Chris Sale Blanks Mets, Braves Clinch Series Win

00:00:21
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Humor Territory Podcast, Episode two one seventh inr host Spread rowand coming to you on a Wednesday evening here in mid June, and I'm joining as I always am, by Scott Coleman. Scott, I don't want to jinx it, but a good vibes episode hosted by you and I after a win is that allowed.

00:00:41
Speaker 2: It is allowed, although it has been a little rare and few and far between, but man, just talk about what a difference twenty four hours can be for the Atlanta Braves, a team that it looked like it was going to be more of the same on Tuesday, down four to one in the eighth inning off, couldn't do anything. We've seen and talked about that game a million times, but they have the big comeback on Tuesday night. I thought it was clearly the best win of the season. And then Chris Sale goes out there tonight and delivers just an all time dominant performance. Offense was plenty good enough, and after all the frustrations of that Sunday loss against the Rockies, two really nice wins against against the Mets, and now they have a chance to sweep which would be a dream scenario considering where we were at on Sunday night.

00:01:31
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and if you missed anything from the honestly awesome win on Tuesday evening, we had a fresh podcast on this feed from our guys Sean and Steven deepening the night on Tuesday, so listen to that one and please subscribe to Ammora Territory anywhere you find your podcast. We are here all year round, including all throughout this series and the next series and the laugh of that we'll be talking about it all on this show, so please spread the word for us and support the podcast however you possibly can. But yeah, obviously today we're talking about a five nothing win for the Braves, clinch a series win over the Mets. Still work to do on Thursday to potentially get a sweep, obviously you're looking for that. You've got to get greedy now, as we talked about a lot recently. They dug this hole, they got a dig out of it. But it's been good vibes here. They've now won five in the last six, six of the last eight, three series in a row. All those things that we could kind of name, I feel like we have to do like almost a segment on its own about Chris Sale. So let's let's begin there. Chris Sale is absolutely out of his mind and has been for a while. It feels like it wasn't that long ago that we were having, like not a debate because you and I were on the same side of this about whether he was like in some trouble early of the season, but it was a topic in April, like has Chris Sale done? Is Chris Sale cooked? All these things? And you look up on June eighteenth, and I just refreshed fan grafts. Chris Sale, I believe, is now third or fourth among nationally pitchers and Fangrafts war this season. For the season, even when a pretty bad to get started the season, he has been utterly dominant in recent days and that was definitely personified by and I skip.

00:03:01
Speaker 2: So dominant and since May first, Chris Sales era is one one point zero zero. Pretty good, folks, He is so good. It was awesome that Sale's family was right behind the plate tonight too. I don't know if you caught that, Brad, but his son was there, his wife was there. I mean, just awesome. And Sale the first couple of weeks, even if the results were not the greatest. I think most people realized that he was just getting unbelievably unlucky and it was only a matter of time. And even if there were some things Sale needed to work on with better locating a slider and using his fastball a little more effectively, this stuff was still great and for basically two calendar months now, really, since that start out west in Arizona, it feels like Sale maybe figured something out, whether it was mechanics or just kind of the ball starting to bounce his way a little more. And I mean Sale has a legitimate chance at another Cy Young Award if he can stay healthy and pitching like this, because he's throwing the ball as well as anybody in baseball.

00:04:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean he got thirteen swings and misses in this game. He was getting. Guys are diving out of the way like he's just utterly locked in. And you know, eight to two thirds innings, five hits, no runs, one walk, six seven strikeouts. You know, he's just been great. He's thirty six years old, ranks Sam Winner. We all know the deal there, but like he's pitching at Honestly, these last six starts are better than he was last year, which is ludicrous, but it's true. He's not had six consecutive starts allowing one runner viewer. That doesn't happen. You don't have six that doesn't happen to anyone. His era is zero point eighty six and that's it. But you gave the already this stud of up the May first. It's even lower than that last six starts, and he went deep in this one.

00:04:47
Speaker 2: You know.

00:04:47
Speaker 1: That's the thing about Sale. They've they gave him more time. I mean, there was a whole I guess we didn't we engage in the argument, but there was an argument whether they should have whether backfired in them when they lost to the Rockies and all those things, and great Holds was great that night, but they they he gave Sale two extra day's rest for this outing light up against the Mets, high profile game, and this is exact exactly what you wanted to see happen. You throw your race out there, your guy, your dog, and he just mows down your art rival to secure a series win. And yeah, we know it's June, it's not September, it's not October. We get that, but every game is huge right now for the Bridge that's just three holity that we're in and him going out and doing that and again going deep eight and two thirds. I guess we could talk about him coming out of the game of the ninth. Did you have an opinion of him not closing the game out? People were mad about this. I was not, but I wonder what you thought.

00:05:36
Speaker 2: I was honestly surprised that they sent Sale back out there for the ninth inning, because what was he had one hundred and two pitches I think after eight, and in my mind, I was like, Okay, Sales done, five run lead. Give it to somebody good in the bullpen. You don't want to give it away. But and then he went back out there, and that diving grab he made against Juan Soda was just awesome. I mean, oh good, full extension. He's six foot six, reached out for the ball and then was able to get it out of his glove and fire it over to Olson. And then that damn Brandon Nemo just had to spoil the vibe and poke one over Riley's head at third base. I mean, I think the whole park was, I mean, the stadium was awesome tonight, fully behind Sale and then Nemo just had to be a punk and dropped that ball for a hit. But hey, Iglesias came in got the the out I think, on three pitches, and everybody got to celebrate. But I mean it was I didn't blame Brian Snicker for going out there and getting Sale at one hundred and sixteen pitches, even with extra rest. That is a lot of torque to put on that arm and that shoulder.

00:06:42
Speaker 1: I didn't get a chance to listen to Sales comments because I was otherwise engaged at the end of the game, but I saw he was wearing a piece up to a pound down T shirt on the podium, which I find to be incredibly endearing. I love Chris Sale already and that only makes it even even more so. But yeah, I mean, I'm pretty sure whether they would say so, were't not they did say this, I don't know. I'm pretty sure the deal was probably, hey, hey, Chris, if you can get three straight outs here, go ahead and do it if someone reaches base or coming out of the game. And that's that's my guess anyway.

00:07:12
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, and hey, he got one Soto out and he got Pete Alonzo out. Yeah, I mean, those are two of the fifteen best hitters on the planet right now, probably so to get them a fourth time through the order. He had Soto uncomfortable and off balance all night, which is very difficult to do. Alonzo struck out three times, and again he was one pitch away from getting the complete game shutout, which would have been really great. I think, first time since twenty nineteen for sale that he was trying to do that, but just a big old tip of the cap. And because of that, it feels like, for the first time in a long time, Brad, maybe since since the Braves hit five hundred, that there is some real optimism, not only just among the fans and among us doing a podcast, but like with the players too. It feels like they the energy and the swagger is back a little bit.

00:08:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you don't want to overstate it. Obviously they're thirty three and thirty nine still like there's a lot of work to do. But you're right, I mean, you win three straight series, the vibes are gonna improve. You win five out of six games, especially two wins against the Mets, like you're not playing the Rockies, I mean the Rockies. You're supposed to win. There's an expectation that you're going to beat the Rockies. And they lost that game, of course, but they won the series. The Mets are really good. I mean, even with tonight's game, they're forty five and twenty nine. The Mets are very good, and to beat them, and yeah, it's you. It's in your park and with your guys in the mound. But look, we said it, you and I said it on Sunday. If they load up for this series against the Mets and they lose it, that's a vibe killer. Now you know you've won the series, you can still lose it on third, you can still lose a game on Thursday. You don't want to lose again on Thursday. But at the very least, I think you and I even said on Sunday, if you beat the Mets two out of three games, there's no complaining about not sweeping the Mets. This is not the Rockies. So you've done that. Get greedy now. Sale doing that is obviously an exclamation point on this whole thing. But like not having to rely on the Bats to do it, Tom, it was fine. They scored five runs. We'll get to that in a second. A lot of that damage done right out of the gate. Maybe that freed up Sale to be even more aggressive along the way. But hard for me to talk about anything other than Chris Sale leading this podcast because he's just been this. I mean, look, he's been the best player on the Roster's just the movid he arrived. If we're being one hundred percent honest. Yeah, like run running wasn't available for most most of last season. That is what it is. Chris Dale has been the guy for the last year and a half and that was appropriate for today.

00:09:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, shout out Von Grissom, thank you for your trade trade service.

00:09:32
Speaker 1: Uh.

00:09:32
Speaker 2: A couple of people actually ask when I tweeted about it. Vaughn is in Triple A with the Red Sox and not doing very well, and he's had some injuries, So I mean that trade looks like it might be an all timer. There was talk tonight too of the Chris Sale Hall of Fame discussion, which I mean, in my book, he's he is awfully close as long as he doesn't get another bad injury. And I promise you I am knocking on wood as I say that. I mean, he has a real case and just a special player. And you know, Brad We said on the Sunday show that it was now or never for this baseball team. Yep, they had a four and two week last week, which was fine, even if Sunday was maddening, but it was it's now or never and there's still eleven games to go in this two week stretch against the Mets twice, the Phillies and the Morlands. But two and zero vibes are good. Let's keep it rolling and try. I mean a sweep against the Mets would be awesome. I mean that would be obviously keptain obvious. But if the Braves can close out this series with a sweep and then go to Miami and then four games against the Mets next week, you know, this is what this team needs to do if they want to get back into this thing.

00:10:38
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and we'll talk about a little bit more about tonight's game and also some comments from Alexntopolos that made the rounds today and a local radio interview, plus a little bit of a brief preview of Thursday's game and more almost coming up after a word from our partners.

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00:11:56
Speaker 1: Okay, Scott quickly about the offense. On this Wednesday evening, the Braves score three runs in the first inning, and that was all that It's all they needed. We didn't know that then, but that was all I needed. Ronald Acunya continues to be ridiculous. See Homer's on the first pitch the Braves saw in the game. After that, I think the Mets were very careful with him, which I want to see you up to talk about a little bit, because there's been a lot of discussions about the number two hole in the lineup recently, including on the Last Night Show from Sean Steven. But Ronnie just like setting the tone right out of the gate. But hey, we're I'm going to home run the first pitch I see. And he has a ops over twelve hundred in the month of June. He's been the best player in baseball since Gone Be arrived so far, which is crazy. In a world with Judge existing and Otani existing, Ronnie's still probably been the best player in baseball since it came up. It's been crazy how good he's been.

00:12:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, Akunya is unbelievable. And I know that Paul Blackburn has largely been in the American League West and hasn't really pitched a town this year. But what do you think in there? I mean a a yeah, yeah, ninety mile an hour fastball right down the pipe. I actually think blackburnt throw is like a cutter kind of thing, and it didn't cut and it was in the middle of the plate. And Acuna is just so special and you know, good on the Braves. Like, like you said, they scored three runs early. Have you ever seen the catcher balk called. I know people were looking into this tonight and there are some instances of this, but I mean even the Mets booth was like, what just happened when the Mets catcher And by the way, the Mets catchers have had an awful series so far. Yeah, but you know, he tried to corral the ball with his mask and then a run scored on that, and then Ozuna drove in another run on a sack fly, which is a site for sore eyes. I mean, the Braves have done a better job for the most part of taking advantage of some Mets miscues that have really I mean, they've maybe cost the Mets at least one game so far.

00:13:49
Speaker 1: The Mets are not playing well in the series, we could acknowledge that while like praising the Braves, the Mets are not playing well in these two games. That Catcher's block, I guess it wasn't technically called Catcher's block. That CJ called it that way, and it was that was I think he came on. I think it was on Twitter after it was like, actually it was ruled an error, but still bizarre play, that's your question. No, I don't recall ever seeing that happen. The rule makes sense. People were on it on social media. People were saying, hey, this is what happened. Okay, I wouldn't have known. Honestly, I'll raise my hand when I don't know things. I didn't know that, So that was like a weird play. And you know, nice to have two more runs in the first inning, to be a three to nothing and with Sale on the mountain. I got to be honest with you, Scott, I felt pretty darn good at that moment in time up three. Like some nights this year, take a three nothing lead, it's like, all right, gerder lloins, you know what I mean. Yeah, but not with Sale.

00:14:40
Speaker 2: There was a stat I think on the broadcast that when Sale has been given a three run or more lead with the Braves. He's sixteen and oh or something like that, or the Braves or sixteen and oh. I mean, that's that is as dominant as it gets. And obviously in the first we did not know that Sale was going to turn in I mean, frankly one of his best performances in a decade, but I mean it was. It was a nice kind of breather for everybody. After all the fun last night, the last thing you wanted to do is give the Mets an early lead. The Braves scored early in Sale obviously made it stand out.

00:15:13
Speaker 1: Of course, the Braves did go full brave in the second, ending with a leadoff triple from Ozzie without scoring a run because Michael Harris pops out bat at bat, Nick Allen lines out in Nick Allen fashion and then they pitch around Acunya. It's good way to see this up now. Very obviously that was the right decision. Look, if I'm the Mets, I'm not throwing a Ronnie either, And part of that is that he's rong Acunya, who, by the way I looked up a second ago, is actually leading the Majors in fagugouts war. That's the day he came up, So he actually has to play the best player in baseball by the numbers. But if they pitch around him very obviously throws nothing to hit Alex Radugo then grounds out. I will say Verdugo has been like a tiny bit better since he started hitting second in the lineup. It was the wrong decision. We don't like it, but it has been. But it's very obvious and one of the reasons why we don't like that, among others, is that why in the world would you throw anything to roll in Acuna? So what did you find looking at the last two games?

00:16:13
Speaker 2: So I think we've well documented how much we dislike the left fielder that night patting behind Acunya, and I mean it's kind of catching on both not only locally but nationally. It's like, why would you pitch to Acunya right now? You just said he's he's been the best player, Yeah, exactly, He's been the best player in the league for almost four weeks now. So I was tracking this. On Tuesday night, Acunya saw twenty pitches, six of them were in the strike zone, and Acunya walked three times. The intentional walk in the tenth inning was kind of obvious. I think they would have done probably the same thing to Matt Olsen or Ozuna or Riley to set up the double play. But six pitches in the zone to Acunya out of twenty, and then tonight we saw them pitch around Acunya in a scoring opportunity, and while it wasn't quite as drastic, I didn't go back and track it just yet. I do wonder, as you know, Acunya keeps mashing the baseball at least until Profar comes back, and who knows what Jerkson's going to be able to do. If I'm an opposing manager or the opposing pitching coach, I'm I mean, I'm not throwing Ronald anything near the zone. And then just taking your chances with not only Verdugo, but I mean, Olson's been better, but Ozuna has been hot and cold, Riley's continues to be in a funk. Why would you take the chance the risk? It's basically the Aaron Judge approach with the Yankees. I'm walking the guy four times that night. Why would I risk him hitting a foreigner foot homer when I can just put him on first.

00:17:40
Speaker 1: Base and see what happens. Yeah, and he's not running the way he was two years ago. So like it's like it's an automatic double the way it was kind of when you walked Ronnie in twenty twenty three, it was a double. He was running every time, and it is. But no, it's not happening now, So yeah, why you pitch it to him? Maybe the Mets will hear us and stop, which I hope they don't, but to actually, I pulled this for something else. I'll share it now. I pulled the It's an arbitrary endpoint, which I'm not big on. But for the month of June, it's easy to pull the numbers because every stat query has a month by month. It's updated for today. For the month of June, that's now eighteen days. I think it's fifteen games this month, the Braves have exactly two players in their entire roster offensively with an OPS over six fifty three. Ronnie is at twelve thirty five, which is ludicrous. Obviously, Matt Olsen has been great nine to ninety ops. He homewerked today. Olson's been very very good now for a while. Everyone else and this is not At some points this season. Obviously, you've had Azuna been really good, Balwin had a great stretch, Murphy had a great stretch. You know, there's been guys who have done their job for the season. I'm not saying that, but since June one, everyone, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that, everyone other than Ronnie and Matt Olsen has been bad. Riley, Baldwin, Ozuna, Murphy, Ozzie Harris, everyone, And to their credit, I guess the Braves have been able to win some games despite that was of the last week and a half. I've been with Woods some games, but man, some pretty dire numbers for the month June. Granted, that's kind of started the slide. You know, it's it hurts when or maybe helps this or argument. They lost the first seven games with June, so like, obviously that's part of the arbitrary endpoint here. But man, it's been a two man show offensively for a little while. Now.

00:19:29
Speaker 2: We really need one of those patented Austin Riley summer heaters. Where was it a couple of years ago in July it was like the greatest month in the history of the Atlanta Braves. Ozuna hot and cold, I still think the hip is probably bothering him more than he's let on. He's a veteran. He's not going to make excuses. But you know, Zuna has cooled kind of quietly. Drake Baldwin is in a bad funk for almost a month now. I think Baldwin has like a four fifty ops and the strikeouts have gone. He's not walking, and I think it's probably one Nobody can expect Drake Baldwin to be Aaron Judge, which is basically with the way he was hitting the first month and a half of the year. But the league has probably made an adjustment to Baldwin. And it's important to remember he is a rookie, and I think we're both confident that Balden will figure it out. But he was a real cog in the middle of this lineup the first two and a half months of the year. Sean Murphy was hitting a ton of homers when he came up. But Murphy is cool. I mean, like you said, nobody is hitting. Michael Harris, Dear God, when Jeff fran Core, who would swing at my curve ball? Jeff frank Core is in the booth telling Michael Harris, hey Bud, maybe you should stop swinging at everything. It's probably time to make some adjustments. Ozzy Alby's did have a nice night tonight, had a double and triple, which.

00:20:49
Speaker 1: Was good to see.

00:20:49
Speaker 2: Also took a ball off his kneecap or just above it, so that was a little scary. Hopefully he's okay when he wakes up on Thursday. But yeah, I mean, the Braves need more. Akunya is an alien and Olsen has been really good, but they just need more. And that's that's probably gonna ultimately decide how far this team can go.

00:21:08
Speaker 1: It is and look, it wasn't a dominant performance today offensively seven hits, five runs to have four walks, so it was like a perfectly reasonable average maybe above based only above average offense performance. That's fine. I'll take five runs all day every day. If they average five runs a game, they're gonna win a lot of games. Hopefully they can ratchet it up a little bit here. But if you look at the you know, to be fair, after we just kind of crapped on the offense. They've been scoring in this retch, you know, in these games, in these six games they've won five of them. Six runs twelve runs, four runs than the bad one. It's Colorado then five and five. So like they're putting up enough, they're doing enough. It's not twenty twenty three braves all of a sudden, but they're scoring enough.

00:21:50
Speaker 2: I never will be that is a that was a generational offensive season in twenty twenty three, and who knows, maybe in a decade we'll see something like that again. But I think for our analysis purposes, we just kind of have to say, hey, twenty twenty three was like the greatest possible outcome offensively, and now we just have to hope that this is kind of more of the same.

00:22:11
Speaker 1: Absolutely, all right, we have one more segment to get to, including Alexentopolos's comments about Chris Sale ironically headlined there, and then a little bit of a preview Thursday. First, they're work more partners on the podcast.

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00:23:24
Speaker 1: Scott let us go to a transactional topic. Alex Ad Thopless. Of course, Braves personnels are did about a twenty minute interview on the Braves flagship radio station here in Atlanta six Sad of the Fan on Wednesday morning. So this is pregame today. But earlier today. Look at I recommend listen to listening to it. Alex is a master not saying a lot a lot of times, like he's polished. You won't get a ton out of it if you listen to the whole thing. But I'll always listen to the whole thing for context purposes. But the headliner I think for me was that he was asked about about selling trade stuff, Chris Sale in particular, and he was pretty defiant about the cousemt of trading Chris Sale. He said he heard his speculation, he called it and I quote completely ridiculous end quote about trading Sale. And then here's the money quote that I will see you up with from Alex quote, we are not selling, especially anyone with club control beyond this year will not happen. End quote. What do you make of that? There's not a lot of wiggle room. I mean, Alex is creative sometimes in his wiggle room, but that was pretty definitive by his standards.

00:24:35
Speaker 2: And not only are the words definitive, but if you listen to the clip, Alex said it like like on his children's lives, like he's like, we are not trading. I thought it was interesting he did leave the door open just a smidge on multiple years of.

00:24:49
Speaker 1: Control, which I was gonna say anyone with club control beyond this year was the interesting phrase there.

00:24:55
Speaker 2: So if things go sideways, maybe the tradeo Zona, maybe they trade Pierce John or Iglesias. But I think the big takeaway was that hard and fast, they're not trading Chris Sale. And I think it was good to hear that from Enthopolis directly, because I mean, that's been a lot of talk. You look on Twitter, I think half of the Cubs fans in the world have already convinced themselves they're trading for sale. Red Sox fans have convinced themselves they're going to trade back for sale. You want to give, Yeah, you want to give Roman Anthony or something, sure, but yeah, I mean I think it was good to hear directly from Alex they're not trading Sale. They're not trade I mean, they're not trading Sean Murphy. They're not going to trade Olsen or Ozoon or Riley or a Kunya. Well that's and that's been the thing with Alex. Like I do think at some point the unofficial official policy and we're not trading anyone on an extension is probably going to have to change. Like, yeah, I think at some point in Alex's tenure he's gonna have to trade someone who has signed long term. Maybe I'll be wrong about that, but that doesn't seem like it's a sustainable policy at the moment. And like, yeah, and it's different if you're if it's an eight year deal and you're trading a guy in year five, that that's a little different than you're not trading someone in year one or two of their deal.

00:26:09
Speaker 1: I agree, And look, none of this is surprising. Look at our colleague Steven, just to put it out there. Steven said this, and I thought the same thing. What else is he gonna say? Like, that's the counter of this. If you don't believe Alex, which I I get why you wouldn't in some respects this winner. We covered at nauseum a couple of things that Alex is pretty clear on, and then he did not do that, Like the Travis Darnaut option was one. The firing UH coaches thing where we bring everybody back, those were you could least there's a little bit of whigger room those people. If you listen back to it, I think it's pretty clear this was This was more defiant, I will say, and Stevens wants a good one though, like what is a competitive He's not the GM of the Rockies, Like Alex clearly believes they're gonna win some games between now the deadline, and look, if the Braves suddenly lose fifteen games in a row, maybe he changes his mind. But on June eighteenth, he's not gonna be like, you know what, Yeah, we're over, We're over for business, We're gonna sell. Like he's not gonna do that either. So like, I don't want to make too much of this, but I did think that your point is right, the tone and particularly on sale, which I think, Look, Scott, you and I talked about offline. I would have been shocked if they traded sale anyway, but this makes it seem like it's even less of a possibility, only because look, they have to be so far out of it for me, like this is my posture of the entire time. They have to be so far out of it to want to sell for multiple reasons. But I guess Alex is saging it into a microphone. A pretty loud broad microphone got attention today, which madsense and if.

00:27:46
Speaker 2: You trade Sale you are pretty much punting, not just this year actually twenty twenty six. Yep, so I can trade, you trade. I mean Sales probably the second best picture maybe third best picture at worst on the Earth right now, behind Trek Scooble in Paul Skins. Like, if I had to rank them personally, I would go Scooble skiing Sale would be my one, two three. If you trade number three on that list, you're probably not winning in twenty twenty six either. And there's just no way, I mean, just from every imaginable perspective, I just can't fathom the Braves doing it. And again, nothing is law binding by a radio interview in the middle of June, but on Earth, Yeah, yeah, I'm glad I said that.

00:28:31
Speaker 1: Maybe that a quiet speculation a little bit. He did give it a little cat out we've mentioned again, especially with anyone with club control beyond this year. That's what he really said will not happen, which I think we already assumed. Anyway, We'll leave it there.

00:28:44
Speaker 2: And frankly, if he trades Aaron Bummer or well, I guess Bummer now is multiple years, yes, Pierce Johnson or Iglesias like Okay, cool, you're not getting a top fifty, you're not even getting a top one hundred prospect for that, You're gonna get an eighteen year old who has some tools and maybe in five years he's you know, he's a usable piece.

00:29:04
Speaker 1: And we're not going to do the buy sell trade thing every episode between now me and in July. Like, I'm not doing that every episode, but every once in a while, every maybe once a week or something, we'll touch on it, see where they are. This is just obviously a tea up. Alex talked to the media, well a media outlet today about this exact topic. So here we are and there we have it. Oh one more thing from that. He did get asked about the Rafael Devers links. Obviously he's not even trade. It doesn't matter now Devers got traded, the Braves were reportedly linked to him. He said he was aware that Devers was available over the last month, but the quote was in terms of reports or offers or anything like that never happened. Did they call on Nevers? I would probably say they did. That's my guy, I think he.

00:29:49
Speaker 2: I think Alex even admitted that he knew for the last month he was but he also said that is my job, right, and it's it's like in the off season you get through reports of oh, the Braves and the Mariners talked at the winter meetings. Yes, that is what general managers do. That's what presidents of baseball operations do. They talk because you never know when a deal might come together. You don't want to just be you know, what else are they doing? Obviously, gms have a massive job and they run the business side of things, and they're doing a whole lot more than just managing a forty man roster. But yeah, so again, if folks did not hear the inn Topless interview, it's worth checking out. I think six't eighty the Fans podcast on Apple.

00:30:31
Speaker 1: They actually posted the whole thing on Twitter. I mean they posted a twenty two minute video on which I was like, wow, that was aggressive, but hey, cool, cool. It's available. You can find it, listen to it, watch it, whatever you want to do. It is out there. Last thing on our relatively brief by our standards mid week podcast, the Braves play again on Thursday. It's a series finale against the Mets. It's Strider for the Braves against Clay Holmes for the Mets stryder. Of course, coming off that awesome performance over the weekend, thirteen shrekouts look awesome. We'll see how he looks in the follow up to that. The velocity was up in that outing, hopefully looks that same thing again. And Clay Holmes was a reliever and a high profile one. In fact, we talked about him this winter as a potential Braves target and free agency. He ended up going to the Mets, had been coming a starter. He's actually been quite good for the Mets as a starter eer and the high twos like has done a good job and the Brain's not seen him at all in about a year and a half two years, so we'll see how they look there. I looked at the betting odds, which you know they're not gospel, but the brains are actually slightly favored. They're at home with Strider in the mountain, so not a huge surprise, but notable to me anything you're looking for. For the finale on Thursday.

00:31:38
Speaker 2: All eyes on Spencer Strider and what does the fastball look like, what is the velocity like, and not only the fastball but also the slider. His slider was so much better against the Rockies than it had been earlier. This will be Strider's sixth start since coming off the il, so you would think that he's kind of distanced himself from both the hamstring and now he's about fourteen months removed from the elbow surgery. So yes, very interested to see how Strider looks. If he looks like he did against the Rockies or even anywhere close to it, then I think you can legitimately say Spencer Strider might be back. Maybe he may never be throwing like one O two again like she was as a rookie, but if he's humming ninety eight and looks good against a really good New York lineup and the slider is sharp, and then he works in that change up or a curve, it'd be really really good news for this team. And hopefully they can get to Clay Holmes, who's been good this year in his first year with the Mets, and it's going to be a challenge. I think if you had to ask me, I would guess that runs will probably be at a premium going in and hopefully the Braves can sweep because that would just be such a good way to then kick off the road trip against Miami and then the Mets again.

00:32:51
Speaker 1: It would be huge for sure. As a PSA. Often these series finales on Thursdays will be afternoon games. This is not one. This is a prime time affair on a getaway. Better for Scott out there in Arizona. It's an afternoon game for you, but not for me. It's an evening game for us in the Atlanta area. But I'm sure the Braves fault for that one to be a night game for ticket purposes, yeh play so I'm sure be packed on Thursday night with the Mets in town. But just as a PSA there, that's a big one obviously. Like I said before, it's not gonna be sky as following up. They lose because you won the first two games, you won the series. Boy, get greedy in a game where again you're a slight your a slight favorite, like a fifty five to forty five kind of favorite in the betty market, all that stuff. If Strata was looking to at his last start, you feel good, Get greedy, go to Miami on a three game winning streak and back to five games within five hundred. Not where you want to be, but better than it was a week ago. For sure.

00:33:45
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:33:46
Speaker 2: Oh, I mean compare this the feeling right now to Sunday afternoon after that rock He's gone lost. It's night and day, and let's keep building. It's momentum is as big as the next day starting Pitcher, Look at that.

00:34:01
Speaker 1: You like that old You'll start, You'll start pulling out a jerksy profile. Is gonna be like making a trail. I'm making a trade here to come.

00:34:08
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, hey, I think Profar has been off to a pretty good start with Gwinnett actually, which is encouraging the Braves. Dear God, the Braves could use some help in left field with Profar, and we'll see how he does. But yes, overall, two great wins. Let's get a sweep, close it out, and then hopefully go down to Miami, where the Braves have played really really well for years now, and take advantage of a Marlins team that isn't completely terrible. They're not liking the Rockies or White Sox sphere, but they're they're not much very far away.

00:34:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Marlins are currently twenty one and forty three, so they're a decent chunk behind the struggling Braves. So it tells you where the Marlins are at this point. All right, Scott, we're gonna sign off before this gets off the rails, as we sometimes do our podcast. Anything to plug on this Wednesday evening.

00:34:56
Speaker 2: Nothing to plug, thank you. Everybody is always for tuning in.

00:35:00
Speaker 1: Please subscribe to this podcast anywhere you find podcasts that includes YouTube. So if you're an audio subscriber, nothing has to change for you. If you want to just a favorite smash, subscribe on YouTube to help us get the numbers up. Go ahead and do that. We appreciate it. If you're a YouTube watcher, thank you. Please also download and subscribe to the podcast on Apple or Spotify or wherever.

00:35:20
Speaker 5: We all also, we have we have merch now, we have merch now, Scott. We do the shirts, yeah, six shorts, some shirts, coffee mugs, quarter zip. So yeah, if you want to wrap some hammer territory around the house or at Truest Park, maybe you go to a lot of games, please by all means, well, we'll put that link in the show description.

00:35:39
Speaker 1: It is Hammer Territory shop dot com if you're an audio listener. So there you go. I've already ordered something for me to hopefully wear. I know Steven did today we're looking like, look, I'm not the one printing the T shirts. I gotta be honest with you on the podcast at the end of at the end of the show, but hey, it's pretty cool to have our stuff on a shirt. So yeah, thoughts are thought. Territory guys, one more time, please subscribe next for listening. As always, we have more coming up later this week and we'll see everybody next time.