Latest / Foul Territory / Bat speed facts/myths + Braves Manager search update

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Bat speed facts/myths + Braves Manager search update · Foul Territory

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what he said.
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Speaker 2: That's what he said.
0:03
Speaker 1: That's what he said.
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Speaker 2: That's what he said. Okay, we have great articles out
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Speaker 2: there on the Blue Jays and their superstar hitting coach
0:17
Speaker 2: David Popkins. He's gotten a lot of attention, and he
0:20
Speaker 2: actually spent a lot of time with the Dodgers. At first,
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Speaker 2: he was trying to make it. He didn't make it.
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Speaker 2: Ends up hired by the Dodgers as a player coach
0:29
Speaker 2: because they didn't have any coach spots. And Robert ben Skoyak,
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Speaker 2: who's been involved with the Dodgers for a long time now,
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Speaker 2: called him and he was like, Hey, what are you doing.
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Speaker 2: He's like, oh, the Phillies are going to hire me
0:38
Speaker 2: for a job within their minor league system. He's like, Nope,
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Speaker 2: you're coming to us. So he stopped that and he
0:42
Speaker 2: got him. He's like, this guy special eventually moves on
0:45
Speaker 2: to hitting coach of the Twins. Now he's with the
0:47
Speaker 2: Blue Jays. Great story, and the guys love him, and
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Speaker 2: they said the adjustments they're making are so much quicker
0:52
Speaker 2: these days. But what I want to focus on here,
0:55
Speaker 2: Kratz with you first, because then you're going to jump
0:57
Speaker 2: during the segment, at some point is bat speed. Bat
1:00
Speaker 2: speed is now measurable. We have statistics for that that
1:02
Speaker 2: came out. I believe last year for the first time,
1:05
Speaker 2: the Blue Jays were able to increase their bat speed.
1:08
Speaker 2: And I want to add one thing to the mix
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Speaker 2: here from Brent Rooker because it's a big topic of
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Speaker 2: conversation and Rooker is one of the smartest brains in
1:15
Speaker 2: the sport. And he tweeted about this, and of course
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Speaker 2: it got a ton of love. He was tweeting about
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Speaker 2: the fact that the concept is not new. He said,
1:23
Speaker 2: the fact that the idea of quote, swinging the bat
1:25
Speaker 2: faster is better is considered new age analytical thinking is insane.
1:30
Speaker 2: Gaining speed, power, force production has been beneficial for every
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Speaker 2: athlete and every sport since the beginning of time. Pitchers
1:35
Speaker 2: who throw harder have higher ceilings. Golfers who swing the
1:38
Speaker 2: club faster have higher ceilings. Running back to run faster
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Speaker 2: have higher ceilings, basketball players who jump higher have higher ceilings, etc.
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Speaker 2: Does it mean that those who are bigger, faster, stronger
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Speaker 2: will automatically be better?
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Speaker 1: Of course not.
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Speaker 2: Skill, mental makeup, competitive edge prep and a thousand other
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Speaker 2: things all play a massive part, and overall success. But
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Speaker 2: the fact that being more physically explosive and producing more
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Speaker 2: force gives you a greater chance for success has always
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Speaker 2: will always be true. Crats your thoughts.
2:05
Speaker 1: Thank you Brent for saying exactly what everybody was thinking.
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Speaker 1: And in no way am I trying to be like,
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Speaker 1: get off my lawn, old guy. But this is information
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Speaker 1: that I think you could look at it. I think
2:17
Speaker 1: you look at it and say, Okay, the extremes from
2:19
Speaker 1: last year, not this year. The extremes were John Carlos, Stanton,
2:24
Speaker 1: Luisa Rise. You're gonna say, Gee has a faster back.
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Speaker 1: Everybody else is in the middle. There. The difference is
2:32
Speaker 1: these numbers are so close. And when you're talking about
2:36
Speaker 1: like increasing your bat speed, that's what everybody wants to do.
2:39
Speaker 1: You'd hear it every year in August. Minor leagues, big leagues.
2:42
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go. You go up to the training You'll
2:44
Speaker 1: go up to the strength guy. You're like, hey, I
2:46
Speaker 1: want to cut some weight, get stronger, get faster, and
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Speaker 1: be more flexible. Well yeah, duh, that's the whole point.
2:56
Speaker 1: You want to push yourself to the limit. I remember
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Speaker 1: Mike Zanin was hurt when I went over to the race,
3:02
Speaker 1: and he went in on one of their first like
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Speaker 1: biometric like room things that they were doing, and he
3:08
Speaker 1: hit off the tee and he was hurt. So he
3:11
Speaker 1: was like he was able to swing. I forget would
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Speaker 1: even he hurt, But obviously he was swinging, so it
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Speaker 1: wasn't anything crazy. But he started using like smaller bats,
3:21
Speaker 1: He started using lighter bats to test the bat speed.
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Speaker 1: So with bat speed, with increased bat speed, there are negatives.
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Speaker 1: John Carlos Stanton has had last year. The fastest bat
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Speaker 1: speed this year was O'Neil Cruz. Those guys swing a
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Speaker 1: miss a lot. Why did they swing a miss a lot?
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Speaker 1: Because they have fast bat speed, they should be able
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Speaker 1: to get to everything. Yes, but the bat stays in
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Speaker 1: the zone a lot shorter amount of time, even if
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Speaker 1: it's the same path as Luisa Rives stays in the zone.
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Speaker 1: So do you just blindly increase your bat speed. No,
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Speaker 1: you do it methodically and understanding what that extra bat
4:00
Speaker 1: speed does. Do I have to stay to right center
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Speaker 1: instead of trying to drive the ball to center? Do
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Speaker 1: I have to I'm a pool hitter. Adding more bat
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Speaker 1: speed for a guy like East Soak parades might not
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Speaker 1: be it because he always gets to the balls inside,
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Speaker 1: he always extends on the balls away. So just increasing
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Speaker 1: bat speed doesn't make you a better hitter, but it
4:19
Speaker 1: is one of the compartments of it. And I think
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Speaker 1: it's a way that analytically, guys that never played can't
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Speaker 1: see that, but they can say, hey, this is something,
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Speaker 1: this is a trend that works. But they also shouldn't
4:34
Speaker 1: only evaluate guys on the fact that, Okay, if I
4:37
Speaker 1: have a seventy four mount Our batspeed and Todd has
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Speaker 1: a seventy three mount Our bat speed, well aer Krafts
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Speaker 1: must be a better player. You look at the baseball
4:45
Speaker 1: guards and Todd's trophy case. That will tell you that's
4:49
Speaker 1: not the case.
4:51
Speaker 3: I want to make a point here too, when we're
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Speaker 3: talking about bat speed, so people understand it's not like
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Speaker 3: so I'm in my stan's not here the bat speed.
5:00
Speaker 3: It's when they're about to get on impact. So it's
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Speaker 3: it's a little shorter. If you can see, it's there
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Speaker 3: on impact like a tennis player when they hit it.
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Speaker 3: That's the impact. It's not starting from right here when
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Speaker 3: you're about to swing. It's the impact right when you're
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Speaker 3: about to meet the baseball. And I think That's what
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Speaker 3: people got to understand too. As a hitter. If people
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Speaker 3: are thinking about this and reading it and understanding it
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Speaker 3: and going through it, they're like, oh my god, he
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Speaker 3: must start his swing so hard as the swings. No,
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Speaker 3: the power comes from about a foot from the connection
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Speaker 3: and the whip through the zone and everything takes care
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Speaker 3: of it, the bat speed, the pitcher speed, the direction
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Speaker 3: of the baseball, where you're hitting the baseball. And I
5:42
Speaker 3: you know, I do lessons for kids and talk to
5:44
Speaker 3: kids all the time. I tell them, just swing as
5:45
Speaker 3: hard as you can. Let's see what happens. And we
5:47
Speaker 3: go through a drill to see how hard they can
5:49
Speaker 3: and they're they're swinging from their shoulder and their back hip.
5:52
Speaker 3: I said, now go slow to the ball and try
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Speaker 3: and swing as hard as you can rate before your
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Speaker 3: impacting the ball. And you see a bigger difference. Yeah.
6:01
Speaker 3: I think Brett ruckerd was really good at explanations. And
6:04
Speaker 3: I think you know, when we're talking about this, this
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Speaker 3: is something that you know has been going on forever.
6:10
Speaker 3: In my opinion, bats batsby how do we gain more bats?
6:13
Speaker 3: Bid was the impact right before you hit the baseball,
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Speaker 3: And if you can master that you're gonna hit the
6:18
Speaker 3: ball a lot harder.
6:19
Speaker 2: I have a follow up, Is it helpful that you
6:22
Speaker 2: have numbers? I think back to our conversation with Shane
6:26
Speaker 2: Bieber yesterday Kratz and he's like, yeah, we kind of
6:29
Speaker 2: joke around about how we're looking at the iPad and
6:31
Speaker 2: we're checking out the numbers and we try not to
6:33
Speaker 2: make it everything, but because it is nice to sometimes
6:35
Speaker 2: be like, oh, I felt felt good on that one
6:38
Speaker 2: and then checked the numbers, and he's like, yeah, vertical
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Speaker 2: break good or spin rate on that one good.
6:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, It's it's so important you have numbers because we're
6:48
Speaker 1: talking about fine, fine, I had it. I had it
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Speaker 1: pulled up here, I have to I'm gonna pull it
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Speaker 1: up again. I have I have all of this year's numbers.
6:57
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, last year's numbers I haven't pulled up right now.
7:00
Speaker 1: John Carlos Stanton has eighty one point two mile an
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Speaker 1: hour average batspeed. That's not his peak, that's just his average. Okay,
7:08
Speaker 1: then you start. Then you go down to number fifty
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Speaker 1: in the league, you're talking Willie Domas still above average
7:14
Speaker 1: seventy three point six. When we go down to below average,
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Speaker 1: you're talking about guys like Logan o'happy friend of the Show,
7:24
Speaker 1: Bo Naylor, Pete Crow Armstrong all at seventy point six.
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Speaker 1: So you're talking about a three mile an hour difference
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Speaker 1: in bat speed average. Seems like a lot, but it's
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Speaker 1: a very fine minute amount. So how do you make
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Speaker 1: your swing the most powerful and the most consistent? And
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Speaker 1: I think that's where we miss some of these when
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Speaker 1: people say analytics, these numbers are awesome. I need to
7:52
Speaker 1: know that if I you know, there was one point
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Speaker 1: in my career where you could have probably ground sawdust
8:00
Speaker 1: out of the handle on my back because I would
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Speaker 1: hold it so hard. And the more you just let
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Speaker 1: that thing relax in your hands, the faster your bat
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Speaker 1: speed's gonna be. Now that's what I was told. If
8:13
Speaker 1: I had the numbers and said, okay, I'm gonna give
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Speaker 1: you the most like I'm holding this handle so hard,
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Speaker 1: swing and then you see it in a number and
8:23
Speaker 1: you go, oh wait, I held that real loose in
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Speaker 1: my hands, and I had better bat speed. Now all
8:28
Speaker 1: of a sudden, you can work from there and you're
8:30
Speaker 1: not like wondering, well I swung light that time? I
8:33
Speaker 1: held it light, but I still swung a miss because
8:35
Speaker 1: the game's hard. The game is hard, but knowing that
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Speaker 1: you can go from there, it's a jumping off point
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Speaker 1: to say, Okay, this makes me a better player because
8:43
Speaker 1: my bat speed's better, But what are the issues that
8:45
Speaker 1: come with it?
8:48
Speaker 2: It's good stuff. Do you feel the same way where
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Speaker 2: if it was available you would take a little peak?
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Speaker 3: Yes? No, I mean I'm I'm the old school guy. Man.
9:00
Speaker 3: I'm just I was seeing and hit it. You're but
9:04
Speaker 3: that's the thing. But that's kind of what helped me.
9:07
Speaker 3: But at the same time, maybe I should have done
9:09
Speaker 3: a little bit more. I I always thought when I
9:12
Speaker 3: saw it, like I too much information, Scott. I was
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Speaker 3: just my brain. I'm like, nah, I'm too fried already
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Speaker 3: to even think about anything else besides seeing a fastball
9:21
Speaker 3: and hitting it and reacting you off speed them. If
9:24
Speaker 3: you look at the back of my baseball card is
9:25
Speaker 3: going to show you the power numbers and everything else.
9:28
Speaker 3: I was really bad at hitting off speed pitches, and
9:30
Speaker 3: I think maybe with a little bit of help, yeah,
9:34
Speaker 3: maybe I could have instead of sitting fastball the whole time,
9:37
Speaker 3: could have been ready for an off speed pitch and
9:40
Speaker 3: took a chance. But it's just something that I couldn't
9:42
Speaker 3: really get off of. So yeah, thanks for that. That
9:45
Speaker 3: makes me feel better seeing those things on there. Yes,
9:50
Speaker 3: I was. I was that guy Craty knew it too,
9:54
Speaker 3: fastballs in, sliders away and what if the pitcher made
9:58
Speaker 3: a mistake. I was getting to him that.
9:59
Speaker 2: That, Yeah, you made him pay, don't miss. But my
10:04
Speaker 2: question is it's one thing in a game. Would you
10:07
Speaker 2: use this at all, MVP? Would you use this in
10:10
Speaker 2: the off season just to take a peek and see
10:12
Speaker 2: what it's looking like and see if that changes things
10:15
Speaker 2: for you? Because I get what you're saying in game,
10:17
Speaker 2: and we have examples. I mean, most of the league
10:20
Speaker 2: is like this, let's use tray a Savage. He's starting
10:22
Speaker 2: Game one. He was asked about how he uses information
10:26
Speaker 2: and he said, I'm old school and he's young. I mean,
10:28
Speaker 2: he's one of the youngest starters ever in the postseason
10:31
Speaker 2: in the World Series, I think second youngest ever to
10:33
Speaker 2: start game one. But he said he can't do any
10:36
Speaker 2: of that thinking during the game. He's like, I'm at
10:39
Speaker 2: my best when I'm blacked out. I'm just feeling. That
10:43
Speaker 2: doesn't mean he doesn't use any of that at other
10:46
Speaker 2: times on his pen day or in the off season, right,
10:51
Speaker 2: I mean, my guess is that he used information to
10:55
Speaker 2: get to where he's at. He didn't even have a
10:56
Speaker 2: splitter when he first got to school. So there are
10:58
Speaker 2: ads made, There were pitch tweaks, there were mechanical tweaks,
11:02
Speaker 2: and data and video cameras. All of that is very
11:06
Speaker 2: helpful for this stuff. So that's my question to you.
11:08
Speaker 2: If you're playing right now and it's the off season,
11:11
Speaker 2: and I'm like, hey, that's be the thing you want
11:13
Speaker 2: to just like, do your swings, do your thing. Let's
11:15
Speaker 2: just see what it's where it's at and track it
11:18
Speaker 2: all off season.
11:20
Speaker 1: Well, we didn't have it.
11:21
Speaker 2: We didn't have it, so it didn't matter, right, You're right,
11:23
Speaker 2: But would you have would you have taken a peak?
11:25
Speaker 2: Like if I'm if I'm here, right, I mean you're
11:27
Speaker 2: training here at home and I'm with you, and I'm like, yeah, yo,
11:30
Speaker 2: I'm going to bring the bat speed machines whatever or
11:34
Speaker 2: whatever the heck they use to measure it, right, the
11:36
Speaker 2: stack cast machine. Do you want to? You want it
11:39
Speaker 2: there so you can just see it's looking.
11:41
Speaker 3: I think I would have loved seeing it. What I've
11:44
Speaker 3: done with it, I don't know, you know what I mean,
11:46
Speaker 3: I would buy Hey, listen, you know these are the
11:48
Speaker 3: percentages in the zone where your hands need to be
11:50
Speaker 3: this and that. I had really good hitting coaches and
11:54
Speaker 3: they didn't really want to change anything. The couple of
11:56
Speaker 3: things they wanted to change where I'm making contact with
11:59
Speaker 3: the all and staying on a flat plane when I swung.
12:03
Speaker 3: That doesn't necessarily mean I was swinging flat, but it
12:06
Speaker 3: kept my mind thinking that it was coming down to
12:08
Speaker 3: the ball and getting back spin on it. But every
12:11
Speaker 3: one of my swings was not like that. But my
12:13
Speaker 3: mindset in VP was down to it long through. It
12:16
Speaker 3: just down to it long through, get that back spinn
12:19
Speaker 3: and go. And any numbers or metrics or videos that
12:24
Speaker 3: were around, if any they knew that, you know one,
12:29
Speaker 3: it wasn't really going to help me because my swing
12:31
Speaker 3: was unique as it was. I had an arm bar.
12:33
Speaker 3: It's tough to get away from that if that arm
12:35
Speaker 3: is not coming through and bending as it's coming through
12:37
Speaker 3: for the motion of your swing. So for me, I
12:40
Speaker 3: would have loved to see it, but at the same time,
12:42
Speaker 3: it would have probably been more information in my head
12:44
Speaker 3: what I really didn't need to know.
12:46
Speaker 2: That's good info.
12:47
Speaker 1: Right there.
12:48
Speaker 2: That's why we have this show, or part of the
12:50
Speaker 2: reason why. So hope you enjoyed it. If you have
12:52
Speaker 2: any other questions about what Todd father or krat said,
12:55
Speaker 2: I'll try and check it out at some point. Grandma
12:58
Speaker 2: Cauley joining us right now now. Fantastic job always covering
13:01
Speaker 2: the Atlanta Braves. Grant. Great to have you on the
13:04
Speaker 2: show and back again. This is a little earlier than
13:07
Speaker 2: anticipated because of course we'll get into some Braves moves,
13:11
Speaker 2: but we did want to give you a quick phone call.
13:13
Speaker 2: We were like, hey, what should we do for our
13:15
Speaker 2: one non World series segment. I'm like, who's going to
13:18
Speaker 2: be the next manager of the Atlanta Braves? So I
13:20
Speaker 2: just wanted to start there with you, Grant. What's the latest?
13:23
Speaker 2: This story has barely gotten any national coverage because it's
13:26
Speaker 2: World Series time.
13:27
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it's a really good question, I think in
13:29
Speaker 4: a lot of ways, because there was so much continuity
13:32
Speaker 4: for the Braves for so long. You track it back
13:34
Speaker 4: to nineteen ninety The Braves have had three managers since
13:36
Speaker 4: Bobby Cox stepped out of the GM role and back
13:39
Speaker 4: into the dugout. You had him for better than two decades.
13:42
Speaker 4: You had Freddy Gonzalez for a few years, and you
13:43
Speaker 4: had Brian Snitker for nearly a decade. This is just,
13:47
Speaker 4: I won't say uncharted territory for the Braves, but it's
13:49
Speaker 4: obviously going to be different. So I've been curious, you know,
13:52
Speaker 4: what attention would be given to somebody who's already on staff,
13:55
Speaker 4: whether that was a Walt Weiss or an Eddie Perez.
13:57
Speaker 4: I think those have been I mean, obviously Walt is
13:59
Speaker 4: man before. Eddie's been a managerial prospect for a while
14:03
Speaker 4: and does some work in the Winter League, and I
14:04
Speaker 4: think could be a manager one day. But then there's
14:07
Speaker 4: just that case to be made for do you want
14:09
Speaker 4: a different voice, do you want a younger voice? Do
14:10
Speaker 4: you want somebody outside the organization who can just bring
14:14
Speaker 4: something different in and see if that's something that could
14:17
Speaker 4: kind of spark a club that has gone through the
14:19
Speaker 4: last couple of years a lot of injuries, obviously, but
14:21
Speaker 4: there's been some lack of performance that really bit them
14:24
Speaker 4: offensively the past couple of years as well. So I
14:27
Speaker 4: say all of that to say, I'm not sure that
14:29
Speaker 4: there's a really clear answer. I think we've heard candidates
14:31
Speaker 4: from David Ross to Mark de Rosa and others who
14:34
Speaker 4: have big league experience. John Gibbons when he exited the
14:37
Speaker 4: Mets job, obviously, I think that got attention because he
14:39
Speaker 4: managed under Anthopolis in Toronto. But I don't know if
14:42
Speaker 4: there's a clear front runner right now. I'm sure that
14:44
Speaker 4: the Braves, as they always do, are moving silently and
14:47
Speaker 4: having all the conversations they want to so that they
14:50
Speaker 4: can break the news themselves. But it's a lot of
14:52
Speaker 4: conjecture and a lot of different directions that could go.
14:54
Speaker 1: I guess, but isn't there a Braves archetype like when
14:58
Speaker 1: you say, okay, Raves manager, can they go outside of
15:03
Speaker 1: the of the what you just said Freddie Gonzalez, Bobby Cox,
15:09
Speaker 1: you know, snit and say okay this organization needs this.
15:14
Speaker 1: If there's anybody that understands people, it's a it's Alexanthopolis.
15:19
Speaker 1: But is the Braves as an organization able to go
15:25
Speaker 1: away from that archetype of the older manager that's experienced
15:29
Speaker 1: and now this roster his experience. They just need a
15:33
Speaker 1: little prodding. Yeah, I think so.
15:36
Speaker 4: I mean, it's really kind of hard to handicap it
15:37
Speaker 4: because if you want to track it back to twenty sixteen,
15:40
Speaker 4: when Freddy Gonzalez was let go, Brian Snitker was only
15:43
Speaker 4: meant to come in there and just keep the ship,
15:46
Speaker 4: you know, afloat. Basically, they were going to reassess everything,
15:49
Speaker 4: and I think by the end of twenty seventeen there
15:52
Speaker 4: were some rumblings that, hey, you know, we're going to
15:53
Speaker 4: go a whole new direction in twenty eighteen, and then
15:55
Speaker 4: the Braves did. Because their general manager was let go,
15:58
Speaker 4: they had to go through a whole bunch of turmoil
16:00
Speaker 4: behind the scenes, and Alex Anthopolis came in and said, look,
16:02
Speaker 4: I just want to get to know this guy. So
16:04
Speaker 4: they built a relationship over time, and this I think
16:07
Speaker 4: represents really Alex's first opportunity to kind of look at
16:11
Speaker 4: it through his lens for what he wants and what
16:14
Speaker 4: he values in the manager, and I think Brian Snicker
16:17
Speaker 4: embodied a lot of those qualities. But they were kind
16:19
Speaker 4: of thrown together at least to start with. They just
16:21
Speaker 4: built a great partnership. So I think with that in mind,
16:24
Speaker 4: there's really no impetus to just keep its status quo
16:28
Speaker 4: or keep it with somebody who was under the Bobby
16:30
Speaker 4: Coxs coaching tree. But on the flip side of that coin,
16:33
Speaker 4: I'll also tell you that's a pretty good coaching tree.
16:35
Speaker 4: So if you do get somebody from there, I think
16:37
Speaker 4: it will still bring that continuity and that voice that
16:39
Speaker 4: the Braves are looking for. I think they just really
16:41
Speaker 4: have this unique chance for the first time in a
16:45
Speaker 4: while to really just assess what is it we need.
16:48
Speaker 4: What do some of these candidates have to offer, Whether
16:50
Speaker 4: that's a first time manager, which would be interesting and
16:53
Speaker 4: not necessarily what I expect, or if it's somebody who's
16:56
Speaker 4: just kind of younger in their managerial career who could
16:59
Speaker 4: stick around for a long time and maybe build himself
17:01
Speaker 4: into the next long line of continuity that the Braves
17:05
Speaker 4: have at the managerial spot.
17:07
Speaker 2: We're talking to Grant McCauley, who's a great follow on
17:09
Speaker 2: Twitter at Grant McCauley, and you can hear him on
17:12
Speaker 2: ninety two nine in the game down there in atl
17:14
Speaker 2: and also his weekly from the Diamond Show, which I've
17:16
Speaker 2: been on, which is great. My next one for you, Grant,
17:18
Speaker 2: of any of the names that you heard clearly that
17:21
Speaker 2: we're getting a list now or down at this point,
17:24
Speaker 2: was there one that you were surprised didn't make it
17:27
Speaker 2: as somewhat of a finalist.
17:30
Speaker 1: Yeah.
17:31
Speaker 4: Well, the big thing with Alex was I think that
17:34
Speaker 4: his goal was he told us this at his end
17:35
Speaker 4: of season media availability, which went for nearly ninety minutes,
17:38
Speaker 4: and it was, if I have my way, you guys
17:41
Speaker 4: will never know who we talk to, You'll never know
17:43
Speaker 4: who our finalists were, and we'll just announce who our
17:45
Speaker 4: new manager is and we'll move forward. And to his credit,
17:48
Speaker 4: haven't heard a lot about, you know, anybody coming in
17:51
Speaker 4: and being confirmed to have managed or excuse me, to
17:53
Speaker 4: have interviewed for the managerial job. So the names that
17:57
Speaker 4: I've heard are not altogether. You know, any price is
18:00
Speaker 4: whether it's the David Rosses or the Mark Durosis. George Lombard,
18:03
Speaker 4: who was a Braves farmhand for a long time, has
18:05
Speaker 4: been a coach in the major leagues for quite a
18:07
Speaker 4: while as well. Brian Flaherty's name has been thrown around. Obviously,
18:11
Speaker 4: we saw, you know, San Francisco win a completely different
18:13
Speaker 4: direction to hire a coach from the University of Tennessee,
18:16
Speaker 4: and that was a name that I think David O'Brien
18:17
Speaker 4: of the athletic throughout there as well as a managerial prospect.
18:21
Speaker 4: But you know, Alex kind of I don't know, tongue
18:23
Speaker 4: in cheek, maybe laughed at the speculation. But then again,
18:27
Speaker 4: I think that there was still that open door possibility
18:30
Speaker 4: of one more year Brian Snitker, so maybe they weren't
18:32
Speaker 4: that far down the road of making a list. Make
18:35
Speaker 4: of that what you will. I do think that the
18:37
Speaker 4: Braves have obviously had some conversations to this point, and
18:40
Speaker 4: I think they'd like to get this thing done so
18:42
Speaker 4: you can have it in place, so that you can
18:43
Speaker 4: go into your winter with this the kind of you know,
18:46
Speaker 4: things that are set up, because it's not like the
18:48
Speaker 4: Braves need to do a ton of roster moves, but
18:50
Speaker 4: there are some important decisions to make. And I'm also
18:53
Speaker 4: fascinated to see how they round out the coaching staff.
18:56
Speaker 4: Who stays, who goes, maybe not just in twenty twenty six,
18:59
Speaker 4: but moving forward under a new manager. Who are they
19:02
Speaker 4: going to look to keep around? From that standpoint, so
19:04
Speaker 4: if they want to make changes there, would it behoove
19:06
Speaker 4: them to do that earlier in the winter so that
19:08
Speaker 4: they're able to snap up some candidates or guys that
19:10
Speaker 4: they like in that regard, All.
19:12
Speaker 3: Right, managers of don Way. Finally, when they finalized that
19:15
Speaker 3: let's get back to the team a little bit. Is
19:17
Speaker 3: there a name or two under the radar, names prospects wise,
19:21
Speaker 3: that you're going to be looking forward to make a
19:24
Speaker 3: boom or an impact on this Braves team as they
19:27
Speaker 3: move forward into next year.
19:29
Speaker 4: Yeah, the Braves farm system is not what it was
19:32
Speaker 4: seven or eight years ago, Todd, but that doesn't mean
19:34
Speaker 4: that it still can't produce players that can definitely impact
19:38
Speaker 4: the Braves at the big league level. We saw it
19:40
Speaker 4: a couple of years ago when Michael Harris and Spencer
19:44
Speaker 4: Strider both exploded onto the scene at the exact same time.
19:47
Speaker 4: We just saw it this past year with Drake Baldwin,
19:49
Speaker 4: who pushed his way into the catching situation for the
19:51
Speaker 4: Braves and I think should win the National League Rookie
19:53
Speaker 4: of the Year. We saw Herston Waldrip late in the
19:56
Speaker 4: season who I would put on that short list of
19:58
Speaker 4: guys I expect to really have that opportunity to show
20:01
Speaker 4: out for the Braves next year and help them in
20:03
Speaker 4: an area in which they were absolutely decimated in twenty
20:07
Speaker 4: twenty five. It was injuries to the starting staff. I
20:10
Speaker 4: have never seen an entire opening day rotation end up
20:13
Speaker 4: on the sixty day il at the same time, and
20:15
Speaker 4: the Braves somehow managed to check that box. This year
20:17
Speaker 4: is one of the many things that went wrong. So
20:19
Speaker 4: Waldrip's a guy I'm looking at really closely. There are
20:22
Speaker 4: some other arms that I think they could look to
20:24
Speaker 4: push through the system, but will they arrive next year?
20:27
Speaker 4: The cam Kamenetties of the world, Jared Richie's been really impressive.
20:30
Speaker 4: They've got some really good arms. Position player wise, it's
20:33
Speaker 4: a little bit light, but if you're looking at positions
20:35
Speaker 4: that the Braves need to fill, I think Short stops
20:37
Speaker 4: that spot and we can talk about that a little bit.
20:39
Speaker 4: Their hope is that Hasan Kim, who was able to
20:42
Speaker 4: come in and kind of get an orientation for a month,
20:44
Speaker 4: will decide that he likes Atlanta enough to maybe stick
20:46
Speaker 4: around for at least twenty twenty six.
20:49
Speaker 2: Grant good stuff, Thank you for stopping by for a
20:51
Speaker 2: quick chit chat. And as soon as the World Series over,
20:55
Speaker 2: obviously we'll dive back in. Braves fans right now sitting
20:57
Speaker 2: on the sideline, probably rooting again. It's the Dodgers, right
21:01
Speaker 2: Is that the sentiment down.
21:03
Speaker 4: There probably fair to say, I don't know that there's
21:06
Speaker 4: really any way to just root for the leagues anymore.
21:08
Speaker 4: I don't know if that's even a thing or ever
21:10
Speaker 4: was a thing in Major League Baseball, but yeah, probably
21:12
Speaker 4: never rooting for the Dodgers around these parts.
21:15
Speaker 2: Yep, that makes sense.
21:16
Speaker 3: Should we ask him? No, real quick, what what do
21:19
Speaker 3: you think the series is going to be?
21:20
Speaker 1: Oh?
21:20
Speaker 2: You got a prediction?
21:21
Speaker 3: In prediction ten seconds.
21:23
Speaker 4: I'll tell you seven games is what I want. I
21:26
Speaker 4: think Toronto has the best chance of really giving the
21:30
Speaker 4: Dodgers a test, So I'll go Toronto in seven games.
21:34
Speaker 2: Oh okay, real quick, got the buzzer. Actually, just thought
21:36
Speaker 2: of this. Braves fans do they like when Freddie thrives there?
21:39
Speaker 3: Like?
21:39
Speaker 2: Is it a bittersweet root for him last year when
21:42
Speaker 2: he was ridiculous in the World Series?
21:44
Speaker 4: It's probably bittersweet. But if you know Freddy Freeman, if
21:47
Speaker 4: you've had a chance to get to know him the
21:48
Speaker 4: way that Braves fans had, I understand that the separation
21:51
Speaker 4: it was what it was. But he as a person
21:54
Speaker 4: is easy to root for, and I'll always want to
21:56
Speaker 4: see Freddy have success. That may sound kind of counter
21:58
Speaker 4: to saying that you never root for the Dodgers around here,
22:01
Speaker 4: but on a personal level, I'll always kind of look
22:03
Speaker 4: at Freddy as a guy that I just want to
22:05
Speaker 4: see the best things for him.
22:07
Speaker 2: I'm with you, and you're a good dude, so that
22:09
Speaker 2: makes sense. Grant, You're the man. Thank you for joining us,
22:11
Speaker 2: enjoying this series, and thanks for stopping by.
22:14
Speaker 1: Dude, you got it. Thanks guys,