Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Hamort Territory Podcast presented by Fox One.

I'm your host, Brad Rowland.

It is episode two eighty seven, and I'm joined as I almost always am, by Scott Fueman.

Scott's Thursday Night.

No huge news, but hey, there's a World Series to preview.

There's stuff to talk about on this podcast.

How are you my friend?

Hello Brad.

It is good to be with you again.

And it's interesting because the World Series begins Friday.

Usually Major League Baseball prefers that teams do not announce big news during the World Series.

Now, if there's a couple of off days in there, I you know, I don't know if Rob Manfred would come to mac Alex and Thoughtless's hand if the Braves order renounced something on an off day, But in general they prefer not to have it overlap with the World Series.

We will see what the next you know, five to ten days hold.

But we are getting closer and closer to the off season officially being here.

We certainly are, and there's plenty to discuss on the pod today.

I will say at the top, we don't really do this a lot.

I'm worrying if you're watching on YouTube.

I'm wearing branded apparel right now.

I'm wearing a Hammer Territory shirt and these are available to buy if you if you were a sicko like us Hammeritarry story shop dot com, you could buy this.

You could buy this exact shirt if you'd like to.

Also, please subscribe to this podcast anywhere you find your podcasts.

Also, please patronize the good folks at Fox Won who have the world series in its entirety.

We're we're done right in scott So you just said it.

You're right.

The news filter is probably towards the opposition, we would guess right now, but hey, nothing's officially about that's not that's not one of those rules.

That's like on the books.

Teams tend to listen to that, but then have to necessarily.

And I say that because our lead topic is for at least the third time, fourth time, fifth time maybe is the Braves managerial search.

And it's because we got a little bit more reporting all of a sudden.

It's not only news, it's more reporting kind of out there from Mark Bowman dot com.

Rush for a long time certainly has sources around and he kind of put forth a pretty interesting article people should be reading.

I think it came on Wednesday, and he kind of highlighted three names.

He didn't declare them finalists, but he was kind of like, hey, these three guys might be in the mix for the manager job.

And he also poured some cold water on some other names.

So I'll go to you first, Scott.

We talked about this a little bit offline as well.

But what was your like biggest takeaway from what Mark rope?

Because I think it was basically it's one of those two things that's like, hey, who are the guys and who are basically who are who are not the guys?

Which I thought was almost more interesting to me.

But what did you think?

Yeah, so let's start with just I think probably the elimination side of this, or at least Bowman strongly believes that David Ross is not a serious candidate.

Well Weiss is probably not a strong candidate, and Mark Durosa is not a strong candidate.

Of course, that trio, I think, right, you know, five minutes after Brian Snicker announced that he was retiring as manager, those three names immediately shot up to a lot of people's lists because of the familiarity with the organization.

But Bowman said pretty definitively that that trio of Deurosa, Ross and Weiss are not really finalists at this point.

Maybe they got an interview.

We'll see.

But my big takeaway from Bowman's article, and again just mark Bowman's speculation here, but he's been keyed in for a long time, is that the trio of finalists that he believes for the job.

One of them is Danny Lahman, the current Dodgers bench coach.

One of them is Ryan Flaherty, the current Cubs bench coach, who of course played with the Braves in twenty eighteen.

And the third finalist is a person we've talked about a bit on the show in the past, is George Lombard, who is the current Tigers bench coach and has Atlanta and Braves connections.

My big takeaway, Brad, if that is the final three that Alex and Thopless is deciding between, I am on board for any of those three.

We'll talk about why.

But I mean they check off a lot of boxes.

Is I guess if you asked me a month ago what am I looking for in a new Braves manager?

All three of those candidates do things that I was really interested in.

Yeah, I agree with that, and I think Bowman also put in like John Gibbons as a name to kind of cross off to.

That was one that kind of made the rounds because he has Alex Ties.

For example, Boma was pretty much like, I don't I think he's even side of the sort of saying that he's not a candidate.

And also Eddie Perez, I don't think it was really going to be a candidate, but he was on that like internal list with Weiss.

But yeah, I agree with your broad take away these three guys, Like if the Braves announced any of these three tomorrow, that's my test.

It's like what would I what would my reaction be?

And I'd be like, all right, I'm good like And I think we said that about about George Lumbard last time you and I talked in the podcast a few days ago, and he's on this list.

So I agree with that.

Flaerty has a great reputation former Brave, but not like that's not why I want I would want it, but it seems to be a guy who's like well qualified for the job, younger guy for example, good energy, and then Layman got a lot of heat in that Bowman piece, And I think it makes sense, you know, especially if you want to be a not necessarily conspiracy theorist.

But if you're thinking, why are the Braves taking so long?

My reaction is that Alex tends to take a while when he wants to.

But also you could say, if he wants to hire Danny Layman, he can't really do it right now, like I guess he could, but it's a little It's a lot easier to hire the Dodgers bench coach where the Dodgers are stop or not playing anymore, and guess what, they're in the World Series, so they would the dots would make a lot of sense to be connected if they hire Layman in ten days or fourteen days, and it's like, okay, maybe he was their guy all along and we'll see.

But yeah, I mean, we talked about Lombard a lot.

You want to go through some of like the qualifications and stuff from Layman and Flaherty because those guys, I mean, flirt is more known to Braves fantasy because he was a player here.

But Layman is a guy like I'm sure people have not even ever heard of or thought about to be honest.

Yeah.

So Danny Layman is, as we said, the current bench coach of the Dodgers, and I do agree with you that every day that passes leads me to believe that Layman is.

It would be conventional wisdom to think that every day that passes means it's more likely that Layman is going to be the guy because he's coaching, and the Braves will not announce that higher until after the World Series.

Not a definite.

Alex is famous for working slowly with some things.

But but Danny Layman bench coach currently.

He's actually worked his way up.

So Layman was a minor league catcher, never got up to the major league level, but immediately got into coaching.

He became the Dodgers' video coordinator in twenty fifteen and served in that role for three years.

And that's actually when Layman and Enthopless cross paths.

So as a reminder, Alex was with Toronto, left Toronto to be with the Dodgers for I think twenty sixteen and twenty seventeen, and then of course took the Braves job and the rest is history.

So that's where Alex knows Layman and Bowman did mention in his article that Alex and Danny have stayed in touch over the years, for whatever that's worth.

Layman was then promoted to the game planning coach in twenty eighteen and served in that role for five years, and believe it or not, game planning coach with the Dodgers is a uniformed position with the team on the bench, which is not a small thing because then you're in the dugout for all the games.

And then in twenty twenty three, Layman was promoted to bench coach.

So in ten years, this guy went from being a basically a career minor league catcher to a sitting bench coach with the team that has been by far and away the most dominant franchise in baseball for the past decade.

So it's it's a pretty unconventional, but honestly a cool story.

You know that he's been able to rise to basically as high as you can go short of becoming a manager.

Yeah, and clearly qualified, like he is young, he's only forty.

That would be obviously a very sharp change for Brian Snicker, who is not a young man in the parlance of MB managers.

You and I talked to us before we started recording.

I think Lama would be the second youngest manager in baseball if he was hired, So that would be a change for sure.

But also you just laid it out like this is he was a former player.

He wasn't a prominent major leaguer, but he was a He played until he was like thirty basically, and then has a you know, not a conventional path like you said, but also is like pretty dialed in and has done different things.

And if you're a bench coach with the Dodgers, you're doing something right.

I mean, there's no reason, like you don't get to that job, even if you're not a guy that people are kind of buying into.

So the profile is interesting.

I could already see it now.

There'll be a faction of the fan base that if they do this will be uh detracting of it because he is not a manager previously.

For example.

By the way, interesting to me, and I'm sure to you, all three of these candidates not major league managers previously, So that was a qualification for you.

Yeah that's wrong, but yeah, that holds no water with me.

I don't really care.

Everybody's a new manager at some point.

I agree with you one hundred percent.

So that's Laman.

You know, Flarity more conventional because of course he was a major leaguer you mentioned before cos bench coach, but was a you know, scout coming out of when he was playing and then became the bench coach under Bob Melbourne.

Actually went and worked for Craig Council, so much more conventional path.

Again, not a famous player, but if you're a sicko listening to this podcast, you've probably heard of You probably heard of Ryan Flaherty because he was on the Braves not that long ago, but like also not a guy that I think people were going to be circling.

I saw some of those you know, offshore betting odds coming in and it was like he was one of the he was on the list, but it was like, oh, long shot candidates along with other guys.

So I don't know if you feeling differently about him, but I think you already said all three of the guys.

What kind of makes sense to me?

Flerity is more conventional on paper, but I don't have to have it be conventional on paper.

It's fine.

Yeah, you know with Flerty, of course, long long big league career and then got hired by the San Diego Padres after retiring as a player as an advanced scout and development coach, became the bench coach under Bob Melvin, and then as you said, went and worked for Craig Counsel.

And I mean, Brad, if you said blindly I could pick any manager, any person to manage the Braves, Craig Counsel might be my number one.

I mean, I think Counsel is a really good manager.

So the fact that Ryan Flaherty or I'm sorry, Eric, yeah, Ryan Flaherty.

Eric not Eric O Flaherty, No, I'm with you, hell of a reliever back in the day with the timberl and inventors.

But yes, Ryan Flaherty is the right hand man for the Cubs and Creig Counsel who had a great year.

And again, like I would happily take any of these, I think for me, I think that Lombard and Layman are probably like my one, A, one B in some order.

I think Flarity would probably be third on my list.

But I also, you know, I have not spent ten hours doing a super deep dive on you know, Cubs bullpen decisions that that Flarity probably had something to do with.

But we can't.

That's the thing.

We can't.

We just can't.

I know that, you know that, and listeners probably do.

But it's if you want to, if you want to tell me, And look, most of the podcast right we're giving our opinions there is if you are a layman person, we cannot know how these guys are going to be.

Like, of course this is entirely based on the yeah, you want to be qualified on paper, but it's also the interview process and like what they prioritize, but like, there's nothing researches.

Will you and I will do as much as much as we possibly can't research wise, and we still can't possibly know how these guys are going to be.

And if folks missed the previous episodes, we'll hit George Lombard quickly.

Of course, once big time prospect with the brains, never worked out, but has done basically every job there is with minor league and major league Baseball other than be a manager.

Alex Cross passed with Lombard when they were in LA.

Again a similar trend here, and supposed to be just an A plus human being.

And so again, if if Lombard's the guy awesome.

If Danny Layman is the guy, then great, and if it's Flairty cool, Like I'm really cool with all three of these guys.

One one more note on Danny Layman.

I talk to somebody who covers the Dodgers and his direct quote on Danny Layman is that he is quote an analytics fiend and he loves he loves data.

Yeah, loves data, loves information.

There is a segment of the fan base that's going to be all in, and there's a segment of the fan base that's probably going to be afraid.

It's going to be like Gabe Kapler two point zero.

Again, it's all part of the equation.

It's we'll see who they ultimately hire.

But analytics fiend is a crazy way to describe someone, and I'm kind of intrigued by.

That, especially someone who might be succeeding Brian Snicker, who I can tell you right now was not an analytics fiend, Like he embraced some stuff as he got older and he said that, but obviously not a guy who grew up in the in the era that we're in now.

And it's not only an age thing either, like Ryan Flaherty is also I think pretty much the exact same.

I think he's also thirty nine to forty.

He'd be very young too, But Ryan Flaherty was a player, and you know, players tend to be a little bit less analytically inclined than the front office folks do.

That's changing by the year, I would say, but yeah, analytics fiend would be an interesting the reactions of the fan base, it would be popcorn.

Ready.

I would say, if.

You win games, you and if you don't win games, then he's you know, it's bad.

I mean it's that's definitely right.

I mean you and I would like that, I think more than some fans would, but it is what it is.

Also, look, I'll just say this, I'm not picking on Mark at all, and he said the same thing, to be very clear, but I am not one hundred percent offences these are the only three candidates.

Nor did Mark write that.

Mark never said, hey, these are the three finalists.

End of sentence.

I think it got aggregated that way and discussed that way in some circles, And I'm not trying to I'm just saying Mark did not say that.

No one has said these are the finalists.

So if it's a fourth person we have not talked about, or someone we had talked about.

I won't be shocked by that, but just to say, like there's some juice behind the scenes on these three guys, or they wouldn't have gotten the mark in the way that it did.

But just to be very clear, he did not ever say it's only these three.

So my guard is up a little bit on that.

Oh, I'm sure Alex has talked to or even formally interviewed.

I mean at least five, six, seven, eight nine, I mean maybe even ten, ten candidates.

For the job.

This is what he's supposed to do.

He's supposed to turn over every rock find the best person to lead the Braves into kind of this new era for the franchise.

Absolutely and a couple of teams made the hires this week.

They managers.

The Giants did an aggressive thing and hired the first ever college to MLB manager with no experience individuallygue level in Toto Boytello from Tennessee.

Our guy Sean probably crying somewhere that he's losing his college baseball coach.

That's a very aggressive decision.

I would say about the Giants what I said to I'll say what I said to our group chat.

I said, I think it's it might work, but I'm glad it wasn't the Braves.

Like I would not have wanted the Braves to do that.

No shots, Toto boy Tello.

I just I wouldn't have wanted to take that, particularly personally.

But the Giants did it.

So Buster post is out.

There on a live you know what, if it goes well, you can bet that's going to become more of a thing.

And it goes horribly, Everybody's gonna laugh at Buster Posey and the Giants and think, yeah, dude, this guy had never you know, like, what what do you think it?

So it's that was a fascinating higher.

And then the Angels hired former Braves catcher Kurt Suzuki, which is like whatever, you know, first time manager, former player.

Respect the guy, but also the thing that I had to just had to bring it up, Scott.

They gave it.

They gave him a one one year contract.

That that's the thing that happen.

They really they hired a manager for the first time, not an interim, not a promotion, a hire with a one year contract.

That is absolutely insane behavior.

Absolutely it's safe.

You know, The only justification I saw for giving Kurtsuzuki a one year deal is that Perrymannassian, former Braves front office exactly that's true, who left for Anaheim a couple of years ago, is also only has one year left on his contract, which was like a five year deal when they brought Perry over.

But so they're kind of joined at the hip.

There's also the but, like, what are you doing man the Angels.

There's a reason if you go to Los Angeles that literally ninety eight percent of the people in that metro area, very large metro area are Dodger fans and not angel fans.

That is a good example of what's going on there.

So hey, it might work, but that's that's just crazy process.

Anyway, that's our latest on the managerial search with the Braves.

There'll be more in the future and eventually're gonna have to hire somebody and we'll talk about it, I promise you on this podcast.

More to come later on in the pod, but first it worked from our friends at DraftKings and the player spotlight segment on today's show their sponsors today by the good folks at the Pick six at from Draft Kings, the official daily Fantasy Partner of the NFL, and today our spotlight player is Matt Olsen.

And there's a hook to that.

I'm not just picking Matt Olson out of thin air.

Matt Olsen won the Fielding Bible Award at first base today.

If you're not a total sickog, you might not know what that is.

Gold Glove is a lot more famous than the Fielding Bible, but if you're in the industry, Philly and Bible is kind of the one that's got a little bit more prestiged at this point.

Gold gloves have kind of been They're not always wrong, but they're not always the best, we'll say.

And Philly Bible is like a very very respected body of voters.

And Matt won unanimously.

And this is a major league award as well.

This is a full major league award, unanimous selection at first base.

So shosta Matt Olson.

He had a heck of a season.

Also, I'll talk about this later I quickly with somebody else on the Braves, but Matt was also the name a Silver Slugger finalist in the National League gets first base.

He should have been had a great year and a shot as a metals.

Yeah, really great year all the way across the board from Matt.

And you know what's funny, Brad, when that trade happened four years ago, everybody in Oakland was, you know, yeah, Matt can really mash hits a lot of homers, but his defense is so good.

And it's funny because the first year or two with Atlanta, I was a little underwhelmed by Olsen's defense.

He had a couple of gaffes where you know, like he would just wif on a couple of throws and and you know, like ball would bounce out of his glove like things that were probably more fluky than anything.

But man alive.

The last couple of years, last two seasons, and especially this last summer, Metals that can really play some defense at first base.

He is like a block wall over there and you just don't get anything past him.

And I mean even his like patented running down the foul line over the shoulder catches.

I mean, he off the top of my head, I could think of at least a few where he made like national headlines or you know, national video segments because of his work in Valve Territory.

So yeah, really a great year for Matt.

Deserving of the award, and I would assume he will get a Gold Glove as well in a couple of weeks.

He absolutely should.

Let's talk about it and then when it happens as well, But I don't.

I just want to say it's not a small thing to be unanimous fielding bibble or a winner.

That means you were the best, Like it would be a shock to me if that panel came up with one person's name and it was the wrong person.

So Matt had a heck of a season.

And by the way, not just with the glove again.

He finished the season number one in all of Bee League baseball among first basemen in both fangrafts War and Baseball Reference War.

He was the best first baseman in baseball this season, number one across the board, justin Mettelsen.

He had a heck of a season.

Football is back, and so is your shot at big wins.

WO Draft Kings Pick six, the official data fantasy partner of the NFL.

Your game day instincts can score your real money fast.

Here's the play.

Just pick more or less on two or more player stats, a breakout rookies to elite QBS and I'm not the upside that every snap brings the betterer calls the bigger your payoff and here's the kickoff.

Butone new Traking customers give fifty dollars and bonus picks, which is a five dollars entry on your first pick set this season.

Player player instincts dollar Drutkings.

Pick six app right now and use code foul.

That's code foul.

Play just five dollars, Give youty dollars and pick six bonus picks.

Make the call, ride the upside and partnership with Draft Kings.

Pick six The crown is yours.

Gambling problem called one eight hundred.

Gambler Help is available for problem gambling called eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot orgon Connecticut.

Must be eighteen and over age and eligibility restrictions vary by jurisdiction.

Pick six not available everywhere, including New York and Ontario.

Void ware prohibited one per new customer.

Bonus awarded as non withdrawabal Pick six bonus picks that expire in fourteen days, limited time offer.

See terms at pick six dot DraftKings dot com slash promos.

Welcome back to hammerd Territory presented by Fox one, and we just talked about my Olsen I tease some more award miss.

This is gonna be quick, But Austin Riley got a Silver Slugger finalist not at third base, and that is a bit of an odd one.

I will say, uh, look, Austin's been really good for a long time.

So when this is not pick on Austin segment he was a star player for multiple seasons.

But Austin Riley, and by the way, everyone had this reaction.

Everyone the same reaction, like wait he Austin Riley?

Like there were memes flying around.

I saw some of some pretty funny ones.

But there were also three players who got finalist nods at other positions, not in the outfield.

But they're almost like was there a tie that there had to be a tie because there's four third basemen for some reason, but they are Riley, Manny Machado, Max Munsey, and Matt Chapman.

And if you look at the numbers, we won't go through all of them.

I don't know why a finalist nod.

He had a one of the three RC plus in one hundred and two games, so he was he was just average and he got hurt, and I don't know what that combination means.

One more thing for you, Scott, he wasn't top five among third basement the National League and any of the categories that would net you this award or even recognition WC plus ops picker one, home runs, slugging, any of those things.

So I'm not trying to make fun of Austin, but this is a weird one.

Man.

It's like, why, I don't get it.

Yeah, hey, good for Austin.

I hope for his sake, maybe in his contract he has an incentive where he gets like fifty grand if if he picks up a Silver Slugger nomination and go buy his, you know, a friend, a new truck or something like that.

But the Gray's Foundation would love that if that was the case, one percent.

Give all dollars, give that one percent, that five hundred bucks to the foundation.

But yeah, I mean, it's sure why not.

Awards voting in baseball is funny.

It was a weird year at third base in the National League.

Like you, you know your older brother, first and third base were just absolutely loaded with boppers and you know it's changed a little bit over the years, But hey, you know what I think.

Uh, even Austin truth Zierum would probably say he was a little surprised.

But maybe it's it's a five year running award or something like that.

Yeah, I'm confident there was some you know, lifetime award, lifetime recognition there for Austin getting.

But I mean it is worth at least noting third base was very down in the National League.

There wasn't anybody that had this like crazy profile.

They were better than Austin.

But we'll leave it there for now.

That was kind of a funny one.

The other one worth matching on the awards that quickly is that Nick Allen finished second at shortstop and filling Bible Awards.

Again, that's all Big League baseball.

He didn't win it, but he finished second in the voting and also got I saw the voting today.

He got multiple first place votes, so he was pretty close to winning.

And another reminder, as we talked about last week on the show, Nick Allen great defender, full stop.

Yeah so eleag yeah, elite range, just really really really good defensive shortstop.

If Nick Allen could even hit just a smidge, he would be a very, very very valuable Major League shorts, but we saw I mean, he never hit with Oakland, he did not hit with the Braves.

It was it was painful to watch, but hey, good for Nick getting the recognition he deserves for his glove.

Absolutely, this could be not a deep dive, but there was a piece from Mark Feinesan of MLB dot com that was making the rounds and it has to do with free agency.

So the world series we'll talk about the second is not begun yet.

The real fund does not begin until after it's over.

But we're starting to get the slow drip of free agent previews and free agent links like that.

And just to say this out loud, Mark was not reporting that the Braves were in on any of these players.

But the whole concept was here's a list of free agents, and I'm going to give you a few potential landing spots for all of these guys, right, that's the whole framing.

Read the piece, interesting piece or does a good job.

The Braves were listed as a potential fit for four players on the list, and for me, none of these are terribly surprising.

I don't know if you have a different reaction than that I did.

I don't, I don't.

I don't agree with all four necessarily, but they weren't surprising.

So I'll just name them real quick and we'll dive in one by one quickly.

Bobachett was one, Robert Suarez, the closer for the Padres, was one, Devid Williams, the reliever for the Yankees was one, and then Jack Flaherty, the Tigers starting pitcher, was one.

That's the four guys.

Anybody surprised you and anybody that you disagree with out of those four.

Nobody necessarily surprised me.

I will say of the group of Bishett, Suarez, Williams, and Flaherty, I mean, let's let's just go one by one bare, let's do it.

Yeah, Bobaschett for the We've said it before on the show, but Bobachett defensively is not very good.

That's being nice.

He is a terrible defensive.

He is not a short stop.

It's the answer for me.

Yeah, yeah, So I don't think the Braves are gonna sign Boba sheet.

The only world where I could see it is if Bishett's market does not develop and he ends up taking like a one year deal or a one plus one deal or something like that, and every now and then there is a free agency that gets weird for a player.

Everyone thinks he's gonna get a six to seven year contract and then doesn't you know, it just never materializes for him and he takes a one year kind of like what Pete a Lonzo just did a year ago.

True, So I'm not saying it's zero percent with Bashett, And I think if you could get him on like a one year deal and Hassan Kim's market goes elsewhere, I think you could live with it because he can still really mash.

I mean, he can really hit for being a shortstop or even a fake shortstop.

But I mean that's kind of my take on Bishett.

Yeah, I mean, just to throw some numbers at you quickly, I just double check this.

Bashett was literally first percentile and that's the bad direction in alz of A average this year.

It's stuf the worst than the league and fang refs they have the overall defensive value metric.

He was dead last in the majors that short stop.

So it's not just our opinion like the numbers tell you he was.

He's not a shortstop at this point.

And go ahead, I'll.

Just say the only thing, and maybe the Braves sol differently, But the only thing is that the turf in the Roger Center in Toronto is notorious for being difficult, so maybe they think getting off that turf would help.

I mean, it's not gonna hurt.

But but the I mean the range, like, for instance, out to my average, like his range is also like terriblest that's that's that's not a that's not a turf thing.

Let's say I can't move the shortstop I am.

I am not campaigning for Bobashett.

I know you're not.

I just wanted it's one of those things where I think, if Bo Baschet's a Brave, it's because something's happened with Ozzie or something and they haven't played second base.

But that's just that's down the rabbit hole that we will have to go down today.

I get I but I also get why he's on the list for the Braves, which is why I said I was surprised, because if you just see shortstop and where the Braves are with no shortstop on the roster and so on, Kim's resolved, like obviously that makes sense.

The Braves are a prominent team with a NIVA short stop.

It is what it is.

The other guys are all pitchers.

There's two relievers, right, Robert Suarez Devin Williams.

They're both Asua is gonna be thirty five soon.

Like he was really good with the Padres.

Williams was not as good results wise with the Yankees last year and got a lot of heat with the Yankees because it's New York media and his ERA wasn't very good.

These guys are both good, and I think, as discussed many times already this offseason, the Braves could use another arm in the bullpen, so pretty logical to me, and they'd be like to either one of them.

You know, Devin Williams, the airbender.

He had an ERA in the fours and of course just did not go super well with the Yankees in that market.

But man alive, I mean, Devin Williams is disgusting.

I mean, his stuff is nasty.

If you look at his Baseball Savon and Statcast pages, his pitches are still ranked among the very best in the game.

So maybe because he had inflated era, Williams will have a more reasonable market and if the Braves want to sign him to be the new closer, all day Long for sure.

And similarly with Robert Suarez, the closer in San Diego, very very good, seventy six saves the last two years in a two point eighty seven era, throws hard, really lives off his fastball, which is interesting for you know, a closer.

But either of those guys, if if the Braves move on from Rice Iglesias, I would happily welcome either of them as the Braves closer in twenty twenty six.

Yeah, two very logical guys to at least monster.

Don't they're going to do anything with those what they would be very reasonable fits?

Uh, Jack Flaherty, I don't want to talk on it both sides of my mouth.

I've been consistent in saying the Braves should try to acquire a quality starting pitcher.

Yeah.

I also don't love Jack Flaherty and never have so.

And also he has a twenty million dollars player option that you might actually pick up anyway.

So I don't know if my react I could say this, my reaction would be to completely depending on what the number was on Jack Flaherty, I think he's fine.

I don't think he's bad at all, Like you would help the Braves but I also wouldn't want to give him a massive contract.

So that's kind of what it comes down to for me.

Joe Flarity, So what you just said a moment ago is absolutely right.

I don't the Braves have to add a starting pitcher this offseason.

I am confident it would not be Flerty.

For one reason, years ago, Flarity and Ronald Cocunya Junior kind of chirped at each other, and Clarity Flerty was talking some stuff in the media after the game.

This was in twenty nineteen, after the NLDS.

So for that reason, I'm not saying it's an absolute zero, but I mean I'm putting it at like one percent because I don't think Alexanthopolis would want to welcome that, you know, fire and gasoline and fireworks that could happen.

There's gonna be plenty of other pictures out there better than Jack Flaherty, who do not have a history of kind of jawing with Acunya quite a bit.

Yeah, there was a little bit of reporting on the Braves kicking the towers on Flarity when he was a free agent last time when he wanted Detroit, But I don't know how serious that ever got.

I'm not saying it didn't get there, but there was a little bit of something.

We talked about it a little bit back then.

But yeah, comes out of the number.

But I get also all that aside him being on a list for the Braves doesn't make sense like on a on a national list.

Hey, this guy's a free agent.

Who would he maybe fit with?

The Braves are a team that would make colladchical sense.

They need to start a picture.

He's not going to be crazy expensive in the way.

The Braids wouldn't pay him if he wants to take a short deal.

All those things.

So for names to look at, we just wanted to highlight them.

It doesn't mean anything right now.

It's even Mark Flats would would certainly admit he was not reporting that any of these guys are gonna be Braves in the future, but uh, it's good internet fodder in October.

Every Yeah, every starting pitcher should at least be in you know, a potential fit for the Braves.

I think they'll call on basically everyone and try to find that perfect sweet spot of contract and dollars and or if they want to go to trade route.

There's there's a lot of options.

It seems like this offseason two at a starter of some kind.

All right, Scott let us in a second do a little bit of a world series preview and also mentioned a name of the Braves actually signed up a contract in this week.

It wasn't a big name, but it may him anyway.

First though, it were from our partners on the show.

Let's take you through the Arena Club slab pack experience.

This is part two because Todd Father last week pulled a card that he didn't love, yet he sold it back for actually more than what the slab pack cost.

This time pulls a card that he likes.

Yeah, and this is the best part of it.

Ronnie Mauricio, the Mets stand out, you know, rookie sensation.

He's been absolutely phenomenal.

I like the itch of seeing what you're gonna get, you know, I like prospects.

I don't love him, but seeing this kind of card is actually absolutely beautiful thing.

I know a couple of people around town that would absolutely love that card.

So there's gonna be a lot of conversations going on here for Arena Club.

And what you do is you have it in your digital showroom if you want to hand it out locally than cool.

You ask Arena Club to send it to you and they do, or you can sell it back like you see there instant offer for one hundred and ninety three bucks.

But he's keeping it and you can do what Todd father does by going to Arena club dot com slash foul and getting twenty percent off your first card purchase or your first slab pack purchase.

All right, Scott, Welcome back to Hamrit's territory, presented by Fox one and for you through the World Series.

The Braves did sign Austin Nola this week, brother of Aaron Nola.

Not as good as Aaron Nola though, unfortunately for the Braves, but a minor league deal with much spree training for the veteran catcher.

Austin Nola was a good catcher a few years ago, like a starting level catcher a couple couple of different teams.

But he'll be thirty six soon and he has forty one Major league appearances over the last two seasons combined, so a nay people recognize, and obviously the Nola connection is why he kind of makes some news.

We won't talk about every single minor league sign that they make this once here, but it was just like, Okay, I've heard of that player, I know who he is.

I think if I had to guess right now, he won't be on the team in April.

But anything else to add on.

That one, Yeah, I think because we do not know what the future of Sean Murphy holds in terms of just his recovery from the hip surgery or trade.

But I think just you don't know what Murphy's going to be like in the spring.

I think the expectation was that he will be ready for most of spring training and opening day.

But on the chance he has a setback or he needs to miss a couple of weeks, you're gonna need a veteran catcher to go with Drake Baldwin for a couple of days.

And sure, you know, Sandy Leone, you have Austin Nola.

I mean, they have Chucky Robinson I think is still in the organization.

I mean there's some there's some options, but yeah, I mean ideally, assuming they don't trade Murphy, I think you're gonna see a lot of Baldwin and Murphy come twenty twenty six.

Yeah, and these this kind of player is very available.

Oh if you want another version of the Auston Ola, you will sign that version of Austin all between now and March.

I'm much mon pick on him.

It's just like, you know, this is a he's very clearly like a third organizational depth kind of catcher at this point.

And it's a name you knew.

But there you go.

Okay, Scott, let's preve with the World Series quickly this that that'll just for a PSA.

If everyone wants to jump off, you know you shouldn't.

You should stay with us.

But no more braves talking on this podcast.

Just warning, every warning label quickly here.

World series.

It's the World Series.

Though we haven't been talking a ton of playoffs.

It's the World Series.

It starts tomorrow, sue me.

Also, our friends at Fox one all joking aside, our friends at Fox one have the entire series and much more big doing kickoff NFL all that at Fox wont check them out link in the show notes all those things.

But it begins Friday.

It's if You've been under a Rock.

It's the Yankees.

Yeah, it's the Blue Jays and the Dodgers.

I was reading a note about something else on our document.

Doesn't matter knew.

I always knew you were a New York Yankees guy, Brad.

If you're in my age and you're a Brace fan, you don't like the Yankees, and I don't either.

Jim larretz Man, Jim Laretz.

Moving on, Blue Jays Dodgers.

Interesting series in a lot of ways.

It becomes Friday intern By the way, the bluejes Is actually have home field in the series, which is funny when you the way the series is being perceived, and I think rightly so, I say foreshadowing, the Dodgers are the favorites in the series, but the Blue doesn't have home field in the series because they had the better record this season.

But it's two three two.

I don't love that format.

I never have.

But two games in Toronto, three in La, two back in Toronto.

I'll ask you broadly, like, where are you at with this?

Because, like you know, the Dodgers are a rival team for the Braves, You're You're also closer to being out there.

La is not too far from you if you turn left from where you are in Arizona.

Thoughts, feelings, anything.

Thoughts, feelings.

I mean, with reason, the Dodgers are going to be the favorites.

They're healthy, they have a billion dollar roster, they have luxury tax payments more than a lot of teams entire payrolls.

I mean, it's it's crazy to me, but I could go on a twenty minute rant about the current financial state of Major League Baseball.

So please do.

I'll just log off right now.

I'll just beat my microphone and wind you up.

We'll do it.

Just just talk to myself and check back in in twenty minutes.

There you go.

But I do think the Blue Jays have a chance.

And you know, you think about that lineup right now with Vlad Guerrero is just out of his mind.

George Springer has a long history of big time playoff moments, has beaten the Dodgers in the World Series even if there was an asterisk next to it.

So I'm my head tells me to pick the Dodgers, but I don't know, Brad.

Maybe we're gonna get a weird series.

Sometimes the ball just has to bounce your way a couple of times.

And you know, I absolutely think Toronto could win the series.

Yeah, and if you're a listener of this podcast for a long time, none of this will surprise you.

What I'm about to say of coming out of my mouth.

But I believe the Dodters are the better team.

The Daughters are the best team in baseball and paper, and now they are healthier than they were most of the season, and they're the rightful favorites to win the series.

I also think that people are already and naturally I get why overstating their win probability in the series, because baseball is random.

Yep, and I mean that lovingly.

I love I love the sport, but a seven game series and look, they're not playing.

They're not playing.

The Pirates, like the Lodes, are really good.

They're not as good as the Dodgers on paper, but they're a good team.

They have home field, which matters a little, not a ton, but a little.

And yeah, our friends of DraftKings have the Dodgers at minus two fifteen.

Right now.

If you told me, okay, pick the series with no odds, I picked the Dodgers.

Right If you said you have to bet your own hard earned money on one side at the price currently, I take the Blue Jays.

I really would, because I think it's like I think people might think it's like a seventy to thirty series, and that's not I believe what a series like this is against a good team over seven games.

I think the Blue Jays are very live to win the series.

This is a talented group.

They got star power.

Two Vlad has been like you said, absolute mind George Springer, huge home run to get to get here.

For the Blue Jays, they got a real pitching staff, Like I'm excited to watch it, Like, hey, look, I don't hate the Dodgers in the way that I do the Mets in the Phillies, I don't, but I also don't want to win the World Series.

Like I'm root for the Blue Jays.

I'll be open about that, like I'm definitely rooted for the Blue Jays the series.

So everyone, but they got a shot.

I really think that.

I mean, objectively speaking, I think they're like forty maybe even more to win, Like I wouldn't pick them, but they got a chance for real.

Yeah, absolutely, And I think home field is home field in baseball is about as small as an advantage as there is in the four major American sports.

But it doesn't feel you look like you take it all day long.

And if you're Toronto man Game one and saying you need to win game one of the best of seven is not exactly rocket science.

But if Toronto goes out and gets blasted in game one, I think we can all probably do that.

That's all, folks, I agree.

But also, I mean, I'm sure you saw the videos like I did of you know, I think it was Blad after Game six, which one of the games game that Blad had a huge game, and there was that video of him doing the walk off interview after the game on the field and his perspective, and that place was going berserk and that was like fifteen minutes after the game was over.

It was going nuts, and it's Brits.

If that's a real atmosphere, like Oh Toronto, that place is going to be rocking on Friday.

And hopefully to your point, they're not down five nothing in the second ending and it's like there's no juice and left in the building.

If the game's closed, it's going to be payannemonium in there.

And you're right, it's not as big of an advantage as it would be in other sports, but that doesn't matter.

And you know, I'm not trying to cope.

The Dodgers were loaded.

I think it's it's annoying.

I think they'd better be loaded, Brad.

They spend nine hundred million dollars every winter.

Yeah, it's it's all annoying.

We'll save that for maybe a dead period on on the calendar where we could talk about the issues with the baseball revenue model and all that.

But they are awesome.

But which is a real team too, And I you know, they beat the marriage are really good too, and they just beat them so and the Yankees, I mean they walk the Yankees, they sure did.

And the Dodgers are nine and one in the playoffs and I get it.

They've been absolutely rolling and a pick it at the right time, and it's it is annoying.

Uh, but there you go.

We met our picks now to some degree, I do want to make you on the record just for fun, because you know what is pick the MVP because we have DraftKings.

Out's our friends there and it's the series is kind of is what it is.

I think most people that are like us are saying essentially the same thing, like the Dodgers are the favorites.

They have to be the pick if you're with the proverbial gun to your head.

But also the Wodeos are That's a pretty natural thing to say.

MVP is like harder because like you could just say, hey, Showy O Tony for all the money please, which is reasonable world, so whatever, but you have a pick.

We are gonna go for money, just like all those guys in the NBA.

Brad, I'm gonna go money line Toronto Blue Jays, and I will take Vlad Junior as MVP.

I believe you can get Vlad Junior as plus six hundred on the betting odds.

That would pay nicely.

I might be able to, you know, go out and have a nice night on the town whenever that cash is so I'll say blue Jason seven, why not?

And Vlad Junior Jason seven?

Whoah, Blue Jason seven.

Roger Center explodes.

The entire city goes nuts, partying in the streets.

And I mean Vlad has like a fifteen hundred ops in the playoffs.

I mean he is having an all time October.

Yeah, he has been locked in, and I'm glad for him because he's signed that massive contract and like it wish you wanted to be awesome early on in that contract and he he was, like he was good at record season, but he wasn't like absolutely incredible, But yeah, he has a fourteen forty oh ps in the playoffs.

That's a real number.

All right, My look, I'm tended to pick Otani even if Otani at draftings is plus one sixty.

That's an insane number.

But also he's an insane player, so it's not even doesn't see it doesn't even seem crazy.

He is pitching and the game he had last week, what are you gonna gonna say about that?

My pick non a Tinian Division is not old friend Freddy Freeman, although he could win it again.

I would go with Max Muncy at twenty five to one.

Part of that is that it's not Otani, and I don't want to pick a Tony, But Max Munsey is a guy who gets really hot sometimes and also is a guy who's gonna play every day in the series, and we know that already.

That combination.

There's a the Porch, the Porch in Toronto.

Like, I think it would not surprise to be Max Munsey three hormones in the series.

And if you do that, like you're kind of like right there.

So twenty five to one, Max Montzi's to pick, and I will say Dodgers in six Dodgers and six because less that, lesson that feels insulting of the Blue Jays, So Dodgers.

It might be famous last words, but I think Toronto can absolutely hang and again, man, sometimes I think about that NLCS and twenty one, right, like that ball goes up the middle and Trey Turner whiffs on it and the Braves walk off, and then Eddie Rizzario, like an unexpected player for Toronto, just goes nuts for five or six games and carries them to a couple of wins.

I mean, that's both the beauty and curse the baseball.

Anybody can win a series, but also anybody can lose a series.

And we'll see.

I'm hoping for just a good competitive series and then hopefully not much long after, the Braves start kind of get the ball rolling on a manager and if they don't already a manager and figure out shortstop and all those good things.

Yeah, and then I it up earlier such did it now?

Fangrafts and their playoff odds that are run by Dan Zenborski, the ZIPS creator, they have exactly what we just laid out, like they have.

He basically has the Dodgers is like a fifty five percent favorite in every game in the series, which is like that's natural, and they're like fifty nine percent to win the series.

That sounds exactly right to me.

Yeah, but guess what, everybody, the big bad Dodgers are fifty nine percent in a series.

Like, that's baseball for you in a nutshell.

So you're right, it's it's a play here, a play there, a pitching outing here, someone has the night of their life on the mound and they and suddenly you're up one nothing or a two to one in the series, and it's like, oh, now you're control of this thing because one guy was out of his mind for three hours.

Like yeah, old old friend Kevin Gosman has like his god tear splitter working, and nobody can hit the ball for eight innings.

Yeah, Like it's it all comes down to just execution.

And then also who gets lucky?

You know, like.

As one team as bases loaded and hits one hundred and ten mile an hour rocket ship right at the center fielder and the other team bloops three balls to nowhere and they you know, they come back to win the game.

I mean that's again, both the beauty and the madness of baseball.

We love baseball in this space and again when we're plug for our guys at Fox Won.

The games are Friday, Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday for sure, and then if necessary, you got Wednesday.

The twenty ninth Game six is on Halloween.

That'll be interesting if it gets that far.

Halloween shout out.

Adam Duval's Grand Slam in the World Series was on Halloween night.

I remember this because I turned off every light in our home so no kids came to my door that night because I knew the World Series was on, so I shut off like our porch lights.

I unscrewed like the lights next to our garage because I didn't want anyone coming up to the door.

And they hit the Grand Slam, and I remember texting you and our old co host Eric Cole, like, oh my god, guys, they're gonna do it.

Of course, everything after the Duval Grand Slam did not go well, but hey, Jorge Solaire, Dansby Swanson, Freddie Freeman, Max Freed pitched the game of his life and the Braves won it all.

Two days later.

Yeah, I saw you posted the video of the Duval Grand Slam the other day and said, what we all remember, like that should have been the moment.

It really should have been.

That should have been it, and it was in the moment we were feeling I was levitating above my computer screen and TV screen.

But would that have been the greatest moment in Atlanta sports history?

Maybe not.

I mean there's the Hank Aaron Homer.

Yeah, I mean you got in the last thirty years.

Yeah, I mean the ninety five to one, But there wasn't like, I mean, there wasn't like one moment in that World Series.

I mean, Gladden was ridiculous.

All those things that happened.

Then yeah, maybe, I mean it should have been over.

It should have been it.

It should And also we had to do a pod that night and I'll stop talking, but we had to do a pod that night, and I swear to you we were both thinking, oh, no, they're gonna lose this series, Like they're not going to do this, and that's gonna be forever.

It would have been the most twenty eight to three falcon Z disaster if they had had that Grand Slam, lost that game and lost the series.

But hey, they didn't lose Scott.

It won that's right, baby, what a run.

Let's do it again.

What do you say?

What do you say?

We do this again in twenty twenty six, Let's do it again.

That'd be a lot of fun, all right, Scott, thank you for being here, as always my friend.

People can follow Scott's glorious work online at Scott coland fifty five.

He is the world's happiest NFL fan right now because the Colts are rocking and rolling.

I am less excited about my team right now that his team, but they're fine ish most of the time.

To go to me, we should fly to Germany and go to that Colts Falcons game.

I was going to pitch to you we do a live show at like eleven am Eastern Time in the middle of that game, but that would be a bad idea, I think for all people involved.

I won't do that.

We will not do that.

Subscribe to Hammer Territory presented by sox One anywhere you get your podcasts, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, et cetera.

I know you did to play with Steven the other night on this We'll do it again here.

If you're an audio listener, even if you're not gonna watch on YouTube, you can subscribe on YouTube.

Takes two seconds to smash the button.

We're looking for more subscriptions.

Five thousand, I believe is the goal right now from our friends of Foul Territory.

And again I always say this, I'm not a YouTube viewer of podcasts myself.

Most of the time I'm an audio listener.

But all the shows that I listened to I have made sure to go like on YouTube because it doesn't take very long.

It takes two seconds.

You just subscribe.

It's easy.

So that's right, help us out with the tech overlords.

And hey, whenever whenever we get news, Brad, if you're a new listener, longtime listeners know this, But whenever the Braves get news, manager trades, trades, signings, whatever, we always have a show within a couple hours.

At most it's you know, four or five, six hours later, but we always do a show.

And if you're subscribed and you're following, you will get it in your feed the moment it is available.

We did an episode last year on Brian da La Cruz.

Oh my god, that's all you need to know about us, like we did like a thirty and on a brightdown players, So stay tune everybody, please subscribe to the show, tell your friends, tell your friends as well, and we'll see everybody next time.

Mm hm