- 17 hours ago
Paul Toboni joins The Junks for his weekly visit as the squad finishes up a series in Cincy and is STILL lurking around that .500 mark!
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00:00Paul Tabone, president of baseball operations for your Washington Nationals.
00:05Paul, good morning. How are you?
00:07What's up, guys? Doing great. How are you guys?
00:09Good. We're doing well. I'm going to ask you a non-baseball question.
00:12I'm going to ask you a food question right off the top.
00:14See where you stand on the Nats opponent is the Cincinnati Reds.
00:21Where do you stand on Skyline Chili, Cincinnati's premier cuisine offering?
00:28Are you in Cincinnati, by the way?
00:30I'm not in Cincinnati. No, I was down in the Dominican, and then I'm bouncing around seeing some prospects.
00:36So I'm not in Cincinnati, and embarrassingly, I've never had Skyline Chili.
00:41So I feel like it's a boring response for you guys.
00:45It's okay. Are you a fan of the concept, though?
00:47You've got spaghetti noodles, chili, cheese, diced onions.
00:53I'm about it. I'm about trying it.
00:55I don't know if it would be a staple in my everyday diet.
00:58But I'm all in for trying it.
01:01Gotcha. Since you mentioned you're in the Dominican, now he's already in the organization.
01:05But I want to ask you about somebody.
01:08Ryan Clary, who works here at the station, is a big Ronnie Cruz guy.
01:11I know he's down low, but fill me in on Ronnie Cruz and his game.
01:15Yeah, Ronnie, man, so he's actually a really interesting one where he's from the Dominican, but he actually came through
01:21the draft.
01:22He went to high school in the Miami area.
01:26He came over in the Soroka deal along with Christian Franklin.
01:32So that was a great job by Mike D and the whole group.
01:35And he's been really fun in the early going.
01:37He's got a really unique ability to, you know, for a kid only 170 pounds, he hits the ball really
01:45hard.
01:45And he, what we say, what we call his ball flight, like his ball flight is really good.
01:51And what I mean by that is like he's, when he hits balls to the pull side, they're hit at
01:56angles where he can hit a bunch of doubles and homers.
01:59And now it's just about, I think, doing a better job controlling the zone and getting a bat on the
02:03ball.
02:05I don't know if we talked about Elijah Green last week.
02:09Maybe we did.
02:10Can you give us an update on Elijah?
02:12It just seems like he's struggling, right?
02:14Big time.
02:14Yeah, I know he's got a lot of strikeouts compared to his at-bats.
02:19So can you kind of give us an update on Elijah and why he is struggling?
02:23I think he's at Wilmington.
02:25Yeah, he's in Wilmington.
02:27Yeah, I mean, you hit it.
02:29Elijah, he's striking out.
02:31He also, I mean, the key for him is just getting the bat on the ball.
02:35He's such a freaky athlete.
02:37He hits the ball so hard.
02:39Yeah, pretty quickly just comes down to how much contact he can make.
02:43So he's been better as of late.
02:45And, yeah, we're just going to continue to focus on, you know, hopefully path improvements to his swing to help
02:53him get the bat on the ball more so he can really tap into his power.
02:57So can you actually see like a big hole in a swing type thing?
03:00Is that what it is?
03:01It's like a technical thing?
03:04Yeah, in short, like I think if you, you know, if you watch, he, what we, what a lot of
03:10the greatest hitters do is they, they stay on the plane of the ball for a long period of time,
03:15right?
03:15So like, even if your timing isn't perfect, I mean, honestly, Dalen's a great example of this.
03:20I'm not just saying it because he's, you know, hit a few home runs the past few days, but if
03:25he's, if he's late, you know, he, he's still hitting the line drive to left field.
03:31Right. And if he releases the barrel a little bit too early and he's out in front of the ball,
03:35like he might be hitting a ball like he did last night, you know, out to right field.
03:39So the more I think you can be on plane, the more margin for error you give yourself to, to
03:45have a, you know, not perfect timing.
03:47And so that's just the focus going back to Elijah.
03:49That's the focus with him is helping him get on playing a little bit better.
03:52Talking to Paul Ciboni, president of baseball operations for the Washington nationals now 21 and 22.
03:57So just one game under 500.
03:59You guys are number two in the major leagues and run scored number four in stolen bases.
04:06Is this above your expectations or did you think the offense had this type of potential?
04:12Um, yeah, I w I certainly would, wouldn't, would not have put a ceiling on them.
04:17Uh, having said that, uh, man, like, uh, yeah, to be, to be in the top two or three and
04:23run scored, um, that's like a, that's a really good thing.
04:27And not necessarily something that I was banking on.
04:29What I will say is that, uh, and you just said on it, like the part of this is the
04:33offense, you know, and, and getting on base and getting to power and those type things.
04:38Cause a big chunk of it too, is the base running and, uh, it's tougher to really pick up on
04:42unless you're watching every day.
04:44Um, but it's not just the stolen bags.
04:46It's saw last night with JY, like going first to home.
04:49We've been really good going first to third, second to home.
04:52And to me, that's just like, uh, we call it care factor.
04:55Like it's, it's really how much you care and how focused you are on the base pass.
04:58And, uh, we just got such a freaking athletic team being able to tap into that.
05:02It's been really fun.
05:03Paul, you mentioned Dale and Lyle.
05:05Is there a way that you can trick him to think every game that he's playing is in Cincinnati because
05:10like bonafide heater doing it close to home when he's from Louisville.
05:14So his family's there.
05:15It's great to see them in the stands celebrating.
05:17Like he's just tearing it up, uh, the two games so far in Cincy.
05:21Yeah, that was, that was really cool.
05:23I mean, that was, I don't know if you guys caught it, but seeing his dad run down the aisle
05:26too, uh, that was, uh, that was just fun.
05:29I mean, I can't imagine the amount of pride you have in your son for both his mom and his
05:33dad who were both great people.
05:34Like just watching them do it, uh, in front of a, you know, whatever it was, 30 or 40 or
05:4050 family members.
05:41Uh, that was really, really cool.
05:43He, Dylan's just, I don't know if you all have spent time with them, but he's just such a special
05:46kid and great worker.
05:48And he just, he's a stud.
05:49So couldn't be more happy for him.
05:51So, so Paul, I was kind of talking about this earlier in the show, when you talk about the surprises,
05:57even though we're only 42, 43 games into the season, but you talked about some of the surprises, um, you
06:02know, in the American league, Tampa Bay is just, you know, that's crazy what they're doing.
06:0628 and 14, and they've won 16 of 20.
06:09Uh, I think you could throw the White Sox up there, right?
06:12And they're 500 now.
06:13The athletics are two games over 500.
06:15So some of these big payroll teams, like the, the Red Sox, you know, in the national league, the Phillies
06:21or the Mets, they're struggling in the national league.
06:23I got to throw you guys in there as one of the biggest positive surprises to be 21 and 22.
06:29Uh, I know you're nine games out because the Braves are just crazy good, but I didn't expect this.
06:36I mean, to be near 543 games into it, what do you chalk that up to be from, from it's,
06:41it's really a cool story.
06:43Well, I think, I mean, uh, first of all, like we're not where we want to be, you know what
06:47I mean?
06:47Like that, certainly the guys in the locker room aren't, aren't celebrating being a game under 500, but I will
06:53say like the, you know, whatever, I think Vegas had a tag to losing close to a hundred games or
06:59whatever it was.
07:00Right.
07:0065 and a half win total, by the way.
07:02And I went over just to let you know.
07:04Look at that.
07:06Confidence.
07:06I appreciate that.
07:08Uh, no, what I will say though, is like, and this isn't just like the cliche response, but I, I,
07:12I don't think it's a surprise to those in the clubhouse in the staff.
07:16You know what I mean?
07:16I just think it's, uh, if anything, they're folks are bothered that like along the lines of what we talked
07:22about a couple of weeks ago, like there's like there've been five or six games where we let them get
07:28away from us.
07:28And we're like, dang, we could be, you know, four or five games above 500 right now.
07:32And, um, so what do we chalk it up to?
07:35Uh, man, I think a lot of it is what you guys just hit on.
07:38Like the offense has been great.
07:40Um, the base running has been great.
07:42Um, and, uh, the pitching has been much better.
07:46I was going to say the back half, the back half of the bullpen has been really, really good.
07:50Yeah.
07:50Last night I think was a good example.
07:52I know Jake didn't have the start that he wanted, but, uh, but shoot, those guys went, what was it?
07:57Was it, uh, seven, yeah, seven innings and just a lot of few hits, um, and no, no runs.
08:03So, um, that was, uh, um, that's been good.
08:07Penn's been better.
08:08And, uh, man, I, you know, obviously Foster, um, he's going tonight or today, but he's, uh, he's exceeded the
08:14expectations.
08:15I'm just, I still think our starters, um, got, got more to prove and be a better version of them
08:20going forward.
08:21So, yeah, I'm optimistic going forward and hoping, uh, that we can, uh, we can be better, uh, here in
08:26the next.
08:27A few weeks and months.
08:28Hey, is this one where you really cross your fingers that Griffin gives you at least five solid, maybe six
08:32innings with what the bullpen went through yesterday?
08:36Yeah, absolutely.
08:37Uh, we need them.
08:38We need them to go.
08:39Um, and, uh, you know, we just, yeah.
08:43Can we, can we lean on some guys?
08:45I can, I think we can probably piece together whatever five or six innings out of the pen if we
08:48needed it.
08:49But, uh, our hope is that Foster gives us some length and, uh, he's the right guy to do it.
08:53Like, uh, you guys have seen him, um, go these last few weeks.
08:56Like, he can, uh, he can really pitch.
08:59And so, um, yeah, our hope is that he, um, gets us deep into the game today and, and, uh,
09:04you know, keep from that at, uh, zero one, two runs, whatever it might be.
09:08And gives us a good chance to win.
09:09Yeah.
09:09So you mentioned Jake, Jake in his last three starts on the month of May, he's given up 14 and
09:1413 innings.
09:17Um, he's walked nine and obviously, you know, he got into a big hole in the bottom of the first
09:22last night.
09:23What do you chalk that up to be?
09:24Was his Velo okay?
09:26Yeah, his Velo was, uh, was all right.
09:29You know, I think, um, yeah, that was obviously a tough one for him.
09:32Um, he was fighting himself, obviously the walks, like that's the first thing, right?
09:35They, they, uh, he walked a few in the first before that big hit by Stevenson.
09:41And to me, like, while he didn't have perfect command of his fastball, he was still, he was still filling
09:46it up early in counts.
09:47Um, but then what ended up happening, and this is plagued him.
09:51I think the last couple of starts is he had a lot of non-competitive off-speed pitches, right?
09:56So, you know, these hitters aren't even forced to, to make a decision when you're missing by whatever it is,
10:0118 inches or, you know, whatever it is.
10:03And so, you find yourself, you know, in 0-2 counts, getting to 3-2 counts pretty quick, and then
10:07you gotta fight to throw a strike, and might end up blocking a guy or two.
10:10So, if you think back to that White Sox start where he was really good, he was getting into leverage
10:16counts, and then, remember, he was throwing that curveball, um, and landing it below the zone.
10:21But they were really competitive offerings, and he was getting guys to whiff over and over again.
10:25So, that's the best version of him that we've seen to date, and now it's just about pulling that out
10:28of him, um, more consistently.
10:30Yeah. All right. So, today, 12-40, um, you mentioned it's gonna be Foster against Chase Burns.
10:37Chase Burns, in his last 13 innings, has allowed one run, so he's been pitching really well.
10:42His ERA for the year is 2-1-1. He's 4-1. Uh, what are we expecting today?
10:49Yeah, if you guys haven't seen him pitch, uh, you should tune in today.
10:53He's a, he's one of the top young pitchers in the league, uh, and couldn't be, uh, more different than
10:58Foster.
10:58I mean, he's, like, uh, he sits 98-99, uh, and he's pretty much exclusively a two-pitch guy.
11:04Like, he's fastball, slider, um, they're just two really high-quality offerings.
11:09So, um, and his fastball, too, it's not just that he's sitting 98-99.
11:13It's got real quality in terms of, like, the ride he generates on it.
11:16He can, he can miss a lot of bats with it.
11:18So, good thing is, we got a, we got a darn good lineup.
11:21So, um, we're hoping to, to get to him, and, um, hoping Foster can give us a good outing,
11:26and, and we can get a W.
11:28Paul, thanks for the time, as always.
11:30We'll talk to you again next week.
11:32Thank you, buddy.
11:33Thank you, man.
11:33Good luck.
11:34Appreciate it, guys.
11:35Yep, that's Paul Toboni, president of baseball operations for your Washington Nationals on the
11:40Rude Guest Hotline.
11:41When we come back, we'll get into EB's entertainment page.
11:44We'll do that next here on The Fan.
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