- 4 days ago
Beau, Mike, Ali, and Grant talk about the Braves getting off to a good start this season despite playing 13 straight games to start the season, what Grant has seen in Bryce Elder this season that’s allowed him to start this season off pretty strong, the Braves offense performing well so far this season despite early season struggles from Ronald Acuña Jr. and Austin Riley, why Reynaldo López getting his suspension reduced from seven games to five games was huge for the Braves pitching rotation.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00And we are joined by 92.9 The Game's Braves insider, Grant McCauley.
00:04Our conversation with Grant is brought to you by Marksbane Real Estate.
00:07Get a guaranteed offer on your home at Marksbane.com.
00:11Grant, you have played this game before, fair or foul.
00:14Walt Weiss could beat up 6'6", former Falcon Mike Johnson over here.
00:18Careful, Grant.
00:19Man, I am sad to give you this answer, my friend,
00:22but I would not want to run into Walt Weiss in a dark alley,
00:26in a well-lit alley, in a mediumly lit alley.
00:28So, I'd pack a lunch if you plan on squaring up with Walt Weiss
00:32because the results might not be great.
00:33You know not what you say.
00:35You know not what you say, Grant.
00:37I'm not saying that 6'6", Mike Johnson can't handle business with me.
00:40I'm just telling you that Walt Weiss can stand on business, and we saw that.
00:43Fair enough, man, fair enough.
00:44We sure did.
00:45Grant, Braves just wrapped up and played 13 games in 13 days
00:49with a brawl included in that.
00:51Came out with 8-5.
00:53It feels like a great way to kick off the season.
00:56Yeah, it does.
00:57I mean, when you looked at it overall and you saw the quality of the teams
01:01was kind of not the top tier of Major League Baseball,
01:04but there are some teams that plan on getting to October just like the Braves do.
01:08The Royals are one of those teams.
01:09I think the Athletics are an improved team.
01:11Clearly, the Diamondbacks have done this thing before
01:13and would like to get back.
01:14The Angels are the Angels,
01:16but clearly we couldn't get out of there without a fight.
01:18So, it was, I think, a good test for the club,
01:21and the areas of the team that needed to pass that test first and foremost to me
01:26was the starting pitching, and it did that.
01:28And I think it did that with flying colors.
01:29Now, can they continue this?
01:31Can they sustain this?
01:32It's going to be the question I think we ask ourselves on a daily,
01:35if not series-wise basis,
01:37just to see how this group continues before some of these reinforcements show up.
01:42Guys like Spencer Strider, who is throwing bullpens right now.
01:46His next step is a live batting practice.
01:47Could he be back sometime this month?
01:49That would certainly be great.
01:51But this 8-5 start overall, I think you've seen offensively
01:54some highlights, like Drake Baldwin.
01:57I think you've seen some guys starting to come around
01:59that need to come around that I'm sure we'll talk about.
02:01And I think there's another level to this team.
02:03There's more they can accomplish,
02:05but as far as getting out of the gates
02:07and not stumbling and falling
02:08and feeling like you're losing the race in the first week,
02:11I would say the Braves have got to feel pretty good
02:13about where they are through these 13 games
02:15and now coming home for a six-game homestand.
02:18All right, Grant, let's talk about the pitching.
02:21You just talked about some of those guys coming back,
02:23and there's eventually probably going to be an odd man out,
02:26but Bryce Elder right now has been filthy.
02:30I thought the start Saturday night,
02:32which he ended up losing based on his own throwing error, really.
02:38But there are times where his stuff looked filthy,
02:41and there's not all the conversation that the last couple years
02:43he's gotten with Greg Maddox and he's worked.
02:45His cutter is starting to finally really be a pitch he can use.
02:52What is the biggest difference you've seen in him so far this year?
02:57I would say pitching to his strength is one of the biggest things
03:01that he got from that Greg Maddox conversation.
03:03I know we talked about this briefly maybe last week,
03:06and I think that when Mark Bowman talked to Bryce
03:09and got some of the insights of who he had talked to,
03:12it wasn't just like one person came in and said,
03:14hey, you should pitch this way and just change things around.
03:16I mean, this is a constant, I think, process for pitchers,
03:19especially those trying to establish themselves
03:21and trying to find consistency to unlock something
03:24or just figure out what works best for them
03:26and maybe just stop doing things that don't work so well.
03:29And one of the key pieces of advice that I feel like Maddox imparted upon Bryce Elder
03:33was, he was hesitant to use his slider differently or less
03:39because that's his swing and miss pitch.
03:40But Greg Maddox pointed out, hey, you're not a swing and miss pitcher.
03:43You're not a big strikeout guy.
03:45So maybe you need to rethink the whole paradigm
03:47of how you're using your pitches.
03:50And I think that has helped Bryce Elder.
03:52Now incorporating a changeup has also been helpful using the cutter.
03:56He can still sink the ball as well.
03:57And Bryce, when he was going really well back in 2023
04:00and got that all-star nod,
04:01he was somebody who just seemed to execute at a high level with his arsenal.
04:06And if he's able to do that, plus the, I think, experience that he's gained
04:10through some of the highs and lows over the last couple of years,
04:13he has, I think, the makings of being a solid big league starter.
04:16You don't have to ask him to be your number one.
04:18You don't even have to ask him to be the number two
04:21or number three guy in the rotation.
04:22But as somebody who can take the ball every fifth day
04:24and give you a chance to win,
04:25I really feel like Bryce Elder has that ability.
04:28And he's showing some of that here early.
04:29It is a long season, but I think he's gained an awful lot
04:33through the things that he has gone through the last couple of years
04:36and continue to take that ball and not be afraid to go out to pitch,
04:40to learn his lessons, and to try to improve.
04:42Grant, let's flip over and talk about the offense for a second.
04:44And, you know, look, you start the year with 13 straight games, no off days.
04:48One of the good parts, though, of having an off day,
04:50and, you know, aside from these guys getting a chance to take a breather,
04:54is, you know, for us, you kind of stop looking at the day-to-day,
04:57and it gives you a chance to look at the season in its entirety.
05:01And I was a little bit shocked.
05:02Now, granted, it includes a 17-run game,
05:04includes, you know, a few runs against James McCann.
05:07I was a little bit shocked to see what the offensive standings were
05:09for some of the Braves, you know, for the Braves in some of these categories.
05:11Top five in hits, top two in home runs, top five in batting average.
05:16They're actually faring pretty well,
05:18and Ronnie and Austin Riley aren't even close yet to getting going.
05:23And that should scare you, if you're the National League,
05:26well, really everybody now, because you play every single team.
05:29Yeah, man.
05:29Yeah, I think you do.
05:31And the biggest thing I was looking at last week,
05:33when I was sizing up the offense, and they were in the Arizona series,
05:36somehow the Braves had gotten into the top four or five in runs scored.
05:39And the reason for that was a 17-run game, as you pointed out.
05:42That is an outlier.
05:43You can't expect that kind of thing all the time.
05:46But I looked at the bottom 20 or so in scoring,
05:49and there were a lot of teams that are having a lot of trouble scoring runs
05:52this year on a consistent basis.
05:55And that, I think, should give us a little bit more of the full picture
05:59of what the entirety of Major League Baseball's offenses look like.
06:02You'll have some of these teams, whether that's the Dodgers or the Yankees
06:05or whatever other team just kind of gets going and pushes itself to the front
06:09of the pack as far as being an offensive juggernaut.
06:11And you see that, and you're like, that's exciting.
06:14I want a team that does just that.
06:15The Braves were that in 2023.
06:172023, they might have been the best that we'll ever see
06:20as far as Braves' teams are concerned.
06:21But this is still an offense that has, A, a lot of those pieces,
06:25and, B, guys that should be in the primes of their careers.
06:28So whether we're talking about Ronald Acuna Jr. or Austin Riley
06:32or Ozzie Albies or Matt Olson, these are guys that are capable of having big years.
06:37And I think that we can expect more than we saw last year.
06:39The two words that go a long way for this team is, A, health,
06:43and then B, consistency.
06:45Can they find that?
06:46Can they break some of the bad habits that they've had the last couple of years?
06:49That would certainly be helpful.
06:51And then can they put everything together, you know, one through nine as best you can
06:55to be a consistent or better than average offense?
06:58And I think this team can easily clear that bar,
07:01especially when you think you've got an MVP candidate at the top of the order
07:04that I think has been a little bit unlucky thus far
07:06and certainly hasn't turned it on.
07:08And I feel like Austin Riley has done that work.
07:11And I know this start is not what anybody wanted, especially after a hot spring,
07:14but I feel like it's in there.
07:16And I'm just kind of waiting for that to push itself back out
07:19and kind of take center stage with some of these other great bats
07:22because you're going to need him to help drive the middle of the offense.
07:25We were thinking this weekend Austin's going to go ahead and get his first home run.
07:28Yeah, Tater.
07:29Yeah, Ronnie as well.
07:30We are joined by our Braves insider, Grant McCauley.
07:33So, Reynaldo Lopez, he got his suspension handed down from the brawl,
07:37negotiated it from seven games to five,
07:39and that's not really going to affect the Braves.
07:42What is the plan to make that work?
07:44Yeah, so they get to utilize this off day to reset the rest of the four men in the rotation
07:50so that one day, that turn, where they would have needed either somebody
07:53or for Reynaldo to make that start, they don't have to worry about that the same.
07:57So now they can go out and throw Bryce Elder and Martín Perez
08:01and Chris Sale in the three-game series against the Guardians this weekend.
08:04They can throw Grant Holmes on a regular rest in game one,
08:07and Reynaldo could conceivably take the ball on Tuesday,
08:10having not missed a start but just having his push back by a day.
08:14So that ultimately is a little bit of a silver lining there.
08:17You know, the brawl and some of the fallout of that and the suspension of that,
08:22I mean, Jorge Soler was the aggressor.
08:24I mean, he's the one that went to the mound.
08:25I always feel like that guy should get more games than the pitcher who's being charged.
08:29That was the case here, and I think that's kind of what we saw work itself out for Reynaldo
08:34because he began serving that suspension immediately on Wednesday,
08:38and that was the key to making a plan like this work with the off day.
08:40Yeah, I saw your little back and forth with one guy who was trying to argue that with you.
08:45I appreciated your fight on that, Grant.
08:49Yeah, let's just suspend pitchers for a quarter of their season.
08:52Why not?
08:55I almost texted Grant last night because I saw this, and I was like,
08:59oh, look at Grant.
09:00He's getting in the weeds like I do daily.
09:02I was so proud of you, Grant, because you stood on business,
09:05and that's what we do here on this show.
09:08Well, there's two things that I can tell you if you're going through a thread of mine.
09:11Like, I usually have a three-response rule if things start to kind of spiral and get out of hand
09:16because they don't need to take up all of my time with all of this.
09:19But if I tell you one of two things, A, your argument is intellectually dishonest,
09:22I have reached the end of my rope, and I will not be responding with anything other than animated GIFs.
09:28The second thing is, and I certainly got to this in the after days,
09:31was if I start responding to you with, sir, this is a Wendy's restaurant,
09:34you have also reached the end of your time having an actual conversation with me.
09:39Grant, real quick, before we let you out of here,
09:42all the talk has been about offensively by Drake Baldwin,
09:44and he has deserved every bit of it because he's been phenomenal.
09:48But, you know, I talked about this, I think, off the other day,
09:50but I think Matt Olsen has quietly really, really played very well so far.
09:56He's got three home runs himself, and he's got, like, a high on-base percentage.
10:01He's doing really well.
10:03It does feel like his strikeouts are high,
10:05and you told me to calm down early in the season when I was a little bit like,
10:08hey, he's striking out a lot.
10:10But what has Matt Olsen been doing to kind of just really get in a groove here,
10:14even though he's not hitting, you know, a home run every game?
10:19I think he just did the work that he needed to do to get into the season
10:23and kind of be in this place.
10:24I really saw he and Austin Riley as two guys that, coming out of spring training,
10:28I felt really good about that.
10:29And I know that when we talked on opening day, you know,
10:32it was the debate of, hey,
10:33which one of these guys are going to hit more home runs?
10:34I still think we can have that debate.
10:36Obviously, Olsen hasn't run away and hid with the home run title just yet.
10:40But we know what he's capable of if he gets going.
10:42I think we know what Austin Riley's capable of if he gets going as well.
10:45But Matt Olsen, I think, is just a guy that, when I talk about consistency of a team,
10:50this is somebody that wants to be out there every single inning of every single game,
10:53helping this team win.
10:54And I think that that commitment is kind of what really is the driving force of a guy
10:59like Matt Olsen.
11:00There are certainly some peaks and valleys during the course of a long season for him.
11:03And sometimes it can seem like he's just completely lost the plot.
11:06But when he gets going and when he gets locked in,
11:09he can be about as good as any first baseman you're going to find in baseball.
11:12And I think he's just kind of showed that here early.
11:14You'd love to see some more as far as power output from a lot of these guys.
11:18But I think I've liked what Matt Olsen has done thus far.
11:20And hopefully, it's just the beginning of a very good and very consistent season
11:23because he's another key to the middle of that Braves lineup,
11:26reasserting its offensive force in the National League and beyond.
11:29Hey, when can we hear from the Diamond this weekend?
11:32I'll be on at 1.30 on Sunday afternoon for two full hours of Braves and baseball talk.
11:37We're going to dive into the design concepts and everything that went into the process
11:42for the new City Connect uniforms.
11:44And I'm also going to share a conversation I had with Dale Murphy,
11:47who is going to be at the ballpark tonight, throwing out the first pitch on 80s night.
11:50It's also a replica jersey giveaway night.
11:53But Murph and I got to talk about the Power Alley poster and the stickball poster.
11:57And he told me all the stories about how those came to be and what that was like.
12:02So it should be two fun hours of Braves and baseball talk with a couple of special guests.
12:06It's from the Diamond, wherever you get your podcasts, the Odyssey app,
12:08and right here on 92.9 The Game.
12:10Awesome. Thanks for the time, Grant.
12:12Thanks, everyone.
12:13That is Grant McCauley, our Braves insider.
12:16Find him on all the socials at Grant McCauley.
12:18He said, GIFs.
12:20I wondered. I looked for your facial reaction when I heard it.
12:23I was like, ah, we've had this conversation before.
12:25It's a heated debate in the McCauley household, that's for sure.
12:28There is no debate. There's no debate.
12:30It's GIFs.
12:31The creator said it was GIFs.
12:33That's what I've got.
12:34I literally read that whole thread.
12:36That's why I brought it up, of him and this guy.
12:38And you know how sometimes you've got to click to see the next thing?
12:42And I was like, ooh, I wonder what Grant came with next.
12:44And I was like, yeah, get him, Grant.
12:46I don't know why.
12:48This is how I entertain myself.
12:52I love to see such calm, very deliberate people like Grant.
12:58Because I believe Grant is a very calm, deliberate person with the things he does and says.
13:04And when I see him go down that road that I so easily get taken down, I'm like, yeah.
13:09I don't know why.
13:10It's just like watching a car wreck.
13:12Calm, deliberate, but knows exactly where to hit you.
13:15By the way, I understand that the creator said it's GIFs, not GIFs, but GIFs is better.
13:20It's not.
13:21It sounds stupid, Dylan.
13:22GIF does not sound stupid.
13:24Sounds like you're giving somebody a present.
13:26He literally just put the T in it.
13:28I heard him.
13:29They did.
13:29You want a GIF?
Comments