00:00We walk away from like, God, that sucked, and a lot of stuff that happened sucked.
00:04Let's start with the Acuna hamstring.
00:06Do we know anything more than we knew last night?
00:08What are kind of your thoughts on that?
00:10No, I haven't heard anything new, but I will tell you, and I tweeted this yesterday too,
00:14which is probably my first mistake is sharing thoughts with strangers online,
00:17but I didn't feel great when it happened because of the way he was kind of, I don't know,
00:23kind of like dragging his leg along.
00:26At first, I was like, is this a hamstring?
00:28Is this something where, but like, he left under his own power.
00:31Nobody had to help him.
00:32He wasn't down.
00:33There was no examination on the field.
00:35So for that part, I guess you just kind of had to wait and see because lower leg injuries,
00:40that kind of stuff has been something he's dealt with a lot.
00:43Unfortunately, we've already seen it this year, but it does sound like maybe a re-aggravation
00:46of the hamstring.
00:48Walt Weiss did say after the game, as I know you guys have already talked about,
00:51it wasn't, they don't believe as severe as last time.
00:54He's not been placed on the injured list yet.
00:56Day to day, we'll wait and see, but it doesn't make you feel great to be going through this
01:02again with Ronald Acuna Jr., especially at a time when it felt like maybe he's starting
01:07to turn it on.
01:07But I mean, this was an injury that occurred and the type of play that I expect to get
01:12from Ronald Acuna Jr.
01:14Hit a ball deep to third base, you got to make a play, a player's got to make a long
01:18throw
01:18and beat out one of the quicker guys on the field.
01:20Yeah, I mean, this is just the stuff that happened.
01:23So I don't know if there's a preventative for it.
01:25To make a long story short, it's frustrating and it was one of the many pieces that made
01:28yesterday's game, as I said, an annoying loss.
01:32And there haven't been many of them, but man, if you swim around in my mentions from last
01:35night, you would think that the Braves are 25 and 42 this year.
01:40Hey, G-Mac, Andy read the stat that you had yesterday with Grant Holmes on it, as far
01:46as innings and runs and average and almost everything.
01:48How do you explain that?
01:49One, really good.
01:51Two, meh.
01:52And then the third one, pretty good.
01:54Well, it's kind of weird because I would guess that I'll start with the last one.
01:59Like, why is the third one a little bit better than the second one?
02:01Well, it would clearly say to me that he's kind of rolling that night and maybe things are
02:06going well.
02:06He's getting that third time through.
02:08He seems to have some trouble in that third or fourth inning, especially the fourth inning.
02:12I think it's a real problem inning for him because the first time through, his strikeout
02:16rate is about 25%.
02:18His walk rate is a manageable 9%.
02:20And guys are not squaring him up.
02:23The second time through, those hitters are making adjustments and they're seeing him better.
02:26The first time through, two home runs and 117 plate appearances.
02:29The second time through, 10 home runs and 115 plate appearances.
02:34That's not the rate you want.
02:35So, that kind of screams to me that hitters are making adjustments to Grant Holmes.
02:40And even though he has an elite slider, that's not debatable.
02:42He does.
02:43He just doesn't have enough to keep hitters off of that.
02:46The walks start to elevate just a little bit.
02:48So, free base runners can also invite some more problems.
02:51And he's just pitching under more stress.
02:52So, what's the solution to that?
02:55I believe as the rotation starts to get healthier and fill out more, you could probably see Grant
03:00Holmes help himself and the club out immensely by being a guy that can come in and miss bats
03:06and be utilized in that sixth, seventh inning.
03:08And if you need a big strikeout or somebody to go seven or eight or nine outs, maybe you
03:13could count on Grant Holmes for that kind of thing.
03:15And that's a valuable arm on the staff.
03:17And I feel like right now we don't really have that arm.
03:20Is that something that, you know, as we kind of connect the dots of the moves that they
03:24made today with J.R.
03:25Ritchie coming back and Carlos Carrasco being DFA'd, could be imminent?
03:28Or is that something that they need to wait to get, whether it's Waldrop or a move that
03:33they might make?
03:34Is that something that would happen a little bit later?
03:36It could be, Ritchie.
03:37But it also could be, as you pointed out, Hurston Waldrop, whose rehab assignment has now been
03:41moved up to AA.
03:42He's going to start tomorrow.
03:43It'll be his third outing.
03:44He's still got about three weeks left to ramp up, and the Braves could decide that at the
03:48end of that 30-day rehab assignment, we want to go ahead and option him down to Gwinnett
03:53and let him continue to start, because it would benefit him more than throwing him into the
03:56big leagues without enough innings to where you feel like he's really comfortable and
04:00can help the club.
04:01All of that said about Hurston Waldrop, I look at J.R.
04:04Ritchie as a guy that the Braves clearly believe in, and I think that he just kind of got
04:07squeezed out his last time.
04:09I mean, it wasn't just because, A, he had a bad start against Miami.
04:11There were some plays that weren't made behind him.
04:13Yes, he walked some guys here and there, but there's a lot of belief in this kid as a
04:17starter, and for good reason.
04:19So you're probably not going to have Grant Holmes available to you for at least two or
04:23three days because of his workload from yesterday.
04:25I think Ritchie right now is kind of your insurance policy.
04:28If somebody gets knocked out of the box early, somebody's got to throw, you know, three innings
04:32or thereabouts, maybe more.
04:34Ritchie would probably be that guy at this point.
04:36But he could also be pushed into a starting role, and you could slide Martin Perez into
04:40the multi-inning insurance policy type role, and then kind of figure things out as you
04:46go along and transition Grant Holmes into the bullpen by having a few moving parts, a few
04:50different dominoes that could fall favorably for the Braves, as the case may be.
04:55Any word on how Drake Baldwin's doing, Grant?
04:58Well, good news for Drake Baldwin is that he was cleared to go do his baseball activities in
05:02Florida, so live batting practice, I think Thursday, Friday is the plan for that.
05:07If all of that goes well and he doesn't have any ill effects from the oblique injury,
05:11he could go join Gwinnett, who I believe are going to be on the road over in Jacksonville,
05:15so not too far away from the Florida complex for him, Saturday, Sunday.
05:19And Walt Weiss told us last homestand that if everything trends in the right direction,
05:24the homestand that begins on the 16th of this month against the San Francisco Giants,
05:28that's kind of what they had circled for Drake Baldwin's return to the Atlanta Braves.
05:32Um, why no, why no Dylan Lee last night in the 7th?
05:35I know that they normally go 7-8-9 with those three guys, but they didn't use Dylan last
05:40night.
05:41Yeah, I know it's a good question, and I think that in general there was some question about
05:45a lot of coming off an off day, why were some other guys not available?
05:49Why is Carlos Carrasco pitching in leverage?
05:51And I think with Dylan Lee, they really just wanted to give him what they kind of call the
05:56hard reset.
05:57He is leading the club in appearances, he's leading the National League in appearances.
06:00I think they wanted to give him like three days just to kind of sort it all out.
06:05I mean, you can't ride these guys till the brakes fall off, and all of a sudden Dylan
06:08Lee is broken in August and has been overworked and isn't effective anymore.
06:12And even if he's not on the injured list, you've just ridden him too hard.
06:15And that's something I think Walt is trying to be mindful of.
06:18On the flip side, or kind of the tightrope walk that he's been doing is, I do want to
06:24go after some of these winnable games.
06:25And the Braves have done this way more times than not.
06:28They're on pace for 109 wins this year.
06:31So let's kind of look at where we're at in terms of where the team is trending and just
06:35think about the big picture view.
06:37Bullpen is the one place that you can't hide from it.
06:40You're going to have to manage with some guys unavailable some days.
06:43And yesterday was one of those days.
06:45Then we found out today as they bring James Kirinchak up from AAA Gwinnett, the former
06:50Indians, or excuse me, Guardians closer, that Tyler Kinley is now on the injured list with
06:55elbow inflammation.
06:56So that's another knock.
06:57And that's another thing that I look at and say, all right, if you got no Tyler Kinley,
06:59but you got a Grant Holmes who's a good swing and miss pitcher, maybe he does make more
07:03sense in the bullpen.
07:04So there are a lot of moving parts right now, I feel like, in this bullpen mix.
07:07But I am intrigued to see if Kirinchak, without the use of the, I'll say, sticky stuff
07:13that Major League Baseball banned a few years ago, is he going to be the same kind of strikeout
07:17pitcher he was in Cleveland in, what, 0-1, 0-2, or excuse me, 21-22, not 20 years ago.
07:24How old is this guy?
07:26Late 20s.
07:27So yeah.
07:27Yeah.
07:28If he's not Jimmy Key, he's not 45.
07:30Do you see a, if Ronald is going to miss time, you think that Michael in the leadoff,
07:34putting Ozzie to Olsen and then whoever behind him is how they're going to go moving forward
07:39to Ronald gets back?
07:41Um, well, that's, that's kind of an interesting question because if you're, you know, if,
07:46if Ronald is day to day, doesn't go on the injured list and hopefully he doesn't have
07:49to, we don't have to worry about this.
07:50But if you got Drake Baldwin back, I think Baldwin could also get some leadoff at that
07:54depending on how long Ronald's out, but you've got options to your point, Randy, you could
07:58go with Ozzie, you could go with Michael.
08:00And honestly, just looking at it as it stands right now, it wouldn't hurt my feelings to see
08:05Michael Harris be the guy who's getting the most played appearances on the team because
08:07he's been as hot as anybody in EA scalding.
08:11So why not?
08:13Um, I mean, we, we've talked about this now for a couple of weeks, but they're continuing
08:16to handle it like this.
08:17I understand why, uh, with, with riding the hot hand at shortstop, how do you, how do
08:23you think that they go about trying to get, uh, Kim some more at bats so he can try to
08:27work his way out of the slump that he started his season in?
08:31I think that they're just going to have to do some mix and match here.
08:35And eventually I do feel like, and I've said this before, and I still believe this, it
08:40hasn't changed because he's been a little bit less active in the last couple of weeks.
08:44This is a valuable player and his missing spring training, going down, rehabbing, spending
08:5010, 12 days in the minor leagues.
08:51It's not a substitute for ramping your season up the normal way to the point that I've seen
08:56some other people make.
08:57He's just now kind of gotten the amount of at bats you would get in spring training.
09:01So now the question is, is he up to speed?
09:03Can they get the swing right?
09:04Can they get him comfortable and confident at the plate?
09:06Cause that confidence can go a long way too.
09:08He may not be doing anything mechanically wrong, but you're going to have to get the, the
09:12opportunity.
09:13So you're also trying to win games and Jorge Mateo helped you do that.
09:16Mauricio Dubon has certainly helped you do that.
09:18So you've got options and this is something that the Braves, I feel like are not really
09:22used to when it came to shortstop, it was ride whoever we've got.
09:26And really there's no secondary options.
09:28So as far as problems you can have, this is one that the Braves are better set up for
09:32this year than at any time in recent memory to try to get a guy back on track and get
09:37him through what's been a really challenging start to the season for Hassan Kipp.
09:41And if we do miss, if Ronald is missing time, that's another way where you can put Dubon
09:44somewhere out there because he's a dad, he's a, he's just a baseball playing Jesse
09:48as a, as Mark Schleyer, I'd like to say.
09:50He plays everywhere.
09:51Grant.
09:51Yeah, no, he does it all.
09:52Yeah.
09:53Great stuff.
09:53Pretty sensitive GMAC.
09:55Thanks, guys.
09:55Grant McCauley there, 92.9 The Game, Braves Insider, host of From the Diamond every Wednesday
09:59at 120.
10:00A lot of good stuff in there.
10:01I did not realize, it makes sense when you think about it, because they've done a really
10:04good job of getting to that post-starter three-inning stretch in the game and using Lee
10:11and, and, and, you know, and those guys.
10:13I didn't realize, I didn't realize it only was they, I did not realize that he's been
10:17using as much as he has been.
10:18I didn't realize he had led baseball appearances at this point.
10:21Did I know that?
10:21Well, that makes sense.
10:22Yes.
10:23If it's, you know, it sucks to lose a game the way that you did last night.
10:26Yes.
10:27Because you usually, Andy, when that happens, when they're in the game like that, you
10:30anticipate those three.
10:31Yeah.
10:32And, and, and, and had they gone Lee, uh, Suarez Iglesias last night, they probably would have
10:36won the game.
10:36Right.
10:37But I don't know over time, if that adds up to Dylan Lee, not being as effective or
10:41available in September, October, you know, you gotta, you gotta play the long game.
10:45And there's also no guarantee that it'll work like that.
10:47But a three day reset is obviously what their medical team says is what is better for a guy
10:52at a situation like this.
10:53And, um, so that's what they did.
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