Braves Roll Rockies, Latest on Ozzie Albies, and More

00:00:21
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to episode seventy six of the Hammer Territory Podcast. I am Scott Coleman, and I am joined this evening by the great Stephen Colbert and Stephen. Thankfully, the Braves have bounced back with a couple of wins after a pretty frustrating weekend in Philadelphia.

00:00:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, what's up, Scott. Yeah, it was a brutal weekend, to be honest. I mean we probably you know, we probably watched the division, the six year division streak end with that three, losing three out of four to Philadelphia, so that was definitely tough. But you know, obviously the goal is not necessary to win the division. The goal is to win the World Series, and to do that you have to make the playoffs. And for the Braves to continue that hot of as the Mets have been, then they needed to come home and take care of business against a very very bad team in Colorado, especially on the road. I mean they've done that, you know, they won the first two games. Kind of businesslike approach in these last two games has not really been anything spectacular outside of maybe what Chris Sale has done. But yeah, kind of two ho home wins, which is exactly what they needed. And you know, Sean and I have talked about this, but it's time to get greedy. You know, typically you just kind of you're happy with a series win, but you know, the way the Mets are playing, the way the Cubs have been coming on, the division lead or the wild card lead being what it is, as small as it is, the Braves need to get greedy, and they need to go for a sweep tomorrow. And you know when you have, when you're playing a team this bad and you're at home, it's time to get greedy, go for a sweep, and maybe the Mets will actually lose a game here at some point and you can start to build a lead.

00:01:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Mets have been playing unbelievably last couple of weeks, really, and you mentioned the Cubs are just kind of quietly red hot right now. And as we record, the Braves are still in the playoffs. They are half a game up on the Mets, and New York is off on Thursday. So with the outcome of tomorrow evening's game, the Braves will either be tied for the last wild card spot or a game ahead of New York. And you're absolutely right, let's hope that Atlanta can sweep and take advantage of a very, very bad Colorado Rockies team. That lineup right now is just some kind of bad. I mean, we're both big baseball fans beyond the Atlanta Braves, and you look up and down that Rockies lineup and pitching staff, and I mean, I think I recognize like two or three players when Colorado runs out on the field.

00:02:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean Sam Hiliar turns into bay Ruth, which is frustrating against the Braves, but yeah, it's a I mean it's a I mean, they're terrible. I mean there's just, you know, my go to response when Braves fans started getting a little too mouthy on Twitter started getting a little too whiny about stuff is you know, go be a Rockies fan for a summer and see what that's like. Like, you know, this year's been tough for Brais fans, but even our tough years aren't like other teams tough years. And the Rockies are like, I mean, if they're not the worst run franchise in the sport, they're like top two, two or three. I don't even know who you'd put behind them at this point. So yeah, that's a brutal to. I mean they're terrible. I mean they're absolutely terrible. And obviously the Braids gave a game away against them in Colorado that's right now, a very big game in the standings. The Braids would love to have that one back for sure. But you know the way to respond to that is when they come to your place, you got to sweep them. And you know, the Braids will definitely have the pitching. You know, they're they have the favorable matchup tomorrow, they've got the better team, they're at home. You gotta sweep. You need to sweep. Especially with the Mets off, you can get back to a full game lead. You gotta sweep tomorrow. That should be the goal.

00:03:52
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:03:52
Speaker 1: Absolutely, So let's jump into these first two wins for the Braves. Tuesday night's game, we were talking offline. You were on recap duty for Battery power dot Com and it was kind of a ho hum boring win, and hey, we take those. We'll take I don't care if it's one nothing or eighteen nothing. We'll take the wins however you can get them. But the Braves win three to nothing on Tuesday night, and I mean, Steven, let's talk about Chris Sale just a little bit. I mean, this guy out of his mind. Sale is number one in basically every category that matters among all pitchers in Major League Baseball. He has a two point zero one FIP, which would be the best mark of any starting pitcher since twenty twenty one, so three years now, and just I mean really, from day one of the Chrissale experience in Atlanta, he has been so damn good and yet another fantastic start on Tuesday night. Seven innings, six hits, no runs, no walks, and nine strikeouts.

00:05:00
Speaker 2: That's the best move, not only I mean not that's obviously one of the best moves that alex Ataplas ever made. That's one of the best moves anybody's ever made. Trading Von Grissom for Chris Sale and then immediately getting multiple years. You know, they obviously restructured the contract as soon as that deal was done. The Brays don't do deferred money, and he had deferred money, so they restructured. They got another year, and it wasn't without risk. I mean, you and I I think you and I talked about it. I know you and Brad talked about it like it was a there was risk there because of his injury history and like as bad as the offense, like as bad as it's gone for the position player group this year, like with maybe like a bottom five outcome in terms of percentile for the offense this year. Just never dreamed it would be this bad for the offense. At times, it's probably been that good for the pitching staff outside of Spencer Strider getting hurt, like Chris Sale has been like this is like ninety eight, ninety nine percentile outcome, I mean of what you could have possibly hope. I mean, he's he looks every bit of good as he did in twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen when he was the best pitcher on the planet. You know, his velocity is back. You know, one good thing about all the injuries is that he had was they were all kind of flukey injuries. There was nothing like serious about his arm. And you know because of that, his arm got a lot of rest over the last few years. And you know, he looks like a guy that's just fresh, Like he just looks like a guy that you know who's had a couple of years off and it's still got a ton in the tank. And you know he can bump it up to ninety seven, ninety eight. We seen him throw ninety nine at times, you know, when he really needs to strike out, you know, you know he's gonna he's gonna punch Hore Solaire at some point because of it. Seems like every start he has, you know, Solaire goofs the ball in right field and he's got to get out of it, but he seemingly gets out of it every time. It's really incredible. I mean, I don't know what else to say. He's gonna eat unless he just falls up a mountain here. He's gonna win the cy Young and just that alone, I mean, that out come. It's everything you could have hoped for and more, and it's really saved the Braves ass this season, if I'm honest, because you know, so many other things have gone wrong, that deal being so incredible has saved the Braves and ways we probably don't even we probably haven't even fully articulated yet. And credit to him. Man, I'm so happy for him. You know, his teammates love him, and it's been all it's been awesome to watch. Probably my favorite part of the twenty twenty four season so far has been watching Chris Sale pitch.

00:07:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, he is just such a special talent and he's just I mean, he just does everything well. There's really no weakness or or anything with Chris Sales game. I mean, he just location velocity even when he gets into trouble. That's a good note on Jorge Soelaer, who we're going to talk about a little bit later. He's overcome. It feels like whenever there's an air or a defensive misque behind him, Sale just gets pissed off and has like ninety nine in the tank whenever he wants it. Yea, that's I mean, he's just such a joy to watch every fifth day. The rest of the game, I mean, again, not a whole lot going on. A couple of hits from Michael Harris and Geo Orshella, who drove in all three of those runs that the Braves needed, and really the only other talking point, and it was a scary one, and thank goodness, it was not worse than what it appeared to be. But Wit Mayfield took a ninety eight mile an hour fastball to the back of his skull and in the moment, I mean, thank goodness that Wit never lost consciousness and was able to walk off the field under his own power, but it was very scary, and there were some really pointed comments from Mayfield after the game about he is a member of the Rules Enforcement Committee and there was a meeting today apparently, and I would love to be on a fly on the wall of that call to hear what was said. But it was really just yet another scary moment for a Braves player, because God knows they have suffered enough injuries in the batter's box this year.

00:09:03
Speaker 2: Well, it made that one particularly scary. Is you know, if you watched it, obviously, when a ball starts coming towards your head, your your first reaction is to duck. Well, as as Merrifield started to duck and turn out of the way, his helmet actually came off of his head. And I never got a clear image of it, but I mean it looked like the ball hit him like not in the helmet, but like in the back, just the back of the head. I don't even know if it hit the helmet at all, which is obviously even scarier. And yeah, I mean it was obviously high velocity. It was a fastball, and it looks like he might have gotten out of the Woods. He didn't play tonight, obviously, and you know, they they did talk to him today and he said he thinks he's gonna be fine and he might only miss a game or two. But yeah, it is a it is a much bigger conversation in baseball because it is a very common thing.

00:09:53
Speaker 4: Now.

00:09:53
Speaker 2: Every team in baseball chases velocity. And there's a I mean, there's a reason teams chase velocity. If you look at you know, off it's you know, on a chart relative to velocity, the higher the velocity, the worse the offense. Like it's a very clear to correlation. The harder you throw, the harder it is to hit. And so teams chase it. And the problem is, you know, especially these bad teams that have nothing to lose in August in September, they just call up all these relievers that throw hard, but half of them don't know where it's going. And you know, you know, that was Mayfield's point last night, is you know, there's no consequences, there's no there's no way to retaliate for the other team. You know, pitchers don't hit anymore. You know, retaliation just in general doesn't really exist in baseball anymore, and there's no consequence. You just throw as hard as you want and if you break a guy's wrist or if you hit a guy in the head, you know, you just keep pitching like there's just there's no consequences whatsoever. And when guys, you know, when guys were throwing eighty nine miles an hour, it was one thing, but when you have guys to I mean, I saw Ben Joyce throw one hundred and six minar pitch the other day for the Angels, Like we have guys who literally throwing balls fast enough to kill somebody. And when that's the case, there has to be like, there has to be something, There has to be something in place to protect these guys at the plate, because you know, Mookie Betts had his season, you know, derailed by a pitch up and in Austin Riley, you know, we almost lost Travis Darnault, you know, I mean, Wit just took one to the head. Like yeah, you know, brace fans particularly are annoyed by it. But in the bigger picture, there does need to be a conversation and maybe even a rule change. And I don't know what a rule would be. Maybe you have an idea, but it is. It is becoming a big problem with teams chasing velocity as much as they are, but not necessarily, you know, with command and these guys coming up and just throwing as hard as they want with no consequences. I agree with Witt. I do think it's a big problem.

00:11:49
Speaker 4: Congestion from sinuses, allergies or a cold can be all consuming.

00:11:54
Speaker 3: That includes snoring for me. But Scottie, I've found some relief from Navage. Nasal care to try this. Navage makes breathing easy easier. My Nevage unit is a game changer for clearing my congestion fast.

00:12:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, Kratz.

00:12:08
Speaker 3: Navag uses that smooth saline flow and nasal suction to clear those nasal passages. It works for me, Scottie. I've noticed a huge difference since I started using Thevage. I'm breathing better and the whole family is pumped that I've got the snoring under control.

00:12:22
Speaker 4: We want to help you get relieved from your congestion too. Our listeners can order a Convenientnavage starter pack, including a nose cleaner with batteries included and thirty original saltpods. Everything you need to get started. Plus get a cleaning kit as a free gift with your order, but only going to our exclusive url navage dot com slash foul and using our promo code foul again to order your Navage free cleaning kit and for a full product details, go to na vage dot com slash foul. That's promo code foul at navage dot com slash foul.

00:12:54
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know what the solution is, Stephen. You can't start ejecting pictures every single time they hit a batter with a pitch. I mean, sometimes sure pitches get away. Sometimes it's a breaking ball or a change up or something like that. But at the same time, I mean you said it perfectly. If you're a twenty two year old reliever or the Colorado Rockies, a team that is fifty games below five hundred and is playing for nothing but a chance to showcase your arm and your ability as a potential member of their team next season, I mean, you have nothing to lose by going up there and cranking the baseball ninety nine miles an hour and trying to get a couple of moments for yourself to win some favors in the front office. And again I mean, thank god that Wit was not seriously hit. It was just a kind of a freak play where the ball landed. It might have grazed some helmet, but and you know, and Witt said today that it was still painful for him to put even a hat on. I am sure it is going to be very tender, and not only just the physical side of taking a base ninety eight to the head, but mentally, I mean, the next time a fastball comes up at witshead, I feel like it's human nature to just kind of, you know, get the shakes a little bit and just have that in the back of your conscience at all times.

00:14:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, Scott, maybe you'll remember, was it Jason Hayward for the Braves that took a pitch to the face.

00:14:21
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, it was more that Yeah.

00:14:23
Speaker 2: And he was like and honest to God, like he was never the same. And I don't know if that's part of it. You know, Jason had a lot of swing issues and he was always changing his swing, and you know, he never quite fully lived up to the guy that we thought he'd be. But he got hit in the face pretty early in his career. And you know, I one hundred percent agree you know, the mental side of getting back in the box. You know, I can't imagine what that's like, quite honestly, and it's so easy to probably start bailing on pitches early. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I don't know what you do. I saw somebody say, you know, if you hit a guy with a fastball above like the shoulders, it's it's you know, it's two bases instead of one. I don't know. I don't know if that's too harsh of a punishment. Yeah, we'll see what they do. I'm you know, Witt was pretty confident in his interview with the Beat writers that there was gonna be some sort of rule for next year. I have no idea. I have not heard any kind of like ideas or you know, opinions floated out about what that could be. So I'll be interested to see what it is. But it is a problem, and it's something baseball does need to address in some way.

00:15:28
Speaker 1: For sure, and hopefully with is back in the lineup soon, he was replaced and then tonight Luke Williams started at second base. And Luke's done an okay job and limited duty, but I think we are all much more comfortable at the second base position when wit Mirifield is out there and Steve what we're actually we're gonna talk about Wednesday night's game. But this is kind of a perfect segue into a little bit of news and injury notes, and that's on Ozzy Alby's.

00:15:54
Speaker 4: Now.

00:15:55
Speaker 1: Ozzy Alby's has been out for about six weeks now with his broken wrist, and news came out on Tuesday that he was still not cleared to hit. And that's pretty concerning because we now have about three and a half weeks left in the regular season. You have to imagine that whenever Ozzy is able to go out on a rehab assignment of some kind, he's going to need at least a week to ramp up to speed and make sure there aren't any side effects of the risk injury. And here we are with the playoffs and basically a maybe not a must win game every single night for the Braves, but a game the Braves are trying to win just about every night. And I don't know, man, I mean, we are getting late into the season and you I think it's fair to wonder at this point now if the Braves are going to have Ozzie all Bey's healthy and producing not only in the regular season, but potentially even in the playoffs.

00:16:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember Sean and I did a show right after he got hurt, and I think I think I think I said it that night that you know, with a wrist injury, like I would not be surprised if he doesn't come back this season, like, you know, even if you're healthy enough to physically come back, like with wrist and and I thought you put it perfectly on Twitter the other night that, like, especially with Ozzie where his game is power. You know, he's not a big speed guy anymore. He's not a big defensive guy anymore. He's not a big on base guy. Like he's a power guy and that's his big skill. And you know, those wrist injuries, man, it zapt's power for you know, a pretty good while, even after you're healthy enough to come back. So I'm gonna be very see what happens. You know, I would not be surprised at all if at some point we just got news that they're gonna shut him down or he you know, he just runs out of time. I also wouldn't be surprised if if they made a go of it and just see what he what he has. I do think there is a world where he comes back and he's quite frankly, not very good, So we'll see. You know, there's also a world where we're dead wrong and he comes back and he's fine, he looks like Ozzie and helps him in October, and obviously that's the that's the dream scenario. But yeah, it's getting late early. I mean, you know, it's September fourth. He has not been clear to hit. I mean it's not like he's not going on to reh. He hasn't been clear to do like batting practice. So you know, it doesn't seem like a rehab assignment. Is is very close, and like you said, a rehab assignment's going to take probably at least a week, and there's only about three and a half weeks after the season, so we'll see what happens. You know, the Braves are obviously quite used to dealing with injuries and having other guys play instead of their stars, so this is just one more case. But yeah, the fact that he's still you know, at one point they gave a timeline where he could be back in early September. Ironically, that came right after the trade deadline where they did not add an infielder, and I do wonder if some of that was some some pr trying to you know, ease the idea of them getting an infielder. And then very quickly after that that that whole timeline got scrapped and then it got moved back to the original timeline, which was mid September. Even mid September seems quite I mean, mid September will be hearing about a week and a half and he's not even hitting yet, so you know, you can deduce what you will from that, but yeah, it's it's getting late early, and if he's not on a rehab assignment here in the next seven ten days, then I'm not sure he's coming back at all, to.

00:19:20
Speaker 1: Be honest, all right, Steven. So, Wednesday night's game was a little more action packed than the snoozer that was Tuesday Night's win, and really a lot of it happened right out of the jump, and a really good sign for the Braves is part of the five to two win over the Rockies was Jared Keelnick. And we wanted to talk about Keelnick a little bit tonight because I mean, this is a guy who has seen his playing time go down in recent weeks, and I think with probably good reason, because Kelnick just has not been much of a producer since those couple of good weeks that he had in June. But one of the best played appearances of the whole season for Kelnick. In the first inning, Braves were already ahead won nothing after back to back doubles by Marcelo Zuna and Matt Olsen, and then Kelnick fouled off a hand handful of fastballs and then crushed a splitter down in the zone over the right field wall to give the Braves a very early and much needed for nothing win or for nothing win for nothing. Lead, Stephen, where are you at with Kelnick? Because he is a guy who has had an uneven twenty twenty four season. We have seen the good, we have seen the bad, we have seen flashes like he had tonight. Where do you stand with Jared Keelnick now as we are in the final month of the season.

00:20:45
Speaker 2: His first half and even if you take out June, like in June he was fantastic. He had like a one to fifty WC plus in June he was the best sitter on the team. It was right after Accoon you got hurt, and it was a huge stretch for him. He was betting lead off for a lot of that. He was red hot and he looked fantastic. But even if you look at like May, April and May, you know, he wasn't great, but he was solid. He had like a ninety five WRC plus or a ninety two WRC plus those couple of months, and like that's passable. It's not great, of course, but it's it's passable. It's a major league caliber at least bench player at the very least. You know, in this in the second half is where it's just falling off a mountain, like he's got like a I think he's got like a forty eight WRC plus in the second half something something atrocious like that. Like you said, his playing time has been cut. You know, Ramon Loriano has been so good, and obviously they acquired Solaire, Michael Harris came back, and then Loreano has been so good there's just nowhere frohim to play. And after they brought up Eli White, you know, Eli White's kind of been the guy coming in for Solair. So unless Kelnick starts, he's not playing a lot, and you know, good on him for in one of the few times he is starting. Obviously, Colorado started a writy, so the Braves did give him the start tonight, and you know, he hit a homer. He had a big homer, three run homer. You know that broke the game open. That was the margin of victory for the game three runs. And you know he's gonna have to do that. He's gonna have to basically, the few times he gets a chance, he's gonna have to do something. And that's the only way you're gonna get more chances. And I do think I do think Loriano is probably gonna calm down at some point. I don't think this is his true talent level. I think Kelnick will have an opportunity. You know, at some point it does make sense that, you know, Kelnick and Loriano would basically just run a platoon. We'll see if that happens. You know, Kelnick's been so bad and Lorio has been so good it hasn't even really been a platoon. Loreano's been starting most games no matter what. But Kelnick got to start to know and he hit the homer. We'll see, he's been striking on a ton He doesn't walk a lot like it's it's not a great profile. If I'm honest, in terms of looking ahead to next year, you know, next year is where it's gonna get interesting. We don't have to talk about that tonight, of course, but with Solaire Ozuna, kel Nick, Loriano Acunya Harris, like there's a whole this is gonna be a whole. It's probably gonna be a whole show at some point in the off season. But yeah, next year is gonna get interesting. It's just a rough profile. You know, it's just a rough profile. I don't it's it's a profile that the Braves have a lot of on their roster, and I don't know long term if he if he really fits, I'm curious. So what do you do you think he's gonna be around? Like, obviously he's got five years of team control, the Braves have him. They spend a lot of money to get him this offseason. Do you think he's gonna be around next year? Like, do you think they're gonna play him a bunch next year?

00:23:28
Speaker 1: I do think Kelnick will be around. Uh, can I take a rain check on whether or not he's going to play a whole bunch. Yeah, I think that may be determined or or honestly will very likely be determined by Rondacuna Junior and his knees. I do think kel Nick has a role on this team moving forward, not so much because of the bat. I mean, maybe he'll figure something out, but the fact is now he's going on like three full seasons and hasn't figured it out just yet. But defensively, Kalnick is pretty good and he can also cover center field, which is not a small thing. I mean it It is difficult to sign or trade for a backup outfielder who is good defensively and can hit a little bit and also be like cool with really not playing a whole bunch. Does that make sense?

00:24:24
Speaker 2: That's the part I don't know, Like is he cool with that? He's like if he's a bench player, you know, yeah, that's yeah. He had some issues in Seattle. Him and the management did not get along. Will Some of that was on the man, like they manipulated a service time, like they did some stuff that was truly not great, and he had a right to be upset about it. So it's not on all on him, But yeah, I don't know, you know, one good thing for him is he makes no money. You know, he's still a pre r player, so he makes a league minimum. He's got an option left. He can technically be optioned to the minor leagues, which is valuable to have around. So's I got some things contractually that are appealing. And like you said, he does have some skills and he's got some potential that you can dream on. Yeah, I don't know next year's outfits situe. I mean we got we got months to talk about this, of course, but next year's outfit situation is going to be interesting. And he's you know what they do with him, and again they spend a lot of money, like they spend like twenty million dollars this past winner to get him on the roster, with all the dead money they took on and all the weird deals they made. So yeah, that's gonna be a fascinating situation. But you know, for this year, he's gonna have to do this. He's gonna have to get these spots starts, you know, or hope Loriano maybe gets a little bit colder and he gets a little bit more playing time. But when he gets an opportunity, he's gonna have to do something, and credit to him, he did that tonight. That was a big home run tonight.

00:25:43
Speaker 1: Yeah it was the I mean it was the definitive swing tonight and help the Braves get a five to win. Let's it's a professional transition here or hey, sol Layer. We also wanted to talk about a little bit at the risk of I mean, you're right, Steven, he could probably do a two hour show on the state of the outfield, not only this season but next season. But Orge has not been hitting at all lately. He had some nice moments, especially in that Course Field series, and it felt like the Braves were getting the Jorge Solayer that they traded for, which was a real addition to the top of the lineup in exchange for some pretty bad defense and right field. But since that hamstring strain, that was deemed minor, although at this point I'm wondering if the hamstring is the underlying cause. Jorge has really just not been very good for a couple of weeks now. He did have a hard hit line drive RBI single to give the Braves some insurance tonight, but quick math tells me that Jorge is four for his last fifty one in the batter's box. That's pretty bad. And for a player who gives you basically nothing on defense and really can't run the bases, the Braves obviously need more from Jorge. And I mean it feels like you are the king of the Braves need Matt Olson to be good in order to hit their ceiling. But for me, I agree with you wholeheartedly, by the way, But for me, the Braves also need Jorge Solayer to be much better if they are going to be a serious World Series contender over the next two months.

00:27:26
Speaker 2: I mean when they lost Austin Riley, I mean that was kind of their you know, Ozuna, you know, we talked about it right after the trade deadline, but Solaire, Riley, Ozuna Olsen, like that's that's that's enough firepower that you can kind of dream on even with all the other injuries. And then they lost Riley, of course, and that just makes Solaire's role even bigger, right, I mean it's just like with Akunya goes down and everybody else's role becomes bigger. When Riley goes down, it it becomes that much bigger. And yeah, I mean they need to load of hit. I mean, he's been atrocious. I don't even know if atrocious is a strong enough word in the outfield, He's he's I actually looked it up tonight. He's had he's only played one hundred and forty innings in the right field, and he has a negative seven outs above average, which is like, I know, people maybe don't know a lot about those numbers. That's like an impossible pace, Like that's that's like historically bad to be I mean, and obviously if you watch him all that makes sense that that that definitely tracks with the eye test. But and they knew that, Like, and this is the thing, I don't blame Joge for being bad in the outfield. They put a DH in right field, Like that's what they did. They knowingly did that. Like if you if you let a kid drive a car and you exit, you don't blame the kid. Like they put a DH in right field and he's been awful. He's played right field exactly like I would think of DH. Would you know if they put Travis Darnoul in rightfield, it would also be bad and it wouldn't be Travis's fault if they did it. So they knew this was gonna happen. They knew he would be terrible on defense. I don't care what they said publicly. They knew he would be bad, but they expected him to hit more. And I think you're right. I think the hamstring is definitely part of this, because you know, if you look before and after, the splits are pretty clear that he's He's probably not one hundred percent. But they need him, man, I mean, they the offense is kind of going through another one of these lulls. You know, that kell Nick Homer tonight kind of covered it up, but braz have not been scoring a lot of They uly scored three runs last night. They the last two games in Philly, they only scored two runs total. You know, other than that kell Nick Homer tonight, they only scored two runs. So you know, the offense is in dire need of Jorgehilire to go back to being the guy he was, maybe not in twenty twenty one, but like a guy that he at least he was in San Francisco. He was having a pretty solid year in San Francisco and they haven't had that really since that Colorado series, and they need him back.

00:29:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can live with the very very iffy defense. If Solaire has a one to twenty five WRC plus right and is getting on base in front of Matt Olsen and Marcelo Zuna to drive him in right, I mean that was that was the the glass half full take. I think whenever we did the one Am Emergency podcast is as long as Jorge is hitting, he's going to be a contributing member to this team. But man, that defense, it's you said it perfectly earlier in the show that jokingly Chris Sale might like punch Jorge the way. I mean, every night, every time Sale goes out there, it feels like there's some kind of defensive issue with so Laire. There was another one on Wednesday night which wasn't like, you know, Bloper real worthy. But again, man, just the ball seems to find so layer in right field every every night basically.

00:30:38
Speaker 2: And I swear every single ball that gets hit in the outfield goes to right field. Like I don't remember a single like double down the left field line in the last three weeks, but I can. I can count twenty five of them that I've gone down the.

00:30:50
Speaker 1: Right field line, Like oh yeah, it's like.

00:30:52
Speaker 2: You put a you know, you put a liability out there and he becomes a magnet. Like the balls. It's just every single ball hit goes to right field. I'm sure Alex is up there, like, could we please hit it to one of the other two, like really good defensive outfitters that we have out there, Like why does everybody? Yeah, you know, it's it's that's what happens when you put a bad defender out there. The ball just finds him constantly. And he has been awful. I mean, I'm not trying to sugar, I'm not telling people to ignore what they see like he has been. He has been god awful in the outfield. But again, they put a DH in the outfield, like they kind of knew what they what they were going to get, and the point of it was he you know, they were hoping he would drive in kind of more than he let in, as kind of the old saying, and he did that for a while, but it hasn't been that way in the last probably three weeks or so, and they need him back desperately.

00:31:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, they do. And I think for if you're trying to be optimistic, even though the results have not been great, Jorge is hitting the baseball hard, his exit velocity is pretty good, but a whole bunch of ground balls. And we don't want Jorge Solaier hitting ground balls, don't want Matt Olsen or Marcelo Zuna. We don't want anybody hitting ground balls other than maybe like whit Mirrifield. This fine, but yeah, So let's hope a very sharp RBI single up the middle on Wednesday night will kind of help Solayer get going again. All right, Stephen, Well, we talked about being greedy and taking advantage of the bad teams, and let's hope the Braves can do that on Thursday night. They have a chance to sweep the Rockies and win three in a row, and Ronaldo Lopez will be on the mound. Rinaldo has been very, very good since returning from the injured list with the elbow scare seventeen innings, a one point five to nine ERA and probably most encouraging of all, twenty three strikeouts and only five walks in those three starts for Ronaldo. So let's hope the Braves can keep the momentum rolling and beat up on bad teams, because that is something that frankly, they have not done a fantastic job of all year long.

00:32:58
Speaker 2: I mean that's kind of one of the rigs are where they are right now. I mean they've struggled with Washington, they struggled with Colorado before this series Miami. You know, they've played well against the good teams. It's been the bad teams that they've had trouble really dominating. And you know, Toronto has been a team that has given them trouble in the past. Uh, they've actually played some of their worst series against Toronto in the last few years. I remember the last year, I think they went up there and got swept. So, yeah, we'll see the Phillies just kind of handled him for two games. You know, Kyle Sharber went up there and basically beat Toronto by himself the last couple of games. So they our team that can still score runs. You know, of Vlad Guarrel Juniors having an incredible year. He had actually a really slow start and people were wondering what was wrong. And then he's kind of quietly because they've been so bad, he's turned on. He's had you know, he's he's probably gonna get MVP votes as hot as he's been the last probably four months. So they still got talent, they can still beat you. You know, that's definitely a series where if you take two out of three, you feel good. But that's why the Braves need to sweep tomorrow, because you know, Toronto is definitely better than Colorado. Colorado is a team you need to sweep. Quite honestly, at this point in the year. You know, the Mets swept the White Sox. The Mets are I think the Mets swept the Red Sox, so like the Mets are handling their business against teams that maybe aren't as good. The Braves need to do the same thing. They need to sweep Colorado and then hopefully take two out of three against Toronto. Maybe the Mets actually lose a couple of games this weekend. We'll see what happens. But yeah, take care of your business. You know, you got four more home games left against teams that are not playoff teams. You know, I would say you need to win three of them, you know, three out of four, and hopefully maybe the Mets will will cool off a little bit and you can actually build a lead again.

00:34:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, we are very much in scoreboard watching season right now. You're right, I mean, the Mets man every time. I look, the Mets are winning and the Phillies are winning, so hopefully the Braves.

00:34:55
Speaker 3: Maybe maybe as.

00:34:56
Speaker 1: A contrast from prior years, the Braves kind of took their foot off the pedal the last few weeks of September because they had the division wrapped up. Maybe, just maybe that if they can get into the playoffs and really be pushed over these final three and a half weeks, it can kind of propel them into a deep run. All right, Steven, that is going to do it for us tonight. Anything you want to plug, sir before we get out of here.

00:35:20
Speaker 2: No, shout out to our guy Brad, and he's dealing with some stuff today that kind of sucks to have to deal with. So that's kind of why I'm here tonight with Scott, So shout out to our guy Brad. But yeah, we appreciate all the listeners as always. You know, you guys have been incredible, and you know, hopefully this show is going to go. Obviously, we'll go through September and hopefully you go through October. We get a deep playoff run and we get to kind of do a full Hammer Territory October playoff run. That would be fun but we appreciate all the fans as always and all the support. It's really been incredible.

00:35:49
Speaker 1: I will echo everything Steven said. Brad, We love you, buddy, take care of yourself. Hope you and your family are doing okay. All right, everybody, thank you again for tuning in. We will have another show coming this week. I don't know exactly when, but it will be there, and then I believe Brad and I will be reuniting on Sunday night. Let us hope the Braves can take advantage of the next four games at home and just kind of keep winning series, especially after the little bit of a detour over the weekend in Philadelphia. He is Stephen Tolbert. You can follow him at b Underscore Outliers on Twitter. I am Scott Coleman at Scott Coleman fifty five. Thanks again everybody, and we will see you all next time.