Braves Wallop Dbacks in Series Opener as Winning Ways Continue
In episode 356 of the Hammer Territory podcast, Scott Coleman and Stephen Tolbert discuss an Atalnta Braves blowout victory over the Diamondbacks, headlined by a massive fifth inning where the team scored eight runs and sent 12 hitters to the plate. They also discuss positive injury updates on Spencer Strider and Sean Murphy.
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Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to the Hammer Territory podcast. I'm
Speaker 1: Scott Coleman, and it is deep into the night, but
Speaker 1: with good reason. I am joined by the great Stephen
Speaker 1: Tolbert and tonight's Steven. We were a little fifty to
Speaker 1: fifty on if we were going to do a show.
Speaker 1: The Braves are, of course out west in Arizona. It
Speaker 1: is twelve thirty in the morning as we are recording
Speaker 1: this on the East coast. But hey, the Braves just
Speaker 1: blew the doors off the Diamondbacks on Thursday night. A
Speaker 1: great start to the road trip out west. And really
Speaker 1: the Braves just continue to play good baseball all the
Speaker 1: way around.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's up, buddy. So tonight's game was the one
Speaker 2: thing we haven't seen yet was just the offense just
Speaker 2: dump truck somebody and make it a laugher. And I was,
Speaker 2: you know, really hoping to see it in the In
Speaker 2: the Kansas Kansas City series the Oakland series neither happened.
Speaker 2: The offense actually had moments where it actually looked pretty poor,
Speaker 2: a lot of flashbacks to the twenty twenty five offense
Speaker 2: at times the first two series, and so people are
Speaker 2: already kind of panicking. So the win is obviously good,
Speaker 2: but to have the offense come out and just dominate
Speaker 2: a game, and we're gonna go through the details here
Speaker 2: in a minute, and the game's actually still going on.
Speaker 2: That's how much of a laugher it is. We're recording
Speaker 2: as the game still happening. But that was good to see.
Speaker 2: It was good to see that everybody just kind of
Speaker 2: have a fun night and make it pretty much a
Speaker 2: no contest from about the fifth inning on.
Speaker 1: You know, maybe the stat of the game is that
Speaker 1: every single player who started for the Braves on Thursday
Speaker 1: night recorded at least one RBI. I mean, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I can't imagine that ever happened last season, and I
Speaker 1: mean even in like the historic twenty twenty three offensive season,
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe once or twice that happened. But
Speaker 1: everybody got to eat on Thursday. It was really just
Speaker 1: an all around good performance, both offense and pitching. There
Speaker 1: was even some good defense too that we'll talk about
Speaker 1: in a little bit. But let's just kind of go
Speaker 1: through the game. It's going to be a unique episode.
Speaker 1: We only have one game to really talk about, and
Speaker 1: then a couple of injury notes at the end. As
Speaker 1: well as a preview of the rest of the series.
Speaker 1: But early on, both Matt Olson and Dom Smith absolutely
Speaker 1: launched home runs. Funny enough, both of them went four
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty feet was the estimate at Chase Field.
Speaker 1: In the first inning, Matt just crushed the ball to
Speaker 1: center field that landed just above that yellow line at
Speaker 1: Chase Field, which I mean, I've been to that stadium
Speaker 1: many times. You really have to hit a ball in
Speaker 1: order to get it to dead center. And that Dom
Speaker 1: Smith hit it like twenty five rows deep to right field,
Speaker 1: which was really really impressive. So a great night offensively
Speaker 1: for the boys, and Dom Smith continues to be a
Speaker 1: nice story and it was really good to see Metals
Speaker 1: and kind of come to life and really get going
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah what about Dom smith Man, But I mean what
Speaker 2: I just you know, obviously that walk off grand slam
Speaker 2: during the home stand and then everybody kind of learned
Speaker 2: his story and what he's been going through very recently,
Speaker 2: I mean in the last few weeks, and the dude
Speaker 2: just keeps putting up really good at bats. I'll be honest,
Speaker 2: I didn't know a ton of I mean, I know
Speaker 2: he played with the Mets and I knew him a
Speaker 2: little bit from there, and I knew he had a
Speaker 2: good eye, but I didn't realize quite how much of
Speaker 2: a weapon he was against right handed pitching. And I
Speaker 2: don't expect him to hit like this all year. This
Speaker 2: is probably a little bit out of his shoes. But
Speaker 2: I mean he's just stacking good at bat I mean
Speaker 2: every night, he's one of the best at bats in
Speaker 2: the game. He had a right after that, Homer came
Speaker 2: up and had like an eight pitch walk, So really
Speaker 2: impressive at bats. And again it's at the bottom of
Speaker 2: the order, you know. I think he's batting like seventh
Speaker 2: or eighth most nights, so it's helping, you know, stock
Speaker 2: up the basis for the guys at the top of
Speaker 2: the order. Again, yeah, I'm really impressed, and like you said,
Speaker 2: it was good to see Matt get off. You know,
Speaker 2: the kind of the one thing people have been waiting
Speaker 2: for is just a Kunya Olson Riley trio to start
Speaker 2: looking like a Cunya Olson Riley. I thought Acunya had
Speaker 2: really good at bats to night, he had like a
Speaker 2: one hundred and eight min hour line out, then a single,
Speaker 2: he had a walk. Obviously, Matt had a really good
Speaker 2: night Homer and double. Austin Rally had a double at
Speaker 2: one point, so again, you know, it's been a good
Speaker 2: start four and two. But the one thing everybody's been
Speaker 2: waiting for is the stars of the team to look
Speaker 2: like stars, because at some point Marieso Dubon and you know,
Speaker 2: Dom Smith probably aren't gonna hit like this forever. You're
Speaker 2: gonna need your stars to be stars. So to see
Speaker 2: everybody have a good night and have good at bats
Speaker 2: and have something to hang their hat on for tomorrow
Speaker 2: and going forward, that's almost as that's almost more important
Speaker 2: to me than the win itself. The win is good, obviously,
Speaker 2: but getting all of your stars looking like stars again
Speaker 2: is gonna help much pass much further than just tonight.
Speaker 1: It really will. And I mean we talked about the
Speaker 1: early offense, but really the fifth inning was wild. Like
Speaker 1: I looked it up. I could tell one time last
Speaker 1: year the Brave scored eight runs in an inning. Funny enough,
Speaker 1: it was the bizarre game where Atlanta scored eight and
Speaker 1: then the Red scored eight in the bottom half of
Speaker 1: the inning. Of course, I've kind of like tried to
Speaker 1: erase all of last season from my memory, but from
Speaker 1: what a quick Google search and I did not deep
Speaker 1: dive on this. Maybe they scored eight runs in another game,
Speaker 1: but in an inning that is. But the Braves sent
Speaker 1: twelve batters to the plate in the fifth inning to
Speaker 1: blow the game wide open. Eight runs scored, and I mean,
Speaker 1: there's a lot you can talk about. The offense got
Speaker 1: going when Ronald Acuna Junior drew a basis loaded walk,
Speaker 1: and then maybe the play of the game was Drake
Speaker 1: Baldwin hustling down the first base line to avoid a
Speaker 1: double play. Drake was originally called out at first base,
Speaker 1: but on a review he just barely beat the throw.
Speaker 1: But I'll be honest, even when Drake hit that ball
Speaker 1: right to Nolan Aroonatto at third base, it was like,
Speaker 1: oh man, this is gonna be a double play. At
Speaker 1: least the Braves got one run, but Baldwin was really
Speaker 1: hustling down the line beats out the double play, and
Speaker 1: after that moment on the Braves scored six more runs.
Speaker 1: It was really a turning point, and credit to Drake
Speaker 1: for fighting and really hustling to not only get a
Speaker 1: run for himself but just kind of keep the line moving.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Ozzie started that whole inning with a really
Speaker 2: good at battle walk that he actually challenged the last
Speaker 2: pitch on to get on base to start the whole thing.
Speaker 2: Aeronaudo made an error. I think it was Dubond that
Speaker 2: hit a ball to Aeronato that probably could have been
Speaker 2: at least one, maybe two if he fielded it clean,
Speaker 2: that he didn't get any Ronnie had the really good
Speaker 2: at bat with the bas's loaded walk, and then yeah, Drake,
Speaker 2: I thought he hit that ball hard enough. I didn't
Speaker 2: think Drake had a chance to beat that out. Drake's
Speaker 2: gotten I mean, Drake's not fast by any stretch, but
Speaker 2: he's left handed, so that does help get down the
Speaker 2: line a little bit. But yeah, I mean, hustling is
Speaker 2: his ass off to get down there. And then like
Speaker 2: you said, they get the overturn, which scores a run,
Speaker 2: and then Matt comes up and ropes a double down
Speaker 2: the line, Austin comes up and hits a double down
Speaker 2: the line, and it's just, you know, everybody just ate
Speaker 2: after that. So yeah, really really big at bats, really
Speaker 2: really good hustle from Drake, and you know they had
Speaker 2: already I think they're already up four to one at
Speaker 2: that point, five to one at that point, but just
Speaker 2: to add on and make it a laugher, make it
Speaker 2: where guys can start.
Speaker 1: Coming out of the game.
Speaker 2: Ronaldo I think, came out of the game like one
Speaker 2: inning later. Like it just makes blowouts. Off days are
Speaker 2: the best thing for your team in terms of getting
Speaker 2: people rest, but blowouts are like the next best thing
Speaker 2: for the bullpen. They got to get Ronald off his
Speaker 2: feet out of that big outfield, like scoring sixteen seventeen runs,
Speaker 2: whatever they're gona end up with. That's I mean, that's all.
Speaker 2: It's not an off day, but it's as close to
Speaker 2: an off day as you're gonna get, especially when you
Speaker 2: got thirteen in a row to start the season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it really is. It's valuable. You said it perfectly.
Speaker 1: It's valuable to kind of have these easy, no drama,
Speaker 1: no stress wins. You didn't have to tax the bullpen again,
Speaker 1: which has been a pretty nice theme early in the year.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you're three weeks into the year and you're like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, this bullpen could really use a couple
Speaker 1: of days. We haven't really had to use the bullpen
Speaker 1: all that much, which is great. And yeah, it's just
Speaker 1: a good game. Like from the first inning, Matt Olson
Speaker 1: set the tone and then Dom Smith hit the big homer,
Speaker 1: and then I mean that fifth inning was special and
Speaker 1: happy birthday to Austin Riley, who had a two run
Speaker 1: double down the line. That was good to see. Michael
Speaker 1: Harris also almost homered off the left field wall and
Speaker 1: opposite field shot almost homer. I mean, it was just again, man,
Speaker 1: just fun. Like you can count on probably two hands
Speaker 1: the number of just fun baseball games that we had
Speaker 1: like this a year ago. And the team's playing good baseball.
Speaker 1: They're five and two. It's always good to get a
Speaker 1: win out West. I don't care who you're playing. Going
Speaker 1: out West is always a challenge, especially when you didn't
Speaker 1: have a day off, and really just a nice continuation
Speaker 1: of a good first week of the year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they're gonna be four and oh in the
Speaker 2: Chris Sale Renaldo Lopez games after today, and that's Matt.
Speaker 2: I mean, you have to win those games right now,
Speaker 2: you just do. You don't know what you're gonna get
Speaker 2: after that. You know, Grant's pretty solid in the three spot,
Speaker 2: but four or five you have no clue. You have
Speaker 2: no clue what you're gonna get. So four and oh
Speaker 2: Chris Sale, Renaldo Lopez starts to start the year. I mean,
Speaker 2: that's what the doctor ordered. And Strider will be back soon.
Speaker 2: We're gonna talk about him closer to the show. Probably
Speaker 2: gonna see somebody different in the five spot. This turned
Speaker 2: to the rotation. But winning when your best two guys
Speaker 2: run the mound just makes everything a lot easier. And
Speaker 2: they're four to oh and with Lopez at Sale on
Speaker 2: the mound so far.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about Ronaldo Lopez a little bit more.
Speaker 1: I thought he pitched and threw the ball pretty well
Speaker 1: on Thursday night and the velocity continue to be good.
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Speaker 1: n A L dot Com. All right, Steve. Then a
Speaker 1: couple just other quick notes on the offense, which really
Speaker 1: had a good night. Mauricio Dubon just crushed a baseball.
Speaker 1: He barreled it over the center field wall at Chase Field,
Speaker 1: which again, really, I mean, there's no cheapies in Chase Field.
Speaker 1: That's a big ballpark. And I mean, I have been
Speaker 1: so impressed with Mauricio Dubon. I don't necessarily expect him
Speaker 1: to hit a whole lot of homers, but I mean
Speaker 1: the fact that he did it against a ariety too,
Speaker 1: which is historically he has not hit right handed pitching
Speaker 1: as well as lefties. Dubon has been really impressive this
Speaker 1: first week.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we've already got people in our mentions clamoring for
Speaker 2: a blue box extension for Mauricio Dubon one week end
Speaker 2: of the season. Part of it is just we've watched awful,
Speaker 2: awful levels of offense from shortstop over the past two
Speaker 2: and a half years, and literally any sign of life
Speaker 2: from a shortstop on this team, it just seems like
Speaker 2: a breath of fresh air that we haven't had in
Speaker 2: so long. I mean, just the fact that the dude
Speaker 2: can hit a ball four hundred feet is an improvement
Speaker 2: over what we've had. And you're right, he crushed that
Speaker 2: ball and it looked like he kind of one handed
Speaker 2: it and that thing went like fo ten to four
Speaker 2: hundred and fifteen feet something like that to left center
Speaker 2: field and Chase Field, which is a pop. So he's
Speaker 2: been great and he's gonna play a big role. Even
Speaker 2: when Kim comes back, He's gonna play a role because
Speaker 2: he can play in the outfield. He can easily be
Speaker 2: the other side of the platoon for Yastrensky and Left,
Speaker 2: which I think they'll do a lot. And listen, Kim
Speaker 2: coming back, there's no guarantee that Kim's just gonna roll
Speaker 2: right into the team and be, you know, are really
Speaker 2: productive player. We have no idea we're gonna get from Kim,
Speaker 2: so and we have no idea if he's gonna stay
Speaker 2: healthy either or if he's gonna come back in the
Speaker 2: timeline they think he's gonna come back. So I think
Speaker 2: Dubon's gonna have a really good year. I think that
Speaker 2: was one of my predictions is I think Debon is
Speaker 2: gonna end up being the best infielder of the three
Speaker 2: that the Braves have by the end of the year.
Speaker 2: He is a pending free agent at the end of
Speaker 2: the year, and I don't expect him to hit this well.
Speaker 2: I think there will be a drop off at some point,
Speaker 2: but I mean him and Tom Smith, with the guys
Speaker 2: in the middle of the lineup having slow starts, him
Speaker 2: and Tom Smith have been unbelievable. You know, Drake Baldwin's
Speaker 2: been one, but you could make the argument the next
Speaker 2: two best hitters after Drake has been Dom Smith and
Speaker 2: Riso Dubon, And that's just a testament to those guys,
Speaker 2: and the Braves have needed it quite honestly, they really.
Speaker 1: Have, and it's great to see just like those unexpected contributors.
Speaker 1: I think that was really like the constant theme of
Speaker 1: the Braves winning the East all those years in a
Speaker 1: row was, yeah, you have your stars, but every season,
Speaker 1: guys would come out of the woodworks to have really good,
Speaker 1: impactful seasons or even if not a full season, but
Speaker 1: would give you two really good months where it would
Speaker 1: kind of pick everybody else up. And you will absolutely
Speaker 1: take what you have gotten from those kind of unexpected
Speaker 1: contributors so far, just again wrapping up the offense. Or hey,
Speaker 1: Matteo got a pinshit appearance in the ninth inning and
Speaker 1: actually hit a two run homer off of James McCann.
Speaker 1: The Diamondbacks really waved the white flag and sent a
Speaker 1: catcher to the mound in the ninth. The Braves also
Speaker 1: kind of paded on there in the ninth. Seventeen to
Speaker 1: two was the final score on this Thursday night. Hey,
Speaker 1: you know what everybody eats and those RBI, those homers,
Speaker 1: those runs scored, they all count the same, and really
Speaker 1: just a fun night. Seventeen runs, man, I mean, we
Speaker 1: deserve this after all of the just bad baseball we
Speaker 1: watched a year ago. We really do deserve nights like this.
Speaker 1: And again just another little baby step in the right
Speaker 1: direction for this team.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So now I'm on, like, are they gonna get
Speaker 2: like one hit tomorrow? Because this is what happened last year?
Speaker 2: Right anytime now that they didn't then I don't think
Speaker 2: that at any point they had a game this could last year.
Speaker 2: But anytime they had any sort of success last year offensively,
Speaker 2: the next day they would get shut out for eight
Speaker 2: innings and have one hit. So now eyes turned toward tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Can you keep stacking them? You know, obviously the pitching
Speaker 2: for you is gonna get worse as the season, as
Speaker 2: the series goes on, because you got Grant Holmes and
Speaker 2: you got Bryce Elder and then you got whoever you're
Speaker 2: gonna do fifth, So you're gonna need some more runs.
Speaker 2: I do want to see the offense kind of stack
Speaker 2: it up. I haven't actually looked who's the Who is
Speaker 2: it Soroka or is that Saturday Saturday Night? It's Rodriguez,
Speaker 2: It's Edwardo.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, lefty, so.
Speaker 2: He's a tough lefty. So the Braves will have their
Speaker 2: right handed crew in. Obviously, do you know Dom Smith
Speaker 2: will sit. I'm guessing Jonah him is gonna DH again.
Speaker 2: That hasn't gone great at least offensively. He has done
Speaker 2: pretty well defensively. But yeah, I do want to see
Speaker 2: the offense follow it up. Now they had the great game,
Speaker 2: don't do the thing we did all year last year,
Speaker 2: where you know, you have this, you know, exciting game
Speaker 2: or good offensive game, and then after that the next
Speaker 2: three games is like a giant wet fart. So don't
Speaker 2: do that. Just go out and have a nice game,
Speaker 2: you know, continue it, maybe even get on a little
Speaker 2: offensive role, which we haven't seen in like three years.
Speaker 2: You know, where you stack like three or four of
Speaker 2: these in a row and just destroy a team for
Speaker 2: four games with your offense. That would be I mean,
Speaker 2: there's no rule against it. You can you can do that.
Speaker 2: So that would be fun to see.
Speaker 1: Yes, it really would. And let's talk about Ronaldo Lopez
Speaker 1: for a minute. In start number two, I know, I
Speaker 1: was really keen to see what his velocity look like.
Speaker 1: And good news if folks didn't stay up and are
Speaker 1: now getting the recap of the game. His fastball sat
Speaker 1: mid nineties. I think I saw ninety six at one point.
Speaker 1: Seems to be healthy and seems to be passed whatever
Speaker 1: that mechanical problem was that really dropped his velocity ten
Speaker 1: days ago at this point, So that was really good
Speaker 1: to see Ronaldo with the game firmly in hand. He
Speaker 1: only threw seventy nine pitches on Thursday night, which I'm
Speaker 1: cool with. There's no need to push him when the
Speaker 1: game was virtually over midway through, but five innings, four hits,
Speaker 1: one run. The only run came up on a solo
Speaker 1: homer that Ronaldo allowed one walk and three strikeouts. What
Speaker 1: did you make of Ronaldo tonight? What did you think
Speaker 1: of him? Overall? The results are good, but I don't
Speaker 1: know where are you at with Ronaldo right now.
Speaker 2: So it's funny because if you just look at the
Speaker 2: radar gun, the stuff looks back like he's he's sitting
Speaker 2: ninety four ninety five. He can bump it up to
Speaker 2: ninety six. The slider's velocity is back to where it
Speaker 2: used to be eighty four eighty five, and that one
Speaker 2: start in spring training we were stowing eighty six eighty
Speaker 2: seven on our fastballs and nobody knew what was happening.
Speaker 2: It looks like that stuff has come back, at least
Speaker 2: from a volata see standpoint. You know, if you dive
Speaker 2: even deeper than that, if you look at like the stuff,
Speaker 2: you know there's all sorts of metrics out there that
Speaker 2: greade pitch quality and movement and stuff like that. His
Speaker 2: pitches actually aren't grading out great in terms of like
Speaker 2: the quality of them, which has me a little bit worried.
Speaker 2: But I know, I'll be honest with you, I've tried.
Speaker 2: I've tracked that stuff for the last few years, and
Speaker 2: I don't know. I still to this day, don't know
Speaker 2: what to make of all of that stuff and how
Speaker 2: to quantify it and what it means in terms of,
Speaker 2: you know, predictive performance. His stuff is not grading out great,
Speaker 2: but he's given up what two runs and two starts,
Speaker 2: so I mean, it's tough to argue with. And the
Speaker 2: velocity looks good, but the movement's quite not what it
Speaker 2: used to be. The depth of like the slider specifically,
Speaker 2: is not quite what it used to be, So I
Speaker 2: don't know, you know, is is it a bit of
Speaker 2: a time bomb. I have no idea. I have liked
Speaker 2: what I've seen, but I'm not I'm not smart enough
Speaker 2: to watch a pitch can tell you like what it's
Speaker 2: supposed to grade out as I don't know if you
Speaker 2: have an opinion on the stuff plus and all that
Speaker 2: stuff where you know you've seen it. His pitches aren't
Speaker 2: grading out great, but the results have been fantastic. And
Speaker 2: as velocity looks good, he looks healthy. He's talking about
Speaker 2: after the game how he feels great. So I don't
Speaker 2: know what to make it right. Honestly, I'm probably just
Speaker 2: gonna ride, enjoy the ride right as long as it's working.
Speaker 2: I'm good. As soon as he hit some bumps in
Speaker 2: the road, we're probably going to talk about that stuff
Speaker 2: a little more. But right now it's working, so I
Speaker 2: you know, it is what it is.
Speaker 1: You know, it's pretty similar to what we saw with
Speaker 1: Ronaldo two years ago when he was so effective, like
Speaker 1: he's kind of the king of just throwing his fastball
Speaker 1: in the zone. But famously nobody could really hit his
Speaker 1: fastball in twenty twenty four, and there's been more of
Speaker 1: that this year, like tonight. I mean, Jordan Lawler got
Speaker 1: him for a solo homer on a fastball he left
Speaker 1: in the zone. But in the five innings, I think
Speaker 1: the expected batting average against Ronaldo tonight was like one
Speaker 1: sixty Fives weren't squaring much up. They weren't hitting him hard.
Speaker 1: His command was fine. There was a couple of a
Speaker 1: bats where he lost the zone for a minute, but
Speaker 1: then he started humming strikes again and got back and
Speaker 1: it was pretty easy, pretty easy five innings. You know,
Speaker 1: Diamondbacks lineup, it's okay, this isn't the Dodgers or the
Speaker 1: Yankees by any meetings, but it's also not a bad lineup,
Speaker 1: So I think it's encouraging so far, I'm not ready
Speaker 1: to just proclaim that Ronaldo Lopez is back and we
Speaker 1: can just bank on a you know, sub three era
Speaker 1: the West of the Way to be kept in obvious probably,
Speaker 1: but there is I would like to see a little
Speaker 1: more swing and miss. He's only had six whiffs on
Speaker 1: Thursday night. Six whiffs on seventy one pitches. Not not
Speaker 1: the best, but let's not be crazy here. He gave
Speaker 1: up one run over five innings and through two starts
Speaker 1: has looked pretty good in both of them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Sean and I talked about that with I
Speaker 2: think it was the elder start that we we did
Speaker 2: a show after, and like it has been a theme
Speaker 2: a lot of the Braves pictures that it's been a
Speaker 2: lot of contact based outs, which do worry me. I
Speaker 2: do I because there's just so much fluctuation in terms
Speaker 2: of level of performance when you're when you're depending on
Speaker 2: outs from contact, and it has been a lot of
Speaker 2: weak contact to defend the Braves, and they're pitching like
Speaker 2: it's not just guys aren't hitting rockets everywhere that the
Speaker 2: Braves are making unbelievable plays on it is a lot
Speaker 2: of weak contact. It's a lot of you know, dribblers.
Speaker 2: It's a lot of pop ups, so it's not stuff
Speaker 2: that you think is You know, you're getting lucky in
Speaker 2: terms of getting the outs, but eventually that contact is
Speaker 2: gonna turn and it is probably gonna be harder contact.
Speaker 2: So you do want to try to miss a few
Speaker 2: more bats than the Braves starters are currently missing. But
Speaker 2: they've given up like they're averaging like one run a game.
Speaker 2: They're giving up, so I don't know how much, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna sit here and spend too much time
Speaker 2: dogging them because they're not missing bats, because they're not
Speaker 2: giving somebody runs. They do probably need to miss bats
Speaker 2: more bats going forward, But yeah, I mean, and Ronaldo's
Speaker 2: kind of the poster chot for that right now, Like, yeah,
Speaker 2: under the hood might not be like perfect, but you
Speaker 2: give up one run a start, I'm not going to
Speaker 2: spend too much time dogging you for it.
Speaker 1: Through the first seven games of the year, the Braves
Speaker 1: have the lowest ERA in the National League and the
Speaker 1: second lowest e RA in the majors, I believe, behind
Speaker 1: the Yankees. Just what we all need to take it, Yeah, right, right,
Speaker 1: never in doubt with this rotation, right never ever in doubt.
Speaker 1: And to be to be clear, we're joking on that.
Speaker 1: I mean, we got to see it for more than
Speaker 1: a week.
Speaker 2: I think we're still we're in small sample sized theater
Speaker 2: right now.
Speaker 1: But yeah, for sure. But hey, you take the wins
Speaker 1: and you can get them, and they don't count, they don't,
Speaker 1: they don't count any less. So that's right, Yes, that
Speaker 1: that is absolutely right. A win on April second counts
Speaker 1: all the same as a win on September thirtieth. All right, Steven,
Speaker 1: we are going to take one more quick break when
Speaker 1: we come back. We're going to get some I think,
Speaker 1: pretty encouraging news on the injury front for a couple
Speaker 1: of key players. We'll also take a quick look ahead
Speaker 1: to the upcoming three games out in Arizona. First, another
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Speaker 1: Stephen a couple of I think mostly encouraging injury news
Speaker 1: and notes here. Spencer Strider is scheduled to throw a
Speaker 1: bullpen on Friday at Chase Field. According to the group
Speaker 1: of Beat reporters with the team, we'll see what the
Speaker 1: next step is. We'll see how Spencer feels after he
Speaker 1: throws that bullpen. It seems like he's been throwing pretty
Speaker 1: regularly over the last week, and if folks missed it, it
Speaker 1: seems like the oblique injury was pretty minor all things considered.
Speaker 1: But MLB dot COM's Mark Bowman does believe that no
Speaker 1: matter what happens with the bullpen on Friday, he believes
Speaker 1: that Spencer Strider is going to need at least one
Speaker 1: rehab start before he sees a mound with the braves.
Speaker 1: That sounds about right to me. And ultimately we just
Speaker 1: want to get Spencer to one hundred percent and hopefully
Speaker 1: get him back on path for the season. We were
Speaker 1: all optimistic he was going to have.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's probably missed a little too much time to
Speaker 2: just pick right back up where he was going to
Speaker 2: be at the end of spring. It's kind of obviously
Speaker 2: it's any injuries poorly time. But he was like right
Speaker 2: at the end of like his build up for the season,
Speaker 2: And Alex talked about that a little bit about how
Speaker 2: you can't just after a certain amount of time, you
Speaker 2: can't just pick back up. You have to go backwards
Speaker 2: a little bit. So I think that's what he's gonna
Speaker 2: have to do. I do have a working theory that
Speaker 2: one of the reasons did he er Fintes is not
Speaker 2: on the rotation right now is because the idea that
Speaker 2: Spitzer Strider is going to come back pretty soon, and
Speaker 2: when Streider's in there, you know Elder is gonna Elder
Speaker 2: is going to continue to get starts as the vist starter.
Speaker 2: Strider would obviously move into either the second, third or
Speaker 2: fourth and so that's your rotation. And I think if
Speaker 2: Strider was going to be out longer, I think Didier
Speaker 2: would be in there. They just don't want to jerk
Speaker 2: him around from Gwinnett to Atlanta like they've done in
Speaker 2: the past. And I think to the detriment of some
Speaker 2: of their pictures where they've been a little too free
Speaker 2: and in moving them up and down, I think Kyle
Speaker 2: Wright got jerked around at a little too much for
Speaker 2: my liking.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you remember it was the poster child for it.
Speaker 1: He said, drive it snutt.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And so I think they've just decided they don't
Speaker 2: want to do that to Didyar and because Spencer is
Speaker 2: coming back so soon, and so yeah, that's what we're
Speaker 2: waiting for. And it's you know, he's throwing a bullpen,
Speaker 2: which is fantastic. These oblique this oblique stuff can like
Speaker 2: it can be like a two month thing if it's
Speaker 2: bad enough. So the fact that he's already throwing it's
Speaker 2: great news. We'll see. What terrifies me about obliques is
Speaker 2: like you're like one awkward move from doing it again.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, we've seen it's it's a pretty
Speaker 2: common injury. And I can't imagine trying to throw a
Speaker 2: baseball with a hurd obleak. It just seems like torture.
Speaker 2: So but it seems like it's pretty minor and he's
Speaker 2: on the way back, and that's obviously going to be
Speaker 2: massive that the rotation will take all the depth they
Speaker 2: can get at this point.
Speaker 1: And Sean Murphy caught three innings in a simulated game
Speaker 1: with Rome yesterday. On Wednesday, it sounds like Sean Murphy
Speaker 1: will officially begin a rehab assignment here soon they did.
Speaker 1: There was some talk today that Murphy will really need
Speaker 1: to build up. He'll need to catch nine innings, He'll
Speaker 1: need to catch back to back days. So we're still
Speaker 1: a little ways out from Murphy being back with Atlanta.
Speaker 1: But I believe he will have three full weeks whenever
Speaker 1: they officially begin the rehab assignment to Basically, he has
Speaker 1: three weeks to be activated to the big league roster,
Speaker 1: so I would guess, I don't know, mid April kind
Speaker 1: of feels like a reasonable timeline for Murphy. You know,
Speaker 1: I am curious to see what ultimately happens with Jonaheim.
Speaker 1: Like I think, defensively, the Braves feel okay with him
Speaker 1: behind the plate, but he's probably just not going to
Speaker 1: give you a whole lot offensively. I'm curious to see
Speaker 1: if Atlanta is going to carry three catchers or if
Speaker 1: they will say goodbye to him or maybe try to
Speaker 1: sneak him through waivers and get him to Gwenette, although
Speaker 1: I'm guessing Hi would probably be claimed. But regardless, probably
Speaker 1: a decision for another day. But it seems like Sean
Speaker 1: Murphy is on the right path and should be back
Speaker 1: sooner rather than later.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a big one, just having another high level
Speaker 2: catcher on the ross, having another hitter against left handed pitching.
Speaker 2: Sean Murphy has destroyed left handed pitching in his career.
Speaker 2: It also be, you know, theoretically the first time we've
Speaker 2: seen a healthy Sean Murphy from what he said, like years,
Speaker 2: So I'm curious to see what that looks like. I
Speaker 2: do think they should carry three catchers. I would have
Speaker 2: to look at the roster to see exactly who it is.
Speaker 2: Probably I guess Matteo or Farmer, probably farmer.
Speaker 1: Probably probably farmer, and then you say goodbye to Mateo
Speaker 1: when Hassan Kim comes back.
Speaker 2: It would be my guest I like having if you're
Speaker 2: gonna use the catchers as DH's the way it looks
Speaker 2: like the Braves are gonna do with Drake, you know,
Speaker 2: they they really don't want to take Drake out of
Speaker 2: the lineup at any point, so he's gonna DH a bunch.
Speaker 2: I think Murphy's gonna DH a bunch. When you do that,
Speaker 2: it's probably best to go ahead and carry a third catcher,
Speaker 2: especially since that last bench spot gets used so little.
Speaker 2: But you know, I could probably be talked in the
Speaker 2: other word as well, but I do I would probably
Speaker 2: lean that way, but yeah, just having the option and listen,
Speaker 2: we are there. Wasn't that long long ago we were
Speaker 2: talking about Murphy and Kim being back like middle of May,
Speaker 2: so middle of April. I mean, we're you know, we
Speaker 2: actually got to get there. But we're like three four
Speaker 2: weeks ahead of schedule right now, so really good news.
Speaker 2: Just more depth in the rotation, more depth in the lineup.
Speaker 2: Team has already gotten off to a good start, but
Speaker 2: just give me more depth because we know more injuries
Speaker 2: are coming, we know more bad performances are coming from somewhere.
Speaker 2: Just give me more and more depth and I'll you know,
Speaker 2: it's just you can't have too much.
Speaker 1: And I think especially against left handed pitching. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: lineup is going to look so much better with Sean
Speaker 1: Murphy's name in there, like against righties, man, like the
Speaker 1: way that Mikeystremsky's hitting and the way that Babe Ruth
Speaker 1: himself Dominic Smith is hitting, like against righty's. This lineup
Speaker 1: has been really good, but every time, like it's gonna
Speaker 1: be the case on Friday Night against Eduardo Rodriguez. Against lefties,
Speaker 1: you see this lineup and you kind of make a
Speaker 1: little bit of a face like, ooh, and that's that's
Speaker 1: kind of stinky, even if the team has done a
Speaker 1: decent job overall. I think when you get Murphy in there,
Speaker 1: and when you get Hasan Kim, who we haven't heard
Speaker 1: a real update on now in maybe ten days or so,
Speaker 1: but I mean at this point, probably no news is
Speaker 1: good news on Kim. But once you get Kim back,
Speaker 1: then you have Dubon and you can use Dubon all
Speaker 1: over the field, which was really just the appeal of
Speaker 1: him at the very beginning of the offseason. It feels
Speaker 1: like again another probably another month, like in a month
Speaker 1: if you tell me, assuming the Braves can avoid injuries, elsewhere,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna knock on every piece of wood around me,
Speaker 1: but it feels like here, relatively soon we should be
Speaker 1: able to see just kind of this lineup at full
Speaker 1: strength and what it could ultimately be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Kim's another one that's destroyed left handed pitching
Speaker 2: in his career. It's not quite the same agains righties,
Speaker 2: but him, Murphy, and Dubon have all hit left handed
Speaker 2: pitching extremely well for their career. So you know, if
Speaker 2: you can, if you can get all three, you know,
Speaker 2: you could play Dubon and left field against lefties when
Speaker 2: Yeas sits. You could have Murphy DH if Baldwin's catching,
Speaker 2: or have Baldwin DH if Murphy's catching. Yeah, just ads,
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, Mike probably moves to the bottom
Speaker 2: of the order. Even Ozzie could probably move to the
Speaker 2: bottom of the order. Who hits lefties better anyway, Like, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's just it's way more deep. It's just it's just
Speaker 2: a much deeper team. And you gotta avoid injuries on
Speaker 2: the way there, of course. But yeah, and these timelines
Speaker 2: have just moved up a lot more than I thought
Speaker 2: I thought we'd be like middle of May. I thought
Speaker 2: I thought there's a chance we might be like Memorial
Speaker 2: Day before, we saw some of these guys, and it
Speaker 2: seems like we're gonna get them, maybe before May even
Speaker 2: gets here. So keep everybody else healthy, of course, but yeah,
Speaker 2: more depth. It looks like it's coming.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about the rest of the series. With
Speaker 1: the Diamondbacks we mentioned on Friday night, it's gonna be
Speaker 1: Grant Holmes making a second start of the year against
Speaker 1: lefty Edward or Rodriguez. And a quick housekeeping note, that
Speaker 1: game is the Apple TV exclusive. So I saw a
Speaker 1: couple of people. If someone asked me today, hey, I
Speaker 1: have Brave's Vision while I be able to watch the
Speaker 1: game on Friday night. Unfortunately, the answer is no, you
Speaker 1: have to have Apple TV. And I will say this
Speaker 1: is hashtag, not an ad, not a sponsor. But Apple
Speaker 1: TV has some really good content. So if you are
Speaker 1: out of your free trials, might be worth checking out
Speaker 1: for ten bucks for the month. I don't know, but
Speaker 1: that is an exclusive Apple game. Saturday night is Bryce
Speaker 1: Elder against Michael Soroka. That is a big Fox National exclusive.
Speaker 1: And then Sunday we're back on Braves Vision. At this moment,
Speaker 1: still TBD. It seems like Martin Perez is probably the
Speaker 1: front runner to make that start, although depending on how
Speaker 1: the next two games go, that could change, and he
Speaker 1: will square off against Brandon Fought for the Diamondbacks. She's
Speaker 1: probably Arizona's best pitcher at this point. Hey, you won tonight.
Speaker 1: You already have one win. Try to get another one
Speaker 1: on Friday night. At worst, you're splitting the series. And
Speaker 1: if you can take three out of four or a heck,
Speaker 1: I mean even a sweep would be amazing to keep
Speaker 1: this rolling. But a really good start tonight and some interesting,
Speaker 1: pretty even pitching matchups the rest of the weekend.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you had that show with CJ a couple of
Speaker 2: weeks ago, and he laid it I thought he laid
Speaker 2: it out very well. The Braves have a ton of
Speaker 2: national TV games early, specifically, like there's a reason when
Speaker 2: the Brave's Vision stuff was coming out, all the marketing
Speaker 2: was one hundred and forty plus games is because the
Speaker 2: other twenty two and I think there's a limit on
Speaker 2: how many can be, but there's like eight there could
Speaker 2: be like eighteen national games or something like that. And
Speaker 2: the Braves have a bunch early and they've already had two.
Speaker 2: I know they already other Fox. They've got Apple TV,
Speaker 2: they got another Fox. So yeah, that's anytime. That's you know,
Speaker 2: Brave's vision is only for the local games. Any of
Speaker 2: the national games, you just have to go to wherever
Speaker 2: the national game is. But yeah, it's you know, the
Speaker 2: Braves have come to Arizona a few times over the
Speaker 2: years and really gotten right as an offense. And it's
Speaker 2: like back to back years. It happened right at the
Speaker 2: end of May, where the offense was kind of struggling.
Speaker 2: They'd come to Arizona, they'd just get right, that have
Speaker 2: a great series, and then they take off. And I
Speaker 2: don't know what it is about this place, but the
Speaker 2: Braves usually do pretty well here. So the pitching matchups,
Speaker 2: you know, Grant Homes, I guess Edgewater Agreez is probably
Speaker 2: a push, maybe a little bit on Arizona's side. I
Speaker 2: think the Braves are just better. They have a deeper
Speaker 2: lineup against lefties is not quite as good. You know,
Speaker 2: Tomorrow is probably a coin flip game for me. I
Speaker 2: would love to see at least one more. I think
Speaker 2: you gotta split the series now that you especially now
Speaker 2: that you won the first one. One more you know
Speaker 2: that's I think the minimum two more to win the
Speaker 2: series would be fantastic. Then you go to LA and
Speaker 2: I guess I'm not great Angels team and have a
Speaker 2: pretty good chance to do the same. And then you
Speaker 2: got a potentially a winning West Coast road trip, which
Speaker 2: are worth their weight in gold. So yeah, just keep
Speaker 2: stacking wins. I would love to see the offense come
Speaker 2: out tomorrow and just like and just stamp it again.
Speaker 2: One more back to back of just monster performances. But
Speaker 2: we'll see. It's gonna be another late night, but I
Speaker 2: think we'll be here. I don't know if we'll do
Speaker 2: another podcast before Sunday, but obviously on the Sunday show
Speaker 2: we'll recap the whole weekend.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's keep it going. I think you made a
Speaker 1: great point early in the show that we saw this
Speaker 1: offense wake up very intermittently last year, but it was
Speaker 1: always followed up. You said it perfectly. They'd score nine
Speaker 1: runs one night and then they would be flirting with
Speaker 1: a no hitter in the seventh inning the next night. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so much for that that you know that the nine
Speaker 1: innings was fun while it lasted. So let's keep this
Speaker 1: offense going. The Braves in Chase Field. It's been a
Speaker 1: good it's been a good house. Maybe they feel my
Speaker 1: my angst. You know what, we're gonna all the credit
Speaker 1: people can like start a gofund me. I'll sit right
Speaker 1: behind the plate and cheer the boys on because clearly
Speaker 1: they care about the well being of this podcast host
Speaker 1: at one a m. Eastern time. As we wrap up
Speaker 1: this episode of the show, Steven Any closing thoughts before
Speaker 1: we get out of here.
Speaker 2: No big game in a couple of days for you.
Speaker 2: Final four is on Saturday. Obviously. I don't know if you,
Speaker 2: Brad ever came up with a bet, but we need
Speaker 2: a bet. We need, we need something public, we need.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm I can't wait that's gonna be. There's
Speaker 2: a lot of people who think that's gonna be the
Speaker 2: national championship game. I really do kind of wish they
Speaker 2: reseeded the final four. I know that's been a big
Speaker 2: talking point this year. But yeah, big game on Saturday
Speaker 2: for you guys, for the Braves, you know, more West
Speaker 2: Coast games. Unfortunately, it's going to be late nights. But
Speaker 2: there's a good win. Really good starts of the road trip.
Speaker 2: I love starting a road trip with a win, it
Speaker 2: just makes everything so much They at the rais gun.
Speaker 2: If the Rays have lost tonight, this would have been
Speaker 2: a miserable. I don't even know if we would have
Speaker 2: done a show tonight, but starting a road trip with
Speaker 2: a win always feels fantastic and just keep it.
Speaker 1: Going, especially when you win.
Speaker 2: Seventeen yeah to two easy wins.
Speaker 1: Love it all right, folks. That is going to do
Speaker 1: it for this edition of the Hammer Territory Podcast. As always,
Speaker 1: a very sincere thank you for checking out the show.
Speaker 1: We'll be back with more. Maybe we'll get in one
Speaker 1: more show in this week if there is news or
Speaker 1: a reason to do a show, but otherwise, Brad and
Speaker 1: I are planning to be back deep on Sunday night,
Speaker 1: hopefully another series victory for the Atlanta Braves. Until that,
Speaker 1: we will see everybody next time.