September 28, 2025 • 49 mins
Brad Rowland and Scott Coleman co-host Episode 275 of the Hammer Territory Podcast. Topics include the end of the 2025 season for the Atlanta Braves, managerial uncertainty with Brian Snitker, Charlie Morton's send-off, Matt Olson's first career ejection, the addition of Alek Manoah, Drake Baldwin's finishing kick for Rookie of the Year, 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, to look back to the emmor Territory podcast.
This episode two seventy five. I am your host, Brad
ruland coming to you only a Sunday here at the
end of September, and I'm joined as always by my
good friend Scott Coleman. Scott, the season is over and
is our good friend. Former guests of this podcast put
it Brandon Gordon, opening day is just one hundred and
seventy nine sleeps away. How are you there?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
You go only six months until Braves Baseball is back
in our lives. And I'll say this, I don't know
about you, I don't know about people listening to the show,
but I usually like a little bit of a break
from the Braves after one hundred and sixty two games
plus six weeks of spring train, plus obviously no playoffs
this year. But if you have playoffs, like you need
(01:04):
kind of a mental just get away from the team.
At least I do. But you know, the fact that
this season went out was such a whimper. I mean,
we knew by the All Star break it just wasn't
gonna happen. It is what it is, and hopefully this
time in the calendar year we are talking about the
playoffs rather than kind of a somber more you know,
damn it's over kind of thing. It's just, you know,
(01:26):
the hand the Braves were dealt this year.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
That's right, And we should say if we have a
new listener, it'd be a good time for people to
come on right now, right at the end of the season,
like hey, join us, but they should. We don't go away.
This is a podcast that's wrapping up this season, our
final show of the d season. Kind of cadence on
this show. We are gonna be going strong throughout autism.
We are Hammer Territory. Please subscribe to this podcast anywhere
you get your podcasts, Apple, Spotify, et cetera. On the
(01:49):
audio side, we're also on the YouTube, so like the video,
we have the comments and we definitely appreciate everybody checking
out the show always and especially right now as we're
going into the kind of dead period. But still there's
plenty to discuss with this baseball team moving forward. Let's
do one time stamp here Scott because it's like eight
o'clock pm Eastern Time on Sunday. We intentionally waited a
(02:14):
little bit to record this podcast, not because of the NFL.
I won't make you talk about that on this podcast today.
But we were waiting because with the game mad at
about six o'clock and I thought, hey, we should probably
wait to see what the postgame comments are like, perhaps
for Brian Snicker, players, announcements, et cetera. Is it possible
(02:36):
we could get Brian Snicker news after we record this
podcast or during it. Sure, itness but we did. I've
covered a lot of games and a lot of different sports, Scott.
Usually if there's news coming out of a press conference
or whatever, it's usually gonna happen in the first ninety
minutes after the game is over, and it has it yet,
so time stamp it. That's what we know. What we
don't know. What we don't know right now is anything
about Brian Snicker's future. So if you do, if you're
(02:58):
listening to this podcast tomorrow and you've heard, there'll be
a show coming in the speed at some point soon.
I promise about that topic. We've been talking about it
for two weeks or longer. Honestly, almost every show just
kind of mentioning how weird this is. It's still really weird.
I don't know if you have anything to add on this,
but as of right now, Brian Sicker is no longer
under contract. So that's what makes this whole, this whole things.
It's so strange, all of it.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
It is very strange. I'm I'm kind of surprised. We
haven't heard anything. There was almost radio silence other than
a handful of Braves players were asked about Brian Snecker
post game and they said, yes, we'd love to have
snit back, And I'm sure, do you feel that way?
Is what else? What else are they going to say?
Right Like? Is Chris Sale going to say, yeah, let's
(03:39):
get that son of a gun out of here? Of
course not. The players like snit They respect Snitt. It
is a very odd situation that we have played out
the entirety of Brian Snitker's contract and there's been no announcement.
And maybe it'll come by the time people listen to this.
It could come five minutes after we finished recording. We
will see. But it is a massive question, to put
(04:00):
it lightly, A massive question now technically officially going into
the off season as who is going to manage the
Braves come next season.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
It's kind of a big deal. We'll be talking about it,
but I just want to let that out there at
the top of the podcast. There's stuff to talk about
that has been a cloud though, that's hanging over this.
I was at the ballpark today and I was joking
about this, but I was like, should I work, Should
I bring a sign that says who is the manager tomorrow?
Or something? Because it's like the number one the games
didn't matter right the ind the season, and it's like,
for me, it was the number one talking point the
last like week, week and a half, like what is
(04:29):
going on with manager? And as of now we don't
have an answer. So stay tuned. Maybe during this podcast,
maybe tomorrow, maybe Tuesday, we will see Beyond that. The
Braves finish seventy six and eighty six for the season,
obviously not where they wanted to be the Rover under
was in the nineties. That speaks to where they were
(04:49):
supposed to be. They weren't there. They did finish better
than they started. I'm not sure if that's cold comfort
or if that's like frustration. I actually a normally friend
of mine asked this question the other day, like would
you have one of the Braves have finished strong or
just be awful? Basically, is it more frustrating than to
have finished strong. I don't really have an answer, like,
it's not bad that they finished strong. They were twenty
(05:12):
nine and twenty in the last forty nine games. That's
a ninety six win pay Scott. So if you want
to be an optimist, the last third of the season,
they were playing like they were supposed to play. What
do you make of that? I'll ask you that. Now,
do you care at all that they finished strong because
they did?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I don't know, Brad. I mean I can probably make.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
That's the right answer, I think, because I don't know.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah, yeah, I can make a case four and against it.
If this was a really young team that was kind
of on an upward trajectory, then sure, Like if this
was the end of the twenty seventeen season, you and
I would probably talk for five ten minutes about hey,
there was a legitimate excitement going above five hundred over
the final fifty games. They went fourteen and eleven in September.
(05:53):
Of course, this is not necessarily a super young team.
It's a very established team. It's a team that underperformed
basically up until the middle of August. Is kind of
when they got healthier and started to win games more
consistently at the level that we were hoping for them
to do. And you mentioned they were seventy six and
eighty six and they started out zho to seven, so
(06:15):
they were pretty much a five hundred ish team after
that week from hell. They also had that other they
lost seven games in a row as well, and was
it June or July. Basically, if you could wave your
magic wand and take out those two weeks from hell,
this season was more in line with what kind of
you would have hoped. And I think the thing that's
just going to kind of bug me this entire offseason
(06:37):
is that eighty three wins got you into the playoffs
as a wild card team in the National League. This year,
the Reds got in over a tiebreaker over the Mets.
You're telling me that if things didn't go a little different,
if the Braves didn't win some of those one run games,
that they didn't stay healthier in the pitching staff. I believe,
(06:59):
in my true hard of hearts, this team could have
absolutely won eighty four or more. Games. They just they
just couldn't do it, man. I mean, we talked about
them for six months on the show. Every it's how
many games did they just kind of piss away. We
could probably do a four hour episode on the worst
losses of the season because there were just so many
of them. And now you see kind of the ultimate
(07:19):
effects of blowing so many games early in the year.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
That's right, and we'll litigate that, I'm sure as we
go into the winter. But yeah, it's it is kind
of frustrating that they were close enough to be within
like realist distance of the wildcard because the wild card
bar was lower than it sometimes will be. You know,
the expanded playoffs is a different subject, but it does
lead to the potential of getting into the playoffs with
eighty three wins. Like, it's not that's not a good
you're not a very good team. Quite frankly, if you
(07:44):
win eighty three games, you're not very good. But in
the National League this year, that was enough to make
the playoffs, and the Brads were not as good as
they did to be for that before we poke fun
at the Mets for a second, because we'll do that
because it's look small wins, right, you gotta find some
wins in life. This came out today, I think this
from dB passes along the Braves set the Major League
(08:05):
Baseball record for most players used in a season. Seventy
one players suited up for the Braves this year. Wow,
that's again the record in history. Now, all this this
record in particular, is only a modern record, Like the
way that baseball has played now is not the way
it was played back in the day. So like all
(08:25):
the top teams on this list are like in the
last five years. Not surprising, right, but still that's a
lot of players. Also, they set franchise records for most
pitchers used forty six and most starting pitchers used eighteen
today it was nineteen with Charlie Morton. So obviously we
pushed back on this a little bit over the course
the last couple of months. If you're just finding the
(08:46):
podcast for the first time or the first time in
a while, we don't though, I don't believe all what
you responded this. I don't believe this is a season
that was caused by injuries. Like injuries magnified some of
the issues that they had. But I don't want us
to get lazy and say, oh, just the injuries that
that the bug bit in this year, that's overstanding what
actually happened. But it does a number like this does
(09:07):
kind of speak to like, Hey, in addition everything else,
they had a lot of turnover and weirdness and roster
stuff and injuries along the way.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yeah, this was a dumpster fire for a large part
of the season. The injuries were pouring some gasoline on
top of the already said dumpster fire. Will said, yeah,
And as this upcoming week, more than likely Alexanthopoulos will
kind of do his exit interview. Brian Snitker will presumably
do an exit interview of some kind. Usually the players
(09:35):
are available. If I hear one person blame all the injuries, Oh.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
What's gonna have that's going to happen. I bet you
hear you, hud Dog right now on the air. That's
going to happen. I promise you it will. That's going on.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
That was a large part because sure, if they had
Spencer Schwallenbach for thirty starts this year, you can bet
they would have won more games. Sure if they if
Chris Sale doesn't lay out trying to get a complete
game against the Mets back in and if he doesn't
dive for that ball and break his ribs, the Braves
absolutely win more games. They were quite literally anyone with
a pulse was making starts for this team over the summer. Yes,
(10:11):
it impacted them, but they also I mean, they just
stunk it up. They stunk it up. They had a
couple of weeks of just absolute misery where they had
long losing streaks and that's ultimately what did this team
in it was the injuries were part of it. Nobody
is denying that, but it's far more than just the injuries.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yes, again, the injury is magnified, and I know that
if you look at certain aspects of a team, the
rotation's probably number one on that list. Like you know,
when Bryce Otter leads the team and starts and innings,
that's obviously a bad thing. And as soon as the
lineup got healthy and better, the pitching just got decimated.
So like, we're not totally discounting the role of injuries
(10:48):
on how bad it got at times, but that was
not the reason or the main reason, even if you
wanted to blame anything. All right, Scott, that's a kind
of primer for what's happened season. It's the season finale
in some respects for us. We'll come back. We have
a few takewak from the weekend. Not a full blown,
deep out into the games. Because listen, guys, the games
(11:09):
didn't particularly matter that much. What's a takeaways for those games?
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Speaker 1 (12:18):
All right, Scott formid divens is the brave stuff? Can
we make fun of the Mets for five minutes or less?
Speaker 4 (12:23):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
And give a big shout out to the Miami Marlins.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Yeah, shuss the Miami Marlins who were playing hard to
the end. The Marlins got a little lucky this year.
They had a minus eighty nine or one differential that
was way worse than the Braves, and they finished ahead
of the braves and the standings. I wonder what kind
of odds you could have gotten on Marlins finished ahead
of Braves in the standings. Oh long odds. I would
have guessed for that one, but put it out to
the side. Look the New York Mets collapsed. That's the
(12:50):
only word that I could use to do it. They
missed the playoffs. And look, we understand glass houses and sucks.
The Braves were out of the playoff picture for two months.
It was before you respond, we understand the Braids were bad.
We also, I really I grew up. I'm the right
age to where I really, really really do not like
the New York Mets as a brace fit. So you
(13:10):
have to take some solid and with I do in
the Mets imploding. They were forty five and twenty four.
They're the best record in baseball at one point. Scott, Wow,
I have one more for you. I looked this up today.
They were they had already cooled off a lot. They
were sixty two and forty four, and at that point,
about two months ago in late July, they had ninety
(13:33):
six point eight percent playoff odds at Fangrafts and they
didn't make the playoffs. So it did not go well
for the New York Mets. And all for the price
of the second highest pay roll in baseball.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Just to U Steve Cohen, Yes, and I mean just
another kind of cut punch. Is five minutes after the
game ended today on Sunday, and the Mets were officially eliminated.
Pete Alonzo is opting out of his contract and just
like oh light out said.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
He had's a free agent. Yeah he's got to. I mean,
that's he had a This is a different subject, but
Pete Alonso had the all time great Like he signed
the pillow contract with the Mets because he had the
but like, yeah, good on him getting the option because
he had a great season. He hit the market again,
maybe maybe still stays there, but absolutely that's that was
an auto opt out, like for sure, right.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
And yes, and it was expected. But also just like, hey,
the season's over. We just blew a ninety seven percent
playoff chance, and your best hitter, I guess second best
hitter is opting out, right, Like that's that's not what
you want to see if you're a Mets fan. I
guess they will maybe the Braves and Mets can charter
are playing together and go on down to kan Kun
for a couple of weeks because no playoffs, And I
(14:41):
mean that's got to. I mean, obviously this was a
bad year for the Braves, but I mean if the
Braves had a ninety seven percent playoff chance in the
middle of the summer and couldn't win eighty four games
to beat out the Cincinnati Reds.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Who eighty three was the bar like they didn't have
to win ninety plus? Actually, did you I've seen this question.
We we got a question collectively. I think it was
tagged us and maybe the show too. All right, now
that we know what we know, would you rather have
had happened to the Braves or they were out of
it for a long time? Or would you rather bed
the Mets? Like if we're doing if we're doing the show,
(15:15):
and he's honestly, honestly, I like our guys that Mets up.
Who are our colleagues on the network. We've done their show,
that's done our show. We like those guys, not like
those guys. With that said, I if we were messed
up today, would you rather be in our position or
their position?
Speaker 2 (15:28):
All said and done, I would take the brave situation
eleven times out of ten.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
I think I would too.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I mean, I would imagine Mets fans have probably gone
through like the five stages over the last couple of
weeks with this collapse and just not being able to
win games. And I mean It wasn't like the Reds
went on a Cleveland type of run, you know, like
like Cleveland just went out of their minds to make
the playoffs. The Reds didn't necessarily do that. They they
weren't bad down the stretch. But this was very much
(15:57):
a Mets collapse. There was a clip of the sny
TV booth and you could just hear the disgust in
the Mets broadcast booth, and I mean, obviously, I mean
I'd be disgusted too. It was a collapse of all collapses.
And I know, obviously again, I mean the Braves and
Mets they're both gonna play zero playoff games this year.
(16:18):
But I would take the way the Brave season went
where I think, by like the middle of the summer,
we're like, you know what, man, this just isn't the year.
Braves have been awesome since twenty eighteen. They have the injuries,
they can't win a close game. It is what it is.
Verse just kind of dying on the vine very slowly.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Yeah, it's kind of a personality test, I think maybe,
But I'm with you. I would have chosen the get
it out of the way early model. And yet you
could argue like for the show, if you want to go,
it would have been probably better if they had been
in it all the way, just for interest purposes. Like
from a content perspective, you'd probably rather be the team
that's in it the whole way. But from a fandom
(16:55):
like mental perspective, emotional perspective, I wouldn't have wanted to
any part of a collapse like that. And we've seen
collapses like that too, Like I'm gonna want a sports fan,
I'm familiar with collapses. They've been there have been a
lot of those in my life. But uh, hey, the
Mets last thing, forty dive ins some games. The Braves did,
I believe, finish sixth best in the Draft Lottery Tekathon Palooza.
(17:18):
That's a not where they could have been. They could
have probably finished realistically like third or fourth had they
not gotten kind of hot at the end of the season.
But uh, the impact of that is not that big.
I just want to always say it out loud, like
they're they're six. Well, we'll see in what a couple
months before they actually are gonna be picking, We'll find.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Out, We'll see it. Seems like the Winter Meetings is
when the draft lottery gets selected, and yeah, I mean,
I'd be lying if I didn't come on here and say, yeah,
of course, you'd rather have the Braves with second best odds,
third best odds. I think it's six. They technically have
like a five percent chance to get the number one pick.
But again, this does not seem like it's going to
(17:56):
be a draft with like a mega like a Bryce
Harper type of talent at the very top, who can
change franchises. Is baseball, it's the ultimate team game. This
is not the NFL where a quarterback can just turn
around decades of misery. It's you know, it's a baseball draft.
It is the most unconventional draft there is in professional sports.
We'll see where the Braves ultimately end.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Up, yes we will, all right, some observations from the
weekend of games and really more again like more like
future basing takeaways than the actual games themselves. Well, we'll
go and order the Braves lose on Friday and Saturday Friday.
For me, the only real takeaway that I had is
that it's not a huge negative one. But Joey Wentz
(18:37):
was a really nice story for a while, right, Joey
Wentz The Joey Wentz train flew off the tracks a
little bit at the end of the year, and it
was probably not discussed by us enough in the midst
of everything else going on. But his first six starts
with the Braves are really good, Like e in the
twos like hey might have find something here. We weren't
like throwing a parade, but it was like, all right,
this is a cool story. Last seven starts for Joey
(19:00):
Wentz seven point sixty seven ERA in twenty nine and
a third innings. So that doesn't mean it's that doesn't
mean he's useless. It doesn't mean anything like that. But
if you were I saw I know you. I saw
this too, if you were a Joey Wentz for the
rotation truther six weeks ago, perhaps a harsh reality that
he's probably just some organizational depth at this point. I
(19:23):
don't know.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
I think so. I think Wentz will be maybe around
in the spring. I think the Braves might have interest
in keeping him around, not as a starting rotation guy
to begin but I mean, if you can StAst Joey
Wentz in Gwinett, then sure like do it and.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
He and crucially he has no options.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Right, So so you might be able to do like
a split contract or something like that. Like there's creative
ways to get him around. There's not going to be
twenty five teams bidding on Joey Wentz, and it is
a bummer. I mean, obviously, once upon a time, big
time prospect for the Braves never worked out since the
trade and what was that twenty eight teen, twenty nineteen
when Atlanta sent him away and then you know it
(20:03):
was like, okay, well he has a two point six
cra through six starts. If he can keep this going
through August and September, then maybe you found something. But
quite obviously the Braves did not. They were not as
fortunate to just kind of pluck a diamond in the rough.
And I don't know. I mean, maybe we'll talk about
Joey Wentz getting a minor league contract sometime this week.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
So sure that would not surprise me at all. And
I'm not trying to pile along, like I hope he
does well. And he actually is a guy that I
think could be in that conversation of like, you know,
a starter and we do the spin all the time,
and we'll do it again now, but like you got
to have a lot of starters. If you get him
an organization for a bargain basement price and you can
kind of have him around for spring training, sure fine
with me.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Game Game seven, World Series tomorrow. Would you, Brad Rowland,
future manager of the Braves, start Joey Wentz or would
you start Bryce Elder Elder? I would go Wentz moving on.
I didn't.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Maybe it was maybe that was me trying to be
trying to lean into the bit a little bit, because
you know, I've been a little harsh ond Brice of
the times. I think Bryce Elder is safer and I
think Joy Wentz is a higher ceiling. How about that? No,
it's I don't it doesn't really matter. I hope that
won't happen. But hey, world Series starts. The list of
guys who make playoff starts with the Braves over the
(21:22):
years is kind of funny. Yeah, Dylan Lee, Dylan Lee
started the World Series or not?
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Bryce Wilson. Bryce Wilson was the NLCS in the bubble year. Yeah,
it's I mean, we saw it four years ago. It's
get weird, man, That's just what That's just what it is.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Funny question. Oh, I mentioned already they lost on Saturday. Well,
if this is not exciting game, I'm gonna make this funny, Scott.
We got several people tagging us and itching to hear
from us on Matt Olsen and Bryce Snicker being ejected
on Saturday. It became like a really like big story
(21:58):
and I'm not saying it's not a story like we
would have mentioned it on the show, but like it
wasn't going to leave the show, which people. I think
people were like, I if this is a game that mattered,
if we were if we were in the playoffs or whatever,
I'd understand, but like, guys, the game didn't mean anything.
It was funny because it was Mattilson's first ever rejection.
He's like, yeah, known for being really really even keel
and he was pissed and I think rightfully so. But
(22:18):
I thought it was kind of funny how much people
were really getting into it, like lots of lots of
tweets and lots of articles, and I'm like, it's just
an ejection, a second last day of the season in
the meaningless game. Whatever. Sorry.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
I think Mark Bowman of MLB dot com friend of
the show, Mark Bowman. Mark, I think Bowman might have
sent like twenty tweets about this in the twenty four
hour period.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
He was very excited about it. I don't know why,
but hey, it's okay.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Yeah, umpire. I mean, come on, guys, no one, no
one's there to watch the umpires. Umpire. Olson should not
have been ejected. Maybe, I mean, maybe he was really
letting the umpires have it from the dugout as he should.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Well, it was it was funny. He you know, Snick
got out, went out and got us. If you missed this,
stick went out and got and got his back. Snick
got ejected. That's what Snick does. That's not freight to
mix it up. Olsen got ejected like minutes later, Like
it was not like instantly, like sim was already going
and like I think it was like during the inning
change is when Olsen got ejected, so and again literally
the first time he's ever been ejected. So that's that's
(23:13):
a story in itself. It was just a weird a
weird play too, like, yeah, you don't usually see that
if you missed it, like Olsen got called for interference
for basically just doing nothing, Like he finished the swing
and it wouldn't matter at all, but the guy dropped
the pop up, so it became a it doesn't matter,
it's just one of those. It was a weird thing,
for sure. I just was a I thought it was funny.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Yeah, I think you could lip read. And I think
Olson said with an explanative, what was I supposed to do?
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Which is a fair question, I agree.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
I mean, is he supposed to like dead sprint to
the dugout so he's out of the way. I mean,
come on, guy, what most of the time hitters don't
even know where the ball is when they foul it off.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
He would know it was there. It was.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Yeah, Like there was a clip in a game the
other night where a player doubled and he was looking
like down the line to try to figure out where
the ball was and it was in the left field grass.
I mean these yeah, just silly.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Very silly. Oh quiptonman Mitt Olsen, who had a great season.
We've covered it a lot. We'll talk about it later on.
But he played every game this year. Again, he has
the longest active streaking baseball of games played, seven eighty two.
It's the twelve longest streak in mide League history. Just
a shout out to Matt like he plays every day.
The guy never he never misses. And unlike other guys
(24:27):
who like he doesn't get hurt either, like knock on Wood,
like he doesn't like play through stuff like make sure
he does little things, but like he just plays. He
just plays.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Yeah, every day you get that high in the baseball
record book for anything. I mean that, that's really cool.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Twelve in history is a not a small thing. Only
I think of Saturday. I won't alwayst get to and
you actually notice. I'm glad you did Strider pitch on Saturday,
and you know he was fine. The biggest thing was
that he is healthy. Now he's going into the off
season healthy. Nothing else really matters to me about Strider,
(24:58):
like he pitched better at the end of the year,
but the fact that he is healthy, which means he'll
have a full hopefully knock on wood off season. He
made comments about that going uh when he was asked
about it after the start on Saturday, But like you
brought it up, But it's a great point, Like he's healthy.
That's big for everybody involved.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
I think, yes, it's huge. Hopefully no restrictions this offseason
for Strider. He had a great quote after the game
that was along the lines of, like, I need to
do a neurological reset of my upper right body. I
love me, I need to. He's a freak and almost
like a nerd, and like the most endearing way possible
(25:32):
about pitching. It's why I'm I'm pretty confident that Spencer
Strider is going to get this thing figured out.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Totally agree. I've been optimistic. I still am. He'll have
to rework some things, but we saw that already a
little bit down the stretch. We'll talk about that more
later on the off season, but he's healthy. Good on him,
and good on the Braves as they head into that
situation because they wanted, honestly, the best person of the
Braves has special Strider being good and he signed for
a long time and all those things.
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Speaker 1 (27:03):
All Right, Scott let us discuss Sunday's season finale. If
you don't mind, I will take a minor lead on
the first part of this because I fulfilled my promise
to Braves Country. I said, if Charlie Morton number one,
we said this is a week ago, this before he
was even acquired by the team. I said on the
show with You that if he made a start, I
(27:25):
would go, and I did. I won't lie to everyone.
I did not stay the entire game today because I
had a lot of things to do, but I stayed
through Charlie's portion of the events. I was by myself,
like a crazy person walking around Truis Park by myself,
but I went and it was cool. Man. Obviously, I'm
in the tank for Charlie, so I will let you
(27:46):
keep me in check on this, but I thought I
thought it was really cool. You know, I'm cynical at heart.
I'm also a softy, deep deep, deep down about sports
generally speaking, especially but you know, Saale insisting on Morton's
starting the game is what happened, because you know, if
we listened to Sean Wednesday, the Brids announced the probables
and it wasn't more it wasn't moret and we talked
about it, and then Sale apparently went and we're like, no,
(28:08):
Charlie started, I'll come out, I'll come out of the bullpen,
and you know all the things. So, before I dive
in any more detail, what did you think from the
outside being, Oh, yeah, your colts were playing to it
at the same time, you were not as dilinan as
I was, for obvious reasons. But Uh, what do you
think about where they handle this?
Speaker 2 (28:24):
You just had to get that jab in their bread.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Well, I'm just explained he did the context, just the
cont I didn't say. I didn't say about the Colts result.
They were playing at the same time, That's all I said.
They were.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
It was really cool for Charlie Morton and with his
family on the field. They had Frank Sinatra playing My
Way over the Pa and it was very Charlie Morton.
It was a high wire act from the opening pitch
and at one point I was like, oh no, like,
Charlie can't give up three runs here in the first inning.
(28:55):
That would be such a bummer of a way to
go out. And then in the second inning got that
first stout and then I mean, rightfully, the Braves let
Charlie have his flowers. Just an all time good guy,
probably more like a Hall of very good Charlie doesn't
have any Hall of Fame chance the way that you
know some of the other older players, like Justin Verlanders
retiring or very likely retiring, Clinton Kershaw's retiring, like Charlie
(29:18):
isn't in that.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Not even I would put Charlie in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Conversation, right, but he deserves to be remembered for a
multiple time World Series champion, pitched in the World Series
on a broken leg, gave it everything he had. I
mean just, I mean just an all time good good dude.
And you know, I'm glad the Braves were able to
bring Charlie back in a meaningless game. I mean, sure,
if this was like last year where the Braves are
playing up until the very final minute of Game one
(29:44):
sign of course, but circumstances and all that aside, bring
Charlie back, let him go out on top or as
on top as he can. I guess in this scenario
it was. It was really cool.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Yeah, and you know some of it had to do with, yeah,
he pitched with the Braves and World Series hero and
the broken leg, all that stuff also drafted by the Braves,
Like that was the I think people that maybe are
younger missed that added level, Like I don't think that
he would have gotten this exact treatment if he hadn't
come up with the Braves organization as a young guy,
Like he might have still gotten a little bit, but
(30:16):
it probably wouldn't have been this quite the fever pitch
like and I thought that was a long time It
was twenty years ago. I mean, it's a long time
ago that he was pitching with the Bras minor league
system and making his way up. But that was part
of this too. The fact that the strikeout you mentioned
his second ending came on a pretty vintage curveball, which
he still has. The curve ball when it snaps is
still disgusting, even though Charlie's whatever, he is forty one
(30:37):
years old. Yeah, cool tribute video. Charlie is such a
humble guy.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
You know.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
I love this little touch that Sale came all the
way to the mound, took the ball from him Like
usually when you hand the ball off, you hit the
ball to the manager, right, you don't see the reliever. Yeah,
and Sale came all the way from the bullpen to
get the ball. I thought that was really cool too.
Ca Sale again was part of why he started the game,
the family thing, all the stuff.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
So and go ahead. I was gonna say. Fun note. So,
Charlie Morton you mentioned drafted by the Braves, came up
with the Braves, was traded June third, two thousand and nine,
so sixteen years ago, and Charlie kept going. A guy
who reinvented himself and just for funzies, here's the headline.
(31:24):
The Braves traded Charlie Morton Gorky's Hernandez. Do you remember
Gorky's Hernandez.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
I remember this traid like it was yesterday because I'm
a psycho, so yeah, me too, it was it.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Was my brother's birthday, of all days. And Jeff Locke
I think was a lefty pitcher. I don't remember him
quite as well as Gorky's Hernandez. But alas for Nate mccloth,
who all started a cloth Yeah, never quite worked out
with the Braves, but yeah, to get back Charlie Morton,
tip of the cap to Chuck made himself a hell
of a lot of money this last decade after he
(31:55):
kind of reinvented himself with the Houston Astros, multiple World
Series rings. It's it was really a cool, full circle
type of story.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
We will stop, but that was cool. That was kind
of the headliner today. Obviously people will mention this too,
like it could have been the last game for Azuna
in a Braves uniform, but think it probably will be,
not definitely, but probably will be. I don't know I
how they're going to operate this. They could bring him back.
They still like him by all accounts, but dh only
we've discussed this a number of times. We'll say it
for the off season, but that could have been his
(32:24):
last game. To keep that in mind as a guy
who's been there for six years and was a big
part of some stuff with the Braves. Beyond that they
won the game. Well, he was there six seasons, six seasons.
Twenty twenty was the debut for marcell It's crazy. Obviously
he missed like a year and a half or whatever
it was in the middle and then had had the
downturn of like when he was really bad. I mean
quite a quite an up and down for Marcelo Azuna
(32:47):
that we've covered the entire way. But man, weird other
than that, other than like the Charlie stuff, and you know,
Chris Sale look good. Shocking, Chris Sales good at baseball
when he's pitching. Another guy who's healthy right right now.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Also yeah, also healthy going into the off season. That's massive.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Ronald Kunya hit a home run on the first ending
that was an absolute smoke and I was still there.
The crack, the way he hits the ball, it's not
this is a very moneyball, old school scout thing. The
way the ball sounds off that man's bat, He's he's
an alien. Ronal Cuon is an alien. I think it
was four fifty one beat on that one. Ronald, you
(33:25):
remember when he hit seventh? Sorry, I had to one
more time in the season. He's really good. It's just
breaking news romic. He's good. Anything else from today that
you want to add, it's Vegas.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
The Vegas overhead on on half a mention of Ronald
Lacuna Junior being a seventh place hitter. All of Vegas
just erupted, knowing that it was a possibility, and we
got to get it in one more time.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
If you had today I went, I would have left
it alone, but it was I think he's actually I'm
gonna one more time about show wasn't crazy, but I
think his doubsit plus was like it was like one
sixty for the season. Yeah, once it won sixty one
wsit plus for all the cud.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Uh, he's a star, all right. The other couple things
we'll get out of here. Drake Baldwin, I think he
went over to day, but he had a big weekend
before this and his last two weeks. He was quite
a finishing kick for Rookie of the Year as well.
I'll say like he finished very strong. He had nine
extra base hits ohps, like eleven hundred the last two weeks.
And I actually looked this up. We talked about this
(34:28):
a little bit a few days ago with you and
I on the show, and I said then I would
have voted for Drake if I had to vote. I
think even stronger now and not because the way this
ended up. I actually didn't realize how big of a
like Fangrafts war Bastall reference war lead he has on
Kate Horton. It's like a game or like a full
win or more on both sides. Like wait, how was
(34:48):
he not the favorite? Like what's going on here? I
don't get it.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
I don't either. I'm pulling it up here live just
to see what the awards are. And of course it's buried,
so we'll look it up here in a minute.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
But I've got I've got it. I've got it. Actually,
I think they took up the twelf board. Yeah it's
a draftings it is now off the board. Yeah that's
where I was looking. So they uh, maybe maybe they
have to wait for something, but he was. But Drake
was the underdog guys this morning, I know still And
for me, how do you feel about this? I think
for a pitcher to win any award that has that's
(35:23):
not just a picture's award, like any m v P,
especially VP, even more so VP, but even Rookie of
the Year, I felt like if you were, if you're
a pitcher, you gotta be like notably better for me
to be than than the best hitter. And I think
the fact that Drake was catching as well like Horton was,
was good. He had a good eat, a good season.
(35:44):
But yeah, I I thought it was closer than it
was in my head and I looked at it and
I was like, this is just shouldn't be particularly close.
I don't think that's just me.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
And I'm fascinated to see how the voting breaks down,
because I agree with everything you said. If Baldwin was
a spacemen with those numbers, it's it's probably not very close.
But the fact that he is a catcher and was
just so good both offensively defensively, had a really nice
strong finish to the year. And you know, I'm curious
to see, like Caate Horton did get injured the last
(36:16):
week of the year, and that made headlines. It might
be just enough to stick in the back of a
mind of a voter. Well, Horton was hurt, Maybe I
dock him a little bit for that. Not a major injury,
but nonetheless, and you know, like Kate Horton two point
six seven e ra fantastic, that's really really good. But
his underlying data is good, but not like out of
(36:38):
this planet. He benefits because the Cubs might have the
best one through nine defense in the Majors, so he
benefited from that.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Cad.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Horton's FIP was an entire run worse three point five
to nine. His ex FIP, which balances out home runs,
was four point two seven. So if voters, and we
don't know who the voters are, but if the voters
are maybe more in palytically inclined, that might hurt Horton's chances.
If they get Bob the Boomer at the Cincinnati Inquirer
(37:07):
who looks at eras and wins, it might be tougher
than for Drake to get the vote. Well, we'll see
how it plays out.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
But Bob the Boomer is a good one. I like
that one. No one more thing too. Horton through one
hundred and eighteen innings, which is fine, but you know,
one of the knocks on a catcher in particular sometimes
in these awards things that they don't play to play
every day. Other than cal Raley, no one plays. They
don't play every day. Yeah, and Drake only had I
(37:34):
think it was like four hundred in the four hundreds
in played appearances, which is a full season, Like he
played one hundred twenty four games a lot for catcher,
but normally that might be a slight demerit. But Horton
only threw one hundred eight ten innings. It wasn't like
he was throwing every day every fifth day for the
whole season and made thirty two starts like he made
twenty two starts, So cumulative value all those things. We'll
(37:54):
probably let it get this again when the awards stuff
starts getting closer finalist time. I am very very confident
that Drike will be a finalist, So that'll be a
discussion point when that happens. Whether he wins or not,
we'll see, but I would be voting for Drake Bowin.
I'll say that one more time.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
I'll me too, and hopefully Bob the Boomer does two.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
All right, let us discuss a player that the Braves
actually added to the roster on Friday, so we have
had a show since then, but it was it was
not quite Hassan Kim in terms of big names, but
illegitimately pretty decently sized big name off of Waivers on Friday,
and it's Alec Manoah, former Blue Jays pitcher claimed the
(38:34):
famous that he was an All Star and finished third
and say young voting in twenty twenty two, so not
that long ago. Three years ago he was like the
twenty three to twenty four years old and was like
a budding star. And since then it's been all rough
between injuries and struggles on the mound to the point
where he was dfaied and then put on waivers. The
(38:54):
Braves claimed him and optioned him to the Miners at
the end of the season because he wasn't gonna be
able to pitch for the scene. So I'll throw it
to you, what did you make of this? Because again
a much bigger name. The Braves have been claiming guys
like it's going out of style, Like it's been crazy.
How many guys have added in the last month, but
Manoa short of Kim and maybe you know, Fredley is
a pretty big name too by the standards. But Alvanoa
(39:16):
was literally a third and Si Young three years ago.
Like this is real, this is a real talent to
nothing else.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
You know, it's funny when it was announced that the
Blue Jays were dfaing Alec Manoa, like everybody was like,
all right, Braves, you're gonna put a claim in.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
Everyone new, everyone knew right away.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
The record for roster claims in the final month of
the season goes to Alex Entopless. You know, it's been
rough for Ack Minoa for a few years. Has not
pitched well, had mixed results in the minor leagues this
past season, did not throw a pitch in the majors.
I think May ended up making ten starts in the
(39:52):
minor leagues. Was okay, started out pretty rough, but got
better as it progressed. But if you're the Braves, like
why not, why not kick the hires and see if
there is anything here. If during the offseason you have
to squeez him off your forty man roster, you can
do it, no harm, no foul. If you bring him
to spring training and he has a fifteen ERA through
(40:12):
three appearances. You release him, No harm, no foul. But
it kind of feels like for Manoa, this is like
maybe his last chance to kind of get things figured out.
And I mean, the Braves, to their credit, have done
a terrific job developing pitching over the years. Let's hope
that Rick Kranitz is back with this team. If there's
a new manager, regardless of the manager situation, let's hope
Rick Kranits is back and maybe the Braves can find
(40:34):
a diamond in the rough. And if not, then then
no harm, no foul.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Yeah. And a few things like the year after his
Cy Young worthy performance, he had a really really bad
just performance season like kind of had this. It was
a national story, like, man, what's going on about Minot
right then he had some injury issues. He had Tommy
John in twenty twenty four, and that's part of why
he did pitch the majors this year, Like it's a
year long recovery. He didn't throw a pitch in the
(40:59):
minors until like mid July, so like that's kind of
what happened there. Plus the Blue Jays, you know, we're
in the hunt the entire water in the playoffs. They
couldn't afford to just bring it up and like try
him because they had no margin for er they had.
They were in full on playoff mode, so they couldn't
just try him in the middle of season. In the
middle of that post him. I will say I actually
knowed people that cover the Blue Jays pretty well. There
(41:20):
were some people that were surprised that he was DFA
by the Blue Jays because importantly he's arbitration eligible and
he has minor league options still. So that was why
I was like, Okay, this is not just not Joey Wentz.
For instance, we talked about earlier, where Joey like there's
so much there's no it's not as easy to keep
him around. There's more positions like without Vanila, like he
(41:41):
might be making two million dollars two and a half
million dollars three million dollars next year and have minor
league options. Like if he shows anything, if he shows
anything that that they like, they might want to keep
him around just because of the talent, the talent level,
the age, and the flexibility because all of these Brice
Eller doesn't have oppics anymore like they guys that have
money league options. It could be a blessing and a
(42:03):
curse for those guys, but it helps roster and Alex
is big on roster flexibility, as we've discussed a million times,
Like he likes to have this people to kind of
shovel guys around, so he might be done. We have
no idea how good, but Noah's going to be but
a talent like this coming off an injury. The Braves
have a knack on this kind of stuff, Like I
like this move. I'm not gonna tell you it's gonna work.
I have no idea, but zero risk, like literally zero risk.
(42:26):
So sure, yeah, yeah, why not.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Maybe they can make some adjustments, Maybe they can mechanically
tweak some things, Maybe they can adjust the pitch mix
that he uses. Again, I mean, the Braves have done
a really good job for the most part over the
last handful of years getting the most out of their
healthy pitching. I think that's more than fair to say,
with the healthy talent available to them, they have more
times than not come out on the positive end than
(42:52):
the opposite. So yeah, it's it's a no risk thing
you can move on. It's why not, And in fact,
Wenoah gives you an impactful in twenty twenty six, then
you just kind of got it for basically free.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
Yep, And that's one reason I am pretty confident in
Mina would have been claimed by someone else. The Braves
are hot, are pretty highly priority. Take advantage of that
while you have it. It's a rarity that they would
be there. So there you go, Scott, Is there anything
else you want to touch on before we get out
of here, because look, the playoffs start Tuesday. We'll probably
do a little bit of playoff talk because we like baseball,
(43:26):
not gonna be deep diving into playoffs like we would
with the Braves. But basically it is now all season
mode for us. It doesn't mean that we're gonna go dark.
We're gonna be very busy, particularly this week. I think
given that we're probably gonna get an alex Press conference,
we might get a standing out spending any day three
things full circle, But uh, feel free to anything else
you'd like to. If not, we'll look forward to the
(43:48):
winter months because it's it stays busy for us on
the show. I just learned that there were no no
hitters this year, Brad, that's correct, first time in a
long time, only the fifth time in the divisional era,
which is nineteen sixty nine. There was no no hitters
kind of a I had no idea.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Anyway, nothing to add Braves wise, you know, Brad. This
was the season with a lot of hope and optimism
and the hope that we could put a devilish twenty
twenty four behind us, and it just never came together.
And the first week of the year was rough and
it never really got better from there. And because of that,
(44:30):
it's just hopefully this is just kind of a blip
on the radar for the Braves. Let's hope this is
just a one off. Next year they're back to winning
ninety plus games. They're back to winning in the playoffs,
which is something they have not done very much of
since the World Series. It feels like kind of a
critical offseason for this franchise right now, and twenty twenty
(44:50):
six feels like a critical on field season because, yes,
you can point the injuries this year, yes you could
point the injuries last year, but at the end of
the day, you got to win ball games. That's something
the Braves need to get back to doing. And in
my heart of hearts, I think next year is going
to be a much better season, but I say that
fully realizing that there are some very large questions for
(45:12):
this team in the next six months to address.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
Absolutely, the heat is now on. I think that because
they made the playoffs last year, it was a frustrating season.
In twenty twenty four, they made the playoffs, the heat
wasn't really on like it was on like we wanted
them to figure it out. But now, once you've had
a season like this, the patience level is far lower
from fans, from maybe even ownership level. We don't know
(45:38):
how they're feeling with Terry mccach as such, but yeah,
there's a lot of pressure, a lot of external pressure,
probably a lot of internal pressure before you even get
into the reality of the uncertainty and some spots. I
was a bride sticker number one on the list. Yeah,
has on Kim decisions on his side on the branch side.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
One more note, I'm sorry to cut you off. Hawes
Kim ended with a ninety one w RC plus with
the Braves. He was awesome, then terrible, then awesome, and
then terrible. You'd weird kind of month. Because we're only
talking about such a small sample but that's a I
feel like the Hassan Kim decision is like fifty to
(46:15):
fifty at this point.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
Uh yeah, that's a that's a show in itself. I
think he's gonna be at Brave next year. How they
how they get to that, we'll see. And by the way,
that's not I mean saying not one hundred percent sure.
I think if you get if you maybe choose Brave
or no, I would say Brave, but not by nine percent.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
So me too. And but the path there could be interesting,
whether it has to be very interesting.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
Uh you know again, Sticker's gonna get the headlines. But
you got Hassan Kim, you got the Ausi Alwis team option,
You've got what are you gonna do with d H
slash outfield, all these things? You know, Hot Stove season.
We'll be doing player breakdowns we always do on the show.
Free agency will be a talking point. The pitching staff
is always a top talking point there. How about this
for a sleeper announce season? World Baseball Classic is this
(47:00):
one's here. It's not till like February and March, but
it's coming. That's before the season starts. A lot to
talk about under meetings in December. Draft lottery mentioned earlier
as a topic. So we will be doing shows all
winter long, probably not four a week like we average
drive the season. There'll be some weeks what it's for,
but they'll be content multiple times each week. We'll have podcasts.
(47:21):
That's the plan. Stay tuned, keep it locked here. If
you're new to the podcast, it's not only Scott and
I but also Steven Tolbert and Sean Coleman do a
great job always with us. We missed match on occation
when we're busy and such and swap around. But please
subscribe to Hammer Territory anywhere you get your podcasts if
you are an audio listener primarily that's how I am
with podcasts, to be honest, take two seconds and just
(47:44):
smash subscribe on YouTube for us takes two seconds. If
you're a YouTube watcher, shout outs to you. Subscribe on
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super easy to get there, Spotify, whatever, overcast. We appreciate
the support and all of that. Scott, where can folks
find you all winter long with all of your brilliant
musings across the Sports Planscape.
Speaker 2 (48:06):
The hot takes will flow at Scott Coleman fifty five
and again, just one more big thank you to everybody
for checking out the show. If you have thirty seconds,
leave us a five review on your podcast of choice.
It really does help us out with the old algorithms
and the tech lords. But yeah, we keep going, man,
I mean, let's hope for a busy offseason. I have
(48:26):
a hard time thinking it's going to be a slower
off season than what it was last year. Maybe that's
famous last words, but let's get this team back to
where we want them to be.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
Brad, let us do that and again in the next
couple of days. You almost have to get something on
the manager one way or the other, just a comment
from Alex or somebody plus Alex as the usual. Of course,
last year's pres conms went went a lot of different
directions with Alex, made a lot of news and then
didn't always follow through all those things. But hey, play
and discuss in the near future, so stay tuned. Thank
(48:56):
you Scott for being here, as everybody else, we appreciate
you being here. Two subscribe and we'll see everybody next time.
Hello everyone, to look back to the emmor Territory podcast.
This episode two seventy five. I am your host, Brad
ruland coming to you only a Sunday here at the
end of September, and I'm joined as always by my
good friend Scott Coleman. Scott, the season is over and
is our good friend. Former guests of this podcast put
it Brandon Gordon, opening day is just one hundred and
seventy nine sleeps away. How are you there?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
You go only six months until Braves Baseball is back
in our lives. And I'll say this, I don't know
about you, I don't know about people listening to the show,
but I usually like a little bit of a break
from the Braves after one hundred and sixty two games
plus six weeks of spring train, plus obviously no playoffs
this year. But if you have playoffs, like you need
(01:04):
kind of a mental just get away from the team.
At least I do. But you know, the fact that
this season went out was such a whimper. I mean,
we knew by the All Star break it just wasn't
gonna happen. It is what it is, and hopefully this
time in the calendar year we are talking about the
playoffs rather than kind of a somber more you know,
damn it's over kind of thing. It's just, you know,
(01:26):
the hand the Braves were dealt this year.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
That's right, And we should say if we have a
new listener, it'd be a good time for people to
come on right now, right at the end of the season,
like hey, join us, but they should. We don't go away.
This is a podcast that's wrapping up this season, our
final show of the d season. Kind of cadence on
this show. We are gonna be going strong throughout autism.
We are Hammer Territory. Please subscribe to this podcast anywhere
you get your podcasts, Apple, Spotify, et cetera. On the
(01:49):
audio side, we're also on the YouTube, so like the video,
we have the comments and we definitely appreciate everybody checking
out the show always and especially right now as we're
going into the kind of dead period. But still there's
plenty to discuss with this baseball team moving forward. Let's
do one time stamp here Scott because it's like eight
o'clock pm Eastern Time on Sunday. We intentionally waited a
(02:14):
little bit to record this podcast, not because of the NFL.
I won't make you talk about that on this podcast today.
But we were waiting because with the game mad at
about six o'clock and I thought, hey, we should probably
wait to see what the postgame comments are like, perhaps
for Brian Snicker, players, announcements, et cetera. Is it possible
(02:36):
we could get Brian Snicker news after we record this
podcast or during it. Sure, itness but we did. I've
covered a lot of games and a lot of different sports, Scott.
Usually if there's news coming out of a press conference
or whatever, it's usually gonna happen in the first ninety
minutes after the game is over, and it has it yet,
so time stamp it. That's what we know. What we
don't know. What we don't know right now is anything
about Brian Snicker's future. So if you do, if you're
(02:58):
listening to this podcast tomorrow and you've heard, there'll be
a show coming in the speed at some point soon.
I promise about that topic. We've been talking about it
for two weeks or longer. Honestly, almost every show just
kind of mentioning how weird this is. It's still really weird.
I don't know if you have anything to add on this,
but as of right now, Brian Sicker is no longer
under contract. So that's what makes this whole, this whole things.
It's so strange, all of it.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
It is very strange. I'm I'm kind of surprised. We
haven't heard anything. There was almost radio silence other than
a handful of Braves players were asked about Brian Snecker
post game and they said, yes, we'd love to have
snit back, And I'm sure, do you feel that way?
Is what else? What else are they going to say?
Right Like? Is Chris Sale going to say, yeah, let's
(03:39):
get that son of a gun out of here? Of
course not. The players like snit They respect Snitt. It
is a very odd situation that we have played out
the entirety of Brian Snitker's contract and there's been no announcement.
And maybe it'll come by the time people listen to this.
It could come five minutes after we finished recording. We
will see. But it is a massive question, to put
(04:00):
it lightly, A massive question now technically officially going into
the off season as who is going to manage the
Braves come next season.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
It's kind of a big deal. We'll be talking about it,
but I just want to let that out there at
the top of the podcast. There's stuff to talk about
that has been a cloud though, that's hanging over this.
I was at the ballpark today and I was joking
about this, but I was like, should I work, Should
I bring a sign that says who is the manager tomorrow?
Or something? Because it's like the number one the games
didn't matter right the ind the season, and it's like,
for me, it was the number one talking point the
last like week, week and a half, like what is
(04:29):
going on with manager? And as of now we don't
have an answer. So stay tuned. Maybe during this podcast,
maybe tomorrow, maybe Tuesday, we will see Beyond that. The
Braves finish seventy six and eighty six for the season,
obviously not where they wanted to be the Rover under
was in the nineties. That speaks to where they were
(04:49):
supposed to be. They weren't there. They did finish better
than they started. I'm not sure if that's cold comfort
or if that's like frustration. I actually a normally friend
of mine asked this question the other day, like would
you have one of the Braves have finished strong or
just be awful? Basically, is it more frustrating than to
have finished strong. I don't really have an answer, like,
it's not bad that they finished strong. They were twenty
(05:12):
nine and twenty in the last forty nine games. That's
a ninety six win pay Scott. So if you want
to be an optimist, the last third of the season,
they were playing like they were supposed to play. What
do you make of that? I'll ask you that. Now,
do you care at all that they finished strong because
they did?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I don't know, Brad. I mean I can probably make.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
That's the right answer, I think, because I don't know.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah, yeah, I can make a case four and against it.
If this was a really young team that was kind
of on an upward trajectory, then sure, Like if this
was the end of the twenty seventeen season, you and
I would probably talk for five ten minutes about hey,
there was a legitimate excitement going above five hundred over
the final fifty games. They went fourteen and eleven in September.
(05:53):
Of course, this is not necessarily a super young team.
It's a very established team. It's a team that underperformed
basically up until the middle of August. Is kind of
when they got healthier and started to win games more
consistently at the level that we were hoping for them
to do. And you mentioned they were seventy six and
eighty six and they started out zho to seven, so
(06:15):
they were pretty much a five hundred ish team after
that week from hell. They also had that other they
lost seven games in a row as well, and was
it June or July. Basically, if you could wave your
magic wand and take out those two weeks from hell,
this season was more in line with what kind of
you would have hoped. And I think the thing that's
just going to kind of bug me this entire offseason
(06:37):
is that eighty three wins got you into the playoffs
as a wild card team in the National League. This year,
the Reds got in over a tiebreaker over the Mets.
You're telling me that if things didn't go a little different,
if the Braves didn't win some of those one run games,
that they didn't stay healthier in the pitching staff. I believe,
(06:59):
in my true hard of hearts, this team could have
absolutely won eighty four or more. Games. They just they
just couldn't do it, man. I mean, we talked about
them for six months on the show. Every it's how
many games did they just kind of piss away. We
could probably do a four hour episode on the worst
losses of the season because there were just so many
of them. And now you see kind of the ultimate
(07:19):
effects of blowing so many games early in the year.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
That's right, and we'll litigate that, I'm sure as we
go into the winter. But yeah, it's it is kind
of frustrating that they were close enough to be within
like realist distance of the wildcard because the wild card
bar was lower than it sometimes will be. You know,
the expanded playoffs is a different subject, but it does
lead to the potential of getting into the playoffs with
eighty three wins. Like, it's not that's not a good
you're not a very good team. Quite frankly, if you
(07:44):
win eighty three games, you're not very good. But in
the National League this year, that was enough to make
the playoffs, and the Brads were not as good as
they did to be for that before we poke fun
at the Mets for a second, because we'll do that
because it's look small wins, right, you gotta find some
wins in life. This came out today, I think this
from dB passes along the Braves set the Major League
(08:05):
Baseball record for most players used in a season. Seventy
one players suited up for the Braves this year. Wow,
that's again the record in history. Now, all this this
record in particular, is only a modern record, Like the
way that baseball has played now is not the way
it was played back in the day. So like all
(08:25):
the top teams on this list are like in the
last five years. Not surprising, right, but still that's a
lot of players. Also, they set franchise records for most
pitchers used forty six and most starting pitchers used eighteen
today it was nineteen with Charlie Morton. So obviously we
pushed back on this a little bit over the course
the last couple of months. If you're just finding the
(08:46):
podcast for the first time or the first time in
a while, we don't though, I don't believe all what
you responded this. I don't believe this is a season
that was caused by injuries. Like injuries magnified some of
the issues that they had. But I don't want us
to get lazy and say, oh, just the injuries that
that the bug bit in this year, that's overstanding what
actually happened. But it does a number like this does
(09:07):
kind of speak to like, Hey, in addition everything else,
they had a lot of turnover and weirdness and roster
stuff and injuries along the way.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yeah, this was a dumpster fire for a large part
of the season. The injuries were pouring some gasoline on
top of the already said dumpster fire. Will said, yeah,
And as this upcoming week, more than likely Alexanthopoulos will
kind of do his exit interview. Brian Snitker will presumably
do an exit interview of some kind. Usually the players
(09:35):
are available. If I hear one person blame all the injuries, Oh.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
What's gonna have that's going to happen. I bet you
hear you, hud Dog right now on the air. That's
going to happen. I promise you it will. That's going on.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
That was a large part because sure, if they had
Spencer Schwallenbach for thirty starts this year, you can bet
they would have won more games. Sure if they if
Chris Sale doesn't lay out trying to get a complete
game against the Mets back in and if he doesn't
dive for that ball and break his ribs, the Braves
absolutely win more games. They were quite literally anyone with
a pulse was making starts for this team over the summer. Yes,
(10:11):
it impacted them, but they also I mean, they just
stunk it up. They stunk it up. They had a
couple of weeks of just absolute misery where they had
long losing streaks and that's ultimately what did this team
in it was the injuries were part of it. Nobody
is denying that, but it's far more than just the injuries.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yes, again, the injury is magnified, and I know that
if you look at certain aspects of a team, the
rotation's probably number one on that list. Like you know,
when Bryce Otter leads the team and starts and innings,
that's obviously a bad thing. And as soon as the
lineup got healthy and better, the pitching just got decimated.
So like, we're not totally discounting the role of injuries
(10:48):
on how bad it got at times, but that was
not the reason or the main reason, even if you
wanted to blame anything. All right, Scott, that's a kind
of primer for what's happened season. It's the season finale
in some respects for us. We'll come back. We have
a few takewak from the weekend. Not a full blown,
deep out into the games. Because listen, guys, the games
(11:09):
didn't particularly matter that much. What's a takeaways for those games?
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Speaker 1 (12:18):
All right, Scott formid divens is the brave stuff? Can
we make fun of the Mets for five minutes or less?
Speaker 4 (12:23):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
And give a big shout out to the Miami Marlins.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Yeah, shuss the Miami Marlins who were playing hard to
the end. The Marlins got a little lucky this year.
They had a minus eighty nine or one differential that
was way worse than the Braves, and they finished ahead
of the braves and the standings. I wonder what kind
of odds you could have gotten on Marlins finished ahead
of Braves in the standings. Oh long odds. I would
have guessed for that one, but put it out to
the side. Look the New York Mets collapsed. That's the
(12:50):
only word that I could use to do it. They
missed the playoffs. And look, we understand glass houses and sucks.
The Braves were out of the playoff picture for two months.
It was before you respond, we understand the Braids were bad.
We also, I really I grew up. I'm the right
age to where I really, really really do not like
the New York Mets as a brace fit. So you
(13:10):
have to take some solid and with I do in
the Mets imploding. They were forty five and twenty four.
They're the best record in baseball at one point. Scott, Wow,
I have one more for you. I looked this up today.
They were they had already cooled off a lot. They
were sixty two and forty four, and at that point,
about two months ago in late July, they had ninety
(13:33):
six point eight percent playoff odds at Fangrafts and they
didn't make the playoffs. So it did not go well
for the New York Mets. And all for the price
of the second highest pay roll in baseball.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Just to U Steve Cohen, Yes, and I mean just
another kind of cut punch. Is five minutes after the
game ended today on Sunday, and the Mets were officially eliminated.
Pete Alonzo is opting out of his contract and just
like oh light out said.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
He had's a free agent. Yeah he's got to. I mean,
that's he had a This is a different subject, but
Pete Alonso had the all time great Like he signed
the pillow contract with the Mets because he had the
but like, yeah, good on him getting the option because
he had a great season. He hit the market again,
maybe maybe still stays there, but absolutely that's that was
an auto opt out, like for sure, right.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
And yes, and it was expected. But also just like, hey,
the season's over. We just blew a ninety seven percent
playoff chance, and your best hitter, I guess second best
hitter is opting out, right, Like that's that's not what
you want to see if you're a Mets fan. I
guess they will maybe the Braves and Mets can charter
are playing together and go on down to kan Kun
for a couple of weeks because no playoffs, And I
(14:41):
mean that's got to. I mean, obviously this was a
bad year for the Braves, but I mean if the
Braves had a ninety seven percent playoff chance in the
middle of the summer and couldn't win eighty four games
to beat out the Cincinnati Reds.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Who eighty three was the bar like they didn't have
to win ninety plus? Actually, did you I've seen this question.
We we got a question collectively. I think it was
tagged us and maybe the show too. All right, now
that we know what we know, would you rather have
had happened to the Braves or they were out of
it for a long time? Or would you rather bed
the Mets? Like if we're doing if we're doing the show,
(15:15):
and he's honestly, honestly, I like our guys that Mets up.
Who are our colleagues on the network. We've done their show,
that's done our show. We like those guys, not like
those guys. With that said, I if we were messed
up today, would you rather be in our position or
their position?
Speaker 2 (15:28):
All said and done, I would take the brave situation
eleven times out of ten.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
I think I would too.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I mean, I would imagine Mets fans have probably gone
through like the five stages over the last couple of
weeks with this collapse and just not being able to
win games. And I mean It wasn't like the Reds
went on a Cleveland type of run, you know, like
like Cleveland just went out of their minds to make
the playoffs. The Reds didn't necessarily do that. They they
weren't bad down the stretch. But this was very much
(15:57):
a Mets collapse. There was a clip of the sny
TV booth and you could just hear the disgust in
the Mets broadcast booth, and I mean, obviously, I mean
I'd be disgusted too. It was a collapse of all collapses.
And I know, obviously again, I mean the Braves and
Mets they're both gonna play zero playoff games this year.
(16:18):
But I would take the way the Brave season went
where I think, by like the middle of the summer,
we're like, you know what, man, this just isn't the year.
Braves have been awesome since twenty eighteen. They have the injuries,
they can't win a close game. It is what it is.
Verse just kind of dying on the vine very slowly.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Yeah, it's kind of a personality test, I think maybe,
But I'm with you. I would have chosen the get
it out of the way early model. And yet you
could argue like for the show, if you want to go,
it would have been probably better if they had been
in it all the way, just for interest purposes. Like
from a content perspective, you'd probably rather be the team
that's in it the whole way. But from a fandom
(16:55):
like mental perspective, emotional perspective, I wouldn't have wanted to
any part of a collapse like that. And we've seen
collapses like that too, Like I'm gonna want a sports fan,
I'm familiar with collapses. They've been there have been a
lot of those in my life. But uh, hey, the
Mets last thing, forty dive ins some games. The Braves did,
I believe, finish sixth best in the Draft Lottery Tekathon Palooza.
(17:18):
That's a not where they could have been. They could
have probably finished realistically like third or fourth had they
not gotten kind of hot at the end of the season.
But uh, the impact of that is not that big.
I just want to always say it out loud, like
they're they're six. Well, we'll see in what a couple
months before they actually are gonna be picking, We'll find.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Out, We'll see it. Seems like the Winter Meetings is
when the draft lottery gets selected, and yeah, I mean,
I'd be lying if I didn't come on here and say, yeah,
of course, you'd rather have the Braves with second best odds,
third best odds. I think it's six. They technically have
like a five percent chance to get the number one pick.
But again, this does not seem like it's going to
(17:56):
be a draft with like a mega like a Bryce
Harper type of talent at the very top, who can
change franchises. Is baseball, it's the ultimate team game. This
is not the NFL where a quarterback can just turn
around decades of misery. It's you know, it's a baseball draft.
It is the most unconventional draft there is in professional sports.
We'll see where the Braves ultimately end.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Up, yes we will, all right, some observations from the
weekend of games and really more again like more like
future basing takeaways than the actual games themselves. Well, we'll
go and order the Braves lose on Friday and Saturday Friday.
For me, the only real takeaway that I had is
that it's not a huge negative one. But Joey Wentz
(18:37):
was a really nice story for a while, right, Joey
Wentz The Joey Wentz train flew off the tracks a
little bit at the end of the year, and it
was probably not discussed by us enough in the midst
of everything else going on. But his first six starts
with the Braves are really good, Like e in the
twos like hey might have find something here. We weren't
like throwing a parade, but it was like, all right,
this is a cool story. Last seven starts for Joey
(19:00):
Wentz seven point sixty seven ERA in twenty nine and
a third innings. So that doesn't mean it's that doesn't
mean he's useless. It doesn't mean anything like that. But
if you were I saw I know you. I saw
this too, if you were a Joey Wentz for the
rotation truther six weeks ago, perhaps a harsh reality that
he's probably just some organizational depth at this point. I
(19:23):
don't know.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
I think so. I think Wentz will be maybe around
in the spring. I think the Braves might have interest
in keeping him around, not as a starting rotation guy
to begin but I mean, if you can StAst Joey
Wentz in Gwinett, then sure like do it and.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
He and crucially he has no options.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Right, So so you might be able to do like
a split contract or something like that. Like there's creative
ways to get him around. There's not going to be
twenty five teams bidding on Joey Wentz, and it is
a bummer. I mean, obviously, once upon a time, big
time prospect for the Braves never worked out since the
trade and what was that twenty eight teen, twenty nineteen
when Atlanta sent him away and then you know it
(20:03):
was like, okay, well he has a two point six
cra through six starts. If he can keep this going
through August and September, then maybe you found something. But
quite obviously the Braves did not. They were not as
fortunate to just kind of pluck a diamond in the rough.
And I don't know. I mean, maybe we'll talk about
Joey Wentz getting a minor league contract sometime this week.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
So sure that would not surprise me at all. And
I'm not trying to pile along, like I hope he
does well. And he actually is a guy that I
think could be in that conversation of like, you know,
a starter and we do the spin all the time,
and we'll do it again now, but like you got
to have a lot of starters. If you get him
an organization for a bargain basement price and you can
kind of have him around for spring training, sure fine
with me.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Game Game seven, World Series tomorrow. Would you, Brad Rowland,
future manager of the Braves, start Joey Wentz or would
you start Bryce Elder Elder? I would go Wentz moving on.
I didn't.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Maybe it was maybe that was me trying to be
trying to lean into the bit a little bit, because
you know, I've been a little harsh ond Brice of
the times. I think Bryce Elder is safer and I
think Joy Wentz is a higher ceiling. How about that? No,
it's I don't it doesn't really matter. I hope that
won't happen. But hey, world Series starts. The list of
guys who make playoff starts with the Braves over the
(21:22):
years is kind of funny. Yeah, Dylan Lee, Dylan Lee
started the World Series or not?
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Bryce Wilson. Bryce Wilson was the NLCS in the bubble year. Yeah,
it's I mean, we saw it four years ago. It's
get weird, man, That's just what That's just what it is.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Funny question. Oh, I mentioned already they lost on Saturday. Well,
if this is not exciting game, I'm gonna make this funny, Scott.
We got several people tagging us and itching to hear
from us on Matt Olsen and Bryce Snicker being ejected
on Saturday. It became like a really like big story
(21:58):
and I'm not saying it's not a story like we
would have mentioned it on the show, but like it
wasn't going to leave the show, which people. I think
people were like, I if this is a game that mattered,
if we were if we were in the playoffs or whatever,
I'd understand, but like, guys, the game didn't mean anything.
It was funny because it was Mattilson's first ever rejection.
He's like, yeah, known for being really really even keel
and he was pissed and I think rightfully so. But
(22:18):
I thought it was kind of funny how much people
were really getting into it, like lots of lots of
tweets and lots of articles, and I'm like, it's just
an ejection, a second last day of the season in
the meaningless game. Whatever. Sorry.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
I think Mark Bowman of MLB dot com friend of
the show, Mark Bowman. Mark, I think Bowman might have
sent like twenty tweets about this in the twenty four
hour period.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
He was very excited about it. I don't know why,
but hey, it's okay.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Yeah, umpire. I mean, come on, guys, no one, no
one's there to watch the umpires. Umpire. Olson should not
have been ejected. Maybe, I mean, maybe he was really
letting the umpires have it from the dugout as he should.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Well, it was it was funny. He you know, Snick
got out, went out and got us. If you missed this,
stick went out and got and got his back. Snick
got ejected. That's what Snick does. That's not freight to
mix it up. Olsen got ejected like minutes later, Like
it was not like instantly, like sim was already going
and like I think it was like during the inning
change is when Olsen got ejected, so and again literally
the first time he's ever been ejected. So that's that's
(23:13):
a story in itself. It was just a weird a
weird play too, like, yeah, you don't usually see that
if you missed it, like Olsen got called for interference
for basically just doing nothing, Like he finished the swing
and it wouldn't matter at all, but the guy dropped
the pop up, so it became a it doesn't matter,
it's just one of those. It was a weird thing,
for sure. I just was a I thought it was funny.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Yeah, I think you could lip read. And I think
Olson said with an explanative, what was I supposed to do?
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Which is a fair question, I agree.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
I mean, is he supposed to like dead sprint to
the dugout so he's out of the way. I mean,
come on, guy, what most of the time hitters don't
even know where the ball is when they foul it off.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
He would know it was there. It was.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Yeah, Like there was a clip in a game the
other night where a player doubled and he was looking
like down the line to try to figure out where
the ball was and it was in the left field grass.
I mean these yeah, just silly.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Very silly. Oh quiptonman Mitt Olsen, who had a great season.
We've covered it a lot. We'll talk about it later on.
But he played every game this year. Again, he has
the longest active streaking baseball of games played, seven eighty two.
It's the twelve longest streak in mide League history. Just
a shout out to Matt like he plays every day.
The guy never he never misses. And unlike other guys
(24:27):
who like he doesn't get hurt either, like knock on Wood,
like he doesn't like play through stuff like make sure
he does little things, but like he just plays. He
just plays.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Yeah, every day you get that high in the baseball
record book for anything. I mean that, that's really cool.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Twelve in history is a not a small thing. Only
I think of Saturday. I won't alwayst get to and
you actually notice. I'm glad you did Strider pitch on Saturday,
and you know he was fine. The biggest thing was
that he is healthy. Now he's going into the off
season healthy. Nothing else really matters to me about Strider,
(24:58):
like he pitched better at the end of the year,
but the fact that he is healthy, which means he'll
have a full hopefully knock on wood off season. He
made comments about that going uh when he was asked
about it after the start on Saturday, But like you
brought it up, But it's a great point, Like he's healthy.
That's big for everybody involved.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
I think, yes, it's huge. Hopefully no restrictions this offseason
for Strider. He had a great quote after the game
that was along the lines of, like, I need to
do a neurological reset of my upper right body. I
love me, I need to. He's a freak and almost
like a nerd, and like the most endearing way possible
(25:32):
about pitching. It's why I'm I'm pretty confident that Spencer
Strider is going to get this thing figured out.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Totally agree. I've been optimistic. I still am. He'll have
to rework some things, but we saw that already a
little bit down the stretch. We'll talk about that more
later on the off season, but he's healthy. Good on him,
and good on the Braves as they head into that
situation because they wanted, honestly, the best person of the
Braves has special Strider being good and he signed for
a long time and all those things.
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Speaker 1 (27:03):
All Right, Scott let us discuss Sunday's season finale. If
you don't mind, I will take a minor lead on
the first part of this because I fulfilled my promise
to Braves Country. I said, if Charlie Morton number one,
we said this is a week ago, this before he
was even acquired by the team. I said on the
show with You that if he made a start, I
(27:25):
would go, and I did. I won't lie to everyone.
I did not stay the entire game today because I
had a lot of things to do, but I stayed
through Charlie's portion of the events. I was by myself,
like a crazy person walking around Truis Park by myself,
but I went and it was cool. Man. Obviously, I'm
in the tank for Charlie, so I will let you
(27:46):
keep me in check on this, but I thought I
thought it was really cool. You know, I'm cynical at heart.
I'm also a softy, deep deep, deep down about sports
generally speaking, especially but you know, Saale insisting on Morton's
starting the game is what happened, because you know, if
we listened to Sean Wednesday, the Brids announced the probables
and it wasn't more it wasn't moret and we talked
about it, and then Sale apparently went and we're like, no,
(28:08):
Charlie started, I'll come out, I'll come out of the bullpen,
and you know all the things. So, before I dive
in any more detail, what did you think from the
outside being, Oh, yeah, your colts were playing to it
at the same time, you were not as dilinan as
I was, for obvious reasons. But Uh, what do you
think about where they handle this?
Speaker 2 (28:24):
You just had to get that jab in their bread.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Well, I'm just explained he did the context, just the
cont I didn't say. I didn't say about the Colts result.
They were playing at the same time, That's all I said.
They were.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
It was really cool for Charlie Morton and with his
family on the field. They had Frank Sinatra playing My
Way over the Pa and it was very Charlie Morton.
It was a high wire act from the opening pitch
and at one point I was like, oh no, like,
Charlie can't give up three runs here in the first inning.
(28:55):
That would be such a bummer of a way to
go out. And then in the second inning got that
first stout and then I mean, rightfully, the Braves let
Charlie have his flowers. Just an all time good guy,
probably more like a Hall of very good Charlie doesn't
have any Hall of Fame chance the way that you
know some of the other older players, like Justin Verlanders
retiring or very likely retiring, Clinton Kershaw's retiring, like Charlie
(29:18):
isn't in that.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Not even I would put Charlie in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Conversation, right, but he deserves to be remembered for a
multiple time World Series champion, pitched in the World Series
on a broken leg, gave it everything he had. I
mean just, I mean just an all time good good dude.
And you know, I'm glad the Braves were able to
bring Charlie back in a meaningless game. I mean, sure,
if this was like last year where the Braves are
playing up until the very final minute of Game one
(29:44):
sign of course, but circumstances and all that aside, bring
Charlie back, let him go out on top or as
on top as he can. I guess in this scenario
it was. It was really cool.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Yeah, and you know some of it had to do with, yeah,
he pitched with the Braves and World Series hero and
the broken leg, all that stuff also drafted by the Braves,
Like that was the I think people that maybe are
younger missed that added level, Like I don't think that
he would have gotten this exact treatment if he hadn't
come up with the Braves organization as a young guy,
Like he might have still gotten a little bit, but
(30:16):
it probably wouldn't have been this quite the fever pitch
like and I thought that was a long time It
was twenty years ago. I mean, it's a long time
ago that he was pitching with the Bras minor league
system and making his way up. But that was part
of this too. The fact that the strikeout you mentioned
his second ending came on a pretty vintage curveball, which
he still has. The curve ball when it snaps is
still disgusting, even though Charlie's whatever, he is forty one
(30:37):
years old. Yeah, cool tribute video. Charlie is such a
humble guy.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
You know.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
I love this little touch that Sale came all the
way to the mound, took the ball from him Like
usually when you hand the ball off, you hit the
ball to the manager, right, you don't see the reliever. Yeah,
and Sale came all the way from the bullpen to
get the ball. I thought that was really cool too.
Ca Sale again was part of why he started the game,
the family thing, all the stuff.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
So and go ahead. I was gonna say. Fun note. So,
Charlie Morton you mentioned drafted by the Braves, came up
with the Braves, was traded June third, two thousand and nine,
so sixteen years ago, and Charlie kept going. A guy
who reinvented himself and just for funzies, here's the headline.
(31:24):
The Braves traded Charlie Morton Gorky's Hernandez. Do you remember
Gorky's Hernandez.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
I remember this traid like it was yesterday because I'm
a psycho, so yeah, me too, it was it.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Was my brother's birthday, of all days. And Jeff Locke
I think was a lefty pitcher. I don't remember him
quite as well as Gorky's Hernandez. But alas for Nate mccloth,
who all started a cloth Yeah, never quite worked out
with the Braves, but yeah, to get back Charlie Morton,
tip of the cap to Chuck made himself a hell
of a lot of money this last decade after he
(31:55):
kind of reinvented himself with the Houston Astros, multiple World
Series rings. It's it was really a cool, full circle
type of story.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
We will stop, but that was cool. That was kind
of the headliner today. Obviously people will mention this too,
like it could have been the last game for Azuna
in a Braves uniform, but think it probably will be,
not definitely, but probably will be. I don't know I
how they're going to operate this. They could bring him back.
They still like him by all accounts, but dh only
we've discussed this a number of times. We'll say it
for the off season, but that could have been his
(32:24):
last game. To keep that in mind as a guy
who's been there for six years and was a big
part of some stuff with the Braves. Beyond that they
won the game. Well, he was there six seasons, six seasons.
Twenty twenty was the debut for marcell It's crazy. Obviously
he missed like a year and a half or whatever
it was in the middle and then had had the
downturn of like when he was really bad. I mean
quite a quite an up and down for Marcelo Azuna
(32:47):
that we've covered the entire way. But man, weird other
than that, other than like the Charlie stuff, and you know,
Chris Sale look good. Shocking, Chris Sales good at baseball
when he's pitching. Another guy who's healthy right right now.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Also yeah, also healthy going into the off season. That's massive.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Ronald Kunya hit a home run on the first ending
that was an absolute smoke and I was still there.
The crack, the way he hits the ball, it's not
this is a very moneyball, old school scout thing. The
way the ball sounds off that man's bat, He's he's
an alien. Ronal Cuon is an alien. I think it
was four fifty one beat on that one. Ronald, you
(33:25):
remember when he hit seventh? Sorry, I had to one
more time in the season. He's really good. It's just
breaking news romic. He's good. Anything else from today that
you want to add, it's Vegas.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
The Vegas overhead on on half a mention of Ronald
Lacuna Junior being a seventh place hitter. All of Vegas
just erupted, knowing that it was a possibility, and we
got to get it in one more time.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
If you had today I went, I would have left
it alone, but it was I think he's actually I'm
gonna one more time about show wasn't crazy, but I
think his doubsit plus was like it was like one
sixty for the season. Yeah, once it won sixty one
wsit plus for all the cud.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Uh, he's a star, all right. The other couple things
we'll get out of here. Drake Baldwin, I think he
went over to day, but he had a big weekend
before this and his last two weeks. He was quite
a finishing kick for Rookie of the Year as well.
I'll say like he finished very strong. He had nine
extra base hits ohps, like eleven hundred the last two weeks.
And I actually looked this up. We talked about this
(34:28):
a little bit a few days ago with you and
I on the show, and I said then I would
have voted for Drake if I had to vote. I
think even stronger now and not because the way this
ended up. I actually didn't realize how big of a
like Fangrafts war Bastall reference war lead he has on
Kate Horton. It's like a game or like a full
win or more on both sides. Like wait, how was
(34:48):
he not the favorite? Like what's going on here? I
don't get it.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
I don't either. I'm pulling it up here live just
to see what the awards are. And of course it's buried,
so we'll look it up here in a minute.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
But I've got I've got it. I've got it. Actually,
I think they took up the twelf board. Yeah it's
a draftings it is now off the board. Yeah that's
where I was looking. So they uh, maybe maybe they
have to wait for something, but he was. But Drake
was the underdog guys this morning, I know still And
for me, how do you feel about this? I think
for a pitcher to win any award that has that's
(35:23):
not just a picture's award, like any m v P,
especially VP, even more so VP, but even Rookie of
the Year, I felt like if you were, if you're
a pitcher, you gotta be like notably better for me
to be than than the best hitter. And I think
the fact that Drake was catching as well like Horton was,
was good. He had a good eat, a good season.
(35:44):
But yeah, I I thought it was closer than it
was in my head and I looked at it and
I was like, this is just shouldn't be particularly close.
I don't think that's just me.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
And I'm fascinated to see how the voting breaks down,
because I agree with everything you said. If Baldwin was
a spacemen with those numbers, it's it's probably not very close.
But the fact that he is a catcher and was
just so good both offensively defensively, had a really nice
strong finish to the year. And you know, I'm curious
to see, like Caate Horton did get injured the last
(36:16):
week of the year, and that made headlines. It might
be just enough to stick in the back of a
mind of a voter. Well, Horton was hurt, Maybe I
dock him a little bit for that. Not a major injury,
but nonetheless, and you know, like Kate Horton two point
six seven e ra fantastic, that's really really good. But
his underlying data is good, but not like out of
(36:38):
this planet. He benefits because the Cubs might have the
best one through nine defense in the Majors, so he
benefited from that.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Cad.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Horton's FIP was an entire run worse three point five
to nine. His ex FIP, which balances out home runs,
was four point two seven. So if voters, and we
don't know who the voters are, but if the voters
are maybe more in palytically inclined, that might hurt Horton's chances.
If they get Bob the Boomer at the Cincinnati Inquirer
(37:07):
who looks at eras and wins, it might be tougher
than for Drake to get the vote. Well, we'll see
how it plays out.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
But Bob the Boomer is a good one. I like
that one. No one more thing too. Horton through one
hundred and eighteen innings, which is fine, but you know,
one of the knocks on a catcher in particular sometimes
in these awards things that they don't play to play
every day. Other than cal Raley, no one plays. They
don't play every day. Yeah, and Drake only had I
(37:34):
think it was like four hundred in the four hundreds
in played appearances, which is a full season, Like he
played one hundred twenty four games a lot for catcher,
but normally that might be a slight demerit. But Horton
only threw one hundred eight ten innings. It wasn't like
he was throwing every day every fifth day for the
whole season and made thirty two starts like he made
twenty two starts, So cumulative value all those things. We'll
(37:54):
probably let it get this again when the awards stuff
starts getting closer finalist time. I am very very confident
that Drike will be a finalist, So that'll be a
discussion point when that happens. Whether he wins or not,
we'll see, but I would be voting for Drake Bowin.
I'll say that one more time.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
I'll me too, and hopefully Bob the Boomer does two.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
All right, let us discuss a player that the Braves
actually added to the roster on Friday, so we have
had a show since then, but it was it was
not quite Hassan Kim in terms of big names, but
illegitimately pretty decently sized big name off of Waivers on Friday,
and it's Alec Manoah, former Blue Jays pitcher claimed the
(38:34):
famous that he was an All Star and finished third
and say young voting in twenty twenty two, so not
that long ago. Three years ago he was like the
twenty three to twenty four years old and was like
a budding star. And since then it's been all rough
between injuries and struggles on the mound to the point
where he was dfaied and then put on waivers. The
(38:54):
Braves claimed him and optioned him to the Miners at
the end of the season because he wasn't gonna be
able to pitch for the scene. So I'll throw it
to you, what did you make of this? Because again
a much bigger name. The Braves have been claiming guys
like it's going out of style, Like it's been crazy.
How many guys have added in the last month, but
Manoa short of Kim and maybe you know, Fredley is
a pretty big name too by the standards. But Alvanoa
(39:16):
was literally a third and Si Young three years ago.
Like this is real, this is a real talent to
nothing else.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
You know, it's funny when it was announced that the
Blue Jays were dfaing Alec Manoa, like everybody was like,
all right, Braves, you're gonna put a claim in.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
Everyone new, everyone knew right away.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
The record for roster claims in the final month of
the season goes to Alex Entopless. You know, it's been
rough for Ack Minoa for a few years. Has not
pitched well, had mixed results in the minor leagues this
past season, did not throw a pitch in the majors.
I think May ended up making ten starts in the
(39:52):
minor leagues. Was okay, started out pretty rough, but got
better as it progressed. But if you're the Braves, like
why not, why not kick the hires and see if
there is anything here. If during the offseason you have
to squeez him off your forty man roster, you can
do it, no harm, no foul. If you bring him
to spring training and he has a fifteen ERA through
(40:12):
three appearances. You release him, No harm, no foul. But
it kind of feels like for Manoa, this is like
maybe his last chance to kind of get things figured out.
And I mean, the Braves, to their credit, have done
a terrific job developing pitching over the years. Let's hope
that Rick Kranitz is back with this team. If there's
a new manager, regardless of the manager situation, let's hope
Rick Kranits is back and maybe the Braves can find
(40:34):
a diamond in the rough. And if not, then then
no harm, no foul.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Yeah. And a few things like the year after his
Cy Young worthy performance, he had a really really bad
just performance season like kind of had this. It was
a national story, like, man, what's going on about Minot
right then he had some injury issues. He had Tommy
John in twenty twenty four, and that's part of why
he did pitch the majors this year, Like it's a
year long recovery. He didn't throw a pitch in the
(40:59):
minors until like mid July, so like that's kind of
what happened there. Plus the Blue Jays, you know, we're
in the hunt the entire water in the playoffs. They
couldn't afford to just bring it up and like try
him because they had no margin for er they had.
They were in full on playoff mode, so they couldn't
just try him in the middle of season. In the
middle of that post him. I will say I actually
knowed people that cover the Blue Jays pretty well. There
(41:20):
were some people that were surprised that he was DFA
by the Blue Jays because importantly he's arbitration eligible and
he has minor league options still. So that was why
I was like, Okay, this is not just not Joey Wentz.
For instance, we talked about earlier, where Joey like there's
so much there's no it's not as easy to keep
him around. There's more positions like without Vanila, like he
(41:41):
might be making two million dollars two and a half
million dollars three million dollars next year and have minor
league options. Like if he shows anything, if he shows
anything that that they like, they might want to keep
him around just because of the talent, the talent level,
the age, and the flexibility because all of these Brice
Eller doesn't have oppics anymore like they guys that have
money league options. It could be a blessing and a
(42:03):
curse for those guys, but it helps roster and Alex
is big on roster flexibility, as we've discussed a million times,
Like he likes to have this people to kind of
shovel guys around, so he might be done. We have
no idea how good, but Noah's going to be but
a talent like this coming off an injury. The Braves
have a knack on this kind of stuff, Like I
like this move. I'm not gonna tell you it's gonna work.
I have no idea, but zero risk, like literally zero risk.
(42:26):
So sure, yeah, yeah, why not.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Maybe they can make some adjustments, Maybe they can mechanically
tweak some things, Maybe they can adjust the pitch mix
that he uses. Again, I mean, the Braves have done
a really good job for the most part over the
last handful of years getting the most out of their
healthy pitching. I think that's more than fair to say,
with the healthy talent available to them, they have more
times than not come out on the positive end than
(42:52):
the opposite. So yeah, it's it's a no risk thing
you can move on. It's why not, And in fact,
Wenoah gives you an impactful in twenty twenty six, then
you just kind of got it for basically free.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
Yep, And that's one reason I am pretty confident in
Mina would have been claimed by someone else. The Braves
are hot, are pretty highly priority. Take advantage of that
while you have it. It's a rarity that they would
be there. So there you go, Scott, Is there anything
else you want to touch on before we get out
of here, because look, the playoffs start Tuesday. We'll probably
do a little bit of playoff talk because we like baseball,
(43:26):
not gonna be deep diving into playoffs like we would
with the Braves. But basically it is now all season
mode for us. It doesn't mean that we're gonna go dark.
We're gonna be very busy, particularly this week. I think
given that we're probably gonna get an alex Press conference,
we might get a standing out spending any day three
things full circle, But uh, feel free to anything else
you'd like to. If not, we'll look forward to the
(43:48):
winter months because it's it stays busy for us on
the show. I just learned that there were no no
hitters this year, Brad, that's correct, first time in a
long time, only the fifth time in the divisional era,
which is nineteen sixty nine. There was no no hitters
kind of a I had no idea.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Anyway, nothing to add Braves wise, you know, Brad. This
was the season with a lot of hope and optimism
and the hope that we could put a devilish twenty
twenty four behind us, and it just never came together.
And the first week of the year was rough and
it never really got better from there. And because of that,
(44:30):
it's just hopefully this is just kind of a blip
on the radar for the Braves. Let's hope this is
just a one off. Next year they're back to winning
ninety plus games. They're back to winning in the playoffs,
which is something they have not done very much of
since the World Series. It feels like kind of a
critical offseason for this franchise right now, and twenty twenty
(44:50):
six feels like a critical on field season because, yes,
you can point the injuries this year, yes you could
point the injuries last year, but at the end of
the day, you got to win ball games. That's something
the Braves need to get back to doing. And in
my heart of hearts, I think next year is going
to be a much better season, but I say that
fully realizing that there are some very large questions for
(45:12):
this team in the next six months to address.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
Absolutely, the heat is now on. I think that because
they made the playoffs last year, it was a frustrating season.
In twenty twenty four, they made the playoffs, the heat
wasn't really on like it was on like we wanted
them to figure it out. But now, once you've had
a season like this, the patience level is far lower
from fans, from maybe even ownership level. We don't know
(45:38):
how they're feeling with Terry mccach as such, but yeah,
there's a lot of pressure, a lot of external pressure,
probably a lot of internal pressure before you even get
into the reality of the uncertainty and some spots. I
was a bride sticker number one on the list. Yeah,
has on Kim decisions on his side on the branch side.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
One more note, I'm sorry to cut you off. Hawes
Kim ended with a ninety one w RC plus with
the Braves. He was awesome, then terrible, then awesome, and
then terrible. You'd weird kind of month. Because we're only
talking about such a small sample but that's a I
feel like the Hassan Kim decision is like fifty to
(46:15):
fifty at this point.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
Uh yeah, that's a that's a show in itself. I
think he's gonna be at Brave next year. How they
how they get to that, we'll see. And by the way,
that's not I mean saying not one hundred percent sure.
I think if you get if you maybe choose Brave
or no, I would say Brave, but not by nine percent.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
So me too. And but the path there could be interesting,
whether it has to be very interesting.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
Uh you know again, Sticker's gonna get the headlines. But
you got Hassan Kim, you got the Ausi Alwis team option,
You've got what are you gonna do with d H
slash outfield, all these things? You know, Hot Stove season.
We'll be doing player breakdowns we always do on the show.
Free agency will be a talking point. The pitching staff
is always a top talking point there. How about this
for a sleeper announce season? World Baseball Classic is this
(47:00):
one's here. It's not till like February and March, but
it's coming. That's before the season starts. A lot to
talk about under meetings in December. Draft lottery mentioned earlier
as a topic. So we will be doing shows all
winter long, probably not four a week like we average
drive the season. There'll be some weeks what it's for,
but they'll be content multiple times each week. We'll have podcasts.
(47:21):
That's the plan. Stay tuned, keep it locked here. If
you're new to the podcast, it's not only Scott and
I but also Steven Tolbert and Sean Coleman do a
great job always with us. We missed match on occation
when we're busy and such and swap around. But please
subscribe to Hammer Territory anywhere you get your podcasts if
you are an audio listener primarily that's how I am
with podcasts, to be honest, take two seconds and just
(47:44):
smash subscribe on YouTube for us takes two seconds. If
you're a YouTube watcher, shout outs to you. Subscribe on
your favorite audio platform if you have an iPhone, Apple
super easy to get there, Spotify, whatever, overcast. We appreciate
the support and all of that. Scott, where can folks
find you all winter long with all of your brilliant
musings across the Sports Planscape.
Speaker 2 (48:06):
The hot takes will flow at Scott Coleman fifty five
and again, just one more big thank you to everybody
for checking out the show. If you have thirty seconds,
leave us a five review on your podcast of choice.
It really does help us out with the old algorithms
and the tech lords. But yeah, we keep going, man,
I mean, let's hope for a busy offseason. I have
(48:26):
a hard time thinking it's going to be a slower
off season than what it was last year. Maybe that's
famous last words, but let's get this team back to
where we want them to be.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
Brad, let us do that and again in the next
couple of days. You almost have to get something on
the manager one way or the other, just a comment
from Alex or somebody plus Alex as the usual. Of course,
last year's pres conms went went a lot of different
directions with Alex, made a lot of news and then
didn't always follow through all those things. But hey, play
and discuss in the near future, so stay tuned. Thank
(48:56):
you Scott for being here, as everybody else, we appreciate
you being here. Two subscribe and we'll see everybody next time.
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