The Atlanta Braves are fine, Spencer Strider is him

welcome in Braves today brazetoday.com is where you can find us he is Lindsay Crosby I am Ben Taylor and one of the things that we've got to talk about is to quit freaking out at the A's loss however we will recap the A's just a little bit and uh and one thing that I told Lindsay is uh you you only get one of three however I'm not displeased with that and the one reason being is because I'll just jump right into it when the Braves got done with their Series in Atlanta they flew to Oakland they arrived at 3 A.M local time which is 6 a.m eastern time and then pretty much less than eight hours later they had to be at the clubhouse taking batting practice taking infield and then play a three-hour game and everybody wants to point out well they lost one of the worst teams in Major League Baseball not just in the American League in Major League Baseball and it's like yeah but you do your job when you've literally lived off of four hours of sleep traveled all night and that could be a desk job like you and I have it'd be tough to do I couldn't imagine doing something physically and taxing and then Jeff Francoeur made it a point during the broadcast to say as a player it's not even that first date because you got adrenaline going a second day fatigue really sets in and of course they went 0-2 the first two games of the series yeah and it's I mean it was not the Atlanta Braves that were used to seeing right they scored a grand total of I think three uh three runs in those two games you could obviously tell they did they weren't there they didn't have all of their stuff uh I'm not too worried about it for a couple reasons one we have an explanation for why that happened but two end of the month you're fine when you look at the the month it wasn't a fantastic month I think you know you won like one more game than you lost but you went into the month with a five game lead you come out of the month with the four game lead so it's it in the end it didn't hurt you that much and you have a chance in June to really pile on and make the lead bigger because that was the month that you had to face the really good teams you had to play Baltimore you had to play Texas you had to play the Dodgers in Seattle and things like that this month yes you have a series against Arizona we're gonna talk about them in a second they're a really good team then you play the Mets but then after that you have 16 T games against teams with losing records because you go you have you go you play Washington at home you go to Detroit you play Colorado for four at home they are not good away from Coors Field nope you have three against Philly who is dangerous but still has a losing record and then you have three in Cincinnati where a a check swing can be a home run so like you have a chance to build the lead here I'm not too worried about the month that was because the poor performance explanation for it and you have a chance to make it right in Jill in June well fans are just kind of jumping on that bandwagon of basically they're calling what the a series a whole recap of the entire month of May and that's just not the case and you know that's another thing I hate to keep dogging on the A's but everybody else has I mean they don't even have fans showing up the paper bags have been out since like week one uh whenever they were out there as far as the people wearing the bags over their heads in the stadium and that kind of thing but that also getting in at 3 A.M which is six year what time you're used to and having to get up four or five hours later to make your way to the ballpark it's just one of those things where against the team that just the atmosphere is not there there's they do that and let's just say it's against the Dodgers I think the mentality is a whole lot different than what it was going into the a series now with that said and that was one of the things I put on the notes and one thing people need to relax the pitching actually was there yeah I mean it was the bats that didn't travel the arms were there uh Soroka first game in three years so Roku looked good had one mistake where he gave up you know a fourth run but he looked good uh Tuesday you had the lead late that was a walk-off on a really fluky error at third base at Austin Riley doesn't normally make Jared Schuster looked good in his start the pitching was fine it was just the offense wasn't there and that's something where if there's a little bit of fatigue on a hitter maybe they're a split second behind on pulling the trigger on a swing or something like that I mean there's explanations for it and ultimately it's an interleague game in late may it doesn't really matter at the end of the end of the day you play 162 and this was two of 162. it would we have loved to have won those games yes ultimately at the end of the year if Atlanta does not win the division is it going to be because of these two games in Oakland no no because when they ended the month of May they again they ended four games up uh it went into the month and five games out as Lindsay said only really dropped the game they didn't drop that game because it was Oakland either so that's another thing some other teams did their job throughout the month now speaking of arms Spencer Strider is got a Howitzer right now on his right side and has surpassed the 100 strikeout total faster than anybody in in Majors history he still is the strikeout leader in Major League Baseball uh over um ohtani who is always known as worldwide as the strikeout King yet you got this young guy over in Atlanta that seemed to be doing a pretty darn good job himself 106 strikeouts in 63 and two-thirds Innings it is 15 strikeouts per nine which the the one leads all the major leagues but you typically don't see starters with numbers that ridiculous you see a lot of a lot of relievers Elite closers strikeout guys that have a strikeout per nine that high and Spencer Strider is on track at this pace to break uh you know to to break 200 strikeouts and I'm sorry to break 300 strikeouts in less than 200 Innings which is usually not a thing that happens I think Justin Verlander Garrett Cole did it in 2019 and they threw like 210 or 220 Innings to break 300 strikeouts he's on Pace to do it like 182 Innings so yeah was known as like the complete Game King I mean he was doing it in complete games not doing it in Sixth and a third or six and two thirds or you know seven and a third like strider's been doing before we set with and I hope that the Braves continue to do that and continue to not overuse him everybody sees that total and they go oh my gosh we're throwing him nine innings every single no he's doing this in six and two-thirds Innings or seven in a third he I don't even know if he's gone eight this year I don't think he has his last five games he has uh 28 and two-thirds Innings and like I have to do the math real quick on the strikeouts he has 49 strikeouts in those five games I mean like he face the Dodgers he went six innings 11 strikeouts Toronto six and two-thirds 12 strikeouts he's just racking up strikeouts at such an absurd rate nine strikeouts against Philly in six Innings you know 10 against Baltimore in five innings like he's not going incredibly deep into the games he's just very very good at getting strikeouts and does that mean he's probably not gonna not gonna get a complete game probably not but it's fine because he's on Pace to finish with 300 strikeouts well and Braves fans are going to be super happy that he's not throwing complete games right now whenever playoff baseball comes around because uh they're going to actually need him and need that arm because that's when the fatigue starts sitting in and that's been the most impressive thing that I've seen out of him thus far he's pitched enough now there's enough tape on him there's enough scouting reports on him to know what he's and he's still out there to go out and be successful and that's what some opposing players have said said here's the thing is now we know what we're getting and we still can't hit it that's an issue and so he has proved to be one of the biggest assets that the Braves could have so congratulations uh Strider is uh he we'll talk about that with the matchups here in a little bit with the Diamondbacks we're kind of hoping to see a different matchup just because we thought it'd be very cool to see on television but uh speaking of the Diamondbacks now the month of June rolls around uh Lindsay and again we start out you know D-backs Mets but then after that things get a lot easier I don't want to call these must wins but the way the Diamondbacks have been playing if the Braves now that they've had a day off are able to go in there and win the series I think that's a huge win because the Diamondbacks have been playing great baseball I didn't realize this until you pointed it out to me the Diamondbacks are not only 10 games above 500 33 and 23 right now they're half a game behind the Dodgers for the lead in the NL West like this is a very good team right now and they're doing it they're getting complete performances Corbin Carroll is your leader for Rookie of the Year it's batting 290 with a 519 slugging in center field I mean Christian Walker is has hit 12 home runs from first base they traded for Lords goriel who's playing Left in dhing he's got nine ten home runs and then the pitching has been very good Zach gallon is probably one of the Front Runners along with Spencer strider for Cy Young he's seven and two with a 272 era like this is a very very good team and I think because we're on the east coast and we play all these early games we maybe don't realize how good uh how good this Arizona Diamondbacks team is and you're going to get to see that for three games now over the weekend because this team is legit they've got they can play good defense they can hit well and they've got great pitching well when it comes to the West today I always talk about West Coast bias but another thing there's a west west coast bias whenever you hear teams out west they're always going to talk about the Dodgers you know and what they don't mention is the team that as you just said is a half game right behind them that has won the 11 and 4 in their last 15 and 13 and five in their last 18. and I told you I hate playing teams like this like we talked about with Toronto earlier in the season that win series because they may not sweep a team and they may not be showy they may not be flashy but they just go out and they win series they consistently go two out of three they you don't double them up on losses it's it's tough when you have to go to a team that is that good and so like I think the Toronto analogy was great that's what I think about is having to go to Toronto when they're in second place in the AL East into their house and Atlanta ends up getting swept in three games now one of those was a bulletin game you're not gonna have that this time you've got some decent pitching matchups but still it's bit like don't look past this this is a very challenging matchup and you'll hear it in our picks I mean this is going to be close they they have scored I think 200 282 runs they've allowed like 259 I mean the offense is good the pitching is good uh it's it's just you don't hear about them because they're a West Coast team and everybody talks about the Dodgers but the Diamondbacks are better than the Padres statistically right now and and so you have to respect them you mentioned uh gallon he's going to he'll be on the uh on the bump as far as Sunday is concerned but for uh Atlanta it's going to be Morton Strider and Soroka uh I thought you mentioned earlier in the pie just while ago about uh Soroka um looking good I do think he's just gonna get better he didn't look like he was laboring at all uh he made a couple of mistakes but I think that was to be expected his first time out in the in the majors regardless if he's playing the A's or not I think that that's just something that um making that jump from AAA and all the rehab that you've been doing over the last year and a half to going up and facing Major League hitters is a whole different ball game so I think he settles in a little bit more I think he probably feels more comfortable he's finally been with the team now uh for the last week and will continue to be so throughout this week so he'll that Comfort level and having a day off to be able to sit with him and talk with him if I'm not mistaken I think Elder actually flew out to Oakland with siroca early last week just to kind of have number one to get some extra rest they flew coach but number two uh just to have just to let him have a teammate to be with in the hotel and bring that Comfort back in because he hasn't he hasn't been with a team in a year and a half yeah and I'll point out that the pitching was fine in Oakland when they flew out early it was just it was just the offense that wasn't there when they all got their super late yeah it's it's it's pretty standard sometimes to LIT that starting pitcher if he wants to go ahead and go out early to do that uh this is something where Morton Strider Soroka for the Braves Morton Kelly on Friday Charlie Morton versus Mario Kelly it's gonna be a very good matchup Merrell Kelly six and three two eight three era and dead on 69 strikeouts on the year gonna be a really good matchup Spencer Strider on Saturday versus Ryan pitcher Ryan Nelson one of their youngsters had a really good debut last year has stumbled a little bit this year but it's still pretty dangerous like we said I kind of wish that was on Sunday so you could see Strider gallon but Sunday we'll have Michael Soroka versus Zach gallon uh it's kind of a late series here 9 40 Eastern on Friday 10 10 Eastern on Saturday and the Day game on getaway day is 4 10 Eastern on Sunday so a little bit of a late start but Atlanta is going to have next Monday off to kind of catch their breath and rest after that travel before they start facing the Mets yeah finally some off days you and I were talking about that before we actually uh started uh started the Pod and I get you know got uh the the day off after the A's gonna get a day off after the Diamondbacks and then going to be taking on the Mets and then that's when the schedule gets a lot easier so right now it's time to put the nose of the grindstone I still the Braves fans are not going to like hearing this I'm going one and two in this series against the Arizona Diamondbacks and it's just because the Diamondbacks are a half came back of the Dodgers and pro and hey the ball bounces a different way for the Diamondbacks they're probably leading the West right now yeah I mean they have if third base for Josh robots if he hits one home run it's probably a half game lead to the half game deficit uh I mean it's it's they hit all the way through they get good they play they have good defense they get timely contributions from the veterans Evan Longoria is a rotational player for them and he's got seven home runs on the season I mean they're a dangerous team I'm going I'm gonna say two in one knowing that there's a good chance I'm gonna be wrong here it's just for me I'm I'm hoping that the day off kind of has everybody focused and and ready to go I do think Strider is going to pick up the win uh the question is going to be can Michael Soroka do enough to keep them down while can the Braves score enough on Zach Gowan on Sunday I think it'll be probably a 1-1 series going into that game and I just want to believe soroka's got it he's going to hit another gear now that he doesn't have the emotion of his debut uh around him so I'm gonna say two in one if the arms do what they did against the A's and the Braves actually start hitting the baseball it could be an not an easy sweep but they could very well come out of this thing 3-0 with a day off heading into the series against the Mets which would be huge it would be it'd be a great way to start the month of June that's a you know uh Snickers often said that where he's big about momentum going into certain months or certain times of the year I'm sure that's probably posted on a bulletin board somewhere like let's start the month of June off correctly and so maybe the Braves will will be able to find that he's Lindsey Crosby I'm Ben Taylor Braves today Braves today.com don't forget to hit that subscribe button if you're watching on YouTube we would love to have you Lindsay as always thank you bud thanks for having me Chop on