The Win Column: Manager of the year

Yep.

You, personally, can spin the Falcons Quarterback Wheel of Destiny and determine who will start each game this year. I’ll explain more momentarily.

In the meantime: Vote for Walt.

GIVE THE MAN HIS TROPHY

One, please. (Colin Hubbard/AP)

Walt Weiss is not the favorite to win National League Manager of the Year. If you buy into the betting odds and prediction markets and whatever other gambling-adjacent thing is hastening our societal demise, that’s Brewers skipper Pat Murphy — two-time defending honoree.

Boring.

As the Braves stare down the final week-plus of the regular season, let’s recap everything thrown at Weiss in his first year.

▶️ By the time spring training started, outfielder Jurickson Profar had already been suspended (again). Presumed starting shortstop Ha-Seong Kim, sabotaged by South Korean ice. That top-line starting pitcher everyone fantasized over all offseason? MIA.

▶️ By the time spring training ended, starters Spencer Schwellenbach, Hurston Waldrep and Spencer Strider were on the shelf, too.

Unpleasant.

So what did Weiss do?

He led a team that began the previous season 0-7 (and finished it 76-86) to 40 wins in 60 games … form tackling a former Brave along the way.

Legendary stuff.

• As now-former Brave Jorge Mateo told Ken Sugiura for his latest column: “That’s a different type of manager.”

June brought less memorable times, of course, including Ronald Acuña Jr.’s first lengthy IL stint of the season. Did we mention Sean Murphy was already out at this point, too? And that his young catching counterpart, Drake Baldwin, missed a month or so? And that third baseman Austin Riley was/is mired in a career-worst slump?

(I haven’t even touched the post-spring pitching injuries, which include issues for Bryce Elder, Reynaldo López and set-up man Robert Suarez . By my count, 14 different pitchers have started games for the Braves this season; nine of them have done the honors at least five times. Overall, Atlanta’s used 36 different pitchers and counting … and still boasts baseball’s fourth-best ERA.)

Whatever the situation, Weiss’ Braves rolled with the punches. Soldiered on. Weathered the storm.

Cliches achieved.

▶️ September’s looking a little dicey (7-7 after Tuesday’s win), but the lowest winning percentage they’ve posted in any non-June month is .593.

▶️ They’re already at 89 wins, the high end of many preseason predictions.

▶️ Barring utter collapse over the last 10 games, they’ll reach that magic number of 5 and win the National League East for the first time since 2023.

I’m not a big awards arguer. Hadn’t even thought about any of this until I saw it mentioned elsewhere.

But sure smells like Manager of the Year material to me.

Agree? Disagree? Wanna say hi? Shoot me an email. Then ready your wallets — playoff tickets go on sale at 1 p.m. Thursday.

WAIT, COULD THE BRAVES CLINCH TODAY?

Mmhmm. The magic number of 5 is to claim the division. If we’re talking pure postseason clinch-age, that number is 2.

If the Braves beat the Cubs in their series finale and 1) the Diamondbacks lose to the Marlins or 2) the Padres lose to the Rockies, that’s all she wrote.

• Scheduled starters at Wrigley: JR Ritchie (1-2, 4.50 ERA) vs. Shota Imanaga (10-10, 3.88).

THE FALCONS QUARTERBACK WHEEL OF DESTINY

This is a screenshot, not a prediction. Click the link to give the wheel a spin. (Rahul Deshpande/AJC)

Who will start at quarterback for the Falcons this week?

The injured veteran? The mentally unready youngster? How about the guy who played kind of good a couple years ago but is a career backup for a reason?

Ohhh, maybe the undrafted rookie who played his college ball in something called the “Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference”? He looked promising against third-string preseason defenses!*

No official word yet, but may be the career backup (Cooper Rush) again in Week 2 — and either way, the Falcons are in QB purgatory. Maybe even that other place.

• Lucky for you, your friends at the Win Column have devised a solution: The Falcons Quarterback Wheel of Destiny.

Why wait around each week to find out who’ll be taking snaps? With just one click, the FQBWoD tells you exactly who’s going to start … results guaranteed.**

Go on and give her a spin.

*I love Jack Strand as a prospect, but we seriously gotta calm down, folks.

**Results not guaranteed.

MEANWHILE, ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BALL …

Za’Darius Smith continues to be an incredibly likable human.

We talked about the new Atlanta pass rusher’s debut (two in just 16 snaps) in Monday’s Win Column. A few other reasons he’s already beloved around Flowery Branch, from beat writer Daniel Flick’s recent story:

1️⃣ He invited the entire Falcons defense to his house Thursday … and hired a chef to cook lamp chops and lobster tails.

2️⃣ Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers signed his jersey from Week 1 and gave it to Smith. “Your energy and smile are contagious my friend!” Rodgers wrote.

3️⃣ He’s rented a bus to bring about 45 people from Harrison Street Baptist Church (near his native Montgomery, Alabama) to Sunday’s home opener against Carolina. A dream of his late mother.

“I know my mom, she’s smiling down, going to be happy for this one,” Smith said. “So, I can’t wait.”

To paraphrase a lemur named Mort from the animated classic “Madagascar”: You hate him compared to how much I love him.

🔗 Bonus linkage: Sugiura says Falcons loss strangely encouraging

COLLEGE FOOTBALL THINGS

Apropos of, uh, absolutely nothing: Check out this beautiful photo of a diverse group of college students enjoying their football game. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)

🤑 The Athletic’s out today with what may be the most comprehensive look to date on college football roster spending.

• They estimate Georgia has $31 million to $34 million at its disposal. That’s roughly TENTH in the SEC. (Our friends at DawgNation have covered UGA’s NIL philosophy extensively; here’s a good starting point.)
• Georgia Tech falls more in the $23 million to $26 million range. That’s right about the ACC average (but about half what Miami spends).

🐶 More money talk: We got our hands on Georgia AD Josh Brooks’ contract. He made $400K in bonuses last season.

🤨 Jared Curtis, the top-ranked high school quarterback who flipped from Georgia to Vanderbilt last December, gets his first start when the Commodores take on NC State this weekend.

🐝 The Yellow Jackets, meanwhile, hope to get more players involved against Mercer on Saturday. Keep an eye on these eight guys.

🙄 LSU coach Lane Kiffin on returning to Ole Miss this weekend: “They’ve been playing this matchup for a long time and this is the first time in the last 64 years both teams are in the top 10 … I think it’s a really good thing that a lot of people could look at it and say, hey, both sides are doing really well and both sides won.”