Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Hammer Territory Podcast,
Speaker 1: episode four three three. But it was Brad Roland coming
Speaker 1: to you on a Sunday evening, and I am joined
Speaker 1: by someone who is not Scott Coleman. In fact, I've
Speaker 1: smashed the upgrade button on this Sunday evening. Stephen Tolbert
Speaker 1: is here as Scott wanders the Midwest. Steven, what's up man?
Speaker 1: How are you?
Speaker 2: What's up, buddy? Yeah, Scott's in Chicago. I think I
Speaker 2: was in Chicago not too long ago. Scott had a
Speaker 2: fun weekend in Chicago. We had a kind of average
Speaker 2: weekend here watching Braze baseball. We're gonna talk about it all,
Speaker 2: of course, but it was nice to get a win today.
Speaker 2: Had they lost today, it's kind of, you know, very
Speaker 2: similar to how it's been, I think last weekend with
Speaker 2: the Yankees, Like, you know, winning on Sunday kind of
Speaker 2: salvage the series. So you know, it's it's been an
Speaker 2: up and down, but you know, when you have the
Speaker 2: lead the Braves have, they don't. We don't have to
Speaker 2: live and die on every game like some teams are
Speaker 2: having to do right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I heard you say that on a recent episode.
Speaker 1: And I not on my head along and I knew
Speaker 1: people would be mad at you for saying it, but
Speaker 1: it's also true. So with that said, Stephen, let us
Speaker 1: waste no time. Let us mix it up, engineered by
Speaker 1: our friends at fastenal.
Speaker 3: Steve.
Speaker 1: As you just laid out, it was kind of a
Speaker 1: weird weekend for the Braves. We'll talk about the losses
Speaker 1: on Friday and Saturday in a moment, but the Braves
Speaker 1: did avoid the sweep behind mostly a big swing from
Speaker 1: Matt Olsen on Sunday afternoon on a three to zero
Speaker 1: pitch to basically win the game. It didn't clitch the
Speaker 1: game officially, but that was the biggest swing. They did
Speaker 1: go only four and five in the last three series
Speaker 1: following that eight game winning streak ear this month. No
Speaker 1: reason to panic. They're not losing to terrible baseball teams,
Speaker 1: aside from the one Mets loss. Haha insert laughter here.
Speaker 1: But no, you know, I do think it's if we
Speaker 1: say it often on Sundays, it's kind of funny for
Speaker 1: our podcast schedule, but when on a Sunday it can help.
Speaker 1: I would say, ease a lot of worries going into
Speaker 1: the new week. But uh, you know, as always or
Speaker 1: maybe as usual, and I've seen your tweets about this too.
Speaker 1: It's like, Hey, Chris Sale, Matt Olsen are good, and
Speaker 1: mett Olsen happens to be the hero on this Sunday
Speaker 1: with just a by the way, a three to zero pitch,
Speaker 1: just an absolute mammoth blast. As I will say, his
Speaker 1: all he can do. That's not true, but he is
Speaker 1: on the short list of guys that I would like
Speaker 1: to see hitting a fastball down the middle on a
Speaker 1: three account.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, I've said this a couple of times.
Speaker 2: People get mad when I say it for some reason,
Speaker 2: but like twenty twenty six really has been There's been
Speaker 2: other guys, but it has been like the Chris Sale
Speaker 2: Matt Olsen show in a lot of way. They've been
Speaker 2: the most consistent players on the team. I you know,
Speaker 2: you could probably throw Dylan Lee in there as well,
Speaker 2: but the only two players on the team that have
Speaker 2: have surpassed the four win mark for war Mark and
Speaker 2: you know, obviously Matt had a big swing today. You know,
Speaker 2: it's it's kind of a weird time of year for
Speaker 2: baseball because we're very much in the dog days of August.
Speaker 2: You know, football is starting back up. Everybody's doing their
Speaker 2: fantasy football drafts. Brad and I are both Falcons fans,
Speaker 2: which is is typically more of a threat than anything
Speaker 2: to be excited about. But you know, this is the
Speaker 2: time of the year where baseball kind of goes on
Speaker 2: autopilot a little bit, and especially when you have a
Speaker 2: team that's very comfortably in the playoffs. I checked this afternoon.
Speaker 2: The Braves playoff odds are at like ninety nine point
Speaker 2: eight percent or something like that. Division odds are at
Speaker 2: like ninety three percent, So you know, I know I
Speaker 2: saw some people freaking out this weekend because the Braids
Speaker 2: didn't play great baseball. We're gonna talk about the losses too,
Speaker 2: But I find myself in a little bit more of
Speaker 2: a you know, keep keep zoomed out, just big picture takes,
Speaker 2: you know. That was my first take on today's game,
Speaker 2: was like, man, Matt Elson and Chris Sale have just
Speaker 2: been unbelievable this year, and Maddilson won the game today.
Speaker 2: The offense hasn't looked great. That's fair. I'm fine with
Speaker 2: people saying that. I mean, if you look at their
Speaker 2: overall numbers, they're kind of down, like middle of the
Speaker 2: tier in terms of like the league. I think they're
Speaker 2: like fifteenth in WRC plus for the year. So, like,
Speaker 2: I understand people being a little concerned about that because
Speaker 2: it's been a weird year and if you kind of
Speaker 2: look at the team right now, especially with how Glacier
Speaker 2: says backed up, it's tough to find a part of
Speaker 2: the team that you would label elite right now, and
Speaker 2: that worries people, like they don't really know what to
Speaker 2: stand on, what to kind of hold on to as like,
Speaker 2: this is the thing we do great, this is the
Speaker 2: thing we do better than everybody else. And so I
Speaker 2: get like there's a little bit of consternation, especially when
Speaker 2: they don't play well. But I find myself in a
Speaker 2: little bit more of autopilot mode just as we get
Speaker 2: kind of through the dog days.
Speaker 3: I think that's right.
Speaker 1: And you know, I hadn't thought about that until we
Speaker 1: were talking about earlier, and I don't know the bullpen
Speaker 1: has had been the unit that you could say that about,
Speaker 1: right And I think the best version of the bullpen,
Speaker 1: which includes Robert Suarez hopefully and the Iglesias that's back
Speaker 1: to being Iglesias, probably has the clearest path to being elite,
Speaker 1: given the fact that Dylan Lee and did Frontids are
Speaker 1: still there. But you're right, there's not really a world
Speaker 1: in which rotation is elite at this point. It could
Speaker 1: be good. Chris Sale is good enough on his own
Speaker 1: to make it potentially good. In the lineup when it's
Speaker 1: right can be good as well, and we've seen that.
Speaker 1: But it's not like one particular area where they are dominant.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of hard to parse at times, even today,
Speaker 1: Like they didn't blow the doors off the Diamondbacks in
Speaker 1: this win on Sunday. It was basically the one swing
Speaker 1: from Olsen, a four hundred and thirty seven foot home
Speaker 1: run in a tie game in seventh inning, and that
Speaker 1: was enough. Bryce Elder did a good job today. His
Speaker 1: last start did not go well. It was reactions were
Speaker 1: everywhere about that particular outing. It was interesting today he
Speaker 1: naviget six innings, only allowing one run with five strikeouts
Speaker 1: on walk. Interestingly, his velocity was down like across the board,
Speaker 1: like a decent amount, like probably not like troubling him out,
Speaker 1: but like when I was like, oh, that's he's already
Speaker 1: not a he's not a hard thrower. So it isn't
Speaker 1: quite as evident just watching it when the velocity is down,
Speaker 1: but that was the numbers painted that pretty clear picture there.
Speaker 1: And apparently he has a knee issue, Like why simingly
Speaker 1: just drop that kind of out of nowhere in postgame today,
Speaker 1: and apparently it's been on an issue for a while.
Speaker 1: We don't know any more about that now as we're
Speaker 1: talking on Sunday evening, maybe that we'll get more information
Speaker 1: on that. But I think even then, like Bryce this
Speaker 1: is he's good for some of these starts, Like he
Speaker 1: can do this six innings, one run. I wouldn't project
Speaker 1: that from Bryce Eller, but he can do it. We've
Speaker 1: seen that. And then the bullpen was not particularly awesome today.
Speaker 1: Glacis wasn't dominant in the ninth inning. Diddy or Flint says,
Speaker 1: who is really really good? I think we agree on
Speaker 1: that allows a home run. That's gonna happen sometimes. But
Speaker 1: you know, there was a nice Ozzie defensive play to
Speaker 1: save a run. But it was like kind of this
Speaker 1: and that and this and that and this win on
Speaker 1: Sunday and they got it over the line. But that's
Speaker 1: kind of how sometimes baseball goes. I mean, it's it's
Speaker 1: one of those weird things. The dog days is the
Speaker 1: right phrasing even right now this is something we probably
Speaker 1: shouldn't say on the podcast, but even like I think
Speaker 1: fan interest is a little bit lower the deadline, you
Speaker 1: wain the reason out why, Like there's football starting up.
Speaker 1: We were from a south, not every risk from the South,
Speaker 1: but it's a football territory, and there's this le between
Speaker 1: the deadline and the playoffs, especially when the Braves are
Speaker 1: eight games up or whatever they are at the starry moment,
Speaker 1: like seven and a half as we're talking, there is
Speaker 1: kind of a lull and the team maybe is they're
Speaker 1: not they're not thinking that on the field every day.
Speaker 1: But it's like, you know, maybe we're only fighting about
Speaker 1: the things that don't don't matter that much right now.
Speaker 3: This is one of those fun times of the year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and like from our perspective, like just from the
Speaker 2: four of us people that do this, like we've been
Speaker 2: kind of going full boar every day since January February,
Speaker 2: especially March when you know, and so like you get
Speaker 2: to this time of year and the trade deadlines passed,
Speaker 2: you know, there's not going to be any like crazy
Speaker 2: news and it's injury stuff, which you can't predict, you know,
Speaker 2: and especially when you have a team that's you know,
Speaker 2: if you're if you're a fan of the Phillies or
Speaker 2: the Padres, or the or the Diamondbacks or the Marlins,
Speaker 2: and like, you know, you got two teams for our
Speaker 2: four teams for two spots in the wild card. Yeah,
Speaker 2: every day is much different. But for right now, for
Speaker 2: brace fan, it is kind of like a it is
Speaker 2: kind of a weird place to be. It's not a
Speaker 2: bad place to be, it's you know, it's a it's
Speaker 2: a blessing to be this far up in the standings,
Speaker 2: to have the playoff odds that they have. You know,
Speaker 2: there's nothing crazy happening with the roster. We're going to
Speaker 2: talk a little bit about it, but like you know,
Speaker 2: there's a j Smith schaalv stuff that's interesting that's coming up.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it just kind of feels like it. And
Speaker 2: also with how they're playing, Like I know, they had
Speaker 2: the eight game winning streak, but I'll you know, beating
Speaker 2: the Gnats and the Mets or whatever, you know, I'm
Speaker 2: not going to freak out about that. I do feel
Speaker 2: like the team is just kind of just kind of
Speaker 2: hovering right now, which is fine. It's you know, I
Speaker 2: don't really expect them to go just balls to the
Speaker 2: wall in the middle of August when when they've are
Speaker 2: we played so many games and still it's one hundred
Speaker 2: degrees outside as well. I mean the game they play,
Speaker 2: they looked miserable out there. They had like a wide
Speaker 2: shot of the stadium. The stadium was like half empty
Speaker 2: today because if you're living the South, it is literally
Speaker 2: ninety nine degrees outside right now, and like it's just
Speaker 2: you know, that's why they call it the dog days.
Speaker 2: It really is just kind of a you know, it's
Speaker 2: it's kind of autopilot mode for a little bit until
Speaker 2: we get probably another few weeks into September, rosters expand
Speaker 2: playoff races really start to crystallize. You know, it'll pick
Speaker 2: back up, but this is this is a very normal
Speaker 2: part of the baseball schedule.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we feel pretty good. We'll talk about the
Speaker 1: losses and those are of course less fun to talk
Speaker 1: about in a moment, but yeah, still still feel totally fine.
Speaker 1: And I want to speak for you, but the Braves
Speaker 1: are depending on what which playoff odds I think you
Speaker 1: like to reference where it's fangrass or whatever, ninety five
Speaker 1: plus percent, division odds, ninety nine percent, playoff odds, et cetera,
Speaker 1: et cetera.
Speaker 3: Not one hundred percent, Not think's ever one hundred percent,
Speaker 3: but that's pretty good.
Speaker 1: And also when that's out here from Chad Bishop of Ajac,
Speaker 1: the Braves are sixty three and two when leading after
Speaker 1: eight innings this season. That's a good way to win
Speaker 1: a lot of baseball games, if you are winning and
Speaker 1: you don't blow games at the end of it, even
Speaker 1: if it's a little bit a little bit uncertain sometimes
Speaker 1: with rice El sixty three and two after eight innings,
Speaker 1: that's how you maintain a division lead.
Speaker 2: And I do want to I do want to make
Speaker 2: sure we highlight what you said earlier is that if
Speaker 2: there is a union on the team that can be elite,
Speaker 2: like the clearest path to be elite, it is the bullpen. Obviously,
Speaker 2: a lot of it's iglesias. You know, when your closer
Speaker 2: is not having a like good stretch, it kind of
Speaker 2: muddies everything, you know. And Fontes has given up a
Speaker 2: couple of home runs. I'm always worried about guys that young.
Speaker 2: As we get to this point in the season, is
Speaker 2: there gonna be a wall. It's a very common thing
Speaker 2: with rookies, so you know, we'll see. But one hundred percent,
Speaker 2: like the thing that the team does the best, that
Speaker 2: has the clearest path to being elite is definitely the bullpen.
Speaker 2: And you know, especially if AJ's smith Schaub is either
Speaker 2: going to be in the bullpen or maybe gets in
Speaker 2: the rotation, one of the one of the starters goes
Speaker 2: to the bullpen like a Grand Holmes like, the bullpen
Speaker 2: could be elite. And you know, we haven't seen it lately,
Speaker 2: but that is clearly the part of the team that
Speaker 2: you would you would circle as the thing that Braves
Speaker 2: probably do as well, if not better than most other teams.
Speaker 1: Yeah, even without even with this this Suarez absence, even
Speaker 1: with hiccups from Kinley and Glacis being one, they're still
Speaker 1: top five in baseball and bullpen era and I think
Speaker 1: their top five or six and fag grafts of war
Speaker 1: and bullpen like, this is a very very good bullpen
Speaker 1: like just what it is. It's not as maximum self
Speaker 1: right now and hopefully it will be between now and October,
Speaker 1: all right, Stephen, Before we move on to the rest
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Speaker 1: The rest of the weekend wasn't that much fun. I
Speaker 1: gotta say Friday's game was not one that anyone enjoyed.
Speaker 1: I don't think it was a two nothing loss to
Speaker 1: the Diamondbacks, an offensive disaster, basically two hits, no walks,
Speaker 1: no one even reached second base along the way, which
Speaker 1: I thought was a good nugget that I think you
Speaker 1: shared on Twitter that I didn't really fully realize a
Speaker 1: lot til you said it, And okay, I'll ask I'll
Speaker 1: ask you this. How much of it in your mind
Speaker 1: was that Brandon Fought is on an absolute mega heater
Speaker 1: right now because he is for like a month and
Speaker 1: a half maybe two months.
Speaker 3: How much of it was that?
Speaker 1: How much of that was the Braves just flopping for
Speaker 1: two and a half hours.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's some combination of the two. Right, Like, he
Speaker 2: has been very he has been very good. He's been
Speaker 2: very good.
Speaker 1: I have a stat for you, by the way, just
Speaker 1: said it up before before I forget Brandon fought last
Speaker 1: nine starts and you and I are both driving the
Speaker 1: cor of Elray is not all that matters, but in
Speaker 1: fact it matter, probably less people realize it does. Anyway,
Speaker 1: last nine starts for Brandon fought one point five. That's
Speaker 1: like two months worth it starts for him. And that's
Speaker 1: a the area of basically Bob Gibson's era in sixty eight.
Speaker 1: So the brace a part of that. But yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: he's not that good, but he has been lately.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And it's on its own, it's it's not something
Speaker 2: you think about, but there has been a number of
Speaker 2: games lately where the offenses just looked very mediocre. And
Speaker 2: listen to not get a runner to second base for
Speaker 2: an entire game at home against a good team, and
Speaker 2: it gainst a hot pitcher, but still, like you, we
Speaker 2: got to get a guy a second base. I mean,
Speaker 2: come on. And the Diamondbacks went oh for fourteen with
Speaker 2: runners in scoring position in that game and still won,
Speaker 2: which is insane on its own. It was such a
Speaker 2: weird game.
Speaker 3: It doesn't happen very often.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, when you don't allow any runs,
Speaker 1: you're generally gonna win.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I just to have that many opportunities in
Speaker 2: a game Chris Sales starts is just such a weird game.
Speaker 2: The diamond Dicks have been red hot, like the diamond
Speaker 2: back's been given that the Dodgers fits Corbyn. Carroll is
Speaker 2: an absolute monster guy. Terrifies me. He's got a little
Speaker 2: bit Like you could tell Marte has been hurt. I
Speaker 2: think he only played in one of three games of
Speaker 2: this series. But like Gabby Mourno is having a really
Speaker 2: good series or a really good year. Nolan Ernado has
Speaker 2: kind of had a resurgence in terms of his career.
Speaker 2: Looked like he was kind of over in Saint Louis.
Speaker 2: He's come to Arizona. It's been really very good this year.
Speaker 2: So they're a good team. But still like it was
Speaker 2: just a very frustrating game. I mean, you know, the offense,
Speaker 2: it's been a lot of Matt Olsen and it's been
Speaker 2: a little bit of a Kunya and it's been a
Speaker 2: little bit of Riley and Baldwin's having a really weird year,
Speaker 2: like ever since he's come back from that injury, like
Speaker 2: he's just not quite the same. Ozzy and Mike have
Speaker 2: have kind of slowed down a bit. It's just the
Speaker 2: offense is not playing great right now. And one thing
Speaker 2: that people always have in their back of their minds
Speaker 2: is if you go back and look at twenty twenty two,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three, you know twenty twenty four of the
Speaker 2: playoff losses that they've had a lot of conversation has
Speaker 2: been about the rotation in the pitching lately. But you
Speaker 2: go look at those series one common denominators, they don't hit.
Speaker 2: They haven't hit in like since twenty one. Really, they
Speaker 2: haven't hit in a playoff series. And so anytime the
Speaker 2: offense goes through this, and obviously last year the offense
Speaker 2: was bad and twenty four of the offense was bad,
Speaker 2: so you know people have this in the back of
Speaker 2: their mind. So I get it. I completely understand why
Speaker 2: people start freaking out anytime we go through these stretches
Speaker 2: when the offense doesn't look good. Their overall numbers are
Speaker 2: down kind of more middle of the pack than than
Speaker 2: the close to the top. So it is a little concerning.
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't think you can just hand wave
Speaker 2: it away. I do. The talent on the team is
Speaker 2: still something I can stand behind. But if you look
Speaker 2: at like production, there have been there have been more
Speaker 2: games than not lately where the production has been less
Speaker 2: than I would have expected from this group.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I definitely agree. And you know, you can find
Speaker 1: some stuff to highlight in the positive way, like I'm
Speaker 1: not we're not doing it today. I want I want
Speaker 1: to allow it. Riley's been a little better.
Speaker 3: Yeah, which is good. Yes, I'm not doing the rabbit today.
Speaker 3: But you show some show a little bit of signs. Yep,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 1: I think also it's been great. I think Ronnie has
Speaker 1: shown some signs. I don't worry about Ronald Accunya. When
Speaker 1: he is healthy, he's going to be better than he's been.
Speaker 1: He had a homer over the weekend and look good
Speaker 1: doing it. You can find that. But then you also
Speaker 1: look look down in the lineup sometimes and it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: there's Don Smith and he's finish. Jim Jarvis's ops is
Speaker 1: like five ninety. It's just like there's some stuff in there.
Speaker 1: And I actually wanted to ask you this later, We'll
Speaker 1: just do it now. So we're talking about it. They're
Speaker 1: not taking any walks lately. And this has never been
Speaker 1: a high walk team this season. In fact, even I
Speaker 1: looked it up through the end of July. So the
Speaker 1: first three four months of the season they had eight
Speaker 1: percent walk right as a team, which is like fifth
Speaker 1: worst in baseball or something like that. They're near the
Speaker 1: bottom of the league in August. It's only fifteen sixteen days.
Speaker 1: It's like six percent, which is worse than baseball by
Speaker 1: a lot. And you don't have to walk, as Michael
Speaker 1: Harris always shows us, but like it does help to
Speaker 1: have guys on base, and if you take more walks,
Speaker 1: you get more guys on base. And I think there's
Speaker 1: that's not exactly a shocking development that they've been scoring
Speaker 1: a little bit less when they're walking less. It's not
Speaker 1: not always parallel, but like there's some impact there in
Speaker 1: my mind.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I mean, you know, Moneyball, Billy Bean, they
Speaker 2: taught us like, oh, on base percentages drives everything, like
Speaker 2: get on base. The walk rate is someone I've definitely noticed,
Speaker 2: like with Akunya and even matth Like even the guys
Speaker 2: that walk a lot typically are not walking, and then
Speaker 2: you have like guys who don't walk a lot who
Speaker 2: are not walking. Is not is shocking, But yeah, it's
Speaker 2: been a it's been a downward trend, and I think
Speaker 2: I think it's mostly variance. I don't think there's anything
Speaker 2: specific in that one stat that tells me something is
Speaker 2: fundamentally changed. You just go through periods where you know
Speaker 2: you're facing a lot of it's the quality of picture
Speaker 2: you're facing, Like they're just in the zone a bunch,
Speaker 2: Like in the Yankee series they face three monsters. The
Speaker 2: Diamondbacks have better pitching than I probably give them credit for.
Speaker 2: Even in the Mets series. There were some pretty decent
Speaker 2: arms in that series. So a lot of it's just
Speaker 2: who you're facing, but it is. It is a problem
Speaker 2: right now that they're not getting on base a lot
Speaker 2: of solo. They're hitting some a decent amount of home runs.
Speaker 2: That's what it made matt elsince home Day is so important.
Speaker 2: This is a three run homer and it really blew
Speaker 2: the game open and won the game.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know three I haven't been too many
Speaker 3: of those. Yeah, it's been a.
Speaker 2: Lot of solo homers. So yeah, it's it's it makes
Speaker 2: life harder.
Speaker 1: To your point, they're on the slugging too, Like I
Speaker 1: think I look this up now. They're seventh in slugging
Speaker 1: this month in all of baseball, which is good. Four
Speaker 1: to forty slugging obviously good. They are twenty fourth in
Speaker 1: on base percentage. Yeah, there you go, which is kind
Speaker 1: of amazing that they've won as much as they have.
Speaker 1: If you if all you told me in the last
Speaker 1: fifteen sixteen days is that they had a to eighty
Speaker 1: eight OBP, I'd be like, man, they're probably going to
Speaker 1: be you know, five and ten in that stretch, and
Speaker 1: they haven't been. They're winning more than they lost, more
Speaker 1: than more than they've they've lost this month. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it helps to have that pop. And they've also pitched
Speaker 1: pretty well along the way. Oh, Chris Sale was good
Speaker 1: as usual. He labored a little bit pitch pitch count wise,
Speaker 1: But I'm not gonna nitpick or Sale. I do have
Speaker 1: one one mini rant to go on. Did you happen
Speaker 1: to see his his one earned run on Friday? And
Speaker 1: I'm using giant quotations.
Speaker 2: For Oh, it was the Dubon play that wasn't an error?
Speaker 1: Correct they So if anybody missed this over the weekend,
Speaker 1: it was a clear misplay up by Dubon in left field.
Speaker 1: It was an obvious It was like a ninety nine
Speaker 1: percentile catch probability play and he just mistimed it and
Speaker 1: misjudged it and kind of ran in when he didn't
Speaker 1: when he shouldn't have it happens. It was correct, it
Speaker 1: was correctly ruled an error originally, and then like two
Speaker 1: innings later they said it wasn't an air anymore. And
Speaker 1: I'm not an official scorer, maybe I'm maybe I'm in
Speaker 1: Saint Stephen. I would need someone to convince me that
Speaker 1: should be an error. And I don't understand why that
Speaker 1: was sorry that they shouldn't be an air. I don't
Speaker 1: understand that it's not an air. I think if you
Speaker 1: asked me, should duba, he'd be like, yeah, that's an err?
Speaker 5: On me?
Speaker 3: What are we talking about here? Does this matter at all?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 3: I just was like, what's going on here? How's it
Speaker 3: not an error? What's going on?
Speaker 2: There's some weird rule in baseball where like if it
Speaker 2: doesn't touch the outfielders glove, it can't be in airror,
Speaker 2: which is a which which is a really good which
Speaker 2: is a really good reason to not use fielding percentage
Speaker 2: and errors as how we measure defense. And it's really
Speaker 2: it's another good it's another good reason not to use
Speaker 2: e RA as much as you do, because a lot
Speaker 2: of times guys get tagged with runs they shouldn't get
Speaker 2: tagged with so like, yeah, like if if an outfielder
Speaker 2: just completely misplays a ball. He comes in, he should
Speaker 2: have gone back. The ball goes ten feet over his
Speaker 2: head and he never gets a glove on it. They
Speaker 2: always call that a hit because it has to touch
Speaker 2: the glove. Excuse me, it has to touch the glove
Speaker 2: for it to be an air for an outfield I
Speaker 2: don't know why. I have no idea why it is.
Speaker 1: I think maybe maybe they called it and again I'm speculating.
Speaker 1: I will furly admit I do not know the official
Speaker 1: score rules.
Speaker 3: I'm an official scorer.
Speaker 1: Caveat applied. I think maybe they called it an their
Speaker 1: originally because they thought they thought he hit it because
Speaker 1: he was.
Speaker 4: He was.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like he just didn't see it, and it
Speaker 1: felt hivy behind him, like it literally went like he
Speaker 1: ran up and almost almost deflected it over his head.
Speaker 3: It was like he was close up to it.
Speaker 1: Was just a bizarre player anyway. I had to mention
Speaker 1: that because it was like, oh, that somehow makes Chris
Speaker 1: Sales era worse, which makes me laugh quite a bit. Okay,
Speaker 1: that was a two nothing lost. It was frustrating Saturday's game.
Speaker 1: If you came into the game late, you missed the
Speaker 1: only good part of it. The Braves led to nothing.
Speaker 1: Ronald hit a lead off home run on Saturday, they
Speaker 1: added another run in a moment, and they look to
Speaker 1: be on their way to evening the series at one
Speaker 1: to one, and then fast forward two and a half
Speaker 1: hours and lost by seven runs. It was ten to
Speaker 1: three final score. Grant Holmes is a topic, so let's
Speaker 1: just do this now. To be fair to Grant, he
Speaker 1: really had not had a blow up like this in
Speaker 1: about two months. Like he had been getting the job
Speaker 1: done to some degree, whether it's spoken, mirrors or whatever.
Speaker 3: You want a debate on that. I'm kind of with
Speaker 3: you on that. I like to look a little bit lower.
Speaker 1: But he had been giving them a chance to win
Speaker 1: every time out for two months, and its previous two outings,
Speaker 1: I think it was like.
Speaker 3: Twelve score was innings. So it's like, oh, it feels
Speaker 3: like Grant's kind of safe and all that.
Speaker 1: And then he goes three and two thirds, allows six runs,
Speaker 1: and we can be honest and say he was. He
Speaker 1: had been running pretty hot in the luck department before then,
Speaker 1: and it kind of all came crashing down at once.
Speaker 1: And Steve and I know that you saw this, I
Speaker 1: think you might have participated in it. Even this re
Speaker 1: sparked the rotation debate and also the Grant Holmes debate.
Speaker 1: So I'll let you go wherever you want to between
Speaker 1: Grant Holmes role, you know, his time for the order
Speaker 1: splits are. I have the stats if you want me
Speaker 1: to share them later. There's even stark wro the people
Speaker 1: realize you got smith shov What was your takeaway from
Speaker 1: Grand Holmes last outing and also the impact that it
Speaker 1: might have on the next couple of weeks in the rotation.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, again, this is a little bit of
Speaker 2: the Era FIP debate. If you goes, if you judge
Speaker 2: you about Era, then then Grant's had a good second
Speaker 2: half before Saturday's game. He think he had had any
Speaker 2: array in like the two's in the second half, but
Speaker 2: he had a fip in like the fours because he's
Speaker 2: not striking anybody out. The strikeouts have gone way down,
Speaker 2: like he's striking out I think like six per nine
Speaker 2: in the second half, So it might be worse than that.
Speaker 2: It's it's a really low number. He's walking almost four
Speaker 2: per nine. That that alone is a terrifying combination that
Speaker 2: will get you beat most nights. The reason it hasn't
Speaker 2: really beat him too bad in the second half is
Speaker 2: because he's stranding like ninety percent of his runners in
Speaker 2: the second half, which I know, I'm not gonna get
Speaker 2: too deep in the weeds, but like, how how the
Speaker 2: percentage of runners you strand on base usually returns to
Speaker 2: a mean and in small samples, if you strand a
Speaker 2: bunch of them, then it can kind of it can
Speaker 2: kind of hide that you're actually really struggling. You're not
Speaker 2: really paying for it all that much. That's kind of
Speaker 2: what's been going on with Grant. A lot of based
Speaker 2: runners but not really paying for it. And so like
Speaker 2: you have to look beyond the era to understand that Grant,
Speaker 2: even though the numbers, the baseline surface level numbers have
Speaker 2: been okay, he's not actually pitching that great in the
Speaker 2: second half. He's just gotten away with it a lot
Speaker 2: more in the second half. So and this is like, again,
Speaker 2: this is part of the discussion, you know, because the
Speaker 2: Braves have been very fortunate this year with some of
Speaker 2: this stuff about stranding runners on base at a higher
Speaker 2: rate than almost anybody in baseball. You know, their babup
Speaker 2: is like the second or third lowest in baseball in
Speaker 2: terms of what their pitchers have given up like they have,
Speaker 2: especially guys like Elder and Perez and Holmes, those three specifically,
Speaker 2: their baseline numbers look better than they've actually pitched this year.
Speaker 2: And this is like it takes a little nuance. You
Speaker 2: have to be able to just look past just era.
Speaker 2: Something Brad and I have talked about a ton offline
Speaker 2: because it pisses people off when you talk about it online,
Speaker 2: but like it's just true and this philosophical, Yeah, it's philosophical,
Speaker 2: and it's a little bit new school. It's not completely
Speaker 2: new school because a lot of this has been around
Speaker 2: for like fifteen years at this point. But Grant's just
Speaker 2: not pitched as well as maybe his era mikes people
Speaker 2: think he's pitched. And it caught up with him on Saturday,
Speaker 2: and my opinion of him has not changed one bit
Speaker 2: based on four games of you know, unsustainable era. And
Speaker 2: I really I want people to start getting to the
Speaker 2: point where they don't let it affect how they think
Speaker 2: about a guy because his era magically looks better over
Speaker 2: a month span.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, we're look, we could we could do this.
Speaker 3: We're not we don't. We don't usually, we don't usually.
Speaker 1: Go like super granular stat caste. We'll do it sometimes,
Speaker 1: but like we're not like taking the super deep nerd
Speaker 1: dives on the podcast.
Speaker 3: It's hard to do that.
Speaker 1: But using FIP is not that's that's not in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six, it's not like a super nerdy thing to
Speaker 1: talk about and look for the full season. Even Grant
Speaker 1: Holmes FIP right now, I'm I'm not sure if you know, Steven,
Speaker 1: it's four point nine to one for this. I know,
Speaker 1: I know that's that's not that's not. That's not a
Speaker 1: good number. Like Bryan Bryce Elder for all of his
Speaker 1: like he's the other push child for this, his FIP
Speaker 1: is like four point five six something for the season,
Speaker 1: which is also isn't good. So both those guys are
Speaker 1: out performing that. But Holmes, it's the same debate we've
Speaker 1: been had in forever. It's the time through the order splits,
Speaker 1: which I know would have been seen as revolutionary ten
Speaker 1: years ago and no longer is. But I'll give the
Speaker 1: updated numbers here the first time through the order of
Speaker 1: this season. Grand Holmes has an era just to use
Speaker 1: the ray and make it easy. Of two point eighty
Speaker 1: six and an ops allowed of six o three. That's
Speaker 1: really good, right, very plainly, very good. The second time
Speaker 1: through the order, his era jumps to five point eight
Speaker 1: two and his ops allowed is nine to fifty four.
Speaker 1: He's basically like allowing the good, like the best version
Speaker 1: of Matt Olsen to every every hitter the second time
Speaker 1: through the order, like that is a definitional reliever. Split
Speaker 1: Like everyone I know, we kind of do it flippantly
Speaker 1: every once in a while. This is this is what
Speaker 1: we're talking about when we talk about how Grand Holmes
Speaker 1: might just need to be a reliever in the best
Speaker 1: version of the Braves. This is the reason why. It's
Speaker 1: just it's just very plain and like, I'm sorry, I
Speaker 1: like Grandholmes. Well, the thing is, we like grand Holmes.
Speaker 1: But you said it already once. Just I want to
Speaker 1: rehab this what you said earlier. He's not missing bats
Speaker 1: the way the best version of grand Holmes has misbats.
Speaker 1: And if you stop doing that and you start walking
Speaker 1: people and you already have the time for the worst,
Speaker 1: what that you have, like it's it makes it makes
Speaker 1: it hard to trust you beyond you know, two and
Speaker 1: two thirds innings, Like it's just kind of what it is.
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel bad for saying like he's not useless,
Speaker 1: but like given the lens of smith Shov's knocking on
Speaker 1: the door and Lopez is even knocking on the door
Speaker 1: to returning, and they have seven starters and no one
Speaker 1: has options outside of smiths Shav like decision stuff has.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's Elder's knee. We talked about this pretty earlier.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's a fantom il or maybe a real a
Speaker 1: real el for Elder. But maybe it's just Holmes in
Speaker 1: the bullpen. I mean, wa Weiss does not seem to
Speaker 1: agree with that, though Walt Weiss literally almost downplayed that,
Speaker 1: like pretty openly. I'm not sure if you watched the
Speaker 1: interview after game, like whis did not seem thrilled with
Speaker 1: even the prospect of homes going to the bullpen.
Speaker 2: So let me give you two numbers. Because you just
Speaker 2: did times to the order, you use THERA, so I'm
Speaker 2: gonna give you the times to the order. I'm gonna
Speaker 2: use FIP. So first time through the order this year,
Speaker 2: Grant Holmes has a three twelve FIP excellent. Part of
Speaker 2: that is because he has a twenty twenty five percent
Speaker 2: strikeout rate. Second time through the order, Grant Holmes has
Speaker 2: a seven to sixty three FIP. Well, that's because he
Speaker 2: has a fourteen percent strikeout, right, So the second time
Speaker 2: through the order, second time through the order of the
Speaker 2: strikeouts just plummet and his production goes down. And that's like,
Speaker 2: we definitely beat this dead horse, probably for a couple
Speaker 2: of years now. But that's like, that's why we have
Speaker 2: the opinion that we have is because the numbers, the
Speaker 2: numbers bear the numbers bear it out.
Speaker 1: I wish I had looked at that, because you're you're right.
Speaker 1: I mean, your numbers are better than mine there, But
Speaker 1: that's whether you're ways we get the whole picture, whether
Speaker 1: you're an era Zelot or you are not. Either the
Speaker 1: way you spin it, Grant Holmes, when people have seen
Speaker 1: him that day, becomes.
Speaker 3: The worst pitcher. And I'll say this most guys do.
Speaker 3: He becomes a like a bad picture you see.
Speaker 2: I'll say this, It's even more clear to me because
Speaker 2: you have a j. Smith Schaber who needs innings before October.
Speaker 2: Like Ajus Michealver is the level of arm I think
Speaker 2: I've tweated this before, but just Ajus Michelver is the
Speaker 2: level of arm where if you get him in the
Speaker 2: right role, he can be a weapon in October. But
Speaker 2: you have to actually get him back up and put
Speaker 2: him in a role so you can see what he's got,
Speaker 2: because it's not guaranteed. He's still twenty four years old,
Speaker 2: he's barely pitched in the majors in two years. Like,
Speaker 2: there's nothing guaranteed about it. You need to get him
Speaker 2: up and see what he is over the next six
Speaker 2: weeks so you can figure out what kind of role,
Speaker 2: what kind of contributions he can give in October. So
Speaker 2: when you have that guy and you have a guy
Speaker 2: who's in your rotation who's very very very clearly more
Speaker 2: suited to be a reliever, it just feels like it's
Speaker 2: a very obvious move. And like you said, the team,
Speaker 2: at least so far, it doesn't agree with us. And
Speaker 2: that's fine. I mean that you know, they they that's fine.
Speaker 2: I'm I'm not gonna yell Tom. I I think it's
Speaker 2: very clear.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, we we agree, and it's not just us
Speaker 1: people on the internet, and it's what it is. But
Speaker 1: if they if they choose to have Smith Shov come
Speaker 1: out of the bullpen and Holmes to start.
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 2: That's very weird to me. I don't. I don't understand.
Speaker 1: They haven't done it yet, so we're not gonna rant
Speaker 1: about it yet. If they do that, I'm gonna have
Speaker 1: a nice rant at some point about it because it
Speaker 1: makes no sense to me whatsoever. But what I mean,
Speaker 1: Walt signal that way. I don't know if we'll see
Speaker 1: what happens in the coming days, but it was pretty
Speaker 1: clear from what he said that they're.
Speaker 2: Gonna have list. If Elder really has a knee injury,
Speaker 2: it might solve itself.
Speaker 1: That might to some degree, But I mean, and just
Speaker 1: to put a button on this, why pretty plainly said
Speaker 1: that Holmes will make his next start like scheduled start,
Speaker 1: and if he does, that means somebody else isn't whether
Speaker 1: it's Smith, Shov or Elder, you know, I mean, someone
Speaker 1: else is not going to be We'll get to that
Speaker 1: later on, okay, Stephen, before we look ahead a little
Speaker 1: bit to a very very strange week, like a very odd,
Speaker 1: profoundly strange week on the horizon schedule wise, and the
Speaker 1: latest news.
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Speaker 1: Steve, before we preview this crazy week, a couple of
Speaker 1: news items that are you know, notable, nothing crazy. We
Speaker 1: waited this long for a reason. Between now and our
Speaker 1: most recent podcast, Robert Suarez through like actually played catch
Speaker 1: at least for the first time in a long time.
Speaker 1: It was reported that he threw from sixty feet on
Speaker 1: Thursday and sety five feet on Friday. What wise said,
Speaker 1: so far, so good. That was on a think Friday
Speaker 1: or maybe Saturday. No update the last two days that
Speaker 1: I have seen on Robert Surez, but at least with
Speaker 1: what we know that is still on track from our
Speaker 1: hopeful I know you and Scott in various ways both
Speaker 1: I think Sean did as well, like kind of lay
Speaker 1: the timeline out for like what we hope it might
Speaker 1: look like for Robert Suarez as of when we record
Speaker 1: this on Sunday evening, still on track for that.
Speaker 3: We just don't know what the next step is. But
Speaker 3: that's the latest update on Suarez.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean good news is better than I mean,
Speaker 2: it's better than hearing that. Yeah, I saw that, and
Speaker 2: I just thought, all right, well, that's like the first
Speaker 2: step of like twelve that need to happen for him
Speaker 2: to be back. So you know, it's good, but you know,
Speaker 2: we're we're middle of August, so and I've seen pictures
Speaker 2: like stay at that step for a while if things
Speaker 2: don't progress well. So like we need to get him
Speaker 2: on a mound and eventually facing live hitters, and then
Speaker 2: for me, like the clock really starts, because then you
Speaker 2: can like rehab starts and then you know potentially coming back.
Speaker 2: Why they're not even like on a mound. It's hard
Speaker 2: for me to get all that excited. It's good that
Speaker 2: he's thrown and it's not painful, but you know, he's
Speaker 2: been he's been down for so long. I would be
Speaker 2: very worried if he was. He couldn't even play catch
Speaker 2: without like hurting. So it's good news, but we got
Speaker 2: a we're coming. The timeline is getting tight here very quickly,
Speaker 2: Like we got to get him on a mound, hopefully
Speaker 2: in the next week or two, and then you know,
Speaker 2: a good thing is he's a reliever. He doesn't take
Speaker 2: quite as much time to build back up as a
Speaker 2: starter would. But you know, we got like six weeks
Speaker 2: to the playoff. The playoffs start, and like the last
Speaker 2: week of September. I think the playoffs are like a
Speaker 2: week earlier this year than last year. Like calendar wise,
Speaker 2: so like I think there's only like five or six
Speaker 2: weeks until like the first round of the playoffs, So
Speaker 2: the clock is ticking.
Speaker 3: The clock is in fact ticking. One more quick news
Speaker 3: at him here out of the bullpen.
Speaker 1: I'm almost sad that Scott's not here to talk about this,
Speaker 1: and I'm saying that jokingly, But Scott's done a Danny
Speaker 1: Young rant. I think there are last three episodes and
Speaker 1: the Braves finally dfa Danny Young over the weekend because
Speaker 1: he had another blow up on Saturday.
Speaker 3: It didn't matter because the game was already over.
Speaker 1: They're getting blown out anyway. But and I take no
Speaker 1: pride in this, to take no joy in that Danny
Speaker 1: Young is probably a nice man. It didn't go well
Speaker 1: for Danny Young, and it was kind of baffling how
Speaker 1: long he was still on the roster with guys like
Speaker 1: Karen Jackman on the team and Ray Kerr, who they
Speaker 1: did end up selecting for the roster healthy and back
Speaker 1: and has more upside. But yeah, Ray cars in the bullpen.
Speaker 3: That's the that's the note.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's just now coming back, didn't he have? For
Speaker 2: some reason, I want to say, Kirk is like coming
Speaker 2: back from like elbow stuff last year. I can't remember,
Speaker 2: but yeah, Danny, Yeah, he has not.
Speaker 3: Thrown in the Major since twenty four.
Speaker 1: He had Tommy John Yeah yeah at the end of
Speaker 1: twenty four, I want to say, and missed all last season.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So but yeah, Danny Young Scott's been talking about
Speaker 2: it for like a month now. Every time you saw
Speaker 2: him out there, you're like, how the hell is this
Speaker 2: guy still on the team. I think he had thirteen
Speaker 2: walks in twelve innings with the Braves, which is insane.
Speaker 1: It didn't it didn't go well. I mean his to
Speaker 1: use I'll use FIP. I think his FI is like
Speaker 1: seven yeah, seven point seven.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you walk that many people, it's impossible
Speaker 2: for it not to be. So yeah, he just I mean,
Speaker 2: and I think people think maybe like he's young because
Speaker 2: his last name is Young. He's like, I think he's
Speaker 2: like thirty three years old. It's not like some like prospect,
Speaker 2: like a project that you He's just a guy that
Speaker 2: you let go as soon as they show that they're bad.
Speaker 2: And he's showed him that he was bad like a
Speaker 2: month ago. So yeah, it was weird that they left
Speaker 2: him on the roster.
Speaker 1: So long, I would agree, all right, we'll get out
Speaker 1: of here, but we gotta say we don't always like
Speaker 1: in depth preview the entire week. The Braves have this
Speaker 1: very very odd schedule this week. Number one, they are
Speaker 1: going to play in four different venues in the next
Speaker 1: seven days. They have a three game series in Minnesota
Speaker 1: starting Monday, which is very normal. They have two night
Speaker 1: games Monday and Tuesday, and they have a getaway day
Speaker 1: afternoon game on Wednesday. That part of the schedule is normal.
Speaker 1: That's the end of it, though, because from there Thursday,
Speaker 1: they go to Chicago to play a weather reschedule makeup game,
Speaker 1: like a one game.
Speaker 3: Series basically against the White Sox. That happens.
Speaker 1: It used to be an off day. It's not being
Speaker 1: off day. It does happen, but that's not super ordinary.
Speaker 1: Then they go to Milwaukee for Friday and Saturday, both
Speaker 1: games in Milwaukee or afternoon games. Will come back for
Speaker 1: that a second, and then they play Milwaukee again on Sunday,
Speaker 1: but this time it's in the Little League Classic in Williamsport.
Speaker 1: So it's Minnesota to Chicago to Milwaukee to Pennsylvania all
Speaker 1: in seven days, and technically the game on Sunday is
Speaker 1: a home game, I believe, or itsed a neutral game.
Speaker 1: It's not a tendentally a road game.
Speaker 3: Who cares.
Speaker 1: But all of that before they come home to play
Speaker 1: the Dodgers the following week, Steven, I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: mean what the takeaway is just a very odd piece
Speaker 1: of scheduling and four consecutive day games, or if you're
Speaker 1: Scott Coleman, morning games.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't. I can't say that I ever remember
Speaker 2: the Braves playing a Wednesday day game, a Thursday day game,
Speaker 2: a Friday day game, and a Saturday day game all
Speaker 2: in a row. That is very, very weird, just like
Speaker 2: the the game they're making up in Chicago being a
Speaker 2: day game is weird on its own. I am assuming
Speaker 2: that the reason they're playing a Friday day game in
Speaker 2: Milwaukee has got something to do with the fact they're
Speaker 2: doing the Williamsport game on Sunday. I guess it's like
Speaker 2: a cumulative effect of the Saturday game needs to be earlier,
Speaker 2: so the Friday game needs to be earlier.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but as a probably what it is.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's and that's the one. Friday's game is
Speaker 1: the latest of them. It's a four to ten start. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the other three are all like two ten or earlier,
Speaker 1: so they're like really, they're not like those late afternoon
Speaker 1: games sometimes you play. And then Sunday is a prime
Speaker 1: time because its because it's literally classic, it's a it's
Speaker 1: a sun night baseball game.
Speaker 2: So I yeah, at least it's up north where it's
Speaker 2: not like a million degrees outside. If they were having
Speaker 2: to play four straight day games in like the Atlanta Heat,
Speaker 2: they might mean they might they might die.
Speaker 3: So yeah, that would not be good that you know.
Speaker 1: That's the unique part about the schedule this week is
Speaker 1: just where they're playing and all of that. You know,
Speaker 1: quality wise, Minnesota is not particularly great.
Speaker 3: They're not terrible.
Speaker 1: They've lost like for the last five. They're sixteen to
Speaker 1: sixty five this season. Not a terrible team, but not great,
Speaker 1: not a great team. The White Sox are playing well.
Speaker 1: The Brewers are obviously quite good. So it's not like
Speaker 1: it's a easy schedule either. You're going on the road anyway,
Speaker 1: it's there's no gimmes in this bunch whatsoever. I'll let
Speaker 1: you talk about anyone else you want to talk about
Speaker 1: about the matchups. We do have the pitching probables for
Speaker 1: the first three games. It's Perez and it's Bailey over
Speaker 1: on Monday, it's Tyler Mallley on Tuesday, and then Chris
Speaker 1: Sale on Wednesday. And as we just referenced a minute ago,
Speaker 1: what Weiss indicated this is not official at all, but
Speaker 1: what Weiss did say that he was playing on Grant
Speaker 1: Holmes having his next start, so that would be later
Speaker 1: on this.
Speaker 3: Week as well.
Speaker 1: Anything else sticks out to you, obviously the Milwaukee one's
Speaker 1: the Showdown will play previous that later on the week,
Speaker 1: but anything with Minnesota you're looking for.
Speaker 2: I did think, and I'll give a hat tip to
Speaker 2: one of our co hosts, Sean, who pointed this out.
Speaker 2: I did think it was possible that the Braves would
Speaker 2: push Sale off of the Minnesota series and push him
Speaker 2: to the first game of the Milwaukee series, because if
Speaker 2: you did that, then he would be able to pitch
Speaker 2: the first game against Milwaukee and the last game against
Speaker 2: the Dodgers, so you would have him for both of
Speaker 2: those series. Obviously, the Braves are competing with those two
Speaker 2: teams for the two buys that you get in the
Speaker 2: first round of the playoffs, so it was notable in
Speaker 2: me that they stuck with it and kept Sale in
Speaker 2: the Minnesota series, which means he's gonna miss the Milwaukee
Speaker 2: series altogether. It's not a huge deal, but it's just
Speaker 2: a note to me that he could have done both.
Speaker 2: And I also thought maybe they would try to use
Speaker 2: that spot to get a j smichavor in and obviously not.
Speaker 2: So it's not written in stone. I have seen them
Speaker 2: release probables and then halfway through the series change it,
Speaker 2: especially if they win the first two games. I could
Speaker 2: still see a world where they push Sale back and
Speaker 2: maybe even get AJ up there to get a start
Speaker 2: in uh. Walt said that they didn't have a plan
Speaker 2: right now for AJ to start again in Triple A,
Speaker 2: so I don't know. I don't know what the plan.
Speaker 2: I don't know that they know what the plan is,
Speaker 2: to be honest.
Speaker 3: With you, they may not.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe Alex does, like he didn't rule out bullpen,
Speaker 1: which is why I brought it up earlier.
Speaker 3: Like espelically did not rule out a bullpen assignment for Machav.
Speaker 3: I would not like that at all.
Speaker 2: I would just keep an eye on that Wednesday game.
Speaker 2: I don't think Sale in that spot is written in penn.
Speaker 3: Oh no, I mean it never is.
Speaker 1: They're probables for a reason, but Sale, they have been very,
Speaker 1: very willing to push Sale.
Speaker 2: Back every time basically.
Speaker 1: So yeah, especially let's let's say, let's say, I mean,
Speaker 1: for positive positivity's sake, let's say they win Monday and Tuesday.
Speaker 2: That's yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I might might make it more likely that they pushed
Speaker 1: Sail back, like it's felt like they they haven't. They
Speaker 1: never say that, but it feels like if they're playing,
Speaker 1: if they're winning games and playing well, like, all right, Chris,
Speaker 1: take a couple of extra days off, Yeah, well, uh,
Speaker 1: we'll save some bullets.
Speaker 3: If they lose money in Tuesday. Maybe maybe not. But yeah,
Speaker 3: they're probables for a reason. But they did announce them,
Speaker 3: so I always want to say that out. Wow, Chris
Speaker 3: Sale was announced as the probable for Wednesday, but I'm
Speaker 3: I'm on your side.
Speaker 1: I would not surprised we have not seen him in
Speaker 1: that spot, even if he is, of course pitching super well.
Speaker 1: And hey, I'm looking forward to watching Tyler Mallley again
Speaker 1: because he's looked great in his first tues.
Speaker 2: For I think Buston just came back. I think Buxton
Speaker 2: was on the I L for like two weeks. I
Speaker 2: think he just came back yesterday. So I think Buxton
Speaker 2: is there for this.
Speaker 3: I do. He did. He did play today. He came
Speaker 3: back Thursday, so I think he's played three.
Speaker 2: Times back Okay, Thursday, Okay, so yeah, he's he's back.
Speaker 2: I think Joe Ryan might be out. I haven't.
Speaker 3: I didn't.
Speaker 2: I didn't look at Minnesota's probables, but he's not.
Speaker 1: He's not among them. It's it's Baily Over, I know.
Speaker 1: And then I think it's I want to say it's TODJ.
Speaker 1: Bradley on Wednesday. But yeah, Joe Ryan's not pitching in
Speaker 1: the series.
Speaker 2: So they're not a bad team, but they're not a
Speaker 2: great team. I think they I think the Phillies just
Speaker 2: went up there and swept them for three games. So
Speaker 2: you need to certainly game, especially with sale pitching, where
Speaker 2: you do need to take care of business, win the series,
Speaker 2: especially off of a pretty meh series they just played
Speaker 2: against Arizona, you know. And and the schedule does get
Speaker 2: tough after Minnesota, I mean, Chicago, Milwaukee, l A is
Speaker 2: a tough, tough seven game stretch, and I don't think
Speaker 2: they have any did they have an off day? I
Speaker 2: don't think they have an off day in there. Maybe
Speaker 2: on Monday.
Speaker 3: They do before before the Dog series, they have.
Speaker 2: One off day on Monday, so that will help reset
Speaker 2: the bullpen. But yeah, you need to take care of
Speaker 2: business against Minnesota because the schedule gets tough in a hurry.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would agree.
Speaker 1: So we'll of course be dialed in throughout the week
Speaker 1: with episodes of this podcast and full write downs of
Speaker 1: what's going on. If we get, we're on Smashov. If
Speaker 1: we get we're on Lopez coming back, if we get
Speaker 1: we're on Holmes Future ending in between.
Speaker 3: Plus just our normal game coverage as well. So please
Speaker 3: keep it locked right here on Hammer Territory. Steven.
Speaker 1: Feel free to send anybody out that you with with
Speaker 1: more content if you have any more to share. If not,
Speaker 1: where can folks find all of your musings?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I be underscore outliers. If you want to follow
Speaker 2: along on Twitter, I will admit this time of year,
Speaker 2: I probably cut my usage over there about in half.
Speaker 2: I just it does. It's a little bit on.
Speaker 3: A still, you're still the most active of the four
Speaker 3: of us.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's very true. But games anyway, Yeah, you know again,
Speaker 2: the Brave's own a really good spot for the regular season.
Speaker 2: I see a lot of freak out every day anytime
Speaker 2: there's a loss. Like the Braves are up, are perfectly
Speaker 2: fine right now. I understand like the Dodgers and the Brewers,
Speaker 2: that's a race that you do want a track. But
Speaker 2: they get to play both those teams. They can make
Speaker 2: statements of both those series if they want, if they
Speaker 2: play well enough. So they're in a good spot. Like
Speaker 2: they're in a very good spot. There's things about the
Speaker 2: roster I wish we're a little better. We're gonna have
Speaker 2: to watch Iglesias. My concern level is rising with him.
Speaker 2: We didn't talk about him a lot tonight, but like
Speaker 2: that's something we're gonna have to follow. But they're in
Speaker 2: a good spot right now.
Speaker 1: I would agree follow Stephen, follow the show at Hammer Territory,
Speaker 1: and one more time, please subscribe to this podcast if
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