The Channel 17 Podcast: Recent Episodes
The Productive Leisure Podcast Network
Well, we took a month off due to vacations and other things, so we took a large scale overview on the Braves as they stand at the moment. Fortunately, they are in fantastic shape, sitting three games in the lead in the NL East and still crushing the ball. One of the really striking things is that every position seems to be contributing. The only real question mark comes from the occasional bullpen hiccup. This makes the rest of the season look pretty good for the Bravos. Alex Anthopolous can target many different kinds of players, but also does not need to get any specific player. We are both still kind of amazed the Braves are already at this point in their rebuild.
The Braves are, and we can't quite believe this, still in first place. In this episode, we contemplate the Jose Bautista Braves stint, who we expect to improve or decline, and how the pitching staff has been so good. We also reflect on how this team just feels so different than recent versions of the Braves, especially with their athleticism and defensive dynamism. This doesn't stop us from talking about the 1991 Braves in surprising depth, because that is always appropriate.
Well, we'll finally say it: the Braves are legitimate contenders. They still lead the league in runs scored, and they have the fifth best ERA in all of baseball. Some of the elements that lead to that might be fluky, but it's hard to say the results aren't for real overall. We try to think about the future, which, as always, makes us think about the past. After thinking about the Mark Teixeira trade and the Len Barker trade, we sour on the idea of trading for someone at the deadline. That's also because the team is in really good shape, though. This is a team worth watching, both in every game and for the transaction wire.
It's a special Mother's Day edition of the Channel 17 Podcast, which means the usual Father-Son format briefly starts as a Mother-Son podcast. But then we get down to our usual business, which this season has mostly involved marveling at surprising offensive exploits. This week, it's Nick Markakis, who has been on fire. And on the pitching staff, the young arms have all been encouraging as of late. Oh, and the bullpen has become a real strength. This team is good. This team is for real. And we are totally onboard.
Well, the Braves are in first place, their starters just dominated the Mets in Queens, and the offense is still knocking the cover off the ball. In short, we're over the moon about this team, and can hardly contain ourselves. We're still in awe of Albies and Acuna, so we also try to temper our enthusiasm with rookie expectations and fail. There's also some discussion of the Jose Bautista callup, which we have mixed feelings about. But that's our biggest bummer. We also discuss what the Braves might do over the rest of the season in terms of transactions, which involves ridiculous speculation about Manny Machado. But maybe that's just the mood Braves fans should be in right now.
The Ronald Acuña Era has finally, offcially arrived. Oh, and in just his second game he hit a towering home run. It means the rebuild is coming to full fruition. And it nearly overshadowed the fact that, right now, Ozzie Albies is leading the league in most counting stats. Also, Dansby Swanson, Freddie Freeman, and Kurt Suzuki have continued to dominate from the batter's box. In short, the Braves are extremely well positioned. The might not be extremely well staffed on the pitching front, but the bullpen is the easiest thing to sort out and there are reinforcements on the way. We've decided we can well and truly be excited about this team now.
Well, we're finally going to say it: The Braves are good. Like, leading the league in runs, with the best run differential good. A lot of it might be luck at this point, but what luck it's been. Ozzie Albies hasn't just acclimated to the majors, but is crushing the ball. Dansby Swanson and Ryan Flaherty are battling for the league lead in average. Oh, and Matt Wisler pitches a gem of an emergency start. If we're being realistic, we know this won't continue, but we also know replacements can be on their way if necessary.
So the Braves might actually be good. We certainly have found them much more fun to watch than in previous campaigns, but we also don't want to get too excited. Of course, it's hard not to be excited when seeing what Ozzie Albies or Dansby Swanson or doing. Or to think that scrap heap pickups like Preston Tucker, Ryan Flaherty, Anibal Sanchez, and Shane Carle have been doing. Oh, and Freddie Freeman is just hitting like an MVP like we guessed he would. The pitching has been uneven and the callups haven't even started, but this team feels like it's starting to come together.
Somehow, after one week of the regular season, the Atlanta Braves possess the best offense in all of Major League Baseball. And they did all this despite the fact that Ronald Acuna, Jr, is still not a Major Leaguer and Ozzie Albies hasn't been hitting. Somehow the veterans, guys like Nick Markakis, Ryan Flaherty, and Preston Tucker, are leading the charge. Oh, and Freddie Freeman is being treated like 2001 era Barry Bonds. The starting pitching has been workable, the bullpen has been astonishingly good, and the Braves are 4-2. We aren't overreacting, so much as we're trying to think what one week of baseball says about the rest of the season. The big news is that we really love to watch this team.
Baseball season is here! And the Braves have been quite exciting despite the fact that they have only played two games. Before the season even began they made two minor transactions, signing Peter Bourjos and Ryan Flaherty. Then they played the "Braves Future Stars" in a surprisingly interesting game. Finally, the team got around to games that count, and boy, did they make it count. On Opening Day, the Braves won with a Nick Markakis walk-off HR, while the second game saw the Braves lose in 11 innings, but which they probably had won in the 8th before the umpires reversed a call. All in all, it was a crazy few games that we try to break down in detail.
The Major League Baseball season is nearly upon us, and our Season Preview of the Atlanta Braves is hitting its final installment with the Outfield. The weird thing is that the Braves just sent their best outfielder, 20 year old Ronald Acuna Jr to AAA. In all likelihood, Acuna will be back in two weeks, because the team is playing service time games, and he doesn't really have anyone blocking him. Nick Markakis is okay in RF, while Ender Inciarte is a brilliant defensive CF and a solid bat. LF will be sorted out be the end of April. At the very end of this episode, we make our predictions for the Braves' final record, while also elucidating what a best case scenario looks like. The best part is that baseball is almost here.
Our season preview rolls on by talking about the infielders this week. Of course, we do mention Ronald Acuna, Jr, because he is the best hitter in the Grapefruit League. The real important aspect of the Braves' season is the potential MVP Candidate at First Base, Freddie Freeman. Around the rest of the diamond, the Braves' situation is unclear, but it could be really good. Ozzie Albies is a tremendous young talent, Dansby Swanson has shown glimpses of being a really good major leaguer, the old catching tandem was great last year, and the team has intriguing options at third. Of course, none of that is guaranteed to work, but its possible to see how it could.
Spring Training gets rolling along, and the Braves even traded for three-true-outcomes wonder and infielder Ryan Schimpf. Really, though, we mostly just have to look forward still, and today we talk about the pitching staff. The key unifying theme of the Braves' staff might just be uncertainty. In his relatively short career, Julio Teheran has looked like a down-ballot Cy Young contender and a complete disaster. Mike Foltynewicz is shockingly inconsistent. Sean Newcomb would be a world beater if her cut his walks just a smidge. Brandon McCarthy and Scott Kazmir could be solid veteran pickups, but we wouldn't bet on it. Luiz Gohara could be the best, even though he is only 21. Yet a massively improved bullpen and more options all around should mean the Braves have a lot better pitching than they did last year.
The Braves are playing consistent baseball again, and we're doing consistent podcasts again. Now, those games are only Spring Training, so we're spending our time previewing the season. First, we talk about the Braves' great prospects, including the number one prospect in all of baseball, Ronald Acuna, Jr. We actually spend the majority of our time discussing the Braves' extremely deep group of prospects before we get to the future superstar. Yet at the end, we have to talk about the remarkable performance of the young outfielder. There is hope for the future for the Braves, and for good reason.
With absolutely no news coming from anywhere in baseball, we went straight into reminiscing about the cornerstones of the best rotation in baseball history. The Braves first acquired Tom Glavine in the 1984 draft, and he seemed like a solid lefty pitching prospect. They then got John Smoltz back for Doyle Alexander from the Tigers at the 1987 deadline. Neither looked like a future Hall of Famer in the 1980s. Then they began working with Leo Mazzone, who focused on throwing strikes with your fastball, and never giving a hitter what they want. By 1993, they were joined by an even better pitcher, when Greg Maddux signed as a free agent. They were together for a decade, forming a remarkable staff, and all three being not just successful pitchers, but unique.
Chipper Jones has become a Hall of Famer, so we decided to make our return episode about Chipper. First, we did have to talk about the various prospect rankings put out recently, which all crowned Ronald Acuna as the best prospect in baseball. Then we turned our attention to Chipper, beginning when he was a top prospect. Larry Wayne Jones, Jr. came to the Braves out of the Bolles School in Jacksonville, and we tell his full story from then. We reminisce on Chipper's season after season dominance, trying to get some perspective on where he ranks in history. Not to give too much away, but he lands pretty highly. This episode is for one of the great Braves of all time and a true Atlanta hero.
Bob Horner is perhaps one of the great tragic figures in baseball. Horner went straight from being the best player in college baseball to playing in the majors after the Braves selected him number one overall in the 1978 draft. The early years of his career made Horner look like a future superstar. He was an odd looking player, constantly battling weight and injury issues, but he could turn on a fastball as well as anyone. He was a consistent thirty home run hitter, when he could stay healthy enough. Unfortunately, that was always his issue, and he injured his wrist in his best season, 1983. Then, in 1987, Horner was a victim of collusion by MLB's owners, which meant he was the best hitter in Japan for 1987. Horner attempted a comeback with St. Louis in 1988, but injured his shoulder and ended his career at the age of 30.
This week, the Braves picked a hard throwing reliever in the Rule 5 draft and were part of some small rumors. So we went back into our look at Braves' history by discussing Dale Murphy. Murphy is still one of the most beloved players the Braves have ever had. A clean cut, genuinely nice guy, Murph was also a good center fielder and an excellent hitter. Coming to the majors, Dale Murphy was a power hitting catching prospect, who then developed a block when throwing the ball back to the mound. He wound up in centerfield and turned into an MVP candidate. For six years, Murphy was as good as anyone in baseball, but it was really only those six years. He fell off a cliff by his mid-30s, and never even had hang around value at the end of his career. Because of the unusual shape of his career, his Hall of Fame case is hard to decipher. No matter what, though, he's one of the best Braves of all time.
The only news we had to begin this episode was that the Braves' AAA team is now known as the Gwinnett Stripers, so we quickly got into our discussion of Darrell Evans. Bill James called him the most underrated player in baseball history. He was a quiet, unassuming third baseman who had a low batting average, but compensated with great power and a phenomenal batting eye. In 1973, he would have an incredible season for the Braves and was part of a good young core. Then, in 1976, he was traded after a slow start for Willie Montanez, who could hit .300, but not do much else. The trade, and many associated transactions, speaks a lot as to how the Braves ended up being so abysmal in the late 1970s.
Returning to our offseason series on great Braves players in history, we discuss the "Beeg Boy," Rico Carty. There is perhaps no player in baseball history quite like Carty, who was a large Dominican player who hit the ball hard. There have been other players who fit that mold, but no others were cowboy-hat wearing, cigar smoking iconoclasts who referred to themselves in the third person by their nickname and kept their wallet in their back pocket while playing. In addition to being a colorful character, Carty also was one of the more snakebitten players, having missed two separate full seasons, once to tuberculosis and once to a crushed knee. He also had fights with teammates like Hank Aaron, Ron Santo, and Frank Robinson. We had a lot of fun talking about Rico Carty, because it's always fun to talk about Rico Carty.
Well, we finally found out about the Braves' international punishments from Major League Baseball, and they are severe. Almost the entire international signing class from 2016 was set as free agents, reducing the Braves' prospect load by 13 players. They also got serious restrictions on future international signing periods that will harm their ability to sign pretty much anyone who is not from the United States. The harshest penalty was reserved for the Braves' former GM, John Coppolella, who was put on the permanently ineligible list. This has massive ramifications for the Braves moving forward, all of which we discuss. We aren't real sure to make of it all, but we don't like it as Braves fans. We also discuss the Braves' brand new GM, Alex Anthopolous, a wheeler-dealer who helped push the Blue Jays to serious contenders. All in all, it's a strangely newsworthy podcast for the offseason.
Ender Inciarte won a Gold Glove, the Braves prospects in the Arizona Fall League are rolling, and the investigation into the front office is still continuing, so we didn't have much news. That meant we got a ton of time to talk about the greatest knuckleballer in history, Phil Niekro. There is literally no one who has thrown as good a knuckleball for as long as Knucksie did. This led to some pretty weird stat lines, year after year. In Niekro's career, the Braves really only had two good teams, in 1969 and 1982, and he was the staff ace for both. In between, he kept winning and losing lots of games, because he was all they had. This made him a hero to older Braves fans, a one of a kind in baseball history, and severely underrated for many people.
All Major League Baseball is officially done now, and we're waiting on the investigation into the Braves front office. So we just talk about Hank Aaron for awhile. We actually wonder for awhile if one of the best players all time is underrated. On the other hand, even most all-time superstars are not as consistently excellent for 20 years like Hank. We took immense joy reflecting on Aaron's general style, especially his batting swing, which no one should actually try to emulate. As usual, we also take a careful look at his stats. The best part for us is our second (at least) discussion of Aaron hitting 715 off of the Dodgers' Al Downing. There are few greater moments in Atlanta sports history, and Hank Aaron achieved it despite encountering astonishing amounts of racist abuse. It was just the kind of man he was, a true idol on and off the field. And he belongs to the Atlanta Braves.
We continue apace with our coverage of notable Braves' players in history by talking about the only man to play in Boston, Milwaukee, and Atlanta, Eddie Mathews. Mathews was signed from Santa Barbara High School in California, making an immediate impression in the minors. As an 18 year old, he even played for the Atlanta Crackers at the old Ponce de Leon Park. By the time he reached the majors with Boston, he was already one of the best power hitters in the game and a capable third baseman. He would quickly become one of the best power hitters of all time. Mathews Along with Warren Spahn and Hank Aaron, he propelled the Braves to two consecutive World Series in 1957 and 1958, winning the first one. Mathews was the first third baseman to hit 500 homeruns. After the 1966 season, the team's first in Atlanta, he would be traded to the Astros in perhaps the first of the Braves' bad trades in their early years of Atlanta. Then he would come back later as a coach and manager to little acclaim. None of that should overshadow his great abilities.
Since the Braves have absolutely nothing going on at the moment (the investigation is ongoing), we began our offseason project of discussing great players in Braves history. We started with the only one who did not actually play for the Atlanta Braves: Warren Spahn, who pitched in Boston and Milwaukee. We celebrate Spahn's remarkable career, which began in 1942 and was immediately interrupted by combat in World War II. After returning in 1946, Spahn was one of the best pitchers in the game for a decade and a half. His astonishing consistency helped make the Braves real contenders in the 1950s. He also was one of the smartest pitchers in baseball history, famous for his witticisms. We talk about it all, and briefly discuss how an all-time Braves all star team would do against other franchises' squads. Enjoy this history of Warren Spahn with us.
With no more news from the Braves' front office mess, we took a look back over the whole 2017 season. It probably was not that far off what anyone should have expected in terms of record, but how the Braves got there was surprising. Dansby Swanson had a disastrous start to the season, the bullpen kept imploding, and then Freddie Freeman got injured. Yet just after the All-Star Break, the team sat at 45-45 and looked to be in contention for the Wild Card. Then they lost a lot just before the Trade Deadline and were quickly out of it. So the team became a collection of younger players, what Braves fans have wanted for awhile, with Sean Newcomb, Johan Camargo, Ozzie Albies, Lucas Sims, and a sent down and called back up Dansby Swanson signalling the youth movement had begun.
The Braves are in a very strange place as the MLB Postseason begins. Even though they didn't make the playoffs, they might be at the center of the story with the biggest impact on the future of baseball. So we discuss everything to do with the Braves' front office investigation. John Copolella is out as GM because he had some under the table deals. Rumors say the rest of the front office is in chaos. Meanwhile, manager Brian Snitker has been retained for one more year. We try and figure out just what's going on with the team and the franchise in general.
With the Braves completely out of it and having a less than stellar week, we took time to reflect on how it actually works to root for a team that is not a winner. We talk about taking pleasure in the successes of the young players and not sweating the ups and downs of the best players on the team. The other thing we reflect on is the way we can invest too much in the individual games of our pitchers. That's the way it goes, you have to find something to cling on to at times like these. Because the Braves are out of the playoffs, we try to understand the rest of baseball, something we rarely do. We might have even figured out that we want to watch these playoffs. It is baseball, after all.
After a week off due to Hurricane Irma, we are back to forget about the storm with the Atlanta Braves, who have been good about being a distraction recently. Led by Dansby Swanson and Ozzie Albies, the Braves have been a good team over the past two weeks. Even more encouragingly, young pitchers like Luiz Gohara and Sean Newcomb have pitched well. The real question for the Braves seems to be at a handful of places next year. One place they will not have a question mark is a corner outfield spot, where newly crowned Baseball America's Minor League Player of the Year Ronald Acuna will step in. We also took that as an opportunity to review his minor league numbers one more time, which is always fun. We also took a gander at other impressive minor leaguers that have won awards. All in all, we are pretty excited.
This week's episode was a bit unusual, as a power outage on one end caused us to record during the Braves' game against the Cubs. But really, the individual ups and downs during a game are not as important for this team as they might be. Reflecting on the Brandon Phillips trade and the recent September call ups, we return to the theme of the season, the ongoing rebuild by the front office. One of the pieces who will still not affect that rebuild at the Major Leagues this year is Ronald Acuna, who will instead go to the Arizona Fall League. Absolutely contributing this year are Dansby Swanson and Ozzie Albies, who are looking more and more like the double play combo of the present. Our biggest concern continues to be the pitching staff, which has been distressingly inconsistent.
This episode is more of a "State of the Rebuild," than a recap of the Braves' week. Partly that's because we recorded on an off-day and partly that's because we can't stop thinking about the rebuild. We try to assess how this compares to other rebuilds, both in Braves history and across baseball. The best thing that can be said is that this rebuild is poised to provide volume of talent as well as some sensational top end players. After all, the 1990s Braves had Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, and Chipper Jones come through the system to be Hall of Famers, but they also came up with Jeff Blauser, Mark Lemke, Steve Avery, Javy Lopez, Ryan Klesko, and Mark Stanton. They also signed Greg Maddux as a free agent because they had players on smaller contracts, and got Fred McGriff because they could lose a prospect like Melvin Nieves. Here's hoping this team can do something similar with all of their resources.
The Braves had a fairly odd week, although more because they played a handful of truly weird games, including a 17-2 loss, a game that was scoreless into the 8th in Coors, and a game decided on an error by the best third baseman in baseball. Still, they went 3-4 in the last week, which is par for the course with this club this season. Once again, we discuss the future, but that's because Dansby Swanson's great week and Ronald Acuna's unbelievable season have shaped expectations in different ways. The Braves are still primed to be a contender in the near future, but whether that near future is next year or not is still unclear. Certainly, the team's staff is in no condition to compete next year without a talent infusion at the Major League Level. On the other hand, we do start the year with Freddie Freeman, Ender Inciarte, an exciting double play combination, a solid catcher, and a wealth of pitching prospects.
The Braves are, in the grand scheme, exactly where we thought they would be at the start of the season. They are a slightly below .500 team that still has an extremely bright future. Of course, in detail, everything seems a little off. The double play combo of the future is together on the MLB roster, but only because Dansby Swanson was recalled after Johan Camargo injured himself coming onto the field. The best pitcher in the Atlanta rotation is Mike Foltynewicz, and Julio Teheran has been a disaster. Brandon Phillips and Matt Adams seem extraneous to this team, and Nick Markakis and Matt Kemp seem like a burden for next year's team. But we still have Ronald Acuna, Mike Soroka, and a host of other products knocking on the door.
The Braves lost 5 out of 6, made no trades at the deadline, and generally seemed underwhelming on the field this week. But there was still a lot of excitement. Ozzie Albies is in the Major Leagues and became the first player born in 1997 to hit a homerun. Lucas Sims made his first Major League start. And on the farm, Ronald Acuna keeps impressing. So we focus very specifically on what the Braves will look like at the start of next season. We don't think Brandon Phillips will be there. We also aren't sure about Nick Markakis. But we can see Matt Adams and R.A. Dickey playing a role. In all, we can see a good product on the field next year, but can't say exactly who might be doing what where. There's also an extended rumination, as always, on the 1991 Braves, because we can't help ourselves.
The Braves had some big news in the past week, and yet they are still what they've always been this season, a slightly below .500 team. Of course, the way they get to that record keeps changing. Jaime Garcia got traded to the Twins for a low-level prospect. Dansby Swanson got sent down to Triple A, in the hopes he will get it straightened out. Also, Aaron Blair probably made his last start for the Atlanta Braves. Most likely, the Braves will make a trade or two in the next few days, and that will reshape how they look moving forward. Right now it's hard to know their plans for the future, with minor league transactions complicating everything, as Luiz Gohara and Touki Toussaint both got bumped up a level. The Braves do remain interesting, and they still are on pace to be real contenders in a year or two.
The Braves are coming off two impressive wins against the best team in baseball, and this episode features a first hand report from one of those games, which handed former Brave Alex Wood his first loss of the season. On the other hand, it's still hard to shake the feeling that this team is probably no better than .500 and does not have a real shot at the playoffs. Trades in the next week before the deadline will feature the team selling, and they've had an up and down season that doesn't bode well for a late run. Still, the Braves are extremely well positioned to be a contender in the near future, and then keep that up for a few years. We're all in on the rebuild still, but especially because we actually are beginning to see the fruits of the effort.
The Braves are, technically speaking, probably still in the playoff hunt. Yet as the All Star Break is ending, we decide that the Braves really are not good enough to actually contend. So we made this episode all about the 2018 Braves. Specifically, we think about who will be the cornerstones for that team, and who will be elsewhere for next season. This also makes us think about the timetable for the Braves' best prospects like Ozzie Albies and the recently promoted to AAA Ronald Acuna. While we don't know for sure whether we believe the 2018 Braves are going to be World Series contenders, we do feel like the 2019 and 2020 Braves should be. We might not be discussing a winner over the second half of the season, but if we do see the Braves trade some players, then we get to talk about the foundation of the next great Braves team.
This is a wine country podcast, as we recorded while on vacation together. Despite that, a Braves loss, especially a blown one, can have devastating consequences for our mood. Still, the Braves are who we've always thought they were: a .500 team with a bright future. That thought makes us speculate on whether the Braves really should try and go for a playoff run. Ultimately, we think they can't quite pull it off, but they are poised to make some trades that will really make them better in the future. We think that makes the team exciting to watch in its own way, so we ponder trade scenarios and how the team might be built into a true contender.
If we had talked earlier in the week, maybe we would have been more hopeful about the Braves' overall chances of contending this year. Instead, this episode begins by discussing the Bartolo Colon era's conclusion, and what it might mean for the team's other older pitchers. As usual, we end up focusing mostly on the future of the Braves. This one is different, though, because we tried to game out the short term, medium term, and long term future of the club. Specifically, we look at who might be traded and what we'd be happy getting in return. The answers, broadly speaking, are half the roster and some prospects higher up the chain. What's funny is, this is kind of the team we thought they would be.
The Braves aren't really a good baseball team, but they sure are fun right now. After amazing comebacks and huge innings, the Braves are in 2nd place in the NL East, but still far out of first or even a Wild Card spot. With rumors of Freddie Freeman being the third baseman of the future, we consider how far away that future really is, because we aren't certain keeping Matt Adams' bat in the lineup through a problematic defensive alignment is better than trading Big City for some interesting prospects. We also are still in favor of trading Nick Markakis, Matt Kemp, and Brandon Phillips, who have all been contributing in this recent fun streak. We also diagnose the problem as Braves fans having unrealistic expectations of developments for teams because of 1991. At the end, we realized that we had talked about the minor leagues less than we ever have, which says something about this team.
The Braves are still the team they have been in the standings, but they got much more exciting with the promotion of Sean Newcomb to the Major League roster. We talked about his two impressive first starts and what we think of the big lefty. Then we realized that the Braves are still more positioned for the future, but like how it's shaping up, including with the most recent draft and the selection of Vanderbilt's Kyle Wright in the first round. We also picked out some of our favorite players and names of the Braves' draft before coming back around to the minor league system and the phenomenal performance of Mike Soroka at Mississippi. We also reflect on some wisdom from GM John Copolella on who will be a valuable contributor to the Braves in the future. No, the team isn't good yet, but we enjoy them a lot more than some previous iterations.
We begin with the big news from the Braves: Sean Newcomb will make his major league debut. Of course, this is because Bartolo Colon is going on the DL after some disastrous starts, and we have some thoughts on that. We also take time to praise Mike Foltynewicz and the bullpen. The offense is fine, and largely we think Dansby Swanson is coming around. All of which leads us to discuss the future in some very calculated, multifaceted ways. One of the great things about the Braves' system is that it's so deep, no one has to be rushed. It also means everyone has a variety of paths to the big leagues, all of which we consider for Brett Cumberland, Ronald Acuna, Kolby Allard, Dustin Peterson, and Ozzie Albies.
We're beginning to feel a horrible sense of deja vu with this Braves team. They seem to keep having the same issues, and the same players are doing the same things. Sometimes that's good (Matt Kemp and Tyler Flowers), and other times it's beyond frustrating (Dansby Swanson and Bartolo Colon.) We're left to wonder about the actual timeline for contention and what the rest of the year, which led us to one of the more interesting speculative projects we done. We try to say whether the Braves' main position players will still be with the team on September 1 and what we think they might be hitting then. Oddly, we seem to believe the team isn't really done selling veterans just yet.
Well, we took a week off due to scheduling conflicts, and what a week to miss talking about the Braves. First, we talked about the injury to Freddie Freeman, which can be summed up with the thought that you never want to lose an MVP candidate. But we praise John Copolella for immediately taking action with the Matt Adams trade. We also praise Matt Adams himself. Actually, we end up praising the whole offense, especially Dansby Swanson and Rio Ruiz. Of course, the Braves still aren't a good team, which is due to the pitching staff, really. That leads us to speculate about who might get called up if and when Bartolo Colon is deemed to be a fat 44 year old rather than a baseball miracle. We think it will be Lucas Sims, but realize that Sean Newcomb, Matt Wisler, and Patrick Weigel are also options. Really, it makes us just ponder when certain guys will be called up and how it might happen.
This was not the best week to talk about the current state of the Atlanta Braves, but we gave it our best shot. We have gone from mildly worried about the rotation to downright pessimistic in the space of seven days. We still lament the state of the team's bench, even after they traded for Danny Santana (or maybe because of it.) We also wonder about Dansby Swanson's true ability as a major league hitter. All of which leads us to really think deeply, as we usually do, about the minors. There the Braves made a lot of news by promoting quite a few prospects rather aggressively, including Ronald Acuna. But the time when the Major League team is fun, good, and winning still feels far away.
The Braves had a .500 week, and didn't really seem to be that different since last week, but we managed to find the big events. First, we worried ever so slightly about both Julio Teheran and Bartolo Colon, while being positively alarmed about the lefthanders in the bullpen. Then, we began to reflect on where the Braves could improve. Personally, we're in favor of cutting Adonis Garcia and seeing what a Jace Peterson/Johan Camargo timeshare would do. Also, we reflect on how Dansby Swanson has been and can continue improving, partly by reflecting on someone who is having a phenomenal rookie year, Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees. As always, we find ourselves wrapping up by looking at the minors, where the cupboard is getting extremely full, especially on the pitching side. All of that means the Braves are still interestingly positioned for success in the next few years.
I began by asking "Are the Braves' good?" My dad was not having it, but at least this year it isn't a completely farfetched question, unlike last season. We review everything that's good about the Braves so far (Freddie Freeman, the starting rotation, the old veteran former All Stars) and what's not that good (the top of the lineup and the bench.) We also looked at the minors with an eye to how John Coppolella might reshape the roster this season and in the future. There's also an odd relitigation of the Andrelton Simmons trade and a lengthy discussion of what Alex Jackson might turn into (probably not a catcher, but maybe a Major League slugger.)
The Braves have had a very up and down week, with a sweep of the Padres followed by getting swept by the Nationals. But we're not that worried at the Channel 17 Podcast, because we kind of expected the Braves to be a little below .500 this year. We venture into what might be wrong with Dansby Swanson (if anything) and reflect that Freddie Freeman will not keep up a pace that exceeds Ted Williams in 1941. Basically, we think that the Braves' starting pitching and top of the lineup will keep the team afloat. With that in mind, we did think about what the call up schedule might be for various Braves minor leaguers. Yet again, that's where the interest for the long term truly is.
The Atlanta Braves have come home, opened SunTrust Park, and gotten that first home win. As it turned out, having to push our recording by a day was a great benefit to us, because we got to say alot about Julio Teheran and Ender Inciarte. Maybe the Braves aren't quite a good team yet, but they aren't abysmal like they were at the start of last year and we have some pretty good reasons for optimism all things considered. We just need to remember that a week in baseball isn't going to make or break a team's season, especially this early. We also revive our tour of the minor leagues, where we get extremely excited about just how many good pitchers this organization has.
Baseball is back! The Braves' bats are not, though, and the bullpen looks a bit shaky. So the Braves are only 1-2. On the other hand, it's early, and we certainly can find some glimmers of hope, specifically the performance of Matt Kemp and some excellent pitching by Julio Teheran and Bartolo Colon. Overall, we feel it's best to reserve judgement, although we are still annoyed by the bench and the back end of the bullpen. Finally, the majors weren't the only baseball to begin this week. The minors are back in almost full force and we broke down all of the Braves' full-season affiliate rosters.
My parents went to the Braves-Yankees preseason game that was the first game at SunTrust Park. So my father and I had a little conversation about the new stadium. We got into everything about it, from the field to the concessions to the JumboTron. Enjoy this special edition Channel 17 Podcast and check back in on Friday for a new episode.
This week's episode is specially devoted to previewing the Braves' lineup. To begin with, are they good? Well, they are definitely better than they were at the beginning of last season. And if they can continue the way they hit at the end of last season, they will be pretty solid. Of course, there are a lot of question marks. To make this episode more fun, I asked my dad to give his own, off the cuff projections for everyone in the lineup. Also, at the very end, we make our not-really-that-bold predictions for the Braves' win total. We're just excited that next week there will be actual baseball to talk about.
For today's episode, we previewed what to expect from the Braves' pitching staff this year. It's not that clear exactly what will happen, but it's a good bet it will be entertaining. At the very least, few teams have entered a season with a rotation featuring two pitchers in their forties like R.A. Dickey and Bartolo Colon. Yet the old guys, as well as 30 year old rehab project Jaime Garcia, are not really the story of this pitching staff. The real story will be if Julio Teheran turns into a real Cy Young candidate and Mike Foltynewicz becomes a good major leaguer. The bullpen should be an asset no matter what happens in the rotation. The other big question will be which prospects might step up to become contributors this season.
The Atlanta Braves have the best farm system in all of baseball, and we went through the best prospects in the system. Using Keith Law's Top 25 for the Braves, we talked about a wide range of minor leaguers, speaking to the Braves' overall depth in their minor league system. The range goes from Abraham Gutierrez, a 17 year old catcher, to Dansby Swanson, a sensation who is one at bat from losing his prospect eligibility, we talked about everyone. Perhaps we talked too much, but these Braves have a ton of talent on the farm. That means we have a ton of options for future players that can add to the major league roster. We talked about it all, because we are very excited about the future, even if it is still two to three years away.
The 2012 Atlanta Braves probably overperformed. Their lineup featured no MVP caliber hitters and a few sinkholes. The starting staff was held together with duct tape. The defense was a mix of brilliance and ineptitude. Yet somehow the much maligned Fredi Gonzalez got them to 94 wins and a Wild Card spot. That still meant they had to play the St. Louis Cardinals in a Wild Card Game. Tellingly, that game featured the worst infield fly rule call ever made by umpire Sam Holbrook. So the Braves added another crushing playoff defeat to their legacy and never built on the team's success. On that note, we wrap up our offseason review of Braves' history. Seems appropriate.
The 2010 Atlanta Braves were, frankly, not that great a team. They had the aged Chipper Jones, an in prime Brian McCann, and a promising rookie in Jason Heyward. The rest of the lineup was a bunch of loose parts otherwise. The staff had Tommy Hanson and Tim Hudson, while the bullpen was excellent. But, this was Bobby Cox's last season, and the team made some trades to bolster the lineup with some solid veterans. Somehow, they managed to make it to the postseason as the Wild Card. There, they lost an extremely tight series to the San Francisco Giants. The team was neither that good in the moment nor really built for future success, especially as Jason Heyward would never reach the heights of this year. (We also mentioned Spring Training, but we are NOT going to overreact to Spring Training stats. Seriously. Not getting weird about Ronald Acuna at all.)
The 2005 Braves were truly the end of an era, as they were the last in the run of 14 straight division winners. At the time, though, they felt like a new era, as they were propelled by "The Baby Braves," young players like Brian McCann, Kelly Johnson, Kyle Davies, Blaine Boyer, and especially Jeff Francouer. When added to a team built around Rafael Furcal, Marcus Giles, John Smoltz, Chipper Jones, and Andruw Jones in his best year, the team got propelled to another division title. Alas, it was not meant to be, as the team lost the NLDS to the Astros in a heartbreaking 18 inning game. They wouldn't make the postseason again for another five years, which seemed like a horrible draught after the success of the 1990s.
The 1999 Atlanta Braves were sort of a last gasp of the great 1990s Braves teams. They were the most recent Braves team to go to a World Series, and in retrospect they seem to have been the beginning of the slow decline. Yet they might also have been slightly underrated. Certainly, the Jones boys, Andruw and Chipper, were excellent, and Bobby Cox managed the entire team perfectly. The team also still had great pitching, especially with 24 year olds Kevin Millwood and John Rocker. Rocker was the ultimate problem, though, as his infamous Sports Illustrated interview came out after the 1999 season. Maybe Rocker's pigheadedness and bigotry cast a curse on the Braves, but maybe the team just wasn't as talented.
Our topic for today was the Atlanta Braves' 1996 Season, which ended in one of the great gut punches in Braves' history during the World Series against the Yankees. Fittingly, we discussed it after the Atlanta Falcons had one of the all time great gut punches against the Patriots in the Super Bowl. So while we discussed Chipper's breakout year, Andruw's arrival, and the continued excellence of this pitching staff, we also made it a rumination on horrible losses in sports. This somewhat extends to an entire debriefing on Atlanta's sorry sports history, which is also the sports fan history of my father. (We also mention the World Baseball Classic and Braves who made country's rosters, but mostly Floyds don't pay attention to that event.)
We've made it! Finally, we reach the Atlanta Braves one and only World Series Championship team, the 1995 edition. Perhaps fittingly, the Braves won the strike shortened season. Still, they were pretty good, with a lineup infused with young players like Ryan Klesko, Javy Lopez, and Chipper Jones. They also still had Glavine, Maddux, and Smoltz and one heck of a bullpen. Perhaps most impressively, they beat three really good teams in the postseason. In the Division Series (one of the first of its kind), the Bravos dispatched a surprisingly effective Rockies team, while they swept a very capable Reds team in the League Championship Series. Finally, in the World Series, they put away a truly impressive Cleveland Indians squad with multiple future Hall of Famers. And that is how the Atlanta Braves won a World Series.
Although our main task was reviewing the sensational 1993 team, we began this podcast by looking at the Kurt Suzuki signing and the Non-Roster Invites to Spring Training. Once we got into the 1993 season, we really enjoyed ourselves. We opined that this might be the most talented Atlanta Braves team ever assembled, beginning with the signing of reigning Cy Young winner Greg Maddux in December of 1992. The staff, Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz, and Avery, was truly special, and the offense more than capable. Still, by the All Star break, the Braves were nine games back from an equally impressive Giants team, who acquired reigning MVP Barry Bonds in the offseason. So the Braves made one of the great trades in history, acquiring Fred McGriff from the Padres. There is also discussion about a stadium fire, the debuts of Chipper Jones, Javy Lopez, and Ryan Klesko, and why we began to hate Curt Schilling.
The 1991 Atlanta Braves might be the most exciting Braves team we could possibly discuss. Famously, they went from worst to first and became the first Atlanta team to make it to the World Series. They might also have been Bobby Cox's best single season managerial job, as he spread playing time between players all over the field and coaxed a team of moderate talent to a League Championship. He also managed Terry Pendleton to an MVP. The team was a mixture of mid-level free agent signings that bolstered the team's defense and made life easier for the young pitchers on the squad. Those young pitchers, Steve Avery, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz, all came to life in 1991, as Glavine won the Cy Young and Avery and Smoltz were postseason heroes. Unfortunately, we had to end on that Game 7 in that World Series, but 1991 was just the beginning of something much better.
Our offseason review has led us to the worst season in the history of the Atlanta Braves, the 1988 squad. So we were both relieved to be able to discuss the Mallex Smith trade. Although there were jokes to be had about more young pitching prospects, we also acknowledge that it's hard for Mallex Smith to crack a team employing Ender Inciarte. Finally, we got to the 1988 season, whose real highlight was a suddenly over the hill Dale Murphy, who was still probably the best hitter on the team. Really, we take the chance to look at the players in the minors who would become the backbone of the team that made the World Series just three years later.
The 1982 Braves were a really good team at the start of the season, winning their first 13 games. Then they were sort of mediocre. Then they were really bad in August. Then they had a great closing kick that propelled them to winning the division by a game. Their lineup was uneven too, but did feature Dale Murphy and Bob Horner at their primes. Also, Phil Niekro was still far and away the team's best pitcher at 43. 1982 was also the year that Pascual Perez got the nicknames "Wrong Way" and "I-286" for missing the stadium. All in all, it was a really fun year that the Braves did not build upon at all.
Our topic of conversation today is the 1978 Atlanta Braves. They were really bad, but they had some interesting elements. They had Gary Matthews and Jeff Burroughs as interesting corner outfielders, thanks to owner Ted Turner's money. They had a few young players, especially Bob Horner and Dale Murphy. They also had Phil Niekro have what was probably the best season ever by a pitcher who lost eighteen games. Largely, though, this season was important for being the first season that Bobby Cox managed in the major leagues. We mostly focus on how this team developed in the next few seasons, especially in light of how the current team will form in the future.
We started this episode with the meagerest of Braves news: Dansby Swanson will wear number 7 next season and Ronald Acuna is an Australian League All-Star. Our main focus, then, became the 1974 Atlanta Braves, although it's hard to understand that 88 win club without looking at the 1973 and 1975 teams and seeing why Atlanta could not sustain any success. We do a deep dive on Henry Aaron's record breaking 715th home run, reflecting on what a monumental achievement it truly was for Aaron. Yet we wrap the podcast with our thoughts on why the Braves couldn't stay good after 1974, which has a lot to do with bad trades, overinvestment in individual prospects, and a general misapprehension by the Bravos front office about what makes a baseball team good.
Our subject for the week was the 1969 Braves team, which were the very first National League West Division Champions. But first we discussed the current Braves team, noting they made a Rule 5 selection and did not trade for Chris Sale. Regarding the 1969 team, we begin by discussing how a team in Atlanta went to the West Division. We also reflected on the team's place in the league, most notably how they were essentially Hank Aaron, Phil Niekro, and a good infield defense. Also, we get into a conversation about the way this team became the setup for years of disappointment for Braves fans, which was not the most pleasant way to end things.
Finally, we have reached the 1966 Atlanta Braves, the first team to call Atlanta home. But before we can break down the first team my father ever truly loved, we need to talk about the Braves making trades in the present with their stockpile of pitching prospects. The Braves announced they were moving to Atlanta in 1965, but only came for the 1966 season. This was a team still sporting Hank Aaron and Eddie Matthews, but they also had a fleet of capable hitters up and down the lineup. Their pitching was promising, but never really panned out. This would set a template for Atlanta teams until 1991. Also, we talk quite a bit about Tony Cloninger, more than anyone would probably guess we could.
In our ongoing look at Braves history, we look at the one Milwaukee team we will cover, the World Champion 1957 squad. First, though we pay some attention to the 2017 team by talking about the Sean Rodriguez signing, which we like even if it isn't going to be a game changer. Our discussion of the 1957 Braves mainly focuses on just how good this team was up and down the lineup, while being anchored by three inner circle Hall of Famers in Warren Spahn, Hank Aaron, and Eddie Matthews. We undertake a deep dive on the great World Series the Braves played against the Yankees, with the World Series hero being starting pitcher Lew Burdette. We also compare the 1950s and 1990s Braves, although that mostly led to us lamenting how the Braves don't have more championships.
The business for the day is to look back on the 1914 Boston Braves, the first World Series Champions in franchise history. But first, we discuss the signing of the second over 40 starting pitcher by the Braves this offseason, with the acquisition of Bartolo Colon. (We're for it, generally speaking.) Then we take our deep dive into the 1914 Boston Braves, the truly amazing miracle team led by George Stallings. Even for the Deadball Era, they were a defense and pitching dependent team who got by through mixing and matching their war into an appropriate defense. We also get to talk about Rabbit Maranville for awhile, which is always fun. We also briefly look forward to our next episode, about the 1957 World Champion Milwaukee Braves.
Aaaaand we're back! After joining the Braves by taking the postseason off, we resume the podcast by doing a review of the 2016 season. Before we wade into the details, we discuss the signing of R.A. Dickey, Ender Inciarte's Gold Glove, and the "Interim" tag coming off Brian Snitker's job title. We talk about how the Braves went from being historically awful to a better than .500 team inside of one season. We also pick out our MVP, Best Pitcher, Most Exciting Moment, and Most Embarassing Moment from the season. This is also a preview of our offseason plan, where we will cover a significant season for each week. Next time--the only Boston team on the list, the 1914 World Series Champion Miracle Braves.
Well, we did take a week off, but that meant we had two weeks to talk about. Unfortunately, we had to begin by discussing the tragic death of Jose Fernandez, which we still can't really wrap our minds around. Then we marvel at how this Braves team actually has avoided 100 losses with a week to go in the season, when we were pondering if they'd lose 110 earlier. We reflect on just how flukey this run has been, especially thinking about the second half stats of our best hitters. We also think about how the team is positioned by looking at the 2005 team. Which somehow led to talking about the Mark Teixira trades. Sorry about that Braves fans.
While we were a day later than planned, we were able to take stock of where the Braves are right now. This roster is probably better than it was at the beginning of the year, but there is no doubt that the Braves are playing better. We consider the improvements the Braves have made this season, with the biggest being Dansby Swanson. We also consider the Braves' three minor league affilliates doing well in their respective league playoffs. In particular, we think about whether it means the Braves' system will produce backups and role players as well as stars. Then we reluctantly get to Ozzie Albies' injury, but a glance at Chipper Jones' minor league career provides a lesson in the less than neat path even hall of famers sometimes take.
We have our first episode in which we are actually talking face to face. Fortunately, it comes hot on the heels of a five game win streak for the Braves. We spend most of our time figuring out this current version of the roster and why they've become so much better offensively. Speculating on who might get called up in the rest of September leads us to make guesses about the Braves offseason. We also spend five minuted on Tim Tebow. Finally, we compare the 1988 Braves roster with this one, while still hoping we can surpass the 54 wins that team accumulated.
We buried the lede a bit on this episode, because I had seen the Yankees and Angels play and just had to float Brian McCann trade ideas. But we eventually talk about Dansby Swanson's call up and the great pitching performances by Matt Wisler and Mike Foltynewicz this week. We actually found overall that we were quite positive about the Braves right now despite the fact we are carefully watching to make sure the Braves do not have the worst record in Atlanta history. We even think they might not lose 100 games. Our final conversation was a ridiculous reflection on ties, which I was maybe a bit more intrigued by than my dad.
We began by quickly discussing Mallex Smith's small but season-ending injury setback. Then we did a deep dive on whether or not Brian Snitker should be the manager next season. We certainly think he has done a good job, but we aren't completely set. This allowed us to go down many different paths about what makes a good manager and what we want in a manager (other than the reincarnation of Earl Weaver.) At the very end of the show, we celebrate that this Braves squad has made sure they will not be the worst team in Braves history by looking at the 1935 Boston Braves, who lost 115 games. Now we just hope the can be better than the 1988 Atlanta Braves.
Remarkably, the Braves offense has been carrying the team of late. We try to figure out what's real and who will be a long term contributor, while also simply reveling in home runs. Of course, the offense has blossomed at a time when the pitching staff is chaotic, especially because of Julio Teheran's DL stint. We wrap up our conversation this week by thinking about what timetable various prospects have and what the team may look like next season, both on opening day and by a year from now.
The big news from the Braves this week was the trade of Hector Olivera for Matt Kemp with the Padres. While we would have rather had the Matt Kemp of five years ago, we still like this deal, as Matt Kemp is not Hector Olivera. Then we discuss the Braves' previous trade this week, reflecting on whether Travis Demeritte will be a Major Leaguer and celebrate getting him for two scrap heap pickups. The last move we discuss was the demotion of Matt Wisley. And finally, with the celebration of the 1991 team, we analyze how that team was built and what made them improve so greatly so quickly.
What's Radical Shifting? Not much has changed for the Braves. They still are a below average team looking towards the future. After we discuss some of the trade possibilities for the next week, we begin to debate what out of the box strategies the Braves could use to both improve themselves and become more interesting to watch. The only real possibility we could settle on is truly "Radical Shifting." Have five infielders for certain batters, or four outfielders, move your third baseman in, but your shortsop deep. Go crazy. Have fun. You might even stumble upon a brilliant strategy.
We began by addressing many of the strange injuries the Braves have dealt with in the past few days, including Tyler Flowers' hand, Arodys Vizcaino's oblique, and Freddie Freeman's (taken care of and not long term threatening) cancerous mole. Then we looked at the bright spots amidst two disappointing games, which actually are quite plentiful when you start thinking about what will work for the Braves in two years. After that, we discussed what kind of trades might be in store for the team as the Deadline approaches, although neither of us think anything major will occur. Finally, we end the show by looking at the August 5, 1973 no-hitter by Phil Niekro against the Padres. Let's just say it wasn't a clash of the titans.
After taking the 4th of July off, we are back with discussion of the Bud Norris trade, the International Free Agent Signings, and everything else concerning the Braves. We also took a look at exactly when we might be able to expect the Braves to be contenders again, with speculation about the development of certain prospects. FInally, we concluded by looking at the roster of the 1993 Richmond Braves.
We begin with the simple question of "Are the Braves good now?" Although we say that they aren't really good, we do find a few more glimmers of hope than in previous weeks. The conversation then turns to John Copollela's "Ask Coppy" session the Braves Twitter feed, which brings us around to future trade targets and why it doesn't make sense to trade Julio Teheran. In honor of Brain Snitker's first ejection, we look back at Bobby Cox's first ejection and the 1978 team. They were bad, but there were positive signs for the future.
On this Father's Day Weekend, my dad and I kick off the episode by reflecting on the Braves' crazy week, including Freddie Freeman's cycle and the team's improbable comeback. Then we spend a large chunk of the episode reflecting on theoretical trades and what kind of exchanges we would like to see the team make over the next six weeks. We end up by reflecting on the greatest trade in Atlanta Braves history: the 1993 deal that brought Fred McGriff from the Padres.
And we're back! After a two week hiatus, we return to talk about the Braves. With the Draft this week, we have something very important to get to, but the Braves overall strategy appears to be the same as it's been for awhile. We ruminate slightly on some of the draft picks, but mostly applaud the Braves for their volume strategy. At the end we reminesce about the 1991, 1992, and 1993 teams and how we consume baseball now vs. how we consumed it then.
It's finally happened, we spend almost the entire episode talking about the major league team. The firing of Fredi Gonzalez is the big news for the Braves this week, and we ponder what it means in the moment and what it says about the team going forward. We also manage to discuss whether someone really should treat batting practice as a home run derby, with recent evidence pointing to "yes" for the Braves. We also look back at Ted Turner's one game managerial career, which might be more interesting than you had thought from a baseball perspective.
To start off, we contemplate the Jhoulys Chacin trade, more as a representative of what the front office is actually doing this year rather than thinking about what we got back. From there, we think about the specific ways that the Braves will be transformed throughout the year, whether it's because of trades, promotions, or other maneuvers. We end by contemplating the Braves' worst trades in their history, which is mostly an excuse to have my dad recorded complaining about Len Barker and Brook Jacoby.
We start off by debating whether or not Fredi Gonzalez will be fired as Braves manager, and then debate whether it would make any particular difference for this season. Then we talk about the recent promotions of Ozzie Albies and Dansby Swanson, and exactly how long they will remain in the minors. We close the show by analyzing the number 17's in Atlanta Braves history, whiich revealed some telling truths about baseball.
In some senses, we've begun to repeat ourselves, but that's because little has changed for the Braves. We do praise Freddie Freeman and Mallex Smith's hot streaks, but wallow in misery at every other hitter on the roster. We focus on the minors by talking about how roster moves might shake out, including by speculating on trades. We wrap everything up by marveling at the peculiarities of Phil Niekro's record.
We look for the positives on the Braves' Major League roster, but still ineluctably find ourselves drawn to talking about the minors, where all the magic seems to actually be happening. We briefly recall the late Milt Pappas, which is really an excuse to talk about the 1969 Atlanta Braves.
We discuss the Braves first win of the season and Hector Olivera's suspension off the top. Next we reflect on the 1988 Braves and what lesson that terrible team has for this season. Mostly, though, we focus on what really matters this year: the prospects.
Mostly this episode is a season preview, covering our expectations for the pitchers and the hitters. Naturally, though, with a season like this one, we mostly talked about the minors. At the very end, my dad gives great reminiscence about April 8, 1974, when Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's home run record.