#16 Profar is back, Didier gets another start, Kikuchi and clutch hitting.

[00:00:01] Looking like it's going to be an absolutely gorgeous day. Hopefully that'll be the case after a little bit of rain scare yesterday. Tons of rain that we've had in our area. All right, so big night tonight. With the expectation that Jerks and Profar is going to be back in the lineup. [00:00:16] I'm excited about it. I know that there are mixed feelings right now in Braves country. I've seen some of what you've been talking about, and there's no doubt Jerkshoo Pro Fire's PED suspension set us back this year. There's no getting around it. It was a really important piece of the lineup that we did have for 80 games. But he is back and there's a big hole that we're trying to get out of right now. So I'm excited to have him back. He swung the bat well in the minor leagues. It would be great if that continues right away. [00:00:44] Very interesting to see what the reaction is going to be at the ballpark tonight. I imagine it's going to be somewhat mixed, but, you know, it's time to go and so I'm happy to have Jerkshu Profar back in the lineup. I played right through the middle of the PED era. I was the guy that, I'll tell you, never used PEDs. But not going to lie and tell you that I wasn't tempted. I got very close one year after coming off a bad year, after watching some other teammates, some other pitchers, you'll get three, four miles an hour, bump with velocity. [00:01:15] And, you know, back then, late 90s, early 2000s, if I can go from 93 to 96, that would have been a big difference based on that generation of what you saw from fastballs. But I decided not to do it. I'm out here patting myself on the back. It wasn't an easy decision. The point is, I understand how tough it is for guys and whether it was intentional or not or whatever happened, they were jerks or profiles. Far as much as I find it frustrating that it's happened at the same time, I just. I don't know. I don't judge guys. I forgive guys that are willing to admit the mistake and move on from it. It's the guys that try to squirm out of it. Those are the guys that I lose a little bit of respect for. Not very honest about it. Again, coming out of that generation and seeing it so much during my playing career, it had to end. It did end. [00:01:59] I like guys that do the right thing, say the right thing and let's move forward and I feel like that has been jerks and profar and more importantly, we just need him in the lineup and have him for two more years after this. So we really do need that good version of Jerk 2 Proform. But I don't. I don't tell people how to react. I don't tell people what they should think or you go on how you feel. Whether we're talking about baseball or things outside of baseball. [00:02:23] Whatever you believe, however you feel about it, is the way that you react accordingly. I'm just telling you I'm excited that Jurchen Profire is going to be back here with the Braves. I thought it was a great sign in the offseason. He has something to prove. He has to prove that what he was last season was not pedated, that he can still be a great player, that the swing adjustments that we were told about, that we talked about were real and we're going to find out about that here soon enough. So again he's back excited for that. Didier Fuentes is making his third start now. We've seen two of them from the 20 year old. Some mixed results so far. You certainly can see the upside. You can also see that he's young and he's got some work to do. The thing that I'm focused on, and I might have even said this last time and it didn't happen. I really, really want to see a split finger. Now. We only have data on one AAA start that he threw one split in that game. We know he's got one. [00:03:15] He's talked about how it's a pitch he has thrown since he was very young, early in his amateur years as a kid. I really want to see it. You know, the fastball and the two breaking balls. You know, you can see the upside. Again, need a little bit more consistency, but I'm just very anxious to see his split so I hope that he will use it tonight. [00:03:34] We will see here against the Angels Game two after a tough loss yesterday. The other side you say Kikuchi, 34 years old. If you remember last year he got traded to the Houston Astros. He was doing okay with the Blue Jays, but when he got to the Astros they sat him down. Very similar to what happened with Pierce Johnson when he became a Brave. [00:03:52] Went through an entire presentation on his pitch arsenal and essentially told him we think you'd be better if you threw your slider more. And he bought into it and he increased his slider usage significantly and his slider has been better since then, just a.202 batting average on his slider since he became a Houston Astro. That's the pitch that the Braves are good to have to contend with. I think the usage is like 34%. So just call it one out of every three pitches right now that he is throwing is a slider. I think my math is right there. [00:04:25] So he has had 27 starts now since he last joined the Astros. Obviously now he is here with the Angels. I believe it's a 2.79 ERA over that time. [00:04:35] That is the best 27 game span of an era that he has posted in his career. [00:04:41] That's a big deal. [00:04:43] So here he is at 34 rediscovering himself. Will be 35 here coming up. [00:04:47] I think pretty sorry he just turned 34. It might have been 33. Either way, I think he turns 35 here coming up pretty soon. But the point is the adjustment was made and he right now is in a place that he has never been in as far as this kind of span of starts. Almost a calendar year since he was traded from Toronto to Houston. So we got to contend with him tonight. The Braves have been struggling against lefties. That is no secret. I think I saw against left handed starters, second fewest home runs, fifth fewest runs per game against those left handed starters. So they got to get to work again. We continue to have these same conversations over and over again, but they got to win series. [00:05:24] Losing game one means you got to win game two. There is like almost no margin for error at this point, eight games under. [00:05:30] So we will see, but I got to get that done. I also saw another number that was a little bit discouraging. I'm gonna dig in a little bit more. We saw it yesterday. Michael had that lead off triple and the Braves didn't score. [00:05:41] What they have done when they've had runners at third base at less than two outs has not been all that successful. And you know you can talk about hitting all day long. Situational hitting is the most important thing. [00:05:53] So we will continue to kind of focus on that part of it as well. They've been more patient. I know I've seen some back and forth about, okay, great. They're walking a ton. [00:06:02] Those rates have been improved, Chase has been improved. Now what the second step of that is making sure you got the damage to go along with it. And that's kind of some of what we have been waiting on. But it's a beautiful day here in the Battery. That person's gonna go, aren't they? Yeah, they are. They tried to. [00:06:17] A little bit warm, but absolutely gorgeous out. Should be a fun week. Should be fun weekend as we get closer here to the Fourth of July. And listen, Jerks and Profar is back. Ronald is back. Spencer Strider is back. Jerks and Profar is here. Yes, we miss Chris Sale very much. But in the meantime, some reinforcements on the offensive side that hopefully are going to help out this club. All right, what do we do here? I got to go straight. Trucks blocking this way. [00:06:41] Be really fantastic if everybody went faster than three miles an hour. [00:06:46] Come on, come on, come on. [00:06:52] All right, I got a radio show today. We'll see you guys tonight. Take care of.