Braves Shut Out Again In Series Opening Loss To Angels

00:00:21
Speaker 1: Welcome one and all to the Hammer Territory Podcast. My name is Sean Coleman. Hope, wherever you are and wherever you are listening, then happy early fourth of July. It's hard to believe that we're already into July, halfway through twenty twenty five. It's just crazy how much time is flying. But as much as I would like to talk about, you know, good things, positive things, what have you, the unfortunate thing is that if you watch the Braves game tonight, we were reminded that even though we're in July, not much has change when it comes to the Braves performance. A very disappointing four to nothing loss to the Angels, a game that the Braves honestly had to have, and we're going to discuss it and in a variety of different ways, but it's always of me and my podcast partner here, Steven Tobert. Steven, I know that you have plenty to say, and you are very valid in what you were going to say, but it's going to be with you a get buddy, Hope, all's been well.

00:01:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, what's up, my friend? Honestly, talking with you is my favorite part of this is not anything to do with the Braves. Just talking to you, Sean, because once we actually get to the topic of the Braves, it just kind of pisses me off to be honest with you, Like this team is. Yeah, I mean, it's the same shit that we've watched. How many times have we watched this game? Great starting pitching, can't do a effing thing on offense all night long. You finally give up a couple of runs. The bullpen has a bad night. The bullpen's been decent the last few weeks, but it has a bad night tonight. They give up four runs. Never even I mean the couple of times they even sniffed the run. They just pissed all over themselves. I mean, now Ronald Acuna Jr. Can't even hit like that was at least the one thing we had one enjoyment I had of watching this the two things I enjoyed watching about this team with Chris Sale and Ronald Coy Jr. For a long time. Now Chris Sale's hurt and Akunya is in a slum. I mean, what the hell? Like I don't I have to force myself to turn these games on at this point, Like we do a podcast and we have to talk about it, and we get paid to talk about it, and like that's basically the only reason I watch now is because I know I have to do a podcast afterwards. I know I need to know what happened and the particulars, the details. But like, if I was just a normal fan and I didn't have this, there's not a chance in hell I'd be turning these games on. I can't believe there are people that still do. Honestly, I can't believe there are people that still pay to go to that park and watch this team. Watch this. You gotta take four hours with your family and go watch this team live and pay out the lazoo for parking and foo. I mean, there's not a you. There's not a chance in hell I would do that right now because this team that you just can't this offense, you can't watch. And that's where I am right now. I'm just kind of fed up. I'm fed up with this whole group.

00:03:24
Speaker 1: That I can't blame you, and you know where we're You know, again, when we do this podcast, we're here to give you know, we're here to cover the team. We're here to give analysis, but also honest opinions, whether win or lose and just we're right back into the same vicious circle of it's just, you know, constant, constant disappointment. You know, we're gettingto Ronald Coudy in just a moment. And then it's no small thing that Ronald o'cuna junior struggles is also parallel with the team struggles. You know, when ronald'cunya junior was it was the best hitter in baseball. The Braves were ten and four over that fourteen game stretch. Well, it's no coincidence that in six of his last eight games he's had multiple strikeouts, including for just the second time in his career tonight for strikeouts. And over that stretch, the Braves have now lost seven of eleven. But we'll get to the lineup of just a moment. Do you want to talk about the one positive that came from tonight, steven, and that is Grant Holmes. Grant Holmes once again was absolutely at the top of his game, no runs allowed, ten strikeouts. He right now is six in the National League in strikeouts. Again, I know, I know that it's very disappointing to watch this team right now, but the development and evolution of Grant Holmes this year has at least been one positive to write home about, and the consistency of him being at the top of his game is what really is exciting about his performance.

00:04:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean listen, Strider's fallen back and Grant Holmes are doing their job basically every time out. It might not be this good. Grand Holmes was fantastic tonight. The Angels are actually one of the hottest offenses in baseball the last couple of weeks coming into this game, they have been crushing the ball tons of homers and honestly, they looked god awful all night against Grent Holmes. Grn Holmes had them in fits. And that Slider, his breaking, like his repertoire of off speed pitches is truly absurd. I mean, hitters have they have no clue what to do with those pitches. The only thing they have is every once in a while they'll catch a forcing fastball and they'll hit it hard. But once he gets ahead in the count with those off speed pitches, he is He's legitimately nasty. Like I said this on I think I Shaw did with Brad last week. Like I was very wrong about Grant Holmes, I didn't I was not a believer. I thought he was mainly a reliever. This breaking stuff is just absurd, and it allows him to pitch both to lefties and righty's, which is a big deal. You know, when you're when you're a mainly a forcing fastball guy, it's tough for you to get opposite handed hitters out. But when you features so many breaking pitches the way he does and they're so good, you can get both out. And man, I'm impressed. And I wish the other parts of this team were operating the way Sale or not Sale, Strider, swollen Back and Holmes are, because if they were, this team would be firing on all cylinders and winning, you know, eight out of every ten games. But unfortunately, the only thing going right now are those three pitchers. And now we got two more games after this with the other two pitchers and we still got the same offense. So that sucks. But Grant Holmes is awesome, And hat tip to Grant Holmes. Like you just said, he's I mean, he is striking out people at an absurd rate, an absurd rate. He's just so much better than I thought he was, And all the credit goes in the world goes to.

00:06:48
Speaker 1: Him, absolutely. But the thing about it is is that you know, you talk about the fact that you know Strider, Schwellenbock, homes Sale, they're all under team control this year into next year, and that should be something that we should be excited about. This pitching staff is at the level of a team that's looking to contend. But then you start to look at how frequent of disappointment it is. The Braves have now been shut out in three of their past five games. You have to go back to twenty eighteen to find a stretch close to that. When it comes to this Braves offense, they have been shut out steven seven times in eighty four games this year. That matches the amount of times they were shut out in the twenty and twenty two and two and twenty three regular seasons combined. That's how bad. That's how anemic this offense has been. And I looked it up. This is the sixth time so far this year through eighty four games, the Braves now have six losses when their starting pitcher has given up three or lesserned runs and struck out ten or more batters in a game. In MLB history through eighty four games in a season. That is the most losses by a team when their starting pitcher gives up three or less certa runs, its tracks out ten or more hitters in the games. That's the most losses a team has had in such games, and him will be history this far into a season. I know that's a very specific stat, but the point of me bringing that up is just to show how bad off it is, how mind numbing it is to see our offense be this bad when our pitching is this good, and it just it. I can say all those words, I can give up all those stats. At the end of the day, it just goes to show that our offense is lost right now and there's not really a good chance of anytime soon them finding the way that they need to go.

00:08:46
Speaker 2: I want to give you a stat. The Los Angeles Dodgers are the best team in baseball. They've won fifty three games. The Los Angeles Dodgers have given up. They have allowed three hundred and ninety runs this year. Three hundred and ninety. Keep that number in your head. Three hundred and ninety runs is how many the best team in baseball has given up. The Atlanta Braves, who are currently eight games under five hundred have given up three hundred and thirty runs. The Atlanta Braves have allowed sixty fewer runs to score than the best team in baseball by record, and they are what are they? Eight or nine? They're eight games under five hundred allowing sixty fewer runs than the best team in baseball. I don't know how. I don't know how that's physically possible. The only way it's even remotely possible is to have an offense so bad that it borders on it borders on historic. How bad this offense is, And then you factor in how much money they spent on this offense, how much money each of these players individually makes the track records that these guys have. Something happened, And I tweeted about this tonight. Something happened either in lat either at the beginning of twenty twenty four, midway through twenty twenty four. I know something happened organizationally where they changed something? Were they changed approach? Austin Kane Reach Battery Power had a good article today looking through the Braves approach in twenty twenty three, their record breaking year to now and how unbelievably different it is, how they're no longer aggressive at the plate when they get fastballs. They're no longer aggressive at the plate when they get to advantageous counts to you know, two oh three on three to zero. How their swing rates are down in all of those situations. How they they're no longer hitting the ball hard the way they used to. Where they used to lead the world, they used to lead everybody, and barrel rates and hard hit rates, and even if they were having bad games, even they had bad months, those numbers were still the same. It's just the results. Maybe weren't there. Something happened. I don't know what, and I don't know where it came from. Where this organization changed its philosophy on hitting. Maybe it was to take more walks, you know, I don't know. Maybe they got maybe they heard this stuff about two dependent on strikeouts and they tried to change something. I don't know. But what they've done is they've sabotaged the very best part of their organization long term. This this this unit was built on offense. They locked up all of their position players to long term deals because it was supposed to be driven by offense. They've taken the very better part of this organization and they've destroyed it through trying to tinker with it. I guess I don't know. But whatever they've done, they need to stop now. They need to reverse course. They need to tear up whatever this new idea of hitting is. They need to fire anybody who is a part of implementing it, and they need to go back to just trying to hit the shit out of the baseball. Because when they were doing that, yeah, they would have bad nights or bad weeks, or maybe a bad month, but at least they at least it wasn't inept all the time. Because that's what we have now. Like the days they score runs now are the outliers. What we got tonight is the norm where they score six seven runs. That's the outlier, that's the Those are the shows we come in to be. My goodness, where has this been? You know, we're you know, this is a blast from the past. What we saw tonight is the norm, and so it's time to go back to C ball, hit ball over fence because they've broken they've broken the thing that they were built on. And I don't I don't know what else to say.

00:13:15
Speaker 1: There's not much more Tuesday. It's just the simple truth is is that until this offense rediscovers any type of consistency when it comes to scoring runs, this is going to be the regular result that we get. More to come from the Hammer Territory podcast after the word from our partners.

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00:14:37
Speaker 1: So Stephen, of course, you know when it comes to the Braive, you never couldn't have it where the disappointment just stays on the field, you know, the multiple It seems like frequently over the past few years, when disappointment has occurred on the field, it's occurred off the field as well. The news of the day off the field was that the Braves made a trade not of any significance when it comes to who they acquired to A Stratton, a reliever in the Pirates organization. We'll discuss him in just a moment. But the more significant news from that is that the corresponding move that the Braves made in order to bring Stratton into the forty man roster is that Christel was placed on this sixty dai L And this was really the first official recognition of a potential timeline that we've seen when it comes to Sale and when he could return. In other words, it likely looks as if the earliest that Chris Se could return would be late August. And let's just be honest, at the rate that the Braves are going right now, it's really not that big of a concern when Chris Sale comes back, because it's probably going to be too late for him to make any sort of a difference. But the thing is is that, hey, if he's going to be out that long, if the Braves are not going to go anywhere this year, the thing that comes to mind, give him the runway to be able to come back fully at one hundred percent if he comes back to season adult.

00:15:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, not surprising, knew. I mean, Scott and I did the emergency show when that news broke, and we actually had people tell us we were being too negative about it. People were telling us, so it's only the fifteen day Iel, like he could be back pretty soon. He broke a rib, like he wasn't coming. It wasn't enough. This was never a fifteen day thing. This was always gonna be multiple months. So you know, when I saw them get placed on the sixty day Iel to Day. It wasn't some shock. It was finally a confirmation. We had not gotten any confirmation about his timeline. So it was notable that we finally had a confirmation that while he's at least not going to be back until late August, and that's the absolute earliest he can come back, it's probably gonna be later than that. But it wasn't shocking, and it shouldn't have been shocking to people, Like as soon as we got news he broke his rib, he was down for at least two months, like you know, And that's why we were That's why Scott and I were so negative on that show, because like it was the injury they couldn't afford. Obviously by the look of this offense, and every once in a while, you know how this bullpen looks again, the bullpen has looked better lately, but it's still I still hopefully trust the bullpen, if I'm being one hundred percent honest, But the offense is the main problem, of course, And so losing Sale was just a kick in the nuts because at least you had Sale, Strider, Schwallenback and Grand Holmes that maybe you could win a two to one game and then they lost Sale. So yeah, I mean, if they're out of it, and let's be honest, they're probably gonna be out of it. I'm I'm as close to calling the season as I've ever been. I'm gonna let Profar come back and see if that does anything for the offense. But I'm gonna give it like two days. Honestly, I have zero patience with this group anymore. I'm as close to calling the season as I've ever been. But without Sale is yeah, i mean, if if they're if they look like this in two months, just don't even try to bring him back. I mean, just let him rehab, let him get a full runway into next year. We've seen how good he is when he gets a full offseason, a normal off season. Don't even push it. You know, the team would have to be playing a hell of a lot better than it is right now for me to justify even trying to get Chris sail back.

00:18:20
Speaker 1: Absolutely, because at some point that the focus will you know, more than likely. We're about ninety percent sure at some point, probably this month, this shit's going to turn twenty and twenty six, Chris, So.

00:18:30
Speaker 2: Obviously we are yeah, ninety eight might be low. We might be ninety nine by.

00:18:35
Speaker 1: Now at some point that the focus will shift twenty twenty six, and of course Chris Sale still figures to be a big part of that plan. But you mentioned the other news that is big this week, and of course that is for tomorrow's games, Jerkson Profar will be back. He will be available in the Braves lineup, and just being honest, I know that many may have felt this is two weeks ago, but there's no doubt about it. Now it's do or die time for the brain. You know, Either you get Profar back and this offense to nobody's expectations overnight turns it around in some way, shape or form and you start winning freely, or there perhaps a search Profar could provide. And the reason that I say that is because down at Gwinete, in his two plus weeks or so or two weeks or so of a rehab stint, he's had a nine ninety ops walkd eight times, only struck out six. He's shown some good power as well. He's performed very well in his appearances at Gwinnet. So again, I don't think that Profar all of a sudden is some type of savior that's going to save our season. But at the very least our lineup does become one significant bat deeper, hopefully, and that could have a good positive effect on others. Your thoughts on Profar coming back, and you know, get into it as much as you want in terms of why not break down and all that, but just what level of expectation do you have when it comes to the impact of Profar.

00:20:09
Speaker 2: I mean, he looked fantastic. Equinette, He's got three home ERNs, he's got almost a six hundred slugging percentage, he's got a one to fifty five WRC plus. I mean, he's looked fantastic. He looked exactly like the player of the Braves. Thought they were getting back in March. But it's triple A, so who knows. I have zero expectations of Jerkson Profar. I'm just gonna let him do whatever he does and then react to it. I have no idea what to make of last year now because he's been popped for PDS. I just don't have any I don't I have no confidence that last year was in any way reel. But I'm not gonna just tell you that this guy is a dud because he might not be. He's still a former top prospect with a ton of natural talent. He still takes a lot of walks, doesn't strike out a lot, still has power, so he might hit. And if he hits, I'll give him credit for hitting, because hell, no one else hits. In terms of where he goes in the lineup, I think Snid has already said he's gonna bat him in the middle of the lineup. I mean whatever, I don't care, I am. I am pretty much done with the conversation of how to arrange the lineup because it really does just feel like changing around the deck chairs on the Titanic, Like I don't care. I don't care what order you put him in. I don't care who bats where. Unless a majority of them start hitting, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, Like, yeah, I would probably try Acunya in the middle of the lineup at some point, but Acunya is now in a kind of a big funk, so like, do you want to put that guy in the middle, Like I don't know, you know, until a critical mass of these hitters start hitting, like more than two at a time, it doesn't none of it matters. It doesn't matter that Profar is back, It doesn't matter what the lineup is, it doesn't matter who's on the mound. The Braves have two pretty bad pictures going the next two days. Fuentes is probably gonna be a decent picture at some point, Elder whatever. I don't want to have that discussion either. But if the Braves don't score, it doesn't matter. So until more than one guy or two guys in this lineup hit at the same time for any kind of significant period of time, nothing else matters. If Profar wants to come up and be that great, I'll take it in a heartbeat. Lord knows, the left fielders have been god. I mean, Alex Ridugo is legitimately maybe the worst player I've ever seen. Like he got off to that really decent start when he got when he first got to Atlanta, it was like, Wow, what a breath of fresh air, and then he literally fell off a mountain, like I don't know if Tim Hyer's got a hold of him, and he was like, all right, let's zap all the talent out of this guy. That was the joke today, by the way, on Twitter, it was as soon as a Cuna got you know, around Hires for more than a couple of weeks. Now he can't hit either. That was the joke everybody was making. And you know, Alex Radugo was a decent hitter for most of his career. He got here. The first week, he was great, and then I guess he started talking to Tim Hires and you know, Zap no more offensive talent tim Hires might be. I mean, I'm gonna get myself in trouble the brand. Until they have multiple guys who hit, nothing else matters. It doesn't matter who's pitching, it doesn't matter about the bullpen, it doesn't matter about profar until they get multiple more than two, three, four, five guys hitting at the same damn time, which has not happened literally once this entire season. Until that happens, nothing else matters.

00:23:50
Speaker 1: No, it's a fair assessment, and that's that's that's what it comes down to, like it did at this point in time, the offense has to carry us. And the only thing that they have.

00:24:01
Speaker 2: Been they don't even hit homers anymore. They're like twenty fourth in homers tho, when Marlins are about to pass them, and the number of homers hit. Think about that. They don't even hit homers anymore. They don't even hit the ball over the fence.

00:24:18
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think the famous quote is we they are who we thought they were. Well, we unfortunately are who we feared we would be. And that's that's that's where we are. Unfortunately, when it comes to the Sprave squad, you know, I was going to get into you know who, potentially we could see the Brave's party ways with when it comes to jerks and profar, but at this point I think that's kind of.

00:24:43
Speaker 2: It's gotta be for do Goo. Yeah, Michael Harris is also got awful, but like Michael Harris can at least play defense. Forridugo can't do anything. He can't run, he can't play defense, he can't hit. I'm assuming he can drive a car.

00:24:57
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't.

00:24:58
Speaker 2: I don't know what Alex Rondugo can do, but there's not a thing on the baseball field. Maybe he needs to get away from the Braves and rediscover his talent. It's gonna be hilarious if he signs for somewhere else and remembers how to hit like Alex Radugo average like eleven twelve homers a year. For his entire career, he has not come within a fifty feet of hitting a home run with the Atlanta Braves, like literally they are. They are getting players in who have like decent track reachers, track records and zapping them of all of their offensive talent. I have no idea how it's impossible to take this number of quality major league hitters and quite literally zap them of all talent on offense of all power. It is literally watching space jam. I really feel like I am watching the Monstars come onto a basketball court with a ball and zap all the talent out of all of the hitters, where they don't even try to hit homers anymore. I don't. It doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make a damn look of sense. What's happened to the talent of this offense. It has to be organizational. It can't be this widespread and not be organizational. They've changed something. I don't know what, but good lord, you're gonna get passed by the Marlins and a home runs hit.

00:26:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, somebody needs to find a water bottle, right a COONa secret stuff on It just passed around.

00:26:17
Speaker 2: To me and I don't want to hear about the ball. Listen, I understand the ball is different. The Dodgers are still hitting, the Yankees are still hitting, the Phillies are still hitting, the Mets are hitting. You're being You're about to be out hit by the Marlins. This is not just the ball. Like, the ball is different. That's one hundred percent true. But like, why is it only affecting you?

00:26:40
Speaker 1: Why is it?

00:26:41
Speaker 2: And like Ronald outside of the last two weeks, Ronald was still hitting homers. Why isn't Austin Riley hitting hitting homers? I keep hearing it's about the ball. Aaron Judge is gonna hit seventy homers this year, Cal Rawley's gonna hit sixty. Austin Riley can't hit the ball that those got. I mean, I don't want to hear about the ball. I don't want to hear it. Something happened with the approach of this team, and until that changes, nothing else matters. And I don't mean just this year either, by the way, I mean with this group the next few years. If this is the offense we're gonna get, you might as well tear it down and start over, because this is not gonna be good enough. Ever, at any point, what if you don't get unbelievable starting pitching like they have this year, They've got unbelievable starting pitching. They can't do shit. What are you gonna do if you have average starting pitching? Absolutely, I'm sorry, that's the last rant. I'm just I'm done.

00:27:43
Speaker 1: Wow. I think that it is perfectly valid for this to be the reaction that you have, because again, we're now a year and a half in seeing this like that. To your point, that's the other thing that we're looking at. We are now a year and a half removed from how historical the twenty twenty three offenses. In other words, we've moved far past it. But I think that it's to the point to where everybody should just, unfortunately accepted the definition of this team offensively now is what we've seen. The identity of what this team is right now offensively is what we've seen for the past fifteen months, rather than what they were in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three. It's unfortunate. It starts with the correction of Michael Harris, Azzy Alby's and Austin Riley changing from plateauing when they should be in the peak of their careers, changing from that to getting back to what made them so successful. We haven't even talked about the fact that we're right now in the midst of matching season for Austin Riley. I believe that I probably talked about it more than anyone. I don't mean to sound arrogant insane that, but I've talked about it because I felt that it was a very valid point. We right now are in the mid when Austin Riley is supposed to be one of, if not the best hitters in the National League, if not all of baseball, and right now he unfortunately is struggling. And until that changes. To your point, Stephen, the outcome of this does not change. The Braves are eight games below five hundred. You look at their offensive profile. It absolutely validates where they are right now as a team. We'll discuss it a bit more, plus look at the rest of the series against the Angels. After another word from our partners, it.

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00:30:32
Speaker 1: Steven, let's touch on the other you know news that I mentioned earlier today. You know, we talked about the Chris sale news, the actual move that happened corresponding with that, the Braves adding Hunter Stratton. Now, listen, I don't think that we need to spend a bunch of time on this At the end of the day, he was organizational depth as of reliever for the Pirates. He's coming over to the Braves. There wears some you know, potential, you know positive, you know, there were some you know, encouraging things that he showed last year. This year has not been very encouraging at all. Again, I know that he's not more than organizational depth, but he is within the He is within the organization. Now. This also could mean that we could continue to see some roster moves when it comes to this Braves team as they're trying to really fill up that bullpen over the next few weeks. Your thoughts just kind of on the the inclusion of Stratton now in the Braves organization.

00:31:23
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, sure, I don't care. He's a he's a filler. I mean, he's he's got a little bit of major league experience. It was actually decent last year with the Pirates, but like he wasn't even on the Pirates major league team. He was in their Triple A team, So like that should probably tell you he's he's not gonna be much. I mean he was he couldn't make the majors in the Pirates organization, so of course I shouldn't be talking a bad about the Pirates because they're about to pass the Braves in the standings as well, So maybe we should reassess where we put ourselves in the hierarchy of the National League. Yeah, he throws hard. I mean, I you know, Hunter Stratton could have been my waiter at dinner last night. I would have. I couldn't pick him out of a lineup. So, you know, relievers with with eras and fips in the fours or I mean you can hit it. You know, you can throw a stone and find ten of them. So I'm not gonna spend too much time breaking this guy down. It's just he's organizational depth. He'll probably come up at some point just to help fill innings. Again, he does throw hard. He throws like ninety seven, ninety eight. I think he averages like right at ninety six. Doesn't strike a lot of guys out. It's probably a pretty straight fastball if I'm guessing. But yeah, just organizational depth. It is notable that he's on the forty man. I mean, that's not just anybody. There's obviously only so many of those guys around. So my guess is you'll see him at some point in twenty twenty five, especially if this year keeps going the way it's going.

00:32:56
Speaker 1: And of course the other you know, thing to look forward to when it comes to profar, you know, coming to the lineup tomorrow, DiDia for Wintes will be taking the mound for his third start. Now, his first two starts, you know, there have been some encouraging signs, but there's also been clear indications that he should not be in a major league rotation right now. And that's not a negative towards for Winnss. That's just simply due to the fact that he's twenty years old. He shouldn't be in a major league rotation right now. And I do think that we're kind of to the point to where, you know, if win Tes comes up and he has another you know, questionable game tomorrow night, he struggles once again, and it's very possible because again, as you mentioned, this Angel's lineup has been pretty good as of late. If he struggles again tomorrow night, I do think that you need to start having the conversation. Okay, he's done his part, he's done, We've asked, it's time to move on to another option. Even if he has a good start. It probably is to the point of having that conversation, but at least excited to see what he can offer. But the thing about it is is that for the Braves, based off what occurs last night, your probably going to have to make a movie in the near future, especially if you want to have any shot of trying to get this season back on track.

00:34:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm a bit surprised they haven't made a move for a starter of some sort. Again, Scott and I did the emergency show when we got this news about sale ten days ago. I don't remember how long ago it was, and I really thought Alex would go get someone like, not anybody good or great, just someone who's a little more prepared to pitch in the majors than a twenty year old kid who's barely pitched above a ball. But they have it, and maybe that's an indication that they're you know, maybe that should tell us something that they haven't went out and gotten anybody. Maybe they're about done with this team as well. I wouldn't be stunned, But yeah, I mean he did, he did. He shouldn't be in the majors. He's not ready. And again, there's nothing wrong with not being ready. He's twenty years old. What were you doing at twenty? I wasn't ready to pitch in the majors. I mean I was barely a functioning human being at twenty.

00:35:05
Speaker 1: So like I was, I was pitching in the majors.

00:35:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're sewn, You're Sean Coleman.

00:35:11
Speaker 1: He's two. That curve ball was massive.

00:35:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, it will be the show, that's right. So yeah, I like he shouldn't be up. But who else do they have? I mean, obviously they don't have any confidence in anybody else at Triple A, because if they did, they would have already made that move. It's not like Pintes has looked unbelievable. I mean, if they had literally anyone else, if hersta Waldrip had shown even a glimpse of promise in the last few weeks, he'd be up. I can't even name for you other guys in the rotation at Triple A. I think Ian Anderson at one point was they signed him back. I think he got hurt though. I don't even know who else. Nobody good obviously, so I really thought they'd make a move maybe When sale went down, the front office was like, what's the point you know, maybe they're done with this season two. I don't know. We'll see, but I mean the Braves need him to be decent tomorrow. I don't expect it. Like I said, the Angels were one of the hottest offenses of baseball coming into this series. That's how good Grant Holmes was tonight. But you saw once the bullpen came in, the Angels kind of looked the part again. They mash, they hit a ton of homers. They did what the Braves used to do, which is hit a bunch of homers. So I don't expect it to go well tomorrow, but I've been wrong before. Maybe Profar will spark something. Nita Kunya to listen. I was rough on a Cunya earlier. He was never gonna run a twelve hundred ohps all year. He was always gonna hit a slide. I don't mean to take it out on Ronald. He's been unbelievable. He's gonna make the All Star team, which is awesome. He deserves that. He's just been in a slide for about a week, striking out a bunch. He had a bat at bat tonight with a run around third. It's not his fault. Like I don't. I'm not gonna take it out on Ronald. He's just in a funk right now. But the Angels have their two bests eyes going tomorrow or in the next two days, and Kakuchi and Soriano so in the bravest of their two worst pitchers going in the next two days, and Flints as an elder. So you know, if I'm being honest, my optimism level is not high.

00:37:19
Speaker 1: And let's also be honest again, you know, pointing out that the main point of talking about Ronald's struggles is not the fact that it's disappointing to see Ronald struggle. It's it's perfectly acceptable to see someone go through a week or so of struggles like he's going through. The thing that is so painful, though, is how obviously dependent, how dependent this team is on Ronald Acuna Junior having to be the best hitter in baseball for them just to be able to win a game at the level that they need to.

00:37:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, if he's gone on base three times every night, they're they're screwed.

00:37:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can't.

00:37:59
Speaker 2: No one's getting on three times every night. You're gonna go through a week, a two week, three week, slump. It's gonna happen. It's baseball, And like this team is just in no way capable or in any way prepared to deal with like Ronald Lacuna Junior not being awesome for any length of time and unfortunately he's been enough funk for a week and they can't score. Yeah, yeah, that's not his fault. That's not his fault. It's everyone else's fault. Like he's gonna go through a funk. I didn't mean to put as much blame on as I did earlier in the show. He's gonna go through a funk. Need other guys to.

00:38:33
Speaker 1: Hit, Yeah, yeah, If Ronald Lacuna Junior and Matt Olson not being at the level of top ten MVP hitters, if that not happening is the reason why you can't win games. It's not on them.

00:38:50
Speaker 2: Not even win games. You can't score a single damn run, not a single run. They've been shut out, what three three out of the last five games or something like that. If on the coone Junior's not all basset three times, they forget winning. They can't score.

00:39:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's painful, and that's just that's just what it comes down to. There's no other way to put it other than right now. It used to be an absolute positive to watch this Braves team play. It used to be a pleasure to be able to see how awesome this offense was. Now it's painful. It's very painful to watch this team play. It is July first, and I can tell you this, for the part of Braves country that is Hawks fans, I feel very confident they would much rather spend their day talking about what the Hawks are doing when basketball season is more than three and a half months away, rather than what the Braves are doing right now. And it's July first, with the All Star Game being in Atlanta ten days from now, that is a shame.

00:39:58
Speaker 2: And I'll say this, I don't need twenty twenty three. I don't need them to be the greatest offense that ever lived. Right now as a team, they have a lower WRC plus than the Marlins and the Guardians, two teams who are known for not being able to hit, two teams who spend zero money on their offense. The Brains are like twenty third or twenty fourth in Baseball in WRC plus. I don't need the greatest offense that's ever lived. But you should with the talent they have, they should be top ten, top twelve. Like being this low with this amount of talent is a travesty. And they did it to themselves. And that's what really pisses me off. They did it to themselves. They changed something. I don't know what, but they have changed their approach. They've gone super passive. Maybe it was to get more walks. I don't know. You know, we saw a Zuna taking all of these pitches earlier in the year and not really drive the ball, and like, you know, it's a little weird, but he's taken walks and it's like the whole team just decided we're not driving the ball anymore. We get into a three to zero count, a three to one count, we get a fastball down the middle, we're taking it. It's so weirdest think I don't understand. And that's what pisses me off is it's self imposed. It's self sabotage, and I don't get it. And until they fix it, it doesn't matter about anything else, because we've seen that even with great pitching, they can't win. They that's how bad the offense is. So until this changes, literally nothing else matters on this team. Nothing. It doesn't matter for twenty twenty five. It doesn't matter for twenty twenty six because it's the same group next year. By the way, all of those extensions means it's the same group next year. And so until it changes, until they go back to being able to hit at even a league average rate, nothing else matters.

00:42:01
Speaker 1: And the thing is, again, you know, I've harped on it over the past month month plus. When this team scores five runs, they will win at the rate that they need to. Over that fourteen game stretch. Before they've lost seven out of their last eleven, they were ten and four over that fourteen game stretch they scored five runs. If they could score five runs, hell, if they could even score four point five runs, put four point five runs per game somewhere in the middle there, they would be league average. They would be winning at a frequent pace. But hey, you know, I know many have had have looked forward to, you know, some a little bit of ranting here and there when it comes to this team. That's kind of the point that we're at. But the thing is, baseball still occurs tomorrow. I know that some may see that more as a threat then something to look forward to. But Jerkson profar as back DDR F one ts is on the mound. Perhaps the Braves can get a win and we'll be here to cover it all for you. Brad Rowland, Scott Coleman, We'll be back with you, Steven as we wrap up this edition to the hammertet Ritory Podcast. Anything else from you, sir?

00:43:03
Speaker 2: I just want to reiterate that point from earlier. The Braves have allowed sixty fewer runs this season than the Los Angeles Dodgers and are fifteen games behind them in the standings. Just think about that. Sixty fewer runs the Braves have allowed than the Dodgers and they're fifteen games behind them in the standings. That's how bad the offense has been, which it's it's actually quite hard to fathom how bad the offense has been. But that's how bad they've been. And that is where the braid. That is why nothing else matters. That is why the Braves find themselves where they are and until that changes. Twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven, however long this group is together, and it's a long time with these extensions, until that changes, nothing else matters.

00:43:56
Speaker 1: It's purely offensive to watch this offense right now, the best way I can put it. Thanks so much for joining us on this edition of the Hammer Territory podcast and again, hey, there will be more Hammer Territory podcasts as we move forward through the rest of the month of July going into the rest of the season. So much to come up. One thing that we did not mention Ronald Accouna junior. The top vote that are now in the outfield. You have till tomorrow to vote. Make sure you do that to be able to support Ronald. You know, if there's one thing to look forward to, Ronald and the home run derby Ronald starting the outfield for the Braves, that would be a great thing with the All Star Game being in Atlanta. You can find Steven Torbert at be Undersquare Outliars on Twitter, slash x by me at stats Sac on Twitter, sa X Hammer Territory across all forms of social media. Wherever you get your podcasts part of the Foul Territory family of podcasts, make sure you check us out subscribe however you choose to listen to. That's where we'll be for free until next time. Go braves, We'll talk to you again soon here on a Hammer Territory podcast