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Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to episode seventy nine of the

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Speaker 1: Hammer Territory podcast. I am your host, Brad Rouland, coming

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Speaker 1: to you only Tuesday evening, a day before we often

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Speaker 1: do this podcast together, and I'm joined by Scott Coleman.

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Speaker 1: And Scott we threw out the rundown for a couple

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Speaker 1: of different reasons, one of which is not so good.

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Speaker 1: The other one was a much more positive blowout win

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Speaker 1: on this Tuesday. How are you feeling this evening.

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Speaker 2: Hey, Brad. In some ways, it's very fitting that on

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Speaker 2: the night the Braves win a baseball game twelve to nothing,

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Speaker 2: which was their largest margin of victory all season long.

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Speaker 2: They also saw one of their top starting pitchers go

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Speaker 2: down with a shelbo a shoulder injury. Stay Hot, and

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Speaker 2: it's just, man, I think we're all holding our breath

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Speaker 2: for Ronaldo Lopez. But for a team that has been

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Speaker 2: so starved for offense lately, the fact they were able

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Speaker 2: to put up twelve runs and win a very breezing

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Speaker 2: game on Tuesday night after a pretty disastrous and frustrating

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Speaker 2: Monday night loss, it has to feel good. And hopefully

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Speaker 2: this is a sign of things to come.

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Speaker 1: For sure, and you and I talked we should plug

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Speaker 1: this now at the top of the show. You and

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Speaker 1: I did a podcast on Sunday evening, so about forty

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Speaker 1: eight hours ago, as we're talking right now. That's still

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Speaker 1: relevant and worth listening to at this point in time.

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Speaker 1: We are also part of foul Territories, so check out

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Speaker 1: the entire network of podcasts we subscribe to this show.

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Speaker 1: If you're a new listener just finding us now for

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Speaker 1: a stretch run and hopefully what becomes a playoff run

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Speaker 1: of some kind, go ahead, subscribe on Apple, on Spotify,

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Speaker 1: on YouTube. Is a good pun to push that out

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Speaker 1: as well. Tell your friends, tell your enemies, family members, etc.

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Speaker 1: We're going to be here all the way through and

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Speaker 1: even into the off season whatever that happens to be.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, a lot of stuff going on here. In fact,

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Speaker 1: we're kind of we're probably still gonna do this later

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Speaker 1: on this show. Actually we were playing on doing kind

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Speaker 1: of a mailbag today, but then we were kind of

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Speaker 1: just pushed into not doing that at the top of

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Speaker 1: the show because of the injury. So let's leave with that.

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Speaker 1: And I'm glad you brought up the wind to kind

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Speaker 1: of soften it a little bit, because it was a

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Speaker 1: nice blowout victory. That was a rocking chair kind of win.

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Speaker 1: That's been rare this year for the Braves on this Tuesday,

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Speaker 1: but Ronald Lopez goes down after just one inning of work,

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Speaker 1: and that one inning, while a small sample size, did

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Speaker 1: not look very good. His velocity was not just a

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Speaker 1: little bit down, a lot down. He actually averaged three

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Speaker 1: point six miles an hour less on his fastball, where

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Speaker 1: he usually sits and averages like in the mid ninety

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Speaker 1: five range. He never even reached ninety four on any

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Speaker 1: fastball in the first inning. It did not look good

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Speaker 1: to anybody. And then as soon as he came out

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Speaker 1: of the game, the Braves at least within reasonable time

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Speaker 1: said the official diagnosis his right shoulder tightness. So the

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Speaker 1: elbow was what cost him some time earlier this season,

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Speaker 1: about three weeks. That was kind of a scare. Ended

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Speaker 1: up not being so bad. But shoulders are tricky, you know.

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Speaker 1: Elbow is kind of the most frequent injury for pictures,

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Speaker 1: but the shoulders and sometimes some way is the scariest one.

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Speaker 1: The initial reports we'll get into in a second are

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Speaker 1: not bad. But we recorded this late night Tuesday. MLRI

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Speaker 1: to come on Wednesday, what went through your head, Scott,

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Speaker 1: That's kind of the place to start, Like, where did

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Speaker 1: your mind go? Was it just another one of those

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Speaker 1: crazy things, the season of a team that's been banged up,

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Speaker 1: or were you thinking of a picture? Where did you

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Speaker 1: go when we saw him exit the game?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? I think in the moment, I tweeted out the

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Speaker 2: season from how Continues and it kind of felt like

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Speaker 2: that because if there is one thing that this organization

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Speaker 2: has really suffered from in recent years, it's that the

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Speaker 2: starting rotation has seemingly come on hard times with injuries.

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Speaker 2: In September and the and behold, Rinaldo goes out there,

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Speaker 2: and I mean, honestly, I thought the radar gun was

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Speaker 2: busted or something like that. I think the first pitch

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Speaker 2: of the game was eighty nine miles an hour. So yeah,

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Speaker 2: oh that will I.

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Speaker 1: Will admit by the I will admit this. I missed

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Speaker 1: the start. I actually had it on DBR. I actually

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Speaker 1: saw Stevens screenshot our our colleague Stephen told where it's

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Speaker 1: screenshot of the Velocity and I was like, oh what,

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Speaker 1: And I went back and watched and he had already

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Speaker 1: come out of the game. I went back and watched

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Speaker 1: and it didn't look good, and it by all accounts,

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Speaker 1: it wasn't like a technical issue like he just anytime

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Speaker 1: you see that kind of glossy drop some guys. Sometimes

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Speaker 1: guys lose a mile prower or maybe even two in

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Speaker 1: a start, and it's like, all right, it's not great,

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Speaker 1: but it's September. Guys are tired, et cetera. When you're

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Speaker 1: sitting four or five miles miles an hour down and

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Speaker 1: your first bitch, like you said, was sub ninety with

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Speaker 1: a fastball, that is eyebrow raising, to say the least.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, if you're looking for maybe a

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Speaker 2: glass half full or reason for optimism. After the visit

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Speaker 2: on the mound, Rinaldo did throw a couple of balls,

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Speaker 2: I think ninety three. He got a ninety four mile

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Speaker 2: an hour fastball for strike three to got out of

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Speaker 2: the jam in the first inning, and according to friend

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Speaker 2: of the podcast, Justin Tuscano of the AJAC, he said

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Speaker 2: that after the game, Whenaldo seemed to be in decent

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Speaker 2: spirits and based on what Brian Sticker said, we at

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Speaker 2: least know on this, we believe that this is not

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Speaker 2: going to be a catastrophic thing. I don't know that

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Speaker 2: no one knows that at this point. Maybe we'll have

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Speaker 2: some more clarity on Wednesday. But to me, anytime you

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Speaker 2: have a shoulder injury for every picture, it is always

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Speaker 2: a concern. To be clear, I guess there was a

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Speaker 2: little bit of relief that it was not the same

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Speaker 2: elbow that was hurting him about a month ago. Anytime

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Speaker 2: you're talking about a shoulder or an elbow injury for

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Speaker 2: a picture, of course there's some concern, but maybe the

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Speaker 2: fact that it's not that same elbow is a little

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Speaker 2: bit of reason for optimism. And we're just going to

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Speaker 2: have to hold our breath on the MRI on that

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Speaker 2: shoulder because we have seen firsthand. I mean, Kyle Wright,

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Speaker 2: Ian Anderson others have had to deal with shoulder injuries

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Speaker 2: over the past couple of years, and they can be

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Speaker 2: really tricky to come back from if there is something

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Speaker 2: wrong structurally.

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Speaker 1: I think you just want to talk about Kyle right

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Speaker 1: on the podcast for all time sake.

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Speaker 2: Oh Man, that quote twenty yeah, twenty one game winner,

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Speaker 2: Kyle Right, the man. I hope Kyle's health cooperates because

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Speaker 2: he had a great story and maybe it won't be

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Speaker 2: with the Braves, but I am sure that Kyle Wright

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Speaker 2: listens to all of our podcasts, and hey, Kyle, I'll

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Speaker 2: be doing well.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. The only time that you and I ever talked

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Speaker 1: about Picture wins is when Kyle Wright comes up, because

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Speaker 1: it's a good day to point for him.

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Speaker 2: So when it all and it supports, Yeah, when it

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Speaker 2: supports my initial argument, you love the win. That's right.

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Speaker 1: All joking aside, though, I mean, Lopez being upbeat relatively speaking,

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Speaker 1: is good. The MRI is the big thing, and we

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Speaker 1: will not have that result until tomorrow, so hold your

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Speaker 1: breath until then. That's kind of always our messaging when

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Speaker 1: this stuff is kind of looming in the air. It's

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Speaker 1: cadre thing about it. It is, it is what it is.

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Speaker 1: Snip was kind of noncommittal to he did reference to velocity.

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Speaker 1: That seemed like he was checking out. Okays, it was

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Speaker 1: the quote from Snicker. So at least it's not a disaster.

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Speaker 1: We could have come on here. We waited to record

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Speaker 1: the podcast until they talked after the game, simply because

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Speaker 1: there could have been an initial like this is really

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Speaker 1: bad diagnosis and that isn't the case. So that's positive

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Speaker 1: if nothing else, but and we'll get into it later

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Speaker 1: in our next discussion about what happened on Monday and Tuesday.

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Speaker 1: But the Braves are set up better than most teams

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Speaker 1: would be for this kind of loss if he is

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Speaker 1: out for a few weeks. I mean, the timing is

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Speaker 1: brutal because of September and a few weeks is the

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Speaker 1: season in some respects. But the Braves do have a

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Speaker 1: better three four five than most teams do. Charlie Morton,

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Speaker 1: for all of his shortcomings and his relative you know,

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Speaker 1: unsexiness at this point in his career, is an overqualified

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Speaker 1: fifth starter in a lot of ways, so they're okay there.

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Speaker 1: But at the same time, Olip, this has been awesome

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Speaker 1: this year. We've we've praised him a lot for good reason.

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Speaker 1: That's been a great signing and you just have to

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Speaker 1: hope that he's okay and ready to go for this

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Speaker 1: stretch run because the margin of error is zero.

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Speaker 2: Well, and all of a sudden, I mean, we talked

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Speaker 2: the other night about how seemingly every night that Spencer

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Speaker 2: Schwellenbach makes a start, it's the biggest start of his career. Well,

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Speaker 2: if the Braves are not going to have Ronaldo Lopez

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Speaker 2: down the stretch, and presumably even in the playoffs, should

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Speaker 2: that situation arise, then you're really going to need to

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Speaker 2: lean on Schwellenbach. You're going to need to continue to

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Speaker 2: hope that Charlie Morton continues to pitch really well. And

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Speaker 2: I don't know what they would do, Brett. I mean,

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Speaker 2: they have a j. Smith Schauverer, they have Ian Anderson,

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Speaker 2: they have Bryce Elder, who would be a distant third,

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Speaker 2: I think for me. But you at least have three

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Speaker 2: capable arms at varying degrees, and none of them can

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Speaker 2: come up and be expected to be Renaldo Lopez, but

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Speaker 2: at least you do have some depth where you're not

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Speaker 2: suddenly having to throw I don't know, and Alan Winan's

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Speaker 2: to make starts or you know, one of those types

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Speaker 2: of Darius Vines. You know, no hate towards those guys,

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Speaker 2: but they're just not they're not ready to make September

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Speaker 2: starts and potentially even October bullpen appearances or whatever the

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Speaker 2: situation might be. So you just have to hope that

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Speaker 2: we're in all those fine, and even if he is injured,

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Speaker 2: it is not necessarily a death blow to this team.

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Speaker 2: It's not and we will save some of this reaction

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Speaker 2: and hopefully we'll have to give it. If the news

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Speaker 2: is good and he's able to go, this will be moot.

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Speaker 2: But you're right, you know, and also because it's so late,

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Speaker 2: it's kind of dull edged sword. If it's an injury,

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Speaker 2: that is a couple of weeks he'll be gone. But

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Speaker 2: also it's only a couple of starts you have to

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Speaker 2: navigate because once you get in the playoffs, it's four

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Speaker 2: guys you need at the most to start games three

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Speaker 2: in that first series. If the Braves are going to

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Speaker 2: be in the wildcard throughs that if they get there,

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Speaker 2: it's only a three game series, et cetera. I know

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Speaker 2: that no one, including me, even as the Charlie Morton guy,

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Speaker 2: I'm not terribly enthused about a Charlie Morton playoff start.

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Speaker 1: But again, it's a problem that the Braves would have,

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Speaker 1: but not one that is like totally unmanageable. And we'll

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Speaker 1: talk about that in fact right now. Because Morton was

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Speaker 1: the only good thing Monday's game, we can choose to

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Speaker 1: pass over the offensive disaster, and it was arguably the

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Speaker 1: worst performance of the season from the offense. I'll ask

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Speaker 1: that question to you in a second, but I'm choosing

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Speaker 1: to be positive right now for a moment. Scott More's

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Speaker 1: been pretty good in recent days, and I know I

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Speaker 1: am predisposed to liking Charlie more than everybody else seems to.

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Speaker 1: But he's now thrown pretty well in six straight starts,

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Speaker 1: including a one run performance on Monday. How are you feeling?

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Speaker 1: Objectively speaking, don't spare my feelings? On the podcast Scott,

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Speaker 1: Where are you out? On the Charlie experience? On September tenth.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I'm going to give you credit, Brad,

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Speaker 2: because maybe six weeks ago I came on the show

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Speaker 2: and said that father time had come for Charlie Morton.

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Speaker 1: You buried him. You buried him on the podcast. I did,

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Speaker 1: and I mean you did it, and by the way,

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Speaker 1: I think it was somewhat justified. Even if I was

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Speaker 1: gonna take the overside.

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Speaker 2: There was a stretch for Charlie that was really bad,

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Speaker 2: and you know, I think I think a lot of

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Speaker 2: folks were thinking, Okay, is you know, is this it

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Speaker 2: hell of her career? Forty years old? You know, World

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Speaker 2: Series champion multiple times, blah blah blah. You know, but

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Speaker 2: Charlie's been awesome and you pulled the number here. But

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Speaker 2: over Charlie's last six starts, which is thirty four innings,

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Speaker 2: forty three strikeouts and a two point eighty eight era

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Speaker 2: for Charlie Morton, that's very good. Especially the strikeouts is

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Speaker 2: particularly interesting because if Chuck has that strikeout working, I

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Speaker 2: do think there's a world where he could make a

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Speaker 2: potential postseason start should it come to that. If he

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Speaker 2: continues to strike batters out. That is of course such

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Speaker 2: a weapon to have in a playoff series where not

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Speaker 2: even just runs but base runners are at a premium.

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Speaker 2: So credit to Charlie. He has really turned it on

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Speaker 2: in the second half of the season, and even as

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Speaker 2: the offense has wavered more times than not, Charlie has

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Speaker 2: given the Braves a chance to win every single time

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Speaker 2: he goes out there. And that's I mean. You mentioned

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Speaker 2: that he is effectively their number five starter. I mean

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Speaker 2: that that's really impressive and a luxury that basically no

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Speaker 2: other teams have.

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Speaker 1: Right, even putting away my kind of bit about Charlie,

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Speaker 1: I do think that I believe this, and it's backed

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Speaker 1: up on the numbers that you've been out argue he's

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Speaker 1: the best fifth starter in the league, but he is

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Speaker 1: certainly on a very short list of if you compiled

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Speaker 1: every team's number five starter, he would probably be number

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Speaker 1: one for me, and certainly in the top two or three.

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Speaker 1: So it's a good guy to have there. We'll leave

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Speaker 1: it there. Hopefully he won't become this high profile guy.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, I think that it would not be comfortable

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Speaker 1: for anyone if you threw him in a playoff game.

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Speaker 1: But if you did it so with a short leash,

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Speaker 1: you can kind of monitor what he has when he

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Speaker 1: does because I will say about Charlie, there are times

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Speaker 1: when he has it and he looks like old Charlie,

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Speaker 1: and you can kind of tell when he doesn't have

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Speaker 1: it and he's not missing bats. I will say, it's

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Speaker 1: kind of funny. It was not his fault anyway. They

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Speaker 1: lost the game on Monday because they just couldn't score runs.

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Speaker 1: But I thought it was deeply ironic for our podcast

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Speaker 1: that the only runner that scored was hit by Charlie

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Speaker 1: by bitch yeah on brand on brand to the end,

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Speaker 1: it is not America's favorite game when it ends up

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Speaker 1: being the game winning run. Let me ask you, Brad,

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Speaker 1: and I think I know your answer, and I think

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Speaker 1: most people listening would share the same answer. But I

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Speaker 1: am curious if Game three of the wild Card round

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Speaker 1: was tomorrow, would you start Charlie Morton or would you

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Speaker 1: start Spencer Swallenbach. Oh man, it's funny because we got

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Speaker 1: a mail back question that we kind of were going

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Speaker 1: to throw out about a Game three starter because it

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Speaker 1: was we got it before lopezz injury. It was basically

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Speaker 1: gonna be Lopez versus Swallenbach. I think you have to

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Speaker 1: go to Spencer if he looks like he's looked for

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Speaker 1: the last couple of months. And I say that as

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Speaker 1: the Morton guy, I do think that there is three

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Speaker 1: weeks left and Spencer was not his best in his

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Speaker 1: last start, and maybe he hits a wall. That's definitely possible.

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Speaker 1: Charlie is also a thousand years old. But provided that

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Speaker 1: they don't know anything that we don't know about Special

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Speaker 1: Swallenbach slowing down or being worried about him. He's been

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Speaker 1: the better pitcher, so I think you go with him.

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Speaker 1: I think you got to have a plan behind him

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Speaker 1: because he's he'd be a young guy making his first

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Speaker 1: playoff start. You got to be ready for him to

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Speaker 1: know have his best stuff. But even as resident Morton guy,

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Speaker 1: it's still schelling'lock for me.

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Speaker 2: Yeah okay, yeah, I mean that's the way I was leaning.

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Speaker 2: I think most folks would feel that way, but hey,

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Speaker 2: we all are very bullish on Schwellenbach. But if his

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Speaker 2: next three starts go poorly and the Braves still find

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Speaker 2: themselves in the post it, I mean it, then it

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Speaker 2: is at least a conversation, and at least, I mean,

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Speaker 2: let's hope that we'renald the Lopez is fine. You know,

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Speaker 2: maybe they maybe they skip his next start just to

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Speaker 2: be safe or whatever the prognosis is. But it is

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Speaker 2: a conversation worth having. As there are I think seventeen

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Speaker 2: baseball games left in the regular season, we are very yeah,

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Speaker 2: we're very closely getting to October.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and hopefully October matters fifteen, which is for not

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Speaker 1: a lock unfortunately for anybody involved. We talked around it,

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Speaker 1: we don't have to dwell on it, but it was

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Speaker 1: really brutal. Offensively on Monday, they got two hits, both

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Speaker 1: were singles, but by Matt Olson, who's are pretty good lately,

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Speaker 1: got one wall from ourselves in and while Nick Martinez

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Speaker 1: having a pretty good year, my note was that he's

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Speaker 1: not Zach Wheeler. So it was one of the worst.

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Speaker 1: We don't have to legate the worst, but one of

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Speaker 1: the worst performances of the season. Offensively. It was their

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Speaker 1: tenth shutout of the year. Welcome back to in our

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Speaker 1: mailback portion of the podcast. But there's been a lot

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Speaker 1: of consternation about the lineup, and we'll tackle that. But

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Speaker 1: I thought it was also deeply I don't know, funny

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Speaker 1: is the word, that they followed up their maybe worst

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Speaker 1: showing up season offensively with one of their best with

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Speaker 1: twelve runs on Tuesday, twelve nothing. They scored ten runs

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Speaker 1: in four games coming into Tuesday, and then they scored

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Speaker 1: ten runs in four innings on Tuesday.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, incredibly on brand for this team, which seemingly nobody

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Speaker 2: can figure out. Yeah, I mean I had, I had

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Speaker 2: Monday night football on the television, and I had the

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Speaker 2: Braves on the iPad on Monday night, and thank god

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Speaker 2: there was something else to occupy him my mind and

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Speaker 2: my thoughts, because I mean, just talk about a pathetic

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Speaker 2: showing offensively on Monday, especially after you had all of

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Speaker 2: the highs and the emotion of that comeback walk off

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Speaker 2: win on Sunday afternoon. What do you do but you

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Speaker 2: follow it up with probably the worst showing of the season,

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Speaker 2: maybe at least bottom three, and the fact that we

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Speaker 2: probably can't even distinguish what is the worst showing of

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Speaker 2: the last couple of weeks probably says quite a bit

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Speaker 2: about the current state of the lineup.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, they had this one hit game against Boston Meck

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Speaker 1: in June, but the fact that they have so many

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Speaker 1: options to discuss for worst performance, it's not what you

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Speaker 1: want to see. But again to twelve and the more positive.

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Speaker 1: Briefly before we get to mail back questions, explosions really

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Speaker 1: all around eruptions, whichever one word you want to use.

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Speaker 1: On Tuesday, big game for Michael Harris to home runs,

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Speaker 1: Sean Murphy, it's a home run. Arcia hits a home run,

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Speaker 1: a bunch of doubles from Solaire and Olsen and Loreano,

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Speaker 1: et cetera. And obviously Lopez leaving the game leaves a

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Speaker 1: stink that they would probably trade in a second. If

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Speaker 1: they be able to save ten runs for tomorrow, they

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Speaker 1: would have done it. But they also it also give

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Speaker 1: them the luxury and it's not it's goinda. You could

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Speaker 1: argue it's a small thing, but it's not that small

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Speaker 1: a thing that when you lose your starting pitcher in

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Speaker 1: the first inning and you can navigate that game without

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Speaker 1: burning your bullpen it is a great sign. And they

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Speaker 1: got eight combined innings from their three I don't want

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Speaker 1: to say worse, but worse objectively pitchers on the roster

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Speaker 1: and did so. To their credit, they they pitched great's.

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Speaker 1: That's also helpful. But being up twelve nothing makes it

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Speaker 1: to where you don't have to worry about at all

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Speaker 1: getting someone like a Glaciers or Commendents.

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Speaker 2: At the bullpen. Oh, tonight's win was huge for for

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Speaker 2: many reasons. I mean, the offense was one thing, but

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Speaker 2: you're absolutely right. The fact that you could cover nine innings,

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Speaker 2: well eight innings with Jesse Chavez, John Brebia and Luke

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Speaker 2: Jackson and never have to sweat is like no small thing. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: because there's a world where the Braves score two runs

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Speaker 2: again tonight and Brian Snicker has to go to his

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Speaker 2: big four to cover the last few innings. So blowout

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Speaker 2: wins and to a lesser degree, blowout losses, but especially

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Speaker 2: blowout wins are very very important over the course of

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Speaker 2: one hundred and sixty two games. It gives everybody a breather.

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Speaker 2: It was a very rare one of these for the Braves.

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Speaker 2: I mean you could probably count on I mean you

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Speaker 2: could definitively count on one hand the number of these

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Speaker 2: kinds of victories the Braves have had in the second

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Speaker 2: half of the season, where everybody just kind of packs

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Speaker 2: it in and just walks to a victory. So the

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Speaker 2: fact that the offense showed up was great. The fact

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Speaker 2: that the bullpen picked up an injured teammate was huge.

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Speaker 2: In many ways, it was just a very easy, breezy win.

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Speaker 2: And for the offense to score ten runs in the

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Speaker 2: first four innings was I mean, it was almost like

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Speaker 2: am I am? I? You know, is this real? Because

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Speaker 2: it has been a site for sore eyes to see

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Speaker 2: the team put up crooked numbers not just in one inning,

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Speaker 2: but multiple innings at a time.

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Speaker 1: Okay, Scott, let's go to the mailbag. Unless you have

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Speaker 1: some extended thoughts on Tuesday and Monday's games. I don't

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Speaker 1: think you do. I think we're probably out of a week.

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Speaker 1: We could go deeper, but we don't have to. On

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Speaker 1: today's podcast, do you want to talk about the underachieving

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Speaker 1: line up question we got because it's one that we

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Speaker 1: could probably spend an hour on with. Try not to

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Speaker 1: do that, but I got a pretty interesting question actually

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Speaker 1: came to me so apologies to everyone for answering my

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Speaker 1: own question, but it came from Ian, a listener to

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Speaker 1: the podcast, who said, can you elaborate on what you said,

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Speaker 1: meaning me about all of the lineup underachieving other than

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Speaker 1: Azooma this season? It feels like I one in a

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Speaker 1: million chants for that to happen season to season, and

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Speaker 1: for some contexts before I give it to Scott, what

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Speaker 1: I tweeted was, and I mean this, and I've said

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Speaker 1: it on the show I think at some point in

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Speaker 1: recent days, but that Marcelo Zuna is quite literally the

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Speaker 1: only regular opening day player, like projected member of the

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Speaker 1: core team this year on offense who has met what

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Speaker 1: I would say reasonable projections for that player were coming

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Speaker 1: into the season. I did give the cavey on Twitter,

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Speaker 1: but I'll do it again now that I did not

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Speaker 1: include Travis dar No because he's technically the backup catcher,

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Speaker 1: although he definitely would qualify here. If you want to

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Speaker 1: include him, then that's fine. Shouts to Travis, very very

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Speaker 1: good player catcher in the league probably, but I wasn't

430
00:21:28,640 --> 00:21:31,639
Speaker 1: including him. But number one, before we dive into the Scott,

431
00:21:31,720 --> 00:21:32,920
Speaker 1: am I do you think I'm right about this or

432
00:21:32,960 --> 00:21:35,240
Speaker 1: you want to disagree with anybody, No, I mean.

433
00:21:35,320 --> 00:21:40,399
Speaker 2: I agree with you wholeheartedly, and I think baseball just

434
00:21:40,600 --> 00:21:43,280
Speaker 2: kind of naturally is a sport that has a lot

435
00:21:43,359 --> 00:21:47,439
Speaker 2: of variance year over year, and it's a pretty fine

436
00:21:47,440 --> 00:21:52,200
Speaker 2: margin for what constitutes a okay season versus a good

437
00:21:52,240 --> 00:21:56,240
Speaker 2: season versus a great season. Sometimes it can come down to,

438
00:21:56,560 --> 00:21:59,240
Speaker 2: you know, literally fractions of a millimeter of hitting a

439
00:21:59,240 --> 00:22:02,639
Speaker 2: baseball one direction or the other, and instead of a

440
00:22:02,680 --> 00:22:05,760
Speaker 2: warning track flyout, it's a three run homer. And the

441
00:22:05,880 --> 00:22:09,280
Speaker 2: same thing for relievers. Right, you have two bad appearances

442
00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:12,400
Speaker 2: over the course of an entire season, it can completely

443
00:22:12,440 --> 00:22:16,840
Speaker 2: skew your numbers and so on and so forth. But yes,

444
00:22:17,119 --> 00:22:21,640
Speaker 2: in terms of basically everyone in this lineup other than

445
00:22:21,880 --> 00:22:28,040
Speaker 2: Marcelo Zuna struggling significantly from their career norms, it does

446
00:22:28,080 --> 00:22:30,560
Speaker 2: feel like kind of a one in a million situation.

447
00:22:31,320 --> 00:22:33,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's wild. And I pulled these numbers before the

448
00:22:33,520 --> 00:22:35,280
Speaker 1: game tonight, so they would have changed a little bit,

449
00:22:35,359 --> 00:22:38,640
Speaker 1: probably in the positive direction, which is good. But as

450
00:22:38,680 --> 00:22:40,440
Speaker 1: soon as actually been better this year than last year.

451
00:22:40,480 --> 00:22:42,640
Speaker 1: He was really good last year too, so that's been awesome.

452
00:22:43,200 --> 00:22:46,440
Speaker 1: Hats up to him, really good year. I would say,

453
00:22:46,520 --> 00:22:48,800
Speaker 1: Riley has been the closest to being his normal self,

454
00:22:48,800 --> 00:22:50,199
Speaker 1: but even that it was a slow start, he got

455
00:22:50,240 --> 00:22:52,200
Speaker 1: picked it up that he got hurt. And by the way,

456
00:22:52,200 --> 00:22:54,440
Speaker 1: a lot of these guys have been injured too. We

457
00:22:54,520 --> 00:22:56,359
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time. I know, both of us,

458
00:22:56,400 --> 00:22:58,399
Speaker 1: and also Steve and Sean have just said this, but

459
00:22:58,480 --> 00:23:01,600
Speaker 1: just to fretting new listeners, they've also had injuries. It's

460
00:23:01,800 --> 00:23:06,679
Speaker 1: injury and not injury or but injury and underperformance. So

461
00:23:07,400 --> 00:23:10,200
Speaker 1: I'm not ignored one when I highlight the other, but

462
00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:13,720
Speaker 1: it's both. For instance, like Ronald Acunya has been out

463
00:23:13,720 --> 00:23:16,320
Speaker 1: for a long time, he also was not Ronald Acunya

464
00:23:16,480 --> 00:23:18,800
Speaker 1: before he went down. He was a good player, but

465
00:23:18,920 --> 00:23:23,679
Speaker 1: not a MVP candidate. Matt Olsen has been good lately

466
00:23:23,800 --> 00:23:26,120
Speaker 1: but still for the season well below what you would

467
00:23:26,119 --> 00:23:30,680
Speaker 1: have projected, Sean Murphy well below, Ozzi Albi's hurt and

468
00:23:30,720 --> 00:23:33,320
Speaker 1: well below same with Murphy. By the way, Michael Harris

469
00:23:33,400 --> 00:23:35,200
Speaker 1: hurt and well blow expectations. I won't give all the

470
00:23:35,280 --> 00:23:38,560
Speaker 1: numbers because it's a podcast, but Arcia, all these guys

471
00:23:38,600 --> 00:23:42,840
Speaker 1: are fifteen, twenty, thirty, forty to fifty points of the

472
00:23:43,160 --> 00:23:47,280
Speaker 1: WRC plus lower than they were last year. And yes,

473
00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:51,200
Speaker 1: you could turn around and say last year was an outlier,

474
00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:56,280
Speaker 1: but honestly, this year is a bigger outlier than last

475
00:23:56,320 --> 00:23:58,600
Speaker 1: year in my opinion. Does that sound crazy to you,

476
00:23:58,640 --> 00:24:00,080
Speaker 1: because I don't. I don't think that it is. I

477
00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:03,840
Speaker 1: think this year and great it. Last year's offense was arguably,

478
00:24:03,960 --> 00:24:06,639
Speaker 1: by the numbers only the best offense in the history

479
00:24:06,640 --> 00:24:09,000
Speaker 1: of Major League Baseball, which is crazy to say out out,

480
00:24:09,040 --> 00:24:11,439
Speaker 1: but the numbers did support that, or at least on

481
00:24:11,480 --> 00:24:14,720
Speaker 1: the very short list. And yet this year is pretty

482
00:24:14,760 --> 00:24:18,840
Speaker 1: clearly the outlier for most of these guys, not compared

483
00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:22,120
Speaker 1: to last year, but compared to their career baselines. Even

484
00:24:22,160 --> 00:24:25,679
Speaker 1: guys who like I have argued that, yeah, Acunya and

485
00:24:25,800 --> 00:24:29,640
Speaker 1: Olsen and we sent us this winner on our old podcast, Scott,

486
00:24:29,720 --> 00:24:31,760
Speaker 1: a lot of guys we would have projected to be

487
00:24:31,800 --> 00:24:35,880
Speaker 1: a little bit worse than last year, Acuna Olsen among them.

488
00:24:36,400 --> 00:24:36,920
Speaker 2: That's fair.

489
00:24:37,400 --> 00:24:39,280
Speaker 1: Progression was probably going to be coming for those guys,

490
00:24:39,760 --> 00:24:42,480
Speaker 1: but not this. This is this is an outlier.

491
00:24:42,480 --> 00:24:42,879
Speaker 3: It just is.

492
00:24:43,040 --> 00:24:47,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is. And yes, last year was like a

493
00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:51,720
Speaker 2: ninety ninth percentile outcome for the offense as a whole.

494
00:24:52,200 --> 00:24:55,879
Speaker 2: It was historic everybody had anywhere from a good to

495
00:24:56,040 --> 00:24:59,440
Speaker 2: a career best season, and you can't expect that from

496
00:24:59,640 --> 00:25:02,640
Speaker 2: your we'll call it the Big ten hitters. For the Braves,

497
00:25:02,920 --> 00:25:07,000
Speaker 2: they're eight position players. You have d'arnault and then Ozuna.

498
00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:10,600
Speaker 2: You cannot expect your ten top hitters to all have

499
00:25:10,720 --> 00:25:14,560
Speaker 2: career years every single year. And maybe that happened last season.

500
00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:19,119
Speaker 2: But I think the point is is that if I

501
00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:22,720
Speaker 2: asked you coming into the season for these ten players,

502
00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:26,120
Speaker 2: how many of them are going to exceed expectations, how

503
00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:28,800
Speaker 2: many are going to meet expectations, and how many of

504
00:25:28,840 --> 00:25:32,040
Speaker 2: them are going to fail to meet expectations. I think

505
00:25:32,119 --> 00:25:34,280
Speaker 2: logic and reasoning would would be like a third to

506
00:25:34,359 --> 00:25:37,920
Speaker 2: third and a third right, Like, three guys exceed expectations,

507
00:25:37,920 --> 00:25:40,399
Speaker 2: have great years, three of them are ho hum and

508
00:25:40,440 --> 00:25:42,879
Speaker 2: they do what they usually do, and then three of

509
00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:46,600
Speaker 2: them fall short for whatever reason. Maybe it's injury, maybe

510
00:25:46,640 --> 00:25:49,040
Speaker 2: it's bad luck, maybe it's their swing gets out of

511
00:25:49,040 --> 00:25:53,480
Speaker 2: whack mechanically. Who knows, but the fact that last year

512
00:25:53,880 --> 00:25:57,240
Speaker 2: basically all ten of those hitters had career best seasons,

513
00:25:57,720 --> 00:26:00,840
Speaker 2: including the MVP, who has missed a percent of the year,

514
00:26:01,600 --> 00:26:05,560
Speaker 2: and a fourth place finisher an MVP is Matt Olsen

515
00:26:05,680 --> 00:26:08,800
Speaker 2: is having maybe his worst offensive year of his career.

516
00:26:09,480 --> 00:26:12,400
Speaker 2: You add those, you add in the injuries, you add in.

517
00:26:12,680 --> 00:26:15,520
Speaker 2: I mean Sean Murphy looks lost at the plate. I

518
00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:17,160
Speaker 2: know he had the home run tonight, but I mean

519
00:26:17,400 --> 00:26:20,280
Speaker 2: Sean Murphy was a really good hitter in his final

520
00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:23,240
Speaker 2: couple years with the Oakland A's and even at times

521
00:26:23,320 --> 00:26:26,280
Speaker 2: last year, and he looks bad as the Albis is

522
00:26:26,320 --> 00:26:28,560
Speaker 2: having it down. I mean, you go down the list.

523
00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:33,200
Speaker 2: I don't think anyone could have realistically expected the Braves

524
00:26:33,200 --> 00:26:36,520
Speaker 2: to repeat what they did a year ago. But the

525
00:26:36,600 --> 00:26:41,320
Speaker 2: idea that basically everyone other than Marcelo Zuna and maybe

526
00:26:41,359 --> 00:26:46,080
Speaker 2: Travis Darnaut have significantly failed to meet expectations is something

527
00:26:46,160 --> 00:26:49,520
Speaker 2: I would have never projected, and even the most pessimistic

528
00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:52,640
Speaker 2: Braves fan probably wouldn't have expected.

529
00:26:53,800 --> 00:26:55,399
Speaker 1: Yeah, no one could project this. And the one thing

530
00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:57,000
Speaker 1: that I would push back a little bit to what

531
00:26:57,040 --> 00:26:59,840
Speaker 1: you said is I really think that last year. This

532
00:26:59,920 --> 00:27:01,320
Speaker 1: is old news, of course, but I think I really

533
00:27:01,320 --> 00:27:04,680
Speaker 1: think last year. The biggest thing about last season wasn't

534
00:27:04,680 --> 00:27:07,119
Speaker 1: that everyone had career years, Like there were guys in

535
00:27:07,160 --> 00:27:09,600
Speaker 1: the lineup that had good seasons that were not their

536
00:27:09,640 --> 00:27:13,879
Speaker 1: absolute best, for instance, like Michael Harris or Lando Arcia

537
00:27:13,920 --> 00:27:15,720
Speaker 1: actually had better years the previous year.

538
00:27:15,840 --> 00:27:16,400
Speaker 2: For instance.

539
00:27:17,240 --> 00:27:20,160
Speaker 1: The real thing about last year's team, sneakily beyond the

540
00:27:20,200 --> 00:27:23,480
Speaker 1: top level of Acunya and Olsen being MVP candidates, was

541
00:27:23,520 --> 00:27:25,480
Speaker 1: that there was no one that had a bad year.

542
00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:29,199
Speaker 1: And that's what you can't project to your point to

543
00:27:29,320 --> 00:27:31,639
Speaker 1: you know, last year, that was the outlier for me.

544
00:27:32,080 --> 00:27:34,240
Speaker 1: This year, the outlier is everybody going the other way.

545
00:27:34,400 --> 00:27:36,960
Speaker 1: You would expect some balance there, but even compared to

546
00:27:37,080 --> 00:27:40,719
Speaker 1: like just to be putting this out there, we're not

547
00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:44,000
Speaker 1: really comparing this year to last year exclusively. Like it's

548
00:27:44,080 --> 00:27:47,000
Speaker 1: good to use that as a data point. But like

549
00:27:47,040 --> 00:27:50,080
Speaker 1: I pulled these zips projections, which are really the ones

550
00:27:50,119 --> 00:27:52,320
Speaker 1: that I like the most from Damzi bors Kit Fangrafts

551
00:27:52,600 --> 00:27:56,000
Speaker 1: preseason projections. They bake in everything, not just last year.

552
00:27:56,119 --> 00:28:01,040
Speaker 1: They breaking history, age, all these things. And again, every

553
00:28:01,119 --> 00:28:05,280
Speaker 1: single one of these guys, every single one is significantly

554
00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:10,320
Speaker 1: below their projection, not just last year, their objective, non

555
00:28:10,400 --> 00:28:13,639
Speaker 1: biased projection. They're blow it, every single one of them

556
00:28:13,680 --> 00:28:16,840
Speaker 1: out of the Nozuna and Darno and that just you know,

557
00:28:17,240 --> 00:28:19,240
Speaker 1: what are you supposed to do. I'm shrugging as we're talking.

558
00:28:19,280 --> 00:28:22,920
Speaker 1: People can't see me, sayeh, I'm shrugging. Yeah.

559
00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:26,960
Speaker 2: Man, if anyone knows, like if anyone definitively knows in

560
00:28:27,040 --> 00:28:31,399
Speaker 2: a scientific lab and figure out what on Earth is

561
00:28:31,440 --> 00:28:36,040
Speaker 2: plaguing basically every hitter in this lineup, please tell us,

562
00:28:36,440 --> 00:28:40,880
Speaker 2: because it has been It has been so on a

563
00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:44,720
Speaker 2: nightly basis. It has been so frustrating to watch, not

564
00:28:44,760 --> 00:28:47,840
Speaker 2: only because of the production, but because a year ago

565
00:28:48,040 --> 00:28:49,880
Speaker 2: and even prior to that, where there were a lot

566
00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:52,440
Speaker 2: of same players in the lineup in twenty twenty two,

567
00:28:52,560 --> 00:28:55,600
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one. We know how good this team has

568
00:28:55,600 --> 00:28:58,880
Speaker 2: been offensively over the years, and to be in this

569
00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:03,320
Speaker 2: situation now where if you cherry pick your dates like

570
00:29:03,400 --> 00:29:06,720
Speaker 2: this has legitimately been a bottom three offense in a

571
00:29:06,800 --> 00:29:12,320
Speaker 2: lot of categories since parts of May and June. And again,

572
00:29:12,480 --> 00:29:16,080
Speaker 2: even the most pessimistic Braves fan on the planet, I

573
00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:18,000
Speaker 2: don't think would have told you this was going to

574
00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:21,040
Speaker 2: be coming back in March and April as the season began.

575
00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:23,080
Speaker 2: Definitely not.

576
00:29:23,240 --> 00:29:25,480
Speaker 1: And if I was writing this instead of talking about it,

577
00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:27,920
Speaker 1: I would throw a lot more just data out there.

578
00:29:27,960 --> 00:29:30,920
Speaker 1: It's hard to do in podcasts form, but I will

579
00:29:30,960 --> 00:29:34,480
Speaker 1: shout out. Ivan, who works over at Battery Power, has

580
00:29:34,480 --> 00:29:37,040
Speaker 1: been tracking this all year long about how the Braves

581
00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:39,760
Speaker 1: have been both bad and frustrating and also unlucky, and

582
00:29:40,320 --> 00:29:42,240
Speaker 1: people have sometimes to have a hard time separating those

583
00:29:42,240 --> 00:29:43,920
Speaker 1: two things. They think if you say that a team

584
00:29:43,920 --> 00:29:46,680
Speaker 1: is unlucky, that means that you're excusing it, which I'm

585
00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:50,520
Speaker 1: not doing. You could be both bad and unlucky. You

586
00:29:50,520 --> 00:29:53,640
Speaker 1: can have bad approach and also be unlucky. It's possible

587
00:29:53,640 --> 00:29:55,800
Speaker 1: to do both, and the Braces have done that this year.

588
00:29:56,000 --> 00:29:58,120
Speaker 1: So let's just magnified it. It's a bit worse. I mean,

589
00:29:58,520 --> 00:30:01,040
Speaker 1: they still be out of performing just approach stuff, and

590
00:30:01,080 --> 00:30:03,120
Speaker 1: like the raw data of the expected stats all that's

591
00:30:03,120 --> 00:30:05,640
Speaker 1: all the nerdy stuff at stack cast. They're still below

592
00:30:05,640 --> 00:30:08,040
Speaker 1: where they probably should be. But it's been magnified by

593
00:30:08,040 --> 00:30:10,120
Speaker 1: the by the lack of good fortune, which I know,

594
00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:11,880
Speaker 1: trust me, I know that nobody wants to hear that.

595
00:30:11,960 --> 00:30:14,160
Speaker 1: I promise you. I understand that. It's just kind of

596
00:30:14,200 --> 00:30:16,160
Speaker 1: my job to kind of stay a littleheaded, to be like,

597
00:30:16,560 --> 00:30:17,200
Speaker 1: by the way.

598
00:30:17,680 --> 00:30:21,000
Speaker 2: I'm lucky too. That's have everything else right, I mean,

599
00:30:21,760 --> 00:30:26,120
Speaker 2: I know, folks, some folks have questions about stat cast

600
00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:29,760
Speaker 2: and yeah, that's fine, Yeah, totally, I get it. Not

601
00:30:29,800 --> 00:30:33,480
Speaker 2: everyone has to love every new cyber Metrics used to

602
00:30:33,480 --> 00:30:36,440
Speaker 2: be like the buzzword in Major League Baseball about a

603
00:30:36,480 --> 00:30:39,840
Speaker 2: decade ago. You know, I'm sure we have listeners who

604
00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:44,320
Speaker 2: eat up every single stat that Fangraphs and Baseball Savant provide.

605
00:30:44,760 --> 00:30:47,000
Speaker 2: And I'm sure we have listeners who are old school

606
00:30:47,080 --> 00:30:50,320
Speaker 2: and like batting average and the more traditional stats. And

607
00:30:50,360 --> 00:30:52,840
Speaker 2: that's fine, man, that's I think one of the coolest

608
00:30:52,840 --> 00:30:56,280
Speaker 2: things about baseball is there are so many ways to

609
00:30:56,480 --> 00:31:01,080
Speaker 2: enjoy the game and to evaluate players. And when you

610
00:31:01,160 --> 00:31:03,320
Speaker 2: talk about this Braves team, and this is kind of

611
00:31:03,320 --> 00:31:06,760
Speaker 2: a great segue into our next mail bag question. YEP,

612
00:31:07,600 --> 00:31:14,000
Speaker 2: I wonder behind closed doors and behind the scenes if

613
00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:18,680
Speaker 2: there is something organizationally that is causing these players to

614
00:31:18,800 --> 00:31:23,000
Speaker 2: have issues across the board, because just even with the

615
00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:27,240
Speaker 2: randomness of baseball in the year over year variants, it's

616
00:31:27,520 --> 00:31:30,400
Speaker 2: hard for me to believe that all of these very

617
00:31:30,600 --> 00:31:36,960
Speaker 2: established professional hitters are all having really bad seasons all

618
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:40,080
Speaker 2: at the same time, and frankly, all of their issues

619
00:31:40,120 --> 00:31:42,840
Speaker 2: are pretty similar across the board.

620
00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:49,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, so this is where it gets interesting, because we

621
00:31:49,720 --> 00:31:53,240
Speaker 1: got a question that you segue beautifully into from Lewis,

622
00:31:53,640 --> 00:31:58,080
Speaker 1: who just says, this is sites are getting fired. I

623
00:31:58,080 --> 00:31:59,959
Speaker 1: don't know how much more of this I can watch

624
00:32:00,360 --> 00:32:02,120
Speaker 1: if you don't know who that is. It's Kevin Seiser's

625
00:32:02,160 --> 00:32:04,840
Speaker 1: as the hitting coach for the Braves. He's been around

626
00:32:04,880 --> 00:32:07,959
Speaker 1: for a very long time, I will admit, longer than

627
00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:08,600
Speaker 1: I remembered.

628
00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:09,440
Speaker 2: I looked at it.

629
00:32:09,440 --> 00:32:12,520
Speaker 1: I looked it up. He was hired in October of

630
00:32:12,560 --> 00:32:15,360
Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, so we're coming up on ten years of

631
00:32:15,440 --> 00:32:18,280
Speaker 1: Kevin Seitzer being the batting coach for the Braves. He

632
00:32:18,360 --> 00:32:21,280
Speaker 1: replaced Greg Walker. If you were my age or older,

633
00:32:21,320 --> 00:32:24,680
Speaker 1: you might remember that era. But just for reference, he's

634
00:32:24,680 --> 00:32:28,959
Speaker 1: been around longer than Brian Snicker as far as Snicker

635
00:32:28,960 --> 00:32:32,680
Speaker 1: as the manager. He was hired under Freddy Gonzalez and

636
00:32:32,720 --> 00:32:34,320
Speaker 1: was Underfriday for about a year and a half before

637
00:32:34,360 --> 00:32:38,600
Speaker 1: Sni was promoted to the interim manager title. So look

638
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:41,800
Speaker 1: what I'm not and I know you're not either. We're

639
00:32:41,840 --> 00:32:45,320
Speaker 1: not people that jump to fire so and so when

640
00:32:45,360 --> 00:32:47,920
Speaker 1: things go wrong. You know, we've had our qualms with

641
00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:51,080
Speaker 1: Snicker over the years, et cetera. But we're not like

642
00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:54,760
Speaker 1: the solution is to fire the hitting coach. Guys, but

643
00:32:55,840 --> 00:32:58,480
Speaker 1: this is one of those seasons, whether he deserves it

644
00:32:58,560 --> 00:33:00,640
Speaker 1: or not, quote unquote, I'm using the giant quotes there

645
00:33:01,600 --> 00:33:04,920
Speaker 1: where when this happens, when your team is built to

646
00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:08,720
Speaker 1: be fantastic offensively, and look, he should get credit for

647
00:33:08,720 --> 00:33:11,560
Speaker 1: this too. He last year, he gets credit because whether

648
00:33:11,560 --> 00:33:13,240
Speaker 1: it's his fault or not, or his credit or not,

649
00:33:13,440 --> 00:33:15,720
Speaker 1: they were uber elite last year and he has to

650
00:33:15,720 --> 00:33:17,680
Speaker 1: get credit for that. But the same thing happens this

651
00:33:17,760 --> 00:33:20,680
Speaker 1: year where yeah, there were injuries, but when this lineup

652
00:33:20,880 --> 00:33:24,000
Speaker 1: performs this way for this long, people are going to

653
00:33:24,040 --> 00:33:27,440
Speaker 1: look at the hitting coach. Yeah, and I wonder what

654
00:33:27,840 --> 00:33:30,360
Speaker 1: that even says, Like it just hasn't worked at all.

655
00:33:30,440 --> 00:33:33,480
Speaker 1: And the approach stuff. I'm not an next We watch

656
00:33:33,480 --> 00:33:36,280
Speaker 1: a lot of baseball, we analyze baseball. I'm not a

657
00:33:36,360 --> 00:33:39,040
Speaker 1: hitting coach. I can see, I can see some things,

658
00:33:39,280 --> 00:33:41,120
Speaker 1: but I won't purport to be someone who can fix

659
00:33:41,160 --> 00:33:44,400
Speaker 1: somebody's swing. But I will say there have been many, many,

660
00:33:44,480 --> 00:33:47,920
Speaker 1: many nights, many moments, many plan appearances where it's like, guys,

661
00:33:48,200 --> 00:33:50,000
Speaker 1: is there a plan here? And that's the kind of

662
00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:53,400
Speaker 1: stuff that will push it. Of course, I was to

663
00:33:53,440 --> 00:33:56,160
Speaker 1: push the focus more toward the approach side, and that

664
00:33:56,200 --> 00:33:57,720
Speaker 1: when the approach side is more and play, you're talking

665
00:33:57,720 --> 00:33:58,480
Speaker 1: about the hitting coach.

666
00:33:59,600 --> 00:34:02,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you took the words out of my mouth.

667
00:34:02,760 --> 00:34:04,760
Speaker 2: There are some nights where I've sat on my couch

668
00:34:04,840 --> 00:34:07,640
Speaker 2: and watched the game and like said aloud to my

669
00:34:07,800 --> 00:34:09,920
Speaker 2: dog or my wife or whoever will listen to me,

670
00:34:11,160 --> 00:34:14,319
Speaker 2: what are they doing? And I think that was something

671
00:34:14,360 --> 00:34:16,839
Speaker 2: the last couple of years that the Braves seemingly had

672
00:34:16,880 --> 00:34:20,520
Speaker 2: this great plan in the batter's box every single night.

673
00:34:21,120 --> 00:34:24,040
Speaker 2: Some nights they were really aggressive. Some nights it looked

674
00:34:24,040 --> 00:34:27,080
Speaker 2: like they were genuinely going out there against a good pitcher,

675
00:34:27,520 --> 00:34:30,080
Speaker 2: just trying to foul off a bunch of pitches to

676
00:34:30,120 --> 00:34:32,960
Speaker 2: get him out of the game after five inches. And

677
00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:35,680
Speaker 2: it worked, because the Braves won one hundred plus games

678
00:34:35,719 --> 00:34:38,720
Speaker 2: in both of the last two years. So the fact

679
00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:42,239
Speaker 2: that they have gone from this offensive juggernaut to this

680
00:34:42,680 --> 00:34:47,640
Speaker 2: borderline unwatchable team offensively is I mean, it stumps me.

681
00:34:48,320 --> 00:34:50,560
Speaker 2: I really don't know, Brad. I mean, I think to

682
00:34:50,680 --> 00:34:57,799
Speaker 2: answer Lewis's question, is Kevin Sitzer getting fired? I'm going, man,

683
00:34:58,080 --> 00:35:00,840
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know. To be honest, I would.

684
00:35:00,600 --> 00:35:03,800
Speaker 1: Say we can't possibly know, just to give that caveat

685
00:35:03,840 --> 00:35:06,600
Speaker 1: like we're not even if we're not on the beat.

686
00:35:06,680 --> 00:35:09,040
Speaker 1: I doubt the beat guys know either, but we're not

687
00:35:09,200 --> 00:35:10,279
Speaker 1: in the clubhouse every day.

688
00:35:10,320 --> 00:35:11,040
Speaker 2: We don't know.

689
00:35:11,920 --> 00:35:16,200
Speaker 1: We're just going to give our semi educated guess say

690
00:35:16,200 --> 00:35:17,319
Speaker 1: it out loud to me.

691
00:35:17,680 --> 00:35:20,560
Speaker 2: I think in sports there are moments where like everybody

692
00:35:20,640 --> 00:35:23,319
Speaker 2: in the world knows a coach is getting fired, Like

693
00:35:23,400 --> 00:35:26,839
Speaker 2: you know, it's it's week eighteen, the NFL team has

694
00:35:26,920 --> 00:35:29,920
Speaker 2: quit and the team is two and fourteen, Like everybody

695
00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:34,839
Speaker 2: knows that coach is getting fired. I don't man to

696
00:35:34,880 --> 00:35:37,759
Speaker 2: not cop out. I would say it is fifty one

697
00:35:38,840 --> 00:35:44,640
Speaker 2: percent likely that Sitzer is back next season, but I

698
00:35:44,680 --> 00:35:47,600
Speaker 2: don't say that with any conviction. And frankly, the next

699
00:35:47,640 --> 00:35:50,840
Speaker 2: three weeks, and I mean, let's say this, Brad, what

700
00:35:50,920 --> 00:35:53,160
Speaker 2: if the Braves make the postseason and they win a

701
00:35:53,160 --> 00:35:58,200
Speaker 2: couple of rounds and album performs pretty well, then you know,

702
00:35:58,280 --> 00:36:01,440
Speaker 2: But at the same time, to be on the other

703
00:36:01,520 --> 00:36:04,200
Speaker 2: end of that argument, let's say the Braves continue to

704
00:36:04,280 --> 00:36:06,960
Speaker 2: not score any runs in the last three weeks of

705
00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:10,359
Speaker 2: the season and against the Mets, which is probably going

706
00:36:10,400 --> 00:36:14,439
Speaker 2: to determine the Playoffs, the Braves play New York three

707
00:36:14,480 --> 00:36:17,719
Speaker 2: games at Truest Park, the second to last series of

708
00:36:17,719 --> 00:36:20,920
Speaker 2: the year. If the Braves go out and score two

709
00:36:21,080 --> 00:36:24,759
Speaker 2: runs in those three baseball games, me, it feels to

710
00:36:24,800 --> 00:36:28,120
Speaker 2: me like the next three weeks will probably decide whether

711
00:36:28,239 --> 00:36:32,480
Speaker 2: or not sitz Er is brought back for twenty twenty five. Yeah.

712
00:36:32,480 --> 00:36:34,840
Speaker 1: I tend to agree. And this is a very very

713
00:36:35,160 --> 00:36:40,480
Speaker 1: loyal situation where like Brian Snicker is not going to

714
00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:43,640
Speaker 1: be someone that's going to be actively trying to fire

715
00:36:43,960 --> 00:36:46,759
Speaker 1: one of his key lieutenants. Like that's the rep that

716
00:36:46,800 --> 00:36:48,839
Speaker 1: Sni has and it's one he's earned that steady hand

717
00:36:48,920 --> 00:36:53,120
Speaker 1: has done a lot for the organization. So that's part

718
00:36:53,120 --> 00:36:58,440
Speaker 1: of this too. And again, it's really hard to do

719
00:36:58,480 --> 00:37:01,520
Speaker 1: this in a vacuum because it would have been insane.

720
00:37:01,680 --> 00:37:04,879
Speaker 1: Scott if we if we put the odds on Kevin

721
00:37:04,920 --> 00:37:06,320
Speaker 1: Sides are being fired at the end of the season

722
00:37:07,080 --> 00:37:09,640
Speaker 1: in March, what would the odds have been. It would

723
00:37:09,640 --> 00:37:10,520
Speaker 1: have been infantissimal.

724
00:37:11,080 --> 00:37:14,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, five percent, two percent, right, I mean nothing.

725
00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:16,799
Speaker 1: So the combination of it would have had to go

726
00:37:16,920 --> 00:37:20,239
Speaker 1: this bad for it to even be a question, And

727
00:37:20,320 --> 00:37:23,279
Speaker 1: even then we still don't know. So I do ten

728
00:37:23,320 --> 00:37:25,040
Speaker 1: to agree with you, and it sounds like a copy.

729
00:37:25,080 --> 00:37:29,040
Speaker 1: I'm sure about whether it'll happen. Uh, wake me up

730
00:37:29,040 --> 00:37:31,080
Speaker 1: and ask me in a month, is the real answer,

731
00:37:31,520 --> 00:37:33,480
Speaker 1: because I think that the Braves could erase some of

732
00:37:33,520 --> 00:37:36,279
Speaker 1: this stuff. And it's a results based business. If they

733
00:37:36,360 --> 00:37:39,040
Speaker 1: hit at the right times, if they get hot, if

734
00:37:39,040 --> 00:37:42,120
Speaker 1: they keep winning and make a run of some kind,

735
00:37:42,360 --> 00:37:45,320
Speaker 1: then you know you can credibly look at your roster

736
00:37:45,400 --> 00:37:47,359
Speaker 1: and your and your coaching staff and be like, all right,

737
00:37:47,440 --> 00:37:51,600
Speaker 1: no changes. And again, I believe he's their longest tenured coach.

738
00:37:51,960 --> 00:37:54,320
Speaker 1: I mean, besides, of course it's found on the roster,

739
00:37:54,560 --> 00:37:58,080
Speaker 1: on the organization forever. But yeah, we have situation and

740
00:37:58,080 --> 00:37:59,960
Speaker 1: one that's like hard to answer, and we talked to

741
00:38:00,239 --> 00:38:01,800
Speaker 1: I know you brought it up and got yelled at before,

742
00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:03,520
Speaker 1: and I don't I don't think you're crazy off for

743
00:38:03,560 --> 00:38:05,880
Speaker 1: bringing it up. There's this whole subplot right now as well.

744
00:38:05,880 --> 00:38:06,960
Speaker 1: I don't know if you want to dive into this

745
00:38:07,080 --> 00:38:11,080
Speaker 1: or not. Chipper Jones gave an interview this week expressed

746
00:38:11,120 --> 00:38:13,960
Speaker 1: some frustration with the organization it seemed like, or the players,

747
00:38:14,040 --> 00:38:16,080
Speaker 1: or maybe it's just about modern baseball through the lens

748
00:38:16,080 --> 00:38:18,880
Speaker 1: of the Braves with Corey Klueber. He talked to him

749
00:38:18,880 --> 00:38:21,799
Speaker 1: about that Chipper always comes up in conversations because he,

750
00:38:22,520 --> 00:38:26,520
Speaker 1: for all of Chipper's chipperness is a base is a

751
00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:30,320
Speaker 1: hitting savant, always was, and he has gotten some credit

752
00:38:30,400 --> 00:38:33,239
Speaker 1: for fixing guys or tweaking some stuff, and he hasn't

753
00:38:33,280 --> 00:38:36,239
Speaker 1: been around the team. I for one, and I'll let

754
00:38:36,280 --> 00:38:39,640
Speaker 1: you respond. I for one, I think that's that's overblown.

755
00:38:39,840 --> 00:38:40,040
Speaker 2: I do.

756
00:38:40,160 --> 00:38:41,840
Speaker 1: I don't think that the reason the Bridge are not

757
00:38:41,920 --> 00:38:43,759
Speaker 1: hitting this year is because Chipper hasn't been around. That

758
00:38:43,800 --> 00:38:47,200
Speaker 1: seems insane to me. But it's also fair to be like, hey,

759
00:38:47,200 --> 00:38:49,319
Speaker 1: it's maybe it's a factor. Like he is, he is

760
00:38:49,360 --> 00:38:52,560
Speaker 1: a genius of a hitter, So what do you think

761
00:38:52,560 --> 00:38:54,640
Speaker 1: about that whole situation. It's it's a subplot, but it's

762
00:38:54,680 --> 00:38:55,120
Speaker 1: something that's.

763
00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:58,960
Speaker 2: We're talking about. And if folks missed this, Chipper was

764
00:38:59,000 --> 00:39:02,520
Speaker 2: on Corey Klueber podcast and I believe it's on YouTube

765
00:39:02,560 --> 00:39:06,440
Speaker 2: as well, just talking about offense in general, and I,

766
00:39:06,520 --> 00:39:09,400
Speaker 2: you know, the first couple minutes, I kind of it

767
00:39:09,520 --> 00:39:12,960
Speaker 2: sounded very John Smoltz like, where Chipper was just like

768
00:39:13,080 --> 00:39:17,520
Speaker 2: completely crapping on everything about modern baseball. Oh yeah, there

769
00:39:17,560 --> 00:39:19,319
Speaker 2: was a lot of that in there. Yeah, it was,

770
00:39:19,480 --> 00:39:21,840
Speaker 2: and I get it. Man, Like these guys John Smoltz,

771
00:39:21,920 --> 00:39:25,399
Speaker 2: Chipper Jones played in a different era. They are phenomenal

772
00:39:25,400 --> 00:39:28,840
Speaker 2: baseball players, and I think they're really sharp baseball minds,

773
00:39:29,360 --> 00:39:33,640
Speaker 2: even if they don't necessarily agree with what the Braves preach.

774
00:39:34,239 --> 00:39:38,560
Speaker 2: And Chipper talked about that and the fact that organizationally,

775
00:39:38,960 --> 00:39:45,080
Speaker 2: Alexanthopolis and team really praise slugging and getting on base,

776
00:39:46,080 --> 00:39:51,320
Speaker 2: and Chipper had some interesting comments about situational hitting and bunting,

777
00:39:51,719 --> 00:39:55,120
Speaker 2: and it is worth a listen to be sure. I

778
00:39:55,160 --> 00:39:58,920
Speaker 2: think my takeaway is I absolutely love every time Chipper

779
00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:02,640
Speaker 2: Jones is around the I would trust him with any

780
00:40:02,680 --> 00:40:05,880
Speaker 2: hitter on this team, truly, Like if anyone's in a slump,

781
00:40:06,200 --> 00:40:09,240
Speaker 2: go talk to Chipper. Hell bring in Chipper Jones's dad,

782
00:40:09,480 --> 00:40:13,000
Speaker 2: who's apparently like a hitting coach genius as well. I

783
00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:15,879
Speaker 2: think Freddie Freeman talked about Chipper's dad helping him out

784
00:40:15,880 --> 00:40:19,319
Speaker 2: one time. But at the same time, man, I mean,

785
00:40:19,360 --> 00:40:22,799
Speaker 2: I love Chipper, I wish he was around, But the

786
00:40:22,920 --> 00:40:26,000
Speaker 2: idea that Chipper not being around the team is the

787
00:40:26,040 --> 00:40:29,560
Speaker 2: reason they have gone from a historic offense to this

788
00:40:30,440 --> 00:40:33,839
Speaker 2: very painful to watch offense. I mean, I just don't

789
00:40:33,880 --> 00:40:36,200
Speaker 2: think that is the common denominator here.

790
00:40:36,960 --> 00:40:39,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this is almost like our third and probably

791
00:40:39,640 --> 00:40:41,080
Speaker 1: final No, that question for the day is like, we

792
00:40:41,160 --> 00:40:43,880
Speaker 1: got a lot of questions about Chipper and this offshoot

793
00:40:43,880 --> 00:40:46,239
Speaker 1: of the podcast and all that stuff, And I do

794
00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:48,720
Speaker 1: think it's interesting. He's obviously a Hall of Famer and

795
00:40:48,760 --> 00:40:51,920
Speaker 1: a huge name, and I would be interested to get

796
00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:54,480
Speaker 1: true serrium on the brave side of what they think

797
00:40:54,520 --> 00:40:57,040
Speaker 1: about Chipper saying what he said on this podcast and

798
00:40:57,840 --> 00:41:01,760
Speaker 1: what that relationship's like right now. But yeah, it's just interesting,

799
00:41:02,000 --> 00:41:04,400
Speaker 1: especially in the midst of this competition about Sitzer and

800
00:41:04,440 --> 00:41:08,239
Speaker 1: the conversation about their offense not being very good for

801
00:41:08,280 --> 00:41:10,799
Speaker 1: a long period of time now and all that stuff

802
00:41:10,880 --> 00:41:13,440
Speaker 1: is rolled into one. But we didn't fix everything on

803
00:41:13,520 --> 00:41:15,840
Speaker 1: this podcast, Scott, but we did manage to answer some

804
00:41:15,920 --> 00:41:18,920
Speaker 1: questions and talk about the offense in a more comprehensive fashion.

805
00:41:18,960 --> 00:41:20,400
Speaker 1: Like I said before, we were going to do a

806
00:41:20,440 --> 00:41:23,360
Speaker 1: lot of bailbag and then Lopez got heard and we

807
00:41:23,440 --> 00:41:25,400
Speaker 1: kind of had a pivot. But hopefully that was that

808
00:41:25,480 --> 00:41:27,600
Speaker 1: was good enough for today to satisfy that we do

809
00:41:27,640 --> 00:41:29,480
Speaker 1: light bailback questions. So if you want to ever send

810
00:41:29,480 --> 00:41:33,440
Speaker 1: any in you can do so, especially via Twitter slash x.

811
00:41:33,960 --> 00:41:37,880
Speaker 1: We're at Hammer Territory as a podcast. We're also individually

812
00:41:37,880 --> 00:41:41,200
Speaker 1: on there. I'm at bt Rowland, Scott is at Scott

813
00:41:41,200 --> 00:41:44,439
Speaker 1: Plan fifty five. Also Sean and Steven are active on

814
00:41:44,680 --> 00:41:46,600
Speaker 1: Twitter slash x as well, and we also have an

815
00:41:46,600 --> 00:41:48,680
Speaker 1: email address if anybody who ever wants to use it.

816
00:41:48,680 --> 00:41:52,719
Speaker 1: It's Hammer Territory at gmail dot com Scott. Before we

817
00:41:52,760 --> 00:41:54,920
Speaker 1: sign off, do you want to have any thoughts on

818
00:41:55,080 --> 00:41:57,800
Speaker 1: the I almost want to call it a finale. I

819
00:41:57,800 --> 00:41:59,480
Speaker 1: guess it's anale because it's the last game against the

820
00:41:59,560 --> 00:42:01,839
Speaker 1: Nats all season long on Wednesday night.

821
00:42:03,200 --> 00:42:05,799
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, for a club the Braves have really

822
00:42:05,840 --> 00:42:09,719
Speaker 2: struggled against this season. Let's hope that the Braves can

823
00:42:09,760 --> 00:42:12,720
Speaker 2: go out there and sweep this mini two game series

824
00:42:12,800 --> 00:42:16,160
Speaker 2: in Washington. Max Freed is going to be out there.

825
00:42:16,480 --> 00:42:19,719
Speaker 2: Max has been really, really good lately, and he'll be

826
00:42:19,719 --> 00:42:23,520
Speaker 2: opposed by Jake Irvin, who has been awesome against the

827
00:42:23,520 --> 00:42:27,880
Speaker 2: Braves in recent starts, although Irvin has been pretty bad otherwise.

828
00:42:28,040 --> 00:42:31,239
Speaker 2: And maybe that's not a giant shock, but you win

829
00:42:31,280 --> 00:42:33,600
Speaker 2: this big game on Tuesday night, Let's hope they get

830
00:42:33,600 --> 00:42:37,759
Speaker 2: good news on Rinaldo's shoulder. If you can win on Wednesday,

831
00:42:38,040 --> 00:42:41,479
Speaker 2: then you're off on Thursday and come right back home

832
00:42:41,760 --> 00:42:44,520
Speaker 2: for a very important four game series with the Dodgers.

833
00:42:45,120 --> 00:42:47,239
Speaker 2: So let us all hope the Braves can take care

834
00:42:47,280 --> 00:42:51,880
Speaker 2: of business on Wednesday night, keep the momentum rolling, especially

835
00:42:51,880 --> 00:42:54,160
Speaker 2: on a night when the Mets lost and are playing

836
00:42:54,640 --> 00:42:57,160
Speaker 2: a Blue Jays team that's still fighting as we saw

837
00:42:57,200 --> 00:42:59,600
Speaker 2: over the weekend. Let's hope the Braves can keep the

838
00:42:59,680 --> 00:43:04,600
Speaker 2: moment and then get ready for a talented, even if injured,

839
00:43:04,640 --> 00:43:07,680
Speaker 2: quite a bit Dodgers team. For I mean, man, four

840
00:43:07,680 --> 00:43:11,279
Speaker 2: games at home against La is about as important of

841
00:43:11,280 --> 00:43:13,479
Speaker 2: a series as the Braves are going to play this month.

842
00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:16,120
Speaker 2: You right about that for sure. And to back you up,

843
00:43:16,200 --> 00:43:19,440
Speaker 2: Jake Urban three stars against the Braves this year, seventeen

844
00:43:19,480 --> 00:43:23,200
Speaker 2: to the third innings, one point zero four ERA. So

845
00:43:23,280 --> 00:43:27,320
Speaker 2: he has been base like against Atlanta and pretty middling

846
00:43:27,360 --> 00:43:31,960
Speaker 2: against everybody else. But we will see what happens Wednesday. Wednesday,

847
00:43:32,239 --> 00:43:35,840
Speaker 2: I will still say, objectively speaking, free versus Irvan is

848
00:43:35,840 --> 00:43:36,880
Speaker 2: an advantage to the Braves.

849
00:43:36,960 --> 00:43:39,799
Speaker 1: So we'll circle back. Maybe I'll sound crazy a day

850
00:43:39,800 --> 00:43:42,319
Speaker 1: from now, but I will stand on that for now.

851
00:43:42,920 --> 00:43:44,960
Speaker 1: All right, We'll have more coming up later on this

852
00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:47,600
Speaker 1: week on the podcast. I believe our friends Steven and

853
00:43:47,600 --> 00:43:50,640
Speaker 1: Sean have plenty to add to the discussion. In between

854
00:43:51,280 --> 00:43:53,719
Speaker 1: appearances from us, You and I will our schedule to

855
00:43:53,719 --> 00:43:55,480
Speaker 1: be back at some point over the weekend to discuss

856
00:43:55,600 --> 00:43:58,360
Speaker 1: part of the Dodger series. But one more time, Scott,

857
00:43:58,400 --> 00:44:00,480
Speaker 1: anything to share before we signed off today?

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Speaker 2: Nothing to share. I hope everybody out there is doing well,

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Speaker 2: and we always do. We sincerely mean it when we

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Speaker 2: say we appreciate all the support for the show. So

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Speaker 2: take care everybody. And yeah, we'll have penty of shows

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Speaker 2: coming on the feed this week. That's right.

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Speaker 1: Please subscribe one more time. A more plea from us

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Speaker 1: to smash that subscribe button on Apple, on Spotify multiple times.

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Speaker 1: If you want to overcast Amazon Music, I believe we're

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00:44:25,600 --> 00:44:27,279
Speaker 1: on there. We're now on YouTube if you want to

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Speaker 1: find us there. Ratings and reviews very much appreciated. Follow

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Speaker 1: us across social media Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc. At Hammer Territory.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much listening to the podcast today. Stay

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Speaker 1: tuned for more this week, and we'll see you all

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Speaker 1: next time.