Another 8th Inning Explosion Propels Braves To Series Win

00:00:20
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome back to the hemorh Territory Podcast. This this episode one eight six. I am your hoast Brad Roland, coming to you on a Wednesday evening, and I am joined as I almost always am, by Scott Coleman. Scott, the Braves are suddenly playing at least pretty well and winning some baseball games at a rate that we have to appreciate after the slow start. How are you, my friend?

00:00:42
Speaker 2: Hey, Brad, I am great. I think everybody is feeling a little better after that win on Wednesday afternoon. To be honest, if this game was played two or three weeks ago, it kind of felt like a game the Braves probably would have lost in very frustrating fashion. But this team has suddenly found a way to win some games. They had a great homestand when five and one, which they really really needed to get that record a little more respectable. They're now ten and fourteen, which is not terrible after the zero to seven start, and we're going to talk about the game and depth. But in some ways this was very much a game the Braves needed. It was a Bryce Elder start, which nobody feels great about going in, and you had big time contributions from guys like Nick Allen and Eli White, and the Braves are going to need kind of that bottom half of the roster to really step up if they're going to climb out of this hole.

00:01:33
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and we should say if we have new listeners or watchers, if you're watching on YouTube, we are actually currently live on YouTube, which will not be at every show thing, but it will be every once in a while. We'll hop on here and do it live, as they say, but we are part of foul Territory as a network. We are also Hambor Territories, particularly this show covering the Braves year round. And please subscribe to this podcast anywhere you find your podcasts. Like we just talked around and talked about, the Braves have now won five to the last six games, and that is going to feel great compared to everything else that happened before that. They're now ten and seven in the last seventeen games, which isn't anything incredible, but it is a ninety five win pace over seventeen games, and they kind of had to have that. I mean we said that back when they started zero to seven. They kind of had to win it. A ninety five ish win pace get where they wanted to go, and so far they are doing that. And I want to give you a stat to get this going a little bit at the top of the show. It's actually from our colleague Steven Tolbert about the last six games to watch the Braiser five and one.

00:02:26
Speaker 2: Right.

00:02:27
Speaker 1: In the six games, they have scored thirteen runs in the eighth inning alone. For whatever reason, variants, noise, whatever, thirteen runs the eighth inning only eighteen runs and the other eight innings combined, But for whatever reason, the eighth inning has been very kind to them during this run. And as you'll see in the headline of this podcast, it's another eighth inning explosion and they've had a few of those and they've kind of had to have them all. And look big picture, thirty one runs over six games is not the absolute peak of the powers of this offense. But you'll you'll take five runs a game and run with it, basically, especially it compares to what we're dealing with two weeks ago.

00:03:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh, you take it all day long. And really, since the abysmal start out West, the offense has been pretty darn good. And there's still nights with some runners in scoring position that make you want to bang your head against the table. But even those numbers have stabilized a little bit. And right now the Braves need their offense to really step up and continue to step up, because the pitching has been very Jekyl and hide and we'll dig a little deeper into the pitching staff. But right now, I mean, if the Braves are not putting up a crooked number in one of these innings, seemingly it's now the eighth inning, if they want to move that up a little bit for our mental health sanity, that would probably be good. But hey, I guess you take the runs however you can get them, especially when you have what two arms in your rotation that you I mean, you really hold your breath when they go out there. The bullpen, man, it had a nice little stretch, but the bullpen has been shaky at times two this year. Really, the Braves need basically everyone to pull their weight right now. And thankfully, after that abysmal start, the offense has really started to click.

00:04:08
Speaker 1: It has, and it's been you know, as by the way our colleagues Sean and Stephen today podcast of Tuesday Night, that's still very relevant right now talking about a lot of big picture stuff that we won't hit on all of on this show because they just talked about it yesterday on the same podcast feed. But in that conversation I found myself nodding along a lot to it, and basically the reality being that the current roster kind of needs the offense to be really, really good because the pitching staff is not what it has been in previous years, especially when compared to last year, with the pitching staff was not so secretly awesome and this year that has not been that way, and if you look at the personnel, it may not ever be that way this year. So they have to score runs and that's why it's so encouraging that they actually are scoring runs. One player we've kind of not taken a task a ton, but like just kind of said, look, he has to be better is Michael Harris. And in last CUS games he is an OPS of nine forty. That's Michael Harris. It hasn't been perfect because that's some bad moments even in there, but if he can do that a lot alongside guys like Thozuna, alongside guys like Matt Olsen and Austin Riley who have been really good or was pretty good to really good most of the season. When your top guys are hitting, the bottom of the order is still an adventure man. But today the hero of the day Eli White like you get some little stuff from your secondary guys and the rest of you, plus your catchers who are apparently awesome a gigas the Braves just stumble into awesome catching no matter what happens every single year, whether somebody gets hurt or whatever. It's just a factory of catchers. But the office has to be good, as Shawn and Stephen laid out perfectly, and it really has been good for six games. It's six games, but this is still a talented offense when they are semi healthy, and they right now they are semi healthy. Even at the bottom is pretty ugly.

00:05:42
Speaker 2: Still, yeah, yeah, really encouraging after the slow start, and I think we all felt eventually this offense would wake up. I know it's they won five out of six and we're going to keep the vibes positive. I am genuinely concerned about the pitching staff right now, Brad. I know that we've talked about it quite a bit on the show lately, but man, it's thin. It is really, really thin, and it's funny. A couple of years ago, the offense was insane and the pitching staff in twenty twenty three was totally fine, but that was a team clearly that relied on the offense to win more times than not. Last season, it was the complete opposite, right, Like, you have this one of the best pitching staffs in recent Braves memory, but the offense was just dead and they had all the injuries. This year, it's maybe not quite the extremes of twenty twenty three because that was just a historic offense that we'll probably never see again. But it feels like, as we come up on almost a month into the season now, this is very much going to be an offense first team. And then maybe if they can stabilize that bullpen and get some reinforcements in the rotation, especially when Stryder comes back, maybe then it'll balance out a little bit. But it feels like this is going to be a team that wins more games seven to five than they do two to one, which was the case seemingly every night last year.

00:07:00
Speaker 1: Sure, and we'll talk much more about this even on this show later on. We'll talk about the bullpen a little bit and at the starting pitchre staff because there was a stratter injury which I know Sewan Steven cleveror what we want to talk about it too, like the fallout of that and the uncertainty of that. We'll get into that, plus a breakdown of the game on Wednesday in which Bryce Elder was actually more than okay. Today, we'll get into that and more in just a moment after a word from our partners on the podcast.

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00:08:24
Speaker 1: Okay, Scott, we can dig back in here and focus a little bit on the game on Wednesday, the only game that we're not broken down the podcast at all. If you want more coverage of Monday and Tuesday in depth that was on a previous episode, We're not skipping it. That's just what it is. But today, the four to one victory to win the series over the Cardinals, it was in the afternoon. It was the actually a morning game if you are one Scott Coleman. Afternoon for me, but a very early game, some morning breakfast baseball out there in Arizona. But uh, let's just sleep with this, Bryce Elder, we pick on a lot. I gotta be honest with you, and I think most of it has earned. Most of it is not unfair by any means. But Bryce Elder has been it punched you back to some degree. He pitched well today. No, I don't think he was perfect, but the numbers are as follows. Six innings, five hits, only one yes, I mean one run allowed, free walks, and two strikeouts. Obviously that those last two are a little bit kind of the Brice Older experience. But listen, man, we can't beggars, can't be choosers. And when you are at a spot where you kind of have to throw a bye, Older as the Braves are right now, basically getting that kind of outing for him if it's one game, and then, by the way, not punting the game like it would have been brutal to get that from Elder and then lose. But they took advantage of it, and he pitched well and gave the big real chance to win this game. They actually did it.

00:09:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, you take it all day long. And six innings from Bryce. The bullpen has been really heavily used lately, so nice for Bryce to cover some innings. And you said it. He gave up a run in the first inning and everybody was looking around like, oh God, here we go. He's not going to make it out of the third but Bryce did a good job, and he did a good job of keeping the ball on the ground, which is so important. Ten groundouts for Elder, which in some ways was very kind of reminiscent of when he was so effective a couple of seasons ago, a lot of ground balls, and even if he wasn't racking up the strikeouts, if you keep the ball on the ground more times than not, good things are going to happen. So yeah, a huge tip of the cap. Thank goodness the Braves found a way to win this game, because honestly, you're probably not getting a ton of one run six inning performances from Elder, so credit to him, credit for the offense, namely Eli White for picking up the win today, and man, the vibe is just so much better, especially after a frustrating loss on Tuesday night where you felt like you maybe had the game and the bullpen just kind of fell apart. Really good to get this win, you win the series, which is now two in a row, and they've just got to keep stacking series wins and eventually they're going to find themselves where they want to be.

00:10:56
Speaker 1: It really is all about stacking series wins. It's not a small thing. Like it's obvious, and it is, but it also just matters whenever series is gonna be a good shape. But yeah, I mean we will get to some celebratory tone on Adelia White. We have to at least first say it was frustrated to watch this offense today for a large portion of the game, facing a guy and Miles Michaelis, who has been pretty bad for a long time. I pulled the stat entering today since the beginning of last season, so thirty six starts. Michael said an era at a five point five to six and he was just lighting the Braves on fire for a large portion of his game. Now, to be fair, we won't chronicle all of it, but basically every inning the Braves had an opportunity to score, and a combination of bad luck and bad performance led them to not score for a long time. What was your favorite of the blown opportunities? Do you have a favorite of the first five innings of not scoring?

00:11:46
Speaker 2: I think my favorite bit was that you had Ryce Elder and Miles Michaeliss, who came into the day with eras in the sevens, So of course they combined for six innings and gave up one run. Perfect very brand. I think on Friday the starters or Chris Saale against Zach Gallen, just watch the score will be like eight to seven in the fourth inning or something crazy. That's baseball. That's why we love it. Yeah, man, I mean for seventy five percent of this game, it was more of the same, a lot of frustrations, a lot of kind of the same old Braves where they do a good job getting on base but then they just can't capitalize. There was one in the first where Matt Olsen hit a one hundred and fourteen mile an hour rocket. It had an eight fifty expected batting average and it was right at the right fielder. There was also a bad moment early with Nick Allen getting picked off with runners on the corners to end the inning. He could have gotten into a pickle at least tried to let Eli White score and that didn't happen. So it was lining up to be one of those games where we did a podcast after and just lamented the many wasted opportunities. But thankfully the eighth inning happened yet again and kind of bailed the Braves out. In some ways, this was kind of a copy paste of the Friday Night win against the Twins where the offense just couldn't get it going, and then they had a huge eighth inning and they end up winning a game that maybe was not looking super positive for most of it. Not also as a one twenty six dot RC plus this year and it probably should be like one to seventy.

00:13:16
Speaker 1: He's absolutely destroying the baseball and just getting not this. I mean, he's still been totally fine to good. It's just been a good example of that. That ball was absolutely obliterated, just not in the right spot and miss opportunities. I will say Nick Allen had the bad moment early that you just referenced. He also really kind of saved them in the seventh inning with a great base running moment. He leads off we not stually up is a one out double and then scores on a single Michael Harris that most guys don't score on. I thought it was a really really impressive moment for Nick Allen, who isn't a great hitter. We understand that, but kind of willed them a run when they had to have one man they were losing. Still as good as Elder was, they just had to get one across. And it's kind of set the tone for the big moment and moments after that with the I White. But shouldn't be forgotten that Nick Allen made up for that blood early on with a big moment later.

00:14:02
Speaker 2: Are we in agreement Brad that Nick Allen should be the starting shortstop just about every day?

00:14:08
Speaker 1: I mean, he kind of just is right now, like they're playing RCA every once in a while. But it's kind of okay. It's funny because Nick Allen, we talked about eve when they signed him. He has a career fifty four WRC plus he can't hit Man, but it's seventy nine this year in a small sample size, and he's just a better defender than Urcia. And if RCIA is not gonna hit either, Alan could run in a way Arcia can't run like Man. It's two not great options, to be candid, But yeah, I think I like it better just intuitively when I see Alan in the lineup versus RCA at this point, which is a big fall off for our CA. We cover that ad nausey. We have to do it again now. But look, and I mentioned to that. I'm sure you saw it too. People were asking about Eli White playing shorts, not full time after today's game, which he can kind of fake, I think maybe, But I think it's gonna be a lot of Nick Allen until until we're in less Nick Allen just cannot hit at all, which I think he kind of can't, to be honest. But look, we've seen this over and over again in this regime, and it's defensible to some degree. What all else is equal Snit and maybe even Alex, but especially Snith. They're going to default to the guy who's a better defender. I feel like, if it's close, and it is of the play right now, it shouldn't be close because Nick Allen is such a bad hitter. But for me, if you go by their history, that's it's not surprising that they're playing Nick Allen more than Arcia because Nick Gallen is catching the ball more and he's just a better athlete and all those things. I don't know, it's weird.

00:15:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was noticeable on Tuesday night when Arcia got the start and he had two balls that just I mean, man, there was one that went under his glove that cost the Braves a run, and then there was kind of a I don't even know the ward a little blooper to shallow left field. That was not Arcia's fault, but he didn't field the ball cleanly and it allowed the runner to go to second base. It's noticeable Nick Allen is a significantly better defender right now, and that was really his one calling. It's the reason why the Braves kind of aggressively in the offseason went out and traded for Allen. Gave up a decent prospect to get him from Oakland. But you know, clearly the Braves like something in him, and sure neither option is fantastic. I think you would be thrilled, honestly, Like Nick Allen has an ADWRC plus, I think you are thrilled if he can give you that with his plus plus defense. I think you take that all day long.

00:16:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think if you could guarantee me, and you definitely cannot guarantee, if you guarantee me a RC plus Nick Allen, that probably is going to be at least like a one and a half win player if he plays every day. That's not a good player, but it's not a terrible player. It's fine. It's more than enough to give a situation. Look, it does help, But the way they built this roster, for better or for worse, they kind of assumed shortstop was going to be a zero on offense or with something close to that, which means what it is a zero, it isn't as heartbreaking as it is if somewhere else. If that makes sense, I'm I'm not surey to greate a too much of a cur but I think that we all kind of understood. Maybe the Brays believed in RCA more than we did, but we never have bought it. Really. He had the one pretty good half of a season at the plate. But if you bake it all in and just assume pretty poor offense, just give it the defense man, Just give it the defense catch the ball, and Nick Allen can run like this all today. So maybe they trade for it. Still, maybe it's still trying to upgrade on that on that position that's not going to be off the board. But as we discussed ad nauseum this winter, it's really hard to find shortstops. Man, it's hard. You can't just get they're not relief pitchers. You can find them. They didn't. They didn't find them, as we'll talk about later on in the podcast. But they you can find them. Shortstops. It's really a lot harder.

00:17:38
Speaker 2: Yes, And I think the whole plan, of course with shortstop is the Batom ninth and hope they don't kill you. And when you get a coon, you back in a couple of weeks and it seems like Verdugo is gonna be an improvement over Kell, Nick or whoever else they've been running out there. Then you have a really good one through eight, even if Ozzy Alby's is kind of scaring me a little bit with some of his regression this year, and even if Michael Harris isn't killing the ball, and even if Fordugo has limitations, you know, if that's your one through eight, and then you have Nick Allen playing really good defense at short, adding some speed. He does a pretty decent job of putting the ball in play and all of that stuff. I think. I think Orlando Arcia is a zero at this point. Nick Allen's not a ten by any means, He's not even a five, but he's at least a two or three or four, And I think you can take that as long as the rest of the lineup is healthy and continues to hit the way it has the last few weeks.

00:18:34
Speaker 1: I do feel kind of bad at of our Arcia because until now the glove has been enough to where it was even if it was frustrated the plate, he was playable. But the glove so far, and it's a small sample size, has not been very good. And I think the brain's probably see that, and that's kind of led to Allen playing more and more. I do worry a little that if Nick Allen goes, you know, over fourteen and a four game sample, you're gonna suddenly see more Arcia. But anyway, that's the shortstop segment of the podcast. Yeah, I just Nickallen.

00:19:02
Speaker 2: At bare minimum. I hit on one of my preseason bold predictions that ourcio was going to lose his job. I didn't necessarily think it was going to be two weeks into April, but.

00:19:12
Speaker 1: To Nick Gallen in April was not exactly on my migon card. Yes, I agree, but yeah, you were so far. You were right. He could get it back in theory, but I think he has lost it at least for now. He's definitely not on the primary. They're still playing him every couple of days. He's not just gone, but they have certainly displaced him as a starter. At shut stop. We said it before, Eli White the biggest wing in the game, three run homer and by the way, an absolute no doubter, like a shot from Eli White four hundred and thirty four feet on stackcast like that. It wasn't a wall scraper. If you told me without watching Eli White hits a home run, I would have been like, all right, three seventy eight run over the wall in the corner. But it wasn't that. He just smashed one, honestly, And to tell you how rare this was, and I will emphasize the sample's pretty small. He hasn't played that much at the major league level. But it was his second home run since twenty twenty two, only his eleventh career home run in the majors, and it was the single biggest swing of the game by a lot. Obviously, we understand that. And again like a no doubt or in a big spot. And he saw all kinds of stories after from the beat guys, but this is like a story bit moment, and it kind of was like, we've always kind of liked Eli White, but he's he's a reason pure role player. We understand that. But those little things that you can kind of get from role players along the way to Steeler win here, still win here.

00:20:30
Speaker 2: They can add up.

00:20:31
Speaker 1: You don't want to overstate it, but it was. It was a big moment Chelsea Eli White.

00:20:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean a huge swing. Quite literally. That might have been the deepest home run Eli White has hit in his entire life. Look it up. I don't know if the minor league data is there, but at least in the majors he launched it. I think Eli is actually using one of the torpedo backs, or at least at one point he was. Hey, he barreled the b Jesus out of that baseball. It was you, right man? That was a no doubter. I mean it almost. I think it cleared the seats and left field and made it out to the facade. I mean it was, Oh yeah, it was.

00:21:09
Speaker 1: It absolutely was. And you know, Eli White is known for really being the pinch runner. That's why he's kind of on the team. He's the fastest guy on the team basically other than maybe prime Prime mccunya is faster. But other than that, maybe you could say Prime Harris, but he's right up there. He can fly, but that's kind of that's what his role has been and maybe a little bit of defense or whatever. But yeah, a big time shot for him. I don't know if that's ever gonna happen again this year. If you okay, Scott, here's here's the question for you. Will Ei White hit another home.

00:21:34
Speaker 2: Run this season?

00:21:36
Speaker 1: Great the site, It's not not even being me if you go by the track record, it's not a guarantee you will. Like it's maybe, you say yes, but more than one more.

00:21:43
Speaker 2: He will torpedo bat a ball into the dugout.

00:21:47
Speaker 1: On Friday in Arizona. He's gonna homer again. I'm gonna make yeah, maybe, but yeah.

00:21:51
Speaker 2: The Eli White Redemption Tour, he will Yeah. Hey, good, great moment for him, the teammates and the dugout when nuts he got mob in the dugout whenever he got there. I mean, it was just such a fun moment. And I mean, heck, we would have taken a sack fly in that moment. It was one to one runners on second, third and one out. Just hit a ball to the outfield and it wasn't even close. Man, he just crushed it. Good for Eli. I'm sure it was a very happy flight for him and the whole team. Coming out West Arizona, and man, I mean, you need players like Eli White to have their moment. It's not probably going to be every single night, but if he can just every now and then do something to help win the game. Hit a home run, hit a ball in the gap, steal a base in a tie game in the ninth inning, whatever you have to do. The Braves need it, and good for Eli for really stepping up when they.

00:22:40
Speaker 1: Needed for sure, and because just to stay true to our podcast, many people including me, honestly, I think Steven even tweeted this, We're wondering why Verdugo didn't hit for White in that spot? I thought it in the moment. Snid was asked about it after the game and he said he wasn't going to hit him for White, but he was going to hit for Dugo the batter for fair Child. H Obviously, you don't want to say now that it was the wrong decision, because it obviously worked out great. Did you have to say thought I did? Because I'm not saying it was a crazy decision not to do it, but I was like, man, it got for Dugo. This is a pretty big spot. He's a better here than White, Like, why don't you use it now? But okay, Smith one for one.

00:23:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, it worked out. Brad, are you a better baseball player than Stuart Fairchild?

00:23:24
Speaker 1: Because no, I'm not. I'm not.

00:23:26
Speaker 2: No.

00:23:26
Speaker 1: Actually, someone brought us up to me the other day. I want to make sure I'm not crazy about this. I think in his career he's got like a pretty good platoon split where he actually hits like fairly well against one side of the plate. Not this year, yeah, not this year so far, I believe he is.

00:23:40
Speaker 2: Now.

00:23:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's won four. I think he's one hit and twenty plate appearances for the Braves. It may not be. He might not be wrong for the roster. We'll see. I don't want to be mean because he has had some moments in the major leagues, so he's not. I think he's probably better than he's been so far with the Braves. But uh, you know what Stuart was was gonna get pitched it for, so maybe okay, if nothing else Snit essentially admitted he believes there's a big enough gap between Eli White's bat and Stewart's Fairchild's bat where he was gonna pitch it for one of those guys and not the other.

00:24:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, so if if a million dollars was on the line, I would take Eli White over Stewart Fairchild. Maybe that's crazy, maybe that's a prisoner of the moment, but I'm.

00:24:19
Speaker 1: Laughing at the YouTube comments, which by the way, feature our old co host Eric Cole, who's in our YouTube chat right now, which is just Eric. But they're making fun of me and the idea of me hitting the league pitching, and by the way, that would be the funniest thing anyone's ever seen. I'd have absolutely no prayer. I would stand there and not swing. I promise you that, no chance, just hope to hope to walk, only opportunities just to walk.

00:24:39
Speaker 2: Maybe we could get like Sean Nukomb out there and he could throw four balls before three strikes and see what happens and hopefully not hit me.

00:24:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, so look a good day. It's one game. We only have one game to talk about in depth because we had a show yesterday. But it was a fun one. If you look at the holistic thing, it was not fun. For six innings, it was not They could not get a run across and it was maddening. And I'm picturing the podcast we're prepping for the podcast making notes and I'm thinking, if they lose this game one, nothing but right sellt on the mound. The vibe of the podcast is not going to be upbeat. But then the combination of of course Nick Allen and Eli White carries you home as we all predicted to begin this season. Okay, Scott, Before we get to something else, I do want to see up our spotlight segment on today's podcast, and of course it's brought to you by our friends at FanDuel Sports Network and that's the place to watch the Braves all year long. Stream them there. I will tell you more about them in a second. But our spotlight today is actually going to be a guy who's kind of always been good last couple of years, but has some pretty crazy outlier numbers we have to highlight. And that player is Marcelo Zuna. Marcelo Zuna, I think people know he's been pretty good so far, but a couple of numbers throw at you, Scott. He is a one eighty nine WRC plus at a second in the National League so far. That's pretty good company. And how about this, he has a five one hundred, five hundred on base percentage. Now I understand it's April twenty third, but it's basically a month of baseball and he has a five hundred OBP. What do you make of that? Because Marcel has been not like mashing the ball power wise. I mean, he's his numbers look good, but he's just not swinging because he doesn't have to. They're just walking him, pitching around him, or whatever has happening there. But that's a Bonzian of base numbers.

00:26:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, for a month, and the advats are just so good, and Marcel, whenever he does make contact, he's done a good job of making hard contact, but he has just become this uber patient hitter at the plate and not giving into pitchers on the corners. And I mean, he was always a pretty good on base guy. I think Marcell's career on base or career walk rate is about ten percent and has never been a home runner bust player by any means. But this year, man, I mean, Marcel goes up there, he makes the opposing hitter or opposing pitcher work and five hundred. The five hundred on base percentage almost a month into the season at this point is really impressive. And whenever he's in the middle of Riley and Olsen and Michael Harris has turned it on Sean Murphy continues to hit for a lot of power. Even when Murphy's out, you have Baldwin. We need more on base in the middle of this order. And if Marcel can come even close to this, He's not going to carry a five hundred on base all year long, I don't think. But even if it comes down a bit and he's you know, if he's a four hundred on base in the middle of this order, that is truly awesome. The power is still there. He's hit for some power. He may not hit forty homers again this season like he's done in the past, but just so impressive that Marcel. For everything this guy has done since twenty twenty, good and bad on the field, off the field, all of that, he has managed to become genuinely one of the five or six best hitters in baseball for two calendar years now. That is crazy. We were calling, not just us, everybody was calling everyone to sell everybody, even the biggest Marcelo Juna Braves fan out there this time two years ago or just before it, we're saying, when do we dfa Marcel he can't hit? He can't field, he can't do anything, and he is up there with quite literally the best in the world offensively for two years now, Aaron Judge, Shohei Otani, Freddie Freeman, Jordan Alvarez, Mookie Bets. He compares with all of those guys, and it's just crazy that he's doing this now in his mid thirties.

00:28:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, thirty four. And you know, the worry would have been if there was one by Marcelo at the play would have been like, look, he's at the age where you slowed out, maybe like thirty four years old, Like, there's not a guarantee. And he's had this incredible underlying data bat at ball profiles, barrel rates, all those things that you that we like to point out for a couple of years now and yeah, maybe that's a little bit less. We'll see, hasn't been this year so far. But he's currently leading baseball in walks, all of baseball, and he's one of but I think he's the only player right now in the league, maybe one of a couple of players to have more walks of strikeouts. Last year, there were three guys in the entire league that had more walks of strikeouts. It was two superstars one Soto, Mookie Bets and Steven Kwan who just doesn't ever strike out. Basically great hitter but not a power guy at all. To have the combination of Marcel's power and a more walks to strikeouts profile is like rarefied again Soto and Bets air from last year. That's super duper duper star level. So anyway has been awesome. Want to shout him out, you know, because we talk about a lot of guys like Olsen and Riley and the guys who have who are supposed to hit for the braves sans Harris and sans Ozzie kind of the real three, the three real boppers have been more than good enough so far. Yeah, three of them. Yeah, So Ozo has been the one that's been the best the whole time. And it's like because of that, we don't talk about him a lot that much, which why we're telling him now. But like, man, you know, want to take it for granted because they need it, but he is doing it again.

00:29:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's easy to overlook just consistency and being just so damn good while being so consistent in Baseball one sixty two every single night, and we Obviously we've talked about marcel We're not breaking any ground in this segment that he's been awesome this year, but man, I mean just such a good hitter, a complete hitter in a lot of ways too. And the fact that Marcella is doing this and if he just keeps on going for another five months, he's going to get a really, really nice contract this offseason. And I don't think there was a person on the planet this time two years ago who would have thought that was even a remote possibility.

00:30:35
Speaker 1: No, definitely not. Okay, we'll get into something about specialstriters, injury and fallout. Well, that's up. There's a pitching talk and then a preview of the Scott Coleman Bowl between the Braves and the Diamondbacks over the weekend. First, and work with our friends at FanDuel Sports Network. You can now stream Braves games through fandel Sports Network and if you use the promo code Baseball thirty, that's promo code Baseball thirty, you can start it off with a thirty day extended free try out at fanduelsportsnetwork dot com slash packages that is, FanDuel Sportsnetwork dot Com slash Packages. Promo code Baseball thirty all for sparts Pot two twenty five, nineteen nine nine, a month after a free trial, kimsbur a free trial to avoid charges. Alibi to Christmas apply visit Final Sports network dot com. Pretty tips, Okay, Scott, let us talk a little bit about Spencer Strider and an unfortunate absence. Now, it was discussed yesterday a little bit by Shawn Stevens, so it's not breaking ground on the podcast, but if you missed it, Strider went down with a ill timed hamstring injury while playing catch. Apparently, uh, kind of strange for a professional athlete, but he felt it, and I think to his credit, he was like, I can't go. And by the way, Special Strider is an absolute physical beast, so like he's not a soft guy, Like he's gonna pitch if he can pitch, and he can't pitch. So all that said out for a little while. We still have a timeline, but he went on the isle immediately. That usually means three or four weeks at least. We'll see we're all guessing TVD. But in the meantime they have a pitching issue right now. It helps to get Rice Elder to go six innings and give up one run today. That's great, but that's not gonna happen all that much, we don't think. And a Smith Schaiverer pitched today in Gwinette as a record of this podcast. He would seemingly be the guy they would plug him in Strider's spot. No one said that that's definitely gonna happen, but we would guess that's probably going to happen if you missed it. They had to use a bullpen game on Tuesday because they had nobody to go in that spot anyway. Unless there are other crazy off threeighter options, that's probably going to be Smith schov What do you think of that? And also just the reality of not having Strider And then people don't even talking about we're not a Lopez anymore because it can be out for a while. But like this is two of their They had four proven starters entering the season. One of them Strider had not even come back yet, and one of them was Lopez and they're both out again, so they had four. Now they take away they only have two guys left who we would trust as starring pitchers. I mean Grant Holmes, is we like Grant Holmes? To be fair. So if you want to throw grhnd Holmes in there, sure, but Grant Holmes is not special Schrider. He's not Chris Sale or schweben Bach. Where are we? I mean we led with the back of the office. It has to be a lot better because of the pitching staff beat, but look, the reality is it's kind of bleak man like. The rotation's kind of ugly at the moment. Yeah, not kind of it is, it's kind of it's kind of ugly. Yeah yeah.

00:33:31
Speaker 2: And first of all, the Braves really need Chris Sale to figure it out. They need Spencer Schwallenbach, who's been fine, but I think Spencer can be better than what he has shown, especially in his last couple of starts. And Grant Holmes is exactly who he is. He's effectively wild when he's good. But overall, Grant Holmes is not even on my top ten concerns about this team. But I think it's a J. Smith Shauber's time again. We were all pretty confused why they decided to go with Elder over Smith schav two starts ago, but clearly these things kind of have a way of working themselves out, and now we're getting both. I have to think it's Smith shovor he would pitch on Monday in Colorado against the Rockies, which I don't know. Course, field for a young guy like Smith Shov not ideal, but they really don't have that a.

00:34:23
Speaker 1: Bad opponent though, which which might help. The Rockies are quite bad, so that might be helpful.

00:34:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I mean other than Smith Shov, I mean you can always do a bullpen game. The Braves could go really some. I know the prospect guys are high on guys like Lucas Braun and Blake Burkhalter, but they're down in double A and and man, that would be quite the jump to ask. It would be a Schwellenbach type of jump. And that's a lot to ask of a of a prospect, but not someone who is viewed as elite in the eyes of the talent evaluators. So yeah, I think it's Smith Schav. Let's hope the command is better than what he has shown. The stuff is still quite good, but I think we're all just gonna kind of hold our breaths right now for at least those two starts for Smith Shov and Elder, And if the Braves could get to a spot where maybe they're splitting those games fifty to fifty. I think you'd take that all day long. Yeah.

00:35:15
Speaker 1: And the other guy who people know the name of Hirston Waldrip has like a six something era and went at I haven't been watching him, to be fair, but that's that's not the greatest indicator, you would say. And a guy who I think is seemingly supposed to be far away anyway, not far far away, but like not ready to go right now.

00:35:32
Speaker 2: Somebody asked. Somebody asked friend of the show, Gore of the Deck about Waldrip in a Q and A the other day, and Goreb's take is just the fastball is nowhere near major league ready. He doesn't demand it. Yeah, it doesn't command, it doesn't have a lot of movement. He is effectively a one pitch pitcher. And there's no way So if maybe Waldrop gets better, he was a first round pick for a reason. But if folks have been asking or thinking about him, I mean I would be shock if he's up anytime in the next couple of months. Yeah.

00:36:03
Speaker 1: We tend to agree there. Other than maybe a plug and plugs, they have to kind of situation. Just we've seen that before, where they they've had to go to the pretty deep depths in the past just to get a guide with a fresh arm. Look, we don't want to do the victory lap, but there is a reason why we spent a lot of the winner. You know, Bullpen is the one that everyone's bad about and including us, to be fair, but we have almost a policy of this podcast that you can't have enough starty pitching, and we are seeing the reason why that is right now. Like I'm not you know, pick whatever name you want to boring Starry Pitcher X and we were calling for that, like, hey, just sign a veteran somewhere, Like they had Griffin Canning, who I'm not saying that's the only thing you have to focus, but he's been he's been pretty good with the Mets. That was a guy they had. They literally had the organization. They traded for him and then defade him, so like they had options. We don't have to really get the whole thing, but people were and I get why because if you all you want to do is count to five or count to six, they kind of had enough. But man, you just need more. You need more than five or six. That's just been proven over and over again, and we unfortunately already are seeing that. On April twenty third.

00:37:08
Speaker 2: I will I will never understand what exactly happened this offseason with the financials of US. I have a theory I do too, and but you know, you look at all let's break a little news here, Brad. From two different sources. I've never tweeted this, two different sources, I am highly confident the Braves made a real, real push for Nick Pavetta.

00:37:33
Speaker 1: I also have heard that yes, okay, we're safe there.

00:37:36
Speaker 2: I think one close to the Braves, one not close with the Braves at all in terms of sources, like they had the money to go out and sign a Paveta, where they apparently had the money to go out and sign a Jeff Hoffman who they failed on medical concerns. And we'll see Hoffman got a multi year deal and he's been great. But if that shoulder blows out tomorrow, you're in big trouble. So they had money, but they didn't have money. I don't know. It's so I guess you're the.

00:38:04
Speaker 1: Only question I'll throw out there at at the audience avatar for what you were saying, was that before or after Profar, was it like, do they have one bullet to fire and they fired on a Profar instead, which, by the way, we liked. But that has not gone well so far as we all know.

00:38:21
Speaker 2: I don't know.

00:38:22
Speaker 1: We don't know for sure, we'll never know. To your point, probably Alex is never gonna tell us. But it is weird. And even if you didn't aim high like that, or aim higher like that, you could have signed a start for four million dollars or five million dollars or three million dollars a boring guy that everyone would have hated or just kept gripping Canning or whatever. And I promise you that player would have projected to be better than Bryce Elder, better than Lucas Braun in twenty twenty five in the major leagues, better than Herson wall Drip. Like you could have used an arm, whether it be a starter or bullpen guy. And again we don't have to do with every episode, I promise you. But because we're talking about this theme, it is it is. It does make it more glaring. And I was the one that I think went off the least about the bullpen because I think bullpen's are volatile and they kind of have a lot. But even then that's been that hasn't worked either. They could have spent money a bullpen, they didn't do that. And yeah, they had the excuse of Joejamennez being hurt and he's making eight million dollars, Like that doesn't matter. You've already spent that money on somebody that you can't pitch. But man, this bullpen's not good either. Like on paper, it's just not like you need the best versions of Dylan Lee and Aaron Bummer and other Dylan Lee's not been the absolute best version of himself so far. Risell has not been himself so far. You can't afford it, man, you can't. This is a too, it's two thent of a group. So we were intentionally positive for a lot of this episode. They still got to pitch better. And I think that, I mean, maybe maybe Scott you know me eternal optimist, do my Seann Colin impression here on the podcast. Maybe Alex has the has a slush fun ready, and he's like, you know what, I'd rather have it in July, or rather have it in June to spend than try to sign somebody in March. Maybe that's it, But boy, they're gonna if they write the ship the way they have so far, knock on wood, they have so far right of the ship to some degree, to stay in this thing, which is only half the battle, or not even half the battle, a third of the battle. But I okay, they can't keep this. This pitching staff as constructed right now cannot possibly be the pitching staff on August first.

00:40:19
Speaker 2: It can't be.

00:40:20
Speaker 1: Oh no, if they're trying to win, if they're not in a selling mode, like if they keep winning at a reasonable clip, they gotta buy pitching. They have to.

00:40:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, there's yes. I mean it's not sustainable. Now, let's hope that Strider is back in a couple of weeks. It was a grade one hamstring, so as mild as the lightest one. Yes, so he gets Strider back, hopefully Grant Holmes holds up, which is not a guarantee. And if you get to a point, let's say that they just Misshover gets better with more experience and seasoning, then your rotation is going to be fine. It may not be last year's rotation, which was incredible, but it'll be fine. Yeah, I agree, Bullpen. I don't know. It's every night you're gonna be white knuckling it, and some nights it's gonna be fine, and some nights it's not gonna be fine.

00:41:10
Speaker 1: Well, before we move on, we should say old pal Jesse Chavez is back to save the day. Yeah, baby, Now he is back, the last part I was kidding about.

00:41:21
Speaker 2: He is back.

00:41:22
Speaker 1: He was signed to a major league he was promoted to the major leagues. Today. He didn't pitch today. He pitched once earlier this year at the Braves, got dfade miners back. He's always back. He's always summer lingering at the right at the right age of forty one. We've said this before. Jesse's been pretty bad for about a calendar year now. I would not beck on him saving anything, but he's around. He's an arm and there it is, and I mean, lets you have anything else to add? Wish it was Noe, not your Alvarez on the six six of n AL not great. It's a rist issue for Nacho.

00:41:55
Speaker 2: We didn't think.

00:41:55
Speaker 1: I don't speak for you. I didn't think he was gonna help the breaks this year anyway at the major league level. But you don't want to one of your better young guys out with a risk injury for multiple months, like, that's not good news for anybody involved. If he gets traded or whatever like that, that's not good for him period.

00:42:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, especially for an organization that does not have a ton of position player depth of real prospects or semi real prospects. Yeah, it's a bummer for Nacho. Hopefully he's able to get at least a couple of months in this year and build on the things he did last season, even if he's not ready for the majors right now. And then yeah, I mean the bullpen you mentioned Jesse Chavez. Maybe Jesse can find the fountain of youth and be the pitcher who was pretty effective in the first half, although second half was quite bad. Craig Kimbrel is now with Gwinnett, so sounds like, yeah, he's coming. At some point we should say, I know, Stephen and Shawn did it last night. We'll also say this is not going to be twenty eleven, Craig kimberl at this point. If he can be a stabilizing force and be better than Aniel Delo Santos or Rafael Montero or one of those types, then awesome, that will definitely help. That will definitely be a role. But there is a reason that Kimberrell was a minor league free agent signing in the back end of March. And I think we have to temper expectations. I saw people say asking if Kimbrell might take Iglacius's job closing, Oh my lord, I would be shocked. I mean, I Glacius has been really bad. I would think it'd be Day's Bell before that.

00:43:28
Speaker 1: Uh, Day's Bell, Pierce stillan Lee, Aaron Bummer are all better than gregor rl?

00:43:33
Speaker 2: Yeah?

00:43:33
Speaker 1: Probably it's twenty five the I mean, let's Craig find something that he has not had for a full a couple of years. Now, those five guys, including Rysel, I think hopefully Rysel is still better than Gregambral. But yeah, you're hoping Craig Kimball could give you some middle relief. That's what you're hoping for us. And look, if he surprises, that's that'll be an awesome story. A guy who was the best, the best believer pitcher in the world for several seasons with the Braves. He was that good for a long time, might be going to the Hall of Fame, that's how good he was. He hasn't been that guy for a while. So anyway, and they am to keep in mind between Jesse and Craig and whoever they come up with. And I joked about it earlier, but relievers are generally kind of cheap in the trade market. You can find relievers, they've done it before, They've traded for guys they ended up being helpful. You can overhaul the bullpen relatively cheaply. Starters is a different story. It's harder to do that. So we'll follow that arc later on in the year. Okay, Scott, Quickly, we'll hear from our sponsors. Then we'll come back and preview Braves Diamondbacks, which gets on our way on Friday evening out there in Phoenix.

00:44:38
Speaker 3: Me out to my tea, a bandos work, watch me something and RP Eyes.

00:44:47
Speaker 2: I'm just god. They are my local for truth.

00:44:50
Speaker 4: Well the runs they don't win in the shame.

00:44:56
Speaker 2: Braves gags trim.

00:45:04
Speaker 1: Now, Okay, Scott, let us get out of here. But first let's preview the Scott Coleman Bowl. If you're unfamiliar, if you're new to the podcast, Scott lives in Arizona, which is why I'm saying that he's not a Diamondbacks fan, but he lives there, so that's why I'm saying that. But listen, the Braves just beat some teams that are not incredible. The d Backs are a lot better than the Cardinals and the Twins, so step up at the compeition level there and this is not sustainable. But the Braves are currently two and eleven on the road this year and a tough spot here. Now. Granted they play the Rockies where to tease that out after the Diamondbacks that's much easier. But if they could be the Diamonbacks in a series, that would be very, very positive. Because the Diamondbacks are good and frisky.

00:45:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, kind of crazy. The Diamondbacks are fourteen and nine and they're in fourth place. Yeah the LS, Yeah, NLS man. I mean you might have four playoff teams from the NL, which is crazy. I know it's still early, but the Diamondbacks are legitimately good. The lineup has been crushing it. I think the last time I look, d Backs were top five, top six as a team. Offensively, the pitching has been okay. Guys like Zach Allen and Merril Kelly, who the Braves are going to see this weekend. Actually haven't pitched super well, but I mean they have a track record and a long history of being good, So yes, this is clearly a step up in competition, probably the best team the Braves have seen since they went out West to play the Padres and the Dodgers to open the year. Maybe the Phillies too, although Philadelphia just got swept by the Mets. The Mets Philly rolling unfortunately, Mets never lose and the Phillies have some problems. But yeah, it's going to be a challenge, for sure. There will be a million Braves fans at Chase Field, which is always fun. And hey, if you can win two out of three in Phoenix and then go to Colorado and beat up on a bad Rockies team. We said it at the beginning, We'll say it one more time. Just keep on stacking series wins. Even a three and three road trip would not be the end of the world. But if you could somehow go four and too, then you'd take that all day long, and then you get back home where the Braves have been really good so far.

00:47:13
Speaker 1: For sure, that's the realistic goal. Probably is foreign to they'll never say that, of course, but you want to just stack series victories, and they do. Miss Corwin Burns whore gonna pitch On Thursday, when the Braves are off and traveling to Arizona, the Diamondbacks play a game. In fact, by the time people by the Tide the Braves play the Diamondbacks, Arizona will have played two more games. They're playing tonight after we record this podcast, and they're playing again on Thursday. So a rest advantages. You want to go into that a little bit, but with some travel, it's probably going to be. Like Scott just said, Zach Gallon, Marrick Kelly, and Brandon Fott, that's the order they would normally be in. They had not announced that because they have two more games to play, but usually they announced that a couple of days in advance. We'll see the Braves are lining up and have announced actually sale Holmes Schwallenbach. So as good as they can do right now, those are their top three starters at the moment. So I mean, okay, just philosophically, Sott, would you rather have these guys? There's nothing to do about it now, but you would you rather have your big guns go against Arizona or would you have your big guns go against Colorado when you really really really need to be Colorado, Like, do you have philosophical thought there about those two things.

00:48:16
Speaker 2: I would rather the rotation be set up the way it is. I'd rather the Braves' best three go against the Diamondbacks, and then I mean, Colorado. The Rockies are so bad.

00:48:26
Speaker 1: They are so I mean they might be White Sox from last year level bad. We don't know just yet. It's still still small fable size. But the Rockies are four and eighteen. They're playing right now, and I believe that's still zero zero, but yeah, they're four eighteen is to record this podcast, So they're terrible.

00:48:44
Speaker 2: So yes, hopefully with the pitching lined up the best it can be, you beat a good Diamondbacks team, take the series, and then I know it's gonna be a little bit of white knuckling with Bryce Elder and a J. Smith Schover probably and then sail I guess again in in the closure.

00:49:01
Speaker 1: They would be sale by the end by the by the end of the series.

00:49:03
Speaker 2: But yeah, but whoever the Braves see for Colorado is not going to be any better. And the lineup there is bad. The bullpen is bad, so the Braves have done a pretty good job out West in recent years, other than the opener to begin the season that.

00:49:15
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, other than the Ohen seven a couple of weeks ago. But uh, that was against two awesome teams. You know, we said it. We said it then. It doesn't excuse it, to be very clear, we didn't excuse it then even but at the moment, the Potterys and Dodgers are the two best teams in the Majors. No, it's two, and they're two and three alone with the Mets. So two of the three teams the Majors.

00:49:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and we won't reletigate it. Braves very easily could have won a couple of those games. Hopefully they play well against Arizona and then take advantage of a bad Rockies team and just keep on rolling.

00:49:45
Speaker 3: Man.

00:49:45
Speaker 2: That's that's what they're going to need to do. The schedule other than so they have the Diamondbacks are really good, and then they come home and play the Dodgers, who somehow every year have half of their pitching staff hurt by May first, and that's the case again this year. But once you get past Arizona and La, the schedule lightens up quite a bit, and let's hope it's pirates nationals in a row, so yeah, take advantage. Hopefully get healthier. Let's get Ronald Acuna Junior out on a baseball field soon so he can return. Hopefully Strider's back in a few weeks with that hamstring all good things. Get some more depth and reinforcements with Kimberl and the bullpen, all of those, and just keep it rolling because the vibes are much much better now than they were a week ago. It was so disappointing to lose that series up in Toronto, but they came home, took care of business five out of six and ten and fourteen. While it's not where anybody wanted it to be, if you just told me blindly that this team would be ten and fourteen after THEO to seven start, I think I would have said, yes, absolutely, sign.

00:50:46
Speaker 1: Oh for sure, and we started positive, well and positive. You never wanted to bake you the oh and seven start, But on the day they started oh and seven, if you said ten and fourteen, I would have one hundred percent taken that. And I think anybody that's with a rational thought, because again that's a ninety five win pace over seventeen games. Would it be better if they had three more? Was right now? Of course it would be. But bit by bit I would say, just notch by notch, stack them, stack wins. Hopefully you go to Arizona and steal to here. That'd be great. The Breds are not a huge under dogs any of these games. They shouldn't be. And then Colorado's Colorado. So that's a little bit of a preview. It is Wednesday. Things can change between now and Friday night. We probably will have a podcast Friday night or Saturday, so we say two for that and then usually it's Scott and iye on Sundays and our typical throwback time slot we've been doing for a how many years? A long time? Scott, you know you have talking on Sunday nights. Any else to add, my friend, and if not, plug all the Scott colemanness of Scott Coleman, because again this is like prime sco I'm sure you're doing Barry Power recaps this weekend because it's late games in Arizona. You're you're the guy. It's the West Coast correspondent.

00:51:56
Speaker 2: That's right, And a big shout out to Eli White for saving saving this podcast because if they would have lost, if they would have lost one nothing on a Bryce Eller game, I think we would have been in a very different headspace. But yes, great homestand for the Braves, let's hope they keep it rolling out west. I am at Scott Coleman fifty five on socials if you want to follow there, and as always, we appreciate all the love and.

00:52:19
Speaker 1: Support for the show one hundred percent. Please subscribe to the podcast anywhere you find your podcasts, YouTube, Apple, Spotify, etc. Tell your friends. I know you got Brace fans in your life that they don't know about the podcast. So if you like the show, spread the word for us. Either just text it to somebody or tell somebody on the street or whatever, share the podcast with them. Follow me on Twitter if you want to, at pt Rowland, follow the show at Hammer Territory on all social media except I talk to you, because that's going to happen at some point one day, but I'm not quite there yet, So stay tuned, everybody. We'll have more later on this week and we'll see everybody next time.