00:00Braves are back at it tonight.
00:02They've got the Toronto Blue Jays.
00:03Toronto Blue Jays, who played in one of the most fun world series
00:07we've seen in years, last year against the Dodgers.
00:10Not having quite that year this year.
00:1229-31, Kevin Gossman on the mound, Bryce Elder for the Braves.
00:15And with Ronald Acuna, yeah, Bryce Elder put him up.
00:18Put the cross figures up.
00:20Nice to see, hopefully.
00:20The discussion needs to be had about that today.
00:22Well, yeah, hopefully he has a bounce back
00:25after what was kind of his first not-great performance last time out.
00:30Hopefully he looks good today.
00:31And hopefully Ronald Acuna can continue playing the way he has over the weekend.
00:34Yeah, the Elder thing's really, really interesting about what we see tonight
00:38because while I don't think anyone's rooting for it,
00:41I think there were plenty of Braves fans who have been waiting for it
00:45in terms of, well, look, this isn't the real Elder.
00:48The real Elder will show himself at some point.
00:51And so now the question is, and again,
00:53it's sad that we have to have this discussion after one outing.
00:57We don't have to.
00:58I mean, you brought it up.
00:58People are having it.
01:00People are having it.
01:01Just because we ignore it doesn't mean it's not happening.
01:04People are having that discussion.
01:05Well, who are people?
01:06But we're not ignoring it.
01:07Just the general Braves fan base who have,
01:09this goes into the, what we talked about last week about,
01:13well, this series is big because if you lose back-to-back series
01:16and now everything's off the cliff.
01:18It's the same thing just on an individual scale.
01:20It's also not real.
01:21Like, everything's not off the cliff.
01:22I think we just have to be a lot more reasonable about,
01:26first of all, the team, obviously.
01:29But I think Bryce Elder, I'm not, again,
01:31Bryce Elder obviously is not going to be a guy who has a sub-2 ERA
01:35for the entire season.
01:36He's not going to be a Cy Young Award winner.
01:39Maybe he can pitch well enough in a stretch,
01:40he did it before in his career and he's on the pace right now,
01:43to make an all-star game because he has that type of,
01:46he has that type of control when he is in control of all of his pitches.
01:50But, like, I just, I think we've got to be real careful about,
01:55okay, this is going great, when's it going to suck?
01:57Okay, it sucked once, if it sucks twice now, it's over.
01:59What are we doing?
02:00Why are we doing that?
02:01I know you say that, but I kind of feel that way.
02:04And I don't mean me and my approach to him.
02:06Okay, then say that.
02:07Don't say people.
02:09If that's what you're doing, then do it.
02:11I'm not concerned.
02:11Okay, okay, got it.
02:12But I do think, just like I said, if the Braves lose back-to-back series,
02:16there's going to be a significant portion of the fan base who's like,
02:19well, I knew it, nothing more than a hot start.
02:21If Bryce Elder comes out tonight and looks like he looked last start,
02:25there's going to be plenty of people who said, well, I knew it,
02:29somehow it just match-ups, he got lucky, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
02:33I'm not saying that that's real.
02:35I'm saying there's a huge gap between the perception of Bryce Elder
02:40if he comes out tonight and gets back to what he had been doing
02:43and looks pretty good, and the perception of Bryce Elder
02:46if he has another start where he's like three and a third, six runs,
02:51whatever it's going to be.
02:53People are going to view it with a serious gap based on tonight.
02:56And all I'm saying, like the Braves did when they ended up winning the series,
03:00not losing back-to-back series, and have won another series since,
03:03is that it would be really nice to not have to deal with people
03:07having that discussion.
03:08Yeah, again, you don't have to deal with those people.
03:10But we're having different conversations.
03:12You can internalize it and deal with what's happening however you want
03:17or deal with how everyone else is feeling about it as well.
03:20Like when we asked Grant McCauley about the Ronald Acuna stuff last week,
03:22he was like, yeah, people on Facebook.
03:24Don't pay attention to those people.
03:26You don't have to.
03:27Can't avoid the algorithms, bunk.
03:29You can, and we don't have to like, I don't know.
03:32I would love to see Bryce Elder get back to looking the way that he looked
03:37his first, what, six or seven starts of the season.
03:40And obviously last time out, he didn't look like that.
03:43I do think that at a certain point, I don't know how many starts it is
03:47because he had a great finish to the year last year as well.
03:49Right.
03:49And then obviously we had that conversation with, was it CJ?
03:54No, it was Paul Bird.
03:55We had that conversation with Paul Bird a couple Fridays ago
03:57where he detailed how much time Bryce Elder spent in the offseason
04:00working with Greg Maddox and developing a couple of, not new pitches,
04:05but kind of like new takes on some pitches that he had had.
04:08And you had seen that early in the year.
04:10And then obviously last time out, it didn't look great.
04:12But like even Chris Sale is going to have a starter.
04:15It's the equity question.
04:17Yeah, exactly.
04:17How much equity has he built up over the good starts to have?
04:21Is it one bad start?
04:23Is it two bad starts?
04:26And I'm not talking about from a team perspective.
04:28I'm talking about just the fans.
04:29It's about the equity to me and what you believe.
04:34We've given it to Spencer Strider even though his starts have been wonky.
04:38Yeah, I see.
04:39I'm not there with Strider.
04:40And that's sort of how I'm having to readjust my feeling towards him.
04:46Like obviously Chris Sale is in a different category of he's come here
04:51and just been so good the whole time.
04:53There's also a lengthy proven track record that Elder just doesn't have.
04:57He's a different guy.
04:58Like Strider was so good so quickly and then he's been so hurt that now
05:03that he's bad, hopefully he can stay out there.
05:05I mean that's the main thing for him is just be able to be out there
05:07every five days so he can learn who he is.
05:10And then obviously we can watch it and sort of adjust our expectations
05:13accordingly.
05:14Unfortunately, it's been a little bit tough for me to be like,
05:18all right, I still see him and I'm like, all right,
05:20there's No. 99 with the mustache.
05:21I expect him to go out there and have seven innings
05:23and who knows this day might be a fun day.
05:25It's not like that anymore.
05:27It can be occasionally.
05:29Expecting 12 strikeouts.
05:30But it's not yet.
05:31Like in reality, if Spencer Strider can give you five or six
05:35and give up less than three, that's probably good for where he's at right now.
05:40With Elder, it was just so fun as the season began to see him so in control of his pitches
05:46and getting so many looking strikeouts.
05:50Like that with him and that two-seam fastball that runs back across the plate,
05:53especially on lefties.
05:55Like when he's getting guys striking out looking, that's when he's at his best.
05:59And obviously he didn't have that going last time out.
06:02It's just pretty incredible that given the angst that we had in spring training,
06:07and I think that was justifiable.
06:09I don't think that was people freaking out.
06:10I think you had two of your starting rotation go down with surgery
06:14and not make the roster.
06:16Including one that was in ace discussion.
06:18Yeah.
06:18I mean, it was supposed to be the one-two punch of Schwellenbach and Sale,
06:21and then he's not going to be there.
06:23And it sounds like Schwellenbach might not be back until September.
06:26It sounds like Waldrop will probably be back by the end of this month or July,
06:30which is beginning of July, which is great.
06:34But for that to be where we started with the pitching staff,
06:38and then for all of these guys to sort of take to these roles
06:41and have the level of success that they've had, the bullpen specifically.
06:45Like they've been so good, especially at the back end.
06:47To me, it's probably the biggest surprise of the year for the Braves,
06:50and there's a lot of little ones as well.
06:52Right.
06:53But yeah, Elder might personify the skepticism that we had in spring.
07:00And then playing out of like, all right,
07:02I think Alex Anthopoulos has been slowly gaining a lot of that,
07:07okay, we just trust Alex Anthopoulos' stuff back.
07:09Because it felt like that had eroded a little bit the last couple of years as well
07:12with some of the moves.
07:13And it'll erode again, by the way.
07:15Reasonably.
07:15If in October it all falls apart, it'll erode again.
07:18Well, and that's what we talked about yesterday.
07:19I think even with the staff looking the way that it has
07:23and the likelihood of getting Waldrop back,
07:25and maybe Schwellenbach as well,
07:27I still think you have to make a move for a pitcher at the deadline.
07:30Just because, as we say it every single year,
07:32even when there are 105, Braves win 105 games,
07:36you can't have enough pitching.
07:37Like stuff just goes wrong when you get to the playoffs.
07:40In every sport, but specifically in baseball,
07:43when you talk about pitching depth.
07:45All that to say, I think Elder's fine.
07:48I do too.
07:49I want to be very clear.
07:51I also think, like, as we've talked about guys going through problematic periods
07:56and maybe Austin Riley hits a home run and we feel great about him
08:00or Acuna hits that grand slam and whatever.
08:03Like tonight's one of those outings for Elder where,
08:07like, not only am I really rooting for him,
08:09but, like, there is some level of, like,
08:13I will take great pleasure and enjoyment,
08:17separate of if he pitches well and the Braves win,
08:19of him kind of throwing it into some of the doubters a little bit
08:24who have kind of just been waiting.
08:26Like, you know I'm not,
08:28there are people who have been waiting for it to fall off.
08:31Like, it just, there are.
08:32I guess I just have been so...
08:34I don't know how you haven't, like...
08:35I don't look at Twitter that much, I guess.
08:37I don't know.
08:37And I'm...
08:38And I'm...
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