The Braves Are No Longer Struggling... Are You Excited Yet?

00:00:21
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to episode thirty three of the Hammer Territory podcast. I am your host, Sprad Roland, coming to you on a Sunday evening here in late June, and I am joined by my regular co host Scott Coleman. Scott, how are you feeling after a nice week for the Braves.

00:00:36
Speaker 2: Hey, Brad? In uncommon fashion, the Braves one on a Sunday. Yeah, things going well? Yeah?

00:00:43
Speaker 3: Right?

00:00:43
Speaker 2: Usually the story is the Braves play well all week and then they let down on Sundays. Of course, longtime listeners know we have joked and poked at that for years. But a really nice win on Sunday afternoon in New York to win the series and a five and one week overall, which is really nice to see, just kind of building upon all the good things that happened last weekend against Tampa Bay.

00:01:04
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, and a bit of housekatting at the top of the podcast. First of all, we should tell you that we are part of the Foul Territory network of podcasts and a proud member of that network. Check out all of the shows, including the flagship over at Foul Territory. Also, please subscribe to this podcast. Hamber territory. We cover the Braves in comprehensive fashion approximately four times a week, sometimes even more than that. But you can find us anywhere you find your podcasts, Apple, Spotify, Overcast, et cetera. Please subscribe, rates, and review. We definitely appreciate that. And there was a actually a new show from Friday people should be listening to as well that featured one half of this duo. It was not me. Scott was on the show alongside our guy Steven Tolbert talking about the game on Friday evening. If you want to listen to that podcast as well. Well, that out of the way, though, Scott, I have a framing device for you on today's podcast. Two weeks ago exactly, you and I did a show and we asked listeners, including what the headline of that pot, if they were worried because for some context, the Braves have just lost three games in a row to the Nationals. The viyes were very bad, and I guess probably kind of on brand fashion. They went on to lose the next two games as well, to have kind of the peak of panic with five losses in a row. But since then the Braves are eight and two in their last ten games, and I guess we have to ask the question the other way, Scott. The Braves are no long struggling from that out the window at this point in time, But as are you excited yet? How are we feeling, broadly speaking, after a little bit of a dip, of course, are you back to being confident or are you cautiously optimistic?

00:02:36
Speaker 2: Definitely optimistic. The last ten days or so have really been more of what we've come to expect from the Braves. The home run ball is back. They've done a better job of getting on base and working the count drawing walks, so it's very encouraging. I think, I of course can't remember perfectly off the top of my head what we said two weeks ago, but I think it was very clearly that the Braves have been underperforming and playing flat out poorly for those six weeks. There was just some really bad baseball. But if I remember right, we were also pretty confident in that this team was going to wake up at some point, and we were just hoping it was going to be sooner rather than later. Knowing that they had lost some ground in the division and a once enormous lead in the wild card standings, had shrunk a bit, so very very good to get back to their winning ways. Believe it's eight out of ten that they have won, and it's hard not to be encouraged when the lineup has awoken. The pitching for the most part has been really good, and the bullpen in particular maybe had a little bit of a blow up on Saturday, but really all week long, this bullpen has been terrific and I think, just moving forward, this is going to be, or let's hope, this is going to be the team that we really came to enjoy that first month of the year.

00:03:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that was probably the appropriate tone for what we said, you know, a little bit of alarm. We were not sounding the alarm necessarily, but we were not expressing like Noah was allowed to panic either, at least not worry at all. But yeah, this is definitely more like it. I will say, you know, five to one week. This week cap by a win over the Yankees in two out of three games in New York, which is not a small feat considering how good the Yankees have been this year. The race are now one three straight series. That's always nice. It's very simple, but it also is pretty effective. If you just keep go out and go out there and win series. Snicker always says it's it's one of those old school things, but it's also just true. If you go out and win two out of every three games, you are going to be very very good in the world of baseball. And yeah, there's still seven games back as we record this podcast on Sunday of the Phillies. The Phillies are very good, and there is an uphill battle in the National League East. It is far from over. I poked fun online and I think I will do it now on this podcast. Of anyone who has said that the National League East race is over, that is a very silly, silly thing to say, whether you win in Atlanta or Philadelphia or elsewhere. But the rais rounder dogs there. That's probably fair. But they are four and a half games now clear of the entire wildcard field. That's not the that's not of the number three wildcard spots. That's above every one of the wild card standings. And basically, as we sort of alluded to, I think on the most recent show with You and I on Wednesday, the National League is like a four teams are good league right now basically, and the Braves are the fourth of those four, at least the one that's not winning their own division. Yes, but they are comfortably playing like a division winning caliber team. They're on pace for like ninety four wins. Again, I'm not saying that they're gonna win one hundred games now, but I am saying that they look like they're supposed to look for the most part in recent days.

00:05:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would agree. And we've played seventy five games, we're coming up on the midway point for the season, and we talked about just how poorly the Braves were playing for that stretch. It kind of felt like they broke out of it at the right time. Because, let's be honest, Brad, if we talked about that podcast we did two weeks ago, if they were still struggling, I think the alarm bells would really be going off. I almost asked you that, honestly, I almost asked you to put yourself in that mindset. Not to be mean to you, Scott, but I was like, Hey, what if the Braves had gone not even two and eight, but if they had gone four and six in this last ten coming off of that rocky stretch. With every passing day the vib would have been getting worse. You have to imagine what that would have been the case, because then you would be coming up on two full months where they had really struggled, whereas now they have seemingly stabilized. And anytime you can get off to as good of a start as the Braves did, that can carry you for a long way. I believe they began the year what twenty one and seven or something crazy like that, and then we know how they were sub five hundred for that lengthy period. So yes, very thankfully they have seemingly awoken. We of course, we're not going to blow ten games out of proportion and declare that they're not going to lose another game the rest of the season or anything like that, but just it has been more accustomed to what we expect from the Braves with the power, and it's just it is hard not to be encouraged and optimistic. You can go eight and two against a decent Tampa and Detroit club and then to win a series in New York against the Yankees is really impressive stuff. And I mean, the Braves just continue to get I mean, what else can you say about Max Freed and Chris Sale, the way those two guys have pitched, especially lately them and Ronaldo Lopez. That trio is really just carrying this team seemingly every time they go on the mound. That's right, and we're going to dive into at least the last couple games of the Yankee series. Again, we recommend listening to the more deep dive show on Friday about the Friday Nights game. But to your point, the Braves, I believe in the last two weeks are in the top four or five in the Major leagues and home runs they're starting hit the ball over the wall. Again, that's a key or something that Alexanthopolis has just openly admitted, like they have to hit for power.

00:07:46
Speaker 1: This is a team built for power, and they're hitting for power and the results are improving. So all that said, we will dive into the Yankees series in some more specific detail, but first they were from more partners at seat Geek. Today's show is sponsor by folks at seat Geek. Seek is official ticket market place at Major League Baseball, so they have you covered for all if your baseball ticketing needs. They will twenty eight million downloads a sekkei gets the number one rated ticketing app. They are more than seventy thousand events at sea geek, including concerts, sports festivals, theater events and much more. Baseball season is of course in full swing and you do not want to miss out on any of the action. They have your tickets sea Geek to every single game, and of course that includes brave stuff whether they're at home in Atlanta or on the road in other ballparks. I don't have use segeek for a long time for Brave tickets and falconst tickets and many more things in the past they had covered across the board. Plus they put all the tickets across the web in one place to make sure you are getting the best possible deal. At sea Geek. Each tickets ran on SCOE to one to ten. Keep an eye out for the green dots as well as the best values to kind of steer you in the right direction at sea geek, and every ticket is backed by their buyer guarantee and seek is the only site that lets you to return your tickets ahead of the event with swamps and you know that we are coming through for you guys. You can use our code hammer for twenty dollars off tickets at sea Geek. That is twenty dollars off your first purchase with promo code hammer. When you use seat Geek, make sure you could come to link at our project's description to download the seat app today one more time. That is promo code Hammer twenty dollars on first purchase with the folks at sea Geek. Okay, Scott, let us get into the Saturday and Sunday games. Saturday less exciting and less fun than Sunday, but hey, we have to sledge through it. That's our duty on this podcast, am I right? So look, I wrote this in our notes. I felt like the Brads were kind of due for one of these after they had won four in a row and seven of eight and it was basically an all facets kind of loss. There was poor pitching, there was poor offense, and they lost eight to three in New York and eliminated any dream of a sweep in New York. But fortunately they bosced back the next day. But what did you make of Saturday's game? Albeit lopsided, Yeah, it.

00:09:38
Speaker 2: Was a tough game and in the first inning got off to a good enough start with the solo homer to go up early, and I was like, wow, all right, here we go. But Charlie Lee Morton just never had command. I'm not even sure Charlie knew where the base host coming when it was coming out of his hand. Yeah, gave up the home run to Judge. And even though Charlie gave up the five runs, I mean they were the Yankees were a swing away from just completely blowing that game open. There was a basis loaded, no oubt, Aaron Judge walking to the plate situation, and funny enough, I was heading out to dinner at that point. I thought, well, this one's over, and then sure enough he was able to wiggle out of it with a double play, just to give the Braves a chance early. But then things unraveled. Aaron Bummer had maybe his worst appearance of the season. These six batters gave up three walks, which you just cannot do, then a couple of doubles as well, and the lineup, even though there were a couple of home runs, just didn't do enough. So a frustrating loss on Saturday night. But thankfully, as you just said, they went on Friday, and then Max Freed was terrific again on Sunday. You win the series and frankly, going into New York, anytime you could win two out of three, you have to be.

00:10:48
Speaker 1: Happy with it, oh for sure. And that is the headline of the weekend, without question, despite the game on Saturday. I have to say I kind of blame you for Charlie's performance on Saturday, you and Steven four gassing him up and without me on the podcast for both sort of invoking my name talking Charlie up. And I was encouraged by that. I smile when I listen to that podcast, and yet I think you will put the curse on him and it was for one day doing.

00:11:11
Speaker 2: All that, Charlie. Yeah, Charlie brad Roland Morton, not have.

00:11:17
Speaker 1: Your reaction was hilarious by the way, on that podcast, you just you could not contain your gleek when Steven brought that up as a framing device.

00:11:23
Speaker 2: We need to get some shirts made with like your face in Charlie's face on it and like a heart around your two heads, because that is your man. And I know that for whatever reason, Charlie is kind of a lightning rod for the fan base. Maybe it's because he makes a lot of money. To be fair, you know, Charlie has been a little Jekyl and hide this season. He kind of has this stretch going where he's been good in one start and then bad in the next, and then good and then bad. So there has not been a lot of consistency with Charlie on the whole. His numbers are fine, being probably the fourth starter in this rotation right now, but you would like him to find himself a little bit more, especially early on in games. It feels like anytime Charlie is out there, he's given up a couple of runs in the first or the second, put the team in a hole. And you know, encouraging that. Travis Darnault hit a home run on Saturday. Believe Marcel also homered, which is just very par for the course for him. But yeah, Saturday it was very much just kind of a flush it and forget it.

00:12:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, Charlie to your point, and we'll move on because I'm not going to try to defend Charlie because that's what I do. But he is the very rare pitcher in which he is better the second and third time through the order this season, like as the game goes deeper, he gets better, and most just for people who don't know necessarily know this offhand. Most of the time, that's the opposite. Guys get better, guys get worse as you face guys multiple times. That's kind of logical. But so far this year Charlie is allowing like an ops around eight hundred the first time through the order, then it goes down into the low seven hundred the second time through, and then a five thirty ops allowed the third time through the order this year when whenever he gets that far. So kind of a weird thing. There some rough first innings, as you note, but I am obligated to say this, Charlie Morton is doing exactly what a four starter does. This year. He has been uninspiring. I understand that he is one hundred and seventy four years old, Scott, but he is doing what he's asked to do for the most part.

00:13:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, and let's hope that Charlie finds some consistency. And you know, he's being compared to the big trio in the rotation right now, which had been what three of the top fifteen starters and all of baseball this year.

00:13:34
Speaker 1: He's kind of his Zone tier Yeah, he's kind of his ozonn tier On the rotation right now, there are three guys that are pitching incredibly well. Charlie has been totally fine, and then there's that fifth spot, which actually has been decent recently with shwella block. But yeah, also I have to say before we forget, I don't believe he hit it better on Saturday, which is an upset for your game.

00:13:51
Speaker 2: Sadly, no lefty was hitting the foot by a seventy eight mile one hour curveball on Saturday, and me very sad. But we will write again on probably Friday, I think is when Charlie's supposed to pitch next Thursday. Thursday, Thursday, Oh, the matinee in Chicago. That's right. But yes, very sad that we did not get a winner for America's favorite game. But maybe in this upcoming start we will get back to our winning ways.

00:14:18
Speaker 1: Oh that's so funny. Okay, let's go to Sunday. It is, of course, as we mentioned, a much more encouraging game three to one victory. We gotta lose for me in a way. I want to leave with Max Freed. Max was not his best at a sixth inning, but he managed to get through it. But before that he was truly awesome, as he has been a lot lately. Six innings of one run ball, no walks, always nice. And with that start out of the way here he has a sub two ERA in his last eleven outings. Max is pitching like the best version of Max. I think a lot of the first three or four innings of this game on Sunday was like the full Max experience. All the pitch is working, and when he's doing that, he's kind of unhittable. I mean, it's not just like anybody can go into the Yankee stadium and slow down the Yankees. And he was in full command. Even when he wasn't necessarily for command in the sixth, he still managed to get the biggest I would say probably the biggest swing of the game, which was that that double play in mis extending So May he was awesome again and it's a kind of ho home, but man, he just continues to be fantastic.

00:15:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, every time Max goes on the mound, it's like he adds a couple more numbers onto his upcoming contract, because I mean a one nine to five ERA over his last eleven starts and his numbers really for the whole season look fantastic. And that's with those two super bizarre starts that he had to begin the year. We just ran into some bad luck and gave up a bunch of runs. But this guy, I mean, what more can we say about Max Reid? No walks in Yankee Stadium, which is so important. Gave up six hits, but there was not a lot of loud contact, especially until that sixth thenning, a lot of ground balls, which is the key to not letting that ball fly over the short porch there in Yankee Stadium. And six innings. Again, if you can get Max out there for six and then have a fully rested and healthy bullpen ready to go for the final few innings, that's going to be a winning formula more times than not. And thankfully the Braves offensively, even if they didn't put up a big number, they were able to scratch and claw and get enough to get the win.

00:16:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, you laid out perfectly there. The bullpen and the top level arms were fantastic. It was Pierce Johnson, Joe Menez, Russ Iglesias, three innings, five strikeouts, one hit, no damage. I'll let you te up. But there was a very funny and I think memorable moment in the eighth inning against One Soto in which I guess it was I almost want to say controversial. I guess not to Braves fans, but I'm sure I believe that you tweeted this out. You did the video from our Hammer Territory Twitter account, and there was some divergent reaction. But what did you make of the I guess I guess we used the word controversial play.

00:16:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean One Soto is a hell of a baseball player, Yes, phenomenal baseball player. If the Braves want to hand him a free a blank and free agency in a couple of months, it's not my money, it's not your money.

00:17:04
Speaker 1: Let's do it.

00:17:04
Speaker 2: I don't think that's going to happen. But this guy, he's not entitled to his own rules. He can't just step out of the batter's box without getting time from the umpire. And it's funny. I mean, he took a fastball belt high on the inner half. I mean that's a baseball that won Soto usually mashes. If you're lucky, it's a double if not over the fence, and he just kinda took it. And good on Joe Jimenez for not getting distracted and just peppering and ninety five fastball right in the zone.

00:17:36
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:17:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, And then Aaron Boone got to make his fourth trip to complain to the umpires about something on a Sunday afternoon as well. That guy's going for Bobby Cox's record. I'm pretty sure for rejections, but yeah, I mean a cool moment. And the bullpen was fantastic. You mentioned Pierce Joe Ricel three innings, five strikeouts really just didn't give the Yankees any kind of a chance, even though it was only a two run deficit.

00:18:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was. It was fun to watch the bullpen kind of unload there. Also, in related news, the other high leverage reliever on this roster as a j Minterer who's not pitched in a while. He threw an ending yesterday Saturday's record of his podcast in Rome, by all accounts, look pretty good. I don't know how fast he'll be back in the majors, but you throw him in there along with the guys we just mentioned, And I mean, I know you tease it a second ago, but Aaron Bummer has been good this year despite uh, if Charlie is a lightning rod, I think Bummer is even more of one. People just seem to hate him for some reason, despite the fact that he's been good all year long. So yeah, that's a pretty strong bullpen. We of course have gone repeatedly to this well, dating back to the Winner. But if all parts are firing on all cylinders when it comes to that bullpen and bullpens are volatile, but on paper it looks fantastic, and they've pitched really well in the bullpen this year. And as long as like Iglaciers is looking like himself, Johnson's been awesome. You get you get Mentor in there too, and it gets to be kind of scary hours everybody else.

00:18:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can never have too many relievers and relievers that you trust. Of course, when aj Minter is healthy, he is good as anybody from the left side in the game. I would imagine that Aj will probably be back with the Braves next weekend. Atlanta will play three in Saint Louis and then play the makeup game in Chicago. I suppose they could activate him early in the week, but I'm guessing he's going to get one more rehab appearance before they make a decision there. Really, you don't need to rush aj back with the way everybody else is throwing. I do hope that Grant Holmes gets to stick around. He's one of probably two arms along with Das Beel Hernandez who could be on the chopping block to go back to Gwenett. So let's hope that Grant Holmes gets to stay up. Nothing against days Bell, who's been good. Yeah, but I think we all have a place in our hearts for Grant. But yeah, man, anytime you just keep bolstering that bullpen, it's only going to help things.

00:19:54
Speaker 1: That's right, all right, Scott. That's probably all we need to do on the weekend. I do want to get in to one positive story and one less positive story when it comes to position players that we get questions about quite a bit. And we'll do that in a second, but first it word from Opresent foul Territory on AG.

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00:21:15
Speaker 1: There are two players in the Braves lineup every day right now that are kind of on divergent paths, and let's start positive. This has been a very positive episode so far. We are going to have a negative conversation in a second, but Jared Kelnick has been really, really good in recent days. Of course, we talked about him hitting lead off now kind of out of necessity after the injuries to Harris and of course Ronnie. He homed off a lefty. Today he has at ops well a bree hundred in the month of June, and yeah, sample size issues questions, I definitely understand that. But even before that, he was not killing the ball or anything, but he was performing at a league average level, which is mostly fun for a guy that's not making a lot of money that they didn't have to pay through the nose to acquire. But he's been one of a sort of a I'm not even to saying it's quiet this point in time, one of the really encouraging stories the last few weeks, and what are hitting leadoff or not? Him hitting and doing this for a team it just kind of needs. The alpha production has been massive well, and especially ever since he moved to the leadoff spot against left handed pitching, he's done a really good job against lefties. And that was a real question mark because the Braves just frankly don't have a typical leadoff hitter now against left handed pitching, and Kelnick's done terrific. Man, he's been I don't think it's a coincidence that as the lineup has really picked it up and started scoring more runs. It coincided with Kelnick kind of setting the table there at the top of the order. On the season, he has a one to ten WRC plus which you take every day of the week, and it is consistently going up and defensively, I know he had an adventure on Saturday night in center field, but for the most part, his defense has been perfectly fine. He has the big arm, seems like he takes pretty good routes.

00:22:58
Speaker 2: On the ball. Again, other than that one f looky play where I don't know what happened on Saturday night with Kelnick when he ran into the center field wall.

00:23:06
Speaker 1: The word, the word Magellan comes to mind. No, it's it's one of those things where while we're being positive about Kilnick and I agree with with what you just said, I think it might be fair to say I don't love him playing centerfield now. He is the he's the best option right now. But I think big picture would be nice toime Michael Harris out there defensively.

00:23:24
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, oh yeah, no, you know, get that hamstring back money, Mike. We need that and we need your glove in centerfield especially. Yeah, but I mean it is a a benefit for sure that Kelnic can go out there and play a reasonable center field for a guy who really has not played a whole lot of it at the major league level.

00:23:44
Speaker 1: You know, it's a good point for sure, and you know the bat being solid, and I'm not going to predict necessarily that he's going to be the guy he's been in June the rest of the way, because that's a very very very good player and hopefully that's true. But they needed it, and he's been His uptick with four home run this month, for instance, has a kind of coincided with the surge of the offense. It's not just him, but he has been doing a very very nice job, which is worth highlighting. Yeah, well man, last note on Kelling. Not to cut you off, Brad. Last note, I would love if Jared could up the on base percentage. Yeah, and the walk rate a little bit.

00:24:19
Speaker 2: I think he's done a better job in recent weeks of getting deeper into the counts. He's still striking out a decent amount, and I think that's just part of his game. He struck out quite a bit in Seattle as well, but he did walk at a higher level in Seattle last season, and right now, I think it's hovering around like five or six percent, especially in that leadoff spot. If he can get it up to eight or nine or ten, that would be big. It would really, I mean, it would only help him offensively if he can get on base ahead of Riley and Olsen and Ozuna. And he's going to have an opportunity to score a million runs if he can get on base. So let's hope that goes up in the coming weeks as well.

00:24:54
Speaker 1: No, a good point, for sure, it'd be nice if you walk a little bit more at kind of similar to Michael Harris in that regard. Not the most elective necessarily, but a little bit of an uptick in the on base percentage would be helpful. On the less exciting side, we've gotten I would say, several numerous questions about Orlando Rcia. Uh, and this is a less positive topic, and I'm sorry about that, but look, we endeavor to cover the team. If you're a new listener, we endevor to cover the team in comprehensive fashion, which means negative stuff too. And he kind of hit today, so that's he doubled off quortest. That's an encouraging thing, but coming into today, Orlando in the last fifty games, nice shiny round number. Before today he had a four to sixty eight OPS and a twenty seven WRC plus. That isn't great. It's about a third of a season, but you can so you could sort of handwave it off if you wanted to with sample size stuff, and guys have downturns, so even guys who are much better than he is. You know, Austin Riley just had one of these, Matt Olson earlier this year, were really cold for a while, et cetera. But the scarier one for me, before I throw it to you, Sky, is that in the last one hundred and sixty two games, so essentially a full season entering today, he had the following slash line sixteen to sixty one and three sixty two for a sixty eight WRC plus over a full season. And that's a full season of activity. Now, I have always been skeptical of Orlando's bad and it's not a victory lap I just I'm not as surprised as others are. Like I kind of never bought it. There was an uptick last year. Look, he hit very well early in the season, led to an All Star appearance, and congratulations to him from that as kind of you know, Bryce Elder like in that way, kind of a bit of a mirage. He is better than Elver, I will say, But at the same time, that's a full season of a guy who with a sixty eight WRC plus playing every single day. And yes, he's a good defender, but Scott are what happens here because you can hope that he gets better at the play, and I think that's not an unreasonable hope. I think he's probably a better hitter than this, but not by that much. Candidly, if you look at his career numbers, they're kind of in line with this.

00:27:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, Offensively, he has been about as close to a zero as any regular in Major League Baseball can bese. I mean it's bad, Brad, let's not sugarcoat it. And the advats are bad. You know, he'll take a ball right down the middle and then flail at two sliders off the plate, and it's like, man, that that's just not good hitting. It's not good approach. Defensively, I will say, to Orlando's credit, he is terrific defensively, very steady, makes all the plays that you want him to make. The routine plays and then also has a little bit of flash to his game. Yeah, you know, he can make some special plays. Nobody is questioning Orlando's defense, but man, the offense is bad. You mentioned his stretch over the last fifty and then the last one sixty two. It does feel like, as we are a little more than a month away from the trade deadline, that Alex Anthopolis at least has to look at shortstop options come trade deadline time. Maybe he's not going to be able to address the position, and we're going to talk about some candidates and just kind of how difficult it might be to make an impact edition. But it is fair to ask, as we reached the end of June, if Orlando Arcia is going to be the team starting shortstop for the rest of the year. Yeah, that's definitely fair and just to give maybe kind of defend Orlando a little bit. The last two seasons before this one were, of course, his first full seasons in Atlanta. He was a better hitter, like he was about a league average hitter for about a year, for about about a year year and a half, and that was a departure from where he had been in his career.

00:28:50
Speaker 1: Because even right now. Just to give the number, he has a career seventy seven of RC plus and it's not a small sample size. It's three thousand play appearances. That's a lot of that's a lot of play appearances. So the braves that unlocks some stuff in him. He does have some pop in the bat his seventeen home runs last year. He showed a little bit more power when he got to Atlanta. But yeah, it's kind of been a regression or how do you want to say it? And I'm with you, this is not this is the less scientific version, but I definitely agree with your evaluation of just like just watching it, just it just does not look like he's comfortable. The approach is lacking right now, and I'm sure he's probably struggling with some confidence and some comfort. In general, this is a prolonged slum that nobody's gonna have a lot of fun getting into. But yeah, it's a question you have to ask. And one of the things about Arcia that is worth acknowledging is that he's making very little money, like that was a heist of a contract. No matter what you think about Arcia, he's making backup infielder money. Basically, and he's been starting a shortstop for the last two years, and that's typical Braves. They had this great value. But you don't even have to trade Arcia like I've seen I've seen some of this stuff about well what are you gonna do with him? Like nothing, You just in the backup, like it's unfortunate for him if you if you coul acquire someone better than him, you can and should, in my opinion, just keep him on the roster. He becomes the better version of Zach Short and you roll along basically. With that said, like your question is a good one, It's the hardest part is finding a guy to replace him, because you could throw an Ams out, Scott, you did the research on this. This is honestly, this is a time will probably say a little bit more for July, but there's a real fear on baseball all together that there might be a very cramped deadline because there aren't that many sellers and shortstop in particular, like one of the reasons I think and Ax didn't say this, nor would he on the record, but I think that they probably would have liked to upgrade from Orlando previously. But like show me where they're supposed to go like it. You know you can't. You famously can't have eight nine All Stars on your team. It's not possible. But and the reason why it's okay that Arcia has been kind of what he's been is that he he catches the ball like, do you point him at the defenses. That's a great point. It's okay to have your worst hitters in the lineup, be guys that are at least they're play defense. So it's okay to have that. But man, even the guys you wrote down here, there's one name that I am interested in for sure, but a lot of the potential upgrades may not be upgrades, like they're kind of either similar or they're the exact opposite wards.

00:31:19
Speaker 2: You yeah, exactly. And we know that Orlando is very well liked in the clubhouse by his teammates, and that's something that's important to Alex and Thoppless definitely. Now, he's not going to not improve the team just because a guy is liked. I mean, Pablo Sandoval was beloved in that clubhouse and he shipped him out at the trade deadline for Eddie Rosario a few years ago. So it's not impossible right. Just because you're a good dude doesn't mean you have a position forever. But you are going to have to make a marked improvement on shortstop if you're going to take his job away effectively. The issue is is that you just took a great point. Look at the trade deadline and look at the standings right now. I think there's going to be probably seven or eight teams who are going to be realistic sellers come July thirtieth. It's on the thirtieth this year, by the way, just fun housekeeping note. And you look around, like, let's talk about Paul Deong of the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox are obviously going to sell. De Young is not a young player at this point. He's not part of the White Sox rebuilding plans. And even though de Young has been pretty solid this year on a performance basis, you look at his numbers a little deeper. He has a thirty two percent strikeout rate, a three point five percent walk rate. He is overperforming. So he has like a one to ten WRC plus, which is solid. I mean, if you could guarantee that that is a significant improvement offensively, but you cannot. But you cannot because de Young has been terrible for three years before this, and any of the expected metrics all say that Deong has been prey lucky the first three months of the season. So are you gonna take Orlando's job away for the hope that Paul de Young maybe is like a marginally better shortstop.

00:33:12
Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe.

00:33:13
Speaker 2: I mean, I'd love to have Alex on the show so we could pick his brain. But you know, there's just not going to be like, let's run through the obvious sellers real quick here, Brad. Okay, So we talked about de Young. On the White Sox Colorado Ezekiel Tovar is signed through twenty thirty. They're not trading him. The Los Angeles Angels zach Nido not a needle mover.

00:33:35
Speaker 4: No.

00:33:35
Speaker 2: The Oakland A's start a twenty seven year old rookie named Max Schuman. Max Schuman is not an upgrade for the Braves. The Miami Marlins start Tim Anderson, who got knocked out by Jose Ramirez and is maybe the worst regular in baseball.

00:33:52
Speaker 1: I have a note on that. By the way, just for the record, Tim Anderson was quite good a couple of years ago, but he has been really bad since then. In fact, he is the only the only qualified shortstop in baseball, but has a has a lower fangrass warmark in the last calendar year than Arcia.

00:34:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's yeah, not really an option. You know, the Detroit Tigers have started losing, you know, they start Hobby Bayez. I think at shortstop obviously you're not taking on that contract. So the point that you know, it's a fun exercise if listeners want to do it. But the long winded point that I'm trying to make here is that of the obvious sellers, there's very little on the shortstop market to go out there to improve on the position.

00:34:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, and also I think if you gave Alex truth serum and said, you know, if you had to have one spot on the diamond where you can live with relative zero at the plate, it is shortstop if he's playing defense. So like, especially given what you just said about the clubouse stuff, which is right, he's very well liked. He has hit better in certain samples, and again even with all the numbers out there, he has been better than this recently. And you know, you could take it, you could take a relative zero there. Now it's more of a challenge when you're out to those decimated like it is right now. But I'd love to know where the baseline Mendoza line is or where he has to hit to be in danger. And I don't know the answer to that. I guess you could. You wrote this down, I'll throw it back to you quickly. We would have to do too much on this. But maybe if Toronto cells Bobaschett could be a target, I'm sure he would. He would be in high demand across baseball. It wouldn't be like it would be just the bravest calling on him. But is that the sexiest name you can find? That's like semi realistic. Yeah.

00:35:41
Speaker 2: I spent some time on Sunday just kind of going roster by roster and trying to identify good shortstops who could be sold at the deadline, and Bobaschett was kind of the only name that I could really come up with. The Blue Jays are like seventeen games back in the AL East, so the division is out of reach, and I believe they're six or seven games back in the wildcard chase, but there are like eight teams ahead of them, so it's not a guarantee. That Toronto sells is also the ownership component. You never know in ownership either wants to cut money or wants to not rebuild. But it does seem like Toronto is going to be in a rebuild at some point here given what's going on in the rest of their division. And Bobasheed is interesting. To be clear, he was not having a good twenty twenty four. It has been the worst year of his career. But before this season he was a four plus war shortstop in twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three a WRC plus in the one twenty to one thirty range, so he can really hit. Defensively, he is not great, that much is clear. He is not a great defender. But at the same time, man like, there are no perfect shortstops who are available for the Braves right now. Anyone who could come over probably has a wart of some kind. But for my money, Boba Schet is the one name to really keep an eye on if Toronto decides to sell, because offensively he would really solidify the lineup even more so, and defensively you just kind of have to live with it. I mean, he's not unplayable. At shortstop. But he's not a gold Glove winner, and if he was a gold Glove winner, then he would command like half of a really good farm system in a trade, and that's probably not going to be the case, right And I tend to think that if Alex is going to go outside the organization and add somebody, it would have to be a pre significant jump offensively for him to want to do that, just because I know people are going to be throwing their phones and yelling at their phones. As to the internal option, let's discuss briefly the words Nacho Alvarez. He is, of course the twenty one year old prospect for the Braves. If they were to go internal to replace, so to speak, Arcia, he would be the logical option. He does have a very very limited sample size above the high A level. He is currently in Gwinette, where I know he had a fantastic first week, like a comically ridiculous first week in Gwinnett. He's cooled since then, and people, I think because of that red hot start, the fact he has a cool name, and because he is one of the better prospects, which he is, I think some people have kind of assigned some characteristics to not show that he doesn't actually have right now. Again, we will always say on this podcast we're not prospect experts, but as a number. For instance, Nacho Alvarez currently has eight home runs total in more than eight hundred minor league plate appearances. He is not a power hitter at all.

00:38:40
Speaker 1: Now. He might be a good hitter beyond that, but someone I trust on Brits prospects, I'll say, I'll pass this along to you, Scott. Get your reaction. This is almost word for what they told me. Again, someone I trust, I won't name them, but basically the pitch on Alvarez right now would bet he would be probably a better hitter maybe right now in terms of getting on base with like singles and walks the Narcia. But he is a worst defender by a lot right now major league wise, and even has less power than Narcia. Does that sound like someone that they're gonna rush, you know, extensively right now? It's twenty one years old with very little experience and put over the top of guy, the guy that they seem to value and like. Because I tend to think not, but maybe I'm wrong.

00:39:22
Speaker 2: You know, the Braves could go with the Hurston Waldrip approach for Nacho and just throw them out there they couldn't and see what happens. I don't think they're going to do that. And you mentioned defensively, there are some real questions about Nacho's defense. No. Fangrafts released the Braves' top thirty six prospects this week, and it should be on their homepage if folks want to go take a look through. It. Pretty intense scouting reports on all of their top prospects, and Fangrafts noted that long term, there are some real questions about Nacho's defense. He might have to move to third base, he might have to move to second base, and because of the defensive concerns, the Braves have him play really deep in the shortstop hole, kind of shifting towards third base because he's much better going to his left than his right. The arm is not otherworldly from what I have seen and read, and we know that shortstop is not a position where you can just punt the defense like we saw that with von Grissom. Remember that, actually I was gonna make this comparison. It's a lot like von Grissom, except for von Grissom. If people have forgotten this.

00:40:35
Speaker 1: When he debuted in twenty twenty two, it was an aggressive promotion, but it was because of injury. Like he only came up out of nowhere because of injury. And yes, he was a highly rated prospect, but it was actually Arcia who was the fill in at second base at that point talk as he was already hurt. They had Arcia and they had that they were down two guys and they had to go deep. It didn't have to, you know what I mean. That's that's what prompted the call up. Yeah, if if Arcia was hurt right now, I would much rather, I'm sorry, I would be much more likely to use, to your point, the Waldrop comparison to say, all right, throw the kid out there and see what happens. It's hard for me to believe that if that they're going to that they would do that with Rcia healthy.

00:41:15
Speaker 3: Now.

00:41:15
Speaker 1: Maybe the hurt comparison is that RCA has been so bad for so long. That's maybe similar, but there are there's more of a ViBe's case against when it's a guy who is not injured and there's not there's not quite that same urgency, especially because by the way the Braves are winning. Now what if they were two eight the last ten, maybe the calls would be louder. But I see a lot of I actually see a lot of similarities between Alvarez and and Grissom as these like high average, not obscene power, questionable defensive middle infielders at the same age, basically almost twenty one when he came up, like, there's a lot of crossover there.

00:41:49
Speaker 2: And to be clear, I'm pretty bullish on Nacho long term. I think he can be an impact or maybe just a contributor at the major league level. I don't know if he's going to be a star, even an above average regular one day. Because we're talking about and this is a point we should repeat, he is twenty one years old with two hundred and fifty played appearances above high a ball. That's what a third of a season, maybe maybe forty percent of a regular season. Say you get six hundred played appearances in the year. We're only talking about two hundred and fifty played appearances for a kid who is twenty one. Has some questions about the defense. Now, I can tell you for a fact that if Brian Snicker was completely candid, I bet that Snitt likes Orlando because he plays really good defense. Maybe the offense is anything special, but man, if you have a kid, if you throw him out there to the Wolves and he makes a couple of airrors at shortstop, That's one thing I think the Braves would value more is the certainty on defense with Orlando than the potential for Nacho to be a better hitter, even if the defense isn't very good.

00:43:00
Speaker 1: Yeah. Actually, not that I'm wishing this is. I'm definitely not. I wonder what they would do if Arcia got hurt, like today or tomorrow, and if they would go, if they go to Alvarez, if they just plug the hole of Zach short or whatever. And look, maybe I'll be wrong. I already lost a bet to you on how fast Walter would come up. Now granted he came up and then went back down again. But yeah, I think that from what I can glean people that I trust what my eyes tell me, what the what the numbers say. I don't. I don't love the call up Nacho as our savor, as our twenty twenty four savior, a short stop option that I'm seeing, And I get why people are making that case because he has been good in Gwinette. But it was essentially one it was a great week, but he had it was it was essentially one great week for people to be that excited about him. And look, he is talented. I'm with you, I see major league future, but he's not like this is not this is not a top top, top top prospect by people that are smarter than we are. Like, he's not a top hundred guy on lists. He's one of the Braves, top five or six guys, but he's not considered to be like a mess or anything close to that.

00:44:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is not Ronald Acuna Junior five or six years ago.

00:44:06
Speaker 1: Not even Michael Harris. This is not even anywhere near. Honestly, Vong Grislin was. It was a higher rated prospect than not you currently as.

00:44:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, without question, shortstop is going to be very interesting to keep an eye on over the next six weeks. I would assume, I would agree with you. I would assume that Orlando is going to continue to be put out there, especially if the team keeps winning as they have done the past ten days or so and continue to give Nacho reps in Gwinnette. This is not a beat up on Nacho Alvarez conversation. By any means, I think it was just we needed to pour a little bit of cold water on the hype train, because I mean, if I had to bet if Nacho Alvarez was made the brave starting shortstop tomorrow, no questions asked, and wrote them the rest of the way the entire season, I would guess it would probably not go super well. That's just my opinion, and I tend to agree with you, by the way, and look, it could We're not.

00:45:05
Speaker 1: I'm not rolling it out. I don't think you are either. I'm not saying it couldn't work, but I would my projection would be quite modest if they did that.

00:45:12
Speaker 2: Yes, me too. So in the meantime, until it's not sho time or it's trade time, I think we just have to hope that Orlando picks it up a little bit offensively because we have seen him do that in the past, and just can keep keep playing that great defense because he really is a talented shortstop defensively.

00:45:31
Speaker 1: He is for sure, and we went along on that, but that was probably a good time to go ahead and do that. We're getting lots of questions of Arcia, both in my individual mentions I'm sure yours as well, plus Hanit arbit territory mentions. So there's a little bit of a deep dive on that here in late June before we get out of here. We mentioned it before, but the Braves do go to Saint Louis beginning on Monday. They've been playing well recently. Oh. The big headline beyond that is the Braves are we score according to the probable starters, are not going back at least for now. To the six men rotation, it is Swollen back on Monday, Lopez on Tuesday, Sale on Wednesday, and that means still five days off for Lopez because they had the day off on Thursday, but only four days off again for Sale. And then Morton is the guy projected to pitch on Thursday in the random makeup game in Chicago.

00:46:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I in my mind the Cardinals were not a great team that they're hovering around five hundred, but pretty quietly Saint Louis has been the best team in the National League over the last month, where they are nineteen and nine over their last twenty eight games. Just kind of pulled them out of a slow start. It's not a bad team. Some of their veterans, like Paul Goldschmidt, has really started to hit again. I mean that guy's a year and a half removed from being the National League MVP, so we can certainly make an impact on games when he's going right and healthy. But another opportunity for Spencer Schwellenbach Schwellenbach on Monday night to continue to pitch well well. I think we've been really encouraged by his last two starts. Hopefully you can pick up the win there and then you give the ball to Ronaldo and Chris Sale, who have been pitching as well as basically anybody in the league, and let's hope the Braves would keep it going and win their fourth series in a row.

00:47:16
Speaker 1: Yes, for sure, a nice little test. The Cardinals are not a juggernaut. They're not as good as the Yankees, but certainly I'm measuring stick again here on the road and then in Syria. Light game on Thursday. But it's a weird series and they're back at home for the weekend. Will have plenty of covers between now and then and wall to wall, I would say in this podcast feed covering all things Atlanta Braves, Scott anything you want to plug on the way out, and if not, tell folks where they can find all of your work if they are new to the podcast.

00:47:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, Brad, this was a good show. I'm glad we were able to talk through shortstop a little bit because I know it is top of mind for everybody. We do want to thank everybody for checking us out. I am at Scott Coleman at fifty five. Brad is at BT Rowland. I think that is correct, and check out the show at Hammer Territory. We are on x we are on Instagram. I think we're on Facebook.

00:48:06
Speaker 1: Help me out that we are but Facebook, I would say thriving over there on meta or whatever you want to say, I don't know what it's called.

00:48:14
Speaker 2: Shout out Mark Zuckerberg. If you want to advertise on the show, please do. But no, we'll be back plenty of shows this week with Steven and Sean. Brad and I will get together at some point. We are hoping to have a pretty notable guest later in the week as a tease, so I'm hoping that will come together. But again, thanks to everybody for checking us out, and we'll be back soon.

00:48:35
Speaker 1: That's a right. Please go ahead subscribe to the podcast now Apple, Spotify, etc. Thank you for listening, we definitely appreciate it, and we'll see you all next time.