Bryce Elder Excels as Braves Continue Splendid Start to Season

On the Serving Pancakes Podcast, conversations about volleyball go beyond the court.

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No, to the Hammer Territory Podcast, my name is Sean Coleman, hope wherever you are,

and wherever you are listening, you were having a great start to your week, and if you

are a brazen, it's a great start to the season, and that's what we are thrilled to be

with you tonight on the Hammer Territory Podcast.

Yesterday you got to listen to the Hammer Territory Podcast, whose teams are still in March

madness, as a matter of fact, they're about to face each other.

Unfortunately tonight you're stuck with the half of whose teams unceremoniously exited

March madness this past weekend, but what makes the sting a little less is when the baseball

team that we all love is performing well, and with me, of course, as always, one of the

best when it comes to breaking down the braves at Stephen Tolbert.

Stephen, how are you doing this evening, sir?

What's up, buddy?

So three and one, you know, we're going to talk about, we're going to go through kind

of a lot of the details and dive in a little bit on what's happened in this three and one

start, but 30,000 feet, three and one is three and one, and you know, it is an easier

part of the schedule, and we talked about how the braves need to take advantage of that

by playing well early, and lo and behold, they have so far so good, you know, you went

three out of every four games, you're going to win, I mean, 120 games, just like that.

So it's obviously not a sustainable pace over 162, but this is what you need to do in

the lighter part of your schedule, and you know, this is, these are teams to braves haven't

beaten the last couple of years, they've had a hard time beating teams that maybe aren't

the best.

So including this Oakland A's team that they beat tonight.

So really good start to the season, we're going to dive in, but three and one is three

and one.

Absolutely.

And what makes it even better than just being three and one is the fact that at least

so far, what rightfully was our biggest concern coming into the season has actually been our

biggest strength in our biggest factor to our success.

That's going to be the topic of when we mix it up, engineered by Fast and All.

All right, Steven, so let's get right into it.

There have been a few factors that have played out well for the braves, you know, they've

had some good luck, they've had some good defense, but what is stood out so far for this

braves team is pitching and starting pitching has been the strength.

Chris Cell was his normal dominant self, but when it comes to Ronaldo Lopez, he put a lot

of questions to bed with how good he looked.

Grant, Grant Holmes pitched well enough to win.

The braves just had an unlucky game and perhaps the most impressive performance of the season

so far.

Bryce Silver came out and absolutely delivered against one of the best lineups in the majors

in the Oakland Sacramento Las Vegas, the athletics.

It's been a great, great development so far this season to see the starting pitching

do what it's done.

I believe four earned runs allowed in what, 22, 23 innings to put it in perspective.

The braves through their first four games have produced two shutouts.

This is only the four time in the history of the franchise, well, at least since 1898

that the braves have had multiple shutouts within the first five games of a single season.

That's how impressive they've been.

I'm not saying that they're going to stay this impressive, but when it comes to how important

it was for this team to get off to a good start, this pitching has delivered time and time

again.

Yeah, listen, I mean, 23 innings, I think from the starters, six innings, six innings,

five innings, six innings.

So, yeah, 23 innings, four earned runs and four games, which are going to win a lot

of baseball games if your starting pitching gives up an average of one run a game.

You know, three of those games, the braves either gave up zero or one run, you know, obviously

sail an elder, both pitch shutouts and Ronaldo gave up one.

First time through, it has been fantastic.

Now there's still some stuff behind the curtains, you know, if you look at Ronaldo's stuff,

you know, the velocity was good, but the way kind of his pitch is graded out, we need

to see more.

I thought Grant was hit or miss, I actually thought Grant got unlucky, pretty good.

The stuff wasn't actually that bad.

I thought he got more unlucky than anything, and even then he gave up three runs and five

innings, not like he pitch poorly.

I thought sail looked fantastic.

I thought Bryce Elder looked fantastic tonight.

So, and listen, it's not the best competition yet, but the A's can hit.

I mean, we watched this A's team last year destroy teams.

I mean, they would go into games and hit four or five homers easy and, you know, it's

early in the season they haven't got off to the start.

They wanted.

They've had a tough schedule, but the pitching has been fantastic to four games.

Now, we need to keep seeing it.

I would like a few more strikeouts.

It's a little bit too much contact driven for me at the moment, which tends to fluctuate

pretty heavily in terms of results.

When you strike a lot of people out, the up and down of it isn't as quite as bad.

So, I do want to see a little less contact, but four runs and four games.

I mean, you can't argue.

I mean, it's just been fantastic start, and obviously they got their fifth guy.

We'll go tomorrow.

We'll talk about more in the end of the show, but yeah, it's been a great start for the

rotation.

You're muted.

You're beautiful.

It's been, hey, hey, new season, same old Sean.

What can you say?

What I will say is this is that when it comes to Bryce Elmer, I think that we need to focus

on him a bit.

It's not just if the stuff was just, you know, light years ahead of what it was last year.

Now, I know people had talked about he picked up a ticket of velocity at the end of last

year in the spring training.

It seemed like he got up to 93 a few times with his fastball.

What really stood out to me is the effective pitch mix.

I feel that he, I'll have to look at the numbers here in just a second, but I feel that

he definitely mixed in his change up a bit more than he did last year.

He only used it 10% of the time.

Tonight, it felt like it was a bit more.

Spend that first inning.

I believe that he got two of the outs on his change up and he was just able to throw

strides.

He was throwing strikes early in the count.

He was kind of keeping the hitters off balance.

And some of those, he's still located some of those pitches where you don't want to

against very good hitters, but because of the fact that he was able to, you know, kind

of changed their eye level with different pitches throughout the advance.

They seem to be a bit off balance, at least a little more than we usually see in these

Bryselder matchups.

This tonight, he looked more like we saw, you know, for instance, when you go back to

last year, when he had that outstanding starting San Francisco, he wasn't as good as he was

that day, but he looked close to it much better than we saw in many starts last year.

So I think a bit more confidence in his picks, pitch mix in terms of keeping hitters out,

starting hitters a bit more often, that seemed to be the key to night and it certainly

worked.

Yeah, a lot of sliders, a lot of slide, I think he threw more sliders than he threw fastballs

tonight.

And he definitely threw more sliders and change ups, only through I think four four scene

fastballs, which is what he needs to do.

He's got a, he's got a very hitable four scene fastball through a lot of sliders, a lot

of change ups, a lot of sinkers.

He's got a little cutter that he's playing with that I don't love.

I appreciate how little he used it.

He needs to be a slider, change up sinker guy.

And that's where he stays out of the middle of the plate.

Now, he's going to walk people.

He's always walk people.

He has belts where he can't control the breaking stuff specifically.

And tonight he has command.

And a lot of times in Brad and Scott, I've talked about this a bunch.

You can tell how Bryce Elder starts going to go pretty early by his command because

if he's walking guys, he's just not good enough to get out of that consistently.

But he, I mean, his command was on point.

I don't think I think he maybe had one walk tonight, five strikeouts to one walk.

And again, you know, with Bryce, you're not going to get a ton of strikeout.

You're just not.

I mean, he does pitch to contact.

He's a guy that's trying to get you to hit his pitch, which is, you know, about two

inches off the plate, keep it off the barrel.

There are days it goes well and there are days it doesn't.

And today I went very well.

And you're right.

He did remind me a little bit of that San Francisco start.

Was that last year?

Yeah.

That was last year.

Yeah.

It was early in the season last year.

It was in the middle of one of the Braves were straight.

That was when they lost like 10 in a row or something like that, but he pitched fantastic.

So really, really encouraging start from Bryce and, you know, they're going to need Bryce

quite honestly.

I mean, until Strider comes back, but even after Strider comes back, they're going to

need a fifth starter.

I'm very curious to see what the other guys look like and, and Fuentes certainly look

good in his first relief outing.

But I guarantee you, Bryce Elder is going to throw 80 plus innings this year, probably

more than 100 if he stays healthy just because of the injuries they've already had.

So they're going to need Bryce to be, you know, at least give them a chance to win every

time it goes out.

And he did that more tonight.

So hats off to Bryce.

Yeah.

A little bit less usage of the fastball just looked at the numbers from the start over

at baseball.

So what stands out is the overall velocity was a little bit slower, 35% slider, 35%

sinker, 17% change up.

So it took up in the change up usage right even with the slider sinker, which I think

is good.

And that's a good breakdown for him.

What did you say you said 35, 35% sinker, 35% slider, 17% change up.

And I think the other 8% was fastball.

Yeah, the cutter and the forcing.

Yeah, that's a good, that's a good mix for him.

Yeah, but what also seemed encouraging was the fact that again, the velocity was a bit

down.

The whip percentage was a bit down.

He had a 29%.

We have four out of 14 swings on the slider, 23% on the sinker, but the drop.

He had noticeably more drop, vertical drop with his pitches this year than last year.

So he's getting that movement.

So again, if there was more drop and he had the control that he had tonight, that speaks

to the confidence in his control.

And that's what you need from the type of pitcher that Bryce are older is.

He's not going to blow people away, right?

He's not going to be able to overpower people with velocity.

He's going to be able to do it by controlling the movement of his pitches.

And so tonight, if he had a bit more drop in tonight's start, then he averaged last

year, but it was one of his more impressive starts that we can remember in terms of control,

that's really encouraging moving forward.

Yeah, and listen, keep the ball in the middle of the plate and don't walk people.

Right, that's his secret sauce.

And when he's, when his command is off, it's not always off out of the zone.

It's often off in the middle of the zone.

And so that's where he gets in trouble where he can't command the pitch on the black

the way he needs to.

And that's what he did tonight.

He was on the corners all night long.

I mean, I watched every pitch he threw and like the number of times he was in the middle

of the plate was just very rare.

He just did not give them a lot to hit, but he was close enough where he wasn't walking

people.

It's a fine line.

And it's why Bryce goes through these massive ups and downs because he, he has to live on

that fine line.

But when he, when he does it like he did tonight or when he did in San Francisco last year,

this is what you get.

You can get a guy that can actually shut a lineup down because he's just on the corners

all night long.

And the pitch, every pitch is moving somewhere and I do like that.

He stayed away from the four seamer and it was more slider, change up, sinker.

I think that's where he needs to be.

And that's what he did tonight.

As long as he's living in that, not in the middle of the plate and not walking people,

you know, as long as he's there, he's good.

Absolutely.

And I can tell you this, a source that you get as long as you trust, you know you'll

be good is fast and all.

Stephen, tell, tell, tell our listeners a bit more about fast and all.

Fast and all.

Industrial supplies, innovations, innovations, innovative solutions, want to learn more

visit fast and all dot com.

On the serving pancakes podcast, conversations about volleyball go beyond the court.

Today, we have a little best friend compatibility test.

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So today we met as the league one volleyball season heads towards its final stretch.

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Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, host of the on purpose podcast.

My latest episode is with Noah Conn, the singer-songwriter behind the multi-platinum global

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And so when we talk about fast and all, we talk about innovative solutions, right?

Well, for the braves, the thing that stands out for them is unexpected sources of success

and unexpected solutions, if you will, so far this season.

Steven, we're going to get into some things that they can control.

But one noticeable thing, and I think it's worth talking about because we've been on

the bad side of it so often over the past two years.

The braves are having a bit of luck going their way this year, right?

The way that things are working out in terms of, you could, I know you for a fact have

said on social media at least two or three times so far this year.

That exact scenario is something that would have happened completely against the braves

last year instead of for them.

For instance, Michael Harris is a ground ball up the middle that likely would have been

a double play to Bobby Whit Jr., but instead went off Carlo Estivis leg and then Mauricio

de Bonnes blew pit tonight that gave the braves the three run lead.

Those type of things you don't expect, it's good to at least see that be a positive

aggression.

Look is a bit more on the braves side so far this year.

Yeah, and the thing that we question are a couple of the things that we've questioned

coming into the season have been the things that have driven the team.

I mean, listen, the number one question we had was the rotation and the rotation has

been fantastic so far.

Now it's one turn through, we're not even one turn through yet.

They still got another one tomorrow, but you know through four games, the rotation has

been just on, I mean, in arguably fantastic, it just has.

Now, yes, the results, the numbers behind the results are telling a slightly different

story that it might not be quite this good and it's not going to stay this good.

They're not going to average one run a game given up by the rotation, but the rotation

through four games has been really good.

The other question we had coming into the season, shortstop, I mean, that's been a question

for like three years now and Mauricio de Bonne has looked really good.

I know Brad Scott talked about on their show about how they kind of pretty quickly went

to Mateo on Sunday to get Mauricio off his feet and the guys were like, you know, let's

see more of Mauricio, you know, we definitely want to rest players, but I don't know if we

need to be resting players, three games into the season and you could tell the difference

tonight.

I mean, when they get to the bottom of the bottom of the order, there's at least a guy

that can do a little bit of damage.

Now, I don't expect Mauricio to be a, you know, all star level hitter, but he's a guy

who can come up and get a hit for you.

Like, it's not like a Nick Allen situation where you like, you need a, you need an actual

miracle from God for this guy to get a hit.

Like that's what it felt like a lot of times last year and I can't tell you how many times

last year that get two guys on and lobe a hold.

Here comes Nick Allen and like the ending is just all and this year, they get a couple

guys on at the end of the, the bench or the end of the lineup, Mauricio to bond comes

up.

And he's, he's driven in, I think he's already got five or six RBI or five bar.

Yeah, he had three tonight.

I know he had a two run double on opening day.

So, you know, shortstop has been good.

I think he has and left has been fantastic.

The rotation has obviously been very good.

You know, the parts of the team that we know are going to be good.

The coon you also Riley haven't fully gotten there yet, but like the parts that we weren't

sure about have played extremely well in the first four games of the year.

And, you know, I, it's going to balance out a little bit.

The top guys are going to, are going to start producing more and, and some of these questions

are probably going to stay questions as we move through the season.

But through four games, it's been really good.

Yeah, Mauricio to bond tonight was the first brave shortstop, Stephen.

It's August 12th of 2023 to have three plus hits and three RBI's in the game.

Like it's been two and a half years since a brave shortstop produced that time.

Was that was that the Orlando, the meds game?

Was that I forget that was Mickey Lopez.

The crazy thing is, is that okay?

Before tonight, it was two and a half years, but it happened on eight, 12, 2008 or 2003,

2023.

The previous time before that that had happened was Orlando RC, a four days earlier.

So that's probably the game that you think that's the one I'm thinking of.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So Mauricio to bond again, not saying that he's going to, you know, for every four games

give you five RBI's, but again, we talk about that high floor.

And that's the other thing that stands out about this team that are not in their control

are definitely going their way.

But the reason why that is is because they are doing, they're being so efficient when

it comes to things in their control, right?

They're playing to their strengths.

So I mentioned it.

And Stephen, you know, talked about it as well before the season.

What's going to stand out early in this schedule is the braze are going to consistently

have the better offense as well as the better bull pin.

That means as they get further in games, they should have the advantage.

I think that they've outscored their opponent so far, like what, 12 to 3, 11 to or something

like that from the seventh, you know, and coming into tonight, they had the second best

of ERC plus of any team so far this season from the seventh and you know, in games, that

stands out as being an advantage.

The defense has played extremely well.

You've seen multiple great plays from DuBon, Harris and others.

The defense is playing efficiently well.

And the pitching 28 strikeouts to eight walks.

This team is not making that many mistakes.

So when something unlucky happens because of what they're, they're so efficient on what

they can control, limiting walks, limiting mistakes, putting together good at bats, being able

to overcome leads late in games.

The luck that other teams have don't stand out as much, but the luck that you have stands

out a bit more.

So while we're talking about things outside of their control or being in their favor is

because they're minimizing it on the other side of things by doing so well with things

that are in their control.

The efficiency of this team in the areas that you may not consider so important is also

what is standing out.

They are playing a highly efficient baseball.

And if that's going to be a trademark of this team, that could be a very, very good way

to silence some of the questions and really get some answers as to how you could win

frequently.

Yeah, it's actually really funny when you think about it because, you know, we just talked

about the areas of the team that we thought would be question marks coming into the season

performing so well early.

And one area of the team that I thought would be a massive strength, which has been the

base running is probably the area they perform worst, the first five, I think they've, I

think they're like dead last in fan graphs, BSR, which is their base running value so far

this season because they got thrown out on the basis three more times tonight.

So like it has been a, it has been a very weird season where even it's only four games

in where things we weren't sure about have performed well and things we thought would

be strengths.

I've gotten off to slow starts and you can talk about the base running.

We talked about Ronald, although Ronald was on base four times tonight and he hit one

off the wall and he had one on Sunday that I can't believe didn't leave the park.

I thought that was a home or for sure.

So, you know, by process, Ronald has looked better than maybe the results, but you know,

Riley has been okay.

I think he had three hits on opening day, but they were all pretty soft singles.

Olsen had a rough day the other night with three strikeouts and a pretty big air that

got covered up by Dom Smith's walk off Grand Slam, but, you know, the parts of the team

that we thought would be really good and driving this team have not fully shown up yet

in the base running and some of their stars and the parts we weren't sure of have been

fantastic.

So, that does, you know, that does scream small sample size, right?

We need to say that multiple times that's four games in, you know, damn near anything

can happen in four baseball games and you certainly don't want to be drawing any conclusions

and that's why we're not.

You will not hear any of us draw any conclusions anytime soon, which is we got, we got to get

so many more games behind us before we ever start getting to any actual true signal of

what's happening.

There's just going to be a lot of noise for the first month until we get some games behind

us, but, you know, it's, it has been an odd start to the year where, where, you know,

some surprise contributions and maybe some surprise non-contributions and the, but, you

know, there's three and one.

And that's all you.

I would have taken three and one all day long.

It doesn't matter.

You, you could have told me nothing else.

You just said they're three and one and it, do you care how they get there?

I would have said, nope.

As long as there's no catastrophic injury that's happened somewhere in there, I'll take

three and one.

And that's where they are.

I actually'm going to disagree with you respectfully on how I, here we go.

Here we go.

I will draw one conclusion that one conclusion is this.

It's always better if unexpected sources or sources that may not necessarily last are

ongoing in your favor when those expected are reliable sources or not.

And what I mean by that is, is that, hey, as, you know, Mauricio DeBon and Michael Harris

and others may be slowed down a bit, maybe things, the slowing, the starting pitching

starts a struggle a bit, that's when our offensive studs start to get going.

So, they're not getting going, but other parts open this when games, that's what matters

and it puts us in a really good position.

But what else also continues to strengthen your position is when you get good news on

potential reinforcements coming back a bit quicker than expected.

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On the serving pancakes podcast, conversations about volleyball go beyond the court.

Today, we have a little best-spring compatibility test.

Yay!

How long have we been best friends for?

This is the day we met.

As the league won volleyball season heads towards its final stretch, there's no better

time to tune in.

We really are like Ian and Yang, vodka and tequila.

You'll hear unfiltered analysis behind the scene stories and conversations with leaders

making an impact across the sport.

Today, we have Logan Limeke.

I feel like our fan base, in general, is very connected, which is like a comforting

feeling, getting to play at home.

Whether you're following the final push of love season or just love the game, serving

pancakes brings you closer to the action and the people shaping the future of volleyball.

Jordan Thompson had that microphone on.

Dr. Brick, we make mistakes or cuss at our coach, like we're talking about two times.

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Ready for a different take on Formula One?

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Join me, Lily Herman, as we dive into the under-explore pockets of F1, including the

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Louis Hamilton, Crap the Corn Sun, Cancer Moone.

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Michael Schumacher is also a Crap the Corn Sun, Cancer Moone.

The story of the sports' most consequential driver's strike.

They have one man who upon hearing that he was going to be fired freaked out and apparently

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And was Daniel Ricardo's illustrious F1 career a success story, a cautionary tale, or some

combination of both.

He started getting all this attention, and he may be started to think, I'm bigger than

this.

I'm better.

And plenty of other mishaps, scandals, and sagas that have made Formula One a delightful

decadent dumpster fire for more than 75 years.

And to know grip on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

So of course, Stephen, as many know, we had 13 games in 13 days.

It's a great way to start the season.

If you're a fan, getting nightly baseball, but of course, there was a bit of uncertainty

when it comes to how the Braves would position their starting staff for this series against

the athletics.

More on that in just a moment.

But let's start with some notable off the field news that came today.

Some updates from Walt Lies to the Braves organization.

And no spoilers because I'm going to let Stephen break it down, but I will say this, the

great thing.

It's all positive.

Yeah, it is all positive.

So we got big updates on Sean Murphy, Spencer Strider, and Hassan Kim today.

So Sean Murphy is going to go out to Rome on Wednesday.

And they weren't sure yet if he's going to do a rehab assignment or if he's just going

to take BP with him and then start a rehab assignment the next day.

But essentially this week, and we're still in March.

By the way, we're not even to April yet.

And Sean Murphy is already going on a rehab assignment in March.

Late March is fantastic news.

That is much quicker than we thought.

We thought, I kind of thought he would be like rehab assignment near the end of April

and then coming back sometime in the beginning to middle of May.

So, you know, that's almost like a full month earlier than I thought with Murf.

Kim is a little behind Murphy.

They're not quite sure yet on Kim.

He's still, you know, he's not as far along with the hand.

But it looks like he's going to do a rehab assignment in April as well.

And I think probably sooner than later, which is even for him is probably a couple of weeks

ahead of schedule.

And then Spencer Strider was actually throwing today and felt fine.

He's going to throw another bullpen.

They were the language they used was they were cautious to give a timeline yet.

But one thing Alex said is that because it was such a, it was a low grade strain for his

oblique that he's not really having to deal with all the other stuff like, you know, Sean

Murphy a couple of years ago, like couldn't even like sneeze without being in pain because

he had such a severe oblique strain.

And Strider's not had to deal with any of that.

And so he's already pitching, which, you know, they do have a certain timeline on it because

if it gets too far past when he was stretched out in spring training, then he's going to have

to kind of start over a little bit on some of his build up.

Whereas if they do it earlier than that, he might still be able to kind of pick up or

he left off.

It's just going to depend on the timing, but he's already throwing, which, you know, for

an oblique strain, you know, if it's bad enough, you know, guys could sit for a month before

they can do anything.

So the fact that Strider is already throwing just tells you how mild that's that oblique

strain was Murphy's about to do a rehab assignment.

Kim's going to do a rehab assignments.

It was, it was three pieces of really good news on three very significant players all

in a row today.

And you know, we got to actually get them all the way through a rehab assignment back

on the field and performing and stay healthy.

But good news is better than bad news and we got three pieces of good news today.

And again, I want to point this out, you know, because I think we talked about it a little

bit over the all season, but what's like to check some boxes when it comes to Sean Murphy

in particular, right?

You want to talk about someone who for the past, what two and a half years, ever since

the All Star Break of 2000 and after the All Star Break of 2023, he's been playing with

some version of this hip injury, right?

And so he finally was able to fully address it this off season like that.

That was the big story was that they discovered a pretty serious injury.

They were able to help him recover.

So he should come back healthier than he's been in multiple years.

Check that box.

He's got every reason to be motivated.

Yeah.

A lot of people question him, you know, let's just be honest.

You know, he's got a, he's got a young catcher and Drake Baldwin who has basically become

the focal point for the organization at the position.

But he also has plenty of opportunity to really reposition his career to go in the right

direction.

And he's going to be able to do it by focusing more and often than he has before since

he's going to be sharing the position with Drake Baldwin, a motivated and healthy Sean

Murphy is definitely someone that can be an offensive difference maker.

So getting him and his back back to be another solution at keeping both him and Drake Baldwin

fresh as the DH catcher combo, I know I said multiple times last year, I didn't think

that was the most ideal setup for this season because I felt that it made sense to go out

and get a higher level of bat to be, you know, kind of in that mix as well.

But with all that we've experienced, a healthy and motivated version of both Drake Baldwin

and Sean Murphy, that's a better case scenario than I think many would have thought, especially

of a pro far being suspended.

So even if people have negative opinions of Sean Murphy with how he's performed over

the past few seasons, there is still a real list.

Outcome this year where Sean Murphy not only comes back, he not only comes back motivated,

but he's a difference maker.

He's the type of additional bat for this lineup that we preached all off season we had

hope they had added that certainly is in the realm of possibilities for a healthy Sean

Murphy.

Yeah, and listen, it just helps to brace tremendously if Sean Murphy gets back to what

he was a couple of years ago, not only on the field, which is, you know, those benefits

are obvious.

The better he plays, the better the team is, but it also just gives the team more option

and flexibility in the off season, you know, Sean makes a lot of money, makes 15 million

bucks and he's going to make 15 million bucks, I think for the next three seasons.

And the only way the braves can get off of that and, you know, if they want to, is if

he plays well and if he's healthy, if he's not healthy and he's not playing well, then

the braves don't even have the choice to get off of that contract, even if they wanted

to.

But when he plays well and he looks good, then you, you have all the options available

to you.

I'm not saying the braves need to trade Sean Murphy.

I'm saying the better he plays, the more options they have and options are just make

life easier.

And then add on top of the fact that if Sean Murphy goes out and has a really productive

season, it's just a massive for this offense.

I mean, you know, I do think Drake is the future of the position for the team because I think

Drake is a substantially better player than even I thought Drake could be.

Drake is kind of, Drake is very quickly approaching like a level of player that I never dreamed.

Drake Baldwin would be.

And if that's the case, then he's the future of the position.

But you still need a DH for this year because direction profiles is an idiot.

You still need a catcher because, you know, Jonah Heim has had a pretty rough kind of

spring and start for the braves like he's a, he's a, he's a backup and, you know, he's

having a DH against lefties because the braves don't really have anybody else.

But if Sean Murphy is there, Jonah Heim is not DH versus lefties, Sean Murphy is.

So yeah, it's massive.

And, you know, I think I do, you know, Kim coming back is not as critical because DeBond's

present.

I think Murphy coming back really helps the DH spot.

It helps the catcher spot.

You can't, you can't, Baldwin can't play 160 games.

He just can't.

So you need a, you need a really quality backup.

And then Strider coming back is, is, you know, everybody knows what that means.

That just means more depth to the rotation that could desperately need more depth.

So these are very, they're very obvious reasons why this is good news today.

But specifically Murphy coming back, being healthy, producing the way he, I know he can

just opens up so many options for the braves this season, next season, just makes life so

much easier.

So that is definitely a source of good news.

But here is where I want to like really put it to the test.

Could this year be different?

The other thing that stood out over the past couple of years is that when the braves have

had an opportunity to, in a luxury spot, make it even better than you see it as they

failed so many times.

And what I mean to that is that they're three in one.

Tomorrow you have Jose Suarez and likely Martin Perez for the braves against Aaron Sabile

of the athletics, more on that in just a moment.

It's clearly going to be a game where whichever offense comes alive, I think earliest, whichever

offense starts the loudest is going to have the advantage.

But if you do that, you start four and one with Chris sale, then going on the mound against

Luis Severino, which you have to feel would be a favorable match up for you on Wednesday.

And all you need is for your offense to come along.

That feels great opportunity for this braves team.

Can they do it is what stands out about tomorrow's game now?

Jose Suarez, Martin Perez, I'll say this, if the braves pitch a shut out with Jose Suarez

on the mound, I will make a guarantee, I guarantee that Steven Tolbert will drink an expired

glass of milk.

If the braves produce a shut out with Jose Suarez on the mound again, an expired glass

of milk, all that aside of the point that I'm getting at is that yes, the braves are probably

not going to have that good pitching success tomorrow.

Aaron Seville is who is on the mound for the athletics and it's crazy.

Seville has only faced the braves three times, but it was all last year on June, but also

back to back appearances for the Cubs in September.

He had some success, 9.2 and he's pitched 2.79 ERA 10 strikeouts to two walks, did give

up to home runs.

It's going to be the keep of the braves to get going early in a match up where pitching

is not going to stand out.

It's going to come down to the offense, Steven.

Yeah, so they announced what was right after the game did announced that Suarez is going

to start.

There was question of whether Perez or Suarez, they obviously, they had option, did

you hear Fuentes earlier today, which I guess is news.

We also need to cover the braves did option Fuentes, you know, he pitched four innings on Sunday.

So he wasn't going to be available to pitch for four days anyways.

And clearly they braves were using him as a way to get an extra arm.

The first four days of the season and then option him when we get to this point where

they need a fist starter and they need another reliever.

And I, you know, I think they actually handled it pretty well.

I, you know, there was a lot made about Didier making the opening day roster.

It was very clearly.

It was a strategic thing more than a, you know, prospect that's just, you know, banging

on the door and has to come up right now.

I think they were doing it to make sure they get an extra arm for the first four days,

especially with your uncertainty in the rotation.

It just makes sense.

Obviously, the question is going to be now how long does Didier stay down at what point

does it come up?

I will say this.

Now that Suarez, elder and Martin Perez are all on the roster.

None of those guys can be optioned.

All of those guys are out of options.

So the only way you're, you're getting someone up for one of those guys is either an injury

or a DFA.

Now listen, Suarez and Perez could probably be DFA it's pretty easy.

The braves have shown a, I mean, an understandable level of hesitancy to ever get rid of Bryce

Zelda.

I do think he would get claimed in a heartbeat on waivers.

So I don't think that's coming, but I think they could DFA Perez or Suarez if they want

to get Didier up.

But that's going to be what we watch for the next probably two or three weeks is how long

do they keep the kid down?

You look fantastic in his relief outing.

But yeah, tomorrow Suarez, you know, I'm not excited about the pitching matchup.

You're 100% right.

The offense can make this, you know, academic, they really, we really haven't seen like

an explosion from the offense yet.

Like they did hit three homers an opening day and that game was a kind of a laffer for

sale is pretty no stress.

You know, Saturday's game, they, they got, they took advantage of a closure that clearly

wasn't healthy and right and scored six runs in the ninth inning.

But offensively it was a pretty poor day.

Sunday, you know, they hit a lot of heart balls.

I thought they actually hit better on Sunday than it did on Saturday, but that's baseball

for you.

And then tonight it was kind of, you know, it's just kind of a me offensive game.

They scored three runs in the first and scored again until I think the eighth.

So the offense is still kind of fine in their way.

A lot of it is Akuni Olson Riley haven't fully gotten going yet, but you're 100% right.

If the offense can just come out and make tomorrow's game academic and then you got Chris

sale going on Wednesday, the business man special for a potential sweep, that's getting

greedy.

And that's what you need to do right now when the schedule is light, get greedy, go

for a sweep.

You got to win tomorrow, of course, to go for the sweep on Wednesday.

But yeah, the offense needs, I would really love to see the offense come out tomorrow.

And just, I mean, just hit the shit out of the baseball for like a day.

Like that would just, we haven't seen that yet.

That's the one thing we haven't seen yet is just the offense score like 12 and just make

it a laffer.

So I'm going to speak it into existence that the offense is going to come out tomorrow

and put up double digit runs.

Yeah, the open tonight got the job done.

But if you can come out tomorrow and the offense can do their job early and you know, make

it to where you know, maybe it could be, you know, kind of a, even if he does struggle

a bit, make it a bit of a smooth start, you can maybe get, you know, five, six, seven

innings from a Swarris as well as Perez tomorrow and get the win.

Then you've got sell on the mound on Wednesday.

The other thing that that does is it keeps your bullpen fresh.

And I think so far, you're pretty happy with keeping your bullpen fresh.

And after this series, without an off day, you're going out west and you're facing drop

lead, your toughest opponent of the early season in the diamondbacks over the weekend.

And then you've got the angels out west as well.

So being able, there's a big difference between going out west without any rest days.

And having a fresh bullpen, then one that's been overused in the previous two games.

So offense, the pitching staff has done each job so far, but it's not, we're not going

to, we're not going to add a negative to the show.

This is not meant to be a negative at all.

It's just saying the pitching so far has been the big source of success.

Let's go ahead and get one in our, in the wind column based off an offensive explosion.

I think they're fully capable of doing it.

And it starts with the studs getting going and getting going early.

Yeah, and stop making outs on the bases.

That's two things I want to see the offense explode.

No more outs on the bases.

I'm very curious to see what Suarez looks like.

If Martin Perez gets in the game, what he looks like, I could see it being a bit of a bullpen game.

Kind of maybe Suarez for like three Perez for a few and then the bullpen.

Like you said, the bullpen hasn't been used a ton.

So they could do that.

You just got to be careful when you're still got seven more games on the back end of this stretch

before you get to an off day.

So yeah, how they get through tomorrow's game bullpen wise is going to be fascinating.

And it does help that you got your ace call in the next day, but it still matters.

Hey, just get the job done.

That's what we ask you've done it so many times before why not do it one more time.

But again, a great start to the season.

Overall, I think not only would anybody take three in one, but the path in which we've got to three in one.

I think many would be surprised, but thankful.

That's how we've got to do it.

Stephen, anything else from you as we wrap up this edition of the Hammer Territory podcast.

No college basketball is over for me and you, buddy.

You know, we got we got big brother, pretty hard this weekend.

Scott Scott and Brad are fighting it out in the final four of this weekend.

But it's over for me and you, but baseball season is here.

The Braves look good early and can't ask for more than that.

Man, I'm just I'm excited.

It's not only fun to be able to watch Braves baseball, but, you know, again, knock on wood.

For the first time in a while, being able to actually watch Braves baseball with the anticipation.

Hey, this, this, did you just say knock on wood and then knock on your head?

Yes.

Yeah.

Gotcha.

I like that.

I like that.

Great way to end the show.

Nothing but positive show from the one and only Steven Tober, who by the way, you can find on

X slash Twitter at the inner square outliers.

Myself at stats, S a C on X slash Twitter, amateur territory across all forms of social media,

part of the foul territory family of podcasts, Braves a's one more time tomorrow.

Aaron Seville versus Hoes, Jose Suarez, Martin Perez, take your pick.

The offense needs to come alive.

And then on Wednesday, you've got Chris on the mound once again.

Until next time, hope you have a great night and a great day.

Hope it's slow anticipation for another Braves win.

Until next time, go Braves.

We'll talk to you in soon here on the amateur territory podcast.

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