JR Ritchie Hype, Yastrzemski’s Great Start and Robert Suarez's Debut

00:00:21
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome back to the hemrit Territory Podcast this episode three three nine. My name is Brad Roland and I'm joined on this Sunday edision of a podcast. Well, my good friend Scott Coleman. Scott, it's march Man. Baseball's here. What's going on? Hello? Brad.

00:00:37
Speaker 2: It iss good as always to do one of these shows with you. And you know, it's a great time of year on the sports calendar. Spring training is in full swing. We have the World Baseball Classic starting in a couple of days, March Madness, and the NCAA Tournament is right around the corner. And then of course the Braves play games that matter for real. On March twenty seventh is the home opener against the Kansas City Royals. Should be an act next couple of weeks, and you know, we have quite a bit to talk about on the show tonight with some odds and ends down from spring training.

00:01:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot to get to. We should say. We'll record this a little bit earlier than usual on Sunday. Do some scheduling stuff. Mostly me. The Atlanta Hawks run my life mostly and they have a home game tonight, so it's one of those things where I will be in an arena and that's bad. That's bout audio quality, Scott. I gotta say, you're trying to record a podcast while there's game mops going on. Doesn't let me work, so PSA for that. A lot might happen this afternoon. We don't know the race. We're playing a split swag game today. Stay tuned. If anything crazy happens, you will have already heard me at to the the game of this podcast. So there's that, but a lot to get to from the last couple of days. Like there's not, like you know, one dominant story, but a lot, a lot of things. And I think we're gonna choose to start on an intrigue I would say, intriguing, interesting and positive story from spring training. And that is the work of j R. Richie, who's drawing all kinds of buzz right now. The twenty two year old top prospect, not the number one prospect for a lot of people, but certainly in the top three of Brave Storm system for people that we trust. First round pick a few years ago, finished it with that last year. Probably the closest guy to the majors of all the big name prospects for the Braves, and in two appearances so far, he's looked really good. And that, of course prompts questioned Scott that we're getting all the time, like, hey, could they break camp with Richie in a rotation? And it's not a crazy question, given how he looks and given his pedigree all that stuff.

00:02:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's going to be fascinating to see if Jared Richie pitches well enough over the next few weeks, if he kind of forces himself onto Atlanta's rotation to start the year, kind of like a j. Smith Schaffer did last season, where you know what, Richie might just show that he's too valuable, even if it might make sense from a roster building sense to keep Richie and Gwinette so you can have a full twenty six man roster and make sure you don't lose players who don't have options, but Richie might be too good that you can't ignore it. You also now are incentivized with the PPI draft pick that, of course, the Braves one with Drake Baldwin.

00:03:01
Speaker 1: If Jr.

00:03:02
Speaker 2: Richie, who is a top one hundred prospect, spends basically the entire year with the Braves and wins rookie of the year. Guess what, the Braves get another first round pick this time in a year, So there's reasons to think that Richie has at least a chance. And even if Richie is not necessarily on opening day with the Braves and he's down in Gwinnett, well, guess what. Give it a couple of weeks and Jr. Is probably going to have his name called at some point for sure.

00:03:27
Speaker 1: And he's got, from what all experts kind of points to do, like a very mature set of offerings, Like he's been tracked throwing six pitches in spring training. I don't know how real bad is necessarily some of there's some there's some track awareness this time. Yere we just we say that out loud, but very mature, very mature game for a player of his age. He's been dominant face of thirteen. It's thirteen batters, but he's been dominant against them in spring and you brought us up to me and I think it's that's a great point to kind of compare and contrast. Smith Shauber did a version of this a year ago. Basically they were like, hey, he's he's so good, he's got to be up sooner. Rather than later and stay up. Essentially, he'd already kind of been there, he'd been there previously. It's a little bit different, but the Braves are not necessarily, you know, dead set against promoting someone like this. I will also say this is a theme of our last couple of weeks of conversations. He obviously has minor league options, and Alex does like to go with the guys who don't have minor league options, so he'd have to probably impress quite a bit. But there is a world in which he kind of forces their hands to your point where it's like, hey, can you really really keep Elder Wentz, Martine Perez pick your two or three of those guys over Jeded Richie. And maybe the answer is still yes because Alex is so conservative and likes to keep all of his options. Is not also this word open, But I think it's become a conversation, especially when Weiss mentioned six man rotation. That's another potential avenue for Jeded Richie, isn't it?

00:04:53
Speaker 2: It is? And you think about, Okay, if the Braves play, they played thirteen games and thirteen to begin the season, and they have nineteen games in the first twenty days, that's a lot of innings you're gonna have to cover, So to me, it kind of makes sense if Jared Richie continues to impress in the spring, and you mentioned a six pitch repertoire, which is something that he displayed throughout his time in the minors and seems to be real. He may not have six pitches he can go to whenever he wants them, but at least having that deep bag of pitches you can throw at hitters to keep him off balanced second and a third time through is really going to be helpful for him.

00:05:31
Speaker 1: But doesn't it kind of make.

00:05:33
Speaker 2: Sense if you're the Braves, you want to carry maybe a sixth starter or a hybrid man in the bullpen where you could have Richie make three or four starts the first couple of weeks of the year and evaluate and if he looks great and he's getting big leaguers out and he can get through a lineup more than two or three times, then you keep him up. And then at the same time, if Richie's getting hit around, or maybe he isn't quite ready yet, you send him to Gwenett. You say, hey, kid, go get him. We're gonna call your name again sometime this summer. To me, that kind of feels like a perfect window into seeing just how good Richie can be at the major league level. If he's good, awesome, you've kind of stabilized your starting rotation with all the injuries they've had. And if he's not ready, well then he's a twenty two year old who has plenty to learn, has only made a handful of starts in TRIPA A and you just wait for the next opportunity to call him.

00:06:23
Speaker 1: Up right, And as much as Alex has been you know, intentional might keeping options open, he has not been shy about promoting guys, you know what I mean, like Schwellenbach, Baldwin, you know, good on the list. They're not afraid to go quickly on a player if they believe that guy's gonna be ready to go. And maybe Richie's gonna be that maybe you won't be. We have another three weeks, four weeks to look at this stuff. But I think he's turned off. Heads's got a lot of questions about him, and you know, they got learned went to those guys. But in the meantime, Richie's a far more exciting name than anybody else at the end of the rotation right now to see the least you don't.

00:06:59
Speaker 2: Want Carlos Carrasco starting game.

00:07:02
Speaker 1: Six of the season. My got cookies not look great in the spring so far. We'll leave it there for now. Okay, Scott, let us discuss the World Baseball Classic. You already brought it up, and the WC is ongoing. And by the way, all of our WBC coverage is brought to by our friends at Fox one, which is live right now. Stream all your Fox favorites together in one place, including all WBC games over the next few weeks, and after that the best MLB action all season long can be found at Fox one. And the Braves have three guys prominently featured in their opening day lineup unless they're injured who will be playing in the WBC. And if you don't know this, they are Ronald Acunya for Venezuela, you got Ozzie Albi's and jersep Profar both for the Netherlands. So it's only two teams you have to follow, in addition to probably the US, which is of course a team that I'll be rooting fore most likely, but there you go. Ronnie. By the way, while we're here. Had an insane game in his final appearance before heading out into WBC. Ron Friday had a grant, had a Grand Slam and had stole two bases and was like, oh, I'm wrong with Coua Junior. Just just remind everybody I'm wrong with Qena Junior. That was fun. And then you know Ozzie Proof are playing together and a team managed by Andrew Jones, recent Paull of Fame inductee, Like, there's a lot going on here. And by the way, Venezuela and the Netherlands are in the same pool of the WBC, so let'll be playing against each other in just a few days. Yeah, I think. I mean the WBC.

00:08:27
Speaker 2: It's just a great event for Major League Baseball, for players not just in the majors but across the world to compete and represent their country. Of course, we just had the Olympics and now we had the WBC throughout February. It should be I'm sorry through March and it should be a lot of fun and I'm going to be rooting for Team USA. I think the Netherlands, for Braves fans, is just an easy second team to be rooting for because of all of the Braves connections through Curasao who are playing on the Netherlands, and then of course for Venezuela with Ronald we're going to be tuning in. God, cross your fingers, say a prayer that everybody gets through injury free. Of course, was it Edmund Diaz who got hurt in the WBC the last time on the map celebrating, I think on the mound. So everybody be smart. If there's a ball in the gap, it's okay to play it on a hop. You don't have to go one thousand miles an hour. I know everybody has been talking about the pitchers, and of course Team USA has some great starting pitchers lined up, but I think everyone's also going to be holding their breath a little bit at least if you're a fan of one of those teams that they pitch for. But should be a lot of fun.

00:09:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, and again, if Fox was the place you could watch all these games. There's some exhibitions that start as early as Tuesday where there they actually play against MLB teams. There's some crossovers there, but the official action gets under way out of March sixth, and as a reminder of the schedule. Friday at noon is Venezuela versus the Netherlands. So if you're going to watch a single game involving the Braves, that's probably the one to watch. All three guys will be an action in that game, in the first game that matters. Both teams also played against Saturday and then Sunday Monday, as well as a PSA as well. The first USA game is Friday night against Brazil at eight pm Eastern, So if you're looking for the US team, a great place to start there. And we'll have full coverage of WB stuff, WBC stuff as we go in because it's a week and a half long event and it's gonna be really, really interest interesting. And look, you and I poke fun at sprint training. Sometimes these games count and they matter. Now everybody's interests might go up and down depending on who you are, but these guys are gonna be trying as much as I hear what you're saying about not going in one thousand miles an hour, Good luck Tile Ronald Cooons, You're not not to play hard anoceball game. He's gonna be playing hard. These guys want to win and high level competition. National Pride across the board like it's gonna be really fun to watch, and again, you can check it out at Fox one over the next week, from the WBC through the World Series to the World Cup, to NASCAR, Indye, car, college basketball, and more with Fox one you get it all live sorry, seven day free trial today offer subject to change. Double Fox one Today and stream the World Myanth Black Classic live from March six to March fourteenth. Go to foxone dot com for complete terms and conditions. Fox won streaming. Now, all right, Scott A, we started intentionally with JR. Richie, an uplifting story, an exciting story, a story that no one could be raining too much on the parade with. We'll change guards a little bit now to what The big topic on Saturday was Spencer Strider and his velocity was down. That's the lead story, like everything else. I don't know if you saw this, Scott's We have the thoughts about it. Mark Bowman actually posted the whole interview with Spencer on Twitter on video postgame so you could see Spencer's mannerisms all that. It's actually really interesting. I recommend watching it. He seemed pretty okay with how it went. He's a competitive guy. Spencer's kind of an interesting cat in general, which everyone knows. But the big topic was that he was sitting ninety three with his fastball and he didn't. Honestly, the Braves and Spencer said before the start, like, hey, he's not going to be going out there trying to throw hard. There was the conspiracy theory about the radar gun being turned off last week. There's a lot of noise about Strider, and I found some of the conversation maddening because as it was happening, it was still February, and that was like, guys, what are we talking about? But I don't know about you. That's how I felt. And we've talked about more of that, but that was the lead story from Saturday for sure, and I wonder what you thought coming out of that.

00:12:31
Speaker 2: So here is my very official Spencer Strider take here on March first. If in four weeks Spencer Strider is still sitting ninety three with his fastball, I will be very concerned. It will be a five alarm fire if Stryder's still throwing low nineties with his fastball once games count in March and April. But that being said, we are so early in the spring, so many pitchers almost by default throw less hard and don't let it all fly in the second week of spring training games, which makes all the sense in the world. And I, you know what, I trust Spencer Strider. He is such a cerebral pitcher. He's a really smart guy. He's kind of like a pitching nerd. He understands what's going to make him successful. We've heard that even last year when he was really struggling, he went to like every resource imaginable to try to figure out what the root cause was of when he was just awful for like three or four weeks in the middle of the season. So again, give it a couple of weeks. Hopefully that velocity continues to go up. There were some good signs as well with Strider's fastball, but to me, I was I mean, I get it, man, Like we're braves. Fans have had a tough couple of weeks in the pitching department, so I understand why there was so much focus on Streider today, but I thought it was a little overblown given where we are.

00:13:56
Speaker 1: In the calendar. Yeah, I think more than a little. And I do get it because you know, even nationally not I follow a lot of national folks, fancy baseball folks as well. I saw that get I get it. Special strider and velocity is a clear topic, you know what I mean. He used to He used to sit high nineties. Last year was ninety five, ninety five and a half ninety six. That's different in itself. If he sits ninety three, I'm with you. If he's saying ninety three in three weeks, I'll be worried. He must. Yeah, by the way, he still might be able to be okay at that number, but I will be I'll still be worried. So both can be true at the same time. But like even today, again, they gave all the prefaces that you want, and look, if you're if you're trying to be negative, you could say that's what That's what they would say if they were worried about the philosophy. It's like, hey, we're working on this, we're working on this or whatever. But I think Boma had this first. But there was some induced vertical break numbers that were at closer to what he was sitting at a few years ago. His stuff, like the way his pitches are moving is encouraging, so there's more to life than just velocity, and Spencer seemed pleased again, Like I if he was pissed off with the way he looked, I think he probably not say that necessarily, but he's not gonna sugarcoat. I think if he was upset with how he felt today, I think he specifically mentioned the way the ball was coming out of his hand he felt good about. I tend to trust him too, So we're aligne on that. The velossum will be a topic. I could guarantee you when when he pitches next time, everyone will be watching the radar gun the entire time. And I get it. That's that's justifiable. I only was like kind of recoiling that people talking about how he's like cooked. It's like, guys, you just don't know that, And look, maybe is Unfortunately that's the possibility. Unfortunately he might never get back to where he was. That's very much in the role of possibility. But I do think that it's like crazy to have that takeaway on it was it February twenty eighth, Like, come on, what do we do?

00:15:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's again, everything is magnified. It's the early days of spring training games. I understand Strider not just locally, of course, we love Spencer, but nationally he is a He's had some big quotes that have caught on nationally and if for comments he's made, and Spencer's a straight shooter, he's not gonna sugarcoat it. He's not going to go through twenty five cliches during his interviews with media.

00:16:12
Speaker 1: He's going to tell you how it is.

00:16:13
Speaker 2: And let's hope over the next couple of weeks the velocity does tick up. That would be a really good sign. But of course there's so much more than pitching than just pure velocity.

00:16:23
Speaker 1: That was the name of the game.

00:16:23
Speaker 2: Everybody would just go out there and try to throw one hundred and four miles an hour every time they threw a pitch, and.

00:16:29
Speaker 1: I wish he could throw a hundred again. I'm not saying otherwise. I think you're here with me, like, it'd be great if he was the guy he was three years ago, of course that'd be awesome. He may not be, but he probably won't. I should say probably he'd probably I might in my mind, probably won't be this either. I think if he was. I think if he thought he was gonna throw ninety three, there'd be more freak out behind the scenes. Then there has been so far just my.

00:16:52
Speaker 2: Opinion, and I will say the fact that Strider's induced vertical break, which people may not be familiar with it, but it's it's a it's a term that basically says that it's a fastball that gets on hitters fast like like remember yeah, right, like the ball moves at.

00:17:09
Speaker 1: The ride, whichever word you want to use, like, hey, it's not straight. Basically, it's not just like a some guys can throw a hundred and it's so straight that hitters can just tee off because these guys are pros. Even at one hundred. You can get hit if you're throwing straight fastballs like fastball I think has the reputations, but especially four steamers of just being the straight pitch. It's not straight, Like you don't want to you can't. It can't be straight at this level. You can't. There's no want You're throw one hundred and five, you can't throw straight. Yeah, the ball's got to move. Yeah.

00:17:37
Speaker 2: So that was encouraging to hear that Strider's and Douce vertical break was like seventeen on average today, which is closer to what it was in twenty twenty three when he was so elite, so good signs. Again, We'll keep an eye on the velocity, but I'm my concern level as of today with Spencer Schreider is like a three out of ten.

00:17:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not worried either. Next start and maybe ramp up if it's If it's this, the next almost every every start will be probably another another point or two higher. That makes sense, that's defensible. I'm just not I'm not bothered right now. If you want to be to each their room, Scott, let's just quickly talk about another picture. Robert Suarez made his spring debut on Friday. People that may have been plugging back in now after a long winter may have almost forgotten about this, but he signed a big contract to be a late aning reliever for the Braves. He's an awesome reliever by all accounts. He throws very hard and was throwing what ninety nine hundred like just kind of easily doing that. And maybe that's a contrast to Strider, but look, Suarez is like relievers are different, man, Like they're they're always gonna throw at anying maybe two at the absolute most, so they're probably a little bit more like able to let it go a little bit in spring training, but Suarez looking as advertised doesn't change anything for me. I thought it was gonna be awesome the entire time, but maybe it's like, hey, Braves fans that maybe forgot about him. This is a pretty awesome relieve that that they signed his twitter.

00:19:02
Speaker 2: And a pretty awesome reliever that the Braves have coveted for years. They Braves were trying to get Robert Swarez out of San Diego the past couple of off seasons, of course, couldn't get it done, saying you wait till free agency and you give him the big contract.

00:19:16
Speaker 1: I'm really excited for Robert Suarez and the Braves.

00:19:19
Speaker 2: Bullpen for the better part of this run since twenty eighteen has been anywhere from good to great last year notwithstanding, but one thing the Braves have not had an absolute abundance of is really high velocity. Out of that group guys who routinely hit ninety nine and one hundred miles an hour, Like, we know how good rightce eel Iglesias is, but he's not somebody who goes out there and hums one hundred mile an hour fastballs in order to get there, Robert Swarez does this dude goes on the mound and just hums ninety nine after one hundred, after ninety eight, after one hundred. He's he is electric out there. He will work in kind of a change up in a sinker to keep hitters honest. But sixteen pitches during his Spring day on Friday ended the inning with a strikehead of Jaron Duran on a ninety nine on R fastball.

00:20:05
Speaker 1: He is electric.

00:20:06
Speaker 2: And I think you think about the Braves in the eighth and ninth innings, it seems like if Atlanta can get to a lead Laighton ball games, it's gonna be pretty close to ceremonial at that point to bring it home.

00:20:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I know there are people that were a little bit not put off by but it's like, wait, they signed this guy a big money He's not even going to be the closer. I don't care about that. Just want to say that out loud. Him and Iglesias. Glazias isn't quite as sexy as Robert Horris, I will, I will grant you that, But that's clearly what seems to be the role they're projecting is Swarz in the eighth, the glacis in the ninth. If that has to flip at some point, that's fine. I don't think that the old closer thing is a big deal, but I know that that will come up throughout the season, especially when he's thrown one hundred. It's like, oh, this guy's our our is our close. No, he's actually gonna be a thing guy. That's okay too. He's awesome. But you're right, they have a lot of flamethrowers. I thought of like Joe Himanniz is a kind of a guy throws really hard. He doesn't throw nearly star drums wars like him as was usually like ninety ninety five ninety six, which is that's a pretty hard thrower. But they have not had a guy like this in a prominent role for a while, like maybe Prime Kimberl of course was throwing like really very very very hard, but even then wasn't thrown a hundred all the time. So this is interesting. I will be fascinating to see how people take to him, because we could be honest, Scott, I know a lot of Braves fans probably have not watched a lot of Robbert Torres. We could be honest about that.

00:21:26
Speaker 2: It's okay, gotta stay up deep into the night to watch those Diego Padre games till.

00:21:31
Speaker 1: Especially for closers. Like, yeah, you might, you might see the beginning of a game, see three innings of some starter, but like if you're trying to watch the closer on the Padres, you're up laying a lot. Which hey, you're you're you're out there on that on that coast of the country. So I'm sure you've seen it more than most. But Brais, I saw some Braves fans that almost like forgot he existed. I'm being nice about it, but it's like kind of funny. He was a big ticket ad, but it was a long time ago. To be fair, it was like the first thing they did, and I get it well.

00:21:57
Speaker 2: And whenever a player changes teams, I like to look at the reaction of the fan base to kind of get a vibe on this player. Padres fans were genuinely bummed to lose Robert Suarez. I mean, they love this guy. He was as so steady as steady gets for San Diego the last couple of years. Really a good reliever again, no guarantees with relievers ever, no matter how good you've been, but it should be really fun. And yeah, you know what, if the Braves have too many good relievers to finish out ball games this year, I guarantee you.

00:22:26
Speaker 1: That is no problem at all.

00:22:29
Speaker 2: Something tells me both the guys are going to get a chance to close out a couple of games this upcoming summer.

00:22:33
Speaker 1: You don't have to be super old to remember that the Braves won the World Series on the back of their bullpen and multiple pitchers. It was not one pitcher, it was the night shift and it was several guys. And it may not be that, but it's really valuable to have both in the races, but especially in the playoffs. If you have an awesome open in the playoffs, that could be very, very helpful. And we'll see if that comes to pass later on this year. All right, Scott. In a second, we'll talk about Mike U Streemsky's thunderous debut with the Braves so far in spring. With first to work on our partners on the show today.

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00:23:40
Speaker 1: All right, Scott let us discuss Mikey Strimsky, who is suddenly the most popular player on the Braves roster. It's funny because I know, as you know, you and I are old to remember when there was a mixed reaction to that signing. It wasn't super negative, but it also wasn't positive. It's like, wait, this guy's making how much money he does what and having to see the reaction of like what money costs, you know, all other things, like we liked it more than the FED based I think in my reaction with my judging on the internet, we were a little bit higher as a podcast on Yes, and I'm being a little bit funny about him being popular right now, but with good reason. As a record of this early on Sunday, he has three hovers of spring. He had two on Friday. His swing is just looking great. He's mashing in the baseball and it's a reminder that he does what we kind of advertise him to be able to do, which is hit right handed pitching, and that's the whole idea with him. He's a decent defender. I know Alex has talked about how we actually play can actually play a little bit of center field. He's not a center fielder, but he can play there if you need him. Like there's some versatility. And but the real reason I signed him was that he hits rities and his swing is really pretty too, Like he's got a famous last name, but like he mashes a little bit, which is it's nice, it's fun.

00:24:55
Speaker 2: Well, and Yeas is probably a player you mentioned a minute ago. Braves fans maybe haven't seen a ton of Robert Suarez as the closer in San Diego. Well, they probably haven't seen a ton of mike Yastremsky because he was playing with the Giants for the very large majority of his career and then was traded to the Royals and actually was awesome with Kansas City down the stretch last season. But Yastremsky is going to do wonders for the order, especially in the middle, to balance out. I mean, we know the Braves have plenty of pop from the right side, and really the last couple of seasons one reason why the Braves offensively have really fallen off. So in twenty twenty four, I'm sorry. In twenty twenty three, when they had the historic offense, Atlanta was number one in the majors by a country mile against right handed pitching, they were ridiculous. The last two seasons, though, the Braves were sixteenth and eighteenth against right handed pitching, and lo and behold when I think it's like seventy two percent of the pitches thrown in Major League Baseball last year were by rightys.

00:25:56
Speaker 1: You need to improve that. That's not good enough.

00:25:59
Speaker 2: Yastremsky should be a great addition to bat I don't know, Brad. I mean, he could bat anywhere. You could probably not lead off, but I mean, if Yustremsky's mashing, it's probably not crazy to say he could bat second. At some point, he could hit third, fourth, fifth, sixth. It's a couple of spring training games. We're not going to pretend this guy is the new Hank Karen, but really a good sign from Yas and I think a player. I said this on the show, I think a week ago, but I think as the games get going, I think he has is going to endear himself to Braves fans and wind up being a really nice kind of quiet under the radar pickup.

00:26:32
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think that was always likely to happen. I think when people kind of realized that the deal wasn't as big of an investments and maybe they thought it originally as well, Like the way it stacks up money wise, like he's getting paid like a third fourth outfielder. That's what he is, and that's that's a reasonable investment. I think because of when it happened, people were itching for big stuff to happen. But he helps them in a lot of ways. He helps open up a lot of different avenues for the offense. I think the best version of this team. I think it's gonna sound funny, but Sean Murphy and Mikey Shrimsky are compliments in each other. Sean Murphy is a lefty masher at catcher. The Chefs is a righting matcher at in the outfield and between because profarc and DH and play left. There's some interchangeability there. And if you need him to play every day for a while because somebody's hurt, he can do that and he won't get you. He won't get he won't get it, won't get you killed, because yes, if you had it, you don't. You don't want a platoon split, you don't ideally, but if you have one, it's better to have one who hits. Writing's better because there's just more right right picture. So all that said, I have not changed my evaluation Mikey Trimsky at all other than just like, hey, that's a fun swing to watch. But it is probably good for vibes that he had a good start to the spring because people are paying attention right now. We haven't reached the dip yet of when people kind of like log off almost mentally until spring starting starts him starting out hot. It's like, oh, brace, fans could be excited, which is cool. So I have a quick comparison here. So if I were to ask you, Brad Rowland, is Austin Riley a good hitter? Yes?

00:28:05
Speaker 2: For their careers, mike Yastremsky against right handed pitching has a one to twenty WRC plus.

00:28:15
Speaker 1: Not good against lefties.

00:28:16
Speaker 2: No one's gonna have mikey Stremsky batt against lefties, but against righty's a one to twenty WRC plus. For the entirety of Austin Riley's career against both righty's and lefties, Austin Riley has a career one twenty two WRC plus. Yep, basically the same hitter.

00:28:34
Speaker 1: Now.

00:28:34
Speaker 2: I know Yastremsky he played in San Francisco in AT and T Park, which suppresses hitters and all that, But for their careers, Yastremsky against righty's has basically performed what Austin Riley has done his entire career.

00:28:47
Speaker 1: That's pretty damn good. Yeah, I I just know that he'll have a slump in April. People are gonna get mad at us for saying this, but you're I mean, he has a long, long record of hitting bright handed pitching. That's just what it is, and the age is Yeah, I'm not saying it's not a concern at all. I do think that hopefully. Like I said before about the vibes, he's a guy that is thirty five years old and I saw some I get that there's a confirmation about that it's a multi year deal for thirty five year old, but you can his skill set is one that should age relatively well. It's not like he's super reliant on being in the lead athlete for example, et cetera. So I'm intrigued, I'm excited. Does it matter a lot, No, but it's perhaps a reminder of what he could be and how helpfully could be to this team. Because as much as the injuries have really been brutal at times the last couple of weeks, one of the biggest pitches of this team being improved was the depth being improved. And it is improved like last year's roster, two years ago roster even two years are roster like you couldn't afford a hasan Kim injury, for example, and now they have bursta Dubon who could just play and like be fine at that spot. Yeah, is like great insurance and also just a guy who can play three out of every five days for you no matter what. So I'm feeling good about the roster in general, not because he has but it is like, hey, it's not big ticket, but we complained, always not complaining. I'll speak to myself for years about the lack of depth, and they have depth now and that matters. It's just not gonna like that doesn't grab headlines, but it's something that like the sickos probably would understand.

00:30:25
Speaker 2: And here we are, hopefully the Braves are not having to resort to just putting out players completely over their heads, which.

00:30:33
Speaker 1: They've done a lot honestly like that and they've had to and that's you know, maybe a criticism of the front office. That's that's viable. Also with the way that the previous manager managed the team. Unless the guy was like unable to walk, he was gonna be in the lineup. So it was not really the sat emphasis on depth. But I think over a long season why seems to embrace a little bit using the depth more and the interchangeability. So, yeah, is just one part of it. But I think it's been good to see him get off to a positive start and endear himself to the fan base a little bit. Scott, we could do an hour breakdown of the Braves holdings LLC financial statements if you want to start that now, or do you want me to log off and let you do it by yourself.

00:31:15
Speaker 2: God, nobody wants to hear that there are probably people in Braves country far better qualified than us.

00:31:21
Speaker 1: There are I can't remember. I know Steven our colleague quote sweet. I believe it's it's like, oh, mesh to have this great.

00:31:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, guy Graham, Yeah, he's a great financial GBB seventy on Twitter.

00:31:35
Speaker 1: You got I was like, I was almost said exactly that, and I wasn't sure it was right. So I want to say, right. So that's a great actual finance perspective. You and I are not financi finance guys. I've read about this kind of little stuff. Anyway, The Braves are the one team in baseball that announces because they have to. They have to announce financials quarterly because it's a public company, which is an interesting look into things long and short of it. The Braves are making a lot of money, not big surprise. It did turn some heads though, that their baseball revenue was up year over year despite the fact that they missed the playoffs and were bad for a lot of last season. And part of that is that you know, they're actually their overall revenues up even more than that because the battery. By the way, Scott or you don't live here, but you know, you know the Battery. The Battery is a money printing machine. It's the envy of all baseball. There's all. There was no other round of stories but this. I'm sure you probably read one of them. It was one of the athletic that was like this. But it's like every single team wants to have the Battery, and like, I don't care about that, but it helps the Braves spend money, So okay, cool.

00:32:40
Speaker 2: Not only do other baseball teams want to replicate the Battery, but other professional sports franchises do college teams. I know for a guarantee that at least one prominent university has had members of the Braves front office out to talk about mixed use developments around sporting complexes. That is the level of success the Battery has brought for this team in the decade or so that truest Park has been opened. And if you want to go dig into the financials, the Braves continue to print money.

00:33:12
Speaker 1: It's good.

00:33:13
Speaker 2: Don't get me wrong. They spent money this offseason. It's good that they have increased spending. I still think there's room to grow and it's going to be very, very interesting to see what happens in the upcoming collective bargaining agreement with a salary cap and a salary floor, and how does money get calculated as part of the salary cap and salary floor. I would like to think the Braves have more room to go up and to continue spending, because I mean, especially if they're in a division with the Phillies and the Mets. I mean, those teams have just spent hand overhand for years now. The Dodgers have no budget, like you would hope that Atlanta is going to continue to invest and also reward fans for very obviously based on the numbers, continuing to support the team and spend their hard earned cash at the Battery.

00:33:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I know there was I saw some people floating this that there was an operating loss on the financials that was quickly kind of debunked, Like, for one thing, they had to do a thirty million dollar right down because of the TV deal going away and all that stuff. That's it's in flux admittedly, which I've been saying for a while. Year. One of the new TV brais vision they're probably gonna make a little bit less than they made before. The idea is to hopefully that grows in the future, but that you can no longer rely on somebody's aunt who never watches games basically giving you money because they're paying for cable. That that is gone. Now you're only your fans are paying you, which there's a lot of Braise fans, to be fair, but that all matters regardless though, there's this metric that Graham actually pointed out that is called operating incoming before depreciation and ambortization. I don't know anything about this, but all that said, it has the team basically swimming in money, both baseball wise and especially the mix of use battery. All the jokes that I know I've made, you've made about them buying buildings and things real estate is been a strength that seems like for this Braves team. No matter what happens, they did spend more this winter. We have criticized them and I will right now again for not spending on the rotation that should have happened. In my opinion, you've said the same thing or with adding someone you're not spending both can be true. At the same time, the Braves have spent quite a bit more than the last year, and they could have done more but there's still I should have looked this up. Sixth and payroll, seventh and payroll right now. Close.

00:35:28
Speaker 2: It depends on if you look at CBT payroll or cash payroll. But I mean even the cash number is going to be like two sixty two seventy million.

00:35:36
Speaker 1: They are spending like I used to you remember back in the day. I'm sure we have listeners. I used to crush it for not spending regularly. I guess what they started to spend. And they're not spending like the like the Dodgers. That shouldn't be the comparison. You said it perfectly. I think the Mets in the Phillies are the teams you got to really compare yourself to. And the Mets have an owner that's kind of let's just say, very very very rich, and Williams spend money, so it's kind of hard. The Braves do have. This is the pros and cons of the boy. The Braves are set up. The Braves actually have like shareholders they are responsible to, which is not just fans. Like honestly, ownership has fans every owner, but they're not like actually fiduciary responsible to those fans. The Braves actually have to show their investors what they're doing with their money. They could still spend more, but I think even Dob who's now a retired beat writer, was like kind of not crushing them, but basically like, hey, part of this is that the Braves want to show that they're making a lot of money, and it's harder to do that if you spend to the absolute brink. And that's the advantage of having a rich guy that just spends money. Like Steve Collens got his own problems, but he just break out a check book and right checks. Terry McGirk is very wealthy in his own right. He is the de facto owner of the Braves, even though he's not the owner, he's the face. But they could spend more, Don't get me wrong, They could spend more, but they're not gonna just it's not as easy for them as it is for a faceless owner. Just like it's good money. So all that said, if you want to break down read Graham smarter than us about the stuff, for sure, But my takeaway was like, Hey, they're making a lot of money, And for me it was like, oh, by the way, they made more this last year despite being bad, which means they're charging a lot of money, which, yeah, that's tough. If you want to get I go as a fan to the battery and so it costs a lot of money, it does, and then the TV thing all that. But they're making a lot and hopefully that will continue to show up on the field, which is what we actually care about.

00:37:32
Speaker 2: Absolutely, as long as they continue to invest that money into the team. And guess what, guys, you put that money into the team and the Braves go on a deep playoff run. You know how much money every single home playoff game brings in for your bottom line?

00:37:45
Speaker 1: A lot millions of dollars, so every game.

00:37:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, oh my gosh, it's I would I mean, maybe those numbers are out there from the World Series run.

00:37:54
Speaker 1: I'm sure you could do a deep dive.

00:37:56
Speaker 2: But regardless, as long as the payroll continues to spend go up, then yeah, absolutely, like good on the Braves. They are a business at the end of the day, they're also a sports team. But it's it was encouraging to see the team is financially in good shape because there are some baseball teams that are not nearly as financially sound as what the Atlanta Braves are right now, and as long as payroll doesn't go down and they don't pull what they did a year ago this time twelve months from now, we're good.

00:38:23
Speaker 1: And if they do that, well, crush them like we did lest them. Like I always point this out to my My brain breaks, Scott. You notice about me when people yell at people yell at Alex, we're not spending money. Alex doesn't choose so much money to spend. That's something I always want to point out. There's things yell at Alex about. Right now, we go to Alex plenty this oneter, that particular thing. His budget is not his choice. It's all point how he uses. Yeah, it's his choice, I promise you.

00:38:51
Speaker 2: They did not say, Alex, you have four hundred million dollars to spend this offseason and he's like, no, guys, I'm good at two seventy.

00:38:57
Speaker 1: They're all chill here. But he didn't know say that.

00:38:59
Speaker 2: There's no general manager, play president of baseball operations out there who would voluntarily do it. We're not We're not carrying water for ownership. No, we want to see more. We will see more investment in this team because guess what It's just it increases your margin of ayor so much when you have more talent, more depth, spend the money, braves. The fans are paying you. Now did your turn to continue investing in this roster?

00:39:23
Speaker 1: That's right, and direct all payroll. We size of the payroll complaints to one Terrence Murgirk, not necessarily Alex. How how the money gets used is on Alex. And maybe don't spend half of an inter bullpen. But here we are, uh, Scott. If we could get out of here on a relatively modest edition of the Sunday podcast for you and I. We usually go an hour sometimes, but we won't do that today. We could do a whole thing on Joey Wentz working on to Seam Fastball. Hey, Joey, figure cool. If that works for you, I'd be excited about it. But no, we'll recording again one more time. PSA recording a Sunday Morning beenything changes. We'll have more coverage of promise you this week. Stay tuned. Lock it in Hammer Territory anywhere you get your podcast part of the vaul Territory network of podcasts, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, et cetera. Scott, if folks want to follow you. They can get you at Scott colmand fifty five. Correct, that is the one. Lots of college basketball talk coming the best. Yeah, we're in that. That ranges this of the calendar right now for you for the best sporting event in the world. The NCAA Tournament should be a lot of fun. But yes, Scott Coleman fifty five is the one. Please direct all complaints and questions about the new TV deal to at BT Rowland. Oh, because I have lost track of the number of people who have asked me questions about it. I can't remember if you said it or Steven said it, one of you did, or maybe both of you. Every time you post about the TV deal, you are just making yourself a target for questions and complaints. More than anything else I would I always try to respond to stuff that. If it's a good faith I'll definitely respond to it almost always. The TV deal is still the same as it was when you guys talked about it. There's not been an update on anything so far. When we have updates, we will share them, but we are not in charge of Braves Vision.

00:41:11
Speaker 2: Just saying somebody who lives in like Montana complaining that there's not a Braves only option for him to watch. I'm sorry, brother, I'll give I will give Major League Baseball's front office a call and say, listen, the Braves fans in Montana want a Braves only option to watch, cheaper than watching the entire league and paying for MLB TV.

00:41:32
Speaker 1: Please get on this immediately. Yeah. I have long been quite jealous of you individually because you just you just got to have the multib TV and you get all the Braves games. It's just like, it's so easy and you have to pay for it. I'm not saying, but it's so easy if you're out of market. It's the in market folks to actually have a harder, which shouldn't be the case. It should be the opposite. If you're think of it, Really it should be harder for you to watch this with me, Scott, but it's not. It's easier for you than me. It's bizarre. But here we are, well and no more blackouts. That was theanoity.

00:41:58
Speaker 2: That was maybe the best, and now it's been part of the Braves Vision network. If folks miss that show, it's in the feed. But really, no blackouts. If your local you may have to pay for a service.

00:42:07
Speaker 1: I get it.

00:42:08
Speaker 2: Nobody wants to pay for yet another streaming service or sports service. But alas no blackouts. That is a massive win for fans and should make it just as easy for you Brad and Atlanta or anybody in the region to watch games as it is for me two thousand miles away out here in Arizona.

00:42:24
Speaker 1: There you have it all right, that's all we have for this evening. Everybody, Please subscribe to Hammer Territory check out the entire thoughts, or to our network check out or partners of Fox one all that fun stuff, fast at all. It's all there for you. We appreciate their support, We appreciate you listening to the podcast, because this podcast will not exist without you listening to it and watching it. So thank you, thank you, thank you as always, and we'll see you all later on this week.