The series finale between the Atlanta Braves and the New York Mets is about to start shortly and as usual, Walt Weiss spoke with the media ahead of the game and gave his thoughts on various hot
On Owen Murphy
“Good for him [earning a call-up],” began Weiss when talking about Owen Murphy. “He’s going to protect us out of the ‘pen. We’ve been running with a seven-man ‘pen for a while so at some point that’s going to run its course — and it probably has. [Murphy] will protect us with the ability to go long. He’s on schedule with his starts and he’s got a full tank of gas.” I went on to ask Weiss about whether or not this could potentially lead to an opportunity to start at some point but Weiss made it pretty clear that for this stint in the majors, Owen Murphy will be sticking to his role of being a bulk guy.
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On the state of the farm system
Walt Weiss was then asked about how important it’s been to have a conveyor belt of talent being able to come up and make contributions to the team so far this season. “It’s important, critical, even,” stated Weiss. “We’re not like the other markets who go out and make a big splash in the free agency, so I think we do a really nice job of doing a little bit of everything. You gotta rely on your system and scouting and development and I think they’ve done a nice job when it comes to player development.”
“We’ve come a long way in a couple years prospect-wise,” continued Weiss. “A couple of years ago, we were talking about our system being dried up and now all of a sudden, there’s quite a few prospects.”
On Austin Riley’s attempts to get back on track
Austin Riley is coming into the final game of this series against the Mets with three hits and three RBI over the past couple of games. We’ve been here before in terms of Riley looking good for a brief spell before going back to struggling but Weiss is still backing his third baseman to eventualy get it going for real at the plate.
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“He’s certainly putting in the work,” stated Weiss when it came to what he’s seen from Austin Riley behind the scenes lately. I’ve talked about how there’s a tipping point where it goes from physical to mental at times and I’m not sure that’s the case with Austin but speaking from experience…he’s putting in the work and he’s got a really good track record so it makes you believe that it’s going to work out.“
“We’ve got some recent examples with Ozzie and Harris last year. He really struggled in the first half of last season and then he finished strong and carried it into this year,” continued Weiss. “It’s nice to have a recent example that gives you hope and I’m sure it gives Austin hope that he can turn this thing around and end up having a really good second half and a really good season.”
