Atlanta Braves Open 2026 Season with Shutout Victory Over Royals

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to the

Territory Podcast.

This is episode three, five, two.

My name is Brad Rowan, and I'm joined on this opening day

for the Braves from a good friend, Scott Coleman,

Scott, in contrast to last season.

The Braves are one-on-oh.

How's it feel?

Hello, Brad. God bless that we are not going to start

another baseball season, oh, and seven.

That was, they really put us through our paces a year ago,

but hey, a great win for the Atlanta Braves tonight.

A clean win, six-nothing over the Kansas City Royals.

The team pitched well, the team hit well,

the team played really good defense just across the board.

This was a perfect start to the season,

and hopefully a sign of things to calm down the road.

Absolutely, an encouraging performance from the Braves

to begin the season, and we should also say

at the top for anybody that's might be new joining us.

For the first time when we're coming back from the all season,

we are hammer territory.

We are part of the Fallet Territory Network.

We cover the Braves all season long,

and really all year long.

And with that, let's mix it up, engineered by Fassano.

All right, Scott, let us dive in to what became a six-nothing win

for the Braves, 11 hits, only five hits allowed.

It was kind of a cruise control victory,

and that's not a huge surprise,

given that Chris sales on the mountain,

and generally speaking, when Chris sales on the mountain,

things are good for the Braves,

but it was their first opening day at home in a long time.

Some interesting nuggets along the way,

they had an interleague game, which I thought was odd,

and then I realized from Braves' PR that actually was odd,

the first time I've ever had interleague to begin the season.

But what was your biggest takeaway?

I mean, because we'll talk about this later on,

there was a lot of lineup discourse and fun stuff,

but where do you want to lead with on this Friday night

after a, again, kind of cruise control victory?

I thought the lineup was great tonight.

Against Cole Regans, one of the very best lefties in baseball.

I know Cole Regans is maybe not a household name

for every fan base, but Regans is nasty from the left side.

It gets a ton of swing and miss, a ton of strikeouts,

and the Braves did a fantastic job tonight with the bats,

and truthfully, when you saw the lineup come out today,

which is of course missing a couple of players,

it was like, ooh, okay, all right,

this is our lineup against lefties, at least for the first,

I don't know, a few weeks,

first month of the season, the Braves were great,

and they got Regans out of the game,

he threw 80 pitches over four innings,

they really made him work, they didn't really give away outs,

and they had a couple of really clutch hits

throughout the night, and it, I mean,

it was just a smooth sailing game,

pretty much the whole way, great start in the first inning,

Ozzy Albi's homeward, and after that,

it was basically all Braves all the way.

We might discuss a little bit more of the lineup in a second,

but what was the funniest thing for sure

was that Ozzy Albi's hit third,

that created a lot of discourse on the internet,

including for me, I have to say, I didn't love that,

but Ozzy, who, I've always been an Ozzy guy,

and look, he has always, basically,

until maybe parts of last season,

been incredible against lefties, always.

We used to do a thing on the show about,

basically, he was mic-trout against lefties,

prime mic-trout, so maybe he's back to that,

I would love for that to be the case,

but Ozzy hit third, and of course,

hits a home run in his first play appearance,

and that lights the internet on fire,

I was like, oh, it's like a warm blanket, we're back,

everyone that kind of had, I wouldn't say everyone.

Most people that I saw did not love the Ozzy hit third,

and it's like, hey, in your face, this is baseball,

don't forget, you'll be humbled if you try it with your takes,

and I was encouraged, I love Ozzy,

but just generally speaking, that was fun to see,

and also, it's a reminder that he does have some ceiling

from the right side, and maybe saw that a little bit today,

and I wanna overreact, it's one game, but I was encouraged.

Absolutely.

If we are going to get Ozzy Albi's back to the hitter,

he has been basically his entire career

up until last season against left-handed pitching.

That is massive for the Atlanta Braves.

It cannot be understated how big that is for this team,

in this offense, as it tries to bounce back

after two very downed seasons offensively.

If Ozzy's gonna hit lefties, it is huge for this lineup,

it's really gonna give him a boost,

especially while Murphy and Hassan Kemmer

both on the injured list who both hit lefties well,

it's only going to help, and just one game,

but really encouraging both Ozzy and Michael Harris

had a homer later as well, for two players,

the Braves are really hoping can bounce back,

and be more of the players that we have seen them be

over the years, really good signs to have both Ozzy

and Michael Harris home or tonight on opening day.

For sure, and Michael having a home run

against a quality left-hander as well,

like him hitting righties is not huge with surprising,

him hitting home or against a good lefty is really encouraging,

and it was a rocket shot as well,

it was probably what broke it open, honestly,

the Braves went up for nothing when that happened,

and they were already in comfortable shape,

now we know that now, that's what I know that then.

So that was a big swing, and then look,

Drake Baldwin, not that we were worried about him,

at all coming off his rookie season,

immediately homers in the third inning,

Drake looks like a star to me, I think you said the same,

there's always the possibility of a little bit of regression,

but not today, he looked like Drake Baldwin,

and you'll have to see it, basically you know,

we talked about this a little bit so far

of this winter and into the spring

about how some of the issues that the Braves have,

and we won't talk about that all tonight

about those pitching staff and all that stuff,

but we have been saying repeatedly on the show

in the last couple of weeks, like hey, that all matters,

but if they hit a lot, it would be a lot,

that would be very helpful to overcoming that,

like back to 2023 basically, just mash,

and everything else figured itself out,

they kind of mashed in this game, three home runs,

and if you do that, if the rest of the three home runs

on a regular basis, they're gonna win a lot of games,

it would be what I would say.

We really need to see the power come back for this team,

and we know, I mean, that was the bread and butter

of the historic 2023 offense, like every night,

three homers, four homers, it was really encouraging,

and I mean, what more can you say about Drake Baldwin,

a 110 mile an hour off the bat rocket ship

that just cleared the right field wall?

I mean, I think it hit the wall with like two and a half seconds

after we made contact at the plate,

it was just a no doubt or really good for Drake.

I mean, a player who, the sky is the limit this year,

I'm expecting a really special season from Baldwin,

and tonight was a really great start.

Again, off of Cole Reagan's,

one of the top lefties in the American League.

For sure, let us see, and even Mauricio Dubon got in

the actual two run double in the seventh inning,

to kind of, that was the final score for the Braves,

but it was a collective effort.

Ironically, the team's best player, Ronald Acunia,

was the only guy who didn't reach base,

and I'm not worried about Ronnie at all.

So that makes me feel better.

If there's one guy that I, it's like,

I'm okay with my kick on base in game one,

it's Ronnie, who's gonna be awesome to better, what I think.

So yeah, cross the board, balance,

hold runs, awesome, I look great as well,

which is very helpful, and a fun game.

We'll talk about the pitching staff in a second,

and like the run prevention aspect of this game,

but sale was great, superb defensively.

Like it was just one of those fun games,

and they won't all be like that.

Even when they win,

Scott, we're gonna have some stressful nights

when it's not like, hey, they're winning

every moment of the game basically,

but it is nice to have a kicker feed-up victory

on a Friday night, great weather in Atlanta,

place was rocking, I was indoors

freaking out about basketball games personally,

but for everybody that was only watching baseball,

I'm sure it was honestly just a tremendous experience

because the Braves just like getting off to a good start,

it's like, oh, this is nice, warm blanket, here we are.

Really a great start,

and I think it's fair to say,

especially early in the year,

as the Braves are going to be piecing this rotation

together with Scotch tape and a prayer,

they have to win Chris sale starts.

Like, it becomes even more paramount

that they win these starts,

and of course when sale is on the mound,

I'm gonna take the Braves and their chances to win,

just about every night, no matter who the opponent is,

but really a great, great start to the year,

sale looks sharp, really good defense,

you mentioned that a minute ago,

we can go into that a little bit deeper here in a minute,

but I mean, really just across the board,

it was a perfectly played game,

some timely outs sale ran into some trouble early on,

but was able to get some timely double plays.

It was just, I mean, again,

maybe we're all still scarred from a year ago

when they started 0 and 7,

and we're like making up new ways to lose games

that first week out west,

just really a good, enjoyable, clean baseball game tonight,

and now hopefully they can keep it up,

and at least win a series to begin the year.

I would agree, and that was our Mixed Up segment,

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All right, Scott, let us discuss the great work of Chris sale.

We just talked about Chris sale a little bit

in our first segment, but let's do it on a little bit.

Six shout-out endings, not a huge surprise.

Three hits, three walks, struck out six.

It's kind of funny.

As we, if you're a new listener, you might not know this,

but if you're a crimeist, you probably would.

We have a document.

We go back and forth, Scott and I share some ideas

with each other during the podcast,

during the game, I should say about the podcast.

And it was like, hey, Chris sale

doesn't necessarily look incredibly sharp

by Chris sale standards.

And you look up and it's six endings, shut up,

and it's six bass renders and six strike outs.

And it's like, if that was like a B minus Chris sale start,

we're all gonna be fine.

Everything's gonna be okay.

And Chris, it's just a reminder of how good he is,

because he can just do that without his absolute best stuff

was not necessarily impressive, but he's still awesome.

And I think, I mean, the first three innings,

Chris had quite a few bass renders.

And there were a couple of double plays

that were very timely.

It felt like the Royals were gonna get a couple of runs

and Chris really bare down

and got a couple of key ground balls.

And then a great offensive play and left field

from Eli White.

You know, I kind of half joked,

but half serious said in real time.

Like, hey, Eli White is probably not going to hit

the level that Jerkson Provar was expected to hit

for this team, but Eli White defensively in left field

is a real asset.

Like a genuinely good fielder in left field.

That was a huge catch saved at least one run.

Who knows where the inning goes

if he doesn't make that play?

So yeah, I mean, it speaks to Chris sale's talent

and ability when he was a little shaky early,

but you look up at the box score in six innings,

scoreless, really settled into after those first couple

innings was pretty clean.

I think he sat down seven in a row at one point.

He was very much vintage Chris sale

and that's a good thing because that's not always the case

this early in the season.

Right. And actually, this is kind of a crazy stat

from front of the podcast.

He did the casket who you talked to a few days ago

on the show, people can, that's still relevant right now.

I know they played a game now.

It's a season preview, but listen that episode.

CJ was great with Scott, but he had the stat on Twitter

that sale only induced two ground ball double plays

all of last season and he got to tonight,

which is kind of funny.

Sometimes you gotta have some good fortune.

He had the one in the second inning

where he kind of wiggled out of a,

way slow to jam because of it,

but look, it was a good pitch, good execution.

I got a little worried when Ozzie's trying

to turn double play always.

I'm a little bit terrified of Ozzie's throwing arm,

but it was comfortably out.

That was nice to see from Ozzie, but yeah, I mean,

he got some help, but sale just did,

sale things, which I certainly was encouraged by.

And we talked about the defense,

but it really was like really good all the way around.

Not only mistake free, but some high level plays.

You mentioned in that white,

Ronnie had a nice running grab.

Ronnie's defense spent a plan of contention

the last year or two.

He was good in this game.

Austin Radley and Matt Olson at the corners

did what they often do, especially,

Olson's an elite defender at first base.

Rally is always controversial,

but still a solid to find defender.

And yeah, just the little plays and the big plays defensively.

And that's maybe one thing they can do as well

in this rift where the pitching is not going to be

maybe fantastical across the board.

They don't really have a lot of places right now

that you would point to and worry about defensively.

You might want to have some more bats,

like if Prof. I'd been playing left field today,

it would have been a little bit more worrisome, you know what I mean?

But they don't really have anybody that's like

a butcher out there at the moment, which is nice.

Oh, it's, I mean, it's really going to help this team.

And, you know, Mauricio Dubon was challenged

a couple of times early tonight, and especially

in, I think the first inning,

lead off single for the royals,

and then Bobby Whitt just smoked a baseball right at Dubon.

And he had to have a quick twitch in order to feel that

flipped it over to Ozzy.

And then Ozzy was able to get the double play

with a nice throw.

Like, yeah, you're going to need that.

And as we know, this is a wounded team right now.

And hopefully in a couple of weeks, a couple of months,

they're in a healthier, better spot.

But playing things like clean defense

and running the base as well, that really does add up

over the course of 162 games.

Just one game, we don't want to just forecast anything

after one out of 162 games here.

It's still very early.

But again, man, just across the board,

really encouraging science from the team.

And we'll take it.

I mean, I don't know about you.

I'm, I'm progressing unbeaten at this point.

I mean, how many wins can the Braves have?

120, 130?

How many is too many?

Let's go for the start.

162 and 0 is still in play as we sit here on Friday night.

It is amazing how the vibe shift based on a baseball game,

one single baseball game in March.

But hey, it happened.

Okay, elsewhere, we talked about the home runs,

but Riley being good was encouraging to me.

I think that we just talked about him a lot this winter.

But for folks that may be just checking in now,

it's not like we're low on Riley by any means.

But it's worth noting he just hasn't been

a superstar level player in the last couple of years.

And maybe that's injuries.

And I think maybe they don't know me or us.

That's where they're like, why are you guys so low on Riley?

I'm like, I'm not really.

I just think he's obviously good,

but he just hasn't been all capital letters

lost in Riley for a while.

And one again, I got supply,

but he didn't get, he did not record an out in this game.

Three for three with a walk, look great at the plate.

Maybe it's the flowing locks.

I'm a fan of Austin's hair choices these days.

But another guy where it's like, hey,

that goes the right direction.

I feel so much better if he was a star versus just like an okay.

I'm not not even okay.

Like a pretty good third basement to star

is like a meaningful gap for Austin Riley.

And I think he can maybe edge toward that star level.

That'd be really nice.

You know, the middle of the order tonight

for the Braves really did a good job.

And you mentioned Akunya, kind of,

how many times has Ronald Akunya Jr. gone

over five with three strikeouts in a baseball game

in his career?

He didn't look, he didn't look right.

It's one of the things where if he had been like,

I just thought out of mind in the spring,

somebody would send off the tweet like,

what's wrong with Ronald Akunya?

I mean, he did just leave Venezuela

to the world, his book classic championship.

And I'm not worried about running it all.

I'm sure someone is somewhere, but you're right.

You know, off the CNB as kind of listless as he was in this game.

I think he had a challenge he lost

as well on the way as well, I believe.

Yeah, yeah.

But I will say, no, no, of course not.

And you know, the middle of the order though,

Drake Baldwin, hit a homer.

Ozzy Albe's hit a homer went two for four.

Matt Olson, two for four.

Austin Riley, you mentioned three hits in a walk.

Like the middle of the order really did a good job tonight.

And then you also got some contributions at the bottom.

Michael Harris had his homer.

And Mauricio Dubon had kind of the hammer

in the seventh inning to close it all out.

After a tough at bat from Eli White,

Dubon came up and hit a ball to right center field.

And it was off a lefty.

And that's something we've talked about on the show

quite a bit that Mauricio Dubon has hit left-handed pitching

really well throughout his entire career.

It's the righties that he generally struggles with.

But for Dubon to come up after having a couple

of opportunities earlier in the game

where he didn't come through to basically put the nail

in the coffin and secure the win.

Braves went up six, nothing there.

It was really big.

And again, it was kind of an everybody eats night,

offensively, other than Ronald Acunio Jr.

And I mean, I could not be less worried about Ronald

even after a tough game tonight.

Yeah, we were on the same page there.

We did briefly discuss Ozzy hitting third.

And if you have anything to add on that, feel free.

I think that it might just be

White's almost trying to channel the old version of Ozzy.

Like, if you got the old version of Ozzy against lefties,

he would be the guy who might hit in that spot.

So it's not crazy process wise.

I think that it's a little bit hard to look at that lineup

with the way Ozzy's been in the last couple of years.

Against the lefty, they also, we did preview this quite a bit

both us and Sean and Steven.

The lineup against lefty is always gonna be the mentor.

These first few weeks, that's just the nature

of the way that things have broken.

And like their big ad that's still healthy

is Michael Schremsky, who can't at lefties.

So it's like, you take him away.

You don't have Sean Murphy, even Hassan Kim,

like you don't have obviously pro far.

So I get why I look at that way.

But you look up, I have to be honest with you,

when the loud came out on Friday afternoon,

yes, Ozzy was a takeaway.

But it's also like, okay, Eli White is hitting sixth

in the lineup.

Joe Dahime is playing an opening day.

It's just not what you wanted to see, probably.

Even if it's like it all kind of makes logical sense,

if you go through lineup one by one,

I know Alex talked about this today on the radio

where they are basically gonna try to get Baldwin

to play all 13 games in 13 days.

And they basically wanna target Joe Dahime against lefties.

That is logical, even if it's like you're maybe

at the plate, you rather maybe play Kyle Farmer.

I guess lefty than Joe Dahime.

If you've been allowed to have Baldwin play

every single day, that's fine.

We're gonna see Dom Smith at some point,

maybe even tomorrow.

But it's like just, I don't know.

I was processing in real time, not that it was surprising,

but it was kind of jarring to see that opening day lineup.

And like, hey, the bottom third of this is pretty gross.

We kind of know that already,

but it's also just like, it's different to see it in person.

Oh, absolutely.

And I think it makes sense.

Now, folks missed it, you alluded to it.

The idea early in the year is that Joe Dahime

is going to hit and be the catcher

against left-handed pitching.

And that kind of makes sense to me.

And I know there was a lot of conversation,

so we figured we'd talk about it for a minute

on the podcast.

But, you know, against right-handed pitching early

in the season, I think the braves are going to be fine.

Because you get Mike Ostremsky in there.

Dom Smith has historically hit right-handed pitching

pretty well, but against lefties, especially right now,

this lineup is going to be pretty funky.

And we saw it on opening day.

And of course, on opening day, everything gets magnified,

everything gets talked about more.

Then if a lineup gets released on July 5th, right?

But I understand what they're going with.

And if it means that Drake Baldwin is going to be in there

basically every day, I think it's advantageous

to get Joe Dahime in there to keep Drake a little more fresh.

A night game on Saturday, but then a day game on Sunday.

So it'll be interesting to see how that kind of plays out.

They're scheduled to face two righties, the next two games.

But yeah, I mean, this lineup, when it came out,

first of all, it was just good to have lineup discourse

on Braves Twitter.

Like everyone is like, yeah, baby, we're back.

We haven't played a baseball game in six months

and people are arguing over, well, why is Aussie hitting third?

And why is Jonah Heim in there?

And why is Michael Harris batting ninth?

It was just good to have it back in our lives.

And of course, it was just one game.

But I kind of get the feeling this is going to be

what Walt Weiss throws out there for the next couple of weeks.

I agree.

Yeah, there's a little stuff for sure.

I listened to that.

I know you did to that 20 minute interview that Alex did.

And he talked about the lineup as well

because it came out actually before he talked,

which was interesting to get the real time

in between lineup release and game reaction of the GM

about the lineup on the radio.

That's something that you don't usually get.

And that was interesting to me.

But talked about, for example, Michael

being comfort waiting ninth, like they like his speed

down there, at least that's what he said

about why he's liking his speed.

And also look, Harris gets left.

He's not been great for a long while.

So that's not a huge surprise to me.

The Heim thing makes sense if you look at it a little bit more.

I didn't love it at first.

I do think that like Kyle Farmer is just better

than Jonah Heim at hitting left handed pitchers.

But I also get the reaction and ramifications.

And it does, it seems like from what Alex said again,

that they really are like centering on Dom Smith

as our DH against righties, like full stop.

He pretty much said that.

So if you're gonna go with that,

maybe Farmer's just a pure utility guy right now.

Like they do bonds to short stop.

So they like Farmer just becomes the utility guy.

Which is fine.

And it all makes logical sense to me.

I still will have the reaction I had at whatever time it was

this afternoon, like about this lineup.

But hey, it works.

And when they face the right tomorrow, it's gonna feel better.

I think Michael Schremsky's name on the lineup card

will make me feel better.

Cause he has paper roof after all.

But he's just a better player than some of these guys.

And that was the plan all along.

So it'll feel better than in the meantime, TBD.

But they scored runs today.

So no complaints.

I will just always say if you're new to the pod,

we do like to talk about process over results.

Like I'm not saying that Aussie should hit,

should have hit third in this game

because he had a home run today.

Like maybe Scott will say that on the podcast.

But it worked today.

Hey, good.

Yes, it worked.

If you win games, what else does it matter?

It doesn't matter.

Yeah.

Who cares?

You know what?

They could hit Rhonda to Cunha Jr.

night.

If the Braves win 100 games this year, I really don't care.

I do.

Like that was bait.

I'm baiting you on opening day.

You're trying to get me to crash out on Friday night.

That's like, I'm not going to do that.

If Ronnie hits seventh again at any point,

I'm going to have to leave the podcast.

Okay.

Scott, we have more to get to, including honestly,

you and I never give our predictions about the season.

And we've already seen one games, but we can cheat a little bit

with less than 1% of the season done.

But we'll give those in a moment and then also preview

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All right, Scott, before we look ahead

to the rest of the weekend and get out of here

on a Friday night, we should at least go

on the record our predictions.

Often we would have done like a show about this with us,

but you know, Stephen and Sean gave some of theirs

with the way the calendar fell, opening day.

I hated it by the way while we're here.

I hated it at the praise we're not playing on Thursday.

I hated it.

Like 75% of the league is playing.

Everyone's getting underway.

Everybody's fired up, seeing all the tweets.

Oh my God, the Brazilians are playing tomorrow.

That's not...

You know, it's weird.

The Brazians were originally supposed

to open the season on Thursday, and then the date moved.

So I don't know if that was TV network related,

or I don't know, maybe there was another event in the area,

and they were worried about traffic.

I have no idea, but anyway, yeah.

I can't imagine that.

I'd be funny if that was the reason in Atlanta,

where traffic is just a disaster every single day of life.

Right, right.

No, I'm with you.

I remember that same thing, and I'm poking fun.

I also know that in the past,

we've discussed how annoying it is

to have the second day of the season be it off day.

That's not the case this time around.

That's the trade off.

We had to wait an extra day,

but now they have a game every day for two weeks,

so we'll get baseball plenty.

What that said, I want to know what you think

of this baseball team.

Now, again, we have the opportunity to cheat a little bit.

They're one of no.

I did not change my predictions.

In fact, I wrote them down in the doc before the game today,

so that I wouldn't cheat.

In fact, when you hear my one player prediction,

you're gonna laugh based on what happened today.

What that said, I will let you fire off as many

as you want to, Scott, predictions,

anything you want to get out there,

and then tell me your National League East finishing order,

and of course, how many wins the brave might get

by the end of the year, plus one from today.

So my, if I had to pick one bold prediction,

I'm gonna say that Austin Riley finishes top five in NL MVP.

Oh, baby.

It just feels like assuming he can stay healthy

and Austin was Ironman up until the last two years,

but I will say that Austin Riley receives top five votes

in National League MVP.

I'm gonna say he gets back to mashing.

I'm gonna say he flirts with 40 home runs,

drives in a million runs.

Like, I just feel really good about Austin.

Maybe it's the luscious locks that he has grown out.

Maybe it was the fact that he just crushed the ball

and spring training, and even before today,

getting on base four times was a great sign,

but I'm very optimistic and bullish on Austin

this upcoming season.

Call it a hunch, call it a bounce back

from a really talented player,

but I'm all in on Austin Riley in 2026.

Yeah, and that's not crazy.

I think people might think it's high,

but Austin once had three straight seasons

where he finished seventh, sixth, and seventh in MVP voting.

So he showed that kind of upside in the past.

So that's very realistic.

I have two.

One is a quicker one.

It doesn't really have a number attached.

I think Michael Harris is gonna have

like a true bounce back season.

And I'm not, you know, I saw a 30-30 out there.

I'm not going with that necessarily.

I think Michael Harris is gonna have like a 110 WRC plus,

which may not sound sexy,

but that's like a five-win player.

I was gonna say, yeah,

that's gonna be one of those valuable players in baseball.

If he can do that.

I think he's gonna do it.

That's kind of a kind of a bold shot.

And I wouldn't like bet on that happening,

like one B-1, but I think that's in there.

And then my more conventional one

is the final one from earlier.

Ronald Cunia is the last person to win an MVP.

That's not an actual alien, which is Shoei Otani.

I think he's gonna do it again.

I think Ronnie, despite the 0 for 5 today,

is going to win National League MVP.

And he will, if he does it, that'll be two in four years.

And Otani, by the way, has one, I believe,

if you go back to the American League,

I think he's one four of the last five he was eligible for.

And the other one he didn't win was second to Aaron Judge.

So that's kind of hard to beat Otani in an MVP race,

which is why this is kind of bold.

But I think Ronnie is like maybe the only player

in the National League who has the upside

to be Shoei Otani in an MVP race.

Yeah.

So called shot, anyway.

Hey, you know what?

If we get an MVP season from Ronald

and we get a top five MVP season from Austin Riley,

like we're cooking with gas.

Well, it's funny.

If you go through the high and outcome of everyone,

I thought about giving an Aussie bounce back prediction,

because I think it's gonna be better this year.

You just gave the Riley prediction.

I think Matt Olson is hard to go high upside with,

Matt Olson is like awesome.

And everyone kind of knows that now, I think, hopefully.

If all that stuff comes up, I mean, Drake Baldwin,

following it up, like there's a lot of pathways

than being really good.

And some of those, what we just talked about,

but I don't want to go too, too, too crazy

with the optimism despite one game.

Okay, let's go National League East order.

Do you have one at the ready?

Right now?

I do, I do.

And I'm gonna say this, with my heart,

I really do think in my head, too,

but I think the raids are going to bounce back.

I don't think we are going to have another just awful year

like we had last season.

That being said, I am very concerned

about the starting rotation, like full stop.

If 10 is as concerned as I can humanly be,

and one is not a care in the world,

I'm already at like a seven, and we've played one game.

I almost asked you earlier in the show

to react to Alex's first answer today

on 680 of the fan about the rotation,

but I didn't want to send you spiraling early in the podcast.

Not really enough, I'm kind of asking you about it right now,

but I'm with you, by the way, on the rotation.

We've been playing our hair out for a little while now

about that.

I think that did answer to not help Scott process things.

If you missed it, Alex got it downplayed.

All those things he said before, basically,

but it was like, all right, man, cool.

Yeah, we felt good about our rotation depth

and the start of the off season,

and we didn't expect there to be injuries,

and yeah, if you want to listen,

I think it was 680, the fan where Alex talked for about 20 minutes,

and I mean, he says a whole lot of nothing.

He is very good at talking for 20 minutes

and not actually saying anything, but I digress.

To answer the question, I think the braves are going to bounce back.

Unfortunately, I'm really high on the Metz,

which just feels awful to say out loud on a podcast,

but if I'm trying to be at least somewhat objective,

I will officially predict that the Metz win the East by a game or two.

I will say the braves take second,

and I do worry a bit about the Phillies and their age.

They are really getting up there.

I'll say the Phillies finish third,

but I think all three NLE's teams make the playoffs this year.

Yeah, I actually think this might be kind of hot.

I think it's similar to you.

I think I might pick the Phillies to miss the playoffs narrowly.

They probably would make it,

but they might be like the 6-seed 7-seed,

they're on the French.

Man, I've been thinking about this all day long.

If you asked me a month ago,

I would have said I'm picking the race to win the National East.

Me too.

It's harder to do that now with what we know about everything,

pro-far and the pitching injuries.

We kind of knew, a month ago, we knew about Murphy.

We knew about Kim.

We did not have pro-far or the pitching stuff.

That combination combined with not doing anything else

yet to add to the team.

Man, I think I still might take the Braves.

Maybe I'll be the homeer ever once in a while.

I'm not usually the homeer on the podcast.

I'll do it.

I'll do it.

But I'm also going to say it's like an 89-90 win division winner.

I think I'm not picking the Braves to win 97 games

like I have at times of the past.

I don't feel that it's possible.

Very possible.

But I wouldn't pick that nor would I think

that's reasonable to pick.

I'm going to say, and look, the Benny Markets, fan graphs,

et cetera, all have the Braves, Phillies, and Metz

within two or three games.

So it's supposed to be a tight race

between those 13s for a good reason.

I'll go Braves, Metz, Phillies in that order.

And I say, maybe my bolder prediction

is that no one wins more than 90 in the National East.

I think we get almost like a three-way race the whole time.

But they all finish with between 85 and 90 at the end.

So there's no separation.

It'd be fun.

It'd also be terrifying.

It'd be a lot of tense games late in the season.

Then I'll go Braves, Metz, Phillies.

I attempted to pick the Metz, too.

But we can't both have the Metz.

No.

No, yes.

No way.

I'll take the boy on this one.

Give him one total.

Give him one total, Scott.

I will say the Braves win 89 games,

and they are the number one wild card.

I'll say 90 flat in a one-game division win over the Metz.

So we're pretty much the exact same,

but I'm just going to sound cooler to the homers around us.

So you don't have to see people in the wild.

I cover games in person, and people yell at me

about the race.

I'm kidding.

That's right.

The eternal optimist never wavering

in his support of his fandom or his team.

It really is so funny.

People that we might have some new people tonight,

but especially the last year and a half,

this is not unique to this situation.

Have a spot to cover the Hawks as well.

When the team doesn't do well, I get

accused of being super high-homemer guy.

When the team does well, I hate the team,

and I'm too low on the team.

Which is interesting, I'll just say.

I don't think Alex and Thopolis is the dumbest person

alive unlike my mentions every single day, for example.

Now, I have my qualms.

We sure it's among the spot guests already.

Anyway, that's a great way to put it.

I do not think that Alex and Thopolis

is the dumbest person I know.

But I do think he has maybe lost a couple of miles

on his fastball, and he's having to figure some things out,

or there could be some real problems.

Yeah, I think it is very reasonable.

In fact, again, we've given many critique this winter.

So we were not like palm-pumming for Alex's winner.

In fact, we're not on the spot guest.

I think it's very reasonable to be lower on him right now

than people have been in the past.

I also think it's fair to say he's not a buffoon.

And I think he's been characterized that way

in slip circles.

Anyway, that was just an example of my too high, too low thing

around here.

So let's have more predictions, Scott.

We can start getting that out of here.

The Braves have two more games.

We're recording this Friday night, two more games this weekend.

Oh, quickly, I forgot until right now.

Shouts to Jason Hayward, who retired today.

Braves legend.

I got to say, one of my personal favorite players.

I know he was to some disappointing, I mean, I get it.

He was supposed to be like Hank Aaron, and he wasn't.

And that's fine.

But he also had a heck of a career

and was also very good for a long time.

To call that guy a bust, which I saw even today,

be like, oh, what a bust.

I'm like, are you kidding?

No, stop.

Don't do that.

Great career.

Great guy, by the way, by all accounts.

Like an awesome guy.

I love Jay Hay and Shouts to him on a nice career.

One of the coolest moments in Braves, in recent Braves history,

was Jason Hayward, first game of his career, opening day.

Turner Field is going crazy.

And what does he do as one of the most hyped prospects in years?

But launches, like a 430 foot home run into the bullpen.

Turner Field went nuts.

I know people who were there say it was one of like the three

or four loudest moments they ever heard at that stadium.

And also an all-time call by Chip Carey, which is funny,

because I think Chip has maybe isn't

the everyone's favorite announcer.

But Chip nailed the call.

I mean, it was just an awesome moment and very happy for Jason.

He made a boatload of money.

He is a beloved hero in Chicago, because he had like the famous

mid-inning speech that kind of rallied the cubs after they

were almost on the brink of blowing the world series.

Just a really good career.

And sure, when you're anointed as the next Hank Aaron at age 19,

age 20, it's impossible to live up to that.

Like the expectations could not be higher.

It was such a fricking shame that he had the wrist injury

a couple years into his career.

He also got hit in the face by a fastball a little bit

later in his career.

I can only imagine what that does to your psyche.

A player who had some really bad injuries for a hitter,

but really happy for Jason went out world series

ring boatload of money.

As you said, well liked, well revered in the clubhouse,

a leader the last couple of years.

Like congrats to Jason.

I hope you have a nice retirement.

Yeah, for sure.

Awesome career.

By the way, five-cycle Go Glover wasn't all-star.

Like just was a great player.

So shots to him.

The race play on Saturday nights, on Big Fox,

National TV Fox.

It's Michael Walker.

I guess Ronaldo Lopez.

We won't do the whole thing now.

All odds on Ronaldo's velocity.

Obviously, if you've been following this closely,

he had a huge tick down on velocity in his final spring

start to the point where everyone's

acknowledging it, even Alex said he met with Ronaldo

after it, because he was like, what's going on?

Everyone's saying the right things.

I have to see it.

So I'm going to have to see him for 94 and 95 again.

But we'll see.

Maybe he'll do it on Saturday.

If he doesn't, I'm going to worry a lot.

But I will give him the benefit of the doubt

that everyone's saying that he ticked back up

this week in the bullpen.

So hold on to your hats, I'll say.

Yes.

I am going to be extremely interested

in the radar gun reading on Saturday night at Truist Park.

More so than maybe I won't say ever,

but certainly in the 99th percentile

of my interest in the radar gun would be Saturday.

And then the Sunday finale is a afternoon game.

It's great homes.

It gets Seth Lugo in the finale.

And as always, I'm pretty much always.

I won't say always, always.

But 99% of the time we have a show on Sunday evening.

If you're new to the podcast, when this podcast launch,

10 plus years ago now, because we're old Scott,

it was an audio only show that recorded once a week

on Saturday nights.

And we still do at least that.

Sunday nights is our sweet spot.

So we'll almost always be here, lock in.

But along the way, now we have an average of four shows

a week during this season, which is a lot of me,

a lot of Scott and a lot of Steven and a lot of Sean.

But hopefully, everybody enjoys the coverage.

And please, please, please, if you're new to the show,

or if you know someone who's not found the podcast yet,

subscribe, tell them about the podcast as well.

Apple Spotify, YouTube, where you can look at us right now

in our new look.

People have been coming on that.

People enjoy the new look on YouTube.

So that's cool comments as well.

And also check out the entire Thaltern

or Network of Podcasts.

The flagship show is awesome.

It can rose and thaw all that stuff.

So lock in with us, Scott, that I missed anything

on the plug fast, the other podcast.

Not a thing.

And I will echo exactly what you said.

Great to have baseball back.

Appreciate everybody sticking with us all off season long.

But now it's go time.

And a great start for the Braves tonight.

Great win.

Want to know, get that bad taste out of everyone's mouth

after a really challenging spring training.

But let's go.

And hopefully, a couple more wins this weekend

would be awesome.

And as you said, we'll have plenty of content

in the days and weeks to come.

And with that said, I hope it's Friday night.

Keep that in mind.

I hope that my team and your team

play in any napless in eight days.

I hope for both of our six.

And then I can't talk to you for at least a day and a half

around that game.

But we'll leave it there for now.

By the way, if you're new, I'm a Michigan fan

Scott's an Arizona grad.

We're on a collision course in my college basketball.

So no more of that on this late night podcast.

But please subscribe one more time

to Hammer Territory.

Tell a friend, and we'll see you guys

at the very latest after the game on some way.

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