Arbitration Estimations and Playoff Takeaways for Braves

00:00:21
Speaker 1: Welcome on it all to the Hammer Territory Podcast presented by Fox One. Always good to be with you again again again. I know for us in Braves Country, we would love to be talking Braves baseball right now, but that doesn't mean that there's some excellent playoff baseball going on right now as we speak. Me and Steven Tobert both are multitasking right now. Keep it up with the excellent playoff baseball that's going on, but here to talk Braves with you as well. And this is why the man is one of the best when it comes to covering the Braves in baseball in general. He can just multitask. He can do amazing things when it comes to and join and analyzing baseball as always the world's best cast partner, Steven Tober, good talk with you, sir.

00:01:03
Speaker 2: What's up, buddy? Yeah, man, got a little playoff baseball over to my right. I got Yankees blue Jays on. We obviously got some topics to talk about with the Braves. We had some arbitration projections dropped this week, which helps a lot for the content. We appreciate the boys over at MLB Trade Rumors. They always do a great job dropping those projections, and we're gonna talk about them to night. They have pretty big implications on the roster, of course, like any arbitration projection. We had some coaching news drop, so we're gonna talk a little coaching news. The Athletic had some stuff this morning actually that came out that we're gonna talk about. We're gonna get little little playoff baseball. You know, it's October. We're just kind of grooving through the playoffs. The playoffs have been fun to watch. Obviously, it'd be a lot more fun to watch if the Brays are in it. But you know, say Levi, such as life and here we are. But we're gonna get into it tonight. We appreciate it as always.

00:01:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, and specifically when it comes to talking little playoff baseball. Things that are really standing out from this postseason. None of these are surprising or anything else, but just basically traits that this Braves roster needs to regain to not only make the playoffs but also once again have success in October. But let's talk about more important things when it comes to the early offseason, and of course that is filling out the roster, filling out the forty man roster. Brad Scott Steven, myself, we've all talked about various aspects of how this forty man roster bullin Ball will evolve early in the off season. And one of the bigger, you know, facets to follow when it comes to putting together your roster early in the off season is when it comes to you know, contracts. You know, these eligible players who are under your control, will you give them contracts for the next season. And of course, many of those players, as they get into service time, go into arbitration. And one of the things that many look forward to is the annual arbitration estimations from MLB trade rumors, and that was released yesterday. The Braves themselves are no short when it comes to these arbitration estimations. Nine potential players could have been even more, but nine players who will potentially be facing arbitration now. While it is nine players, none are really that significant in terms of the main core for the Braves you know, hopeful success moving forward. But that doesn't mean that there's some relevant names where decisions need to be made. Steven, let's go through them real quickly and then kind of you know, nine total names, let's go through them in groups of three to really give our determination of how we think their contract for next season will work out.

00:03:38
Speaker 2: Right, So let's just get the kind of the nuts and bolts out of the way right off the bat. We'll just go through the names real quick, and then we'll break them down by by groups. So the Braves have nine players, Like Sean said, it could have been more. They just you know, went through They just did outright waivers on Jared Kelnick and Eli not, Ela White, Luke Williams. You know, they had that group of five players they just cut. A couple of days ago. A bunch of those guys would have been arg arbitration eligible, but they're not on this list obviously. So the nine guys. Jake Freeley projected at three point six million next year, Joel Piamps projected at three point four million dollars next year, Jose Suarez projected at one point five million, Alex Manoa projected at two point two million, Dylan Lee projected at one point nine million, Eli White projected at one point two million, Vaidel Bruhan projected at eight hundred k, Joey Wentz at one point one million, and Nick Allen at one point five million.

00:04:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think that that order again Steven went through the highest to the lowest. But also you know, as you have more service time, you're gonna earn more money. It coincides the higher salaries to the lower salaries, also coincide with the guys with the most service time to the smallest service time. But that actually lines up perfectly for us to discuss these nine players in groups of three, because I think it pretty much lines itself up when it comes to these decisions. I think that there are going to be some interesting decisions to be made several of these names. You could see the braves going either way on but I do think that it's pretty clear when it comes to the names that that you likely are okay moving on from. It's the guys who who are the most expensive Jake Frayley, Yoel pi Amps as well as Jose Sworez. And the reason why I think it's an okay decision to make. I don't think that you're necessarily going to beat an eye to moving on from those guys. I do think that like a Jake Frayley, for instance, could be a potential, you know, contributor next year, but it's more about the fact that I don't think the Braves are going to be as cost conscious in this offseason as they were last offseason. But that's still nine million dollars that if you move on from those guys you could take to go contribute to more of a sure thing, and you need as many sure things as possible on this Prase roster. That's what I think is the big determining factor on those three grounds. So Suarez, Frayley as well as pi Amp I think it makes sense that the praise will probably move on.

00:06:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can make a case probably either a way for Frehley. It's gonna depend a little bit on what else they do. You know, we've talked about in the past. You know, I've said multiple times on this show that I want the Braves to go get a starting caliber outfielder, like a legitimate starting outfielder, and rotate that guy with Akunya and Profar at left field right field in DH. Now, if they don't do that, and they just go with a traditional fourth outfielder, then Jake Frayley at like four million bucks, it's probably fine, yes, But if they do that, then Jake Frailey at four million bucks for your fifth outfielder makes much less sense. So Frailey is very much tied to what else they do. He's a good player. Four million bucks is not terrible. But yeah, the other guys, none of these three guys have options. Frehley, Pie Amps or sure Az, none of them have options that matters. I don't know Frehley would be optioned anyways, but certainly pi Amps and Suarez, you know, not having minor league options, not being able to be sent to winnet, it's going to affect their value because the Braves can pick up other guys who are probably similarly talented but have minor league options, which gives them the flexibility to do what they need to do its spring training, in season. You know, not having minor league options is just tough. So yeah, I agree, Freeley is more tied to what they do the rest of the all season. But these other two guys, not having minor league options, being the most expensive of the group, probably not great for them.

00:07:30
Speaker 1: Agreed. And it makes sense again because you know the Braves, you know, they want to make sure that they again they are going with as many sure things as possible, proven commodities, so as much money as they have to put torch proven commodities. It's sense. That's why when it comes to Villain Lee and Eli White, especially with how you know cheap they remain with their service time levels, I think that they clearly are shoeins for next year's roster. Maybe not so much Eli White, but I think it just makes too much sense that they are projected costs not to go within with the value that they add. Dylan Lee obviously perhaps be the most reliable part of the Braids bullpen over the past five years. Eli White a very versatile bench biase, I think it makes sense to go with those guys. But perhaps the most intriguing name out of all these that we mentioned is Alec Manaiah, who is projected to make two point two million. But he's so intriguing and Steven there's one other aspect about him that makes him potentially worth the gamble to see if he could regain some of his form that he had back from a top five cy Young finish a few years ago.

00:08:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, so these three guys, obviously, Alec Manoa, Dylan Lee and Eli White are probably you're most likely to be back. Dill In Lee I think is probably a certainty unless he got traded, but I don't see that happening. The big thing with Lee, well, the big thing with Lee is he's a legitimate contributor to the team. The big thing with Manoa is that he has minor the options. And when you have minor the options, just like we were talking about with the two guys before, it's so much more valuable to the organization because you can be in Triple A and if you don't make the rostrat of spring training, you can go to Triple A. When you don't have options, like Suarez or pie Amps, you can't go to Triple A. You have to either make the roster, you have to be defade. Just so much more flexibility. So and again, Alec Manoa is a big name, he was a big talent. Like two million bucks for that guy is pretty reasonable. Dylan Lee at two million bucks is very reasonable. And then Eli White, again it's gonna be tied a little bit to what they do at outfield, but a million bucks for a guy who can play center field, which is massive. Anytime you're talking about bench pieces, can they play center or can they play short? Eli White technically can do both because he did play a little short last year, as people remember, but that kind of defensive versatility is a weapon off the bench. He's got good speed. You know, he's not a great hitter. He did hit for some power this year though he had I think he had ten home nine or ten homers this year. So he's got talent. And again he's dirt cheap. So you can do much worse than Eli light off the bench for a million bucks to have backup center field have an emergency shortstop. I think those three guys are, I would say, pretty safely, the three guys, I would say are most likely to.

00:10:11
Speaker 1: Be back absolutely. And then we get into the more interesting decisions when it comes to about El brew On as well as Joey Wentz, and I want to take a step back of Alex Manoa excuse me, I said his last name wrong, but by El Brewon as well as Joey Wentz and Nick Allen, all of those guys projected around one million brew On a little bit lower. But I think that those guys, the reason why I'm not necessarily saying that it makes sense to move on from them is because at their cost, you know, it could add value Wentz as a starting rotation option with all the injuries that we've had recently, Nick Allen's defense, especially for a team that's looking to win, can be an asset. You can make a case for these guys making the team, but at the end of the day, I do think more likely than not multiple of them, maybe all of them, they're gonna get caught up in the numbers game. No minor league options you're going to have. You know, they're redundant basically for the forty man roster, and that may be what ultimately makes it make sense to move on from him.

00:11:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, so obviously the two short stops Nick Allen Vitel Bruhan. The thing that's going to work against those guys is two things. One, Obviously, the Brads want to bring Hassan Kim back, and if he's the starter, then that only leaves a bench spot available. Two, the Brads also claimed Brett Wisely, and I can't remember it was in August or September, but they claimed him from the Giants. He is an infield prosper or not prospect. He's like twenty six, but he's an infielder who can play shortstop, who can play second. The big thing with Wisely, though, is one he is still pre arbitration, which means he is dirt cheap. He is he is literally like a league minimum type of player. Two, he has minor league options. So neither Nick Allen or Vitol Breuhan have minor league options. Again, that's a big deal. You know, Nick Allen probably has the best case here, like he's he is jgitimately such an elite defender at a premium position that like, that's a caring tool that you can have on the bench. But I don't know that you can have Hassan, Kim, Brett Wisely, and Nick Allen all on the team at the same time. That doesn't make sense. Now, you could have Nick Allen as the backup in Brett Wiseley and triple A because again Wisely has options, and maybe that's the way they go, So you know, that could that could certainly be the route they take. But Nick Allen can't hit. We know that for a fact. You know, it's no money. He's not making any money, so it's not a big deal if you do keep him. But not having minor league options hurts all of these guys. That's why we think Manoa and Lee are such locks. Manoa specifically because he has those minor league options, none of the other guys do. There's gonna be a numbers game in the infield. We'll see what they do in Nick Allen, I could probably be talking in either way. I'm buying if they pick it up and just put wisely at Triple A. The Bradys don't have a ton of infield depth anyways, so you can make the case either way.

00:12:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, at the end of the day, it's more quantity than quality when it comes to these names. You can see several of them making sense. But also at the end of the day, if the Braves are checking some of the boxes early in the off season of how they want to fill out the roster, you could also easily see it making sense to move on. It'll be all up to what new editions we see the Braves when it comes to the Excited to have one ourselves. We do want to welcome Fox one as the new presenting partner for Hammer Territory. This show is brought to you by Fox one. Fox one is live streaming all your Fox favorites, including as of right now, right now, the American League Playoffs and the World Series.

00:13:45
Speaker 2: Yep. So Fox one new presenting sponsor on the show, very excited. Over to my right as we speak, I have two American League playoff games. I got the Mariners and the Tigers. I've got the Yankees and Seattle. Of course, Detroit and Detroit in Seattle are in a one to one tie for the series. Whoever wins Game three, it's gonna take control of that series. For the Blue Jays and the Yankees, we have a two to oh series. The Blue Jays are currently dominating the Yankees, so the Yankees are pretty much in survival mode, a couple of great pitching matchups. Because the Detroit Seattle series is one to one, We're guaranteed to have a Game four tomorrow that will be on Fox One, and the Yankees are gonna have to win this game tonight to force a Game four tomorrow. But if they do and force the game four, it will be tomorrow and it will also be on Fox One, as will the Alcs next week, and as will the World Series in about two weeks near the end of the month. So make sure you're checking out Fox one. From MLB postseason, NFL on Fox to Big Noon Saturdays. With Fox One, you get all of it live. Start your seven day free trial today. Go to foxwe dot com for complete terms and conditions. Fox one streaming now.

00:15:03
Speaker 1: Absolutely make sure you check out Fox one for all your favorites from Fox. And of course, you know, when we speak of our favorites, one of the you know, favorites for many of us for a long period of time, you know, was Brian Snicker. I know some of us, you know, we all had criticism of him when it came to how he managed things like that, but I do think that overall, when it comes to him being a leader of the Braves, he was a fan favorite. He was someone that every favorite in the clubhouse. He is going to be a big hole to feel. Whoever takes over the Braves manager's role is going to have some big shoes to feel. And we're continuing to see this, this coaching search, this coaching carousel evolved. But today we receive some news that kind of gave the indication when it came to the Braves, we should only focus on the managerial position being filled because this coaching staff in general could see quite a bit of turnover. We'll get to that in just a moment. But the first bit of news that came out today was that the Braves were the only team of those with current manager openings who did not seek to speak with Skip Schumacher before he took on the role with the Texas Rangers. He's now the manager of the Texas Rangers, Steve, and I don't find that necessarily that significant, but it kind of indicates to me that Alex and Thoptless, as should be expected, is going to keep things very close to the best and is probably going to steer this search in ways that not many expect. In other words, all these names that you know, many national outlets are considering to be favorites for the Braves, that may not necessarily be the case.

00:16:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, So Britdany Girilli of the Athletic today released her what I'm Hearing Peace, which has become kind of an InVogue thing at the Athletic. They do that a lot, but hers was specifically around all of these managerial openings that have come up in the last week or so, and she had nuggets for everybody, but the Brave specific ones were one. The Braves were the only team that has an opening that did not reach out to Skips. Now, again, I don't know how much I read into that everybody kind of knew Skip Schumacher was going to be the Rangers manager. You know, the Braves will tell you they hadn't reached out to anyone at that point. And if everyone knew he was going to be the Rangers manager, I don't really know how important it is that you reach out or show any interest. He got that job almost immediately after Boshe left, so I don't you know, I don't think showing interest in him was going to change anything at all anyway, So you know, take it for what it's worth. By far and away, the most interesting nugget that came out to me was that the Braves have granted permission for all of their current coaches to interview elsewhere. Now is this surprising, No, It's very common when a manager leaves and there's an uncertainty in the staff, that you allow them to go interview for other jobs because they might not have a job with you, and it would be very it'd be a pretty crappy thing to do to not let them at least go interview for other jobs. What it does tell me, though, and maybe I'm wrong, I might be reading too much into this, And if I am, I'll admit it later. I do feel like that kind of points to them not hiring what what Weiss as the manager. I do feel like this points to maybe more of an external hire, because I think if they were really just focused on what Weiss, I think they would have tried to keep the staff together as much as possible and maybe told them like, hey, you're not gonna have to worry about going to find new jobs. We're gonna we're gonna you know, we're looking at what Weiss pretty heavily. It's a very good chance we're gonna try to keep the staff together. I might be wrong. They might they might still hire what Weiss. I could be dead wrong about that, but it does feel like they are kind of opening the door and Braves fans should probably expect that Brian Snitcher is not gonna be the only member of the coaching staff that turns over this offseason. That's kind of what I'm expecting.

00:18:58
Speaker 1: Now.

00:18:58
Speaker 2: Is it gonna be David Ross? I don't know, we'll see. But when I read that, I got the sense that they're planning for and maybe even expecting, quite a bit of turnover on the staff.

00:19:12
Speaker 1: And I think that that is kind of the direction that you know we need to go in. Because I'll be honest, over the past few months, I myself have kind of gone back and forth. You know, I definitely feel strongly that the Braves needed to move on from Brian Sticker. They needed a new voice, a new approach when it came to the manager's seat, But when it came to Cranits even Tim Hyers towards the end of the season, I also was talking myself into okay, I wouldn't mind seeing that combo back again, especially Krantit's I know you feel the same way. But as much as we talk about during the Braves run of success from basically twenty nineteen through twenty twenty three, the continuity of our coaching staff being an underrated asset and underrated strength of why we were so successful, the time's come where you need to embrace change. You need to brace new voices, new ideas coming into the clubhouse. Because we've talked about it all season is that it's not just changing the manager. It's not just you know, reshuffling the roster. There are things about this organization, how this organization defines success and the value it places on certain sources for success. That needs to be updated, and that comes along with the change in the coaching staff. So certainly we'd like to retain crandits, especially if it makes sense. But I'm okay with not only going external when it comes to the manager, but also that manager bringing in coaches that he's comfortable with that he feels is going to put him in the most effective position to successfully lead this Brace's team back to contention. So I'm ready to embrace that, even if it leads to a lot of turnover for the coaching staff as a whole.

00:20:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I you know, if you ask Brace fans, I don't think anybody would be like heartbroken over the idea that Tim Hyers is not going to be the hitting coach next year. Like I think most Brace be like, yeah, fine, okay. You know, Chipper Jones came out like last week and and gave a very eye opening interview where he said, like, I'm ready to be a full time coach. Like that was not always the case with Chipper. He always was like, I'd rather be a consultant, I'd rather be a special assistant. I'm I'm not really interested in the time commitment of a full time coach. And they were asking about manager. He's like, I'm not. I don't think I'm ready to be a manager, but I think i'd be a really good hitting coach. Like my my years perked up. I was like, all right, Like if they go hire like David Ross to be the manager and then hire Chipper Jones to be the hitting coach and get you know, Rick Kranitz back as the pitching coach, I'm like, all right, that's a pretty damn good staff. But by far and away, the most important name is Rick Kranits, like the pitching coach. He has been so good with the Braves. He has done an incredible job getting the absolute most out of whatever his talent level is. Whatever the talent level is on the team, he gets at least that much in production, if not more, and usually more. And that's that's just the mark of a good coach. That's really all you can ask of the coach. The coach has no control over what the talent level is, no control over real injuries, anything like that is just whatever I give you, are you getting the most out of it? And I think with the Cranits he has, so getting him back would be huge. But again we have no idea. You know, he could be interviewing for jobs right now because he wanted to work for Sticker. And you know, whoever you hire as manager might want his own pitching coach, might won his own bench coach, might won his own hitting coach. I don't know how much the manager controls that stuff, how much the front office controls that stuff. We're gonna find out here pretty soon. But yeah, you know, Chipper's level of interest in the hitting coach job and keeping Rick Kranitz are far and away the two most interesting parts of this. And you know we're gonna get news as it comes out of the next week or so about which guys are interviewing, where other teams will leak it. It's not just it doesn't just have to come from the Braves, so we might get more information. It's going to be interesting to track.

00:23:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, not necessarily saying that a resolution is going to come soon, because you know, if the Braves have any interest and coaches currently, you know in the postseason that you know plays a part timeline wise. But the big thing to know is is that once it comes down the pipe, who the Braves are going to hire as manager don't be surprised if we get, you know, several updates when it comes to the coaching staff, and we could see a significantly different setup when it comes to the coaching staff going into twenty twenty six and beyond them. But speaking of twenty twenty six and beyond, when we're talking about changes, when we're talking about what needs to change for this brave squad to not only get to the playoffs but have success, there's three takeaways so far from this postseason that I really think need to become areas of strengths. Once the areas of strength once begin for the Atlanta Braves. We'll discuss that more in just a moment.

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00:24:59
Speaker 1: So steven that it's now been four years since the Braves won the World Series, well almost four years, but we've talked about it quite a bit. What was so successful? What were the reasons why the Braves, I think, in the minds of many unexpectedly won the World Series in twenty twenty one, and it's simple. It comes down to two things. Bombs and the bullpen. That's exactly what it was. Dingers and delivering strikeouts. That's what it was. It was the ability to hit home runs at a better pace than your opponents while also getting strikeouts late in game scenarios. That's what led to so much success for this Braves team. And we are once again seeing that. I know it's been four years since the Braves won the World Series, but that stands out to me once again as being two critical areas of improvement that this Braves team needs to get dependability at once again. The ability to hit home runs. It's been shared time and time again. When a team homer's more than their opponent, they win more than eighty percent of the time in the playoffs. And if you have a bullpen that can get strikeouts and critical situations, that's the best way to limit those home runs, which become even more valuable in low scoring games. Hitting home runs and having a reliable bullpen, that's got to be two traits that need to come back to the Atlanta Braves.

00:26:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean we talked about it all all offseason or I mean all regular season, Like I want them to go back to hitting homers at an elite rate. I think it's the key to sustaining an offense when you have streaky hitters, and I think the Braves have maybe the streakiest collection of hitters I've ever seen. I mean, guys that can go cold for like months at a time. And when you have that, the idea that you're gonna constantly have three, four, five, six guys hitting at the same time and being able to move the line as Snit used to say, and like stack together a bunch of hits doesn't work when you have that many streaky hitters. What does work is if you're hitting homers, you don't need six or seven guys hitting. You need like two guys hitting. You need like three guys hitting because they can bop homers. And not only does that help you sustain streakiness during the regular season, but it's also how you win in the postseason. And you just gave that stat about out homering your opponents in the postseason. So the pitching is so good in October, it's so good you have got Garrett Crochet, and you got Tarik's Skubel, and you got Christopher Sanchez, and you got on and on and on and Max Freed and Chris Sale. If the Braves ever get back there, Like the pitching is so damn good in October, the idea you gotta stream together six hits in a row in an inning is just you know, you're living in fantasy world. Like you gotta get you gotta get runs in quick bunches, a walk in, a homer, boom, two runs, another walk, another homer, a single and a whole Like that's how you score in the postseason. You're not gonna stack a bunch of hits together. So yes, go back to hitting homers the way this lineup was built to I think that's why they did it originally, to be honest with you, is to have postseason success. And it's a big part of their twenty twenty one success. I mean, Jock Peterson, you know the in the NLDS that year, Eddie Rizzari on the NLCS, Jorge Soilira in the World Series, Like they were bopping homers. And not only were they bopping homers, they were then using the bullpen to close out these games. And that's how you win in October, Bombs and bullpen. If we're gonna make a logo for twenty twenty six, I'm gonna wear a shirt that says bombs and bullpen, because I think that's how you win. You gotta have a starting pitching. You gotta have a starting pitching, of course in the regular season and in the postseason, but in the postseason, your starters are going like five innings and then you're you're bringing out a weapon of a bullpen. And that's what I want the Brads to get back to, a weapon of a bullpen. I don't think it was a weapon this year. I think they had to kind of protect it a little bit, and when they had to use it a lot, it got exposed. And I want to go back to having it be a strength of the team. One of the best bullpens in baseball and one of the best home run hitting lineups in baseball. Those are the two things I'll want for twenty twenty six, and those are the things I'm going to be looking for this off season. Yeah.

00:29:08
Speaker 1: Again, here as we are discussing postseason takeaways of this edition of The Hammer, Territory podcast presented by Fox One. And the thing that I'll say is this is that those are two known things, right, Like, it's no secret that if you've got an effective bullpen that can get strikeouts and you've got a lineup that can stack home runs in big moments, you're going to go far in the postseason. That describes what probably is the biggest current series in the minds of many right now, the Dodgers in the Phillies. The Phillies have had such good starting pitching, not now but throughout their postseason run here recently, but their bullpen's not been able to get leads and they're not hitting home runs like the Dodgers are. That's why they're down two oh. So yes, it's critical to hit bombs. It's critical to have a big bullpen. But there's one other key area that this Braves team must improve on, and thankfully they did in the second half of the season. They've got to be able to consistently produce in situational opportunities, specifically creating and converting run scoring opportunities when those home runs are not happening. As you face good pitching in the postseason, and especially as you face it, game after game after game, it's going to be hard to hit those home runs, so you've got to have multiple ways to win. Here is one of the biggest points as to why hitting when prunters a good scoring position is so critical. I feel like that I have absolutely harped on it over the past year plus. Of the eight teams right now, all eight teams that are still currently alive in the Baseball playoffs, each of them were in the top ten of WRC plus in run scoring opportunities. This year, they had eight of the top ten WRC pluses when it came to being at the play in run scoring opportunities, they were among the best in baseball and not only hitting home runs but being able to create and convert run scoring opportunities. This Braves team improved in that aspect in the second half the season. It's got to carry over because through twenty nineteen to twenty twenty three we were eleventh or best in the majors. Last year twenty first, this year's thirteenth. We've got to be back in that top ten and that gives you multiple ways of being able to win in the postseason.

00:31:20
Speaker 2: And listen, a lot of the Braves being thirteenth was what they did in the second half. Right Like the first half they were miserable, and the second half. One thing I will say is they got on base a lot more when they added Profar, When they added Kim, you know, they got rid of some of the black holes at the bottom of the lineup that have really hurt this team. The Braves have to be really careful about. You know. Alex has had this thing where he says, well, if the other guys are doing their job, it's okay to have one or two black holes at the bottom of the lineup. I don't agree with that. I think if you if you don't have when you have a group of hitters, this streaky, the idea that seven of them are going to be doing their job all at one time, at any one time, it's just it's it's not gonna happen. So I think you gotta be careful about having too many black holes at the bottom of the lineup. Obviously, adding Kim helped a lot at shortstop, Pro four helped a lot in left field. We'll see what they do in the offseason, but yeah, they just gave themselves more opportunities. They came through more. They also started hitting up a lot more homers in the second half, like they the second half really did look like and especially August and September, it really did look like like what we're used to seeing. Offensively. It wasn't always that way, but it was much closer than whatever the hell the first half, I thought I was watching a different franchise. I didn't know what I was watching every night, but I was watching them lose two to one off great starting pitching and and couldn't win a game because it couldn't score. So yes, going back getting on base a little bit more. I love walk rate. Walk right is one of my favorite stats. Their walk rate really jumped up in the second half, but they hit more homers. Hit more homers. Homers are how you get through any sort of cold streak of your lineup. I'm a big believer that, you know, I know, fans, whatever that you know. Braves two dependent on the home run. They got a diverse one no hit homers, hit home and that's how you get through cold streaks until you get to a postseason. You hit homers. That's what I want to see in twenty twenty six, along with a bullpen that's gone, that goes from being questionable to being a weapon. I think I think those are honestly, along with starting pitching health, I think those are the big keys going into twenty twenty six.

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Speaker 1: And the biggest thing of all is that the reason why we're talking about that bullpen being a weapon, that bullpen being dependable once again, is because it's not just about guys that can log you innings in the postseason. It's about guys that you can confidently use in matchups. That's how the Phillies were able to beat the Braves you know, pretty, you know, convincingly in twenty two and twenty three. They use their bullpens so effectively against our lineup. The Braves need to get back to feeling confident and then the right matchups they could use their bullpen guys over and over again in a playoff series. Can't thank you enough for joining us here on this edition of the Hammer Territory Podcast, once again presented by our new presenting partner, Fox one. Make sure you check out the Fox one app or all your favorite shows and sports from Fox. Of course, Steven Tolbert you can find him at Beat Underscore, Outliers, on Twitter, slash x myself at stats SAC can't thank you enough for the support Hammer Territory across all forms of social media. Part of the foul Territory family of podcasts. Until next time, go braves. We'll talk to you again soon here on the Hammer Territory