Middays With Rick & John

The Atlanta Braves are scuffling right now, and that may be putting it lightly. On top of that, the Philadelphia Phillies are now nine games up on the Braves for the lead in the National League East, and Philadelphia radio pundits are chirping about the division race being over... in early June! (The Mets made this proclamation in 2022 btw). So what is going on? While losing Spencer Strider was indeed a huge blow, the pitching staff as a whole has held it together very well. Losing Ronald Acuña Jr was also a seemingly insurmountable loss, but Acuña Jr was having one of the worst seasons of his career. Where does the blame get placed? Brian Snitker is not mis-managing games; It seems that the best offense in MLB last season is simply just not performing. Is it a trade deadline shot in the arm that they need? It could be, but where should it go? The Braves could go out and trade for starting pitching, but is that really what they need? Both Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep looked good in the early inni