Braves Early Season Takeaways With Grant McAuley

00:00:21
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Hammer Territory podcast. This is episode three six four. My name is Brad Roland and I'm not joined by Scott Coleman on this episode. In fact, I've smashed the upgrade button. We have a friend of the podcast, a returning guest, Great McCauley is here from all kinds of places around the internet, GREYT. How are you.

00:00:40
Speaker 2: I appreciate you having me. I don't know if it's an upgrade, but I do enjoy talking some braves with you. And we've got a much more intriguing started to a season to talk about than we did this time a year ago. So thanks for having.

00:00:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is definitely for sure, and if people are just joining us for the first time, we were part of the Falla Territory network of podcasts. We cover the Braves on this show, and Grant is one of the best covering the Atlanta Braves, so I'm glad to have him on the show today. You just kind of alluded to it, but I mean, look, there's no point, there's no place to go other than talking about the Braves starting in a way that they did not start last season. It's kind of the logical talking point right now that we're all doing it. I'm sure in various forms, but twelve and seven feels a lot different than what happened a year ago. And the way that I'll get into this is to ask you how real you think this is? Because you know, under the hood it looks pretty good too, and they have a division lead, and it feels like it was supposed to feel last year, and it's just happening in the year a year later. But how real is it in your mind?

00:01:35
Speaker 2: I think it's very real, and I think last year is going to prove to be more of an outlier than a start like this is. I mean, I know that the Braves with twenty twenty three may have set our expectations for what an offense looks like into the stratosphere, and the Braves pitching staff with twenty twenty four might have set our expectations for what a pitching staff should look like into the stratosphere. So when we went into twenty twenty five, I was just thinking, can these two groups split the difference, because if they can, we might have the best team in the National League, if not all a baseball on our hands. But none of that really came to pass. You had offensive struggles, you had pitching struggles, you had injuries to both sides. I mean, it was the kind of story that just seemed to never end until it finally came to an excruciating close after one hundred and sixty two games, with some I think bright spots mixed in, but not enough to make you feel like you know the Braves had accomplished anything close to what they expect to you. Fast forward to twenty twenty six. You're talking about a new manager, a revamped coaching staff, some healthy players, the opportunity to get some others back. Yes, you've had to deal with injury, but I think we're getting a better version of a team that we expected more from a year ago. And whether that's a full season of Ronald Lacuny junior, a healthy Austin Riley, who we haven't seen him really get going yet, but we saw some signs to close out the Marlin series that could mean good things for him. We'll see how it all plays out. But those are two big bats. I look at you start putting those guys with Matt Olson, Ozzy Alby's and Matt Michael Harris. Last year both had their struggles. Drake Baldwin has been incredible. Those are six hitters right there that I look at and think that stacks up about as good as any lineup in baseball. If these guys are just who they need to be, then you throw in some of the good stories that you've got, whether it's Dom Smith or Mauricio Dubon. All of a sudden, there's more depth to this lineup, more depth to this bench than we've seen maybe since twenty ten. And the pitching staff has been great in the bullpen, more than acceptable in the starting rotation, and has a chance to get some key members of that rotation back. So Brad, to me, all signs point to this being more of who the Braves are than what we saw a year ago.

00:03:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, I tend to agree with you, and that's been the tenor of our show. I think in general too. You know, I think our guards a little bit more up than it would have been a year you know, after what kind of inevitable you saw what you saw last season, and you're not trying to get you know, necessarily down the rabbit hole as much. But you mentioned the light up. I wanted to start there as far as we dig in because you know, there's you have to score ruds and prevent ruds. It's a pretty simple game in that aspect. But the the lineup is doing what it's supposed to be doing. And I was, I don't know if you've been agree with the premise, so you can tell me if you don't. But I just keep saying. I kept going back to all winter, like, hey, the pitching is uncertain. You can still argue that it is now it's been better than expected to this point, but put it that to the side. Almost it was like, hey, if they score runs the way they're capable of scoring runs, not that it doesn't matter, but you can cover up a lot of ills if you score at the level that they are capable of scoring. And they've done that for the most part, Like they're you know, the top five in all of baseball and isolated power and slugging percentage and home runs and it might change by the time people listen to this podcast, but as of the start of today's action, they were number one in the majors in run scored. And it's like, if you do that, a lot falls into place. So you've talked about how it's kind of sustainable. But I think I'm encouraged by that personally because it's not like everyone's operating at their top level. You know, you could argue with twenty twenty three most of the guys not not not necessarily career seasons, but they were all like, hey, this is a pretty good year for almost everybody. It hasn't even been that so far, which I find encouragement in if I'm a Bravest fan to say, hey, Ronald will be better than this, Austin you think will be better than you know, etcetera. Centered down the line. I don't know if you agree with that premise or not, but that's that's kind of my thinking of broadly speaking about the run Scory operation.

00:05:17
Speaker 2: No I do, and I think that there's kind of that saying where like, it takes a village a lot of times to accomplish the things that you want to. It can't all be on rond Lacuney Junior, it can't all be on Matt Olsen, it can't all be on Austin Riley, and even honestly can't all just be on the three of those guys. You're going to need contributions up and down the lineup, and we've seen that be the case. I mean, Drake Baldwin obviously has captured everybody's attention. I am thrilled to see where he's hitting in the order. Obviously loved the results, but that is one of the best hitters on the team and he's getting the opportunity to get those plate appearances. And I don't know what this thing would have looked like completely with Jerks and Profar in the mix. Would it have made it worse? Well, probably not, But that's something that they'll never know what that version could have looked like. But what they have been able to do in the aftermath of that, by you know, obviously moving past it and giving those at bats in the top of the order to Drake Baldwin and finding dh at bats for somebody like Dom Smith has worked out pretty well. I would say thus far. Now, is Dom Smith going to be a three ninety five hitter with a twelve hundred OPS for the duration of twenty twenty six? Probably not? But is he a capable, good piece that was added kind of out of nowhere toward the end of camp just to make your your lineup and your bench a little bit deeper. Yeah, and you need those guys, and it just feels like the Braves didn't have those guys the last couple of years. I know they've always kind of looked at this, you know, the badge of honor that is playing as often as you can, the one to sixty two every inning of every game. I mean, Matt Olsen has one of the longest consecutive game streaks in the modern game, the longest going on in Major League Baseball right now. It just surpassed eight hundred, which is an incredible accomplishment in this generation of baseball. But putting that aside, you don't need everybody to play every inning of every game. And we've already seen Wise doing what he said he would in the Winter meetings, which is use that DH spot for a chance to get somebody off their feet in the field, to mix it around, to allow for Drake Baldwin's bat to be in the lineup even when he's not catching. And we'll see how it's managed when Sean Murphy gets back, hopefully in the next couple of weeks. But all of this to say, I mean, I just feel like this is a good version of the Braves. Now. I don't think we've seen the best of this offense other than have they shown you some flashes of that in certain huge nights. Yes, they've shown you what that can look like. Well, it looked like that every day. Absolutely not. Should they go from seventeen run scored one day to zero run score the next day?

00:07:32
Speaker 3: No.

00:07:32
Speaker 2: I don't think anybody wants to sign up for the peaks and Valley routine. However, this offense I do think has some very real staying power to be in that top five for run scored and to do its fair share of slugging, and they've just got to stay healthy. We know that that's a story for this club. It's been a story for individuals and collectively for the Braves for the last couple of years. But I just feel like to go back to your first question, do I feel like this is real? Yes, and there are some myths that come with it. Conditionally speaking, health is the number one thing I'm worried about for this team across the board. If they're out there, this is a great lineup on paper. Game's not played there, but they've got a good collective here and I do feel like we're seeing a little bit more of what the braves are capable of here in the early going, and you needed to see it as soon as possible this year to just feel like you could maybe possibly take a breath or exhale for that matter, and feel like, hey, I can start to believe that this team is who we believed they should be and need to be every year.

00:08:30
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00:09:02
Speaker 1: A little bit. You mentioned Drake Balwin has been unbelievable and it's not breaking ground to anybody's watching his team closely. He's played in every game so far and that's not surprising. You know, you mentioned that you know Murphy hasn't been there, and there's a little bit of uncertainty. This is kind of an offul wall question, but it's related how much is he how much can he play? I mean, I mean how much could a guy? How much do you want a guy to play? And this is your ear around a clubhouse way more than I am. Or it's easier with the h spot that it's ever been. But aside from cal Raley, like catchers aren't playing one hundred and fifty five games in a season, so he could have play's he gonna keep playing every single day and I wouldn't be opposed to it. But have you thought have you heard anything about this? Like once Marphy is back, and presumably he will be and I'm still a Sean Murphy guy. He's still a good baseball player. But Drake Baldwin is like forcing his way into the lineup every single day and you want that quote unquote problem, but can he play one forty five, one fifty or more? Like is that possible in terms of overall games? Yes, because he doesn't have to catch the vast majority of those. When you have Sean Murphy and I know a lot of people have kind of looked at Sean Murphy stock as being at an all time low because he was struggling at the plate, and clearly, you know, there were questions about whether or not his contract was worth what they're paying him. And I know that that's been a point of consternation for a lot of people. And you can't look at it at face value and say, hey, the Braves are getting everything they paid for here. But I think we understand a little bit more of the why. But I can't take away from what Sean Murphy does for a pitching staff that he's proven year after year here, is that the only reason that you have him.

00:10:32
Speaker 2: Of course not. He's got huge power, and if he's healthy, I think that he can make his presence felt in that way. Whether or not he goes back to an All Star Game or not, or has the kind of first half that he had in twenty twenty three remains to be seen. But I think there's more power there, and there's more run production possibly there if you've got somebody that has that in their back pocket and also can handle the staff and take the load off of Drake Baldwin. I see no reason why you can't aim to play him, say one hundred and fifty ish games. It could it be more? Yes, could it be a little bit less? Sure it could, because you're gonna want to have the maintenance for guys who are catching going through the hot summer, and just the cumulative effect of playing game after game after game in a demanding position. But the best version of the Atlanta Braves as Drake Baldwin in the lineup way more times than not. So I think Walt Wise is going to be committed to finding ways to manage that workload behind the plate so that he can let his bat do the talking. That he being Drake Baldwin as much as possible this year, because as we wear pretty loud and clear thus far, he's one of the braves best hitters, no.

00:11:31
Speaker 1: Question about it. And there is a difference, and I'll guilty of this too, there is still a difference between dhing and actually having a day off. Dhing is still work. It's not as hard as catching, but it is. I think that at some point they're probably gonna have to give Drake a day at some point, and maybe I'm sure they'd love to wait until Murphius backs, it's a little bit easier on the lineup, but yeah, no, he's been awesome and look at me. He's on pace to be a MVP can. I don't know if that's going to sustain at that level, but man, he's been outrageous. You mentioned this guy in passing to ask you about the Dom Smith renaissance. He has been unbelievable so far, opso for one thousand, couple of huge hits like game game winning, two game winning hits, essentially already in four weeks of baseball. And it's weird he has this profile. He's not you know, people have talked about like he's ancient, like he's our age grant, He's not quite that old. He's only thirty one right now. And he did get MVP votes in twenty twenty now, granted shortened season, small samples, I get all that, but he did perform at a you know, top twenty player in the league level for you know, it was two and a half months, but it happened, and it since that, he's not been that and no one, to be very clear, believes he's going to keep doing this. But I was looking at under the hood a little bit. I don't think it's like totally fake. I mean he's hitting the ball really hard, and I think he's a professional hitter. So I wonder what you've made of that. And obviously you know the headliners are are the big hits, but it seems to be well received in that clubhouse as well, which you could speak to more than I could, and fitting in just beautifully through three or four weeks.

00:13:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean a great piece and a great fit across the board. I know what Weiss said. You know, I'd always, you know, admired Dom Smith when we faced him. I felt like he put up a professional at bat. And yes, there were some earlier years in his career. I mean he struggled a little bit to establish himself, and all of a sudden he really seemed to hit the ground running with the Mets, and that twenty twenty season was very good one for him. So if you're looking for is it possible for Dom Smith to be an offensive force or a big offensive contributor, it is, where are all the bats going to come from once you start getting some of the other players back. I am curious about that, But we don't need to spend I don't think a lot of time right now in the middle of April trying to figure out who's getting at bats in July and August. However, this is a good problem to have more professional hitters, and Dom Smith has certainly been that. I mean, you look at the statcast profile. I think there's some legitimate metrics that underline why exactly he's doing what he's doing. I mean, he said, I felt like my swing was in a really good place. I mean, and that's the same conversation the same night when he was talking about, hey, may have hit a game winning Grand Slam, but that meant more to me emotionally because of everything that I've been through, my family's been through. When he revealed that he had just lost his mother and one of the things she wanted him to do, or would want him to do, is go win that job in Braves Camp, and that's why he didn't leave the team and why he did stay and how he did end up on the opening day roster and did end up in the opportunity in the position to do some of the things he's done. So it's a great story. I do think that there is some real validity to the results that he's putting up. I don't think it's completely flukish. Again, nobody's asked him about four hundred. Nobody's asked him to ops twelve hundred or hit thirty homers in a part time role. But I do think he's capable of the same kinds of things we've seen thus far, which is good professional at Betts. When you need him, three or four of those anight really start to add up one through nine in the lineup. And I think has been something that Braves have leaned on maybe a little bit more, as Ronald Cunye Junior or Austin Riley or Michael Harris or some of these other guys are kind of trying to find their footing because you expect those guys at some point to really st ticket and carry the team in a number of different ways up and down the lineup.

00:15:04
Speaker 1: It's been kind of funny, and you allude to it there about like there's like preemptive not freak out, but it's like, wait, are they gonna take dubond and and Smith out of the lineup? And it's like, well, at some point they're gonna cool off. And also it's not a problem like they're gonna have some choices to make, and I know, uh, Mark Bubben may kind of a I thought it was a pretty funny quip about how no one was asking about Hassan Kim anymore because Dubond's been so good. And I get why that is. Dubon's been incredible as well when I'm gona talk about every single player in the lineup, but this is I mean, it's it's almost easy to forget this now, but going into the spring, you know this, A lot of the pitch for what the Braves did this winter was improving the depth of the roster. And this is what this is part of why you do that, right, like where you have obviously the suspensions in a different galaxy with Profar, but you build out the depth so that you don't get smacked in the face when you have a Murphy injury, when you have a kid injury like that. This is why you why you do it. And then yeah, thoughts was wasn't part of the plan. But it takes. It's a long season. I mean, it takes a lot of little things going right and maybe not going right. And I'm just not worried about that whatsoever. I mean, du bought, especially Domaca play anywhere. It's like, if he's hitting, he's gonna play as much as he wants to play. It's a spot.

00:16:18
Speaker 2: He definitely could. And I just think it's interesting because you know, we can, you know, look into the future and try to predict where different guys are going to fit in and maybe be preemptively, as you said, kind of you know, upset about oh, well, you can't take this guy out or you can't move this guy. But I look at it more so in the well, you don't have bigger pieces that you need to have who's stepping up in the interim. That's why you go out and get deaf guys like this, and they can be a great story. And I'm not saying that they may not end up having a larger role to play as you go along, but to your point, you have to have them in your camp, on your roster and ready to help you out. And that's it's a first world problem when you've got too many good players. I can't really say that I've looked at the Braves bench too many years or recent years and said, gosh, I wonder if they just took this guy, this guy, and this guy and gave them more chances. No, it was pretty much like, well, if we see this guy only because player A needs a day off, and these guys I feel like that we're talking about here with Mauricio Dubon, Dom Smith as far as DH is concerned. And we'll see how some of the other things go with Catcher, whether they keep three with Jonahim who they signed right before spring training, to kind of strengthen that Catcher's corps a little bit with somebody with some experience where exactly they fit in, especially once you get Hassan Kim back, because as you mentioned, Mauricio Dubon is basically a Swiss army knife, so you can deploy him in a number of different places. He could spend a little bit of time in left field. We haven't talked about Mikey Strimsky a lot thus far. Walt Weiss said the other day he likes the way that the Swings are starting to look for him and thinks he's starting to work his way out of the funk that he's been in. As well, he said that about Austin Riley, and we saw what Austin Riley did, and we saw a few more base hits. I think at least late in that homestand for Mikey Strimsky, you want to see that. But Dubon plays some left field. He could give Ronald a day off, and right he can obviously give Harris a day off in center. It's just it's nice to have these kinds of pieces and these kinds of answers. You wanted to play third base, great second base, shortstop. I'm sure he throwing a mint and play some first base if he needs to as well, though I think you could throw Dom Smith there. But the guy who's normally taken the reps at first base probably doesn't want to give up too many of those.

00:18:18
Speaker 1: He probably does not because he's not missing a game in a very long time. It's still talking about I want to talk about some run prevention, and I'm gonna go not to pitching first, and I want to mention the defense because I will raise my hand. I'm part of the problem here too. The Braves have been defensively excellent so far this season. And you know it's it's not always as it's hardly ever a lead topic. You know that. I mean you do enough, you do enough talking into microphones to know that like it isn't sexy talking about defense unles, you're talking about highlight plays or whatever, some big moments day to day, and ending is not a lead topic. The Braves have really done a very very good job defensively this season, and that really helps you, especially when you have some pitching uncertainty and it's been it's gone well pitching wise, but you'll you know, it's not breaking any grab. You look up and it's like, hey, they don't really have anybody in the field that you're mortified of, you know what I mean. Most most teams have some place on the lot of the diamond. It's like, oh, that's a that's a weak spot on defense, Like for sure, the Brays don't really have that. And not only about that, but they have that, and they had the upside of guys like Harris and guys like Dubon who were like a Olsen's have proven gold glut all those things, and I wonder how much that really takes the heat off the pitching staff, especially again when there are questions about the pitching staff having a maybe not all world but a clearly above average, clearly strong defense has been an underrated part to me of this strong start.

00:19:40
Speaker 2: I think it has and I think that we'll see that continue. I mean, I have steadily been impressed with Austin Riley's work at third base because when you really think about it, and I asked Walt Weiss about it a couple of nights ago, that you know, Austin Riley when he came up, you were here, you saw, and I mean they were just trying to find a place for his bat. They stuck him in the left field. He did a little bit of that and that clearly wasn't his home. Then he had to kind of fight for the reps at third base with somebody else, and finally he won out that job, and we're glad he did because twenty one, twenty two, twenty three are pretty good indicators of what kind of player Austin Riley can be, and the injuries have kind of kept him away from that the last couple of years. But one guy that I'm super impressed with this year that I just the est and then going to looking at some of the advanced data, is Ozzie Alby's. I feel like the arm strength may never be his calling card. In fact, it's usually going to be toward the bottom, but out above average is overall range. I mean, these are things that I feel like Ozzie's been making some plays this year that I can't say I felt as confident about the last couple of seasons. And that is no small thing, as you pointed out, because Chris Sale has talked about after some of his starts, look, I didn't have it here or there. I really owe my defense a tip of the cap. They're turning a ton of double plays. That infield I think has been rock solid, and that Dubon clearly is part of that because he's a goal glove caliber player, and yeah, he's gonna make an error every now and again too. We don't have to hate on everybody every time they make a mistake, otherwise you're gonna have a long season and probably a miserable light. But I think this is a good infield, and I think that it's a capable enough catching situation once you get Sean Murphy back, and then as you look into the outfield, Mike Streki is certainly serviceable, Michael Harris is well above average, and I think Ronaldi Cuney Junior with the arm is still a weapon in right field, even if his range and his overall defensive side of things may not impact the game in the way that you'd love to see. It's kind of the only thing I can ever look at Ronald and be like, well, maybe the range is not quite where you'd want it to be for a guy who's as fast as he is, or he used to speed as much in his game, but then he uncorked some crazy throw that you realize that maybe two other people in the game could make, and you'd think, all right, that's a pretty special player there too. And if that's the worst problem you have defensively, you're in a very good place. And I think that, to your point, kind of underscores the story of the Braves defense this year. Everybody is chipping in, everybody's doing their job, everybody's making the plays thus far, and I think that that has been a benefit for the pitching staff. And if you've got Chris Sale out there saying that I didn't have my stuff, but hey, the defense helped me look good in the line score, I think that's a pretty big compliment as well for that group.

00:22:01
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00:22:30
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00:23:02
Speaker 1: Obviously, Chris Sale is not someone anybody worries about, including me, and I would assume you don't either. Grant just you can tell me if I'm wrong, but I'm not worried about chrisale. I did not. But outside of Chris Sale, there was a lot of a lot of uncertainty coming into the season, right especially when you have the injury as a strider, you have the injury to Schwellenbach, you had Waldrop go down. All of these things that happened, and that left a lot of pressure on guys like Grant Holmes, orn A Lopez, both of them coming back from injury, and Bryce Elder, who had been in the woods for two and a half years. And Bryce Elder is the poster child for this, but the three of them Comebine have an ERA in the twos right now, and a couple of those guys have an RI below two right now. And you can't ask for much more than that from guys who were, you know, always gonna be part of the mix, but have been like clearly the two, three and four starters so far, and you can talk about any of them that you'd like to. I think Elder is probably the biggest story given how just absurdly good he's been. And I'll raise my head, I was I've been wrong so far about rise Older and happily so, but what are what you made of the three of them and their contributions, because it's clearly been a huge part of the success so far.

00:24:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, the starting rotation has passed the early tests, and I don't think anybody's out there, and I know there's a lot of you know, kind of I don't know what you want to call it, unhappiness, general consternation. Maybe that's my word. That's my two dollars word I like to throw out there once in a while on the table about what the Brave's rotation was, and more importantly, like what it was not and what people didn't believe it was capable of doing. And all it's done is turn around and pass the early tests. And I'll tell you this as somebody who's watching it and saying, hey, they aren't doing the job, nobody's planning a flag and saying that, hey, this problem is completely solved. It's going to be just like this for all season long, because we've already learned how long a Major League baseball season is, and we know that there's some big contributors that have yet to throw a pitch in the big leagues yet for the Braves this year and one of them is on his way back, hopefully in the next three or four weeks. That's Spencer Strider, And once you start to put him into this mix, what is that going to look like? It'll strengthen that group? I believe. I think Spencer's going to be a guy who contributes. But Grant Holmes, Ronaldo Lopez and Bryce Elder, we're shouldering a lot of the complaints, if you will, the complaint department for what the Braves rotation is not and all they've done. I feel like thus far is give the Braves a chance to win far more times than not. They're not going to be perfect, nobody's asking him to be. I think that Bryce Elder has probably taken more, taking it more on the chin than just about anybody. But he all he does is continue to work and be willing to take the ball. And people may not think that's a compliment, it is because look how hard it was to find people to take the ball last year. Where would you have been without Bryce Elder? Probably on your way to one hundred losses if we're being honest, and that doesn't mean that you know, well, he was a twenty game winner or capable of being a twenty game winner a year ago. But what he did down the stretch and what he's continued to do to refine his arsenal of off speed pitches, three different versions of a fast ball and a pretty good slider. I feel like he's got some stay in power here to just give the Braves consistent quality starts every fifth day. I think that's all you can ask for. Is the ceiling higher for Spencer Swellenbach, Yeah, you'd expect a lot more out of that. We'll see what version of him is able to come back, hopefully sometime around mid season, I think is probably the ideal scenario. If you can get him back, then maybe the same for Hurst and Waldrop. We'll see. The Braves haven't put any timetables on that whatsoever, but it's nice to kind of see these early returns, see some of these guys maybe accomplishing more than you thought that they would because it's you've got to cover these innings and this so far they've stood up and more than pass the test. And I don't even think Chris Sales gotten dialed in yet. And we haven't yet seen Spencer Strider, who's on his way back as I mentioned, but the more that these guys do what they've done thus far this year, it sets up that bullpen to be the serious weapon that I believe that it is.

00:26:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, the bullpen is.

00:26:51
Speaker 3: You know.

00:26:51
Speaker 1: They spend a lot of mone on the bullpen, and it's looked like it so far. And there's a good piece today actually, I think it was by Jason Foster about Dylan Lee, who we've banged the drum on all the time only is awesome and he has been for multiple years now. Plus everybody knows about Suarez and Iglesias. You mentioned Strider. I just want to note that he did throw today in Rome and I didn't watch it, but by all accounts look like special Strider, which is what you want to see. Through three and third innings, fifty pitches. Everyone seemed to be positive coming out of that. I mean, he's on his way back. I don't know how soon. I don't know if you have a projection in your head about when you might see him throw a major league inning, but it won't be too long. It seems like my uninformed speculation.

00:27:30
Speaker 2: I can give you my professional speculation, which is, if you're looking at the bullpens and the live BPS he's thrown and he's able to throw fifty pitches in his first minor league rehab start, I would think the next logical place is just to add fifteen pitches to that, get him to sixty five the next time, get him to a round eighty, that next time you push it to the ninety to ninety five and a fourth one or will he feel good enough for a fourth outing to maybe be the right matchup? And I'd have to look at the calendar that how that falls. I don't know if that's the Detroit series. I don't know if that's the series after that, and I don't have the schedule right in front of me, but I would say that I would expect four outings with you know, with no setbacks and building that pitch count up to give him kind of the mini spring training that he's having to simulate again, because he got himself pretty close to the level where the pitch count was built up. Felt the oblique problem. Walt Weis did tell me, look, we're glad that he came forward with it, because if he goes out and tries to pitch through it, maybe we're not talking about a few weeks or a month we're talking about two to three months and the Braves North Spencer Strider want to be talking about missing that kind of time again.

00:28:32
Speaker 1: For sure, And yeah, all of you know, seems obvious, but like it's always better when guys tell the team what's going on, very open about that. It's very very helpful.

00:28:42
Speaker 2: Sometimes I'll be honest, and this has nothing to do with Spencer Strider. I just want to throw it out there. Sometimes you don't know how wrong something is, and sometimes even if you do tell somebody, they don't know how wrong it is until something breaks, because that's the nature of the human body, like it can sustain so much for so long, but then at some point something might go wrong. So I think that it does speak to the players wanting to contribute and be out there and play, because there is that difference between being hurt or playing hurt and being injured. And it's a difficult line to walk, I guess.

00:29:12
Speaker 1: Oh for sure. Yeah, it's it's a long season and if if everyone only played when they felt one hundred percent, they would have no place. Yeah, So it is a there's definitely a fine line to walk. I would not be doing my job if I did not ask you about what wiss, especially because you're in that clubhouse. All the returns that our public have been amazing on what whys so far? Even stuff that that people like me nitpick about managers and will always try to acknowledge that we only see a small, small part of the job, only can see a small part of the job. But even that stuff I've been impressed by. But I mean you're you're behind the scenes more more than I have. Is the reputation behind the scenes matching what's been out there in the public, because everyone seems to be thrilled with what why so far?

00:29:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think great leader, you know, good communicator to his team as far as expectations are concerned. Is how he as to how he plans to utilize guys. I mean, it's just he's checking the boxes that you need somebody to, you know, to manage a team the way that you want them to. And that's not to say anything of the style of the guy before him, or the guy before him, or the guy before him. But Walt Weise did say, like, I'm going to do this my way, and I do think that the team has bought into that because they were familiar with him. There was a belief in him already. He has done nothing but further it as he's gone along. I don't know the last time I saw a major league manager take down a two hundred and forty pounds slugger in the midst of a bench's clearing incident that I think, probably for some style points, won him the complete attention of his team and the adoration of his team, if not the fan base. But in all seriousness, I think Walt has been very pragmatic about how he's used his lineup, how he's used his pitching staff, how he's used utilizing the bullpen, which is obviously a part of the pitching staff, and you know, you need that over the course of a long season. I think he's been able to kind of communicate what his expectations are for playing time and for usage and you know, do the things that you need him to do. I think he says the right things, and I think thus far, the Braves, if you look at their record, have done more of the right things than they've done the wrong things day after day. And if you can keep that up over the course of a long season, which is easier said than done, you have a chance to do something pretty special. So again I'll go back and say I think the Braves got their guy, and I think that they're very happy with the early returns under Walt Weiss, and ultimately it's just going to be up to the players and their health and their performance on the field to decide how far this thing goes. But as far as managerial higher, I think the Braves got themselves a good one and they're very happy they.

00:31:36
Speaker 1: Did, for sure, feeling really good about it. And you know, it's a results based business in the end, and if you win games, the vibes, it's the chicken or the egg thing with with with clubhouse vibes and wins, because you kind of need both. And if it's just a lot better to everyone's feeling better when you win games, which is the reality situation. I'm gonna get you out here before long, but we should talk about the Philly series because it's the first I have a headline grabbing showdown series of the season for the Braves' it's a weekend, you're playing one of your clear rivals. The Phillies are not playing incredibly well. I did make note in real time, and I didn't realized this last night on the show, Grant that the Mets have lost eight games in a row. That's that's different, but just noting that the Phillies have not. But they're not playing all that well right now. It's still a showdown Braves. That Phillies always going to be, you know, pitted together. And I wonder what if there's anything you're looking for this weekend. Obviously, you know, the return after a short detour from Martin Perez, who is DFA in his back. He's gonna pitch on Friday. The big headliner is the Saturday night matchup with Sale and Sanchez, two of the best lefties in baseball, et cetera, et cetera. But a big one on the on the horizon this weekend.

00:32:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is. And obviously it's early, so I don't know if we can look at this version of the Phillies and say, hey, this is who they're going to be all year long. But if they are kind of down in their luck and having some struggles, it would be a nice time to take advantage of that, go ahead and win a series. You're going to see the next week at Truest Park as well. And this is a nice run of National League East foes as the Braves open up what felt like almost exclusively an Inner League first oup of weeks, the exception of the Arizona Diamondbacks, I believe, but yeah, I mean, you just look at where the Braves have to go in the month of April. Take two out of three from the Marlins. They get this series with the Phillies, first look at them, then four games in Washington, come home, three more games with the Phillies. It's just a chance to kind of maybe put some distance between yourself and some divisional rivals. You know, I was not in the camp of Bryce Harper's cooked. I don't think he's done yet, and I know some folks were kind of pointing to that early in the year. Not really sure why, but you know, that's a dangerous lineup. It's a team that I think can turn it on on any given night. They have had some struggles at home, They've got a losing record there, their run differential doesn't look great, their pitching staff is taking some lumps. So again, it seems like the right time to go in and just handle your business. Get out of there with two out of three, and I think you'll be feeling pretty happy about it. Yeah, a couple of National Ties games. I oh, there's a love hate relationship with that. You want your team to get some national exposure, but you don't get your comfort of Braves vision on those games. Although CJ's doing the game on Sunday for Peacock, So that's all that, so that you know, little home.

00:34:13
Speaker 1: Cooking along the way for Braves fans. Grant, I appreciate you doing this. As always, I try to bug you too too much because you have your own stuff going on, but I appreciate you taking the time and speaking of your own stuff. I'd like you to tell all of our listeners where they can find all of your great musings on the Braves, because you're one of my first calls when it comes to trying to follow what's going on with the team.

00:34:32
Speaker 2: No, I appreciate that if you're looking for me on a regular basis on social media at Grant McCauley on most platforms, is where you can find me. I do a show called from the Diamond here in Atlanta on Sports Radio ninety two nine.

00:34:43
Speaker 1: In the game.

00:34:43
Speaker 2: It's on Sundays, mostly in the evenings. We've been kind of bounced around because of basketball, but we'll settle into I think a five to seven pm Eastern times squat and if you happen to miss that, you can always debscribe it from the Diamond to where we get your podcast, you can find me on ninety two nine in the game. I do a lot of call ins there. I'm also writing a daily journal some and also Battery Power. I'm putting some features out for our friends over there this year, so certainly excited about that. And I do some baseball card fun stuff you'll find on my socials called wax Packing Nostalgic. I'm going to be opening a lot more baseball cards over the course of the summer, so I invite any and everybody that enjoys that kind of thing to follow along as well, because I think it's just a great way to stay connected with a game of baseball. It's kind of the way I fell in love with the game of baseball. So I'm looking forward to sharing that with folks as well.

00:35:27
Speaker 1: Absolutely, people should be following Grant for sure, and if those darn at Leanna Hawks will lose at some point, you could have your slot back on Sunday nights. I say that as someone covers a lot of the Atlanta Hawks, but it's it'll be over at some point in the next couple of months, right.

00:35:39
Speaker 2: And you got a good year, though I mean from far kind of step in the right direction that you want to see, Right.

00:35:45
Speaker 1: They have played pretty well, all right, everybody one more time. Subscribe to all of Grant's content, follow him fantastic stuff there. Also, subscribe to this show, Hammier Territory anywhere you find your podcast. We appreciate you being here as always, and we'll see everybody next time.