Latest / Sports Avenue Twisted Podcast / Episode 50 Part II feat. The Tomahawk Talk Podcast - Braves Pitching depth, Managerial Position, and Trade Deadline

Transcript

Episode 50 Part II feat. The Tomahawk Talk Podcast - Braves Pitching depth, Managerial Position, and Trade Deadline · Sports Avenue Twisted Podcast

• 0:02
  So when it comes to roster construction, we've kind of
• 0:06
  talked a little bit about the insurance and outs of the
• 0:09
  roster, but going forward, going forward into until like next
• 0:15
  season, we know you guys like short, like what is it?
• 0:20
  Shortstop, for example, isn't, isn't a set in stone position
• 0:24
  that you guys need. What do you guys feel like you
• 0:27
  need going forward and do you think that the roster still has
• 0:34
  touches? I guess you would call it work
• 0:37
  work to be done on it. I mean go.
• 0:42
  Ahead, Jose. As far as shortstop goes,
• 0:45
  honestly my biggest hope for the Braves right now is to get a
• 0:50
  really good shortstop prospect at the trade deadline this year,
• 0:54
  whether it's for Marcelo, Zuno or whoever else.
• 0:57
  If if things get really, really bad.
• 0:59
  But actually now that I think about it, I don't know how much
• 1:03
  worse it could get as Braves fans.
• 1:04
  But but yeah, I know my biggest thing right now is just getting
• 1:10
  a really good shortstop prospect that you can or Major League
• 1:15
  ready shortstop if possible that you can use either this year or
• 1:18
  next year, whenever it is. But yeah, that's probably the
• 1:24
  best route because I mean, Ben, correct me if I'm wrong, but I,
• 1:26
  I don't think we really have any shortstop prospects that are
• 1:30
  Major League ready anytime soon. We might have some in a couple
• 1:34
  of years maybe, but definitely not for next year, for 2026.
• 1:39
  I would argue that Alex Ludici, Braves second round pick this
• 1:43
  year, could be the closest to Major League ready and I would
• 1:48
  say we we could honestly see him in summer of next year.
• 1:54
  I mean, like I said earlier, he was a finalist for the Golden
• 1:57
  Spikes award last year or this past year in college.
• 2:01
  He was starting shortstop at FSU.
• 2:03
  So, you know, playing in a big program like that, he has played
• 2:08
  against the best of the best in college.
• 2:10
  I could see him being fast tracked.
• 2:12
  You know, he's a, he's a high floor kind of load of mid range
• 2:16
  ceiling guy. He he he's very good.
• 2:21
  He's got a little bit of pop in the bat.
• 2:23
  You can play a good shortstop like I, I'm he's probably the
• 2:27
  closest to Major League rating that we have right now as far as
• 2:29
  prospect goes. And I could see if the Braves
• 2:32
  don't want to upgrade or pay for a shortstop, they'd rather spend
• 2:35
  that money on, you know, starting pitching your bullpen.
• 2:38
  I wouldn't necessarily hate it. And I would be fine with Nick
• 2:41
  Allen playing shortstop until Odyssey is ready.
• 2:45
  I think so too, honestly, because Nick Allen, he's a
• 2:49
  fantastic defensive player. His offense isn't quite there.
• 2:53
  But I mean, again, when your players are hitting the way that
• 2:56
  they're supposed to, when Michael Harris is being Michael
• 2:59
  Harris, when Ozzy's being Ozzy, etcetera, etcetera, you can
• 3:02
  afford to sacrifice some offense in the shortstop position.
• 3:07
  So I wouldn't have any problem with that at all.
• 3:10
  Let. Me ask you guys a question here
• 3:14
  because I know that you guys drafted legacy right.
• 3:19
  Actually, it was an intriguing pick up and you know, this could
• 3:23
  be another conversation for another day, but I feel like
• 3:26
  there's something going on with the Orioles drafting what he
• 3:30
  will alloy for some damn reason, right?
• 3:32
  So video. But where does Jose Prudomo fits
• 3:38
  into these plans? Because he was one of those
• 3:41
  highly touted prospect that sign for significant, just like Diego
• 3:46
  Tort Tortoise. And like you said, you guys
• 3:47
  drafted some infielders in this draft.
• 3:49
  And this is probably the closest to the majors.
• 3:52
  And he just needs to work in the minors.
• 3:53
  And knowing Alex and knowing where he stands, he will
• 3:58
  aggressively call guys up. You've seen that with Spencer
• 4:01
  Strider. You've seen that with Spencer
• 4:03
  Swallowbuck. You've seen this with Michael
• 4:04
  Harris. He did it with Nacho even though
• 4:07
  I mean he's been going through some injuries.
• 4:09
  But where does where does Perdomo stand?
• 4:12
  Is he like 3 years away, Two years away?
• 4:14
  Like is he in the plans where Diego Torres gets called up?
• 4:18
  I'm curious if they see what you guys think.
• 4:22
  Perdomo is very intriguing. He's had a bunch of swing and
• 4:25
  miss issues down in the low minors at the DSL and FCL level,
• 4:32
  but he actually was very, very intriguing or very encouraging
• 4:37
  yesterday, I believe it was. He had a 5 for six game with two
• 4:41
  RBIs. All of them were singles, but he
• 4:45
  had over 100 EV on a couple of those hits, which great, you
• 4:50
  know, very, very encouraging sign that he's hitting the ball
• 4:53
  hard and making contact with the ball.
• 4:57
  But he's still, yeah, he's still a long ways away.
• 5:00
  Correct me if I'm wrong, but he's only still 18 I think if
• 5:03
  that. Maybe 19, yeah.
• 5:06
  Yes, he's either 17 or 18 right now.
• 5:08
  So like he's still got a long way at least three years.
• 5:11
  And like, like I said earlier, I'm excited about a guy like
• 5:16
  Diego Torrance who has played just phenomenally down there.
• 5:20
  But these you if you take a step back at it, these are still just
• 5:25
  kids. Like we legitimately children,
• 5:29
  you know, we don't, we don't know how these guys are going to
• 5:32
  work out four 5-6 years from now.
• 5:35
  And it, it sucks to say like I'm excited for Perdomo because he
• 5:41
  did get a big contract, you know, and hopefully he does pan
• 5:45
  out, But it's, it's hard for me to get super excited until they
• 5:50
  start playing full season ball and, you know, kind of holding
• 5:55
  their own or, or treading water in full season ball.
• 6:03
  Yeah, a lot of Braves fans I know we're kind of hoping the
• 6:09
  Blue Jays would falter this year so they could trade for one of
• 6:12
  our shortstops. Boba shet.
• 6:15
  Yeah, a lot, a lot, a lot of people I know, a lot I saw
• 6:19
  everywhere is all. We can get both, we can get
• 6:21
  both, we can get both. So, you know, that's what they
• 6:25
  were. Yeah.
• 6:25
  Everybody thought we were going to be bad, which, you know, I
• 6:28
  mean, I couldn't argue against that in the offseason either.
• 6:32
  But but yeah, like you guys, I think for shortstop, that's
• 6:37
  really your only true, like, question mark going into, you
• 6:43
  know, next season or whatever. But the guy is some of the guys
• 6:48
  you mentioned, like, I guess you're going to see what Nacho
• 6:50
  can do right for the rest of this season.
• 6:53
  Well, that I kind of said earlier, I think that Nacho goes
• 6:57
  back down to the minor leagues well, once Austin Riley comes
• 7:01
  back from injury this week, but who knows, they might, they
• 7:06
  might surprise us. Alex Anthropolis is very sneaky
• 7:09
  when it comes to that kind of stuff, so.
• 7:11
  Like Alex been playing pretty good too.
• 7:13
  Like you said, he's like defensively he's a.
• 7:16
  He's a rock over. There, Yeah, he's, he's.
• 7:19
  He's a stud defensively. So yeah, just next season it's
• 7:24
  going to all matter what you guys do.
• 7:27
  But I do like the draft pick there of Lodi say man, like I
• 7:31
  thought that was a great draft pick too.
• 7:33
  I love your draft. Actually, your draft was really
• 7:36
  good. So, you know, maybe he's the
• 7:38
  future shortstop, you know, I mean, the Bo Bichette was a
• 7:42
  second round pick, right? So you never know, right?
• 7:44
  So, yeah, But yeah, I think you guys, I think that's really your
• 7:51
  only need a shortstop. I mean, depending what you guys
• 7:55
  do, who you guys trade at this deadline, you know, you might
• 7:58
  have some other holes to fill, but I don't think it'll be a
• 8:01
  problem filling them next year. I've got a question.
• 8:06
  I got a question here. Let me, let me let me jump in
• 8:09
  here. I think it has to do with
• 8:11
  different positions. So Ozuna is going to get traded.
• 8:14
  We're going to get into that after that, that's going to be a
• 8:16
  whole different animal. There's so much we got to talk
• 8:18
  about there. Well, looking at the catcher
• 8:21
  tandem, we know, we see what's going on here with Drake Baldwin
• 8:26
  and Sean Murphy. Is the plan is for having like
• 8:30
  either one to DH and try to get reps every day, Is that the
• 8:33
  plan? Because Drake Baldwin to me,
• 8:37
  man, the guy, the guy's phenomenal.
• 8:40
  Like it's one thing Alex, I'll give credit is he finds catchers
• 8:45
  in the draft or international science.
• 8:46
  That's what he does great. And you look at you look at Che
• 8:50
  Laguerre's. I mean, you, you do that from
• 8:52
  Sean Murphy. I mean Contreras, I mean, that's
• 8:54
  a whole different animal. And I heard some story about
• 8:57
  Contreras, but that's another story for another day.
• 8:59
  But like holding on to Drake Baldwin and and, and another
• 9:03
  question is, do you think he gets an extension with the
• 9:05
  Braves? Drake Baldwin because knowing
• 9:07
  Alex, he likes to have guys under control for a significant
• 9:11
  amount of time. I personally think that they
• 9:16
  wait a little bit on Drake Baldwin.
• 9:18
  They don't want him to kind of fall into the same Michael
• 9:24
  Harris, you know, trap, I guess. I'm not saying that Michael
• 9:28
  Harris is a bad player. I don't I don't think that at
• 9:30
  all. I think he's had struggles, but
• 9:33
  I wanted I don't think that Drake Baldwin extension is is
• 9:39
  super high on their priority list right now.
• 9:41
  I think they have a lot of other things and holes they need to
• 9:43
  they need to fix. But having both of them, as you
• 9:50
  know, DH and and catcher like swapping them out.
• 9:53
  I'm all for that. And that's, you know, when when
• 9:57
  Marcela Zuna gets traded, I would absolutely love for that
• 10:00
  to be the the tandem DH and catcher tandem for the rest of
• 10:03
  the season and just call call up Sandy Leone, you know, from AAA
• 10:08
  and like him be the third catcher on the on the roster.
• 10:13
  Good old Sandy Leone. He was Sandy Bonds in spring
• 10:19
  training. Dude hit like 6 spring training
• 10:21
  homers this year. That's awesome.
• 10:26
  I think so as well. The way that Snet's been drawing
• 10:30
  the lineup recently, it's been Baldwin and Murphy rotating
• 10:34
  between catcher and DH, so he's kind of showing us how the
• 10:39
  lineup is going to look once Marcelo Zuna gets straight in
• 10:42
  here. So I don't have a problem with
• 10:44
  it at all. I actually really like them
• 10:46
  rotating between those positions.
• 10:48
  So it's been looking really good and looks like they both had
• 10:52
  success, so I like it. What, who is the closer of this
• 10:58
  team next year? Is it, is it, is there anyone
• 11:01
  within the roster that'll be cool?
• 11:03
  Because we know Iglesias is going to be another guy that's
• 11:05
  going to be gone, but we'll we'll get to that soon.
• 11:07
  But is it internally, do you think they go outside the
• 11:10
  organization? Do they do trade?
• 11:13
  Like who? Who do you think is the guy for
• 11:17
  next year? If, if if he can take a shot at
• 11:20
  it. There's two options days, Bell
• 11:23
  Hernandez or young Carlos Laura. I think those are about the only
• 11:30
  two. So I don't know, Jose might
• 11:33
  might disagree, but those are my 2 choices and my my options for
• 11:39
  the closure. I mean, honestly, I would say it
• 11:44
  would be between Dylan Lee and Daysville Hernandez.
• 11:49
  Recently, yeah, just because recently when Ricelli Iglesias
• 11:55
  didn't have his best stuff going, he started allowing some
• 11:58
  more runs. We saw Snick give Dylan Lee some
• 12:02
  more high leverage situations and I think barring any trades
• 12:09
  because he you just never know what a is going to do.
• 12:12
  I think it may be Dylan Lee and baseball Hernandez.
• 12:17
  What about Burke Halter? Is he a starter?
• 12:21
  I know he's been starting games, but OK, let me let me give you
• 12:25
  one more name. Let me give you one more Hurston
• 12:27
  Waldrop is I've heard some stuff about him potentially being a
• 12:31
  closer. Could he be a guy or no?
• 12:35
  In my head he profiles better as a high end reliever, but they
• 12:39
  seem to want him to start. He was their first round pick
• 12:43
  last draft and so I think they really just want him to get as
• 12:47
  much leash starting if they possibly can give him before
• 12:52
  they move him to the bullpen. I think Herson would work out a
• 12:57
  lot better as a reliever personally as well, just to
• 13:01
  stuff his command issues that he's been dealing with.
• 13:04
  I, I feel like, I feel like he would, he has the stuff to close
• 13:10
  for sure in the future. So I could see him being a
• 13:13
  reliever if that's the route that the Braves want to go.
• 13:16
  Just for, you know, just for clarification, he's got 49 walks
• 13:22
  and 84 2/3 innings this year. So he he walks a lot of guys.
• 13:29
  He's got to calm that down. And he's got a 1.52 WHIP, which
• 13:36
  is mainly just the walks. But there's been some rumors
• 13:47
  floating around lately of the next manager for the Braves.
• 13:51
  Couple names have been thrown out there.
• 13:53
  So who do you see as being because we all can see it
• 13:57
  written on the wall. I don't think Snickers coming
• 13:59
  back, but who do you think could be the next manager for the
• 14:04
  Braves? Out to God he doesn't.
• 14:11
  Fantastic answer man, I love it. I'm sorry.
• 14:21
  Let me. Let me let me give you a name.
• 14:24
  Let me let me let me throw out a name out there.
• 14:27
  Mark DeRosa played for the Braves.
• 14:31
  He's been talked about managed Team USA and he's been his
• 14:34
  name's been thrown out there. Like would you think he's a
• 14:38
  consideration as a candidate for the Braves managerial position?
• 14:44
  If you would have asked me a few months ago, I would have said
• 14:46
  yes. But he had some comments that
• 14:50
  were pretty alarming about the Braves, about Ronald Lacuna and
• 14:54
  his work ethic, his hustle, things like that.
• 14:56
  So I, I believe it was on MLB Network.
• 15:00
  So after that, I'm kind of iffy on him.
• 15:03
  I'd like to see someone from the Brave system actually take the
• 15:07
  reins next year. So I if you were, if it would
• 15:11
  work to me, I'd love to see Eddie Perez up there.
• 15:15
  I like that. Good answer.
• 15:19
  Ma'am Ben. Personally, I I have no idea.
• 15:25
  They're managing a group like that is no small task.
• 15:31
  And the fact of the matter is that Brian Snicker has done it
• 15:37
  successfully for a long time. He's a Braves lifer.
• 15:42
  You know, he's been in the organization for 50 years.
• 15:46
  I'm with Jose and the fact that I don't want Brian Snicker to
• 15:52
  come back, I think his time is done.
• 15:56
  I say that the most respectful way possible because Brian
• 16:00
  Snicker deserves it for all his his contributions to the Braves
• 16:04
  organization for the past 50 years.
• 16:07
  Now, Dero, I think he has the perfect manager's personality.
• 16:14
  I think he did backtrack his statements on MLB Network and he
• 16:20
  backtracked a little bit, you know, tried to clarify.
• 16:24
  But yeah, it I think he'd be good.
• 16:30
  I think that maybe, gosh, it's hard.
• 16:35
  Yeah, I was actually thinking about this today and started to
• 16:37
  get sidetracked when when I think manager, you know, I think
• 16:42
  of guys like Bobby Cox and Earl Weaver and John McGraw and like
• 16:50
  just old school, you know, hard nosed.
• 16:54
  Like what managers do we have now in Major League Baseball
• 16:59
  that are going to be remembered 5060 years from now for their
• 17:03
  contributions to to the game of baseball?
• 17:05
  Like, you know, those guys are even Joe Torre and you know,
• 17:10
  Terry Francona maybe. But like other than him, I
• 17:14
  don't. I just.
• 17:15
  Don't. See a whole lot of managers
• 17:18
  getting big like they used to, you know, like becoming these
• 17:22
  big personalities and whatnot. Oh, that, that's a that's an art
• 17:26
  that's lost in this game, no doubt about it.
• 17:28
  I mean, you don't see guys like like that anymore, man.
• 17:32
  Like, you know, like the the game has been is managed from
• 17:36
  from the higher ups now almost, you know, it's like guys are
• 17:39
  puppets. So yeah.
• 17:42
  It's hard, man, 'cause who? Who was the?
• 17:47
  Was it John Farrell? Was that his name for the Yeah.
• 17:51
  John Farrell, Yeah, so. Yeah, he, I, I, I don't know why
• 17:56
  his name sticks out to me. I guess because he was a Blue
• 17:59
  Jays manager at one point, right?
• 18:01
  And a red. Sox manager.
• 18:02
  Yeah, And Red Sox. Manager like I, I just feel like
• 18:06
  teams, you know, they that generation was pretty much the
• 18:11
  last like big man, like they relied on the manager to make
• 18:15
  decisions. So I guess to tie this all
• 18:18
  together, I don't really see who the next Braves manager is or if
• 18:25
  it really matters who it is at this point, you know?
• 18:29
  That's a great point, man. That's it.
• 18:32
  Like, does it really matter because are the managers just
• 18:35
  puppets or they, you know, actually get to make the line
• 18:39
  UPS like managers should do and, you know, make decisions on
• 18:43
  day-to-day stuff with the team? Like it's it just seems like,
• 18:47
  you know, everything's run by the manager.
• 18:50
  Even last year in the playoffs. I use this as an example.
• 18:53
  The Blue Jays rolled out Barrios to start in Minnesota and.
• 19:01
  You know. He was he.
• 19:02
  It was pre planned that he was going to come out of the game at
• 19:06
  a certain point when he was dealing.
• 19:09
  He was dealing and he was, it was pre planned he was going to
• 19:14
  come out of the game at a certain point.
• 19:16
  And we ended up losing that game because they pre planned the
• 19:20
  game before the game was played. Like that's the way baseball
• 19:24
  goes nowadays with these analytics.
• 19:26
  And yeah, I'm with you. I don't know if it matters.
• 19:30
  And I love analytics, don't get me wrong, it there's a place,
• 19:32
  but at the same time they don't tell the whole story.
• 19:36
  Just like people with the eye test or whatever, that doesn't
• 19:39
  tell the whole story. You need everything to work
• 19:42
  together. Like we're you.
• 19:45
  You said something earlier about Matt Olson struggling the first
• 19:48
  like 3 weeks, 4 weeks of the season.
• 19:51
  And yes, his numbers on the surface showed that, But at the
• 19:54
  same time, he was hitting the ball harder than he did in the
• 19:58
  2023 season when he hit 54 homers.
• 20:01
  He was making better contact than he ever had in his career.
• 20:04
  He wasn't striking out. He was walking at a better rate.
• 20:07
  So the the IT was only a matter of time before that stuff came
• 20:12
  in. But you have to have a perfect
• 20:13
  combination of everything and can't rely on just one aspect.
• 20:19
  And I think a lot of these organizations kind of.
• 20:24
  Kind of get too wrapped up in like the analytics of of things
• 20:28
  or, you know, they don't do the analytics at all.
• 20:33
  Some of the managers don't do the analytics at all.
• 20:35
  They're like hard nosed old, you know, baseball guys.
• 20:39
  And it's like if you all just work together on these things
• 20:43
  and instead of trying to keep baseball in the 1980s or sending
• 20:49
  baseball to 2050, like you got to just keep it, keep it in 2025
• 20:56
  and use the tools at your disposal.
• 21:00
  And I think that's what a lot of teams are missing.
• 21:02
  Like the Braves, the the front office is trying to be too
• 21:05
  analytical and forcing Brian Snicker to just throw up his
• 21:09
  hands and be like, well, y'all going to do it y'all's way and
• 21:13
  we're going to, you know, it's not working.
• 21:15
  So he's just throwing up his hand saying who, what, whatever.
• 21:20
  You know, another name that's been thrown out there and he's
• 21:22
  in the organization is did you hear anything about Terry Pentel
• 21:26
  Pendleton? Because that name's been thrown
• 21:29
  out recently too. And I mean, he's been with you
• 21:31
  Braves for quite some time. And he's what, the AA manager
• 21:34
  right now for the Braves affiliates, I believe, right, if
• 21:37
  I'm not mistaken. So he, I mean, he played for the
• 21:41
  Braves in the 90s and and so on. Yeah, there you go.
• 21:46
  And right now it's like it it seems like he would he would be
• 21:52
  the fit. But I mean, it's such a fluid
• 21:53
  situation because like with snicker, I mean, he's been with
• 21:57
  the organization for what, 49 years?
• 22:00
  So so there has to be a fresh face.
• 22:03
  You need some use some blood. I thought Rod Washington would
• 22:07
  be the guy, but I with this health issues, unfortunately, I
• 22:10
  I don't I don't think he'd probably be back at all in the
• 22:14
  sport. It's just a no, I don't think
• 22:16
  so. Yeah, just unfortunate.
• 22:17
  But I mean, Pendleton's been throughout the thrown out there.
• 22:21
  I mean, I was asking people of guys like Brandon Hyde, would
• 22:25
  they go outside because knowing Alex and Alex is a guy, he wants
• 22:30
  his guy. He doesn't want to, he doesn't
• 22:33
  want to get a guy just randomly just just, you know, go out
• 22:37
  there and and Alex likes those old school minded managers.
• 22:40
  I remember when he was in Toronto, he he rehired Cito
• 22:45
  Gaston and he was just a placeholder for another manager.
• 22:48
  And they, like you said, John Farrow's another one, another
• 22:51
  guy that he's been connected with.
• 22:53
  John Gibbons. I think he was with you guys for
• 22:55
  a bit too, right. So that's another guy too.
• 22:58
  I need to bench coach so. And you know, he's always going
• 23:02
  to be remembered here during during that run when Alex's
• 23:05
  final years. But yeah, I I don't know if
• 23:08
  Gibbons would be a guy if he was under consideration because
• 23:12
  right now he's what, the bench coach of the Mets.
• 23:14
  So I wonder if he gets him another managerial job down the
• 23:18
  road. But I mean, you have to always
• 23:19
  think about Alex, Either it's going to be within the
• 23:24
  organization because there's a lot of guys behind closed doors
• 23:27
  who who's been like praised alumni's or, or, you know, with
• 23:32
  that organization forever to have an ear on it.
• 23:35
  Or he would probably just go with it where he feels like
• 23:39
  makes sense, right? Because because knowing Alex, he
• 23:42
  wants his guy. He doesn't want to go get a
• 23:45
  random guy like a guy that makes a lot of sense, right?
• 23:48
  Because you don't, like you said, you don't see the Bobby
• 23:50
  Cox's anymore in today's sport or the world on Washington's or
• 23:53
  the Dusty Baker's or the well, I mean, Bruce Bochy is probably
• 23:57
  the last man standing and maybe Francona, but that's about it,
• 23:59
  right? If you look at today's baseball.
• 24:01
  So is there anything else you want to add before go ahead?
• 24:09
  I just, I was going to say, yeah, I agree wholeheartedly
• 24:14
  with that. I think that, you know, it's
• 24:18
  hard to find a manager nowadays who, which I mean, Kevin Cash
• 24:22
  did a does a good job of it in Tampa.
• 24:24
  He's the best. Manager in this sport and best
• 24:26
  manager in the. Sport.
• 24:27
  I agree. He.
• 24:28
  He does a very good job of it. Like having Chandler Simpson on
• 24:34
  that team now is just unfair with his game breaking speed.
• 24:38
  But I mean, he does the right thing, you know, puts Chandler
• 24:41
  Simpson in the leadoff spot and lets him go to work and works
• 24:45
  his lineups. And I don't know, just something
• 24:48
  about the way that he operates. Like, imagine putting Kevin Cash
• 24:53
  on the Yankees. You know, somebody with that
• 24:56
  budget or the Dodgers, somebody with that budget.
• 24:58
  I don't want to I I. I don't want to hire that kind
• 25:01
  of thing. Think about that.
• 25:03
  Yeah, I mean, I, I know, I know you guys are big Yankee haters
• 25:08
  and all that stuff. And, and I don't like them
• 25:10
  either, but I, I just, it kind of, it's fun to me to do these
• 25:14
  thought exercises about. It's a scary.
• 25:16
  Thought it really is a scary thought, you know?
• 25:19
  Yeah. You give him a big budget and
• 25:21
  it's like, Oh my gosh. He's a great baseball mind man.
• 25:26
  He uses analytics to his strengths.
• 25:28
  So he's he's the best of sport man, for, you know, it's crazy,
• 25:33
  but it's true. So what do you think is going to
• 25:38
  happen in this trade deadline? Talk about your team.
• 25:41
  Obviously Ozuna is one thing, but who do you think are the
• 25:45
  biggest names that's going to get traded in your mind?
• 25:49
  Jose, you could start off. Well, obviously Marcela Zuna is
• 25:54
  probably our #1 trade piece right now.
• 25:57
  I could see some bullpen pieces getting moved as well.
• 26:00
  It wouldn't surprise me if we see Ricelli Iglesias be moved.
• 26:05
  Who else? Maybe Pierce Johnson?
• 26:08
  Maybe Aaron? Bummer.
• 26:11
  I just, the more I think about it, the more I don't know
• 26:16
  outside of Marcela Zuna. Just because a A is kind of hard
• 26:19
  to figure out like which way he wants to go.
• 26:22
  I've heard that the Braves will be both sellers and buyers at
• 26:25
  the deadline. So basically just restructuring
• 26:29
  wherever they can to set up as best as they can for 2026.
• 26:34
  So honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if we see Sean
• 26:38
  Murphy being moved at this point, although I don't think
• 26:41
  it's likely. But outside of that, man, just a
• 26:46
  big question marks. Yeah, I'm, I'm kind of with
• 26:51
  Jose, like the, the relief pitchers.
• 26:54
  Yeah, on Marcelo Zuna. Yeah, I, I give it about a 10%
• 27:00
  chance that Sean Murphy has moved.
• 27:04
  Alex needs to get the exact right deal that he wants in
• 27:09
  order to trade Sean Murphy, a guy who has three years of
• 27:12
  control left catcher with just who who knows how to handle a
• 27:18
  pitching staff almost as good as anybody in in baseball, any
• 27:22
  catcher in baseball. And he's had, you know, like I
• 27:26
  said, over a 120 WRC plus for every year of his career except
• 27:30
  one, which was last year, maybe a second one early in his
• 27:34
  career. But I mean, he's been just a
• 27:37
  phenomenal hitter for his whole career.
• 27:42
  But he'd be a surprising like if if the Braves got the right
• 27:45
  deal, I wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger.
• 27:49
  As far as around baseball, man, gosh, it it, it's hard 'cause,
• 27:55
  you know, some guys want to make a big splash.
• 27:57
  I know a Eugenio Suarez. Oh gosh, whoever trades.
• 28:01
  Whoever. Trades for a Ohenio.
• 28:03
  Suarez is going to have to give up just everything like that
• 28:07
  man. That man is unstoppable.
• 28:11
  You could see a guy, maybe Corey Seeger gets moved, but I mean, I
• 28:18
  don't think his contract would allow a huge haul back for him.
• 28:25
  You know, the Marlins are not trading Kyle Stowers, which is a
• 28:28
  good move. They they announced they weren't
• 28:29
  trading him, which they need to build around him because that
• 28:33
  dude can swing it. He can.
• 28:35
  Swing it. Yeah.
• 28:36
  How much? The Jays could be big buyers.
• 28:39
  I mean, if if Johann Duran and was it Griffin Jacks at the
• 28:46
  Minnesota Twins were talking about trading?
• 28:48
  Yeah. If those two, you know, are
• 28:51
  truly on the block, I could see the Jays going after one or two,
• 28:54
  one or both of those guys to help bolster that bullpen.
• 28:58
  Because I know Jeff Hoffman's been a little bit better
• 29:00
  recently, but he started off the year just rough.
• 29:04
  Yeah. And in.
• 29:04
  The month of May, he was struggling.
• 29:06
  Yeah, the month of May and. April he was great.
• 29:08
  In the month of May, though, it was like a completely different
• 29:11
  dude out there. Yeah.
• 29:13
  I know he was. He was struggling real bad, but
• 29:17
  it seems to be pulling it around a little bit better, You know,
• 29:20
  with as far as the Jays go, man, Addison Barger's been playing
• 29:25
  out of his mind. Vladdy's been playing good.
• 29:27
  Boba Shet's been playing good. Alejandro Kirk has been
• 29:32
  phenomenal. I don't know if he's still
• 29:33
  hitting over 300, but if he is, you know, awesome.
• 29:35
  He's doing great. The pitching is really the only
• 29:39
  thing that, you know, the Jays can really improve on.
• 29:42
  I think if they could go after a Johan Duran or you know, even a
• 29:46
  Camilo Duvall if type if if the Giants want to trade him you.
• 29:51
  Know that'd be. Something somebody for the the
• 29:54
  Jays. Your actor?
• 29:55
  Yeah. That's a guy there that that I
• 29:58
  would love. I don't know where where the
• 30:00
  Giants currently stand in terms of what they're going to do at
• 30:05
  the deadline, but I mean, they've had AI think they have a
• 30:08
  pretty good team, you know, I mean, I mean, they have a solid
• 30:12
  team so they can hit the ball. It's been you know, they got
• 30:16
  they got good pitching. It's just yeah, it's it's kind
• 30:20
  of weird because they were talking about on the broadcast
• 30:23
  today and and our, our, our guys said it's like they can't get
• 30:26
  guys going at the same time. Like you look at their roster
• 30:29
  and it should be killing in every game, right?
• 30:31
  But. Just certain.
• 30:33
  Guys have been slow starts and you know, when one guy's hot,
• 30:36
  another guy's not. But yeah, I, I couldn't agree
• 30:40
  with you more on on the Joanne Duran.
• 30:43
  I don't know if they trade him. I don't, I don't know.
• 30:47
  I be I would love Joe Ryan too, but I, I honestly don't think
• 30:51
  that guy gets moved. I just got this feeling like
• 30:56
  he's not going to get moved with you guys.
• 30:59
  Would would you think Aaron Bummer have some value or any of
• 31:04
  your other relievers other than Iglesias?
• 31:07
  I think the underlying metrics really in the eye test to show
• 31:12
  that Aaron Bummer hasn't been that bad.
• 31:15
  Like he's been getting dinked to death, like it has been bad luck
• 31:19
  after bad luck for him. And I know Braves fans are tired
• 31:22
  of hearing people say that, but it truly has.
• 31:24
  I mean, the dude has been getting ground balls up the
• 31:27
  middle, like soft ground balls at just fine holes.
• 31:30
  And it is infuriating to see. But I mean, it is the fact of
• 31:36
  the matter. And you know, Jose, you might,
• 31:38
  you might disagree or whatever. But I, I do think that I think
• 31:42
  Aaron Bummer has a little bit more value than than they want
• 31:45
  to give him credit for, especially if they package them
• 31:48
  in with somebody I don't. Disagree at all actually.
• 31:51
  I think Aaron Bummer is quite a solid pitcher.
• 31:54
  Like you were saying, he's had a lot of bad luck, but also due to
• 31:58
  injuries, he's also been thrusted into situations that he
• 32:01
  really shouldn't be pitching. It.
• 32:03
  Like he's been having to start games and he's been having to do
• 32:06
  a lot of long relief and he's just been getting hit around in
• 32:10
  those situations. But when you put Aaron Bummer in
• 32:15
  and pitch him to his strength, just get him to get you some
• 32:18
  ground balls. He's quite a solid pitcher.
• 32:23
  The name that we should all keep an eye on and we could wrap this
• 32:27
  up here is Mitch Keller. It seems, because I was told,
• 32:33
  like you said, we were talking off airs, that the Braves have
• 32:35
  been linked to him, the Yankees have been linked to him, the
• 32:37
  Jades have been linked to him, the Mets have been linked to
• 32:39
  him. I'm curious to see what the
• 32:42
  package is if because he signed through 2028 and before and and
• 32:48
  what do you think about that? Do you think there's there's
• 32:50
  some preference to that for, for, for the Braves guys?
• 32:53
  I mean, because Alex loves control.
• 32:57
  He likes to add players who are under control and work for
• 33:00
  another contract. Like what does he make sense for
• 33:03
  the Braves for the now in the future?
• 33:06
  Yeah, I mean, he definitely makes sense.
• 33:08
  He's a guy who can eat up innings.
• 33:09
  He's had some success in his career.
• 33:11
  I think last time I checked he was actually leading Major
• 33:16
  League Baseball and quality starts in which his team lost
• 33:19
  the game. So kind of interesting little
• 33:24
  fact. He's even was ahead of Paul
• 33:26
  Schemes at the time too, which is, yeah, interesting to me.
• 33:33
  The two teammates are on that list.
• 33:34
  Been poor pirates man, they just can't hit but.
• 33:38
  Yeah, they. If you get if you get somebody
• 33:41
  like Mitch Keller somewhere with an offense, I mean, the dude
• 33:45
  might win 1520 games like, and I know pitcher wins don't really
• 33:50
  mean much, but he's a good pitcher.
• 33:52
  He's going to get ground balls, he's going to get you out and
• 33:55
  he's going to eat innings and well, you know, you can't really
• 33:59
  ask for much more from a #3 number four guy.
• 34:03
  Yeah, he's. Relatively.
• 34:05
  Healthy too. I mean, he does.
• 34:07
  He's not a guy that you you find on the IL too often, you know,
• 34:11
  so that that has value in itself.
• 34:14
  I want to ask you one more question though, before you
• 34:16
  before we end it. Pierce Johnson, Does he get
• 34:20
  traded? I think.
• 34:22
  Yeah, I think. So he said at this point, yeah,
• 34:28
  at this point you kind of have to trade anything you can really
• 34:32
  anything that'll get you set up for next year.
• 34:35
  So if there's a good offer that comes along, I think a A takes
• 34:39
  it. Guys, we appreciate you being
• 34:45
  here, man. The Tomahawk Top podcast, man.
• 34:48
  Keep doing it up both you guys, whoever wants to let them know
• 34:55
  like where you can find the Tomahawk talk podcast and and
• 34:58
  make sure you let them know your social media information.
• 35:02
  Either one can start. Yeah, Tomahawk Talk podcast.
• 35:06
  You can find us on any of the major podcast podcast avenues,
• 35:12
  Spotify, Apple podcast, Sub Stack.
• 35:17
  Just search Tomahawk Talk Podcast and then as far as I go,
• 35:23
  it's Weaver under score cards on X.
• 35:27
  And again, guys, thank you all so much for having us on.
• 35:30
  You know, we were appreciated. We had a good time, so thank
• 35:32
  you. Yeah, definitely had a great
• 35:37
  time talking with you guys. You can find me at at ATL
• 35:41
  Headband on X. I'm usually making fun or trying
• 35:45
  to keep it light hearted as much as we can with the Braves
• 35:48
  season. Poking a little bit of fun
• 35:52
  wherever we can, so. Yeah, you guys, thanks for.
• 35:58
  Having us, yeah, you guys. Were awesome man Jose Ben thanks
• 36:02
  for joining us and talking Braves and everything else
• 36:05
  baseball. We had a great time man.
• 36:09
  Always love to have have these conversations around tables man
• 36:12
  because every time it's always something new.
• 36:14
  It's always something interesting.
• 36:15
  So thanks for joining us, yeah. Thanks again guys, we really
• 36:19
  appreciate it and hopefully all you know get good ratings.
• 36:24
  Hopefully the people didn't mind mind hearing this ramble too
• 36:27
  long. Hey, that's what we all
• 36:31
  podcasters do. But we will place the
• 36:34
  description below where you can find Ben and Jose and the
• 36:37
  Tomahawk Top podcast. But till next time, take care,
• 36:40
  be kind to each other. Signing off from the Sports Ave.
• 36:43
  Twisted podcast on Sunday, July 20th, 2025.