Profar’s Return, ‘Trade Acuña,’ and Dwindling Playoff Chances

00:00:21
Speaker 1: Hello, everyone, Welcome back to the Hammer Territory podcast. I am your host, Brad Rowland, coming to you on a Thursday. It's almost a holiday edition of the podcast. July fourth will be arriving as we finish up this podcast, and I'm joined today as I always am, by Scott Coleman. Scott, it's episode two twenty seven. There have been a few of these episodes, the spalls on our old podcast where we used to do lack loss episodes. This is a weird one for me. I gotta be honest with you. How are you on a Thursday night?

00:00:47
Speaker 2: Hello Brad, Happy early fourth of July to you and everybody out there listening. I am in a weird place as a fan and as a podcaster of the Atlanta Braves because this team is a weird spot. They have not been in in ten years at this point, maybe eleven years. I think I was thinking about this earlier today. Tell me what you think. This season to me kind of feels like twenty fourteen, where there was some expectations and hype and excitement, but obviously it's it's just not gonna happen, or it's probably not gonna happen. We should say, maybe they're not fully dead yet, but to me, it feels like twenty fourteen. Of course, twenty fourteen was the end of an era. They sold the entire world a few months from now in twenty fourteen. I don't think that's gonna happen. We're actually going to talk about that a little bit later in the show. But it's weird times right now to be a Braves fan.

00:01:41
Speaker 1: It certainly is. And that's probably the best Sebi recent comparison for this team is twenty fourteen, and that's a long time ago. We weren't even do in podcasts yet. You haven't talking for a long time. We haven't even started yet in twenty fourteen, so a lot has happen. If you are a new listener to the show, or if you perhaps are joining us again right now, then that's interesting timing. We welcome you back to the show for sure. We should also plug. We did an emergency episode. It wasn't Scott and I, it was actually our colleagues Sean and Steven on Wednesday to chronicle the latest and the disastrous news for the Braves, and it's specially Swallenbach going down. We could give our reactions now, I guess it's better than the worst case scenario. It's not a Tommy John, it's not a long term, long term injury. But also it's not good for a team that has no margin for air. That was covered in more detail than we probably need to do it now, but it seemed like the reaction was I want to put wars in your mouth. For a lot of people, it was like, okay, now I'm giving up. Basically was a lot of the takes on WEDNESDA Night.

00:02:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it was the if the Braves couldn't withstand the Chris Saale injury, they really could not withstand the Schwellenbach injury. And to me, I mean, maybe there's a one percent chance that I'm hanging on that this season some miracle is gonna happen. But in my eyes, the Schwalenbach injury was basically the nail in the coffin. No Sale, no Schwellenbach, no Ronaldo Lopez, no A. J. Smiths Shaver. The Braves are legitimately gonna run like pretty close to a Gwinette striper's rotation here pretty soon if they don't go out and add somebody off the veteran scrap heap or add somebody who can eat innings. It's just for a team a year ago that suffered so many injuries on the offensive side of the ball. This year, the pitching staff has just been ravaged. Four out of five of your opening day starters are now down. It's just it's it's crushing. And just when I saw the announcement of a fractured elbow without any like immediate reason why that elbow is fractured, was just another, you know, punch in the groin when we're in the middle of a season with a whole bunch of punches to the groin.

00:03:56
Speaker 1: Right, and it special to talk about it to the media for a few minutes on Wednesday night, and he was relatively upbeat, clearly frustrated because a guy wants to pitch, he's a competitive guy, and all these guys want to win. It is what it is. But yeah, I identified with that. It was certainly not great, especially for a team. And you know, Steven shared the stat that I people probably heard already on the show, but about how the Braves have allowed so many fewer runs than the Dodgers and there's still like seventeen games behind, so it's run prevention has not been the problem for this team. We all understand that, but now it's going to be a problem. And that's kind of what the negative framing is, like, Hey, they already couldn't score, and now they probably can't prevent runs in the same way that they have been because the only reason why they're even still alive right now, if they are alive, is the run prevention, and if that goes down the drain with two of your top three starters out, plus the depth that you mentioned, it's pretty dire. I do want to I'm not even sure I'm zagging. Maybe I am zagging a little bit here, Scott in a way that perhaps I am prone to do, but you kind of casually set a one percent chance have saved the season. I think I'm going to be the rogue guy of the four of us, even more positive than our good friend Sean Coleman, who can make anything sound positive. I want to kind of say that it's not totally over. Am I allowed to say that on the podcast? And that is that a promissial? Now I will give the context necessary to defend this take. I'm not saying I'm optimistic, because I'm definitely not optimistic. But I think it's like they stall have like a ten percent chance versus a one percent chance. I mean that's that's not a huge difference, but it kind of is. Does that make a rationals I'll explain. I'll explain it. Am I crazy.

00:05:34
Speaker 2: That is a little spicy and a little hot. But let's hear it, Brad. I want to hear I'm at one percent. I think most people listening or watching the show, and I get somewhere in like the zero to three percent. But I want to hear lay out your case, defend your your thesis.

00:05:48
Speaker 1: Here I do get it again, and I'm going to be very clear, I'm not expressing optimism overall. It's I feel the same way everybody else does, just with a little bit more nuanced. I think it's because of and look, I was actually kind of surprised. I think I was lower earlier today, and then I looked at some of the numbers, and look, I'm not saying any of this stuff still applies the same way because of what we just talked about with the rotation not being whorried. Is they're even with a loss tonight. And by the way, we're recording after a game on Thursday. That was not a lot of fun. It was kind of a perfect Braves game for this season, even with that loss. I'm looking it up to just make sure I'm not crazy right now. Yeah, the Braves are still at this very moment only and always weird word to use, but seven games behind the wild Card right now, it's July third, as we're talking the deadlines in four weeks. I would not buy if I was the Braves because of what we just said, Like, the chances are really low. You don't want to mortgage anything of the future right now. That'd be silly to do. I'm not saying otherwise. What happens though, if they against all odds, quite honestly, and I'm not expecting this, what happens if they play like reasonably well for the next four weeks and they're within five games of the wild Card at the end of July, what happens then? Like, I'm not saying they're gonna win it at that point, they're still big underdogs. If you're five back at the end of July, no matter what you do, you're an underdog to make the playoffs by a decent amount. But what if they are What if they're there, and that doesn't seem implausible to me. I wouldn't project it because of this team's current roster. But like if they don't sell the world off right now, which I think we're gonna get into a little bit more in a second, and they just kind of hit better for four weeks, which seems plausible to me, I don't know. I wouldn't buy now, But could you talk yourself into buying in four weeks if they're four and a half games out, No.

00:07:43
Speaker 2: Okay, if they're four and a half games back in four weeks, sure I could talk myself into some buying.

00:07:49
Speaker 1: And not like all in buying. By the way, again, this is it. This season is not an all in buying is out the window. Like a month ago, I would have been like, hey, get aggressive, let's do this thing. That's not on the table anymore. But what if they can, like go get a picture? You know?

00:08:04
Speaker 2: Sure, I have no confidence they're going to get within four and a half games.

00:08:09
Speaker 1: I agree, I agree with you, which is why.

00:08:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, I know we are trying to at least see this from all sides, but I think the season is effectively over with. There's still reasons to tune in. I saw a lot of that back and forth. Oh, the season's over, I'm not watching the Braves, blah blah blah. There is so so much to watch storyline wise and big picture wise and things that are going to frankly have a big impact on the off season and decisions for the front office. So I'm still going to tune in most nights. Maybe I'm not going to tune in on Bryce e other night, however long this keeps going, but everyone else sure, why not? I'll check out some baseball. But I mean, yes, if by some miracle between now in July twenty eighth, when we're seventy two hours away from the deadline, if they are somehow four or five games back, even with like five teams ahead of them, even if they make up some ground, I think the Braves have seven teams ahead of them, eight teams in the wild Card.

00:09:07
Speaker 1: Too many teams, is the answer.

00:09:09
Speaker 2: It's it's virtually well, no, actually it's more than that. It's like twelve teams. I think they have a better record than the Pirates and the Rockies and the Nationals. So they're in eleventh place in the National League. Good freaking lord. So yeah, I don't think we're gonna have a lot of buying conversations from this point out. But weirder things have happened.

00:09:31
Speaker 1: No, And again, I think it's just my natural inclination to be like, all right, what's it's not over? Over over, it's just like kind of over. There's the like the meme of like it's so over, we're so back and we're back. I'm not saying we're so back. That's not what I'm saying. I am very pessimistic as everybody is. I just think it's like ten percent versus one percent even now, Like I don't think this is necessarily accurate because of the injury situation that they have right now. But Frank Grafts are answering today. Had the Braves with a seventeen point two percent chance to make the playoffs, the Coda at Baseball Perspectives had nineteen point nine percent. So I'm lower than those. I'm lower than those, Like that's different than one. I'm not saying they're right, but like, when you have that kind of percentage and they're like pretty good models, it's probably not totally dead. But this might be the loss of my Try this for a while I'm not trying to be contrarier for Contrarion's sake, I actually believe what I'm saying. But ten percent is still like horrific. It's not like it's not exciting.

00:10:27
Speaker 2: Well, what was the Braves playoff odds coming into the season, like ninety percent or something.

00:10:32
Speaker 1: Crazy like that, Probably ninety ish on fangrass, I didn't look at a coda, but yeah it was. It was. I know in fangrafts they were the second highest in baseball behind the Dodgers. Yeah, that's out the window, I think at this point, Scott. Anyway, so we understand it was covered in depth last night by our guys. We feel the same way, with a little bit of difference, just a tiny one. It's not no one's feeling good. This is a situation where the roster's in really bad shape. The rotations did really bad shape now in a way that it hadn't been before. There's stuff to talk about, and we'll get into it when it comes to Profoi coming back. For example, we're gonna have to have at least a brief conversation about a viral topic about rond Acunya being traded. Scott. That's coming up in a second. That gets my better judgments. But uh, in a second, we'll get to all that stuff the first it were more partners on the show, all.

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00:12:25
Speaker 1: All right, Scott, dealer's choice. Do you want to do the Romancunya trade segment first or talk about the other stuff first.

00:12:33
Speaker 2: Let's get the Acunya segment out of the way, because somehow this has taken the entire universe by storm. Based on a three minute conversation on MLB Network this.

00:12:44
Speaker 1: Week, Yeah, and it kind of that had some offshoots, but I believe it tracks back to Joel Sherman of The New York Post doing a I think he's a regular element. I think he's a regular when we networked anyway. He's a prominent guy, a prominent writer, better around for long time. He did a segment in conjunction with ABOT people basically advocating for the Braves to trade Rondicutya, and the reaction was swift. Now, he isn't the only person in the world that believes this. I do believe it's it's maybe a TV segment, you know, it's what you do sometimes, you know. But I think people are kind of overlooking some of the key points of this, And there is an argument that I could make and maybe will make at some point for some like semi drastic changes. I think that you could certainly argue that the hey, we're never going to trade anyone under long term contracts bit might have to be over at some point. Like I can see the argument for some like bigger moves, whether you like that or not, like that's that should be all on the table now. But my personal opinion, I'll throw it back to you, is like ron mcunia is kind of separate from that. Even if they were to do a bigger retooling, I would not be trading Ronnie for many reasons, but one of them is that he is signed for three and a half more years. This is not a one SODO situation. Or people used to ask them about asking about Max Freed when it was like he should the trade Freed. It's like, all right, well they had he had one year left or whatever. This is three and a half years remaining on a cheap contract for a top five player in baseball. You don't really trade that guy, Like it seems kind of insane that we're talking about this, but it's a topic, So what do you think?

00:14:29
Speaker 2: It is insane that this is being talked about for a couple of reasons. One, the Atlanta Braves are not trading Ronald Acunya Junior. Two, even if the Braves wanted to trade Ronaldacunya Junior, which they don't, I legitimately don't think a team out there could come up with a strong enough package, a strong enough trade package to get three and a half years, including four postseasons of Acunya. We know what it took to get one Soto for one and a half years. It was one of the biggest trades of all time. You're getting Acunya for more than double that. So I was shocked that this caught on so much. You're not trading Ronald Dacunya junior. If you want to have a conversation about Sean Murphy, probably this offseason, that is a real conversation the Braves are going to have. If you want to have a conversation about seeing if you can sell low on Michael Harris or maybe even crazy enough is Austin Riley, somebody you want to attach yourself to for the next eight seasons beyond this. Those are all conversations. I think the front office will have to have a come to Jesus moment with at some point, but it's not going to be this year or this season. And they're not trading Ronald Dacunya Junior. I bet every dollar to my name today, tomorrow, and for the rest of my life. They are not trading Ronald Dacunya Junior.

00:15:56
Speaker 1: I cover the NBA a lot, as people might know, and it would for me it would take something like an NBA style like he'd have to make it like publicly known he wanted to be traded for that to be a topic. You remember Rafaeld Devers who Acunya is better than for the record and side to a much more friendly contract, all those things. The only reason why Devers got traded is because he made it weird, right. It was like not a full on trade demand, but it was like very odd situation. That's why he got traded. Akutnia again is better and signed to a much better contract. Way Devers has a terrible contract, That's what I'm saying. Like Way better, like even Sodo, who hadn't extended at all. He was even an arbitration. He was making even arbitration double what Ronnie makes for a season, thirty million a year kind of level. Ronnie has signed for seventeen million a year, locked in three and a half more seasons. I'll go I'll go as far as to say this, we've kind of especially in the when they were supposed to be winning this season, we would have totally dismissed any thought of trading. Name your guy, right, Riley even, you know, I'll use Olsen, my guy, whatever, Olsen, Harris any Sale even, I could make an argument right now for the Braves to trade anyone on the roster. I bet you I can make it. I can make a coherent argument other than maybe Schwellenbach and Ronnie. I can't make an argument for trader ron Wakunju like I wouldn't make an argument to trade Matt Olsen, for example, who like has a really good contract, has been their best most valuable player of this season. Ryan has been better on a per game basis. But and but even Sale like we love Sale, We absolutely love Chrisale. He's thirty six, thirty seven years old, Like, you can make an argument to trade him. I wouldn't, but I get it. Riley, you just said same thing. Harris is an easy one at this point, Ozzie, name your guy Murphy because of the Ballwin factor. Maybe you wouldn't trade Ballwin obviously because he's on the way up. Anyway, even then you were for me, you'd be more likely to trade someone like Baldwin or Schwama Bach, who I still would never trade right now. Then you would to trade Ronald Cunya. So it's a it's insane. I find it crazy, but because I've got so much traction and there are people and I do believe just fundamentally this is my media brain now. I think it was like, oh, the Braves are in a really, really really bad spot right now, which we agree on for the record, Hey, if we're ever gonna do this segment on rond Acudi being traded, the most famous player it should be today, that's probably my guess is how they got there. But it's still very silly in.

00:18:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, silly is a nice word.

00:18:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, silly.

00:18:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't believe we're having the conversation. There are real questions about this roster short term, long term? How drastic and aggressive does Alex Nthopoulos in the front office want to be Do they feel like this is a blip and it's a bad period of sixteen months and they're gonna come out better in twenty twenty six with some more on the margins changes, some personnel changes, for sure, but more of like your your supplementary players than your stars. Or are we going to see a really drastic offseason where they really move some pieces around. I don't know. It's probably a bigger, deeper conversation for another day. It is, but it's also just sad that we're having these conversations because this team was just unbelievable from twenty eighteen up until the injuries last year, and ever since, it's just been one thing after another after another.

00:19:35
Speaker 1: You're right, and we'll save a lot of the bullets of what this could be. And there is nuance. I think I said it already, but I'll say they probably need to at least think about the blanket policy of never trading anyone that's signed an extension, because if you have no flexibility, I mean, I got to cover the Hawks. I'll use the term that we've used with the Hawks the last couple weeks. Optionality is a popular word. The Braves don't really have optionality right now. They have a lot of guys locked in and if you're unwilling to trade any of them doesn't mean you can't fix situation, but it just makes life a lot harder. There's only certain levers you can pull if you just will never ever trade one of those guys. And when it's going well, it was great. I mean you're set up really well. But it's a bigger conversation. But we agree on Cunya. It's I do think if people just sit down and say, hey, how long was he signed for? Again, Like if you assigned for a year after this, I would actually understand the conversation. We probably wouldn't be talking about it. It's like something we would do, but I would at least understand it, because like, that's the time you would trade someone like that is if you were about to really go into a retooling and he signed for one year and he and you don't want to maybe pay him what he's gonna what he's gonna get. That's different. That's not where we are. He's signed for three and a half more seasons.

00:20:48
Speaker 2: Yep, yeah, we could not getting traded. I don't think they. I don't think a team could trade for him even if they wanted. I'm sure every twenty nine team should love to trade for him.

00:20:57
Speaker 1: Everyone would call, everyone would call. UH. One day when we're bored. Maybe it'll be in August. If things go poorly, maybe we could figure out, like, what's the best possible offer a team could make for around Couna and would it be good enough? And the answer is probably know.

00:21:10
Speaker 2: The answer is no, And maybe I'll do this if I'm bored. I legitimately don't think, like, take the best farm system in baseball, or maybe just the most top heavy farm system in baseball, could you come up with a player package to get three and a half years of acunya? I legitimately don't think you could.

00:21:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think we're on the same page. We'll probably say, like the hey, reasons to watch the Braves podcast for later if we need it, if they just could obviously, if they really really really fall out of it, that's it's on the table now in August September, and we'll be talking a lot more about minor league guys and whatever else. So put that to the side, but we should at least mention there was a real news item that got kind of buried because of the Schwalmuck injury and everything. Pro far us back now and he looks good. That's he was looking good in Guinette. He's played well. So are you homeward tonight? As we're talking on Thursday. That should have been a big story. It still was. Like he apologized to his teammates that got reported on as he arrived back in Atlanta. You know, people are It's mixed reaction, as you might expect from the fans. That makes total sense. He put them in a terrible spot this season. We've covered that at nauseum. But I want to I think it's a story that he is back for both now but even less so now and more so for the future because he has signed for three seasons and for me putting this season on the back burner a little bit, it would be really nice for the Braves and optionality, flexibility planning all of these things if he was an Albatross contract. So if he comes back and plays well and the way that he is right now and hits, if you wanted to trade him, you probably could. I'm not saying they're going to do that, but they probably could. If he comes back and he's bad and he has the PD suspension, you can't move him and he's stuck on your books and all those things. So that's a bigger picture. Like it. If you are one of those people that have given up on the season, don't I don't blame you, number one, but number two, the Profar return actually still matters because he needs to be good for like every other reason.

00:23:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh it absolutely matters. And it's just two games, but it's been encouraging. Two home runs, one from the left side, one from the right side, which is great to see, and Profar was crushing the baseball in Gunnette and I think it's only natural to have a ton of skepticism when a player has a career year and then gets popped for peds. It was the same conversation we had on the show. It's probably the same conversation everybody listening to the show has with their friends or family or whoever it is they talk about the Braves with. But the reason that we also liked the Profar signing in the off season was because of some of the swing adjustments and mechanical adjustments that he made which made it feel a little more real. Now, how big of a role did the Peds have in him being a silver slugger a year ago, first the swing and just having a good year overall, We'll probably never know, but at least so far, it's been early returns. If Profar came back and he was zero for eight with four strikeouts, you can imagine what the reaction would be from the fan base. But Jerckson Profar a very important player for this team because if he can show that last season was any bit of the norm going forward, that's a really good bat to have somewhere in the top half of your lineup. And god knows the Braves could use a couple more of those.

00:24:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, they really could. And again, it's like you said, it's two games, but he is back left field. As we covered at nauseum, has just been such a complete and utter waste land for this team that maybe if you want to fly somemothtimism, and again, let's say you have to, he's a real baseball player. I feel confident in that he's not going to be a total and utter zero. I feel good about that.

00:24:51
Speaker 2: In two games. Profar has more home runs than Braves left fielders had given them in something like one hundred and seventy five played appearances.

00:25:00
Speaker 1: Yeah it was like ten months.

00:25:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, Eli White had one and I think in Milwaukee and since then and Verdugo, I don't know if Verdugo ever hit the warning track. Dear God, Thank the Lord. We are moving on from him. But yeah, hey, Profar a reason to tune in see how he does. If he can give the Braves some real production and then just more confidence that what he's doing moving forward is going to be someone they can count on, would be huge for this team.

00:25:26
Speaker 1: I totally agree, and we'll probably have a couple more thoughts on what happened the last couple of days. We're not going to do a full flung game breakdown of these games because we don't need to. First though a new segment, and it's our Draft Kings player segment. We're sponsored today by the folks that the Pick six app from Draft Kings. All you have to do at that app is pick more or less almost ask for two or more of your favorite players, and you're in the mix for cash prizes. And the player spotlight today is Matt Olsen. Now, a lot of the Braves have been struggling for a while now, but the two guys who haven't been are Ronnie, who's been a little bit shakier recently, but still it's great and Metals. And the reason why he's the spotlight segment today is that Matt has now reached base in thirty three consecutive games. We all know, we've never miss his games. He's been playing every day for literal years now, but he's not reached base for more than a month consecutively. It's the longest streak for the Braves since twenty twenty, and the longest active streak in all of baseball. Matt has been really good basically for a while. It's gonna get lost, I get it. But this is this is actually a real thing, and I think he probably should be the knowledge. So what have you seen it from Olsen lately? I know he's really having a good season. He should probably be an All Star, But what do you make of this run that he's on and how much do you care?

00:26:41
Speaker 2: I think in a season where so many things have gone wrong, we can overlook things that are going right, and Olson has been terrific really for most of the season. He has been the one and only constant in this lineup, and not only just offensively, but defensively. Matt grades out exceptionally well in the eyes of the fielding metrics. He's almost certainly going to win a Gold Glove over there, and it feels like a legitimate gold glove, and not only a Gold Glove, but a Fielding Bible Award at first base, which is probably a better indication of how good you are as a fielder. And then we've seen the pop the home run ball has come back the last few weeks, had the Grand Slam on Wednesday night, which was great to see. And when it's all said and done, Mattilson might finish the year as the best first baseman in baseball. In terms of war He's right up there with Pete Alonso and Freddie Freeman. It's going to be a three horse race to the very end. But Yeah, can't say enough good things about Matt. He has been one of the few rays of sunshine this season and he deserves the credit that we're going to give him here.

00:27:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, you mentioned it, but he's on pace for like a five and a half war season at fangrafts, maybe even more than that at Baseball Reference if you prefer that version of it was a book replacement. But he's been comfortably their most valuable player this season. Again, on a per game basis, you could certainly argue for a Kuna or Sale or even swallow Block maybe, but given the injuries to those guys and running got the late start, Olsen leads the team and all the war metrics. He is, to your point, the leader in gold glove, platinum glove, what do you want to say? At first base? And he's on pace for thirty plus home runs. Again, he isn't hitting the same way he was two years ago. That's fair to say when he was shattering power records. But he's just been an awesome player this season. And you know, not a surprise. This has been a star player for a long time. But he's having a star level season. And he's the only one other than Ronnie who can say that for this team. So a real bright spot. Want to shot him out today on the first ever DraftKings player spotlight segments. And now Scott, we will look at the pick six options for Friday's game. It's July fourth, and it's a big one, all right, Scott. I have a couple of picks for Friday, between the Braves and the Orioles, and they're both in the more side of things. For Baltimore, I'm going to go with the more on old friend Charlie Morton getting more than four and a half strikeouts. The Braves will strike out on occasion, as we know, and old friend Charlie is capable still of getting those strikeouts. On the Brave side, I'm going to go with the more on matt Olsen, and in fact, you know they have hits available here, but I'm going to go with the more on matt Olsen more than zero point five home runs, which means a bigger payout. But also matt Olsen has been staying hot, certainly capable of a big old swing in this spot against old friend Charlie Morton or if they need to get into the bullpen. For Baltimore, it will go with the more on zero point five home runs for matt Olsen. Pick six from DraftKings is the most fun way to play fantasy sports. Down on the Draft Kings. Pick six app now and use code foul. That is code foul for new customers to get a special sign up offer better payouts, bigger wins only with Pick six from DraftKings.

00:30:01
Speaker 5: Gambling problem called one eight hundred. Gambler help is available for problem gambling called eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot orgon Connecticut. Must be eighteen and over. Agent eligibility restrictions vary by jurisdiction. Pick six not available everywhere, including New York and Ontario. Void were prohibited for additional terms and responsible gaming resources seepick six dot DraftKings dot com slash promos.

00:30:22
Speaker 1: All right, Scott. Briefly, any takeaways from the two games that have not been covered on this feed are guys Shawn Stephens recorded before the game Wednesday is of the emergency nature of the Schwelmbach injury. So we have two game sample size here, one good on Wednesday at a breezy win, and one pretty bad on Thursday. It was kind of a reversion again, not a full breakdown, but anything you wanted to least note from these two games.

00:30:46
Speaker 2: I think my only real takeaway is that Diddy or Fuentez needs to go back to Gwinnett, Will Scott.

00:30:56
Speaker 1: To be replaced by whom would be my question to you?

00:30:58
Speaker 2: Right there is no options, and that's why I would not be surprised at all in the next day or two or three if alex Enthopolis goes out and signs somebody. It might be Kyle Gibson, who has the worst advanced metrics you have ever seen, and his it's not gonna go well. I know people have mentioned Kyle Gibson because he had two good starts in Triple A. It's probably not gonna go well. But I would rather throw Kyle Gibson in this lost season and have Ditty or Fuentes go back to Gwinnett and develop and pitch against minor leaguers, which is where he should be. He is the age of a college sophomore. Most of the kids who played in the College World Series a few weeks ago are older than Diddy or Fuenttest how many of those kids in the College World Series could come up right now and have an impact in the majors. Zero is the true answer, So I'm more focused on Dittier's long term outlook. I know the Braves are in the most dire of situation here and they don't have other options but just pick someone out of a hat. I would rather see Jackson Stevens for three innings than I would DIDDI or go out there and have to throw ninety pitches in three innings. That is not what we need. God forbid. You get an injury to that kid and you stunt his development. I just I think that was my one and only real takeaway from these two games.

00:32:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think I saw this from a couple of people this week that I trust, and it was like, Hey, this is a maybe a reminder to all of us that there's a lot that has to go into pitching. That it's more than about the stuff that you have. Because he has good stuff already, he has major league stuff, he does. The numbers say that, the AYTA says that he has major league stuff already. Yeah, but there is more to pitching than stuff, and that he's a shining reminder of that. And look to be one hundred percent fair to him. He isn't the problem in the rotition like he I mean, he's a problem in the rotation right now, but you're one hundred percent right. He shouldn't be there. It's not his fault, Bryce Elder. I mean, we've talked about it a lot, but I'll just give the numbers and we'll move on. Last four Stars for Bryce Elder fifteen to two thirds innings, twenty two earned runs, seven home runs allowed. I don't think Bryce Elder is that bad, but it's been that bad for four starts.

00:33:16
Speaker 2: Do you know? I look this up tonight because I'm a crazy person. Do you know what Bryce Elder's era is since the twenty twenty three All Star Game.

00:33:26
Speaker 1: I used to have this like bookmarked almost, but it's probably in the high fives.

00:33:31
Speaker 2: Ooh nice, five point nine.

00:33:34
Speaker 1: Eight so six, Yeah, it's yeah, that is really really not good. And I don't know if he's better than that. He's better than the guy who's been the last four starts, because no one's this bad, but he might be a true era in the five s guy, and that's that's a fringe major leaguer, and I feel bad like he was. You know, he's always shown some flashes, but the stuff's not good enough and we all know that. But I don't want to pile on Bryce. It's not He's not the only problem. He's just not a good and right now they have two guys, and they have two guys that are active and healthy who we know are competent major league starters. It's Strider and Grant Holmes. You mentioned before, by the way, in the Olsen segment, how it gets lost sometimes when things are going bad some of the good things. Grant Holmes been a freaking revelation and no one cares, and no one cares, and I get I get it. But he has been really good. He is a three point four of the season, like that would have been a Dancing the streets number coming into the season. It just hasn't mattered.

00:34:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, Grent Holmes is the man. What a cool story. Just he's been awesome. Ten straight starts, three runs or less. Crazy all you can ask for for a pitcher who was making his major league debut about this time a year ago, his debut. He was thirty years old and he made his major league debut. And now he's been one of, frankly the better, more consistent starting pitchers in the National League this season. Really a great story, I know. So every time it's the same damn story. Grand Holmes seven innings, six innings, one run aloud, nine strikeouts, eight hundred whiffs on his slider, because that slider is so good and the Braves lost the game two to one. It's it's the same story every single night.

00:35:16
Speaker 1: It's not a lot of fun unless you have more to add on these games than I kind of doubt you do. We'll look ahead a little bit to some stuff coming up over the holiday weekend. It was already Nolice that Ronald Coude was struct the All Star game in Atlanta. Glad about that. He's in the derby as well. I hope he wins it. People will be excited to watch that no matter what. Be a lot of Braves fans there as they should be. I think Olsen should be an All Star. I think he will make it. If I had to guess right now, we'll get a lot of the way the voting works, like he's the top of the war leader boards, et cetera. I think he should make it. I don't know if he's not a lock, but I think he should make it. Salors Wallabacher deserving All Stars. They just can't pitch in the game, so maybe they'll get the like nod knowing that they can be replaced. We'll see maybe, yeah, but that gets announced a ways. I bring up and now the rosters are fully announced on Sunday, So between our show today and our next show that's scheduled anyway, is Sunday, we will know who the All Stars are. And that's coming up on the horizon. I mean it's in Atlanta, so it's a bigger deal than it would normally. We're not huge All Star people on this show. But it's literally happening down the street from my house, so it's like, hey, all Stars.

00:36:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the home run Derby is shaping up to be really really good.

00:36:30
Speaker 1: Agreed.

00:36:30
Speaker 2: But Kunya is in cal Rally. If folks don't know him because he plays in Seattle. He is a catcher who hits the absolute piss out of the baseball. He might hit sixty five home runs this year.

00:36:42
Speaker 1: Cal Rally is a you just said it is a catcher. He has thirty three home runs on July third. He's a catcher. He's not even playing every day, Like that's really hard. He's playing a lot for a catcher, but like he's not playing catcher every day, he's deectioning some whatever. He's on pace for sixty runs as a catcher. That's impossible, that's ridiculous.

00:37:03
Speaker 2: And then today James Wood, who is just a phenomenal hitter for the Nationals. Said he's in. Oh boy, if you have tickets to the All Star or to the home run Derby and you're in right field, you should bring a glove because you are going to get some baseballs headed your way. James Wood's going to hit a ball over the chop house. I'm pretty sure he has freak power. It's it's shaping up to be really good. So we know three of them so far. Hopefully the fact that Akunya and Rally and Wood are all in there that they'll kind of draw in the other sluggers. A Lonzo is going to do it.

00:37:39
Speaker 1: Well, he's in it. He loves it. The guy that I want to su bowl. The guy I want to see is is Show Hey. If they can get show Hey to do it, that'll bring that that'll bring the place down. Don't know if they'll be able to get him to do it, but if he'll do it, i'd be you got ACONI and show Hey and Woods as a prospect, you know, not only a prospect like a young guy Rally, that'd be awesome. Anyway, I will be watching, I'll be covering in basketball that week, but I will be watching with hor un Derby because I enjoy it generally speaking, and I hope Ronnie competes and he just for me. I don't know if he's gonna be the best, like he said it before, I don't know if he's like the best home run Derby candidate, because it's kind of an interesting power that he has. But he'll be entertaining and put on a show, So looking forward to that.

00:38:20
Speaker 3: Oh.

00:38:20
Speaker 1: The other thing that's kind of noteworthy for mostly the future, Joe Amenez got captured throwing some either a bullpen or something of a bullpen this week in Atlanta. Obviously, he's been out for a long time. We all talked about this in the winter, like he might be off to the season. We don't want, we don't know. He did kind of say, I guess I think it was bowman like maybe maybe August for Jimenez. I would not rush him. And by the way, he has signed for next year, which matters a lot. But he was really, really really good pre injury and they've missed him. But that's a good encouraging sign that he's like throwing in saying.

00:38:54
Speaker 2: Like that, yeah, great sign. If folks have not seen the video of Joe Jmenez throwing. He also looks like he's dropped a decent amount of weight. He is a big human being.

00:39:05
Speaker 1: He's a big man.

00:39:06
Speaker 2: Yeah. I did not realize just how big I mean on TV. It's kind of hard to pick up, but I saw Joe Amenez h in Arizona either last year or the year before. It comes out of the bullpen, and he was like six I think he was listed at six three two seventy or something like that.

00:39:22
Speaker 1: I'll looking it up now. I'm make sure I think you're right. He's not on the active ron Okay, here here's the forty man. This is great radio. Yeah, and listed at six three two seventy seven on the Braves official ronster.

00:39:34
Speaker 2: That is a big boy. Yeah, that's a that's a defensive end in the NFL. So it looks like Joe did slim down a bit, which I'm guessing was on the recommendation of his doctors. Anytime you're rehabbing a knee injury, the less weight you can put on that thing, the better. The less torque you're putting on that knee, the better. And I mean, frankly, Joe Amenez if he comes back this year and looks good. He's probably my odds on to going into the offseason at least to be the team's closer next season. Maybe Dylan Lee, although I think having a lefty who you can move around a little bit is probably more valuable than locking him into the ninth inning necessarily. But yeah, it's not a small thing. If Johan Niz can come back and looks good and can kind of put the knee injury behind him, that would be a notable development in the second half.

00:40:22
Speaker 1: I agree again for this season, if they could somehow stay in it, it'd be very helpful. But even if they can't, getting him on the mound right for next year, He's paid next year a good amount too, Like you're not, that's not a guy you could just like cut bait On. He's owed guaranteed money next year. Hopefully he's back and ready to go. Last thing I lehould have more to add is that the Braves are hosting the Baltimore Orioles, who I like to call the American League Braves. This season, they're the I would say, the equal probably of the Braves. As far as just being disappointing, they've actually been worse than the Braves. Now, they were producted to be quite as good as the Braves are, But the Orioles are thirty seven and forty nine with a negative eighty seven run differential. They're bad. They're bad, and I'm surprised by that talented team. But three game series at home at Truest and you know where I'm going first, Scott, come on, we know where I'm going. First Friday night, July fourth. If listen this fodcast before then, my guy old friend Chuck Morton on the mound for the Orioles. Listen. Speaking of guys that could just change clubhouses, how about alex Is mix a handshake deal with Charlie Friday morning, Trow just just walk across the field start the game for the Bridge instead. That won't happen, but he's also paid a lot of money. But hey, it will be fun to see him back in Atlanta. Hopefully he is cheered. He should be cheered rousingly by the fans. Yea, hopefully that happens. And also it's Strider. It's always fun to watch Strider pitch, so Friday night's the fun game of the weekend.

00:41:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, I hope they show the clip of Charlie Morton in the World Series, pitching on a broken leg and striking out jose Al Tuve on a broken leg. It was truly one of the most badass things I have ever seen a professional athlete do. Just Charlie's the man, he better get a big ovation. I will be legitimately disappointed in the fans and attendance if they don't give Charlie a big olevation. Really a good human being too. You want to talk about a player, who you ask who's Charlie Morton? You will not find a soul who says a bad word about Charlie And yeah, hey, you know what, Oriole's giant disappointment. I think the American League Braves is the perfect name for them. Somebody's got to win these three games, and who knows, maybe the Braves will take two out of three. Maybe they'll finally win on a Sunday. Wouldn't that be nice?

00:42:39
Speaker 1: Well, although I will say, I am I'm not the we don't know who's hosting the show on Sunday. You'll be here. I don't know if I will be, which it'd be perfect if they were to win, because that I because I wasn't here. But I'll take it if they win to be fine, Yeah, so.

00:42:54
Speaker 2: We'll take it. We'll see kind of a man. If you would have said, Scott and Brad four months ago, pick some of the sea that you're circling on the calendar, I think you probably would both pick this series.

00:43:04
Speaker 1: I mean July fourth, Orioles like fun, Young Team, Gutter, Henderson, all these guys coming in, Adley Richman, Charlie Morton and they're they're bad and some of the Braves. So that's that's tough. But hey, it's holiday baseball. I wish it was an afternoon game. This is one of our like weird things. I just wish it was an afternoon game. Just I just do. I know it's Friday. I get it. It's like the World Day and the Brains didn't play on the World Day. It's like, what are we doing here? Who's who schedule these games? Maybe they want to do a fireworks show? That is That is definitely why. That's definitely why. All right, Well, we've we've covered lots of things on this episode. We've saved some bullets for later talking about like what to watch for. There isn't I saw lots of arguments today about the Braves should just like tank now and try to lose. If this was a if this was basketball, I would probably argue that exact point. In baseball, it's just not worth it in my opinion. The draft, the draft capital all that's just not the same calculus. But at least I get it. And that's that's the word place to be too speaking. Just a weird episode all the way around. I hope people enjoyed it, hope people will hang out with us. No matter what the next few months, we won't stop doing shows. They'll be a little bit different than if they fall out of it. They'll be a little bit different, probably a little bit more big picture, some more young guys and future facing. But we're not going to stop talking, Scott, So I look forward to talking to you much more throughout the summer.

00:44:24
Speaker 2: That's right, when or lose, good or bad, we do a show, we will continue to do shows. A big thank you to everybody for continuing to check out and support the show. I really I don't know about you, Brad. I get them pretty regularly. People tweet me and say, hey, I'm really sorry you have to do a podcast about this team right now. Yeah, but we appreciate it, and that means a lot to us that you guys are thinking of the show. We try to keep these upbeat. We try not to sit here and just bang our faces against the table for twenty five minutes and go all right, have a good night, everybody. We try to bring content. We try to bring nuance to discussion and if you're a new list and welcome board, happy to have you. But yeah, we'll be back Sunday. Maybe the Braves can win a couple in the challenging year. We'll take all the wins wherever we can get them.

00:45:09
Speaker 1: That's one hundred percent right. Please subscribe to Hammer Territory anywhere you find your podcasts. We're on Apple and Spotify overcast. We're also on YouTube. Follow us on social media at Hammer Territory. One more PSA. The game on Sunday is eleven thirty five am Eastern times. Start the Roku game. Scott will be in bed when that game begins, I'm pretty sure on the West coast of things. And also a plug, our guy Steven Tolbert was on a Foul Territory today, so if you want to go find that that's available for you on the follow Territory Feed did a great job, represented us very well and check that out. Follow Scott if you want to on social media. He's really really excited about movies and things, sometimes Arizona basketball. He's at Scott Tulum fifty five. I am at BT Rowland mostly in basketball talk now, but alas follow us there. Thank you sincerely though for listening to the podcast all the time and throughout the rest of the summer, and we'll see everybody next time.