Hr2 - AA Defends Braves' Trade Deadline and Roster Moves

0:00Oh, it's September 1st, baby. That means football's here. Our general manager, by the way, Ian Cunningham speaks tomorrow. He's going to be on with Andy and Randy tomorrow afternoon to make sure you tune in for that. Because I know there'll be a lot of roster questions, Mike, and trying to figure out where we're going with this. But Ian doesn't speak a lot. He hasn't since he got in the job. He was introduced. Certainly, it was from Roswell and spent time here and was very happy to come back to the A. But he's been singularly focused on trying to put this team together. And tomorrow should be interesting. Because Mike, I don't think we'll hear from him after tomorrow. And I'm talking generally speaking. Season starts. And you and I both know this. We've done these coaches shows for years now. Usually the general manager, and we'd see Terry up there at the branch. But it was casual conversation. It wasn't like Terry come on because he wouldn't. He'd be like, hey, it's coach's job. And so I'm sure that Ian's going to say the same thing once a season rolls right on. Now, maybe not. I mean, but this team is. I love it. I mean, feel your open door.

1:01It's always welcome to know what's going on. You know, one thing for certain, there was some confusion about the roster. A lot of folks in it. I said, look, we like Zach Harrison. Now, some guys you just want to see pop from where they're drafted. Third round, I want to see some action. You know, Rooka Roro, they moved up to get him in two. There was solubiti never popped. So they've traded it. Mason Smith comes in. He's a bigger guy and a defensive tackle. Ian, cutting him, the coaching staff, they get together and they say, we're bad against the run. We're addressing that. And we spent some time on it last hour. Yes, the sacks were great. What did the sacks get us to play off? No. Did the sacks win us the division? No. So Mike Smith may be right. Guys, sacks are overrated. Well, they certainly didn't help us last year. You know, because the complimentary football, the offense didn't score enough points. And then Albrich would like blitz on a second or third down. They go for it on fourth and long. We'd rush two and they convert a second, a third and fourth and 35 or something. So I just think that two things about this deep fence, we really do miss and we will miss, obviously.

2:01The guys like Pierce with his production. Yes. And what we thought Jalen was going to be, I know you don't feel as strong about K Nellis, but we're going to see if the guys can do what K Nellis did. Well, you got to get him a credit. He had 111 tackles. Okay. I mean, you led the team in tackles. You got to give him credit there. But I also think it was very evident when Divine Deutle was out where we were inept. We couldn't cover. And teams ate us up across the middle. I just think, hey, K Nellis should have been able to cover up for some of that. And he couldn't. And we know JD Bertrand got in there. Now he's on the IEL. So we'll see what happens. But the bottom line is, yeah, I think he's a really good player. But are you asking me if Divine Deutle can have 111 tackles on a team this year and lead the defense? I think he can. Right. And we're going to see the young guys, man. If you look at now, now that the depth chart is honed down to 53 men, Kendall Daniel is going to have a chance to make an impact on this team. Perkins, LSU will have a chance to make an impact. I think if somebody asks me right now, who's the guy who impressed you most?

3:02I love Zach. In practice, I love Zach Riesmith. I mean, the game's situations there with some good and some things you needed to work on. You think they're high? They hit him a little bit in preseason. I think there's some truth to that. I thought there was one play. There's a couple of plays where they threw to him where he didn't get the separation. But he's going to learn that. It's playing at the next level, the NFL. The other play is where he's making Duke move, guys getting faked out of their jock on some of these things. It's going to be a quarterbacks that are getting the ball. But I think, of all the guys we saw, the new faces, Kendall Daniels impressed me the most. How about that? And I think that's fair. Because you talk about coming out of nowhere, right? Like, okay, we got him. What's he going to be? And there was a big question, Mark, can he make this transition from, you know, like in college, safety and now you're playing linebacker. What's it going to look like for him at the pros? But yeah, man, I would agree with that. There were really no big surprises. Look, we like cash Jones and he ends up making the practice squad. But at the end of the day, I don't think that was a surprise. Kirby's been telling for the last few years what this kid is. And then we just got a chance to see it up close and personal with the Falcon.

4:02So, yeah, man, I think Kendall probably was the biggest surprise. It's Duke's and Bell's fourth radio, 92 9th the game. Let's get to fourth and one. So the Browns are carrying four quarterbacks. Dilling Gabriel is the odd man out, guys. They're going to see what they have with Shedore probably sooner than later. Taylin Green, okay, is the back up there, but they like his talent, his size they want to develop it. The Eagles, well, they got a few quarterbacks, but their general manager is brilliant at keeping quarterbacks because he knows Mike the value of QBs. I hate to say it, but somebody's going to get hurt, okay? We don't know who, but somebody's going to get hurt. And all of a sudden, are you calling Philadelphia Eagles and saying, hey, we need one of your guys. Hey, you got Andy Dalton as your backup. He's the experienced guy, but they got a couple of guys they like. So why they kept four quarterbacks is different from why we've kept four quarterbacks. Now that's not to say that Ian Cuttingham is not thinking the same thing.

5:05It's the most valued position. Team loses a guy, are they calling the Falcons and going, hey, we really like one of your guys. That's very possible. But the Steelers are also looking at this mic. Their future is wheel-hower and juallard. Right. Those two are going to battle. Mike McCarthy is already setting this up when Aaron Rogers is going next year. They're going to be there. The Mason Rudolph is the backup. So different reasons for different teams, but you look at our situation, you go, we still have four and we will have four, but what's the bigger plan? Well, again, the Vikings are just like us. Okay, you got a quarterback. You drafted high question mark. You got a guy totally cheap to fill in. Could maybe more so for Kyler Murray to establish himself as a man, I think, to a here. And then their their Jack Shrant is Max Brosmer. That's the guy, which they saw and said, you know, we like him. I like Max Brosmer and you know, they're almost in an identical situation. So we can stash this guy, practice guard, risk of losing him, keep him in the mix and perhaps he gets a chance to develop. And also, I like the fact when you got a quarterback as your team president,

6:08just something to think about like why we got, you got Matt Ryan and you know, okay, what is he thinking this guy? I think he likes him. You know, I mean, I know they're going to start gushing over him, but I think there's a connection there a little bit. Yeah, I do too. I mean, if anything. And Brosmer just got cut. So he's gone. Okay, for the Vikings. But if anything, I do think so now they're down to three, having Matt. And that's what I'm talking about. Like different reasons for teams. I'm going to hold on to this guy. Let's see. We'll bring him back to the practice squad. But the three teams I talked about, the Browns, Eagles and Steelers, there's reasoning behind it. For us, you go, what are we doing? How are your Rosemons notorious for this? I'll keep an extra dude and somebody's going to call me and I'll make a trade. And then that's the Eagles end up with 15 picks in the draft, you know? But he and Ian's trying to do a little bit of that as well. And I told you, the deal for, you know, Dexter, Mike, we can pay him if he balls out, but if he doesn't and we let him go, we're still getting a compensatory pick. So it's a kind of a win-win when you talk about all right, if you just want to add picks or if you think the guy is good enough, and he's only 25, by the way, the, the, the,

7:09the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, like, on paper, he's a beast of a guy. Now the Bears did some upgrades to anything off season, you know, both through the drafts and through free agency. So that he becomes expendable. But he can, you know, it's not the first time in the NFL, like, I can get traction in another spot. And hopefully that'll be the case. By the way, we were talking about Zach Harrison earlier. Yeah. Look, I don't agree with everything with the PFF nerds. Nerds. But we were not great against the run. He had four and a half sacks in only seven games. His position, Coach Nate Olly said they liked the guy, but health is an important issue. So that's why in part, they moved on at least for the time being from Zach Harrison. The PFF nerds had on Yamada as our highest rated defensive lineman last season. That makes sense interior. Obviously, you know, I think Brent Adorolus would be number one. Yeah. No, we had Adorolus with eight and a half sacks and the impact he had. But that doesn't make sense. But I was, I, but I thought, you know, and again, it just was a lot of folks saw the JD Bertrand experiment. I know he's a local kid from Althoet away, I believe, or Roswell. But he just wasn't good in coverage.

8:11And it really, it just stuck out like a, like a sore thumb when Diablo was out. So I think a lot of people were like, well, how the hell is Bertrand on the team and Harris is off? Well, guess what? One guy is now on the IR and the other guy made come back to practice. What? What do you make of the Rams, man? Are we putting them in the Super Bowl too soon? Too soon. You might not have Pukin' or Kua for the first eight games. His girlfriend's apparently supposed to drop some stuff, which the NFL is going to be very embarrassed about according to the LA times. And the commissioners exempt list, which by the way, Josh Jacobs is currently on. And the Packers are not talking about that. But you're, you may see Pukin' or Kua get four games from the commissioner. So there's, they're still investigating. He had a very strange offseason. The people he ran with, the things he said, you know, when you leave a bite mark and they can match your insiders, you know, I don't know. But that's, I tell you what, that's what, that's what hell of an oral fixation. I agree. Orns looking at me like I just said something criminal. I'm asking a question. Well, there's Hickeys. Some women like it. There's Hickeys and then there's Hannibal Lecter, okay?

9:12I mean, then there's Red Dragon, okay? You know, we want to get into the books. I mean, it's a bit, it's a bit much. Just keep an eye out. That's why you don't do your fantasy drafts until next week. Hey, man, coming up, Alex and Thopolis. We talked to him yesterday, laid in the show, but you got to hear what he has to say about the makeup of our team and how he feels about the way things are going. You're going to hear the entire interview next on sports radio, 92 and 9th game. Mike and I had a chance to catch up with Alex and Thopolis, double A, Braves General Manager, laid in the show yesterday. He had some very interesting things to say about this team. Braves on the road, again tonight against the Nationals in that four game weekend series against the Phillies. But the first thing we asked him was, did you know Tyler Malley was going to be this good? Can I lie? No. I mean, hell no. 140, R-A-L, to the note. But we think it was good yet. We think it'd be better, absolutely. I remember, and maybe I was, you know, I try not to follow. I told you guys this, right?

10:13If there's Braves talk on radio, whatever, I switch channel because I don't want to not like anybody, and be impacted. So Hawks, Falcons, I'm listening, I'm all over it. But at the time when I did my media after trade deadline, I could feel it was like, you know, the first question out of the gate was like, it took me by surprise, like, hey, so and so team got this guy, that guy, you got Tyler Malley, you know, I was like, whoa, like that was like basically, and I didn't think it was the most respectful thing in the world and so on. I said, look, like I felt like we got better at the deadline, you know, and but, you know, I know everyone's after the fact people are telling me how people are upset. And maybe I was cool, so I don't know, but I wasn't following it. So I just was like, you're doing your job if you're making the team better. And look, when you're explaining, you're losing, that's a political added, right? So having to go talk through everything, walk through everything, it's obviously part of the job. But I think the one thing I kept saying is, look, irrespective of what I say with all

11:15these guys, with anybody, we who we traded, who we couldn't have traded for all that, we're going to find out, right? Just like a free agent signing and so on. The beauty of this stuff is we're going to find out whether you trade for a guy, sign a guy as a free agent, we're going to find out soon enough. So after deadline, look, it's been a nice three, four weeks. We still have a whole other month of September. We still have hopefully October. So the book isn't written on any of these guys. Am I happy? Of course. But I think at the time my view of the deadline was, look, we got better. I felt like I was getting a bunch of eye rolls. So like a shooter brings up the floor in the bullpen. Obviously, Lane Thomas brings up the floor in Maui makes this better and we're going to see how they perform and they've all done a great job. So I'm really satisfied. Look, and we said this on the year earlier in the week, you know, apologize because I just looked, the school bull thing was its own thing. There was a very unique set of circumstances and that didn't seem like it was ever feasible. And then we find out that you were interested in Jacob DeGron, but he was interested in coming to be a brave. And now in hindsight, obviously, you made the right moves. Now he's got all the win and the world series with the squad.

12:16But how close were you on some, I'm having a chance to debrief since you did it. How close were you on some other deals? Yeah, so I'd say this, like a lot of stuff was out there to be careful talking about other players and other teams. But one, Terry McGurk, you know, to this day even, you know, there's guys on waivers that make a lot of money and so on. He continues to give me the go ahead. Look like you mentioned, there was guys out there with big salaries that we were given the go ahead to pursue. There's been a lot of reports about us trading for guys and them invoking no trade clauses. I saw the reports. Those things happen, you know, guys have right. Now there's a reason they get a no trade clause negotiated into their contracts and they have a right to use those. But I think the one thing I've always said, which I know can be tough at times is we're not going to force a move. We're not going to make a move to make a splash. I did that stuff as a young GM because of fan pressure, media pressure and so on.

13:17And I made a lot of mistakes and I understand it maybe just because I'm older and it's my second time doing this and you know, I did nine and I've been nine years here now. I've been six in Toronto. It's my 15th season as a GM. I've made every mistake in the book and I'm going to continue to make mistakes. I just have to get more right than wrong. So I can keep doing these phone interviews. But you know, like you're going to, you just have to make decisions for the right reasons. And well, there's plenty of times I'll go into Terry McGurk's office and say, look, if we do this, it's going to be loud. People are going to be upset. And but we stop to do what we believe in. And the bottom line is I've been there where we've won the off season. We did this splash. You move. People are excited. You know, the off season everyone's excited. They're crazy. And then the year starts and the team isn't playing well. They made the wrong decisions. And it comes back to you anyway. So I'm fine taking the bullets. I get it. I get the frustration. Well, that's why you guys have a show. That's why I'm following Falcons and Hawks because we have opinions and we're sports fans and we're really passionate.

14:17At the end of the day, the people running the teams, it's their job to get it right. More often than not, we get the second guest criticized. And I'm fine with it. I get it. It's part of the job. And if I don't get it right, I should get ripped. And if people don't like to move at the time, that's fine with getting ripped. And hopefully the move works out and we win games and we're all satisfied. 82 and 55 brave for 27 games above 500 swept the Dodgers huge swept the Rockies. And now on a seven game win streak, one shy of our longest streak. I want to ask you about the starters that maybe we were counting on in in double a. Did you think it's Alex and Thopolis guys, Braves General manager strider or Waldrip or Smith Sharver? Did you have them in the future rotation down the stretch here as part of a playoff run? So look, we, you know, I said this before, when it comes to the postseason, you're really looking at 27 outs, right? And that doesn't mean you'd love to have a one, a two, a three, a four.

15:18The Dodgers wanted two years ago with basically a bullpen and one starter to two starters. And they had an unbelievable open. Last year, they were incredibly deep in the rotation, right? So they wanted both ways. We had a year where it was free to need Anderson is our one and two and the rest was up in the air and we went to game seven of the CS during the COVID year with no off days. And then the other year where we went to the World Series, now we had Charlie Morton and Frieders are wanting to eat Anderson's flooded down to our three. And we were able to obviously win the whole thing and do so. I guess I'd say this is who's throwing the best who's the best matchup against that team? You saw SNP pulled the Enhancer after four, no headings, they had like five no head innings and we went to the bullpen. So I do think having a deep bullpen is really important. But in terms of relying on certain guys, like you mentioned, we penciled in this guy for game two or three or four. One, we're always respect the fact we got to get to the postseason. But I'd say this on all these guys, it's not to say you're expecting all of them to have surgery at some point.

16:18Some guys though, when they join the organization, you know that surgery might be coming. So I'll give those examples and it's fine because they're our players. Adrian Smith-Charbrow, we took him late in the seventh round. When we drafted and we knew there was issues with the ligament at that time, no one's going to do surgery at that time because he's pitching. But you know it could be three, four, five, six years down the road, it could happen. He performed for a while, finally it went. But that wasn't a surprise. Waldrip when he got hurt in 2024. We knew there was a concern then, but you always try to rehab it. You rehab that came back and basically made 30 starts in 2025. So some guys can have a bad elbow, bad shoulder and a pitch to their entire career, but you also know it can happen at the same time. So you know there's sometimes you know it can happen, it's likely it can happen. But so you don't sit there and plan on saying this guy's my game tour or my game three starter. I think we have a lot of depth right now. We have a really deep bullpen which is important. So I think hopefully we get there. We're going to look at who's the opponent. Maybe it's three and he's out of a guy.

17:19Maybe it's an opener. Maybe it's one time through the order. The off-base in the postseason change everything because you could basically lose all your relievers all the time. And it's totally different than during the season when you're playing 20 in a row, 17 in a row and so on. Well, it's Alex Anthopus with us guys, the brave general managers. We said now tied with the Dodgers, the number two seed in the NL, which is certainly important. Don't want to be in a best of three. One of the other curve balls that was thrown at you this year is Hassan Kim. And really not much you can do the untimely injury. And then the only way you guys get better as we're seeing with Murphy is getting reps. But tougher wall to get him in the lineup. Where do you see that going the rest of the way? Yeah, I know there was a lot of debate about, you know, we keep came, do we not keep came all that kind of stuff. And look, he hasn't, I mean, state in the obvious. Definitely hasn't played the way we expected. Look, when we acquired him last year, we were hoping he didn't opt out. We were acquiring him for the current year. He played well for us down the stretch. Tampa had signed them originally to a two year deal. They knew they were rehabbing him and so on. And look, his season never got off on the right foot. Already gets hurt in the winter comes back.

18:21Swing isn't right. It does not play well early. Banked up again, goes back on rehab. Actually start swinging it a lot better on rehab and was hitting ball's heart. And you actually look good. But we had other guys playing well at the time. And there wasn't playing time for him. So, you know, there was the debate of do we keep him or not? The view with us was when you look at the track record, he had less than 100 play appearances or whatever it was with us. This guy's track record in his career. He's 30 years old. He's not 38, 37. This guy's been a very good player. You know, so much so that he's earned two year contracts and even a one year contract with us. And we can debate the dollars. But the end of the day, this is a good player. He's traditionally been a good player. He's been a good everyday player. And to take a hundred plate appearance sample size, which is so far away from what he's done his entire career, was crazy to us. So our view is look at the 26th guy on the bench barely playing. Is he the best guy out there? Maybe not. But if there's an injury, which we've had plenty of between all these and Riley and so on, does this guy have the most upside is an everyday player?

19:25If you look at the track record, if we can get him steady at bats and play him everyday, does this guy have the most upside? Absolutely, yes. And that was the thought process because once you get past the trade deadline, it's almost impossible to add players. You get into the postseason guys get hurt. We lost that. Yeah. another guy's in the past. That depth and guys that have a chance to be everyday guys, a bosses mirrored player is Serios six紅. A big deal. And this guy is still very young and is still in there, now playing at Megicide. But with Walt, he's trying to get everybody in there but he's we're trying to win every game we can. We're trying to one win theфnet then be on, if we can, we'd love to get, ball. Maybe one of the top two seeds so Alex real quick. It's, it's not the money while you're keeping him. You're explaining why you guys decided to hold on to him right, and that is you have no problem means, Okay. Look at all that. that. Okay. This guy makes money. Look, we don't. This is a meritocracy here. You're on a one year deal anyways. The money spent. Aaron Bombers on a one year deal. Dylan Dodd was better. We decided to keep him. Love Jorge Mateo. Did a great job for us. But when I say this with all due respect to Jorge because he's great. He was a great teammate. It's a great bass runner and so on. If you look at the last ten days, I believe he was with

20:28us. I think he got one start against Trevor Rogers with the Orioles. He got one start in a ten day period. Kind of really nice stretch. I think in May where we played the Red, he was great. I think what started the three, four games in a row. If you look at their careers and their track record and so on, I'm stating the fact. HaSongs had a more accomplished career. If you look at where Jorge Mateo was a year ago, we give him a shot trying to have a bounce back season. So if you're talking strictly, if all we want is a pinch runner, steal bases. Yeah, I'd say Jorge Mateo is as fast as the player is there is in the league. But if you look at track record and so on in terms of consistency of career and upside, I think the industry would have told you how songs been that value higher. That's not to take anything away from Jorge. So this is nothing to do. Look, it's very similar to when we had and I'm not saying there's the same player when O'Zone was going through hard times. I remember a couple of clubs, Madison, Bumgarner got released, Aaron Hicks got released from the Yankees and the Thinebacks. And I'd media ask me why is it an O'Zone X and it was great in the clubhouse. He had big upside. He played well in September the year before when he came

21:31back from injury and we felt it was still in there. Now to snitch credit, he kept running him out there because I can't tell you I would have done it. It's getting booed and he was awful. Yeah, the worst April in the history of the game, I think. And snitch stayed with them. And he finally got it going and turned around. There was a lot of indicators to say that. So look, I don't know that Kim's going to get the playing time now with DuBon playing a lot of short and the other outfielders and Murf now coming back. It's tough on Walt getting everybody at best. But we still need depth. Guys are going to get hurt. Guys are going to slump and having as many guys that could be everyday players for us, especially Kim who want to go go across all three in field position with San Diego. He's the utility go off. He was really Mauricio DuBon's been for us. He was that for San Diego. He's still a very young player and it's certainly in there. So this has nothing to do with salary. On a one year deal, the money spent. It's irrelevant. We're doing the best thing. And I think the move with Aaron Bummer for Dodd is a great example of that. With Alex Anthopolis, guys debriefing on the trade deadline. Obviously the amazing run since the trade trade deadline came and went a little wobble there against the brewers,

22:33but right back on top and red hot hottest team in baseball. The other thing you mentioned the pictures, the swelling, boxing, and all the young guys. I know in the off season, I think that's why some guys from set Alex was when you said, you know, starting pitching was a priority in the last off season. And just for whatever reason, we weren't able to get more starting pitching in here. Yeah. No, it's fair. And look, I get it. And I think about that all the time. You want to communicate with fans, right? You want to be transparent. I know it's a struggle between the GM speak, but then also trying to be transparent because you know, people are living and dying with the team. So you're trying to be as transparent as you can be. And look like in a perfect world, yes, we would have got this, this, this, this, this. I think you run into issues when you say, I have to do this at all costs. And you know, I think the issue you run into is if then you force a move because, oh, if you're doing a one year deal, that's fine, right? But if you're saying, hey, we have to get a third basement or we have to get a first basement or whatever it is. And the best guy on the market happens to be X and look, there's examples of that in other sports. You're getting

23:36married. You start doing long term deals. And if it's not the right guy and you make a mistake, you're now you've chewed up the money for all those years and you've chewed up that position. So the goal is you're being asked at the beginning of the off season, right? It's beginning in November, you have the GM meeting, say, what would you like to do? And part of me feels like I should just give a boring answer to you know what? I want to make the team better. I'm just trying to make the team better. Anyway, we can. You guys will roll your eyes. I just never tell us anything. You're right. Right. But then I'll say, I'd like to do. And sometimes I want to be really careful because I don't want to tip our hand, whether it's trades or agents or other teams of what we're looking to do. But there's no doubt every year if you can go get starters that you think are impactful and so on, you're going to look to do it. And look, I know nobody wants to hear if we tried. I get it. It's Josh. I often taught me this years ago. This isn't the tri-leg. This is the get it done league. And you know, we need to get resolved. But I do think when it's all said and done, we play the games. We play 162. And the standard here is to get the world, get to the world

24:40series. When the world series be a really good team. There's super high expectations here. And that's, well before my time. That's Bobby Cox and John Cheryl. So I feel it. I feel it. I know how much everybody cares. And I know how important it is. But I guess I can tell you this. I'm okay with the criticism that's not to be arrogant because if I know I'm doing what I believe is right for the organization, irrespective from a personal step on how it impacts me, the criticism and so on, you don't have any regrets. When you make decisions and have done this in the past, that you know or the wrong decisions, but you know, the fans are going to get excited. Media is going to get excited. But and I did this in Toronto early in my career. There's like a guilt that comes over you. Like I did made the wrong move, but everyone's so pumped. But this is going to not work out. It's going to kill us. It's a terrible feeling. And I swore to myself when I did that early in my career and it didn't work out, I wasn't going to do that anymore. I was just going to make the right decision for the club. And you put your head on the pillow and you hope it works out. But I just have seen it in other sports start doing stuff for

25:43Halo effect and everything else. And sometimes you're going to make moves that aren't exciting like Maui. He's been good. I hope he continues. But no one's going to get excited because they don't know who he is. And I get it. But if he performs, it's all that matters. And if that means you're going to get criticized, so be it in the long run. If you win games, it's going to go away. You make this splash and a guy doesn't perform. You're going to kill it anyways. Alex and topless. Hey, he's dropping knowledge, guys. And by the way, not to pump in. But how many times we missed a playoff since you've been the general manager once, right? Am I right? And at a nine so far. I hope we're, I hope we're, where you had a nine. So that all plays to what he's talking about. All right, before we let you go, I want to ask you about what wise did he lobby for the job because I love his pragmatic approach. I think he's perfect from what I've seen and what I'm hearing about how he handles the clubhouse. I'm just, did you know you were getting this? And, and, and did you know his makeup, even though he had been around SNIT all those years, I'm just curious from where you sit and how that played out. Yeah, I know. I don't think never. And that's

26:47something it's, I'm big on that kind of stuff. I am not. If you're a political animal, I'm out. I am so out. I don't care how talented you are. I don't care how good you are. It's just that we're not going to work well together. You know, and that's what I loved about Smedy was authentic. He was himself. Even, you know, my first year SNITs in the last year of his deal, all of a sudden, certainty, he didn't, he was himself. If that was good enough, it was good enough. And I do feel the best and place for a baseball standpoint, I can't speak for the other sports. The best coaches in my opinion, people in uniform, they're the ones, they, they do the job like they don't need the job. You start doing it, and you're worried about players, that fending players or, you know, front office and this, you're not doing the right thing. So, Walt is always, you know, I've been around him a long time. Do you never know exactly how he's going to be if you put him in the chair? And his role was a bench coach and he was loyal to SNIT. And, look, SNIT has the playbook, writing his handing it out, and it's Walt's job to execute it. And so on. So, but the person, the character, the way he goes

27:49about it, the way he thinks, and then look the first time I talked him about the manage, it's the only time I'd ever talked about managing and any, and what I love the most about all my time here is not once that he ever tried too hard or sometimes when you're the boss and people, you know, it's pretty obvious they're, they try harder than maybe they should and so on. And it's obvious, right? He just went about his business. He did his job. He reported to SNIT and he was loyal to SNIT and I respected that so, so much, but he's his own human being, his own person. And, you look, we had, we had half of the success that SNIT had here signed me up in a second, you know, so did I expect Walt to do a good job? Yes. Did I know there was some things we'd hit the ground running? He's worked with the front office. He has the respect of the players. He's done the job before. Didn't need to have a playing career, but it's a nice city had one. All those things, there was a lot of boxes already checked and you just the one thing you can't simulate is what's his in game going to be like? What's the strategy? You can talk about it, but once the bullets are flying and everything, how would you like managing a game? That was the one

28:51unknown, but in talking through the way his mind work, I felt pretty good about it. So he's been great. I'm lucky. I inherited SNIT and he was awesome. And then I inherited Walt. I didn't hire Walt initially. He was the bench coach. So I gave him the job now, but he was already part of the organization and Bobby Cox is the one that brought him to SNIT. And SNIT was obviously really smart to hire him. So I've been elated. He's done a great job. Alex Anthopolis, brave general manager from yesterday, braves in action tonight. We'll talk the grant coming up in the five o'clock hour, but what's on day days? Mine is coming up next. Coming up, we'll talk to Connor Riley. Dogs getting ready for their opener. I'm not sure what you expect, but it's Tennessee State. Kirby expects execution. I expect to cover. No, no cover. I agree. I agree. Big number. Less reponent. Kirby just never seems to bring home the bacon in that environment. Oh, it's right. Though the halftime show will be rocking if Tennessee State's band is

29:55is hampie. Yeah. That's going to be good. We'll talk about that with Connor as not the halftime show. The game itself. And what Kirby had to say in this team, as they get ready for week one, but right now, let's find out what's on day days. Mine. Day day. Happy Tuesday. Yeah, man. Only Tuesday. What's on that? Was the Labor Day week in a fly football season? Everything flies. Come on. I guess that's a good way to look at it because yeah, I'm actually going to text game on on Thursday. Okay. I'll actually be in Athens. No, Kirby. I'm not coming to the field. Do not hand me any equipment. I will stay in the press box. Nice and cool. Yes. Exactly. And it's going to continue to be warm. Like it is what it is. This first weekend, if you guys are going to games, just address appropriately. You know what we call it a Saturday here in California. They call it, I guess. I don't know. Armageddon. Yes, because nobody can show up for USC. Yeah, people just softies falling out. Yeah, well, speaking of California, no one's showing up. UCLA says we broke. Yeah. According to football in California, ladies of gentlemen, football in California. According to reports, they fire athletic

30:57director Martin Jarman with 6.5 million left on his deal, citing significant financial. I'm just basically excited. Really? That's the cause for the move. Former Lakers executive Tim Harris, he's going to serve as CEO and interim AD. So UCLA has some hard time. Yeah, it's been. And so, like I went to high school. You see a lot of football program, but we're in LA. In LA. Okay. But tell me more coach. I went to school there or not UCLA, but in California. I was there at a time when UCLA and USC, like, we're good. They were, yeah, it was, it was the thing. So it's just kind of, it's a little sad to see now. I'm not tripping too much about USC. I think once they kind of get rolling it into conference play, I think fans will be there. But the UCLA situation, man, I just, I don't know if they're ever going to be able to turn that thing around. Hey, when you left SoCal, all the heart left. Is that what it is? I'll tell you, like, we have these tweet. We text back and forth. The day they sent us a story. We're like, holy cow. Like over the weekend. There's nobody. They said they were 50,000. They're like, there were

32:015,000 in the LA Calisheum, which is cavernous. But I was like, man, I'm like, so Cal is soft. And I paused. Well, with the exception of like, you know, Compton, South Central and, you know, in East LA homes, what? Everybody else. Very soft. Very soft. Very soft. So moving on. Schooled as one, what, 123 championships. So this fits us being right in this conference. Yeah. Yeah. Hand me the next note, please. All right. Let's stay out. I'm trying to think the last time that they were worth a damn. It's been a while, bro. Terry, don't you? Yeah. You see a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. We'll stay out. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. That's right. That's right. Yeah. That's all just popped in my mind. It's been a while. All right. We'll stay out. I'm sure right now. Yeah. I'm going down the rabbit hole. It's, well, you know, once you start, I don't like that. Like two minutes. I'll take a quick. Jim Moore had back to back 10 wins seasons. Okay. That's still been a while. 20 30. 20. All right. Staying out west rich, getting richer, Stan

33:03cranky. He is buying the angels. Yeah. Is he going to get richer though? Yes. Yeah. Well, no, no. Yes. And no. If he puts some money into the angels to kind of, you know, prime the pump and create something. The angels are always the second citizens car on those. So the dodges, well, you live there. You just talked about it. And a high-end is Orange County and it's not L.A. But everything this guy's touched. He's won a championship. Yeah. So those who don't know, he's the owner of the Rams nuggets, avalanche, Colorado rapids, Colorado mammoth, and the arsenal football club. Just say the world. Right. Yeah. And because everybody he's got his own, let me just talk about the guys about 10% of the Falcons. Yeah. Sports portfolio. But baseball is not a sure bet. Baseball doesn't make the money and the franchises don't go up at least not even close to NBA or NFL right now. Maybe he'll change. Yeah. We will see. But already Marano just starcrossed as an owner. Yes. Yes. Very much so. Okay. When they beat Barry Bonds and the Giants. Yeah. Mike's Socia. Right. Mike Socia. That was I, I, I, I, I did look at up earlier. Disney was the owner.

34:08Disney. Yes. They were. Or Marano never won nothing. Yep. So. All right. You guys talked about Lou Dorick and the kill Alexander Walker. I had this down. I was saying is what they did last night and what they've been doing in the, the America's feeble world championship qualifiers last night. They scored Lou Dorick 25 points in the kill Alexander Walker 26 to help team Canada win over Argentina and team Canada is currently unbeaten right now. But it just kind of had me thinking like, should we get excited about this or should we just kind of tip our expectations still because we don't really know what rotations will look like things that had nature. Yeah. We. No, look, I'm excited. Mike's right though. International competition is different. Right. But it beats the alternative. If they were sucking and not doing anything, everybody be like, man, we picked these guys up. Lou Dorick's, look, he's a very good defensive player. We debate. I say we as in some people in the NBA about his offensive prowess. Right. I'm not as concerned.

35:14No, I was going to continue to get better as I said, nobody really played out of their mind and get in the next game. So you can't base it on the, you know, the series. Right. But I like these two guys, man, and they've got a chemistry because they've played on the national team. They, they were playing in the Olympics. Yeah. Well, apparently they, uh, Lou Dorick was then actually played together in high school. He used to play. Right. He's each other. So yeah, their history between each other. But no, no, no, his ball in this international competition. And she was playing with them too. Yeah. Correct. As she, yeah, you're right. Yeah. Um, like I just feel Jalen Johnson's got to elevate his game. He needs to be a superstar. Yeah. I mean, is that in the offing? Is he? Can you look at, I'm looking at the man in the mirror because he really disappeared in that next series. Bad. Yeah. And I just didn't like the way. I mean, I'm not putting it all on his shoulders. A lot of things went wrong in the next just better than I superior. And once they figured out what they should have been done on the half-court, it was pretty much a wrap. Yeah. Look, Jalen, Jalen's got to be better. You're saying Mikey, he needs to be more like Jonathan Caminga. Ha, well according to your Caminga's agent, he was the special. Yeah. Well, like Caminga did help us win two games. You cannot deny that. I, uh, I, I think he had

36:17deer in the headlights a little bit in the next series. Yeah. And the deal is, you know, Jalen, you're six nine. Go talk on somebody. Right. You can, we said this body. People look like, like there's no way Jalen Brunson should be guarding you. Right. Right. When they made those switches, the heart. Yeah. Oh, Josh. No way. No way. But that's, but that's a mindset. Right. That's the difference. Oh, you know, it was funny because I saw it interesting post today. I think by Belichard report where they ranked like the best player at every age and for Jalen, which is 24, it's Kate Cunningham. Oh, and I was like, in my mind, Cades of Dawg, Jalen's probably quite a ways off. No, he's not Kate. You know what I mean? No, he's not. He's not. But to my point, like, yeah, that happens in the joy. Yeah. Kate's killing them. Right. You're not putting a little guy on me like this. That was my problem in the next series. And they were like, well, guards you with heart. Right. Which is ridiculous. You're right. You should just humiliated him. Yeah. So but is that in his DNA or we're about to find out this is the year he has to. Right. We've

37:20been talking about the Scotty or the Mike and you know, Scotty's great. But I don't come back. Like that dog Carl Tweet. Hey, man. Robin baby. What's going to be all right. Last thing, guys, obviously, it's been head scratching about for a lot of people about the Falcons keeping four quarterbacks. Assuming they do move on from a quarterback and go into week one with just three, what do you expect to happen first? They move one to the practice squad, trade one, or just simply release one. I'll say trade one. I've always felt Cooper rush. Again, if I said to Carl Erick in the show, if you guys missed it, I would have met Ryan feels about, you know, strand Jack Frost. Frost. Because you could argue as teams go through their depth chart that Cooper rush, you know exactly what you're getting. He can just like the Gardner mentions the world. He there's a role he can play. He can do it for a couple of games. He can get you through a rough patch if your quarterback is injured for a bit. He's not going to carry you, but he's got the

38:21experience and he started some games. But I mean, but strand is for us, the risk, we always talk about risk award. If you put them on the practice squad, somebody and they know who he is because he's the people are aware of this guy around the league. We lose him. Yeah. I will say move to the practice squad, but the trade, the trade thing is, and again, that's just a way to see, right? You're playing the odds. The odds are half the quarterbacks in the league will get hurt. And I say that not not all season, right? They're going to miss games. And so the odds are in your favor to say who's going to be able to call us and what are they willing to offer? So Mike's probably right. Again, I mentioned how he roseman earlier because this is what he does, but I'm thinking practice squad. That would be my guess if I had to choose one. All right, guys, that's what's on my mind on a Tuesday. Great stuff today. Hey, man, Mike's got some guy talk coming up. You do not want to miss the latest on Tony Romo. That's going to happen in the four o'clock hour. Also, we will talk to Conor Riley next guys. Dog Nation AJC dot com. It's game week for

39:22the dogs. What do we know about them? It's Duke's and Bell.