Braves Knock Off Dodgers, Maintain Best Record In Baseball

00:00:21
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Hammer Territory podcast is episode three seven seven. My name is Brad Rowland. I'm coming to you in mid May. It's a Sunday evening and I've joined as always Bob, my good friend Scott Coleman. Scott Friday was a little bit dicey, and then the rest of the weekend went pre darn well for the Lanta Braves, and once again, I don't know even know what to say. The Braves are giving us all kinds of positive Sunday night shows. It's been fun.

00:00:47
Speaker 2: Are you hello, Brad? I am doing well and you're absolutely right. I mean, this team has been rolling on Sundays. And to finish up this West Coast road trip with a win over the Dodgers win just their second series in Los Angeles since this kind of mini run began in twenty eighteen, just the second time they have won a series in LA. It really just did put an exclamation point on not only just this past week, but the season as a whole. They're twenty eight and thirteen just playing really good baseball all the way around the board, and it's been a lot of fun to watch.

00:01:23
Speaker 1: It has been and I just checked just to make sure it wasn't crazy the Braves. And if you're a well time listener to the podcast, you will know why we're saying this. The Braves have won five consecutive Sunday games. That seems impossible if you follow the show in the last couple of years, So.

00:01:38
Speaker 2: I would bet they have. I would say that we should look this up. I bet they have not won five consecutive Sundays in like eight years, and based on.

00:01:48
Speaker 1: Our record of doing the show for a very long time, that does seem like it's very possible, and we should say as we're of course appealing to old versions of the show at this point, we are a part of the Foul Territory network of podcasts. We are the Hair Territory podcast became the Braves all the time on this show. And without any further delay, let's dive into what was an awesome West Coast trip, awesome weekend for the Braves and let's mix it up engineered by our friends at Fastenal Okay, Scott. We've already allude to it a little bit, but the Braves finished their West Coast trip six and three and there was a debate happening that maybe we were part of of what would constitute a good West Coast trip. You know, there's always the fans that want to win every game, and I get it, because we all won every game. But I'll be so bold as to declare a six and three road trip with a two to one victory series over the weekend, I guess the Dodgers as a pretty successful trip. Would you agree with that premise?

00:02:50
Speaker 2: Yes, I would, because Dodger Stadium has been just a complete and total house of horrors for this baseball team. You know, I don't have the exact numbers in front of them, but this is just rough math. Okay, So I looked up the Braves record on the road since twenty eighteen, and in twenty eight ballparks not named Truest Park and Dodger Stadium, the Braves have won something like fifty eight percent of their road games since twenty eighteen, very strong number, A pace of like ninety five wins away from home, but in Dodger Stadium for the better part of the last what would that be eight seasons? I guess in twenty twenty they didn't go on the road to LA I don't recall regardless, there's something like eight and twenty eight including these two wins, They've only won eight of their last twenty eight games in Dodger Stadium. Maybe this is the breaking point, maybe they have shaken off the curse of Dodger Stadium. But it just felt really good to get a couple of wins this weekend. You know, the middle of the week did not feel great, to be honest. They lost three out of four and it was like, oh boy, are they going to start to regress and come back down to earth? But they really started well out in Colorado. The middle part of the series was not of the West Coast trip was not the greatest, but then two just exclamation point wins against the Dodgers in their home park. It was just a really nice way to wrap up this road trip.

00:04:12
Speaker 1: Right, And forgive me, you said it to me, but there was a very kind of a semi viral Braves fan tweet after Friday night's game when the Braves had lost in LA, where it was like, year by year essentially, like why was staying up for this? All they do is lose in LA. And then you get to twenty twenty three when they had an awesome trip there, and Ronnie basically clinched the MVP war, and it was like, all right, that was a fun stretch. Every other year it was essentially the same exact thing. That was Friday night, and then the Braves happened to go out and went on Saturday, and it went on Sunday. And that's not what you expect. I mean, no matter what you think about the Dodgers or the Braves or whatever, I think that it's objectively true. And people can yell at me. I'm sometimes too much of a robot on these things. No team basically could ever be solidly favored to win a series in Los Angeles against the Dodgers. Now teams win there all the time. Doesn't mean you can't win there. But the Dodgers are the best team in baseball on paper. I think that's pretty much universally accepted. And the Braves just won there, and they did it while, you know, having a losing the opener, I mean, kind of a high wire act. When you lose the opener, you have to be perfect the rest of the way to win the series. And look, they also got off the mat. And I don't want to overuse the word dominated, but it was a fourteen to four combined score on Saturday and Sunday. There was no there were no cheapies here. It wasn't like they won luckily in those two games. And I'll ask you this, Scott, I just said, what the consensus probably is that the Dodger are the best team in baseball on paper so far. We're a quarter of the way in, right almost the almost to the to the game, a quarter away through the season, it's been the Braves. They've been the best team in baseball so far. That's objectively true, whether that continues or not, Like are the best? Are are you feeling like the Brays is the best? Wamon? Because by the record they are. But ocasionally you'll throw me a curve blog throwing you one right now, I'll give it back to you right here on this podcast, Scott, Are the Braves the best team in baseballs as of the evening of May of May tenth? Do you feel that way right now.

00:06:17
Speaker 2: On the evening of May tenth? Is an interesting way to caveat it, because.

00:06:22
Speaker 1: Here we are May tifh.

00:06:23
Speaker 2: Here we are, yes, a quarter of the way into the season. Without a little more in the rotation, without wall Drip and without Schwallenbach, I don't know if as currently constructed, as of this very moment in time, I don't know if I would necessarily give the Braves the edge over everyone else. The Dodgers are loaded, as they should be. They have no payroll, they.

00:06:44
Speaker 1: Have no budget.

00:06:46
Speaker 2: The Cubs, who were going to see in a couple of days. The Cubs have been unbelievable. They have two ten plus game winning streaks already under their belts. A very good team. The Yankees are very very good. That lineup is terrifying, and they have some really good pitching at the top. So to be objective this very moment in time, even if the Braves have I think a one game lead on the field for in terms of most wins, or maybe they're tied, I don't know if I can necessarily get there, like definitively, yes, this is the best team in baseball. I'm not there yet. But if they continue to play like this and they get a little healthier, they get a coonya back, maybe Riley gets going, you get Schwallenbach or Waldrip back in a little while. I do think we can get there, and I think this I think after watching this team for a quarter of the season, I can definitively say this is a team that could have a really special year. They could make a deep run in October. They have the horses, the offenses bounced back. We've seen some of the pitching really throw well. We've seen the back end of the bullpen just be ridiculously good. It's still terrifying that there's so many baseball games and the unknown can be scary. But if they're not the best, they are unquestionably top two, top three, and that feel really good to say after a down twenty five right.

00:08:03
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, you and I agree that's pretty much the answer I would have given, and you've been you and I hang out too much for a long time. I will say, just to add to what you said, they have been the best team so far. They have the best profile. They have the best record, best word differential number one and runs scored number two and runs allowed. That's a heck of a profile through a quarter of the season. And as we'll get into later on, I don't I don't want to overreact so in the same direction as we didn't overreact a few days ago when Specier Strider was really bad in Colorado. I don't want to overreact the other direction. But if the version of Strouder that we saw on Saturday is real, things get scary in a good way in a hurry, because that guy fantastic. We'll talk about that in a second. It's to the point where, like, I don't feel things often, Scott, you know me, you know me very well. I don't get I felt things watching Spencer pitch on Saturday. That's good. We love to see that. That's one step forward. So just to add to what you were saying, like, I believe this is a very good baseball team, full stop. And we thought that was going to be the case. Six weeks ago. We didn't know Capital Capital k No, we did not know at that point to after last year, I think we probably know now that this is a really good team. They're nine games up on the UH on the division right now in the NLS, that's an outrageous number. On May tenth, the Mets are fifteen to twenty five, like all that stuff, like biggest division, leading baseball. We could go through all the things that we've been talking about, probably too much in the last couple of weeks, but here's my own question. Like, I think, if you maybe pick a team, I probably would still pick the Dodgers. You've maybe picked one team. But the Brave just won there in The Bridges won there in La. So I gotta hear Braves fans screaming at me like they just won in La. I'm like, I know, I watched it, and that's why I feel better than I felt in a long time about the Braves. It's just that they have to keep doing it and sample sized sport. But they've been dead awesome so.

00:09:53
Speaker 2: Far they have, and it's just such a nice change from this time of year ago. I mean, it was we were down bad this time a year ago, and they've been so impressive. Run differential is so strong, and we know there's still areas this team can grow if they get a little healthier in the pitching department, especially if Austin Riley picks it up and gets going. You get a Coonia back here pretty soon, You're going to get Hasan Kim back here pretty soon, which will really unlock some of your lineup options with Mauricio Dubon and and just the versatility those guys can bring. It's just there's reasons to believe reinforcements are going to be on the way, and that's a really exciting proposition when we know just how dominant this team has been through the first what six weeks of the season.

00:10:37
Speaker 1: It's absolutely right. So, like you laid out, this is really the second time only that they've done this, that going win a series on the road, Doughter Stadium, and the vibes as a result of back going into an off day returning home absolutely off the charts, and we're going to at least lead with that. There's plenty more to get to. We'll get into the games, We'll get into an unfortunate thing that happen over the weekend that was off the field. Getting all that stuff in a second, to think our friends at Fastenal and I also want to say at the end of this segments that our friends at fasten all have industrial supplies, innovative solutions. If you want to learn more, visit fastenal dot com. All right, Scott, we do have a little bit of somber news we should hit on. Not to bring the mood down. It's just too it's too big of a story to not talk about this. Somewhat early in the podcast, we don't want to say it for last. Unfortunately, Form Braves manager and all time great Bobby Cox passed away over the weekend on Saturday at the age of eighty four, and lots and lots of things have been said and shared and written. That's the one peril of not having a podcast until Sunday night is that a lot of things have been said already and we might, you know, be short as a result of that. But that I was at, I was at a lunch when that news came down. With my ultimate wash, I was like a kind of triple looked like, Oh, that that's the thing. I was kind of just stared at it and stunned silence, honestly, and then you have the flood of memories. I know everybody's been saying that all the way, but you and I are I'm older than you, but I know you and I are TBS kids. We're both old enough to be TBS kids and kind of grow up on the Superstation all that stuff. What was your reaction to Bobby passing and kind of the reflection on that, given that it was like our childhood basically just.

00:12:13
Speaker 2: An all time great manager, all time great baseball person. I mean just a legendary run in Major League Baseball, and with the Braves, of course, World Series Champion, five NL pennants, and the fourteen straight division titles, which I don't think will ever be broken in terms of records. It's just it's such a crushing blow to lose both Bobby and Ted Turner within four or five days of each other. Just two franchise pillars, two franchise icons, people who changed the Atlanta Braves organization for the good forever. Basically just a wonderful manager. So many former players had really nice messages and memories of Bobby. And you know, I think it was Kelly Johnson who maybe the great node to Bobby, where Kelly was like, oh for his last thirty And this was years and years ago, but Kelly was like oh for thirty. And a reporter asked Bobby if he was going to get Kelly out of the lineup, and he said, absolutely not. I'm gonna have kJ in there tomorrow. He's going to go two for four and he's going to pick us up in a big way. And I think that's kind of who Bobby was. He was the ultimate players manager. Everyone loved him and just a I mean, just a sad day for the organization. And I thought it was really really sweet that a lot of teams around the majors over the weekend had a nice tribute to Bobby Moments of silence. The Dodgers put somebody together that was really nice. And I'm sure on Tuesday at Truest Park, the Braves are going to have a very very well put together in memory for both Bobby and Ted Turner.

00:13:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it just it's you know, crazy is the wrong word, but kind of yours. It's a lot of hits you when that happened. Those things happened close to each other, and you know, the relationships different. One was an owner and just a little bit further removed just just by the nature of that position and all that stuff, but like influential and then Bobby. I mean, how many camera cutaways did we all see of Bobby as kids, like, you know, twenty times a game, fifty times a game, whatever. It was the ejections, and I saw a great reel of him, not all of his ejections, but a lot of his ejections back to back to back, and some fun stuff to go back and look at there. But yeah, the Division titles is probably the number one legacy, but did won a World Series in the Hall of Fame and deservedly, so all of that, so you know, I don't have that much more to add, but obviously it hit everybody differently. There's been again you could I would recommend looking on social media, looking in googling, like all kinds of tributes being had players. Chipper was effusive as but and look, if we're being real, when when when people pass away, you tend to get a flood of those kinds of things. But I think it felt different to me, especially from players, like there was a different level of admiration, a different level of reflection to some and that stood out to me. So obviously not the most fun topic to discuss in the middle of a Upbeat Braves podcast, But so they want to take a second and acknowledge that because obviously a huge factor in both of our lives. And I know Stephen and Shawan and they might want to weigh in when they talk the next on the podcast, and obviously they can do that and there's no there's no time limit on that. But I just want to least Shoust, Bobby and a weird, weird time in the middle of that weekend, but also one more time you said the same thing, but just the Dodgers, like they didn't have to do what they did, and you know, nobody likes the Dodters. The Dodgers are like the big evil empire right now. They did a great job with that, So that was that was cool.

00:15:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was across the league as well, which is great. I think the Blue Jays had a moment of silence with Bobby on their scoreboard and other teams did too. So really, just a deserving tribute for a player or a manager who was just so influential. And you I know, Brandon Godden in the booth was a little emotional after they played a video at the stadium on Saturday night, and I'm sure a lot of Braves fans are in their fields when they saw it come down on Saturday and just an all time great manager and somebody who will be in Brave's history forever.

00:16:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, Brandon's brought on this podcast. He's one, he's one of us. He grew up on the superstations, you grew up on TVs like and that's I felt like, that's that's like us talking about it. I mean, Brandon, it's better than us at talking, but it's one of those things where we all felt kind of similar vibes. I'd imagine at that moment before we dive into games. What the other kind of big off, not game related thing was roll on a coup to getting closer. So let's just talk about that real fast. He looked good working out in not public view, but in view of the media on Friday, and then did some light running today Sunday that was captured on video. I know our pal Mark Bowman said he thought he'd be activated this week at some point. That was a projection, not a report. But Ronnie can be back as soon as Wednesday, and I don't know if that's gonna happen on Wednesday, but the fact that he's even anywhere close, it seems like for me is the takeaways like that, that's great news. We didn't know obviously it was reported to be a great A grade one stream what's wearing that from Walt WHYSS was like, all right, that's a big exhale. But if he's any were close to being back this week, that's like total best case scenario stuff.

00:17:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, if I had missed the last like ten days, and saw Ronald working out on Friday night, the way he worked out in the outfield, I'm not sure you would know any different. It's like, oh yeah, Ronald's good go and he's gonna lead off tonight. So really encouraging. Seems like they really dodged a bullet with the hamstring injury, and we're gonna hold our breath a little bit because those are things that can reaggravate if you're not careful. And I think we talked about it the day he got hurt. Just give him an extra day or two. It's especially when you're twenty eight and thirteen. There is no need to rush Ronald back. Let him get to be one hundred and one percent and he'll It seems like though I would agree with Mark Bowman from the outside, at least, it seems like Ronald will be back in there at some point on this Homestand.

00:17:45
Speaker 1: I would guess that Mark was not saying that with no information behind it. You know, you always want to gleat like he did not report that he's coming back. He did not say that. He thinks he said he thought that's not a report. But I find that to mean something to me, so we will see how close he actually is. Scott would take a bit of license, and I want to talk about Saturday's game first, and there's one reason for that, and I already alluded to it briefly mix it Up segment earlier. But Spencer Streyder to me was the number one on field storyline from the weekend. They won the game Sunday. We'll talk about that in a second. Spencer Strider looked fantastic on Saturday, and no victory lapse. He looked terrible in Colorado. We said as much. We just encourage people not to freak out. Basically was the message that you and I were saying after that start, because it was in Colorado was the first start back. I'm gonna hold myself to account and not for a parade about Specier Strider's start this time, to be fair, I just want to say he looked really, really good on Saturday, and I wonder if you have the as strong of a reaction as I did to seeing him look that way on the road against the Dodgers in a big count spot.

00:18:53
Speaker 2: That was the best that we have seen Spencer Strider since his elbow injury in early twenty twenty four, And if this is the Spencer Strider going forward, and let's a week ago, we caveata that it was just one bad start in course field, so let's yes, so we're gonna say it was just one really good start in Dodger Stadium. So we'll see what he looks like the next time he goes out there against probably the Red Sox this upcoming weekend at Truest Park. But if this is any sign of what's to come, the Braves is ceiling for the entire season. If Spencer Strider is back, is immensely higher, Like in my mind, that's that could elevate them to a genuine World Series type of contender, because we know Chris Sales awesome. Bryce Elder has been unbelievably good. But after that, if you remove Strider from the equation, what do you have in terms of like high impact game five of a playoff series type of starters right now with the team. I think that's a very valid concern in question. But if this is the real Spencer Strider going forward, the Braves are so much better. Spencer looked fantastic. He was locating the fastball he had Sho Hao Tani and a pretzel. I mean, he was the only way to get shoe Hao Tani out is to beat him inside with fastballs, and you better locate it or it's going to go four hundred feet. And he located a couple of fastballs perfectly, and then he had that slider cooking where he was just nobody was touching it. Even had a couple of strikeouts on his change up, which was really encouraging. So just saw many encouraging signs from Spencer and man, let's hope this is who he's going to be moving forward.

00:20:30
Speaker 1: Yeah. I saw on stadcast that he had eleven sliders that were swung at by the Dodgers and seven of them were whiffs. Pretty good ratio. There a couple things to note from the start beyond just the vibes and the aesthetics. Obviously, the shutout innings were the biggest headline. One hit, two walks, eight strikeouts. Those are all great numbers. He averaged ninety six point four with the fastball. That is up a decent amount. It's one start, but that's a really good sign if he could. You know, I think gone of the days he's gonna throw a hundred all the time. But if he could sit ninety six ninety seven, that's a big step forward. And then the slider, I will shout out my guy at Capitol Avenue, former Braves blogger termed smart guy on Twitter. There's also a kind of a lot of delineation sometimes with sliders of above eighty five miles an hour. That is a pretty good I feel around the league. And Specier was throwing a strider like eighty five and a half eighty six miles an hour and it was eating people up, so one more caveat one start. But man, uh, it was not fake either. Like sometimes you have a guy who just like everything breaks right for you one night and it looks great. The underlying numbers, like you know, the induced vertical break, the spin stuff, like all the nerdy stuff we won't get into a ton of right now, was all pointing in the right direction. And that because all of that makes sense to me. Because the velocity was up, it wasn't like a smoke and mirrors outing, which could happen where you have, you know, six innings of shutout baseball, but you're giving up stuff all the time. He dominated. That's what makes a difference to me, he looked dominant in control against a top of the line lineup and uh, you know, bottle it up and specier. I'm sure he looked he look he was pissed after the Colorado game, for example. I'm sure he's not going to rest on his laurels up for one start. But I think you're right. I think the ceiling argument is there. And you know, back I hesitate to compare him to himself, even pre the last injury, where he was maybe the best pitcher in baseball. But if he could just be ninety percent of that guy, like that's that's scary hours for everybody else.

00:22:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you can bet that Spencer, the pitching maniac, the pitching nerd that he is, I'm sure he's going to watch the tape and see what he was doing well and and really try to build off of it. And it was just such an encouraging sign because, I mean, we knew that pitching in Corsfield is difficult. It impacts the baseball I thought the broadcast did a really good job of talking about how Corsfield can mess with a pitch. But I was nervous, like when Spencer was was going out there, everybody holds your breath, because if he goes out there and just gets lit up again, that would have been like a legitimate okay, what's wrong?

00:23:07
Speaker 1: It was in my notes. I mean, we never I was sick at the end of last weeks. I haven't been on the podcast in a week. And if I had done a show to preview the Dodter series, which Sean and Steven ended up doing, I had it in bold letters on the dock, like big, big start for Special Strider. And you don't want to overstate it because it's the second outing of a season, but man, there was a pressure. There was pressure there, not just because of the Dodgers, like because of how Baud he looked the previous start and the contract. I mean, there was a whole round of discourse about the contract and it's a guys, it's probably a little bit earlier for this, but I get it. I get it because he makes a lot of money. He's the one picture they paid along the way, the least on an extension. So there is pressure there. But man, fun to see him look like that, for sure, and we should have sent this in the first segment. The Braves also had lost eight consecutive games Doadter Stadium before that start, which I forgot. I mean, I don't think I would have known that. You pulled that out and told me, and that was like, oh it's I don't think I would have know that going into the start, maybe eight in a row, Like I would have probably said that two and six or something eight in a row, All right, hey, no longer.

00:24:11
Speaker 2: Well, and it was good to stop the bleeding, not only in Dodger Stadium, but at that point the Braves had lost three out of four and had just lost some really frustrating games, those two losses in Seattle and then the loss on Friday night, which was super annoying. So for Spencer to go out there and kind of play the role of stopper, it just it felt really good. Strider looked great, He seemed upbeat and really excited after the game as well when he met with the media. So just super positive things moving forward.

00:24:39
Speaker 1: Absolutely, we'll discuss the other win because it's just more fun. We will get to Friday. We're we're not gonna forget Friday. I promise Sunday's game, today's game, another step in to two win the exact same score. Bryce Oliver was really good again, which you already said, but it's worth emphasizing. He was awesome through five and two thirds, had retired fifteen in a row at one point. He kind of lost it at the end, which is okay. I mean, you're nothing wrong with that. But he unloads three walks in a row to load the bases. I'll stop here. The Braves used Robert Suarez in the sixth inning of the game on May tenth. I will hold my reaction. What did you think of that decision?

00:25:22
Speaker 2: I thought it was the right call in the moment. And it was just such a bizarre start for Bryce because the first inning was a little shaky, and then he was basically perfect from the second until I mean, it looked like he was going to throw seven or eight innings today and then all of a sudden, he just lost his command, just out of the blue. It was two outs, two pretty easy outs, and he threw he walks Freddy, he walks I forget who is betting forth and then he walks whatever. He walks. The bases loaded, and it's like, oh my goodness. And Max Munsey was coming up next. And Max Munsey has terrorized the Braves over the years, and I thought it was a good call by Snitt and by or by goodness stay hot, by Walt Weiss and Jeremy Hefner to in a hurry have Robert Swarez ready to go, and I think Hefner went out and talked, you know, bottom a minute of time. And then after another walk, Sean Murphy made a very slow catcher trot out to the mound to talk to Bryce.

00:26:28
Speaker 1: A little little bit ve stuff from Sean Murphy right there, right for sure.

00:26:32
Speaker 2: You take a few steps, you adjusted your shin pad, you know, take a few more steps, you look to the crowd, and then you go and talk. And then of course Walt came in to take Bryce out with the bases loaded. But that was by far the biggest moment of the game. And thank goodness for Eli White, who made probably the defensive play of the year for the Braves all things considered. Even though, man that that game could have turned in a hurry, and it's a bummer that's how it kind of ended for Bryce Elder after being so good.

00:27:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, Bryce has been great. We've been intentional in praising him. We'll do it again now. Even with that, he was really good again. I think Steven made this point online today, but like it's not even about the era it really is. I mean, it's great that it's in the ones still, which is tremendous on May tenth or any time. It's that his his underlying numbers look real. I mean not that real, not ones, but like I think it fits like two nine, like he's pitching, He's pitching really well. It's not like he's just getting lucky. This is real. Shasta, Greg Maddox for whatever in the world he did to make that happen, and we tell that happen. Obviously the real credit goes to Bryce first and foremost, but there is a very very well worn story already about Maddix helping him and hey, whatever works, man. But yeah, I mean Shosta Eli White for sure. Eli White isn't the concussion protocol because if you didn't see it, he had to slam into the wall to make this catch and awesome played by Eli in that moment. I did just want to say I saw some mixed reaction in the moment online, and that's to be expected about Roberts. Wara is coming in in that spot because you know the old, the old. I don't want his dud use the word old school as a as a as an encapsulation, but I'll just use that to broad terms. It's like, wait, why are we using our eighth inning guy, I'm a sixth inning? Is that allowed? You can't possibly do that? But and yeah, look Weiss I probably assume felt some freedom because they were off Today's sorry, they're off on Monday. You could push they were they had a pretty fresh bullpen. You could push it really hard. On Sunday you're playing the Dodgers, you're on the road. It's la like, if there's ever a time to get a little bit more like playoff level aggressive, that would mean the time to do it. But look even beyond that, look, Roberts Warez is, if not their best reliever, being what you think about Roy Seglesias, one of their best two relievers. And that's when you use him. Like, I know that's not that that's kind of a new school approach, but if you have a basis load situation with the game on the line in the sixth, you were not gonna have a higher leverage situation to use Robert Horres. So if you can get him ready and get him in there, do it. And yeah, he didn't have some great pitch. The ball hits the wall like it wasn't like he had some dominant outing when he came in. But I this is in my notes, like this is when you use Robert Torres and it's not obvious necessarily, but I liked it from Wall. I mean, we finally got to pick on Walt once this week because he had the one rough I didn't get to talk about it, but the one rough night the other day when it was involving jar Ritchie and the last in Seattle. But he's basically throwing like a you know, ninety five percent perfect season so far for what wise And that was a good example of that too. Like it worked. Obviously he gets killed, it doesn't work probably, but it worked.

00:29:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, it worked. It was in the moment I was. I was happy to see Roberts Warez come into the game. Even if even if so Eli Y doesn't make that incredible catch and it's a basis clearing double, it was still the right call. Even if Max Munsey hits a four hundred and fifty foot homer, which he did a couple innings later, it was and we would have praised it. I mean we get yelled today.

00:30:01
Speaker 1: I promise you and I would probably get commented to death if we said this, But I know us we would have praised it. We would have praised the decision even if they didn't work. And we're a process driven podcast. That's kind of what that is. It's easier to say it worked and leave it there.

00:30:15
Speaker 2: But uh, in one more note on that, and I picked this up live in the moment as we were all sweating the bases loaded. Did you see how obvious Andy pot has was like relaying signs from second base? Uh?

00:30:30
Speaker 1: I did it. I saw, I saw the discourse about it on Twitter a little bit. I wasn't I was multitasking, so I was watching, but I was not like steering a hole at Andy Pot. Did you cybor on that? Actually? Did you see the Eric Cosmer video this week on that same topic. No? No, So it was similar to that where Eric Cosmer, of course former good Player first Baseman was basically doing like a voiceover doing like a video breakdown of signs of steins being stolen legally it's legal, I mean, it's not. It's not a thing you're designing toward. You're not doing. It's not a baning scheme, like you're allowed to steal signs for second base. That's that's part of the deal. But Hosmer basically did like a five minute explanation about a game where he's watching the TV broadcast, and basically it's like, oh, all right, here's the moment where he sees this, here's the moment where he sees this. He could he could see in the glove to see a grip or something like that, and that reminded me of that, because yeah, it was once once somebody said it on Twitter, I started to look for it every wound and saw it. I didn't see it in real time, but yeah, I mean, I I like that stuff. I know it was against the Braves. I like when stuff like that happens. It just makes baseball like one of those weird cool things. I don't I don't want people to do against the Braves to be fair, but like, it just it makes me think, now people are still doing this stuff. That's fun.

00:31:44
Speaker 2: It was so obvious, like and I'm sure it was grip because obviously it's the pitchcolm, so it's not like he can look in and see what finger Murphy's putting down.

00:31:53
Speaker 1: But but I mean there's one.

00:31:55
Speaker 2: Point where he just straight out sticks his arm out, like like to show Max Munsey where the ball's going to be coming from. I don't know, man, it was talked about a lot. I had the hard os.

00:32:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, you don't know. Ball happens when you're ten years old.

00:32:09
Speaker 2: Like, I fully get it, man, I played baseball my whole life. But it was to be that obvious and that big of a spot and the I mean, anyway, just a funny moment. And I'm very thankful that Eli White had no regard for his body or his face because that was just I mean, that was the defensive play of the year so far given the circumstances.

00:32:28
Speaker 1: Huge. I mean, maybe the Braves still win the game if that falls in and he drops it or something like that, but it would have been a lot more difficult victory along the way than what happened. So Shostela White. Hopefully he is feeling better out of the country protocol soon enough, and we'll see on that elsewhere from today. The biggest swing of the game arguably was the Mariso Dubon basis clearing three run double to go by four in the second inning. Dubon has been great. Has discussed many times after that. The Braves didn't have a hit for like more than five innings to have a base runner, I think for five plus innings, so they needed all all bit of that four to zero lead they had early in the game. And then Drake Baldwin, I mean you were on this, Drake Baldwin, as I guess lefties has been just out of his mind for some reason. So he homered and that was a nice additional push that they probably could have used as well.

00:33:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, here's the stat of the year on Mauricio Dubon. Mauricio Dubon now has more RBIs in a quarter of the season than Nick Allen had all of last year.

00:33:34
Speaker 1: I believe every bon.

00:33:35
Speaker 2: Yes, Dubon has twenty three RBI. I think Nick Allen had twenty two. That says a lot about the state of the shortstop position and what a difference a year can make. Dubon's been unbelievably clutch, especially with the bases loaded. Just a really fun utility player who can bounce all over. He's basically been in the outfield full time for the last couple of weeks. Of course, when Hussan Kim comes back, and when Ronald comes back, you're really going to be able to deploy him wherever you want. I mean, you could start playing him regularly. If Mike Ostremsky ever figures something out, I mean, you might have to start playing Dubon out there more times than not. It's just such a valuable chess piece to have and a massive moment there because we know this team, especially in games one and two of this series. Actually, Game one of the series was infuriating with all the opportunities they just wasted with runners on base. So for Dubon to come in clear the bases, get a four to zero lead early, especially just not even twenty four hours after they took a five nothing lead early against Blake Snell, it was just everybody kind of settled in, and then the way Bryce Elder was throwing the ball, you had to feel good.

00:34:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, And before I forget yeas, his contribution to the game today was getting hit in the head with a fastball, and apparently he's fine according to more Bummer reported, but that was not a pretty thing. You don't want to and I know you guys are struggling. You want to see Animega hit in the head with the fastball ever, so hopefully he's okay to be fine. That's good and last thing on the game today and we'll move on. Other than Matt Olsen being the best player in the National League so far, which is still the case. You had this Tyler Kinley give up a home run in the eighth. First of all, we like Tyler Kinley. He's been good with the Braves. The regression is on for Tyler Kinley. It seems, yeah, you have the stats. I will I will let you, I'll let you deliver them. But Tyler Kinley has finally become human.

00:35:26
Speaker 2: It seems yeah, just after an unbelievable two months last season and then a really good start this year. Sometimes the regression monster comes with a vengeance and says, come here, buddy, it's time to to up these numbers a little bit. So. By way of Grant McCauley, friend of the Show, overall good guy. First twelve appearances for Tyler Kinley only gave up one run, no homers. His last seven appearances, Tyler Kinley has given up seven runs and three homers. He's walking a few too many. He's giving up a lot of hard contact, and he's always walked like walks have been always kind of an issue for Kinley, but he wasn't giving up extra base hits, which makes you, you know, you can survive if you're not giving up homers. You can survive if you walk a couple of guys. But homers and walks are a disastrous combination. I think Kinley's gonna be fine. He has been used a lot this season, so I wonder if you could candidly ask him maybe he's just a little low on gas right now. It'd be maybe Walt Weiss will try to avoid Kinley the next couple of nights to really give him a bit of a breather. And overall, I'm not super concerned yet, but I mean, his numbers were nearly perfect the first month, but over the last two weeks they have come down crashing hard.

00:36:43
Speaker 1: May I just want to note that obviously they won the game, so it did become a huge talking point, but it has been more than one game that it's been happening, so I wanted to at least flag that at this point. All right, Scott more to come in a moment, including a quick rundown of what happened on Friday and an ugly loss plus injury updates, and then look ahead to another the second straight Huge National League Showdown that begins on Tuesday. We'll get into all that more after I work my partners on today's show.

00:37:09
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00:38:11
Speaker 1: Scott. Along the way of a really good weekend in LA there was a hiccup on Friday. It was a three to one loss and separated by an off day. It was the second straight game of the race scord one run, so there was a little bit of panic in the streets. I did threaten on Twitter I won't actually do this to read out some hilariously old takes exposed in a hurry tweets from Friday night that was like the sky is following, the season is over, that the Braves have been figured out. That was the funniest thing I saw on Friday night. And look again, we went over. This doesn't mean they're going to cruise to the two one hundred and five wins this season. But I thought it was like, it's fans being fans. I get that I'm poking fun a little bit. I did have to have a little bit of fun though. On Friday night it was just like so ridiculous, Like, guys, what was the record at that point twenty six and thirteen. It's gonna be okay. Yeah, everybody breathe, It's fine. It was about it was a bad loss, though it was. It wasn't fun, I will grant you that.

00:39:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, minors setback for a major comeback for this Braves team. And Friday Night's game one for ten with runners in scoring position and they left ten runners on base.

00:39:17
Speaker 1: That's about as bad.

00:39:18
Speaker 2: Offensively, Yeah, about as bad as it's been for this team all season long. And you know, Chris Sale took the loss. Chris Sale should not have taken the loss.

00:39:25
Speaker 1: The braid, No, he was.

00:39:26
Speaker 2: He was really good game again, Yeah, and truthfully offensively, you know, Michael Harris was terrific. But other than Michael Harris, nobody really showed up. Mike had four hits. The rest of the lineup combined had five hits. So there was there was that. There was also a bad send at third base that got Mike thrown out at home plate by a mile. It was just one of those nights and frustrating. And then you know, Freddy hits a solo homer in the middle innings just to make everybody roll their eyes. And it was just a frustrating night. And when you lose three out of four for I think the first time all year, and they lost three in a row earlier in the year, so I guess this is the second time they've kind of run on hard times. Everybody was frustrated. It was more here we go again, Dodger Stadium, braves can't win, the wheels are falling off, or pets pet's heads are falling off. You know, it's it's all the things. But it's amazing what two wins on Saturday and Sunday can do to kind of improve the vibes and and get the boys back on track.

00:40:22
Speaker 1: Yeah. The Freddie home run inspired some of the more funny takes as well. Something something Matt Elson was bad again, even as the best player in the National League so far this season. No, I had nothing else to add. It was one of those nights nothing went well. I mean, it's fine, although Sale was good. Other than that, Uh, it's funny. Jim Jarvis had an awesome play and then had also a bad error, like back to back. Essentially, it was the the the up and down of a young player. It's like, yeah, cool moment for Jarvis. Yeah, just a ya sick, yeah, sick, diving cash. I mean it was, and it also kind of you know, the throwing air that Jarvis had. I think the next inning allowed a run to score, like he put a runner on second base and he ultimately came into score. But if Jarvis doesn't make that crazy diving catch, a run might have ultimately scored in that previous inning because it would have been two on against the middle of the order. So it was I'm sure a whirlwind for Jarvis. And in between the crazy diving catch and the throwing air, he also got his first hit, so he I mean, I'm sure there was a lot of things going through Jim's head over the span of what twelve minutes in real time or something like that, So cool to see him get a hit. It sounds like Jorge Mateo had a jammed finger and that's why Jarvis had been in there a little bit more. But I would imagine that Jarvis is going to be the one to get the boot when Ronald gets activated this week, and if Jarvis somehow avoids that, then I think when Hassan Kim comes back within you know, the next seven or ten days, I think Jarvis will for sure get sent down. Yeah. Horie Mateo's babbit came up today on one of our chats. I think it's like four fifty or something for the season. Yeah, baby, Hey, we'll take it all. Baby, We'll give you all the singles, Horavizeo, We're please. He'll he'll play less when Haspa km comes back. So if he wants to run hot right now, I'm I'm good on that for sure. I mean, lots of injuries we talked about too, et cetera. Yeah, it's gonna hit in the head. Sean Murphy actually got clipped today on a ketcher's interference apparently, and had an X ray after the game. Originally, it seemed like Walt had kind of given a positive update, and then I don't know, like a half hour later, Bowman reported that the Braves are saying and they won't give an update on Murphy till Tuesday. I don't know what that means. I don't like it, but I don't know what that means. I'm not gonna do the whole thing. I promise Murphy went over nine to start when he came back, and it was like, this guy stinks. Send him back to the moon, and I have to roll my eyes every time. You know, Sean Murphy's good at playing defense, calling games and being useful, Uh, he looks terrible to play. I'll grant you that. That's fine he does. It's also it's also say it's three games. I don't care, but uh, I know that every time it happens, I'm gonna get triggered, like right now, so I'm not gonna do it anymore.

00:43:08
Speaker 3: That's fine.

00:43:09
Speaker 2: Rough first week back for Murph. That takes for flying, as they always do with Sean Murphy.

00:43:16
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter.

00:43:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, in all sincerity, though, even if you were the biggest Sean Murphy hater in the planet, and those people reside in our YouTube comments and in my Twitter mensons and your Twitter mentions, even if you are Sean Murphy's number one hater, the president of the Sean Murphy Hater fan club, we do not need him to have a broken finger because they just got rid of Jonah him, which means that Chadwick Trump would be back in probably playing more than we want Chadwick Trump to be playing, to be honest. So you have to hope that Murphy is going to be fine. He'll be back in there, maybe he needs to miss a day or two if he has a bruise or something like that on the finger. But if if there's something seriously wrong, even though Murph had a bad first week back, I don't know. I mean, could they maybe trade for Jonaheim again? Could they? Could they send the money back to the athletics to get to get him back, because if if Murphy's hurt again, they might I mean, I'm like half joking but half not. They might need to do that.

00:44:12
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, we've seen them do chat with Trump when they need to. They can get by. I mean, it helps to have drink Baldwin. It's not great. Jonah Heim is a very good either we were, I mean, just to be one hundred about the situation. Yeah, he's better than chat with Trump. I'll grant you that. But no, I I almost freezed by it. And then I saw just kind of sneakily but was like by the way the bridge, like why are the braves saying that? That's a little bit strange. Hopefully it's nothing, we'll find out on Tuesday.

00:44:40
Speaker 2: It could also just be that it's a you know, late Sunday afternoon, Sunday night and the.

00:44:45
Speaker 1: At home tomorrow. Yeah, it could be nothing, Burger.

00:44:50
Speaker 2: He might just have swallowing and they just want to make sure nothing's broken or torn. I can't imagine something got torn on a hip by bat. But anyway, we'll.

00:44:58
Speaker 1: See, we will see. People were asking us what we thought about Alex's comments on Friday. Alex did like a twenty five minute six eighty the Fan interview on Friday and also did Buster Oldie's podcast in the same day. I don't know if it was Alex's media day or what was going on. It was his daughter serious something like that, and he takes aways from that. I mean, I don't really have takes like. He didn't say anything that was terribly I mean, he said some interesting things, but nothing that was like I have talk about right now. I don't really have a whole lot to react to there, but maybe you did any thoughts.

00:45:29
Speaker 2: Nothing groundbreaking, but it's worth listening to if folks want to. If they missed the interview with Alex say it sounds like they tried for years to get Chris Sale, which I don't know if we really knew before before Friday, But okay, cool, I mean I'm happy they did. The only interesting thing that I took away was they asked about Diddy or Fuantes, who is still in the bullpen, but only throwing two or three innings every few days. He's been very lightly used since they moved him out to the bullpen. But Alex did mention that having both Rice of Iglesias and Robert Swarez as Hispanic like mentors to him, the guys that he could kind of look up to, was really important, and the Braves are valuing that. You know, if you kind of read between the tea leaves a little bit, it kind of seems like the Braves want to leave Dittier in the bullpen for a while. I don't know if they're gonna be able to do that, to be honest with you, they might come a time where they're like, all right, someone needs to start this game, and it's gonna be Ditty or Frontes. But until then, it seems like Diddyer is gonna be out there for a while.

00:46:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's been in the bullpen what since like late April now, so it's been you know, two weeks or so, two and a half weeks. I gotta say this is I'll give the warning label on this right now. This is a vibes based opinion I'm about to share that's not always backed up by the evidence. I generally don't like it. I have a bad I don't. My My reaction is to not like putting Didier in the b I would like him to pitch every fifth day and be a starter, and be a starter, and be a starter. I'm not angry by this. It's fine my and maybe Alice is trying to sell it to a little bit by saying the mentorship thing, but also that that seems like it could be a real thing. And by the way point, this is still I believe still right now twenty years old. He'll be twenty one pretty soon. He's still twenty. He's very very young. So I get that. I don't love the we're gonna have him being the bullpen for a long time thing. My reaction to that is not positive. But also I'm telling myself this, even now, is that a big deal? No, it's not. So I still think if they were saying, hey, we're gonna make him a reliever permanently, I would hate that they're not saying that. So I'm fine.

00:47:44
Speaker 2: Just want to say that at bare minimum, they have probably cut twenty five innings off of his arm since they've shifted him into this this bullpen roll, which is probably part of the reason I'm sure of what's going right. And if again, cart before the horse, but if the Braves are playing really important games in late September and hopefully deep into October, the idea of having Diddier in his upper nineties fastball ready to go. We know power pitching really becomes a theme in October. And if it means that you have to kind of slow play him and get him some reps out of the bullpen every few days, I agree wholeheartedly. That's not what I would be doing if I wanted Ditty or front As to be as ready as he possibly can. But we also know they probably don't want him throwing one hundred and eighty innings this year. And if that means you pull him back in April and may, then so be it.

00:48:33
Speaker 1: And he is the kind of and this is a team that could be this could be useful. He is the kind of guy who could be awesome in the bullpen in October. If he's not ready, if they don't want to have him start at that point time, maybe they maybe they have Hey, let's dream. Let's dream big for a second, Scott, maybe they have Sale Strider and Schwellenbach and Elder Elders if Elder's real which still TVD on that, but he has been so far and they suddenly are final starting pitching in the playoffs. Didey fourth is a potential with terrifying seventh ending guy, and so that's not gonna be his ultimate role hopefully in two years when he's gonna be in a rotation you hope. But uh, just interesting for sure, and I would agree with you. That's probably the most interesting takeaway from what Alex said on Friday. Other quick updates, Carlos Carrasco is back yet again. He was DFAED brought back on my league deal. Sure that makes sense to me. If you have anything to add on Cookie Carrasco feel free. I don't think you do. And Hassan Kim is getting closer. It seems like could be back within the week. I saw speculation it could be like this weekend, not like Tuesday, but like within the maybe the following series. He looks pretty good by all accounts in the miners as he comes back, but he did not have any kind of spring training, similar to Murphy, like, they have every reason to give those guys a lot of the bats because they didn't have any spring at all. Guys had no spring, take longer because they haven't seen pitching in months and months and months and months in a game setting, and there you have it. Hass On Kim, though, would be nice to have back.

00:49:59
Speaker 2: Just in general, We'll be great to have Kim, and I believe he can have another full week in his rehab assignment before the clock kind of runs out and they have to make a decision. But offensively, he's been good, drawing a ton of walks. I think had a double on Saturday night, which is a good sign. No bad reports on his defense, which is probably a good thing. But you know, when you have Mauricio Dubon and you have for him Mateo and even Jim Jarvis, it would be nice to allow Kim to really just kind of get the reps in and hopefully hit the ground running, because even a year ago, as he came back from his shoulder surgery with Tampa Bay, he was pretty slow out of the gate and was not great, So it'd be nice to have him go out there and really get his timing down before the Braves need him in the lineup pretty close to every night.

00:50:48
Speaker 1: Scottland for me out of here, let's preview the series coming up against the Chicago Cubs in case we have a podcast being now on then, which probably won't be. Raves are off on Monday, as discussed, as were the Cubs, and the Cubs, other than the Dodgers, have arguably the best profile in the National League. It's the Braves, Dodgers, Cubs in some order, so back to back, just major showdowns. Cubs don't enter with the same like reputation as the Dodgers of being incredibly awesome. But the Cubs have been really good this year and it's back in Atlanta. You know, I would say argue with the most high profile series in Atlanta this season. Maybe you could say one of the divisional ones earlier, whatever, But yeah, I'm looking forward to the baseball We talk about the the probables in a second, but I you know, this is another nice test what I would frame it as for the Braves.

00:51:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think there's a clear top four in Major League Baseball so far, Braves, Dodgers, Cubs, Yankees in some order. And the fact that the Braves now get the Cubs and Dodgers back to back. I mean, talk about an early season kind of measuring stick here. So, yeah, Cubs are a really solid team caught off to a decently slow start, but two ten game winnings is incredible, quite honestly, when you've barely played like forty games. But good team, good offense, good pitching staff. This is going to be a real challenge and hopefully with the off dawn Monday long flight home, the Boys can kind of recharge and then go and win another series, which would be really a statement win if you can go four and two or even five and one against the Cubs and Dodgers. I mean, that's about as much of a statement as you can make here in the middle of May.

00:52:27
Speaker 1: Right and you know, probable wise it's the biggest story early in the series is Grant Holmes pitching Tuesday. Gren Holmes is not pitched in eleven days. When he takes the mount on Tuesday, we were wondering what was gonna happen with Grent Holmes because they've essentially operated a man down for the last ten days. Because green Holmes never pitched the bullpen at any point here I guess he was available to pitch the bullpen, just never did. His last two starts, if you were not remembering, he was quite bad and both of them twenty base runners in his last eleven innings. Pitched. No what you want to see from Grant Holmes. And look, it's a tough spot. The Cubs are good and it's a little bit friendler than pitching on the road and Otter Stadium. Maybe they want to avoid that. But uh, there's there's some pressure on Grant Holmes because if he's bad on Tuesday, I don't know what they're gonna do. Maybe back in the bullpen. Fans of my l like, there's I don't know what they're gonna do with gren Holmes if he's not going to Tuesday. So we'll find out.

00:53:23
Speaker 2: Well, and everything you just said for Grant Holmes, you can probably say the same for Jr. Richie, who had that great start against the Nationals, that has been pretty shaky in the two starts since I think he's running like a one to one strikeout to walk ratio, which will not work. Can't do it. The walks are really high. He walked to everybody in Seattle. I know it was his hometown and all that, So maybe he was just overly amped. But another big challenge for JR. Against a good Cubs lineup. So for Tuesday and Wednesday, I think we're gonna be holding our breath a little bit because of how Grant and how JR. Have thrown the ball recently. I do wonder if JR really struggles again, and I wonder if they would send him to Guinnette and move some things around. Yeah, I don't know, but hopefully we don't come to that. Hopefully he bounces back and is able to stay in the rotation.

00:54:11
Speaker 1: Right, And I think the answer that's probably yes. I mean, and there's nothing wrong with that, I am. I was never under the impression that Jara Ritchie was going to be in the rotation from now until the end of time. Maybe he will be, he might force himself to be, like the way that Schwellenbach did, for example, but like it was always quite possible that Richie would have to go back down at some point. Yeah, based on just math or whatever, or saving innings or a number of things. And if he is not very good on Wednesday, it wouldn't shock me that happened. He's still been fine on the whole, but you're right, Strike up the walls is a little bit, a little out of line. Holmes is trickier because not that he can't go to them, you know, it's just he's more established. It's just more of a it's more tricky with Richie. It's like, hey, man, we'll see again in a couple of months or a couple of weeks. Even like, it's not like you there's there's no issue at all with optioning a guy who was twenty two years old whatever it is for three years old Holmes is just like there's more more complications there. But also with Holmes it might just be like, hey, you're on the bullpen, no big deal, so yeah, we'll find out. Also, Richie has a tough it's not a head of I would say it's not head to head. It's not head to head because they're not facing each other. But uh, the Braves will face it. Show it to Abanaga on Wednesday, who is just capital G good. So that'll be an interesting matchup and that that's the one matchup in the series that like very clearly is not favoring the Braves is Wednesday pitching matchup wise, because Emmanaga is the Cubs maybe best guy, and Richie is not the Braves best guy right now, so head to head there. But hey, on Thursday, Chris Sale pitches, so I feel good about that every time.

00:55:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, Chris Sale against Ben Brown, who's actually been pretty good in the early going for Chicago. But yeah, tough series here. You would love to split one of the first two games and then hand the boll to Chris Sale with a chance to win the series on Thursday. I was just looking. All three games are seven to fifteen pm Eastern times starts, so no day game. I personally prefer the night games for a couple of reasons. But nice in such a marquee match.

00:56:06
Speaker 1: Geography, geography, what else?

00:56:09
Speaker 2: Sorry, well, I don't know what if it's if it's a Thursday against the Nationals, I don't care if they do the businessman twelve oh five, first pitch. You know who cares. It's the Nats, but big opponent. I'm sure Truest Park is either sold out or very close to sold out these three games. You know there's gonna be cubspans and attendance. Of course, Braves are going to fill that place up. So really, another just great series between two really good teams. I mean, this could be an NLDS preview, it could be an NLCS preview. I think the Cubs are for real. I obviously think the Braves are for real. So this will be a lot of fun the next few nights.

00:56:45
Speaker 1: Absolutely we'll be dialed in. We'll have podcasts after every single game, but certainly after a few of them. And if you are new to the pod, we are regularly here about four times a week during the season, occasionally even more than that, So go ahead subscribe to the show. Tell a friend, Hammer Territory, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, et cetera. Scott for you, get out of here, anyone you like to add, if not, tell folks who might be new to the pod how they can follow you in real time. Because people have to have your Braiden Burry's NBA draft takes. They just have to. That's right.

00:57:16
Speaker 2: Start the movement now, Braiden Burry's to the Atlanta Hawks.

00:57:19
Speaker 1: Then I will be.

00:57:19
Speaker 2: Tuning in in all seriousness, just a one more time. Rest in peace, Bobby Cox, Rest in peace, yea Ted Turner. Two legends for the Atlanta Braves franchise. Keep it Rolling, Boys, that's been a really fun start to the season for the Braves. Doesn't get easier, big challenge on the horizon against the Cups, but then you get the Red Sox at home. The Red Sox are in bad news Bears Territory, they have injuries, they're they're firing managers and it's just it's been bad, bad vibes for the Red Sox the last few years. So hopefully day off Monday, everybody recharges the batteries and then hit the hit the ground running against the Cubs and Red Sox over the next week. And if anybody wants to follow along, I am at Scott Coleman fifty five on Twitter, slash set, slash x.

00:58:08
Speaker 1: Fall Scott, follow the show at Hammier Territory on social media, and most importantly, subscribe, download, click, et cetera. Ratings and reviews appreciated. And honestly, this might sound flippant because we just say, you know, everyone says subscribe, I get it, Subscribe and follow, but also tell your friends. I know I say this sometimes, but I have Braves fan friends that I had to like shove the podcast and like I'm on the podcast. You guys were friends. Listen to the podcast. Please just down to the podcast. If you have friends in your life that might enjoy a Braves podcast, put it in front of them. We definitely appreciate all of support. As always, before Scott's my name was Baberl. Will sign off right now and see you guys later on this week