Braves Report: Around and around we go

Football season? What football season?

We’ve still got baseball to talk about … if you’re brave enough.

THE ACTION AHEAD

Never a bad time to remember Jorge Soler crushing this three-run homer in Game 6 of the 2021 World Series against the Astros.

The Astros come to town for a three-game set starting tonight at Truist Park, then it’s four in Washington with the Nationals.

(Then at Detroit, vs. Washington and vs. Pittsburgh to close out the season, if you’re curious.)

• Hurston Waldrep (4-0, 1.33) vs. Jayden Murray (0-0, 0.00)
• Bryce Elder (7-9, 5.35) vs. Hunter Brown (11-7, 2.25)
• Joey Wentz (5-6, 5.61) vs. Framber Valdez (12-9, 3.42)

Murray is a reliever by trade and has pitched two scoreless outings for the Astros since being called up last week. He’ll serve as tonight’s “opener.”

The Braves have lost four of five. They’re 16 games under .500.

TOO MANY COOKS IN THE PITCHIN’

A few weeks back, I attempted to count every transaction the Braves have made this season. I gave up pretty quickly and, frankly, forgot about it.

Then Donna, a faithful reader, reached out and asked me to try again.

“Daily it’s like a revolving door of new names,” she wrote.

Indeed it is — especially on the pitching side of things. So that’s where I decided to focus.

Or where I asked Rahul Deshpande from the AJC’s stellar data squad to focus, anyway.

And according to his calculations, the Braves have used a whopping 36 different pitchers in 2025.

• That’s well above the league average of 28 or so, and third-most in all of MLB.
• As of this morning, the average division leader had used about 29 pitchers.
• The only teams to use more than Atlanta: the Los Angeles Angels and the New York Mets.

Is this shocking? Not given all the injuries to the starting rotation and the near-constant struggles of the bullpen.

• Tyler Kinley
• Connor Seabold
• Kevin Herget
• Dane Dunning
• Zach Thompson
• John Brebbia
• Jose Ruiz

Anything? That’s what I thought. I could go on, building a whole bullpen out of guys few of us even remember were here.

Not sure this is what he meant.

THE POOR, PITIFUL METS

The Mets’ struggles got a brief mention above, but we have to find joy somewhere — so I thought I’d offer up a little more intra-divisional Schadenfreude to savor.

• On June 12, the Mets had the best record in baseball and led the Phillies by 5½ games in the NL East.
• Since then, they’ve gone 31-46.
• Overall, they’re now 77-71 — and clinging to the NL’s third and final wild card spot by 1½ games.

RE: SNIT’S FUTURE

Lots of talk this week about the future of manager Brian Snitker, whose contract expires at the end of the season.

The gist, in two quotes:

• From Anthopoulos: “Snit is going to be in this organization forever. I’m not the owner, obviously; Terry McGuirk is in that role as chairman. Snit will be part of this organization no matter what, well past when I’m here. He’s Braves for life. Those are things we always address at the end of the year.”
• From Snitker: “I’m juggling a lot of things. I’m thinking about a lot of things. I honestly don’t know where I’m going to end up and what decision I’m going to make. I still kind of feel like there’s some unfinished business here.”

There have certainly been times this season when I felt like the skipper was definitely ready to hang ‘em up. He’ll turn 70 in October, a watermark eclipsed by only two other active managers (Bruce Bochy and Ron Washington, who’s on medical leave after having heart surgery).

But it sure sounds like back-to-back seasons of banged-up ballclubs and otherwise poor performances have him eyeing the potential for (at least) one more go.

Stay tuned.

PICKING NITS

See y'all at spring training!

(It’s actually just two things that kind of aggravated me, but you get the point.)

1️⃣ Ronald Acuña Jr. is hitting an even .100 over the last 15 days, and his offensive struggles go back even further than that.

Silly. Sure his ego loved it, too.

I get the tough guy, grind-it-out philosophy, especially coming from a catcher … but what the heck, dude?

Gotta address it sooner than that, especially when your performance starts dipping (which, a few brief home run explosions aside, it certainly has).

It’s giving Kirk Cousins.

ONE MORE THING

When it comes to highlighting Braves promos, I generally stick to giveaways and such. But I didn’t know this one was a thing, and it seems pretty cool — if you’ve got seven friends to split the $950 price tag.

• Across several days in October, fans can sign up to take batting practice on the field at Truist Park.
• For 45 minutes, groups of up to eight people can hit balls delivered from a pitching machine.
• They can also shag balls for groups hitting before or after their time slot.

All participants must be 14 or older, no cleats allowed and it’s B.Y.O bat. Sounds pretty rad.