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The Morning Shift asked Grant McAuley if he thinks Bryce Elder could be an MLB All-Star this season. Also, which Braves player has had the most surprising start to this season good or bad, what the roster will look like once Sean Murphy and Ha-Seong Kim return, and whether Grant thinks the philosophies and coaching of Braves hitting coach Tim Hyers has finally rubbed off on Braves hitters.
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00:00I'm going to carry over a fair or foul for you, Grant, to start this off.
00:03Fair or foul, Bryce Elder will find himself in the All-Star game this year.
00:08That is a great question, and it does feel like what's old is new again.
00:12With All-Star Bryce Elder of 2023, I feel like he was a certain version of himself.
00:17But when I talked to Bryce the other night, he said he feels like he's a better version.
00:21So if I'm to go by my source, which is Bryce Elder, I think I could say fair and get
00:26away with it.
00:27Hey, Grant, I asked a question yesterday. I'm sure you heard it because I know you listen to every moment
00:31of the morning show.
00:31Every minute. Every minute.
00:33But if Bryce Elder was a pitcher from the 90s for the Braves, who would he be and why?
00:41Because it's hard to figure out who he would be of one of those pitchers that many –
00:46because we had quite a few guys that came through that rotation at some point.
00:50Yeah, there are a lot.
00:51But I also don't necessarily think it's fair to say, like, he's a Greg Maddox or a Tom Glavin or
00:57a John Smoltz
00:58because, I mean, that kind of comparison, I feel like, doesn't do a service to a pitcher that may not
01:05be at that level.
01:06And that's not anything against Bryce.
01:07It's just you're talking about some of the greats of the game.
01:10So I don't know if there's a great comp for him in that.
01:14I mean, as you mentioned, there are a lot of pitchers.
01:15If we go 10 years in a decade by at least five starters per year, one year I think they
01:20got away with using only six starters the entire season,
01:23which is insane when you think about the 19 that they used last year.
01:26But if I carry the one, I'm still not sure who exactly Bryce Elder would be.
01:30Not even a young Charlie Liebrandt?
01:33A soft-tossing lefty who came up with the Reds in the late 70s does not remind me of Bryce
01:38Elder.
01:38I'm just talking about his stuff, though.
01:41I would think he's probably a little bit better than the quote-unquote crafty left-hander.
01:45There's no crafty right-handers.
01:46I don't know if you've ever noticed that.
01:47Yeah, that is interesting.
01:48None of the right-handers ever wear their hats crooked either.
01:51Grant, I want to ask you a little bit more of a broad question.
01:55And this is not a throwaway question.
01:57I really want you to think about this.
01:59Because I tried to come up with this on the way to work today.
02:01Good or bad, what player has had the most surprising start to the season for the Atlanta Braves?
02:07I think there's plenty to put in the good category.
02:10I think that Mauricio Dubon has come out of nowhere.
02:13I think you've felt really good about Bryce Elder, like we just talked about.
02:16But I think there's some that can fit in the bat as well.
02:19Which one of these guys up and down this roster have you looked at and go,
02:21hmm, I didn't see that one coming?
02:23The biggest surprise for me is Dom Smith.
02:26Because I don't think that you had a reasonable expectation that,
02:29hey, this guy's going to come in and get regular bats and have impactful moments for this Braves team.
02:34Did you think he could be useful?
02:35Maybe as a pinch hitter?
02:37I think so.
02:38But I didn't really know what exactly Dom Smith's role was going to be.
02:41Because I don't think we'd ever really seen life with no full-time DH.
02:45But he has taken those at-bats and those moments, and he's delivered.
02:48So I think Dom Smith's the guy.
02:50I mean, that's nothing to take away from, as you mentioned, Dubon.
02:53Obviously, Drake Baldwin.
02:54We knew how good he was last year as the Rookie of the Year.
02:57But he's at another level this year.
02:58And I think you could point to a few other players, including Bryce Elder.
03:01But for me, Dominic Smith was the one that kind of came out of nowhere.
03:05Just a quick follow-up to that, Grant, because it's one of the conversations we've had over the last couple
03:09days.
03:09What is the roster when Hassan Kim comes back, when Sean Murphy comes back?
03:14Is it as simple as saying bye to Jonah Hyman or hey, Mateo?
03:17Or does Dominic Smith need to worry a little bit about what the future holds for him?
03:23Those are good questions.
03:24And I think that one thing that I will point out is that while it is great to see performances
03:29here
03:30in his first two to three weeks, maybe a month, baseball is a long season.
03:34And it has a way of kind of course correcting or the market, if you will, for certain players
03:39kind of corrects itself a little bit in terms of their performance.
03:42So as much as we can get attached to some of these early moments and performances,
03:48it doesn't necessarily – it's not predictive that the entire season is going to go that way.
03:53So I think they'll make the decisions they need to when they have to.
03:56But I would say that this is the deepest roster, one through 26 now, that I've seen in quite
04:01some time for the Braves.
04:02They have an actual, legitimate, usable bench with arguments to make for, hey, maybe this
04:08guy should get these at bats today.
04:10And Walt Weiss is doing that.
04:11So adding a couple of other players to the mix, I think the biggest thing that you're
04:15going to see, it will affect the catcher's playing time.
04:17There's no question about it because I think Sean Murphy's value behind the plate is going
04:21to have him there a lot, which means that Drake Baldwin can DH a lot, which means that that's
04:25going to affect how often the DH spot is open.
04:28So that, I think, is the biggest direct effect I can see with Hassan Kim.
04:34I think, obviously, he plays shortstop, but you can move Mauricio Dubon all over the place,
04:38give different guys a day off if you need to, and platoon him in left field if you have
04:43matchups that you like and you want a right-handed bat in.
04:45So there are a lot of different things that Walt Weiss has at his disposal, and that is
04:49nothing but a good thing for a Braves team that has had a very thin bench the last couple
04:53of years, and has had to go out on the waiver wire trying to find fixes for, you know, big
04:58-time
04:59injuries in some cases.
05:00Yeah, this is a great problem to have at this point in time.
05:03We are joined by our Braves insider, Grant McCauley, and today we're going to get our
05:07first look at the Phillies.
05:08Braves are going to see them again next week at Truist with the Nationals in between.
05:12We keep saying it's early, Grant, but how important is this next stretch?
05:16It's a pretty important one, especially when you look at how the rest of the National League
05:20East is playing, because you took two out of three from the Marlins in your first interdivisional
05:24battle here this week, so that's a nice box you're able to check.
05:27The Phillies have had quite a rough go here early in the season.
05:30They've been playing some very uneven baseball.
05:32They've given up a lot of runs.
05:34I think their run differential is negative 25, and the only team in the division that's
05:37given up more runs than the Phillies is the Nationals.
05:40So are those a couple of good trends for the Braves' offense?
05:43One would hope.
05:44You don't have to score 17 runs every night, but they might be able to get healthy and get on
05:48a nice little run and have some consistency going in the offensive department.
05:53And then I think you're pitching better than any other team in the division.
05:56So this is an opportunity to play a few teams, maybe while they're going through it, and stack
06:01up a few series wins.
06:02Obviously, with Philly, we expect them to be there down the stretch.
06:06I expect the Mets to play a little bit better, but they've lost eight in a row, so they've
06:10got lots of stuff to figure out.
06:11But right now, a chance to beat up on the Phillies and the Nationals the same way you did against
06:15the Marlins would be exactly what the Braves are looking for to really establish a great
06:19month of April and a really, really good start to this season.
06:22Well, look, their fourth and on-base percentage offensively and their third in runs, it feels
06:30like their approach is a little bit different.
06:32Did Tim Hires finally get through to some of these guys with change the approach?
06:36It doesn't feel like it's a swing for the fences mentality?
06:40Or is it just these guys are kind of running back into form?
06:44Because I wonder, he's the guy that Tim Hires, everybody was trying to run out of town last
06:48year, and now he's got the offense rolling.
06:51Yeah, and I think that it's weird with pitching coaches and hitting coaches, even managers.
06:55I mean, they get a little bit more credit at times when something turns around, and they
07:00get a little bit more blame when things are going wrong, because there are really no instant
07:03fixes in this game.
07:04I mean, very seldom do you find a player that's like, oh yeah, I had an 0 for 4, and
07:08then I
07:08went to the lab and I figured it out, and now I'm going to go on a 15-game hitting
07:11streak.
07:12It just doesn't work that easy.
07:13And the guy I think, and the one I've talked to the most about trying to get through this
07:17stuff is Austin Riley.
07:18And look, I can tell you, it is not for the lack of work, the lack of effort, the lack
07:22of video review, the lack of physical batting practice, the lack of all the mechanical
07:26adjustments that you would want to see made.
07:28But once you get into that game, and once you're trying to face a pitcher that's trying
07:32to get you out, and you've got the adrenaline of 35,000 or 40,000 fans in the stands,
07:36it's a little bit different than working for three or four hours trying to find the
07:41right level of your swing.
07:43And so that, I think, is just kind of the work that goes in behind the scenes.
07:46And Tim Hires has done a lot of that with a lot of these guys.
07:49I know Chipper Jones is also involved in kind of the hitting environment that they have
07:53there, but I get this question a lot.
07:55Well, some of those who just talked to Chipper, that'll fix him.
07:57It won't necessarily fix them.
07:59Will it benefit them?
08:00It absolutely will.
08:02I think it does.
08:03I think especially from a mindset, preparation, and approach standpoint, but again, you have
08:08to deal with the guy that's 60 feet, 6 inches away trying to get you out.
08:12And I think sometimes it's just guys have to get into a very comfortable zone, if you will,
08:19to be able to get the results that they need to.
08:21We've had some injuries, some guys out of the lineup that you really need in there.
08:26I mean, we've seen a pretty healthy version of this lineup, I would say.
08:29Hey, even though you are missing Hassan Kim and Sean Murphy thus far, a lot of your big
08:33hitters that have missed significant time in the last couple of years or struggled have
08:37done a pretty nice job of contributing.
08:39Ozzie Albies has not talked about a ton, but he's off to a really good start.
08:42Matt Olsen's off to a good start.
08:43We talked about Drake Baldwin, and I think once Ronald and Austin Riley get going, that
08:48has the makings of the kind of powerful lineup that the Braves could have and could really
08:52flex its muscles over the course of the season.
08:54Well, real quick, Grant, because with guys like Austin Riley, he hasn't been hitting for
08:57power, but he's been getting on base, and he's been running the base pads while he's
09:00been trying to steal.
09:01Like Acuna has been a better job of drawing walks, even though he still is trying to come
09:06into his power.
09:08It just feels like it's different from in years past with some of these guys when they
09:12weren't hitting for power.
09:14Like with Austin, it just felt like he wasn't getting on at all at times.
09:18Yeah, it has felt like that the last couple of years, especially because he was just kind
09:21of going through it, and then about the time he'd figured out, there's a core muscle injury
09:25or a broken hand or broken wrist a couple of years ago that sapped him.
09:29But Ronald's always been great at getting on base.
09:31Even when he's not hitting, he can draw walks.
09:34He's about a .380, .390 career on base guy.
09:37I mean, he does that.
09:38That is part of his game.
09:39He's been one of the most unlucky hitters in baseball as well.
09:42I feel like he's had four, if not five, that I look at the launch angle, I look at the
09:46exit velocity, and I think, how is that not in the seats?
09:49And it's just not.
09:51But maybe when the weather heats up, as the old saying goes, we'll start seeing the ball
09:54fly a little bit better.
09:55But I saw some really good things from Austin Riley in the final against the Marlins, and
10:00he wasn't raving about the home run he hit.
10:02He was talking about that opposite field double high off the bricks in right center field.
10:05When Austin Riley is hitting the ball that way, I think you feel a little bit better about
10:09how he's seen it, how he's squaring it up, and overall the kind of damage that
10:12he can do.
10:13But both of those guys, I do feel like, have done some things that they need to to get
10:17through some of the slow start here, and I think we're going to start seeing the results
10:20we're more accustomed to, especially with Ronald.
10:22I've said this before.
10:23I'll say it again.
10:24I'll probably say it every year of his career until he proves me otherwise.
10:27He is a guy that can go through something where you're just kind of wondering what's
10:30wrong with him, and then he just gets so hot you forget it ever happened.
10:33And I expect that from Ronald Acuna Jr., and it could start tonight in Philly, and I
10:37don't think anybody would be upset about it.
10:38I have one curveball to throw at you.
10:40So Obafemi or Brock Lesnar this weekend at WrestleMania?
10:43Wow.
10:44The ruler.
10:45It has to be the ruler, and I'm expecting it to be the ruler.
10:49I'm just surprised they're giving it away on free TV.
10:52Well, Grant, I...
10:52That's on the WrestleMania pre-show on ESPN.
10:54Is it really?
10:56It is.
10:56That is a free match they're opening that night with.
10:59I think they want to push a little bit more of those premium live event buys, but I am
11:03expecting Obafemi to go over big, and I think that Brock Lesnar only works with people that
11:09he has a ton of respect for and is ready to make look like a superstar, and I've liked
11:14what I've seen from this feud thus far.
11:16I think it's going to be fun, and that's a huge win for the Alabama alum, Mike Johnson,
11:21Obafemi.
11:22Let's go.
11:22Yeah.
11:22I know that.
11:23There's more you can do.
11:24I'm just disappointed because they were showing the top 10 matches of WrestleMania on Sports
11:29Center, and they showed the Bret Hart Stone Cold one, and I asked Allie how many times
11:33Grant had made her watch it, and she says, I've not seen that match yet, and I'm like,
11:37it's one of the greatest matches in the history of wrestling.
11:40Well, it is, but I would say this.
11:42I haven't necessarily said, let me see if I can get my wife to enjoy wrestling so I'll find
11:46the bloodiest matches that I can find and go ahead and trot those out there.
11:51So that one is cinema, but it does involve a little bit of color, as the saying goes.
11:57That was my thought when it was all bloody on the screen.
11:59I was like, that's why he isn't showing it to me, because it's all bloody.
12:02Grant, you do need to talk to Bo Johnson about your Obafemi feelings because he does not agree
12:06with you, but you can take that off air.
12:08When is From the Diamond on this weekend?
12:12I am on Sunday afternoon.
12:14I believe it's a five to seven time slot.
12:16If it's not, I'm sure I will get a programming note from Mike Conte, who has been trying to
12:20find me the right spots on Sundays throughout the course of the season.
12:23But we'll have two hours of Braves and baseball talk.
12:25We'll recap what's going on with the Phillies.
12:27We will talk about all this NL East play that the Braves have got going on and dive into
12:31some of the success that we're hopefully going to be seeing from Austin Riley moving forward.
12:35I had a conversation with him the other day.
12:36It'll all be on From the Diamond this weekend.
12:38Sports Radio 92.9 The Game, the Odyssey app, and wherever you get your podcasts.
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