Max Fried and Ozzie Albies hit the IL, Top Prospect Nacho Alvarez to make his MLB debut

[Music] good evening welcome back to Sports Talk ATL I am Chas Earl joined by Alex sword is it ironic that the fact that we said the number one key for the Atlanta Braves having success in the second half of the season is health and obviously that's not really anything that you can control but it's ironic that in the first series not only do we drop it to the Cardinals at home which is disappointing in itself but more importantly we lose Max free to a forearm injury that occurred before the he pitched in the All-Star game he started feeling it then he kept feeling it you know they don't think it's too serious but it's still serious enough for him to miss a couple of weeks and honestly with everything that's transpired this year you can't really blame him for being as safe as possible with Max fre so hopefully that's just minor hopefully that's just a couple weeks maybe it's a month hopefully you know he has enough time to get right before a potential playoff stretch run whatever you want to call but the bigger injury is actually Azie albz which happened in the series finale he fractures his wrist out expected to be eight weeks I think that might be on the higher side but regardless he's pretty much out for the regular season and even if he comes back you know we've seen with Austin Riley and Shawn Murphy you don't just come back and all of a sudden you're hitting 20 home runs in a couple of month stretch like you know it takes some time to get back so for for essentially the rest of the season we can basically claim Azie Al is not going to be Azie alies was he returns before the end or not a and to say it's devastating is kind of an understatement um but it's just been the story of the Atlanta Brave season you know it's just I I've never seen a team struck by the injury bug uh in football as much as this and this is baseball right like we're used to some pitcher injuries and you can almost expect a couple of those every season but from a p position player aspect I mean usually you you get a a little hamstring injury here there it's mostly just you know you're out for a couple of weeks and the Braves have had that but it's like sh get hit with a ball and that's generally I me the only guys that have played every single game are Marcel lunu who's obviously having a great year and Matt Olson it might not be good is obviously having a terrible year but I mean every single position player Orlando R ozie OB this his second time on the aisle so he's going to missed in total around three months Austin Riley spent time on the I mean Michel har I mean it's and Shawn Murphy missed the first two months of the Season Michael Harris is going on two months with missing the season I mean it is it's one of those things that's almost unexplainable it's terrible luck but here's the one thing I want to say right and I've said this but it like if I said that they're in a better position now to go and win a World Series than the 2021 team is like I firmly believe that like I still think they have enough fir power I still think Max freed if he can come back healthy assuming that that is the case you still have one of the best pitching staff and that always going to give you a chance and I think you have a better lineup than you did back in 2021 before the trade deadline now it's time to see what kind of move said and listen selling is not an option I know You' said that but even after these injuries it's not an option because ozie alakus could still come back like he could still be back for the stretch run uh Max fre we're expecting back even if somebody else goes down I'm talking like our prominent guys there still won't be sell not say it let's not say it listen I I don't even really care at this point I really don't care but like get selling out of your mind like maybe maybe anthopolos won't be as aggressive maybe but that's all it's going to be it'll be how much he buys it won't be the necessarily whether he buys or sells there is absolutely no scenario unless a plane or a meteor crashes into truest Park then maybe then maybe and even then I think Alex an be like all right we're gonna go play in guette and we're still gonna be buyers like I don't even understand you're just like punting on a season where I do agree with you that going into the trade deadline it's not even an argument especially with you know Max Reed isn't out for the season this pitching staff is still among the best in baseball and in and past that we're looking at guys who are MVP caliber guys who haven't been playing up to their standard looking at matal and Austin Riley has come on of late we still haven't gotten Mike Harris back Shawn Murphy and Travis darno are finally getting in a Groove with both of them playing you know seemingly every other day so even then I totally agree with you that this team is in an infinitely better spot than it was last year now the biggest thing is is can Alex anopolis go four for four he went four for five there's a little reliever that nobody wants to remember from that trade deadline but four for five on by low or by low candidates high lowrisk high reward and going four for four parlay that you know seemed practically impossible to do in today's MLB the athletic actually just wrote an article on the best trade deadlines of the last decade and that was number one I don't think there's any doubt and it's funny because you did bring up Richard Rodriguez you didn't say his name but that is the guy that was actually deemed the prize of the trade deadline when it happened and he turned out not even to make the post roster and then went on a ped suspension and never got his option and no one ever remembers that because but that is the randomness of baseball and the trade deadline right like none of those nobody expected Jorge s to go on that kind of Terror Eddie Rosario to win the NLCS MVP Jorge s to win the World Series MVP jock Peterson to just Revitalize the entire team like it's the randomness of the sport and the trade deadline all you got to do as we say is get in the dance and this team has so much talent like there there are some teams that I'm when I look at the expanded playoff I'm like yeah you probably shouldn't be going for because I do say all it takes is get in the dance but like a team like the Marlins last year they had no chance of winning the World Series right but a team like the Diamondbacks who was just a little bit better than the Marlins like they had enough to get there and go to the World Series and the Braves certainly have a better team than the Diamondbacks were a year ago and especially after the trade deadline I think they'll be looking when you talk about buying and how much it's going to buy I do think you start talking a lot more about rental players that aren't going to cost a lot more prospects like you saw in 2021 because let's be honest your best chance to win the World Series in this Championship window this is probably the worst chance to ra out it is not going to be easier without Spencer Strider or Ronald o Ken now it doesn't mean it can't be done your odds may have been 20% with those guys and now they're down to 10% but you still have a 10% chance so go out there and make the most of it I think you're going to see Alex anthopolos who's consistently been maybe the most aggressive GM in the sport go out there and make some moves I think it's going to be more of the rental variety I do not expect pitching unless they really are worried about Max freed I think at the end of the day we've seen the pitching of the trade Island we've been linked to Pitchers we needed pitch the cost doesn't outweigh the production like the cost of getting a ace guy is so unbelievably high that it doesn't outweigh especially a back end of the rotation Guy where you're like is he even really going to be an asset in the playoffs like and it's and that will still be extremely expensive you're better off just trying to hope you know one of your young guys comes up and you know is better than expected in the brighter lights if Max freed and Chris Sale it lets if Max freed isn't healthy by the of the Season or Chris S goes down like you don't have a chance like it like there's no one that's going to be able to step in and replace those guys enough to where you really have a chance considering all of the other injuries so you you really have to hope that the guys that have gotten you to this point are healthy when it matters most and that's why it is kind of good that an injury to like this to Max re's happening now not a month or now but let's get into the other big Topic in all this right because of Aussie Ali's injuries nacho Alvarez is up and nacho Alvarez is the guy we've been talking about this isn't exactly I mean it's funny because we compared it to Von Gom right this is this is the exact scenario Aussie alz went down in 2022 we had to call him up probably a little prematurely hopefully things work out better but then again we did get Chris Sail Out of Von Grom so who knows but at the end of the day I think Von Grom is goingon to be able to handle defensively the second base position without many problems this a guy who's been playing short stop at at the other level and he hasn't played second base but his athleticism it should be very easy generally speaking you don't move from Short Stop to second base get worse and let's not act like Azie alz was out there playing great defense in fact he was playing some of the worst defense at second base so it should be an upgrade and frankly from what Azie alz was giving the Atlanta bra this season Nao could come up and give you that and maybe even a little more and I'm not saying he's a better player You Know sample size is everything but we're talking about a two-month sample size here well I can immediately tell you that defensively he can give as much as ozie Al and I expect better because like I said you know Triple A major leagues there's a big difference but let's not you know confuse just because you haven't played second base at the major or you know at any level doesn't mean a guy who's played shortstop and third base both harder defensively than second base isn't possible moreover he's going to give you more than Azie alz on the base pass uh and with the stick oie Al's on season 98 WRC plus that's 2% below League average obviously you know just round up he's League average at this point or through you know you're telling me Nacho Alvarez can't do that for just a short period of time I think you're crazy and I saw you know prominent Braves uh beat Riders talking about you know uh moving Orlando to second base and then not you don't have to make it that difficult it doesn't have to be that difficult and and you spoke about it Von Grim I know it didn't work out in the long run but if you remember that 2022 stretch run he came up and was more than fine he was more than adequate especially defensively at second base he was fine and offensively he was more than fine he was above above League average so you know yes it didn't pan out exactly how brav fans had hoped with Von Grisham he ideally would have been the short stop of the future but that's not to say that nacho Alvarez can't come up and do the same exact thing that Von Gom did in 2022 for the graves in 2024 I think that's kind of there's always seems to be a shining light that sucks you in and I think nacho Alvarez is that with Braves fans considering the situation so almost like you don't want to watch but I'm excited to watch because I'm excited to see him we're going to talk a little bit more about the trade deadline and the Braves and what you can expect after the break