Shaky Pitching Sinks Braves Against San Francisco

00:00:23
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Hammer Territory podcast. My name is Sean Coleman. Hope wherever you are and wherever you are listening, you are having a great start or a great end to your Tuesday start to your Wednesday. Of course, you can find all the great content from Hammer Territory at Hammer Territory across all forms of social media, part of the Foul Territory family of podcasts, and as always again with me is my podcast partner Steven Tobert at b Underscore outliers On at slash Twitter. Steven, I hate to say this, man, It's always a pleasure to talk with you, but I'm getting to the point where, you know, I always look forward to it, but it also just comes with with a bit of dread because it seems like every time we talk now it's about a disappointing Braves performance.

00:01:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, what's up, Sean, It's been I don't know if me and you are just kind of snake bit at the moment, but it seems like, you know, Brad and Scott, I've always talked about that like Sunday That's Sunday podcast Curse, where it seems like the Braves always lose on Sunday right before they record.

00:01:22
Speaker 3: I feel like we're gonna do something similar right now.

00:01:23
Speaker 2: We're like, just like these mind numbing losses happened right before you and I record. Yeah, listen, it's not been great the Braves are. You know, they're two and four in their last six. The offense has just completely fallen asleep again. You know, we're gonna get into it obviously with tonight in the last couple of games, but yeah, it's just not fun. Somebody tweeted it to me tonight and I hadn't really thought about this, but you know, they said to me, do you find this Braves team to be a fun team to watch? And like, I love the Braves. Of course, obviously we cover it and I've done it for years now, but like, I don't know that this team is actually that fun to watch. You know, like they're built to hit homers, but they're not really.

00:02:11
Speaker 3: Built to do much else.

00:02:12
Speaker 2: So if they're not hitting homers, like especially offensively, like they don't steal bases, Like they're not like a speed team, you know, they're they're not. They're not like you know, go first to third, hitting triples in the gap and you know, exciting on the basement, like it's kind of a homer or bust offense, and the homers obviously have not been cooming this year, so like, it's actually really not that much fun to watch on a night to night basis, unless you just you know, obviously when Chris Sale Max freed. You know, Ronaldo didn't pitch great tonight, but typically he's done well, you know, outside of watching those guys, which has been a lot of fun. Like the team overall, I would kind of agree with that comment, like it's not the most fun team to watch, at least so far, and you know, we're where we just passed the halfway points, so but yeah, we're gonna get into all of it tonight. But yeah, it's always good to do these with you men.

00:03:03
Speaker 1: I will counter that just for a second. You're exactly right overall, but we do have our fun moments. For instance, tonight in the second inning, there was a positive there back to back home runs for Austin Riley and Sean Murphy, and then later on in the game, Stephen, we had back to back successful butts from Forrest Wall and Zach Short. I can't remember the last time we saw that in the Braves game. Okay, I'm being a bit facetious, but agreed completely right now. And one of the reasons why, and we're gonna get into this a little bit later on, one of the reasons why it's not as fun, especially as it was last year, is because whenever you see this Braves team miss an opportunity to score once and then they do it again, there's that feeling of dread that, hey, we've been here far too many times before. We've seen this story far too many times. It's the same thing over and over, and that proved to be true once again tonight. But the biggest story potentially from tonight, Stephen, is actually the performance of Ronaldo Lopez. Now, don't get me wrong, he had a good start, and typically when we're talking about the consistency of Ronaldo Lopez, it's him pitching an excellent game. But we're now starting to see We've talked about the fact that you know, hey, at some point, there probably is going to be a bit of a regres, some regression. I do feel that we're starting to see that some shaky outings over I believe his past reoutings. Tonight we saw it again, lack of control gave up the home run, really struggled only four point one innings one hundred and one pitches. One of the things that certainly is a takeaway from tonight, Steven, is that we're starting to see a little bit of an indicator that Ronaldo Lopez could be running into some regression.

00:04:44
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, listen, we've talked about it.

00:04:45
Speaker 2: I mean you and I have talked about it probably six or seven times at this point. But like I never and hopefully people have listened have heard us say, like I never believe Ronaldolopez was like a one point five or a starting pitcher just because nobody. I mean, that's like, you know, that's like Greg Mannix uh primed, you know, Jacob de Gram, Pedro Martinez, Like that's that's not that's not Ronald. A little bit like, like, let's be honest, that's not Ronaldo Ronaldo. I think I think a good like find your level type of picture is like a three e RA pitcher. So you know, when he comes into the game with a one to five seven ERA or whatever it was, at some point, we're gonna see regression. And he didn't have a terrible night tonight, like he gave up, you know, he gave up the two home runs.

00:05:33
Speaker 3: The big thing tonight with the walks.

00:05:34
Speaker 2: I mean he gave up four walks back to back outings. He's had four walks. Uh, it's you know what that does really is it just drives.

00:05:42
Speaker 3: Up your pitch count. You know, he had a really high pitch count. First inning. He struck out the side, but.

00:05:47
Speaker 2: He threw like thirty pitches in the first and then he just can never get that quick inning to kind of get those those pitches back. You know, he was at one hundred pitches into the you know, he didn't get through the fifth obviously. Yeah, listen, it's gonna happen like Rinaldo's. Ronaldo's not supposed to be one of the three best players on this team. Like Ronaldo's supposed to be like the tenth best player on this team or the twelfth best player on this team. Like there's supposed to be a bunch of guys in between, you know, Max Freed and Chris Sale and Ronaldo Lopez that should be picking up the slack. So you know, it's a little bit like Ozuna, Like, yeah, Azuna is in a slump, but like they're gonna be in slump, Like They're not gonna be perfect all year, like you need other guys to step up and carry the load when that happens.

00:06:30
Speaker 3: And and for right now, for the Braves, if.

00:06:32
Speaker 2: If Max Freed, Chris saalor Ronald Lopez don't go out and just throw an absolute gym. And I've talked about this all year, like, if those guys don't go out through a gym, the Braids don't win. And that's been the problem for you know, going on three months now, and the offense just doesn't cover anything up anymore.

00:06:48
Speaker 3: You know, with Ronaldo. It is gonna be interesting with what they do.

00:06:50
Speaker 2: Bowman just tweeted out that he's gonna pitch on regular rest again. I am very interested what they do because, like you said, it does seem to be hitting the wall a little bit.

00:07:01
Speaker 3: You know, how much did they push him?

00:07:03
Speaker 2: You know, Usually the Braves are just kind of take it day by day, let the guy tell you how he feels and go from there. So that's probably what they'll do. Tonight was just command mostly, But yeah, it is gonna be interesting what they.

00:07:12
Speaker 1: Do, absolutely, and so you know, and this is this was to be expected at some point. It was to be expected that especially from Ronaldo Lopez, who's, you know, entering this season as a starter for the first time in a few years. You know, it's excellent to see what he's doing. I'm not saying I'm not sitting here predicting that all of the sudden Ronaldo Lopez is gonna have a season like Bryce Elder did last year. But the point is is that run support has to be there because he probably is going to, you know, be more of that three to three and a half year starter for the rest of the season than someone has who has a one point five ERA. But aw, let's getting to the fun and that's the offense. And I say that sarcastically, and Steven, I'm going to kind of do this in part because I feel that, you know, looking at it this way will kind of establish the fact that what we're seeing from this offense, what we're seeing right now, so many stretches of you know, the inability to hit on runs, the inability to struggle. When you really look at this offense from multiple perspectives, you hope at some point they snap out of it and become the best in baseball. But right now there's things in place that just are not going to allow that to happen. In the first thing before we get into the individual players. The first thing that stands out to me, and I think this may be the biggest thing that Alex and Thopless is going to have to address it the trade deadline. This Brave's offense right now is nearly non existent against right handed pitching, especially with runners in scoring position, bottom five nearly every offensive category metrics. When you look at this team against right handed pitching with runners in scoring position, if this team is not hitting home runs against right handed pitching, it's having a very hard time creating and converting run scoring opportunities. They have got to get better against right handed pitching, especially as get closer to the playoffs.

00:09:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, listen, I've talked about this and if you follow me on Twitter, you know, like a one area where I think Alex could have done better is I do think the lineup it's a little too right handed. I don't think they've taken advantage of the dimensions of the ballpark where it's a very left handed, hitted, hitting friendly place to hit. But the Brides are just the Braids are just so right handed all the time that they don't always.

00:09:30
Speaker 3: Take advantage of that.

00:09:31
Speaker 2: And this year has been a big example of that. And listen, when you know, the Braves have especially have three lefties. They have Kelnick, they have Olsen, and they have left handed Ozsi and left handed Ozzie is obviously substantially worse when he bats left handed, and then kel Nick and Olsen have both been streaky. Obviously Kelnick is hot right now. Olsen is the one who's ice cold. But that's it, and that's you know, and I'm not counting Forrest Wall just because he's Forrest Wall. So yeah, the Braves need more left handed help. You know, I've kind of been banging the drum on Twitter that they need to go get a left handed outfielder to help against right handed pitching. I would love to go get another left handed infielder to maybe give ourcs some some rest, maybe even platoon that spot. Like they need more left handed hitting. And you know, you look at the Giants tonight, like every other hitter seemed like he was left handed. Like other teams are much more balanced. I feel like the Braves are just like it's just right hand d after right hand rafter, right hander and then one lefty here or there, and that does hurt against right handed pitching, and right handed pitching is what you see the most. There's just more right handed starters and baseball than they are a left handed starter, So you know, the Braves need. The Braves definitely need more left handed hitting. They need, you know, even a right handed hitter that hits right handed pitching well would work, but it's just so much easier to go get lefties in my opinion, So I would love to see that at the trade deadline, a left handed outfielder, maybe a left handed infielder, you know, just something to balance this line about it. It just gets so right handed, and especially in the postseason where other teams can really match you up to day, that's where you really pay for it. And I think that's part of what's happened, what happened last year is Philly could just match the Braves up to death with all the right handed pitching, and the Braves don't have a great answer to that that's currently constructed. So I would love to see them go get a left handed you know, if not one, two left handed hitters of some regard, just to balance at the line up a bit because they are susceptible. It's this is an ongoing theme and it's something at the GLEX needs to address absolutely.

00:11:29
Speaker 1: And you know, you get Michael Harris, the second MAC you know, later on this month hopefully, but you know, he's had his struggles as well, but at the very least, you know, that's excellent potential. So but I do think, yes, you know, we talk about a hitter who gets on base. Well, you know, production against right handed hitting may be the top need for the Braves when it comes to the trade dead line. But now let's look at some trios out of this lineup, and we'll start with the positives, and that is the fact that Jared Kilnick, Austin Riley, and Sean Murphy are all doing well right now. And I don't think that that is any small storyline to focus on because Jared killed it. I don't necessarily know if he's a one to fifty WRC plus level hitter, but what I can definitely say is is that he certainly seems to have turned a corner to where he can sustain at least being a productive hitter that has been needed. And it's been great to see, you know again, even when he doesn't have the best of Knights. He's making consistent hard contact. Austin Riley every year. We're in the midst of the six week period every year where he turns it on and turns into an MVP level home run hitter. Hit a home run in his first at bat tonight. But to me, perhaps the most important out of these three Sean Murphy. Stephen is starting again to look like himself the first half of last year. Sean Murphy, that was an MVP candidate. It's really good to see those three going, and you certainly hope that this isn't just a hot streak for all three of them. You see indicators that hopefully they'll be able to stain this production, and if they can, that'll be a really big boost to the Braves.

00:12:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, listen, t is just like alternating which two or three guys are hot, and you know, right now it's kell, Nick and Austin and Sean, which is good. Of course, it's better than having nobody hot. But you know, it would be nice to maybe get four or five guys hot at it once. You know, you know, the Braves have Azzi, Ozuna and Olsen all hitting back to back in the order or back to back to back in the order, and those three guys are just all three ice cold right now, and it's just like it's really cutting into any rally the Brace could possibly have. It's like every time the Braves rearrange the lineup to try to get the hot guys all hitting together, those guys go cold, and so now the lineup is not optimized anymore. And you know, right now kell Nick and Austin and Murphy are hitting well, but those guys are batting like one, five and six. So it's just tough to string anything together like that. Like, at some point, you would think the Braves would get a month or so where the where they've got most of the offense, Like that's with this much talent, you think that would happen, and it just hasn't happened at any point this year. I mean, the Braves were going on like two and almost three months of the Braves having a bottom five offense in baseball.

00:14:13
Speaker 3: Like that's wild. That's absolutely why. I mean, this was the best offense any of us had ever seen last year. And yes they have injuries.

00:14:19
Speaker 2: Ronald's hurt, you know, Michael Harris has been hurt, But like you said Michael Harris wasn't hitting that well even before he got hurt. Ronald certainly wasn't having his best season before he got like this has been an ongoing issue even before the injuries. That like the entire team, like everybody is just like, you know, a couple of standard deviations below like what you would expect of them, and it's it's like a virus. It's like something has infected the end. You know, I feel like I'm in the it's like a space jam movie. I feel like, you know, the mon stars have come down and just like zapped all of the power out of this line. Like it's the weirdest thing. It's I don't have an explanation for it. And you know, for a long time we could say the baseball's listen. I was, I was following the tracker all night tonight. Baseballs were flying out of every single stadium.

00:15:06
Speaker 3: Tonight like the ball like the ball was lively.

00:15:09
Speaker 2: There was more homers hit tonight than I haven't gone back and looked, but like the home run per fly ball rate tonight was just absurdly high all over baseball, Like I don't know if they reintroduced last year's baseball, but the baseballs were flying, and they were flying in the Braves game too. I mean that ball that Murphy hit went like three hundred and forty or four hundred and forty feet, but they still couldn't score. It's good, you know, they scored three runs, So yeah, I don't know what's going on. It's maddening. It really is maddening. I don't know another word for it. It's so frustrating to watch over and over and over, like you get down one or two runs and you feel like the game's over, which is just wild with this team, but that's kind of where we are. I mean, we got three guys hitting really well and then it inevitably, you know, another three guys just go ice ice cold, and it's just like flip flopping all year long, which which guys in, which which bucket. But yeah, it's been frustrating. I don't know another word for it.

00:16:03
Speaker 1: Absolutely, that ball that Heviey Oramos hit off of Chavez, you know, in the what was in the top of the ninth inning. He didn't even know where the ball went. He probably thought the ball was foul and it winds up going out of the ballpark. But that brings up another thing. You know, again we're talking about, you know, the kind of in trios that stand out is that, you know, it seems like of those top six guys Kellen Nick, Murphy, Austin Riley and the and the trio of O's Ozzy Ozuna as well as Olsen, at any one point you got three of them going good, three of them going bad. But out of the three going bad, you have one of them being so bad that they're among the worst hitters in baseball for a certain stretch. You know, we saw Austin Riley be that way from the end when he came back from his injury into May through early June, and then as soon as he starts heating up, Matt Olsen goes ice cold. But definitely what's not helping now is the fact that the Braves bottom of the order is basically non existent. You've had now for much of the season, Orlando Rcia and Adam devall be among the worst, you know, offensive regulars in baseball. So that's two spots that basically are about as guaranteed of an out as you've got in baseball. And now, of course, every night for the Braves, you know, I know that RC was out with an abscess too, but you also have Luke Williams and Forrest Wall you know, starting they're basically and out as well. The other thing that's not helping is that when you get to the bottom of this Braise order, it's non existent. So I bring up that point to say, if you've got a non existent bottom of the order and you've always got one of your best hitters who are ice cold as well, the point that I'm getting at is is that once again, this this current production, this bottom of the league production that we've seen the Braves be at for two months, when you really look at the production of the individual players, it makes sense as to why the results that you're seeing right now are kind of expected when you see just how bad a big part of the Braves line is performing and any one period in time.

00:18:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, listen, if you just cut the lineup into sections of three, right, like like we just said, it seems like the Braves always have three of their top guys struggling, right, So that's three guys and then the bottom three guys in the lineup have just been zeros all year long, right, So if the bottom three guys in lineup are just zeros all year long, and then you have three more guys who are just in a deep slump at the time. That's six of your nine hitters that are just you know, basically zero's at any one given time. Like, yeah, it's gonna be like that's our It's hard to score that way, Like you know, you can pop a couple solo home runs, but in terms of like stringing any kind of big innings together, that's been. The other thing is like when the Braves do score, it's like one or two runs at the most per inning. Like they they don't have these like four or five run innings anymore because they don't ever have enough guys consistently hot to produce a four or five running like they had that one inning on Friday night against Pittsburgh, and it felt like a it felt like a tidal wave of runs because it's been so long since we've seen anything like that. They scored five runs in one inning. That was where Ozunu cleared the bases with a double, and then they tacked on a couple more runs after that, Like it was so memorable because of how rare it's been this year and you know, when you break it down position by position, at any one time, the Braves basically have six guys in a lineup who are producing nothing like yeah, you're right, Like, you're not gonna be You're gonna be one of the worst offenses in baseball if that's how it is, Like you can't consistently score runs when you at one given time only have three guys out of nine who are doing anything offensively. And that's essentially how the Braves have existed all year. I mean, hell, there was a period where they had one guy out of nine doing anything offensively. You know, three is probably a luxury at this point how it was going earlier in the year. So until they can get four or five of their best players going at the same time consistently for a extend period of time, this is gonna be there. This is gonna be how it is. I mean, you just you can't score runs at a consistent basis when you've only got two or three guys in the entire lineup doing anything and then you have six or seven zeros like, yeah, you're not gonna score. And part of that is personnel. You know, the injuries do matter here, but a lot of it is just underperformance. Like Matt Olsen has been very bad for a while now, Like he got he had a rough start, he got hot in May at the end of May and through like the first two or three weeks of June that a lot of people didn't notice because the Bradys weren't playing very well, but he actually did get really hot, and now he's just been ice cold for like three weeks. Marcelo Zuna has been in a huge slump for about about three weeks now. Ozzy's been in a huge slump, like you know, and as soon as those guys come out of it, it seems like, you know, Kelnick will go cold or or Riley will go cold. Like That's just how it's been all year long. It's just been this rotating, you know, it's just back and forth of who's hot, who's cold. Nobody ever at the same time, I'm it's just been very frustrating. It's been very inconsistent, and like you said, it's not that surprising that the Bridges are one of the worst offenses in baseball when you look at it from that perspective that you know, at any one time they've got maybe two guys two or three guys the most going. So yeah, it's gonna be hard to score runs. And that's pretty much how they've existed all year long.

00:21:22
Speaker 1: But Steve, when we talked about it before the podcast, you know what, while you know, we've ranted and now we're just trying, I guess, kind of coping with the fact that this is kind of how it is right now. I don't want to take away from the fact that at any one point we talk about the fact that if we can get four or five guys going, we can immediately turn back to where we're one of the better lineups in baseball. And as if we could do that, if we could look at a crystal ball and do that, when September or October comes, we're going to be just fine. So I don't want people to think that, you know, we're just completely giving up on the rest of the season. I'm not at all. I don't think you are at all. But it's just the point that we've got no other choice. We got to have our best hitters hitting. But if they do, that switch can turn on quite quickly.

00:22:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, and listen, you know, the Braves as we sit here today, even with the loss today, the Braves have a According to Fangrass, they have a ninety one percent chance to make the playoffs. You know, a lot of that is because the National League behind them has been so mediocre and kind of hovering around five hundred and the brain I mean, you know, you and I were talking before the podcast, like the honest truth, the God's honest truth, and people don't want to hear this, and I understand that. I understand why people don't want to hear it. But the God's honest truth is the Braves could pretty much, you know, sleep walk through the second half, play like five hundred ball and probably still make the playoffs. Like, if we're being honest, like eighty four eighty five wins is going to be you know, that's usually what the last wild card spot is in terms of the bar to make the plays. The Braves could sleep walk the rest of the year, even play under five hundred the rest of the year, and still probably make the playoffs and then get hot in September and win the whole thing. Like it sucks that that's baseball now, but that is kind of baseball now, Like the regular season just doesn't matter that much just because of what I just said, like the Braves could play uninspired ball basically all year long, get hot in October and whenever and when everything like that, Like, you know, that's pretty much like what I just described is pretty much the twenty twenty three Diamondbacks. Like go watch you know, obviously the people that listen to us or Diamondbacks fans, but like go go to Baseball Reference or something and look at their whole season and just see how mediocre they were for pretty much the whole year. Like they hit little spots of getting hot here and there, but they were pretty much mediocre all year. They got they you know, they were the last team and they snuck into October they got hot, and they made it to the World Series, and like that's just kind of baseball now.

00:23:55
Speaker 3: And I hate that. I have I railed.

00:23:58
Speaker 2: Against expanded playoffs for the exact reason. I don't want the regular season to be just completely meaningless. But it kind of it's not completely meaningless, but it to a certain extent, it doesn't matter that much. Like the Like, again, I know people want to hear this, but the Braids could sleep walk pretty much the rest of the way, just do enough to get in and then get hot in October and when everything and they could also sleep walk the rest of the way and get knocked out in the first round. But it's all pretty much gonna come down to, you know, as long as you get in, how are you playing in October?

00:24:26
Speaker 3: That's really all that matters. Now, So how much does any of this really matter? I don't know.

00:24:33
Speaker 2: You know, people will say, well, if they play like this, they're not going anywhere. Well, yeah, I mean that's very true. If they play like this in October, they're not going anywhere. But October is four months away, so a lot a lot can happen, So, you know, I do struggle back and forth with like, this is really annoying, This is really frustrating.

00:24:52
Speaker 3: I hate watching this at times.

00:24:53
Speaker 2: And then on the other side, how much does any of it really matter? Because the Braves are still well above ninety percent chance to make the playoffs. They're almost certainly going to be in the playoffs unless they just completely collapse, which I don't see happening. Then it just comes down to how well you play in October. So you know, it is what it is, you know, take it for what it is. But that's that's pretty much the reality, that's kind of where we live now in twenty twenty four in terms of Major League Baseball.

00:25:19
Speaker 1: So then let's have some fun. Let's get a little crazy here, Steven, and I know that you know I say this, you know, not tongue in cheek, not with a grain of salt. I'm just to the point to where, like we mentioned, at any one time many nights, we have two of the worst offensive players in terms of everyday players in Duval and Rcia right now playing and one of our big bats is ice cold. So any not out of the week, we have three almost guaranteed outs. It feels like so in my opinion, one thing that you could do is just, you know it, just the lineup a little bit. Against right handed pitching, go Kellnick, Riley, Ozuna, Olsen, Murphy and then Ozzy. That's against right handed pitching. Against left handed pitching, Kellen, Nick, Ozzy, Ozuna, Olsen, Riley, and then Murphy or Darnaut. That could be something you could do, maybe to to you know, get Riley back up at the top of the order with his back going. You could change up the lineup a little bit. But here's something, maybe even a bit crazier On Monday, former Brave Eddie Rosario was designated for assignment from the Washington Nationals. On Tuesday, former Marlin shortstop Tim Anderson was designated for assignment, you know, by the Marlins. I understand that both of those players have had a significant track record recently of themselves being among the best or the worst offensive players in baseball. But I also know that the Braves have a very good track record of helping players who formerly were highly productive hitters return to some form of being productive again. I'm to the point myself, Stephen, to where I'm open to anything. So if the Braves wanted to give Rosario and Anderson a chance, you can't do much worse than you already have. I'm just trying to think of outside the box opportunities that can make things better. None of it may make sense, but at this point, I think anything could potentially be better than a lot of what we're rolling out there most nights.

00:27:26
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, listen, I tweeted this. Eddie Rosario has been absolutely terrible this year, and I have very very little interest in and Eddie Rosario being a Brave again just because of how bad he's been.

00:27:43
Speaker 3: But I also have very little interest in forest Wall, like being in Atlanta, brit Like.

00:27:47
Speaker 2: I you know, if you said, would you rather forest Wall get this at bat? Or would you rather Eddi Rizzario get this at bat? I would probably just run away and not answer that question at all because I would prefer neither one of them. But you know, if you said Eddie Rosario over forest Wall, I'm not.

00:28:02
Speaker 3: Going to argue too much, Like, yeah, fine, go for it.

00:28:05
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, we are absolutely to the throw, you know, throw crap against the wall and see what sticks portion of the year with the injuries, and it's still you know, the trade.

00:28:16
Speaker 3: Season hasn't fully picked up yet.

00:28:18
Speaker 2: So yeah, if you want to grab Rosario and an option force Wall and see if you can strike lightning in a bottle.

00:28:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, go for it. I'm not going to argue too much.

00:28:29
Speaker 2: It's not like you're replacing somebody of you know, elite talent on the roster. The roster is as depleted of talent as it's been probably since the rebuild years. At the moment, I mean, especially at the level that some of the guys are playing like, it feels it feels like a pretty I don't know, I'm not gonna say talent less because that's that's pretty strong, but it feels there's there is a market drop in talent at the moment on the Bridge roster. So yeah, listen, if they want to try Eddie Rosario and say, hey, he's probably at least better than Forest Wall, I'm not going to argue because that's probably true, and you know, but if they don't want to do it, I'm also not gonna be like, hey, why didn't you sign Eddie Rizzario? You know he could save the season, Like I don't. I'm not that's probably crazy as well. So whatever they want to do there, that's fine. I would hope at some point they would actually go out and acquire like legitimate.

00:29:21
Speaker 3: Upgrades in some of these spots, like.

00:29:23
Speaker 2: We can't keep running Luke Williams and Forest Wall and Adam de Wall and even as good as Loriano is, like I was thinking about this today, like the fact that Ramone Loriano has been hurt for so long has been a real detriment to the team.

00:29:37
Speaker 3: And if your team is to.

00:29:38
Speaker 2: The point where Ramone Loriano being hurts you this bad, then you're in real trouble. Like Ramone Loriano missing this much time and it's only been like five games, but him missing five games should not be as detrimental to your lineup as it has currently been for the Braves. And if it is, then that means you're in a rough spot. And the Braves are just in a rough spot. They need more talent, especially in the outfield.

00:29:59
Speaker 3: We've covered that nauseum.

00:30:00
Speaker 2: So yeah, I mean, what the hell if you want to go get at Errisorio and see if you can strike lightning in a bottle and he gets hot for a month, I'm not gonna argue because, like you said, it can't be much worse at the moment.

00:30:11
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And you know what I'm suggesting, you know, going to get a Eddie Rosario or a Tim Anderson or something like that. I'm not sitting here saying that those should be the moves that you make instead of trades to be able to try to get this line up good. I'm just saying that right now, when when you know you're still waiting for you know, maybe there to be more teams to choose from when it comes to trades, try something to get things going. You know, that's to the point that we're at. But you know of a more immediate, you know, conversation worthiness, I guess you could say, is the fact that the Braves now they've lost this first game of the series against the Giants, and now I think that the rest of this homestand gets real critical. And the reason why that is is because I definitely think that the Braves need to find some way to be able to win this series and then hopefully at the very least figure out some way to have a winning record for the rest of this home stand, because tonight probably was the easiest starter that the Braves were gonna face bird Song for the rest of this homestand he probably is going to be the easiest starter that the Braves are gonna face. The Braves themselves are gonna throw Chris Sale and then Charlie Morton in the final two games of the series against the Giants, and they're likely going to have Max Breed, Spencer Schwellenbach as well as Ronaldo Lopez going into three games against the Phillies. As we mentioned, Lopez will be making his next start on Sunday. But the thing is is that I believe tomorrow on the mound for the Giants, you've got Jordan Hicks, who's had a pretty good season as a starter for the Giants. You've got Logan Webb, who's been among the best pitchers in baseball over the past few years, going on a Thursday for the Giants, and then that Philadelphia series. I haven't exactly seen the probables as of yet, but I feel competent in saying that you're gonna least see three of the four of Zach Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Christopher Sanchez and Rangers Swarrez, who have been the best starting staff in baseball all season long. So the point that I'm getting at is, Steven, is that one thing that stands out. We've talked all season long about how the saving grace is kind of been the Braves typically are going to have the you know, better, better side of the starting pitching matchup for the rest of this homestand that's not going to be the case. So this offense has to figure out something quickly or we may not necessarily be able to take as much advantage of this homestand as we hope we can.

00:32:25
Speaker 2: No. I mean, listen, again, the big thing that's that's going to be decided this weekend, if it goes poorly. Is if you come out and get swept by Philadelphia, say, then you really are probably just waving by to the.

00:32:40
Speaker 3: Division at that point.

00:32:41
Speaker 2: Like that's the only part of this week that into you know, if you you know, even if you go.

00:32:47
Speaker 3: Win two of three, it's still very much up in the air.

00:32:50
Speaker 2: But if like you go get swept and now you're like ten eleven games back or twelve games back or whatever it is, and you have three less head to head matchups than you did before the series started, then yeah, you're now you're in truly mirror. You know, it's gonna take a miracle to win the division. Other than that, though, like I said, you know, yeah, the pitching matchups for the rest of the week are not great. You know, we're getting the Giants two best starters the next two days and then probably three of the best starters for Philly the three games after that. But listen, the Braves offense hasn't done anything against bad starters. I mean, tonight, the Braves had a rookie starter who had a five r a on the mountain scored two runs off of him. So who knows, maybe good starters, you know, the Braves just beat Paul Skins.

00:33:37
Speaker 3: The other day.

00:33:38
Speaker 2: Now they did it by, you know, winning two to one, and one of the runs was the free runner that you get an extra innings, So it basically took a great pitching matchup for Max. But I mean that's pretty much how the Braids win these days. Is you know, a starter goes out and throws a great game to bullpen is you know, perfect, and they squeak by, you know, by the skin of their teeth and until this offense wakes up. That's how they're gonna have to win. And so yeah, you know, they need Sale to be good tomorrow. They need Max to be good on Friday. You know, if Charlie wants to have another strong start, he had a really good start his last outing. He's been kind of doing this one good, one bad, one good, one bad, so you know, if you look at the pattern, it's not gonna be his best start. But who knows, maybe he breaks the streak and has two in a row that are pretty good. But yeah, I mean, right now, the best thing you can hope for for if you're a Braves fan is a really really good start out of one of your starters, a perfect doubt from the bullpen and then hopefully the two or three runs the Brave squeak across is enough to win the game. That's pretty much been the only way they win games for the last two months. Really is that formula. So maybe it'll work, Maybe the offense will actually wake up at some point. I'm not really holding my breath for that anymore.

00:34:50
Speaker 3: This is, you know, for the for the time being, this is who they are.

00:34:54
Speaker 2: This is just they're a team that scores like three runs a game, and on good pitching days that's enough. On bad pitching days, it's not enough. And and that's how it's gonna be until until the offense wakes up a little bit.

00:35:06
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And so you know again, don't don't don't like to be negative, just you know, being realistic in terms and honest in terms of where we are right now. But you know what, hey, you know what, it's the it's the week of the year where everybody enjoys shooting off fireworks and I hope everybody gets to enjoy seeing a good fireworks show at some point in time this week. Maybe the Braves offense will follow suit. Again, I'm not too confident in saying that, but maybe we will see it happen Steven as we wrap up this edition of the hare A Territory podcast, and Steven and I will be back with you again tomorrow night. Anything else you'd like to add going into the second game of the series against the Giants tomorrow.

00:35:40
Speaker 2: No, listen, they need Chris Sill to be good. They need them to probably pitch six to seven innings one or two runs, and then the bullpen come out and close it down and hopefully the you know, the three runs the Braves score inevitably will be enough to win the game. But yeah, that's that's my insight for tomorrow's game.

00:35:59
Speaker 1: Hey, we're here to make it happen and be nice to go ahead and keep keep the keep the early success going. You know, maybe the Braves can put together back to back games in which they could have early offense and then have a little bit more offense late in the game as well. But for Steven Tolver to be underscore outliers on Twitter, myself at stats sec on Twitter, slash x at Hammer Territory, across all forms of social media, and part of the Foul Territory family of podcasts, it's been a pleasure being with you. Go braves, we'll talk to you again soon here on the Hammer Territory podcast