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

This episode two six six.

I am your host, Brad willand coming to you deep into the night on a Wednesday into Thursday, and I'm joined today by Stephen Tolbert, a man who's doing his third podcast in as many days on this feed.

We are working Stephen in the boat because Scott Coleman had the nerve to leave the country.

Stephen, what's going on?

What's up, buddy?

Yeah, Scott is just I mean, he has just abandoned us at our darkest hour it has been.

It's been a rough couple of weeks here in Brave's Country, as everyone knows by now.

Tonight's game was no different.

We're not gonna spend an awful lot of time on the game, to be honest, but we do have some interest stuff to get to.

There's so actually some decent news that came out today that we're gonna kind of break down.

We have it, spent a lot of time on it.

We're going to talk about it tonight.

We are.

It's been busy on the feed.

So if you are new to the podcast, check us out, subscribe to the show.

We definitely appreciate it.

We covered the Braves all year round and there were episodes on Sunday night, Monday Night, and Tuesday night.

So this is our fourth show in as many days.

We've been busy on the feed, so catch up on that.

But as Steven just allude to, not a ton of game talk tonight, the Braves lost their fourth straight series.

That's okay for where they are right now, it doesn't actually matter very much the results at the moment.

Chris Sale was good, always pretty good.

Nothing else really was a terribly high note, and we'll move on from there.

But there was a news story that we bumped up in the rundown to the top because of how much discussion it got today.

It became kind of a centerpiece of Braves talk on social media and comment sections, et cetera.

And that was the Brian Sticker, manager of the Braves, of course, was asked about his plans for next year basically today before the game on Wednesday.

I won't read the entire quote, but he referenced quote unfinished business.

He also talked about basically it was not the standard like I'm going to retire answer that Braves fans were hoping he would give.

And I know we've said this a lot on the show, but I want to be very clear before we start this, Steven, we've always said this and give him the caveat Everyone has been assuming he was likely to retire.

It's never been announced, it's never been indicated by a team.

There's been some I actually thought, I've actually thought some overly aggressive frame from the beat guys at times about snicker like almost certainly retiring.

He still might retire, but this is today was a reminder to me.

That's my takeaway, and I'll go to you that like he has not said anything approaching I'm going to retire, and there's some interesting details we should probably refresh on.

But what was your reaction to both what he said, which wasn't necessarily groundbreaking, it was a very normal statement from him, but the reaction was as if people were shocked by this, and it's like, well, guys, this has kind of been the standing operating procedure the last several months, like no one said anything about him or tech.

Yeah, so obviously this has now become a very serious topic of conversation because we're approaching the end of the season.

And one thing that Bowman mentioned today is that maybe not the plan, but kind of the assumption for the Beat writers for a long time it is that the Braves and snit would announce something around this time and so that the fans everybody could kind of give Snitker like a two week sendoff, Like Snicker's not the type of guy to do it at the beginning of the year and get like a whole year's worth of sendoff, But there was this idea that just first, you know, for clarity, for certainty, they would announce sometime around now and he would have like a two week sendoff.

And I'm sure that was probably the the catalyst for the questions today about if he was ready.

They were probably probing him to see if he was ready to say, like, yeah, I am going to retire, so we can kind of do this two weeks sendoff.

He did not say that at all.

What he said was, you know, he had a bunch of stuff, but basically he's torn, like he's fifty to fifty.

He didn't say fifty to fifty, but he's like, we have unfinished business.

I don't want to go out on a season like this.

And so Bowman was tweeting all this stuff, So I replied to Bowman at one point, and I just said, the big question that we have to ask ourselves is he's not under a contract for next year, ding Ding.

Does he even have a contract like available to sign if he went like this might not be his call.

And the way Alex has talked, I feel like Alex is maybe expecting Snit to retire, maybe a little bit more than Snit is expecting to retire.

This could get very interesting.

Yeah, it's grateful point and one that I think has not been ignored but maybe glossed over in a lot of circles, is that it's not a unilateral decision.

On one hand, the Braves, I think this is probably smart on some On some level, this is an organizational lifer.

I understand he's been managing the team for a while, but, like Snith, is a position that very few humans have ever been in, where he's been in the same organization for five decades.

It's a very delicate situation because of that, he won a World Series, He's been objectively a successful manager the entire time he's been here until this season, essentially right, But there's also the realities of this has been a terrible season that's not on SNIT by any means, but he's a part of it.

He's there.

And also you got the contract, and that's the fact that he is not it's not even an option like he he is on an expiring contract, and that's not standard either.

I think for a lot of this would have been a much bigger story for a lot of Like if this was a different man who was not an organizational lifer, it would have been a big story in February that Snicker had an expiring contract.

But because he was never gonna leave, he was never either going to retire.

I guess he could be fired, but he was never gonna be like, oh, I'm gonna go manage somewhere else.

That was never gonna happen, So it became less of a story than it would have been normally.

But that is a huge identic here because Alex, I'm sure it, does not want the pr of being seen as pushing SNNT out the door.

At the same time, he also may not we don't know, we don't know what Alex really truly thinks, but he may not want SNIT to keep managing at the same time, and like that would be an understandable position.

I know, people are probably as as negative at as they've ever been right now, given the team's performance.

I get all that we've been accused over the years of being too low on Snit and too high on Snit and whatever.

It's fine regardless of all of that.

It is really interesting to your point that this is a two way situation.

If Snit does not lean in and say I'm going to retire.

I want to retire, then it becomes a Alex slash whoever decision above Alex if they want you to go that way to say, are we going to offer your contract amount?

Because Alex earlier this week, I think you guys even covered this briefly on the show.

Mentioned Snit's going to be a Brave for life, but that does not mean Brave's manager.

I think it's safe to assume that Snit could retire into the front into a weird, you know, ambassador or front office role anytime he wanted to.

But I would love, we would all love.

I'm sure Bumma would love, Gilby, would love Gabe.

Whoever you want to say, would love to know in your heart of hearts, if you're Alex, do you want Brian Sticker managing your baseball team next year.

I tend to think it probably is more muddy than fans want it to be.

I think if you pull fans right now, the answer is no for the vast majority of them.

With the people that we respond, the people that respond us, I think everyone and kind of want Snit to move on at this point.

But I mean, I'll throw it to you, Stephen, like with that all laid out to say, this is not a unilateral sticker decision in the way that it might be seen, because he has to have a contract to sign.

What happens now, like.

Well, that's just that's the interesting thing, because like the Braves could have offered a contract to Snit at any point in the last year, in the last six months, in the last two months, in the last three months, at any point, they could have just said, all right, we know you haven't made a decision.

Here's a contract.

If you want to sign it, sign it.

If you don't, we'll move on.

By all reports, that hasn't happened that he does not have it.

He would have signed it.

I mean, just to say this, like if you were if you if it was literally retire or keep managing the Braves, you would sign the extension for a year, and then if you just wanted to retire, you would retire and leave him.

It's nothing would change.

So I mean, logic would tell you.

They wouldn't probably confirm this, but logic would tell you because of just that set up that if Snit, if they wanted to extend Snitt, they would have.

And it like you, like you said, it is not normal for a World Series winning manager to go into a season as a lame duck manager.

Most of these guys want an extension worked out, just like free agents are pending.

Forree agents, they want deals worked out before they get to their walk year because if they have to manage up against a walk year, it changes the dynamic of the team.

And so we've gone through this whole year with Snit as a pending free agent.

I mean, if you want to think about it like that, and because of that, we have literally assumed the whole time, well, he's obviously just not coming back, because otherwise they would have worked this out last year or the year before.

And then Snit comes in today and kind of blows it up.

And so now now it really is like because I've imagined the scenario where like alex Is, you know, sitting there today looking through you know, he said publicly he hasn't looked for any replacements.

That's that's both, like he's absolutely he's absolutely.

Thought about everybody, every every every executive, even like eighties and college sports.

Everyone has their Nolista in a drawing somewhere, everyone including.

And so I was I was laughing because I was thinking of like a Sarah where Snit's or alex Is in his office like typing an email to you know, uh, David Ross about interviews, and he looks over at his computer screen and he sees Snit talking about, well, maybe I'm not going to retire.

You know, we'll see what happens.

I mean, it really has.

I guarantee you it's thrown a bit of a wrench into the front offices plans.

And now we are I mean now it is literally like a daily watch of like because they could announce at any point that he's going to retire at in the year.

They can announce at any point that he signed a contract.

Like literally any outcome is possible at any moment in the next two weeks.

I do think they were gonna They're gonna want a relatively quick resolution to this once the season's over.

Yeah, and just to say this, this is not a full quote, but this is a in context quote via Mark Bowman from sticker quote, I'm thinking about a lot of things.

I honestly don't know where I am going to end up and what decision I am going to make end quote.

That seems like a person who thinks it's their decision.

And maybe it is.

Maybe it is.

Maybe maybe it is, but the situation does not point only to that.

Obviously, Alex and Stipt might have had discussion.

I'm sure I hope they.

I hope they have.

If they haven't yet, they need to today.

Maybe Alex used to go in at some point and say, Okay, Smith, like how do you want to do this?

Basically, and maybe it's maybe the deadline for Alex to know is something like, you know, October something.

It's not today, but they do have to know this quickly because you want to get a replacement and we're not going to do the managerial names today.

That's a different podcast.

Well, and also the also the staff.

Oh yeah, like I don't know the I don't know the contractual status of all those guys, but like I'm sure Walt Weiss has been like, I'm going to be the next in line.

If he doesn't get this job, or if they don't offer him this job, he might be like, all right, we'll screw this.

I'm out.

Well no, yeah, of course, I mean you're you're as soon as you change the manager if you if you do, you are in danger.

Or maybe you're choosing to lose a lot of your staff, if not the whole staff, like you can have a full turnover, so lots of dynamics to play there.

We can talk more about that if you want to.

But it is it became a lead story today.

I mean both wrote about it.

I know Doob wrote about it.

I think Gabe wrote about it.

Like they all wrote things that they would not probably play on writing on a Wednesday and September about the manager because it was like, oh, I think everyone's light came on today.

Whether it was, it should have been already.

In my opinion, it should have been a little bit less assumed than it has been because there hasn't been the best from the team.

But now the fan base has now woken up to this being a real thing, and the beat chorus seems to have broken up too to like, hey, maybe maybe he's not going to retire.

But also again, one last time, Alex decides who the manager is.

And he has never picked his own manager by the way, Snit pre dates Alex, Oh he does.

Yeah, Alex has never picked his own manager for this organization.

And Alex has signed through twenty thirty one.

Yeah, and Sticker has signed through about two and a half weeks from now.

Yeah, And that's interesting as a dynamic.

Beyond that, Okay, Steven, we have more to discuss, I promise you about the Braves.

But first a word from our partners on today's podcast, and it's the folks at DraftKings.

The Pick six app all right, see when were sponsored today by Fix a Half and DraftKings, the official daily fantasy partner of the NFL, and our spotlight player today is a pretty easy one, to be honest with you.

His name is Matt Olsen.

Generally we try to be a little bit positive on this player's spotlight segment.

Matt Olsen has been one of the few positives this season, not the only one, but one of the few.

He came in and also he has been very very good lately, kind of quietly ish.

He came into Wednesday with a one fifty six WRC plus in the last thirty days, including thirteen extra base hits.

He's been playing very, very well.

And then of course tonight he walked twice, had a single, and had a sacrifice fly.

So he was one of the best players in the field today.

He's been the best hitter for the last month or so, and quietly, Steven.

You look up and Matt Olsen on September tenth is number two in baseball in Fangrafts War at first base, behind only Ladimir Gerrera Junior, number one in the National League, ahead of Bryce Harper, ahead of Pete Alonso, ahead of drum Roll.

Please, Freddie Freeman, he's having a good season.

Mad Olson's not been like fifty five home run Matelsen, but he's been really, really, really good.

Yeah, he's done it more with doubles this year.

I think he's on pace for forty doubles this year, only twenty three homers, which has been a bit so.

I mean, it's been surprising, if I'm being honest, I really thought agree.

I thought I thought he would be in the thirties, maybe the forties.

The whole team is I really had a power.

We're actually going to talk about this a little bit more as we get through September.

But he's had a good year.

I mean, undally, he's had a good Year's played every single literally every single inning of every single game.

He is the most consistent iron man, you know, I show up and play every day guy in the majors at this point.

Obviously a very good defender, you know, had those weird couple of years his first two years on defense with the Braves, whereas like his his like gold Gov Clack caliber defense did not come over with Oakland the first two years.

But now it's back and he's literally probably the best defensive first basement in baseball.

A lot of doubles, a lot of walks.

I mean, he's still on pace to hit probably twenty five homers this year.

It's not like he has no power.

So it's been a good season for him.

Obviously he needs you know, he's been the most consistent of you if you think of the big three of Akunya, Olsen, Riley, you know, Matt Olsen has done by far the most in terms of you know, keeping up his end.

Obviously the two have dealt with injuries.

The Braves need all three, you know, looking ahead to twenty twenty six.

Big part of that, of course, is staying healthy.

But yeah, Matt Olson's held up his end.

Yeah, he's a really good to your point, he's he's probably gonna end up with the second most walks of his career.

He already has eighty I think eighty five walks the season some point, oh no, eight, I don't know.

Yeah, eighty five walks this season.

That's a crazy high number.

Thirty six doubles to lead the team by a wide margin in that category, leads, leads the team in home runs, leads the team in fangraft war like, he's been their best player this year.

Most valuable player of the team has been Matt Olson.

And uh yeah, the home runs would be great if he had forty five one runs right now, but like he's still been really good.

So anyway, Shasta Mattelson.

He's the spotlight player for us today from our friends at DraftKings and now we would take a look at some of the pick six options on the football slate.

Quietly, Steven, I believe we did okay last week.

This time we're going to the Thursday Night game again on the NFL.

I will see that for you.

I believe you have a play on Jalen Daniels rushing.

Yeah, so it's obviously Commanders Packers on Thursday night.

Jane Daniels, Commanders quarterback.

The total for him rushing yards is only forty six yards.

I feel like I feel like the Packers pressure is gonna get to him a bunch where he's running a lot.

Obviously they have Michael Parsons.

Now it's a different level of pass rush.

I feel like he's gonna be out of the pocket a lot.

I'm gonna take the more than forty six yards for Jade and Daniels on Thursday night.

I think it's a pretty good play.

I think passing.

I think Green Bay's defense is very good, so I think he's gonna have to add lib quite a bet.

I'm gonna take the more than forty six rushing yards for Jayden and Daniels.

Of course, I called him Jalen because I am in comfortaball mode and that's the Kansas quarterback.

So Jade and Daniels, you heard it here first.

My side of pick six is going to be the more than zero point five touchdowns scored by Josh Jacobs, the Packers running back.

He scored last week, he scored sixty touchdowns last year, sixteen last year, and he's clearly kind of the bell cow guy for the Packers.

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All right, Stephen, Beyond the Brian snicker topic du jour, today, other things happened.

We could briefly discuss the game if you want to.

Chris Sale was like really good still despite giving up the most runs he's allowed in a start since April thirteenth.

That's a crazy number, but it's true.

Do you remember five months ago when people were panting him about Chrisale?

I do, Yeah, what happened?

I wish that was our biggest problem These days.

He's not a problem at all, actually, but yeah, he allowed three runs today.

He was still really ghost for got nine.

I pulled the stats though, including today, just a shot out Chrisale real quick.

That was the headliner of the night.

Eleven starts since the beginning of May for Chris Sale, eleven starts.

He was hurt for part of this acknowledged seventy one to two thirds innings with a one point three eight era that includes tonight ninety five strikeouts, nineteen walks and set to ninety five k's and seventy one to two thirds innings.

That is uh, let's just say lights out.

Chris Sale has been basically as good or vetter as last year.

Just hasn't been.

He wasn't he didn't throw as much and up to the team much worse.

But uh, shouts to him one of the few bright spots we left for Sale.

Yeah, it's a cruel twist of the knife that last year the Braids were in the playoffs, but so wasn't healthy enough to pitch, And this year he's healthy enough to pitch in the playoffs, but the Braids aren't good enough to be in the playoffs.

So we got to get this guy.

I just want to see this guy in a playoff series.

I want to see what he can do healthy in a playoff series.

We're gonna try again next year, but he's their best pitcher by far.

I mean it's not even closed.

He's their ace.

Got to get him healthy, and we got to get him to a postseason series where I think he could dominate an entire playoff run.

I would love to see that.

Perhaps twenty twenty six will bring exactly that.

Do you have anything else you'd like to add about the game today, because the other games we've covered you and sew I shouldn't say we.

You and Seawan covered Monday and two the Nights games.

What's of those episodes if you want to.

It was a three to two loss.

Its pre standard, I don't know anything else.

Still had eight strikeouts through three innings.

Yeah, I kept.

My eye on.

I was like, like, this could be like an eighteen nineteen strikeout game.

The Cubs have been pretty cold on offense the last couple of weeks.

It kind of went no for him in the next two or three innings, but he was incredible early.

I really thought we might have like a seventeen strikeout game on our hands.

Offense didn't really show up, so it kind of kind of, you know, fluttered out.

But whatever.

Yeah, the the offense was not the best.

The only player who had multiple hits now matt Elson did reach base three times, but Olier had multiple hits.

This is a professional segue, Stephen was Marcel Zuna.

Marcel Zuna had two hits today and he, you know, given the Seann Murphy injury, which you guys covered in depth, Ozuna is going to play well, probably should play more.

He's gonna play as much as he was probably already playing, but he's back in there, and because he's playing more, I think Pop, we're talking about this now.

There's been a discussion, in fact, you and I exchange tweets publicly about this today about whether Marcel should be brought back.

It's not a new topic.

It's been out there kind of bubbling below the surface, but it kind of reached a larger pitch in the last couple of days post Murphy injury.

What do you think, because like we've I've shared a little bit, Bess, but I want to know what you think broadly about this, because there is a split, and that's predictable with a player like Marcel who's aspiring contract all those things.

But like, is there a scenario in which you would want Marcel back or are you of the camp where it's like, no, thank you, I'm clearing my dhpot.

Yeah.

So, uh, I can't remember exactly the con.

I think Bowman said out a tweet about like the only scenario where it makes sense is if he came back on a really small deal, And so I replied, I just I think personally, I'm just done having a full time DH that cannot play anywhere on defense and you're just kind of stuck with the lack of flexibility, especially and honestly, the real reason behind this opinion is that I want to have a fourth full time starting caliber outfielder because one, the Braves have had an impossible time keeping outfielders healthy, like for more than like two months at a time, for I mean for years, Like we're on like year five of this, and I'm kind of sick of it.

And what I want to do is I want to go get another starting caliber outfielder.

You know, there's a bunch of free agency Kyle Tucker, Cody Bellinger, there's a bunch Kyle Tuckers.

We're leading with that year player.

That'd be fun.

The Braves should be in those talks that they're usually not, but they should be.

But yeah, just a not a not a depth piece, not a fourth outfielder, a legitimate starting caliber outfielder that can help carry some of the outfield load and then have that person Jerks and Profile and Ronald Cooyea Jr.

Just rotate the DH next year to try to keep everybody healthy.

A kunya in profar are not like elite defenders that you have to have out there at all times.

You're more than happy having those guys a get off their feet every once in a while and just hit and b let somebody else.

Like coding Gulger like actually makes a lot of sense, as somebody who could actually play in the field could hit, and you just have all four of those You just have all three of those guys rotating those three positions left field, right field, and DH next year, and it's so much more flexibility because the people you're using at DH can play the field, which allows you to do a lot more laden games.

When you just have a DH only player and you're paying him a ton of money and he has to be in the lineup every day, there's just no flexibility and I'm I'm kind of sick of that.

And I know that you can get a really good hitter and he can potentially change your lineup, but also a lot of these DH types are like on the wrong side of thirty thirty five.

You don't really know what you're gonna get year to year.

Like Marcelo Zuna this year is a perfect example.

He just wasn't the same.

And that happens with dudes this old like it just does.

Like everybody's talking about Kyles Schwarber.

One, the Braves are not gonna be Kyle Sharper's gonna make so much money the Braves.

And two that's another like already plus your old DH only player, like you're you're you're just stuck.

If that guy is hurt or not as good as you thought, you're paying him a ton of money.

He's got to be in the lineup.

I'm just sick of that lack of flexibility.

Yeah, I'm with you.

I can already hear people saying, what about the catchers too, because if they have two catchers and you guys have discussed on if you already won won't recycle all that that that's a factor too.

Like I am of the mind that you don't want a catcher dhing every day because no matter who the catcher is, they're not going to be as good of a hitter as a DH would be.

Even Drake Baldwin, who like maybe maybe he may be awesome, and he already he's very good.

We know that Drake Balwin compared to DHS at the plate, is not special, right, He's he's still fine, but like he's special compared to catchers.

Catchers is ideally you do not want your catcher dhing in a perfect world without injuries.

So but another spot where you can do that.

I am with you one hundred percent on this.

I don't I don't want and what I said to you in response to but Bowman said when you said was the only way that I would understand and support to a degree bringing back marcelo Zuna is if basically he doesn't have a market and he comes back on a deal that is small enough where you as whoever's managed the team, by the way, whether it's Stid or something else.

Honestly, this would probably work better if it wasn't Brian snicker for being a person honest because SNET trusts Marcel too much exactly, but that dynamics plays in there too.

But that aside, if you pay him a number where it's small enough where you can bank on him not playing every day, if you're playing more.

If you're paying Morselo Zuna six million dollars instead of sixteen million dollars, you can say Marcel is our number one bench bat and he will DH sometimes and that's fine for that job.

If you're paying him what he's making now, he can't be that like you can't.

Obviously, the season is different because if the season was over, we've plenty called for him, and not much because the season was over.

But if they were competitive right now he was healthy, you don't really have an argument to not play him.

Like he's gonna have to play making the money he's making now, But I don't think anybody would pay him the money he's making now to be one hundred percent honest, I don't see that market being there.

There's also the comment, like there's also like this whole hip thing that has been out there all You're like, he's gonna have hip surgery at the end of the.

Year, right, it's the hip.

He'll be thirty five.

Yeah, I mean he is the DH only with all DH only is too, I mean Schwarber is too.

But like and look, it's it's not this simple, but it is as simple when Marcel is putting up a one to fifty WRC plus for two years, nobody cared because but that's also what you kind of have to be.

If you're a DH only, you have to be that there's no margin for air.

That's what you have to have to give up, the flex.

To give up the flexibility and that's I don't think there's a reasonable world where you can project that anymore from ourselves, right, and he could hit her, he's still gonna hit her out, Like I think some people, including me probably have kind of maybe glossed over that even in a kind of a down injury plug season, his first repuse is one fourteen.

Like he's still he's still an above average hitter, but as a full time DH that's just not good enough.

Like you need him to mash and he's not doing that.

Plus, uh, this isn't his fault.

The one position he actually can kind of fake is first base, and they don't need that because Midelsen knock on wood plays every inning of every day.

So uh, you know, it's.

It's so not only that, but like there there's this whole thing where like Marcel is also just not Like I made the joke the other day that, you know, Alex, they came out that Alex and Doppolis lost sixty pounds, and I made the joke on Twitter that Marcel found them all because like he is not like aging, Like it's not he's not agent.

I don't He's not somebody that looks like it's going to age well, it looks like somebody is gonna, like maybe be out of baseball in a couple of years.

I just I'm I'm just kind of ready to move on.

Yeah, I am too, and I I believe that it's the most likely and the best thing is to hit for him to go somewhere else.

Yeah, I just laying out the scenario where I would understand it, which basically is like I don't know that, I don't know the number.

Maybe it's six million, maybe it's less than that, I don't know.

But what you do not want to be doing is paying him enough where he has to and I mean has to play.

There is a role there for somebody like Marcel.

It does have to be Marcel Zuna to be like number one bench bat and part time DH.

That's a role that can exist.

That's fine, But we are aligned in not wanting a full time every day because look, you mentioned it.

But just to say this, like I think Ronnie should DH more.

Yeah, I think Profar defensively is pretty bad.

Yeah, a lot of time, and I think Ronnie probly should DAH more than Profar, But you wouldn't.

It's not a bad idea to have Profar every once in a while be dhing.

Eventually, maybe you get to the spot where you might need somebody else to do that too.

Maybe you get a hot streak for Murphy or Baldwin where you're like, you know what, we want this kind of hit every day for three weeks.

Cool, but none of that can happen at Marcel's on the team.

Well not only that, but like another outfielder not only allows you to rotate DH, but it also is just built in insurance.

Oh yeah, if Akunya does get hurt, if Michael Michael Harris has spent a lot of time on the you know, it probably needs to be somebody that could play center field.

I was gonna say, ideally you need a center fielder because we know prof can't play there and they're not gonna ask for I mean, there used to be a Runams the insurance bolster there.

That's no longer the case.

He's never played centerfield, so it is.

It is complicated, but it just makes it just there's so many positives to doing it this way versus having just a full time DH.

Now listen, if they want to go balls to the wall for Kyle Schwarber, I I don't see it and I would be very hesitant paying for another career year like Schwarber has gone nuts this year, and I if I had to put money on it, I'd say, this is probably gonna end up being his career year.

It's probably going downhill from here.

I'd be very careful paying for what is going to be a career year.

But if they want to, it's not my money, go for it.

I would just sure I would like them.

I would like a little more lineup flexibility.

I agree investing in an outfielder would make more sense than paying at THEH.

I just what I won't what I won't do and we can move on, is is rule out.

More so, I've seen a lot of people saying, well, there's no will be back.

I'm like, well, they like I mean, the team likes it.

There is a world in which he's back.

I don't think that they probably should.

But again, I could see a scenario where, especially when you throw off and look, I know this is a polarizing topic, but the off field history would scare some teams away.

Yeah, And I could see.

And the hip and the age, I could see there a world where there really isn't a big market for ourselves, UNA, and if that happens, I think they would certainly probably gleefully sign him for a big discount.

And I would feel better about it if it if it was not Snit managing it that was the case, because this is gonna play every day, and I would be I.

Would have to look around the league.

But I feel like not a lot of teams have just a full time time anymore.

It something we were just saying, the teams know this.

The bar is so high for that.

I mean when even when the Braves signed him originally they thought he was gonna play some left field.

That wasn't like they were signing him to only be a DH But now we everyone knows he is a DH on.

Everyone knows this.

Maybe there's a world in which you could play first base somewhere, but that wouldn't be in Atlanta.

So that is that's it.

And I mean, I don't I don't want to do the math right now.

Like you got Otani, you got Schwarber, but like there are not that many guys who are like legitimately as he does.

But I'm talking about like even even at the plate, like DH only players are like kind of extinct, like Devers is kind of a DH only but he didn't want to be.

Like I'm looking at right now, only a handful of guys have played more than ninety games at D this year in the whole league.

It's Otani, it's Shorber, It's Devers, Christian Yelich Uh because he's got a back issue, Brett Rooker, Marcel, and that's kind of it.

Everybody else can either can play outfield like Aaron Judges d H fifty times this year, but like he's can still play the outfield like he.

Played center he played center field last year.

George Springer can play the outfield, like he's not good out there anymore, but he can play there.

Mike shut is on this list.

Mike is mostly a corner I mean, but like he could still play corner outfield, he can't do it.

There are only a few guys, it really is only honestly, it's only Schwarber, Marcel and Devors then like can't do anything else and breaking news, Azuna in twenty twenty six is not as good as a hitter as Shober Endeavors so.

And I will say this, I also think what maybe originally think about this idea was back when the Byron Buxton News came out and I was like, well, they have three outfitters, but wait no, they what they really need is four.

They need four starting ye outfielders is what they need.

And I just think it's a much better use.

Of the roster.

Spot your in agreements on that.

Time for your weekly Arena Club segment where we see what AJ pulls from a slab pack and here we go, pull a little Emerald pack this week.

AJ looking for something big.

Always, I'm always looking for the big thing next.

Big things, got big money, big money.

Baby.

We've got a Dave Winfield card from nineteen to seventy four, seventy four tops card from this Emerald pack.

Estimated value three hundred bucks.

You could sell it back for two seventy sold sold.

I feel like you are into more of the current players.

Would that be accurate?

Like legend in my showroom, I have a Robin you out, I have a Griffy Rookie card.

That's true, So I mean I have some older vintageer players.

Bob Gibson, Oh yeah, you have Gibson.

So I know I disagree Scott, but Dave Winfield for that, mone me back, I'm reselling.

It, and if you want to get your own pack or new card, you can get twenty percent off your first slab pack or card purchase at arenaclub dot com.

Slash foul.

All right, Steven, let us get out of here with a little bit of news and a quick peek at the weekend.

This is not a huge news topic, but it is an interesting one.

Nacho Alvarez is going to play in the Arizona Fall League.

Yeah, and that.

Is a little bit weird, not necessarily bad, but weird because Nacho has been starting for the Braves four a month plus now now out of necessity because of Austin's injury, but it is anytime you have a guy who's going to probably play like sixty major league games as a starter, that is not a guy you typically would would send to the Arizona Fall League.

You're talking about prospects.

The other guys in the Braves are sending are all like prospects who've never seen the majors.

Now.

The spin from the team is that they want to get him at bats, which makes sense.

He did have the injury earlier of the season mess a much time, but what are you making this?

He's so young, he's twenty two.

But what do you think they want to have Is it just is it simply just at bats?

Like, what's the point of this.

Yeah, it is weird to have a guy who played the majors be in the Arizona Fall League.

It's it's usually a you know nothing but prospect heavy league.

And I think actually Nacho's is going to graduate from any prospect list because he spent so much time in the majors.

So, but he did miss a ton of time in the first half.

He's actually dealt with quite a few injuries the last few years.

It's really cost him some development.

And I'm sure that's all they're thinking about, is you know, he even probably got robbed a little bit of some development with Austin.

You know, he would not have been in the majors without Austin's injury.

So no, it's not where they wanted to have him all season.

They want him to be in Triple A.

So I'm sure they're thinking, we've kind of lost a lot of development with his kid the last two years.

Why not why not just give him another month of at bats against high level probably mean some of the best prospects in baseball you know, a Nacho as a prospect.

I'm still not sold on the bat.

I think he's going to be a utility player.

He's got to get bigger.

Like if I'm if I'm Nacho Alvarez's agent this offseason'm like, dude, we gotta add some muscle because you're gonna be a third baseman.

I think that's clear at this point.

The team thinks you're a third baseman.

They don't think you're a short stop.

He came up as a short stop.

No short stop's done.

It's it's second or third.

That's that's the only If you gotta play third, you gotta hit.

If you're gonna play one of these corner spots, you gotta hit.

And so we got to add some muscle.

We gotta add some exit velocity.

We got add some doubles.

He's never gonna be a big homer guy, he's not that big.

But we got to pull the ball in the air.

That's what I want to see from Nacho.

If he really wants to graduate to potentially like an everyday role, it won't be with the Braze, of course, but it could be with somebody.

He's got to hit more, and so we'll see, we'll see what happens.

Yeah, I mean not to go in this rabbit hole too deep, but he's slugging three thirty three in the majors.

Yeah, Like his barrel rate is one percent expected.

His expected slugging is even lower than his actual slugging.

Like he just does hit the ball hard like he does.

He does.

He does have the I think he has a profile that could actually be a pretty high OBP guy if he puts it together.

But if you have I don't almost It's not like it's not Nick like Nick Allen's zero in power.

It's not that, but like he doesn't really have a lot of power.

And maybe that's if you can find a little bit more to your point and just developed because you know the I think as a podcast we've never been a huge Nacho Alvarez believing podcast.

But there is a path to him being a major leaguer.

I think we've seen that.

It's just what he's going to be because you're right, third base, this bat is not a third baseman full time.

Like that's not the thing.

But it's also it's also just limiting to not be able to play shortstop and not be able to hit as an infielder, Like.

Yeah, if you can very he could probably fake short Like if he was a great hitter, he could probably fake shortstop.

I'm thinking about both, like the like the Bobachette profile, where like he's not a good defender.

We all know it, but like, okay, maybe, but Na Joe is not a good defending shortstop.

And if you're a bad defender, if you're a bad hitter sor if you're a bad defender at shortstop, you have to mash Man.

He's not gonna be He's not gonna do that, nor is he and Nick Allen level glove who could play short stop.

So it's like this he's kind of cloting in between.

But the positive thing is that he is so young still, he's only twenty two.

Like if you're a believer, that is the place to place your belief is that he did lose development time.

He is only twenty two years old.

The Braves, I think you could say I probably would say this, honestly, the Braves sending him there to Arizona actually could be like an endorsement of what that like we still believe in you kind of thing, like we're gonna treat like a prospect, like a real prospect.

Yeah, so I kind of see that just an interesting story, like we're not gonna be chronicling there's on a Fall league day by day on this podcast.

That's that's the department of Gorev and Garrett and those guys who do this better than we do.

But I'll follow it closer now, honestly, because not's there.

It's like a guy that we know, and we'll be there before we get out of here, Stephen.

And we've already gone longer than we thought I was gonna because that's what we do on the podcast, you and I.

The Braves are off on Thursday.

We're coy this Wednesday night.

This seems right, but also seems wrong.

They have sixteen games remaining, that's it, two and a half weeks.

That's the list.

They play Friday, Saturday Sunday against the Astros in Atlanta.

They have nine home games and seven road games left in the season.

Houston.

Of course, we all know the Braves are not playing for anything other than takeathon position, which I believe they are fourth right now in the Tikathon odds page.

I'm looking at anything to look for.

I mean Waldrop against the Astros on Friday is probably the headliner of the weekend.

To see how he looks against another good offense, like he looked pretty good against Seattle.

We'll see how it goes.

Yeah, yeah, it's I believe it's Astros, Nationals, Tigers, Nationals Pirates in the.

Just an absolutely riveting slate of games.

No, I mean, the Tigers are going to the playoffs leading the division, and the Astros are the Astros.

They're good.

The Nats aren't the Pirates.

That last series, that last Pirate series might be a tankethon series like we might.

We might have oh number two, number two odds on the line.

They are, they are what one game apart right now that actually is a little bit of intrigued for the absolute sickos in the last series of the season.

Yeah, I know, you guys did the this last night.

I agree.

I was nodding along when you were talking about the Cubs fans in the building this week.

That is Cubs fans.

There's a lot of Cups fans the WGN ERA, there's a lot of Cups fans.

I don't think there's gonna be as many Astros fans this weekend.

Number one's the number one.

It's the weekend.

People are gonna go to the game, uh locally include people in this podcast right now, but also like it's a what it should be pretty good.

I would imagine there'll be more Braves friendly crowds.

I hope on the weekend.

I think, I think, I do think charitably.

The Cubs series was probably the low point for that particular thing because it was the Cubs and it was a weekday.

We are weekdays of games.

It felt like Wrigley East.

Yeah, the last three days.

It was kind of one of those like when Tampa Bay has the Yankees in town or Tampa Bay has the Red Tucks in town and it's like eighty twenty visiting team.

But we'll see.

So yeah, Waldrip's probably again the thing that I would be looking forward to the most is Walterrup on Friday.

He still has not allowed more than two runs any start this year, which is crazy, but it's the Braves did announced Waldrip Friday Elder on Saturday, and by the way, I'll just been good the last sporter I think four starts cinearrow and then Joey Wentz on Sunday afternoon and then hopefully the return of one.

Scott Coleman, the man, the man, the myth, the legend.

Scott.

We will see if he ever returns.

And if he comes back and he says I'm retiring, well I won't be able to blame them too much.

But Steven, anything else to add before we sign.

Off, No, just appreciate all the fans.

Just appreciate all the support.

It's been a We have done our level best to try to come up with content on this team.

The team has actually helped us out quite a bit.

Which yet the last two weeks have been really nice from the team.

Actually, yeah, different, rand, I mean a shortstop out of nowhere and then snit.

So we well, we do appreciate all the supported I know it's not the season anybody wanted, but you guys have supported us really really strongly, so we do appreciate it.

Yeah, we definitely do.

I would echo that strongly, particularly in season which the Braves had another one to run lost night.

They're now nineteen and thirty four in one run games.

That is some like was it twenty twenty three Padres they couldn't win a close game?

Yes, at the season it was This says that kind of vibe to the season.

Las here we are Steven, Thank you for doing this on a Wednesday night, ask for everybody else.

Thank you for listening, Thank you for watching.

Please subscribe to Hammer Territory anywhere you get your podcasts.

Follow Steven at b Underscore Outliers, follow me if you want to at VT rolling, and follow the show at Hammer Territory on your social media platforms.

We appreciate the support and we'll see you all next time.

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