Unexpected Heroes Keep Emerging as Braves Take Down Guardians

In episode 360 of the Hammer Territory Podcast, Brad Rowland and Scott Coleman react to another series win for the Atlanta Braves, early season heroics from Dom Smith and Mauricio Dubon, a strong start from Chris Sale, the stellar bullpen, and much more.

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Speaker 1: Hello, everyone, Welcome back to the Here Territory podcast. This

Speaker 1: is episode of three six zero. My name is Brad Roland.

Speaker 1: It is a Sunday evening in mid April. The Atlanta

Speaker 1: Braves are rolling and I am joined as always by

Speaker 1: Scott Coleman. Scott, what's it like when the Braves win

Speaker 1: on Sunday? We'll find out right now. How are you, hello, Brad?

Speaker 2: I am doing well, and look, the Braves just won

Speaker 2: a game on a Sunday. If folks have been listening

Speaker 2: to the show for a while, I mean even a

Speaker 2: week ago, we talked about how terrible this baseball team

Speaker 2: has been on Sundays despite being pretty darn good the

Speaker 2: other six days of the week. I would like to

Speaker 2: think that we hustle and we motivate on the show.

Speaker 2: I'm sure the boys listening to our podcast from last

Speaker 2: week in the clubhouse before the game. It's national telecast

Speaker 2: NBC Sunday Night Baseball, And I mean it was a

Speaker 2: great win and you said it, man, the Braves are rolling,

Speaker 2: and I mean that's just not like every game has

Speaker 2: been you know, like, sure there's been some there's been

Speaker 2: obviously wins and losses, but man, like every game. There's

Speaker 2: just like things to look at that are encouraging and

Speaker 2: good signs under the hood in terms of run differential

Speaker 2: and just the way the whole team won through twenty

Speaker 2: six is playing has been really encouraging and hopefully they

Speaker 2: can keep it rolling.

Speaker 1: Absolutely, the Braves are ten and six. They're four to

Speaker 1: one of the last five, number two in the National

Speaker 1: League right now, best round differential National League. There's so

Speaker 1: much to talk about. We'll get into all of the

Speaker 1: stuff from the weekend, but first let us mix it

Speaker 1: up engineered by our friends at fasten All. Okay, Scott,

Speaker 1: we're gonna trying something new today. It's actually your your

Speaker 1: it's your brain child. Give you the credit for that.

Speaker 1: Right now, we're gonna go three up and three down

Speaker 1: in the mix of in the mixed up sent of today.

Speaker 1: And because it's your brain child, I'm gonna let you

Speaker 1: take the reins here. You want to start with three

Speaker 1: up of three down.

Speaker 2: Let's start positive. Yeah, let's start positive. And the first

Speaker 2: on three up, three down a big positive is Dom Smith.

Speaker 2: And I mean, let's be honest. When we learned that

Speaker 2: the biggest knucklehead in the world, Jerks and Profar had

Speaker 2: continued to take peds for reasons that genuinely nobody can understand.

Speaker 2: It was a we were I mean, obviously it was

Speaker 2: a loss. Like it was a player who we were

Speaker 2: going to be counting on this season, a player who

Speaker 2: hit the baseball really well after his first ped suspension

Speaker 2: a year ago, and dom Smith for a player who

Speaker 2: was signed off the scrap heap. And I mean, sure,

Speaker 2: he's a known name, he's had some good years before

Speaker 2: in the majors, but he had a big home run

Speaker 2: on Sunday night and just every night. Man, it feels

Speaker 2: like Tom Smith is doing something good to help this

Speaker 2: baseball team out. And he has been a massive boost

Speaker 2: for this offense the first two and a half weeks.

Speaker 1: Oh for sure. And we kind of knew that there

Speaker 1: was going to need to be some stepping up, especially

Speaker 1: early on in the season in the absence of Profar,

Speaker 1: with Murphy still injured, with Kim out, it's like, all right,

Speaker 1: let's see how they can bridge this gap. And part

Speaker 1: of the added depth they have this year is Tom Smith.

Speaker 1: And look, he's a bit over his head right now.

Speaker 1: He is a one ninety two WRC plus that probably

Speaker 1: won't continue. He's not gonna be one Soto of this season.

Speaker 1: I wouldn't guess, but he's been awesome. The home run

Speaker 1: today is just you know, a part of that landscape.

Speaker 1: But before that, you know, obviously the biggest one was

Speaker 1: the was the walk off that he hit earlier in

Speaker 1: the season that was memorable, but just plugging that hole.

Speaker 1: Being a very, very competent at the very least DH

Speaker 1: option for team that just needed one to kind of

Speaker 1: fell back to, kind of fall back on and hit

Speaker 1: Ridy's and you know, all those things that you need

Speaker 1: that hit him to do. Basically, he's checked all those boxes.

Speaker 1: So certainly shout out to Don Smith for being awesome

Speaker 1: so far through a couple of weeks of the season.

Speaker 1: Speaking of awesome, next guy in the list on the

Speaker 1: three up segment, how about Mauricio Dubon. Our guy Mark

Speaker 1: Bowman made a clip today which I kind of thought

Speaker 1: myself laughing about, but he basically, I guess I know

Speaker 1: why no one's asking about Hassan Kim anymore. And for

Speaker 1: the record, I would like toss. I think the Braves

Speaker 1: are better with Hassan Kim being available to play, But

Speaker 1: Bariso Dubon is making it to where people are not

Speaker 1: worried about that, which is a credit to Mauricio.

Speaker 2: Dubon, it really is. And you know, Dubon had three

Speaker 2: more hits on Sunday Night. So now on the season,

Speaker 2: Mauricio Dubon, who was acquired for Nick Allen very early

Speaker 2: in the off season, hitting three point fifty one with

Speaker 2: a three seventy three on base a five to sixty

Speaker 2: one slugging percentage, which I mean, I don't even know

Speaker 2: if Mauricio Dubon knew that Mauricio Dubon had that in him,

Speaker 2: had a one sixty three w RC plus, and the

Speaker 2: defense has been really solid. It's been perfectly fine at shortstop,

Speaker 2: and as we saw, especially over the weekend, Dubon is

Speaker 2: capable of playing basically everywhere on the diamond, and he

Speaker 2: found himself in the outfield a couple of times. He's

Speaker 2: been more than steady at shortstop for a team that

Speaker 2: really needed him to step up with Hassan Kim being

Speaker 2: out for the first I don't know, six to eight

Speaker 2: weeks of the season, and not only that, but it

Speaker 2: also gives the Braves the ability to be careful with

Speaker 2: Hassan Kim and allow him to really get a full

Speaker 2: rehab assignment under his belt. That way, you hopefully hope

Speaker 2: that Kim comes back and there's not too much of

Speaker 2: a delay for him being productive. But every night, kind

Speaker 2: of like Dom Smith, it feels like Dubond does something

Speaker 2: good to help the team win.

Speaker 1: Yeah, the glove's so valuable too, and the versatility, and

Speaker 1: he has been mashing in a way that he just

Speaker 1: basically never has. So hope that continues, but you kind

Speaker 1: of need to piece it all together. And free H's

Speaker 1: today and he looks awesome. We are probably accurately described

Speaker 1: as a baseball first, Baseball second, Baseball third podcast. We

Speaker 1: talk about process analytics baseball. Let's do a vibe check Scott,

Speaker 1: what do you think about the new City connect uniforms?

Speaker 2: Oh Man, those are as good of the uniforms as

Speaker 2: any team has had in the majors ever since baseball

Speaker 2: started doing these City connects. I mean, the powder Blues

Speaker 2: look so sharp. I'll be honest. When they first were

Speaker 2: released and they were shown with white pants, I kind

Speaker 2: of thought it was a missed opportunity to go full blues,

Speaker 2: as the Braves have done previously. But the white pants

Speaker 2: really make the jersey pop just a sharp look, and man,

Speaker 2: I mean they just look good. And they had two

Speaker 2: great wins on Friday and Sunday night, and obviously the

Speaker 2: vibes are good for the team as a whole. But yeah,

Speaker 2: those City Connects are the braves. They hit it out

Speaker 2: of the park. And I mean, if anybody has an

Speaker 2: extra one of those hats they want to send out West,

Speaker 2: please I will I will happily happily cover the shipping.

Speaker 2: Maybe somebody picked up one too many at the team

Speaker 2: shop over the weekend.

Speaker 1: Yeah, and we have listeners that were certainly in there

Speaker 1: in the team store and stores plural over the last

Speaker 1: couple of days. And when I go down there, I'm

Speaker 1: looking to find some of that gear myself, to be

Speaker 1: honest with you. So a fun one and we'll have

Speaker 1: that be our third up. And look, we had lots

Speaker 1: of options for three up this week, and we'll get

Speaker 1: some more positives, I promise later on this podcast we'll

Speaker 1: talk about the games that's three up, three down. We

Speaker 1: should at least talk about quickly. One of these I

Speaker 1: had to laugh at. I was candidly doing double duty tonight,

Speaker 1: so I was not necessarily dialed in in every single

Speaker 1: pitch that the way I normally am. And I saw

Speaker 1: in the document a mini rant from Scott about the

Speaker 1: ABS challenges from the Braves, So I'll leave it to you.

Speaker 1: It's not going very well on the ABS front right now.

Speaker 2: No, that's that is saying it as nicely as you

Speaker 2: can possibly say it. The Atlanta Braves are the second

Speaker 2: worst team in baseball. And it's still early, but the

Speaker 2: second worst team in baseball had only twenty seven percent

Speaker 2: of their ABS challenges have been overturned or called correctly

Speaker 2: or challenged correctly. I should say it's been bad, only

Speaker 2: the Brewers have been worse. But I mean, man alive.

Speaker 2: Even on Sunday, in a otherwise very enjoyable, very fun game,

Speaker 2: the Braves were over two in the first three innings

Speaker 2: and we're out of challenges by the third inning. Again,

Speaker 2: it's just one of those things, hopefully a balance. I

Speaker 2: can't imagine, like from an organizational philosophy, there's something that

Speaker 2: they're doing wrong that's that's caused so many of these

Speaker 2: challenges to be incorrect. But I don't know, man. But

Speaker 2: it was also funny, even though Jorge Matteo ended up

Speaker 2: having a really good game on Sunday, night. He incorrectly

Speaker 2: challenged in I think the second inning, and in my head,

Speaker 2: I'm like, all right, Jorge Mateo cannot be missing challenges

Speaker 2: in the second inning of that. I think it was

Speaker 2: a zero zero game at that point. It's you know,

Speaker 2: it's it's just a work in progress and hopefully gets

Speaker 2: better as the season moves along.

Speaker 1: Yeah, not to say that it should always be this way,

Speaker 1: but number one, you better be right. If you're challenging

Speaker 1: that early in the game, you better be right, And

Speaker 1: especially when you are Horae Mateo, who's been a nice

Speaker 1: player so far in some respects. But you're not Medalsen,

Speaker 1: You're not Drick Baldwin. You're not wrong a Kunya you

Speaker 1: can't miss and he missed there. So not what you

Speaker 1: wanted to see. Number two on the three down list,

Speaker 1: MICUs Strebsky. He's not been His numbers overall are not horrible. Recently,

Speaker 1: it's it's not been great. I have a theory on this,

Speaker 1: but I want to see what you say first. My

Speaker 1: Yastremsky gets on the on the on the three down

Speaker 1: list this week.

Speaker 2: You know, in some ways, I think Yastremsky having such

Speaker 2: a good spring training is kind of cursing him a

Speaker 2: little bit right now because that's kind of fresh in

Speaker 2: everyone's minds. And you know, he has not been unplayable bad.

Speaker 2: He's you know, he's been he has not been good,

Speaker 2: let's be clear. But you know, especially the last week

Speaker 2: coming into Sunday, Yastremsky's WRC plus was negative one over

Speaker 2: the last week. That's about as bad as it gets.

Speaker 2: I think he's gonna eventually get going. And he's a

Speaker 2: player who, especially last year, was much better in the

Speaker 2: second half of the year than the first. But it's

Speaker 2: been rough and for a team that could certainly use

Speaker 2: his bat in the middle of the order, hopefully as

Speaker 2: maybe some of the other guys in the order calm

Speaker 2: down a little bit. You know, I don't quite think

Speaker 2: Mauricio Duban and Dom Smith are going to continue to

Speaker 2: have an OPS of like a thousand the rest of

Speaker 2: the way. You would have to hope that Yastremski and

Speaker 2: Austin Riley, who's still struggling a bit, even a Kunya

Speaker 2: is down a bit by his lofty standards, those guys

Speaker 2: are going to kind of pick it up and everything

Speaker 2: will balance out as the games keep going.

Speaker 1: I think it will. And also they're asking us Repsy

Speaker 1: to play more against lefties than he normally would because

Speaker 1: they just don't have nobody else right now. I think

Speaker 1: he coming in today was like I think it was

Speaker 1: one of nine or one of ten Age's leftist something

Speaker 1: like that. So that's hurting his overall production in a

Speaker 1: way that's not shocking. He's never hit left as well

Speaker 1: like pretty much ever, so not a surprise there, but yeah, early,

Speaker 1: but not wrong to say he's been below water thus far.

Speaker 1: And the last one for our three down today. So

Speaker 1: I want you to talk about this because Jonaheim's bats

Speaker 1: not not very good, right that was expected, But talk

Speaker 1: to me about Jonahims defense, particularly on Saturday.

Speaker 2: And I will say this is a small one in

Speaker 2: our three days every year. Yeah, but I mean a

Speaker 2: play that'll probably end up on Blooper reels the next

Speaker 2: couple of seasons when they play him in between innings

Speaker 2: at stadiums around Major League Baseball. But if folks missed

Speaker 2: it on Saturday night, there was a pass ball and

Speaker 2: then first of all, Jonaheim could not find the baseball,

Speaker 2: and then it was one of genuinely one of the

Speaker 2: worst throws I have ever seen a catcher make on

Speaker 2: a professional baseball field. It was like fifty feet shy

Speaker 2: of third base and ultimately allowed to run to score.

Speaker 2: I don't want to pretend like Jonaheim was the reason

Speaker 2: the team lost on Sunday because or I'm sorry on

Speaker 2: Saturday because Saturday's game was just kind of a stinker.

Speaker 2: But yeah, one for Jonaheim. I'm sure he had a

Speaker 2: good laugh after the fact, but not what you want

Speaker 2: to see. And I don't know if and when Sean

Speaker 2: Murphy comes back in a couple of weeks. I think

Speaker 2: the team probably has a decision to make. I think

Speaker 2: defensively other than Saturday night, him is fine, but he's

Speaker 2: just not going to hit enough to really warrant much

Speaker 2: of any kind of playing opportunity.

Speaker 1: Yeah, we did a little bit of a preview of

Speaker 1: when Murphy might return earlier this week on the show,

Speaker 1: and it was like, you're gonna keep him around, and

Speaker 1: maybe they will for a little while in particular, But

Speaker 1: to be clear, this is more of a more of

Speaker 1: a funny one than anything. Him has been fine. What

Speaker 1: he's been asked to do, he's been fine. That was

Speaker 1: an amusing moment. I have to say on Saturday. All right,

Speaker 1: well that's three up, three down. We will have plenty more. Honestly,

Speaker 1: most of it is on the upswing later on in

Speaker 1: this podcast, First though, we shul talked about our friends

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Speaker 1: fastenal dot com. Okay, Scott, let us discuss the weekend's action.

Speaker 1: Friday night was a lot of fun. You could maybe

Speaker 1: argue not quite as fun as Sunday, but certainly very

Speaker 1: fun at eleven to five victory for the Braves. Eleven

Speaker 1: runs on fifteen hits, seven guys reach base multiple times,

Speaker 1: but it really was mostly one huge inning. They were

Speaker 1: actually down two to one going to the sixth inning

Speaker 1: on Friday. It's a lot of time ago, feels like

Speaker 1: right now, goovin all of us transpired. But they had

Speaker 1: a rare, let's just say, a very rare three home

Speaker 1: run inning in the sixth and that felt like an

Speaker 1: I still throw back to simpler times.

Speaker 2: Yeah, good note from the broadcast. That was the first

Speaker 2: time since July twenty twenty four that the Braves hit

Speaker 2: three homers in an inning and it's just fun. Man

Speaker 2: Like overall, if you would have said, what's the one

Speaker 2: word takeaway from the first two and a half weeks

Speaker 2: of the season, I would say, it's been really fun.

Speaker 2: And you could count on probably one hand the number

Speaker 2: of kind of games that we had a year ago

Speaker 2: that resembled the Friday night win, even the Sunday night

Speaker 2: win at that just really fun, a close game early on,

Speaker 2: well pitched. And then you have a homer from Acunya

Speaker 2: which shouts to me, I called that one in pregame

Speaker 2: so clearly Ronald Acuna Junior saw my tweet and then

Speaker 2: I and.

Speaker 1: I quote shouts to me was something I'm not sure

Speaker 1: we've I've read that had that happened on the podcast.

Speaker 1: Shouts to me said Scott.

Speaker 2: Always always humble, always happy to motivate the boys. But

Speaker 2: then with Truist Park really going and I'm glad to

Speaker 2: see that Ronald finally got that homer. He had been

Speaker 2: really close all week long to home. I think he

Speaker 2: had like three balls to the warning track that just missed.

Speaker 2: Trurist Park's going crazy. Then Matt Olsen hits a two

Speaker 2: run homer to the top of the chop house that

Speaker 2: was absolutely crushed. And then Michael Harris got in on

Speaker 2: the home run fun as well later in the inning.

Speaker 2: Just more of that, please, And that was just such

Speaker 2: a sight for sore eyes. We know how much power

Speaker 2: this team was lacking a year ago, and through the

Speaker 2: early days of this season at least, the Braves are

Speaker 2: near the top of the leaderboards and home runs. And

Speaker 2: that's obviously a really good sign of things to come

Speaker 2: for this lineup, because we know that this team, even

Speaker 2: though they've done a pretty good job of drawing walks

Speaker 2: and getting on base, they're going to need the home

Speaker 2: run ball to really carry them on offense.

Speaker 1: Yeah, and you just said it, but they have their

Speaker 1: number two in all of baseball and home runs right

Speaker 1: now as a team twenty one homers, only behind the

Speaker 1: dreaded Los Angeles Dodgers, who are the deaf star. We

Speaker 1: understand that, but yeah, fun to see them mashing and

Speaker 1: they need to. That's that's the reality. I mean, some

Speaker 1: teams can get by without home runs. The Bridge are

Speaker 1: not only one of them. They got to hit home

Speaker 1: runs and they haven't hitting them, which is obviously a

Speaker 1: clear positive. Bryce letter was fine on Friday. I have

Speaker 1: to say he wasn't good. He wasn't the guy he

Speaker 1: was the previous two starts. But four two thirds innings

Speaker 1: give it four head, three walks, two runs, struck out three.

Speaker 1: I wonder what you thought of when he came out

Speaker 1: of the game, because there was a little bit of

Speaker 1: a disconnect or disagreement happening online about Elder staying in

Speaker 1: too long or coming out too fast, and he, you know,

Speaker 1: didn't have He didn't qualify for the old wins, Scott,

Speaker 1: if you care about that, he didn't get he didn't

Speaker 1: get to five innings. So did you How did you

Speaker 1: like the way that what Wise handled that? Obviously it

Speaker 1: worked out just fine. They won the game, but that

Speaker 1: became a talking point on Friday Night.

Speaker 2: I think what Wise continues to do a really good

Speaker 2: job with understanding leverage and when to go to his bullpen,

Speaker 2: and how aggressive to be with his better relievers, and

Speaker 2: you Elder, I think he just didn't have his command,

Speaker 2: and that was something he had really well his first

Speaker 2: couple of starts. We talked about it on the show

Speaker 2: a week ago that Elder's command has been great, and

Speaker 2: we know if he is going to be successful, he

Speaker 2: has to not walk people and when he starts walking

Speaker 2: people and laboring accounts, it's not going to go well.

Speaker 2: I think we know that pretty well at this point

Speaker 2: after what four seasons of seeing Elder in the rotation.

Speaker 2: But credit to Walt Weiss and credit to Aaron Bummer

Speaker 2: because at the time it was still a two to

Speaker 2: one game. Cleveland had the bases loaded and Bummer induced

Speaker 2: a pop fly to end the threat. Obviously, if you

Speaker 2: don't get the out there, who knows how the rest

Speaker 2: of the game goes. Who knows if you mount that

Speaker 2: big rally a couple of batters later. So yes, credit

Speaker 2: to Bummer, credit to Walt Weiss, and you know, not

Speaker 2: the best effort from Elder, but also not terrible by

Speaker 2: any means.

Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's more of not necessarily what you

Speaker 1: expect all the time, but there was some correction coming

Speaker 1: from back to back shot out efforts from Celers. No

Speaker 1: no harm done. He's been just fine and actually better

Speaker 1: than that through three starts. Just not his best night.

Speaker 1: I will note that Jose Suarez had a very tough

Speaker 1: time in the eighth inning. Normally, when you come in

Speaker 1: as a long man with a seven run lead, the

Speaker 1: idea is that you'll just finish the game, I would imagine, Uh,

Speaker 1: he didn't even finish the inning. Obviously didn't cost the

Speaker 1: Braves the game, but uh, that between that and the

Speaker 1: roster move that happened later on in the weekend, which

Speaker 1: we'll talk about more later on. But Martin Prez got

Speaker 1: DFAED and people were like, why not Jose Suarez, who

Speaker 1: they couldn't get through an inning? And I think the

Speaker 1: real reason for that is just availability. Perez was just

Speaker 1: starting and the Braves, as we uh, sort of don't

Speaker 1: have to agree with this, but the Braves seem to

Speaker 1: go to every single length possible to make sure they

Speaker 1: have fresh arms available over the course of his season.

Speaker 1: But yeah, it strikes me to say, you know, Jose

Speaker 1: Suarez is not as good as Martin Prez and the

Speaker 1: DFA the guy who was better. So interesting, Yeah, you.

Speaker 2: Know, it's very small sample. Jose Suarez has an ear

Speaker 2: array of ten, but if you look under the hood,

Speaker 2: and it's only like six and the third innings, But

Speaker 2: if you look under the hood, Jose Suarez kind of

Speaker 2: bizarrely has really good advanced numbers, like his FIP and

Speaker 2: his x VIP are all in pretty good shape. I'm

Speaker 2: not a believer in Jose Swarez. We've seen him on

Speaker 2: and off the last two years. I'm not a big believer.

Speaker 2: I kind of thought after he blew up on Friday

Speaker 2: Night that Suarez might get the boot from the roster.

Speaker 2: And he's still surviving. I would guess that his days

Speaker 2: on the roster are probably limited. But yeah, can't have that.

Speaker 2: You really need a guy just to go out there

Speaker 2: and close the game out, no drama. But yeah, I mean,

Speaker 2: at least as of this very moment in time, Jose

Speaker 2: Suarez lives to see another day.

Speaker 1: Yes he does. And again, that was an awesome game,

Speaker 1: even a couple of hiccups along the way. A comfortable

Speaker 1: six win, sorry, six run victory. That's usually a positive thing,

Speaker 1: if you don't mind. Scott, let us breeze through Saturday's game.

Speaker 1: Saturday's game was not a lot of fun in the

Speaker 1: midst of a very fun use the word fun. I've

Speaker 1: used the word fun. It's been a very fun season

Speaker 1: so far. Saturday night does not apply. That word does

Speaker 1: not apply. Yeah, kind of a stinker. I hope maybe

Speaker 1: folks had plans on Saturday Night and didn't catch every

Speaker 1: pitch of this game. You know, Martin Perez, who was,

Speaker 1: as you mentioned a moment ago, was dfaide, but gave

Speaker 1: the team a decent chance. Only gave up one run,

Speaker 1: which was a homer in the first inning. Five innings,

Speaker 1: two hits, three walks, two strikeouts, so not exactly impressive,

Speaker 1: but you know, he gave the team a chance to win,

Speaker 1: but the offense just could not get anything going against Cleveland' starter.

Speaker 1: I mean, basically no rallies for the better part of

Speaker 1: the night and just kind of one of those games.

Speaker 2: And I mean it's very baseball that the Braves go

Speaker 2: crazy on Friday night, they go crazy on Sunday night

Speaker 2: and couldn't could like barely get a runner in scoring

Speaker 2: position in between those two games.

Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, last five games, Braves score seven runs,

Speaker 1: eight runs, eleven runs, zero runs, and then thirteen runs.

Speaker 1: That's kind of an interesting hiccup in the middle. Hey,

Speaker 1: it's still positive if you want to average that many

Speaker 1: runs per game and occasionally have a zero. I'm okay

Speaker 1: with that. But it was their first shot out of

Speaker 1: the season on the wrong side. Hopefully they're last, but

Speaker 1: their first, and really they barely threatened, like five hits,

Speaker 1: three walks, only two guys Baldwin and Olsen, unsurprisingly who's

Speaker 1: been there two best sitters this season. Those guys reached

Speaker 1: multiple times, but everybody else was very quiet, not even

Speaker 1: really much to analyze honestly, just like didn't threaten like

Speaker 1: they have, didn't have rallies, just didn't have anything going

Speaker 1: the entire night.

Speaker 2: Oh.

Speaker 1: One thing we should talk about briefly is Michael Harris

Speaker 1: Hi paternity to leave starting on Saturday.

Speaker 2: Shots to Harris, Yeah, yeah, I believe it's his first

Speaker 2: first child, which I'm sure is exciting for him and

Speaker 2: his wife. I didn't confirm I'm doing I'm doing a

Speaker 2: bad job right now confirming that. I read that it's

Speaker 2: Michael Harris the third. I can't remember if that was

Speaker 2: confirmed or not. I think some of the reported that.

Speaker 2: My apologies to who I should have made that note

Speaker 2: of my notes, but I don't have it. If that's

Speaker 2: not true, my apologies, But I think it's cool if

Speaker 2: it is Michael.

Speaker 1: There's the third. So there's that. But the real reason

Speaker 1: I brought that up, besides just congratulating Mike, is that

Speaker 1: they had to bond play Center on Saturday. Now that

Speaker 1: was quickly I was like, oh, that makes sense like

Speaker 1: he can he can do that, no problem. That's part

Speaker 1: of the appeal more used to a bond. But also

Speaker 1: later on that that evening, it came out that Elia

Speaker 1: White has planned out for Shitness, so that's perhaps why

Speaker 1: that happened. To some degree. Eli White has been is

Speaker 1: probably their number one backup center field option. Do you

Speaker 1: can play there? I just want to at least flag

Speaker 1: that to say, hopefully White's going to be fine, but

Speaker 1: keep an eye on that.

Speaker 2: Again, just goes to the versatility of Dubon. It's just

Speaker 2: so helpful and something this roster really has not had

Speaker 2: the last couple of years.

Speaker 1: Absolutely, Scott in a second, let us dig in to

Speaker 1: the game on Sunday, which was more fun than Saturday,

Speaker 1: and the latest news on Let's just say a special Strider,

Speaker 1: Sean Murphy, et cetera. Plenty more to get to after

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Speaker 1: All right, Scott, let's discuss Sundays thirteen to one whollout victory.

Speaker 1: That's always fun. You pulled this out of the night,

Speaker 1: I will set you up for it. The bottom of

Speaker 1: the Braves lineup was out of its mind essentially in

Speaker 1: this game, so tell us just how out of their

Speaker 1: mind they were.

Speaker 2: Yeah, this pretty much tells the story of Sunday Night's

Speaker 2: game for sure, and I mean a lot of the season,

Speaker 2: to be honest. The Braves six, seven, eight, and nine hitters,

Speaker 2: which consisted of Ozzie Alby's, Tom Smith and Kyle Farmer

Speaker 2: who finally got some run, Mauricio Dubon and Jorge Matteo.

Speaker 2: So that group of five players betting six, seven, eight

Speaker 2: nine went twelve for sixteen with eight runs driven in

Speaker 2: just I mean, really impressive stuff. They had a great

Speaker 2: rally early in the game too, to really kind of

Speaker 2: break the game open, and then Tom Smith had a

Speaker 2: two run homewer to really break the game open. Just

Speaker 2: shouts to those guys. The top of the order was

Speaker 2: fine too, I mean pretty much everybody got to eat

Speaker 2: on Sunday. But again, twelve for sixteen for the bottom

Speaker 2: half of the order is really impressive stuff.

Speaker 1: Yeah, moth on that it's pretty pretty absurd. And you know,

Speaker 1: early in the game there were some signs of frustration

Speaker 1: like throwback Braves last couple of years restoration offensively, and

Speaker 1: then when the gates opened, the gates really open. Honestly,

Speaker 1: Dubon had this massive two out hit after a pretty

Speaker 1: gross start to an ending. I was like, Oh, they're

Speaker 1: gonna they're gonna waste this, are they? And they didn't,

Speaker 1: shouts Dubon. And then Hori Mateo, who we picked on

Speaker 1: a little bit earlier, had an awesome Plade appearance to

Speaker 1: drive up to, you know, driving some driving a run,

Speaker 1: and then Acunya kind of broken up a little bit

Speaker 1: more with a double and then Dom Smith did Dom

Speaker 1: Smith stuff. So yeah, I mean it went from zero

Speaker 1: zero to nine zero in the span of what twenty

Speaker 1: minutes of real time thirty minutes of real time?

Speaker 2: It was.

Speaker 1: It was very fast how this game went from like, hey,

Speaker 1: highly competitive of it's zero zero National TV to oh,

Speaker 1: this is a laugher now. It was not very long.

Speaker 2: Yeah, and really good too that the offense supported Chris Sale,

Speaker 2: who kind of bizarrely was just not very sharp out

Speaker 2: in Anaheim, just didn't have his command and to be fair,

Speaker 2: Sale ran he kind of had to dip and dodge

Speaker 2: through traffic in the first couple of innings of this

Speaker 2: one while it was still a scoreless game, but good

Speaker 2: down Chris Sale really settled in over the middle innings

Speaker 2: and worked six innings only one run, which was a

Speaker 2: solo Homer, struck out six and scattered eight hits throughout

Speaker 2: and just one walk, which is encouraging, especially after he

Speaker 2: just couldn't find his own out in Anaheim a couple

Speaker 2: of days ago.

Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean a little bit of a slow start,

Speaker 1: but once he settled in, he was pretty much fine.

Speaker 1: You know, I'm was never worried. You were never worried,

Speaker 1: Steven Schean weren't worried. Like it is what it is is, Chrisale.

Speaker 1: You're gonna have a bast start every once in a while.

Speaker 1: It was stark that, you know, even the start before

Speaker 1: that he was that was the sick oft his dog start,

Speaker 1: and he was still awesome. So Chris Sale bounced back

Speaker 1: in the way that we thought he was going to.

Speaker 1: They didn't have He didn't have to be great in

Speaker 1: this one, but he was for the most part, so

Speaker 1: you'll take it. And because of the blowout nature of

Speaker 1: the game, they were able to kind of sit back

Speaker 1: and rocking chair at the end of the game. That

Speaker 1: does push the bullpen in all, always nice to have

Speaker 1: at the end of a series. Overall, I mean, just

Speaker 1: to stack up the series victory. The two blowout wins

Speaker 1: are what they are, but the Braves have still not

Speaker 1: lost the series, and if that continues, we'll be dancing

Speaker 1: to the streets by the end. Scott our old friends

Speaker 1: skipt carry and I guess there to dance to the

Speaker 1: streets if you never if you never lose a series,

Speaker 1: you never lose the series.

Speaker 2: So I will quote you on that. Yeah, I mean

Speaker 2: the only team in baseball now that has not lost

Speaker 2: a series is the Atlanta Braves, and continue to stack

Speaker 2: these wins. And it's been really fun playing good baseball.

Speaker 2: I think you mentioned off the top they had the

Speaker 2: best run differential, Like, there's really good signs here under

Speaker 2: the hood. And of course we're only ten or so

Speaker 2: percent into the season. We can't just forecast this team's

Speaker 2: gonna walk to one hundred wins by any means, but

Speaker 2: really good, really good start, and again, reinforcements should be

Speaker 2: on the way here relatively soon. Strider Murphy Kim. I

Speaker 2: know the players at those positions have performed well for

Speaker 2: the most part, but I will absolutely take more talent

Speaker 2: because inevitably some of these guys are probably gonna cool

Speaker 2: down a little bit and you would like to think

Speaker 2: that between the guys who are currently injured and returning

Speaker 2: soon and the talent you have in the minor leagues,

Speaker 2: Diddy or fointees JR. Ritchie like, those guys are also

Speaker 2: going to find themselves in the mix eventually. And let's

Speaker 2: just keep this thing rolling and get as big of

Speaker 2: a lead as you can. The Mets have started out slowly,

Speaker 2: the Phillies have started out slowly. Like it's been about

Speaker 2: as good of a first two and a half weeks,

Speaker 2: I think as you could realistically ask for for this

Speaker 2: baseball team.

Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, when you're you're you're ten and six,

Speaker 1: you were, it's pretty easy to do the math on

Speaker 1: the pace you're on. It's one hundred wins, because one

Speaker 1: hundred and sixty is one hundred wins.

Speaker 2: You are just killing the math game right now.

Speaker 1: This is I'm just saying, that's a pretty it's a

Speaker 1: pretty obvious. It's like, probably the it's probably the most

Speaker 1: obvious one you can have this early of the season

Speaker 1: is ten and six, Like, do the math on that one.

Speaker 1: Just add a zero, everybody. But no, it's it's been

Speaker 1: fun and you're right, So guys are cool off I'm

Speaker 1: I'm really big on emphasizing how much the depth does matter.

Speaker 1: And I joked about Bowman's joke earlier about how you

Speaker 1: know him not being asked about they do need Kim,

Speaker 1: they do need Murphy along the way, like that's gonna

Speaker 1: it's gonna have to happen. Guys are gonna cool off,

Speaker 1: Guys are gonna get hurt. Honestly, that's the unfortunate part

Speaker 1: about this. Someone's else is gonna get hurt at some point,

Speaker 1: and h part of the reason why they built the

Speaker 1: roster the way they did was to obviously they do

Speaker 1: not plan on going without Profar this season, but being

Speaker 1: being able to have effectively eight or nine starting level

Speaker 1: players ten starting level players means that you can you

Speaker 1: can get by when you don't have one or two

Speaker 1: of them, and that's where the breaks have been.

Speaker 2: And I I will say there was a decent amount

Speaker 2: of talk with good reason this weekend about well what

Speaker 2: do you do when Kim is healthy and ready to

Speaker 2: go with Mauricio Dubon And I think one, I think

Speaker 2: these things have a way of working themselves out. But two, look,

Speaker 2: man like you can use Dubon in centerfield. As we

Speaker 2: saw this weekend, where he could start in center for

Speaker 2: Michael Harris, especially against a lefty. He could go to

Speaker 2: left field, especially if Mike Ostremsky continues to struggle a bit.

Speaker 2: He could go to right field and give a Kunya

Speaker 2: a breather. He could play second base, he could play

Speaker 2: third base. I mean, this guy's really going to be valuable,

Speaker 2: and you probably don't necessarily want to just go zero

Speaker 2: to one hundred right away with Kim. You allow him

Speaker 2: to work in at shortstop as well, and just kind

Speaker 2: of trade starts, and who knows. If Kim's hitting the ball, awesome,

Speaker 2: But if Kim gets off to a slow start and

Speaker 2: Dubon continues to hit, then maybe at some point you

Speaker 2: have a conversation. But I think we'll cross that bridge

Speaker 2: if and when we get there.

Speaker 1: I'm with you. I mean, maybe, in a perfect world,

Speaker 1: if you go back three months and you ignore the

Speaker 1: Profar suspension and you say, look, if everything goes perfectly,

Speaker 1: Dubond doesn't have that many places to play. But we've

Speaker 1: already seen that's not going to happen. Fari come back,

Speaker 1: so that's already one spot there. He you know, Dubon

Speaker 1: and Yuskreebsky are strong platoon partners, for example, if that

Speaker 1: needs to get there, Like, I'm not worried about Dubon

Speaker 1: not being able to play, and he's gonna cool off too,

Speaker 1: I mean respectfully to Mauricio, he's not gonna hit like this.

Speaker 1: At least there's nothing in his history that isn't gonna

Speaker 1: hit like this. He's a he's a fine hitter, Like

Speaker 1: I don't think he's a bad hitter, but I don't

Speaker 1: think he's going to do this, so it'll I'm with you,

Speaker 1: there's ways of working itself out, and if he's still

Speaker 1: hitting like this, they'll get him in the lineup. I'm

Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure until he cools off and then they'll

Speaker 1: kind of readjust and not a concern for me. We

Speaker 1: mentioned Martine Perez being dfaied, we should know that they

Speaker 1: brought up Dylan Dodd in his place. Honestly, just wanted

Speaker 1: a fresh arm. It's a very bravest thing to do

Speaker 1: to go out and get the extra arm. And he

Speaker 1: pitched well today. I think he threw three innings. Yeih

Speaker 1: is always.

Speaker 2: Helpful efficiently too, like barely. I think he threw thirty

Speaker 2: five pitches to go through three innings on Sunday night,

Speaker 2: which is awesome.

Speaker 1: I mean, Dylan Dot's good, like I he was the

Speaker 1: he was the one guy we talked about in in

Speaker 1: the spring of like, hey, if they keep if they

Speaker 1: actually want to keep a relief only guy, he's the one, like,

Speaker 1: he was the obvious pick for that, and they didn't

Speaker 1: do it. They went with a long man, which is

Speaker 1: totally fine. But Dylan Dodd is a major league believer.

Speaker 1: I have no doubt about that whatsoever. So if they

Speaker 1: want to have him up, I'm good with that. If

Speaker 1: they don't, also fine. But of course the focus then

Speaker 1: turns to, okay, if the dfa Martin Perez, who's been

Speaker 1: in the rotation, how do they fell how they kind

Speaker 1: of navigate the fifth starter spot? So a quick look

Speaker 1: at it, they don't need a fifth starter for like

Speaker 1: nine more days because they have an off day this

Speaker 1: week on Thursday. So it seems like they're gonna wait,

Speaker 1: which is okay with me. But do you have any

Speaker 1: thoughts on how the Braves might go forward? Because I

Speaker 1: guess there's also even a chance that Martin Perez could

Speaker 1: just make it through waivers. I don't know what they're

Speaker 1: gonna do here.

Speaker 2: I think there's definitely a chance that Perez makes it

Speaker 2: through waivers, but I would also not be surprised if

Speaker 2: a team does claim him as a veteran rubber RM

Speaker 2: twenty nine. Teams in baseball beyond the Braves need starting

Speaker 2: pitching help, and we'll see what happens with Perez. But

Speaker 2: you know, when the time comes for the fifth starter,

Speaker 2: I think you have basically two options. One of them

Speaker 2: is to go with Jose Suarez and do a de

Speaker 2: facto bullpen game, And I mean that's not my preferred option. Yeah,

Speaker 2: I agree, you're putting your thumb down for everybody who

Speaker 2: is not watching on YouTube, I could not agree more.

Speaker 2: But the more fun idea and more fun option is

Speaker 2: calling up either Jr. Richie or Diddy or Fuenttez when

Speaker 2: they need that start, probably in I think April twenty first,

Speaker 2: assuming there's no weird rainouts or something like that would

Speaker 2: be the date the Braves have to make a decision.

Speaker 2: And then, of course Spencer Strider is looming as well. Now,

Speaker 2: Strider's probably not going to be ready in the next

Speaker 2: couple of weeks. To be honest, if you believe what

Speaker 2: Walt White said over the weekend. So we'll see. But

Speaker 2: I mean my sadly, my bet, if I had to

Speaker 2: make a five dollars bet, is that Jose Suarez is

Speaker 2: starting that game on April twenty first. But who knows.

Speaker 2: Maybe to your frontes will make one more really impressive

Speaker 2: start and they'll go, all right, enough screwing around, we're

Speaker 2: gonna call ditty er up and figure it out from there.

Speaker 1: Yeah. I don't know what to think. Honestly, your thought,

Speaker 1: russs sounds right to me. It'd be very brave to

Speaker 1: kick kick the can down the road a little bit

Speaker 1: more with that particular outing, especially if it's only once

Speaker 1: on Strider. By the way, he threw three simonnings on

Speaker 1: Saturday at Truest Park, reportedly set ninety five with the fastball,

Speaker 1: which isn't like old Strider, but that's he can he

Speaker 1: can live there.

Speaker 2: He can't.

Speaker 1: We can't live much south of there, but ninety five

Speaker 1: is okay. And it's been reported that he's gonna he's

Speaker 1: targeting April sixteenth, it's only a few days from now

Speaker 1: for his first official rehab start, but all all indications

Speaker 1: are that he's gonna need more than one rehab start.

Speaker 1: Which means he ain't gonna be ready for April twenty first,

Speaker 1: which is fine. I'm on the side of don't push

Speaker 1: him too quickly. I'm okay taking your time as much

Speaker 1: at Rider. I know it might be annoying to some,

Speaker 1: but I'd like him to get him to be ready

Speaker 1: to go when he arrives. But another step forward him

Speaker 1: throwing a SIM game was a short and SIM game

Speaker 1: is good and by all accounts I wasn't there. By

Speaker 1: all accounts, good people that were there. He looked like himself,

Speaker 1: which is good to see.

Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's been mostly encouraging for Strider, and

Speaker 2: I mean it's going to be probably a month that

Speaker 2: he's going to miss a big league action because of

Speaker 2: this oblique injury, which is a bummer. But you know,

Speaker 2: the Rotation has more than held up its own end

Speaker 2: of the bargain. I think if the Rotation was just

Speaker 2: getting slammed every night, then maybe they're even more aggressive

Speaker 2: with Strider and go all right, Spencer, one rehab start

Speaker 2: and then you got to be back up. But as

Speaker 2: long as things continue in the way they have been

Speaker 2: through the first two and a half weeks, then absolutely

Speaker 2: give Spencer the extra rest, let him make two rehab starts,

Speaker 2: keep an eye on the velocity, make sure he's feeling

Speaker 2: one hundred percent. But yeah, I think probably at this

Speaker 2: point end of the month or early May feels like

Speaker 2: a good timeline for Spencer.

Speaker 1: Yep, I'm with you on that. Speaking of injury updates,

Speaker 1: Sean Murphy is on his way back as Well's supposed

Speaker 1: to play ag Whinette this weekend, like starting two days ago.

Speaker 1: Unfortunately has a family matter. I don't know what that is.

Speaker 1: We don't have to know what that is. But hopefully

Speaker 1: all as well with Sean and his family. He's supposed

Speaker 1: to be going starting on Tuesday now in place of

Speaker 1: that Friday. So what four or five day delay there? Again,

Speaker 1: I saw some crazy comments like, oh, he's so soft.

Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm like, guys, you cannot be serious a

Speaker 1: family thing you're mad about this? By the way, this

Speaker 1: is also and I know we always get accoustic of

Speaker 1: being too soft and Murphy whatever. The problem with Murphy

Speaker 1: is that he played through an injury for a year.

Speaker 1: That's not a soft thing. Guys, Like, if there's ever

Speaker 1: a guy who isn't soft, it would be the guy

Speaker 1: who just played through an oblique injury for LUs. What

Speaker 1: are we talking about here? Sorry, anyway, I didn't even

Speaker 1: I shouldn't even bring that up, but it just that

Speaker 1: bothered me a lot.

Speaker 2: Yeah, anyway, Yeah, I hope that everything is all right

Speaker 2: with Murph and his family. Yeah, not good. Whenever they

Speaker 2: said he was gonna miss the entire weekend. You have

Speaker 2: to just hope for the best. And I don't know

Speaker 2: if we'll ever learn what happened or not, but yeah,

Speaker 2: it'll be good to have Murph back on Tuesday again.

Speaker 2: Hope everything is good with his family, and hopefully the

Speaker 2: next couple of weeks go well for Sean and he's

Speaker 2: able to get in there. I mean, especially against left

Speaker 2: handed pitching. I know this is something that Steven has

Speaker 2: talked about and we've talked about on the show over

Speaker 2: the last couple of months. But even if Murphy is

Speaker 2: not great against righty's, he hits lefties really well and

Speaker 2: always has. And again we know this guy can run

Speaker 2: into a fastball and change a game with one swing.

Speaker 2: I think you absolutely take it. And he is I mean,

Speaker 2: at bare minimum, he is a big offensive upgrade over

Speaker 2: jonah Heim and the defense. I mean, the guy is

Speaker 2: as good as there is defensively behind the plate.

Speaker 1: Yeah, always has been, so get back soon, Sean Murphy.

Speaker 1: He will only help and similar in the way to

Speaker 1: Kim like, yeah, we understand they're getting by without those guys.

Speaker 1: They still help, I can assure you, all right, Scott,

Speaker 1: before we get out of here, a look ahead to

Speaker 1: Braves Marlins this week. A National League East opponent. How

Speaker 1: about that? A National League East opponent.

Speaker 2: We're gonna be done with Inner league play pretty soon

Speaker 2: the way I mean, we've been seeing all the Al

Speaker 2: Central so far.

Speaker 1: I mean I have not seen a National East, but

Speaker 1: this is the first Divisional opponent so far, so that'll

Speaker 1: be interesting. Anyway, It's money Tuesday wins the series in Atlanta,

Speaker 1: all evening games. Nothing fancy on the TV side. The Marlins,

Speaker 1: it's pretty funny. The Marlins arrived at eight and eight,

Speaker 1: which is fine for them. They have a zero run differential, Like,

Speaker 1: you cannot be more flat than the Marlins have been

Speaker 1: through sixteen games. They're eight and eight with a zeroun differential.

Speaker 1: For the record, the projection is a little bit worse

Speaker 1: than that. But I know people that there's people that

Speaker 1: like the Marlins. They're not a talentless team. This is

Speaker 1: not your older brother's Marlins where it's terrible. They're not

Speaker 1: They're not terrible, They're okay. Yeah, ish, I would.

Speaker 2: Say, as you said, about as five hundred as it

Speaker 2: gets eight to eight with a dead even run differential.

Speaker 2: The Marlins started out great. I think they were six

Speaker 2: and two to begin the season, but have fallen on

Speaker 2: hard times. Played also some better opponents too, which is

Speaker 2: part of it. But I mean, really, the one one

Speaker 2: of the themes that has been very consistent since the

Speaker 2: Braves really got rolling in twenty eighteen is they have

Speaker 2: just dominated the Marlins. Hopefully we can keep that rolling,

Speaker 2: get another series win, take two out of three. I mean,

Speaker 2: obviously a sweep would be awesome, but even two out

Speaker 2: of three against Miami to keep it going would be great.

Speaker 2: And they will miss Sandy Alcontra, which is a nice

Speaker 2: little boost as we look ahead to the pitching matchups.

Speaker 2: Nice Sometimes the scheduling God's story a bone that is

Speaker 2: always something worthwhile, because I mean, Sandy is somebody who

Speaker 2: can go out there and I mean shut you down

Speaker 2: for nine innings if he has his good stuff going.

Speaker 1: Yeah, he's their best guy. Obviously, you know, no sale

Speaker 1: for the Braves. So that's maybe you could call that

Speaker 1: a lot, I don't know, whatever you want to say,

Speaker 1: but that's not the worst thing in the world for sure.

Speaker 1: But the Braves have announced their probables. It is not surprising.

Speaker 1: It is Grant Holmes on Monday, it's Ronal Lopez on Tuesday,

Speaker 1: fresh off the suspension, so as predicted on the show,

Speaker 1: no misstarts, just a regular cycle or the just one

Speaker 1: extra day for Gret Holmes going a little bit early.

Speaker 1: And the Bryce Olver on Wednesday. There was a little

Speaker 1: bit of weirdness for they just never announced Bryce until tonight.

Speaker 1: I don't know why they did. The nunsprital Sutter. I

Speaker 1: was like, what's going on here? I thought there was

Speaker 1: like a one percent chance we get the like here's

Speaker 1: Richie and here's Flints just for the fun of it.

Speaker 1: That didn't happen. So Rice over on Wednesday.

Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, So you know what we've seen, Grant Holmes

Speaker 2: especially is coming off. I mean, Grant's been really consistent,

Speaker 2: has done a nice job. I thought, honestly, I thought

Speaker 2: Rinaldo Lopez was making his best start of the year

Speaker 2: before he threw hands with Jorge Solaire, So hopefully he

Speaker 2: can build off that. The velocity was really good out

Speaker 2: in Anaheim as well, and then hopefully Bryce Elder has

Speaker 2: this command back, is a little more efficient, can work

Speaker 2: deeper into the game. And you know what I mean,

Speaker 2: The Marlins are not you said it perfectly, They're not

Speaker 2: a great team, but they're also not terrible. They have

Speaker 2: some young talent, they have some real dudes who can

Speaker 2: certainly win a couple of games for them. So keep

Speaker 2: it rolling, keep building off of these really good offensive

Speaker 2: outbursts last couple of nights, and hopefully just I mean,

Speaker 2: it's such a nice contrast from where we were a

Speaker 2: year ago, where you start out so bad, to put

Speaker 2: it as lightly as possible, the worst you can quite

Speaker 2: literally do oh and seven. And it felt like all

Speaker 2: year long the Braves were just swimming upstream and just

Speaker 2: could not get ahead. They won their tenth game tonight.

Speaker 2: I looked earlier they were ten and fourteen when they

Speaker 2: finally won their tenth game a year ago. They just

Speaker 2: I mean, you know what it's like trying to climb

Speaker 2: a mountain and you have one hundred pounds of rocks

Speaker 2: in your backpack and you just can't do it. And

Speaker 2: again it's only ten percent. We're not saying just you know,

Speaker 2: print your playoff tickets now. But it's been such a

Speaker 2: nice change of pace after just the absolute nonsense and

Speaker 2: misery that we dealt with a year ago.

Speaker 1: I cannot say it any better than that. Different vibe

Speaker 1: for us, for the whole fan base. And look there

Speaker 1: along the way, we'll all find some things to complain about.

Speaker 1: I can assure you. That's part of the fun of it, honestly,

Speaker 1: is that, like, some stuff's gonna go wrong and we'll

Speaker 1: be annoyed by some stuff or whatever. But I think

Speaker 1: it is the word fun we've been using a lot.

Speaker 1: That's what it's been. I mean, it's been refreshing. They've

Speaker 1: hit and going back to the look, they've pitched better

Speaker 1: than anybody thought, you know, hand raised right now, they've

Speaker 1: allowed forty four runs in sixteen games. Like, if that continues,

Speaker 1: this team's got a super high ceiling. But regardless, it's

Speaker 1: gone well. And if they mash covers up a lot, man,

Speaker 1: keep it going, score runs. And the last five games

Speaker 1: with that one stinker in the middle, for those five games,

Speaker 1: they've scored at a high level and I'll take that

Speaker 1: all day long.

Speaker 2: And shouts to the bullpen. I don't know if we

Speaker 2: talked about the bullpen a ton on the show, but

Speaker 2: shouts to the bullpen. This has been an unbelievably good unit.

Speaker 2: To begin the year. We thought it was going to

Speaker 2: be a good bullpen, and they have even surpassed expectations.

Speaker 2: And I mean their numbers are stellar, and honestly a

Speaker 2: few of those belong to Jose Suarez, who was not

Speaker 2: very good. So especially kind of the top five or

Speaker 2: top six have all been like nearly perfect so far

Speaker 2: this season, and really good signs. And you know, you

Speaker 2: get Dylan Dodd in there tonight. I mean, Dylan Dodd's

Speaker 2: a legit reliever. They have a couple other kids in

Speaker 2: Triple A right now who throw the ball really hard,

Speaker 2: Hayden Harris, John Carlos, Laura like, I feel really good,

Speaker 2: knock on wood, feel really good about this bullpen as

Speaker 2: we sit here today.

Speaker 1: For sure. And the spent a lot of money on

Speaker 1: the bullpen, and that's not always my favorite thing, but

Speaker 1: they do it if it's if it works, it works,

Speaker 1: and it's good and to your to backue. I just

Speaker 1: looked this up in real time. The Braves are number

Speaker 1: one in all baseball in bullpint bullpen era this season

Speaker 1: one point nine to five. Number one who you.

Speaker 2: Almost had ad always had a slip of all slips there.

Speaker 1: One point nine to five, and number one in whip

Speaker 1: as well, number one in walks of walk avoidance, like

Speaker 1: it's number one across the board. Pretty good, yeah, really good.

Speaker 1: Great to see where I sell Iglesias didn't like forget

Speaker 1: how to pitch for two months like he did last year.

Speaker 1: Robert Swarez has been great, Dylan Lee has been great,

Speaker 1: Aaron Bummer has been timely. Tyler Kinley has just been

Speaker 1: I mean, what a pickup Tyler Kinley was? I mean again, man,

Speaker 1: they made that trade last deadline and we were like,

Speaker 1: what are they doing? Like why are they acquiring a

Speaker 1: reliever on a team that was basically dead?

Speaker 2: And Kinley's been great. No, Piomps has been okay, probably

Speaker 2: not as good as you would hope for, but not

Speaker 2: not terrible by any means, and hopefully he settles in.

Speaker 2: But yeah, man, I mean, just good vibes with this bullpen,

Speaker 2: good vibes with this whole team so far.

Speaker 1: I just found a funny stat that I have to share.

Speaker 1: The Braves bullpen has allowed one home run this season.

Speaker 1: That's not even the funnest set one home run. The

Speaker 1: Astros and the Nationals bullpens have both allowed seventeen home

Speaker 1: runs each.

Speaker 2: How is that possible?

Speaker 1: Seventeen home runs allowed for the Astros bullpen and seventy

Speaker 1: two innings. That's incredible. Oh my gosh, seventeen home runs

Speaker 1: allowed anyway, one for the Braves. Crazy.

Speaker 2: I mean, that's more than that's like won a game,

Speaker 2: Holy cow.

Speaker 1: Yikes, more than one. It's outrageous. Anyway, Yeah, I can't

Speaker 1: believe that that's real. What it is, I'm going to

Speaker 1: It's literally on MLB dot com right now. I'm not

Speaker 1: making it up, all right, Scott, We've said enough. I'm

Speaker 1: gonna say something crazy on the podcast if I don't

Speaker 1: sign off the podcast soon, Scott, anything else to plug?

Speaker 1: And if not, wor can folks plug in to all

Speaker 1: of your Atlanta Braves musings on a nightly basis, because

Speaker 1: you know there's lots of them all the time, including

Speaker 1: when you call home runs.

Speaker 2: Ronalcuna Junior, that's right, one more time, shouts to me,

Speaker 2: Because that shouts to me. I am at Scott Coleman

Speaker 2: fifty five if you want to fall along there, And

Speaker 2: I did want to ask you, Brad, how many Michigan

Speaker 2: Wolverine National Championship t shirts, hats, polos, penance how many

Speaker 2: of them have you purchased or do you plan to purchase.

Speaker 1: I have made an order so far that has three

Speaker 1: things in it.

Speaker 2: Nice.

Speaker 1: I have a few more things I would like to get,

Speaker 1: so it's gonna i'll be end up being six or

Speaker 1: seven by the end. I want a little nuts. When

Speaker 1: Michigan won the football championship two years ago, I spent

Speaker 1: more money than I should have, so I'm trying not

Speaker 1: to do that again. But hey, what are you gonna do?

Speaker 1: What do you what are you gonna say? Oh, that's

Speaker 1: that's a nice one. I want that. Oh, by the way,

Speaker 1: we should say at the end of the show. Hammer

Speaker 1: Territoryshop dot com. Our bosses always trying to get us

Speaker 1: to plug the shop. I always forget Hammer Territory Shop

Speaker 1: dot com. If you want some gear, you can get it.

Speaker 2: We have all kinds of stuff in there. We got

Speaker 2: baby onesies, you got golf towels, shirts, quarter zips, I

Speaker 2: mean everything you can think of it. I bet the

Speaker 2: Hammer Territory shop has it, so please do check that out.

Speaker 2: If you want to support the show and get.

Speaker 1: Some merch, absolutely check it out. But yeah, hopefully my

Speaker 1: Michigan stuff will arrive and then I will try not

Speaker 1: to wear it on the show for obvious reasons, to

Speaker 1: leave my co host off the hook a little bit,

Speaker 1: all right, Scott, everyone should be subscribing to hamor Territory

Speaker 1: on Apple, on Spotify, on YouTube, and vice versa. Like

Speaker 1: if you're a video watcher on YouTube, listen and subscribe

Speaker 1: on Apple Spotify to help us out as well, and

Speaker 1: vice versa. Takes two seconds. Truly, it's not a hard

Speaker 1: thing to do if you like to show to support

Speaker 1: us as the best possible way to support the show

Speaker 1: is to click and listen, to download and all those

Speaker 1: fun things to help us, and to also patronize our

Speaker 1: sponsors because our sponsors help the podcast stay alive. Because

Speaker 1: I don't know about Scott, I probably would do the

Speaker 1: podcast if we had zero sponsors, if we made zero dollars,

Speaker 1: I would probably not do this podcast.

Speaker 2: Or zero listeners, Like it would just you and me

Speaker 2: talking to each other on YouTube for fifty minutes every Sunday, night,

Speaker 2: which I don't know.

Speaker 1: Which we could. We would probably do You and I

Speaker 1: just would probably text more than we would talk on

Speaker 1: on a video. But anyway, sub try everybody. We definitely

Speaker 1: appreciate it. A fun time to be a brace fan.

Speaker 1: Hopefully we'll keep it rolling and we'll have a busy

Speaker 1: week ahead. I promise on that we have lots of

Speaker 1: shows planned, guests planned. I don't want to ever give

Speaker 1: us away untill they actually happened, but stuff coming up

Speaker 1: in the future, so please lock in. Thanks to Scott

Speaker 1: for being here, thanks to Steven and Sean neanks to

Speaker 1: even listener. I'll see you all next time.