Braves Avoid Sweep, A Weird Season, and Prospect Talk with Eric Cole

Brad Rowland is joined by old friend Eric Cole for Episode 255 of the Hammer Territory Podcast. Topics include a weird 2025 season for the Atlanta Braves, the team avoiding a sweep at the hands of the New York Mets this weekend, the latest on Austin Riley, Chris Sale, and Aaron Bummer, a decimated pitching staff, prospect talk, and much more.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Hello everyone, and welcome back to The Hammer Territory Podcasts,
Episode two five five. I am your host, Brad Rowland
on a Sunday evening, and I am not joined by
Scott Coleman. In fact, I've been gone. Now Scott's gone,
but look, no one cares where Scott is. We have
we have an old friend on the podcast today. His
name if you were familiar with the podcast for a

(00:43):
lot talking right, No, his name, but his name is
Eric cole Eric. Hello, how are you?

Speaker 2 (00:48):
How are you? Bradford? I mean, it's been three or
four years since I was on the podcast last time. No,
you were, I've kind of forgotten your face.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
That's not true, that means not true.

Speaker 3 (00:59):
Look, I just just go back through the tape and
just kind of let's let's figure this out, because I mean,
I think we were talking about Ozzie I'll be being
traded the last time I was on.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
So, I mean it's been a while.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
And this is what you're gonna get with with Eric
on the podcast. Everybody, Uh, just a little intro. Eric's
on the show once earlier this year. I think maybe
it was the end of.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Last year, right, it actually it was before the season
four season.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
There you go off season. Uh, but Eric and I
and Scott actually the three of us did a lot
of podcasts together at a different place that kind of
became this podcast in a roundabout way. Uh, Eric is
still covering the braves. I'll let you plug all the
things later on. But you're still are you still coming
to braves regularly? You're wearing braves? Scared if you were
not watching on YouTube? By the way, a plea early

(01:42):
in the podcast. But where we do this? If you're
an audio listener, which I always say, I'm an audio
podcast listener, I don't know about you, Eric, I'm an
audio podcast listener. But if you're we could just take
a second and subscribe on YouTube. It'd be awesome to
help us grow the show. So even if you're not
going to watch on YouTube, that's cool. Please debscribe there
as well audio platforms. Subscribe. Tell your friends. But Eric,

(02:05):
let's just start in a weird place, requres honest of
the even go ahead, Okay, go ahead.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
But before we kind of get into the nitty gritty
bread we were talking before the show, and this was
actually very magnanimous of you talking about this guy of
like ideas for like spreading love for the show and like.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Getting it out there.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
If this, if this podcast right here gets two hundred
and fifty likes, Brad has agreed on the show to
sing the entirety of the Michigan Fight Song, and I'm
telling you you have not lived until you've heard Brad
Rowland sing at full volume. So I just personally think
for that it'd be great for audio listeners in the car.
I mean, like, hey, a little bit of a little
bit of a music break in the middle of the

(02:42):
show too. I just again, I'm really it was very
big of you, So you know something to think about.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
This is something that Eric would would do on a
podcast make promises for me. Well, it's the only one
of us promised to have a tattoo, and it wasn't me, So.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
That's that's gonna happen. But I have to stop having
panic attacks every time a walk.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
I understand that it would be a lot. So we've
been talking about the brains for a long time, you
and I and we'll get into the weekend of activity.
The Braves are way to sweep today with a win
on Sunday after some ugliness in the middle of the week. Okay,
early in the weekend. But I want to go a
big picture at the beginning of the podcast because you
and I were actually doing podcasts the last time the

(03:23):
Braves were bad. Let's just say that when they were
in the middle of a rebuild, it was different than
now because this season, as we've covered many times, they
were supposed to be good and they're not. Whereas back then,
not talking about the twenty sixteen twenty seventeen range, they
weren't supposed to be good. Then they were already in
the middle of a full rebuild when you and I
were talking about things. But you, especially as a as

(03:45):
a prospect watcher, minor league observer, especially in those days,
really in the nitty gritty in those days, I have
to ask you, like, where's your mind been around the
last couple of months Once it became clear that this
season was pretty much over, and it's like, man, this
is kind of we're weird territory. How you been processing
everything as a watcher with the Braves.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
It feels very similar to what was happening last season
with injuries. It just felt like every time that they
would get a little bit of traction, they'd get a
guy back, or they'd you know, put together a couple
of wins, they'd lose another guy, and then they would
lose all momentum and then basically anything that could go
wrong did go wrong in that first couple of months
of the season. I mean, Rozielle Glacis forgot how to

(04:26):
play baseball, and then like half the lineup was gone.
Nick nick Allen was like the BRA's third best hitter
for like two weeks, which was a pretty dark period
of time for Brave's history.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
The tired, the entirety of.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
The opening day rotation is now gone on the il
when Chrisale comes back, he will be the only one
that's gonna be back. So it felt very much liked
they were playing from behind and that they were it
was gonna be very difficult to make the moves that
they wanted to make, especially since it just became apparent
to me from the moves they did make in the offseason.
I mean, look, Jerson bro marketing suspended for eighty games

(04:59):
was obviously bad, right, So like it's that's that, that's
that that hurt.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
And a lot of those one run losses there was,
of which there were a lot of them early in
the season, that might have been fixed if you have a.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
Real leeoff hitter.

Speaker 3 (05:08):
But it became apparent to me that they were really
trying to stay under the luxury tax for this year
so they could reset those penalties. And to me, that
just meant like, well, what are you what do you
what do we think is gonna happen at the trade
deadline that let's say they're like within five games of
a playoff spot.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
I just didn't see a.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
World where they were going to go out there and
get a big contract to take on, you know, so
they could have an impact player. So just it felt
like for a long time that this is just this
was the group and they were to figure it out
and they weren't, and they didn't. They've looked better recently,
for sure. They have been more fun to watch. Michael
Harris is like not the worst player in baseball anymore,
and he's been, you know, arguably the best one. You know,
we have Ronald back after his second injury, which was

(05:47):
a kind of a pretty scary thing. Whenever you hear achilles,
he just never you know, that's just never good news.
But it worked out pretty well. Profar has been amazing
this month. He's been on fire, so they've been more
fun to watch. But again, I'm with you, we've been
through this before. I have some perspective on this that
you know, we've seen the bad it comes with the good.

(06:07):
H The way this came is not necessarily typical, and
I this is, this does feel like the type of
team that could bounce back after just one off season.
Just make a couple of key signings, you know, Filton
Russ Holl for the rush holes, you know, actually have
a bullpen that can you know, perform and then let
it ride. So it's again, it's not one of those
things where I'm like despairing. But I understand when I

(06:29):
talk to a lot of people, they'll ask me, you know,
whether it's you know, a friends, family, or just people
who happen to recognize me that they'll ask me about
the season, and I tell them like, look, it's it's
a bad season, but it's not like this.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
It's like this in any other sport.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
You lose a key guy in football, you lose your
best player in basketball, and all of a sudden you're
a below five hundred team.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
But that doesn't necessarily mean that the team that.

Speaker 3 (06:48):
You love is terrible Forever there are teams out there
right now that are going to be terrible forever until
their owners die or sell the team. That is just
the truth. The Rockies will never be good. It will
never happened. The Pirates will struggle mightily to be I'm
not gonna say never with them because they're the mount
talent they have coming up. But I mean, I'm gonna

(07:09):
taught a Griffin fan, and you know they have they
have schemes and they have bubberd chandlers. So I But
at the same time, if you don't spend it all
and you're you are literally just like a revenue source
for an owner, you your team's not gonna be good.
The brains don't operate like that. They spend They are
pretty good at developing talent. I wouldn't say they're amazing
at it. They've had some notable misses, particularly on the
pitching side, and they're like complete unwillingness to invest an

(07:31):
offensive young talent.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
Until this past draft.

Speaker 3 (07:33):
It's been a bit problematic, but overall, again I'm not despair.
But at the same time, I understand why it's been
very tough because this is the second year in a row,
Like the second the second half of last year was
very tough for a lot of fans. They were really
looking forward to this year and then to go to
start the season the way it did was pretty bad,
and I totally get it.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
Yeah, And actually it would have been an interesting thought
experiment to know what they would have done around the
deadline had they been in contention or pseudo contention. They
kind of fell far enough out where it was like,
well they sell or not, as it was the only question.
They weren't in that middle ground where it was like,
you know, would you be willing to buy? Did Alex
have the room to buy? Financially? Those question will never

(08:14):
actually get because you're right you bring that up, and
we talked about it a lot too. It's like something
at some point seemed to have changed financially where they
kind of plan for one thing and maybe Alex was
told us small number that he thought he was gonna
get in the middle of that. Anyway, we'll we'll never
know the full details because obviously it's been covered. But
Alex is never going to do vulge that because it's
not his job. His job is to protect his bosses.

(08:34):
He's not going to be like, by the way, they
didn't give me any money. So anyway, we'll come back
to I want to ask about the prospect stuff later
in the show. We're definitely gonna do that because I
have to use your I have to use your expertise.

Speaker 3 (08:45):
Eric, That's what we're gonna I'm a washed up prospect guy.
But I appreciate you.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
You're still You're still watching. You're still watching.

Speaker 4 (08:51):
I know you.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
You're not You're not. You can't stay away. But actually,
this this week, this weekend, and really the whole week
was kind of like interesting, and you're right that they
have been much more fun to watch recently. There has
been a debate raging that we don't have to talk
about today, but like is it good enough that they're winning?
You know, there's the root against the team conversation that
keeps happening every day of my life. I've seen on

(09:13):
social media what they have been playing better baseball, winning
more games. At one point, they won what eight of
nine or seven of eight, whatever it was, and they
basically right of the ship to some degree to be
fun baseball team. Most that's been the offense, I mean,
and that was kind of the display this week. We

(09:33):
were not a once a week podcast like we used
to be when we talked about the whole week all
the time. But I find it funny to throw to
put things back and sort of throw back form. The
Braves had the worst ERA in baseball this week. They
had a seven point sixty seven ERA in six games.
They got rocked four times and they went three and
three because they scored a lot of runs and they

(09:54):
and they kind of group their runs properly together to
stay afloat and actually wins to baseball games. But it
was kind of of the current roster. I mean, it's
not like it makes me laugh sometimes when people are
despondent about the performance of the pitching staff, because if
you look at the pitching staff and the personnel the
pitching staff, it's not exactly a surprise that they're not

(10:16):
very good at run prevention right now. With the players
that are on the il. We'll come back to Chris
Chris Sale later, he's coming back, but the names, the
talent level that's involved, like, yeah, they're gonna have some
bad performances. There was a moment this week, Eric and
which the Braves were up to zero point five percent
playoff odds, and I saw an actual discussion earlier this
week about whether the Brads can make the playoffs. It

(10:37):
came back just for a brief moment. Then they lost
two games at round of the match and that was
kind of it. But did you see any of that?
I mean, it's just I'm all over the place. But
it's one of those things where I keep coming back to,
Like the roster that's currently available is kind of fun
when they're hitting and the way that they're capable of hitting.
But also there's no world in which this team is
going to be able to run prevent at a high

(10:58):
enough level to win like a lot of baseball games
for a long period.

Speaker 3 (11:01):
No, no, not unless you have like all of your bullpen.
Like we have seen a Braves team be good with
a bad rotation. I mean we saw some truly horrid
like yes, like they would give up eight they would
give up eight runs and then the bullpen wouldn't give
up for seven and then the offense would grow back.
Now that said, no, they're not a good team. They're not.
It goes further than just this week, right, This month

(11:24):
has basically been this basic. This month has basically been
your without basically your best pitchers, forever, right, they're just
they're out. There's been exactly two teams in baseball in
the month of August to have a worse strikeout rate
than the Braves, the Royals and the Diamondbacks. The Rockies
are are striking out more batters than the Braves right now.
And what happened in today's game that they won nine

(11:45):
innings seven strikeouts, and that has been what their rate
has been all month. If you're not missing bats like that,
if you're not missing bats and you're giving up walks
like you have like you have been lately, that you're
gonna get what you get. You're gonna be in these
high scoring games that you have to all slug people.
You're right, they're not gonna be able to run defend it.
But yes, there's been like on the left side of the
in fields pretty defensively good not show. It's been looking
pretty good over there at third Weld with Riley out

(12:07):
and Nick Collen's obviously a good defender at short so
like maybe you have that going forward to metals, it's
a pretty good defender at first base. But at the
same time, like it's not gonna prevent I mean, if
they're hitting one hundred and five mile an hour liners.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
You know.

Speaker 3 (12:19):
I mean, it's just gonna take Ozzie's head off, right it'
it's not gonna there's nothing you can do about it.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
So yeah, again, you're right.

Speaker 3 (12:24):
It's a lot of hard a lot of hard contact,
too much contact, too many base runners, and if you're
gonna give up five plus runs a game, you're not
gonna win.

Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yeah. I just looked this up. In the month of August,
which we're almost done with at this point, there are Yeah,
the Bridge are the only team in the bottom thirteen
or fourteen of e RA this month that has a
winning record this month because they're raking, they're they're they're mashing,
and they have a five point one team ERA in
the month of August and they're still winning games because

(12:53):
they keep scoring runs. Okay, Eric, I want to get
to some games from the weekend. I want to get
to your thoughts about the uh honoring of the nineteen
ninety five team which happened on Friday, some prospects stuff
and more. We'll get to all that after a word
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Speaker 1 (14:11):
Okay, Eric, let's go back to Friday. It's Sunday evening
right now. Friday was kind of a big deal in
some circles in Atlanta because they honored the ninety five
World Series team, the first World Series team, the only
one for a very long time, as we got when
you and I covered these point twenty one playoff race together.
A lot of guys there, alumni weekend, Bobby Cox made appearance,

(14:32):
Choris Matsu, Clavin Smoltz, you got Justice and Chipper and
Grissom was there, Hobby Lopez, Fredbrograam, everybody was there. It
was It was great. That was cool. Number one, I
want to start positive. That was a cool, cool thing
for people like us, people of a certain age that
remember that team well enough.

Speaker 2 (14:51):
Like call us all like this.

Speaker 1 (14:53):
Well, I mean, I wasn't that old, but I remember it,
like I know. We have listeners that either weren't born
or were very very little. In fact, our colleague Scott
was has no recollection ninety five really, he just wasn't
he was not yet. He's just he's he's a young man.
But I thought it was cool well first and for
a bost it was cool to see that. Would you
agree with that any any overall thoughts on Friday?

Speaker 3 (15:14):
I mean, look, having that ninety five World Seri as
Womenll's kid, that's a that's a like kind of a
core memory for me. You know, watching the gristm ketch,
the final Owed Justice, sitting the home run, watching those
guys patch against the Cleveland you know, a Cleveland team
that seemed unstoppable at the time.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
So that's really cool for me. The biggest takeaway was
seeing Bobby though.

Speaker 3 (15:31):
I mean, it's a second time being at Truest Park
since it opened, and if we're just being honest, give
him the state of his health after that stroke, the
odds of him making another appearance at all are not good.
That that most people did not think that he was
going to make an appearance at this event, and he
it was like I was.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
Gonna say, it was actually I mean, I don't know
all of the back and forth, but there was a
little while where the media was kind of told that
he probably wasn't coming, and they were totally was coming
the day before or maybe the warning of so it
got close to not happening, and he was the you know,
obviously the rest of those guys are around enough where
it's not it was. It was cool that it was

(16:09):
a one off on the ninety five team, but Bobby
was the one person that was like, oh, this is
a bigger thing because he's here, but like.

Speaker 3 (16:17):
Yeah, and again it was just like what do you
He didn't like throw the first pitch out. He was
there with his family kind of in a controlled setting
to make sure he was okay. And that was a nice,
a nice feeling, especially what was ultimately a kind of
a tough day because like a legendary Brave scout, Roy Clark,
if you want to know who set the laid the
groundwork for some really good Braves teams in the twenty

(16:38):
tens and even up further, then you need to go
look at some of the guys that Roy Clark was
responsible for bringing into the organization. Because he was he
was great. Everyone loved him in the organization, except like
some higher ups. Again, like once you get to a
certain point, you just have full philosophical differences when you
have different front offices and things like that. But like
in terms of like the human being, everyone loves Roy Clark.

(17:00):
It was it was a shame to hear that he
passed away this week. That that news came out on
Friday as well, So it was kind of nice to see,
you know, be able to have something to celebrate again
for Braves fans of a certain age whatever that means,
just call us old, you know.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
It just just it was.

Speaker 3 (17:14):
It was it was nice to remember that moment because
you know, in a while and they're probably not going
to be doing twenty twenty one celebrations for a little while,
but maybe the ten year anniversary, that's gonna be a
fun thing to look at back on that doing that
podcast after that that World Series Wine, it was just
like again like a great moment for all of us.
It was a ton of fun, and you know, it
was a wild series. And again taking some time to

(17:38):
let fans who were there and enjoy and were like
it was a big part of their fandom to celebrate
was great. Unfortunately, it just came with a game that
wasn't so great.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
Yeah, I mean, Flags Fly Forever there's a reason why
that's a saying. Part of the fun of winning a
championship is that you can relive it for years and
years in different ways, and this is one way to
do it. Thirty years later. I'm sure whoever can come
back in five more years or ten more years or whatever,
twenty more years and all those things, they'll be doing
that and doing that and doing that. Twenty twenty one

(18:08):
team will be happening as well. I have one more
a question, and I didn't do a ton of digging
on this. I was traveling, but people asked us, so
I'll ask you as sort of a hypothetical or maybe
I'm not even sure how to frame anyway, this game
was on Apple TV plus Eric. I don't know how

(18:30):
that happened. I don't know to be charitable. To be charitable,
I have to think that the Braves announced that was
gonna be the alumni gathering or whatever before the TV
schedule came out and TV said I'm taking this game,
because there's no way the Braves would have preferred that

(18:52):
night to be on a network that a lot of
Braves fans don't have, literally don't have access to. It
was just you're you're such a weird thing.

Speaker 3 (19:04):
You're right, And I think that I know for certain
that the Friday night baseball schedule for Apple TV was
not scheduled like that. That can that came out late
in the process, right, And so I'm certain that Apple
TV had like certain like, look, we want a couple
of marquee games among these Friday night games that we're
buying from you. What can you give us? And this

(19:26):
was just kind of the compromise that was made. Right now,
It's not something we have to worry about after this year,
because no, it's changing.

Speaker 2 (19:33):
But yep, yep, all the.

Speaker 3 (19:35):
TV deal has been renegotiating again exactly how it's gonna
shake out in terms of like Friday Sunday Night Baseball
might now be on NBC, but you know, ESPN just
bought MLB Network or MLB TV and then but but
Apple is not involved at all, and and Netflix is
gonna do some of the event games like you know,
like or there.

Speaker 1 (19:52):
May Yeah, I mean it was more it was more
that and the Braves did a good job, I thought,
blowing it out even more than they usually do on
social media. Yeah, I agree, but like I did feel
bad for like I'm sure there are a lot of
Braves fans that just didn't get to watch like any
of the things like the parade that happened that first

(20:13):
pitch though any because it was very lightly, if if
at all, covered down the actual broadcast. It was just
a game broadcast like, which is their prerogative.

Speaker 3 (20:22):
This is this is gonna sound mean, this is not new.
As long as local blackout restrictions exist, they are going
to be people who want to watch the big event,
the big events, the big games, that can't watch them,
and that because there's gonna be restrictions placed someboty now
does it think? Yes, I know that there was a
lot of people that if they they generally don't watch
on Apple TV. And maybe you can use a free

(20:43):
trial to kind of like watch a game and then cancel.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
It and be done with it.

Speaker 3 (20:46):
But I'm I'm I understand the the a game like
that not getting you know, being put in whether it
was on Peachtree TV or you know, just whatever you
know or whatever, right, just put it on whatever channel
that's normal for a brain.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
Yeah, even the normal fan duel would have been fine,
just not Apple. Yeah, that's probably the worst case scenario.
If it had been on ESPN, you would have had
a lot of people to be able to watch it
in a different way. Apple is like the smallest audience
you can possibly get for a Braves telecap for a
local audience, I should say absolutely.

Speaker 3 (21:18):
And there are plenty of fans that were like genuinely
upset that the news that Bobby Cox was going to
be there got announced so late, because they would.

Speaker 2 (21:25):
Have been but like, what are you gonna do?

Speaker 3 (21:27):
And like, I'm certain that it was just a health
a health thing, and I get could have been handled better,
especially from a media exposure point of Absolutely it could have.
But I also think that maybe it was a bit
of a concession to Apple because they paid for these
you know, paid for these games, and they they're not
gonna like take the worst. They're not going to take
the Marlins versus the Royals, every you know, every every

(21:49):
Friday night series. You have to kind of give a concession,
and Braves Versus Mets probably seemed like something that enticed
them to get this deal.

Speaker 1 (21:54):
They have to have something. People just kept asking us,
and I was like, Hey, it's it's got to be.
There's no wing the bridge to pick that. I think
we already agree with there. They would not have chosen
to do that if they had a choice. They didn't
have a choice on the field. It was a blowout loss.
H only really one thing to ask you about from
the game on Friday. Your old friend, our old friend,
Joey Wentz is has come and gone. He's back now,

(22:16):
But he had he was a prospect when you were
covering prospects even more closely than now. He had been
good with the Brapes. He had had this is this
was his first really bad outing, like actually bad outing
with the Braves. He still has a era in the
you know, mid to high threes FIP of three point
one and almost forty innings. They jumped a lot after

(22:39):
that performance. But do you buy the Joey Wentz thing
as someone who's seen the joy Wentz experience before? Is
Is he a real thing to say someone that Braves
fan should like, I think should be around beyond the
season because he's actually helped them a little bit. But
he's still kind of a I won't say he's a
failed prospect, but he didn't really can He didn't come
to Fruition as a prospect and now he's.

Speaker 3 (23:01):
Yeah, Joey Wentz is a failed prospect.

Speaker 2 (23:04):
Brad Roll in twenty twenty five, we heard it.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
I didn't say that. I didn't say that.

Speaker 2 (23:07):
Someone splice that. Figure it out. So the short answer
is I kind of do. I kind of buy it.

Speaker 3 (23:16):
And it's because whenever you see something like this, like
what's the tangible difference? And it's not just like his
fastball has been performing better, right, or he's throwing a
little bit harder, because that's something that could just be
like he's backed effort for three weeks and then you
know he can't do that anymore. What I but what
has been true with him is that his extension is
markedly better since he's been with the Braves. Like not

(23:38):
just like you know, like a point one or something
like that, Like the extension of all of his pitch
is very significantly different. And when you have the kind
of stuff which is good, it's I wouldn't call it
like amazing, but when you're dropping it a foot closer
to a batter, those are the kinds of margins that
can actually give you something. Now, is he was he
as good as he was for that like that run
where he was like the Brave's best pitcher for a while. No,

(24:00):
but I could see him being like a three and
a half ur a guy. If his extensions like you know,
seven foot whatever, it was uh going going forward.

Speaker 2 (24:08):
That's that's a carrying tool. That's that it just is.

Speaker 3 (24:11):
So if that's if that's the case, then sure, I
maybe his ceilings like a mid rotation starter, but that'd
be perfectly fine for the Braves right now. They'd love
to have a guy like that. Oh so, I mean again,
I kind of buy it now. Again, it wasn't full
in the Mets at all, unfortunately, but no, no, not
the ghost of Eric Ede couldn't do that either. So
you know, it was just kind of a bad a
bad night, and ultimately, you know, it was kind of

(24:34):
a crummy situation, be considering the celebration that was happening.
But at the same time, like I kind of buy
in terms of like him being pretty good.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
I could see it happening.

Speaker 3 (24:43):
Now whether or not that's gonna stick, and whether the
extension adjustment is going to stick, whether or not he's
like he's like it messes up his arm action, maybe
it's sore. You know, there's a lot of things we
just don't know because it's like a very recent adjustment,
but like so far, I mean there's it passes the
eye test for me.

Speaker 1 (24:58):
Yeah, and it's related to something we'll talk about now.
When I say something, I mean Joy Winz is related
because you need a lot of guys and we make
this point a lot. But if you're a new listener
or maybe you just haven't heard a say it, you
need ten, eleven, twelve starting pitchers in your organization, even
in typical season or more more or more exactly. So

(25:21):
that's the tradition to Saturday's game where it was Cali Quantrell,
who my colleagues ablely covered on the most recent episode
of the podcast before this one, but he debuted on
Saturday with the Braves after he was brought in for
the price of nothing, and I'm on board with just
taking his man shots. Do you want to This is
what this is what the season should be about now. Obviously,

(25:41):
for every Cross Carrasco and Eric Fetti who are both gone,
you get Joey Wentz and maybe you find something right.
Calaquantrill at one point was good. He hasn't been great recently.
He doesn't miss bats. You said that earlier about the
whole team that isn't even when he was good, he
wasn't missing bats cal Quantril, but he came in through
four two thirds left the game with cramping his calves.

(26:03):
But apparently Smith said he's fine, So that's something. What
do you make of that, because look, he was the
seventeenth player to start a game for the Braves this year,
and if that doesn't seem like a crazy number to you,
it is a crazy number. It is the franchise record
high for a season. It's still August, so that probably
will go up, if you had to guess, it might

(26:23):
will probably go even higher than seventeen. And a part
of that's that they've been bad and they've had injuries.
But also it's a reminder again that you just need
a million guys. In twenty twenty three, they won one
hundred and four games. They were awesome in twenty twenty three.
Obviously was the offensive was the reason for that, But
they were awesome, and they had sixteen guys start in

(26:44):
twenty twenty three, So like, you can be good and
need this many pictures as well, he was anomber one.
So Joey wentz, we need more of you, guys, caliquantrall
any interest at all. Nothing. Maybe I don't know.

Speaker 2 (26:57):
I'm not a big fan of guys like Quantrill. And
this kind of goes back.

Speaker 3 (27:00):
To even when he was quote unquote good, right, it's
that guys that don't miss bats, who throw a lot
of strikes and then just have to hope that they're
they're carrying skill of getting weak contact will be enough.
And that that was what made him. That was the
only difference between the Quantroll then in the Quantrol now
was just that he got a lot of weak contact.
That's not happening anymore. And if your a guy who

(27:22):
lives in the strike zone, who doesn't miss bats, and
who's in the bottom twenty percent and most like batted
ball metrics in terms of like hard hard hit percentage,
AVERAGEXIT velocity, all that stuff, that is.

Speaker 2 (27:32):
Not a recipe for success. Now that said, I'm right
there with you.

Speaker 3 (27:35):
Just take as many flyers as you want if I
want this roster to look like the Island of misfit
toys trying to figure out who can do something for
this team. Carlos Carrasco probably shouldn't have happened. But at
the same time, you know he has pitched in the
big leagues before maybe having that kind of yet that
that veteran mentroorship would because for some of the young guys, uh,
Eric Fede again wasn't good, wasn't good this year, but

(27:57):
worth it was basically free. Now if they're like trying
to if they're getting any more cute than that, I
would have some problems signing. You know, free agents who
are like have been retired for two years or whatever.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
Don't do that, you know. But at the same time,
like take take these fires. I mean, Videlle Bruhan hasn't.

Speaker 3 (28:10):
Been good for anybody, and then they they claim him
off waivers and you know, he's had a couple a
couple of moments here and there, he has been good,
but he.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
He's done stuff.

Speaker 3 (28:19):
They keep they keep making most they keep trying things
out and seeing what works and what doesn't. And you
know that's that that is what they should be taking that.
Like you said, this is what they should be doing
right now. It's like, Okay, let's see if are these
some guys that maybe can help us next year or
is this like, you know, are we kind of looking
at this.

Speaker 2 (28:35):
The right way?

Speaker 3 (28:35):
These are the kinds of guys that we need to
be looking at they're doing all that. It's like every
week there's another waiver claim. And you know, some of
them are people we've ever we've heard of before, some
are not. And again it's worth giving a shot, and
I applaud them for that. But you know, unfortunately, with
guys who are being sent to the trash heap in
at the end of August, your pit rate's gonna be
pretty low.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
Yeah, and you mentioned it, but the one thing he
doesn't really do is walk guys, and he had five walks,
so he can't walk it. I mean, if he's gonna
walk five, you're done. And I think he'd right knows
that about Quantra. But he did have a stretch that
I pulled this a fifteen start stretch this year without
any year fifteen starts in a row where he had
an ERA of three point five to five and a

(29:16):
fifth of three point sixty six, like that's at grade.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
It was all kind of that's reasonable.

Speaker 1 (29:22):
That's I'm not saying he's going he's probably he's probably
not good, honestly, but uh, it's a guy that if
you're trying to eat some innnings and save some arms
and skip some guys. I mean they've already be running
out six pmrotations. They push, They pushed Stryder back like
it's you shouldn't be taxing anybody right now. That should
be the goal. No tax anybody from now that I
get it. We'll leave it there. Oh one more not

(29:45):
from Saturday, and then we'll get to a break and
move on. The Braves allowed six home runs on Saturday.
It was only the thirteenth time, this is per Mark Bowman,
in one hundred and twenty five years or so, that
the Braves allowed that many home runs in a game.
And so basically like once every ten years they lost
six home runs. Uh, and that's it's a lot of

(30:07):
it's a lot of home runs.

Speaker 3 (30:09):
We've seen some pretty big blowout. I'm a little bit
surprised that numbers is not higher. If I'm just being
honest about it, I mean.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
I mean home runs are over I mean, yeah, next
six is a lot, but six sets a lot of
home runs. And again, I mean, don'tly allowed three home
runs by himself on Saturday, which is rare for for reliever.
To a lot of three home runs in an outing
is rare because usually they're gonna come out of the
game if they allowed to you know what I mean, Like,
you don't usually see relievers a lot three home runs,
particularly particularly good reliever, not not a bad one like

(30:35):
not like not like Eric comes in to wear it
and gets.

Speaker 3 (30:38):
I was about to say, snicker will make it, will
make a guy wear it, and he'll be like, oh,
I think he'll pitch.

Speaker 1 (30:43):
Ic Ericy was was literally not even DFA was released
after he had to wear it for four innings on Friday,
So they're not afraid to do that.

Speaker 3 (30:53):
Like, that's the greatest service to Eric that I did
for the Braves in his short tenure with the Braves.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
So you know, eight some innings.

Speaker 3 (30:59):
Uh, Frankly, if I were released them before the game,
I would have been fine with that, because he's not
got it.

Speaker 2 (31:03):
You probably once about it.

Speaker 1 (31:06):
All right, leave that there. We'll have some Sunday thoughts,
some news and then Eric's prospect musings that are all
coming up after a word from our purpose.

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Speaker 1 (32:14):
L all right, Eric. Briefly on Sunday was the one
win of the weekend. Bryce Elder gave up an early
two run Homer and it felt to me and others like,
oh man, they're gonna blown out again. This is gonna
be bad a sweep all those things. And then he
settled it in very nicely and did not allow another
run and the rest of the outing and the Braves

(32:35):
won this game four to three without a single extra
base hit, eight singles, five walks, all four runs scored
on two swings on two singles, two a pair of
two run singles, one from Sean Murphy one from Jerkson Profar.
That was basically the whole game like it was it.
If the game had stakes for the Braves, it would
it would have been like a cooler game to watch
because it's one of those like little like little things.

(32:57):
In the end, it's a game. It didn't really matter
the Braves that much August, but they won and they
where to sweep. I don't want to swimp on the Mets.
The Mets. We want the Mets to lose. It is
what it is.

Speaker 3 (33:07):
Yeah, I mean, you come into the series. I think
the Braids were seven and three against the Mets this season.
You kind of want to ruin. Look, if you're not
gonna win the get to the postseason, you're taking the
get the teams that you hate.

Speaker 2 (33:15):
The most out. But it's what you want to be doing.

Speaker 3 (33:18):
And again you lose too straight and then all of
a sudden it's about to get the very close to
getting the season season series. Rather you know, evened up
and said you now you're what eight and five or
something like that against them, and the Mets are gonna
have to look back and go if we didn't play
the Raids as much as we did, we probably would
have had, you know, had a chance of winning the division.

Speaker 2 (33:35):
I mean that feels pretty good. No, it's not.

Speaker 3 (33:37):
It's it's not like, you know, it's not as good
as we actually win, you know, winning the series or
sweeping him. But at the same time that that felt nice.
The price Eller experience is getting very tiresome for me,
just like it seems like every outings of the adventure,
even when he's good, he has won, his slider is
his best pitch and its average, and it's just it's
kind of like, how does he keep getting away with
this sort of thing?

Speaker 2 (33:57):
He doesn't he doesn't, well.

Speaker 3 (34:00):
Not lightly, he is not. But at the same time,
like when he was like even in his good stretches,
you're like, how.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
Is this possible? How's this happening? So overall like it was,
it was a good showing again.

Speaker 3 (34:09):
Profar was good again. This has been a very good
month for him. It's nice see Sean Murphy come up
and do well, just just have a good game here
and there. He Ginya gets forgotten about He's that he
actually hasn't just been, He just hasn't been.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
I wish he got forgotten about Eric. That's not what happens.
People decide that he stinks, and he doesn't stink.

Speaker 2 (34:26):
That's what he does. He doesn't. He's fine.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
I will save my Murphy rant for another day. To
your point about Profar, great, he's been recently, very quietly.
I would say Jersey profar And has a one thirty
three WRC plus for the season. That's like where he
was last year, and like, I'm not sure if that's
gonna be where he's gonna live. But I mean his
slash line is two sixty three, sixty two and four seventy,

(34:52):
so like an eight thirty something ops. He's got ten
home runs in what fifty games. Like he's been really good, man,
like really really good. Defensively not so much, but offensively
he's been really good. He's taking walks like he always
does and it looks great.

Speaker 2 (35:09):
I mean taking walks like he did last year.

Speaker 3 (35:11):
Anyway, before that, he wasn't doing it so much, which
is why I think the Love folks were a little
bit down on him in.

Speaker 2 (35:15):
Terms of like is this walk rate sustainable? Is the
zombase percentage sustainable?

Speaker 3 (35:18):
Now, at the same time, you know, getting suspended for
the first half, you know, I'm only willing to give
the guy so much credit? Oh sure, yeah, yeah, Like
not even just in terms of like a moral thing, right,
it's more of a would he have been this good
in the second half he didn't have to play if
he had played in the first half, Right.

Speaker 1 (35:34):
He is fresh and another guys are not, right, that's yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (35:37):
And he's going against a lot of guys who are tired,
and he, you know, had a nice little few months
off there. So but I again, if you're if you
have him under contract for three years and you know
PDS or not, you're not gonna They're not gonna let
you avoid it. They're not gonna let you avoid the deal.
So if he's gonna be under contract, you bother him
play well, especially since leftfield's been kind of a problem
so overall, and he has been really good for Power.

(36:01):
One of the reasons why the Braves have been able
to like hang around last week or so is because
to what he's doing at the top of the lineup.
He's driving a lot of runs and you know, causing
a lot of havoc and set the table for your
guys behind him. So again, been very good. Need to
continue that, hopefully going into next season when you know
the Bids are gonna have full strength, hopefully sign a

(36:22):
couple of players to kind of fill some roster holes,
and you know, this team could be really fun. If
he's playing the whole season, hopefully not suspended again, that'd
be really bad. And then we go from there.

Speaker 1 (36:32):
At the very least, I know there are some Braves
fans that are just like out on profar after I
get I understand that reaction, even if you are that person.
Him playing well is good because even if you want
him traded into too Siberia, it's a lot easier to
trade him. If he is playing like this, he actually

(36:53):
has trade value if he's hitting. If he didn't hit,
he would have zero trade value. You'd be stuck with him.
I'm not saying they're gonna trade him, but they If
he does this US this season or even close to this,
he would probably be able to be traded. Versus if
he had been terrible when he came back, it would
have been an albatross that you couldn't move so.

Speaker 3 (37:10):
I mean we saw that happen with Marcelo Zuna, you
know when and then he all of a sudden like
was terrible for what two years basically, and you know,
you couldn't move him.

Speaker 2 (37:21):
He was terrible. You everyone wanted him gone.

Speaker 1 (37:24):
For a lot of different and they and they could
not and they couldn't move because he was bad. I mean,
in the end, baseball stuff mattered. Like if you hit people,
there's a market for you. That's that's what it comes
down now.

Speaker 3 (37:33):
Now, at the same time, you know, once you started
hitting again song with the Braves, you know, took any
sort of moral high road.

Speaker 1 (37:38):
With they did not.

Speaker 3 (37:40):
But you're you are right if you want to be traded,
Like teams aren't gonna be like, you know what, I'm
gonna take this guy that's hitting two hundred and got
suspended for half a year. That's what I want on
my team. They're not gonna do that.

Speaker 2 (37:49):
So again there's.

Speaker 1 (37:52):
People be mad at him. I get it, But you
still want him to hit, even if you just wanted
to get off the team. That's either either way. That's
kind of the same thing. Uh, some quick news and
then we'll get to some prospect stuff. To end the show.
If you missed it, I'll just leave it here. If
you missed it earlier in the week, the Boys broke
down Austin Riley being off the season obviously brutal news there,
but if you missed that conversation listening to that podcast

(38:14):
from Thursday, he had surgery and his core. He'll be
back in the spring. By all accounts. He's not been
the same guy the last couple of years, even when
he's been playing. That's also worth keeping in mind. And
the hope would be he bounces back to a pre
twenty twenty twenty four level, because that's what you need
him to be with the contract he has and all
those things. But obviously the bigger news that he's just

(38:35):
not going to be there and hopefully it gets out
the prediction year.

Speaker 3 (38:38):
Unfortunately, when when he was pulled and it was said
it was an abdominal injury, again, I kind of had
a suspicion, and because we don't see recurrence of abdominal
injuries unless they're what I mean, maybe you know once
the Bluemen, but you don't see returns of these types
of uri unless it's like a sports earning type of situation.
Now the Braves need to take a hard look at
their return to places into play procedures if they're sending

(39:02):
a guy who might have had maybe it wasn't a
full on hernia situation, but if his again, if like
your muscles are like compromise in some way, you need
to make sure that that's right before you send me.
Like all it is is hard, like quick twitch, hard
torque movements on the baseball field, and you just.

Speaker 1 (39:19):
That I have many questions about uh, the training staff
positions this.

Speaker 3 (39:24):
This, Oh well there and many there's there's there's even
been weird stuff happening behind the scenes too, and they
have not used.

Speaker 1 (39:31):
The word, uh sports hernia with Riley that that that
that they used. It was a.

Speaker 2 (39:35):
Core core core muscle surgery.

Speaker 3 (39:37):
Yeah, okay, so literally went a sports hernea specialist and
they're not gonna call it. I mean, just call it,
just call it what it is. And again like maybe
maybe it was just something that's hard, like this is
not an easy thing to pick up on a scan,
especially if it's not full like a full on hernia situation.
But once it happened again, I was like, he's probably
gonna be out or it's gonna be or we're gonna

(39:59):
find out. It's like one of those earning is that
guys can play through until the end of the season,
then he's gonna need the off season surgery. We've seen
that a few times. Sometimes this kind of depends on
the severity. But one as soon as like he was
out and then like it was just set back and
he's like, oh he's still it's a hernia.

Speaker 2 (40:13):
Yeah can't you can't. You can't let him go.

Speaker 1 (40:15):
So yeah, no reason to push it at all and
get get the surgery now, get ready for next year.
But that's that's that. We briefly mentioned it earlier. Chris
Sale through four two thirds innings on Saturday with Gwinnette.
They were on the road, but it is with the
with the strippers look good. By all accounts, he'll pitch
it seems like against Philadelphia stits it probably Saturday. You know,

(40:35):
Chris Sale, you can't keep him away. I'll tell you
that right now. Chris Sale will be on the mound
if he wants to be on the mount. So uh cool,
I mean, take it easy, Chris. Just try to try
to hang in there and be be cool. But uh
maybe extra rest, I know, he gives. They guess I'll
be surprised be throwing every fifth day the rest of
the season. Maybe it's every sixth day or seventh day
or whatever it's gonna be.

Speaker 3 (40:55):
I don't think it's like I mean, Snickers already talked
about one to go to a six pan rotation for
the rest of the season if he can, if he can,
And unfortunately that's the Sales can be like the top
guy that you don't want to like put too much,
too many miles on going into the season. But again,
like I want to see Christle back out there too,
But I'm with you, I don't just you know, do
whatever you can to make sure that there's not gonna

(41:15):
be a problem.

Speaker 1 (41:17):
Yeah, the ramping guys, I mean, it's it's similar to
I know there were there's a lot of coverage of
Schwallenbach ramping. Not like he's not gonna pitch this year,
but ramping up to long toss and doing stuff. It's
getting guys on a back on a program so that
they can go and have a normal offseason. It's basically
the goal with all these guys now that are I
mean Sales going to pitch in games, but Schwelly, there's

(41:39):
there's some lope they were trying to wrap Upez up.
He had to shut down again. But all that stuff,
like I get it. We've all had the debate about
whether whether shook him back or not. With Sale, it
was like, if he was just like getting ready to
pitch a month from now, you just wouldn't do it.
But if he can pitch on you know, August thirty,
if like he's he was never gonna not pitch, what

(42:00):
of this?

Speaker 2 (42:01):
No? And again he that's a kind of a guy
you want to keep.

Speaker 3 (42:04):
Happy too, you know, when you're going into next season,
and if he wants to play a little bit, then
you probably give him a chance. But ultimately that's kind
of that's that's where the kind of the conversation ends
for me. It's like, you know, as long as luck
he seems willing to have his workload managed and he
understands kind of that situation. So if he's as long
as that's the case and he's not like wanting to
throw every fifth day or even like throw on short
rest or something strange like that, then she should be fine.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
And pitching staff is of course incredibly decimated, so cover
that a nauseam on this podcast. One more quick note,
Aaron Bummer is going to actually already went on the
al as of this morning. He actually been pitching really
well in August. He had a zero point seven to
nine e RA and his eleven and something innings in August,
only pitch once in the last week two. I'm not
sure when this has popped up. Maybe it's recent, maybe

(42:48):
it's not. I don't know, but it's a shoulder inflammation.
Don't love to hear that. Yeah, Bummer's been fine this year,
been hurt. Like I have the stat that's funny where
chrisy at fangrafts he actually leaves the Braves in reliever
war this year. But if you include his his two

(43:10):
starts quote unquote that he made, he doesn't anymore. It's
only if you do the actual reliever numbers. He like
is comfortably leading the Braves in reliever war this year.
It's like he's having a really good season. But he's
he raised like twelve and his two starts that he
made and both times I think, didn't you pitch him?
Did he have? Did he like just stay in way
too long in both starts? If I remember that, right,

(43:30):
I didn't.

Speaker 3 (43:30):
Then there is certainly some sniker I need your I
need innings from from hell or high water. And again
there's like weird stuff that happens with like some of
these games, Like we talked about the different number of
starters that the Braves had, Like they've had multiple games
where like they've had starters warm up and then the
game gets delayed and then all of a sudden, those
guys can't go, and now it's like Nathan Hiles starting

(43:53):
for you or whatever, you know what I mean. Like
it's there's definitely been some weird stuff like that in
games where like, Okay, we burned our ballpen yesterday for
whatever reason.

Speaker 2 (44:01):
So Aaron, you're just gonna now it's two.

Speaker 1 (44:03):
And two thirds innings. Yeah, exactly. But anyway, hopefully I thought,
we don't know anything beyond shoulder information. That's scary because
he's signed for next year and they need him and
all those things. Hopefully it's like, hey, it's late August.
If there's anything wrong with you, go on the il
more so than actual issue. We don't know yet, So
we'll see on that front. This would be a nice

(44:28):
transition to prospect talk here before we get out of
here Brace fans are maddened by the lack of Hayden
Harris being called up to replace Aaron Bummer on the roster. Now,
part of that is that Hayden Harris is not on
the forty men. Uh isn't that right? Yes, he's not.

Speaker 2 (44:45):
He's not not on the.

Speaker 1 (44:46):
Forty minutes, so that that's a key factor. But anyway,
he's an interesting lefty reliever prospect. I think if it
wasn't if it wasn't Bummer, who's left handed, people would
be a little bit less crazy about it. But we
would hear about people mad at by hand and Hair's
off pitching in the majors for two months now, thoughts
on that before we go to other prospects. Hayden Harris not.

Speaker 3 (45:03):
Looking, I would have called I would have called him
up two months ago when and I would have called
up Laura too, because the guys who have been in
the Braves bullpen have not been particularly good. If we're
just being blunt about it now. At the same time,
if you think it's a lost season and you're gonna
continue to just claim whoever you can get your hands
on on waivers, you know, the forty man roster spots

(45:25):
become them that they matter a lot more because you
might start having the jettison guys that you don't necessarily
want to get rid of.

Speaker 2 (45:30):
So I get it.

Speaker 3 (45:31):
You know, you don't want to start a guy's clock
until you have to. Hayden is a little bit of
an older guy in terms of prospecting. But at the
same time, you know, if you like don't if you
can like maybe save a little bit of time, you
don't get to get to the arbitration quite as quickly
with a guy that.

Speaker 2 (45:44):
That does make some sense.

Speaker 3 (45:47):
And ultimately I just think it comes down to the
braves just like, don't feel like that this season is
worth promoting him right now. Same thing goes with Laura. Now, yeah,
I understand because look you see is E r A
at Triple A and you're like, why is this guy
not in our bullpen?

Speaker 1 (46:03):
It's it's it's in a zero's by the way, it's
sub one for Hayden Harris. Cause you're wondering why people
were mad about this. That's probably the reason why.

Speaker 2 (46:10):
I mean, it's not going to be that that low
in the major leagues. I'm certainly well.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
And also when they call up so today, when they
when they they released dark Fettie and they put bummer
in the il. They recalled wonder swear at Hunter Stratton
and that's not exciting for any fan. So it's like
that's part of this too. It's like, oh, who are
they calling up? And why is it not the guy
I want them to call up. We're in that part
of the season here. So uh, there's there's Eric Waning

(46:37):
on a Haer and Harris. We've not seen that. Now
I have to ask about prospects. Important question. I don't
even know if this is actually I'll let you win
on this. Has Hurston Waldrip graduated?

Speaker 3 (46:50):
I don't know how many anying scenes, there's a there's
a service time consideration and he was on the injured list.
It kind of gets a little bit tricky at some point,
right and I don't know anyings mean, I don't think
he's at one hundred and twenty innings though, So no,
but so we'll call we'll call him a prospect for
right now, prospect perfect, but the adjustment is real. Look,

(47:12):
I've loved the splitter forever. The fastball was the problem.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
Right now, Uh, you know.

Speaker 3 (47:17):
Talking to Kylie McDaniel and you know, kind of looking
at it like he had this fastball geometry problem that
was kind of that, you know, like where he released
his four steamer versus where he approached the pitcher the
hitter and how that performs that those that combination just
never performs well.

Speaker 2 (47:31):
And he had to fix that.

Speaker 3 (47:33):
And there were some attempts to, like some mechanical adjustments,
like he maybe get a little bit more over the
top and get a different type of run and all
this other stuff. And then Sean Murphy's just down there
at rehab and it's be like, why don't you just
throw me? Just throw your sinker. You know that it
would look great with your it would look great with
your splitter and with your stuff. And he starts sorrowing
a sinker, and all of a sudden, he starts looking
like a world beater. He didn't look quite this good
in the minor league's either, you know, he had he

(47:54):
was kind of up and down the minor league where
he got caught up. And then he comes up here
and he's just piping that sinker in there, and you know,
then let the splitter do its work and he's mowing
down guys.

Speaker 2 (48:03):
So yeah, I.

Speaker 3 (48:04):
Again, is he going to be like the next big
thing and you know, be a front line starter. Probably not,
but he's seen he looks a lot more like a
guy who can be a middle of the rotation starter
now with swinging miss stuff and a fastball that you're
not embarrassed to see you on a big league pitcher.
So if you have those two things and then you know,
breaking ball, that like can kind of keep keep guys
honest and that that that is enough. That is enough

(48:26):
to be a good pitch player. And he's been pitching
really well.

Speaker 1 (48:28):
Yeah, he's been awesome. You know, twenty four sho I
got six walks and his four starts this year, and
I have I have a feeling, just to protect you
a little bit, Eric, when you said middle of rotation starter,
people are like, what is it that's a really valuable player?
Middle of rotation starters cost twenty million dollars, you know
what I mean? Like, so just back on that.

Speaker 3 (48:45):
That that that is no people can be mad all
they want. The reality is just like in terms of
like number one, number two starters, how many of.

Speaker 2 (48:53):
Those guys actually exist in baseball?

Speaker 3 (48:55):
I would say around twenty that are like that are
like consistently that guy, not like they're their number two
on their team, Like if you're thinking about it, and
then like and and aces that.

Speaker 2 (49:08):
Thirty two absolutely not there.

Speaker 3 (49:09):
There's never been an ACE to pitch for the Colorado
Rockies since like Getty Nagel, and.

Speaker 2 (49:14):
That's debatable at best.

Speaker 3 (49:16):
So again, it's just like that they don't come up
this often, and I think that people were like get
a little bit too excited over short like small samples
and they don't really understand what I'm trying to get it.
If you get a guy who's like a three like
a three e R, a guy who gives you six
innings almost every time, we'll walk a few guys and
but missus bats, you want that out of your top

(49:37):
prospect every single time. Because again the other option is,
you know, back of rotation starting and you get like,
you know, the Bryce Elders of the world, who, like
you know, every third start, you know, forget how to
pitch and usually have an e R close to five.

Speaker 2 (49:50):
And that's like kind of your backhand start guys. Mineral
rotation guys.

Speaker 3 (49:53):
If you have all middle of the rotation guys on
your on your road, on your rotation, you are in
a pretty good place.

Speaker 2 (49:58):
Would you like better? Absolute? But you know Chris Sale's
coming back and let him do that job.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
Yeah, No, I agree, one hundred percent. I'm gonna even
ask you about like, I'm gonna just tee you up
and let you go. Anybody you are are excited about.
It could be guys that are obviously, it could be
the draftees from this year. It could be South Seeing
whoever it's gonna be. Do you have a guy? I
know you always have a guy too. I'm sure you
have a guy that you love. But if you don't
have a guy, do you have guys plural that you're

(50:24):
excited about in the system right now?

Speaker 2 (50:26):
I mean Jr.

Speaker 3 (50:26):
Richie's been pitching really well and I think he's gonna
be in the road to twenty twenty sixth rotation. If
I'm just being honest about this, stuff just looks live
coming out of saying. So if like I'm picking my guy,
then that's probably it's.

Speaker 1 (50:37):
I think, not like that's not super hot, but it's
hot enough.

Speaker 3 (50:40):
I mean, look, it passes the eye test. If you're
good enough, you're good enough. I mean Spencer Swallenbach literally
just like like basically took his jacket off at Guinnette
and they called him up.

Speaker 2 (50:50):
Last year, Jr. Has been pitching really well at Gwinnette
and he's, you know, let's look good post injury.

Speaker 3 (50:57):
Maybe they want him see how much you know what
Manag's innings a little this year and all this other
stuff where you called him up. But mean twenty twenty six,
it's fair game. He's gonna have a real shot, especially
considering some of the other options that the Braves have,
Like Rainaldo might not want to go to the bullpen,
but the Braves might have to put him in the bullpen.

Speaker 1 (51:11):
The deal that should He does not want to, but
he does not him out there.

Speaker 3 (51:16):
He absolutely does not, right, But in terms of like guys, look,
the draft class, the early draft class is very interesting
to me.

Speaker 2 (51:22):
I'm not super high on South of scene yet.

Speaker 3 (51:25):
Five eleven shortstops that don't hit for powers kind of
a little bit of a bizarre metric for me, especially
since ones that aren't like notably good defensively, just.

Speaker 2 (51:34):
Kind of a hit till guy.

Speaker 3 (51:35):
But at the same time, he's really fast and he's
toolsy again a little bit concerning. In his first eleven
at bats in the minor leagues. He struck out ten times.
Probably shouldn't do that, but yet are simple tonight, so
you know, again like these are good things. Alex Lodice,
I like him, I don't love him. But the reason
why they make those two picks is because they want
to try to sign Briggs mackenzie. That's refty from high
school away from an LSU commitment, which is not an

(51:58):
easy thing to do, and he was very highly regarded.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
This was not the bet that I thought they.

Speaker 3 (52:03):
Would have made with like a big overslot play like this,
though he was not. Briggs McKenzie was not on my
radar in that way. At the same time, the stuff's
really you know, like we haven't seen him in pro
ball yet, so I want to reserve judgment. And I
was kind of see what his like fastball looks like,
because again, he's not like a like a burner, right,

(52:23):
I want to see kind of like how things look.
And when you're not like throwing ninety eight, then you
know how your pitches play off each other really matters.
Since we haven't seen him so against professional hitters, so
I'm very curious about him. Diego Tornez, the top international
guy from this last year is another guy I really
want to kind of get some more information about more
some war looks. It doesn't have a home run this year,
which is strange because like everyone thought that he was

(52:44):
going to grow into this power. He's like six two
and one seventy, but at the same time he's hitting
two seventy like a four hundred OVP stolen ten bases.
By all accounts, the approach and the hits was really good.
And if you can figure out those two things and
then put twenty pounds of muscle on that guy, then
he's a switch hitter that is just going to hit
bombs and you know, cause a lot of havoc, so
he could be a lot of fun. Those are kind

(53:05):
of the guys that I'm looking for right now. You know,
other there's more curiosity. This system is a little bit
frustrating in terms of like you have a guy like, ooh,
this is an interesting hit tool, and then all of
a sudden he hits one fifty for a month and
a half and you just never hear from them again.
So but there's there's certainly some guys that are exciting
to kind of at least keep an eye on, especially
from the draft class because this is it was kind
of a fascinating strategy to based on who they went for.

Speaker 2 (53:26):
Me.

Speaker 3 (53:27):
Again, I hope South of Scene works out. I'm just
a little bit skeptical starting out.

Speaker 1 (53:31):
Yeah, there was a split on that of course. And
you know I always say, I don't know anything about
these guys until they start showing something on the minds,
and even then I'm still no less than than you do.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
They're gonna be they'd be traded in three weeks if
it was up to you.

Speaker 1 (53:44):
I am I am. I'm generally pro trading prospects other
than the special ones. You know, we we were in
Unison that when Ronnie was coming up, you didn't you
don't trade Ronnie. That's that was the one back then.
That was was my good to example of the guy.

Speaker 2 (53:59):
Like we were like, no, if he when he was
at Rome, you would have traded him. I know you
would have. And team's really tried maybe in Rome. Every
game at.

Speaker 3 (54:08):
Rome, there's this five pro scouts that just like lean
forward watching everything Ronnie did. Uh, and the Braids were
smart enough to trade him, which was good.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
Yeah, I mean there's there's nobody in the system right
now that I would not trade that. That would be
what I would say.

Speaker 2 (54:21):
That seems fair.

Speaker 1 (54:22):
I'm a guy. Oh one more question. He's kind of
faded from the discussion now, but it's still a very
interesting prospect. And we tried to weigh that flag when
he was going down to the miners. Did your point
as is twenty years old and it had this weird
we'd have to reltigate what happened he went to the
majors and was not ready Obviously it is what it is.

(54:43):
Still has a fantastic arm, has real stuff. He's twenty.
He's I think, looked by all accounts that I've heard
and seen pretty good. Anguenette as a twenty year old.
Are you a fan? I don't actually don't know how
you feel about the your point is as a.

Speaker 2 (54:56):
Prospect, I like him.

Speaker 3 (54:58):
It's kind of a weird, like a weird arm slot
fastball type situation where it's like kind of weirdly deceptive.
If he lives in the zone too much, you can
get problematic. It was really like, I I understand why
it happened, because you know, at the end of the day,
people want social media, like you know, laughs and stuff
like that. But like that, Ditri Fuintez was like became
a meme when it was through no fault of his own,

(55:18):
and like major beat writers were just trashing him for
no reason. This kid is like twenty years old, got
blasted through the minor leagues, was clearly not ready, and
like it was weeks after he got sent back down
and they're still making fun of this kid.

Speaker 2 (55:32):
At the end of the day, I like him. The
secondaries I have.

Speaker 3 (55:36):
Some questions about, but you know, in terms of like
that what that how that fastball plays off his other stuff.
It's very unique in what kind of deception it provides
and what kind of tunnel their forces hitters to kind
of pick up on.

Speaker 2 (55:48):
But ultimately I do still like him.

Speaker 3 (55:51):
I want to see kind of how spring plays out
in terms of how this experience with basically getting beat
up the entire time he was in the major leagues
and then get made fun of by like the beat
writers because I don't know, it just seemed like an easy,
cheap thing to do.

Speaker 2 (56:05):
If he comes back.

Speaker 3 (56:06):
And he's like he's a bulldog in spring training and
he you know, he lights out, then I think he
could be very good.

Speaker 2 (56:12):
But at the same time, he's so young. I would
I was not have dreamed that he was in the
major leagues to start the season.

Speaker 1 (56:20):
It seems it seemed insane that he was by everybody's kid.
So I get it. He's another one that one of
the seventeen that have started games, and that number will
probably grow again. I mean, I think we were talking
about it Minci's maybe with maybe with Gore of like
trying to figure out who the guy was gonna be
that might start like maybe Blake Blake Burkholt or something

(56:42):
like that, who's a little bit older, more more of
a polished guy. And then something it was did hear
who's twenty? And it was like, oh, okay, he's the guy.
They've decided to fast track and have other majors. So
maybe it's gonna be Jr. Richie next year. You've already
called a sean on that one. And look, you need
to bring a full circle. You need you need ten starters.
If he's one, if he's one of your top eight
or ten guys, I mean, he's probably got the pitch

(57:03):
next year because he's If you're already in triple A,
you're kind of what you're one by definition, you're one
call being.

Speaker 3 (57:10):
And not at this point. It's not gonna be a
little bit of time at triple A, right. I think
it's a significant thing, you know, you know, it's again,
this is a brave team that if they think that
they're they're competitive, they're good. They're if you're at trip,
if you're a double A or triple A, your a
phone call away.

Speaker 1 (57:23):
We have seen them, Yeah, we have seen them pull
up I mean count I mean you mentioned already Schwellenbach.
Remember how fast Harris came at the end that they
were willing to jump you a level even if they
want to, uh, if they think you're ready to do that. Uh,
not everybody is, but some guys are and it works.

Speaker 3 (57:42):
So it's it's it's a hard thing to pull off, right,
especially with the guys so young. And again I hope
it did hers case, it works out where he learned
from that experience, took something from it and comes back
out in chobs because again I root for all my
minor league guys. Baseball is really hard. It's just such
a like the difference between up. The difference between a
successful major leader and a guy who gets bounced like

(58:05):
in double A is usually like a mile or two
miles of par hour and a couple of inches of
command and that's not much too too much room with
wriggle room to have. So I hope he does well
and ultimately, you know this, it was kind of a
tough thing to watch, to be sure, but hopefully it
works out because I do think that the art talent's there.

Speaker 1 (58:25):
There you go, well, Eric, I told you at the beginning,
I want you to plug everything that you're that you're
still doing, because I know you're not. You keep playing
your what You're washed up.

Speaker 2 (58:34):
I'm a washed up I'm a washed up writer. Now.

Speaker 3 (58:37):
Every six months or so, I send Brad an email.
I want to know if I can be on the
podcast again. You just kind of I just I just
need to make sure that that email address, uh doesn't
go inactive.

Speaker 2 (58:50):
But honestly, no, I'm I'm still at fan side. I'm
loving it.

Speaker 3 (58:56):
I work with a lot of really smart, fun people,
a lot of vin ditch talking, chop battery power vibes
of you know in the slacker room, a lot of
laughs and smart people wanting to drill down and find
like the right the right topics to talk about. That's
that's kind of That's something that I'm very familiar with,
and I can get behind a bunch and I have
a lot of fun right working with those guys, even
though I do miss you know, I missed my prospect
guys at Battery Power and I've missed you. It's nice

(59:18):
talking to you over three or four years. But if
you want to know the stuff that I write, if
you're looking for brave stuff, House Ahankbuilt dot com is
where that where that goes. And I'm still running a
good bit about the Braves over there. For whatever reason
you're into Astro's content or Orioles content, I'm at Bird's
Watcher and Climbing Talls Hill writing about those teams as
well and jumping on here and there. You know, being

(59:38):
a full time MLB writer, we kind of what needs
to be done gets done.

Speaker 2 (59:42):
So if you know I.

Speaker 3 (59:43):
Need to write Red Sox stuff or Dodger stuff or whatever,
I jump in and do that too. And I'm also
doing the podcasting thing on the regular again now on
the Baseball Insiders Feed. Every week, myself and Matt Adam
Winrib do a prospect show MLB wide where we talk
about prospects and you know, talk about the riser and
followers and all the news that's going on in the
minor leagues, and you know, kind of usually taking a

(01:00:03):
unique anglely show. A lot of again, a lot of fun.
Still talking about prospect stuff. I try to sneak as
May Braves and as I can, but he's a Yankees fan,
so that kind of gets a little bit tricky for
me sometimes.

Speaker 1 (01:00:13):
And you just said you're washed up, and now now
you're doing you're doing a weekly podcast Prospects. What are
we talking about, Eric, Come on, well you're podcasting. You're right.

Speaker 3 (01:00:22):
I am simply describing how I am treated by Brad
because he doesn't want me on the show anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:00:28):
It's not true.

Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
He misspelled my name when he texted me earlier.

Speaker 1 (01:00:32):
That's not true.

Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
Hey, Eric, with a K.

Speaker 1 (01:00:35):
And people gonna think that I'm that I'm slatering you
on the show anyway, Well hopefully if people don't, people
don't know our dynamic. Eric, This is what we do, Eric,
Eric and I go back and forth, and this is
we have fun doing podcasts. Scott's I don't even know
where Scott Scott. I think it was on of the
East Coast this weekend. I can't remember what he was doing.
He was traveling. I was traveling.

Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
He's a traveling guy.

Speaker 1 (01:00:57):
We'll have to do with what do a three man
episode with with Scott.

Speaker 3 (01:01:01):
Get Stephen, get Sean too. I mean, like, I'm pretty
sure Sean doesn't remember my name. I'm just gonna that's
step I watched. I watched the show after.

Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
No too fair.

Speaker 3 (01:01:11):
I don't miss I don't miss an episode of this
because it cracks me up every time. But by the way,
everyone should not miss an episode. And if you haven't,
go back and rewatch old episodes. They're hysterical and very insightful.
Even if you don't care about what happened that week,
you will find things that will make you smarter and
better baseball fans for future in the future. Now that said,
I watched the episode after and Steven said some nice

(01:01:32):
things about me. You said some mean things, probably, uh
you know, I don't think I did.

Speaker 2 (01:01:36):
No, it was it was cool. It was cool seeing
Stephen again. I again, I miss all. I miss all
those guys. I really do. We work together for a
long time.

Speaker 3 (01:01:45):
I kind of when you look back and think about it,
like for for very little other than just our own enjoyment.
Too so like, yes, and we did it for a
long time. And I'm proud of you and Stephen and
Sean and Scott for building this thing. Uh gone with
the hammer territory. Uh, you know, with the foul territory.

Speaker 2 (01:02:02):
Guys.

Speaker 3 (01:02:03):
I love kind of what they do too. It seems
like a lot of a really fun thing that you're
building here, and I couldn't be more proud to know you.

Speaker 1 (01:02:10):
Well, thank you, sir. I appreciate you doing this. As always,
follow Eric. He's not on Twitter anymore, but you can
follow all his working fans out you'll find him. It's
fine podcasts. You're better off without Twitter. I should quit
to It's fine, I should. I should just stop.

Speaker 2 (01:02:23):
It is a miserable exist.

Speaker 3 (01:02:24):
Every once in a while I'll do a Q and
a over on Blue Sky because I can still log
into that versus my Twitter account, which like there's literally
not gonna happen. I guess every two months, I try
and they get the same I go through the same
customer service emails. I still can't get it back, so
I guess they say I have access to it, which
is interesting because I haven't posted three years. So yeah,
that's kind of what's going on with on it happens.

Speaker 1 (01:02:45):
Well, Thank you, sir, I appreciate this E everybody else.
Please subscribe to Hammer Territory. Eric just give a great
organic plug, which I didn't even ask him to do.
Thank you for saying all about Eric. Please subscribe to
this podcast anywhere you find podcasts, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, et cetera.
Follow us on everywhere Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, course we're still

(01:03:05):
there at Hammer Territory as well. Tell your friends and
we'll see everybody next time.

Speaker 2 (01:03:10):
Bye,