Chop Cast

Trea Turner turned down an extra $30 million from San Diego to go to Philly...that's gross. Oh, well. I never thought we were going to get deGrom but I'm glad he's off the Mets (even though they already filled in his role with Verlander). What will the Turner signing mean for Dansby, though? Will we pay a little more than we should for him or will the Dodgers throw all the money in the world at him? Listen to this episode to find out what we think.

There haven't been many moves happen in the first week of free agency, however, the Braves have made 2 of the first couple signing by resigning Jesse Chavez to a minor league deal for one more go of it and signing former stud reliever, Nick Anderson, to a very club friendly split deal. Very happy with both signings, but I'm definitely excited for more to come. Griffin, Sam, and Will go over Anderson's stats and look at the Shortstop market a little bit.

UGGGGHHHHHHHHH noooooo whyyyyyY???? I guess there's always next year. Got a ring still freshly in our pocket anyway.

Griffin and Sam cover that abysmal NLDS, talk about the playoff format, and give a little preview of the Braves who are now free agents and what we think will happen with them.

Braves will face off against the Phillies in the NLDS, and boy am I eager to watch us destroy them. Phillies take the spot of 2nd most hated baseball franchise for the Chop Cast team and I'm sure they sit in a similar spot for all of Braves country. Hopefully, this will be a quick 3 or 4-game series win for the Braves but regardless tensions are gonna be high. Game 1 is going to be PIVOTAL for the Braves to win as Wheeler and Nola are sure to follow Suarez.

Also:

DUUUH DUH-DUH-DUUUUH DUH DUH-DUH-DUH-DUUUUHHH DUH DUH-DUH DUUUH DUH-DUH-DUUUH DUH-DUH-DUUUUUH

The Braves swept the Mets in basically a take all or nothing series and get the last needed win of the season in Miami somehow behind the arm of Jake Odorizzi. God, I love this team. We go over that series and make a few postseason predictions.

When we recorded this episode we were 1.5 GB, but as of publishing it, we are 1 GB. It can happen just like that. (That is when the Mets don't play but you win, but still). We knew the last series against the Mets was gonna be essential but OH MY it is about as vital as it can possibly get. The Braves bats were dragging their knuckles into Philly after a sluggish performance against the Nationals, but then life sprung out of nowhere the day that Olson finally gets a day off, which seemingly rejuvenated both him and the team. On that same day, deGrom was absolutely crushed by the A's of all teams and what seemed to be a beeline for the WC has turned back into a heavyweight bout for the NL East. Exciting and anxiety-inducing stuff happening in Braves Country right now.

Braves sluggish performance in San Francisco wasn't very opportunistic in terms of the divisional race...happy the Mets decided to get swept by the Cubs, however. The Phillies kindly rolled over for us in Atlanta but the Mets swept the Pirates. It's tit-for-tat right now but all we can do is keep winning.

Kenley has gotta hit the bench...at least for a little while. I mean c'mon. Dude's serving up some massive meatballs. Braves are 1 GB of the Mets again. Mariners series was a fun watch...until the last half inning.

Wow! What a week! Braves win 6 out of 7 from the Rockies and Marlins including a huge win over Sandy Alcantara, Spencer Strider breaks the franchise record for strikeouts with 16, Ozuna is looking maybe viable again, and with the Mets losing a home series to the Nasty Nats we're now only 1 GB of the division. Now this is epic.

AGAIN, THE TROUT TRADE WASN'T MY IDEA! However, Griffin and Sam talk about how it's not as unreasonable as people made it out to be. We also go over the Pirates and Cardinals series a little bit, address how Ozuna hasn't had an AB since his weird start against the Astros, and answer some questions from our Instagram followers about the offseason.