Braves Byline / Episode 2
Braves Are Hosting the Wild Card in the 2026 Playoffs
Jeff, Eric and Steve discuss the final week of the 2026 Braves season, hand out team awards, and preview the NL Wild Card Series against the hated Phillies.
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Episode recap
The Braves closed the regular season at 94-68 as NL East champions and the No. 3 seed, dropping a meaningless Game 162 5-3 (Mauricio Dubón homered). Philadelphia beat Tampa Bay to lock up the final Wild Card spot at 88-74, setting up a best-of-three series at Truist Park starting Tuesday at 2 p.m. Eric called the final week a microcosm of the season: some nights the bats and arms were unstoppable, other nights they couldn't buy a hit.
In the Braves Byline awards, Jeff gave the Chipper (best hitter) to Matt Olson; Eric went with Drake Baldwin for his clutch hitting with runners in scoring position, and Steve leaned toward Michael Harris II. Harris took the Andruw (best all-around position player) after a big bounce-back year, Dubón was the unanimous pick for the Prado (most versatile), and Chris Sale won the Maddux, with Jeff giving a shout-out to Martín Pérez for going from afterthought to rotation stabilizer. For the Tyler "Big Balls" Matzek Award, Jeff and Eric picked Didier Fuentes and Steve made the case for Dylan Lee.
All three think Walt Weiss deserves Manager of the Year, pointing to his aggressive, well-timed bullpen use, which led to a detour on Bobby Cox's bullpen habits and Mark Wohlers. On the Phillies, Steve worries about their balanced lineup and Aaron Nola, and Eric about Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper getting hot in October. Everyone was glad Atlanta dodges Zack Wheeler in Games 1 and 2, with Sale and Tyler Mahle lined up and Game 3 the biggest question. To go deep in October, the guys want Austin Riley and Ronald Acuña Jr. to step up, better pitch execution against the Phillies' big bats, and fewer runners left on base.
In this episode
- Final record: 94-68, NL East champs and the No. 3 seed
- The Chipper and the Andruw: Olson, Drake Baldwin or Michael Harris II?
- The Prado goes to Mauricio Dubón
- The Maddux: Chris Sale, plus a shout-out to Martín Pérez
- The Matzek Award: Didier Fuentes vs. Dylan Lee
- Should Walt Weiss win Manager of the Year?
- Phillies preview: Schwarber, Harper, dodging Wheeler and the Game 3 question
Transcript
This transcript was generated automatically from the episode audio and lightly edited for readability. Speaker labels and player names are machine-assisted, so a few words may be off. The audio is the official record.
This is the Braves Byline Podcast with Jeff, Eric and Steve. Welcome to the Braves Byline Podcast. The Braves are back on top of the East. We're going to look at how the season ended, hand out our team awards and get ready for a three game battle against a very familiar hated opponent. With me as always are Eric and Steve. How you guys feeling tonight?
Pretty good
I feel great. Good. Good. That's always important. Yeah, so Atlanta finished 94 and 68 and they won the NL East, of course. They're the number three seed. They'll host the 88 and 74 Phillies in a best-of-three series beginning Tuesday at 2 p.m. Every game's at Truist Park; we'll get to host all three playoff games. Game two will be Wednesday and game three, if necessary, will be Thursday. So, yeah, you gotta think.
Jeff, you gotta think positively, man. It's gonna be two games. I hope so.
I hope so. I hope so. Yeah. We'll talk about it a little bit later, but we definitely have the pitching advantage if we can win the first two games. Once game three comes around, then it gets dicey. But let's talk real quick about the final game. They lost 5-3 in a meaningless Game 162. Dubón homered. They were already locked into the number three seed with home-field advantage, like we mentioned. More importantly, Philly beat Tampa Bay 7-3 to secure the final NL Wild Card spot. They finished at 88 and 74. So Eric, before we start handing out the team awards, what were your thoughts on the last week of the Braves regular season?
It kind of felt like a microcosm of the whole season, where there were some games where you're just knocking the crap out of the ball and other games where we couldn't buy a hit. And some games where our pitchers just looked unhittable and others where they were pitching batting practice. So that's kind of been the whole season, right?
Right, for sure. And what do you think, Steve?
Yeah, I feel the same. I just don't think I mean, there was some effort, but they They weren't going to risk too
Yeah, they weren't going to be diving for balls or sprinting unnecessarily and stuff. No need to get hurt that last week of the season. We've seen Chris Sale get hurt the last week of the season and other players right before the playoffs. So we definitely didn't want to repeat of that. Alright, let's talk about our Braves End of Season Awards. So, the best all-around hitter award, we call that the Chipper. My pick is Matt Olson. He played all 162 games again. 41 homers, 93 RBI. He was the season-long power anchor. He... His homers put him among the National League leaders. Did you guys have a pick for best overall hitter for the Braves?
I'm going to deviate from that a little bit, because I think Olson was still a little streaky throughout the year. I think our best all-around hitter was Drake Baldwin. And to me, I mean in baseball, the whole reason you want to hit is to get people home. And his batting average with runners in scoring positions like .325. So he hits when we need him to. And unlike some of our players who only seem to hit home runs when it doesn't matter. Yeah, he's not Olson. I think, yeah, it's Drake Baldwin.
Yeah, and being a catcher that just makes any offense that you can provide that much more valuable. What do you think Steve? Who was your best all-around hitter for the season?
Yeah, I think it's kind of tied between Olson and Harris a little bit. You know, I had the numbers, but I felt like Harris was on second all the time. So, I mean, I felt like... He put us in a good position to score and. Yeah, I think I like Harris for that.
And then that leads us into our next award. I call it the Andruw Jones award for best all-around position player taking into account offense and defense. This could be your same answer as the previous question, but I lean for Michael Harris on this one. .294, 26 homers, 87 RBIs, and just elite center field defense, a lot like Andruw did in his prime. And he was the worst hitter in Major League Baseball at the All-Star break last season. Bounce-back season. So what do you think, Steve?
Yeah, he's my all around player. I think he just, like I said, I felt like he was always on second. He was making incredible catches out there. He was just. He had the best attitude the entire time. He's a new dad. I mean, he just sent me. Yeah, I mean, he was awesome to watch this year. And he hadn't let up since after the All Stars last year.
that's great
He's finally found his groove and he's sticking to it. He's great.
Yeah, it's nice to see him put it all together.
Yeah, I agree. He's been a lot of fun to watch this year. And it's like, you know, it's frustrating last year because he's definitely somebody you want to pull for. And just seeing him this year hit so well. You know, it's hard when you see guys on, you know, Chevrolet commercials and, you know, cool nicknames like Money Mike and stuff, but they're, you know, hitting .210. But to see him just have such a good year and he's just a fun
Yep, next award is the Martín Prado Award. One of my favorite all time Braves. I'm sure y'all feel the same. You know, for the most versatile player, he could play any position and still hit well. And my pick is Mauricio Dubón. He hit 12 homers, 72 RBIs, and made starts at five different positions, mostly at left field and shortstop, but also center field, third and second. And he's just a lot of fun to watch too. He always has a big smile on his face. What do you guys think about that?
Yeah, man, I would agree with that. I think I would go so far as to say I don't know that we're the division winner if we don't have him this year Yeah
You know what's funny? It's like you, I didn't even pay him a whole heck of a lot of attention So you just kept texting about him and I was like, so I started paying more attention to him like in late April and early May and then and he just never let up. He was something else. Yes.
Well, when we first got him, I was afraid he was going to be one of those guys that was just kind of there. I mean, not just kind of there, but you know, like a... Crap. I'm having an old man moment for a second. One of those bench players that just kind of pops in every now and then strikes out and sits back down. But man, he was far from that.
And the book on him coming in was he could only hit lefties, he couldn't hit righties, but he did solid against righties. When they brought him in, he was gonna play shortstop against lefties while Kim played against righties, and then he would sprinkle in around the outfield and stuff. But yeah, he proved he could hit righties too. So that was a big improvement to our bench and our depth. So the Maddux for the best starting pitcher. Obvious answer is Chris Sale, he will be in the top three or four for Cy Young again, 14 and nine, 2.16 ERA, 200 strikeouts. But since he's the obvious answer, I'm sure you all will pick him too. I wanted to give a shout out to Martín Pérez. He was probably like ninth on the starting pitcher depth chart when the spring training started. And then with all the injuries and inconsistencies and stuff, he ended up being our second best pitcher. 3.04 ERA and 142 innings. He really stabilized our rotation with all the injuries. What do you guys think?
Man, it breaks my heart that it's not Spencer Strider. Right. I mean, if you would ask me three years ago or four years ago, I would have said, well, Strider is going to be a a perennial Cy Young guy, right? Yeah. I mean, he may not even be a Brave in the next year or two. Yeah. But yeah, man, it's got to be Chris Sale. I mean, and Pérez was great. Especially down the stretch. He was a little rocky kind of starting off, it seemed like, but yeah.
He got DFA'd early in the season. Any team could have had him. He got so pissed and he told the team he was pissed and they brought him back after he cleared waivers and he was on fire ever after that.
Yeah, that's that's a. Yeah, those two guys have been the most consistent. I mean, I know they had had a couple of bad runs here and there, but nothing like to the degree of Holmes had, you know, or elder. I mean, it was just it was. Those two, you get, yeah, you felt better knowing those two were going to the mound, and that's for sure.
Yeah, it was funny in the first couple months, Elder was actually in the Cy Young conversation. I know. Now he's injured and we, you know, he fell off so much we don't even really miss him. So let's go on to our next award. I call this the Tyler “Big Balls” Matzek Award for best reliever. I'm taking Didier Fuentes. He kind of emerged and really blossomed this year as a 21 year old. 7-2 with a 2.45 ERA, 92 strikeouts and just 73 and a third innings. He really became a dominant, higher leverage reliever. And I remember when they brought him up just out of necessity last season to make starts and he was just getting killed. His ERA was around eight and they finally mercy sent him back down to AAA last season. And then he just lit it up in spring training and really, really set the house on fire all season long. Did you guys have a best reliever?
Yeah, Dylan Lee for me.
Dylan Lee?
Yeah, especially his first half. First half, yeah, exactly. He did drop off a little bit here at the end, but I mean. He was fun to watch. But I mean, I think Dylan had a bigger impact. How about you?
I go with Fuentes as well. And to me, like just, and I don't have any stats to back this up or anything, but just watch a night after night. It feels like whenever Grant Holmes switched over from good Grant Holmes to batting practice, it seems like Fuentes is the one who came in and shut the door and over and over and over again. And there were even a handful of games that that Iglesias had a rough outing and then Fuentes comes in and saves the day again. And so, yeah, to me, kind of the same thing with the hitters. I mean, Dylan Lee definitely had a great year, but in high-impact situations when we had to have somebody, it seemed like Fuentes was the guy.
Yeah, he was the guy they brought in to put out the fire for sure. Next topic, should Walt Weiss win Manager of the Year? 76 wins in Snit's last season. We all love Snit, but we all kind of felt like it was time for him to go. But Weiss put up 94 wins in a division title in his first season. Do you guys think he should win Manager of the Year? Eric?
Absolutely. I think when you see You know, you could make the argument that the roster just, you know, got the wins, but I don't know that those guys are producing what the way they produced without Walt to kind of guide them and light a fire when he needed to. And he just, I think we talked a little bit about this last week. He just seems like of all the different Braves managers over the years, he seems like to be the best parts of several of them. with his own little twist in there. And I love the guy. I can't wait to see him take us down the road for the next several years.
How about you, Steve?
Not really. I find them to be too violent. Of course. Yeah, man. He's the best. I love him. Yeah. I think the world of him. Hell yeah
Yeah, and I appreciated his aggressiveness with the bullpen. He seemed to have a better handle of when to pull a starting pitcher, when to bring a high-leverage reliever into a bad situation. Not save your best reliever for the ninth inning always. Bring him in in the seventh inning when you've got two runners on and one out. That's the best time to use your best reliever. So I felt like he was a better bullpen manager than Snit was, as much as we love Snit. All right, let's
Talking about managers, I mean, as much as Bobby Cox is revered and as much as we all love him and everything, I think if I had one complaint about Bobby, it was his mismanagement of the bullpen sometimes. Or what felt like his mismanagement of the bullpen. So it's good to see somebody a little more aggressive.
Oh, for sure. Yeah, I always think of, I can't remember what game it was, but Mark Wohlers standing in the bullpen while someone else blew that win in the playoffs. You guys remember that?
It happened more than once, I'm sure.
All right. So we've got the Braves versus the Phillies in the Wild Card. Let's talk about the Wild Card Series. So Atlanta won the season series nine to four. They won five games to one in April and then four of seven in September. Sale will be our game one starter. He went 3-0 with a 2.08 ERA in four starts against them. The Phillies, of course, have Bryce Harper, Trea Turner. They've got some great pitchers. Luis Perez has a sprained left ankle. He's uncertain and they have a great back end reliever and Jhoan Duran who I can never say his name, but. Philadelphia had expected Zack Wheeler to pitch in game one, but we lucked out. He threw six innings today in the Sunday clincher. So they haven't set their starters for games one through three or at least announced them. The Phillies reporters are listing Andrew Painter, Aaron Nola and Jesús Luzardo as game one possibilities with the Cristopher Sánchez going in game two. So Steve, what worries you the most about Philadelphia right now? Is it who's going to be their game one starter? Is it their star hitters or just the randomness of a three game series?
Not to worry that Sale is not going to hit him in the...
You're worried about what? About Sale?
I'm worried he won't hit Kyle Schwarber in the...
Talking about violence.
You know, the thing about the Phillies is they have a very balanced righty lefty lineup, probably more than we do. I mean, that's a little worrisome. I think that, yeah, I'm concerned about that. I'm concerned about Kyle Schwarber, obviously. Yeah, I'm just, I worry that I don't want to face Nola. That's for sure. For some reason he has our number.
He does, yeah, he always has.
And yeah, I do worry about that lineup. Their rotation is-- their batting rotation is a little more balanced than ours, I believe. So
Yeah. How about you, Eric
Yeah, I think exactly what Steve said and not just that. I mean, they've got, I mean, I can't stand either one of them, but Schwarber and Harper are both the kind of guys that in the playoffs all of a sudden just beat the cover off the ball. And it seems like their scenario in the playoffs is somebody who's just not played well all year, you know, Trea Turner or somebody like that is going to hit a double and then Schwarber is going to come up and hit a home run. And, you know, and that just seems to be kind of how they win. They've been cooled off as of late and not playing great. And I don't know, I kind of almost feel like we're in their head a little bit. Whereas they used to kind of be in our heads a little bit, I think. I think they just they have a hard time beating us now and I hope that continues for the next two days.
This is kind of a, we're usually in their position and they're usually in our position.
Yeah, that's true
Hopefully it works out in our favor.
Yeah, being able to line up the rotation, I think, is huge. We've got Sale going in game one and Mahle going in game two. And then if necessary, Holmes in game three where, like I was saying, we're going to miss Wheeler definitely in game one and game two and talk about a Phillies pitcher that's had our number over the years. It's Zack Wheeler. That guy is fire. So I'm glad we're not going to face him. Does that make you guys feel any better that we're not going to see him in at least the first two games?
Yeah, yeah, it's starting to sound I don't want to see him. Yeah, for sure.
Although you mentioned Duran, their high leverage reliever. Let's not forget. They don't forget that, you know, they're going to remember that, you know, I mean, Hey, we hit this guy before we can hit him again. Our worst two hitters won a game for us off that guy. So
You know? It was Ha-Seong Kim's highlight of the season.
Yeah, it was.
It was. That's the safe way to say it So we had the return of Robert Suarez. He pitched in a couple games. What did you guys think of his outings?
Triple on the first pitch. Yeah, he hadn't pitched in forever. But he looked good yesterday. And yeah, I'm glad we have him back, because we're going to need the bullpen to really step up. We've got two sure-thing starters and then a lot of question marks. So those guys are going to have to carry us.
Did Mahle's last two starts give you all any concern? He was dominant up until those, for us at least, for those, up until those last two starts. It's like, were you guys any or is he just fine tuning stuff for the post-season?
Yeah, I'm not worried about that. I'm not. I think he's fine. I know... No concern about that. I think my bigger concern is game three. For sure.
Yeah. And I think if anything, I'm less concerned about him now, because it's like, you know, that guy's not going to pitch it that high of a consistent level for the rest of the year. And it's almost like, well, get this out of your system now. And, you know, that can be the kind of return to baseline. And then he's just going to take the ball and light it up in the, in the post-season, I hope.
Yeah, so Steve, give me one thing Atlanta must do well to turn this division title into a good October run that we can be talking about for years.
I don't know. I mean, I like. I mean, we have advantage being at home, so that's good. They you gotta take advantage of that. They gotta I think I think some of the non-producers need to step up and figure out a way, like Riley and... and Acuña. Well, I'm not knocking him completely, but... Yeah, I think, you know, we need we need some of the we need Murphy to step up. We need Riley to step up. We need Ozzie to be get back to Ozzie. I think I think the pitching needs to, we need to pitch. We got to make Schwarber and Bryce. Chase the balls. We got to get them to chase out of the strike zone. get some back door sliders, you know, back foot sliders or something. We got to do something to mix this up a little bit, not leave balls hanging over the plate. Yeah, there's just that this kind of loaded a question, but I. We just gotta be on
How about you, Eric?
I think the keys are the bullpen. Um, and, and, uh, two guys, I think Austin Riley has to. do what he's paid to do. and Acuña because like let's think about this if we If Acuña was doing what he needs to do those awards we were talking about earlier, they should have been no-brainers. Every single one of those, except for the pitching award, should have been Ronald Acuña, but he wasn't even in the conversation. And for him to be the elite superstar, he's going to have to do it. He needs to be like the postseason MVP.
That'd be amazing. That'd be amazing.
Yeah, the other thing, the other thing too, we can't be leaving people on base anymore. Right. That's to me, that's probably the biggest thing. I feel like we just. We're leaving men on second and third constantly. And it's just It's frustrating as hell.
Yeah, my worry isn't about our pitching. It's definitely our offense. It's very, very boom or bust. So hopefully we can find some consistency on Tuesday and carry that through. Alright guys, we'll, uh, final thoughts? Go ahead.
Well, here's the big question about Tuesday. How are you guys going to be able to
It's at two. I've got a I'll be in the car mostly listening on the radio as I do pick up the kids from school and run them around to their various activities and stuff, but I'll be listening. That's a good idea. I'll run that past them.
Oh man, make him run the bus. That's good. speaking of school, I'll be teaching but my kids are going to get a worksheet and I'm going to watch the game on my phone. Nice.
Yeah, nobody knows who I am on this podcast. No co-workers are going to know that not working so
There you go Alright guys, well, I appreciate you coming on and making a great podcast and I will talk to you in just a few hours. Y'all have a great night.
Thank you Jeff.
See ya, Jeff. See ya, guys.