August 3, 2025 • 45 mins
Brad Rowland and Scott Coleman co-host Episode 243 of the Hammer Territory Podcast. Topics include a wild weekend at the MLB Speedway Classic in Bristol for the Atlanta Braves, Austin Riley's injury, Hurston Waldrep's 2025 debut, the Eli White game, a busy upcoming week, and much more.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Emmer Territory Podcast.
This is episode two four three. I am your host,
is Brad Roling, coming to you on a Sunday evening
here in early August, and I'm joined as I always
am by Scott Coleman. Scott, we kind of don't think
we're gonna talk about I would say one game for
most of the show, much over the next two months,
(00:43):
but today the Speedway Classic dominates all news a round
Atlanta Braves, how are you.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Hello, Brad? We should just get right to it on
the show tonight because all of America is waiting for
a definitive ruling on this one. So as folks know,
the Braves have no one on a Sunday since the
third weekend in May. It was the week before Ronald
Lacuna Junior and Spencer Strider were set to return, and
(01:11):
since then the Braves are like oh to nine on Sundays.
So the question of the year, Brad, does today's win
count as a Sunday victory? Of course, they started on
Saturday night, played in a monsoon for about nine minutes,
then the game was postponed. They finished it on a Sunday,
even if first pitch was on a Saturday. Where do you,
(01:32):
Bradley roll and stand on the definitive question of our time.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
I think it's a nuanced situation. We've already taken credit
to some degree on social media, both of us for
the street being over. It's Sunday. We've been playing it
up for two months now, and they just keep losing.
It's kind of hilarious. But I think in looking at
this a little bit, I think technically, if you were to,
let's say, in a couple of weeks, you go into
(01:59):
an official channel, Baseball Reference or whatever and try to
find the Sunday games, I think it's gonna look like
a Saturday game in those, So like, I'm okay with
us taking a victory lap on them find finally winning
on Sunday. I also don't think that it's actually a
Sunday game, if that makes sense. Like take what I mean. Look,
(02:19):
there have been very few wins of any kind, and
I mean that literal or figurative this season for us
and the Braves. So if you want to just take it,
let's just take it.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Let's take it.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Okay, let's just let's just take it. The Braves won
a game on a Sunday. It was kind of a
weird one and we'll talk all about that in a second.
By the way, if you're new to the podcast, you
just found us. We're not usual with this insane It's
just that things have gone off the rails the last
few months. Uh, Welcome to the Arbor Territory Podcast. Please subscribe,
rate review, tell your friends. But yeah, I mean, look,
(02:51):
people that are listening to this probably know the deal
to some degree here about the MLB Speedway Classic that
transpired became a two day event on Saturday and Sunday
in Bristol, Tennessee. And you know what do you want
to talk about? First Deers Choice, the Brays winning. It's
a series win, the first win by any team in
(03:11):
the state of Tennessee ever in Major League Baseball. There's
that aspect. There's the actual game, and then there's also
like the drama of what actually happened on Saturday. And
to you already you kind of alluded to it, the
absolute nonsense of what happened on Saturday? Where do you
want to go? First Dealers Choice?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Let's talk about the game first, Because there were some
like legitimate things like Hirston Waldrip and Eli White had
a great game. So let's talk a little bit of
the nuts and bolts of the game.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Yeah, the game, you know, we'll put Allstar rightway to
the side. That was probably the biggest thing of like
consequence is that he got hurt today. That we'll save
that for a second. But the actual game, it was
the Eli White game in some respects. He was the MVP.
He got some national shine. That was fun. But I
think Waldrop's probably the biggest thing. So without going into
the nonsense, yet, they were supposed to start Stride on Saturday.
(04:01):
That ended up not happening. It became a bullpen game.
Then it got postponed or sorry, suspended, and then they
called up person Waldrup, who pitched in the majors last
year but not this year. This is his twenty twenty
five debut. By all accounts, he got in the car
and was just driven there, either drove himself there or
something happened to get him there this morning late, and
(04:24):
then he quote unquote starts like the game had already
begun but he was so it wasn't the starter, but
he threw a starter's workload. That's a fun story. And
look he wasn't perfect, but he looked good. And then,
for one of the few prospects that Braves fans tend
to know by name because he was a pressu round pick,
he's a bigger name. I mean, that's a really good sign.
He looked good today.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yeah, I thought Waldrop looked really good. And you know,
the situation of coming into the middle of a first
inning was bizarre, but Waldrop did a good job of
keeping the damage at a minimum. And then the second
inning was pretty shaky, and I saw it in the
real time. Some folks we're like, oh boy, this is
just more of the same from Waldrop, some of the
things that really have plagued him really throughout his professional
(05:06):
time with the Braves. But after that third inning, Waldrop
was really effective. He was throwing strikes, he was establishing
the fastball, which is really the name of the game
with him, and then he has that awesome splitter that
is a legitimate plus pitch, and then he has these
work in progress breaking balls just to keep hitters honest.
So I thought Waldrop was really impressive for a situation
(05:30):
that was about as difficult as it gets, having to
commute hours before a major league start. But if you
talk to people who follow Gwennett closely, Waldrop has really
made some big strides and the right direction, especially after
making some mechanical adjustments to his wind up and just
kind of the overall approach to how he pitches. So
(05:51):
this was kind of a confirmation of the good things
we had heard about Waldrop over the last month or two.
And I think he did more than enough to get
himself at least one more. Start with the braves and
then you see where it is.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Yeah, and given where they are, we won't rehash all
of that, but they have there's a lot of uncertainty
with the rotation, so it's why not. It's kind of
the thing. And I mean I was a little not surprised,
but a little bit of like an eyebrow raise that
they chose him to do this, because you know, he
is the he is a prospect, He is a big
name guy, and like you don't usually have that guy
kind of be the fill in, last minute guy when
(06:26):
he gets called up. And it wasn't his debut, which
probably made a little bit easier. It was his twenty
twenty five debut, but you know, he has been a
guy that I thought, what we would see at some
point this year, just because of the situation that we're in,
So why not in August? And why not do it
in this weird spot sure, high pressure, and that it's
national TV. But it was less of a spotlight than
it would have been the night before, for example. And
(06:48):
you know, his first tour of duty in baseball and
Major League Baseball didn't go super well, but he has talent.
You mentioned the delivery tweaks. He was pitching really well
in Triple A the last month or so before today,
and by all accounts, the biggest thing with him is
like he doesn't have a great fastball, like everyone says
that it's a flat, hittable fastball, but if he can
locate it better, which just seems to be what he's
been focused on recently, lets a splitter play up in
(07:11):
the way that it will always play up. It's the
best pitch by far, like you can kind of see it,
and clearly they have the runway to give him some space.
So certainly, I don't know if I would guarantee it,
but it would make so much sense for them to
give him another chance, especially as we'll get into later on.
The Rings have eight games in seven days, Like they're
gonna need an extra guy, and why not just make
it Waldrip again?
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Oh yeah, almost certainly. I would. I mean, we'll see
what they do with in terms of roster movement with Waldrop,
but I would sure think he will pitch, probably in
that double header on Saturday against the screaming hot Miami Marlins,
who I believe swept the Yankees this weekend. The Marlins
are maybe the best story in baseball at the moment,
which is a funny thing to say, but yeah, really
(07:54):
impressive for Waldrop. I was a little surprised too when
I saw the name this morning. It was like, oh, man, okay,
all right, why not at this point in the season,
what do you really have to lose? And Waldrip was
kind of a ray of sunshine in a season where
we have seen just so many pitchers go down with injury.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Yeah, I mean, you'd love to see that, especially in
a big spot, like if he got out there and
really gotten crushed, it would have been like, man, why
do they do this? You know, there's and it would
be another thing that we could just be like what's
going on with the organization? As we covered in depth,
and if you missed anything. By the way, from our
show on Thursday post Deadline, there was a more exasperated
version of Scott and Brad on that show. Listen to
(08:31):
that one if you missed it. But because it went well,
it feels just much better. Obviously, that's a pretty logical statement.
Other than Waldrip, I would say again, Eli White was
the big star. He hit two home runs, he accounted
for all four runs that were scored, and they win
for the Braves. This is a funny stat. He had
had a multi home run game in more than four
calendar years in the major leagues, and he happened to
(08:54):
have it as the first player and to hit a
home run at all in Tennessee and hit two of
runs in the same game. And like I said, I
got some national interviews and all that. He entered today's
game with fourteen home runs total in two hundred and
forty six career major league games, two on Fox on
Big Fox in a weird game. So hey, Eli White,
he has that he's been up and down this year, obviously,
(09:15):
but everybody likes Eli White, and it was like, hey,
that's actually cool that under the radar guy got a
big moment.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Absolutely, I mean he got interviewed by Ken Rosenthal and
our guy Ken Rosenthal. Yeah yeah, and he was all
over the MLB Twitter account. So yeah, good for Eli White,
a player who was really helpful for this team the
verse month or two of the season. God knows why
Brian Snitker decided to play Alex Dugo over him. A
couple of people. We screamed about it on the podcast
(09:42):
for weeks. I saw people tweeting about it today. But yeah,
you know what, in some ways, Eli White is like
a perfect fourth outfielder to have. He's fast, he can run,
He's verstal defensively, he can play all over and he
can run into a home run. He doesn't do a
ton well in the batter's box, but Eli can hit
the ball over the fence. And really, it was cool,
(10:02):
you know, to have his moment in the sun, especially
when the rest of the lineup really did not do
a whole lot, left some runners on base and everything.
And this was very much the Eli White and Hurston
waldrip game. And if I would have told you that
was going to be the case a couple of months ago, man,
I mean, scary hours. And it was nice for the
Braves to finally get a win.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
It was one more quick note and we won't belabor this,
but Michael Harris had two more hits today and we've
covered it on the show the last week or two,
but Michael Harris has a ops over eleven hundred now
since the All Star break. It's fifteen games. But there
are signs. Obviously a lot of that was that couple
of days where he was just out of his mind.
But still he's been consistently hitting the ball hard, if
(10:42):
nothing else, over the last couple of weeks. And for
a guy that was in the wilderness for so long,
a little bit more step by step, inch by inch
into more comfort with Michael Harris moving forward.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
It's no small thing because if Michael Harris had a
bad final couple of months of the season, I mean,
and then you have to have a real conversation, probably
in the offseason, of can we trust this guy for
another one hundred and sixty starts in center field? And sure,
it's only been two and a half weeks since the break,
but the fact that Harris changed his stance in the
batter's box, he moved his hands, he's been a little
(11:16):
more patient, He's not striking out as much. He's even
walked a couple of times, which is a really good sign.
And then when Mike is making contact with the ball,
he's hitting it really hard, really hard, and that's a
really encouraging sign for him. Of Course, the first half
was just so bad, but it's something to keep an
eye on every single night, even if the results at
this point don't really matter all that much for the Braves.
(11:39):
Things like Michael Harris, things like Ozzy Alby's, if Austin
Riley can get healthy, like there are legitimate storylines to
watch that have an impact far beyond just this season.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Absolutely he is one of them. We'll talk about one more,
probably at some point next week. Ozzy Alby's has been
better recently. Things to talk about, for sure, and as
we've joked about it, but it's also true, it will
be plenty of runway to talk about these things because
these games are not the most meaningful as far as
wins and losses. So hold on time, everybody. We'll cover
all that more, I promise you in the coming days.
(12:09):
Also on this show, we'll begining to Austin Riley in
a second not so great news there, and then we'll
probably talk a little bit about people calling this a
fire fest of baseball, not what you want to hear.
If you're someone going to Bristol, Tennessee. We'll get into
all that more after a word from our partners.
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Speaker 1 (13:25):
Okay, Scott, let's talk about the firefest nature of this
one before we talk about Austin Riley. Look, we alluded
to this. We were we were actually flirting with recording
last night. We were going to record. Actually, we'll just
say that, like we were going to do a rare
Sury night recording because there wasn't the brace were supposed
to be off today. It's Sunday. It's a rare Sunday
off day. And then it then the rains came and
(13:47):
the nonsense began. They started the game after a rain delay.
Actually an important detail. First they did all the pumpit circumstance,
all the warm ups, all the introductions, even like all
Star game level introductions, like big formal stuff, and then
they announced the rain delay after Strider warmed up. That's
(14:10):
important to note all the stuff. So they go into
rain delay for an hour, two hours something like that
was a long time. I think I think it was
two hours two hours, so by the time it's over,
the braves and I know people were upset about this
is a different topic, but Strider had already warmed up
in full. There was no reason to have him pitch
(14:30):
if there was any doubt at all, and there was
obviously some doubts, so he didn't pitch. I don't know
about you. Quickly I thought that was the right decision.
Why why I pitch him? I know everybody wanted to
see him pitch, so did we, But like they got
screwed on that one. It wasn't anybody's fault. It was
Baseball's fault. And by baseballly me an MLB's fault. But
once he warms up in full like, you can't pitch,
I don't think.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Yeah, I mean, unless it was like a playoff game
or something like that where a thunderstorm came out of nowhere,
you can't risk Strider pitching there. I mean, even if
it wasn't Strider, even if even if it was Hurston
Waldrip last night, who was supposed to start originally, you
don't mess around. That's one thing you just cannot risk
at this point. And yeah, I mean, what in just
(15:09):
one note you mentioned this was the fire Fest of
baseball games. If folks missed that chapter a handful of
years ago. We'll keep it brief, but there was like
this crazy Island Rave concert celebration party, and it was
like the biggest scam you've ever seen. It was just
(15:29):
poorly executed. They ran out of food, they ran out
of water, they didn't have bathrooms. So a lot of
folks are making the comparison this weekend in Bristol to
the Firefest, which if you don't, if you never, if
you want to watch a good hour or two documentary
on Netflix, there's some good ones out there.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Yeah, I would recommend that too. But yeah, I mean
there's the fan experience part of this. There's also the
baseball logstics part of this part.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
You know.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
The first thing was the Strider thing, distracted in whatever
right decision. Then at nine, well they like nine o'clock
ish they announced they're going to start nine to forty, Okay,
But everybody even before it started, they started a lot
of us that were dialed into this, looking at the weather,
it's like are they why why are they starting? Because
like it was, the weather was not there was no
break in the rain. It was like maybe a little
bit lighter at that point in time, but clearly it
(16:14):
seemed as if Major League Baseball really, really really wanted
to push this game and have it be played right then,
big Fox, palm, circumstance, all that stuff. But before we
move forward, Scott, I have a question I think I
know the answer to. If this was not a special
standalone game at a international motor speedway, is there any
(16:39):
way they would have tried to play last night?
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Zero percent chance. I mean, they probably would have given
it a college try, But I mean in that first inning, Brad,
first of all, it was pouring, and there was a
clip where Ozzie Albey's made a play and then the
camera zoomed in on Ozzy and he was trying to
get the mud out of his cleats, and then like
a foot away from Ozzie was an honest to goodness
(17:04):
pool of water that was forming and only getting deeper.
And this is not like a brand new, legitimate stadium
and turf where it drains really fast like some of
the new modern advances that we've seen with these newer stadiums,
where it can pour and thirty five minutes later the
field is mostly dry and fine it was bad. It
(17:25):
was pouring for like thirty minutes too, and then they
brought the tarp out. It was just I mean, I
understand that millions of dollars went into this thing, hours
and hours of planning, and I mean it sucked. Like
if you were somebody putting on this event, it sucks
that mother Nature came in and rained really hard on you.
And it sucks if you're a fan who made the
(17:47):
trip and bought tickets and hotel and parking and all that.
But it was just amateur hour and clearly the league
was doing everything in its power to try to salvage it,
and it was just so obvious there was no salvaging it.
On Saturday night, Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
It was brilliant. We won't We'll have to keep talking
about it. It's it was just it was ridiculous if you
were watching, and I mean there was a moment where
you couldn't hear the audio. I don't think of Matt Olsen,
but he was kind of like saying, like, what are
we doing? Kind of like everyone. The players were clearly baffled,
and look, I know they're pros. It is what it is.
It's also not safe to be playing baseball in that
like as far as like if you go if you're
(18:23):
trying to run full speed and suddenly you run into
a three foot puddle and like you tear something because
you're Yeah, it's just none of that's good for anybody.
When you can a general rule of thumb, if you're
on watching on TV and you can see puddles on
the field, they shouldn't be playing in Major League Baseball.
That's a pretty obvious thing. But it's like they were
everywhere too. It was it was just one puddle. It
(18:43):
was like the whole field was just little puddles. I
don't know, or not to little puddles, I should say.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
I hope whatever they paid those kids to manage that field.
The grounds crew, I mean there was there was like
a ten minute segment where the game had been intermittently
delayed and they just showed person after person after person
carrying out like the fifty pound bags of diamond dry
and then pouring a pound of dirt and trying to
(19:11):
rake it. And by the time they fixed one spot,
they'd go to another and then there was another pool
of water.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
It was bad.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Just what a mess. Well, I don't know why I
was legitimately wondering was the stadium not available on Sunday
or something.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Like, Okay, that's actually the next thing because and I
think our colleague Stephen Tolbert said this in real time,
it's like, wait, once they announced that they were going
to call it for the night, which was the only move.
They couldn't play. The weather wasn't gonna get me better,
they couldn't play, and then they said, oh, we're gonna
start again on Sunday. At one, we all had the
collective why did you not do this like hours ago?
(19:47):
Like the same thing as you, Like, no way report
on it that I saw, but we were I was
kind of like doing like searches Twitter, like, hey, does
anybody know why if they can play tomorrow in Bristol,
because clearly it's a one, one day, one game set up,
maybe there's a reason they can't push it to tomorrow.
And besides, I mean, obviously the ticket thing is a
whole separate thing, so they probably didn't want to. I
(20:10):
know they didn't want to because you're talking about refunds
and people that are leaving town and all. It's a nightmare.
But what's being clear that couldn't play you either have
to postpone the whole thing and play a game in
Cincinnati later in the season or something, or you got
to play tomorrow, and but they obviously knew they could
play tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
It was just hilarious how long they waited to do that,
and then so that that happens, they finally call it
and they go back and now sit in funny way again,
our guy Ken Rosenthal was the way that was finally
announced on the air on Fox was that he was
doing an interview with like the base like the guy
from MLB, like the field operations guy from MLB. And
they were doing it in the rain, like they were
(20:48):
next to the dog. Did you notice this? They were
next to the dug out, but they were not in
the dugout. It's like they made a point to do this.
Oh no, no, we have to do this. Actually in
the elements, we're standing there in the rain. Kid's getting
poured on, he's in a suit. Just hilarious stuff. So
I don't know, they finally announced it. They push it,
they push it to uh push it. A Sunday we
toushed on it, but look, we weren't there, but a
lot of our listeners were I know, I got tweets,
(21:11):
you got tweets. I don't want to talk about us forever,
but like it was apparently, like legitimately awful the conditions
for fans during the rain, and you know, some of
this is maybe unavoidable. It's a makeshift fed you clearly,
but between they ran out of food apparently in Bristol.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Ran out of did you see the picture. They were
selling hot dogs without the buns, and they were selling
nacho chips, but they didn't have any cheese. So people
and people were hanging out because, like I know, Snit
was saying how great the energy was pregame and how
cool event, and then you know, they run out of it.
That someone said they waited in line for a bathroom
(21:50):
for like forty minutes. There was nowhere to go because
it was pouring and if there was lightning, god knows.
You don't want to be sitting on a bunch of
bleachers if there's lightning, even if you have a poncho
and an umbrella or whatever. It was just it was
a bad look for Major League Baseball. At least they
got the game in today, so it's like, okay, whatever,
it's done. With we played a major League game in Tennessee.
(22:12):
We turned a racetrack into a baseball stadium for a day.
But I mean it was it was not well done,
Brad for an event that has been on the calendar
for a calendar year.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Yeah, it was not well done. And you know, we
don't know all the details, but maybe there were people
asking this even before the weather. It was like, why
wasn't this just like a weekend? Like they could have
done two games there instead of one, and that gives
you a little bit more logistical cover, maybe you do
a double header to day or whatever whatever. It would
have been like having it having an outdoor look logistically
(22:44):
having an outdoor event in Tennessee in the summer, like
there's a good chance it's gonna rain, and like they
clearly did some work on the field so where they
had some drainage but not enough and nowhere to get
these people to go. I felt awful. People we know
people that that were there, people that work for battery Power.
I know a lane Day was there for example. I
would have loved honestly, if I had an easier schedule,
(23:06):
I would have tried to go. As as media like
it was, it was that cool in an event. I
know some of my friends that were in the Atlanta
market were there covering it, and there was real juice
until the rain came. Like by all accounts, like it
was an awesome crowd they set. I mean, did they
actually officially set the record because they were gonna set
the record for attendants? I'm assuming they did because they
were all there at the beginning of the game.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Yeah, so could have seen the classic pairing of Pitbull
and Tim McGraw. Like God, who hasn't lived? I feel
like I have lived a good life, Brad, now that
I have seen Pitbull and Tim McGraw in concert in
Bristol with a monthsoon on the way, it was a
man alive. What in Blooper was stealing race cars and
(23:47):
that was at least funny.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
I mean, shouts to Blooper. Blooper's not for everyone. I found.
There's a split on Blooper, but most bra his fans
enjoy his work. He's just a crazy person, not well,
person's not the right thing mascot, but like, yeah, it
made it a little bit more tolerable during the endless Raindoway,
I couldn't keep watching the Fox broadcast because they're just
killing time. They don't know anything, they're just talking about
(24:09):
about nothing.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Oh it was just yeah, they were eating what he
gets alive on the set, and I got it. I'm
serious about this Tim McGraw and Pitbull thing, Like what
what executive at Fox was like, Brad, I have figured
it out now. Saturday Night tennessee Tim McGraw, which made sense, sure,
(24:31):
and then Pitbull.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Pit Bull is always available. It seems he's big events.
He's he's out there. If you pay the pay, paying
the right salary, he will come out and play to
whatever crowd. So no, I mean, it could have it.
Ali said it could have been cool. It was cool
at times. I felt really bad for all involved. It
was poorly planned in some ways clearly, and uh, you know,
(24:56):
if you have some horror stories, I don't. I'm sorry.
I feel legitimately bad for fans that went and had
to deal with it and especially people that were trying
to get back to work today and couldn't had to
like get their tickets away or trying to get refunds
and yeah, boy, no fun there. But hey, I will
say everyone made this joke. But I mean, could anything
be more on brand for the twenty twenty five Braves
(25:17):
like anything at all. I mean, they won the game.
I guess that that was not as unbrand they're supposed
to lose the game in general. But besides that, everything
else was just I.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Was gonna say. In the ninth inning, the first two
batters reached against Trice e Iglacias with the Braves up too,
and I thought, you know what would really make this
game in this weekend perfect.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
A Glaciers giving up the three run hover to lose. Yeah,
that'd have been incredible when he's still on the roster
for some reason after the deadline. Anyway, that's a Thursday
Show topic from three days ago that we'll not do again.
All right, Scott, let us talk about Austin Riley, which
is not as fun as some of that stuff. Austin
Riley and we don't know a lot right now, but
he left the game on Sunday once they restarted. It
(25:57):
was not a weather related, rain related injury.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Thank god.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
If that happened last night, can you imagine. But he
exits the game with what the Braves called lower abdominal
pain after a rundown in which he was trying to
chase Ela de la Cruz. I know who my money's
on in that battle. It's not Austin in a race.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
He did catch him.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
He did catch him, I know, and maybe that's why
he pulled up lame because he had to extend uh aggressively.
But snit, I guess on the broadcast right away, I
didn't see it, but you did kind of downplayed it
a little bit live and then after the game he
kind of said, there'll be more evaluation. If you don't remember,
Austin just was on the IEL for an abdominal issue.
(26:39):
I don't know think the if these No one knows
if it's the exact same thing, but it's the same area.
It would be surprising if it wasn't related. And to
some degree he's been off the IL for a week,
so it's still It would have been, yeah, July twenty fifth.
So I don't have much to add other than obviously
you hope it's not a serious thing. They are, of
course incentemized to be cautious given the state of everything
(27:00):
and often being signlunged for anybody, but especially a guy
who signed long term and all that stuff. Anything to
add on this besides the fact that it's just not
fun and another thing that had to do with Yeah,
I mean it was I mean a heck of a
play by Riley to get the out just before a
run scored at home played. And but you know, I
(27:21):
think with at this point in the season and the
fact this is now a recurring injury for Riley, I
think you put him back on the injured list. Why not, Like,
the last thing you want him to do is try
to play through this and injure himself severely where he
you know, like you have a core muscle strain or
a tear or something like that which would require surgery
(27:41):
or a longer time of being out. The season, for
all intents and purposes, is over. Put Riley on the
injured list. Hopefully it's nothing serious. I mean, I want
Austin to be back out there in a couple of weeks,
but there's no reason to push this. And I'm guessing
maybe by the time folks listen to the show they'll
have some more clarity. But just another kind of roadblock
(28:03):
for Austin Riley in a season where he just has
not been very good. To be blunt, yeah, I mean
I know it might not seem like much, but these
those core core injuries the way you describe it, like
obliques are the one everyone kind of recurls at, but
anything core muscle related for baseball players is more serious
than for any other regular human because they just have
to use that so much. It's just you cannot function
(28:25):
in the same way as a power hitter in particular
if you don't have your core right on all cylinders.
And that's that's the short version of that. But yeah,
I mean there's a longer conversation that will probably have
at some point, but Austin is having a very rough
season by his standards. He has a one er four
WRC plus, which isn't disastrous, but for a guy who's
supposed to be a star, is not at that level.
(28:47):
He's eighty five WRC plus since June first. That's two
months of him being like a solidly below average hitter.
And he isn't like a great defender. There's always been
a split there, but like, he's not a great defender
at the very least. So there's that he's got a
hit and last two years combined one ten WRC plus. Yep,
I can tell you right now when they get when
they gave him that contract, that is not what they
(29:08):
were hoping for. And that's still a good player. No
one's saying he's a terrible player. But one ten WRC
plus and where he was before the contract in the
one thirty five, one to forty range, that's a that's
a big gap. Like you can you're a start one
and you're not a star on the other. That's that's
a simple as I could put it.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Yeah, I don't, I don't have the exact number. But
since Riley signed the biggest contract in franchise history, again,
like he's been a good player, Like do not hear
what we're not saying? Yep, But if you told me
on that the night we did that emergency show, after
Riley signed for two hundred plus million dollars, biggest contract
(29:46):
by a mile on the franchise history, that he was
going to have like a one fifteen WRC plus and
like just over an eight hundred ops in the three
seasons to follow that massive contract like that, I would
say you need more from that player. And the fact is,
when you sign these long, long deals, the likelihood is
(30:09):
that you're gonna get better production at the front end
of it than the back end. So if Riley doesn't
turn this thing around. The last couple of years of
this contract could get pretty ugly. It is still way
too early to make any kind of declaration in that regard.
He's still a very talented player. He is in his
theoretical prime. And if you ask me, will Austin Riley
(30:29):
be better than this going forward? I would say definitively yes.
But it is very fair to say that the last
couple of seasons and especially recently, have just not been
what the Braves need from Riley.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Yeah, and like I said, we'll probably do a whole
show it's at some point, but it's he didn't have
like to be fair to him, he signed them in
the middle of twenty twenty two, and he was a
star level player in twenty twenty three the next season,
But the two years after that is what we're talking about.
And look some of the underlying stuffs. I'm more concerned
where his walk rates going the wrong way, strike out
(31:03):
rates going the wrong way, and he's not like young
Young anymore, and that is the risk. And that's something
we said on that show when we did that emergency
pocket that you were just referred to is like there,
that was one of the shakier extensions that Alex gave out.
Not that it was terrible, no one said that, but
it was one of the ones with more risk because
of just how old he was going to be by
the end and the profile all that stuff. So anyway,
(31:25):
we'll get that later. Hopefully Austin is fine. There was
actually a little bit of news. I'm not sure if
you've got the same one I just got. Scott Herson
Waldrop has been returned to Gwinnette, which was expected to
be fair, but and Bowman actually just said in real
time that he's uh, he's able to return as the
extra player on Saturday. We talked about that, but I
want to just say that broke while we were recording
(31:46):
officially going back down. That was always gonna happen. He
was the extra guy.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
You know, all that stuff in one clarification because I
looked it up, Brad. So since signing the biggest contract
in franchise history with the Braves, this was at the
end of July twenty twenty two, YEP, Austin Riley is
batting two sixty two with a three twenty nine on
base percentage, a four to sixty five slugging which is
(32:13):
good in a one seventeen WRC.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Plus that's a sub eight hundred ops.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
You need more, just full stop. You need more from
your star players. There's a lot of issues with this team.
Riley is far from the biggest issue with this roster
right now. Agreed, they need more and we will. We'll
do a deeper dive probably some point in the next
two months when the games don't have as much meaning
on Riley, where he's been and what his future might
look like.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Yeah, and we'll move on. But the big thing of
with that is like when you're extending a guy like that,
you're hoping that you get surplus value at the beginning
because the end of it is almost certainly not going
to be good. That's that's the theory of an eight
year extension is like he's gonna outplay it for the
first four or five years and then kind of gradually fall.
And right now he's not out playing. He's not he's
not super underwater on it. But you wanted to be
(33:00):
a fifty million dollars player like he was pre extension,
and what he wasn't twenty twenty three, To be fair,
the last two years he's been like at the level
and that's not where you want him to be. Okay,
Before we get out of here, one more note, not
a huge surprise, but we talked about it a lot
on Thursday about Ozuna sticking around and all the factors
(33:20):
didn't play there. Friday, Brian Snicker said pretty plainly that
the plan is for Drake Baldwin to basically play almost
every day or every day, which means him dhing when
he's not catching, which we all were happy about and
happy to hear. Of course, Drake is the young talented player,
but also he has the Rookie of the year at stake,
(33:40):
which could help the Braids with a draft pick. All
of that that's the longer discussion, but obviously we all
want Balwin to play it as much as possible. Sid
did not give the same guidance on Sean Murphy, which
is interesting because Sean Murphy's been as good as Drake
Balwin this season. Granted he's not a prospect in the
way that Drake is, but by the numbers has actually
been just as good. What do you make of that
(34:03):
whole thing? Like, is that Ozuna basically basically what amount
to Ozuna playing over Murphy? Sometimes? Like when when Murphy's
not catching. It seems like he's like Murphy's gonna catch
almost only and very rarely DH. Is what I that's
the message I took from that. He didn't say that, but.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
I didn't necessarily take that away. I'm guessing it's gonna
be something like Ozuna plays once a series.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
So well, and that basically means that Murphy's gonna end
up not dhing. I mean, if you follow the logic there.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Well, if Murphy catches one and Baldwin catches one, then
you would have Murph DH once and have uh Ozuna
DH the other night. I don't know, I mean, we'll see.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
I didn't read that as anything more than just Baldwin's
gonna play basically every day, which is what we have been.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
I'm in on that. I should, I just don't. It's
not a big of a deal if it was the opposite,
Even as resident Murphy defenders like, I'm less bothered by
this than I would be by the other way around.
I want Baldwin to play as much as humanly possible
for multiple reasons. Obviously, make sure he's not overextending himself.
But he's a young guy, he's a good shape all that,
(35:15):
so he'll be fine. And if you're just hitting, that's
different than playing catcher all the time. So whatever. I
just think that Snid is very intentionally leaving the door
open to play Marcel and I don't particularly like that.
But it also was expected. We talked about, we predicted
that as well, like he's gonna play. I think you
saw the too. He'll play some. It's just what's gonna happen.
And one note on the Rookie of the Year thing
(35:37):
for Baldwin. So the Brewers on Sunday placed Jacob Miserowski
on the injured list, which is a shame because that
kid is so electric. But in my opinion, Miserowski was
probably the biggest threat to Baldwin.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Winning Rookie of the Year. So it helps, I mean,
it does. I mean, we never want to root for
an injury of any kind, but it does help you.
Baldwin is a comfortable favorite now in the betting odds
for Rookie of the Year, and again that would get
the Braves draft pick, and it would get them even
more money to spend with the likelihood that they are
(36:12):
going to have a top five, if not top three,
top two, top one pick in the draft next summer.
That's not a small thing when you're trying to rebuild
your farm system in a hurry. Yeah, as of now,
our friends at DraftKings have Baldwin at minus two forty five.
That's a big favorite. Fern Awards race on August third. Now,
(36:33):
not like a slam dunk, like, he's not definitely going
to win it. He's got to perform number one and.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Stay healthy all that stuff, but he is a clear
betting favorite at DraftKings well.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
And just to show the impact of the injury to Misrowski,
I believe Brad correct me if I'm wrong, but Baldwin
was minus one ninety as of Sunday morning before Milwaukee
put him on the injured list. So that is a
significant jump because and again no one's rooting for injuries here.
Do not hear what we're not saying. But it helps
Baldwin and it helps the Braves, and as long as
(37:03):
knock on freaking wood, Baldwin stays healthy down the stretch,
not only will the Braves have a Rookie of the Year,
which is really cool, but it should help them get
that draft pick that they could really use next summer.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
It is one of the bigger sweats of the rest
of the season is whether Baldwin will win the Rookie
of the Year, So root for that if nothing else
for his fans. Unless you have takes on Friday's game,
we don't have to touch on that too much. Although
chast Brice Elder, who actually pitched pretty well on Friday.
He had been really bad for a while, so nice
to see that. They still lost the game, but it
was not his fault. They lost the game. He pitched well,
(37:36):
So there you go. That's my always take on Friday,
unless you have more to ad.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Another good night for Michael Harris.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Yeah, there you go. All right, let's look ahead a
little bit then we'll get out of here. As noted earlier,
the Braves have eight games in the next seven days.
No day off this week and a doubleheader on Saturday.
It's three against Milwaukee and then five against Miami. All
that's in Atlanta, so busy week. We'll have shows as
we always would. The Braves actually announced their starters for
(38:04):
the Milwaukee series and then changed it during our show,
which I did see. Originally it was Fetti on Monday,
then Strider on Tuesday, and Wentz on Wednesday. Now, uh,
it's Feeddi Wentz on Tuesday, Strata on Wednesday. I'm fine
with that. Give Spencer as much time as he wants
or needs. Yes, yeah, I mean Strider went through the
(38:26):
full on warm up. I mean he was gonna pitch
on he was going out to the throat like they were
about They didn't. They didn't call the delay until like
right before the game. So he was ready to go,
and he's you know, he's a he's a guy that
gets psyched up, like he's a very intense person. I'm
sure he was like amped to go pitch in this
big spot National Fox, like all that stuff. Like it's
(38:48):
not exactly a normal cool down. I would say, yeah, right,
So it makes sense.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Gives Strider an extra day protect that arm. And you know,
it's funny, Brad. I remember, back in the beginning of April,
which feels like an eternity ago in this baseball season,
that first Sunday home game against the Marlins was rained out,
and at the time, I think the Braves were one
in eight, and I think, like word for word on
(39:15):
the show, it was like, you know, the rain out
today is not the worst thing, because in August surely
the Braves will be in really good shape and playing
much better, and then the Marlins will have sold and
will be thinking about next year. And I mean, the
Marlins are like legitimately alive in the wild card race.
They're five hundred, they're playing, They're the second best record
in the game over the last six weeks in the majors,
(39:38):
and we know where the Braves are. In a million years,
I wouldn't have predicted this. So Miami's playing goodball. The
Brewers are really I mean, the Brewers are just such
a machine, one of the best run franchises regardless of
payroll in the major leagues. It'll be a tough week
for the Braves, and I mean, lord knows other than
the Strider start and presumably Hirston Waldrip getting another start
(39:59):
next weekend and might be a tough go the next week.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Yeah, I mean, I knew they were playing with you well,
but I will admit I did not know this. The Brewers,
as we are speaking on Sunday evening, at the best
record in baseball and the best run differential in baseball.
There have been the best team in baseball this season
by the numbers till as of right now, so in what's.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
Crazy about Milwaukee? Every offseason they lose like three players
and you go, oh wow, like Willia Damas and Corbyn
Burns was there, Like every they don't have the money
or they don't they're not they don't spend the money
to retain these high level players. And every year Milwaukee
wins and just a really good baseball team and easy
to root four team. They have Bill Contreras. They just
(40:42):
put Trino on the injured list. But again, man, this
is a good, talented, fundamentally sound baseball team.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
Yeah, they're the only team in baseball that's top five
and both run scored and runs allowed usually good formula
to win games if you are good at both those
things prevention and score. So yeah, uphill battle obviously the
results of the results. But a busy week. If you
enjoy watching baseball, there'll be a lot of it. Eight games,
seven days, no night's off. Even as much as the
(41:10):
season has been brutal, I don't like off days. It's
good for the show sometimes, but as far as like
it just throws your real them off, like we're all
used to just all right, turn the game on, here's
a game on.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
Oh I still do.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
Yeah, I mean, and I always will. I mean, the
game is gonna be on whatever. So I've never liked
off days, and this week there are none, and there's
an extra bit of baseball on Saturday, so stay tuned.
We'll be covering all of it. But yeah, we'll see.
We'll see about Walter coming back up. I think it's
probably gonna happen Saturday, all as a Strider. He's the
one guy in the rotation that we know is a
guy in capitol letters. But look, Joey Wentz has been good.
(41:44):
We'll see what he looks like in his next follow
up start. Like Eric Fadi is not exciting at all,
but he's a Bajor League pitcher. So plenty of stuff
to talk about this week. We'll cover it all in
this space.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
I was gonna say, is Monday's gait at Truest Park
going to be like the lowest attended Braves game in
that stadium in like six years?
Speaker 1 (42:04):
Here's something you did that you wouldn't know as well. Uh,
Monday is also the first day of school in a
lot of places. A run Alanta.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Oh so yes, I think the question.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
And I guess it's gonna be pretty pretty rough. Attendance wise, Milwaukee,
as good as they are, is not a They're not
a casual fan draw. It's not the Yankees, it's not
you know, it's not the Dodgers coming in. So uh yeah,
I would imagine it's gonna be a little down, especially
in the nonst Rider the first Monday and Tuesday, I
would imagine, and the nons rider games are gonna be
tough tickets. Well maybe not, I should sorry, easy tickets
(42:35):
to get if you want to go.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
Yeah, I was gonna say, you can probably get a
good deal. This is the time of year where teams
who are not in the mix start doing like the
you know, get a season ticket for the rest of
the season, all home games for ninety nine dollars, and
you know, you just get like assigned row nineteen of
section four oh two. You know they're not gonna be
good seats, but you're in the stadium and you know, hey,
like we said, I'll turn on the braves just about
(42:57):
every night. Sometimes I might turn them off in the
ending if it's going real bad. But baseball is a
good thing and we'll get through these next two months.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
It's always a little bit of a litle with weeknight attendance.
When school starts, that's just natural for any place. But
when your team is what the Braves are right now,
it will probably be a little bit bigger of a dip.
But we'll see.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
And this is just so unrelated. When did school start,
Like school's out here in Arizona started on Friday. What happened,
man Like wasn't when I was a kid. It was
like Labor Day was when I started going to school.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
Yeah, I mean we were My parents are, granted because
I'm a Michigan FANA's I'm not surprised to anybody. My
parents are Midwestern people and that's where I grew up,
and same like we would we would start school around
my birthday. My birthday is in mid August, and my
parents were like, this is insane, you should be starting.
And now they're starting. Some places to start start it's
(43:51):
like July thirtieth or something other stuff. Yeah, school, and
that's it's weird. But yeah, I can tell you because
I'm my brother. My brother's teacher. A lot of places
around the metro Atlanta area start Monday, and that is
a hilarious bit of synergy. So we'll see. But all right,
Scott let's get out of here. We're gonna we pleased
to be shorter. It's not really shorter, but it's probably
shorter than we would often be on a Sunday. That's
(44:12):
forty five minutes. We get out of here. Anything to
add and if not, folks can find you where on
social media.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
I'm at Scott Coleman at fifty five and as always,
thanks everybody for sticking with us, even in this challenging
season filled with weird baseball games and rain delays and
hot dogs without buns and everything else in between.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
So I was not ready to pot noize about buns
in that sign off. Please follow Scott everywhere, really, because
Scott's just someone you have to follow. If you're a
brace fan, follow me if you like to at bt
Roland follow the show more importantly at Hammer Territory, anywhere
you find podcasts, and also on social media, So check
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(44:52):
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for us. Stay tuned, subscribe. We'll see everybody next time.
Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Emmer Territory Podcast.
This is episode two four three. I am your host,
is Brad Roling, coming to you on a Sunday evening
here in early August, and I'm joined as I always
am by Scott Coleman. Scott, we kind of don't think
we're gonna talk about I would say one game for
most of the show, much over the next two months,
(00:43):
but today the Speedway Classic dominates all news a round
Atlanta Braves, how are you.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Hello, Brad? We should just get right to it on
the show tonight because all of America is waiting for
a definitive ruling on this one. So as folks know,
the Braves have no one on a Sunday since the
third weekend in May. It was the week before Ronald
Lacuna Junior and Spencer Strider were set to return, and
(01:11):
since then the Braves are like oh to nine on Sundays.
So the question of the year, Brad, does today's win
count as a Sunday victory? Of course, they started on
Saturday night, played in a monsoon for about nine minutes,
then the game was postponed. They finished it on a Sunday,
even if first pitch was on a Saturday. Where do you,
(01:32):
Bradley roll and stand on the definitive question of our time.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
I think it's a nuanced situation. We've already taken credit
to some degree on social media, both of us for
the street being over. It's Sunday. We've been playing it
up for two months now, and they just keep losing.
It's kind of hilarious. But I think in looking at
this a little bit, I think technically, if you were to,
let's say, in a couple of weeks, you go into
(01:59):
an official channel, Baseball Reference or whatever and try to
find the Sunday games, I think it's gonna look like
a Saturday game in those, So like, I'm okay with
us taking a victory lap on them find finally winning
on Sunday. I also don't think that it's actually a
Sunday game, if that makes sense. Like take what I mean. Look,
(02:19):
there have been very few wins of any kind, and
I mean that literal or figurative this season for us
and the Braves. So if you want to just take it,
let's just take it.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Let's take it.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Okay, let's just let's just take it. The Braves won
a game on a Sunday. It was kind of a
weird one and we'll talk all about that in a second.
By the way, if you're new to the podcast, you
just found us. We're not usual with this insane It's
just that things have gone off the rails the last
few months. Uh, Welcome to the Arbor Territory Podcast. Please subscribe,
rate review, tell your friends. But yeah, I mean, look,
(02:51):
people that are listening to this probably know the deal
to some degree here about the MLB Speedway Classic that
transpired became a two day event on Saturday and Sunday
in Bristol, Tennessee. And you know what do you want
to talk about? First Deers Choice, the Brays winning. It's
a series win, the first win by any team in
(03:11):
the state of Tennessee ever in Major League Baseball. There's
that aspect. There's the actual game, and then there's also
like the drama of what actually happened on Saturday. And
to you already you kind of alluded to it, the
absolute nonsense of what happened on Saturday? Where do you
want to go? First Dealers Choice?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Let's talk about the game first, Because there were some
like legitimate things like Hirston Waldrip and Eli White had
a great game. So let's talk a little bit of
the nuts and bolts of the game.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Yeah, the game, you know, we'll put Allstar rightway to
the side. That was probably the biggest thing of like
consequence is that he got hurt today. That we'll save
that for a second. But the actual game, it was
the Eli White game in some respects. He was the MVP.
He got some national shine. That was fun. But I
think Waldrop's probably the biggest thing. So without going into
the nonsense, yet, they were supposed to start Stride on Saturday.
(04:01):
That ended up not happening. It became a bullpen game.
Then it got postponed or sorry, suspended, and then they
called up person Waldrup, who pitched in the majors last
year but not this year. This is his twenty twenty
five debut. By all accounts, he got in the car
and was just driven there, either drove himself there or
something happened to get him there this morning late, and
(04:24):
then he quote unquote starts like the game had already
begun but he was so it wasn't the starter, but
he threw a starter's workload. That's a fun story. And
look he wasn't perfect, but he looked good. And then,
for one of the few prospects that Braves fans tend
to know by name because he was a pressu round pick,
he's a bigger name. I mean, that's a really good sign.
He looked good today.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yeah, I thought Waldrop looked really good. And you know,
the situation of coming into the middle of a first
inning was bizarre, but Waldrop did a good job of
keeping the damage at a minimum. And then the second
inning was pretty shaky, and I saw it in the
real time. Some folks we're like, oh boy, this is
just more of the same from Waldrop, some of the
things that really have plagued him really throughout his professional
(05:06):
time with the Braves. But after that third inning, Waldrop
was really effective. He was throwing strikes, he was establishing
the fastball, which is really the name of the game
with him, and then he has that awesome splitter that
is a legitimate plus pitch, and then he has these
work in progress breaking balls just to keep hitters honest.
So I thought Waldrop was really impressive for a situation
(05:30):
that was about as difficult as it gets, having to
commute hours before a major league start. But if you
talk to people who follow Gwennett closely, Waldrop has really
made some big strides and the right direction, especially after
making some mechanical adjustments to his wind up and just
kind of the overall approach to how he pitches. So
(05:51):
this was kind of a confirmation of the good things
we had heard about Waldrop over the last month or two.
And I think he did more than enough to get
himself at least one more. Start with the braves and
then you see where it is.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Yeah, and given where they are, we won't rehash all
of that, but they have there's a lot of uncertainty
with the rotation, so it's why not. It's kind of
the thing. And I mean I was a little not surprised,
but a little bit of like an eyebrow raise that
they chose him to do this, because you know, he
is the he is a prospect, He is a big
name guy, and like you don't usually have that guy
kind of be the fill in, last minute guy when
(06:26):
he gets called up. And it wasn't his debut, which
probably made a little bit easier. It was his twenty
twenty five debut, but you know, he has been a
guy that I thought, what we would see at some
point this year, just because of the situation that we're in,
So why not in August? And why not do it
in this weird spot sure, high pressure, and that it's
national TV. But it was less of a spotlight than
it would have been the night before, for example. And
(06:48):
you know, his first tour of duty in baseball and
Major League Baseball didn't go super well, but he has talent.
You mentioned the delivery tweaks. He was pitching really well
in Triple A the last month or so before today,
and by all accounts, the biggest thing with him is
like he doesn't have a great fastball, like everyone says
that it's a flat, hittable fastball, but if he can
locate it better, which just seems to be what he's
been focused on recently, lets a splitter play up in
(07:11):
the way that it will always play up. It's the
best pitch by far, like you can kind of see it,
and clearly they have the runway to give him some space.
So certainly, I don't know if I would guarantee it,
but it would make so much sense for them to
give him another chance, especially as we'll get into later on.
The Rings have eight games in seven days, Like they're
gonna need an extra guy, and why not just make
it Waldrip again?
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Oh yeah, almost certainly. I would. I mean, we'll see
what they do with in terms of roster movement with Waldrop,
but I would sure think he will pitch, probably in
that double header on Saturday against the screaming hot Miami Marlins,
who I believe swept the Yankees this weekend. The Marlins
are maybe the best story in baseball at the moment,
which is a funny thing to say, but yeah, really
(07:54):
impressive for Waldrop. I was a little surprised too when
I saw the name this morning. It was like, oh, man, okay,
all right, why not at this point in the season,
what do you really have to lose? And Waldrip was
kind of a ray of sunshine in a season where
we have seen just so many pitchers go down with injury.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Yeah, I mean, you'd love to see that, especially in
a big spot, like if he got out there and
really gotten crushed, it would have been like, man, why
do they do this? You know, there's and it would
be another thing that we could just be like what's
going on with the organization? As we covered in depth,
and if you missed anything. By the way, from our
show on Thursday post Deadline, there was a more exasperated
version of Scott and Brad on that show. Listen to
(08:31):
that one if you missed it. But because it went well,
it feels just much better. Obviously, that's a pretty logical statement.
Other than Waldrip, I would say again, Eli White was
the big star. He hit two home runs, he accounted
for all four runs that were scored, and they win
for the Braves. This is a funny stat. He had
had a multi home run game in more than four
calendar years in the major leagues, and he happened to
(08:54):
have it as the first player and to hit a
home run at all in Tennessee and hit two of
runs in the same game. And like I said, I
got some national interviews and all that. He entered today's
game with fourteen home runs total in two hundred and
forty six career major league games, two on Fox on
Big Fox in a weird game. So hey, Eli White,
he has that he's been up and down this year, obviously,
(09:15):
but everybody likes Eli White, and it was like, hey,
that's actually cool that under the radar guy got a
big moment.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Absolutely, I mean he got interviewed by Ken Rosenthal and
our guy Ken Rosenthal. Yeah yeah, and he was all
over the MLB Twitter account. So yeah, good for Eli White,
a player who was really helpful for this team the
verse month or two of the season. God knows why
Brian Snitker decided to play Alex Dugo over him. A
couple of people. We screamed about it on the podcast
(09:42):
for weeks. I saw people tweeting about it today. But yeah,
you know what, in some ways, Eli White is like
a perfect fourth outfielder to have. He's fast, he can run,
He's verstal defensively, he can play all over and he
can run into a home run. He doesn't do a
ton well in the batter's box, but Eli can hit
the ball over the fence. And really, it was cool,
(10:02):
you know, to have his moment in the sun, especially
when the rest of the lineup really did not do
a whole lot, left some runners on base and everything.
And this was very much the Eli White and Hurston
waldrip game. And if I would have told you that
was going to be the case a couple of months ago, man,
I mean, scary hours. And it was nice for the
Braves to finally get a win.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
It was one more quick note and we won't belabor this,
but Michael Harris had two more hits today and we've
covered it on the show the last week or two,
but Michael Harris has a ops over eleven hundred now
since the All Star break. It's fifteen games. But there
are signs. Obviously a lot of that was that couple
of days where he was just out of his mind.
But still he's been consistently hitting the ball hard, if
(10:42):
nothing else, over the last couple of weeks. And for
a guy that was in the wilderness for so long,
a little bit more step by step, inch by inch
into more comfort with Michael Harris moving forward.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
It's no small thing because if Michael Harris had a
bad final couple of months of the season, I mean,
and then you have to have a real conversation, probably
in the offseason, of can we trust this guy for
another one hundred and sixty starts in center field? And sure,
it's only been two and a half weeks since the break,
but the fact that Harris changed his stance in the
batter's box, he moved his hands, he's been a little
(11:16):
more patient, He's not striking out as much. He's even
walked a couple of times, which is a really good sign.
And then when Mike is making contact with the ball,
he's hitting it really hard, really hard, and that's a
really encouraging sign for him. Of Course, the first half
was just so bad, but it's something to keep an
eye on every single night, even if the results at
this point don't really matter all that much for the Braves.
(11:39):
Things like Michael Harris, things like Ozzy Alby's, if Austin
Riley can get healthy, like there are legitimate storylines to
watch that have an impact far beyond just this season.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Absolutely he is one of them. We'll talk about one more,
probably at some point next week. Ozzy Alby's has been
better recently. Things to talk about, for sure, and as
we've joked about it, but it's also true, it will
be plenty of runway to talk about these things because
these games are not the most meaningful as far as
wins and losses. So hold on time, everybody. We'll cover
all that more, I promise you in the coming days.
(12:09):
Also on this show, we'll begining to Austin Riley in
a second not so great news there, and then we'll
probably talk a little bit about people calling this a
fire fest of baseball, not what you want to hear.
If you're someone going to Bristol, Tennessee. We'll get into
all that more after a word from our partners.
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Speaker 1 (13:25):
Okay, Scott, let's talk about the firefest nature of this
one before we talk about Austin Riley. Look, we alluded
to this. We were we were actually flirting with recording
last night. We were going to record. Actually, we'll just
say that, like we were going to do a rare
Sury night recording because there wasn't the brace were supposed
to be off today. It's Sunday. It's a rare Sunday
off day. And then it then the rains came and
(13:47):
the nonsense began. They started the game after a rain delay.
Actually an important detail. First they did all the pumpit circumstance,
all the warm ups, all the introductions, even like all
Star game level introductions, like big formal stuff, and then
they announced the rain delay after Strider warmed up. That's
(14:10):
important to note all the stuff. So they go into
rain delay for an hour, two hours something like that
was a long time. I think I think it was
two hours two hours, so by the time it's over,
the braves and I know people were upset about this
is a different topic, but Strider had already warmed up
in full. There was no reason to have him pitch
(14:30):
if there was any doubt at all, and there was
obviously some doubts, so he didn't pitch. I don't know
about you. Quickly I thought that was the right decision.
Why why I pitch him? I know everybody wanted to
see him pitch, so did we, But like they got
screwed on that one. It wasn't anybody's fault. It was
Baseball's fault. And by baseballly me an MLB's fault. But
once he warms up in full like, you can't pitch,
I don't think.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Yeah, I mean, unless it was like a playoff game
or something like that where a thunderstorm came out of nowhere,
you can't risk Strider pitching there. I mean, even if
it wasn't Strider, even if even if it was Hurston
Waldrip last night, who was supposed to start originally, you
don't mess around. That's one thing you just cannot risk
at this point. And yeah, I mean, what in just
(15:09):
one note you mentioned this was the fire Fest of
baseball games. If folks missed that chapter a handful of
years ago. We'll keep it brief, but there was like
this crazy Island Rave concert celebration party, and it was
like the biggest scam you've ever seen. It was just
(15:29):
poorly executed. They ran out of food, they ran out
of water, they didn't have bathrooms. So a lot of
folks are making the comparison this weekend in Bristol to
the Firefest, which if you don't, if you never, if
you want to watch a good hour or two documentary
on Netflix, there's some good ones out there.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Yeah, I would recommend that too. But yeah, I mean
there's the fan experience part of this. There's also the
baseball logstics part of this part.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
You know.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
The first thing was the Strider thing, distracted in whatever
right decision. Then at nine, well they like nine o'clock
ish they announced they're going to start nine to forty, Okay,
But everybody even before it started, they started a lot
of us that were dialed into this, looking at the weather,
it's like are they why why are they starting? Because
like it was, the weather was not there was no
break in the rain. It was like maybe a little
bit lighter at that point in time, but clearly it
(16:14):
seemed as if Major League Baseball really, really really wanted
to push this game and have it be played right then,
big Fox, palm, circumstance, all that stuff. But before we
move forward, Scott, I have a question I think I
know the answer to. If this was not a special
standalone game at a international motor speedway, is there any
(16:39):
way they would have tried to play last night?
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Zero percent chance. I mean, they probably would have given
it a college try, But I mean in that first inning, Brad,
first of all, it was pouring, and there was a
clip where Ozzie Albey's made a play and then the
camera zoomed in on Ozzy and he was trying to
get the mud out of his cleats, and then like
a foot away from Ozzie was an honest to goodness
(17:04):
pool of water that was forming and only getting deeper.
And this is not like a brand new, legitimate stadium
and turf where it drains really fast like some of
the new modern advances that we've seen with these newer stadiums,
where it can pour and thirty five minutes later the
field is mostly dry and fine it was bad. It
(17:25):
was pouring for like thirty minutes too, and then they
brought the tarp out. It was just I mean, I
understand that millions of dollars went into this thing, hours
and hours of planning, and I mean it sucked. Like
if you were somebody putting on this event, it sucks
that mother Nature came in and rained really hard on you.
And it sucks if you're a fan who made the
(17:47):
trip and bought tickets and hotel and parking and all that.
But it was just amateur hour and clearly the league
was doing everything in its power to try to salvage it,
and it was just so obvious there was no salvaging it.
On Saturday night, Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
It was brilliant. We won't We'll have to keep talking
about it. It's it was just it was ridiculous if you
were watching, and I mean there was a moment where
you couldn't hear the audio. I don't think of Matt Olsen,
but he was kind of like saying, like, what are
we doing? Kind of like everyone. The players were clearly baffled,
and look, I know they're pros. It is what it is.
It's also not safe to be playing baseball in that
like as far as like if you go if you're
(18:23):
trying to run full speed and suddenly you run into
a three foot puddle and like you tear something because
you're Yeah, it's just none of that's good for anybody.
When you can a general rule of thumb, if you're
on watching on TV and you can see puddles on
the field, they shouldn't be playing in Major League Baseball.
That's a pretty obvious thing. But it's like they were
everywhere too. It was it was just one puddle. It
(18:43):
was like the whole field was just little puddles. I
don't know, or not to little puddles, I should say.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
I hope whatever they paid those kids to manage that field.
The grounds crew, I mean there was there was like
a ten minute segment where the game had been intermittently
delayed and they just showed person after person after person
carrying out like the fifty pound bags of diamond dry
and then pouring a pound of dirt and trying to
(19:11):
rake it. And by the time they fixed one spot,
they'd go to another and then there was another pool
of water.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
It was bad.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Just what a mess. Well, I don't know why I
was legitimately wondering was the stadium not available on Sunday
or something.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Like, Okay, that's actually the next thing because and I
think our colleague Stephen Tolbert said this in real time,
it's like, wait, once they announced that they were going
to call it for the night, which was the only move.
They couldn't play. The weather wasn't gonna get me better,
they couldn't play, and then they said, oh, we're gonna
start again on Sunday. At one, we all had the
collective why did you not do this like hours ago?
(19:47):
Like the same thing as you, Like, no way report
on it that I saw, but we were I was
kind of like doing like searches Twitter, like, hey, does
anybody know why if they can play tomorrow in Bristol,
because clearly it's a one, one day, one game set up,
maybe there's a reason they can't push it to tomorrow.
And besides, I mean, obviously the ticket thing is a
whole separate thing, so they probably didn't want to. I
(20:10):
know they didn't want to because you're talking about refunds
and people that are leaving town and all. It's a nightmare.
But what's being clear that couldn't play you either have
to postpone the whole thing and play a game in
Cincinnati later in the season or something, or you got
to play tomorrow, and but they obviously knew they could
play tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
It was just hilarious how long they waited to do that,
and then so that that happens, they finally call it
and they go back and now sit in funny way again,
our guy Ken Rosenthal was the way that was finally
announced on the air on Fox was that he was
doing an interview with like the base like the guy
from MLB, like the field operations guy from MLB. And
they were doing it in the rain, like they were
(20:48):
next to the dog. Did you notice this? They were
next to the dug out, but they were not in
the dugout. It's like they made a point to do this.
Oh no, no, we have to do this. Actually in
the elements, we're standing there in the rain. Kid's getting
poured on, he's in a suit. Just hilarious stuff. So
I don't know, they finally announced it. They push it,
they push it to uh push it. A Sunday we
toushed on it, but look, we weren't there, but a
lot of our listeners were I know, I got tweets,
(21:11):
you got tweets. I don't want to talk about us forever,
but like it was apparently, like legitimately awful the conditions
for fans during the rain, and you know, some of
this is maybe unavoidable. It's a makeshift fed you clearly,
but between they ran out of food apparently in Bristol.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Ran out of did you see the picture. They were
selling hot dogs without the buns, and they were selling
nacho chips, but they didn't have any cheese. So people
and people were hanging out because, like I know, Snit
was saying how great the energy was pregame and how
cool event, and then you know, they run out of it.
That someone said they waited in line for a bathroom
(21:50):
for like forty minutes. There was nowhere to go because
it was pouring and if there was lightning, god knows.
You don't want to be sitting on a bunch of
bleachers if there's lightning, even if you have a poncho
and an umbrella or whatever. It was just it was
a bad look for Major League Baseball. At least they
got the game in today, so it's like, okay, whatever,
it's done. With we played a major League game in Tennessee.
(22:12):
We turned a racetrack into a baseball stadium for a day.
But I mean it was it was not well done,
Brad for an event that has been on the calendar
for a calendar year.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Yeah, it was not well done. And you know, we
don't know all the details, but maybe there were people
asking this even before the weather. It was like, why
wasn't this just like a weekend? Like they could have
done two games there instead of one, and that gives
you a little bit more logistical cover, maybe you do
a double header to day or whatever whatever. It would
have been like having it having an outdoor look logistically
(22:44):
having an outdoor event in Tennessee in the summer, like
there's a good chance it's gonna rain, and like they
clearly did some work on the field so where they
had some drainage but not enough and nowhere to get
these people to go. I felt awful. People we know
people that that were there, people that work for battery Power.
I know a lane Day was there for example. I
would have loved honestly, if I had an easier schedule,
(23:06):
I would have tried to go. As as media like
it was, it was that cool in an event. I
know some of my friends that were in the Atlanta
market were there covering it, and there was real juice
until the rain came. Like by all accounts, like it
was an awesome crowd they set. I mean, did they
actually officially set the record because they were gonna set
the record for attendants? I'm assuming they did because they
were all there at the beginning of the game.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Yeah, so could have seen the classic pairing of Pitbull
and Tim McGraw. Like God, who hasn't lived? I feel
like I have lived a good life, Brad, now that
I have seen Pitbull and Tim McGraw in concert in
Bristol with a monthsoon on the way, it was a
man alive. What in Blooper was stealing race cars and
(23:47):
that was at least funny.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
I mean, shouts to Blooper. Blooper's not for everyone. I found.
There's a split on Blooper, but most bra his fans
enjoy his work. He's just a crazy person, not well,
person's not the right thing mascot, but like, yeah, it
made it a little bit more tolerable during the endless Raindoway,
I couldn't keep watching the Fox broadcast because they're just
killing time. They don't know anything, they're just talking about
(24:09):
about nothing.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Oh it was just yeah, they were eating what he
gets alive on the set, and I got it. I'm
serious about this Tim McGraw and Pitbull thing, Like what
what executive at Fox was like, Brad, I have figured
it out now. Saturday Night tennessee Tim McGraw, which made sense, sure,
(24:31):
and then Pitbull.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Pit Bull is always available. It seems he's big events.
He's he's out there. If you pay the pay, paying
the right salary, he will come out and play to
whatever crowd. So no, I mean, it could have it.
Ali said it could have been cool. It was cool
at times. I felt really bad for all involved. It
was poorly planned in some ways clearly, and uh, you know,
(24:56):
if you have some horror stories, I don't. I'm sorry.
I feel legitimately bad for fans that went and had
to deal with it and especially people that were trying
to get back to work today and couldn't had to
like get their tickets away or trying to get refunds
and yeah, boy, no fun there. But hey, I will
say everyone made this joke. But I mean, could anything
be more on brand for the twenty twenty five Braves
(25:17):
like anything at all. I mean, they won the game.
I guess that that was not as unbrand they're supposed
to lose the game in general. But besides that, everything
else was just I.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Was gonna say. In the ninth inning, the first two
batters reached against Trice e Iglacias with the Braves up too,
and I thought, you know what would really make this
game in this weekend perfect.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
A Glaciers giving up the three run hover to lose. Yeah,
that'd have been incredible when he's still on the roster
for some reason after the deadline. Anyway, that's a Thursday
Show topic from three days ago that we'll not do again.
All right, Scott, let us talk about Austin Riley, which
is not as fun as some of that stuff. Austin
Riley and we don't know a lot right now, but
he left the game on Sunday once they restarted. It
(25:57):
was not a weather related, rain related injury.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Thank god.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
If that happened last night, can you imagine. But he
exits the game with what the Braves called lower abdominal
pain after a rundown in which he was trying to
chase Ela de la Cruz. I know who my money's
on in that battle. It's not Austin in a race.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
He did catch him.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
He did catch him, I know, and maybe that's why
he pulled up lame because he had to extend uh aggressively.
But snit, I guess on the broadcast right away, I
didn't see it, but you did kind of downplayed it
a little bit live and then after the game he
kind of said, there'll be more evaluation. If you don't remember,
Austin just was on the IEL for an abdominal issue.
(26:39):
I don't know think the if these No one knows
if it's the exact same thing, but it's the same area.
It would be surprising if it wasn't related. And to
some degree he's been off the IL for a week,
so it's still It would have been, yeah, July twenty fifth.
So I don't have much to add other than obviously
you hope it's not a serious thing. They are, of
course incentemized to be cautious given the state of everything
(27:00):
and often being signlunged for anybody, but especially a guy
who signed long term and all that stuff. Anything to
add on this besides the fact that it's just not
fun and another thing that had to do with Yeah,
I mean it was I mean a heck of a
play by Riley to get the out just before a
run scored at home played. And but you know, I
(27:21):
think with at this point in the season and the
fact this is now a recurring injury for Riley, I
think you put him back on the injured list. Why not, Like,
the last thing you want him to do is try
to play through this and injure himself severely where he
you know, like you have a core muscle strain or
a tear or something like that which would require surgery
(27:41):
or a longer time of being out. The season, for
all intents and purposes, is over. Put Riley on the
injured list. Hopefully it's nothing serious. I mean, I want
Austin to be back out there in a couple of weeks,
but there's no reason to push this. And I'm guessing
maybe by the time folks listen to the show they'll
have some more clarity. But just another kind of roadblock
(28:03):
for Austin Riley in a season where he just has
not been very good. To be blunt, yeah, I mean
I know it might not seem like much, but these
those core core injuries the way you describe it, like
obliques are the one everyone kind of recurls at, but
anything core muscle related for baseball players is more serious
than for any other regular human because they just have
to use that so much. It's just you cannot function
(28:25):
in the same way as a power hitter in particular
if you don't have your core right on all cylinders.
And that's that's the short version of that. But yeah,
I mean there's a longer conversation that will probably have
at some point, but Austin is having a very rough
season by his standards. He has a one er four
WRC plus, which isn't disastrous, but for a guy who's
supposed to be a star, is not at that level.
(28:47):
He's eighty five WRC plus since June first. That's two
months of him being like a solidly below average hitter.
And he isn't like a great defender. There's always been
a split there, but like, he's not a great defender
at the very least. So there's that he's got a
hit and last two years combined one ten WRC plus. Yep,
I can tell you right now when they get when
they gave him that contract, that is not what they
(29:08):
were hoping for. And that's still a good player. No
one's saying he's a terrible player. But one ten WRC
plus and where he was before the contract in the
one thirty five, one to forty range, that's a that's
a big gap. Like you can you're a start one
and you're not a star on the other. That's that's
a simple as I could put it.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Yeah, I don't, I don't have the exact number. But
since Riley signed the biggest contract in franchise history, again,
like he's been a good player, Like do not hear
what we're not saying? Yep, But if you told me
on that the night we did that emergency show, after
Riley signed for two hundred plus million dollars, biggest contract
(29:46):
by a mile on the franchise history, that he was
going to have like a one fifteen WRC plus and
like just over an eight hundred ops in the three
seasons to follow that massive contract like that, I would
say you need more from that player. And the fact is,
when you sign these long, long deals, the likelihood is
(30:09):
that you're gonna get better production at the front end
of it than the back end. So if Riley doesn't
turn this thing around. The last couple of years of
this contract could get pretty ugly. It is still way
too early to make any kind of declaration in that regard.
He's still a very talented player. He is in his
theoretical prime. And if you ask me, will Austin Riley
(30:29):
be better than this going forward? I would say definitively yes.
But it is very fair to say that the last
couple of seasons and especially recently, have just not been
what the Braves need from Riley.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Yeah, and like I said, we'll probably do a whole
show it's at some point, but it's he didn't have
like to be fair to him, he signed them in
the middle of twenty twenty two, and he was a
star level player in twenty twenty three the next season,
But the two years after that is what we're talking about.
And look some of the underlying stuffs. I'm more concerned
where his walk rates going the wrong way, strike out
(31:03):
rates going the wrong way, and he's not like young
Young anymore, and that is the risk. And that's something
we said on that show when we did that emergency
pocket that you were just referred to is like there,
that was one of the shakier extensions that Alex gave out.
Not that it was terrible, no one said that, but
it was one of the ones with more risk because
of just how old he was going to be by
the end and the profile all that stuff. So anyway,
(31:25):
we'll get that later. Hopefully Austin is fine. There was
actually a little bit of news. I'm not sure if
you've got the same one I just got. Scott Herson
Waldrop has been returned to Gwinnette, which was expected to
be fair, but and Bowman actually just said in real
time that he's uh, he's able to return as the
extra player on Saturday. We talked about that, but I
want to just say that broke while we were recording
(31:46):
officially going back down. That was always gonna happen. He
was the extra guy.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
You know, all that stuff in one clarification because I
looked it up, Brad. So since signing the biggest contract
in franchise history with the Braves, this was at the
end of July twenty twenty two, YEP, Austin Riley is
batting two sixty two with a three twenty nine on
base percentage, a four to sixty five slugging which is
(32:13):
good in a one seventeen WRC.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Plus that's a sub eight hundred ops.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
You need more, just full stop. You need more from
your star players. There's a lot of issues with this team.
Riley is far from the biggest issue with this roster
right now. Agreed, they need more and we will. We'll
do a deeper dive probably some point in the next
two months when the games don't have as much meaning
on Riley, where he's been and what his future might
look like.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Yeah, and we'll move on. But the big thing of
with that is like when you're extending a guy like that,
you're hoping that you get surplus value at the beginning
because the end of it is almost certainly not going
to be good. That's that's the theory of an eight
year extension is like he's gonna outplay it for the
first four or five years and then kind of gradually fall.
And right now he's not out playing. He's not he's
not super underwater on it. But you wanted to be
(33:00):
a fifty million dollars player like he was pre extension,
and what he wasn't twenty twenty three, To be fair,
the last two years he's been like at the level
and that's not where you want him to be. Okay,
Before we get out of here, one more note, not
a huge surprise, but we talked about it a lot
on Thursday about Ozuna sticking around and all the factors
(33:20):
didn't play there. Friday, Brian Snicker said pretty plainly that
the plan is for Drake Baldwin to basically play almost
every day or every day, which means him dhing when
he's not catching, which we all were happy about and
happy to hear. Of course, Drake is the young talented player,
but also he has the Rookie of the year at stake,
(33:40):
which could help the Braids with a draft pick. All
of that that's the longer discussion, but obviously we all
want Balwin to play it as much as possible. Sid
did not give the same guidance on Sean Murphy, which
is interesting because Sean Murphy's been as good as Drake
Balwin this season. Granted he's not a prospect in the
way that Drake is, but by the numbers has actually
been just as good. What do you make of that
(34:03):
whole thing? Like, is that Ozuna basically basically what amount
to Ozuna playing over Murphy? Sometimes? Like when when Murphy's
not catching. It seems like he's like Murphy's gonna catch
almost only and very rarely DH. Is what I that's
the message I took from that. He didn't say that, but.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
I didn't necessarily take that away. I'm guessing it's gonna
be something like Ozuna plays once a series.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
So well, and that basically means that Murphy's gonna end
up not dhing. I mean, if you follow the logic there.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Well, if Murphy catches one and Baldwin catches one, then
you would have Murph DH once and have uh Ozuna
DH the other night. I don't know, I mean, we'll see.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
I didn't read that as anything more than just Baldwin's
gonna play basically every day, which is what we have been.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
I'm in on that. I should, I just don't. It's
not a big of a deal if it was the opposite,
Even as resident Murphy defenders like, I'm less bothered by
this than I would be by the other way around.
I want Baldwin to play as much as humanly possible
for multiple reasons. Obviously, make sure he's not overextending himself.
But he's a young guy, he's a good shape all that,
(35:15):
so he'll be fine. And if you're just hitting, that's
different than playing catcher all the time. So whatever. I
just think that Snid is very intentionally leaving the door
open to play Marcel and I don't particularly like that.
But it also was expected. We talked about, we predicted
that as well, like he's gonna play. I think you
saw the too. He'll play some. It's just what's gonna happen.
And one note on the Rookie of the Year thing
(35:37):
for Baldwin. So the Brewers on Sunday placed Jacob Miserowski
on the injured list, which is a shame because that
kid is so electric. But in my opinion, Miserowski was
probably the biggest threat to Baldwin.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Winning Rookie of the Year. So it helps, I mean,
it does. I mean, we never want to root for
an injury of any kind, but it does help you.
Baldwin is a comfortable favorite now in the betting odds
for Rookie of the Year, and again that would get
the Braves draft pick, and it would get them even
more money to spend with the likelihood that they are
(36:12):
going to have a top five, if not top three,
top two, top one pick in the draft next summer.
That's not a small thing when you're trying to rebuild
your farm system in a hurry. Yeah, as of now,
our friends at DraftKings have Baldwin at minus two forty five.
That's a big favorite. Fern Awards race on August third. Now,
(36:33):
not like a slam dunk, like, he's not definitely going
to win it. He's got to perform number one and.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Stay healthy all that stuff, but he is a clear
betting favorite at DraftKings well.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
And just to show the impact of the injury to Misrowski,
I believe Brad correct me if I'm wrong, but Baldwin
was minus one ninety as of Sunday morning before Milwaukee
put him on the injured list. So that is a
significant jump because and again no one's rooting for injuries here.
Do not hear what we're not saying. But it helps
Baldwin and it helps the Braves, and as long as
(37:03):
knock on freaking wood, Baldwin stays healthy down the stretch,
not only will the Braves have a Rookie of the Year,
which is really cool, but it should help them get
that draft pick that they could really use next summer.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
It is one of the bigger sweats of the rest
of the season is whether Baldwin will win the Rookie
of the Year, So root for that if nothing else
for his fans. Unless you have takes on Friday's game,
we don't have to touch on that too much. Although
chast Brice Elder, who actually pitched pretty well on Friday.
He had been really bad for a while, so nice
to see that. They still lost the game, but it
was not his fault. They lost the game. He pitched well,
(37:36):
So there you go. That's my always take on Friday,
unless you have more to ad.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Another good night for Michael Harris.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Yeah, there you go. All right, let's look ahead a
little bit then we'll get out of here. As noted earlier,
the Braves have eight games in the next seven days.
No day off this week and a doubleheader on Saturday.
It's three against Milwaukee and then five against Miami. All
that's in Atlanta, so busy week. We'll have shows as
we always would. The Braves actually announced their starters for
(38:04):
the Milwaukee series and then changed it during our show,
which I did see. Originally it was Fetti on Monday,
then Strider on Tuesday, and Wentz on Wednesday. Now, uh,
it's Feeddi Wentz on Tuesday, Strata on Wednesday. I'm fine
with that. Give Spencer as much time as he wants
or needs. Yes, yeah, I mean Strider went through the
(38:26):
full on warm up. I mean he was gonna pitch
on he was going out to the throat like they were
about They didn't. They didn't call the delay until like
right before the game. So he was ready to go,
and he's you know, he's a he's a guy that
gets psyched up, like he's a very intense person. I'm
sure he was like amped to go pitch in this
big spot National Fox, like all that stuff. Like it's
(38:48):
not exactly a normal cool down. I would say, yeah, right,
So it makes sense.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Gives Strider an extra day protect that arm. And you know,
it's funny, Brad. I remember, back in the beginning of April,
which feels like an eternity ago in this baseball season,
that first Sunday home game against the Marlins was rained out,
and at the time, I think the Braves were one
in eight, and I think, like word for word on
(39:15):
the show, it was like, you know, the rain out
today is not the worst thing, because in August surely
the Braves will be in really good shape and playing
much better, and then the Marlins will have sold and
will be thinking about next year. And I mean, the
Marlins are like legitimately alive in the wild card race.
They're five hundred, they're playing, They're the second best record
in the game over the last six weeks in the majors,
(39:38):
and we know where the Braves are. In a million years,
I wouldn't have predicted this. So Miami's playing goodball. The
Brewers are really I mean, the Brewers are just such
a machine, one of the best run franchises regardless of
payroll in the major leagues. It'll be a tough week
for the Braves, and I mean, lord knows other than
the Strider start and presumably Hirston Waldrip getting another start
(39:59):
next weekend and might be a tough go the next week.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Yeah, I mean, I knew they were playing with you well,
but I will admit I did not know this. The Brewers,
as we are speaking on Sunday evening, at the best
record in baseball and the best run differential in baseball.
There have been the best team in baseball this season
by the numbers till as of right now, so in what's.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
Crazy about Milwaukee? Every offseason they lose like three players
and you go, oh wow, like Willia Damas and Corbyn
Burns was there, Like every they don't have the money
or they don't they're not they don't spend the money
to retain these high level players. And every year Milwaukee
wins and just a really good baseball team and easy
to root four team. They have Bill Contreras. They just
(40:42):
put Trino on the injured list. But again, man, this
is a good, talented, fundamentally sound baseball team.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
Yeah, they're the only team in baseball that's top five
and both run scored and runs allowed usually good formula
to win games if you are good at both those
things prevention and score. So yeah, uphill battle obviously the
results of the results. But a busy week. If you
enjoy watching baseball, there'll be a lot of it. Eight games,
seven days, no night's off. Even as much as the
(41:10):
season has been brutal, I don't like off days. It's
good for the show sometimes, but as far as like
it just throws your real them off, like we're all
used to just all right, turn the game on, here's
a game on.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
Oh I still do.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
Yeah, I mean, and I always will. I mean, the
game is gonna be on whatever. So I've never liked
off days, and this week there are none, and there's
an extra bit of baseball on Saturday, so stay tuned.
We'll be covering all of it. But yeah, we'll see.
We'll see about Walter coming back up. I think it's
probably gonna happen Saturday, all as a Strider. He's the
one guy in the rotation that we know is a
guy in capitol letters. But look, Joey Wentz has been good.
(41:44):
We'll see what he looks like in his next follow
up start. Like Eric Fadi is not exciting at all,
but he's a Bajor League pitcher. So plenty of stuff
to talk about this week. We'll cover it all in
this space.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
I was gonna say, is Monday's gait at Truest Park
going to be like the lowest attended Braves game in
that stadium in like six years?
Speaker 1 (42:04):
Here's something you did that you wouldn't know as well. Uh,
Monday is also the first day of school in a
lot of places. A run Alanta.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Oh so yes, I think the question.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
And I guess it's gonna be pretty pretty rough. Attendance wise, Milwaukee,
as good as they are, is not a They're not
a casual fan draw. It's not the Yankees, it's not
you know, it's not the Dodgers coming in. So uh yeah,
I would imagine it's gonna be a little down, especially
in the nonst Rider the first Monday and Tuesday, I
would imagine, and the nons rider games are gonna be
tough tickets. Well maybe not, I should sorry, easy tickets
(42:35):
to get if you want to go.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
Yeah, I was gonna say, you can probably get a
good deal. This is the time of year where teams
who are not in the mix start doing like the
you know, get a season ticket for the rest of
the season, all home games for ninety nine dollars, and
you know, you just get like assigned row nineteen of
section four oh two. You know they're not gonna be
good seats, but you're in the stadium and you know, hey,
like we said, I'll turn on the braves just about
(42:57):
every night. Sometimes I might turn them off in the
ending if it's going real bad. But baseball is a
good thing and we'll get through these next two months.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
It's always a little bit of a litle with weeknight attendance.
When school starts, that's just natural for any place. But
when your team is what the Braves are right now,
it will probably be a little bit bigger of a dip.
But we'll see.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
And this is just so unrelated. When did school start,
Like school's out here in Arizona started on Friday. What happened,
man Like wasn't when I was a kid. It was
like Labor Day was when I started going to school.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
Yeah, I mean we were My parents are, granted because
I'm a Michigan FANA's I'm not surprised to anybody. My
parents are Midwestern people and that's where I grew up,
and same like we would we would start school around
my birthday. My birthday is in mid August, and my
parents were like, this is insane, you should be starting.
And now they're starting. Some places to start start it's
(43:51):
like July thirtieth or something other stuff. Yeah, school, and
that's it's weird. But yeah, I can tell you because
I'm my brother. My brother's teacher. A lot of places
around the metro Atlanta area start Monday, and that is
a hilarious bit of synergy. So we'll see. But all right,
Scott let's get out of here. We're gonna we pleased
to be shorter. It's not really shorter, but it's probably
shorter than we would often be on a Sunday. That's
(44:12):
forty five minutes. We get out of here. Anything to
add and if not, folks can find you where on
social media.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
I'm at Scott Coleman at fifty five and as always,
thanks everybody for sticking with us, even in this challenging
season filled with weird baseball games and rain delays and
hot dogs without buns and everything else in between.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
So I was not ready to pot noize about buns
in that sign off. Please follow Scott everywhere, really, because
Scott's just someone you have to follow. If you're a
brace fan, follow me if you like to at bt
Roland follow the show more importantly at Hammer Territory, anywhere
you find podcasts, and also on social media, So check
us out on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, subscribe there. If you're
(44:52):
an audio listener, subscribe on YouTube takes two seconds. Go
ahead and do that. You have to watch us there,
but just subscribe there. If you're a YouTube watcher, thank you.
So it subscrub an audio too, auto download, just pick
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through the rest of the summer. It's gonna be busy
for us. Stay tuned, subscribe. We'll see everybody next time.
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