Latest / District Territory / Should the Nats buy, sell or something in between?

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Should the Nats buy, sell or something in between? · District Territory

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the District Territory Podcast. I'm Eric Shellhouse
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: from bat Boys Baseball and joining me Spencer Nuzzbaum of
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: The Athletic. The Nationals splitting the first two games in
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: this series against the Philadelphia Fillies.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: But last night it was just.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: A nightmarish ninth inning for the Nationals, giving up eight runs,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: all with two outs after two strikeouts. But let's pick
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: up our recap. In the bottom of the eighth inning,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: when the Nationals were trailing by a run in Jorbert
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Vibas lifted a three run, go ahead blast a center field.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: It really felt like a playoff atmosphere in there. We'll
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: get to some of that later on. But in the
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: ninth inning, with two outs, Brandon Marsh delivering a home
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: run into the Nationals bolted, just getting over the fence there,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: and then a few batters later, Bryce had Stott hooking
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: one inside of the foul pole. They would go on
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: to win fourteen to nine. Luis s Garcia did have
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: a home run for the Nats in the bottom of
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: the ninth inning. But here's manager Blake be Terra following
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: last night's loss.
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, like
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: I said, this is a frustrating loss. That whole clubhouse
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: is pretty fired up right now, and we have to
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: take a step back and realize this is a big series.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: We win yesterday, should have won today as well, have
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: two more games tomorrow the next day against these guys.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: We got to come out ready to go about as
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: frustrating a loss as we've seen as I've ever been
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: a part of, and in front of a great crowd
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: against this team that we know is a huge series.
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: At the end of the day, we I'm curious see
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: how we bounce back. I'm curiously how we respond to
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: this now.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Spencer, this loss was different from the walk off Grand
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Slam in San Francisco a few weeks ago, but it
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: certainly felt similar. What were your initial reactions to last
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: night's loss.
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And it's funny I wrote about this in The
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: Athletic because as we try to put this game and
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: this season into perspective, I think it's just so different
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: from the way that things were here in the past,
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: right where fans show up to the park with legitimate hope,
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: and it's not hope that just they're going to win
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: that day, but they're going to beat a divisival and
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: they're going to eat a division rival in a meaningful
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: game that matters for both sides. They're gonna stick in
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: the postseason hunt. And sure, at the end of the day,
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: it's one game, but yeah, man, it feels like it
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: matters more than the rest, right when you're playing the Phillies,
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: and when you lose a game like that, there's plenty
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: of different directions we can take this in. I think
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: either of us would lean to talk about the bullpend here, right,
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: because that's kind of been the achilles heel of this team,
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: where you know, their their starters have had some up
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: and downs, but if overall improved is the season's kind
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: of along. Their offense is, you know, obviously the best
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: in baseball. Even in this loss, they score nine runs
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: and that's without CJ in the lineup. That's without James
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: having his best game. I think he was zero for
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: five with three strikeouts against a really nasty Lizardo. They
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: fielding wise, they've gotten better as the season's gone along,
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: But man, that the bullpen is really striking to figure
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: this out.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the Nationals bullpen or pitching staff as a whole,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: went through eight pitchers last night. Packs and Schultz was
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: sent down this morning. We'll get into more of that
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: later on, but Spencer, you had a terrific question to
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Blake in last night's press conference about what he'd like
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: to see the bullpen improve on really just putting guys
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: away with two strikes. Here's Blake Deterr on that question
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: you had last night.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: Probably putting guys away with two strikes seems like, you know,
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: we were looking back at it, the two strike hits
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: were giving up in the eighth two strike hit, you know,
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: in the ninth turn of the two strike hit. It
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: just feels like we're getting we're getting in good counts.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: We just got to be able to put these guys
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: away starting that pitch as a strike in and as
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: a ball, especially when it's o two to one two. Obviously,
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: when things get the two two, three two, it's a
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: little bit of a different story. But when we're aheading counts,
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: we need to understand that the hitters backs against the
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: wall and we got to we gotta make a pitch.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Now, Spencer.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: A lot of national Sands might be calling for them
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: to be buyers at the deadline, and this Nationals bullpen
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: is certainly just missing pictures that can miss.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: Bats have high strikeout rates.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Is there anyone to your knowledge right now that sticks
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: out that's going to be on the market potentially as
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: someone that could help out this Neat's bullpen.
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's so. There's a mix of thoughts here, right,
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: I guess the overarching one is whether or not the
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: national should buy or sell at the deadline, And we
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: can definitely get into that in future episodes, but let's
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: stick with the mindset for a second, right, that they're
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: soft buyers, that they acquire a handful of deadline arms.
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: I'm not going to throw it a name, but what
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: I will say is that relievers are always the easiest
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: thing to find at the trade deadline, specifically where sure
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: there are never a ton of sellers, but there's always, always,
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: always teams that have a seventh inn guy they don't
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: need any more, or an eighth inn in guy they
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: don't need any more, or a ninth inn in guy
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: that hey like, maybe a top line team isn't trading
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: away but or trading for I should say, but a
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: team like the Nationals could acquire you look at when
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: they traded Dylan Floro two years ago, Like that guy
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: had an era in the Ones, but they trade them
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: to the Diamonbacks for Andres Schiparo like it. It was
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: kind of a minor move at the time, and it
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: didn't end up pumping out the Diamondbacks bullpen, and that's
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: something again you always take a risk when you acquire
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: these volatile arms. But yeah, they should have no trouble
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: finding relievers even in a seller's market. Ultimately, the question
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: is do they find the right ones if they want
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: to go out and acquire arms like there was a
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: world where they don't buy at all, if things fall
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: off the rails, or if they decide, hey, long term
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: is really our focus here. So yeah, they need relievers
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: that can miss bats, as we've talked about, as I
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: actually wrote about in The Athletic this morning. They do
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: it less than any other team and that that's been
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: a real shoe that doesn't have as easy of a
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: fix as maybe some of the other low hanging fruit
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: that they've addressed.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Right, it's not like a traditional issue sort of speak,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: how do you address just missing like with stuff. It'll
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: be an interesting, interesting problem with the Nationals choose to
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: address or not at the deadline, and we'll talk about
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: that more later on, but really quickly. Another quote from
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Blake pe Terra last night and I made a visit
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: over to the tarps off section. These guys were just
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: unbelievable all night long, and you could feel the energy
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: in the ballpark. Well, I few Terra saying it felt
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: like a playoff atmosphere in the postgame press conference.
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it felt like a playoff atmosphere in my opinion,
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: and we treated this game as such with the amount
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: of relievers we used and how we matched up in
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: all those things. And at the end of the day,
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: these guys need to feel this experience and understand this
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: is what it should feel like. Now.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: I think what was most exciting in that press conference,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Spencer and you were there too. For our listeners and
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: viewers that were not there. Mark Zuckerman followed up and asked,
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: is this something that you come into the series with
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: that approach or just tonight? Does it happened throughout the game,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: And Blake just very shortly and stantly responded like, we
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: came in with that approach, that plan. So the Nationals
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: are treating every game right now, it seems like or
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: at least these big ones right now against the Phillies.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: We know this is a big game, four game set
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: as a playoff set, playoff series.
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's something like so usually just to give fans
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: a peek behind the curtain. Usually in our pregame press
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: conferences we ask pretty like detailed specific questions a lot
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: of times, and this speaks to like what the season
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: means right now is a lot of times in the
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: past is what does this mean for the future, What
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: does this small detail mean? Stuff that kind of fills
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: in the gaps in our reporting or helps maybe generate
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: new ideas. Almost every single question pregame, and as you mentioned,
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: a hanf of questions post game, we're about the environment
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: and about whether it's smart to treat this like a
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: postseason series, whether it's fair to treat it like a
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: postseason series. Blake is leaning all the way into it.
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: I think it's hard to say that the players are
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: leaning all the way into it in the sense that
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: I think they It all depends on the guy, right,
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: Like some guys play better when they feel that moment
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: around them. Some guys play better when they treat it
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: like it's just any other game. And so you have
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: a mix of those personalities in the clubhouse, Like I
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: think we talked to VVOS yesterday who said that they
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: treat it like any other game. James more or less
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: said the same thing, with maybe a little bit more
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: leaning into the moment. But yeah, I mean, it feels
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: like a postseason series, and it feels like baseball matters
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: again in DC. And that's what makes it so heartbreaking
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: for Nationals fans, right is they haven't seen a winner
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: in a long time. They haven't even seen a fringy
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: team in a long time, and so yeah, this stung
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: for a lot of Nationals fans.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: Over close to thirty thousand at attendance last night, I believe,
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: but hopefully even bigger and better crowds later tonight.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: Uh W.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Miles Michelis on the mound, get into previewing that later
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: on really quickly.
• 9:07
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• 10:10
  Speaker 1: And we are back, as I mentioned, the Nationals one
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Monday by a score four to one. That first game
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: of the set has been an elusive one at times
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: throughout this season, but they've really turned a corner here
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: on it in the last month. A big reason why
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: was Foster Griffin seven in a third innings, nine strikeouts.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: I believe that had to be been a season or
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: career high for him. But Spencer, you wrote about it
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: in The Athletic a phenomenal piece. I cannot recommend that
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: people check it out enough. But I didn't ask you
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: before how you wanted to roll through this. But one
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: of the players the Nationals seems set to hold on
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: to it the deadline would seem to be CJ.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: Abrams.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: But another guy should the Nationals become sellers. Foster Griffin
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: is an obvious guy who fits that description. But again,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: you can't see this team making the postseason without him. Spencer,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: tell our listeners and viewers more about the piece you
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: had in The Athletic the other day.
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so we've all, you know, talked about Foster before.
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: It's like every time he goes out and has a start,
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: we're talking about him because he is the stabilizer in
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: this rotation. He has been the National's best pitcher this
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: year on a pitching staff as we you know, we're
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: literally just talking about, hasn't been able to kind of
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: hang with the best rotations in baseball. And yeah, Foster
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: is kind of this conundrum for the team right where,
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: you know, let's say they don't want to go all
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: out and buy because it's pretty early in the process still,
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: and when you do that, you sacrifice the years ahead
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: where they have a true chance of contending for a
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: World Series, where this year like they're not They're not
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: supposed to win the World Series this year, right, I
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: think that's a fair assessment there. They're not even really
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: supposed to make the playoffs. And so if you buy, yeah,
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: you stand it to make the playoffs, but you really
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: can hurt future years. On the flip side, let's say
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: you sell, if you sell hard, you sell C. J. Abrams,
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: you really risk with you know, as a new front office,
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: as a new coaching staff, kind of harming some of
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: those relationships, right with players, with coaches who have spent
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: hours and hours and hours diving into this team. You know,
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: you you risk the effort, not just in the next
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: couple of months, but in future years. You risk losing
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: a clubhouse that you do not want to lose. And
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: the whole power of this team, right has been their effort.
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: And so when you lose that, you lose a lot.
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: And so that's what traininge CE James does And so
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: for a lot of fans, the natural middle is let's
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: buy in sell right, Let's do something in the middle
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: where we sell someone who's good enough to get you know,
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: really good future assets or a least pretty good future assets,
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: and let's buy you know, maybe canfor the levers or
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: figure it out from there. And what I kind of
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: ad and the story is, you know, Foster is that
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: player theoretically that they would sell right in that kind
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: of soft middle, except they really can't make the postseason
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: without him. That's not to say they will make the
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: postseason with him, but he's just he's been so good
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: for this team. They don't have another guy maybe outside
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: of Kid Givali, who's shown this season that he can
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: keep his era under four and pitch with length and
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: save the bullpen which has been taxed and kind of
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: all these different conundrums. So they're kind of right in
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: this weird spot where they it's not as though the
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: plans are going to fall in their hands, like they
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: have to make an actual decision here right, Like they
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: can't just oh, this is the easy call. We'll we'll
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: do this or we'll do that. Like there's no easy
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: decision left for the Nationals, even when it seemed for
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: a second like there might be a.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: One Yeah, the guy's on a one year contract. And
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: I didn't make some notes. He threw one hundred and
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: five pitches the other night on Monday, which was a
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: career high for him. But yeah, he is the obvious
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: trade candidate should the Nationals choose to be sellers at
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: the deadline. And another guy that I think is an
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: interesting name, Curtis Mead, should the Nationals tilt in that direction.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: I think he's another guy that you could argue he's
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: not The Nats probably aren't part of the playoff picture
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: if you remove this guy from the roster. But with
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: both of them, Spencer, what kind of package do you
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: think these guys could return, because these are impactful players
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: for teams that could use them.
• 14:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think the easier comp is Foster with what
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: Soroka got last year, and even Soroka was an interesting
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: case right where the underlying stuff was probably from remembering
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: correctly a tick better than what Foster has in terms
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: of the expected numbers and kind of the under the
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: hood stuff where Fosters are still good, don't get me wrong,
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: but they don't suggest he's a three one five ere
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: ag more of like a three eight five three ninety five,
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: which is still a good picture, but maybe more of
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: like a number three or four in a postseason rotation. Soroka, however,
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: had that velocity dip. If you guys remember tailing into
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: the deadline where I think that really probably hurt his
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: value in a way where the Nationals weren't able to
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: get the absolute best package for him because of that,
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: But they were still able to get a very good,
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: very good package, even if at the time it seems,
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: you know, decent. They got Ronnie Cruz Back who's been
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: a top one hundred prospect, and Christian Franklin, who's a
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: nice kind of triple A outfielder who could crack the
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: majors at some point this year. So if you're thinking
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: about foster packages, that's kind of where my mind goes,
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: in the sense that maybe someone who's not a top
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: one hundred prospect now with someone who could sneak in
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: there in the right development system. Curtis. It's so much
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: harder to tell, and I do not want to make
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: a single proclamation about whether or not they're going to
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: trade Curtis.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: Mead right, I would agree with that too, because he
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: has proven that this is a guy that can be
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: a big league player and play multiple positions. I mean,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: for those of you that follow the Nationals closely, but
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: maybe not as closely as me, this guy was not
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: working out at third base as spring training, and he
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: looks like a natural over there. Since the demotion of
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Brady House, he's gotten a lot more innings at third base,
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: and the power, we can't say enough about it. In
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: the clutch gene, he has been phenomenal. I think this
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: is a guy that if you're the Nationals, you really
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: really have to consider keeping just for future long term
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: development purposes.
• 16:40
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: And what's complicated, too, is it's so hard to parse
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: out what another team might think of him. Right now.
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: I've started to kind of get the pulsal league, but
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: i haven't talked to enough other teams where I'm comfortable
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: saying this is what the league feels about him. But
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: I think it's it's just it's just a hard player
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: to figure out what the return is, right, because he's
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: been so good this season and all the underlying stuff
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: says this is sustainable in the sense that his his
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: swing decisions are better, his his bat is clean, like
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: every every the power is there. Everything you want to
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: see in a modern hitter is what you see in
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: Curtis Meade and right handed hitters are are a valuable
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: commodity right now, that being said, and he has three
• 17:30
  Speaker 4: years of control, right but that being said, it's just
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: it's hard to know if a team's going to look
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: at that or they're going to look at the years
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: prior where you had no ops in the six hundreds,
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: and whether the Nationals even want to trade him, as
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: you were alluding to, right, he is someone that I
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: you know, when they traded six rounds last year's six
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: round pick for him in late March. I think it
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: was at the very end of that CUB series, or
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: maybe very middle of the CUB series. It was none
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: of us were talking about him like a franchise pillar
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: or someone in the thick of a good roster, and
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: here we are. He's figured it out and made things
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: a lot more complicated for the Nats, and I'm looking
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: forward to kind of calling around the league, talking around
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: the Nationals and figuring out what their plans might be.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: It's truly one of the most exciting times of the
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: year if you're baseball fans. Put it up there with
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: October and April. Now it ended up not mattering his
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: the Nationals won the game four to one, but in
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: the moment it really mattered a lot with the bases
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: loaded in two outs, but this call to Dylan Cruz
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: just horrific. But Spencer, what I'm wondering is what is
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: it going to take to get Blake Eutery ejected because
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: with a three run lead that would have extended it
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: to four. There.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: I thought that was going to be the moment.
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know what it'll take. It's funny Blake
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: after the game. If you listen just to the audio
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: of him talking about this call, you don't really pick
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: up on much, but he had a smile that he
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: it doesn't usually have that suggested he felt a type
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: of way about it. I think ultimately he probably didn't
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: go out there and get ejected because his it's you know,
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: it's his player's fault that they didn't have any abs
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: challenges left for a meaningful moment like that, and that's
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: why you want to save one for moments like this.
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: But you know, I am fascinated to see if Blake
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: gets ejected this year because if the over under said
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: it zero point five, I don't know what I'm taking right,
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: It's either going to be zero or one at the
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: end of the year.
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: I don't know what it's going to be.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: I really thought that was gonna be it, because, as
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: you said, it was the player's fault for putting him
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: in that situation. And that's another subject we'll have to
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: talk about another day when that's catchers should be challenging.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: But I just thought that was going to be it.
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: And if that doesn't do it, I don't know what
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: it'll take.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: We're going to take a quick break when we come back,
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: preview Wednesday nights matchup and Kay Cavali gets the rock
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: on Thursday.
• 20:06
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• 21:05
  Speaker 1: And we are back. Take a look at the nats
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: upcoming schedule. Two more here in the home stand against
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: the Phillies before they head over to Baltimore for a
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: Battle of the Beltways and then up to Boston. Keep
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: going with the Al East matchups, but later on today
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: Miles Michaelist gets the rock against Aaron Nola, who's turned
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: his season around. Last time out. Miles was pretty good.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: Six innings, pitched five runs. Tacked to his name was
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: the three run homer to Jonathan Oranda. That was the
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: ultimith blow. And then, as I mentioned, Kate Cavali gets
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: the rock tomorrow. He pitched very well on April first
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: and Philadelphia just one run aloud over six innings of work,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: but Spencer were going to be some of the keys
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: to today's game and bounce him back.
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: I mean, I think Miles has to give them length
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: and he has to give them with today, and those
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: are two things that don't always go together. He is
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: think in his last start got three whiffs on like
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: over forty swings, but also gave them, as you mentioned,
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: the length that they needed to at least get through it.
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: As we've talked about, the bullpen is taxed right now.
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: I presume, though don't know that poolan will open and
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: they will bring up someone from Triple A who will
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: be able to throw at least a couple of innings
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: with other guys in the bullpen either down or you know, cautious,
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: But yeah, I think the key is going to be
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: michaelas right, This Phillies lineup can be streaky, but if
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: you give them pitches over the heart of the plate,
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: they will hit it. And so for Miles, who is
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: at his best when he's commanding and throwing those pitches
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: kind of down in a way for him to command
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: the zone and command kind of the bottom corner of
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: it it, he's going to have to kind of not
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: be perfect today, but be pretty close to it, and
• 22:56
  Speaker 4: I think that'll be a fine line for him to
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: man it. So yeah, I think it's Michaelas But I
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: don't know if you have any other thoughts, because I
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: guess there are other directions you could theoretically take this in.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, I mean you could go the opener route today.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: I don't we haven't announced a corresponding move yet. I
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: don't think for the Paxton Schultz to motion. But yeah,
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: I'm expecting the Nationals to call up maybe a Riley Cornelio.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure what his throwing schedule has been like
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: the last few days, but it sure seems like that
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: might be the direction the Nationals go in. But someone
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: who will be available the next few days they get there.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: They don't get the off day, excuse me, so they
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: got to be ready to fire here.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: But also CJ.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: Abrams was a late minute, last minute scratch from last
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: night's game, Blake Tara spoke about in the postgame press conference,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: just something he felt in the pre game. To listen
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: to him really quickly.
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: He just felt it on a throw during ground balls
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: before the game. Tried to try to stay in there.
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: He's a tough kid, he wants to play. He thinks
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: that he'll be fine in twenty four to forty eight hours.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: The number one vote getter UH in the National League
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: side of all star vallot voting. But Spencer, what does
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: it mean to the Nationals if this guy is not
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: just out for twenty four to forty eight hours.
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: I mean, he is a huge part of their lineup.
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I just I know I wouldn't want to speculate
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: on that too much, just because we don't know if
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: that's actually going to be the case. Right, And sure,
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: they've he's healthy. They've scored it. Yeah, he's healthy. They've
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: scored nine They scored nine runs without him. The other
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: day in San Francisco they scored ten runs without him
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: if I'm remembering correctly. But this is this is still
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: a different offense when CJ's in the middle. So with
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: two big games against the Phillies where they're still treating
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: us like a playoff atmosphere, I think they'll want him back,
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: but they won't. They won't force the issue if he's
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: not healthy and just real quick on the bullpen front,
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: I believe Cornelio is not l eligible to come back
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: up yet. Just as a clarifying point, I think it
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: hasn't been fifteen days, though admittedly I have to look
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: into that and probably should know that heading into this podcast.
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: But I believe two pitchers who could theoretically come up,
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: and maybe we'll know this by the time episodes up
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: our Carson Pomquest, who they traded for for cast considerations
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: from the Rockies, and Paul Henry would be another option,
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: you know. Gun to my head, Pomquest would make sense
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: as the guy that they call up. However, again, by
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: the time this episode goes up, it's possible that I
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: could have been proven wrong. So I guess we'll see.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: I just checked the Nationals communications still know a corresponding
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: move announced, and I do think you're correct. I don't
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: think you should be expected to know that, but I
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: do think Cornelio is ineligible because of the time right now,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: really quickly want to remind our viewers to subscribe. We
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: are pushing towards five hundred subscribers, and once we get
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: to a thousand subscribers, we are giving away this Eli
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: Willetts signed baseball card that I pulled. Plus, you don't
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: want to miss any of our future giveaways or episodes
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: in the future. But you take a look at the
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: National League East standings this morning. The Braves did drop
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: a game to the Padres out West last night, So
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: the NAT's find themselves eight games back and they are
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: one game out of the National League wildcard race. Spencer,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: it's time for the closing thoughts, but Friday night, later
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: on at the Ballpark soccer giveaway tomorrow, and then over
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: to Baltimore and then the Red Sox. Those are teams that,
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: in my opinion, the Nationals you gotta take two out
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: of three from clubs like that at this point in
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: the season.
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think so, right, Maybe maybe we'll talk about
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: this a little bit more in the next episode, But
• 26:45
  Speaker 4: this is supposed to be after this Philly series, the
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: soft part of the schedule of quote unquote, But there
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: really aren't that many teams that are like just rollover,
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: especially not in in you know, late June early July.
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: So I always hesitate when that sort of framing is
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: brought up. But yeah, it feels like every series right
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: at this point is now it's going to take two
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: out of three for them to stick in this and
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: you know, potentially makes a noise at the deadline and beyond,
• 27:17
  Speaker 4: so I guess we'll see how things shake out.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: If twenty nineteen proved anything, the best thing to be
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: is playing playoff baseball for May nineteenth. On May twenty first,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: I'm forgetting the anniversary. Throw it out the window. May
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: twenty third, nineteen and thirty one day is all I
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: call it. But we'll be back on Friday, hopefully we
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: have Kevin Franzen from the Nationals back with us.
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: And until then, see you later.