Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Atlanta Braves | Profile & Projection | 638

Episode Date: March 24, 2023

The Atlanta Braves were voted the 4th-best team in MLB by our audience! After locking in some more studs, what can the 2021 World Series Champs accomplish this year?Use code JOMBOYPRESEASON for 15% off your next purchase at SeatGeek* https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/JOMBOYPRESEASON*max discount $50, expires 3/31/2023 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Be brave like the Braves. Hey! What's going on, everybody? Welcome to the 2023 season preview. It's team profiles and projections here on talking baseball. And we're talking about the Braves. Jake's third favorite and Elise team this year. How you doing?

What is that? You're up. You do the talking now. James, Trevor, Davis, Wimbledon, the Atlanta Braves, your former defending champions, not anymore. They won a measly 101 games last year to win the National League East, but they lost to the fight in Phillies in their division, one of those teams, Jim. They lost three to one. So what did they do?

They added, how about Nick Anderson to that bullpen? Can he tap into it again? Jordan Lutplo, a couple depth outfielders, and him and Sam Hilliard will be around. They made the big Sean Murphy trade to lock up their backstop position, Oakland West. Lucas Litgi, our guy guy,

he's in the back end of the bullpen, Joe Jimenez to get some good innings for them. Kobe Allard's around. Kevin Pilar, trying to make the team, a Danny Etchavaria, our guy. A couple minor league invites there. We like that. He's picking it.

Those boys can pick it. it. Who they lost? Man, they've lost some big guys now. Dansby Swanson headlines this class. Kenley Jansen, he's gone. Adam Duval, he's a sock now kid. Luke Jackson, Robbie Grossman, tough.

Yermo Heredia, Oda Rizzi, William Contreras, remember their young all-star catcher. He leaves in that Sean Murphy deal. Kyle Mueller was also in there. Darren O'Day retired, happy for him. Same, uh, Cano's unsigned and A Dick, um, also remains unsigned. The lineup, Trevor Plouffe, top to bottom, babe. It's very pretty.

And these guys are going to be there for a long time, probably something we'll talk about during this TPP. But Ronald de Cunia Jr., you know him as Ronnie. He'll be there. Michael Harris, the second came off like crazy last year, wins the rookie of the year. Austin Riley holding it down on third base. Do you guys remember when we questioned Austin Riley? And we're like, bro, you better step it up. We didn't question him.

We motivated him. We motivated him. We're big time Braves motivators. Big time. Matt Olson came over from the essentially the freaking farm team, the Oakland A's and Sean Murphy. They stole both of those guys for them. That's really nice. Ozzy Albi's a second base.

Marcel Ozuna? De Aachen? Eddie Rosario and Von Grissom, who has been getting a lot of work with Ron Washington. Another thing we're going to be talking about this episode. And the bench is real nice, too. Orlando Arcia, will he steal some of that shortstop time from Vaugh?

We'll see Travis Darnow. He'll be splitting time with Murphy there at the catching position. Sam Hilliard and Jordan Looplo. Stack line up. Nice bench pieces. James, talk to us about the rotation and the bullpen, please. Well, the rotation was kind of shaken up this spring. You got Max Fried up top

Kyle Wright, Charlie Morton, Spencer Strider, the quickest person to whatever amount of strikeouts he had. And then in the fifth, you were going to have Ion Anderson and Soroka battle it out. But Soroka pulled his hamstring

and Ian Anderson just got sent to minor camp, control issues. And the guy they're saying is going to win it is Jared Shuster. Who's having a good spring? Shuster. Not how I say it.

All right. I go with Shuster. Yeah, I like that. We always mess up these names on purpose. Shuster. They got Agatheth closing. A.J. Minter. Joe Jimenez, Colin McHugh,

A.K.A. Mck. Tiny Wean. I still can't believe. I mean, every time we mention him, it's so good to bring it back up. I think at this point, people don't know the origin. Like Jake said, Nick Anderson. His wife said you have a micro penis.

That's the origin. On Twitter. Yeah, on Twitter she did. She kind of randomly tweeted it. Oh, Buzzy McHugh. Trickster. Dylan Lee, Kirby Yates. My dude, Lucas Litkey.

I forgot about him. But yeah, Nick Anderson's a big one. I think it's like a minor league invite. but he's been pitching well this spring. His Velo's back. He was lights out for the Tampa in 2020 until he got really tired and it was obvious to everyone besides the robots that make the raised decisions. And they took Snell out and put him in. And it was like the most obviously wrong decision we've ever seen.

Anyway, they're pretty good, Jake. Trevor raised his hand. I'd love to hear what former major league player Trevor Plouf has to say about this team. I was thinking, you know, it's awesome. They traded for Iglesias, you know, to be in the back end of the bullpen, closing games out. And then I was like, they must have given something up for him. The Angels traded him away for Jesse Chavez.

Love you, bro. You know, former teammate of mine. And Tucker Davidson, go look at his stats last year. What is going on? They're just giving, why are teams just giving the Braves these awesome players? already have a young core that they've brought up themselves, and then the other teams just want to give them these guys? Like, what is happening right now?

That's got to be the best move for that. What's that? Jesse Chavez came right on back, like a week later. He did, that's right. I mean, I've tried to warn people. Trades don't work out. That's nuts, dude. Like, that's like, if you're the team not,

If you're not getting the proven MLB talent, you're on the wrong side of the trade. Tucker Davidson. And they still try to do it. Having a really nice spring. So is the shush, man. De Shush. Bray. I don't know.

What was that? What's wrong? Stacked stacked. Yes. All right. How about this? Trev, you want to suck up to Padre fans, put their big old balls in your? your mouth. How about

compare the Braves and the Padres? Check out yesterday's episode where Trevor put the Padres balls in his mouth to get that reference. Padres compared to the Braves. I mean, the Braves feel organized. Deeper at every

deeper lineup, deeper rotation, deeper bullpen. I don't even know if I'd use the word deeper. I just use the word like makes sense. You want to why? Because they got the oldest coaching staff in all of baseball. Yeah.

They got, there's a whole article about how old their coaching staff is. I mean, they're like, Ron Washington, 70, Snickers 67, Kranets,

64. And they say that they let their coaches, coach and manage. And I'm guessing these old guys are like, why don't we get guys that play one position and keep them there? That's what worked in my day in the history of all baseball. And then they're like, All right, cool.

The old men say play them at one position. Padres are too young. Padres, he can play anywhere. You ask me a question. Yeah. Okay. I'm taking the Braves starting pitching. Like in a route, kind of.

I really like some of these guys. So I'm taking them. Bullpen. It's not like I don't like the Braves bullpen, but I kind of like the back end of, of the Padres bullpen just a little bit more. Two good bullpins,

but I'll take the Padres. Okay. Especially for the sake of this argument. Lineup. It's interesting because I think you have more firepower in the Padres lineup.

Like those top like six dudes is hard to fuck with. But like length and overall lineup, I might go braves. So I think overall they're just a little bit better than the Padres, yes.

And I was already thinking in my head I was going to take the under now, but now I can't take the under. Yeah. Jake got myself in real pretzel. Yeah, you got it. Double balls in your mouth. Spencer Strider sneakily had one of the best years you'll ever see from a young pitcher.

He slotted into their four. Yep. And it's very interesting with him to see if he has to make changes because he's a two-pitch pitcher. Not since today's a Dak Gooden, have we seen someone come in with two pitches and say, I'll get the most strikeouts ever. And he says that. that he doesn't have time for a third pitch. Why would I throw my third best pitch when I have two good ones?

Like that answer to be honest. It's kind of his quote. He was like, why would I throw, I have two good pitches. Why would I throw a third not good pitch? He throws his change up 4.8% of time, which isn't even like anything. He's fastball slider, old school guy. But the numbers on his slider are nuts. 52.2% whiff rate.

over 50% swing and miss rate on his slider. That's crazy. So yeah, he's very interesting guy. I am curious if you can, how long can you survive, four seam fastball and slider? If they're that good, then you can locate them as well.

Like you can kind of do it. I mean, eventually, yeah, you might want to add a third picks in the Mitch. Even if you don't, throw it 10% of the time. Just let people know you got it so it's in their head. That's kind of, or how about this? I got this for you.

Stride, my guy. Just throwing warmups. Or like go to drive line or like fate go to drive line and just say like, oh yeah, I worked on this pitch at drive line. And be like, oh, he's got this new pitch. You don't even have to throw it. Just put it in a scouting report, bro. Well, no, else is nice, Jim. He threw 109 changeups last year.

A hundred to lefties, nine to righties. Yeah. So against righties, you're getting two pitches. Lefties, he's got the. like 10%, you might see a change. You're going to have to think about it. It's gross, man. You know, him and Michael Harris-Duce, two incredible rookie seasons.

Same team. Pencil them back in. It's unbelievable the youth movement success that they've had there. I don't know. Like you said with Austin Riley, we almost didn't believe it because there was already, like young guys that have come up and been great, like Acuna, Albies, that were like, no way, they just got another guy. We questioned him.

He's been one of the best players in baseball since he's come up. Harris's rookie performance, Strider's rookie performance. Kyle Wright got his first chance last year. You want to know what he did? He won 21 games. He was the 1998 Cy Young winner if we still went by those votes. Like, so that's. I swear, I think the biggest question mark

and talking piece on this team is shortstop in Von Grisham. And there's question marks if he can handle the position. But mind you, if Vaughn Grisham was on any other baseball team, we would say, you know, they had a kid come up and have a 792 OPS last year.

This Grisham kid might be a stud for them. Guess what? I'm not going to bet against them. Who's he working with? Who's he working with? You know he's working with. disco Ron Washington. You know you can find the Twitter highlights of them picking the glove. Hitting a fungo from three feet away at him.

Yeah, you can find that video. Do you think, here's a question for you. Jim? Yeah. Ron Grisham comes out as an April where he looks steady defensively and, you know, 790 OPS. Like, looks like he's got the part. Spring training goes good, gets the starting job.

has the first good month. Do you think he just goes like this? Like, where's my deal? Give me my deal. I'm a young kid that's pretty good. Like, I'll take a deal. I was thinking maybe I can make a donation to that charity. Yeah, I'll donate.

That's what he says. And if they do that, they have their entire team locked up forever. Everyone that donates to your charity gets 99% more in their contract. Is that the rules here? I'll do that. I'll make a million-dollar donation. It is incredible.

You know, he's having a good spring for them? Jake? Yeah, it's funny. He, um, Braves fans let us know. He must be working on something. He only has one. What are you talking about? He only has three strikeouts in 28 at bats.

No homers, no triples. So I think, Von Grisham. Oh. So I think he's just, just pepper in it. He's 22 years old. That's nuts.

What do you know who is having a good spring for them? Is it, Jim? Eli White. Yeah. Might make the squad. Versetow. He's spat. having a hell of a spring.

Three homers already. He could be their next Culberson. Just kind of a part of the team. These guys are going to be good. The talking point is their divisions also are going to be good. Like any other division, they are hands down the favorite. But I think our fans voted. Then it's lessened.

Like they're a big part of the reason why the division is going to be good. Sure. the Mets also won 101 last year. Yes. But in that one series that they needed to win the brave shot down their throats. They swept them. And Strider talked shit the whole way. Like Braves have the...

He did. Braves have the like a swagger momentum. For sure. He did say that and they went out and swept him in that three game series and they got the division title. He outed the Mets. It was like, well, those... Or no, which one was it? Oh, yeah.

Those lucky hits aren't going to like, don't actually mean you're good. Was that what he said about the Mets? Something like that. Because the Mets had a super high Babbitt. Yeah. And then it turns out. It's kind of hard.

It's half right. So I like the Braves. I think they're going to win the division. I want Seroca to be healthy. I want to see him pitch. I guess they said the hamstring's not as bad. He might be ready for opening day. And if he is, he might be the fifth starter.

And then Schuster's got to just hang back. I don't know, man. I want to see him pitch. Honestly, Soroka could look completely different. It's been like five years since we've seen them. Let the shoosting begin. What's your over under from Draft Kings Trev? Spring training is in full tilt.

And with Seat Geek code Johnboy preseason, you can get 15% off any order to anything you want. Wherever there's a seat, just make sure you're using Seatgeek, Johnboy Preseason. Go get it. It is at 94 and a half. I famously took the over on the Padres at 93.5. So I said this team is better than them.

I probably have to take the over here as well. And I'm going to because I'm looking at this team and I'm a liking it. There's no holes. It's over for me. I mean, they brought in Sean Murphy. Ozzy Albi's only played 64 games last year. They didn't even talk about how they have two of the top 10. and ranked catchers.

Rosario only played half the games last year. Michael Harris only played 114. Ronnie only played 119. And like I might sprinkle a little on Ronnie to win MVP. Like I think he's coming back with 40-40 type vengeance, man. This team stacked. Grisham played 41 games. 94 and a half feels like a low number,

which is crazy for a baseball team. All right. 98 and a half. I think I'd still be on the over. Oh, yeah, I think they're going to be really good. Probably the only team in the NL to make the playoffs. Yeah. Yeah.

That's three of us. Did you take the over, James? Yeah. Okay. I think that's kind of low. I thought it was going to be higher than that. Flip-flop, Trev. No, hell no.

Love this team. I am forever connected to the Braves. You know that. Yeah. Sounds like Jake's number three in terms of who likes this team the most. Yeah. Me and Trevor are. Although, James, you like this team the least on the show.

Yeah. People in Atlanta don't wear tie-dye. Jake looks more like he's from Atlanta. Yes, absolutely. But they'll suss him out right away. They appreciate us not trying to trick him. Oh, the South is entertained by me. Yeah.

What's the mall? There's all there. I don't know. It's called. You look like you like, they're always at the mall. Yeah. Southern Mall.

You drink Coke heavy for sure. Do you? Like Southern guys out drive me by 20 yards and they're like, ah, you little fucker. Yeah. All right. What? Go Braves.

Yeah. Go Braves a little more than Jake. I know Max Free personally. It's true. I met him. We have a picture with him. So who really knows? them.

Nice guy. I've got a picture. I drafted a couple times, so. Subscribe. Hammer. Sneaky, huge cock. Thin. Curves to the right.

Oh, a curve. To the right.