Show #500: We Wrap Up The 2020 Season

You're listening to Atlanta baseball talk, your weekly podcast for all things Atlanta Braves. So number 500. We made it. We did it. That goodness, we didn't go to the world series and after do all those extra shows. Yeah, that we couldn't care that we would never publish. Right. Exactly. All right. Today is Sunday, October 25th, 2020. My name is Steve. I'm joined by both folks. Please

help out the show by telling your friends, sharing links and writing reviews. If you do it, the Dodgers will stage another clown show in Game 5 and it will star Cody Belinger and Justin Turner this time. Sweet. That inning was just the greatest place. There was part of me though that one of the Dodgers, the steamroll the raise to show that we were the second best

team in all baseball. There was that part of me. But now since that's past, I want the Dodgers to lose. I get the whole like you want to root for the eventual champion because, you know, because makes you look better. Right. I just despise them. God, I hate. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. That's like people that are like, Oh, I'm going to root for Alabama to win another

championship because they play in the SEC. Like what? All right. And tonight show, we will look back at the NLCS, our favorite moments of 2020 and make some predictions about next year. But first, a quick break. I have a lot. The biggest one is that we have a complete team. Like the whole rebuild, it's, it's almost done. Like with Anderson and Wilson and Wright and Pasha.

Here, you know, and obviously all the other guys, like, like we're legit and we're here. And it's good. It's been up for a while for a long, long time. And we get into all this later on. But like, you know, and that we were, we that, that we weren't better than the Dodgers this year. I mean, I think we were just a little bit worse than

them. I don't think that they owned us. I don't think we collapsed. I mean, we did technically. But like, we did blow a lead. But I think the Dodgers were just, they just were a little bit deeper, a little bit more mature. I think their lineup was a little bit sounder. So I don't think we were as good as the Dodgers. But we are here. We're

going to see a lot of Braves Dodgers post season series for years to come. And it was great. And we weren't even our full strength. You just can squint your eyes just a little bit and looking to, you know, a season next year where you have a rotation of. You freed Anderson right Wilson, just mowing people down and being pretty dominant behind an offense that is

the same offense that was here this year. You know, maybe minus some key players, which we'll talk about later. But I mean, we're just, I was just really heartened by it as much as that, you know, especially after the sting of the loss were off. I'm so pumped for the future Braves baseball and a real way and a real way. You know, like aside from the

obvious stuff, like, you know, all that stuff, like, playoff baseball with your team doing well, is just as good as it gets. And we haven't had it for 20 years. And to get that, I mean, well, starting it off by winning seven straight. It was just, it was as thrilling as baseball as I can remember. I mean, the living and dying with each pitch and each

at bat. And that's what I wanted to do. That building and building as, you know, we went farther and farther. It was just the greatest. And, and, you know, I think because we got it. And it just felt like such a gift. It kind of made me less, whatever gutted by not getting over the hump, you know, blowing three one. Yeah. That mentor start. You know

what I mean? Like, look, we had our opportunity. I agree with you. The Dodgers were a little bit better. Yeah. And the longer the series went, the more that was going to show. And we had a couple of snafu's and just a little brain fart here. I mean, you know, it's a game of inches. And it just the ball. It didn't break our way. But, you

know, they were a little bit better. But you're right. See, if I mean, I've had a lot of, you know, people I talked to who were trying to convince me, like, aren't you gutted, but you are up to nothing. You were up three one. You know, you had them where you wanted them. And I wasn't. I mean, I were right. We all those things are true.

And it isn't Atlanta sports team, you know, I mean, it fits the profile. And of course, you know, the Falcons came back, you know, today, they're just a minus, what Atlanta sports teams do. But this, it just, this team felt different. And maybe it's because how much we gutted through just to get to this point to do all that, you know, first time winning since 1999

that you spoke of. And, and the future is bright. It is bright. Curtis, where have you been? I mean, I've never been in the other week as fast. Yeah. A lot of that stuff too. I mean, I will say that, that my disappointment has sort of cultivated itself. There's no doubt that the Braves were short-handed. You know, as I thought more about Acunia and his lack

a in the championship series. Those teams are now 29 and four. So you also have leads into the last three games that you blew. So it's not 28 to three. It's not Georgia below in a national championship. But it does sort of feel like, you know, we look back and think of the 91 team and how excited. Just because of the you know, the dearth of

opportunities we had had with a professional sports team to do anything. And then the Braves made it to that World Series. And it was so exciting. And it was so amazing. And they even had a parade for the Braves after they lost to the twins because people were just so rapturous about the fact that we had a team that had made it to that stage. And

we knew it was set up for the long term, like you guys have said. But that doesn't mean that you can't go back and look at the World Series against the twins who might have been a better team than we were at that time. Slightly ever so slightly better. And that we didn't have opportunities to win that series. And so yeah, the Dodgers are probably better.

They're certainly were deeper. And I mean, you kind of look at some of the numbers. And they just wore the Braves down. I think that the right star. I saw the Braves pitch 200 more than 250 pitches in that game. It just it's unsustainable at that point. And to have to not have a day off that you can expect that they're going to survive that. And

they didn't. But yeah, I mean, I'm still disappointed. But I'm super excited about. What lies ahead for the Braves. I think they're going to be dominant, not just like good, but really amazingly good. Look, we had no room for error. You know, and we had talked about that heading into the series. And I'm not even talking about like the base running blunders and game seven. But

like freeds three run first inning in game six, we kind of couldn't overcome it. You know, Anderson's three innings of two run ball in game seven. Like we needed. We needed dominant otherworldly performances like we had gotten earlier in the series. You know, Minter and Martin not being perfect in game seven. Like we couldn't overcome that. Right. Will Smith and game six, whatever the Will Smith

matchup was. Not being able to get that out there. Yeah. And God, I mean, we talked about it all through the first couple series that as bad as Will Smith looked during the regular season. It, you know, the light came on. Starting with game one against Cincinnati. And he was like untouchable. It was, it was what we had signed for three years. And then, you know,

he had a couple of bad moments toward the end. And we're focusing so much on pitching. But the offense let the team down to, you know, I mean, Akunia battered 167. No homers scored a total of six runs across seven games. When you're lead off batter scores six runs across seven games. It's not really great. No, oh, Zune, if you remove his explosion in game four

with the two homers and the four hits, I mean, amazing. But games one through three and five through seven. He went four for 24 with one extra base hit. Freddie went one for seven in the last two games. Darn no battered 174 with no. He was bad. Yeah. He drove in three across seven games are clean up. Hitter. So there were factors. Mark, and we still

have a factor. Of course, Mark, it wasn't, wasn't non factor. Right. We talked about it. And don't ever game. Sleep on that seeing I triple, hammy. Well, sort of the whole bottom of the lineup. Yeah. And obviously, Duval getting hurt. He wasn't doing anything. But you never know. I mean, you, you look at seasons. I'm a series that guys have that were great. Like Darnos. And

then he disappears. You never know if Duval might have had us three game stretch or something where he was just towed. He would have let him go to lead dial it in. No doubt about it. And you know, the flip side of that is we got, we got the start of the Pesh era. Right. Which I'm not saying, you know, necessarily helped us or hurt us.

Although he had some great A Bs and drop in some runs. Um, but just that, you know, that added that added an element to the series, which, you know, was kind of awesome. And it glimps into the future. Yes. Um, yeah. But boy would have been, would have been nice as a side. You know, would have been nice to be in the world series. It would

be, that was going to happen. Every's there. I know it would have made this past last week so much better. I was like, oh, yeah. There's in an alternate world, you know, if Danesby doesn't charge home on that hard, you know, the grounder and Riley doesn't come behind them, then maybe I'm watching baseball this week. Oh, that's not happening. That's right. Yeah. Well, so look, not,

you know, whatever. I don't want to sound like it's about us or whatever. Right. But there was part of me that, as, you know, particularly when they took the three one lead, the three one lead, I was like, oh my God, we're going to have our final season. And the brazer actually going to go to the world series. And we're confident they can beat either one

of the American league teams. And then once they lost game six. And I was like, oh, God, yeah, we don't win. Then we have a wrap up. And the show of game seven is 499. And it all lines up for the final show. If we wanted to be to be 500, it seems written in stone that we're going to lose now. Like I really had that.

I really had that. Don't worry. There will be a show beyond this week. This is not the last show. And based on some reaction over the years from Twitter and from our biggest fan on Facebook, we have so much power over what happens with the braves. Well, we all know that's true. We do have that hot. All right, guys. So look, let's look back at 2020

with as abbreviated as it was. Had some really amazing moments. So, Curtis, that's our review. What was your favorite moment of the season? Then we'll get to favorite series. Well, I don't know if I'm allowed to do. My favorite moment was the walkoff of game one against the the Reds and that Trevor Bauer game. Just because we talked about it and have that was a game

that the Braves had lost for the past 12 years or whatever 15 years in the playoffs. And it just seemed like it was a moment that was shifting that the outlook for the Braves in the postseason. And it to an extent proved for two at us. For a while that it actually did shift the the outcomes and the Braves obviously went on to have this great

postseason run. But, you know, it was a very fun season. And this was an incredibly rootable team. And this is one of the it's almost too bad. It was such a short season because the team was so much fun and had so many great characters on it that to have an only go 60 games was sort of sad. Yeah. So yes, I mean, I had I

sort of cheated and did a regular season. And postseason one. And yeah, I absolutely I had the I had winning game one against the Reds. My other was that video of Freddie returning to the field, you know, just a couple days for the regular season. We couldn't start. And there was that video of him coming up the tunnel and walking on to the field and just

saying to no one in particular. Maybe just to himself. This is wonderful. I don't know if you guys remember that. But he was just so happy to be back. I just I just love that it was so. It was, you know, sort of foreshadowing for the regular season. And what do you got? I mean, I don't know if I said my dog has a couple of

votes. But I don't know if it's a moment, but it's the Ian Anderson debut game against the Yankees and just that that moment, you know, a the moment when it's a, you know, doublehead against the Yankees, we had just we had been swept by them, you know, in a two game series just, you know, just before. And the moment and also just all of our futures

sort of like pinned on, can this guy be good? Can this guy be dominant? Or is he going to be like all of those other guys that came and went through here, you know, all those people who we pen hopes on. And just ending after ending of him dominating against, you know, against the Yankees and just having one of those starts all, you know, and ending

up going six innings and throwing one hit. The Yankees, right? So not only Anderson, all the stuff you said, you know, Acunia hitting that lead off home or against Cole. And then freed in the night cap, also going six innings one earned. I mean, that was litmus test stuff. And we had looked so bad. But it was like a week before two, four. Yeah. Yeah. And,

you know, that was when like they called up Bryce Wilson. It was a, I want to say it was like a two key. So we started in New York for, or maybe a, you know, a start. And we were just embarrassed up in New York. And it was just terrible. Two weeks before. Yeah. We lost nine to six and six to three. Yep. Two weeks before.

And then it was like, like you said, I mean, it was a brand new season watching Anderson and, and freed go back to back like that. I mean, it was just, it was sort of a pivot moment for the whole season for the team. It was, I mean, yeah. Especially when, you know, our season was just falling apart like it was. It was just, I mean,

those, a tale of two seasons and had Anderson not been who he was. We're not, we don't get to show four 90. You know, yeah. Yeah. Exactly. That's right. So Curtis, what was your favorite series? Yeah. You know, that it's along those lines because we always, I always want to see how the braze match up. And it seems like they've struggled kind of having to play

interdivision games against the big American league teams. I know they did really well against the twins last year. But, you know, like taken on the Yankees, we always seemed to sort of collapse in those situations. So after this bad as we looked in those two games up in New York to come back and win those two in Atlanta. And we also did the same with Tampa,

right? I mean, we lost. Yep. I feel like we got totally outclass when we were down in Tampa. And then, and then when they came to Atlanta, we played them in the United States. Much tougher. So all those series, I mean, you know, obviously watching us single handedly, not the fillies and the, the nationals out of the playoffs every single time we took a series from

them was pretty great too. But I think, yeah, I think that Yankees one was, was really at the top. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, the, the, the raise was my second one because of, I mean, I think the Yankees was sort of the slam dunk that we all said, you know, that raise just because we bounced back Curtis. And it was like, you know, if we,

this is the world series caliber, like, can we beat a team like this? And this is before, obviously, Sirroko had gotten hurt. Sorry to bring that up. But we matched up. We did, but we came back and we took two from them. And we're like, no, we, you know, it was so it was very heartening for me. You know, another close runner up was that Red

Sox series. It was our, it's the one where Ozone had three homers. And then the next night, Duval had three homers. It was our only three game series. We sweep of the season. It was actually other than those two games, you know, between the raise and the Yankees that we just talked about, that's the only series we swept all season. So that was, we were peaking

then. We really were, yeah, the offense was just in another stratosphere. Yeah, that's great. I love it. Yeah. All right. So team MVP, I'll start. I mean, you know, like it's Freddy, right? Of course. Let the team and war all the slash line categories, waited. Runs created, of course, it's probably going to be the National League MVP. But, Ham, it's kind of harkens back to something

you said earlier for me that a close second is Ian Anderson, because he did save the season and allowed the team to have a real legitimate, like postseason aspirations. Yeah. I mean, we had one starting picture before that, before that game. I mean, it was a joke. Yeah. So I mean, I have a, my is along those veins. I totally agree with you. I mean, that

was a turning point in the season where, I mean, not only, you know, I think we probably were going to get to the postseason, right? Just because they're up, but there's no way we get to where we, where we are now with any Anderson. Yeah. So I was going to, if I, if I, if I may, not to step on curse, but, um, yeah. So Freddy,

you know, Freddy leading off and ending his slash line was 436, 476, 718. And that was in, I mean, like, I mean, I think that's what I was going to do. 39 at bats. He led off some innings. Um, he was a monster. So here's, here's a, um, I guess a question for maybe looking forward. Do you like Freddy at second versus as third in the

lineup? Like as a permanent thing? Who's number three at number four? Cause he's, I mean, batting second, he slash 390 512 690 and 100 at bats. He crushed it. I mean, he, that he won the MVP batting second the season. So for me, though, um, for me, I think the MVP is freed. Really. I mean, I think, um, we needed him to be our eight when

the, as we ground on and ground, you know, and try to fill sort of. Sort out the back end of the rotation. We needed him. So he could not falter. He had to be. And you mean the other four, the whole rest of the exactly. I mean, we, the value that he gave this team is, I don't think, I mean, maybe Freddy doesn't have the MVP

season, but there's a lot of other, you know, I think the offense was, as we know, pretty, pretty great. But I think without freed, it's a completely different season. Not a regular season beyond. I mean, we needed to be great every start. And he, he did. You know, I mean, he faltered down there. You know, he got tired and his, lost himself on his, on his

fastball, his back started acting up all that stuff. But um, but Anderson was here by then. Yeah. I mean, he carried the team. He was the MVP for me. I mean, it's a great call because I mean, people will often define a not only it's like your best picture or whatever, but the guy that stops a losing streak and you can just depend to dominate. And

he really did all that. He did. Yeah. Yeah. He, he, and a season where you, he was the only good picture. I mean, he had to be great. And he lived up to it. You know, it was a lot of pressure. And he did it. And in the post season two, I mean, you mentioned he wasn't stellar throughout, but he was had a lot of great

moments. Yeah. And no offense to Tommy Malone, by the way, but freed really was the guy that kept it together. Yes. Um, Curtis, how about you? Um, I, I, all those guys, um, and obviously it's Freddy, but um, I think an argument can be made for Ozuna. Um, certainly solidifying the offense. Um, with Donaldson leaving huge question marks about Ozuna coming in here. How we had

a terrible spring really was not terrific for St. Louis last year. Um, and you know, how motivated would he be and motivated enough that he had, you know, he'll have a top five MVP season this year. It just so happens that Freddy was otherworldly. Um, and he was, you know, Travis Darno was a huge piece of this puzzle too. Um, I don't know that we are

anywhere without either one of those guys. Obviously, freed and Ian Anderson shorting up the starting rotation was incredibly, incredibly pivotal for this whole thing. But, um, those two offensive pieces being added to it really kind of cranked our offense into a realm that we haven't seen it in quite a while. And boy, to support the whole spring training stats don't matter, but Ozuna was like frighteningly

terrible. Yeah, he had like one hit. Yeah, one hit. And I was, I remember listening to the, I happen to be listening to the game on the radio. And it was a total like flare seeing eye, bloop into no man's land in shallow center. Like it was, it was not like something to build on, particularly. Um, yeah, amazing. What's your team? Who's your team? LVP? Um,

it's Ender. You know, I was, I, it's still, I was trying it like, because I think we, I think he was, I think maybe Faulty was the runner up at the, the break at the mid season break. But, um, Ender was just horrible. And he got, um, he's a, he got a hundred and thirty one plate appearances. Like he took plate appearances away. It wasn't like

he was just here for a little while. He was here for a significant amount. He slash one ninety two sixty two two fifty. I mean, negative war is a, he got that in him at negative point six war. I mean, I got into looking at Marquakis and just how it seemed like he never had a meaningful hit. He did have that one Homer when he came

back, you know, the day he came back and remember Marquakis was really good for like three or four weeks. Yeah, which I know was most of the season. And he felt a cliff and into the postseason, right? And like just so many empty at bats and the postseason where we could have used him. Um, really. Yeah. You know, so Ender of like the regulars, Ender had

the lowest batting average, lowest slugging. He, he, he only beat out Camargo for OBP. Like Camargo, a runner up, by the way. Yeah. Well, um, yeah. Curtis, do you have anyone different? I hate to say because it's the guy we've just sort of plowed on the whole time. But I still sort of think it's Faulty. I mean, we will cover some of our predictions for the

season that we did at the beginning of the season. And, you know, there were some high expectations that we had coming off the second half of last season for, for Faulty. And I don't know if he was, if he's ill or something that he came in and he was so skinny and all that kind of stuff. But he just gave us nothing and really between he

and Duke, him, it's not even Felix Hernandez leaving us. It's two guys. They'd been part of this team and just contributed nothing. Yeah. His absence had long tails for a couple of months, for sure. Katta, it's looking at these stats. I sort of forget people that were on this team. Like Matt Adams. I forget, I forget that Matt Adams was on this team and that Jules

shaken. I mean, I, I remember. But then I'm like, I don't really forgot that Jules shaken had a start for us and that Matt Adams had like 38 at bats. Oh, I did not recapture lightning in a bottle. Did not. Oh boy. All right, guys. So we're going to review the 2020 predictions for the team that we made at the start of the season. But first,

a quick break. All right. So Curtis, on the last show before the regular season started, we made a bunch of predictions. So let's walk through those and see who we're going to be. One, right. So first question was most homers, basically the who would have the third most homers on the team. We assume that Freddie and Akunia would have the most homers on the team, which

they did not. But that was the basis for the question. So we were predicting who would be the third. Ham picked Ozzy. I picked Austin Riley and Steve picked O'Zuna. Well, O'Zuna, O'Zuna did have the most homers on the team. So Steve won sort of by default the second most homers on the team. Anybody want to take a guess who had the second most homers on

the team? I'm looking right now. So I'm not going to. Ham, you want to guess? I sure looking. I'm not looking. I want to say the dance. Adam Duvall 16 hummers. Next question. Highest OPP dance V or enter. Please. I didn't pick ender. Please. We all pick dance beat. Yes. We all get we all will have at least one right by the time. I think Steve

will be only beat him 345 to 72. Yeah. Negative. I think we're all going to have a grown or pick coming up. At least I know I have one. Steve is two and a right at this point. Highest slugging. Camargo or Riley. Of course, this is when we were still debating the third base situation and who was going to have the most starts. Steve and Hamilton

both picked. You know, on Camargo. I picked Austin Riley. Nice. And it was Austin Riley. 15 to 367. Yes. Over and under on Ozzyna homers. The number was 12. We've already covered that. Of course, Ozzyna hit 18. Steve and I went over. Ham went under with 10. Yes. I'm crushing this. Ham was still all. He's going to ruin the clubhouse chemistry. Yeah. Noting that Ham's got

one right and it was that he picked Dan's be over. Ender. Yes. Yes. Lois ERA, Siroka freed or full tea. Here we go with our fake question. That question is full tea. It's a lot looking back at it. It aged so well. So I picked Siroka, which seemed good until it wasn't. Steve got it right. It picked Max Fried and Ham went with our friend full

tea. I think I said I was all in on full tea. All in. All in. All in. All in. All in. Amazing bounce back season. Yep. Yep. Right. That didn't happen. Define bounce back. Yes. bounce back to triple. Right. bounce back to his high school weight. Yes. Thank you. Perfect. LVP of the satellite team. Full tea. Most teams saves. Steve and I went with Will Smith,

which would have been most homers given up by a reliever. And Ham went with Milletson and got the his second. Yes. Yes. Answer. Over and under a winds versus the Nationals. It was five and a half, 5.5. We all went over. And I think we went six and four against the National Steve. Is it that right? Right. Over and under winds against the Yankees. The number

was two. We played four games against the Yankees. And this created quite a problem because we all wanted to pick the split except maybe me. Steve went over and we went over. I went under and Ham went under and the answer was the split. We went two and two against them. So nobody gets that one. Right. And then we picked first and second in the National

League East. Steve and I went Braves Fills. Ham went Braves Metz. And of course it was Braves Marlins. How did that happen? Really. Okay. Fills. I mean, my God, half the frigging league made the playoffs in the Phillies. It's like it was like an NBA season. Yeah. I still think they were better than the Metz. Right. So I predicted a big Georgia already bounce and that

did not happen. And then the Giants almost made it with Gabe Kaplers, their manager, more so than the Fills almost made it after they had fired him. So then we picked our division winners and our wild card, which we really wanted to play. Really didn't pick enough wild card team. Steve went Braves Reds Dodgers Fills Brewers. So we got the Braves and the Dodgers right. The

Reds of course were a wild card team. Did the Brewers make the wild card? No. Didn't they do a playing game? They did. Raise Twins A's Yankees Astros for a perfect five for five in his American League picks. I don't know who the other two wild card teams were. I went Braves Card Dodgers Metz Cubs. So I sort of got, I got two with the Cubs

were the winner and the central cards made it as a wild card team. Yankees Twins Astros raised in Angels. I'm going to pick the Angels really until the show ends, which we'll be happy to have one more show. One more show. They are also waiting for us to finish the show so they can do great things. Ham. No, sorry. That was Ham. I was Braves Brewers,

Dodgers Fills Reds Yankees Twins Angels raised Astros. Steve for the World's series went Braves, Braves with the Braves winning. Ham is the only one with the team still alive because it hates the Braves. Well, the Braves are still alive. Yes, you're right. Ham picked Dodgers over Yankees and I picked Braves over Yankees. So Steve sort of ran away with it. Yes. Steve at 13, I had

10 and Ham had seven. Wow. Y'all's faces in the face. Way to go out on top Steve. Thank you. Offseason prediction lightning round. Okay. Ham, you're up first. The Braves sign a free agent starting pitcher in the offseason. Yes. Any prediction? I think it's Trevor Bauer. Oh, you're mad. Okay. Curtis. Yes. I think it's somebody like T1 Walker. No, I don't think it's Trevor Bauer. Actually,

I don't think it's Trevor Bauer. I was going back and forth but no, it's they know that because they're not going to sign someone to a long term deal. They're going to get they're going to do a vet for like a one one year deal. So I think I do think they signed someone. It's going to be James Paxton or Kintana. It's going to be that

kind of Steve. How dare you you missed your best friend. I know, I know, I know. Strowman's out there. But I think that he, you know, Strowman may get like Strowman may be the second biggest signing after Bauer. And I just don't think they're going to do that. I think they're going to go on the cheap. Okay. So Curtis, Austin Riley is the team's third baseman

on opening day 2021. Absolutely. He made sort of minor strides offensively, but he showed that his defense is really quite amazing. So I can't even imagine that it's a conversation that they're going to have. It's Riley all the way. I agree with that, Hammy. I agree. All right. Hammy. Ozone is a member of the team on opening day 2021. No. I agree. They are not signing

in Curtis. I would caveat it. If the DHS implemented in the National League, there's a better chance. But I'm betting that it's the same as the Josh Donaldson deal. They're even I was watching Grant McCollion, the news today. And he was saying that he thinks the brave should try and get in early and set a price and see if I'm going to just take it. But

I think he's going to get offered crazy money by some National League. I mean, so they're absolutely team. And there was a story a couple days ago that indicated there is no DH come into the National League next year. So. Which seems silly. Well, it does seem silly. Okay. So Curtis, if not Ozuna, what bat do they sign in free agency? I think that maybe like

what's the guy's name? Bradley, Brantley, but I can, that was actually my prediction as well. That's my guess. That's what I was going to say. That's my son the dark. Keep that. I like it. That's good. All right. So speaking to shot in the dark, right? We had intended. I hadn't intended. It's really on me to reference the NLCS picks on Twitter over the past week,

which I didn't. I needed a little, I needed a little space from the NLCS. But no one hit neither did we. The off season shot in the dark. Before we start, I went back and looked at what our end of 2019 shots in the dark were. For the off season. Mine was that both Bryce Wilson and Austin Riley would be traded in the off season. Not

so close. Glad you were wrong. Curtis, you predicted that the braids would sign a big money free agent. Which, you know, I mean, I guess, oh, zoom is it. Yeah, that's not what I was thinking. It's not. But hammies is the best. Oh, God. Fulton will win the side. I probably did. I probably did. Hammies prediction was a two-parter. It was the braids would resign Donaldson

for four years. And bum-garner for two years. Yes. I was really so happy to see that today. Where did bum-garner go? Was he a diamond back? Yes. Yeah. And it was really not really good. No. No. No, to Donaldson. I'm glad I was wrong. I'm glad we were all wrong. Yeah. Seriously. I know right. If Bryce Wilson wasn't here. Yeah. All right. So guys, I will

start. My off season shot in the dark is that Kyle Wright gets traded. Interesting. Why do you hate the brave Steve's? It says your lap show 500 now. Their true colors come out. I'm pulling my I'm pulling the mask off. You're filling your fill. Sure, he's on. So, Hamm, you you're shot in the darkest that they sign queen in the office. Yes. It's good. Curtis, how

about you? I wrote down that they sign four free agents. A closer, another starter, and a couple of offensive pieces. Yeah. All free agents are just through trades. Yeah. Just acquire for it's some of the agents that they have seen the promised land. And now they commit some money. I mean, the Lantern and green are free agents. Daron O'Day, if they don't sign them to his

three and a half million team option will be gone as well. I mean, yeah, there's some. In Chris Marlton to do. Chris Marlton's still here. You know, minters still here. I was thinking Martin was a was a guy that could opt out or something like that. And we'll Smith. I just don't know that they saw this year that they can trust Will Smith with the closer

job. Well, the book, you know, he had some such a weird offseason and then COVID and I expect that Will Smith will be more of the Will Smith we expect next year. That was a bad sentence. You know what I mean? Like the Will Smith. And the closer market is not great. It's like what's this trining? Yeah. There's not a lot of guys that are sort

of out there. Yeah. Well, you know, Luke Jackson needs somewhere to go. Not just, yeah, sorry. I'm. Crickets. Yeah. Exactly. You sign Melanson. You go hard after Melanson. I really depends on what the market is. You know, and the offseason is going to be so interesting. And weird. Not just for the braves, but of course, the braves, but just in general. Like what is what is

next year? Look like down. You know, I mean, yeah, it's all the market will be so suppressed. It really be interesting. I mean, a couple of guys. You know, we'll get big money and then I think it's really going to be bargains out there. It's just interesting. I mean, Bauer will get his money, you know. And it'll be one of the same teams. I mean, it'll

be the Phillies or the Nationals or the Cubs or somebody like that. Some big money team that will give him a four year, five year contract for 200 million bucks or something like that, you know. And are the Phillies really can get let real Muto walk? It would really be something. Yeah. After giving up a ace. Yeah, exactly. They can't let him walk. They can't. I

mean, and of course, the GM is gone. And so there's a new regime coming in. Yeah. Really, it's going to be a fascinating offseason. I mean, I don't know guys. Sorry. One last question for both of you guys. Don't you think that going into the season, the graves have to be one of the top two or three favorites for the World Series, right? Yeah. Even if

it's just sort of minimal moves, like they signed some more one year deals. I mean, you got to figure, there's way too much in house young top tier talent for them. Right. And with with Soroka expected back. Look, I think that I think that what that bat is to protect Freddie, that that will move the needle on, you know, their World Series odds or whatever. But

yes, I think they'll be top three or four team anyway. Totally agree. And the Dodgers, I was looking at the the creation list. The Dodgers have a ton of guys that Turner. And I mean, I'm yeah. And and Jack Peterson and and Trinon and, you know, there's there's quite a few guys that are on their. Don't really. Yeah, sure. And they'll get younger and better because

they can. Well, and they're sure. Power. I mean, they probably go get power. Why not? Right. All right. So, Jens, that was the penultimate show. We are back. 500. Woo. I've 100. So we're back next Sunday with the final show. The final, the Atlanta baseball talk series finale. Yeah. We'll be back next week. We'll talk about our favorite moments throughout the 14 years. And favorite interviews

and just sort of reminiscent. Yeah. I'm looking forward to it and dreading it all at the same. We're gonna have every guest we've ever had on the show come back for a segment. Seven hour show. Except for drunk Frank. He's been banned. You know, he's been banned. No, did you not do the memo that he's banned? Yeah, he's been. Despite the two people on Twitter who

asked for him to come back. Yes. Sorry, folks. All right. Remember. You can find the show on speaker iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play and Spotify. You can always find us at AtlantaBaseballTalk.com. And be sure to follow us on Twitter at ATL baseball talk and to like us on Facebook. Thanks again for listening and go braves. Thanks for listening to Atlanta baseball talk. Your weekly podcast for all

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