Atlanta Braves SWEPT in Series of Underachievers

Atlanta Braves SWEPT in Series of Underachievers

In a series between two underachieving teams this season, it was the Atlanta Braves who were swept by the Baltimore Orioles. Just the latest of rock bottom for the Atlanta Braves. We’ll talk more about that series on this episode of Locked on Braves. So, let’s get into it. You are Locked on Braves, your daily Atlanta Braves podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Hey, welcome back to Locked On Braves, part of Locked On Sports Atlanta, where we cover your favorite Atlanta sports teams each and every day. I’m your host, Jake Mastriani. You can follow me on social media at shortstop. Check out the podcast there at locked_bra onx and lockdowns on Instagram. If you’re new and you’re watching this on YouTube, please do me a huge favor. Hit that subscribe button, hit the thumbs up button, leave me a comment down below. Let me know how frustrated you are with the Atlanta Braves. Enjoy hearing all of your comments and thank you much for so much for your support there on YouTube as well as on the audio side where we still get the majority of our listeners. You can help out and help grow the audience by leaving a fivestar review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. Thank you so much for making Lockdown Braves your very first listen of each and every day. And thanks to all my everydayers out there as well. Been with me for long while, short while. Thank you so much for making this your first listen every day. Today we’re going to talk about the weekend series against the Orioles. Yes, if you want to come here and just continue the misery with me of what was just a brutal weekend for the Atlanta Braves, that’s what we’re going to be talking about today. Sorry, not going to be a lot of optimism in this one. I tried to give you some last week. I I got none for you today. There is no optimism for this episode of Locked on Braves, but we are going to talk about everything that happened and what we got to look forward to going forward. What is left to watch for this Braves team right now that just seems completely dead and out of it and has for pretty much all season long since starting the year 0 and7. This episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code locked on MLB at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. The Atlanta Braves get swept by the Baltimore Orioles over the weekend. And hope you all had a great Fourth of July weekend. By the way, hopefully you spent more time with family and fireworks and barbecue and whatever else you like to do on Fourth of July and less time watching this Braves team because it wasn’t a lot of fun to watch them over the weekend. And matter of fact, I pretty much did miss most of the game on Friday. If you were watching the postcast that night, it was just Lindsay because I was having too much fun with the family and just completely lost track of time. So, I apologize for that, but it was a good one to miss with the Braves dropping a one-run game there. But, I do hope you all had a great, safe, happy Fourth of July weekend. Spent a lot of time with family. I know I did, and it was it was just great to kind of get away for a minute and spend time with family and that’s always what’s what’s most important here. Uh, so hopefully you were able to do that as well. But on the field, the Atlanta Braves, they weren’t giving us uh much to get excited about. Not many fireworks going off for the Atlanta Braves as they had they got swept by the Orioles. And it’s the same thing. It’s the same thing that it’s been all year for this Atlanta Braves team. Two one-run losses and an extra innings loss. So, three very close games could have gone either way, but it doesn’t go the Atlanta Braves way. They have just not found that ability all year to win these close games and it has absolutely crushed them. I mean, if they they were just 500 in these close one-run games, they’d be in the playoff race. But they just haven’t found that big hit. whatever that is, whether it’s just a lack of confidence, whether it’s a just a lack of a good approach in those runscoring situations, they just haven’t been able to win these close games. And you saw it over the weekend against the Orioles in three really close games, two one-run losses and an extra innings loss. It’s been the same thing all year. And now you look at it in the most crucial part of the season for the Atlanta Braves where you’re at the midway point. Mathematically, you’re about to be at the midway point with the All-Star break. And this was a stretch where you felt like if the Braves were going to have any chance this year, they had to have a good run leading up to the All-Star break because after the All-Star break, you’re two weeks away from the trade deadline. You want to try to influence, encourage the front office to go get some help to give you a chance in the second half. But in order for that to happen, you got to get the results on the field. You have to win on the field. And this was the, you know, in my mind at least, like I talked about last week, I was trying to be optimistic. It was kind of my last push of optimism to finish the first half strong, get back as close to 500 as you can, and then give the front office a reason after the All-Star break to go make some moves, to give you some help. And it’s just completely gone the other way now. They’ve lost nine of their last 10 games, and they’ve scored one or fewer runs in six of those 10 games. Look, this offense is just bad. I said it on the postcast. I’ve, you know, I’ve been sitting here just waiting kind of hoping that this offense and these players that have been so good in the past, not just in 2023, but have been good even before 2023, that they would eventually just kind of get back to the back of their baseball cards. But it’s not happening. It’s a year and a half now of this. They’re just bad. And again, we need to do a deeper dive on this. I think Lindsay is going to talk about it on his podcast coming up pretty soon, too. But, and I’ve mentioned it on here a few times, you had the boomer bust approach, which led you to be one of the best offenses in baseball in the regular season, but in my mind, it left you somewhat limited in the postseason where, you know, you’re not getting those big two or three run home runs where you’re facing nothing but top starters in every game and you’re facing nothing but the top bullpin arms in every game. I feel like that’s approach that isn’t as conducive in the postseason where you can’t be more well-rounded. I’ve talked about this for years and years and years even when the Braves offense was good. And it felt like with the switch to Tim Hires that they wanted to try a different approach. They wanted to try to change up the offensive style. And look, I’ll be honest. I I thought that was a good thing because as I said for years I’ve talked about how this boomer bust offense is great for the regular season but when it comes postseason time you got to find other ways to to score. But instead and whether it’s it’s just the coaching and I know many people are mad at Tim Hires right now. I feel like he’s the most hated man in Atlanta sports right now. It’s either just the coaching or the players just aren’t a fit for that coaching. I tend to think it’s the players that just aren’t a fit for the coaching because while they’ve been less aggressive this year, they’re just taking for the sake of taking. So, what I really wanted to get to in the point of this is is going forward in the second half, I kind of just want to see them pick an approach. You know, at this point, you’re pretty much out of it. You’re 11 games under 500. It’s the furthest you’ve been under 500 since 2017, which is also the last time you made the postseason. So, at this point, going forward with the offense, I either want to see you just completely shift back to the boomer bust approach. Whether that means firing Tim Hires or just telling him, hey, we’re going back to this offensive approach and it’s we’re just going to go back to the swing hard at every pitch. See if you can do monster damage type of approach and see if you can at least get that back. Get back to that style of offense. Because again, when you had that style of offense, you were consistently a top five offense in baseball for, you know, two or three year stretch there. So, either do that and just try to get back to that style of offense or just continue to push on with this new style of trying to be well-rounded. And while it might not work and we’re going to see some struggles in the second half that aren’t any different than what we’ve seen for the last year and a half, hopefully you see, okay, who can make this change? Who can make this approach change for us going forward? you know, this is the offense style we want to be going forward. Who fits that style and who doesn’t? And and you know, you you try to find that out in the second half. So, you know what you have going forward. Look, I can tell you right now, Ozie and Michael Harris don’t fit that style. But that’s what I want to see from this team going forward in the second half. A lot of you have been asking me, what are what are you watching now in the second half of the season with this team essentially out of it? One of the things I’ll be watching is what style of approach are they going to go with? Are they just they just going to revert completely back to the boomer bust approach? Are they going to stick with this more patient approach, but try to tailor it to where you’re patient on pitches outside of the zone and you’re swinging at good pitches inside of the zone, which is what you ultimately want with this approach, but instead they’re just taking pitches for the sake of taking pitches. And what what style of offense did you want to be going forward? I think you know what I ultimately said on the postcast and where I’m I’m getting to with all of this is what is your offensive identity? What are you going to be? Cuz right now it it just feels like they’re stuck in between and their identity is nothing. They have no identity offensively right now. They’re not they’re not a huge slugging team. They’re not that boomer team we saw in the past. Although they’re still getting a lot of walks, but now they’re not getting the home runs or I’m sorry, they’re still getting a lot of strikeouts. They are getting walks, too, but they’re not getting home runs. Like, what style of offense are you? You’re not the you’re not the dink and dunk type of offense. You’re not getting you’re not hitting for average. You’re you’re not a manufacturing type of offense. You’re not stealing bases. You’re not hitting well with runners in scoring position. You’re not putting the ball in play. I was watching the Yankees and Mets game on on Sunday afternoon after the Braves game finished up by, you know, the time most of you got out of your Sunday uh dinner or lunch and it was just it was really interesting to watch a Yankees team who I think many of us think probably have that boomer approach how they worked small ball to score runs. You know, had runners at first and third and uh Bulpi tried to just shoot a ball the other way and it was a force out. They got the out at second, but the runner from score from third scored because one, you had a fast runner in Vulpi at the plate, but also he he did enough to try to punch it in the hole the other way that McNeel had to go backhanded and get it and there’s just no way they were turning two. Um, they had another instance later where they were able to move a runner over from second to third and Judge comes up. He ends up hitting a home run, but you get your superstar with the runner on third and one out and he hits a fly ball that, you know, it just snuck over the fence, but even if it didn’t, it was going to be an easy run. And there were just several instances in that game where you saw the Yankees hitters just doing small things to move runners around to manufacture runs. And it’s it’s so frustrating to watch this Braves team that just seems in a incapable of doing that. So again, kind of just bringing this full circle. My big question for this offense in the second half is what is your identity going to be? I think the front office has to has to figure that out. Who do they want to be going forward? And then you need to see who is going to fit that strategy. Which of these players is going to fit that strategy? Because if they don’t fit that strategy, we got to try to mix things up in the offense to find the strategy that we want for our offense going forward. Because right now, they have no identity. Their identity is that they’re bad. That’s their only identity right now for this Braves offense. So, next we’ll actually get into the series. We’ll talk about how bad that offense was. We’ll talk about the pitching too, which was good for the most part, but certainly on Saturday with the bullpen game had some had some fallouts late in that one, but outside of that, the the pitching did enough to win this series, but the offense couldn’t pick them up. We’ll get into all that here next. Ever check your bank account and wonder where did all my money go? Maybe you were buying up fireworks like crazy for Fourth of July. Those things are not cheap and now you’re wondering where did all the money go? summer vacations, online shopping, entertainment, dining out. It’s easy to lose track. And that’s where Monarch Money comes in. Your personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances. And Monarch Money, it’s not just a budgeting app. It’s a complete financial command center. You can track all your accounts, investments, and spending in one place. So, you stop just managing your money and start building wealth. 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There’s a lot of good teams out there who are playing good baseball. So maybe look for another team to root for, but still come back here and watch Locked on Braves because I’ll keep you up to date on everything’s happening. Even if you don’t want to tune in and actually watch them play, you can just watch Locked on Braves and I’ll I’ll keep you up to date. I’ll be here every single day no matter what. Even if this team finishes 72 and 90 like that 2017 team did, I’ll be here with you each and every day. But again, go give the guys over at Locktown MLB a listen as they do a great job keeping you up to date with everything happening around Major League Baseball. Let’s get into the offense from the weekend. And I talked a lot about the offense in the first half and their struggles. F Friday, two runs, six hits, one walk, eight strikeouts. You had two extra base hits in this one. A double by Riley and a home run by Bowwin. But 0 for five with runners in scoring position. Not a ton of chances and no hits with runners in scoring position. And of course, they get dominated by Charlie Morton. You could have seen that coming from a mile away. He had 19 whiffs, including six on a four on his four seam fast. So Charlie Morton in a revenge game against the Braves. He had a 10 straight retired to end the game in this one. I talked about this too on the postcast a lot, me and Lindsay have the fact that it seems like it’s either the Braves, you know, put on a lot of stress early in a starter, they score a couple of runs and then they do nothing late or what I think what’s what it feels like for the most part this year is they do nothing for the first five innings or so and then they try to apply some pressure late in the bullpen and it’s just too little too late. But on Friday against the Orioles it was, you know, he had some pressure early. Charlie Morton, you know, gave you some walks, hit batters like he always does, but they couldn’t find that big hit and then they did nothing. 10 straight retired once the bullpen came in for the Orioles on Friday night. Uh, you had a couple of scoring. You had three scoring chances in this one. You had a walk and hit batter to start the second and nothing. You did score a leadoff single in the third and then you homerred after the leadoff single in the sixth. So, you scored on two of your three scoring chances, real good scoring chances you had in this game, but you only had three chances in nine innings. They give you nine innings to try to score runs. You had three innings where you had a real scoring threat and that was basically it for the Atlanta Braves in this one on Saturday. Six runs on 10 hits, four walks, 11 strikeouts, six extra base hits, doubles by Olsen, Baldwin Allen and Riley, and then home runs by Riley and Olsen. And you just look at that and you hear that and you think, man, what a great game by the offense. No way they could lose this one. Well, they did, but they also were three for 12 with runners in scoring position, which again is I guess they had some hits with runners in scoring position, but it also speaks to the fact that there was there was opportunities in that game on Saturday to do a lot more damage and they couldn’t. And in this game in particular on Saturday, it came down to the sixth inning to me. And I understand six runs hard to put a lot on the offense in this one, but it was a bullpin game. You knew you were going to have to score a lot of runs to keep up. And the sixth inning was the turning point for me. Braves had bases loaded, no outs for Riley Proofar and Bowwin. Scott Blue was pitching at this time, former Brave. And look, he didn’t actually pitch around Akunia and Olsson. He may have he may have legitimately pitched around Olsen, but he walks Olsen or he walks Aunia and Olsen to load the bases with no outs. And it’s almost like Scott was, I’m just going to force somebody else in this lineup to beat me. I’m not going to let it be Akunia and Olsson. Somebody else is going to have to beat me. And it it pretty much worked out. Riley comes up, he strikes out on three pitches and the last pitch was 95 right down the middle. Up a little bit after he just seen a splitter down, but still it’s a it’s three pitch strikeout to Austin Riley with the bases loaded and no outs. Can’t happen. Just absolutely can’t happen. Proofar comes up. He swings at the first pitch, a middle fast ball, 94 miles per hour and luckily hits it slow enough that they can’t turn a double play and it’s just a force out. The Braves do get one run. So hey, that’s better than the Braves normally do in those circumstances. So you can see Proofar playing paying big divid dividends already. Big dividends. Uh the ProFar coming through. I was trying to set up a joke there and then I just completely messed it up. But they do get one run because Proofar hit a 94 middle fast ball so weakly that they were able to score a run. And then Greg Baldwin gets ahead 3 0 but then misses a slider middle middle middle down and grounds out to end the threat. So the Braves get one run out of that. And it felt like to me just watching that game through the first six innings, you you didn’t have a score, you know, didn’t see the score. You were just kind of watching the game. In my mind, I would have felt like the Braves were up by four. And especially after that sixth inning, it’s like it felt like they should have been up by a ton, but they were up by one run and not doing enough in that sixth inning. At that point, you pretty much just see the writing on the wall. The Orioles immediately come back and tie the game. And at that point, you just it just felt like the Braves were done. You know, they had so many chances in the first six innings of that game. And yeah, they scored six runs, but just opportunities to do a lot more damage and after that just couldn’t do anything in that game. Uh Sunday’s game, you got one run on seven hits, two walks, 10 strikeouts. Basically Shawn Murphy in this one, he had the only two extra base hits, a double that went off the wall and came back in, and then a home run that went off the top of the wall and went out. But over six with runners in scoring position. So Friday and Sunday you score a combined three runs and you go 0 for1 11 with runners in scoring position and look you had a lot it may not have felt like it watching the game on Sunday for me I was listening to it because the game was so early just got out of church and was listening to it while I got ready for Sunday lunch and and all that but there were a lot of chances for the Braves to score in this game. You had a leadoff single in the first twice in this game Profar let off the inning with a hit and nothing happened. Uh, I should mention, by the way, Akuna set out this game. He did a later pinch hit. Ozuna was out this game. Michael Harris was out this game, but he did later come in and pinch hit and get a couple of bats. So, they did shake up the lineup a little bit, but really didn’t produce much else. Although, it did in my mind prove that both catchers need to be playing every day. Ozuna needs to go on the IIL. That should have happened weeks ago. Um, but you had a leadoff single in the first, nothing. You had two on with two out in the fifth and Allen strikes out in that situation. You had a leadoff single in the sixth far again and nothing happens. You had a leadoff double in the seventh, the one by Murphy, and nothing happens. You had Drake Bowwin, who generally gives you a good at bat. He pops up and foul ground at third base and is unable to score that runner from third with one out. You had a leadoff single in the eighth with Akunia, Proofar, and Olsen coming up and you do nothing. You had a one-out single in the ninth and then nothing after that. So, you had six scoring chances in this game. That’s great. That’s what you want. you want to, you know, constantly putting on pressure, constantly having these scoring chances, but you go 0 for six and those opportunities and that’s just it’s not going to get it done. And that’s why this offense is just bad because you have six chances in a game to score and nobody comes through with a big hit there to just push across a couple of runs. It’s all you needed. I mean, the only runs the Braves gave up on Sunday were a two-run shot to Jackson Holiday, who had a huge day on Sunday, and the offense had plenty of opportunities and just didn’t get it done. You know, that’s the story of the season. Have the chances, but nobody’s coming up with those big hits. Uh, I do want to mention the pitching staff real quickly. Spencer Strider on Friday, six innings, seven hits, one walk, three earns, six strikeouts, two home runs. Orioles just hit a bunch of home runs over the weekend. what the Braves are are supposed to do. 100 pitches pitches for Strider in those six innings. 21 whiffs, 14 on the slider. Four seam velocity was up just a tig. Topped out at 98 though. Couple of mistakes really for Strider in this one on those home runs. You had a a a low middle um middle middle fast ball was down a little bit to Westber for a home run. And then you had a slider to a lefty of Mullins that just kind of spun over the middle of the plate and Mullins didn’t miss it. So those are two just real big mistakes for Strider in that game. But otherwise, I thought was another encouraging start for him. Look, at the end of the day, it’s a quality start. Um, but just not good enough for this offense. You got to do better than that. I mean, you got to you got to be one or one or less to give this offense a chance right now. And unfortunately, the Orioles took advantage of the few mistakes that Strider made. You had the bullpin game on Saturday. Bummer was great through two innings. Probably left in a couple of batters too long, but in a bullpen game, you’re, you know, you’re trying to find somebody that you can stretch an extra inning or two. But bummer again left out there a little too long. Dodd I thought was good outside of just an O2 pitch to Colton Cowser that needed to be off the plate down and away and he left it middle middle for a big two-run home run. That was a big mistake there. Those those were the two moments in that game on Saturday. The O2 pitch from Dodd to Cowser. He executes that pitch. It’s probably a strike three or a weak out or weak ball in play somewhere and you come up with more runs in the bottom of the six. You put up a big crooked number there. Those were the two moments in the game on Saturday. Uh Austin Cox um left was left in the game after the Braves took the lead. And I get it. You had used Dylan Lee and Pierce Johnson to try to stay in the game on Friday night. So you didn’t want to use them on Saturday if you didn’t absolutely have to. But you took a lead in the bottom of the six and you just got that one run. So it’s a very slim lead. And you go you bring Austin Cox back out there and he immediately, you know, allows the Orioles to tie the game. And then you go to Disable Hernandez. And I understand it was, you know, you it’s a bullpin game. You’re trying to stretch guys, but it just felt like that game, as Lindsay talked about on the postcast, they did every time he tried to stretch a pitcher just one or two batters too long. And I thought that was the case there with Cox, you had gotten the lead. You want to go to one of your best relievers and have a shutdown inning there. And they didn’t do that. Uh he was fine in the ninth. I thought he was actually kind of got a lucky little bit lucky in the in the ninth inning on Saturday, but he was able to put up a scoreless inning and then Montero couldn’t put Raone Lauraniano away. Only real defensive miscue of the weekend that I can recall and it’s a tough play by Riley, but it’s a ball that he’ll probably tell you he needs to knock that down. Uh he just kind of tried to olay it real quick and and missed it. He was in a little bit. Um, you know, with the runner at third, which I don’t I don’t know why you brought the infield in that much with the runner on third. With the ghost runner, you know, you’re going to get the ghost runner at second anyway. You want to try to avoid the big inning. I guess with your offense, you know, if that runner scores, you’re probably going to lose regardless. But then Montto fell behind Stallings 3 and 0 and gave up a big two RBI double that essentially, you know, put the game away in the top of the tenth. A guy that had a 383 OPS coming into that at bat. Uh, so some good, some bad in the bullpen over the weekend. Lee and Johnson and Glacius were all looked good on Sunday. Johnson got into some trouble, but was able to work out of it. So those are, you know, by far your top three relievers right now. And Johnson and Niggy, I think, could be on the move by the trade deadline. So hopefully they have some more good appearances to help out their trade stock. Um, you know, I mentioned the defense outside of the play by Riley again, which is a tough play. I thought the defense was really good and that’s part of what’s so frustrating. The defense has been really good for the most part this season. I mean, you got a potential goal glover at shortstop, at first base, uh, center field with Michael Harris out there. And even the catchers have been really good for the most part. And it’s just the offense and the starting pitching has been good for the most part. The bullpen has been fine for, you know, what we all kind of thought coming in. And it all just comes back to the offense for the Atlanta Braves and not doing enough to support this team that would be in a much better position if they had even gotten average offense this season, but it’s what’s killed them all year long. We can talk about the pitching staff. We can we can talk about the starting rotation. We can talk about the front office not doing enough in that regard to begin the season and and those are valid points. But you want to point one finger at why this team’s as bad as it is this year, it is the offense. Uh, that’s that’s just a plain and simple way to put it. All right, next we’ll get into a little bit of news. We got old friend Jesse Chavez back and I’ll set you up for what’s coming up the rest of this week leading into the All-Star break. We’ll get into that here next. Well, I said the Atlanta Braves need to go eight and four going into the All-Star break, and that’s now impossible because they only won one game at home against the uh against the Orioles and the Angels. So, uh again, nail me coffin as I put in the thumbnail of this episode. It feels like the the Braves season is done, but they do have two more series leading up to the All-Star break. They will go out west to face the now Sacramento A’s. Uh and then they will go to St. Lewis to face the Cardinals who are actually a pretty good team right now. I had a big comeback win on Saturday against the Cubs. Watch some of that game as they’re in a bit of a a rival there. They are rivals, but they’re also competing for the division title along with the Brewers in that NL Central. So, the Cardinals will be a tough matchup. The A’s have been one of the worst teams in baseball. But hey, so have the Orioles and they just swept the Braves in Atlanta. So, who knows what’s going to happen out there in Sacramento. I’ll line up those pitching matchups real quick. We’ll probably preview this series more on Tuesday’s episode or Monday’s episode, but you got Didd Wentz and his 9.00 RA going against Jeffrey Springs and his 4.07 RA. Bryce Elder and his 5.92 RA going up against Mitch Spencer and his 4.06 RA. And then Spencer Strider and his 3.93 RA going up against JP Sears and his 4.76 ERA. So, you look at these pitching matchups on paper don’t feel particularly great. And that’s going to be the that’s going to be the case for a lot of these pitching matchups we see here going forward with Schwenbach and Sell out of the rotation. You’re really hoping that you can win those strider and home starts. You got two of those over the weekend against Baltimore. Both of them were quality starts and you still lost both of them. And again, that is just the failure of the season on the offense. The two best starters that you have left, they give you quality starts and you still can’t win that game. That is that’s the season right there. So, we’ll see what happens out there in Sacramento. You’re going to need the offense to step up at all if you’re going to have any chance of of winning going forward. If you still have any hope, maybe you’re still holding on to the the tiniest bit of hope. Like I said, I I tried it last week and then they got swept by the Orioles. So, my hope is completely gone at this point. But, if you’re holding on to any hope, it’s got to be that that offense turned things around. Now, what I’m looking for in this series, because that’s really going to be what we’re focusing on going forward with the Braves pretty much being out of it. What are you looking for going forward? What are you looking for in particular series? I’m gonna have my eyes on Fuentes. Look, they continue to throw him out there. Maybe even not for this year, but maybe for next year, can he continue to make strides? Can he continue to use his full arsenal and just gain confidence? You know, is he a pitcher that we’re looking for in the rotation going forward? So, I want to see if continue to make some progress. I want to see Strider continue to make some progress. Would love to see that fast ball velocity jump back up again. Good start on Friday, but not a great start. He’s still not back to the strider that we’re hoping for. I’m just looking for any signs of seeing that old strider coming back. So, those are what I’m looking for on the pitching side of things. Then offensively, I talked about this in the first segment, but I’m just tracking at bats at this point. Who’s giving me quality at bats every time up? And what type of approach are we seeing going forward? Who is this? What is the identity of this offense going to be? So, that’s kind of what I’m going to be looking for. Do they continue to put Ozuna out there? I’m sure they will, but what is the lineup look like? And who’s giving us these quality at bats right now? Who’s giving us the most quality at bats? Particularly looking at Michael Harrison, Aussie Alb’s, you know, if they don’t show any type of progress here, you know, leading up to the All-Star break and after, what is a plan with them going forward? What other options do you have? So, that’s what I’ll be looking for over the weekend or in the beginning of the week in Oakland. Me and Lindsay will be up late for the postcast. Uh trying to bring you some positivity. Hopefully, we’ll have some more this upcoming week. I will be up late with that series in Sacramento. I’m going to try not to say Oakland as much as I can. Uh but hey, I still say the Cleveland Indians. So, um here we go. Uh with this upcoming week, you got the A’s and then the Cardinals leading into the All-Star break. Now, there was some news on Sunday. Schwenbach moved to the 60-day IIIL. So just further confirmation there that he won’t be back until September if at all. And Jesse Chavez brought back up with Dylan Dodd option just to give the Braves a fresh arm after the bullpen game. Snid already said we can’t do that again. So they’re going to have to find a starter at some point. Although you do have the off day on Monday, but they’ll likely need another starter before the All-Star break um to not have to go with another bullpen game or at this point just put Jesse Chavez out there for five innings. See what he can do. Or call up Jackson Stevens, let him throw five innings. He’s had some good appearances lately at Gwynette. Well, that would do this episode of Locked on Braves. Please, please stay with me. Don’t give up on this. Like I said, even if you don’t want to watch the Braves, just come here for your therapy session. I will let you know how bad they were. Uh but again, hopefully we’ll have some positivity in the second half that even if it’s not for this year, for the coming year, and who who’s part of this team going forward, can they make some strides in the second half of this season to build into next year? Make sure you subscribe on YouTube if you’re new. Hit that thumbs up button. Leave me a comment down below. Make sure that you rate, review, and subscribe to the Lockdown Braves podcast wherever you get your podcast. and we will talk to you next.

Jake Mastroianni breaks down the Atlanta Braves’ disastrous series loss to the Baltimore Orioles, highlighting offensive woes and pitching struggles. The discussion covers the team’s identity crisis at the plate, Spencer Strider’s recent start, and potential strategies to turn things around.

Key topics include the Braves’ inability to win close games, their approach with runners in scoring position, and upcoming matchups against the Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals.

Tune in for an in-depth analysis of the Braves’ path forward and what to watch for as playoff hopes fade.

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