The wrong side of a broom in Los Angeles

00:00:22
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and we come to episode two of the Hammer Territory podcast. I am your host, Brat Roland, and as always I am joined by my friend Scott Coleman. Scott, it was a brutal week for the Braves, but the last. Here we are with episode two and plan to talk about Hey Brad, good to be on with you.

00:00:37
Speaker 2: As you said, it was not the friendliest of weeks for the Braves, but as we do on this podcast, as longtime listeners know, we try to talk through it and find the silver linings and just try to hope that the Braves have some better days.

00:00:50
Speaker 1: On the horizon. They certainly will. And before we dive into all that, episode one is available in your feed right now as well, So if you missed any of that, if you're just finding the podcast of all, thank you for finding the podcast. I know we have a bunch of people that have come over with us from Battery Power. Welcome aboard. Also, if you're finding us for the first time, we definitely appreciate you joining us. We are wall to wall with a Land of Braves coverage with myself and Scott as well as Steven Tolbert and Sean Coleman. We're also part of the Foul Territory Network. It's great to be a part of that crew, and please continue to leave ratings and reviews. We were blessed to have the Apple and Spotify charts crashed in a positive way by our following the last couple of days. That was great to see and keep it coming. We do appreciate that. But with all that out of the way, we'll get sort of broad At the top of this podcast, we'll kind of dig into the weekend series between the Braves and the Dodgers. It was a really rough week, as we both just reference, but one in five for the Braves. They have actually only lost five or six twice all last season. Even with that, they're twenty and twelve, so isn't as if the sky is following. We'll probably come back to that theme in a second, but as we'll kind of come back to later as well, the offense has been letting the Braves down, and that's a a bit of a change from usual. But Scott, I mean broadly speaking, and we'll dig in more with more detail here, but it's the offense and it's like kind of a shrug. It's like it's pretty hard to watch right now, which is not usual for this team.

00:02:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's very bizarre, especially after the historic run that basically the same lineup from a year ago did, and I mean just night in and night out, the Braves just cannot score.

00:02:20
Speaker 1: It's very, very weird to watch.

00:02:23
Speaker 2: I guess big picture twenty and twelve after about five weeks of the season. Now, if we came on and talked in the final week of spring training that the Braves would be twenty and twelve, you'd take it.

00:02:34
Speaker 1: Of course.

00:02:34
Speaker 2: Obviously that's a good pace. It's about one hundred win pace, and that's all fine and dandy, but it doesn't feel like that right now.

00:02:41
Speaker 1: The vibes are not great.

00:02:42
Speaker 2: It seems like the players are pressing a little bit. If you go on social media, it does seem like the world is ending. And to be clear, the Braves have not played well. They got beat up pretty good by the Dodgers this weekend. It was really the first time in a while, going back multiple seasons, where the Braves were just out class and basically every facet, and that Seattle series was tough as well, just ran into some good pitching. So there are certainly some things that are concerning especially the offense. I guess there is a glimmer of hope that a couple of the stars who have underperformed so far seem to be awakening a little bit. With the way they performed over the weekend, and the pitching staff, especially the starting rotation, continues to be really good. You just have to hope that the bets are going to wake up and the pitching will continue to be good. Yeah, that's a good way to kind of frame it, and you reference it in passing. But I'll just say this to the Braves are currently on a one hundred and one win pace, and if you a transfer will compare that pace to the Vibe right now, those things are diametrically opposite. It really is kind of hilarious to take a half step back and be like, hey, this team is still twenty and twelve and on pace for one hundred wins. But I am with you all the way, and it's easy to see why after the worst week in a while for this team. So we'll get into what happened this weekend kind of chronologically now, because there's plenty of discuss Friday's game was the most competitive of the three in Los Angeles ended up being an eleven ning loss for the Braves, and once again it was the offense to let them down. They only had six hits and one walk in eleven innings. You reference to the guys who've come out of it a little bit in terms of their struggles. Austin Riley and Ronald Acunya are those two players. They were the only two guys that had a pulse offensively over the weekend, and they were also the guys who made dents.

00:04:21
Speaker 1: On Friday. Riley hit a home run Ronnie also did to tie the game up. And I don't know about you, Scott, it was nice to see Ronnie turn on a fastball up in the zone. He's been missing that pitch quite a bit this season. We'll get into kind of the nitty gritty of the extra innings in a second, but broadly speaking, at least we saw Riley and Acunya come a out a little bit.

00:04:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was good to see. I think especially Acunya. It seems like the book on him right now is fastballs up in the zone. He's been getting peppered with those, and he's either been fouling him off or swinging and missing, which is pretty stark from indifferent from what he did a year ago. And so for Acunya to get on top of the ball in ninety five in the upper zone hit a skyscraper that just cleared the left field wall, it was great to see Ronald do that. He had a couple of big hits or hard hits as well on Saturday, which is an encouraging signs. Frankly, the Braves need more out of their trio. Matt Olsen has been awful for a couple of weeks now offensively, defensively, he had a rough weekend as well, and you mentioned the Riley home run four hundred and fifty feet is a good sign. Let's hope it just kind of helps him settle in. And he had a couple of other hits over the weekend. But overall, Man, it's going to be a theme of this podcast. The offense was not good enough. Only six hits and one walk in eleven innings. One walk in eleven innings is not going to cut it. We'll talk about the Braves and some of their swing happy ways a little bit later in the show. Just Man, you would like to think the offense was going to be able to pick up Charlie Morton, who was very good on Friday night against a loaded lineup, and they just couldn't do it. And that was the difference in the game for sure.

00:05:57
Speaker 1: And that's been a theme the last week or so, even even beyond that, is that the pitching has been good enough to win, even if it hasn't been perfect every single night. It's been good enough to win every night basically other than Saturday, when things not kind of blew up. But yeah, Morton was very solid. They had opportunities. They got one run in the tenth inning, and essentially, I don't know about you, I feel like getting a run extra innings is kind of the baseline. You have to get one in every inning just to live in the current Manfred state of baseball. With the free run on second base. They got one in the tenth, Iglesias couldn't quite hold it against the top of the daughter's order. Look giving up a run again, it goes both ways. One runs the baseline. You kind of expect to win maybe if you get a run, but it's not like a guarantee. And Atani sort of tied the game up with even not even a easy pitch to hit I would say so that was kind of a neutral in the tenth and maybe the microsmoud the entire weekend in some ways was the top of the eleventh inning, in which the Braves had a runner on second base, of course, the inherited runner with Ronnie and Ozzie Albi's and also and Riley up to the plate. They didn't score at all there, and given that's the baseline and this is off your order, it was kind of over right then and there, like, obviously they could have held them. They didn't do that, and that's why I lost the game. But it was just a missed opportunity that was right in front of them, and nothing's guaranteed, and that spy, you're extra endings for a reason. There's lots of variance, but when you don't score, it's like you're almost asking to lose.

00:07:21
Speaker 2: Well, and we're going to talk about Pierce Johnson's injury in a moment, and no disrespect to Jesse Chavez, who we all hold near and dearer to our hearts. But when the Braves did not score in the eleventh and Los Angeles had the top of their lineup coming up in the bottom half of the inning, which is hitting very well right now. It's about as opposite of two sides as you can have. The Braves is Big Trio really is not hitting at all. Whereas Mookie Bets, Freddie Freeman and sho Heyotani gave the Braves the full show Heyo Tani experience this weekend. He just destroyed them single handedly. I think show Hey outscored the Braves, which is pretty impressive for a single player to do. Of course, the game was not going to end well. Jesse Chavis came into an impossible situation and gave up a little bloop to center field. I thought Michael Harris might have a chance. He didn't die for the ball, which was a little frustrating in that spot. Quite literally, if the ball gets down, the game is over. It's frustrating, especially knowing how Saturday and Sunday would end up going. It felt like Friday night was the one chance the Braves really had to salvage a game in the series, and they weren't able to do it despite the multiple chances. Other than the Riley home run and the Acunya home run, the offense was invisible. I mean, it was largely nothing going on for most of the night, couldn't do much of anything against Gavin Stone, the Dodgers starter, or any of their relief corps. Just a frustrating loss, to be sure. It was the second walkoff loss for the Braves in four days this past week. They also had the walk off in Seattle, and just a tough way to lose games. Every loss is going to sting. But when you lose an eleven innings in a game that I think it's fair to say you really felt like you should have won, it just stings a little bit extra, that.

00:09:03
Speaker 1: Is for sure. And it was a close game, you know, obviously it's a coin flip in theory when you go to extra innings. Also, the Braves played their sixth extra inning game on Friday in their first thirty games. That's a pace that is like sky high last year. Just for reference, they only played eleven games in extra innings all last season. They are more than halfway there through their first fifth of the year. Basically, so playing close games, they're not mashing as much offensively, they kind of lease to some of that. It was also at the end of Friday because Philadelphia won. That was the first time the Braves have not been in first place in the NA least since April second of last year, so it's basically been thirteen months that they had been out of first place, and as of now when we're recording on Sunday, they're still out a first place. But that was the first time and a little bit wake up call. Obviously, It's worth noting that the Phillies have been scalding hot, so it wasn't as if they were chased down by a bad team. Philly is the currently number one team in baseball, I believe by record, but still you don't want to be and second place if you can help it, and the Braves are currently there as of early May.

00:10:03
Speaker 2: And I don't know what the Phillies did to the scheduling gods, and they have played one. Yes, at the end of the day, the Braves and Phillies are going to play the exact same schedule.

00:10:14
Speaker 1: I know.

00:10:14
Speaker 2: There was a lot of back and forth about this online and on social media, but the Phillies have not played a team with a winning record since the Braves left town on opening weekend. That was March thirty first. Was the last time the Phillies began a game against a team above five hundred and I think throughout the whole month of May, I don't know if they play a single team that's currently has a winning record. Again, it's all going to balance out, right. They're gonna have a tough schedule in June, July, August, September. Hopefully the Braves schedule calms down. It's not an easy week ahead, but man, I mean you talk about playing. They open up early with the Phillies, then they played the Rangers, the Diamondbacks, last year's World Series teams. They already made the trip out to Seattle and Los Angeles, which is probably going to end up being the two best teams on the West Coast. They got the Astros out of the way, although Houston has struggled a bit. They just played the Guardians. The Braves have not had an easy schedule so again, I know it's tough to have the glass half full take right now, but twenty and twelve against a pretty good schedule so far, it could be worse. I guess maybe it's not all roses. We're not going to come on here and just say everything is fine and dandy, but twenty and twelve against a really difficult schedule, especially lately, I think you have to take it and just kind of hope that things right themselves and the team figures it out.

00:11:36
Speaker 1: Let us move on to Saturday in a game we can not even really talk about the blow by blow because it was so lopsided and eleven to two loss, their fourth loss of five games and only their second real blowout of the year. The only time they'veen blown out the season was sixteen to four loss to the Mets where Alan Winen's was pitching and got shelled and the end of the game with Giorme on the mount. That was probably the most embarrassing loss of the season, but this is on Saturday. It was probably number two on that list. It was also I'm not sure you could this across baseball, Scott. It was a blowout day on the whole. Four games were decided by at least eleven runs on Saturday. That tie for the most on a single day in baseball since nineteen hundred, so one hundred and twenty plus years. And I did not even include the Braves lost. The Braids lost by nine, so they actually not included in that. So it was blowout day on Saturday in baseball, and the Braids were on the wrong end of one of those.

00:12:22
Speaker 2: We knew going in that it was going to be a tough night.

00:12:25
Speaker 1: We said them. We said it on the last year Upsode episode one, we said, I believe it was like, hey, Saturday is the one that if the Braids are gonna lose, it's probably gonna be the one that's the toughest on paper because it was Elder versus Elder was not exactly the best pittcher on the mountain. I guess the last night, we'll.

00:12:38
Speaker 2: Say, no, it was a It was a bad start for Bryce. Three in a third innings, seven runs, allowed, seven hits, four walks, handful of home runs.

00:12:48
Speaker 1: It was.

00:12:49
Speaker 2: It was not great and I you know, few pitchers are going to go to Los Angeles this year and pitch well against that Dodger lineup. But we knew that going in Elder was going to need to be just about perfect in order to survive. And then when the Dodgers are countering with their ace and Glass now has been one of the better starters in major leagues this year, it was going to be an uphill climb. The game was over early, is I guess. I know, Gay Burns of the Atlanta Journal Constitution tweeted out, early, go enjoy your Saturday night. I guess after a tough Friday night. It was I don't even know the right word, the fact that this one was over early and not a crushing loss, but it was going to be a tough one regardless. Elder just did not have it early on, and it was a game that was pretty much out of hand by the fourth inning.

00:13:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, and maybe we could take this a second now. Not necessarily a super deep dive, but it's a top that we've discussed many times in the past on our old feed. But for new listeners and just as a rekindling of sorts, keeping expectations in line for your number five starter is probably appropriate. And that's coming from me, and I'll raise my head. I have always been, i would say, more skeptical of Brice Elder than most, even when he was pitching well last year. I just kind of didn't buy it as far as that was concerned, and I think I'm probably gonna end up being right about that broadly speaking. But on the flip side, to defend Bryce Elder, most teams don't have a fifth starter that they're gonna love to see against the Dodgers, and as a reminder, Elder was the sixth starter coming into the season because the special trider who's the best pitcher is no longer available for the Braves. But I understand it was frustrating. I think we all, including me, tweeted out some level of frustration with watching Elder pitch in that spot. But just to be fair to him, like, you know, nobody's got seven starters that they love on their team. Nobody in baseball has that situation. And Elder, while he's not terribly inspiring to me, isn't a very appropriate fifth starter in the world of Major League Baseball. If he's facing a bad team, you feel pretty good about it. If he's facing the Dodgers on the road, you don't feel very good about it.

00:14:47
Speaker 2: No, it was a tough spot, and I'm curious to see what the Braves do with the fifth starter spot moving forward. They of course gave Alan Winans a chance. They gave Darius Binds two chances, and I believe this was the third for Elder. His first two were fine. He had to wiggle in and out of some trouble and when he's right. You mentioned being a fifth starter I think he is okay as a fifth starter, especially against the not great teams, teams that he can get away with poor command or issuing a couple of walks, But man, it's going to be tough for him against the game's better lineups. We know how good Bryce was in the first half of last season, but since then, since the All Star Game of twenty twenty three, it's been pretty bad. I think his era is about six across fifteen or so starts. The strikeouts have gone down, the walks have gone up, the home runs have gone up, and that's just not a recipe that's going to be successful for Elder. I'm curious to see the Braves could skip Elder this upcoming week. They have two off days coming so that they don't necessarily have to give the ball to Bryce, although they do seem to want to push back the starters whenever they can. It's kind of save innings. I'm not sure what you know, what they're going to do. They could go to a J. Smith Shover who was coming off a couple of nice appearances in Gwinnett. They could go back to Vines or Whinings and give them a chance, Or they could continue to roll Elder out there and just kind of hope that things improve. They just don't have a great, proven option at the fifth spot right now. That is not a Braves exclusive problem. Most teams do not have five really good starters that they can just pencil in for good performances every night. But right now, it's it is fair to wonder what the fifth spot in the rotation is going to hold, because I'm not sure that Bryce Elder is a bankable asset there.

00:16:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, and look, I'm to your point. I just pulled it up. I believe it. Since the Alto break of last season, he's thrown seventeen starts and he has an ERI over five. You know, that's the simple version. His peripherals are not great either, very less streckout right, very not great walk right for someone in his his position stuff wise. So I'm not telling you the Brice Elder is good. I don't think. I don't think I don't think they think that he is. But I would just caution people to, like again, not to belie able to the point too much. But you can go to the next guy down the line, down the line, and you know, Smith Shawber's the most exciting option Waldrope's you know, the next guy in the future, maybe, but there isn't a perfect solution for that spot right now. And one more time that should have been Lopez in the fifth spot, and now he's the fourth starter slash third starter, along with more than whatever you want to say. But they were not plenty for Sharer to be out. But as we always say, you cannot have enough starting pitching. Every team wants to have ten, eleven, twelve guys that they at least can throw out there. Elder is in the can throughout their list, but they will be uh, I would say. I would say it would be wise for them to plan as much as they possibly can. I would say, a beg good idea of skipping this week given what you just said in the schedule and all that, and maybe you try to minimize that spot for a while because there's nobody coming that's going to blow you away. I don't think in the majors as of May fifth, twenty twenty four. All I would say, beyond Elder and the blowout nature of that loss on Saturday, is that maybe we should talk about about Tyler Matzik in a not so fun way so that this is gonna be kind of a dark conversation.

00:18:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, we all, yeah, let us say we do not envy this conversation we're about to have about Kyler Matzick. But I think it's probably time to talk about him a little bit.

00:18:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, and look, ERA is not always the best indicator, especially ten innings into a season, but it's almost ten right now. His purpls are better than that fip in the high fives. It's not good anyway, but better than nine point nine ERA. He doesn't look good to me stuff wise, nor is the stock cast bat at ball data and his pitch movement stuff that is not exactly paying a super great picture either right now. And you know he was out last year, and he wasn't that good before he went down in twenty twenty two. So obviously world Series hero that will never be forgotten, but certainly it just by the merits. If you cover up the name of Tyler Matzik Scott and ask anyone in Brady's country if they're in love with this picture, they would.

00:18:54
Speaker 2: Say no, Yeah, it really sucks to see this version of Tyler Matzick because he effectively gave both his shoulder and his elbow to that incredible twenty twenty one run. You mentioned he was not good or effective in twenty twenty two, undergoes surgery, and then we were hoping and optimistic that Tyler was going to be able to make a full comeback. But through ten innings you mentioned an ERA of almost ten. His FIP is almost six. I mean, I guess, if you really want to be rosy, his ex FIP is closer to four. So maybe there's some fortune on the horizon. But you're right, the stuff does not look great. He's leaving a lot of stuff in the middle of the zone, and I just don't think the Braves are doing Tyler Matzik any favors by leaving him out there and kind of throwing him.

00:19:40
Speaker 1: To the wolves.

00:19:41
Speaker 2: He is a veteran, of course, so maybe there's an opportunity to place him on the injured list. The Braves are off on Monday and then begin a two game series with Boston. You know, maybe they put Matzk on the injured list, whether it's a real injury or not, and just see if he can work through some things. Maybe give him a little bit of a breather, have him throw some pens, and just try to recalibrate everything because right now, man, you said it perfectly. If you took Tyler Matzick's name away, I don't know how you keep sending out a reliever with a ten e er. It's just it's just not conducive to winning baseball. And the Braves do have some options in the minor leagues who they could replace Matsick with.

00:20:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he's been a little bit unlucky to this point. We sort of paint that picture, but it is true if you look at all the peripheral numbers, he's been unlucky. But you know, this is not everything but his he's throwing, he's not He's not throwing as hard as he used to, and that happens, you know, with age and being out for a year and a half. But he was averaging with his fastball in the ninety six range back in that World Series run and missing bats as a result, also getting ground balls as a result. And now he's sitting in that ninety three ninety four range. And that's not a huge, huge, huge drop off, but it does matter when you're something to throwing two and a half miles an hour less and uh, you know, things beyond that so we could do a deeper dive. We need to later on. You mentioned the other guys that are replacement options. We're talking about Pierce Johnson in a second here when it comes to the news. But they do have Ken Giles kicking around. They have Ray Kerr, who they acquired proactively this winner, plus some other guys who are already in the system. So if they want to get creative, they can go ahead and do that. But uh, at least we wanted to mention it, even if it's not the most fun conversation to have in the world. Let's preably talk about Sunday's game. They were down two nothing in what Scott five minutes. That's generous, maybe even less than that.

00:21:22
Speaker 2: Uh.

00:21:22
Speaker 1: They went they went down in an order on the top of the first and then Fred opened his day by walking Mookie Bets and allowing the home run to O Tani. You know, two of the five best players in the world. So not a huge shame there.

00:21:34
Speaker 2: Uh.

00:21:34
Speaker 1: And to Max's credit, he settled in and pushed pretty well until what the sixth or so, uh, and really only made two or three bat pitches in the entire game. At least they got punished and they got they got punished for home runs, but I thought Max was okay. Not a whole lot to discuss there. The reginally had one real threat in the entire game. It was the seventh inning Izuna homeward. And I'm not trying to make a two a huge deal out of this, but Adam Nuvaal should have been on first base and they should have had two guys on with two outs. I don't know if that would have mattered. But Duval very obviously had the fourth ball that would have walked him, and it was like a foot outside and it was called strike three, one count, and then he struck out the next pitch, and that was like, all right, we're done here. Yeah.

00:22:13
Speaker 2: It kind of perfectly summarizes where the Braves are at offensively, where a should have been Ball four seems like a death blow to this team's offensive chances because I don't know if anybody was expecting the lineup to come through in those final two innings. You mentioned Max Freed. It's just been an odd year for Max. I believe it was. David O'Brien of The Athletic pointed out that his era Freed's era in the first inning of games is fifteen point eight. Fifteen point eight through seven starts. For a guy, when he is right, is one of the best in baseball. After the first inning, his ERA is sub two. So if Max I don't know what he needs to do, maybe he alters his maybe it's just fluky baseball, Maybe he alters his warm up routine a little bit. Maybe it's just one of those things that will balance out. But an era, I mean every I believe, every start but one, he has given up a run in the first inning, and seemingly if he can get through the first inning without any damage, he's been good. He's been really capable. And the Max freed that we all know. And once again on Sunday, especially with the way the offense was going, when the Braves went down two to oh after about six pitches, I think everyone kind of groaned and thought, well, that is not great.

00:23:28
Speaker 1: That's right. And again like if the offense was cooking right now, would have felt more alive and look, I will raise my head. I was thinking, all right, this is this is a game. They're in it. They're down two nothing seemingly for an hour and a half. And even when they're down, you know four nothing. It was like, all right, they're still in this thing. When I was doing a homers, they're They're alive. And this team has kind of trained us, over a large sample size to kind of think that no game is over, given that their potency offensively, it just didn't happen and a little bit of unlucky. I would say, we'll talk about the offense more broadly in a second, but the Braves had five of the top seven hardest hit balls in terms of exitvelocity on Sunday in the game, and they had and they scored one run. Lots of one hundred and five mile an hour outs has been a theme recently that does not excuse the offense. I'm not telling you that that they're playing well, but they have also been unlucky. In addition to being powerless or how do you want to impotent, whichever a just if you want to use, they've also been unlucky along the way.

00:24:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, the lack of home runs is probably the weirdest thing. Yeah, I believe it's three home runs in the last ten games. I might be off by a little bit there, but nonetheless, man, the home run ball has gone away, and it feels like They've also had about a dozen baseballs to the warning track that just haven't gotten out. Marcelo Zuna had one on Saturday night that, or rather Friday night, that almost went out, would have given the Braves a lead in the ninth inning, just died before the wall. Matt Olsen had a ball to the warning track today that just died it. It's just been one of those things, and it feels like once the avalanche starts, it just keeps on coming. Braves just haven't been able to catch a break. I think maybe this is our opportunity to talk about the offense as a whole. There is too much talent here for this team to continue to struggle and slump the way it has. But we're going on almost two weeks now of the offense being pretty mia. It's frustrating, and I think he as an educated baseball fan, you have to know that better days are ahead. But I don't know if anyone's necessarily excited whenever this team comes to the plate, because pretty much everyone right now is in a slump of some kind.

00:25:38
Speaker 1: Before I answer that and talk about the offense being really really gross and throwing us some more numbers, we should at least quickly promote our sister show at Dodgers Territory. I know Race Fans Play won't be itching to listen to more positive stuf about the Dodgers, but certainly should listen to Dodger Territory, available live Mondays and Thursdays at three pm and also at the Foul Territory YouTube channel. I believe right now the only two team shows on the Fall Territory at work are US and Dodgers Territories. Check that out or you get your podcasts. But it's a good point, Scott. Like the offenses, the numbers are gross. I mean you mentioned the three home runs recently. I will say this, they only have seven home runs in the last fifteen days. That is the fewest at all of baseball. And I would have lost a bet on the Braves ever being dead last in baseball and home runs over a two week sample size this season. It's only two weeks, but that just doesn't happen to this team. Just as a reminder if you've forgotten, this is the same almost the same rotch. I won't say it's exactly the same, but it's close to being the same team that that led all of baseball and home runs last year by more than fifty home runs. Like they were leaps and bounds ahead of everyone in home runs. It's slower percentage all that stuff, and the season on numbers are still okay offensively, they're still top tier offensively, but this power outage has been truly bizarre, including the stat that U pull in their like basically their their production runs wise in the last like, I don't know, eight nine games, it's been just absolutely gross.

00:26:59
Speaker 2: If I told you, Brad that on May fifth, Austin Riley, Ronald A Cunya Junior and Matt Olsen had eight combined home runs and it played basically every inning of every game, what would you have said? And maybe that's rhetorical, because I don't think anyone would have ever expected that to be a reality between this trio that hit what one hundred and thirty five home runs a year ago. Eight home runs, man, that's unfathomable for this trio. You know, Marcelo Zuna was fantastic early on, and he hasn't been horrible by any means the last week or so, but he's cooled down. But yeah, he's cooled off, you know. Sean Murphy being injured. I feel like we're feeling the effects of that. With no no disrespect to Chadwick Trump, who seems like a good dude, but I mean, he's just not a He should not be playing. I know that Travis Darnault cannot catch every single game at his age, and that's fine, but you know, there it is felt whenever Chadwick Trump is out there. It has felt Darnault, even he turned into Babe Ruth for those three games where he was unbelievable. But other than that, d'arnault has been pretty bad. Michael Harris is kind of quietly in a funk. He's somebody who I mean, don't look at Michael Harris's swing rates. The guy is swinging at everything within a foot of the plate, which is a real bummer. I was hoping he was going to take the next step offensively, and he still could. It's very early, it's the first week of May. Michael Harris has not been great. Orlando Arcia has cooled. I mean, really one through nine, it has just been tough to find players who are putting together good games consecutively. And again, I don't want to be repetitive. I think eventually this team is going to wake up. Hopefully it is sooner rather than later, because it is downright hard to watch the team swing the bats right now. A lot of non competitive at bats, a lot of two counts because they're seemingly swinging at everything, a lot of ground balls, which is not a good thing offensively. In the year twenty twenty four. It's just been a weird ride. And man, I hope they figure it out, Brad, because I don't want to have to keep doing podcast where it's like, well, maybe this is the next series. The Braves are gonna figure it out.

00:29:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're in agreement there. You know. They're they're top five in the bad way in strikeouts in the last week or two. That's not where you want to be, even if strike us are not always negatively correlated. There's a whole debate there that we will not do today. But they have been swinging freely. As you said, you can find some little rays of hope. Even Michael Harris, you mentioned a second ago hit to hit the ball hard. I think three times today had one hundred plus miles parer ex velocity likes he's he's always keying the ball up a little bit, but This is a couple of crazy stats here this week. So the two series six games in which they want one in five, the team had a four sixty two OPS not on base, that's OPS. This week. Only two guys on the roster had an OPS over five O three this week, and it was Ronald and Austin. And those two guys, while they were fine this week, were not like themselves. Even like Ronnie's OPS was like like eight hundred or so, same range for that's like human for them. So basically, no one was good in Capitol letters this week. It's not a huge prize given that they scored as few runs they did they lost by his games, but it truly is gross. I'll say this, now we've talked around it, I still believe that people are generally overreacting, and it's also understandable. I'm not picking on anybody for doing this. I think that for me, I'm always gonna lean on sample size and the record of these players. And it's not like it's a hugely different roster. We we said earlier, but this is basically the same exact team that was the best offense arguably ever last year. But even if you don't think that top five, top ten of all time last season by the numbers. I don't believe that they're suddenly not good on offense. It's just not believable to me. And I think that generally speaking, baseball fans get in this, especially if things clump together, people tend to overreact. Like I saw some truly I'm not gonna even say something. I saw some truly hilarious overreactions, you know, manager stuff, hitting, coach stuff, bench show, and so I get it. Everybody's frustrated and it has been bad. We just laid it out in deep detail how bad it has been. But it is, uh, it's it's not great. So anyway it's gonna be, uh what it is. I would lean on a couple of positive stats, like they're currently still after this again this includes this downturn. They are still leading baseball in hard hit rate and exit velocity for the season even with this entire like power outage the last two weeks plus. So, like, I have faith it's gonna be a good offense. It hasn't been recently. It is maddening. Usually this team has somebody or buddies hot at the same time as some guys have slumps. Like slumps are gonna happen. Usually there's they're counteracting, and right now they've timed it unfortunately, where nobody's hot at this point. So I've said a lot of words, Scott, but put me on the record as not being worried. I'm not picking on buddy that is worried. I get it, But I do think that generally, if you take it just a half step back, a couple deep breaths, and realize what this team is as far as personnel, there's just no reason to believe they're suddenly not great on offense.

00:32:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's the first week of May. All the games count the same at the end of the year, right A win on May fifth counts the same as a win on September twenty fifth. But I guess if you're looking for the silver lining and the glimmer of hope, it is still relatively early in the year. I would rather have the offense in a funk in April and May, and in September and going into October. So I would agree wholeheartedly with everything you said. It is very frustrating to watch. You just have to think that better days are on the horizon and hopefully that starts this week when they play the Red Sox and then the Mets.

00:32:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have one more stat before we look ahead to the next week, and also a little bit of news and notes. But the Braves, of course have won the division six years in a row. Everyone knows that. I think it's part listen to this podcast. This is the seventh year. But this is the second best record through thirty two games the Braves have had in that run. They're twenty and twelve. They won the division the first five times in a row without winning twenty at their first thirty two games, so I know it's once loss. Don't don't always tell the whole picture. Obviously that's all that matters in the end, But predictive wise, I get it. But like, twenty and twelve through thirty two games is a very solid place to be.

00:33:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great stat. Say, I think you could probably repeat it five times? Can we in bed? Can we clip that little ten second clip and just retweet it like every hour for folks. I know it's frustrating, it's part of being a fan. I know everybody is ready to jump off the nearest bridge. It has been a frustrating week to listen.

00:33:43
Speaker 1: I mean, if people could see our internal hand'd territory text thread, we're all fro. I mean everybody's frustrating. Yeah, even us, even us, we're all frustrated. It's like it's anybody. I just I guess, I'm I don't know. I just want to be the voice of reason. It's like I'm drawn to be the voice of reason, even if people don't like I get it's the same when I cover the Hawks two and anytime they struggle, Scott, You'll be shocked to know that I am the one pointing out like, hey, this didn't this actually isn't that bad, and everyone else at me. It's just kind of my role in life. It's fine.

00:34:11
Speaker 2: A little nuance never hurt anybody. Let's you know what, man, it's understandable. I know that I saw similar things. Oh it's time to fire. It's time to fire the whole coaching staff. And Brian Stetger doesn't care. And also, no, that's silly. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. It is early in the year. The braves are going to figure it out. If we're still having this conversation in a couple of weeks, then maybe you and I get on here and start, you know, screaming to the clouds and and really get some frustration going. But let's hope that this time in a week when we're talking, the Braves have had a better week ahead and get back on track, because there's just there's just too much here to continue to slump the way they have. Maybe it's mechanical things, maybe the team is just kind of complacent. I don't know. It's a long year. It's one hundred and sixty two. They just did seven days on the West coast. Let's hope getting back home will help him settle in a little bit and get back to hitting, especially for power, right, Like, that's my main thing in the year twenty twenty four. With how hard pitchers throw and all of that, it's really difficult to string together four or five singles or doubles in an inning to put up a crooked number that the home run is the old equalizer. It's that number in the postseason where the team who has out homered the other was like twenty four and two last year at a certain point in the playoffs. It was a crazy stat. And not that home runs are the end all be all, but we need the Braves to get back to elevating the ball and hitting it over the fence, because that's going to cure a lot of the issues this team has right now.

00:35:43
Speaker 1: Well said before we go out of here, some news and notes. We referenced Pierce Johnson earlier, if anybody missed it the newsbrook on Saturday afternoon. He is on the aisle with elbow information, which is not what you want for a pitcher. He had not pitched since Monday. I know our co host Stevens Robert was kind of ahead of this a little bit, wondering aloud on Twitter about why they weren't using Johnson because they had three games in a row that were super close that he did not pitch in, and usually he would have pitched there. He's a high strikeout guy, very talented arm, and I think Stephen kind of was hoping for better, but certainly was expecting kind of the worst, and the worst is an injury here. As of will Well recording this podcast on Sunday, that's all we know is elbow information. We hopefully it's not as bad as it could be. Doesn't seem to be terribly worst case scenario given all the quotes that I've seen, but it's definitely a loss. He's been good this year. They do have a little bit of depth. They brought up Jackson Stevens. That's a guy that we've kind of liked in the past, but kind to be kind of Jackson, Kris Shawnson is better. So that is a loss.

00:36:44
Speaker 2: It is a real loss because you look at the bullpen right now and if you know that Ryce sell Iglesias is locked into that ninth inning and not pitching anywhere else from the right handed side, things are not great to be blunt, and we're going to talk about a possible roster move the Braves could make year, but Iglesias in the ninth Joe Jimenez has been fantastic this year. That's one right handed arm, and after that, who do you have. I love Jesse Chavez, but he is not a power arm. He needs soft contact. He needs to throw strikes right like he is not Pierce Johnson you just talked about. Jackson Stevens has obvious limitations. I think he's fine, is like the eighth guy in your bullpen to cover multiple innings, but he is not a power arm.

00:37:30
Speaker 1: And that's it.

00:37:30
Speaker 2: From the right side. The other four are all lefties, and usually I think the Braves need to make a move to add another power right handed arm to this bullpen, and thankfully they do have one waiting in the wings in Gwinnet.

00:37:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, so when that news broke, the Braves were pretty quick to Stevens was actually not on the forty men. They had defayed him. We talked about that over the winner, but they brought him back. I saw calls I'm sure you did too, that they could have or maybe should have added Ken Giles, who ticking quite a route to this point, but he was in camp with the Braves this spring. Former closer, former top end closer, honestly, but it's been a long long time. He's been on the margins recently, but has looked good to this point, and he would fit the power arm that you were talking about right there. We'll see if they go that route there is. They also made a trade this week that was a small trade for sure. They landed Jimmy Hergett from the Angels for cash considerations. Not a huge power guy either. He actually is kind of a soft drawer, but gets good movement and doesn't walk guys like He's kind of more similar to the guys you reference that are not power arms. So he's not as old as Jesse Chava as he's thirty, but he was quite good at twenty twenty two. But a guy that was available for cash considerations on what was it like May third, May fourth, So not the most high profi arm in the world. We'll see what they do there. They like Stevens. We like Stevens is like a plug and play guy that you reference. But they do have some names kicking around between herget between ray Kerr, who they proactively went out and got this winner and Giles like. There's some movements to be had there and as always, bullpens just turn over during the season. We're hoping that Pere Johnson's back in two weeks, but if he's not, they're gonna have to sort of dig deep.

00:39:11
Speaker 2: Maybe by the time that people listen to this podcast, a roster move has already been made. But I would not be surprised in the least if the Braves put Matt Sick excuse me, Tyler Matsik on the injured list and brought up one of those fresh arms.

00:39:24
Speaker 1: From or by the way, they could they could also option Elder because this week is not gonna gonna need him like that. They could actually just turn Elder spot into a reliever or both could be, could be one of the other, could be. But like we talked about Elder earlier, they're not needing him. There's no reason to carry Elder for two weeks if he's not going to pitch, so use that spot on somebody else.

00:39:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, so there are options. I would be in favor of bringing up Ken Giles, a right handed arm. I don't think they need another lefty in the bullpen, especially with how good aj Mintor is and both Dylan Lee and Aaron Bummer have been pretty solid lately. So we'll we'll see what the Braves do. The bullpen has been fine overall, I think through the first five weeks of the year. Maybe not lights out perfect, but most bullpens are not perfect. But we'll see in the next forty eight hours or so if the Braves make a move, I would not be surprised to see. And as you just alluded to bullpen's turn over a lot, there's a lot of movement happening. It's not going to be the first or the last time this bullpen shifts around a little bit. And let's hope that Pierce Johnson's elbow is okay, because if he has to miss significant time, that would be a definitive loss.

00:40:32
Speaker 1: For the bullpen.

00:40:33
Speaker 2: He is very, very good, very capable with that curveball in that mid nineties fastball. So let's hope that Peerce is fine. He has said all the right things so far. It doesn't seem like it's a real concern. But anytime you talk about a little bit of soreness and an elbow, I think everybody has to hold their breath and just kind of hope for the best.

00:40:51
Speaker 1: Strongly agree. Speaking of injury stuff, Sean Murphy hit off off a tee twice this week. Seems to be foreshadowing some ramp up for him. We don't have a timeline, just something to note there as he's been missed. Of course, you referenced earlier in the accurate fashion about the drop off there from Murphy to Trump is the Grand Canyon essentially, as far as the plate is concerned. Anyway, that's it for the news and notes. Briefly, look ahead to a very light week. So the Braves just spent this whole week on the West Coast. It's travel and all that stuff. They only have five games between now and the end of Sunday. In fact, it's only there. They only have two of these weeks all year long where they have only five games. One of them is it's September, so this is the only time for a long while the Braves have a five game week. They played twice at home against Boston on Tuesday and Wednesday. Then they have Thursday off and they play the Mets on the road. So two off days in four days. Maybe not the worst thing in the world right now with how things are going, travel plus just getting your mind right. And you know, while Boston and you know, the Mets are the Mets, but Boston is not a team that you super just take lightly. They are above five hundred this year. They have a nice one differential. That's a good baseball team. But it would be nice to sort of get right at home in a mini series. Yeah, and surprisingly and kind of out of nowhere, the Red Sox pitching staff has been fantastic this season, which is very unbranded on theme for what the Braves have seen recently. Of course, Cleveland, Seattle, Los Angeles, all those Seattle staff. By the way, there was a satur think in rounds yesterday where I think it was the Mariners have twenty consecutive starts where their starting pitcher has allowed two runs. Reviewer like, it's an absolutely unbelievable I'm trying to find as we're talking, but it is literally the crazy thing cover I've ever seen. Yeah. I was like, that's insane, and granted I was not. I almost quote tweeted it and I was talking about, hey, brace fans, don't panic too much, and then I realized I get yelled at, so I didn't, but it was one of those things where I was like, wow, that kind of tells you, like what they've been facing recently. Again nugs. Yeah, I'm looking at it now. Uh okay, No, it's actually better than I thought. So accorna codified baseball. The Mariners have in their last twenty one starts allowed a total of twenty earn runs in twenty one starts. That's a real stat.

00:43:03
Speaker 2: Scott, Yeah, that's pretty good. We said it as much in the debut episode of Hammer Territory. But the Braves have run into some good pitching lately. If they were really slumping here against the White Sox and the Rockies, I think the panic bells would be a little bit louder. Yes, but you know, Boston good team, a team that's played the Braves tough in recent years. Kind of a weird schedule. You mentioned two games at home. They have Monday and Thursday off, so hopefully that's a chance for the Braves to just kind of mentally reset, physically reset, and then of course a trip to the Mets this weekend. Mets are playing fine, they're about five hundred. Anytime those two teams get together, it's always exciting and fireworks, and yeah, it should be a good week ahead, even if only five games. I do like the five game weeks in September because they think staying fresh that time of year is really important. I don't love it in May, but I guess the schedule is what the schedule is.

00:43:58
Speaker 1: Yes, the schedule was, the schedule is, and it'll be lowe el. As of right now, the Brads are listing Lopez and Sale on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then that is listed as a TBD over the weekend, so as discussed, they could skip one or more guys, especially Elder, and maybe make a move there. We will see by work on this podcast on Sunday evening. That's what we know right now.

00:44:20
Speaker 2: You think Chris Sale is going to be a little fired up to face his old team.

00:44:23
Speaker 1: I do think that he probably will be fired up, and he's been quite good this season, so that'll be a nice little showdown on That's the Wednesday game, and Tuesday is Cutter Crawford against rynald A Lopez and a Battle guys who've been very good this season on both sides. That will do for us today on this Sunday. Some programming notes here at the end of the podcast. Again, thank you for joining us on Hammer Territory Podcast. We're going to be here probably like four times a week between Scott and I as well as Steven Tolbert and Sean Coleman. So go ahead and lock in and subscribe to the podcast. Might not be quite as long on Sundays as we usually work because usually of Scott and I we're talking once a week. We are on the schedule to be talking more than once a week this time around. So maybe a little bit shorter story today because there was a lot to talk about, but keep that in mind, But go ahead and lock in subscribe to check out Also check out falaar Fela territory. It does a great job. Those guys are a great job covering the entire world of baseball beyond the Braves, including the Braves, et cetera. Scott anything to plug at the end of the podcast.

00:45:22
Speaker 2: No, As we talked about at the beginning of the show, again, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all of the support and help getting the show off the ground. I was in amazement all of the reviews that were left, which helps us out tremendously. People reaching out saying they were so excited to have the show back. It really does mean the world to us, and we were happy to be back. It was a sad month away. I think I can speak for Brad. I was getting the itch to get behind a microphone again and talk some braves Baseball's very good to be back, even if it was not the friendliest of.

00:45:53
Speaker 1: Weeks to the Braves.

00:45:55
Speaker 2: But as Brad said, we will have a lot of great shows coming up this week with myself and Brad, Stephen and Sean will be back at Believe on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning for your commute. It's a lot of good stuff coming here at Hammer territory and we'll be back with you soon.

00:46:08
Speaker 1: Thanks for being here, Scott, Thanks for everybody for listening again. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, overcast, anywhere you might find your podcasts. With all that said, see you all next time you want to U