Show #480: The Trade Deadline Comes and Goes . . .

You're listening to Atlanta baseball talk, your weekly podcast for all things Atlanta Braves. Welcome to Atlanta baseball talk, show number 480. Today is Sunday, September 6, 2020. My name is Steve. I'm joined by both hammy and Curtis and folks. Please help out the show by telling your friends, sharing links and writing reviews. If you don't, in CRT starts coming out of the bullpen and laid innings.

Hey man, Snickers proven unpredictable. Yes, this week. Yeah, that would that would be bull. He is really willing to try the worst possible ideas. And that's got to be one of them. Yes. Well, I don't know. Let's see folks. In tonight's show, we'll discuss bullpen decisions during the national series. The Braves very quiet trade deadline and lots and lots of home runs. But first, a quick

break. All right. So guys, since Monday's trade deadline deadline, I very much had it in my head that we would be leading off this show talking about the trade deadline. And then Brian Snickers decided to manage the bullpen in the Washington series. And things change. And he got it couldn't get worse. Yes. So some highlights from the weekend. Pitching green and mintor with four and six

run leads respectively in game one of Friday's double header Friday night game two of the double header, bringing in Patrick Wigel, making sure he's not going to be in the middle of the game. And he has major league debut with the Braves down only one run in the last inning of the game to just get crushed, leaving him in for seven batters and giving up two

runs. And then bringing in Charlie Colberson to get the final out of that inning. Then on Saturday night, he does it again, bringing in the 28th guy on the roster, Chad Sabatka in another one run game where he gets really crushed. And then let's add bringing in. Darren O'Day on Sunday with a nine run lead. So there's really a ton of hard stuff to explain here.

But I do want to start with Patrick Wigel coming in on Friday night. Not only was it a, you know, a bad bullpen management decision, just in a vacuum. But so unfair to a kid who has worked his ass off. Right. Come back from surgeries. Who was called up multiple times last year and never made it in. Not to mention seemingly giving up on a one

run game when your team is all about comebacks. You know, letting him wear it for seven batters. Then further conceding the game by bringing in a position player. When you're still only down three. I mean of a weekend full of baffling decisions. And then he's going to be in the middle of the game. That to me is the biggest one. Ham, have you reacted this way

to what happened this weekend? Yes. I mean, it's the, it's the worst. It's snickers. Obviously we've talked about this biggest fatal flaw is that he can have the best bull. Plus best bullpen in all of majors and still find himself in these situations where he's doing that. I mean, how is it possible? It makes me crazy. He is going to get so outmanaged. And the playoffs

are our lack of starting pitching will rival his inability to use our bullpen as the thing that undoes unduz us. And the in the postseason, right. He said, and there was a press conference where the thing that he said, which was so maddening. As he said, well, you know, when you're behind or tied, you can't go to the guys you usually want to go to. Right.

Did you hear that? Oh, totally. No. Are you kidding me? This whole kidding of if you don't have a lead, don't bring in your good guys. Yeah. What are you talking about? So, which is so we're screwed. Right. So, so basically if we're tied or behind, he does not know how to use the bullpen. He does not know how to keep us in it. I mean,

he might as well just raise a white flag. It's so I mean, it will cost us. It will be our undoing. It is really strange. Right. I mean, look, it's not a new revelation. Like we know that he does not and a bunch of managers, frankly, don't look at, well, it's the sixth inning, but this is actually the highest leverage situation in the game. I need

to bring in X guy because he's my best guy. Yeah. I mean, I was. Go ahead. No, it's just how because he had he can explain it away. He can always explain away. Well, you know, and that first game we really needed him. So I wanted green up and I had mentor warming up. You can't bring him back. And you don't want him going on three

days. And so he can explain it away. But what he can't explain away is now he's in this situation where he just gave that game away. Well, he gave away. So, him. I agree that he, you know, look, I have this philosophy that if I get a guy up, I'm not going to sit him back down again. So that does explain. It does explain green and

mentor in game one Friday. It does explain, frankly, Chris Martin coming in on Sunday, today, when there was at that point, like a seven run lead. But it does not explain. Subaka or why? It does not explain sabatka. It does not explain Colverson. Like there is some insidious stuff going on here just in terms of how he thinks about it. It's just pig headed. Yeah. It's

just it's simple minded. Like like, it is a bit simple minded. It is a bit paint by the numbers bullpen management. Do be in the post game Sunday. Asked. Hey, so Martin coming in. Like, did he have a nagging injury? Some reason why we didn't see him, you know, in Saturday's game. Like, you know, he would have been perfect. Say when sabatka came in. Do be

didn't say that part. And Snickers response was, yeah, I decided I was going to bring him in today. Like he was just saving him. How? Yeah. I mean, Curtis over to you. But how can you? In a seven to one win? And the first game of a four game series mismanaged it so badly that you screw yourself for the rest of the series. Yeah, really something.

Curtis, your reaction to all this? Well, I think it, you know, this is a lot of what Bobby Cox used to do too. Really. These these guys all learned under Bobby Cox. And God Bobby Cox was very old school by the book that this guy pitched in the sixth inning. And this guy, and then he would tell you, well, that guy's only comfortable pitching in that

scenario and blah, blah, blah, blah, all that kind of stuff. And Snickers just kind of follows that guideline. But you know, I mean, a whole that's a that's a real stat that they cover in baseball now. And I mean, that can apply. I know you don't get it equal ways. But I mean, holding it to this one round deficit with a team like you mentioned, Steve,

that has made their Hay so much over the last couple of years of coming back in these games. I mean, I just looked up the brave splits and the ninth inning, the brave splits, 283, 385, 70, they've hit five home runs and have 18 or B eyes in the ninth inning this year. And of course, back with two of the three ones they needed. Right. And

I mean, they were down four and Freddie Freeman promptly hits the first grand slam of his career. And we're going to have come up with the last round of the season. And I was going to be a very, very late game. I'm here to get them back tied in that game. I forget which game that was now. But my point is with this offense right now,

the way it's clicking, they're never out of anything. So concession in any game. And also we discussed this amongst ourselves. But what a disservice. And just about to two, honestly, I mean, obviously he is yo-yoed up back and forth so much. I mean, I can't and he got sent back down. But to bring these guys back back in that middle of the evening, I've got that

little guy line up right now that he got sent. How about being on that down years ago. I mean, there are no need to look to teach them. You know, not exactly even nasal Dialogue addresses their perfect. And cause as it passes through Federal Mont Berry Center, but that's not going to work. So I would like to start on this slide as well, I mean, it

looks like one lineusz somebody just being gift of food. I know at any given moment, but I mean, when you have a bullpen filled with men who have pitched in the majors for collectively a thousand years, you know, you can't be giving any of these games away. We keep talking about that every game is 2.7 games now. And I mean, the nationals have been playing really

poorly. You don't want to give them any sense that they can come back in this thing at all. And it just it didn't make any sense to me. It made no sense to me whatsoever. It's bad management and Hamilton, I think you're right. I mean, this bodes poorly for making these types of decisions, making these sort of. Cutty out of the, you know, realm out of

the book kind of decisions when you get into the postseason where every single at bat is amplified even more, you have to get through winnings with guys that maybe aren't used to pitching in the sixth inning, but Steve, as you said, maybe that's the highest leverage spot you're going to see. So it. Indefensible. I mean, and you know, another underlying part of his whole approach is

obviously I'm protecting the bullpen, I'm protecting the arms, but that doesn't quite sync up either. This is from B underscore outliers of the OFR farm report on Twitter. He talked about that four relievers in the top 100 innings pitched. This season, there are four braves in the top 100. Okay. But only two of them are the high leverage guys like green is 13th and Matt sick

is 35th. Then you've got Grant Dayton at 49 and Luke Jackson at 65. Do be tweeted more like a macro level that the braves bullpen is sixth in the majors in terms of innings pitched at 168. But 15th in the league is 157 with the white socks and the red socks lead the league at 196. So it's not like even with all of our starting pitching

trouble. We have this really deep bullpen and. Yeah. He actually hasn't been killing guys. So that part doesn't make sense either. And they've been in blowouts both ways. And we continue to see these guys who are no offense much more vital to our long term outlook. Then Patrick Weigel and Chad Sabatka, you know, and they like you mentioned Martin pitching today. You know, guys getting thrown

into these games or eating innings when you could have a spot where guys that like Bryce Wilson coming into the game today when they're up 10 to 1. I mean, that's the perfect example of when you use that guy. Exactly. And he looked terrible. Yeah. But you don't do that when you're it's nice inning and you're down a run and allow him to go in there

and give up four runs to put the game out of reach. Yeah. It is really perplexing. It was really a perplexing weekend. All right. Speaking of perplexing, let's talk about the trade deadline. So as we just discussed on last week's show, two days before the deadline, the braids acquired Tommy Malone, whose debut last Sunday night was not awesome. Giving up seven over two and a third,

but he did right off as we talked about given the strange and sort of rushed nature of that start. He was better on Friday, giving up one earned over four. So Malone and unexciting acquisition. Seemed like a decent start, right? To the rest of the pieces falling into place that were certainly coming on Monday. But that was not to be. Anthopolis and the front office decided

to make no moves. And here we are. So, Ham, you've had almost a week to digest the no moves here. Where are you at now? Well, I mean, now with time having seen how this week's played out, I'm even angrier than I was on Monday. I mean, you talked to the talking shop guys on Wednesday earlier this week. And you guys sort of got to break

it down. And it's like, well, you know, okay, so it was a seller's market, right? There wasn't great deals to be had. It was going to be painful, although it's always going to be painful. Never forget it's just always going to be painful, right? But it may have hurt a little bit more to go out and get a Clevver or maybe a landslend or some of

those top line guys. But, you know, there were other guys out there. And we got nothing. We got nothing. I mean, we just like, we had to have someone. We had to have someone. Our situation going in was freed, maybe Anderson, and then a cliff. Like we don't, I mean, and then trying to get squeezing, you know, starts out of Tomlin and Irland and Matt's that

can just has been. We had to have a starter, and we got nothing. We just got nothing. And so then you say, okay, well, then maybe we're going to say, okay, we're going to go ahead and get a little bit more. And we're just going to, we're going to go in and we're going to say, you know, and AA said, you know, what we have is

better than what was out there than for the price. So, okay, so then you expect to see right and you expect to see too keen. You're like, we're going to ride our guys and see what we have there. And then maybe Hamilton comes back. You know, that's his plan. But then you still see Tomlin and Irland. And so we're still we're stuck here. We're stuck here.

And so I'm furious. I'm sort of furious. And so Jeff, I mean, I was going to say, I'm going to get a little bit more. I think Jeff Schultz had a great article where he said, I'm not mad at, at, at Enthopolis for, for the trade deadline, because it wasn't a great trade, trade deadline. There wasn't a lot of stuff out there. I mad at him

that we're in this situation where we don't have the assets that it takes to be competitive. Right. We're thin. Steve. So, so I thought that Schultz's article made no sense. Oh, I do. Seriously, we have all sorts of assets. And we were. And we were decimated by injury. He could have gone out and gotten clever and jerk. He didn't want to. Like that was an Enthopolis

decision. And maybe it was the right one. But this whole like we weren't prepared for the season thing. I think is just dumb. And I'm not by extension saying anything about you, Hammy. No, no, no, I disagree. I disagree. I think so either Enthopolis was too scared to pull the trigger on any continues to be. Yeah. So we're just holding on to these assets, which I

think he's too risk of a verse and or. We've devalued these assets. Like I feel that we should have, we should have more from the Ren and copy era. Then we do in terms of value. I think he has squandered. What was given to him. In other words, he is held on to prospect capital so tight and long that. Yeah, they're not as, as, yeah. Well,

look, there's a log jam and triple. And he's held on to these guys forever. No, I agree. Because after a while, that's for me. That's what I've got from Shultz's article. Sorry. Then I'll let you go. For me, it was because of that. We're in a bad situation. He sort of painted himself into a corner by holding on to these guys too long. And showing his

hand and not trading them before it got to this point where he's. He had to show them at the major leagues and now their value has gone. A lot of these guys. You know, they're, you know, people saw them. And they're. And their potential is tarnished. I think he squandered that a little. I'm done. Curtis, where are you at? I did sort of like the Shultz

article. Steve. Yeah. But I think that what we saw to me is sort of multiple levels of frustration. One, if he's not going and we sort of discussed this. So while ago. But. If he's not going to trade these guys, then they have to spend money on free agents. Because the only way that they're going to make acquisitions is if they trade guys. So if you're

not going to trade anybody, then you have to go out and. And bring people in. And I know people are going to say, Oh, they spend a lot of money on the bullpen, blah, blah, blah. Well, you know, the idea that we were going into this season, hoping that Sorokan Freed would continue their trajectory is great pitchers that Cole Hamils at 430 was still going to

have something left. And that the huge question marks that have become accustomed to Sean Newcombe and Faulty were all of a sudden going to be erased and replaced by exclamation points. And so that's a lot of hoping. And I know that a lot of teams have to go into the. Every season, hoping that a lot of the things hit, but it seems like the braves always

tend to hope more than maybe other teams do, but I don't follow the other teams the way I follow the braves. But they never spend any more. And I think that the money on big pitching free agents to I think that the part about the trade capital of these these prospects is true. I mean, Kyle writes not even listed as a top 100 prospect in baseball

anymore. Bryce Wilson came up and again get shellacked. He throws a straight fastball. There's no movement on whatsoever. So his. His use at the major level has sort of been extinguished. And he has no trade value like he used to. I mean, he was a borderline top 100 prospect. And I think that's the reason why he was a top 100 prospect in the past couple of

years was very highly rated in the brave system. There's very little value that you would get out of Bryce Wilson at this point. Same could maybe be said of some of these other guys. Well, he's value is any better. And I don't know that Kyle writes is that great. Now either. I mean, he's obviously dropped out of the hundred top prospects in baseball. So there's a

general consensus that he is not as good as people thought he was. And I didn't, you know, I don't want them to go and jump. Pasha and waters and water for prospects. But San Diego managed to get Clevver without dumping any of their top five prospects who were like top hundred prospects all themselves. So it seems like that he sort of. Lacks creativity when it comes

to putting these deals together or the brave farm system, which I've been. You know, kind of ringing the Clarean bell about for a while is that their farm system just isn't all that good and teams know that too. So when they come calling. There isn't a big package that they can put in. So they're not going to be able to put together with with a bunch

of prospects because their prospects aren't that highly considered. And so teams aren't going to say, well, we'll take six of your prospects. And give you a frontline starting picture because if you don't give them Pasha or waters or Ian Anderson or one of our catching prospects. After that, it's really thin and no one's all that interested. So that's sort of where I am. It's disappointing. But

I think that there's there's layers that. Make me more nervous than just the fact that we didn't go out and necessarily make a move right now. Yeah. And the fact that none of the kids got called up this week is maddening. Like if Tuesday night, it's not right or toki or Davidson. I mean, it's just got to be. There's no. There is no upside with Irland

and you know, there's there's no ceiling there. You know, I think that I think that particularly after his start on Sunday, I think Tomlin is here to stay in the in the in the starting rotation. And that may not be terrible. Honestly. Well, look, given the fact that they didn't make any moves. Um, you know, he looks great. A little stability. I mean, yeah, I mean,

he did give it. That's a great start today. And you wonder if if freed, you know, freed had lost like three or four miles off his fastball and his last start. You want to wonder if him sort of feeling like he needs to completely carry the starting rotation might start to wear him down even more than just the course of a regular season. I mean, his

last two starts each one has sort of gotten. From what we've expected out of max free to this point. Worse. Yeah, no doubt. I mean, by measure of earned runs Saturday was his worst start because he gave up three, of course, you know, three is right, but it's really been the last. I mean, we've been saying for like, the last four starts. He doesn't really have

his best stuff. He's just sort of, you know, gotten it out. Um, but yeah, then Saturday night, you get the velocity drop. So this was from Bowman's article. He averaged 90.9 miles per hour with 10, four seamer with with 10 of the four seamers that he threw in the fifth inning and 91 and a half miles per hour overall in that start. That pitch averaged 93.4

miles an hour in his previous eight starts. And this was Fried's post game quote. He said, quote, I'm not too worried about it. I think it's just a little mix of everything going on. Just kind of catching up to me, but I'm feeling good. End quote, which to be honest, didn't make me feel any better. No, that just sounds like he's tired as hell. Well, it's

got to be so stressful for those guys. I mean, and it's just another reason to bring the kids up and like, let's get him an extra day in the rotation. Like they did with Anderson this week. Yeah, totally. And and somebody had a great tweet. And I wish I knew who it was. We reached, I retweeted it. But, um, it, you know, the guy who was

like the braves think so much of Christian, Pache and true waters that enter and CRTA is starting in centerfield for them. No, it's, yeah, there's a lot of contradictory stuff going on. And and Thopolis's post game press conference was so transparent. Let's talk about changes in fall season. I, um, look,stellar activity, only on that night. Okay, so we've probably got again. It's like. Interesting, but it's

just frustrating. Once we got done with this episode, we also got this guy funny video. Yeah, yeah. Everyone got lots of talk of him. About Daniel What is that kind of backup on his team? Yeah, yeah. Who ducks him over, you know, like I said, last night, he said that at us, he's made something with our horsepower. He's got the punch on his team, which is

why Hecarl is a big, diam zulm. He's got the prodductor, but you know, it's just like, what if and what if and then remember, and then you this could happen. And then, hey, we're in the world series. And it's a lot of guys on one year deals too. I mean, they've sort of gotten lucky. Josh Donaldson obviously had an amazing season last year. And it's a

massive contract. After this year and it worked for Donaldson. Hopefully it works for Ozone for him. But it also just shows a reluctance to really spin money on the team. I know the crazy thing is. The longest free agent contract he's given. That I can think of in recent years. Anyways, is the three years 39 million to. Smith, you know, and like. Relievers are almost the

one area you don't give long contracts to. Right. Yeah. And again, it's we've. I know I'm repeating myself, but the my frustration is that I'm repeating myself. You have. Ozzy Albe's and Ronald Latunia, who are two transformative. Players on your team. Being paid so far under value that you could completely be taking care of this. Taking care of this opportunity that you have while those guys

are under contract again, way undervalued to spend a little extra money and acquire a frontline. Starting picture and some other way again, if you're not willing to trade guys. Go out and sign a guy. I mean, what is Charlie Morton? I mean, didn't he sign it free agent deal. Crazy about that. I know there may have been a year ago, right? With the. Race. I don't

know. Yeah. But you know, I mean, there have been guys. It's not like you have to go and. And signed gear cold of the most lucrative contract and history of Major League Baseball starting pictures. You know, you don't have to do that. There are other guys that are available out there that can really provide. And there was an interesting article. And I it was Mike Michael

Cunningham and AJC who wrote about that maybe the Braves aren't doing a great job of. Despite the fact that they've given up Trevor Bauer and Mike Clevenger and whoever Elizabeth was who I can't think of right now. You know, that they still have so much in place that they can withstand losing that. And potentially, you're probably still going to make the playoffs this year without Clevenger.

And just add it all this talent that came in from that trade to San Diego. So. You know, maybe that was the end of the day. That's another thing that we can I mean, Max Reed, obviously, the brave student draft, he came from San Diego. Right. That's true. Um, all right guys, let's go inside the numbers and no better number this week than the number three.

So on back to back nights, earlier this week in Boston, Marcelo, Zuna and Adam Duval, each hit three homers. So, you know, aside from it being cool as hell and another great example of how weird and fascinating baseball can be my favorite part of the whole thing was how excited OZuna was in the dugout when Duval matched him that night and hit that third home run.

Kurt, your thoughts on those two incredible nights in Boston? It was so great. And I, you know, all the sort of negative talk of that last segment. I mean, the offense is really amazing to behold right now. And then Akunya almost turned around and did it in the next game. Yeah. So, you know, I looking up numbers. The braves are top six in Major League Baseball

and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine different categories offensively runs hits doubles, homers, average, OBP slugging, OPS and runs per game. It just went all these guys right now with Riley just killing the ball with Duval doing what he's doing. Akunya back. I mean, it's just so awesome. Dan's be continuing to, you know, produce. It's just, it's just so much fun to watch

this offense just work and Freddie, you know, never having hit a Grand Slam in his entire career and then hitting two on active act days. I mean, it's crazy. Ten years and then two in three days. Yeah. It's just so much fun. And you, and you think that the braves, it's a cliche, but you don't believe the braves are ever out of it because save maybe

the bottom Kamargo and in C. R. T. Spot and Kamargo can even run into one seemingly every once in a while himself. But you never feel like there's an easy ending for pictures, especially with how bad the bullpen's are that they continue to face. Right. That you never feel like that there's a soft spot with this line up right now that the when you bring in

the. The guys out of the bullpen that you just waiting for them to get hammered by the braves offense. It's awesome. And the fact that Ozone and Duval are in the same sentence forever now with Ruth and Gary. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. It's the favorite part of the whole thing. I mean, that is nuts. And honestly, it's even it's a bit of a different record right? Because

Ruth and Gary did it in back to back double header. So there were some games in between. This is truly the first in back to back games. Also, let's talk about how crazy it is that the Yankees played four games in two days. Yeah. Well, yeah. Yeah. And you know, the on an Ozone's night, he was the first national league player to ever hit three home

runs in Fenway. And one of his like, you know, I saw a couple of the beat guys talking about Red Sox beat guys saying that his I think it was Ozone's third Homer that went like. To the batter's eye. What's like the farthest Homer they've ever seen hit in Fenway ever like in 20 years ever. God, I mean, Ozone gets no cheapies. I tell you what.

You pay, do you pay Ozone? So I was watching him come in on a I texted you guys coming him watching him come in on a flyball. I can't remember the last time I ran as fast as I could out, you know, full on sprint. And I still think I'd be more graceful than him running in from right field. No, I could not hit the ball.

But I mean, he's amazing. I mean, he is protecting Freddie. I mean, I think there's just so much goodness that he's bringing and he's clutch. I mean, he's a cog. We talked about, I mean, I think we all agree that he was one of the MVP's for the first half of the season. Yeah, you pay him. You pay him. Yeah. I was. You do three. I

would do two or three years. And it's probably going to be, you know, 18 to 20 a year. And I mean, you got to figure that the DH is here to stay. And if it's not here to stay like next year, it's certainly coming to year after that. So it's here to stay. And I mean, some of my guys that I jeu Teaching Bodhisattva to be

the Number 12 player, D autres, Dprend PlayStation 4 is at 8, ylaw and Rui with 8, and they rank off all these titles that they won. And it's really possible that we are the players of their tournaments and the total confidence every time Rai Lee comes up to the plate now, which is not. The ball is going to be in play. Yeah, it's just crazy. They're

clicking. You said it. They're just they're clicking on also on nurse. So next up in celebration of Ronald Akunya, who after leaving Sunday night's game against the Phillies last week, with hamstring tightness. And then he sat out until Friday's double header with the Nats. He came back to hit two homers in game on a Friday double header, another homer in the Friday night game. Another homer.

In Saturday night's game. So ham, we don't talk about Akunya enough. And I think it is a testament to how used to his greatness we already are. We're expecting this stuff, but he's just amazing. Yeah. I mean, four homers and then three, you know, three walks also. So right, he's not just he else had three strikeouts in the 10 at bats, but he's just. He's the

best lead off hitter in the game. I would say who's better? Right. I mean, he is. And the fact that he thrives in that spot and that, you know, he's not a cleanup hitter. He's not a number two hitter. I think it makes us. It's what makes our offense so good. I think it's what I mean, it drives everything. It sets the table. And I don't

know. I don't know what to say. This guy's a limit for him. I mean, so just the lead off homers. He obviously tied the it was it was, you know, in the news that he tied or broke the record for most lead off homers by a brave. So he hit 18th, the Felipe, Eliu was the record he broke who obviously hit 17. Eliu did it in

633 games. Acunia did his in 210. Right. I mean, it's. We're so blessed. We're so blessed. And to have, you know, right, he was all. I mean, he had the, you know, he really struggled those first couple. We've gotten beat by fastballs. And all sunny figured it out. Was on a tear. Then hurts his wrist. And his ass. He's out for a couple of weeks. Comes

back as on a tear. Then he comes back. Comes back. And he just, he just, he just hasn't missed a beat. Well, comes back from the wrist. And the first batter. He faces his Garrett Cole and hits a homer. Elie. Right. Right. And then gets, you know, hamstring. And then just comes back and is just willing. This team. He says, I'm going to do everything I

can. I mean, he's just. Exerting his will against everybody and facing, you know, Corbin's not a, a, a slouch. I mean, I get him. He hit one again, Corbin. But I mean, he's just like, you know, he's, and he's crushing these balls. Yeah. Like the one he hit. I think the first one he hit on Friday was just, he just crushed that ball. It's insane. Three

lead off homers in the past five games. Yeah. So, you know, to the offensive prowess, the Braves hit eight homers in the three games again in Boston. Which are actually all those in and devolve strangely. And then 12 more in the four games against the Nats. Like it has been a prolific week. So, Kirk, to your point about the being in, you know, top five and

a bunch of categories, speaking of homers, they are fourth in homeruns in all of baseball was 67 behind the Dodgers or number one at 75 Padres at 74 white socks at 71. I mean. And this is all without Ozzy, who was. I don't know if you guys saw. And I thought it was really cool. Fox sports South in the post game stayed with. What was Hamils

throwing off the mound. And then Ozzy got in the box. And he was throwing to Ozzy. They saw your, they saw your tweet. I know I was really joking. I was like, oh my God. You know, I mean, look, neither then we're going full force. I mean, Ozzy was batting from the right side. And I assume he was doing that because right that was, it's his

right wrist. Like that's the thing. And I think that's the one that really hurts. He was, you know, he was not swinging with full force. And Hamils wasn't throwing with full force. But good to see both of those guys. And I bet we see Ozzy in like a week. You know, get him a couple of weeks before the playoffs start. So All right. Shot in the

dark are crazy predictions for the games coming up this week. But first we got to see how we did last week. And let's start with our listener. Yeah. Yeah. It was not a great week for the three of us. Let's see how the listeners did. So Jared Warner predicted that hitters in the two, three, five and seven spots in the rotation would combine for at least

two triples, three doubles, five homers and seven walks. So first off, I've got to stop drinking when I pick. Because I was like, oh my God, I picked this. What a pick. So anyway, I took a shortcut and looked for triples. We hit one triple this week, which was Riley's triple in Boston. You know, that was almost a grand slam. And that's where I stopped looking

because there was, there was just one triple all week. But thanks for playing Jared. So next up, razor, Reb predicted that Austin Riley would have more RBI than combined earned runs allowed by Max Frieden, Ian Anderson. So Riley had five RBI this week. Fried gave up five earned runs over his two starts and Anderson gave up two for total of seven. But thank you for playing

razor, Reb. Next up, Eric Russell predicted that Braves infielders would combine for ten or more home runs. Only three home runs from the infield, one from Dan's being, of course, Freddy's two grand slams. Thank you, Eric. Four, that a five, K, K predicted that the Braves would win all four of Frieden Anderson starts this week. Now, of course, only three. Three starts because one of Anderson's

was pushed back, but the Braves did end up splitting Frieden starts as well. So thanks, Kate. And then last but not least, Jota P predicted that Anderson versus Corbin, the Sunday game would end in a Braves win and a quality start for Anderson and that O'Zuna would get six or more RBI this week. So, let's break this up a little. O'Zuna did get six or more

RBI this week. He had an absurd 13, including four today. He almost did that whole thing today Sunday. Anderson start out pushed back, but Tom and started against Corbin and he did have a quality start and the Braves won. So, Jota, congratulations. Two thirds of a coupzy. Yes. Yeah, no, sorry we have to do that. But, no, no, so we will reach out to you. Jota,

get your address and we will send you out of Coozy. Congratulations. So let's see how we did. So I predicted that. That Ian Anderson would pitch 12 plus four earned or less. So of course, as one start made that fairly difficult. No, for me, Ham, you predicted two new faces on the roster by the end of the week. We certainly. That's not true. And then Curtis,

you predicted Malone and a starter, not currently on the roster. Who cares? Because we know that's not true. Because that was hate. He really does. It did start to feel personal. It's all about the show. We've not made it. All right. So let's see what we're going to do this week. So I will start. I predict that the Braves catchers hit four or more home runs

this week. Ham, what do you got? Baring the lead on the week ahead, bats, but I say the Braves go five and two and they outscore the opponents by 15 runs. I like it. Curtis, what do you have? I'm going to stick with the starting pitching. A guy that's not on the Braves. No, I'm just kidding. Two new faces. Yes. Two wins out of starters, not

named Max Fried or Ian Anderson. That would bold well. All right. And seems impossible. Remember, you get to play each week to get your shot in the dark in before first pitch on Monday. Send it in via Twitter. If we pick yours, we will discuss it on next week's show. And you could win an ABT. Coosie. If you hit it. All right. So let's look at

the week ahead. Seven games this week, three at home with Miami. And four at Washington. And let's look at the pitching matchups starting with Florida. So Ian Anderson gets his third start of the season. And face his old friend, Jose Urania, who's making his first start, which I didn't really realize, but right. He had tested for COVID late in July. Was Urania the guy who hit

Acunia in the face? Yeah. Uranias got the hit Acunia. I don't like it. I don't like it at all. That's tomorrow. That's Monday. Yep. I don't like that at all. One bet. Well, he's not going to hit anybody on purpose. He'd better. It would be a really. I mean, the whole team would just flip out. All right. So Tuesday, the team has not named a starter.

Snicker said in his Sunday post game conference that it could be someone on the roster now or call up. Irland would be in line for that start. So I don't know if they were going to pitch Irland. Why not? They're not announced on one. So hopefully it really means they're actually going to call. Please dear God. Maybe they're hoping to Irland will sneak up on him.

So. Whoever is going to pitch for the braze will face Sixth O Sanchez, who has looked quite good. Rookie in his three starts. He's posting a 237 ERA and a one whip. So as far as the rest of the starters this week, guys, I don't really know. Right. We will get him alone. Start. We'll get a freed start. A Tom Lund start. Maybe a second. Anderson

start. But I'm hoping they push freed off a day like we talked about earlier. So I, you know, I just have no idea. But we do know who we're facing. So game three against Florida Pablo Lopez and his 305 ERA in 123 whip. We faced Lopez in mid August. He went six and things gave up to earn. Onto Washington. We get Austin both and his eight

ERA. He gave up. He's given up 10 earned runs in the two games. He's faced the braze. Next up Eric Fettie in his 529 ERA. He gave up four earned in Saturday's game. Saturday's starter in Washington will be Patrick Corbin with his four three ERA. Of course, he gave up five earned in Sunday's game this week. And then in Sunday's finale next week, we finally see

Max Scherzer. You know, who we have missed all year. He's been kind of human this year with a 395 ERA and a 1.3 ERA. So what's the record this week? I'm going to go five and two, two and one, three and one. Me too, hammy. Yeah, that was my shot in the dark. Pay attention, Steve. No, I was asking how was going to split up. Oh,

yes, whoa, hey, whoa, we're all friends. I'll take it outside. I best say the same. Yeah, two and one. Yeah, three and one. Yeah, that would be good. We need it. Have we seen 6th? Oh, Stan says yet? Have we faced him? We have not. Nope. Yeah. I'm interested to see him. That was the real Muto trade. Yeah, he was part of the real Muto trade.

Yeah. I mean, basically that's who they built it around. You know, yeah. Right. All right, folks. That is the show. Please listen to us every Sunday. You can find us at spreeker, iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play and Spotify. As always, you can find us at AtlantaBaseballTalk.com. Follow us on Twitter at ATLBaseballTalk and like us on Facebook. Thanks again for listening and go Braves! Thanks for listening to

AtlantaBaseballTalk. Your weekly podcast for all things at Atlanta Braves. To find new shows, to post in our forum or to send a comment, please visit us at AtlantaBaseballTalk.com. At the main piece with my enemies, accept the power, greater than my-