Jeb Maize: What is up and welcome back to the Tomahawk Talk podcast. We've got a very special episode. ⁓ Pretty much a one topic discussion as everybody in Braves country knows, ⁓ but we've got A special guest, I guess I could say. ⁓ A potential future. A multiple guest. We've got Aaron from TikTok with us. ⁓ Me, Ryan, Ben, of course. We've got everybody. ⁓ Jerix and Profar goes down with PEDs. Not even, not even a full calendar year from when he first got popped. ⁓ I'm gonna go first.
Ben Weaver: What?
Jeb Maize: I think this is ⁓ absolutely pathetic on his end. ⁓ It's ridiculous. It is stupid. Some would say very stupid that you go down for performance enhancing drugs two times in less than one year. And it kind of lets you know what he thinks of himself as a player. and ⁓ i might play devil's advocate i don't know but maybe terry mcgurk was force feeding him maybe terry mcgurk was just putting the needle up his butt and and trying to save some money on the back end i i don't know ⁓ we'll pivot to aaron since she's the guest we'll pivot to aaron what are your thoughts on all of this
Ben Weaver: .
Erin: ⁓ Well, my initial thoughts when I heard the news was, you know, shocked but not surprised. And I never really forgave him the first time. So this time I'm just like completely over it. And then I'm looking back at like his excuse for the first time with like the fertility issues. And then there was that interview with the... ⁓
Ben Weaver: Okay.
Erin: the reporter during spring training just a few weeks ago where he said that this would be an issue and I'm like, why? Like what is going on here? I just, I have a lot of questions but at the same time I'm just ready to cut ties, you know?
Jeb Maize: Yeah, I want to put it out there too that he did say that he was trying to earn back the trust of his teammates. ⁓ you know, Ryan and Ben can probably attest to this more than me. You know, they played a little bit higher than I did, but I don't even know. I'm at a loss for words. I know we did this pod last year. ⁓ Feels like deja vu, we're doing it all over again. So, ⁓ Ben, you care to chip in here and we'll see what you're feeling?
Ben Weaver: Well, playing off of what you said, Jeb, this isn't just stupid. This is literally generationally stupid, alright? This is stupid that's gonna pass down to his children and his children's children, alright?
Jeb Maize: Well, mean, considering he was using it for fertility, mean, yes, theoretically it would.
Ben Weaver: That was kind of the point of the joke, yes. ⁓ Yeah, yeah. There's layers to this, all right? There's layers. ⁓
Jeb Maize: Ha ha! I...
Erin: Mm-hmm.
Ryan: Gotta give him a second, he's a little slow.
Ben Weaver: But no. You good?
Jeb Maize: Yeah, I'm good.
Ryan: You
Ben Weaver: No, this is really, really stupid and disrespectful. And honestly, mean, Jerrodson Profar owes an apology, not only to, you know, his family for losing out on literally 21 of the 27 possible million dollars that he has lost. ⁓ He owes an apology to his family for that. He also owes an apology to his teammates, the fans.
Jeb Maize: That too.
Erin: you
Ben Weaver: literally everybody who has contributed to paying his salary or to getting something from that relationship, he owes an apology to them. And even then, I, Aaron, I'm more forgiving than you, I guess, because I fully forgave him for last year. I'm like, you know what? I fully bought into the story about the fertility drug. I fully expected, yes. Once he had a child in, what was it, October or November, I'm like, okay. That lines up, that makes sense, that timeline is okay. you know, being popped a second time for the same thing, it's like, is you stupid or is you dumb? And the answer is both, all right? So, you know, it's just disappointing and it kind of makes me very upset and angry as a Braids fan.
Erin: Same.
Jeb Maize: ⁓ yeah, ⁓ me, I know I, Ryan had texted me. I was in my car, ⁓ eating lunch and I get the notification and it says, Jerks and profile suspended, blah, blah, blah. And I said, okay, what idiot fan thinks it's funny to retweet that on March the third, from last year? ⁓ And then I read it closer and it says 162 games. And I'm like, what? And then I read it even closer and it says for a second time. So it, I felt the smoke coming out of my ears. Ryan, please elaborate and give a very good discussion on your take. And I mean, what this does for him as a hitter. I mean, you are the resident pediatrician, so I need your words and your guidance of this.
Ben Weaver: Thank
Ryan: You gotta stop calling me a pediatrician because you're gonna try to get a lawsuit on me for impersonating a doctor. Do understand? You got to freaking stop. Thank you. If I was a pediatrician, I could fund this entire broadcast. You understand? Not doing that. Don't have that kind of money. Anyway, um, apparently Mr. Profar, if you will, just... just didn't believe in his own ability, so he had to stick a needle in his butt.
Ben Weaver: You
Erin: Yeah
Ryan: But according to some sources, some people think that AA just went in that locker room just throwing needles at Pro-Far. Okay? So because it's all AA's fault right now for signing him. So... Look, I mean, obviously steroids increase production of baseball players. I mean, you gotta go back very far to look at a 40-something-year-old Barry Bonds popping 73 homers in a season. For that. But... I don't know man. I'm... This... level of stupidity. It goes layers like Ben said. And you don't even have to look at just, you know, being able to play. But let's just talk about money aspect. Like... Generational money you forwarded back to the Atlanta Braves just simply because... You didn't believe in your own ability. I wouldn't have cared. If I was pro-far, I, you know, I'd have used it one year, got the contract, and I've been like, sorry. ⁓ I'm not as good as y'all thought I was. So I'm just gonna take my money and run. But apparently he wanted to still prove people wrong even though we were all kind of right about the situation. It was the steroids.
Jeb Maize: Yeah, it kinda sucks.
Ben Weaver: I'd like to apologize on Jeb's behalf to you, Ryan.
Ryan: Thank you. Thank you. That's another thing, Shad. I was right. Yes. Yes. No. Ben, you can attest to this. I ate crow live on this podcast. Did I not? See? Ben's with me.
Jeb Maize: Okay, Okay, okay, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
Ben Weaver: Yeah. Yeah.
Ryan: He's not even on the field. Yeah, he was fine. He was fine because he was popping the needle in his butt cheek. Good sir.
Jeb Maize: And then he got popped again, that's all I'm saying. That's all I'm saying.
Ben Weaver: Hey, we can all agree that No More Fielders is the only objectively correct take either. He called it, he did say he'd have lower than a 700 OPS and by default, yeah, by default it's lower than 700.
Ryan: He called it.
Jeb Maize: He did. He did.
Ryan: It's gonna have a zero.
Jeb Maize: He will. yeah
Ryan: It's going to have a little line through it as it did not participate.
Ben Weaver: Oh yeah, on his baseball reference page, it's going to say, yeah, did not play. that's gonna be... People 20 years from now are gonna look at Jerks and Profars baseball reference and be like, what, why didn't he...
Jeb Maize: Did not play.
Ryan: DNP.
Jeb Maize: Who the hell is looking at jerks and profars baseball reference? Well, then again, we do look at like Paul Janisch's baseball reference, but...
Ryan: They're gonna look at his reference page. All players, ⁓
Ben Weaver: Brother, I've looked at Tungsten Arm O'Doyle's baseball reference page, alright? I looked at Rabbit Moranville's baseball reference the other day.
Jeb Maize: toot toot. Did you just say Tungsten Baby Arm?
Erin: Thanks.
Ben Weaver: No, Thompson Arm O'Doyle. Look him up. Yeah.
Ryan: You gotta really slow it down for him,
Jeb Maize: Ha
Ryan: syllable by syllable.
Ben Weaver: you
Jeb Maize: Alright, so what is the pivot? So, Atlanta is technically saving 18 million because of the ⁓ second luxury tax.
Ryan: Not yet, they're not. It's not official. It's not official.
Jeb Maize: What do you mean? Well, here's to a-
Ben Weaver: Yeah, because they the MLBPA is challenging the the ruling and so by default. I mean, of course it's going to go through, but they don't. They don't have it in stone yet, so it's not.
Erin: Why not yet? that's not gonna go through.
Jeb Maize: How many have? How many players have won? Or how many won? Okay, so...
Erin: ⁓
Ryan: Ryan Braun, who was still guilty! It's crazy!
Ben Weaver: Rhyme brah. Yeah.
Jeb Maize: Yeah, so... Odds are that he's probably not gonna win. So hypothetically...
Ryan: He did it!
Ben Weaver: It's not as a multi-billion dollar business. It's not financially sound to go spend the money that ain't quite yours just yet. That's counting the chickens for the patch.
Ryan: That part. That part.
Jeb Maize: Well, at what the Tigers did. They thought they were gonna win in ⁓ Arb with Scooble and they went out and signed Framber.
Ryan: no they didn't no they didn't there's no way they knew
Ben Weaver: No, they already had plans in place. knew that they were... They knew...
Jeb Maize: Maybe. Maybe.
Erin: Well, I was under the impression that they signed ⁓ Framber because they knew that Scoobble was going to be leaving because isn't he a free agent after this season? Yeah. So they were like, okay, yeah, we'll pay him this year, but we're not paying for both of these guys long-term. So they just like got his replacement early. That was my impression at least.
Ryan: Yeah. Yeah.
Jeb Maize: Yeah, after this year, yeah.
Ryan: 100%.
Jeb Maize: I mean, would've... Hypothetically, what would Scooble make a year? You think 40? And Framers making 32? I would've just sh...
Ryan: Ooh no. Scoob will... He's gonna be asking for 50.
Ben Weaver: How old soon we're going to be at the end of the year? He's gonna be 31 at the end of this year.
Erin: Is he in his 30s? I thought he was in his late 20s.
Jeb Maize: 50?
Ryan: He gonna be asking for
Ben Weaver: I think you'll be 30 or 31 this year after Ryan. Yeah, Ryan, what's up?
Ryan: Let's see.
Erin: Okay.
Jeb Maize: He will be 29. He is 29, so he will be 30 by the time he enters next season.
Erin: Okay.
Ryan: ⁓ yeah, he's gonna ask for 50.
Ben Weaver: So, pay it no, but paying pitchers on the wrong side of 30, actually, now that I look at it, pitchers are lasting a little bit longer now, which is kind of weird. So he might get 50. And no one, yeah, well, you know, we sold our soul in 2021 and it is.
Jeb Maize: Yep.
Ryan: Unless they're wearing a Braves uniform, then they just die.
Jeb Maize: We did. Yeah. Alright, alright. I've gotta ask then. Hypothetically, basically, you save 18 million dollars because of the 3 million dollars over the second luxury tax on the 15 million dollar AAV. So you save 18 million dollars. What are you guys and gals doing? Because for me, personally,
Ryan: It's still worth it! ⁓
Ben Weaver: acre parking lot.
Erin: y'all already know what I'm gonna do. ⁓
Ryan: Did you just say a parking lot, Ben? I'm about to come... Somebody hold me back, I'm about to come get him.
Jeb Maize: ⁓ buy buy another office buy another office building
Ben Weaver: Three acre parking lot. I want to be in the Liberty Media meeting room. All right, so I'm coming up with a great idea. three acre parking lot.
Jeb Maize: You know, you know, does it do they have apartments?
Ryan: You know what? We're not gonna get on there. Terry's gonna fricking hate me anyway, so we're not getting anything Braves related. Who am I kidding? Talk so much crap about Terry.
Ben Weaver: you ⁓
Jeb Maize: You know, maybe, they could start their own like counterfeit cash factory in the battery.
Ryan: They already do, it's just legal.
Jeb Maize: Maybe they could do an illegal one and double their money
Ryan: Jeff, this is not Grand Theft Auto, okay? I've been playing a ton of that, I know where you're going with this, okay? No, it's not that.
Ben Weaver: No.
Jeb Maize: Yeah No, all seriousness I think kutch kutch for 1.5 or 2. I think that makes a ton of sense cuz Heck no, man, you discussed it. He wasn't worth but like three
Ryan: That's gonna want more than that. I'm telling you, I'm with you what he's worth. telling you what he's gonna want, bro.
Jeb Maize: Yeah, I mean... I mean...
Ben Weaver: Yeah.
Erin: But only as a rental, right? Like just to get us through until...
Ben Weaver: He's a free agent, so he's not worth it.
Ryan: Yeah, he's a agent.
Jeb Maize: Yeah. I mean, if you think about it. ⁓ yeah. Like, you if you sit and think about it, OK, you get how song came back in May. OK, you then you slide Dubon and you stream ski out to left and you have coach on the bench or you just cut him one of the two. You're out two million.
Erin: Yeah, but I mean, like just say one year contract.
Ben Weaver: May.
Ryan: tune.
Erin: Bye. and then like
Jeb Maize: My what I would do is I would sign Andrew McCutcheon to one year two if he accepts I would sign Patrick Corbin to one year 1.5 if he accepts and I would sign Zach Lattell one year 10 That all together That all together is way more production of what you need Than what you would have gotten with Jerx and Profar now I've told you all and I told Ken when he was on earlier
Ryan: Gimme Zach Lattell, I'm all in on that.
Ben Weaver: Okay, well first off...
Jeb Maize: The pro far thing sucks because he lengthens your lineup. He's just another guy that's going to put up tough ABs and is going to put the ball in play and all of that. I get that switch hitter, all of that. But when pitchers are going through and they're looking into their game plans and they're like, okay, we we've got outs here, here, here and here. You have to hypothetically think jerks and pro far is probably one of those outs. Cause they're not thinking that about Olsen, they're not thinking that about Baldwin, they're not thinking that about Ronald and potentially Riley, you know, depending on what he does. So it sucks, but I think with the Yaz signing, it doesn't hurt as bad.
Ben Weaver: that's, that is a testament to what AA has done over the offseason. He's added to that depth and like, you're not going to have Jared Kellnick take in meaningful at-bats. You're not going to have Stuart Fairchild taking meaningful at-bats. You're not... Dude. ⁓ my god. Yeah, like, and...
Jeb Maize: Jared Kellenick, terrible teammate, by the way.
Ryan: Go look at the spring stats, they're terrible. Holy cow, they're bad.
Erin: Yeah, they're bad. I saw them too. Ugh.
Ben Weaver: And like, I've never, I never liked the Jared Kellnett trade in the first place and I'm not trying to toot my own horn here, but I'm just saying like, you're not, you're not going to be giving guys like that meaningful at-bats. You're going to have Mike Yastremski who has a 130 or whatever it was, OPS plus against righties. You're going to have Mauricio Dubon who can hit, you know, he's basically.
Ryan: Go ahead and tune it. You're right.
Ben Weaver: Troy Tudelicki whenever compared to Nick Allen. right. ⁓
Ryan: POP
Erin: With Dubon, I love his attitude, like his frame of mind. In one of the interviews at one of the games this past week, he said something about, they asked him about his gold gloves and he said, yeah, I'm gonna get my next one here in Atlanta. Like he's just got that mindset. Yeah, I love it. Like I was sold on him after that interview.
Jeb Maize: Boom!
Ryan: Love that cocky attitude, you gotta have it.
Erin: Mm-hmm.
Ben Weaver: I'm just saying, think that AA did a fantastic job this off season, getting depth. and, ⁓ dude, I'm saying, ⁓ now was it, was it perfect? By no means was it perfect. No, he needed a starting pitcher. He didn't get one. ⁓ You know, but what he did on the position player side, like people say these were not ceiling moves. Yes, they were.
Erin: Yeah, me too. Yeah.
Ryan: Don't tell Brave Sweater. ⁓ Don't do it.
Jeb Maize: We can talk about it.
Ben Weaver: because Mauricio Dubon is gonna give you more offensively than Nick Allen ever dreamed of. right, Yaz is gonna give you more offensively than Stuart Fairchild and Jared Kelnick ever dreamed of, all right?
Jeb Maize: Whoa whoa whoa! You don't have to knock my guy Stuart Fairchild, okay?
Ryan: Listen, we kind of do it. He went O for the century.
Erin: You're forgetting about Alex Verdugo too.
Ben Weaver: ⁓ my gosh, yes, yes. Yes, it's gonna, yeah.
Jeb Maize: Uhhh... for dog shit.
Ryan: I- Listen, Aaron, I forgot about him. Why did you have to bring him back into the fold?
Ben Weaver: Okay, so funny, I posted a tweet last year, because whenever Verdugo came to the Braves, his first two games, he had a four for five game and a three for five game back to back. He just didn't have a single hit after that. What are we doing? ⁓
Erin: Yeah, yeah.
Ryan: Don't look at his exit velocities on those hits, let me tell you.
Ben Weaver: I mean he would, but he had like three doubles in that time period too. It was like seven for 10 with three doubles. I don't know. It did that well. That well would dry real quick.
Ryan: It dried up quick.
Erin: Yeah.
Jeb Maize: It did. I think he got a Benz pool noodle MVP one time. actually, I think he did.
Ryan: He did. Listen, it was absolute cinema early. It was cinema, and it wore off very quickly.
Ben Weaver: Yeah, yeah, and Boston Red Sox fans told me that in my mentions because of those tweets that I tweeted out. They were like, yeah, don't get used to this. It's not gonna last. And then I was like, you know what? I think he can do it. I think he's turned that corner.
Jeb Maize: I'm gonna double check that. He did Alex Alex for do go confirmed Ben's pool noodle series MVP one time one time. Yep.
Ben Weaver: Yep, yep. And never again. Not even in baseball anymore.
Ryan: One time winner. First series, never again. Now I got picked up by somebody.
Erin: Yeah, he's on a contract with someone because I saw a tweet that said I don't know if it was one of you guys but it was like his first three games are gonna be amazing and then you're gonna be really disappointed after that
Ben Weaver: ⁓ he is?
Jeb Maize: Padres. Padres.
Ryan: The accuracy of the internet.
Ben Weaver: Thank
Jeb Maize: Yeah, that sounds like, yeah. He got picked up by the Padres. So they have picked up, like you wanna talk about depth, the Padres have everybody. Yeah, if he's in the minors, yeah.
Ryan: Can you count Verdugo with depth? I'm with Ben. I'm with Ben. He's not depth, he's a body.
Ben Weaver: Yeah, he's literally there because they have to have nine people on the field.
Jeb Maize: That's... Now, okay. I wanna run something by y'all because I got absolutely crucified for this last year. No. No, no, no. I got crucified for this.
Ben Weaver: Probably justifiably.
Ryan: Just like I did about Profar, I understand completely. Day two.
Jeb Maize: I'm looking up his contract, I'm sorry. We would not have this problem if AA would have just dished out the one year 4 million with a team option of 6.5 for Ramon Larianno.
Ryan: Dude, don't remind me about that one escaping. Why he didn't? I don't-
Ben Weaver: All right. You know, you know what I'm mad about is what was it one year, six million for Miguel Andujar who has done nothing but absolutely mash left-handed pitching since he became the leader.
Ryan: That one too.
Jeb Maize: I don't know why they didn't sign him. What was it, 4 mil?
Ryan: as like four, four and a half or something.
Ben Weaver: It was something crazy and he's he plays outfield too. He can play left field not well, but I mean you weren't going to get that from profile anyway.
Ryan: Nope, sure wouldn't.
Ben Weaver: ⁓ I gotta get off here in just a minute. Daddy duty calls, but I'll stay for another couple of minutes.
Jeb Maize: Yeah.
Erin: Thank you.
Jeb Maize: ⁓ real quick, if you can, if you can real quick, what are you doing with the extra 15 mil?
Ryan: Understandable.
Ben Weaver: ⁓ What I'm doing with the extra 15 mil, I am ⁓ three acre parking lot.
Jeb Maize: Okay, got it. Three acre parking lot.
Ben Weaver: I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. No, I think, I mean, I guess McCutcheon, if he does, if he would take a three year deal and then you, I mean, no, no, no, I'm sorry. Three million deal, $3 million deal. Not, not a three year deal. A one year, $3 million deal. If he would even take that. I'm sure he's been offered that. And I'm sure he's turned that down because he's Andrew McCutcheon and he doesn't have to take anything that he doesn't want to. He's at that point in his career.
Jeb Maize: Three-year deal?
Ben Weaver: Zach Lattell, he's not gonna take 10 million to go anywhere. If he would be willing to do that, he would have already done it. ⁓
Ryan: Yeah.
Jeb Maize: Maybe, I was talking to Ken about it, there could be stuff with his medicals. Like, we don't know.
Ben Weaver: But there could be, so yeah, so if that's the case, then.
Ryan: Every picture has that in the big leagues. Come on, Jeb.
Jeb Maize: Yeah.
Ben Weaver: Right, but still if that's the case, then why would you want him on our team that's already ravaged by injuries? And Patrick, yeah, well you love that word. ⁓ But Patrick Corbin, would do absolutely dastardly things to keep him far away from my team. ⁓
Jeb Maize: I'm saying if, hypothetically, he doesn't have anything. Yeah, it's my prerogative to say that word. It's my prerogative.
Ryan: Word of the day by Chib. Big word, buddy.
Jeb Maize: Dude, no. No.
Ben Weaver: He, Patrick Corbin, did you not watch his Nationals tenure? And like the second half of last week? Okay, did you not see the second half of the Rangers tenure last year?
Jeb Maize: Yeah, but did you watch him the Rangers? It don't matter, man. You just gotta have somebody hold down the fort.
Ryan: Put him in the pan-Joey-Wentz season, baby.
Ben Weaver: Again, Patrick Corbin is just like Jared Kelnick. He's there because you need non-people on the field. Alright?
Jeb Maize: One year, 1.5, that's all.
Ben Weaver: Brother, no. If I have 15 million, if I have 15 million, I'd probably do my best to try to make a trade. I mean, you look at like Houston and see what they're doing. I mean, I do like the Paredes idea, but the right hand to bat issue is probably going to be solved when Ha Song Kim and Sean Murphy come back. You don't necessarily, and yes, it's a month and a half.
Ryan: We got Martin Perez already.
Jeb Maize: Yep. Yep.
Erin: Yeah.
Ryan: great.
Ben Weaver: maybe two months until they're both back, but that problem solves itself. So I don't want to give up top prospect capital to be getting Isak Peretis and then not have anywhere to put him and then possibly not even get value back. They're the same value that you gave up back in a trade later in the year.
Ryan: I will offer you one Aaron bummer.
Ben Weaver: I mean, who's gonna take that contract though? Why? What reason?
Jeb Maize: Boston gimme gimme will juror bray you
Ryan: Give me a freaking bucket of balls. What are we talking about here, bro?
Jeb Maize: EEEH
Ben Weaver: Again, Wilier Abreu is a left-handed bat. If they're going through...
Jeb Maize: I don't care. He's a gold glover. Stick Ronnie at DH for all I care.
Ryan: Ronald's not gonna do that, bro. You will ruin every chance of signing Ronald. I care, because I want Ronald to be a break for the rest of his career, Jeb.
Erin: No, no absolutely not.
Jeb Maize: I do not care. I do not care.
Ben Weaver: Yeah, well, anyway, I gotta get off here. go. Bye. See y'all.
Jeb Maize: Already been. Appreciate you. That was Ben Weaver. You may know him as Weaver Cards ⁓ on Twitter. Yeah, yeah, Weaver. Shout out to Ben for hopping on with us. ⁓ I'm gonna pivot over to Aaron. What do you think? What are your hypotheticals as I'm getting crucified for saying that?
Ryan: Pull the bird out.
Erin: Okay, well. First of all... Sorry for the technical difficulties. had a twin come in here and I don't know what I did with the camera, but I got it fixed anyway. ⁓ So I have one like wild card thought and I don't know like the logistics going into this trade. They're both trades. I don't think that we need to go pick up any free agents because in my mind, most of the free agents, whether it's a pitcher or a different player, they're not worth any kind of value right now. mean, unless we absolutely need someone to fill a spot, sure. But ⁓ I like the idea of Littell. ⁓ But at the same time, like I've I'm of the mindset that our starting rotation as is could potentially hold their own. But if the offense continues to perform the way that they are in spring training, we don't need a top of the line starting rotation. We did it in 2023. you know, we had an average rotation then. So if those guys can continue this way, and Profile was not contributing that much to that. It's most, right now during spring training, it's it's Yaz, Matt Olson, ⁓ Ozzy here and there, a lot of the new guys, Mateo, like, you know what I'm saying?
Jeb Maize: I forgot he was even a person.
Erin: He hit a grand slam. Yeah, I said Ozzy. Yeah, he's doing really well in his little time out there. ⁓ But anyway, so here's my two choices. ⁓ I had the idea and I'm going to post about this later, but I was thinking I was looking at Jorge Saler's contract with the Giants.
Ryan: Unbelievable. Forgot Ozzy? You forgot about Ozzy, the little swole king? Come on, Jeb.
Jeb Maize: No, Mateo. No, I forgot about, I forgot Mateo was even a person. ⁓ God.
Erin: It is, hear me out, hear me out. It is.
Ryan: Listen, I'm all about 2021 World Series MVP Jorge Soler. Let's go.
Erin: Yes, and it is almost identical to Profar's contract. We can DFA Profar next year or whatever we need to do to get rid of him. And then somehow trade to get Saler back. We'd only be spending an extra million dollars this year to have him with us. It's just a matter of what trade pieces would need to go.
Ryan: send him to the frickin' sun.
Erin: And then my other thought was, and this one I know is far-fetched, but I will never, I will die on this hill forever until it's in stone that it's not gonna happen. Yes, yes. And not anytime soon, obviously, we let the twins collapse and we let them fully admit to themselves that they need to enter a rebuild. And then we go after him then because I mean, Pablo Lopez is out for the entire season.
Ryan: Box 10 box 10
Jeb Maize: Hahaha
Erin: Joe Ryan is iffy. There's two of your three already down. They're not going to see the attendance they want. They're not going to see the revenue they want. And what is the first thing they're going to do? Fire sell their most expensive players. And who is one of those? Byron Buxton. And who is on his no trade clause exception list? Us. Where is he from? Georgia. Who's his favorite coach? Our third base coach. I mean, the list goes on and on. So.
Ryan: Yeah.
Erin: In my mind, it's just, again, it's a matter of what they would want for him. But at the same time, our prospects are increasing their value with every spring training game, especially the pitchers. Like they are looking good out there. And I know spring training doesn't matter, blah, blah, but it does matter. It matters, especially for prospects, because you get to see, like they get a preview of, you know, major league. playing with major league players and they're holding their own and they're doing well. So that's going to increase their value trade wise and you know team wise. But at the same time I'm like we can't let go of someone like a JR Richie with the history our starting rotation has had because of any of the prospects I think he'd be the one that would be called up first if another injury were to happen God forbid. ⁓ So like I'm apprehensive to let him go and I know that he'd probably be one of the first player that a team would ask for in any kind of trade, you know? Unless I'm wrong. But then there's always Sean Murphy, but I don't know if the twins need a catcher right now. I can't remember who they picked up for that. I feel like they picked somebody up for catcher this year. But who knows? I'm just saying I like the idea of
Jeb Maize: Yeah.
Erin: getting Ryan and Buxton in a package, but just Buxton alone. And I love that I can say to people that have been saying to me since November, there's no room in this outfield for him. There is now, there is now. So that argument's off the window.
Ryan: Ha ha ha.
Jeb Maize: Yeah? Yeah. ⁓ Ryan, besides ⁓ Eddie Rosario, who is on your list?
Erin: Eddie Rosario!
Ryan: Listen, don't.
Jeb Maize: Did you see that tweet I posted? Of ⁓ welcome back to Atlanta Eddie Rosario.
Erin: Yes! Yes, ⁓ my gosh.
Ryan: Don't hate on King Eddie. I'm kinda digging Solaire. I'm on his savant page right now.
Jeb Maize: ⁓
Erin: Yes, okay, and it's more realistic than Buxin. It is.
Ryan: I'm kinda... Listen, hear me out, Jeb. Anaheim might eat some money.
Jeb Maize: I doubt it.
Ryan: I don't think you're gonna have to give up whole lot to get Jorge Soler. Listen, go look at a Savon page, and he's gonna be playing DH. Brother, they're not gonna give up Joe Adele, are you? Are you high?
Jeb Maize: What about Joe Adele? They might. They're high. They might.
Ryan: Artie Moreno's stupid. He's not a complete, utter fool like Jerson Profar is. I mean, if... Look, I'm looking... It's kind of blurred out because he missed so much time, but Elite Barrel percentage, Elite Bat Speed, and he does not chase. And he can DH. I don't need him in the outfield.
Erin: Yeah, put Yaz out there, let him DH. That covers the DH problem. Trade Sean Murphy if needed, because we have Jonahime and Drake Baldwin. We have three good solid catchers. We can trade one of them, not Drake Baldwin though, but one of the other two.
Ryan: Yeah.
Jeb Maize: Don't forget number 47 himself, Chadwick Trump.
Ryan: I would ⁓ I can literally ride the frickin bench until he proves that he can hit. I wouldn't get rid of Murphy immediately right now, just money-wise, but I'm kind of intrigued by Jorge Salera. I'm not saying go stick him in the outfield by any means, but even his 2024 savant was pretty red. Like, I'm kind of down for that. I'm not saying, but I kind of like what Ben said. Like, right-handed bat's gonna be solved by May-June.
Erin: Yeah.
Jeb Maize: Yeah.
Erin: Thank you.
Ryan: I don't think that's going an issue. I would take that money and roll it into some pitching. would say, Zach, here's 10. And when he pisses all over that offer, I'd say, OK, here's 12. And then he might consider it. And I'm going say, all right, you've twisted my arm. Here's 15 million. Come pitch for your Atlanta Braves.
Jeb Maize: I don't think it would take that much. I think 10 would be 10 to 12.
Ryan: I don't, dude, I'm with Ben, dude. You don't think he hasn't had 10 million thrown at him?
Jeb Maize: I don't know. You would think he would have signed by now. Like, look at the New York Mets. You can't tell me the New York Mets could use a Zach Lattell as a five. They're running out what?
Ryan: Good thing. ⁓ man, cause they got a... They got David Stearns, man. They got... They got the brain-mitition up there. Creating pictures, apparently.
Jeb Maize: I yeah I guess or Miami? I don't know. There's tons of teams that could use his services as a number five for 10 mil.
Ryan: Miami's got a lot of pitching. Miami's got a lot of pitching. I'm telling you, think he wants more money. I think he would sign for 15. I wouldn't have a problem giving it to him. For one year. I'd say here's one year 15.
Jeb Maize: I just don't see a world where he gets 15. His expected numbers look like shit. They do. he... 18-5. 18-5.
Erin: feel comfortable with that.
Ryan: I'm not saying he is.
Erin: What did Chris Bassett get? Like 12? 20?
Ryan: He got 20. He almost got 20. He almost. 18.5.
Erin: Okay, so he likes to block these other guys like Jolito and L'atel.
Jeb Maize: And Basset is...
Ryan: It's not impossible where Letel could get 15 or somebody ponies up, but I realistically 12 to 13 I think is fine for Letel. I don't think he's gonna take 10. Not with the... Not with the starting... the price of starting pitching. It has gone through the freaking roof.
Jeb Maize: Hello.
Erin: would do 12. I would do 12.
Jeb Maize: I wouldn't be pissed if they gave him 12 because, you know, as me and you have talked about, Ryan, he's pitched 150 innings the past two years and he pitched 90, I think, the year before. So I wouldn't be mad if they did that, but...
Ryan: I would go pitching before hitting because I think hitting is going to be solved before ⁓ I think that's, I would go add depth either in the bullpen or I would go get another arm for the rotation.
Jeb Maize: You Yeah. Yeah, and per somebody, Ha Sung Kim is progressing very well and I think he could be hitting minorly pitching as early as like early to mid-May, you know? So if you add that, then you are sliding Dubon into that utility platoon into left. So I think the hitting aspect will be okay. That's why I say a clutch because it's like if you just have him for
Ryan: which is great news.
Jeb Maize: you know, day till May and you're only out three million, then so be it.
Ryan: I get it. I would love Andrew McCutcheon. I would love Andrew McCutcheon. I don't think Andrew McCutcheon's...
Erin: Yeah. OK, so that idea is growing on me now, Jeb, now that you say it that way. I'm, yeah.
Ryan: I'm always, me and you talked about this, Jeb, I am down, and I'm in there like swimwear for Andrew McCutcheon. I don't think Andrew's gonna be like, yeah, I'll take that three million to, ⁓ you know, platoon for a month and a half and then, bye. I don't think he's down for that, man. I just don't.
Jeb Maize: I mean, would you not do that? To platoon for a month and a half and then probably get cut? Just take three guaranteed million?
Ryan: Kutch has got more than enough money, He don't care. Kutch is like, can either play me or I'm not signing. Like that... So would I? Absolutely, but it's Kutch. Not me.
Jeb Maize: Why not add to it?
Erin: Here's another off the wall thought that I had. What if we somehow get, and I mean, I know this wouldn't address pitching obviously, but what if we somehow trade back for Ozuna at the deadline? How would you guys feel about that?
Ryan: I just think that by then the right-handed bad is gonna be solved with Murphy and Kim
Jeb Maize: I Yeah, I don't see it with Kim and with Murphy potentially being back. Yeah, yeah.
Ryan: Unless we sustain another injury. God forbid.
Erin: Yeah. And also the contract that they gave him, I just know it's not something that obviously we weren't going to do. And I don't see them, unless we're absolutely desperate, like not even considering that. It was just a thought in my head because I'm like, well now, you know, we don't even have him to back up, you know, I'm just brainstorming over here. Any kind of possible idea. honestly.
Jeb Maize: I mean another one too is like Victor Robles? I think it... I mean maybe, you know? I don't know.
Ryan: ⁓ man, see I was not getting rid of him. I don't think I have anybody else for his spot, do they?
Jeb Maize: They might, but I think it was like a three year extension for like nine mil or something. It wasn't anything. Who's that dude from Texas? Well, he's a lefty, but that dude from Texas. No, not Langford, the dude in the World Series. Evan Carter. Evan Carter, he's like 23 and they've already sent him down like three times.
Ryan: Yeah, they're not. Talk about Josh Smith. He's fun. I would be in there. I got a soft spot for Evan Carter, Well, let me do some digging. Let me do some digging. alright, sprint speed's crazy. He doesn't chase.
Jeb Maize: I do too. I do too. or you know, Ben mentioned it too, like Jordan Beck, like, there's a couple decent options out there, but.
Erin: Here's the real question, are we gonna actually pursue any of them? Because I don't think we are.
Ryan: No, so my realistic one is Terry McGurk's just gonna bathe in the money that he saved from Pro-Far, you Not.
Jeb Maize: Yeah.
Erin: Yeah, and or hold that until the trade deadline as yeah, because I mean, technically, if you think about it, we can get through until May with what we have. We can put Yaz in left field full time. We've got Mateo and Haim to fill in and that rotating DH position. And I think that they'd be okay doing that. Or we could even do like a Haim Baldwin ⁓
Ryan: 100%.
Erin: switching kind of like what Murphy does until Murphy gets back.
Ryan: I'm yeah, our schedule is not very brutal at all in the first two months like at all Yeah, like I'm seeing I'm seeing Boston twice you got the Dodgers Seattle And Arizona But I mean those are like the ones that really stand out none of none of the rest of them are like I Mean we got a pretty soft schedule early
Erin: No, it's not. It's a cakewalk. For this part. The dodge of first month.
Jeb Maize: Oakland
Erin: Yeah.
Ryan: So, I... Did everybody... And this is biggest thing is... You gotta stay healthy. Riley's gotta be Riley. Olsen can't get hurt. We can't lose Ronald. Ozzy's gotta come back. It's... It always comes down to the same thing. The dudes who have been here have done it. They've gotta... They gotta be the dudes again.
Erin: Well, it's like Jeff Passon said today in that interview with 680. He was like, the only problem, he said, I still believe in this team, but there's so many questions around this team. And it's a matter of will Michael Harris have two consistent halves? Will Drake Baldwin continue to be that guy? Will Matt Olson hit 50 home runs this year? Will this team be a 2023 offense or 2025? There's too many what ifs.
Ryan: Yes.
Erin: And I was like, yes, like he's saying exactly all of my thoughts, because it's so true. Like there's so many things contingent on performance and we're just not, you know, we're not at a place to where we can be confident in any of it yet.
Jeb Maize: So.
Ryan: Unfortunately. Although Joey Winn's season's looking really good with that nasty sinker at 96 miles an hour coming out of the bullpen. So that's fun to think about. JR Richie's looking really cute.
Jeb Maize: Yeah, ⁓
Erin: Yeah. Yeah.
Jeb Maize: Yeah... Yeah... Yeah, we can discuss a little bit more of that on the next. Who, Owen Murphy? Yeah, throw him and left, screw it.
Erin: Mm-hmm.
Ryan: You who I'm excited about Jeb? John Gill. I am so excited about that kid. I want you to go look at his setup. want y'all to take a seat real quick. Let me get your attention. I want you to look at Ronald Acuna 2018 and then look at John Gill this spring.
Erin: Yes.
Jeb Maize: Throw him and left. Screw it. Walk with me, talk with me. Mm. Mm. Mm.
Ryan: you go look at those setups. just saying, a lot of similarities.
Erin: Alright. Can I steal that for a post of mine? Because that's a great thing to dive into. Okay. Yeah, I got you. I got you.
Ryan: As long as you tag me in it, I don't care. I can do a little breakdown with that too, so that may be coming y'all's way.
Erin: I say credit to Ryan, yeah.
Jeb Maize: Yeah, yeah, we'll we'll hop on that Ryan. I'll talk about it with you.
Ryan: I can, I can, we can break it down. We can get in there like swimwear, baby. I'm all in on John Gill. And then Ludece is looking pretty cute too. I'm just saying. Just saying.
Jeb Maize: We'll do it. We'll do it. Sounds good.
Erin: Love that idea. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Jeb Maize: Mmm!
Erin: like that the shortstop prospects are looking promising because that means in a couple of years we're going to have a homegrown shortstop that's actually good, you know, and that's something that I've been waiting for for a long time.
Jeb Maize: Potentially multiple. Yeah Yeah
Ryan: and if Ozzy is not Ozzy anymore you got one that probably can slide right over to second bass as well.
Jeb Maize: Yep. And that's not mentioning what they do with this draft, you know?
Erin: Yeah.
Ryan: I also saw in a bat where Diego Torrens just spit on four pitches that were like borderline by a dude throwing absolute cheese. He signed last year in the international free agent market. Listen, people have been sh- I'm gonna cuss here. People have been shitting on AA a little bit for the lack of, you know, draft, if you will. And I will say, Jared Schuster should not have been a number one pick, but-
Jeb Maize: Yes. you Well, okay, Lindsay did clarify that it's technically not AA, it's the head scouting director, honcho guy.
Ryan: Listen, honey, X is a nose here. He signs.
Erin: But doesn't AA have like ultimate say?
Jeb Maize: I guess, I don't know. I just work here.
Ryan: That's a good thing, I'm not a general manager. I piss off my owner so much. But he's done a really good job. He did really good job pivoting from pitching and going and getting young, athletic, middle of the diamond players. Second baseman, shortstop, center fielder, guys who can move around. And he did the same thing in the international free agency. Say what you will by AA. ⁓
Erin: Yeah. Yeah.
Ryan: He's done a good job restocking the minor leagues and it just hasn't been shown yet.
Erin: Yeah, and to touch on AA, like he's getting blamed for this pro far stuff. This is not his fault. Like how is, in what world is this AA's fault that a man decides to use performance enhancing drugs two years in a row? It's not. How could he have predicted that? know, like everything that goes wrong, it's AA's fault. And I'm like, can we just quit with this narrative because it's not true. He's a good general manager. If he wasn't, he wouldn't still have this job. Can we remember the amazing trades that he has done? Like Chris Sale for Von Grissom for instance, like hello. That was one of the best trades I've ever seen.
Ryan: Sheesh. Poor Boston.
Jeb Maize: Wow.
Ryan: Boston.
Jeb Maize: I think AA does a very good job of taking the heat too from ownership because that is part of the job. I'm just saying. ⁓ We'll wrap it up with this. It's getting into a regular episode and they wouldn't admit to but... ⁓ Yeah, it happens. ⁓ I got in argument with somebody on Twitter who said...
Erin: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Ryan: Listen Terry, I know it's you. to say.
Erin: Yeah.
Ryan: We talk bald.
Jeb Maize: You know, was, yeah, I mean, you know, was talking shit about AA basically in the off season. ⁓ you know, AA went out and addressed what he needed to do. He stocked up the bullpen. You got two ninth inning guys basically to go along with what you already had. depending on what you get from Joey Wins, who could be a potential bullpen guy, or depending on what moves you make, Grant Holmes, you know, or Bryce Elder, like...
Ryan: regular basis. one thing.
Jeb Maize: Tons of questions there. Bullpen's fine. Got the shortstop that we needed. Went out and got Yastrimsky to platoon and DH and all that. Like, everything was fine. AA did not go and shove Ha Sung Kim onto ⁓ an iceberg in the Atlantic and explode his ⁓ damn finger. know, and him getting blamed for the injuries is obscure. Now, I will admit,
Ryan: Texas.
Erin: Right. Yeah.
Jeb Maize: It is malpractice that he did not address the starting rotation in any form. I get we were going into spring training with potentially everybody, but you've got to put in some injury into consideration. I mean, like you're going to get Smith Schavert back at the end of the year. That'll be fine. You don't know when Schwelly or when Waldrop are going to come back. So I think you should have added some sort of starter. They got Perez.
Ryan: That is malpractice.
Jeb Maize: Okay, like I'm not, that's not tickling my fancy, but...
Ryan: What? Martin Perez didn't tickle your fancy? Dang.
Jeb Maize: It doesn't. It doesn't. It's not even blowing a gust of wind ⁓ up my butt. So ⁓ I'll let you guys touch on that, but that's pretty much what I want to close out with.
Erin: you
Ryan: Well, I'm gonna be roasted because apparently all I do is just absolutely kiss AA on the mouth because I just don't. And apparently I'm in Terry McGurk's back pocket, apparently. So, you know, I'm not a pediatrician for legal reasons, Jeb.
Jeb Maize: I mean, you are a homer, so...
Erin: Ugh.
Jeb Maize: You are, we know. You are a pediatrician, you've got to, ⁓ you've gotta find the tax loopholes and donate your money to, you know, I get it, man, I get it.
Ryan: I I could donate money. ⁓ But AA did what he needed to do this offseason, man. We touched on it. don't... You can say what you want. You can be as mad as you want. At the end of the day AA did a really good job. And he got one of the best... He got the reliever I wanted and that never freaking happens. And besides one pitcher, he... Like one pitcher. And he didn't go into the clubhouse and tell ProFar to...
Erin: Yeah.
Ryan: pull down his pants and bend over to stick a needle in his butt. Like, he didn't do that. He didn't just start randomly throwing crap in his food to get him to pop for PEDs, man. Like, I don't know.
Jeb Maize: Could you imagine? Could you imagine a just shoving a PED needle up Profar's ass?
Ryan: He just... JP, listen, come here. I need you to bend over. And ⁓ take this needle in your ass. Yeah, he didn't do that chat. So I don't... I don't know why everybody's freaking the hell out saying that AA didn't do enough, AA did everything but add a picture. And I give criticism where criticisms do. I wrote Terry's rear end for a year plus about that parking lot. Jeb, can adjust to that. You can say...
Erin: Okay.
Ryan: Yep, he did. He rode his rear end for a year and a half about that parking lot. I still do. But it wasn't on AA this offseason. He did a good job. Besides a pitcher.
Jeb Maize: You did. ⁓ Aaron, to close out?
Erin: Yeah, I agree. He touched on all of the main problems from 2025, which is the bullpen constantly collapsing. He added strong bullpen arms. Now it seems more stable. We have more options. That wasn't something that we had in 2025. Depth was another thing that we needed in 2025 that we didn't have and not just any kind of depth. Strong. dependable depth and we have that now in people like Yaz and Dubon.
Jeb Maize: You're telling me that Jared Kellnick wasn't strong dependable depth?
Erin: Maybe for like a month in 2024, whenever he was on that little hot streak. But after that, no, not at all. And with him, I really thought that we fixed him. Like I was so excited for him. I was like, all he needed was love and the power of friendship and look, he's he's good. But now that didn't happen. That didn't happen at all. And it was super disappointing because I was rooting for him in the beginning. But it is what it is.
Ryan: I'm gonna get me started.
Jeb Maize: You Yeah. Yeah. No. No.
Erin: And then, ⁓ yeah, the starting pitcher is the only thing. But like I've said, we don't really, I mean, yes, we need it. Of course we need the insurance. You can never have too much starting pitching. But I am under the impression that they think that Waldrop and Schwalde are gonna be back sooner than a lot of people are expecting, which I'm hoping is true. And I'm trying to be on the optimistic side of that. But like, if they're back around the same time, you know, in the second half, maybe around the All-Star break, we're good to go. You know, like we don't really, we just need to hold it down. And that's basically gonna be like the whole mentality going into 2026 is we just gotta hold it down with what we've got and the bats have to stay alive until the second half when people are returning. And then, you know, everyone else can kind of take a breather because we've got Murphy coming back. HSK coming back and we'll have a full lineup and a full bench again because right now the bench is just getting spread thinner and thinner. Eli Weitz must be on the bench. He's gonna be a potential everyday player, platooning with Yaz. Which I mean, I don't know what they're gonna do but that's what it feels like they're gonna do with the whole Pro-Far thing. I don't know.
Jeb Maize: Yeah.
Erin: But overall, think he did a good job and I was really happy to see movement. And even if he didn't sign a starting pitcher, I know that he attempted to, even if the deals were not something that they were interested in, he was still doing the work to do due diligence and get out there and try to see what his options were, whether that was up to him or not. You know, he may have been told, no, that's not on the budget, like whatever he was trying to offer. But it wasn't like he wasn't. Looking and people try to say like he didn't live up to that that statement that he made of it being his major priority this offseason It probably was the deals just didn't work out. We don't know what goes on behind the scenes, you know
Jeb Maize: Yeah, I agree. But. All righty. ⁓ But shit just happens when you keep talking ball. ⁓ So we turn this this little profile pod into until our little segment. Yeah. Yeah. So I hope you guys enjoyed listening. We'd love to hear some feedback. Like comment, subscribe, all that shares with your friends. You can find Aaron on Tick Tock.
Erin: Yeah.
Ryan: A whole pod. Go to TikTok and follow our chat.
Jeb Maize: Yes, go to the Tic Tac and find Erin. She does a great job over there. Being a little too optimistic ⁓ for the Braves, but no, we like doing this for you guys and just talking some ball and just seeing if anybody really gives a shit about what we say. So with that being said, we'll be back. Should be back Monday for the listeners, but yeah.
Erin: You
Jeb Maize: With that being said, Ryan? You're trash.
Ben Weaver: What?
Jeb Maize: I think this is ⁓ absolutely pathetic on his end. ⁓ It's ridiculous. It is stupid. Some would say very stupid that you go down for performance enhancing drugs two times in less than one year. And it kind of lets you know what he thinks of himself as a player. and ⁓ i might play devil's advocate i don't know but maybe terry mcgurk was force feeding him maybe terry mcgurk was just putting the needle up his butt and and trying to save some money on the back end i i don't know ⁓ we'll pivot to aaron since she's the guest we'll pivot to aaron what are your thoughts on all of this
Ben Weaver: .
Erin: ⁓ Well, my initial thoughts when I heard the news was, you know, shocked but not surprised. And I never really forgave him the first time. So this time I'm just like completely over it. And then I'm looking back at like his excuse for the first time with like the fertility issues. And then there was that interview with the... ⁓
Ben Weaver: Okay.
Erin: the reporter during spring training just a few weeks ago where he said that this would be an issue and I'm like, why? Like what is going on here? I just, I have a lot of questions but at the same time I'm just ready to cut ties, you know?
Jeb Maize: Yeah, I want to put it out there too that he did say that he was trying to earn back the trust of his teammates. ⁓ you know, Ryan and Ben can probably attest to this more than me. You know, they played a little bit higher than I did, but I don't even know. I'm at a loss for words. I know we did this pod last year. ⁓ Feels like deja vu, we're doing it all over again. So, ⁓ Ben, you care to chip in here and we'll see what you're feeling?
Ben Weaver: Well, playing off of what you said, Jeb, this isn't just stupid. This is literally generationally stupid, alright? This is stupid that's gonna pass down to his children and his children's children, alright?
Jeb Maize: Well, mean, considering he was using it for fertility, mean, yes, theoretically it would.
Ben Weaver: That was kind of the point of the joke, yes. ⁓ Yeah, yeah. There's layers to this, all right? There's layers. ⁓
Jeb Maize: Ha ha! I...
Erin: Mm-hmm.
Ryan: Gotta give him a second, he's a little slow.
Ben Weaver: But no. You good?
Jeb Maize: Yeah, I'm good.
Ryan: You
Ben Weaver: No, this is really, really stupid and disrespectful. And honestly, mean, Jerrodson Profar owes an apology, not only to, you know, his family for losing out on literally 21 of the 27 possible million dollars that he has lost. ⁓ He owes an apology to his family for that. He also owes an apology to his teammates, the fans.
Jeb Maize: That too.
Erin: you
Ben Weaver: literally everybody who has contributed to paying his salary or to getting something from that relationship, he owes an apology to them. And even then, I, Aaron, I'm more forgiving than you, I guess, because I fully forgave him for last year. I'm like, you know what? I fully bought into the story about the fertility drug. I fully expected, yes. Once he had a child in, what was it, October or November, I'm like, okay. That lines up, that makes sense, that timeline is okay. you know, being popped a second time for the same thing, it's like, is you stupid or is you dumb? And the answer is both, all right? So, you know, it's just disappointing and it kind of makes me very upset and angry as a Braids fan.
Erin: Same.
Jeb Maize: ⁓ yeah, ⁓ me, I know I, Ryan had texted me. I was in my car, ⁓ eating lunch and I get the notification and it says, Jerks and profile suspended, blah, blah, blah. And I said, okay, what idiot fan thinks it's funny to retweet that on March the third, from last year? ⁓ And then I read it closer and it says 162 games. And I'm like, what? And then I read it even closer and it says for a second time. So it, I felt the smoke coming out of my ears. Ryan, please elaborate and give a very good discussion on your take. And I mean, what this does for him as a hitter. I mean, you are the resident pediatrician, so I need your words and your guidance of this.
Ben Weaver: Thank
Ryan: You gotta stop calling me a pediatrician because you're gonna try to get a lawsuit on me for impersonating a doctor. Do understand? You got to freaking stop. Thank you. If I was a pediatrician, I could fund this entire broadcast. You understand? Not doing that. Don't have that kind of money. Anyway, um, apparently Mr. Profar, if you will, just... just didn't believe in his own ability, so he had to stick a needle in his butt.
Ben Weaver: You
Erin: Yeah
Ryan: But according to some sources, some people think that AA just went in that locker room just throwing needles at Pro-Far. Okay? So because it's all AA's fault right now for signing him. So... Look, I mean, obviously steroids increase production of baseball players. I mean, you gotta go back very far to look at a 40-something-year-old Barry Bonds popping 73 homers in a season. For that. But... I don't know man. I'm... This... level of stupidity. It goes layers like Ben said. And you don't even have to look at just, you know, being able to play. But let's just talk about money aspect. Like... Generational money you forwarded back to the Atlanta Braves just simply because... You didn't believe in your own ability. I wouldn't have cared. If I was pro-far, I, you know, I'd have used it one year, got the contract, and I've been like, sorry. ⁓ I'm not as good as y'all thought I was. So I'm just gonna take my money and run. But apparently he wanted to still prove people wrong even though we were all kind of right about the situation. It was the steroids.
Jeb Maize: Yeah, it kinda sucks.
Ben Weaver: I'd like to apologize on Jeb's behalf to you, Ryan.
Ryan: Thank you. Thank you. That's another thing, Shad. I was right. Yes. Yes. No. Ben, you can attest to this. I ate crow live on this podcast. Did I not? See? Ben's with me.
Jeb Maize: Okay, Okay, okay, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
Ben Weaver: Yeah. Yeah.
Ryan: He's not even on the field. Yeah, he was fine. He was fine because he was popping the needle in his butt cheek. Good sir.
Jeb Maize: And then he got popped again, that's all I'm saying. That's all I'm saying.
Ben Weaver: Hey, we can all agree that No More Fielders is the only objectively correct take either. He called it, he did say he'd have lower than a 700 OPS and by default, yeah, by default it's lower than 700.
Ryan: He called it.
Jeb Maize: He did. He did.
Ryan: It's gonna have a zero.
Jeb Maize: He will. yeah
Ryan: It's going to have a little line through it as it did not participate.
Ben Weaver: Oh yeah, on his baseball reference page, it's going to say, yeah, did not play. that's gonna be... People 20 years from now are gonna look at Jerks and Profars baseball reference and be like, what, why didn't he...
Jeb Maize: Did not play.
Ryan: DNP.
Jeb Maize: Who the hell is looking at jerks and profars baseball reference? Well, then again, we do look at like Paul Janisch's baseball reference, but...
Ryan: They're gonna look at his reference page. All players, ⁓
Ben Weaver: Brother, I've looked at Tungsten Arm O'Doyle's baseball reference page, alright? I looked at Rabbit Moranville's baseball reference the other day.
Jeb Maize: toot toot. Did you just say Tungsten Baby Arm?
Erin: Thanks.
Ben Weaver: No, Thompson Arm O'Doyle. Look him up. Yeah.
Ryan: You gotta really slow it down for him,
Jeb Maize: Ha
Ryan: syllable by syllable.
Ben Weaver: you
Jeb Maize: Alright, so what is the pivot? So, Atlanta is technically saving 18 million because of the ⁓ second luxury tax.
Ryan: Not yet, they're not. It's not official. It's not official.
Jeb Maize: What do you mean? Well, here's to a-
Ben Weaver: Yeah, because they the MLBPA is challenging the the ruling and so by default. I mean, of course it's going to go through, but they don't. They don't have it in stone yet, so it's not.
Erin: Why not yet? that's not gonna go through.
Jeb Maize: How many have? How many players have won? Or how many won? Okay, so...
Erin: ⁓
Ryan: Ryan Braun, who was still guilty! It's crazy!
Ben Weaver: Rhyme brah. Yeah.
Jeb Maize: Yeah, so... Odds are that he's probably not gonna win. So hypothetically...
Ryan: He did it!
Ben Weaver: It's not as a multi-billion dollar business. It's not financially sound to go spend the money that ain't quite yours just yet. That's counting the chickens for the patch.
Ryan: That part. That part.
Jeb Maize: Well, at what the Tigers did. They thought they were gonna win in ⁓ Arb with Scooble and they went out and signed Framber.
Ryan: no they didn't no they didn't there's no way they knew
Ben Weaver: No, they already had plans in place. knew that they were... They knew...
Jeb Maize: Maybe. Maybe.
Erin: Well, I was under the impression that they signed ⁓ Framber because they knew that Scoobble was going to be leaving because isn't he a free agent after this season? Yeah. So they were like, okay, yeah, we'll pay him this year, but we're not paying for both of these guys long-term. So they just like got his replacement early. That was my impression at least.
Ryan: Yeah. Yeah.
Jeb Maize: Yeah, after this year, yeah.
Ryan: 100%.
Jeb Maize: I mean, would've... Hypothetically, what would Scooble make a year? You think 40? And Framers making 32? I would've just sh...
Ryan: Ooh no. Scoob will... He's gonna be asking for 50.
Ben Weaver: How old soon we're going to be at the end of the year? He's gonna be 31 at the end of this year.
Erin: Is he in his 30s? I thought he was in his late 20s.
Jeb Maize: 50?
Ryan: He gonna be asking for
Ben Weaver: I think you'll be 30 or 31 this year after Ryan. Yeah, Ryan, what's up?
Ryan: Let's see.
Erin: Okay.
Jeb Maize: He will be 29. He is 29, so he will be 30 by the time he enters next season.
Erin: Okay.
Ryan: ⁓ yeah, he's gonna ask for 50.
Ben Weaver: So, pay it no, but paying pitchers on the wrong side of 30, actually, now that I look at it, pitchers are lasting a little bit longer now, which is kind of weird. So he might get 50. And no one, yeah, well, you know, we sold our soul in 2021 and it is.
Jeb Maize: Yep.
Ryan: Unless they're wearing a Braves uniform, then they just die.
Jeb Maize: We did. Yeah. Alright, alright. I've gotta ask then. Hypothetically, basically, you save 18 million dollars because of the 3 million dollars over the second luxury tax on the 15 million dollar AAV. So you save 18 million dollars. What are you guys and gals doing? Because for me, personally,
Ryan: It's still worth it! ⁓
Ben Weaver: acre parking lot.
Erin: y'all already know what I'm gonna do. ⁓
Ryan: Did you just say a parking lot, Ben? I'm about to come... Somebody hold me back, I'm about to come get him.
Jeb Maize: ⁓ buy buy another office buy another office building
Ben Weaver: Three acre parking lot. I want to be in the Liberty Media meeting room. All right, so I'm coming up with a great idea. three acre parking lot.
Jeb Maize: You know, you know, does it do they have apartments?
Ryan: You know what? We're not gonna get on there. Terry's gonna fricking hate me anyway, so we're not getting anything Braves related. Who am I kidding? Talk so much crap about Terry.
Ben Weaver: you ⁓
Jeb Maize: You know, maybe, they could start their own like counterfeit cash factory in the battery.
Ryan: They already do, it's just legal.
Jeb Maize: Maybe they could do an illegal one and double their money
Ryan: Jeff, this is not Grand Theft Auto, okay? I've been playing a ton of that, I know where you're going with this, okay? No, it's not that.
Ben Weaver: No.
Jeb Maize: Yeah No, all seriousness I think kutch kutch for 1.5 or 2. I think that makes a ton of sense cuz Heck no, man, you discussed it. He wasn't worth but like three
Ryan: That's gonna want more than that. I'm telling you, I'm with you what he's worth. telling you what he's gonna want, bro.
Jeb Maize: Yeah, I mean... I mean...
Ben Weaver: Yeah.
Erin: But only as a rental, right? Like just to get us through until...
Ben Weaver: He's a free agent, so he's not worth it.
Ryan: Yeah, he's a agent.
Jeb Maize: Yeah. I mean, if you think about it. ⁓ yeah. Like, you if you sit and think about it, OK, you get how song came back in May. OK, you then you slide Dubon and you stream ski out to left and you have coach on the bench or you just cut him one of the two. You're out two million.
Erin: Yeah, but I mean, like just say one year contract.
Ben Weaver: May.
Ryan: tune.
Erin: Bye. and then like
Jeb Maize: My what I would do is I would sign Andrew McCutcheon to one year two if he accepts I would sign Patrick Corbin to one year 1.5 if he accepts and I would sign Zach Lattell one year 10 That all together That all together is way more production of what you need Than what you would have gotten with Jerx and Profar now I've told you all and I told Ken when he was on earlier
Ryan: Gimme Zach Lattell, I'm all in on that.
Ben Weaver: Okay, well first off...
Jeb Maize: The pro far thing sucks because he lengthens your lineup. He's just another guy that's going to put up tough ABs and is going to put the ball in play and all of that. I get that switch hitter, all of that. But when pitchers are going through and they're looking into their game plans and they're like, okay, we we've got outs here, here, here and here. You have to hypothetically think jerks and pro far is probably one of those outs. Cause they're not thinking that about Olsen, they're not thinking that about Baldwin, they're not thinking that about Ronald and potentially Riley, you know, depending on what he does. So it sucks, but I think with the Yaz signing, it doesn't hurt as bad.
Ben Weaver: that's, that is a testament to what AA has done over the offseason. He's added to that depth and like, you're not going to have Jared Kellnick take in meaningful at-bats. You're not going to have Stuart Fairchild taking meaningful at-bats. You're not... Dude. ⁓ my god. Yeah, like, and...
Jeb Maize: Jared Kellenick, terrible teammate, by the way.
Ryan: Go look at the spring stats, they're terrible. Holy cow, they're bad.
Erin: Yeah, they're bad. I saw them too. Ugh.
Ben Weaver: And like, I've never, I never liked the Jared Kellnett trade in the first place and I'm not trying to toot my own horn here, but I'm just saying like, you're not, you're not going to be giving guys like that meaningful at-bats. You're going to have Mike Yastremski who has a 130 or whatever it was, OPS plus against righties. You're going to have Mauricio Dubon who can hit, you know, he's basically.
Ryan: Go ahead and tune it. You're right.
Ben Weaver: Troy Tudelicki whenever compared to Nick Allen. right. ⁓
Ryan: POP
Erin: With Dubon, I love his attitude, like his frame of mind. In one of the interviews at one of the games this past week, he said something about, they asked him about his gold gloves and he said, yeah, I'm gonna get my next one here in Atlanta. Like he's just got that mindset. Yeah, I love it. Like I was sold on him after that interview.
Jeb Maize: Boom!
Ryan: Love that cocky attitude, you gotta have it.
Erin: Mm-hmm.
Ben Weaver: I'm just saying, think that AA did a fantastic job this off season, getting depth. and, ⁓ dude, I'm saying, ⁓ now was it, was it perfect? By no means was it perfect. No, he needed a starting pitcher. He didn't get one. ⁓ You know, but what he did on the position player side, like people say these were not ceiling moves. Yes, they were.
Erin: Yeah, me too. Yeah.
Ryan: Don't tell Brave Sweater. ⁓ Don't do it.
Jeb Maize: We can talk about it.
Ben Weaver: because Mauricio Dubon is gonna give you more offensively than Nick Allen ever dreamed of. right, Yaz is gonna give you more offensively than Stuart Fairchild and Jared Kelnick ever dreamed of, all right?
Jeb Maize: Whoa whoa whoa! You don't have to knock my guy Stuart Fairchild, okay?
Ryan: Listen, we kind of do it. He went O for the century.
Erin: You're forgetting about Alex Verdugo too.
Ben Weaver: ⁓ my gosh, yes, yes. Yes, it's gonna, yeah.
Jeb Maize: Uhhh... for dog shit.
Ryan: I- Listen, Aaron, I forgot about him. Why did you have to bring him back into the fold?
Ben Weaver: Okay, so funny, I posted a tweet last year, because whenever Verdugo came to the Braves, his first two games, he had a four for five game and a three for five game back to back. He just didn't have a single hit after that. What are we doing? ⁓
Erin: Yeah, yeah.
Ryan: Don't look at his exit velocities on those hits, let me tell you.
Ben Weaver: I mean he would, but he had like three doubles in that time period too. It was like seven for 10 with three doubles. I don't know. It did that well. That well would dry real quick.
Ryan: It dried up quick.
Erin: Yeah.
Jeb Maize: It did. I think he got a Benz pool noodle MVP one time. actually, I think he did.
Ryan: He did. Listen, it was absolute cinema early. It was cinema, and it wore off very quickly.
Ben Weaver: Yeah, yeah, and Boston Red Sox fans told me that in my mentions because of those tweets that I tweeted out. They were like, yeah, don't get used to this. It's not gonna last. And then I was like, you know what? I think he can do it. I think he's turned that corner.
Jeb Maize: I'm gonna double check that. He did Alex Alex for do go confirmed Ben's pool noodle series MVP one time one time. Yep.
Ben Weaver: Yep, yep. And never again. Not even in baseball anymore.
Ryan: One time winner. First series, never again. Now I got picked up by somebody.
Erin: Yeah, he's on a contract with someone because I saw a tweet that said I don't know if it was one of you guys but it was like his first three games are gonna be amazing and then you're gonna be really disappointed after that
Ben Weaver: ⁓ he is?
Jeb Maize: Padres. Padres.
Ryan: The accuracy of the internet.
Ben Weaver: Thank
Jeb Maize: Yeah, that sounds like, yeah. He got picked up by the Padres. So they have picked up, like you wanna talk about depth, the Padres have everybody. Yeah, if he's in the minors, yeah.
Ryan: Can you count Verdugo with depth? I'm with Ben. I'm with Ben. He's not depth, he's a body.
Ben Weaver: Yeah, he's literally there because they have to have nine people on the field.
Jeb Maize: That's... Now, okay. I wanna run something by y'all because I got absolutely crucified for this last year. No. No, no, no. I got crucified for this.
Ben Weaver: Probably justifiably.
Ryan: Just like I did about Profar, I understand completely. Day two.
Jeb Maize: I'm looking up his contract, I'm sorry. We would not have this problem if AA would have just dished out the one year 4 million with a team option of 6.5 for Ramon Larianno.
Ryan: Dude, don't remind me about that one escaping. Why he didn't? I don't-
Ben Weaver: All right. You know, you know what I'm mad about is what was it one year, six million for Miguel Andujar who has done nothing but absolutely mash left-handed pitching since he became the leader.
Ryan: That one too.
Jeb Maize: I don't know why they didn't sign him. What was it, 4 mil?
Ryan: as like four, four and a half or something.
Ben Weaver: It was something crazy and he's he plays outfield too. He can play left field not well, but I mean you weren't going to get that from profile anyway.
Ryan: Nope, sure wouldn't.
Ben Weaver: ⁓ I gotta get off here in just a minute. Daddy duty calls, but I'll stay for another couple of minutes.
Jeb Maize: Yeah.
Erin: Thank you.
Jeb Maize: ⁓ real quick, if you can, if you can real quick, what are you doing with the extra 15 mil?
Ryan: Understandable.
Ben Weaver: ⁓ What I'm doing with the extra 15 mil, I am ⁓ three acre parking lot.
Jeb Maize: Okay, got it. Three acre parking lot.
Ben Weaver: I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. No, I think, I mean, I guess McCutcheon, if he does, if he would take a three year deal and then you, I mean, no, no, no, I'm sorry. Three million deal, $3 million deal. Not, not a three year deal. A one year, $3 million deal. If he would even take that. I'm sure he's been offered that. And I'm sure he's turned that down because he's Andrew McCutcheon and he doesn't have to take anything that he doesn't want to. He's at that point in his career.
Jeb Maize: Three-year deal?
Ben Weaver: Zach Lattell, he's not gonna take 10 million to go anywhere. If he would be willing to do that, he would have already done it. ⁓
Ryan: Yeah.
Jeb Maize: Maybe, I was talking to Ken about it, there could be stuff with his medicals. Like, we don't know.
Ben Weaver: But there could be, so yeah, so if that's the case, then.
Ryan: Every picture has that in the big leagues. Come on, Jeb.
Jeb Maize: Yeah.
Ben Weaver: Right, but still if that's the case, then why would you want him on our team that's already ravaged by injuries? And Patrick, yeah, well you love that word. ⁓ But Patrick Corbin, would do absolutely dastardly things to keep him far away from my team. ⁓
Jeb Maize: I'm saying if, hypothetically, he doesn't have anything. Yeah, it's my prerogative to say that word. It's my prerogative.
Ryan: Word of the day by Chib. Big word, buddy.
Jeb Maize: Dude, no. No.
Ben Weaver: He, Patrick Corbin, did you not watch his Nationals tenure? And like the second half of last week? Okay, did you not see the second half of the Rangers tenure last year?
Jeb Maize: Yeah, but did you watch him the Rangers? It don't matter, man. You just gotta have somebody hold down the fort.
Ryan: Put him in the pan-Joey-Wentz season, baby.
Ben Weaver: Again, Patrick Corbin is just like Jared Kelnick. He's there because you need non-people on the field. Alright?
Jeb Maize: One year, 1.5, that's all.
Ben Weaver: Brother, no. If I have 15 million, if I have 15 million, I'd probably do my best to try to make a trade. I mean, you look at like Houston and see what they're doing. I mean, I do like the Paredes idea, but the right hand to bat issue is probably going to be solved when Ha Song Kim and Sean Murphy come back. You don't necessarily, and yes, it's a month and a half.
Ryan: We got Martin Perez already.
Jeb Maize: Yep. Yep.
Erin: Yeah.
Ryan: great.
Ben Weaver: maybe two months until they're both back, but that problem solves itself. So I don't want to give up top prospect capital to be getting Isak Peretis and then not have anywhere to put him and then possibly not even get value back. They're the same value that you gave up back in a trade later in the year.
Ryan: I will offer you one Aaron bummer.
Ben Weaver: I mean, who's gonna take that contract though? Why? What reason?
Jeb Maize: Boston gimme gimme will juror bray you
Ryan: Give me a freaking bucket of balls. What are we talking about here, bro?
Jeb Maize: EEEH
Ben Weaver: Again, Wilier Abreu is a left-handed bat. If they're going through...
Jeb Maize: I don't care. He's a gold glover. Stick Ronnie at DH for all I care.
Ryan: Ronald's not gonna do that, bro. You will ruin every chance of signing Ronald. I care, because I want Ronald to be a break for the rest of his career, Jeb.
Erin: No, no absolutely not.
Jeb Maize: I do not care. I do not care.
Ben Weaver: Yeah, well, anyway, I gotta get off here. go. Bye. See y'all.
Jeb Maize: Already been. Appreciate you. That was Ben Weaver. You may know him as Weaver Cards ⁓ on Twitter. Yeah, yeah, Weaver. Shout out to Ben for hopping on with us. ⁓ I'm gonna pivot over to Aaron. What do you think? What are your hypotheticals as I'm getting crucified for saying that?
Ryan: Pull the bird out.
Erin: Okay, well. First of all... Sorry for the technical difficulties. had a twin come in here and I don't know what I did with the camera, but I got it fixed anyway. ⁓ So I have one like wild card thought and I don't know like the logistics going into this trade. They're both trades. I don't think that we need to go pick up any free agents because in my mind, most of the free agents, whether it's a pitcher or a different player, they're not worth any kind of value right now. mean, unless we absolutely need someone to fill a spot, sure. But ⁓ I like the idea of Littell. ⁓ But at the same time, like I've I'm of the mindset that our starting rotation as is could potentially hold their own. But if the offense continues to perform the way that they are in spring training, we don't need a top of the line starting rotation. We did it in 2023. you know, we had an average rotation then. So if those guys can continue this way, and Profile was not contributing that much to that. It's most, right now during spring training, it's it's Yaz, Matt Olson, ⁓ Ozzy here and there, a lot of the new guys, Mateo, like, you know what I'm saying?
Jeb Maize: I forgot he was even a person.
Erin: He hit a grand slam. Yeah, I said Ozzy. Yeah, he's doing really well in his little time out there. ⁓ But anyway, so here's my two choices. ⁓ I had the idea and I'm going to post about this later, but I was thinking I was looking at Jorge Saler's contract with the Giants.
Ryan: Unbelievable. Forgot Ozzy? You forgot about Ozzy, the little swole king? Come on, Jeb.
Jeb Maize: No, Mateo. No, I forgot about, I forgot Mateo was even a person. ⁓ God.
Erin: It is, hear me out, hear me out. It is.
Ryan: Listen, I'm all about 2021 World Series MVP Jorge Soler. Let's go.
Erin: Yes, and it is almost identical to Profar's contract. We can DFA Profar next year or whatever we need to do to get rid of him. And then somehow trade to get Saler back. We'd only be spending an extra million dollars this year to have him with us. It's just a matter of what trade pieces would need to go.
Ryan: send him to the frickin' sun.
Erin: And then my other thought was, and this one I know is far-fetched, but I will never, I will die on this hill forever until it's in stone that it's not gonna happen. Yes, yes. And not anytime soon, obviously, we let the twins collapse and we let them fully admit to themselves that they need to enter a rebuild. And then we go after him then because I mean, Pablo Lopez is out for the entire season.
Ryan: Box 10 box 10
Jeb Maize: Hahaha
Erin: Joe Ryan is iffy. There's two of your three already down. They're not going to see the attendance they want. They're not going to see the revenue they want. And what is the first thing they're going to do? Fire sell their most expensive players. And who is one of those? Byron Buxton. And who is on his no trade clause exception list? Us. Where is he from? Georgia. Who's his favorite coach? Our third base coach. I mean, the list goes on and on. So.
Ryan: Yeah.
Erin: In my mind, it's just, again, it's a matter of what they would want for him. But at the same time, our prospects are increasing their value with every spring training game, especially the pitchers. Like they are looking good out there. And I know spring training doesn't matter, blah, blah, but it does matter. It matters, especially for prospects, because you get to see, like they get a preview of, you know, major league. playing with major league players and they're holding their own and they're doing well. So that's going to increase their value trade wise and you know team wise. But at the same time I'm like we can't let go of someone like a JR Richie with the history our starting rotation has had because of any of the prospects I think he'd be the one that would be called up first if another injury were to happen God forbid. ⁓ So like I'm apprehensive to let him go and I know that he'd probably be one of the first player that a team would ask for in any kind of trade, you know? Unless I'm wrong. But then there's always Sean Murphy, but I don't know if the twins need a catcher right now. I can't remember who they picked up for that. I feel like they picked somebody up for catcher this year. But who knows? I'm just saying I like the idea of
Jeb Maize: Yeah.
Erin: getting Ryan and Buxton in a package, but just Buxton alone. And I love that I can say to people that have been saying to me since November, there's no room in this outfield for him. There is now, there is now. So that argument's off the window.
Ryan: Ha ha ha.
Jeb Maize: Yeah? Yeah. ⁓ Ryan, besides ⁓ Eddie Rosario, who is on your list?
Erin: Eddie Rosario!
Ryan: Listen, don't.
Jeb Maize: Did you see that tweet I posted? Of ⁓ welcome back to Atlanta Eddie Rosario.
Erin: Yes! Yes, ⁓ my gosh.
Ryan: Don't hate on King Eddie. I'm kinda digging Solaire. I'm on his savant page right now.
Jeb Maize: ⁓
Erin: Yes, okay, and it's more realistic than Buxin. It is.
Ryan: I'm kinda... Listen, hear me out, Jeb. Anaheim might eat some money.
Jeb Maize: I doubt it.
Ryan: I don't think you're gonna have to give up whole lot to get Jorge Soler. Listen, go look at a Savon page, and he's gonna be playing DH. Brother, they're not gonna give up Joe Adele, are you? Are you high?
Jeb Maize: What about Joe Adele? They might. They're high. They might.
Ryan: Artie Moreno's stupid. He's not a complete, utter fool like Jerson Profar is. I mean, if... Look, I'm looking... It's kind of blurred out because he missed so much time, but Elite Barrel percentage, Elite Bat Speed, and he does not chase. And he can DH. I don't need him in the outfield.
Erin: Yeah, put Yaz out there, let him DH. That covers the DH problem. Trade Sean Murphy if needed, because we have Jonahime and Drake Baldwin. We have three good solid catchers. We can trade one of them, not Drake Baldwin though, but one of the other two.
Ryan: Yeah.
Jeb Maize: Don't forget number 47 himself, Chadwick Trump.
Ryan: I would ⁓ I can literally ride the frickin bench until he proves that he can hit. I wouldn't get rid of Murphy immediately right now, just money-wise, but I'm kind of intrigued by Jorge Salera. I'm not saying go stick him in the outfield by any means, but even his 2024 savant was pretty red. Like, I'm kind of down for that. I'm not saying, but I kind of like what Ben said. Like, right-handed bat's gonna be solved by May-June.
Erin: Yeah.
Jeb Maize: Yeah.
Erin: Thank you.
Ryan: I don't think that's going an issue. I would take that money and roll it into some pitching. would say, Zach, here's 10. And when he pisses all over that offer, I'd say, OK, here's 12. And then he might consider it. And I'm going say, all right, you've twisted my arm. Here's 15 million. Come pitch for your Atlanta Braves.
Jeb Maize: I don't think it would take that much. I think 10 would be 10 to 12.
Ryan: I don't, dude, I'm with Ben, dude. You don't think he hasn't had 10 million thrown at him?
Jeb Maize: I don't know. You would think he would have signed by now. Like, look at the New York Mets. You can't tell me the New York Mets could use a Zach Lattell as a five. They're running out what?
Ryan: Good thing. ⁓ man, cause they got a... They got David Stearns, man. They got... They got the brain-mitition up there. Creating pictures, apparently.
Jeb Maize: I yeah I guess or Miami? I don't know. There's tons of teams that could use his services as a number five for 10 mil.
Ryan: Miami's got a lot of pitching. Miami's got a lot of pitching. I'm telling you, think he wants more money. I think he would sign for 15. I wouldn't have a problem giving it to him. For one year. I'd say here's one year 15.
Jeb Maize: I just don't see a world where he gets 15. His expected numbers look like shit. They do. he... 18-5. 18-5.
Erin: feel comfortable with that.
Ryan: I'm not saying he is.
Erin: What did Chris Bassett get? Like 12? 20?
Ryan: He got 20. He almost got 20. He almost. 18.5.
Erin: Okay, so he likes to block these other guys like Jolito and L'atel.
Jeb Maize: And Basset is...
Ryan: It's not impossible where Letel could get 15 or somebody ponies up, but I realistically 12 to 13 I think is fine for Letel. I don't think he's gonna take 10. Not with the... Not with the starting... the price of starting pitching. It has gone through the freaking roof.
Jeb Maize: Hello.
Erin: would do 12. I would do 12.
Jeb Maize: I wouldn't be pissed if they gave him 12 because, you know, as me and you have talked about, Ryan, he's pitched 150 innings the past two years and he pitched 90, I think, the year before. So I wouldn't be mad if they did that, but...
Ryan: I would go pitching before hitting because I think hitting is going to be solved before ⁓ I think that's, I would go add depth either in the bullpen or I would go get another arm for the rotation.
Jeb Maize: You Yeah. Yeah, and per somebody, Ha Sung Kim is progressing very well and I think he could be hitting minorly pitching as early as like early to mid-May, you know? So if you add that, then you are sliding Dubon into that utility platoon into left. So I think the hitting aspect will be okay. That's why I say a clutch because it's like if you just have him for
Ryan: which is great news.
Jeb Maize: you know, day till May and you're only out three million, then so be it.
Ryan: I get it. I would love Andrew McCutcheon. I would love Andrew McCutcheon. I don't think Andrew McCutcheon's...
Erin: Yeah. OK, so that idea is growing on me now, Jeb, now that you say it that way. I'm, yeah.
Ryan: I'm always, me and you talked about this, Jeb, I am down, and I'm in there like swimwear for Andrew McCutcheon. I don't think Andrew's gonna be like, yeah, I'll take that three million to, ⁓ you know, platoon for a month and a half and then, bye. I don't think he's down for that, man. I just don't.
Jeb Maize: I mean, would you not do that? To platoon for a month and a half and then probably get cut? Just take three guaranteed million?
Ryan: Kutch has got more than enough money, He don't care. Kutch is like, can either play me or I'm not signing. Like that... So would I? Absolutely, but it's Kutch. Not me.
Jeb Maize: Why not add to it?
Erin: Here's another off the wall thought that I had. What if we somehow get, and I mean, I know this wouldn't address pitching obviously, but what if we somehow trade back for Ozuna at the deadline? How would you guys feel about that?
Ryan: I just think that by then the right-handed bad is gonna be solved with Murphy and Kim
Jeb Maize: I Yeah, I don't see it with Kim and with Murphy potentially being back. Yeah, yeah.
Ryan: Unless we sustain another injury. God forbid.
Erin: Yeah. And also the contract that they gave him, I just know it's not something that obviously we weren't going to do. And I don't see them, unless we're absolutely desperate, like not even considering that. It was just a thought in my head because I'm like, well now, you know, we don't even have him to back up, you know, I'm just brainstorming over here. Any kind of possible idea. honestly.
Jeb Maize: I mean another one too is like Victor Robles? I think it... I mean maybe, you know? I don't know.
Ryan: ⁓ man, see I was not getting rid of him. I don't think I have anybody else for his spot, do they?
Jeb Maize: They might, but I think it was like a three year extension for like nine mil or something. It wasn't anything. Who's that dude from Texas? Well, he's a lefty, but that dude from Texas. No, not Langford, the dude in the World Series. Evan Carter. Evan Carter, he's like 23 and they've already sent him down like three times.
Ryan: Yeah, they're not. Talk about Josh Smith. He's fun. I would be in there. I got a soft spot for Evan Carter, Well, let me do some digging. Let me do some digging. alright, sprint speed's crazy. He doesn't chase.
Jeb Maize: I do too. I do too. or you know, Ben mentioned it too, like Jordan Beck, like, there's a couple decent options out there, but.
Erin: Here's the real question, are we gonna actually pursue any of them? Because I don't think we are.
Ryan: No, so my realistic one is Terry McGurk's just gonna bathe in the money that he saved from Pro-Far, you Not.
Jeb Maize: Yeah.
Erin: Yeah, and or hold that until the trade deadline as yeah, because I mean, technically, if you think about it, we can get through until May with what we have. We can put Yaz in left field full time. We've got Mateo and Haim to fill in and that rotating DH position. And I think that they'd be okay doing that. Or we could even do like a Haim Baldwin ⁓
Ryan: 100%.
Erin: switching kind of like what Murphy does until Murphy gets back.
Ryan: I'm yeah, our schedule is not very brutal at all in the first two months like at all Yeah, like I'm seeing I'm seeing Boston twice you got the Dodgers Seattle And Arizona But I mean those are like the ones that really stand out none of none of the rest of them are like I Mean we got a pretty soft schedule early
Erin: No, it's not. It's a cakewalk. For this part. The dodge of first month.
Jeb Maize: Oakland
Erin: Yeah.
Ryan: So, I... Did everybody... And this is biggest thing is... You gotta stay healthy. Riley's gotta be Riley. Olsen can't get hurt. We can't lose Ronald. Ozzy's gotta come back. It's... It always comes down to the same thing. The dudes who have been here have done it. They've gotta... They gotta be the dudes again.
Erin: Well, it's like Jeff Passon said today in that interview with 680. He was like, the only problem, he said, I still believe in this team, but there's so many questions around this team. And it's a matter of will Michael Harris have two consistent halves? Will Drake Baldwin continue to be that guy? Will Matt Olson hit 50 home runs this year? Will this team be a 2023 offense or 2025? There's too many what ifs.
Ryan: Yes.
Erin: And I was like, yes, like he's saying exactly all of my thoughts, because it's so true. Like there's so many things contingent on performance and we're just not, you know, we're not at a place to where we can be confident in any of it yet.
Jeb Maize: So.
Ryan: Unfortunately. Although Joey Winn's season's looking really good with that nasty sinker at 96 miles an hour coming out of the bullpen. So that's fun to think about. JR Richie's looking really cute.
Jeb Maize: Yeah, ⁓
Erin: Yeah. Yeah.
Jeb Maize: Yeah... Yeah... Yeah, we can discuss a little bit more of that on the next. Who, Owen Murphy? Yeah, throw him and left, screw it.
Erin: Mm-hmm.
Ryan: You who I'm excited about Jeb? John Gill. I am so excited about that kid. I want you to go look at his setup. want y'all to take a seat real quick. Let me get your attention. I want you to look at Ronald Acuna 2018 and then look at John Gill this spring.
Erin: Yes.
Jeb Maize: Throw him and left. Screw it. Walk with me, talk with me. Mm. Mm. Mm.
Ryan: you go look at those setups. just saying, a lot of similarities.
Erin: Alright. Can I steal that for a post of mine? Because that's a great thing to dive into. Okay. Yeah, I got you. I got you.
Ryan: As long as you tag me in it, I don't care. I can do a little breakdown with that too, so that may be coming y'all's way.
Erin: I say credit to Ryan, yeah.
Jeb Maize: Yeah, yeah, we'll we'll hop on that Ryan. I'll talk about it with you.
Ryan: I can, I can, we can break it down. We can get in there like swimwear, baby. I'm all in on John Gill. And then Ludece is looking pretty cute too. I'm just saying. Just saying.
Jeb Maize: We'll do it. We'll do it. Sounds good.
Erin: Love that idea. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Jeb Maize: Mmm!
Erin: like that the shortstop prospects are looking promising because that means in a couple of years we're going to have a homegrown shortstop that's actually good, you know, and that's something that I've been waiting for for a long time.
Jeb Maize: Potentially multiple. Yeah Yeah
Ryan: and if Ozzy is not Ozzy anymore you got one that probably can slide right over to second bass as well.
Jeb Maize: Yep. And that's not mentioning what they do with this draft, you know?
Erin: Yeah.
Ryan: I also saw in a bat where Diego Torrens just spit on four pitches that were like borderline by a dude throwing absolute cheese. He signed last year in the international free agent market. Listen, people have been sh- I'm gonna cuss here. People have been shitting on AA a little bit for the lack of, you know, draft, if you will. And I will say, Jared Schuster should not have been a number one pick, but-
Jeb Maize: Yes. you Well, okay, Lindsay did clarify that it's technically not AA, it's the head scouting director, honcho guy.
Ryan: Listen, honey, X is a nose here. He signs.
Erin: But doesn't AA have like ultimate say?
Jeb Maize: I guess, I don't know. I just work here.
Ryan: That's a good thing, I'm not a general manager. I piss off my owner so much. But he's done a really good job. He did really good job pivoting from pitching and going and getting young, athletic, middle of the diamond players. Second baseman, shortstop, center fielder, guys who can move around. And he did the same thing in the international free agency. Say what you will by AA. ⁓
Erin: Yeah. Yeah.
Ryan: He's done a good job restocking the minor leagues and it just hasn't been shown yet.
Erin: Yeah, and to touch on AA, like he's getting blamed for this pro far stuff. This is not his fault. Like how is, in what world is this AA's fault that a man decides to use performance enhancing drugs two years in a row? It's not. How could he have predicted that? know, like everything that goes wrong, it's AA's fault. And I'm like, can we just quit with this narrative because it's not true. He's a good general manager. If he wasn't, he wouldn't still have this job. Can we remember the amazing trades that he has done? Like Chris Sale for Von Grissom for instance, like hello. That was one of the best trades I've ever seen.
Ryan: Sheesh. Poor Boston.
Jeb Maize: Wow.
Ryan: Boston.
Jeb Maize: I think AA does a very good job of taking the heat too from ownership because that is part of the job. I'm just saying. ⁓ We'll wrap it up with this. It's getting into a regular episode and they wouldn't admit to but... ⁓ Yeah, it happens. ⁓ I got in argument with somebody on Twitter who said...
Erin: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Ryan: Listen Terry, I know it's you. to say.
Erin: Yeah.
Ryan: We talk bald.
Jeb Maize: You know, was, yeah, I mean, you know, was talking shit about AA basically in the off season. ⁓ you know, AA went out and addressed what he needed to do. He stocked up the bullpen. You got two ninth inning guys basically to go along with what you already had. depending on what you get from Joey Wins, who could be a potential bullpen guy, or depending on what moves you make, Grant Holmes, you know, or Bryce Elder, like...
Ryan: regular basis. one thing.
Jeb Maize: Tons of questions there. Bullpen's fine. Got the shortstop that we needed. Went out and got Yastrimsky to platoon and DH and all that. Like, everything was fine. AA did not go and shove Ha Sung Kim onto ⁓ an iceberg in the Atlantic and explode his ⁓ damn finger. know, and him getting blamed for the injuries is obscure. Now, I will admit,
Ryan: Texas.
Erin: Right. Yeah.
Jeb Maize: It is malpractice that he did not address the starting rotation in any form. I get we were going into spring training with potentially everybody, but you've got to put in some injury into consideration. I mean, like you're going to get Smith Schavert back at the end of the year. That'll be fine. You don't know when Schwelly or when Waldrop are going to come back. So I think you should have added some sort of starter. They got Perez.
Ryan: That is malpractice.
Jeb Maize: Okay, like I'm not, that's not tickling my fancy, but...
Ryan: What? Martin Perez didn't tickle your fancy? Dang.
Jeb Maize: It doesn't. It doesn't. It's not even blowing a gust of wind ⁓ up my butt. So ⁓ I'll let you guys touch on that, but that's pretty much what I want to close out with.
Erin: you
Ryan: Well, I'm gonna be roasted because apparently all I do is just absolutely kiss AA on the mouth because I just don't. And apparently I'm in Terry McGurk's back pocket, apparently. So, you know, I'm not a pediatrician for legal reasons, Jeb.
Jeb Maize: I mean, you are a homer, so...
Erin: Ugh.
Jeb Maize: You are, we know. You are a pediatrician, you've got to, ⁓ you've gotta find the tax loopholes and donate your money to, you know, I get it, man, I get it.
Ryan: I I could donate money. ⁓ But AA did what he needed to do this offseason, man. We touched on it. don't... You can say what you want. You can be as mad as you want. At the end of the day AA did a really good job. And he got one of the best... He got the reliever I wanted and that never freaking happens. And besides one pitcher, he... Like one pitcher. And he didn't go into the clubhouse and tell ProFar to...
Erin: Yeah.
Ryan: pull down his pants and bend over to stick a needle in his butt. Like, he didn't do that. He didn't just start randomly throwing crap in his food to get him to pop for PEDs, man. Like, I don't know.
Jeb Maize: Could you imagine? Could you imagine a just shoving a PED needle up Profar's ass?
Ryan: He just... JP, listen, come here. I need you to bend over. And ⁓ take this needle in your ass. Yeah, he didn't do that chat. So I don't... I don't know why everybody's freaking the hell out saying that AA didn't do enough, AA did everything but add a picture. And I give criticism where criticisms do. I wrote Terry's rear end for a year plus about that parking lot. Jeb, can adjust to that. You can say...
Erin: Okay.
Ryan: Yep, he did. He rode his rear end for a year and a half about that parking lot. I still do. But it wasn't on AA this offseason. He did a good job. Besides a pitcher.
Jeb Maize: You did. ⁓ Aaron, to close out?
Erin: Yeah, I agree. He touched on all of the main problems from 2025, which is the bullpen constantly collapsing. He added strong bullpen arms. Now it seems more stable. We have more options. That wasn't something that we had in 2025. Depth was another thing that we needed in 2025 that we didn't have and not just any kind of depth. Strong. dependable depth and we have that now in people like Yaz and Dubon.
Jeb Maize: You're telling me that Jared Kellnick wasn't strong dependable depth?
Erin: Maybe for like a month in 2024, whenever he was on that little hot streak. But after that, no, not at all. And with him, I really thought that we fixed him. Like I was so excited for him. I was like, all he needed was love and the power of friendship and look, he's he's good. But now that didn't happen. That didn't happen at all. And it was super disappointing because I was rooting for him in the beginning. But it is what it is.
Ryan: I'm gonna get me started.
Jeb Maize: You Yeah. Yeah. No. No.
Erin: And then, ⁓ yeah, the starting pitcher is the only thing. But like I've said, we don't really, I mean, yes, we need it. Of course we need the insurance. You can never have too much starting pitching. But I am under the impression that they think that Waldrop and Schwalde are gonna be back sooner than a lot of people are expecting, which I'm hoping is true. And I'm trying to be on the optimistic side of that. But like, if they're back around the same time, you know, in the second half, maybe around the All-Star break, we're good to go. You know, like we don't really, we just need to hold it down. And that's basically gonna be like the whole mentality going into 2026 is we just gotta hold it down with what we've got and the bats have to stay alive until the second half when people are returning. And then, you know, everyone else can kind of take a breather because we've got Murphy coming back. HSK coming back and we'll have a full lineup and a full bench again because right now the bench is just getting spread thinner and thinner. Eli Weitz must be on the bench. He's gonna be a potential everyday player, platooning with Yaz. Which I mean, I don't know what they're gonna do but that's what it feels like they're gonna do with the whole Pro-Far thing. I don't know.
Jeb Maize: Yeah.
Erin: But overall, think he did a good job and I was really happy to see movement. And even if he didn't sign a starting pitcher, I know that he attempted to, even if the deals were not something that they were interested in, he was still doing the work to do due diligence and get out there and try to see what his options were, whether that was up to him or not. You know, he may have been told, no, that's not on the budget, like whatever he was trying to offer. But it wasn't like he wasn't. Looking and people try to say like he didn't live up to that that statement that he made of it being his major priority this offseason It probably was the deals just didn't work out. We don't know what goes on behind the scenes, you know
Jeb Maize: Yeah, I agree. But. All righty. ⁓ But shit just happens when you keep talking ball. ⁓ So we turn this this little profile pod into until our little segment. Yeah. Yeah. So I hope you guys enjoyed listening. We'd love to hear some feedback. Like comment, subscribe, all that shares with your friends. You can find Aaron on Tick Tock.
Erin: Yeah.
Ryan: A whole pod. Go to TikTok and follow our chat.
Jeb Maize: Yes, go to the Tic Tac and find Erin. She does a great job over there. Being a little too optimistic ⁓ for the Braves, but no, we like doing this for you guys and just talking some ball and just seeing if anybody really gives a shit about what we say. So with that being said, we'll be back. Should be back Monday for the listeners, but yeah.
Erin: You
Jeb Maize: With that being said, Ryan? You're trash.
