- 4 hours ago
Paul Toboni joined The Junkies for his weekly visit as his Nationals are still hovering right around the .500 mark!
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00:00Let's go back to Cade Cavalli's start.
00:03Cade is really, I really think he's just been rolling this year.
00:07Have you been impressed by what you've seen from Cavalli?
00:10Now in that game, he goes five innings, I think six strikeouts,
00:14faces the first hitter in the sixth inning,
00:15and then you go to the bullpen and it didn't deliver.
00:18But Cade's been excellent.
00:21Yeah, Cade's been awesome.
00:23I think we talked about a decent amount in spring training.
00:26We have really high expectations for him.
00:28Obviously, he was our opening day starter.
00:31And that says a lot, especially for a guy that coming into the year
00:34had whatever it was, 50 innings.
00:36So he's been great, and I feel like he's getting better
00:39pretty much every time out.
00:41And, you know, his stuff's so good.
00:44Like he pretty effortlessly gets up to 99,
00:48and obviously the breaking balls are really good.
00:50So for me, I think just going forward,
00:54it's about eliminating some of those, you know,
00:57non-competitive pitches out of the zone
01:01and not getting too cute with the fastball.
01:03It plays so well.
01:04Like, don't be afraid to throw it over the white.
01:06So, but we're really excited about him
01:08and see his best days ahead of him.
01:10I know Cole Henry was injured,
01:13and I think April 12th was his last appearance
01:17before he came back off the injured list.
01:20What have you made of Cole Henry,
01:22not just, you know, since he's come off the list,
01:24but as a whole throughout the entire year?
01:27Yeah, he's going to help us.
01:29Obviously, we, I mean, we thrust him
01:32right into a pretty big spot his first time back.
01:36And, you know, Cole, I think he's got
01:40a really unique, deceptive look,
01:42and it really plays against righties.
01:45I think going forward, it's about figuring out
01:48how the mix is going to play against lefties.
01:49You saw it the other day, I think it was Stowers
01:53who got to him, and, you know,
01:56I just, just, that being his main area
02:00of development going forward,
02:02we're going to sink our teeth into it.
02:04Cole knows it, and we'll get after it
02:06and try and improve in that area.
02:10Talking to Paul Tabone,
02:12president of baseball operations
02:13for the Washington Nationals.
02:15How do you feel about your starting
02:16pitching staff in general?
02:17We started talking about Cavalli, obviously,
02:19your ace, your number one starter,
02:21but how do you feel about it overall?
02:24Yeah, Cade's been great.
02:26You know, Foster, we're excited about.
02:30And Jake going down, that was big.
02:33And obviously, Alvy, we love and trust him.
02:36But Jake, I feel like, was just starting
02:39to get to who we think he can be.
02:41So, hopefully, he's back here in the near future.
02:44But those guys, those guys we're really excited about.
02:49And then Zach has been throwing better.
02:52And I know Miles had the rough outing last night.
02:56But it was really just that rough inning.
02:59You know, I think there was,
03:01obviously, there was some not so good in that inning.
03:04But then there was also some good in that he was,
03:06I think he was up to 97,
03:08which I don't think he's done that in four or five years.
03:11Yeah, I was surprised when I saw that, Paul.
03:13That he was throwing it.
03:16Yeah, exactly.
03:18So, there are some things to be excited about
03:20at the same time.
03:21You know, part of the reason I think we had
03:23such a good May was because
03:24the starting pitching was really good.
03:27And I think this team is going to go
03:29as far as our pitching in defense will take us
03:31because we can't put competitive at-bats together,
03:34as you guys know.
03:34So, it's just about doing that
03:38over the course of the rest of June
03:40and then into July.
03:41And if we can do it, I think we'll be in good shape.
03:43Paul, you acquired Curtis Mead in late March.
03:46And between 2023 and 2025,
03:48he appeared in 242 games.
03:51And he hit eight home runs in that span.
03:54Since he's been with the Nats,
03:55he's played in 46 games.
03:57And he's hit eight home runs.
03:59I mean, that's pretty remarkable
04:01what this staff is doing
04:03with some of the younger players
04:04like him and Jacob Young.
04:06Like, their power numbers are going way up.
04:09What do you attribute that to?
04:10Like, I know that you have personalized plans
04:12for each of these players
04:13as far as what they have to work on,
04:15what they need to improve upon.
04:16But it's pretty stark
04:17when you see a guy go from
04:18eight dingers in 240-plus games
04:21and then he has the same production
04:23in 46 games here.
04:26Yeah, no, I appreciate you bringing it up
04:28because Curtis, in my mind,
04:30Curtis probably isn't getting enough love
04:32for what he's done this year.
04:33He's been awesome.
04:35And I remember, actually,
04:39yeah, when we talked to him,
04:41when we first traded for him,
04:43I remember actually being on the field at Wrigley.
04:45It was right around opening day.
04:47And just hearing the excitement
04:48in his voice to, you know,
04:51he played under Blake in A-ball
04:52and just to be with Blake.
04:54He can, I think, you know,
04:56he was a former top prospect
04:58and we knew that that talent was still in there.
05:03It just had to be pulled out.
05:05Did we expect this?
05:06Like, honestly, this has exceeded my expectations.
05:09He's been really, really good.
05:10And it's not just the power,
05:12but you'll notice it.
05:14Like, he's, you know,
05:15he's walking close to 15% of the time
05:17and he's got close to like a one-on-one K to walk,
05:20which is obviously really, really difficult to do at any level,
05:23but especially the big leagues.
05:24And so, and then also, man,
05:26he's got a pretty low heart rate defensively.
05:28Like, you can throw him at third,
05:29you can throw him at second.
05:30He's obviously played a decent amount at first.
05:32And, you know, he's been great.
05:35So we're really excited about him.
05:38And he's just, man,
05:40he's such a great presence around everyone.
05:42He's like one of those, you know, guys that's,
05:45he's only 25, but he kind of carries himself
05:47like he's 30 or 31 and a veteran in clubhouses,
05:50which is funny because he doesn't have
05:51that much service time, you know,
05:53but he just gets it.
05:54He's really fun to be around, great teammate.
05:56And like Cade, we're really fortunate to have him.
06:00So Paul, since you mentioned top prospects,
06:02let's talk about one who came up
06:04and one who went down.
06:06Brady House, I'm looking at his minor league stats so far.
06:09It looks like he's tearing the cover off the ball.
06:12He's hitting 317, four homers.
06:15What is it going to take for him to get back up
06:19to the top club?
06:20I know that you were hesitant, you know,
06:22part of the reason you said that you sent him down
06:24is you wanted him to play him every day,
06:25but he's hitting the hell out of the ball in the minors.
06:30Yeah, he is.
06:33And man, like I do think even in this short period of time,
06:37he's making strides.
06:38And I think he's, you know,
06:40my hope is that he's going to look up
06:43when he is back up with us, whenever that is,
06:44and say like, man, this was really, really good for me
06:46because I've been able to really tackle
06:48some of these things in a way
06:49where I probably couldn't do it in the big leagues,
06:52which is all the pressure to perform every night,
06:55so on and so forth.
06:56So in terms of what he's got to do to get back with us,
07:02you know, the big one I think is just like
07:05really, really honing in his approach against righties.
07:07I know we talked about it at the time that he went down,
07:11but man, even in the big leagues,
07:13his numbers against lefties are great.
07:15And I think his approach against lefties is locked in.
07:21But against righties,
07:22and part of this is just like a youth thing, I think,
07:25and, you know, every player goes through this,
07:27but teams in the big leagues are so quick
07:29to expose whatever deficiencies you have,
07:33and you've got to be able to make adjustments pretty quick.
07:36And part of that is just having a really refined approach
07:39and understanding what pitchers are trying to do to you,
07:41so on and so forth.
07:42And, man, you mentioned Curtis, right?
07:44Like, I'm not sure Curtis Meade totally got this
07:47when he was 21, 22 years old, right?
07:49But then you fast forward to 25 years old,
07:52and you can just see some of his takes
07:55are really, really easy,
07:58and he's not tempted to go out of the zone.
08:00And part of that is like, yeah, it's pitch recognition,
08:02but part of that is he just has a really, really clear understanding
08:05of what he's trying to do when he's up at the dish.
08:08And so some of the takes on pitches that look close to the zone
08:12are actually pretty easy for him
08:13because they're not in a zone
08:15or not pitch types that he's looking for.
08:17And Brady, I think, is going to get there
08:20and hopefully get there sooner or later.
08:22All right, so what have you seen from Dylan Cruz
08:25on the other side of it,
08:26the guy that came up so far in limited play?
08:30Yeah, Dylan, he's been exciting in many respects
08:36and then an exciting part of it as well
08:38is I think he's still got some serious room to improve
08:44and exciting in that we talked so much about his athleticism.
08:48We saw it last night with the diving play he made,
08:51how he gets down the line, those things.
08:53He's also hitting the ball really hard.
08:55I think what's hurt him just in these, you know,
08:59it's whatever amount of that pass it's been.
09:02It hasn't been many, yeah.
09:04He's been torching balls, but they've been on the ground, right?
09:06You saw it last night with that laser.
09:09He hit the third for an out.
09:13Dylan knows this.
09:14I think it's just about turning those balls that he's hitting,
09:16you know, whatever, 105, 106, 107,
09:18getting them off the ground.
09:19So they're going for doubles and homers
09:21as opposed to outs and singles.
09:25But he's getting it and he's looking more and more free
09:28with every plate appearance that comes.
09:31And so that's exciting.
09:33I mean, I know I tell you guys,
09:35but we're really excited about him
09:37and we're going to be patient.
09:38It doesn't have to happen overnight with them,
09:40but we're really excited about him.
09:41Paul, have you been happy with the way the team has played
09:44defensively the last few games?
09:46Seems like the numbers have been slightly better than the first 50.
09:50Well, Ruiz threw out three runners the other night
09:52to end innings.
09:56Yeah, I have.
09:57I mean, there's always stuff that's going to bother us probably,
10:01you know, but I have.
10:02And I think a lot of it,
10:04outfield D has been great really the whole year.
10:08Catching defense has been good.
10:09And infield D has been good.
10:13And a lot of that honestly has to do with CJ.
10:16Like, CJ is, he's been great.
10:19He's coming and getting the ball and not sitting back on it.
10:22Arm accuracy has been awesome.
10:24So that's been fun to watch.
10:26The one misplay last night was a PFP with Mitch.
10:30You probably saw it.
10:31But the bunt back to him not going home.
10:34So we just, I think we just have to clean up those smaller things in the margins.
10:38But I think we will.
10:40But to go back to your question, like, yeah, I have been happy with it.
10:43And I think if we continue to do that over the course of the next month or two,
10:47like I said at the start of the call, I think we'll be in good shape.
10:48A hundred games to go.
10:50You're 31 and 31 sitting at 500.
10:52One thing which we really haven't talked to you about,
10:54and we get fans talking to us all the time about ownership and spending.
11:01How often do you talk to ownership?
11:03Do you have weekly meetings?
11:05Like, what's the relationship there?
11:06What's the communication from you, Paul Ciboni,
11:10president of baseball operations, to the ownership group?
11:14Yeah, I talk to him on a daily basis.
11:16And it was one of the things that I said when I took the job.
11:19Who do you talk to, though?
11:20Because I know the Washington Post wrote an article about that there's so many
11:23people involved, like so much family.
11:25Is there one person you're talking to?
11:28I'll keep that to myself.
11:29But I talked to a number of them.
11:32And we've got great relationships.
11:34But going back to what I was going to say is one of the things that I said
11:38from the start is, you know, if you look at the most stable organizations
11:42across sports, right, they've got extremely tight connections.
11:45Between ownership, to the person in my role, to the person in Blake's role.
11:51So, if there wasn't that desire at the outset, quite honestly,
11:55I probably wouldn't have taken this job.
11:58And it takes Blake being on board with that, obviously, myself and ownership.
12:02And it's been good.
12:04Like, we've been in lockstep.
12:06And they've been incredibly supportive of what Blake and I and the rest of the
12:11group want to do.
12:11And I think that's going to be the expectation going forward, too, which is exciting.
12:16All right.
12:17So, 105 game today.
12:18Closing out the series.
12:20You've got – you guys are going with Andrew Alvarez.
12:23I think he's making his first start.
12:25Going against Max Meyer.
12:27Not many people are talking about Meyer.
12:29Meyer is having a really good year.
12:31He's 5-0, ERA under 3.
12:33So, talk about today's matchup.
12:34What do you expect from Alvarez?
12:36Yeah.
12:37Alvy, obviously, you know, he was thrown into this role with Jake going down.
12:43And he's been really good for us.
12:46Obviously, the last go-around wasn't his best outing.
12:50But he's been good.
12:51And so much of it for him, I think, just comes to attacking the zone.
12:55And the breaking balls are really good.
12:58And so, if he can just establish the fastball and then, you know, start spinning guys, I
13:03think he'll have a lot of success.
13:06So, and then Max Meyer, man, you hit on it.
13:08He's having a great year.
13:10I mean, he's a former third overall pick out of the University of Minnesota.
13:15Really high expectations coming out of the draft.
13:17And quite honestly, like, he never really put it together until this year.
13:22And this year, he's been awesome.
13:24So, one thing that Miami does really well is, you saw it with Sandy Alcantara the first
13:28night, but they, you know, they evenly split a number of different pitch types, right?
13:34So, like, if Sandy's throwing, call it five different pitches around 20% of the time, it's
13:39really tough to sit on a particular pitch, right?
13:42And the same goes for Max.
13:44He's throwing, you know, I might have this slightly off, but he's throwing his fastball
13:49slider and sweeper probably each, like, 25, 30% of the time.
13:52And then he's going two-seam change the other, you know, 10 to 15% of the time.
13:56So, it's really tough to just eliminate one pitch and sit on another.
14:01You've got to be able to cover multiple pitch types and multiple counts.
14:04So, he's been really good for them.
14:07The good thing is, like I always tell you guys, we've got an offense that we really
14:12believe in.
14:14So, we'll put competitive at-bats together and look to win this game.
14:18All right.
14:19All right.
14:19Good luck today.
14:20Before you guys head out west, let's get a win today against the Marlins.
14:24Awesome.
14:25Appreciate it, fellas.
14:25Thanks for having me on.
14:26Thanks, Paul.
14:26Yep.
14:27It's Paul Cibone, president of baseball operations for the Nationals.
14:30Joins us every Wednesday at 9 o'clock.
14:32Next, we're going to talk to one of the biggest Knicks fans out there.
14:34Actor-comedian Michael Rappaport joins the Junkies.
14:37Thanks, Paul Cibone.
14:38Thanks, Paul Cibone.
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