Latest / District Territory / Everything to know about CJ Abrams' move to second base

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Everything to know about CJ Abrams' move to second base · District Territory

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the District Territory Podcast. I'm Eric Shellhouse
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: and joining me today Spencer Nusbauma the Athletic. Some big
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: news out of nation's capital the other day.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: C J.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Abrams expected to begin playing second base in the coming days.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: This is a huge move for the organization, Spencer, There's
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: a lot to dive into here, but explain to me,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: maybe what why now August fifteenth, the timing of this
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: whole thing. What have you read about it or what
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: are you reporting on it?
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that is kind of the central question around that,
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: So I'm kind of glad you led with that. Candidly
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: is a question we're still parsing out, and I don't
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: know that we'll ever come to one hundred percent conclusion,
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: not because we don't hear every side of it, but
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: because there is no perfect time to do it. And
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: I think that's honestly part of what the timing comes
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: down to, right as if you do this at the
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: start of the season, there's reasons to critique that in
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: terms of giving him, you know, enough chance to figure
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: it out it shortstop. If you do it next season,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: there is a critique of that in the sense that, hey,
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: you still need a pretty big sample to see where
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: he fits long term, but doing it now, at least
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: my initial reaction was that it wasn't the right call.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: But the more I sit on it and the more
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: I think about it, it's hard for me to know,
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: even as someone who has spent hours and hours thinking
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: about this before it happened, in after it happened, what
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: the right call is. I will say what the organization
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: and what Blake Bee terror kind of said was that
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: this gives them the best chance to win for the
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: rest of the season as well as in twenty twenty seven.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: I might push back on that a little bit, just
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: in the sense that we don't know exactly how good
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: CJ might be at second base. I think that's not
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: a certainty per se, at least when it comes to
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty six. And the Nationals won a lot of
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: games with CJ at shortstop this year, so trying to
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: hold those two things at once it makes it a
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: little difficult for me. I think so much of this
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: is about twenty twenty seven, and we can can definitely
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: get into that.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not sure I love the timing of it either.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: As you brought up two valid points there there there's
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: critiques on when you can do it from any sort
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: of angle, but to me, maybe it signifies that this
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: organization still believes we got a shot here five and
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: a half out of a wildcard. I believe will jump
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: into some of that later, but they're really still trying
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: to win right now. I think it's interesting, like you
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: just said there too, we don't know what we're going
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: to get from a second base yet. Video courtesy of
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: you Spencer. He started taking some reps there the other day.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: How did he look out there on the field? Is
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: the second highlight starts to come up here? You see
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: him come around in one hand. It kind of looks
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: like he's just coming from shortstop. But what was it
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: like to see him over there at second base yesterday?
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, he's definitely still learning the position, right.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: I think the reason to believe that he could be
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: a good second basement if we get into that angle
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: of it, is that it puts maybe less pressure on
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: him to make excellent throws, where I know that's been
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: part of the issue in the past, but again that
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: the pushback to that would be that's something that he
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: can learn although he hasn't learned it yet so again
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: that everything I say has a caveat right, because I
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: don't think it's such a black and white decision. But
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: specifically when it comes to second base, his reigne is
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: still good, his first step is good, and his biggest
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: issue has been on baseball's hit in at him. I
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: think for me, when I think about those sorts of
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: plays he hasn't made this season, again, it is the
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: ones coming in and at second base. I don't necessarily
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: know if you get fewer of those, but it is
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: much easier to make those plays because again you don't
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: have to then follow through with that throw that can
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: be kind of difficult in cross body. I know the
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: Nationals have wanted him to be more aggressive dependsively and
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: really attacking the ball as opposed to kind of like
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: you know, the old adage of letting it come to
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: him or maybe taking a bad route to it. For me, again,
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: those plays are obviously easier at second base. But I
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: just don't think to me so much about this screams
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty seven, because in twenty twenty six it's really
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: hard to make a guy a good defender, and the
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Nationals are far enough back that I think so much
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: of the focus is on the future.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, as we you know, finish up this season, I
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: think it's also maybe worth discussing, is it Is it
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: even worth heetering with a guy that's having such an
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: incredible season. I mean, we know that he's full of this,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: we know what a talented player he is, but given
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: there's been some question and conversation around his ability to
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: do it for a full one hundred and sixty two
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: now that we're just like seven or eight weeks away
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: here from the end of the season. To me, I
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: wonder if it messes with the mental from an offensive
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: perspective at all, Like, is it just one other thing
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: he needs to be, you know, doing right now Rather
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: maybe we should be letting him hit, especially with the
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: absence of James Wood in the lineup right now. But
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: have you talked to them at all about like how
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: that influences his offensive side of the game.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you could make the case, or at
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: least the Nationals might make the case that it would
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: help because there's less stress in playing second base and
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: there's less toll on the body. Again, I don't fully
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: buy into that. I think it is more your case
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: of that's a lot to learn and keep the offense up.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: But I think the mental piece in particular though, is
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: one that is important to bring up because Blake had mentioned,
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: you know, CJ handled the decision like a pro was
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: was kind of you know, took a little bit of
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: time to accept it behind the scenes, or at least
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: talked through it, but eventually they landed on the same
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: page because they both want what is best for the Nationals.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: CJ took a little bit of a different tone when
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: he talked to us. I didn't get the sense he
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: was like overjoyed with the decision, nor maybe should he be.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: That there's a lot of pride in playing shortstop and
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: beyond that, again, as we've discussed in the past, the
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: financial side of it is significant to the difference between
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: what shortstops make and what second basemins make. Again, he
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: has been a poor defensive shortstop. I think there's no
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: getting around that. But there there's absolutely I think honestly,
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: the mental side is the biggest piece of this, right
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: where it's do you maybe stress or do you is
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: there concern around like harming a relationship that up until
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: now seemed really really strong between CJ. The rest of
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: the team, the front office, the coaching staff. That these
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: are all things that, like, I think I'm comfortable saying
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: because I'm sure that CJ has thought about it. I
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: am certain that when the front office was thinking about
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: this decision, they had these same sorts of thoughts. It
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: is still too early, you know, fifteen hours or whatever
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: it's been since we've learned the decision exactly all the
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: machinations behind it. But yeah, that mental piece and kind
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: of their relationship piece is the biggest thing I'm paying
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: attention to going forward because it's a lot of money
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: that is potentially on the line, and honestly of some
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: of the future of the Nationals that is on the line.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: So there's definitely a lot to think about here.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, let's talk more through sort of what this means
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: for CJ personally. After a quick break.
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: Look, in summertime, it's cool in the morning, hot during
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: the day, cool again at night. Rarely am I sitting
• 8:13
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• 8:15
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• 9:06
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• 9:22
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• 9:24
  Speaker 1: other day. We're going to get into those in next
• 9:25
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• 9:28
  Speaker 1: submit them, no, we will be getting to them. Yes, Spencer,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: you spoke with CJ the other day and he definitely
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: I wasn't there in person, but the quotes I was
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: reading online seems like there might have been a little
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: bit of a different tone. But during the broadcast, Dan
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: Colcoe mentions on the new regime moves, everything has been
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: done with intent, thought, care, and plan very carefully. And
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: then Frany throws in at the end their communication, and
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: right before the break there you were discussing how they
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: talked about this before, and I'm just curious, is there
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: any sense of like how long that conversation takes to
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: develop to where it is now to hey, it's actually happening.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Again, I'm really glad you asked that question. I
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: think it was about a week ago or so. I
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: believe post deadline that this was kind of first floated
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: to CJ from Blake by Terra, Annie Colombie and Paul Taboni,
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: who brought it to him again without saying like you
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: have to make this decision or like anything like that,
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: or at least that's kind of how it was put
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: to us. Again, that being said, even after a few conversations.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: That's not something that just like sets in, sets in
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: or settles in right away. The other complicating part of this,
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: too is like all season, whenever we asked Terre about
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: CJ's defense, in part because it hasn't been a great
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: defensive season, he always came back to either praising CJ
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: or saying that CJ would figure it out. And they
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: had communicated to CJ like your all star shortstop. And
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: so this is obviously a break in tone to a
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: certain extent. And again, like I can see, I can
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: see both sides of it, right, Like there's there's great
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: communication from the front office in a way that you
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: don't expect all thirty front offices to operate this way,
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: where they they have been transparent at the deadline with players,
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: they generally speaking like Paul is around all the time
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: in a way that you do not get from other
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: gms around baseball. And also, anytime you're communicating a decision
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: like this at a time like this, like it's going
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: to raise questions, right, And so there's no perfect answer,
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: there's no perfect mode of communication here. But yeah, it's
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: just hard to say that it's hard to say that
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: anyone or any way to handle this could have been
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: done perfectly, and I think it was going to be
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: complicated no matter how they handled it.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think there was such a good summary there
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: at the end. I think there is a bunch of
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: critiques no matter when they pulled the trigger on this move,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: if they were going to do it this year, in
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: the offseason, next season, there's gonna be a lot of
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: ways we could pick it apart. What do you think
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: one final thing like for twenty six, who gets the
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: majority of these reps now at shortstop? I guess for
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: the time being, we just assumed that Nasim Nunez moves
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: over there. But is there discussion or speculation here that
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: there's a move in the up days to be made.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean again for the next week or so,
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: like CJ will play some short stop. It sounds like
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: I'll still play it about once a week, which is
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: probably worth noting. Nas can be their primary shortstop again,
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: he could probably be to say anyone's gold glove shortstop
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: again is a really high praise, but he has played
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: a really good shortstop before, is an excellent defensive player,
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: so yeah, he fits in in the immediate My biggest
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: curiosity and kind of talking to people around the game.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: Sever King has played a much better shortstop after that,
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: Like first week or so in Rochester, the offense has
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: looked really good from him. He's been off the il
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: for a bit, the chase rate is coming down, like
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: he's he's doing all the things that kind of scream promotion.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: And so for me, would I'd be shocked to see
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: sever King up here? I don't know what today is,
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: August fifteenth. Would I be shocked to see him on
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: August thirty first, or September first, or August twenty fourth,
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: or whatever date we want to throw out there. I
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: probably wouldn't be shocked. And so yeah, that's something I
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: think we'll all be thinking about in the coming days.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: But that's all the stuff that the organization is weighing,
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: is who fits where and how they kind of figured
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: this out long term.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I would be excited. I think a lot of
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Nationals fans would be excited to ce sever get the call.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: And I've been getting a lot of texts about that
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: in the last twenty four hours regarding hey, are you
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: hearing anything about this? And I'm saying sorry, I'm in Iowa,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: but Diersville was credible. That was quite the game the
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: other night. Really quickly, let's talk about the final game
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: from that CUB series, because man cave Cavali and your
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: words had the start of his life. What a beautiful
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: box score. This thing is eight innings, ten strikeouts, and
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: just one hit. He was carrying a no hit or
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: deep in to this game. It's just been a lot
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: of this from k this season. He's been the one
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: solid starting pitcher I think on this staff besides Foster
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: and his until his departure, that you could look at
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: and turn to and say, hey, this is this is
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: solid and this is a guy that we want in
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: the plans going forward for sure. But what what did
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: you see when he was throwing the other day? What
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: made it so special?
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah? To me, it was kind of the culmination of
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: two timelines right the first and I wrote about this
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: and the athletic the other day was just a culmination
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: since he's been drafted right where he came in as
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: this this hard throwing right hander who had good stuff
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: but didn't know exactly where the ball was going. A
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: couple of years later, he figures out where the ball
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: is going. His stuff gets even better, but he doesn't
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: necessarily know how to figure out his routine right where
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: he's parsing through these things, figuring out do I long toss? Right?
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: Not long toss? Do I, you know, throw weighted balls
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: or I not throw weighted balls. Figuring out a routine
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: is super important for a striking pitture. And it's not
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: that Cad didn't care about the routine. If anything, he
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: cared so much that he knew he wanted to get
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: it perfect. And what he's figured out after Tommy John,
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: after all these different things through just kind of this
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: this innate curiosity within him is how to nail that
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: routine down. And so when you think about the longer timeline,
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: it's that. And then when you think about this season, right,
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: we've seen stretches where the strikeouts are really high but
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: it's inefficient, or he's really efficient, but he's not striking
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: a lot of guys out yesterday or two days ago
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: or whatever it was that Caid made his start. You
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: saw the culmination of those kind of two things coming
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: together right where he's throwing. He was at like sixty
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: pitches after six, he was at you know, eighty pitches
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: after seven, like he was he was working so efficiently
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: and getting guys to swing and miss, landing that sweeper,
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: landing that curveball on the zone. That was like the
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: fully realized version of Caid. And it does make you
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: think about, hey, like, does he have a no hitter
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: in him at some point in his career? Yesterday? Told
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: us like, you never, it's never a guarantee, but you
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: want to say that he has a pretty good shot
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: at doing it at some point.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: It's Uh.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: It was fun just to watch the highlights the other
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: day because, as I mentioned, I was I was in Iowa,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: pretty busy working that day. And then Liam turns to me,
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: He's like, did you know Kaid was carrying a no
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: hitter that deep into the game tonight? And I'm like,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: oh my god. All right, so I really got to
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: read up on this, but yeah, to do it against
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: this Cubs lineup too, man. There. I was listening to
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: the radio the other day and they were talking about
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: there's definitely like a difference in the Cubs and the
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: other two teams that will be making the wildcard spot
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: just because they have a chance to catch the Brewers.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: I guess theory. But man, the Bruis plays such good baseball,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: such clean baseball to be doing it against that lineup
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: was really impressive as well to me, And yeah, it
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: was important for them to get one game in that series.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: They have two more against the Mets here. But now
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: it's time for on deck presented by the Fox one app.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: On deck presented by the Fox one app Spencer, it
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: is Brad Lord on the mound for the Nationals later today.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: We didn't get to hear that until pretty late last night,
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: but both these teams are pretty far removed from the
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: playoff picture right now. What can we expect later on
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: today from this Mets lineup?
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, ooh, I think just looking off of yesterday, it's
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: a lot of guys who have had like really up
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: and down seasons. For me, I kind of look at honestly,
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: I don't know if I can pick out one name,
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: just because there's no one in that lineup that like
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: has truly been a star recently. And I think that
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: might bode well for the Nationals. Right where you have
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: to throw a bit of a bullpen game, Brad Lloyd's
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: probably getting four ups and so yeah, I honestly I'm
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: thinking less about the Mets lineup and more like, hey,
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: this is a good time for the Nationals to maybe
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: throw a bullpen game and get some guys out there,
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: whether it's Brad Trevor, and then maybe going back into
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: the bullpen late a lot to figure out what this
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: bullpen still And so for me, that's kind of the
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: biggest curiosity.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, especially with what we saw out of the bullpen
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: in the Cincinnati series about a week ago, and knowing
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: how different it might start to look here in the
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: second half. I think that's really going to be entreguing
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: the fall I'll see. Also, Abby Melick Ortiz Man, Gosh,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: this dude has been tearing up the big leagues ever
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: since he got called up. Mets fans, look out. If
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: you're not familiar with the name, you might be by
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: the end of this weekend. Anything you want to toss
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: it on the Abby front, I mean, he is just
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: dialed in, man.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I kind of want to save it for next
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: week just because I'm writing about him this upcoming week,
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: but just to preview it a little bit, I mean,
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: this is a guy who was undrafted, went from a
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: community college in America to the Dominican Summer League, which
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: you basically never see, and so really had a longer
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: and kind of more winding journey than almost anyone else.
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: And he is looking like an absolute star on offense.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: Too early to say that, you know, he's definitely part
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: of those team spoucher but it is trending that way.
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: And yeah, the guy can hit.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah dude is mashing. But MLB on Fox is streaming
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: on Fox one. The Race to October starts now, and
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: we have your front row seat to the wildest walkoffs,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: lights out pitching, and clutch plays all season long. Follow
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: every camp miss matchup as team's battle for a spot
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: in the postseason. Then stream the twenty twenty six World
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: Series live on Fox one at home or on the go,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: live or on demand, never miss a moment. Stream now
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: start your Fox Won three day free trial today at
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: foxwe dot com. So we'll take you over to the
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: National League's standings. The Nationals sit at sixty and sixty four.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: They are getting further and further removed from the playoff picture.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: But part of me wants to believe that this season
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: is not over yet. Spencer, and I think with the
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: stretch of games coming up here against Mets and some
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: of the other opponents they have on the calendar. Maybe
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: there's a small chance we can get a win streak
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: roll in here and some momentum and who the heck knows.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: But at the same time, I was looking at it
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, man, National League is pretty damn good
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: this year. Maybe it's time for you just accept the fate.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I will put it like this. Kay Cavali
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: brought up the other day that there's still thirty something
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: games left and that at least within that clubhouse, they
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: are not rolling out some sort of late stretch. Again,
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: for me, the most interesting thing is to see whether
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: this team can finish the year with a winning record.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: I think that's I don't want to say that priority,
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: but for me, like that would be still such a
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: monumental achievement given what they're expected to be this season.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: Much of the focus right now is on twenty twenty
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: seven at this point, but if you are curious about
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty six, it it's not nothing to finish the
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: year with a winning record, right Like, It's not something
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: tangible you can hold in the same way that the
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: postseason is, but it is something tangible that they can
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: they can kind of build off of. So yeah, that'll
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: be my curiosity is if they can get hot enough
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: to finish eighty two.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: And eighty that is That is about where my head
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: was at last night too. I said, Hey, you know,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: the National League is just damn good this season, but
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: if they can get to five hundred, wouldn't that be
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: pretty awesome, like reflecting on the entire season. So yeah,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: I said, I said, it'll be really interesting to see
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: if we can get to that five hundred mark, and
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: it'll be fun to follow the rest of this year
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: and into twenty two, twenty seven. So make sure to
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: subscribe to the District Territory Show. You do not want
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: to miss a single episode down the line, it's going
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: to be a lot of fun covering the Nationals as
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: we keep moving forward. Spencer, anything you want to toss
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: in here back to the CJ front as we start
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: to wrap up here, No.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: I would just say, I'll probably have more on this
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: in the coming days. So yeah, just constantly refresh the
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: Athletic until something pops up. And yeah, I got nothing
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: else to add.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: Well until next week we will get around to those
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: fan questions. We'll talk more about Abby Mellichortiz's fantastic start,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: but enjoy your weekend. Everybody, see you later.