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Talking through the MLB payroll debate, impact on Nationals in DC · District Territory

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the District Territory Podcast. I'm your host,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Eric Shellhouse. Joining me today Kevin Franz into the Washington
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Nationals and Spencer Nusbaum is the athletic guys. Long sixteen
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: game road trip for the Nationals. But Franny on the road, Spencer,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: how are we feeling.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Feeling great?
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: It's a it's fun to have a home off day,
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: as I'm sure Franny can attest. As much as we
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: love being at the park. These are you don't take
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: these for granted for sure.
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: No, I've never at home.
• 0:37
  Speaker 5: I mean we've had a seventeen and a sixteen game already.
• 0:40
  Speaker 5: So it's like, guys, it's it's a little rough at times. It's, uh,
• 0:44
  Speaker 5: let's enjoy our days off and and go from there.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: These guys have earned it. We've earned We've earned it
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: more than all.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: That's right one, No one is uh, you know, lifting
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: weights and hitting homers like.
• 0:56
  Speaker 4: Us, exactly that.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Real Quickly, We're going to start off with some broader
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Major League Baseball news, not Nationals relay, well it is
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Nationals related, but MLBPA making its first proposal to Major
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: League Baseball yesterday in their collective bargaining offers a top
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: line issue for them being no team, a competitive integrity
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: tax for any team that does not spend one hundred
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: and fifty million dollars, an increased minimum salary to one
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: point five million. A few other notes. Free agency for
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: players who are thirty years old and five plus years service.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Jesse Rodgers tweeting out mlbpa's response in part to today's
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: proposal quote. The owners responded today with a demand for
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: a salary cap system, something generations of players have fought against.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: The Last time the owners made such an explicit push
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: for a cap, over thirty years ago, it led to
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: the longest work stoppage in MLB history. Frannie, I'm curious
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: to get your thoughts on this and kind of just
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: put us in the perspective of a player here in
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: the PA.
• 2:02
  Speaker 5: Well, it's just given me the hard line. No, no
• 2:04
  Speaker 5: matter what with the solar cap. I mean, you're not
• 2:06
  Speaker 5: gonna be able to finagle that one and try to
• 2:08
  Speaker 5: break that. The ownership side of it is continuously saying fans,
• 2:15
  Speaker 5: we listen to the fans, We listen to the fans,
• 2:17
  Speaker 5: We listen to fans. It's like, okay, the lower your
• 2:20
  Speaker 5: prices lower prices of beer, lower prices of everything else,
• 2:24
  Speaker 5: and if if you're truly listening to the listening to
• 2:27
  Speaker 5: fans of competitive balance. So the solder cap thing is
• 2:32
  Speaker 5: is such a crazy idea in general, because not every
• 2:40
  Speaker 5: major sport that has it has been successful with it.
• 2:43
  Speaker 5: And I say that because it only benefits the ownership side.
• 2:48
  Speaker 5: Truly only benefits because you you limit the top the
• 2:52
  Speaker 5: cap of the player, You you limit all the middleman
• 2:57
  Speaker 5: in the whole thing, the middle class of each sport.
• 3:00
  Speaker 5: You have more change constantly throughout organizations. And then at
• 3:06
  Speaker 5: the end of the day, like the only thing that
• 3:09
  Speaker 5: is being like valued in this is the organization's value.
• 3:14
  Speaker 5: And I find that to be like the part where
• 3:16
  Speaker 5: you're going, you know, I think we need to we
• 3:19
  Speaker 5: need to think about how we're saying things here, because
• 3:21
  Speaker 5: that's the ultimate thing. They're trying to get to the
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: NBA and NFL levels of what their franchise value is.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: And so you know, again they're listening.
• 3:31
  Speaker 5: To the fans, because I'm sure the fans that's the
• 3:32
  Speaker 5: first thing they're saying, is like, we want our our
• 3:35
  Speaker 5: valuation to be higher.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, funny here is like as you I think, ultimately,
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: bands about most is competitive balance, but each side is
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: kind of trying to stake that. You know, they ultimately
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: have the interest of competitive balance. But I think if
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: you read any reports looked closely in what they'll as
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: you said, for any what ownership and ownership across basically
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: all organizations care about is getting their franchise values up
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: to the same level as you know, go to their
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: events with you know, basketball owners and football team owners
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: and things of that nature. Like they ultimately care about
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: the bottom line. I think there are ways that Major
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: League Baseball could make tweaks to improve competitive balance. But
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: what I'd also say is you've had one repeat champion
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: over the last twenty or twenty five years or whatever
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: it's been these You know, maybe a small market team
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: hasn't won since the Royals, but that doesn't mean they
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: haven't had a shot. Like I get fans frustrations with
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: maybe their owners not being able to get the big
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: big fish and free agency, but baseball is still a
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: sport that rewards parody and has its fostered parody, and
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: so in my mind, while I understand the frustrations and
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: I understand the desire for a floor, that's also not
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: coming without a cap, so it'll be a tricky thing
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: to navigate something. I'm sure we'll talk about a lot
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: over the next few months. But at the end of
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: the day, on the ownership side, so much of it
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: just comes down to value.
• 5:11
  Speaker 5: I think I think we had one thing that we
• 5:13
  Speaker 5: are ignoring too, is like this is a it's a
• 5:16
  Speaker 5: good thing though, like we actually have responses from one
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: another and not in a totally negative way on everything,
• 5:22
  Speaker 5: and I think that's huge. Like you're starting now, which
• 5:25
  Speaker 5: they have in the past, but they haven't given proposals
• 5:28
  Speaker 5: this early where it felt like, right, we could work
• 5:34
  Speaker 5: with this, and you look, the CAP's gonna be a
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: no go. There's gonna be other you know, stuff that
• 5:39
  Speaker 5: you're gonna see that's gonna you know, come about.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, like what do
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: we do.
• 5:45
  Speaker 5: We listened to the fans, like the ownership side of
• 5:47
  Speaker 5: it again, I'll say it, if the ownership is listening
• 5:49
  Speaker 5: to fans and please like lower prices of beer, food,
• 5:54
  Speaker 5: everything at the at the stadium, that would help.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: That would be listening.
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah, uh, you know.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: One of the things that they proposed was also the
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: floor and the way that it would impact the Nationals
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: is they would be underneath the floor, they'd have to
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: spend seventy seven million more dollars. And I'm just wondering,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: I guess if that is something that comes to fruition
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: with the floor, how did the Nationals get around that?
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Is like, we have to sign extensions for guys, do
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: we have to trade to bring in the salary. It's
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: just quite confusing to me to have the floor as well.
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: There'll be a grandfather at end time for both sides
• 6:30
  Speaker 5: of it, whether you're the under the over, because the
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: over you can't just you're not trading off guys. You're
• 6:36
  Speaker 5: not going to do that the league. That would be
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: awful for the league. So you know the NHL, what
• 6:41
  Speaker 5: was that O two three ish when they implemented the
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: salary cap.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: It was a four or five year span that they
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: gave to get under it.
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: And so again that's why you also are seeing these
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: teams in the Dodgers, the Mets, the Cubs, all these
• 6:59
  Speaker 5: teams that are way over over Phillies continue to add
• 7:04
  Speaker 5: because they're gonna have time to get under.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: And so it's it's a part of that when you
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: see it.
• 7:09
  Speaker 5: So you know, the soft floor thing is is from
• 7:14
  Speaker 5: the player's side with the taxing of the competitive side
• 7:16
  Speaker 5: of it, you know, maybe maybe kind of high.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: When you look at it.
• 7:25
  Speaker 5: The owners were at one fifty I believe, right or
• 7:28
  Speaker 5: is it opposite? It was opposite, Yeah, And and I
• 7:34
  Speaker 5: think that one fifty, like one sixty mark is gonna
• 7:38
  Speaker 5: be something that we're gonna look at later on, like
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: when they get back to this and try to get
• 7:42
  Speaker 5: down to the you know, however it may be, but
• 7:46
  Speaker 5: you got they gotta find ways again. The game is growing,
• 7:50
  Speaker 5: the game is is thriving, as we've seen.
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: Throughout all this. They got to get this done at
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: some point they do.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: They need to get it done. And uh, five point
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: bidds sweeting out earlier today. This is going to be
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: a brutal lockout. It might break baseball. Spencer, I'm wondering
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: what your thoughts are that five point bids and Brandy,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: I'm also curious for what your thoughts are because the reaction,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: the overwhelming reaction from the internet is the lockout is coming.
• 8:25
  Speaker 5: It's coming, because that's what the Internet says, that.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: That is what.
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: We're not. We're not We're not gonna have a mid
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: season lockout. Boys here are we. I wouldn't worry about that.
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: I wouldn't.
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: Let's call him, he's if thinking about this labor situation
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: negotiation in terms of a baseball game. This isn't even
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: the first inning right now. This is like players are
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: still at the hotel, Like we're still a long, long
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: long way out long ways when an office is about
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: this issue, like I think almost learned about it. But oh,
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: if anyone tells you they have a concrete idea last,
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: don't believe them because it's way too early in the
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: process to know exactly what's going to happen. Maybe it'll
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: be all of twenty twenty seven, that's the worst gise.
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: Maybe it'll be in February, Like that's my last case scenario.
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: You don't know what it's going to be yet. What
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: we can do is ask around, think about it, and
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: also like look at what everyone is demanding. Like one
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: of the interesting things the Players Association wants to double valarie.
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: Like you think about a young team like the Nationals
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: where you have a lot of pre r players, Like
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: that's really enticing to me that they potentially want to
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: raise their salaries and how other I'm that ultimate that's
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: in the final round of negotiations, so I think it's
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: fair to's about that stuff. Timelines like no one knows yet.
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: I think that's ultimately clear.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: I love the analogy too, that they're still at the hotel.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: I was going to say, like this is spring training,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: you know, it's just we are. We are at the
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: very core round of this conversation. So I'm sure all
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: to be more of it, but at least it started
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: as long. But like you said, Frannie, at least it
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: has started, because yeah, the fact that it started here
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: at the end of May. I didn't really have that
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: on my Bengo card back in April. So it's exciting.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: I think it's exciting, and they usually do.
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: But there's there's never there's never a back and forth,
• 10:33
  Speaker 5: like a little bit of a back and forth. It
• 10:35
  Speaker 5: was like hard proposals early and then they just waited, right,
• 10:39
  Speaker 5: you know. And so at least at least we have
• 10:41
  Speaker 5: a little bit of the conversation. But like again, the narrative,
• 10:45
  Speaker 5: the ultimate thing on this is going to be owner
• 10:47
  Speaker 5: on owner, and I think that people need to realize
• 10:49
  Speaker 5: that it is the haves the have nots, It's the
• 10:53
  Speaker 5: the Yankees and the Dodgers, the Phillies, that everyone that
• 10:56
  Speaker 5: has their own networks against everybody else, and that is
• 11:00
  Speaker 5: how this is going to be, how it should be.
• 11:03
  Speaker 5: I mean it thought about, but they're trying to turn
• 11:05
  Speaker 5: it into like all the fans that we're listening to
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: the fans, we're listening, like Manfred's not listening to fans
• 11:10
  Speaker 5: on this Like again, he would do if they were
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: listening to the fans, they would tell all the owners
• 11:15
  Speaker 5: to lower all the prices everywhere else.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: I concur with that thought.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: We're gonna have more on it later on this season,
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: but when we come back, we're going to talk some
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Nats ball. Podja's are coming to town later today, and hey,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: I forgot to mention this at the start. It's Friday, guys.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: We got to give away a little throwback Potomac Nationals.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: But we'll be back after this quick message.
• 11:35
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• 12:36
  Speaker 1: All right, and we are back some transactions over the
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: over the last two days.
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: I guess since we last Matt.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: For a show, Cole Henry back from the Angelus. He's
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: getting recall from Triple A Rochester. The corresponding move pjpool
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: and op option back to Triple A Rochester. This is
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: a guy at the start of the season, Spencer, that
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: the Nationals were hoping would be a big part of
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: their bullpen. What can you tell fans about Cole Henry
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: rejoining the bullpen.
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's funny Cole was such a big part
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: of last year's bullpen in such a high leverage arm,
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: and at the start of this season, frankly, coming out
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: of spring training, I figured that would be the same case,
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: and he was thrown a lot into these like kind
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: of low leverage roles. What what fascinated me about that
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: is that you saw a sweeper that still played really well,
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: but a fastball that maybe wasn't quite up to snuff. Ultimately,
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: he lands on the injured list and has missed, you know,
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: roughly a month or so, but he's he's made I
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: leave six rehab appearances now again, during which pitched pretty well.
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: The fastball was was up half a tick, and I'm
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: I'm mostly fascinated to see, you know, whether they try
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: to ease him back in or they say like, hey,
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: we're putting in a late ending situation. I think they'll
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: all the bullpen is pitched recently. The fact that you
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: have guys like Ribolta, Varland, love Lady who have pitched
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: well in the back end, Yeah, I think add for
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: them moving forward and Yeah, I'm really curious to see
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: if that fastball plays.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Yeahanny, it just seems to me like the Nationals are
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: getting back a guy that the organization has trusted since
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: the new leadership came in. There's going to be a
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: big piece of this bullpen, hopefully for years to come.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 14:32
  Speaker 5: I mean, I'll say what we saw earlier is to
• 14:35
  Speaker 5: second what Spence said is, I mean you hope for
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: this year to come right, Like he's in a proven
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: mode still, he hasn't proven anything in the big leagues
• 14:44
  Speaker 5: enough consistently that you know, you just give him a
• 14:47
  Speaker 5: high level spot and he's going to be good to go.
• 14:48
  Speaker 5: And he hasn't proven this year that he was getting
• 14:51
  Speaker 5: any of the high level spots. So I think it's
• 14:54
  Speaker 5: an added fresh arm.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: I think it's an.
• 14:56
  Speaker 5: Added different look that they're going to have with that
• 14:59
  Speaker 5: ups true fast fall that he has that could play
• 15:01
  Speaker 5: at times. But like again, it's not you know, this
• 15:06
  Speaker 5: is an organization that we're starting to see have an
• 15:09
  Speaker 5: idea and philosophy on their fastballs. Having a fastball shape,
• 15:13
  Speaker 5: like any type of shape is something to be seen.
• 15:16
  Speaker 5: So yeah, like I don't see him being a huge
• 15:19
  Speaker 5: part of the bullpen. As far as the high leverage part,
• 15:22
  Speaker 5: that's something that you're gonna earn, but we'll see you
• 15:24
  Speaker 5: over time.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: It seems like an organization whose goal is to finally
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: go on and oh every day, Spencer. You wrote a
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: story for The Athletic the other day about a meeting
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: that Cabert had with some of the nast Cabert Ruiz,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: the Nationals catcher, had with some of the other coaches,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: and just wondering if you could talk some more about
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: that and how he's just been crushing the ball lately.
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll try to break this down into three parts. First,
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: the k bear that walked into that meeting. He told
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: me that he's someone who struggled with self doubt in
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: years past, particularly as it pertains to his work ethic.
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: Coming into this season, he Drew Millis and Bobby Wilson
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: spent a ton of time going over scheduling, over details,
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: over every little element that makes a great catcher. I
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: think this year, and Caber specifically said, I do not
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: want to diss the old coaching staff. I do not
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: blame that on them. That is just who I am
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: as a person. But I think that Bobby as well
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: as just Caper's general work ethic this season, at least
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: for him, feels more gratifying because it's wrapped up in
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: those details and things of that nature. But also coming
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: into the meeting, he was hitting forget what the exact number,
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: one eighty five hundred ops and so hard to get
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: to that point. It was frustrating. I see all not
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: showing up in the field during that meeting. They're about
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: twenty or so coaches executive trains as they do for
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: all Nationals players every six weeks now, where they went
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: over some things that Caber had done well, some things
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: he needs to prove upon, and more than that, the
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: things he needed to do. But they basically told him was, hey, like,
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: your numbers might not get but you're you're right there.
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: What you need to do things within your control, pulling
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: the you've done in years past, in twenty twenty five,
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: early twenty twenty six, and you need to swing harder.
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: He did that, and immediately off that first game he
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: had two doubles and a homer. Since that stretch, he's
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: been not just the best off catching baseball, but by
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: far the best offensive catching baseball. And sure, I'm sure
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: some of the underlying numbers suggest that maybe that'll come
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: down just a hair, but to see that kind of
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: offensive improvement, and over the course of the whole season,
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: the defensive improvement has been astounding. And as I think
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: Franny can probably speak to as well, speaks not just
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: to Caber the player, but the coaches and how they
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: know how to get the best out of each individual player.
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: I think that that's number one, Like Bobby Wilson has
• 18:06
  Speaker 5: done a hell of a job just based on.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: Who he is, what he's done in the past, where
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: he's come from.
• 18:13
  Speaker 5: His ability to connect to players, I think is ginormous
• 18:17
  Speaker 5: in this whole thing.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: The other part of it is that we you know, Dan.
• 18:22
  Speaker 5: And I talk about this often on Nationals Dot TV,
• 18:24
  Speaker 5: is what he plays two days and he's off off
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: a day or two. He's not being running into the
• 18:32
  Speaker 5: ground and look, there's not the Audis and JT. Real
• 18:36
  Speaker 5: Muto's and the Salvador perezz anymore. Like that's just not
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: how it is. And sometimes you get ran, you know,
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: because you're getting paid so much like into the game
• 18:46
  Speaker 5: where sometimes you need to be back off.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: And we're seeing a.
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: Pressure at this point that we've ever seen because not
• 18:53
  Speaker 5: playing many, you know, and.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: Just because put them play the play them like who cares?
• 18:59
  Speaker 5: Like Drew Mollis is fine, does a good job, right,
• 19:02
  Speaker 5: they're good Tanum and the whole thing. But we're seeing
• 19:04
  Speaker 5: a fresher Caber, and with a fresher Caverer comes a
• 19:07
  Speaker 5: more I think impactful of Caber.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's funny.
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: I almost so. I did ultimately leave that detail out
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: of the story, just because when I asked Caber about
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: that point, he said that he didn't felt like it
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: had much of an impact. But I think you ask
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: almost anyone else who like knows the demand on catchers,
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: knows how this stuff goes down, and they'll tell you
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: it has had an impact. So yeah, it's really just
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: all those things coming together, whether or not the player
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: believes it. I think ultimately you've seen like that's such
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: a hard position to play, so for him to have
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: those days off and be able to for sure ye
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: mentally reset, like it's it's so important.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you look back at twenty nineteen, the last
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: time the Nats won it, it's a little Platon situation.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: I kind of feel like that's what a lot of
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: successful teams.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: Been that this is, this is a different deal. This
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: is we got it. Like the twenty nineteen team was
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: that that's what the person is doing.
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: I'm just saying that the balance, No, but.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: The twenty nineteen team was.
• 20:11
  Speaker 5: The twenty nineteen team was a dynamic offense too with
• 20:14
  Speaker 5: Kurt and Yawns. So it's like the whole thing is
• 20:17
  Speaker 5: that you're trying to get the best out of each
• 20:19
  Speaker 5: position that you can, the highest value you can out
• 20:23
  Speaker 5: those positions, and twenty nineteen doesn't happen too often, and
• 20:28
  Speaker 5: so like that's like, this whole thing is built completely
• 20:31
  Speaker 5: different than twenty nineteen.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: It's not trying to forget twenty.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: But it is built entirely different. As you said, uh,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: it's and you mentioned Bobby Wilson earlier. You know, Bobby,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: I think it's a big reason that Cared's having the
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: season that he is. As we've just been talking about,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: we're going to take another quick break, but when we
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: come back to a little Padre's preview and get into
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: that giveaway.
• 20:56
  Speaker 7: It's getting hot out there.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: People.
• 20:57
  Speaker 7: Let's talk Mac Weldon fashion show real quick. AJ's got
• 21:01
  Speaker 7: the Pima crew neck T shirt.
• 21:03
  Speaker 8: Frothheather is Frossheather. It's it's got little pieces of gray
• 21:07
  Speaker 8: heather in there. It's nice, it's soft, it fits really well.
• 21:11
  Speaker 8: It's great for summer down here in Florida. And I
• 21:14
  Speaker 8: got a couple of linen shirts and linen pants that
• 21:16
  Speaker 8: are gonna look nice when I go to Europe here
• 21:18
  Speaker 8: in a couple of weeks.
• 21:19
  Speaker 7: Oh.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: Very nice.
• 21:20
  Speaker 7: Yeah, it's very smooth, very thin. I'm wearing the eighteen
• 21:23
  Speaker 7: hour jersey short and heather gray. I'll leave that down
• 21:26
  Speaker 7: here for you. And the Pema short sleeve Henley. The
• 21:29
  Speaker 7: color on mine is desert spring, but it really resonates it.
• 21:34
  Speaker 7: It fits in kind of matches with everything in the
• 21:37
  Speaker 7: wardrobe too. It's the classic look. They know what they're
• 21:40
  Speaker 7: doing here, so check it out. We've got the code
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• 21:57
  Speaker 4: And we are back.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: Guys, Guys, Franny Lost Franny Spencer, Tyo Cruz on the
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: ballpark tonight and have a Dynamite Concert later on Padres
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: come to town. Paxton Schultz, I believe is the probable starting
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: pitcher today. We were talking about this before we got recording.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: Andrew Alvarez is planned to be the guy out of
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: the bullpen first.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: The Padres, unlike many of the lineups the Nationals have
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: played the season, are right hand heavy, which is again
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: a change of pace, and so you want to start
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: ideally playing those matchups at the top of the lineup
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: as they have all season, and then letting Alvarez pitching
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: bulk from there. I know some fans are like frustrated
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: with the strategy or whatever. Candidly, it's worked, so I
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: don't really know what the issue is. Maybe it's just
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: a luck that they're not used to, but yeah, it
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: seemed to work in the past. I think it's a
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: smart edition here, and it's a Padres lineup that has candidly,
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: really really really struggled this season in a way that
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: we did not expect. So I think when you can
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: mix and match and play those matchups, you're generally in
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: a good spot.
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: We got Franny back now, Yeah, you know it's gonna
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: be a match up.
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: I was over a bridge guys.
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: Sorry, that happens on the bridges, that happens. Uh, yeah,
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: it's gonna be you know.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: I think if you Terry approaches every about like a
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: chess match, it's all gonna be matchup, matchup, and fans,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: if you're frustrated over the Schultz probable star later today,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: I think it's a great decision too. You got some
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: big right handed hitters there that they like to stack
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: up at the top of that lineup.
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: Forced the Padres to shake things up.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: But Franny, I'm curious, like, do you see a world
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: where the Nationals don't automatically defer to Andrew Alberiz today,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Like Paxton Schultz goes multiple innings to start and then
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: they say they we're gonna make this a bullpen game.
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: Screw it, just true bullpen game.
• 23:54
  Speaker 5: Uh.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 23:56
  Speaker 5: Like his again, like everything has their da I think
• 24:01
  Speaker 5: the Riley Cornelio outing and debut. I think ship shook
• 24:06
  Speaker 5: them up to the core and how they're going to
• 24:09
  Speaker 5: deal with certain certain things like this.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: I do.
• 24:12
  Speaker 5: Because they are very empathetic to to the to the
• 24:17
  Speaker 5: player in the best of ways, not like like try
• 24:21
  Speaker 5: to create a soft These guys are soft no, Blake.
• 24:25
  Speaker 5: Blake loves these guys and like you could tell, like
• 24:28
  Speaker 5: his true care for the individual.
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: And so are they gonna stick my every single plan
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: on it?
• 24:37
  Speaker 5: Probably not Pax the Schultz could he go to and
• 24:40
  Speaker 5: he's sure, Like I just I think everything is in
• 24:43
  Speaker 5: play for for games like this today. And then from
• 24:46
  Speaker 5: there you go, you go about how you're gonna, you know,
• 24:49
  Speaker 5: try to attack the weekend.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 24:50
  Speaker 5: It's a team that you know, we know has offensively
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: been terrible this year, but with the guys that they
• 24:56
  Speaker 5: have in their lineup, they could literally turn that around
• 24:59
  Speaker 5: at any point in time.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: And that's what you worry about.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, and I look at the Nats lineup too,
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: And the reason I play Devil's advocate is I say, Hey,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: this is a team that can score ten runs in
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: two innings, and you know, maybe we save hey Andrew
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: Alberts for a Saturday or Sunday outing and just go
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: true bullpen today. But it'll be an exciting series. Soustellon Spencer,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: you know, we got a dynamite concert over there later tonight. Frannie,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: I know you've enjoyed that. You know, let's let's jump
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: into the giveaway.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: I'm just glad I get to do the read anymore.
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: It's fair.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: The summer concert series is just getting started, but we
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: have a Potomac Nationals bobblehead to give away for you today.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: It is a very balance bobblehead. For those of you
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: who don't know, Barry Bonds played in Potomac wood Bridge,
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: Virginia before they relocated over to Fredericksburg, now the Fredericksburg Nationals.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: But to win this bobblehead, go ahead and fill out
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: the Google form that will be in the description of
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: our YouTube video. If you're listening over on Spotify or
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: Apple Music, be sure to go and subscribe to our
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: YouTube channel because once we reach a thousand subscribers, we're
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: gonna be giving away this Eli Willetts signed baseball card.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Excited for that day when it arrives the guys, Uh
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: setting close is getting close, fingers crossed. Uh, you know,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: I'm excited to be back at the ballpark today. It's
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: it's been a while and I missed it. That's about
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: all I dad.
• 26:23
  Speaker 5: Yeah, Hey, all I know is the Padres Padres series
• 26:27
  Speaker 5: should be a lectured The boy should deserve some some big,
• 26:30
  Speaker 5: big crowds. Just in general, but by the way they've
• 26:33
  Speaker 5: been playing and hopefully that happens hundred percent.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: Don't forget it's William and Mary Knight too. Ellie alumni
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: out there, get yourself a T shirt. William's not gonna
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: be in the Green Golden Silver, the Green Golden Silver,
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: the Tribe. Anyways, that's gonna do it for today's episode.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: We will see you again in the next edition. Until then,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: see you later.
• 27:01
  Speaker 6: Fin