Braves Exhale After Jurickson Profar Injury Scare

00:00:21
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to episode one six one of the Hemor Territory Podcast. I am your host, Brad Rowland, coming to you deeper than that here on a Sunday evening in March, and I'm joined as I always am, by Scott Coleman. Scott, we were fearing some bad news and instead it was not really bad news. That's a rare feeling. Huh, what's going on?

00:00:39
Speaker 2: Hello, Brad? Isn't it nice to do a podcast after an injury? Scare a very very very scary potential injury to an important player for this team, and lo and behold, after everything that went wrong a year ago, the Braves finally seemingly came out on the right side of an injury. Of course, we're talking about Jerks and Profar, who thankfully seems like he's gonna be okay. And I mean, frankly, when I saw that injury yesterday afternoon, I thought it was the worst and I thought we were going to have to do a really unpleasant podcast tonight. But thankfully it is not that way at all.

00:01:15
Speaker 1: That's right, And if anybody missed this number one, you should listen to our show from Saturday that our colleagues Sean Coleman and Stephen Tolbert did reacting to the injury before the news that we know now is pretty good news, but I agree with you, it did not look good. And then there was a report that it was going to be Monday before we find out the results of Jersey and Prosfar's injury. He had an MRA, sorry an X ray right away that was negative. So I was like, all right, not broken. But of course that's not the end of the story. I always gonna have an MRI or a SATs scan or something else. And we actually got a little bit of a leak. I will say. We're recording this podcast late Sunday night. The Brave not released anything official on Jerson Profar. With that said, reading between the lines as we often do on this podcast, I am fairly confident that they told the Beat guys some information today because they all had the same thing. Bowman, I think Ken Sagur is down there for the AGAC right now in justice place at the moment, but multiple people have similar phrasing, similar reporting, and the expectation is long story short, it's a risk injury. Obviously, people could see the video if they want to. It didn't look great. If you don't, if you don't believe us, you can watch it for yourself. It's out there for you. But CT scan and basically it's a bone bruce. That's what they're saying. At least that's what the reporting is pointing to, and of all the things that it could have been, that's probably the best case scenario, especially because again it's March knife right now, opening days eighteen days or I guess seventy day if you're listening to this podcast on Monday, and all signs right now as we're recording this points of him being at least on track to be good to go by that. So he couldn't play in a game tomorrow. He has an injury. But uh, again, pretty good news, Scott.

00:02:53
Speaker 2: All things considered, great news, and risk injuries are scary. What Profar did on Saturday afternoon is something that we have unfortunately seen a lot in baseball where an outfielder goes all out for a ball, which going all out and diving for a baseball and spring training.

00:03:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, please don't do that, Jerckson, thank you.

00:03:14
Speaker 2: I get it, man, These are competitors. The instincts kick in all of that, but let's not have somebody shatter their wrist in a spring training game. But yeah, I mean, a wrist is a really really complex part of the body. Not only do you have bones, but of course many tendons and ligaments. You know. I kind of feared the worst when it all went out, and I guess the fact that the X ray initially showed no break, or at least no obvious break, that was encouraging. Brian Snitker after the game also was kind of upbeat on the injury and said it seems like they had dodged a bullet. But even with Austin Reiley and Orlando Arcia the last couple of years, we have had x rays come back negative. And then two days later it's revealed that they have a major injury of some kind and will miss time. So very very good news here for propar and for the Braves. And I'm guessing he's probably gonna need at least a few days to let that bone bruise calm down, but maybe he's back in the lineup by next weekend, and that would give him close to two full weeks to get ready to go for the regular season, which is obviously something that's going to be helpful for him as he tries to rebuild the strength and the risk and get back on the field.

00:04:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, you mentioned it just now. I mean the risk is not an injury that is a small thing like that you as a hitter, and this is very obvious, but as a hitter, the risk is very important. It's only something you could kind of navigate around. I know he's a right handed thrower, but he's a switch hitter, and you know, you can't get around your risk being a big part of your swing. That's just the re audience situation. So you got you gotta be healthy there. You know, when I say that there's absolutely no chance that he misses opening Day, I'm wired to say that there probably is still a chance. You know, expectation of being ready for oprain day does not mean definitely going to be ready for oprain day. But I think that even if he's out for a couple of day at the beginning of the season, that is different than what it could have been, like if it's if it's a break, or if it was something with the ligaments and the wrist that you mentioned there at attendance, that could have been a multi month injury, not even multi that could have been a long time. And thankfully for us Scott, we don't have to do the deep dive version of this, but just to say this out loud, you know, if he wasn't available to play, we were on the verge of a outfield on opening day of Michael Harris, who's great, and then Jared Keellnick and probably Brian day La Cruz and that would be the full out field on opening day in San Diego, which I think no one would have been terribly excited about. Granted, before they signed PROFI we talked about that a lot. Actually, for like about you know, two months. It was like I said, we're gonna be Kellic and day la Cruz until a Cuna comes back. But uh, I guess that probably seems to be avoided at.

00:05:46
Speaker 2: This point, and the Braves have a really tough schedule to begin the season. We already know for certainty they're not going to have Acunya, they're not going to have Strider, and they're probably not going to have Sean Murphy for at least the first week, is my guess. Yeah, I mean, I don't know, I'm spitballing, but I would imagine that Murphy will return that first home week of the year, which is the second week of the season against.

00:06:07
Speaker 1: Miami, and I would say at the earliest. Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if they were even more careful with him. But anyway, your point stands, so.

00:06:14
Speaker 2: You're playing some really good teams. You are already down two superstars and when he's right, one really good catcher. So thank goodness, we did not have to have a situation of kell Nick Harris daily cruz Eli White would be the backup outfield at that point. God forbid something happen to one of those players. So again, that is very much the theme of this opening segment. The Braves dodged a bullet. I think we will have to hold our breath just a little bit to make sure that Profar really is good to go and has his grip, strength and full range of motion and all that, because, I mean, frankly, a bone bruise in the wrist sounds pretty damn painful, but it could have been so much worse. I mean, it could have been half of a season, maybe maybe a full season, if he had to have a really bad surgery. So thank goodness, after everything that went wrong for this team a year ago, the Braves came out on the right side of an injury, and let's hope that Jerkson's back out there sooner rather than later.

00:07:07
Speaker 1: Totally agree we can leave there for now for the most part. Again, we'll probably get some official something from the Braves on Monday, because they were the ones that said hold on till Monday basically before they kind of leaked out spurt mission today, and we'll recorded a Sunday night, so if you listen to this podcast Monday afternoon evening, we might have an update by them and we'll cover that if anything changes in the coming days. But in the meantime, a giant exhale from all of Braves Country at this point, all right, Scott, let's get into some more stuff about today's game and more. But first work more partners at foul Territory.

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00:08:40
Speaker 1: All right, Scott, Sunday's game was not the most enticing to discuss. A couple of just brief notes here because we record this podcast on Sunday evening and the game was previously were covered by Shawn and Stephen. It was a light day in terms of regulars that even appeared in the game. You had, I believe what Zuna was in there. Kelnik played, and Keilnick is currently a regular for the Rapes. But the I would say the big angle of the game was the pitching side of things. Smith Shaver pitched. What do you think of? What you what was out there for Smish? Obviously he's a great note right now, not necessarily for opening week, but given that he's maybe their top pitching prospects still at this point in time and a guy that configure this year, that was maybe the leading day.

00:09:20
Speaker 2: It was not a great start for Age smith Shaver on Sunday afternoon. He was facing a pretty close to normal Red Sox lineup. Alex Bregman was in there, Trevor Story was in there, and it was not the Triple A Red Sox by any means, although Boston has a hell of a minor league system right now, so but regardless, not a great start for smith Shav. I think he gave up two runs in the first inning, gave up a couple of doubles, but he did settle in nicely after that. Yeah, that's more swing and miss, which was really encouraging. I think he ended the day with four strikeouts over four innings, which is a good sign for him. So maybe not his best performance of the spring, but as we know, sometime pitchers are going out there with one specific purpose to really work on a slider or a cutter or a change up or whatever the pitch in plan was for today. But I really do feel like at some point in the season, the Braves are really gonna lean on Smith's shover. Maybe maybe it's a perfect world and they get healthy seasons out of their Big four, but as we have seen for basically every year now, the Braves are gonna lose somebody at some point and hopefully Smith Shover is able to step in and give the rotation a boost similar to what Spencer Schwellenbach did a year ago, where you really don't see a massive drop off whenever he takes the mound right. And it was good that he settled in today and nothing alarmed me that I saw, which is good. I mean, it's funny coming a day after I don't know Shawn Team talked about this a little bit on yesterday's show, but basically everyone's velocity was down on Saturday, and it caused a lot of panic about Ordona Lopez. And I remember that now because of what you just said about how guys are tinkering and trying things, and Ronaldo clearly was like not, you know, he was trying some stuff during the Star on side. We don't have to go back into that again now. But as Fila was kind of all over the place, it wasn't physical by from what everybody was saying after the game.

00:11:06
Speaker 1: So as long as you're healthy, I'm not particularly worried about anybody's velocity. At this point in time. It was a crazy whoa, which it wasn't by the end of start, So don't Yeah, it's that's the year.

00:11:20
Speaker 2: It is a scary time of year for pitchers. You took the words out of my mouth. The Yankees just lost Garrett Cole probably for the year. They just lost Rookie of the Year Luis Heel for probably half of the season, if not more.

00:11:34
Speaker 1: Max Free it's all they got, shusta Max Freed, He's all they got.

00:11:39
Speaker 2: Max is going to earn his money this upcoming year, trying to stay healthy and leading that rotation. But it's a scary time. Grayson Rodriguez also just suffered an injury for Baltimore. I mean, you look at every team right now. Also, just a quick note, the Mets just lost their starting catcher. Francisco Alvarez has a broken hamdmate bone in his.

00:11:59
Speaker 1: After our preview of the man's I put down unfortunate. Never root for that, by the way, never root for injuries, and that includes us in the Mets. We don't want, we don't want to see that, but it is notable for sure.

00:12:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, a big loss for New York don't have great catcher depth. Alvarez was someone they were really banking on. So it's been a rough couple of days and weeks for the injury front. Of course, the Braves lost Sean Murphy, so let's just cross our fingers in hope the next two and a half weeks are healthy before Atlanta starts the regular season.

00:12:26
Speaker 1: That is the time of year. The other guy of No. Two pitch today and did not look good was Bryce Elder. Elder is, of course, on the periphery of the battle for the rotation. I think everyone would be surprised if Elder was pitching in the first week of the season, but certainly in that as we probably said that at nauseam the Braves probably need eight, nine, ten starters, or of course of the season, he's in that range. I've made plenty of fun about his All Star appearance. That is going to look insane for all time, but he earned it in the moment. I'll just say, you give it back to back home runs today he got pretty much crushed for two and two thirds innings. It's a spring game. I'll be consistent. Nothing that happens in the spring games I'm not going to overreact to. But it was kind of I pulled this number on purpose, you know, after his well, i'll say smoking mirrors at least to some extent, first half ish of twenty twenty three, his last twenty four major league starts, he is an era of six point zero seven. And that's the guy that looked He looked like he looked like that guy today again. And I've actually made this point recently on the show, even while being famously low on Bryce Elder, I don't think he's like a non entity. I think he's a very normal sixth starter for a lot of teams like he's him being on the mound is not something we're gonna be excited about I don't want to speak for you, Scott. I think you probably agree with me on that. But if it's Mayor, if it's may Or June, you gotta throw Bryce Elder on a Tuesday against Miami. It's not the end of the world. But man, he did not look good today. And at least that was as we're talking about this one game that was probably number two m the list behind Smashavra was like, that wasn't great.

00:14:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, I knew Bryce Elder had struggled really for the last year year and a half since that All Star game, But those numbers, I mean, an era of six man.

00:14:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, twenty four stars is not the end of the world. And that part of that's cherry picking because it's it's basically when he fell off, it's twenty three until now. But that's that's closer to what he actually is than the first half was. I think, if you all right, so I'll ask you this and and I'll give my answer to if you gave Bryce Elder the next twenty four starts, what would his era be? It probably wouldn't be bad. I don't think what would you guess.

00:14:37
Speaker 2: It would be? Yeah? High fours, low five, Yeah, I was.

00:14:40
Speaker 1: Gonna say a round. I was gonna say five, which isn't like catastrophic, but it's also not someone you want to pitch even in the minors las year. We don't have to go crazy into this, but he was not like awesome in Triple A like he he had I think he had. Yeah, he's ear ray was three point three point seven to three in Triple A last year, which if you were like a good measually starter, you probably shouldn't have a three point seent of yard range.

00:15:01
Speaker 2: Boy. Yeah, yeah, I mean again, this is not breaking any ground here, but Chris Sale, Spencer Schwallenbach, Ronaldo Lopez, Spencer Strider. At some point, I think we're all really bullish on Grant Holmes on the podcast. I think he's going to be able to stick in the rotation based on what we've seen last year and some of the pitches he's worked on this spring to really expand his repertoire. And one thing that Holmes really struggled with last season was facing lefties and also getting through a lineup a third time. That's not exclusive to Grant Holmes by any means, but if he is going to be in this rotation every day. You're gonna want Holmes to be able to take the ball and not feel like you have to automatically bail every time the lineup turns over a third time. I think in the perfect world, those five are good and healthy. I think a J. Smith Schavor at this point is clearly the sixth best option for starting games. I mean, if the World Series was tomorrow, I would take Smith Schav over Ian Anderson. I would take him a Bryce Elder, even if those guys have done it a little bit longer than Smethshav who knows. With with Ian Anderson, I think I am firmly in the anything he gives you this year is gravy and you're happy about it, But based on the spring, just not a ton to be super optimistic about. Maybe he gets better and then we I mean, we know who Bryce Elder is. There's no I.

00:16:21
Speaker 1: Think we I think we do. And again it is it is better than the sixty RA, I'm pretty sure, but it's also not the two and a half the ra from that that brilliant three months that he had back in twenty twenty three.

00:16:32
Speaker 2: So no, you're right.

00:16:33
Speaker 1: I think the way that Steven put it recently, I believe was on social media about Ian Anderson is basically, so far in spring training, everything that you believe about Ian Anderson probably still persists. If you were a believer, you're going to point to the era that he had, which is still good in the spring. And if you're not an even anian believer, you're gonna say, look at the strikeout to walk ratio, look at the velocity.

00:16:54
Speaker 2: He doesn't.

00:16:54
Speaker 1: He doesn't look good to anybody. I don't think anybody that I trust has been like, you know, who looks great this spring? Anderson? The results have been okay as far as their runs allowed, which to look I can already hear it from comments. Isn't it all that matters?

00:17:07
Speaker 2: L right?

00:17:07
Speaker 1: Well, yes, kind of. But also we do like to get into a little bit of process here, and process is more addicative than results at this time of the year in my opinion. So you see what you want to see, and we'll see. But and again, the Braves seemed to be on track to pitch being Innerson for a while this season. But that's another podcast. But that was kind of the big takeaway from today. I I wis you want to talk about Grett Cooper who bombed today shots at Garrett Cooper.

00:17:29
Speaker 2: I kind of like Garrett Cooper.

00:17:31
Speaker 1: I mean, he's he's he's a proessional baseball player. He's fine, he can hit.

00:17:36
Speaker 2: I don't think there's a spot for Cooper on the bench, especially not being able to do anything but basically d h R play first base. But you know, Garrett Cooper, sure if maybe maybe he can stick in Gwinett, maybe he wants to be in the mix. That'd be a nice player to stash in the minor leagues. But I'm if I had to guess, Cooper will probably ask to get another chance with another team. Should he not, you know, should he be told that he's not made the opening day roster. But we'll see what the next couple of weeks old. Maybe he can really really hit and try to knock someone off like the Luke Williams or I mean, who knows, Brad Well. We'll see what the bench looks like bench bats.

00:18:11
Speaker 1: It was already a weird fit because of Matt Olsen's knock on wood durability. But yeah, anyway, it's just one of those weird things.

00:18:20
Speaker 2: All right.

00:18:21
Speaker 1: Let us get into the other topic of the show, and that is our pal. Former guest of this podcast, Mark Bowman at dot Com did a kind of bullpen battle check in on Sunday. Nothing revolutionary, not that, No, it wasn't bad. I enjoyed it. Shocks to Mark again, but it was just a good time to kind of check out on the bullpen a little bit half halfway during spring. Basically we kind of know the deal here. The top four is the top four. You have Iglesias, you have Peter Johnson, Dylan Lee, Aaron Bummer. No, that's new right, Other than Bryce Sacred give a quote. I believe that either Bowman or Grant McCauley, somebody had this saying that Dylan Lee is quote ready for that next step, is what Snack said. Thank god Brad Sticker saying that out loud because we loved only on this podcast. But other than that, the top four is kind of what it is. From there, it gets kind of interesting. And I know there's a big split that I've seen in Brand's Country about Daves Bill Hernandez, who I think we all agree is probably the fifth best pitcher in the bullpen, but because he has options remaining and Alex tends to prioritize depth at all, costs, which means if you have it, if you have a decision on an option, you can have a guy who to win at He tends to kind of do that sometimes, But I mean, is there anything else? It's interesting. It seems to me he's not a lock to be in the bullpen. No one is saying he's a lock, which is actually interesting to me. I find that notable because in every preview what we've done this this winter, it's been like, all right, one, two, three, four, and he's five. If your fifth best guy is not a lot for the bullpen, it's kind of strange. But I think that no one's saying he is, so it's interesting to me.

00:19:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I think that Braves would like to carry days Beell to begin the season. I do agree. I would have more confidence in Day's Bell than any of these other guys battling for a roster spot. But again, the dreaded Minor league option for Day's Bell is not it's not gonna help him. No, we'll see how the next couple of weeks ago and in in a moment, we're going to talk about the guys who are battling for these three or maybe four bullpen spots, But I think it's time to see what daze Bell can do. I know he has the minor league option, but he's not young. I mean, he's been around for a long time. He was quite good last season in a small sample with the Braves. The command worries me, but he also has just such good stuff and a ton of swing and miss with days Bell, that's really gonna give him a chance to be a high leverage or even medium leverage option. And I mean, frankly, you know what, Rice e Iglacias is locked into the ninth, if Pierce Johnson is more or less locked into the eighth, or maybe the seventh, if if there's a weird lineup that night. I mean, you need a second righty in middle relief. Like that's a full stop need for this team. And if I had to guess of everyone here, I would pick Dayzebell to fill that role for the season. But clearly because he has options and because other guys in camp have performed well this spring, it is a real battle for three or four bullpen spots. And I don't know, I mean, is maybe that's not the best situation in the world, but I think there is enough depth here the Braves are going to be okay at the end of the day.

00:21:20
Speaker 1: Just what it was the highest ceiling.

00:21:21
Speaker 2: I think that's fair to say.

00:21:23
Speaker 1: And look, Bowman, what he wrote was definitely pointing towards Day's about being likely to be in the bullpen. I think we agreed that he's probably likely. It's just if you come down to a weird situation, might you could just option him? Because you can? And to your point, you mentioned him not being young. I wonder if you pull Braves fans and they'd know that he's twenty eight years old. It feels like Dazbell is like this young hot shot. He's not. He's twenty years old.

00:21:44
Speaker 2: If you would have pulled me like a month ago, Brad, I would have told you he was twenty four years old.

00:21:49
Speaker 1: Well that's what I mean.

00:21:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's I think we're doing a bullpen preview or something, and I was looking at Day's Bell and whoa wait, really he's late twenty, you know, and every now and then a prospect to not even a prospect, but someone who has been around the system for a while in your mind, you just kind of pigeonhole them into one thing. But I was like, wow, days ball. He's going to be thirty in like eighteen months. He's not a super young man at this point.

00:22:15
Speaker 1: It had him with Baldwin, I think one of es, specially Baldwin's age on the last show that he's about to be twenty four, and we got to we got a comment to our Twitter it was like, I thought Balbman was twenty and I was like, well, nope, he's almost twenty four. So people just you know, prospects in age. It's still a little bit strange. And anyway, Daniel was not a young to your point, not a super young player, So it might be just time to forget it and say, all right, you're in the bullpen. And I'd be on board with that for the record, That's what I would be doing.

00:22:41
Speaker 2: If the Braves are just dead set on giving some of these veterans without options two weeks in the bullpen, three weeks in the bullpen, just before they shake hands and say goodbye, maybe they really want to see if Hector Nerris has anything left in the tank.

00:22:57
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:22:58
Speaker 2: I mean, they obviously like him because they signed him. A week could go, but nears unless there's some weird contract clause he has to be in the major leagues. So if your decision is Day's Bell or nears, I could see them get saying sorry, Day's Bell, go to Gwinett for a few weeks. We'll call you in a little while. Even if that's maybe not giving the Braves the absolute best bullpen on day one. And it also it.

00:23:21
Speaker 1: Wouldn't necessarily be that decision. You know, you kind of have to fill the other spots first. If this is spot number eight, it'd be so much easier to understand that, like give and take, But like, who are the other three?

00:23:31
Speaker 2: You know what I mean?

00:23:32
Speaker 1: If it's like Nerus or days Beell, I have a hard time getting to three more. But let's just say the name. So Hector Nerus is the newest edition. If people don't miss this. He's a thirty five year old veteran. Was very good in Houston on the World Series team for the Astros a couple of years ago. Was not very good last year. Not unpitchable, but not very good. And he's old. He's thirty five years old, and he was available in what early March, that's late February, whatever it was to sign him. That's always something to keep an eye on. Then, they have the Perdomo and Polar faction. Perdomo is the guy that they have been basically rehabbing for a year almost who was not healthy last year. Does that looked great in the spring. I think everyone's been saying that. He says he's you know, he looks great on the mound, he's six eight, two sixty whatever he is, but this monster guy, but he's not been particularly electric. And then Polar is rule five? Correct if I'm just blanking, yeah, Rule five guy swinging miss swing and miss guy. But same thing isn't like lighting the world on fire. And if you don't know rule five, they have to return him, or at least offer to return him. He was not on the team to begin the season. And then you have the other guys. So what do you make of those? I guess we'll a couple of those three together. We talked about Nars, Perdomo, and Polar. Do you have any feelings and like whether your preference would be to keep those guys on the team. On March twenty seventh, I.

00:24:51
Speaker 2: Don't think that Hector Naris has appeared in a spring game with the Braves yet, or if he did, I missed it. Admittedly, but I would like to see him at least for an appearance or two and see what the stuff looks like. He's a veteran, he's been doing this a long time, so he's probably someone who can get ready pretty fast. If I'm wrong on that, Brad, please correct me.

00:25:13
Speaker 1: But I am looking as we speak to make sure that you're not so live on the podcast. And then, no, he's not Fish and Spring.

00:25:21
Speaker 2: Okay, I think I would have that would have, like, you know, stopped my mind for a half second. But you know, with with Perdomo, I like the idea of him, and I'm tempted to keep Perdomo around because he was just really really electric with the Pirates a couple of years ago. But if you know he finishes the next two and a half weeks without really flashing, isn't racking up the strikeouts, isn't overly impressive on the mound, you have a decision to make there. And Anderson Polar is interesting because Polar has gotten a ton of swing and miss I think he struck out like forty five percent of the hitters or something crazy he's seen. But he's also given up quite a few hits and He's walks some batters as well, and as we know, that can be a dangerous game to play in relief, I really think. I mean, if let's say, for the sake of argument, that day's bell is going to be on the opening day bullpen, that's three spots. I'm guessing that two of Prodomo, Polar and Nerris are going to make it because of one other pitcher we're gonna talk about here in a second two Maybe one of them only makes it. I don't know. I mean, there's also Buck Farmer, There's also Niel de los Santos. Jake Diekman is sticking around. I mean, there's a lot of maybe not super encouraging options. I mean, again, this time a year ago, Aaron Bummer was the seventh man in the bullpen, and with basically sixteen days to go before opening day, it is very much a competition for half of the bullpen spots.

00:26:48
Speaker 1: For sure, it is. And just to give a couple of fight numbers on Polar, he has thrown four and two thirds innings this spring. He has ten strikeouts. That's fantastic. To your point, he also has allowed nine base runners, so his whip's like one point nine. You know, Whip's not the end of the world, but like it's been a base runner fest. Strikeouts are super high, but like it's it is very very again tiny sample size, but it's been electric at times and not so electric other times. And I'm with you on per Domo. You know, we'll see the other guy. I think I was surprised by the and what Bowman wrote. One thing surprised me the most. I'm gonna read it for you. It's about Nyelle Dla Santos, and he's not been a guy that we talked about a lot, to be honest, but he wrote Bowman today wrote that he is quote more of a favorite than a long shot end quote, which got my eyebrow raised because I hadn't heard that or seen that. Doesn't mean marks for sure, right, but could be. It's probably it's coming from somewhere someone told someone told him that. And Dela Santos, it's twenty nine years old. He was actually quite good before in Cleveland, was not good last year with three different teams, but he's looked great in Spring by all accounts. It's four it's four appearances, but the numbers are literally perfect. He's not a lot of base runner in spring kind of what you want. Geno was speaking of trying to if you're trying to make a baseball team, to go out there never allowing anybody to respace. But I don't know anything else. I mean, honestly, I don't know much about Dale Santos. I just don't. I looked at the Sackass profile a little bit. There's some highs and lows, like it's not a it's not a he's It was kind of similar to a lot of these guys where like, he seems to be like a fringe major league bullpen option on paper, but he's out of major league's sorry, he's out of minor league options according to Fangrafts, which I assume is correct. So another guy where he wasn't like the big as big of a name as Deekman or Farmer when he was signed, but a similar ish profile to some of these guys. No options, it's one decision and he would keep them. Rory A don't and that Bowman phrase gains one phrase. But if that's even remotely true, let's just say it's a fifty five percent chance to make the bullpen. That's higher than I would have guessed.

00:28:57
Speaker 2: I mean, I think it's the first time you and I have said an yell dl Jsantos's name on the podcast that we have done the spring.

00:29:04
Speaker 1: If it's not the first time, with the second time, it definitely has not been more than wats support us.

00:29:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, and again we'll do our normal plug very quickly. Relievers, they're volatile, they're great, then they're terrible, then they're good than they're terrible. But for Santos, he was really really good with Cleveland in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three. He was then awful with the Padres, and then he went to the Yankees, and then he went to the White Sox last year. I mean, the fact that two World Series contenders moved on mid season probably tells you all you need to know about his performance. But the fact that Bowman, I'm sure that Mark heard that from somebody around the team that he's again quote, more of a favorite than a long shot at this point, and the numbers speak for themselves this spring. And then the other arm in the bullpen who I think is probably in that similar camp of more of a favorite than a long shot at this point is probably Buck Farmer. Your man local product, Buck Farmer Book Buck. He's versatile, he can cover multiple innings, which is something the Braves are gonna need in the bullpen now that Jesse Chads is gone. I think Farmer has been a successful enough reliever with Cincinnati. He's done it for a while. Obviously there's a connection locally. I'm sure it would be awesome for Buck to make the roster. So I'm guessing that if I had to handicap this, just based on two weeks to go roughly in the spring, I think the big four are locked in. I tend to think Dave's Bell is going to be the fifth yep, Buck Farmer the sixth. Based on Bowman's comments, I think Dalo Santos is what we'll call him, what would be the seventh man? That eighth spot's really close. I mean, I could see really a case for all of them. I think Perdomo probably has the highest upside. I think Polar has maybe a leg up because he is the Rule five pick and the Braves would have to risk giving him back to Miami, although frankly, for fifty thousand dollars, Miami may not want to pay it to get him back.

00:31:02
Speaker 1: Oh, the other Rinkle I forgotten to mention and maybe you did and I've just missed it. Perdomo's is left handed, and Boman even mentioned in his right up it's like, do they want to carry three lefties? And if they do, he's the third lefty, Like it's it's like he's kind of well, I guess that's not true deep because Jack Deebs, the other guy that's we have we have not talked about on this show. We have mentioned multiple times before. He's the more veteran, retread guy in his mid thirties option, whereas Pernomo's the younger, higher ceiling option. But if they want a third lefty, it's one of those two guys. They don't have to have a third lefty, but if they want one.

00:31:35
Speaker 2: I'm guessing they probably will to begin the year. I mean, you think about having to go up against show Hey and Freddie and Maxwell.

00:31:44
Speaker 1: That's why I mean, I think it's likely they want always they want one. I mean, if I'm Alex, I'm gonna have to really not like either of them in order to not keep one of the lefties, if I had to guess.

00:31:56
Speaker 2: And that's also maybe that might be the biggest argument against having Day's Bell on is you want a third lefty and you want to keep hectorn Airis, or you want to keep Anderson Polar and see if the stuff is going to play up in real games. I mean, without having watched every single inning of every single spring training game, where they line drives that Polar is giving up, or they soft singles the other way that just happened to squeak through. You know, it's it's nearly impossible to scout every single spring game, so it's interesting. Again. I think, basically four spots up for grabs, you have six or seven pitchers battling for them. It would be great if you could sneak one or two of these guys to Gwinette for depth purposes, and maybe that'll happen. Most of them signed as non roster options in February or March for a reason. But the bullpen is is for me, one of the maybe three or four biggest questions for this team all year long. Yeah.

00:32:50
Speaker 1: My only strong take beyond thinking Day's bell as a major league believer, is that Farmer is the best of this group. And maybe I'm maybe I'm slightly biased, but I think if you look at his profile. I'm surprised he wasn't signed my another team to major leage contract. Like I'm still surprised by that. I don't know why he was available, honestly, not that he's some great picture.

00:33:09
Speaker 2: He's not.

00:33:09
Speaker 1: He's not a great pitcher, but like he's got an era like the in the threes, like in the high threes, for like multiple seasons, like in the majors, like on real teams. So I don't really get it, but I'll be surprised. I think Bumba will be too. I'll read the quote that Bowman wrote here, Farmer has quote created more reason to assume that he'll be given an opay today roster spot end quote. So I think that he's the guy I thought the whole time would have surprised me almost if he's not, if he's not on the team out of the min only guys unless he was bad in the spring. He was bad in the spring, then write it off. But even the day they signed him, it was like kind of clear to me. I think even Justin said, this is like he's a little bit more of a preferred non roster in by T than most guys are. I think he was the inside track guy when they signed him, not they promised them anything, but I'm sure that was communicated to his agent, like yeah, you got a real shot here, buck, Like why.

00:33:56
Speaker 2: Were very similar to Brian day La Cruz in the app field, same thing?

00:34:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, similar, Yeah, somewhar.

00:34:04
Speaker 2: Better than your non roster invitee. Who's gonna get cut three weeks in? I mean this upcoming week, we're gonna see quite a few roster cuts. I think we start to get to the point in the spring where teams really start to evaluate, and without having the exact number in front of me, I think the Braves have like twenty five players they still need to cut from it.

00:34:25
Speaker 1: They're down. They're down to forty five in camp. I checked that a where we're talking about okay, because well Stephen was Steven was joking.

00:34:32
Speaker 2: Maybe it was you.

00:34:32
Speaker 1: I think it was Stephen that was like, you could convince me that the Braves are just like spinning a wheel As to when they announced these cuts, it's like one per day right now, Like for whatever reason, they're just cutting a random guy that has no chance once per day. It's kind of funny how they're doing it. But yeah, there's still a long way to go, but you know, night what eighteen days left? They got time. But by the end, and you know this, like the last day or two, there's like six guys that get cut. They don't wait, they don't wait till the end of cut to cut everyone. But they'll do some more obvious one in the next.

00:35:00
Speaker 2: Couple of days. And sometimes player agents will hear from a team and hey, we just lost our backup. U tell the infielder or whatever it is. You know, do you get the sense that he's making the team with the Braves? If not, maybe you ask out. I mean, there's always stuff behind the scenes with players. All those veterans are just I mean, they're they're fighting tooth and nail for a guaranteed contract, get that money, get your six hundred thousand, seven hundred thousand, whatever the minimum is. These days so we'll see where it all progresses. But I think the next seven days we'll really start to get some clarity on who's going to be on the big league roster and all that good stuff.

00:35:38
Speaker 1: We absolutely will. We're getting closer and closer and closer, and only like we're Lily two weeks away from the Braves going out to your neck of the woods for their final couple U spring training games in Mesa. I believe might have to just pay your way over there. I might just have to send you a check to take you through to Mesa for a couple of days. Tell your employer you can't be at work those couple of days. I'm kidding to some degree, but no.

00:36:04
Speaker 2: Uh.

00:36:04
Speaker 1: Basic week ahead, the Braves do play, I believe, yeah, every day this week, including two games on Saturday, a splits squad Endeavor won at one and one at six. On Monday, they play against Tampa. On Tuesday play against Detroit. Those are both home games and they're both broadcast games, I believe, or at we stend some fashion either it will be dot dot com or fandul or whatever check or vocalistings, but action all week, look to be sure. So, Scott, anything you'd like to add about what is going on with the Brave right now? We're kind of in the in the middle of this check in zone with the Braves. But again, the big takeaway by far in the last one to four hours is the exhale on drugs' profar. That's what I'm glad with that. That's that's the number one by a lot. But uh, I wish you have any and they else we could sign off, but worker folks find you.

00:36:48
Speaker 2: Yes, Thank goodness. Not bad news on Profar. Such a sigh of relief, man. I mean this morning when when the news came out that Profar's risk was fine, it was just such a big exhale for all of us us really good news for a really important player. Yeah, really good. In terms of my stuff, you can follow me a Scott Coleman fifty five if you so choose. Why would you? I don't know. We are going to I'm gonna plug this one more time. Be on the lookout because this time in a week we will have an NCAA tournament bracket. Oh yeah, there's Brad. There's a chance we might get some Arizona Michigan in the second round if we don't both flame out.

00:37:27
Speaker 1: I yeah, I'm in the dark. I'm in the dark place on Michigan maskquart Now. They've been playing very poorly for about two weeks, so it's making me sad.

00:37:33
Speaker 2: That's okay. Thanks is the beat Brad Roland Imitational because beating me in a march pool is not hard. But I think we're gonna do that. I'll send out the link, we'll post the link on YouTube, and we'll tweet it out and all that good stuff. But it'll be for fun for Braves fans if you want to do a pool. Lots of good bragging, right opportunities, So keeping out for that. I'm also hoping, fingers crossed. We're working on having an awesome guest this upcoming week. So I'm not going to say the name in case something falls through. But you've you've learned well to not not until until it's recorded.

00:38:07
Speaker 1: Don't don't ever tell anyone what's gonna happen in the future. Sometimes things happen sometimes.

00:38:12
Speaker 2: That is a professional tease right there. If you want to listen to that show, if and when it comes out, if you are not already, hit that subscribe button, follow button, whatever it is you need to do. But we really do appreciate everybody sticking with the show this spring, and we'll be having real life baseball games to talk about here soon.

00:38:29
Speaker 1: Yes, we will check it out that Scott said. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Overcast. We're on YouTube. If you're watching on YouTube right now, smash the like, Smash the subscribe and also if you are a video watcher, we love you certainly. Also please do us a favorite subscribe on your favorite audio platform as well, and vice versa. If you are an Apple Spotify listener, just smash subscribe on YouTube. We're trying to get that number up and then your future. We just cross two thousand. That was mone so for us, we we'll ever see it, but it's get it going on YouTube as well. So the best way to support the show obviously to listen to the show, but also subscribe, download all that fun stuff, ratings, reviews, follow us on socials at Hammer Territory. We are on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, if you're still there, et cetera, et cetera. Scott thinking to us as always, we'll be back in some form. I don't know if it'll be us next time or what. So stay tuned everybody, and we'll have much more Bridge content coming up. Open days nearing marsh madis here. It's a good time for the hosts of this show. Nothing else we like baseball on this podcast, so stay tuned, subscribed to the podcast. We'll see y all next time.