Braves Ride Dominic Smith’s Walk-Off Grand Slam To Opening Series Win

00:00:21
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Hambord's Territory podcast. This is episode three five three. My name is Brad Roland and I'm joined on this Sunday evening edition of the podcast my good friend Scott Coleman, and I'll wait as long as I possibly can talk about college basketball. Scott, how are you on the Sunday.

00:00:36
Speaker 2: Evening Hello, Brad. I'm doing great because baseball is back in our lives and the Braves had a good weekend all things considered. We will of course talk about those games on the show and some other news and notes that have popped up. But hey, a two in one weekend to start the year. Of course, the Braves lost on Sunday because we always record on Sundays, and goodness we never get wins on Sundays. But it's just one of those things. At this point, I guess will have to live with it. But overall, a lot of good and maybe a little bit of bad this weekend, and we're of course going to dig into all of it.

00:01:07
Speaker 1: Absolutely mostly good. A successful weekend for the Braves, a series victory if anybody missed it. By the way, Scott and I did a breakdown of the opener on Friday night. That is still relevant to listen to right now, so we will talk to that game anymore today. Probably maybe included some big picture stuff, but that is in the podcast feed right now. We are also Hamer Territory. We are part of the Foul Territory podcast network. We cover the Braves all year round, including right now and Scott. As we dive into the opening weekend series, we're going to mix it up, engineered by our friends at fasten All. Oftentimes we might dive into the Sunday game first. It's the most recent thing that happened, but not today because Saturday's game was crazy enough to where I don't know about you. I think I got like seven people saying are we doing a podcast? And we don't often do Saturday night podcasts because the Braves often play Sunday afternoons, so it's like kind of a you know, the timeline all that stuff. But I was tempted if we weren't in college basketball mode. I know you were watching your team in big fashion on Saturday night. I was at a Hawks game, so it was really not tenable, but it was an awesome game on Saturday, so we kind of have to start there. I feel like the Braves, if anybody missed it, we're down two to nothing going to the ninth inning, and then all hell broke loose in a positive direction for the Braves. So I know we were in different spots, But what was your reaction to that? Kind of that's one of those moments like during the course of season that you kind of don't forget and it's almost like weird that it happened so early, but it was a wild one. And shout out to Dominic Smith for being the hero of the weekend.

00:02:42
Speaker 2: My big takeaway was you could probably count on one hand the entire number of games that we had like Saturday nights last season. Like we know, the Braves could not win a close game. Comeback wins we're few and far between. Braves team that basically didn't score for eight innings and really didn't have a ton of opportunities to be honest, to kind of steal a game in the ninth inning and drop six runs with a walk off grand slam, that's just not something that you won see a whole lot in two. Comeback wins like that really add up over the course of a season. It was really nice it guaranteed a series victory. Nobody wanted to start the year losing a series to the Royals, who are a decent team but not a great one by any means. Really, just a cool moment, as we learn more after the game. Just an amazing moment for Dom Smith, who was of course the hero on Saturday Night.

00:03:35
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, first, you know, yas drugs in the first run, Harris runs in the second one with a rocket, with a rocket up the middle. Harris is the game time single actor hits the pitcher. It's kind of a I think everybody made the same joke like that would have been a double play last year, and everyone understood that. It was like one of those things that broke in the right direction for once for the Braves. And then Dom Smith literally in his Braves debut. We've talked about him a few times over the last few weeks, but he had never played with the Braves before we knew he was going to start the game against the right handed picture all those things. I thought it was also interesting, kind of synergistic that he kind of was up with the best scoring opportunity that the Braves had in the game before that and did not come through back in the fifth inning and just kind of let the tension build. And people know by now almost certainly that are listening to this or watching this, that he had a walk off grand slam and it was the Braves' first walk off grand slam since the Brooks Conrad game that I know, Sickers remember, I know you, and I remember back in twenty ten. That was a crazy comeback win. And the crazier like not even just Braves thing is. According to a Elive Sports Bureau which has you know, like the Beacons of all stats, Don Smith is the first player in the history of Major League Baseball to hit a walk off grand slam in his first game with a team. Obvious, there's a lot of qualifiers, but man, that's anytime you make major League baseball history, which is like you know, one haldor fifty years of baseball, like that just speaks to how outrageous this whole thing was before you even get to the personal side of it, which is also awesome for Dob Smith and crazy and emotional all those things, but man, what a time, like what a crazy way for a game number two of the season to.

00:05:10
Speaker 2: End well, and you know, to get to dom Smith, I thought, basically everybody in the lineup put together a really good at bat. There was Ozzie Drew a walk that was really important. We mentioned Mike Kistremsky, and man, it's only been a couple of games, but Mike Kistremsky is a professional hitter. Like big fan, big, big fan of what Mike can do, great hand eye coordination. Of course, he got it all going with the first run in and then similar to what I said a minute ago about the twenty twenty five Braves not winning many games like the one on Saturday night, sometimes the ball just has to bounce your way a little bit, and that's what happened when Michael Harris lined that ball up the middle, and I couldn't tell if it hit the pitcher or if it like ricocheted weirdly off the mound and then the pitcher. I don't know either way. It was perfect because if that ball gets through it was very likely going to Bob Witch Junior, who was shaded up the middle. He steps on second base, throws the first and the game is over. So there was a couple of things that needed to go perfectly right and they did. And we will absolutely take it and set the stage for Dom Smith. There the chance to be a hero, and here he was obviously. I mean, and this is the part that we could have known in the moment. No one knew in the moment. We didn't on the.

00:06:20
Speaker 1: Outside, but Don Smith lost his mother thirteen days prior, and everyone around the team knew it. And there was lots of stories being written. I know Gave Burns wrote one for the AJC and talks about you know, Dom's quote. So I'll read this to you now. He says, this is Tom via Gabe. This team is just so awesome. I'm so blessed because of the love they showed me. Every day I've come in. They're asking about her, asking about her well being, My well being. That's all they really cared about. They didn't care about baseball end quote. So that's a number one encouraging I like, you know, supporting it to you know, you never know how guys are going to be, but we're on the outside. It's encouraging to me. It's heartwarming to be that like the Braves clubhouses like that. It's obviously early in the season, but that's a cool thing. And just the fact that he was the hero on this night when he's going through all his personal tragedy, and that's what we can use for it. So it's powerful. I don't want to make it obviously baseball is not as big of a deal as that, but they provided him a night or a week or a moment of you know, joy that's worth it even beyond the baseball. So a cool, cool thing that happened for the Braves on Saturday Night.

00:07:23
Speaker 2: And we've talked about on the show, especially once we knew that Jerkson Profar was not going to be part of this team. But Tom Smith is going to play, or at least we hope he is going to play a big role on this team as probably your primary DH most nights against right handed pitching. And you know, again we've talked about Tom Smith that folks missed those episodes. Over his career, he's had some highs and he's had some lows. And in twenty twenty five with the Giants, he hit right handed pitching quite well. And that's just kind of what you're hoping for as this team has had to pick up the pieces with Profar suspended for the entire season. You know what, man, you take it, You take the win, you take the moment really such a powerful moment, especially, I know that quote that you just read was really powerful and touching and just kind of added a cherry on top. And I'm sure it's been just a brutal last couple of weeks for Dom and and you said it exactly right. The fact that this clubhouse has a real culture to it and a care about it. I think those things add up, both on the field and off. It was it was nice to see and again, just a really fun game and a great moment for Dom Smith.

00:08:28
Speaker 1: Absolutely so history being made, a fun one for the fans. A comeback that early in the season in a game that you know, I wasn't I was following it. I didn't write it all off. They're done by two runs, but you know, expart him to win it. So that was a crazy thing and we had to leave with that because it was by far in Dom Smith's name was the big name for the weekend. A lot of those things happened, but that weekend belongs to Dom Smith. In a second, Scott, we'll dive into the rest of what happened on Saturday, Sunday, big picture stuff, et cetera. But that will wrap up our mix it Up segment today, answered by our friends at Fastenal. Fastenal Industrial supplies innovative solutions. If you want to learn more, visit Fastenal dot com. Okay, Scott, let us discuss Ronaldo Lopez still sitting on a Saturday game. There was a lot of angst perhaps wonder perhaps about what Renaldo might look like, because if people missed it, then maybe it weren't down In last week he had a scary spring training outing where Ronaldo was sitting like eighty nine with the fastball, and basically everyone around the team knows he can't do that and be successful. Even Alex at Thoughtoulos on the radio was like, yeah, that's not going to work basically, But there was reporting Alex said the same thing about how something happened in the bullpen session where they fixed it mechanically with Ronaldo and his velocity just suddenly returned. I'd love to be a fly on the wall to figure out how you suddenly get six miles an hour back in your fastball over one second, but hey, apparently it happened. And long story short, Renald Lopez wasn't incredible on Saturday, but he pitched at a level that was, let's just say, very very encouraging compared to what we would have looked like on the few days before that.

00:10:07
Speaker 2: Everybody had their eyes on that radar gun. Reading the very first pitch of the game and sitting ninety five in the first and averaged ninety four and a half with his fastball was really encouraging, because I mean, I'll be honest, I'll raise my hand when when we all saw that Ronaldo's philosity was down so much in that last spring start, and then they came the report of well, they fixed a mechanical issue in a bullpen session, and all of a sudden he was throwing five miles harder. Truthfully, I didn't really know what to make of it. I really didn't buy it. But they were right. I mean, clearly there was something wrong, and credit to the coaching staff and the front office guys who probably dug real deep to try to figure out what was going wrong just one start. But it was encouraging. I think you said it perfectly. A good night from Ronaldo one that he seems to be mostly healthy. Six innings, three hits, two walks. But if you're looking to be mystic or hoping for areas of growth. Only three strikeouts and he only got two swing and miss over six plus innings. That's not great. You would like to see that number be higher, and hopefully the next time he goes out there one the velocity is continuing to be in the mid nineties with the fastball in two, you'd like to see him get a little bit more swing and miss, presumably when he goes out and faces the Diamondbacks next weekend.

00:11:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's one start, so I'm not trying to make too much of this, but his fit was over five for example's that's like a number that's you know, I wouldn't say is gospel any time, but especially on every one start. But still it's like an indication, like under the hood, it wasn't necessarily dominant, But I'm just more encouraged by the velocity being what it was. I think that there's every reason to believe that if we're not all to help Lopez is healthy, he can be a quality starting pitcher. We've seen that the if is the health, and that was what we were all worried about more than anything was like, is he hurt and that's why he's sitting eighty nine. Apparently not. So that's that's encouraging. That's the most important thing here. He was able to keep them in the game and pretty well. Also on that note, the Braves opened the season with fifteen consecutive scoreless innings. That's the second longest run in the history of the franchise, only behind a run of Tom Glevin and John Smoltz. You've had heard of those guys bucking ninety two.

00:12:15
Speaker 2: What did those guys? Yeah, what those guys ever do on a mound?

00:12:18
Speaker 1: Exactly? So that was fun and we're ald it was part of that. He led a solo home run to start the seventh that he got into the seventh too. So giving them some length right now is helpful. That didn't happen necessarily as much today, but saving the bullpen for thirteen games in thirteen days is not a small feat, and that was helpful as well. I have to ask you about something. Granted, this is a win, we've we've covered it. It's positive almost across the board. The Braves did a very bad job with their challenges on Saturday. They lost both of their abs challenges in the first fourteen pitches of the game. I know we're all kind of figuring out, and this includes me, we're all kind of figuring out what the optimal usage is of challenges because it's just starting, right, It's this whole new thing, and what's high leverage enough, which players have the green lights? Like this was gonna be debated for a long time, So I don't have it figure it out. I can tell you one thing, though, you don't want to lose two challenges in the first inning, full stop, Like that seems bad. It's almost certainly the record through three day. I mean, I can't imagine a team lost their challenges faster than the brace of this weekend. If they did that, I'd be impressed. So what did you make of that?

00:13:28
Speaker 2: So I thought it'd be worthwhile to have a conversation about abs because we now have one weekend of real baseball under our belts. My first takeaway is that two challenges in a nine inning game feels a little light and c J. Nikowski and Brandon Gordon were talking about that in the booth and they also kind of shared those sentiments. Now, maybe you add a third challenge, but you only get it in the seventh inning or in the ninth inning or something like that. But I think as the season goes along, we'll kind of learn how to be more effective and use the most of your two challenges. As long as two challenges is all you have, man, the Braves have to figure out how to better challenge. Now. I don't want to turn this into a dump on Drake Baldwin dump on Ronald Acuna junior session here, because they're going on the fly just like we are. But you know, to be fair to Drake, the pitch that he challenged in the first inning was close. I think it missed by a tenth of an inchure like, it was really really close. It was borderline. But it's also the first inning of a zero zero baseball game, and it was like the fifth pitch thrown that night. And I get it. You want to steal every strike that you can, but keep it, keep it holstered, man, like you can't do it. And then Ronald's was egregious. It wasn't even close. It was a strike. Everyone knew it was a strike. It wasn't even close. So look, the Braves won the game, but what if they burn those two challenges and in the ninth inning, Dom Smith instead of getting a meet ball right down the middle, lays off a fastball that just misses the corner, but the umpire calls strike three and he's out and you don't have a challenge, so you have to be more cautious. I almost wonder if it's gonna become more of a thing where like teams don't really challenge unless there's runners on base or unless you are beyond the fifth or sixth inning. Because it didn't blow up on the braves. But they have to get better at abs. They have been bad at challenging so far in the year, you know, and Saturday night was the epitome of man, we got to figure this stuff out.

00:15:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this isn't not to be a half hour topic, but it's one hundred percent right, and it's across baseball, and you know, I remember when they first, when it first became official that we're gonna do this, it was like, which teams are gonna have different philosophies on this, Like some guys wonn't even be allowed to basically by their teams. They were like, hey, you're not allowed to challenge, Like pick a random role player. I won't try to pick one, but like a lower level guy on the Braves might might not have the juice. They might be like, hey, no, if Ronald Acunya or in Drake Balwin and Matt Olsen want to challenge something, they're gonna have more leeway. That's just the reality of it.

00:16:07
Speaker 2: Right.

00:16:08
Speaker 1: With that said, you know, I guess if you are playing Brad Bingo on this night, I'm gonna bring up the NBA which I tend to do sometimes, But the NBA has a challenge with now and it's within the last few years, and there is real theory on when to challenge, and it's like basically leverage index. It's like, hey, is this worth it even if you think you're gonna win it, even if you're confident you're gonna win it, is it worth it to have even like a five percent chance of losing this challenge in the first ending in a low leverage situation. And the answer is probably no, honestly, Like, it's not worth one pitch in the first ending unless it's like some massive lever spot, probably because because what you said, with only having two, you got to really prioritize. And I would imagine some teams are going to be like, you know what if we if we lose the first one. We're not challenging a single thing unless it's a giant situation later in the game like that. And that's kind of probably how I would lean right now on the outside. And look, I'm not an expert on this, but if I was down a challenge early, boy, the bar would be really high for me to challenge anything, and I'd be telling my team that. Obviously, it's different in the NBA. It's the coach challenges. In baseball, it's split second players. That makes it a lot harder. Like Matt also tried to challenge one and they toltally didn't do it fast enough, and it was like pretty fast. I mean, it was one of those things where I was like, really, it's gotta be faster than that. Like it wasn't like he stood in the box for thirty seconds, and I was like, you know, a lot of the challenges that play it wasn't like that. So there's a little bit of gray area there too, Like there's not like an official time that you have to challenge it. It's really complicated. But your baseline takeaway is correct. The Bravees can't afford to do that because it's going to get to beat at some point over a long season. If you fire challenges into the sun every night, it's gonna hurt you at some point. So I'm not panicking about it. I just it's a good time to talk about it because it was so hilarious. Honestly, it wasilarious. I was like, wait, they're out of challenges. This guy's been out for six minutes. They don't have a challenge anymore. It's crazy.

00:18:05
Speaker 2: So let me ask you and then we'll wrap up the segment. But I mean, what did you think of ABS this first weekend? Did you like it? Do you think it needs improvement? Did you hate it? Did you feel like it's made the games slower? Or where are you at?

00:18:19
Speaker 1: No? I don't hate it at all.

00:18:20
Speaker 2: I like it.

00:18:21
Speaker 1: I you know, we've joked forever about robot umps, and I get that it's much more nuanced than that. I do like the idea of it. I think it works. I think it worked from my viewer perspective, they'restough to figure out, like it was always going to have some question marks, Like I was talking about Olsen, like how long it's too long? Is a question that has to get answer across baseball for example, but I think that the reason why it's only two is that they're worried about pace of play. And I get that. I mean they got such a home run, and I mean that in a you know, hilarious way, but of with the pitch clock that is almost unanimously beloved and it was almost immediate. Everyone was Wow, this, this rocks right for pace to play, you don't want to give too much of that back with challenges, but I don't. At the same time, how long does it actually take? Is it ten seconds?

00:19:10
Speaker 2: Yeah? Maybe not? It's fast, so.

00:19:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm in on, if anything, more challenges, but in general I like that there is a way to fix and get the calls right. I am. I'm never about a zealot for full robot MPs. If they did it, I wouldn't be bothered by it at the way a lot of people would. But I'm in on this as a concept. I already was and I still am now, which is what i'd be kind of what I would say after three days, four days.

00:19:38
Speaker 2: It's interesting you made the point. So I'm actually pretty against robot OMPs. I think it would become stale. I think it would become almost boring, a little bit, But I do think ABS is a giant step in the right direction because the case in point from the weekend was Cebe Buckner was behind the plate in a Red's game called strike three, immedia challeng pitch was nowhere close. The very next pitch was called strike three, was challenged again, nowhere close. That's what we need to get rid of the most egregious calls. And there were two runners on base, two runners in scoring position when Juhanio Suarez challenged twice and won twice both challenges like, that's what we need to get rid of, the game changing, outcome changing bad calls and not zero zero game. In the first inning, Acuna is up one to OHO in the count and once of course he wants to be up two OHO in the count and missing a challenge with nobody on base, like, that's that's not what we need.

00:20:39
Speaker 1: I agree, And that reminds me that people were making people like could anybody possibly be worse than ce B Buckner? And that, of course led to people my age, That led to a lot of ic Eric greg gifts on oh twere triggering. Even now it's been thirty years almost I'm still triggered. But yeah, Abs, we are pro It seems like on this podcast. I don't actual don't actually don't know if Shawn Steven agree. I think Stephen agrees. I'm not sure about Shawn Sean Sewan's old school. You know, I love Sean. I'm gonna be nice to Sean for at least a few days based on college basketball results today. But okay, Scott, let's move on in a second talk about Sunday's game, which was honestly just one of those games in some ways. But first they work from our partners on today's show.

00:21:20
Speaker 2: This one's for the dudes looking for that peak bedroom performance. Blue Choo just dropped their newest innovation, blue Choo Gold.

00:21:28
Speaker 3: Blue Choo is the number one chewable ed brand, and yes, blue Choo Gold dissolves under your tongue and works in as little as fifteen minutes peak passion and peak performance in a single tablet. See why millions of men trust blue Choo. Now with a gold standard upgrade that is changing the game for good. Make life easier and discover your options at blue choo dot com. And we have a special deal for the ft fam. Get ten percent off your first month of Blue Choo Gold with code Foul. That's promo code Foul. Visit bluechoo dot com for more details and important safety information, and we thank blue Choo for sponsoring the podcast. This is the future of performance, Faster, smarter and precision engineered free results. Two ingredients for blood flow with apomorphine and oxytocin to turn up the arausal and connection in your brain and body.

00:22:18
Speaker 1: It's blue chop.

00:22:21
Speaker 2: Okay.

00:22:21
Speaker 1: Scott let us talk about the game earlier today as a record of this podcast on Sunday. As much fun as Friday was, as much drama and energy and just joy as Saturday brought, Sunday was one of those games that's kind of frustrating. You already made a joke about losing on Sundays every week, hopeing that won't continue this season like it did last season for our podcast. But in addition to it being a you know, relatively competitive, close fought loss, it was one of those where just nothing was falling in for the Braves. They were smacking the ball of the entire game. The Royals Will were not, and the Braves still lost. And those people that like value process like we do, it's like it really each of you when it's like the Braves were the better team it seemed like on Sunday and it didn't matter. They just kind of had the breaksgo against them.

00:23:09
Speaker 2: It really did. And thankfully you win the first two games in the series, and you always want to be greedy, you always want to go for the sweep. But it was just one of those games. And if you look at expected batting average, the Royals expected batting average on Sunday was one fifty nine. The Braves, on the other hand, were three oh six. And it's funny when I watch games, my go to is, oh, that's out. Whenever a ball gets hit, well like it just oh, that's out. And I said that like three times on Sunday, and somehow none of them went out. I don't know how Acunya's ball didn't leave. I don't know how Michael Harris's ball didn't leave. And I thought that Matt Olsen got one too when he golfed it down the right into the right center field gap. Just one of those days, annoying, frustrating. Really didn't have a whole lot of action on the base pass either. I guess credit to Seth Lugo, who was just pounding the homeplate zone, but also gave up a lot of hard contact and just the Braves just were on the wrong side of the batted ball luck.

00:24:10
Speaker 1: On Sunday, through the first seven innings, the Braves had hit the five hardest balls of the game. They were all over one hundred and five miles an hour, so like five genuine rockets, including two that you just mentioned in the Harris and Acunya shots that were you know, those were by the data, by the eye test, by all of it, like those were home runs more often than not, not every single time, I guess, but more often than not. Anyway, five hardes hit balls of the game were all from the Braves through seven innings, and all five of them became outs, not even doubles, they became outs, which is like doubly brutal. Finally, Drake Balwin broke that shriek with it hit with the home run that he hit in the eighth, but still only one of the six hardest hit balls in the game was a run or not even not an out for the Braves, and they just, you know, it is what it is. Bring back the juice balls, I guess, because I couldn't believe I'm with you. The Akunya and Harris Ones were both like, whoa, but that didn't go out of the ballpark, Like what are we even doing here? And maybe you get those one of those every once in a while. I know what Wise gave a quote about the wind. He was like, maybe it was the wind or something like it. Maybe maybe it was the balls that day. Maybe maybe it was the wind. You know, I'm not like, it's not not a conspiracy. Sometimes things go against you, and that's one of things that's beautiful about baseball, and also one of the things that's maddening about it is that there's so many games and sometimes the better team loses. Yeah, and it's just that's today is one of those things. Honestly to me, Like I don't mean to like, I'm not trying to downplay the Royals, like they won the game. Good on them, they executed better than the Braids did, whatever you want to say, but it just was, it was so obvious to me the Braids were were quote unquote running bad today, and it was like that was the theme of the day. It just kind of had to be for me.

00:25:49
Speaker 2: And I thought Grant Holmes was okay over five innings, only gave up three hits and two walks, did allow three runs to score, struck out four, got ten swings and misses. I thought the slider was good. He did leave his fastball in the zone a little too much. I think it was the first run of the game. I think Grant would probably tell you he would want it back runners on the corners against Bobby Witt Junior, and he went ahead one two. But instead of I mean, if it was me, and I'm not a big leaguer, but if it was me, I'm throwing that nasty slider off the plate at least twice, if not three times, and seeing if Wit will go fishing. Instead, he threw I think a fastball that missed, and then he threw a belt high right down the middle fastball that Wit line the other way, and I think that scored the first run of the game. And then Kansas City tacked on a few more. Again, nothing overly concerning. I thought Holmes was fine. He gave the team a chance to win. And you know, if you have a little better luck on batted balls, maybe you do score more than just the one run. But it was overall, it was just one of those days and not a disaster by any means, but also a little bit of a bummer coming off of two really nice wins to open the year.

00:27:00
Speaker 1: Agree, Holes was fine, He wasn't great, He wasn't terrible. People I know, including me, are going to be monitoring. Grant had some really bad numbers the second time through the order last season, like an era of almost seven and today I didn't want to see that. He did allow two runs out of the three that he allowed the second time through the order, but I don't think he was getting teed off on, So that's not the worst thing. You're right that that pitch to Wit was not a good pitch. That's I can't imagine he wanted to have that be where it was, but especially against that player, their best player and all that stuff. Anyway, I thought the takeaway was that he was okay, And you know what, let's avoid the half hour pitching conversation. But if grand Holmes is okay, the Braves are going to be okay. Like you know what I mean, I don't think that there's always a debate about like what grand Holmes is. I think it's worth saying again, like he was pretty decent last year, He's not so spectacular pitcher, but he can he can when you he can win your baseball games. He can get you through six innings, like he can do some stuff that's valuable to you. Alex. Alex keeps saying that Holmes would have been the guy that went to the bullpen if they signed somebody or trading for somebody. So obviously he's like he was the fringy guy like Lopezz ahead of him by all accounts. But Holmes is okay, and he was okay. That's kind of where I was. The guy by the way, the guy, the guy came in after him was was better than okay, which is it's kind of stark to me that the guy came in after it seems to be better than him. But uh, you know, what are you gonna do?

00:28:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I like grand Holmes. When Grand Holmes starts a game, I feel pretty good that the Braves at least have a decent chance to win the game that night. If you said, Scott, what are your ten biggest concerns with this Braves team, I don't think Grand Holmes would even come into my mind.

00:28:37
Speaker 1: And I agree.

00:28:38
Speaker 2: Hopefully a little more swing and miss a little a few more strikeouts, I think, especially with that slider, he's capable of doing that. And then you know, it was nice. I guess if you're looking for a positive or a silver lining. On Sunday, Grand Holmes starts and then Diddy or Fuentez covered the final four innings of the game, and one that really saves your bullpen. You don't have to use anybody other than Fontes. And I don't know about you, man, I was really impressed by Didtier four innings, only gave up one run, two hits, one walk, four strikeouts, and was really attacking and commanding the zone and was really making hitters work for it. So I know, of course, Didier was like the story of spring training, and I thought today, for his first appearance of the regular season, really impressive. And I'm guessing the Braves leave Didier in the bullpen for a little while, but I think eventually he's going to force his way to the rotation. Yeah.

00:29:30
Speaker 1: I didn't think so too. And you know, as good as he was in the spring, as encouraged and excited is the word I would use about him as I was in the spring, It's different when you're actually in a major league game, and the fact that he came in and the stuff looked great. He you know, navigated four innings and it wasn't a blowout like sometimes you bring in a guy like that in that spot and or reliever throws four innings, it's like, oh, because they're down ten to one. But no, they were in the game the entire way, so it was like it was super low leverage and he pitched really well. I give up one run, that's I mean, struck out four and looked really crisp.

00:30:03
Speaker 3: With me.

00:30:03
Speaker 1: The stuff is everyone knows is really good. He was when he was sitting like ninety seven, like just bringing the heat and looking great. So right, I mean, it's one it's one outing. But I I almost would take away more from that than anything in the spring because he was facing major leaguers and it was at a major league game, so that's where I was. I liked seeing that, and I don't blame anybody for jumping to all right, once's it gonna start, because especially give the state of the rotation, and we'll talk about that more in a second when we previews the next couple of days. But there's a lot of uncertainty after these first three. I mean as much as you and I just said, we're okay with Grant Holmes. The three guys were okay with have already pitched. Yes, Uh so we'll see how the next couple days ago and maybe didtier if things don't go well, and look, we hope they go well, like I hope Brice Elder throws great on Monday. It'd be great. If they don't go well, it's gonna give even louder towards studio front, says like immediately, So the brains have to know that I'm sure and I think that this is clearly the plan, and I liked it. They get that they let him keep going, Like treating him as a pure reliever would have been silly, but having it for a four innings like has triple benefit like for him, for the team, for the bullpen, all these things, and in a loss like that was a good way to end the game. In some ways, it's like, oh, a little bit of an upswing. Despite the negative.

00:31:16
Speaker 2: Result, you can absolutely learn things as a young pitcher pitching out of the bullpen. And I mean Max Freed talked openly about it years ago that hey, when he came up, he wasn't really sure how to go through a lineup multiple times, and sitting out in the bullpen for a couple of months and pitching in relief really did him a lot of good. Hopefully it's the same case with Dittier. Clearly a very talented kid, and one note, I know people were like, well, why isn't he in the rotation. My biggest thing is I think they are trying to limit his innings early in the year. You probably don't necessarily want Dittier to make thirty big league starts and approach two hundred innings, hopefully with a playoff run attached on that. So I get it, but again I give it a few weeks. I really do think Diddier is probably going to be on the Spencer Strider timeline from a few years ago, in the bullpen for a while, but eventually you'll find himself in the rotation.

00:32:10
Speaker 1: I agree it could be suited rather than later. But I think their plan anyway seems to be ticket slow, keep your endings down, get some experience and learn on the job, so to speak. And I'm okay with that, and he looked really good today. From here, I do want to take one more quick break you have from more partners, and then we'll get to some other observations from the rest of the weekend and a brief look at the week ahead, because the Braves have what's what ten more games in ten days, like the action, that's not gonna slow down anytime soon. I promise you that. So in a second, we'll dive back in after a word from our partners. Okay, Scott Brobably speaking, nothing crazy here. We thought this a little bit on Friday, but I thought it was encouraging on the whole from a trio of guys who the Braves kind of need to be good this year. And that trio is Michael Harris, Ozzy All and Austin Riley. I don't really had an o for to day, but look good before that. Harris. I know I called my shot a little on Friday with him. He looks great, man, I don't want to jixit. I like what I've seen for Michael quite a bit. And then Ozzie looks like I won't say full on prime Ozzie, but some good science, good plate appearances, no real takeaway. I just wanted to say that out loud, like I'm trying to go like, you know, it's funny. The two guys who have kind of struggled so far are Acuney and Olsen, who I just don't worry about in any way, shape or form. So when that happens, that generally means that everybody else has been like kind of doing their job. And those three guys are included.

00:33:34
Speaker 2: In that really encouraging first series of the year from Harris, all these Riley, you have to have good seasons or at least somewhat bounce back seasons from those three. I mean, obviously, Michael Harris had the home run on opening Day, so did Ozzie Alby. So yeah, like, overall, good series, I think you take it. I think it's baby steps at this point. I think Mike has done a pretty good job too of working a little bit deeper into accounts and not just giving away at bats, which was something he was doing every night last year. But yeah, you know, I will say it was interesting. The one kind of lineup or roster position change that took place on Sunday was Jorge Mateo was a shortstop. I don't know, man, I understand why Walt Weiss wanted to get Mateo. A couple of reps. Get him out there. It's early in the year, it's March or twenty ninth, but Mateo is pretty underwhelming. Did not look very confident at the plate, made a weird gaff play in the shortstop hole where he should have just ate the ball and instead like kind of threw it and it could have led to a run. Quite honestly, thankfully, I don't think it did that enitting or maybe the runner would have scored anyway, But regardless, I think I got enough of Jorge Mateo as the starting shortstop on Sunday and I'm ready for Mauricio Dubon to be back out there.

00:34:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was not surprising, but also like if that was game like eight and he hadn't played yet, I would have been like, Okay, get him in there. It's fine. Game three. It was a day game. Perhaps that's why it's early in the year, but yeah, I didn't love that. I also, I also cannot be the guy who criticizes that when I've always said that they probably should use their bench more now right now, it's so early in the season. It's like hard to say that with straight face. But yeah, I grew with your takeaway. It didn't look great. But Dubond isn't supposed to wasn't I shouldn't say, isn't was it supposed to be playing? Trust for every day right now? He is because he has to. But if he's back in there on Monday, I'll FILLI fine, that would be what I would say. Maybe Dumon woke up with like a headache or something. I don't know.

00:35:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe, but I get it. It's early. Yeah, we don't want to talk out both sides of our mouths. We do want to see this team rest. It's players more, not have bailiers go out there for every single inning of every single game. But yeah, let's get Mauricio back in there on Monday night.

00:35:47
Speaker 1: Absolutely a little bit of news that happened over the weekend, not hugely groundbreaking, but notable. On the two guys in the position player side who are currently injured, Sean Murphy is apparently able to do baseball activities already, and it seems to be quite a bit nearing his rehab assignment. So that's a good sign. Means he's kind of on track. They don't generally give you timeline for like here's what he'll play in a major League game, But it seems like he'll be in the minors like pretty soon and be on track. That's good. Hassan Kim is behind Murphy. Hard to tell how much behind. He's taking dry swings. It seems like he hasn't faced pitching yet. But I would say for me, it's like just avoid setbacks with those guys Like I kind of like, okay, check the box for me, But checking the box is better than not checking the box. And I do think that some of the lineup stuff that we have talked about at nauseum the last couple weeks would be eased if they even had Sean Murphy. As much as he's not super popular in some corners of braized internet, he's a lot better at baseball than some guys that they have available to them right now.

00:36:48
Speaker 2: So oh absolutely. And defensively, I mean, even if you don't believe in Sean Murphy the hitter, defensively, there's no denying that Murphy is one of the best defensive catchers in the game. It'll also to d H Baldwin more and keep him fresh, And I mean shouts to Drake Baldwin. As we're talking about players who had a good weekend. Oh man, he is so good. Drake Baldwin is going to be an annual All Star, maybe even like MVP vote received, vote getter, Like he's not going to be an MVP of the National League, I don't think, but Baldwin is so impressive. Wanted to give him a shout out. But yeah, encouraging sounds like maybe a week away from Murphy beginning his rehab assignment, and then he has about three weeks to go through that before the Braves have to make a decision. And then with Kim, especially just with that hand, as he really rams up his batting and swinging against live pitching, you just have to hope that everything is going to hold together in that surgically repaired finger that he has. But I don't know, Maybe seems to me like early May is probably still a fair enough timeline for Kim. Maybe mid May at this point, but we'll see.

00:37:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just don't even want to guess, But I seem like they were at least on track. I'm sticking to that. That's what I'll glom onto for now. And as we get more information, like when they announced Smurphy's rehab assignment, that's the next step for him and TVD on all that stuff. Before we go out of here, let's look ahead at the week to come. The Braves now play three games against the well, I can't remember what you said. Didn't you use like like a combo phrase for their.

00:38:18
Speaker 2: Yeah the oak Flemento Vegas Athletics, because uh.

00:38:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean they're still playing. If people don't know this, they're still playing in Sacramento this year. They don't really have a city like you know, every every other team has a like Atlanta Braves like they're it's they're kind of they're not even calumb the Sacramento A's like they're just they're just the a's they have at me playing in Sacramento. It's this very odd situation at the game. Is it the games in Atlanta, So that's easier to digest. But that's just coming in to town starting Monday. They have not won a game yet. They just went on three against Toronto. Toronto's good, so that's not like a death sentence. And there are some believers in the A's. I've saw some people pick up the basic make the playoffs, so they're this is not your older brother's as they're not a disaster like they're they're they have talent, They're not I don't they don't think they're like the Yankees or anything, but they are not the White Sox. That's what's what I would say about the A's. They're they're pretty competitive. I think I alluded to this earlier, but we are now in the part of the pitching rotation that is the real uncertainty. Bryce Elder is going to go on Monday against I believe it's is it Aaron Savali? How do you say his name?

00:39:30
Speaker 2: I never know? Is that right? I think it is sounds right. Yeah, we'll get Let's ask Sean our resident name.

00:39:36
Speaker 1: Let's not let's not ask Sean to pronounce anything on the podcast. Uh So that's look, we've talked about Bryce endlessly. We'll see what he looks like. I don't want to cast dispersions. He has been reliable as far as being available. That's a key to Bryce Elder is appeal, I think, and honestly, I think you can get out the A's. I worry more about Bryce Older when he faces good teams. To be honest, I always have. He's always been able to be decent against lower level teams. So as okay, and then Tuesday is a TBD in the rotation as of right now. I just checked this again one more time as we're talking. Sorry, by the way, Elder, isn't it. I think Elder's face of Jacob Lopez. I think Sabali is now going on Tuesday. They changed that today as of as of eight fifty two pm Eastern time, regardless, and Jacob Loves is a left hander, so that'll be that's important for lineup deployment on Monday. But Tuesdays is a TVD. There's only so many options it could be. So I did think in the back of my mind. I don't know if you had this thought, So tell me if you didn't. I thought going into today, if they didn't need to use Diddy or Fuenttes, that maybe they would start him in the fifth game and kind of shock everybody. But he's not going to be available on Tuesday. He through four innings today, so that's that's no longer available. So it comes down to uh Jose Suarez. It's the only guy on the forty man that they could not forty man active roster, I should say, And then they could go rogue and go with like Martine Perez or je Richie question Mark. I mean, my guess is gonna be Suarez. I think it's notable that they haven't announced him yet. I don't know why they haven't. I'm not saying it means anything. It may not, but they had not announced that even though he's like the obvious guy on the roster, that they would be so like what you will.

00:41:33
Speaker 2: My guess will be Jose Suarez and a prayer and just I agree, see how it goes. I did think there was a chance that Diddy or was gonna start on Tuesday, but because they had him cover the entirety of kind of the back half of today's game, I just probably not.

00:41:50
Speaker 1: But yeah, if if he had thrown, if you had thrown like an ending in a third once this weekend, it'd be like, all right, that's just throw a he can he could pitch on two. I'm not saying it was gonna happen, but once you like, I gotta go four, all right, crossm off for this time, this time, for of the rotation, he's not available.

00:42:06
Speaker 2: So probably Jose Swarrez. I mean, if I'm Walt Weiss, I mean, obviously you go inning by inning and see how it goes, but probably aim hope for three, four, five innings if all is going well with Swarez, and then you evaluate. If you're ahead, obviously you deploy your big dogs out of the bullpen. If you're losing by seven runs, then somebody's gonna eat those innings and get their work in. But yeah, this is this is gonna be the scary part of Atlanta Braves games. When Chris Sale, Ronaldo Lopez, and Grant Holmes start, I think the Braves have a real chance every single time. But as long as you don't have Spencer Strider, and you don't have Spencer Schwallenbach, and you don't have Hurston Waltrip, and you don't have Dittier in the rotation, you don't have Jr. Richie in the rotation, these fourth and fifth starter spots are going to be very scary. And in my mind, if you can just go fifty to fifty in these games and kind of keep your head above water and not totally sink, I think you that every day long, and hopefully in the next couple of weeks the rotation gets to be in a better spot than right now. Because this is I mean to be honest, this is pretty scary that you're four days into the season and presumably your next two starters are Bryce Elder, who has a mid five's ERA over the last like two and a half calendar years, and Jose Suarez, who's kind of like a journeyman lefty at this point.

00:43:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm looking for something something to clube onto With Elder. I didn't really find it, to be honest, Like he even he has these are career splits, but like career splits are worse at home than on the road, he's pitching at home. H He's been a little bit he's lived a little bit better in his career early in the season, Like he has a sub for era in March April May. So maybe that's something I don't know. I'm grasping. This could be an absolutely nothing whatsoever. I do think that it might be idotab but I think it's also born out if you look at a little bit closer. But he has been a lot better against not great offenses. See if that goes anywhere. But you're right, I think the takeaway is I'm a little bit afraid it's better that they're facing the A's than if they're facing the Dodgers this week. Give them the rotation available. But we will see. And then Chris Sale pitches on a Wednesday, at least that's of right now. He has been announced he's probable on Wednesday. That's a twelve to fifteen PM Eastern Time aka nine to fifteen am baseball. Where Scott Coleman is. Oh, Wednesday breakfast meeting or something.

00:44:27
Speaker 2: I guess something.

00:44:29
Speaker 1: I want to tell your boss if you have, if you have a meeting that morning to watch Christill.

00:44:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean for Chris Sale. It might be worth it, you know, if it was somebody else, I don't know, but yeah, the Businessman Special on Wednesday, because the Braves will play that game, hopefully get a series win against the Athletics. It's such what a weird I hope it all works out. Yeah, the A's and then they go west and they then travel all the way across country. Do not have an off day, which is a little weird. Play four games against the Diamondbacks and and then three games against the Angels, so not you know, not a daunting West coast trip by any means. I kind of like getting them out of the way early in the year. While guys are fresh. You know, the Diamondbacks are okay, the Angels are a disaster. You know, hopefully you can keep the winning going against those teams. But yes, I mean, as we talked about a few weeks ago on the show, the early season schedule, it's relatively friendly for the Braves, and hopefully they're able to take advantage and keep winning series, because especially with all these injuries, if you keep taking two out of three, even if it's not sexy, you're going to be in good shape at the end of the year. If you can do this with any kind of regularity. For sure.

00:45:37
Speaker 1: Much you noted the scheduling thing there, because I already saw somebody ask me today like, hey, why is the Braves already playing a noon game in the first week of the season, And it's because of what you said, Like, if you don't have a day off, you have to play in the afternoon to go to Arizona. You cannot plan a night game and flat at Arizona. That's not gonna work. So that's why. Unfortunately, it's the best Petchy matchup of the series. It's sale against Lesaverino, who is their number one starter, and it's a game at noon and like I candidly won't be able to watch it in real time. I will be at my office, so I'll be watching it later on with it with a lot of other people. But yeah, we'll see how that goes. And the Braves will be favorite to win the series. Will they win it? We'll see, and uh, I know they are, in fact in the Betty market favored to win the series. But help Steph Chris Sale on My Mounain last game and then, uh, you already mentioned it, but your your Arizona Diamond Max this weekend unfortunately for you usually like you're the mayor of Phoenix when the Braves come to town. I know you're just like holding court with all the people that you know, these Braves fans might be in town. It's like Scott's a celebrity. It's Final four weekend. I don't know how much you're gonna be over in Phoenix on the Final four weekend, but.

00:46:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel bad. I mean, a couple of people reached out and shout out to you, guys and gals. I've run into people at Chase Field too, and they're like, are you Scott from the podcast.

00:46:52
Speaker 1: I'm like, yes, yes, I am because it's full name for the podcast.

00:46:57
Speaker 2: That's right, And I actually hand out business cards and it says Scott for the podcast, and then the Hammer Territory logo is on the back. But you know, Thursday night Friday night games tough to get up there, at least for me. Saturday is the Final Four where Arizona and Michigan will play, so Brad and I are not on speaking terms this upcoming weekend, and then Sunday is Easter, so I mean, just it's a.

00:47:20
Speaker 1: Really tough time. Honestly, I feel I kind of felt bad for you because that's like the one time you can see the Braves easily, right, relatively easily, is when they go to Arizona, And it's like the worst possible weekend for them to be in Arizona, especially Arizona, Like yeah.

00:47:36
Speaker 2: Quite literally the worst weekend of the year for me.

00:47:39
Speaker 1: And if people this far you probably know. But Scott is a devoted Arizona Wildcat, so that's not really an option Final four weekends. So I'm looking forward to watching some baseball. I'll be at the Final Four in Indianapolis, so I will be watching on second screens and stadiums and all that fun stuff too, so we'll be piecing it together, but we will have full coverage always, and we'll have coverage before that. We'll have full coverage of the A series. I'm not sure what the podcast will be next, probably Tuesday if I weren't to guests, but we'll see. Keep it locked. The best thing you can possibly do to find the podcast and subscribe check out the show Apple, Spotify, YouTube to search our territory on your favorite podcast player. If it's not there, and it should be, let us know if you can't find it, and we will definitely help you to do that, and also leave comments and ratings and reviews and tell your friends. If you're an audio listener to podcasts like I know I am, just take a second and subscribe and like on YouTube just to help the pod. If you're a YouTube watcher because you just love watching Scott's face make fun of me on the podcast, you can just subscribe on audio as well auto download. I'm not above asking you to gain the system. I'm really not. We're trying to do the podcast for it's free to free podcast. Just click click a click a button for us. We want to support the show, so Scott anything else to add other than go blue.

00:48:57
Speaker 2: At the end of the podcast, Yeah, I was gonna say, bear down, everybody. A nation will be cheering for the Wildcats this upcoming weekend.

00:49:04
Speaker 1: It's honestly probably true. I can almost guarantee you the Neutrals will be on your side because that's just what happens, which is interesting.

00:49:10
Speaker 2: Okay, well we'll take it, everybody. I will sing the fight song now so you can practice it on your drive to work. We'll all sing it now. I will spare that.

00:49:21
Speaker 1: Time for today's podcast. Yes, we're running out of running out of time, and yeah I could. I could complete the Hamword territory sweep on Saturday. My team just beat Steven Steam and Shawn Steam in succession. I don't. If you listen to the show two weeks ago on Selection Sunday, you will note that I picked Arizona to win the national championship on this podcast, so you'll know how I feel about the game. Scott hopes I'm right. I hope I'm wrong. We'll see anyway, enough of that the on the podcast. We'll probably do one more before the game, and I will try not to do this again. But please subscribe to the show. Follow Scott on Twitter if you'd like to. At Scott Colin fifty five. He's way better to follow than I am this time of year, but I'm also at bt reld. You going to follow me, and more importantly, the show as at hammerd Territory. Subscribe there, follow us, Tell your friends sincerely, Tell your friends thank you listening. As always, we'll have more to come this week. Baseball's back room buddy. I'm having fun. Because having fun it's here. Stay with Will teas and long. I will see you all next time.