Speaker 1: Welcome one and all to the Here a Territory podcast.
Speaker 1: My name is Sean Coleman. Hope, wherever you are and
Speaker 1: wherever you are listening, it's good to be back with you.
Speaker 1: Less than twenty four hours since we spoke with the
Speaker 1: Great Chris Willis about the Braves, you know, struggles over
Speaker 1: all over the past five weeks. Thankfully we're able to
Speaker 1: come to you live on Wednesday night after a big
Speaker 1: victory for the Braves, a needed victory for the Braves,
Speaker 1: a rare occurrence here recently where the Braves looked lifeless
Speaker 1: on life support for the first six innings and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden came to life and got the
Speaker 1: job done in the three to zero win over the Pirates,
Speaker 1: a pretty unique win with how dominant Pirates Jared Jones
Speaker 1: was but as always with me to break it all down,
Speaker 1: one the best when it comes to breaking down the Braves.
Speaker 1: Steven Tolbert, Steven, my friend. Good seeing you again tonight.
Speaker 2: It's a buddy. Yeah, we don't typically do shows like
Speaker 2: back to back like this, but listen, we gotta take
Speaker 2: any win we can get, and we need to record
Speaker 2: after a win because it's no fun recording after losses.
Speaker 2: The losses have been piling up the last five weeks,
Speaker 2: and you know, they won the game tonight, and was
Speaker 2: it pretty no And you know, did it seem pretty
Speaker 2: dire at times? Yeah, I thought they might have a
Speaker 2: perfecto thrown against him. You know. I think the one
Speaker 2: thing that might have saved him from that is the
Speaker 2: fact that the guy pitching for the Pirates had just
Speaker 2: come back from uh, the internal brace procedure that Strider had,
Speaker 2: and they've been very very careful with him and really
Speaker 2: haven't let him pitch many innings or many you know,
Speaker 2: throw many pitches in a start yet, So that's probably
Speaker 2: about the only thing to save the brace tonight. But
Speaker 2: they got the w and that's all that matters. And
Speaker 2: we're gonna break it down, of course, but it was
Speaker 2: just a big Listen, they are limping to the break.
Speaker 2: Everybody knows that, but everyone you can get between now
Speaker 2: and the end of the week just helps a ton
Speaker 2: So it was a big win tonight.
Speaker 1: Especially with the Phillies losing. More on that in just
Speaker 1: a moment as well. But let's mix it up with
Speaker 1: some unique names that were there for the Braves in
Speaker 1: this victory. As we mix it up engineered by fastenal
Speaker 1: So to your point, Stephen, if Jared Jones had been
Speaker 1: able to pitch, you know, more than the six innings
Speaker 1: were either not podcasting tonight or with how name it,
Speaker 1: both the Braves and Pirates offenses looked. They're probably still playing,
Speaker 1: you know, that could literally be the case right now.
Speaker 1: But Jared Jones was removed in six innings. And to
Speaker 1: tell you how dominant he was opt as stats, a
Speaker 1: really fun follow on Twitter slash x it mentioned that
Speaker 1: in the modern era of baseball, tonight Jared Jones, Jared
Speaker 1: Jones became the only pitcher in baseball history to complete
Speaker 1: at least sixteen in a start and literally retire every
Speaker 1: hitter that he faced throughout his outing and yet not
Speaker 1: get a win. And that goes to show what kind
Speaker 1: of stands out about the Pirates is that as good
Speaker 1: as their offense has been, what really, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of is their favor flaw is their bullpen. And thankfully
Speaker 1: that was what the Braves were able to get done.
Speaker 1: This seemed like a Braves victory. You saw, you know,
Speaker 1: quite a bit in the first few months of the season,
Speaker 1: even if the offense was not that great as we
Speaker 1: got further into the game. Again, the Braves had the
Speaker 1: advantage offensively and with the bullpen, and that showed tonight.
Speaker 1: But the first focus that I want to give is
Speaker 1: Grant Holmes, who has been up and down for much
Speaker 1: of this season, but tonight he was on point. At
Speaker 1: times struggled, but got the job done and was able
Speaker 1: to go further into the game than he has here recently.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was watching the game tonights and I felt
Speaker 2: like a twenty twenty four game. Can you remember the
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four season. The offense couldn't do anything. The
Speaker 2: Braves had the best pitching staff in baseball that season,
Speaker 2: and they just won. It seemed like every game they
Speaker 2: won they won two to one, two to nothing, three
Speaker 2: to one, one to nothing. Like if they won games,
Speaker 2: this is how they won them. And that's what the
Speaker 2: game tonight reminded me. Like no one could do anything offensively.
Speaker 2: Jared Jones was just busting them up. I mean he
Speaker 2: was throwing ninety nine one hundred all night long. You know,
Speaker 2: it wasn't a ton of strikeouts, but it was enough
Speaker 2: strikeouts to where you know, it was dominant. And credit
Speaker 2: to Grant Holmes, man, because the Braves needed. Listen, the
Speaker 2: zero runs he gave up, of course, are the headliner,
Speaker 2: but the Braves needed like at least five innings from
Speaker 2: their starter tonight, even if it was with a couple
Speaker 2: of runs on the board, Like getting fifteen outs was
Speaker 2: the most important thing Grant Holmes did tonight. They just couldn't.
Speaker 2: What they could not have is another like Grant looks
Speaker 2: great for three innings and then blows up in the
Speaker 2: fourth and he's out of there, and the bullpen's got
Speaker 2: to cover six plus innings. Like that's what they could
Speaker 2: not have. And so yes, of course, you know, giving
Speaker 2: up zero runs and going pitch for a pitch with
Speaker 2: with Jared Jones helped a lot. But just getting through
Speaker 2: five and allowing the Braves to go kind of Fuintes
Speaker 2: DoD Dylan Lee and Iglesias to close the game just
Speaker 2: kind of a normal, you know, closed the game. That
Speaker 2: helped a ton And you know, Grant has settled down
Speaker 2: a little bit over the last probably a few weeks,
Speaker 2: him and Ronaldo have kind of calmed the waters. You know,
Speaker 2: it's not the abject disaster that it was when you know,
Speaker 2: the it was Elder and Perez and Jr. Richie All
Speaker 2: in the rotation. It just looked like every single time
Speaker 2: it's not Chris Saale out there, just looked like a
Speaker 2: disaster waiting to happen. Lopez and Holmes have at least
Speaker 2: help calm the waters a bit. Now. I don't believe
Speaker 2: either of those guys is the long term ancer. I
Speaker 2: still think Holmes works substantially better than the bullpen. You know,
Speaker 2: tonight he was He was able to take advantage of
Speaker 2: an offense that was missing some pieces. You know, the
Speaker 2: Braves kind of got fortunate they missed Connor Griffin in
Speaker 2: this series. They also missed India Rodriguez, both guys that
Speaker 2: got put on the IL right before the series started.
Speaker 2: So but it was you know, the Pirates have been
Speaker 2: a really good offense this year, and so Grant going
Speaker 2: in five innings, fifteen outs, that was everything. And it
Speaker 2: really allowed Walt to use the bullpen the way he
Speaker 2: wants instead of how he feels like he needs to
Speaker 2: if a starter gets knocked out in the third inning.
Speaker 2: So that was the biggest part of the game for
Speaker 2: me tonight.
Speaker 1: Grant going that definitely was good. But it was also
Speaker 1: good to see the bullpen. You know, do you know,
Speaker 1: be their dominant sales. Like even without Robert Sworez, who
Speaker 1: arguably has been their best reliever this year, you can
Speaker 1: make that argument for probably two or three relievers, but
Speaker 1: going Dodd then Whintes, then Lee then Iglesias and having
Speaker 1: confidence and knowing that you know, Pittsburgh never really put
Speaker 1: up too much of a threat against that, you know,
Speaker 1: forsome they were. The Braves were able to get the
Speaker 1: job done through their pitching, and that was really really
Speaker 1: good to see. Now to that point, there also was
Speaker 1: the offense in the fact that it was kind of
Speaker 1: encouraging to be able to see. And we'll get into
Speaker 1: the specifics of who did it in just a moment,
Speaker 1: but the thing that stood out to me is that
Speaker 1: you mentioned it was kind of like twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: Tonight also was a reminder that as bad as the
Speaker 1: Braves have been playing as of late, they still have
Speaker 1: the ability to turn it on when they need to,
Speaker 1: even without Acuna, even without Sworez. You know, some guys
Speaker 1: are missing right now, some guys are struggling right now.
Speaker 1: They can still get the job done when they know
Speaker 1: they absolutely have to, and both the bullpen and the
Speaker 1: offense were able to do that tonight late in the game.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean when you give up zero runs, winning is
Speaker 2: very easy. Everything just looks better when you give up
Speaker 2: zero runs. You know, I thought, I thought Fwintes looked
Speaker 2: really good tonight after you know, he hasn't been bad lately,
Speaker 2: but maybe a couple of shaky outings. He was throwing
Speaker 2: like a hundred pretty easy tonight. I think he threw
Speaker 2: the fastest pitch he's ever thrown tonight. If I saw
Speaker 2: that correctly, Dylan Lee, somebody asked me on Twitter. I
Speaker 2: meant to go back and give him an answer because
Speaker 2: it was a good question. Somebody asked me on Twitter tonight,
Speaker 2: is there a single player that is more trustworthy worthy
Speaker 2: to you on the Braves right now than Dylan Lee?
Speaker 2: And like Chris Sale is the is the first answer
Speaker 2: I always think of. But like Dylan Lee has been
Speaker 2: absurd from day one. Like I think Dylan Lee's had
Speaker 2: like maybe one bad outing all year.
Speaker 1: And it was it was the reason it was it
Speaker 1: was it was the night was it against the Mets,
Speaker 1: not not the now, it was the series before, it
Speaker 1: was within the past week.
Speaker 2: I think it was against the Cardinals.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, that's correct. Yes, it was. Yeah, so it
Speaker 1: was last week, so it was in the past. It
Speaker 1: was within the past week that him and Iglaci has
Speaker 1: both had a characteristic blow ups.
Speaker 2: And that was that was literally the only time all
Speaker 2: year dill Lee has been anything except absurdly good, and
Speaker 2: tonight he was absurdly good. And he's gotten the braves
Speaker 2: out of a couple of jams here lately where he's
Speaker 2: been absurdly good. Like, he's just been unbelievably good. You know,
Speaker 2: Dylan Dodd has had a really good run lately and
Speaker 2: has very clearly established himself as the second best lefty
Speaker 2: in that pen. Remember we spent a lot of the
Speaker 2: year with like Aaron Bummer as the second best lefty
Speaker 2: in the bullpen, and you know, I remember talking about
Speaker 2: it then about why isn't Dylan Dodd? Because Dylan Dodd
Speaker 2: is just clearly better than Aaron Bummer, And I'm happy
Speaker 2: for him that he's just very clearly established himself as
Speaker 2: as one of the you know, easily the second best
Speaker 2: lefty in the pen. You know, gone are the days,
Speaker 2: or at least should be gone are the days where
Speaker 2: he gets option back and forth and he's on the
Speaker 2: triple A bus. He should just be up and part
Speaker 2: of the bullpen. He's just established himself as a really
Speaker 2: good left handed reliever, so you know, it was really
Speaker 2: nice to see the bullpen just lock one down because
Speaker 2: they pitched a bunch of those innings when it was
Speaker 2: still zero zero. They didn't have the lead the whole time,
Speaker 2: and they still you know, they're still nails. So yeah,
Speaker 2: it was a really good one tonight.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it was just you know, it was just
Speaker 1: good to see again, you know, the West and no
Speaker 1: names step up and get the job done. So you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not I joked that it was a complete team victory,
Speaker 1: but when you think about it, it kind of was
Speaker 1: when they needed to early in the game. It was
Speaker 1: the starting pitching. Late in the game, it was the bullpen.
Speaker 1: In the offense, every aspect of the team stepped up,
Speaker 1: and you need more of that obviously to be able
Speaker 1: to win consistently. But there were two key reasons why
Speaker 1: the offense did well tonight, and it was the bravest
Speaker 1: current catching current catching tandem moral than in just a moment,
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Speaker 1: Welcome back again to the Hammer Territory podcast engineered by
Speaker 1: Fast and All, and let's get into what engineered offense
Speaker 1: when it was needed tonight for the Braves, and that
Speaker 1: was their current catching tandem of both Joey Bart as
Speaker 1: well as Drake Baldwin. And it was good to see
Speaker 1: the production from both of them for various reasons. But
Speaker 1: let's start with Joey Bart. You know, basically, Joey Bart
Speaker 1: was acquired from the Pirates. It's a bit ironic that
Speaker 1: he gets the big home run in the home ballpark
Speaker 1: of his former team. But the reason why it was
Speaker 1: good to see is because Bart, I'm not going to say,
Speaker 1: is going to be any significant part of this Braves
Speaker 1: offense at any point this year. His time with the
Speaker 1: Braves probably is going to be here will be up
Speaker 1: once Sean Murphy comes back. But I will say that
Speaker 1: this is the second time that Joey Bart has gotten
Speaker 1: a big home run in a game where runs bred
Speaker 1: a premium, in a game where it was low scoring.
Speaker 1: Go back a couple of weeks ago when he hit
Speaker 1: the two run homer in a loss to the Padres.
Speaker 1: One thing that stands out is that Bart did it
Speaker 1: twice in tonight's game. He hit it to the edge
Speaker 1: of the wall, you know, when it's first at bat,
Speaker 1: and then in that seventh inning I believe it was
Speaker 1: the seventh inning. Yeah, he hit the two run home
Speaker 1: run to get the job done. And while Bart's overall
Speaker 1: profile doesn't look that great, one thing that stands out
Speaker 1: is bat speed. And even though tonight he didn't hit
Speaker 1: a high velocity ball out of the ballparker to the
Speaker 1: warning track, he still was able to show his bat
Speaker 1: speed can make a difference again in the game where
Speaker 1: runs read at premium and right now, the brains needed
Speaker 1: all of that that they can get.
Speaker 2: Yeah, listen, he's been you know, he was a former
Speaker 2: top prospect. He's actually a Georgia tech guy. So a
Speaker 2: lot of obviously Brays fans know him and still love him.
Speaker 1: And number two draft, right, yeah, three to three.
Speaker 2: Number two, number three, I can't remember, but very high pick.
Speaker 2: And you know, I definitely thought he would be a
Speaker 2: starting caliber player. I don't know if that's in his
Speaker 2: future still. I think he's like twenty nine or thirty.
Speaker 2: I think he's just kind of established himself as a
Speaker 2: really good backup catcher. He's kind of a perfect backup catcher,
Speaker 2: especially when you have a left handed starter the way
Speaker 2: the Braves do to have a right handed backup. And listen,
Speaker 2: when Sean Murphy comes back, of course, you know they're
Speaker 2: gonna have to you know, I was thinking about this today.
Speaker 2: I actually think the Braves should probably just start running
Speaker 2: three catchers even when Murphy is healthy, because Murphy has
Speaker 2: such a long injury history at this point that what
Speaker 2: you don't want to have happened. And this is kind
Speaker 2: of what happened to them when they got rid of Jonaheim,
Speaker 2: is they got rid of Jonaheim when Murphy came back,
Speaker 2: and then Murphy got hurt again, and then him was
Speaker 2: already with another team, and then they just went into
Speaker 2: catcher hell for like a month, and you know, that
Speaker 2: last bench spot gets used so little. I actually do
Speaker 2: think the Braves should just start running through catcher, like,
Speaker 2: even when Murphy comes back, just keep Bart and he's
Speaker 2: a perfect backup and he can pop a homer. You know,
Speaker 2: he's dangerous against left He's he's got some real pop
Speaker 2: in his bat. You know, I don't know what they
Speaker 2: think of him. Defensively, that would be the question. But
Speaker 2: they you know, they they traded for him, so they
Speaker 2: clearly have a decent opinion of him. You know. I've
Speaker 2: seen him and Chris Saale like having really long conversations
Speaker 2: in the dugout, like I think they I think they
Speaker 2: feel okay with him back there. And if you feel
Speaker 2: okay with him back there, and listen, he's not a
Speaker 2: great bat, but he's not gonna just He's not gonna
Speaker 2: be He's not gonna embarrass you. I think he's just
Speaker 2: a really, really good catcher to keep around. And even
Speaker 2: if you have to run three catchers, you know, on
Speaker 2: the off chance that you actually have Baldwin and Murphy
Speaker 2: healthy at the same time, which feels like it never
Speaker 2: happens anymore, then that's what you do. Run three catchers
Speaker 2: and just use that last bench spot as a third catcher.
Speaker 2: But I what I think the Braves. I think the
Speaker 2: Braves paid for it when they let Jonaheim go and
Speaker 2: Murphy got hurt again, and so I'm curious to see
Speaker 2: if maybe they adjust that strategy knowing that Murphy and
Speaker 2: Baldlein both have dealt with injuries, and you really do
Speaker 2: need a really good third one around, And I don't
Speaker 2: know if Bart's gonna be willing to go down to
Speaker 2: like triple A. It might just be best to keep
Speaker 2: him on the roster and just you know, if something happens,
Speaker 2: you got to you got to back up right there.
Speaker 1: Well, and I also noticed tonight, correct me if I'm wrong, Stephen,
Speaker 1: it was a right hander that was on the mound.
Speaker 2: And who was not in the Santana?
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, well, no, Jared Jones was on the mound.
Speaker 1: So they started Bart at catcher I believe they did.
Speaker 1: Did they start.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because they wanted Battle in at DH tonight.
Speaker 1: So who wasn't at DH? Who wasn't Smith?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Tom Smith was not at DH against the right handed hitter,
Speaker 1: and Dom Smith is is kind of falling off quite
Speaker 1: a bit, and it stands out that he wouldn't because
Speaker 1: he was one of the best bats against high velocity
Speaker 1: that the Braves had put out there. So the point
Speaker 1: I'm hitting at is is that I know Dom Smith,
Speaker 1: I know Jorge Mateo, you know Eli White. Some of
Speaker 1: these you know, binge pieces on one year deals have
Speaker 1: had their moments this year. But Bart going forward, could
Speaker 1: be more valuable than some of those guys. Hassan Kilm
Speaker 1: as well. Hory Matteo's really struggled. He struggled tonight as well.
Speaker 1: But the point that I had is that not only
Speaker 1: can you keep that third catcher, but Bart also could
Speaker 1: be an option to DH against left handers because he's
Speaker 1: hit left handers pretty good before in his career. So
Speaker 1: again I'm not expecting. I think the most likely outcome
Speaker 1: is Bart probably you know, may part ways may stay
Speaker 1: once Sean Murphy comes back, but I do think that
Speaker 1: he's a decent mind. And the Braves have had in
Speaker 1: recent years good success with finding these type of hitters,
Speaker 1: some you know, post type prospects in their late twenties
Speaker 1: who haven't really been able to really catch on in
Speaker 1: their career, and they've been able to find success. So
Speaker 1: Joey Bart could be someone that could stick around for
Speaker 1: a little bit and could have more big moments for
Speaker 1: this team. Another thing that stood out for me was
Speaker 1: Drake Baldwin, who is heating up a bit here recently.
Speaker 1: You know, you think that Grand Slam, you know against
Speaker 1: the Mets, and in that game where the Braves tried
Speaker 1: to come back some good at bats, a little bit
Speaker 1: more walking, a little bit more you know, solid contact.
Speaker 1: But what stood out to me tonight was, yes, he
Speaker 1: struggled against the HIH velocity, just like all the other
Speaker 1: Braves did. But even despite the fact that he struck
Speaker 1: out his first three times, he got a big hit
Speaker 1: to add insurance late in the game. He looked more
Speaker 1: like Drake Baldwin and that was awesome to see for
Speaker 1: this Braves team that needs Drake Baldwin to be his
Speaker 1: normal self as soon as possible.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're still waiting on Drake a little bit. We
Speaker 2: still haven't seen the guy that we had before the injury.
Speaker 2: And you know, he's had moments. He had that Grand
Speaker 2: Slam the other night, He's had a couple of games,
Speaker 2: we had two hits. You know. The strikeouts have really
Speaker 2: gone up in this kind of second stint after the
Speaker 2: injury versus what they were before. I think he's running
Speaker 2: like a I think he's running like an over a
Speaker 2: thirty percent strikeout rate since he came back, and a
Speaker 2: very low walk He's only he's only walked like four
Speaker 2: times since he'd been back, and it's almost a month
Speaker 2: worth of a bats. So I think he definitely is rusty,
Speaker 2: and I I don't know another word for it. He
Speaker 2: was lot, he was so locked in before he got hurt,
Speaker 2: and when he's come back, he's just looked very rusty,
Speaker 2: like he's he's unsure of what win to swing, when
Speaker 2: not to swing, and those were decisions that he was
Speaker 2: making at such a high level before. So but it
Speaker 2: was good. You know that that RBI single I think
Speaker 2: in the ninth made it went from a two to
Speaker 2: zero game to a three yer game. Listen, you know
Speaker 2: Glaciers has had some bumps in the road in the
Speaker 2: ninth inning the last couple of outings. That extra run
Speaker 2: was not a small deal to get a three run
Speaker 2: lead there. You know, I'm not saying it's the reason,
Speaker 2: uh Glaciers had a nice, easy ninth inning, but I
Speaker 2: guarantee you as a closer, especially when you've had a
Speaker 2: couple of outings that didn't go exactly the way you want,
Speaker 2: that extra run means everything. And you know, I was
Speaker 2: happy to see it. So, yeah, it was good. You know,
Speaker 2: it was good, a good time to kind of break
Speaker 2: out of the slump. He obviously was over three with
Speaker 2: three strikeouts coming into that plate. Appearance. But yeah, we're
Speaker 2: still waiting on Drake to kind of come all the
Speaker 2: way back around. He's had you know, July's been better.
Speaker 2: June was a bit of a disaster for him. When
Speaker 2: he came back, July has been better, and we're just
Speaker 2: kind of waiting on that next level where he goes
Speaker 2: back to being, you know, one of the best hitters
Speaker 2: in the lineup, you know, one of the top two
Speaker 2: or three hitters in the lineup the way he was
Speaker 2: the first six weeks of the season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, he was so good at being
Speaker 1: able to hit those balls, to drive those balls that
Speaker 1: were just below the strike zone, kind of in the
Speaker 1: middle of the plate before the injury. Looks like he's
Speaker 1: struggled in those swing approaches since he's been back. If
Speaker 1: he's getting that confidence back, well watch out now that
Speaker 1: when I'm talking about, you know, the Braves potentially having
Speaker 1: one of the better hitting trios in baseball when you've
Speaker 1: got Akunya back, you've got Baldwin going plus Olsen. This
Speaker 1: is what I'm meaning. And if we're starting to see
Speaker 1: Drake kind of refined his form, it couldn't come at
Speaker 1: a better time, which means that it could benefit you,
Speaker 1: and yes, that is absolutely correct. You actually could be
Speaker 1: benefited from Drake Baldwin finding his form, because we're actually
Speaker 1: going to talk about Drake Baldwin when it comes to
Speaker 1: discussing our fan duel Daily Dingers, so we talk about it, Stephen.
Speaker 1: You know, Drake Baldwin being back to his normal self,
Speaker 1: He's not there yet. It's been good to see that
Speaker 1: he's maybe rounding in the form, but we're waiting for
Speaker 1: the power. We've seen plenty of power from Matt Olsen.
Speaker 1: We've seen the power continue for Michael Harris. But tomorrow,
Speaker 1: with Mitch Keller on the mound, who's not been that
Speaker 1: great this year, I'm looking for Drake Baldwin to stand out.
Speaker 1: He seems like the perfect guy to have a multi
Speaker 1: homer game in at park like Pittsburgh where you don't
Speaker 1: see as many splashdowns as you do at Oracle Park
Speaker 1: in San Francisco. But why not Drake Baldman do a
Speaker 1: splashdown tomorrow? I think he's a lock for a home
Speaker 1: run on Thursday.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you definitely. It's a kind of a
Speaker 2: left hander's park. We saw tonight Joey bart could have
Speaker 2: easily had two homers tonight, but he hit it to
Speaker 2: left center field, and he actually hit on both the
Speaker 2: left center field and to hit a ball out as
Speaker 2: a right hander as a whole different bag of beans
Speaker 2: in this stadium than a left hander. And you know,
Speaker 2: you especially with Keller on the mound, I got a
Speaker 2: right handed pitcher on the mound.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: That's kind of the thing we're waiting on with Baldwin
Speaker 2: is for the power to come back. The strikeouts have
Speaker 2: been you know, high as well, a little more contact,
Speaker 2: but definitely more power. We have seen the offense get
Speaker 2: back to more of their power hitting ways in July.
Speaker 2: June was such a disaster. I think they hit like
Speaker 2: in two games in July, they hit like half as
Speaker 2: many homers as they hit in all of June. It
Speaker 2: was just shocking how little power they hit for in
Speaker 2: the month of June. July has been better, and tonight,
Speaker 2: you know, there are only two runs of the game
Speaker 2: came on a homer. So we've you and I have
Speaker 2: talked about this for years and I've said it. I've
Speaker 2: lost on how many time I say it. Homers are
Speaker 2: so incredibly important to long term consistent success, and especially
Speaker 2: when you get to the postseason because it's very, very hard,
Speaker 2: with the quality of pitching in Major League Baseball now,
Speaker 2: to string together four or five hits in an any
Speaker 2: It doesn't happen very often. Sometimes it does, and it's great,
Speaker 2: But it is so much easier to have somebody take
Speaker 2: a four pitch walk or a five pitch walk and
Speaker 2: then somebody hit a homer. I mean, it's just a
Speaker 2: very easy way to score two runs. It's the most
Speaker 2: consistent way to score in the playoffs because the pitching
Speaker 2: is so good, and this team when they write their
Speaker 2: best they hit a bunch of homers, and so yes,
Speaker 2: sign me up for Drake Balder when getting back, you know,
Speaker 2: a really good opportunity right handed pitcher, a park that
Speaker 2: is more conducive to left hand home runs, give me
Speaker 2: a splashdown. I'll take a splash down if he wants
Speaker 2: to hit it over the bleachers that are out there
Speaker 2: in the right field. But yeah, that's that is the
Speaker 2: key for the Braves offensively, is we got to get
Speaker 2: back to hitting the ball with the fence.
Speaker 1: Yeah. When runs are at a premium, power prevails as
Speaker 1: a priority. You're welcome the literation, But the point that
Speaker 1: I'm getting anty is ye welcome, and I segue there.
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Speaker 1: So Stephen again, seeing Drake Baldwin round in the form
Speaker 1: would be awesome for this Braves offense. And you know,
Speaker 1: I talked about it last night. You know, one thing
Speaker 1: that stands out about this Braves offense that has made
Speaker 1: it so hard for them consistently to produce the level
Speaker 1: that they need to for us to win frequently is
Speaker 1: how much they struggled with runners in scoring position, again
Speaker 1: being among the league's worst with runners in scoring position,
Speaker 1: both in terms of creating them and converting them. But
Speaker 1: one other thing that stood out, and it really really
Speaker 1: was magnified tonight, spotlighted tonight, was the fact that the
Speaker 1: Braves have really fallen off when it comes to their
Speaker 1: ability to produce against high velocity. Grew May thirty first
Speaker 1: of this year. If you go according to Baseball Savon,
Speaker 1: the Braves had the twelfth best WXOBA that's kind of
Speaker 1: their overall expected offensive production. They had the twelfth best
Speaker 1: WXOBA against pitches ninety six miles per hour or higher
Speaker 1: among Major League Baseball teams. That's Drew May thirty first,
Speaker 1: and that typically correlates well with Winny. But since June first,
Speaker 1: they've fallen off and they're now twenty ninth in the
Speaker 1: majors against high velocity pitches, both in terms of WXOBA
Speaker 1: but also in terms of expected slugging. They're not they're
Speaker 1: not hitting high velocity pitches for power, and you saw
Speaker 1: that tonight with so many at bats look non competitive.
Speaker 1: So when we talk about how this Braves offense can improve,
Speaker 1: obviously Ronald A. Coonney Junior is a really good way
Speaker 1: to improve against high velocity pitches, But we talk about
Speaker 1: when it comes to maybe adding the hitter at the deadline,
Speaker 1: you know, do we want a right handed hitter, do
Speaker 1: we want a left handed hitter? I think a right
Speaker 1: handed hitter still sticks out, but someone who could produce
Speaker 1: against high velocity pitches would also really benefit this team.
Speaker 1: Dom Smith has done that, but he's struggled elsewhere. But
Speaker 1: I think that if the Braves are looking to add
Speaker 1: a hitter, it's someone that can produce against high velocity pitches,
Speaker 1: and that typically means someone who could swing the bat
Speaker 1: pretty hard.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So you know, we've talked a lot about the
Speaker 2: Braves adding pitching, and we've also talked a lot about
Speaker 2: the Braves adding a bat, and I've I mean, I
Speaker 2: remember talking about this in spring training, how I thought
Speaker 2: the Braves were one right handed bat short, especially after
Speaker 2: the Profar news, and I didn't love the idea of
Speaker 2: platooning Eli White with the Yas because Eli Whit just
Speaker 2: never really hit left handed pitching all that well in
Speaker 2: his career. And so all year long, I mean literally
Speaker 2: since spring training, I've been just kind of watching all
Speaker 2: of the potential right handed bats that could be available.
Speaker 2: You never know who's actually gonna sell, but you know
Speaker 2: the obvious guys, the guys who maybe don't have as
Speaker 2: much team control left, you know who's play on bad teams,
Speaker 2: who very easily could be available. And I tweeted about
Speaker 2: him tonight. The guy that I've just I've watched a
Speaker 2: ton and it feels like is the most logical as
Speaker 2: Joe Adell. And you know, he's got two years of
Speaker 2: team control left twenty six and twenty seven. I guess
Speaker 2: year and a half now we're halfway through twenty six,
Speaker 2: but he's got another year of team control after this year.
Speaker 2: So he's not a rental, so he's gonna cost something,
Speaker 2: so that matters. The cost matters. The Angels are weird
Speaker 2: Art Moreno is one of the weirdest owners, maybe the
Speaker 2: weirdest owner out there. Honestly, no one knows what the
Speaker 2: hell they're gonna do. No one in the building knows
Speaker 2: what they're gonna do. They just fired their GM, they
Speaker 2: hired Saint Louis's old GM. What they should do is
Speaker 2: tear everything down and sell and start over and rebuild,
Speaker 2: because that franchise has been a dumpster fire, not even
Speaker 2: a it's been the juice at the bottom of a
Speaker 2: dumpster for like the last five, six seven. Pretty much
Speaker 2: all of Mike Trout's career is how bad the Angels
Speaker 2: have been. So they should sell Joe Adel and if
Speaker 2: they do, the Braves need to be at the front
Speaker 2: of the line because one of the top bat speeds
Speaker 2: in all of baseball. He I think his average bat
Speaker 2: speed is like any seven miles an hour, which is
Speaker 2: crazy fast. I think it's ninety eight percentile in baseball.
Speaker 2: But he destroys left handed pitching. He's got he's got
Speaker 2: two more home runs tonight. Actually, as we're recording this,
Speaker 2: both against left handed pitching. His WRC plus against left
Speaker 2: handed pitching is like one thirty five this year it's
Speaker 2: not as good against righty's. He's probably better as a platoon,
Speaker 2: but he's not he's not gonna kill you against rightys,
Speaker 2: but he's definitely a lefty masher. And you know, I
Speaker 2: think this is something that Braves need. And you know,
Speaker 2: games like tonight where the offense doesn't look great, and
Speaker 2: let's be honest, the offense has not looked great for
Speaker 2: I mean, even before the big losing skid they've been on.
Speaker 2: Like the offense, even going back to like middle or
Speaker 2: middle of May start, you started seeing signs of the
Speaker 2: offense slowing down a lot, and then you factor in
Speaker 2: last year and the year before with the offense all
Speaker 2: the issues. Like I just I think they need another bat.
Speaker 2: And I wouldn't I wouldn't had two more bats, to
Speaker 2: be honest with you, but I think they especially need one,
Speaker 2: and a guy like Jodell makes a lot of sense
Speaker 2: to me. And I'm we don't know what the Angels
Speaker 2: are gonna do, no one knows, but if they sell
Speaker 2: or at least if they sell Jodell, the Braves need
Speaker 2: to be at the front of the line.
Speaker 1: You know, I used to talk about it, you know
Speaker 1: when when when I was you know, doing the uh
Speaker 1: the daily hammer, you know, over battery power. I used
Speaker 1: to call it around the trade deadline. We were talking
Speaker 1: about past years talking to trade deadlines with Chris Willis
Speaker 1: last night. I used to call it the Frank Wren Special,
Speaker 1: the ability to go not necessarily take care of all
Speaker 1: your needs. But if you remember Frank Grinn, you know,
Speaker 1: towards the latter part of the of the two thousands
Speaker 1: and early part of the twenty ten's, he would make
Speaker 1: these combo trades that that again added more depth and
Speaker 1: really feeling needs. But you know, you remember kind of
Speaker 1: like the I believe it Zomar and Fonte and and
Speaker 1: will Owmen from the Cubs and you know, made some agains,
Speaker 1: smaller deals, but deals that made sense at the time
Speaker 1: that that really helped the break, you know, address a
Speaker 1: couple of areas.
Speaker 2: I definitely remember the Omar and Fonte will Owmen.
Speaker 1: Combo trade from the Cups.
Speaker 2: I remember, yeah, like it was yesterday. It was. It
Speaker 2: was a Sentil day in my life. So yeah, I
Speaker 2: hope that's good. That's a good call.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the next swig of Milo's that you tried to make,
Speaker 1: I hope you spell it all over yourself regardless of that.
Speaker 2: Hold on what year. I just want to know what
Speaker 2: year was.
Speaker 1: That twenty eleven. I did not just look that up
Speaker 1: on my phone. But the point that I'm getting at
Speaker 1: is is that if I'm the Brade, I'm talking with
Speaker 1: the Angels about read Detmers or Jse Soriano with Joeandelle,
Speaker 1: why not like like like, why not do that? I
Speaker 1: know that it's going to cost. Like I talked, you know,
Speaker 1: with the with the radio station out of upstate South
Speaker 1: Carolina today forgive me, and it's called a fan in
Speaker 1: upstate South Carolina. Great guys who who I talked to
Speaker 1: on a decently regular basis. But I talked with them,
Speaker 1: you know, about what's there in our farm system now
Speaker 1: what I would be willing to send out. And I
Speaker 1: think that my two untouchables right now are Eric Cartman
Speaker 1: and Ditty er fuint Is. The only person that I
Speaker 1: would send those out for would be your Malvaretz, and
Speaker 1: that's not happening obviously. But the point that I'm getting
Speaker 1: at is is that this Brave's farm system is now
Speaker 1: well equipped enough for you to go make two notable
Speaker 1: to significant moves and still have pretty decent intriguing farm
Speaker 1: depth that again you're just gonna add to through the draft.
Speaker 1: So if I'm the Braves, why not go offer either
Speaker 1: at cam Caminidio or a takes out that scene as
Speaker 1: the headliner for that deal, add three or more intriguing
Speaker 1: prospects and see if you can go get a combo
Speaker 1: like a Read Detmers in a Joe Adelle. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's gonna happen, but at least have that conversation
Speaker 1: because that type of move allows for you to have
Speaker 1: made in one opportunity, it allows for you to take
Speaker 1: care of two needs. Now again, you rarely see this
Speaker 1: because the selling team typically will get more by each
Speaker 1: individual part separately to get the biggest deal. But why
Speaker 1: not talk about it? But I agree with you, the
Speaker 1: Angels are at the top of the list as a
Speaker 1: team to talk to. Even though Perry and Ia said
Speaker 1: may seem like he's a detriment to a deal with
Speaker 1: the Braves. John Moselac may be more willing to trade
Speaker 1: the notable names. But I would be talking to the
Speaker 1: Angels and yes, Joe Adell because I think he's the
Speaker 1: type of profile that the Braves could also unlocked to
Speaker 1: be more consistent. Not only could he help this year,
Speaker 1: but he could potentially help in years to come as
Speaker 1: that secondary outfielder primary DH most days that you're kind
Speaker 1: of struggling with now that Dom Smith is kind of
Speaker 1: falling off.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it just may It makes a lot
Speaker 2: of sense. You know, you said it. The combo deal
Speaker 2: stuff is just tough because teams know anytime you can
Speaker 2: bind players in the same deal, their values get kind
Speaker 2: of meshed together and you always get a little bit
Speaker 2: less than you would if you just split them up
Speaker 2: and traded them individually. Doesn't mean combo deals don't happen.
Speaker 2: I would be surprised because well, I mean, let me rephrase,
Speaker 2: nothing the Angels do would surprise me because the Angels
Speaker 2: do some of the weirdest things I've ever seen. But
Speaker 2: if you're trying to maximize the return, the best thing
Speaker 2: to do is to trade him separately. But yeah, Delle
Speaker 2: just makes a ton of sense to me, and he's
Speaker 2: He's made a ton of system me. He made a
Speaker 2: ton of sys to me in the off season. I
Speaker 2: think we brought him up multiple times in the off
Speaker 2: season too. So some guy like Taylor Ward, Yes, if Baltimore,
Speaker 2: but I think Baltimore lost again tonight. They're about I
Speaker 2: think there are four or five games out of the
Speaker 2: wild Card now Baltimore could sell. And then you know
Speaker 2: a guy like Taylor Ward, who I think is a
Speaker 2: just a full on rental if I remember correctly, also
Speaker 2: a former Angel, funny enough, but you know, guys like that.
Speaker 2: I'm just kind of keeping an eye on. Right handed
Speaker 2: can play the outfield a little bit at least, can
Speaker 2: really mash left handed pitching. And you know, I don't
Speaker 2: think the Braves are necessarily tied to have to get
Speaker 2: a right hander. To be honest with you, I would
Speaker 2: love to get a right hander and a left hander.
Speaker 2: I think the Braves, you know, they don't really have
Speaker 2: a DH at the moment, to be honest. You know,
Speaker 2: Dom Smith has been the DH most of the year.
Speaker 2: You know, they could really use a right handed outfielder
Speaker 2: and a DH. So you could go get a right
Speaker 2: handed hitter and a left handed hitter, you know, and
Speaker 2: we can go. We'll probably do one of the shows
Speaker 2: we'll do around probably in the next week or so.
Speaker 2: We'll probably run through a bunch of options, you know,
Speaker 2: a bunch of potential names. It's tough to do that
Speaker 2: right now because we don't know who the sellers are
Speaker 2: gonna be. But as we get onto the other side
Speaker 2: of the All Star Break, that will become much clearer
Speaker 2: because you're gonna start hearing reports, especially after we get,
Speaker 2: excuse me, past the draft, everybody is gonna be focused
Speaker 2: on trade season and you're gonna start hearing a ton
Speaker 2: of rumors, a ton of reports. This team has decided
Speaker 2: to sell, this team has decided to buy, This team
Speaker 2: is standing pat like. We're gonna get a ton of
Speaker 2: more information, probably be the first week outside of the
Speaker 2: Ulster break, and we'll go, we'll do We'll probably do
Speaker 2: a few shows based on some different names, but jo
Speaker 2: Adell is a name that has been in my head
Speaker 2: for a couple of years now, and I think we
Speaker 2: would make a lot of sense for the Braves.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. I don't necessarily know if they have it in
Speaker 1: him to add multiple starters plus multiple hitters. They need
Speaker 1: to do one to the other. Add multiple starters, add
Speaker 1: multiple hitters, and I think that would do quite a
Speaker 1: bit of good. You know what else would do quite
Speaker 1: a bit of good is a bounce back performance from
Speaker 1: Bryce Elder, who will be on the mound tomorrow. It
Speaker 1: has been a bit of an extended time from Bryce
Speaker 1: Elver as in recent starts, you know, we talk about
Speaker 1: how you know much his ability to miss bats has
Speaker 1: regressed and how much that's you know, really hurt him
Speaker 1: in terms of overall production. But the thing that stands
Speaker 1: out about Bryce Elder is that the Braves need for
Speaker 1: him to probably go five or six innings tomorrow. You
Speaker 1: hope he can bounce back. It seems like that the
Speaker 1: Pirates offense in the current state that it's in is
Speaker 1: a nice test for him, one that he could find
Speaker 1: success against. But the one thing that the Braves really
Speaker 1: can't afford is for a big inning early on like
Speaker 1: they had on Tuesday. But Braves, as much as it
Speaker 1: made anger some people to hear, they still need Bryce Elder.
Speaker 1: It would be great to get Bryce Elder going once
Speaker 1: again because the one thing he can do is eat innings,
Speaker 1: give you five to six innings every single night. So
Speaker 1: it'd be good to see a bounce back performance from
Speaker 1: him and win a series, going into a really big
Speaker 1: series against Saint Louis this weekend.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so Bryce has a pitch since the twenty seventh,
Speaker 2: so about ten days ago, so they gave him an
Speaker 2: extended break and they den'ty l him. They left him
Speaker 2: on the roster. The Brads have basically been pitching a
Speaker 2: guy down for the last ten days in order to
Speaker 2: keep Bryce Elder on the roster so we can make
Speaker 2: this start, which is not something I'd necessarily agree with,
Speaker 2: but it is what it is. But yeah, Bryce has
Speaker 2: been I mean he's given up in his last thirty innings,
Speaker 2: which spans like seven starts. His last thirty innings, Bryce
Speaker 2: Elder has given up thirty earned runs, which is is
Speaker 2: you know, you don't have to be a math major
Speaker 2: to know that's an er around nine, So you it's
Speaker 2: been bad. And the number that has stuck out to
Speaker 2: me the most is in his first fifty four innings
Speaker 2: of the season, Bryce Elder struck out fifty three hitters.
Speaker 2: So the first fifty four innings of the season, Bryce
Speaker 2: Elder struck out fifty three hitters, almost a strikeout per inning,
Speaker 2: and his last forty five innings he struck out thirty hitters.
Speaker 2: So the strikeouts have just come way down, kind of
Speaker 2: back to like where Bryce Eld was before this year,
Speaker 2: and that's why we were so encouraged about Bryce Elder
Speaker 2: early in the season, because it wasn't just smoking mirrors
Speaker 2: with bad at ball data. It wasn't just bad at
Speaker 2: ball luck. Like he was getting swinging, legitimate swing and
Speaker 2: miss consistently, and it changed his profile and it changed
Speaker 2: how real everything seemed. And something happened, you know, a
Speaker 2: month and a half ago, but the strikeouts just went away,
Speaker 2: and he's got to get back to missing bats. They
Speaker 2: desboy need innings. Grant did am a solid by going
Speaker 2: five tonight. They needed again tomorrow because they don't have
Speaker 2: any off days until the break, and already they're in
Speaker 2: a situation where Hersa and Wader was probably gonna have
Speaker 2: to pitch another game before they get to the All
Speaker 2: Star break. The bullpen's been used a lot, obviously. They
Speaker 2: still had to cover four innings tonight, so they can't
Speaker 2: have like a three inning blow up from Bryce tomorrow.
Speaker 2: It would also be nice just to win a damn series.
Speaker 2: I don't remember less. I mean I think was Milwaukee.
Speaker 2: Was that game against those two games against Mizowski and Harris.
Speaker 2: That was the last time they won a series, right,
Speaker 2: So yeah, I just win a series. It'd be lovely
Speaker 2: to come out tomorrow and score like twelve runs and
Speaker 2: really not have to worry about what Bryce lever gives you.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it would be nice to see Bryce at least,
Speaker 2: I mean, at least just keep it on the tracks
Speaker 2: for three or four innings and not just get completely,
Speaker 2: you know, blown off the mound by the third innings.
Speaker 2: So it's a big game tomorrow and it'd be lovely
Speaker 2: to win a series for the first time in a while.
Speaker 2: Here muted, I've made it all the way to the.
Speaker 1: End, man, Man, I just like but the point I'm
Speaker 1: getting at is is they've done a bit better job
Speaker 1: despite tonight of scoring early in games. You know, that
Speaker 1: was another thing from June that stood out. They just
Speaker 1: never scored early in games. So give me Bryce. An
Speaker 1: early lead has to help that confidence. It can certainly
Speaker 1: help get the job done. But hey, we're gonna be
Speaker 1: here with you through it all. Can't thank you enough
Speaker 1: for joining us here on this episode of the Day
Speaker 1: or the Hammer Territory podcast. Uh. Steven Tolbert at b
Speaker 1: Underscore Outliers. I'm just here from nostalgia after we talked
Speaker 1: with Chris last night. Steven Tolbert to be Underscore Outliers
Speaker 1: on Twitter slash x. My name is Sean Comin at
Speaker 1: Stats sac Hammer Territory across all forms of social media,
Speaker 1: part of the foul Territory family of podcasts. Till next
Speaker 1: time listen. Plenty of exciting stuff coming up. Chance to
Speaker 1: win a series tomorrow, big series against a consistent rival
Speaker 1: in Saint Louis at Saint Louis, and of course the
Speaker 1: MLB draft and we'll hear it. We will be here
Speaker 1: to have it all covered for you until next time.
Speaker 1: Go braves, We'll talk to you again soon. Here on
Speaker 1: the Hammorate Territory Park is