00:00If you asked fans of the Braves and Yankees, the sky is falling, but I do feel a little more
00:04confident about the first team we'll discuss, Tom, and that is the, of course, Atlanta Braves.
00:08They lost two out of three to St. Louis. They've looked much better against the Mets this weekend,
00:13and I think that's really the key. Every team is going to lose four in a row or, you know,
00:18go two and eight over a 10-game period, but as far as I'm concerned, the Braves are in it
00:22to win
00:22it. They've had some injuries, of course, just like they did a year ago, but their offense is
00:27just too dynamic, too valuable, and I think the Braves will eventually get it going, if not next
00:33week, soon. This won't last forever. It won't. They have too many good hitters. You know, granted,
00:39these hitters have been inconsistent. You know, Austin Riley is someone that I'm, you know,
00:44I've been, I don't want to say I was high on coming into the year, but at least from a
00:47fantasy
00:48perspective, I thought he was going to be, you know, in for a bounce back here. You know, Michael
00:51Harris is having a good year. Drake Baldwin is finally getting his groove back after he was on
00:55the IEL. Matt Olsen kind of cooled down a little bit, and once they get Acuna back in the lineup,
01:00that's going to be, I think it's going to be like a trickle-down domino effect. His threat at the
01:04top
01:04of the lineup will make pitchers have to have one more good pitch against every subsequent hitter.
01:09That means there's going to be one extra guy on base, one extra ball down the middle, and that's
01:13where things will start to fall into place because they can kind of pitch around some guys. Now,
01:17Mauricio Dubon and Dom Smith, their lineup are good, but they're good when there's guys in front of
01:22them that are on base. That's what it really comes down to. Meanwhile, the New York Yankees are going
01:27through it again. This is their typical June-July swoon where it's all or nothing, and here we go
01:33again. They get swept by Detroit. They didn't look good against Minnesota. Their pitching has kind of
01:37gone the other way. Rodon is injured again. Sky is falling here, and Tom, it's just the nature of how
01:44they're built, which is when you're just totally reliant on the home run and you're missing two guys in the
01:51lineup that basically carry you at different points of the season, this is going to happen.
01:56I think the Yankees eventually will get it going again. We don't have to talk about the manager
02:00getting fired again, but the only way that the Yankees get to and maybe even win a World Series
02:05is if they get hot like they did against the Dodgers a couple of years ago, but for the last
02:0920 years,
02:11outside of that, outside of that American League pennant, they don't. They just go cold because this is
02:16what they have, and then the pitching comes in, and then they shut down the hitting, and then the Yankees
02:20go
02:20nowhere in the postseason, so I would tell you the same thing is going to happen. They're going to win
02:2490-some-odd games. They're going to make the playoffs, and if they get real hot and the bats
02:28get hot, then they'll go far, but in all likelihood, that won't happen, and they'll get knocked out again.
02:34It's going to be the same story as we see oftentimes where they're cold right now. As you said,
02:38every team's going to go through a 2-8 stretch or whatever it might be. They're going to flip things
02:42around and go 8-2, and they're going to score 60 runs over those eight wins, but then if that's
02:48not
02:48happening at the start of the postseason, to your point, that's where things fall apart. It's great
02:52to have pitching that you can, or hopefully, lean on with terms of Schlittler and, you know,
02:57obviously, Garrett Cole being back. If Rick Dolan can get back, it's great to have that. It's great
03:01to have a back end of the bullpen when they're playing well and pitching well, but if you don't
03:05have consistent hitting and, you know, Judge isn't there or Stanton's not there or the threat of them
03:10aren't there in the lineup, then it all falls apart, and you're going to win one series in the wild
03:15card round, but you won't go for farther than a seven-game series. It's just not going to happen.
