5/22/22 From The Diamond - Braves enter critical stretch on schedule

[Music] Braves and Baseball fans it's time to take a trip from coast to coast across Major League Baseball there it goes a long drive if it stays Fair HRA one strike away Sandy into his wind up here's the pitch swung on and missed the perfect game Fly ball deep left Center gr him on the Run yes yes yes a lot of Braves have given you a championship listen to this CL left side Swanson to First Braves the world champions Braves and baseball talk straight from the diamond here's grab [Music] mcau hello and welcome to another edition of from the diamond I'm Grant McCaul joined by Cory McCartney here from the Kia Studios and sports radio 929 the game great to be with you on another Sunday here we've got a lot of baseball to talk specifically some Braves baseball and what was kind of a mixed bag of a road trip Cory there's really no two ways around that we had a series against the Brewers in which I felt like the Braves had a chance to win all three games and then we had a series against the Miami Marlins in which I felt like the Braves were right there again they won that series that's a big step in the right direction because prior to today the Braves or prior to this weekend I should say the Braves could not say hey we've won a series on the road this year which is really strange to be saying week out for Memorial Day well we looked at this stretch when you had going into Friday 29 straight games that's nine series all against teams with losing records they get through the first series of that stretch with a series win so you know from that end you know a mission accomplished but still seven and a half games back uh you know worth noting that they were as far as eight games back a year ago and they've already hit eight games back this season so uh you know still very much a work in progress for this team but you know they can check that box now they've got that Road Series win yeah and there are a lot of boxes to check though for this Atlanta Braves Club as they try to get themselves on the track they want to be on it's really a golden opportunity where they are in the schedule right now to get themselves back above 500 and trending in the right direction in the National League e standings because they are currently in the midst of 29 games against clubs under 500 we're going to talk a lot about that we're going to catch you up on everything else that's been going on in this week in brace baseball in just a moment but want to let you know if you like what you're hearing here make sure you subscribe to from the diamond wherever you get your podcast also make sure you're following us on social media you can find me at Grant mcau g n t MCA u l y you can find Corey at Cory J McCartney you can find the show at from the diamond with an underscore on the end and of course you can follow sports radio 929 the game at 929 the game but let's do get started with our this week inra baseball and coming off a difficult end to the down note as far as the end of this road trip is concerned but Atlanta lost what I felt like was a very winnable Series in Milwaukee then they did go and win this series in Miami their first Road Series win of 2022 and among the stories that I guess you could start to pull out of this is the fact that one thing we've noticed at the top of the order is a Ronald aunia Jr after that groin injury that had him on the sidelines for five games has been back in there on a regular basis he was a DH in all three games down in Miami he did get back in Action there and and Cory he's been running wild you know this is like 1980s level Hulkamania running wild too on the base pass he's already swiped eight bags in 15 games this year he is on quite the pace and if you wondering is this leg going to stop that dimension of his game or take that away the answer is no yeah 92 steals he's on Pace for right now and last season yeah I mean Trey Turner led the NL with 32 a year ago Whit mirfield topped the a at 40 nobody has top 90 since Ricky Henderson in 1988 with 93 I mean aunia literally on his own out there changing that narrative that the steel is dead now it's important to point out that's 162 game Pace but when you do think about the frequency of the stolen Pace especially in today's game where we've talked about the three true outcomes where we've talked about analytics where we've talked about teams going away from taking risks on the base paths Ronald aunia Jr said okay that's all great I'm going to put it over here but I'm going to take the extra bases where I can and sometimes that means pilfering those extra bases and he's done a great job of that and this is a team that you know really has been waiting on him to get going I think he's holding up his end of the bargain but there's a lot to talk about when it comes to down in the order especially when you take a trip through the middle of the Braves order in Miami we saw William conteras go on a nice little spree of hitting a couple of more home runs I want to put that off to the side though for a moment because I do think he could be maybe part of the answer at the bottom of the order but I really want to focus more so in on the fact that if you do try to get creative and get a guy right now like William conteras who has been hitting fairly well in his opportunities to do so you're really limited because of Ronald aunia Jr not playing the field he's your DH that means Marcel Ozuna who should be your DH is playing the field also Contreras being the team's second catcher with Manny Pena on the shelf for the rest of the year there's a risk there so there's not really a clear answer to say okay we want to get this guy some more bats how do we do it and Ronald aunia Jr's in right field every day which I'm not knocking him for I'm just saying this is part of his progression and part of his comeback until he is it doesn't make DH this revolving door where he can just get guys at bats no it doesn't and you know Brian Snicker mentioned this over the weekend you know when you start trying to think about you know the possibility of of cont in the Outfield which is something that they had talked about in the spring you know that's kind of out the window now when you're relying upon him with the lack of depth that they now have at the catcher spot uh you know the the biggest issue though has just been you know with this team and certainly it's it's all been a trickle down right is because you haven't had Ronald Kyu Jr for long stretches you you know haven't been able to necessarily have the optimum look in the Outfield with Marcelo Zuna being at DH because you need him in the Outfield because a needs time at DH it's just all led to this kind of work in progress with this team and 2 through five right now I mean 25th in average 26 in way to run create a plus no team's heart of the order has been worse with runners in scoring position yeah I mean it's just I mean having a Zuna hitting in you know eight straight games and an Ops over a thousand in that stretch this longest set streak since since 2020 is a great start I certainly today they moved you know Travis star not to four you know Austin Riley gets slipped down to six I mean there's little variations you can make but It ultimately feels like until I mean you're right until you have Jr going out there every day and playing in an outfield spot this team is going to continue to go through these growing pains with all these other POS these positions in the order and positions in the field well they kind of just you know continue this work you know let's get the yellow tape up and just say work in progress because it feels like that's where we're going to be for a little while it does feel like this lineup is kind of under construction and a lot of folks have asked and we've talked about this on battery power part of SP Nation as we do our weekly videos there and you know folks are kind of looking at it like okay well we need to move so and so it's like all right well where do you want to move him to well we need need to move this guy and this guy and this guy I'm like well all of a sudden not everybody can bat ninth because they start to work their way back up that's the very simple math also you can't take what's supposed to be your most productive hitters and just drop them to the bottom half of the order and take Dan B Swanson and Travis de Merit and Travis darno and whoever else that and Adam Duval perhaps who's comprising your five or six through nine spots in the order because two three and four aren't hitting and it's not just I mean it feels like slumps can be contagious when you get hot that can also be contagious you do start to build that momentum we haven't found that kind of contagion here in 2022 because you haven't been able to get multiple guys going in a way that makes you feel like that's the Atlanta Braves offense that was so powerful in the second half last year that's the kind of Atlanta Braves offense that they've really been able to lean on over the past few years and this Runners and scoring position stuff I mean you look at it every single night it's like eight nine guys left on base one for eight one for nine two for 10 with runners in scoring position there have been opportunities and particularly on a day like Sunday where Ian Anderson's throwing a good game through through six Innings he did give up a couple of runs there came back out in the seventh that's a decision that I'm not necessarily all about but couple of more runs get charged to him but if you're able to cash in on some of your opportunities or find some opportunities on days like that not necessarily days where Sandy alcantra is pitching because he's awful good but you're asking your pitchers to basically be perfect in a lot of situations if your offense continues to leave a village on the base pads every single night and that has been the way it's felt an awful lot well I think that's been you know as we talked about on battery power this week uh the two biggest issues with this team have been play discipline but more so situational hitting and they were three for 11 with Runners and scoring position Sunday in Miami uh they're 27th in Ops in high leverage situations 23rd with runners in scoring position 20th with Runners on so that's you know when you look at the amount of home runs this team hits the reason they've all been of the solo variety is the second most in the majors is they just can't get it done with men on and obviously what you just talked about it's been far worse in those two through five spots in the order I think that magnifies it but this has been you know an issue that stretched across I mean they no team struck out more you know they obviously because of that they have the lowest contact rate in the game uh you know they're swinging at the seven most most pitches outside the zone and then they've got a rash of guys who are the ones swinging at those pitches ozie alz Adam dval Marcelo Zuna they're all in the top 30 across the entire game and Swinging every it feels like everyone's pressing at the exact same time as opposed to you know talk about things being contagious as opposed to be like all right let's just move that line along right now it's just like they're just all just you know paint a picture of the strike the strike zone and they're all just willy-nilly just swinging way outside of it yeah it does see it feels like that I mean there's some of the struggles that look a little bit different though like Matt Olsen struggles have been going on the longest and we're going to talk a little bit more about him as we continue here on from the diamond on sports radio 929 the game is part of our this week and brav baseball and this has been several weeks worth of Braves baseball and several weeks worth of it bats basically a month for Matt olssen that he's been on a cold spell and when you're hitting second and you're getting the second most plate appearances by the very simple math of any hitter on the team you need to get some production out of that it wasn't long ago we were talking about hey it's been two and a half three weeks Marcel ozun is your Cleanup Man he's had one run batted in over that period of time that's not going to get it done and neither are the kind of numbers that we've seen from Matt Olsen after his three or so week hot start where it looked like okay well this guy's going to come in is anybody going to help him out because the rest of the lineup wasn't hitting now it's kind of been light out in the bad way for Matt Olsen and again we're going to talk about that a little bit more but I want to Circle in on ozie alz for a moment because he's the hitter that to me is it's just it's the biggest quandry of all of the ones that I have looked at because if you go back to 2021 where Azie was an extra base hitting machine where he's hitting his 30 home runs and you just look at him and you say wow this guy has really turned himself into a BigTime power hitter he had a career high of 47 Barrels in his 8 baded ball events last year and through 13 five bad ball events here in 2022 he has six barrels he is not hitting the ball hard with any great regularity and that has also led the fact led to the fact that his hit rate hard hit rate has dropped from 37.2% to 23.1% that's one of the steepest drop offs of any hitter in all of Major League Baseball year-over-year and what it says is yeah oie Al might be making more contact but it's not quality contact and that's one of the things I think that's plaguing him among others yeah I mean you know we talked about this a week ago I I like to pull up the guy stat cast pages and to me it tells you you know on that barometer is it is it if the guy's blue he's ice cold in the area if it's red then you know he is absolutely red hot and there is a surprising amount of blue on Al's page I mean that that hard hit rate you mentioned that's in the bottom 2% of all qualified hitters his average exit velocity is in the 17th per the barrel percentage as you mentioned is in the 19th per and and then he has he's in this the bottom 2% on that chase rate that I mentioned everything is just none of it's working for him right now I mean it's it I mean it's staggering you think about you know the fact that he's you know where he's hitting at right now again you know the the K rate is is not really actually it's been lower than it has been the last couple years just yeah he's just making really weak contact which is not what you expect from this guy no and you talk about you don't want it to be red hot as it can be fire engine red you don't want it to be cold all the different shades of blue you're seeing oie Al be's stack has paid just like a 31 Flavors I mean it is just cold cold cold and more cold you're just not finding the things you need to the hard hit rate the exit velocities even his expected stats it's not like he's hitting into bad luck which some of the Braves hitters particularly I think Matt olssen at times this year has really hit into Marcel Ozuna maybe to a lesser extent it's just you're not making quality contact and while it is good to have Bat on Ball skills it's not great to just have Bat on Ball weak contact ground outs and the like that just aren't really helping you out in your individual pursuit of finding your way on base and clearly as a team needs some situational awareness we're also not seeing enough of that I think and it's not to pick on Aussie alz because he has company at this table of Braves who I think are trying to get the job done looking to get the job done and unable to get it done for again a variety of reasons people aren't all struggling the same but one thing that is a Common Thread through all of this has been the fact that the Braves strike out an awful lot some of the most strikeouts in all of baseball depending on what day you're looking at it they don't really get outside of the top three someone else may have an awful day but the Braves have been consistently striking out nine to 10 times per game and that simply is not going to get it done when you're talking about situational hitting among other things I mean we live in this era where they tell us strikeouts don't matter right strikeouts oh but they do they they they don't matter if when you're not striking out you're being productive and they're not that's what's not happening right I mean you can be you can be strikeout heavy but you can hit multi you know multi-run home runs you can come through with runners in scoring position and those are the things that just aren't happening with this club right now it's a rash of solo home runs and it's just an inability to make contact on top of all those strikeouts yeah unfortunately we have a lot more to talk about when it does come to the Braves lineup and the things that haven't been working right the fortunate thing for the Braves on this road trip is they did win a series down in Miami it's one that they needed to win against a club that was also struggling but it came on the heels of a a series against the Brewers that I thought was also winnable Ian Anderson was on the wrong end of a one- nothing loss and the Braves in the finale of that series when they really had a chance to cash in and grab a victory and get out of town in Milwaukee and a good start to that road trip had a debilitating loss I feel like an Extra Inning so I the great thing was there was no hangover effect down in Miami as they were able to go down handle business win the first two games and get themselves back coming home with a nice home stand sitting out in front of them with more opportunities against nl's foes like the Phillies and the Marlins awaiting them clubs that are under 500 clubs in very similar boat to the Braves who are fighting their way to get to some kind of level of consistency much more to get to here on from the diamond as we continue our look at this week in Braves baseball it's coming your way next here on sports radio 929 the game [Music] I love baseball now back to more gra moli and from the diamond on sports radio 929 the game welcome back to from the diamond here on sports radio 929 the game this is Grant McCaul but also Cory McCartney here with me in the Kia Studios as we continue our look at this week and Braves baseball here on the show and and we got to kind of pick up where we left off which is not the most fun thing to talk about especially when we're six seven weeks into the season Cory and we're still talking about the struggles of the Braves offense and their big offseason acquisition there's really no two ways around it the eyes were going to be on him one way or another and of course I'm talking about Matt olon who got off to that scorching start for the Braves before falling into the last month which has been anything but a scorching run for him as you look at what has befallen Matt Olen after hitting basically what 450 over the first first three weeks of the Season another 0 for four on Sunday left four men on base as well hitting 168 coming into the day with two home runs in his past 28 games he driven in 13 runs in those 28 games seven of them came in three different contests so if you're talking about how have those been spread out well not really I mean Beggars can't be choosers I'm glad he's driven in some runs but when you look at the opportunities in particular that Olen has had in that two spot getting all of those played appearances and it seems like when you are struggling the ball finds you the lineup spot comes up again and you just have to find a way to grind your way through and I know that's what Brian Snicker's looking at because this guy's very talented that's why you brought him in he's been a very good hitter for a while out there in Oakland but this has been one of the sore spots for the Braves lineup for a while now hitting second and that's Matt Olsson yeah we know that one of the ways that Brian Snicker operates is he's a back of the baseball guy you know he'll always say that you know well check out the back of his baseball C check out I mean that's you know he says that all the time and and certainly when you look look at the back of Matt olsson's baseball card you know you see a multi-time Allstar multi-time Gold Glove winner um you know he hit he had a pair of doubles in the last three games but you go I you mention some of here if you go since April 26th he's hitting 172 with a 634 Ops on April 24th that Ops was over a thousand it went 0 for four again on Sunday and you know I hate to keep bringing this up but he's one of the biggest culprits of it is that situational hitting that's really hurting this team 286 with bases empty one 90 with men on 200 with run runners in scoring position he's at 21% below League average with men on um you know certainly you know you mentioned the this that spot in the order and how key that spot is I mean I think you you may need to start having this conversation about whether you know one of the hotter bats in this lineup maybe needs to get an opportunity here because it's not just the the bat where Olson's having problems I mean even with the glove I mean I mentioned a multi-time Gold Glove winner but he currently and there's certainly some people are going to have issues with defensive metrics when it comes to first baseman but right now these are the worst defensive metrics of his entire career so not only is he you know you say okay leave the bat don't take it out there in the field with you he's doing that as well it's easy for us to say well you know that's I tell the little Leaguers that so well Le say that much you know but certainly it's it's it's filtering into every aspect of his game right now and I think you've got to find a way to get mad Olson back on track the doubles are great I he's tied for the league lead in doubles right now with 16 but they need him delivering runs and they need him driving in runs and you know I think that's that's the issue I mean he's he's one of the biggest culprits of this issue that we talked it's to the heart of everything with the bra right now which is not getting it done with Runners on base and here's one of the other things that I look at as you start to you know and we're getting now what 36 37 games into the season to the point where you don't have to say well it's only a couple of weeks a small sample size we're not going to look at anymore you get to the quarter point of the Season which the Braves have basically checked in at at this point against right-and pitchers this year he's only got two home runs and four runs knocked in now you're going to see way more righties and lefties about 2/3 of the time you're going to be seeing a righty over a lefty one of the great things that Olsen did last year with Oakland was he batted 271 against righties he batted 270 against lefties he opsed higher against left-handers by nearly 100 points and hit 22 of his 39 home runs against lefties but this year he's only hitting 204 with a 750 Ops against left-handers so he's also struggling with what is traditionally the split that you look at and say well left-handed hitters have some trouble with left-handed pitching that you thought was not going to be an for Olen but that's just one more little thing to I guess look at and say maybe he's not seing it as well this year but again we can look through all these splits and try to make them all say something and the numbers do tell us a number of different things but all of them really add up to this is a guy that's not hitting up to his standards and the Braves really need that to change and he also is again not alone at that table there are several other guys who have RSVP to a party that nobody wanted so what do you do I mean do you certain I mean obviously Danby Swanson's killing it right now I mean you you you go back figured his stuff out he has I go back to April 26th which sort of feels like that November 5th 1955 date there for the [ __ ] capacitor with the Braes where everything seems to be like kind of breaking out from but um you go back to that kind of statistical convergence there and he only aunia has been more productive within the bra lineup since that date than Dansby Swanson has so do you move Dansby up to the second spot and allow Matt Matt Olsson to slide down some I mean then you kind of get into the situation where are you putting Swanson out of a spot in which he's been comfortable and he's been producing I mean th this is ultimately you know where you want Matt Olsson to be and obviously he's a guy who's done this and has a track record but how long can you let track record carry the weight before you say you know what we got to make some changes here because it's just not happening now again what are the answers to this you say let's bring up one of the hot hitters put them up toward the top of the order who's the hot hitter I mean is that Dansby Swanson do you hit him behind Ronald aunia Jr for a minute and just say hey we'd love to do this righty Lefty thing down the order but we can't really do that right now you've also got Austin Riley struggling I'll get to him in a moment Marcel Ozuna has started to show some signs of being a guy that can not only hit for power but also come up in some times and drive in some runs that are mildly important for a club that's struggling to score runs but with ozie alz who we already talked about also scuffling with Adam Duval a completely slow start for the season who has at times hit well with Runners on base but hasn't really looked like the guy he was a year ago those are the things that I think we look at and say there's got to be an answer here at some point and you brought up to date for the flux capacitor um I feel like more so in a from a baseball standpoint it's just like when the Nationals set May 24th in their flux captor in in their DeLorean to I guess move through time and win the World Series in 2019 so much so that they commemorated it a year later maybe that's the kind of thing the Braves need is their own hey on this date we were down at this level and from that date on we were able to play pretty well it worked fairly well for them a season ago I believe on August 5th is when they started to go on their tear and that took them on to what November the 2 which was a pretty great day in Braves history but I don't know that you can expect that every time you get off to a slow start no and I'm almost wondering if we're going to hear about Dany bringing Sage back into to truest Park you know but certainly there's a there's a sense of and I I think this is It's to the club's credit and its detriment that they've done this that they've come back that they've been eight games down in a division and come back and won it and went to the World Series and won that you you can't this this is not it's not a game plan right I mean not that they're trying to find themselves seven a half games back of the met in in the NL East but you find yourselves here again and unlike a year ago expecting that Alex anthopolos is going to go out and make some drastic changes to bring in a rash of guys who are all going to find their way into being productive hitters at the exact same time is probably not going to happen again so how do you take what has been the struggles of this team that obviously you know you talk to Brian Snicker about it and he'll say well I I feel like these guys will get there eventually they all have track records but how do you get to the point where they where you where you get that to happen because you're not going to get I don't think those outside influences or that outside help that you had a year ago well you're not going to get it in the middle to later portion of May certainly if you're going to expect any kind of in you know bringing in any kind of outside Talent any kind of infusion of energy or production or whatever you want to call it that's not coming until maybe June probably July when other teams have decided all right we can move into that sellers mode because right now it's just too early I mean yeah there are some teams that have bad records but do you know what it would cost to go try to pry away some of their better players if they're even willing to because it sends a certain message to the fans when you start selling your players off in trades in May unless you're the Reds Z owner and you say where else you're going to go in which case you could Market your team that way and you could suffer for that but as far as the Braves are concerned and these offensive trends that you mentioned because again it's not just poking at Matt Olson and saying hey new guy you're not you know living up to what the old guy was doing it's more about I feel like the collective group and yeah it's nice to have a guy like Brian snitker who does have the patience and and clearly has spent decades and decades and decades around the game to see enough guys that are better than where they are at a certain time to work their way through that but coming into this one Austin Riley's last 15 games he was batting 148 with a homer and four runs knocked in 21 punch outs he went 0 for four with two more strikeouts on Sunday we talked about Olsen hitting sub 170 now over his last 29 games after an 0 for four on Sunday with just the two home runs and 30 strikeouts for him and also ozie alz while the uh the contact rate has improved and that's sometimes been a knock against him and other players about not putting the ball in play it hasn't necessarily generated good contact and then you throw in at the bottom if you needed this you've got Travis dearit who was kind of a bright spot for you for a hot minute well not as much anymore he's now after an 0 for three on Sunday stuck in an 0 for 28 slump lost track of the outs on a play that didn't necessarily help the Braves out on Sunday as well it seems like for if you're talking about taking it back out into the field maybe that's the point that you've gotten to there as well Cory look with dear I think it's it's almost like lightning in a bottle with him right I don't think anybody is anticipating that you're going to look back on the 22 season and be like man we really struck gold with bringing Travis demer back you know it didn't work in it didn't work in Detroit you know certainly you got him you know he he he provided a spark at a time that you needed it you know I think you you accept it for what it is but with Austin Riley I mean it's just it's really staggering I mean he slipped to 111 WRC plus he was at 158 in April so he was 58% above that 100 League threshold he's in the low 60s here in May when over four with 2ks on Sunday he's hitting 196 against righties and you know obviously there's been a lot of guys you talk about hard hit rates and bad luck and that's been permeated that's permeated the game in the 2022 season all of Major League Baseball exactly but his he has a nearly 50o difference between his batting average and his expected batting average the the bay bip right now is 267 so you you think 300 being the around League average for that he's he has had bad luck uh but he's also just you know he's just been lost at times especially of late I mean we we looked at the career progression of him when he came up he was feasting on Fast balls right he comes out and he can't hit the slider and then the next year he's figured out the breaking stuff but he's struggling against the fast ball and then in 21 we kind of saw him put it all together and he was doing that early in the season he's now hitting 200 against fast balls this year I mean he he's again kind of slipped back into that issue and I don't know what I mean he he told me early in the year that everything felt like it did last year like everything felt exactly like it did he felt like he was in a good place and started out strong but man I mean this this last month plus for him has been it's been tough to watch yeah really it's the last like I'd say s to 10 days especially because when they put him in the leadoff spot to close out the hom stand where Ronald aunia Jr was down dealing with that groin injury that you kind of wondered when is he going to be back and maybe we got to find somebody to be an answer for longer than five games thankfully it wasn't you know he was finding his way on base in that Padre series at a pretty high rate he went out on the road and he did not bring a hit home from Milwaukee or from Miami and again you don't have a ton of options I mean you got GE moia but if you start to feel like hey it's time to option this guy down and try something else Drew Waters is in Triple A guette if you're he's on the 40 man if you're ready for that to be something that you want to try out you've also got Michael Harris lighting the world on fire in doublea I'd be surprised if he made the jump from Mississippi those stranger things have happened I would think if he goes anywhere it's going to be gwet because he had not played a lot of games above aball in his career thanks to the pandemic in 2020 wiping out the Minor League season that would be a guy to keep in mind and maybe he's somebody that could provide a little bit of a spark for the Braves and a little bit more so of that top prospect pedigree that that Harris brings in addition to being able to play center field which wouldn't be the worst thing in the world either because it would allow you to do some other things with Adam dual besides playing him in center field every single game those are all hypotheticals this is you know the the final 10 or so days or final week of the month of May so I'm not sure you're ready to hit that button right now but there is a line at some point I guess where if you wait to long are you going to have the opportunity to you know are you going to have the hindsight where you look back and say man I wish we had done this sooner we talk about Sparks you know think think about you know the kind of run that the Braves went through where it's like okay M Mike Soka is making his debut everybody gets hyped up for it here comes Max freed everybody's hyped up for Max Freed's debut and you just kind of go through aunia Alby Swanson like this whole run and obviously I'm getting them out of order here but they went through a run where it was like CP years EXC here they come and there there's very few guys right now that you could have that thought with of okay everyone's G to get really hyped up when this guy's making his debut I think Harris and I think Drew Waters is there too and I think if you're not getting the production from derit right now maybe it's time for Waters to get that opportunity's he's only played in 14 games this year but he's still got an 859 Ops and I think you think about being a dynamic bat and what he can provide defensively I I it may be time for him to get this opportunity I I think there there are again there there are few guys within this system that I think could really get people amped up and maybe even provide a a spark within that team of okay we may not we may not be in the point of the Season where you go out and and try to find somebody outside in another organization but certainly within our own ranks this is the guy who's been sitting on the 40 man and it may be time for Drew Waters to get that chance yeah not a ton of extra base hits down in gwet right now a couple of home runs and one of those came in is gwet debut a couple of weeks ago one double knocked in five runs scored seven more in 11 games he's hitting over 300 not walking a ton though and the strikeout is going to be part of his game that's just kind of it is what it is but if if you get him hot and doing something with a contact then you can come back around and like you said earlier the strikeouts don't matter as much because they're not keeping you from being able to really get something of value from him with Travis de Merit right now it just kind of seems like this one may have run its course at this time and time may run out on that we'll see what the Braves decide to do with that we'll talk to some more Braves a little bit later on here on from the diamond we got a lot of stories to get to around Major League Baseball though as we get ready to take you into what we call three up three down six of the biggest stories in Major League Baseball from the week that was they come your way next on from the diamond on sports radio 929 the [Music] game back to gr moli for more from the diamond on sports radio 92 the game welcome back to from the diamond Grant McCauley and Cory McCartney with you here from the Kia Studios on sports radio 929 the game as we shift our Focus From the Braves who do come home with a 500 road trip they do come home with a series win down in Miami but they do I feel come home kind of feeling like there were some missed opportunities out there on the road as well they got a long home stand coming up we'll be talking about that as the show goes on but we want to get into three up three down six of the biggest stories from Major League Baseball this week and some very big News Cory up in Baltimore where the Orioles called up Mega Prospect adley Rutman times have been pretty challenging for this club but getting a look at a big piece of their future gives Orioles fans I think a little something to come to the park and enjoy in which you know is a season that they may not have as many of those times if you're the Baltimore Orioles I mean if you're an Orioles fan I mean this has to feel like finally a sign of something positive right I mean this has been going going on for five years and Rutman comes in you know hits a triple in his first game you know obviously he also you know comes up with a hit today 24y old you know former number one pick you know the comps that you hear are insane the best switch hitting you know catcher since Ted Simmons you know people talk about him you know potentially having you know a career that we're going to look at as one of the the greats for a catcher when I a game and he's not even done with game two yet but two G two games into his career I don't think I'm ready to to put him in Johnny Bench category yet but certainly for a team that has gone through a lot of hurt uh you know that fan base has been you know angling for r to get there and and I thought it was really cool when he when he stepped in behind the play for the first time and he kind of took that moment and he looked all around him at the three decks at Camden and you know kind of just savored it for that moment I mean obviously you know he's been waiting for this the fan base is waiting for it and I just think it just felt like you know this this just feels big for a franchise that's been hurting for a long time and you know what's crazy about Camden Yards is It's oddly enough one of the 10 older ballparks I believe in all of baseball now but when it came along and I think ' 9293 it was then it was looked at as a state-of-the-art and really I feel like it it it started to uh invite other clubs to think about oh what if we had a park that looked that good because it's a great looking a picturesque Ballpark and the fans there I think deserve a bit of a better product than they've seen one of the things that comes with losing though is potential of getting the number one overall pick which is what Rutman was back in 2019 he was picked just ahead of Bobby Whit Jr Andrew vaugh was the number three pick in that I did not remember that whatsoever you look at somebody who's really thriving from that draft and from that first round is Alec monoa who is really I think leading the blue jay staff or one of their top starters along with Kevin Gosman quite obviously but for rushman the number one pick in 2019 and as is usually the case if you're the number one pick no matter how long it takes you're going to make it to the big leagues with very very few exceptions now let's keep it in the area for this next one because Aaron judge made a ruling in a case of the disappearing home run and the motion was filed against Camden Yards and it included a key witness Trey Mancini of the Orioles now I'm going to unpack all of this without any more legal puns judge hit a line drive to left field that stayed in the park because the O's have pushed their fences back 30 ft and they've also raised the walls and this is in response to the 155 home runs that Orioles pitchers served up last year in their 81 home games which is a lot to think about Judges 399 ft blast would have been out of all 29 other major league parks and he made his feelings known afterwards by calling Camden yard's new left field dimensions a video game Crea a park Aaron Boone threw in his two cents and said that judge would have had three homers but the bill Dr ballpark cost him it seems like just last week we were talking about someone complaining about the Yankee Stadium's Dimension now you've got the Yankees complaining about the dimensions of another Ballpark and baseball is nothing if not cyclical is it it's it's wild right I mean we just it's it's I mean I can't wait for next week when we talk about you know the dimensions of Fenway and just how the monsters is stealing all these home runs but it's a reality in Canon we threw 19 games there only four hitters have been able to hit it over that wall ryant mount Castle Anthony Santander and Byron buckton at the same time last year there were 18 homers to left field which is where that raised so this has been it's a dramatic shift in what guys have been able to do out there but it's just funny to me that you know here you had you know a week ago where you got the Rangers doing the exact same thing complaining about ballpark dimensions and here's you obviously he not playing to the Orioles favor either I mean again they they're responsible for for three of the the four home runs that have come Austin Hayes by the way is the other one the left fielder who you know he said that he saw it first on Twitter and he said as a hitter as a right-handed a hitter that likes to pull the ball I even want to hear it as a Defender now he has more room to cover in the field in the Outfield because of it so it seems like nobody involved with this likes it at all uh I would be surprised if this thing's going to be like this for a long period of time can yeah I would also be surprised and let's throw in I mentioned Trey Mancini what does he have to do with this he of course of the Baltimore oiil says no hitters like it myself included so he heard about it after the game again a 399 foot poke in most fields to left field should be more than enough to get out of the ballpark but not quite enough in Camden Yards at this time will they change these Dimensions again time will tell but if I'm just shake my magic eightball right now it say sources say yes yes but we'll see a starter ma sherzer landed on the injured list and could miss two months for the Mets and if you couple that with the absence of Jacob deg Grom All Season thus far and the loss of Tyler McGill here lately all of a sudden New York has a bit of an arm shortage in their rotation now the first place Mets have marched out to a big lead in the NL East but if this is the kind of thing that they're dealing with it could wear them down over time because again Scherer is going to be on the shelf for a while it they feel vulnerable now right I think that's that and they didn't feel like that a couple weeks ago you know certainly deg Grom it just felt like man when this team gets deg Grom back they're going to be unbeatable and now you've got Sherer out again up to eight weeks deg gram had a follow-up MRI and while it's showing healing he there's still no timetable on his return the thought was that he'd need three to five rehab starts before he'd make his debut for the Mets so then you've got Chris Basset Carlos Carrasco Taiwan Walker and then it dips down to Trevor Williams and David Peterson picking up those last two spots the Mets are reportedly scouting Frankie Montas of the A's and the Red's Tyler Mali so they you know while you mentioned earlier in the show yeah there's not a lot of teams that are going to be you know in that seller mode right now I mean I think the A's and the reds are going to be willing to deal anybody if the price is right right now and I think the Mets we know how willing they are to go out and push an agenda in terms of making their Club better uh I would anticipate they're going to be making an upgrade in that back end of that rotation and then when they finally do get those two guys back it's just a matter of okay they've got a seven and a half game lead on the Braves right now how much of a cushion have they built themselves where that offense can keep them afloat for them to wait for those two big arms to get back yeah it's a big question that they're going to have to ask is how can we address this at this time we were talking about the Braves for totally different reasons having trouble maybe getting somebody in to help them out in the lineup if you're starting to think about making trades it's a little too early to do that they're extremely fortunate went out and traded for Chris Basset over the offseason they did extend him I believe or uh get through their arbitration case with him I should say so he's in there and is one of the answers that you have in rotation but there have a few more questions than I think they anticipated particularly in a very expensive one in shurer who I I caught his comments after this injury he knew something was wrong he knew he'd never felt that before and in course of course oblique injuries as we know this is not something where we see guys come back very quickly because it's the kind of thing that if you do try to come back too quick you re-aggravate it and then you have to start all over from scratch it's one of those time is the thing that heals this and in the middle of a baseball season that time is going to tick slowly slowly slowly for Max sherzer in the Mets they're going to feel every second of it and a guy that's as intense as his preparation as Max Scherer is I think this is going to be something you're going to be watching even when he does come back you know think about those Bullpen sessions where he's all you know geared up in his uniform and his int think about the we we saw him exit the postseason my arm's dead and he just was like that's not Sher now you watch him tell them hey something's wrong here this this these two last glimpses that we've had of CER pulling himself out of games just feel like man something's not right I mean obviously he's on the he's on the you know this we're on the downturn of the max CER ride here but uh you know certainly the Mets in in signing him to that deal they signed him to they were not anticipating they were going to get that happening this early into that cont no they were hope hoping to have a healthy Jacob deg gr back and they were certainly looking to have somebody to be the 1B to the you know just a a rotation that was completely different than what they have had in recent years by having two All-Star caliber potentially future Hall of Famers I think in the case of both of these guys in rotation but that has not really worked out for the met so far this year but they're in first place so I don't think anybody's going to cry for them anytime soon now let's go over to the white socks and Yankees who had a benches clearing incident over the weekend where white sock short stopped Tim Anderson and Yankee ster baseman Josh Donaldson got into another dust stop this is their second one of the Season apparently this one got pretty ugly according to the postgame comments from the Chicago side where manager Tony larusa said that Donaldson made a racially charged remark to Anderson which sparked the benches clearing and he revealed Anderson did that Donaldson had referred to him as Jackie referring to Jackie Robinson now Donaldson did Apologize after the game and it's worth noting this reference comes from an interview that Anderson gave to Sports Illustrated a few years back in which he referenced himself as something of a current day Jackie Robinson in wanting to change the game and with as we've well well- noted African-American participation in baseball being at its all-time low in the recent years and decades that's something that clearly is a focus of Tim Anderson and there's obvious other contextual issues and some bad Optics here there's no two ways around that you throw in hot tempers and the fact that attempted jokes between Rivals typically don't go over well anyway you've got all the elements of a combustible situation between these two guys without question and you know going back to that article Anderson said he wanted to try to to to break the have fun barrier in baseball because certainly he brings that energy to it as well that's all the stuff that that Tim Anderson stands for but you obviously have a track record here with Donaldson and the white sock you think back to you know Lucas gelo and him having some postgame words and you know the two meeting outside in the parking a lot afterwards because Geo you know didn't like what Donaldson said and said come say it to my face so he went out there and said it to his face and then you had some stuff earlier this season where there was a play at the you know third and there was a dust up between Anderson and Donaldson then I will say whether you want to listen to Josh Donalds in explanation and say he was trying to diffuse the situation with humor I feel like the guy knew exactly what he was doing right and the fact that you you say these comments and whether or not you had an inside joke and he he actually said he started kind of calling him Jackie back in 2019 when he was playing for the Braves which is when that article came out they had a late SE late season series that year against the white socks it's not the time for it if you want to get get with him in the off season and kind of know work your way back the tensions are already high between you and this club and especially within the last month of things that have already happened I I would anticipate there's going to be some kind of a suspension levey down to Josh Donaldson on this and just you know take it move on because you know there there there's no way to paint a picture here in which you end up looking like the good guy no and additionally the bad Optics of this thing clearly are baked into this and you're not going to be able to remove that by trying to explain it away in your postgame comments but just from my experience in life you have inside jokes with friends typically you don't have inside jokes with people who just probably don't like you so be that as it may just a unfortunate situation between those two and one that we may not have heard the last of when it comes to what major league baseball finds in its investigation let's switch gears all together Mike Trout has spent a decade in the big leagues with the angels he's been putting his name on a list of alltime greats the entire time over the weekend he scored his 1,000th run that puts him in a very small and elite club as Trout's just a third player with a th000 run scored 300 homers 200 steals by his age 30 season joining Willie Mays and Alex Rodriguez this kind of thing is hardly surprising considering that trout has been passing many Hall of Famers in WS above replacement in recent years and it would appear that he's going to be joining more clubs like this and climbing up that list of the all-time greats the longer and longer he plays this is in fact the best player in baseball the best player we've seen for a while I mean as fun as this been to watch Miguel Cabrera the last you know month plus kind of every little thing with him as he just passed this guy on the Home Run list he just passed this guy on the devil's list and and Hits list and on and on what we're going to be able to take in with Mike Trout over these next few years is just going to be a completely different level that run that you talked about of him having a, runs 300 homers he's he's the fifth fastest to a thousand runs in in the last 60 years they took him 13 25 games and obviously would have went faster you know had he we talking about years time had he not been injured the only ones faster were Ricky Henderson Alex rodrigus Kenny Lofton and phol and he's already I mean you talked about the names he's he's checking off here on the climb up the war list he already top 40 in career War he's two spots ahead of Ken griffi Jr in this season he's probably going to get past Brooks Robinson Pete Rose Jeff Bagwell and Roberto Clemente and the next season he's closing in on Joe dagio I mean this is unbelievable territory that we're talking about this guy and man I hope he winds up in the postseason this year because baseball needs this guy to have that postseason resume befitting what he's already accomplished it would be nice to see you brought up King Griffey Jr it seemed like he had some great postseason moments early on but he never really got to play on the biggest stage win that World Series I'm not saying that Trout's going to win the World Series this year but it sure be nice to be invited to the dance as they say and get yourself a spot in that tournament you were looking at the Fang graphs War list I assume I'm looking at the baseball reference War list they're not that very far off Joe deasio is next on that hit list King griffy Jr's a little bit higher up probably going to take a while to get to Chipper Jones and George Brett but then you're going to be cracking inside the top 25 all time and wins above replacement and you're basically 30 years old you've got potentially another deck if you can stay healthy now meanwhile let's talk about the Mariners for a moment who don't have King griffy Jr in their Outfield and that's one of the many reasons Mariners fans can be disappointed because Seattle's Outfield has been a disaster this year thanks to injuries and underperformance they just Inked Justin Upton who was cut loose by the Angels earlier this year they owe him around the league minimum uh and while in La they're on the hook for the majority of his $28 million in salary but I was looking at this not only from a what's this mean for the Mariners which is I don't think much but can you believe it's been almost a decade since the break Braes acquired Justin Upton from the Arizona Diamondbacks wow man I still remember sitting in the clubhouse on spring training that first days when him and BJ had arrived and they were sick and tired of answering questions about whether they had bunk beds you know whether they you know all this nonsense about the Brothers playing they they were as tired of it after two or three days of spring training as I think the rest of us were of hearing different reporters come in and asking those same questions but um that Seattle Outfield is an absolute disaster Mitch hanar Kyle Lewis are out Jared Kellick been demoted uh 21st in way to run creative plus 19th in war 23rd in Ops but he's only going to get a league minimum so just see what you can get with this guy uh you know he's years removed from being anything you know he hasn't had that League average since 2018 uh so you know we'll see if he can provide anything but um they're not they're not taking much of a gamble on them no and this is the kind of chance you take when you really don't have any chances left you mentioned Kellick in the minor leagues Kyle Lewis I believe is expected to be activated from the injured list on Monday so we'll see if that gives the Mariners perhaps a little bit more of an infusion of some younger talent that they've been banking on to be a big part of their present and their future as well so that'll wrap things up on our three up and three down six of the biggest stories across Major League Baseball for the week that was when we come back we'll go around the big leagues and break down the national league and American League Division battles that's coming your way right here on from the diamond on sports radio 929 the [Music] game baseball tuck and Braves and Beyond baseball with from The Diamond Sports Radio 929 the game welcome back to from the diamond hour two here in the Kia Studios on sports radio 929 the game Grant mcau alongside Cory McCartney we appreciate you making us part of your Sunday evening and of course if you like what you're hearing on the show we invite you to catch it whever you get your podcast you can subscribe just search for from the diamond but right now it's time to take a look at what else has been happen happen around the world of baseball this week as we really hone in on what's going on in the divisional races and we'll start in the National League East that's where the Braves play their baseball that's where we watch the most and keep tabs of course and the tabs would be telling us that the New York Mets are still the first place Club in this division as they come into Sunday 12 games over 500 everyone else in the division under 500 for a variety of reasons I feel like I've used that phrase an awful lot this year as I've talked about the brave struggles but also when you look at the struggles other teams everybody's kind of going through their own stuff in this division it feels like even the Mets now who are dealing with the max Sherer injury that you attack on top of the Jacob deg Grom injury the fact that they got out to this hot start without deg Grom that says an awful lot now what will they do six to eight weeks minus Sher and still not knowing when they're going to get de Grom back Cory I think that's a pretty big question or two that the Mets need to answer and some of these other clubs particularly the Braves who are in the middle of this streak of playing under 500 clubs for the better part of a month need to start taking advantage of a team that might start to show signs of being mortal they have to feel like there's an opening now and if you look at this Mets offense they're top five in war fifth in run scored fifth in way to run create a plus but they're 24th in hard hit rate and second on batting average in play there there's some big weapons in that offense but I think it's a it's a profile that talks to an offense that ultimately is going to have things kind of catch up with them a little bit because brenon nmo has a 339 babit Jeff mcneel 341 mark canah 46 Pete Alonzo 316 Starling Marte 310 310 and 316 maybe you can stay around those rates but some of those more elevated ones those are going to fall back to Earth can the pitching staff do enough while they have deg Gro and Sh until deg Gro makes his debut and as long as sherer's out to maintain that lead the best thing the Mets have going for them is they have a cushion because they're going to have to get this figured out because I'm telling you those offensive rates that they have that is not going to hold this they they don't have four Chris Johnson's who set a Braves baby record and that one season he got himself a contract they don't have four of those guys on this team this offense is going to it's going to to fall a little bit back down to the to the mean and do they have enough pitching to back up when that happens now and for those of us who are listening and wondering well what is batting average on balls in play that is the player's average when you take uh balls like or excuse me plays like home runs and strikeouts out of it and simply when he puts the ball in play what is he hitting and when you get well up over 300 particularly around the 350 Mark that would say that you're probably a little bit more lucky but again home runs are not part of that that's worth putting pointing out it is a hit but it's out of play because it's over the wall I guess inside the park home runs would be in there I don't know I've never really looked into that yeah I mean 300's around League average though if you're if you're looking to kind of have that we'll get our statisticians on the inside the park Homer thing I've never thought about that until right now and that's a terrible thing to bring up on play it is a ball in play you know it is so I guess it does count so maybe that that'll end the uh the debate there but I wanted to give some context to that as to why is that an important stat and I feel like it is one of those you just need to look at it alongside someone's batting average to say is this a sustainable level of production from this player and you brought up Chris Johnson not to pick on him but his 2013 season if you are a back of the baseball card person looks pretty good if you look beyond that as to can he continue to do this year-over-year the answer to that was no and I don't think there are too many players that consistently outperform that year-over-year and it doesn't catch up with them at some point so when you're talking about a whole team that's dealing with that kind of thing it's worth noting that they're not necess ly scalding the ball at the same kind of hard hit rate that I feel like the Braves among other teams are that you would hope that the inverse would be true that ultimately you would start to get more luck with the balls that you're putting in play the Braves are also plagued by strikeouts at times as well so that does create an issue for Atlanta with putting the ball in play at a higher rate uh nonetheless the Braves and the Marlins are right there neck and neck behind the New York Mets in this division the Phillies also right there so it's really three teams all clumped up there and then you've got the Washington Nationals who 15 games under 500 coming into Sunday they're a nonf factor in this and I was even reading some comments from Juan stto not long ago about how he just doesn't feel like he's himself either he's trying to figure it out and this is a guy that I don't know that I'd seen him struggled for more than maybe an a bat or two and it just felt like he's always got a plan and he's one of the most talented hitters in baseball is he ever going to slump and I guess the answer to that is hey 2022 is here for you and it brought a new baseball it's wild right I mean since May 14th that team they've been out scored 37 to9 in that stretch he's two for 20 with four walk it's one the worst stretches that he's had in the last three years and you know it was over he went over three on Saturday that's when he made those comments that he's been working on his swing trying to figure things out that two through four of SoDo uh Nelson Cruz and Josh Bell has been 15th in Ops that month this month I we just expected more from that crew and I I think as we look down the line of guys who will be moved I still think Nelson Cruz and Josh Bell are going to be wearing different uniforms by the end of the season I can't believe we were having conversations earlier this week about whether Wan stto was going to be traded because that is absolutely not going to happen I don't know why in the world the Nationals would even consider that as an option and you know that's not an operating procedure on how you build a club uh but certainly things are not good for won soda right now no I've never seen him at at this point in the season or any season hitting below 250 much less I mean below 300 to be honest with you the first couple of years but you knew he's a guy that's going to on base at a 400 clip he's going to slug at a 500 clip and you're going to look at what he's doing and say this guy's a net positive all the time does he ever slump but the answers thus far in 2022 have been a little bit harder to find even for him he's got eight home runs this year he's knocked in 11 runs that's how bad the Nationals offense has been this year not a lot of guys on base not a lot of guys to knock in and that's been something Juan stto had to deal with as we look at the National League central we just got to look at the Brewers not once but twice here over the last 10 days uh for the Atlanta Braves over the last couple of weeks I guess 12 games over 500 as they battle the Nationals on Sunday this is a team that really only has one Challenger and that's going to be the St Louis Cardinals a club that's getting MVP caliber play from Paul goid their first baseman but like so many other clubs they're trying to figure out offensively how to get some pieces going and I don't think anybody for the Cardinals has struggled worse than Tyler O'neal He was a guy I think that was getting MVP votes last year that has looked absolutely lost in 2022 the Brewers are off to the best 40 game start in team history they're projected at 94 wins right now and I think when you look it in terms of offseason pickups Hunter Renfro has been absolutely huge for this team 127 way to run crate a plus second to Rowdy Tes on that team he's homered nine times that deal with the Red Sox where they sent Jackie Bradley Jr and two infield prospects Boston way I mean this has absolutely been one on every level by Milwaukee Bradley has is hitting 40% below League average again 100 way to run creative plus is a League average player and he's 40% below that just hit his first Homer of the season so the Brewers are in a good place right now and Hunter Renfro is a big reason why who knew that you'd be talking about hey the Brewers are really hitting it this year and you know who's leading the way Hunter tles of all the people keep it in mind like Renfro cast off with the Red Sox as they were much happier to bring Jackie Bradley Jr back home who is a nice defensive outfielder but has struggled throughout his career to be a consistent offensive threat and then Rowdy tles comes from the Toronto system where they feel like they had a lot of answers at positions and didn't need him as either a DH or a first baseman he ended up in Milwaukee so good clubs make these kinds of moves where you go and find the the parts that other teams aren't necessarily utilizing or don't see a future with or you feel like you can get something from and you bring them into your team and you find a way to get them out there and get them playing I mean this worked for the Braves last year at the trade deadline in particular that's a really Stark example you can't expect it every year but good clubs make those kinds of moves the Brewers they're a good club they have made their own moves as well uh Pittsburgh Pirates got absolutely demolished on Sunday by the St Louis Cardinals I thought the amusing things in there where Albert phol didn't start he hit two home runs Paul goldmouth did not play in the game and you know who closed it out for the Cardinals Yadier Molina oh wow he gave up the four runs to the Pittsburgh crew but they've used they've used PO Hol and Molina's pitchers in the last they certainly have so a couple of future Hall of Famers but not for their work on the mount no two ways about that Cubs and the Reds round out the standings in the NL Central both of those clubs well under 500 on the season meanwhile if you look out west it's a Los Angeles Dodgers they're on a tear that shouldn't really be that surprising they're taking on the Phillies to close out their weekend but brought a seven game winning streak into Sunday the Padres have not really been giving a lot of ground both of these clubs the Dodgers and the Padre's have won seven out of 10 three in a row for San Diego as they battle the San Francisco Giants on Sunday afternoon as well but a game and a half lead now belongs to the Dodgers we were sitting here a week ago saying hey look what the Padre's did not only did they get out of Atlanta with a victory which was not a whole bunch of fun for the Braves but it allowed them to push past the Dodgers club that was kind of treading water or scuffling just a little bit but the Dodgers can turn this on this is the club that they are Freddy Freeman is fit in very nicely out there in LA but that is a cast of many that makes that club so great so a couple things I think with the the Padres they finally seem equipped that they're going to make a run at the the Giants and the Dodgers they've got Blake Snell back mcken you know Mike clevinger back they've got Mackenzie Gore kind of riding this wave where he's going to be getting some starts going back and forth in the bullpen Manny Machado is The Game's uh fangraph War leader right now he's on Pace for a his first six War season since that Heyday in Baltimore so I think you look at the Padre's and they look like they're finally equipped to make that run with the Dodgers I mean Clayton Kershaw that return is not ENT he just had a bullpen session shut down he felt some discomfort uh was scrapped he felt pain playing catch Andrew Haney threw a bullpen session but he's not you know on the way back yet that that Bullpen took a hit with Tommy kale going on the iil they even brought back Pedro bayz they're trying to find an answer there um we talked about Matt olsson's struggles earlier and you know I know it's kind of he who should not be named territory but Freddy Freeman is absolutely raking 152 way to run crate A Plus in April May it's his best start since 2018 and he's done it with the fewest strikeouts of his career to this point in the season so I mean the Dodgers are just very good at baseball but the Padre's are going to make it interesting yeah and I'm not going to sit here and tell you I'm surprised that Freddy Freeman is doing big things for a club because I watched it for a decade I understand how that whole thing works but unfortunately for the Braves they can't lean on his hot start this year they've got their own problems meanwhile for the Dodgers as this whole situation played out they were able to bring another player that just fits into the dynamic of what they've been building big picture out there for a long time it's to get proven hitters and pitchers and then take all of the other pieces that they feel like they can get more out of and maximize that other clubs may have given up on or not see something in talk about those good moves that are made it's not all about going out and signing somebody to a six or seven-year contract it's about making smart trades it's about Player Development the Dodgers do that extremely well and we've all seen it and heard it for a while this has been the Braves biggest rival and this has been the national League's most successful club year-over-year for a while so it's not altogether surprising to see them putting together a win streak and climbing back up to the top of that division where one would imagine they're going to be hard to knock off in that NLS Game of Thrones that's happening out there and if the Giants can get more involved in it and it's a three- team Race I'm not sure that the Diamondbacks the Rockies really have the steam to stay in it for a while but looking out there and seeing all those clubs at or around or above 500 for a while at different times this season was really not something I expected no in the Diamond Backs I mean they they had that six game losing streak they kind of rided the ship against the Cubs they won that series um they've come back to earth though I think in this Division and they've got the Dodgers who they're two and five against looming uh the Rockies you know they were a game and a half back on May 1st they're now eight games back with nine losses in the last 12 games they did get Chris Bryant back from the 10day iil the Giants yeah he was out for about three weeks he was yeah and the Giants it seems like they haven't been playing well since Gabe kapler decided to to have this deep thought realm where asking if you have a beard do you have a mustache and he kind of took this deep thought out to people cuz they're all growing mustaches and he was saying well I've got a beard so I should be good and they said no a Beard's not a mustache if you have a beard you don't have a mustache and he says well if you have a beard you do have a mustache so as two bearded guys I think we would both agree that if you do not you have the beard you have a mustache as long as I don't have to answer whether a hot dog's a sandwich I'll be very very happy but no that's not the kind of thing I want to spend a whole lot of time thinking about but I did want to Circle back to the Padre's one more time because you know their best starting pitcher this year has been Joe Musgrove MH and that's kind of surprising when you're talking about a team that does have a Mike cger who's coming off of injury you bring up a top prospect like McKenzie Gore you've also got this guy UD Darvish who has been good this year but not UD darish dominant only 37 punch outs for him this year in 46 Innings that's down markedly from his recent strikeouts per nine I don't know if that's caused for alarm or if it's just he's pitching a little bit different this year and he's 4- one in his eight starts and ra below four but not necessarily the ud darish level of production Maybe the Padre's had expected at this point no and with Musgrove they've won each of his first eight starts it's the second longest streak in club history so they're you know they're they're still finding a way to get it done with him on the mound and I think with with Daris you know you know how effective he can be I mean I don't think you I I would imagine he he he kind of goes through those runs like remember when he was when he was with the Cubs and there was talk about oh is he tipping pitches you know in the postseason I I think longterm you don't have any any concerns about if you darish is going to find a way to put together and Allstar a year ago but he has never struck out less than 10 batters per nine in his uh Major League career 10.8 last year 10.9 in his career but 7.2 this year I just saw that and thought that's very unud darish because typically when he's out there you're seeing strikeouts pile up but the Padres are winning more than they're losing and new darish has been contributing to that so maybe it's the weather heats up he'll find himself in a Groove and get back to the kind of performances that you're used to seeing uh big picture though it is the Mets and on top in the East it is the Brewers on top in the Central and the Dodgers have taken back over in the west just ahead of the Padres there as that takes a look at what's going on in the National League we'll switch our Focus to the American League as from the diamond continues right here on sports radio 929 the [Music] game I love baseball now back to more gra mccol and from the diamond on sports radio 929 the game this is from The Diamond Sports Radio 929 the game Grant mccaulay Cory McCartney with you from the Kia studios here in Midtown as we continue our look around the big leagues with Peak and what's happening in the American League in fact if we like what we see we might stay here a while how about a whole segment's worth Corey and let's start in the American League East where the New York Yankees have baseball's best record they are 29 and 10 as they battle the white socks on Sunday that's nearly a 750 winning percentage if you're scoring at home if you're into that sort of thing I looked at the standings earlier today getting ready for the show and I noticed that the Tampa Bay Rays have a record good enough to be tied or lead um the American League Central at the very least they wouldn't have the lead out in the west but if you look at this year-over-year it always seems to be the case where the second place Club in the American League East can be playing some great baseball good enough to lead other divisional races but you're in the American League E so get used to it if you're going to have to pack a lunch and you're going to have to keep if you want to topple the top team and it's not the same team every single year though this one from New York they seem to be in the mix I would imagine if you were the owners of the AL East teams and the NL West teams you would be like why don't we just you know just have all the teams in one just one division let's just all be the NL and then the you know we'll just take the top teams and just think about expanded playoffs maybe I mean this is the kind of think tank that you're looking at though uh I mean the Rays though a couple blows to this team in the last week they've put Manuel Margo and Brandon low on the AEL there's no time timetable on Margo's return Low's on the the 10-day aisle with the lower back issue he's going to undergo some further testings Maro was killing and he was hitting 78% above League average low was not replicating last year when he hit 39 bombs but still 114 WRC plus so that's two of the Ray's most productive bats missing including their number one and you mentioned the Yankees and that start they off to man Nester Cortez is absolutely positioning himself as a sa young Contender minus 0.1 run differential between his expected ra and his actual ra of 1.80 that is the lowest of any starter with a sub 20 so as much as we talk about you know babip and you know expected rates and what's reality what you're seeing is what is what you should be expecting from Nester Cortez this guy has been absolutely lights out uh we talk here in Atlanta about Kyle Wright being a great story but Cortez has made eight starts in his his fangraph Awards already closing in on his 21 2021 total so uh absolutely remarkable start from him now not only is it an interesting story for Nester Cortez but we talked about Kyle Wright when's he going to get a chance to stay in the big leagues well Cortez is a guy that's bounced between multiple organizations at a pretty young age as well he was drafted by the Yankees in the 36th round of the 2013 draft so we're sitting here nine years later basically talking about him really coming on in their rotation he got rule five by the Orioles in 2017 he got returned to the New York Yankees from the Orioles as a rule five pick because he didn't want to carry him all year and that's the rules then he got traded by the Yankees to the Mariners for future considerations hit free agency resigned with the Yankees in January of last year was a revelation for him on their staff a season ago which clearly led to a bigger opportunity this year and now this kid's just Off to the Races at 27 years old at least this is age 27 season sub to erra he's punched out 56 guys in 45 Innings only walked 11 only allowed four home runs he's hard to hit he's not putting guys on base and he's missing a lot of bats that sounds like success in 2022 and neter cour is leading this Yankee staff yeah I mean it's been it's been fascinating stuff out of him and and certainly you know mentioned you know those expected rates I think especially early in the season like this you look at a guy and try to figure out you know okay is he is he are the numbers I'm seeing you know that is that stuff that's ultimately going to average itself out and we're going to look back in a couple weeks and say no this isn't this isn't what we really should be having from him but um it is absolutely what NE Cortez should be providing them so he's he's been fascinating story so far with that question yeah it's a good pitching staff with a sub3 ER and we've talked about the proclivity for hitting home runs and Aaron judge is pretty high up on that list he's got 14 bombs this year we talked about him missing a 15th thanks to Camden Yards but he'll get there I'm sure you've also got Jean Carlos Danton hitting some pretty serious long balls as well he's got 11 in 36 games and like I said A week ago having these guys healthy were some big question marks for the New York Yankees let's switch our Focus down a little bit in the standings there Toronto Blue Jays have climbed up above 500 where they have won five of their last 10 uh back-to-back games heading into Sunday so that helps them in that regard to stay at around or above 500 which is where it all starts I guess if you want to do some extended winning you don't want to fall below that line and stay below it for too long particularly in this race where the Yankees and the Rays have both shown that they're going to be tough to track down in Boston meanwhile where they'd won four in a row the Red Sox had heading into Sunday how about Trevor's story he may have been pretty bad for the first five or so weeks but he's made up for it in the last week or so by hitting home runs like he's playing in Coors Field and the the best one of all I think was the one that was caught above the green monster by former Red Sox great and former Braves great I Johnny gome yeah so back to the Blue Jays real quick bo bo bashet just like Trevor story has woken up he homered twice drove in all the Jays runs on Saturday um 26% uh strikeout rate in April no Jay's player has driven in more runs in May than he had and man Trevor story just absolutely came alive that three home run game scored five and drove in seven in that on Thursday against Mariners going four for four it'sit a grand slam the next day things were so bad that between Wednesday and Saturday his Ops jumped 133 points 133 points it's insane and they're finally starting to put it together he's still at 109 way to run create a plus but this is what the Red Sox were paying him for I mentioned Jackie Bradley earlier in the show we were talking about the hunter rro tra Hunter rro trade he finally hit his first home run they remain I mean it's it's a massive hole right for them to get back in this thing and try to catch the Yankees but the expanded postseason for this team in the amount of talent they have you have to wonder did the Red Sox just wake up well as you look at Trevor story in particular this was a guy that through 25 games heading into the series against Atlanta after the first game there where he did go two for five actually so if you want to throw another good game on there but once he hit his first home run against the Braves in a 5-3 loss for the Red Sox he's hit six home home runs in his last 10 games he struck out just eight times and of course you've seen all of his numbers go up prior to that he was hitting 204 he was homerless with 36 strikeouts in 25 games so it's like he flipped a switch and turned back the clock or or turned back the venue I guess to look more like the Slugger that he was in Colorado let's look at the American League Central where the Minnesota Twins continue to have a pretty comfortable lead because the white socks and the Guardians among other teams in this division seem to have the same problem a lot of the National League EAS teams and particularly the Braves that we talk about all the time are having and that is can you get to 500 can you get above 500 can you chase down the team in front of you that has a comfortable lead and the answers to those questions is well the jury's still out but while it is early it's not quite Memorial Day which is when I like to look at the standings and say okay where are we these clubs have to be feeling like all right at some point some of this stuff's got to come together a lot like the Mets when we talk about how much pitching depth do you have I think that's really become a central question for the twins here because two months after trading for Chris Paddock they just lost to for the year for Tommy John surgery he made five starts for Minnesota and they've got Miguel so after you know he's out with miniscus surgery the rotation has had plenty of injuries four members of this rotation Sunny gray Paddock Dylan Bundy bayy obber who's now back every one of them have been on the iil so it's been great for the twins that they've kind of had Byron buckton healthyish I mean they're managing his workload he had a knee issue that he aggravated in April in Boston um but this is a winnable Division and and how the the twins are able to keep that pitching staff afloat all these injuries and you know make sure that they're not asking too much out of buern rection allowing him to be Sensational when he is on the field uh you know this is obviously their division to lose I mean the white socks they got Lucas gelo back which is huge uh they found you know Johnny quo like had his little douses of the Fountain of Youth where we know he has those moments where he just has those you know he'll have those Clunkers and then he'll have those games where he's just everything's working for him uh but man that that White Sox lineup just have to mention this sth in run scored last year they're on Pace for 576 this year and they're 135 runs less than the yearo that's where the pace that they're on right now that's how bad this offense has been for the white socks so that's why everything's set up for the twins is just it's it's not that they've been good but they've also taken advantage of the fact that the white socks have been nowhere near we expected yeah yeah no they've been nowhere close and this is not just well when they get monana back off the injured list that's going to change everything you've got some guys that simply aren't performing at a high rate you have lost ELO Jimenez that doesn't help out matters either but the white sock have woefully underperformed as an offense for again here's that phrase a variety of reasons there are a lot of different guys to look at that have done that I want to look at Byron buckon because the start that he got off to this year was Ultra exciting he hit six home runs and was batting 351 through his first 10 games he looked like it was time to just really start building the statue if you will in Minnesota they've been waiting a long time for Byron buckton to look like the impact player and the superstar that many people believe myself included that he could be but in his last 17 games five home runs he's batting a buck 56 not a ton of strikeouts for him but also not a ton of hits either but he is a premium Defender when you go through injury that can cause you to change your game just a little bit there's no two ways about that but for buckton as hot as he was over that first week or two that he was you know back in there from Minnesota he has cooled off quite a bit here in the last three or four weeks yeah I mean but the the numbers overall I mean are still insane right I mean still it's he's still is hitting 64% above League average still already has a 1 six War um you know I think the thing that they're going to have to be careful with is just you he has that track record so how much do you have to to manage you know you think about you know a lot of it's just like the NBA people hate hearing about you know workload Management in the NBA but I think that's what you have to approach this with with Byron buckton because you need a healthy season out of him you can't go through another one of these runs where you know he say man ultimately we're going to find out what this guy you know capable of yeah how many how many times can you ask that question they they found it this year and I think they're going to be extremely careful with him um but man you I just hope we look back on this and have these kind of rate numbers that we're talking about be a season long uh thing out of Byron buckton well speaking of health and for the Minnesota Twins they of course dodged a big time injury bullet when Carlos kareah did not have a broken finger he was down for a while but he is back in the lineup for them which meant that they sent Royce Lewis back to Triple A so it's just one of those things that happens when you don't have a ready opportunity up there but perhaps coming back as a third baseman would be in Royce lewis' future as Gio orella is not necessarily cemented there for a long period of time particularly if he doesn't hit out in the west at 11 game win streak we were talking about for the Houston Astros well you would imagine that would push you up the standings and it has as they're 11 games over 500 and have moved a couple of games ahead of the Los Angeles Angels as of Sunday's action but both those teams seem to be primed to you know to Vive for that spot all season long the Rangers have made a little bit of a run a little bit of movement toward 500 and after spending half a billion dollars on their new uh double play combination you would hope they could move towards 500 sooner than later the Mariners we talked about they've been pretty disappointing same can be said for the Oakland Athletics but as you look out west it appears that it's going to be a two- team Race and that could mean some big disparity between the top two teams and the bottom couple of teams in this division just based on the early returns I could not believe the Rangers the the Rangers the asteras this week five home runs in an inning the first time they've ever done that against the Red Sox tied a Major League record what amazes me about this team is they're you know obviously they're up in the west over the Angels right now but they lead the the majors in homers lead in Fang graph War we're seeing that next generation of Astros find their footing Jeremy Peña Kyle Tucker yordon Alvarez those are the guys who are one two and four on this team in fangraph war you've got obviously the Jose altu Alex bregman are still there but they've moved on to that next wave of players which has been a a big you know piece in this puzzle for them and in terms of the Angels we've talked about Mike Trout obviously Taylor Ward has been having a great year sh Otani is a show actually every time he steps on the field they are fifth in starter ER right now the last three seasons they were 22nd 29th and 29th oh yeah it was their biggest problem it was their biggest issue and they've obviously got Otani but Noah card has been fantastic Patrick sandal Reed deur I wonder about those last two guys though who have combined the sandal has 87 Innings a year ago demmer's threw 82 last year across all levels I wonder if they're going to be able to to sustain that and have those guys have high work lows as the year goes on but right now they needed pitching they're absolutely getting it and you know that's been one of the best stories of this this Angels team is that they're backing up that great offense with some fantastic starting pitching you know another guy we did not talk about in that group is Michael Lorenzen who you know who was with the Reds and they were kind of using him as that maybe he'll do some pitching maybe he'll do some hitting that hasn't really been a thing that they've tapped into to the degree of Sho Otani who is the leader in the clubhouse of all the hitting and pitching Endeavors all due respect to Albert phol and yachty Molina over the past week or two but Lorenzen in seven starts and this is a guy who wasn't a regular starter since way back in his rookie season of 2015 with Cincinnati he had become more of a reliever for them uh has tossed seven good starts for him he's 5- two with an ER right around three and when you talk about hey what's gone wrong for the Los Angeles Angels it has been we don't have enough pitching year-over-year that's been the big issue for them uh Mike Trout's injury status over the past few seasons it's also been somewhat alarming and disconcerting but he has been healthy this year sh Otani is sh Otani he's dominating on the mound and you've got some guys around him which staying power is a question Cory there's no two ways about it but if you're the Angels you've got a winning record you've got a club that seems to be equipped to stick around have some staying power You' got an owner with Deep Pockets what do you think they're going to be searching for around the trade deadline more pitching that's right and they and they've got the option to go out and do that I mean yeah absolutely um speaking of pitching by the way in this division ision you mentioned the Rangers how good they've been of late since April 22nd they have the the League's best batting average against at 211 I'm the fourth best ER John Gray by the way just came back and has struck out eight against the Angels then allowed two uh in six Innings against the Astros his next timeout so some glimpses there by the way did you know Matt Carpenter was uh signed in Texas did you have any idea that he just let him go so I had no clue that he was actually out there hanging on so he he's a guy that really fell on some hard times and he had been seemingly one of those Cardinals just Scrappy players that you just like Colton Wong who's with the Brewers now but I always ask this every time that he plays the Braves is it just when is he going to find his moment to just be a thorn in the side of this club because he always does but a big picture American League is the Yankees on top in the East the twins in the central is the Astros just ahead of the angels in the west when we come back we'll wrap up this edition of from the diamond with a look at what's ahead the coming this coming week for the Atlanta Braves and we'll do it next on sports radio 929 the game I love baseball now back to more Grant mccol and from the diamond on sports radio 929 the game welcome back to from the diamond Grant MCCA and Cory McCartney with you from the Kia Studios sports radio 929 the game let's take a look at what's coming up for the Braves as they begin a home stand Cory I'm sure they're happy to be back off the road I'm sure they're not thrilled about the final note of this series in particular dropping the Sunday finale against the Marlins and I would actually go back to the Wednesday finale against the Milwaukee Brewers as another game in which you had a chance to win and take another Series so some opportunities were left out there on the road some wins some winnable games were left out there on the road now this does continue though what we've talked about this string of 29 consecutive games now that you're on the other side of that Milwaukee series that you're playing against sub 500 clubs including some in your own division we've seen the Marlins we're going to see them again we're also going to get our first look at the Phillies and we'll see if the Braves can take advantage of other clubs who aren't playing up to their capabilities yeah they won't see a team with a winning record until they face the Giants at least you know think obviously could swing yeah until the Giants in June 20th at truest Park but you know it just seems so weird that we're talking about it being almost Memorial Day and the Braves are seeing the Phillies for the first time who is you know they've opened the season against multiple times in the last few years and just seems like that's always a an early stop on the Braves yeah aren't they supposed to open the season on the road every year against the Phillies and get swept is that not the is that not the script that's that's what it's always kind of felt like right but this Phillies team's going to come to town with a pretty potent offense I mean they're they're top seven right now in Ops and certainly Bryce Harper the reigning National League MVP he had that pfp injection he came back uh in the lineup over the weekend so you know certainly you know you know what he's capable of and and you know he's inflicted damage uh to a the nth degree against Braves pitching in the past and obviously those new pieces they have Kyle schwarber Nick castalanos from a defensive standpoint you know because of Harper and this elbow issue and not being able to be in the field there's opportunity there to take advantage of what's not really a a really great Corner defense from this Phillies team but uh you know I think it's I think it's going to be interesting to see what the Braves are able to get from Tucker Davis in that first game out uh he looked pretty strong in the last opportunity he had at Milwaukee with that start you know going five uh five innings without giving up an earned run he's going to face a again a strong offense as he faces the Phillies so what are they going to get out of Tucker Davidson from this second start I think he's going to be uh one of the biggest story lines in this series yeah and this was one of our holdover stories from the week that was for the Braves the return of Tucker Davidson as you still are looking for the answer to the fifth spot in the rotation and we are talking about you know knocking on the door of June the Braves tried out a few different arms wasar NOA did not work Bryce Elder did not work Kyle Mueller good to see you that didn't work only one start for him though so it's kind of hard to you know to know exactly what it could have been but it wasn't a particularly sharp one for him and as it happened the Braves were just kind of in a roster crunch there and had to make another move we haven't seen Spencer Strider jump into rotation but now with Tyler maik out which was another development over the past week or so in Braves baseball is what does this Bullpen look like down one of its bigger weapons already you know having come into this year losing Luke Jackson getting that news prior to the season as well you did bring in Kenley jansson you still have AJ Menor who is pitching at an extremely high level this year I think he's been the Brave's most valuable reliever you've still got Will Smith who has shown flashes at times that he can do the things that he needs to do at the very least and has hit a couple of speed bumps as well which over the course of a long season's to be expected some of these things though are going to get magnified because the offense has not been scoring a lot of runs all of that to say Spencer Strider right now has a big job I think to help fortify this Bullpen and bring that 80 grade stuff out there as many times as he can and mow down the opposition and help the Braves turn some leads into some wins yeah it may not feel like it at all times but you know based on fangraph 4 this is the second best bullpen in the league I mean obviously losing Luke Jackson was a blow Tyler matx now as you mentioned in the a with shoulder discomfort uh you know Will Smith has had you know he got his second save but he's had a 10-1 ra in his last uh four outings I mean that's you know the big pieces of that night shift c m is the only one left from that group and I think that do you go out and you get Kenley Jansen and he you know despite the fact that he had that that run of 26 consecutive saves snapped in Milwaukee he has been you know I think as good as you could have hoped the strikeout rat's been up over a year ago the the walk rat's been down AJ Mentor though I mean this it's been you know staggering how many guys he's been striking out when you think about the rate numbers you know it's in the the top four in the league and then when you look around you know you push that that qualifi you go from the qualified relievers to over 20 Innings pitched no one has a better strikeout rate than Spencer Strider does so as much as you'd like to see him get that opportunity to see if he can go out there and give you m multiples as you know whether you want to deem him as an opener or you want to see if he can go out there and provide you starts uh you know because you are down you know two guys from that night shift uh group and and Smith has not always been as effective as you want uh you need somebody to step up and and you need guys that can pick multiple Innings as well out of that Bullpen they don't have a lot of those Josh tomlin's not running around that Bullpen like he had in the past and you maybe Jesse Chavez can go out there and do it for you but mugh could I think colum McHugh but I think you you feel like you found something in Spencer Strider and I'm sure that there's definitely a sense of let's not mess with a good thing no and his work out of the bullpen has been pretty Dynamic I feel and whether or not he gets a chance to start we'll see there's a lot of the Season left to be played in that regard and I don't think the Braves necessarily locked in their final answer in this fifth spot of their rotation though they would love for Tucker Davidson to come in and give them some consistency he had shown a little bit of that I think before the arm injury befell him in 2021 then he came out and got a little bit of World Series experience which you'll always take if you can get it I guess and the Braves clearly got the better end of the world series experience overall by winning the whole thing last year but you know Ian Anderson with six strikeouts in his loss to the Miami Marlins I brought this up I don't know that it really points out to anything other than just the pure dominance of AJ Menor it took six strikeouts for Ian Anderson to pass AJ Menor on the strikeout leaders for this team mentors punched out 28 guys in 18 and 2/3 Innings and now at 4 two innings Anderson's up to 31 strikeouts on the year so it took a good performance and half a dozen strikeouts for one of your starting pitchers who's out there every fifth day and has been as he made his eighth start today did Ian Anderson to pass one of your relievers in strikeouts so uh yeah it's it's been a dominant performance for uh for AJ Mentor who's 13 and a half KS per nine leads the brave staff uh just ahead of Kinley Janson and Colin McHugh and then Kyle Wright is also on that short list so uh pretty good work from by AJ Mentor but let's talk about this four game series against the Philadelphia Phillies you brought up Bryce Harper a moment ago and you always know that you have to approach him very carefully it felt like he really had the Braves number early on in his career particularly in his time with the Washington Nationals it doesn't feel like it's been quite so much so in recent years so I went back and looked last year he hit 191 against the Braves he knocked in three runs they were all on solo home run so maybe that Trend can continue if you can neutralize him which is a big if maybe you can keep the Phillies line up at Bay long enough to let the Braves lineup kind of come to life against the Phillies rotation and against the Phillies staff that is not necessarily among the best in baseball in terms of pitching yeah I mean you still got Kyle schwarber's gone deep 10 times I mean you know what Nick cast alanos is capable of JT rioo you know this is a deep offense even Gan sigura right now is hitting 29% above League average and he's got six bombs so this is a a really deep offense and I think that's going to be one of the big pieces for this I mean the the pitching match up set up pretty well for the bra as you look on in this I mean you got Max freed going in the second game against Kyle Gibson Ranger Suarez against Charlie Morton Morton's turned things on of late that first game feels really important though because you know Zack Wheeler's got a 349 ER he's punched out 41 um you know I just don't know that we we know what we're going to get out of Tucker Davidson you know he had obviously had a good outing the last time against this really strong Brewers offense um but if he gets you know into some trouble against this this uh deep Phillies unit I mean what is he what what's going to happen what that set up for the rest of the series can he get through enough Innings that you take stress off that Bullpen and help out freed and Morton later on yeah and that's what you ultimately need it's just the guy the fifth guy in the rotation to be able to be the patch that helps you get that rotation through every fifth day getting as good as starts as you can from all five of those men that's why it is a rotation that's what they want is for the next guy to take that baton and hand it to the next so that you can help out your Bullpen as you just said I mean I look at some of the other hitters in this lineup though and I know that most of them are as you point out hitting at or above League average by and large but a lot of guys outside of Bryce Harper whose Ops is sub 800 in fact Jean sigur is the only other guy with an 800 or better Ops as of the games of Saturday on the Phillies club and a lot of batting averages that don't necessarily get followed up with high on base percentages if that makes sense so standard ey test stuff I feel like the Phillies pass a lot of those tests but when you start to look a little bit deeper outside of Bryce Harper who again is batting well over 300 approaching a 1,000 Ops and has hit nine home runs and his 35 games this year and just had that platelet rich plasma injection in his elbow which has a torn UCL which is going to have him serving as a club's DH for the foreseeable future that also means defensively speaking that you have to put a couple of dh's out into the Outfield which would be of course KY schwarber and Nick castalanos but look the Phillies have been a little bit better than I think people expected them to be in terms of Defense but when you flip the page and start looking at their pitching just not a whole lot to get excited about arinola has picked up one win this year so far Rangers Suarez leads their staff with four wins uh you know that's a Draconian status I like to say but when I do look at the starting rotation and I think are these guys winning ball games it tells me how deep into the ball game are they going and how often do they have the lead so while it's not necessarily the stat to hang your hat on it is one that still for starting pitchers you'd like them to be around long enough to factor in the decision you care about winning the game overall but I think it speaks a lot to where baseball is these days that a lot of times you'll look at hey this guy started nine games how many total decisions does he have and how many games are you leaving up to your Bullpen which has been better for the Phillies this year that had been their ailles heel for a while particularly a couple of years ago when it was absolutely horrendous so if you're looking for some guys to watch in this series uh you know got Zack Wheeler going for the Phillies the first time out Rollin CI Jr has taken him deep three times if you're looking for an opportunity for Matt Olsson to break out Kyle Gibson the former Ranger who he knows all too well from his time with the A's he's gone deep against him three times a 500 a batting average in 16 ABS against Kyle Gibson so uh maybe familiarity there going to be something that helps Matt Olsson get his way his way out of this rut uh you know and then they don't really have a lot of experience against Ranger Suarez ozie alz has taken him deep Adam Deval has uh but those first two series man you you look at olssen trying to find that opportunity to get his his groove back and it could come against a pitcher that he knows really really well yeah so the Braves are going to line up in this series to throw Davidson freed Morton and Kyle Wright we'll see how all of this plays out it is a four game series we're back to those again not sure I love four game series but if you take three out of four you might be able to talk me into it the Braves at least are going to be throwing their three very best starters and if you can get a good start from Tucker Davis and particularly on a day that Zack Wheeler is pitching you're kind of playing with house money at that point in some ways at least in my book yeah without question so I mean again what does he do to set that tone because you you got to like those pitching matchups and the Phillies throwing out the ever dangerous TBD on Thursday opposite Kyle Wright so you always got to that guy he can either win or lose a lot of times I mean it's all to be determined and that we'll see what the Phillies are able to pull out of there from up their sleeve if you will to throw a wrinkle at the Braves if they do but it will be wheeler Gibson and Suarez going in those first three games of this series and then of course you'll see the Marlins and the Braves are not going to have another off off day for a while they're in a stretch of 14 games in 14 days so that's something to keep in mind as well when you start looking at what can my starting pitchers give me because you're going to have to get I think as much as you can and maybe we saw a little bit of that on Sunday when Ian Anderson came out to start the seventh inning against Miami I kind of felt like everything was spent there through six for him and that's enough that you could have taken that and then turned it over to the bullpen even if you want to stay away from certain guys but when you're trying to manage and and I'm not making any excuses for Bullpen decisions and I don't make any of them I've never managed a big league game but you do have to think about the workload of your pitchers if you don't want to hear it well too bad because you're playing 14 consecutive games and it's not a video game these guys aren't going to be able to throw every single day the top three or four guys in your Bullpen I mean yeah and again you know you're going to have to watch Davidson this next time out because he could be exactly like he was you know when they were in Milwaukee and he gives you you know five quality Innings or he could be out in you know a couple and runs into some problems and all of a sudden you've got to you know go out there and try to cover a bunch of innings knowing that you've got a four game series and no off days coming up so uh it just feels like that first start is going to be the biggest ones of these because obviously they're trying to figure out what happens at 5 for the long term does that you know go until Mike Soka potentially gets back after the All-Star break or you know do we end up seeing them bring somebody else in I think obviously you know in the best case scenario you try to find an in-house option that you can roll with until you know until Soka is ready to go they've just been through so many different options it feels like you know I mean maybe Tuki Tucan ends up getting a chance to be to pop in there just they're they're G they've run through enough guys here at some point we got to figure out who that fifth guy is going to be for more than just one turn in the rotation yeah and if you talk about a Braves club that starts to put things together I still feel like they were looking for a starting pitcher over the winter they weren't able to get that done they made their deal with Kenley Jansen to make the bullpen stronger as it turns out and that was a pretty good deal to make because it did at least help the Braves in the bullpen department and more more times than not here since Kyle Wright has been able to solidify this you have had four pretty Dependable starters Charlie Morton having to figure a few things out not withstanding these are four pitchers that you feel like you can run with for a little while and we'll see what the Braves are able to do with it but the Marlins are going to be on the other side of this four game series against the Phillies as his home stand is going to be seven games for the Braves at truest Park where they are 10 and 11 this year getting over 500 in general would be great on this home stand getting over 500 and staying over 500 at home is something the Braves would very much like to see well seven games here for the Braves as they begin this home stand it'll start against the Phillies on Monday Cory as always I enjoyed it look forward to doing it again next week yeah we'll see if the Braves can finally put a streak together still waiting on those three straight wins though we're waiting on them the three straight losses haven't happened either for Cory McCartney for Dom sheroski our producer here Grant mccaulay on from the diamond on sports radio 929 the game we'll join you next week so long everyone