00:00Deserve to get criticized?
00:01I don't know, kind of, maybe, just because he's a GM.
00:03Yes, we haven't won World Series of late.
00:06But the reality is that Alex Anthopoulos has a batting average
00:09better than any front office person I have ever seen, right, in sports.
00:14And I've seen some guys that, you know,
00:18there's a Schneider out in Seattle and Brad Stevens in Boston
00:22who got Tatum and Brown, you know, not within the third or fourth picks,
00:27and they say he's the master.
00:28Stern, other GM, Ozzie Newsom for years.
00:31But, boy, does he have a track record that is impeccable.
00:34So, you know, he's not gloating over Tyler Mallee.
00:37He's not gloating over the fact that everything that's happened
00:40since the trade deadline has been a positive.
00:42But when Mark DeRosa gets on MLB and says this about the guy
00:47that most Braves fans are like, what?
00:50Like, dude, that's the best we can do?
00:52He's been the best starter numbers-wise acquired since the deadline.
00:58Wow.
00:58And he's doing it a little bit differently.
01:00What Atlanta has done, and we're going to get into the tape,
01:04Atlanta has taken like a five-, six-pitch mix that he had in San Francisco
01:08and condensed it into a three-pitch mix.
01:11Ooh.
01:12Elevated heater, split, occasional slider.
01:15And he has been on fire.
01:46That's the guy you didn't want.
01:47His strikeout numbers are spectacular.
01:51And Alex Anthopoulos asked, like, hey, did you know you were getting the best pitcher available in baseball yesterday
01:58with that Dukes and Bell interview?
02:00Did we think he was good?
02:01Yes.
02:02Did we think he'd be better?
02:02Absolutely.
02:03Look, I remember, and maybe I was, you know, I try not to follow.
02:08I have told you guys this, right?
02:09If there's Braves talk on radio or whatever, I switch channel because I don't want to not like anybody and
02:14be impacted.
02:14So Hawks, Falcons, I'm listening, I'm all over it.
02:19But at the time when I did my media after trade deadline, I could feel it was like, you know,
02:25I think the first question out of the gate was like, it took me by surprise, like, hey, so-and
02:31-so team got this guy, that guy,
02:33and you got Tyler Malley.
02:35And I was like, whoa.
02:37Yeah, he goes on to say he thought it was somewhat disrespectful.
02:39But listen, he has a very clear vision of his job as general manager is to address the media, address
02:47Pachro Hotz, talk to the fans.
02:50Good for Mike Bell that when sometimes Mike's talking about the Braves, he switches over.
02:56He has been brutal at times on that organization.
02:59And I'm not telling you, Mike does never have to be right to say that we need to do better
03:02and we need to sign, you know, bigger starters up front.
03:05He asked a great question about, you said in the offseason, your biggest priority was starters and you didn't go
03:09and do anything.
03:10So that's fine.
03:12But also the fact that Alex Anthopoulos trains himself to not listen to too much negative.
03:17Joe Torre once said about the Yankees in the middle of a four-World Series run, I don't read the
03:23New York Post.
03:24I don't pay a second of attention.
03:26If I read the Post when we're winning, I'm going to be convinced no manager has ever been better in
03:31the history of baseball.
03:33And when we're losing, if I keep reading that, eventually it'll seep in that I don't know what the hell
03:37I'm doing.
03:38And I think there's part of that and there's part of training ourselves.
03:42Listen, I get talked about on other radio stations and folks, from what I've heard, and in general, right, when
03:48you're in a public situation,
03:50you train yourself to say, I am not going to even think or waste my time or give any energy
03:54to that.
03:55So when he hears negative talk on the Braves, Alex Anthopoulos clicks away.
04:00Right. But the most important conversation is the postseason rotation.
04:07And I had a conversation with Abe. He said, nothing matters except what he does in the postseason.
04:12That's ridiculous. We are in a position to be ahead of the Dodgers.
04:16Tyler Mallee is helping us reach every single goal we could possibly have.
04:21Tyler Mallee is doing everything you... What do you think? 162 games don't matter?
04:26Being the home team in the playoffs doesn't matter?
04:28Getting a bye in the first round doesn't matter? Setting yourself up so there's a game seven or a game
04:32five in your ballpark?
04:34How can you say that it doesn't matter?
04:36So I'd like Tyler Mallee to have a five and two-thirds inning start in the postseason,
04:40but to say all these other starts don't matter?
04:44I get what he is saying, because if we get all the way there, even with a first-round bye
04:48and then the crumbles,
04:49then that's going to be... Yeah, everything that he does from now to the end of the season 100%
04:53matters.
04:54You do not want to play in a three-game series versus the Phillies or the Cubs.
04:57If Mike Bell gets on the air, and I'm not blaming Mike Green,
05:01and Tyler Mallee goes two and a third inning in the playoffs and gets shelled,
05:06it's not I told you so. That's not.
05:08You're playing the percentages.
05:09The guy's getting out major league hitters.
05:12Okay?
05:13Greg Maddox didn't shut the door in the postseason every time.
05:16Neither did Tom Glavin or John Smoltz or Steve Avery or Russ Ortiz or, you know,
05:25what was his name, had 18 straight starts.
05:29Chris Medlin, when they won, and then he gets beat by the Cardinals in the elimination game,
05:33Chipper's last game.
05:34No, this trade right now has been friggin' outstanding.
05:38It's been outstanding.
05:40So what does Alex think about the rotation being put together for the postseason?
05:44So some guys can have a bad elbow, bad shoulder, and they pitch their entire career,
05:48but you also know it can happen at the same time.
05:51So, you know, there's sometimes you know it can happen, it's likely going to happen,
05:56but so you don't sit there and plan on saying this guy's my game two or my game three starter.
06:00I think we have a lot of depth right now.
06:02We have a really deep bullpen, which is important.
06:04So I think hopefully we get there.
06:06We're going to look at who's the opponent.
06:08Maybe it's three innings out of a guy.
06:10Maybe it's an opener.
06:11Maybe it's one time through the order.
06:12However, the off days and the postseason change everything because you can basically lose
06:17all your relievers all the time, and it's totally different than during the season
06:20when you're playing 20 in a row, 17 in a row, and so on.
06:24Great point about how different the postseason is.
06:27You know, I talk about basketball, and I said the NBA playoffs look nothing like the regular season.
06:32That's why we struggled to score against the Knicks because people play ridiculous defense.
06:35It's exactly the same.
06:37Do you know who the starters were for the championship the Braves won 2021?
06:43I'm going to give you all the postseason starters.
06:45You probably won't be surprised, but now Max Freed was our ace.
06:48Consider him Chris Sale.
06:50He started game two of the Division Series, games one and five of the NLCS,
06:54and games two and six of the World Series.
06:56Charlie Morton was our number two.
06:58Sure feels like Tyler Mallee and Charlie Morton were pretty much the same deal there.
07:02He started a total of four games in the postseason.
07:07Ian Anderson started game three of the World Series,
07:12game two of the NLCS against the Dodgers, and game three of the Division Series.
07:18Jesse Chavez started game four of the NLCS.
07:23Drew Smiley started game four of the Division Series.
07:27Dylan Lee started game four of the World Series.
07:32Dylan Lee, Drew Smiley, Jesse Chavez, Ian Anderson, Charlie Morton.
07:38Does that sound like we're going to win a World Series?
07:41Right?
07:42Does that sound like we're going to win a World Series?
07:45So don't sit here and tell me that Tyler Mallee and Grant Holmes and A.J.
07:51Smith-Charver or Bryce Elder, which, by the way, is way hell deeper than that group,
07:55which a lot of those guys are middle relievers.
07:57They're just openers.
07:58They're not starters.
08:00But I think you get the gist of it, right?
08:03So, yes, Alex Anthopoulos was awesome.
08:07He also admitted that we tried to trade for a guy that just said he wanted to be on our
08:10team, right?
08:12He admitted that was true.
08:14Yeah, 100%.
08:14And then he actually ended up with some arm issues.
08:18Yeah.
08:19So.
08:19So.
