The Braves Swept the Mets and Didier Fuentes is on the Way

00:00:21
Speaker 1: Welcome on it All to the Hemmer Territory Podcast. My name is Sean Coleman. Hope, wherever you are and wherever you are listening, you are having a great week so far, and for once, I'm not going to have to back that up by saying, hopefully you're not letting the fact that you're a bravesman get in the way of you having a good week, because hey, the Braves are having a second straight good week in a row. As always, my podcast partner, Stephen Tolbert is with me. Stephen, I feel I don't want to take it for granted, but we're doing podcasts now where we're talking about wins. Consecutive wins, four straight wins for this Braves team. It was great to see a seven to one victory on Thursday night. Spencer Stroud was absolutely excellent. The offense is starting to show a bit of consistency and we needed to do exactly what we said we needed to do a sweep of arguably the best team in the n AL, the Mets. This Braves team still has a long ways to go. If they're putting together the steps that they need to start that journey. We all want them to start.

00:01:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, what's up, buddy. It's been great. It's been what we expected most of the year. I mean, this is what we thought we were gonna get in April and May. And the pitching has been unbelievably good. And we're gonna talk about Spencer first. Spencer's gonna be the first segment tonight, and just having him not only perform and produce the way he has, but also look the way he has in terms of velocity, in terms of swing and miss, like, it's just super encouraging how he looks, even if the results weren't there, how he looks is fantastic. And then add in the fact that he's also getting results and the team is getting results. You know, this is probably as good as they've looked all year if you combine offense, pitching, bullpen like, this is the first time we've seen them even kind of put it all together at one time for any sort of you know, multiple game stretch. So, yeah, this is this is what we thought we were signing up for. They've won five out of or seven out of nine. Obviously, just swept the Mets, the division leader, going to Miami. You got a chance to continue it, Yeah, big big stretch and it's finally nice to see the Atlanta Braves look like the Atlanta Braves.

00:02:35
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and this is the stretch you know, that we had all been waiting for. We got it, We got a similar stretch up in April, but then we fell right back into it, you know, and especially you know, losing fourteen out of seventeen, you know, you know, going in from the end of May and early June. But this is exactly what we needed to see. But do want to give credit to your point to Spencer Strider. Spencer Strider who came back from the Eternal Race surgery, you know, the Tommy version of the Tommy John surgery. You know, his first five or six starts, it looked like that he was just trying to find his way, and there was speculation out there, there were think pieces out there, are we going to have to see a Spencer Strider that's different from what we saw pre surgery. But then the start against the Rockies came and you saw the velocity get back to the normal Spencer Strider's level. Now you think to yourself, oh, it's just one game, Oh it's against the Rockies. How much can you put on this being something that shows he's turned the corner. And then he comes out tonight and looks the exact same against the Mets. Not completely dominant, there were struggles, but I actually think that's encouraging. He looked like Spencer Strider despite the fact he had to work for a bit of trouble. That to me, he's encouraging, along with the velocity and the strikeout rates starting to normalize where we usually expect to see them from a Spencer Strider.

00:03:48
Speaker 2: Yeah. And I'll tell you the moment that I started feeling better was when I heard Spencer say after I think it was the last time he struggled in a game. Afterwards, he said that the velocity in his arm was actually more about his lower half than his upper half. It's not necessarily just how his arm feels, but he gets so much velocity from his lower half. And you know, when you're rehabbing, you can't throw full effort, you know, max effort pitches like that, and so you really have a hard time sinking up your lower half until you get into live game action. And I think what we've seen over the last couple of weeks is Spencer is starting to get his lower half into his full motion the way we saw back when he first came up. And listen, everybody knows about his calves, everybody knows about his diet. You know, the dude has built like a truck from the waist down, so he's got so much power in those legs, and it's really good to see the velocity start to come. Listen, Spencer Strider at ninety three ninety four is different than Spencer Strider at ninety six, ninety seven, ninety eight. You know, we just watched this with Kreig Krimble. We've watched this with guys in the past. I remember Mike Foltonovitch came to camp one day throwing ninety four, and he was out of baseball a very short time later. Like, it's a big deal when you lose velocity. And so to see Spencer back ninety six, ninety seven, ninety eight, the last pitch you through tonight, the ninety seventh pitch of the game was ninety six miles an hour. So he's getting his velocity, he's holding it better. It's just all good signs. And then on top of that, he's getting results, right, I mean, Matt scored one run tonight, and I think he's given up one earned run in his last two starts, a bunch of strikeouts. He's striking out guys at the rate we're expected to see Spencer Strotter strike guys out. So just all good signs. And even if the Brads had lost it, honestly, as good as Spencer looked at there would have been some positive vibes because him looking this good as a good indicator for the rest of the season. And on top of the fact that the offense showed up, Yeah, really really good stuff from Spencer tonight.

00:05:50
Speaker 1: And the other thing that stands out about this just overall. We'll get into the offense and a bit later on in the show, But Steven, this is a reminder of the fact that you could make the case they haven't look the part over the past year plus. And I know that the Braves have also had their struggles over the past three years in playoff series. But you just threw Spencer swellbat, Chris Sail and Spencer Strider against arguably the best team in the National League. I still think many will say the Dodgers are but one of the best two teams in the National League, and I know that the Mets did not counter with their best arms because they're dealing with injuries right now to a few of their best arms. But my point is we looked head and shoulders as better than the Mets, at least in terms of pitching. The Mets struggled overall. They uncharacteristically were bad in this series, but we looked like the superior team in this series, and it shows what we're fully capable of. We've got a long way to go. You could make the case that there's still just as much a chance we don't make the playoffs as if we do, and I still think that we've got to put together another few weeks of this level of baseball playing. But this is just a reminder of what we're capable of. If we can at least get to the dance, we can leave the show in terms of the playoffs. And a big part of that is because of that three headed monster. When it comes to our starting pitching. It was great to see, especially when it's backed by a little bit of consistency from our offense.

00:07:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, and listen, the Braids are catching the Mets at a good time. They just got swept by Tampa Bay. They placed multiple pitchers on the il. Like sometimes it's about when you play teams and you get it, you know, you get a nice break that you We probably caught the Mets in their worst stretch of the season, and that helps. And then the Mets caught the Braves if probably their best stretch of the season, like we just talked about so and the Mets did not play well. They made multiple outs on the bases. They forgot how to catch at a big league level for an entire series, which was weird. But the Braves were also made them pay. Listen all those walks tonight. Eventually Maddalson cleared the bases with a double like they made them pay. And my favorite thing about this stretch is the Braves are winning games. Obviously they're winning games consecutively, but they're also winning games decisively, like they're scoring. You know, they're winning by four runs, five runs. It's not a one run. Hold onto your butt the whole night and just pray to God that Rossie Oglesis can protect this one run lead. Even if he does it, you still don't feel great about that. It's when you actually beat a team seven to one, where it's just easy and like last night was five to nothing. The Mets never had a chance in the game last night. They barely had a chance in the game tonight. Like, that's how I want to beat teams, and that's how I expect a team of the Braves talent level to beat teams even as good as the Mets, because the Braves are as talented as anybody. So yes, they caught the Mets at a good time, but they also made the Mets pay for multiple mistakes in this series, multiple walks akunyaan Olsen. You know, we've talked about their two best hitters that look fantastic. Right now, there's other stuff in the lineup that's not going great, but we're not going to focus on that stuff right now when they've got a four game winning streak and have won, you know, three straight series and the vibes are too good to concentrate on anything negative right now. This is what I expect the Braves to look like. And we're going to talk about the Marlins here at the end of the show. But like, you got to keep it going. You can't give it back in Miami. You got to keep it going well.

00:09:08
Speaker 1: Of course, the Braves performance on the field is certainly what's going to make the headlines, but there also was some fun news today, probably the breakthrough prospect of the year. If you go back to spring training. Picture by the name of Adder Foruinsz turned a lot of heads when it came to one of the showcase games for minor leaguers in spring training. A nineteen year old at the time, now just turn twenty, he has been on an absolute role. I think he's elevated through three different levels of the Braves farm system so far this year. And lo and behold, he is going to be called up to start Friday night's opener against the Miami Marlins. And we are lucky enough to have one of the best in Braves country, Gara Vedek. He is going to be joining me here in just a moment after a word from our partners, to discuss a bit more about what has led for Winday's up to this point to get this offer and what success for him could look like. But before I get you know, we turn you know over to turn the analysis over to Garrobe to give us a bit more on point. Is Steven, what to your thoughts? I know neither one of us are really prospect guy. But it's really been amazing to see how much he's you know, gone through the minor leagues. Just seems to be very mature for his age. Seems to have great stuff. This could be the real deal, the next Braves arm that could really make a difference for this squad, even at as young in age as he is.

00:10:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm definitely not a prospect guy. Mel At the experts handle the prospect stuff. I will say this. I was talking about this a couple of days ago on Twitter. I did think it was possible the Braves were gonna have somebody else pitching this Miami series along with Elder and Holmes, because by doing that, they lined up Schwellenbach, Strider and Sale again to pitch against the Mets next week. And it just made too much sense not to do that. Now, you know, if the Braves lose a couple of these games in Miami, people are gonna get mad about that, like just by process, Just like when they moved grand Holmes to start that game against Colorado, by process, I was fine with that, and Grand Holmes pitch fantastic in that game. The offense, just the offense of the bullpen just both blew up, so I'm not surprised they're doing this. It's really cool to see a kid this young. He literally just turned twenty. He was nineteen like two days ago. One of the youngest pitchers you'll ever see reached the major is quite honestly, this is very rare and it's probably just gonna be a spot start. I don't think he's up for any kind of significant time. But the fact that he's already garnishing a start in the middle of the hottest stretch of the Brave season, where every game is vital, tells you what they think about this kid and what his potential is. And you look at some of the more advanced metrics that that sites used to grade prospects, and this dude grades off the charts. He's got a really interesting mix of pitches. Again, I'm gonna let you know smarter people than I talk about that stuff in detail. But this is exciting. This is this, This is pretty cool. And I was not expecting this. I thought they might do a bullpen game or something. I was not expecting them to call up a nineteen slash twenty year old to make this start. But that's what they did, and it's going to be exciting to watch.

00:12:12
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and it was exciting to talk about for windays in detail again with one of the best in Braves country and in general when it comes to breaking down prospects. Gro Bedeck. He was on the show with Brad Rowland just a few weeks ago talking about the Braze Mount League system. He was kind enough to join us once again. You'll hear the conversation between me and him on Vidyair for win TZ right after this word from our partners.

00:12:34
Speaker 3: Krat's real question for you. So I'm in Arena Club and I opened up a slab pack. I pulled a Wyatt Langford Auto rookie card. I got an immediate offer from Arena Club. I turned it down. It was in the mid three hundreds range. I've gotten a few offers since. Thoughts on Wyatt say, hold on.

00:12:54
Speaker 2: I saw it.

00:12:55
Speaker 4: I didn't see it when you ripped the pack, but it looks so sick with everything around and how it spinning in your showroom. John looked nice, but no, you shouldn't sell it.

00:13:05
Speaker 1: Maybe wait till he.

00:13:06
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00:13:13
Speaker 3: That's right bye, sell trade. Slab packs are there for you too to rip a pack, and for me, I'm just leaving it in the showroom for now deciding what I'm going to do with it. But if I did want to sell it, then I can get myself another slab pack or buy a card that I want to buy. Get twenty percent off your first slab packer card purchase by going to Arena club dot com slash val use code foul.

00:13:36
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Here a Territory podcast, and we are thrilled to have one of the best minds when it comes to Brave's prospects. Goro Vedeck is back with this once again, just with us a few weeks ago breaking down Braves prospects with Brad Rowland. But he's back with us because it's a really exciting weekend. Gorov, you broke the news yourself. First off, good talking with you again. Thank you for being on the show. Braves Country is always excited to see your face because you do incredible work when it comes to it, not only breaking down prospects but bringing Braves Country knowledge of said prospects, and we're about to see one of the most type prospects we've seen in quite a while dd R for wintis he is getting the call to the major leagues to potentially start Friday night for the Braves. I'll let you kind of break down just how historical that he is and also how we got here with this young man, the man who many started to know from his breakout performance in spring training. Are you surprised by this at all?

00:14:32
Speaker 2: Gorv?

00:14:33
Speaker 1: Is it the right move? Just an awesome, awesome development for the breakthrough Brave prospects so far this year.

00:14:39
Speaker 5: Yeah, I appreciate that, by the way, Sean, But you know, when given the full context, it kind of makes sense. You know. The overall bringing him up allows better pitching matchups for the Braves against the Mets in their next series, and with that kind of gap, you know you have to go for it. But on top of that, the Braves are doing something different. We've seen those fits starter six starter retreads. It's been you know, Bryce Elder, We've talked about that back and forth between Gwinnette. What the Bridge are doing differently now is they're promoting their best arm. And when I say their best arm. I seriously mean it. Now they have pitching depth from one to you know, one to fifteen. I got like, of those my top fifteen prospects, like three fourths of them are pitchers, so they got plenty of pitching depth. But what Went's does, especially where what we've seen this year, the velocity's up, the command is way up. And when I when you factor in his really really tiny vertical approach angle, that ninety five ninety seven looks even faster, and on top of that, it's generating a ton of whiffs. He's been able to really attack people high in the zone, and that's something you just don't see a lot of minor league pitchers do. Now, they can throw high, but can they command that pitch high in the zone inside the zone most importantly, And that's something you don't see too often, and it's something that braves in the minor league systems are really trying to push. Right now, you're seeing a lot of high fastballs. Can minor league pitchers, can all of them be able to locate a high be able to generate those whifts? And Fuentes has done a tremendous part of it. Now he's got a ton of other pitches which we'll go into pretty quickly, but it's that fastballs that's been his calling card this entire season. And it's honestly, in my little group chat with Braves MiLB or Garrett from Battery Power, we talked about Flentis looking so good that we can find him in the majors this season. Now, when I say June, that was a bit of a surprise, but again, when it allows the matchups that it does for the Braves, it makes a lot of sense. And he's someone that I truly believe would be in Atlanta this year. I figure to be a later in the year and it still might shift towards more of that bullpen roll as he continues to develop his arm and build and build up that strength. But yeah, it's very, very exciting. It's going to be you know, really, I can't miss I can't miss event tomorrow. I honestly am waiting to dig in, really waiting to dig into that even more data that he's able to get out there, because we haven't been able to see him too much this season and get that advanced data. So being able to see that more consistently is only going to help all of our evaluations of Didiera and again could not be more excited. Very very good kid, very good kid.

00:17:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to hit on that first, and then we'll get into that data that you mentioned. The one thing that I want to hit on is for a picture that he's going to be the youngest Grace pitcher in fifty five years making his debut for the team, and so that speaks to me. You talk about a fastball that doesn't move that much, So that speaks to me about someone who's got good control, advanced control at his age. And it would also seem to speak to a very mature approach, very you know, an approach that doesn't get rattled, stays in the moment, goes to the next pitch, even if you know the previous bitch is a mistake or doesn't work out as it needs to. But I imagine, just from reading some of the Scotty reports on him, you've got a kid who's composed, stays consistent, and is able to figure out how to outthink kidders a lot of the time, a lot of things that you don't see at as young an age of twenty years old, just turned twenty years old. That for w Tissey is s mindset in why just seems like he's mature beyond his years on the mound.

00:18:10
Speaker 5: Every single coach, every single scout I have talked to about Flints has said the exact same thing. He is cool and collected. It doesn't matter the situation that he's in, if he's starting a game, if he's coming in the eighth of the ninth the inc in a rehab assignment, nothing gets to him. He that's like what you said is one hundred percent true. He just does not get rattled. And on top of that, he listens to his coaches so well. I have not heard a single bad thing. I've never heard about him showing up late, showing up out of shape, anything like that, which is something extremely common especially with younger kids coming into the minor leagues. For Flintes, He's been in the organization for quite some time. He came in I think as a seventeen year old back in twenty twenty three. I saw him put in the work in effort. Then he's continued to do so, continue to put in. He is one of the hardest working people. In the off season. You can see the major adjustments he has coming into each and every season. This is this is I called him a kid. He's now twenty. This is a man that puts in the time, that puts in the effort, and he wants to despite being blessed with an outstanding arm, he wants to learn the art of pitching. He wants to do he wants to look into the data. He wants to understand how he can get better day in and day out. And having that kind of mindset while it's at his age, like twenty years old, I was, I was an idiot in college. But he's putting in that time, he's working out, he's showing up early. Everything I've heard about him from again coaches, from scouts, and from his teammates, nothing but good stuff about him.

00:19:43
Speaker 1: Of Course, obviously the mental makeup is you know, that's the intangibles, that's the qualitative part of things that you can't necessarily measure. But you mentioned the data, and of course you know I'm right through with you. No, I won't say I'm as talented as you are when it comes to the minor league side of things, because you really are good when it comes to breaking down that data. But you speak to that data, and of course that spotlights the actual stuff of for Wintes, and it starts with that fastball. Again, not necessarily a lot of movement, but some really good control, some pinpoint accuracy with that basketball to get the high wiff rate off of that. You've got the slider, which seems to be pretty advanced for his age as well. But you talked about on social media today the split finger ford DDA fo win Tes maybe an area of opportunity that we could see featured a bit more. And we've just seen AJ smith Shov. Unfortunately we won't see it for a little while. The best wishes to A. J. Smith Shov. That really kind of broke out smiths Shaver's game, took his game to the next level this year. His usage of that split finger speak to what makes Wintes's overall repertoire so advanced for his stage and how that split finger could potentially take him to the next level, even at the major league level.

00:20:47
Speaker 5: Yeah, totally. So we just talked about how he came into the organization in twenty twenty three. We've already seen a complete shift in how he pitches. Twenty twenty three, he was fastball, curveball, change up. We fast forward to today, the change up doesn't really exist. Instead, he's added a really not even added. He added a splitter a couple of seasons back, but he has not used it a ton. That splitter is so good that the Braves have. Again this is unofficially, but by looking at his starts, by charting his pitches, you can tell that the Braves are completely sold on it, don't They're not worried about it. What they wanted to see was increased command of his second of his other secondaries, he had an amazing curveball to start off. He got rid of that almost completely end of last year beginning of this year, and he was primarily fastball slider. Now that slider has shown great improvement since the very beginning his first start in Gwinett is when he brought back the curveball. So you're seeing again nineteen at the time, now twenty, you're seeing a really young man Alter and listen to again I've I just said it. Listen to his coaches Alter, his approach entirely, be willing to work on things day in and day out. And what makes is we I want to specifically talk about that fastball because this fastball sits around ninety five to ninety seven. If he wants, you can get it up to ninety eight ninety nine. But why it generates so many whiffs is because his vertical approach angle is less than four degrees. We've seen the data has shown. And if there's a great article on pitch er List, if anyone is interested, go to I will definitely go tweet it out after this. If you're on Twitter, you can you can find me and look it up. But there is a great, great article talking about the dynamics of a low approach vertical approach angle, and what we've seen over the past four or five years is with being able to especially stay within three to five degrees that is elite territory, and we're seeing a huge amount of whiffs from that exact approach angle. So he's able to not only be on the upper end of a specific pitch, but he's in the elite category already as a twenty year old. You factor that with then a slider that darts away, a curveball that has it sometimes gets a little bit vertical. For me, I wish to see a little more horizontal movement just you see, so there's a little more separation between his pitches and then that splitter that just dies down. It's incredible, and he's only going to continue to work on it. The Braves again, like, I don't think they expected this kind of ascension because they have been throttling his pitch usage in between each star and just this last one we saw fastball curveball as opposed to fastball slider that we've seen for most of the season. So it's going to be interesting that first start against tomorrow, luckily it is against the Marlins, to see what kind of pitch mix they go with. I'm expecting a heavy dosage or fastball slider with some curveballs sprinkled in, just because he hasn't thrown that splitter too much. But again, I mean, he's got such a talented arm. You might be able to see that splitter that he hasn't thrown barely at all this year come back and become, you know, one of those top tier pitches and potentially in Major League Baseball we have. I don't think it's quite there yet, but I would probably put splitter gray round around a fifty five to potentially a sixty.

00:24:06
Speaker 1: So obviously he has elite stuff, but that doesn't seem to be the driving force as to why he is ascended so well in the Brave system. Not necessarily seeing it so far in MLB rankings, but in the Brave system you've seen it a lot of times. You just see pure I guess you could call it filth stuff be the driving force for ascending young pitchers. But to your point with him, the fact that he puts such an emphasis on knowing the you know, science or metrics or whatever part of it and making sure that he's consistent with the productive setup. That's really what kind of sets him apart from other pitching prospects. His age to go along with the natural elite stuff that he has, and that also could be why you may see him set himself apart at such a young age to take on the moment and be a bit more consistent than some may expect pitchers his age to.

00:24:54
Speaker 5: Be no totally. And again, what he does so great, especially is the command of all the pitches. Now you don't see that. You typically will see a premiere starting pitcher at that age be able to locate his fastball and be able to locate his fastball lower in the zone. But what Wints can do is he can locate all four pitches. Now, I will say the fastball, the slider, and the splitter are the best, and the curveball is lagging a little bit behind. But he's still able to throw that curveball when he needs to. But the fastball itself, again, it is such a ridiculous pitch, and he's able to lean on it consistently, throwing at sixty five or sixty five to seventy percent of the time, which then allows that element of surprise. And on top of that, it's his ability to command those pitches. He can live in the higher in the upper thirds of the zone with his fastball, which is extremely hard to do. Just think about the science behind throwing a pitch right. You're gonna throw it down. But he's able to keep that ball elevated higher in the zone and it makes it so difficult for hitters to perceive and to be able to keep that swing up high and make contact with it. So it is truly one of the fastest ascensions I can remember well, strolling back last year. We can't even talk about that with strolling back and a J. Smiths slav But we have seen so much development each year from him and coming into this year. At the very beginning, I think it took maybe two starts. Braves MiLB Or Garrett and I were talking and we said, you know what, we think he's got it with Drake Baldwin and in Atlanta and not coming back. We think points us as a legitimate shot of being our number one prospect. And as each start happened, of course there was some time with blisters that he missed, but as each start happened, there was no reason for us not to think that way because of the ability to command all of his pitches at this age.

00:26:43
Speaker 1: So going into kind of what this setup will be, we've talked about the reasons why he's here, why the Braves are trusting him with this opportunity. I want to get your perspective because I think it's a very valuable perspective on what success looks like in this opportunity, and then we'll build off that as we wrap up this segment of the show with Guarabdic talking about the incoming the incoming debut of d d Or Foe. T is the thing that I'll ask you, is this just straightforward? What does success look like to you for for win test in this starting against the Marlins. Is it a certain amount of innings, It's the amount of you know, first piss strikes he get working through trouble, the overall pitch approach, what to you would stand out as being a clear sign of success. And this guy with more seasoning is going to get the job done at the major league level.

00:27:33
Speaker 5: That's honestly a fantastic question, and that's that's really difficult to answer. I think everyone has their own barriers of success. For me, I would love to see his ability to spot the fastball and generate withs. If he's able to do that at the major league level, everything else will come into place. But if he's generating with already against the elite of the elite talent. Now it is the Miami Marlins, and some you know, you could gay people have said, you know, you can call them a buada or a Triple A team, but like they are still high, they're still some of the best athletes in the world. And if he's able to generate whiffs from that fastball, that only means every other pitch he has is going to play. Now will he command them all? Like who knows there's gonna be so much adrenaline pumping through his veins. He just turned twenty two days ago, Like, how can you not be absolutely amped up to show? And I know that the scout that found him is going to be at the game as well, so he's gonna want to like try and prove everyone right. But for me, I don't really care. I don't think he's going to go more than maybe four innings. He hasn't really. He's been capped about three and a half to four point one innings, is right around his average on the on the year, and it's because he struggled with some blisters. They're just slowly working him up. And they've slowly been working him up, you know, from Double A to Triple A and now and now major league and on the major leagues right, So I don't expect him to pitch too much. Probably hover around seventy five to eighty pitches, get through four may five innings would be outstanding. Five innings probably means he only gives up two or three runs, which would be, you know, an absolute dream for me. But I just the main thing I'm focusing on. I don't really care about the results because I think he's going to be a really good pitcher in the in the show. I want to see if he can locate that fastball and if he can still generate those whisks, because then the sky's the limit for him.

00:29:22
Speaker 1: Well, then let's talk about how quickly that sky could be reached in to the opportunity to reach that. As we wrap up this segment with Aguero Vidik on the debut of DiDia for Wints, the big question then that I want to end with is is what happens after this start? Say we see for Wintes throw five innings, one run ball, six strikeouts of the Marlins. Now, my my assumption is is that, as you mentioned, and you're absolutely correct, he's being brought up so the Braves can position their pitching staff to go against the Mets again early next week. Is there any chance that we see for Wints get a second start out of this, or is there the potential to where we see what he does at the major league level. Now he goes and gets more season than at Triple H at Triple A, sorry the wrestling reference there at Triple A. The thing that I'm getting at is, though, is that we also clearly have seen bullpen struggles so far this year. Is he a potential option later on this year to be someone for the home stretch, hopefully for a playoff push that could work into that bullpen I don't know if it makes sense with how the Braves will continue to handle him so far, But does he have the potential to stick in the majors depending on how he does with this start, and if not, could we potentially see him later on in the season, maybe in a bullpen roll.

00:30:38
Speaker 5: So like in a in a starter role. I don't necessarily see it because the Braves still have five quality starters right there. There's there's no reason to not let Grant Holmes pitch every fifth day. I'm gonna go ahead and say that, But I think the the arm talent is there, There's no there's no way around it. I think the best route for him would be to go back to Triple A, continue to develop his arm, get those innings, because he can't be relied on to at least go five. If you can't go five, I don't think they can. You can turn to him on every you know, every fifth game basis or fifth day basis. But I love the idea of his arm coming out of the bullpen, you know, in September, getting to sit and talk with Chris sal with Spencer Strider, picked their brains after the season's over, be able to understand what it takes to get through a full one hundred and sixty two game season from the pros that I've done it before, and just have him unleashed in the bullpen. He's right now, even with this tiny, tiny sample size he is. He'd be one of the most talented arms back there. And I love the idea of bringing him in, you know, potentially in a much lower leverage situation. You know, if a starter, he goes out early, have him come into the sixth, work his way up to maybe the six or seventh inning, and then have him just again stit in that dugout and learn from those guys after the season ends. I don't I think it'd be rushed a little bit if they try and force him into the rotation and he's going, you know, four innings each time, and you got fans stroll, oh, this guy can only last four and giving him three, which would already be fantastic. That's already a great that's already a great result from a twenty year old making their debut. But I think in the best interest right now, it makes the most sense for him to make the Spots start, go back to Triple A, finish the season out there, and then come back to Atlanta and be completely unleashed in that bullpen because he has not pitched too much to start the season. His arm should still perfectly be fined towards the end of it to be able to come up later in the season for the Braves.

00:32:41
Speaker 1: And we also know that Atlanta has had previous success. They they they they've had no qualms about bringing some of those young's arms. Spencer Stryder, you know two A J. Smith Shover has appeared in both of the last postseasons, So them bringing up a young arm not necessarily they brought him up in a bullpen roll, but they have no qualms about putting that young arm into the fire. And it certainly seems like Fuintest could be the next one to find success with that call. Cannot thank you enough for taking the time to join us. Where can everybody find your great work? I know that you have many hats, you know when it comes to covering baseball for the Braves, and just baseball and journal in general. Where can folks find your excellent work?

00:33:17
Speaker 5: Well, thank you. Yeah, you can find me on Twitter at gvac right for Battery Power over at battery power dot com, the minor league team, and then of course my one of my many day jobs is also the director of marketing over at Baseball Perspectives. So if you love data, if you love data behind baseball, check us out.

00:33:35
Speaker 1: Garavidick is his name. He has been very kind enough to join us. Cannot wait to see his excellent breakdowns tomorrow. Make sure to follow him on x slash Twitter. When it comes to any and all performances from brave minor leaguers for the latest context, when it comes to the success, the struggles, and hey, you never know when they'll be making an impact at the major league level. We'll be right back with you after another word from our partners.

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00:34:59
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the ham Territory podcast and cannot thank again Girl Videck for taking the time to talk with us about d d here for win tes where we could see him going after this start. Hopefully it'll be a successful start, but it's going to be really exciting to see one of, if not the best arms in the Brave system be in the spotlight on the mound in Miami for the Big League squad to open up the series tomorrow night against the Marlins. But let's talk about one aspect of this team that we have been clamoring to get consistent for quite a while, and that is the offense, because on Thursday night, I talked about it a few times this year, Stephen, in which this offense is able to display that they are capable of winning games in a different way other than displaying power or having luck or what have you. They won on Wednesday night by a solid approach at the plate, putting balls in play like they should have, be impatient and going with the pitches that were pitched to them, and more than anything, getting on base. Nine walks on Thursday night the first time that they have had nine walks in a game since July fourteenth of twenty twenty three. That's nearly two years since they've had this much production walking in a game, and that's awesome to see. They've not gone more than two years. They've not gone that long with a stretch between games where they had nine walks since twenty sixteen to twenty nineteen. So that is really an encouraging sign. But the big thing of all, and I know I've harped on this, but I think that it's worth harping on. For the first time this year, the Braves have scored five or more runs in three straight games and they won all three games. They're seven nine. They're seven to two over their past nine games, five point four runs per game. Remember, this is a team that wins eighty three percent of its games when they score five or more runs twenty four and four this year when they score five and more runs. If they could just do that consistently, that's the aspect of this team. That's the turnaround we're talking about that they need to win at the rate that they need to.

00:36:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's what I was talking about about, how the team actually looks good. It's not just winning games, but they look the part. They're scoring runs, they're winning decisively. The offense is putting up you know, I'm not gonna say they're putting up great at bats, but they're putting up much better at bats throughout the lineup. Now, listen, it starts with Akunya and Olsen. Both those guys have ops's over one thousand in June. Obviously, Acuna has a twelve hundred ops overall, but he's been probably the best player in baseball since he came back up. But Olsen has kind of joined him, and now the Braves have two legitimate, like star level hitters in their lineup. At the same time, we're still wedding on Austin Riley, We're still wedding on Marcel. If they could get all four of those guys going at one time, then I would feel even better than I do right now. But having two Ozzy Albi's had a pretty solid series. I want to give a shout out to Nick Allen because Nick Allen just had a really good series against the Mets. He's up to like a three to zero nine on base percentage. CJ Nikowski tweeted out that he has like eight walks in since Ronald came back or something like that, which helps a ton. You know, we talked about before about I don't like the fact that Ronald so often is is batting with no protection around him, and you and I talked about that on the last show. Well, when Nick Allen gets on base, it changes the equation. You know, you can't pitch around Ronald as much when there's already a guy on base. It's when there's two out and nobody on in Ronald comes up and you got Dugo batting behind him. Now you can definitely pitch around Acuna. And we saw multiple times in this series Alan get on base, a double, a walk, whatever, and they had to pitch to Acunya. And that's set up multiple rallies that the Braves had in this series. And so listen, I know, Michael Harris, we're not gonna have a massive Michael Harris conversation. We cant have a small and we're not gonna have a massive one, just because again vibes are too good for that. But Nick Allen getting on bass has helped a lot. Alex Radugo has actually swung the bat better in the two hole than he did before. I still don't like him there, but to his credit, he has improved. You know, it was good to see Drake Baldwin get a couple of He got a hit in a couple of walks to night. He'd been scuffling. Both catchers have actually been scuffling pretty good lately, so that was good to see. But yeah, offense looks better, and it starts with a Kunyan Olsen. It always starts with a Kunion Olsen. Those are the two best hitters on the team. I've said that for multiple years now, but they need the other guys as well. They need Riley and Ozuno specifically to really kind of find it again, and then this offense could really be elite. I mean not just good, not just above average, not just five runs a game, but one of the best lineups in baseball. And you know, that's kind of the step we're still waiting for.

00:39:36
Speaker 1: So the reason that I wanted to lead this final segment of the show with the offense starting to get that consistency, starting to get that approach, that's what's going to have to maintain. That is going to have to continue to be the case going into this weekend because we talk about the fact that our pitching staff, we positioned our pitching staff in this Mets series to have our three best going and we were clearly head and shoulders be better pitching staf that switches. This weekend, you're looking at Dder for Wintes against Jason junk who's looked pretty good so far in his outings that he's had. For the Marlins. Uri Perez, who was wants to arguably the best pitching prospect in baseball. He had had Tommy John surgery. He's back, he's looking like he's putting it together in an elite fashion. And of course you have sand A contra but I know that he struggled to for much at the start of the season. He's starting to look like his old self once again. You've got those three going again and against Dre for Wintes, Grant Holmes as well as Bryce Eller. The Marlins happy advantage in this series when it comes to starting pitching. So where the Braves are going to have success is flexing their offensive months muscles against the Marlin's offense. The problem, Stephen, and that you've hinted at multiple times is that before ten go this Marlin's offense had actually scored more runs on the season than the Braves. So the point that I'm getting at is that for the Braves to continue this momentum, for them not to fall off like we've seen so many times this season, they have got to keep the offensive consistency going, not just power, but putting together good at bats because they're gonna face some quality pitching in this Marlin series. A series you expect to win it, but it's gonna be tougher than I think many anticipate because of how good of the arms the Marlins are throwing over the weekend.

00:41:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, and listen, I don't want the Bryce Elder people to get mad at me again. Bryce Elders has pitched better this year, so it's not just like Bryce Elder's pitching. So the offense needs to score six runs or they'll lose. It's very possible Bryce Older could go out and throw a really good game against the Marlins. It's very possible Didier Flintes could come out in his major league debut and throw really well. Grant Holmes is thrown extremely well this year. Just struck out fifteen guys into his last start, so you know, it's not impossible. The Braves could not do great on offense and still win two out of three or maybe even better. But it would make things a lot easier if they just score, if they just do their job and score runs. I really wish that Junk was a junk ball pitcher. I don't think he is. I think he throws like ninety five ninety six. But if your last name is Junk, I really need you to like an eighty three mile an hour leg. I need you to be like a Jamie Moore type.

00:42:03
Speaker 5: The fact that he's not is disappointing.

00:42:05
Speaker 2: But like you said, he's had a good year. And then you know, they've got a couple other guys that are that are decent. They're not great, but they're decent. You know, Sandy has had it up and down Yere, but obviously everybody knows his you know, his ceiling is incredible, So it wouldn't shock anybody to see him come out and dominate the Braves in a game. He's done it before. So the offense needs to the offense does need to show up. And what I don't want is to have all of this really great momentum and then just go give it all back in Miami where you lose two out of three, God forbid, you get swept because you can't score, and then you're just kind of right back where you started before all this. Like and that's the thing, what the about where the Braves are right now? Even as well as they've played, they dug themselves such a hole that they can't afford to take their foot off the gas. Like if they go out and lose three or four in a row after this, they're just right back in the same hole, like because they played so poorly for so long, they need a prolonged stretch month two months of playing high, high level baseball. They cannot afford to go and lay an egg in Miami just because they had a good week against the Mets. So this was a great week. This was a great sweep, their first sweep since middle of April. Awesome. It's always fun to beat the Mets. I don't care where time of year it is, what the standings are, It's always fun to beat the Mets. I love beating the Mets. But you can't. You can't rest on those laurels because you dug yourself too big a hole. You gotta go out to Miami. You gotta take care of business, and then you got to come back, go to New York, gets to the Mets again and take care of business. Like. They don't have the luxury of letting up. They're just they've just dug themselves too big a hole. So keep it going. You should beat You should at least one two out of three against the bad Miami team. Braves are much better than Miami. Full stop. Two out of three is the expectation. Sweep would be great, but anything less than two out of three is a disappointment.

00:44:02
Speaker 1: It's the absolute truth. They've got to keep the momentum going. But again, I feel like that we're in a spot now more than we have been you know in the past. You know several weeks that this team can do it and the opportunities right there, but they've got to make sure that they focus on the fact that even though on paper they're going to be facing a weaker opponent, that pitching quality is going to be there. So it's only offense, especially early, to get the job done. Stephen, do you have anything else for us as we wrap up this edition of the Hammer Territory Podcast?

00:44:29
Speaker 2: And I will say this, having a Kunya Olsen both red hot does give me more confidence that it's not going to be as fleeting as the offense has been in the past, where we've seen them have a good game and then the next night they score one run or the next two nights they score one run. When your two best hitters are hitting like your two best hitters, I do have a higher level of confidence that this team is not just gonna give it all back in Miami. Now, they've burned me plenty of times this year, so if it happens, we're of course going to talk about it. But with the kunyan Olsen going, that is at least a higher baseline level than they've had before this point, So you know, that's a to you know, be a little more positive and optimistic. I do think that that those two guys hitting so well matters and should help them avoid this, you know, this bottom falling out of the offense, which we've seen so many times this year. Hopefully that's the case.

00:45:26
Speaker 1: Absolutely Again, this past series shows when our best is at their best, we could play against the best and have success.

00:45:33
Speaker 2: So that they can be they can be at anybody, anybody.

00:45:36
Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely, and they're good. But they're going to have to do that frequently.

00:45:39
Speaker 2: And listen when Sale, When Sale and Strider and Schwallenbach pitch like this, yeah they could. They could win a World Series with that rotation right now. How good those three dudes are pitching. There's nobody in baseball he's got three dudes who can pitch like that at their top, they can they can play with anybody. So they just got to.

00:45:57
Speaker 1: Keep it going. Hopefully they will, and that's that's where we win this edition. Again. Can't thank girl Vedic enough for being able to join us earlier in the show talking about a d D or for Winters, who we all will get to enjoy in seeing, you know, pitching for the Braves in his Major League debut tomorrow against the Marlins for Steven Tober. You can find it be undersquare Outliers on Twitter, slash acts myself at stats sac on Twitter, slash act x. Hammer Territory across all forms of social media part of the Foul Territory family of podcasts. Can't thank you enough for joining us in all the support. Also, don't forget now one other really fun aspect of hammer and Territory. You can actually support Hammer Territory. You can actually promote some merchandise. We've got the Hammer Territory Store. More details on that as time goes along. Make sure you check it out when you get the opportunity to birthdays coming up, what have you. There's gonna be some great merchandise coming down the pipe when it comes to Hammer Territory. Can't thank you enough for all the support, and hey, more than anything, and more importantly in an enjoy a fashion as we possibly can, I can't say it enough or more exciting fashion than I have right now. I can't even put my words together right now. Go braids. We'll talk to you again soon here on The Hammer Territory Podcasts