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Chapter 1: What are the highlights of Matt Olson's performance?
All right, welcome back to Blair and Barker. Hey, it's Barker's favorite time of year. Voting for the 2026 MLB All-Star Game has officially opened. And yes, my friend. No, no, keep reading, and I'll ask you a question. All right. The All-Star Game, of course, will be hosted in Philadelphia on July 14th. And, well, Phase 1 voting, because, of course, it's a very complicated process.
Phase 1 voting is now open to send your Jays to the All-Star Game in Philly. You can vote up to five times per day, just like voting in the Hamilton-Merrithee election. You can vote five times a day. Fans can vote up to five times per day until phase one voting closes on June 25th. Of course, the Blue Jays coaching staff will manage. Well, they're going to be there because John Schneider, right?
Went to the World Series with John Schneider and his staff.
Chapter 2: How does Ozzie Albies contribute to the Braves' success?
will be in charge of the American League team. And I believe John asked Derek Shelton as well to come along as one of his coaches. And this year the Jays are hooking up with the Phillies, the power of friendship. And you know how major league teams have started to do that. They've hooked up so that they can market their players in one market. So basically vote for the Phillies.
If you're in Toronto, vote for the Jays. If you're in Philadelphia, things of that nature. You can visit BlueJays.com slash All-Star to vote Blue Jays. Yes, Barker. You wanted to say something.
No, I was just going to ask. I know our guest is here, so maybe I'll ask you after we finish. All right. Why don't we do that?
Chapter 3: What insights does CJ Nitkowski provide about Spencer Strider?
Yeah, let's do that. You're going to ask me flat. You should go to the All-Star.
That's not what I'm going to do.
Bringing C.J. Nitkowski. He's a Braves TV analyst. He's host of Loud Outs on MLB Network Radio. There he is. How are you doing, man?
I'm doing great. How are you guys doing?
Doing well. You know what? Watching the Braves last night, and I said to Kevin, I've seen Matt Olsen play.
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Chapter 4: Why was Walt Weiss chosen as the Braves' manager?
I've heard people talk about Matt Olsen, obviously. I know Alex Anthopoulos was raving about him. I always feel as if I'd never give the guy enough credit. And then you watch him play, and you come away thinking, this guy's so good. He's just so good in every aspect of the game, isn't he?
He is, and he's really steady at what he does. And he's kind of unassuming, and so I think maybe what you're talking about and the way that you've looked at him, maybe others have as well over the years, and now I've got to watch him for two and a half years pretty consistently, and the appreciation only goes up.
I mean, it was a couple of years ago, of course, he had the monster season offensively, but even the other years have been really consistent. But what you come to appreciate, I think, is the defense over at first base. It is really special. I know that's not a position that we'll talk about special defense very often, but you see it consistently.
And again, this is not the sexiest thing that you see in a game, but the thing that really kind of always sticks out for me is how good he is on pop-ups and foul territory. He makes them look so easy when he's going down the line, which a lot of times guys make it turn around sideways. Yes, he's great at picking balls in the dirt. He's great at fielding ground balls.
Chapter 5: What challenges does Patrick Corbin face against the Braves?
It seems like every one of his tosses to a pitcher who is covering is always perfect. He does all those little things very consistently, and it's probably fair to say that he's underrated.
Yeah, it's funny you're mentioning that because I remember talking to Matt Chapman one time, and Matt Chapman was talking about just the Matt Olsen and the ground you had to cover in Oakland, right, when you were a corner infielder. And I wonder if maybe that, you know, after doing that, moving over to Atlanta probably seems to be a bit of a luxury for him. But, yeah, he is.
I mean, Kevin talked about his at-bats he had in last night's game. They were just crazy smart, crazy good at-bats.
Looking for something to drive. Like, he does whatever he needs to do to help his team win a baseball game, which is very cool.
Absolutely. Take those unselfish at bats, right? That we talk about. And you can tell the difference for guys that don't. And when that sticks out, like you want to take your shot with nobody on base, of course you go for it. Now he's a big, strong guy.
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Chapter 6: How can George Springer improve his performance at the plate?
He's got the ability to drive the ball to all fields, but he's also not afraid to hit a hard ground ball to the opposite field as well, especially when they're playing him in what today's version of a shift will look like. As a left-handed pull power guy, he can hit that ground ball, that line drive the other way as well. So it's nice.
It's refreshing when you see a team especially kind of string those at-bats together, at least teams that have more guys than not that will take those unselfish team at-bats.
Okay. Speaking of not being afraid, Ozzie Albies is one of those guys that I would think most fans couldn't pick out of a lineup. And then you watch him in big spots. I would think he'd be one of the guys you'd want up with the game on the line. He just seems to have a way of driving in a big run. Why is that CJ in your mind?
Yeah. So he's got a lot of coverage, right? And we have a tendency and I do it. We'll talk about chase all the time and what that means. And it is an important stat to keep an eye on, but all chase is not created equal.
Chapter 7: What is the current status of Dalton Varsho's defense?
And Ozzie Albies knows as good as anybody where he can go outside of the zone with his really good bat to ball skills to be able to make something happen. Right? So it was an opposing pitcher. You may see a spot or you might just even see the number. Hey, this guy's going to chase. He's going to go for pitches outside of the zone. Well, You know, that got Vladimir Guerrero into the Hall of Fame.
Like, you can still chase and be productive. Ozzie probably does it as good as anybody. He went through a little bit of a rough phase last year, and he was dealing with some injuries where he was popping the ball up in the air. And he really had struggled against lefties, which has always been his calling card. Like, his ability when he is hitting right-handed...
Against lefties, you go look at the history of our game. He's been one of the best at it.
Chapter 8: What lessons can be learned from the fan interactions in baseball?
That went away for a little while. He's got that back now. I've heard switch hitters talk about often that they wouldn't wish switch hitting on their worst enemy because you never feel like both swings are in the right place at the right time. So something's always wrong. He is also a guy that's just got that personality where it never seems like anything is wrong.
He is one of the happiest guys you've ever been around, so he's easy to root for. But he is a guy that, again, I think the big key to what you're talking about, his ability to drive those runs in, is the coverage that he can get outside of the strike zone.
Okay, Iglesias Suarez, you can only pick one. Who are you taking?
Well, it doesn't seem fair. I know you have kids. I have kids. That's like trying to pick your own. only children. If I only had to pick one, like I got to get the biggest out that I need right now. Neither one's an L right. So they're both wins. So I'll give it to Iggy just cause he's been here the longest. They're both incredibly unselfish. That's a really nice thing to be able to have.
Like if they said, Iggy, you know what? We actually want you to start throwing the fifth inning going forward. He'd be like, fine, I'll do it. And there'll be zero pushback from him. It's happened in the past. He's he's when he was going through a rough patch last year, he's like, do whatever you gotta do with him. You want me to be an opener. You need me to pitch early when we're losing.
whatever it takes, right? It comes back on a one-year deal. And then you get Suarez, who signs this monster three-year deal this past offseason. He leads the league in national, leads the national league in saves. And he goes, sure, I'll set up Jose, Rysel Iglesias. I don't care, right?
I mean, that's just the, it's a kind of a perfect scenario where you do have two closers, but Rysel Iglesias is the closer right now. But I'll take either one. The fun thing about And they're a little bit different, right? It's 99 that you get from Suarez. It'll be mid-90s from Iglesias. They both have really good changeups. Whatever happens with Rysel Iglesias, it happens fast.
I mean, he has got a ton of 10-pitcher less saves that we've seen since I've been here. He is coming at you right away. He's going to put you in that position to get defensive. And he's done an excellent job. They're both great, Greg.
Okay, you mentioned the changeup. We're starting to see a few more changeups late in games. Louis Varland here started throwing more changeups, made his fastball that much better, especially the lefties. How hard is it for a, say, eighth-inning guy, high-leverage guy, to start throwing more changeups, trust that thing to make some other pitches that much better?
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