#15 Big Win, Ronald Again, The Drake, The Anatomy of a HR Call

[00:00:01] Good morning. Good win last night. Big win in the sense that they scored a lot of runs and they were able to separate themselves a little bit. Perhaps maybe the Braves catching a break by not having to deal with Michael King yesterday. It was a bullpen game, right? He got hurt or dealing with a shoulder issue. [00:00:16] Either way it doesn't matter. Just the fifth win this year when the Braves have won by six or more runs. There has not been a lot of it. We talked so much about the close games. It's nice to get one like you did yesterday at Truist. We'd love to see a few more of those. No doubt that's the difference of having Ronald at the top of the order, but also taking advantage of what we're seeing with the pitching. At least what we saw yesterday. [00:00:40] Ronald was great again. Of course now we're just anticipating it every day that he's going to be great. Of course that's not reality, but we can think that way. It's alright. The big part of that lineup which I was so excited to see when I got to the ballpark was that Drake Baldwin was batting second. [00:00:54] Gosh, do I love that so much. And he was great. Three hits. He had a walk yesterday and as good as his at bats had been, he didn't have a walk in like 14 games though. He's been on an unbelievable run, but he just hasn't drawn very many walks. But he's also not striking out. He's got three home runs and three strikeouts over his last 14 games, which is a fun little oddity. The question now becomes how do you get more playing time for Drake Baldwin? I don't know. [00:01:22] I mean splitting playing time now with Sean Murphy I think has of course been on the table. Pinch hitting has been great. He's already got a couple of pinch hits this year. Is nice that he can help out late, but with the DH situation locked up with Marcelo, no way to do it. [00:01:37] It's a good problem to have. I mentioned the other day the catchers combined have been some of the best in baseball ever since Shawn Murphy had gotten activated. But we all love watching Drake Baldwin hit. But I just don't know how it's going to change. I haven't seen the lineup yet today. We'll see if he is in there off day tomorrow. I don't know but he's been great and he is super fun to watch. His framing has been really good. Catching wise he's been a top five guy in baseball. So defensively he's doing a really nice job. But even the broken bat, base hit just going the other way I mentioned on the broadcast. I'm shocked to see teams give him as much room as they do on the left side to go ahead and hit ground balls. Manny Machado was essentially playing shortstop yesterday and he can plug that hole as good as anybody. So super strange the way that teams play him. But my goodness, he is so fun to watch. Jake at bats, I get excited. I get excited when he comes out on the on deck circle to pitch, hit. And every time he's up you just get this really kind of good feeling from Drake Baldwin. So that has been an absolute treat. Game 54 is around the corner. We're only a couple away from that. Why does that matter? It doesn't. It's not a huge deal. But it is the 1/3 mark through the season. It is getting here quicker than we thought. And I will stick to what I have said earlier. [00:02:48] 90 wins and I don't think you're relying on anybody else to get into the postseason. Anything else under that in this really deep National League, you might need some help. It was 89 a year ago and that's what the Braves needed to get in. They needed the very last day of the season and basically the Mets not needing to win that game and laying down to get into the postseason to get there. That is a 586 winning for the rest of the way. We know this seems a game under.500, so there's just not a lot of margin for error right now. Yeah, they're three and a half games back. The wild card. I get that part. But the way this thing is going to play out is going to be a dog fight. There are too many good teams right now in the National League. Spencer Schrellenbach in this one before we head up to Philadelphia. So I was looking at his stuff today. He's 31 starts now into his career, which is essentially a full season. I wanted to kind of start comparing. How has he done compared to anybody, any other starting pitcher made their first 31 starts with the Atlanta Braves. Obviously there's some really big names in there. I'm only looking at Atlanta History, 1966. Since the team has actually been here in Atlanta. Spencer Schwellenbach has the fewest walks of any Braves pitcher to make his first 31 starts here. Again, there's big names in there. Really impressive to see what he has done. Fifth in strikeouts. For any Brave starter who has made his first 31 career starts here in Atlanta as a Brave Era is about 15th. He's been special. I know there's been a couple little up and down here and there, but still no concerns about Spencer Schwellenbach. So he gets the ball here this afternoon against the Philadelphia Phillies. And then on the other side, it's Dylan Cease, of course, Dylan Cease, the local kid, grew up down the street from me there in Milton, Georgia. And I remember when my oldest son now was 25, when I was coaching his team and they were like 12. I brought this up before, but I remember kids on his team asking me, did I hear about Dylan Cease, this kid who was pitching for Milton High School, which of course I had not, and that he had gotten hurt his senior year. Dropped in the draft, but still got first round money, went to the Chicago Cubs, was eventually traded, and now he's going to be a free agent at the end of the year. And it was interesting is that last offseason I would have told you that I'd love to see Dylan Cease come home and be an Atlanta Brave. But you start looking at this roster in this current rotation right now, all five guys are under control for next year. [00:05:08] Obviously some cheaper than others. There's an option there on Chris Sale that I'm sure is going to be exercised how you got to get through the rest of the year. And then you also have Ronaldo Lopez and Bryce Elder. So as it stands right now, without even getting any deeper into what they have in the system, talking about Hurst and Waltrip and others, you have seven viable starters that you have right now. Obviously Ronaldo's hurt, but the way that things should go is that you're gonna have seven viable starters hopefully going into next season. Yes, things happen. I get it. And we'll have to get to the offseason first. But point there for me is that, yeah, it'd be great to have a guy like Dylan Cease here, but perhaps the Braves are not going to be in the starting pitching market this offseason. See how everybody finish is healthy and you know, trades are always a possibility, but that's changed here a little bit with how good everybody has done. We'll continue to talk about series wins. [00:06:00] Series wins are really important. You got a chance to do that here this afternoon and that'll be a lot of fun. Looking forward to that. Something else that's come up here with both the Ronald's home runs and people have commented on it and I appreciate the comments, but with Ronald, it was such a big moment, obviously when he came back is that we're doing A lot of laying out, which is harder for me than you might think. Or maybe you. You probably realize it's hard for me. And that is not talking right for a broadcaster, especially a four of color guys. Been such great moments from our fan base that you want that to be captured on television. And both of his home runs that he had, first of all, when he came up and took his position right layout, let the fans take over. You guys have been incredible, those of you who have been at truist for those moments. But then for both of his home runs, I'm a believer in, from my role in the color side is you never want to get in the way of what your play by play guy is doing. In the case of Ronald and the couple of home runs that he has hit, these are big moments early on and the fans are all about it. They're really excited. So of course PG makes an amazing call like he always does. And then I will lay out now what happens after Ronald crosses home plate. I have like a system in the way that I try to do things and how I look at it. One of those things is if we don't show a replay right away, which we usually don't, and then we'll take the dugout reaction and we'll take the guy who just hit the home run, giving high fives and going through the dugout and it's at home, I generally won't say anything, right. Those are still really good moments. The crowd is still really loud. And then usually what happens is the pitcher will throw a pitch and then we get you to the replay. That's where I kind of take over and talk about the pitch and what we see, whatever that may be on the road. For me, this is just getting my own little kind of formula. It's a little bit different because you don't get nearly the crowd reaction. And so if it's quiet, even if the player's getting like heavily booed, you might lay out a little bit. Again, just my opinion. But if it's quiet, then sometimes I will pick it up. Maybe as the guy who just did the home run is coming around third base just because if it's dead right, and to be able to add some context. One of the things that I think people in my position have to be very careful about. And I see it happen when we get excited, we want to talk about it, but we get in the way a little bit too much. I've done it before, I've done it to bg. I hate when I do it. I don't try not to do it. But then the other thing is some guys will start talking about the pitch, the location, when it's not actually being shown on the replay, whether the guy is still running or while the guy is in the dugout. That doesn't match with what the viewer is seeing. Again, I don't think I'm far and away even close to being the perfect color guy, but those are the things that I think that matter. You want to talk about what happened with the pitch, location and everything else? If we're not showing it on tv, I like to save that for when we're actually showing it on television. Anyway. I had a couple people comment to me about how they noticed we're laying out for Ronald's homer's. I would do it for Matt Olsen homer as well. If there's a big reaction at home and there's a big reaction in the dugout, generally, try not to say anything. But I promise you, those big moments, when they're exciting, it's sometimes really difficult to contain your excitement in the booth. I'm working on it. So that's why I'll put my hand over my mouth to make sure that I don't actually say anything. But it's been fun and let's hope I get to practice it again with some more home here in Truist this afternoon. Final game here between the San Diego Padres. Final game of the season for these two and the Atlanta Braves. Hope you guys will tune in. Hope you guys have a great Memorial Day weekend. It's an important weekend remembering those who have given their lives for us. I grew up in a military family. My father served in the Navy for 20 years, and while he never had to ever serve in wartime and any kind of battles and things like that, they had lots of friends before I was born and families that they had lost in the Vietnam War. So it's important to our family, important to everybody. Let's remember those who have made that ultimate sacrifice for this amazing country that we live in. Have a great rest of your weekend.