Taking Stock Of The Braves Through 10 Games

00:00:21
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome back to the HEMMI Teratory Podcast. This is episode three five seven. My name is Brad Roland and I'm joined on this Sunday evening in early April. I'm a good friend Scott Coleman. Scott, the Sunday curse strikes us once more. How are you hello?

00:00:38
Speaker 2: Brad? You know I was really hoping for a Sunday win on like a personal level. I could really use a Braves win right now. We'll get it out of the way. Congratulations. I'm just so happy for you and your Michigan Wolverines. That was an ass whooman on my Wildcats on national television for the entire country to see. Congratulations, go in one more, go get another championship. I'm I'm just thrilled.

00:01:06
Speaker 1: For you, Brad.

00:01:07
Speaker 2: That's that's really. That's the important thing, the happiness of my co host and not my own happiness. That's that's what we're after tonight.

00:01:15
Speaker 1: Number one, I wasn't gonna bring it up. Number two. We've known each other for more than a decade now, we were we're we are fans who are respectful enough of each other. We were able to exchange texts yesterday during the game, which is all you need to know about Scott and I. We're tiptoeing. It's it's it's a high level. It was a bit strange that we were facing off and that's in a situation. But I appreciate the congratulations. I did not see that game going that way. We could leave it there for now on college basketball, but uh yeah, a little weird. I think it would have been. I don't know how it would react. We joked about it last week. It's like one of us has to lose this game. So it's all like one of us is going to be not very happy about this. So I appreciate that the well wishes here in Indianapolis. And I'm in a hotel room in Aapolis right now. So if things go wrong on this podcast, blame it on the city of Indianapolis, which is a curse to you at this very moment and to our podcast. Anyway, Listen, Scott, we are Hami territory engineered by Fast and all people should be checking us out, and we are part of foul territory. We come with braves all the time. That was a special circumstance leading with college basketball. But it's time to talk about some baseball and we have a let's just start here. We have this incredible stat from one of our co hosts. There are four of us, the two of US Sean Coleman, Stephen Tolbert. Steven Tolbert manually because he's a sicko, pulled this stat for us, and it has to do with the Braves losing on Sundays. Since the start of the twenty twenty three season, so you're talking about three plus seasons now, the Braves on Sundays only are thirty five and forty seven, twelve games below five hundred over that sample. Every other day of the week, per Steven, the Braves are two hundred and forty and one hundred and seventy four, which is sixty six games over five hundred every other day of the week. So on Sundays they are a forty two percent ishwenty percentage team, on every other day fifty eight percent. And as Steven rounds it out, if you're watching on YouTube already to see this. But Steven rounded out this tweet by saying, why do the Braves hate Brad and Scott? And Scott I have to ask you, why do the Braves hate us? Because clearly that's what's going on here. It's it's clearly motivated by something. But if you did, if anybody didn't see this, today, the Braves lost in frustrating fashion on this Sunday, and I thought that was a the right way to begin the podcast, the shouts of Stephen and not shouts of the Braves for Sundays.

00:03:46
Speaker 2: You know, anecdotally, for years it's been like, why do the Braves seemingly always lose on Sundays? And now we know we're not crazy, and not just us podcasters, but all the good guys and gals you tune in every single week. You know we're not crazy like this is. That's a wild stat for three years now, that's a huge split in just baseball terms. And I don't know what's in the water. Of course, on this Sunday, the Braves played a fifty to fifty game and just I mean, they kind of gave it away. They should have won today against the Diamondbacks. It would have been a series win. They would have then won their first three series.

00:04:24
Speaker 1: Of the year.

00:04:24
Speaker 2: Vibes would have been better, more energetic, more upbeat. Of course, what do they do on a Sunday? But they can't capitalize late and then lose in the tenth inning. It's a bummer, and I mean, it's just a weird feeling.

00:04:36
Speaker 1: Bred.

00:04:36
Speaker 2: I wanted to ask you, this team has played ten games. The Braves are six and four, and if you would have told me ten days ago, Scott, the Braves are going to start six and four, I would take it. And there are some like legitimately good signs under the hood that this baseball team is on the right path. But it's also been kind of a maddening especially last forty eight hours, and there's been some tough losses in there. So I mean, where are you at with this team all of ten games into the season.

00:05:04
Speaker 1: You're right, it has been a pretty strange six and four, and baseball is pretty strange sometimes, right, So it's ten game samples could be anything. Even the best team could go two and eight and ten game sample in baseball, it's just what happens sometimes. So in the end, you're right. I agree with you. Six and four is six and four, and I'm good with that. If they stay on that pace, they'll one nice seven games. That's pretty darn good obviously, but it kind of almost parallels this weekend. So you and I did a show four days ago and I said, and I told myself to be accountable to this. I said, Hey, if the Ribs go two and two in a road series against the Diamondbacks, that's not a bad outcome, right, And I was like, hey, I'll come on the podcast and say that they go to and two. I stand by that. I have to also say it was about its frustrating of a possible way to split that you'll ever see because they win the first two and then lose back to back one run games on Saturday and Sunday, And like, yeah, it's frustrating, but if you zoom out, a split is totally fine. If you zoom out at six and four, six and four is totally fine. But you're right, there's little things that are like not going that well. We'll talk about more later on. Like the Braves are leading baseball in era right now. If you told me that, I would say, oh, they're probably better than six and four, right, So there's like you can kind of go There's probably many things like that. We can go either way on this, but I think that overall it's fine. I feel fine. I'm not doing a dance in the streets. I'm not breaking out the pomp poms. I'm not where we were last year this time, where we were like really trying to figure out what the heck's going on. It's kind of a holding pattern, and I'm not saying that to cop out. It's just the way I kind of feel after ten games, and that's not the worst place to be what we saw the worst place last year.

00:06:52
Speaker 2: You know, it's kind of been the opposite of what we expected coming into the year. Like the pitching staff. The starting rotation in particular has been superb, and we know how many injuries they're dealing with and just the uncertainty with the rotation. The pitching staff has been fantastic. The bullpen has been mostly good. There's a guy or two out there who's kind of struggling, but you know, on the pitching side, it's been great. Offensively, they are scoring runs. Like through ten games, offensively, I think they've been fine, but a lot of that was carried in that seventeen run game on Thursday night. And if you look at the lineup, Drake Baldwin is unbelievable and looks like he might be a legitimate MVP candidate in year two. But other than Drake, like you know, Mauricio Dubon has had a few moments. Dom Smith has been good, but Ron Dacuna Junior has been very quiet. Austin Riley has been terrible. Mikeystremsky has been kind of me, you know, Matt Olsen's been fine but not otherworldly. Michael Harris has not been very good. I guess Ozzie Alby's has been legitimately good so far, and that's encouraging for a player we really wanted to see bounce back. You know. It's just it's been a weird path to get here. And you know what, at the end of the day, you win six out of every ten games, you're gonna be really happy with yourself at the end of the year. But it's been a narrow you know, there's been some some narrow moments of times, some iffy moments of times, and then there's also been some really good moments at times, like when they blew out the Diamondbacks.

00:08:19
Speaker 1: The other night.

00:08:19
Speaker 2: I don't know, it's been a weird journey through the first week and a half, right, Some of.

00:08:24
Speaker 1: The things that you and I might look at to say, hey, how real is this? Look good? Like, for instance, the Brams are number two in baseball at run differential right now, but that's so weighted by seventeen to two game now they're still above water in the other nine, which is good, but it's like, how real is that? Who knows? On offense you just mentioned like a lot of that's tied to that game. But the Braves have some really nice offensive numbers. They're top six in the league, and this is the major league in run scored right now, the number one it's strikeout right Like, there's a lot of ISO has been fine. They're getting on base, but in the games that weren't that big explosion, they haven't been the world on fire. So for every data point, there's there's kind of a response on the other side right now, and that's the nature of being its ten games and it's just hard to talk about sometimes. But I saw and I get it today. It was a frustrating today, and we'll talk about that more depth later on, but I think I was kind of chuckling at some of the more reactionary responses on Twitter, Blue Sky other places today and again I get it. Back to back one on and losses perfect storm. But I just want everybody to realize it's April fifth, and it's it's gonna be okay. But you're right player for player, team for team, aspect for aspect. There's a lot of give and take right now, and that's where it's gonna have to be until it changes.

00:09:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know what, I'd feel a lot better if they go out and win at least two games against the Angels, a pretty bad Angels team. For being serious, I think at the end of the day, you have to keep it relatively objective, but you can also say that the last forty eight hours of the braid for pretty annoying. I mean, to be blunt, pretty anno going even the game they won on Friday night, it was zero zero and the offense didn't do much of anything, and I guess credit to Atlanta. They've been very timely with some of their late rallies. Of course, Tom Smith had the Grand Slam to cap off the comeback was at game two of the year. They have the back to back homers and the ninth on Friday, which was great and a lot of fun. But there's also been just like long spurts of time where the offense just completely goes to sleep, and to be honest, they haven't really seen premiere pitching yet. Like the Royals have a couple of guys, Oakland doesn't have much, and the Diamondbacks don't have much. So you know what happens when you start to see better pitching in the weeks to come. I think you have to hope that guys like Akunya and Riley get going because it's only going to get more difficult from here.

00:10:47
Speaker 1: For sure, they're gonna have to find their footing and there's a little bit run way to do that. It's the opposite of last year where the schedule was brutal. This year it's not so brutal, and that just but another way that kind of forces you. There's a little bit of pressure. I don't want to overstate it, but like you need to win more than you lose during the stretch because you're playing some teams that are not great and they have so far that box is checked. But the next one is to go out and like you said, win a series against a not so good Angels team. More later on in the podcast, Scott's that's our big picture look at what has happened so far through ten games. We will, as people would expect, drill down on the results from this weekend. Friday a little better than Saturday and Sunday. We'll get into all of that, however, and more after a word from a partner's When you're keeping the lights on for thousands or even millions, reliability isn't optional. Fascinall helps power generation teams stay running with the right parts, tools and safety gear right where the work happens, from turbine maintenance to everyday MRO needs. Our local teams and on site solutions keep your crews supplied, efficient and safe, fastenal powering up productivity one plan at a time. Want to learn more, visit fascinall dot com for Industrial supply and Innovative solutions. That's f A S T E n a l dot com. Scott let us discuss the more positive results. So if anybody missed it, we should say Thursday night, Scott and Steven Tolbert did a breakdown that was a lot more fun than most because it was after a seventeen to two absolute thrashing. You guys got to start recording before the game was over. That's always a favorite of mine because you, I mean, just people that may not know us that well, the bar is very high for us to start recording during a game. It has to be so far out of hand that we're not worried in the slightest. Because we are very responsible with our podcasting, we'll stay up late. I think you guys were okay within your rights to start that one early because it was such a blowout. Well, also as a listener, I love I loved it. I listened to that driving it. Yeah, we had a lot of fun.

00:12:52
Speaker 2: There you go. You know what if the Braves blew a seventeen to two lead, you would we wouldn't talk about it. The game game would have happened, well, like it would have been one of those you waive your magic wand and it disappears and we would never speak of it again. But yeah, a really nice win on Thursday that if folks missed that episode, we talked about that game exclusively. Yeah, I mean a great start. The first two games in this series were a ton of fun, and then after that it was just kind of a stinking pile of horse poop.

00:13:18
Speaker 1: Yeah. I would have got a call from Stephen at like one thirty two o'clock of the morning. That says we are, we are, we recorded, and we're gonna throw it away and never talk about this again. And I would have said, that's the right decision, Stephen, Okay to the games this weekend. Friday was the victory of the three, a Brave's third shutout in the first eight games, which is a part of why the era solo three shoutouts of the first eight games. You know, you brunched it earlier. It was zero zero three eight innings, and that's not what you would expect to see in any game. That's the reality of the situation. I mean, no matter who's pitching. But it wasn't like it was Ace versus ace either. Grant Hols was great. He was the story of the night in a lot of ways. But I wonder what you thought of just the way that game flowed, because it was it was kind of interesting just how little offense there was to be found on either side for a long time.

00:14:06
Speaker 2: Really, I mean a game that was pitched very well, and you know, I thought Grant Holmes, I mean he flirted with a no hitter for six innings and end of the night six innings just one hit, no runs, three walks, and four strikeouts. Also generated fourteen whiffs, which is a really encouraging sign for Grant. Also got really good innings out of the bullpen from Dylan Lee and Robert Suarez and Rice e Igleasias like, it was just a really perfectly pitched game. And the fact that Braves were able to record three shutouts in eight games. I know, friend of the show Cjntkowski had some great stats about three shutouts in eight games to begin the year, And just a tip of the cap to jonah Heim, who was the catcher behind the plate for all three of those shutouts. That's impressive, I know, especially a couple of years ago him was really regarded for his work behind the plate. It seems like that is transferred over and literally the pitching staff is comfortable pitching to him. But yeah, just a fun game. After the Giant seventeen to two drubbing the night before, it was like, all right, of course the offense isn't doing anything, but it was good to get those two homers in the ninth inning and steal another win late in the game.

00:15:16
Speaker 1: I just remember the tweet you said that says that Paul c. Wall was your favorite Diamondbacks reliever, and I gotta be honest on this podcast, it didn't sink in as to why you said that until right now because he allowed the two home runs to Uh, that's right, to Ozzie and Wilson. I thought you were being genuine. I really did grant it. I'm in basketball mode a little bit right now, and I think I saw that after the fact that I was like, I wonder why Scott said that. It's such an odd comment for you to make about I know you obviously no more than Diamondbacks than most teams because you do live in Arizona. But it's all coming back to me right now in real time. Scott.

00:15:50
Speaker 2: Fun fact. Fun fact, Paul sea Wall two years ago in Phoenix against the Braves and the ninth inning gave up a two run homer to Sean Murphy. And if you remember the Braves and d Backs, basically we're in a virtual tie at the end of twenty twenty four. So in a way that was kind of the deciding factor because the Braves had the tiebreaker over Arizona. So yeah, shouts to Paul Sewald, who once again was the gift that keeps on giving to the.

00:16:15
Speaker 1: Braves, Braves legend, Paul Sewald. Yeah, that's right. Two home runs. That was really it. And look, we should know about Grenholmes for a second. So Alex at Thomas was very open multiple times in the spring about how Grant Holmes was going to be the odd man out if they signed someone or traded for someone. And now, granted, I have to give the caveat to say the odd man out in a five minute rotation means he would have been pitching at some point in the starting rotation. We all understand that it's not a game played with five startedy pitchers. But he's been really good. I mean, that's that's the reality. Like he got fourteen swings and missus in this game. That's an outrageous kind of number. And he is the reason why they able to be in the game the entire way through. And he's not gonna throw to this standard. But it is a reminder we've always been pretty high grand Holmes, I think as a collective on the podcast. But also it's like, hey, Grenholmes is pretty good. Like it's it's not like Grent Holmes is some guy who like, with due respect to who throw out whatever name he wants to Jose Suarez or something like he's not that. Gren Holmes was a was a solid starty pitcher last season. He looks like one again this year. And I mean he's capable of being in the bullpen too, but like gren Holmes is like a real started pitcher, and that's fun.

00:17:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm a fan of grand Holmes, man. I mean I'm a sucker for his story. A guy who hung around in the minor leagues for years and years and years would have been so easy for him one night laying in bed in a small town, like you know what I'm done, Brad, Like I'm I just I've done it for seven years. I'm still not in the major So yeah, I'm a sucker for grand Holmes and a legitimately pretty good starting pitcher. Is he an ace? Is he a number two? No, of course not, but a really solid number three, number four? And I mean again, this rotation for Atlanta despite all the questions, and to be fair, there are still questions with this rotation. I know a couple people reached out. I don't know if they were half in jest, but it was like, well, we didn't need a starter, or did we? And I'm like, guys, we are ten games into a one hundred and sixty two game season week. There's no victory lapping in what is the equivalent of a fourth quarter in week one of the NFL season. There's no victory lapping at this early in the calendar point for the baseball season. But yeah, credit Grant Holmes, Bryce Elder, Chris Slee, Rinaldo Lopez, Like, really a fantastic job these first two weeks.

00:18:42
Speaker 1: Of the year. Yeah, I'm sure I saw some stuff that you did about that. I had I have to laugh a little, and I think most of us in jest, to be honest, some people might believe that, which is fine. It's too early to know. But what we do have to acknowledge. And you just said, like they have done it now for ten games. That's ten games where the Braves have pitched. Well, stack him up. That happened, put it away, and Gret Holmes has been part of that. And I do trust Gret Holmes to be a competent starting pitcher, sir, not a guy who you'd probably prefer to be your number whatever starter you probably wanted to be that the four or five kind of range for you. But he can do this. I believe that. And I think you mentioned either on the podcast or you know, you know it's really nasty Robert Suarez. Like we know that already because he we halked him up plenty this this winter when they signed him. He has great numbers, great stuff, but like watching him closely in the way we are we now are as a member of the Braves, he is pretty filthy when he comes in the game.

00:19:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that eighth and ninth inning this season, swore as an Iglesias.

00:19:48
Speaker 1: That is as good as it gets.

00:19:50
Speaker 2: And I mean it's the easiest ninety nine I have seen on a baseball field. I mean, he right like, he didn't even look like he's trying. He just walks out there and he doesn't need build up period. It's not like he needs five pitches to really get going. It's just pitch number one, ninety nine miles an hour and here it comes, and you're not going to hit it. That That just looks like again it's been a week and a half, can't make any definitives at this point, but just looks like a great signing. And I mean I feel so at ease if the Braves can get to the eighth and ninth innings with the lead. I feel really really good about their chances. And yeah, Robert swore is that that's a bad dude. I mean, he is armed with a big fastball and he knows how to use it.

00:20:30
Speaker 1: Absolutely want to at least note that because he is really really filthy. We sht talk about Saturday's game real quick. There isn't not much to discuss, and not in the best way. It was a two to one loss on Saturday. The number one thing to discuss on the positive side and really the only thing on the positive side was Bryce Eld, So may I hope is so far for Bryce Eld he's been really good, like flat out really good, two starts, lights out stuff. Honestly, he made a pretty costly throwing her on a bunt that he was responsible for. But on the pitching only side, Bryce Older was fantastic in this game, and I was doing a little bit of a deep out. I was sure some numbers on in a second, but we have to just you know, tip of the captain Bryce Older. Like I've doubted Bryce Older openly. I may be wrong. I'd love to be wrong, and that's the always the tenor of our podcast. It's like, Hey, if we're ever questioning, I'd like to be wrong when I'm on the low side, and so far through two starts, I have been wrong about Price.

00:21:23
Speaker 2: Older Bryce looks great and with that, you know, I mean, that slider has been really effective and it feels like he's just been in command and just locating his pitches and not walking people. Is a huge thing for Bryce, especially knowing that he doesn't have the greatest stuff in the world. He did have eight strikeouts on Saturday night, eight strikeouts over seven innings, which is really good. But we know that's not really Bryce's typical game, or at least it has not been for the course of his career, but really impressive. Just such a bummer that he let that errant throw go on the bunt. I mean, that was basically the only offense in the game right there for Arizona. Unfortunately, the Bats couldn't do more to kind of back up Bryce, because I mean, he did not deserve that loss by any means.

00:22:08
Speaker 1: No, definitely not. And the slider, like you said, is as his best pitch it has been for a while, but he's been really good. He's throwing it more than ever, like forty percent of the time almost, and the opponent numbers are like comically good against it so far. It's like an opposing like one fifty ops this season against the slider. It's like some crazy number like that. It's ridiculous. He has five pitches now, I know that's been talking about a little bit. The cutter that he's been throwing has been interesting. And I looked at his stuff plus, which is that, you know, Van Spetrick, basically how good your stuff is. It's actually down from last year, which is interesting given how good he's been. But what's up is that he is locating at the best level he ever has in his career. He has a one to ten location plus, which is like really really strong. And that's always been the thing with Bryce. He's not gonna, like, like you just alluded, to strike out a lot of guys usually in his profile, which means he can't afford to walk guys. And when he was in that dip for like two years, basically two and a half years, his walks were up, and not like terribly up in the way that like somebody couldn't live at. But when you have his lack of strikeout stuff. Historically you can't walk guys too. Yeah, and he's not. He's really locating. He's a four percent walk right this year two starts. But he's not just not walking guys. He's also putting the ball where he wants it to go basically all the time. And he has enough stuff or if he does that with that slider, he can really live. So two not that awesome offenses, but still like I'm encouraged. I don't know if I would suddenly take Bryce Elder to have a mid three is era for the season, I probably would not, but I do like what I have seen, and I'm a little bit higher on even the over even ignoring the results. Like just the profile I like a little bit better than I did two weeks ago.

00:23:48
Speaker 2: And you know, having five pitches for Elder to go to, you know, he's been working in a cutter and seems like, as you said a moment ago, just his location has been a really big part of this kind of mini renaissance and hopefully it continues. And I said a moment ago, it's just a shame the offense was awful. I guess tip your cap to Michael Soroka, who was really good again, But I mean the Braids really didn't have much of anything all night. Three singles, one double, three walks, and that was it. Shouts to Dom Smith who continues to hit the ball really well and just put together really good plate appearances even if he's not getting a result. It feels like a lot of Dom's plate appearances go six, seven, eight pitches and really makes the pitcher work. Dom drove in the only run in the second inning and that was pretty much it. I mean, I think there was a double play that happened a little bit later that kind of killed the mini rally, but it was I mean, it was pretty lifeless. And again it cuts back to what we talked about off the top. They score seventeen runs on Thursday night, they basically get shut out for eight innings on Friday night and only get those two runs on back to back homers, and then on Saturday they don't score at all. They get the one run and that was basically it. It wasn't even like they ran into bad luck. It's not like their sequencing was poor. It's not like they just hit a bunch of rockets right at people. There was none of that. It was very very few and far between, and just kind of a Debbie downer after a couple of really fun wins.

00:25:11
Speaker 1: For sure, we'll tell you if the Braves got unlucky, I'm not above shirting that. That was not that night. Saturay night was not a luck thing other than if you want to say Bryce Older's fielding is a little bit unlucky, like okay, but on the offensive side, No, they just didn't hit very well. That was basically what happened in that game on Saturday. Okay, Scott, Let's get into Sunday's game in a moment, but first, they're working with our partners on the podcast today.

00:25:35
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00:26:39
Speaker 1: Scott's a want to talk about with this game on Sunday. Unfortunately for the Braves, lots of storylines from this one as of being a six to five loss Intenetings, and actually the storyline started before the game begins. I want to go there with you. Now. We've said, and I know Walt has said since he took over the job, basically that they're gonna be willing to give some guys some days off, right, And that's fine. I'm all in favor of that, right and I'm not trying to go against what I what we said before. I thought the Braves played their guys a little bit too often in the past. That was my own thought. It is what it is. I did not think necessarily that we would see Austin Rolly get a day off on April fifth. Now, granted it was a Sunday afternoon. That's kind of the typical day off spot if you're going to do one every once in a while. But I think it had a lot to do with the fact that Austin has been totally lost through the first week and a half of the season, and by the way he ended up getting into the game because they had to pitch it, they had to pitch hit him and he went over to and wasn't impressive when he got in the game either. So multiple things to get to here, like what do you make of Thoroway day off? But also like more importantly, Austin' struggles are getting a little bit alarming at least, I don't know how you feel.

00:27:49
Speaker 2: I was really happy to see Austin get at least most of the day off, and I was also good to see that Ronald got the day off as the DH and makes sense it's a big outfield. He's played every day, He's played right field every day, so all for it, you know. I gotta be honest, I am getting pretty concerned about Austin Riley. And before anyone calls it an overreaction, I think we have documented well on this show that for two plus years now, Austin has not been himself and to be blunt, since signing the biggest contract in franchise history in the middle of twenty twenty two, he has not been nearly good enough for a player who still has like seven years and one hundred and forty million bucks left on his contract. He looks awful and it's a shame because Austin had a great spring. I kind of bought the kool aid a little bit. I'm like, you know what, all right, maybe this is the jumping off point and Austin establishes himself and becomes a legitimate MVP type of third basement for this team. It's only ten games, but I mean I am legitimately. I mean he's swinging through pitches in the middle of his own. He's hitting a bunch of infield pop flies, which are virtually guaranteed to be out he's not driving the ball, he's not hitting for power. It's it is a it is a concerning trend for a player who we had some real concerns with coming into the year.

00:29:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, And the sample size caveats have to apply, right, Like, so it's ten games, it could be noise. It could just be a slump with nothing to worry about.

00:29:25
Speaker 2: Possible, right if he hits, If he hits a homer and a double on Monday Night, then it all goes at His ops will jump by one hundred and twenty five points and it'll be a silly conversation.

00:29:35
Speaker 1: Right. I know that, you know that. I'm just saying, like we're not saying this is for sure panic time, right. Yeah. But yeah, when you combine what he has not been the last couple of years with the bad at ball data, it's really not good. It's it's ten games, but it's not good. It's a lot of blue on the stackcast page. If that's what you like to follow. You don't want blue on this guy on the sat on the stack guy page. You want writ a lot of blue right now. You mentioned the nice spring in Florida. That's that's better than not having it. It would be almost more concerned if he hadn't had the good spring, but it's the spring, Like there's a little noise in there as well, So I'll be interesting to see how they react to that, because like he's gonna he's gonna play, I mean, you know bad he'd have to be for how long to not be playing all the time, Like it would be a crazy story if that would happen. We're nowhere near that for the record, but I would man, he could probably use a good couple of days to get everybody calm down, because like I did see a lot of people kind of lumping in Acunya and Riley together and their struggles today. I don't agree with that framing. I think Ronnie has it's not been good this year by his full, full, full acknowledgment of that. But we just saw Ronnie like be electric MVP level Ronnie in the WBC, which I trust a lot more than spring training. Is that's that's max effort, like playing hard, and that was literally like two weeks ago. So I plus, he's always been awesome in a way that Austin has not been the last couple of years, and even today, Ronnie's in the lineup has two hard hit singles and like, looks fine, So I could not be less worth. Maybe maybe I'm a hypocrite. I don't know. Maybe I'm sure someone somewhere is gonna be like, why are you guys solo on Riley and not worried about Acunya. To me, they're different caliber of players, unfortunately for I think Ronnie is in a different tier of hitter, and that's why I'm not worried about him, honestly.

00:31:24
Speaker 2: So, yeah, Ronald's Yeah, Ronald's big problem so far has been kind of inside fastballs.

00:31:32
Speaker 1: There's the stance stuff that's going on. I understand the concern about that. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna handway of that. I'm not. We do have enough data yet and I'm not a swing expert, but I do understand and be like, why do you change his stance again? Like what's going on? I mean, I get that concern, I do for sure. Yeah.

00:31:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's that's it for me. But you know what, I was mildly concerned about Ronald, but then he hit two very hard hit baseballs for a couple of singles on Sunday, and I just don't worry about Acunya. He'd have to be in like a four weeks week slump before I would even entertain the thought of being concerned. I just I feel like Ronald's breakout is imminent, and maybe we saw the early early stages of it on Sunday today, But yeah, Austin is a is a real concern for me, Like this guy, the Braves need Austin Riley if this offense is going to be at its maximum, they really really really need Austin. And again one more time, it's been ten games. If Austin has a bad ten game stretch in June or in August, like sure, we might note it and talk about it for thirty seconds, but it's not magnified nearly as much as it is at this point in the calendar. But a legitimate concern and man alive. We really need to see Austin get going sooner rather than later.

00:32:43
Speaker 1: Right, if we were trying to clickbait this, we would have live with Austin Riley, Like first off the top, we didn't do that, Like I'm not we're not panicking. It's not time to burn the place down, Like we're not doing that. I can see the chiron right now. We're not doing that because it's ten and because of what it is. You're right to acknowledge that, But I'd like to see more to ease everybody's collective mind on that. I would imagine speak of guys who are not struggling. Drake Baldwin. We've talked about a lot resly, so we'd have to do the whole thing again. But Drake Baldwin has been ridiculous. I was sending text to our group chat today like statue when for Drake Balwin, basically like what are we what are we waiting on? Just go ahead and construct the Cooperstown plaque right now. I'm kind of kidding, but man, he's been ridiculous. Yeah, he looks like an awesome, awesome player, no surprise, but it's like, hey, just another strong week for Dick Balwin.

00:33:32
Speaker 2: Oh cool, A very real chance that Drake Baldwin is the best catcher in the National League when it's all said and done this year, and he's not better than col Rally and I caveated that with National League.

00:33:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, people now having sixty home runs last year is probably like, uh, can't, can't, can't deal with that To syey. Hey, but hey, two years, it wouldn't surprise me if Baldwin was just because like it's catcher, like it might be a little bit of volatile. You're right, yeah, I'm glad I SAI National Leagues people a gonna get mad, But you're there's Ashley that's like crazy. You know. Riley's kind of been one player tier catcher and maybe Drake, maybe Drake joins him. Maybe that's the way to frame this. Maybe he joins KYL. Raley in Tier one.

00:34:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, he is ridiculous head. The homer on Sunday, drove in four runs, including the game tying single in the ninth inning. Just such a pure hitter, I mean, just he can do everything. And we made the comp last year early in the year that, honest to goodness, watching Drake Baldon reminds me of Freddie Freeman, where he can do basically everything up there. He can go to all fields, he can hit a homer, he can hit a ball in the gap, he can just kind of poke one off the end of the bat and go to left field. He can pull a ball. I mean, he is so complete. He doesn't really strike out. He has such a good command of the strike zone for being all of what one hundred and forty five games into his major league career at this point, just a remarkable hitter and a legitimate like every time Drake comes to the plate, I feel like something good is going to happen, Yeah.

00:35:00
Speaker 1: For sure. And shots to him for keeping them in the game, and they, of course they end up losing it, so he's probably not quite as much shying, but he was the best player on the field today for the Braves. Also shots to Jorye Mateo for having a good, good day to day at shortstop and with Riley sitting, they moved to Bond to third and had Butteo play short He's been good so far, so not not too much to add on that, but just like another guy, valuable depth is valuable depth, Like, yeah, it's good to have somebody. I mean, he's not gonna hit like this regularly, I don't think, but hey, meaningful contributions on a Sunday.

00:35:32
Speaker 2: So if the break, Yeah, if the Braves would have found a way to win today, I think we really would have given Jorge Mateo a shout out at the top of the show. Got on base three times. He can fly like this guy gets on base and he can go first to third or second to home. Really nice job. Again, just kind of goes on to the depth of this team, even if the Stars aren't playing it the way this we want the Stars to play. The depth for this team is undisputably better than it was last season.

00:36:01
Speaker 1: For sure, and unsurprisingly, if you watch this one unfolded, all the Braves finished two for fourteen with burn and scoring position in the game on Sunday. And that is a quick way to lose, you know what I mean, That's basically why they lost. I meant this. If you want to just say one reason why I lost the game on Sunday, that's the one, and it's gonna happen. Sometimes I do find myself being in contrarian sometimes because the instinct of every and we do this too, I do this. The intidctent of everyone is to say, man, they're doing it again with the with what They've actually been good this year in those positions until today. So I want to just say that out loud. Last year it was maddening all year long that happened. I want to credit them for not doing that until today that much. But today it was like a throwback, you know, two for fourteen especially, I think they went over was an oh for three over four for five in the last two innings, something like that. Like it was just opportunities that were wasted all the way around.

00:36:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, the real crushing moment. So in the ninth inning, the Braves rally mateo singles, Acunya singles, Baldwin singles. You've tied the game, and you have two on and nobody out, and you have the Diamondbacks reliever on the ropes, and you have your three four five hitters coming up, Olsen Yestreemsky, Harris, and you get nothing out of it. I mean, that's that's pretty crushing. One more hit and this very easily could have been a not even one more hit would have been a Braves win. Even two deep fly balls would have scored Acunya to get him to third and then get him home. I also wondered if they would try to steal third with Akunya, who was just standing on second base the whole time. Just it was such a missed opportunity. And of course we know how the tenth inning went. It was over very quickly.

00:37:44
Speaker 1: Well, even in the tenth like Ozzy does his job, rolls over a ground ball Harris to third base. So they had a guy with third one out in the tenth, Like you have to score. And we've been on this many times, but like if you don't score in the tenth inning, your what probability is not high? Yeah, it's a mus score situation. And they didn't score. So that was that. On the pitching side, we should talk about Martin Perez got his first brave start today. We discussed this last week about how Jose Suarez got rocked. They brought in Martin Perez in relief. This time they flipped it. Perez started. That was the exception kind of all week. He wasn't terrible, but he was not particularly encouraging. I'm curious what you saw and what you thought about the old man plugging in today.

00:38:27
Speaker 2: Martin Perez. He was okay, five plus innings, five hits, four runs, only one walk, but also only one strikeout. This stuff is very mediocre, you know. Honestly, the Diamondbacks. I think against Perez, the Diamondbacks had an expected batting average of like three to ninety five, so he was not confusing them. Like could tell Marte hit a ball one hundred and seventeen miles an hour that happened to go right at Jorge Mateo, so there was no there was no soft contact today for the most part. You know, I think Martin Perez probably gives the Braves the best chance to win among at least the fifth starter options in Atlanta. I wish this was Diddy or Fuentes or j R. Richie making these starts, but I get it. It's a long year. You probably want to get those guys some seasoning and all that. But yeah, pres was okay. I guess he technically gave him a chance to win, but you know, also not encouraged by any means.

00:39:22
Speaker 1: I started to say, you would kind of take five innings four runs. That's pretty bad. So I don't want to say that because it's like kind of bad. But you're right, they had a chance to win, and we just said, like they had opportunities to win this game even with him doing that. So I don't want to that's not the right baseline. You want to be a little bit better than that, even for fifth guy. But Forerez, he was better than Suarez. Was that that's a low bar to clear, but he was I agree with you though, like, and I think if you gave Alex and Company true here, and that's if it was game game three of the World series tomorrow and you said, did your Fuintes or Martine Perez, they would take did you er Flintes. But that's not the situation at this moment. So every gad counts, but they will take the long view, particularly for the guy who's twenty years old, which I do understand on some level. Oh, we have our first maybe it is this our first, Walt. Weis cracism, yes, like legitimately the first time. You were ahead of me on this one today, so you're take take the reins.

00:40:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's unfortunate and it didn't ultimately determine the game. But in the sixth inning, Walt I think got a little greedy. I think he the old habits of Brian Snicker kind of, you know, he had that itch. He's like, look, I can get I can try to get through at least one more inning here with Martin Perez and save my bullpen which is mostly fresh. So but Walt sent Martin out there for the top of the six to face Corbyn Carroll for a third time. And I know it was lefty lefty. I'm sure that was part of his calculus, but it did not go well Corbyn Carroll. I think the second pitch he saw lined a very well hit ball to the outfield. Then Walt took Martin Perez out and shortly after Corbyn Carroll steels second base and then comes around to score against Tyler Kinley, who was not at his sharpest. Just kind of a bummer. I think Walt has been really good for the most part, Like he did some crazy double switching on Saturday night, which was like legitimately encouraging to see where he moves some pieces around and had somebody pinch hit for his catcher and he gave up the DH in order to make it happen. Like There's been some really strong in game managerial stuff from Walt so far, but that was the first time. I guess, hey, once every ten days is not going to kill you. But even to other people on Twitter too, were like, oh man, you really don't need to send Martin Perez out there a third time to face Corbyn Carroll, who's one of the twenty five best hitters in baseball right now, Yeah.

00:41:51
Speaker 1: I agree with you, first and foremost, I agree with you. Second of all, I do want to say that I've been impressed largely with Walt Weiss. I did from the Diamond today with great mcauleague shots to Grant form from and I'm sure we'll be guessed again on our on our podcast grat it's very smart. And he asked me, like to kind of grade what wise early on and I was like, really good, I mean B plus a minus, Like, I mean, it's been really I have very little to say negative about the what Why's experience so far. And if him leaving my team president for what extra batter on April fifth, it's the worst thing that happens. We're gonna be in great shape. But you're you're right, but you're also you're right. You're also right, like that might have cost him the game. I mean I'm not saying it did, but it might have, so that you know, that's a little bit stuff that could happen. But yeah, we we try not to go crazy about this stuff until the playoffs when it becomes, you know, a much bigger story. But that was one where it was like, so it's kind of obvious too, Like even in real time, I always try to mark when people are being revisionous and when they're not like we were. I would say people that I follow on twit, I don't know about you. People were saying that before the hit happened, that's how you know, that's how you know. It's like, oh, that's not that was. It was not just because of the result. It was a process failure, which I that stuff bobbished me in and is the process failures? Yeah?

00:43:02
Speaker 2: No, I said the same thing. I was like, why is he still in there? Whatever, It's not the end of the world. I think, Walt, I agree with you completely. I think Walt whis has done a fantastic job these first ten games, and I think he's also still learning. This is new to him. I mean, I know he was a manager back in the day with the Rockies, but this is also relatively new to him. And overall, I have very very few complaints with how the first week and a half has gone.

00:43:24
Speaker 1: I would agree, Scott, you have anything else to add about this weekend? If not, we can dive into what's to come for the Braves, because they do have a boy very winnable series on the horizon beginning on Monday. They do.

00:43:40
Speaker 2: You know, we got to take advantage against the Angels. I mean, I know, also Mike Trout might not play. He got hit in the hand. Yeah, yeah, it didn't look great. I have not admittedly I haven't seen any update. But I mean, even if the Angels have Mike Trout, that that is a not good baseball team. Of course, now watched they're going to play their best series of the year so far and take it to the Braves. But this is a series that you really would like to win two games, especially with your one, two and three going in the rotation.

00:44:10
Speaker 1: Officially Trota's day to day, I'm gonna assume that means he's not gonna play Monday would be my guess. Maybe by the end of the series, but we'll see. And the Andrews are five and five, like they've they've been fine so far. I think if you look at their preezes and expectations they were lower than that. They're not Rockies bad. Like, they're not absolutely horrible, I don't think. But it's a series where you know, on the road I always try to leave the bar a little be a little bit higher. But yeah, very winnable games, especially because Chris Sales pitching and and it's time Chris Sales pitching in a three game series. You feel pretty good about the rest of the situation. Monday and Tuesday are late nights for those of us in the Eastern time zone. I think they're like nine to forty is starts or so. Scott loves those games. And then Wednesday is an afternoon contest, not as early as the noons start last week in Atlanta, but it's like a four o'clock Eastern game on Wednesday. Chris Sale has has the ball on Monday. Presumably he's feeling back to his old self, and the last start he was quote sick as a dog. I would assume he's back to being normal. Four days, five days later he faces this was at Soriano pretty much showdown. Honestly, this story has been pretty good for the angel so far.

00:45:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, Jose Soriano maybe not a household name, but was legitimately good last year. Had was a three war pitcher for the Angels and just a solid, solid option for them. So hopefully the Bats get going and they can really support Chris. We always feel good whenever Sale is on the mound, but you know, just some consistency out of this offense. Would be really appreciated after kind of the Jekyll and Hyde nature that we had this weekend.

00:45:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the Braves won't win every single Chris Sales start this season, but they need to win a lot of them. And that's the baseline I'd like to follow if that was the Braves just when most of Chrisale starts good foundation. And then it's Ronaldo on Tuesday against you say, Kakuchi, who is historically pretty good. He's been shaky this year starting the season, but he's a pretty good pitcher usually, and the Gret Holmes against Reed debt Meers on Wednesday, a couple lefties in there. Always interesting to see what the Braves might do against lieutenant pitching, So I'll be following that closely. Yeah, I'm curious to see.

00:46:20
Speaker 2: You know, Kakuchi and debt Meurs are not necessarily like lefties who light up the radar gun. So I wonder if they might give mike Yastremsky a start in either the outfield or a DH and sit Jonaheim, although Jonah's been really good catching, so of course, then the Jonaheim starts behind the player when Baldwin has been dhing, so I wonder if Baldwin maybe catches one of those games against the lefty and they have somebody hit. Kyle Farmer hasn't really played a whole lot this year. Eli White has been off to a pretty bad start, if we're being honest. But maybe they'll try to get Eli in there a couple of times. We'll see what they ultimately do. But yeah, a solid opportunity to start. I mean, let's just we need a win, you know, Like I think it's still early in the year, but these last two losses have really kind of left a bad taste in everybody's mouth. And if you can get a win behind Chris Sale and then you just got to split the Ronaldo and home starts, then you go two and three or two and one in the series, you go four and three on the West Coast road trip. Sure nobody's throwing a parade for four and three on the West Coast, but it would just continue to win series and finally get a day off on Thursday, which I'm sure all the players are looking forward to.

00:47:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was gonna circle that just now, because it also lets you be a little bit more aggressive if you need to be with bullpen management, with maybe, like you said, maybe Baldwin catches all three or something like that. You know, there's ways to make it, to push a little harder when you know that the light at the end of the tunnel is finally there, and you get a day off on Thursday. It's a long it's long travel back from la for sure, but at least a full day off in advance of the weekend series back in Atlanta. So one to circle and we will have you covered throughout the week as we always would. I'm not exactly sure with days just yet, but you could. You could make on it if big things happen, even when they don't happen. We tend to have podcasts about the Atlanta Braves in this podcast feed. Yeah we do.

00:48:10
Speaker 2: And you know, get some wins against the Angels would be great, and then you have the day off Thursday, and then you know, you go back home and you play the Cleveland Guardians, who are not a bad team, but you know Cleveland, they don't spend any money whatsoever and just kind of lack star power. And whenever you're home against a team like that, you would like to win this series against Cleveland, and then you welcome the Miami Marlins to Atlanta and similarly, the Marlins have been pretty pesky so far. But a team that you can say with a straight face, the Braves should be able to beat more times than not. So it just kind of plays on this fact that the schedule early in the year has been light. The Braves more times than not have done a pretty decent job the last forty eight hours, notwithstanding to win those kind of fifty to fifty games. But let's keep it rolling, let's keep winning, Let's get back on the winning track and really just try to make hay early in the year. See, you don't find yourself like squandering this early lead that you kind of built into the standings. Nobody wants that, especially after the way this team has had to climb out of a hole in the last couple of years.

00:49:11
Speaker 1: Absolutely stay ahead of the curve by stacking up series wins and they haven't lost the series yet. If you don't lose series, you generally do pretty well. So that's the name of the game when it comes to I'm.

00:49:22
Speaker 2: Gonna quote you, yeah, that's It's not.

00:49:24
Speaker 1: The old Bobby Cox thing. I know he was alway talking about winning series, but like, hey, you can also say if you don't lose series, it's kind of the same thing. If you just display refour gamer or whatever three gamer, you're a playoff team. I can tell you that right now. So yeah, okay, Scott, let's get out of here. Everyone should be subscribed already, but if you're not, join us. Subscribe slash, follow the podcast on Apple, on Spotify, on YouTube, et cetera. Just search Hammer Territory in that podcast player. If you're a YouTube watcher. Also make sure subscribe on audio. If you're an audio listener, make sure to smash that subscribe button and the like button on YouTube as well. To help support the podcast, leave a five star rating in a review, leave a comment, follow us on social media at Hambory Territory, and then importantly, you must follow Scott Coleman on Twitter at Scott colem fifty five because he announced yesterday he's now in full baseball mode. Did an make troll you for not already being baseball mode? I was. I thought that when I saw that, I wasn't. I wasn't in a spot to make fun of you about for obvious reasons, but I did see I was like, someone's gonna be mad. At you for saying that you weren't already a baseball mode.

00:50:26
Speaker 2: Did that happen nobody directly? I mean, dude, my mentions are a wild place these days, but I have no doubt. I retweeted a funny video and a funny tweet of a girl who was twenty one years old who was chugging a Budweiser at a Nationals game, and I somehow had people arguing in my mentions over whether or not it was her first sip of alcohol, Like, how do these people find me? I don't know. I am fully locked in. I very sadly do not have a basketball game to watch on Monday night. For your sake, go Blue, I hope you win. I don't want to see Danny Hurley when three of them in four years. But you know what, because you're gonna be occupied, I will be even more locked in to Braves Angels nine to forty five Eastern Time, first Pitch. I will carry the podcast whenever we meet next and break it all down as we always do here on Hammer Territory.

00:51:19
Speaker 1: Guys, I have to miss something to you before we get out of here on this podcast. I'm not gonna watch the game live on Monday. I'm just I'm not gonna watch the Braves game one Monday. I'm live, I'll catch up, I'll do my homework. We always do a hark on this podcast. I'm literally going to be in a football stadium watching my team play for the championship one Monday. So I'm not gonna watch the Braves game. I love I love Chris Sale more than literally anyone in my life. I think I think about like Christale more than you. It's one of those things, Scott, I'm sorry, Chris Sale here, Scott Coleman here. Wait, Shawn's probably above Christale, but Shawn sa Sean, that's my guy anyway, locking at everybody. We'll have podcasts, I promise, probably not Monday night. I'm gonna have to say, I don't want to speak for you. I would be surprised if something happened Monday that would MANNA podcast. It would have to be.

00:52:01
Speaker 2: Oh no, oh no, don't say that, because it's like, unless it's a no hitter or a perfect game, there's like a ninety five percent chance that news that would demand a podcast on Monday would be bad.

00:52:15
Speaker 1: So don't even say that. Trade for star X could tell Marte or something I don't know. Terrek, Google, come on down. I'm sure he's all sweens readily available. All right, we're off the rails. Thank you Scott for being here one more time. Everybody, please subscribe, check out our sponsors, Fast at All Seat, Geek, et cetera, Patriotize them, check out Fellow Territory, and we'll see everybody next time.