Starting the Second Half With Success Against St. Louis

00:00:23
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Hammer Territory Podcast. My name is Sean Coleman. Hope, wherever you are and wherever you were listening, you have had a great week of an All Star break. But hey, the All Star festivities are done. It was fun to see it the first of the week. Fun to see the draft happen as well. But I'm sure for myself as well as my podcast partner Stephen Tolbert, like many of you, were ready for Braves baseball once again and Stephn Hay twenty four hours away in a pretty big series coming up to get this weekend against St. Louis. But before we get into that, how are you doing, sir, Hope, all is well?

00:00:54
Speaker 2: What's up, Sean?

00:00:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, buddy, it's you know, the All Star break is always you know, it's good for the player, it's it is a grind, you know, even though we call it the first half, in the second half, it's not really that the players end up playing about ninety ninety five games before the break, and so you know, everybody typically needs it. Pretty bad for the fans it you know, it going four days without any sort of meaningful baseball is tough, especially for just like you and me, who follow this stuff on a on a minute by minute basis. But yeah, I mean, you know, it's good to get rest. It's good for all the pitchers, of course, you know, it's good for some of the hitters to maybe reset. Some guys certainly didn't have the first half of the year that they wanted, so you know, maybe we come out in the second half and Matt Olson looks more like Matt Olsen, and Ozzie looks more like Ozzy, and.

00:01:46
Speaker 2: And the offense in general looks more like the offense.

00:01:49
Speaker 3: But but yeah, it's always good to do these we men, And yeah, we got a lot to get to tonight.

00:01:54
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And of course the reason why we have a lot to get to is because we've seen a lot of curb this week. Of course, we have big series this weekend, and hey, we've also covered a lot when it comes to the trade deadline, which you know itself is you know, less than two weeks away. Myself, Scott and Scott Holman and Steven we really broke down, you know, what made sense for the Braves pursuit of you know, additional assets for their outfield, and then Brad and Scott, you know, broke down some some additional thoughts about the roster as a whole. We also have you know, Chris L's interview with foul Territory, who you know obviously Hammer Territory part of the Foul Territory family of podcasts from the All Star Game. So plenty of content out there for you to enjoy when it comes to the Braves. But of course, Stephen, as I mentioned, the other big thing from earlier this week was the twenty twenty four MLB Draft, and I think that the Braves you know, really stood out, you know, as being you know, an intriguing, you know team, especially with you know what many considered to be one of the big seals of the first round, Cam Kmanittti still waiting for him to be signed, which was expected, but we have signed eight of our top ten picks, were awaiting Camanetti as well as you know, our top position player Nick Montgomery to sign Catcher himself. But the big thing that stands out is that the Brazier are wasting very little time getting this draft class sign a draft class again that's heavily invested in pitching, but it seems as if even though Kammanitti is not signed, himself. The expectation is either the full class or you know, nineteen to twenty of these players are going to sign. It looks like that the Braves are on good track to get their entire class in the Atlanta organization.

00:03:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, they've done this the last couple of years of going super quick to get all of their at least their top ten signed. And for people that don't know a lot about the Major League Draft, your bonus pool, like the amount of money you can spend on your bonus pool is is designated to your first ten picks. So getting your top ten guys signed is really kind of the critical part. And you know, looks like the Brads have got eight out of ten guys signed. They're still waiting on Kmanitty, They're still waiting on Montgomery, the catcher from California.

00:03:57
Speaker 2: So yeah, two guys left.

00:04:00
Speaker 3: You know, going off of a Battery Powers tracker and Garrett and the guys over at Battery Power just did an incredible job on the draft. First of all, just hat tip to them. But you know, they have this tracker that's always just an invaluable tool for keeping track of all this stuff. And according to the tracker, you know, the Braid. Yeah, the Braves have about they have about four and a half million, like four point seven million left to sign these these last two guys in their top ten. And if you look at the slot value for Kammanity, it's about three point five million, and you look at the slot value for Montgomery, it's about four hundred thousand. So you know, just on slot value, they have enough money to sign both these guys. The caveat, of course, is that both Kammanity and Montgomery are supposed to be overslot guys. They're supposed to be guys that actually are going to get more than their slot values. So and the Braves new listen, all this stuff is pre arranged at this point, so there's no surprises when it comes to this stuff. But yeah, so the Braves are, you know, they have money to go overslot on both guys and still get them, which.

00:04:59
Speaker 2: Was the plan all along.

00:05:00
Speaker 3: So we're just kind of waiting on those last two guys and then we'll have the top ten sign and again that's the that's the critical part of any draft class.

00:05:09
Speaker 1: And of course the Braves having too, I believe August first to get these players signed. But again it looks like, you know, typically within three to five days over the past couple of years they've had these players sign and we've been good to go. So certainly something to watch. But obviously, you know, many of those players are still at least a year or so away, in Camanitti's case, maybe multiple years away from really making an impact on Atlanta. But we are again now, you know, within twenty four hours of Braves Baseball, the second half of their season really getting going, and it's going to be a highly interesting, you know, start to the second half. Stephen with you know plenty of the struggles that we've seen, but you know, one thing that I think that it's important to spotlight is that the Braves ended the first half of the season on a positive note. They faced the Phillies, the Diamondbacks, and the Padres over ten games, all teams that right now are relevant to the Braves fight for NL playoff position. They went six and four over those games, and eight of those ten games, steven they scored five plus runs. Now the other two they got shut out, so they still definitely had some disappointing performances, but the offense as a whole was productive. How confident are you that you know, from what you saw over those stinging games, that perhaps this offense can get a bit more consistency going and support what turned out to be the best pitching staff of baseball in the first half of the season. How confident are you that offense can maintain, you know, a higher level of success going in the second half.

00:06:30
Speaker 3: You know, it's interesting if you if you said, all right, Stephen, you know handicapped the second half, what's gonna happen? And of course, the Braves had the best pitching staff in baseball in the first half and a middle of the road sometimes even worse than that offense. If you ask me, what's gonna happen in the second half, I imagine both of those things are going to regress to the mean a little bit. I imagine the Braves pitching staff won't be the best pitching staff in baseball at the end of the year, just without Strider. You know, some of the guys, guys you know, are probably going to hit a little bit of a wall at some point. Ronaldo, you know, being a reliever in Sale with the injuries and you know, swallowing back, you wouldn't be surprised at all if he ran into some bumps along the way. So I could see the pitching staff regressing a little bit, but I can also see the offense putting up a much better effort in the second half than the first half.

00:07:22
Speaker 2: So still a very good team.

00:07:25
Speaker 3: I imagine when we get to the end of the year, instead of being so one sided where the pitching is really dominated the production, I imagine when we get to the end of the year, the pitching will have come back to earth a little bit and the offense will have carried a little bit more of the load. I think that's probably the safest bet for what's going to happen the second half. But listen, you know, incrementally the offense is getting better, like it's still got moments of frustration. You know, they got shut out in two of their last four games, I think against Arizona and San Diego. But you know, like you said, in the last ten, they scored five at least five runs and eight of them. So you know that's encouraging like that. You have to, you know, with this offense this year, you got to have to take the positive signs wherever you can, and and so you know, hopefully they can keep it going. You know, Saint Louis is not a bad team by any stretch, but they're not a great team and they're certainly not a great pitching staff. So coming out of the break at home, you know against you know, Sunny Grays is obviously very good, but after that it's guys who are definitely gettable. You know, you would hope the offense really kind of picks it up and starts the second half, you know, on the right foot, and hopefully can carry that production all the way through the rest of the second half.

00:08:37
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and you know, we talk about where does this offense really need to get going, and you've mentioned it before, the right handed pitching, and what will help out with that is that we just need more consistency from our left tended hitters. You know, Jared Kellnick for that six week period, I believe really from the start of June through you know, towards the first of July, he was excellent. But you know, over that ten game stretch where we talked about the offense doing better, Kelnick act actually struggled. Matt Olsen has been in one of his you know, unfortunate cold streaks over the past six weeks, as well Eddie Rosario, He's had some hard hit balls, hasn't really you know, produced all that great and you're gonna get eventually Michael Harris the second back. But this lineup needs balance, and this lineup needs to do better against right handed pitching. To me, that starts with better production and consistency from the left handed bats. Steven. For me, if I were to pinpoint one thing where you're like, Okay, what is really going to make this he second half successful for the Braves as a whole, it's seeing their left handed bats and concluding if they get some infusion of talent at the trade deadline, but often to production from the left handed bats I think is going to be critical to really having a good second half of the season.

00:09:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's Matt Olson at the top of the list. Is Matt Olson, Like that's the number one name, you know, if you had ranked all the Braves hitters coming into the year, you know, best to worst, acun you would obviously be one. But I think most people too would have put Matt Olsen either Riley or Olson one or two. And so like without a kuna, the Braves need medalson to be a really good hitter. You know, they don't necessarily need like MVP level Matdalson, which is what he was last year and setting franchise records and homers, but they need really good medals and like they can't have this Maddalson, who you know, had a sub one hundred WRC plus for the first half and had these just unbelievable cult streets where he was just useless. You know, they need, they need the guy that you know carried the lineup for a big chunk of the year last year, and you know they need they need much better from him. Like that's number one, not even close in terms of getting more consistency of the offense. The first name on the list is Maddalson, and then you know, I would say a pretty big gap. And then I think number two is left handed Ozzie. Quite honestly, you know, Ozzie bats in that two hole every game, right handed or left handed, and that's you know, most people consider the two hole the most important position in any lineup, and left handed Ozzie has just been very bad this year. Like he's got like a I think he's got like an eighty five w r C plus for for the year from the left side, which is obviously not good at all, and they need more from him, and he's a big part of balancing the lineup, and so yeah, he's probably number two.

00:11:14
Speaker 2: Kelnick.

00:11:14
Speaker 3: You know, I think kel Nick. I think kel Nick on the whole gave you about what you can expect. A little inconsistent, of course, a little a little streaky, but you know, on the whole, if you just look at his numbers, I think you can't really be too mad about that. Getting Michael Harris back, of course, is gonna matter. You know, Eddie Risori was, you know, he's Eddie resort at this point. I wouldn't expect a lot. I think he might. He might not even have a job here pretty soon if Alex has his way on the trademarket. But yeah, Matt Olsen, left handed, Ozzie and getting Michael Harris back are kind of the three big ones for what you're talking about about getting getting more balance, and Matt Olson is at the top of that list. And it's not even close to him. You know, there's no one there's no one else close he He is the most important bat in the lineup in that regard.

00:12:04
Speaker 1: And we talk about the offense, you know, having you know, over the past or the last ten games in the first half, how they looked better. It's just again, it goes to show just how much more this offense could do if they simply have their best bats playing at an expected level. You know, you hope to see that. You mainly hope to see that in the playoffs, but hope to get a little bit of glimpse of that at some point in time too. But we mentioned this Cardinals series, and as of right now, it's a pretty notable series. I said, you know, and others have said, you know, over the past couple of weeks, this stretch Philly's Diamondbacks padres Cardinals to start the second half of the season could be the most important stretch for the Braves in terms of solidifying their playoff positioning. But what stands out before we get into this to the actual you know, matchup with the Cardinals, Steven, is the pitching matchups that we're going to see Spencer Swellingboch for the Braves against Sunny Gray for the Cardinals. Then you're going to see Charlie Morton versus I believe it was Kyle Gibson. And then you're going to see Max Freed versus Miles michlss. I I gotten the Cardinals pitchers mixed up. But of notable omission in this series is Chris Sale as well as ringaud A Lopez. You would think that, you know, in an important series, the Braves may pitch those guys, but it seems that the Braves, especially for those two Seale and Lopez, they are prioritizing giving them extra risks to allow for them to limit their innings. Overall, I personally, and I'll give reasons heer in a minute, I personally would have at least pitched Sale, but it seems the Braves are continuing what they did in the first half, really emphasizing limiting the innings of Lopez and Sale, and this is at least a logical way of doing it, giving them a bigger break for the All Star break.

00:13:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, listen, I've talked about it an you know, you and I have talked about it probably three or four times at this point. But they're like, if it's not clear to everybody by now, it should be. It should be even you know, especially with this setup they're using. Coming out of the second half. The number one priority for the Braves, and they have made it abundantly clear, not just via what they said, but more more important importantly what they've done. Their number one priority is giving their starting pitching as much rest as possible, like that hit. They have been crystal clear about that from day one, going to six man rotations at times, skipping starts, you know, maneuvering the roster around to give guys extra day's rest. You know what they did with Sale at the end of the first half, limit you know, limited to five innings in that last game. Didn't want him to pitch in the All Star Game, and now he's not pitching, you know, the first series out of the All Star Game. Like, it's very very clear their number one goal is to get these guys to October healthy, and their number one path to doing that is to give them as much rest as possible. And you know, again I've talked about this, but this goes back to kind of the changing ideology.

00:14:45
Speaker 2: Of the of how the Braves operate the regular season.

00:14:47
Speaker 3: You know, with expanded playoffs, with a new format, it's not it's not clear that you have a ton of advantage advantages once the playoffs start. The big thing is just getting in and regardless of where your seating is or where you know, where you are in the pecking quorter, just getting in with your pitchers healthy is the most important thing by far, and that's how they're operating. And you know they're not going to give there. You know, they're not going to push Saale, they're not going to push Lopez. They're going to give them as much rest. And if that means on that particular day maybe they don't have the.

00:15:20
Speaker 2: Very best chance of winning that game, then they'll live with it.

00:15:24
Speaker 3: But that's how they've operated all year and it's no surprise to see him keep doing it.

00:15:30
Speaker 1: Absolutely and again, you know, you know, I can preach all day long, come important this series is. I do think that it's an important series, especially if the Braves you don't want to keep you know that that home element of wild card weekend. But as you mentioned, the number one goal right now is taking the absolute strength of this team and making it as fresh and healthy as possible going into the playoffs, and that of course is the starting rotation. But the Cardinals, you know, I think that the Braves on paper, even with the injuries the Braves have experienced I think they're the better team, but it's hard to deny that the Cardinals over the past two months have been playing better. We saw it. We witnessed that, you know, a few weeks ago when we played in Saint Louis. But what really has stood out steven. You know, the Cardinals were fifteen and twenty four through May eleventh. They they're thirty five and twenty two, arguably the best team in baseball since May twelfth. But what really has stood out as being the source of their success is they were twenty third and twenty fourth in production against right hand pitching and in starting pitching era before May eleventh. Since May twelfth, they're third in the majors in terms of offensive production versus right handed pitching and sixth in the majors in starting pitching era. So they're getting it done in their starting rotation, they're getting it done against right handed pitching. That's a success for winning. And two of the big reasons why are both Brandon Donovan and someone who we saw really really well a lot of Alec Burlison, the latest Cardinal. Who where did they find this guy who just comes out of nowhere being productive but really stopping Donovan and Burlison and figuring out how to get some early runs I think is gonna be the key in this series for the Braves.

00:17:05
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:17:05
Speaker 3: Well, one thing the Cardinals have always done that I I am a fan of that I wish the Braves would actually do more, is is the Cardinals always have really good balance in their lineup, Like it seems like they always have. You know, if you've got a righty on the mound, they've always got three or four or five lefties in the lineup. If you've got a left on the mound, they've got a ton of righties. Obviously, having you know, Goldsmith and Ernando anchor the lineup from the right side helps with that. But you know, they just have really good balance, and like you said, Alec Perlson, Brendan Donovan, Nolan Gorman, you know, a newt bar like they have just like these nobody great like these just really solid hitters that you know, make it, you know, give you decent at bats every time, make the picture work like it's it's it's not a it's not a lineup full of like all stars, but it's just a lineup full of, like, you know, really solid hitters and it's usually pretty balance where they're going to have the platoon vantage most of the time. It feels like and I like that. I will again, I've talked again about how the Braves I feel like are a little too right handed at times and need a little bit more balance. But yeah, listen, the Cardinals are tough. They've been one of the best teams in baseball. So it's may first. They got off to a slow start, but they've really come on. And again a lot of it's been their offense. You know, like you said, Brotherson's been on fire lately, Donovan's been really good, new bar has been good. So yeah, it's not gonna be easy. And you know, at least we get him at home, so that's gonna help. But like you said, the Braves don't have you know, the Braves don't have Chris Sale going in this series, and the Cardinals on paper at least have their three best going, although you know, they don't have a great rotation to begin with, so still some guys who are gettable. But yeah, it's a tough team and it's a good team, and you know, the playoffs started today, they'd be in And I like their team and.

00:18:49
Speaker 2: They are tough. You know, it is a tough series to win.

00:18:52
Speaker 3: You know, if you took two out of three, you'd be very happy to get out of here with a series win.

00:18:58
Speaker 1: And I think that's something that that you point out is that, you know, the Braves will have the Cardinals and then the Reds at home, and they'll go on the road against the Mets and the Brewers before the trade deadline. You know, that's a pretty decent stretch. You know, you've got three out of four teams right there who are clearly in, you know, the playoff hunt. But overall, if you depending on what you know outlet you look at now, I think the Braves actually have a bottom five schedule, one of the five easiest schedules for the remainder of the season in baseball. And so you've been waiting for this hot streak to get going. And I really think that if the Braves can get and we kind of talked about it a couple you know, at the beginning of June or towards the middle of June, when we faced off against the Rays, the Braves and Rays were kind of going in the same way, and the Braves offense just exploded, you know, when we saw that it really need to happen. A good offensive series this week and for the Braves could lead to them winning this series. Steven And if they can, if they can get a winning record through this next stretch of games going into August, I think they can get that hot streak going. Does that lead to them challenge to Phillies, I don't know, but at the very least it can get that stretch going. I think that it starts with the offense, and especially if we can get those early runs against pitching. So I'm pretty confident we're going to get the job done this weekend, especially if, like you said, Matt Alison and our big bats can get going.

00:20:16
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:20:16
Speaker 3: I mean, listen, I've seen this team, you know, beat the very best teams at betically, Like you know, the Braves are what are they they're four and six or four and four and two, you know, Yeah, they've won four of six against Philadelphia, so four and two against Philadelphia, they took two or three from the Yankees, like they've played really good baseball against you know, some of the best teams in the league. But I've also seen them lose six of eight games to Washington and you know, lose a series to Pittsburgh and you know, stuff like that.

00:20:49
Speaker 2: So this team has the ability to beat anybody.

00:20:54
Speaker 3: And it has the ability to lose to anybody right now because the offense, you know, has just been inconsistent. And you can have one game where they just come out and look like twenty twenty three Braves and another game where they come out and look like the you know, twenty sixteen Braves. So you know that when you're that inconsistent on offense, there's just a huge range of variants in terms of your outcomes. And you know, if the offense gets going, like you said, the schedule does lighten up at a pretty good amount in the second half. You know, they've got a bunch of the kind of the really bad teams in the league on their schedule in the second half. If they can get some consistency on offense, they can go on a roll.

00:21:33
Speaker 2: And you know, I don't know.

00:21:34
Speaker 3: If they'll be able to catch Philadelphia, but they still got I think they've got seven games against Philadelphia left head to head, which obviously could help a lot in terms of, you know, getting back into that race.

00:21:43
Speaker 2: But yeah, if they get some consistency on offense.

00:21:46
Speaker 3: Then they definitely have the schedule set up where they could go on a big run. And we've seen them do it before. We've seen them go on these three you know, two three months just absolute tears where they just destroy everybody, and it would be lovely to see that and really make the division race race again, and you know, make sure you clear everybody in the wild card, you know, worst case scenario, but it's gonna it starts with the offense, the office to be more consistent. And if they are, you know, then I think this team can beat anybody, and that includes in the postseason.

00:22:15
Speaker 2: But they need more from their own offense.

00:22:21
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And so of course, you know we're talking about you know, twenty twenty four, still plenty of that left the exciting times, left looking forward to hopefully the Braves gaining some more consistency as they go into the playoffs. But Stephen also, you know, today will released the two thousand and twenty five schedule and some pretty exciting matchups for the Braves. I think the many the thing that caught many eyes was the fact that the Braves are going to be starting out on the West coast. There's a couple of great points that you had about that that you know, obviously we'll let you get to. But also, you know some pretty exciting, you know, top notch matchups. You know, the Yankees and Orioles for instance, coming to Atlanta, so you know it's going to be, you know, some other fun match to see. But you know, starting off on the West Coast again, it may not seem ideal too many for the Braves to be able to do that, but I also think getting that out of the way could actually be a benefit. It's a unique start to the season, but one I think the Braves will take on versus some you know, recent starts to the season that they've had.

00:23:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, I actually like it. I like getting out of the way.

00:23:23
Speaker 3: You know, those West Coast trips, that San Diego La, you.

00:23:26
Speaker 2: Know run that you have to do every year.

00:23:29
Speaker 3: It's tough, and honestly, I'd just rather get out of the way first of the year because even if you have a bad series, you know, you got six months, six months of baseball in front of you, so you know, you can get over it pretty quick and you can make up for it pretty quick. And I'd much rather do that. I said this on Twitter. I much rather do that than go play in the north somewhere in you know, in late March, playing in Chicago or New York or Philadelphia or Minnesota or you know, any of these outdoor parks you know Cleveland that you know are miserable to play in in in late March.

00:24:00
Speaker 2: I'd much rather go out west. And so I like the schedule. You know, it's.

00:24:07
Speaker 3: It's it's definitely tough early, like you get I think your first four series, three of them against San Diego, l A, and Philly and then and then if you go one more past that, it's actually at Tampa. So four of the first five series are all what projected to be really good teams, and you know that could definitely be tricky, but I like it. I I I'd much rather do that than have to go play in Chicago and in in early April like they did this year and have.

00:24:34
Speaker 2: A snow game.

00:24:34
Speaker 3: So yeah, it's a fun schedule. I've been looking through just to see if there's anything crazy. Not really, I mean there's a fun series with Baltimore. You know, the Braves do this thing where they tell the league they'll they're okay opening on the road as long as they get some some summer home dates, and that's kind of the trade off they make with the league that you know, they they usually open the sea the season on the road, but they usually always get July fourth, for instance, they get that at home, and this coming up here it's going to be you know, at home against Baltimore, which will be a fun series. Yeah, it's a good it's a good schedule, nothing crazy in there. You know, opening up on the West Coast is not going.

00:25:14
Speaker 2: To be easy, but again, you get it out of the way, and then you have.

00:25:16
Speaker 3: Six months of baseball to make up for it if you don't have the best start. So yeah, it'll be fun. And I don't really have any hot takes on it. I know a lot of people get mad about starting on the road all the time, but I think the Braves like trading.

00:25:27
Speaker 2: It for for for summer home games.

00:25:30
Speaker 3: And you know, they're pretty smart about what they do business wise, so I'm sure it's more of the mix up for it. But yeah, it's a good schedule and I'll look forward to it next.

00:25:38
Speaker 1: Year absolutely, And and you know, of course that's next year, so it's plenty of things to look forward to. But Steve and I know that we talked about it at length, you know, earlier this week, but just want to kind of you know, circle back. It's been a few days and I'll be honest with you. You kind of surprised me in a good way when me, you and Scott talked about, you know, the outfield. You had mentioned that during the podcast. You just kind of convinced your Hey, the Braves going after you know, Luis Robert, you know, could could make something that makes sense. We've seen recently the Rays say that they're open to Randia Rose Arena. You know, some have speculated I don't think there's anything to this Chisholm of the Marlins, you know, could he make sense for the Braves? And we talk about Taylor Ward as well, but just in terms of you know, you were talking about, you know, Luise Robert being someone that you could see the Braves going to get. Do you feel that we need to see that Toronto Alex back? In other words, do you feel like when it comes to this team. I know that he did it with many pieces in twenty twenty one, but is this a time you know, I talk about a lot about him being a master on the margins, but do you kind of wish that he would go back to be in that Toronto Alex, the one that would you know, make the just you know, headliney trade of really providing a talent that would come give a jolt to the team. Do you think that there may be a bit better chance of that happening this year than some may think for one of these controllable outfielders.

00:27:02
Speaker 3: It's always it's always easier to make big moves when you don't have a lot of moves to make, Like in twenty one, he had to rebuild the entire outfield. He needed like, you know, four, three or four outfielders, and so you know, doing one big move when you need three or four guys is always tougher. You know, this year, I don't know how much else they.

00:27:24
Speaker 2: Really need to do besides outfield.

00:27:27
Speaker 3: That's kind of the reason why you me and Scott did that show specifically about the outfield, because you know, the rest of the roster looks pretty good. Like, if you hadn't gotten really a reliever, nobody would be surprised. If you wouldn't got kind of a swingman starter, nobody would be surprised. But you know, nobody in the on those lists are going to be you know, big names. You know, that's going to be like you were talking about on the Margins, just trying to show.

00:27:50
Speaker 2: Up depth stuff like that. But they don't really have any like massive holes other than they need another outfielder.

00:27:56
Speaker 3: And you know, with Michael Harris coming back and tell at least being a solid option, you can probably talk yourself into just needing one outfielder. And so you know, when you only have to do one thing, it is easier to go bigger. The reason I thought Robert does make some sense for the Braves is that he does actually help the log jam that would come up in twenty twenty five. If you missed that show. I'm not going to go through the whole scenario again, but you know you can go listen to it. It's I think it was on Monday Night. But you know, if you go get a guy like Robert, then it does help you, you know, figure some stuff out next year as well, where you.

00:28:34
Speaker 2: Do have a little bit of a log jam.

00:28:36
Speaker 3: But Robert is also a guy that just would you know, he's an impact but like he's not just a platoon bat. He's not just a solid guy. Like he's a truly impact hitter who could change a playoff series where you could change, you know, a world series for you. For being honest, he does have some injury stuff that is scary, and alex is A is pretty big on you know, guys who stay on the field. But you know, he went and got Chris Sale this offseason, and Sale nobody had more injury histories than Chris Sale did, So it's not impossible.

00:29:08
Speaker 2: I certainly don't expect it to happen.

00:29:10
Speaker 3: But when you only have one thing you need to do, it is a little bit easier to go bigger with that because you know you don't have a bunch of other stuff that you got to get done behind it.

00:29:19
Speaker 2: So I can see it happening. I don't. Again, I don't expect it to happening.

00:29:23
Speaker 3: I think, you know, Scott's idea, Taylor Ward or even a rose Aina, I think is probably more doable, just because Tampa is a team that's always open to wheeling a dealing and it's not going to be as expensive as Robert. But guys like that are certainly more likely. But there is an argument, there's a logical argument for a guy like Luis Robert and the Braves probably have, you know, with these two guys albarez and and and Drake bald when doing really well on Triple A, they probably do have enough to go get him if they want him. But you know, we'll see what happens. I think there's an argument for it. I don't expect it, but I do think there's a legitimate argument for it.

00:29:58
Speaker 1: Agreed, I dude, yeah, you know. And and again I think that I don't think that the outfit, the log gym that could happen in twenty twenty five. I don't think that's a deterrent for Alex in my opinion, I think that he would welcome that because it would allow for him to have options that he can maximize with how resourceful and creative he is. And Stephen, one other thing that I found interesting, you know, you seem to, you know, be very keen to the idea of One of the major takeaways from you know, Rob Manfred's you know conversation that he has every All Star break, you know, talking about you know, what could come, you know, in the future when it comes to baseball. But he talked about the fact that there is some there are some owners who seem receptive to the idea of potentially trading draft picks, and it definitely would be something around this time of year that certainly would make things even more intriguing. Now, of course, you know, when it comes to, you know, trading MLB draft picks, there's a bit more to it than like trading NBA or NFL draft picks. But you seem to definitely be intrigued by it. I am as well, but interested to get your thoughts, interested to see what do you find so intriguing and why do you think it would be certainly positive, you know, for the game of baseball if draft picks, you know, besides just the compensation picks, if draft picks in general became available in trades.

00:31:13
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I love that idea.

00:31:15
Speaker 3: You know, every other league has draft picks as trade assets. I don't really understand why the why Baseball is the one that doesn't. But I really don't understand why Baseball does it because baseball is the only sport that has its draft not only in the middle of its season, but Baseball has its draft right at the beginning of its trade season. Like the draft is literally two weeks away from the trade deadline. And if you want to talk about intrigue, Like, you know, you could use draft picks to go improve your major league club right now, and that's kind of the the always been the knock on baseball is that, you know, the reason it's not as a big a deal as it is in the NFL or NBA is the players just aren't as close.

00:31:54
Speaker 2: To being major league ready.

00:31:56
Speaker 3: Like you draft a guy and then in three years you hope he's good, and that's why there's not as much intrigue. But if you can trade those picks for a major league you know, like instead of you know, Cleveland or Cincinnati or Pittsburgh taking you know, one of these top guys, what if they use it in a trade package, you know, and there was major league gers moved in that trade. Like now there's now you have a draft that has major league implications, which which is what leads to, you know, a ton more interest and a ton more eyeballs. And I think it would be a massive event for baseball. It would turn it into a much bigger event. I get why owners want to do it, because some owners don't want to spend all that money on the draft, but you know, there's nely no risk for the players, because you know, even if somebody trades away a pick, it's going to another team. Somebody's going to use that pick and spend that money, So it's not like the money is being taken away from the players, it's just being transferred from team to team.

00:32:48
Speaker 2: So I think it's a great idea. I would love to have it done.

00:32:51
Speaker 3: You know, if you know, if you had the ability to move up in the draft, if there was somebody you really liked and you could package, you know, just like the NFL or the NBA, like, it's just it makes it a thousand times more intriguing when it's not just everybody's stuck in their slot. There's no way to move, there's no way to use the picks, you.

00:33:07
Speaker 2: Know, to help your major league team.

00:33:10
Speaker 3: You know, there's just a lot less intrigue because of that, and because these guys are three or four years away, there's even less intrigue. So I think it would be, you know, a really good strategic move to make the draft more interesting. But I also think it would just add a lot of interest to your major league teams as well, because now there's actual major league implications to the draft, because these are tradable assets that you can use to go get major league players, and I just don't see it downside, and I think it's a great idea. I would have done it a long time ago. The fact that they are a draft that are like a tiny fraction of draft picks that are tradable, but the rest aren't, I think it's even dumber. And so yeah, I'm a big fan of it.

00:33:49
Speaker 2: I hope they do it.

00:33:51
Speaker 1: I definitely am here to make the game more interesting, and you know, I think that the Major League Baseball owes it to us after their decision. When it came to the MLB All Star uniform Stephen, we talked about that before the before the podcast started. How many American League All Star uniforms did you buy for yourself and your family?

00:34:09
Speaker 3: I bought twelve, No, I bought zero, and I will I will never.

00:34:12
Speaker 1: Bud all kidding aside that that definitely was a bit of a downside of All Star weekend. But but yees, Stephen, you know, hey, we have plenty of things to hit on. It's going to be good to get back into the swing of things. When it comes to braves Baseball, hopefully better levels of braves baseball coming up, and as we obviously get closer to the playoffs, a bit more meaningful baseball as well. But Stephen, do you have anything else as we wrap up this edition of the Hammer Territory podcast.

00:34:42
Speaker 3: No, just yeah, check out the site. I mean, we've got a bunch of stuff. We had a bunch of trade stuff this week. Obviously the trade stuff is.

00:34:48
Speaker 2: Really just starting.

00:34:49
Speaker 3: I mean, we're gonna have two weeks of this stuff, especially as moves get made, even if it's not necessarily Braves moves. You know, any move that happens can you.

00:34:57
Speaker 2: Know, affect the Braves.

00:34:58
Speaker 3: So we're gonna obviously talk about it a bunch of the next two weeks.

00:35:02
Speaker 2: You know, we've still got draft stuff.

00:35:04
Speaker 3: I think, you know, Brad might see if Carlos can come back on to do a post draft. You know, then we'll get into the trade deadline, and then after trade deadline we get into you know, final pushes, we get into playoff stuff, we get into division wild card.

00:35:17
Speaker 2: It's just gonna be a lot of fun. We'll be here to cover it all. We appreciate all the support, which all.

00:35:21
Speaker 3: The downloads, you know, the the response to the podcast has been incredible this, you know, this first year, so we're extremely grateful for that. And you know, tell a friend, tell you know, tell a Brase fan in your life about it, because there's a lot of content. We have a ton of stuff coming obviously with the trade deadline coming up and then getting into the playoff stuff.

00:35:40
Speaker 2: So we appreciate it as always.

00:35:42
Speaker 1: Absolutely cannot echo Steven enough for all the appreciation and just kindness. You know that this is the reason why we love doing this on as frequently as we do it. See the number one the opportunity to speak, you know, uh, to talk about the Braves with other loyal you know, folks who cover them, fans of the game, but also just in intereral just you know, providing good content, you know, for what what is a great part of baseball and that is you know, obviously Braves Country. But for Steven Tobert you can find him at b Underscore Outliers on Twitter, slash x. My name is Sean Colemen. You can find me at Stat's Sac. Until next time, go Braze. We'll talk to you again here on The Hammer Territory podcast.