happening right now on Sports extra not the best road trip for the Braves as they dropped a series they never should have to the Athletics but there were plenty of bright spots including a very welcome return back on home turf the Falcons took to Mercedes-Benz Stadium Friday afternoon for another OTA what exactly are we seeing from this team and Trey talks the Hawks point guard has launched a brand new podcast and he's got some pretty interesting things to say our thoughts about all of that comi
ng up and of course we have so much more to talk about join us sports extra starts right now [Music] thank you hello happy Sunday everybody the brave six game Road Trip is over and what a win they got on Sunday huh exactly what they needed heading into that big Series against the Mets that's coming up later this week but first let's get right into it and let me direct your attention to this the Braves with a nice come from behind Victory this afternoon out in Phoenix Michael Soroka may be left i
n there a little too long but hey thanks to Eddie Rosario they got the dub a two out Grand Slam check out that Granny in the top of the ninth and the Braves win the series against the D-backs shades of 2021 from Eddie Rosario let's bring in my friends we've got home team Brandon Lake who brought dinner tonight so I appreciate that that is always welcome you feed me opportunities at least I can do is feed everybody it was great too I loved it and also my girl Sarah Spencer is here great to see yo
u as always thank you so I didn't bring dad I should have brought dinner I'm not even prepared enough that's okay you can bring dinner next time and we'll keep the tab running uh let's start with you home team because this was a really up and down road trip for the Braves six games are over they split three and three that Series against the Athletics not great but good things against the diamond me back so what stood out to you uh being clutch and that's what they're gonna have to do until we fi
nd out what the rotation is going to be who's going to be healthy who's not going to be healthy the brain is going to have to win these clutch games and these close games with their offense they're stacked been up and down and that's what happens in a long baseball season but it works best when the bottom of the order is producing like the top of the order and I think that is a fun way and the right way to win a series when you're down to your last at bat and you can either lose a series or you
can take one and Win It same thing happened all the way out of Oakland where they salvaged the series you need to get swept or make something positive happen and that's what they did today and this is a team who offensively has struggled a little bit recently but you saw Sarah earlier Ronald Acuna Jr over the weekend 464 foot home run this kid continues to impress every single time he's at the plate how can something like that spark this offense we saw a little bit of it on Sunday I mean I think
it's a huge spark for the offense and it's one that they they really needed because the Braves hitting has been touch watching go on this on this road trip and really just recently overall I think that's huge for this Braves team uh just the consistency from Ronald Acuna has been really big especially when you think of the briefs still have two starting pitchers on the IL the bullpen has been struggling overall so honestly I think one of the biggest reasons the birds have been struggling is tha
t that offense wasn't there for them so if they get that from from Ronald Acuna and if other guys can find a rhythm here that's going to be big for the scrapes team he's such a spark guy he's really contagious his energy is so infectious throughout the entire lineup again you saw that on Sunday let's talk about a very anticipated return Michael Soroka he comes back for the first time in over a thousand days on Monday let's not talk about Sunday yet just on Monday his first time back what were yo
ur emotions when you saw him come back to the big league it was always great to see someone overcome injury and then when you have it early in your career you don't know how that's going to impact somebody on their return so good to see him it was fun just to watch a guy come back and be able to get out there and you know look somewhat like himself his first game fastball and the change up working early but then uh to come to some home runs and you know his first time being back so I think this
is a long-term approach uh double A has been very very upfront they didn't bring him up just to see what he had they brought him up when they thought he could stick around for the rest of the season and so we're gonna have to go through some bumps just like the other pitchers in the rotation right now we have to count on Spencer Strider and Bryce Elder those have been the two most consistent guys and like I said before the bats have to make up for anything Michael soroko or anybody else doesn't
do doesn't do when you're talking about trying to get six Innings out of a guy who has to come out after he's had a pretty tough last two years you made a really good point talking about double A and they didn't want to bring him up until they could see that he could be consistent the Braves have been adamant about that as well they didn't want to call him up to the big leagues unless he was going to stay there let's take a look at what Michael Soroka has done over the weekend just a couple of h
is stats now look on Sunday he really struggled I mean he gave up five runs and all of those coming on two outs I think one thing that we need to remember guys is that patience will be key when you're talking about Michael Soroka and Sarah one of the big things that I'm sure you've noticed is that a lot of people aren't very patient right they want Soroka to be exactly where he was three years ago but what do you need to see for Michael Soroka to have confidence in him again I mean this is the B
raves and the bar is so high honestly not just with Michael Soroka with the Braves in general you lose two games to the A's and it's like the sky's falling but there's more games than just that so you have to look at the big picture and I think with Michael Soroka I cannot imagine the amount of mental fortitude it takes yeah to go through what he went through getting injured getting re-injured and that's gonna take some while even that's going to take a while even just physically and mentally to
come back from that so two outings not exactly what you want to see I thought the first outing was pretty good there were just a couple pitches that he maybe hung that he didn't he would like to have that but other than that I mean I I think I think the future is bright for him I think it's just a matter of time it's easy to forget in the moment though it's so easy to forget in the moment yeah and let's also not forget that the Diamondbacks they can hit the baseball so that was a really tough m
atchup for Michael Soroka I think everyone knew that going in but again I think patience and time and maybe he will get back on the right terms that we know he can let's talk about injuries because there's been quite a few of them we have discussed them a little bit so far they've played the bullpen but the bullpen continues to have issues home team we saw a big league debut today AJ Smith shover he got his first big league debut three really good outings from him but other than that where can y
ou find consistency in that group well the funny part is you were supposed to already have it you know the hopefully the woes with AJ Minter are over this roller coaster last month was really surprising and then rice Elli glacias had a few hiccups look nobody's gonna be perfect and the bullpen it's just the The Narrative that's going on right now with the uncertainty with the starting pitching when you do have close games you can't have the bullpen the luja games when they are winnable so if you
get out here and you're behind fine it happens but don't give up winnable games Don don't walk guys and don't give teams the ability to look at some film and say hey if this guy is off this last couple of weeks these last couple of weeks we can get to him and give him a little bit of extra oomph to come back and beat the braids but overall I feel confident that the mix of arms and Veterans will get them to where they need to be Iglesias made me nervous for a second today I'm not gonna lie the w
alk see that that's what we're talking about you don't come out with four straight balls to put us in an uneven place but got to Double Play and get out you get to win then get out and get the win uh you did bring up a really good point earlier that Spencer Strider and Bryce Elder have been really clutch for this team let's go to the starting rotation Sarah because Spencer Strider he broke that Diamondbacks six game win streak he is incredible every time he goes out there to the mound how much c
an his contributions continue to do for this team I mean honestly I think the Braves are going to kind of rely on the consistency the consistency that Spencer Strider brings on the mound uh fastest guy to 100 strikeouts this season and it feels like it too he's just so dominant on the mound for this Braves team I think Spencer strider's leadership and just his stuff and his execution is going to be crucial to the Braves especially with all the pitching woes that are unfortunately sticking around
for this team perfect time to have a kid like that in your starting rotation also a perfect time to bring up the team that everyone loves to talk about the New York Mets by the way they got swept this weekend by the Blue Jays so round of applause for all you Braves fans out there but this is coming up on Tuesday the Braves will be off tomorrow after traveling back from the desert this is a crucial series it always is but it is because the margin of error is pretty slim now in the NL East home t
eam what do you need to see against the Mets uh a winning series and and that's what you need you want to sweep or you just want to well you'll take two out of three we're not in a position where you can just start going out sweeps because we want to check I just want to check you know not doing what you did against Oakland uh you know falling behind in the series early and the other things the things that we do need to talk about uh whatever's going on at third base the last couple of years uh
the errors that have been popping up that uh that have the Braves on a piece to be a worse defense of Team statistically than they were last year those things don't kick the ball around don't give those guys because they do have some professional hitters that can make you pay and they're also dealing with some injury as well so put yourself in the best position to win and find a way to stay over 500 that's another weird thing about this version of the Braves they haven't been as dominant at home
as they've been on the road so hopefully this is the home stand that turns that around and one thing we know about what this home stand will bring is fans to the ballpark it's going to be nuts on Tuesday through Thursday I'm trying to remember what day of the week starting on Tuesday all right coming up the Falcons Falcons today for another OTA this time in front of a lot of fans our takeaways home team was there as we head into the final week of OTAs after the break welcome back everybody the
Atlanta Falcons brought their OTAs back to the bins on Friday afternoon and this is a team that will potentially have a lot of young starters specifically on offense and with that youth the team approach will be to coach the players hard even harder even if there are mistakes at this stage of the off season if we feel like we baby them we're not getting them ready to play on Sunday it's going to be really hard September 10th and so for guys the first time we got to go train them for the job they
're going to do and so we believe in that this is not in contact but there's a lot of things we want to push the limits to and make it tough on them especially mentally it's about mental conditioning as well home team you were out there at OTAs obviously this is voluntary so there are veterans that do not show up to OTAs which is okay but you got to see firsthand the intensity that they're talking about did you see a little bit of that you did and that's one of the things your Arthur Smith talk
about that he wanted not only the veterans the new guys a bunch of new veterans um but uh the guys that are going to make the team in August to be out there under pressure and all he wants you to do is know what your responsibilities are learn the Playbook learn the install the way you need to at the right speed and that's one of the things you look for when you go to OTAs you want to look at a couple well three things whistleblowing when people have to stop the drills handshaking from the coach
es and swearing and so if you don't have all three of those then you have a pretty good OTA session going on and I think that's what they did I think overall the Falcons coaching staff had to be proud that you know the youngsters knew what they were supposed to do they did go quickly they did throw some things that were different at them and uh it's so that they are professional and ready to deal with the next set of install that the team throws at them any head shaking that was okay you'll star
t we'll keep tabs on that and I'll go to you for all of that stuff okay Sarah players have already been really outspoken about what they think is gonna happen on the defensive side of the football specifically they got a new coordinator Ryan Nielsen who everyone that talks about him believes in what he's told them so far he's getting his hands on these defensive players he said physicality and he wants to see violence from this defense you think that side of the ball can really get that much bet
ter next season I think it can get better for a couple reasons one of them is just you do get a mental Fresh Start under a new defensive coordinator who's gonna come in with high expectations I think the Falcons pass rush has been pretty unacceptable the last couple years it's just not going to get it done and we've seen the evidence of that I like the Clay's Campbell signing I think there's a lot of things that can make the Falcons more competitive on that side of the ball but mentality is a bi
g part of that and I like what I'm hearing from the Falcons so far but you can like what you hear and still not like what you see come the actual season so we'll see how it actually pays off but I'm liking what I'm hearing so far you're you're optimistic I'm often I'm cautiously optimistic I love cautious optimism around here and one thing that Ryan Nielsen speaking of loving he doesn't love to label schemes when it comes to defensive talk you heard him about a month ago his first time he was at
Flowery Branch and he was like I don't like to call Base defenses I'm just gonna run whatever I run we know he labels things it's okay but he says he's not going to uh but this is something you mentioned the pass rush the defensive line is something Ryan Nielsen has a lot of experience with every job he's ever had he's worked with the defensive line pass rush Falcons they're gonna be okay I I think the d-line is going to be okay the question is will the edge Rush sack guy show up because I thin
k when you get uh David on Yamada you put him next to Grady Jarrett um you have Calais Campbell who's you know clearly on the other side of the the long term of his career but still a guy who had multiple sacks last year I'm thinking that the number of guys that you have in the rotation that they will have might make some of the players who are already on the roster a little better maybe Arnold EBA Katie is able to Feast because the defensive line is going to be able to really mess up strategy a
nd really mess up a lot of things that offensive lines want to do so I think Ryan Nielsen likes what he has I think the biggest thing is he has veterans when he comes in for his first years not a bunch of guys who are green and went behind the ears he's got some guys that have a resume some sack numbers and a little bit of nasty on their resume as well and that I think is going to just trickle out into this entire defense all the veterans I've spoken to so far are excited about that aspect that
they can actually teach guys around them which is really cool Sarah let's wrap up with you you and I were talking when you first walked in the building and we were talking about running backs and wide receivers and I said okay there's some receivers that stood out in OTAs but you're gonna go a different route tell me which receiver you're excited to talk okay so Maria wanted me to talk about receivers when I came in today and I told her I will tell talk about it but can I take can I do a little
bit of a of a reverse of course because Bichon Robinson has really good hands and you can catch and I think that as much as I think he's really going to help this Falcons Run game I think he's one of the reasons why I was so excited that the Falcons got him is that this guy has a lot of different skills he can bring to the bring to the table it's not just that he's an explosive Runner it's not just that he's athletic he can catch out of the backfield uh he's a good blocker I mean I think there's
a lot of things that he's going to bring to this team so that's me talking about receivers for Maria I think that's great because look so far all they've said is that Bijon Robinson will be all over the field so you have a good point you want to say something I think he just needs to be saquon barkley-like okay you're not gonna have those numbers saquon Barkley had over 2 000 yards but yeah 700 yards receiving you don't need that with Drake London and Kyle Pitts if he gets 250 300 yards four re
ceiving touchdowns along with whatever he's able to do on the ground and hit some long home runs I think the passing game you do have to count him as one of your wide receivers it's a great problem to have too many weapons on offense I know that Arthur Smith is just drooling whenever he gets out there for practice all right guys let's talk about something real quick out of the annual spring meetings in Destin for the SEC we learned that in 2024 when the conference says expand from 14 to 16 teams
they're going to do away with all divisions together kind of weird they stick with the eight game conference slate and the SEC Championship will be played between the top two teams in the league home team what do you think about this eight-game conference schedule remember this is currently an eight game conference schedule for the 14 16 they're going to stay the same what do you think I think it's better for the college football fan and the college football fan that actually goes to attend the
games because then you start to eliminate some of the games where there's no competition and you really don't get anything but to know that you're going to win and you don't really get the best bang for your buck I think the other thing too is you do away with divisions it certainly is going to be different we're turning the page on what college football used to be to what it is now so you're going to have a situation where the tie Breakers will be out there I think the best thing is you'll see
teams that you don't normally see more often when you used to see them just so long and far in between us so now it's time to put those things away get more SEC games and get more old school teams playing old school teams on a regular basis one permanent opponent seven that will rotate so it certainly will be very interesting okay coming up next Trey young launching a brand new podcast this week and he's got some things to say here from the hawk Star right after the break all right welcome back
everybody one something that's been really trendy among professional athletes is using social media Platforms in order to control their own narratives and Hawk star point guards are young he is doing that now with the launch of his brand new podcast I'm going to play a few clips from episode one and you guys are going to react to it okay we'll start with where his motivation is coming from a lot of things that people will say to me or what people think will motivate me I don't necessarily motiv
ate me anymore I have certain goals and certain things that motivate me and that push me to to be where I'm where I'm going to be someday yep and uh that's all that's gonna that's all it's gonna take for me to get that it's not gonna I'm not gonna need any external motivation home team what do you think I can take him at his word for that I mean you know look he's already been an All-Star he's been to Eastern Conference Finals uh he's had success they've had some failures they've had a lot of tu
rnovers so um I could take him at his word for that um I don't I don't think I'm I'm I don't think I'm I'm gonna have a problem with the podcast you know as long as it doesn't become a refuge of dodging tough questions and so I think that's uh he addressed some things and I think that was okay to answer the question that way yeah that's the one thing that we're all worried about right is I will tell you in the podcast and not tell you the person we continue with all the changes this season you k
ind of mentioned it Gwen Snyder coming along DJ de Shante Murray coming in there was a lot of talk about how Trey didn't or did not gel with new coaches and teammates here's some of his comments on the dynamic with everybody losing uh because Nate um I mean everybody always they can say what they want yeah me and him had a really good relationship bringing Quinn in this year halfway I think he's a game changer for us um to be honest with you and uh I mean just for what he brings like his mental
and um just him being a I mean a real uh teacher from from everybody he teaches everybody um from the coaches to the players all day he's always talking during practices yup it's uh it's been a different transition with those two coaches but this season was up and down one I mean getting dejante was really good for our team absolutely we both wanted it to be even better than how it ended all right Sarah go ahead I mean I think with what he said about with what Trey said about Nate McMillan and t
he way Nate left what's he gonna say he's not going to say we didn't get along um but I mean I mean I I see what he's saying there um and I think it's good you're kind of you don't want there to be the appearance of any kind of burned Bridge or anything like that I do think it's noteworthy though that he said getting Quinn Snyder is a game changer for the Hawks I happen to agree I think that can be a game changer for them once Quinn Snyder has enough time under his belt with this Hawks team and
then the same thing with dejante Murray I think the way that both Trey and dejante sometimes need the ball I don't think that that's necessarily gonna Doom this pairing I think these guys can still work together well I think it's just a matter of time so that I mean that's pretty encouraging for me yeah and you can actually tell the tray really does like quite a lot he's mentioned him many times and how smart he thinks he is and how he was excited for next season but what's interesting is we saw
Trey at a couple of postseason Lakers games okay a lot of people talking about it here's what he had to say on his attendance at those games a lot of people made a lot of things out of me being in games and I mean who knows uh what what it is but um no I'm a fan of the game home team you got to go real fast here what did you think about this he's represented by Clint Sports he was out in the playoffs so he took a trip to go see a playoff game I don't have a problem with that I think you know th
ose things can get blown out of proportion and a lot of other players have gone to watch playoff games with other players as well I think for just a recommendation next podcast why do you get uh Lloyd Pierce and Nick McMillan on that would be some fire I think a lot of people oh my gosh I would tune in all right guys real quick NBA Finals predictions go nuggets in six nuggets and six heat and seven baby let's go just because no it's because people are literally counting them out of everything so
I'm gonna count them in all right we'll be right back all right guys the best part about OTAs and then training camp later this summer are the babies look at Grady's little boys I personally love the dinosaurs because it's like a little educational it's a little Sports all in one and then oh the gym I love it you got two great daddies and two more Falcon fans in the building who are going to be Falcons for life I love it that's a great look for both of those guys I cannot wait until those babie
s are running around this summer you guys thanks for joining me and we will see you next Sunday happy week everybody hey and go Panthers [Music] thank you
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