Latest / District Territory / After sweeping the Reds, have the Nationals resuscitated their season?

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After sweeping the Reds, have the Nationals resuscitated their season? · District Territory

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the District Territory Podcast. Wasn't it a
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: sweep weekend? I'm Eric Shellhouse from bat Boys Baseball and
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: join me today Spencer Nusbaumba the Athletic. The Nationals bounce
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: back in a big way after a difficult stretch. They
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: sweep the Reds. But before we jump into that, Spencer
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: got to give you some kudos for this prediction. Jackson
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Kent is headed to the big leagues and is expected
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: to debut later this week. First of all, just need
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: to keep the soundboard really quickly and gave you around
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: applause so that it's loud. But you know, I felt
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: that was deserved after an incredible prediction givens fans a
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: preview of what they can expect later this week.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Yes, so again, have talked about this a little bit
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: in past episodes and written about Jackson Kent specifically. He
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: is someone who is almost kind of like the Quintessentials
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: pitching prospects for the Nationals in the sense that when
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: they acquired him, he had really good pitch ability. He
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: knew how to command his stuff. But the thing that
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: was maybe missing or lacking in terms of seeing a
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: true like mid rotation big league starter was the velocity.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: He worked a lot on it this offseason at Arizona.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: The organization, as they have with many others, have helped
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: him climb up to sitting around ninety four miles per hour,
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: with the potential to go up to ninety five and
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: ninety six. And we bring in all the other characteristics
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: that I don't necessarily have to get into right now,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: and we'll see over the coming weeks. There's a really
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: encouraging arm there. And I think it's a credit to
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Jackson first and foremost, who is a self starter if
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: there ever was one, but also to the organization for
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: kind of helping him find his way here. And as
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: again we'll talk about in future episodes, and as I
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: was kind of toying around with actually right before he
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: started recording. Today, the Nationals have more starting pitching depth
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: than you might imagine. Again, it's a little complicated because
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: a lot of these guys are on the IL, or
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: they're in Double A or their recent editions or any
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: of those sort of caveats. But they have at least
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: in my estimation, about fourteen guys. So you could say, hey,
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: he could probably start games for the Nationals next year.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Now again, injuries all the other stuff that can whittle
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: that number down pretty quickly. But Kent is kind of
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: one of the first examples where you say, hey, this
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: is a guy that's been helped by the Nationals and
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: could contribute down the stretch and for years to come.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And also mentioned in that tweet by you there
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Jarlands Shusana is headed to hi A Wilmington. We haven't
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: seen him thrown quite some time, but I know that's
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: an exciting arm to dream on. With the velocity he
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: can get up to there. I wouldn't anticipate him to
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: be joining this year. But am I mistaken in that
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: assessment Spencer or what do you hear around his name
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: these days?
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's an assessment a lot of fans have,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: and so I'd like to offer a little clarity there.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: The door is not one hundred percent shout on it,
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: but it's pretty close to that, just when you look
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: at what it would take to get him up in
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: the big leagues by the end of the year. Again,
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: I hate to put any sort of percentage on it,
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: but this is a guy who you want to be
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: cautious with. Given just all he's been through injury wise,
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: given the strain that's put on that arm. Given that, again,
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: we'll say he's a starter and believes a starter, But
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: I don't think that is any sort of certainty yet.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: And so when you have all those factors put together,
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: combined with the fact that the Nationals might not make
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: the postseason this year, it's tough to say, hey, let's
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: put him on the forty man, let's put him on
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: the active roster. All that being said, this is a
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: super encouraging first step. And as I put in the
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: story that I'm glad so many people picked up on
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: he while he was rehabbing with having trouble getting his
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: fastball to be under one hundred miles per hour, like
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: they told him to kind of take it easy, and
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: he really struggled to keep it in double digits. So, yeah,
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: there's still a lot there to be encouraged by, and
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: it should be a fun, fun outing in Hya.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, let's get up to some active stuff that was
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: happening in the big leagues this weekend. As I mentioned,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: the Nationals completed a sweep Sunday was seven to one.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: They were trailing one nothing early, got that back two
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: to one lead and then in the bottom of the third,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Abby melick Ortiz his second big league home run. This
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: guy is just crushing the baseball Spencer and daleen Lyle
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: when he sees Red has just been on fire this year.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: I don't think there's like an accurate word or adjective
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: anything that can really summarize the level he has been
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: on when he's playing Cincinnati this year. But let's talk
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: about Urties really quickly, because he's clearly filling in in
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: a big way and where there was a hole in
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: this Washington lineup. How much has that been shocking you
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: or how encouraging is that to see?
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was kind of telling other people in the
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: clubhouse the other day, like I try to pick my
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: spots in terms of like planting a flag of guys
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: who I think are like legit big leakers, and like
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: maybe I'm higher on than the consensus ortizes someone where
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: as soon as he came up, and frankly, before he
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: came up, I had kind of planted my flag in
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: that direction. The Nationals obviously needed for space help once
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Louis left, and Avian mellich Ortiz has filled in perfectly
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: right where he has kind of a similar ish profile
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: in terms of the fact that he can hit the
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: ball really hard and make a decent amount of contact
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: and gets the ball in the air. Maybe the difference
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: is it's obviously not as polished of a batch of
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: ball skill as Louis had. On the flip side, he
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: really doesn't chase, or at least doesn't chase to the
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: degree that Louis does. And so is it easy or
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: possible to replace like a eight to fifty ops guy
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: in Louis or even frankly what he does in the clubhouse. No,
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: but I think I mean Mellick could have kind of
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: strikingly similar results, which, again, as the words leave my mouth,
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: it sounds way too bullish, right, But he's been so
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: good so far, the profile was really good in Triple A,
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: and yeah, I'm really bullish about what he could accomplish
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: in a National jersey.
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: No.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: I wish I had pieced in more of your Moneyball
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: tweets that you sent out over the course of the weekend,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: because I think the Nationals are capable of recreating the
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: production they had. Another thing I want to talk about
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: before our first break Onjo Schaparo is simply crushing the baseball,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: and if you look at it, I mean, this is
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: this is the position right first base. It's very moneyball.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: As perhaps we can recreate him. The Nationals are still
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: still right in the mix of it here, but Chappy
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Is is really dialed in as a boy. What have
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: you seen from him?
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: Spets.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a lot of the stuff. He had bad
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: luck early on where he had a high walk rate.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: He was hitting the ball hard, but it wasn't falling.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: And you looked at it and said, well, if he
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: can kind of catch up to doing that, or at
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: least the on field production can catch up to what
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: it's supposed to be, you're in a pretty good spot.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: It's like a you know, seven to fifty ops type hitter.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: The underlying stuff has gotten better and the actual production
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: has gotten better, where he just he hits the ball
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: so hard that like it's a it's a wonder how
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: it wasn't falling before. And again when when we talk
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: about like recreating Louis and the aggregate, you have two
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: guys with an ops over eight hundred and you have
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: a two frankly really good hitters. There. Part of my
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: curiosity and I asked Blink about this the other day
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: was whether Gaparo might get more hats now in a
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: kind of the same as we saw his Curtis Mead
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: right where he went from only hitting against lefties to
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: hitting right handers as well. We've seen them leave Schaparo
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: in at times when he's brought into pinch it and
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: then they switch it later in the game to have
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: him face alrighty, And I think kind of that next
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: step that we could see pretty soon is having him
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: like DH full time or potentially get some reps at
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: third base. It's hard to find playing time just because
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: how well the rest of the offense is played. But
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: that's a guy that kind of in the lineup regularly.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Right now, Yeah, let's take a quick break. When we
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: come back, let's talk about how important this bullten was
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: for the sweep over the weekend book.
• 8:45
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  Speaker 1: If you're not already, be sure to subscribe to the
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  Speaker 1: District Territory podcast. We are going to be given away
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• 9:58
  Speaker 1: bullpen spencer because yesterday was a bullpen game and it's
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: been a while, I think since we've seen a box
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: score like this. But how about Will Dion. I mean
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: just I don't think anyone had that on their being
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: go card when he was jogging in out of the bullpen.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: But three perfect innings till giving up a hit later
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: on in the outing, I mean, dude, dude was just remarkable.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: But talk about the Nationals seemed to be lacking a
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: lefty a little bit down in the bullpen since PJ.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: Poland went on the injured list earlier in the season.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Talk about Will Dion's performance yesterday.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is something that took my mind some time
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: to wrap around, both in the moment as well as
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: after the fact. Right where Dian is someone who again
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: comes in as a lefty and a pretty righty heavy
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: bullpen right now and is asked to, uh, take on
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: a Red's lineup that's righty heavy, and so kind of
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: the moment we're wondering, Hey, is he going to go
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: one inning? Is he gonna go one and a third?
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: Like?
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: What's that gonna like? But Blake had talked about the
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: fact that Dion is someone who he can see kind
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: of stretching out to a larger role, and that's kind
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: of exactly what we saw here where you have this
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: sort of stuff from an arm angle that typically plays
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: against both righty's and lefties, right, And so in my
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: mind I almost kind of having to tell myself, is
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: this guy their best lefty reliever or is he one
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: of their best relievers who I can't even think of
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: in a lefty bucket right, because that arm angle is
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: is so deceptive to both sided hitters, and so for me,
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: I almost kind of I don't know if this is
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: fair to like even criticize the bullpen construction after that series,
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: although again, be given what they've done this season, probably,
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: but I almost wonder, hey, should you get another like
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: kind of low slot lefty in there because of how
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: well Dion has played against both side editors. So yeah,
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: credit to him, and really really fascinating to see how
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: he gets on the stretch because it's not such a
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: straightforward role, but it's one that could be really impactful.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was encouraging to see the bats come back
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: to life this weekend. I mean we'd seen that all season,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: but I mean this kind of bullpen dominance was not
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: something that the Nats had been used to seeing this season,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: and it was from names that they frankly were not
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: familiar with at the start. Of the season. Saturday was
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: eight to two victory, and you take a look at
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: the pitching box score from that evening. Max Kranik, he
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: was working back over the course season, Tom Cosgrove and
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: Giovanni Cruz. We've talked about him a lot on this
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: podcast so far. Spencer, there's certainly a lot to dream
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: upon with the velocity, but that dude has just looked
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: ridiculous so far. Talk about the ability that that gives
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Blake Viterra later on in games, as far as building
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: a bridge seventh eighth ninth inning.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, again, it's funny, and we talked to Blake a
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: little bit about this the other day. You have that
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: seventh eighth, ninth with Cruise, Ribalta and Beater, which is
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: the way that they went about it on Friday. I
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: believe in that specific order, but they won't necessarily have
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: to keep that order for the rest of the year. Right,
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: These are three still pretty young pitchers, but with nasty stuff,
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: which again is not something we said a lot earlier
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: in the season, at least as it pertained to a
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: lot of the rest of what was in the bullpen.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: So yeah, Blake will have a chance to kind of
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: mix and match those guys around again. Ideally you probably
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: want one more shut down Lefty, but at this point,
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: I mean, we're picking nets here just because of you know,
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: the fact that you have these three guys ready to
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: contribute down the stretch. It makes games feel a whole
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: lot safer than they did basically up until the end
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: of July.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: Right, I mean, I'm I'm gonna pump the brakes and
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: stay one eighty. It's only been a week, it's been
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: a small sample size, but you look at it's pretty
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: much using all of his resources down there in the
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: bullpen too. I don't have Friday's box score here with us,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: but look at all the different names that were contributing
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: over the course of the weekend. It was an incredible
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: performance from this bullpen. Just phenomenal stuff all around. Jake
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Bird arriving later on yesterday, and Trevor Williams since coming
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: off of the engine list, that guy has been nails.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: I really want to before the next break finished with
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: Trevor Williams, this was a story. He was very under
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: the radar early on in the season and then slowly
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: working his way back and since coming back, dude has
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: been incredible. You know what kind of role does he
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: played down there in the bullpen for the right now,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: for right now, Spencer.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it is kind of that like two to
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: three inning brad lord type role. He's been so reliable
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: and we've seen him thrive in that kind of long
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: believer role in the past. Unfortunately, he wasn't available at
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: the end of I should say, postgame on Sunday. I
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: think he was still getting treatment, which is understandable given
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: everything that he's been through. But I think just kind
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: of speaking from the outside looking in without having talked
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: to him directly after the game, you see a lot
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: of the stuff where it's just like that guy knows
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: how to pitch, you know what I mean? Where it's like,
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: I don't want to say the opposite of you Wanni Cruz,
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: because like that it's unfair to insinuate that he doesn't
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: know how to pitch. But you have Cruz who can
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: overpower hitters with one hundred, and then you go straight
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: to Trevor Williams who's throwing ninety eighty nine mal Verra fastballs.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: It's a different look, but he's always had exceptional command
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: and I think that that's really showing up out of
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: the bullpen.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: It's such an unfair switch up for the opposing hitters.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: I wish we had Brandy joining us today because like
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: that can't be any fun to be dealing with one
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: oh one and then switch up to the soft stuff
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: with Trevor Williams, which has been as incredibly effective given
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: how he has pitched this season, and really quickly just
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: want to give my flowers out to him. It's a
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: long road back and to see him contributing in a
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: positive way, it's been awesome to see. Let's take another
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: quick break. Let's just talk about where the national stand
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: when we come back.
• 16:09
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• 17:11
  Speaker 1: So, as the Nationals stumbled back home after a difficult
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: road road trip, they find themselves at fifty nine and
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: sixty one. Don't look just now, there are only four
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: and a half games back in the National League Wild Cards,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Standing Spencer, as you put out a story the other day,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: I like to bring it up. Can the Nationals compete
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: while also competing in this timeline of Can they compete
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: in the timeline while also rebuilding? Spencer, tell our listeners
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: about that piece and where the Nationals are right now
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: on August tenth, as we're recording.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the Nationals are kind of complicated is maybe even
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: too strong of a word, but I'm gonna use it anyway.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: In kind of this complicated spot where they're clearly good
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: enough where success can be defined by having a win
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: record in twenty twenty six. At the same time, clearly
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: is more on the future than it is on the present,
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: given what's in the organization and what they've accomplished in
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: seasons past, as well as just the state of the
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: National League. And so for me, when I'm evaluating just
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: as a like what the organization is doing well versus
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: what it isn't, a lot of my mind goes to
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: the farm system. That being said, right there, they are
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: two games under five hundred, They are far ahead of schedule,
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: and I think the guys in that clubhouse still believe
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: they can compete this season. You want to look at
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: the Fangrafs postseason odds and they're sitting around two percent.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: And so I'm not going to make some sort of
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: big deal out of hey, they're going to you know,
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: sird well, but it says two percent, it doesn't say zero.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: And given the fact that the team won sixty six
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: games last year, if they finished the season eighty one
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: to eighty one or better, I mean we're I don't
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: want to say we're like in miracle territory, but we're
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: in the sort of space where it's like no one
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: saw this coming. Maybe outside of that, I didn't see
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: this coming. You know, computer models didn't see this coming.
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: I know, Eric, I assume you didn't see this coming either.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: Didn't see it coming. I didn't see it coming in
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: my craziest dreams. I didn't see it happening. I really
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: thought it was just gonna be another disaster of a season,
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: and hey, if things go well, maybe the natser sniffing
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: like seventy wins. Nobody saw it working this well, and
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: I think if you say that to yourself, you're just lying.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean it's Franny has said several times
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: on broadcast and on this show before. I think you
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: look at it at the end of the day, it's
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: been a success this season already. I mean, what unless
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: they go like, oh and for you whatever we're looking
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: at right now, it's just they've played so well and
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: far ahead of expectation. You take a look at the
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: upcoming schedule too. You got the Mets on there, the Marlins,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: who have been quite scrappy and feisty this season, but
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: then you got the Rockies and the Marlins again, who
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: I know, they've had their troubles with them, But you
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: look at the rest of August and it's I'm not
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: gonna say like, I'm not going to try and diss
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: any opponents here or size them up too quickly, but
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: it looks a little kinder to the Nationals than it
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: was in April and May. And maybe call me crazy,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: but I think there's reason to believe here that they
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: can catch fire like the Red Sox have and maybe
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: they're the mystery team this year that gets that third
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: wildcard spot. It's going to be an interesting couple of
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: weeks as we get down the stretch here. Spence.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and again, I always kind of keep coming back
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: to that thing that Jacob Young told me in the clubhouse,
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: and I want to say, like early to mid May,
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: where it's like, why not us? There's a team every
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: single season that does catch teams off guard and does
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: surprise people. Again, the odds are heavily against their favor
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: I don't necessarily know that they should be defining success
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: by making the postseason or not making the postseason, but
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: it is a possibility and for that, I think frankly
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: they should be applauded.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for that alone, I would agree. I think it
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: deserves some recognition. Hey, why not us?
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: Why not?
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: You don't forget to subscribe to the District Territory podcast.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: You don't want to miss the one so too bobblehead giveaway.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: You definitely don't want to miss this ELI will its
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: sign baseball card giveaway. Spencer, is there anything you want
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: to toss in on this off day? It's been a
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: while since the Nats have had one of these.
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: No.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: I hope that our listeners have enjoyed our coverage. I
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: hope that again they appreciated the prediction so to speak,
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: ahead of time, on top of their reporting.
• 21:49
  Speaker 4: And they got it.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: I know they did. I got to bring up really quickly.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: They told me to pop the chain for you. Shout
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: out to Liam. He texted me. He said, I want
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: you to pop a chain for Spencer for that prediction. So,
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: you know, thank you to all of our incredible listeners.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: Keep on listening.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's all I got until then.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: We will see you later. Keep going Nationals