00:00I thought he had a better shot of getting walked.
00:04And I was like, dude, don't.
00:06Because he was a little erratic there for a while.
00:09The closer was, I was like, just don't swing at a bad pitch.
00:13Yeah.
00:13And he put one right down the middle.
00:17Yeah, Estevez was rough.
00:18I mean, he absolutely just yoked that thing.
00:22I was like, no way.
00:23No doubter.
00:24There was a – and I thought about this last night
00:26because the Braves grounded and double-played it in the game last night.
00:30And Bobby Witt was played up the middle.
00:31And there was a moment, if you watch close, Estevez –
00:35I can't remember who it was that hit one up the middle,
00:37but Bobby Witt is almost literally standing behind second base.
00:41And if the ball doesn't hit Estevez's foot,
00:44there's a chance that that ends in a double play.
00:46And I was like, oh, my God.
00:47That almost makes me nauseous to think about.
00:49And it didn't, though.
00:51You end up getting the bases loaded.
00:53So it was a really cool moment Saturday.
00:55Absolutely huge moment.
00:56It was the first in MLB history with someone debuting for a team.
01:00And then afterwards, you find out that Dom lost his mom two weeks ago,
01:05and he stayed at camp to secure this job.
01:08I mean, if it wasn't an emotional moment already,
01:11then to figure – to find that out just added an extra layer to it.
01:15Yeah, really cool stuff.
01:16Yeah, I give the announce crew.
01:19It was A.J. Pruszynski and somebody – Adam Amin,
01:22and I cannot remember the third guy in the booth on Saturday night.
01:27But Dom Smith is at the bat, and I believe it was one of his at-bats.
01:32I'm pretty sure it was the Grand Sam one where they're like, I don't know,
01:35you know, Dom Smith, he's a good hitter, and he's not going to –
01:37you can't just – basically they're saying you can't just throw him junk
01:41and get him out.
01:42And nice, nice analysis because it was literally one played out.
01:47They threw him junk, he didn't get him out, they came back.
01:51You know, I did – Ali pointed out earlier that –
01:53I don't know if it was against Dom Smith or not,
01:55but at one point in that final sequence, they had both their ABS challenges,
01:59and Perez is like, you know what, screw it, tap.
02:02And you can see him.
02:03Like, he looks at – is it Estes, I think, the closer?
02:08Estevez.
02:08Estevez, and he goes – he shrugs his shoulders like, why not?
02:12Like, why not?
02:13And he got it.
02:14He got it called for a strike.
02:17But I – it's just a cool moment.
02:20You feel like that moment last – Saturday night,
02:26don't feel like we had that at all during the 25 season.
02:30Sure felt like it was few and far between, yeah.
02:32And it feels like we got a lot of those from 2018 until 2024.
02:40And then we went a whole year, it felt like without him.
02:42Glut-shitting.
02:43Maybe that's a good sign.
02:45Yeah.
02:45Did you notice in that rally that Walt Weiss decided to take Matt Olsen out
02:51and pinch run for him for Jorge Mateo?
02:53That was interesting to me.
02:54I don't feel like we saw Matt Olsen get pinch run for very much in a Brian Snicker,
02:58if at all.
02:59Like, I don't feel like that would have ever been something that happened.
03:01That was just one thing.
03:04And, again, we've talked about this for two years now.
03:06I'm paying close attention to what's going on in the base pass.
03:08And that, to me, was a – first of all, you pulled Yastrzemski as well
03:11and put Eli White in.
03:12It's not like Yastrzemski can't run, but Eli White's obviously a very impressive runner,
03:16one of the top base runners, really, in Major League Baseball.
03:18So you have him and Mateo on.
03:19I thought that was just really a nice, like, chef's kiss for Walt Weiss to pull that off.
03:26This is so random, but you know who Yastrzemski reminds me of?
03:28I couldn't stop thinking about it all weekend.
03:30And he looks like Little Moonlight Graham from Field of Dreams.
03:34He does.
03:35Hang on.
03:36I'm having to Google now.
03:37He looks just like him.
03:37I'm having to Google now.
03:39He's my boy because he comes out.
03:41His walk-up song is When the Levee Breaks by Led Zeppelin.
03:44And that's just very rare that you hear old-school rock like that used.
03:48You know, because, I mean, Mike Yastrzemski is, what, 28, 29, 30?
03:54I mean, Zeppelin is necessarily his jam.
04:00It is cool that he looks like the young Moonlight Graham.
04:03You're so spot on.
04:04Like, I just pulled it up, and I was like, oh, my God, yes.
04:06They're twins.
04:06Yeah.
04:07They do look a lot alike.
04:09They do.
04:09It's like a grown-up version of that kid.
04:10We know if somebody chokes on a hot dog in the stands, we know who to call.
04:13Yeah.
04:13Although, do we lose him for the rest of the season?
04:15No.
04:16Stay where you are.
04:16If he crosses over into the stands, I hope not.
04:20No.
04:21I am worried about two things.
04:23First off, as aggressive as they were on the base pads, no stolen bases in the opening series.
04:29And they tried.
04:31And as good as we're talking about the offense in the ninth inning, they didn't do anything
04:37for the other eight innings.
04:38And guess what?
04:39Lugo shut them down yesterday, too.
04:42They did.
04:42And they really were not great against starting pitching after opening night in this series.
04:50Yeah.
04:51Two of the three games, they were pretty horrific offensively.
04:53Yeah.
04:53Cole Reagan did a nice job against, and we loaded the left-handed bats.
04:57But it is going to feel a lot more pressure-packed, I think, throughout the season to make sure
05:03that when you get starts like you got from Ronaldo Lopez on Saturday, that you do win those
05:07games.
05:08And Grant Holmes was not great.
05:10Didier Fuentes had a pretty good outing, like you brought up earlier yesterday, after
05:13he goes the extended four innings or 4.1 or whatever it was.
05:17That was nice to see.
05:18But I do think that it almost is like the Ronaldo Lopez starts are going to be a little bit
05:22of a pinch point throughout the season.
05:24I feel like, and look, you know, you have Elder left.
05:28I think you're going to get maybe Suarez on Tuesday.
05:32I just think that when Ronaldo Lopez gives you a quality outing, it's almost like imperative
05:35as the Braves that you win those starts.
05:37You cannot let those Ronaldo Lopez starts go to the wayside without getting a W on those
05:41nights.
05:42Oh, yeah, because he's your second.
05:44He's your number two.
05:46And after that, it's all question marks right now.
05:49Yeah.
05:49Like, we were talking before the show this morning, like, it's Bryce Elder pitching tonight.
05:52But then tomorrow, it's kind of up in the air.
05:56But on Friday, Alex Anthopoulos, to join Dukes and Bell, talked about all the pitchers he's
06:02called up and compared them to what Didier Fuentes was asked to do.
06:06And he felt like if he had not been called up last year, he probably just would have kept
06:10doing what he was doing last year.
06:11He was having success.
06:12Why make changes?
06:13You come up, you get your butt kicked.
06:17And, you know, if you're going to fold like a cheap tent, then you're probably not the guy
06:21we thought you were going to be.
06:22If you're going to go back to the drawing board and say, what do I need to change and
06:24fix?
06:25We probably got it right.
06:26He came into camp.
06:27His slider's harder.
06:28He's gone from a split to a changeup.
06:30And he knew he needed to make adjustments.
06:32And I think we're seeing the results of it so far.
06:35Dude.
06:36And he looked electric.
06:38You know, 96 was a really good location, I felt like, yesterday, for the most part of
06:43his start.
06:44And you're right.
06:45It is interesting to me that you throw Didier Fuentes yesterday.
06:48It's a close game, trying to get that win.
06:50And Lord knows, I don't even want to start talking about Sundays just yet.
06:52It's already kind of irking me.
06:54So I'm not even going to start going there about the Sunday games.
06:56But yeah, I mean, it looks like you'll get either Jose Suarez or Perez on Tuesday night,
07:02which there's something to be said about that.
07:04I mean, Suarez had a decent spring.
07:06I think he started a couple of games, 16 innings pitched, 3-3 ERA, I believe.
07:12So there's some meat on the bone there.
07:13But I was a little bit surprised to see Didier Fuentes enter the game and pitch for so long
07:17yesterday.
07:18Yeah, I feel the opposite.
07:19I like the move.
07:20I felt it was a smart move.
07:21I didn't dislike it.
07:22I was just surprised.
07:23I think it's a smart move with Elder and TBD coming up next because what it allows you
07:32to do is you have a fresh bullpen.
07:35And I know that you use the long innings relief guy.
07:38But most likely, I'm curious, I think the biggest question I have is how do they use
07:44Fuentes next and when?
07:47And when is the real question, is when do they use him?
07:50Are they going to use him like we would see a long relief where he'd probably go a night
07:54off and then come back and throw a couple innings?
07:56Or are they going to give him three or four days off?
07:59And they give him three or four days off, it means to me, I think they're priming
08:02him to start, you know, as far as maybe as early as the weekend because you're going
08:11to need, again, I know that apparently Hurston Waltrip is about to start throwing, which is
08:18a really good sign.
08:19But you ain't going to see Spencer Strider in the month of April most likely.
08:23I don't expect him until May at the earliest.
08:25I'm not sure if Waltrip will see before May, even though he's about to start throwing because
08:30he essentially had no spring training.
08:33At least Strider had that.
08:35So I just feel like you're probably going to need Fuentes sooner than later to become
08:42a starter.
08:44I don't think you're going to be able to send him down like that plan is.
08:47I agree.
08:48Because that's a good lineup he went through.
08:51That's why I was surprised to see him go.
08:53Oh, yes.
08:53I just assumed, I guess, that he would kind of tack on to the back.
08:56I know that before the Strider injury, they talked about him being the bullpen, and that's
08:59the status quo they've kept.
09:00But just, I guess, a small part of me still expected to see him, if anything, you throw
09:06a couple innings over the weekend, and you count those as your throwing session, and you
09:10become an opener on Tuesday.
09:11But they just, obviously, not the route they're going to go.
09:14For what it's worth, I mean, we did ask Walt Weiss about this after the game on Sunday.
09:18He said he's just not stretched out.
09:19That was his explanation.
09:20So, just for what it's worth.
09:23Interesting.
09:24Makes sense.
09:26That's another start in that direction.
09:28When would he line up then?
09:29Let's see.
09:29If you didn't, if you, so you're definitely going to go to Chris Sale, it would be Wednesday.
09:34Friday.
09:35Because you have 13 straight games, so you're lining.
09:36Friday would be five days.
09:37No, well, I'm saying you do Sale, Lopez, I'm assuming you go back to Grant Holmes on Friday.
09:43I mean, you could, or you could move Holmes out a day, because he's coming off a major injury,
09:48and you could move him out to Saturday and throw Fuentes on Friday.
09:53I mean, because five days would be Friday for either one.
09:57You have options, in other words.
10:00I like the fact that you saved the bullpen, though, by using, like, you know, Fuentes gave
10:04you four innings.
10:05And I had to check his pitch count, but I don't think he threw a ton of pitches yesterday.
10:10With the target of stretching him out, that makes way more sense.
10:12Because now, like you said, you're getting ready to go for it next weekend, hopefully.
10:16Well, and he did pitch four innings yesterday, two hits, one run, one walk, four strikeouts,
10:2156 pitches.
10:23But you just mentioned that Waldrop is going to start throwing soon.
10:27Schwellenbach should be right behind that, shouldn't he?
10:29No, I think he's...
10:30Is he a little bit longer?
10:31Yeah.
10:31We're doing it, yeah.
10:32Okay.
10:32They, basically, what I had heard was, it was the update of not really an update.
10:39Like, I don't know, you know, he's still recovering.
10:42Okay.
10:43So, and look, if you get hurt, I don't know if anybody's a bigger fan of Schwellenbach
10:48on this station than me.
10:49I'm a huge fan of him.
10:51But if you can get Walsh back this year and Fuentes can fill in and you can save Schwellenbach
10:58for the back half of the season as far as let him take his time, AA might look a lot
11:03smarter
11:04than we think.
11:05But...
11:05Need that elder start tonight.
11:06All that said...
11:07Need it to go.
11:07And we need good Bryce, not bad Bryce.
11:10They will play the Athletics tonight.
11:117-15 is first pick.
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