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What could help the Nats have a winning record in 2027 · District Territory

0:05
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the District Territory Podcast. I'm Eric shell
0:08
Speaker 1: House from bat Boys Baseball and joining me today Spencer
0:11
Speaker 1: Nuzzbaum of The Athletic. What a boring series out in Texas.
0:14
Speaker 1: Whatever team you were rooting for? Three straight shutouts, the
0:17
Speaker 1: national shutout for the second time in three days, and
0:20
Speaker 1: just one hit last night. But Spencer, you put out
0:23
Speaker 1: a story this morning as we start to look ahead
0:25
Speaker 1: towards next season, the Nationals just couldn't get the bats
0:28
Speaker 1: going last night to nothing. They definitely got an incredible
0:32
Speaker 1: performance from Andrew Alvarez, and one of the notes you
0:35
Speaker 1: pointed out in your story, you think the Nats should
0:37
Speaker 1: consider turning starters into relievers and vice versa. One thing
0:42
Speaker 1: that stuck out to me from last night's outing, alvi
0:44
Speaker 1: was a cruise and manage just seventy five pitches. I
0:47
Speaker 1: keep wondering when we might get to see him get
0:50
Speaker 1: the reins to go a little bit longer. But is
0:53
Speaker 1: he one of the guys that you want to see
0:55
Speaker 1: as part of the rotation going forward, or someone they
0:57
Speaker 1: should consider moving to the bullpen? Yeah?
1:01
Speaker 2: I think he's kind of been this weird in between
1:03
Speaker 2: space where I don't know that he has a spot
1:06
Speaker 2: lecked up next year the same way that like Cane
1:07
Speaker 2: tu Vali Ornie Early does. But he's certainly pitching as
1:12
Speaker 2: though he's a shot to half a shot next year,
1:16
Speaker 2: so to speak. As we saw on this outing again,
1:21
Speaker 2: it feels like the even when the command the control
1:24
Speaker 2: isn't great, he's still able to put these outings and
1:28
Speaker 2: that next which we actually saw him reach a couple
1:31
Speaker 2: of times where he hit six or seven innings in
1:35
Speaker 2: the past couple weeks when his command was back up.
1:38
Speaker 2: So that guy is a starter. If his fastball command
1:45
Speaker 2: in particular can be as sharp as it was in
1:48
Speaker 2: the past couple of weeks, uh, and if it looked
1:51
Speaker 2: like what it did yesterday, I think it would be
1:53
Speaker 2: a very effective He's out of the bullpen, so I
1:56
Speaker 2: think there's a lot of these guys I brought up
1:58
Speaker 2: the point who fit in that in between, and it's.
2:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a lot. There's a lot of guys out
2:07
Speaker 1: in the bullpen that kind of fit into that role.
2:10
Speaker 1: And another point from your article earlier today, team pillars
2:13
Speaker 1: genuinely can't be platooning bats. The Nationals obviously felt the
2:19
Speaker 1: impact of the departure James Wood and C. J. Abrams
2:21
Speaker 1: last night. But there's also some guys that were maybe
2:25
Speaker 1: looking towards that need to step up a little bit
2:27
Speaker 1: and really own in the position of being in every
2:32
Speaker 1: everyday starter. I suppose it is kind of the point
2:34
Speaker 1: we're going for here, Spencer, But who jumps off on
2:38
Speaker 1: paper to you there?
2:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, as I kind of outlined in the story, right,
2:44
Speaker 2: the Nationals have done a great job platuning this season,
2:46
Speaker 2: and there's there's only so many spots on the roster
2:49
Speaker 2: where you can do that, and so you need I
2:51
Speaker 2: aversus defenders. You need guys who can hit both sides.
2:55
Speaker 2: To speak for me, I look at Brady House as
2:58
Speaker 2: someone who seems to have started taking that leap. Looks
3:03
Speaker 2: a lot better over the past few The underlying numbers
3:07
Speaker 2: suggest he's getting better on that front. It's still a
3:10
Speaker 2: little early for me to say thrive there or he's
3:13
Speaker 2: gonna necessarily be able to be the third baseman, just
3:18
Speaker 2: because the sample is small. But if we're trying to
3:21
Speaker 2: look into step up in that role, that's a big one.
3:25
Speaker 2: Another one I pointed, or not a platoon bat, but
3:29
Speaker 2: Andre's Chaparro, right, someone who's gotten the chance to start
3:32
Speaker 2: hitting every day, and we've seen him thrive since since
3:36
Speaker 2: he's been given the shot to do it. So those
3:39
Speaker 2: are the two that kind of stand out in my
3:41
Speaker 2: mind as maybe potential to do it. Beyond that, I mean,
3:45
Speaker 2: Dylan Lyle has shown that he can do it in
3:47
Speaker 2: the past but is struggling this season. Dylan Cruz has
3:51
Speaker 2: fantastic numbers against lefties and has really struggled against righty's
3:55
Speaker 2: Jacob Young. The chasm is smaller, but still kind of
3:59
Speaker 2: in that same boat, even with how well he's been
4:02
Speaker 2: hitting over the last you know, month and a half
4:04
Speaker 2: or so. So I don't necessarily know that there's like
4:07
Speaker 2: a straightforward plan or thought for having this one might
4:12
Speaker 2: shake out next season, but I would just keep an
4:15
Speaker 2: eye on it because I think their first base platoon
4:18
Speaker 2: is so strong that that strikes me at Okay, that's
4:22
Speaker 2: going to take up two roster spots. Catching is going
4:24
Speaker 2: to take up two roster spots, and then beyond that,
4:26
Speaker 2: you have you know, two places left to platoon, so
4:29
Speaker 2: to speak.
4:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, really quickly, I guess let's jump over to Wednesday's
4:33
Speaker 1: victory because this one was all Nationals. The pitching showed
4:36
Speaker 1: up and the offense showed up, and as you just
4:39
Speaker 1: mentioned Andras chaparro Man, he is on a tear here
4:42
Speaker 1: in the second half. His eighth home run of the season,
4:44
Speaker 1: coming in the top of the seventh inning, put them
4:47
Speaker 1: up sixth to nothing. Spencer, I'm just curious, like, is
4:50
Speaker 1: there anything you've seen as far as a change in
4:53
Speaker 1: approach or that explains how he's started hitting right, He's
4:56
Speaker 1: here all of a sudden. Is it simply just more
4:58
Speaker 1: of a sample size or has there been a change
5:01
Speaker 1: of approach.
5:03
Speaker 2: Well, what's funny is and I think it's fair to
5:05
Speaker 2: say all of a sudden because that's like what the
5:06
Speaker 2: numbers bear out, the like batting average, ops, et cetera.
5:11
Speaker 2: But if you looked at what he was doing against
5:14
Speaker 2: lefties at the start of the season, it was very
5:17
Speaker 2: limited sample, so it's hard to get in a rhythm.
5:19
Speaker 2: He was crushing the ball when he hit it, and
5:21
Speaker 2: he was just getting into a lot of outs, and
5:24
Speaker 2: he was walking a lot. And I think when you
5:26
Speaker 2: looked up on the screen and like late June, right,
5:29
Speaker 2: it said probably you know one fifty batting average, three
5:34
Speaker 2: twenty on base and you know some decent slug right
5:38
Speaker 2: where it's like that doesn't look like a major leaguer, right,
5:41
Speaker 2: But if you look at the process and everything behind it,
5:43
Speaker 2: it suggested if that guy were to start getting more
5:46
Speaker 2: regular at bats and some of those hits started to fall,
5:49
Speaker 2: you see a much better player now. I don't think
5:51
Speaker 2: any one of us said he was going to lead
5:54
Speaker 2: baseball and ops in the second half. I don't even
5:58
Speaker 2: know that, Like Chaparro would have said, I don't know
6:00
Speaker 2: that that'll maintain. But as we kind of saw with
6:05
Speaker 2: Curtis Mead, right, you get the chance to hit lefties,
6:08
Speaker 2: you start hitting them, you get the chance to hit
6:11
Speaker 2: right e's, and from there things kind of take off.
6:14
Speaker 2: So really impressive what he has done. And as I
6:16
Speaker 2: brought up in the story, I think it'll be interesting
6:19
Speaker 2: to see if the Nationals maybe put him at some
6:21
Speaker 2: third base next year. Right, if he is able to
6:23
Speaker 2: hit righties as consistently as he was, He's been getting
6:27
Speaker 2: pregame work there and I wouldn't necessarily rule out the possibility,
6:30
Speaker 2: even if he doesn't necessarily profile as a third basement.
6:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, another point you had brought up in the stories, Fencer,
6:36
Speaker 1: it was the Nationals could mess around with some funky
6:39
Speaker 1: defensive looks. Obviously we've been talking about CJ to second base.
6:43
Speaker 1: We'll probably jump into that here soon in the D block.
6:46
Speaker 1: But yeah, besides to borrow at third base, is there
6:51
Speaker 1: anyone else maybe getting some innings in the outfield a
6:53
Speaker 1: little more often than we'd expect, or getting innings on
6:58
Speaker 1: the infield, you know, playing a new position and down
7:00
Speaker 1: the stretch here.
7:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, there have been a couple of times where
7:03
Speaker 2: we've asked Blake Terra something along the lines of, hey,
7:07
Speaker 2: is anyone getting work somewhere that we don't know of?
7:09
Speaker 2: Or also in the pitching front, like hey, you know,
7:13
Speaker 2: what do you consider about such and such and such
7:15
Speaker 2: and such a role? And he does these long pauses
7:18
Speaker 2: after we ask him, And I think it's a bit,
7:21
Speaker 2: but I think that there's some truth behind it. Right
7:24
Speaker 2: where the Nationals are always thinking of and exploring ways
7:29
Speaker 2: to get guys different time, in different spots because it
7:33
Speaker 2: helps with the platooning and it helps with the construction
7:36
Speaker 2: of the roster so much, right and so, like we've
7:39
Speaker 2: seen Jose ten out in left field where I think
7:43
Speaker 2: it was three months ago, is watching him take the
7:45
Speaker 2: reps out there for the very first time, and I
7:47
Speaker 2: was like this guy could never be an outfielder candidly,
7:50
Speaker 2: and now he looks, you know, like he can play
7:54
Speaker 2: out there. He's not a gold glover out there per se,
7:56
Speaker 2: but he seems more comfortable out there. I think they're
7:59
Speaker 2: always kind of experimenting with who can play where, And
8:01
Speaker 2: I don't actually have a solid answer for and so
8:05
Speaker 2: is going to be playing this position next year? Heard that,
8:08
Speaker 2: and I wouldn't want to run with something I haven't heard.
8:11
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's it's really interesting to think about all
8:15
Speaker 2: the permutations on the mound and on the diamond.
8:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a lot to get through here. Let's talk
8:22
Speaker 1: about the upcoming Marlin series when we come back, and
8:25
Speaker 1: also go through some of your comments as far as
8:28
Speaker 1: surprises and letdowns from the season so far.
8:30
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9:40
Speaker 1: the ELI willits sign baseball card as we come up
9:44
Speaker 1: down the stretch here. In our giveaway survey last week,
9:48
Speaker 1: I asked you all who's been the biggest surprise on
9:50
Speaker 1: the nets this season and we got a big variety
9:53
Speaker 1: of answers. This isn't everyone that responded, but some of
9:56
Speaker 1: my personal favorites. You all know ball, Andrews Chaparo coming
9:59
Speaker 1: up up there and Cavert Ruiz Spencer. One other thing
10:02
Speaker 1: from your story I want to hit on really quickly
10:05
Speaker 1: is how good Cavett Ruiz has been from a discipline
10:08
Speaker 1: standpoint of late. He has really turned it around. Has
10:12
Speaker 1: not been his strong suit historically, working the count and
10:15
Speaker 1: working walks, but we've kind of seen a different version
10:18
Speaker 1: of key here in the second half, and it definitely
10:21
Speaker 1: deserves some appreciation.
10:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's one of the fascinating things to me, right
10:26
Speaker 2: is even when he's stopped, maybe with that home run
10:30
Speaker 2: stretch that he had earlier this season, he's still been
10:33
Speaker 2: able to be a productive player, and it's it's from
10:36
Speaker 2: finding kind of like approach things at the margin. Right.
10:39
Speaker 2: I'm very specific in my language there, I say his
10:41
Speaker 2: discipline in three all counts, he's still chasing a good deal, right, Like,
10:47
Speaker 2: He's still has one of the higher chase rates in baseball.
10:51
Speaker 2: I think even during the stretch up around forty percent,
10:55
Speaker 2: which is really high for a big leader to have.
10:58
Speaker 2: At the same time, right, he had if you and
11:02
Speaker 2: I should have included the chart, I'm here, this is
11:03
Speaker 2: my bad. But if you look at his his swing
11:06
Speaker 2: percentage and three ball counts basically just trends up and
11:09
Speaker 2: up and up over the course of his career, and
11:11
Speaker 2: finally this season, in particularly the last couple of months,
11:14
Speaker 2: it's come way way down, And so I think it's
11:16
Speaker 2: the idea that hey, we might not again be able
11:19
Speaker 2: to fix his chase rate, we may not be able
11:20
Speaker 2: to turn him into a selective hitter, but we can
11:23
Speaker 2: say if you're in such and such account, if you're
11:26
Speaker 2: in a three ball count, try to make yourself lay
11:29
Speaker 2: off those pitches best you can. Don't get super swing
11:32
Speaker 2: happy as you have in the past. And I think
11:36
Speaker 2: that that's again just an example of you know, k
11:40
Speaker 2: Bert being extremely coachable and the coaches knowing exactly what
11:44
Speaker 2: to tell him, right. So I think it's a big
11:47
Speaker 2: point of progress and something that again even on the margins,
11:49
Speaker 2: we say, hey, this is a really important step for
11:52
Speaker 2: Cabert to take.
11:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like that's something that gets lost around
11:56
Speaker 1: when your time out. Players are a word that doesn't
11:58
Speaker 1: take get taken very seriously coachable and caberd is absolutely
12:02
Speaker 1: every version of that. When we see that the ballpark,
12:04
Speaker 1: he's very he's out there working early, he is making
12:08
Speaker 1: the changes in very responsive and receptive of new ideas.
12:11
Speaker 1: It seems like to me, I'm not there nearly as
12:14
Speaker 1: often as you, but he strikes me as arguably the
12:17
Speaker 1: most coachable guy on the entire team.
12:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, And part of why we can maybe draw that
12:23
Speaker 2: direct line is obviously what we hear the coaches and
12:26
Speaker 2: other players say, but it's also the fact that almost
12:30
Speaker 2: all of the new things that the Nationals have tried
12:32
Speaker 2: to implement, right, he has taken to whether it is
12:35
Speaker 2: again pulling the ball in the air, as we've probably
12:38
Speaker 2: said a thousand times this year, or the receiving numbers,
12:42
Speaker 2: which I think Cabert was the worst receiver in baseball
12:44
Speaker 2: this year and now he is in the top, you know,
12:48
Speaker 2: fifteenth percentile there, which is a jump that you just
12:51
Speaker 2: don't see, something that Bobby Wilson has really helped him
12:54
Speaker 2: with some of the other stuffs on the margins, like
12:59
Speaker 2: we talked about with discipleading three, Like all this stuff, right,
13:02
Speaker 2: just speaks to a player who has been very coachable
13:05
Speaker 2: this season and that that work is obviously paying off
13:08
Speaker 2: when you think about what he was projected to be
13:11
Speaker 2: at the start of the year, and then obviously what
13:12
Speaker 2: he's become.
13:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, another name that we had to listed on there
13:17
Speaker 1: was Kate Cavali is being a big surprise. Personally, I
13:20
Speaker 1: was not terribly surprised. I knew that he had a
13:22
Speaker 1: season like this in him. But Spencer and your story
13:25
Speaker 1: earlier today, you were saying We're going to see a
13:27
Speaker 1: two hundred K season from Kide Cavali, I'm not really
13:30
Speaker 1: sure I had that in my expectations at the start
13:33
Speaker 1: of the season is something like, yeah, that's a given.
13:36
Speaker 1: But he has certainly been one of the bigger bright
13:38
Speaker 1: spots on the team this season, especially from a pitching standpoint.
13:43
Speaker 4: Yeah.
13:43
Speaker 2: I mean he's been so consistent right where we've basically
13:46
Speaker 2: seen like two blow up outings and they weren't even
13:49
Speaker 2: real blow ups. We've seen a couple outings where he
13:52
Speaker 2: doesn't make it very far, and the rest have just
13:54
Speaker 2: been six innings two and runs, six innings, zer run,
13:57
Speaker 2: round run, seven innings one or nine. Like, He's just
14:01
Speaker 2: he's been so good every single time out. And I
14:04
Speaker 2: think I got lost a little bit in part because
14:06
Speaker 2: of how well Foster Griffin was pitching, and in part
14:09
Speaker 2: because especially early this season, he was getting like no
14:12
Speaker 2: run support, and so we talked to him after these games,
14:15
Speaker 2: and he cares so much about winning and losing that
14:17
Speaker 2: even if he pitched a great game, he'd be like, yeah,
14:20
Speaker 2: well we lost, so you know, I got to do
14:23
Speaker 2: a better job, et cetera, et cetera. But no, he's
14:26
Speaker 2: been so just so consistent this season. The thing the
14:31
Speaker 2: improvement over the last two months too is notable again
14:34
Speaker 2: using that cutter around fifteen percent of the time now,
14:38
Speaker 2: which has made it a plus pitch. The sweeper I
14:41
Speaker 2: think has allowed like eight hits all season. I don't
14:44
Speaker 2: have the numbers quite up like for any but doing
14:46
Speaker 2: my best off the top of my head. So yeah,
14:49
Speaker 2: he's been incredible. And beyond that, I don't think any
14:52
Speaker 2: of us thought he was going to maybe get to
14:54
Speaker 2: two hundred strikeouts because we didn't know how many innings
14:57
Speaker 2: he was going to throw. But he's shown that he
14:59
Speaker 2: can handle the workload, and the Nationalists have said, hey,
15:03
Speaker 2: we believe that your body can kind of maintain this
15:06
Speaker 2: number of imags, right, and so he probably will get there,
15:10
Speaker 2: and I think that's a huge accomplishment for both him
15:12
Speaker 2: and the Nationals.
15:13
Speaker 1: Definitely, first guy would be the first national since the
15:17
Speaker 1: Big twenty nineteen team. As you mentioned in the story there,
15:20
Speaker 1: let's jump over to this part of the survey I
15:22
Speaker 1: put out the other day, what has been your biggest disappointment?
15:25
Speaker 1: And I'm not sure a lot of people really understood
15:27
Speaker 1: this question or gay rational answers. Is the very bottom
15:31
Speaker 1: there their record. That's not been a disappointment for me.
15:34
Speaker 1: I don't think that has been a disappointment from many fans.
15:36
Speaker 1: But there are quite a few dylling cruises, and I
15:39
Speaker 1: think the platoon splits jump out at you off on paper,
15:44
Speaker 1: but I think the underlying numbers for him show that
15:47
Speaker 1: he has hit the ball very hard this season, and
15:50
Speaker 1: it's similar to Chappy. Some of these are just going
15:53
Speaker 1: to find holes. But what do you make of the
15:55
Speaker 1: season that Dylan has had this year given where it started,
15:58
Speaker 1: not even in the major league.
16:01
Speaker 2: Right, Well, again, that's part of what we have to
16:03
Speaker 2: factor in. Again, the underlying metrics as well speak to
16:07
Speaker 2: a player who's still hitting the ball hard. What is
16:10
Speaker 2: kind of hard for me to square is the fact
16:13
Speaker 2: that the underlying numbers are still like suggest he's a
16:17
Speaker 2: league average offensive talent. At the same time he's striking
16:21
Speaker 2: out a ton, which I think is something that he
16:25
Speaker 2: would tell you is something that improve, right, And so
16:29
Speaker 2: I think people giving up on Dylan Cruz. I mean again,
16:34
Speaker 2: I can't. I don't know that I'm gonna speak to
16:35
Speaker 2: like the average fan on this, But to me, so
16:40
Speaker 2: much of what is going to make him a productive
16:42
Speaker 2: big leaguer is the stuff he already does, and what
16:44
Speaker 2: is going to make him be beyond productive big leaguer
16:48
Speaker 2: is getting the strikeouts down, whether that's possible. I mean,
16:51
Speaker 2: we have a decent sample here that says, you know,
16:55
Speaker 2: he'll he'll be streaky, he'll be able to do it
16:57
Speaker 2: in stretches, but he's not even stretches. And so I
16:59
Speaker 2: think for him, the final thing to put together is consistency, right,
17:02
Speaker 2: It's being able to do that against Righty's and if
17:06
Speaker 2: he's not, again, you you probably I don't want to
17:08
Speaker 2: see you definitely platoon him with daleen Lyle next year,
17:11
Speaker 2: But like, I don't think that's out of the cars, right,
17:14
Speaker 2: given with how he's produced. So again, two hitters who
17:17
Speaker 2: have who have shied the pass that they can be
17:20
Speaker 2: productive and have been productive, and giving up on anyone
17:24
Speaker 2: is h.
17:27
Speaker 1: For me.
17:27
Speaker 2: It takes a lot to see that, right, like we
17:29
Speaker 2: saw what Kaber was last year improved dramatically. We saw
17:33
Speaker 2: what you know, insert basically any National was here last year,
17:39
Speaker 2: and so I think development isn't always linear, and that's
17:42
Speaker 2: why I don't say this guy's never going to be
17:43
Speaker 2: a big leader. I think that's silly. But we also
17:47
Speaker 2: can't discount that there needs to be real strides on
17:49
Speaker 2: that front. For Dalen on the chase percentage and for
17:53
Speaker 2: for Dylan both the chase and the whiff is kind
17:57
Speaker 2: of what I need to see to say, hey, he's
17:59
Speaker 2: going to be a big part of this team next year.
18:01
Speaker 2: So I wouldn't count it out, but that's definitely the
18:04
Speaker 2: area of improvement that comes to mind.
18:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's go ahead and start to look ahead towards
18:10
Speaker 1: this weekend's matchup. This is interesting. You know, if I
18:13
Speaker 1: told you that your problems were going to be Brad Laurad,
18:15
Speaker 1: Jake Irvin and Jackson Kent on opening Day, you'd be
18:18
Speaker 1: wondering what happened. Let's go ahead and jump into the
18:21
Speaker 1: on deck presented by Fox one app. On Deck presented
18:30
Speaker 1: by the Fox one app. So the Nationals have a
18:32
Speaker 1: three game set against the Marlins this weekend. I believe
18:36
Speaker 1: as we just mentioned there, Brad Laura, Jake Irvin and
18:39
Speaker 1: Jackson Kent getting the rock. This is a big series
18:43
Speaker 1: for the Marlins. Spencer just trying to scratch their way
18:47
Speaker 1: into a playoff spot anyway they can, and the Nationals
18:50
Speaker 1: have just been tumbling the last few weeks here. What
18:53
Speaker 1: is it going to take for the Nets to get
18:54
Speaker 1: back on the right track here?
18:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's gonna be the bats. Right. We
19:00
Speaker 2: may not see c James for a couple of days here.
19:03
Speaker 2: James Wood is obviously sidelined, and you have a bunch
19:06
Speaker 2: of guys in that Nets lineup who want to prove
19:09
Speaker 2: that they're part of those team's future, right, whether it's Adian, Mellick,
19:12
Speaker 2: Ortiz Andres Chaparo. I was doing all the names all
19:17
Speaker 2: season to me again, at the start of the season,
19:21
Speaker 2: we talked about defense because that was the struggling point.
19:25
Speaker 2: In the mid season, we talked a lot about pitching
19:27
Speaker 2: because they were blowing a lot of games late. Now,
19:31
Speaker 2: both of those aspects are not great, but the lineup
19:34
Speaker 2: that ranked first in baseball all year has been pretty
19:38
Speaker 2: middle of the pack in August, and so if you
19:41
Speaker 2: can see some of those guys really make an imprint
19:44
Speaker 2: down in Florida. I think that signals to you at
19:47
Speaker 2: the very least Nationals can turn their season round, especially
19:50
Speaker 2: against a really good Marlin staff.
19:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, these games are not throwaway games. Any big leaguer
19:56
Speaker 1: would tell you that. You know, they all count the
19:58
Speaker 1: same for one hundred and sixty two. The ones definitely
20:00
Speaker 1: mean a little bit more, perhaps the Marlins down the
20:03
Speaker 1: stretch here, and I hope the Nts are excited to
20:05
Speaker 1: play spoiler down the stretch here. I mean, that's my
20:07
Speaker 1: favorite part of the season. Now that we're turning over here,
20:10
Speaker 1: might as well ruin someone else's. I'm excited to see
20:13
Speaker 1: what we get from Jackson Kent to you know, third
20:15
Speaker 1: big league outing. It's been not everything I think that
20:20
Speaker 1: we've wanted to see in the first two and I
20:22
Speaker 1: don't know, I kind of just have this this stomach,
20:24
Speaker 1: this gut feeling that we're going to see good stuff
20:27
Speaker 1: from him this weekend. So should be an exciting series
20:30
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20:35
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20:37
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21:00
Speaker 1: So we head over to the National League's standings. The
21:03
Speaker 1: Nationals that it's sixty one and sixty eight. They're falling
21:06
Speaker 1: out of the picture. But the Marlins they are just
21:09
Speaker 1: four games out of a wildcard spot here as I mentioned,
21:12
Speaker 1: they are certainly in contention right now, take a look
21:15
Speaker 1: at the bigger picture. The Nationals come back for a
21:18
Speaker 1: lengthy home stand after the stretch for the Rockies, and
21:20
Speaker 1: for more against the Miami Marlins. One final thing I
21:25
Speaker 1: want to check in before we wrap up today's show,
21:27
Speaker 1: Spencer is CJ. Abrams. He came out, not came out,
21:31
Speaker 1: but was not in the lineup last night after an
21:34
Speaker 1: ankle sprain towards the end of Wednesday Nights game. What's
21:38
Speaker 1: the latest you've heard on his injury? And it's clear
21:42
Speaker 1: that it impacts the offense quite a bit when he's
21:45
Speaker 1: not in there.
21:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, again, I would just refer to Mark's tweet where
21:49
Speaker 2: a series where I wasn't in Texas, so I can't
21:51
Speaker 2: speak to like on the ground per se. But yeah,
21:55
Speaker 2: I mean again, it sounds like he's day to day.
21:59
Speaker 2: I guess the latest updo is that the MRI showed
22:02
Speaker 2: or the MRI came back negative. I should say, and
22:05
Speaker 2: that this doesn't strike me as maybe a long term
22:08
Speaker 2: injury or something that is more serious. But I think
22:13
Speaker 2: with the Nationals, as they've been careful with James Wood,
22:16
Speaker 2: I imagine they will be careful with cj Abrams and
22:19
Speaker 2: not want to risk any long term damage given where
22:21
Speaker 2: the natsuret and the standings, and given the fact that
22:24
Speaker 2: they do indeed like to keep their players healthy.
22:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, as any good organization should, I think, you know
22:30
Speaker 1: you look back, it paid off in twenty nineteen for
22:32
Speaker 1: a twenty twelve shutdown. For those of you who've been
22:35
Speaker 1: watching Nationals baseball this long spencer, Is there anything else
22:39
Speaker 1: you want toss it? As we start to wrap up
22:41
Speaker 1: today's show.
22:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess I would just again point people towards
22:46
Speaker 2: the idea of guys maybe being able to transition roles,
22:50
Speaker 2: whether it's down the stretch over the offseason. I think
22:53
Speaker 2: It's fascinating some of the options the Nationals have because
22:57
Speaker 2: they seem so far away on the mound right where
23:00
Speaker 2: you look at a guy like Jake Irvin who has
23:02
Speaker 2: in a year I close to six with the Nationals
23:05
Speaker 2: this year, but has also pitched really well when his
23:07
Speaker 2: velocity is up. Like, am I saying he's a reliever?
23:10
Speaker 3: No?
23:11
Speaker 2: But am I saying you at least have to kick
23:13
Speaker 2: around that idea? Sure. I think we talked to Blake
23:16
Speaker 2: be Terror the other day about I mean, this is,
23:18
Speaker 2: frankly something I've been floating to everyone in the organization
23:21
Speaker 2: trying to get their thoughts on. But we asked Blake
23:23
Speaker 2: during Oppressor, you know, kind of about roles, and he said,
23:27
Speaker 2: in his ideal worlds like there would be no such
23:30
Speaker 2: thing as starters and relievers. Now understanding that there is.
23:33
Speaker 2: But I think that's the sort of comment. You hear
23:35
Speaker 2: it and you go, oh, man, can Eddie Jeane do
23:37
Speaker 2: this if he you know, widens his arsenal or will
23:40
Speaker 2: Dion right? Who can he? I guess have the for
23:45
Speaker 2: lack of a better word like frame to hold up
23:49
Speaker 2: as a starter over the course of the season. It
23:52
Speaker 2: really kind of stretches the mind in terms of what
23:54
Speaker 2: might be possible on the mound, And I think it's
23:56
Speaker 2: an incredibly creative opportunity that the Nationals have moving forward.
24:01
Speaker 2: And so it's just one that I would recommend reading
24:03
Speaker 2: the story. And I am this might just be my fascination.
24:07
Speaker 2: I know some others in the work are fascinated by it,
24:11
Speaker 2: but I'm I'm fascinated by the possibilities here.
24:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's uh, I would agree. It's it's really just
24:17
Speaker 1: a fun organization to be following right now, So make
24:20
Speaker 1: sure to subscribe you don't want to miss any episodes
24:22
Speaker 1: down the line. We'll see you all next week. See
24:25
Speaker 1: you later.