Ronald Acuna Jr. 'showing up at the right time' for Braves

0:00presented by Finley RootVing on sports radio 92 9th the game. It's time for a round the yard with your Atlanta Braves on Duke's in Bell. It's created brutally by Ronald the Coney Junior in his car. Sports radio 92 9th the game. Couple of things we need to mention before we grab Grant. The Bryce Elder news is there and obviously discussing the Philly series and much more. First things first. Baker Mayfield. In our division gets a new three year deal and Mike and I were just discussing. It's three years of 165 million dollars on average. That's 50 plus million a year guys. You and I kind of both went. You're now tied to Baker Mayfield for the first three years. And I mean, we know what he's capable of, but I just, I don't know, maybe, I don't know, maybe I'm just, I just wouldn't do it. I don't know, man, they're over barrellets. It's like any other team that's had to make this decision like the Dolphins with two other giants who dang Jones. A couple years ago. It's a great point and, and you know, did this and overpay?

1:01Yes, it is, but the market is the market. He went from three years, a hundred million, which was the deal he signed with them. And he took him to the playoffs a couple of times and I get that, but I do think this is an overpay. There's no doubt. But at the end of the, we're going to see them. We're going to see these guys and and Baker's motivated and we'll see how that goes. But they get the deal done before the start of the season. Remember, most teams say once the season starts, we're not negotiating. So they get it done before week one, Baker may feel now with the Buccaneers for the next few years. The other thing is live files for bankruptcy. What? And water's wet. Yeah. I mean, we knew this was common. They were trying to for it. Who is this investor? I mean, this angel investor that was coming in, their brand was garbage, man. I never, I never really thought that was viable that somebody was going to come in and try to save it. Sounds like John Romance. Some of these guys are not going to get paid the full freight. They were promised. Come home. PGA's waiting. Right. And they'll dictate the terms. They will. Let's talk to Grant McCauley. Grant, the latest on Bryce elder before we get to some of this other stuff.

2:01Tell us what you know and what this means for Bryce and more importantly for the braves and this rotation. Yeah. It's just the latest, I think, event that the braves have had to deal with injury wise for this rotation. It's Bryce elders going to miss three to four weeks at a knee scope done today to clean out some bone fragments that have been causing them some trouble. Really since July. And if you go back and kind of look at where his struggles were and kind of how it lines up, it does seem like this is probably been bothering him quite a bit for quite some time. And he had let on before and the braves had tried to give a little bit of time. And we heard yesterday won't why saying for the time being that we're going to move him to the bullpen. I kind of came to the park wanting to know. All right. Well, what's different about this injury than say Ronaldo Lopez with the inflammation and how long he's been out. And as it turns out, it ended up being a much more serious thing for Bryce. They were able to get him to a specialist. They did find what they believed to be the cause of the issue. And he's had a scope that could have him back in three to four weeks. His hope is to pitch in the postseason. And if he is to have a shot to do that at all, he had to get the surgery basically today to get the time table moving because the season's over in three weeks and October will be here.

3:06Now, that is a best case scenario for him. It does not necessarily mean that's where the braves are going or what's going to happen. But if you wanted any chance at all to participate in the postseason and goodness knows who wouldn't. This is what he had to do. Where was he in the rotation if it was a five game series for you? It's a good question. Yeah, I don't really know that the braves have really sketched that out. We know where Chris sale is. We know Tyler Malley is going to be there. But beyond that, is it grand homes at three? Is it some other kind of iteration of right? Well, we could use AJ Smith, Trevor and Martin Perez in a piggyback situation. Would it be Perez opening and then somebody else coming in after that or somebody opening for Perez? If you want to kind of dial it around, it's just a lot of different ways they could go. But I don't think anything was a given other than Chris sale and Tyler Malley. And clearly that whole picture is going to come into focus here over the next two to three weeks. All right. Did it give you did it give you more optimism of what you saw on this Philly series? I think a lot of braves fans me included feel more confident about what could happen in the postseason grant.

4:10With the way they handled their business in this series, but more poorly Ronald Aquinium, and he's heating up at the right time, right? Yeah. And that's the big story coming out of Philly. I mean, whether people want to talk about it in a good way or a bad way, he certainly was right in the middle of everything the braves were doing. And you needed to see those adjustments against the forcing fastball that we've been talking about for a number of weeks now, that that's been plaguing him for a while. I mean, it's just a very strange thing to struggle with, especially when you're a hitter as good as he is with the bat speed that he possesses. It's not like he lost his bat speed. It was just being able to connect with and make the mechanical adjustments to be ready. And on time for that fastball, and it appears that he has cracked that code at this point. And that I think, and as we saw over the Philadelphia series, could be an indicator of some big things to come for Ronald Aquinium Jr. But this has just been an extension of some really important baseball for the braves. So we've been that Dodger series should obviously have given everybody a good dose of confidence, being able to go into Philadelphia and have a chance to win three out of four. And yes, maybe it was a chance you could have lost three out of four. That's really how close this series was. It was played extremely hard.

5:11You were in the enemy territory in a place that is not very hospitable as to braze well, though in the past. And they were able to come out of that four game series with a split and a very good chance in the finale. If they could have scratched across a run here or there, maybe to win that game. But you know, it was one of those series where I think to your point, Carl, you needed to see at the very least a split in order to keep the fillies at an arm's distance with three more big games looming this weekend. But you can't overlook the Tampa Bay rays who are one lost better than the braves are as far as records are concerned overall, the top to ALE. And he got the Chicago Cubs waiting for you after the Philadelphia Phillies. So the first two weeks of this month are really a playoff primer for the braves. So you're going to need to see them play some of their best baseball. Again, we get the rays. I said it was easier. Not really. They get the Astros. The Phillies get the Astros. What did you think of Ronald Acunia? Like I love tormenting Philadelphia fans because they deserve it 99% of the time. But and knowing the history of the Maddenly, I mean, we talked earlier with Tony Gwynn Jr. He said probably not going to see that smoke with him go over throwing it, Ronald, something like that. But it was just one, one picture reacting basically and not Don Maddenly and the Phillies as a whole to what Ronald did.

6:15Now, and like we said, like we saw, there wasn't a whole bunch of head hunting or things that went on after that. Usually it's the fan base gets fired up and you feel like it's this old school baseball and Bob Gibson's name comes up or Don Drysdale's name comes up and we get into the old school stuff. But I had no problem with that. I'm of the opinion, celebrate your home runs, celebrate your strikeouts, you know, if you're a pitcher, celebrate your great plays, whatever it is. The emotion in the game is better for the game. And I don't think that there's really any reason to devolve into this back and forth thing where somebody's got to get hit every time they do something different than the next guy does it. But I thought was interesting was that big home run that he hit off the Phillies reliever, you know, that it was still 100 miles an hour after the game. He's asked, you know, what did you make of Ronald the Cuny Jr. round in the basis? He's like, I made that I needed to get him out next time. He hit a homer. That's that's for him. That's not for me. I need to execute pitches better. Little different than the Zach Wheeler thing, which I thought kind of caught maybe a little bit more flagged. And it should have I thought it was kind of ridiculous.

7:16It's we we live in and work in a business where narratives are obviously interesting to people. I just don't think this was a narrative that was really worth exploring at this point. The braves home run celebration is three plus years old. It really shouldn't have been that interesting. Yeah. I don't know. No, for us, I mean, it's not, but I think as other people see it around the country, what are they doing? You know, they lose their minds. Grant McCauley joining us here. If you're just joining us, Price Elder having a scope surgery guys is going to be out at least three to four weeks. So does the regular season. Yeah. That news coming down for for the braves today with Walt Weiss. What about Grant Holmes, man? Six innings pitched in four of his last six starts. What does this mean for Grant Holmes? It means that he has pitched himself into the conversation that he very much wanted to be a part of, which was October usage. The thing that we've just been talking about and we'll be talking about for the coming weeks. Grant Holmes has just been making a case and it's not just, hey, at the end of the night, you look at the numbers and you're like, oh, wow, wow. He went six innings and kept the team in the game. Good for him, but you're kind of starting to watch him do this and think, wow, like I like the way that he's pitching.

8:21And Walt Weiss talked to me a little bit about the arsenal that he's using and also the fact that he's been able to limit the walks that had been plaguing him at times during the season. He's been a little bit more aggressive using the curve ball off the slider is something else that won't point it out. And we started to see a little velocity from him on the four-seam fastball. I mean, he struck out Luis Arise swinging. And if you don't think that's a big deal, go look at the strikeout column. Luis Arise's baseball reference page or on the back of his baseball card for all the folks that like analog stuff. You'll see that he doesn't strike out very much. It's about 20 times a year. So you get him swinging on a fastball down the middle. You've certainly done something. And I think Grant Holmes has kind of just been quietly compiling a lot of really good starts. And it's the way that he's doing it. In addition to the output itself, it's starting to, I think, make at least a case that Grant Holmes has a potentially significant role to play as the braze are figuring out. That's game three and game four scenarios for their playoffs. A, we know Matt Olson has been the MVP for this team. He's kept the team afloat and he's cold now. How worried are you? Last seven games, man.

9:22It's rough. Baton 087, 255 OPS for the last seven. Yeah, there's no way around that. And I actually talked about this one from the diamond. You go back three weeks, Matt Olson, hitting below a buck 50 with one homer and three runs knocked in and striking out at a 33% clip. So we're seeing the numbers. We're noticing it. He's noticing it. He's been feeling it. It's not often I see Matt Olson slamming a bat in a helmet after a strikeout. But it happened over the weekend and Philly. It's just one of those little things that I take note of. And you know, we kind of joked a little bit with Walt Weiss. Hey, you get Ronald a day off, but you can't really do that with Matt. And Walt said that he has many times. I'm not going to be the one that screws that thing up this consecutive game streak. But even if he didn't start a game, he's going to find a spot to pinch hit him and keep that streak going. I would assume and Walt pretty much said as much today. But Walt said also, we're not to that point yet. Matt's going to keep grinding it out and they're going to figure out a way to get through this. You've done it many times in the past. And so you're not alarmed necessarily, but man, it would be nice, especially with Ronald swinging the bat well and some of the other guys in front of Matt Olson to get some big innings going and some RBI opportunities for Matt Olson to

10:27continue doing the thing he's done all year, which is you pointed out was basically be the brazen VP. Grant, how does a J. Smith show off into this mix? I know he's going tonight. It's a good question. And I think he's still answering that question because it's commanding and control and finesse, I guess, that is the last thing for a lot of Tommy John pictures to be able to really reclaim as they come back. His fastball has been good. Walt said that's actually been maybe a little bit more competitive than it was even last year when he was pitching well for that first couple of months. But the swing and miss pitches that he has, the breaking stuff and being able to control counts and put away hitters. That's been an issue for him. A lot of base runners, hits and walks have been a problem for him. Some home runs here and there have also been him. He's just got to find that consistency. That's what he's going to be searching for. And that'll let us know exactly how much you can reasonably or I guess responsibly put on him or ask from him to be a part of their playoff. I guess either rotation or just their pitching plans in general, but they do see him as far as his profile is concerned and their arm talent that he has as a guy they'd very much

11:28like to have playing a role if he can step into it. Great stuff. We'll see what happens in this series. As you said, it doesn't get any easier fillies and they'll and then Cubs. So guys, I mean, we got to finish strong, right? I mean, the months just started. I know it feels good coming off of that filling win or at least you know, the way we handle that series. Riley triple was huge. Yeah. Yeah, there were moments, man, where you just felt like, okay, you know what, we're going to be fine and grant you like I said, the confidence for me has been continuing to build. We've all had doubts, you know, as we've gone through this season, but now we're in September man and I think it's coming together. I don't like the the Bryce thing, but that is what it is and hopefully can come back and maybe help us. Yeah, and they've had to overcome this stuff all year long. We've talked about these stories on a good note. Robert Suarez through two bullpen's completed dose. His next step is to face hitters. If that goes well, we have assignment for him and hopefully back before the regular season closes. So get away with it. Give me give me a percentage on that. What do you think? I think a high probability. I would say a better than 90% chance that he's back unless he suffers a setback, which

12:29would effectively, I would imagine in his season, they are expecting and Robert Suarez told us before the road trip, he is expecting to be back before the end of the regular season. Wow. All right. That is good news. All right, man. Thank you so much. Follow Grant man. Stay up on all the things. Braves related and baseball related. Braves split with Philly and now we'll see what they do against the race. We'll talk tomorrow. Thanks again. Thanks guys. All right guys, it's Duke's and Bell. We'll come back. He says he's not 100%.