Latest / District Territory / How the Nationals can build like the World Series Champion Brewers

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How the Nationals can build like the World Series Champion Brewers · District Territory

0:05
Speaker 1: Ball's in. Coming down. That's right. It is district territory time.
0:10
Speaker 1: Eric Shellhouse, Kevin Franzen, and Spencer Nussbaum with you. It
0:13
Speaker 1: is officially the offseason as the Milwaukee Brewers take down
0:20
Speaker 1: the Tampa Bay Rays in five games in what was,
0:26
Speaker 1: let's just say, a really good World Series? Not the
0:31
Speaker 1: best because last year that was obviously the best one
0:32
Speaker 1: that we've seen in quite some time if you go
0:35
Speaker 1: for the seven-game series. But the Milwaukee Brewers are the
0:37
Speaker 1: champions because why? Because they were the best all year.
0:40
Speaker 1: They were swept at home one time this year by
0:43
Speaker 1: the Washington Nationals. That's right. Season series taken 4-2 by
0:47
Speaker 1: the Nats. No big deal. But there's a lot of
0:51
Speaker 1: things that all of us saw because everybody was there
0:56
Speaker 1: in Tampa at least. There was Spencer. You and your,
1:00
Speaker 1: you know, supporting your brother as a fan. Love it.
1:04
Speaker 1: Eric and shell house was doing bad boys, baseball on
1:08
Speaker 1: the field, making sure that you got all the content
1:11
Speaker 1: in the world. I was there covering it for serious XM.
1:14
Speaker 1: So we all have like very wide variety of experience
1:17
Speaker 1: of this Spencer. I know you want to go there,
1:21
Speaker 1: but let's just make this known. 32 is the number
1:23
Speaker 1: 32 trades. to make up both rosters. Wow. Um, that's unbelievable.
1:35
Speaker 2: I will, before I get into it, I will ask
1:37
Speaker 2: listeners to bear with me. I have obviously lost my
1:40
Speaker 2: voice a little bit. Uh, you know, being in the
1:43
Speaker 2: stands during the world series, uh, right, right in the
1:47
Speaker 2: thick of the brewer's ground.
1:48
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
1:51
Speaker 2: Um, yeah, just, uh, lost the voice, but, um, unlike the,
1:55
Speaker 2: you know, Raisin Brewers, I'm still here. My season's still
2:00
Speaker 2: going on. And yeah, I mean, it's truly unfathomable, right?
2:06
Speaker 2: That 32 number is not something I knew. It's maybe
2:09
Speaker 2: I would have ballparked it in the 20 or something range.
2:14
Speaker 2: It's unreal. Both these teams love doing it. They do
2:17
Speaker 2: not win every trade. You do not have to win
2:20
Speaker 2: every trade. But when you are trading in that quantity...
2:24
Speaker 2: You end up with rosters like this if you know
2:26
Speaker 2: what you're doing on the back end. That's why I
2:29
Speaker 2: think when you hear me, Eric, Franny talk all year,
2:34
Speaker 2: we're talking about all this back end stuff. Because obviously,
2:38
Speaker 2: obviously what happens on the field is most important. But
2:41
Speaker 2: what is happening behind the scenes is trying to get
2:43
Speaker 2: those processes, that coaching, all that stuff in place so
2:48
Speaker 2: that you're winning trades when guys get here. Yeah, that's
2:51
Speaker 2: kind of the crux of it for both these teams.
2:53
Speaker 1: I mean, like, you had multiple, like, so you had
2:56
Speaker 1: three guys in the college ranks, right? First base coach
2:58
Speaker 1: for the Milwaukee Brewers, Pat Casey as Pat Murphy's, he's
3:04
Speaker 1: not even, he was not bench coach, but he's a consultant, basically, right?
3:09
Speaker 1: They're right by him, development, development. Pat Murphy having the
3:12
Speaker 1: college background for over 20 plus years, right? Thousand, thousand
3:16
Speaker 1: Division I wins. It was, There's a master display of
3:22
Speaker 1: roster building, chances taken, some young guys taken care of, right?
3:28
Speaker 1: And then the development part. I think that you see
3:31
Speaker 1: it with the Rays, you could easily say because of Blake, right?
3:33
Speaker 1: And Blake's background with the Rays. And a lot of
3:36
Speaker 1: those guys were his, right? Taylor Walls, I mean, they
3:39
Speaker 1: completely shifted the entire way that they developed infielders as
3:44
Speaker 1: far as throwing program, right? And not the throwing program
3:46
Speaker 1: that we're talking about, like, arm strength and doing this,
3:48
Speaker 1: just throwing every which way. That was his thing. Like
3:51
Speaker 1: he would get there, play his catch, but in the
3:53
Speaker 1: middle of it, throwing from different angles, taking acting like
3:56
Speaker 1: he's in backhand, doing stuff that you normally do. Right.
3:58
Speaker 1: So there's so many things that we could quantify, like
4:01
Speaker 1: we could quantify by number. Right. But at the end
4:04
Speaker 1: of the day, the biggest part is these guys continue
4:06
Speaker 1: to develop. It is, it is two organizations that did not,
4:11
Speaker 1: you know, rested on just, just free agent science. And
4:14
Speaker 1: just say, yeah, go play, guys. This is your best. No,
4:17
Speaker 1: they continue to develop. I mean, think about the chance
4:19
Speaker 1: they took. I mean, I'm not– I was the biggest
4:22
Speaker 1: Caleb Durbin fan, not as a, you know, overall like just, oh, yeah,
4:27
Speaker 1: got to center a trade around him. But, I mean,
4:29
Speaker 1: like him and Anthony Siegley and Monasterio, Andrew Monasterio were
4:35
Speaker 1: traded for Kyle Harrison, David Hamilton, and who? Shane Jolin.
4:43
Speaker 1: So two guys that played a big part in the postseason,
4:45
Speaker 1: and one guy, Kyle Harrison, that was an all-star, did
4:50
Speaker 1: not factor in any postseason game on three rosters, though, right?
4:54
Speaker 1: So that's a big part of it. But those type trades,
4:56
Speaker 1: they kind of go unseen. You're thinking, like, one for one,
5:00
Speaker 1: it's going to be great. Three for three in this, oh,
5:02
Speaker 1: what are they going to do? They're all, like, supporting staff,
5:04
Speaker 1: but you get one guy. One guy in there that's
5:06
Speaker 1: an all-star. David Hamilton led the team with homers against right-handers.
5:11
Speaker 1: So there's so many things that you could go. Eric,
5:13
Speaker 1: what did you see in this as far as just the–
5:16
Speaker 1: when you were talking to guys and having that ability,
5:19
Speaker 1: number one thing that came to mind for you was what?
5:22
Speaker 3: The confidence that they had. I think the faith that
5:25
Speaker 3: they had that they were going to be able to
5:27
Speaker 3: finish the job, the mission that they had set out
5:30
Speaker 3: on at the start of the year. There really just
5:32
Speaker 3: seemed to be a collective belief that no matter what
5:35
Speaker 3: the situation was, they were never out of it. I mean,
5:37
Speaker 3: they came back from so many games in this postseason. Uh,
5:41
Speaker 3: in game two, they were down for nothing. Come back
5:43
Speaker 3: to win that game. Uh, and the NLCS against the
5:46
Speaker 3: Dodgers trail bear came back several times. There's just real
5:50
Speaker 3: resilience and camaraderie among the group and, um, confidence that
5:54
Speaker 3: they were going to come out on top in the end.
5:57
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a world series that ended in five
6:00
Speaker 1: games that saw the least amount of homers in a
6:04
Speaker 1: world series since 1985. It was seven game series between
6:06
Speaker 1: the Cardinals and Royals. And it was, there was a four, uh,
6:10
Speaker 1: the display of baseball that we saw, moving runners. Bunning
6:14
Speaker 1: wasn't great all throughout, I would say. One thing that
6:18
Speaker 1: both hung their hats on was playing small ball, being
6:20
Speaker 1: able to do a lot of things. Not the greatest of,
6:23
Speaker 1: I would say, execution on both ends. The defensive part,
6:27
Speaker 1: there were some times that was unbelievable. I still think,
6:31
Speaker 1: I don't know how you are on this one, especially
6:32
Speaker 1: the one thing that I know, Taylor Walls and Bryce Terrain,
6:37
Speaker 1: the shortstop for the Rays, the second baseman for the Brewers,
6:40
Speaker 1: put on clinics defensively.
6:45
Speaker 2: It's, it's, it's unbelievable to watch. And we, we saw
6:49
Speaker 2: it too, with a handful of other teams in the
6:52
Speaker 2: post season, right? Like they have a lot of strong
6:54
Speaker 2: of the middle defenders, but to rank what he, how
6:58
Speaker 2: he's able to impact the game in every which way
7:00
Speaker 2: walls gets to baseballs quicker than basically any shortstop I've
7:05
Speaker 2: ever seen.
7:06
Speaker 1: Right.
7:06
Speaker 2: Where like, as you were talking about before, the throwing
7:09
Speaker 2: program is important. He can throw from a variety of angles,
7:13
Speaker 2: but he doesn't have the strongest arm in baseball, right?
7:15
Speaker 2: He's not the absolute quickest shortstop in baseball.
7:20
Speaker 1: No, he's quicker with the mind than anybody else. Yeah.
7:23
Speaker 2: Yes. And it's unreal to watch. It's plays that, you know,
7:29
Speaker 2: it's maybe cliche, but like, shouldn't-be-routine-that-look-routine, or plays that are
7:34
Speaker 2: unfathomable that he makes look good when in reality they're exceptional.
7:39
Speaker 2: Terrain the same way at second base, and he obviously
7:42
Speaker 2: has the bat to kind of complement the whole game.
7:44
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean, that and that outfield defense for
7:47
Speaker 2: both teams, perfect, no, a pretty good blueprint, I would
7:53
Speaker 2: say yeah.
7:55
Speaker 1: Right. And if we tie it back to the Nationals
7:57
Speaker 1: on this whole thing, I look at those two guys
8:00
Speaker 1: as Bryce Turan and Taylor Walls, and we'll move out
8:03
Speaker 1: to the outfield on this whole thing when it goes
8:04
Speaker 1: to it. But two guys that we at SiriusXM, we
8:10
Speaker 1: talked to plenty about, and we talked about pre-pitch preparation.
8:14
Speaker 1: We talked about the mental side of it, that that's
8:17
Speaker 1: the level you have to get to. If Nassim Nunez,
8:21
Speaker 1: if CJ Abrams want to be World Series champion or
8:26
Speaker 1: World Series contender, middle infield, every detail has got to
8:31
Speaker 1: be taken care of. The other part of it is
8:33
Speaker 1: it's not like just in the moments right now. It's
8:35
Speaker 1: every time, right? It is all season long. We don't
8:39
Speaker 1: see that from both of them. We see lapses, right?
8:42
Speaker 1: And you can say that for many guys, but when
8:44
Speaker 1: you're at the elite level, like those guys are on
8:46
Speaker 1: the defensive side as far as walls and terrain, you
8:49
Speaker 1: don't take a playoff. You don't take a pitch off.
8:51
Speaker 1: In your mind, you're always working for something. I think
8:54
Speaker 1: that stands out, right? I've never seen a second baseman
8:59
Speaker 1: consistently throughout a series make the most unbelievable plays because
9:05
Speaker 1: mentally he was way ahead. When everyone's thinking that he's
9:08
Speaker 1: going to go to first on that double play to
9:10
Speaker 1: end the game in game two that ended up on
9:13
Speaker 1: a replay, right? Or game one, what happened? He's like, no,
9:18
Speaker 1: I know speed runner. I knew everything. I was thinking ahead.
9:21
Speaker 1: I think that's the part where we're going to see
9:23
Speaker 1: you know, for the Nationals as they go forward. You
9:25
Speaker 1: got to be the strongest up the middle. And if
9:27
Speaker 1: your defensive guys are going to lapse every once in
9:29
Speaker 1: a while, that's not the strongest part of your game, right?
9:32
Speaker 1: So we take it to the outfield. The outfield, I mean,
9:36
Speaker 1: you saw at times, I mean, not even at times,
9:39
Speaker 1: every single game, six center fielders on the field. Yeah.
9:43
Speaker 1: You know, it was insane. So, you know, Shelly, when
9:46
Speaker 1: you look at this and you saw from up top,
9:48
Speaker 1: I think the part that stood out to me not
9:50
Speaker 1: only with the jumps that the Rays have, they're better
9:52
Speaker 1: than anybody, and it's not even close consistently, but you
9:56
Speaker 1: saw like a 10-1 game, Sal Friedrich laying out.
9:59
Speaker 3: Why?
9:59
Speaker 1: Because that's what it is. they are. That's who they are.
10:01
Speaker 1: That's what they do. Right. Jackson trio in the ninth
10:05
Speaker 1: ball towards the line. That's not an easy play. We
10:08
Speaker 1: saw Dalen start to make those plays. Right. But consistently
10:11
Speaker 1: to see it where the nationals have to get to,
10:14
Speaker 1: would you say that was a, a one that stood
10:16
Speaker 1: out was the outfield play on both sides.
10:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely. You mentioned Sal Frelick there doing it on
10:22
Speaker 3: an injured shoulder too and selling all out for the
10:25
Speaker 3: ball in a 10-1 game. It was absolutely ridiculous. And
10:29
Speaker 3: some of the jumps that Chandler Simpson was able to
10:31
Speaker 3: get on balls was absolutely ridiculous getting to baseball as
10:34
Speaker 3: I didn't think any human being could catch. I think
10:37
Speaker 3: it's a great blueprint for the Nationals to follow. And
10:40
Speaker 3: maybe we saw a little bit of it from Dalen
10:42
Speaker 3: last season, but some stuff that the other guys can
10:45
Speaker 3: definitely learn from in terms of preparation and being ready
10:48
Speaker 3: for the play.
10:50
Speaker 2: Right. I mean, those guys are mentally locked in every
10:52
Speaker 2: pitch too, right? Like you acquire athletes, you acquire center fielders,
10:58
Speaker 2: and then you tell them every single play matters. You
11:00
Speaker 2: tell them you're going to make more money if you
11:02
Speaker 2: do this. You tell them we're going to win more
11:03
Speaker 2: games if you do this. Is it going to click
11:06
Speaker 2: for every single guy?
11:07
Speaker 1: No.
11:08
Speaker 2: But when you have that sort of buy-in mentally from
11:12
Speaker 2: a group, this is what happens. You get to a
11:15
Speaker 2: World Series or you win a World Series. It's that simple.
11:19
Speaker 1: So when you– I'll let either one of you have
11:22
Speaker 1: the floor on this one because I think this is
11:24
Speaker 1: the important one. If there is to get into what
11:28
Speaker 1: we're day two into the, into the post season, we've
11:30
Speaker 1: got five days till free agency or three days till
11:33
Speaker 1: free agency starts, right? Where do you want the Nats
11:37
Speaker 1: to go to right towards focus on? And the other
11:41
Speaker 1: part of this is, can they, can they get to
11:45
Speaker 1: a level this off season by just acquiring guys and,
11:49
Speaker 1: to a level where postseason is it?
11:54
Speaker 2: Postseason is it, meaning they're there?
11:57
Speaker 1: They're there. I'm not a big guy of World Series,
12:02
Speaker 1: this is a World Series team or not, because there's
12:03
Speaker 1: a lot of luck that has to go on throughout
12:05
Speaker 1: a season. When you haven't been to postseason in, what,
12:10
Speaker 1: seven years? Yeah. There's no reason to talk about, oh,
12:14
Speaker 1: we got to go World Series. No, no. I'm not
12:17
Speaker 1: in that. This game's too hard. Played in it long enough.
12:20
Speaker 1: Nine years in the big leagues, one postseason, right? It
12:24
Speaker 1: doesn't just happen. Things have got to go. So can
12:28
Speaker 1: this be a playoff team if they were to acquire
12:31
Speaker 1: the type of– I'm not even going pitching side of this.
12:34
Speaker 1: The offensive, defensive side of it.
12:38
Speaker 2: I will put it like this. I do not believe
12:41
Speaker 2: that if the Nationals only operated in free agency next year,
12:45
Speaker 2: that they would make the postseason. That's not to say
12:47
Speaker 2: they couldn't. I would say it would be unlikely. What
12:50
Speaker 2: I would say is, and again, when you look at
12:52
Speaker 2: the way these teams operate, a lot of internal growth
12:55
Speaker 2: needs to be had. But even beyond that, I really
12:58
Speaker 2: think if they win the trade market, if they win
13:01
Speaker 2: a couple of trades this winter, am I going to
13:04
Speaker 2: pencil them in basically whatever they do and say they
13:06
Speaker 2: will make the postseason? No, I think almost no matter
13:09
Speaker 2: what they do, they have under a 50% shot. That
13:12
Speaker 2: being said, you pull the right levers, You have the
13:14
Speaker 2: right internal improvement. You hit on the right guys. All
13:17
Speaker 2: of a sudden, it goes from 3% shot to 20% shot, 25% shot, right?
13:24
Speaker 2: I think it's, to a certain extent, a long shot
13:27
Speaker 2: right now. Can you turn it into a maybe? And
13:30
Speaker 2: I think that with all the right.
13:31
Speaker 1: Leverage being pulled, you can turn it into a maybe.
13:33
Speaker 1: I like that you say that. I think that's huge, right?
13:37
Speaker 1: But what's the maybe, right? Because I think there's so
13:40
Speaker 1: many different components to this. Like, what do you see as.
13:44
Speaker 1: If the Nationals do X, Y, Z, this maybe becomes
13:50
Speaker 1: like reality, right? Like in the whole thing. What's number one?
13:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's a great question. I've been looking
14:00
Speaker 2: at first base as kind of the main hole, but
14:02
Speaker 2: I also wouldn't say like first base is the answer
14:04
Speaker 2: to them fixing all their problems. You know what I mean?
14:07
Speaker 1: No, no. But we saw how good– like if defensive
14:12
Speaker 1: play at first base– benefits so many different things, right?
14:17
Speaker 1: We could talk about the offensive side, right? I feel
14:18
Speaker 1: like the try to plug and play part. But the
14:22
Speaker 1: defensive side of it, all postseason, the first base play
14:26
Speaker 1: was incredible. Truly.
14:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, right.
14:29
Speaker 1: And then when it wasn't, that's it.
14:31
Speaker 2: You really saw it.
14:33
Speaker 1: Right, we really saw it. Jonathan Ronda was great all
14:35
Speaker 1: postseason until the World Series. It was crazy. And certain
14:39
Speaker 1: things kind of crept up. So I like first base.
14:42
Speaker 1: I like the first base side of it.
14:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's like the lowest floor on the
14:47
Speaker 2: Nationals roster right now where you can raise that quite
14:49
Speaker 2: a bit. Again, outfield feels pretty set. I will say
14:53
Speaker 2: it because James said it, right? Like, I think he's
14:55
Speaker 2: a better defender than he gets credit for. He also
14:57
Speaker 2: needs to improve a lot out there. I don't necessarily
15:00
Speaker 2: know that like right field defense per se is going
15:03
Speaker 2: to also like fix the Nationals. But if you think
15:06
Speaker 2: about a floor, if you think about what he looks
15:08
Speaker 2: like when he's at his best, like, you know, center
15:12
Speaker 2: fielder isn't getting.
15:12
Speaker 1: A lot better.
15:13
Speaker 2: Like, Left field, Dalen maybe has more in the tank,
15:15
Speaker 2: but that was a pretty exceptional season. You know, all
15:18
Speaker 2: that stuff. I mean, Furby, obviously it's CJ. CJ is
15:22
Speaker 2: like the number one correct answer here. I just don't
15:25
Speaker 2: know if he's going to be here. And so for me,
15:27
Speaker 2: when I'm thinking all these things out, James is probably
15:29
Speaker 2: the answer where I say that's a seven war player.
15:32
Speaker 2: If he's all of a sudden an above average fielder. Right.
15:35
Speaker 1: Cause I think that's what stood out to me when
15:38
Speaker 1: looking at a lot of the postseason rosters too. And
15:41
Speaker 1: you see the guys with three, four, war right that
15:44
Speaker 1: were just awful offensively and you're like okay you bring
15:48
Speaker 1: half of that right like you bring half of that
15:50
Speaker 1: to the defensive side and it just it takes you
15:53
Speaker 1: to that another level right it takes you that five
15:55
Speaker 1: six like you said seven war player right when he
15:58
Speaker 1: stays healthy that's that's a that's beyond a difference maker
16:03
Speaker 1: right like a three four war player is already a
16:06
Speaker 1: difference maker you know what i mean like but you
16:08
Speaker 1: get to a seven war like that those are superstar
16:11
Speaker 1: guys Those are guys that consistently are putting up the
16:14
Speaker 1: monster numbers and year over year, 30 plus million, right?
16:17
Speaker 1: Can you get what value and all that? For you, Shelly,
16:20
Speaker 1: when you look at this and you see the upgrades
16:23
Speaker 1: that they can make, is there an area that you
16:26
Speaker 1: see that... I'm more or less like the use of
16:32
Speaker 1: the word maybe in this that Spencer used to make
16:36
Speaker 1: it be a playoff team. Yeah, I think I.
16:40
Speaker 3: also start to look at the corner infield positions at
16:43
Speaker 3: first and third base is probably the biggest holes on
16:46
Speaker 3: the nationals team right now. And I think it's hard
16:49
Speaker 3: not to look at the pitching too, after last season
16:52
Speaker 3: and the blow and save record. Um, but I do
16:55
Speaker 3: think that free agency could be competitive with 29 other
16:58
Speaker 3: teams out there. And I think the trade market is
17:01
Speaker 3: going to be really important for them in order to
17:03
Speaker 3: acquire some guys that can make a difference next season.
17:06
Speaker 3: And yeah, several guys, uh, that are out there that
17:09
Speaker 3: hopefully they can go and make some moves for that
17:11
Speaker 3: could improve the situation and heading into next season.
17:15
Speaker 1: Right. Here's the other thing, like the next month, like
17:19
Speaker 1: let's say a month or two days, right. Because of
17:22
Speaker 1: the possible lockout that we're expecting at the CBA expires
17:25
Speaker 1: on December 1st. How aggressive are teams and how, I mean,
17:33
Speaker 1: in the same could be said, how aggressive are players
17:35
Speaker 1: in wanting to sign? you know, and so you're getting
17:38
Speaker 1: into a different level right now too, of trying to
17:42
Speaker 1: read the market. What are your owners telling you to do?
17:45
Speaker 1: Because I think the teams that we'll start seeing that
17:48
Speaker 1: start spending a little bit, it's telling me, telling me
17:53
Speaker 1: the possibility of, of no cap, hard cap, whatever it's
17:56
Speaker 1: going to be is very telling in the next, I
17:58
Speaker 1: would say four weeks. Yeah.
18:01
Speaker 2: And I mean, there's, there's so many variables to look
18:03
Speaker 2: through that have, Like two sides of it, right? Like
18:06
Speaker 2: think of yourself if you're the Dodgers, right? There's a
18:09
Speaker 2: case for let's not go crazy because we're going to
18:13
Speaker 2: have to navigate potentially around a cap. There's also a
18:15
Speaker 2: case for this might be our last shot to go
18:17
Speaker 2: all in without any sort of restrictions, right? So we
18:20
Speaker 2: don't know how that's going to shake out. In the past,
18:22
Speaker 2: if you look at top free agents, usually they've dictated
18:26
Speaker 2: the market and then all the mid and lower level
18:29
Speaker 2: free agents sign right after that because the market's been set.
18:32
Speaker 2: this year, then there might not be an opportunity for that.
18:34
Speaker 2: It might be like some of these mid-tier guys who
18:37
Speaker 2: get signed really early. And so, I mean, the lockout
18:40
Speaker 2: is terrible. I am, you know, frustrated that it's going
18:44
Speaker 2: to happen. I think many fans are frustrated it's going
18:46
Speaker 2: to happen. But if we just talk about like from
18:48
Speaker 2: a business side, free agency perspective, I'm fascinated to see
18:52
Speaker 2: how this shakes out because we've reported at The Athletic,
18:56
Speaker 2: most people think it will be a frenzy. But anyone
18:59
Speaker 2: who could inclusively say, oh, it's going to impact a
19:02
Speaker 2: team like XYZ. I just don't think we know because
19:04
Speaker 2: we don't know how owners think. And more than that,
19:07
Speaker 2: we don't know how the market is going to react
19:09
Speaker 2: in a situation we really haven't, I don't want to
19:12
Speaker 2: say we haven't seen before, but maybe not to this degree.
19:17
Speaker 3: Well, when it freezes, I think it'll be interesting just
19:20
Speaker 3: to see, yeah, when free agency finally does resume, if
19:23
Speaker 3: they get this figured out, how quickly the pieces start
19:26
Speaker 3: to fall after that and how long they have to
19:29
Speaker 3: get ready for the season.
19:31
Speaker 1: Last time, I believe, it was a pretty decent frenzy early,
19:35
Speaker 1: and then it kind of died down as we got
19:38
Speaker 1: closer to it. Or a couple days right before a
19:43
Speaker 1: couple guys signed, right? Was that the Scherzer and Verlander days?
19:46
Speaker 1: I think it was right before. I think so. Seager
19:50
Speaker 1: signed the day before. Yeah. Yeah. Seager, Simeon. It'll be interesting.
19:56
Speaker 1: Here's the other thing for people out there. Players aren't
20:02
Speaker 1: locking themselves out. The owners are locking them out. Remember that.
20:06
Speaker 1: That's what we're players saying. That's what you need to do.
20:09
Speaker 1: All right. Do you have one I wanted to get
20:12
Speaker 1: to before we get to the free agent part and
20:15
Speaker 1: close this thing out? Is there one trade target? Offensively.
20:22
Speaker 1: We've done some free agent and some thoughts on some pitchers,
20:26
Speaker 1: but is there one trade target you have that changes
20:33
Speaker 1: everything for you in your mind on the offensive and
20:36
Speaker 1: defensive side?
20:38
Speaker 2: I don't know that there's one who changes everything. I
20:41
Speaker 2: candidly have been looking either at more marginal upgrades or
20:45
Speaker 2: trades on the pitching side. The name that I've circled offensively, well,
20:52
Speaker 2: I'm obviously circling left-handed first baseman. Tristan Casas is kind
20:57
Speaker 2: of that bet where, like, I'll talk myself out of
21:00
Speaker 2: it first, where, you know, injured track record, it's been
21:04
Speaker 2: a while, it's a first baseman, yada, yada. Guy hits...
21:09
Speaker 2: Guy can be around, from my understanding, a very interesting personality.
21:15
Speaker 2: I don't know what he's like in the clubhouse, but
21:17
Speaker 2: I think a good clubhouse guy.
21:20
Speaker 1: Would be my... And people have good read on him.
21:22
Speaker 2: Yes. Yes.
21:24
Speaker 1: And there is familiarity. Yeah. There you go. I like that.
21:28
Speaker 2: 800 career OPS. It's been a while. Probably would not
21:31
Speaker 2: take that much to get him. And I think... I
21:34
Speaker 2: don't want to say the Red Sox would be ready
21:36
Speaker 2: or willing to move on because... I think Contreras only
21:39
Speaker 2: has one more year. I don't think they have a
21:41
Speaker 2: whole lot of offensive talent otherwise in the pipeline, but
21:45
Speaker 2: it just checks just about every box of the Nationals,
21:48
Speaker 2: and he, I would imagine, would be gettable. So that's
21:51
Speaker 2: the name that I've circled personally.
21:53
Speaker 1: I really like that name. That's good. Eric, do you
21:57
Speaker 1: have anybody in mind that you would hope that they
22:01
Speaker 1: just go after, find a way to get, whether it's
22:04
Speaker 1: smart or whether it's unrealistic?
22:07
Speaker 3: I'm not sure there is anyone that really jumps off
22:10
Speaker 3: of the paper to me, although the other day Michael
22:13
Speaker 3: King announced, I guess, opting out of his contract with
22:16
Speaker 3: the Padres. And if they were willing to go in
22:18
Speaker 3: and make a splash and sign him, that would really
22:21
Speaker 3: bolster the starting rotation going into next season. That would
22:24
Speaker 3: be an exciting addition. And I also love the Tristan
22:27
Speaker 3: Costa's name coming up for a trade candidate. I think
22:30
Speaker 3: that would help a lot out at first base as
22:33
Speaker 3: well and in the lineup.
22:37
Speaker 1: I love it.
22:37
Speaker 2: What about you, Franny?
22:40
Speaker 1: Man, there's so many.
22:40
Speaker 2: There's different guys.
22:42
Speaker 1: There's the unrealistic ones. And then there's... For me, I want...
22:50
Speaker 1: I know it sounds stupid. Michael Garcia from the Royals,
22:53
Speaker 1: I would love. I would find a way. Obviously, he's
22:57
Speaker 1: under contract. So there's a known, right? There's no commodity
22:59
Speaker 1: in there. I love him. I think he's a game changer.
23:03
Speaker 1: Played third base. Uh, if you probably wanted to, you
23:07
Speaker 1: could move in and shift in a second. If that
23:08
Speaker 1: was the case, if you needed, you know, if you're
23:10
Speaker 1: moving CJ, if not, you're keeping them, you have a
23:14
Speaker 1: dynamic third baseman who could pop probably at the end
23:17
Speaker 1: of the day, play shortstop too. Never know. Right. But
23:20
Speaker 1: athletic coming off a year where he was injured quite
23:24
Speaker 1: a bit, um, off and on, but he matters to them.
23:27
Speaker 1: So it would take a lot. I know that's more
23:29
Speaker 1: like the, the one that would be, um, kind of
23:35
Speaker 1: more of a dream than anything more than, more than reality.
23:38
Speaker 2: Yeah. And that's, those are kind of the ones I
23:40
Speaker 2: want to, I don't want to say start to explore
23:43
Speaker 2: during the lockout, but I think those are the ones
23:45
Speaker 2: that are harder to like parse out now is like
23:47
Speaker 2: the 99th percentile outcome.
23:50
Speaker 1: Sort of guys.
23:51
Speaker 2: Um, cause I just don't think teams will be wanting
23:53
Speaker 2: to move them. Um, but yeah, that, I mean, I
23:57
Speaker 2: hadn't even thought of that one, but yeah, probably him
23:59
Speaker 2: and wit best, um, infield combo in baseball maybe if
24:05
Speaker 2: not the best up there um yeah it's uh.
24:08
Speaker 1: It's hard it's hard to think anything else like anywhere
24:12
Speaker 1: else on that one right yeah yeah so um.
24:16
Speaker 2: A lot a lot a lot to think about in
24:17
Speaker 2: the trade market and that's if i were to implore
24:19
Speaker 2: national fans of anything i would say don't just look
24:22
Speaker 2: at free agency look at the guys who might be
24:24
Speaker 2: available out in trade because um i don't know it
24:27
Speaker 2: just feels like an avenue that the nationals could easily take.
24:30
Speaker 1: Here's another one What about staying with the Royals? What
24:34
Speaker 1: about Finney Pasquantino? See, but again, I was going to say,
24:42
Speaker 1: they want to probably open up at some point. Jack
24:44
Speaker 1: Caglione over at first base, they saw some great stuff
24:47
Speaker 1: from him. Is there a possibility there?
24:51
Speaker 2: It's worth thinking about, right? Again, like, I don't, I really,
24:55
Speaker 2: it's hard for me to parse out exactly how much
24:58
Speaker 2: clubhouse guys, quote unquote, matter to these teams, but ultimate
25:01
Speaker 2: clubhouse guy has produced offensively for years on end. You know,
25:07
Speaker 2: is he, you know, if Jack Haglion is the future
25:10
Speaker 2: of first base, sure. I get it. And all of
25:14
Speaker 2: a sudden I'm starting to talk myself into it a
25:15
Speaker 2: little bit, which tells you it's a pretty good nomination,
25:18
Speaker 2: but yeah, I need to think on that one a
25:20
Speaker 2: little bit more.
25:21
Speaker 1: Well, see, sometimes I put in these ideas because I
25:24
Speaker 1: know that you love to explore stuff. And so then,
25:27
Speaker 1: then you go into explore. Yeah.
25:30
Speaker 2: I might poke around and see what's out there.
25:35
Speaker 1: As we start out this offseason, it is day two.
25:40
Speaker 1: It is going to be exciting. It's going to be
25:44
Speaker 1: also anxiety-driven as far as this offseason, but when you
25:48
Speaker 1: look at the positive side of this for the Nats,
25:51
Speaker 1: you saw a manager come from an organization that was
25:57
Speaker 1: in Tampa Bay, a World Series runner-up on this, one
26:01
Speaker 1: of the best Baseball teams that we've seen in quite
26:04
Speaker 1: some time along with the Milwaukee Brewers. Your final thoughts, Shelly,
26:09
Speaker 1: as we put a bow on this 2026 season, as
26:12
Speaker 1: we get now locked in to the free agent side
26:15
Speaker 1: here and free agency opening for 2027. Yeah, I think
26:20
Speaker 1: the Brewers were clearly the better team in the series
26:24
Speaker 1: and probably the best team all season. They outplayed the
26:27
Speaker 1: Rays in every aspect. They outpitched, they outhit, and their
26:31
Speaker 1: fielding was phenomenal. They're totally deserving of their first World
26:34
Speaker 1: Series championship in 44 years. And very happy for that
26:39
Speaker 1: fan base, too. They went absolutely crazy at the watch
26:42
Speaker 1: party back in Milwaukee. So I'm super excited for them
26:46
Speaker 1: and can't wait to see who it is next season.
26:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, if I were to kind of put a similar
26:54
Speaker 2: bow on it, we'll say, again, watching from down the
26:57
Speaker 2: third base line, your eyes are directly on kind of
27:01
Speaker 2: the lineup that's up on the scoreboard, right? Like that's,
27:03
Speaker 2: that's right where your eyes take you. Most times when
27:06
Speaker 2: I'm watching from the press box, I look at seven, eight, nine,
27:09
Speaker 2: and I start typing away. I start looking down at
27:11
Speaker 2: my computer. I start thinking about other things with the Brewers.
27:15
Speaker 2: There was, there was not one hole in the lineup.
27:17
Speaker 2: Garrett Mitchell was maybe the hole and he's, he was
27:20
Speaker 2: great during the regular season. You went down there, you
27:22
Speaker 2: saw Cooper Pratt, you saw David Hamilton. You just, I mean,
27:26
Speaker 2: Bryce Terang was hit fifth. Like, they didn't have a
27:30
Speaker 2: single spot in the lineup where you could look away,
27:31
Speaker 2: where you could, you know, rest on your laurels. And
27:34
Speaker 2: that's from a game planning perspective, from a pitching perspective,
27:37
Speaker 2: from any perspective, if I'm taking the lesson and I'm
27:39
Speaker 2: the nationals, not that there's like a, Oh, this is
27:42
Speaker 2: how we did it. But this is what it looks like.
27:44
Speaker 2: It looks like nine guys out there who can do,
27:47
Speaker 2: you know, maybe not hit 30 homers, but who can,
27:50
Speaker 2: who can, you know, kill you. And that's, that's what
27:53
Speaker 2: the Brewers did. They killed every team they played this year.
27:57
Speaker 1: And the thought to close it out for me is this.
28:01
Speaker 1: The kill was like the part. They were killers. They competed.
28:04
Speaker 1: They out-competed everybody. They were great. They're good players, right?
28:08
Speaker 1: Good to great players everywhere. But they didn't get distracted
28:14
Speaker 1: with the big things. They always were distracted by doing
28:16
Speaker 1: the little things right. And I think at times this year,
28:19
Speaker 1: we saw that with the Nationals. When games got away,
28:23
Speaker 1: It were little things. Not every time is just about
28:26
Speaker 1: the bullpen blowing a game. Something that happened earlier that
28:29
Speaker 1: didn't allow it to be a one-run game anymore. In
28:33
Speaker 1: pushing it to a four-run lead or certain stuff like that,
28:37
Speaker 1: the fact that they were always engaged in the moment
28:40
Speaker 1: of knowing that these things matter. They matter in May.
28:45
Speaker 1: They matter at late July. They always took that. They
28:50
Speaker 1: didn't take any of that for granted. And you can
28:53
Speaker 1: say that about both teams, right? It's not just about
28:55
Speaker 1: the Brewers. The Tampa Bay Razors are a prime example
28:57
Speaker 1: of just every out, every pitch matter. Stay in front
29:01
Speaker 1: of you. Stay right where your feet are. And I
29:04
Speaker 1: think if they take that lesson and continue on, the
29:07
Speaker 1: wins will continuously pile up even more this year because, look,
29:10
Speaker 1: at times they got away, right? What did they get
29:12
Speaker 1: away with? They got away from, you know, running the
29:14
Speaker 1: bases properly. You know, they ran them hard, but did
29:17
Speaker 1: they run them smart? Did they take advantage of You know, overthrows,
29:20
Speaker 1: were they backing up bases? No, no, no. And you
29:22
Speaker 1: know what I mean? Like it all goes in hand
29:24
Speaker 1: in hand to be that next level. They got to
29:26
Speaker 1: take care of the little things all the time and
29:28
Speaker 1: never take it for granted. So that's, that's where I'm at.
29:30
Speaker 1: That's where we're at. We hope you enjoyed our new
29:34
Speaker 1: district territory episode. Stay tuned for as we come back
29:38
Speaker 1: this week, later on. Can't wait. Peace.