Latest / District Territory / Reacting to Mike Rizzo's comments on the Nationals evolution

Transcript

Reacting to Mike Rizzo's comments on the Nationals evolution · 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 today Spencer does
0:12
Speaker 1: Baum of The Athletic. The Nationals have been on a
0:15
Speaker 1: tear recent excuse me, been on a tear recently. Five
0:19
Speaker 1: hundred and eight runs, the most in the MLB, and
0:22
Speaker 1: Louis Garcia Junior just on fire of late. Spencer, you
0:25
Speaker 1: wrote about this in The Athletic this morning. But how
0:28
Speaker 1: are you doing and how are the Nats doing?
0:32
Speaker 2: I'm doing well, and as usual, the Nats are doing
0:34
Speaker 2: better right, big win yesterday, and it's just so compelling
0:40
Speaker 2: to see them kind of take these series over teams
0:43
Speaker 2: that were expected to be so much better than them
0:47
Speaker 2: at the start of the year. And as I'm sure
0:49
Speaker 2: we'll talk about in a second, Louis has been such
0:51
Speaker 2: a big driver of that.
0:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, Louis Garcia Junior kicking off the party last night
0:57
Speaker 1: at eight to two victory just another I want no
0:59
Speaker 1: one to say career night for him, but he's just
1:01
Speaker 1: auditai lately, hitting the career high in home runs with
1:04
Speaker 1: twenty Foster Griffin doing what Foster usually does. But in
1:07
Speaker 1: the bottom of the fourth inning, Louie latching a home
1:10
Speaker 1: run and a bat flip rightfully, so to put him
1:12
Speaker 1: up five to nothing. Eleven game, sorry, eleven home run
1:16
Speaker 1: stretches in an eighteen game eleven home run streaks. That's streaks.
1:21
Speaker 1: How do I say this? An eighteen game stretch with
1:23
Speaker 1: eleven plus home runs? Bryce Harper, Wan Soto, Kyle Schwarber.
1:27
Speaker 1: Pretty good company for Louie right there. How I mean,
1:30
Speaker 1: we've talked about guys like CJ and James the All
1:33
Speaker 1: Stars going, but Spencer getting these other guys involved in
1:36
Speaker 1: the way that Louie has been involved lately, it's getting
1:39
Speaker 1: the offense clicking on another level that we haven't seen
1:43
Speaker 1: in a long time.
1:45
Speaker 3: Yeah.
1:45
Speaker 2: So I wrote about this this morning in The Athletic.
1:48
Speaker 2: One of the biggest things that I've maybe picked up
1:51
Speaker 2: on this season and especially over the last two to
1:53
Speaker 2: three weeks just talking to people around the org, talking
1:56
Speaker 2: to players in the clubhouse, is there's kind of this
2:00
Speaker 2: trait within the team as you see on the screen there,
2:03
Speaker 2: take what makes a player good and make it great
2:07
Speaker 2: is kind of the central philosophy for the Nats. And
2:09
Speaker 2: the way that I would describe that further is, let's say,
2:14
Speaker 2: you know, you're in your day job or whatever, and
2:16
Speaker 2: you're excellent a putting spreadsheets together or something like that, right,
2:22
Speaker 2: but you're not as strong as doing some other things.
2:24
Speaker 2: What's going to make you feel most empowered at work,
2:27
Speaker 2: what's going to make you feel like you're doing the
2:29
Speaker 2: job the best, and what's going to ultimately make you
2:31
Speaker 2: do the best job. It's if you're doing that like
2:34
Speaker 2: spreadsheeting or however, you want to put it as much
2:38
Speaker 2: as possible, and the organization around you is helping you
2:41
Speaker 2: do that more. That's basically just what's happening with the Nationals, right.
2:44
Speaker 2: It's hey, for pictures, do you have this nasty slider?
2:47
Speaker 2: Throw it more and we're going to make it even
2:49
Speaker 2: better for Louis. It's hey, there are and I look
2:53
Speaker 2: this up, there basically five players in all of baseball
2:56
Speaker 2: that make the amount of contact he makes with the
2:59
Speaker 2: amount of power he has. And they're all former All
3:05
Speaker 2: Stars like alf Jordan Alvarez is in that group who
3:07
Speaker 2: the Nationals just saw this week. The Nationals basically said, hey,
3:11
Speaker 2: we can we can help you make a little more contact,
3:14
Speaker 2: we can help you hit for a little more power,
3:17
Speaker 2: and we can live with the Chase if you're doing
3:19
Speaker 2: it in a spot where you are special, and that's
3:22
Speaker 2: with his contact at the top of the zone. So
3:25
Speaker 2: I mean, just such a credit to the ORG, but
3:27
Speaker 2: beyond that, such a credit to Louis, who you know,
3:31
Speaker 2: seven years into his big league career is really finding
3:34
Speaker 2: a groove here. And I don't know what you feel
3:37
Speaker 2: about this, but probably should be an All.
3:39
Speaker 1: Star this season, I would say so. I think maybe
3:42
Speaker 1: just a little too late to the production in terms
3:45
Speaker 1: of when the voting starts and whatnot. But I don't
3:47
Speaker 1: think there's any reason to not say, hey, this guy
3:50
Speaker 1: should be in the home run Derby. I mean for
3:52
Speaker 1: an event like that too, where it's kind of about
3:54
Speaker 1: getting in a groove and fans just want to see
3:56
Speaker 1: a guy launch home or after home or after homer.
4:00
Speaker 1: Nationals fans, No, you just put it in that spot
4:02
Speaker 1: for Luis right now, it's probably gonna be a home run.
4:05
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter how good that pitch is or who
4:07
Speaker 1: the pitcher is either. Imagine he knows who's throwing to
4:10
Speaker 1: him and knows what's coming. Another guy that launched a
4:12
Speaker 1: home run last night, CJ Abrams. This tied his career
4:15
Speaker 1: homers a twenty It also tied the Nationals for most
4:19
Speaker 1: home runs in Major League Baseball with the Yankees, who
4:21
Speaker 1: will be coming to town soon. But Spencer just an
4:25
Speaker 1: incredible statement last night. Who could have drawn that up
4:27
Speaker 1: at the start of the season that the Yankees and
4:29
Speaker 1: then the Nationals we're going to be the two most
4:31
Speaker 1: home runs cut it into the All Star break three games,
4:34
Speaker 1: four games left.
4:36
Speaker 2: Right, and again it speaks to just how much talent
4:40
Speaker 2: was in these players to begin with. Right Like, you
4:43
Speaker 2: talk about a guy like CJ who's shown that pull
4:46
Speaker 2: side power in the past, but it's gone up and down,
4:49
Speaker 2: it's gone in waves. He hasn't necessarily been able to
4:51
Speaker 2: sustain it for all one sixty two is he's kind
4:54
Speaker 2: of put it. He is able to do that now
4:57
Speaker 2: because he's filing that strength, right Like, he is able
5:00
Speaker 2: to pull the ball in the air in a way
5:01
Speaker 2: that most players are not. And that's where you're seeing
5:03
Speaker 2: almost all the home runs go. You're seeing a sort
5:06
Speaker 2: of i'd say, a version of c J Abrams that
5:11
Speaker 2: you know, teams around baseball, in the Nationals particular, always
5:13
Speaker 2: kind of knew was in there, but I think weren't
5:16
Speaker 2: necessarily able to unlock into the season, and again that's
5:20
Speaker 2: the case for all these guys in the roster, right
5:21
Speaker 2: is sure telling them, hey, lift the ball in the
5:24
Speaker 2: air if you can do it more, But Louis CJ. James,
5:29
Speaker 2: all these guys like they're tapping into power that was
5:32
Speaker 2: there before they just maybe didn't know how to get
5:34
Speaker 2: to it.
5:35
Speaker 1: Yeah. There's one thing though that I do want to
5:38
Speaker 1: talk about that maybe it seemed like a bit of
5:40
Speaker 1: a regression here to start of the July is the fielding.
5:42
Speaker 1: And we knew what it was at the start of
5:44
Speaker 1: the season. March and April was ugly, but they really
5:46
Speaker 1: really turned that around in May and June. Spencer, obviously,
5:50
Speaker 1: these guys are out there working out on defense early
5:52
Speaker 1: every single day. But is there anything that you've noticed
5:55
Speaker 1: in this home stand that they're trying differently to combat
5:58
Speaker 1: these issues.
6:00
Speaker 2: I don't know if there's something in particular, and I
6:03
Speaker 2: think even the team itself is kind of, I don't
6:06
Speaker 2: want to say, shying away from this, but doesn't necessarily
6:09
Speaker 2: see it as big of an issue right now as
6:12
Speaker 2: I do. And maybe that's because it's a small sample,
6:14
Speaker 2: which I would understand if I were to put my
6:18
Speaker 2: finger on anything. It is right before the All Star break,
6:21
Speaker 2: and that tends to be the time where things can
6:26
Speaker 2: slip a little bit, or at least in past seasons
6:28
Speaker 2: have But again, maybe it's a small sample. Maybe it's
6:32
Speaker 2: just that you know a handful. It's been the infield,
6:36
Speaker 2: in particular with cj and then Curtis Mead, both of
6:40
Speaker 2: whom had a good stretch in early June defensively, So
6:45
Speaker 2: it's not like that isn't within them, but sometimes you
6:48
Speaker 2: just get into these funks as as a player in
6:51
Speaker 2: the field, and yeah, I think it'll be interesting to
6:54
Speaker 2: see if right out of the All Star break these
6:57
Speaker 2: sorts of things are fixed.
6:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wish we had Kevin on today and could
7:01
Speaker 1: hear that former player perspective at the highest level and
7:04
Speaker 1: a guy who did it for many years, how that
7:07
Speaker 1: wear and tear starts to just get to your body
7:09
Speaker 1: in these months of July. We saw it with Cavali
7:11
Speaker 1: a few starts ago that it was simply just the heat.
7:13
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people picking up on the
7:15
Speaker 1: broadcast thinking, oh is this could this be something a
7:18
Speaker 1: little bit worse? At least that's where my stomach and
7:20
Speaker 1: guts started to turn to. But fortunately just the heat
7:23
Speaker 1: Tuesday night. The Nats were not victorious, but there was
7:26
Speaker 1: one play that stood out in particular to me. In
7:28
Speaker 1: the bottom of the first inning, first pitch to James
7:31
Speaker 1: Wood was called a ball overturned into a strike, but
7:33
Speaker 1: that didn't matter for James. He proceeded to hit yet
7:36
Speaker 1: another leadoff home run. And such a special player, such
7:40
Speaker 1: a talented player. But that to me, that moment alone, Spencer,
7:45
Speaker 1: that's the type of thing that makes you say, yeah,
7:47
Speaker 1: that's an MVP. Like that's what MVPs do, right right.
7:50
Speaker 1: They take a pitch, bumpfire, calls at a ball. Okay,
7:53
Speaker 1: other team makes the decision, we're going to challenge. We
7:56
Speaker 1: need it here, gets overturned, doesn't matter, batfoot boom, home run.
8:02
Speaker 2: I mean if, yeah, if Showhy didn't exist, yeah, I
8:08
Speaker 2: would say nationallygue MVP. He's right in that race, probably
8:11
Speaker 2: alongside a Peter Armstrong. That being said, show Hey does exist.
8:15
Speaker 2: But man, I remember I was talking with some people
8:21
Speaker 2: at the end of twenty twenty four and they were
8:25
Speaker 2: kind of laying out, Hey, here's what James wood career
8:29
Speaker 2: trajectory could be. And they're like, first year getting his
8:32
Speaker 2: feet under him, second year all star here three or
8:36
Speaker 2: four MVP. And I said, that's pretty quick for a
8:38
Speaker 2: player to become like the best player in baseball, even
8:41
Speaker 2: if we saw these great stretches, right and we see
8:43
Speaker 2: the power within and all these things. And they said,
8:46
Speaker 2: he learns the game so quickly and has developed so
8:50
Speaker 2: quickly and has some he basically has every single trait
8:55
Speaker 2: you'd want from both a mental standpoint and emotional standpoint
8:59
Speaker 2: of physical standpoint. Then it's hard to see him not
9:02
Speaker 2: winning one of these things down the road. And while
9:04
Speaker 2: it may not happen this season, moments like that, seasons
9:08
Speaker 2: like this, I mean, it just screams that he's going
9:11
Speaker 2: to win that award one day.
9:13
Speaker 1: Certainly we're gonna take a quick break. But when we
9:16
Speaker 1: come back, Mike Rizzo is on the Foul Territory Show
9:18
Speaker 1: the other day, we're gonna listen to some of his
9:20
Speaker 1: comments and walk through them. The first word from Today's
9:23
Speaker 1: Spots book.
9:24
Speaker 4: In summertime, it's cool in the morning, hot during the day,
9:28
Speaker 4: cool again at night. Rarely am I sitting there going, Oh,
9:31
Speaker 4: I'm just gonna do one thing at a time. I'm
9:33
Speaker 4: bouncing from work, I'm bouncing in the yard, I'm running
9:36
Speaker 4: to a game. Fabletics has got me with price, comfort
9:42
Speaker 4: and versatility with all the gear that I'm getting from.
9:45
Speaker 5: Them, Yeah, we're talking about premium activewear you'd expect from
9:48
Speaker 5: higher end brands, but without the price tag. Lightweight, breatheable, comfortable,
9:53
Speaker 5: built to actually last. And if you're going to Fabletics,
9:57
Speaker 5: you should be joining as a VIP, which completely changes
10:01
Speaker 5: the game. You can shop now at fabletics dot com
10:03
Speaker 5: slash foul to get seventy to eighty percent off everything
10:08
Speaker 5: when you sign up as a new VIP. Take a
10:10
Speaker 5: quick style quiz and be sure to select foul when
10:12
Speaker 5: prompted to unlock this offer. This is a limited time offer,
10:16
Speaker 5: so don't wait again. That's fabletics dot Com slash foul
10:20
Speaker 5: for seventy to eighty percent off everything as a new VIP.
10:25
Speaker 1: I want to remind you all to subscribe to the
10:27
Speaker 1: YouTube channel really quickly district territory over on YouTube. Once
10:31
Speaker 1: we reach one thousand subscribers, We're giving away this Eli
10:33
Speaker 1: Willets sign baseball card. I'm going to pick it up
10:36
Speaker 1: over at that card shop sometime before I take off
10:39
Speaker 1: for Philly, or maybe as soon as I get back
10:40
Speaker 1: from Philly. We'll see if we can squeeze it in
10:42
Speaker 1: before the Rizzo comments though, Spencer, as I searched for it.
10:45
Speaker 1: You conducted another National's main mail bag with the Athletic
10:49
Speaker 1: the other day. Uh, just curious. You know what were
10:52
Speaker 1: people asking throughout that and you know what were your responses?
10:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd say the most common question I received, and
11:01
Speaker 2: understandably so, is how the Nationals can fix this bullpen
11:05
Speaker 2: and what they might be targeting around that time. I
11:09
Speaker 2: still don't view it as a certainty that they're going
11:12
Speaker 2: to get a closer after the deadline. I think that's
11:18
Speaker 2: obviously something worth exploring. But to me, the most interesting
11:23
Speaker 2: kind of thing to think about, and the thing I've
11:26
Speaker 2: been poking around about, is what type of reliever the
11:28
Speaker 2: Nationals could go after. And the most distinct path that
11:32
Speaker 2: makes sense to me is a reliever with multiple years
11:36
Speaker 2: of control, who has a lot of whiff, who maybe
11:39
Speaker 2: doesn't have full bona fide ninth inning experience, but you
11:45
Speaker 2: could see get there.
11:48
Speaker 3: Now.
11:48
Speaker 2: Are those guys traded all that often? No? Are they
11:53
Speaker 2: easy to acquire?
11:54
Speaker 1: No?
11:54
Speaker 2: Do they require a good deal of something on the
11:58
Speaker 2: other side, Yes, But to me, when I think about
12:01
Speaker 2: the nest wanting to make this a sustainable adventure. It
12:05
Speaker 2: is thinking about you know, and I wrote about this
12:09
Speaker 2: in the Athletics. I'd prefer that you guys, I read
12:12
Speaker 2: it there as well. But yeah, just a handful of
12:15
Speaker 2: names from teams like the Angels, teams like the Rockies
12:21
Speaker 2: who maybe aren't set to compete in the next couple
12:25
Speaker 2: of seasons, where they might have our reliever, and the
12:29
Speaker 2: Nationals might have the farm system where something lines up.
12:32
Speaker 2: That's kind of what a lot of what I talked
12:35
Speaker 2: about in there.
12:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's obvious that everyone wants this team to go
12:40
Speaker 1: get relievers, but as you would test it to there,
12:42
Speaker 1: it's not just a one and done sort of fixed
12:45
Speaker 1: with this bullpen. We'll talk about that more in tomorrow's episode.
12:48
Speaker 1: But one thing that's really set aside the mats, aside
12:51
Speaker 1: from the coaching, aside from the players this year, the
12:53
Speaker 1: new technology. That's something that Mike Rizzo talked about on
12:56
Speaker 1: the main Foul Territory show the other day. I want
12:59
Speaker 1: to listen to hit comments and then talk about that
13:01
Speaker 1: with you afterwards.
13:02
Speaker 3: We were definitely behind technology, there's no question about it. It
13:05
Speaker 3: was something that we had requests for years and we
13:09
Speaker 3: just could we could just never get the ownership on
13:11
Speaker 3: board to get us a lot of the technology and
13:14
Speaker 3: the people to that that have to deal with the
13:17
Speaker 3: technology on board. When a new regime comes in, you know,
13:20
Speaker 3: it's it's often the time to strike when you want
13:22
Speaker 3: new things. And I think that you know, that group
13:25
Speaker 3: came in and you know, kind of demand that this
13:28
Speaker 3: is what they need for the franchise to succeed. And
13:31
Speaker 3: and I think that they got a lot of the
13:33
Speaker 3: things that we've been asking for for a couple of years.
13:35
Speaker 3: So what I've heard, they're slowly catching up and they're
13:38
Speaker 3: you know, they're getting to the to the point where
13:40
Speaker 3: they're getting the technology woven into the developmental process of
13:45
Speaker 3: of only not only the big thies, but the minor
13:47
Speaker 3: league system too, So it's good for them.
13:49
Speaker 1: Two things he said there stand out to me. Getting
13:52
Speaker 1: it woven into the minor league system as well, so
13:54
Speaker 1: that the Nationals will be good for years and years
13:56
Speaker 1: to come, but also the people that need to know
13:59
Speaker 1: how to operate this technology. It was no secret that
14:02
Speaker 1: the Nationals were quite a few years behind compared to
14:05
Speaker 1: other teams in baseball. But Spencer, how much do you
14:09
Speaker 1: know about what it required between ownership and the new
14:13
Speaker 1: regime to get this technology brought in, but also get
14:16
Speaker 1: the staffing brought in to help with that process.
14:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll lean on my reporting here in apologies if
14:22
Speaker 2: I go a little bit long on this one. It's
14:26
Speaker 2: kind of been at the crux of what a lot
14:28
Speaker 2: of my reporting has been this season. First and foremost,
14:32
Speaker 2: if we talk about what the new regime has done, Yeah,
14:35
Speaker 2: I mean so much of it was as they come in,
14:39
Speaker 2: making it clear to ownership that that is going to
14:41
Speaker 2: be the foundation of how they build this team.
14:43
Speaker 3: Right.
14:43
Speaker 2: And that's not to say that they won't get free
14:45
Speaker 2: agents down the road, but they know that sustainable winners
14:48
Speaker 2: in this game come from having elite you know, building
14:53
Speaker 2: a scouting and playing player development monster is kind of
14:56
Speaker 2: how Paul Deaboney put it. And to do that you
14:59
Speaker 2: need updated technolo, you need updated processes, and you need
15:03
Speaker 2: updated coaching. That is not what the national ten years past.
15:07
Speaker 2: That is what Paul, you know, and and you know
15:11
Speaker 2: others in the front office kind of made clear that
15:14
Speaker 2: they need to build this thing. And to ownership's credit,
15:18
Speaker 2: this season, they have signed off on a lot of that. Now,
15:22
Speaker 2: the flip side of this, and this would be against
15:24
Speaker 2: Ownership's credit, is that they should have invested in those
15:26
Speaker 2: things long ago, where I would maybe I don't know
15:31
Speaker 2: if different perspective is how I put it, but I'll
15:34
Speaker 2: just again kind of lean on my past reporting here
15:37
Speaker 2: in terms of what my Riiso said on Voul territory
15:40
Speaker 2: is there is no one person who's ever a couple
15:43
Speaker 2: in situations like this. But that also means ownership isn't
15:47
Speaker 2: the only one to blame in terms of what happened
15:50
Speaker 2: in the past. Yes, they should have invested in it sooner.
15:55
Speaker 2: Yes this should have been done, you know, years and
15:57
Speaker 2: years ago, but these were also requests that weren't necessarily
16:02
Speaker 2: like the central foundation of who the twenty twenty one
16:06
Speaker 2: to twenty twenty middle of twenty twenty five mats were right,
16:10
Speaker 2: Like when you're thinking about the sorts of things that
16:13
Speaker 2: the nationals did want to spend money on and did
16:16
Speaker 2: seem to put their emphasis on, it was and this
16:21
Speaker 2: is partially to their credit, but you know, paying people
16:26
Speaker 2: who are currently within were currently within the organization and
16:31
Speaker 2: making sure that not only you know, you're rewarding people
16:35
Speaker 2: for their good work, but you're making sure they stay
16:37
Speaker 2: as Nationals. It is spending money on the big league payroll.
16:42
Speaker 2: It is, you know, that is where a lot of
16:44
Speaker 2: the focus went. And I, at least from my understanding,
16:48
Speaker 2: there wasn't as much of a push for that technology
16:53
Speaker 2: going on behind the scenes. But isn't to say that
16:56
Speaker 2: micrisoone never asked ownership, hey can I have this, or
17:00
Speaker 2: hey can we add here? Like? Of course that happened, right,
17:04
Speaker 2: But to what degree did it happen and to what
17:09
Speaker 2: degree was that like kind of a central guiding philosophy.
17:12
Speaker 2: It wasn't what it was then that it is now.
17:17
Speaker 2: And more than that, it's it's not just about spending right,
17:20
Speaker 2: It's about getting the processes in place. It's not just
17:22
Speaker 2: about paying coaches, but spending money on the right coaches.
17:27
Speaker 2: And if you're adding, making sure you have an outline
17:30
Speaker 2: of why you want to add them and who they are.
17:33
Speaker 2: The Nationals are a completely different organization now, and again
17:35
Speaker 2: that's not just because of you know, Paul Tavoni. It's
17:39
Speaker 2: not just because of a change of hard and ownership.
17:41
Speaker 2: It's kind of all these things coming together. And so
17:43
Speaker 2: that's why I would never want to just put blame
17:46
Speaker 2: on one person. But again, there's a lot of people who,
17:49
Speaker 2: you know, twenty twenty to twenty twenty five, you could
17:51
Speaker 2: see maybe probably should have operated in a different way.
17:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, like you said, I don't think you can point
17:58
Speaker 1: any one finger at one direct It was a fascinating
18:01
Speaker 1: segment with Rizzo on foul Territory the other day, just
18:04
Speaker 1: talking about the relationships between ownerships and general managers. Another
18:08
Speaker 1: thing he spoke about was he's intrigued to see where
18:11
Speaker 1: the Nationals go from here in terms of trying to
18:14
Speaker 1: keep that talent homegrown. Let's hear what he had to say.
18:17
Speaker 3: When the Woods and the Abrams and those guys get
18:19
Speaker 3: to their high arbitration years and closer to their free agency,
18:24
Speaker 3: what does ownership do then? And I think that's going
18:27
Speaker 3: to dictate what direction that the franchise is going in. Now.
18:32
Speaker 1: One thing that I saw a lot of NAT's fans
18:35
Speaker 1: asking for in the off season, Oh, this could be
18:37
Speaker 1: a realistic extension maybe we get is a Dale and
18:40
Speaker 1: Lyles sort of deal. And they wanted it for good reason.
18:42
Speaker 1: After last year they said let's strike while iron is
18:45
Speaker 1: hot and get them locked up here is that is
18:49
Speaker 1: stat still the sentiment within the organization around him and
18:52
Speaker 1: the way that he has been hitting the ball of late.
18:55
Speaker 1: That's one guy in particular that stands out to me
18:58
Speaker 1: as a bona fide professional player, professional hitter, professional defender,
19:04
Speaker 1: knows how to run the bases, just all around quality ballplayer.
19:08
Speaker 1: That is my one thing on the Nationals extension wish list.
19:11
Speaker 1: Keep Daleen Lyle. But I'm curious, Spencer, who's a guy
19:14
Speaker 1: that stands out to you as far as like, I
19:16
Speaker 1: want the NET to keep this guy, and I think
19:18
Speaker 1: they can achieve it.
19:20
Speaker 4: Yeah.
19:21
Speaker 2: Again, I'd struggle to say too much of this without
19:24
Speaker 2: having all their reporting fleshed out. What I will give
19:26
Speaker 2: is a general case here with Dalen in particular, although
19:34
Speaker 2: the top line results of plateaued, that's still someone who's
19:39
Speaker 2: worth believing in. And what I will say is that
19:42
Speaker 2: generally speaking, the closer you get to arbitration, meaning basically,
19:47
Speaker 2: like the crux of what I'm getting out here is
19:50
Speaker 2: Dalen will be harder to extend a year from now
19:52
Speaker 2: than he is to extend now. He'll be harder extend
19:54
Speaker 2: a month from now than he is now. So the
19:56
Speaker 2: further you push this along, the less likely his to
19:59
Speaker 2: get extend. Did when I look at what smart teams
20:03
Speaker 2: have done, and this doesn't have an one hundred percent
20:07
Speaker 2: hit rate, but a lot of them lock up their
20:09
Speaker 2: either pre arm players or even their pre debut players.
20:14
Speaker 2: Where you could take and I'm just throwing this name
20:17
Speaker 2: out here, I need to insist that this is not reported,
20:19
Speaker 2: but like, I'm sure Nats fans would love Eli Willets
20:23
Speaker 2: to be a National for life. Right we haven't seen
20:25
Speaker 2: him yet. It probably would cost less than it would
20:27
Speaker 2: to lock up a guy who's currently in the big leagues.
20:31
Speaker 2: And so when you think about an Eli Willet's extension, that's, hey,
20:34
Speaker 2: we're extending him through his age twenty eight season as
20:38
Speaker 2: opposed to twenty six or whatever. To me, those sorts
20:44
Speaker 2: of conversations feel like the ones that would line up
20:47
Speaker 2: with the Nationals philosophy, whereas, again, like a James or
20:51
Speaker 2: a cj extension just feels so unlikely at the moment.
20:55
Speaker 1: Right, I think that's what a lot of fans are
20:58
Speaker 1: calling for now, And it's easy to say that when
21:00
Speaker 1: they're playing as well as they are. But I remember
21:02
Speaker 1: in the off season so many guys mentioned Dalen and
21:04
Speaker 1: I'm like, I do think that is a guy that
21:07
Speaker 1: is worth getting through the arbitration years also into free
21:10
Speaker 1: agency after seeing how he played for one hundred and
21:13
Speaker 1: sixty two last year. The final thing I wanted to
21:16
Speaker 1: pull from Mike Rizzo's Voul Territory segment the other day
21:18
Speaker 1: talking about how important it is for a general manager
21:21
Speaker 1: to know the direction of the organization, but that communication
21:24
Speaker 1: between ownership being critical.
21:26
Speaker 3: Most importantly, you have communication with your ownership. And here's
21:30
Speaker 3: how we're mapping out the rest of this season. Here's
21:33
Speaker 3: what we think as a baseball operations front office, what
21:37
Speaker 3: our chances are. Here's what we see the upcoming schedule.
21:41
Speaker 3: You know, where are we at in the standings and
21:44
Speaker 3: that type of thing. And I think that you make
21:46
Speaker 3: your recommendation to ownership on you know, we you know
21:49
Speaker 3: we should go for we have a chance or I
21:51
Speaker 3: think that you know, it's not you know, realistic to
21:54
Speaker 3: expect us to make the playoffs, and we're going to
21:56
Speaker 3: go into different directions. And once you get your direction
22:00
Speaker 3: mapped out, and that could that could let you know
22:02
Speaker 3: you may not have any true direction, you know, until
22:06
Speaker 3: a day or two before the trade deadline, because you know,
22:09
Speaker 3: you may be on a six day windstreak and really
22:11
Speaker 3: feeling good about yourself because nothing makes you feel better than,
22:15
Speaker 3: you know, winning games. You're getting on a little bit
22:17
Speaker 3: of her role now.
22:19
Speaker 1: In that segment, Rizzo was asked about specifically the Tigers
22:23
Speaker 1: front office and the potential of a Schooble trade. But
22:26
Speaker 1: I assume that applies to every organization and spencer how
22:30
Speaker 1: you know, not refreshing, but how nice is it to
22:32
Speaker 1: see where there seems to be some clear communication or
22:35
Speaker 1: at least ownership and the new regime are getting along
22:39
Speaker 1: a little bit nicer. But I still assume that that hey,
22:42
Speaker 1: are we buying? Our selling window is going to be
22:44
Speaker 1: twenty four hours before the deadline this year.
22:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think with communication in particularly, and that's maybe
22:50
Speaker 2: the one thing that I don't know. I don't want
22:55
Speaker 2: to say fans understand the least because I think they
22:58
Speaker 2: are quite knowledgeable about that stuff. But that is really
23:02
Speaker 2: what drives so much of these organizations is whether the
23:06
Speaker 2: front office and ownership are on the same page and
23:10
Speaker 2: are on the right page, I should say. And so, yeah,
23:12
Speaker 2: that's been a huge part of trying to determine whether this,
23:17
Speaker 2: like National's run, is sustainable and whether they can figure
23:20
Speaker 2: this thing out as it pertains the deadline in particular. Yeah,
23:22
Speaker 2: those will be conversations that will be had. They'll they'll
23:26
Speaker 2: need to be aligned on that front. And what Riz
23:31
Speaker 2: said is is exactly true with the deadline. Like I've
23:36
Speaker 2: circled this Yankee series because it feels like, you know,
23:39
Speaker 2: you want momentum going into the All Star break, but
23:41
Speaker 2: you could circle the Athletic series, or the Rocky series,
23:44
Speaker 2: or the Philly series, or the Brave series, like every
23:48
Speaker 2: every series from now until the deadline matters. Yeah, good,
23:52
Speaker 2: I didn't miss any of there. Oh the DBAC series, Yeah, yeah,
23:55
Speaker 2: that one too. But yeah, every single one of these
23:58
Speaker 2: series means a great deal for the Nationals and what
24:02
Speaker 2: might be possible the deadline and they may not have
24:05
Speaker 2: a final decision until right up until then, and they
24:08
Speaker 2: may not fully commit to buying or selling. It might
24:11
Speaker 2: be you know, very well could be something in between.
24:14
Speaker 2: So yeah, there's a lot kind of still TVD.
24:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll see next couple of weeks. Are really seems
24:22
Speaker 1: like they want to force that issue. Keep playing well, boys,
24:25
Speaker 1: another quick break, but when we come back, we'll take
24:27
Speaker 1: a look at nlly's standings, and of course the National
24:29
Speaker 1: League Wildcard.
24:29
Speaker 6: Standings This episode is brought to you by FanDuel Baseball fans.
24:35
Speaker 6: The MLB season is in full swing, and FanDuel is
24:38
Speaker 6: giving you a chance to call your shot with Daily Dingers.
24:42
Speaker 6: Joining the action is easy. Just make your free pick
24:45
Speaker 6: on who's hitting a home run in their game, and
24:48
Speaker 6: if you're right, you'll get a profit boost to use
24:50
Speaker 6: on your next bet for a chance at extra winnings.
24:54
Speaker 6: It's just another reason why FanDuel is the home of
24:56
Speaker 6: home runs. So are you ready to play your game?
25:00
Speaker 6: To FanDuel dot com slash podcast to get started. That's
25:03
Speaker 6: FanDuel dot com slash podcast. To opt in for Daily Dingers,
25:07
Speaker 6: make your free pick on who's hitting a homer playball
25:10
Speaker 6: swing for the fences on FanDuel, an official partner of
25:15
Speaker 6: Major League Baseball. No purchase necessary, opt in required. Bonus
25:18
Speaker 6: issued as non withdrawable profit boost tokens. Restrictions apply, including
25:22
Speaker 6: any token expiration and max wager amount see terms at
25:25
Speaker 6: sportsbook dot FanDuel dot com. Gambling problem caller tax one
25:29
Speaker 6: eight hundred gambler.
25:31
Speaker 1: You look at the NLE standings this morning, it just
25:33
Speaker 1: puts the biggest, fattest smile on my face. Although the
25:36
Speaker 1: centering on that does not I have to fix that.
25:39
Speaker 1: But the Mets in the cellar down there, fifteen games
25:42
Speaker 1: back of the Braves, the Phillies, Marlins, and Nationals all
25:45
Speaker 1: logjam there and you go over to the wild Card.
25:48
Speaker 1: It's the same thing. The natsa just three and a
25:50
Speaker 1: half back at the Miami Marlins. So we said in
25:53
Speaker 1: our last episode, one of their best months, if not
25:56
Speaker 1: the best month in franchise history. It's just such a
25:59
Speaker 1: fun story watch. But Spencer, can we say it's fair
26:02
Speaker 1: to the National League Geese is the best division in
26:05
Speaker 1: baseball right now headed into the All Star Break?
26:10
Speaker 2: Oh kind of seems like, yeah, I think so. Right,
26:14
Speaker 2: it's either them or the n All Central because the
26:17
Speaker 2: Ale least is not very good the Central and West
26:20
Speaker 2: or even worse, and the National League West is kind
26:23
Speaker 2: of just the Dodgers right now. Yeah, that'll leave a
26:27
Speaker 2: lot of fight left on the table, and even in
26:29
Speaker 2: the years ahead, right like, as the National has tried
26:32
Speaker 2: to project out what's our timeline, that timeline is probably
26:36
Speaker 2: going to include butting heads with the Marlins, right It's
26:38
Speaker 2: probably gonna include butting heads with at least one of
26:41
Speaker 2: the Phillies, Mets and Braves, and we're seeing that kind
26:46
Speaker 2: of play out right now. So yeah, they're you know,
26:50
Speaker 2: you look at all five of those teams. You can
26:51
Speaker 2: see all five of them doing well in twenty twenty seven,
26:54
Speaker 2: and that's what makes maybe twenty twenty six, you know,
26:59
Speaker 2: so important.
27:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's going to be a really fun, really fun
27:04
Speaker 1: stretch down here to the end of the season. However
27:06
Speaker 1: it piles out, it's just been fun. And as I
27:12
Speaker 1: bring it back up really again, really quickly, I guess
27:14
Speaker 1: I don't have the Pirates right beneath there, but yes,
27:16
Speaker 1: I do owe credit to the National League Central, like
27:18
Speaker 1: I guess I kind of crop them out of the
27:20
Speaker 1: screenshot of it, and well, hard standings there, but some
27:23
Speaker 1: really good teams over there as well. Of course, Spencer
27:27
Speaker 1: of the Nationals have a nice off day today, and
27:29
Speaker 1: then it's the Yankees tomorrow. We're going to get into
27:31
Speaker 1: previewing that tomorrow. But anything else you want to toss
27:34
Speaker 1: in before we head out today, No.
27:37
Speaker 2: I just recommend again reading my story on Louis and
27:40
Speaker 2: the team from the Athletic this morning, I think I
27:44
Speaker 2: dove pretty deep into just kind of again that Central mission,
27:47
Speaker 2: and I think when you try to understand why the
27:51
Speaker 2: ORG has been so good at every level and why
27:55
Speaker 2: players are so much more confident this season. So much
27:59
Speaker 2: of it just just tailed right back into that idea.
28:04
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I'm excited to check it out. I didn't even
28:07
Speaker 1: realize you had a story this morning. I was scrolling
28:09
Speaker 1: through my Twitter feed late last night and then slept
28:11
Speaker 1: in like a baby this morning. But we'll see you
28:14
Speaker 1: all again tomorrow Friday's episode. We have a giveaway for
28:16
Speaker 1: you until then. See you later.