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OPPOSITION TERRITORY: Washington Nationals · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

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Hey, there, everybody, it's Jeff. We wanted to let you know
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that we recorded this podcast episode on Tuesday, April ninth, twenty twenty four.
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By the time you hear this Opposition Territory pod, some things may have
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changed here or there, but we hope you enjoy the show. All Right,
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folks, welcome to Opposition Territory here at the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show,
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the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast show in the world, just about
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eleven years strong. Here at the middle of the month mark, that's when
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eleven years is going to be that we've been doing this podcast and that the
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PST podcast show has been in existence. And with that being said, I'm
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really excited about the conversation we're gonna have right now. And I know we're
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gonna be getting into the Washington Nationals. And I know there's some folks out
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there and be like, really, you're excited about the Washington Nationals. Look,
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this is a team that's two and a half games, had a first
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place right now in the NL East. Look, they aren't necessarily the barn
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burners of maybe the Atlanta Braves, or they may not be doing with the
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Pittsburgh Pirate it's amazingly enough for doing or the Dodgers at this point, but
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you know, it's still early in the season. The Nationals are arrival of
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course of the Philadelphia Phillies, so we're going to get into this team.
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There's some interesting aspects of this team that we want to touch on, so
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let's get to our conversation right now. It's great to have back on the
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podcast with us from SB Nation. We've had him on to talk about the
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Cowboys in the past, but he also covers the Washington Nationals as well.
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You can follow him on Twitter slash x at Holler and MDH. He's a
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great, great follow, good friend of the podcast here. As we are
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almost at our eleven year anniversary, Matt Holler and Buddy, thanks so much
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for jumping on, man, So Jeff, appreciate you having me back on.
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Always love to talk football and baseball here. Yep, bring it is
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common season starting to get going here, and it's always it's always great to
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have baseball back. I think it's it's on the best sports just one of
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the best regular seasons, so it's been great. I appreciate you having me
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back on. Yeah, no problem, man, it's really nice. To
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be able to talk with somebody who covers an NL's team like you cover the
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Washington Nationals, because I have to tell you, Matt, like, there
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are certain teams where of course, you know, being a Phillies fan,
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I want to know what other teams are doing in the division. I want
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to know what the Nets are doing. I want to know what the Braves
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are doing. I want to know what the Marlins are doing, and also,
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yes, the Mets. I do want to know what's going on with
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the Mets as well. But with regard to the Nationals, man like,
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I'm amazing. Yes, it was a couple of weeks into the season and
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at one point they were second in the division. Yes, it's early.
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The expectations for the Washington Nationals haven't necessarily been I think what you know,
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there's not a huge expectation that they're going to maybe even get to the playoffs
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or or even get far in terms of what this season is going to be
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for them, and we're certainly going to be getting to that. But first
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and foremost, before we getting any on the field stuff here, I wanted
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to get your thoughts on the retirement of Stephen Strasburg. I mean this is
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somebody that a lot of us who follow the NL East has gotten to know
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over so many years, and his retirement he was He announced his retirement yesterday,
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and I just being that you're on here, you know, when you
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look back at his tenure, Matt, and given the fact that you know
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he wasn't able to get back on track with his throwing and his career after
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the injuries. Here, I'm wondering how would you describe the mark he left
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in Washington and for baseball fans in general. As you've kind of been reflecting
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on and digesting this official retirement of Steven Strasburg, what are your thoughts here?
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Yeah, I think that it's great that they finally got the situation resolved.
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Like you said, it's tough after signing that big deal, he was
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only able to pitch in one substantial game. I pitched a little bit in
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the twenty twenty one season and then came back last year to pitch one time.
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It's tough, you know, guy put his body on the line and
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just was not not able to keep going. But regardless, I think he'll
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always be remembered as as one of the best Nats of all time. He
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and and Bryce Harper. It's it's kind of funny. They both entered the
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league I think with similar sky high expectations. You know, Harper had the
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chosen one SI cover and Strasburg was touted as potentially the best pitching prospect of
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all time. He struck out, you know, twenty three guys in a
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college game at one point. They both entered with the same expectations, and
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I think they both lived up to it in different ways. I think Harper,
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with the way things ended in just the lack of overall them playoff success.
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I think people have a little bit of a stewed view of his time
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in DC, but he was a great player. I think one of the
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five best Gnats of all time. I mean that twenty fIF team season when
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he won the MVP. He had I think one of the best most dominant
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individual player years, and in a while he was always good in the postseason
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two had a ton of big home runs. I think that the team's success
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as a whole sort of made people believe that he was a guy that didn't
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come up come up big, But that couldn't have been further from the truth.
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Harper was great regular season and postseason. I think that he has cemented
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his legacy in Philly obviously had you know, two dynamite postseasons back to back.
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They've made big runs and they'll probably make another one in the next couple
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of years. But that being said, I think that Strasburg's legacy is different
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than Harper's in that maybe he didn't have the sustained, prolonged stardom that Bryce
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has, but when he was on the field and able to pitch, he'd
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be hard pressed to find a better pitcher in baseball. He was so vital
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to the overall success as a team. In five of the six seasons that
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he made twenty four more starts than that's made the playoffs. When he won
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fourteen or more games in a season, they made the playoffs five out of
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five times. He has a six forty six career winning percentage, which is
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very impressive. And when they got him three or more runs, he basically
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weren't going to beat him. He won one hundred and twenty or one hundred
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and six of his one hundred and twenty seven starts that they got him three
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or more runs. That's extremely impressive. It just shows type of picture he
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was when he was on the field, or able to stay on the field.
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I think if he stayed healthy, he definitely had a Hall of Fame
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trajectory, and I think that he probably would have gone into the Hall of
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Fame if he was able to stay healthy. Obviously that didn't happen, but
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I still think, you know, his postseason performance in twenty nineteen, he
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had a huge couple of innings in the Wildcard game, had some great starts
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in the second two rounds, and then obviously the World Series, especially Game
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six, you know, pitching into the eighth inning in an elimination game in
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Houston, one of the most impressive performances by a National in their history.
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So I think they don't come close to that World Series title without him.
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I think that alone made him live up to the hype. Like I said,
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in a different way I think than Brice did. But that postseason alone,
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I mean, he couldn't ask for more. So I think that he'll
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always be remembered as as one of the best nets of all time. And
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hopefully with this issue resolved, they can retire his number. And I don't
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think anyone should wear that number thirty seven again for the Nats, so right,
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hopefully they're on good terms now and he can be honored the way he
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should be. Time heals wounds, for sure, you know, and then
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that's not to be you know, a word playing in terms of his injuries
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or anything like that, folks. But time does heal all wounds. And
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I can see them retiring that number seven thirty seven Jersey at some point down
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the road for sure. So Matt, let's move on to this Nationals team.
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What we're seeing on the field. And as I mentioned, you know,
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the whole expectations game as we started off our conversation here, this is
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a team that's in the middle of the pack here in the NL least,
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and to be honest, I don't think there were you know, as I
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mentioned, the high expectations that the Nats would really contend to the NL East
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or in the National League in general to start this season. But you know,
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like they're there. I mean, they're there in the middle of the
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pack right now at this point as we're recording this on Tuesday, April ninth
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here. So I'm wondering, what's one word to describe this team right out
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of the gate, and why would you use that one word? Yeah,
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So I think I'll could use some negative words, but I think I'll stick
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with a positive one here. I feel free. Whatever you want, I'll
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use the word opportunity. I think that if you look at the future of
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this franchise, they have probably three guys that are in there every day starting
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lineup in cj. Abrams, Lane Thomas and kaber Luiz who are are locked
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in as a piece of their next hopefully competitive core. Other than that,
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no players really set in stone. I mean, they have Luis Garcia Junior.
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He's gotten off to a hot start this year, but he's a guy
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that he's been up for a while, has never been able to find that
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consistent And see he got sent down to Triple A last year in the middle
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of the season, played better. Once he came back, I got a
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little bit better shape. It looked like this year he has a chance to
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prove you know, he could be the everyday second basement for the next competitive
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core of the team. Trey Lipscomb, who the Nats promoted after Nick Senzel
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got hurt on opening Day. Lipscomb was a third round pick that has played
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very well in the minors. He's had a decent start to his major league
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career, but He's another guy like Garcia that has a chance to prove that,
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you know what, I can be the starting third basement for this team
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for the next four or five years. You know. Victor Roebliss is another
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name who suffered a hamstring injury the first week of the season, so he's
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on the il now, but he should be back soon. This is probably
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his final shot, you know. He he was so good for them in
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twenty nineteen, had power, was great defensively, he stayed great in the
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field. He just has not been able to hit. But he's another guy
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that has a chance to prove that. You know, he deserves to be
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here and he deserves to be a part of what they hope is their next
10:03
competitive window. It's not just young guys as well. They have a couple
10:07
of veterans, Joey Gallo and Jesse Winker, who are guys that are coming
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off pretty bad years. Last season Gallo was was better than Winker, but
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both of them have an opportunity to if they play well enough to be dealt
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to a team at the deadline that could could have a chance to compete for
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a World Series. So I think that, you know, you talk about
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those two some of their bullpen guys. There's opportunity for the young guys to
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prove they should stay. There's opportunity for the veterans to prove that, hey,
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you know, maybe I can play well enough in this this first half
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and get a chance to go compete for a World Series. Yep, there's
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opportunity all around. So I think that I said, we're not much as
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set in stone, so you know, just who's going to step up and
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take take what's sitting there for I think it's a good word to use opportunity
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because of where this team is, where this franchise, this baseball franchise is
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during the course of you know, two thousand twenty four here, I mean,
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three years into their rebuild, and they I look at this Nationals team
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as facing some important benchmarks. You know, this particular season here, I
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mean, if we go back Matt you know, they had fifty five wins
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in twenty twenty two, I mean, it was it was terrible. What
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a terrible season for this team an organization. Then last year twenty twenty three,
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seventy one wins. The young guys this season are really looking to make
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their mark, and again in terms of three years into this rebuild. Here,
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I'm wondering, you know, who are maybe two players that you're really
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going to be keeping your eyes on this season and ultimately you know how this
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rebuild really takes shape and how those two players may actually come together in terms
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of this this whole rebuild and how this team could be competitive in the future.
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What are your thoughts here? Yes, I think you make a great
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point. This this year is huge. You look at the the jump and
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wins from twenty two to twenty three, you know you're probably not going to
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take that stanchial of a jump again this year. But I think this has
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always been the year that you've hoped, you know, you take another leap
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and you have a couple of the young guys start to come up towards the
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end of the year, and then next year is when you hopefully, you
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know, start really going for it. I think two guys that that I
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would keep an eye on. One is CJ. Abrams. After a tough
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start to last year, DJ finished the year great. He had a good
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year, you know, offensively and defensively. He had eighteen homers, stole
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forty seven bases in fifty one tries, which is very impressive. I think
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that he has a chance this year to steal you know, fifty five sixty
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bags. He also, like I said, played above average defense. He's
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you know, growing defensively, He's still so young. I think that he's
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got to work on his pitch selection and just getting on base in general to
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be you know, an effective leadoff hitter. But he he has true potential
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to be a twenty five homer fifty stolen base shortstop, which you know,
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at this point in baseball, those don't you know, come around off.
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I think that he has the chance to be a cornerstone of the next competitive
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core of this franchise. I think that you know, the Nats had had
13:07
Ian Desmond back in their early competitive window. I think that Abrams could be
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that type of guy, a little bit of a different player, not as
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much pure power. I think he could be that guy that you know is
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pencil in for you at shortstop for the next you know, four to five
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years, could be there every day. So I think that he is definitely
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the position player I'd keep an eye on. My second one. It would
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be Josiah Gray. Now, I think Kenzie Gore is we talk about in
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a little bit too I think, yeah, not a not a great start
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to the season for Josiah unfortunately, But oh, for sure, Kenzie Gore
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is definitely the more talented of the NAT's top two pitchers when you talk about
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Gore and Gray, but I think Gray will be as important to any player
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in the organization. Uh, you know, in the next couple of years.
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Talking about getting back to being competitive. Last year, he started off
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really well. You had a three four to one ERA and eighteen first half
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starts. He was named his first All Star team and it looked like,
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you know, he was living up to to what they hoped he would be
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when he was included in the Shuz and Turner deal of the Dodgers. Second
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half was a completely different story. He really labored, you know, really
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struggle with his command. He finished with a four six four to seven six
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ERA and twelve starts and walked thirty three batters and fifty eight innings. That's
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at the major league level, you're never going to be competitive. Yeah,
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that's rough. No matter how good your stuff is. If you're walking that
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many guys in fifty eight innings, you're just never going to be competitive.
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This season, it's been a little more of the same of the second half.
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He's given up thirteen runs in just eight point one innings of work.
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The command. It's just it's been an issue again with uncompetitive pitches, and
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that's where, you know, when you don't have the stuff like Mackenzie Gore
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or pitchers that have that dominant fact, all that dominant breaking ball, you
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know, the uncompetitive pitches and walking guys, it's just not a recipe for
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success. Yeah, but I do think, you know, not all hope
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is lost. Obviously, it's two starts in cold games. You know,
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pitchers can take some time. But as a whole, I think that you
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know, him panning out hopefully would be huge for the franchise. I mean,
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they don't need him to be their ace. They don't even need him
15:24
to be honestly their number two starter, but they need him to be,
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you know, a capable number three or four guy they can give you,
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you know, one hundred and fifty innings or so a year that can you
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know, finish with an e RA around four and can be a consistent,
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reliable starter. I think if he's able to do that, it'll really help
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expedite their process to to becoming competitive again. But if he's not. You
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know, it's going to make things even more difficult to to find. You
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know, quality starting pitching the middle of the rotation is so incredibly important in
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Major League Baseball these days. I probably don't have to tell anybody that,
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but I mean, just in terms of what you're talking about with Josiah Gray,
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I mean, the stability that he could potentially give this team and the
16:07
starting pitching down the road, I mean, the potential is definitely there,
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and we may we may talk about this a little bit more, because I
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definitely want to get into some pitching in a little bit with you, Matt.
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But I'm wondering, though, as we're looking at this team so far
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this season here from a defensive standpoint, in particular, because you know,
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you see, I've seen NAT's play. They've been playing the Phillies already this
16:32
season here. Not the not the best defensive production, not the worst by
16:37
any stretch either, But I'm wondering, from a defensive standpoint, who are
16:41
you most concerned about in terms of them being potentially detrimental to the team long
16:45
term this season. I mean, we have some issues in Philadelphia with some
16:49
players from a defensive standpoint, one being trade Turner, who you know,
16:55
he's He's a household name when it comes to people who follow Major League Baseball,
16:59
and they're there's a concern with Tray even at this point the season.
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So from NAT's standpoint, who are you most concerned about defensively this year?
17:07
Yes, I think it's a it's a great question. I would say it's
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just their outfield as a whole. Okay, the way, especially with the
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Robeless injury, it's changed things a little bit. You know, he was
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gonna play, it seemed like mostly against left handed starters. So against righty's,
17:23
which is where you're gonna obviously face most of the time. They play
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Winker, Rosario, Thomas As you're left center right, it's not great defensively,
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right. You got two guys in Winker and Rosario who probably should be
17:37
more of a d H at this point of their career. You know,
17:41
Winker had a negative ten outspub average in his last full season in twenty twenty
17:47
two. That's very bad. He slimmed down a little bit and he actually
17:52
made a impressive catch on a ball that Trey Turner hit in the game on
17:56
Sunday, yep to really help him the ninth. But I think, you
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know, as the season wears on, I think you're going to see that
18:03
the outfield defense is going to be a problem. Rosario and center is the
18:07
one that I would really be concerned about. You know, you can get
18:10
away with a little bit more and left. You know, having a guy
18:14
in center that's that's not great can really hurt your pitching staff. You know,
18:18
Victor Robas's return from his injury will hopefully give them, you know,
18:22
a chance. If Razario was really struggling defensively, maybe they could put robust
18:26
out there every day. But I think, you know, the outfield defense
18:30
is going to be tough until you know, hopefully James Wood and Dylan Cruz
18:34
are able to come up towards the end of this year. I think that
18:37
they're both supposed to be, you know, very good defensive prospects, so
18:41
they could help. But for now, the outfield defense, it's going to
18:44
be a problem, especially when you're in this division. You got so many
18:47
guys that, you know, power hitters that hit the ball well, you
18:49
know, a lot of guys that that are going to make it make it
18:52
tough for your defense. So I think the outfield defense is going to be
18:56
an issue until the prospects are able to hopefully arrived again. Folks talking to
19:00
Matt holleran from SB Nation follow him on Twitter slash x at hollerin MDHG is
19:06
a great, great follow And I want to get into the pitching a little
19:10
bit more. Circle back to that here, Matt, because the Nats starting
19:14
pitchers have a combined DRA at this point in the season of six point eighty
19:18
five, which is twenty ninth in the league. Not the greatest by any
19:22
stretch of the imagination, but if you remove a guy that we were just
19:26
talking about, Jasiah Gray, from the stats, the starting pitching would have
19:30
a five point two six ERA, which will put the team in the top
19:33
three quarters of Major League Baseball. So not too shabby with regard to that.
19:38
I guess it's a silver lining that fans kind of they could point to,
19:41
I guess, But then again, the reality is Josiah Gray hasn't had
19:45
the best performance right out of the gate here. But I'm wondering, how
19:49
concerned are you about the starting pitching how it has been right out of the
19:55
gate here in April. I know we talked about Jessiah Gray, but in
19:57
terms of the other starters and what you've been seeing on the mound. Do
20:02
you have that concern maybe that you've had in the past, perhaps, but
20:06
what is that level at this point right out of the gate. Yeah,
20:10
I think it's it's definitely concerning, and it's been interesting obviously still like you
20:14
said such early early on in the season. But Trevor Williams, who was
20:18
a guy that was competing actually to be the fifth starter, won the job,
20:23
was probably projected as their worst starter, has actually been their best guy
20:26
two times through the rotation. Now. I don't think that's gonna stick.
20:30
Williams is probably going to you know, regress to the mean at some point,
20:36
but just shows you how weird things have been for their starting rotation so
20:40
far this year. Yep. I think starting pitching and you know, the
20:44
future of the rotation as a whole is probably the biggest cause for concern of
20:49
their whole franchise moving forward. You know, you talked about Josiah Gray,
20:55
The Nts don't really have any real starting pitching depth in the minors. Kate
21:00
Cavally's hopefully going to return this summer after having Tommy John surgery last year.
21:06
They have Dj Hurst who they acquired in a deal for jam Or Candelario last
21:10
season. Other than that, you know, Jackson Rutledge is a guy who
21:15
could potentially maybe be a fifth starter. But outside of those guys, they
21:19
don't really have any depth in the minors pitching wise. And you know,
21:25
talked about the rotation. Now they have three guys and Patrick Corbyn, Trevor
21:29
Williams and Jake Irvin, who probably should be at best a fifth starter on
21:34
a contending team. Nats are relying on those guys heavily, which is just
21:38
not a recipe for success. You know, Gore, Gray and cavally Is
21:42
is not a bad creo to build around. But they're gonna have to spend
21:48
some significant resources on outside starting pitching to build a contender. Again, that's
21:52
why I was gonna go with you on this. I was going to say,
21:53
this is the next offseason, They're gonna have to spend some money.
21:56
They're gonna have to spend money on pitching. I mean, you look at
22:00
across baseball these pitching injuries, and I don't think it's going to get any
22:04
better. Unfortunately, you need, legitimately, I think seven to eight capable
22:10
starting pitchers now. Obviously You're not gonna have seven to eight All Stars,
22:14
right, but you need guys that can come in and when guys go down,
22:18
at least, you know, give you a couple of quality starts.
22:22
You need a deep, deep pitching rotation. And I think that you know,
22:26
these injuries are are unfortunately probably going to keep popping up, and like
22:30
you mentioned, it's going to have to be done from outside the organization.
22:33
Luckily for them, Patrick Corbin's you know, atrocious deal is done after this
22:38
year. Trimer Williams is also gone. Those guys will will take about forty
22:45
million in salary off the books. You know, even if they're going to
22:48
use twenty five to thirty million of that on a pitcher, you could get
22:53
a pretty talented guy. I think it'll be interesting to see though, if
22:57
they're willing to pay the market price for pitching. I think you look at
23:02
the deal Zach Wheeler got. Dak Wheeler's a great pitcher, He's an All
23:06
Star caliber guy. Is he worth the deal that he got. Probably not.
23:10
I don't think at this point any pictures around baseball are getting paid what
23:14
they're worth. Right, you know, you're paying twenty to thirty million more
23:18
than probably any picture is really worth in value. And you know, the
23:25
Nats obviously were very aggressive in their first competitive window getting pitching from the outside.
23:30
They traded for Gio Gonzalez, they signed Max Scherzer due to a deal,
23:34
they traded for Doug Fister. You know, they were always aggressive and
23:38
going out and acquiring pitching. They built that competitive window on their starting pitching.
23:45
I'm just interested to see this time around. You know, the cost
23:48
has gone up so much. If you look at that Surser deal, now,
23:53
that would be the bargain of a century. Back when he signed it,
23:56
it was the biggest deal for a pitcher in baseball history. So I'm
24:00
interested to see are they willing to meet the asking price for you know,
24:04
outside starting pitching free agents, because to me, that seems the only way
24:08
to fix the rotation. Now. Thankfully for them, this upcoming free agent
24:12
class has a ton of you know, good starting pitching. Maybe they can
24:18
go out and get one. But I think that if they want to build
24:21
this thing back up and get competitive again, it's got to start with that,
24:25
you know, acquiring pitching talent from outside the organization. Yeah. Absolutely,
24:29
It's going to be interesting to see, like folks like myself are already
24:32
thinking about what the Nats are going to do this coming off season, and
24:37
we're only we're only a few weeks into this or a couple weeks into this
24:40
league here in twenty twenty four, I should say, into the season here
24:44
in twenty twenty four. So let's end our conversation with talking about the Nats
24:48
bullpen here, because it looked like Matt that the bullpen was going to be
24:53
the strength of this team during spring training. But as we know, you
24:56
know, looks can be deceiving, especially during spring you know, Harvey Weims,
25:02
Garcia. They look pretty good so far, they do, from what
25:06
I've seen, they look pretty good so far, But it seems like the
25:07
jury's out on a lot of the other arms in the bullpen here. How
25:11
should folks be looking at the Nats bullpen from here on out? Again,
25:15
it's early this season. What are your thoughts here? Yeah, I think
25:21
that on paper, the Nats bullpen is probably the best aspect of their team.
25:25
Now, that's not a great thing for a team that's rebuilding and not
25:30
focused solely on winning games, but it might be able to help them as
25:33
the season goes on. I think Dylan Floro, Hunter Harvey, and Kyle
25:38
Finnigan is a pretty solid seven eight nine back into the bullpen. Yeah,
25:42
and I think all three of those guys could be potential trade pieces for a
25:47
contender as the season moves on. Harvey especially, he has dominating stuff.
25:52
He really has, you know, recaptured his career after a disastrous start with
25:56
the Orioles when he was drafted to be a starter. He's really been lights
26:02
out since joining the NATS, and I think that a contender could could see
26:06
him as you know, the missing piece. He can throw one hundred miles
26:08
an hour, has good breaking stuff. I think that, you know,
26:12
someone could look at him as the guy to help guide them to a World
26:17
Series. If you look at the Phillies are a great example. You know,
26:21
during Bryce Harper's early years with the Phillies, Phillies had good teams,
26:25
but they were it seemed to be always undone by their bullpen. Yeah,
26:29
look at the past two seasons they've gotten a better bullpen and look what's happened.
26:33
They've made it to the World Series in the NLCS. It's huge for
26:37
a contender. You know, even in the NATS competitive window, they struggle
26:40
in the bullpens sometimes and it can really be the thing that is your achilles
26:44
heels. So I think that Harvey, Finnegan, maybe even Flora could could
26:48
be guys that they could move outside of those three you mentioned, you know,
26:52
Jordan Williams and Robert Garcia, they have a little bit of upside.
26:56
You know, maybe if you do move Harvey or or finnigin towards the middle
27:00
of the season, those guys get moved into higher leverage roles. They also
27:04
have Matt Barnes, who's a veteran right hander. He's been good so far
27:08
to start the year too, So I think that the bullpen's gonna be one
27:12
of the team's few bright spots. And I think that, you know,
27:15
those arms at the back end, especially Hunter Harvey, could be a resource
27:19
as the season moves on and be a way that they could acquire, you
27:22
know, maybe a borderline top one hundred or so prospect to help, you
27:26
know, be a part of this next hopefully competitive window. It's a great
27:30
way to end on a positive note with regard to the Nats. I'm hoping
27:34
that they I'm hoping this bullpen doesn't work out well when they play the Phillies
27:38
of course. That being said. That being said again, folks, Matt
27:42
hollerand from esp Nation and Buddy, I really appreciate you taking the time to
27:48
come on to talk about the Gnats. Would love to talk to about the
27:51
Dallas Cowboys at some point. It's been an interesting off season for that team,
27:56
who's a rival of the Philadelphia Eagles. In fact, not too much
28:00
which has happened with the Dallas Cowboys. Yeah, it's been a pretty quiet
28:04
I don't know if they had much to talk about, but it was great
28:07
having you on. Buddy. Let's talk again down the road. I'd love
28:11
to for sure, Man, thank you. Yes, right now of us
28:15
recording this, the Atlanta Braves the Philadelphia Phillies are basically at top of this
28:19
NL East. But as we talked about during the onset of that discussion with
28:25
Matt, I mean, the Nats are kind of like right in the middle
28:26
of the pack here at this point. And you know, in baseball,
28:30
anything can happen. It's gonna be interesting to see what happens with this Atlanta
28:33
Braves team with a Spencer Strider injury, how that may plague him throughout the
28:37
course of the season, what that does to the Braves starting pitching. We're
28:41
certainly gonna be talking about that more on this podcast in the future, how
28:45
it relates to the Philadelphia Phillies and just the NL East in general. It's
28:48
amazing how one injury can really shift dynamics within a team and ultimately within a
28:55
division. So gonna be interesting to talk about it again. Thanks to Matt
28:59
Holler and there Matt. That's a great, great guy and we're looking forward
29:03
to talking with him at some point down the road. Again. That's going
29:06
to do it for us here on Opposition Territory. If you are on Twitter,
29:08
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29:40
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29:44
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29:48
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29:51
you all take care. We'll catch you next time at