Hammer Territory Holiday Mailbag

00:00:21
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome back to the hammid Territory Podcast. This is episode three one three. My name is Brad Rowland, coming to you on a Sunday evening here in late December. It's the holidays in full force, and I'm joined as I almost always am, b Scott Coleman Scott. It's a I guess rare for us recently to have a quiet show, but as we record this, it might be a quiet show.

00:00:42
Speaker 2: How are you hello, Brad? I am doing well and early Happy holidays, Merry Christmas to you and everybody out there. And it's weird like they signed Hassan Kim basically a week ago, and there hasn't been a whole lot of moves, although there was one transaction that we're going to talk about for the Braves tonight. But the way this offsea and it has gone so far, it's been tough to go more than a few days without some kind of Braves activity. And we'll see. Usually there's a flurry of activity across Major League Baseball the couple of days before Christmas, but then usually it quiets down from about Christmas Eve until the day or two after New Year's Day. It's not a guarantee, but it feels like we might see some real activity across the rest of the league and maybe the Braves will be a part of that in the next seventy two hours or so.

00:01:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, there was a trade in baseball right before we started recording, and what didn't involve the Braves. But like, there's some stuff that's going to happen in the next couple of days, almost certainly, and we are a little bit spoiled right now. I was looking at our database of previous episodes and in the last twelve days, we have done five shows, or actually six shows in the last twelve days, and I believe three of them were emergency podcasts. So we've had plenty to talk about. And if you are new to the podcast number one, we are Hammer Territory. We are part of the Foul Territory network of podcasts. We cover the Braves all year round. On this particular podcast, it is the two of us Brad and Scott plus Steven Tolbert and Sean Coleman in a regular rotation of the four of us. But if you missed it, the most recent show on the feed was Shawn and Stephen talking about kind of the state of the Braves after that, aforementioned flurry of off seas and activity that's been going on, and today we have a couple of items to discuss. You already mentioned the transaction. We'll get to that in a second, but first on the agenda is basically, we got some questions about this and we'll just mailbag later on some direct mailbag, but like some remaining targets, like a lot of like, hey, who do you guys want the Braves to sign now or trade for now or whatever? We figured we might go kind of area by area. I know the boys talked about this on the most recent episode and you and I tease this on our reaction to Hassan Kim being signed. It felt like then the Braves might be done with, like the main offensive lineup stuff might be not definitely are, but that seems like we should just say that out loud, like perhaps they could add I know that was a speculation that Steven and Seawan did as well, like maybe a right handed bat off the bench kind of thing. Aside from that, Scott, like, I'm not saying they shouldn't sign Kyle Tucker. That'd be cool if they did, but uh, I think they might be right hand battle only. At this point in time, I'm not sure what else they would do unless Alex just changed his entire alexness overnight.

00:03:13
Speaker 2: I would say, when you look at the offensive side of the Braves right now, and if you make a couple of assumptions with who is going to be on the bench, there might be one bench spot left. If you assume Eli White is a lock for the team, which I think he is.

00:03:30
Speaker 1: I think he's very likely to be on this I wouldn't. I don't know if I go to lock, but I think he's very likely to be on the team.

00:03:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Speed player can steal a base late in a game. Great pinch runner can run into a home run as we saw last season. And then in addition to Eli White, you can also have either Sean Murphy or a backup catcher of some kind, assuming that Murphy is healthy after his hip surgery. You have Mauricio Dubon as your super utility guy, and you have Mike Kistremsky as we believe the primary DH fourth outfielder. Rotate Jerks and Profar and Acunya and whoever else in the lineup that leaves one spot. I could see the Braves just kind of punting it and going with a total nothing burger as a twenty sixth man your Brett Wisely types. Maybe Nacho Alvarez could be in that role, but a player you're basically never going to rely on, or hopefully you don't have to.

00:04:20
Speaker 1: Rely on a whole lot.

00:04:21
Speaker 2: But they could go out and add a right handed power bat of some kind of rotating at DH or again in the outfield, the infield, wherever it might be. My hunch is they're just going to kind of roll with somebody internal for that final spot. But it would not totally shock me if Marcello Zuna is sitting around and they want to bring him back for a few million dollars for clubhouse vibes and maybe an upside bat. I mean, you can say, while the top of the order looks pretty good right now, there are some very legitimate questions about the bottom half of the lineup.

00:04:51
Speaker 1: For sure. I mean we've said this before, but if Marcel doesn't have a market and they could get him on a reasonable contract, and by that I mean the number of reasonable has come down after they've did the other stuff, Like at one point, like a ten million dollars one year deal from Marcelo Zuna seemed like something that could happen to me. Now, I can't imagine them paying ten million dollars for Marcelazuna. The role is too small. But if he has no market at all, like if it's five million dollars, like okay, I'm fine with that, doesn't bother me at all. Besides something like that, I mean, could there's some other name. I know there's been some Robert Refschneider kind of buzz between Diehard Braves fans. I get it like there's a there is a potentially small role there. But we're starting with this just to say they might be and I think almost trending towards probably are mostly done with the offensive side of things, which makes the remaining targets more of a focus of pitching. I wish you have more to say on the on the bats, we could move on to the pitching side. Look the headline, especially when you and I talk, I feel like, even more so than anybody else on the Braves Internet, as they started pitching, because we've banged the drumps so many times about how they just need to start. They need to add somebody else I'm just going to list some names that are still available on the market as of Sunday, December twenty First, in free agents, keep in mind it could be a trade and those are a lot harder to predict, but free agents are available. Freber Valdez, Ragis Juarez, Zach Gallon, Tatsuya and my Chris Bassett, Tyler Malley, Lucas Giolido, Zach Lttel, and Nick Martinez are all guys who are supposed to get real money who are all still available. Out of that group, does anyone excite you? And in fact, I'll let you answer this if you want to now or we do it in a second. We get a question from Fear of the Chop who says, if the Braves sign is starting a pitcher, who do you predict it will be?

00:06:33
Speaker 2: Now?

00:06:33
Speaker 1: Predict and want our different things. Keep that in mind, but I'll throw that all to you at once, and I'll let you sit through it.

00:06:39
Speaker 2: To answer the question. If I had to bet on if the Braves are going to sign a free agent starting pitcher, who would it be today December twenty Second, as most people are going to be listening to the show, my guest would be Chris Bassett. I think he is far more Alexanthopolis like than like a Franber Valdez or Rangers Wars or Zach Gallon because of the financial commitments those guys are going to get. But Alex has spent money in the last six weeks and the Braves might have more money to spend. So I think Chris Bassett probably not going to be someone who you lose your mind over the Braves signing, but a very capable fourth starter in this rotation. He would absolutely make the Braves a better team. It would free up the possibility of putting either Ronaldo Lopez or Grant Holmes if they are healthy, into your bullpen as a bullpen weapon. It just we've said it before, Well say one more time. I would really like to see the Braves at a starting pitcher and someone who moves the needle like. I don't need some of these bottom of the barrel starting pitching free agents to come in, Like, I just don't think that's necessarily worth it. But if you could get Chris Bassett or better, then sign me up all day long, assuming they have some money for them.

00:07:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was my answer as well. We did not talk about the set of time, the thought surprise that would agree on thing we generally do a lot of the time, probably too much for podcast purposes. My runner up, you're you're thinking, I think you're gonna hate based on what you just said. I think the other guy that would be kind of bravesy is Tyler Malley. And the reason I say that is because Tyler Mallley has had some injury stuff, but when he has pitched, he's been quite good, and Alex has not shied away from that in recent years. Even Chris Sale was a hey, when he's pitched, he's been good kind of guy. And Tyler Malley has the under the under the hood stuff that Alex likes, like, hey, maybe better than your ra kind of guy, kind of off the radar. I would have picked Bassett to be, to be fair, but I think Mally has that like kind of like I know he's boring in some ways, but he isn't as boring as you might think. I think his his stuff is pretty interesting. He's just had some health issues. So the upside there is like he's he's had multiple seas where he's had like a low three ZRA on some pretty decent volume when he's been able to stay healthy now can't stay healthy. I don't know, but through Alex's premise, and he keeps saying this, by the way, on local radio, so we're not chronicling every appearance Alex makes, but every time he talks it seems like he's mentioning that we want a starter that can start a playoff game thing. And I'm not saying, Tymy Malley is gonna be an awesome playoff starter, but for me, that really means Alex is saying we want upside more than we want like the lower end endings either type, and Bassett kind of is the lower innings ending type, but he also is more established and older, which is very Alex coded. I think Malley is like the middle tier of like, hey, there's actually some upside here, which is why I think that might be a possibility. I'm not calling for that. I mean the other side of this. I'll ask you first, who do you want them to sign? Do you have a want to prefer like again, want predicted different? Our predictions are Bassett and Malley if they sign somebody, do you have a guy that you're you're yearning for beyond those guys, you.

00:09:50
Speaker 2: Know, I think it's funny. I'll answer that in just one moment. But I think the playoff starter qualification is funny because you can't tell me that it's the brave needed Chris Bassett, who's been really solid the last four or five seasons, and said, Chris, you were going to go through this lineup one time as our starter, go throw the shit out of the baseball for nine hitters and get us through three. Right, I have to.

00:10:14
Speaker 1: I have to bleep that now it's got that's unfortunate for us.

00:10:16
Speaker 2: Come on, man, sorry, it's uh yeah, sorry, Santa, don't move me to the bad list three days before. But let's talk about the top of the market. I love the idea of Framber Valdez. The one thing with Framber other than the big contract he's probably going to get, is the now infamous intentional cross up pitch that he had. If folks want to look it up, Basically, it sounds like Framber and the catcher in Houston had a disagreement about what pitch to throw. Framber then gave up a home run on the very next pitch. I think it was a grand Slam, And then it sure looked like Framber intentionally crossed up his catcher and drilled him in the chess protector with a fastball, and it was awkward. It was just it was a bad look to be blunt. That being said, everybody has a bad moment, and I would be fascinated to know if you surveyed one hundred Houston Astros players who have played with Framber Valdez over the last couple of seasons, what they would say was it. I would like to think we don't get judged by maybe the worst moment of our big league career. But if there's also other players and you can bet Alex and Thopolis is gonna bet this would say, you know, Framber maybe not the best dude, then I think you could probably take him off the board entirely. But they might say I was just as surprised as you to see that happen. Framber has been a good guy in the clubhouse and his teammates like him, then I could see it becoming at least somewhat possible if his market doesn't develop. Rangers warrez quickly. He's been a demon against the Braves, but he just throws so soft and he's not gonna suddenly start throwing harder into his thirties. I just don't see it. And also the Phillies haven't really shown a prepent steed to bring him back, which is a little interesting to me. And then Zach Gallon had such a down year. If he did not have the qualifying offer attached to him, I think I'd be more interested. But because you're taking a big risk on Gallon bouncing back and you would lose the twenty sixth pick and you're probably gonna have to give up a pretty big contract, I personally don't see it with Gallen, but maybe the Braves feel differently.

00:12:22
Speaker 1: I think Gallen is one of those there's always somebody in the front office to run a coaching staff or both that like, you know, we could fix this guy because he's the upside was so high, like this is a top five, so young finisher multiple times, et cetera, et cetera. I do think frambur is, Look, we're not we are not We always say this, We're not Kenrosenthal, We're not our guy, Kenro's Thall or Robert Murray, who are both thought territory guys and great reporters. We hear things, though there's some Framer bus. I'll just say that out loud. I've heard some framer buss just a little. I'm not saying it's gonna happen, but it's not always, not like some guys like I use I used Kalac Tucker as example earlier, there was a zero such as that was ever happening, right, and we kind of, yeah, that's not what I've heard about famms. So, for whatever it's worth, it's at least plausible to me, he'd be the guy to like, I'm with you. If Alex Alex is famous Robert said's on our show recently, Alex's famous for due diligence. If he don't, if he makes five calls and four of them are like, no, that's that's not a good guy crossed off the list. They do care a lot about makeup in the in the Brads organization. Whether you agree with that or not, they do care about that quite a bit. But yeah, I'm with you. I'd like to see them aim high. I kind of will always be believe that when I see it on a nine figure pitching contract until they do it. But uh, I think we're on the same page. Ame high would be our preference if they don't there is some military that they could go with at some point. Hopefully I answers the question, and we do have more mailback questions coming. And also we have some relievers to discuss in a second, but first they're work with our partners on today's show. Okay, Scott, on the question of reliever targets, we talked about starters, what's about potential rhand about off the page, et cetera. It's funny to me, most of the relievers that I think are like pretty interesting targets are guys that have already been on the Braves, which is kind of Alex coded too. He likes to kind of go back to the same will the biggest name who has not signed as a reliever that markets move fast, by the way, the Braves were part of that. They signed Suarez an Iglesias already, but Pete Fairbanks is kind of the one closer level guy who is not signed. It would surprise me if the Braves did that because it's going to cost some real money. But hey, Alex is never afraid of signing a reliever. Thoughts on pew bearricks.

00:14:33
Speaker 2: You know, at this point, I think getting a starter is a far more effective use of resources by a lot, Yes, But if Alex has money to spend, like spend it, you know, like go go give yourself a Super Bowl pen, or add another hitter to your mix, or you know, whatever you have to do, do it. Like what if you have the cash to spend, go spend it. I'd rather Alex spend it on reliever, even if this is the world's most expensive bullpen outside of the Dodgers, of course, Like would it be conventional to have Pete Fairbanks, Robert Suarez in Rycel Iglesias in the seventh, eighth, and ninth. No, because those are all three bona fide closers the last couple of years. But if you strike out, maybe Frambra Valdez doesn't check out, Maybe they don't want to commit five years to Ranger Suarez, maybe they don't trust Zach Gallon to bounce back. Like then then add something to your bullpen. I mean, you feel good about a couple of guys in that group, but there's a lot in the back end of the bullpen, which kind of terrifies me if I'm being honest. So yeah, I mean, I think all things equal, I think the bullpen's in good enough shape. I think they can figure it out. I think they can add enough non guaranteed roster invitees to spring training to kind of bridge that gap. But if if nothing works out on the starter market, then by all means at at least one or two more arms to that bullpen mix.

00:15:55
Speaker 1: I would not mind another five million dollar reliever like who was and believers are voltial. We always say that it's true, but like if the Braves wanted to bring back Pierce Johnson for five million dollars at this point, like I would still do that honestly. Or Tyler kin Lean another guy who the Braves had last year in that similar range. Old friend Kirby Yates is on the super old side but has been good and could be available for a one year deal. Alex loves a one year deal. You mentioned here in our notes. I could get the credit for this. Evan Phillips is the guy who talks about once earlier this winter. I think it's still coming back from TJ, but like it's a potentially interesting reliever. Alex coated price could be lower because back mid season the old chip carry. I'll let you deliver the line if you want to make a trade of that making the trade, you know.

00:16:39
Speaker 2: Partner, it is like making a trade without making a trade. Yeah, I mean, Evan Phillips is mildly interesting, was once a very good closer with LA had Tommy John probably not going to be ready until August or so next season, but it would kind of be like a couple of years ago when the Brave signed Kirby Yates, he was injured, someone rehabbing, and and then you know, it seems like the Braves are like a year or two early on Yates, which is a bummer, you know, never wrong, just early. But yeah, I mean there's there's options out there. We'll talk about a minor league arm. They just added a couple of days ago as well to the mix. And you know, again, if we're under the assumption that the Braves have maybe twenty five or so million dollars, and that is a total assumption, but if they have twenty five million dollars left to spend this offseason, I would sure hope they're able to add some kind of impact of this group, whether it be in the starting rotation or the bullpen.

00:17:31
Speaker 1: We agree for sure. And that's kind of again like a purposeful overarching look at what's still available out there. Set it once, we'll say it again. Trades are available. It's just really hard to project trades. But starting pitcher market in particular, like it might be more effective in many ways for the the trade pers or especially if Alex wants the aforementioned guy who started a playoff game.

00:17:55
Speaker 2: Well, and on that note, so a couple of days ago, the Orioles and Rays did a pretty big trade for Shane Baz.

00:18:03
Speaker 1: Yep.

00:18:03
Speaker 2: Now, I don't expect our listeners to be super familiar with Shane Baz's game, and Baz was a big time prospect. Throws has really good stuff, also has some injury risk. The Orioles gave up basically three first round pick level talents in order to get three controllable years of Shane Bass. I mean that was that's or high man.

00:18:24
Speaker 1: It costs a lot.

00:18:25
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't even know if the Braves can necessarily swing that deal, but that would be like the equivalent of giving up cam Keminetti Jr. Richie and the twenty sixth pick in the UPEA.

00:18:35
Speaker 1: I mean certainly, yeah, think of whatever three of your top five prospects if you're the Braves. Given word the system is that's what that price was, and you did mention it, but worth repeating. Bass has three years of control. That's why it cost so much. Like the Braves, I feel like, have always been more in line with a pitcher trade. That's like for a guy with maybe one or two years left, so the price is a little bit lower, but those guys cost more. The short term was they're already in arbitration they make where there's twelve million dollars or something like that. But yeah, the price of guys who are under control for cheap for a long time, it's very high for a reason.

00:19:12
Speaker 2: Well yeah, and you know, there might just not be a ton on the trade market for starting pitchers this winter, Like apparently the Twins are going to hang on. They just signed Josh Bell to play their first base and.

00:19:23
Speaker 1: They what I don't know, what are they doing?

00:19:27
Speaker 2: I don't know. And you know, like Mackenzie Gore is a good pitcher, but because he's in the division, I just don't necessarily see that lining up. I mean, sure there's other options out there maybe, but one, you have to meet a high asking price. In two when it's supply and demand, if there's only a couple of starters out there on the market, Like, I don't know. I mean, sure, Oakland would probably love to get rid of Luis Severino in that contract. But do you want to take a gamble on Louis Severino at twenty million dollars a year that he can bounce back after an awful season, Like, I don't really want to see. I'd probably rather just make aid for one year.

00:20:00
Speaker 1: Right only at the price is really low. But yeah, I'm with you. It's it's hard to project trains. I know, it's fun, it can be interesting to do. Maybe we'll do it in January. If we get bored, we'll try to do big Dreds on this podcast. But it is hard, and that's why we're doing for agans first. But there's still enough on the market on starting pitching in particular where it's still interesting to talk about the guys that are left, and we'll see where the Braves go. You teesus already? Should we talk about the transaction that happened a couple of days ago. The Braves signed Ian Hamilton to a one year deal. It's non guarantee, but it was a it's a major league non guarantee. Well could be a split. The Braves announced it, so it wasn't like they stuck this one under the under the wire. They tweeted it out, they announced this move. And he's a major league reliever, thirty year old right hander. It's been with the Yankees the last three years. Pretty good numbers with the Yikes. Actually, but his worst year was last year, which is why he's available. He had kind of a rough year. It's twenty twenty five. I will say this is three years ago now, but twenty twenty three, he was like, actually awesome, Like under the hood, all the numbers looked awesome. He's he's always thirty, so it's not like he's thirty eight and he's maybe done. Maybe he's done. We don't know. He's throwing slower down. But I was this is one of those guys where it's like not a joke, Like it's like, this guy could be a part of the bullpen and I would not be surprised at all. He seems like he's at least a real bet and for very cheap. That total sense to.

00:21:16
Speaker 2: Me, absolutely, And you know it's funny. Whenever a player signs with the team, I tend to look at the other fan basees reaction to it, which is not scientific, but it helps were Yeah, there were quite a few Yankees fans who when and Ian Hamilton signed with Atlanta, they kind of were like, damn it. Of course the Braves signed this guy. That's a really smart like by low see if he can bounce back type of signing. His fastball dipped quite a bit, that the velocity on the fastball was down. That obviously impacted Hamilton, a pitch that he really relied on a couple of years ago when he was so efficient. But it's to me, this kind of feels like Yuel piomps two point zero? Why not man? And you got it? Basically, no guaranteed money if you want, if he makes the team. I'm guessing it's for a million million dollars, maybe two million dollars. It's it's low risk and there is some legitimate upside here. If Phillips can or Hamilton rather can can find what made him successful with the Yankees a couple of years ago, then you've added somebody to your bullpen next for very little money.

00:22:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's one of those signings that we might just forget about if it doesn't go well in the spring. Might never talk about him again after that, or he might be your sixth reliever in the bullpen and bring some actual value. Like that's very much a two sides of the coin there, but because of the cost of literally nothing, a non guaranteed deal, it makes total sense. And these are the kind of guys that Alex is always going to sign. And then of course Brays Fancible accused of being a bargain basement guy or was bargain ben Alex is the one we we.

00:22:47
Speaker 2: With dollar Tree.

00:22:48
Speaker 1: Alex do Tree, Alex. It's a little bit harder to do that now when he just spent a bazillion dollars in like a week. But uh, that's still it's still out there. But no, I like that move. Will it be impactful? We will see on that. From all right, Scott. In a second, we will answer some mail bad question. We already answer one, but we will answer some more, including some Christmas one. I'm pledging you right now it's pre Christmas. We'll answer a couple of Christmas related mail back questions. We'll getting all that more in just one okay, Scott, First, before we get to the Christmas stuff. A question from Nick seventeen atl who says very succinctly, Officeason grade so far question mark a forward question. I will give you the honors. What would you grade the Braves off season as of Monday, December twenty second.

00:23:35
Speaker 2: I would go with an AS and there is a real chance to get it to an A or a legitimate A plus, which I gotta be honest bread Two months ago, I had no feel for where this offseason was gonna go. Were they gonna be cheap again and really avoid luxury tax or were they gonna go back to payroll levels where they were previously? And after a down year for the Braves, in all of our hearts, it was like, damn it, I hope the Braves go out and add some talent and change things up a little bit. And sure, maybe they didn't go out and sign Kyle Tucker for four hundred million dollars or didn't go out and sign Dylan C's for two hundred and ten million dollars over the next seven years, but they've added a lot. They've raised the floor of this roster. I think they've raised the upside of this roster as well. I'm at an A minus. Where are you at?

00:24:27
Speaker 1: We're in the same range I was debating between B and B plus.

00:24:31
Speaker 2: It's good.

00:24:32
Speaker 1: I like what they've done. I know I wasn't on a number of the reaction emergency shows, but they have not done a move yet that I have like disliked. There's varying degrees of excitement on this stuff, but even the astrmpsky one, which is the one that they got the most pushback, I like, I kind of like that deal. To be honest with you, the only reason why it's not an A is that started pitching has not been addressed if they had already done. Even if they do, Chris Bassett, I will give it an A minus to an A. My only reason why it's not higher is that. And it's hard because I gave the date earlier, Like we are big proponents of like you can't judge the off season on December twenty second, Like it's it's silly to do that, and I get it. People want to rush to reactions. Think about it. Three weeks ago, Scott, people were furious about the way things were going, and the Brave has made three substantial additions in a six day period, five day period, so like you never know when's gonna happen and what it's gonna happen. So yeah, I'm closer to a minus than I am to be minus. Like it's in that b people and the only reason why it's not higher is because of starting pitching and my valuing that considerably of like needing to do that more than many some fans do. But nothing negative at all, Like I think if you're grading it negatively, I don't really know why you would. Maybe you're just trying to but yeah, be plus and a minus, I guess you're almost the same. But I'm training to be I'll go be plus. I think it's about where I am on this. And if they do anything substantial with the rotation and Chris Bassett, your maledgeby vary Tyler Mallley, who if they add a starter that I think is a real starter, I will go to a minus. A that's robby.

00:26:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know, if you're trying to be a critic of the moves, then sure you can have real doubts about what does thirty five year old Mikesh Traumsky do, Like can you just copy paste what he's done the last couple of years?

00:26:24
Speaker 1: That is that is the one to be like to downpl I get why people downplay that. I really do, like I think you needed a step, a step more of nuance to like like that move. The price tag was hired people expected, and then you look at it a little bit deeper, for example, and it's like, oh, it's only nine million, and then ten million, and then this very very cheap mutual you know, biot option thing. So it's like even at first blunch it was like, oh, that's a lot. Oh, it's actually cheaper than it when we thought it was.

00:26:50
Speaker 2: It's basically a two year, nineteen million dollar contract with a cheaper third year and a buyout. I mean, I know, the whole thing is you roll in the garanteed money to the totally I get lost and I get it me too. But if it was announced as two years nineteen million, I almost wonder if the reaction would have been a little bit lighter, then.

00:27:09
Speaker 1: It probably would have been. And also, not to do this again, but he fits the roster in that he does one thing really well. He hits right handed pitching, and like that's the strong side of a platoon. He's a better defender than Jerkson Profar. Like there's reasons to anyway we would have to do a whole thing again. But that's the one move where I do think it's totally fine and understandable to not be excited about that. I totally get a Glacias and Suarez on good contracts, like your bullpen went from a giant question mark to a potential strength in two loops. Yeah, and then you know it is what it is in the Hassan Kim, Yeah, it wasn't. It wasn't Boba Schet, but like it's a one year deal. Hard to not like it. I like the off season so far. The only it's just it's more of an incomplete than a negative for me. It's like still like it's done a lot, spent a lot of money. Hard to be upset in fact on the money question. Let's go to the next one. Are we should have more to say on that which we could do? But question from Benjamin packets related and I like the way frame this for our purposes. Are you surprised with the amount of money already committed to the twenty twenty six payroll during this off season? Are you surprised? Not that you like it? Are you surprised? Interesting way to frame it?

00:28:23
Speaker 2: A little bit. Now, in my true heart of hearts, I really felt like the Braves wanted to reset the luxury tax a year ago where they did reset the luxury tax, but and then they just kind of wanted to clean up their books and then would get closer to payroll, where in twenty twenty four it was up there, like it was much higher than it was in twenty twenty five, with no real change in the overall standing of the team. They were coming off a down year. I'm sure the Braves took note of what attendants looked like in the final two months of the season. I'm sure like the day of revenue was down significantly compared to what they do and the team is good quite obviously, so am I shocked that they have been so aggressive Maybe not like really surprised, but it was a legitimate question coming into it. And obviously I am thrilled that they are spending more at the level the Atlanta Braves should be spending.

00:29:15
Speaker 1: Yet, yeah, I think when we talked about this last time you and I talked, that was where we landed, was like, Hey, this is where they should be. Like, regardless, there was a lot of frustration last winter, you know, it's funny we are as a show I think accused way more recently. It's funny. Back when you and I were first starting, we were seen as the negative guys. Remember that's got fun memories. It must be in the negative guys.

00:29:38
Speaker 2: Negative.

00:29:39
Speaker 1: Now people think we're too positive, which is funny. Maybe it because they're losing and we're you know whatever, but we kind of we were critical of the off season last winter from a spending perspective, and their nuance of that with like, hey, that's not really an Alex Entthopolo's choice. That's a Terry McGirk choice, which is why that's the breakdown comes sometimes. But you're right they were. I think they were what like their seventh in baseball and payroll in twenty twenty four, Like they were up there pretty high. That season didn't go great and maybe the playoffs, and then last year. I will go to my grave believing that Alex had a meeting with someone above him between his exit interview and his next comments that said, by the way, you have less money thing we thought. I will go to my grave on that and he'll he'll never tell you. There's no reason for we're gonna tell you don't Chris as your boss publicly that that's not what happens. But I will go to my grave believing that happened last winter. And the positive thing to bring it full circle now is like that is not happening now. They're spending now, how much they're gonna spend. I think that third tier of CBT tax might be the red line. I think, but hey, unless you're the Mets of the Dodgers, that's probably gonna be a red line for most teams. Maybe the Blue Jays because they have a whole country behind them. It's kind of an interesting things have a whole region behind them.

00:30:51
Speaker 2: But you know, did you see the Dodgers luxury tax penalty?

00:30:55
Speaker 1: It's ridiculous. I mean, I get it, I get why. I mean, the Yankees used to be that way too. The Yankees were as recently as a few years ago. The Yankees, I think we're still number one in payroll like two years ago, even more than the Dodgers. This has been recent. The Dodgers are going through the stratosphere. But yeah, isn't it like one hundred something? I don't know how much money is.

00:31:12
Speaker 2: One hundred and seventy million dollars in penalties for going over the tax just ridiculous. But we don't. We don't need it. We don't need a salary cap, Brad. We definitely don't need one, or a salary floor. We definitely don't.

00:31:22
Speaker 1: Need or any or any it's or any kind of sanction on deferrals, none of those things, even if your anti salary cap, which I get, maybe some notes, maybe some notes on the on the on the new cbabot the way you can defer contracts so that show hey can't have five hundred million defer or whatever it is. Yeah, So am I surprised To answer the question, I'm really not. I kind of thought they were going to spend more. It's more that I wasn't sure they were going to spend more, and now now we've seen it, so I feel better about it. I'm not shocked or anything. Maybe a slight pleasant surprise, but not overall. If they go over, if they go above the third tier, like for instance, if they if they signed fraanbra Valdez to a giant contract, I will be surprised at that point. Not I won't be shocked anymore, but surprised in a good way. If they spend even more than I think they're gonna spend. But to date, I mean, uh, it's also been very alex coded the way they have spent. They have spent the money, but without any like big long term money and years.

00:32:24
Speaker 2: But they have eighty million dollars roughly coming off the books in a calendar year, Brad, I mean they it's it's easier said than done to go year by year with your payroll. But I mean eighty million dollars. And of course you're losing Chrysale, you're losing well at the moment you're losing Chrysale, you're losing rayceell Iglacias again, like they can. These things have a way of working themselves out. But I mean, as we sit here today, they have about eighty some odd million dollars coming off the books for next season.

00:32:51
Speaker 1: They should go ahead and announce the Chrysale extension asap. Go ahead and do that. I'd be fine with that. Do do the Charlie importon style Chris at another year of twenty eight million and for Chris Sale, that's fine, go ahead and do that right now. Let's sign me up. I'm not saying they have to do that. For the record, I'm being kind of funny, but I would not mind that blue box at some point soon to just say, hey, here's one more year, Chris, We'll go to year to year. As long as you want to pitch, please stick around. I'd be fine with that, Okay, Scott, I think we could probably move to the Christmas portion of the podcast in an effort to not go super long, so we will divide the line here everybody. If you don't want to hear our takes briefly on some Christmas things, you can sign off the podcast. We don't want you to, but I don't want to brave. There's a Brase related question. There is one, but it's not going to be about the twenty twenty five, twenty sixteen. Okay. The first one is literally this is a question directly to you, because I have no opinion on this. It's from Ray Addis, who says the question we all want answered is what is the best Christmas episode of the Office? And why I say that? If you don't know, Scott is an Office super fan, which is why he's I see in the Office, The Office is funny. I'm not an Office super fan, So this is all you, my friend.

00:34:06
Speaker 2: Yes, It's actually a little tradition now that we watch the Christmas episodes, because I think there's seven of them on either Christmas Eve or right before Christmas. Best Office Christmas episode. There are some good ones. I would go with Benny Hannah Christmas Underrated though, would be Classy Christmas where Jim and DWIGHTE have a snowball fight. That's where we will end the office talk, because if you've never seen the show, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. But the Beni Hannah Christmas episode is not just like the best Christmas episode. It's one of like the top maybe fifteen episodes in the show. And I will say Brad, as somebody who has recently watched Seinfeld for the first time, I am now familiar with Festivus. I think we're gonna have for the rest of us. We're gonna have to work Festivus into our Christmas Eve viewing this year. Great episode, one of my favorites of the whole series. So I am familiar. I had heard of Festivus and like, what the hell does that mean? I do know the origins now, and I am I am educated in Seinfeld.

00:35:04
Speaker 1: I think me being a little bit older than you is explains the gap here. Like I was watching Seinfeld when it was on, like I was young, but I was like staying up to like watch Steinfeld and thought it was funny. It's very funny. Again, I see there's like one hundred I looked this up. There's one hundred and nine Office episodes. I bet I've seen fifty of them at least I've seen a bunch of Office, just not the whole series. So you're the authority. Please if you want to comment and yell your own thoughts, that's got that's this is the time of do it, I promise you all right. Last one, this is the Braves related question from I believe it's Braves Uga fan. That could be anybody. There are a lot of bridge Uga fans, but that was the handle of the person's sad. This question to us, Hey guys, with the holidays here, what was your favorite Braves themed gift that you ever got? So interesting? I'm bad at remembering guests, but I have a good answer for this, I think. So you go ahead. First, I'm going to defer to you and I'll prey up the rear.

00:35:58
Speaker 2: You know, I am not a local, but I have a great answer. So my now wife, but back then girlfriend actually bought me a brick outside of Truist Park has my name on it. I think it says go Braves Scott Coleman, and I have a replica of that brick and a stand at my house. It's just to my left. Actually, we had been dating maybe like six months at this point, so that's a pretty cool gift.

00:36:25
Speaker 1: You know.

00:36:25
Speaker 2: It's still there when I was in Atlanta last like, and.

00:36:28
Speaker 1: That's why you married her? That's what right then is what do you decide to marry or is that right?

00:36:32
Speaker 2: I did, Yes. The next day I went to the jewelry store and bought her a ring and said, you bought me a brick, will you marry me right now? But it's cool, So I don't know, maybe if you're ever walking around Truist Park and you're just gonna say, should we have a pilgrimage to the Scott Coleman brick. I do have a photo with it. It's on the first base side of the of the stadium, outside the stadium obviously, but I did find it the last time I was in Atlanta, like five years ago. It took a little while there's a lot of bricks out there names, but I do have a brick, which was a great gift.

00:37:04
Speaker 1: I was.

00:37:04
Speaker 2: I was like, what the hell because it's heavy. I was like, what on earth did you buy me? You know, we will have been dating like six months. It's not like we've been together forever. Now she knew, she knew. There you go, well what about you?

00:37:14
Speaker 1: No, I it's funny. I I saw Steven our co host Stephen at a game at a game in person this year, and if I had known, we would have gone and found the brick that had been our activity, taken a picture of it, uh, for the for the world to see minus less minus less relational than that, but kind of also relational. So I people may remember this because you've breaking up all the time. I am a park Few High School alum in Lowbern, Georgia, and the Brains have had two very famous park View alums on their team.

00:37:46
Speaker 2: Uh.

00:37:47
Speaker 1: The most recent one is Matt Olson, who's very good. I'm a lot older than med Eilson, so I did not know Matt growing up.

00:37:53
Speaker 2: I did.

00:37:54
Speaker 1: I didn't do know Jeff Francore so Jeff was two years ahead of me in school, but we played basketball. And I've known Jeff for a long time. I know his wife, I know his mother was a teacher of mine in school. Just keep out in minds, that's the level of seventh grade math teacher Jeffrank KORZMM. So anyway, this is before I was covering the team. I was a fan of the team. But in two thousand and five, so I'm old. I was nineteen Christmas two thousand and five. My parents, who don't get me a lot of gifts. I'm not saying that in a negative way. We're not a big gift family. Just wasn't what we did A lot of they got that. If you don't remember, if you're not old, don't remember this. Jeffrank courts within five was the thing. Oh yes, he came That was the year he came up and was incredible. SI cover all the.

00:38:39
Speaker 2: Yeff the Natural, The Natural, Cover of Sports Illustrated. I mean Jeff Frank Coremania. If you're not old enough to remember, it was the summer of Jeff Frank core I think he homered in his debut, or like a couple of games into his debut. I mean it was. It was scenes in Atlanta, the Baby Braves it was scenes.

00:38:54
Speaker 1: In Atlanta, and obviously since you now know of it, like I literally know Jeff went to my high school, it was even bigger deal. For people like me. It was like, I know, this guy is going crazy with the Braves. I'm I'm in college at the time, and my parents got me a like nice like the one of the nice, like authentic whatever whatever. It was. Then the stitched Frankore jerseys for Christmas that year, and like that's all I got. That was it for me for like maybe for years. I might have been my last gift of my parents, but I got one of those, and uh, that was very cool. I still have it. I don't wear it anymore because he doesn't play anymore, but I have it in mind's in my closet, which you can't see. I have. I literally have two. I've had two nice Brave jerseys in my life. That one and a Freddie Freeman one, which I also know Freddy and his family, and so there's all these connections and things. So the next time I get one up, probably Matt Olsen, because like I don't know Matt, but I mean we went to the same school. I love Ronnie. If anyone wants to buy me a jersey. Feel free. I still buy me a jersey everybody. It's fine I should wear, you know when I go to games. Now I'm like working sometimes and it's not quite the same thing. But that was a cool one. I will cherish that one. And knowing Jeff, I wish it had got better for Jeff after that, but at the time, uh, trade value through the roof and all those things, it didn't didn't work out very well.

00:40:13
Speaker 2: But you know, it's funny. And then we'll we will conclude the Jeff frank Core segment of this podcast. But why I wonder twenty if Jeff frank Core debuted twenty years later, would he have been a player who, like every week on the show, we would have been like, yeah, Jeff had another big week. But dear god, they're.

00:40:31
Speaker 1: Oh yes, screaming one.

00:40:34
Speaker 2: No.

00:40:34
Speaker 1: I mean, I it probably existed then, yeah, but that was early. It was still earlier. I mean, there was blocks happening and stuff, but it wasn't like the full you know, Fangrafts era at that point in time. It would have been like we talk about Michael Harris now on steroids with with Jeff, like every flashing sign he swung at everything. Everyone would have known it was going to cool off. But back then, twenty years ago, like maybe the Sickos, maybe maybe through it's saber at that point in time, they were probably they were probab flashing the light on Jefferent Corps, but not in the mainstream. I wasn't. I was like, this guy's this guy knows is gonna be the greatest player of all time. He might be like the next Hank Aaron And that didn't have but cool gift, Mom and Dad shouts to you guys. Uh, not as cool as the brick though, So Scott's wife wins this one by a lot. Tell her I said that, Scott, and I promise next time I go, you gotta remind me next time I go over to Truist, I gotta try to find the brick because that'll be fun. Yeah.

00:41:26
Speaker 2: I think I have a little card on like the bottom of the stand that holds the brick that shows like roughly where it is. Yeah, so I'll find that. I'll send it to you. You and you and Steven can take a nice photo in front of it and do a maybe go live from outside of my brick at Truest Part That's what I'll do.

00:41:43
Speaker 1: I will go live on Hamard's servitory YouTube when I find the brick and just be like, all right, everybody found the brick, and then just clear we can just just end it, all right, Well, thank you Scott for that story. That's all we have on today's podcast. Look you we teased it. We started here when here. The bridge can still do some stuff in the next cup days. There is not a hard moratorium. Most gms that are not like aj Preller or like Jerry Depoto tend to take a break for a few days around Christmas. But Alex isn't afraid to make a move, so we'll have content if things happen. Please subscribe to the show. But if anything happens, I promise we'll break in. We might be in somebody's kitchen for Christmas or something like that, but we'll have a show at some point. Some combination of the formless will react to it. In the meantime, Scott, if we have new listeners, where can they find all of your musings on social media, including what I can only assume will be a live meltdown on Monday Night during Colts forty nine.

00:42:36
Speaker 2: Ers football is officially dead to me, Brad, it's been a bad It was.

00:42:42
Speaker 1: Going so well for about for about two months in Scott's life, and then it didn't anymore.

00:42:47
Speaker 2: That's right. Sorry. I am at Scott Coleman fifty five on Twitter slash x. As always, a big thank you to people for checking out the show, and we will have some kind of content between now and the new year. As Brad said, if there's any transaction, of course we'll do a show, but we'll have something on the feed just to kind of hold everybody over, and then hopefully in January we just get right back up and going and and wrap things up and then before you know it. I think spring training is early this year, I think because of the WBE. I think report dates for some teams start like February tenth or something like that, so it's going to be here before we know it. Hopefully a much better season on the horizon for the Atlanta.

00:43:26
Speaker 1: Braves, no question about that. Ways compared to last year, I think that we could be safe in projecting that. Maybe no guarantees, but it'd be better than a year ago. If you want so, you can follow me on Twitter slash x at bt Roland and please follow the show as well at Hammer Territory across social media platforms Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, et cetera. And most importantly, subscribe to the show and also tell your friends about the podcast. We know how many Brace fans the friends are race fans that are in the world. I live in Atlanta, but even around the Atlanta area, et cetera. There's a lot of you, so spread the word for us. If you audio listeners, scribe on YouTube. If you're a YouTube subscriber, decribe on audio double up. We appreciate the support in that way too, for our sponsors and everybody else and the network. Door Toory has got a great thing going. There's lots and lots of team shows. If you like other teams as well, we have you come across the board and the flagship a Sparittory with can Rosa Ball. The list goes on and on and on, but thank you everyone listening to the show as always, and we'll see everybody next time.