Better Late than Never for Ozzie and the Braves Offense

00:00:22
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Hammer Territory Podcast. My name is Sean Coleman. Hope, wherever you are and wherever you were listening, you're having a great start to your Monday. A rare Monday recording of the Hammer Territory Podcast, but hey, plenty of news going on and another Braves win, a pretty nice one to start off well as this series against the Tigers. And as always, I am joined by my co host, Steven Tolbert. Steven, how are.

00:00:45
Speaker 2: You, sir?

00:00:46
Speaker 3: What's up? Sean? Yeah, man, we're doing a Monday night show this week. We both had some stuff come up for tomorrow, so we're gonna go ahead and get the show done for this week. Good win tonight. We're gonna talk about it, of course, but you know, we've said in the past it's always much more fun to do these after a win. It wasn't looking great, you know, especially when you know Max Freed left the game, Jesse Chavez came in with some heroics, and then some other guys did too that we're going to talk about. But yeah, always good to do these after a win, and always good to do these with you, buddy.

00:01:17
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and yes, the feeling is more than mutual. Of course, you can find the Hammer Territory podcast across all forms of social media, myself at Stat's sac on x Steven at be Underscore Outliers, and of course at foul Territory across all forms of social media. Hammer Territory a part of the Foul Territory family of podcasts. Well, Steven, let's get right into it. You mentioned it. You know, Max Reed was was Max Freed. You know, he was absolutely wonderful. You know through the first five innings, ran into a bit of trouble in the fifth, and then he gave way to Jesse Chavez, who later on gave way to Day's bowl Hernandez, and the bullpen was able to kind of work through some things when it came to, you know, keeping the Tigers offense at But what stood out tonight was two things. Number One, for the first what seven innings, it was the Braves offense over eight with Runnerson scoring position. Austin Riley continued to have good at bats, but overall it looked like it was gonna be a wonder at one of those nights again where the Braves clearly were you know, had the best approach, but they weren't getting the job done, but then it was some unexpected names. Jesse Chivez, Dasbol, Hernandez, Forest Wall, first time a while he's been the lineup. He gets the RBI single to tie the game, and then of course a well known name Ozzie Albis is able to get the job done with the home run, but Joe Hamenez gets to save. It was a night where the Braves came through when they needed to, but it was several unexpected sources that came through, which is a really really awesome thing to see. Kind of another indication better times maybe ahead.

00:02:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, listen, it's it. Sometimes it feels like a little bit of found money, right anytime you know you're the best, you know, the the biggest contributions come from Forrest Wall and Daves Bell, Hernandez and Jesse Chavez. You know, it's almost like playing with house money a little bit because you just don't expect it. You don't expect those guys to be parts of wins. Obviously, none of it works unless you only give up one run. So first and foremost, it's about Max Freed. It's about the job Jesse Chavez did in that. You know, I think it was the sixth sixth inning of the seventh inning where he came in and struck three guys out. I mean, you know, if you give up three or four runs in that game, you lose. So it starts with a pitching. You can do a lot of good stuff and a lot of guys can be heroes for you when you only give up one run because there's just more opportunities to do. So when you give up four or five runs, you need a lot more heroes. So yeah, it starts with a pitching obviously, Max. You know it got rough there at the end, and he definitely wasn't his sharpest tonight, but you know, still plenty good enough. And then the job the bullpen did. I I am interested to see, you know, Snitch said post game. I was just listening to the postgame press conference. He said there were some guys down and Pierce Johnson was not used tonight and he had he's only pitched once in four days, So I am a little curious to see if if maybe there's something up with him. It doesn't that wouldn't be weird if if he was down for workload reasons, just with that light of a workload only pitching ones in four days, so that's something to watch maybe until tomorrow and the next days. Is to make sure he's good. Anytime you don't see one of your best relievers in a close game where they're pretty well rested, my eyebrow kind of raises a little bit, just you know, I guess an injury bug radar kind of goes off. So we'll still well, you know, hopefully there's nothing there and hopefully there's just a rest day for him. But yeah, Jesse did a great job. Dais Bell did a great job. I don't don't I mean, I said it on Twitter. I don't love using you know, your lower end relievers in those situations, you know, a tide game in the eighth inning against the top of the order certainly much rather your higher leverage guys do it. But credit to those guys. They came through and it helped, you know, obviously it helped win the game. And then obviously Joe Jimenez came in with a terrific night. They need to close it out.

00:05:14
Speaker 1: For sure. And the great thing about it was was that again, you know, it kind of as you mentioned, you know, some things going on the braves trying to work themselves through some things. But what stands out is is that the trust and the death right. I agree with you, probably not the best decision. No, probably, you know, out of ten times the guys that we used tonight, they're probably not gonna get it done, you know, several times out of ten. But the point that I'm getting as they got it done tonight, and so that was that was a big development. And given you know, other guys like Brycell, like Glacius, Pierce Johnson another not so. Whenever you go see the Braves, whether it's home, it's on the road, you may get a good perfictional performance. Hopefully you're gonna see some good offensive performances. But the thing I can tell you is, no matter what you like to see, the place for you to go to be able to get your bravestickets is seat geek. And not only for Brave games, concerts, festivals, what have you. Over twenty eight million downloads, over seventy thousand events, seat geek is your top choice in many different ways. And the great thing about it is that it's MLB's top place to go to get tickets. And the great thing is is that it's going to let you know how good the tickets are a rating scale of one to ten. Green means good, red means not so good, and from that you're gonna be able to know that you've made the right decision. But we've got you taking care of here with Seakeeping being a new sponsor with Hammer Territory and the foul Territory family of podcasts. If you use the promo code Hammer, you'll get twenty dollars off your first order from Seatgeeking. And that's twenty dollars off your first order from seat Geek. So Steven, obviously, the offense has gotten going, and one of the bigger reasons for the offense con going is the one consistent source that we've seen so far this season, and that of course is Marcelo Zuna. Kind of a quiet night tonight, but Ozuna really got things going for us back on Thursday and Friday, And of course we've seen some big developments from another major player in the MVP race when it comes to Mooki Bess. Of course, the Mooki bets on Sunday hit by a pitch. It wound up fracturing his left hand. He's likely going to be out for two months, so that definitely is something that plays into the MVP race. I know that it is June, so talking about the MVP may not necessarily be that, you know, smart of a thing right now. But what stands out to me, Steven, is that when you talk about, you know, we also saw the All Star selections come out, Marcelo Zuna is the one brave who's up there in the top two of voting. But when you see you know, injuries that have occurred to Acunya, injuries now that have occurred to Mooki Bets, it really seems like that you could make a case that one and two in that MVP conversation in the National League is shohey O Tani and Marcelo Zuna. And I think that is more than a compliment to how consistent Azuna has been this year.

00:07:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, listen, I mean, marcell has a a legitimate case as an All Star. He's got a legitimate case his MVP. You know, I hate I hate injuries. I hate injuries so much. I hate that, you know, the the league is not gonna get get to watch Ronald this year. I hate that the league is gonna be without Mooki. We've got some big stars, especially on the pitching side. Even now, you know, position player wise, that are that are out and injuries just suck and they're you know, it's the worst part of the game. I don't care who you root for. I hated I I was annoyed when Bryce Tarpberg got hurt. Like, I don't like injuries at all. I want the best players on the field. It's just a better product. So yeah, the fact that movie is gonna be out sucks. You know, I was actually watching that game when he got hit and it looked bad. It was very clear immediately that something very you know, bad happened. He's not gonna need surgery, which is good. But yeah, you know, Marcel, I mean, he's got a legitimate MVP case right now. I mean not just like you know, this is a Braves podcast, so we talk about Braves players, like just an objective, legitimate MVP case. He's you know, he's he's got an outside shot at the Triple Crown. I mean, it's crazy as that is. I mean, he's you know, he's got he's even got the batting average for it right now. I don't know if that's going to continue, but he's definitely got All Star you know, obviously he's definitely got uh every right to be in the All Star conversation. You know, if you're if you're if you're in the MVP conversation, you should probably be in the All Star conversation. But he's been incredible. He hasn't he still doesn't slow down. I don't know how. I mean, he's stayed hot, you know, April, May, June hasn't slowed down one bit. You know, other guys have joined him, so it's not as obvious that he's stayed hot, but he is. He's just as hot as he was at the beginning of the year. I I you know, I talked about this with Bowman when Marl Bowman came on the show a few weeks ago. But you know, he's been hot for for like thirteen fourteen months now, like it. It's been crazy. He hasn't had a bad month since the last April and we're in you know, that was April twenty twenty three and this is June twenty twenty four. So he's been incredible, you know. I I the there's a part of my brain that says, there's no way he can hit like this. All year, but he's hit like this for over a full calendar year at this point, so like there's nothing. I mean, he very well could like this could just be Marcel in twenty twenty four and that's crazy to say, but he's been the best hitter on the team by a mile. You know, if it wasn't for Chris Sale and Ronaldo Lopez, he'd probably be the best player on the team. So yeah, it's been incredible. I hate it for a mookie that he's gonna be out, but Marcel is definitely in that conversation, He's earned every bit of it.

00:10:49
Speaker 1: And if the Braves offense starts to come around a bit, Marcel can stay you know, where he's at, and this Braves team can start winning a bit more. Listen, I'll just be honest, if you're gonna stack up, if Shoeo and Marcelo Zuna have similar numbers, I can see Otani being you know, the winner. I just you know can and we'll have plenty of time to discuss it. But the big key is is that Marcello Zuna. Again, as Steven mentioned, it's not just us saying you know, well, hey, look at what he's done for us. Despite all our injuries. It's the fact that he legitimately, you know, has a case to be the best hitter at least in the National League so far this season. But Steven, we also talked about it the last time. We discussed how the lineup can get going, and that is its best bats getting going, and the Braves truly, even without Ronald Acuna Junior, with Marcelo Zuna now performing how he is, you've legitimately got the potential to have three MVP bats, Olsen, Ozuna and Austin Riley. And that's exactly what we're seeing from Austin Riley. The last time we talked, we discussed that for the Braves to be able to win that series against the Rays, it was going to have to be them hitting home runs and hopefully Riley being a good source of it. Three straight games, three home runs, two more doubles tonight. And I bring this up because I want to stress a point. I want to make something very very clear, because I think that it is an awesome development that and there's no better time for this to happen. Austin Riley, what we're seeing from him right now, it's sustainable. I'm not saying he's gonna sit here and hit a home run every game. But Austin Riley, it may seem to some that when he went from how he was in May to where he's been over the past four games, him hitting that instant switch, some may be skeptical of how long he can continue it. But Riley heating up this specific time of the year. History shows it happens nearly every single year. He has a nine to eighty ops in the month of July for his career, and Stephen in twenty one, twenty two, and twenty three from the middle of June through July thirty first. In each of those three years, he had an eight eighty OPS or better and ten plus home runs over that six week stretch. So the point that I'm getting at is is that Austin Riley again, I'm not saying he's gonna home run every game, but being one of the best bats in baseball from mid June through the end of July. He's done every single season over the past three years. We're starting to see it once again.

00:13:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, we talked about it like there's no there is no replacement for your best hitters being your best hitters. There's no lineup construction. You know, there's no you know, moving things around that can replace just your best hitters hitting the way they're supposed to hit. And you know, last time you and I talked, we talked about like the Braves need Austin Riley. There's no there's no version of the Braves winning in twenty twenty four, especially without Ronald where Austin Riley is not a part of it. Because you know, the talent level on this team has just decreased so much. I mean, they don't have Acuna, that don't have Strider. You could argue their two best players. You know, most talented players overall are gone for the season, and you know, just the overall talent level of the team is just to crease to the point where you no longer have the luxury of one of your best players not playing well. You need everybody. You need all hands on deck. You need your best players hitting like your best players. You need your role players performing well in spots. You know, you need everybody. And credit to Austin man. He has been unbelievable the last four games. He's ras. You know, his WRC plus coming into the Tampa series was seventy seven for the season. That was coming into the Tampa series. Four games later, you know, three against Tampa and one tonight against Detroit, he's raised his WRC plus t one oh two. So he's added twenty five points of his WRC plus to his line in four games, which is pretty incredible for this late in the year. I mean, we're you know, he's two hundred and fifty plus plate appearances into the year, and that just shows you how hot he's been the last four games. But it's got to keep going. Like the Braves need him all the way through the summer. They need him into September, they need him October. You know him, Olsen Ozuna, even Ozzie. You know Ozzie had the big home run tonight. You know, especially hitting left handed, Ozzie's really struggled left handed this year. He was in a big funk in part because they've faced so many rities over the last four games, and when he does that, he gets in a funk. But so to see him launch that ball, you know, to the chop house batting left handed, was was huge. And you know, the Rays need those four guys and e Sean Murphy. They need Adam de Ball. You know, Jared Kelnick has been tremendous the last month or so. You know, if he wants to ken continue to do that, that would help a lot too. But yeah, I mean, you know, at the start of the year, the Braves had enough depth in the lineup where they didn't need everybody to be, you know, up to their level. Now the Braves need everybody to be up their level without a Kunya, without Harris, without Strider, like, the talent level on the team is just decrease to the point where now you do you need everybody to hit at their level, pitch to their level, like, you know, the margin of era is gone. So Austin coming alive these last four games has been you know, just a welcome, welcome site and hopefully it's just a sign of things to come for the rest of the summer.

00:16:15
Speaker 1: Absolutely, because if we can get the if we can get Austin Riley going, hopefully Matt Olsen can stay like he is and obviously Ozuna getting going, that that's good enough to carry the offense. You want to see those three guys do what they can and that can make the offense above averaging close to elite. But The other big reason why we've got to get those three bats going is because now you mentioned it at the first of your discussion about Austin Riley, it's nearly impossible to replace losing some of the talents that the Braves have. And unfortunately, over the weekend we found out, of course, that Michael Harris the second has a Grade two hamstrings strain will probably be out I would say at least a month plus, maybe longer than that. We know Ronald Acunya Junior is out. The point that I'm getting at is is that right now this Braves outfield is Jared Kilnick, who, to his credit, is playing excellent baseball. But beyond him, you've got Adam Devall, Ramon Loreano, Brian Anderson, and Forrest Wall who played a good job tonight. It's going to be good to see. I think the defense can be okay with that group. But the thing that stands out is you've got a lot of offensive limitations and Stephen, we talk about the fact that it's so huge for our big hitters to get going. The thing is, though, is that even if they do get going, somebody really needs to step up beside keller Nick. Out of this group to do that offensively. But it's really hard to trust any of those names that I mentioned outside of Kelernick to do that. I don't want to say the outfield is in a dire situation, but it's pretty close right now with the names that we have to use.

00:17:49
Speaker 3: Oh no, I mean, it's that's a rough That's a rough outfield situation for a team trying to win a World Series. I mean, it just is. I mean, if we're being honest, you know, Jared Kelnick was supposed to be the third or fourth outfielder on the team, probably more closer to the fourth outfielder on the team coming into the season, and right now he is clearly, like far and away the best outfielder on the team. And that's I'm not knocking Jared Keelnick, but like you know, he's not an established guy where you're just comfortable with him being the best outfielder on your team. You know, Adam devall Is has looked more and more like a thirty five year old. Ramon Loreano has had a rough, rough couple of years where he got he just got cut by Cleveland, who's always desperate for offense, and he couldn't make it on that club. You know, Forst. Wall is a twenty six, twenty seven year old kind of career minor leaguer. Brian Anderson's been cut a a bunch and was just a you know, a free agent, you know, until the Brave has picked him up a couple of weeks ago. You know, it's kind of it's rough. I mean, there's no other way to say it. It's rough. And if Adam Devall wanted to kind of flip a switch and and really turn back into Adam to All, that would be tremendously helpful. He's been that guy against lefties, but you know, you see so many more right handed pitchers and over the course of a season that it's tough to just tit lefties, and especially it's tough when you when the Braves don't currently have a decent platoon partner because kel Nick is having to play every day. So, uh, it is rough. I'm very interested to see what Alex does. You know, we're in the middle of June now, where it's you know, it's probably two weeks, two or three weeks away from being you know, in the heart of trade season. You could still see trades this time of year. There are some teams that are bad enough where you're they're probably okay with waving the white flag and send some guys away, But it is harder because there's nothing forcing those teams to make a deal with you. You know, they can say I don't really like that offer. I'm just gonna wait to see if I get anything better at the trade deadline, you know, when when there's nothing forcing the other team's hand in terms of moving guys, then usually the way to get a deal done is to overpay, and Alex might have to overpay. Scott and Scott and Brad talked about this, like, you know, you're you're not always gonna be in a situation where you can get the best deal or the exact deal that you want. Sometimes you do have to overpay a bit because the team needs help and the outfield needs help. Like you know, they've probably got they've got five outfitters on the team right now that they've probably got like one and a half major league players in that group, maybe two total if we're being you know, really kind with the splits and the platoon stuff. So yeah, they need help. They need probably at least one outfielder, maybe two quite honestly, they need some left handed help. Getting somebody that can play against right handers is a big deal. You know, I would love to get like two legitimate left handed outfielders so that you know, Loreano and Duvault don't have to play against right handers. That that would be tremendous. But I'm gonna be very see what does this is, you know, other than shortstop, which is a really hard position to upgrade in season, you know, the outfield is the clear area in terms of the position player group where you can upgrade. And I'm guessing Alex will at some point. It might be you know, it might take longer than all of us want, but I'm guessing that's where he's gonna, you know, go look for help. And I'm very very interested to see what he comes up with.

00:21:26
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00:22:47
Speaker 1: So, Stephen, you're going through, you know, the outfield situation, and it was going to lead to my to my next question. But you kind of answered it. You know, you talk about, you know, where are they not listening to a Scott as well as you know Brad, And you know, even if it's a bit early to you know, expect trades to happen, it's right in the time where you want to talk about. You know, what really is the target for the Braves in these trades, and you know, obviously the outfield. And I think I think the lineup, getting lineup depth, trusted lineup depth is probably right now more important than you know, some may you know think so many may think that another starter is the way for the Braves to go. But I'm with there with you. I think that the outfield needs help, and I agree. I think you know, yes, Orlando Arcia has played some decent defense this year, but this Braves offense without Ronald Acuna Junior. It just goes back to the same reason that you need your best hitters performing at their best as much as they can. For that same reason, you also don't have the luxury of consistently seeing everyday players give away at bats. So to me, I would think that yeah, we're looking for outfielders, we maybe looking for a shortstop. Well, what's the key trade of that player that we're looking for. For me, it's someone who can get on base. For me, it's someone who can work good at bats, who can deliver good approaches, productive approaches as consistently as possible, to be able to put runners on base and create those run scoring opportunities. Is that a big trait that you're looking for in the type of position player that Alex should go after, or is there anything else along with that that she feels important?

00:24:20
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, you know, there's a whole debate and there's been studies done on this about what's best to go get versus, you know, on base percentage versus slugging percentage, Like, what's the best way to build a lineup? Is it better to have, you know, half your guys be OBP guys and half your guys be slug guys. Is it better to go all nine to one or all nine the other? There's tons and tons, I mean, there's been so many different studies and so much research done on this. You can google it and go read it all. But you know, I don't, I don't. I don't focus as much on the style of player. You know, what I look for is just ops in general. A decent ops against you know, either you know right now with the Braves need or is some decent ops against right handed pitching. Like that's where the Braves are vulnerable right now, is because they're so right handed in their lineup. I mean, Olsen's left handed, Kelnick's left handed. Ozzie's a switch hitter, but he's much much worse batting left handed. Like, so you have two true left handed hitters in your every day line I've been you have Forest Wall, who's you know, a career minor leaguer essentially, so like the Braves need some left handed help. That's why I was saying, you know, if you could go get one or two legitimate left handed outfielders that could platoon with the ball in Leariano, then you've covered up a lot of your weaknesses. In my opinion, I would definitely look at short stop. Short stop is very hard to get in season because most good teams or most bad teams don't have a good short stop, and if they do, they're not going to trade them. Like, short stops are just hard to find. Like Paul DeJong of the White Sox is probably the only guy in terms of bad teams with the decent player at that position, you know that's that's a possibility. I don't know if you know. He's a decent defender. He's got like fourteen or fifteen home runs this year. He's much better than Listen. Orlando has been very bad. Like I treated this out, even when you factor in his defense, he's been the worst hitter in baseball for two months legitimately, I mean literally the worst hitter in baseball. He's got a thirty six WRC plus over the last two months, and nobody else is even below fifty. So he's been the worst hitter in baseball. Even when you factor in his defense, he's a negative war player over that span. I would love to upgrade that position, but it's very hard to do in season. So position player wise, absolutely, I think two left tended outfielders would be tremendous to get. But you know, a fifth starter, sixth starter would always help. I wrote about this at Battery Power last week. But it's very hard to trade for starting pitching. Now, you can trade for like lower tier guys that you might think you can squeeze a little more value out of, and the Braves might do that just to get through just to get two October. But in terms of trading for guys that are actually going to pitch in October, for you, those guys are extremely expensive and very very hard to get. You should really never expect that. And then bullpen. I think Alex will always add to the bullpen, you know, every year. He's done it every year, so I don't expect it to be any different this year. If I guess right now, the Braves will get one or two outfielders and one or two bullpen pieces and that'll be their trade deadline. It just comes down to who you know what the names are once we get to the end of July.

00:27:38
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and the thing that stands out for a team with playoff aspirations, excuse me, a team of championship aspirations. I can't remember the time frame that it was given, but last year Jepison talked about it. I believe he mentioned that the team that you know has the most homers in a playoff game wins that game nearly eighty five percent of the time. So to your point, we could talk about getting on base all the we want to, and it's great if we can, but if the Braves could add another option that they and we know the Braves also have a good track record of bringing in players who will perform better you know, here than they did elsewhere. You know, the twenty twenty one the outfitters we got are the prime example. If the Braves can find another slugger that can play on those outfield positions, that'll be a great addition. But some more news, notable news that came out on Monday, you know, kind of you know, could potentially impact the you know, how the Braves may approach the trade deadline when it comes to adding a potential pitcher, especially for the starting rotation. As you mentioned, it costs quite a bit to go get a legitimate starting pitcher. But the Braves got some decent news on Monday. So Ian Anderson, who obviously has been out you know for quite a while, I believe, you know, yeah, since the start of last year. He obviously has come back from Tommy John surgery. He's been doing work to get back going. It was reported that he's going to start ramping up some activity. A workout scheduled i believe tomorrow, which is very good news, which should you know, put a plan in place here hopefully soon him to you know, potentially get on a rehab assignment and start working his way back. Hurst and Waldrop, who you know, there was you know, some stuff over the past twenty four hours about him being put on the I l the fact that there had been reports that he had had some elbow soreness. The reports into the latest tonight was was that it was just inflammation. They're gonna have him sit for a week and then he'll get going on the start on a pitching program again. But Stephen, the reason I bring this up is you've got Ian Anderson, who's kind of you know, starting to get an idea of rehabbing coming back Hurst and Waldrop. It looks like, best case scenario, he should work his way up as well A J. Smith Schober. Probably in the next month or so, we'll be back and we'll be on a regular rotation, you know, in the minors. The point that I'm getting at is is that even though the Brainers have dealt with their plenty of injuries, when it comes to their minor league depth pitching wise, they'll have some options that they can have for them to navigate the rest of the regular season. Number One, your thoughts on you know, the emergence of some of those young pitchers coming back in the next month or so. But how that depth he kind of give the Braves what they need to where they don't have to go out and get that significant starter.

00:30:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, like I was just saying, starting pitching is so expensive. At the trade deadline, you know, you can go get fifth or six guys probably, but you know, what are you going to get out of those guys? There's always the question. But like legitimate starting pitching is very, very expensive, and it's so much easier to use your your own depth as you're kind of you know, starting pitching reserve. And so what goes on down in the minor leagues in Gwinetta and in Mississippi is a big deal. It matters a lot for the major league team, even if you're not a big minor league you know prospect guy, and I'm not, but that stuff matters a lot for, you know, for the major league team. We've seen it the last few years. I mean, the Braves have dipped down and gotten some of their better prospects up very quickly. You know. We saw it with Michael Harris, we saw it with Pitzer Strider. We saw it with Vaughan Grissom, like they have been there as a as aggressive a team as there is in old baseball about promoting their prospects. I mean, we just saw it with Herston Walter. I mean he came up. You know, he made like two starts in Gennett before he came up. Now, I don't know if that was the smartest move. You know a lot of people were questioning that move even before Hurston threw a pitch, and then obviously it didn't go very well. But they are hyper aggressive with prospects because they know that, you know, your own prospects are by far and away the easiest and cheapest way to acquire depth. So yeah, I mean, listen, it's a big deal. What Ian Anderson does. I don't have a ton of hope, if I'm being honest, Like, he was very bad before he got hurt, and then he got hurt, so you know, he he he. I don't know if people remember, but he got demoted to Triple A. He was not pitching well in Triple A. He got hurt in Triple A, and then obviously had Tommy John and he's been out for a long time. So I have no idea what to expect. If I had to guess, I would expect he would still be not very good. But who knows, you know, we could see a different guy. It's really good news that Hurston's not seriously injured. Obviously, anytime you see elbow inflammation you get a little worried. So the fact that it's just a week with him is good news. A J. Smith Schaalber should be coming back at some point. He's been out about a month with that oblique it's usually about a two month thing, so he could be an option when you get this like September, and then you know, schwellenback has been obviously very good. He's still in the rotation.

00:32:27
Speaker 2: J R.

00:32:27
Speaker 3: Richie is a guy that's in the miners that's starting to rehab. They've got a bunch of you know, they've got a bunch of interesting guys.

00:32:35
Speaker 1: David Fletcher and.

00:32:37
Speaker 3: His knuckleball is the David Fletcher.

00:32:39
Speaker 1: The talk of baseball. That knuckleball.

00:32:41
Speaker 3: Now, now, if we see David Fletcher in the majors, then some things have happened. I'll I'll put it that way. If you see David Fletcher's knuckleball, you know, within a Lana on his chest. Then some stuff has happened. But yeah, I mean, listen, the miners. The miners in terms of pitching, depth of mind is extremely important. It's the most important aspect of your team in terms of your your farm system is is how will you develop pictures? Because they're so expensive to acquire at the major league level. So that's the stuff I always look at when I'm looking at minor league ball. Obviously you look at the position players. You know, Nacho Alvarez has been bumped up to Guinnette. He's done really well so far. Drake Baldwin has been bumped up to Guinnett. He's done really well so far. You know, as bad as Orlando or C has been, I don't you know, maybe I would not be stunned if Nacho came up at some point. Listen. As aggressive as the Braves are with prospects, I mean, they brought Vaughn Grisson up straight from Double A, and Nacho's at triple A, so he's already ahead of where Grissom was when he got caught up. So I it would not stun me at all to see Nacho at some point. It would not stunn me to see Drake Baldwin, you know, maybe moved in a deal. You know, even Nacho. I don't know if they can afford to move Nacho as bad as Orlando is. But you know, these guys doing well at the upper miners is a big deal because at the very least, it's it's good. You know, they're good trade ships if you if you decide you want to go that route, it's better than not having any trade ships at all. So but yeah, your minor league's the most important aspect of your minor league is how how well you develop your own pitching depth, just because of how so expensive it is to go acquire it, you know, in July.

00:34:24
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and we're going to see that pitching depth on display tomorrow because you know, we the last time we were talking, Steven, we were talking about Alex and Thopolis's comments when it came to a six man rotation. Well, well, now with Hirst and Waldrip be an option to triple A, Ray kurzsmen optioned to triple A. You know, Waldrop having his injury. You know, there's some pressure on Spincer Swellobaker. I don't want to add pressure to it, but Spencer Swellenbach at the very least a fifth starter. You hope he can stay the course for a while. Pretty big matchup between him and Casey Maiz. This Tiger pitching staff a lot like the Nationals, a very underrated pitching staff, very very good starting pitching, you know option for the Tigers. But Spincher swelling Bok, he looked very impressive against the Orioles last week. If he could put together another start, I could see him potentially having that fifth starter spot in place through the end or through at least the All Star breaks. So a needed start for him, especially with the fact that even though Ronald the Lopez will be on the mound for the Braves on Wednesday, Tarret Scuball will be on the mound for the Tigers. So a big opportunity for Spencer for Spencer Swellingbock tomorrow. Hopefully he can carry over some of the momentum that we saw with how will he pitched against the Orioles.

00:35:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, you'd love to win the series tomorrow, so that you know you don't have to beat schoolball to win the series. Uh, People who don't know, maybe you know he's not a household name just because he plays on the Tigers but that dude is legit and he is nasty. He's one of the best pitchers in baseball, and you don't want to have to beat him to win the series. You know, if you win the series tomorrow, then it's kind of a free role. You can you know, you can beat him for the sweep or you know, even if you lose the game, at least to win this. So it'd be lovely to win the series straight out tomorrow with Schwellenbach. Like you said, he pitched really well against Baltimore. I mean he faced Baltimore's full lineup. I mean he Gunner Henderson and everybody, and he gave up I think two runs and six innings or something like that. So you know, he's he's very interesting. He's certainly not a finished product. But you know, of all the guys that have come up, maybe with the exception of AJ before he got hurt, Spencer has looked the most ready, and you know he's gonna have a role on the team. I mean, I would not be surprised if Bryce Elder came up at some point and the Braves kind of went back to that six man rotation. I think they You and I talked about this last time. But I think they they have switched their thinking to valuing keeping their pictures fresh and healthy versus you know, having their best pitchers out there as as often as possible, which I think is the right move. I think that's a very smart move. So not be surprised if they went back to the six men rotation and just use Bryce Elder or Alan Winens or somebody like that just to cover, you know, for a chunk of the season until Aja's you know, ready, or one of the other guys is ready, but or Alex goes and gets somebody. But it will be interesting to see what they do. You know, they have an off day on Thursday, so they can effectively still use a six men rotation even with only five starters because the off day can kind of serve as the sixth starter this week. So that does help, and it will be interesting what they do. My guess is Bryce Elder is gonna come up at some point, but I mean with Alex, you never know. I mean, every day we get a notification from the team account, you know, we're just as surprised as anybody. So we'll see what they do. But they have very clearly shown an interest in keeping their starters healthy by giving them extra rest. So my guess is at some point we're going to see another starter come up and they'll go back to a six man rotation.

00:37:55
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And the good thing about it is is that, you know, going back to that six man rotation, the thing is is that that approach, it's keeping one of the best starting staffs in baseball fresh and that definitely is needed on nights where the offense has struggled, which has been more often than not. But you just have to hope that it continues and the Braves can get a win tomorrow. We're gonna have continue to have you covered here on the Hammer Territory podcast. Brad and Scott will be back on Wednesday night. Then later this week me and Steven will be back. Of course, we you know, gonna continue to our conversations about the trade deadline. We've got the draft coming up, and obviously hopefully the Braves can continue to keep on winning. As Brian Snicker said earlier tonight, we're still focused on winning that East. We're not focused on winning the wild card. So wins that can be strung together will definitely help the Braves, especially with some top tough competition coming up. But Steven, it's been a pleasure. I hope you have a great night and we'll talk to you again later this week.

00:38:45
Speaker 3: All right, man, thank you, Sean, Yeah, buddy, Yeah, good to talk as always. You know, it's it's a big week, you know the Braves. You know, they've got Detroit and then I think they go do they go straight to the Yankees? I think they go straight.

00:39:01
Speaker 1: Actually off day, they're off day, they travel I believe on Thursday. Then they got the weekend series against the Yankees. I believe.

00:39:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so in New York and the Yankees are you know, if they're not the best team in baseball, they're one of the best teams in baseball. So that's gonna be you know, it would be lovely to get some wins against Detroit before you have to go up to New York and face you know, Lon Soto and Aaron Judge and Stanton and all those guys. So, you know, big a couple of games coming up tomorrow and Wednesday and then off to New York for the weekend.

00:39:30
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and we'll have you covered throughout, and obviously we'll also have you covered whenever big News does occur, hopefully more positive news than negative news moving forward, But until next time, Steven Tober you can find them and be underscore alliers. My name is Sean Coleman. You can find me at Stat's sac on X. Of course, you can find at Hammer Territory across all forms of social media against. Scott and Brad will be with you again on Wednesday night, but until the end, go braves. This has been the Hammer Territory Podcast, part of the Foul Territory Podcasts and networks Go Rags. We'll talk to you again soon here on the Hammer Territory Podcast