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How the Washington Nationals earned their best record since 2019 · District Territory

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Your Washington Nationals are four games over five hundred for
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: the first time since twenty nineteen. There is so much
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: we have to talk about in this episode, Spencer not
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: seeing Nuna is balling out, Dylan Cruz homering in Monday's victory.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: But let's not waste any time and jump right into it.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the District Territory Podcast, Happy Wednesday. I'm
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Eric Shellhouse from the Bat Boys and joining me Spencer
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Nusbaum of The Athletic Spencer. Last night, during the game,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: you were out in the Saints serving fans Nationals fans
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: on their perspective of how the season is going, the
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: state of the organization. What was some of the feedback
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: you got and what you hear from the fans last night.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was funny. I don't know entirely what I
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: expected coming out of this, but the overarching premise is
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: that it's very mixed in terms of whether people are
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: ready to believe, and I honestly think that that's the
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: rational state of mind to be at right now. Almost
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: everyone came into the season not thinking that it was
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: going to be anything, not knowing how many games they
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: might show up to this year, or how you know,
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: maybe not how invested they'd be, but how much they'd
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: be willing to spend their money on the team, things
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: of that nature. The fact of the matter is people
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: are showing up now and happy to be there, but
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: there is still this mix of people who have been
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: fans for a long long time saying, hey, this reminds
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: me of twenty eleven when we went you know, eighty
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: and eighty two, or hey, this reminds me of five
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: where we started off really hot, but I didn't believe
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: in what was coming next. And then you have other
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: people saying, hey, this feels like twenty twelve. This feels
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: like maybe even the mid twenty tens in terms of
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: just the vibe at the park. And I think there
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: are enough people that thought, hey, this is going on
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: long enough where I don't even have to think about
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: the future, right I can just be happy with right
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: now and trust and everyone else to kind of do
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: their jobs and figure it out. Now again, I'm I'm
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: arriving at obviously talking to them at a high point
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: in the organization. They are four games over for the
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: first time again in seven years. It is a different
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: vibe than has been at the ballpark. In a long time.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: But there is a lot of optimism, even if some
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: of it is cautious from getting burned in the past,
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: that I think is just frankly exciting to see as
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: a reporter, right Like, you always want people to be
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: invested in the team, whether the team's playing well or
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: playing poorly. You want people to care about the team,
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: care about the players, And there's a care factor right
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: now that I think is pretty special in terms of
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: what they're building.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, and so many guys that we could give our
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: flowers too to last night, but I just want to
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: start with Nassim Nunez and the top of the second inning,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: just a ridiculous play, lunging out into the right field,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: shallow right field area like an NFL wide receiver, and
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: then he helped get the scoring started. He had two
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: triples in last night's victory. But here's Blake Utia on
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: the National second basement in their win last night.
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think is a really good job of slowing
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: the game down. And he does play that chip on
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: the shore and think that's what makes him really good.
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: I think when he when he goes all out, he
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: does the things that he did tonight, you know, he
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: beats the ball to second base. I think he sometimes
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: surprises himself with what he is able to do because
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: of how athletic he is. So I hope tonight that
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: he's you know, I don't know if he realized he
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: could get to that ball that he got to when
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: he dove and caught it earlier in the game. I
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: don't know if he thought he could beat the ball
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: to second base. I don't know he thought he could
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: hit a triple off the wall. You know, like some
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: of these things that he did tonight hopefully shows him
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: what he's capable of doing.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: And later on things got a little fickle when Isaac
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Collins delivered a game tyme base hit, but Curtis Mead
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: delivered the big three run blast in the bottom of
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: seventh inning put the Nationals up six to three. Here's
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Butterra on Mead stepping up in those bigger situations over
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: the course of the season.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: He's so calm, cool and collected.
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: You know, whenever you're talking to him, you feel like,
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: you know, there's just an easy way about him. And
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: in those moments, he does such a nice job of
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: having a really good plan of what he's trying to
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: do up there, and knowing who he's facing and the
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: ability to slow the game down and trink the zone
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: and get a pitch that he can do some damage
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: on is right up there with some of his best qualities.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: And you know, when you have a guy like that,
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: you feel good about them up in those big situations.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Now. Tuesday night, the pitching was superb, as it has
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: been in several of the previous games during this incredible
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: stretch the team has been on. Big shout out to
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Paxson Schultz first big league victory, Gus Varlin with his
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: sixth save of the season. Spencer, I'm curious, you know,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: what's the state of this bullpen right now? In your perspective,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: they have played a pretty important role over the last
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: few games in securing these victories.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And part of what's interesting about this is a
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: lot of them, like have higher walk rates than you
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: might expect recently, which at the start of the season
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: was like their downfall. Right Like there we both saw
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: at a time they're falling behind and counts, giving up
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: homers when they do it, or expanding the zone too
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: much when they get you know, it's a two to one, three,
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: one out and they're walking guys, and that really was
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: their downfall. Now they're figuring it out now, But I
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: think I might be more pessimistic just because of the
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: process that's happening right now. Like I don't want to
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: say they're getting lucky, because I think it's always important
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: and it is a real skill to be able to
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: pitch out of jams, for instance, and like Love Ladies
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: shown that all year and Gus has sown that for
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: stretches this year. But I think it still is a
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: bullpen where if I'm guessing what's going on in these
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: picture meetings right now, it's hey, like keep throwing at
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: the strike zone, right like they can't get away from
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: that process. I believe they have their their player plan
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: meetings coming up pretty soon, which is when they you know,
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: talked all the players individually in those like twenty on
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: one meetings that we talked about with Kaber, and I
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: have to imagine every single time the pitcher walks through
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: the door, one of the first things they say is, hey,
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: just throw the ball and strikes on it early, right,
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: and then figure it out from there. So yeah, walk
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: reets are a little concerning, but you know, nice to
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: see Gus come out of that with a with actually
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: was it a save? I don't want to.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, see yeah, credit for yeah, six sixth save of
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: the season, which up in the press box they were
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: telling us it was his third save of the season. Initially,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: everyone kind of turned their head a little bit. The
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: correction came a few seconds later. Six seeds of the
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: season for Gus.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so yeah, nice to see him get a saving
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: with giving up a homer to Lanne Thomas and things
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: of that nature. So it's not a bullpen whatever by
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: any means you should be given up on. But we
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: think about, hey, potentially like I saw buy at the
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: deadline or something like that. Yeah, there is room to
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: maybe add to this bullpen. Get guys who can throw
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: strikes consistently or miss bats consistently.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: One hundred percent. And one thing I asked about in
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: the postgame press conference to blake Y Taro was if
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: there was any consideration to extend Richard Lovely to the
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: ninth inning. If the Nationals had scored in the eighth
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: inning James Wood and Jose Tenna with very deep flag balls,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: that would have been three home run, three run homers
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: to make it a six run lead at the time.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: But here's Butterra on the possibility of that. Of course
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: it was on the table, had the national security bigger lead.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, of course those things are always those conversations always
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: happening in the dugout, and our pictures are always ready,
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: you know, kind of dependent upon what our offense does,
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: how big the lead is, whether we can go, let
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: guys go multiple innings, things of that nature. But yeah, absolutely.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: Oh. In last night's game, there is a discussion between
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: but Terra and the umpires that kind of rolled over
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: from Monday nights victory having to do with the ABS replay. Senser,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: I want to get your thoughts on this really quickly,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: but here's but Terra on it. In the post game
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: back to back.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: Nights, it looked like our catchers were thinking about challenging,
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: and basically they just wanted to have us make it
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: clear if we wanted to challenge or not.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Spencer, I really really wish we had Kevin on for
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: this episode to get the player's perspective here. But to me,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: that just seems like such blasphemy that this is somehow
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: becoming a storyline that it's on the players and turned
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: to being on them. That like they really need to
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: clearly indicate that they're challenging when the story going around
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: for Monday Night is that Caber maybe just wasn't sure
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: about challenging, but he didn't he didn't protest it. What
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: are your thoughts on all of this? And obviously I
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: do think there should be some sort of indication here,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: but the reaction time sort.
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: Of at all.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I almost I don't know if I'm playing Devil's
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: Advocate or if I actually believe this. I don't want
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: to say Umpire's in the right because I'll get my
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: head on a stake, but I think it is like
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: Camber didn't touch his head right, and like probably shouldn't
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: have been called for an APS challenge. And it's hard
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: as a player, I think from talking to players just
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: in the fact of like, hey, you kind of always
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: have that I don't know what the right word is,
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: but that instinct to want to touch your head when
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: like any pitch is even close right, and so you
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: got to kind of teach yourself out of that. But
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: you get yourself in trouble when you come close to
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: doing it right, and so it should be clear and indicative.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: I think probably the player has to both. I'm not
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: saying this is what the rule is. It probably should
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: be both verbal and physical where you need to both
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: touch it and say I'm challenging because you put the
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: umpires in a bad spot when it's like they have,
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: you know, all these things that they have to pay
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: attention to, and all of a sudden, you're like doing
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: this and like the players all the time, I think
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: they're about the challenge because they grab their helmets all
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: the time and they like shake them around or whatever,
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: and so I think it does have to be maybe
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: a role where it's more clear and indicative right now
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: because no one has been put in a good spot there. Yeah,
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: I think players probably have to be a little more
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: aggressive isn't the right word, but maybe have to be
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: a little clearer in terms of how they give it.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: And I think umpires maybe going into next season need
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: to clarify what the rule is because you shouldn't have
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: moments like that and back to back games, I think
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: for the national standpoint, O for the umpire standpoint.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: To me, it's such a natural thing is a baseball
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: player to want to go and just adjust your cap
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: in a way, and if you've been telling the guys
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: since February or March. Hey, this is how it's going
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: to work this year. You gotta do this. And Carbert,
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: who is a guy who's maybe been a little trigger happy,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: but in the first inning obviously did not need to
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: be challenging some of those calls on Monday night. Hell,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: it didn't matter. We won the game, but it to
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: me as being something that is getting so drawn out,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: really quite unnecessary, but really makes for some good entertainment
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: at the ballpark. And if you a head over to
• 10:36
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  Speaker 1: So big shout out to seat geek Spencer. We are back.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Let's get into Monday night's victory, which the Nationals were
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: victori The Nationals were victorious on Monday night, obviously a
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: score of seven to three. Dylan Cruz really starting to
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: turn a corner here in my opinion. He delivered the
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: critical blast to put them up in seven put them
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: up seven to three in the bottom of the fifth inning.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: Some of your top players from the game Andrew Alvarez
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: started when four innings just one run aloud, and NA
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: seen Nunez doing it again two for two in that
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: game with a walk and two runs score. He is
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: on fire. But who stuck out to you most in
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: Monday's victory, Spencer.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd want to talk about both Knas and Dylan
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: because I think it's a stretch here that maybe has
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: gone under the radar for some people who either follow
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: the team ork casually or just like don't check fan
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: drafts every day like I do. I think let's start
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: with with Dylan. He's at the point now where it's
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: I think three homers in the last ten games. Is
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: clearly and consistently lifting the ball in the air. And
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: that's something where when I talked to him in the
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: years past about the importance of pulling the ball in
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: the air, he's always used this phrase about the parties
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: out in front, which means like slugging percentage is out
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: in front. When he catches a ball at the front
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: of the plate, he's able to do more damage because
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: he's able to pull the ball in the air. But
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: when he talked about in years past, it was, hey, like,
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: my swing is still great when I'm you know, have
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: power the opposite way and I'm able to do things
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: of that nature when I think the fact of the
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: matter is like, yeah, he can hit the ball hard
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: when it goes the other way, but he's such a
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: valuable player when he pulls the ball in the air.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: Like you look at what Cal Rawly did last season
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: hitting sixty homers. I think almost every single one of
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: those is a pull side homer. You look at what
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: k Bear is doing this season, like does not have
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: a ton of juice in his bat, but is putting
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: up all times slug numbers from his perspective because he's
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: pulling the ball in the air. And Dylan's the same way,
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: where when he lifts the ball consistently and he pulls
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: it in the air, he's so impressive. And so for
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: him to be able to kind of put this offense together,
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: and yeah, I know that the surface level numbers aren't great,
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: but the underlying stuff is really encouraging. To see him
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: be able to pull the ball in the air and
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: have those kind of encouraging process results are really important.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: And then for Nas and you know, I'm sure you
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: have thoughts here as well, but I was even talking
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: to fans yesterday and like so many of them brought
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: up Nas as either a player that they were were
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: out on or honestly, many of them were like, hey,
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: like this guy needs a longer runway. Like, sure, the
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: offense hasn't been spectacular, but he's been a winning baseball
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: player nonetheless, right, Like, he wins you games with his defense,
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: even with the occasional error. His base running consistently wins
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: you you know, extra runs or extra opportunities in a
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: way that other guys just cannot. Like, he's second in
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: all of baseball and stolen bases with whatever three hundred
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: on base percentage or whatever it is, and over his
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: last fifteen games, he's hitting three hundred. Right, So, no
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: matter how you slice it, these are two guys that
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: are really important to the roster. And whether they've gone
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: under the radar or whatnot, Like we've seen the coaching
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: staff help almost every single other player in this roster,
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: right with a little more time, why can't those two
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: also maybe take another you know, take another step.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah. To me, it's just when I was walking around
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: in every Nationals fan that I've spoken with in the
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: last week, I'm hearing a lot of Hey, I think
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: this could be a new Dylan, and I don't want
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: to speak too early. I'll knock on wood. But over
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: the last week or so, it's not just a lot
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: of the hard hit groundouts. He's also starting to elevate
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: that ball. You're seeing the home runs come, and of
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: course the fielding and the base running all that other
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: terrific stuff is still there. So really just an incredible player, Spencer.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: You wrote about this on Monday. Now the Nationals are
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: four games over five hundred for the first time in
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: seven years, since twenty nineteen, the championship season. There's a long,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: long list list of reasons. But would you like to
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: dive into that a little bit and how they've gotten
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: to this point On June seventeenth.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, again, Like, I want to be careful about how
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: I say this, because I think the old administration gets
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: a lot of flack, and I think that there were
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: plenty of things that just whether it was a lack
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: of communication upstairs or things of that nature. Like you
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: can't really point your finger at any one person, but
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: the operation just wasn't as smooth as it was before.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: And now you're seeing every single guy on the roster.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: Just about every single guy in the roster benefit from
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: just clear, consistent communication, coaching positivity any way you want
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: to start it, Like we brought up Dylan pulling the
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: ball in the air, great James Wood, better player, catching
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: the ball deeper in his legs. More has faith in
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: the coaching staff to provide accountability.
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: C J.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: Abrams again, kind of same story. They're keeping him in
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: the zone, even if maybe the last week he hasn't
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: done on the zone so much. They're limiting the windows
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: where he isn't. They're coaching him up well, like I mean, heck,
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: give me any player in the miles Michaelis again, they
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: fixed his velocity, Zach Lttel, They got him in the
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: zone more and sure that was partially Zach himself. You know,
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: like this isn't just all on coaching. It's on the
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: players themselves too. But they're showing him kind of the
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: biomechanics he needs to figure it out. I'm just kind
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: of going up and down the roster like Dalen, I mean,
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: he's he's been stable, like he might be even the
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: one player where it's like, hey he's doing the same
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: thing as last year, but hey, that's a positive player,
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: and they fixed his defense where they helped him like
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: work on his reaction times. Caber and Millis, like two
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: of Millis was okay framing wise, but Cabert was the
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: single worst framing catcher of the last four seasons, and
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: now he's a top ten framing catcher in baseball. That's
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: a huge credit to Bobby Wilson, who's also worked with him.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: Just on the personal side, they could like I'm not
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: going to keep talking because I could do this for
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: ten more minutes, especially if he started to dive into
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: the minor leagues and things like that. But it's all
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: these guys either strengthening the strains they had before when
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: it comes to c J and James, or like eliminating
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: one or two weaknesses in their games, whether it's just
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: about any other player I named. So this is the
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: benefit of coaching. And part of why I think I've
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: started to believe in a way that even a couple
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: of weeks ago I might have said, nice story, but
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: we'll see is the fact that almost any time they've
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: been like down and out, they've come right back and hey,
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: it's still whatever mid June. Like I don't I haven't
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: bought plane tickets to Milwaukee for the wild Card Series
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: or anything like that. Like, I think, obviously this still
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: needs more time. We'll see what happens at the deadline.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: But there are just so many different places you can
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: point to Curtis Meat, like I haven't even brought him up. He's,
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: you know, crushing the ball. Like there's just there's so
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: many good stories on this team. Frankly, so much so
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: that it's I don't say it's difficult to write about,
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: like it's a it's an opportunity, it's great, But there's
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: there's just a number of stories here in the past
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: where what so much of it was James, c J
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: and Mackenzie and figured it out from there. Where now
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: it's like the whole roster's been lifted up. So it's
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: it's such a stark change from twenty twenty four and
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: Five, i'd say refreshing. As a writer. I feel like,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: just finally some good new storylines that you get to
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: put out to the people.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I've been telling you this the other day.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: Like when I would write about players in the past
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: and like trends that they were on or whatever, i'd
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: kind of have to hurry, right, because you don't know
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: whether a trend is going to sustain itself, meaning like
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: you have to write it in time, or if you
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: did write it, it's like, hey, they might fall off
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: a cliff right after that. Like I wrote about Cabre
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: pulling the ball in year a month ago, and he's
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: still pulling the ball in the year. Like I wrote
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: about Dylan pulling the ball in the air a few
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: weeks ago, He's still pulling the ball year I wrote
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: about I mean, I could just go like up and down,
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: James catching the ball further back, like he stills an
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: ops near a thousand, right, Like all these storylines and
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: trends are sustaining themselves. And there's even stuff I have
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: in the chamber now that like I'm waiting to write,
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: but I know that odds are the guy's going to
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: keep producing. And so to see it just continue again
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: and again and again, it is such a credit to
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: the processes, and more than that, is such a credit
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: to the players for sticking with it, believing in it,
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: and for lifting each other up.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: That's just how I was going to wrap this up,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: because I was gonna say it's not entirely on the players,
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: it's certainly somewhat on the coaching, but I think a
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: lot of the credit is to the players. They're the
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: ones on the field making it happen every single night.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: But I also want to give my flowers to like
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: Bobby Wilson and Blakey Tear and the coaching staff. Those
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: guys are incredible. Really quickly, want to remind you all
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: to subscribe because we're definitely going to have some minor
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: league focused episodes in the future, and you don't want
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: to miss our one thousand subscriber giveaway. We are actually
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: giving away this Eli Willetts sign baseball card. I think
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: I should just pick it up maybe and hold it
• 20:47
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• 20:50
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• 20:52
  Speaker 1: and I have it on display there. Let them show
• 20:55
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• 20:57
  Speaker 1: us out. You don't want to miss an episode really quickly.
• 21:00
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• 22:03
  Speaker 1: You get a look at the National's upcoming schedule. They
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: finish up the home stand today against the Kansas City Royals,
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: back on the road with an off day on Thursday
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: to take on the Tampa Bay Rays. They come back
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: for a four game set against the Phillies. Man That
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: is going to be an exciting one you look ahead
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: to later today Wednesday afternoon. Zach Littel is currently your
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: probable picture probable pitcher to get the rock later today,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: but last time out was not terrific in just the
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: second inning, one two three, first inning. But Spencer, I'm curious,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: you think we could see a little kick start my
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: heart out of the bullpen. Maybe PJ pullan open it
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: up or something to those sorts later today.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's absolutely the possibility anytime Lettell or Mike Lift
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: starts and again credits to them for being willing to
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: have those guys start out in front of them. Candidly,
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: I don't honestly know how closely, and I hate to
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: admit this, but closely, I'm gonna watch day game because
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: I have like three hours of transcripts to write out
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: in terms of from yesterday's game to give all of
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: your thoughts on how fans are feeling at the park.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: But anytime a ball is hit hard, I will look
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: up for my computer and watch closely, and I'm sure
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: on the Thursday off day I'll be able to run
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: it back so on Friday we can actually know what
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: we're talking about.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: It's all for you Nationals. Fans. Friday, we are going
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: to be jumping into your true thoughts. Spencer was walking
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: around the ballpark talking to you all. Hopefully you all
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: listen to the podcast. You don't want to miss that
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: one on Friday. But you wake up this morning and
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: look at the National League's standings. The Nationals are eight
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: and a half games back at the Atlanta Braves. The
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: Braves game was suspended last night. They are resuming with
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: a doubleheader today. But more importantly, you look at the
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: wild cards standing NAT's fans, Your team is in the
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: playoffs as of today, thirty nine and thirty five. It's
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: good for the third wild card spot, Spencer. Before we
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: head out, I guess my question for you is which
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: team would you not want to play in the playoffs
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: in the National League right now? Because I think it's
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: very funny that the one seed kind of just gets
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: to pick from the wild card. It's not like they
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: get the six. They one gets their pick at the
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: three of us.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a funny question. Uh. I mean, so's the
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: here's the tough part, right. You don't look at run
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: differentials on the standings Braves, Brewers, Dodgers, It's all like
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: over one hundred and everyone else in the NL, Like
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: the Nationals are fourth in the NL at plus seventeen
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: or whatever it is. You know, all those teams in
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: the bunched up in the division races are thriving, and
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: all the wild card teams, like Diamondbacks I think, have
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: negative run differential Cubs negative Diamondbacks. I mean Padre is
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: like either slight positive or slight negative. Like, so really,
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: those those three division winners are going to be brutal
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: in the playoffs. I still don't like that's saying the
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: Nationals are going to yet, but I think any of
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: those teams are going to be a real, real challenge
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: for anyone that winds up in one of the wild
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: card spots.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't want to have to play any of those
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: teams ahead of me, unless, of course it was in
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: the playoffs. That would be fantastic. But it's only June seventeen.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: Playoffs should be talked about. Playoffs really quickly. I just
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: want to say, like, we don't really do necessarily shout
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: outs on the show, but me and Spencer's lines are
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: always open at bat Boys Shelley on Instagram, and I
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: do want to give like a shout out really quickly.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: There's a birthday in the frans In household. That's why
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Kevin can't join us today. So we still a happy birthday.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: And I never get to use this thing. Don't love
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: the soundboard in particular, but happy birthday in the frans
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: In Household. But look forward to seeing Kevin over at
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: the ballpark. He was well, Spencer anything before we head
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: out here.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: That's all I got, I guess, just a big happy birthday.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: Big old happy birthday. Keep on reading the Athletic and
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: keep on listening to us here on District Territory, and
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: keep on following the Foul Territory Network. Will see you
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: on Friday. Have another giveaway for you until then, see
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: you later.