Braves Offense Shines in Win Over Nationals; Top Prospects Feature on Mound

00:00:20
Speaker 1: Welcome one and all to the Have a Territory Podcast. By name is Sean Covid.

00:00:24
Speaker 2: Hope wherever you are, wherever you are listening, you are having a good week so far, a really fun week. Braves are continuing to play good baseball. We've got the NFL Draft that we're discussing, NBA playoffs are starting, so plenty of sports action along the way. But of course when it comes to have a Territory, we are here to come the Braves. Unfortunately, we're gonna come up. But I said fortunately. We are going to cover a couple of games in tonight's episode What's a Loss, But one is about spac win, which the Braves got tonight eight to six, and somewhat exciting fashion over the Nationals. But that is going to be secondary in this episode and the reason why Stevens Tolbert one of the best when it comes to breaking down the Braves the world's best podcast partner debatable. We will talk about the games in just a moment, but the first thing that we need to talk about, Steven as we mix it up, is we need to talk about for the Braves, the future is now. In this mix it Up segment, engineered by Fastena. So Stephen, when I say the future is now for this Braves team and this pitching staff, it may not necessarily have been the cleanest transition to the future, but we are here and it's now, and there's some exciting things to look forward. To break it all down for us as you do best.

00:01:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, So, you know, the Braves have been doing this kind of rotation shuffle, I guess is the best way to describe it. They're really trying to give everybody as much extra rest as possible. And we're gonna talk about that more in a minute, but what it means right now is that Didier Fintes was called up tonight to start the game, and we got that announcement yesterday.

00:02:11
Speaker 4: The last episode we did, I.

00:02:13
Speaker 3: Think on Monday, we kind of teased that we you know, we told people, you know, him being scratched on Sunday and then what White's kind of hinting at the fact that their current rotation might not stay. The current rotation kind of hinted that this was coming, so it shouldn't have been a shock. What was surprising to me was Ronaldo Lopez only pitched one inning yesterday. He only got three outs and the bullpen had to cover most of the game. So I was a little surprised they went with a rookie tonight after the bullpen pitched so many innings yesterday, and the bullpen is not in great shape right now. There's a lot of guys down, they had very few relievers available. I was surprised they were gonna go with the rookie. I thought they might do Martin Perez tonight, give the bullpen a chance to build back up, and then do the rookie tomorrow.

00:03:01
Speaker 4: But they did the opposite.

00:03:02
Speaker 3: They put they put flintes into night's game and then obviously throughout the game, Martin Perez had to pitch. And now jer Richie, we just learned literally minutes before pressing record on this episode that Jared Richie is coming up to pitch tomorrow's game. So I mean, like you just said to open the segment, the future is now. These two guys are pretty easily the two best pitching prospects in the system. You know, Cam Kemenidi obviously is out there, but he's still too far away to be considered in this conversation.

00:03:32
Speaker 4: These are the.

00:03:32
Speaker 3: Guys, and you know, for better or for worse and where the rotation is right now, you know, Flintes is going to be sent down to bring up Richie. So it's not like they're both going to be in the rotation. But I do think you were going to see a healthy rotation of these guys coming through. Anytime the Braves want to do this where they give guys extra rest, anytime they want to do that, we know now that their number one and two options are going to use to do that is going to be Flintes and Richie, and it's it is very exciting to see because I am both of these guys have qualities about them that I am interested in them, that have legitimate long term chances of being really good. It's gonna be some bumps in the road like it was tonight, but it's still very exciting.

00:04:17
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:04:18
Speaker 2: And the thing that I'll say is this is that you know, again when I talk about the fact that the Braves having to do this, the way in which it's come about has not been probably the most ideal or cleanest. You know it's been because you know, regressions hit a bit and we've seen you know, some starts here where the Braves starters are only going one to two it needs and you're really taxing the mopin you also lose rossill ill iglesias. So some of your heavier arm or your more dependable arms, they're going to be used more often. So again not the most ideal situation, but a couple of things also playing into this that that make it even more exciting than just the talent itself.

00:04:51
Speaker 1: When it comes to a point is in JR.

00:04:53
Speaker 2: Richie, the brains are now eighteen and seven. There are eleven games above five hundred so far this year. I believe they're eighteen to seventy. I think that's right, eight seventeen to eight.

00:05:02
Speaker 1: There we go.

00:05:04
Speaker 2: But they built themselves again some margin for error where they can go ahead and take a bit of a leap when it comes to these you know, young kids. And the reason also why you could see them being motivated to do it is just simply put, did he hear? For Wintes and Jr. Richie both could be one of the five best It could each be one of the five best arcs in the organization that can produce in the majors. Right now, when you see how you know Renaldo Lopez is struggling, You know again, Grant Holmes, I think he's okay as a fourth or fifth starter type. Martem Prez has been an absolute godsend. I'll take back what I said a few days ago, but overall talent wise, and I know you're good Spencer Strider back here in the near future. Overall talent wise, did he hear for Wintes and Jr? Richie legitimately could be two of the five best options the Braves have in their starting staff right now, and you want to be able to keep this momit of going. So, yeah, it's a bit of a it's a bit of a leap. Yeah, it's a bit of a risk to bring up both young pitchers at the same time. But if your team is going good as good as this team is going offensively, put the best talent out there that you can. When it comes to the starting rotation, it just hope for the best. If it doesn't work out, you could always pivot, because that's what the brains have been doing all your long when it comes to starting rotation. But I do think those factors how good of a start we've had, and also just the simple fact in terms of the talent available right now for winters and Richie, maybe two of your best options. Go with it, see what you got and then we could go from there.

00:06:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, and they've always I mean, I'll give Alex in the organization credit.

00:06:37
Speaker 4: They they've done this.

00:06:38
Speaker 3: Like even if they've got a guy in Double A that's looks awesome and he's he hasn't pitched in Triple A. Like I remember, Schwollenbach came up I think directly from Double A a couple of years ago. Like they are hyper aggressive with their prospects once they think their prospects are ready to go, like Michael Harris came up from directly from Double A. If I remember correctly, I think von Grisom came up directly from Double A. Like they they are not shy at all about promotions.

00:07:05
Speaker 4: And if they think.

00:07:06
Speaker 3: That you give them the best chance to win that night, you're gonna pitch and listen, the rotation has seen some regression that we talked about, like you know, it was always gonna come, and we've seen it a little bit. Ronaldo specifically is the one I think people are most worried about. We're gonna get to him when we talk about we're gonna break down Tuesday.

00:07:26
Speaker 4: Nights game in a minute.

00:07:27
Speaker 3: But and then you add in like there's some age stuff with Sale. You know, they're always looking for opportunities to give him an extra day or to rest. They just did that with Ronaldo, they gave him two days rest. They're gonna do it again next time. They might run a six man rotation for a little while. They talked about that a lot in the spring, and we might see that start to happen. What all that means is you need you need six or seven starters. I mean you already need six or seven starters anyways, but right now specifically, you need six or seven starters. And you do have Strider coming back, which will help.

00:08:00
Speaker 1: Of course.

00:08:01
Speaker 3: But you know, nobody's gonna be surprised if Martin Perez. Martin Perez has been unbelievable. But like if you told me right now Martin Perez is not is gonna run into a rough patch, It's not like I'd be stunned. So you know, Strider is gonna help a ton. But yeah, you want to see what these kids can do. And listen, do I think Fuintes specifically is like one hundred percent ready to be a major league pitcher?

00:08:23
Speaker 4: Probably not.

00:08:24
Speaker 3: He's gonna have to grow. He's probably gonna have to you know, a lot of tonight was like a lot of fastballs, like eighty percent fastballs. Even when he was ahead in the count, he was doing fastballs in the zone, which you can't do. He's got to learn how to use some pitches out of the zone to try to get you know, more swings of miss.

00:08:43
Speaker 4: He got seven strikeouts.

00:08:44
Speaker 3: I mean, the stuff is unreal, but he's he he is allowing a lot of hard contact and some of that has just been in the zone too much, which if people remember, was a little bit of swallow box early like growing pains was he was in the zone so much. He was just getting hit too hard, and you got I kind of learned how to throw bad pitches and use your slider and use your breaking stuff out of the zone to get hitters off that fastball. So that's going to be a process for him. So he's not a finished product, but he's clearly one of the Braves seven best pitchers starting pitchers right now.

00:09:15
Speaker 4: And that's what this is. You need like six or seven guys.

00:09:18
Speaker 3: Right now with the way they're operating and doing extra rest and so it doesn't stun me that they went to Fuintes. It doesn't stun me they went to Richie, especially until some of these you know, more veteran guys get back. They're two of probably the seven or eight best arms in the ORG and right now you need him in Atlanta.

00:09:38
Speaker 2: And I think there's also the added benefit of you know, for years this Brave's team had a pretty set structure in place that was successful when it came to their pitching, you know, led by Rick Krantit's and I know that when it comes to the overall pitching philosophy or pitching set up for the organization, there's more that goes into it than the major league pitching coach. But there's a different voice there now up at the major league level, Hefner. And you've got two separate types of pitchers here with do here for Wintes as well as Jr. Richie. Do you hear for Wintes? Is power stuff, But the overall nuance, thought process adjustments when it comes to actually pitching, that's where he needs some work and more exposure in the major league's time with the major league staff can help that out.

00:10:20
Speaker 1: Jr.

00:10:20
Speaker 2: Richie probably doesn't have as electric of an arsenal as to hear for wintess, at least when it comes to a fastball. But he definitely does have good thought process. You can see when it comes to JR. Richie that he has the ability to really be able to think through things even if he has his best stuff. So I think the exposure at the major league level definitely could be a positive thing for both of the pitchers.

00:10:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, and so we'll see, We'll see what's We'll see what happened. Listen, it's it's going to be a process that's not going to be perfect.

00:10:51
Speaker 4: Jr.

00:10:52
Speaker 3: Richie is not gonna listen to the Nationals can hit, Like you haven't figured out that by now. The Nationals can hit. They got some dudes on that team. And so you know, on the road in a day game, I guess a really hot offense. It's not gonna stun me if Jared Richie doesn't have a like great day tomorrow. But that's not really the end game here.

00:11:13
Speaker 4: It's not what happens tomorrow.

00:11:15
Speaker 3: It's the fact that these two guys are now part of the rotation of pitchers the Braves are gonna use to try to get through the season, especially until they get Striders Swallow black waldrop these guys back. Maybe there's an acquisition at some point, but these guys are now firmly in the mix of guys that are gonna be used. I wouldn't be surprised if some of them got used out of the bullpen, you know, to help alleviate you know, different injuries or whatever that pops up. So that is the exciting part that these guys are are now part of the are now part.

00:11:45
Speaker 4: Of the mix.

00:11:47
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and if I'm correct, yes, so so Richie will start tomorrow. It actually uh was announced, so Richie will start tomorrow. The other part of that equation is Diddy or for Wintes did get to sit back down?

00:12:00
Speaker 1: This is according to Mark Bowen, that will be the movie.

00:12:03
Speaker 2: That doesn't necessarily mean that that for win Tis won't figure into the next part of the rotation. Steven, I'll go with your intelligence on the options and things like that over by O. But that is the move is that j R. Richie will be called up.

00:12:16
Speaker 1: Did he hear?

00:12:16
Speaker 2: For Wittis will be sitting down again. A lot of that is procedural, just to keep them owed as regular of a turnaround when it comes to their appearances as possible.

00:12:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I just saw it literally just came across the wire as we're recording that Dylan Dodd is actually going on the IL so Carlos Carrasco is also coming up with Jared Richie to give them more depth in the bullpen. I think I think I saw where it's an oblique strain for Dylan Dodd. So you know, the Braves need some moe. The bullpen is a not in good shape right now, with the Iglesias injury, Ronaldo only making it through one inning and having to use everybody, you know, obviously tonight they had to use a second starting pitcher and then pretty much all of their available relievers to get through the game. The bullpen is not in a good spot right now, so you know they're gonna have to kind of make it up as they go over the next few games.

00:13:11
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:13:12
Speaker 2: To tell you the connection between me and Stevendliho are going on two years of doing this podcast, I was going to ask as DoD chalottly as possible. I saw them eyes go up just a second ago. Would I imagined you saw the Dylan DoD news so but hey, let's let's get more into that. The future is now Jr. Richie coming up after good year for win tes pitch today. We've certainly discussed that at leaked why it makes stints and hopefully we'll see some good results if you want to see good results, though, I definitely want to promote the sponsor of this fix it Up segment, and that is fast and All. Steven tell folks a little bit more about Fastenal.

00:13:47
Speaker 3: Yep, fasten All Industrial Supplies Innovative Solutions. Want to learn more, visit fastenall dot com.

00:13:57
Speaker 2: So let's look a bit at the news that have occurred over the past couple of days. So Ronald Lopez OVI obviously yesterday pitched only one and he will get into his performance last night, but I think that it is important to kind of set the stage of where we stand, you know, with where this bullpen is right now. Ian Ian Hamilton was called up earlier this week, pitched last night, did not perform well. He was one of those kind of intriguing you know, maybe he could work out options for you know, having a bullpen roll as the season went along, he got one opportunity. He did not perform well. He was designated for assignment to make a root for Denier for win tests. Of course, Dylan Dodd was called up earlier this week when Ross Elliglesias went on the IL, and now Iglesias goes or now Dylan Dodd is going on the IL, so at the end of the day, you've got Ian. Over the past three or four days, Ian Hamilton was designated for assignment. Royceelligalasias and Dyla Dodd are both on the injured list. Up now are JR. Richie as well as Carlos Carrasco. The reason why Carlos Carrasco was probably called up instead of another traditional reliever is so you could have a guy who could eat idids and that's what the braves need right now. They need options that could eat indids. Carrasco is not nearly what he was obviously in the past, but at the very least he could He should at least be able to eat some intings and give this offense a chance. All that being said, with the fact that the bullpen has been as good as it is being its depth is getting tested right now. And when you also combine that with the starters running into this, you know every three or four days, we have a starter only going one or two innings, the bullpen having to be used more than the Braves might like, plus now the depth being tested. It's not a real good combination when you have a wooden performance from your starting pitchers, like we saw as Bernaldo last night.

00:15:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you're gonna have a rookie starting, then you need to have a long man available. And that's why Martin Perez was used tonight because we saw what happens. Sometimes you just have a hard time making it through four innings. You know, I thought Flint has settled down a little bit, but like he had already thrown so many pitches that they just needed.

00:16:11
Speaker 4: They needed a bulk guy.

00:16:12
Speaker 3: They needed somebody to pitch four innings. That was Perez tonight. Two nights ago it was Jose Suarez who pitched the bulk when when Lopez got knocked out. And then tomorrow is obviously gonna be Carrasco. Who's gonna be the if the rookie gets knocked out early, this is who we go to to fill some innings.

00:16:29
Speaker 4: So I understand the logic.

00:16:32
Speaker 3: I'm very curious if Dodd is actually hurt or if this is like a we need a fresh arm, and so somebody's gonna wear it on the fifteen dail We'll, you know, we'll learn more in.

00:16:43
Speaker 4: The coming days.

00:16:44
Speaker 3: But yeah, listen, it's it's crazy how fast it changes. Because we were coming in a Philly series. The bullpen had really not been used all that much, like Iglesias and Suarez and Lee. You know, there was a lot of blowouts in the week before, and so they weren't they weren't getting a lot of work, and we're like, all right, the bullpen's in great shape. The rotation was just mowing through people, and boom, you know, in the in the span of like five days, it all changes, right. I mean, you have a couple of bad performances on the pigstad, you got a couple of injuries on the in the bullpen, and now you're scrambling. And this is why you have depth, and this is why you have prospects. And so yeah, I mean, and we're gonna we are going to talk about the game from Tuesday night. I want to talk about Ronaldo in more depth. But yeah, I mean, this is what you have to do, especially if you're going to start a rookie pitcher. You better have some bulk, a bulk guy behind him.

00:17:36
Speaker 2: Well, let's focus on Ronaldo because again, you know it's I give these are just like, oh my gosh, this season is now derailed. All the momentum is taken away from our hot start. That's not the point that we're trying to get at. The point that we're trying to get at is, though, is that it is notable. It's somewhat significant that our pitching depth is being tested right at the same time that regression is starting to settle in for the starting staff. That is two not so ideal things that become even more impactful when they happen after the same time. But let's focus in a bit on Ronaldo Lopez, who has struggled his past two starts. The velocity yesterday, the velocity took a bit of time to ramp up in that first inning. But it's the control. His velocity number one is not where it was a few years ago. You made that excellent point earlier today. I'll let you hit on that. But if you could bind the fact that his velocity is not where it was a few years ago, that decreases the margin for error for it. And then you add the fact that he consistently is putting hitters either on base or in hitters counts.

00:18:40
Speaker 1: It's just not a good combination. You know.

00:18:42
Speaker 2: Again, two starts ago, I think that seven of the first eleven hitters that he faced were in a three wood or three ozer count. I think it was against the Marlins, I believe. But the point that I'm getting that is that right now Ronald Lopez is clearly not as quality as he was in twenty twenty four. I don't think anybody expected for him to be that, but he also is just you know, he's not even a bit of rotation guy right now when it comes to being on the mound. He's more of a back end of the rotation guy. I had seen some people say, well, do the brains really know what to do with him? I don't think we're to that measure, and we certainly aren't. The Braves can't afford to take him out of the rotation. But this control is a bit concerning. You can deal with a little bit of decreased velocity with the stuff that he's gone through, and he's also you know, in his thirties, that is expected, but the lack of control is what really stands out for Bernaldo Lopez. If he doesn't have that control, it's hard to see being effective to the level that the Braves need him to be.

00:19:38
Speaker 4: Yeah, So just to put some numbers on it.

00:19:39
Speaker 3: In twenty twenty four, when Ronaldo was one of the best pitchers in the National League and one of the best pictures on the Braves' staff, his average fastball set at ninety five point seven miles proper, So basically ninety six miles an hour was his average fastball, which means he was routinely getting up to ninety seven ninety eight, but his average center right around ninety six so far in twenty twenty five, and obviously last year he had he had the shoulder problem that cost him the whole year, So this is the first kind of big data sample that we have since twenty twenty four. So far in twenty twenty six, has average fastball fastball velocity is ninety three point nine miles an hour, so basically two full miles per hour down on his fastball. Slider is exactly the same way it went from eighty five and twenty twenty four to eighty three this year, so he's just less of a pitcher than he used to be, I mean, and those are his two main weapons. He is a fastball He is the most quintessential fastball slider guy and you will ever see. And so those pitches just don't have the same dynamic movement or velocity that they used to. On top of the fact that his command, I mean, he's he's running like a twelve thirteen percent walk grate right now, which is not good. I mean, that's for reference for people that don't maybe know that number context. That's Sean Nucleomb used to run like a twelve thirteen percent walk rate like it's that's that's not where you want. You want to be like seven eight percent, And he's about twelve thirteen percent right now, And so he's walking a lot of hitters. He does not have the stuff to miss the bats. You need to get out of those jams consistently. And this is what I was talking about a couple of weeks ago, when Ronaldo had an era in the ones but he had a fip in the fives, was like, you need to expect this to catch up with him, because you can't keep pitching the way he's pitching and it have it not catch up with you. And you know, unfortunately for Ronaldo, it's happened kind of all at once and his last two starts. On top of the fact that in his last start, the one he just had on Tuesday, came off of six days of rest, they gave him two extra days of rest before making that start. He pitched the Tuesday before against Miami and then didn't pitch again until Tuesday, so he had he went a full week between starts, and that's kind of the version we saw. And that's the worrying thing is that they're very clearly trying to give him more rest because they're not comfortable with what they're seeing. And I don't blame them for not being comfortable they're seeing the era still looks okay. All the peripherals are just a mess.

00:22:10
Speaker 4: And you know, I'm.

00:22:12
Speaker 3: Afraid, obviously he's already seen quite a bit of regression. I'm afraid there might be more coming. Quite honestly, we'll see if he can stabilize this. He's got to get the walks under control. He's got to figure out a way to miss more bats. I mean, with his stuff, it's just not it's not that easy. I mean, when you're throwing ninety six, it's a hell of a lot easier to miss bats and when you're throwing ninety three.

00:22:30
Speaker 4: So yeah, it's he's in a tough spot. The Braves are in a tough spot.

00:22:35
Speaker 3: I don't know, you know, I don't know if the shoulder listen shoulder injury. That's why shoulder injuries are so scary, because you just don't know. You don't know what the guy is gonna be like after. You don't know if he's fully healthy. Quite honestly, I don't know, And so you know, what's he gonna be over the next few weeks is a pretty fascinating question.

00:22:52
Speaker 4: What's gonna happen when Spencer Strider comes back? Do they throw Ronaldo on like.

00:22:56
Speaker 3: The fifteen dail and let him, you know, try to get better that way through just kind of shutting it down for a couple of weeks when Strider comes back, I don't know, we'll see, but yeah, it's the the under the hood stuff with Ronaldo has not looked great pretty much all season, and now some of the results based stuff is catching up with it, and it's it's a little worrisome.

00:23:16
Speaker 2: And the Braves, I think, you know, when we talk about. You know, what do you see it as difference in the approach with you know, the Walt Weiss lad Braves versus the Brian snicker led Braves. Of course, the you know, the the front office has always been, you know, very much attention to detail analytical things like that under Alex Atthopolis. But you noticed that, you know, the smaller yet probably significant aspects of bandaging the squad, Walt Weisson his staff seemed to pay a bit more attention to when it comes to Brian Sticker because we see so much of the shuffleing. You know, for instance, Chris Sale comes to mind. You know, we had had a conversation earlier in our Habit territory chat. I wasn't the most encouraged about seeing how much they were trying to give Chris Selle rest earlier in the season that I had hoped. You know, if they're already trying to manage his day of rest, you don't necessarily think that's a positive sign. But Steven, I'll let you hit on the points that they were discussing in that chat. It does make sense though, again, when you have the room for error, when you have the ability to take a little bit of breathing room and get that rest in place now. With how good of a start that the Braves are having. So while it may not be the most ideal that they're already having to bandage him, you know, more than five days of rest, when you look at the numbers, and also when you look at the position that the Braves are in, it does start to make a bit more sense. Give him the rest now and then let him get into that regular routine when you're likely going to need him more frequently as the season goes along.

00:24:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, they're just you know, they did this in twenty four with Sale. They're just very very cautious with him, and they're trying to get him to the postseason, which I get.

00:24:53
Speaker 4: You know, the.

00:24:55
Speaker 3: Downside of not pitching your ace typically is that you're giving start, you're taking aways to from your best pitcher, and you're giving them to your sixth, seventh, eighth best pitchers, which is typically not what you want to do for obvious reasons. One thing I'll say for the Braves is up until like this week, the rotation had been so good, you know, one through six basically that they weren't really seeing a drop off from their number one starter to like their number five starter, and so they really weren't paying the penalty for sitting or for giving him extra rest the way you would normally expect him to. Now, of course, as the rotation has backed up a little bit and now some guys are hurt, you know, they're gonna have to be more careful. They've already decided to give Sale a couple extra days and let him pitch in the Philly series. He's actually, like on regular rest, he would pitch tomorrow, the last game against Nationals. I don't think he's pitching until like Sunday against the Phillies. So they're giving him, you know, basically a full week. So you know, when everybody's going well, that's you can get away with that. You know, if it starts to back up a little bit and guys start pitching maybe more to their history, you gotta be careful because then you do start giving away wins. And that's what frustra maybe frustrated me in twenty four was they did that a lot. They gave away probably three or four wins doing that, like Bryce Elder making starts instead of Chris Sale. And then the Braves were in a dogfight to make the playoffs and had to do this crazy like Game one sixty three doubleheader, and had they just won a couple more games in the regular season, they wouldn't have had to do that. So, you know, you do have to be careful doing it. And I get the logic. I mean, I certainly get trying to get Chrysale to the postseason healthy, and you could do it as long as the rest of the rotation is doing their job. It's when the other guys start pitching maybe a little lower level, lower quality, that you can get into some trouble. And so I'm very curious how they're going to manage that as well.

00:26:52
Speaker 2: With all this being said, one other thing that we need to put a DODO on that did happen last night. It was a real big positive Spitzer Strider made a start in would that Spitzer Strider looked electric like he looked He looked the closest to pre injury Spitzer Strider that I've seen, and you could see, you know, he's got that little swagger with a little leg rotation thing, but he's getting strikeouts. That was back last night. The upper nineties heat was back last night. The the the movement on his fastball was back last night. He looked that the the underlying numbers looked more positive on him last night than they have in a while. So if there was any time for not only you to get Strider back, but hopefully closer to his pre you know, arm injury self than any time we saw last year now would be the tide. No real word on what that might be. I think he may make one more start and then likely we'll joined the Braves, maybe towards the end of this upcoming homestead or on their next road trip. I would like to see basically at least when we'll rehab start. But it's good to see that, Olio, are they potentially get him back soon, but also that they're hopefully going to get you know, a very good version of a normal version of Spitzer Strider back, which will absolutely do wonders for the rotation. So, Steven, don't we talk about Switzer Strider being able to see him in Gwdett being able to see the braves at home. You what a year ago we're able to see the braves on the road in Washington. You've got to be able to know of a place where you can go and be able to see them. And Stephen, does any place in your mind come to mind when it comes to being able to see the Braves any and every time that you want.

00:28:25
Speaker 1: Yep.

00:28:26
Speaker 3: So we're gonna go through our newest sponsor of the show, which is seat Geek.

00:28:34
Speaker 2: So the summer is coming and I'm always trying to find the best deal on Braves tickets. And there's a big reason why I want to give a big shout out to our sponsor today's podcast, and that's seat Geek. Whatever thirty five me and download. Seat Geek is the number one rated tickety depp. There are more than seventy thousand events listen to see Geeks, including concerts, sports, festivals, and more. Baseball's rocky right now, the NBA and DHL playoffs run the way, the NFL Draft is near, and you can get World Cup tickets on seat Geek. Seak Geek is also molb's efficient market ticket marketplace, which mean your tickets are full of guaranteed and instantly fulfilled in your account. I love using SeatGeek for many reasons, but one of the reasons is that seat yeek always has your back. Each ticket is ready on a scale of one to ten so that you know you're getting a good deal. Look for the green dots. Green means good, red means bad. Plus every ticket is backed by their buyer guarantee Buyer guaranteed. Of course, we have a code for you guys. You can use code territory ten. That's territory ten for ten percent off your next set of tickets at seat yeek. Ten percent off any tickets with the promo code territory ten. Make sure you click the leak in the description to download the app and have the code automatically added to your account so that you can use it later. Thanks to seat geek for sponsoring today's episode. The next time you want to see the Braves, make sure you check out seat geek. How many you go do that? Later this year, Steven, You know, Steven, we still need to come up with the play in to where we can actually meet at games. We can do the four Bad Hebitary Toy podcast at a Braves game. That's never gonna happen, but it could happen.

00:30:09
Speaker 3: It we do, We do, you need to, We do need to like arrange like we all go down to a game at some point.

00:30:14
Speaker 2: We should we should and if we do that again, seat get is the way to go. But Okay, Tuesday night's game, was it the most positive outcome the past couple of days?

00:30:23
Speaker 1: Pitchy news wise? Was it the most positive outcome?

00:30:26
Speaker 2: But you know what is awesome about this Braves team right now is that even when you come off a loss and when you come off negative news, this offense is so damn good that the impact of it admitable because they're gonna turn right around and win a game. And that's exactly what they were able to do odd Wednesday night as we're recording this podcast. Now, it did start off that great, did you hear?

00:30:47
Speaker 1: For win? Tess had a pretty rough first.

00:30:50
Speaker 2: Inning, but you could clearly see that the electric stuff was there. It was just more of the setup with him and Jodah Hyde that didn't nearly les, that did not necessarily lead to the best results.

00:31:04
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:31:05
Speaker 3: So we'll get to the offense in the minute, because the offense won the game clearly. I want to talk about Fuintes first. So the stuff is unbelievably good, Like he had seven strikeouts in three innings. You don't do that against major league hitters unless you have great stuff. But you know, the pitch selection, how many fastballs he's throwing, where he's throwing. That's just got to get better, Like he's just got to get a better mix. I don't know if he doesn't trust the slider. You know, I saw a lot of people crash down on jonah him for calling a lot of fastballs. Listen, if you actually watched that first inning, he tried to throw like five or six sliders and missed on all, Like the fastball was the only thing you could throw over the plate. So you know, I get people getting mad at jonah Heim, but like, you know, you gotta kind of the guy that was ninety eight so and then listen, in that first inning, there was a couple of infield hits, like he very easily could have gotten out of that inning earlier without much damage. But there are also some really hard hit balls.

00:32:06
Speaker 4: I mean that Homer was rocked. That threw around Homer.

00:32:08
Speaker 3: A couple of the singles later were hit, you know, one hundred and seven hundred and nine miles an hour. So like it's not like he was given up nothing but cheap hits. And some of that is because he lives in the middle of the plate. Now, when you throw ninety eight ninety nine, you can can get away with that, you know, to some degree.

00:32:23
Speaker 4: But he's gotta you know.

00:32:25
Speaker 3: And again this is what Swallenbach went through. He's got to stay out of.

00:32:28
Speaker 4: The middle of the plate.

00:32:29
Speaker 3: And you know, a lot of young guys are so afraid of walking people, which I get that they you know, sometimes sometimes young pitchers are so afraid of major league hitters they're afraid to throw over the plate and they end up walking everybody. Flints is kind of the opposite, like he is like, just hit my face. If you can hit my fastball, then credit to you. And the problem is at this level, a lot of dudes can hit that fastball, even though it's a really good fastball. But I mean, if you throw it right down the middle, guys can still hit it. So you just got to use your slider to get people off the fastball. You got to show people that you can move the fastball around the zone inside, outside, up, down, Just stuff that you learn that. He probably doesn't have to do a triple A because nobody can hit his fastball anyways. At triple A up here, you got to use the fastball. You know, you gotta believe be a little more creative with it. So it wasn't a great start. I did think he settled down and gave the Braves three very valuable innings. Like if that if he had to come out in the first inning, that's a disaster. He settled down, the offense came back in the second inning, immediately tied the game. We're gonna talk about Michael Harrison a minute. Michael Harris is just on fire. A couple of homers from Michael Harris tonight. The offense took off and the bullpen guys did the rest.

00:33:43
Speaker 4: So but yeah, Flinn says he's gonna go down.

00:33:46
Speaker 3: He's going back to triple A for Jered Richie My, you know, I would just say he just needs to work on the pitch mix, being able to land the slider in the zone, being able to land the fastball kind of inside outside the zone, up down, just get people off that middle middle fastball because he throws a lot of middle middle fastballs.

00:34:08
Speaker 2: I agreed, And that's the thing. You know again, the seven strikeouts in three in needs, I'm gonna take that more.

00:34:14
Speaker 4: That's very that's very good. That's incredibly good.

00:34:18
Speaker 2: Like I'm even gonna throw it out there, like, if we want to talk about as we get later in the season, what can the brains do to get creative to ensure that they have the best talent on their pitching staff going into the home stretching into the playoffs. I would have seen Diddy orf wints out of the bullpit. Now that's a converent whole conversation with another time the rotation.

00:34:35
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's that's.

00:34:36
Speaker 1: That he legitimately is got that good of stuff.

00:34:41
Speaker 2: But again, you can talk about all the negative stuff that we can do it, but it's just so nice to have this offense back to a racing minimizing with that negative stuff occurs. And I'm gonna let you focus in on Michael Harris, but I want to broadened a bit.

00:34:54
Speaker 1: Steven.

00:34:55
Speaker 2: You have have have have mentioned this more than anybody I know. How the Braves twelve eighteen months ago, even basically before Drake Baldwood arrived, they were two right handed heavy in their lineup. They needed more left handed presence. Well, now do we not only have a left handed presence. We have one of the best collections of left handed hitters in baseball. If you look at every Braves played appearance by a left handed hitter this year. As a group collectively, coming into the night's game, they had a one to thirty three WRC plus overall and they were top five against left handers and top five against right handers. It is a very balanced, very productive group. Talked on Monday night about how this Brave's team. One aspect of them that is so awesome to see this offense can win games in multiple ways. Small balls, hitting with runners, small ball hitting runers, was scoring position power. Tonight it was the power and it was all from left handed hitters Baldwin Olsen as well as Michael Harris two times. But the big key is that they're due to he gets everybody and if this left handed trio could keep that up for the rest of the season, that not only is a way for you to win frequently despite some concerning things happening, that's how he went in the playoffs. That is a really, really awesome aspect of this team to see. But nothing pleases me bored then seeing the consistent hard contact that Michael Harris is having and earlier this year he was unlucky. Now all of what's coming to him because he is absolutely destroyed the baseball and it's wonderful to see.

00:36:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, and listen that those numbers you just talked about, that includes Dom Smith obviously, who's had a monster.

00:36:41
Speaker 1: Dob Smith to forgive me Dob Smith as well.

00:36:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, and we're still kind of waiting on you Stimsky to get going. I do think Sim's gonna have I think he's gonna make an impact. I know he hasn't been great so far, but it's still you know, it's still very early, like we're we we get we get lost in the sauce sometimes because we cover this team every day. I mean, once while you got a zoom out and realize it's April twenty second, Like we're not even a sixth of the way through the season yet. So you know, for people freaking about about yeah, I think you know, we got to settle down a little bit. But yeah, the left handed group has been incredible and especially you know, waiting on Acunyan Riley to get going, like they've been needed to be great. Like Tom Smith has just been kind of a godsend in that way. But yeah, I want to spend a minute on Michael Harris. Listen, you know, on this show I've I've gone on a limb for Mike and thinking that he was gonna be an MVP candidate last year, and that burned me as bad as bad as any take I've ever had, And you guys have reminded me of that several times, and so coming into this year, I was very hesitant to do it again. But all of the points still remain the same. There is other than maybe Akunya, there is not a more physically talented person on the roster than Michael Harris. The dude can run like the wind. He's an elite center fielder, which is an elite defensive position. He can hit the ball four.

00:38:02
Speaker 4: Hundred and eighty feet.

00:38:04
Speaker 3: He can hit the ball one hundred and fifteen miles an hour. Like if you're I've said this before, if you're gonna build a guy in the lab to be an elite baseball player like Michael Harris is kind of one of the archaetypes that you build. He's got such a sweet left handed swing. His only issue has been he has a hard time deciding what pitches to swing at it what pitches to not and unfortunately he just kind of swings at everything and up until this year that has really bit him in the butt. And listen, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna pretend like he's magically fixed that. It's still the exact same problem. But what Mike has done this year is just destroyed it destroyed the ball when pitchers throw it in the zone. And that's kind of if you're gonna swing at everything, it's a very dangerous way to live. It's a very inconsistent way to live. But the only way to do it is when you get a pitch in the strike zone, you have to hit it. You have and you got to do maximum damage. And we saw that, you know, for about a month last year. But middle of July, middle August of last year, that's what happened. He was still swinging everything, but anytime he got something in the zone, he hit it over the fence. Well that's what we're seeing right now, and we've really seen it. I mean, he didn't get the results early, but we've really seen it all year where he's really doing maximum damage.

00:39:20
Speaker 4: He's hitting the.

00:39:21
Speaker 3: Ball crazy hard right now, hitting the ball four hundred and forty feet. Had two home runs tonight that won the left center was beautiful. So yeah, he's been, He's been on Unreal and you know again you're still waiting on Acunyan Riley. But these these performances by Harris, Early, Ozzy Early. We didn't even mention Ozzy in the left handed talk because he's a switch hitter, but even left handed Ozzie has made it appearance this year, Dom Smith, Richo Dbaun like all these guys. You know, these guys are going to help bridge the gap to win a Kunyan Riley really get going, and even if they drop off, you know again you've already banked these So it's been really fun to see.

00:40:07
Speaker 1: As far as a profile change.

00:40:08
Speaker 2: When it comes to Michael Harris, what kind of stands out is is that he's still hit the ball into the ground fifty three percent rowl ball rate. That was compared to forty nine percent last year. But what stands out compared to last year is how hard he's hitting the ball and also pulling the ball. Last year a thirty two percent hard hit rate, this year forty percent. He's pulling the ball down nearly half the time it's going.

00:40:31
Speaker 1: To either right.

00:40:33
Speaker 2: There's forty three percent of his balls put in play are going to the pull side. Forty eight percent or going to centerfield only eight percent, or going to the opposite field. So what that tells me is that he's more confident at give me that bat through the zone quickly, and that bat speed is doing really well as well. So there's more competent, more decisive swings that he's putting on the ball. If he could ever get that ground ball rate around forty five percent, that means that there's rude to improve when it comes to his overall production. So it's really awesome to see what other final but not minor point that I want to really put a spotlight on it Braves veterans. It surprises people, I think when they possibly hear that the Braves have the oldest team by average age in Major League Baseball. Well, it's worked out well for him so far. A trio of thirty five year olds, Robert Swarez, Tyler Kinley, Martin Perez. They have been absolute god sins for this pitching staff so far. Tyler Kintley going right into that ah y roll tonight, Robert Swarez going into the night th inty row, and Martin Perez doing what he's done in multiple roles this year. They've been absolutely outstanding. I was wrong for calling out Martin Perez a few days ago on social media. I'll eat that one glad. I could eat it for positive reasons. I know that he struggled a bit tonight, but overall, those veterans have stepped up in big roles, even when their number has been called on a bit more than somebody have anticipated.

00:41:52
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's been it's been unreal, and I'm.

00:41:59
Speaker 3: I'm blown away how good I'm blown away by how good Tyler Kinley has been since he came over. I mean, he's been unreal, and you know, I think it's real. I'm not gonna say one hundred percent that it's real. I think it's real. But you know, as soon as the Glaciers went down, I thought, Okay, they still have Sworez, they still have Lee, they still have Kenley.

00:42:27
Speaker 4: They're fine, Like they're fine. Like it's not great.

00:42:29
Speaker 3: It's not great news that Aglacias went down, but you know, it was reported that it's pretty minor, and they think he's gonna be.

00:42:35
Speaker 4: Back pretty soon.

00:42:36
Speaker 3: But the back of the back into the bullpen is still really good. Dylan Lee has been unbelievable tonight. They kind of switched it up. Or Lee pitched the seventh, Kenley pitched the eighth. So you know, it's been it's been unbelievably good. And like you said, Martin Perez has just been a godsend. I mean, well, I don't I don't even know what his number. I know he gave up to solo homer tonight, but still he he settled the you know, it looked like it was gonna be a ten to nine game in the second inning tonight, and he kind of settled everything down. Washington only got two more solo homers the rest of the night. The Braves offense covered it up.

00:43:10
Speaker 4: So yeah, it was.

00:43:13
Speaker 3: Really good job by Martine p Pres might have been like the unsung hero tonight, quite honestly. And obviously the Breis are gonna have to make a pitching for tomorrow is gonna be j R.

00:43:22
Speaker 1: Richie.

00:43:22
Speaker 3: But yeah, really impressed. And like you said, it is an older team, Like people are surprised because it seemed like the Braves were kind of the young team for years. They are the oldest team in baseball and these older guys have been doing it, so it's good to see.

00:43:36
Speaker 2: Also, when you give a shout out to to Matt Chritzburg from social media to a friend of the show for years, has been a great source of Braves information. He pulled this nugget that was awesome to see. In eighteen appearances on the road for the Braves, Tyler Kiley has given up zero herb ruds. Great find by Matt, and that just goes to show how in the biggest moments, Tyler Kiley is doing a great job. It's that type of production that allows for you you to maybe not necessarily have planned for him to emerge as an arm you can rely on in the home stretch in the playoffs. But Tyler Kinley certainly seems to be yet another bullpit option that the Braves could you know, utilize when it matters most later on this season. But hey, we're gonna get out of here. Plenty of things to talk about on the positive side, some concerns, but you're gonna have that through one hundred and sixty two game season. For Steven Tolber, you can find him at be Underscore, Outliers on Twitter, slash cks myself, Sean Coleman at stats sac Habit Territory across all forms of social media, are the Foul Territory family of podcasts. Until next time, go braves, we'll talk to you get soon here on the Habit Territory podcast