The Bats Are Heating Up For The Braves

00:00:22
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to episode twenty nine in the Hammer Territory Podcast. I am your host, Brad Roland, coming to you on the evening of June sixteenth. It is Father's Day, and I am joined as I almost always am, by Scott Coleman. Scott, how you feeling here in mid June?

00:00:36
Speaker 2: Hey, Brad, Happy Father's Day to all of our dad listeners out there. And I gotta be honest, Bread, for the first time in a while, it feels like you and I are doing one of these Sunday evening shows and there's some like legitimate good things going on with the Braves. It certainly has not always felt this way, of course, coming off of a pretty terrible road trip, but it looks like finally the Braves have woken up a little bit offensively, and that is very much a site for sore eyes, because as we know, it has not been the prettiest picture over the last month and a half. That's right, and of course the Sunday curse for those of us, for those people who've listened to us for a long time, know that even when the Braves semlarly are playing well, they tend to lose on Sundays before me and Scott in particular have to record podcasts that actually happened today. But I totally agree with you there is more of an upbeat tenor to this podcast. We should also stay at the top of the show that we are part of the Foul Territory network of podcasts. Please subscribe to this show. It would be a huge favorite to us rate and review as well Apple, Spotify, Overcast, et cetera. We will focus some later on the podcast about Michael Harris and the injury there. Unfortunately, in the fallout of that, also touch on Grant Holmes's debut, the movement that is Grant Holmes, also some struggles from person and Waldrope, et cetera. But we should always begin where you just started, and that is with a pretty encouraging weekend plus So basically, the Braves just went three to one since the last time that either you I were on the show, and that's a positive thing. They won the series this weekend against Tampa even it would have lost today and you teased it. But I think the biggest story by far, even with the Harris injury, which we are to talk about a little bit on this podcast. Feed with Steven and Sean that the offense actually scored some runs twenty eight runs in the last four games, including and I think crucially, at least six runs in all four of those games. You don't want to sort of celebrate too early about this team being quote unquote back, especially given the injuries and the losses that they have, but at the very least the bats have started to heat up a little bit. Yeah, it really is encouraging to see, and especially some of the players that the Braves really need to step up have seemingly started to step up. Austin Riley had his best weekend by far all season long. I mean, he had a tremendous at bat, one of the best at bats on Sunday afternoon of his probably his whole career, to tie the game with a two run homer to dead center. There's encouraging signs there. Jared Kelnick is kind of quietly really putting together a nice season. Seems like he's figuring some things out. Sean Murphy drove the ball pretty well at times over the last couple of days, even if the results aren't great. And maybe the stat of the podcast and this blew my mind when I was researching it and double check this because math was never my strong suit. But stat of the podcast tonight, the Braves scored twenty two runs in the three games this weekend.

00:03:29
Speaker 1: Twenty two runs.

00:03:31
Speaker 2: That's the most runs the Braves have scored in three consecutive games this season since opening weekend, where they scored twenty five.

00:03:41
Speaker 1: So we're talking quite.

00:03:42
Speaker 2: Literally, since that first series of the year, the Braves have not put up twenty two runs in three consecutive games until they did this weekend against Tampa. So finally, some signs of life. Of course, we're only talking about four games where the offense has woken. We need to see them continue to do it, and God, let's hope if this office can get going, especially the way the pitching has been for the most part, it feels like the Braves are on the cusp of really breaking out here. And let's hope this weekend was really just a big first step in the right direction.

00:04:12
Speaker 1: That would, of course be nice, and there is reason for belief. You know, we talked to you and I on our last podcast together a week ago kind of wondering a loud if we should be worried at this point in time, and you know, at least, you know, not necessarily going to the yellow light on that. But you know, it's one of those things where I kind of always fell I think you did two to some degree. Like the math was just on the side of the Braves being at least a little bit better than they had been. I think no one, even the harshest, most angry, brave skeptic right now or four days ago, probably would have been in a moment of sobriety willing to acknowledge that they were probably not going to have the worst offense in the league over the rest of the season had they been, which is where they worried the previous month or so. But you know, and again we're not trying to declare victory here after four games, but the offense looks like the offense is supposed to look. And that, of course, as you teased earlier, talk about again later having guys who are supposed to hit, namely Austin Riley hitting again is probably part of that too, because you know, for all of Marcelo Zuna is brilliance, and he has been brilliant all year long. No one can carry an offense by themselves, not even Argua with the best dinner in baseball so far the season, or at least the western in the National League so far this season in Ozuna. And it's got to be a collective effort, and we kind of saw that more and more in the last three or four games.

00:05:26
Speaker 2: Well on the advats look better. I mean, that was really my takeaway. Obviously the results are one thing, but man, I mean, you watch those National Series and you sit there watching it's like, did these guys do any pregame prep? Did they predetermine that they were going to swing it pitches one, two and four in the ad bat and just let it rip. It felt like there was more of an approach. They were more patient, they were in more favorable counts, deeper counts. Overall, it was just really encouraging. And it was a warm weekend in Atlanta. I'm sure the weather warming up is only going to help this team because, as we know, and as we've talked about on this show for quite some time now, despite the lack of results for the all of May and the early parts of June, the Braves have continued to hit the ball hard. The exit velocity is good, the hard hit rate is good, the barrel rate is good, it just was a lack of results and maybe as it warms up, if that's going to translate into more home runs. Off the top of my head, the Braves had seven home runs this weekend, I think. I mean that is a huge sign that the Braves are back to doing what they did last season when they just bludgeoned team was seemingly two or three home runs every single night.

00:06:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, speaking of that, I promise listeners that are new or returning that we're going to dive into these three games a little bit more. But a not so fun stat at the top. Last year, the Braves only had eighteen games all season long without a home run, which is an absurd number. We talked about how good they were last year endlessly, but that is an absurd number. This year they already have more. They have twenty five games without a home run already this year after eighteen all year last year. So that kind of tells you, and look, we will kind of gloss over this. It's been talked about, but Alex Vanthopoulos did a pretty lengthy and I would say out of character interview for him. He doesn't usually call those kind of interviews mid season, but it was like twenty minutes or so, and he kind of just was pretty open, like they built this team for power. We all kind of know that, we've all talked around it. This is a team built on power, and when the power is happening, as it usually is, they tend to score a lot of runs. And to your point, they tended to blast the ball this weekend, and hey, would you look at that. The results were much better when you got to hit the ball a long way.

00:07:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I thought a couple of days ago, I had the chance to interview Justin Tuscano of the ajac and if you miss that show, please I would encourage you to go back and listen. Justin had some really great insight into what he has seen inside the clubhouse while covering the team, and Justin's gild takeaway was, for the first time in a while, he felt like there was some real confusion and maybe angst in the clubhouse, especially after the rough series in Washington where they had lost three of four and had lost six out of eight to the Nationals. So it's good to see the Braves just kind of settle back in And you mentioned Anthopolis talking to the media. I was a little surprised that he did it. Good on Alex for being candid with the state of the roster, and you know, as Alex said, and I think it's of course down the road a little ways. It's going to be very interesting to see what he does come trade deadline time, because there are quite a few things that this roster could use. It's just going to be a matter of what kind of market there is and what he feels are ultimately going to give this team the best chance in September and hopefully deep into October.

00:08:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, we are a line there. And I would echo that I had nothing to do with that interview that you did with Justin, but I would strongly encourage everybody to listen to that because Justin's very smart and that was a fun listen as well as our entire archive. Because I know, by the way Stephen and especially Sean, we're very busy on the feed. This week. We did an extra because Sean is a hero and broke in some extra stuff on Friday night into Saturday. So a busy week. Please subscribe to the show and we'll have much more to come, including on this podcast. And I promise, as I said a second ago, We'll dive into the weekends games in a minute, but first they work from our partners at sea Geek. Today's show is sponsored by the folks at sea Geek. Seek is official ticket market place at Major League Baseball, so they have you covered for all if your baseball ticketing needs. They've twenty eight million downloads a seekik gets the number one rated ticketing app. They are more than sevent thousand events at sea Geek, including concerts, sports festivals, theater events and much more. Baseball seasons of course in full swing, and you do not want to miss out on any of the action. They have your tickets to sea Geek to every single game, and of course that includes brave stuff whether they're at home in Atlanta or on the road in other ballparks. I don't have u SeatGeek for a long time for Brave tickets and focust tickets and many more things in the past. They have you covered across the board. Plus they put all the tickets across the web in one place to make sure you are getting the best possible deal at sea Geek. Each tickets ran on scale to one to ten. Keep an eye onus for the green dots as well as the best values to kind of steer you in the right direction at sea Geek and every tickets backed by their buyer guarant and seek is the only site that lets you to return your tickets ahead of the event with swamps and you know that we are coming through for you guys. You can use our code hammer for twenty hours off tickets at sea Geek. That is twenty hours off your first purchase with promo code hammer. When you use seat Geek, make sure you could come to link and our project's description to download the sea Geek app today one more time. That is promo code Hammer twenty hours off your first purchase with the folks at sea Geek. Okay, Scott, let us dive into some game action from the weekend. We all know the deal now. It was, you know, Friday and Saturday were wins. Sunday was a loss, but Friday was again a continuation of a second stright game of positivity on offense. Seven runs, twelve hits. I will say it was grouped together. They scored all seven runs in the first two innings on Friday, but it was enough. You mentioned Austin Rabbie heating up. He had a home run for the first time in a long time on Friday, that also has been pretty good late lately, and of course they handed it over to Chris Sale, who has been Chris Sale, and man, I feel like we do this every week, but Chris Sale has been absurd too. So Friday was kind of a breezy win and silver Saturday in a lot of ways, but again kind of more of that power emphasis because they had home runs, doubles, et cetera.

00:11:02
Speaker 2: Well, And it was especially nice because we could probably count on one hand the number of breezy wins the Braves have had since the calendar turned to May. Even the wins have seemingly been like these these slugfests where they're just trying to hang on to win. Even Thursday's game in Baltimore was like that, you took the words out of my mouth with Chris Sale. What more can we say? Seven innings. For the fifth time in six starts, Sale has gone seven innings, which is so impressive, and admittedly he wasn't even like his a oneself on Friday. And the final line is seven innings, five hits, three of which came in the first inning, two runs, seven strikeouts, and two Walks. I mean, this guy, he is just so locked in, and we mentioned the big offensive performances from Ozuna. Who dude, Marcelo Zuna. We got to start talking about like a legitimate triple crown possibility here, Marcelo's Una Homers, Austin Riley Homers first time since May third, And as we kind of talked about on the podcast a couple of weeks ago, Matt Olsen has kind of quietly been very good for maybe a month now. It feels like he is back. We know how good Ozuna has been, and if Austin Riley, if this is the start of Austin's crazy summer runs that he seemingly always does, that big three is going to be able to carry the Braves, especially if a couple more guys in the bottom half of the lineup can step up.

00:12:26
Speaker 1: Yeah. I sort of alluded to this, and I'll keep it short, I promise, but for whatever reason, I'll just be brought in say the reply. Guys can't seem to understand that Matt Olsen's been pretty good this year, Like every time I see a tweet or every time, but a lot of times it's like the offense is struggling. Look at Matt Olsen, he's doing this. I'm like, Matt Olsen's been very clearly their second best hitter this year. You know, there's a big gap there. Admittedly Ozuna has been out of his mind, but Matt Olsen had had like maybe a three week stretch where he was bad and the rest of the year has been awesome. Pretty much. He's a one twenty eight WRC plus and yeah, that's not where he was last year when he was not going to probably repeat that ding how good he was. But if you just told me he had a one twenty eight RC plus, it's like, yeah, that's kind of a B minus for him, but that's that's a very good hitter, no problem. Well and give it a couple of weeks and I think Matt will be in the one forties pretty I mean, he did bats to look really good right now.

00:13:15
Speaker 2: You know, even over the last week. I can think of a couple of times or he just missed a pitch that could have gone very far. So yeah, my concern level with Matt is zero at this point.

00:13:26
Speaker 1: Agreed. Looking ahead, I guess a little bit to Saturday. Of course, their third straight win the first time they had won three in a row in a very long time. That was the first game host Michael Harris. We'll talk about him and the injury a little bit more later in the podcast, but sort of the pivot of that was, you know, what's that auful going to look like? But also who's going to hit lead off? Because Harris has been leading off against right handers since Ronald went down, and they went to Jared Keelnick, who we teased a little bit earlier, but he had probably the biggest single swing of the day on Saturday with a two run homer that kind of took the lead and never relinquished it. What did you make of that aspect? We're going to the outfield later on, but do you like or are you okay with hitting Kelnick lead off? Because look, we all can understand this, but there really is not an ideal option in the options frontal.

00:14:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, it made sense to me because, as you just outlined, who else is going to do it? Don't have Michael Harris, you don't have Roli Cunya Junior, Ozzie Alby's is not a leadoff hitters, not against righty's, not for yes, correct against lefties, Yes, let Ozzy have the first crack at the left handed pitcher because we know what he does to them. But we're going to talk about Adam Duvall, but obviously Duval is not a candidate to lead off. You're not going to have the catchers do it. You're not going to put one of the big boppers up there. So Kelnick is very much the only option that I see to lead off against righty's which is going to be most of the time. And if you've been listening to the show, we've talked about it. I think it's been a little flown under the radar a little bit. But Kelnick has been quite good for maybe the past month now. He's done a lot a lot of things. The power is starting to show up. His strikeouts have gone down a little bit. He's still not walking a ton, but I feel like he is at bats are better and he's working into the count more, and I mean right now, it seems like he's kind of given the team a little bit of a spark.

00:15:13
Speaker 1: Again.

00:15:13
Speaker 2: We could probably say after everything on this show that it was only three or four games that we're talking about, but it feels like to me that Kelnick is going to be the leadoff guy just about every night moving forward against right handed pitching and even against lefties. I'm curious to see what Kelnick is going to be able to do, especially if he's down in the seventh or eighth spot, and I like the idea of having him out there basically every day.

00:15:36
Speaker 1: Heaus.

00:15:37
Speaker 2: We've talked about really throughout the winter and coming into the season, it would behoove the Braves to see what exactly Kelnick is over close to one sixty two, because he is a player who could be in their long term plans.

00:15:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we talked about it a lot a lot over the winter about, like you know, right now, it's kind of found money with Kelnick. You're hoping he's just going to be a league average bat or whatever, but there was always upside there, top prospect, top draft pick, super talented. Maybe it comes together, but yeah, as long as he's hitting, I have no issue with whatsoever. There are more drastic options, Like I think some of the more cerametrically inclined folks that I tend to think are pretty smart. I've floated like Austin Hing hitting lead off, which actually wouldn't mind. But I think Braceman will probably freak out on the whole, like the Saw Riley hitting lead off. I would like it, to be honest with you, but that's a more extreme and by the way, Snid won't do that just so it doesn't actually matter. So yeah, we'll leave it there. But I think Kelnick is a worthy option in the midst of not having a ton of great options to lead off. And by the way, lit up construction we used to do a lot more on the show. I don't. I just don't care that much most of the time. It's it's kind of harmless. Every once in a while when I see RCA hitting six, I get mad otter than that, I'm.

00:16:42
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, or or Adam Duvall should not be batting high up against a right handed pitching pitcher. But as we kind of talked about, like somebody has to hit somewhere, and at some point you just have to hit the damn baseball. It's right, like that's the cure all for everything is hit the ball, score runs. But yeah, I do like the Kelnick at the leadoff spot. You know, Ozzie has been okay this season, feels like he's going to be locked into that number two spot in the order, you have to have Marcel at number three. I know that that was one game experiment in Baltimore where Marcel was dropped a fifth and everyone was like, wait a minute, this dude is legitimately the best hitter in the National League right now. Let's not reduce his head pats and prevent him from going in the first inning every night. And we don't have to go through that whole rabbit hole. But you know, with Matt and then Riley and you just keep going down the list. Hopefully Sean Murphy settles in and we're going to talk about Ramon Loreano and a couple of the outfield options. You know, it feels to me like things are slowly coming together if they can just avoid the damn injury bug. And but that's been easier said than done really since day one of this season.

00:17:55
Speaker 1: Yes, certainly that is the case. And even if the lap's not what's what it was supposed to be, because you you know, you take out Ronald and even Michael Harris, it starts to get worse, but still plenty of firepower if everybody is still rocking and rolling and healthy. I am obligated, of course, Scott to at least mention the two words Charlie Morton. He fished quite well again on Saturday. Six innings, one run, three hits, struck out eight still has an era in the threes. You know, everyone that listens to the podcast regularly will know how I fell about Charlie. If you don't listen to the podcast regularly, first of all, thank you for listening. Second of all, I am known as a Charlie Morton advocate of sorts, and no, I don't believe he's an ace at this point in time, because he's not. But Charlie Morton. You look up in the middle of June the area in the threes, striking guys out and doing what Charlie Morton does.

00:18:40
Speaker 2: Brad, do you know what the best part of Charlie Morton's starts are? I'm sure it has something to do with the game that you made up this weekend. It is America's favorite game. America's favorite game, which inning is Charlie Morton? And I love Charlie Morton, but what inning is Charlie Morton going to hit a left handed batter in the foot with a curveball. It's a great game. I encourage everyone to play it. Please tweet me whenever he's on the mound. You can pick any inning. It could be the first, could.

00:19:09
Speaker 1: Be the second.

00:19:10
Speaker 2: It was the third inning on Saturday when Chuck hit Chuck hit a batter in the foot.

00:19:16
Speaker 1: That was my prediction.

00:19:17
Speaker 2: I was very proud of myself. A few others also had the third inning, So I think this has potential to go nationwide. Brad America's favorite game. What inning does Charlie Morton hit a batter.

00:19:27
Speaker 1: With a curveball?

00:19:28
Speaker 3: I don't know.

00:19:29
Speaker 2: Maybe it's just a game that I'll play by myself.

00:19:30
Speaker 1: But anyway, Yes, I saw some enthusiastic responses to your tweet, so somebody's gonna be along with you.

00:19:37
Speaker 2: I think let's get it going. You know, could we could turn it into a segment on the podcast. We could get some awards or like little giveaways if you get the inning, or I don't know, we'll work shop this for another day. Scott's creating more work for me is what he's trying to do right now on the podcast, which I definitely appreciate. No, I'm kidding, of course, tongue in cheek, but it is worth noting that the pitching still has been for most most days. One of five days anyway has been quite solid.

00:20:02
Speaker 1: And that includes Charlie, who for my money is the best is the best four starter in baseball right now, and I will stand on that both with the numbers and the eye test. Okay, Scott, let's talk about Sunday. But it's gonna be a lot of talking about Sunday. Honestly, there's a lot of things that happened in the game today. So before we get to that, a word from our friends at foul Territory on ag.

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00:21:21
Speaker 1: FT fam Okay Scott let us dive into Sunday's game. It was a roller coaster. The curses alive as far as Sunday lost their concern. They were down six to two after four innings. They come all the way back two runs into sixth on four consecutive two out hits. Astronomy we mentioned a few times what we should always say. You mentioned the at bat. I definitely agree with you. A fantastic played appearance follow off six pitches. He seemingly has found it in a way that he would think he would as an established star player. By the way, he doubled his whole run total for the season this weekend. He had three home runs this weekend after geting three to this point in the season. Now the first number is much more concerning the second number, but I think that Austin is alive. But I'll just give you the numbers now while I have it in front of me. His first fifty three games of the season, so until basically Friday, he had a six eighteen ops and that included a four to six yikes ops. Since your return from the injury, those numbers are now looking like they're hopefully quite long in the past. And yes, they lost the game, but I just want to say this out loud that you know Riley looks like Roddy Agan.

00:22:25
Speaker 2: He does. And really, I thought the most encouraging part was despite going down six to two pretty early, the Braves fought back. They had big hits from a handful of players in the lineup, and that was such a trademark of this team the last couple of years, where even if they were down early, it never felt like they were out of a game, and candidly, that has not been the case for a lot of this season. I mean, how many games during the downturn did the Braves go down five to nothing early and I was like, well, that's game. It was good to see them fight back from down four of course, and unfortunate ninth. Then with Ryce Eele Iglesias, who we're going to talk about here in a little bit, and a pretty discouraging start I thought from Hirst and Waldrop, but again kind of the overall theme of this podcast was the offense looks so much more back to normal and if that's gonna be the big takeaway from the series and moving forward. Even though they only won two games this weekend, which is funny to say, but only one two out of three, you will absolutely take it if it means that better days are on the horizon.

00:23:28
Speaker 1: Yes, we agree on that, and there's a reason why we're trying to emphasize that. It is the theme of the podcast. With that said, there was not a lot of encouragement with the pitching on Sunday, which got always talk about on this Sunday Evening podcast. So you mentioned Waldrop. He's looked okay the first time through the order in both starts, and then after that the wills come off both times, his command, etc. The Braves have already announced that he's gonna go back to Gwinnett, so that's not a huge surprise after he struggled today, But that is already happening as we're recording this podcast. Look, he's still a young guy, and we tried to kind of warn people. I know when I talked to Garrett Spain, a prospect expert that we trust immenseally, on this podcast couple weeks ago, he kind of warned about this than we did, and I know Sean Steven did. The Waldrop is not considered to be anything close to a finished product. He is the high upside guy. He is really talented, his splitter is incredible, all that stuff, But they, I think the people that I trust in valuating minor league options were not super convinced that he's gonna be pretty good when he arrived because he's not quite there yet. And look, that looks to be the case at this point in time. I don't know if this is going to close the door on him for the year by any means, but I think that at the very least, we've kind of seen why the conterns were there between the fastball not being fantastic at this point in time and really kind of make a two pitch guy for the most part. I don't know what else you want to add to that, but it was it was frustrating. I don't think though, this is just me maybe differently. I'm not saying that this is like curtains for him by any means, but he did not look great this week.

00:24:56
Speaker 2: Well like ninety nine point eight percent of pitchers. There is a reason that even if you are a top draft pick, they always get one or two years in the minors, full seasons in the minor leagues before they are even close to being ready. Of course, the Braves are very aggressive with pushing Waldrop up, but you have to remember this dude was pitching in the College World Series one year ago. If you ever need to remind yourself that I know. Today the hot takes were unbelievable. This kid's terrible, This kid is a bust, this kid is a reliever.

00:25:31
Speaker 1: Blah blah blah. Right, I get it.

00:25:32
Speaker 2: People were frustrated. People wanted to sweep. But at the end of the day, Waldrop is twenty two years old. He has a plus plus splitter, he has an upper nineties fastball, and he has a work in progress breaking ball, a pretty tight slider that he throws.

00:25:49
Speaker 1: It is going to take some time.

00:25:51
Speaker 2: Not every twenty two year old is going to come up and be Spencer Streider right away, right out of the gate. I think this is almost going to be if you're looking for a overlining, I think this could be a good thing for Hurston that probably, for the first time in his baseball life, he got his ass kicked a little bit right, like a bad start in DC. It started out pretty well, but it went very south, very quickly, and then got hammered the second time through the lineup today, for the first time in his baseball life, I think he's kind of taken one on the chin and now he knows that he has stuff to work on. Has to work on the command, has to work on the fastball, has to work on developing his third pitches to keep hitters. Honest, I do agree that for this season, I probably don't see Waldrop making much of an impact. Maybe they could bring him back in a bullpen roll or in a fifth starter spot in August or September once he's had more time in Gwinnett. But long term, even though these first two starts were not great, I mean, it would be kind of silly to make any long term decisions on Waldrip based on two starts less than a year after he was drafted.

00:26:57
Speaker 1: Right, and I lost a bet to you on this podcast asked about when he would be called up, and I was a little surprised that they went as fast as they did with him. I kind of thought there was a chance that he might be up late in the year as a reliever. And this is again, this is more in a free strattered injury world. But what right now? Waldrop's arsenal is more of a reliever arsenal like he's working on a third pitch, But yes he is. He throws hard and again the splitter is disgusting and it looks great even in the majors, But he doesn't really have the arsenal right now, I'm look, I'm already kind of dreading this next segment because I already know what the response will be from a lot of different people. But there's a world in which he's just not as good as guys like Alan Winans and Bryce Elder, who are not as talented as Hersman Walter Piss. But as far as getting major league hitterers out right now, especially in the third, fourth, fifth innings, it's a difference. Yeah, right now today on Jude sixteenth, again, if you give me a career. I will definitely take Waldrop part of those guys. But as far you know, that's there's always a gap there between prospect rightiness and also, look, I'll raise my hand here, I'm sure you would admit this as well. Brace Fan's been pretty spoiled with how well all of their big famous prospects have done recently. How many guys that are their top, top, top guys have come up and not play well right away, like very few. And that's part of this too. People are kind of spoilt and that's okay.

00:28:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely a learning opportunity for Hurston. I've said this a few times. I'll say it again. Nothing in my mind has changed long term. He has to figure out a way to work the fastball better. He had no swing and miss on the fastball today. I believe he threw it twenty five times and did not get a single whiff on that pitch. The splitter is great, but if big league hitters are only looking for one pitch, guess what, it can be the greatest pitch on planet Earth. It is not going to get them out consistently. And we mentioned the slider is very much a work in progress. Twenty two years old going to go back to Gwinette. I hope the Braves leave him in Gwinnette for at least the next two months, so he has a chance to go back and kind of pick up on what he learned and pitch every five days with the Stripers, and who knows, maybe in September or even October he'll play a role of some kind. Of course, the Braves need Hurst and Waldrop to be good with the uncertainty and the rotation moving forward. They have every reason to develop him in the minor leagues. It was not a good first glimpse by any means, but Waldrop's ceiling is still high, and you just have to hope that he continues to get better.

00:29:23
Speaker 1: Yes, and we'll leave that there for now. The fallout is interesting too, because we're for this again Sunday evening. We don't know yet what's going to happen on Monday. Snicker did tell the media today the plan is to bring a bullpen arm in for Monday. That does not mean explicitly that the Braves are going away from the six men rotation.

00:29:40
Speaker 3: Now.

00:29:40
Speaker 1: They could go away from it, but it would make logical sense for them to use a reliever just because they can right now for a couple of days. And also there's a wrinkle here. I don't know if this is going to happen, but AJ Minter is eligible to return. He's his fifteen days are up. He was throwing long toss at the stadium today, according to our guy Chris willis battery power. I don't know if he's ready, but keep an eye on that. And even if it's not AJ, they can go to a reliever if they want to, and then they can decide or maybe they already have decided whether to go back to five day rotation, or they have you know, five days now basically six days now to choose another starter, whether it's I think it will probably be either Elder or Winans based on their performances recently in Gwinette. But that's an interesting decision that they have to make, especially if AJ is ready. I think obviously he'll come back because he's one of the best relievers. But if he's not ready, we'll see.

00:30:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, we will see on the short term, and I mean I guess the long term too. I think justin Tiscano had some interesting insight that clearly the Braves value pushing their starters back and utilizing the six man rotation whenever they can. It's my guess that Bryce Elder will be back up to make a start at some point this upcoming week. You mentioned he's been very good in Gwinnett in the month of June. I believe he's made four starts with a zero zero point eight two ERA. And maybe this is the most surprising and encouraging thing. Twenty two innings, twenty nine strikeouts and four walks for Brice Elder. And what do we always say, Scott about Bryce Elder? Don't yeah, what can he not do?

00:31:16
Speaker 1: Walk people? Because Bryce Elder? Yeah, well, yeah, the strikeout numbers are I would take that with a grain of salt. It is triple A. You have to adjust a little bit. But he has been And look, I know I am lower on Brice Elder than a lot of people were even when he was pitching well. But something we have always said for new listeners dating back a year plus is that Bryce Elder cannot be a major league starter if you watch guys. He doesn't have the stuff for that. So if he stops walking people, I can buy him as a fifth starter. I don't think he's much beyond that, but again there's a world where he's okay. Allen Winans too, Like I saw some eye dropping numbers. I think a guy Garrett Spain again wrote on Twitter that he this is crazy. Alan Wyans generated eighteen swings and misses on his change up in one start. Now that's triple A. But still that's kind of absurd. And he has seventies strikeouts and his last two starts with two walks. So like again, no one's going to get terribly excited about Ellen Winen or Briyce Elder and including me. But we'll do our little mini spiel now about fifth starters and how everybody doesn't have a great fifth starter. That's still the case, and the brids are just plugging holes. And look, Schwellenbach is still by the way in the rotation, just to say that out. Well, we'll get that, we'll probably at the end of the podcast. But Schwellenbach is the currently probable starter for Tuesday, So that's your really their fifth starter at the moment, and their sixth starter is this spot if they kind of do this, so it's up in the air. No one should be surprised if it's Elder or Wine ins. I would say, if it's not one of those two guys, I'll be surprised, and we will see if they even use that starter spot.

00:32:46
Speaker 2: And the Braves do have a day off this week on Thursday, so maybe maybe that will impact how they handle the rotation. It is very much it feels like day by day or the rotation, especially given the age and the workload stuff.

00:33:01
Speaker 1: But who knows.

00:33:02
Speaker 2: At some point Bryce Elder is going to find himself back in Atlanta. It might be this week, it might be in a couple of weeks, it might be next month. But again, it is so obvious the Braves are trying to limit innings when they can for their starters, which is something that I think everybody should be in favor of, because if there's one thing the Braves have not had the last two postseasons, the rotation has not been healthy in back to back years. And I know injuries are impossible to prepare for and all of that, but I mean, the Braves have to do what they can to have Ronaldo Lopez, Chris Slee, and Max Freed healthy come October. Whatever they can do, and if that means that Bryce Elder goes out there and just pitches, okay, a couple of times in an effort to get those guys an extra day or two of rest.

00:33:49
Speaker 1: Then so be it. Maybe it's not the.

00:33:51
Speaker 2: Sexiest start that you're ever going to see, but we've also seen that Elder has been successful at times in the majors.

00:33:58
Speaker 1: Yep. Absolutely. And by the way, this might be a throwback a long episode of the podcast, as I sort of checked the time set of timestamp on the show. Anyway, speaking it up a little bit here, Scott. The Braves did option ray Kerr to the Miners on Sunday and called up. I think is a player that's already a fan favorite after one day. Grant Holmes a twenty eight year old right hander who threw three scrorel with sendings in his major league debut. Yes, major league debut for a twenty eight year old. He was a first round pick ten years ago. And for anybody that didn't see this, Grant Holmes has a phenomenal head of hair.

00:34:29
Speaker 2: I gotta say, yeah, that is a beautiful flow of lettuce. You know, he looks like Kenny Powers from Eastbound to down. He sure does, even throws like him a little bit. Really, I mean, dude, I'm such a sucker for guys who stick it out in the minor leagues for a decade and ride those bus those bus trips across the country and stay in the rinky dank hotels and make not a lot of money just to get that one chance at the major leagues. So for Holmes to get it today, three scoreless innings in front of his family really cool. And hey, he's got a live fastball. Tampa's hitters could not do anything against it. It feels like he's gonna get a real chance to stick. Holmes was actually starting a bit for Gwinett, so he has the ability to go multiple innings, which is not something this bullpen really has right now. Potentially could even be like an opener at some point if the Braves wanted to do that with the bullpen. So very very happy for him. I am sure he is elated to finally get his chance.

00:35:30
Speaker 1: Good for him.

00:35:31
Speaker 2: And let's hope the grant sticks and has a nice year because he deserves it. Again, Man, a decade in the minor leagues that has to be a lot of just kind of laying in bed late at night and just kind of thinking about your life, because a lot of players bail far before you hit your ten years and the miners, and good for him. It really was an impressive debut for.

00:35:49
Speaker 1: Sure, and the minor league guys that we trust, we're talking about it today and like he's looked good in Gwinett, Like it's not just a and it's obviously it is a great story. But I think he might be major league talent. He was first round pick a long time ago. We will see how this goes. And you know, unfortunately you could say he threw three innings today, that kind of makes him maybe a candidate to not be around that long because he can't pitch probably tomorrow, et cetera. That's kind of tough. But yeah, to your point about going multiple innings, that is a valuable skill set, especially if things get off the rails at times or you get a short start, et cetera. And really just a great story and something that should have been I mean, it would have been nice to get a win today, But he did his part for sure, Like he kept it right there, like the Braves had a chance to win this game today because he kept it at six two, like for as long as he did three innings and a big spot there was a lot of fun and fantastic story to be sure. Briefly, do you want to just discuss Ryce Iglesias, because I think people are pretty angsty about him right now. It was a home run that he allowed that kind of lost them the game today. If you watch the game or even watch the stack cast, it was a really good pitch. It was nowhere near the zone. It was below the zone. Like harve me to get pretty mad about that. And he's still been pretty good this season, both the season and also recently. I think he had like a one era and his past nur ten games four today still a sub three er for the season. Did you see any of that today? Like people were kind of mad about that. I mean, I guess it's just normal closer stuff, but I saw that he's not a closer. It's like, well, actually he has been a closer for a very long time, and a very very good one.

00:37:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, he has, you know, the lack of strikeouts. It's funny. Before today's game, when we kind of laid out the podcast outline, we were going to talk about Rice El and the fact that he has not struck anybody out this season.

00:37:29
Speaker 1: Way down his strikeouts were way.

00:37:31
Speaker 2: Down compared to his career norms, which has been a.

00:37:34
Speaker 1: Very good career.

00:37:35
Speaker 2: And of course, even though we gave up the homer on Sunday, he struck out three hitters.

00:37:41
Speaker 1: Sure, it's like Ryce.

00:37:43
Speaker 2: El sees our Google doc with all of our notes. I am not necessarily concerned. I do want to see the strikeouts come back up. Anytime you can strike guys out in the ninth inning, it is only going to help things to remove the flukiness of a couple of soft singles or giving up a home run. On even a good pitch, you give up a home run. I'm not really concerned about Rice El. I honestly hadn't even noticed the strikeouts were down so much. And sure, I mean, is he prime Mariano Rivera or prime Craig Kimberrel. No, But he's been fine enough for me. And anytime a closure gives one up, especially with all of the emotional highs of Riley's home run and then like five minutes later he gives up the homer and it was just kind of a wamp womp. But you know, I think for Rice L he's a veteran, the velocity is still fine. I'm not really concerned. We'll just have to keep an eye on him and hopefully those strikeouts tick back up, because that's such a weapon for closers. You know, I'm a fan of talking about sample size as the thing that matters, and with relievers it's even more pronounced. The samples are just tiny on even like full season samples for relievers are very small. But yeah, that's I'm attributing this mostly annoyed. I did a little bit of a deep dive, like you said, were already preparing for this. His whip writes down, which is kind of what you would look at as to why he's strikeouts. But he is currently a ninety ninth percentile barrow right aloud, So like no one's at the ball har on him. He's, like you mentioned, his velocity is almost exactly as sam as the lost last year. I'm not concerned, just one of the least flag it because you don't like to your point, you have to strike guys out eventually, But I'm not concerned. All right, last thing before we get out of here, a quick Michael Harris check in.

00:39:24
Speaker 1: Obviously we talked about it on the feeds. If you want more of the reaction from Steven and shall On, et cetera. That is available for you. But we now know always as of today, it's a grade two hamstring strain for Michael Harris. There is no official timetable. The Braves don't often give time tables. But if you look around as I did today, I don't know if you did, I did some googling, it would be a shock to me and I think everyone if it was less than a month for Michael Harris. It might be two months, it might be longer. We don't really know. It's all a guess, but Grade two is not what you wanted to see for sure. Process wise, they were able to get out along the roster because Strider I was not on the sixt to day yet that happened today, but not even I mean, of course it's your reaction of the grade too, but even beyond that, we you gotta talk about the state of the outfield, because captain obvious here, Scott, the outfield situation is not what anybody wanted it to be. And right now it is like looking like twenty twenty one free traits, like it's pretty dark out there in the outfield. Yes it is, and.

00:40:24
Speaker 2: Man, you look at the outfield right now. And if you would have told me the outfield was going to be this in mid June coming into the season, I mean, it would be hard to even get to this point right, like to connect the dots. It's like, well, wait, where are the outfielders who are like superstars? Where's the MVP, where's the Gold Glove winner?

00:40:42
Speaker 3: You know?

00:40:42
Speaker 2: For Harris, it sounds like one to two months is going to be the timeline. He of course is a young guy. He's athletic, so let's hope it's on the shorter end of that. But at the very least, the Braves have to find three outfielders to play every single night until Michael comes back. And man, I mean keil Nick is playing better, which is encouraging. Adam Duval has a negative forty the negative forty WRC plus against right handed pitching this season.

00:41:12
Speaker 1: Okay, Scott, I've to cut you off now. I was waiting for this. I do not prap you for this. We should at least say out loud. And the number is hilariously bad. Adam Duvall is actually not not a historic platoon split guy. Adam Duval actually has been pretty good against Riots in his career like he's not. I think people think of him as a slugger, and sluggers often have big platoon splits. He usually doesn't. But man, uh sample size, maybe I don't even know. I'm I'm not trying. I'm not trying to wave it away, but man, it's really, really, really bad. It's ridis and you have to hope that it's honestly. Devaal's kind of always been this super streaky guy, so maybe that's just maybe it's just noise or mostly noise. But I laughed when I saw your notiviz. The RCI plus gets ridies. It's in the negatives and not just.

00:41:53
Speaker 2: By little yeah, I mean below one hundred batting average. His ops is below two hundred. Again, in ops below two hundred against Fridays, he is mashing lefties, which is encouraging, of course batting from the right side. I mean, there's some value in that, but clearly at age thirty five, I mean, Adam Duval has some limitations. We talked about Kelnick Ramon Loriano is interesting. Once upon a time he was really good with the Oakland A's, but he got popped for peds and was suspended and hasn't been quite as good since he was cut by the Cleveland Guardians a couple of weeks ago. Brian Anderson is around. He similarly, once upon a time, was quite good with the Marlins, but has not been that player for a few years. JP Martinez is like the epitome of like a fifth outfielder. You also have Forest Wall and Gwinnett, who is in his mid twenties. I mean, maybe he could bring a little bit of spark with his on base and his steed. He can't hit man, Yeah, he's never hit twenty six years old in the minors. Not impossible, but if you hit your mid twenties in the minor leagues, the reality is a hitter is you're probably not going to make a great impact. So we're gonna see they're very much gonna have to piece it together, and I mean it feels inevitable now even if it was leaning this way before Harris's injury. Alexanthopolis has to go get an impact outfielder at the deadline. Maybe maybe not a superstar that or may not even be available, but he has to get somebody, preferably who could platoon with Duval or even spell Kelnick because I mean, again, you know Akuoni has done for the year. Let's say that Harris comes back in six weeks. I mean, what if there's another injury, Brad, I mean, then we're getting into scary hours.

00:43:41
Speaker 1: Well that's yeah, that's where we have to get to here, because you know, there's nothing to say that you couldn't get an injury now while Harris is already out and it is it is pretty dire. You know, again, Harris will be back eventually, like it might be a while, but it isn't the season ending. Like you're gonna get Michael Harris back and he's gonna be your center fielder when he comes back. But you know, just the sheer you gave the names just to say it out loud, the five guys in the on the roster right now, on the active roster Kellen nic Duvall, Loreano, Bran Anderson, and Jap Martinez. That is not a outfielder on a contender, outfit on a contender.

00:44:16
Speaker 3: It's just not.

00:44:17
Speaker 1: So everyone knows that. Of course, the extremely obvious thing to say is that in twenty twenty one it was maybe even worse than this because of injuries and Alex went out in the span of a week and got a bunch of guys who were not huge gits, but starting caliber or at least platoon caliber outfielders. They're talking about Solaire and Jock and all that. All that it worked out beautifully, Eddie Rosario. Obviously, Alex batted one million on the transactions. You can't always bank on that. They don't have to get three guys like they did at that time, but they do probably have to get somebody else, especially because look, you know, we just mentioned how good kellennickspan recently, and I think that realistically Kunnick's been as good or better than I would have hoped to this point. If he levels off, or if Duval just hits the wall where he's you know, he's in his mid thirties. What if he's just not pretty good like he's always been streaky. We love aout him to all on this podcast. Maybe he's just not sing guy anymore. And then you get into like, yeah, Loreano was good five years ago in Oakland. I don't know if you can bank on that. So not trying to paint a two diar of picture, but I do think that they're gonna need somebody else and they don't appear willing or eager at all to play Marcel in left field, or they already would do that. Like, we've reached the point where if Marcell was an outfield option, they would have been using him probably this weekend in the downfield. I have to guess.

00:45:39
Speaker 2: I think that ship has definitely sailed.

00:45:43
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:45:43
Speaker 2: I mean, and as we've longtime listeners know, it's always a talking point when we get closer to the trade deadline. But again, man, there are no exceptions to the trade deadline anymore.

00:45:54
Speaker 1: After July thirty first.

00:45:56
Speaker 2: There used to be the waiver period where you could sneak players through and get some trade done in August. That's gone with So your roster at four pm Eastern Time on July thirty first, or whatever day the deadline is this year, I believe it's the thirty first that is your roster through the playoffs. It's not only do the Braves have to navigate the next couple of months without Harris, but if someone gets hurt on August first in the outfield, the Braves are screwed. I mean, then you're talking about Ramon Loriano starting a playoff game or Forrest Wall starting a playoff game. I mean that that is not acceptable, and I think Alex Entthopolis would be the first one to tell you this. It's going to be a very interesting next six weeks or so. A navigating the outfield without Harris and b seeing what Alex does to add to this outfield that very much needs an influx of talent.

00:46:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, we were very positive on the show and we still are on the whole here. But given all the injuries, you lay them out here in our document just to give you the credit for that, But Strider, Racunya, Ozzy miss time, Ronnie miss time, Murkhy miss time, Piers Johnson miss time, mentor still Paris is out like it has been worse than you would expect it to be for any team. The Braves have had below average in Drea locks so far, even if you know a factoring in. Ronald alone is a big loss for anybody as the best player in baseball in a lot of ways. But some work to be done for Anthopolis. You know, he didn't shy away from that and his comments to the media this week. He's not gonna come out and say we're going to do this, this, and this, because he's not that kind of guy. But it will officially surprise me and I know it will surprise you if they do not go get an outfielder of some acclaim between now and the deadline, which is six weeks away.

00:47:32
Speaker 2: Yes, it is going to very much be Alexanthopolis's time to make some moves, and I think that's something that Alex has. He has earned the trust of the fan base. I don't want to sound like a fanboy or I'm just constantly beating the drum for Alex and Thoppolis, but he has shown that through his five or six years now in Atlanta, he has generally hit on more things than he is. Not nobody's perfect. He's not going to be right on every single deal, but he's going to have to face the music here and maybe overpay at a track. I know that's something he probably would never want to do, but he might have to push a few chips in to try to give this team a chance. And I think we do have the benefit of having six weeks before trade deadline hits, so you can really evaluate and see what is Jared Kelnick like a month from now, does Adam Duval start to hit right handed pitching, or is he this automatic out, what is the shortstop situation? Like Orlando Arcia has been terrible for the last month and a half, one of the worst position players in the game. You go on and on down the list, injuries, whatever.

00:48:36
Speaker 1: It might be.

00:48:37
Speaker 2: So it's going to be a big next month and a half of evaluation for Alex in the front office because clearly this team still has the potential to have a deep run in October, but with all of the injuries, it is becoming more and more apparent they are going to need a couple of impact level editions if in my eyes anyway, if they're going to be a serious World Series can.

00:49:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, just to back you up so people don't think that you were just making stuff out of whole cloth about Orlando Arcia. Actually, this is from our our friend Steven Tolbert, our co host, who just tweeted this about ten minutes ago. Arcia, in the last two months or so, so it's April nineteenth, has is literally dead last in all of baseball among qualified position players at the plate. He's a thirty six dou RC plus in the last two months. So you were not wrong about that, and you weren't exaggerating about that. Hopefully that will balance out in the near future. Okay, Scott, before we get out of here, a brief look ahead at what's to come. We'll kind of save the weekend preview because it's coming up with the big series against the Yankees. That's gonna be a showdown. And the Yankees are quite good this year. But before that three at home against Detroit, Detroit is basically the epitome of a five hundred team. So far this year they look like that. And the projections in the preseason over unders in the run differential, they are mid, but not in a bad way. They're just okay, And it's Freed, It's Schwellenbach and it's Lopez as the probables so far for the Braves. As of Sundy evening, I don't know about you. I'm looking forward to weds Get Wednesday's game. It's of course the Old Businessman Special, So Scott, it's a nine to twenty am start for you, but it's a fantastic pitching matchup on Wednesday.

00:50:12
Speaker 2: It is Ronaldo Lopez, who I believe leads all of baseball in era unless something changed, that is correct.

00:50:19
Speaker 1: One point six to nine, very nice.

00:50:21
Speaker 2: Nice and against Derek Scooble for the Detroit Tigers, who might be the best pitcher in baseball. That is not a household name. He's nasty, he's a lefty. That's about as good as a pitching matchup as you're going to get in the middle of Wednesday afternoon. So you know, as you said, the Tigers not a bad team, not a good team. They can't really score, like the offense is pretty bad, but they found a way to be competitive in the American League Central, which has surprisingly been pretty good this year. They're very much a five hundred team. Tigers were actually above five hundred after last year's All Star Game team that kind of had some young players start to figure things out. So they're not bad. They're not a pushover. This is not the Tigers of a couple of years ago where they lost like one hundred and seven games, But a chance for the Braves, especially at home, and especially the way the lineup has woken up, to hopefully take advantage. Two out of three would be great. Of course a sweep would be awesome, but yeah, clearer schedules for Wednesday afternoon, because that is going to be a terrific pitching matchup.

00:51:27
Speaker 1: Or Wednesday morning. In one particular co host case on this podcast, I looked this up. The Tigers have a minus three frun differential this season, which is essentially zero. So that's what they are at this point. Okay, Scott, let us get out of here. Anything to plug at the end of this what I believe will be our longest episode of Hammer Territory yet.

00:51:48
Speaker 2: Not a ton to plug. Good to do a show with you, Brad where we were not like banging our heads against the wall because of the offense. It's been a frustrating couple of weeks, but some very encouraging signs this weekend for the Braves. Let's hope they continue it against the Tigers and then a big series against the Yankees next weekend.

00:52:06
Speaker 1: That'll be a lot of fun.

00:52:07
Speaker 2: Try to avoid Aaron Judge and One Soto hitting five hundred foot homers against this but overall hard to not be encouraged by the offense waking up this weekend and let's hope it keeps you awing.

00:52:18
Speaker 1: Strongly agree and please, please please subscribe to the Hammer Territory podcast anywhere you might find podcasts that includes Apple, Spotify, Overcast. If you are able to leave five star ratings on your podcast player of choice. We definitely would encourage that and be thankful for it. And beyond just listening, which we definitely appreciate, it would be huge for us if you would tell your friends, either on social media or in your everyday offline the life about the podcast, because we're trying to grow the show. Check out the entire Territory network as well. Not just us, but there's North Side Territory and Daughter's Territory, et cetera. If you are into baseball Beyond the Braves Walls and we appreciate all the support from Vould Territory or Scott's people, Sten to the podcast and we'll see you all next time