BRAVES POSTCAST: Atlanta Braves jump on Charlie Morton early, blow out Detroit Tigers LIVE REACTION

BRAVES POSTCAST: Atlanta Braves jump on Charlie Morton early, blow out Detroit Tigers LIVE REACTION

The Atlanta Braves take down the Detroit Tigers 10 to1 for their sixth consecutive win, their longest winning streak of the season. Let’s talk about it. [Music] This is the Braves Post Cast, your instant game reaction for the Atlanta Braves. Part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Yes. Welcome on in to the Locked On Braves postcast, part of Locked OnSports Atlanta, where we cover your Atlanta sports teams each and every day. I’m your host, Lindsay Crosby, author of the Braves Today newsletter over at bravestoday.com. You can follow me on social media at Crosby Baseball. Jake Mastriani, it’s his son’s birthday. The party is not yet done, so he’s not here with us tonight. But I want to talk about Atlanta’s 10 to one win over the Tigers. A couple different things we’re going to get to. We’re going to talk about the fact that six games is their longest winning streak of the season. What is it doing to the odds of getting a high draft pick in the lottery this winter? Uh we’re going to talk about the player of the game, and I actually want input from you. If you’re here on YouTube with us live, drop in the chat who you think the player of the game is because there’s a couple different arguments you can make for a couple different guys here. But before we do that, I want to talk about the turning point of this game and really what what ended the day for Charlie Morton. Time to reveal where the game was won or lost. It’s the turning point. The joke here is that Uncle Charlie was actually the player of the game for the Braves. Charlie Morton uh records four outs, six runs on five hits, gives up a three spot in the first, but the second inning really kind of showed the issues with Charlie Morton and some of the Braves players being better than they’ve been recently. So, Nacho Alvarez leads off the inning with the ground ball, gets a cutter down. Two really good pitches from Charlie Morton. Fast ball down that he takes. Morton goes back to that exact same spot with a cutter and Nacho soft ground ball to third, beats it out, base hit. After Jerken Profar grounds out, which pushes um Nacho over to second, Matt Olsen gets a double to right. Uh, not incredibly well hit, like 80 miles an hour off the bat, but it was something where Morton went curveball, forcing curveball all below the zone and Matt got that last curveball. It stayed up just enough for him to make contact with, right? And then from there, Ronald Akunia Jr. comes up and Charlie Morton, four pitches to Ronald. All four are in the strike zone. Not a single one is a curveball. And Jake and I have talked on here before about how there are issues like uh Ronald’s had issues with fast balls at times this season. Morton goes fast ball down, Ronald fouls it off. Change up to the exact same place. Ronald fouls it off. Forcing fast ball up but not up far enough. It’s like belt high outer third. Ronald fouls it off. And then he leaves a fast ball middle of the plate as far as height goes, but on the outer third and Ronald just launches it to right center. And that’s the final pitch that Charlie Morton throws in this game. I don’t know if we all realize how good Ronald’s been recently because Ronald’s been slumping for a little while, right? Ronald’s been uh been struggling a little bit to to have some decent production as Jake comes in said, “Welcome in Jake.” Uh but Ronald here, last seven games, Ronald’s hitting .385 with two homers and in the last 15 games he’s hitting .288 with uh with five RBI, nine runs scored. Jake, does it feel like Ronald Duna Jr. is back or does it feel like uh like this is just he’s had a good week, week and a half. Maybe he gets a home run tonight. Doesn’t do much else, but it’s his second home run in the last week. It’s just kind of funny. We we think Ronald’s gone into a slump, but look, he’s been bad and he had a bad stretch there, but even normally in his bad stretches, he’s still a really good player. Um and so I never worried about Ronald Akuni Jr. I don’t think many people did. Um, and I’ve said it before, I think he as a player, he feeds off that emotion and he wears his emotions on his entire body and and you can see it when he’s when he’s struggling and he’s frustrated and I’m sure there’s a human element, too. I mean, his team’s out of it. He’s never not known the postseason, Lindsay. He’s never not known except for the years that he was hurt and out. Yeah. He’s never never not and one of those they won a World Series. Yeah. And he was part of it in the dugout and and pumped up. So, like um this is new territory for him. him. I was thinking about today. We we celebrated my son’s seventh birthday tonight. He’s never not known a Braves postseason. It’s a weird year for him, too. He doesn’t know what to do. Um so, yeah, I never really worried about Ronald. I mean, three hard hit balls tonight. It’s just like, don’t get it wrong, he definitely hasn’t been Ronald, but like I said, even the the lesser version of him is still a pretty good player, so I think he’ll be just fine. Yeah. And uh something I do want to point out and sound effects in the chat has a great thing here. Elder like El he’s voting for Elder for uh for player of the game. I asked the the chat to kind of give me some votes here. But watching that made me a little bit sad for Charlie Morton is what he says. And I I kind of I kind of agree. The fact that Charlie wasn’t really willing to go to the curveball in the second inning against the Braves. I know he got back around to the order again. So, he was seeing them for a second time. But the fact that he didn’t apparently trust the curveball when that’s been the pitch more so than any other pitch that saved Charlie Morton’s career and made him into the guy that he was makes me a little bit concerned that this may end up being the final season of Charlie Morton. And if it is, the Braves got out one year, you know, early, right? We’ve seen too many situations where you bring a guy back and they just fall off a cliff. But uh always going to be a little bit sad to see that version of Charlie Morton because he was so good for the Braves for so long and somebody who’s had a chance to like sit down and talk to him for for different media stuff. He’s the best person to talk to you because he’s so open and honest and he’ll talk for 20 minutes and just give you all of his time. Just a great dude. So happy the Braves got the win. Sorry that it came at the expense of Charlie Martin. Yeah, somebody that I said in the offseason didn’t want to bring him back for 15 million. I think that’s what he got uh in that deal. It was just you I’d love to have him back at even just 10 or 12 million just because of his leadership I thought would have been fine. Certainly at the 20 million mark the Braves were paying him and he got off to the dreadful start and then it was nice to see him kind of bounce back in May and June but ever since then it’s been more four and a half plus pitcher and it it kind of looks like this might be it for for Charlie which yeah he wants to coach you want to come over and be in the Braves organization I think Brace would be fine with that. certainly loved loved the guy. That’s why they kept paying him 20 million a year even though his numbers weren’t maybe reminiscent of a $20 million pitcher. But yeah, I hate to see him go out go out like that. But like you said, at least the Braves got to do it and got to benefit from it. Yeah, and ultimately um good day for the offense in general. 11 hits, 10 runs, everybody but Marcelo Zun and Michael Harris had hits in this one. Aussie Alb’s actually had three and I want to get your uh your thoughts on this. We had a listener question. So Dr. Rachel Johnson’s a big fan of both of our content and all of our stuff. And she sent me a question. Her six-year-old Micah wants to know, and he actually drew a photo that she she sent me on social media to go along with it. Uh, from Micah, six-year-old Micah, do you think Aussie Alb’s will be a Brave next year? He is my favorite player. And I I I do think Micah won. Aussie Alb is coming back. Uh, and you can look at what he’s done in the second half of the year, Jake. He’s been as he gets farther away from that wrist injury, he’s been so so much more reliable from a from a base hit perspective. He’s gotten better at drawing walks, best walk rate of his career this year, and the power is getting better the farther away he is from that injury. Somebody asked me on social media, do you think that Nacho Alvarez could potentially have a similar move next year as he gets farther away from his wrist injury? Yeah, that’s a good point. I hadn’t really hadn’t really thought about that. Me either. I know. We all need listeners, Jake. Yeah. And that’s probably why either they want to send him to the AFL, too. Um, you know, to just see him kind of get further removed from that. Now, look, Nacho’s never shown that power ability that Azie has. So, right, even if the wrist is fully healthy, I don’t I mean, he he did at least in the second half of 2024 at Gwynette and then he had the wrist injury in spring training. So, so maybe that was it. But before that that stint at Gwynette, we had never really seen the power from Nacho. Um, but yeah, that that is a good point. And for Azie, yeah, I mean, I almost feel better about him next year at this point than I do Michael Harris even after his his hot stretch because we were seeing a more patient Aussie Albbies throughout. We just weren’t seeing that power that we were used to seeing. And um, you know, now that’s kind of coming too. So, I do think he’ll be there. I always thought they’d pick up the option anyway because it just never made sense. So, yeah, Micah, don’t worry, bud. I think Aussiey’s gonna be back next year in great uniform. We’ve got you. All right. In just a minute, I want to talk about the player of the game. Remember, if you if you’re watching live on YouTube and you haven’t voted, put that in the chat real quick. Uh as well as what you’re going to be talking about coming out of this game. We’ll do that next right here on the Braves Post. This episode is brought to you by Zipix Toothpicks. 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That’s zipix toothpicks.com. Zip pix promo code locked on. Zip more, smoke less with Zipix Toothpick. Today’s episode’s also brought to you by our friends at Price Picks, the daily fantasy app where making the right call can actually pay off. You and I make decisions every day, but on Price Picks, being right means cashing in. Because with Football Back, price picks is the simplest and fastest way to get in on the action. Just pick more or less on two to six player projections and you can turn your takes into real prizes all in less than 60 seconds. I’ve been playing prize picks lately. It’s such a fun, entertaining way to stay locked in for the NFL season. It’s quick, it’s easy, and honestly kind of my favorite way to follow along with football. I do really enjoy it in the postseason as well, the MLB postseason, because you just know there’s dudes out there who are going to step up in October and it’s fun to jump in there, check their projections, and be like, “Yeah, I think that’s likely to happen.” So download the Price Pick app today. Use code locked in MLB to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That’s code locked in MLB for $50 in lineups after your first $5 play. Price picks. It’s good to be right. All right, Jake. So, looking at this game, we’ve got we have all the votes in the chat. And with all due respect to Charlie Morton, who got votes for player of the game, uh we do have a very kind of obvious answer here. This is the locked on player of the game. Um I’m not going to lie, those graphics are starting to grow me a little bit. It’s fun to hit the button. Uh Bryce Elder, seven innings, five hits, one run, no walks to six strikeouts. And you and I have both talked about this, Jake, that Bryce Elder’s always been, like not always, but recently been when the highs are high, the lows are very low. And his RA is still over five for the year because he’s been blown up so much. But it while he’s not playing his way into the opening day rotation next year, it almost feels like I’m starting to wonder does he legitimately have more trade value than we’re expecting if Atlanta wanted to try to do that simply because he leads the team in in innings. He leads the team in starts. He virtually never gets hurt and since the start of August he’s like second in baseball in quality starts. Is this something where a team could give you a legitimate asset to take a cost control Bryce Oder off your hands or is that a bad idea? Um especially if he’s out of options too. I know we talked about that. Um, I think definitely makes it a bigger possibility that he could be traded to a a team that just maybe not a contender, but a team that just needs some innings and needs some depth in the rotation. I don’t know that you’re getting anything much valuable in return. Um, but even if you got like a solid, if you got a Tyler Kinley, you know, uh, like somebody like that, I mean, I I think that could benefit the Braves who we’re hoping he’s going to go out and find upgrades to Bryce Elder in the offseason, right? We’re we’re hoping they’re going to find some better depth pieces for the starting rotation. Um, so if you’re going to do that, then yeah, and like I said, if Bryce Elder is out of options, I think it makes him a very strong trade candidate. And with the way he’s finished the season, helping the Braves in that fashion, I don’t know that many teams are going to be, you know, buy into it. You know, he’s got the most quality starts at the this last two months of the season or anything like that and pay a high price. They’re not giving you a a top shortstop. You’re not getting cold emerson or anything for him. But um but yeah, I think there’s there could be some potential trade value there for him. And uh again, when he when he’s more force seamers, that’s what I always talk about here. uh and a lot of them, you know, at the top of the zone or above it. Uh I think that makes a big difference and and his success if he’s able to get that pitch, you know, and raise that eye level and, you know, great su success with it in this one. He threw one of them last season, but I still think Bryce could be one of those I’ve got all three fast guys at a cutter, can be all three fast ball guys to help um kind of keep guys off of if you see, you know, something up, something down, kind of change some eye levels with some different things there. Um, all right. With uh there’s one more thing that I I’ve seen a lot of questions on social media in the chat here that I want to one of the big takeaways I have from this game is about Hassan Kim. This is what you’ll be talking about. So, Hassan Kim hits a hits a home run tonight. Second home run as a member of the Braves. And in 16 games with Atlanta, he’s now hitting 316 with a 375 on base and a 439 slug. And a lot of the reading I’ve been doing from national folks, whether it’s the people at MLB Trade Rumors, uh, the Athletic, all that kind of stuff, a lot of the sentiment from the national writers has all started to turn to it would be kind of foolish for Hoson Kim to not, I’m sorry, to pick up the option because he’s looking good. But it’s a 16 game sample, but he’s looked really good in Atlanta. Uh offense has been better than his defense, but then also Bo Bashett’s defense has been horrible and now he’s on the injured list with the recurrence of some of the lower body injuries that bothered him last year. This increasingly to me, and I want to get your opinion here, this increasingly to me feels like if Hassan Kim is back next year, it’s because Atlanta gave him a multi-year deal. Like at this point, I don’t think you get $16 million Hassan Kim for one year. Yeah, AA’s got to be working the phones right now with Mr. Scott Boris, unfortunately. Um because I think if you are going to keep him around, you’re going to have to try to get a deal done because we we said it when we signed him like he’s going to pick it up unless he just goes off in September. Well, I mean, he’s not Matt Olsson. going off in September September, but he he’s he’s going off and because of where the the shorts stop free agent market is and and as you mentioned with Boba I mean most people don’t think Bobette’s going to stay at shortstop long term anyway. Um you know Hassan Kim’s going to be that that cheaper maybe even better option at shortstop. Maybe not offensively, but certainly defensively, even though I know he hasn’t, we’ve been used to watching Nick Allen play there all year, but um you know, I still think he’s going to be above average there defensively. And yeah, I’m getting a little bit more worried about it, too, to the point where you’re probably going to have to work with Scott Boris if you want to keep him around. Yeah. And that’s just um and contrary to popular belief, the Braves have signed a Scott Boris client under Alex Anthopoulos. Um, and I just blinked. It’s the uh the pitcher they signed mid-season in the late 2010s. Dallas Kel. Dallas Kel was a uh was a Scott Boris client, but that’s the last time they signed a Scott Boris client. So, it’s not that they are fundamentally opposed to working with Scott Boris. It’s the things that he wants in the deals are fundamentally opposed to the things Atlanta wants in deals. Atlanta wants club options. Player option. They don’t give those. Yeah. Boris wants a player option. Boris wants no trade clauses. The Braves don’t give those out. you know, and uh like it’s they want shorter deals with higher AAVs and Atlanta wants to keep the AAV down to 22 million or less. And so they’re willing to go, you know, three, four, five years. Boris has done a lot of guys, what was it? Um Alex Bregman got three at 40 million a piece with Boston and he’s got opt outs and all that stuff in there. So, um I’m I’m I think that’s where I am on this is everybody’s asked, it’s not going to happen. like you’re not necess you’re not I don’t think you’re gonna get him on the $16 million thing and unfortunately that’s just kind of because he’s gotten hot this month and that’s where you are and because of the market I mean the market’s a big big part of it if it was the market year that you know Dan became a free agent I think it was the short stop free turner and all that or the one with Willie Willie Adamis too there was a lot of short stops or maybe no Willie was the only one I think it was the year with Danby there was a lot of short stops Alexander Bogarts all of those guys might have been a topic and also we talked about it too the lockout like you don’t know what’s going to happen there if you can go ahead and get guaranteed you know future money and that it just makes more sense but I know somebody asked about proofar would that make a difference I think that helps um yeah you know him being there not only do they get along and all that but I don’t think that that could help uh certainly can’t hurt but at the end of the day it’s going to come down to money and if he if Scott Boris thinks he can get a penny more in free agency he’s going to go for it is um is profar being his best offset by the fact that the Falcons cut Young Way Coup today. Does that hurt? Because they they had a big thing where they changed jerseys and all that like a week and ago at Truis Park. That doesn’t help. Um, all right. So, tomorrow’s matchup. Heads up on the time. It’s a 1:10 p.m. Eastern start. So, they’re trying to, you know, they’re doing a little different timing because of football and everything. Joey Wentz versus Kiger Monttero. Atlanta took care of the Charlie Morton revenge game today. Joey Wentz. This will be his first start against the Tigers since they got rid of him. I think it was earlier this year or late last year. So, kind of heads up on that. Again, that game’s at 110. Uh we’ll be back to break down that game for you. We’ll get you in and out so you can get back to your college football. Uh but in the meantime, again, we’re Braves win this one 10 to1 over the Tigers. Uh thanks to three home runs. Do us a favor. If you’re listening on audio, five star review would be awesome. Apple, Spotify, YouTube Music. Leave Jake son a happy birthday message in your review. That’s great. Uh if you’re watching on YouTube, subscribe to both Locked on Braves and Locked on Sports Atlanta. Hit the notification bell so that you know when we go live, talk about all this stuff and let’s continue to make the AL Central interesting. The the Guardians have been a juggernaut. The Tigers have been slumping. Let’s make this division a little bit closer tomorrow. Uh for Jake Mastriani, I’m Lindsey Crosby. has been raised gas.

Fresh off a four-game sweep of the Washington Nationals, the Atlanta Braves kept their winning streak intact in Detroit versus the Tigers and former Braves starter Charlie Morton on Friday night. Postcast host Lindsay Crosby and Locked On Braves host Jake Mastroianni went LIVE after the game to break down all of the action.

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