Emergency Pod: Drake Baldwin Hurt, Braves Release Aaron Bummer
In this mini emergency episode of the podcast, Scott Coleman and Stephen Tolbert react to Drake Baldwin hitting the IL with an oblique strain, the Braves (finally) saying goodbye to Aaron Bummer, sending JR Ritchie back to the minor leagues, and some bullpen reinforcements.
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2026-05-19
31 min
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00:00:22 Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome back to this mini emergency edition of the Hammer Territory podcast. I'm Scott Coleman and i am joined on the show today by Stephen Tolbert and Stephen, I've got to ask you, it's Tuesday morning. As we were recording this, you told me just moments ago before finding out the news of the day about Drake Baldwin and Aaron Bummer and Jr. Richie, that you were having a good morning. And then the Braves drop a tweet that Drake Baldwin has a strained right oblique. He is going on the injured list for we don't know how long. How has that changed your morning here on an otherwise fine today. 00:01:00 Speaker 2: So we knew, we knew after the game last night that there was going to be moves today. They had to get some pitching up. We thought maybe there was going to be an a Aaron Bummer move. There was, We're going to get that to that at closer to the end of the show. What we did not expect was the Drake Baldwin news. And you know, they just lost Sean Murphy and when they brought Murphy back, they obviously dfa Jonah him and so they went from having potentially three of those guys to having zero of them very quickly. It's just catch your depth. You just run through it so quick sometimes. And you know, I didn't love Oblique. We're going to get into it. But you know, the variance of what that injury could mean in terms of time missed is pretty wide and a little scary if I'm being honest and honestly, just thirty thousand foot view of the team. This is like the one guy they couldn't really afford to lose right now. I mean, he was the best hitter on the team for the entire season and certainly in May. I've got some numbers to back that up here in a minute. But yeah, just not what you wanted, not what you wanted on a Tuesday morning, especially when you've got, you know, a long stretch of games no off days coming up. Yeah, it's tough news. 00:02:11 Speaker 1: It really is. And you know the vibes even though Monday night's game was just a total disaster now in more ways than one, but it was like, okay, Ron Lacuna Junior gets activated just minutes before first pitch on Monday night. You're gonna get akuny in there. Presumably on Tuesday, kind of have a full strength lineup for the first time all year. You have hasan Kim back, like it was like, okay, I know Kim has been slow out of the gate, but it's like, all right, we are mostly healthy on offense for the first time other than I guess Sean Murphy. And speaking of that broken finger now hurts even more that Murphy isn't in there. I know there are big fans and big haters of Sean Murphy and Braves Country, but regardless of what you think of, Murphy is certainly better than Chadwick Trump, who was officially called up, and better than Sandy Leone. I mean, that's the catcher situation now, regardless of it's Chadwick Trump or Sandy leon I mean, they're gonna bat ninth and you hope that the big moment doesn't find them too much. You know, they're not They're not great by any means. I mean, they are very kind of what you would expect for backup catchers at this point. But I mean, make no mistake about it, even with Akunya coming back, this is a massive loss for the top of this lineup. 00:03:22 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a massive loss. Against lefties, which I feel like have been the Braves' weakest side. You know, they they don't play dom or yeahs against lefties and so it's just a slightly lesser lineup. Having a Kunya back of course will help that. But Drake was It's an incredible thing to say, but Drake was their best hitterer against lefties and has been for pretty much the last two years, and so that side gets weaker. You know, what we're waiting to see is the severity of the oblique strain, and so we're going to get into that a little bit. There's there's just varying levels and Scott, I know you've got some numbers on how different this can be, but like you're looking at you know, it's possible it can be as little as two weeks, but it's also possible it can go much longer than that. 00:04:11 Speaker 1: So these this stat is courtesy of men four or I'm sorry, Men's sub four on Twitter, who's a great follow Braves fan. So Mitchell went through and kind of tallied up all of the oblique injuries to catchers the past two years. That includes Sean Murphy who strained his oblique and it was a severe one at the start of twenty twenty four, Murphy ended up missing about two months. He missed fifty eight days in total with the injury. There have been some cases like Patrick Bailey, who's a very good defensive catcher. Patrick Bailey only missed ten days in twenty twenty four. There are instances of players missing a month. There's instances of players missing two and a half months. Last year, Shay Langaliers, who's of course a former friend of the organization, missed twenty four days with an oblique strain. Adley Rushman, who is a very high pedigree catcher, actually suffered two oblique strains last year, missed thirty eight days and missed thirty five days. So I think the overall TLDR of that summary is it's a wide range, and oblique injuries are tricky. Not only do you have to get it right to hit, but as a catcher you're throwing the ball a lot, you're blocking baseballs. It's an injury that you can reaggravate if you're not careful as well. So I think it's fair to say it's going to be at least a little while for Drake, and I'm guessing later this afternoon, when Walt Weiss meets with the media, we'll probably get a better idea of what their early timeline is. 00:05:38 Speaker 2: Yeah, so basically anything from two weeks to three months. It's like the range, and that's of course a crazy range, but it's all about the severity of the strain. One good thing is the brace play a random four o'clock game today, which means Walt will actually meet with the media earlier than normal, so we might get an answer here in the next hour. I have the answer by the time you're listening to this. We don't have it as we're recording. We are monitoring to see if anything drops. But yeah, it's all gonna come down to the severity of the strain. And I think they graded one, two, three and whatever that is, you know, that'll give us an idea of the timeline. But even that, like it's so individual, right, because it's such a The thing about obliques in athletes is and I remember Sean Murphy talking about this, like you can't really do anything without using your oblique, Like you can't like sneeze, you can't walk, like even like talking, Like it's so easy to just reaggravate it that you have to almost do nothing for a while just so it calms down. And that's the that's the tricky part. That's also why it hurts pictures so much because they can't throw it all until that pain is completely gone. People remember Spencer Strater went through that in spring training. So it is just an annoying injury and people that follow baseball know this. The wide range of it makes it super annoying. And with Drake, of course, you're going to be as careful. One good thing about having the lead the Braves have is they can be a little conservative. But this is the guy they couldn't lose. This is the guy. This is the best hitter on the team this year. You know, a lot of the focus now is gonna shift to Ronnie coming back, and hopefully the break that Ronnie got, we could start seeing the traditional Ronald Lacuna Junior because the Braves are gonna need like a top of the older, top of like elite level hitter to step up and replace the elite hitter that they just lost for an undetermined amount of time. 00:07:31 Speaker 1: Well, and I mean Akunya comes back. It'd be great if Austin Riley could go on one of his patented heaters. You know, it's been a very slow start for Hassan Kim, but maybe he'll come out of it a little bit. Of course, we had a great week last week for Mikeystremsky. Hopefully he keeps it going. And even Matt Olson, from his very lofty standards, has been in quite a funk for the last seven to ten days. And you know, I will say this lineup is good enough that if you have basically a zero as your ninth hitter, it kept, they should be okay. I know the offense has cooled quite a bit, hopefully, just talked about all those players who are going to reinforce it a little bit. It's certainly not great. Please don't hear what I'm not saying. It's this is a giant blow to a team that has come on some hard times offensively. But if you can tell yourself a story of some of these guys who have been underperforming and or hurt the first you know, month and a half of the season, let's hope they're going to be okay all things considered. 00:08:29 Speaker 2: Yeah, So I was looking at the numbers this morning, this is before the Baldwin news. I was just curious what everybody. I like to look at like offensive numbers by month because there's usually a pretty clear delineation of production. And you know, Yas has had a really good month. I think Yaz is like at a one forty WRC plus for the month. Olsin's at like a one thirty. A lot of that was early in the month. The last ten days or so, he's slowed down. Three guys that are really kind of falling on hard times this month have been Michael Harris. I think he's at like a sixty four WRC plus for the month. I think Oz He's at like a forty w USC plus for the month, and I think Debond's at like a sixty one. So you know, you talk about three guys that you know, add them. Austin Riley has had a better month than he had in April, but still not probably to the standards you expect Austin Riley to hit. So that's four guys right there, Austin, Ozzi, Michael and Debon along with Acunya right who's coming back and probably be in the lineup today. Like those guys collectively need to cover up what they just lost, right and Acunya is good enough to do it by himself, honestly, Like if if you get like prime a Acunya, then you just replace one elite hitter with another. But obviously we need he has a play in three weeks. We need to see what he's gonna look like. But yeah, you're right, Austin Riley, like stepping up Mike, Ozzie and Debond kind of finding it again would help, especially against lefties. It's gonna have to be a collective and a lot of the right handed batster are gonna have to step up. 00:09:56 Speaker 1: So we will see kind of what takes place in the weeks to come. Hopefully it's a fewer amount of weeks. I don't know, Maybe you get Drake back in three to four, but it could be a while, guys. I mean that's again the timing of losing Sean Murphy to the broken finger and then trading Jonaheim a couple of weeks ago. It's just it's really unfortunate when it rains, it poors, and no really just kind of the first big hurdle this team has to face because losing Acuona was bad. But there is some depth in the outfield, maybe not elite depth, but they at least could kind of move some pieces around and be okay. But a Sandy Leone Chadwick Trump catcher situation is a far, far, far cry from Baldwin and Heim and Murphy just a couple of days ago. All right, Stephen, we're going to take one quick break. When we come back, there is more news to discuss on Aaron Bummer Jr. Richie, some bullpen reinforcements, and much more. We love our dolphin, Bella, who splays out in the open sun on our floor like she's an underwear model. And that's why we love her so much. 00:10:59 Speaker 2: To scratch her belly. 00:11:01 Speaker 3: She's a cutie, that Bella. And a quick message from today's sponsor, the ASPCA Pet Health Insurance Program. If you're frantically looking for what to do with your pup when they have an issue, the program offers customizable accident and illness plans, making it easier to get your pet the care they need. When you enroll in an ASPCA Pet Health Insurance Plan, you could get a twenty five dollars Amazon gift card. It's a little treat for you while you're doing something great for your pet. To explore coverage, visit ASPCA Pet Insurance dot Com slash file that's ASPCA pet Insurance dot com slash foul. Eligibility restrictions apply. Visit ASPCA pet Insurance dot com slash Amazon terms for more info. This is a paid advertisement. Insurance is underwritten by either Independence American Insurance Company or United States Fire Insurance Company and produced by PTZ Insurance Agency Limited. The ASPCA is not an insurance is not engaged in the business of insurance. 00:11:55 Speaker 1: Art Stephen. Maybe the news that we anticipated was going to come on Tuesday, after just a disastrous appearance on Monday night, Aaron Bummer, left handed reliever with the team the past three years, has been released. The Braves did not even waste their time with a DFA and the waiver process and seeing if somebody would claim him flat out released. Aaron Bummer owed about six million dollars the rest of the way, so this is not an insignificant release. They are going to eat that money. But I think it was pretty obvious. The last couple of weeks for Bummer have just been a disaster. He has genuinely been like the worst relief pitcher in the National League this year. A move that felt inevitable after Monday night and no more Aaron Bummer with the Atlanta Braves. 00:12:41 Speaker 2: Yeah, this is the news we thought we were getting today, and we did get it. It's just it's been evident for really like the last two years. He was able to get through it a little bit better last year, but like, the stuff has come down so much. His last year with the White Sox, his average fastball was ninety four point seven miles an hour, which is ninety five miles an hour basically this year, three years later, it's at ninety point one. So he's lost almost five miles an hour on his fastball, which is an insane amount. I mean, there's just you cannot survive, Like he's not a good enough pitcher where he can survive. Most guys aren't good enough pictures to survive losing that much on your fastball. Yes, the sweeper has always been his best pitch, but it plays off having a fastball that can beat guys, and now he doesn't have that. And so it has been crystal clear to anybody who's watching over the last especially this year, but really the last eighteen months that he is not a big league reliever anymore. And the only reason he was on the team is because he's made serious money. The Braves owe him ten million dollars this year, and that was quite literally holding his spot on the roster. That was the only thing, And it was just a matter of when are the Braves willing to just treat that as a sunk cost and move on. That was always gonna come down to Brave. The Braves have a little bit of a weird thing about dead money. They don't like dead money on the books. They actually go to pretty far links to not have dead money on the books. So I thought there was a chance they would ride this thing out till like July. To be honest, I'm pretty impressed that they just cut bait in the middle of May. But that's how bad he's been. And that outing yesterday was good. God, it took him forty pitches to get through three outs. You walked like five hitters, gave up a grand Sland. I mean, it was it was so bad. They just couldn't pretend anymore. And that's what we've been doing. We've just kind of been pretending that he's a big league reliever still and he's not. And the bullpen is better because they got somebody else up. 00:14:40 Speaker 1: Basically, it came to a point where you just could not in good conscious send Aaron Bummer out there anymore. I mean, you mentioned the drop in velocity, and I think you know about I think it was last summer, last July, last August, Aaron suffered a shoulder injury and went on the sixty day IL and his stuff had fallen off last year, and it's even worse this year. And I think you know the fact that the Braves just flat out released Bummer. I am sure. I bet you five dollars that Alex Anthopolis called twenty nine other front offices this winter and said, hey, maybe you are you looking to buy low on a lefty reliever, and maybe we'll cover a little bit of the money, and you know, maybe where we could swap like a contract for a contract or something. I guarantee you, based on the evidence today, that Bummer was flat out released, that Alex tried, and I'm sure he got a bunch of no thanks, have zero interest, no matter what. That kind of makes me think that not only the Braves thank Bummer is just cooked beyond all belief, but other teams do as well. Now you lose Bummer and the Braves also sent down Jr. Richie, and we'll talk about Jr. A little bit later in the show a little more in depth. But now that you have two roster spots open, the team recalled Dylan Dodd and they called up Victor Maderos, who's maybe not a super familiar name. Maderos was acquired from the Angels. He's had a couple of cups of coffee in the Major's the last few seasons. The results for Maderos, who is a righty, were not great, but he does throw the ball decently well and had pretty good numbers with Gwinnett. So two new faces in the bullpen, Dylan Dodd and Victor Maderos. 00:16:16 Speaker 2: You know, some of the subtexts behind the releasing of Bummer is this six man rotation that they've been running and a shortened bullpen that they've been running. Like having kind of a black hole in your bullpen is not the biggest deal when you have an eight man bullpen, right Like most teams have a bad reliever somewhere on the roster. But the remember the Braves only have a seven man bullpen right now because they've been running a six man rotation and so this is what really turned this from a problem to an urgent problem. Is when you have a game like they had last night where Jr. Richie doesn't get through I think he got through like three or four innings, and the bullpen has to cover. And then you got a bunch of days without an off day and you got a short bullpen. You got guys like Ronaldo and Diddier who have limited usage or at least have been used in unlimited fashion so far, Like you, just so many games that Braves have really short bullpens, and I just this is and you and Brad talked about this on the show on Sunday, and we've talked about it a bunch like this was not This just did not feel like a sustainable situation. And I'm glad we're finally getting to the point where the team agrees we just got to get somebody else. You know, Dodd I think is just flat out better than Bummer. The only reason Dodd was down and Bummer was up is because Dodd is a league at makes league minimum and had minor league options, and Bummer makes ten million and had no options. That's literally the only reason. Because Dodd's just better than Bummer. I'm not saying Dodd's some great reliever, but he's very He's clearly better than Aaron Bummer. And so now they have I'm curious to see how they roll it out, but now it seems like they at least have a more stable collection of relievers to give Walt. I felt bad for Walt multiple times this year, was like, what is the guy supposed to do? Like he's just gotten very he's got like three options when the game starts, and just praying to God that the starter can get through seven innings basically, And that's what happened in that elder start where he was pitching in the eighth inning. You know, Walt walked around, He's like, I've got like two relievers tonight, Like what am I supposed to do? And I just I don't think that is sustainable. I'm glad the team finally agrees and we get to see what kind of the new version of the bullpen looks like. 00:18:20 Speaker 1: Well, and you have the situation Saturday night where Walt very clearly did not want to go to his Big three, and then even last night, in a twelve to nothing blowout, he had to have ditty or fwin Test throw an inning. He had to throw Tyler Kinley out there for an inning, and Kinley's been used more than basically anyone, and then he used Jorge Matteo at the end, like you should not have to do that. You should not have to burn one of Ditty or fwen Test's weekly appearances in a twelve nothing baseball game. That's why you have Victor Maderos on your roster to go eat three innings and say, Victor, you throw the ball until you can't anymore and do what you can. Or even Dylan Dodd, who's who worked three innings in relief with Gwinnette the other night. He's worked multip innings in the past. Of course, he was one time a starting pitcher before they moved him to the bullpen. So now you have just more of a real bullpen, because you're right, I mean, they had like four and a half actual relievers out there, and when you don't want to just torch Iglesias, Lee and Suarez to the ground and not have anything left. By August and September, it felt like it was a breaking point. And you know, at least now you have two more fresh arms that you can go to And sure, I don't think we're gonna see Dylan Dodd or Victi Maderos in a tie three to three game if we get there on Tuesday or Wednesday night. But if the Braves are up by eight or down by eight, that's that's when you need those type of arms to just kind of bridge the gap. 00:19:39 Speaker 2: Yeah, And that's like the Braves were down six to one or no, six to nothing when Aaron Bummer came in the game and like his job was to get out and save arms, and it took him forty two pitches to get three outs, and another six runs came Acrol Like, Yeah, if you can't pitch in a six to nothing game, you can't pity. You just can't be up here. 00:19:59 Speaker 1: So it was harder to watch, like genuinely hard to watch. 00:20:04 Speaker 2: Yeah, And the walks have like shot up like crazy this year. The stuff has gone down just just everything in the wrong direction basically. So this was overdue. I'm glad they did it. I'm not saying these two guys are like gonna come save the bullpen, but the bullpen doesn't really need saving. They just need a little bit more support from the six seven eight guys in the bullpen. It just it cannot be like they were gonna run a Glaciers swarz and lead to the ground. Like the goal is to win a World Series, so you gotta have these guys fresh in October. So they just needed more from five, six, seven, eight, And I think this does help that a little bit. 00:20:41 Speaker 1: It definitely does, and we'll see kind of how they're utilized. You know, James Karenhak is also a popular name, although he's not on the forty man. So that's probably why Victor Madero's got the call. You don't have to make an additional roster move to make a space, but at the very least, Walt has some fresher arms in his bullpen and hopefully dealing on Dodd sticks. He's been really effective, especially against righties. He has some weird reverse splits going on where he's been good against righties but not great against lefties. And if he can figure something out against lefties, then you have a genuinely good reliever. And we'll see how long Victor Maderos is around. He's a live arm and he can eat two or three innings if you need it, like they needed it last night, all right, Stephen one more quick break, But then let's talk about JR. Richie, who is sent down to Gunnett on Tuesday. 00:21:28 Speaker 4: Todays show is brought to you by Fastenal and their Bodyguard line of workplace safety gear. Bodyguard safetyroducts are engineered to meet demanding industrial standards, delivering reliable protection crews can trust day in and day out. Designed to offer strong value, Bodyguard delivers dependable safety at a price point that helps companies control costs without sacrificing performance. From gloves and eyewear to head, hand and fall protection, Bodyguard safety products by Fastenal are designed to perform when it matters most. Fastenal makes it easy get the right safety equipment where and when you need it, so your crew can focus on the job, not the risks. Fastenal where industry gets it done safely. 00:22:05 Speaker 1: All right, Steven, we are going to now talk about JR. Richie who was let down by his defense on Monday night. But it's also more than fair to say that other than that first start against the Washington Nationals, it's been a tough go for JR. His numbers are rough across the board, his ERA and FIP and ex FIP and expected era are all probably average about five. And you combine that with the fact that he has not been able to work very deep into games, which is hurting your bullpen. I think it was probably time. There is no shame at twenty two years of age in coming up to the majors and not necessarily being ready to just dominate. It is so difficult to do. This is not the end of the road for Jr. Richie. I think he has a bright future with Atlanta, to be honest, but I think as we saw over the last couple of weeks that he just wasn't ready. He doesn't have the putaway pitch, he doesn't have the zone command, He's unable to work deeper into games. It just came to a breaking point where it's like, you know what, let's send him back to Gwinett and call up somebody else. 00:23:10 Speaker 2: Yeah. Credit to Richie because he got the Braves through a stretch. I mean when they lost Ronaldo, you know, they didn't know what to do with Ronaldo. They weren't really sure what to do with Grant Holmes. There was that like two week stretch where the rotation was like who's gonna pitch? And Richie did cover a gap of about three or four weeks, so credit to him for that, but it was it was just abundantly clear he's not ready. I mean he's walking almost six per nine, which you just can't do up here, and not when you throw ninety four. Like, if you throw ninety nine and you can strike everybody out, then you can get away with some walks, but you can't throw nine. 00:23:46 Speaker 1: You can't. 00:23:47 Speaker 2: I think he's running like an eighteen percent strikeout rate, which is pretty low, and like a fourteen percent walk rate, which is crazy high. It's like sean Newcomb territory. So yeah, he's just not ready. And like you said, part of this was part of the reason they sent him down right now is because of all the other stuff we just talked about where the pitching staff just need some reinforcements. Like last night's game. The defense was miserable last night, and the defense has been a strength all year for the exact same money. Jared Richie could have given up like like one run last night or two runs. Like, he was not the only problem last night. So people might see that and be like, wow, the Braids are blaming him for what happened last night. This is a totality of work that he's done with the last three weeks that it's kind of slowly been moving this direction where it's like, all right, he just probably needs to be back in Conette, get some better command. I think he's I think some of it is just and this is very normal in young pittures. I think some of it is afraid to throw the ball of the plate. He's afraid everybody's going to hit the ball of the ballpark. That's very normal. That's what usually happens. That's white guys go down, come back up, and go down, come back up. They learned that not every guy's gonna hit the ball of the ballpark. Throw the ball of the plate, get ahead in the count, and so that's what he's got a that's what he's got to learn. I am. I am pretty curious to see what happens now in the rotation. Are they going to five? You know, is Martin Perez and Grant Holmes just like the four and the five now with with Sales Strider Elder and then going back to an eight man bullpen. I really hope that's what they do, because I think we need a standard bullpen set up for a little while to get like Tyler Kinley's Arm's gonna fall off, so like we got it. I think we need to go back to an eight man bullpen for at least a little bit to get everybody some some needed rest. 00:25:29 Speaker 1: Yeah, you know it's you have your big three, which is Chris Sayle, Spencer Schreider, and as everybody predicted, Bryce Elder. Just like every time I look at the leaderboards and see Bryce Elder is legitimately one of the best starting pitchers in baseball this year. Just what a turnaround out of nowhere, Like this guy had an ear ray of five the last few years, and just. 00:25:51 Speaker 2: And where would they be? Where would they be if he didn't do that? Like, yeah, it's not just amazing he's done it, it's how much they needed. It's what's crazy. 00:26:00 Speaker 1: Yeah, so you have that big three, Grant Holmes, Martin Perez, Dittier, Fontees at some point. I still think Diddier is going to have to be back in the rotation at some point this year. I know he's been in the bullpen for about a month now and that's limited as innings. Alex and Thoppolis talked about having mentors out in the bullpen with Iglesias and Suarez. I think that's great. I think there's ways to build and develop a pitcher that don't involve them going out there every five days. But you know, we'll see kind of what the future holds for that six You know, Martin Perez has been great, and he has a big start on i'll say a couple hours against Miami, but if the wheels start to come off there, maybe that forces their hand. And it sounds like Hirston Waldrip is slowly but surely getting a little bit closer. Of course, he's got to make it through a handful of rehab starts and bullpens before we can even think about where Hurston Waldrop will slot in, maybe later in the summer Schwalenbach or if they acquire someone at the deadline. So there are some kind of reinforcements there. But I think it just became more and more apparent that Jr. Was just not ready to take the ball every five or six days. It was putting a strain on the bullpen, as we have talked about now a few times, and as as they have done the first seven or eight weeks of the year. It's a day by day proposition with this rotation, and if you throw the ball, well, you're gonna stick around, and if you don't, you're probably gonna find yourself either in the bullpen or in Gwinett. 00:27:21 Speaker 2: Yeah, and listen they you know, another thing Richie did was because he was around for four weeks or so, three or four weeks, pretty much every turn through the rotation, Sale Strider home, like everybody got extra rest, right, So you know you talk about did your fuintes and being in the bullpen and limiting his innings. Well, one of the reasons they've done this six men rotation for the last few weeks is to limit everybody's usage. And so even if did you even if Jr. Richie is not ready to be a full time contributor, that contribution of giving Chris Sale basically extra rest every time he starts will hopefully pay dividends later in the summer and into the fall. So you know, I hope people aren't too down on Jr. Richie because he got sent down. This was always probably the most likely outcome. I like the idea that most kids don't come up at twenty two for a team that's trying to win a World Series and just keep a spot forever. Like what Schwallenbach did last year is not the norm. What Richie did this year is much more normal. And so he's going to be fine. He'll go back to Gwinette, he'll throw the ball over the plate more, and the next time he comes up he'll be even better for. 00:28:29 Speaker 1: It, Let's hope. And also, you know what, Jr. Has now been through it at the highest level, and he knows what it's going to take. And by all accounts, a good kid, good pedigree, works hard off the field. Drew really good reviews from his teammates in Atlanta for his work before the games and after the game. So I'm I'm still confident long term in JR. Richie, I think you are too. Sometimes it just doesn't click right away, and you said it perfectly. Not everyone comes up and just starts mowing down big league hitters like it's you know, like it's It is so hard to consistently work into the fifth, sixth, seventh inning of baseball games. And hopefully, whenever we see j R. Later this summer, which I think is a virtual guarantee, he's ready to go. He's ready to make an impact, and he's he's here for good whenever that time does come. 00:29:18 Speaker 2: Yeah, and then the last thing on Diddier is you would talking about maybe moving him back to the rotation. I do think they have to pick a lane with him. Either use him as a reliever, like a standard reliever, like we at some point we got to take the training wheels off because I think they're too restrictive for Walt. Like, either use him as a reliever. I'm fine with that if he's being used as a standard reliever, or put him back in the rotation. Send it back to Gwinnette. You know you got again because you know some of its Lopez still not being completely available. I don't like having these restrictions on the bullpen because I think it puts too much stress on the top three guys and protecting the top three guys, Like, if you want to win a World Series, you've got to protect the top three guys. That is, like it's Chris Sill, Strider, Elder, and then those top three guys in the bullpen, Like that's your World Series run right there, So you got to protect those guys. And the way to protect those guys in the bullpen specifically is have other dudes in the bullpen that can pitch when it's twelve to nothing, when it's six to nothing, like you. That's I think that's what we got to move to over the next few weeks. I hope they just go five man rotation, eight man bullpen and solve a lot of that for Walt. That's what I hope they do. We'll see what it ends up being. 00:30:30 Speaker 1: Yep, we will, indeed, and we're going to wrap the show here. It's gonna be kind of a mini edition of this well emergency episode for the show. You know, we usually say unless it is the off season or trade deadline. Usually the in season emergency shows are not the greatest. Whenever we have to do them, it's usually more bad news than good news. Not always. Sometimes it's a contract extension or a trade out of nowhere, a big promotion, but not the news we wanted. Drake Baldwin on the IL for at least the little while, and then of course a lot of movement with the pitching staff. The plan is to be back with another show tonight. I believe Steven and the better Coleman of this podcast, Sean Coleman, are going to do their usual recap of tonight's game, let's hope for a win. And of course if there's any more news, I am sure we will get more on, especially the Baldwin injury from Walt Weiss here just to kind of any updates that come, we will have on the next show for you all. Until that time, thank you as always for checking out the podcast. We'll be back with plenty more Braves coverage throughout the week. Until then, we will see everybody next time.
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