Taking Stock Of The Braves Through 10 Games
Brad Rowland and Scott Coleman co-host Episode 357 of the Hammer Territory Podcast, breaking down the first ten games of the 2026 season for the Atlanta Braves. Topics include a series split in Arizona, strong pitching to begin the campaign, Drake Baldwin's star performance, Austin Riley's struggles, the upcoming series against the Angels, and much more.
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Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome back to the HEMMI Teratory Podcast.
Speaker 1: This is episode three five seven. My name is Brad
Speaker 1: Roland and I'm joined on this Sunday evening in early April.
Speaker 1: I'm a good friend Scott Coleman. Scott, the Sunday curse
Speaker 1: strikes us once more. How are you hello?
Speaker 2: Brad? You know I was really hoping for a Sunday
Speaker 2: win on like a personal level. I could really use
Speaker 2: a Braves win right now. We'll get it out of
Speaker 2: the way. Congratulations. I'm just so happy for you and
Speaker 2: your Michigan Wolverines. That was an ass whooman on my
Speaker 2: Wildcats on national television for the entire country to see. Congratulations,
Speaker 2: go in one more, go get another championship. I'm I'm
Speaker 2: just thrilled.
Speaker 1: For you, Brad.
Speaker 2: That's that's really. That's the important thing, the happiness of
Speaker 2: my co host and not my own happiness. That's that's
Speaker 2: what we're after tonight.
Speaker 1: Number one, I wasn't gonna bring it up. Number two.
Speaker 1: We've known each other for more than a decade now,
Speaker 1: we were we're we are fans who are respectful enough
Speaker 1: of each other. We were able to exchange texts yesterday
Speaker 1: during the game, which is all you need to know
Speaker 1: about Scott and I. We're tiptoeing. It's it's it's a
Speaker 1: high level. It was a bit strange that we were
Speaker 1: facing off and that's in a situation. But I appreciate
Speaker 1: the congratulations. I did not see that game going that way.
Speaker 1: We could leave it there for now on college basketball,
Speaker 1: but uh yeah, a little weird. I think it would
Speaker 1: have been. I don't know how it would react. We
Speaker 1: joked about it last week. It's like one of us
Speaker 1: has to lose this game. So it's all like one
Speaker 1: of us is going to be not very happy about this.
Speaker 1: So I appreciate that the well wishes here in Indianapolis.
Speaker 1: And I'm in a hotel room in Aapolis right now.
Speaker 1: So if things go wrong on this podcast, blame it
Speaker 1: on the city of Indianapolis, which is a curse to
Speaker 1: you at this very moment and to our podcast. Anyway, Listen, Scott,
Speaker 1: we are Hami territory engineered by Fast and all people
Speaker 1: should be checking us out, and we are part of
Speaker 1: foul territory. We come with braves all the time. That
Speaker 1: was a special circumstance leading with college basketball. But it's
Speaker 1: time to talk about some baseball and we have a
Speaker 1: let's just start here. We have this incredible stat from
Speaker 1: one of our co hosts. There are four of us,
Speaker 1: the two of US Sean Coleman, Stephen Tolbert. Steven Tolbert
Speaker 1: manually because he's a sicko, pulled this stat for us,
Speaker 1: and it has to do with the Braves losing on Sundays.
Speaker 1: Since the start of the twenty twenty three season, so
Speaker 1: you're talking about three plus seasons now, the Braves on
Speaker 1: Sundays only are thirty five and forty seven, twelve games
Speaker 1: below five hundred over that sample. Every other day of
Speaker 1: the week, per Steven, the Braves are two hundred and
Speaker 1: forty and one hundred and seventy four, which is sixty
Speaker 1: six games over five hundred every other day of the week.
Speaker 1: So on Sundays they are a forty two percent ishwenty
Speaker 1: percentage team, on every other day fifty eight percent. And
Speaker 1: as Steven rounds it out, if you're watching on YouTube
Speaker 1: already to see this. But Steven rounded out this tweet
Speaker 1: by saying, why do the Braves hate Brad and Scott?
Speaker 1: And Scott I have to ask you, why do the
Speaker 1: Braves hate us? Because clearly that's what's going on here.
Speaker 1: It's it's clearly motivated by something. But if you did,
Speaker 1: if anybody didn't see this, today, the Braves lost in
Speaker 1: frustrating fashion on this Sunday, and I thought that was
Speaker 1: a the right way to begin the podcast, the shouts
Speaker 1: of Stephen and not shouts of the Braves for Sundays.
Speaker 2: You know, anecdotally, for years it's been like, why do
Speaker 2: the Braves seemingly always lose on Sundays? And now we
Speaker 2: know we're not crazy, and not just us podcasters, but
Speaker 2: all the good guys and gals you tune in every
Speaker 2: single week. You know we're not crazy like this is.
Speaker 2: That's a wild stat for three years now, that's a
Speaker 2: huge split in just baseball terms. And I don't know
Speaker 2: what's in the water. Of course, on this Sunday, the
Speaker 2: Braves played a fifty to fifty game and just I mean,
Speaker 2: they kind of gave it away. They should have won
Speaker 2: today against the Diamondbacks. It would have been a series win.
Speaker 2: They would have then won their first three series.
Speaker 1: Of the year.
Speaker 2: Vibes would have been better, more energetic, more upbeat. Of course,
Speaker 2: what do they do on a Sunday? But they can't
Speaker 2: capitalize late and then lose in the tenth inning. It's
Speaker 2: a bummer, and I mean, it's just a weird feeling.
Speaker 1: Bred.
Speaker 2: I wanted to ask you, this team has played ten games.
Speaker 2: The Braves are six and four, and if you would
Speaker 2: have told me ten days ago, Scott, the Braves are
Speaker 2: going to start six and four, I would take it.
Speaker 2: And there are some like legitimately good signs under the
Speaker 2: hood that this baseball team is on the right path.
Speaker 2: But it's also been kind of a maddening especially last
Speaker 2: forty eight hours, and there's been some tough losses in there.
Speaker 2: So I mean, where are you at with this team
Speaker 2: all of ten games into the season.
Speaker 1: You're right, it has been a pretty strange six and four,
Speaker 1: and baseball is pretty strange sometimes, right, So it's ten
Speaker 1: game samples could be anything. Even the best team could
Speaker 1: go two and eight and ten game sample in baseball,
Speaker 1: it's just what happens sometimes. So in the end, you're right.
Speaker 1: I agree with you. Six and four is six and four,
Speaker 1: and I'm good with that. If they stay on that pace,
Speaker 1: they'll one nice seven games. That's pretty darn good obviously,
Speaker 1: but it kind of almost parallels this weekend. So you
Speaker 1: and I did a show four days ago and I said,
Speaker 1: and I told myself to be accountable to this. I said, Hey,
Speaker 1: if the Ribs go two and two in a road
Speaker 1: series against the Diamondbacks, that's not a bad outcome, right,
Speaker 1: And I was like, hey, I'll come on the podcast
Speaker 1: and say that they go to and two. I stand
Speaker 1: by that. I have to also say it was about
Speaker 1: its frustrating of a possible way to split that you'll
Speaker 1: ever see because they win the first two and then
Speaker 1: lose back to back one run games on Saturday and Sunday,
Speaker 1: And like, yeah, it's frustrating, but if you zoom out,
Speaker 1: a split is totally fine. If you zoom out at
Speaker 1: six and four, six and four is totally fine. But
Speaker 1: you're right, there's little things that are like not going
Speaker 1: that well. We'll talk about more later on. Like the
Speaker 1: Braves are leading baseball in era right now. If you
Speaker 1: told me that, I would say, oh, they're probably better
Speaker 1: than six and four, right, So there's like you can
Speaker 1: kind of go There's probably many things like that. We
Speaker 1: can go either way on this, but I think that
Speaker 1: overall it's fine. I feel fine. I'm not doing a
Speaker 1: dance in the streets. I'm not breaking out the pomp poms.
Speaker 1: I'm not where we were last year this time, where
Speaker 1: we were like really trying to figure out what the
Speaker 1: heck's going on. It's kind of a holding pattern, and
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that to cop out. It's just the
Speaker 1: way I kind of feel after ten games, and that's
Speaker 1: not the worst place to be what we saw the
Speaker 1: worst place last year.
Speaker 2: You know, it's kind of been the opposite of what
Speaker 2: we expected coming into the year. Like the pitching staff.
Speaker 2: The starting rotation in particular has been superb, and we
Speaker 2: know how many injuries they're dealing with and just the
Speaker 2: uncertainty with the rotation. The pitching staff has been fantastic.
Speaker 2: The bullpen has been mostly good. There's a guy or
Speaker 2: two out there who's kind of struggling, but you know,
Speaker 2: on the pitching side, it's been great. Offensively, they are
Speaker 2: scoring runs. Like through ten games, offensively, I think they've
Speaker 2: been fine, but a lot of that was carried in
Speaker 2: that seventeen run game on Thursday night. And if you
Speaker 2: look at the lineup, Drake Baldwin is unbelievable and looks
Speaker 2: like he might be a legitimate MVP candidate in year two.
Speaker 2: But other than Drake, like you know, Mauricio Dubon has
Speaker 2: had a few moments. Dom Smith has been good, but
Speaker 2: Ron Dacuna Junior has been very quiet. Austin Riley has
Speaker 2: been terrible. Mikeystremsky has been kind of me, you know,
Speaker 2: Matt Olsen's been fine but not otherworldly. Michael Harris has
Speaker 2: not been very good. I guess Ozzie Alby's has been
Speaker 2: legitimately good so far, and that's encouraging for a player
Speaker 2: we really wanted to see bounce back. You know. It's
Speaker 2: just it's been a weird path to get here. And
Speaker 2: you know what, at the end of the day, you
Speaker 2: win six out of every ten games, you're gonna be
Speaker 2: really happy with yourself at the end of the year.
Speaker 2: But it's been a narrow you know, there's been some
Speaker 2: some narrow moments of times, some iffy moments of times,
Speaker 2: and then there's also been some really good moments at times,
Speaker 2: like when they blew out the Diamondbacks.
Speaker 1: The other night.
Speaker 2: I don't know, it's been a weird journey through the
Speaker 2: first week and a half, right, Some of.
Speaker 1: The things that you and I might look at to say, hey,
Speaker 1: how real is this? Look good? Like, for instance, the
Speaker 1: Brams are number two in baseball at run differential right now,
Speaker 1: but that's so weighted by seventeen to two game now
Speaker 1: they're still above water in the other nine, which is good,
Speaker 1: but it's like, how real is that? Who knows? On
Speaker 1: offense you just mentioned like a lot of that's tied
Speaker 1: to that game. But the Braves have some really nice
Speaker 1: offensive numbers. They're top six in the league, and this
Speaker 1: is the major league in run scored right now, the
Speaker 1: number one it's strikeout right Like, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: ISO has been fine. They're getting on base, but in
Speaker 1: the games that weren't that big explosion, they haven't been
Speaker 1: the world on fire. So for every data point, there's
Speaker 1: there's kind of a response on the other side right now,
Speaker 1: and that's the nature of being its ten games and
Speaker 1: it's just hard to talk about sometimes. But I saw
Speaker 1: and I get it today. It was a frustrating today,
Speaker 1: and we'll talk about that more depth later on, but
Speaker 1: I think I was kind of chuckling at some of
Speaker 1: the more reactionary responses on Twitter, Blue Sky other places
Speaker 1: today and again I get it. Back to back one
Speaker 1: on and losses perfect storm. But I just want everybody
Speaker 1: to realize it's April fifth, and it's it's gonna be okay.
Speaker 1: But you're right player for player, team for team, aspect
Speaker 1: for aspect. There's a lot of give and take right now,
Speaker 1: and that's where it's gonna have to be until it changes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know what, I'd feel a lot better
Speaker 2: if they go out and win at least two games
Speaker 2: against the Angels, a pretty bad Angels team. For being serious,
Speaker 2: I think at the end of the day, you have
Speaker 2: to keep it relatively objective, but you can also say
Speaker 2: that the last forty eight hours of the braid for
Speaker 2: pretty annoying. I mean, to be blunt, pretty anno going
Speaker 2: even the game they won on Friday night, it was
Speaker 2: zero zero and the offense didn't do much of anything,
Speaker 2: and I guess credit to Atlanta. They've been very timely
Speaker 2: with some of their late rallies. Of course, Tom Smith
Speaker 2: had the Grand Slam to cap off the comeback was
Speaker 2: at game two of the year. They have the back
Speaker 2: to back homers and the ninth on Friday, which was
Speaker 2: great and a lot of fun. But there's also been
Speaker 2: just like long spurts of time where the offense just
Speaker 2: completely goes to sleep, and to be honest, they haven't
Speaker 2: really seen premiere pitching yet. Like the Royals have a
Speaker 2: couple of guys, Oakland doesn't have much, and the Diamondbacks
Speaker 2: don't have much. So you know what happens when you
Speaker 2: start to see better pitching in the weeks to come.
Speaker 2: I think you have to hope that guys like Akunya
Speaker 2: and Riley get going because it's only going to get
Speaker 2: more difficult from here.
Speaker 1: For sure, they're gonna have to find their footing and
Speaker 1: there's a little bit run way to do that. It's
Speaker 1: the opposite of last year where the schedule was brutal.
Speaker 1: This year it's not so brutal, and that just but
Speaker 1: another way that kind of forces you. There's a little
Speaker 1: bit of pressure. I don't want to overstate it, but
Speaker 1: like you need to win more than you lose during
Speaker 1: the stretch because you're playing some teams that are not
Speaker 1: great and they have so far that box is checked.
Speaker 1: But the next one is to go out and like
Speaker 1: you said, win a series against a not so good
Speaker 1: Angels team. More later on in the podcast, Scott's that's
Speaker 1: our big picture look at what has happened so far
Speaker 1: through ten games. We will, as people would expect, drill
Speaker 1: down on the results from this weekend. Friday a little
Speaker 1: better than Saturday and Sunday. We'll get into all of that, however,
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Speaker 1: for Industrial supply and Innovative solutions. That's f A S
Speaker 1: T E n a l dot com. Scott let us
Speaker 1: discuss the more positive results. So if anybody missed it,
Speaker 1: we should say Thursday night, Scott and Steven Tolbert did
Speaker 1: a breakdown that was a lot more fun than most
Speaker 1: because it was after a seventeen to two absolute thrashing.
Speaker 1: You guys got to start recording before the game was over.
Speaker 1: That's always a favorite of mine because you, I mean,
Speaker 1: just people that may not know us that well, the
Speaker 1: bar is very high for us to start recording during
Speaker 1: a game. It has to be so far out of
Speaker 1: hand that we're not worried in the slightest. Because we
Speaker 1: are very responsible with our podcasting, we'll stay up late.
Speaker 1: I think you guys were okay within your rights to
Speaker 1: start that one early because it was such a blowout. Well,
Speaker 1: also as a listener, I love I loved it. I
Speaker 1: listened to that driving it. Yeah, we had a lot
Speaker 1: of fun.
Speaker 2: There you go. You know what if the Braves blew
Speaker 2: a seventeen to two lead, you would we wouldn't talk
Speaker 2: about it. The game game would have happened, well, like
Speaker 2: it would have been one of those you waive your
Speaker 2: magic wand and it disappears and we would never speak
Speaker 2: of it again. But yeah, a really nice win on
Speaker 2: Thursday that if folks missed that episode, we talked about
Speaker 2: that game exclusively. Yeah, I mean a great start. The
Speaker 2: first two games in this series were a ton of fun,
Speaker 2: and then after that it was just kind of a
Speaker 2: stinking pile of horse poop.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I would have got a call from Stephen at
Speaker 1: like one thirty two o'clock of the morning. That says
Speaker 1: we are, we are, we recorded, and we're gonna throw
Speaker 1: it away and never talk about this again. And I
Speaker 1: would have said, that's the right decision, Stephen, Okay to
Speaker 1: the games this weekend. Friday was the victory of the three,
Speaker 1: a Brave's third shutout in the first eight games, which
Speaker 1: is a part of why the era solo three shoutouts
Speaker 1: of the first eight games. You know, you brunched it earlier.
Speaker 1: It was zero zero three eight innings, and that's not
Speaker 1: what you would expect to see in any game. That's
Speaker 1: the reality of the situation. I mean, no matter who's pitching.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't like it was Ace versus ace either.
Speaker 1: Grant Hols was great. He was the story of the
Speaker 1: night in a lot of ways. But I wonder what
Speaker 1: you thought of just the way that game flowed, because
Speaker 1: it was it was kind of interesting just how little
Speaker 1: offense there was to be found on either side for
Speaker 1: a long time.
Speaker 2: Really, I mean a game that was pitched very well,
Speaker 2: and you know, I thought Grant Holmes, I mean he
Speaker 2: flirted with a no hitter for six innings and end
Speaker 2: of the night six innings just one hit, no runs,
Speaker 2: three walks, and four strikeouts. Also generated fourteen whiffs, which
Speaker 2: is a really encouraging sign for Grant. Also got really
Speaker 2: good innings out of the bullpen from Dylan Lee and
Speaker 2: Robert Suarez and Rice e Igleasias like, it was just
Speaker 2: a really perfectly pitched game. And the fact that Braves
Speaker 2: were able to record three shutouts in eight games. I know,
Speaker 2: friend of the show Cjntkowski had some great stats about
Speaker 2: three shutouts in eight games to begin the year, And
Speaker 2: just a tip of the cap to jonah Heim, who
Speaker 2: was the catcher behind the plate for all three of
Speaker 2: those shutouts. That's impressive, I know, especially a couple of
Speaker 2: years ago him was really regarded for his work behind
Speaker 2: the plate. It seems like that is transferred over and
Speaker 2: literally the pitching staff is comfortable pitching to him. But yeah,
Speaker 2: just a fun game. After the Giant seventeen to two
Speaker 2: drubbing the night before, it was like, all right, of
Speaker 2: course the offense isn't doing anything, but it was good
Speaker 2: to get those two homers in the ninth inning and
Speaker 2: steal another win late in the game.
Speaker 1: I just remember the tweet you said that says that
Speaker 1: Paul c. Wall was your favorite Diamondbacks reliever, and I
Speaker 1: gotta be honest on this podcast, it didn't sink in
Speaker 1: as to why you said that until right now because
Speaker 1: he allowed the two home runs to Uh, that's right,
Speaker 1: to Ozzie and Wilson. I thought you were being genuine.
Speaker 1: I really did grant it. I'm in basketball mode a
Speaker 1: little bit right now, and I think I saw that
Speaker 1: after the fact that I was like, I wonder why
Speaker 1: Scott said that. It's such an odd comment for you
Speaker 1: to make about I know you obviously no more than
Speaker 1: Diamondbacks than most teams because you do live in Arizona.
Speaker 1: But it's all coming back to me right now in
Speaker 1: real time. Scott.
Speaker 2: Fun fact. Fun fact, Paul sea Wall two years ago
Speaker 2: in Phoenix against the Braves and the ninth inning gave
Speaker 2: up a two run homer to Sean Murphy. And if
Speaker 2: you remember the Braves and d Backs, basically we're in
Speaker 2: a virtual tie at the end of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: So in a way that was kind of the deciding
Speaker 2: factor because the Braves had the tiebreaker over Arizona. So yeah,
Speaker 2: shouts to Paul Sewald, who once again was the gift
Speaker 2: that keeps on giving to the.
Speaker 1: Braves, Braves legend, Paul Sewald. Yeah, that's right. Two home runs.
Speaker 1: That was really it. And look, we should know about Grenholmes
Speaker 1: for a second. So Alex at Thomas was very open
Speaker 1: multiple times in the spring about how Grant Holmes was
Speaker 1: going to be the odd man out if they signed
Speaker 1: someone or traded for someone. And now, granted, I have
Speaker 1: to give the caveat to say the odd man out
Speaker 1: in a five minute rotation means he would have been
Speaker 1: pitching at some point in the starting rotation. We all
Speaker 1: understand that it's not a game played with five startedy pitchers.
Speaker 1: But he's been really good. I mean, that's that's the reality.
Speaker 1: Like he got fourteen swings and missus in this game.
Speaker 1: That's an outrageous kind of number. And he is the
Speaker 1: reason why they able to be in the game the
Speaker 1: entire way through. And he's not gonna throw to this standard.
Speaker 1: But it is a reminder we've always been pretty high
Speaker 1: grand Holmes, I think as a collective on the podcast.
Speaker 1: But also it's like, hey, Grenholmes is pretty good. Like
Speaker 1: it's it's not like Grent Holmes is some guy who like,
Speaker 1: with due respect to who throw out whatever name he
Speaker 1: wants to Jose Suarez or something like he's not that.
Speaker 1: Gren Holmes was a was a solid starty pitcher last season.
Speaker 1: He looks like one again this year. And I mean
Speaker 1: he's capable of being in the bullpen too, but like
Speaker 1: gren Holmes is like a real started pitcher, and that's fun.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm a fan of grand Holmes, man. I mean
Speaker 2: I'm a sucker for his story. A guy who hung
Speaker 2: around in the minor leagues for years and years and
Speaker 2: years would have been so easy for him one night
Speaker 2: laying in bed in a small town, like you know
Speaker 2: what I'm done, Brad, Like I'm I just I've done
Speaker 2: it for seven years. I'm still not in the major
Speaker 2: So yeah, I'm a sucker for grand Holmes and a
Speaker 2: legitimately pretty good starting pitcher. Is he an ace? Is
Speaker 2: he a number two? No, of course not, but a
Speaker 2: really solid number three, number four? And I mean again,
Speaker 2: this rotation for Atlanta despite all the questions, and to
Speaker 2: be fair, there are still questions with this rotation. I
Speaker 2: know a couple people reached out. I don't know if
Speaker 2: they were half in jest, but it was like, well,
Speaker 2: we didn't need a starter, or did we? And I'm like, guys,
Speaker 2: we are ten games into a one hundred and sixty
Speaker 2: two game season week. There's no victory lapping in what
Speaker 2: is the equivalent of a fourth quarter in week one
Speaker 2: of the NFL season. There's no victory lapping at this
Speaker 2: early in the calendar point for the baseball season. But yeah,
Speaker 2: credit Grant Holmes, Bryce Elder, Chris Slee, Rinaldo Lopez, Like,
Speaker 2: really a fantastic job these first two weeks.
Speaker 1: Of the year. Yeah, I'm sure I saw some stuff
Speaker 1: that you did about that. I had I have to
Speaker 1: laugh a little, and I think most of us in jest,
Speaker 1: to be honest, some people might believe that, which is fine.
Speaker 1: It's too early to know. But what we do have
Speaker 1: to acknowledge. And you just said, like they have done
Speaker 1: it now for ten games. That's ten games where the
Speaker 1: Braves have pitched. Well, stack him up. That happened, put
Speaker 1: it away, and Gret Holmes has been part of that.
Speaker 1: And I do trust Gret Holmes to be a competent
Speaker 1: starting pitcher, sir, not a guy who you'd probably prefer
Speaker 1: to be your number whatever starter you probably wanted to
Speaker 1: be that the four or five kind of range for you.
Speaker 1: But he can do this. I believe that. And I
Speaker 1: think you mentioned either on the podcast or you know,
Speaker 1: you know it's really nasty Robert Suarez. Like we know
Speaker 1: that already because he we halked him up plenty this
Speaker 1: this winter when they signed him. He has great numbers,
Speaker 1: great stuff, but like watching him closely in the way
Speaker 1: we are we now are as a member of the Braves,
Speaker 1: he is pretty filthy when he comes in the game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that eighth and ninth inning this season,
Speaker 2: swore as an Iglesias.
Speaker 1: That is as good as it gets.
Speaker 2: And I mean it's the easiest ninety nine I have
Speaker 2: seen on a baseball field. I mean, he right like,
Speaker 2: he didn't even look like he's trying. He just walks
Speaker 2: out there and he doesn't need build up period. It's
Speaker 2: not like he needs five pitches to really get going.
Speaker 2: It's just pitch number one, ninety nine miles an hour
Speaker 2: and here it comes, and you're not going to hit it.
Speaker 2: That That just looks like again it's been a week
Speaker 2: and a half, can't make any definitives at this point,
Speaker 2: but just looks like a great signing. And I mean
Speaker 2: I feel so at ease if the Braves can get
Speaker 2: to the eighth and ninth innings with the lead. I
Speaker 2: feel really really good about their chances. And yeah, Robert
Speaker 2: swore is that that's a bad dude. I mean, he
Speaker 2: is armed with a big fastball and he knows how
Speaker 2: to use it.
Speaker 1: Absolutely want to at least note that because he is
Speaker 1: really really filthy. We sht talk about Saturday's game real quick.
Speaker 1: There isn't not much to discuss, and not in the
Speaker 1: best way. It was a two to one loss on Saturday.
Speaker 1: The number one thing to discuss on the positive side
Speaker 1: and really the only thing on the positive side was
Speaker 1: Bryce Eld, So may I hope is so far for
Speaker 1: Bryce Eld he's been really good, like flat out really good,
Speaker 1: two starts, lights out stuff. Honestly, he made a pretty
Speaker 1: costly throwing her on a bunt that he was responsible for.
Speaker 1: But on the pitching only side, Bryce Older was fantastic
Speaker 1: in this game, and I was doing a little bit
Speaker 1: of a deep out. I was sure some numbers on
Speaker 1: in a second, but we have to just you know,
Speaker 1: tip of the captain Bryce Older. Like I've doubted Bryce
Speaker 1: Older openly. I may be wrong. I'd love to be wrong,
Speaker 1: and that's the always the tenor of our podcast. It's like, Hey,
Speaker 1: if we're ever questioning, I'd like to be wrong when
Speaker 1: I'm on the low side, and so far through two starts,
Speaker 1: I have been wrong about Price.
Speaker 2: Older Bryce looks great and with that, you know, I mean,
Speaker 2: that slider has been really effective and it feels like
Speaker 2: he's just been in command and just locating his pitches
Speaker 2: and not walking people. Is a huge thing for Bryce,
Speaker 2: especially knowing that he doesn't have the greatest stuff in
Speaker 2: the world. He did have eight strikeouts on Saturday night,
Speaker 2: eight strikeouts over seven innings, which is really good. But
Speaker 2: we know that's not really Bryce's typical game, or at
Speaker 2: least it has not been for the course of his career,
Speaker 2: but really impressive. Just such a bummer that he let
Speaker 2: that errant throw go on the bunt. I mean, that
Speaker 2: was basically the only offense in the game right there
Speaker 2: for Arizona. Unfortunately, the Bats couldn't do more to kind
Speaker 2: of back up Bryce, because I mean, he did not
Speaker 2: deserve that loss by any means.
Speaker 1: No, definitely not. And the slider, like you said, is
Speaker 1: as his best pitch it has been for a while,
Speaker 1: but he's been really good. He's throwing it more than ever,
Speaker 1: like forty percent of the time almost, and the opponent
Speaker 1: numbers are like comically good against it so far. It's
Speaker 1: like an opposing like one fifty ops this season against
Speaker 1: the slider. It's like some crazy number like that. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: He has five pitches now, I know that's been talking
Speaker 1: about a little bit. The cutter that he's been throwing
Speaker 1: has been interesting. And I looked at his stuff plus,
Speaker 1: which is that, you know, Van Spetrick, basically how good
Speaker 1: your stuff is. It's actually down from last year, which
Speaker 1: is interesting given how good he's been. But what's up
Speaker 1: is that he is locating at the best level he
Speaker 1: ever has in his career. He has a one to
Speaker 1: ten location plus, which is like really really strong. And
Speaker 1: that's always been the thing with Bryce. He's not gonna, like,
Speaker 1: like you just alluded, to strike out a lot of
Speaker 1: guys usually in his profile, which means he can't afford
Speaker 1: to walk guys. And when he was in that dip
Speaker 1: for like two years, basically two and a half years,
Speaker 1: his walks were up, and not like terribly up in
Speaker 1: the way that like somebody couldn't live at. But when
Speaker 1: you have his lack of strikeout stuff. Historically you can't
Speaker 1: walk guys too. Yeah, and he's not. He's really locating.
Speaker 1: He's a four percent walk right this year two starts.
Speaker 1: But he's not just not walking guys. He's also putting
Speaker 1: the ball where he wants it to go basically all
Speaker 1: the time. And he has enough stuff or if he
Speaker 1: does that with that slider, he can really live. So
Speaker 1: two not that awesome offenses, but still like I'm encouraged.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I would suddenly take Bryce Elder
Speaker 1: to have a mid three is era for the season,
Speaker 1: I probably would not, but I do like what I
Speaker 1: have seen, and I'm a little bit higher on even
Speaker 1: the over even ignoring the results. Like just the profile
Speaker 1: I like a little bit better than I did two
Speaker 1: weeks ago.
Speaker 2: And you know, having five pitches for Elder to go to,
Speaker 2: you know, he's been working in a cutter and seems like,
Speaker 2: as you said a moment ago, just his location has
Speaker 2: been a really big part of this kind of mini
Speaker 2: renaissance and hopefully it continues. And I said a moment ago,
Speaker 2: it's just a shame the offense was awful. I guess
Speaker 2: tip your cap to Michael Soroka, who was really good again,
Speaker 2: But I mean the Braids really didn't have much of
Speaker 2: anything all night. Three singles, one double, three walks, and
Speaker 2: that was it. Shouts to Dom Smith who continues to
Speaker 2: hit the ball really well and just put together really
Speaker 2: good plate appearances even if he's not getting a result.
Speaker 2: It feels like a lot of Dom's plate appearances go six, seven,
Speaker 2: eight pitches and really makes the pitcher work. Dom drove
Speaker 2: in the only run in the second inning and that
Speaker 2: was pretty much it. I mean, I think there was
Speaker 2: a double play that happened a little bit later that
Speaker 2: kind of killed the mini rally, but it was I mean,
Speaker 2: it was pretty lifeless. And again it cuts back to
Speaker 2: what we talked about off the top. They score seventeen
Speaker 2: runs on Thursday night, they basically get shut out for
Speaker 2: eight innings on Friday night and only get those two
Speaker 2: runs on back to back homers, and then on Saturday
Speaker 2: they don't score at all. They get the one run
Speaker 2: and that was basically it. It wasn't even like they
Speaker 2: ran into bad luck. It's not like their sequencing was poor.
Speaker 2: It's not like they just hit a bunch of rockets
Speaker 2: right at people. There was none of that. It was
Speaker 2: very very few and far between, and just kind of
Speaker 2: a Debbie downer after a couple of really fun wins.
Speaker 1: For sure, we'll tell you if the Braves got unlucky,
Speaker 1: I'm not above shirting that. That was not that night.
Speaker 1: Saturay night was not a luck thing other than if
Speaker 1: you want to say Bryce Older's fielding is a little
Speaker 1: bit unlucky, like okay, but on the offensive side, No,
Speaker 1: they just didn't hit very well. That was basically what
Speaker 1: happened in that game on Saturday. Okay, Scott, Let's get
Speaker 1: into Sunday's game in a moment, but first, they're working
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Speaker 1: Scott's a want to talk about with this game on Sunday.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately for the Braves, lots of storylines from this one
Speaker 1: as of being a six to five loss Intenetings, and
Speaker 1: actually the storyline started before the game begins. I want
Speaker 1: to go there with you. Now. We've said, and I
Speaker 1: know Walt has said since he took over the job,
Speaker 1: basically that they're gonna be willing to give some guys
Speaker 1: some days off, right, And that's fine. I'm all in
Speaker 1: favor of that, right and I'm not trying to go
Speaker 1: against what I what we said before. I thought the
Speaker 1: Braves played their guys a little bit too often in
Speaker 1: the past. That was my own thought. It is what
Speaker 1: it is. I did not think necessarily that we would
Speaker 1: see Austin Rolly get a day off on April fifth. Now,
Speaker 1: granted it was a Sunday afternoon. That's kind of the
Speaker 1: typical day off spot if you're going to do one
Speaker 1: every once in a while. But I think it had
Speaker 1: a lot to do with the fact that Austin has
Speaker 1: been totally lost through the first week and a half
Speaker 1: of the season, and by the way he ended up
Speaker 1: getting into the game because they had to pitch it,
Speaker 1: they had to pitch hit him and he went over
Speaker 1: to and wasn't impressive when he got in the game either.
Speaker 1: So multiple things to get to here, like what do
Speaker 1: you make of Thoroway day off? But also like more importantly, Austin'
Speaker 1: struggles are getting a little bit alarming at least, I
Speaker 1: don't know how you feel.
Speaker 2: I was really happy to see Austin get at least
Speaker 2: most of the day off, and I was also good
Speaker 2: to see that Ronald got the day off as the
Speaker 2: DH and makes sense it's a big outfield. He's played
Speaker 2: every day, He's played right field every day, so all
Speaker 2: for it, you know. I gotta be honest, I am
Speaker 2: getting pretty concerned about Austin Riley. And before anyone calls
Speaker 2: it an overreaction, I think we have documented well on
Speaker 2: this show that for two plus years now, Austin has
Speaker 2: not been himself and to be blunt, since signing the
Speaker 2: biggest contract in franchise history in the middle of twenty
Speaker 2: twenty two, he has not been nearly good enough for
Speaker 2: a player who still has like seven years and one
Speaker 2: hundred and forty million bucks left on his contract. He
Speaker 2: looks awful and it's a shame because Austin had a
Speaker 2: great spring. I kind of bought the kool aid a
Speaker 2: little bit. I'm like, you know what, all right, maybe
Speaker 2: this is the jumping off point and Austin establishes himself
Speaker 2: and becomes a legitimate MVP type of third basement for
Speaker 2: this team. It's only ten games, but I mean I
Speaker 2: am legitimately. I mean he's swinging through pitches in the
Speaker 2: middle of his own. He's hitting a bunch of infield
Speaker 2: pop flies, which are virtually guaranteed to be out he's
Speaker 2: not driving the ball, he's not hitting for power. It's
Speaker 2: it is a it is a concerning trend for a
Speaker 2: player who we had some real concerns with coming into
Speaker 2: the year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, And the sample size caveats have to apply, right, Like,
Speaker 1: so it's ten games, it could be noise. It could
Speaker 1: just be a slump with nothing to worry about.
Speaker 2: Possible, right if he hits, If he hits a homer
Speaker 2: and a double on Monday Night, then it all goes
Speaker 2: at His ops will jump by one hundred and twenty
Speaker 2: five points and it'll be a silly conversation.
Speaker 1: Right. I know that, you know that. I'm just saying,
Speaker 1: like we're not saying this is for sure panic time, right. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But yeah, when you combine what he has not been
Speaker 1: the last couple of years with the bad at ball data,
Speaker 1: it's really not good. It's it's ten games, but it's
Speaker 1: not good. It's a lot of blue on the stackcast page.
Speaker 1: If that's what you like to follow. You don't want
Speaker 1: blue on this guy on the sat on the stack
Speaker 1: guy page. You want writ a lot of blue right now.
Speaker 1: You mentioned the nice spring in Florida. That's that's better
Speaker 1: than not having it. It would be almost more concerned
Speaker 1: if he hadn't had the good spring, but it's the spring,
Speaker 1: Like there's a little noise in there as well, So
Speaker 1: I'll be interesting to see how they react to that,
Speaker 1: because like he's gonna he's gonna play, I mean, you
Speaker 1: know bad he'd have to be for how long to
Speaker 1: not be playing all the time, Like it would be
Speaker 1: a crazy story if that would happen. We're nowhere near
Speaker 1: that for the record, but I would man, he could
Speaker 1: probably use a good couple of days to get everybody
Speaker 1: calm down, because like I did see a lot of
Speaker 1: people kind of lumping in Acunya and Riley together and
Speaker 1: their struggles today. I don't agree with that framing. I
Speaker 1: think Ronnie has it's not been good this year by
Speaker 1: his full, full, full acknowledgment of that. But we just
Speaker 1: saw Ronnie like be electric MVP level Ronnie in the WBC,
Speaker 1: which I trust a lot more than spring training. Is
Speaker 1: that's that's max effort, like playing hard, and that was
Speaker 1: literally like two weeks ago. So I plus, he's always
Speaker 1: been awesome in a way that Austin has not been
Speaker 1: the last couple of years, and even today, Ronnie's in
Speaker 1: the lineup has two hard hit singles and like, looks fine,
Speaker 1: So I could not be less worth. Maybe maybe I'm
Speaker 1: a hypocrite. I don't know. Maybe I'm sure someone somewhere
Speaker 1: is gonna be like, why are you guys solo on
Speaker 1: Riley and not worried about Acunya. To me, they're different
Speaker 1: caliber of players, unfortunately for I think Ronnie is in
Speaker 1: a different tier of hitter, and that's why I'm not
Speaker 1: worried about him, honestly.
Speaker 2: So, yeah, Ronald's Yeah, Ronald's big problem so far has
Speaker 2: been kind of inside fastballs.
Speaker 1: There's the stance stuff that's going on. I understand the
Speaker 1: concern about that. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna handway
Speaker 1: of that. I'm not. We do have enough data yet
Speaker 1: and I'm not a swing expert, but I do understand
Speaker 1: and be like, why do you change his stance again?
Speaker 1: Like what's going on? I mean, I get that concern,
Speaker 1: I do for sure. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's that's it for me. But you know what,
Speaker 2: I was mildly concerned about Ronald, but then he hit
Speaker 2: two very hard hit baseballs for a couple of singles
Speaker 2: on Sunday, and I just don't worry about Acunya. He'd
Speaker 2: have to be in like a four weeks week slump
Speaker 2: before I would even entertain the thought of being concerned.
Speaker 2: I just I feel like Ronald's breakout is imminent, and
Speaker 2: maybe we saw the early early stages of it on
Speaker 2: Sunday today, But yeah, Austin is a is a real
Speaker 2: concern for me, Like this guy, the Braves need Austin
Speaker 2: Riley if this offense is going to be at its maximum,
Speaker 2: they really really really need Austin. And again one more time,
Speaker 2: it's been ten games. If Austin has a bad ten
Speaker 2: game stretch in June or in August, like sure, we
Speaker 2: might note it and talk about it for thirty seconds,
Speaker 2: but it's not magnified nearly as much as it is
Speaker 2: at this point in the calendar. But a legitimate concern
Speaker 2: and man alive. We really need to see Austin get
Speaker 2: going sooner rather than later.
Speaker 1: Right, if we were trying to clickbait this, we would
Speaker 1: have live with Austin Riley, Like first off the top,
Speaker 1: we didn't do that, Like I'm not we're not panicking.
Speaker 1: It's not time to burn the place down, Like we're
Speaker 1: not doing that. I can see the chiron right now.
Speaker 1: We're not doing that because it's ten and because of
Speaker 1: what it is. You're right to acknowledge that, But I'd
Speaker 1: like to see more to ease everybody's collective mind on that.
Speaker 1: I would imagine speak of guys who are not struggling.
Speaker 1: Drake Baldwin. We've talked about a lot resly, so we'd
Speaker 1: have to do the whole thing again. But Drake Baldwin
Speaker 1: has been ridiculous. I was sending text to our group
Speaker 1: chat today like statue when for Drake Balwin, basically like
Speaker 1: what are we what are we waiting on? Just go
Speaker 1: ahead and construct the Cooperstown plaque right now. I'm kind
Speaker 1: of kidding, but man, he's been ridiculous. Yeah, he looks
Speaker 1: like an awesome, awesome player, no surprise, but it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: just another strong week for Dick Balwin.
Speaker 2: Oh cool, A very real chance that Drake Baldwin is
Speaker 2: the best catcher in the National League when it's all
Speaker 2: said and done this year, and he's not better than
Speaker 2: col Rally and I caveated that with National League.
Speaker 1: Yeah, people now having sixty home runs last year is
Speaker 1: probably like, uh, can't, can't, can't deal with that To syey. Hey,
Speaker 1: but hey, two years, it wouldn't surprise me if Baldwin
Speaker 1: was just because like it's catcher, like it might be
Speaker 1: a little bit of volatile. You're right, yeah, I'm glad
Speaker 1: I SAI National Leagues people a gonna get mad, But
Speaker 1: you're there's Ashley that's like crazy. You know. Riley's kind
Speaker 1: of been one player tier catcher and maybe Drake, maybe
Speaker 1: Drake joins him. Maybe that's the way to frame this.
Speaker 1: Maybe he joins KYL. Raley in Tier one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he is ridiculous head. The homer on Sunday, drove
Speaker 2: in four runs, including the game tying single in the
Speaker 2: ninth inning. Just such a pure hitter, I mean, just
Speaker 2: he can do everything. And we made the comp last
Speaker 2: year early in the year that, honest to goodness, watching
Speaker 2: Drake Baldon reminds me of Freddie Freeman, where he can
Speaker 2: do basically everything up there. He can go to all fields,
Speaker 2: he can hit a homer, he can hit a ball
Speaker 2: in the gap, he can just kind of poke one
Speaker 2: off the end of the bat and go to left field.
Speaker 2: He can pull a ball. I mean, he is so complete.
Speaker 2: He doesn't really strike out. He has such a good
Speaker 2: command of the strike zone for being all of what
Speaker 2: one hundred and forty five games into his major league
Speaker 2: career at this point, just a remarkable hitter and a
Speaker 2: legitimate like every time Drake comes to the plate, I
Speaker 2: feel like something good is going to happen, Yeah.
Speaker 1: For sure. And shots to him for keeping them in
Speaker 1: the game, and they, of course they end up losing it,
Speaker 1: so he's probably not quite as much shying, but he
Speaker 1: was the best player on the field today for the Braves.
Speaker 1: Also shots to Jorye Mateo for having a good, good
Speaker 1: day to day at shortstop and with Riley sitting, they
Speaker 1: moved to Bond to third and had Butteo play short
Speaker 1: He's been good so far, so not not too much
Speaker 1: to add on that, but just like another guy, valuable
Speaker 1: depth is valuable depth, Like, yeah, it's good to have somebody.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's not gonna hit like this regularly, I
Speaker 1: don't think, but hey, meaningful contributions on a Sunday.
Speaker 2: So if the break, Yeah, if the Braves would have
Speaker 2: found a way to win today, I think we really
Speaker 2: would have given Jorge Mateo a shout out at the
Speaker 2: top of the show. Got on base three times. He
Speaker 2: can fly like this guy gets on base and he
Speaker 2: can go first to third or second to home. Really
Speaker 2: nice job. Again, just kind of goes on to the
Speaker 2: depth of this team, even if the Stars aren't playing
Speaker 2: it the way this we want the Stars to play.
Speaker 2: The depth for this team is undisputably better than it
Speaker 2: was last season.
Speaker 1: For sure, and unsurprisingly, if you watch this one unfolded,
Speaker 1: all the Braves finished two for fourteen with burn and
Speaker 1: scoring position in the game on Sunday. And that is
Speaker 1: a quick way to lose, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: That's basically why they lost. I meant this. If you
Speaker 1: want to just say one reason why I lost the
Speaker 1: game on Sunday, that's the one, and it's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I do find myself being in contrarian sometimes because
Speaker 1: the instinct of every and we do this too, I
Speaker 1: do this. The intidctent of everyone is to say, man,
Speaker 1: they're doing it again with the with what They've actually
Speaker 1: been good this year in those positions until today. So
Speaker 1: I want to just say that out loud. Last year
Speaker 1: it was maddening all year long that happened. I want
Speaker 1: to credit them for not doing that until today that much.
Speaker 1: But today it was like a throwback, you know, two
Speaker 1: for fourteen especially, I think they went over was an
Speaker 1: oh for three over four for five in the last
Speaker 1: two innings, something like that. Like it was just opportunities
Speaker 1: that were wasted all the way around.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the real crushing moment. So in the ninth inning,
Speaker 2: the Braves rally mateo singles, Acunya singles, Baldwin singles. You've
Speaker 2: tied the game, and you have two on and nobody out,
Speaker 2: and you have the Diamondbacks reliever on the ropes, and
Speaker 2: you have your three four five hitters coming up, Olsen Yestreemsky, Harris,
Speaker 2: and you get nothing out of it. I mean, that's
Speaker 2: that's pretty crushing. One more hit and this very easily
Speaker 2: could have been a not even one more hit would
Speaker 2: have been a Braves win. Even two deep fly balls
Speaker 2: would have scored Acunya to get him to third and
Speaker 2: then get him home. I also wondered if they would
Speaker 2: try to steal third with Akunya, who was just standing
Speaker 2: on second base the whole time. Just it was such
Speaker 2: a missed opportunity. And of course we know how the
Speaker 2: tenth inning went. It was over very quickly.
Speaker 1: Well, even in the tenth like Ozzy does his job,
Speaker 1: rolls over a ground ball Harris to third base. So
Speaker 1: they had a guy with third one out in the tenth,
Speaker 1: Like you have to score. And we've been on this
Speaker 1: many times, but like if you don't score in the
Speaker 1: tenth inning, your what probability is not high? Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a mus score situation. And they didn't score. So that
Speaker 1: was that. On the pitching side, we should talk about
Speaker 1: Martin Perez got his first brave start today. We discussed
Speaker 1: this last week about how Jose Suarez got rocked. They
Speaker 1: brought in Martin Perez in relief. This time they flipped it.
Speaker 1: Perez started. That was the exception kind of all week.
Speaker 1: He wasn't terrible, but he was not particularly encouraging. I'm
Speaker 1: curious what you saw and what you thought about the
Speaker 1: old man plugging in today.
Speaker 2: Martin Perez. He was okay, five plus innings, five hits,
Speaker 2: four runs, only one walk, but also only one strikeout.
Speaker 2: This stuff is very mediocre, you know. Honestly, the Diamondbacks.
Speaker 2: I think against Perez, the Diamondbacks had an expected batting
Speaker 2: average of like three to ninety five, so he was
Speaker 2: not confusing them. Like could tell Marte hit a ball
Speaker 2: one hundred and seventeen miles an hour that happened to
Speaker 2: go right at Jorge Mateo, so there was no there
Speaker 2: was no soft contact today for the most part. You know,
Speaker 2: I think Martin Perez probably gives the Braves the best
Speaker 2: chance to win among at least the fifth starter options
Speaker 2: in Atlanta. I wish this was Diddy or Fuentes or
Speaker 2: j R. Richie making these starts, but I get it.
Speaker 2: It's a long year. You probably want to get those
Speaker 2: guys some seasoning and all that. But yeah, pres was okay.
Speaker 2: I guess he technically gave him a chance to win,
Speaker 2: but you know, also not encouraged by any means.
Speaker 1: I started to say, you would kind of take five
Speaker 1: innings four runs. That's pretty bad. So I don't want
Speaker 1: to say that because it's like kind of bad. But
Speaker 1: you're right, they had a chance to win, and we
Speaker 1: just said, like they had opportunities to win this game
Speaker 1: even with him doing that. So I don't want to
Speaker 1: that's not the right baseline. You want to be a
Speaker 1: little bit better than that, even for fifth guy. But Forerez,
Speaker 1: he was better than Suarez. Was that that's a low
Speaker 1: bar to clear, but he was I agree with you though, like,
Speaker 1: and I think if you gave Alex and Company true here,
Speaker 1: and that's if it was game game three of the
Speaker 1: World series tomorrow and you said, did your Fuintes or
Speaker 1: Martine Perez, they would take did you er Flintes. But
Speaker 1: that's not the situation at this moment. So every gad counts,
Speaker 1: but they will take the long view, particularly for the
Speaker 1: guy who's twenty years old, which I do understand on
Speaker 1: some level. Oh, we have our first maybe it is
Speaker 1: this our first, Walt. Weis cracism, yes, like legitimately the
Speaker 1: first time. You were ahead of me on this one today,
Speaker 1: so you're take take the reins.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's unfortunate and it didn't ultimately determine the game.
Speaker 2: But in the sixth inning, Walt I think got a
Speaker 2: little greedy. I think he the old habits of Brian
Speaker 2: Snicker kind of, you know, he had that itch. He's like, look,
Speaker 2: I can get I can try to get through at
Speaker 2: least one more inning here with Martin Perez and save
Speaker 2: my bullpen which is mostly fresh. So but Walt sent
Speaker 2: Martin out there for the top of the six to
Speaker 2: face Corbyn Carroll for a third time. And I know
Speaker 2: it was lefty lefty. I'm sure that was part of
Speaker 2: his calculus, but it did not go well Corbyn Carroll.
Speaker 2: I think the second pitch he saw lined a very
Speaker 2: well hit ball to the outfield. Then Walt took Martin
Speaker 2: Perez out and shortly after Corbyn Carroll steels second base
Speaker 2: and then comes around to score against Tyler Kinley, who
Speaker 2: was not at his sharpest. Just kind of a bummer.
Speaker 2: I think Walt has been really good for the most part,
Speaker 2: Like he did some crazy double switching on Saturday night,
Speaker 2: which was like legitimately encouraging to see where he moves
Speaker 2: some pieces around and had somebody pinch hit for his
Speaker 2: catcher and he gave up the DH in order to
Speaker 2: make it happen. Like There's been some really strong in
Speaker 2: game managerial stuff from Walt so far, but that was
Speaker 2: the first time. I guess, hey, once every ten days
Speaker 2: is not going to kill you. But even to other
Speaker 2: people on Twitter too, were like, oh man, you really
Speaker 2: don't need to send Martin Perez out there a third
Speaker 2: time to face Corbyn Carroll, who's one of the twenty
Speaker 2: five best hitters in baseball right now, Yeah.
Speaker 1: I agree with you, first and foremost, I agree with you.
Speaker 1: Second of all, I do want to say that I've
Speaker 1: been impressed largely with Walt Weiss. I did from the
Speaker 1: Diamond today with great mcauleague shots to Grant form from
Speaker 1: and I'm sure we'll be guessed again on our on
Speaker 1: our podcast grat it's very smart. And he asked me,
Speaker 1: like to kind of grade what wise early on and
Speaker 1: I was like, really good, I mean B plus a minus, Like,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's been really I have very little to
Speaker 1: say negative about the what Why's experience so far. And
Speaker 1: if him leaving my team president for what extra batter
Speaker 1: on April fifth, it's the worst thing that happens. We're
Speaker 1: gonna be in great shape. But you're you're right, but
Speaker 1: you're also you're right. You're also right, like that might
Speaker 1: have cost him the game. I mean I'm not saying
Speaker 1: it did, but it might have, so that you know,
Speaker 1: that's a little bit stuff that could happen. But yeah,
Speaker 1: we we try not to go crazy about this stuff
Speaker 1: until the playoffs when it becomes, you know, a much
Speaker 1: bigger story. But that was one where it was like,
Speaker 1: so it's kind of obvious too, Like even in real time,
Speaker 1: I always try to mark when people are being revisionous
Speaker 1: and when they're not like we were. I would say
Speaker 1: people that I follow on twit, I don't know about you.
Speaker 1: People were saying that before the hit happened, that's how
Speaker 1: you know, that's how you know. It's like, oh, that's
Speaker 1: not that was. It was not just because of the result.
Speaker 1: It was a process failure, which I that stuff bobbished
Speaker 1: me in and is the process failures? Yeah?
Speaker 2: No, I said the same thing. I was like, why
Speaker 2: is he still in there? Whatever, It's not the end
Speaker 2: of the world. I think, Walt, I agree with you completely.
Speaker 2: I think Walt whis has done a fantastic job these
Speaker 2: first ten games, and I think he's also still learning.
Speaker 2: This is new to him. I mean, I know he
Speaker 2: was a manager back in the day with the Rockies,
Speaker 2: but this is also relatively new to him. And overall,
Speaker 2: I have very very few complaints with how the first
Speaker 2: week and a half has gone.
Speaker 1: I would agree, Scott, you have anything else to add
Speaker 1: about this weekend? If not, we can dive into what's
Speaker 1: to come for the Braves, because they do have a
Speaker 1: boy very winnable series on the horizon beginning on Monday.
Speaker 1: They do.
Speaker 2: You know, we got to take advantage against the Angels.
Speaker 2: I mean, I know, also Mike Trout might not play.
Speaker 2: He got hit in the hand. Yeah, yeah, it didn't
Speaker 2: look great. I have not admittedly I haven't seen any update.
Speaker 2: But I mean, even if the Angels have Mike Trout,
Speaker 2: that that is a not good baseball team. Of course,
Speaker 2: now watched they're going to play their best series of
Speaker 2: the year so far and take it to the Braves.
Speaker 2: But this is a series that you really would like
Speaker 2: to win two games, especially with your one, two and
Speaker 2: three going in the rotation.
Speaker 1: Officially Trota's day to day, I'm gonna assume that means
Speaker 1: he's not gonna play Monday would be my guess. Maybe
Speaker 1: by the end of the series, but we'll see. And
Speaker 1: the Andrews are five and five, like they've they've been
Speaker 1: fine so far. I think if you look at their
Speaker 1: preezes and expectations they were lower than that. They're not
Speaker 1: Rockies bad. Like, they're not absolutely horrible, I don't think.
Speaker 1: But it's a series where you know, on the road
Speaker 1: I always try to leave the bar a little be
Speaker 1: a little bit higher. But yeah, very winnable games, especially
Speaker 1: because Chris Sales pitching and and it's time Chris Sales
Speaker 1: pitching in a three game series. You feel pretty good
Speaker 1: about the rest of the situation. Monday and Tuesday are
Speaker 1: late nights for those of us in the Eastern time zone.
Speaker 1: I think they're like nine to forty is starts or so.
Speaker 1: Scott loves those games. And then Wednesday is an afternoon contest,
Speaker 1: not as early as the noons start last week in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: but it's like a four o'clock Eastern game on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: Chris Sale has has the ball on Monday. Presumably he's
Speaker 1: feeling back to his old self, and the last start
Speaker 1: he was quote sick as a dog. I would assume
Speaker 1: he's back to being normal. Four days, five days later
Speaker 1: he faces this was at Soriano pretty much showdown. Honestly,
Speaker 1: this story has been pretty good for the angel so far.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Jose Soriano maybe not a household name, but was
Speaker 2: legitimately good last year. Had was a three war pitcher
Speaker 2: for the Angels and just a solid, solid option for them.
Speaker 2: So hopefully the Bats get going and they can really
Speaker 2: support Chris. We always feel good whenever Sale is on
Speaker 2: the mound, but you know, just some consistency out of
Speaker 2: this offense. Would be really appreciated after kind of the
Speaker 2: Jekyll and Hyde nature that we had this weekend.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the Braves won't win every single Chris Sales
Speaker 1: start this season, but they need to win a lot
Speaker 1: of them. And that's the baseline I'd like to follow
Speaker 1: if that was the Braves just when most of Chrisale
Speaker 1: starts good foundation. And then it's Ronaldo on Tuesday against
Speaker 1: you say, Kakuchi, who is historically pretty good. He's been
Speaker 1: shaky this year starting the season, but he's a pretty
Speaker 1: good pitcher usually, and the Gret Holmes against Reed debt
Speaker 1: Meers on Wednesday, a couple lefties in there. Always interesting
Speaker 1: to see what the Braves might do against lieutenant pitching,
Speaker 1: So I'll be following that closely. Yeah, I'm curious to see.
Speaker 2: You know, Kakuchi and debt Meurs are not necessarily like
Speaker 2: lefties who light up the radar gun. So I wonder
Speaker 2: if they might give mike Yastremsky a start in either
Speaker 2: the outfield or a DH and sit Jonaheim, although Jonah's
Speaker 2: been really good catching, so of course, then the Jonaheim
Speaker 2: starts behind the player when Baldwin has been dhing, so
Speaker 2: I wonder if Baldwin maybe catches one of those games
Speaker 2: against the lefty and they have somebody hit. Kyle Farmer
Speaker 2: hasn't really played a whole lot this year. Eli White
Speaker 2: has been off to a pretty bad start, if we're
Speaker 2: being honest. But maybe they'll try to get Eli in
Speaker 2: there a couple of times. We'll see what they ultimately do.
Speaker 2: But yeah, a solid opportunity to start. I mean, let's
Speaker 2: just we need a win, you know, Like I think
Speaker 2: it's still early in the year, but these last two
Speaker 2: losses have really kind of left a bad taste in
Speaker 2: everybody's mouth. And if you can get a win behind
Speaker 2: Chris Sale and then you just got to split the
Speaker 2: Ronaldo and home starts, then you go two and three
Speaker 2: or two and one in the series, you go four
Speaker 2: and three on the West Coast road trip. Sure nobody's
Speaker 2: throwing a parade for four and three on the West Coast,
Speaker 2: but it would just continue to win series and finally
Speaker 2: get a day off on Thursday, which I'm sure all
Speaker 2: the players are looking forward to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was gonna circle that just now, because it
Speaker 1: also lets you be a little bit more aggressive if
Speaker 1: you need to be with bullpen management, with maybe, like
Speaker 1: you said, maybe Baldwin catches all three or something like that.
Speaker 1: You know, there's ways to make it, to push a
Speaker 1: little harder when you know that the light at the
Speaker 1: end of the tunnel is finally there, and you get
Speaker 1: a day off on Thursday. It's a long it's long
Speaker 1: travel back from la for sure, but at least a
Speaker 1: full day off in advance of the weekend series back
Speaker 1: in Atlanta. So one to circle and we will have
Speaker 1: you covered throughout the week as we always would. I'm
Speaker 1: not exactly sure with days just yet, but you could.
Speaker 1: You could make on it if big things happen, even
Speaker 1: when they don't happen. We tend to have podcasts about
Speaker 1: the Atlanta Braves in this podcast feed. Yeah we do.
Speaker 2: And you know, get some wins against the Angels would
Speaker 2: be great, and then you have the day off Thursday,
Speaker 2: and then you know, you go back home and you
Speaker 2: play the Cleveland Guardians, who are not a bad team,
Speaker 2: but you know Cleveland, they don't spend any money whatsoever
Speaker 2: and just kind of lack star power. And whenever you're
Speaker 2: home against a team like that, you would like to
Speaker 2: win this series against Cleveland, and then you welcome the
Speaker 2: Miami Marlins to Atlanta and similarly, the Marlins have been
Speaker 2: pretty pesky so far. But a team that you can
Speaker 2: say with a straight face, the Braves should be able
Speaker 2: to beat more times than not. So it just kind
Speaker 2: of plays on this fact that the schedule early in
Speaker 2: the year has been light. The Braves more times than
Speaker 2: not have done a pretty decent job the last forty
Speaker 2: eight hours, notwithstanding to win those kind of fifty to
Speaker 2: fifty games. But let's keep it rolling, let's keep winning,
Speaker 2: Let's get back on the winning track and really just
Speaker 2: try to make hay early in the year. See, you
Speaker 2: don't find yourself like squandering this early lead that you
Speaker 2: kind of built into the standings. Nobody wants that, especially
Speaker 2: after the way this team has had to climb out
Speaker 2: of a hole in the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: Absolutely stay ahead of the curve by stacking up series
Speaker 1: wins and they haven't lost the series yet. If you
Speaker 1: don't lose series, you generally do pretty well. So that's
Speaker 1: the name of the game when it comes to I'm.
Speaker 2: Gonna quote you, yeah, that's It's not.
Speaker 1: The old Bobby Cox thing. I know he was alway
Speaker 1: talking about winning series, but like, hey, you can also
Speaker 1: say if you don't lose series, it's kind of the
Speaker 1: same thing. If you just display refour gamer or whatever
Speaker 1: three gamer, you're a playoff team. I can tell you
Speaker 1: that right now. So yeah, okay, Scott, let's get out
Speaker 1: of here. Everyone should be subscribed already, but if you're not,
Speaker 1: join us. Subscribe slash, follow the podcast on Apple, on Spotify,
Speaker 1: on YouTube, et cetera. Just search Hammer Territory in that
Speaker 1: podcast player. If you're a YouTube watcher. Also make sure
Speaker 1: subscribe on audio. If you're an audio listener, make sure
Speaker 1: to smash that subscribe button and the like button on
Speaker 1: YouTube as well. To help support the podcast, leave a
Speaker 1: five star rating in a review, leave a comment, follow
Speaker 1: us on social media at Hambory Territory, and then importantly,
Speaker 1: you must follow Scott Coleman on Twitter at Scott colem
Speaker 1: fifty five because he announced yesterday he's now in full
Speaker 1: baseball mode. Did an make troll you for not already
Speaker 1: being baseball mode? I was. I thought that when I
Speaker 1: saw that, I wasn't. I wasn't in a spot to
Speaker 1: make fun of you about for obvious reasons, but I
Speaker 1: did see I was like, someone's gonna be mad. At
Speaker 1: you for saying that you weren't already a baseball mode.
Speaker 2: Did that happen nobody directly? I mean, dude, my mentions
Speaker 2: are a wild place these days, but I have no doubt.
Speaker 2: I retweeted a funny video and a funny tweet of
Speaker 2: a girl who was twenty one years old who was
Speaker 2: chugging a Budweiser at a Nationals game, and I somehow
Speaker 2: had people arguing in my mentions over whether or not
Speaker 2: it was her first sip of alcohol, Like, how do
Speaker 2: these people find me? I don't know. I am fully
Speaker 2: locked in. I very sadly do not have a basketball
Speaker 2: game to watch on Monday night. For your sake, go Blue,
Speaker 2: I hope you win. I don't want to see Danny
Speaker 2: Hurley when three of them in four years. But you
Speaker 2: know what, because you're gonna be occupied, I will be
Speaker 2: even more locked in to Braves Angels nine to forty
Speaker 2: five Eastern Time, first Pitch. I will carry the podcast
Speaker 2: whenever we meet next and break it all down as
Speaker 2: we always do here on Hammer Territory.
Speaker 1: Guys, I have to miss something to you before we
Speaker 1: get out of here on this podcast. I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: watch the game live on Monday. I'm just I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna watch the Braves game one Monday. I'm live, I'll
Speaker 1: catch up, I'll do my homework. We always do a
Speaker 1: hark on this podcast. I'm literally going to be in
Speaker 1: a football stadium watching my team play for the championship
Speaker 1: one Monday. So I'm not gonna watch the Braves game.
Speaker 1: I love I love Chris Sale more than literally anyone
Speaker 1: in my life. I think I think about like Christale
Speaker 1: more than you. It's one of those things, Scott, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: Chris Sale here, Scott Coleman here. Wait, Shawn's probably above Christale,
Speaker 1: but Shawn sa Sean, that's my guy anyway, locking at everybody.
Speaker 1: We'll have podcasts, I promise, probably not Monday night. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have to say, I don't want to speak for you.
Speaker 1: I would be surprised if something happened Monday that would
Speaker 1: MANNA podcast. It would have to be.
Speaker 2: Oh no, oh no, don't say that, because it's like,
Speaker 2: unless it's a no hitter or a perfect game, there's
Speaker 2: like a ninety five percent chance that news that would
Speaker 2: demand a podcast on Monday would be bad.
Speaker 1: So don't even say that. Trade for star X could
Speaker 1: tell Marte or something I don't know. Terrek, Google, come
Speaker 1: on down. I'm sure he's all sweens readily available. All right,
Speaker 1: we're off the rails. Thank you Scott for being here
Speaker 1: one more time. Everybody, please subscribe, check out our sponsors,
Speaker 1: Fast at All Seat, Geek, et cetera, Patriotize them, check
Speaker 1: out Fellow Territory, and we'll see everybody next time.