Reynaldo Lopez to the IL, Ian Anderson back with the Braves?

[Music] good evening and welcome back to Sports Talk ATL I am Chaser joined by Alex Lord last night the Braves 12z win tied with the Mets in the Wild Card once again but they lose Ronaldo Lopez which it looks like it's for the season he could potentially come back at the end of the year maybe he comes back but judging by the fact that he already had forearm tightness he just came off the I on August 20th now he's dealing with shoulder inflammation you got a lot invested in this guy past this season it's hard to imagine that even if the Braves are in it on that last series of the year or in the postseason maybe later in the postseason but I don't think they're going to rush him back uh it seems like this is more of a move that effectively ends his season which I I think it I mean we keep I don't know what is going to be the straw that breaks the camels back for this team it seems like they can overcome whatever is thrown at them but this was the thing the pitching step was the one thing we could hang our hat on your cowboy hat we can hang it and say hey if we get into the postseason this is the reason why and one of the biggest X factors was Ronaldo Lopez in the season we was having and having a third fourth guy whatever you consider him with Spencer schellenbach in the mix now and having that depth and that's going to be a huge Advantage when you get to a game three or four against any other team now that Advantage is seemingly lost so it seems like even if the Braves get into the postseason it's really hard to imagine them doing any damage when they get there given the state of the offense largest margin of Victory on the season last night and another pitcher goes down it feels like every single time the Braves offense decides to remember that they can play baseball they're also allowed to hit the ball as well one of our pitcher dies literally one of our pitchers dies every single times the Braves offense goes off uh and this time is Ronaldo Lopez I'd be shocked if we saw him again I I agree with you you know to a certain degree uh you do have to you know protect your investment and it's not a huge investment considering what starting pitching especially at his caliber is going for but it's still an investment nonetheless and I think when you're talking about you know him potentially returning you know the 15 days is the final series of the season um and and and quite frankly even if it if it does mean something what are you gonna do throw them out there you know right off of the 15-day I you know that's not gonna happen uh and then what are you going to do you know maybe win the wild card and then throw them uh you know a couple weeks later uh in the nlds you know that that just seems like a lot to ask of a guy who is very clearly you know his body is adjusting to becoming a starter again and and quite frankly I think this is more of an indicator that you know maybe his body can't hold up and obviously this is the first time in a long time that he has been a starter so maybe he is just still adjusting and this isn't a sign of things to come but that's where my mind went I was like I don't know if this guy can really you know be that kind of guy uh you know for the entire entirety of the Season maybe you do that you know in the second half of the Season or whatever that's where my mind went was like damn can this guy have the go over the Long Haul as a starter because I mean yeah he hasn't done it in four years and the first year he's done it he's he's running into issues uh you know that are very fatigue related yeah I mean I'm not too surprised that eventually happened in fact I would I'm almost more surprised it didn't happen sooner and it did kind of happen sooner in the terms of the forearm but no I mean I think I'm not too worried about the future of him as a starter I think this is kind of part of the process that a lot of starting pitchers that are getting stretched back out run into as long as it's not something listen I've talked about this we saw this with Kyle Wright I talked about this a lot last year shoulder injuries to me are can sometimes be worse than a for than an elbow injury which obviously the elbow injury you tear your UCL you're out 12 to 18 months but it's pretty cut and dry right the guy usually comes back and there's not a lot of risk for injuries it does happen from time to time as we saw with spenc today ucl's can be you know not a blessing disguise but more if you haven't had Tommy JN you're in the minority as a starting pitcher and with shoulder injuries they can be career detrimental injuries that never really go away I mean you saw what they did with Kyle Wright I mean Kyle Wright was just I mean two years ago Kyle Wright was one of the upand cominging pitchers he gets a shoulder injury last year never can really make it back they pretty much looked at the x-rays and said yeah man you're done and they've traded they traded him away for nothing so you hope that this is more of just a case of fatigue and nothing like that and as long as that's the case I'm not too worried about the future of Ronaldo Lopez I'm not surprised he ran into these things but as far as this year's concerned it's difficult to imagine maybe they bring him back as a reliever like if you hypothetically get in the postseason we've talked about those hybrid relievers that can be really valuable maybe they kind of stretch him out that way and they he he goes three or four Innings hey if he he looks really good maybe they make him a start in the next series so there's kind of like a scenario where I actually think Ronaldo Lopez could piece back into things if this is a very very minor thing and they're just being precautionary we don't know yet like we don't know the answers I mean they could come out basically and say yeah he's done for the season they didn't say anything about the m and obviously to tonight before the game they'll probably get it they'll say it so we don't know I mean they could say he's done for the season and we're really having a conversation that hey let's talk about next year and let's talk but let's talk about the replacement because the replacement is going to be Ian Anderson I can almost guarantee you that that's going to be the case he's he's lined up perfectly he pitched last night six Innings of one run ball he's actually pitched really really well like kind of under the radar no one's paid attention because we have all these starters it was never like oh we're not we're gonna need one well now we need one and the good news is you got a guy nean Anderson who has experience who's been here had success at the major league level and looks a lot better not just from the numbers standpoints but really from the repertoire and stuff like that five of his last seven Tings two hour two runs or fewer six of his last seven Innings at least five innings so he's fully stretched out ready to go and the one thing you know about him the magnitude of the game which we're going to be coming down where every game matters is not going to phas I mean this is a guy who know hit the Astros over five innings in the World Series so as much as like it's kind of like we've said all year like oh there's just something that kind of brings you back well if you're a Braves fan and you've been here longer than three years you are excited to see Ian Anderson and there's just there's just something that keeps pulling you back in and somehow they're still in this race well guess what Ian Anderson's that thing and they're in this race and I we keep talking about that Mets series it really seems like it's inevitable like there's going to be a clash of those teams at truest Park and most likely going to decide what what this uh final spot in the NL Wild Card race comes down to another thing last night I mean the bats finally and it wasn't the fact that like you know uh it was all these guys who who who you know Ursula and Ursula went hitless last night it was the guys that you expected to be carrying this lineup without Ronald Jr without Austin Ry Michael haris had two home runs Marcel Zuna did his thing Matt Olson did his thing Shawn Murphy had a home run like that was what we Jorge cir had a couple RBI like that is what we expected for the entirety of the second half of the Season you know when Austin Riley uh went down and it wasn't these you know no-name guys that have just been scer up you know DFA around the league it's the guys who've made All-Star games the guys who had been rewarded with these fat contracts they finally showed up and that is another piece of optimism where it's like yeah Ronando Lopez did go down but like Money Mike getting going Jorge Slayer getting going matad Olson continuing to be hot Sean Shawn Murphy finally getting going those are the sorts of things where it was like you know honestly I love Ronaldo Lopez but if this is what the baseball Gods decided was like we got to take a picture away if your offense is going to get any better unfortunately I just don't think that's the case yeah I don't think it's GNA be like this we're not going to score 10 runs for the entire rest of the season but if these guys start having their moments I don't think it's crazy I well we've done this 15 different times I'm at the point where it is crazy because yeah like there's just it there's been absolutely no consistency and some of it is that you're just too rely on our four or five guys like listen I said it yesterday if there's one guy that needs to step up in this lineup it's Michael Harris because that's the guy that we talked about before the season I know you have some rusts when you come back from injury but you now been back a month and even before yeah I mean you've had this is a guy who's had a 900 Ops over 100 games I mean he he was a career 855 Ops coming into the season like that's a guy that you need especially out of the leadoff spot to start playing like the allstar that you're capable of he hits two homers yes hopefully that's a sign of things to come but in terms of the offense as a whole I'm here where you better pitch the hell out of the ball and without Ronaldo Lopez that takes a huge Buzz hopefully Ian Anderson can give you something but I I mean you I don't know how you're not very very down on what happened last night which is unfortunate because you win a game 12 to zero yeah I mean I I think you know what the Braves can hang their hats on is the resilience of this club um and and you know you kind of look at each other and be like hey guys we're playing with house money nobody expects anything of us you know kind the the pressure is on because you're the Atlanta Braves and preseason expectations but reasonable people will look at the context and look at the season as a whole and been like yeah they probably shouldn't have made the playoffs or you know I can't believe they made the playoffs so I think they can take some solace in that and maybe rally around the fact that like hey guys we're still here we're still hanging around we still got dudes I mean if you go look at the Mets lineup it's not like the Mets lineup is just some uh Juggernaut like they don't have a very good lineup and and to be quite Frank you know the Braves if everybody's playing like we imagine they can play the Braves still have a better lineup you I'm talking my cares playing like he is Jorge slair can still play like he is Matt Olson continuing his play Shawn Murphy decided to pull his head out of his butt those kind of things like we still have a lineup even without all of our Allstars all of our best players that can go to toe-to-toe with this Mets lineup yeah I mean toe-to-toe listen where you have the advantage even with ralo Lopez is you have a better pitching staff and that's that's what you're still going to have to be able to hang had on it and listen as I said about Ian Anderson I'm actually lowkey a little bit of excited to see what he can bring to Braves because he has flashed a kind of an improved repertoire we knew him as a fast ball change up guy he's thrown a little slider he's got more horizontal movement which was a big issue he was a lot of up and down with not a lot of east and west now he's got a little bit of everything I'm excited to see how this all all kind of works together at the top level and as I said I mean he's not going to Flinch you know the guy's not going to Flinch you're going to need him in a big game it could be against the Mets it could be in the postseason I don't know when it's going to be that would be lineup Sunday no or no that's five days yeah I mean what he was Tuesday so yeah five days Sundays Dodgers whether it's Sunday or Monday it's the Dodgers so like because we have a wraparound to so like he's gonna pitch against the Dodgers unless they want to go Bullpen game because they're afraid to throw him out there but why not but why not I mean this guy has pitched in the playoffs against the Dodgers and pitched well give him opportunity I mean listen he's our best shot frankly if you're trying to keep this pitching staff at an elite