Latest / District Territory / Can the Nationals continue to hit like a top-five team in MLB?

Transcript

Can the Nationals continue to hit like a top-five team in MLB? · District Territory

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the District Territory Podcast. I'm Eric shell
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: House joining me today. Spencer knows Baum at the Athletic
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: who is down in Cincinnati or I guess I should
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: say over in Cincinnati. After a Nationals tend to four win,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: I would argue maybe their best game of the season,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: one of their best games of the season. But Spencer,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: how you doing.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: I'm great.
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: I've been up since five. I want to say I
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: spent the off day in Miami. There's beautiful fluorescent lighting
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: all around me. I might be the last one at
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: Great American Ballpark today if memory serves, But no, feel
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: great and it was really, you know, exciting to watch
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: the Nationals do what they just did. And we'll get
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: into this soon. But for Dalen to do it in
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: front of his family, for Louis to do it with
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: the way that his risk has been feeling, a lot
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: of really cool storylines for us to break out breakdown today.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a lot to talk about. Six home runs
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: over the course of the game, two from Louis, two
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: from Lyle the big Man, James Wood and Brady House
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: party getting in on the party. Then that's just sure
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: like to hit in Cincinnati. Before we jump into it,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: those of you watching online doing ourmind, you please subscribe,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: or if you're listening, do follow the podcast so that
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: you don't miss an episode. I'm not sure what we're
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: going to be doing for a five hundred subscriber giveaway.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: I definitely have something in the works, maybe a podcast
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: is sorts or a bobblehead of sorts. But when we
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: reach a thousand subscribers, ignore my dirty fingernails, we will
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: be giving away that Eli Willets home in first card.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: You guys should know who that is if you're a
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Nats fan, But that'll be at one thousand subscribers.
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: Those of you watching online.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: The National League East standings in front of you now
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: the that's nine games back of the Braves holding on
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: to a tie in second places.
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: The Phillies also won last night.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Before we get into the game recap, Spenser, I want
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: to talk about you tweeted this out before the game, Blake.
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: You Tara did me.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Can note of the National's defense and what they're practicing
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: on the field over five hours before yesterday's game to
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: try and combat the league leading errors. What did you
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: hear from Blake and was that reflected in last night's game.
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, something that's been really fascinating to watch with Blake
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: is what he gets frustrated at. I think he's someone
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: who can tolerate a lot in terms of, hey, if
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: the pitching isn't quite up to par, or if the
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: lineup has a few off nights or even some some
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: physical errors at the start of the season base running,
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: but the base running in defense, if he's not getting
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: what he likes there, especially especially with the defense as
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: of late, he gets pretty pissed. I think that's something
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: where he understands the limitations of the roster in the
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: sense that Louie is playing first base for the first time,
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: it's a lot of guys who don't have a ton
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: of big league experience. But he's also someone who says, hey,
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: we still need to be better than this. He looks
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: at the athleticism the roster, it says we need to
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: be better than this. So, yeah, he spent some time pregame,
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: and he's spent a few times this season, especially today,
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: talking about just what has gone wrong with this defense.
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: In the big picture, it's stuff that you see, Eric,
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: It stuff that I've seen. They are athletic, but it
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: seems like they let the mistakes get in their head
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: a little bit. They're still refining some of the mechanical stuff,
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: but the big message to the team is, hey, let
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: your athleticism take over. Try to have more of a
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: clear mental when you go out there. And yeah, I
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: think that to a certain extent, you saw. I mean, frankly,
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: you didn't see better defense today. I don't know how
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: long it's going to take, but they're not going to
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: stop working at it, and I think that's maybe the
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: most important thing is they're not ready to give up
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: on the the working.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Side of things.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, just reading what I could over here in Arizona
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Blake's pregame comments, they just need to be playing with
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: confidence out there, and as you just mentioned, not let
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: those mistakes get into their heads.
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: They got to be able to flush you quickly.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Let's dive into this game recap, because if you were
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: watching the other night, you thought maybe you were in
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: for a Picture's tool six up, six down from both
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: pictures to start the game. But then in the top
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: of the second NAT's had something cooking after a line
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: drive off of the Red starting pitcher Brady Singer. I
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: wasn't able to get b roll display. But CJ going
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: first to third really just fired me up. There incredible
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: base running from him. It didn't lead to a run.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: But was there anything you noticed on that play that
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: I mean, he didn't hesitate when he took third.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: No, he didn't. And James did the same thing later
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: in the game.
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: Now, granted it wasn't off of the pitcher's ankle, which,
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: by the way, that might have been the loudest sound
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: at Great American Ballpark all night. It did not sound fun.
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: But no great athleticism and hustle from CJ. And great
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: hustle later in the game from James, which is obviously
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: you know what they're preaching.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, when I was watching on TV, I was astounded
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: that Brady Singer remained in the game. We wondered how
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: it might affect his control, but he seemed confident, like
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: I don't think his location was struggling. But you get
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: to the top of the third inning and the Nats
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: bats started to break out. It started with James Wood,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: who I'm pretty sure was the only guy that went
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: to the left side of the field all night, something
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: he does quite frequently though nothing new to us. And
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: then the very next bat or Luis Garcia Junior joining
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: the party with a home run, his second of the
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: season at the time. I believe later on that inning,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: CJ also challenged to overturn a strikeout into a walk.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: That was the second time the Nats were able to
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: do that this season. I know Kevin talks about that
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: on this show a lot, but that really fired me up.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Is there anything that you know is like on the
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Louis home run? In particular, because right off the bat
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: you knew even though stat cast I think had around
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: three hundred and ninety maybe three eighty feet, it wasn't
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: like a bomb per se, but a no doubt or
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: for sure.
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: No, you know it was out.
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: The most fascinating part of that play, if you watch
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: the replay, Louis shakes his wrist after he hits the homer. Now,
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: this is someone for those who haven't been falling along
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: as closely. He hurt his left wrist about two and
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: a half weeks ago and didn't miss any time with
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: it until last week, where he had four games off
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: to recover because he frankly just couldn't swing productively with
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: it anymore. He's just kind of trying to tap the
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: ball in play, which is not who he is as
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: a hitter, and so they kept him out and they said, Okay,
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: we want to see you back to ninety five percent.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: He finally got.
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: There the other day, and then today, with his wrist
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: still not at one hundred percent, he hits an absolute
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: bomb there in the third inning and shakes his wrist.
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: We talked to him and Blake after the game. He said, yeah,
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: I still have to do a lot of treatment on it.
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: It's not one hundred percent yet they're not worried. And
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: obviously part of the reason they're not worried, and we'll
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: get into this, is he hit another homer right after,
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: so everything should be fine on that front, but it's
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: definitely something to monitor moving forward.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the cameras were on him in the dugout there,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: and I was starting to get a little concerned. I'm like, oh, geez,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: hit a home run and the risk is bugging you.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: But just a couple of innings later we get our answer.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: As you just mentioned, daleen Lyle had to jump in first.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: This ball was absolutely tattooed off the bat.
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: I think four.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: I had it written down somewhere here in my notes,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: but I've lost it, just a moonshot in front of
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: his family, and then also in the fourth inning, I
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: believe I beg your pardon. This is in the fifth
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: inning Luis Garcia Junior with his second of the game,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: and then Dale and Lyle following up. This was the
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: absolute moonshot, no doubt about it, off of the bat,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: and he sure enjoyed it and his family and friends
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: were enjoying it too. Is it fair to say this
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: might have been a career day for Daleen Lyle Spencer
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: with the home with the friends and family and attendance
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: and Cincy.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: What are my fasavorite things about Dalen is he is
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: so serious all of the time until he isn't until
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: that grin gets on his face and you could not
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: get it off his face. Today he had eighty people
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: here at the game, which is just an astounding number.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: This is not something I blame him for at all.
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: But we had to wait a long time to get
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: him postgame, obviously because he had so many people to.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: Meet and greet.
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: But you could tell this meant a lot to him.
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: And you could tell even beyond having his family in
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: the stands, which again was important to him, It was
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: important because he grew up in Louisville, a city that
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: hasn't had a lot of baseball talent come out of it.
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: But just from a production standpoint, to see what he
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: did today after a pretty frustrating start of the season
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: and frustrating last couple of weeks. And we'll get into
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: this in a second, but to see the sort of
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: depth from the lineup and to see what he was
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: able to do, I think is a really encouraging sign,
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: both for him and the National's offense.
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: I did scoop over the Reds put on a cup
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: runs there in the fourth inning, but I want to
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: give a shout out to Brad Lord. I couldn't get
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: the b roll of this either, but the double play
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: that he locked in for after the air or by
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Brady House that allowed a run to score really really
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: big bases loaded one out for those of you that
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: were not watching, and just gets a tailor made double
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: play to CJ bears down and is able to get
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: the Nats out of the inning there three to two,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: and then with the Lyle and Luis home run, the
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: Nats would jump out and extend their lead. The home
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: runs too back to or sorry not back to back,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: the first time since twenty nineteen the Nationals have had
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: two players with two home runs in a single game.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: In this remarkable stack coming from NAT's communications, the fifth
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: time the Nats have hit five home runs in a
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: game at Great American Ballpark, which they did have six.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: For the record, we'll get to that soon. Where they've
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: played sixty eight times, They've only done that eleven times
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: in fourteen hundred and twenty six games at Nationals Park.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: I know Cincinnati is a hitters ballpark and they've got
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: the airstream or the win out there, but man, is this.
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: Team like playing in Cincinnati.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: Sometimes there's really no rhyme or reason behind stuff like
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: this other than good hitters ballpark and clearly.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: Some sort of stroke of luck.
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: But when I saw that, for all the crazy stats
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: that have come out of the season, that's number one
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: for me.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: It's one of the craziest National stats I think I've
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: ever heard, if not one of the craziest baseball stats
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: I've ever heard.
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: I was hold on.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: I got to flip over to the other sides of
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: my notes here because I was writing it down frantically
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: in game as it happened the fifth time with five
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: home runs in NAT's history of Great American Ballpark, the
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: only opposing teams ballpark the Nats have done it in
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: multiple times. By the way, Nats have never done that
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: in any other ballpark on the road. It's crazy, simply ridiculous.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: And they weren't done. They were not done in the
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: eighth inning, Brady House getting in on the offense. This
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: one was incredible because you see the pitch there for
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: those of you watching online, the pitch in on the
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: hands and then the tail that it had out to
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: right center. Just an incredible strength of power or display
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: of power there. And with six home runs, the Nats
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: jumped up to fifty. They have the second best offense
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: in MLB right now. In Spencer's you said on Twitter,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: the sample size is big enough to say that this
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: offense is real.
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: We are here a quarters at this season.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: And that's the thing is after two weeks and after
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: four weeks, you looked at it and you said, hey,
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: I see the elements of it. But at a certain
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: point team starts the game plan differently, the game plan differently.
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: They had a bad week and a half after that,
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: they're they're right back in it. One thing I really
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: want to highlight, and I'm writing about this kind of
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: for the morning for the Athletic, is just how deep
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: this Nationals lineup can be.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: We know about c J and Woody.
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: At the top and in the middle of the order,
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: and I think the teams plan around those two, But
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: what you forget is that Louis has had fantastic underlying
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: stats for years and has a lot of pop in
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: his back when his wrist doesn't hurt. Dalen was the
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: third best hitter in baseball last September and put it
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: together for probably one hundred eighty two hundred played appearances
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: last year. You have a really smart platoon with Curtis.
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: You have guys who have I don't even want to
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: say played above their skis because it's been a big
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: enough sample now, like up and down this lineup, there
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: are legit hitters who are being put in in the
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: right spots to hit. And what it kind of reminded
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: me of was the twenty twenty five Athletics. That was
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: a group where you came into the year with a
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: Lawrence Butler and a Brent Rooker, but not really knowing
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: what else you had, and then you get all these
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: production up and down the lineup, and yeah, you win
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: seventy six games or whatever because the pitching isn't great
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: and I don't know.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: To me, there's a lot of parallels.
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: There, and you never want to draw too many conclusions
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: too early in the season, but Eric, I think you
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: understand too, Like whether or not this team makes the playoff,
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: this sort of lineup is really encouraging moving.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: Forward one hundred and ten percent. And one other thing
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: about Brady's home run a breaking ball. He's just been
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: crushing the off speed pitches but has not been able
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: to catch up to the fastballs quite as well. Do
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: you have any insight as to what Brady might be
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: working on right now pregame with his hitting routine.
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think he's always and will continue to work
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: on hitting velocity. The most important thing for him is
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: the approach and making sure like he's swinging at the
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: right pitches. But at least when I checked a couple
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: of weeks ago, he had the highest whiff rate in
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: baseball on pitches over ninety five miles per hour. So
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: that's something that he has continued and probably will continue
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: to work on.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: But that's something that just.
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: Takes time if I can't catch up to it.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: So we'll see on that one.
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: But the fact he's eating he's hitting the rest of
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: the pitches, to me is very inco.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: One hundred percent for our viewers online, bring up the
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: box score or the hitting box score for you before
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: we get into the pitching. After a break here real quickly,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: ten runs on thirteen hits, five walks, and as I
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, overturned a strikeout into a walk, just the
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: second time the Nationals have done that all season. It's
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: a crowded box score, so I'll give you a second
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: to enjoy it there. But Spencer, I mean, just top
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: to bottom, everyone but Young recording a hit, and Jacob
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: even got in with a walk there scored a run.
• 14:29
  Speaker 4: Just like you.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Said, top to bottom. It's fluid, it's clicking on all
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: cylinders the other night.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's how you get the second best offensive baseball.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: That's how you do it.
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: I'm going to take a quick break right here to
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: shout out one of today's sponsors. FanDuel District Territory is
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: brought to you by FanDuel Baseball Fans. The baseball season
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: is in full swing and FanDuel is giving you a
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: chance to call your shot with Daily Dingers. Joining the
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: action is easy. Just make your free pick on who's
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: hitting a home run in their game, and if you're right,
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: you'll get a profit boost to use on your next
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: bet for a chance at extra winnings. It's just another
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: reason why FanDuel is the home of home runs. So,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: as we mentioned six last night, two from Luis Garcia,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: two from Dale and Lyle. I don't think it's that
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: much of a stretch to say, maybe CJ Abrams later today.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: I know it's a left on left matchup, but Louis
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: had left on left crime last night. Is there anyone
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: that you'd like to pick later today?
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: Spencer?
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: Ooh see, I want a deep pull? Okay, Lyle's already
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: done it in front of his family.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: Maybe Millis Spody go with Brady? Okay, yeah, I mean
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: back to back makes sense. Lefty on the bump too.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: I like the pool, but are you ready to play
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: your game? Head over to FanDuel dot com slash podcast
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: to get started. That's FanDuel dot Com slash podcast to
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: opt in for Daily Dingers and make your free pick
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: on who's hitting a home run Playball and Swing for
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: the Fences on FanDuel, an official partner of Major League Bay.
• 16:01
  Speaker 5: No purchase necessary, opt in required. Bonus issued as non
• 16:04
  Speaker 5: withdrawable profit boost tokens. Restrictions supply including any token expiration
• 16:08
  Speaker 5: and max wager amount see terms at sportsbook dot FanDuel
• 16:11
  Speaker 5: dot com. Gambling problem caller tax one eight hundred gambler.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: All right, and we are back, Spencer. As we mentioned
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: before the break, I want to get into a pitching
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: recap from the other night because bullpen was great and
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Miles Mike list sure was sharp two. I was a
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: little surprised Blake didn't give him a little more of
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: a leash. I understand where the game was at at
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: that point. It was still three to nothing or perhaps
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: three to one. He did get tagged with one earned
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: run in two over the course of the night. But
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: his pitch chart. You tweeted this out during the game.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: Maybe the location was just starting to struggle a little bit.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: But what'd you see? What'd you like from Miles last night?
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: I really like again how he was able to stay
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: outside the middle of his zone. And more than that,
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: if you look at the damage he gave up so
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: much of it was pitches way below the zone, and
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: I think that's some thing where you can live with
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: that if you're Miles. He's looked like a much better
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: picture as of late. The fastball has been better, and
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: so really, I frankly have no complaints from this outing.
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: I think if Miles can continue to give you maybe
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: more than three and a third, but if he can
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: give you four innings with this sort of production and
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: staying out of the middle man, I mean, that's a
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: picture that you want to keep on your roster for
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: a little bit, which again we were debating early in
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: the season. So good on Miles for turning it around.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: For sure, if you look at it one more time
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: there for those of you watching online, and we mentioned
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: Brad Lord was the first in out of the bullpen.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: After that he gets his second win of the season.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: He was spectacular, and Paxton Schultz he was brilliant and
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: he was particularly fired up coming off of the mound.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: You know what was clicking for him last night because
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: that was one of his best.
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: Outings of the season. You're saying with Brad with Paxton Schultz, Oh.
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: Paxton, I mean, frankly, it's hard to put just one
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: finger on it, and I'm not gonna act like I
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: was watching his outing to too closely with how much
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: the offense was clicking. But I would say just in general,
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: he's someone where he came over from Toronto and that's
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: obviously a place that has struggled to develop pictures. But
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: last season in particular, you saw some real growth and
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: kind of what I have asked him about this season
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: is just how closely the new operation here mirrors what
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: they had in Toronto. And he's like, it's great. We
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: may even have like a few extra things. He's like,
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: my workload I feel like has been managed really well here,
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: And so he's someone where it's hard to put a
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: finger on like, oh the stuff is an outlier, or
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: like i'd say the command has been been really good.
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I honestly think just he's someone who's honed
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: in on his routine and of anyone I trusted, like
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: the sixth seventh Bridge sort of innings the most, I
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: would say that he's the guy right now, which is
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: again a great find.
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: By the front hundred percent.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: I know it's a new era of the front office,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: but man, they just seem to have a knack for
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: finding these guys and then turning them into something. It's impressive,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: you know what he did last night, And it just
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: fired me up to see him coming off the mound
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: yelling there. To see that intensity and that emotion.
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: I just love to see it. Spencer, you wrote it.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: Excuse me wrote an article in The Athletic the other
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: day that I was reading seven stats on the Nats
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: from a historic problem with Theirs to a James Wood breakout.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: But one of the best stats that stuck out to
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: me in this article was zero the amount of awareness
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: that James Wood has about the Nationals record. He said
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: he really doesn't pay too much attention to that sort
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: of stuff, as a lot of MLB players do, but
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: he really just was not aware that the team was
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: so close to five hundred, it seemed like, and to me,
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: that's a great indication of where the team is at,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: that they're just keeping their heads down and rolling. But absolutely,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: what'd you take away from that comment? Yeah, and this
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: is something.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: I'll put it this way.
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: You sometimes have to take what players say on this
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: front with a grain of salt in terms of, oh,
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: I didn't see X on social media or whatever. But
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: with James, like anyone I talked to in his life,
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: they say, that's who James is.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: He does not.
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: Think about baseball when he doesn't have to. He obviously
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: cares a lot about baseball, but it's not something that
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: needs to consume his every second. And so he's someone
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: so where when he says, hey, I'm taking it day
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: by day like he means that more than probably any
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: player I've covered, which is why he's as good as
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: he is. And I think that, frankly, the team can
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: benefit from taking that que from him, whether or not
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: they do moving forward, I think that remains to be seen. Obviously,
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: sweeping in Cincinnati would kind of put I believe would
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: put them back at the five hundred mark for the
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: first time since the very start of the season. So
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: for us in the media, for us, you know, either
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: watching at the park or watching at home, that's something
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: we keep a close eye on. But frankly, I think
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: the players benefit when they don't keep too close an
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: eye on it. So, Yeah, it's just a fun little
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: nugget that stuck out to me as true and surprising.
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and there is some other stuff you wrote about
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: in that article. We're going to get more into it. Friday.
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: But I mean, did you have a.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: Particular or particular favorite of the seven that you pulled?
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: There is like a favorite stat oh.
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: I mean, I hate to keep going back to James,
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: but he probably does deserve to love.
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: He's someone where I even talk to people who.
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: Are massive believers in James when he was coming up
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: through the minor leagues and even his first season and
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: a half in the big leagues and said, he's great,
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: but the ground ball rate is just always gonna be
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: what it is, and he's cut his ground ball rate.
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: It really was kind of that and the whiff or
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: the really only two Achilles heels he's got, and I
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: don't think the whiff will ever go away when you're
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: six to six and have those long levers for arms.
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: But to get rid of the ground ball rates, stop chasing,
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: or when he does chase, to you know, just miss
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: the ball as opposed to weekly hit it on the ground.
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: I mean, that's why he's been one of the five
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: to ten best hitters in baseball this year.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: So we'll get into the other ones.
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: But that one took a little bit of digging, which
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: is part of why I liked it.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: And also it's James, which is also why I liked it.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we've said it many times before on this show.
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: But just a special player.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: I think that's the word that Franny likes to use
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: the most, but I don't want to glaze him too
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: much here, but just such a special player to be
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: able to flip it like that to the opposite field
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: so nonchalantly, really impressive. As we just mentioned, the Nats
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: had two more here in Sacinnati. If they can get
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: two more wins, they will be at twenty two and
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: twenty two currently at twenty and twenty two, and there's
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: some exciting promotions coming up when they do return home
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: for the Oriole series. We got the hot dog hat
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: on Friday, and we got Alexander Ovechkin bobblehead coming up
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: on Saturday. So I'm gonna give today, give right now
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: a quick shout out to our second sponsor today.
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: Excuse me. Seat Geek.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: Sea Geek is official sponsor of District Territory. With over
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: thirty five million downloads, seeke is the number one rated
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: the ticketing app. There are more than seventy thousand events
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: listed on seat geek, including concerts, MLB season. We got
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: the NBA and NHL Playoffs in full swing, and seat
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: geek is Official is the official is MLB's official ticket marketplace,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: so your tickets are fully guaranteed and instantly fulfilled in
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: your account after purchase. For those of you watching online,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: you see and if you're not familiar with seakeek, they
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: give you these green bubbles, which means that you're getting
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: a good score. Green is good and red is bad.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: It's just a really user friendly platform, which is why
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: I enjoy using seat geek, and as I've mentioned in
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: previous episodes, definitely planning on using it to score my
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: Bruce Springsteen concert tickets in the near future. And of
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: course I have a code for you guys. You can
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: use code territory ten for ten percent off your next
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: set of tickets at seat geek. That's ten percent off
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: any tickets with promo code Territory ten. Make sure you
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: click the link in the description to download the app
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: and have the code automatically added to your account so
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: you can use it later. Thank you, seat Geek. All right,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: let's bring it back. We got two more. As I
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: was saying here in Sinsey, it's going to be Jake
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: Irvin and Lodolo on the Bump later today and then
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: Foster Fest tomorrow, Foster Griffin and Chase Burns to wrap
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: it up on Thursday.
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: Dial in on these.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: Pitching matchups really quickly. Jake Irvan, it's been a season
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: of a little bit of jekylin hide. I hate when
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: I hear that on the blogs. But what does Jake
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: need to do to be zoned in, not just the
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: first time through the lineup, second time, and potentially the
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: third time around.
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah again, I think with Jake, so much of it
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: is if he can locate that curveball where he needs to.
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: He is a completely different pitcher. He is someone where
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: he likes to He's a very good game planner, and
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: so he likes to tinker as the game goes along.
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: But he really is most effective when that second third
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: time through the order, they haven't seen the curve well before,
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: and he can really let it rip. So I don't
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: think he would ever say, hey, I'm going to attack
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: a team this way. It can be a little impossible
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: to predict, but I'm watching if he can locate that
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: pitch because if he can, the fastball doesn't get hit
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: as hard. They can't touch that pitch. The cutter, the sinker.
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: They all move off each other well. And frankly, the
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: peripherals are better than the surface level stats this year,
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: So I think he's pitched better than maybe some Nationals
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: fans who just kind of either look at the box
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: score or look at the overall picture SI and I
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: think he's someone where he's he's kind of due to
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: have one of these great outings that he tends to
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: have five or six times a year. So I don't
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: see any reason why he can't do that against a
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: Red's lineup that has struggled quite a bit this season.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think what's going to be most interesting, and
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: I mean just most interesting. Games two and three of
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: the series all season long have just seemed to be
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: where the Knats has struggled the most. I wasn't able
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: to pull the stat before the game, but I'd be
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: really fascinated to know, like, what is their record in
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: game one of the series versus two and three in
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: game four when they've had a four game set, because
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: it certainly takes a lot of pressure off when they
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: get that first game of the series.
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: But I'd love to see them walk away with a
• 26:41
  Speaker 4: win here in Cincy. In terms of this total series.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: Before we head out really quickly, i'd want to give
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: a little bit of a report down on the farm here.
• 26:49
  Speaker 4: Well, that's the wrong tweet, Spencer News.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: We did this out five prospects acquired in the Mackenzie
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: Gore deal. And for those of you curious, Jarmy Cabra
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: has been lighting it up all season and Devin fits
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: Gerald two home runs last night. Correct, the dude is
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: just camp fire. What can you say about that kid?
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: And why shouldn't That's fans be paying attention to him?
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Fitzgerald is the prospect who I was highest on
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: just talking from evaluators. Talking to evaluators at the time
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: of the trade, what I heard over and over was
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: this kid has drastically, drastically overperformed and outproduced his draft slot,
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: and that the bat to ball skills are as legit
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: as you will find in the minor leagues. The concern
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: at the time was just a how healthy he can
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: stay and be how much pop he has in the bat.
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: He has been healthy so far, and as we were
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: talking about before, power really does not seem like a
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: concern right now. So if he even has the more
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: strength to add on to that, frame in coming seasons,
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: but even right now, if anytime you have an OPS
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: over a thousand year doing something right both from a
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: you know, bats a ball skills, but also from a
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: strength perspective. So yeah, I mean, I'm planning to get
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: down to either Wilmington or if he's in Harrisburg, Harrisburg
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: eventually at some point soon because he Yeah, he's worth
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: righting about.
• 28:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: I got tripped off thinking about it the other day too,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: that Wilmington is now the high A for me. Fredericksburg
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: just moving over from Potomac and that being the high A.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: It's always been like the high in my head. But
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: you gotta, we gotta get past that old way of thinking,
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: that stance. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: Once again, I want to remind you all to subscribe
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: if you're watching on YouTube or follow along if you're
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: listening on Apple Music or Spotify. You're gonna have some
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: sort of Nationals giveaway at five hundred subscribers, and once
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: we hit one k be sharing this Eli Willets card
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: with one of you. All are lucky listeners. Spencer, anything
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: you want to add before we take all? I got nothing,
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: all right, well, hopefully we'll have Franny back for the finale,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: and not the finale but the final episode this week
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: on Friday, and we'll be recapping that Red series for
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: you and we'll see in the next one.
• 29:12
  Speaker 4: Peace