What’s Wrong With The Atlanta Braves?

00:00:21
Speaker 1: Hello, everyone, back to the Hammer Territory podcast. This episode one eight two. I'm your host s Brad Roland, coming to you on a Wednesday evening, and I'm joined as I almost always am, by my friends Scott Coleman. Scott, I believe the headline of his podcast is going to say it all, and basically it is what is wrong with the Atlanta Braves?

00:00:40
Speaker 2: That is the ten million dollar question? Brad. I don't know if anyone knows what is wrong with this baseball team right now? Five and thirteen says it all, doesn't it. I mean that there's no other explanation or there's no deep analysis. I mean the team just has flat out sucked three weeks into the season.

00:00:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're five and thirteen. I mean five and thirteen is not where I think even the biggest pessimist acknowledging, the tough schedule in the season, all those things, no one, And I'm pretty good at big pessimists is what I want to be. I don't think anybody saw five and thirteen as a realistic outcome after eighteen games. If you would have told me the Braves were eight and ten, I would have been like, all right, that sounds believable to me, given that they played a tough schedule. All that stuff five and thirteen is not was not believable. But here we are. That is the reality. Eleven percent of the season is now over, so not nothing. Eleven percent of season is over the Braves, as we just calculated before we started recording, even just to get to where they were last year. So the Braves won a nine games the season to go, and all of us were frustrated beyond belief even at that. Remember like they had to scratch and claw to get to get to eighty nine wins to stick into the playoffs. Just to get to that point again, they have to win at a ninety four and a half win pace the rest of the way, and that isn't gary you anything like A and I. Wood is not a guarantee of a single thing, even getting in the playoffs. So they have to play ninety five plus win baseball to be even pretend to be guarantee anything about playoffs, and there has been no sign of that to date. And I have been the one in our mentions filled with this today kind of making fun of me for not panicking enough to this point. That's not who I am in general, but even I as the one who was not panicked of the four of us, probably so far you don't want to panic, but man, it's it's getting worse and worse and harder to not panic to some degree. Here in mid April, every single day on the calendar, it just gets a little bit worse and worse. Yeah, and you can say with a straight face that there is a lot of baseball to go. It is still early. That's worth saying. The Braves have had some really good teams at the end of the year that did not start out very well. They have not had a team that started out this poorly in a long time, at least among their competitive squads. But there was the famous team that was below five hundred until July when they won the World Series a couple of years ago. They started out eighteen and twenty, which was a decent chunk of season.

00:03:11
Speaker 2: So yes, we can say objectively there is still time. But this team looks awful, and the same problems on day one are the same problems on day twenty one of this season. The players are frustrated. We had a couple of expletives from Matt Olsen and Spencer Stryder today in postgame, so it's nice to show they care. Maybe Brian Snitker could get up like one time in his life and maybe argue with an umpire who is completely blowing the game, or you know whatever. Little victories here. It's just I don't know, Brad, I'm out of words to say how frustrated I am with this team without getting a bunch of leaps and bloops added in and post edit. But man, it's just in some ways. Wednesday's game was the cherry on top, a lot of excitement, Spencer Strider's back, let's go, let's rally this thing's let's get back on the winning track. And what do they do? But they have a historically bad game with strikeouts at the plate, and I mean again, man, it's in one other quick note, our colleague Stephen pointed this out. The Braves started out owen to seven. Now the Padres are awesome and the Dodgers are really, really, really good. I think every power rankings you can find has San Diego in LA one and two in some order. So if you want to set aside that really brutal road trip to begin the year, you can do it, okay, Like sure they should have won a game or two out West, but two really good teams, tough to play on the road. All of that, But since starting ohen seven, the Braves are still below five hundred. They are now five and six against pretty mediocre competition, some games against the Phillies, some game against the Marlins, and then too middle tier American League team with the Blue Jays and the Rays. So even if you want to just expunge the OH to seven start, which you do not get to do, unfortunately, there's still sub five hundred in the two weeks since that West Coast trip, and that just really underlies all the issues this team has right now.

00:05:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you reference to some one to actually make sure we set it at some point. Special Strider, we love number one love and we'll talk about him a lot later in the podcast. He came back today. That's a good that's a good thing. One of the Spolko things is that he actually pitched and looked mostly fine today.

00:05:30
Speaker 2: Right.

00:05:31
Speaker 1: He's also a guy who's known him to be colorful, and he'll speak, he'll speak his mind, and he's he's a very candid guy and I love him for that. Matt Olsen is while I love him shared all the matter of high schools and all the things Matt Olson is not is not known for being the most colorful guy. Like he's kind of a boring guy in a good way, but in a in a boring way, right, And he gave a quote that will pass along from actually courtesy addressing Toscano guests of this podcast for the AJC, I'm gonna read it to you from this is from Matt Olsen, who gets animated very very rarely. Like you said, quote, We're going to be able to flush this as best we can, but like I said, it can't happen. We gotta play better. There's no secret to that. Sure, we got a lot of games left, but we can't do this bleep forever. We gotta find a way to start playing better baseball all the way around. End quote. Now, nothing is the butt that is reblator. We all understand that. Like he's not saying he's not breaking ground, nor is he trying to. But the fact that Matt Olsen is getting to that point on the record with the media, they know man, Like I mean, I understand, people always want more fire and this is not a team that's known for its fire, that's fair to say. And when it's going well, they get praise for that. When it's not going well, they get killed for that, for being boring, for being milk toast, all those words you want to throw out there. Personally, I am not someone and it's just me who really uses those things as like explanations for what's going on in the field. I don't really do that, but I don't blame people forgetting mad about it when it doesn't work.

00:06:59
Speaker 2: I get it.

00:07:00
Speaker 1: But it's a good piece of context. And I want to overweight one quote. But when Matt Olsen's throwing a little bit of a haymaker and swearing the record to reporters, they're feeling it man like, and they know like five and thirteen is five and thirteen. It is five and thirteen, Like there's no faking it. We get context. I try to give context the nuance. I know you do too. I know Steven shand do as well. We don't want to yell and scream and just give you no reason to listen to other than just rants. Like we want to give you information. We're gonna do that on this podcast. But they're five and thirteen, like there's no way around it.

00:07:31
Speaker 2: It is caught on nationally to the point where on baseball talk shows on Foul Territory Monday through Friday at one o'clock Eastern, they have national writers talking about what is wrong with the Atlanta Braves. What is wrong with this team that won eighty nine games last season despite all the injuries and so many things that went wrong, still won eighty nine games and made the playoffs, which is a really good outcome for ninety percent of the league. And this team that was coming off back to back one hundred plus win ends after a World Series and winning the division six years.

00:08:03
Speaker 1: In a row.

00:08:04
Speaker 2: And it's just baffling. And let me ask you this, Brad, and I did not prep you on this. That's fine. I tweeted about this a little earlier. Three months from now is the absolute heat of trade deadline season in July. If you had to put your life savings, Oh no, are the Atlanta Braves buyers or the Atlanta Braves sellers this time in July?

00:08:34
Speaker 1: Ooh? I I think if you pulled Braves fans, they would say sellers. I'm gonna say buyers. But I know myself is I'm being myself with that answer. I can almost watch myself on the outside to know that I'm gonna say this. I still think it's buyers right now. If look, if they're still not even not even like the pace they're on, if they're even playing five hundred from this point for another two weeks or something like that, if they're still at they're eight games under in three or four weeks, still two three weeks, even if they haven't made a run of any kind, I will switch to sellers as my projection. I will say it's for sure, it's just early enough, and there's still the projections and all the talent they have on the roster, and Strider's back and Rynane's coming back, all those things. I will still slightly lean to buyers with my life savings. But you can hear my confidence levels not very high.

00:09:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, do you.

00:09:33
Speaker 1: Have an answer? What's your answer? I have to flip around on you get the other one. Go ahead, you want you I can see it. I can see in your eyes. It's fine, it's okay.

00:09:41
Speaker 2: It's probably a little reckless to say right now, because look, we fully get it. I know there's there's fans on all sides of the spectrum, right fans who would fire everyone tomorrow if they could, and fans who are like, guys, it's April seventeenth, chill. If we're still having this conversation in six weeks, there are There are more of them on the fires, on the fire and angry side now than I think that there has been any point in the last or since the World Series run.

00:10:08
Speaker 1: Sure, I mean last time the fans were that not to be real, you, but the lost time the fans were this upset I think was the middle of twenty twenty one, when they were below of five hundred, I think, and totally maybe maybe some playoff exits obviously induced some anger, but I mean, like regular season, why this is the most anxious that there's been And by the way, that makes total sense to me.

00:10:28
Speaker 2: And last year had challenging times. We're not going to overlook everything. But again, when Akunya and Riley and all these and all those guys are hurt, you know, I think they get a pass.

00:10:38
Speaker 1: Last year they also started hot, and that gave them cushion. Right, They weren't playing well for a long time, but they were never like, oh, look at the standings in their fifteen games under five hundred. That never happened. They were always over five hundred. They were always in a decent place in the playoff race, Like there was never a dire point last year. It was like, ohh if you're paying close attention, they're losing a lot, like what's going on? But they were never in a hole. Now they're in a hole. Yes, they're in a big hole. Eight games is not nothing.

00:11:04
Speaker 2: And sure you can say, all right, well, if they have three good weeks, they're right back to five hundred and then they can get back on track, and that could happen. But the fact that a very real conversation about are the Braves going to be buying or selling at the trade deadline at this point in the season is nuts Because if you would have asked me a month ago if this was even a remote possibility, I would have said, no way. Sure, maybe they came out of the gate slow, without Strider, without Acunya. We of course didn't know that Profar was going to get popped and that Rinaldo's shoulder would have the problem. But even objectively, there would be no part of me that would say, oh, man, I could see it going real bad, and I really hope I genuinely hope, deep down that we do not get to a point where it's an actual conversation of do the Braves need to sell off some of these players? But they got to figure it out soon or they're going to find themselves double digits back of the Mets and the Phillies, and that's going to be nearly impossible to overcome. It is all right, I want to take a break in a second and hear from more sponsors. After that, I want to ask about the offense, talk about Alfice a little bit, because look, as much as the pitching has not been the best, it has been the offense that's been.

00:12:15
Speaker 1: The primary issue for the Braves this season. We'll get into some of that. The outfield also a little bit of a ram Sunshine was Strider later on in the podcast, the preview of the upcoming twin series. All that more coming up in just a second.

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00:13:28
Speaker 1: Okay, Scott, we teased it. Let's talk about the offense for a second. We will talk about the games in a little bit of detail. But they were not fun if you missed it. By the way, there was a positive show this week on this feed Monday night, our guy Sean and Steven talked about a win. There was a win in the series. They lost the series to Toronto, but they win a game. But look, I have some numbers for you. Are you ready for these numbers? As ready as you're gonna be anyway, You're not going.

00:13:56
Speaker 2: No, I am not ready, but we're gonna do it anyway.

00:13:58
Speaker 1: Okay, the offense has been disaster. I mean that's not breaking news to anybody, but just to put some numbers on it, the Braves have played eighteen games. They have scored sixty one runs in eighteen games. That is fewer than three and a half runs per game. That is terrible. Obviously, now it looks even worse when you think about it this way. Twenty five of those runs came in three games. They won all three of them, which is nice, but that means they scored thirty six runs in the other fifteen games combined. That's less than two and a half runs per game for fifteen separate occasions that unsurprisingly, they are two and thirteen in those games. One more stat then we'll go to you, Scott. The breaks are now on paced. This is crazy. For five hundred and forty nine runs this season, which doesn't mean anything to anybody out of context, but last season that I would have ranked second worst in baseball over the full season, ahead of only a team in the White Sox that won forty one games, that was historically all time terrible. The only team last year that scored fewer runs and the Broaders are currently on pace for after eighteen games, was the historically terrible White Sox. So that's what we're talking about here. Now. I think it's probably implied, but I'll just say it. I can't imagine them being this bad offensively all year long. Maybe I'll be wrong. I can't imagine that, but to date, that's what we're talking about. Like, it's not even we're not being hyperbolic. They have been as bad as basically they possibly could have been offensively through eighteen games.

00:15:45
Speaker 2: It's hard to comprehend. And what's I think almost crazy or even makes it more more frustrating, is that without runners in scoring position, this lineup has done a pretty decent job. Yeah, if you look at their stats in regular time, if you will, they're fine, Like they're they're not awesome, but they're I think they're top twelve ors so now, but with runners in scoring position, I mean it's like I get called up. I get a phone call from Brian Snicker and says Scott grab a bat you're going up there. I haven't swung a bat in like a decade. What happens? Man Like they go to the plate and it's like everything they ever knew about baseball just goes out of their minds. Or maybe they're pressing so much and it's all mental. At this point, I almost wonder if it is mental. Like in the clubhouse, there's this stigma of we suck with runners in scoring position, let's get it going, and they all try to do something they can't. It boggles the mind how bad this team is with runners in scoring position. And if that would just balance out a little bit, it would solve so many of this team's problems. Because again, they're doing a good enough job getting on base. The power has shown up the last couple of games, maybe even the last week. The power has shown up, which is a great sign. But with runners in scoring position, they are just lifeless. And it's just so frustrating because you get a runner and scoring position and everyone just kind of looks around and goes, Okay, great, here comes a strikeout or no way they're gonna get a hit here, because truly, for the entire season so far, they cannot put together a rally with multiple hits with runners on base, they just can't do it.

00:17:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I would say I don't want to boil it down entirely to run and scoring position. It's not always that that's just the best proxy for it. It's a sequencing issue to some degree, right, and some of that's noise. I don't This is where I'll put my boring analytical hat on. There's not a lot of evidence that there's a lot of skill to run scormotition batting, like you remember, there's theories about this or whatever, but maybe there is. There's some I think there are some that's probably fair to say, but it's more of a even when they even when they've homeward. For instance, they've been a lot of solo home runs, a lot of solo home runs. Like to your point, they are now, I believe after today, like seventh or eighth in baseball in ops with no one on base, like they've been totally fine to good with no one on base, includes clearly a bunch of home runs. But if you if your hits don't sequence correctly, like look, they've not been good overall this season offensively, but if you just look like if you hide the runs column on fangraps and look at the rest of the overall profile. It isn't good, but it isn't like totally disastrous. But they can't sequence like when they actually do things. They don't come when they need to come to score runs. And if you want to find its optimism, maybe that's it. Like that probably won't continue all year long, but it's happened so far, and all right, here's the number. Didn't you try to says I'm not sure if you already said. If you didn't say it, I'll say it. They're twenty four of one hundred and thirty two this year with runners and scoring position, it's a one eighty two batting average. It's not a batting average show, but batting average matters more. It's a better indicator of with runner scoring position, whe whether you're gonna score or not. A hit usually scores a run, whether when there's a runner on second or third base, not always, but usually.

00:19:08
Speaker 2: So that's tough.

00:19:10
Speaker 1: Now I want to joe down a little bit. Not this is not an hour long show about the offense. But Graverson is the same thing we said before about the overall numbers looking okay, a lot of the guys who are the standout guy for the Braves. They're not having great seasons, but the numbers look okay for Riley, for Ozzy, for Olsen, even not great, but okay, ish, acceptable, ish. Marcelo Zone is hurt right now, talk about that later on. He's been fine this year. Sean Murphy looking like Sean Murphy. Love to see that so far. He just came back looking like Sean Murphy. But I mean, Scott, it's impossible to overstate how bad the outfield has been. Like I just named most of the infield right other than a short time, which we understand is not gonna be a great spot at any point this year, and what's to make a trade, right, But the outfield has been I mean historically, like I'm not exaggerating, like could not have been worse to this point. They do have a what we hope is to standout in center field who's healthy, who's been terrible this year at the plate, but their core afield spots have been I mean truly dire terrible, which pick your word woeful. They have a thirty seven w RC plus as a collective outfield this year. That's everyone who's played the outfield combined thirty seven. That is the worst of baseball by a lot. What I mean, some of that's personnel base We've made fun of the lineup a lot when it comes out like it just looks terrible. Brian Naylor Cruz is really really bad. That's just the point. It's it's not just him, but he's been really terrible. Jered kill has been really terrible. Yeah, he had the one stretchhere, we had a bunch of walks in like two days, and everything else has been terrible the US this season. Stuart Fairchild like, these names are bad in general, but they're also playing badly. And then as Michael Harris, so, I don't know, I've said a lot of words, but the outfield is the problem. Offensively, it's unbelievably bad. And look, Brian de la Cruz was a minor league signing for a reason. When he signed, he was with the Pirates last year. I have a great friend who is a longtime Pirates fan, and he texted me within about five minutes and said, why on earth did you sign Brian dela Cruz. He is the worst baseball player I have ever seen. So you told you told me that and we laughed about it at the time. I don't think it's true, but man, he's been really bad. I mean, I feel like I feel like we're being mean, and I'm not trying to be mean to Brian Dyla Cruz, who, by the way, it's a minor league contract signing. He shouldn't be good. But he's been so bad, yeah, like unplayable. Yeah, but he has to play because Jerkson Profar decided to cheat. I mean that, let's call this what it is, Jerckson profile. It would be helpful if he was playing.

00:21:52
Speaker 2: Yes, Jerckson Profar cheating and then having his insane season and getting a big bag of money and then missing half of the year because he got caught cheating has completely screwed over the braves in the outfield.

00:22:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, it wouldn't fix everything, but it's a big There's a lot more played appearances for the likes of Stuart Fairchild and at Brandanalla Cruz than we're supposed to happen.

00:22:16
Speaker 2: And it was supposed to be Profar Harris, who will get to in a second, and Ronald Accooney Jr. In a couple of weeks, and that was arguably going to be the best outfield in baseball, one.

00:22:27
Speaker 1: Of them for sure.

00:22:28
Speaker 2: And now for another seventy games we have to watch some form of this disaster in the corners. I mean, I wonder if they just put Aconia out there in a wheelchair and just have his bat out there, because I mean, maybe he can't like fully cut loose in the outfield yet on that knee, but why not? What do you have to lot? Well, you have to be careful with Ronald, but you know what I'm saying. Yes, And then let's talk about Michael Harris.

00:22:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean this is starting to come to a head now because look, I'll raise my hand. I thought Michael Harris is gonna have a break season. I said as much on the podcast. I'm looking to be incredibly wrong about that so far. Again, it's eighteen games. He looks he looks terrible, he really does. He looks terrible at the plate. All of the hopes that you would have had that he would mature his approach, it hasn't happened. In fact, it's gotten worse through eighteen games. I don't know what you do with that. I'm not pouring I'm not pouring dirt on Michael Harris's career right now. But boy, he looks really bad at the plate.

00:23:26
Speaker 2: I called him Jeff Frank Core called him Jeff earlier.

00:23:31
Speaker 1: I saw that our guy, our guy at Capitol Avenue had the picture of Jeff Frank cor teed up today. For Michael Harris, it's it's making the rounds a little bit. It's scaring me, by the way, hurts my soul. Another park you high school got to make fun I can't make fun of people with Jeff Frank Correr in good conscience. But the parallels are starting to be a little bit striking, which is unfortunate.

00:23:48
Speaker 2: Our co host Stephen called Michael Harris Hobby Bayez earlier pain and look, I don't think we're getting to that point just yet.

00:23:57
Speaker 1: We're not.

00:23:58
Speaker 2: Michael. Michael Harris has to figure something out. This guy has one of the worst swing rates of stuff off the plate of quite literally anyone in Major League Baseball. He had a plate appearance on Wednesday afternoon. I don't know if he saw a single pitch in the zone and he struck out on eight pitches.

00:24:23
Speaker 1: You haven't watch the play appearance. I'd recommend watching it, but also if you look at the game, day game whatever they call it. The baseball tracking h it's a full count, so he did see three balls, but he swings at ball four. It's a foot and a half out of the strike zone to strike out with two guys on base. It was probably the single biggest play appearances of the game for the Braves today. Yeah, in retrospect it was. It's a big high levers moment and it's full played appearance. But it's not like his chase rates way up and we won't it's not a full Michael Harris deep dive on the podcast today. But he is part of the problem and he you you would hope that when you have this disaster with profar and you're right, you know that's on him. It happened. He should be People are mad at him, and they should be mad at him. That's happening. Ronnie's not getting back yet. I get it. The hope would be your guy, you banking on your former rookie of the year, potential future star center fielder, would be able to carry him a little bit right now, And it's been the exact opposite of that. He has been. By the way, I still believe Michael Harris, like I love Michael Harris, I really do like. I think the combination of traits he has, the defense, center field, the speed, all those things. It's really really exciting. And I'm pro local kid, all that stuff. But when your approaches what his approach has been this year, with a new hitting coach and with the whole offseason, to know that was his weakness anyway, it was already his weakness. Now it's gotten worse. That starts to be a little bit concerning.

00:25:53
Speaker 2: He is seemingly getting worse by the year, which he has been. By the numbers, yea Yoki year, phenomenal, one thirty five WRC plus, look like a future MVP. His second year, which was his first full season, a one to fifteen WRC plus, which is still good for a Gold Glove caliber centerfielder, but a big drop one thirty five to one to fifteen year three last year ninety nine league average, And you want better than that for a guy you signed for nine years or whatever that contract is. And now Michael has been one of the worst regulars in all of Major League Baseball. Deep down in my heart of hearts, I think Michael Harris turns it around, but he has to figure something out at the plate. Pitchers are never going to throw him anything in the zone.

00:26:40
Speaker 1: They shouldn't. Why why would you? I mean yeah, I mean we're honestly, we always see this is a pro Braves podcast, but put yourself in their shoes for a second. Through the opponent. There is no reason to ever throw micah Res strike right now until he proves he could take a bunch of walks in a row, like I would never throw a strike ever, Like why would you?

00:26:57
Speaker 2: So?

00:26:58
Speaker 1: Again, the think of Michael Harris that makes him, that makes him so attractive as an extension candidate, as a young player, is that all he has to do is be the average hitter, Like would you want to better? Would you want it to be more than that? Of course you would. But last year Michael Harris was still a three or four win player as league you could he could be a really really good valuable player who's worth that contract without being a great hitter. That's why Michael hurt is so awesome. But you can't be this. You can't be this hitter. So I don't think anyone again, just to say it's out loud, no one believes is going to be this. I don't think, but the trends are not where you want him to be, so we'll move on. But the office has been as bad as people are saying that it's been. Usually I find fans are hyperbolic at times. Hold my beer on this, Scott. The fans are piper blocks sometimes with their frustration all things are not going well. But honestly, it would be hard to overstate how bad the office has been and how bad the outfold's been. And I wanted to just take a second to like just say these numbers out loud and just be like it, look, it actually has been as bad as you are envisioning it at random braves fan X in Alabama or Tennessee or Georgia. It actually has been that bad, man, it has been. That's crazy, but it is.

00:28:10
Speaker 2: My mentions every day are a disaster. And I also find myself nodding along with like ninety five percent of the crazy stuff that's coming in because it's the same frustrations that I have, and it's the same frustrations you have, and it's probably some of the same frustrations the players on the team have. And I thought it was a good sign that Matt Olson, one of the leaders on this team. A very well paid veteran came out and said, look, we have to be better. This is not acceptable. Spencer Strider said the same thing, and sure, it's just words. Why don't you win a couple of baseball games this weekend and kind of put your money where your mouth is? Yep, But yes, I mean it is hard to overstate how bad this outfield is. And when it's three of the nine hitters in your lineup and you already have a shortstop position that even though Nick Allen has been totally fine in that role, admittedly, it's it's a weak unit. I mean, that's almost half your team. That's that's a virtual zero right now offensively, And even if you had four just incredible stars at the top, it's still not good enough. It's you're just not gonna win games that way. Yep.

00:29:17
Speaker 1: It is both too obvious and not not advanced enough of the analysis to just say, look at the lineup and look at the names in the lineup. But also it actually has been kind of easy to look at the lambs of the lineup and be like, hey, you one is very good offensively that that that collection of nine players in that order, like from from five to nine almost every day, or six to nine at least has been pretty dire. And leave it there for now. Okay, Scott, We'll get into the actual games very quickly, I promise, for everybody's sake, a little bit striver talk, which will be again positive all of the coming up. In just one moment, a band.

00:30:00
Speaker 2: Bingers did not be eyes. I'm just gonna have.

00:30:05
Speaker 3: Its root the Brons and they don't win in the shame brace games not just.

00:30:15
Speaker 4: Gonna work.

00:30:19
Speaker 1: Stream now, Okay, Scott, let's go back briefly to Tuesday's game, because we haven't covered down on the podcast yet, a six or three loss. We discussed the offense. I will say as a shout out quickly, Austin Riley was scalding hot until today. He had a bad day on Wednesday, but he had a stretch of eight games with a two hundred and seventy seven WRC plus. That's pretty good. Austin went from people worrying about him a typical Austin fashion, like he has these stretches where he's just like incredible and you just did it for a week. Cool. Love to see that offensively, whatever it was, the rare actual bad game from your guy in mine special Swallenbach. So Spencer was okay through four innings. Everyone though to I would say, to your credit and everybody else's credit was watching, was like, hey, does look great today. He's not really doing what he's usually doing. And then eventually that turned from he's getting by with it till he wasn't getting bow with anymore.

00:31:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, fifth inning spiraled badly. I think it was a stretch of five batters in a row who reached and two home runs cleared the wall, and a one to one game became a six to one game very quickly. And even when Spencer was getting through it in the early innings, just the command was not there and he was leaving stuff in the middle of his own he was getting hit hard. It was honestly kind of jarring to watch Schwamenbach not have his usual elite eighty grade command because he just looked off, and he looked off from the very first batter of the game. He almost hit Vlad Junior twice with a pitch in the first inning, which he never does, and from there on it just, you know, credit to Spencer. It's a testament to how good he is when he has like his D minus stuff on the mound that he can still navigate four innings and only give up one run, but that one inning at the very end just Spy rolled And yeah, you know, six runs a six run opposition scoring is is like a death sentence for this lineup right now.

00:32:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's the game itself is. We'll talk about whatever, but I mostly just a blip. I think Spencer's command is usually awesome. If it happens again, you start getting a little bit more concerned. But like it's one game. I'm not at all worried about it. I just it was to your you said it perfectly, it was. It was just weird because he's not ever liked that. And by the way, even including that start, he now has a grand total of I believe it's five walks in four outings with that start and included. So, uh, I still still in the two. So he's still if you're if you're holding that saw young ticket, you still have a chance. Don't worry. Everything's fine. Briefly, I'll ask you this. They had Baldwin and Murphy both in the line up the last two days, which we called for. I know, Sean and Steven did as well. After that didn't happen on Monday. It didn't change anything. But with Azuna out, I thought that was the right decision. Did you haven't thought about that?

00:33:10
Speaker 2: Just no brainer basically, Yeah, it was the obvious decision. And it really is a bummer that Baldwin and Murphy and Ozuna can't all three play. Yeah, maybe the Braves are so desperate they give Drake a left fielder's mitt and say, let's see how it goes.

00:33:28
Speaker 1: I don't.

00:33:29
Speaker 2: I don't think so.

00:33:30
Speaker 1: I don't think so either. But I mean, just to say it's not a loud as well ball. What hasn't been like tearing the cover off the ball. I mean, the underlying stuff looks better than the actual numbers, as we've said an oder of times. But I think it would be a little bit harder for the Braves right now in a good way if he was mashing. But he is it, so they're they're not going to be as incentive eyes to get super weird with it. I don't think.

00:33:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, he did get his first home run today.

00:33:55
Speaker 1: He did.

00:33:55
Speaker 2: It was the opposite Yeah, opposite field shot on a ball that was almost off the late. It just shows I mean, I really hope the Braves. I think at the end of the day, the Braves find a way to ultimately make it work with Murphy and Baldwin. I don't know if it necessarily can be this season unless there's an injury, and we'll we'll hope that Marcelo Zuna is back this weekend. But yes, it was the obvious decision to play both of those guys, especially with the current state of the lineup.

00:34:23
Speaker 1: It didn't work, But yes, I agree wholeheartedly. And you already mentioned that the only positive offensive thing that happened on Wednesday it was that ball went home run. That was literally the list we talked about at the beginning. We'll breeze through, but the Braves made some history that you don't want to make on Wednesday afternoon. Nineteen strikeouts in a nine inning game is a tie for the club record in a quotation mark setting for shutouts at nine innings, so almost the most I've ever had as a team. And the if you don't know this, the history of the Braves is very, very long, one hundred plus years.

00:34:58
Speaker 2: Great.

00:34:58
Speaker 1: This is a different environment, so I think their top three strikehong games are all in the last like five years, because that's what happens now in Major League Baseball. But still you don't watch you around nineteen times. Also a new Blue Jays record for strikeouts in their history on the other side, which tells you a lot as well. And of course the Braves were oh of nine with runners score positions. That's all of everything else. So a afternoon to forget except for one major thing. But anything else you want to add for East Rider because Rider is the only ray of light from today, I would.

00:35:27
Speaker 2: Say only thing to add. The home plate umpire was truly awful. Yeah, it was abs in the Challenge system. Cannot get here fast enough. Something Please, I will personally build and install the cameras myself and then drive them to all thirty stadiums if it means that we get the Challenge system. It was just, I mean, it was shocking how bad the umpire was. Tod I think it was Bill Miller, who's been around forever. It's always the umpire's name, so you know, it's like, oh God, here we go. But terrible play, terrible game, terrible offense. I guess the one happy thing was Spencer Strider.

00:36:07
Speaker 1: Okay, Scott with that said, this segment to be brought to do buy any folks at Fantal Sports Network, where you can now stream at Braves games. We'll tell you more about that in a second, but Spencer is gonna be the spotlight on today's show because the PRESI are losing and if you want to find a spotlight, it's good to have Spencer Strider back. Now, he wasn't perfect well acknowledgem not the top, but it was his first outing in twelve plus months, right slayung caliber guy looked like he was mostly himself. I don't think people, I think realistically you shouldn't expected him to be the one hundred percent cole version of Spens Rider in his first outing. That was probably fair to say. But what did you make of what you saw on Wednesday afternoon?

00:36:48
Speaker 2: For Spencer? In some ways it was very much kind of what I was expecting from Strider. Is the Spencer Strider that we got. He was not necessarily the Christmas or the sharpest that we have ever seen him. He labored a bit in the middle innings, but he was also still Spencer. Strider opened up the game with back to back strikeouts, which was awesome. Had the Slider working, had the fastball working at times. I don't think he necessarily had a great feel for his pitches other than maybe the slider today. But again you said it. I mean it's about twelve and a half months was the last time that Strider made a start, so I think there's things to build off here. The velocity was pretty consistent and didn't dip, which is always something you have to keep an eye on. And I'm sure just for that mental blockade for Spencer to get back out there on a big league mound, for him to get through that and have a pretty good start, even if he was probably left in for a batter or too many, I think you have to be excited to have Spencer back, and hopefully this is a sign of things to come because the Braves desperately need him to be good.

00:37:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, he touched I think ninety eight was the max he sat in the He averaged like ninety five and a half miles an hour in the fast ball. That's a little bit now from last time he's pitching, but that's that's to be expected, I think, especially early on free you know, when the weather heats up, when he's getting stretched out, all those things, so nothing concerning there at all. The secondary stuff looked totally fine. Like I thought he looked good. He didn't look one hundred percent. That's okay as far as like healthwise, look fine, and I think he felt fine.

00:38:20
Speaker 2: Uh.

00:38:21
Speaker 1: He was not in the mood postgame to talk about himself, which I think is fair. I understand Spencer, by all accounts, is a maniac in a complimentary way, competitive guy. He wants to win, and he was probably mad a loss today. It was also not his fault they lost today, no at all, Like if all you I'm just this is pretty obvious. But he gave up two runs and five plus innings, Like that's doing your job as the starting pitcher, especially your first outing in more than a year. He was out the problem and if the Bridge just hit it all, they would have won. And they didn't hit it all, so here we are.

00:38:52
Speaker 2: It's just it's even more frustrating that you see a performance like this where if Spencer Strider is starting and you give up three runs, you should win that game. Maybe not one hundred percent of the time, but you should win that game.

00:39:07
Speaker 1: Should win more than you lose for sure, And that's not happen enough. This year to be sure. So yeah, Spencer, it's just great to have him back. We've said that leading up to this all the way through. You know, one picture in particular is not going to save your entire season because he's only throwing everyone every five days. But in theory, I do have some excitement level still at five and thirteen for a top of the rotation that has Sale, Strider and Swallow back back to back to back. That is enough to get me excited.

00:39:37
Speaker 2: Now.

00:39:37
Speaker 1: I know Sale hasn't Mensale this year. We all understand that Strider just coming back. Just play at a baths start yesterday. I still have personally a lot of faith in those three guys. After that gets pretty dicey. We'll talk about that later on briefly, but uh, I think there's a if you want to find some excitement in your life, if you want to do your best Sewan Coleman impression, just find the rainbows here in mid April. That top three is enough to give it to me.

00:40:00
Speaker 2: Some agree, yep, that top three. Let's hope it's as good as we hope it's going to be. Grant Holmes was fantastic on Monday. It was a really good sign for a guy who's this is a pro Hols podcast.

00:40:14
Speaker 1: We love it.

00:40:15
Speaker 2: We like Grant one of maybe maybe the best start of his shortened big league career. And then we'll just, I don't know, close our eyes later later go out to dinner when Bryce Ellther comes out, I don't know, we'll see. But hey, if the lineup can wake up, and that is so far from a guarantee, but if this lineup can wake up, and you mentioned sequencing earlier, if they can string together some hits and be better at runners in scoring position, this rotation is going to give them a chance pretty much every night. Can they get the hits? And then can the bullpen keep things calm because it's been a Jekyll and Hide bullpen too. But yes, there are broader days on the horizon. And let's hope that when Spencer wakes up to in the morning he feels fine and all that. But by all accounts, he looks great, he feels good, and the Braves really just do need him to be his usual self.

00:41:05
Speaker 1: All right, more to come on the podcast, but first it were more friends at FanDuel Sports Network. You can now stream Braves games through FanDuel Sports Network and if you use the promo code Baseball thirty. That's promo Code Baseball thirty. You can start it off with a thirty day extended free trial at Fanduelsportsnetwork dot Com slash packages. That is FanDuel Sportsnetwork dot Com slash Packages Promo Code Baseball thirty. All first parts Pot two twenty five, nineteen nine nine, a month after free trial killsbur a free trial to avoid charges Elibai to Christmans apply visit Final Sports network dot com for dey tips. All right, Scott, let us dig in briefly to some news and then a quick preview of the weekend against Minnesota. And this will be breezy, we promise. Marcelo Zoon did not play the entire series against Toronto. They played a man down for three games. People were quick to make the Austin Rodley comparison when he did not play for like two weeks last year and they just played a man down. Hopefully it's not that bad. It seems like they're hopeful they'll be back this weekend. And of course they were in Toronto. There's some travel logistics there. He flew home to Atlanta. That's why he didn't go back to Toronto. It seems like we won't probably know until Friday because they're off on Thursday. But it seems like it's gonna be okay. They need them obviously.

00:42:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll see if Marcel's able to get into a game this weekend. It obviously helps that he is a DH only so he does not have to worry about chasing down baseballs in the outfield or running at home closely. He was pretty gimpy in Tampa Bay. That's neeries everybody, not everybody. A lot of people caught it in real time. Oh man, did Marcel just hurt himself and then he exched at the game. But it seems like if you believe what Brian Stinker and others around the team have said, they think Marcell is going to be okay.

00:42:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, that elves to add there, just maybe beat him back and hopefully he's back as soon as Friday. Ronald Coutia Junior got the sign off that everyone was talking about for a couple of weeks from the doctor. That's good to see on track can basically start to potentially try to test himself and cut. We got questions about this all the time, but what does this mean, Like right now. He can run a straight line, and so you can do something besides running a straight line. It takes time to ramp up. Also, you have to if you're a hitter in baseball, you got to like see live pitching at some point. There's a process that has to happen here. They're thinking maybe a couple more weeks at the absolute earliest. I think Bowman said two or three weeks at some point. That was like a good sign, because that could be like early May. We've been hearing mid May for a while. We're all guessing. But it's obviously a good sign. He's been cleared. That's all I got.

00:43:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, great sign. I still think there's something to my wheelchair idea and right field right now. I don't even know if, honestly.

00:43:42
Speaker 1: I bettioned he can hit of the wheelchaircause runn is that good? I don't think a field in a wheelchair, But yeah.

00:43:47
Speaker 2: Figure it out. He's a talented guy, he's young, athletic.

00:43:51
Speaker 1: He is athletic, that's true.

00:43:52
Speaker 2: I mean, the Braves did a good job of protecting Ronald from himself and letting that need get as healthy as it's going to be. Now, you just have to see how he progresses, and I'm sure there's going to be a day where he has some soreness or something going on, but you just want to get him back out there as soon as you can. And we know that Ronald's been able to hit, he's taken batting practice and all of that. Obviously, live pitching is different than batting practice. But I would guess I think that timeline early mid May sounds right, and it will not be a day too soon.

00:44:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, we will definitely do a podcast that day. No matter when that day happens, it'll be a podcast. Got kimberl made his braves Ish debut, not in Atlanta Braves debut, but pitched in double A Columbus on Tuesday. Looked fine by all accounts through an inning, struck out two. Every day the bullpen has any kind of issue, someone called for kimberle I mentions, I get it, but he was, as we joked about last time, he was just clearly not doing anything until the Braves signed him. So he's still in the rent bi process, but hey, once it's pitching in games like he could be up pretty soon. I would guess he's a reliever. I mean, you don't have to stretch out. He'll he'll be up fairly soon.

00:45:00
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, yeah, I think Kimberl makes the team. I think they call him up. We did talk about that at one point, maybe a week or two ago. But it's two million dollars, it's not a ton. And the fact that the Braves kind of recouped six million dollars from the Profar suspension, it makes sense to bring Craig up. They kind of have a carousel right now with a pitcher or two in that bullpen, so it'd be good to have Craig up. I would sure think maybe another game or two in Double A. Maybe they shift him up to Gwinnett whenever the Stripers are home, and then he'll get his name called.

00:45:31
Speaker 1: Yeah. Last thing on the news, this is very fast. Chadwick Trump old friends signed a minor league deal with the Orioles. So people ask us about bringing him back. He's he's no longer available to be brought back, and then Buck Farmer got released. I was very sad. People took your call for mercy podcasts literally on Twitter, which made us all laugh when you called me out for mercy podcast Some of it's tongue and cheap. But I do know Buck's family a little bit. I thought he was decent in spring would have been useful, but that didn't happen. So maybe had an opt out we didn't know about as well. I think it's obviously possible, but the era did not even really start. But rip to the Buck Farmer era.

00:46:12
Speaker 2: I like the idea of Buck Farmer. I poured one out for you, Brad. I know it costs nothing. It costs nothing.

00:46:18
Speaker 1: Everybody. It was monor league contract. It's fine. I'm sad, but hey. Then in the last year, Jesse Franklin, my favorite prospect because he was a Michian guy, got released. Like it's all going badly for me. It just it is what it is to protect my Olsen at all costs. All right, Before we get out of here, a quick look at the series against the Twins over the weekend. The Braves are off on Thursday. Recording this on Wednesday night, but they're off Thursday. The Twins have seemingly figured it out a little bit. They had a really really bad start of the year. They've won three in the last four, so there's still only seven and twelve with three of the last four wins but they are winning recently, and hey, better than the Braves. Right now, here's something for you. I tee. I did it kind of a straight face as a semi joke on Twitter, but I said, don't worry everybody. Bryce Elder is pitching on Friday, and that is happening. Bryce Older is on the mound on Friday. So we covered this earlier this week. The Braves kind of surprisingly ish, chose to option a just Mischelverer and not Bryce Older, and we thought maybe they would skip Bryce Elder and have it be a long relieve or something. But as of right now, the Braves are list It's not just like an educated guest, like they are actively listing him as a starter for Friday at home. I guesst Minnesota. Uh yeah, skid buster Bryce Elder, streak and.

00:47:51
Speaker 2: Bryce Elder against Chris Paddock, who is oh and two with an e RA in the nines.

00:47:57
Speaker 1: Hey worse, see I rad the Bryce Older.

00:48:00
Speaker 2: So there you go a small advantage saying there's a chance on Apple TV Brad, which I know everybody loves the Apple TV games. I will say, if you're still listening, and bless you for still listening to our ranting but usually the good folks at Apple will email me a code that I can put on Twitter for a free subscription, free trial. So if you want that, I'll try to tweet it out if if I get one. But yes, Friday Night's game exclusively on Apple TV plus.

00:48:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's not going to be well received, especially after some losses, Brads, Fans not feeling great about themselves right now. I can't image there's gonna be a mad rush to Apple. But hey, maybe people will do that. I'll be watching. I have Apple TV Plus. They're not paying me to say that, but I have it. Part of the reason my habit is for baseball. And are you with severn Sky? Brad never seen an episode?

00:48:52
Speaker 2: Everybody tweet Brad and say you need to watch Severance right now.

00:48:56
Speaker 1: I do a lot of sports. I yeah, just a lost words. It's worth I get it. I've heard it's been good.

00:49:03
Speaker 2: It's fine.

00:49:04
Speaker 1: No judgment, man, Antai, just I haven't seen it. After Elder Pitch is on Friday to save the season, Saturday is gonna Chris Saale against Simeon Woods richardson sail after his last start. We'll all be interest to see how he looks because he did not pitch well on his last outing and was pissed about it, and rightfully so, and big one on that one on Saturday. And then Greg Holmes pitches Sunday and his follow up to his aforementioned strong outing in his last start. So the Twins are beatable. The games are in Atlanta. I don't even want to think about what happens on this podcast Sunday night. If the Braves go one to two or one three this weekend, I don't want to think about it. So hopefully they'll just win the series. But win when please when please? Yeah, please please win? Please winnable again, winnable. This is not like you're playing the Doughters on the road. The Twins are not, on paper terrible. They have some talent, but a series that the Braves should hopefully at least win two out of three games. And by the way, this haven't done a lot of that. They still have won two games in a road this year.

00:50:09
Speaker 2: And it was looking so good because they had Schwellenbach on Tuesday night after a win Grant Holmes was awesome. They dropped eight runs in a few innings. It was looking good, and then you know what, happened in Swallenbach in almost a calendar year, has the worst start of his career. It just goes that way. It's been kind of a microcosm of the entire season. But I feel like we say this after every show, what's one more for the road? Maybe, just maybe this series against the Twins is what gets the Braves going again. They have the Twins and I think they have the Cardinals at home if I remember Rice Saint Louis has issues, so the schedule is lightening up a bit. Then they go out west.

00:50:48
Speaker 1: They play the Diamondbacks, who are really I was gonna say, then they're coming to see you, my friend. They're covered your way in about a week. And listen at the Rege doing this. I don't care what you're doing. I know it's not down the street from your house. You're going to Chase Field and doing something. I don't know what's gonna happen, but you're doing something over there. I'm sending, We're sending you as a correspondent to Chase Field.

00:51:06
Speaker 2: We go live live solo pod from the Chase Field. After the Braves lose nine to nothing for the.

00:51:13
Speaker 1: Fourth You and iPhone, You and iPhone straight just straight into camera, just talking. I don't know what's gonna happen. What are we gonna do?

00:51:21
Speaker 2: There are always a million Braves fans out west at Chase Field, so maybe I'll just like gather them and we can just get like a like a screaming session live on the podcast. It'd be it'd be great content. But I am gonna make the trip to Chase. Dear God. Let's hope they're playing better baseball this time in a week. But again, winnable series against the Twins, winnable series against the Cardinals. The Diamondbacks are good, but then they go to Denver and play the god awful Colorado Rock.

00:51:49
Speaker 1: Well, I'm gonna say you remember last year when they went's Colorado and lost? Okay, moving on, Scott, it's fun. It's fun to talk to you on Wednesday night. It was probably good for everyone that we didn't record this at like four o'clock Eastern time today. I was working, you were working. We have day jobs and things, but a little cool downtime still. I think appropriately negative is probably the wrong word. Dumerish at times on this podcast, but hey, we'll pull out of it here. We are. Please if you are new to the podcast number one, thank you for listening all this way, but please go ahead and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform or platforms even Spotify, Apple, Overcast, YouTube, etc. Scott working folks follow along with you, and you're increasingly positive Braves tweets over the last few days.

00:52:43
Speaker 2: I got to just delete Twitter, man. It just we all do. It's fine at Scott Coleman fifty five if you want to follow there. We appreciate all the support for the show, even as this team has really, really really struggled the first couple of weeks. We are here win, lose, rain or show A lot of rain these days, a lot of lowse But maybe this Brad, maybe we will look back at this very moment in time deep on a Wednesday night. What is today April sixteenth? People are listening on April seventeenth. April seventeenth, Where were you when the Atlanta Braves turned their season around? After listening to the Hammer Territory podcast? Sure mind, sure, sign me up. It is our job, I guess, to talk about the Braves on this podcast. We do take it seriously. We do, like like Scott just said, we show up rin or shine all the time. After a bad loss, we'll get people that are adding us saying, don't worry about the podcast, take the day off and don't know why. We appreciate you think about our well being. I do thank you for that, but we usually don't do that.

00:53:42
Speaker 1: We're gonna be here. It won't always be great, it will always be long. There might be some short shows if this season's still going this way, later on in the pocket, later on this season, but in the meantime we'll have to clip for you and we'll have more to come. I think we'll probably have a show Friday night. I don't want to guarantee that, but it's probably the play in the middle, and then, of course you and I are the plans always for us to be back on Sunday, So please stay tuned for all that. One more time, please subscribe to the podcast, follow the show, subscribe, rate, review, comment, etc. We appreciate it and we'll see everybody.

00:54:15
Speaker 4: Thanks time,