September 9, 2025 • 46 mins
Stephen Tolbert and Shawn Coleman look at a notable day of news and an impressive Braves victory from Monday. Sean Murphy's season is over in an odd but significant injury development from the weekend. Plus, Brian Snitker's Future, another excellent outing from Bryce Elder, and a fun week of pitching matchups ahead.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:22):
Welcome on and all to the Here Territory Podcast. My
name is Sean Coleman. Hope, wherever you are and wherever
you are listening, you had an amazing weekend. You had
an amazing Monday, and you had an amazing time seeing
the Braves get a victory against what should be a
playoff team, one of the better pictures in the National
League on the mound, the Braves countered with Bryce Elverer,
(00:43):
who's been absolutely magnificent as of late, and the Braves
got a victory. And of course, with where we are
in the time of the season, none of that matters
with the news that was dropped today. Kidding aside, we
have an action packed episode of the Hammer Territory Podcast
with you and, as always, the best podcast partner that
anyone can think of for myself, Steven Tobert is here
(01:06):
as always. Steven. Good getting to see you, sir, Hope
all has been well on your end. You actually got
to see your team win a college football game this weekend.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Go ahead, Steven, Wow, that's how we're starting. Okay, all right,
it's gonna be that kind of show. What's up, buddy?
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Who needs enemies when you got friends like these? Yeah,
we actually got to see a win for the Braves tonight.
I'm not talking about my college football team. We got
to see a win tonight. Bryce Elder Pischwell, we're gonna
get into all that, but unfortunately, the news of the
day kind of stole the headlines. And you could probably
tell if you're listening to this or watching this by
(01:43):
the headlines that we had some pretty massive, unexpected, kind
of bombshell news come out about one or two PM
something like that, and it, you know, has big effects
on the rest of the season, potentially on next season,
potentially on the off season.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
So there's a lot to get into tonight.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Absolutely, and we'll get jumped right into it. Of course,
can't thank you enough for tuning in, watching, listening however
you enjoy the hamm a Territory podcast. We cannot thank
you enough for all the support part of the Foul
Territory family of podcasts. And what Stephen is alluding to
is that earlier this afternoon it was announced by the
Braves who had made multiple roster moves, which we'll get
(02:22):
into a bit later on the show, the specifics of
the roster moves that they made, but the big news
of the day concerns Sean Murphy and the fact that
Sean Murphy will be out for the rest of the
year and likely we'll be rehabbing for much of the
off season due to a tear in his hip.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Now.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I can't remember if it was the labrum or something
along those lines, but it's a significant injury that is
actually going to require surgery later this week. That, in
of itself is a significant development. That is a significant
news nugget in and of itself. But adding to adding
to that is how this all came about, Stephen. You
(03:02):
know the fact that you know, Sean Murphy basically has
been dealing with this for three years. He's dealt with it,
he's he's gonna gone through pain management, He's dealt with
others while dealing with this, and then it just got
to the point, evidently over the weekend where it just
came again. The word use was unbearable. But the fact
is is that this has been going on for three
years and the organization didn't find out about it till Sunday. That,
(03:26):
of itself, I think it's fair to raise questions about that.
So let's get into it, Stephen, what were your initial
reactions and you know what questions did you formulate and
come back with the answer so on? Just what were
your initial thoughts when you heard all the details of
this pretty significant development when it comes to Sean Murphy.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah, I mean it was a bombshell.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Of course, he's got a I think it's called a
laboral tear and his hip.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
He is gonna have the surgery.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
There's different treatments if you do the surgery, and it's
it ends up being a four to six month kind
of recovery time, and obviously six months is where you
get into spring training. So you know, when the Braves
announced it today, they announced that he's gonna be ready
for spring training, that felt a little optimistic to me.
I'm not sure I would write that in pen just yet.
(04:15):
I've actually talked to some people in the last few
hours since this all came out that that either have
had this surgery or have family that have had this surgery,
and They've all said the same thing. This is a major,
major surgery and it takes a long time to come
back from. And so I'm not sure I would just
go ahead and say full on that Sean Murphy's gonna
be one hundred percent ready to go for spring training.
(04:37):
I'm not sure that's true, but yeah, it was shocking
the news dropped. And then immediately after the news drop,
we found out that he's been dealing with this for
three years. He told the team about it this week,
but he's been dealing with it off and on for
three years, which.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Is crazy to me.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
I don't understand this culture of like trying to play hurt.
You know, started with Freddy free I did start with
Freddy Freeman, but kind of Freddy Freeman was the most
famous case in recent history. With the Braves were like,
you know, you got to be out there every day,
and you can't. You can't miss time, and you gotta
ignore injuries and even if you're even if you're not,
(05:15):
you know, playing able to play to your best, you
should still be out there. And I'm not a big
fan of that mindset, to be honest, I think it
ends up doing more hurt than good. In Shawn's case,
I think it's certainly done more hurt than good. Especially
listen after twenty twenty three, you know he had that
amazing season. He's got a he's got a fully guaranteed contract,
(05:36):
Like he's not playing for more money, Like, just be
honest with the team that you're hurt.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
And we're talking about a hip.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
I mean, we're talking about imagine trying to hit, you know,
I mean, think about how your hips fire when you're
trying to swing a baseball bat or a golf club
or anything athletic. Now imagine trying to hit major league
pitching with a torn hip. I mean, I just don't
understand why. I mean, I do understand the highly competitive
people they want to be out there, but like you know,
(06:04):
this stuff kind of drives me crazy a little bit.
And I disagree with the way Sean handled it. He
should have been up front from the beginning. I understand
it's somewhat of a pain tolerance thing, and the pain
got to the point where he just couldn't bear it anymore.
But by that point you should have said something a
long time ago, long time ago. So yeah, it was.
It was a shock. It's a shock how long he's
(06:25):
been dealing with it. And again with the timetable, I
know they said he's gonna be ready for spring training.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
I'm not sure I would go that far just yet.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
And let's also look at it from the perspective of
you know, this is now a trend with Sean Murphy.
You talk about, you know, trying to hit with a
with a pretty significant hip injury trying to catch as well,
you know, having an injured hip while trying to catch
that has got to be painful also. So the first
thing I want to say is I agree with you,
is that at some point along the line, this shouldn't
(06:57):
have gone on three years without their being more knowledge
known about what was happening. Especially last year. I know
the Braves really didn't have, you know, a secondary option
besides Travis Darnaud to come in and pair with him.
But Sean Murphy has to say something, you know, and
I don't. Necessarily I can't speak to how big of
a culture still remains of trying to play through injuries
(07:19):
and all that, but I will say that this organization
now has a track record this season alone of questionable
developments leading to significant injury concerns. You know, there was
the coaching staff not being able to recognize what was
going on with aj Smith Shaver. It took Spencer Striders
saying something. Of course, the Acunya you know scenario in
(07:40):
which he played, you know, with what he felt was
a hurt achilles, and now this Sean Murphy development. I'm
not saying as if the organization is doing something completely wrong,
but there just seems to be a lack of effective
level awareness of when a player is playing hurt and
that has got to improve, especially with how much injuries
(08:00):
have impacted this team over the past couple of years.
That's the first thought that I want to hit on.
The second thought now, is the ripple effect that this
has on the off season, because now this pretty much
put in place, I know that you could probably bring
or you could probably still look to trade Sean Murphy
(08:22):
if you found the right deal, but teams are going
to sit there and want to pay a probably a
good enough price for you to consider trading Sean Murphy
with him now coming off two years of significant injuries
and the fact that he has struggled at the plate
outside of July of this year over the past two years. See,
that's the other thing that stands out about this is
(08:43):
that now we're going to in twenty and twenty four,
twenty and twenty five, and likely twenty and twenty six,
and each of those in the past three years, Sean
Murphy will have started the season on the IL. I
imagine that's how he's going to start twenty twenty six.
So not only does this impact potentially your off season
plans because now Sean Murphy doesn't become a trade asset,
he likely is going to be with the team. You
(09:03):
also are probably going to have to figure out your
catching position behind Drake Baldwin to start next year. So
in multiple ways, it has a significant impact and unexpected
impact on next year's plans.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Yeah, it's just uncertainty.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
And you know, for such a large part of the season,
one of the only things the Braves had going for
them was like their catcher position was.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
One of the best in baseball.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
I mean, there was a big chunk of the early
part of the season really, probably the first three or
four months, where Baldwin and Murphy were arguably the best
catching tandem and baseball, and that's one of the few
things the Braves could kind of count on. And now
you go into the offseason and you already have uncertainty
at so many other places, especially the rotation, where you know,
(09:51):
it's probably the most significant level of uncertainty and most
impactful in terms of its you know, how it can
change an entire season, you have uncertainty in the bullpen.
You still have a uncertainty with your offense, you know,
and now you've got you know, what was originally one
of your better you know, positional setups with Baldwoo Murphy.
(10:12):
Now that's uncertain because you don't know what Murphy's gonna
be doing next year. You don't know how long he's
gonna be, you don't know how his rehab's gonna go.
If you had any inclination of trading him in the offseason,
that's pretty much out the window. I mean, the Braves
still o Murphy. I think fifty million dollars, forty five,
fifty million dollars something like that. I think he's got
three years at fifteen million dollars a year, and then
(10:35):
I think he's got to buy out.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
It's a it's a chunk of money.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
So a team's not just gonna, like, you know, gladly
trade for that contract right now, not knowing you know, ay,
how how long Murphy's gonna be hurt and be what
he's gonna look like on the other side of it.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
So, yeah, it is more uncertainty.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
And it's just another it's another thing that this team
kind of has to weather, and this offseason is gonna
be fascinating, Sean, I mean, this offseason is just gonna
be so damn fast. I don't I mean, they've got
so much uncertainty at players, with players that are locked
into contracts. I genuinely don't know what they're gonna I
(11:17):
don't know if they can afford to just go into
next season with all of these guys under contract and
just hope that the majority of them work out next year.
That just seems like a incredibly low probability thing to happen. So, man,
what a fascinating off season the brands are in store for.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah, because, I mean we've already seen it not work out, right,
it has not worked out over the past two years,
and we're now really getting into the point of where
these contracts now are getting more expensive raises to players
like Spencer Strider and others as well. And don't get
me wrong, if it does work out, you've got a
World Series contender on you hands. Let's make that clear.
(12:02):
The outcome of this in a positive aspects, which still
is a very it is a very relevant outcome. It's
a very realistic outcome. You could still have a World
Series contender on your hands. But I do agree with you, Stephen.
We now have more uncertainty than we had anticipated going
into this off season on top of the fact that
we've had two straight seasons where it's not worked out
(12:24):
anywhere close to where we had hoped. One other final
thing that I do want to speak to again talking
about how this development could impact the rest of this
season as well as the off season. One big thing
that this does do is it's going to allow for
Drake Baldwin to really take over that catcher spot and
basically play every day. But the thing that I will
(12:46):
say is this is that when we talk about the
fact that this team is going to probably have both
Murphy as well as Baldwin next year, I'm not to
the point I haven't seen enough where I clearly am
for the catcher DH approach where one d is one
catches going into next season. So when I talk about
how this impacts the off season, not only are you
(13:06):
potentially going to have to find added catcher depth to
start the season, but you also potentially are going to,
if it's not Marcello Zuna, find another bat to take
on that dhroll or potentially fill another position and keep
that dhroll as an open door to where maybe Ronald
or Jerks and or the one of the two catchers dhs.
That's what we mean when we say it's just adding
(13:28):
more questions to an off season that already had plenty
of them to deal with.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Yeah, it's a good point. I mean, the catching position
is directly tied to the DH position, and the DH
position is directly tied to what you do with Ronald
and what you do with Profar, and like what's free
agents you go after, and so like, Yeah, and I
don't know, you know, I don't know how interested they've
ever been in the whole one guy catches the other
(13:56):
guy is the DH scenario. Anyways, that's just stuff we
speculated back when both catchers were hitting really well. It's
kind of been a long time since both catchers hit
really well though, to be honest, So I don't know
if that was ever a realistic option for them.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Anyways.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
They might have always set out to go get a DH,
or go get an outfielder and let Ronald and Profar
and you know, new outfielder and the catchers and let
them all rotate DH, which is without knowing specific names,
is probably the way I would lean, But.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Yeah, yeah, I mean you're one hundred percent right.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
The catching position impacts all of that because obviously you
have Baldwin and Murphy, and now you're probably almost certainly
gonna have Murphy next year, so you know, if they
were planning on that, they probably have to adjust those plans.
So it is just one more thing to account for.
And Alex, I mean, they're adding up for Alex the
number of things he has to account for this winner,
(14:57):
and you know the number of things that are gonna
have to go well for the braves and spring and
summer next year, so this thing doesn't go off the
rails again like it has in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
The thing I'll end with as far as this scenario goes,
and you're right about the idea of perhaps the going
to get another outfielder and then then rotating now the
DH spot, you know that the reported interest in Byron
Buxton is an example of that, though I'm not sure
how you know, Haw So I'm Kim, and his salary
being around next year impacts it. Again, just more questions,
more questions. We've got plenty of time to discuss that,
(15:28):
but I do want to end with this note, as
many questions potentially are added to the off season from
this development, there's again one outcome that is very much
on the table to where a lot of these questions
could become less significant, and that is Sean Murphy becoming
a healthy Sean Murphy once again and showing at times
what he did in the first half of twenty twenty
(15:48):
three and also about six weeks ago that Sean Murphy
still could really show up next year for the Braves
and that can make him an asset once again. But
getting to that point, that journey to that destination is
once again going to be a rocky one, and I
know this organization is tired of such journeys. But that
was just one part of the news that was revealed today.
(16:10):
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Speaker 1 (17:19):
So Steve and the other News of the day. We
actually talked about it on the last edition of the
Habit Territory podcast that You and I did. We discussed
how another maybe not so much talked about storyline is
how is this coaching staff going to evolve as the
off season goes on? If Brian Snicker were to step aside,
what does that mean for the rest of his coaching staff?
So on and so forth. And by the way, all
(17:41):
this news is coming from the fact that Alex and
Thopless he actually had a Q and A he spoke
with the media today, So that's why we have multiple
significant storylines to discuss. But the thought with Brian Snicker,
the conversation was around, well, you know, as there been
any thought, has there been any updates on his future
with the squad? And we did really get like a
definitive answer, But Steven, it certainly seemed like the way
(18:06):
that Alex was talking, any anticipation that's been there that
Snicker could you know, potentially retire and you know, move
on to another role with the Braves, that very much
seems to be like a realistic possibility. That's kind of
what Alex and THOPLSS spoke to, how he always have
a place with the Braves. Any decision about when he
wants to make a decision, whether it come early come
later on the off season, that's up to him. One
(18:28):
thing I do think is that the Braves would want
to get undefenditive and definitive answer as early in the
off season as possible. But I came away from Alex's
comments about Brian Snicker being the fact that I think
this organization is preparing for a change at the manager
spot in this offseason.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Yeah, I mean, he did not say it outright. He
gave a pretty wishy washed the answer, which is is
what Alex does. But anytime you start hearing, you know,
a front office guy talking about a manager like retrospectively,
like he's all going to be a part of the
organization and he's always got a place here. Anytime you
start hearing stuff like that about a guy who's still
(19:07):
on the job, he's not gonna be on the job
for long, Like you don't talk about that. You don't
talk about like that about a guy who just signed
a three year contract extension.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
You talk about you know, you.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Talk about that's something you talk about when the guy's
in the last month of his coaching career most likely.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
And yeah, I I I.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
The way I see it playing out is I think
somewhere around the last day of the season, maybe the
last day of the season, Snit will announce that he's retiring.
There is not a single person in baseball, not a
single person that we've talked to in front of the camera,
behind the camera, on the record, off the record, not
a single person we've talked to that thinks Brian Snitcher
(19:49):
is going to manage next year. And listen, if the
Braves wanted to truly like get rid of this, you
know this, these questions, they could announce that he's signing
a contract extension at any point, and could have done
that at any point in the last year, two years,
three years, and they haven't done that. They you know,
I don't know if they haven't put in a contract
(20:10):
extension in front of Snit because they don't have any interest,
or they have put one in front of him and
he hasn't taken it because he doesn't have any interest,
or a combination of both.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
The tea leaves point to a one very clear direction,
and that is enjoy If you are somebody who loves
Brian Snicker, enjoys his managing, enjoys watching him being the
manager of the Braves. I suggest you pay attention strongly
over the next two and a half three weeks because
it is almost certainly coming to an end once we
(20:42):
get to October, and certainly once we get into twenty
twenty six.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
And it's time, right like like, it's clearly time. Brian
Snicker he won his eight hundredth victory with the Braves tonight,
and about all means. I want to make this clear.
The two separate truths can certainly exist in the same
time in most cases, and that is the case with
Brian Snicker. On one hand, this is the second best
(21:10):
Braves manager in franchise history over the past one hundred years.
That's just absolutely the truth. He's got the second most
winning that time for him since Bobby Cox. He has
been our leader through probably the second most successful stretch
of success in Braves franchise history outside of what happened
in the nineties in two thousands. He is a wonderful person,
(21:30):
both in terms of being a baseball person and a
person in general, beloved across the game. He deserves all
the praise, all just anything positive that goes Brian Snicker's way.
He deserves it. But there's also just the simple truth
that the instances of you just watching the Braves and
seeing decisions that are made. And I'm not saying that,
(21:52):
you know, I can only speak for myself. I'm not
suggesting I know more about the game than Brian Snicker.
As many have said, he's forgotten more than I'll ever know,
but I do field. That's pretty clear that there's more
instances where you're left thinking why did he do that?
Where was the value added in that decision? Than thinking, Wow,
he really put us in a position to succeed there.
The Braves need a new voice at the helm of
(22:14):
the squad that's going to put them in a position
to where they can succeed more. And that's why I
think Brian Snicker's time has simply run its course. It
happens with every manager, with every organization. Love Brian Snicker.
He's been tremendous, but the time is right for this
to occur, for the Braves to get a new voice
at the head of the squad.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Yeah, I was thinking about this.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
So if you're a college basketball fan, you'll know the
name Buzz Williams, who is the Texas A and M coach,
and he just left to become the coach at Maryland,
I think is where he went. And he had a
really interesting take on it. He said, after about five
six years, your voice just kind of gets stille and
(22:57):
it's time to move on. And if you look at
his track record throughout his career, he's always done that.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Marquette, Texas A and M. You know, after about five or.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Six years he leaves because he's he just feels like
it can only end badly if you stay too long.
And with snit, I don't It's never been just one
thing like It's not like one egregious thing that happened.
It's not like anybody puts the twenty twenty five season
at the feet of Brian snick Er. No one blames
him for what's happened this year, but it's just time
(23:29):
for something new. It's just gotten a bit stale. And
I think that I find that to be the case
with not only the manager, but also in some ways
the roster. Like I think the roster needs a shake up.
I think the coaching staff needs to shake up. I
think the front office needs to shake up. Not a
major one at the top. I'm not talking about alex Adopolis,
but I'm just talking about.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
They need some new blood, they need some new life,
they need some new ideas they need. It has just
gotten stale. And that's no one's fault.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
It's you know, the old saying is familiarity breeds content.
Like just the more you're around the same group of
people year in, year in, year in, year in year out,
you know, it just gets stale.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
And and I just think it's time.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
And Snicker's also been in you know, he's been in
around in the organization for fifty years. I mean, I'm
sure the guy would like to go spend some time
with grandkids and you know, not have to worry about
the nonsense that we talk about on a daily basis,
and not have to worry about knuckleheads like us talking
about the stuff that you know, he has to worry
about on a daily basis.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
I'm sure he's got much better shit to do.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
So I I do fully expect this to be the
last month of Brian Snicker's you know, coaching career with
the Braves or any any team.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
I think he'll stay in the organization.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
He'll get some sort of you know, a Maritas, you know,
lifelong position in the front office where he can come
to spring training anytime he wants, very much like Bobby,
you know, he can do. You know, he's got a
lifetime pass to be around the team as much as
he wants. I just don't think he's going to be
the manager. And that is going to kick off. Another
fascinating part of this all season is who is going
(25:03):
to be the next manager of the Braves and then
what does their coaching staff behind them look like? Because
those are massive questions as well, just another massive, massive
piece of what is going to be a massive, massive
offseason for the Braves.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Muted buddy, everybody has in their mind that you know,
when it comes to you know, that window of opportunity,
that window of competing, and the Braves have had an
extended when the Braves run of being a true contender.
It's not over with in my mind by any means,
but it's been going on for nearly a decade. You know,
we're coming up on you know, I know they're not
(25:42):
going to make the playoffs this year, but it lasted
for seven years. That's an extended period of time for
an organization. And while everybody kind of envisions going up
a little bit, going up a little bit, going up
a little bit each year till you have that two
or three year window too, you really are a World
Series favorite. The Braves kind of peaked early in twenty
twenty one, and ever since then it's just kind of
gone restly downhill, Troubling the playoffs, trouble being able to
(26:07):
stay healthy, offense falling off a cliff last year, and
then this year, everything just kind of all falling to
bottom at times. When you have that occur over as
long as stretch as we've had it, which basically is
four years now since we won the World Series, it's
time that the staying with the current regime it's run stale.
Just having something new in and of itself can have value.
(26:30):
So it's going to be very interesting to see what
the Braves do on that end. One other small but
significant discussion that Alex and Poplus talked about was he
talked about rys Cela Iglesias and how good Ryce sel
Iglesias has been in the second half of the year.
Very much. You know, Iglesias has been to the level
that he was all of last year in terms of
(26:51):
how successful he's been on the mound and Alex and
Thopolas was asked about the fact that you have any
regrets about not trading Iglesias at the trade deadline, and
Alex basically repeated what he said at the trade deadline.
We were not going to trade players just for salary relief.
We were only going to trade players if we were
able to get prospects to help us in the future. Now,
I mentioned to Brad Steven when we were talking about
(27:12):
the Hassan Kim. Addition, we've now also had a Jake Frayley, Kim,
Alexis Diaz, players who formerly were successful major league players
who could potentially be a part of next year's team.
How the Braves have been active on the waiver wire
has made me be less concern about their inactiveness at
the trade deadline. But I do think that it's very
interesting when it comes to Alex and Thoppless. He's not
(27:34):
going to make a move for salary relief. That I
don't want to read too much into, but at the
very least, it lets me know that money may not
necessarily be as big of a concern as many of
us think that it is. Number one, and number two,
he values continuity, in terms of players that he knows
he could be successful here, he would rather than be
(27:54):
here than them not. And I think that adds value
in a positive way for this team that certainly seems
to value continuity highly.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
I imagine there are the people that are kicking themselves
about not adding iglesias, are the other teams more than
and Dopless is kicking himself about not dealing them. I mean,
the offers you get are the offers you get. Like you,
you know, you have no control over what offers you get. Now,
I will say I think the Braves. I think one
(28:27):
reason the Braves didn't get the offers that they wanted
to get was because the Braves were not willing to
pay down the contracts. I have not been able to
confirm that at any point, but I do believe that's
the case, where they just weren't willing, and I think
that impacted the offers they got. And I think that's
why anytime Alex is talking about it, has talked about
those potential deals, he's always said the same thing, which
(28:48):
is the only thing teams were offering were salary relief,
which means he was asking them to take on the
full salary and I think that did impact both of
those guys market but Litten and if I'm a playoff team,
I'm pretty pissed at myself if especially if I've had bullpinch,
you know, disruption since the trade deadline.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
I knew it. I mean, Glacias has just got such.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
A long track record of success and at the highest
levels of this game, in in the ninth inning and
high leverage like and there's just not a lot of
those guys out there available at any trade deadline. And
the fact that no one was interested for seven million
bucks or whatever he was. I think it was like
six million bucks actually for whatever he had left on
his deal for the last two months of the season.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
It's still very surprising to me.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
And I mean, there's nothing you can do about it now,
you know, I hate that the Braves are spending this
six million dollars just letting Iglacias pitch on a bad team.
I would have much other than spent it by sending
it to another team so that they would have sent
us some prospects, but that's not the way they chose
to go. So, you know, it is what it is.
There's nothing the Braves can do about it. But I
guarantee you there are teams around the league that are
(29:59):
are looking being back on the trade deadline, wishing they
would have been a little more aggressive on Aglecias, especially
given the state of some of the bullpens around baseball
at the moment.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
And to be honest with you, I would love to
have Iglecias back, but that's kind of another byproduct for
all of this. With how good he's had is at
the end of the season, I imagine that you know, he
certainly could be looking, you know, to have a closer
spot somewhere, and if that's for us, that's great, but
it's not off the table to where he certainly can
give him the multi year deal where he's making double
(30:29):
digit salary each year. Excuse me, you know, more than
ten million average annual value. I don't necessarily know where
that works into the brace fan it plans it would
be cheaper, But let me put it this way, rycell Iglesias,
I would be more than happy to have him back,
even in the closed role, with how well he's into
the season. But that's kind of lower on the totem
poll after all the other things that we've talked about
(30:50):
that add to what again is going to be a
fascinating season or off season for the Braves. But there's
still a little bit of this season left, and there
still is some excite moments to be able to watch,
and perhaps the most exciting moment will take place tomorrow
in Game two of the series against the Cubs. We'll
discuss that in just a moment after another word from
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Speaker 1 (32:11):
So Stephen, of course, you know we we have talked
about it nearly on a weekly basis, and it's for
good reason, because it's actually become a bigger storyline than
many of us had hoped. But it still remains one
that could really work out well for the Braves. We
talk about certainty added to the off season, having an
extra pick to work with and adding to our slot total.
(32:33):
There are our money total that we could use and
what should be a very deep draft next year. That
would be a great development and all that. Of course
rids on Drake Baldwin winning Rookie of the Year. And
I bring that up because Drake Baldwin right now is
actually second. You know me and you have talked about
it multiple times over the past month. Where the odds
are currently currently, Cade Horton of the Cubs is a
(32:54):
slight favorite ahead of Drake Baldwin. And the thing is
is that tomorrow they'll be facing each other for the
second time in a week. Cad Horten will be on
the mound. He pitched last week against the Braves through
five excellent innings against Atlanta. He'll be on the mound
tomorrow for the Cubs. Drake Baldwin, of course, now likely
will be playing mostly every day when it comes to
(33:15):
what he did another you know, great night tonight or
at least in his first at bat, A really awesome
opportunity for Braves fans to witness tomorrow. And you're hoping
that if Drake Baldwin can put another hot streak together,
he'll be able to win the Rookie of the Year
award and get that extra draft pick for the Braves.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Yep, Cad Horton versus Drake Baldwin Part two. Obviously, the
Braid has just played the Cubs last week, so and KD.
Horton came out and threw he actually threw a no
hitter for the first five innings, got pulled at seventy
five pitches. That is notable that you know, you probably
should keep that in mind that he is on a
pretty strict pitch count. The Cubs are not playing around
(33:53):
with his pitch count at all. So and I don't
know if it'll be seventy five pitches like it was
last week, or if it'd be more or less.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
But you know, if you're the Braves, you have.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
To know, like, if you work this guy's count a
little bit in the first three or four innings, you
have a very good chance of getting him out of
the game. And they're not gonna let him throw ninety
one hundred, one hundred and ten pitches. They've shown that,
so you know, the Braves have been much better taking walks.
Let's have a patient approach tomorrow, maybe try to get
this kid out. He's very talented, Like you said, he
(34:23):
is the front runner for Rookie of.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
The Year right now.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
He's just pitched insanely well. And the Cubs are a
better team than the Braves, and so the Cubs are
playing in more high impact games than the Braves, and
you know, Drake's just got to be that much better.
When you're on a bad team. You know, is that fair?
Probably not, but that's just the way it is. He's
got to be that much better. And you know, I
do think if the voting were today, you know, just
(34:50):
because of the Vegas odds doesn't mean it's written in stone.
Like if the voting were today, Drake Baldock would still
very much win. I think Kate Horton would win. But
I could be wrong. He could be the leader in
the clubhouse for all we know. You know, we're not
gonna know until the voting.
Speaker 6 (35:05):
But.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Days like tomorrow that you know, his teammates could really
help him out by putting an eight spot on Kate
Horton in the first three innings and Drake going you know,
three for three with a couple of doubles. You know,
anything like that will help his cause because it is
a neck and neck. I mean, even if you think
Drake Baldwin is ahead right now, it is not by much.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
It is a tight race.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
And you know, we've already laid out multiple times on
the show why it matters for the Braves that Drake
Baldwin wins this award. So tomorrow's a big kind of
chapter of that story. Is is Horton Versus Baldwin Part two.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
And the other thing I want to add to this
discussion is that, yes, the draft pick coming with Drake Baldwin,
we make it seem as if that's even more important
than Drake Baldwin himself winning Rookie of the Year, and
yet it's a what it means a lot to the organization.
It would be a nice little consolation prize from what
we've experienced this year. But to add to the reason
why I think Drake Baldwin deserves it over Kate Horton,
(36:05):
Drake Baldwin has been doing this all year as a catcher,
playing not every day, but he's played in big moments
and is delivered in big moments. And to me, the
other thing that stands out about Drake Baldwin, He's in
his rookie year. He's been consistent for the most part
all season long, and his numbers, his underlying numbers, those
metrics that we always talk about, they support what he's done.
(36:29):
They show that what he's done is legitimate. He may
even be underperforming a bit what he actually should be doing.
So for those reasons, I feel Drake Baldwin is definitely
in position to win and deserves to win the Rookie
of the Year contest. It likely is going to take
another hot streak and hopefully that occurs starting tomorrow night
against Horton directly. Also want to talk about tonight's game, Stephen,
(36:52):
because it was a good victory. The Braves got a
needed victory. Much like Friday night. They faced a quality
picture on the mound, a team that's in position to
make the playoffs, and they look like they belonged. Ozzie
Albi's went deep with another left handed hitter again. I
know many are pointing out that how he's hitting against
right hand how he's hitting right handed against left handed pitching,
(37:14):
That may be the most positive indicator of all We're
getting back to Ozzie being Ozzie. But I also want
to put the spotlight on Bryce Selder, who gets some
pretty legitimate competition, has been absolutely outstanding his past four starts.
I don't think that means he gets a rotation spot
next year. I don't think it means anything significant. But
when we talk about as many Braves as possible ending
(37:35):
the year in as good a way as possible, Bryce
Elder is certainly taking advantage of that. He was in
command tonight, and he got the job done against a
pretty legitimate opponent.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
I'm not sure there is any pitcher in baseball with
a higher range of outcomes than Bryce Elder. I quite literally,
anything could happen in a Bryce Elder start, and I
would kind of believe it.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
I'd be like, yeah, that's know.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
He could give up nine runs before recording it out,
he could throw a one hitter and anything in between,
and I'd be like, yeah, I mean that makes sense.
The dude is there's not a soul on the planet
that can figure out what Bryce Selder is or what
he's gonna do next, because we've seen him go on heaters,
we've seen him go on i mean just fall off
(38:22):
a mountain, and tonight he was really good. He's been
really good, like four starts in a row, three or
four starts in a row. It gets really good teams.
So I don't know what to make of it. I
don't think the Braves know what to make of it.
I don't think Bryce Selder knows what to make I'm
guessing he's as confused as the rest of us as
to what happens on a night to night start for him.
(38:42):
But he pitched well tonight, and the offense did enough.
You know, you still got a Cunya batting six, which
we're not going to get. The whole thing tonight still
annoys me, but it is what it is at this point.
You know, Brian Snicker clearly thinks it's a way to
get him out of his funk.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
Whatever.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
The offense did enough. Olsen hit another homer. Matt Olsen
is heating back up.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
He had a really slow August. He's heating back up.
Ronnie did break his over streak, he did have an
RBS single tonight.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
Drake Baldwin at a double, Ozzie Albis hid another homer,
so you know, it was a good start. We're gonna
talk about Spitzer Strider here in a second in the show,
but yeah, the offense did enough. We need the office
to be more consistent. It would be lovely to see
Ronnie come all the way back before the season ends.
But Bryce elder Man, I don't know, I have no
(39:31):
answers I have I don't even know. I don't even
I don't even know how to begin to give an
answer about Bryce elder Just every single start, anything can happen,
and in a lot of ways that makes him the
most interesting man on the team. Literally, any outcome on
any given night is attainable for him, and it's it's wild.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
It's wild to watch, quite honestly.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
Yeah, it's a year of riddles, right, Like we talked about,
this has been one big question mark all year, and
the Braves had just come out the last three weeks
of the season and just wear a question mark on
their hats. That's what they should do, because that's been
one big question mark. But after all of today's action, Steam,
after all of today's news, all today's action, and then again,
(40:14):
it's been a mixed bag of positive and negative, but
at least it ended well on the field. The biggest
question of all and I think this may be of
the season. The hell happened to Spencer Strider's mustache? Seriously,
it's just it's different. Listen. I'm here for change, I'm
(40:35):
here for trying something new. But the man looked like
he could well bass against anybody with that mustache, and
I'm sure that he still can, but it's just it's
a different look. He looks ten years younger. That that
stash was like one of the it was like one
of the biggest, like the most identifying features in Baseball
(40:56):
Strider's stash. When you saw that, it struck feet and
hitters everywhere. Just I miss the stash.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
I'll tell you this. That mustache. I don't know what
it is about it.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
Maybe it's because he's got a really really dark hair,
maybe it's because it's like jet black.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
But it like changes his whole face.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
Like if Spencer Strider committed a crime with the mustache
and then shaved and was like on the run the
rest of his life, he would never be caught because
that looks like two different human beings. Like I thought
that was like Pete Alonzo's son, Like they he looks
exactly like Pete alons It's the weirdest thing I've ever seen. Yeah,
(41:42):
you know they shot him in the dugout. It's like
he's playing out like the whole Major League Ricky Vaughan storyline,
except it's with the instead of a mustache, that's with
the black glasses that Ricky Vaughan had. You know, he
took him off for the second one and he lost
all his powers, and he put him back on at
the end. Maybe we'll see the mustache return next. I
don't know it was I mean it was. It was
(42:03):
weird as hell. I mean he really he looked twelve.
He looked like a ball boy, said, I made the joke.
He looked like Bennie the Jet Rodriguez was about to
teach him how to throw a baseball. That's I mean,
he it's crazy how much that mustache like changes his face.
So yeah, I mean he's kind of having one of
those years where, like, you know, it's like a high
school girl who breaks up with her boyfriend and cuts
(42:25):
all her hair off. Like he's having like that kind
of you know, existential crisis kind of year where he's like,
you know what, screw it, nothing else is going right
this year.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
We're going with a new look.
Speaker 3 (42:35):
And there were, honest to god, people were as mad
about that as anything that's happened.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
All year long.
Speaker 3 (42:43):
People love that mustache. That mustache had its own Twitter.
I had multiple Twitter accounts. It's got to I mean,
it's its own celebrity at this point. So it was
a shocking, shocking turn of events.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
I'm still in shocked. Yeah, kill me, Strider, You're killing me.
Just don't make it. Foreverse even did there did. I
picked up all that I had to give it a
little sand lot, you know, shout outs now, Listen, I'm
I don't ever think this will get back to Spencer Strider,
but if anybody ever expresses to Spencer Strider our reactions
(43:18):
to him being without his mustache, I want to make
it clear if he ever asked directly, it looks absolutely fantastic,
best decision he's ever made. Keep it that way if
he prefers. All joking aside, we want to end the
show on a bit of a hilarious note, because listen,
we deserve a bit of hilarious in our lives right
now as Braves fans. But it was a change, and
(43:40):
it's one of those changes that you're just not prepared for. Man,
even if I would have gotten a week's notice, I
still would not have been prepared for it. But you know, hey,
at the very least, let's put it this way, the
end of the season for the Braves, I think has
been a bit more eventful than any of us had anticipated.
Maybe not necessarily all in a positive way, but at
the very least has been eventful. Stephen, do you have
(44:01):
anything else for us as we wrap up this edition
the Hammer Territory Podcast.
Speaker 3 (44:05):
No, And I guess we should mention that obviously. We
talked about Kate Horton pitching for the Cub tomorrow. Tomorrow,
Spencer Strider pitches for the Braves, and then Chris Sale
is on Wednesday, day off Thursday, and then the Astroals
come to town. So you're gonna you're gonna get another Spencer
Strider started to mark. Striders start tomorrow. Just another data
(44:26):
point to watch. I'm curious to see, you know. The
outing he had against I think Miami was decent. The
next one not quite as good. They've pushed him back.
Speaker 2 (44:36):
A couple of days. There was some speculation on whether
he was hurt. I don't think he's hurt.
Speaker 3 (44:41):
So it's just gonna be just see what he looks
like tomorrow, and that's gonna be the big thing. And
then we moved, you know to Chris Sale, and then
the Astronals come to town for the weekend.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
Yeah, you know, and it looks like that what we
could be seeing, what we could be lining up to
see is over the next three games. You know, we
talked about it last week. The Braves are gonna get
the opportunity to really see where they It didn't work
out so well against Seattle. But see where some of
these individual players stand. You know, again, more about the
process over the result. Right now, See where there's some
of these individual players stand. You've got Spencer Strider facing
(45:10):
the Cubs for a second straight start, a playoff team
they saw him last start. What can he do adjustment
wise to maintain success at least in terms of run prevention.
You got Chris Sale on the mount tomorrow against the
Cubs and then Hirston Waldrip on the mount against the
Astros on Friday. So plenty to watch board this week,
of course, going along with Drake Baldwin hopefully having a
(45:31):
great week. Listen, Ken, thank you enough for joining us
here on the Hammer Territory podcast. We're always here to
cover with the braves, always here to deliver content, hopefully
in a fun and informative way, sometimes in a not
so fun way if a rant or two is involved,
though a lot of times it's certainly warranted. For Steven Tolver,
you could find him at b Underscore Outliers on Twitter,
(45:52):
slash x. My name is Sean Coleman. You could find
me at Stat's sac Hammer Terroritory across all forms of
social media, The Foul Territory family of podcast. Shout out
to Brad Rowlands, shout out to Scott Coleman, shout out
to Grant McCauley who was an awesome guest on Sunday,
and shout out to the Braves. A hell of a
day off the field and on the field. Hopefully Sean
(46:14):
Murphy comes back better than ever. Until next time, Go Braves.
We'll talk to you again soon here on the Hammer
Territory Pot
Welcome on and all to the Here Territory Podcast. My
name is Sean Coleman. Hope, wherever you are and wherever
you are listening, you had an amazing weekend. You had
an amazing Monday, and you had an amazing time seeing
the Braves get a victory against what should be a
playoff team, one of the better pictures in the National
League on the mound, the Braves countered with Bryce Elverer,
(00:43):
who's been absolutely magnificent as of late, and the Braves
got a victory. And of course, with where we are
in the time of the season, none of that matters
with the news that was dropped today. Kidding aside, we
have an action packed episode of the Hammer Territory Podcast
with you and, as always, the best podcast partner that
anyone can think of for myself, Steven Tobert is here
(01:06):
as always. Steven. Good getting to see you, sir, Hope
all has been well on your end. You actually got
to see your team win a college football game this weekend.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Go ahead, Steven, Wow, that's how we're starting. Okay, all right,
it's gonna be that kind of show. What's up, buddy?
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Who needs enemies when you got friends like these? Yeah,
we actually got to see a win for the Braves tonight.
I'm not talking about my college football team. We got
to see a win tonight. Bryce Elder Pischwell, we're gonna
get into all that, but unfortunately, the news of the
day kind of stole the headlines. And you could probably
tell if you're listening to this or watching this by
(01:43):
the headlines that we had some pretty massive, unexpected, kind
of bombshell news come out about one or two PM
something like that, and it, you know, has big effects
on the rest of the season, potentially on next season,
potentially on the off season.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
So there's a lot to get into tonight.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Absolutely, and we'll get jumped right into it. Of course,
can't thank you enough for tuning in, watching, listening however
you enjoy the hamm a Territory podcast. We cannot thank
you enough for all the support part of the Foul
Territory family of podcasts. And what Stephen is alluding to
is that earlier this afternoon it was announced by the
Braves who had made multiple roster moves, which we'll get
(02:22):
into a bit later on the show, the specifics of
the roster moves that they made, but the big news
of the day concerns Sean Murphy and the fact that
Sean Murphy will be out for the rest of the
year and likely we'll be rehabbing for much of the
off season due to a tear in his hip.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Now.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I can't remember if it was the labrum or something
along those lines, but it's a significant injury that is
actually going to require surgery later this week. That, in
of itself is a significant development. That is a significant
news nugget in and of itself. But adding to adding
to that is how this all came about, Stephen. You
(03:02):
know the fact that you know, Sean Murphy basically has
been dealing with this for three years. He's dealt with it,
he's he's gonna gone through pain management, He's dealt with
others while dealing with this, and then it just got
to the point, evidently over the weekend where it just
came again. The word use was unbearable. But the fact
is is that this has been going on for three
years and the organization didn't find out about it till Sunday. That,
(03:26):
of itself, I think it's fair to raise questions about that.
So let's get into it, Stephen, what were your initial
reactions and you know what questions did you formulate and
come back with the answer so on? Just what were
your initial thoughts when you heard all the details of
this pretty significant development when it comes to Sean Murphy.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah, I mean it was a bombshell.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Of course, he's got a I think it's called a
laboral tear and his hip.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
He is gonna have the surgery.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
There's different treatments if you do the surgery, and it's
it ends up being a four to six month kind
of recovery time, and obviously six months is where you
get into spring training. So you know, when the Braves
announced it today, they announced that he's gonna be ready
for spring training, that felt a little optimistic to me.
I'm not sure I would write that in pen just yet.
(04:15):
I've actually talked to some people in the last few
hours since this all came out that that either have
had this surgery or have family that have had this surgery,
and They've all said the same thing. This is a major,
major surgery and it takes a long time to come
back from. And so I'm not sure I would just
go ahead and say full on that Sean Murphy's gonna
be one hundred percent ready to go for spring training.
(04:37):
I'm not sure that's true, but yeah, it was shocking
the news dropped. And then immediately after the news drop,
we found out that he's been dealing with this for
three years. He told the team about it this week,
but he's been dealing with it off and on for
three years, which.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Is crazy to me.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
I don't understand this culture of like trying to play hurt.
You know, started with Freddy free I did start with
Freddy Freeman, but kind of Freddy Freeman was the most
famous case in recent history. With the Braves were like,
you know, you got to be out there every day,
and you can't. You can't miss time, and you gotta
ignore injuries and even if you're even if you're not,
(05:15):
you know, playing able to play to your best, you
should still be out there. And I'm not a big
fan of that mindset, to be honest, I think it
ends up doing more hurt than good. In Shawn's case,
I think it's certainly done more hurt than good. Especially
listen after twenty twenty three, you know he had that
amazing season. He's got a he's got a fully guaranteed contract,
(05:36):
Like he's not playing for more money, Like, just be
honest with the team that you're hurt.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
And we're talking about a hip.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
I mean, we're talking about imagine trying to hit, you know,
I mean, think about how your hips fire when you're
trying to swing a baseball bat or a golf club
or anything athletic. Now imagine trying to hit major league
pitching with a torn hip. I mean, I just don't
understand why. I mean, I do understand the highly competitive
people they want to be out there, but like you know,
(06:04):
this stuff kind of drives me crazy a little bit.
And I disagree with the way Sean handled it. He
should have been up front from the beginning. I understand
it's somewhat of a pain tolerance thing, and the pain
got to the point where he just couldn't bear it anymore.
But by that point you should have said something a
long time ago, long time ago. So yeah, it was.
It was a shock. It's a shock how long he's
(06:25):
been dealing with it. And again with the timetable, I
know they said he's gonna be ready for spring training.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
I'm not sure I would go that far just yet.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
And let's also look at it from the perspective of
you know, this is now a trend with Sean Murphy.
You talk about, you know, trying to hit with a
with a pretty significant hip injury trying to catch as well,
you know, having an injured hip while trying to catch
that has got to be painful also. So the first
thing I want to say is I agree with you,
is that at some point along the line, this shouldn't
(06:57):
have gone on three years without their being more knowledge
known about what was happening. Especially last year. I know
the Braves really didn't have, you know, a secondary option
besides Travis Darnaud to come in and pair with him.
But Sean Murphy has to say something, you know, and
I don't. Necessarily I can't speak to how big of
a culture still remains of trying to play through injuries
(07:19):
and all that, but I will say that this organization
now has a track record this season alone of questionable
developments leading to significant injury concerns. You know, there was
the coaching staff not being able to recognize what was
going on with aj Smith Shaver. It took Spencer Striders
saying something. Of course, the Acunya you know scenario in
(07:40):
which he played, you know, with what he felt was
a hurt achilles, and now this Sean Murphy development. I'm
not saying as if the organization is doing something completely wrong,
but there just seems to be a lack of effective
level awareness of when a player is playing hurt and
that has got to improve, especially with how much injuries
(08:00):
have impacted this team over the past couple of years.
That's the first thought that I want to hit on.
The second thought now, is the ripple effect that this
has on the off season, because now this pretty much
put in place, I know that you could probably bring
or you could probably still look to trade Sean Murphy
(08:22):
if you found the right deal, but teams are going
to sit there and want to pay a probably a
good enough price for you to consider trading Sean Murphy
with him now coming off two years of significant injuries
and the fact that he has struggled at the plate
outside of July of this year over the past two years. See,
that's the other thing that stands out about this is
(08:43):
that now we're going to in twenty and twenty four,
twenty and twenty five, and likely twenty and twenty six,
and each of those in the past three years, Sean
Murphy will have started the season on the IL. I
imagine that's how he's going to start twenty twenty six.
So not only does this impact potentially your off season
plans because now Sean Murphy doesn't become a trade asset,
he likely is going to be with the team. You
(09:03):
also are probably going to have to figure out your
catching position behind Drake Baldwin to start next year. So
in multiple ways, it has a significant impact and unexpected
impact on next year's plans.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Yeah, it's just uncertainty.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
And you know, for such a large part of the season,
one of the only things the Braves had going for
them was like their catcher position was.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
One of the best in baseball.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
I mean, there was a big chunk of the early
part of the season really, probably the first three or
four months, where Baldwin and Murphy were arguably the best
catching tandem and baseball, and that's one of the few
things the Braves could kind of count on. And now
you go into the offseason and you already have uncertainty
at so many other places, especially the rotation, where you know,
(09:51):
it's probably the most significant level of uncertainty and most
impactful in terms of its you know, how it can
change an entire season, you have uncertainty in the bullpen.
You still have a uncertainty with your offense, you know,
and now you've got you know, what was originally one
of your better you know, positional setups with Baldwoo Murphy.
(10:12):
Now that's uncertain because you don't know what Murphy's gonna
be doing next year. You don't know how long he's
gonna be, you don't know how his rehab's gonna go.
If you had any inclination of trading him in the offseason,
that's pretty much out the window. I mean, the Braves
still o Murphy. I think fifty million dollars, forty five,
fifty million dollars something like that. I think he's got
three years at fifteen million dollars a year, and then
(10:35):
I think he's got to buy out.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
It's a it's a chunk of money.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
So a team's not just gonna, like, you know, gladly
trade for that contract right now, not knowing you know, ay,
how how long Murphy's gonna be hurt and be what
he's gonna look like on the other side of it.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
So, yeah, it is more uncertainty.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
And it's just another it's another thing that this team
kind of has to weather, and this offseason is gonna
be fascinating, Sean, I mean, this offseason is just gonna
be so damn fast. I don't I mean, they've got
so much uncertainty at players, with players that are locked
into contracts. I genuinely don't know what they're gonna I
(11:17):
don't know if they can afford to just go into
next season with all of these guys under contract and
just hope that the majority of them work out next year.
That just seems like a incredibly low probability thing to happen. So, man,
what a fascinating off season the brands are in store for.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah, because, I mean we've already seen it not work out, right,
it has not worked out over the past two years,
and we're now really getting into the point of where
these contracts now are getting more expensive raises to players
like Spencer Strider and others as well. And don't get
me wrong, if it does work out, you've got a
World Series contender on you hands. Let's make that clear.
(12:02):
The outcome of this in a positive aspects, which still
is a very it is a very relevant outcome. It's
a very realistic outcome. You could still have a World
Series contender on your hands. But I do agree with you, Stephen.
We now have more uncertainty than we had anticipated going
into this off season on top of the fact that
we've had two straight seasons where it's not worked out
(12:24):
anywhere close to where we had hoped. One other final
thing that I do want to speak to again talking
about how this development could impact the rest of this
season as well as the off season. One big thing
that this does do is it's going to allow for
Drake Baldwin to really take over that catcher spot and
basically play every day. But the thing that I will
(12:46):
say is this is that when we talk about the
fact that this team is going to probably have both
Murphy as well as Baldwin next year, I'm not to
the point I haven't seen enough where I clearly am
for the catcher DH approach where one d is one
catches going into next season. So when I talk about
how this impacts the off season, not only are you
(13:06):
potentially going to have to find added catcher depth to
start the season, but you also potentially are going to,
if it's not Marcello Zuna, find another bat to take
on that dhroll or potentially fill another position and keep
that dhroll as an open door to where maybe Ronald
or Jerks and or the one of the two catchers dhs.
That's what we mean when we say it's just adding
(13:28):
more questions to an off season that already had plenty
of them to deal with.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Yeah, it's a good point. I mean, the catching position
is directly tied to the DH position, and the DH
position is directly tied to what you do with Ronald
and what you do with Profar, and like what's free
agents you go after, and so like, Yeah, and I
don't know, you know, I don't know how interested they've
ever been in the whole one guy catches the other
(13:56):
guy is the DH scenario. Anyways, that's just stuff we
speculated back when both catchers were hitting really well. It's
kind of been a long time since both catchers hit
really well though, to be honest, So I don't know
if that was ever a realistic option for them.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Anyways.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
They might have always set out to go get a DH,
or go get an outfielder and let Ronald and Profar
and you know, new outfielder and the catchers and let
them all rotate DH, which is without knowing specific names,
is probably the way I would lean, But.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Yeah, yeah, I mean you're one hundred percent right.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
The catching position impacts all of that because obviously you
have Baldwin and Murphy, and now you're probably almost certainly
gonna have Murphy next year, so you know, if they
were planning on that, they probably have to adjust those plans.
So it is just one more thing to account for.
And Alex, I mean, they're adding up for Alex the
number of things he has to account for this winner,
(14:57):
and you know the number of things that are gonna
have to go well for the braves and spring and
summer next year, so this thing doesn't go off the
rails again like it has in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
The thing I'll end with as far as this scenario goes,
and you're right about the idea of perhaps the going
to get another outfielder and then then rotating now the
DH spot, you know that the reported interest in Byron
Buxton is an example of that, though I'm not sure
how you know, Haw So I'm Kim, and his salary
being around next year impacts it. Again, just more questions,
more questions. We've got plenty of time to discuss that,
(15:28):
but I do want to end with this note, as
many questions potentially are added to the off season from
this development, there's again one outcome that is very much
on the table to where a lot of these questions
could become less significant, and that is Sean Murphy becoming
a healthy Sean Murphy once again and showing at times
what he did in the first half of twenty twenty
(15:48):
three and also about six weeks ago that Sean Murphy
still could really show up next year for the Braves
and that can make him an asset once again. But
getting to that point, that journey to that destination is
once again going to be a rocky one, and I
know this organization is tired of such journeys. But that
was just one part of the news that was revealed today.
(16:10):
Will have plenty more to discuss in a moment after
a word from our partners.
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Speaker 1 (17:19):
So Steve and the other News of the day. We
actually talked about it on the last edition of the
Habit Territory podcast that You and I did. We discussed
how another maybe not so much talked about storyline is
how is this coaching staff going to evolve as the
off season goes on? If Brian Snicker were to step aside,
what does that mean for the rest of his coaching staff?
So on and so forth. And by the way, all
(17:41):
this news is coming from the fact that Alex and
Thopless he actually had a Q and A he spoke
with the media today, So that's why we have multiple
significant storylines to discuss. But the thought with Brian Snicker,
the conversation was around, well, you know, as there been
any thought, has there been any updates on his future
with the squad? And we did really get like a
definitive answer, But Steven, it certainly seemed like the way
(18:06):
that Alex was talking, any anticipation that's been there that
Snicker could you know, potentially retire and you know, move
on to another role with the Braves, that very much
seems to be like a realistic possibility. That's kind of
what Alex and THOPLSS spoke to, how he always have
a place with the Braves. Any decision about when he
wants to make a decision, whether it come early come
later on the off season, that's up to him. One
(18:28):
thing I do think is that the Braves would want
to get undefenditive and definitive answer as early in the
off season as possible. But I came away from Alex's
comments about Brian Snicker being the fact that I think
this organization is preparing for a change at the manager
spot in this offseason.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Yeah, I mean, he did not say it outright. He
gave a pretty wishy washed the answer, which is is
what Alex does. But anytime you start hearing, you know,
a front office guy talking about a manager like retrospectively,
like he's all going to be a part of the
organization and he's always got a place here. Anytime you
start hearing stuff like that about a guy who's still
(19:07):
on the job, he's not gonna be on the job
for long, Like you don't talk about that. You don't
talk about like that about a guy who just signed
a three year contract extension.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
You talk about you know, you.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Talk about that's something you talk about when the guy's
in the last month of his coaching career most likely.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
And yeah, I I I.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
The way I see it playing out is I think
somewhere around the last day of the season, maybe the
last day of the season, Snit will announce that he's retiring.
There is not a single person in baseball, not a
single person that we've talked to in front of the camera,
behind the camera, on the record, off the record, not
a single person we've talked to that thinks Brian Snitcher
(19:49):
is going to manage next year. And listen, if the
Braves wanted to truly like get rid of this, you
know this, these questions, they could announce that he's signing
a contract extension at any point, and could have done
that at any point in the last year, two years,
three years, and they haven't done that. They you know,
I don't know if they haven't put in a contract
(20:10):
extension in front of Snit because they don't have any interest,
or they have put one in front of him and
he hasn't taken it because he doesn't have any interest,
or a combination of both.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
The tea leaves point to a one very clear direction,
and that is enjoy If you are somebody who loves
Brian Snicker, enjoys his managing, enjoys watching him being the
manager of the Braves. I suggest you pay attention strongly
over the next two and a half three weeks because
it is almost certainly coming to an end once we
(20:42):
get to October, and certainly once we get into twenty
twenty six.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
And it's time, right like like, it's clearly time. Brian
Snicker he won his eight hundredth victory with the Braves tonight,
and about all means. I want to make this clear.
The two separate truths can certainly exist in the same
time in most cases, and that is the case with
Brian Snicker. On one hand, this is the second best
(21:10):
Braves manager in franchise history over the past one hundred years.
That's just absolutely the truth. He's got the second most
winning that time for him since Bobby Cox. He has
been our leader through probably the second most successful stretch
of success in Braves franchise history outside of what happened
in the nineties in two thousands. He is a wonderful person,
(21:30):
both in terms of being a baseball person and a
person in general, beloved across the game. He deserves all
the praise, all just anything positive that goes Brian Snicker's way.
He deserves it. But there's also just the simple truth
that the instances of you just watching the Braves and
seeing decisions that are made. And I'm not saying that,
(21:52):
you know, I can only speak for myself. I'm not
suggesting I know more about the game than Brian Snicker.
As many have said, he's forgotten more than I'll ever know,
but I do field. That's pretty clear that there's more
instances where you're left thinking why did he do that?
Where was the value added in that decision? Than thinking, Wow,
he really put us in a position to succeed there.
The Braves need a new voice at the helm of
(22:14):
the squad that's going to put them in a position
to where they can succeed more. And that's why I
think Brian Snicker's time has simply run its course. It
happens with every manager, with every organization. Love Brian Snicker.
He's been tremendous, but the time is right for this
to occur, for the Braves to get a new voice
at the head of the squad.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Yeah, I was thinking about this.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
So if you're a college basketball fan, you'll know the
name Buzz Williams, who is the Texas A and M coach,
and he just left to become the coach at Maryland,
I think is where he went. And he had a
really interesting take on it. He said, after about five
six years, your voice just kind of gets stille and
(22:57):
it's time to move on. And if you look at
his track record throughout his career, he's always done that.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Marquette, Texas A and M. You know, after about five or.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Six years he leaves because he's he just feels like
it can only end badly if you stay too long.
And with snit, I don't It's never been just one
thing like It's not like one egregious thing that happened.
It's not like anybody puts the twenty twenty five season
at the feet of Brian snick Er. No one blames
him for what's happened this year, but it's just time
(23:29):
for something new. It's just gotten a bit stale. And
I think that I find that to be the case
with not only the manager, but also in some ways
the roster. Like I think the roster needs a shake up.
I think the coaching staff needs to shake up. I
think the front office needs to shake up. Not a
major one at the top. I'm not talking about alex Adopolis,
but I'm just talking about.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
They need some new blood, they need some new life,
they need some new ideas they need. It has just
gotten stale. And that's no one's fault.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
It's you know, the old saying is familiarity breeds content.
Like just the more you're around the same group of
people year in, year in, year in, year in year out,
you know, it just gets stale.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
And and I just think it's time.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
And Snicker's also been in you know, he's been in
around in the organization for fifty years. I mean, I'm
sure the guy would like to go spend some time
with grandkids and you know, not have to worry about
the nonsense that we talk about on a daily basis,
and not have to worry about knuckleheads like us talking
about the stuff that you know, he has to worry
about on a daily basis.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
I'm sure he's got much better shit to do.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
So I I do fully expect this to be the
last month of Brian Snicker's you know, coaching career with
the Braves or any any team.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
I think he'll stay in the organization.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
He'll get some sort of you know, a Maritas, you know,
lifelong position in the front office where he can come
to spring training anytime he wants, very much like Bobby,
you know, he can do. You know, he's got a
lifetime pass to be around the team as much as
he wants. I just don't think he's going to be
the manager. And that is going to kick off. Another
fascinating part of this all season is who is going
(25:03):
to be the next manager of the Braves and then
what does their coaching staff behind them look like? Because
those are massive questions as well, just another massive, massive
piece of what is going to be a massive, massive
offseason for the Braves.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Muted buddy, everybody has in their mind that you know,
when it comes to you know, that window of opportunity,
that window of competing, and the Braves have had an
extended when the Braves run of being a true contender.
It's not over with in my mind by any means,
but it's been going on for nearly a decade. You know,
we're coming up on you know, I know they're not
(25:42):
going to make the playoffs this year, but it lasted
for seven years. That's an extended period of time for
an organization. And while everybody kind of envisions going up
a little bit, going up a little bit, going up
a little bit each year till you have that two
or three year window too, you really are a World
Series favorite. The Braves kind of peaked early in twenty
twenty one, and ever since then it's just kind of
gone restly downhill, Troubling the playoffs, trouble being able to
(26:07):
stay healthy, offense falling off a cliff last year, and
then this year, everything just kind of all falling to
bottom at times. When you have that occur over as
long as stretch as we've had it, which basically is
four years now since we won the World Series, it's
time that the staying with the current regime it's run stale.
Just having something new in and of itself can have value.
(26:30):
So it's going to be very interesting to see what
the Braves do on that end. One other small but
significant discussion that Alex and Poplus talked about was he
talked about rys Cela Iglesias and how good Ryce sel
Iglesias has been in the second half of the year.
Very much. You know, Iglesias has been to the level
that he was all of last year in terms of
(26:51):
how successful he's been on the mound and Alex and
Thopolas was asked about the fact that you have any
regrets about not trading Iglesias at the trade deadline, and
Alex basically repeated what he said at the trade deadline.
We were not going to trade players just for salary relief.
We were only going to trade players if we were
able to get prospects to help us in the future. Now,
I mentioned to Brad Steven when we were talking about
(27:12):
the Hassan Kim. Addition, we've now also had a Jake Frayley, Kim,
Alexis Diaz, players who formerly were successful major league players
who could potentially be a part of next year's team.
How the Braves have been active on the waiver wire
has made me be less concern about their inactiveness at
the trade deadline. But I do think that it's very
interesting when it comes to Alex and Thoppless. He's not
(27:34):
going to make a move for salary relief. That I
don't want to read too much into, but at the
very least, it lets me know that money may not
necessarily be as big of a concern as many of
us think that it is. Number one, and number two,
he values continuity, in terms of players that he knows
he could be successful here, he would rather than be
(27:54):
here than them not. And I think that adds value
in a positive way for this team that certainly seems
to value continuity highly.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
I imagine there are the people that are kicking themselves
about not adding iglesias, are the other teams more than
and Dopless is kicking himself about not dealing them. I mean,
the offers you get are the offers you get. Like you,
you know, you have no control over what offers you get. Now,
I will say I think the Braves. I think one
(28:27):
reason the Braves didn't get the offers that they wanted
to get was because the Braves were not willing to
pay down the contracts. I have not been able to
confirm that at any point, but I do believe that's
the case, where they just weren't willing, and I think
that impacted the offers they got. And I think that's
why anytime Alex is talking about it, has talked about
those potential deals, he's always said the same thing, which
(28:48):
is the only thing teams were offering were salary relief,
which means he was asking them to take on the
full salary and I think that did impact both of
those guys market but Litten and if I'm a playoff team,
I'm pretty pissed at myself if especially if I've had bullpinch,
you know, disruption since the trade deadline.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
I knew it. I mean, Glacias has just got such.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
A long track record of success and at the highest
levels of this game, in in the ninth inning and
high leverage like and there's just not a lot of
those guys out there available at any trade deadline. And
the fact that no one was interested for seven million
bucks or whatever he was. I think it was like
six million bucks actually for whatever he had left on
his deal for the last two months of the season.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
It's still very surprising to me.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
And I mean, there's nothing you can do about it now,
you know, I hate that the Braves are spending this
six million dollars just letting Iglacias pitch on a bad team.
I would have much other than spent it by sending
it to another team so that they would have sent
us some prospects, but that's not the way they chose
to go. So, you know, it is what it is.
There's nothing the Braves can do about it. But I
guarantee you there are teams around the league that are
(29:59):
are looking being back on the trade deadline, wishing they
would have been a little more aggressive on Aglecias, especially
given the state of some of the bullpens around baseball
at the moment.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
And to be honest with you, I would love to
have Iglecias back, but that's kind of another byproduct for
all of this. With how good he's had is at
the end of the season, I imagine that you know, he
certainly could be looking, you know, to have a closer
spot somewhere, and if that's for us, that's great, but
it's not off the table to where he certainly can
give him the multi year deal where he's making double
(30:29):
digit salary each year. Excuse me, you know, more than
ten million average annual value. I don't necessarily know where
that works into the brace fan it plans it would
be cheaper, But let me put it this way, rycell Iglesias,
I would be more than happy to have him back,
even in the closed role, with how well he's into
the season. But that's kind of lower on the totem
poll after all the other things that we've talked about
(30:50):
that add to what again is going to be a
fascinating season or off season for the Braves. But there's
still a little bit of this season left, and there
still is some excite moments to be able to watch,
and perhaps the most exciting moment will take place tomorrow
in Game two of the series against the Cubs. We'll
discuss that in just a moment after another word from
our partners.
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Speaker 1 (32:11):
So Stephen, of course, you know we we have talked
about it nearly on a weekly basis, and it's for
good reason, because it's actually become a bigger storyline than
many of us had hoped. But it still remains one
that could really work out well for the Braves. We
talk about certainty added to the off season, having an
extra pick to work with and adding to our slot total.
(32:33):
There are our money total that we could use and
what should be a very deep draft next year. That
would be a great development and all that. Of course
rids on Drake Baldwin winning Rookie of the Year. And
I bring that up because Drake Baldwin right now is
actually second. You know me and you have talked about
it multiple times over the past month. Where the odds
are currently currently, Cade Horton of the Cubs is a
(32:54):
slight favorite ahead of Drake Baldwin. And the thing is
is that tomorrow they'll be facing each other for the
second time in a week. Cad Horten will be on
the mound. He pitched last week against the Braves through
five excellent innings against Atlanta. He'll be on the mound
tomorrow for the Cubs. Drake Baldwin, of course, now likely
will be playing mostly every day when it comes to
(33:15):
what he did another you know, great night tonight or
at least in his first at bat, A really awesome
opportunity for Braves fans to witness tomorrow. And you're hoping
that if Drake Baldwin can put another hot streak together,
he'll be able to win the Rookie of the Year
award and get that extra draft pick for the Braves.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Yep, Cad Horton versus Drake Baldwin Part two. Obviously, the
Braid has just played the Cubs last week, so and KD.
Horton came out and threw he actually threw a no
hitter for the first five innings, got pulled at seventy
five pitches. That is notable that you know, you probably
should keep that in mind that he is on a
pretty strict pitch count. The Cubs are not playing around
(33:53):
with his pitch count at all. So and I don't
know if it'll be seventy five pitches like it was
last week, or if it'd be more or less.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
But you know, if you're the Braves, you have.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
To know, like, if you work this guy's count a
little bit in the first three or four innings, you
have a very good chance of getting him out of
the game. And they're not gonna let him throw ninety
one hundred, one hundred and ten pitches. They've shown that,
so you know, the Braves have been much better taking walks.
Let's have a patient approach tomorrow, maybe try to get
this kid out. He's very talented, Like you said, he
(34:23):
is the front runner for Rookie of.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
The Year right now.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
He's just pitched insanely well. And the Cubs are a
better team than the Braves, and so the Cubs are
playing in more high impact games than the Braves, and
you know, Drake's just got to be that much better.
When you're on a bad team. You know, is that fair?
Probably not, but that's just the way it is. He's
got to be that much better. And you know, I
do think if the voting were today, you know, just
(34:50):
because of the Vegas odds doesn't mean it's written in stone.
Like if the voting were today, Drake Baldock would still
very much win. I think Kate Horton would win. But
I could be wrong. He could be the leader in
the clubhouse for all we know. You know, we're not
gonna know until the voting.
Speaker 6 (35:05):
But.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Days like tomorrow that you know, his teammates could really
help him out by putting an eight spot on Kate
Horton in the first three innings and Drake going you know,
three for three with a couple of doubles. You know,
anything like that will help his cause because it is
a neck and neck. I mean, even if you think
Drake Baldwin is ahead right now, it is not by much.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
It is a tight race.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
And you know, we've already laid out multiple times on
the show why it matters for the Braves that Drake
Baldwin wins this award. So tomorrow's a big kind of
chapter of that story. Is is Horton Versus Baldwin Part two.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
And the other thing I want to add to this
discussion is that, yes, the draft pick coming with Drake Baldwin,
we make it seem as if that's even more important
than Drake Baldwin himself winning Rookie of the Year, and
yet it's a what it means a lot to the organization.
It would be a nice little consolation prize from what
we've experienced this year. But to add to the reason
why I think Drake Baldwin deserves it over Kate Horton,
(36:05):
Drake Baldwin has been doing this all year as a catcher,
playing not every day, but he's played in big moments
and is delivered in big moments. And to me, the
other thing that stands out about Drake Baldwin, He's in
his rookie year. He's been consistent for the most part
all season long, and his numbers, his underlying numbers, those
metrics that we always talk about, they support what he's done.
(36:29):
They show that what he's done is legitimate. He may
even be underperforming a bit what he actually should be doing.
So for those reasons, I feel Drake Baldwin is definitely
in position to win and deserves to win the Rookie
of the Year contest. It likely is going to take
another hot streak and hopefully that occurs starting tomorrow night
against Horton directly. Also want to talk about tonight's game, Stephen,
(36:52):
because it was a good victory. The Braves got a
needed victory. Much like Friday night. They faced a quality
picture on the mound, a team that's in position to
make the playoffs, and they look like they belonged. Ozzie
Albi's went deep with another left handed hitter again. I
know many are pointing out that how he's hitting against
right hand how he's hitting right handed against left handed pitching,
(37:14):
That may be the most positive indicator of all We're
getting back to Ozzie being Ozzie. But I also want
to put the spotlight on Bryce Selder, who gets some
pretty legitimate competition, has been absolutely outstanding his past four starts.
I don't think that means he gets a rotation spot
next year. I don't think it means anything significant. But
when we talk about as many Braves as possible ending
(37:35):
the year in as good a way as possible, Bryce
Elder is certainly taking advantage of that. He was in
command tonight, and he got the job done against a
pretty legitimate opponent.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
I'm not sure there is any pitcher in baseball with
a higher range of outcomes than Bryce Elder. I quite literally,
anything could happen in a Bryce Elder start, and I
would kind of believe it.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
I'd be like, yeah, that's know.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
He could give up nine runs before recording it out,
he could throw a one hitter and anything in between,
and I'd be like, yeah, I mean that makes sense.
The dude is there's not a soul on the planet
that can figure out what Bryce Selder is or what
he's gonna do next, because we've seen him go on heaters,
we've seen him go on i mean just fall off
(38:22):
a mountain, and tonight he was really good. He's been
really good, like four starts in a row, three or
four starts in a row. It gets really good teams.
So I don't know what to make of it. I
don't think the Braves know what to make of it.
I don't think Bryce Selder knows what to make I'm
guessing he's as confused as the rest of us as
to what happens on a night to night start for him.
(38:42):
But he pitched well tonight, and the offense did enough.
You know, you still got a Cunya batting six, which
we're not going to get. The whole thing tonight still
annoys me, but it is what it is at this point.
You know, Brian Snicker clearly thinks it's a way to
get him out of his funk.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
Whatever.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
The offense did enough. Olsen hit another homer. Matt Olsen
is heating back up.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
He had a really slow August. He's heating back up.
Ronnie did break his over streak, he did have an
RBS single tonight.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
Drake Baldwin at a double, Ozzie Albis hid another homer,
so you know, it was a good start. We're gonna
talk about Spitzer Strider here in a second in the show,
but yeah, the offense did enough. We need the office
to be more consistent. It would be lovely to see
Ronnie come all the way back before the season ends.
But Bryce elder Man, I don't know, I have no
(39:31):
answers I have I don't even know. I don't even
I don't even know how to begin to give an
answer about Bryce elder Just every single start, anything can happen,
and in a lot of ways that makes him the
most interesting man on the team. Literally, any outcome on
any given night is attainable for him, and it's it's wild.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
It's wild to watch, quite honestly.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
Yeah, it's a year of riddles, right, Like we talked about,
this has been one big question mark all year, and
the Braves had just come out the last three weeks
of the season and just wear a question mark on
their hats. That's what they should do, because that's been
one big question mark. But after all of today's action, Steam,
after all of today's news, all today's action, and then again,
(40:14):
it's been a mixed bag of positive and negative, but
at least it ended well on the field. The biggest
question of all and I think this may be of
the season. The hell happened to Spencer Strider's mustache? Seriously,
it's just it's different. Listen. I'm here for change, I'm
(40:35):
here for trying something new. But the man looked like
he could well bass against anybody with that mustache, and
I'm sure that he still can, but it's just it's
a different look. He looks ten years younger. That that
stash was like one of the it was like one
of the biggest, like the most identifying features in Baseball
(40:56):
Strider's stash. When you saw that, it struck feet and
hitters everywhere. Just I miss the stash.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
I'll tell you this. That mustache. I don't know what
it is about it.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
Maybe it's because he's got a really really dark hair,
maybe it's because it's like jet black.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
But it like changes his whole face.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
Like if Spencer Strider committed a crime with the mustache
and then shaved and was like on the run the
rest of his life, he would never be caught because
that looks like two different human beings. Like I thought
that was like Pete Alonzo's son, Like they he looks
exactly like Pete alons It's the weirdest thing I've ever seen. Yeah,
(41:42):
you know they shot him in the dugout. It's like
he's playing out like the whole Major League Ricky Vaughan storyline,
except it's with the instead of a mustache, that's with
the black glasses that Ricky Vaughan had. You know, he
took him off for the second one and he lost
all his powers, and he put him back on at
the end. Maybe we'll see the mustache return next. I
don't know it was I mean it was. It was
(42:03):
weird as hell. I mean he really he looked twelve.
He looked like a ball boy, said, I made the joke.
He looked like Bennie the Jet Rodriguez was about to
teach him how to throw a baseball. That's I mean,
he it's crazy how much that mustache like changes his face.
So yeah, I mean he's kind of having one of
those years where, like, you know, it's like a high
school girl who breaks up with her boyfriend and cuts
(42:25):
all her hair off. Like he's having like that kind
of you know, existential crisis kind of year where he's like,
you know what, screw it, nothing else is going right
this year.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
We're going with a new look.
Speaker 3 (42:35):
And there were, honest to god, people were as mad
about that as anything that's happened.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
All year long.
Speaker 3 (42:43):
People love that mustache. That mustache had its own Twitter.
I had multiple Twitter accounts. It's got to I mean,
it's its own celebrity at this point. So it was
a shocking, shocking turn of events.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
I'm still in shocked. Yeah, kill me, Strider, You're killing me.
Just don't make it. Foreverse even did there did. I
picked up all that I had to give it a
little sand lot, you know, shout outs now, Listen, I'm
I don't ever think this will get back to Spencer Strider,
but if anybody ever expresses to Spencer Strider our reactions
(43:18):
to him being without his mustache, I want to make
it clear if he ever asked directly, it looks absolutely fantastic,
best decision he's ever made. Keep it that way if
he prefers. All joking aside, we want to end the
show on a bit of a hilarious note, because listen,
we deserve a bit of hilarious in our lives right
now as Braves fans. But it was a change, and
(43:40):
it's one of those changes that you're just not prepared for. Man,
even if I would have gotten a week's notice, I
still would not have been prepared for it. But you know, hey,
at the very least, let's put it this way, the
end of the season for the Braves, I think has
been a bit more eventful than any of us had anticipated.
Maybe not necessarily all in a positive way, but at
the very least has been eventful. Stephen, do you have
(44:01):
anything else for us as we wrap up this edition
the Hammer Territory Podcast.
Speaker 3 (44:05):
No, And I guess we should mention that obviously. We
talked about Kate Horton pitching for the Cub tomorrow. Tomorrow,
Spencer Strider pitches for the Braves, and then Chris Sale
is on Wednesday, day off Thursday, and then the Astroals
come to town. So you're gonna you're gonna get another Spencer
Strider started to mark. Striders start tomorrow. Just another data
(44:26):
point to watch. I'm curious to see, you know. The
outing he had against I think Miami was decent. The
next one not quite as good. They've pushed him back.
Speaker 2 (44:36):
A couple of days. There was some speculation on whether
he was hurt. I don't think he's hurt.
Speaker 3 (44:41):
So it's just gonna be just see what he looks
like tomorrow, and that's gonna be the big thing. And
then we moved, you know to Chris Sale, and then
the Astronals come to town for the weekend.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
Yeah, you know, and it looks like that what we
could be seeing, what we could be lining up to
see is over the next three games. You know, we
talked about it last week. The Braves are gonna get
the opportunity to really see where they It didn't work
out so well against Seattle. But see where some of
these individual players stand. You know, again, more about the
process over the result. Right now, See where there's some
of these individual players stand. You've got Spencer Strider facing
(45:10):
the Cubs for a second straight start, a playoff team
they saw him last start. What can he do adjustment
wise to maintain success at least in terms of run prevention.
You got Chris Sale on the mount tomorrow against the
Cubs and then Hirston Waldrip on the mount against the
Astros on Friday. So plenty to watch board this week,
of course, going along with Drake Baldwin hopefully having a
(45:31):
great week. Listen, Ken, thank you enough for joining us
here on the Hammer Territory podcast. We're always here to
cover with the braves, always here to deliver content, hopefully
in a fun and informative way, sometimes in a not
so fun way if a rant or two is involved,
though a lot of times it's certainly warranted. For Steven Tolver,
you could find him at b Underscore Outliers on Twitter,
(45:52):
slash x. My name is Sean Coleman. You could find
me at Stat's sac Hammer Terroritory across all forms of
social media, The Foul Territory family of podcast. Shout out
to Brad Rowlands, shout out to Scott Coleman, shout out
to Grant McCauley who was an awesome guest on Sunday,
and shout out to the Braves. A hell of a
day off the field and on the field. Hopefully Sean
(46:14):
Murphy comes back better than ever. Until next time, Go Braves.
We'll talk to you again soon here on the Hammer
Territory Pot
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