Braves Bash Marlins, Atlanta's Red-Hot Offense, and 2026 MLB Schedule Breakdown

00:00:21
Speaker 1: Hello, everyone, Welcome back to the hammerh Territory Podcast, Episode two five seven. I am your host, Brad Roland, coming to you on a Wednesday evening here at the end of August, and I'm joined. I almost say as I always have not lately. It's been a while, Scott, Scott Coleman's here, how are you, sir?

00:00:39
Speaker 2: Hello Brad. It has been a little while, at least for our standard. And I got to say, listening to you and our old co host Eric cole on the pod over the weekend, it brought back memories. I think you. I'm sure you sent me the file, but on my desktop I have the audio file of Game six of the World Series in twenty twenty one, where you, Eric and I did the most celebratory podcast we will ever do, Braves winning the World Series. I have that file. If folks want to go find that episode. It still is on the internet on the Battery Power podcast feed. But you know, it brought back memories and just nice to hear Eric's voice and maybe maybe brighter days for the Braves than what we're currently in. But nonetheless plenty to talk about on this edition of the show tonight. I mean the Braves of maybe they're out of the playoff race, but there is plenty going on.

00:01:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, there is plenty of going on. And of course I think Eric comments that you were ducking him on Sunday. You were traveling, I was traveling. Spoiler, I'll tell you're traveling again. So we haven't talked in two weeks essentially, which is an eternity for you and I. And it's going to be a while after this too. It seems like it's the season it was. I guess it's better only one aspect that the Bridge are not winning and that we were going to have to do this travel anyway, like it wasn't like we were gonna We're just changing our plans because the Braves are out of it. We are responsible podcasters, but we will cover it as we cover it. And yeah, twenty nine gifts left in the season. The finale of the season is a month from people listening to this on Thursday. We're recording late late wenes a night because weren't listening to this, I'm sure on Thursday, one month from today, September twenty eighth is the finale. We are down the stretch. We are one month for mating in the season. And you know, first of all, please subscribe to the podcast. We are Hambor Territory. Check us out, subscribe. We're always here, rain or shine. But you allude to it. It's been a little bit interesting recently. And the way to talk about this team, because I said this the other day, I got in trouble. I this is the way that I talk I said that the Braves chose to or decided to wait until they were out of it to play well. And someone will say they didn't just they didn't choose them. Thank you. I understand they didn't choose that, but it is what it is. But they they're really playing extremely well right now. We'll get into it. But the Braves are thirteen and five in the last eighteen games, and the offense has been like remarkably good for about the last six weeks or so, seven weeks or so. How does that make you feel, Scott? Now that we've done the tekathon stuff like that debate still rages, but the Braves are now in a position where they're not going to be picking at least entering the lottery in the top two anymore. That's kind of gone. How are we feeling about this? Little mini surge that they're going on in August.

00:03:32
Speaker 2: It kind of felt predictable, didn't it. Like as terrible as this baseball team was the first three or four months of the season, I think we all knew deep down that the talent level was far better than that. God knows. They could not win a close ball game. They were just terrible in one run games, which is something that tends to balance out over the course of the season. The back into the bullpen, blowing up, all of the things that we have lamented on the show for months, and it just felt like devitably this lineup in particular was going to start hitting at some point. Of course, it's coming now, as the entire starting rotation is hurt and the team is well beyond the chance at any kind of a postseason. It's fitting. And I guess in some ways it's maybe the cherry on top of this year. I guess, if you're trying to be optimistic and glass half full, say, okay, maybe this offense has figured some things out going into twenty twenty six. Maybe the pitching staff, with some of the emergencies at first and Waldrip is you know, another reinforcement next year and let's hope they add some external pieces as well this offseason. So maybe if you squint, you can come up with some positive talking points going forward. But yeah, I mean, I don't think anybody actually thought this was a bottom five team in baseball, but clearly there's still a lot of things this team needs to get figured out.

00:04:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, Like we'll be talking about some legitimately positive quality stats and nuggets and things on this podcast, And just to give the blanket, now, we understand it does not make up for everything else that's happened. It does not mean that everything is fixed all of the above, But look, the Marlins are a cure sometimes for this Braves team. We'll get into some specifics of what transpire the last couple of days in between our podcast episodes, but the Braves just walloped the Marlins back to back days on Tuesday and Wednesday. They're five to one against the Marlins in those eighteen games. Four of those five were total blowouts against Miami. That helps to pad stuff a little bit. But the offense, I mean, it's been ridiculous, honestly, Like the sample size is not that big, but they have SCO one hundred and seventeen runs in the aforementioned eighteen games. That's six and a half runs a game. That's ludicrous if you don't know, like league leaders average like five point run five point two runs per game. The twenty twenty three Braves, the best offense basically of all time, averaged about five point seven runs per game, and the Braves have put up six and a half runs now for it's always three weeks, but it just kind of tells you how good they have been in that sample. One more fun one from Mark Bowman. The Raves have always scored ten runs or more eleven times this year, which is not that many times for this deep end of the season. But five of those eleven times are in the last fifteen days. So basically half of the output of explosive offense has happened in the last two weeks. Crazy, And you.

00:06:23
Speaker 2: Know it's not hard to figure out why, because, I mean, we were going to talk about Jerks and Profar, I maybe we just talked about this guy. His impact on the top of the order has been so dynamic. Profars on the season has been even better than he was last year with the Padres, where he had that career breakout and was a legitimate Silver Slugger and All Star, one of the best hitting players in all of the National League. Profar's impact to the top of the lineup has been felt. It seems like Ronald Acunya Junior is starting to feel a little better, more like himself. Matt Olsen's starting to hit for some power. Michael Harris was unbelievable and then had a two for thirty stretcher. He wasn't very good. But now Michael Harris is hitting, Ozzy Albey's is hitting again so again, and it's like it's the back of the baseball card thing. A lot of track record with these hitters, and when you get the production and you just have players readily available other than I guess Austin Riiley at this point in the year, you can see why this lineup was not just by us, not just by the Braves podcasters, but by like everyone in baseball thought this was gonna be a good lineup, and it just didn't click until basically the season was over. And now the pitching staff is being held together by Scotch tape and it is what it is, but it is It's been encouraging to see these guys finally figure some things out and string together big crooked numbers. Because you just had that stat you could probably count on one hand the number of times the Braves did that from the end of March until.

00:07:50
Speaker 1: The All Star break. Yeah, it was like one hundred games or so where they only had like four times this were ten runs. And now they've done it five times in two weeks. You mentioned Profar. We'll talk abut him a little bit. Now we talked about Michael Harris a ton. We'll come back to him, I'm sure a little bit on this podcast. He's been a theme now for the last couple of weeks. Ozzy always will be a theme later on the podcast. But Profar is a good like encapsulation of what has happened, his impact, not individually but also on the lineup. Like you mentioned, but since the All Star Break, the Braves are third in Major League Baseball and run scored. Now, the All Star break is an arbitrary endpoint. It's just by nature, it's an easy place to divide the season. And Profar came back a little bit before that, but just a little bit before that. For the most part, he's been back roughly that long and he has been a massive catalyst for that. He hit two home runs today on Wednesday. And in August, it's only it's four weeks now, that's a full month almost. In August, he has nine home runs, which is a ton for a guy who's not known for home run hitting. He has twenty three walks sixteen strikeouts. That's the ratio you want, more walks than strikeouts, and an OPS over eleven hundred this month and it looks like that like he has dialed in, Like it's absolutely dialed in, and the numbers for the season look like a star like. I'm not saying it's going to continue, but he's been playing. He's been hitting like a star now for six seven, eight weeks.

00:09:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, on the season now, and that includes the first couple of games where Profar I think he went like one for sixteen or something.

00:09:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, he was quite bad pre suspension, which weighs ways some stuff down.

00:09:26
Speaker 2: So on the whole, Profar has an eight seventy seven OPS and a one hundred and forty five WRC plus And as a reminder, one hundred is is league average, so one forty five is a fantastic number. And even let's if you take out the first week of the season where he didn't do a whole lot, maybe because he knew he had a PED suspension looming at that point. Maybe they were holding out of prayer that somehow he could get out on appeal. But regardless, since returning, I think on July second, Profar has a nine hundred OPS with a one hundred and six DWRC plus one hundred and sixty WRC plus is closer to like what Ronald Acuna Junior did the year he won MVP and what Matt Olsen did the year he was fourth in MVP voting. I don't think anyone is necessarily saying that that's the kind of hitter Jerson Profar is going to be moving forward, But I mean, we probably said it a million times on the show. How does Profar look in the second half after getting popped for peds was maybe like the storyline of the second half because the Braves, Oh, this guy legitimate money for two years, and they also just flat out need him to be good because that's the reason they brought him in to be a lead off hitter or at the very least the top of the order hitter in the first place. Yeah, the lot just makes so much more sense with that skill set. Even if the power levels off a little bit, and it probably will, the walks, the lack of strikeouts, professional approach, all those things, and he unlocks some stuff. So not everything's fixed, but certainly it's been a lot more fun to watch the Braves the last few weeks, objectively speaking, the offense rolling the way it has been. We'll get into some more of the game action later on in the podcast, also on Tuesday Baseball in baseball fashion, as I'll let you vote on them later on Scott Bachley Baseball, and that's in the schedule the way they did. We'll get into the schedule, some thoughts on next year's schedule, et cetera. We'll have much more of that coming up, but first we have our segment from Draft Kings and a player spotlight were sponsro today by the Pick six app from Draft Kings. All you have to do is pick more or less on the staff for two or more of your favorite players and you are in the mix for cash prizes with Draft Kings and Pick six. And today we are going to go off the board a little bit. Scott, I gotta be honest with you, not exactly a major name that we'll be talking about today, but it is Tyler Kinley.

00:11:45
Speaker 1: Remember Tyler Kinley. Four weeks ago the Braves made Bras did very little of the deadline. We've made fun of that in some respects. They brought Tyler Kinley from the Rockies. It's a relief pitcher. It was a Bible opportunity. But spoiler at Scott It's actually been quite good for Tyler Kinley for the four weeks with the Braves, and he's controllable long term, always beyond this season. So it actually kind of matters that taler Ki was pitching pretty wall to bullpin.

00:12:10
Speaker 2: So I think everybody was maybe mildly confused while the Braves went out and traded for a reliever instead of trading away a reliever at the deadline. But if there's one thing I trust Alex and Thopolis in this front office to do for the most part, is to identify relievers. And I know at the start of the year this year's bullpen was not the greatest. I would also probably counter argue that they could not have necessarily foreseen Rice lacy As falling off a mountain cliff for two months and Joe Hammen has getting heard in all of those things.

00:12:41
Speaker 1: But I digress.

00:12:43
Speaker 2: But Tyler Kinley has been good, and there were some interesting parts of his profile. Getting a picture out of course Field and just the overall stink of the Rockies is always a worthwhile gamble. And he has a sub one ERA over the last month since coming to the Braves. And for Kinley, he has a five million dollar option for twenty twenty six. When they traded for him, it kind of felt like, Okay, they gave up nothing to get him. This is going to be a two month trial run. And if he keeps us up the last month, why not. I mean it would be basically four point twenty five million dollars is the difference in salary because he has a buyout for four million bucks. If he throws anything like he has thrown recently, I think the Braves are going to bring him back for a middle relief role in twenty twenty six.

00:13:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, a guy his thirty is not a huge upside play, but a relatively bargain deal if it's his solar lever and he looks like he looks like that, and look, there's more to life than ERA, for sure. You don't want to value out an Era over eleven appearances, but the FIP is in the twos sub three FIP. The underlying stuff looks decent. They've had success buying low from Rockies relievers trying to find something that they like. So we're not declaring that it's definitely gonna happen that he'll be here long term or even here for next year. But it's a quiet by low And the whole thought process was basically like you just said, if it works, it works, and so far it's working through a month. So there you go, SHOs Tyler Kimbley, who's done well since arriving from Colorado. Now before we move on a couple of selections on the pick six options. This time I took the liberty. I made Scott who this last time, I did it this time. Some NFL options for Week one. I am going with Christian McCaffrey more than zero point five touchdowns, so basically too scoring touchdown against Seattle in Week one. I always feel about Christian McAfrey scoring when he's healthy, and so far he's healthy. The big thing with him is not his health. He's healthy right now, give me Christian McCaffrey and Just for Scott, I am taking Indianapolis Colt's running back Jonathan Taylor more than zero four five touchdowns, so basically to score against Miami Week one, Scott, I have to ask you, are you okay with john and Taylor's short touchdowns? That's part of pick six.

00:15:00
Speaker 2: If you were an NFL coach and Daniel Jones was going to be your quarterback, what are you going to do a lot of If you have a running back like Jonathan Taylor.

00:15:09
Speaker 1: You are going to run the football, Scot, run.

00:15:12
Speaker 2: The damn ball. Yes, so I like it. Christian McCaffrey when healthy is an unbelievable talent. Jonathan Taylor is going to get the rock a million times. And I mean we're like a week and a half away from NFL, which is probably a welcome distraction for the football fans to tune into this show because we all know, sadly September is not going to be quite the month we were all hoping it would be for the Atlanta Braves.

00:15:34
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00:16:21
Speaker 1: All right, Scott, Before we dig into the schedule, a couple of notes on the last two days of blowout Victories If you missed it. The most recent show in this feed was Monday from our guys Sean Steven. Listen to that show, Watch that show on YouTube, Subscribe, tell your friends, et cetera. But since then, an eleven to two win on Tuesday and a twelve to one win on Wednesday. Doesn't get more dominant than that over two days Tuesday, first it was two to two going to the ninth on Tuesday, and then the Braves scored nine runs at the ninth inning, six hits, three walks, and then a three run home run by Ozzie Albi's and suddenly it went from a close game but the prayers were like in danger of losing to a legitimate blot victory. I think Ozzy's gotta be a story. He hit two home runs in a game on Tuesday, and this kind of blows on. I mean, I'm not sure, I'm sure you saw this set. It blew my mind that he had not hit two home runs in a game since July fourth, twenty twenty three. That's twenty five, twenty six months ago. And he wasn't like hurt for like paths, Like it wasn't like one of those where Kunya has some weird stat because he missed like a lot of a season, Probay's had some injuries, but like he hasn't been like out for that long.

00:17:32
Speaker 2: That's a long time. Well and maybe like the craziest thing with the two home run game for Ozzy Alby's is that one of them came as a right handed hitter, which was the first right handed home run of the year. That's for Ozzy Alby's. This dude was was legitimately Mike Trout, like Mike Trout's prime was essentially what Ozzy Alby's production level was as a switch hitter on the right side. And he went this entire year without a homer. Really makes me think that after he broke his wrist last season, maybe he still just does not have all of that strength back. He's, of course a small guy, so every ounce matters and really good. He had another homer on Wednesday, and you know, we're going to talk about Ozzy Alby's here for a bit because he is a player who I think is having a good enough second half to feel more confident in bringing him back for next season, because, frankly, before the All Star break where he started to figure some things out, even though he is dirt cheap for twenty twenty six, I think you could make a legitimate argument for not bringing Ozzy Alby's back, not because of the money and the contract, but just from a pure performance standpoint. I think he has maybe put some of those concerns behind him and by all means keep hitting the home runs because that is how Ozzie gets home offensively, so so often over his entire career.

00:18:54
Speaker 1: He does rely on power in a white people don't always appreciate because of the size, but he is a power hitter. That might seem but you're right. I mean, he has a six hundred ops this year as a right handed hitter. Like, that's that is insane for Ozzy Albey's for comparison's sake, his career number and that includes this season his career number as a right handed hitter eighty three ops. Like he's been a star as a right handed hitter for his entire career. Yeah, above nine hundred before this season. Yeah, and last year was, you know, in the nine hundred range. The year before that was over one thousand. Like, he's consistently been a star from the right side. This year not so much. But let's just talk about it for a second. I thought it was funny the timing because every like a month or so, it seems that the OSSI option discourse like really pops up again in full force on braves, Twitter or wherever, and I think it happened like a Monday before he had this three homer stretch in two games, because he hit another home run today. Part of that was that Mark Feinsen of MLB dot com wrote about all kinds of options and he was one of them. But Vien Sin wrote about it as if like it was a pretty obvious pickup for the Braves. The way that he phrased it was as follows, the three million dollar difference between the biotic contract quote makes it very likely that the Braves bring him back next season. It looks to bounce back. End quote our old Power Demetrius Bell, who has been a podcast guest for us. He's the manager, I think the managing editor or editor of something at Battery Power. Demetrius shouts to you. He wrote it up and got some blowback, but his headline was that it was a note brighter pickup. I don't share that sentiment. I've always kind of leaned to the pickup. But okay, we're starting to work to change our mind, Scott. But as of August twenty seventh, you are the Braves. If season ends today, there's an act of God and you have to choose right now pick up or note pickup.

00:20:48
Speaker 2: So I think it's important to note just before we get into this conversation that the second base market this offseason looks pretty terrible and now.

00:20:59
Speaker 1: Look always does too, Like it's like, yeah, almost always terrible. Between that and it's that in the biot right like the two days we have. People always forget it's not just seven million. They owe him a buyout number. That's a big buyout number, which matters.

00:21:12
Speaker 2: Yes, So because of that, Glabor Torres, I believe is like the only second baseman who's maybe going to hit free agency. He's having a nice season with Detroit. But besides that, there's nothing out there. And sure, like if you feel that legitimately that like Katel Marte of the Diamondbacks could actually be available in a trade, then sure I would obviously take katel Marte every day of the week on the Braves. We'll see if they can even come close to matching a package for what it would take to get him, assuming Arizona even is entertaining trading Marte, even though there were some rumors in speculation a few weeks ago. But to me, I think my preference is to bring Ozzie Alby's back, it's so little money next season and he has had a better second half, and then put that money into getting a shortstop and getting another starting pitcher for this rotation, because we know, God knows, this rotation is not going to stay healthy for all of twenty twenty six. We cannot possibly do another season where Bryce Elder is going to make twenty five starts and they're picking up every veteran with a pulse off of the waiver wire. They can't do that next year. And they also have to find a way to improve shortstop because Nick Allen is legitimately the worst hitter by like a considerable margin of players who play every single day. I know the glove is great, but you just you cannot have a player who's running like a five hundred ops over the last couple of months. He just can't do it, even if the glove is really good for Nick Allen.

00:22:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, Nick Allen is currently slugging two forty nine for the season while playing every single day, So that's not gonna work. Max Freed.

00:22:54
Speaker 2: Max Freed might have had a higher slugging percentage than that when he was still hitting for the Braves.

00:22:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, whatever, We've all enjoyed Nick Allen's glove. You're right about all the things you just said. But yeah, on the Aussie front, Look, this is not a gospel number, but Fangrafts has this value metric where it's basically like what you are quote unquote worth, and it's by their war metric entering today before we had a home run to this, I'm sure I'm sure it's gone up from this. Ozzie was already worth five point nine million this year, despite how not very good he has been quite honestly, So if you want to be like raw numbers, yeah, there's some opportunity cost that will come up. That's why you led with the market thing. That's a great point. Also, I would note that the buyout number is like half the salary. I mean, if there was no buyout and it was just okay Ozzie for zero, cut Ozzie for zero, or pay him seven million dollars, I would find it to be a much more interesting discussion, honestly. But because the buyout number is literally half the salary, it's like they have to really really not want him on the team to not pick him up to pick up the option. And also there is a world in which you could pick it up and try to trade him. No, I'm not saying that's going to happen, but that's possible too, to the point where I bet you if they I'm not say you get a great haul for him, to be very clear, but I bet you could pick that option up and then put him on the trade block. Someone would want him and just just a bio, just a bible basically as a biolo. When a guy who's still in his twenties, who has a record of being a basically a star level player for multiple seasons, you.

00:24:33
Speaker 2: Know, and you can also say that Ozzie's going to be more distanced from the risk surgery, which is not a small thing. I think that's looking back on it, we probably should have given him some more grace or at least been more aware of the fact that it might hold him back for a player who almost exclusively needs power in order to be productive. So yeah, I mean, if it was ten million, fifteen million, anything more than that, then I think it's probably a no for me because is it just the production? But it's so little money if that means and assuming the Braves are not cheap asses and don't keep cutting payroll and don't buy themselves some nice office chairs to go with all those office complexes they're buying. I think my preference is to have legitimate money to throw a shortstop, help out the pitching staff. You can never have enough depth and have Ozzy Alby's as the eighth hitter in your lineup. Like I, I can't imagine that in a year's time if the Braves do these things we've talked about, they upgrade shortstop, they add to the pitching staff, and they have Ozzi Alby's batting eighth. I can't imagine this time in a year we're banging our heads against the wall because Ozzi Alby's is the team's second baseman.

00:25:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we'll move off of this, but just as a again arbitrary endpoint, but it's the All Star break. Ozzy has a seven sixty two OPS since the All Star Break. That's thirty eight games. If the Braves thing that is a realistic projection for next year, it's an automatic pickup all daily on. The only way they would think to not pick that option up is if they think Ozzy is not even capable of that. And that's not where he used to be like there have been many seasons where he's been a eight hundred plus ops guy and all that. If he can have a low seven hundred's ops, he's worth that money given what he's out on the option and all the flexibility stuff that you just said. So also great vibes guy, which is only a tiebreaker, but like beloved guy in the locker room, and that stuff does matter on the margins. So if it's close, I've always thought they were going to keep him, and he unless he has a terrible September, I am projecting them to pick him to pick it up. Yeah, I think that's fair.

00:26:39
Speaker 2: Time stamp it last couple of days in August. These things are fluid, they can change, but I think I agree with you. It seems like Ozzie will be back next season, all right.

00:26:49
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00:28:07
Speaker 1: You all right, Scott Quickly On Tuesday, person Waldrope didn't have his best stuff by everyone's account on Tuesday, but still managed to throw five and a third innings with only one run zero strikeouts. That's like hard to do. It's hard to throw five and a third with one run and not strike anybody out. But he managed to do that on Tuesday. But hey, only walked one and the eer first, and Walterrup remains sub one in his thirty innings this month. I gotta say he was very fortunate to only allow one run on Tuesday, but hey, you need some good fortunate of it to have a zero point nine r for five starts.

00:28:43
Speaker 2: Well, and I think even though it was clearly the worst performance from Waldrop that we have seen this season since he was called up, I think Waldrop does deserve some credit for pitching through it and only giving up one run, because, frankly, I mean, we saw it in that one game against the Nationals last season where in any kind of spiral bonhom and you blinked and he had given up like nine runs in an inning, and he deserves credit. He loaded the bases at one point with nobody out and worked out of it, and he just did not have his good stuff, didn't have command. The splitter was all over the place. It was the second time the Marlins had seen Waldrip in a couple of weeks, so maybe that had something to do with it. But while it was not a great start, I think it's worth giving Waldrip some credit for figuring out a way to cover five and a third innings on a night where he just really did not have anything going.

00:29:31
Speaker 1: We've talked about him a lot recently. He is one more start in August. There are some historical benchmark numbers that he could do for a calendar month if he pitches well on Sunday. Well in the podcast with that, but he's been great. Obviously better revelation. He'll cool off, but you know where the level is. There's something to be said to your point about just navigating an alging like that when you don't have your stuff, and yeah, it's about offense and all that. But still notable and impressive Onto Wednesday, which, by the way, it was the final game between the Braves and Marlins this year, so all the drama, there's no way for anything else to happen. They don't play again until next year. But we already mentioned profar homering. It was the third pitch of the game when he went deep and the Braves never trailed after that, but then the all the fun I don't know if that's the right word or not. Scott. It was the third inning, so first Matt Olsen hits an absolute bomb to open the inning, basically home run four to twenty plus. Brandon Gordon on the broadcast called it a quote absolute tank. Seems appropriate from the way that that ball was annihilated the next pitch, ron mccuney has hit with the pitch and he did not like it. I will let you go from there, Scott, what transpired? What was your reaction all the postgame and just to say it out loud, just for everybody that does maybe not note the Marlins have a history with Ronald mccotony year. Yes, that makes that underlines all of what transpired today.

00:31:00
Speaker 2: Two real thoughts on Acunya getting hit. The benches did technically clear, but I mean it was very slowly. This was not who was it a mere Garrett that Red's reliever who like took on it was tired dugout like it was not that.

00:31:14
Speaker 1: I mean, I think Bowman said it had all the aggression of like a postgame handshake line or something. It was one of those like snarky things. But yeah, people, the benches did clear technically technically.

00:31:27
Speaker 2: So I will say this, I absolutely understand why Ronald Acunya Junior gets pissed whenever he gets hit by a pitch, especially against the Marlins, because those those clowns intentionally. Jose Urania needs like counseling because those clowns threw at him for years and there was no denying it. Don Mattingly allowed it to happen. Acune was seemingly getting hit every time he played the Marlins, and that has calmed down over the last maybe two years or so. But I don't blame Ronald at all for being pissed. I would be pissed too. That being said, I don't think Ryan Gusto, a twenty seven year old journeyman who is going through the Majors for the first time, he's a rookie. I don't think Ryan Gusto is hunting for Ronald Duacunya Junior with a two seam fastball that came in. Yeah, I mean that was kind of my take. I mean, I think of vacuum. Ronald was probably a little too hot with his reaction, but I was don't blame him because he's been hit a million times by these clowns who play their baseball in Miami.

00:32:35
Speaker 1: Yes, I tend to agree, and Snid said the same thing, and you know we won't do it today. I have taken some exception with Snit not defending Ronnie enough in certain spots over the years. I thought it was fine today, just for the record, But Smith said basically he didn't think he hit him on purpose either. The context is important, not only the history with the Marlins, but also it was the first pitch after a home run. That heightens everything, right, if you're if you're a pitcher, and again established we don't think you hit him on purpose. But up you give up a four and thirty foot tank home run and the next pitch not the same about the next pitch hits Ronnie. That's gonna heighten everybody, right, That's why the betch is clear. Ryan reacted and I don't blame him for that, But like Snit was mad and got by the way, got tossed. And Snith's problem, by all accounts, was that the umpire issued warnings to both teams, which is like a default thing they do. But like Snith's point is like, why are you warning us? We didn't do anything other that hit a home run and get hit by a pitch, Like why are you warning us? And Stick goes out to it's basically make that point and gets gets tossed, like you know, it is what it is. It just became an incident. I think it got more attention because it's Ronnie and the Marlins, but I think it was a perfect storm of team history, player history, and the fact that it was literally the next pitch after a home run, all those things wrapped into one. It's not a big deal and they won't see each other again. I'm kind of glad they don't play tomorrow because then it's like everyone's on a high alert. And if the pitch is inside to Ronnie any point tomorrow, it becomes a national store, you know, all this stuff. Yeah, that won't happen anymore.

00:34:17
Speaker 2: So what Yeah, please stop hitting Ronald Acunya junior with baseball's, especially if you're a Marlins pitcher. I mean, and again, I don't think Ryan Gusto was had any intent. I think it got away from him, maybe he was frustrated, whatever, But thankfully it didn't get Acunya anywhere where it did serious damage. It didn't get a hand or a wrist or a finger, like those are the ones you.

00:34:38
Speaker 1: Really, yeah, you really worry about, thank god. But later in that same ending, Ozzie hit a three rou on home run, so it went from Olsen to histrionics to another Ozzie home run later in the game when they blew it wide open. Michael Harris at a home run. I think you mentioned it earlier in passing, but he had gone like he was of course scalding hot. He'd gone ice cold. A parment. Michael does not have him middle ground. He's either scalding hot or absolutely eye s cool. He reached base three times in the previous like thirty played appearances before today, and then he had two hits and looks better today. There's been a whole Are you even following the discourse about like who fixed Michael and like the drama about that online, because it's been it's been flum mixing me. I have the interest in the weighing in on it. Really, I just want to know if you following. It's just funny to me. Everyone's like draw their line in the sand and I have to argue about everything.

00:35:27
Speaker 2: It's just yeah, no, I have seen it. I did not indulge in it myself.

00:35:33
Speaker 1: Why.

00:35:33
Speaker 2: I mean, the reason Michael Harris is either screaming hot or ice cold is because he doesn't take walks. I mean, this is it.

00:35:39
Speaker 1: He does not. Yep. Now, the adjustment, which we've covered a lot, the adjustment is real. He didn't make a swing adjustment. The battle ball contact is way better, but his approach is still not fixed, so he has to take some walks every once in a while. Anyway, it's been still been encouraging to see Michael break back out, and I think he can if he's just the guy he's been over the last six weeks adjusted for Like, he's not gonna be a thousand bo ps guy with its approach, because that's kind of where I will leave it. What do you think, Like, yeah, he could, he could, he could be. He won't be the guy he was earlier this season. I'm pretty confident in that. I always kind of was that he was never gonna be that bad, Like he was just broken for two months and like that doesn't seem like it's a real thing. But I also A'm not fully buying the recent surge. I don't know.

00:36:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's where I'm at. I don't think this is Michael Harris going forward where he's like a top five hitter in baseball. I also don't think he was what he was early in the year when he was the worst player in baseball. He has a truly fascinating twenty twenty six ahead of him.

00:36:46
Speaker 1: He sure does quickly. A couple of notes on the games, then we'll get to the schedule. Joey Wentz, who we just I talked about a lot with Eric on Sunday after he had his first bad start with the Braves. Honestly, he came back today face to the Marlins. But hey, six and two thirds innings, one run, four hits, two walks, five strikeouts. Like, Joey Wentz has been good. He really has like FIP and this is more important to me than the era. Even FIP of three point zero three in forty four and two thirds innings, like you can't really fake that eras can fluctuate in that kind of sample size. But the underlying stuff and Joey Wentz and Eric talked about his extension. That's been the biggest change is like he's getting way out in front. The extension of being close. It's flomaxing batters that happened today, and every start it's like, oh, a little bit more real every five six days. But Joey, if you keep doing this for another month, he's going to be a candidate for rotation. He just has to be.

00:37:38
Speaker 2: It's almost too good to ignore at that point. And when they signed Wentz, I don't know if anybody saw this coming, but he's been really good, like legitimately good. The surface level numbers say he's been good, The underlying metrics say he's been good. He was obviously a very touted prospect at one point. Sometimes especially lefty pitchers, take a little more time to figure it out. Sure, I mean, I think if Joey Wentz now gets blown up in his next two or three starts, then it's okay. Well, maybe he's like a sixth or seventh starter who they can stash in Gwinnett next season. But if he has a good final month, then I think he has a real chance to throw innings of some kind for this team, maybe out of the bullpen, maybe as a long man, maybe as a hybrid, maybe as an opener. We'll see what ultimately happens. But he's done far better than I was anticipating when they signed him.

00:38:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, strongly agree with that, to be yeah, to say it lightly, to say the least. Also, they dah with an afternoon game today the dh Ronald, which I liked, Actually like that. Give him a day off his feet for the most part, and they actually played Jake Frailey. Jake Freiley, who they acquired eight days ago, had not played at all, and he finally started today. He's actually a pretty interesting player, has a nice platoon split can help them maybe off the bench, have some future control. Sure, sure, I liked seeing that. We will not do the bit I pledged myself today. We will not do the bit about Drake Balwin not playing enough beyond just saying that he has not played enough. That's all I will say about that topic today. It's been litigated enough. You're a wise man.

00:39:13
Speaker 2: I cannot have this argument for the tenth time this month.

00:39:17
Speaker 1: Not even argument we agree, but every single time, without fail, I see a lineup that has Barcelo Zun and not Drake Baldwin. I want to bang my head into a wall. And that didn't happen today. Drake Drake played today, so we're good vibes only on a Wednesday. Okay, Scott, let us discuss the twenty twenty sixth schedule, which came out on Tuesday. We were going to do a podcast that went through every single game of a schedule. It would take several hours. It was gonna be awesome content. And then Scott said, no, I pitched it. I wanted to do No, no, no, you just understold this, Brad. The schedule came out on Tuesday in very baseball form, in fashion, but I wanted you to do this exactly. So let's go come Glad, here we are.

00:39:57
Speaker 2: Major League Baseball releases their schedule for twenty twenty six at like one thirty in the afternoon on a Tuesday in August, with no lead up at all, no buzz, no nothing, not a thing. And I do think like everything gets compared to the NFL because the NFL is the biggest sports league in the country. The NFL overdoes their schedule. They turn it into like a two weeks because they can. People care about it. That's why people right, and it's interesting.

00:40:26
Speaker 1: I get it.

00:40:27
Speaker 2: I'm not I'm not a tuos, but what I'm saying is it was very on brand from Major League Baseball, with no notice, no hype, no excitement, no build up. Like, did our friends in Foul Territory even know on Tuesday that the switch would have as Honestly, we should have asked them and I did.

00:40:42
Speaker 1: I didn't do that. I would love to know if they had any advanced notice. I don't know. Also, this is not Baseball's fault, but the fact that the Taylor Swift thing happened like at the same exact time, which which was deeply hilarious. That's not that's actually not their fault. But man, it was even funnier. It's like, by the way, here's the one hundred and sixty two games schedule for you, everybody in the middle of the tairas Travis kelcey engagement so stipulated on the podcast. Funny that they didn't roll it out. Also, like it's August and they're still playing Like every other sport, they do it an offseason. I get. I get why baseball does this because they have so many games, Like I get it, but like I would still want to when do you just do it in November? Like can it not? Wait's November? Yeah?

00:41:26
Speaker 2: Or on like a Thursday night where there's only a couple of games, or maybe like a Thursday, especially in September when you have so many days off, like there's always a Thursday where there's two day games and one night game and everybody else is off. Again, I get it. This is not the NFL. It's one hundred and sixty two games. It's basically the same schedule every year. Just teams move around. But still, I was like, Oh, they put the schedule out, let's we should talk about this at least for five minutes.

00:41:52
Speaker 1: It's literally a mark. It's it's it's great. It's great for planning. If you are a season ticket holder, you need that information to know when you're going to be there, if you want to travel, if you're a diehard you want to travel with some places to follow the team around. Very important information to get an advance. We all get it. It was just it was a funny roll out, and I knew before we even talked. I knew you'd be trigger and you were, so you came through for me.

00:42:14
Speaker 2: I appreciate that. I had thank you for letting me get that out of my system. My wife was gonna throw something at me if I kept talking to her about it. So this is why I do podcasts with you, Brad.

00:42:23
Speaker 1: I'm sure she would have really enjoyed the discourse about the pirates on a Tuesday. Okay, some notes, we won't go we will not go through all the joking aside, and we're not gonna go through everything. I thought the most interesting thing of the whole schedule, honestly, was that this is the earliest domestic start so like non like Japan one off series. Ever, the standard opening day for Badjeley baseball across the league is March twenty sixth. That is super duper early, which means and by the way, they're also going just as late, so it's like they're not in theory, which means there's more off days in the schedule. Not a ton more, but probably two or three more than there used to be, which I tend to like.

00:43:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that was something the players pushed for in the latest CBA negotiations.

00:43:11
Speaker 1: I mean it makes sense to me. I mean it's a very long season. Of course. The counter is it's cold a lot of places still in late March. Of course you have to schedule around that and not play in Colorado perhaps in late March, not play in Seattle places that.

00:43:27
Speaker 2: Are Chicago the outside ago.

00:43:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, no thanks, But anyway, that was interesting to me. But from a Braves perspective, I think the thing that got the most attention is the Braves actually start at home next season, and they haven't done that in a while.

00:43:42
Speaker 2: They have not done that. So technically in twenty twenty two, the Braves opened up the season at home, but that's only because the first week of the season was postponed because of the lockout. So I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong, comment between me, whatever, But I believe this is the first scheduled opening day in Atlanta since twenty nineteen, which was six years ago, seven years ago.

00:44:08
Speaker 1: By the time it comes, yeah, it'll be it'll be seven my time comes around, and that's that's a long I mean again, this is not something I get exercised about, just to be honest with you everybody in this listening. But I know fans will like get mad when they don't open at home, and obviously you can't open the home every year. That seems pretty obvious to everybody if you understand the way things go. But when it's been a long time, Like, you know, you want to have your little showcase at home, and it's a very big, obvious showcase event. It's also odd. I think. Actually dB made the show and I laughed, so good job dB about the traditional rival Kansas City Royals coming in for the first week of the season. That was funny. But yeah, it is the Royals and the A's the first two series. Not exactly a flagsh of opponents, but hey, it's at home.

00:44:49
Speaker 2: So six home games against the Royals and the Athletics, and then they go out west to play the Diamondbacks, which you know, yeah, shout out to all of our Braves fans in Arizona, a lot of you. Talk to a few of you when they came out west. Be there again in April, and then the Angels. So the first four series of the year are Royals, Athletics at Diamondbacks at Anaheim Angels.

00:45:16
Speaker 1: Just yeah, I speak for everyone I think when I say I am excited that it's not at Dodgers at Padres. Yeah, I don't want to see that. I don't want to see that. Ever again, I don't care what happens. I never want to see at Dodgers at Padres open season ever again, because every time I don't know if you see the you two comments that I see Scott, Almost every show someone inevitably comments that the season was over after the first week, which I actually don't agree with. Still at me if you want to, but I never want to see it again. All set, no more Dodters, no where Padres that Firs speak of the season, I'm good. So it seems like.

00:45:55
Speaker 2: A relatively friendly start to the season. Will take that probably, I mean, we'll see, but generally Atlanta in late March, Earley April not terrible for weather, and then in Phoenix, I mean, best time to come out is April. So if you ever wanted to come out West, do that. It's a dome. Probably have the roof open in chase Field, and then out in la and Anaheim to play the Angels. So there's no I guess immediate like super concerns with the schedule here, and it is on paper much softer than what the Braves saw this past season.

00:46:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, and all of the West Coast trips for the whole season are done by like the middle of June. They have this The long one is a ten day trip in May to Colorado, Seattle, and then to the Dodgers, and then again they don't go out west again like after mid June. It's an interesting way out there. MLB is pushing the rivalry weekend thing. All their releases had that. It's it's Braves red Sox. I don't care about that. Rivalry doesn't exist, but that's my fifteenth through seventeenth. The Braves do host the Mets on July fourth weekend. That will be big if the Braves are competitive, and I guess it's not given anymore. If the Braves are decent, that will be a big time attention series. That's like prime base Like even casuals are in on baseball that weekend.

00:47:16
Speaker 2: Oh like every Yeah, every stadium in I think like thirteen out of fifteen stadiums this past year sold out on fourth of July. So, I mean it's a pretty favorable schedule from like a gate and revenue perspective. Fourth of July, I think Father's Day weekend, the Braves are at home. Labor Day weekend, the Braves are at home. It's you know, there's some it's not as bad like this year's schedule just felt really hard that you talked about the early start was brutal. They weren't home for a couple of key weekends. One interesting note, and this is now the second year in a row the Braves will not play the New York Mets until the middle of June. But somehow, even though they don't play the Mets until mid June, all four of the series against New York are between like mid June and mid August, and then they're they're done. It's the same way this year. Like I that's a weird quirk. I get it. Thirty teams, one hundred and sixty two games, it's not always going to line up perfectly. But that's kind of I don't know, that is something that caught people's attention. Yeah, so we'll, you know, we'll see how it all shakes out. But it's exciting for me at least. Maybe I'm weird, but I get excited when I see a schedule for next year.

00:48:24
Speaker 1: I mean, we are, we are weird stipulated that not a huge deal, I guess, But the Braves are not playing on a World Day again next year, and this year they din't play on a World Day either. I don't understand an auto ye, I don't get how was that. I don't get it either.

00:48:45
Speaker 2: That's really dumb. And that's like the unofficial start of the summertime. Weather's usually really nice. It's everyone, you know, not everyone. Most people are off work summer. You know, kids are out for the summer. That that sucks. I didn't realize they were off on Memorial.

00:48:58
Speaker 1: Two years in a row. This year they were also off. Next year they are off again. I don't understand that one weird. Our friend Steven pointed this out to us. The draft is July twelfth. Usually won't usually will not plan on that one being as big of a deal as it is. It's gonna be a bigger deal this year. The Braves will pick higher than they have picked in a very very long time circle that one. I'll go ahead and test Carlos Calaza right now and say, Carlos, what are we doing the pre draft podcast in early June?

00:49:29
Speaker 2: There we go, which it's coming, future first ballot Hall of Famer? Are the Braves taking on July twelve? That's the lead question to Carlos. Somebody we have them on the show.

00:49:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, somebody they also And we'll get out of here. I promise they end with nine of the last twelve on the road, not ideal in a competitive scenario. But they do play the Phillies seven times in September. They don't play the Mets. They play the Phillies a lot in September next year, so that'll be if the Phillies are good, and presumably they will be good. They have been good for a while now. Could be some showdown games there. You don't want to get ahead of yourself too much. That's the whole fun about doing the schedule. Also, somebody asked us in thinkers on Twitter, there are no times yet. They don't announce the times. It's it's a giant tvd on every time. It's you only have the day. I don't know, do you remember when when they announce the times. It's like in the winter. I feel like they.

00:50:23
Speaker 2: Trickle out, like January February. There's always a few tvas on like weekends or like the Friday night games, and who knows what the national TV situation is going to be next year, but usually it comes out like quietly because it's baseball, but quietly. They kind of roll out the start times in the offseason at some point, and that is.

00:50:43
Speaker 1: Actually part of what they don't do the times as the national schedule, like you just said, and Baseball's national TV partners are still in flux. There's been a lot of reporting about that. Andrew March has been all over this. But ESPN Sunday Night Baseball is gone, NBC is gonna get some it's gonna be maybe even more confusing than it's been. The Roku games are going away. It seems like the Sunday morning ROCU games those are That's such a bad apple. Apple is a hot button topic always to like, we'll say that for the off season, but like it's all changing. That's again, it's all changing again. So strap it everybody. Well, we'll tell you where to watch the games at some point. Okay, Scott, let's get out of here. But a brief look at the weekend because it's Wednesday night going into Thursday, and a series that should have been a lot more important than it actually is. But four games in Philadelphia beginning on Thursday. And just like we talked about earlier with the with the Mets and the Marlins, the Braids don't play the Phillies after this. This is the final Philly series of the year.

00:51:49
Speaker 2: Uh.

00:51:49
Speaker 1: Four games the Braves did announce their probables today. It's Cali Quantrill is still throwing me off that he's in the rotation. That's on Thursday. Then Bryce Elder, then some one named TBA on Saturday. Uh, that is going to be Chrisale unless something drastically weird happens in a return. That'll be fun to just watch Chrisale. I know it doesn't matter whatever. And then Hersta Waldrip on Sunday, and that's a Sunday night baseball game, So Hersta Waldrop with a national showcase and he's gonna happen a zero point ninety already to begin the game. Hopefully he has his best stuff. That would be fun if he did.

00:52:25
Speaker 4: So.

00:52:25
Speaker 2: Really excited to see Chrisale. It'll be great to have him on the mound. We of course will be holding our breath just a little bit, but yes, good to have Chris sail back. And then for Waldrip, I think especially all eyes on Hurston Waldrip, because even though he has the stellar era and you can only pitch against the teams who are in front of you, it is fair to say that Waldrip's opponents so far have been very bad. The Marlins twice the White Sox, the Guardians, the Reds. I believe last time I looked, all of those opponents are in the bottom ten in baseball and offense. I think two of them are in the bottom five. So it's been an easier rollout for Waldrip and now he's going to get a big test on Sunday night against Philly. But let's hope he's able to build and show something there. But yeah, Brad, I mean, in another world, we would. I mean, honestly, in another world we're probably doing a fifteen to twenty minute preview of this series. We're not doing that. It is what it is. We're just kind of going through the motions. But let's let's try to beat up on the Phillies this weekend and make life.

00:53:23
Speaker 1: A little difficult for them. Yeah, this could have been a crossover with the Phillies Show our colleagues on the Network kind of series if the Braves were not where they are in the standings. But hey, it still it's it's still fun and also, no matter where you stand on the tanking debate, it's fun to beat the Phillies. So if the brisk of beat the Phillies, I want to go to put them on that and the slightest it'd be fun to knock them off a little bit and always a little bit of juice flowing when you played the Phillies. Oh, I just saw something Friday night's game Scott Apple TV Plus, so I can tell you I was gonna say, I could tell you with a certainty. It's Bryce Utter against Ranger Suarez. That's a it's a very bad matchup and it's an Apple TV Plus game. So people, I think and.

00:54:13
Speaker 2: The Braves have not had a good game against Ranger Swarez ever, so correct in just one. No, man, it's such a legitimate bummer that Zach Wheeler is done for the season. Maybe, I mean his career might be on life support at this point. I mean it's bad. Folks can look up Wheeler. He has a serious medical condition thing.

00:54:32
Speaker 1: Going on right now.

00:54:33
Speaker 2: And yeah, so no more Zach Wheeler at least this year for the Phillies, and legitimately hope he's back because Wheeler is one of my favorite players to watch in all of baseball, regardless of the team.

00:54:44
Speaker 1: Agreed, He's a guy we we used to want the Braves to sign several years ago, and I wish they had. Uh yeah, but this the first two pitching match ups are not favorable. Cala quash Or against Aaron Nola and then Bryce Older Raders Suarez is pretty tough on paper. But hey, it gets better as the we can a long Chris Sale Saturday, Hersel Water up on Sunday, and they did push specially start back a day. That's probably give me to plan. It seems like the rest of the season. Give me an extra day every time. Bye with me doesn't bother me at all. He looked better at his last start, and we'll cover that as we need to. Scott. We have done almost an hour. Anything else you want to add before we sign off on this podcast, And I believe for you for a little, a little while you are you're traveling.

00:55:26
Speaker 2: We are going to do some traveling. So I will not see your beautiful face for a couple of weeks. Maybe I'll watch on YouTube and watch you and Steven and Sean whoever else, and I'll start commenting about how good you guys are doing, and how Scott should never come back and all of those good things. But yes, we're gonna do some traveling. My wife and I looking forward to it. In another world. We would have been thinking about how I'd be missing out on some really good important braves. Baseball didn't work out that way. But nonetheless, I know you guys will do a fine job covering the team while I am away.

00:55:57
Speaker 1: I have a similar intern nowational day job trip that I have mandated to be on in October. And you know this, but I had serious, serious angst about when that trip is and I have to go and playoffs and all that. And now that doesn't matter quite as much as it was going to matter at one point. So there are It's just what it is.

00:56:21
Speaker 2: Man.

00:56:21
Speaker 1: We do our best. We do spend this as a job for us. We treat it like a job. We work hard doing this. We try to be consistent. We also have to do other things. We have to travel sometimes, and that's why they're four of us as well. It's nic stuff, that's right, That's right.

00:56:32
Speaker 2: So we s Stephen and Sean just running the ship. We love it. Those guys do a fantastic job. YouTube loves Sean Coleman. Sean's the man. I mean, he's just such a just such a fun guy. Even before we start recording, and she's like, Sean, what's going on in your world man, and I love to hear it. But as always, a big thank you to everybody checking out the show, even as the Braves, even though they're playing better right now of course not the season we wanted, but a sincere thank you to everybody who's listing on audio and watching on YouTube. You guys, I mean you guys are awesome for sticking with us in this season.

00:57:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, strongly agree. Please subscribe if you are new to the podcast or just checking us out for the first time in a while or anything like that. Subscribe, rate review. We're on Apple, We're on Spotify, we are on YouTube. If you are an audio listener, as I always say, I am an audio listener to podcasts, do us as solid and just subscribe on YouTube anyway you're not gonna watch, it's fine. Subscribe there helps us to grow the channel, like the podcast, et cetera. Tell your friends holl Us on Hammer Territory on social media. For Scott, my jam is peraddirl and thank you for being here everybody. We appreciate it and we'll see you all next time.