Speaker 1: Their leadoff men are on basing about two seventy thus
Speaker 1: far this year, and Ronald is a market improvement to that,
Speaker 1: and I think that makes Olsen better, Riley better.
Speaker 2: Grand McCauley covers the Braves for ninety two nine in
Speaker 2: the game host of From the Diamond, among many other
Speaker 2: gigs all over the Brave scene. Back with us, Grant,
Speaker 2: we love having you on, Thanks for the time, give
Speaker 2: us the goods. First on Spencer Strider. So he's back
Speaker 2: and had very I would say candid words about how
Speaker 2: he was pissed about his first start pack, then his
Speaker 2: second start of the year and second start since the
Speaker 2: long surgery. So where are we at with him?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think this is going to be a matter of,
Speaker 1: in some respects knocking the rust off. And it's kind
Speaker 1: of a shame that he works so hard for a
Speaker 1: calendar year to get himself back, only to land on
Speaker 1: the injured list with a separate malady that caused him
Speaker 1: to sit around. And I say that loosely because obviously
Speaker 1: he was still working over that time. So I think
Speaker 1: he's going to kind of have to get back to
Speaker 1: where he was before the hamstring and then find his
Speaker 1: way to make his incremental improvements. But there is no
Speaker 1: two ways about the fact that this is one of
Speaker 1: the most competitive pitchers players I think maybe in any
Speaker 1: sport for that matter. And he's very candid and he's
Speaker 1: very direct about his expectations for himself and what he
Speaker 1: wants to provide to the Atlanta Braves. So I think
Speaker 1: you heard some of that or read some of that
Speaker 1: after last night's start. It's kind of a journey throughout
Speaker 1: the course of coming back from an injury like this
Speaker 1: to get back to where he wants to get to.
Speaker 1: But if hard work and those and talent we combine
Speaker 1: the way that they have for Spencer Strider in the past,
Speaker 1: I would think that he's going to find his way there.
Speaker 3: It just might take a little while.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I agree totally with you. This guy is
Speaker 4: an absolute stud. He's been doing it for a couple
Speaker 4: of years now. Now. My question along those lines are,
Speaker 4: how did how does his teammates perceive him? I mean,
Speaker 4: he talks this you know, big thing about you know,
Speaker 4: not doing well, which I think is courageous. I think
Speaker 4: is honesty. I love honesty, Like, how do how do
Speaker 4: his team mates take them? And they got to be
Speaker 4: happy as a clam right now having him back.
Speaker 3: No doubt about it.
Speaker 1: And I actually heard Mett Olson say after a game
Speaker 1: on the recent homestand or the recent road trip rather
Speaker 1: that like, he's one of the leaders of this club.
Speaker 1: And I think that it's easy to see and easy
Speaker 1: to understand why because of who he is and how
Speaker 1: he approaches the game on and off the field. He
Speaker 1: has a tremendous respect, I think, for his opportunity and
Speaker 1: his job each and every time he takes the ball,
Speaker 1: and that's one of the things that I think makes
Speaker 1: him so authentic. And I think we all like authenticity,
Speaker 1: and Spencer Strider is one of those people that doesn't
Speaker 1: come around too incredibly often, so it's tremendous to have
Speaker 1: him back in there. But obviously he knows he wants
Speaker 1: to get himself back to that level physically where he's
Speaker 1: able to impact the game the way that he's used
Speaker 1: to doing prior to this most recent elbow surgery.
Speaker 4: I think this next streak they have going along here
Speaker 4: they got after Washington, here, they got San Diego, Philly
Speaker 4: and Boston. I feel like this is gonna, in my opinion,
Speaker 4: prove to be where they're at right now. During the season,
Speaker 4: not saying if they do bad, they're not going to
Speaker 4: climb back, but this is a big series coming up.
Speaker 4: Where do you see this Brave's team. They're five hundred
Speaker 4: right now, where do you see this going?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: And how hard was it to get to five hundred
Speaker 1: when you start to season zero and seven. So I
Speaker 1: think they probably felt behind or behind the eight ball
Speaker 1: a little bit early on, but we're able to keep
Speaker 1: the confidence that it is a long season, it's a marathon.
Speaker 1: And once they were able to get back to some
Speaker 1: version of full strength, which obviously we can talk about
Speaker 1: how Ron Lacuna Junior could factor into that they were
Speaker 1: going to play the kind of baseball they expect to.
Speaker 1: And since starting out five and thirteen, they pretty much
Speaker 1: have played at about a six hundred clip. That will
Speaker 1: punch your ticket to the postseason, even if you've had
Speaker 1: a less than stellar start, and that ultimately is their
Speaker 1: big goal. But you're going to have to test yourself
Speaker 1: against the kinds of teams that you're going to see there.
Speaker 1: They know all about the Padres and the Phillies and
Speaker 1: clubs like that, especially the last three years in October,
Speaker 1: So even if nobody's looking at it and saying it
Speaker 1: is to your point, the end all be all. You'd
Speaker 1: like to measure yourself up against the be and feel
Speaker 1: like you're on the right path. And I think the
Speaker 1: Braves have been. But this will be the latest test
Speaker 1: to kind of see where this version of the Braves
Speaker 1: is at this point in the season.
Speaker 3: Obviously, they you know, they don't want to be five hundred,
Speaker 3: but they're happy that they're five hundred right now based
Speaker 3: on how it started. But back to Strider, how long
Speaker 3: do you think the ORG can continue to lean on
Speaker 3: him or how long do you think the ORG feels
Speaker 3: like they're fine with some diminished velocity. You saw him
Speaker 3: get hurt yesterday by breaking balls that you're like, eh,
Speaker 3: normally those breaking balls are not the ones he's throwing
Speaker 3: in those locations. And then he got hit hurt by
Speaker 3: ninety five by Dylan Cruz. He looked more mortal. So
Speaker 3: how long can the ORG say, hey, you know what,
Speaker 3: we know, we're not going to get one hundred percent
Speaker 3: Strider for the first however many starts. But how long
Speaker 3: is that for the Braves? Yeah, it's a good question.
Speaker 1: I think as long as he's competitive in keeping them
Speaker 1: in game, he will continue to get the opportunity to
Speaker 1: make those improvements and to get back to where he is.
Speaker 1: But obviously, to the point of everything that everybody's doing
Speaker 1: all year long, you want to win. And that's not
Speaker 1: lost on Spencer's strider either, which is why I think
Speaker 1: those comments last night, particularly referencing, Look, they had to
Speaker 1: send Bryce Elder out for me to get this chance,
Speaker 1: and I'm not pitching well. And if I don't pitch well,
Speaker 1: I don't deserve to be out there. So with that,
Speaker 1: it's the backdrop of all of this. If those Candi
Speaker 1: comments are to be taking at face value, which I
Speaker 1: have no reason to believe they're not, he understands what's
Speaker 1: at stake. If he's not able to make these adjustments,
Speaker 1: now are the days of ninety seven ninety eight continually
Speaker 1: in the zone and you know this fastball slider behind him.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I'm prepared to say that, because
Speaker 1: I think that Spencer wanted to make some improvements to
Speaker 1: his arsenal that allowed him to be able to be
Speaker 1: a true pitcher and to have that finesse and to
Speaker 1: be able to have options to keep hitters off of
Speaker 1: certain pitches and just evolve, I guess, but at some
Speaker 1: point I think you got to go with what works.
Speaker 1: And he said this before to him last spring when
Speaker 1: the curveball was the big conversation. Look, I'm a fastball,
Speaker 1: slider pitcher. I know that, but I do like to
Speaker 1: have other options, and I think he's trying to work
Speaker 1: on some of those.
Speaker 3: But back to the.
Speaker 1: Main point, You've got to be able to compete with
Speaker 1: your best stuff, and I think that Spencer Strider is
Speaker 1: not quite there in terms of his absolute best and
Speaker 1: most consistent fastball for sure.
Speaker 3: Okay, first I need to ask a question to set
Speaker 3: up my next question. It's just yes or no. Rono
Speaker 3: Viccunya will not be an MVP caliber player right when
Speaker 3: he gets back. I'm gonna say no, Okay, that's fine,
Speaker 3: and that's fine. I'm not gonna hold you to it.
Speaker 3: If he does awesome, great, not expecting seventy bags, a
Speaker 3: million homers, all that stuff. Yet with Olsen just hitting
Speaker 3: with not Olsen just hitting his tenth home run, I
Speaker 3: think last night, is he the biggest key or is
Speaker 3: Austin Riley the biggest key in this lineup moving forward
Speaker 3: the rest of the season.
Speaker 1: I think moving forward, the rest of this. If we're
Speaker 1: putting Acuna over off into his own special category, that
Speaker 1: Matt Olson is probably the most important X factor Outside
Speaker 1: of that, I think we've seen what we need to
Speaker 1: see from Austin Riley, But I would probably put those
Speaker 1: guys in a dead heat, a one A one B
Speaker 1: kind of scenario if you're talking about the importance of
Speaker 1: stacking this lineup to do the kind of damage the
Speaker 1: Braves are accustomed to. But keep in mind what Matt
Speaker 1: Olsen was a couple of years ago, a fifty plus
Speaker 1: homer hitter who can drive in one hundred and forty runs.
Speaker 1: If that's the ceiling, and maybe it's the outlier, it's
Speaker 1: still not crazy to think that he can do seventy
Speaker 1: five percent of that, which would make him by my
Speaker 1: simple math, you're a forty homer hitter who couldkno get
Speaker 1: one hundred ten or one hundred and twenty runs, and
Speaker 1: that is most definitely what the Braves need. But to
Speaker 1: drive in those kind of runs, how about having Acunya
Speaker 1: back at the top of the order, even if he's
Speaker 1: not the MVP. For his career per one sixty two,
Speaker 1: Ronald has averaged one hundred and thirty runs score. That's
Speaker 1: what they need at the top of the order because
Speaker 1: their leadoff men are on basing about two seventy thus
Speaker 1: far this year, and Ronald is a market improvement to that.
Speaker 1: And I think that makes Olsen better, Riley better, Ozuna better,
Speaker 1: and on down the list.
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Speaker 3: At Has Nick Allen filled in admirably or just filled
Speaker 3: in for this Braves team?
Speaker 1: I think he's filled in admirably. Defensively speaking, he has
Speaker 1: been above and beyond I think anybody's realistic expectations, even
Speaker 1: if you kind of knew maybe he was a glove
Speaker 1: first infielder, the plays that he makes, the setup that
Speaker 1: he has, the instincts that he has, I mean, it's
Speaker 1: been very, very impressive. And he's not going to hit
Speaker 1: a ton. I think we've kind of seen, you know,
Speaker 1: what we saw coming in. Maybe that's there's not much there,
Speaker 1: though his minor league numbers were encouraging that maybe.
Speaker 3: There was a little something.
Speaker 1: But I think if the rest of this lineup is hitting,
Speaker 1: you're pretty happy with what you're getting defensively. But to
Speaker 1: go back to the conversation of the winter and really,
Speaker 1: since Dansby Swanson left, are the Braves settled at shortstop?
Speaker 3: I'm not convinced of that.
Speaker 4: Still a lot of question marks, and we're forty eight
Speaker 4: games in, we're almost what we're getting there. It seems
Speaker 4: like the year is flying right by my question to
Speaker 4: you is, I know it's a little far away, but
Speaker 4: can you see this team during the trade deadline do
Speaker 4: something here, especially if they are, you know, a few
Speaker 4: games out, or is this a team right now? It's like,
Speaker 4: we'll see where we go. Hopefully we get everybody back
Speaker 4: after injury.
Speaker 1: I feel like they're set up to do something at
Speaker 1: the trade deadline, and there's almost more pressure to do
Speaker 1: so because they weren't able to accomplish their winter goals.
Speaker 1: I mean, in no version of the script would I say, well,
Speaker 1: the Braves looked at their pitching staff and thought they
Speaker 1: didn't need anything. I think they would have liked to
Speaker 1: have gotten another high leverage reliever, which was only exacerbated
Speaker 1: when Joey Menez could be out for the year. And
Speaker 1: I think they would have liked to have added somebody
Speaker 1: to fortify the rotation and really give them that standout group.
Speaker 1: So I think that those are still areas that they're
Speaker 1: going to go out and shop for now, getting Strider
Speaker 1: back and hopefully finding his form again, which is a
Speaker 1: big part of his return, is an impact arm. It's
Speaker 1: a question about that Acunya back. I mean, what club
Speaker 1: wouldn't like to be looking at players like that and
Speaker 1: welcoming those guys back in for the run through the
Speaker 1: dog days this summer and beyond the trade deadline and
Speaker 1: all the things that are ahead. So I think that
Speaker 1: they are poised to do something at the trade deadline,
Speaker 1: and I've heard Alex Anthopolos talk about it. The math
Speaker 1: for them, how they look at the luxury tax and
Speaker 1: when you get to the trade deadline, you're really only
Speaker 1: talking about having to pay for a third of that
Speaker 1: player's salary for the year. So I think that could
Speaker 1: make them a very intriguing team out there lurking for
Speaker 1: some big names and some big ads when the trade
Speaker 1: deadline does get here, and to be frank, they might
Speaker 1: need them.
Speaker 3: Does Craig Kimberl get more or less than five saves
Speaker 3: on this season for the Atlanta Braves.
Speaker 1: I'm going to say less because I do think Ryce
Speaker 1: Eleglacias is capable of figuring it out, so it's kind
Speaker 1: of out of Craig Kimberl's hands. He's been trending better
Speaker 1: in Triple A Guinette. I think the velocity is finally
Speaker 1: starting to tick up. He's starting to make back to
Speaker 1: back appearances. I think he could be a factor. I mean,
Speaker 1: you look at that resume, how could you overlook him
Speaker 1: or underestimate him? But there were some serious questions at
Speaker 1: the end of last year about his ability to be
Speaker 1: that guy in the ninth inning for the final three outs,
Speaker 1: which is a crazy thing to say about someone who's
Speaker 1: fifth all time and saves. But I still think it's
Speaker 1: a Glacius's job to lose. I don't think we've seen
Speaker 1: the best version of ryceell Iglesias, and I think that
Speaker 1: those adjustments can and will be made, and the Braves
Speaker 1: very much need him to because they don't need one
Speaker 1: more question on top of everything else, which is who's
Speaker 1: going to get the last three outs for us?
Speaker 2: Grant, tell me where we're at with Rice l. I
Speaker 2: mean he's still pretty consistently giving up runs. I mean
Speaker 2: I'm not seeing even in the past, what five six
Speaker 2: appearances now a lot of clean outings. The era is
Speaker 2: close to six. What are you seeing, right, I don't
Speaker 2: see every single appearance. What are you seeing? And why
Speaker 2: do you think that it can be fixed?
Speaker 1: His home run rate, I believe should normalize. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's not going to give up eighteen or twenty home
Speaker 1: runs this year. And the Braves certainly aren't going to
Speaker 1: allow that to happen in the ninth inning most certainly,
Speaker 1: so they're going to have to sort that out. And
Speaker 1: that's the adjustment I think he has to make. Because
Speaker 1: last year he allowed four homers and roughly seventy innings.
Speaker 1: He's already allowed to believe half a dozen in twenty
Speaker 1: or thereabouts innings this year, so that rate is off
Speaker 1: the charts. But he's looked better. I feel like over
Speaker 1: the past week or two. He was used infrequently early on.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that might have kind of gotten
Speaker 1: him a little bit out of the norm coming out
Speaker 1: of spring training because he didn't have save opportunities there
Speaker 1: for about two weeks, so that could be part of it.
Speaker 1: But the stuff's still there. I think he's just made
Speaker 1: some mistakes. He's hung some pitches, and he hasn't been
Speaker 1: able to get away with those mistakes. But I haven't
Speaker 1: noticed anything that makes me feel like Ryce I Iglesias
Speaker 1: looks like a shell of himself, or that he's just
Speaker 1: doesn't have it. I think he's just got to make
Speaker 1: those adjustments. The Braves believe he can and he will.
Speaker 1: But as we all know, father time is undefeated and
Speaker 1: you know, closers, relievers. I mean, it's volatile, like you
Speaker 1: just don't have guys that you know, never run into
Speaker 1: a bad patch or a bad you know time in
Speaker 1: their career where they maybe get taken out of that
Speaker 1: leverage position. That being said, that would be the most
Speaker 1: unideal thing to happen at think in the bras bulpin
Speaker 1: as it's currently constructed.
Speaker 2: And the confidence flow of that position, right, I mean,
Speaker 2: yesterday we spoke to Pap about it. It's like, even
Speaker 2: if you're unlucky, but it happens a few times in
Speaker 2: a row, things can spiral. Yeah, yeah, so we'll see
Speaker 2: what happens. But Grant always great insight. Great to have
Speaker 2: you on everyone watching here. If you don't already get
Speaker 2: Granted file, you can see everything that he's doing. But
Speaker 2: on Twitter it's just his name first and last, Grant McCauley.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Grant, good to see you. Thanks guys, Let's
Speaker 2: get some more. That's what he said. Let's go to
Speaker 2: Luis Robert through an interpreter. He said, right now, as
Speaker 2: my season is going, I don't think anybody is going
Speaker 2: to take a chance on me. I just focus on
Speaker 2: trying to get better. I can't think of anything else.
Speaker 2: I mean, he's the sub two hundred batting average, sub
Speaker 2: three hundre on base, just a hair over three hundred
Speaker 2: on his slugging percentage. You're kind of like, damn, what happened?
Speaker 2: This was a really fun player to watch. He's had
Speaker 2: trouble staying on the field, but it's like space jam. Yeah,
Speaker 2: someone took his powers.
Speaker 4: Yeah, listen, I'm not a big fan of the quote.
Speaker 4: I feel like he's kind of throwing in the towel here.
Speaker 4: How about how about saying, hey, listen, I know I'm struggling,
Speaker 4: but I'm one bad away from getting my mind right
Speaker 4: and getting after it. I want to He's a confident guy.
Speaker 4: I believe he's gonna get back on track. I like
Speaker 4: the way he plays. I mean, listen, a couple of
Speaker 4: years ago, I have forty home runs, one or two
Speaker 4: home runs. He had thirty eight or thirty nine, and
Speaker 4: he's he's fine. He's just going through it right now.
Speaker 4: You know that kind of quote there that would steer
Speaker 4: me away from wanting a guy the confidence. I mean, listen,
Speaker 4: you're in the big leagues for a reason. You're going
Speaker 4: to struggle. That's part of it. It's how you get
Speaker 4: out of it. All of the sun. These next three weeks,
Speaker 4: he can go off on a terry, but about in
Speaker 4: two fifteen, no time. That's that's the biggest problem. The
Speaker 4: psyche up here. You gotta be mentally strong in baseball
Speaker 4: and here a quote like that. It's kind of sad
Speaker 4: at the same time because we know and we've seen
Speaker 4: him do really good. I just think he's mentally needs
Speaker 4: to get right and understand how good he really is.
Speaker 3: Chris gets he's like, no, stop stop talking, stop talking.
Speaker 3: This has been the mo around him, and we had
Speaker 3: never really heard much from him. The m around him
Speaker 3: was like, don't know, Like is he fully engaged every
Speaker 3: game because he still has his superpowers. He clearly wants
Speaker 3: to get a stolen base he's got. I think he's
Speaker 3: leading the league right now. I think he's got seventeen
Speaker 3: or eighteen stone bases. Like he's running when he's on
Speaker 3: his on base percentage, while it is lower than his
Speaker 3: career norm, his walk rate has gone up. Maybe that's
Speaker 3: because nobody's around him. To me, if he he's a
Speaker 3: change of scenery guy, the GM that trades for him,
Speaker 3: is taking a risk that wherever he fits into, he's
Speaker 3: going to be like, you know what I want. I
Speaker 3: want to win and I want to be the best
Speaker 3: player that I can be, because when he is that guy,
Speaker 3: I don't believe in outliers. I don't believe, and I
Speaker 3: believe when you have a season, an elite season like
Speaker 3: he had, you're only playing under that. That is not
Speaker 3: like he'll never reach that again. I disagree. I think
Speaker 3: he's playing below those expectations. And really, it's hard to
Speaker 3: come to the park every day if you're not motivated
Speaker 3: for something. He's got a contract, it's going to be
Speaker 3: a little bit till he needs another contract. But your
Speaker 3: team is losing one hundred games back to back seasons.
Speaker 3: Last year they weren't even competitive at all. So it's hard.
Speaker 3: It's hard to get going for some guys because he's
Speaker 3: not really he's not playing for his life. And if
Speaker 3: he keeps malasing through the season, he's not gonna have
Speaker 3: any trade value.
Speaker 2: He's right, he's not gonna cost as much right now.
Speaker 2: If the White Sox do want to move him. It
Speaker 2: gets tricky for the Socks though, because then you're like, okay,
Speaker 2: we have basically no payroll, so that's not the problem.
Speaker 2: We might as well let him try to find it
Speaker 2: again and increase his value. There's still years left on
Speaker 2: the deal. It's not like he's a free agent after
Speaker 2: this season either, So it does get tricky when it
Speaker 2: comes to the asking price.
Speaker 4: That's very tricky, and it's not a good time for
Speaker 4: the White Sox right now at all. I mean to
Speaker 4: get anybody really in return.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Alloy was a very promising bat and by the
Speaker 2: end of trade deadline time last year, the Orioles picked
Speaker 2: him up. Are like the Orioles and I don't remember
Speaker 2: it being a big return. And you're like, or he might.
Speaker 2: Did he get cut or did he get traded? I
Speaker 2: don't even know whatever it was. My point is, CRATSN
Speaker 2: that was a really good looking group for a very
Speaker 2: short period of time, and these guys aren't old in
Speaker 2: baseball terms.
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Speaker 3: We are we saying the Orioles are going to be
Speaker 3: those that trifecta, the Orioles trifecta. Are they going to
Speaker 3: be what the White Sox trifecta ended up being? I mean,
Speaker 3: think about the White Sox. They had e Lloyd, they had,
Speaker 3: they had Yoamankata, Luise, Robert. All of them kind of
Speaker 3: fizzled at the same time. Not old not you know,
Speaker 3: they didn't. The only thing they lost was Jose Abrahu,
Speaker 3: that kind of leader in the clubhouse, the guy that
Speaker 3: kind of kept them accountable, and then their production went down. Orioles,
Speaker 3: are they gonna see the same thing from Gunner and
Speaker 3: Adlee or are they going to be able to turn
Speaker 3: it around?
Speaker 2: Joan, Luis, Robert and Looyjmenez are not thirty years old yet,
Speaker 2: none of them that's in Yawn's twenty nine. Eloye is
Speaker 2: twenty eight, Robert is twenty seven.
Speaker 3: How many managers did they have through their prime of
Speaker 3: their time in Chicago. Shame on the Chicago organization. That's
Speaker 3: all I have to say about that. Shame on them
Speaker 3: for not putting people in their lives to get the
Speaker 3: most out of them. I Ultimately it's up to them. Ultimately,
Speaker 3: it's up to each of those guys. But they went
Speaker 3: through I'm not sure who the manager was before Tony LaRussa.
Speaker 2: I can do this game with you.
Speaker 4: Go ahead, I can.
Speaker 2: I can get the year, the year to year, just
Speaker 2: so we can try and track how many managers they had.
Speaker 3: Right, I'm forgetting who was there there before Tony.
Speaker 4: I was. I was there with Rick.
Speaker 2: So well, let's start with what's the first season. So
Speaker 2: Mancata's first year with the White Sox was twenty seventeen.
Speaker 3: Clearly, clearly because Todd forgot that they were teammates. So
Speaker 3: I remember that.
Speaker 2: Yep, so we know what they so ready for this toia? Right,
Speaker 2: Rick Rentoia was your manager, right in twenty seventeen, Griffall what.
Speaker 4: Was his name?
Speaker 2: Fall was later? Yeah, then you had Tony Larusa, right,
Speaker 2: it took over for Rick yep, yep, Miguel Cairo after Tony.
Speaker 2: I was brief but Cairo, So that's three Besa, Pedro
Speaker 2: Grifol that's four, Grady Sizemore that's five, And for the
Speaker 2: Robert who's still there, it's Will Venable. I'm counting six
Speaker 2: managers since twenty seventeen.
Speaker 3: If you want somebody to be engaged, if you want
Speaker 3: somebody to be engaged, you also have to be engaged
Speaker 3: with them. You also have to build up that rapport,
Speaker 3: that relationship. And sometimes we fail as leaders, as managers,
Speaker 3: as coaches at being engaged with our players. But for
Speaker 3: three guys in one organization to have as big a
Speaker 3: lapses as they have, people will be like, oh, at
Speaker 3: least Robert lou Bob he was. He was legit, and
Speaker 3: you're right, he was legit. But to me, I don't
Speaker 3: think that is his max. I think he can do
Speaker 3: more because of the skill set that he has.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you got to see what it looks like somewhere else.
Speaker 2: Moncott is actually starting to heat up a little bit.
Speaker 2: Did you see his homer yesterday? Oh my gosh, he pulled.
Speaker 3: The well and he hit well on Triple A Stadium.
Speaker 2: Yeah, hey, do you know what he's up to? Two
Speaker 2: twenty nine batting? But he's he's always been more of
Speaker 2: a play discipline on base guy. Right, he's I don't
Speaker 2: think he's been a big batting average monster two twenty nine.
Speaker 2: It's been okay, mid mid two hundreds, I think average career. Yeah,
Speaker 2: two fifty three, three forty nine on base, that'll play
Speaker 2: forty six slug for an eight thirty five ops, one
Speaker 2: thirty four ops plus that'll play.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: That I've never seen. I've seen different eyeblacks. I've seen
Speaker 3: the cross, I've seen the lines. I think somebody Cobby's
Speaker 3: using it in LA or in the rays. He's in
Speaker 3: a double line. He did dots. He went dot dot
Speaker 3: dot dot dot. It was like he had Morse code
Speaker 3: on his EyeBlack.
Speaker 4: Okay, I like that.
Speaker 3: That's fun flash.
Speaker 2: I know, yeah, why regular EyeBlack.
Speaker 3: That's tired, really tired. But there's that.
Speaker 2: Yeah under the lights. But hey, good for the Angels,
Speaker 2: I mean, nice pickup. I mean he might be trade
Speaker 2: bait if things don't work out for them, but clearly
Speaker 2: this is a guy who moves on from another from
Speaker 2: that org and then.
Speaker 4: He's been playing for a while now too.
Speaker 2: That should be a good selling point for the socks, Like, hey,
Speaker 2: did you see how we screwed up you on Mancata
Speaker 2: and what he's doing.
Speaker 4: Now, this could.
Speaker 2: Be yours, Luise, Robert could be yours.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what he said.
Speaker 2: That's what he said.
Speaker 3: That's what he said.
Speaker 2: That's what he said. We were waiting for.
Speaker 4: That's what he said.
Speaker 2: On and the Oriols front office leader for not one,
Speaker 2: not two, but three days after he fires manager Brandon Hyde,
Speaker 2: who some thought would be the guy to lead the
Speaker 2: Orioles to a World Series title or at least be
Speaker 2: a big part of this franchise for a long time.
Speaker 2: Got players and tears in the clubhouse after that went down.
Speaker 2: I'm sure many of them feel responsible, but also that
Speaker 2: Hide should be the manager of this team, and he
Speaker 2: probably will be a successful manager with someone else. Let's
Speaker 2: get some bizz here. So the question was asked to
Speaker 2: Elias on why he waited three days to speak publicly
Speaker 2: about Hyde's dismissal. The quote, it's a pretty hectic few days.
Speaker 2: Got Tony as in Mansolino, the interms manager in place,
Speaker 2: and traveled up here with the team and just needed
Speaker 2: a couple of days. Jacob Calvin Meyer's been on the
Speaker 2: show covers the oriols on a daily basis, said Michael
Speaker 2: Lias's players were not given that same privilege of a
Speaker 2: few days. Half of the clubhouse spoke on Saturday, right,
Speaker 2: and Elias didn't speak until Tuesday. The first player that
Speaker 2: had to speak was a twenty one year old, as
Speaker 2: in Jackson Holliday. Others had to hold back tears. These
Speaker 2: are the same players who have MIC's in their face
Speaker 2: minutes after blowing a safe or striking out to end
Speaker 2: a game. Really well worded tweet in my mind to
Speaker 2: say you've done this after a game. You're there, right,
Speaker 2: You always showed up, You're accountable. Sure, we don't ask
Speaker 2: for the gms to talk all the time, but when
Speaker 2: they do something like this, they need to be available
Speaker 2: pretty quickly to explain it so that it doesn't fall
Speaker 2: on you. Matchine for three days, you've got to be
Speaker 2: in the clubhouse getting asked about why Hide's gone and
Speaker 2: how things are different and whatever. Not to mention they
Speaker 2: lost all three games. Yeah, I mean, would you be
Speaker 2: pissed if you're a player? Yeah, I a little disappointed.
Speaker 4: I mean just the disappointment would be that he needed
Speaker 4: to take a couple of days hearing that you know,
Speaker 4: if he didn't say anything. Listen, their business man. At
Speaker 4: the end of the day, they do whatever the heck
Speaker 4: they want. If I'm worried about what he's going to say,
Speaker 4: or what he's not going to say, or where the
Speaker 4: heck he is, then I'm not focused on the task
Speaker 4: at hand. So yeah, maybe you're like, oh, where the
Speaker 4: heck did he go? But for him to say I
Speaker 4: need a couple of days off that that would be like,
Speaker 4: you know, okay, wow, okay, what do you want to say?
Speaker 2: Ten minutes is all it takes, right, everybody, everybody can
Speaker 2: put ten minutes together, and this like should be one
Speaker 2: of your top responsibilities, like you make the movie everything.
Speaker 4: You should be speaking. It's the time.
Speaker 2: Well, because obviously for you, you're going to be like, hey, whatever,
Speaker 2: I mean, that's his thing. He's going to talk when
Speaker 2: he talks. My only thing is like you played in
Speaker 2: New York, they're going to be MIC's in your face
Speaker 2: every day and you're I know what you'd say, I mean, asked,
Speaker 2: asked the GM it's it was his movie, and then
Speaker 2: I'm going to say back, yeah, he's not available, Todd.
Speaker 4: That's very interesting, exactly, like.
Speaker 2: He won't he won't talk yet. You know he's hiding.
Speaker 4: Have you seen him? Yeah? No, I'm looking at one
Speaker 4: of the quotes he said, how confident he is in
Speaker 4: his own ability to lead here. Yeah, I'll read a verbatim.
Speaker 4: I've had a Michael I said, I have had a
Speaker 4: lot of success. I believe in my career, and I
Speaker 4: think that we did a really strong job in building
Speaker 4: up this franchise. This is deeply disappointed me, and I'm
Speaker 4: doing everything the power to correct and improve it. How
Speaker 4: long has he been there for? Do we know?
Speaker 2: Off top pen, I think it was twenty nineteen or
Speaker 2: twenty what is it? Six years?
Speaker 4: So he's only been there for six years. I mean,
Speaker 4: I've had a lot of success, right, that's the first
Speaker 4: words he said.
Speaker 2: He took over a tanking team, so you get all
Speaker 2: the draft picks, all the good stuff.
Speaker 4: Right. Have they won a championship, they won a playoff game,
Speaker 4: they won a playoff game.
Speaker 2: He had a lot of success with the Astros.
Speaker 4: Yeah, oh okay, but he's having that success here.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean, so what are we doing? They shouldn't go ahead?
Speaker 4: Go ahead? Crazy?
Speaker 3: No? No, can I give like a different view of this?
Speaker 3: And I know we we rip on Michael laias for
Speaker 3: the moves that he's made, the way he spent the
Speaker 3: money that ownership does it. I feel like some of
Speaker 3: the things that have gone down in the last few days,
Speaker 3: whether they're out of character for him or not. Does
Speaker 3: it feel like he was pressured to get rid of
Speaker 3: Brandon Hyde. Do we feel like he didn't want to
Speaker 3: get rid of Brandon Hyde and yet he had to.
Speaker 3: Ownership was pushing it because I think sometimes public sentiment
Speaker 3: is different than actual, like good decisions. And I'm not
Speaker 3: saying he's made all the right decisions, but he's on
Speaker 3: He's kind of on the defense saying I've done a
Speaker 3: lot of really good things, saying, hey, you know what,
Speaker 3: why why am I going to come out and say
Speaker 3: anything in these first few days here when I haven't
Speaker 3: I'm not the one that made this decision. Maybe Ownership
Speaker 3: will step up and say something. I don't know, Maybe
Speaker 3: I'm totally off base. Maybe it's something that he sees
Speaker 3: himself going out the door and he's like, you know what,
Speaker 3: maybe I don't need to put my name on the
Speaker 3: fact that we shouldn't have fired the manager that every player.
Speaker 2: Likes and was a good soldier, right. I mean, Jackson
Speaker 2: Holliday actually has had pretty good numbers for the year
Speaker 2: at the plate so far, at least if you're going
Speaker 2: off weighted stats to go psplus. I mean, he's sat
Speaker 2: a lot. There's a lot of platoon action that goes
Speaker 2: on with the team. Where does that usually come from
Speaker 2: the breast the breass right, And you have to work
Speaker 2: with them and be like, Okay, I'm going to do that.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: He's a good soldier and well like by the players.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think everybody that has a pulse on
Speaker 2: the team knows that this had almost nothing to do
Speaker 2: with Brandon Hyde. Brandon Hyde was not going to fix
Speaker 2: the starting staff. He wasn't going to fix most things
Speaker 2: with what was going on on the field, Crats. But
Speaker 2: do we now live in a world where you cannot
Speaker 2: do nothing when your season's done and you're in the
Speaker 2: thick of your winning window. You did the tanking for
Speaker 2: a long time. You had two pretty good seasons in
Speaker 2: the last two years. Neither of them came up with
Speaker 2: a playoff appearance, though, and now you're one of the
Speaker 2: worst teams in baseball and you're going to be selling
Speaker 2: at the deadline, right, They're not going to be the
Speaker 2: ultimate comeback story. So with all that being said, you
Speaker 2: have to do something, and what else can you do?
Speaker 2: I'm saying public pressure and ownership pressure nowadays is they
Speaker 2: weren't going to ride this whole season out doing nothing.
Speaker 2: I agree with what you say. I think he probably
Speaker 2: didn't want to let him go. If it was me,
Speaker 2: I wouldn't want to let him go either. But if
Speaker 2: I'm the GM, I would potentially look at firing myself
Speaker 2: because I'm the one that messed up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like people aren't going to do that, but in
Speaker 3: my opinion, ownership's not gonna Yeah, I mean ownership that
Speaker 3: would that would I think ownership would say, look, we
Speaker 3: gave you seventy three seventy five million dollars at it
Speaker 3: on Kyle Gibson, so seventy five million dollars to spend
Speaker 3: this offseason. You didn't spend it very well. You have
Speaker 3: to go and fire the manager because whether you think
Speaker 3: he is the one, I'd like to fire you, but
Speaker 3: we can't because that would set a precedent that I
Speaker 3: don't know the teams have ever seen, let alone an
Speaker 3: ownership group that is I mean, they have brand new
Speaker 3: carbon in their offices like they just moved in. They're
Speaker 3: you know, they're super new on the scene here, and
Speaker 3: they expected a lot more with what they invested into
Speaker 3: this team this year.
Speaker 4: Can I finish it with this? They had all these prospects, man,
Speaker 4: they had prospects, prospects, and we talked about it for
Speaker 4: the last couple of years. He didn't do anything with him.
Speaker 4: He didn't do anything. He didn't trade up to get
Speaker 4: some big name. You got Corbyn Burns for a little bit, right,
Speaker 4: but you had guys to give out. They had no
Speaker 4: space to play on your squad. Why didn't you make
Speaker 4: a big trade for a big name or something. I
Speaker 4: said it over and over, get rid of some of
Speaker 4: these guys, mans. And that's the big disappointment I have
Speaker 4: in the squad, because they could have got two or
Speaker 4: three guys that could be sitting pretty for the Oriols
Speaker 4: right now and they wouldn't be in this scenario.
Speaker 2: And if you wait too long, those prospects lose value, right,
Speaker 2: become suspects. Yeah, And what happened was Connor Norby and
Speaker 2: Kyle Sowers got traded for at least what appears at
Speaker 2: the moment to be really a broken arm in Trevor Rodgers.
Speaker 2: So you gave away two guys that actually should have
Speaker 2: gotten more of an opportunity and didn't, and their trade
Speaker 2: value went down based on their age and them being
Speaker 2: perceived as quade players even though now they're not. They
Speaker 2: just needed a lane checking to see any feedback here
Speaker 2: from fans, Brandon said, Oriels miss Santander. He was their
Speaker 2: veteran presence. Agreed, but I still think they'd be in
Speaker 2: a bad spot. Could the offense be in a better place, Yes, obviously,
Speaker 2: I'm not going off this year's version of Santander. Although
Speaker 2: nobody can hit homers in Toronto, I think Dalton bar Show. Actually,
Speaker 2: you know what, this is perfect time for this because
Speaker 2: I was like, hey, I'm not going to make this
Speaker 2: a topic, but I would love to bring this up
Speaker 2: to my friends. From Matt Snyder, who writes for CBS,
Speaker 2: this was like a day or two ago, he said,
Speaker 2: Dalton bar Show leads the Toronto Blue Jays with six
Speaker 2: home runs. I don't know if anything changed in the
Speaker 2: last couple of days, but right now he is the
Speaker 2: leader in homers. He is on pace for twenty one
Speaker 2: home runs in twenty twenty one. The Toronto Blue Jays
Speaker 2: had seven players with at least twenty homers this year,
Speaker 2: they're on pace for just one of those players. The
Speaker 2: only full season where a Blue Jays franchise had no
Speaker 2: one reached twenty homers was their first season nineteen seventy seven.
Speaker 2: The leader was ron Fairly with nineteen.
Speaker 3: So Dalton Barshot. The start of the season a month
Speaker 3: late too, Andre Semendez was leading the team with three
Speaker 3: and he had three in the first two four days.
Speaker 4: What is going on?
Speaker 2: Can we do some ballpark blaming though? No, we're just
Speaker 2: saying everything fell Apart from a power perspective, it's a
Speaker 2: great ballpark.
Speaker 3: To hit in, man, I mean are they? I mean
Speaker 3: is a Do they have fans that are blowing the
Speaker 3: ball back in?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 3: Come on? No, Like, there's there's some ballparks that are tough.
Speaker 3: But you know, Kaufman, Kaufman, You've had You've had forty
Speaker 3: home run home run guys, home run seasons for out
Speaker 3: of guys at Kaufman. Like, that's a tough stadium, Toronto, ain' Kaufman.
Speaker 3: Unless a lot has changed since Todd quit.
Speaker 4: It hasn't.
Speaker 2: So is that a process thing? Like how to guys
Speaker 2: with pop just all lose it. And then you're bringing
Speaker 2: in someone from the outside. You're like, where's flat, he's pop,
Speaker 2: where's both pop? Then here comes sant Andre and it's
Speaker 2: forty four homers last year pop.
Speaker 4: Is it a mentality? Is it a swinging path? I
Speaker 4: don't know what they're doing and how they're hitting. Coaches
Speaker 4: are getting them ready for I don't know. It's very confusing, man.
Speaker 4: These guys can hit the ball and we just haven't
Speaker 4: seen it.
Speaker 2: It's crazy.