta Braves.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's one of those things where you know, he
Speaker 1: was a name that we got thrown at us a
Speaker 1: lot over the winter and with people that disagree with
Speaker 1: us about the Braves needed to add pitching. And I
Speaker 1: wasn't trying to dismiss with a Suarez like, he's a
Speaker 1: guy like who has some stuff, like his stuff plus
Speaker 1: on his slider's really good, for example, like he has
Speaker 1: actually his there's some talent in there. I'm not saying
Speaker 1: he's a total zero, but I'm unenthused. Generally speaking, I
Speaker 1: do think he is better than the five hits, three walks,
Speaker 1: four runs. You talk about the strikeouts. His FIP was
Speaker 1: a lot lower than the are all those things that
Speaker 1: you might say, But I'm with you. I think that
Speaker 1: based on that, and based on we would have been
Speaker 1: an agreement before the start. I think Martine Perez is
Speaker 1: kind of just a guy, but he's at least a
Speaker 1: veteran starter who's done this before. So no matter what,
Speaker 1: they're patching it together. And I know you and I
Speaker 1: did not talk about Bryce elders start on Monday. Hey
Speaker 1: shots to Bryce elder who was really good on Monday.
Speaker 1: Keep it going, Bryce, I know I've doubted you in
Speaker 1: the past. Maybe looks silly, that's fine, bring it on,
Speaker 1: but those that fourth and fifth day is a challenge
Speaker 1: and get through it going one. Listen. I think that's
Speaker 1: something Twitter. If the race can go one in one
Speaker 1: every time those two slots come around, throw a party,
Speaker 1: like when half of those and we're good ship.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And it does seem like Spencer Schrider is making progress. Encouraging.
Speaker 2: I think he was seen throwing on the field on
Speaker 2: Wednesday before the game, so encouraging signs. You hopefully will
Speaker 2: have Strider within another week or two. But yeah, I mean,
Speaker 2: keep your head above water in these starts. It's gonna
Speaker 2: be a little scary. It's gonna be a little touch
Speaker 2: and go, especially against better teams. The competition is definitely
Speaker 2: going to get better in the weeks to come. But hey,
Speaker 2: split your fine. It's crazy to say this, but you
Speaker 2: feel like you are winning if you're coming and coming
Speaker 2: out ahead, if you go five hundred with your fourth
Speaker 2: and fifth starter out there, and then of course today
Speaker 2: you win the game with Chris Sale, which was great.
Speaker 2: But you know that fifth starter spot Brat is gonna
Speaker 2: be a little touch and go and maybe, just maybe
Speaker 2: Bryce Elder can be our beacon of hope and shining
Speaker 2: light and continue to keep it going, because that would
Speaker 2: be huge for this baseball team.
Speaker 1: It really would. He's done it before. So we will see. Okay,
Speaker 1: in a second, Scott, we will preview the up coming
Speaker 1: series between the Braves and your Arizona Diamondbacks out there
Speaker 1: in Phoenix. After a word from a partner's on today's show. Okay,
Speaker 1: Scott Braves Diamondbacks begins on Thursday. I know it's a
Speaker 1: brutal weekend for you to have the Braves come to
Speaker 1: town the only time this year. For those of you
Speaker 1: who maybe told to the podcast, Scott lives in Arizona,
Speaker 1: so it's always a grab the calendar and circle this game,
Speaker 1: circle this series. But it happens to be Final four
Speaker 1: weekend and Scott's in Arizona Grad, so tough sledding there.
Speaker 1: But Aless, I think you trade that. Honestly, I think
Speaker 1: you would take Arizona being in the Final Four just
Speaker 1: just lunch. You can just tough.
Speaker 2: Yeah, tough trade here, But I will I will suffer
Speaker 2: in silence and watch the Final Four instead of watching
Speaker 2: Bryce Elder on Saturday night up in Phoenix.
Speaker 1: At any rate, it's a four game series. The Diamondbacks
Speaker 1: are three and three, and they got there in interesting fashion.
Speaker 1: They got swept by the Dodgers, which is not offensive.
Speaker 1: The Dodgers are awesome, so it is what it is.
Speaker 1: But then they bounce back in one three straight, sweeping
Speaker 1: the Tigers to get back to three and three. You
Speaker 1: are probably just bi Osmosis more doubt into the Diamondbacks
Speaker 1: than I am. Is that seem about right for the
Speaker 1: Diamondbacks to be three and three after six games, like
Speaker 1: they're They're not a bad baseball team, they're not a
Speaker 1: great one either. It didn't seem like.
Speaker 2: I think they are the epitome of a five hundred
Speaker 2: baseball team, probably better than the Royals. Maybe, you know what,
Speaker 2: The Diamondbacks and the Royals are probably pretty similar teams
Speaker 2: on the whole. I think the Diamondbacks are better than
Speaker 2: the Athletics, just an odd baseball team. They don't necessarily
Speaker 2: I mean, last year the Diamondbacks really hit, but they're
Speaker 2: pitching kind of let them down. Their bullpen is like
Speaker 2: notoriously been awful the last couple of seasons and they
Speaker 2: don't address it, which would drive me bananas. Can you
Speaker 2: imagine if three years in a row the Braves had
Speaker 2: one of the worst bullpens in the game and they
Speaker 2: did nothing to address it. I don't know, I can't
Speaker 2: imagine it.
Speaker 1: It would be Steven in just an absolute slumber on
Speaker 1: this podcast every third day. It would be actually kind
Speaker 1: of entertaining to watch Stephen unravel on the show. If
Speaker 1: you especially if you're a YouTube watcher. But you're right
Speaker 1: about that. And by way I show as we're talking,
Speaker 1: you pretty much nailed it with the Royals and the
Speaker 1: Diamondbacks being very similar in quality. Fangrass Odds right now
Speaker 1: have them with the exact same win total this season,
Speaker 1: like to the decimal point.
Speaker 2: So there you go. Yeah, so that yeah, that you
Speaker 2: know again some talent. Katel Marte is a great player,
Speaker 2: Corbyn Carroll is a great player. They brought back Zach Gallon,
Speaker 2: who was awful in his debut. Of course, the Braves
Speaker 2: were loosely talked to Zach Allen, but I don't know
Speaker 2: if out West weird things have happened with the Braves
Speaker 2: over the years. In Chase Field, let's hope. I mean,
Speaker 2: you have your two, three, four, five going here, so
Speaker 2: it's gonna be a little touch and go, especially with
Speaker 2: the current state of this rotation. But hey, if you
Speaker 2: can split the series with Arizona, I think you take it.
Speaker 2: And then if you can go take two out of
Speaker 2: three against the lowly Anaheim Angels, then you have a
Speaker 2: winning trip on the West Coast, and you've also kind
Speaker 2: of checked off one of your longest road trips of
Speaker 2: the year.
Speaker 1: Right, you obviously want to get greedy and win the series.
Speaker 1: But I do think if you take the objective ten
Speaker 1: thousand foot view of a four game road series again
Speaker 1: road series against a decent opponent without Chris Sale pitching,
Speaker 1: and said, hey, would you take two and two? I
Speaker 1: think I probably would.
Speaker 2: Without Chris Sale is the key there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that might seem pessimistic to some people,
Speaker 1: and I get it. We are often accused of being
Speaker 1: a little bit too analytical on these things sometimes, but
Speaker 1: that's just the way. That's why take a step back
Speaker 1: and say, hey, check the boxes, no Chrisale, four game
Speaker 1: or on the road, decent opponent.
Speaker 2: By the way, with you know, what, did you see?
Speaker 2: This is how much I love baseball. Did you see
Speaker 2: the Cubs radio station just crashing out and losing their
Speaker 2: minds after losing on Opening Day? And they were dead
Speaker 2: serious about Game two of the season being a must
Speaker 2: win And they weren't even joking like an actual must win.
Speaker 2: That is insanity to call a baseball game a must win.
Speaker 2: On March twenty eighth.
Speaker 1: Or whatever the date was, I I did see that.
Speaker 1: I have a I have a relationship with with must
Speaker 1: win that's very funny. I do a daily Atlanta Hawk's podcast,
Speaker 1: and I am just religious about saying nothing is it
Speaker 1: must win. Ever, like, guess what, it's not a must win.
Speaker 1: It's simply not a must win. But that's but your
Speaker 1: But your example is an outlier one of like hilarity,
Speaker 1: Like it could be June first and nothing is a
Speaker 1: must win. I can assure you of that. So that's
Speaker 1: very can be.
Speaker 2: There can be a game you very much want to win,
Speaker 2: so you're sure fan base doesn't jump off a bridge,
Speaker 2: but and I'm sometimes I'm right there with you ready
Speaker 2: to jump. But yeah, that's that's of course.
Speaker 1: There's been some brands games against like the White Sox,
Speaker 1: where it's like, man, if they don't win this game,
Speaker 1: I might have to walk into a lake somewhere. They
Speaker 1: lost one of those last year. It's not a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. Regardless, the Braves have a decent spite spot
Speaker 1: right now. Going to Arizona. We should run through the
Speaker 1: probables quickly. Here Ronal Lopez in the opener on Thursday
Speaker 1: against Ryan Nelson, then Grant Holmes on Friday against the
Speaker 1: water Road Rigas. By the way, p s A. Everybody
Speaker 1: that's an Apple TV Plus game on Friday. So get
Speaker 1: your Apple TV Plus situation ready. I know people are
Speaker 1: gonna ask us on the night. That's what always happens.
Speaker 1: Get ready Apple TV Plus Exclusive. You cannot find it
Speaker 1: anywhere else on TV. Consider yourself form just saying Saturday,
Speaker 1: as you already alluded to once, Bryce Elder is on
Speaker 1: Big Fox like Fox National broadcast Saturday nights against drum Roll.
Speaker 1: Please old friend Michael Soroka on the other side, he
Speaker 1: was really goodness first start. I saw by the way
Speaker 1: he was our our guy. You're at cole Is somewhere.
Speaker 1: Just absolutely in celebration mode right now. If you don't
Speaker 1: know Eric's work, he used to work with us and
Speaker 1: is the biggest, literally the biggest Michael Soroka fan outside
Speaker 1: of people named Soroka I think in the world. So
Speaker 1: shouts to Eric.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, shouts to Eric, the old one third of
Speaker 2: this podcast back in the day, which is crazy to
Speaker 2: think about. Yeah, you know, and hey, good on, Michael
Speaker 2: Soroka got a real contract to this offseason, and I mean,
Speaker 2: man alive, double Achilles tear. Look, I want the Braves
Speaker 2: to win. I want the Braves to go one hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty eight. No from this point, but I also
Speaker 2: want to see Michael Soroka be great. So let's say this.
Speaker 2: I want the Braves to win one nothing on Friday
Speaker 2: night or on Saturday night against Soroka. I want Soroka
Speaker 2: to rack up eighteen strikeouts and I want a ninth
Speaker 2: inning solo shot from Ronald Coccune Junior and the Braves
Speaker 2: win one nothing.
Speaker 1: How does that sound? That sounds incredible to me? Scott
Speaker 1: And uh yeah, actually Circus was on our list of
Speaker 1: like potential Braves targets this way. Yeah, it was low.
Speaker 1: He was kind of lower the list, but he was
Speaker 1: on the list anyway. And then that big old TVD
Speaker 1: year of it before on Sunday against Brandon Fott. I
Speaker 1: think I'm with you, it'll be more team Pez but
Speaker 1: we we just simply do not know right now. So look,
Speaker 1: I'm we'll not go and give them my game, and
Speaker 1: we'll of course preview the games, talk about the games
Speaker 1: as they're happening, and then I'll have our usual show
Speaker 1: exciting to wrap it all up. But yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: hopefully Grant Holmes looks like Grant Holmes, the good version.
Speaker 1: On Friday. We're all a look bust can hold his velocity.
Speaker 1: On Thursday, Bryce Oder replicates the performance that he just had.
Speaker 1: There's ways for this to go pretty well and to
Speaker 1: be fair, Also, Sales not pitching, but neither is Zach
Speaker 1: Gallion of Milk on this weekend, so all things gonna
Speaker 1: be fine. I try to get him.
Speaker 2: I am so disappointed. I'm so disappointed that Zach Gallion
Speaker 2: of Milk is not going to pitch this week, so
Speaker 2: we can't get Sean on the podcast to talk about it.
Speaker 2: If if folks missed it, that is an all timer
Speaker 2: in the Hammer Territory Archives. We love Sean. I didn't
Speaker 2: laugh out loud thirty seconds ago because I was I
Speaker 2: had to collect myself before I said words.
Speaker 1: This is a very professional podcast. No between that and
Speaker 1: last was it last note? Monday night, I went to
Speaker 1: edit the video and I almost cut it out and
Speaker 1: I just couldn't bring myself to Sean was muted, and
Speaker 1: Steven like said something about, ah, he's like a beautiful
Speaker 1: boy or something, and I just I was absolutely dying.
Speaker 1: Those guys are incredible. They're way way funnier than me
Speaker 1: and Scott, and it's just it's a great contrast of styles.
Speaker 1: We all work together, well, we do criss cross on
Speaker 1: a regular basis, but our main pairings are what they
Speaker 1: are for many different reasons, and one of those that
Speaker 1: Steve and Sean are hilarious. So that's all I have
Speaker 1: on today's podcast. Anything else you want to add, Scott
Speaker 1: before we get out of here. On Wednesday, April first.
Speaker 2: No, I was gonna say, just to put a ball
Speaker 2: on this. We've we've gone off the rails a little
Speaker 2: bit here at the end, which I like, you know what,
Speaker 2: it's it's deep into Wednesday night. Braves have a winning
Speaker 2: record two series winds to open up the year. But
Speaker 2: on a serious note, let's keep this thing rolling. The
Speaker 2: Braves have done a really nice job in the early
Speaker 2: going of this season, and they took advantage of two
Speaker 2: average to lesser opponents with Kansas City and Sacramento, Oakland
Speaker 2: Vegas whatever you want to call them. And the schedule
Speaker 2: continues to be relatively light the next few weeks, and really,
Speaker 2: stacking wins is only going to help this team get
Speaker 2: them in a good place. Let's get healthier in the
Speaker 2: next week's two, get Strider back. Murphy's supposed to start
Speaker 2: a rehab assignment here really soon. Sounds like Hassan Kim
Speaker 2: isn't too far behind him. Maybe you get Waldrip back
Speaker 2: at some point, Maybe you get Schwallenbach back at some point.
Speaker 2: Jared Ritchie is waiting in the wings. There's some reinforcements
Speaker 2: on the way, and hopefully the Braves can keeps stacking
Speaker 2: series wins even if it's boring. The one's gonna have
Speaker 2: a party in the street for going four and two
Speaker 2: over a week, but some good signs early. Let's hope
Speaker 2: the hitting with runners in scoring position gets a little better,
Speaker 2: a little more timely, and just kind of support the
Speaker 2: pitching staff because as the lineups get harder, this lineup's
Speaker 2: going to have to really kind of pick up some
Speaker 2: of the slack because they don't know if you can
Speaker 2: just bank on this pitching staff continuing to be frankly
Speaker 2: one of the best and most effective in the game
Speaker 2: so far, especially as the competition goes up a bit.
Speaker 1: I'm with you, and I think you'll start to see
Speaker 1: it's not exactly a sculping hot take. I think we'll
Speaker 1: start to see guys like Ronnie and Olsen heat up
Speaker 1: a bit this weekend. They're just kind of due for it.
Speaker 1: You know, there's other guys that I'm less sure about,
Speaker 1: Michael Harris thinking a walk would be nice at some point.
Speaker 2: For example, we won't we won't talk about Mike. I
Speaker 2: could probably talk, say seven minutes, how disappointed I am
Speaker 2: in some of his early trends, but still hasn't walked,
Speaker 2: Like we should start a game, like how many games
Speaker 2: does it take before Michael Harris takes a walk? Because
Speaker 2: it might be a while.
Speaker 1: It might be a while, but I do have full
Speaker 1: throated faith in guys like Ronnie and Olsen and Riley
Speaker 1: to get right. And we'll see how that goes. So
Speaker 1: I think the Braves can go out and win the series.
Speaker 1: And if they split it, I will come on. I
Speaker 1: don't know about you, I'll come on the show on
Speaker 1: Sunday and say split's great. I will not. I'm not
Speaker 1: complain about individual things that happen, but I could. I
Speaker 1: promise you. I'll write it down right now on my
Speaker 1: on my notes to say if the rape split, do
Speaker 1: not complain about the overalls all because I do mean that, like,
Speaker 1: I's just what it is. If you if you lose
Speaker 1: a series, then you lose a series. No one likes that,
Speaker 1: but anyway, we will have a show as usual on Sunday,
Speaker 1: and I believe the plan has to have at least
Speaker 1: one between now and then, either Thursday or Friday night,
Speaker 1: so stay tuned for that as well. And as always,
Speaker 1: we will be reactive if something big happens, if something
Speaker 1: crazy happens, We will have a podcast at SAP. So
Speaker 1: go ahead and lock in right now. Subscribe, Tell your friends,
Speaker 1: Hammer Territory, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, et cetera, ratings, reviews, appreciated comments,
Speaker 1: tell your friends, of course, tell your colleagues. Even enemies
Speaker 1: would be fine. Just put the podcast, run them like
Speaker 1: the bravees. I would accept that, no big deal, and
Speaker 1: then follow Scott on Twitter at Scott Colin fifty five,
Speaker 1: if only because Saturday night is going to be a
Speaker 1: war between me and Scott. And by the way, when
Speaker 1: I say that, I mean will be very polite to
Speaker 1: each other.
Speaker 2: Oh no, you're my enemy for the next like nineties
Speaker 2: six hours.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna oh I know, I mean, it's uh, you know.
Speaker 1: I'll be in the building too. It's gonna be just
Speaker 1: a lot. I don't know what to do. Michigan, Arizona, Saturday,
Speaker 1: eight to forty nine pm Easter time. I don't even
Speaker 1: know what's talking about. I mean, Sunday is gonna be
Speaker 1: awkward either way. One of us is gonna win. One
Speaker 1: of this is gonna lose.
Speaker 2: Whoever loses, I think whoever loses on Saturday Night. Again.
Speaker 2: If folks don't know, I'm an Arizona alum. Brad is
Speaker 2: a diehard Michigan fan. I think the loser will eventually
Speaker 2: break and send the congrats so happy for you text.
Speaker 2: I don't if it's me. I don't know if I'm
Speaker 2: gonna be able to do it right away, but at
Speaker 2: some point the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do it at the buzzer when Michigan, When
Speaker 1: Michigan loses on Saturday, at the buzzer, I'll be like,
Speaker 1: look you confetti around me, falling on me in the
Speaker 1: in the in lucasfil Stadium, and congrats Scott. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: let's get out here. Scott. Thank you for being here,
Speaker 1: my friend as always, and for the listeners slash viewers,
Speaker 1: we appreciate you being here. Sincerely, Thanks for listening, thanks
Speaker 1: for watching, and please subscribe to your friends and we'll
Speaker 1: see everybody later on this week.
Speaker 2: M MHM