BRAVES COUNTRY TODAY: Atlanta Braves News, Recap of Phillies, Preview of Nats Series - 1230pmET TGIF

[Music] [Music] Good morning Vietnam or good afternoon wh wher the hell you are uh we're just a little before 1 p.m. Eastern so if you're in Braves country you may be having lunch or if you're a little earlier over in Central Time Zone or a little further west and fair enough but regardless uh this is coming to you live of your country club member on YouTube today uh we are putting it on Facebook we won't do that very often but we just wanted to sprinkle it in over here if you want to catch it live every single time become a country club member on YouTube 10 cents a day so we're gonna make these short and sweet going forward because we don't look unless there's a big issue I really think we're going to try to keep these at 15 20 minutes I have a tendency to ramble on if I don't have it cut off so we're going to keep it to around 20 minutes today um not a whole lot to get into but I do want to go over what happened in the Philadelphia series I think they showed a lot of grit a lot of look let's be honest a lot that I don't think a lot of Braves fans thought that they had in them I think a lot of Braves fans were kind of under the impression this team was laying over and playing dead and they took two of three at home granted they were lowc scoring games it was the pitching that got it done for Atlanta but it's been like that all year long I see a lot of fans we see it in our chats we see I see it on social media I see everywhere and you will get the idea from them that we have this terrible pitching staff that we have this terrible Bullpen and they look the numbers do not support that I also realized too a lot of fans only watch their team in a vacuum and so when they see their Bullpen give up a few runs in a game they think it's just astronomically insane that that that can even happen well the fact of the matter is if you watch other teams throughout the year I watch a lot of baseball outside the Atlanta brvs because I I want to know what the hell I'm talking about I don't want to just look through rosecolor glasses and bullpens game after game after game get rocked throughout the league and the Braves have been pretty darn good yeah we've given up our our share of runs but all in all when you look at the the rankings and the fact that look we're ranked third right now but we're just barely in third we've been rocking second the entire year that West Coast trip Those runs given up in Colorado that sunk us a little bit but I do believe we'll we'll finish the year in second Cleveland just started out at such an unbelievable low erra there's just no way you're going to catch them I mean they would literally have to get smoked the entire month of September for Atlanta overtake him in the bullpen our Bullpen is lights out even with AJ Mentor being gone and he's gone he's done for the season uh after they announced it what was it yesterday hip surgery there's no window where he could possibly be back at some point in the playoffs he is done he's cooked so what does that look like with the bullpen well I still think we're really damn good you've got obviously in my opinion our best Lefty in the bullpen at this point is Dylan Lee I was very surprised I was very vocal about it last night I felt like that late in the game there he should have been the guy that was called in to be brought in they didn't do that they did they did not do knew that um they ended up sticking with Pierce Johnson they got out of it but it was an incredible Double Play Turned by giell by the way giella what the hell man this guy's been a godson him and Whit Maryfield you got to think about the chemistry of a double Play Combo so third short second and Gio is fit right in perfectly defensively over at third base which I've always heard that he was a very good defensive third baseman he was terrible at second and the reason why the Yankees eventually got rid of him was because they had some some dinosaur over there playing third by the name of Josh donalson and they wanted his Bat in the line well that backfired but that's not the point of the show today GI Rella has been phenomenal now he's 32 years old he's never going to hit well once you're 32 and your lifetime your lifetime batting average is down in the low 200s that's who you are that's who you are that's okay because he's just got to spell it until Austin Riley can come back and really we I talked about this earlier in I think it was the last show but the idea that aie alz could be back at the beginning of September you could slide Whit Maryfield over to third Whit marfield has played third you could do a combo of the two the odd man out at that time at that point I believe will be luke Williams and I love Luke Williams I love what he does for the team he plays a solid glove he's got good speed he's a good base runner but that's all he brings to the table he he doesn't bring you a bat how about Adam Duvall coming out of his mind and going three for three this a guy's been hit who H 177 he's hitting 177 for the year comes out last night after been sitting on the bench for how long and goes three for three with the home run and if if schwellenbach had not come through with just an incredible performance we would have given him him being uh Duvall the game ball I mean it was it was very impressive um but you had to give it to schwell and block schwell went out there and shoved once again what was it six and two thirs and nine strikeouts I believe I don't have in front of me I'm pretty sure that's where it was and I'm and look I'm I'm with you uh be I guess we'll call you um the uh I've always liked Duvall I'm a big Duvall fan how the hell could I not be I live in Duvall County right so you want to pull for him plus he's been so big over the years he's just he's done he's not who he used to be but I like the idea of having him on our bench I really do I think he can still go out there and play a very good Outfield wherever you want to put him in in a pinch he can still play center and I like the idea that as a right-handed power hitter though he hits for a low average nowadays he's lost look he's lost the speed on his Bat it's just it happens when you get that you get older but I still like the idea of having him on the team and so when Azie comes back I would I like the idea of having all the outfielders we have on the team and adding Azie obviously back to the lineup he would go to Second and I I would prefer them to keep Gio or aella because you got enough Outfield back outfielders where you don't need a guy like Luke Williams who can play several different positions and you've got him for defense you've got him look he came with a big double last night hit it down the left field line was a ground rule double or that would have been a two RBI the you know the the but but looking at the team right now and be was asking about uh AJ mentor and where he has on his contract he is an unrestricted free agent in 2025 so I think they would like to bring him back but at the same token do we get a Hometown discount or is he going to want want that one big splash they avoided arbitration last year and paid him 6.2 million he's gonna want to command look AJ manter is an elite back of the bullpen guy so for them to retain him I think it's going to be difficult because they've got other spots that they want to fill and they've got other guys that are coming into their own and when you when you talk about the Atlanta brav you talk about that Bullpen even with the injury to AJ menra they have got a light out Bullpen and a glacius I don't think he's getting enough love nationally I really don't I believe that he I don't know how but he's being slept on he has been phenomenal I don't I hate bragging about because I feel like that you're you then you put the too many expectations on it and then if he falters the fans are going to go oh well he sucks you know cuz we know how fans are fans fan but he has been phenomenal last night he came in boom boom boom remember last year he was usually strugging through through closes he normally got it he normally got the cloth this year man he has been locked and loaded um but looking at who we have in the bullpen right now you're looking at as far as lefties go you got bummer and you got Lee that's it so come playoff time I think they would like to have a third left-hander but who who are we going to push in there look you don't necessarily have to have three left handers it's just nice to have so if you have bummer in the front and Lee in the back you've got guys not only glacius and not only um Joe jimnez who's who's pitched pretty well he he's had his hiccups but he's pretty well Jesse Chavez I don't believe he's a guy they're they're necessarily going to want on the playoff roster they're probably going to put more starting pitchers on there but Jesse Chavez in a pinch can can get things done if Luke Jackson doesn't clean things up he won't be on the playoff roster I think you can guarantee assuming we make the playoffs you can guarantee who will be on the playoff roster in that Bullpen it's going to be a glacius it's going to be Lee it's going to be bummer uh Pierce Johnson Joe gimenez Grant Holmes Grant holes has been phenomenal and he is I'm telling you he's he is a very underrated secret weapon that the bravs could have in October a guy then come out of the bullpen and fire two or three shutout Innings to either Bridge you to the back end or to may possibly clean up a mistake of the starting pitcher that's enormous most teams never have that and so that's where we're at on that uh there's it's being assumed I see the question from be about Solair and uh Travis they believe that uh Solair is back in the lineup tonight and most people believe Travis has a has a good chance but they're gonna have to go through the uh typical tests and stuff what do we got here Lee says the team is freaking great it's just the key guys that are out out there yeah Lee look the the injuries suck and look I'm not going to give you that that same tired old line as every team goes through injuries we have been decimated by injuries this year I thought we had been through injuries before this has just been unruly when you consider I mean I was joking about it was either last night's broadcast or the night before during the game just talking about the fact that we that we lead the last wild card and you look at the lineup and it's a mass unit I mean we've got guys out there we had what lauriano and rightfield that should be Ronald auna Jr we had last night we had Duval and left field that should be Jorge cir at second base we have Maryfield that should be Aussie alz we had Ella at third base that should be Austin Riley Shawn Murphy behind the plate the way he's been hitting the ball that should be Travis darno hell let's be honest that should be William Contra but that's another argument so and hey not to mention the fact we had schwellenbach on the mountain he was great but somewhere in that series it should have been Spencer Strider so we've just been absolutely crushed by injuries this year this team has showed showed some grit I felt like about a month ago they kind of looked like they were going through the motions and you didn't like that at all they were kind of going through the motions and sometimes I I it's easy to get your Dober in the dirt you get gut punched so many times you're like my God and the office once wasn't doing anything the offense see seems to be cleaning itself up I we're never we're not going to get back to last year's ridiculous numbers we don't need that not with this pitching staff we just need to go out there and have an honest chance chance to score about five runs a game and if we can score five runs a game with this pitching staff you're going to win a hell of a lot more games and you're going to lose the starting rotation has been phenomenal the bullpen has been I would not take any if and you can make this argument if you want against it have at it there is not a pitching staff in baseball today that I would rather have than the Atlanta Braves and I'm talking about the starting rotation with the bullpen there's not single one Cleveland has a phenomenal Bullpen and they've been really good and I'm not going to knock their Bullpen and maybe they're a touch better than than the Braves but I would rather have our starters and cland starters and cland starters are not shabby so and I get it the Philly is going to tell you well do they have this great starting pitching their bull pins is not liked out the break pitching stuff is the best in baseball we just have the we just need the offense to show up I think it might be I know this is going to sound weird but stick with me for a second the struggles of the offense might help us in October and the reason why I say that is last couple of years we've got into October we were flat right and look playing in the first round may may help us as well but put that aside that's already been assumed by a lot of people that's why I've been telling you forever I I I kind of want to go the Wild Card route I'm no longer worry about the the uh the division Crown if we get it we get it that's great what I would more prefer more interested in is getting the top wild card so so you're playing at home now that's not happening right now but look Padre's lost one last night we're now three and a half out uh between them and uh Arizona and what the what uh the Mets are a game and a half out but we just have to keep winning and we'll keep scoreboard watching it's going to be hard to thread that needle to hope that we when you got the Mets and you got the Padres playing each other I'm really more concerned about the team that's right behind us than trying to catch the team three games in front of us so I am pulling for the for the Padres to win the rest of that Series so we can get a buffer some breathing room but back to the whole thing why I say that the offense May why we may benefit from this so the last two years when we fell flat in the playoffs we had the week off or almost a week off and we got in the playoffs and we start hitting the first couple of games and that offense is nowhere to be found it's dead they're grinding they can't get any runs they're all swinging for the seats blah blah blah two early exits this year the mentality is has had to be different because they've had to work so hard to get runs and so this year there may be something to the fact that because they have a less explosive offense if we go cold in the playoffs it's not the end of the world you're going to find guys like Maryfield guys guys like Kellick who are dropping bunts down trying to find their way aboard taking that extra base going first to third not sitting there waiting for the three-run home run that may make us a little more difficult to beat especially when you couple it with the best pitching staff in baseball right now we just got to stay healthy that pitching staff I mean we cannot take any more of these big hits we might get a bumper or bruise here skip a start as we come down the stretch but I'm talking about any more devastating injuries because if you look at it right now how I would start the playoffs right now today and say well well who who's your one two and three guys in the starting rotation I think you have to go Chris S and then you're Pro unless it's a matchup thing you're going Max freed and then raow but if for some reason the team you're playing you want them to have to deal with the right-hander then you would go raylo and Max freed either way I you can't go wrong and then the number four starter right now has got to be schanen Bach there's just no way in hell I'm putting Charlie Morton out there Charlie Morton's going to go on my Bullpen and he's going to be a hell of a bridge if you got Charlie Morton and you have grand holes in the in that Bullpen you got two guys that can spell it um what do Lee saying they went hard all season two years in a row yeah so but it's more to the point that we we may not even be rocking and rolling with our offense in their first round lead it's more to me the fact that because we've we all year long we've had to struggle and fight to get runs that's going to make us a little more playoff ready because last year we broke all kinds of Records the year before our offense was phenomenal and I can tell you from calling the games night in Night Out by every inning there was a different field the last couple of years I mean it look we were spoiled the Home Run clips and all the stuff that we do during the home runs and all that stuff and I man we were wearing out the board last couple of years this year there have been games where I'm like man this this this game is just not not only has it been uh quick because of no offense it's been quiet because they're not getting on base but they've scraped out some of those wins you look at the wins that they got against Philadelphia this week none of them did the Atlanta Braves go out there and just go Bonkers it was all pitching all the time this team is more built like the team of the 90s than they were um of the team that won in 21 the team won in 21 the offense got extremely hot remember we remember by the time we got to the back end of the world series we had two starting pitchers we had two Bullpen games that we ran in the World Series but this year you know what what did we score a total of six eight runs in three games eight runs in three games and the Phillies scored six runs so it was that close of a series the winning team scored three runs in each game I just think that when we get to the playoffs just be prepared for them to have to possibly score four five six runs to win a game but I I believe that the the offense is going to be good enough I think I think the uh the offense is going to be good you're only gonna have to scrape out about like I said five to six runs a game you're going to be in very good shape you you score four runs any given night you're usually G to win with this pitching staff it's very rare nowadays that the Braves give up a ton of runs I'm looking at their their finals you put the West Coast trip aside there's very few crooked numbers that come across the scoreboard when they are giving up runs it's usually one run here or there in an in maybe two but you don't have the three the four the five spots and that'll be k key all right this weekend talk about this real quick and then we'll jam out of here this weekend we've got a three game set at home against Washington and it's going to be a critical series I believe and the reason why I say that is you come off that big win against Philadelphia so you win two out of three of Philadelphia two out of three against the Angels three out of four against the Giants we've won three cons consecutive series you can't go out there and lay an egg against Washington and Washington I see the be saying saying we should dominate yeah gotta see that to believe it beef Washington they are remember they've had our number this year and there was a point where Washington was really playing good baseball they were in the Wild Card race not so much this year I mean not so much the last couple of months but when we were playing last time we played them was the beginning of June and they were still playing really good baseball remember the series in Washington they won three of four and they took the last three then we had a four game series in Atlanta and Washington won three of four there they have dominated the series season series with us they've won six of eight six of eight so when you look at this series the nuts and bolts of it is this tonight we've got the major advantage with Chris Sail but you still got to go there and score runs Chris Sail versus McKenzie Gore Mackenzie Gore is a good young pitcher but he has his moments where he implodes there are games where he looks like a great young upand cominging pitcher there are other games that he goes out there and he gets knocked out early we'll do more of that on uh as the game begins tonight but then tomorrow it's Morton versus IR that is a true tossup if we get the Charlie Morton that showed up the last couple of times out we're going to be okay but but uh Irvin Jake Irvin has pitched really well this year he has pitched extremely well against the Atlanta Braves and then the other one the final one is Lopez versus DJ Herz and DJ Herz who hasn't had a great year Young kid but he came out and shoved against the Braves one of his better outings all year long was against the Braves so you hope the second time around see him you see him again you got the home field advantage you you would hope that you would win the series but it's not a given none of these games are given and then we've got a tough road trip next week we go on the road for seven at Minnesota who's an American League playoff contender right now and then at Philadelphia for four we know how tough that's going to be so I would I would think that the Braves are going to win the series I'm gonna take them to win the series but tonight's key because if you if you drop the first game then it's anybody's bag when Chris S goes on the mound at home we should win that every damn time the way he's been pitching it's also important too for Chris S to go out and put up some good numbers tonight because right now he's the front runner for the sa young I'd really like to see s get the sa young it would be really cool to see him do that because you know he's been through so many injury issues over the last several years and it would just be phenomenal for him to go out and turn it all around and get the sa young be a lot of fun to see that uh he is right now I believe the best left-hander in baseball and I don't care about jck scoble I've watched Terk scoble he's really good but Terk scoel is not doing these in big games Terk sco's team the tigers are out of it he's just going out there throwing up big numbers Chris S is in a pennant race in a wild card race a playoff race what have you and he's out there doing it every night so so uh right now to me Chris S is the best left-hander in baseball he I I I want to see him finish strong suit he does get the sa young the problem with this he is not set up to face the the Phillies next week either they had a chance to massage the schedule they didn't do it so I still think that's intentional I don't think the Braves want Philly to see Chris Sale because if we run into them October they only saw him on opening day that's a long time ago the less time the less times that Philadelphia sees who should be our our game one starter the better it will be for sale so what does it say why do the Braves play at 1205 on Sunday is because it's the Roku game of the week Robert that's been going on all year Roku signed a deal with uh major league baseball this year if you remember last year they had the peacock games it were 11 35 well Roku has adjusted that and most of their games come on at 12:05 they want to be they pay extra to be the first game on Sunday and it's a rotating deal so that's why it's the Braves turn we had one other this year that uh I actually think the one earlier this year was actually 11:35 we've had one other early game this year but yeah 1205 the the uh the Roku deal so if you don't have Roku you're G to have to get it it's free on Roku so if you have a Roku whatever whether it's a Roku Smart TV a Roku box a Roku whatever but you have to have roko to be able to see it that's the way all these sports are going all these streaming sports are uh you know what was it Friday night opening Season O opening week of the NFL you're going to have to Peacock to watch I think it's the Packers in somebody so you got your traditional Thursday night game the kicks off the season well now this year there's a Friday night game so you got Thursday and Friday Night Football the first week of the NFL season and it's just going to continue I mean the NFL is just basically selling their soul left and right so that anyone that comes up to the table puts several million dollars on the table they'll give them a random game and you have to have that device and I don't believe yeah it's not going to do you any good if you got the NFL package which pisses off a lot of a lot of uh a lot of folks that spend all the money for the NFL package that's not going to get you the Thursday night Amazon games that's not going to get you the Friday night peacock game and it just it's insane it's insane what they're doing and baseball's slowly doing that as well I don't love it but it's they're just they're not putting the toothpaste back in the bottle they're doing the same thing with college football you name the sport they're doing it the only ones they don't do it in are the sports that nobody's going to go run in other words like No One's Gonna go get seven different devices to make sure that that they see the WNBA or an MLS game they're just not going to do it they're like screw it I guess I won't watch it so those sports are staying in their Lane and making sure that if you have that if you're with ESPN or whoever you can see all the games but all the other major sports the ones that are really popular they were all doing it so get used to it yeah I'm going to take if I was to guess because I would never predict a sweep they're too difficult to get I would love a sweep but it's just it's just not commonly done I think Braves had the upper hand tonight with sale I think they've got the upper hand on Sunday the big question will be what what Charlie Morton do we get on Saturday so there you have it all right I'm gonna get out of here um and uh see y'all tonight first pitch it's traditional first pitch is back to normal 720 remember next week when we're on the road all kinds of goofy starts you got 7:40 while we're in Minnesota every night and then in Philadelphia 640 twice 7:15 on Saturday and 7 o'clock on Sunday because Saturday Labor Day weekend the Philly game is the fox game of the week the Sunday game is the ESPN game of the week and if if you missed it you know how we normally do the chat on Sundays and the broadcast on Saturdays next week for Philadelphia series we are going to do the chat on Saturday because it's the beginning of college football season and we kind of figured there's going to be just more people locked into that we'll put the chat up but then Sunday we're going to bring you the game because it's ESPN and long story short folks have uh uh told us for a while that if it's possible please do as many ESPN games as you can and the main reason they just don't like the broadcast team and I I'll be honest I'm I don't want see Slam folks that can't defend themselves I'm not a fan of ESPN's uh broadcast experience either but luckily because it's Labor day uh I don't have to be up at at the crack of ass on Monday morning on uh Labor Day itself so I'm going to do the Labor Day night Sunday night Labor day however you want to word it all right y'all uh good luck and uh see VT saying go hookies uh VT remember tomorrow 8:30 Saturday morning 8:30 to 10 our college football show begins we'll have all the guys back all the armchair QBs uh cover country but it's going to be right here on brav country radio we might s will cast from time to time on uh on cover country but it will be on break Braes country radio all season long 8:30 to 10 all season long you got college football kicking off tomorrow of course it goes into full swing next weekend tomorrow is the big game over in Ireland we'll be covering that we're going to do our our our yearlong picks tomorrow we're going to be doing our picks against the spread that we always do so if if you do need college football NFL gambling we're g to um we're going to be the place that you want to go to on on Saturday mornings other shows don't do it and if you wonder what the hell this is on my finger ah I'm a chef I cut myself today because I dropped something all over me and I and long story short I went to grab something so yeah there you go so you know there you go guys that's exactly what I said to to one of my uh cohorts at work as I was leaving I said I gotta go talk Braves and and I I just flipped the uh the uh rubber finger whatever the I don't it's some we were out of Band-Aids to uh put this thing together we'll see you have a great day y'all [Music] [Music] [Music]