Speaker 1: I think they're going to trade Murphy at some point.
Speaker 1: I think they were going to want the financial flexibility
Speaker 1: to go other places. They've again, they've got so much
Speaker 1: long term money locked up, they need some flexibility somewhere.
Speaker 2: Steven Tolbert joining us right now on FT, one of
Speaker 2: the star hosts of Hammer Territory, the most downloaded podcast
Speaker 2: for Atlanta Braves coverage. Stephen. Great to have you on,
Speaker 2: and a lot of news to cover with this ball club,
Speaker 2: and it's not great news. So let's start at the top.
Speaker 2: Soon after our show ended, we found out yesterday that
Speaker 2: Spencer Schmellenbach is going to be down for significant time
Speaker 2: with the fractured elbow. What else can you tell us
Speaker 2: about how long he might potentially miss, what it came from,
Speaker 2: and the impact for the Braves going forward.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what's up, guys? So Spencer today, he did a
Speaker 1: press conference right after the announcement. Obviously reporters had a
Speaker 1: bunch of questions, and essentially what they told him was
Speaker 1: it was a fracture in his elbow that they don't
Speaker 1: really know the cause. The term they used was freak injury,
Speaker 1: which is pretty on brand for how the Brave season
Speaker 1: has gone. And his timeline was he's pretty vague about it.
Speaker 1: He said, you know, it's a broken bone, and it's
Speaker 1: just you know how it feels, how quickly it heals.
Speaker 1: The general consensus was about four to six weeks, so
Speaker 1: you know at this point in the calendar, that's I mean,
Speaker 1: we talked about it on the show last night. It's
Speaker 1: it might not be the final nail for the Brave season,
Speaker 1: but if it's not the final nail, it's the second
Speaker 1: to last nail because it's it's getting late early in Atlanta.
Speaker 3: Some of the things people were saying about Spencer Schwellenbach
Speaker 3: was whoa, you know, he kind of had a little
Speaker 3: bit of a downturn, but then his velocity jumped up,
Speaker 3: and Spencer Schwellenbach said, well, I think it actually attributed
Speaker 3: to my broken elbow. So do you want Spencer Swellbach
Speaker 3: when he comes back young starter, somebody that's like coming up?
Speaker 3: You also see Spencer Stryder. All they're worried about is
Speaker 3: that velocity. Everybody's superjuiced about that velocity and now you
Speaker 3: lost them. Do you want him coming back and learning
Speaker 3: to pitch more or are you like, you know what,
Speaker 3: it didn't work? Out when his velocity was down. I
Speaker 3: want that velocity. Screw it, we'll see what happens.
Speaker 1: Well, the thing with Schwellenbach is the velocity was relatively new.
Speaker 1: I mean it was really in the last month that
Speaker 1: he was throwing ninety eight, ninety nine, even one hundred
Speaker 1: at times. And he was good last year when he
Speaker 1: pitched at ninety six, ninety seven, ninety eight. So like,
Speaker 1: I don't, I don't you know every team in baseball
Speaker 1: chases velocity. The Braves, aren't you know, They're not the
Speaker 1: only ones who go after starters with high velocity. And listen,
Speaker 1: if it was an elbow injury, a shoulder injury, this
Speaker 1: is a broken bone. Even the doctors really couldn't verify that.
Speaker 1: That's why it happened. It was more of a Spencer
Speaker 1: that was. They asked Spencer his opinion and he kind
Speaker 1: of just that was kind of his best guess was
Speaker 1: maybe the velocity had something to do it. It's a
Speaker 1: very weard injury for like a non contact broken bone.
Speaker 1: So yeah, again, the doctors use the term freak injury.
Speaker 1: I'm not a doctor, I have no idea, but it
Speaker 1: was I mean, again, it's just very on brand for
Speaker 1: how the Brave season is gone.
Speaker 2: So let's push going forward here with the rotation, and
Speaker 2: then I want to get to the position players in
Speaker 2: your tweet about Marcel Azuna. But where are we at
Speaker 2: with the rotation and the chances of this team potentially
Speaker 2: still buying around the trade deadline if they keep themselves
Speaker 2: more to a four to five game deficit in a
Speaker 2: wild card spot. I know alex Anthopolis is super competitive.
Speaker 2: There is still a good core of position players here.
Speaker 2: I think most of the starters are going to come
Speaker 2: back at some point later this season. Where are you at?
Speaker 2: Because if they choose the other side selling, I was
Speaker 2: on Fair Territory an hour ago with Ken Rosenthal and
Speaker 2: he doesn't see them selling any guys that are on
Speaker 2: contract for next season. So are they gonna do nothing
Speaker 2: or are they gonna buy a little bit?
Speaker 1: So it's important to note that alex Antopolis, the Braves
Speaker 1: president of Baseball Ops, did a radio interview about two
Speaker 1: weeks ago. This was before the Sail injury and obviously
Speaker 1: before the Schwellenbach injury, and he pretty, I mean, he
Speaker 1: pretty emphatically said they're not selling, and they're certainly not
Speaker 1: selling anybody that's got more than you know, one year
Speaker 1: of team control, which is basically the entire roster. I mean,
Speaker 1: the only notable guy that doesn't have team control after
Speaker 1: this season is Marcel Luzuna, who's got his own injury
Speaker 1: problems because he's had a hip thing for like two
Speaker 1: months and his production has just fallen off a cliff.
Speaker 1: So even if the Braves got to the point where
Speaker 1: they were going to sell, which let's be honest, I
Speaker 1: mean they're they're as close as they've been in a
Speaker 1: long time, there's not much to sell. You know, I
Speaker 1: saw stuff about Acunya. They're not trading Acunya, and they're
Speaker 1: not I mean, they're not trading anybody that's got they
Speaker 1: want to compete next year, and you know, all of
Speaker 1: these guys, Saale Schwellenbach, Ronald Lopez, they're all scheduled to
Speaker 1: come back this year, so it's not like these are
Speaker 1: eighteen month in injuries that affect twenty twenty six as well.
Speaker 1: So you know, you can bind wanting to compete next year,
Speaker 1: you can bind not really having a lot to sell
Speaker 1: this year. My guess is they stand pat they might
Speaker 1: buy a little something just to see if they can,
Speaker 1: you know, spark a rally and maybe get some of
Speaker 1: these guys back in late August and then make a push.
Speaker 1: But you know, a realistic outlook of the team says
Speaker 1: this is probably not their year. There's not much to sell.
Speaker 1: My guess is they do a little bit. You know,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe trade Ozuna if he gets hot, but I
Speaker 1: wouldn't expect this team to do much at the trade deadline,
Speaker 1: to be honest, does.
Speaker 3: That make Atlanta Braves fans feel good or bad? Because
Speaker 3: it's you're hoping now, you're hoping this team comes back
Speaker 3: to this almost unrealistic level that they were in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty three when they were the greatest offense ever. Do
Speaker 3: Atlanta Brais feel Atlanta Braids fans feel like the team
Speaker 3: is a little stagnant and mixing it up a little
Speaker 3: bit would help.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean, you know, one the thing about
Speaker 1: contract extensions is that they're great if they work, and if
Speaker 1: they don't work, then you're stuck. And right now, the
Speaker 1: Braves are somewhere in between it working and it not working.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, you have to zoom out. The
Speaker 1: Braves have made the playoffs for seven straight years, so like,
Speaker 1: I don't want to get crazy with this. They're still
Speaker 1: a very good organization, but the last couple of years,
Speaker 1: especially on the position player side, it hasn't worked, and
Speaker 1: they've dealt with a lot of injuries, and so now
Speaker 1: you're in a situation where do you run it back
Speaker 1: with the same group, because you kind of have to.
Speaker 1: I mean, Marcelo Zunna is the only kind of big
Speaker 1: name guy that's not gonna be around next year. Technically
Speaker 1: Ozzie Albi's could They could move on from Ozzy. He's
Speaker 1: the guaranteed portion of his contract is up after this year,
Speaker 1: so they could do something at second base if they
Speaker 1: wanted to switch it up. They can always find a
Speaker 1: short stop. They haven't had a real short stop since
Speaker 1: Dansby left. You know. Profar just came back from the
Speaker 1: PD suspension, So we're gonna see what this offense looks like.
Speaker 1: They've only played one game with him, or at least
Speaker 1: one game since April, and they scored seven runs last night,
Speaker 1: so they're gonna see what he looks like, what the
Speaker 1: offense looks like with him in the lineup, and then
Speaker 1: we'll see with the rotation. I mean, all the rotation
Speaker 1: guys are under contract for next year. So yes, to
Speaker 1: answer your question, Brace fans do want a change. It's
Speaker 1: definitely gotten stagnant. But the contract extensions they've handed out,
Speaker 1: I mean, honestly, they put the team in a little
Speaker 1: bit of a box, like, unless you're okay moving these guys,
Speaker 1: and Alex has shown zero indication that's true, then you
Speaker 1: can only kind of manage the roster around the edges.
Speaker 1: The core pieces are pretty much set.
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Speaker 5: I want to go back to what you said about Ozuna.
Speaker 5: How do you have a hip torn for this June third?
Speaker 5: And whose fault is that that he's playing it Ozuna's fault?
Speaker 5: Is it the training staff's fault? Like they haven't get
Speaker 5: I don't think they've given him a day off, have they?
Speaker 5: And he has this is no power, I mean, that's
Speaker 5: my question is who is this on? Is this on
Speaker 5: Ozuna saying I want to play every day? Or where
Speaker 5: is the We're snitt and I love Snitt saying hey man,
Speaker 5: we need to give you a day or two to
Speaker 5: manage this thing.
Speaker 1: This may be the most frustrating part for Braise fans
Speaker 1: right now. He's like, like there is no team set up.
Speaker 1: Better to have your DH take a couple of weeks
Speaker 1: off than the Braves because they have Sean Murphy and
Speaker 1: Drake Baldwin who both play catcher and one can catch it,
Speaker 1: one could DH and Azuna could just take a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks. And what they've said publicly is that it's
Speaker 1: a type of injury where one il stin is not
Speaker 1: going to fix it. It's only going to be fixed
Speaker 1: with surgery in the offseason. The problem with that logic
Speaker 1: is he's been awful for like two months and he's
Speaker 1: tanked any trade value he has. He's been you know,
Speaker 1: he sits in the middle of that lineup. He's got
Speaker 1: like a six hundred ohps over the last two months. Like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you don't want to put him on the IL, but like,
Speaker 1: give the guy a day off. I mean, that's the
Speaker 1: part that I can't figure out, Like, why not at
Speaker 1: least give him a day or two. Again, you have Baldwin,
Speaker 1: you have Murphy, who've been two of the best hitters
Speaker 1: on the team that can cover DH for a couple days. Yeah, Age,
Speaker 1: I'm with you. That's the one I can't figure out,
Speaker 1: and really no one can figure out. And they've they've
Speaker 1: been very kind of cryptic with this injury to begin with.
Speaker 1: They just kind of randomly released it one day and
Speaker 1: have said nothing else about it, and no one on
Speaker 1: this side can make sense of what's going on with
Speaker 1: the Zuno.
Speaker 5: Well, first of all, with the Braves, do you think
Speaker 5: want to bring him back? Regardless? And then then I
Speaker 5: want to ask you about the catching situation.
Speaker 1: No, I don't think they'll bring up. The Braves need
Speaker 1: to inject something new into this core because it's gotten stagnant.
Speaker 1: The problem is they don't have a lot of positions
Speaker 1: where they can do that because they've signed so many
Speaker 1: long term extensions. D H and Second Base are basically
Speaker 1: the only two spots where they can kind of try
Speaker 1: to inject some new energy, new life, new blood. So
Speaker 1: I don't think they'll bring a Zuna back. He's also
Speaker 1: thirty five. He's you know, if you look at Marcel,
Speaker 1: he's not like, it doesn't look like a good thirty five,
Speaker 1: Like he's kind of round, like, you know, it looks
Speaker 1: like he might be aging pretty quickly. Here in the
Speaker 1: hips is not gonna help that. So my guess is
Speaker 1: they don't bring him back. You know, he might get
Speaker 1: traded at the deadline, but again, he's been so bad
Speaker 1: for two months. I don't know who's gonna want a
Speaker 1: thirty five DH who hasn't hit in two months. So No,
Speaker 1: to answer your question, I don't think they'll bring Marcel
Speaker 1: back next year.
Speaker 3: Round.
Speaker 5: You said round, by the way, which is great.
Speaker 1: He's I mean he's round.
Speaker 5: I mean he can still hit when healthy, though, so
Speaker 5: let's see hit when he's healthy. I mean he can
Speaker 5: still be as strong as strong as I'll get out too.
Speaker 5: But let's go to that. You mentioned Murphy and Drake Baldwin.
Speaker 5: Now Murphy signed the long term extension. Then Drake Baldwin
Speaker 5: comes up and he's kind of taken a lot of
Speaker 5: his playing time away because he's been so good as
Speaker 5: a rookie.
Speaker 1: What are they gonna do there?
Speaker 5: I mean, yeah, you can DH one, but I guarantee
Speaker 5: if you haves Sean Murphy, he's gonna want to catch,
Speaker 5: And then you want Drake Baldwin to catch because he's
Speaker 5: a young guy and he's your future. Could they trade
Speaker 5: as Sean Murphy to try to change and now I'm
Speaker 5: not saying they'll trade him this year, but is that
Speaker 5: an offseason traded or is the team, like let's say
Speaker 5: the Rays who were looking for a catcher.
Speaker 6: Help.
Speaker 5: We'll come in and say, hey, we'll take Sean off
Speaker 5: if the Braves eat some of the money.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this has probably been the other big discussion is
Speaker 1: Drake Baldwin, I mean came out of no where. He's
Speaker 1: you know, he's been on the Brads tradar, but nobody
Speaker 1: expected him to be this good this early, and he has.
Speaker 1: He's he's eaten into Sean Murphy's playing time because he's
Speaker 1: been so good. Now Murphy has also been good. Murphy's
Speaker 1: been red hot of Lady's got three homers in his
Speaker 1: last four games. It's kind of been carrying the Braves
Speaker 1: offense lately. So this is gonna be a fascinating situation
Speaker 1: because what do you do. I mean, you have two
Speaker 1: good catchers. Murphy's locked up long term, you know, Drake
Speaker 1: Baldwin's just starting his career. I think they're gonna trade
Speaker 1: Murphy at some point. I think they were gonna want
Speaker 1: the financial flexibility to go other places. They again, they've
Speaker 1: got so much long term money locked up, they need
Speaker 1: some flexibility somewhere. Trading Murphy at least alleviates a little salary.
Speaker 1: Drake Baldwin's clearly good enough to be the starter. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you can trade a catcher. I mean, AJ,
Speaker 1: you could probably speak to this better than I can.
Speaker 1: I don't know how easy it is to trade a
Speaker 1: catcher mid season learning a whole new pitching staff, like
Speaker 1: on the fly in August and September. That seems like
Speaker 1: more of an offseason trade that you would, you know,
Speaker 1: try to pull off. But I don't know. I think
Speaker 1: I think a couple I think, like Wilson Contresk got
Speaker 1: traded at one point mid season at one point, so
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe you could pull it off mid
Speaker 1: season if they if you, if you, you know, twisted
Speaker 1: my arm and said, what's the biggest trade the Braves
Speaker 1: could make this trade deadline? I would probably say, Sean Murphy.
Speaker 1: I just don't know how realistic it is to trade
Speaker 1: a catcher and have him, you know, reactly made to
Speaker 1: a whole new pitching staff on the fly as the
Speaker 1: season in the middle of the season.
Speaker 3: It's rare, you're you're right, it's rare. I mean, it's
Speaker 3: usually the backup catcher that they bring in. It's gonna
Speaker 3: play some oh, now it's a starting catcher, but it's
Speaker 3: somebody that will fill in as a need. It's rare
Speaker 3: because of exactly what you said, and I think that's
Speaker 3: one of those things it's tough to do. But somebody
Speaker 3: that definitely won't play in the playoffs if the Braves
Speaker 3: crawl out of this and get a wild card spot.
Speaker 6: Is your boy, Profar you tweeted last night. I think
Speaker 6: about how he's fitting right into this lineup. How much
Speaker 6: was that out of frustration for you? And how much
Speaker 6: was it This is exactly what we're getting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So if you follow, if you fall, I mean
Speaker 1: I I live tweet most of these games, and it's
Speaker 1: been a frustrating year. And obviously we had just learned
Speaker 1: about the Spencer swallobuck news and I was already in
Speaker 1: a pretty pissy mood. And in his first and his
Speaker 1: very first a bat, he came up with the basis
Speaker 1: loaded and he struck out with one out. And that's
Speaker 1: I mean, if you follow the break, that's literally what
Speaker 1: happens to every single game. And so his first, you know,
Speaker 1: his first played appearance is he gets kind of fifty
Speaker 1: to fifty boos and cheers. Nobody really knows how to
Speaker 1: handle this at the moment, and his very first played appearance,
Speaker 1: he strikes out with the bases loaded and one out,
Speaker 1: and it's like, good lord, here we go to his credit.
Speaker 1: He ended up going I think two for three or
Speaker 1: three for four. Last night he started a rally, he
Speaker 1: got a two out single the Braves. The Braves didn't
Speaker 1: scored seven runs with two out and nobody on because
Speaker 1: he started that ending with a single. And that was
Speaker 1: that tweet you saw about how he's mastered the art
Speaker 1: of hit getting a hit with two out, nobody on.
Speaker 1: And then he came up better and hit a homer. So,
Speaker 1: you know, Braves fans don't really know what to think
Speaker 1: of Profar. Quite honestly, I don't know. You know, with PDS,
Speaker 1: you guys have you know, you guys have been in clubhouses.
Speaker 1: You've dealt with that way more than any of us.
Speaker 1: We don't really know how to handle, Like do you
Speaker 1: cheer for this guy? He kind of put the Braves
Speaker 1: in a brutal position from you know, the first half
Speaker 1: of the season. The Braves had zero production from left
Speaker 1: field for three months because he got popped through PDEs
Speaker 1: and so, like half the fan base wants to boo him,
Speaker 1: half wants to cheer him. What I know for sure
Speaker 1: is they need him. They need somebody to hit in
Speaker 1: this lineup, and to his credit, he came out immediately.
Speaker 1: First game he hit hit a homer, he had a
Speaker 1: couple other hits. Brave scored seven runs. So we'll see.
Speaker 2: My thing is from a storyline perspective, as a fan
Speaker 2: of the game, I always want to see what a
Speaker 2: player looks like coming back from a ped suspension. Is
Speaker 2: he the same guy?
Speaker 6: Right?
Speaker 2: We've seen guys go down a notch, that's usually the case.
Speaker 2: Rarely do they go.
Speaker 6: Up a notch.
Speaker 2: How much do they go down? So anyway, we'll see
Speaker 2: what happens when Jerkson comes back for the rest of
Speaker 2: the season. And he's not eligible for the postseason, so
Speaker 2: that certainly hurts his case. If the Braves somehow we're
Speaker 2: getting value out of him and able to trade him
Speaker 2: to a contender, but he's also got two years left
Speaker 2: on his deal. Anyway, this was awesome. Thank you so
Speaker 2: much for joining us, and we always appreciate what you're
Speaker 2: doing over at Hammer Territory. The show's awesome, you know that,
Speaker 2: but I advise anyone to check it out here. It
Speaker 2: is Brad and Scott your buddies. Steven live tweets the
Speaker 2: games and he's part of the Hammer Territory crew. So
Speaker 2: if you want to give that show a little listen,
Speaker 2: or give them at least a sub if you're on
Speaker 2: YouTube right now, that would be great. These guys bring
Speaker 2: it usually about four shows a week with Atlanta Braves coverage,
Speaker 2: breaking news, the whole deal. Thank you again, Steven. Have
Speaker 2: a good weekend.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys. Have a happy Fourth