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1:11

Welcome to The Daily Hammer. Your daily news

1:14

source when it comes to the Atlanta Braves

1:16

is part of the Battery Power Podcast Network.

1:18

My name is Sean Coleman. Hope wherever you

1:20

are and wherever you are listening, you are

1:22

having a great start to your Saturday. Of

1:25

course, you can find The Daily Hammer, The

1:27

Battery Power Podcast, and the podcast to be

1:29

named later. All at batterypower.com at BatteryPowerSBN across

1:31

all forms of social media and free on

1:34

all podcast platforms. Wherever you choose to listen,

1:36

that's where we'll be for free. Just hit

1:38

that subscribe button and you'll get the latest

1:40

content when it's available. My name is Sean

1:42

Coleman. You can find me at StatsSAC on

1:45

Twitter. When it comes to the Braves, here's

1:47

the latest from spring training. And folks, we

1:49

are in the home stretch of spring training

1:51

and we are at we are now officially

1:53

a week, a less than a week away

1:57

from the start of the 2020 regular. season

2:00

for the Atlanta Braves. Hard to believe spring

2:02

training has gone by this past six weeks

2:04

ago. We were talking about pitchers and catchers

2:06

reporting and yet you know you blink an

2:08

eye and here we are near the start

2:10

of the 2024 regular season.

2:13

Now the Braves do have a few more

2:16

spring training games left. They actually were supposed

2:18

to play on Friday but due to some

2:20

inclement weather they did not but they'll face

2:22

the Rays today, Red Sox on Sunday and

2:24

then they'll face the Twins on Monday and

2:26

Tuesday before they head up to Philadelphia and

2:28

of course on Thursday Spencer Strider

2:30

versus Zach Wheeler in a rematch of last

2:33

year's NLDS. Now I would you

2:35

know unfortunately you know point out

2:37

that as of right now

2:39

you know early Saturday morning when this recording

2:42

is occurring as of right now there is

2:44

a bit of a chance

2:46

of rain next Thursday in Philadelphia. Hopefully

2:48

it won't be anything of significance to

2:50

have any type of impact on the

2:52

game on the plans for the game

2:54

that day hopefully there won't be any type of you

2:56

know issue with the Braves being able to start their

2:59

season as expected next Thursday but just seems to

3:01

be something to keep an eye out on you

3:03

know again hopefully the weather won't be any type

3:05

of an issue once the Braves

3:07

arrive in Philadelphia. But of

3:09

course you know when we're talking about

3:11

the home stretch of spring training I've

3:13

you know talked multiple times about the

3:15

biggest storylines the Braves have been focused

3:17

on or that's been discussed written about

3:20

for good reason you know throughout spring

3:22

training and the great thing is to

3:24

me is that the number one

3:26

storyline that we talked about six weeks ago

3:29

has remained a significant

3:31

storyline throughout spring training in

3:33

a positive light. I

3:36

feel like that one

3:38

underrated aspect for any major league team

3:40

of spring training is that when the best

3:43

occurrences when the best of elements one of the

3:45

main things that you could wish for is

3:48

that when it comes to your main contributors performing

3:50

in spring training everything

3:52

occurred as expected and

3:54

that's what you can say about the Braves spring

3:57

training so far. What a meme of that is

3:59

is that You know, Spencer's Father,

4:02

Max Reed, Charlie Morton,

4:04

as well as Chris Selle,

4:06

Renato Lopez, as well. Each

4:08

and every one of those pictures, they've been healthy,

4:10

they produce good results, are better than

4:12

expected results, and each one of them

4:14

have seemed locked into where they're going

4:16

to be in the starting rotation. You

4:18

could say the same thing about the

4:20

main contributors for the Braves bullpen. They've

4:22

all been healthy, they've all shown good

4:24

results at times, and they seem to

4:26

be getting ramped up for the regular

4:28

season. Even those players who are coming

4:30

back from injury, such as Max Reed

4:32

and Chris Selle, you know, in the

4:35

rotation, you know, Selle been a bit

4:37

injury-prone over the past few years, and

4:39

then of course Dylan Lee and Tyler

4:41

Mathek, those players coming back

4:43

off of injury, they have had

4:45

a good spring training. So when you look

4:47

at every different aspect of the

4:50

Braves pitching rotation, which has been, you

4:52

know, the main topic of conversation since

4:54

the end of last year, the Braves

4:56

have to feel very excited about where

4:58

they are. Health is good, results have

5:00

been good, the main contributors all seem

5:02

ready and locked in to really help

5:04

fuel the Braves pursuit of another world

5:06

title. You've got good depth at the

5:09

minor league level, so when it comes

5:11

to the Braves, the biggest storyline to

5:13

me is that especially on the pitching

5:15

side of things, things have occurred as expected.

5:17

Health has been, you know, on the positive

5:19

side, hopefully knock on wood, that will continue

5:22

into the regular season, and so the Braves

5:24

have to feel very good about where their

5:26

pitching is going into the start of the

5:29

2024 season. But

5:31

what about on the position? It's

5:33

only a kick. A

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jump. A block. It's

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6:28

And player. Side of things. Of

6:30

course, you know, one of the other big

6:32

storylines has been the production of

6:34

Jared Kellenik himself since he

6:36

was the main offensive acquisition

6:38

for this team over the

6:40

offseason. And there's, you know,

6:42

no, no great way to

6:45

put it. He has struggled and he

6:47

has struggled mindingly at times throughout spring

6:49

training. But the good thing about it

6:51

is for Jared Kellenik is

6:53

that the reason why he went through

6:55

these struggles was obvious from the start.

6:57

He was making needed adjustments to his

7:00

approach at the plate to where once

7:02

he does start to have some success,

7:04

it can be sustainable for him

7:06

to really start to, you know, meet

7:08

some of the potential that he had throughout

7:10

much of his minor league career. And

7:12

that's the great thing about it for

7:14

Jared Kellenik is that, you know, yes, the

7:17

plans for him have changed as far

7:19

as the regular season goes. Instead of

7:21

him clearly having the everyday job in

7:23

left field, the Braves have already announced that

7:25

Adam Duvall being signed, he will platoon

7:27

with Kellenik. But again, as I talked

7:29

about at the time in the Adam

7:31

Duvall signing, Adam Duvall

7:33

was more signed to be, you know,

7:35

a singular source of depth in

7:37

multiple ways. He wasn't necessarily an indication

7:39

that the Braves have lost confidence in

7:41

Jared Kellenik. Because if you look at

7:44

the comments of Kevin Seitzer

7:46

and Brian Snicker this week, as well

7:48

as Alex Anthopoulos at the time the

7:50

Braves signed Duvall, each and every one

7:52

of them remain

7:54

steadfast and they remain confident that

7:57

once Jared Kellenik starts his attention

8:00

adjustments start to click in. Once

8:02

he starts to achieve some success and

8:04

some consistency, it's gonna be really fun

8:06

to see just how much of an

8:08

offensive contributor he can be. And thankfully

8:10

that's what we've seen at the end

8:12

of spring training. Earlier this week, multiple

8:14

hits, you know, in the game against

8:16

the Blue Jays, then the next day

8:18

he barely misses an opposite field home

8:20

run. Kevin Seitzer talked about the

8:22

fact that, you know, even though Jared

8:24

Kilnick is very hard on himself, he's

8:26

pressed at times this spring training. He's

8:29

remained consistent at committing to making the

8:31

needed adjustments at the plate. And that's

8:33

why Kevin Seitzer is so competent, that

8:35

once the adjustments start to lead to

8:38

some successful results, there could really be

8:40

some good production from Kilnick's

8:42

team. So it's great to see that

8:44

despite struggles that he's had in spring

8:46

training, Jared Kilnick is really starting to

8:48

have some success. Hopefully that will carry

8:50

over to where he can have a really good

8:52

start to the season and establish himself as a regular

8:55

in the Braves lineup. But to expand

8:57

on that, again, from a position player

9:00

standpoint, I think another, you

9:02

know, underrated storyline from this spring training

9:04

is that if you talked with members

9:06

of Braves country as to which hitters

9:08

they probably were most focused on this

9:10

spring in terms of their productivity, I

9:12

think some popular names would have been

9:14

Michael Harris II, Orlando Arceus, Sean

9:16

Murphy, and of course, Jared Kilnick. And

9:19

the reason why is because each and

9:21

every one of those players had

9:23

a reason to watch them in spring training

9:25

for Michael Harris II. Could he have a

9:28

hot spring carry that over into the 2024

9:31

season and really establish himself as one

9:33

of the best young stars in baseball?

9:35

Of course, for Jared Kilnick, it's starting

9:38

to have some production

9:40

match the immense potential that he

9:42

showed in the past in

9:45

Atlanta's system of really

9:47

helping hitters be able to

9:49

improve once they arrive in Atlanta. Could Jared

9:51

Kilnick be the latest success story, you

9:53

know, from that system? And then of course,

9:55

when it came to Sean Murphy and Orlando

9:58

Arceus, it's both of them. last

10:01

year had all-star worthy

10:03

starts to their seasons but they both

10:05

also fell off significantly in the second

10:07

half of the season. Could they rebound

10:10

and have a good spring training? Well

10:12

just as I mentioned about

10:14

the pitching staff it's mostly positive

10:16

when it comes to those four hitters. Michael

10:18

Harris the second has looked incredible all spring.

10:21

Orlando Arce and Sean Murphy have had a

10:23

lot of success and again as mentioned Jared

10:25

Killenick has finally started to have a little

10:27

bit of success over the past few days.

10:29

But why that's so important, why

10:32

those names themselves are so important

10:34

to monitor is because those are

10:36

the names along with Adam

10:38

DuBois and Travis Darno that are going

10:40

to occupy the six through nine spots

10:43

in the praise order this year and you're

10:45

likely going to see a change from Michael

10:47

Harris being down in the ninth spot to

10:49

him being in the sixth spot moving forward

10:51

so he could get more at bats. But

10:53

why it's so important for each and every

10:55

one of those names to be as productive

10:57

as possible is because if the bottom of

10:59

the Braves order is

11:02

productive that is really

11:04

what makes this offense consistent

11:06

and it's to should be

11:08

to no one's surprise that

11:10

when we go through these multiple month

11:12

stretches of winning baseball at over a

11:15

700 you know and over

11:17

where we're winning over 70% of our games over

11:19

a 60 to 90 day period

11:22

one of the biggest sources for that success

11:24

is the bottom of the Braves order being

11:26

among the best in baseball. Not

11:28

only do they you know create and convert

11:30

run scoring opportunities themselves but if the bottom

11:32

of the Braves order is playing well they're

11:34

creating opportunities for the Braves best hitters at

11:37

the top of the line. So it's great

11:39

to see that many of the names that

11:41

will occupy the bottom of the Braves order

11:43

they've had good spring trainings so far and

11:45

once again hopefully you'll see that carry over

11:47

to the

11:50

2024 regular season in the bottom of the Braves

11:52

order if they're going good the Braves should be

11:54

able to get off to a hot start as

11:56

well. So again not much really to

11:59

talk about in terms You know a

12:01

significant injury or a significant roster move or

12:03

you know the latest on you know The

12:05

decision a position battle or something like that

12:07

the Braves have had a very

12:10

good spring training in terms of health

12:12

being in place in terms of positive

12:14

production from many different sources and to

12:16

me Most importantly they have a

12:18

lot of confidence in each and every one of

12:20

their players to carry it over to the

12:22

regular season So the Braves can get off

12:24

to another hot start, you know like they

12:26

did in 2020

12:28

and 23 so plenty of excitement in the air

12:31

again do have a few more spring training games

12:33

to get through Hopefully, you know There won't be

12:35

any type of injury concern or anything like that

12:37

And then once we arrived to Tuesday, we'll finish

12:39

up in Florida and then we'll be headed to

12:42

Philadelphia to start off the 2024

12:45

regular season, of course, we're gonna have all of

12:47

that covered for you here on the battery power

12:50

podcast network Brad Roland and Scott Colvin We'll be

12:52

back early next week to do their season preview

12:54

for the Braves and then I'll be back with

12:56

you as well Especially on Thursday breaking down the

12:59

pitching matchup one of the best in baseball that

13:01

you could possibly come up with Spencer

13:03

Strider as well as Zach

13:06

Wheeler to open the season for the

13:08

Braves and the Phillies Hope

13:10

you have a great weekend Hope you enjoy

13:12

Braves baseball and again by the next time

13:14

we talk will be even closer to Opening

13:17

day until next time go Braves. We'll talk to

13:19

you in suit here on the daily hand you