Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Hammer Territory podcast.

This episode two seven to three.

I'm your host, Brad Rowland, coming to you on a Wednesday evening you're in late September, and I'm joined as I always am, by Scott Coleman.

Scott, the Braves are capable of losing again.

We'll find that out on Wednesday.

How are you hello, Brad?

I was really rooting for fourteen straight wins to end the regular season.

It would have been fitting in this very challenging year that we had.

Of course, the winning streak is over and now the Braves just have three games left and they're winnable games against the Pirates.

So sure, if you're going for vibes, I would imagine the Braves keep winning this weekend and go into the off season on about as high of a note as you can be when you're below five hundred.

Yeah, it is interesting, and we'll talk about the games a little bit later on in the show.

We should also encourage people at the top of the podcast to check us out subscribe to have a territory.

We cover the Braves all year round, so subscribe on whatever podcast platform you like, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, et cetera.

But the Braves, they just went ten games in a row.

It's outrageous to say out loud.

They lost today.

We'll talk about that later on.

It was their longest winning streak since they had a fourteen game winning streak in June of twenty twenty two.

So we alluded to this on Sunday, but they had a longer winning streak just now than they had in all of the twenty twenty three season, when they won one hundred and four games.

Ye, baseball, Scott, Baseball is a bizarre mistress.

I guess this is the world ILL use right now?

Yeah, yeah, you know what.

I am sad that the season is coming to an end.

Like we like baseball.

We like it, we do, and I mean i'd be lying.

I'm not going to come on here and lie and say that there was a lot of fun baseball in June, July, August where this team just nearly drove us off a cliff and sent us to the insane asylum.

But you know what, man like, as of Sunday at what four pm Eastern time?

I mean, no more Braves.

Baseball until I think opening day is like March twenty eighth next year, and that's that's sad and obviously big off season ahead all of that.

We're going to talk about that and document it plenty on the podcast in the coming weeks before the offseason gets going.

But it is, you know, we are at the very end of the finish line here and it's for the first time since twenty seventeen that we don't have playoff baseball to talk about with the Atlanta Braves.

Yeah, sure is, and we will get it to that later.

There were some interesting takeaways from last couple of days up games.

We had a show Sunday that you and I did, we'd have showed on Monday that Sean and Stephen did that are worth listening to.

We talked on a lot of stuff and there is more to get to.

The off season is here.

I know that a lot of our feedback has been like talk about off is and like, guys, we're going to get there.

I promise we got We're not gonna stop doing shows.

It's coming.

We're trying to save some bullets, even though we have talked about a lot of different things that are future facing in the last couple of weeks just by necessity.

But I promise we'll get to all all the reviews and the previews, and it's all happening.

We assure you of that, there was some big baseball news, not only Braves news, but baseball news.

But I wanted to get to pretty early in the show, just to build on what you just said.

I think if the Braves were in a Pennant race, or the Braves were born in the playoffs, but we probably wouldn't talk about this this early in the show, but we would talk about it for sure.

And it's a big deal.

It happened between our last show and the show.

Baseball.

Major League Baseball, I should say, officially announced that the Automatic Ball Strike Challenge System, the abs CHO system, is coming officially in twenty twenty six.

A lot of people were predicting this, expecting it, but now it's official.

And I actually don't remember what you've said on the record.

I know I have said I like this, I like the child system.

That's where I stand.

I'll throw it to you.

We've gotta go through some specifics about this, but I think nerds like us generally tend to like this.

But what was your takeaway from this now being a thing that we can now plan for it's going to be happening in late March twenty twenty six.

So I'm all for this.

I think baseball had to try to find the appropriate mixture of leaving the human element and umpires calling balls and strikes, just like umpires have called balls and strikes for one hundred and fifty years.

At this point, like, I was not in favor of a fully automatic strike zone.

I don't know where do you.

I mean, maybe that's a hot take, but me personally, I think it would become almost boring if you had an automatic strike zone.

You where are you on that?

I think?

And of course we've not seen the chalk system enough to really know how it's gonna go.

But I think this is the best case scenario.

I am with you.

It's interesting, Like I've battled back and forth between like, Okay, if it's only what it is and only robot amps fully automated, I might like fully automated better, but I don't know for sure.

I'm not I've never been a zelo that I know.

We joke about robot ums please and I get that.

I'd say that all the time, like when it just upowers your bad I think the challengingstam is the right thing in the middle.

I do have one quibble that we'll talk about in a second, But to answer you, like, I like this better even if I'm not against full robot zones in the way that some are.

Although I get it, I do like the nuance of like catcher framing and stuff like you lose all that if that, yeah, if it goes forward.

So I get on both sides.

But this is kind of the good mix for me.

And I'm curious.

So if folks didn't see, teams now get two challenges per game.

If you challenge incorrectly, one of your challenges goes away.

If you challenge correctly, then you get to keep your challenge.

So I think that's probably the best happy medium that I could come up with.

I did see people.

Saying, well, two isn't enough.

I almost wonder if two adds a layer of strategy to it, where, like you know, people are like, well, every player should get a challenge.

Well that that feels like players are gonna just start challenging just for the sake of challenging.

You want to be strategic because and this is maybe the most interesting layer.

If you waste a challenge in the first or second inning with bases empty, maybe it should have been strike three instead it's ball four.

Okay, Sure, in the moments that's a significant swing, but it's not necessarily going to change.

The game more likely than not.

So I'm very curious to see kind of the game within the game of how aggressive are players is going to be with challenging Do all players on the roster just get like a blanket green card if you will to challenge?

Like does does Nacho Alvarez get to go up there and challenge a call in the second inning the same way that Ronald Acuna Junior does?

Because if you only get two, brad, you better be damn sure that you were right.

And nobody wants to waste a challenge with bases empty in the second inning of a zero zero game.

No, you're right.

It will be fascinating.

I tend to think without look at so early.

I think the stars should, and probably will on most teams get a little bit more freedom to challenge.

On the braves.

That would be guys like Ronnie, guys like Matt Olsen, you know whoever?

Like pick your other you know one so was the one everyone's always used as the example, like one, so I should probably have carte blanche to challenge whoever he wants to do, because he's got the best eye in the world, Like, he should probably be allowed to do whatever he wants on challenges.

Ronnie is really good too, Like I think Ronnie would be a guy that I'd be like, all right, Ronnie, like, don't don't go don't go crazy.

But if you think you think they missed one, because like you said, just emphasize this, like you don't you could challenge ten times in the game.

If you win all ten, you could keep going.

You could keep challenging.

So like if it was only two and they went away, it would be really interesting.

Like the Priori levels and things like.

You would almost never challenge early in the game ever, unless it was like Basis loaded or something and you I'm completely hosed.

But now with the fact that you can retain it does make it like probably a greener light for most guys.

But also if you're a manager or general manager whatever, it's like you better be right early in the game in particular, you gotta be right.

Yeah, And I think you said you know basis loaded, absolutely, I'm not saying that there's a blanket don't challenge in the first four innings because sometimes the biggest moment of the game comes in the first and the second and the third inning.

So it's fascinating.

I would imagine maybe we'll do a poll or people in the comments on YouTube can weigh in.

But I mean, I think most baseball fans are in favor of this.

It's going to be different, just like when they made the rule changes a couple of years ago, with the pitch clock and the shifting, it's going to be different.

It's going to be a little weird to see a player tap their either their helmet or their hat and they're going to show, I believe, just kind of like in tennis, they're going to have on the screen.

They're going to have like a real time showing of where the pitch was, whether it was a striker.

Or a ball like that.

That'll be different.

It's something that hasn't really had happened in the major leagues before, but I think this time in a year will be in favor of it, because the one thing I think every baseball fan can agree on is nobody wants the biggest situation of the entire game dictated or changed by a bad call, like, yeah, you know, it should be strike three and Angel Hernandez blows a call and instead it's ball four and a runner comes into score and the game entirely changes, right, Like, I think that's something.

I think that the challenge system will be for the better of Major League Baseball.

But until we see it, it's gonna be you know, it's gonna be fascinating to see when the first challenge happens next year, just kind.

Of what the overall reaction is.

I'm sure there'll be a lot of people that are not super dialed in that will be annoyed by it or won't like it if it doesn't go their way.

And I get that, and you're right, I think if you're starting to get calls that are blown, like there'll be times when teams the teams lose two challenges and later on, but there will there is a recourse that Baseball can say, look, yeah, we missed the call, but you blew two challenges earlier in the game.

You had the choice to do that and you messed up.

So at least there's some onus on the team, on the player to not mess it up.

Et cetera.

By the way, on the I know I already saw somebody talking about this a little bit in our comments today about like the length of game.

You know, there's been this push by Baseball that's worked really well with the pitfclock to speed speaking speak, speed games up, and this is going to add a few seconds.

Like Baseball's guidance put this out in spring training.

This actually happened last year.

They were running it in a two hundred and eighty eight games.

The average number of challenges per game was four point one total challenges per game, and they averaged thirteen point eight seconds per challenge.

So if you do four times fourteen seconds, that's less than a minute of added time in every game.

Yeah.

I don't know about you, Scott.

I'm okay with that.

I'm okay with an extra minute to have this be part of baseball.

I love it.

I'm glad they're doing it well.

That worked perfectly.

We'll see.

But I am totally in favor, and I know that not everybody is.

I get that too.

I get the arguments on all sides.

I think it's a good middle ground.

Use technology and we clean up some of the some of the really bad because you know, nothing rages a lot, but people like us more their diehards, and like you see a pitch that's like nowhere close and it's like come on, man, like what are we doing here?

And those are the ones that I wish you could easily challenge.

You get changed well, and hopefully it reels in just the absolute worst of the worst with umpires there.

I think in the Padres game the other night, and I think even Jeff Passon was kind of using this as an example.

I think there were like twenty four pitches that were called incorrectly that weren't even within like the margin of air that they always talk about around the zone where it's like, yeah, that's the plate, but you get like two inches all the way around is deemed like the margin of air, you know, within the confines of the plate.

Like it was egregious and there was I mean, there was a pitch that was like a foot off the plate that was called a strike.

Hopefully this kind of prevents the absolute worst of the worst.

But I mean, to be fair to the umpires, they do get it right more times than not, Like no umpire is perfect, and that's baseball, man, Like that is part of the game.

If you're a pitcher and that umpire is giving you the out of corner, guess where you're throwing the ball.

You're gonna go on the outer corner that you're taught that from.

Well, it's also it's also funny for Braves fans with a certain age.

We grew up on Maddix and Maddix and Glavin getting a lot of extra wigle room.

We can be honest about that now like they were and they earned it, but they also it's there's some nuance there and it's like it's, uh, it's always been like all right, well, we grew up on this.

It worked to the Brais bands for a long time.

Maybe not always, but yeah, there's it'll level out.

But to put a pin in it, like, I think we both like this, we're both in favor.

We'll see how it goes.

It may not work.

I think it's going to, but it may not be received perfectly like there was when they did when it did the pitch clock.

I think we both liked it, but it was like, all right, we'll see how this goes and it work great.

Everybody seems to like it now.

Yeah, challenges.

I think it's gonna be the same, but we will see next year.

You can always make adjustments too, Like nothing is set in stone for the next decade, Like you could always had more challenges.

You could change the parameters.

Maybe you only get one challenge in the first few innings and then you only get one challenge in.

The later innings.

I don't know.

I'm sure that baseball has kind of thrown a lot of things at the wall and we'll see what sticks.

But yeah, a big announcement for baseball.

I do feel like the rule changes that Major League Baseball has implemented in recent years have been undoubtedly for the better.

Yep, the pitch clock, the lack of or the restrictions on like the extreme shifting, Like I got really sick of watching four infielders stand on the other side of second base, Like, well, what are we doing at that point?

So yeah, I'm in favor of this.

I'm in favor of some of the other changes Baseball's made, and I guess we'll find out just how well it is received, and hopefully they have all the kinks worked out by the time the real.

Games get going.

I guess, you know, late March of next year.

A rare point of us disagreeing is that I actually like the extreme shifts in which they would stop spanning the shift.

But that's not worth arguing about on a podcast in September twenty twenty five.

That's a subtle issue, Scott.

It's already been done.

It's okay.

I'm not mad about either.

So we'll we can let maybe for now, maybe in like January third, when it's like the absolute dead of winter and there's nothing to talk about, maybe we'll maybe we'll do an episode just like ways we would improve major League Baseball.

It's not a bad idea anyway.

Well, that's an interesting lead baseball topic.

We will get into some brave stuff some of the game action for the last couple of days, but first a player spot segment from our friends at the Pick six app from DraftKings.

We're suppus today by the folks from the Pick six app at Draft Kings, the official daily fantasy partner of the NFL, and our player spotlight today is going to be a young man named Michael Harris.

Quite a roller coaster for Mike this season, as we've covered throughout the year, but he did have a big week for the Braves this week with this last few days.

He has eight hits in his last four games, including two homers and two doubles.

So nice to see that from Mike.

Obviously, there's all kinds of talk always a boy, his adjustments and what's gonna happen in the future.

One that Weeds to shut him out big week, Scott, what do you make of this if anything.

Obviously there was a bit of a slump before that, and then before that a hot streak and before that a slump, And it's been that kind of year from Mike.

Just such a bizarre year for Michael Harris.

And if you're trying to be optimistic, you can tell yourself that for a month, Michael Harris was like maybe the best player in baseball shortly after the All Star break, he was so good.

And then of course he went into another bad, bad, bad slump, almost like worse than where he was in the first half of the season.

But the fact that Mike is ending the season on a high note is encouraging.

We know he has the power, we know he has all the god given ability.

It's just some of the issues that have plagued Mike throughout his whole career are things he's going to have to change moving forward if he doesn't want to be on this crazy rollercoaster of being really hot and then really really cold.

YEP, for sure.

Obviously.

I think he still has, if not the lowest walker right in baseball this year.

I think he's in the top two.

He was number one at one point, but he's been a little bit unlucky to like his expecting numbers better than his actual numbers.

His BABEP is way below a normal, so like there's some room for numbers based optimism.

But anyway, I wanted to shout out my key out a good week, some good power, help the Braves win a game we'll talk about later on the podcast, et cetera.

So just Michael Harris.

Hopefully you can find this more consistently moving forward.

Now, Scott, let's take a look at some pick six options from our friends at Draft Kings for the game on Thursday in the NFL.

I will give you first pick, Scott, as we build our card.

Where are we going for Cardinals, your Arizona Cardinals and Seattle Seahawks on Thursday?

Oh man, I'm going to go with less than two hundred and twelve and a half passing yards for Kyler Murray.

I don't know Brad Kyler.

I mean he was once a big time baseball prospect too, actually and everything, but just not a Kyler Murray fan.

I've never seen it myself.

So I will go with less than two hundred and twelve and a half passing yards.

On the other side, I am taking Kenneth Walker more than zero point five touchdowns.

So basically Kenneth Walker to find the end zone.

Part of that is exactly sharbon is recording.

This is questionable the other running back for the Seahawks, and I think ken Walker is at least a high upside player that can find the end zone and we'll get the ball, especially if sharbon A is unavailable this season.

Play your player istincs Donald Draftings Pick six app right now and use code foul.

That's code foul.

Play just five dollars, give me fifty dollars and bonus picks from pick six.

Make the call, ride the upside in partnership with Draft Kings pick six.

The crown is yours.

Gambling problem call one eight hundred Gambler help is available for problem gambling called eight eight, eight seventy 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 sea terms at Pick six dot DraftKings dot com slash promos.

All right, Scott, we already discussed the Braves streak coming to an end, but let's discuss some particulars from the last two days of action.

Again, we had a show on Monday, so we'll kind of take that game and put to a side four moments.

But Tuesday's game was the test straight win for the Braves.

Ironically, but Tuesday and Wednesday had the same exact offensive output for the Braves.

They scored three runs in both games.

In both games they had three solo home runs, so the last two days they have six solo home runs, three and three.

That was it.

In one game they had enough to win by one, and then next game it was not enough to lose by one.

So synergy, I guess the Braces have been scoring five runs at every game and they stopped doing that.

And when you don't score five runs, you lose more often.

Yeah, breaking news.

Good to see.

Good to see some power from the boys.

That's one thing.

I know it's been documented on the show, but you know, the home run ball has been few and far between for this team.

That was, of course the hallmark of the Braves success and twenty one, twenty two to twenty three, and it's gone away a little bit the last couple of years.

But good to see power, and I mean, really my big takeaway from Tuesday night was just Hurston Waldrip looked really good again and it's now confirmed it was actually Hirst and Waltrip's final start of the twenty twenty five season.

Six innings, five hits, one run.

He did walk for his command early was escaping him a little bit, but got five strikeouts.

And I mean, let's just kind of go over the numbers for a player who I mean was really not on people's radar as late as like May and June because Waldrip was struggling so much in Gwinett.

His numbers since.

He came up on August first are like legitimately good, Brad and reasons for optimism going forward.

Yeah, and we've covered it, but doesn't reminder like he came up for a spot start in an emergency because of a rain now and a standalone game.

It was all bizarre.

And then since then thirty six and the third innings two point eight e RA three point two two FIP, Like, I know Thera was in the ones for a while.

That was never going to sustain.

We all knew that, but you look up and you know he was in the rotation for two months ish and had really good numbers and the supporting numbers are good too, like that it was not just like an era bas like some guys without naming names, like they have great era runs and it's like, well, everyone that's looking at the numbers and the underlining data is like flashing red light to say, this is not a real thing.

With Waldrop, it was gonna regress, but it regressed to like it still looks pretty good under the hood for Hershrom And that's for us a process driven podcast, like really really exciting because it's kind of funny he was better in the majors than he was in Gwinnette on a stat base resume standpoint, that's kind of funny, but I'll put it back to you, like it looked to me like the stuff played up and this isn't everything, but this is a first round pick pedigree.

Like no one was ever doubting the raw talent with Waldrop and he seems to have harnessed it appropriately in the major leagues this year.

And we all know that Waldrop splitter, it is fantastic, Like that's his Honestly, the day the Braves drafted Hurston Wall that was like a major league ready split finger.

But we know the name of the game with Herston is the other offerings And credit to Gorev, the deck friend of the show who works for Baseball Perspectives.

But Gorev shared that Waldrip's knuckle curveball was actually rated as the second best pitch thrown across the entire Major leagues on Tuesday night, and it looked really good watching the game on Tuesday, Waldrip had a couple of nasty curves that he got for strike three.

Looks really good and you start to tell yourself a story of you have that split finger that's really really effective.

If he has a legitimate weapon with with that knuckle curve, that he throws, which is already kind of a funky pitch.

In addition to that splitter.

The fastball does not have to be John Smoltz prime level fastball for him to get hitters out.

I mean, just locate the thing decently well and throw it ninety five ninety six to keep hitters honest.

So that was really encouraging.

If Waldrop has that splitter and a curveball he can go to I mean, this kid could be really, really good next season, and that is a massive step forward for the Braves in the future of this rotation.

It absolutely is, and we will definitely do a deeper dive or two or three in the off season.

So we're not gonna do that now, but you know, age twenty three season obviously went well, big step forward.

He is at the very least a big factor next year.

Yeah, we don't know what that's gonna look like yet.

I am not.

I personally am not like, oh, he's the third starter, like a fourth starter.

I'm not doing that yet.

But he is certainly now firmly in the mix for next year's rotation.

And to do the bit we always do, you're gonna need more than five starters, so he's gonna be one of them.

We will certainly see him next year.

I'm not going with for health purposes, but an encouraging performance today and also over the last couple of months for Hirston waldrip.

Oh.

By the way, just a quick mention we much in the three home runs.

Two of them were Harrison we talked about earlier on the podcast.

One of them Ronald Acunya.

Breaking news, rond Acuna is really good at baseball.

The last two weeks his ops is like eleven hundred with five home runs.

Gard A the days when for some reas people worried about ron mcuny.

I't I never said why, but they were, and here we go.

He's a star, guys, it's gonna be fine.

And there was a note too.

So many pointed to set on Twitter that Ronald has actually opened up his batting stance a little bit in the month of September.

I retweeted it on Wednesday morning.

If folks want to go and find it, it shouldn't be too buried on my feed.

But Acunya has made some adjustment stories his feet set up.

So I just feel like Ronald, he's such a he's such a talented player, and it just feels like when he is in a slump, at least by his standards, he just goes in the cage and starts tinkering with things and he's like, you know what, this works, and now I'm gonna hit four hundred and twenty foot home runs to right center field because I am a freak and I mean, god willing.

Let's get through these final three games healthy and then have a normal offseason.

Let's have Ronald back in the MVP conversation in twenty twenty six.

I think he will be I think I might pick him to win it if he is healthy between now and then and no issues.

I might pick him because guess what, when he is healthy, he is conservatively a top five player in baseball.

I think maybe I'm wrong about that, but I don't think I am easily what we see maybe top maybe top three.

Yeah, we'll leave it there, all right, Let's get to Wednesday's game again.

The street came to an end today a four to three loss to the Nationals.

The Sean Coleman Scott Coleman just dream of fourteen in a row, and the two of you are really championing the potential of that down the stretch.

It stopped four to three loss, like nothing vacuum.

It was a very ho home loss.

Braves kind of tried to come back at the end, they were not able to.

Again, all we hit three solo home runs and they all win the last four innings.

The offense was not great today.

Home runs from Baldwin, Ozuna, and Eli White hit a home run.

One of these storylines of today was, besides the loss, Drake Balwin homeward again.

That's not four home runs in the last two weeks for Drake.

He's been really good since his little like early month swoon.

I would say mini Swoon, We'll call him Minie Swoon.

Wasn't wait very long.

He was fine.

Yeah, but we've been, of course chronicling like almost every day, the Rookie of the Year race.

It took a little bit of a turn on Tuesday.

Kate Horton is the primary competition for Baldwin.

He wasn't bad, but he left his start after three innings with a medical thing.

He seems to be fine, but he didn't go deep in the game.

It was kind of a weird, weird performance.

And then Ball hits the home run today and I look up and our friends at draftings have Baldwin pretty substantially cutting into the deficit of the betting odds.

Caveats, supply, betting odds are not gospel on awards voting at all, but Baldwin is a much closer to fifty to fifty than he was just three days ago.

So hey, some progress, partially because Drake's been awesome recently.

Yeah.

Oh, he's he's so awesome.

I mean, just he's really good.

Yeah.

I just enjoyed talking and talking about Drake Baldwin watching Baldwin played baseball like he's just such a good player.

Farly exceeded my expectations, and I had expectations coming into the year for Baldwin, but this dude is just complete hitter, so talented, really steady behind the plate.

Seems like the pitchers like throwing to him.

Just the total package as a rookie, And it'd be really great recognition for Drake to win Rookie of the Year, and hopefully he can have a good final homestand or home series of the year and keep making up ground on Horton, because it would be not only great for Baldwin, but as we know and as a reminder, the Braves would get an.

Extra first round pick if Baldwin wins Rookie of the Year.

I don't think people should overweight it, but it might be helpful on the margins to voters who may not be super dollar into the Braves the last couple of months because the Braves have been out all the radar.

If he has a big weekend at the end of the season, maybe gets some more attention for that, and it might swing a voter or two.

But whether it should or not, just the reality is it's a Randoms thirty person sampling a BBWA voters at the end of the year that pute on that.

And if he has two home runs this weekend or has a big weekend at the very end, like oh, Drake bald what's hot right now?

Let me look at his stats and you know, objectively, go ahead.

Now.

I was gonna say, let's get like a walk off Drake Baldwin to run homer or something like that to make the headlines, get on MLB's Twitter, like all those things.

I do think, like without being a we're not I won't lie to you on the on the podcast.

I think Drake Balwin for me, I would vote for Drake W.

Baldwin right now Fork of the Year if I was a voter, and I wouldn't say that if I didn't believe it.

I think that Drake has a slightly better He's not a slam nunk case by any means.

Horton has been good.

Baldwin, I think being a catcher is a big thing for me, hitting the way he is hit while being a very solid defender a catcher not an elite one, obviously.

I think Murphy is better than him right now defensively, but like ball Wanen's fine, Like Balwin's a fine defender as a rookie who mashes, and like that's a really tough spot, really valuable player.

I would lean in his direction personally, but we will probably litigate that.

Sure, that's the point in October, when the voting is closer.

We'll probably do a full deep tub on that race as it comes.

But go Drake will be fun for the Braves.

Love the Drake, We love the Drake ft fam.

It's still time for you to check out what bathing suit you're wearing and why it's not fair Harbor.

Can we get a little show and tell Fromeric Krats.

Nice.

I mean, unfortunately, you can't even see all the little intricacies.

We got sharks, we got patterns, we got waves, we got sailboats.

Oh and they feel super buttery on your skin.

Can you show us the liner so people can understand how it's different, because I've actually been taking it up.

I was just vacation.

I got the unique liner too, I got the I got the baby Blue John.

Something about it.

I don't know it like it pops.

Head to Fairharbor Clothing dot com slash foul twenty and use code foul twenty foul two zero for twenty percent off your order.

Once again, that's fair ha rbo r Clothing dot com backslash Bowel twenty for twenty percent off.

Make sure you use that promo code foul twenty so they know FT sent you.

Just a funny note.

I think Sewn and Steven mentioned this on Monday, but not also one player of the Week last week in the National League, rightfully, so he was awesome.

He's been on an absolute heater.

I laughed that it was announced Monday morning, and he is this week.

In the three games since then, oh fifteen.

That's still really good, guys.

But we could laugh about him being over fifteen as soon as they announced Player of the Week.

The Braves ability to gather these hitters who were either just absolutely scorching hot out of their minds or in like an o for whatever skit is amazing and it's not exclusive to the Braves and and all that, but just very on brand.

Madelson could not make an out last week, and now he is oh for fifteen against one of the worst pitching staffs in baseball with the Nationals.

Yeah, for what reason he did not enjoy the national staff last three days or so?

Last thing from Wednesday.

Bryce Elder was decent again.

Bryce has been really solid for a couple weeks months now.

He threw seven innings today, give him three runs.

It struck out seven.

He ends the year with a five point three zero ERA.

Boy, so we can be honest about that.

Obviously, he was bad for most of the season.

He did, as he laughed about recently on the show, lead the team in starts, innings, et cetera.

That's more of a bad sign for the team than anything else.

But he did have an ERA in like the mid twos over his last six starts of the season, Like he was a competent starter in the last like month and a half, which it didn't matter by then.

But I mean he's not to be very clear, he's not in the Heuston waldroup zone.

You shouldn't bank on him.

But I think that Bryce will probably still be in the organization next year because his value to the team and the way they think about it is probably higher than his trade value would be.

And I'm okay with him as like the tempt starter, maybe the a starter, even a starter.

Fine, like he's not he's not good.

I will stand on that he's not good, but he is someone you can throw in a non embarrassing fashion in imaguly baseball game.

So absolutely, and hopefully the offense is better, more consistent next season, Hopefully the bullpen's a little deeper, healthier.

You know, if if.

Bryce Elder is coming up for two spot starts against the Marlins and the Pirates and the Braves are in a perfect world, much better and you know, in above five hundred and not necessarily sweating every game, that's fine, Like, sure, you don't want to rely on Bryce Elder, but injuries are going to happen.

Players are going to need a day, whatever the situation.

Is, but we just can't.

We just can't go into another year where Bryce Elder is anywhere near the rotation on opening day because god knows, by you know, all Star Break, they're probably going to have to call on Bryce to make a couple of starts, and ideally you're just in a good situation where you can withstand a couple of hit starts instead of having to really rely on the guy like.

They did this year.

Yeah, I mean, the funniest part about that is you're right, But also he wasn't in the rotation.

They just he wasn't supposed to be in the rotation anyway.

Oh, this isn't reminder.

This is a reminder that like our bit aside, like you need, it's more than five, more than six, more than seven.

He ended up leading the team and then starts the innings while not being in the open day rotation.

That is how this works sometimes in Major League Baseball, So having depth around it matters.

Before we get to a look ahead to the brief final weekend of season, did you have a reaction to Ozzie Abbey's injury that we wanted to get out?

If you don't, that's fine, We could move on Shawn Stephen covered it for us on the show on Monday, if anybody missed it, But I wanted to at least give you the chance to offer any thoughts you might have had on Ozzie's any season, any injury, and of course the influence I would say more importantly on the future than the present.

I mean, no, no grand take, just I wish Ozzie's body would cooperate for once, because he's just had a laundry list of injuries at this point in his career and it sucks him.

Bones are scary.

It's the same risk that he broke a year ago.

Not what you wanted to see, but I don't think it changes anything for the Braves in terms of picking up his option.

I don't know if it's swung anything for you, Brad, but I think they bring back Ozzie unless they do, like a scan of his hand, if his hand is just like absolutely destroyed, which I don't think it would be, unless they have medical reason to believe that Ozzie's never gonna hit again.

I think you bring him back and just hope that with a full off season strengthen strengthening that hand and building back his grip.

Strength and everything that he will.

Be mostly fine and hopefully even as the year goes along, he'll continue to get even better.

I tend to agree.

I thought some of the reaction was overboard with like, oh, they can't pick up the option now.

I don't think that's the case.

If it was expensive, like if was Asha was fifteen million, it'd be a different discussion.

But it's not.

It's sevenly with a buyout.

So yeah, I think that it's not great clearly.

I mean, I've always been an Aussie defender, but I think that it's it's worrisome for sure.

I think that if you wanted to argue, and I probably will argue this winter, having someone in the organization that you feel good enough about if Ozzie isn't Ozzie to play at second base would be helpful.

Maybe it's not Shu Alvara's, Maybe maybe they's maybe they have not your play second base in the Arizona Fall League, and yeah, we'll see how that goes, and that would that'd be reasonable to me.

I will make the drive over and say, listen, guys, not you Alvaz at second base today.

Let's get him in there.

I can for sure and I'm not the biggest, not your guy, but like, I think that would be a reasonable thing.

I've seen Brandon lows name thrown around, a guy who has played some second and some outfield, like that kind of free agent acquisition that could not like a primer second basement, but could play there if Ozzy wasn't available, but without doing the spoiling all of our off season content.

You look at the of the free agent lest at the second base, it's really Glabor Torres and that's kind of it at second base or in Ozzy.

And I think you already have Ozzi.

You're already paying the buy out.

I would just keep him, And yeah, maybe you're to your point.

The medicals are stuff we don't know about.

But if you go off of the normal recovery time, everyone said this, all righty, I know Sean Stephen did too.

Like you can't just say, oh, he'll be recovered in six to eight weeks, it'd be one hundred percent.

That's different things.

But it happening now versus happening in spring training.

It's better that it happened now.

You get the whole winner and hopefully he's back and right.

But yeah, it sucks because he had kind of not blow everybody away, but he kind of looked like Ozzie the last like two months, and I was like, all right, no one, he's not this.

He wasn't playing like the star he was a couple of years ago.

But he was like clearly playing average starting second base or better the last two plus months of the season.

Yeah, and making that much money, that's all he needs to be, Like, he doesn't have to be a star making seven million dollars, Like it's fine, it's just that you hope that this is not messing up that aspect of it.

Interesting name, and I think Steven mentioned this name a while back, but Willie Castro is also a pending free agent.

Castro predominantly played with the Twins.

Now he's with the Hubs, I think, but free agent to be can play some second base, can play some outfield, kind of like a utility player, decent enough hitter.

So maybe a.

Player like that would make sense for the Braves just to kind of help cover up their the questions they have with injuries.

Just wanted to say his name out loud while we talk about the free agent class.

YEP, we will see and have an extensive preview on that I can assure you later on in the winter, last thing before we get out of here.

On this show on Sunday, you and I discussed, we kind of laughed about it, the potential of Charlie Morton coming back to the Braves.

That happens, Scott, the Braves signed Charlie Morton.

Yeah, that's one thing number two I said on the show, and I meant what I said that if Charlie made a start with the Braves, I would make sure I was in the building for it.

Barring a change, that is not going to happen.

The Braves have announced their probables and look probable.

It's not definite.

But when you when you announce probables, they are your probables.

Theynnounced that it's gonna be Joey Wentz on Friday, Special Strider on Saturday, and Chris Sale on Sunday.

I'm fine with that, by the way, I'm not offended.

We're gonna give Charlie start people.

I think that I will be I'm not bothered by it.

It's fine.

I I would be fine if he pitched on Sunday and Chris Sale was done for the season.

But Chris Sale probably wants to pitch, and you're not gonna tell Chris Sale.

Now, that's kind of what I'm guessing at this point, And I don't know about you.

I kind of hope that Charlie relieves Chris Sale on Sunday and finishes the game.

Yeah, that's kind of what I want to happen now.

Granted, I'm I'm in the tank for Charlie.

I've always I've always been in the tank for Charlie.

So that's that's my tank for Charlie stance.

It doesn't matter, guys, the game doesn't matter.

I understand.

I'm gonna be the best thing for them to win.

That's fine.

They've been managing too much to win the last couple weeks anyway, So I don't know what you think about that.

But Charlie's not starting.

It's unfortunate, So hey, save me some money.

I don't.

I don't have to buy a ticket this weekend.

It's nice.

Yeah, And I think too for Morton, like, I'd like to see whatever day it is, that Charlie comes out of the bullpen.

Pitch somewhere, please, Yeah, pitch an inning, come back out for the next inning, get one out, and then have Brian Sniper come out shake hands.

I'm sure the Braves will have something said.

You know, it should be a pretty full, truest park, even though it's the end of the season and all.

That should be a pretty nice audience and hopefully the fans realize it's very likely the end of the road for Charlie Morton, a plus human being World Series champion with the Atlanta Braves.

Just great ambassador for the franchise, such a nice guy.

I know when we had Justin Tiscano on the show in the spring, he talked about just conversations he had with Charlie Morton on his time on the beat and just such a thoughtful, smart, kind human being.

And I think that's probably the ultimate compliment you can give a professional athlete, because they are all very talented, they're all great at what they do, they all work hard, spend hours in the gym.

But Charlie just being that good of a human being says a lot about him and hopefully he gets to send off that he deserves.

Yeah, and uh, look again, I don't overstate it.

I thowt people that were mad that Braves brought Charlie, but I don't understand that, like, I get it, Like if they were playing for something right now, I would understand the reaction, like, but they're not.

The season's over, like what they're not doing.

And by the way, we said this on the show, but I didn't explain it as well as well we could have.

I'll take I'll take responsible for that.

They didn't even have to claim him after we did the show on Sunday, he got he got he'd already been DFA.

He got released after that, which made him basically free.

So so there's no downside whatsoever.

I know that on the day he was called up, they had they set Laura down and it was not because of Morton, like it is what it is, like they just didn't want Laura up for some reason.

It doesn't matter.

But Charlie hope he pitches.

If he doesn't pitch, like, I'm not gonna throw a fit.

It's not that big of a deal.

I just I'd like for him to if you bring him back for me.

It's like kind of silly if you don't have him pitch at some point this weekend.

It's almost it's not quite it's it's not quite as bad as as the Kimberle thing where it was like baffling to every degree.

But I don't know why you sign Morton and don't have a pitch this weekend, So I'm expecting him to pitch at some point.

I don't know what it's gonna be.

If I knew what it was gonna be, I go honestly, if they if they said, like right now today, Hey, Charlie's going to pitch the sixth inning on Friday, I would probably try to go on Friday.

Yeah, but uh, we don't.

We're not gonna do that.

So who knows.

Yeah, end of a I mean, hell of a career for Chuck.

And really, I mean you just look around, like some of these you know, they're they're better than Charlie Morton, but Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, like we're coming to kind of the end of an era for some of these remarkably talented, very very accomplished, no doubt, first ballot Hall of Famers, And yeah, I mean it's uh.

It'll be good.

Hopefully Charlie gets to send off it's against the pirates.

Hopefully he goes out there and just gets a couple of outs and a clean inning and and get out.

You know go out on top because he I mean, the Braves crushed Charlie in Detroit over the weekend.

Yeah, and uh, it is at least a couple more days where there is someone on the Braves roster older than I am.

Once they cut ties with Jesse Chavez, I have been older than at the entire roster.

And there's a decent chance Scott that once Charlie has done this weekend, that there may never be a player older than me on the Brives roster.

There could be, but it's not a given.

So I'm ansied Ian Chris Sale is older than you, and I know they're players that are older than you.

I think Rice Sell was like, I think it's all yeah, me and me and o'zuna are like the same age.

Yeah, Marcel Pierce Johnson's thirty, same age as ozoo and etcetera.

So you still got a couple of guys.

I got nobody.

If once they go really really old and free agency, Hey, if Justin Brovetta wants to come sign with the Braves, come on down, Justin, feel free.

You are in your podcasting prime.

Brad Roland.

Maybe I suppose that's not true, but alas all right before I start sharing stat nuggets on Tyler Kinley, which I have a bunch of them, but I won't.

I won't sure even bet at forty one on the podcast, he let a home run today and that was his first time run of these allowed with the Braves e a zero point seven to four for Todler Kinley.

They laughed, Scott.

They laughed at us, Scott, when we said it might be a decent find, they laughed at us.

They made Kinley.

Yeah, I think Tyler Kinley is gonna be on the team next season.

Well, Snick gaves some quotes and again this is very of the podcast.

I think it was too I can't think you had it.

Somebody had it.

Stick Gaves.

Obviously he's not in charge of the roster, but he was like, they're impressed with Tyer Kiley.

They seem to like t Kiley.

So yeah, it's nice find.

Nice Fine, all right, Scott, let's get out of here.

Anything else to plug?

If not, we can sign off this thing.

H go Colts.

Between now and the time we talk again, they might be four.

Oh, we'll see how that goes.

We wive a show I think on Thursday or Friday.

Somebody some of us will have a show at some point between now and Sunday.

But yes, go Colts.

Indeed, this will become not just We would never We would never betray Brad would never betray.

His Atlanta Falcons.

He is a Falcons fan.

I really should though, I really should be Trailey talkings at some point soon.

Maybe all maybe I'll just pick it, Maybe I'll be one of pop just picks a new team in a dull age.

I can't do it.

I can't do it.

You pick a team when you're five years old and they'd impact your happiness for.

The rest of your life.

It is a sickness we have, all of us.

But it is a sickness indeed.

And speaking of sickos, I would just want to take a quick second a sincere, heartfelt thank you to everybody who has tuned into the show this season, whether you've been listening to us for years or if you found the show for the first time last week.

It's I mean, behind the curtain, you would never know.

The Braves are having their worst year in like eight years, and we really appreciate it.

We love doing the shows, we love the community.

So a big thank you, as always to everybody for checking out the show.

We got three more games left, we keep going all through off, throughout the offseason.

And and then baseball be here before we know.

But I just wanted to give one last kind of shout out to everybody for checking out the show, because, like I said, man, you would never know the Braves were twenty games below five hundred at one point.

The way people continue to tune in and that means a lot to us, absolutely does.

We'll probably shot them out again on Sunday when we do our final in season show of the season.

But yeah, stay tuned.

We appreciate everybody being here.

We do not stop in the auteuason.

We barely even slow down, if at all, Like we're gonna be here multiple times every week, So stay tuned.

Procrite to the podcast, follow Scott at Scott Coldan fifty five, Follow me if you want to at bt roll, and follow the podcast at Hamber Territory on social media, Subscribe, rate, review, tell your friends, and we'll see you all next time.