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Speaker 1: Hello, everyone, Welcome back to the Hammer Territory Podcast, Episode

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Speaker 1: three to six. Fun name is Brad Roland. I am

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Speaker 1: joined today as I austin him by Scott Holman. Scott,

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Speaker 1: I am iced into my home right now.

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Speaker 2: How are you hello, Brad? I am not iced into

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Speaker 2: my home. It's about sixty five degrees and not a

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Speaker 2: cloud in the sky out here in Arizona. But in

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Speaker 2: a serious note, I do hope that everybody, I mean

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Speaker 2: basically the entire country west and north of me is

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Speaker 2: in some pretty serious weather. I hope everybody out there

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Speaker 2: is staying warm and being safe. And we'll see. We'll

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Speaker 2: see if Brad's power holds for the next however long

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Speaker 2: that's been, yeah, and touch and go, But damn it,

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Speaker 2: we wanted to get a podcast out for the people

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Speaker 2: to talk about the Atlanta Braves.

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Speaker 1: We're going a little bit earlier than we normally would

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Speaker 1: on Sunday in case things get worse. But I just

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Speaker 1: did a show on my Atlanta Hawks podcast and lost

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Speaker 1: power twice. So hang on your hats, everybody. We will

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Speaker 1: be here. But today I'm actually gonna let you tee

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Speaker 1: it up in a second, Scott, because this is it

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Speaker 1: was your idea to do this this lead segment, and

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Speaker 1: it's a good one. I think it's not my most

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Speaker 1: natural topic because we're conditioned to have watched Brian Sticker

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Speaker 1: led baseball teams for the last several seasons. But hey,

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Speaker 1: there's a new manager in town for the Atlanta Braves,

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Speaker 1: and that leads to some questions about how the Braves

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Speaker 1: might actually deploy their lineup. Like it's like we kind

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Speaker 1: of knew what was going to happen other than the

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Speaker 1: Ronaldocunya tour of the lineup last year that was memorable

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Speaker 1: for all the wrong reasons. And I won't make a

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Speaker 1: joke about where he hit in the lineup. Seventh, Scott,

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Speaker 1: let's go to you here on this. What are we

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Speaker 1: talking about this for? What's our purpose in evaluating where

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Speaker 1: the Braves might go with the So.

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Speaker 2: We've talked around it a little bit this offseason. But

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Speaker 2: with the additions and developments that we have seen with

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Speaker 2: the Braves recently and a new manager in Walt Weiss,

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Speaker 2: basically the first time in a decade the Braves are

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Speaker 2: going to have someone other than Brian Sticker filling out

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Speaker 2: the lineup card every night, there's some real questions about

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Speaker 2: how the Braves should and ultimately will construct their lineup,

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Speaker 2: especially at the top. And you have a handful of lefties,

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Speaker 2: like left handed only bats, and that's something the Braves

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Speaker 2: have not had a ton of in recent years, so

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Speaker 2: you had to find a way to balance out your lefties.

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Speaker 2: There's the million dollar question of where will Ronaldracunya junior bat.

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Speaker 2: And you have mike Yastremsky who has some pretty drastic

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Speaker 2: platoon splits, which is interesting. I don't know how many

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Speaker 2: times on the pod this offseason we have said the

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Speaker 2: name Jerks and Profar out loud and.

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Speaker 3: Shame on us.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I guess it's a good thing that Profar

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Speaker 2: was good enough last year that we don't really have

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Speaker 2: to talk about profile lot over the last couple of

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Speaker 2: months because he was productive and more of the player

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Speaker 2: we thought the Braves were going to invest in even

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Speaker 2: after the ped suspension. But where do you bet Jerkson Profar?

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Speaker 2: Where do you bet Drake Baldwin after a fantastic Rookie

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Speaker 2: of the Year season. Where do you hit Matt Olsen,

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Speaker 2: Where do you hit Austin Riley? There are some real questions,

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Speaker 2: I think, especially kind of one through six, with this order,

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Speaker 2: and then also some questions at the bottom with your

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Speaker 2: Michael Harris, Ozzy Alby's, Mauricio Dubon, Eli White, like pick

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Speaker 2: your you know, a couple of bench guys as well,

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Speaker 2: Like there's there's some real intrigue.

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Speaker 1: Gets to filling out this lineup. There is and there's

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Speaker 1: variability as to who will be playing on that certain day.

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Speaker 1: Like for the longest time, it's really been in the

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Speaker 1: Braves that put the same lineup on the on the

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Speaker 1: field every day barring injury. And I don't just be

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Speaker 1: in the order like the players, and they have some

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Speaker 1: legitimate like platoon concerns or not some concerns, but like

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Speaker 1: considerations to deal with this year. He struct he's being

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Speaker 1: the number one example of that. But you know, even

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Speaker 1: when someone like Costa Kimes comes back, you got Dubon

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Speaker 1: and the catcher situation, two guys that are you know,

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Speaker 1: especially ball when it's clearly good and Murphy has been

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Speaker 1: good and has platoon split. Like, all these different variables

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Speaker 1: are in play and it is going to benifest I

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Speaker 1: think in a lot of different combinations for of course

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Speaker 1: of the year. But there's still probably will most teams

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Speaker 1: do Jonah kind of run a main lineup like something

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Speaker 1: approaching a main deployment that they use regularly, and there

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Speaker 1: are questions about that. So we taught before we started

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Speaker 1: recording and decided to start with one thing, and that

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Speaker 1: is ron Akutne. So for the longest time, it wasn't

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Speaker 1: really a discussion. Ryan just let off. That just happened,

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Speaker 1: and it did for years and years and years. I mean,

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Speaker 1: he's been in that spot forever. It worked, he's the

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Speaker 1: former RepA of the league. And then last year they

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Speaker 1: stopped doing that for a while and we won't we

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Speaker 1: won't relive all of that, but it was just a

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Speaker 1: little bit strange. And given that there is a new

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Speaker 1: manager in town, there's always a chance he's not leading off.

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Speaker 1: So I'll ask you first, how much of a chance

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Speaker 1: is there in your head that he might not lead off?

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Speaker 1: And if it was you, where would you like to

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Speaker 1: see on whatever opening day is two months from now

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Speaker 1: ron Acunya in the lineup, because I mean, we're always

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Speaker 1: going to be there, hopefully knock on wood for all

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Speaker 1: the things. But he's still the best player. So where's

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Speaker 1: where's he going to bat? Scott? Where should he bet?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a great question.

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Speaker 2: And until Walt Weiss either answers the question or fills

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Speaker 2: out his lineup card against the Kansas City Royals in

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Speaker 2: the final weekend of March, we're not going to know.

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Speaker 2: But where I think Acunya is going to bed. I

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Speaker 2: think he's going to be back at leadoff. I would

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Speaker 2: imagine that Weiss will probably have a conversation with Ronald

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Speaker 2: as well as a. I mean, he's going to talk

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Speaker 2: to all the players, especially being newly in charge. But

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Speaker 2: my guess is Acunual bat lead off at the end

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Speaker 2: of the day, your leadoff hitter bat's lead off one time,

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Speaker 2: and after that he's the guy who gets the most

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Speaker 2: played appearances out of your entire lineup.

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Speaker 3: That's it.

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Speaker 2: And if if it's the ninth inning in a tie game,

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Speaker 2: I would take Acunya batting lead off all day long

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Speaker 2: because that lineup turns over and you need to hit,

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Speaker 2: Like give me ron A Nakunya every every single time.

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Speaker 2: There you could make an argument for Jerks and Profar

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Speaker 2: and that's I mean, that's probably it for me. I mean,

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Speaker 2: is there anyone else that you could realistically see Walt

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Speaker 2: White having lead off instead of Akunya.

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Speaker 1: No, I think that's if they were to change something,

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Speaker 1: I would guess it would be Profar. Pro Far batted

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Speaker 1: there last year when Ronnie wasn't available. Pro Far hits.

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Speaker 1: I think it was seventy two games he hit lead

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Speaker 1: off last season. The bulk of that was without Ronnie.

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Speaker 1: But even when Ronnie came back, as we discussed, like,

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Speaker 1: it was a little bit of Profar. And Profar has

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Speaker 1: always been a high walk guy, like he is a

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Speaker 1: good approach to hit leadoff for. We don't have take

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Speaker 1: a way back into the way back machine. But there

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Speaker 1: was forever like the fastest guys that lead off, and

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Speaker 1: it was like, I get why that was. That's changed

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Speaker 1: now teams understand generally that you don't want to just

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Speaker 1: have it's not just about speed. You'd rather have guys

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Speaker 1: who'd get on base versus speed. And Ronnie may never

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Speaker 1: run to the level he did a couple of years ago. Ever,

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Speaker 1: again that's fair to say, but Ronald Acunya over the

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Speaker 1: last six seasons has like a thirteen percent walk, right.

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Speaker 1: He gets on base a lot and is an awesome

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Speaker 1: hitter and can run and all that stuff. So if

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Speaker 1: it's me, Ryan's leading off unless he just is so

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Speaker 1: opposed to it, then it's gonna be a problem, which

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Speaker 1: I can't imagine that could be the case. He's been

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Speaker 1: there forever, so why would it be a problem now. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: But barring him like raising a stink, he's hitting lead off.

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Speaker 1: For me, it's not even a difficult conversation in my opinion.

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Speaker 2: And if for some reason Ronald is not leading off,

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Speaker 2: then I think you have to bat him second.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Profar leading off and Ronnie second would be totally

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Speaker 1: fine with me. But you know, we don't have to

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Speaker 1: go all the way into the way the book, the

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Speaker 1: Modern Day book lays out the lineups. But gone are

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Speaker 1: the days where your best hitters should be hitting third

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Speaker 1: and fourth. That was kind of always like the old

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Speaker 1: school way of thinking. That's not the case. Now. You

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Speaker 1: see a lot of teams go with their best hitter

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Speaker 1: hitting second, for example, and Ronnie is either leading off

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Speaker 1: or he is your best hitter hitting second. Either one

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Speaker 1: of those, that's fine with me. But anything lower than

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Speaker 1: that I would be disappointed by. For sure.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree.

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Speaker 2: And you know there's some math too that shows that

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Speaker 2: batting third is actually not optimal. Optimal for your lineup

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Speaker 2: because you're guaranteed to hit in the first inning, but

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Speaker 2: there is a decent chance that the first two hitters

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Speaker 2: aren't on, and then you have your best hitter batting

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Speaker 2: with nobody on base in two outs. So again, it's

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Speaker 2: probably one of those things that over the course if

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Speaker 2: you could sim it out one hundred and sixty two games.

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Speaker 2: To be honest, I don't know how much of an

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Speaker 2: actual impact it would really make on the Braves offensive production.

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Speaker 2: You can never predict who's going to go three for

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Speaker 2: four that night and who's going to go zero for four.

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Speaker 3: But I think to put a bow.

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Speaker 2: On Ronaldcunya Junior, I would bat him lead off. It

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Speaker 2: sounds like you would too. Our guess is that on

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Speaker 2: opening day Walt Weiss will have Ronald batting lead off.

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Speaker 2: But if he's at two in the order, that might

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Speaker 2: be interesting if you want to try to get Ronald

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Speaker 2: on base with a few more runners on instead of

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Speaker 2: those solo homers are awesome, but instead having a couple

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Speaker 2: of two and three run homers. Sure I wouldn't. I

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Speaker 2: don't think we'll do a podcast wondering why Ronald's batting

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Speaker 2: second instead of lead off. But yeah, one of those

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Speaker 2: top two spots, and I think we're good to go.

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Speaker 1: Ronal Akunya has about three thousand plus plate appearances in

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Speaker 1: his career at leadoff and less than six hundred anywhere else.

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Speaker 1: I think that's the right approach. Just hit Ronnie lead

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Speaker 1: off two to nine. There are more arguments to be had,

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Speaker 1: in my opinion than there are about who hits leadoff.

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Speaker 1: That'd be where I would leave it as far as

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Speaker 1: my opinion is concerned. In a second we'll get to

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Speaker 1: the rest of the lineup in particular, how to maybe

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Speaker 1: some at least a big picture of thoughts about how

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Speaker 1: to construct things, flipping orders, flipping platoons, all that stuffs

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Speaker 1: coming off, I promise you in just one moment after

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Speaker 1: I word from our ours. Okay, Scott, let's say Ronnie

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Speaker 1: hits lead off. Do you have a optimal number two

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Speaker 1: hitter in your brain.

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Speaker 2: It's a great question, I think, given the rest of

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Speaker 2: the lineup construction, I think it has to be a lefty.

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Speaker 3: Now, maybe you.

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Speaker 2: Can make it a righty if you're facing a good

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Speaker 2: left handed pitcher and the idea that you want to

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Speaker 2: optimize your rity's at the top. But for me, I

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Speaker 2: think second should either be Drake Baldwin or matt Olsen.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I tend to agree. This is the one spot

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Speaker 1: where I'm not quite as they have to have a

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Speaker 1: lefty here just because of how good Ronnie is against

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Speaker 1: righty's anyway, Like he's like kind of platoon proof, so

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Speaker 1: I'd say he's a right handed hitter. But you know,

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Speaker 1: the platoon advantage of having this having the guys you

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Speaker 1: know staggered isn't quite as large when Ronnie is one

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Speaker 1: of them, because he just doesn't he's an alien. But

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Speaker 1: I'm still with you. Look, if you are of the

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Speaker 1: mind that the best hitter should hit second, the best

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Speaker 1: hitter is probably matt Olsen. Not can't run, so if

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Speaker 1: you care about that at all, he can't do it.

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Speaker 1: But I don't really care about that very much. I'd

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Speaker 1: like to have him as much as possible, so it

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Speaker 1: would be out of the ordinary from att Olsen to

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Speaker 1: hit second. That doesn't bother me. I probably wouldn't bother him.

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Speaker 1: I wouldn't think. I'm looking now as we're talking to

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Speaker 1: see if he's batted second very much in his career.

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Speaker 1: He did a little bit, actually, two and fifteen games

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Speaker 1: of banting second, so not like a totally out of

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Speaker 1: the ordinary place for him to be. I would probably

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Speaker 1: do that. Balwin will be fine with me. Even Profar

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Speaker 1: would be fine with me, because Profar is this switch hitter,

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Speaker 1: but he could hit left handed and gets on base

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Speaker 1: on that stuff. But so I think you got three options.

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Speaker 1: What I would certainly not do is have Riley hitting second.

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Speaker 1: By Kunya, he'd be the only guy of the reasonable candidates.

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Speaker 1: And in my mind, the reasonable candidates are Akunya, Olsen, Riley, Profar,

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Speaker 1: Baldwin for the top five hitters in the order. Basically,

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Speaker 1: the only reasonable candidate I would not do would be Riley.

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Speaker 1: Anything else will be.

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Speaker 2: Finally, yeah, and the challenge if you bet Riley second

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Speaker 2: is then you have Olsen, Baldwin, and Yastremsky who are

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Speaker 2: going to be batting three to six more than likely,

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Speaker 2: that's three out of four hitters would be would be lefties,

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Speaker 2: with Profar mixtent. So I mean, teams would just set

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Speaker 2: up lefties all day long in the for their bullpen

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Speaker 2: and just bring in one.

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Speaker 1: And then here, I mean, and you got Harrison Harris

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Speaker 1: at the bottom, who king lefties at all as we know,

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Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, I'm a few hundred percent on that.

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Speaker 1: I don't think they'll do that either. I don't think

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Speaker 1: it would be I don't think anybody, uh would big

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Speaker 1: brain themselves in their front office slash coaching staff into

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Speaker 1: Robbie hitting second mind of Kunya. But everything else is fine.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's one of the luxures of this offense

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Speaker 1: is that I think Olson, Profar, and Balwin would all

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Speaker 1: be reasonable. Candadiate's to hit second behind Ronny, That'd be

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Speaker 1: totally fine. They're all really good hitters. There is, I

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Speaker 1: mean a minor question about Baldwin's sophomore slump stuff, but

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Speaker 1: only because we haven't seen it, not because of anything

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Speaker 1: he did profile wives. He was awesome last year. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'm in on I'm in on any of those three.

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Speaker 1: I think the most traditional path is like it's probably

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Speaker 1: pro far like if Weiss went kind of want wants

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Speaker 1: to go a little bit more of the old school,

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Speaker 1: like you know Corn guy that's not a big bopper

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Speaker 1: but gets on bass kind of thing, Profar, But all

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Speaker 1: three of those guys have power, all three of them

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Speaker 1: take walks. Yeah, I would probably lean to Olsen, I

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Speaker 1: liked I like Olsen to bat more. But if you

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Speaker 1: want to tell me you prefer Baldwin, I you know,

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Speaker 1: fine with me. Balden was great last year. If you

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Speaker 1: do that again, then no no issues here.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I would agree.

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Speaker 2: And you know, thinking about Baldwin, he's not somebody who

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Speaker 2: strikes out a ton, and that might be something that

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Speaker 2: Weiss wants at the top of his order, a guy

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Speaker 2: who's a little more contact oriented. Whereas we know, Olsen

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Speaker 2: has incredible power. I mean, he said fifty homers in

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Speaker 2: a year before, but he does have a little more

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Speaker 2: swing and miss to his game, even if he does

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Speaker 2: a good job overall of getting on base. But yeah,

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Speaker 2: you know, it's interesting as we talk this out, I'm

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Speaker 2: actually kind of leaning towards Drake Baldwin batting second and

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Speaker 2: then having Matt Olsen fourth. But if you flip those two,

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Speaker 2: I mean I wouldn't fight you on it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and you mentioned the strikeouts. Pro far is also

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Speaker 1: a very low guy. He's a very high high walk,

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Speaker 1: low shrekout player. So if that's a priority two, he

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Speaker 1: could be the other option versus ballwin in that spot. Okay,

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Speaker 1: we've we've crossed the top two off to some degree.

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Speaker 1: If they, as we assume put one of those three

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Speaker 1: hitting second, Do you hit hit Riley third and just

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Speaker 1: say you've been there before, big fella, Hopefully you'll be

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Speaker 1: back to where you used to be as a hitter.

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Speaker 1: He's been there a lot, so it wouldn't be out

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Speaker 1: of the order for him. Again, as you already laid out,

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Speaker 1: he's the only pure right headed bat of this group.

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Speaker 3: I think so.

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Speaker 2: Now, if Austin is struggling and continues to struggle, then

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Speaker 2: I think there's a chance that Riley could be dropped

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Speaker 2: to fifth or I mean maybe even sixth, Like if

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Speaker 2: he continues to not hit the way he's not hit

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Speaker 2: over the last year and a half whenever he's been

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Speaker 2: healthy and on that. No, that might sound like a

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Speaker 2: little bit of an outlandish claim, but a few weeks ago,

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Speaker 2: Brad and I had a pretty candid conversation about both

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Speaker 2: Austin Riley and Matt Olsen. I would encourage you to

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Speaker 2: go listen to that show. It's about forty minutes long,

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Speaker 2: really digging into Austin Riley. At this point, I really

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Speaker 2: do feel like Riley's going to bounce back, And assuming

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Speaker 2: he does bounce back, I would bet Austin third. But

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Speaker 2: if he's struggling and he's striking out a bunch, and

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Speaker 2: you presumably are going to have a bunch of base

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Speaker 2: runners at the leadoff spot in number two getting on base.

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Speaker 2: If it's Akunya and Olsen or Acunya in Baldwin, then.

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Speaker 1: Maybe you go Jerkson Profar third.

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Speaker 2: As a switch hitter. Profar batted third quite a bit

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Speaker 2: when he was with the Padres during his breakout season.

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Speaker 2: I don't think that's necessarily optimal because that means that

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Speaker 2: Austin Riley is struggling again. But I mean, my guess

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Speaker 2: is that they will open the year with Riley betting third.

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Speaker 2: It would not bother me at all if they opened

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Speaker 2: the season with Roby hitting fifth.

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Speaker 1: It just wouldn't. I think that's the level he's performed

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Speaker 1: at the last couple of years. I also understand if

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Speaker 1: they don't want to do that and want to, you know,

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Speaker 1: go into it and thinking that he is just going

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Speaker 1: to bounce back and be his old cell from three

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Speaker 1: years ago. That's certainly within within the roll of outcomes,

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Speaker 1: and I think that's, you know, hopefully what you'll see

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Speaker 1: if you're a Brace fan. I do think the Profar

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Speaker 1: would be the other option hitting third, if it's not

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Speaker 1: Riley in the same way Profar you know has had

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Speaker 1: more plate appearances as left hand and batter or recently

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Speaker 1: because that's just the side that's the stronger platoon side.

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Speaker 1: But he's been totally fine to good as a right

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Speaker 1: handed hitter against lefties, will be totally fine there and

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Speaker 1: was a better here than probably was last year. So

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Speaker 1: I don't know what they'll do. That's again the kind

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Speaker 1: of the on the uncertainty and the fresh eyes of

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Speaker 1: a new manager. And I just want to say this

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Speaker 1: out loud, and it's not a shot at Walt Weiss

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Speaker 1: at all. I promise people got to realize that in

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty six. Well, I know that Alex and Snitt

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Speaker 1: were always publicly on the Snit has the lineup card

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Speaker 1: aspect of things. A lot of organizations do not have

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Speaker 1: it that way. There's at least some influence of the

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Speaker 1: front office analytist guys. They may not dictate to the manager,

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Speaker 1: but I can assure you what Wiss will be given

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Speaker 1: all kinds of information to help him form his decisions.

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Speaker 1: And I know what Snit was given like more cart

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Speaker 1: blotch than most managers are in the modern than the

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Speaker 1: modern baseball I think with the lineup, and that was

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Speaker 1: the way that him and Alex found their detante. You know,

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Speaker 1: I don't know that's gonna make cares of Wice.

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Speaker 3: We'll see.

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Speaker 1: Maybe Bice will have the same power. I have no idea,

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Speaker 1: but it's not just one guy sitting down with a

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Speaker 1: pencil in a room alone putting the lineup cart together.

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Speaker 1: I can assure you that there'll be some information passed

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Speaker 1: his way.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, And it's interesting.

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Speaker 2: Joe Girardi was on Foul Territory a while back and

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Speaker 2: was talking about his time as manager, and he talked

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Speaker 2: about just agonizing over what kind of lineup he should

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Speaker 2: build out with the data that's available, and what is

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Speaker 2: the optimal lineup and splits and career histories against pitchers

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Speaker 2: and all of those things. And he said that at

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Speaker 2: the end of the season he went to the front

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Speaker 2: office guys and they ran some simulations of all the

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Speaker 2: lineups they put out there, and they found that there

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Speaker 2: was basically no correlation as if if Bryce Harper was

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Speaker 2: hitting first, first, hitting second, first, hitting third, verse hitting fourth,

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Speaker 2: and across the board, and sure, naturally there's there's going

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Speaker 2: to be stretches where a certain lineup is working out,

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Speaker 2: because that's baseball. Teams get hot. It comes down to

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Speaker 2: one or two played appearances so many times, and if

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Speaker 2: you get the hit, you win the game, and if

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Speaker 2: you don't get the hit, you probably lose the game.

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Speaker 2: But yes, I mean to just what Brad said is

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Speaker 2: I think is accurate, and I'd be interested to know

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Speaker 2: and see what we hear in the months to come

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Speaker 2: about kind of Weiss's operating style and how it's different

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Speaker 2: from Brian Stittcker and if the front office appears to

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Speaker 2: be a little more involved with the day to day

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Speaker 2: management of the team.

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Speaker 1: I used to lose my mind about line of construction

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Speaker 1: on this podcast and in other places.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, me too.

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Speaker 1: I think things are different. I think I'm a little

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Speaker 1: bit different about what I was myment over. But also

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Speaker 1: teams just don't make the insane mistakes they used to make,

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Speaker 1: like because of the influence of numbers. The most famous

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Speaker 1: example of me going crazy was when the Braves would

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Speaker 1: willingly bat Daniel Castro second like they would literally this

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Speaker 1: is in a little it's a lot of time ago,

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Speaker 1: it's even pre snit like they would use Dio Castro

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Speaker 1: was a player that people don't even remember existed, but

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Speaker 1: was a no bat utility guy and he routinely would

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Speaker 1: hit second in the lineup. And it's like that just

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Speaker 1: doesn't happen anymore, Like teams don't do that. And yeah,

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Speaker 1: if the Braves come out on opening Day and they

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Speaker 1: hit Ozzie Alby's second against a right handed pitcher, I

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Speaker 1: will hit the roof if that happens. Yeah, but within reason.

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Speaker 1: What you just said is one hundred percent, like this

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Speaker 1: stuff matters, but it matters a lot less that people

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Speaker 1: think that it is. Does that make sense? Is that

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Speaker 1: a reasonable framing? I feel like and because of that,

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Speaker 1: like the marginal marginal things like I might prefer this

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Speaker 1: to this or whatever. I don't go crazy anymore. It's

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Speaker 1: just the outlier examples where I might be like, what

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Speaker 1: is going on here? Like when Rona Hoody hit seven

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Speaker 1: in the lineup, I hit the roof, right, I did

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Speaker 1: lose my mind on not that I was mad about that.

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Speaker 1: It was insane. I stand by my reaction. It made

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Speaker 1: no sense at all. But I do that like once

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Speaker 1: every three years now, you know what I mean? Like,

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Speaker 1: it's not a normal thing. Because as much as st

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Speaker 1: and I'll probably don't see ey to eye on everything

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Speaker 1: with baseball. He wasn't doing crazy stuff with the lineup

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Speaker 1: every day. He just wasn't.

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Speaker 2: As long as there's nothing egregious, and I don't think

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Speaker 2: we're going to see that. I mean, yeah, if if

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Speaker 2: Ozzie it's a perfect example. Or if Mauricio Dubon is

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Speaker 2: betting second on opening.

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Speaker 1: Day, Michael Harris, I guess lefty out opening day is

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00:20:41,600 --> 00:20:42,480
Speaker 1: hitting second, and then I'll be.

431
00:20:42,520 --> 00:20:44,760
Speaker 2: Mad, but you know, we'll talk about it then. But

432
00:20:44,880 --> 00:20:46,600
Speaker 2: hopefully we don't have to cross that bridge.

433
00:20:47,720 --> 00:20:51,720
Speaker 1: Let's hope. So let's just discuss a little bit about

434
00:20:52,080 --> 00:20:56,639
Speaker 1: some of the platoon based interesting there's going on with

435
00:20:56,680 --> 00:21:00,000
Speaker 1: the bridge this year. The most famous example is probably

436
00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:03,280
Speaker 1: in Mikashimsky, who the Braves acquired gave real money to,

437
00:21:03,440 --> 00:21:05,399
Speaker 1: but not a crazy contract like he's being paid like

438
00:21:05,440 --> 00:21:08,720
Speaker 1: a fourth outfielder type, third outfielder, fourth out third type.

439
00:21:09,240 --> 00:21:12,760
Speaker 1: But he has a clear as day platoon split to

440
00:21:12,880 --> 00:21:16,560
Speaker 1: the point where it was acknowledged in Alex's comments. Everyone

441
00:21:16,640 --> 00:21:19,000
Speaker 1: knows the deal of Michael Scremsky. He hits right, he's

442
00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:22,480
Speaker 1: really really well. That's why he was signed. He could

443
00:21:22,480 --> 00:21:25,240
Speaker 1: play defits in a corner as fine, he's fine there.

444
00:21:25,600 --> 00:21:27,600
Speaker 1: But the reason he was acquired is that he hits

445
00:21:27,680 --> 00:21:30,280
Speaker 1: right headed pitching. That's why he was signed very clearly.

446
00:21:30,720 --> 00:21:30,920
Speaker 3: Yep.

447
00:21:31,680 --> 00:21:34,920
Speaker 1: So when he's when you're fessing a righty, he's a

448
00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:36,680
Speaker 1: totally fine guy that had in your lineup in like

449
00:21:36,720 --> 00:21:38,600
Speaker 1: the top six of the lineup against the Ryan pitcher.

450
00:21:38,760 --> 00:21:41,720
Speaker 1: He's that kind of he's a good hitters. I guess

451
00:21:41,760 --> 00:21:44,920
Speaker 1: the lefty he probably shouldn't be playing at all, and

452
00:21:45,040 --> 00:21:46,639
Speaker 1: if he does play, he should be hitting a lot

453
00:21:46,680 --> 00:21:48,960
Speaker 1: lower in the lineup, like it's that big of a split.

454
00:21:49,840 --> 00:21:52,159
Speaker 1: So through that lens, we talked about five guys already

455
00:21:52,160 --> 00:21:57,120
Speaker 1: against Bacunya, Olsen, Riley, Profar, and Baldwin. If bab won't

456
00:21:57,119 --> 00:21:58,639
Speaker 1: play every day, he's a catcher, he'll play a lot,

457
00:21:58,680 --> 00:22:00,480
Speaker 1: but won't play every single day. Probably the other four

458
00:22:00,600 --> 00:22:03,640
Speaker 1: in Baldwin, if they're in the lineup, that's your top five,

459
00:22:03,840 --> 00:22:07,959
Speaker 1: probably in some order, six to nine, Like I think

460
00:22:08,680 --> 00:22:13,760
Speaker 1: is probably your sixth best hitter against righty's like he's

461
00:22:13,800 --> 00:22:17,520
Speaker 1: in there. Maybe Sean Murphy is part of that against lefties.

462
00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:19,600
Speaker 1: If Sean Murphy is healthy, that we'll get we'll get there,

463
00:22:19,640 --> 00:22:21,719
Speaker 1: when we get there, and then you got your your

464
00:22:21,800 --> 00:22:25,840
Speaker 1: Harris Alb's dubon. You mentioned like White earlier as a

465
00:22:25,920 --> 00:22:30,040
Speaker 1: platoon guy with maybe with Uscremsky for example. But how

466
00:22:30,080 --> 00:22:31,760
Speaker 1: do you think that's like big picture, how do they

467
00:22:31,880 --> 00:22:35,360
Speaker 1: approach this? Because there are some simple ones like hey,

468
00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:38,480
Speaker 1: yas in against rightys and yeas out against lefties. But

469
00:22:38,560 --> 00:22:41,000
Speaker 1: there's some nuanced stuff too, especially especially around for me,

470
00:22:41,119 --> 00:22:44,240
Speaker 1: it's like where does how do they use Murphy? And

471
00:22:44,280 --> 00:22:47,040
Speaker 1: then how much does Baldwin d H when he's not catching?

472
00:22:47,280 --> 00:22:49,480
Speaker 1: That's another big one too. It's like that goes along

473
00:22:49,560 --> 00:22:52,879
Speaker 1: with the Stremski because for me, Murphy should never DH

474
00:22:52,920 --> 00:22:56,040
Speaker 1: against against alrighty. That would be a mistake. You can

475
00:22:56,560 --> 00:22:59,040
Speaker 1: DH profar Dsky.

476
00:22:58,280 --> 00:22:58,720
Speaker 3: In that spot.

477
00:22:58,920 --> 00:23:00,919
Speaker 1: But if you're flight sing a left and you want

478
00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:03,200
Speaker 1: Ball would to be in the lineup, I could see

479
00:23:03,280 --> 00:23:05,320
Speaker 1: Murphy and ballould both playing US lefty. So there's all

480
00:23:05,359 --> 00:23:07,119
Speaker 1: these little things, but how do you how do you

481
00:23:07,200 --> 00:23:08,879
Speaker 1: view this as kind of just it might be day

482
00:23:08,920 --> 00:23:11,159
Speaker 1: to day. It's interesting, it might be a lot a

483
00:23:11,200 --> 00:23:13,840
Speaker 1: lot of like day to day decision making. Yeah, I

484
00:23:13,920 --> 00:23:15,639
Speaker 1: mean a lot of a lot of points there. So

485
00:23:15,720 --> 00:23:17,240
Speaker 1: we'll go kind of one by one.

486
00:23:17,880 --> 00:23:20,560
Speaker 2: So I think to put a quick bow on the

487
00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:23,800
Speaker 2: top of the lineup, I think we feel confidently. I mean,

488
00:23:23,880 --> 00:23:28,600
Speaker 2: my guess it's going to be Akunya Olsen, Riley Baldwin,

489
00:23:29,040 --> 00:23:31,560
Speaker 2: Profar would be my guest. If I had to put

490
00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:33,880
Speaker 2: one hundred bucks on it today last week of January,

491
00:23:34,200 --> 00:23:37,479
Speaker 2: that would be my guess. Against righty's, I think Mike

492
00:23:37,560 --> 00:23:41,960
Speaker 2: Yustremski should absolutely be batting sixth. Agree, I mean, if

493
00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:44,120
Speaker 2: he's really hitting the way he hit the last couple

494
00:23:44,160 --> 00:23:45,760
Speaker 2: of years, I think you might even be able to

495
00:23:45,800 --> 00:23:48,840
Speaker 2: say Eustremski should be batting fifth. But the reason being,

496
00:23:48,920 --> 00:23:50,800
Speaker 2: and I know he's the new guy, so quick numbers

497
00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:54,040
Speaker 2: on him. The last three years he has a one

498
00:23:54,160 --> 00:23:59,600
Speaker 2: oh seven WRC plus, which is good above average overall.

499
00:23:59,640 --> 00:24:02,159
Speaker 2: And then but really that's weighed down by him not

500
00:24:02,280 --> 00:24:05,400
Speaker 2: being very good against lefties. So the last three seasons

501
00:24:05,600 --> 00:24:11,359
Speaker 2: against right handed pitching, Mike Kyastremsky has a eighth nine

502
00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:16,360
Speaker 2: ops and a one twenty WRC plus which is very

503
00:24:16,520 --> 00:24:20,160
Speaker 2: strong again upwards of eight hundred ops against right handed pitching.

504
00:24:20,440 --> 00:24:23,760
Speaker 2: So I think you bat Yustreemsky sixth. And then I

505
00:24:23,800 --> 00:24:25,840
Speaker 2: mean you want to do the Catcher discussion now with

506
00:24:26,680 --> 00:24:28,560
Speaker 2: Baldwin and Murphy. I mean we don't, and we don't know.

507
00:24:28,640 --> 00:24:29,200
Speaker 3: I mean we don't.

508
00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:32,159
Speaker 2: It sounds like, if you read between the lines on

509
00:24:32,280 --> 00:24:36,280
Speaker 2: Alexanthopoulos's comments, Sean Murphy may not be ready to go

510
00:24:37,320 --> 00:24:39,640
Speaker 2: at the start of the year as he recovers from

511
00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:43,879
Speaker 2: his hip surgery that had apparently been bothering him for years,

512
00:24:44,119 --> 00:24:47,520
Speaker 2: which is kind of crazy to me. I think this

513
00:24:47,720 --> 00:24:50,200
Speaker 2: lineup is so much better when Drake Baldwin is in

514
00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:52,520
Speaker 2: there just about every day. I think the Braves will

515
00:24:52,560 --> 00:24:55,240
Speaker 2: probably try to be strategic every now and then and

516
00:24:55,359 --> 00:24:58,280
Speaker 2: give Baldwin a day off completely. But I think Baldwin

517
00:24:58,359 --> 00:25:02,000
Speaker 2: is going to catch and dight a lot this upcoming year,

518
00:25:02,440 --> 00:25:04,399
Speaker 2: and then we just have to hope that Sean Murphy

519
00:25:04,480 --> 00:25:08,040
Speaker 2: brings some kind of consistency because we've seen him man.

520
00:25:08,080 --> 00:25:10,280
Speaker 2: I mean, when he's hot, he is scorching hot. When

521
00:25:10,320 --> 00:25:12,840
Speaker 2: he is cold, I mean he's not hitting Brad Rowland's

522
00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:15,880
Speaker 2: best curveball that day. I mean, it's it's been very

523
00:25:15,960 --> 00:25:18,200
Speaker 2: Jekyll and Hide with Sean Murphy the past couple of years.

524
00:25:19,080 --> 00:25:21,240
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll probably do a Catcher episode at some point soon.

525
00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:28,160
Speaker 1: But I do think that it's worth remembering that most catchers,

526
00:25:28,480 --> 00:25:32,480
Speaker 1: like there are a couple of total outliers, don't DH

527
00:25:32,520 --> 00:25:35,320
Speaker 1: every day. They're not playing catcher like cal Rally. Cal

528
00:25:35,440 --> 00:25:38,600
Speaker 1: Raley played every day last year. Basically occasually you'll get

529
00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:42,520
Speaker 1: a Salvador Perez up there too, but most catchers kind

530
00:25:42,560 --> 00:25:45,120
Speaker 1: of maxed out, like one hundred and forty games even

531
00:25:45,560 --> 00:25:48,000
Speaker 1: with their dhing some that's kind of where I would

532
00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:49,680
Speaker 1: put ball win. And my projection is like maybe he

533
00:25:49,760 --> 00:25:52,800
Speaker 1: plays one to forty, he catches one hundred and ten times,

534
00:25:53,720 --> 00:25:56,280
Speaker 1: and dch is the other thirty something times, something like that.

535
00:25:56,359 --> 00:25:57,840
Speaker 1: And these are all roll of numbers, but you know what,

536
00:25:57,960 --> 00:26:00,200
Speaker 1: you get the idea he's gonna play a lot, not

537
00:26:00,320 --> 00:26:02,679
Speaker 1: every single day, is my guess. Like maybe a day

538
00:26:02,720 --> 00:26:04,359
Speaker 1: off after a day game, after a night game, he

539
00:26:04,400 --> 00:26:07,920
Speaker 1: won't play that kind of thing. You're hoping, to your point,

540
00:26:08,040 --> 00:26:11,240
Speaker 1: Murphy's back in relatively short order. We don't know when.

541
00:26:12,080 --> 00:26:14,399
Speaker 1: I do think the blessing of having Baldwin be as

542
00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:16,840
Speaker 1: good as he is is that there's a little bit

543
00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:18,879
Speaker 1: less pressure on Sean Murphy. I know he makes a

544
00:26:18,920 --> 00:26:19,360
Speaker 1: lot of money.

545
00:26:19,400 --> 00:26:19,720
Speaker 3: I get it.

546
00:26:19,760 --> 00:26:24,200
Speaker 1: Everybody I promise, I understand. But he can be a

547
00:26:24,280 --> 00:26:26,359
Speaker 1: backup catcher for a little while as he gets his

548
00:26:26,440 --> 00:26:29,000
Speaker 1: legs under him, and it's not a big deal by

549
00:26:29,040 --> 00:26:31,040
Speaker 1: the midute, but over the full season, you needed to

550
00:26:31,080 --> 00:26:34,399
Speaker 1: be closer to Sean Murphy ideally because then there's some

551
00:26:34,480 --> 00:26:37,240
Speaker 1: freedom you can DH to him. Because like at times

552
00:26:37,600 --> 00:26:39,399
Speaker 1: in the last couple of years, Sean Murphy has been

553
00:26:39,440 --> 00:26:42,600
Speaker 1: a DH level player at the plate. At times he

554
00:26:42,680 --> 00:26:44,879
Speaker 1: has not been, So they'll we'll find that out, how

555
00:26:44,960 --> 00:26:45,359
Speaker 1: healthy he.

556
00:26:45,440 --> 00:26:46,800
Speaker 3: Is all that stuff.

557
00:26:47,600 --> 00:26:53,159
Speaker 1: But for example, like Profar is really a DH on defense,

558
00:26:53,560 --> 00:26:56,560
Speaker 1: Like he can play left field, but ideally he's dhing

559
00:26:56,600 --> 00:26:59,119
Speaker 1: a lot. Yeah, he can play left field, but not

560
00:26:59,240 --> 00:27:02,360
Speaker 1: play it well. He can stand there. He's not Azuna.

561
00:27:02,440 --> 00:27:06,480
Speaker 1: He can stand there, but it's not ideal. So for me,

562
00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:08,639
Speaker 1: I'm hoping to see a lot of Profar at DH

563
00:27:09,200 --> 00:27:11,720
Speaker 1: this year. It's hard to do that if Ba's gonna

564
00:27:11,800 --> 00:27:13,800
Speaker 1: DH a lot. So like there's only one spot at

565
00:27:13,840 --> 00:27:18,480
Speaker 1: DH if is playing, you can have him play left

566
00:27:18,520 --> 00:27:21,200
Speaker 1: and have Profar DH, but that means Baldwin's either catching

567
00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:23,960
Speaker 1: or not playing. So there's lots of moving parts to

568
00:27:24,040 --> 00:27:28,680
Speaker 1: where if you're gonna play Baldwin, Ustremski, and Profar at

569
00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:31,840
Speaker 1: the same time. Balwa has to catch or he's not

570
00:27:31,920 --> 00:27:34,600
Speaker 1: in the light that's or or Ronnie is sitting out

571
00:27:34,600 --> 00:27:36,360
Speaker 1: that there or whatever. It's gonna be like, there's only

572
00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:38,960
Speaker 1: so many main units you can play. You do have

573
00:27:39,200 --> 00:27:44,400
Speaker 1: a somewhat worthy extra guy, Eli White, who can maybe

574
00:27:44,840 --> 00:27:47,720
Speaker 1: slightly platoon with yt Ski. He can hit lefties a

575
00:27:47,720 --> 00:27:50,520
Speaker 1: little bit in the way that Yaz cannot. I don't

576
00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:52,359
Speaker 1: think you want to play Yellowa. You don't have to

577
00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:54,280
Speaker 1: plan on playing l A White that much, but he

578
00:27:54,400 --> 00:27:57,440
Speaker 1: can do it on some level. So a lot of

579
00:27:57,520 --> 00:28:00,760
Speaker 1: it's about Murphy. A lot of it's about health. We've

580
00:28:00,800 --> 00:28:03,680
Speaker 1: already seen a major piece go down during the winter,

581
00:28:04,119 --> 00:28:06,720
Speaker 1: so a lot of is this perfect world stuff where

582
00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:08,520
Speaker 1: we kind of know that not everyone will be healthy

583
00:28:08,520 --> 00:28:10,800
Speaker 1: all the time, but it really might come down to

584
00:28:10,840 --> 00:28:14,600
Speaker 1: who's available that day. How what the philosophy is on Murphy. Honestly,

585
00:28:14,960 --> 00:28:19,359
Speaker 1: Murphy and Baldwin in particular, because if they're okay just

586
00:28:19,400 --> 00:28:21,200
Speaker 1: saying hey, Drake, you're young, You're going to be in

587
00:28:21,240 --> 00:28:24,920
Speaker 1: there every day in some form of fashion, that changes things,

588
00:28:25,560 --> 00:28:29,280
Speaker 1: versus him playing one hundred and twenty games I don't

589
00:28:29,320 --> 00:28:31,800
Speaker 1: really know. It's unanswering questions until we know what Wall says,

590
00:28:32,040 --> 00:28:36,840
Speaker 1: so what Why says? But a lot of shuffling, even Dubon,

591
00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:39,720
Speaker 1: Like Dubon is a pretty big platoon split. He it's left,

592
00:28:39,760 --> 00:28:41,960
Speaker 1: he's a lot better than righties. Early in the year,

593
00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:43,840
Speaker 1: it won't matter he's going to have to play because

594
00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:47,520
Speaker 1: Kim won't be there. But once Kim's back, Dubon is

595
00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:49,960
Speaker 1: someone you want to like use judiciously. Maybe maybe he

596
00:28:50,080 --> 00:28:52,840
Speaker 1: platoons a little bit in some ways, and his flexibility

597
00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:55,480
Speaker 1: is useful. So a lot of questions that we can't

598
00:28:55,480 --> 00:28:57,040
Speaker 1: answer right now. It's basically what I'm saying.

599
00:28:57,240 --> 00:28:59,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh there's a ton and I think that's what.

600
00:29:00,480 --> 00:29:03,360
Speaker 2: While the Braves didn't go out and add like a

601
00:29:03,600 --> 00:29:07,760
Speaker 2: high level, super high impact bat to this lineup this offseason,

602
00:29:08,200 --> 00:29:12,040
Speaker 2: they did go add some real versatility and flexibility with

603
00:29:12,200 --> 00:29:15,480
Speaker 2: the group, and even you know, even Michael Harris in centerfield.

604
00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:19,960
Speaker 2: I mean, we're all, I guess cautiously optimistic that he's

605
00:29:20,040 --> 00:29:22,560
Speaker 2: going to bounce back, but there's some real questions about

606
00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:25,240
Speaker 2: Michael at this point. You know, but if there's probably

607
00:29:25,520 --> 00:29:28,120
Speaker 2: a real chance that you might want to give Michael

608
00:29:28,160 --> 00:29:30,640
Speaker 2: a couple of days off against left handed pitching, which

609
00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:33,840
Speaker 2: he has historically not been as good against, and you

610
00:29:33,920 --> 00:29:36,560
Speaker 2: could have Eli White in centerfield. You could eventually have

611
00:29:36,760 --> 00:29:43,280
Speaker 2: Mauricio Dubon in centerfield. I think, yeah, yeah, it's not ideal,

612
00:29:43,600 --> 00:29:45,920
Speaker 2: but I mean this team was rolling Adam Duvall out

613
00:29:45,960 --> 00:29:48,080
Speaker 2: in center field during its World Series run for a

614
00:29:48,120 --> 00:29:50,240
Speaker 2: lot of it. I mean, you you don't want Mike

615
00:29:50,360 --> 00:29:53,040
Speaker 2: Streemsky making one hundred and forty starts in centerfield, but

616
00:29:53,160 --> 00:29:56,160
Speaker 2: he could do it, you know, every now and then

617
00:29:56,280 --> 00:29:57,640
Speaker 2: and probably not lose you the game.

618
00:29:58,240 --> 00:29:58,800
Speaker 3: So we'll see.

619
00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:00,480
Speaker 2: And I think a lot of it, too is based

620
00:30:00,520 --> 00:30:03,640
Speaker 2: on things we don't know right now. Is Ozzie Albay's

621
00:30:03,640 --> 00:30:06,360
Speaker 2: gonna bounce back, Is Michael Harris going to bounce back?

622
00:30:07,040 --> 00:30:10,680
Speaker 2: Is Ronald Acuna junior MVP level Ronald or is he

623
00:30:10,840 --> 00:30:13,600
Speaker 2: more just like good, you know, which has been kind

624
00:30:13,680 --> 00:30:15,400
Speaker 2: of where he's been the last two or three years

625
00:30:15,400 --> 00:30:18,800
Speaker 2: since he went nuclear and won MVP Austin Riley is

626
00:30:18,800 --> 00:30:20,720
Speaker 2: a big question. I mean, there's so many questions about

627
00:30:20,760 --> 00:30:23,239
Speaker 2: this lineup, Brad, as we talked through it, but you're right,

628
00:30:23,280 --> 00:30:25,840
Speaker 2: it's gonna be really interesting to see how they break

629
00:30:25,920 --> 00:30:28,560
Speaker 2: down the catchers in particular, and how they kind of

630
00:30:28,800 --> 00:30:32,520
Speaker 2: rotate around the lefties in this order, especially against tough

631
00:30:32,600 --> 00:30:36,320
Speaker 2: left handed pitching, because that's probably the chance to give

632
00:30:36,360 --> 00:30:38,560
Speaker 2: them a day off. If they're gonna face I don't know,

633
00:30:38,680 --> 00:30:41,600
Speaker 2: pick the let they're facing Trek Schooble that night, it

634
00:30:41,760 --> 00:30:44,840
Speaker 2: might be an opportune time to give Drake Baldwin just

635
00:30:44,880 --> 00:30:47,160
Speaker 2: a full day off, because guess what, most people aren't

636
00:30:47,160 --> 00:30:48,720
Speaker 2: gonna hit Trek Scuble no matter what.

637
00:30:51,040 --> 00:30:53,160
Speaker 1: There are as far as these supporting pieces are concerned,

638
00:30:53,280 --> 00:30:57,200
Speaker 1: Like the non top five guys, there are some platoon

639
00:30:57,240 --> 00:31:00,600
Speaker 1: splits we've already kind of export briefly. But Ozzie always

640
00:31:00,600 --> 00:31:02,960
Speaker 1: had a platoon split. He hits lefties better than righties,

641
00:31:03,040 --> 00:31:07,440
Speaker 1: always has. Sean Murphy hits lefties better than righties, always has.

642
00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:13,640
Speaker 1: Basically Dubond hits lefties better than righties, so he's the opposite.

643
00:31:16,560 --> 00:31:21,720
Speaker 1: And then you have Shremsky who hits righties. So like

644
00:31:21,880 --> 00:31:24,560
Speaker 1: you have these guys who are extreme, not especially all

645
00:31:24,960 --> 00:31:25,880
Speaker 1: the stretch is extreme.

646
00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:26,560
Speaker 3: Uh.

647
00:31:26,640 --> 00:31:28,600
Speaker 1: The rest of them are like pretty normal to maybe

648
00:31:28,640 --> 00:31:31,680
Speaker 1: a little bit stronger than usual. But almost all of

649
00:31:31,720 --> 00:31:33,400
Speaker 1: these supporting pieces Harris can't hit lefties.

650
00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:33,880
Speaker 3: It's another one.

651
00:31:33,920 --> 00:31:36,400
Speaker 1: Harris HiT's righty's more than lefties. Almost all of these

652
00:31:36,560 --> 00:31:41,680
Speaker 1: non top five bats have a pretty significant platoon split,

653
00:31:42,320 --> 00:31:44,640
Speaker 1: which means it's not and that's not gospel. I understand

654
00:31:44,640 --> 00:31:46,400
Speaker 1: that there are always pictures who who don't have the

655
00:31:46,440 --> 00:31:50,400
Speaker 1: same exact you know, tunneling and like leads to different

656
00:31:50,480 --> 00:31:52,960
Speaker 1: situations where like you might not ignormal platoon splits. It's

657
00:31:52,960 --> 00:31:54,280
Speaker 1: not it. It's not the end all be all. It's

658
00:31:54,280 --> 00:31:56,720
Speaker 1: just a convenient way to kind of siphon these out.

659
00:31:57,560 --> 00:32:00,520
Speaker 1: But how they build their line up up, it's going

660
00:32:00,600 --> 00:32:02,840
Speaker 1: to really depend on who's playing well, but also who,

661
00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:05,240
Speaker 1: like who's facing who, and who's available in all those things.

662
00:32:05,320 --> 00:32:07,880
Speaker 1: That's kind of the short version of how they do this.

663
00:32:08,600 --> 00:32:10,800
Speaker 1: And then I mean even Eli White again a small

664
00:32:10,800 --> 00:32:15,280
Speaker 1: appletude split for a supporting player. I think what you

665
00:32:15,320 --> 00:32:17,280
Speaker 1: want to add, I mean, we could do a whole

666
00:32:17,320 --> 00:32:19,960
Speaker 1: segment about Baldwin and we will at some point. Like

667
00:32:20,200 --> 00:32:22,040
Speaker 1: by the way, it Shosta Balwin, who just won Rookie

668
00:32:22,080 --> 00:32:24,600
Speaker 1: of the Year and received that award on Full Terroristory's

669
00:32:24,640 --> 00:32:27,480
Speaker 1: air over the weekend. I read the promo and people

670
00:32:27,480 --> 00:32:29,240
Speaker 1: were like what's going on. It's in the promo folks

671
00:32:29,480 --> 00:32:32,560
Speaker 1: Foul Territory YouTube. Drake Baldwin, he spoke to had to

672
00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:34,280
Speaker 1: like receive an award and speak. So if you want

673
00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:36,160
Speaker 1: to hear Drake Balman talk, it's on there for you.

674
00:32:36,680 --> 00:32:36,880
Speaker 3: Yeah.

675
00:32:37,520 --> 00:32:39,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it was a really nice way to

676
00:32:39,440 --> 00:32:42,800
Speaker 2: just kind of cap off a fantastic rookie year for

677
00:32:42,920 --> 00:32:43,720
Speaker 2: Drake Baldwin. This.

678
00:32:43,880 --> 00:32:44,960
Speaker 3: I mean, the kid's so good.

679
00:32:45,360 --> 00:32:48,440
Speaker 2: There's nothing in his profile that gives me any reason

680
00:32:48,520 --> 00:32:50,760
Speaker 2: to think he's not going to be very good again

681
00:32:50,840 --> 00:32:53,160
Speaker 2: next year. And as we talked about a little while ago,

682
00:32:53,240 --> 00:32:56,880
Speaker 2: I think Baldwin is very comfortably going to hit second, third,

683
00:32:56,960 --> 00:32:59,720
Speaker 2: fourth in this lineup and we'll hopefully have yet another

684
00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:02,239
Speaker 2: good I mean, if in a year from now, if

685
00:33:02,280 --> 00:33:04,880
Speaker 2: we're saying Baldwin is a top three catcher in baseball,

686
00:33:05,480 --> 00:33:07,160
Speaker 2: I would not be surprised in the least.

687
00:33:08,520 --> 00:33:11,280
Speaker 1: Oh for sure. The literally the only thing I'm worried

688
00:33:11,280 --> 00:33:13,520
Speaker 1: about Balwin, and worry is like not even the right word.

689
00:33:13,560 --> 00:33:16,840
Speaker 1: I'm not even worried. Is just the sophomore adjustment thing.

690
00:33:17,640 --> 00:33:19,600
Speaker 1: But I think he'll make it, like most guys that

691
00:33:19,680 --> 00:33:21,320
Speaker 1: are as good as he is are gonna be able

692
00:33:21,360 --> 00:33:23,840
Speaker 1: to figure it out, and I think you will. The

693
00:33:23,960 --> 00:33:28,080
Speaker 1: underlying data is really strong. There's no smoking mirrors stuff

694
00:33:28,120 --> 00:33:31,000
Speaker 1: with Baldwin. The brains have had some guys without naming them,

695
00:33:31,080 --> 00:33:33,040
Speaker 1: that have come up and been on fire and it's

696
00:33:33,040 --> 00:33:36,360
Speaker 1: been like, oh, this is not gonna last, and that's

697
00:33:36,400 --> 00:33:38,760
Speaker 1: not like that with Balwin. It's really it seems very

698
00:33:38,800 --> 00:33:40,719
Speaker 1: sustainable what he was doing at the play last year,

699
00:33:40,920 --> 00:33:43,080
Speaker 1: which you love to see. And plus everybody loves the kid, like,

700
00:33:43,560 --> 00:33:46,760
Speaker 1: oh yeah, yeah, he's great, so good.

701
00:33:46,880 --> 00:33:47,760
Speaker 3: I was gonna say so.

702
00:33:47,880 --> 00:33:49,920
Speaker 2: We're also going to do a couple of mailbag questions,

703
00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:52,080
Speaker 2: and you said a moment ago, do I want to

704
00:33:52,120 --> 00:33:56,120
Speaker 2: add anything else? And it was this idea came to

705
00:33:56,280 --> 00:33:58,160
Speaker 2: my mind and we actually got a mail bag question

706
00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:03,880
Speaker 2: from uh T Greg twenty one twenty one on Twitter.

707
00:34:05,640 --> 00:34:10,800
Speaker 2: Would you, Brad Rowland, take Marcel Ozuna back on a

708
00:34:10,960 --> 00:34:15,440
Speaker 2: one year contract, call it six to eight million dollars?

709
00:34:16,360 --> 00:34:20,239
Speaker 2: Would you take him back? Knowing the limitations, knowing how

710
00:34:20,320 --> 00:34:22,960
Speaker 2: good Ozuna has been but then had a very you know,

711
00:34:23,080 --> 00:34:27,200
Speaker 2: by his standards average year, he's getting older, he's gimpy,

712
00:34:27,719 --> 00:34:30,320
Speaker 2: he can't play defense at all. I mean, he's he

713
00:34:30,680 --> 00:34:33,000
Speaker 2: is not a young man at this point. But I mean,

714
00:34:34,080 --> 00:34:36,560
Speaker 2: is there a chance the Braves could reunite with Marcelo Zuna?

715
00:34:36,640 --> 00:34:37,400
Speaker 3: And should they?

716
00:34:38,840 --> 00:34:43,120
Speaker 1: I mean, yes, there's a chance. There are two questions

717
00:34:43,200 --> 00:34:45,120
Speaker 1: that we have to have the answer to that we

718
00:34:45,120 --> 00:34:46,759
Speaker 1: don't have the answer to do really ask this question.

719
00:34:46,880 --> 00:34:51,400
Speaker 1: Number one is payroll constraints, like which Alex will ever

720
00:34:51,440 --> 00:34:54,200
Speaker 1: tell us it's only in this scenario. It's five to

721
00:34:54,200 --> 00:34:55,920
Speaker 1: eight million. That's not a crazy number, no matter what.

722
00:34:56,120 --> 00:34:59,160
Speaker 1: But will that's stop to do something something else?

723
00:34:59,440 --> 00:34:59,480
Speaker 2: Like?

724
00:34:59,680 --> 00:35:00,919
Speaker 1: I don't know the answer to that question.

725
00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:01,319
Speaker 3: That's one.

726
00:35:02,040 --> 00:35:05,440
Speaker 1: Number two is his health, because last year he was

727
00:35:05,640 --> 00:35:08,440
Speaker 1: very open about how he like was very hurt and

728
00:35:08,560 --> 00:35:11,040
Speaker 1: tried to play through it. It didn't work very well.

729
00:35:12,360 --> 00:35:15,240
Speaker 1: So is he back? Is he healed? He's not signed?

730
00:35:15,239 --> 00:35:18,160
Speaker 1: It's January twenty fifth. Yeah, I don't know. Part that's

731
00:35:18,360 --> 00:35:21,280
Speaker 1: he's he's a tough sell, but part of that could.

732
00:35:21,080 --> 00:35:22,920
Speaker 3: Be Sorry, yeah, not to cut you out.

733
00:35:22,920 --> 00:35:25,400
Speaker 2: I mean, the fact that Ozuna has seemingly had no

734
00:35:25,640 --> 00:35:30,680
Speaker 2: market makes me think the medicals on his hip are

735
00:35:30,920 --> 00:35:32,479
Speaker 2: probably not very clean.

736
00:35:32,520 --> 00:35:34,120
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't know if I have seen.

737
00:35:34,080 --> 00:35:38,719
Speaker 2: Marcel's name reported like one time this entire offseason.

738
00:35:39,239 --> 00:35:42,839
Speaker 1: No, it's been very quiet, and I do wonder if

739
00:35:42,880 --> 00:35:45,120
Speaker 1: that's why. So that's two questions we have to answer

740
00:35:45,200 --> 00:35:47,799
Speaker 1: now in a let's assume a second perfect world where

741
00:35:47,920 --> 00:35:52,200
Speaker 1: he's healthy. If that's the price tag. I know that

742
00:35:52,280 --> 00:35:55,000
Speaker 1: the Braves would have kind of a logjam if you

743
00:35:55,080 --> 00:35:57,239
Speaker 1: bring in Marcel Zuna because he can't do anything but hit.

744
00:35:57,400 --> 00:36:00,160
Speaker 1: I get that he's a DH, but I have to

745
00:36:00,200 --> 00:36:03,120
Speaker 1: share this stat. It's from our guy Capitol Avenue on Twitter,

746
00:36:03,360 --> 00:36:08,000
Speaker 1: former blogger Braves fan. Very smart person. He shared these

747
00:36:08,080 --> 00:36:11,480
Speaker 1: numbers the last three years twenty three to twenty five

748
00:36:13,560 --> 00:36:15,719
Speaker 1: ex wOBA, which is the expected. I know it's an

749
00:36:15,719 --> 00:36:18,160
Speaker 1: advanced stat everybody, but it's a very good advanced stat

750
00:36:18,200 --> 00:36:21,680
Speaker 1: about how well you hit the baseball. Essentially, he shared

751
00:36:21,719 --> 00:36:26,120
Speaker 1: the top ten of that stat in the last three years. Unsurprisingly,

752
00:36:26,400 --> 00:36:29,399
Speaker 1: there are nine star players out of the top ten,

753
00:36:30,280 --> 00:36:35,000
Speaker 1: and the tenth is Marcelo Zuno. It is Aaron Judge,

754
00:36:35,120 --> 00:36:38,640
Speaker 1: Juan Soto, Choi Otani, Ronald Acunya. You're an Oliver, You're

755
00:36:38,640 --> 00:36:41,439
Speaker 1: Don Alvarez, Kyle Seeger, Sorry Cory, so you're not Kyle,

756
00:36:41,760 --> 00:36:46,360
Speaker 1: just Kyle la Guerrero Junior. Then Marcel is eighth, Kyle Tucker,

757
00:36:46,360 --> 00:36:48,360
Speaker 1: who just signed for a billion dollars, is ninth, and

758
00:36:48,480 --> 00:36:51,560
Speaker 1: Kyle Schwarba is tenth. So what that all that means

759
00:36:51,680 --> 00:36:54,080
Speaker 1: is that when Marcell has been playing the last three years,

760
00:36:54,280 --> 00:36:55,920
Speaker 1: he's hit the piss out of the baseball. We could

761
00:36:55,920 --> 00:36:58,719
Speaker 1: be honest about that, and the Braves do have a

762
00:36:58,800 --> 00:37:02,000
Speaker 1: situation where we're all I think we're all okay with

763
00:37:02,080 --> 00:37:04,800
Speaker 1: the lineup. I'll let you talk about it more. But

764
00:37:04,880 --> 00:37:06,160
Speaker 1: Steve and I talked about this a little bit on

765
00:37:06,200 --> 00:37:09,240
Speaker 1: the show Thursday or whatever whatever. We talked on the podcast,

766
00:37:09,320 --> 00:37:11,160
Speaker 1: like if they want to add another bat, I won't

767
00:37:11,200 --> 00:37:13,839
Speaker 1: hate it. And I think that Marcel, given the money

768
00:37:13,880 --> 00:37:15,799
Speaker 1: that he probably will not come in, Like I think

769
00:37:15,800 --> 00:37:18,520
Speaker 1: he's gonna be relatively cheap at this point. I'd have

770
00:37:18,600 --> 00:37:21,040
Speaker 1: a hard time criticizing them if they were to sign Marcel.

771
00:37:21,880 --> 00:37:24,560
Speaker 1: And yeah, it has to be an understanding of hey,

772
00:37:24,640 --> 00:37:27,759
Speaker 1: big fella, if unless you're mashing, you're not playing every day,

773
00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:30,600
Speaker 1: because that's just not what we can do at this point.

774
00:37:31,480 --> 00:37:35,799
Speaker 1: But if he's healthy, man, he's better than the guys

775
00:37:35,840 --> 00:37:38,319
Speaker 1: they have, Like he's a good hitter, he's really I mean,

776
00:37:39,000 --> 00:37:41,960
Speaker 1: he's really good at hitting the baseball if he's available,

777
00:37:42,040 --> 00:37:44,560
Speaker 1: and it would be insurance on other things. And I

778
00:37:44,600 --> 00:37:46,279
Speaker 1: don't know, man, if it's if that's the price that

779
00:37:46,400 --> 00:37:48,720
Speaker 1: and that. I'm pretty sure we said this in like November,

780
00:37:49,120 --> 00:37:51,040
Speaker 1: you and I like, Hey, if the price is low enough,

781
00:37:51,040 --> 00:37:53,520
Speaker 1: you gotta consider it. The price might be low enough now,

782
00:37:53,600 --> 00:37:55,800
Speaker 1: or if he has no interest at all by late January,

783
00:37:55,880 --> 00:37:57,600
Speaker 1: the price has to be lower. What are we doing here?

784
00:37:58,120 --> 00:38:01,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I think the big question with Azuna, So

785
00:38:01,400 --> 00:38:03,960
Speaker 2: you had that great stat from twenty three to twenty

786
00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:07,240
Speaker 2: four and twenty five, Ozuna was as good as basically

787
00:38:07,320 --> 00:38:11,560
Speaker 2: anyone at baseball at hitting the baseball. The question, of course,

788
00:38:11,760 --> 00:38:14,200
Speaker 2: is that a lot of those numbers are being carried

789
00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:18,880
Speaker 2: by outstanding years in twenty three and twenty four, oh

790
00:38:18,920 --> 00:38:22,319
Speaker 2: for sure, because Marcell was nowhere near and because he's

791
00:38:22,360 --> 00:38:26,000
Speaker 2: getting older. So I mean, Marcel is a just turned

792
00:38:26,040 --> 00:38:29,640
Speaker 2: thirty five. So because of the age and because of

793
00:38:29,680 --> 00:38:33,239
Speaker 2: the fact that his expected wOBA was three ninety three

794
00:38:33,640 --> 00:38:37,960
Speaker 2: in twenty three four to oh two in twenty twenty four,

795
00:38:38,360 --> 00:38:41,400
Speaker 2: but then dropped fifty one points this past year. I mean,

796
00:38:41,480 --> 00:38:44,239
Speaker 2: that's a big drop for a guy who apparently has

797
00:38:44,320 --> 00:38:47,239
Speaker 2: a real hip problem. I don't believe Marcell has had

798
00:38:47,239 --> 00:38:49,319
Speaker 2: any kind of surgery to fix that hip.

799
00:38:49,440 --> 00:38:51,040
Speaker 3: I think we would have heard that by now.

800
00:38:51,760 --> 00:38:55,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, it has to be announced and you're a horpsent, right.

801
00:38:55,520 --> 00:38:57,839
Speaker 1: I have one more set I forgot to say about

802
00:38:57,880 --> 00:39:02,560
Speaker 1: this is dooct topic. Last year year, first fifty games

803
00:39:03,680 --> 00:39:05,040
Speaker 1: of the team, I think it was I think I

804
00:39:05,040 --> 00:39:06,160
Speaker 1: think he played in forty s out of them, he

805
00:39:06,200 --> 00:39:07,480
Speaker 1: had a nine. He had like a nine hundred oh

806
00:39:07,480 --> 00:39:10,480
Speaker 1: ps like he was still playing at like an elite

807
00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:14,839
Speaker 1: bat level for two months last year. And we'll never

808
00:39:14,920 --> 00:39:17,040
Speaker 1: know when the hip started to flare up, but if

809
00:39:17,080 --> 00:39:18,400
Speaker 1: if you go by the numbers, it's like if you

810
00:39:18,480 --> 00:39:19,680
Speaker 1: had to make a guess as to when it was

811
00:39:19,719 --> 00:39:23,200
Speaker 1: going to be. My guess is probably like late May,

812
00:39:23,280 --> 00:39:26,280
Speaker 1: early June, because as soon as that happened, the numbers

813
00:39:26,320 --> 00:39:28,239
Speaker 1: went like this, and then he had and then he

814
00:39:28,280 --> 00:39:30,120
Speaker 1: sat for a while last and that's I can't remember

815
00:39:30,120 --> 00:39:32,520
Speaker 1: when the actual report came out about him being hurt,

816
00:39:32,920 --> 00:39:35,279
Speaker 1: but it was after that. And I think there's a

817
00:39:35,320 --> 00:39:37,839
Speaker 1: reason to believe I'm not sure this is the case,

818
00:39:37,880 --> 00:39:40,279
Speaker 1: but there's reason to on the outside believe that maybe

819
00:39:40,320 --> 00:39:43,719
Speaker 1: it's just the hip because he was playing at that

820
00:39:43,800 --> 00:39:45,600
Speaker 1: same level for twenty three and twenty four for the

821
00:39:45,680 --> 00:39:48,840
Speaker 1: first six, seven, eight weeks the last season, it's just

822
00:39:48,920 --> 00:39:51,160
Speaker 1: that from that point four he wasn't the same. But

823
00:39:51,239 --> 00:39:53,200
Speaker 1: you're right to bring it up. I mean, the age

824
00:39:53,239 --> 00:39:55,600
Speaker 1: come by with the injury makes you we just don't know.

825
00:39:55,920 --> 00:39:59,080
Speaker 1: We have no way of knowing, and that's worth acknowledging

826
00:39:59,160 --> 00:39:59,520
Speaker 1: for sure.

827
00:40:00,160 --> 00:40:02,799
Speaker 2: And it was really interesting because in those first two months,

828
00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:05,880
Speaker 2: while the numbers for Ozuna were really strong, do you

829
00:40:05,960 --> 00:40:10,080
Speaker 2: remember that he was walking like a madman? So the

830
00:40:10,280 --> 00:40:13,520
Speaker 2: power had dipped those first two months. We didn't necessarily

831
00:40:13,600 --> 00:40:16,560
Speaker 2: see it on the whole, but when you're walking literally

832
00:40:16,719 --> 00:40:19,480
Speaker 2: like twenty one percent of the time the first handful

833
00:40:19,480 --> 00:40:22,239
Speaker 2: of weeks of the year, the whole numbers look great,

834
00:40:22,560 --> 00:40:26,320
Speaker 2: So the power did dip off To answer the question

835
00:40:27,200 --> 00:40:29,640
Speaker 2: without knowing, and I thought you said it perfectly without

836
00:40:29,760 --> 00:40:33,880
Speaker 2: knowing how much money alex Anthoppolis has to spend ideally

837
00:40:33,960 --> 00:40:38,080
Speaker 2: to add a starting pitcher as well. I'm interested in Ozuna, like,

838
00:40:38,480 --> 00:40:41,200
Speaker 2: if he gets back to mashing the way that he

839
00:40:41,760 --> 00:40:44,480
Speaker 2: was a few years ago, then absolutely he makes the

840
00:40:44,520 --> 00:40:47,480
Speaker 2: Brave such a better team offensively. But if it's going

841
00:40:47,520 --> 00:40:49,600
Speaker 2: to be more of the same. And if his hip

842
00:40:50,080 --> 00:40:53,760
Speaker 2: is cooked and still in big trouble and the Braves

843
00:40:53,800 --> 00:40:55,600
Speaker 2: maybe don't have that much money to spend and they

844
00:40:55,640 --> 00:40:58,440
Speaker 2: feel like they could add a starter, I don't know,

845
00:40:58,640 --> 00:41:02,120
Speaker 2: but it's it is a very interesting thought exercise here,

846
00:41:02,320 --> 00:41:05,680
Speaker 2: especially knowing that you have already lost one piece offensively

847
00:41:06,040 --> 00:41:08,880
Speaker 2: in Hasan Kim. For at least the early days of

848
00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:12,719
Speaker 2: the season. We'll see if there's room on the bench

849
00:41:12,840 --> 00:41:15,640
Speaker 2: and financial room to take another kind of a mini

850
00:41:15,719 --> 00:41:17,440
Speaker 2: gamble on Azoonna bouncing back.

851
00:41:18,600 --> 00:41:20,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this is one of those things that I

852
00:41:20,640 --> 00:41:22,560
Speaker 1: like to acknowledge when we just don't have any way

853
00:41:22,600 --> 00:41:24,640
Speaker 1: of knowing. And this is exactly one of those situations

854
00:41:25,080 --> 00:41:29,680
Speaker 1: where Marcel's medicals if he hasn't market at all, which

855
00:41:29,719 --> 00:41:31,560
Speaker 1: we're guessing he doesn't because he would have probably signed

856
00:41:31,560 --> 00:41:36,800
Speaker 1: by now. But it's tricky. I have long said it

857
00:41:36,920 --> 00:41:39,440
Speaker 1: was always going to be harder for another team other

858
00:41:39,560 --> 00:41:42,640
Speaker 1: than the Braves to give Marcel a real investment because

859
00:41:42,640 --> 00:41:44,080
Speaker 1: of the off field thing too. I don't know, people

860
00:41:44,120 --> 00:41:46,120
Speaker 1: have kind of forgotten that now and pigeonhold it. But

861
00:41:46,200 --> 00:41:48,640
Speaker 1: if it was a new fan base that comes with

862
00:41:48,719 --> 00:41:50,840
Speaker 1: its own baggage, whether you think it should or not.

863
00:41:51,360 --> 00:41:54,000
Speaker 1: That does come with a pr question of some kind.

864
00:41:54,080 --> 00:41:56,719
Speaker 1: If you are not the Braves. The brains already have

865
00:41:56,719 --> 00:41:58,759
Speaker 1: already dealt with this for years now. It's not new

866
00:41:58,840 --> 00:42:01,520
Speaker 1: to the Braves. They know what's going on. So maybe

867
00:42:01,560 --> 00:42:03,319
Speaker 1: it's all that throne into one and he's a DH

868
00:42:03,400 --> 00:42:05,520
Speaker 1: only player, and that's it's tough. If you already have

869
00:42:05,520 --> 00:42:07,719
Speaker 1: a DH you can't sign Marcel. Yeah, and the Raves

870
00:42:07,719 --> 00:42:09,880
Speaker 1: don't have I mean, the Rice kind of do with Profar,

871
00:42:09,920 --> 00:42:11,400
Speaker 1: but at wish they were willing to talk about Profile

872
00:42:11,400 --> 00:42:12,320
Speaker 1: playing with fields.

873
00:42:12,280 --> 00:42:15,000
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, Profar can play left You could sub him

874
00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:17,279
Speaker 2: out in the ninth inning like he's not probably not

875
00:42:17,400 --> 00:42:19,040
Speaker 2: going to kill you out there. I mean his numbers,

876
00:42:19,320 --> 00:42:21,680
Speaker 2: Profile's numbers and left field were not good, but they

877
00:42:21,719 --> 00:42:22,920
Speaker 2: were not unplayable.

878
00:42:23,040 --> 00:42:25,799
Speaker 1: They were not a Zuona level. And one more time,

879
00:42:26,040 --> 00:42:28,200
Speaker 1: if you pay him, let's say six million, I think

880
00:42:28,200 --> 00:42:30,720
Speaker 1: the question was five to eight million, six million dollars,

881
00:42:32,000 --> 00:42:34,640
Speaker 1: that's what you could pay for a bench guy. It's

882
00:42:34,680 --> 00:42:35,960
Speaker 1: more than you want to pay for a bench guy.

883
00:42:36,040 --> 00:42:39,359
Speaker 1: But it's not crazy to have an extra bat kind

884
00:42:39,440 --> 00:42:42,360
Speaker 1: of player who's a platoon or a part timer for

885
00:42:42,480 --> 00:42:44,800
Speaker 1: that money with one year, that's not a big investment.

886
00:42:45,480 --> 00:42:47,600
Speaker 1: I'm sure at some point we said, hey, if it's

887
00:42:47,680 --> 00:42:50,680
Speaker 1: like fifteen million, we can't do it anymore with Marcel.

888
00:42:51,800 --> 00:42:54,239
Speaker 1: That's not where we are anymore. Like that's why I'm

889
00:42:54,280 --> 00:42:57,359
Speaker 1: interested in him, and I think the bat is really

890
00:42:57,440 --> 00:43:00,520
Speaker 1: good and it gives you some insurance if you know,

891
00:43:00,600 --> 00:43:02,640
Speaker 1: knock on wood, knock on air piece. If Matt Olsen

892
00:43:02,680 --> 00:43:06,680
Speaker 1: ever is destructible at some point, having Marcel Zuna to

893
00:43:06,719 --> 00:43:08,360
Speaker 1: play first base for a month would not be the

894
00:43:08,400 --> 00:43:10,040
Speaker 1: worst thing in the world. Like that kind of thing,

895
00:43:10,080 --> 00:43:11,799
Speaker 1: like gives you a little bit more insurance because right

896
00:43:11,840 --> 00:43:14,200
Speaker 1: now we just talked about it. They have five guys

897
00:43:14,719 --> 00:43:17,279
Speaker 1: or five and a half guys maybe with you half

898
00:43:17,320 --> 00:43:19,359
Speaker 1: of half of your strim Ski that you like at

899
00:43:19,400 --> 00:43:22,279
Speaker 1: the plate, but you don't have nine that you like

900
00:43:22,360 --> 00:43:22,719
Speaker 1: at the plate.

901
00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:27,080
Speaker 2: Well, and if you get another outfield injury, if arist

902
00:43:27,120 --> 00:43:28,520
Speaker 2: or Accoon you go down, yeah, then all of a

903
00:43:28,520 --> 00:43:33,200
Speaker 2: sudden your Yastremski profar d h is no longer because.

904
00:43:34,280 --> 00:43:37,319
Speaker 1: You're suddenly Eli White's playing half the time and you're

905
00:43:37,360 --> 00:43:39,839
Speaker 1: playing Dubon in the outfield. You know, all these which

906
00:43:39,880 --> 00:43:41,480
Speaker 1: they can do and they are better set up than

907
00:43:41,480 --> 00:43:44,239
Speaker 1: they have been for a while to withstand injuries. But

908
00:43:44,320 --> 00:43:48,319
Speaker 1: they already have one. They're withstanding with Kim, and you're

909
00:43:48,320 --> 00:43:50,640
Speaker 1: gonna have one man like you're gonna have some stuff.

910
00:43:50,719 --> 00:43:55,160
Speaker 1: So I think given the price point of Marcel, maybe

911
00:43:55,880 --> 00:43:59,800
Speaker 1: it is worth the call. Is it realistic? I don't know.

912
00:44:00,360 --> 00:44:02,920
Speaker 1: I won't claim it know by any means, but alex

913
00:44:03,040 --> 00:44:05,960
Speaker 1: is sign Marcel before they know him and they know

914
00:44:06,000 --> 00:44:08,160
Speaker 1: he can hit. It would not shock me though, if

915
00:44:08,200 --> 00:44:10,000
Speaker 1: his hip is so bad that no one wants touch him,

916
00:44:10,040 --> 00:44:11,040
Speaker 1: that wouldn't surprise me at all.

917
00:44:11,280 --> 00:44:14,439
Speaker 2: So yeah, that's the that's the ten million dollar question

918
00:44:14,560 --> 00:44:18,200
Speaker 2: that we just we Legally we could not have answers to. No.

919
00:44:18,320 --> 00:44:20,759
Speaker 1: And I don't know if his agent's talked about it

920
00:44:20,880 --> 00:44:23,120
Speaker 1: or anything, but I did. I did a cursory google

921
00:44:23,120 --> 00:44:25,880
Speaker 1: Starce Sport. We're talking. There's just been like no reporting

922
00:44:25,920 --> 00:44:29,919
Speaker 1: at all. Like we've we've made fun of this many times,

923
00:44:30,160 --> 00:44:33,320
Speaker 1: you and I especially you about the free agency process

924
00:44:33,400 --> 00:44:36,480
Speaker 1: in baseball and how slow it sometimes is. But when

925
00:44:36,520 --> 00:44:39,200
Speaker 1: you've been a free agent for I mean, he's been

926
00:44:39,239 --> 00:44:42,200
Speaker 1: a free agent for three months, like he's been the

927
00:44:42,239 --> 00:44:46,279
Speaker 1: Brad's been done playing for four months, three months, four months,

928
00:44:46,360 --> 00:44:49,319
Speaker 1: four months, and not a single thing that I've seen

929
00:44:50,160 --> 00:44:51,480
Speaker 1: and I'm trying to find on right now like a

930
00:44:51,640 --> 00:44:56,160
Speaker 1: like a report. Something in our soul is nothing zero. Yeah,

931
00:44:56,160 --> 00:44:58,319
Speaker 1: maybe I miss something, but because Google's broken at this point.

932
00:44:58,800 --> 00:45:00,400
Speaker 1: But still there's not a been a lot of us

933
00:45:00,680 --> 00:45:04,120
Speaker 1: about Marcel and I I get why. But also he's

934
00:45:04,360 --> 00:45:06,719
Speaker 1: still good at hitting as of the last time we

935
00:45:06,760 --> 00:45:07,080
Speaker 1: saw him.

936
00:45:07,360 --> 00:45:10,840
Speaker 2: So yeah, we'll see an interesting thing to keep an

937
00:45:10,880 --> 00:45:13,120
Speaker 2: eye on in the next couple of weeks before spring training.

938
00:45:14,360 --> 00:45:17,320
Speaker 1: One hundred percent, Scott, We've gone longer we were supposed

939
00:45:17,320 --> 00:45:21,040
Speaker 1: to go. Are you shocked? Am I shocked? No? No,

940
00:45:21,120 --> 00:45:24,640
Speaker 1: I'm not. No, we're missing football too. This is this

941
00:45:24,760 --> 00:45:27,480
Speaker 1: is not, this is not, this is not. Okay, if

942
00:45:27,520 --> 00:45:29,040
Speaker 1: your team or my team were playing WEB, I wouldn't

943
00:45:29,040 --> 00:45:31,640
Speaker 1: been missing football. But let's get out of here, shall we.

944
00:45:31,760 --> 00:45:33,239
Speaker 1: Let's you have more to add. We could we could

945
00:45:33,239 --> 00:45:34,920
Speaker 1: say some other questions we we got. We got some

946
00:45:35,000 --> 00:45:37,520
Speaker 1: questions from listeners that we will certainly get to at

947
00:45:37,560 --> 00:45:42,120
Speaker 1: some point along the way. We got another month until

948
00:45:42,200 --> 00:45:45,040
Speaker 1: pitchers and catches report, and then, as we've talked about

949
00:45:45,040 --> 00:45:48,120
Speaker 1: many times, that's a two day story. And then you

950
00:45:48,200 --> 00:45:50,960
Speaker 1: get into real spring training, which is a slog in itself,

951
00:45:51,000 --> 00:45:52,920
Speaker 1: so there'll be plenty of time to answer with questions,

952
00:45:53,680 --> 00:45:55,879
Speaker 1: anything else to add, And if not for the new people,

953
00:45:55,880 --> 00:45:57,760
Speaker 1: they might be listening to this podcast on a Sunday

954
00:45:57,840 --> 00:46:02,480
Speaker 1: evening slash Monday. Where can folks follow along with Scott Coleman.

955
00:46:03,760 --> 00:46:06,920
Speaker 2: I'm at Scott Coleman fifty five on Twitter if you

956
00:46:06,960 --> 00:46:09,799
Speaker 2: want to follow along there, And as always, a big

957
00:46:09,840 --> 00:46:11,400
Speaker 2: thank you to everybody for checking out the show. We

958
00:46:11,480 --> 00:46:13,920
Speaker 2: will be back this upcoming week and then I mean

959
00:46:14,080 --> 00:46:17,160
Speaker 2: spring training players start showing up in like three and

960
00:46:17,200 --> 00:46:19,960
Speaker 2: a half weeks from now. Yeah, it'll be here, and

961
00:46:20,000 --> 00:46:22,520
Speaker 2: then of course spring training starts, and then there's seven

962
00:46:22,600 --> 00:46:26,080
Speaker 2: weeks of just you know, keeping everybody healthy until opening day.

963
00:46:26,160 --> 00:46:28,680
Speaker 2: But baseball is around the corner and we will have

964
00:46:28,840 --> 00:46:32,000
Speaker 2: plenty of Braves content in the weeks and months to come.

965
00:46:32,760 --> 00:46:35,640
Speaker 1: According to the release I just found, all thirty teams

966
00:46:36,040 --> 00:46:40,480
Speaker 1: are expected to have people in their camps by February

967
00:46:40,600 --> 00:46:43,359
Speaker 1: twenty first, so that's four weeks from now.

968
00:46:44,840 --> 00:46:45,640
Speaker 3: That would be late.

969
00:46:45,920 --> 00:46:48,040
Speaker 1: I feel like that's like, that's like everybody in camp,

970
00:46:48,080 --> 00:46:50,760
Speaker 1: I think, not just your gas, Like that's like everybody reporting,

971
00:46:50,840 --> 00:46:54,239
Speaker 1: so stay tuned, folks. Also, we are part of the

972
00:46:54,280 --> 00:46:57,120
Speaker 1: Fola Tartary network of podcasts. Please listen to thou Territory

973
00:46:57,200 --> 00:47:00,360
Speaker 1: subscribe there, and please subscribe to Hammer Territory where you

974
00:47:00,400 --> 00:47:05,319
Speaker 1: get your podcasts Apple, Spotify, YouTube, et cetera. We are

975
00:47:05,400 --> 00:47:08,520
Speaker 1: hosted by the four of us, myself, Scott, Steven Tolbert,

976
00:47:08,560 --> 00:47:11,600
Speaker 1: and Sean Coleman in some combination most of the time,

977
00:47:11,920 --> 00:47:14,719
Speaker 1: so keep it locked here. Ratings reviews appreciated. Enjoy the

978
00:47:14,760 --> 00:47:17,000
Speaker 1: rest of your Sunday into Monday, and we'll see you

979
00:47:17,040 --> 00:47:19,080
Speaker 1: guys in just a few days, as we always would

980
00:47:19,160 --> 00:47:19,800
Speaker 1: on the podcast.