Latest / District Territory / Highs and lows from the Nationals weekend series vs. the Giants

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Highs and lows from the Nationals weekend series vs. the Giants · District Territory

0:08
Speaker 1: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening wherever you may be
0:11
Speaker 1: listening from. I'm Eric Shellhouse alongside me Spencer nus Mom
0:14
Speaker 1: at the Athletic and Kevin Franzen Cohlor commentary for the
0:18
Speaker 1: Washington Nationals. That's coming off a really good win yesterday,
0:21
Speaker 1: first shutout of the season. Both of us were there
0:24
Speaker 1: in person. All of us were there in person to
0:26
Speaker 1: watch it. Franny, what'd you see?
0:28
Speaker 2: What would you like?
0:31
Speaker 3: A lot like this group's resilient man, So many mistakes
0:37
Speaker 3: that we're going to go over on Saturday. And usually
0:39
Speaker 3: those are the days that you watch for after, right,
0:42
Speaker 3: you watch to see.
0:44
Speaker 2: What the.
0:46
Speaker 3: I don't know what the after effect is, you know,
0:49
Speaker 3: just a snowball into another day, do you In the
0:54
Speaker 3: case like this Blake pe terror not playing day in Aisle,
0:57
Speaker 3: which is awesome. It's not a punishment, it's a just
1:01
Speaker 3: take a deep breath. Right, There's a lot to happen
1:04
Speaker 3: to Dale and the other day, good and bad, and
1:06
Speaker 3: and the bad is going to outshine all the good
1:09
Speaker 3: in the whole thing. But sometimes the best thing is
1:11
Speaker 3: just to back off somebody per day gout the cares
1:14
Speaker 3: guy that wants it. So Yesterday's seeing that seeing you know,
1:19
Speaker 3: PJ was okay, Miles was awesome, Andrew was awesome. I
1:22
Speaker 3: think that's like the things that two main things that
1:25
Speaker 3: stood out, uh, and the scene having a great base
1:28
Speaker 3: running as far as tagging up on a you know,
1:30
Speaker 3: no outs to always tag up, especially when guys going
1:33
Speaker 3: back is the only thing that matters is getting the
1:35
Speaker 3: third guy drops it you can get home. Big send
1:38
Speaker 3: by Victor Estevas on that. Fortunately, they they you know,
1:42
Speaker 3: clank it and score their go ahead and winning run
1:45
Speaker 3: on the whole thing. But and Curtis met stepping up.
1:47
Speaker 3: I mean, there's there's a lot of things that we
1:49
Speaker 3: could go after on this one.
1:51
Speaker 2: It's just nice to.
1:51
Speaker 3: See guys other than CJ and James really stepping up
1:57
Speaker 3: and contributing to a big win.
1:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, before we dive into the offense really quickly, I
2:03
Speaker 1: have a little pitching trivia for you. I'm going to
2:06
Speaker 1: hit you, you know, point blank here, true or false, The
2:08
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six Nationals have used more pitchers than the
2:12
Speaker 1: twenty twelve Nationals.
2:15
Speaker 2: Oh, that's gotta be true.
2:15
Speaker 3: We're at nineteen, you're at twenty twenty twenty, which we're
2:20
Speaker 3: nine team going to the Game twenty with Alvarez Tho.
2:23
Speaker 1: Yep, they just surpassed the division, winning the National League
2:26
Speaker 1: best twenty twelve Washington Nationals. But everyone loves offense, so
2:30
Speaker 1: let's jump into that really quickly. Oh, I meant to
2:32
Speaker 1: give you a little sound effect there. You nailed it,
2:35
Speaker 1: trivia one for one on the season. Let's get into
2:37
Speaker 1: the box score really quickly. There wasn't a whole lot.
2:41
Speaker 2: Shouts to that TV for the graphics they put up.
2:43
Speaker 2: I remembered it forresh today.
2:45
Speaker 1: Shout out Nats TV for that one. Shout out Spencer's
2:47
Speaker 1: Twitter for hitting me the fact. Look at the box score.
2:50
Speaker 1: There wasn't a whole lot going on for the first
2:53
Speaker 1: four innings, just three hits, but then three more hits,
2:56
Speaker 1: big and timely in that fifth inning. You mentioned Curtis
2:59
Speaker 1: meets stepping up, Spencer. I'm kind of curious.
3:02
Speaker 4: From your angle.
3:03
Speaker 1: You know, Mead gets every start against the left hand pitcher,
3:06
Speaker 1: every start against a righty. What are your takes on this?
3:09
Speaker 1: And then you also get to see those guys. You know,
3:11
Speaker 1: Louis was in the lineup yesterday, is designated hitter. It's
3:14
Speaker 1: not just necessarily as simple as plugging him in like that.
3:16
Speaker 1: But what's your take on that at first base?
3:20
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, I think it's about time that the Nationals.
3:22
Speaker 5: I guess they've always kind of platooned with Louis I did.
3:26
Speaker 5: I think I was a little critical of that earlier
3:29
Speaker 5: on in Louie's career, perhaps even misguidedly so, But my
3:34
Speaker 5: take throughout that whole process over the past couple of
3:37
Speaker 5: years was, Hey, let's get this guy more at bats
3:39
Speaker 5: against lefties so that down the line, when this is
3:41
Speaker 5: a competitive Nats team, he's ready to face those arms.
3:45
Speaker 5: We are kind of at a point in Loui's development
3:47
Speaker 5: where I think maybe it does make more sense to
3:50
Speaker 5: have him be platooning more often, especially because he has
3:55
Speaker 5: struggled at first base quite a bit, and so having
3:57
Speaker 5: him and Mead swap off or having lou we occasionally
4:00
Speaker 5: in there against the right type of lefty makes a
4:03
Speaker 5: lot of sense. But yeah, just in terms of kind
4:06
Speaker 5: of what he and Mead have been able to offer. Again, defensively,
4:09
Speaker 5: definitely work in progress, but offensively, you really have to
4:13
Speaker 5: like what you've seen out of Mead so far. Again,
4:15
Speaker 5: this was a guy, it might be rude to say,
4:17
Speaker 5: picked up from the scrap heat, but like it was
4:19
Speaker 5: not someone that other organizations were necessarily going after. And
4:24
Speaker 5: I think that's kind of a theme that I'm sure
4:26
Speaker 5: we'll talk about today is a lot of guys who
4:27
Speaker 5: stepped up yesterday were guys who have been disregarded by
4:30
Speaker 5: other organizations. So it's been really cool to see him
4:33
Speaker 5: step up. The bat is clearly playing. He's had maybe
4:37
Speaker 5: a bit cooler of a stretch the past week or so,
4:39
Speaker 5: but again the home run gets him back on track,
4:42
Speaker 5: and yeah, I just really like kind of the approach
4:44
Speaker 5: he has up there. It's not too complicated. He clearly
4:48
Speaker 5: has simplified things up there for himself where he talked about, yeah,
4:53
Speaker 5: maybe the last year or so he was trying to
4:56
Speaker 5: fix all of his weaknesses and trying to be more
4:58
Speaker 5: of a well rounded hitter, and he went into this
5:00
Speaker 5: season saying, hey, like I'm just going to lean into
5:03
Speaker 5: my strengths and know who I am as a hitter,
5:05
Speaker 5: and clearly that's paying off so far. So Yeah, I
5:08
Speaker 5: think the platoon has been smart. I think he's been
5:11
Speaker 5: pretty good at the plate, and again there's there's still
5:13
Speaker 5: a learning curve there. I'm sure we'll talk about kind
5:16
Speaker 5: of the mistake he made the game before. But yeah,
5:18
Speaker 5: I really like what I've seen out of him.
5:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, bring up that Sunday box score for you one
5:23
Speaker 1: more time. I know that handwriting is a little tiny
5:25
Speaker 1: and a little sloppy, but I really it's a little tiny.
5:28
Speaker 1: It's a little tiny. Well get we'll work on that.
5:30
Speaker 1: But I really want to give some flowers to Kiva Ruiz.
5:33
Speaker 1: You know, his double there in the fifth inning, really,
5:35
Speaker 1: you know, got it all going. And I had a
5:38
Speaker 1: great vantage point that was right about the time that
5:40
Speaker 1: I left from you all in the press box to
5:41
Speaker 1: go join my friend for him and his girlfriend's birthday celebration,
5:45
Speaker 1: and had a great vantage point just behind the bullpen.
5:48
Speaker 1: As I was walking down to join them in the
5:49
Speaker 1: red porch, I could see it and I'm like, that
5:51
Speaker 1: balls down, So you know, he keep off the rally.
5:54
Speaker 1: But Franny, you know, who do you want to.
5:56
Speaker 4: Shout out for yesterday's offensives performance?
5:59
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, really, Caber was great on that. Nas
6:02
Speaker 3: had some great bats too, laying down a perfect bunt.
6:05
Speaker 3: You know, he's got to bunt a little bit more,
6:08
Speaker 3: I think at times, because I think it's a part
6:11
Speaker 3: of his game, right it's not like the whole you
6:13
Speaker 3: have to bunt.
6:14
Speaker 2: Every single game, every single of bat no, no, no, no
6:17
Speaker 2: pict us times.
6:18
Speaker 3: Yesterday, Casey Schmidt was pushing way off the first base line.
6:22
Speaker 3: Robbie Rady falls off towards the third base side, and
6:25
Speaker 3: it's not great at getting the first step quickness to
6:28
Speaker 3: get to cover and he just laid down. All you
6:31
Speaker 3: have to do is get past the picture. In that situation,
6:32
Speaker 3: you can beat the first basement every time. And he
6:34
Speaker 3: did a great job on that. And I thought, really,
6:37
Speaker 3: his base running like just to a perfection, right, like
6:40
Speaker 3: you tag up on that ball, ball gets down, ball
6:45
Speaker 3: is dropped, right, ball gets down, you get the third
6:47
Speaker 3: at least and at a minimum you're runner a third
6:50
Speaker 3: fewer than two. And now you have him scoring and
6:55
Speaker 3: that becomes the winning run. And it's because he gave
6:58
Speaker 3: Victor Stepan is a great look right like he took
7:00
Speaker 3: golf and he's running hard, and so many guys in
7:03
Speaker 3: the past couple of years not given the third base
7:05
Speaker 3: coach good luck.
7:07
Speaker 2: And he gave a good.
7:07
Speaker 3: Look over there and might have been a little aggressive
7:10
Speaker 3: send and it just paid off in this in the
7:12
Speaker 3: in the end run. But at the end of the day,
7:14
Speaker 3: like I like to send for the fact that he
7:17
Speaker 3: was he was benefited, like he benefited from Nas being
7:21
Speaker 3: running hard.
7:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, and uh, you know, three runs may not always
7:26
Speaker 1: win you a ball game, but it does when you
7:28
Speaker 1: have your first shutout of the season. Courtesy of p J.
7:31
Speaker 1: Pool and Miles Michaelis and Andrew Alvarez making his season debut. Spencer,
7:36
Speaker 1: you wrote about this yesterday, using a reliever as a
7:39
Speaker 1: starter and then two starters in relief. As you take
7:41
Speaker 1: a look at the pitching box score from Sunday, Spencer,
7:46
Speaker 1: what I mean Alvarez was magnificent, Michaels turning in his
7:50
Speaker 1: best outing of the season. What was clicking for both
7:53
Speaker 1: of those guys?
7:55
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think with Michael Lists, I mean it really
7:57
Speaker 5: was just the fastball kind of came back to life
8:00
Speaker 5: in a way that we haven't seen from him yet.
8:02
Speaker 5: Better velocity, much better command. That's something he worked on
8:06
Speaker 5: a lot between starts, and clearly that showed up Alvarez again.
8:10
Speaker 5: Kind of same thing, just like, is he ever going
8:12
Speaker 5: to blow you away with ninety six ninety seven? No,
8:15
Speaker 5: but he's someone who when he's at his best, he
8:17
Speaker 5: knows where the ball is going, and you saw that
8:19
Speaker 5: in this start. The two biggest kind of takeaways from
8:23
Speaker 5: this weren't even about really though, like the individual processes
8:27
Speaker 5: or results or anything like that. So much of it was, Hey,
8:30
Speaker 5: this is kind of what the twenty twenty six Nats
8:32
Speaker 5: are going to look like in the sense that, you know,
8:35
Speaker 5: are any of these guys necessarily future All Stars or
8:39
Speaker 5: something you would expect of that. I would say most
8:42
Speaker 5: people would bet against that. But it's the fact that
8:45
Speaker 5: guys are embracing roles that they haven't had to do before.
8:48
Speaker 5: The organization is pretty clearly communicating to them well ahead
8:52
Speaker 5: of their outings, Hey, this is what we want out
8:54
Speaker 5: of you. We know it's uncomfortable, but we need you
8:56
Speaker 5: to stick with this, and these guys are embracing it.
9:00
Speaker 5: And then the other aspect of it is, hey, like
9:02
Speaker 5: the three guys who pitched were a veteran starter, you know,
9:07
Speaker 5: Waiver Claim and a twelfth round pick, Like those are
9:10
Speaker 5: the sort of guys who the Nationals.
9:12
Speaker 2: Twelfth round pick.
9:14
Speaker 5: Nothing wrong with that at all, it's the it's the
9:16
Speaker 5: best round there is. But no, honestly, like, that's that's
9:20
Speaker 5: kind of what these Nationals are going to need to
9:22
Speaker 5: do is give a bunch of guys who maybe haven't
9:25
Speaker 5: had their shot in the big leagues, you know, a
9:27
Speaker 5: real shot up here. And you know, for any I
9:30
Speaker 5: guess I'm sure that you've got to seen the same thing.
9:33
Speaker 3: Right, But here's what's different. They're they're maximizing series. Like
9:36
Speaker 3: as far as like this, the roster they're putting together
9:40
Speaker 3: isn't just about the long run right now, like it
9:42
Speaker 3: is about the short term and in series of series,
9:45
Speaker 3: match up to matchup, and that that's intriguing to me
9:48
Speaker 3: because we haven't seen that. And whether or not people
9:51
Speaker 3: like that or not get used to it, because guess
9:53
Speaker 3: what it's. It's trying to maximize the roster, trying to
9:56
Speaker 3: maximize winning at the margins.
9:58
Speaker 2: And there's a truth to it. Right. Does it mean
10:01
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be in for you know, ten years of it? No,
10:05
Speaker 2: and no one is. That's not what they're trying to build.
10:07
Speaker 2: But they're trying to build like people always go.
10:10
Speaker 3: This is what bothered me a couple of years ago
10:12
Speaker 3: with the Giants when they did it and they had
10:14
Speaker 3: one hundred and seven one year, and they thought like, oh,
10:16
Speaker 3: this is gonna this is exactly how you do. It's like, no,
10:19
Speaker 3: that fan base wanted something that was going to be
10:24
Speaker 3: you know, it worked in that year, but they want
10:25
Speaker 3: they're used to the guys, you know, they're used to
10:28
Speaker 3: having their their homegrown guys and the developed stars and
10:32
Speaker 3: all that stuff, and nothing ever developed.
10:34
Speaker 2: Right, Well, you have stars here and then you're supplementing
10:38
Speaker 2: it with a couple of platoons. It's like that.
10:39
Speaker 3: It's because I wouldn't even sit there and say this
10:41
Speaker 3: is a platoon, offense or whole situation, right, I mean
10:44
Speaker 3: that's the part. And so maximizing your roster, maximizing how
10:48
Speaker 3: like we're seeing bullpen guys being brought in, allowed to
10:53
Speaker 3: go back, you know, and unfortunately for Paxic and Schultz,
10:55
Speaker 3: I mean, he might be the MVP of the weekend
10:57
Speaker 3: and he gets sent down and that's that's like his
11:00
Speaker 3: that's his reward, and it's it sucks. But if you
11:03
Speaker 3: have a healthy roster, like a good roster, which they
11:05
Speaker 3: do with all these optionable guys, they're able to do
11:08
Speaker 3: that and it and it you know, on a personal standpoint,
11:11
Speaker 3: I get it. I've been there as far as the
11:13
Speaker 3: position player having to go up and down so much,
11:16
Speaker 3: but this this is all working towards them, you know,
11:21
Speaker 3: doing the right things, and they put themselves into good
11:23
Speaker 3: spots a lot so far.
11:26
Speaker 5: And even when I say uncomfortable positions before, like maybe
11:29
Speaker 5: it's not a role they've had before. But if you
11:32
Speaker 5: know that the organization is putting you in matchups that
11:34
Speaker 5: are favorable to you, like you're facing the right hitters
11:37
Speaker 5: or if you're a hitter, you're facing the right pictures
11:39
Speaker 5: when you're out there, like that is extremely beneficial to them.
11:42
Speaker 5: That also softens the blow.
11:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, And I can't speak to that too much.
11:48
Speaker 1: I don't have the player insight, but the guys just
11:50
Speaker 1: seem so comfortable, like watching up in the press final.
11:52
Speaker 1: That's the biggest thing, right, welling from the bullpen with
11:56
Speaker 1: his song playing. He but you know they didn't usher
11:58
Speaker 1: him out from the dugout or make them do anything
12:00
Speaker 1: like the starter and correct me if I'm wrong.
12:03
Speaker 4: Maybe that's not always how it goes.
12:05
Speaker 1: When you tell a reliever or a starter, beg your
12:08
Speaker 1: pardon a reliever who's going to start and open that day? Hey,
12:10
Speaker 1: you don't get to jog in like we need you
12:12
Speaker 1: to go through an opening sort of team. You need
12:14
Speaker 1: to prepare differently. They are letting the players do what
12:17
Speaker 1: they want to do or what they need to do
12:19
Speaker 1: to be the most successful team on the field. And
12:21
Speaker 1: you mentioned Schultz getting rewarded by getting sent down, another
12:25
Speaker 1: reward for Andrew Al I was going to say, he
12:28
Speaker 1: gets sent down.
12:29
Speaker 2: Think about this they put they put PJ.
12:31
Speaker 3: Pool in this in this role the very last game
12:35
Speaker 3: of the exhibition series, right, so they gave it to
12:39
Speaker 3: him and as an idea, like, hey, we might be
12:42
Speaker 3: doing this, and so then they prepared him for the
12:44
Speaker 3: season they did it.
12:45
Speaker 2: Then think about that. There's all these like little.
12:48
Speaker 3: Things that you could just see how they've done it
12:50
Speaker 3: in spring, how they did an exhibition, how they did
12:52
Speaker 3: became part that it's like it is they planted it
12:55
Speaker 3: for everybody to see it, not hiding anything, but preparing
12:59
Speaker 3: their guys to have that moment when it's going on.
13:04
Speaker 4: And your present.
13:06
Speaker 1: We're going to jump into a quick little ad break
13:09
Speaker 1: before we get into Saturday's game. And then Spencer, you
13:11
Speaker 1: were down in Fredericksburg. We might touch on that a
13:13
Speaker 1: little bit, but that's coming up on Wednesday and Friday's episodes.
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14:21
Speaker 1: And we're back Saturday. Tough one to swallow, tough one
14:26
Speaker 1: to sleep on. Honestly, I lost a little sleep the
14:29
Speaker 1: other night, Granny. I'm just curious what suck out the
14:34
Speaker 1: most to you in that game.
14:37
Speaker 3: Uh, just for the first time. Like physical errors happen
14:41
Speaker 3: all the time, right, and that's fine. It's the mental
14:43
Speaker 3: side and the mental side and the effort and just
14:49
Speaker 3: the moment getting too big for guys. I think it
14:52
Speaker 3: stood out, ah man, because there you could go on
14:58
Speaker 3: and on like the day and lyle thing stand over
15:00
Speaker 3: at third base. I've been there, done it, and uh
15:03
Speaker 3: it sucks, but you got to grow from it, and
15:06
Speaker 3: you got to understand like why you know you got
15:09
Speaker 3: contact play on. You got to work on it. But
15:11
Speaker 3: you can never get picked off there in that situation.
15:15
Speaker 3: Been there, did in San Diego at fourteen, Like we've
15:18
Speaker 3: time that we were playing okay, and I'll never forget
15:21
Speaker 3: like backpick but right handed, right handed battery up right,
15:24
Speaker 3: so it kind of came out of nowhere, open throwing lane.
15:27
Speaker 3: That's like the number one thing I was talking about,
15:29
Speaker 3: like Mike Soshas or manager in Anaheim, every every time
15:32
Speaker 3: a guy got on third few of the two. I
15:35
Speaker 3: mean it was first pitch, boom, backpit, and it was
15:38
Speaker 3: the setup. You know, guys that are over aggressive on
15:41
Speaker 3: that the contact play and all that stuff and be
15:44
Speaker 3: ready for it, and randomly we would get a guy.
15:46
Speaker 2: But I mean, for the most part, everybody knew.
15:49
Speaker 3: Look, I think the curse B thing could never happen.
15:52
Speaker 3: That that just that that is that was inexcusable. Not sliding.
15:59
Speaker 3: Victor Stevens was on his knee, pointing like on like
16:03
Speaker 3: on the base hand up, pointing like down down, not
16:07
Speaker 3: standing up, not being anywhere else, but he was down.
16:10
Speaker 3: And that's the one that was frustrating me. You know,
16:14
Speaker 3: everyone point tries to point out the jorviet One. I'm like,
16:17
Speaker 3: you know what if you want to go and nippick
16:19
Speaker 3: on everything like it would have won. It's like, nah,
16:22
Speaker 3: it's that that wasn't that wasn't the case. They had
16:24
Speaker 3: too many, too many opportunities, too many too many uh
16:27
Speaker 3: base ran blunders that were more mental than they were
16:32
Speaker 3: the physical part. And that's the one that's gonna set
16:34
Speaker 3: like because there's that's what three four four easy wins they.
16:39
Speaker 2: Should have had.
16:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, in that game, and then you know, you get
16:43
Speaker 3: to the extras and you've gone four games now in
16:45
Speaker 3: extra innings and only had one hit one hit one. Yeah, yeah,
16:54
Speaker 3: that's gonna say the box score I'm looking at taking
16:56
Speaker 3: a look at Saturday nights, it gets real quiet there
16:58
Speaker 3: in the later innings, A huge second inn and just
17:00
Speaker 3: not being able to close out that game definitely left
17:03
Speaker 3: a sour taste in a lot of our mouths and
17:05
Speaker 3: people getting on Jorbert on that play.
17:07
Speaker 1: I don't I don't think he's beating it, Like, I
17:10
Speaker 1: think that's just a testament to a Domis and in
17:12
Speaker 1: the fact that he's able to get a throw off
17:14
Speaker 1: that strong.
17:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think.
17:19
Speaker 4: Even if he is, I'm on.
17:22
Speaker 2: I'm on that. That's why I didn't really care for
17:24
Speaker 2: to point it out.
17:25
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think I don't think he did.
17:27
Speaker 2: I think there's a far far more, far more just
17:30
Speaker 2: tip your.
17:30
Speaker 4: Cap to a Domis because that's he's a great shortstop.
17:39
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean there's some things there that like we
17:44
Speaker 2: we could we could go on, but I mean.
17:45
Speaker 3: At the end of the day, they're very simple, you know,
17:49
Speaker 3: adjustments and the fact that Blake talked about it and
17:52
Speaker 3: talked about it right away, because you know, we we
17:55
Speaker 3: know there's plenty of bloggers in the area that you
17:58
Speaker 3: got to hold these guys, you cancountable?
18:00
Speaker 2: Shut up? Just shut up?
18:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, And what are holding accountable like in this addressing
18:08
Speaker 3: it as being accountable in that to these guys, right.
18:11
Speaker 5: And what I saw and what I heard from Blake
18:15
Speaker 5: on Sunday was, hey, like he said, he went up
18:19
Speaker 5: to the players who are going to get highlighted in
18:22
Speaker 5: their pregame meeting for the things that they did wrong.
18:24
Speaker 5: And he went up to them and said, hey, like,
18:26
Speaker 5: this isn't to call you out. This isn't to you know,
18:30
Speaker 5: take an example out of you. These are the plays
18:33
Speaker 5: that we need to go over as a team because
18:36
Speaker 5: we need to know, hey, we're not doing this in
18:37
Speaker 5: the future. Accountability for this team is doing that. It's
18:40
Speaker 5: highlighting it in the meeting, it's learning from it, and
18:42
Speaker 5: it's moving on. It's not necessarily benching every guy who
18:46
Speaker 5: made a mistake or yelling at someone in the dugout.
18:48
Speaker 5: That's not what baseball is in twenty twenty six. And
18:51
Speaker 5: that's not really how you manage a team in twenty
18:53
Speaker 5: twenty six. And so while I think and Franny, you're
18:57
Speaker 5: not doing this. We shouldn't dismiss the word acountability in
19:01
Speaker 5: any sensor fashion. What accountability looks like at the major
19:05
Speaker 5: leagues is going up to guys being transparent about the
19:08
Speaker 5: things they need to improve, having the players be transparent
19:11
Speaker 5: with one another, and never letting it get to a
19:14
Speaker 5: level where things just yester, as maybe they have in
19:16
Speaker 5: the Pole.
19:18
Speaker 3: I think even more important is that because it is
19:20
Speaker 3: such a young team and I know I made a
19:23
Speaker 3: lot of mistakes as a young guy, as a rookie,
19:26
Speaker 3: as a second year guy.
19:27
Speaker 2: Whatever you want to go in on the individual dressing
19:31
Speaker 2: of stuff.
19:32
Speaker 3: Doesn't like always resonate right like sometimes like situations that
19:39
Speaker 3: you might not be aware of as a player because
19:42
Speaker 3: they're inexperience and the play hasn't been made in front
19:45
Speaker 3: of you before.
19:47
Speaker 2: Then.
19:48
Speaker 3: That's my part that I love is that they're addressing
19:50
Speaker 3: it in front of everybody, right like personal off the
19:54
Speaker 3: field stuff individual right all day every day on the field,
19:59
Speaker 3: it's about us and how like how we can adjust
20:02
Speaker 3: from a mistake.
20:03
Speaker 2: Who cares made mistakes, move on, but let's.
20:05
Speaker 3: Not let anybody else make it instead of addressing it
20:09
Speaker 3: by the individual, and no one.
20:09
Speaker 2: Else known like what should have happened right there, you know.
20:13
Speaker 3: And so that's the part that's fascinating me is that
20:17
Speaker 3: people want to talk about the youth of Blake Terra,
20:20
Speaker 3: but I'm going like, that's not right, that's not that's
20:24
Speaker 3: not your normal thirty three year old the way he
20:26
Speaker 3: would handle things like that, Like I'm just serious, I'm
20:28
Speaker 3: being honest, Like, yeah, he's been like we've talked about
20:30
Speaker 3: he's a coaches kid. He understands that, like it is
20:33
Speaker 3: about the group. It is not about you. It is
20:36
Speaker 3: about you being a part of the group, and this
20:39
Speaker 3: group needs to find out how we how do we
20:41
Speaker 3: not make that mistake? Ever, not just the individual group.
20:45
Speaker 5: And that's why they also highlight Like again, it feels
20:49
Speaker 5: weird to highlight the mental whatever the opposite of mistakes
20:53
Speaker 5: are in that the fortitude I guess in that game,
20:58
Speaker 5: the highlighted, Yeah, the highlighted you know, James running hard
21:03
Speaker 5: around third and CJ waving him home and telling him hurry,
21:06
Speaker 5: get home before the play is dead. There, it's not
21:09
Speaker 5: just about like, hey, let's highlight the negative things that
21:13
Speaker 5: players did in front of everyone, say they learn from that.
21:15
Speaker 5: It's also hey, let's highlight the things we did right
21:17
Speaker 5: in front of everyone so they know next time there's
21:19
Speaker 5: a situation where a guy needs to get home before
21:22
Speaker 5: a tag is applied, Like the guy who's on the
21:25
Speaker 5: on deck circle is the one waving him around home.
21:27
Speaker 5: It's exactly that stuff too.
21:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, by the way, the one of the coolest plays
21:31
Speaker 3: that we saw that from the weekend was that CJ
21:34
Speaker 3: double cut the back foot just two hundred and thirty
21:37
Speaker 3: one feet of.
21:38
Speaker 2: Throw that he made. I was like, damn, it was
21:43
Speaker 2: last year. He last year.
21:45
Speaker 3: I feel like he goes backhand on it right and
21:48
Speaker 3: kind of spins the wrong way, doesn't use his feet.
21:51
Speaker 3: He got inside that ball and got everything on the
21:54
Speaker 3: right side, but just couldn't get any momentum going in
21:56
Speaker 3: for him to have that strength.
21:57
Speaker 2: Of arm on that one. And I was like, that was.
22:01
Speaker 1: That is the one that I had marked in my
22:03
Speaker 1: notes sounding for the play of the game. That was
22:05
Speaker 1: just ridiculous and like you said, takes a run off
22:08
Speaker 1: the board for the Giants.
22:09
Speaker 4: I talked about this.
22:10
Speaker 1: I think I used this word in the first episode
22:12
Speaker 1: or second one with Spencer, but it just seems like
22:14
Speaker 1: such a cohesive unit in Spencer you said, it's not
22:17
Speaker 1: just the mistakes, it's also the opportunities where they succeed
22:21
Speaker 1: or thrive. Capitalize on those moments and make them learning
22:25
Speaker 1: opportunities for not just one player, but for the entire team, right,
22:29
Speaker 1: so that everyone can benefit from this. And yeah, tip
22:33
Speaker 1: of the cap to Blake dew Terror because like you said,
22:35
Speaker 1: it's not your average begg're parting thirty three year old
22:37
Speaker 1: or thirty four the other thirty three three, thirty three,
22:44
Speaker 1: thirty three.
22:45
Speaker 4: Year old ridiculous. Anyways, Spencer, you were down in Fredericksburg
22:50
Speaker 4: on Saturday.
22:50
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about this more in the next episode,
22:52
Speaker 1: but I'm just very curious like what you saw down
22:55
Speaker 1: there and who stood out and who we can start
22:57
Speaker 1: to get excited for potentially maybe this season but in
23:00
Speaker 1: the near future.
23:02
Speaker 5: Yeah, we'll cover this in future weeks and in future episodes.
23:06
Speaker 5: But man, the amount of infield talent there is honestly
23:10
Speaker 5: astounding there. Maybe you look at maybe the Brewers and
23:13
Speaker 5: Dodgers might have more under twenty one talent. Outside of that,
23:17
Speaker 5: I think it's probably the nap Eli Well, it's number
23:20
Speaker 5: one pick Luke Dickerson, second round pick a year ago,
23:23
Speaker 5: who or two years ago is turning things around. Koy James,
23:26
Speaker 5: fifth round pick, who has looked fantastic, Gavin Feen who's
23:31
Speaker 5: on the aisle right now, but he's unbelievable. They moved
23:35
Speaker 5: two guys up who have less than one hundred and
23:37
Speaker 5: fifty career plate appearances at cigale A simply because they
23:40
Speaker 5: didn't have enough space for top prospects in the infield
23:44
Speaker 5: and outfield at at Fredericksburg. So yeah, we'll cover this
23:47
Speaker 5: in future episodes. Again, it's tough for them to find
23:50
Speaker 5: playing time for everyone out there, but that just kind
23:52
Speaker 5: of tells you just how competitive.
23:54
Speaker 2: That's a good thing the.
23:55
Speaker 5: Player development systems Ben And yeah, I'll be writing about
23:58
Speaker 5: this in a story that'll come out soon. But yeah,
24:01
Speaker 5: it's truly, I don't want to say unfathomable, but it
24:04
Speaker 5: really is kind of unprecedented to compared to the infield
24:07
Speaker 5: talent they had in the minor leagues before to the
24:09
Speaker 5: talent they have right now. It's really night and day
24:11
Speaker 5: from last year to.
24:12
Speaker 3: Today, and really really quick, how different is it going
24:16
Speaker 3: there and seeing how much has been implemented from the
24:19
Speaker 3: big leagues to able.
24:22
Speaker 5: It's unbelievable. And this was the thing that I talked
24:25
Speaker 5: to everyone about. I saw just again from the early
24:28
Speaker 5: work is like it's I don't want to say it's
24:30
Speaker 5: almost the exact same thing, but it really is. They're
24:32
Speaker 5: using the same tools in the bullpen. They have on
24:35
Speaker 5: their scoreboard all of the exit velocity and launch angle
24:39
Speaker 5: that you didn't see up there before. They're facing. This
24:43
Speaker 5: is the biggest thing I saw as maybe not specifically
24:46
Speaker 5: on Saturday, but almost always they're facing really fast velocity
24:51
Speaker 5: and really sharp pitch shapes before the game, so that
24:55
Speaker 5: when they go up to Wilmington and Harrisburg then Roch, Yes,
25:00
Speaker 5: they aren't uncomfortable with that sort of thing. They're prioritizing
25:04
Speaker 5: swing decisions, they're prioritizing lifting the ball, which are two
25:07
Speaker 5: areas where the player development system has really struggled in
25:11
Speaker 5: past year. It's all the stuff that like, again, the
25:12
Speaker 5: Nats are doing in the big leagues and you're seeing
25:15
Speaker 5: basically the same thing play out, but with eighteen, nineteen
25:17
Speaker 5: twenty year olds. I'm done in Fredericksberg and that's the
25:20
Speaker 5: whole point of doing this.
25:23
Speaker 1: Absolutely love to see it. Looking ahead, the Nats welcome
25:26
Speaker 1: to Braves to Town tonight. Kicking off of four game set.
25:29
Speaker 1: I believe right, I'm taking off Tuesday, so yeah, a
25:32
Speaker 1: different location for Wednesday's episodes, but it's Jake the Snake
25:36
Speaker 1: Urban against Bryce Elder. At least those are your scheduled starters. Franny,
25:40
Speaker 1: I'm curious you get a four game set against the
25:43
Speaker 1: division leaders right now? How can the Nationals make a
25:45
Speaker 1: statement and walk away from the series not just splitting,
25:49
Speaker 1: but potentially taking three out of four sweeping.
25:52
Speaker 3: I I just think worry about game one and that's it,
25:57
Speaker 3: Like right now, you don't look ahead. It's one of
26:00
Speaker 3: those things. They're playing. Braids are playing too well to
26:03
Speaker 3: think about doing that. In my mind, I think the
26:09
Speaker 3: energy and everything that they do and towards Jake and
26:12
Speaker 3: how they finally got a bullpen rest day, right, I
26:15
Speaker 3: mean that that was huge.
26:19
Speaker 2: There's so many things that are a factor.
26:21
Speaker 3: But it's like game one against you know, the Braves
26:23
Speaker 3: is I always am very cautious because of twenty two
26:27
Speaker 3: and twenty three parts of it where you saw the
26:31
Speaker 3: dominance right like that Atlanta had. Jake's the pervert guy.
26:36
Speaker 3: He's had so much success against them in the past
26:39
Speaker 3: that you hope that he can continue that, and so
26:41
Speaker 3: I just again I'm cautiously optimistic about the series in general,
26:47
Speaker 3: but I also understand there's a huge truth to it,
26:50
Speaker 3: and you can't you can't be giving away, you know,
26:52
Speaker 3: like yesterday three errors. Can't have that against a Braves team,
26:57
Speaker 3: you know, the Giants right now because the offense isn't going.
26:59
Speaker 3: It will go, but once it, you know, won't that
27:02
Speaker 3: that wasn't the case this weekend made for the first,
27:04
Speaker 3: you know, game, game in a half. But you do
27:08
Speaker 3: that against the Braves, It's gonna be some long, long days,
27:12
Speaker 3: and so catch and baseball's gotta be a priority in
27:15
Speaker 3: the series.
27:17
Speaker 2: One hundred percent.
27:18
Speaker 1: Like you said, I think take it one day at
27:19
Speaker 1: a time. But you take a look at the overall
27:22
Speaker 1: division standings right now, I don't have a graphic prepared
27:24
Speaker 1: for that, but I believe the Nationals are still tied
27:27
Speaker 1: with the Marlins for second place, ahead of the Mets
27:29
Speaker 1: in the Phillies. I don't think anyone drew that up
27:32
Speaker 1: on April twentieth going into the season. But that's gonna
27:35
Speaker 1: wrap it up for today's episode. We'll see you again
27:37
Speaker 1: on Wednesday and again later in the week on Friday.
27:40
Speaker 1: I look forward to seeing you all at the ballpark
27:42
Speaker 1: later today. Anything you guys want to add, that's all
27:45
Speaker 1: I got.
27:46
Speaker 2: See, I'm good. I just got notes and notes and
27:49
Speaker 2: notes and notes for the series.
27:51
Speaker 1: Hey, I got a nice new score book. Shout out
27:55
Speaker 1: to my friends over at Chalk and Ink percentding this
27:58
Speaker 1: my way. It's not the Bob Carpenter score book that
28:00
Speaker 1: I love it. It's very easy with the color coding. Anyways,
28:03
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for our listeners, those of you
28:04
Speaker 1: that have stuck around. Doesn't happen without you all, and
28:07
Speaker 1: we'll see you in the next episode.