#13 Acuna is Back, Sale's Arm Angle, Catchers, High Vert Fastballs, Padres, The Jinx

[00:00:01] We got a ton, ton to get to here today. I know it's been a while. I've been off, we've been on the road. Good to be back with you guys. Ronald is back. [00:00:11] This is exciting and quite honestly we need him. [00:00:14] Good to know that he is back. I was worried. Not worried, but just thinking maybe that the rehab assignment was going to go the full 20 days. We had talked about that. Was that part of the plan? I think the Braves maybe won. Obviously they feel like he's healthy enough to go. He played back to back games and then there was a little bit of a sense of urgency. [00:00:32] Right now we haven't quite gotten the production at a right field that we need. And if you look at around the league, yes, Eli's done a really good job. He's filled in. He's the most corner positions, even playing center like he's done it all, he's been terrific. But only three home runs from right fielders this year for the Braves. That is the third fewest in baseball. Ronald instantly solves that issue. So this is going to be exciting. It's going to be a great night. We got the San Diego Padres in town, Ronald back in the lineup. What we see in the lineup I'm going to find pretty interesting as far as going forward. First of all, lineup construction. [00:01:04] Are we going to see a Verdugo Eli White platoon going forward? I'm not exactly sure, but it's all good problems because it's good news because Ronald's going to be back tonight. The downside of that is we saw Orlando Arcia get designated for assignment. I kind of figured that was the direction that they were going to go. Based on what we have seen lately with Luke Williams, especially last night. The fact that he stayed in the game and played short I thought was indicative of probably what was going to happen here. I feel bad for Orlando. [00:01:35] Said this before. I've always been an Orlando RC apologist. [00:01:39] Gives you good defense. We use some home runs. You know, there's a lot of chase in there. But Nick Allen outplayed him in spring training and within a week or so of the season he took over the position and he's been the best defender at all positions, at least by the Statcast metrics in baseball. He's done a great job and he's given you quality at bats and he's earned it. So it's tough to see Orlando go. But that's the move that was made today for Ronald Acuna. Junior Chris Sale is on the mound. All that does is add to the drama a little bit more. Really interesting development at least. Least for us nerds. On Chris Sale. One of the topics of conversation at the beginning of the year was how low his arm angle was.7 degrees for Chris Sale, far and away the lowest in baseball. It was down 4 degrees from where he was last year. He was right around 11 degrees, or average, I should say exactly 11 degrees on that arm angle last year. So we started out pretty low. It started now to tick back up and I found this interesting. His first five starts, he was right at 7 degrees. The era was over 6. His last five 1.7. [00:02:40] And there have been games where that arm angle has been as high as 10. Still not to 11. I don't think one degree is that big of a deal, but at least a couple of ticks higher. [00:02:48] He's averaged 9.3 degrees on the arm angle, so it's starting to come up just a little bit. And he's been dominant. So I don't know how much we correlate those two things together. Spin right on the slider has been about the same. Swing and miss numbers for the most part have been the same. But I just thought it was really interesting to see because it was such a big topic of conversation early on that we are starting to see that arm come up a little bit more. And we are seeing the really good version. [00:03:11] Chris Hill. It is the lowest arm angle in baseball. And to put that in perspective, Dick Pavetta is going tonight for the San Diego Padres. He has the fourth highest arm angle of any starter in baseball at 58 degrees. So it's quite the contrast. 58 to 7 for a right hander and a left hander. He's got a really good, what we call high vert fastball. Fastball that's got carry actually the highest in the game. When you do the numbers without gravity, take gravity out of it, it plays really well at the top of the zone. There's no twist about it. You got to figure out how to get on top of that. Bas is really deceiving. It's a good pitch. The hybrid fastball tonight for Nick Pivot is what the Braves are going to have to figure out. The good news is Marcelo Zuna absolutely destroys this guy. Six home runs, 14 RBIs, the most home runs and RBIs that he has against any pitcher in his career. He's never walked him, which is interesting because now everybody's walking Marcel and that'll probably be part of the story tonight. If they work around him but just a kind of fun little side note there between these two guys. The Padres are limping in. They're on a six game losing streak right now. Their defense has been a mess. Nine unearned runs over their last four games. They had ten the whole season prior to that. Manny Machado made three errors in one inning on three different plays when they were in Toronto. So hopefully they're just kind of down and struggling and that continues. The pitching matchups are going to be tough this weekend. I mentioned Pibetta and it only gets a little bit stronger with Michael King and then the local kid from Milton and Dylan C. Schedule to go on Sunday. So they're starting. Pitching is in a good place place for this series. Their bullpen, which not that long ago for me was the best in baseball and I still think they probably have the best arms when you look at the depth of their bullpen. But they have been struggling as well here lately. They have been down in a big way. So hopefully that trend continues. But they got a lot of hard throwers. Pretty unique guys. We saw it in that first series of the year. It is a good bullpen. But just as far as where they are right now, offensively, where they are, defensively, where they are with their bullpen, it has not been clicking for the Padres. So you just really, really want to take, hopefully with some momentum. Chris sale, Ronald Acuna Jr. Tonight would be a good atmosphere and the Braves can kind of get going and honestly they have to, right? There's no more excuses now going forward. You have Spencer Strider back. You have Ronaldo Acuna Jr back. The Braves are a game under.500. [00:05:34] It took 89 wins to get in the postseason last year. If you remember, all three teams that won a wild card had exactly 89 wins. It's probably going to take at least that this year. The National League west runs deep. There's a chance that three teams in that National League west outside of the division winner could be right in the wild card hunt. I think it's safe to say that two teams from the National League east should be in the wild card hunt. Outside of what you get from your division winner, that's five teams for three spots. I don't think we'll see a wild card contender in the National League Central. [00:06:06] And that's why I think it might take 90 wins to get there this year. And that means the Braves got to win 66 or the next 113. It's like a.588 winning percentage. [00:06:16] There's no more Time to kind of be mediocre. It has to happen now. The good news is the Braves are healthy and it's big. So it's go time now. There's no more excuses. [00:06:25] These guys got to get clicking here and get going. I know it's still only the middle of May or late May, but based on how the National League is shaping up and now that this team is healthy, it is time to go. It is time to get on a run. It's got to happen. And it starts tonight at Truist Park. Our catchers right now was talking about this the other day and then looking at since Sean Murphy has been activated, which was back at April 6th, Braves Catchers, when they're catching. So, you know, if Drake Baldwin was DHing or Murph was DHing, their numbers would not fall under this category. But when they're catching behind the plate, second highest batting average, second highest ops, second highest slugging in baseball for catchers, this platoon is working out beautifully and they're both doing a really good job defensively. Drake is actually in the top three or four when it comes to the framing numbers. Murph not that far behind him. They've thrown decently enough. I think we're seeing better throws lately from Drake Baldwin. A lot of that is on the pitchers as we talk about often on the broadcast. But these catchers have been crushing it. They've been doing a great job. One last thing for me, I like interacting on social media. I don't think there's very many color analysts for teams that do it as much as I do. I know there's others, but I don't think as many. I think it's good for our broadcast. I think it's good for our fan base. [00:07:40] I like it. And if you've now listened to me for a year and a half, the other thing that becomes a big part of what I do on the broadcast side is I'm a first guesser. I think you have to be. Anybody can second guess. Anybody can tell you what just happened. The way that I treat it is I try to use information, data, my experience as a player to bring you into situations to play along. And let's see what happens. Here are the odds. Here's why I like this. Here's why I don't like this. Whatever the situation might be, I think that's the way you should do it. Be a first guesser. When you get it right, you look really smart. You get it wrong, it's not nearly as big of a deal. But I do think that first guessing is what good broadcasters, good color analysts do. With that being said, I have very little tolerance for jinxing. The idea that the broadcast ever jinx, jinxes the team. It's nonsense and honestly I find it a little bit annoying. [00:08:31] I talk about, you know, days Bell Hernandez had let up a hit on his fastball all year. I want you to know that before he does, right. If he lets up a hit on his fastball, so be it. Wouldn't you want to know going in? You have a little bit of that somewhat kind of fun anxiety to go along and knowing how good his fastball has been. We talked about Pierce Johnson retiring, what, 26 straight hitters who's one hitter away from throwing a reliever per perfect game want to play along. We don't want to talk about it afterwards. Anybody can talk about it afterwards. I want our viewers to be informed and know what's going on. And I caught some crap yesterday for Eli White who hadn't hit into a double play all year. I wasn't as concerned about it. He ends up heading into a double play. I'm just going to shoot you straight. Anybody that ever mentions something about I jinxed this person or I jinxed that or I jinxed this, stop jinxing the broadcast. It's a mute for me on social media. It's like a one strike, you're out because there's too many good brace fans that want to interact that I don't want my feet filled up with that kind of silliness. I wish I had control on what went on in the field. The only thing I have control of is sharing as much information as I can to bring you along in a broadcast so that you are fully informed of what is going on. And then talking about our instincts from my fortunate years of playing this game for 19 years and having 40 managers and great teammates and broadcasting now for I guess it's been about 13 seasons, so I'll always be a first guesser. I don't like the idea of ever being accused of a jinx. And quite honestly I just, I do what I can to keep those conversations out of my feed because there's more important stuff and more fun stuff to talk about. Big, big night tonight. Excitement at Truist. It is going to be awesome. I'm headed in early. I'm kind of curious to see again what the Braves are going to do with their lineup. But it's go time now, 113 games remaining and for me to get to the postseason, 66 wins of the next 113 should get you there. It's a big number. [00:10:24] Like I said, I think it's a.588 winning percentage. But play time is over. Ronald is healthy. Spencer is health. And it's time to win some baseball games. See you all tonight.