Speaker 1: I mean, if the Braves come even close to the
Speaker 1: number of injuries they had last year, I don't know
Speaker 1: what they need to do in that clubhouse because that
Speaker 1: would be all time bad luck and back to back years.
Speaker 2: Hammer Territory host Scott Coleman joining us right now on
Speaker 2: Foul Territory. Big crowd in the Atlanta area, really in
Speaker 2: Braves country, all in the Southeast that's watching right now.
Speaker 2: So we're excited to have be on. Scott is the
Speaker 2: most downloaded Braves podcast, So go check it out and
Speaker 2: we're going to get right to biz because we got
Speaker 2: a lot to cover with the Braves. So let's hit
Speaker 2: the storylines. Don't rush me. Ronald Acunya back again from
Speaker 2: a major lower body injury. We'll see how he does
Speaker 2: with the knee. Chris Sales encore, We'll see how he does.
Speaker 2: How often do they maybe rest him to make sure
Speaker 2: that he is ready for a postseason run. But you
Speaker 2: also got to get in Spencer Strike coming back soon.
Speaker 2: And is there a shortstop void with this team? Should
Speaker 2: they have gone after somebody to handle the infield and
Speaker 2: move Orlando Arcia to more of a bentrol All right,
Speaker 2: let's start at the top. Ronald Cunya Junior super important
Speaker 2: part of this team. They didn't have him for a
Speaker 2: good chunk of last season. What do you think of
Speaker 2: what they've said so far and what Ronald has said.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the Braves probably learned a lesson a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago when Acuna tore his ACL the
Speaker 1: first time, and while he was still good by at
Speaker 1: least maybe the league standards, Ronald Acunya Junior was not
Speaker 1: the superstar level player that we all have come to
Speaker 1: see when he returned in twenty twenty two after he
Speaker 1: tore his ACL the first time, he just it never
Speaker 1: looked like Ronald felt comfortable. And because of that, I
Speaker 1: think the Braves are showing extra caution, and not only
Speaker 1: just this spring, but even in the offseason. Alex and
Speaker 1: Thoppolos said, I think the winter meetings that Ronald was
Speaker 1: not going to be on the opening day roster, and
Speaker 1: that's a significant statement when you're still four months away
Speaker 1: from opening day at that point. So I think the
Speaker 1: Braves are going to be overly cautious with their superstar outfielder.
Speaker 1: And if it means that if you have a Kunya
Speaker 1: closer to one hundred percent whenever he does make it
Speaker 1: back to the field, maybe in late April or even
Speaker 1: at some point in May. I think the Braves are
Speaker 1: probably playing the long game here and just banking on
Speaker 1: Acunya being more of himself because we know how high
Speaker 1: his ceiling is when everything is clicking and when he
Speaker 1: is feeling good.
Speaker 3: Speaking of guys feeling good last year, Chris sale my boy,
Speaker 3: or as my bay, as Kratz likes to call him,
Speaker 3: because you know, I caught his I caught his debut
Speaker 3: and I've known him for a long time. So Cratz
Speaker 3: and Jels, then nobody likes him that much. Okay, here
Speaker 3: we go, but can he do it again? He's thirty six,
Speaker 3: He had an unbelievable year, you know, Cy Young, the whole,
Speaker 3: the whole Enchilada kind of tweaked his back at the end,
Speaker 3: had a full healthy offseason. Can he do this again
Speaker 3: and be a Chris so because they're going to need
Speaker 3: him to be that Chris silly was last year, especially
Speaker 3: with some of the guys they've lost.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I know Chris has been on the
Speaker 1: show a couple of times, this time a year ago.
Speaker 1: Of course, he's going to have confidence in himself as
Speaker 1: a competitor and someone who's been doing it at a
Speaker 1: high level for a long time. But I don't even
Speaker 1: know if Chris Sale would have told you that he
Speaker 1: had eighteen and three with a two point four ERA
Speaker 1: and leading Baseball and war still in him. But Sale
Speaker 1: was so impressive last season, and I think the Braves
Speaker 1: handled him perfectly. A year ago, I was looking at
Speaker 1: this earlier. Chris Sale made twenty nine starts last season.
Speaker 1: He had at least one extra day of rest in
Speaker 1: twenty two of those twenty nine starts, and I don't
Speaker 1: think it's a coincidence that up until that very final
Speaker 1: week of the season when the backspasms popped up, that
Speaker 1: Sale was just so dominant basically every single time he
Speaker 1: went out there. So I would imagine the Braves are
Speaker 1: going to have a very similar plan. If it ain't broke,
Speaker 1: don't fix it. And you're absolutely right, I think protecting
Speaker 1: Sale and keeping him healthy and hopefully ready for the
Speaker 1: playoffs should that time come, is going to be the priority.
Speaker 1: And if that means that they have to call up
Speaker 1: somebody from TRIPAA to make a spot start or to
Speaker 1: give Sale an extra day of rest, I think you
Speaker 1: do it because we know just how good this guy
Speaker 1: is whenever he's been healthy, I mean not even just
Speaker 1: last year with the Braves, but basically his entire career.
Speaker 1: When Chris Sale has been healthy, he's been awesome, and
Speaker 1: the Braves are really going to need him in that rotation,
Speaker 1: especially with guys like Max Freed and Charlie Morton moving on.
Speaker 3: Sales stayed healthy all the way till the very end,
Speaker 3: but other key members of that core of that team
Speaker 3: did not stay healthy. Is this going to be a
Speaker 3: trend moving forward here going into twenty twenty five or
Speaker 3: have they figured out how to hopefully curtail that from
Speaker 3: happening again.
Speaker 1: It's a big question, and I just have to think
Speaker 1: that after just an all time unlucky season for the
Speaker 1: Braves with injuries last year, that they're gonna they're do
Speaker 1: some good fortune from the baseball gods. I mean, just
Speaker 1: a quick rundown for folks, if maybe they aren't Braves fans.
Speaker 1: This is like an abridged version of what this team
Speaker 1: lost last year. Spencer Strider missed basically the entire year,
Speaker 1: Acuna tore his acl in May, Austin Riley broke his
Speaker 1: hand and missed the final two months of the season.
Speaker 1: Ozzy Alby's broke his toe and then broke his wrist.
Speaker 1: Sean Murphy, their all star catcher from a year ago,
Speaker 1: had a nasty oblique injury on opening Day, missed two
Speaker 1: months and basically wasn't himself all year. Michael Harris, their
Speaker 1: five tools center fielder, missed two months with a hamstring.
Speaker 1: Aj Minter, who's been one of the better lefty setup
Speaker 1: men in the game for the past couple of years,
Speaker 1: had a hip injury and ultimately underwent surgery. And honestly,
Speaker 1: I mean, the microcosm of the season, guys, was friend
Speaker 1: of the show. Wit Merrifield joined the Braves as an
Speaker 1: injury replacement for Ozzy, always at second base in Mirfield.
Speaker 1: On his very first day in Atlanta, has a nasty
Speaker 1: finger injury in pregame warm ups and ends up missing time.
Speaker 1: And it's been one of the more tougher iron men
Speaker 1: in the game for his whole career. And what happens
Speaker 1: when he shows up and he's in Atlanta for one
Speaker 1: day and then he needs to miss time with a
Speaker 1: finger injury. He also hurt his foot too, So I mean,
Speaker 1: by the end of the year, the Braves were starting
Speaker 1: three waiver claims basically every night because of all the
Speaker 1: injuries they suffered. And I mean, it's a credit to
Speaker 1: them for still winning eighty nine games and getting into
Speaker 1: the playoffs at the very end, but man alive. I mean,
Speaker 1: if the Braves come even close to the number of
Speaker 1: injuries they had last year, I don't know what they
Speaker 1: need to do in that clubhouse because that would be
Speaker 1: all time bad luck and back to.
Speaker 3: Back years and all of that, all of those injuries
Speaker 3: and their all star shortstop from twenty to twenty three,
Speaker 3: Orlando Garcia had a one of my really good friends,
Speaker 3: had an abysmal year, and somehow they still made the playoffs.
Speaker 3: So if you think the Braves are, you know, they're out,
Speaker 3: down and out. Don't like you just forget exactly how
Speaker 3: good this team is. But that shortstop position, are they
Speaker 3: gonna just roll with? Oh? Are they going to then say, Okay,
Speaker 3: we're just gonna keep an eye on it the whole
Speaker 3: time because it's tough to find big league shortstops. Could
Speaker 3: it be a trade part way through the season, or
Speaker 3: is there a prospect in the pipeline that might be
Speaker 3: able to be that next answer at shortstop.
Speaker 1: For them, it sure seems like they're gonna roll with
Speaker 1: Orlando Arcia again in shortstop. I'd be fascinated to know
Speaker 1: behind the scenes what work the front office did to
Speaker 1: try to improve that position. And the story the Braves
Speaker 1: will tell you publicly is they feel that if everybody
Speaker 1: is healthy or at least mostly healthy in that lineup,
Speaker 1: if Orlando Arcia is batting ninth and playing good defense
Speaker 1: and just giving you a little bit of offense in
Speaker 1: that ninth hole at shortstop, they're going to be fine offensively.
Speaker 1: That being said, that was their plan a year ago,
Speaker 1: and then half of the team got hurt and there
Speaker 1: was a stretch where Arcia was batting fifth because he
Speaker 1: had had a couple of good games in a row,
Speaker 1: and it's like, who else is going to hit here?
Speaker 1: Why not have him bat fifth? For Arcia, he just
Speaker 1: wasn't very good last season offensively. He was really really
Speaker 1: bad with runners in scoring position, and it felt like
Speaker 1: by the end of the year it was almost a
Speaker 1: mental block for Arcia where he would come up with
Speaker 1: two runners on base and just the bat and the
Speaker 1: approach was all off, and it was in his head
Speaker 1: at that point so I think the Braves they're just
Speaker 1: hoping and banking that Arcia is more of the player
Speaker 1: he was in twenty twenty three, when funny enough, he
Speaker 1: had a great first half and was actually an All Star,
Speaker 1: and then just hope that it's more of twenty twenty
Speaker 1: three than the player who struggled quite a bit last season.
Speaker 2: Scott, great insight. Of course, you hear all of this
Speaker 2: plus the ft hat that he's wearing on Hammer Territory
Speaker 2: many episodes every single week when there is breaking news,
Speaker 2: they're out there instantly with an emergency episode. You can
Speaker 2: see Scott and Brad there to others as well. It's
Speaker 2: a four team crew to make sure that they've got
Speaker 2: you covered for Braves coverage all year long, many many
Speaker 2: episodes right after games to kind of serving as your
Speaker 2: postgame show. So Scott, great to see you, Thanks for
Speaker 2: the insight, and we'll see you on Hammer.
Speaker 1: Thanks Ell, it's great to talk with you all and
Speaker 1: happy to have baseball back.