Where Can The Braves Be Elite In 2026?

00:00:19
Speaker 1: Welcome one and all to the Hammer Territory podcast. My name is Sean Coleman. Hope wherever you are and wherever you are listening, you are doing well. Once again. As we mentioned earlier this week, such an exciting time of the sports calendar, so many great things going on. But hey, when it comes to this corner of the baseball world, Braves Country two more weeks until a baseball season is here. So there's a lot of questions that we've been asking. What answers have we been able to find. We feel like that there are more questions than answers at times. We feel like that some questions are getting more answered than they did before. But I think that one question that has not been asked enough is one that matters a lot for twenty twenty six. Where can the Braves be elite this season? We're going to discuss that and more, and I think you know where we're going to start, and that's going to be the focus of our mix it Up segment engineered by Fascinating all Right, So, Steven, we're going to start with Ronald Acunya Junior. When we're thinking about for this Braves team, what are the biggest individual factors that are going to be the reasons why they return to contention. It starts with Ronald Acunya Junior. And I've made the claim and I know that you, I think have made the claim as well. I feel Ronald Acunya Junior is without a doubt one of the five best singular sources of offensive production in the game. Where does he stand for you in terms of you were tearing overall offensive producers. Where does Ronald d'cunya junior sit among his peers?

00:01:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, what's up, buddy.

00:02:00
Speaker 3: So when you talk about when you talk about where can the Braves be elite? Another way to ask that question is in a more practical sense, who or which position group can carry the team for portions of the season when there's a bunch of guys in a slump, or it's just the dog days of whatever part of the season we're in, or they just need spectacular performance from one or two guys to weather whatever they're weathering at the time, and usually with this team it's injuries and so who can carry the club? And of course you have to start with Ronald. That is where everything starts with the Braves. And I can just recount off the top of my head five or six times since he's been in the majors that Ronald has quite literally carried the team for.

00:02:51
Speaker 2: A month or two months.

00:02:53
Speaker 3: He gets on these hot stretches and it is one of the most spectacular things you'll see on baseball. But it's what I've missed the most. When he's hurt is yes, seeing him every day is fun. But when he is hot, when he is on, that is truly a spectacle, and even other fans notice it, like it's just it's a different level. To answer your specific question of where do I rank him in terms of offensive players in the league, I think you have to put I mean, if we're doing objectively, I think you have to put.

00:03:24
Speaker 2: Otani in Judge in their own class.

00:03:28
Speaker 1: Right now.

00:03:28
Speaker 2: They're just better than everybody else.

00:03:29
Speaker 3: And that's that's not sliding anyone else, just that's how good.

00:03:33
Speaker 2: I mean.

00:03:34
Speaker 3: You go look at the numbers Aaron Judge has put up the last couple of years. It's actually it's like Barry Bond civil numbers and Atani is an alien, So you know, those two guys are in their own class. It's that next tier where you get to, like Soto, I think you get to Akunya. If Akunya is healthy, I put him right up Againstjuan Soda. Now, Wan Soto has stayed healthier for his career, so you have to give him probably a slight edge there, but I think Akunya is right in that next like I think I would put Cory Seger in that group when he's healthy. In terms of impact bats, Jordan Alvarez is a guy he wasn't He was hurt last year, so he kind of kind of left people's brains. But when that guy's healthy, he's as a dynamic a hitter as there is. You know, if you go overall value, of course, you can get like the Bobby Witz and Jose Ramrez's of the world. But I think Akunya is right in that next tier below a Tani and Judge and right with Soto.

00:04:26
Speaker 2: Him and Soto have been.

00:04:27
Speaker 3: Linked together ever since they came up together, so it's not a surprise. But yeah, I think I go probably Otani one, Judge two, and then some order of Akunya and Soto three and four. You know, it's kind of dealer's choice at that point.

00:04:41
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And you know we talk about you know, these individual sources of offensive production. You know, you think, to your suffocate, baseball is a twenty five man roster, would a singular source when an individual truly matter as much in a sport that has that big of a roster. This is like basketball, which has a smaller roster. What recent history certainly suggests that that's the case. Because if, however, you want to rank them, and you know, we we back what we say about Ronald Acunya Junior with you know where he is offensive production wise for twenty and twenty six. If you look at many of the Fangrass projections, they have Ronald basically fourth, fifth, or six, depending on the projection source in WRC plus. But we named the hitters Otani, Judge Soto, Akunya Junior, Corey Sieger, or Don Alvarez. I think you could put that at Vladimir Guerrero Junior up there as well. What do those hitters have in common besides just being the best in the sport at the plate, it's also the recent success that they've led their teams to over the past few years. Go back to twenty twenty one. Freddie Freman, you could argue, was a top five hitter in baseball the Braves won the World Series twenty twenty two. Ordn Alvarez was a big reason the Astros one sieger, a big reason the Rangers one in twenty three, Judge Soto and Otani the World Series in twenty four, and then last year it was Otani and Black Guerrero in the World Series in twenty five. It matters to have the elite of the elite when it comes to individual offensive producers because not only can they make the difference to get you those extra wins to get to the playoffs, they deliver in the big moments what you're in the playoffs, and Akunya has held his own when he's played in the playoffs. So that's why it matters. That's why when it comes to Ronald Kunya Junior, the Braves have a level of player that very few other teams do. And it matters on the biggest stage when you want to get to you where you want to get as a contender.

00:06:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, Listen, the pitching is so good in the postseason that you do need your stars to be stars. I mean, it's a lot of postseason successes. I remember, even like in nineteen with the Nationals when Soto and Rendon just went off, you know, and carried them all the way.

00:06:52
Speaker 2: To a World Series.

00:06:53
Speaker 3: You can go back further than that with Red Sox when Mooki, you know, when Mooki was with the Red Sox, he did the same thing.

00:06:59
Speaker 2: So yeah, I mean, you to have these.

00:07:00
Speaker 3: Guys on your roster and then you gotta have perform in October. So yeah, I mean, this is where it starts for the Braves. And I've said this before both literally and figuratively. Ronald Laguna Junior is where it starts. And I just need him to be healthy. Honestly, if you tell me he's gonna be healthy, I think he's gonna be elite. Washington playing the WBC has brought back all the feelings of like twenty twenty three of like oh yeah, when this dude is right and he knows he's right, it's it's truly unlike anything. Like I remember when he was a rookie and he had that stretch of games in like August of his rookie year where he hit a home run in like eight straight games and he let off like six straight games with the Homers, and the Marlins hated him so much they had to throw at him to stop him.

00:07:47
Speaker 2: You know, I remember in twenty one.

00:07:49
Speaker 3: He doesn't get enough credit for twenty twenty one because Ronald carried the entire team for literally the entire first half of the year.

00:07:56
Speaker 2: People forget that.

00:07:56
Speaker 3: If Ronald doesn't have an MVP level first half in twenty twenty one, the Braves are selling at the trade deadline and they don't win that World Series. And because nobody was playing well in the first half of twenty twenty one.

00:08:07
Speaker 2: Except Ronald, he was gonna win the MVP that.

00:08:09
Speaker 3: Year if he does a tearors ACL at the right before the All Star breaks. So I've seen this dude carry this lineup and carry this team for long stretches, and I tell you what, it looks a lot like the guy that's playing in the WBC right now. Watching that guy, it looks like like MVP level Ronald a commutjunior. So you tell me he's healthy, I'll tell you he's gonna be a top five MVP player this year and he's going to re establish himself as one of the premier players in the league. Because I think people have forgotten obviously. He tore his knee up in May of twenty four. You know, he was out for a year and then last year he was awesome, but the Braves sucked, so no one really cared. I think he's gonna remind people in twenty twenty six the Braves can do hold up their end that he's one of the best players in baseball. And I think he's again. You promised me health, you promised me one hundred and fifty games. He's gonna put up an MVP levels. You're muted, beautiful.

00:09:05
Speaker 1: It's unreal what he can do, not only at the platement on the bass pass and like I say, just that combination of speed, offensive production on bas skills, delivering in big moments, and let's not you know, discount the fact that just having fun. I know that may not seem like it matters. But the more fun Ronald Acuna seems like he's having on the baseball field, that's the more locked in he is. And that's why I'll end on this point, is that the Braves need to make sure that they honor that being locked in version of Ronald Acuna Junior by ensuring that he is healthy, you know, kind of protecting him of himself. You know, I mentioned it before last year. You had that bit of a scare when it came to his achilles. The Braves lett him play even though he had that achilles concern. You can't let that happen. Walt Weiss has talked about if these players are healthy, probably playing them one hundred and five to one hundred and fifty games versus one hundred and sixty, you know that you're more than likely going to get a Cup injury scares a year from Ronald, So the brazy to do all that they can to keep him healthy.

00:10:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, and how much is he gonna run? Yeah, that's a huge Like, we just don't know. I think he's gonna run a lot. If the WBC is any indication he's gonna run. And listen, when he came back from the first day sel he ran way more than I thought he would. So, like, you know, I know they want to be conservative. I think they're gonna try to be conservative with off days more than they're gonna try to be conservative with telling him what not to do on the field. I certainly don't want him like dive in for balls in the outfield, but if he gets on, if he walks and he's just standing on first base and he thinks he can steal.

00:10:35
Speaker 2: I think he's gonna try to steal.

00:10:36
Speaker 3: So I don't know if he'll ever see seventy stolen bases again, but like fifty would not surprise me, forty wouldn't surprise me. Like I think he's gonna run as long as he's healthy, So the sky is the limit as long as he's healthy. That's just what we don't know. And you know, I'm I knock on every piece of wood every time I talk about Ronald because I just want the guy to be healthy. For give me like five years and see what he can do. And again, I think he's going to remind people in twenty six that he is one of the best players in baseball. And I think he's itching to show people. If you watch the WBC, that guy looks like a horse that is about to is about to zoom out of the out of the break. So it's like it's like a horse about to run away. Like he cannot wait for the season to start, and I can't wait for it. That it's gonna be fun to watch.

00:11:24
Speaker 1: You know, he's motivated and listen, just in general, baseball is better when Ronald a'cooney junior junior is playing at his best and having fun doing it. That that's just what makes baseball better, and of course for us Brase fan it just makes the overall product better as well. But when we talk about difference makers, when we talk about a trusted source, I certainly want to put the spotlight on fast and All Fast and All industrial supplies, innovative solutions. Want to learn more, visit fastenall dot com. So we're focused on these difference makers, and we're focused on these sources that can be reliable no matter who they're face, no matter their stage, they are just consistently elite. Steven, I know that there's been fun debates over the past few years about how many true aces are there in baseball, and you probably could point I would say to ten to fifteen. But I do feel with confidence the Braves have one of those pitchers. Even though he is a bit up there in age, he's proved that he still has some of his best stuff available. And that of course is chrissel the twenty four Cy Young Winner, and even after a bit of a rough start before he got injured last year in that May to June area, basically that two month stretch before he got hurt, Chrissell was right back there being among the best in baseball. I feel you can easily make the case that he's a top ten pitcher. You can easily make the case he's a true ace. But the thing that stands out to me is that we talk about Ronald Raccuna Junior being among the best five overall offensive producers in baseball, we talk about Chrissel being a top ten pitcher. That's a rare combination. There are only a few other teams that have both the top ten pitcher and a top five hitter in the game on the same team. And that's again two of the biggest reasons why the Braves fe confident they can return to contingent.

00:13:08
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, how many teams.

00:13:09
Speaker 3: I've a guy who won an MVP in the last three years and a guy that won us Cy Young in the last three years on the roster like it.

00:13:15
Speaker 2: Most don't.

00:13:17
Speaker 3: And what sucks is we still we really haven't gotten an extended stretch of seeing Acunya in sale like healthy together because obviously Acuna got hurt in May of twenty four and missed the rest of that year, and then when Acuna came back last year, him and Sale only played together for like less than a month before Sale got hurt. And so like we haven't seen we haven't been able to see both these guys dominate at the same time for any kind of extended stretch yet. And Chris Sale is a monster, a monster, And we said it when they made the trade for him, Like anytime he's been healthy, he's been good.

00:13:55
Speaker 2: Like he doesn't really.

00:13:56
Speaker 3: Have a stretch of play where he's healthy bad. So it's a very similar story as a Kunya Like if you tell me he's gonna be healthy, I'm gonna tell you he's gonna be. In the Cy Young conversation, he was awesome last year and a lot of people don't know it because he missed so much time with the rib injury. But after the slow start, I think, like the first two or three games he got off to a slow start. After that he was every bit as good as he was in twenty four when he won the Cy Young. So and he was very good when he came back from the injury on the last month of the season.

00:14:29
Speaker 2: So, and he looked great in spring. His stuff looks great.

00:14:32
Speaker 3: He really knows how to like throttle his stuff when he needs it, Like he'll sit in ninety four ninety five, and then he'll get into a big spot in like the fifth inning with a couple of guys on and all of a sudden, the dude's throw in ninety eight and he will blow it by somebody in big spot, Like he really has learned how to save his bullets for the biggest points in the game. And I I told Scott this at one point, He's already one of my favorite braves.

00:14:57
Speaker 2: He's only been on the team for two years. Like, I just love the dude.

00:15:00
Speaker 3: I want him and Akuna both on us are everything I want and my best player like Duce who are just obsessed with baseball, and they're both obsessed with baseball and they love it and they're awesome teammates and their teammates love them. And just give me a year where Ronald Coo Junior and Chris Sale are healthy together and let me just see what happens. Let me enjoy having two players of this caliber on the same team at the same time we're both healthy. That is that is all I'm asking for.

00:15:30
Speaker 1: Get that if we can get those two players together and healthy at the same time, you're going to see this team be able to be successful. And I think that that's a very good point to point out. You've very rarely seen them too together barely. Yeah, you basically have seen them. Let's see, Ronald was injured late May of twenty twenty four, so that's basically a month and a half together, and then Ronald came back I believe what it may last year, and then Sale got heard. We'll say it's been three months. So basically they've been teammates for two years. Only a fourth of the time that they've been able to be teammates, have they been able to actually be together healthy on the field when Chrisselle pitches. That's something that stands out when you really want to break down a big reason why the Braves have struggled over the past two years, that rare combination of top ten pitcher and top five hitter. They've only been available and healthy together for a fourth of that period of time. So he can get them together for a full season, I'd say that's a pretty big factor in us turning it around. But the other reason why I think that Chris Sale is really elite is not only his performance on the field. It's the persona of him as a team leader. I think that that's a very underrated part of what makes Chris Sale Chris Sale, and that is a big, big change from what he was earlier in his career. Chris Sale is the type of guy that, for instance, in the situation with Jerks Profar, Chris Sell, I believe was the first guy that they went up and talked to and his focus was on, Hey, this has happened. It's not ideal, It's definitely not something that you know, It's not something we would choose to happen, but it has happened. Our focus needs to not be on what has occurred, but on how we can work together to overcome the challenges that are our way. He sets the tone anytime that he's on the field. He was again the first guy who spoke about Drake Baldwin having confidence in Drake Baldwin taking on a big part of the catching load. And look what happened with Drake Baldwin in his rookie year. So Chris Sail sets that tone not only with how he pitches on the mound, not only with his mindset and persona, but also in just how he supports his teammates and that makes a huge difference for a team again that's trying to get back to contingent.

00:17:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, and listen, the Brazen lost a lot in the clubhouse in terms of leadership the last three years. I mean, think about the guys they've liked. They lost Freddy, they lost Travis Darnell, they lost Charlie Morton, they lost Dansby. Like guys who were very clearly like vocal leaders in that clubhouse, Max Freed, who was I think their player rep for the Union the whole time he was there. So like Chris is, Chris has stepped in and filled that void of being like the clear veteran of the team that everybody looks to.

00:18:24
Speaker 2: And you're right.

00:18:25
Speaker 3: When the Profilo stuff dropped last year, Chris Sale was the first guy they asked because his answer kind of sets the tone for the whole clubhouse. And when they when Profar got suspended again this year, Chris Sale was one of the first guys they asked. So you know, you're one hundred percent right. And stuff he does with the younger pitchers that we never hear about, stuff he does with the catcher. Stuff he's done with Drake Baldwin, getting Drake Baldwin caught up to speed on how to call a game, and he lets catchers call his entire game. I mean, we will never know the impact Chris Sale has had on Drake Baldwin's career. It's literally an amount of value will never be able to quantify. So yeah, he's just been incredible. And the fact that the Braids got him locked up. I love that they got an extension done.

00:19:06
Speaker 2: I love that the I love that he's the highest paid player on the team.

00:19:09
Speaker 3: Quite honestly, he deserves to be the high him and Acunya, Like I want them to get Acunya's deal done as well, but like him and Akunya should be the highest paid players on the team.

00:19:16
Speaker 2: I think that's completely fair.

00:19:17
Speaker 3: And the fact that he's making twenty seven million dollars, like, he's unbelievably good. And I just want him to be healthy because I think he could win another cy young and he's probably gonna waltz into the Hall of Fame if he went, if he can, if he can stay, if he can finish out this contract at the level that he's been pitching the last couple of years. I thought before that, he might be on the edge because of how much of his prime he missed. But if he keeps going at this rate, at least to the end of this current contract, I think he's gonna walt into the Hall of Fame.

00:19:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think. You know, we were talking about tears. I know, before he retired, you know, there was there was a trio of player future Hall of Famers. That's Clayton Kershaw, That's Mack Scherzer, and that's Justin Merlabner. I think that his sale is kind of on that next tier on his own. He may not necessarily be a first ballot guy, but I think there's no doubt, especially if he gets a both.

00:20:08
Speaker 3: All those other guys just stayed healthy for their entire primes. Yes, they like they dealt with injuries later, but they were healthy pretty much all their prime. And that's what That's what cost Chris, is that he missed like five years of his prime.

00:20:19
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, But the thing about it is is that he's pitching just as good now as he would have it.

00:20:24
Speaker 2: His arm has got a lot less bullets on it than those guys.

00:20:27
Speaker 1: It does it does, Yes, I definitely, I think, And I think that's in the back of his mind he wants to be, you know, clearly a Hall of Famer and and also be in the ace of a staff that to win multiple World Series. Again, Chris Sail may not necessarily have the count counting stats as other clear Hall of Famers win. He calls it a career. But in terms of the moments being the ace and multiple teams that win World Series, you know, winning Asa young late in his thirties, you know, be in the ace of three different teams, you know, throughout his career, that stands out, and he's fully capable of doing that. But again we talk about singular sources. Ronald Acune Junior as well as Chris Sale. What stands out about this team I talked over the past couple of years that are starting. Pitching has been the clearest aspect of this team that was to the level that you would need from a contender. But is there that different now? Is there another aspect of this team that can claim that title? We'll discuss that in just a moment after a word from our partners.

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00:22:31
Speaker 1: So Stephen continueing know on from you know, we talked about, you know, Ronald Acuna Junior in the last podcast, how good Ronald Accoonya Junior looked on the WBC stage taking over that game against nicker Walck, How awesome it was to see what he could do at the top of the order. But one of their aspects that we talked about of this team in the last podcast was the bullpion. And I feel like that we can make the claim that when we talk about aspects of this team that could be elite, the back end of the Brave bullpin has that potential because over the past three to five years, when you think of the best closers in baseball, I think that you could easily put both Rice sell Iglesias as well as Robert Sworez in that conversation. May everybody may not agree that they're both top ten, but I think that, you know, in terms of counting stats, in terms of quality of stuff, you could easily put them into that conversation. Well, now the Braves have both of them. And when it comes to a team that last year struggled mightily, I believe that our record in one run games, we were as many games above five hundred. In terms of one run games as we were overall. That's how huge of a difference our performance in one run games had on an overall record. When you had us struggle so much in one run games, having an elite back into the bullpen should reverse your fortune in those situations, and that can that's what can get you those extra wins to make a true playoff run.

00:23:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I don't know how many people know this. Robert is I think had the second most saves in baseball. Yeah, I think you had like forty saves last year. And you know, the Padres have played a ton of close games the last fear like and they've leaned. The Padres seemingly always are leaning heavily on their bullpen, and Robert Torres has anchored that for the last few years. So one hundred percent, this is probably the next place you have to go. You know, obviously you can talk about the lineup as a whole has a chance to be elite. But my guess is the next place you got to go after Acuna in sale is probably the back end of the bullpen because they could just I would I would have really loved if they had signed another starter and been able to put Lopez back in the bullpen, because I think that would have given them a three headed monster in high leverage unlike any other team has.

00:24:52
Speaker 2: But obviously they didn't do that.

00:24:53
Speaker 3: But even if it's just a Glaciers and swore Is, that's as good as there is in baseball. And you know, I am curious as see what the middle relief looks like. I'm a little worried about Aaron Bummer. I'm a little worried about Dylan Lee, to be honest, and as Tyler Kinley gonna repeat after last year, like I do have questions in the middle, in the front of the bullpen, but the back of the bullpen, the eight to ninth inn.

00:25:16
Speaker 2: You guys, are as good as there is in baseball.

00:25:18
Speaker 3: So and if nothing else, if you can just guarantee that every time the Braves have a lead going into the eighth inning, they win the game, then you know you can't really argue, like you get so many more wins just by guaranteeing that every time you have a lead in the eighth inning, you're gonna win the game. Like if you just don't have blown sack and now everybody's gonna blow a couple of saves. But as long as it's you know, you're converting ninety ninety five percent of these things, then you're gonna be fine.

00:25:46
Speaker 2: So you know, I'm I'm fairly.

00:25:50
Speaker 3: Confident that the Braves are gonna have one of the best back ends of the bullpens in baseball. Now we'll see, I mean, you know, there's volatility in the stuff, so you know, we'll see what happens. But yeah, I think the Braids are going to be awesome on that side of the ball.

00:26:05
Speaker 1: And the other thing that stands out to me, Steven, is that when you talk about the Braves and again what has stood out over the past, you know, a few years is where they've struggled. Look at what look at their lack of production in the eighth and ninth inning, and especially last year you talk about you know, in terms of FIP, there were twentieth in Major League Baseball. When you combine their performance in those two in needs x FIP, they were twenty fourth in baseball. They were middle of the tier when it came to strikeout percentage. Guess which team had the highest strikeout percentage in eighth and ninth inning production last year? That was the San Diego Padres, and of course their closer was Robert Schortz. So to your point, the thing that also stands out to me is one of the reasons why these two could be elite is their ability to mispats. If you go and look at what the Braves have done over the past three to four to five years when it comes to throwing balls, you know, above one hundred miles per hour. I think Sworez threw more pitches last year above one hundred miles an hour than the Braves have thrown as an entire team over the past like three or four years. So more is he's a weapon that you've not been able to feature. He brings a aspect to your bullpen that you've not been able to feature in the past, which is elite velocity, and that leads to missing bats and when you face more quality opponents again, especially in the playoffs, that's what stands out, and that's why I'm excited to see what Robert schors can do if we get to that playoff stage.

00:27:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, and not only that, but like.

00:27:39
Speaker 3: He had a rocky kind of middle of the year, but right Salad Glacie has finished the year on a really good note like he was pitching extremely.

00:27:48
Speaker 2: Well down the stretch.

00:27:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, done the last part of the season, and he got his strikeouts almost all the way up to ten for nine by the end of the year. Because that was another thing. Was you remember earlier in the year, he wasn't missing as many bats and he was getting concerning It's like, all right, what's going on. He had to kind of ditch the slider all together because he kept giving up home runs on the slider.

00:28:08
Speaker 2: But he kind of.

00:28:09
Speaker 3: Really righted the ship in the second half of the year. And I know there are fans who a little bit concerned about that, but I was encouraged by how he finished the year, how his strikeouts really spiked. He found the slider again kind of later in the year and started using it again. But the fastball change up is kind of where he lived. And I'm curious that. I'm actually very curious see when the seas starts this year, how his pitch mix looks relative to what it did last year. Is he is he fastball change up? Is he going to try to use the slider more? We'll see, But yeah, I mean, these guys should be two of the best in baseball, and if they are, then the Braves have, of course, they have an elite back into the bullpen.

00:28:45
Speaker 2: The rest of the guys are going to.

00:28:46
Speaker 3: Have to answer some questions for me before I go there with them, right, especially the middle guys Bummer Lee, Tyler Kinley. I'm not ready to say that for those guys, I need to see more. But the back end guys should be awesome.

00:28:57
Speaker 1: The back in the bullpen the big thing that stayed out to me. Also beyond those weapons that we already have, if these guys prove to be as effective as Alexandoppolis thinks that they should be and the Braves hope that they are, this is a absolute obvious spot to potentially add another arm. And if you could potentially add a left handed arm, that could be a difference, Faker, Just think about how dynamic that would be. It's all about shortening games.

00:29:28
Speaker 2: Those in the playoff, especially when you got rotation questions.

00:29:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, bombs in the bullpen. That was our key to win in the twenty twenty one World Series. If we can hit home runs and then we could shorten the game to get to some of our best quality arms, that's what's going to help us again, not only arrive to the playoffs, but thrive once we get there. So I do think that if there's a team aspect that really stands out as being to the level that you need a contender to be at, it's the back end of the bullpen. And if that can secure us, if we can have some early success in one run game, closing out in those you know, high leverage situations, if we can get the job done early in those games early in the season, that could really set the tone for the rest of the year.

00:30:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you're right, I mean, bombs and bullpen like that was a formula. It's a very very sound formula in the postseason. Now it's tricky to do it in the regular season. You do need your starters to eat some innings, and the Bradys obviously have rotation questions, and that's why the middle of the bullpen is going to be so important.

00:30:26
Speaker 2: By the way, is you got to get through.

00:30:28
Speaker 3: The season, and you can't just you can't just use sores and I glaciers every night. So you know, the middle of the bullpen is gonna have to do its job, and the rotation is gonna have to do its job.

00:30:37
Speaker 2: And listen, these fifth sixth, seventh. Eight starters are gonna have to do their job.

00:30:41
Speaker 5: J R.

00:30:42
Speaker 3: Richie's gonna play a role in this. You know, Dedeerflinte is gonna play a role. Some of these kids that may potentially bullpen options are gonna play a role. And like you said, there's probably gonna be a major addition. But as it stands right now, I'm as comfortable with the back of the bullpen as I am with any part of the roster. And you know that's not something we could say last year when we had Hector Nearris on opening day pitching in high leverage.

00:31:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we're going to have to perform better in high leverage, and I think that there should be confidence that we're going to be able to do exactly that. So we've kind of defined, you know, hey, where can this team be elite? And when you think about it, when you think of the perspective of a team that can boast a top five hitter, a top ten starting pitcher, a top ten ace in the sport, and a top five back of the bullpen, you see that while despite again all the injury questions that we have, if health can be on our side, why the Braves can return to contention. So if that's an exciting perspective to think about this team, you want to learn a bit more about how you can watch them this year because we now have some more information on Brave's vision. More on that in just a moment after another word from our partners.

00:31:50
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00:32:57
Speaker 1: So, Steve, and I want to give you credit. I tell people all the time you're one of the best when it comes to breaking down the Braves and that's because really, when it comes to any aspect of talking about this team, you are on point with being able just to make our fan base smarter when it comes to listening to you. So I give you credit for that. And one area where you've really stood out is you've done a great job breaking down kind of how this whole how can we watch the Braves situation has evolved over the past two years. Well, the good thing is is that now we finally arrived to the spot where I think it's going to check the boxes for Braves country. Can we have an option where we can pay a one time fee, know where we can go to sign up and then be able to watch the Braves really on any device anywhere that we are, whether it be a tablet of phone, your TV at home, wherever you may be. And I think that Braves vision, with the release of information of how you can get access to it, I feel that we're now at that spot and it's a great place to be.

00:33:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we finally got detail on this. We've been waiting and waiting and waiting, and you know, I thought we'd have it sooner than this. We're so close to opening day. They finally did release. At least what I think is probably the biggest part is so on today's Thursday, I'm like TUESDA, Monday or Tuesday, I can't remember which day it was. They just put out a release and just said, hey, here's the pricing for the in market streaming on MLB dot tv. And so there was a lot of questions about this, how much is it gonna cost?

00:34:31
Speaker 2: So I do want to make something clear. There is the MLB dot.

00:34:35
Speaker 3: Tv subscription that people have bought for years, and then there is the Braves subscription that is a separate subscription. So if you want to just watch the Braves, you can buy a ninety nine dollars ninety a sense so basically one hundred dollars for the season. You could buy a Brave subscription for basically one hundred dollars for the season, and you can get all forty Braves games they're gonna be They're gonna be shown on Brave's Vision. Obviously they have a bunch of the national games, so it doesn't include the national games, but all the ones that are gonna be shown on the Braves New Network, which is Brave's Vision, you can buy for for ninety nine dollars for basically one hundred dollars total for the year, which to me is extremely affordable.

00:35:18
Speaker 2: I thought they would. I thought it would be in like the one thirty one forty range.

00:35:23
Speaker 3: I mean, if you break it down by month, that's like what eighteen dollars a month, seventeen dollars a month something like that.

00:35:29
Speaker 2: I mean, that's they're cheap to.

00:35:31
Speaker 3: Be able to watch every Braves game that's not a national game. Now, we don't have the answers yet, and I know people had this question. We don't have the answers yet on which cable providers they're gonna be on. Still, that's that's probably the next big one, because there's still quite a few Braves fans that watch it on on cable. We don't have that answer yet, but they're gonna have to give us that very soon and as soon as we have it, we'll talk about it. And the other one we don't have is we don't have what other streaming services they're gonna be on other than MLB dot tv via their own subscription, which is Braves TV. So we're still waiting on those two pieces of information. But knowing that all of the in market people, and this is a big distinction, if you're out of market, nothing has changed. You're just gonna buy MLB dot tv the way you always have and you can watch all.

00:36:14
Speaker 2: The Brase games.

00:36:16
Speaker 3: For the in market people, the only thing that has changed for you is now you have the option to buy the Braves on MLB dot tv, which you've never had before because of blackouts. You could buy the Brave subscription for ninety nine dollars ninety nine cents one hundred dollars for the entire season, and you can watch every game that's on Braise Vision again excluding their national television games. And like Sean said that, you can do that on your TV, on your tablet, on your PlayStation, your phone, whatever, wherever you have the MLB app, it's through MLB's app, and you just have all the Brase games if you're in market, and if you're out of market, that in nothing has changed. You're just gonna buy MLB dot tv the way.

00:36:54
Speaker 2: You always have. So it was big news.

00:36:56
Speaker 3: We're still waiting on the rest, and obviously when we get the rest, we'll talk about it. And I understand people, you know, every time this happens, people have a million questions about, well, this is my situation, how do I watch the Braves, And it's impossible to answer all of those, so we try to speak in generalities. But for the in market people, people in the Braves TV market, you can now stream the Braves on MLB dot tv with zero blackouts, which.

00:37:17
Speaker 2: You've never been able to do before.

00:37:19
Speaker 3: So and it's one hundred bucks for the entire season. I mean it's like, what is that, Like, I suck at math, like sixty seventy cents a game something like that. So I mean that's I think it's great value. I saw some people complain it. I don't know what you're expecting. This is actually lower than I was expecting. I think it's tremendous value. And it's a big step in getting all the information. Once we get the rest, we'll talk about it.

00:37:40
Speaker 2: But at least we have that piece of information now.

00:37:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's cheaper than what we had over the past couple of years when we had less than reliable overall production. And obviously you never knew when it was going to end because of the news that we heard when it came to Valley and things such as that. So through the past eighteen months of of uncertainty that many baseball teams and their fan bases have had to go through to be able to watch the product, we all love for this to be the end result. It's a pretty good end result that at the end of the day, again checks a lot of boxes to make the viewing experience as best as possible. One other thing of note is that the Braves continue to trend their roster, and a notable cut that occurred I believe it was yesterday was James Krinchak, who I know a lot of fans in Braves country kind of had been intrigued by the addition of him as a minor league signing. Back a few years ago. He was a very very good reliever for the Cleveland Indians, ran into some injuries, had been ineffective as well over the past couple of years. But he's looked pretty decent to good in his outing for the Braves. But of course they sent him to minor league camp. Now, Steven, I don't think that this means that he's not in the plans for the Braves in twenty twenty six. It probably is them just positioning arms that make a bit more sense with how they're going to start the season, someone that could be more in the long run. Is that what you take from this or do you think it Ei needs more in the lineup. Well, maybe he's not going to be that big of a factor as time goes on.

00:39:08
Speaker 2: It's tough to tell. With bullpen, you never know how they think.

00:39:12
Speaker 3: My read on it was he signed a minor league deal so he could be optioned to minor league camp, and they're taking advantage of that versatility and keeping guys who maybe can't be optioned, like Jose Suarez, who doesn't have options.

00:39:24
Speaker 2: We'll see, you.

00:39:26
Speaker 3: Know, they very rarely do they break camp with what is actually like their seven best relievers. You know, options and team control and all that.

00:39:36
Speaker 2: Stuff factor into this.

00:39:37
Speaker 3: So I was a little surprised that it happened so early, still with two weeks to go. But obviously, you know, as camp gets, you know, closer and closer to ending, you get more and more of the starters and the everyday players playing more and pitching more. So they might just want to get more run out of the the irregular guys. And you know, especially with like guy like Pie Amps who didn't get started immediately, they we want to give him more run, just to see what he's gonna look like, you know, especially they projecting to be on the opening day roster, which right now it looks like a pretty good chance of being.

00:40:08
Speaker 2: He pitched today, actually, so I wasn't stunned. It was.

00:40:12
Speaker 3: I mean, I thought Karen Shack had a good chance of making the team, but the fact that he signed a minor league deal, which means you can send him a minor league camp and you know he's got that roster versatility.

00:40:24
Speaker 2: Doesn't help him in this case.

00:40:25
Speaker 3: And guys that don't have roster versatility, don't have options, who can't be optioned, who can't be sent to Guinette, those guys are just in a better spot. So I would imagine Jose Suarez is feeling pretty good, especially after the Joy wins news and Karen Shack optioned. You know, I think Jose Suarez probably has a pretty good chance. Martine Perez, it's another guy that probably is feeling pretty good right now. Uh, Hayden Harris was a guy that was also optioned, So you know, they're just cutting down the roster. So we'll see what happens.

00:40:55
Speaker 1: And one other thing that I think is notable is is that again like we mentioned the last podcas, this puts another option in Gwinnette, where again you're building up your bullpen depth so as you need to make adjustments. I think that it's stead I think that we will see Karen Shack, especially if he has some early success in Gwinnett. I think you will see him he on when he comes up, he'll definitely have a spot to stick, I feel.

00:41:18
Speaker 2: And I will I will mention this. He might have an early opt out.

00:41:21
Speaker 3: A lot of veterans who signed minor league deals, like, if you're not gonna put me on the roster, you got to you gotta send me on my way by certain points so I can get somewhere else. I don't know if he has one of those. We usually don't find out until after the fact, so we'll see. But just keep that in mind. You know, some veterans have that in their contract on minor league deals, so that could be possible.

00:41:39
Speaker 2: But if that's not the case, then yes, you're right.

00:41:41
Speaker 3: He'll be in Gwinette and he'll be a weapon that the Braves can turn to whenever they need.

00:41:45
Speaker 1: It's nice to be able to have a positive podcast. When you really get down to it, the factors that are gonna matter the most, the Braves really are in a good position. Again. I know it's gonna be based off health, and that's a bigger question for our team than it is for most. But if they're right, if our main cogs, if our main factors to our success can remain healthy. Again, I go back to of the two years of them playing together, we've only had Seale and Ronald Accuna Junior healthy together basically a fourth of that time. If you can get a full season of them healthy, I think that we're going to get the results that we want to get. Sean Coleman ad stats at SAC on Twitter slash x, Steven Tolbert at be Underscore Outliers on Twitter slash x. Find Hammer Territory across to all forms of social media. Part of the Foul Territory family of podcasts. Until next time. Can't thank you enough for joining us, Go Braves. We'll talk to you again soon here on the Hammer Territory podcast