Middays With Rick & John

92.9 The Game Braves insider Grant McAuley joins Andy and John so discuss possible scenarios for replacing Ronald Acuña Jr.

SEC Spring Meetings happened over the weekend, and everyone was in attendance including Commissioner Greg Sankey, and University of Georgia Head Coach Kirby Smart. Many things were discussed, but the most popular item of discussion was players being paid, expansion, and injury reporting. Kirby Smart spoke out about injury reporting in particular, because he believes that it will keep handicappers from reaching out to athletes directly. Kirby Smart also spoke out about the SEC expanding, believing that it is a great thing. When Kirby Smart talks, people listen, but are they listening to Kirby Smart more now with Nick Saban being retired? Are people listening to Kirby Smart more now than Greg Sankey himself? Andy Bunker discuss the SEC Meetings, and why Kirby Smart is now the most powerful man in College Football. 

In the first hour of tonight's show, Abe discusses the loss of Ronald Acuña, and if AA added to one position group, what would that be? 

In the 2nd hour of tonight's show, Abe breaks down the conference finals. Boston got the sweep, but for being such a great team, are they dominant? Dallas, provided they win, is going to be a tough out for the Celtics. PM Power Rankings - female vocalists, and signature sports moves.

In the final hour of tonight's show, Abe chats with Kendall Rodgers of D1baseball.com and previews the NCAA tournament. It's the SEC vs the field. We recap a Braves win, and wrap. 

Tuesday's FULL SHOW - May 28, 2024

Andy is joined by John Fricke this week, and in hour 1 they discuss the possible options for the Braves as they try to replace the reigning NL MVP.

In hour 2 Andy and John bring you an NFL No Huddle, and discuss the NBA playoffs. ALSO, GA Tech will head to Athens this weekend as the NCAA Baseball tournament gets started!

In hour 3 Andy and John get back in to the Braves and what they need to do first in the trade market, and with the recent news that college athletes will now be paid, the guys talk about recent comments that SEC Comish Greg Sankey recently said.

The Atlanta Braves got the unfortunate news of Ronald Acuña Jr tearing the ACL in his left knee late Sunday night after leaving Sunday afternoon's game vs the Pittsburgh Pirates. This makes tears to both the right and left Acuña's ACLs in a span of 4 years. Are these injuries due to Acuña's Jr's style of play? If they are, what would be the solution? Run less? Maybe. It will be at least a year until Acuña Jr. is back on the field, but we also remember how 2022 went, the year following the tear of Acuña Jr's right knee, and it wasn't great. Should the Braves try to turn Ronald Acuña Jr in to a power hitter that doesn't run as much? There is history of the handful of baseball players that have achieved the 40-40 season slowing down almost immediately and focusing more on power, so maybe that was already in the cards. Andy Bunker and John Fricke discuss the eventual return of Ronald Acuña Jr and what it may look like.

From 'Queens of the Court' (Subscribe Here): On this episode of Queens of the Court, it's all about the rookies. After two weeks of games, co-hosts Sheryl Swoopes and Jordan Robinson break down how each rookie is fitting in with their new team, from Caitlin Clark's first win with the Indiana Fever to Angel Reese's "Welcome to the WNBA" moment in Chicago to Kate Martin's breakthrough in Las Vegas. Plus, "Bring It To Court" is back, with Sheryl and Jordan debating one of life's biggest questions: do you need a top sheet to go along with a comforter?If you have any questions want Sheryl and Jordan to answer, you can send them to queensofthecourt@audacy.com. Please also rate and review Queens of the Court so more WNBA fans can find us! To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the first hour of "The Beau Johnson Experience" Beau list his top 10 Star Wars films off all time!

Friday's FULL SHOW - May 24, 2024

Braves color analyst C.J. Nitkowski joins Andy and Jason to talk about options at the 5th starter with A.J. Smith-Shawver now on the IL, and preview the upcoming series in Pittsburgh.

Join Andy, Jason Longshore, and Beau for an eye opening conversation about lightning, magazines, and trees. NSFW

Jason Longshore joins Andy today, and in hour 1 they get in to the rising situation in college athletics: players will now be paid. ALSO, great win by the Braves Thursday night, but it came at a cost.

In hour 2 Andy and Jason bring you an NFL No Huddle with some audio by the Atlanta Falcons coordinators, and Sean Payton makes a very strange analogy about his quarterbacks. ALSO, in the Backpage w/Beau: tough luck for UGA out west!

In hour 3 Andy and Jason get beck in to the paying of college athletes by universities, and Braves color commentator CJ Nitkowski joins the show. 

The era of college football that you grew up with and around is coming to an end. On Thursday the five “power conferences” voted to move forward with universities paying student athletes. In addition to this, the universities will pay out $2.8 billion in antitrust claims that date back as far as ten years. But where will this money come from? Sure, the “blue-bloods” of college football probably have that money laying around, but what about the smaller schools? A lot of schools will have to do some massive re-structuring of their athletic departments to not only pay out the money from past suits, but to also start paying student athletes in the future. There may even be situations where some departments or even sports may be completely eliminated from some programs. Andy Bunker and Jason Longshore dive deeper in to this new era of college sports that we are just now scratching the surface of.

The latest MLB.com power rankings were released Thursday morning, and they are a bit puzzling to say the least. The main reason being that Atlanta Braves starter Max Fried is not included. In Max Fried's last six starts, he's gone at least six innings in five of them, including two where he went seven innings, and two complete games. Four of those were also quality starts. This is not to take anything away from most of the ten players on the list, including fellow Atlanta Brave Chris Sale, but of all ten pitchers on the most recent list of power rankings, only two of those pitchers have as many as one complete game this season and they were both last month. Aren't power rankings supposed to be somewhat of a "real-time" list? It does get adjusted weekly, no? After all, Paul Skenes made the list and has only three starts to his major league career. Given two complete games by Max Fried, and one of them being this week, I', starting to think that maybe the MLB power rankers are on somewhat of a delay. Andy Bunke