Latest / Sports Avenue Twisted Podcast / Episode 67 feat. Erin On Deck - Braves Off-Season Moves, Pitching Depth, Brian Snitker's Tenure

Transcript

Episode 67 feat. Erin On Deck - Braves Off-Season Moves, Pitching Depth, Brian Snitker's Tenure · Sports Avenue Twisted Podcast

• 0:25
  Welcome to another edition of the Sports Ave.
• 0:27
  Twisted podcast. We have a special guest in here
• 0:31
  who who's Braves creator content creator and has it on TikTok
• 0:35
  called the chop house tea on TikTok Aaron Aaron on deck.
• 0:40
  Welcome to this episode. We are honored and privileged to
• 0:42
  have you. Have you on, and also a happy
• 0:45
  National Women's Day especially. The women out there, including
• 0:48
  yourself, appreciating you being in our in our episode today.
• 0:53
  Thank you. Thank you for having me.
• 0:54
  I'm so excited to be able to do this.
• 0:58
  Yeah, we're excited to have you and it like Rocky said, it
• 1:01
  couldn't be more fitting on National Girl and Women in
• 1:04
  Sports Day. So it's just kind of a great
• 1:07
  time to have you on and talk Braves and you come highly
• 1:10
  recommended and you do great work.
• 1:12
  So we're excited. Thank you all.
• 1:16
  Right, let's let's get this thing started here.
• 1:19
  So let's talk about it's the offseason moves they've done
• 1:23
  thus far. And looking at the Braves,
• 1:25
  they're coming off of a down year, missed the playoffs.
• 1:28
  And if you look at the way they've they've made moves, they
• 1:31
  they've been pretty proactive throughout the most part.
• 1:33
  And if you look at the the signings they've done and the
• 1:36
  acquisitions, if you look at they acquired Mauricio Dubin,
• 1:40
  they signed Robert Suarez, they brought for that Iglesias, they
• 1:42
  brought back Mike Ostremsky and and they brought they brought
• 1:48
  there was another player I I'm blanking.
• 1:51
  But yeah, you could mention about those, talk about those
• 1:55
  acquisitions and. How much do you think?
• 1:58
  The braids have improved so far this offseason compared to last
• 2:01
  year. OK.
• 2:03
  Well, definitely, even just one of those signings in my opinion
• 2:08
  wasn't improving on last year. I mean, the biggest notable
• 2:11
  signing that we had last year was pro far and that was, you
• 2:14
  know, at the end of January. So we waited pretty much the
• 2:17
  whole offseason to get anything. And I remember I was really
• 2:21
  excited about Profar. I mean, I still love Profar, but
• 2:23
  then, you know, he's out until the mid season because of the
• 2:29
  suspension. So it was just, you know, a a
• 2:32
  bad offseason and then the season was off to a terrible
• 2:36
  start last year. But this year I have a lot of
• 2:39
  hope because things started kicking off really early.
• 2:43
  I was really excited to get Iglesias back despite him having
• 2:50
  a little bit of off, you know, he was off of his game at the in
• 2:54
  the first half, like before the All Star break.
• 2:57
  But I he really turned it around and got back to like his true
• 2:59
  form. And I think that's who he is
• 3:01
  like as a as a closer and he's a great asset.
• 3:05
  So I'm glad we got him. And then we added on to the
• 3:08
  bullpen with Suarez from Robert Suarez from the Padres, which I
• 3:13
  was super excited about. He's so good and you know, if he
• 3:19
  is the set up man for Iglesias or vice versa, like that's going
• 3:23
  to be an unstoppable pair of closers, you know, So I think he
• 3:29
  was probably my like most the most the the signing that I was
• 3:35
  most excited about. I was glad to get Kim back.
• 3:39
  Definitely excited to see Nick Allen traded.
• 3:43
  That was my biggest fear was to have Nick Allen on our opening
• 3:47
  day roster as our starting shortstop again, Like no, never.
• 3:52
  Oh, he's he's great defensively. Don't get me wrong, you know,
• 3:55
  like he's amazing defensively, but he cannot produce
• 3:59
  offensively for the life of him. And we need that, you know,
• 4:03
  especially after the season that we had and then Mike Ystromsky.
• 4:08
  I was so excited to hear about that one.
• 4:11
  A lot of people seemed underwhelmed.
• 4:14
  But you have to remember, like, what was he playing in Oracle,
• 4:18
  right? Like, isn't that one of the
• 4:20
  harder? Was it Oracle?
• 4:25
  Yeah, yeah. It was like it was in Truce
• 4:29
  Park. It's going to be a completely
• 4:30
  different scenario for him. And I listened to his interview,
• 4:33
  like after his signing, and he seems genuinely excited to be a
• 4:39
  part of this organization, and I think that's going to reflect in
• 4:42
  his performance in the outfield and at bat.
• 4:47
  So with all the additions that you had talked about there, you
• 4:51
  know, you went out and got Dubon, Yastrzemski, Suarez and
• 4:56
  taking account to the construction of the team roster,
• 4:59
  what would you say that the strengths of the Braves are
• 5:03
  going into the season? Definitely the I think that our
• 5:08
  biggest flaw last season 2 things was our offense wasn't
• 5:13
  its regular self. Like we didn't see a lot of
• 5:17
  consistency and we need that with our core.
• 5:20
  And then the the second biggest downfall was our bullpen.
• 5:24
  I can tell you how many games the bullpen blew for us and also
• 5:29
  how many one run losses that we had.
• 5:32
  I think we I think we actually set like a record for one run
• 5:35
  losses. And then somebody did the math
• 5:38
  and was like, if the Braves had one, you know, like less than
• 5:41
  half of these games that they lost one run losses, then they
• 5:45
  would have, you know, be made it to the postseason.
• 5:50
  So it was really frustrating in the bullpen had a lot to do with
• 5:53
  that. And we've really restructured
• 5:55
  that and now we have so much pitching depth.
• 5:58
  It's unbelievable. I mean, we've got like 3 or 4
• 6:02
  guys going to be fighting for that fifth rotation spot in the
• 6:06
  starting rotation. And I think that we personally
• 6:10
  would be able to do like a, a six man rotation.
• 6:14
  Like that's how much depth we have.
• 6:17
  So I'm looking forward to that. I think that's going to be one
• 6:19
  of our biggest strengths, barring injuries.
• 6:21
  And that's going to be the key thing for us is everyone has to
• 6:25
  stay healthy for this to work, you know?
• 6:29
  Yeah, for sure. I think it's also you, you'd
• 6:32
  have to think that injuries was a bit of an issue.
• 6:34
  Like you said, there's a lot of bad luck.
• 6:35
  Like I think with Sean Murphy, he was like injured like
• 6:39
  throughout like the most part last year.
• 6:41
  And with the hip injury, I think he played like the first few
• 6:43
  games and he was injured and it was like it just, it just got a
• 6:47
  lot of bad luck. Do you think bad luck played a
• 6:49
  lot of part to it as well last year?
• 6:52
  I definitely do. I mean, there's no other way to
• 6:54
  explain it. Our entire opening day starting
• 6:56
  pitching rotation was out by I can't even remember June, July,
• 7:02
  all five of those guys injured and we like had over 20 starting
• 7:08
  pitchers. I'm pretty Sure Start, you know,
• 7:11
  throughout the season last season, we've had but so many
• 7:15
  bullpen games like, oh, it was a nightmare.
• 7:18
  But from what I'm hearing, everybody's healthy and ready to
• 7:22
  go for the most part. I think Jimenez is the only one
• 7:26
  that the only pitcher that isn't expected to be back by spring
• 7:31
  training, if I'm not mistaken. I know Grant Holmes is healthy,
• 7:36
  Schwellenbach is healthy, Chris Sale is healthy.
• 7:41
  Spencer Strider is one that I'm interested to see what he does
• 7:45
  this season because he was coming off of that surgery last
• 7:49
  season and you know, he definitely underperformed, but
• 7:52
  that's to be expected. Like he's not going to come back
• 7:55
  being the ace that he was. And I I can't remember what that
• 7:59
  surgery is called. It's not the.
• 8:01
  Flexor strain, Is that the? One, yeah, it's like, but I
• 8:07
  looked it up and like statistically, yes, it is less
• 8:10
  recovery time, but statistically pitchers that get that surgery,
• 8:15
  they don't ever come back to their full form.
• 8:18
  Some of them do and if anyone can do it, it's Spencer.
• 8:21
  But the majority of them don't get back to, you know, that ace
• 8:26
  ability. So that's kind of worrisome to
• 8:28
  me. But I think he is just one of
• 8:31
  those guys that can't, you know, he's not going to accept that
• 8:37
  and he's going to try his best to get back to where he was.
• 8:40
  So I'm excited to see what he does this season.
• 8:44
  This is an interesting question for me to ask you here.
• 8:46
  And you look at the outfield right now all of a sudden, all
• 8:50
  of a sudden and you look at the way the depth is like you got
• 8:53
  pro far back now, like in in a full season.
• 8:57
  The Braves sign Yastremsky, you got a Kuna and you got Michael
• 9:00
  Harris who's like locked in at center field.
• 9:03
  Like how is that going to be played out?
• 9:05
  Because I'm also want curious to see because we know that Acuna
• 9:09
  has been been through injuries in the past as well.
• 9:11
  And you would have to think like, I want to ask you this,
• 9:14
  like how would the DH position would be played?
• 9:16
  Because I think with the Braves, with the injuries, I think they
• 9:20
  want to make sure that they want him off the field at times that
• 9:23
  they wanted DH. Is that why you think the Braves
• 9:26
  signed a guy that you stream to? He could play some right and
• 9:28
  then you got profile left there or they could like switch around
• 9:31
  and and then play with whatever they have.
• 9:34
  Yeah, I do think so. I think a lot of the moves this
• 9:38
  offseason were done with potential injury risk in mind.
• 9:43
  And I had been, you know, saying from the beginning of this all
• 9:47
  season that we needed some kind of depth like that because the I
• 9:53
  mean, Eli White is great, but the, you know, Jared Kellnick,
• 9:57
  all of those other guys, Alex Verdugo, it was just, you know,
• 10:01
  it's so inconsistent. We need strong depth out there.
• 10:05
  So what I think is how it's going to play out, and this is,
• 10:07
  you know, is just my opinion, but I could see them mainly
• 10:11
  putting pro far at DH and seeing how that goes and then letting
• 10:17
  Mikey's Trimsky field and if Ronnie gets hurt then obviously
• 10:23
  they'll move that around. But I think their original plan
• 10:27
  was factoring in Sean Murphy for and Drake Baldwin and pro far
• 10:33
  and Acuna, all four of those guys to alternate at DH.
• 10:37
  But now that Sean Murphy's not expected to come back until May,
• 10:41
  I believe, I don't know what their plans going to be now.
• 10:44
  I'd imagine it's it was still be pro far mainly at DH if I had to
• 10:49
  guess, but I'm not, you know, I'm not what wise so I can't
• 10:53
  make that call. Hey, could you see Austin Riley
• 10:57
  play some DH as well? I know he's primary at 3rd
• 11:00
  baseman, but like like like you said, like an influx of infield,
• 11:03
  I mean could be beneficial with some of these guys you would
• 11:05
  think, right? I mean, I if he is up for if
• 11:11
  Nacho can perform at third, you know here and there, then yes.
• 11:16
  Especially with how injury prone Austin has been, I could see
• 11:20
  that, but not often unless we could afford to do so.
• 11:27
  And it also Austin has to, you know, get his game back this
• 11:31
  year. He these past two seasons, he
• 11:34
  just hasn't really been himself. And then, well, especially last
• 11:37
  season, 2024, he was OK, but and then he gets injured, you know,
• 11:42
  the last month of the season and he's out and it's it just, you
• 11:46
  know, it's happened each year. And I'm like, we cannot do that
• 11:49
  again. I don't know what is going on.
• 11:53
  I got some breaking news forever.
• 11:55
  Valdez just signed with the Detroit Tigers for three years
• 11:57
  for 150 million. Oh Dang, I really wanted him.
• 12:03
  Yeah, I know well that, well, I know Rob has the next question,
• 12:08
  but that that it's crazy to think that that just came out of
• 12:10
  nowhere, right? What was it, 3150?
• 12:14
  115115 for three years. 0115 yeah, we could have done that,
• 12:20
  but I guess we didn't want to give up that that PPI pick,
• 12:23
  which I understand. And I and also we, I think our
• 12:28
  front office really, really values the the clubhouse aspect
• 12:32
  of players and that whole catcher situation.
• 12:37
  I don't think that Alex would have.
• 12:40
  I don't think that he would have wanted that and you know, kind
• 12:44
  of energy in the clubhouse. I'm not saying that Framer is a
• 12:47
  bad guy or anything, but that just that whole thing, I think
• 12:51
  it turned off a lot of teams. I think it's why it took him so
• 12:53
  long to sign is because people are apprehensive.
• 12:57
  Yeah, I agree with that. You look, he has definitely has
• 13:01
  some character concerns when it comes to Framer.
• 13:05
  So I'm kind of glad Baltimore didn't get them though.
• 13:08
  I mean, I'm kind of happy about that.
• 13:10
  But let's talk a bit about the rotation, though.
• 13:15
  Yeah, I mean, you mentioned it. You got Spencer Strider Elder,
• 13:19
  Chris Sale, Grant Holmes, Ronaldo Lopez, Spencer Schwell
• 13:23
  and back and AJ Smith, Shavers injured.
• 13:25
  But I mean, that's like, you know, you got like 6 or 7 guys
• 13:28
  are fighting for five spots. And yeah, there's been lots of
• 13:33
  talk on, on, you know, on social media and, and within the fan
• 13:37
  base about potentially either going to get a guy via free
• 13:43
  agency or trade. And now that framer's off the
• 13:47
  block, what do you see happening or what would you like to see
• 13:52
  happen with regards to, Do you think they need a pitcher?
• 13:56
  Do you think they should add? Do you think they shouldn't add?
• 14:00
  What are your thoughts on the whole topic of adding a starting
• 14:04
  pitcher? I think it would be a nice
• 14:07
  addition. I don't think it's necessary
• 14:09
  with the rotation that we have. I think we have a strong
• 14:12
  rotation as is if everyone stays healthy.
• 14:16
  But it would be nice to have some insurance.
• 14:20
  But at the beginning of the offseason, a A said that he
• 14:24
  wanted a postseason caliber starting pitcher if he was going
• 14:29
  to sign a new one. And the people the pitchers left
• 14:33
  on the market, I just don't think live up to that
• 14:36
  description. Maybe Zach Gallon I would be OK
• 14:40
  with. I like Chris Bassett, but he's
• 14:44
  very similar to me to what we have in Bryce Elder.
• 14:49
  So I feel like if we're going to shell out money and needs to be
• 14:53
  for something better, you know, So I have been a huge advocate
• 14:59
  for trading for Joe Ryan for since the beginning of the
• 15:04
  offseason, even though the Twins explicitly stated they were
• 15:08
  keeping him and Pablo Lopez and Byron Buxton.
• 15:12
  But now with the whole situation with their president, and I know
• 15:17
  that they don't have a lot of money.
• 15:20
  I really, I don't know what's going to happen and I feel like
• 15:24
  there could be a possibility for a trade, maybe not before spring
• 15:29
  training, but definitely before the deadline.
• 15:31
  I mean, we'll have to see how it plays out, but I think he would
• 15:33
  be a perfect fit. He's affordable right now.
• 15:37
  I think his contract was, what was it like half $1,000,000?
• 15:42
  No, not half $1,000,000 is more than that.
• 15:46
  I can't remember, but I know, I know that he was in arbitration.
• 15:49
  And then I saw some news on X that he, his name got taken off
• 15:55
  of the Twins Fest appearance list, which I thought, I mean,
• 16:00
  obviously we can't read too much into that.
• 16:02
  But I was like, that's interesting because if he was
• 16:04
  listed and then he got taken off some things is it was probably
• 16:07
  just arbitration. But still it gave me a little
• 16:09
  bit of hope. Yeah, I thought, I thought that
• 16:12
  was interesting too. I think it was boxed and and Joe
• 16:15
  Ryan, right? Yeah.
• 16:17
  They both were pulled. Yeah, that was kind of
• 16:19
  interesting and. Those are their stars.
• 16:22
  Like why are you going to pull them?
• 16:23
  Yeah, those are their stars, you know, and one of them is the
• 16:26
  face of the franchise. It's been for years.
• 16:30
  I didn't even mention my guy Hurston Waldrick with you guys,
• 16:33
  too. I totally forgot about him.
• 16:35
  Oh yeah, I love Hurston. Yeah, he's he's, I'm a Florida
• 16:40
  guy, so he's my bad. Oh yeah, OK.
• 16:44
  Honestly, if, if, if I had to pick the fifth spot, I would put
• 16:49
  him there with it, with what he did last season.
• 16:52
  If he can keep that up, awesome. Put him in the rotation and move
• 16:56
  Elder and Holmes to the bullpen. Absolutely.
• 17:02
  But we'll see how it goes. I have a feeling they're not
• 17:04
  going to do that though. OK, let's talk about the bullpen
• 17:09
  side of things. It's very interesting now all of
• 17:11
  a sudden that bringing back Iglesias signing Robert Suarez,
• 17:15
  which which came out of nowhere, which was a great pick knowing
• 17:20
  that they're going to be the 8th and 9th inning guys, however you
• 17:23
  want to put it. But how else would you look at
• 17:26
  the rest of the boat and who else would be part of the high
• 17:28
  leverage situation like you, You guys picked up Ian Hamilton,
• 17:32
  Giancarlo, Gian, Carlos Lara is also a possibility.
• 17:35
  Days by Hernandez, Dylan Dodd, Hayden Harris, Aaron Bummer,
• 17:40
  Dylan Lee, Tyler Kinley brought back like how do you look at it
• 17:44
  and how much better it is with the bullpen itself?
• 17:48
  It's it's a vast improvement from last season.
• 17:52
  I was really glad we brought Tyler Kinley back.
• 17:55
  I was hoping I knew that when we let him and Pierce Johnson go
• 17:59
  that at least one of them were going to come back.
• 18:02
  It was just a matter of trying to save a little bit of money,
• 18:05
  which they ended up doing with Tyler Kinley.
• 18:09
  But I I'm much more hopeful with this bullpen than I was with
• 18:15
  last year's, and the only one I'm not too fond of is Aaron.
• 18:20
  Bummer. But maybe we can use him in a
• 18:24
  trade. That's what I've been hoping for
• 18:26
  at least. Let's talk a bit about the
• 18:28
  shortstop depth with Hassan Kim going through that freak injury
• 18:34
  in in Korea. And I believe it's four or five
• 18:37
  months they're saying he's going to be out.
• 18:39
  Yeah. And you have, yeah, it's tough.
• 18:42
  And and you got to bond you traded for from Houston and
• 18:46
  Mateo, you brought in as potential placeholders.
• 18:49
  So how do you think that whole shortstop situation is going to
• 18:53
  play out in his stead of being on the on the IL?
• 18:58
  I am hoping for the best. I was really looking forward to
• 19:03
  Hassan Kim because this is kind of like a show me deal for him.
• 19:08
  And I feel like he was really, really, really going to come in
• 19:12
  hot and, you know, do great things for us.
• 19:15
  But we're going to have to wait for that now.
• 19:19
  Obviously, it was out of his control.
• 19:21
  You know, like that really is a freak accident, like you said.
• 19:24
  But I'm, I'm optimistic for Devon.
• 19:28
  I don't know much about him, but after we traded for him, I
• 19:32
  looked into it and he seems promising.
• 19:35
  And it's it's pretty cool that he can play, you know, basically
• 19:39
  every position. So I was really excited about
• 19:43
  him being a utility guy for us, especially with our injury
• 19:47
  history. But now he's essentially going
• 19:50
  to be our starting shortstop. Mateo, I think will be
• 19:55
  sufficient, like when he needs to play.
• 19:58
  But overall, you know, we've had this shortstop hole since
• 20:03
  Stansby left, and it still doesn't feel like even with
• 20:08
  Hassan Kim, it doesn't feel like where it needs to be.
• 20:12
  Maybe it will be with Hassan Kim, but to me I just feel like
• 20:16
  that position hasn't been a strength of ours for a while and
• 20:20
  it needs to be. So let me ask you this then.
• 20:26
  So Nacho Alvarez has been with the Braves organization since
• 20:30
  day one. He got called up last year.
• 20:33
  I think he got called up a year before, if I'm not mistaken, if
• 20:35
  it weren't for that injury. Like, where does he fit in this
• 20:39
  roster? Because I asked myself, does is
• 20:41
  he a third third baseman? Is he a shortstop?
• 20:44
  Like, can you play second base? Like we already have Ozzy Albee.
• 20:48
  It's like, how does he fit in this roster?
• 20:53
  I would say utility. I know he came in and covered
• 20:59
  Austin. He did a great job for the most
• 21:01
  part last season doing that. I think he can't, he can play
• 21:06
  shortstop if I'm not mistaken. I, I don't follow the, the
• 21:12
  minors too much, but when he did get called up, I wasn't, you
• 21:17
  know, disappointed as far as being on the roster full time.
• 21:22
  I don't see him being an everyday player, you know, for a
• 21:27
  couple of years at least. But I'm not, I'm not completely
• 21:31
  sure. And he probably will have to
• 21:33
  play a couple of games. And I, I could see them, you
• 21:37
  know, putting him in a shortstop too, especially during spring
• 21:39
  training, just to see how it goes.
• 21:43
  Right, because you already have you already have Austin Riley at
• 21:46
  third base, so you would have to think it's a little bit more
• 21:48
  open doors at shortstop, right? For the time being, even though
• 21:52
  Porgy, Mateo and Dubon are still on the roster.
• 21:55
  But I guess Nacho would probably have to play that position and
• 21:58
  prove it, right? And you know, I mean, spin
• 22:00
  training is very telling to see where where these jobs are going
• 22:04
  to land, right, with some of these young players, right?
• 22:06
  So. Yeah, yeah.
• 22:09
  I'm really excited to see how that plays out.
• 22:12
  He's also been involved in trade rumors too, hasn't he over the
• 22:15
  past year or so? Yeah, Yeah, he has.
• 22:18
  Yeah. It'd be interesting to see if
• 22:20
  they if they went out and got a Joe Ryan, if he would be in that
• 22:23
  package or not. Oh, I could definitely see that.
• 22:27
  Yeah. But I feel like everybody wants
• 22:30
  our our star pitching prospects, and I just don't see us giving
• 22:36
  those up. Yeah, Richie, Kim and Eddie,
• 22:39
  those guys, Yeah. Caminiti, yeah.
• 22:41
  I think Caminiti is going to be a good player, too.
• 22:45
  So is Richie. Which player on this roster
• 22:48
  though, do you think could surprise you going into the
• 22:52
  season? I'm really hoping that two of
• 22:56
  them, I, I hope that Ozzy comes back to like 2023 Ozzy and I am
• 23:04
  really hoping that Michael Harris stays consistent this
• 23:08
  year. I know last season offensively,
• 23:11
  Elise was super tough for him. So I hope he gets back.
• 23:16
  And then he had a little hot streak there where he was just
• 23:18
  killing it. And I, I don't know if he
• 23:21
  completed the cycle, but he got really close one game and I was
• 23:25
  like, wow, maybe he's like, you know, finally getting back to it
• 23:29
  and then it fell apart again. So I'm hoping to see more of his
• 23:35
  2022 form this season, But I, I think they're due for that.
• 23:42
  I feel like last season it was just off for everybody and the
• 23:47
  injuries was not helping with morale.
• 23:50
  You know, every it was just all over the place.
• 23:55
  Well, let me ask you this then. So because we talked about the
• 23:59
  surprise, who do you think on the braised roster right now as
• 24:04
  it stands could potentially be first time All Stars.
• 24:06
  And I could I could mention names for you, Drake Baldwin,
• 24:10
  Michael Harris and Spencer Swallowbock.
• 24:12
  Maybe you could put Spencer Strider there.
• 24:13
  But but I mean, those are the three in my mind that has the
• 24:16
  potential to be first time All Stars.
• 24:18
  But if you had to take a guess, like who would who has the
• 24:21
  highest potential to be an All Star this year for the first
• 24:24
  time? I'd say Drake Baldwin easily.
• 24:28
  Yeah. He's he's absolutely killing it.
• 24:34
  And do you think that? But let's see, The thing is
• 24:37
  because like if you look at Michael Harris, right,
• 24:39
  second-half of last year, he tore, tore the cover and
• 24:44
  thinking that he kind of figured it out, like, is there a
• 24:46
  potential for the other two to be All Stars as well?
• 24:50
  Yeah, I I definitely could see that too.
• 24:56
  Schwellenbach for sure. Michael Harris, I'm a little
• 25:01
  more skeptical, but I mean, I would love to see that.
• 25:04
  I'd love to see us have another year where like half of our
• 25:09
  lineup is going to the All Star game, but we haven't seen that
• 25:13
  in a while. I think last year we only had
• 25:15
  Chris Sale and who was it, Ronald Cunha junior and then
• 25:21
  Matt Olson was in the Home Run Derby.
• 25:25
  I can't. I think it was 2023.
• 25:26
  We had almost like all of the infield.
• 25:29
  It was pretty. Maybe it was 22, I don't know,
• 25:32
  but I missed those days. I was watching one of your
• 25:39
  TikTok videos and it made me think of this question I ask
• 25:42
  you. It was about you had mentioned
• 25:44
  that the Atlanta 400 Baseball Club is going to honor Brian
• 25:48
  Snicker. I think it's coming up at the
• 25:53
  end of the year, I believe. Well, it was supposed to happen
• 25:57
  last weekend, but it got cancelled because of the snow.
• 26:01
  Right, right. And, and I just wanted to ask
• 26:04
  you about Brian Snicker a little bit, 'cause he's been with the
• 26:07
  organization for, I think it said, 49 seasons.
• 26:10
  And. It's like, yeah, like, it's just
• 26:13
  tell us a a little bit about the service he's done for that team
• 26:17
  and and how, you know, the Braves have been under him and
• 26:21
  ultimately moving on from him and what and what the new
• 26:24
  manager, Walt Weiss, former Brave, can bring to the table.
• 26:29
  Yeah, I, well, I would be lying if I said I wasn't very
• 26:34
  frustrated with Brian Snicker this past season.
• 26:37
  But overall he's been a great manager.
• 26:40
  I mean, obviously he led us to the World Series in 2021.
• 26:45
  And I think he had, you know, a lot of respect from the team.
• 26:50
  He was a great leader. He knows what he's doing.
• 26:55
  And yeah, he was mentored by Bobby Cox, which is great.
• 27:00
  And Walt Weiss is, you know, in that Bobby Cox family tree, if
• 27:07
  that's what you want to call it. So I'm looking forward to it.
• 27:10
  I think while Weiss is going to bring, I mean, he was our bench
• 27:13
  coach, but I feel like as the manager, he's going to bring a
• 27:17
  new strategy and fresh eyes and our new coaches working with
• 27:23
  him. That's something I'm really
• 27:25
  looking forward to seeing the pitching coach Hefner from
• 27:31
  Jeremy Hefner from the Mets. That guy does great work and I
• 27:36
  really like his innovativeness, I guess is the word.
• 27:46
  I think what he did with the Mets pitching stuff was really
• 27:50
  good and I'm excited to see what he could do with our guys.
• 27:52
  And then Antoine Richardson as the first base coach we've
• 27:57
  needed ever since Wash and EY left, we have desperately needed
• 28:02
  solid first page, first base and third base coaches.
• 28:07
  And you can really tell like when those two left, how
• 28:11
  different things were on the field.
• 28:13
  And Anton Richardson brings that the stealing bases and base
• 28:20
  running mentality. So I'm excited to see what
• 28:25
  changes are going to be reflected on the field with
• 28:28
  those two and with wall wise. Yeah, I think, I think it's.
• 28:34
  Also with what Weiss, it's like, it's an interesting hire because
• 28:37
  like you said, like you and I think it comes to track record
• 28:41
  being a bench coach. Like if you look at the way the
• 28:44
  Braves hire guys, it's like historically like known, like
• 28:47
  guys who've been in the organization forever and ever,
• 28:50
  right? So it's it's like a known trait.
• 28:52
  Do you think it becomes like a culture thing like in a big in a
• 28:54
  big way, Obviously, right. Like you look at so many guys
• 28:58
  like a Bobby Cox, he was the standard of Braves organization
• 29:01
  wise. And, you know, he's historically
• 29:04
  one of the best managers of all time, but it's hard to replace
• 29:07
  him. Like, how do you look at that,
• 29:08
  like as a whole? Like when you have a snicker
• 29:10
  who's been an organization for half a century and then you have
• 29:13
  Walt Whites, who's been an organization for years, and now
• 29:15
  he's the next guy in line and taking control.
• 29:18
  And how important is that with the culture factor?
• 29:22
  I think it's definitely very important and I it factored into
• 29:25
  their decision heavily. I want to say I can't remember
• 29:29
  now, but I know that they interviewed or I don't know how
• 29:33
  many people they interview, but I know that they are, they at
• 29:36
  least had to have interviewed other people.
• 29:38
  Because if if we were going to go with Walt from the start,
• 29:42
  then why didn't we just announce that, you know, a couple of days
• 29:46
  after Snit announced his retirement?
• 29:48
  Why did we wait an entire month after Snit retired to announce
• 29:51
  that Walt Weiss was our manager? So to me, it felt like he wasn't
• 29:56
  the first choice. And I think he even said
• 29:58
  something along those lines at the press conference after he
• 30:02
  was announced as the manager. Not necessarily saying that he
• 30:06
  didn't think he was the first choice, but he said something
• 30:09
  about not thinking he would get the call and then he did.
• 30:15
  So I don't think that he was their first choice, but he's not
• 30:21
  a bad choice either. I, I want to say we were heavily
• 30:26
  in talks with the the bench coach from the Dodgers.
• 30:30
  I can't. His name is escaping me right
• 30:32
  now. Danny.
• 30:34
  Yes, yeah. But honestly?
• 30:38
  George Lombard was another name that's been mentioned too with
• 30:41
  the. With the connection.
• 30:42
  With the Brave, because he was drafted a Brave I think in 94
• 30:45
  and he's been, you know, connected to.
• 30:48
  That right. Oh, and that guy the the coach
• 30:54
  of wow, everybody's name is just leaving my head.
• 31:01
  He coached the in the World Baseball Classic maybe, or the
• 31:04
  Olympic. Team, are you talking about Mark
• 31:06
  DeRosa? Yes, Derosa.
• 31:08
  Yes, he was also heavily mentioned around that time.
• 31:13
  But honestly, if it if it was like down to the wire between
• 31:16
  Danny Lehman and Walt Weiss, I'm glad we chose what Weiss.
• 31:21
  I feel like after the season that we had, bringing in someone
• 31:26
  who is brand new to the organization wouldn't have been
• 31:30
  the best move. Like we need someone that these
• 31:33
  guys are familiar with and they already respect, Someone that
• 31:36
  doesn't have to earn their respect coming off of a bad
• 31:39
  season and missing the playoffs for the first time in seven
• 31:43
  years or whatever it is. Like it was just unprecedented,
• 31:47
  terrible year. No, it makes sense because I
• 31:51
  think I think track record matters, culture matters and,
• 31:54
  you know, just, you know, getting along with the players
• 31:58
  is a big factor with relationships, right?
• 32:00
  So I think that that comes as a big deal as well.
• 32:03
  But I want to ask you this question and this is I, I don't
• 32:07
  know, you said. So I want to ask you this, like,
• 32:09
  I know you probably know a little bit, you know, in the AAA
• 32:12
  side of things. Like, is there anyone in your
• 32:15
  mind that could be up in the majors this year that you're
• 32:19
  pretty excited about? I know there's names out there,
• 32:22
  and we know that there was a couple names.
• 32:23
  I know Jr. Ritchie has been a yeah.
• 32:26
  Come on, Jr. Ritchie.
• 32:27
  Yeah. Yeah, It's like, who else?
• 32:29
  Who else would you say in your mind, like what in your
• 32:33
  knowledge like that you would think that this person would get
• 32:36
  called up or this guy will get an opportunity.
• 32:38
  It could be a reliever as well. Someone that I feel like people
• 32:44
  forget about is Didier Fuentes. And he did get called up last
• 32:48
  year, but he got called up so abruptly just, you know, like
• 32:52
  out of nowhere. I can't remember who what the
• 32:55
  reason was, but it was someone got injured and they kept him in
• 32:59
  too long. Like after that first game that
• 33:02
  he pitched that he started against the Marlins, that was,
• 33:06
  you could clearly tell he was not ready.
• 33:10
  And then they kept him in the rotation for like 2 weeks, two
• 33:13
  or three weeks after that. And I'm like, send him back
• 33:16
  down, you know, like you're just further lowering his self esteem
• 33:21
  right now. He's not ready.
• 33:23
  You know, let's, this is not helping anyone.
• 33:26
  And then he gets injured after he gets sent back down.
• 33:30
  But I feel like this year he's really going to have a fresh
• 33:33
  start. He's had some Major League
• 33:36
  experience and he's going to be coming into it with a different
• 33:41
  perspective. And I feel like we're going to
• 33:43
  see, you know, what we saw from him in the minor leagues before
• 33:49
  he got called up last last season.
• 33:51
  And I could see him getting a potentially getting a Major
• 33:56
  League start, getting called up at some point this season if
• 34:00
  needed, and actually doing well compared to the last last
• 34:05
  season. Yeah, because The thing is like,
• 34:09
  he was like one of the youngest starting pitchers.
• 34:12
  So young. That's the thing, right?
• 34:14
  And The thing is like, like you said, there's like pitching
• 34:17
  deaths for the Braves for you. Another guy I think that
• 34:21
  unfortunately he went through an injury and he was pretty
• 34:23
  promising was AJ Smith Shaver, do you think he gets an
• 34:25
  opportunity up at some point later this year once he once he
• 34:29
  fully healthy? I know he was injured I think at
• 34:31
  beginning of last year, right? Yeah, I want to say he got
• 34:35
  injured during the Blue Jays series, which was April.
• 34:40
  It was definitely at the beginning of the season because
• 34:43
  I remember when he got injured because he wasn't leaving the
• 34:47
  mound. And this was one of the times I
• 34:49
  was mad at Brian Snickers. He wasn't leaving the mound.
• 34:53
  You could tell that he something was going on.
• 34:55
  And Spencer Strider was the one that was like, hey, you got to
• 34:59
  get him out of there. And had he like left the mound?
• 35:03
  And I may be wrong about this, but I feel like I read somewhere
• 35:07
  that had he had not like thrown however many pitches after he
• 35:12
  got hurt, his injury wouldn't have, wouldn't have been nearly
• 35:16
  as intense as it was. And I was like, why did they let
• 35:20
  that happen? Because he was really like, I
• 35:23
  was so excited about him last season.
• 35:24
  I was like this, this guy is on fire.
• 35:27
  Like he's going to be awesome for us.
• 35:30
  And then boom, injury out. And I, I hope that he, I'm, I'm
• 35:35
  pretty sure they said that he may be coming back mid season or
• 35:40
  be be eligible healthy enough to come back mid season.
• 35:43
  So I'd like to see, I'd like to see that for sure if he if he's
• 35:48
  healthy enough to get back out there.
• 35:51
  Makes sense? It's a little bit about your
• 35:53
  perception of the landscape of the National League East with,
• 35:58
  you know, you got the Mets making moves.
• 36:00
  They bring in boba shet trade for Freddie Peralta.
• 36:05
  Yeah, just they brought in Devin Williams, replaced him with with
• 36:10
  their closer who resigned with the Dodgers.
• 36:14
  Yeah, names drawn A plank right now too.
• 36:18
  Edwin Diaz. Edwin Diaz, That's right.
• 36:20
  Yeah, Edwin Diaz, you know, they, they also got, they also
• 36:25
  got another pitcher in that deal that they that they traded with
• 36:28
  Freddy Peralta. So they're adding guys.
• 36:31
  The Phillies are trying to make moves.
• 36:33
  The other two teams, the division are just, you know,
• 36:35
  doing things that they usually do by trading guys.
• 36:38
  But what is your perception of of how you think that the the NL
• 36:43
  East and the landscape and how they'll all play out this
• 36:46
  season? So a lot of people are now
• 36:50
  worried about the Mets and or a lot of Braves fans.
• 36:54
  I don't think you should be because it doesn't matter who
• 36:57
  the Mets have on their team. The Mets are always going to
• 37:01
  Met, especially when they play. Us.
• 37:04
  I love it. I love it.
• 37:06
  And on a factual standpoint, they have three different
• 37:11
  position players playing in a position that these players have
• 37:15
  never played before in their career.
• 37:17
  Like they're they're putting Boba shed at third base.
• 37:20
  The man can barely play shortstop and you're going to
• 37:23
  make him try to get him to throw farther.
• 37:27
  OK, sure. I'm glad that you have that much
• 37:29
  confidence in him. And then Marcus Simeon is at
• 37:33
  2nd, I believe. And then I can't remember the
• 37:38
  guy's name, who they're putting at first, but like, the entire
• 37:41
  in field. Yes, yes, OK.
• 37:44
  Yeah, The entire in field is, you know, playing brand new
• 37:48
  positions. Everyone.
• 37:51
  I I mean, I was mad that they got Peralta because we were
• 37:54
  heavily in talks with him too, from what I heard.
• 37:56
  But yeah, he's not the end all be all of starting pitchers.
• 38:03
  And yeah, their rotation is strong, but it's not stronger
• 38:07
  than ours. And then the Phillies are good
• 38:11
  and that the moves that they've made, keeping Kyle Schwarber was
• 38:15
  definitely A plus for them. But their roster is also getting
• 38:20
  old. And age, you know, isn't always
• 38:24
  a huge factor, but we have to consider that.
• 38:28
  So I still feel like we have a good chance of being the
• 38:33
  division champs. The Mets, we'll have to see what
• 38:38
  happens with them, but I personally am not worried about
• 38:41
  them in the. Slightest I made a prediction
• 38:43
  that they don't make the playoffs again, but I I really
• 38:47
  think that's possible. So oh, I it's 100% possible.
• 38:51
  And they they went out by losing to the Marlins.
• 38:55
  Like that's the most you couldn't make that up.
• 38:59
  It's the most met thing you can do, right?
• 39:00
  Yes, yes. Well, well, also that with
• 39:04
  Philadelphia, if you mentioned that they lose Ranger Suarez,
• 39:07
  he's the innings eater, so they lose him.
• 39:08
  And I think the most underrated loss in my opinion is losing
• 39:13
  Harrison Bader, who could do a little bit of everything to the
• 39:15
  San Francisco yes. And I don't think at Dallas
• 39:18
  Garcia does the characteristics what Harris Bader would do
• 39:21
  because Bader it's far better defender, great hitter, clutch
• 39:25
  hitter, like he's done the and he's a playoff performer too.
• 39:27
  So that's why I'm curious to see what they're going to do with
• 39:30
  Nick Castianos because nobody there's no takers on on his his
• 39:35
  end and they're stuck with them and they might have to cut loose
• 39:38
  and they haven't really done much, which is kind of
• 39:40
  surprising to notion that yes, they did get drawn Duran and
• 39:44
  he's their surefire closer, but their bullpen is okay.
• 39:47
  Like that's why I'm curious to see how this plays out like,
• 39:50
  like, and it's a three team race, but I do think like the
• 39:54
  Braves might have the upper hand, but I'm curious to see
• 39:57
  what you guys do with the starting pitcher.
• 39:58
  Could could a starting pitcher help the the needs of what the
• 40:02
  Braves need to do to be like very like comfortable like
• 40:06
  heading into the season? Yeah, I believe so.
• 40:10
  And if we want to advance at all in the postseason, I think that
• 40:17
  another starting pitcher would definitely increase our chances
• 40:20
  because that's our problem is when we do get to the
• 40:22
  postseason, you know, it we the past couple of years at least
• 40:27
  when we've made it, we just choke, especially when we go to
• 40:30
  play the Phillies, which is going to be inevitable for the
• 40:34
  most part. If it's the Mets, you know,
• 40:37
  that's a different story. But the Phillies have always
• 40:39
  been our downfall in the postseason.
• 40:41
  And I think with Ranger gone, especially because he has been
• 40:47
  brutal to us, he's out of our division.
• 40:49
  So that's an advantage. And if we add a playoff caliber
• 40:55
  starting pitcher, then I think, you know, we have the upper hand
• 40:59
  depending on injuries. You know, that's our biggest
• 41:02
  fault. If, if, if the injuries happen
• 41:05
  again, then it's out the window. But right now with everyone
• 41:09
  healthy besides Murphy and Hassan Kim, I think we're
• 41:13
  looking good and they're coming back, you know, in the
• 41:15
  second-half. So that just increases our
• 41:19
  chances in my opinion. But you know, I'm, I'm known for
• 41:22
  being a really optimistic about the Braves and a lot of my
• 41:25
  followers tell me that, but I'm optimistic, but I'm also
• 41:29
  realistic. Like I'm I'm not delusional
• 41:32
  about it. I want to talk about this topic.
• 41:37
  It's very interesting and it has to do with the Braves ending
• 41:41
  their relationship with the the Main Street Sports Group and,
• 41:44
  and how did it come to an end? And it seems like the Braves are
• 41:48
  going to start a new network, their own network, I believe.
• 41:51
  And talk about how important is that now?
• 41:53
  Like if you look at the the track tracks now, like teams are
• 41:57
  starting to do that rather than relying on other networks to
• 42:00
  come to come into contracts or or get or having deals and just
• 42:04
  just have a temporary basis and just building up their own like
• 42:08
  the Braves, which they're starting.
• 42:10
  To do. So that company, they they're
• 42:17
  filing for bankruptcy or headed towards bankruptcy, I don't know
• 42:20
  the details, but I think the Braves had seen that coming for
• 42:23
  a while now and there was 9 teams that had broadcasting
• 42:29
  deals with them. What is it Main Street media
• 42:33
  that vandals umbrella? Yeah, yeah.
• 42:36
  That's. Correct.
• 42:38
  OK. So there were nine teams that
• 42:40
  had deals with them at the beginning of the offseason and
• 42:44
  then all of us, we cancelled those contracts and the eight
• 42:51
  other teams signed on with MLB Media.
• 42:54
  We did not. We were the only team that did
• 42:56
  not go under the MLB Media umbrella, and with good reason.
• 43:00
  I mean, I read earlier this week, was it Cleveland, maybe
• 43:06
  one of the Ohio teams, their contract details with the MLB,
• 43:10
  they're basically taking like a $20 million pay cut to go with
• 43:14
  the MLB them even them, you know what Vandal had offered them for
• 43:19
  this season. But nobody wants to sign with
• 43:22
  somebody that's going bankrupt. I understand that, But that's,
• 43:24
  that's a huge pay cut. And if we start our own
• 43:27
  broadcast network, we have the the volume of audience in the
• 43:33
  range to do that because we're the only team in like a 56 state
• 43:37
  radius, something crazy like that.
• 43:40
  We have fans all over the Southeast and I've even talked
• 43:44
  to fans in the in the Midwest, the Northeast, because of the
• 43:49
  TBS deal back in the day that created Braves fans all over the
• 43:53
  country. So to me, this is super
• 43:58
  strategic and it is going to be profitable.
• 44:01
  Of course they're going to partner with, you know, local TV
• 44:04
  affiliate and a streamer. I've heard either Amazon or
• 44:09
  Apple TV for streaming services. But either way, I'm super
• 44:15
  excited about it because that's going to be more revenue and we
• 44:21
  do a lot of revenue off of our broadcasting and now we're
• 44:25
  cutting out the middle man. And that's going to hopefully be
• 44:28
  revenue that we can reinvest in the organization, in the in the
• 44:32
  club and especially when it comes to extensions.
• 44:36
  I'm hoping that this increased revenue from our from our own
• 44:40
  network can ensure that we extend Ronald Acuna Junior as
• 44:44
  soon as possible. Yeah, that's such a such a big
• 44:48
  deal with that because now, like if you see like we're Jays fans,
• 44:52
  we have our own TV network, it's become a monumental deal.
• 44:55
  The Yankees have it. The Dodgers have like a 13,
• 44:57
  which is crazy to think because I don't know if you've seen this
• 45:01
  but the Dodgers have 80%. Revenue.
• 45:04
  From from their team, which is insane to think like and I know
• 45:08
  that happened such a time ago. It's it's an unfair advantage to
• 45:11
  compare. To very it's it's so unfair and
• 45:14
  didn't they get that through a divorce settlement from the old
• 45:18
  owner? Correct, Correct.
• 45:19
  That was back in 2012, thirteen with the when Frank McCourt used
• 45:23
  to be the owner and he, he, he, he was obliged.
• 45:25
  Ridiculous. I know it's insane and and it's
• 45:28
  crazy that Frank McCourt still owned the the parking lot, but I
• 45:32
  think recently he just sold it. So you got I guess you got a
• 45:36
  share back, right, Which is yeah, it's crazy.
• 45:39
  It's insane. No, but I think also like you
• 45:42
  said about like with TBS now, like because they're the
• 45:44
  nostalgia of TBS like that they always had guys that always had
• 45:49
  like with Skip Carey, right, like used to be the broadcaster
• 45:53
  and then I think his his son Chip now he's with Saint Louis
• 45:57
  now. Like is that is that important
• 45:59
  now? Like just to nostal, is it still
• 46:00
  going to be on TBS to a certain occasion the Braves games?
• 46:06
  I don't know if they would. I would love for them to go with
• 46:09
  TBS, but TBS when we were with TBSTBS had a local affiliate in
• 46:14
  Atlanta. They don't have that anymore.
• 46:18
  It's only a national network now.
• 46:19
  So I don't know the logistics of that.
• 46:21
  But I will tell you, anytime I talk about the broadcast deal
• 46:26
  and the potential, what potentially is going to happen,
• 46:29
  so many people comment on my post saying they want to bring
• 46:33
  back TBS. It's like a, you know, the
• 46:36
  majority of Braves fans miss that.
• 46:38
  That's people my age. You know, we grew up with that
• 46:40
  as little kids watching Braves on TBS.
• 46:44
  And I would love for it to happen, but I just don't see it
• 46:46
  happening logistically. I'll tell you this, you said
• 46:50
  about it creating Braves fans across the country.
• 46:54
  I live in Canada and I grew up watching the Braves on TBS.
• 46:58
  Yeah, me too. It was like 15 years old, you
• 47:01
  know? Yeah.
• 47:02
  Well, like we, we both grew up watching the Braves.
• 47:05
  And it's kind of like, you know, that was like a team that drew
• 47:08
  to me, even though I wasn't a Braves fan per SE, they still, I
• 47:12
  still enjoyed watching them. Like I remember guys like Andrew
• 47:15
  Jones and Chipper. And.
• 47:17
  Yeah, you know, all that, those great teams, Ryan Klesko and
• 47:20
  like, I mean like just David Justice and you know, just goes
• 47:24
  on, right. So McGrath, of course, but.
• 47:28
  Yeah, we really were America's team there for a little bit.
• 47:31
  I still think we're America's team, but.
• 47:35
  I love it. I love it.
• 47:38
  Well, let me let me ask you about some of the headlines
• 47:41
  heading into spring trading. What, what type what, what are
• 47:45
  the headlines that intrigue you with the Braves heading into,
• 47:49
  you know, pitchers and catchers reporting in a couple weeks?
• 47:54
  I was looking at the, the press release today about the guys who
• 47:59
  got in our eyes and I'm interested.
• 48:04
  Well, I mean, some of those guys that, you know, I kind of was
• 48:07
  expecting to get spring training invitations.
• 48:11
  But I'm, I'm interested to see what's going to play out there
• 48:15
  with like Alex Lodi's, especially because, you know, we
• 48:19
  need a shortstop and even better if we can develop one and have a
• 48:24
  homegrown superstar shortstop in a couple of years.
• 48:28
  I don't see him getting any Major League playing time this
• 48:31
  season, but, you know, potentially next season.
• 48:34
  Wait, is it Alex? Lady says he is the shortstop.
• 48:37
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 48:38
  There's a couple of them. Yeah.
• 48:41
  Yeah, I second guess myself there for a second.
• 48:43
  I do that with the minor league guys.
• 48:44
  I'm like, hold on, hold on. Got the right name, right?
• 48:48
  Yeah, I get. It but yeah, other than that I
• 48:54
  haven't seen any other big headlines.
• 48:58
  Could you lately? Like could you see any like
• 49:01
  pitching like any pitchers that could like because I remember a
• 49:04
  few years ago when Spencer Strider came as a reliever and
• 49:08
  he made the roster and he started being lights out and
• 49:11
  they convert into a starting pitcher and he became a hell of
• 49:13
  a pitcher. Could you see something similar
• 49:15
  like that? Like like you said, you
• 49:17
  mentioned about DDA Fernandez could be an option or like
• 49:20
  Ronaldo, whoever, whoever. Do you think that could be an
• 49:23
  option? It could be our Jr.
• 49:24
  Richie. Could you see your Jr.
• 49:25
  Richie like break camp if if all goes well?
• 49:27
  Because Alex is very aggressive with guys in the minors that
• 49:30
  could be brought up to the major no matter if you're AA or AAA.
• 49:35
  Yeah, yeah, I of all of the pitching prospects, Jr.
• 49:40
  Ritchie is probably the one I could see most likely getting
• 49:45
  pulled up as a starter this season.
• 49:48
  This season. The other ones maybe, maybe Cam
• 49:52
  Community, I don't know. But it all depends on how it
• 49:59
  plays out during spring training and injury wise.
• 50:02
  You know, if if, if we have the same repeats of injuries, which
• 50:08
  you know, knock on wood, we don't.
• 50:10
  But if something similar to last season were to happen to JRH,
• 50:13
  for sure is going to come up. And it's funny you mentioned
• 50:18
  Spencer Strider because I've had a lot of people mention this to
• 50:21
  me. Like in my on my TikTok, they
• 50:25
  have suggested moving Spencer Strider to the bullpen and
• 50:29
  moving him down to be a reliever with his new level of
• 50:34
  performance, which I could see, you know, if he stays the way he
• 50:41
  is. But I don't, I don't like that
• 50:43
  idea. I'd much rather him stay as
• 50:45
  starting pitcher. But it is an interesting
• 50:46
  thought, and it wasn't one that had crossed my mind until people
• 50:50
  brought it up to me. But, you know, we do have all of
• 50:53
  this starting pitching depth. Somebody.
• 50:55
  And I've also heard, you know, Ronaldo Lopez potentially
• 50:58
  getting moved to the bullpen as well, even though he's
• 51:01
  explicitly stated he does not want to do that.
• 51:05
  But I mean, somebody, something, something's got to, you know,
• 51:10
  somebody's going to get moved eventually.
• 51:13
  You would have to think, you would have to think, right?
• 51:16
  So this this coming year, so they're finally bringing of
• 51:20
  their finding using this element for the first time in it.
• 51:24
  This was the thing that that that was needed for years, like
• 51:27
  the ABS, the system that benefits from pitchers and
• 51:32
  catchers calling for strikes and balls and challenging.
• 51:35
  And and what are your thoughts about that?
• 51:37
  Because we all grew up with with natural umpires just calling it.
• 51:41
  And, you know, sometimes they have these blame calls and then
• 51:44
  they get to arguments like, do you think it's a bit of a you
• 51:46
  think it's going to get to a point that like it's going to be
• 51:49
  a little bit of a lost art? I know that Taylor Wallace last
• 51:53
  year, I think it was against the Astros, I think he tapped his
• 51:55
  head twice while the umpire that he got it chanted right.
• 51:58
  Could we see? Like, yeah, like how much would
• 52:02
  it benefit with the ABS overall? Like how important is it now?
• 52:05
  Like, even though like we we never had it in the past.
• 52:09
  I I personally am here for it. I like that idea.
• 52:13
  And from what I understand, there is still going to be a
• 52:16
  human umpire behind the plate. And if like they question the
• 52:22
  ABS and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I
• 52:26
  understand, you can challenge what the ABS says and then the
• 52:29
  human umpire can decide. Is that right?
• 52:32
  Is that how it's going to work? Yeah, I think so.
• 52:34
  Like if they if they feel like in the bad call, then they yeah,
• 52:38
  they they're going to do it in spring training.
• 52:40
  They've done it the last couple spring trainings, right.
• 52:42
  And they've been doing it in the.
• 52:43
  Challenges like Raptor helmet if you want to challenge it or
• 52:46
  whatever. OK.
• 52:47
  Yeah, OK. Yeah.
• 52:48
  And then they challenge the call.
• 52:51
  I can tell you just this past season alone, I have seen so
• 52:55
  many game changing bad calls that it's made me wish that we
• 53:01
  had it the entire season. So and it really it just one bad
• 53:06
  call, you know, can change the entire outcome of a game.
• 53:10
  Like there's so much relying on what that umpire sees and if a
• 53:16
  computer can do it more accurately than let the computer
• 53:20
  do it or whatever it is, AII don't know.
• 53:25
  I think it's now like we look at that and I don't know how it's
• 53:28
  going to work. I believe the umpires are going
• 53:30
  to still be at home plate regardless, right, whether they
• 53:32
  call it right. So like like they're not going
• 53:35
  to use robot, are they? Do you think robots could be?
• 53:38
  Do you think they're going to use robots, or do you think
• 53:39
  that's like pretty much a dead conversation?
• 53:44
  I would hope they wouldn't use robots.
• 53:46
  Yeah, I hope so too. It's like, yeah, because it's a
• 53:49
  it's a loss. You don't you don't want to
• 53:51
  change completely, right? Like, I think it's OK to have
• 53:54
  the Awvs system, right? But let's wrap up this question
• 53:59
  here. And I think this is important
• 54:00
  too. I think this is for all baseball
• 54:02
  fans, right? And the CBA expires on December
• 54:08
  1st, 2026, after the 2026 season.
• 54:11
  And we know what's going on in baseball.
• 54:14
  You see the way the pay, the payrolls are, how inflated it
• 54:17
  is. And you look at the team, you
• 54:21
  look at the team and you say to yourself that look at the
• 54:25
  payrolls and you look at the fact that the Dodgers are doing
• 54:28
  things that no team should be doing.
• 54:30
  Like it's hard to do it like, like what are your thoughts
• 54:33
  about the CBA and what, what are your thoughts about like what,
• 54:37
  what they should do to negotiate this and get this resolved?
• 54:42
  Yeah, I have. I have a few thoughts on this.
• 54:47
  So with the whole obviously a lockout seems imminent and I
• 54:52
  would say more so from the owners perspective, but there's
• 54:58
  a lot of doom and gloom surrounding that opinion wise.
• 55:02
  Some people are saying we're not going to get baseball at all in
• 55:05
  2027. I don't see that happening.
• 55:07
  The MLB makes way too much money off of baseball games.
• 55:11
  They're not going to. The owners are not going to
• 55:13
  stand for that. The players are not going to
• 55:15
  stand for that. I say worst case scenario, it
• 55:19
  lasts until May or June and then we're back to business.
• 55:26
  What I see happening, a lot of people are saying salary, floor,
• 55:29
  salary caps, but we need to restructure the luxury tax to
• 55:34
  where it's more effective because obviously, like with the
• 55:39
  Dodgers, they don't care about it.
• 55:42
  It's not a factor for them. And I don't know if this is
• 55:47
  something that they can work into the negotiations, but this
• 55:51
  whole deferring salaries thing just doesn't sit right with me,
• 55:57
  especially because I'm an accountant by trade.
• 56:00
  So that means it's like sitting on your books on the balance
• 56:05
  sheet instead of the income statement.
• 56:07
  And I don't know it just to an extent it's fine.
• 56:11
  But like, show his contract and Kyle Tucker's contract, like
• 56:15
  they're what, only getting paid between like combined $1,000,000
• 56:20
  this year? Like that's what's going on the
• 56:22
  payroll or something. I don't.
• 56:24
  It just, it seems like a loophole that shouldn't exist,
• 56:28
  especially for a team like the Dodgers who have the money to
• 56:34
  spend in that year. And you know, like something
• 56:39
  needs to be done about that. There needs to be more
• 56:41
  consequences for the luxury tax and the tears or the competitive
• 56:48
  balance tax, whatever you want to call it.
• 56:51
  But at the same time, salary floors, salary caps could be
• 56:58
  advantageous to an extent. But at this point, like these
• 57:02
  salaries are just getting out of hand and we're seeing people
• 57:06
  getting paid who don't deserve, you know, they aren't worth what
• 57:10
  these here's my examples of Kyle Tucker.
• 57:14
  His contract is what, 60 million a year AV He's not worth that at
• 57:21
  all. But then he changes the market
• 57:23
  for everybody else. So now a healthy and MVP Ronald
• 57:29
  Cunha junior compared to what Kyle Tucker has just been given,
• 57:34
  he's going to be worth 80 million a year.
• 57:37
  And that's, I think, you know, I, he obviously is a very good
• 57:40
  player, but that's outrageous. And it just it, it inflates the
• 57:45
  market and it just gives an unfair advantage on.
• 57:49
  I just think the whole contract situation has gotten out of
• 57:53
  hand. And it's not even a matter of we
• 57:56
  want the best player, it's a matter of we want the most
• 58:00
  popular player. So more people will come to
• 58:05
  games and buy the jerseys and we'll pay whatever to get the
• 58:08
  most popular person because that's what's going to make us
• 58:11
  money whether they perform well or not.
• 58:14
  And it's true. So I don't know where.
• 58:17
  I think we'll definitely see why.
• 58:19
  I'd like to see a lot of things restructured, but I hope it it's
• 58:25
  all done with the intention of benefiting the players, the fans
• 58:30
  and the owners of teams who can't afford to do things like
• 58:34
  the Dodgers. Absolutely, You put it.
• 58:37
  You put it best into your last statement.
• 58:39
  Teams that can't afford to do what the Dodgers do, you talk
• 58:44
  about like like there's no reason why that their salary
• 58:49
  shouldn't count against the cap. And like they she shouldn't be
• 58:53
  able to circumvent that by saying, but by prolong, like,
• 58:57
  OK, deferring money down the road, you should be able to.
• 59:01
  If you want to defer it, fine, but you should.
• 59:03
  But that money should all count against a cap.
• 59:06
  It shouldn't just one million, right?
• 59:07
  You know what I mean? Yeah.
• 59:10
  And, and, but a friend of mine the other day brought up
• 59:13
  something, you know, like the eventually the, the because
• 59:17
  you're not just ducking the tax on the team, you're ducking the
• 59:20
  federal government too. And I never thought about it
• 59:24
  that way. But you know, aren't they?
• 59:25
  They're going to start caring eventually about this.
• 59:28
  They've got to, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
• 59:30
  Like they're not going to stand by and not get not get their
• 59:33
  piece, you know, like, but let me ask you this about about one
• 59:38
  thing with the with the QO's. Do you think that they do away
• 59:41
  with these qualifying offers? I would like them to.
• 59:46
  I don't. To me, it just seems, I mean,
• 59:50
  it's, you know, it benefits the team that the player, you know,
• 59:55
  denies it for, but it doesn't. It just makes it harder for the
• 59:59
  free agency market because draft picks are so important and.
• 1:00:05
  You know what? Why is there a penalty for
• 1:00:09
  having for signing someone with a QO?
• 1:00:13
  You know, like I I've never really understood that aspect,
• 1:00:17
  but I also think that they should implement a free agent
• 1:00:22
  signing deadline. And it doesn't have to be, you
• 1:00:25
  know, super early in the offseason, but having guys
• 1:00:28
  hanging out like frame Rivaldo is up until today with, you
• 1:00:32
  know, pitchers and catchers report in a week.
• 1:00:34
  That's insane to me. And Boris is notorious for
• 1:00:39
  letting his clients hang out all offseason so he can get the best
• 1:00:44
  deal. And I just don't think that
• 1:00:46
  that's fair to the players or the fans because we want to know
• 1:00:50
  what our teams are going to look like as soon as possible, like
• 1:00:55
  just holding out for money and it.
• 1:00:58
  Am I wrong in saying that every other national sports league has
• 1:01:01
  a free agent signing deadline or is that incorrect like the MLB
• 1:01:06
  is the only league that doesn't? Yeah, I think, I think, I think
• 1:01:10
  it's because of the QO. Like I remember that was it.
• 1:01:14
  Kendrick Roz got Q old a long time ago and he didn't sign
• 1:01:18
  until after the draft. Because obviously when it comes
• 1:01:22
  to the QO, when you sign a player.
• 1:01:23
  So Detroit loses I think one draft pick because they were
• 1:01:26
  under their tax. But like I think if you're
• 1:01:28
  repeat tax offenders, you lose draft 2 draft picks, right?
• 1:01:31
  I think that's also comes as a factor, right, with all that.
• 1:01:34
  That's why I think with the, that's why I think with like a
• 1:01:38
  team like the Braves, they haven't signed a guy who was
• 1:01:39
  killed in what, 6 years? So it's been a while, right?
• 1:01:42
  So I think that. Yeah, we avoid it heavily.
• 1:01:45
  Right. And I think it that's also comes
• 1:01:48
  into play, right, with so many guys, I think at this point, I
• 1:01:52
  think they have to remove it all together, like if they're going
• 1:01:54
  to do. And I think you also lose like
• 1:01:56
  international money too, right? That like it's a little bit of
• 1:01:59
  everything, right? So, but I mean, it comes down to
• 1:02:02
  whether you're going to give up assets by a trade or you're
• 1:02:05
  going to have to give up like draft picks and international
• 1:02:08
  money. So I guess there's sponsor
• 1:02:10
  consequence if you want to go get the player you want.
• 1:02:12
  But I mean, you got to trade, you got to get something to give
• 1:02:14
  something, right? So.
• 1:02:17
  Did you mean Kendras? Did you mean Kendras Morales?
• 1:02:19
  You said Kendra Rojas. Morales, Morales Morales.
• 1:02:23
  Yeah, that's why I thought you meant.
• 1:02:24
  Now that James Prosser got traded to the towards now.
• 1:02:29
  Kendras, you said? Kendrick Rojas.
• 1:02:31
  Yeah, Morales is what I thought. Kendras.
• 1:02:33
  Morales Yeah, Yeah. So I mean that, yeah.
• 1:02:37
  I mean, we'll, we'll see what happens.
• 1:02:39
  But Aaron, we appreciate you doing this.
• 1:02:42
  This was fun, actually. We had a great time.
• 1:02:44
  Doing this a lot of fun. Especially on actually on
• 1:02:47
  National Women's Day, like it's awesome.
• 1:02:50
  Where can we find you? Social media and everywhere
• 1:02:52
  else. TikTok is my main platform for
• 1:02:56
  Braves content but you can find me on there, Instagram and X all
• 1:03:01
  at Aaron on deck. It's awesome.
• 1:03:06
  This was really fun. We enjoyed ourselves so much.
• 1:03:09
  Thanks for joining us again. Maybe we can get you back down
• 1:03:12
  the road sometime. Yeah, absolutely I'd.
• 1:03:14
  Love to awesome, but thank you very much for joining us.
• 1:03:18
  It was it was great. Keep up the good work too.
• 1:03:21
  Thank you. Thanks for having me.
• 1:03:23
  Oh, you're very welcome and we will place the description below
• 1:03:27
  where you can find Aaron on deck.
• 1:03:28
  But till next time, take care, be kind to each other.
• 1:03:32
  Signing off from the Sports Ave. Twisted podcast on Wednesday,
• 1:03:36
  February 4th, 2026.