- 2 days ago
Jesse is back on the beat, and he had a column detailing Paul Toboni and the new Nationals' front office, and how they've tried to relate more with Nationals fans.
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00:00Rude the most reliable heating and air conditioning products in the DMV and welcome on to the show
00:04our buddy Jesse Doherty. It's been a while since we've had him on the show and even longer
00:08since we've had him on the show to talk about the Washington Nationals. His old beat
00:11but he's back in DC. I saw him in the press box last week. He is back covering the Nats
00:16as well. So Jesse tell us first about the new gig and how much you'll be
00:20around Nats Park moving forward. I was going to say what year
00:24is it but I'm going to hear your guys' voices.
00:28Yeah, so I'm at notice. It's been a politics
00:31only outlet in DC for a few years now but they're expanding
00:35into sports, into more DC coverage, into DC politics coverage.
00:39A certain news outlet that used to employ me has scaled back in that area
00:43so they saw an opening and I'm super
00:47excited. I'll be around the Nats a good bit. I have a couple other beats
00:51to juggle too. College sports, some stuff on Congress and sports so
00:55kind of a mash together of everything I covered
00:57at the Washington Post. But it's really fun
00:59and it was great to see you, Grant, in the press box.
01:02It felt like old times. I was going to say, man,
01:04looking over, I was like, Jesse Doherty.
01:05Jesse Doherty's music?
01:07A lot has changed on the field and pretty much
01:10everything has changed in the front office and
01:12coaching staff. You probably don't know anybody anymore
01:14but nothing's changed in that press box.
01:16The ice cream machine works, I would say,
01:18more often now, probably about 85% of the time.
01:21It's been a good year for the ice cream machine.
01:23Food is kind of in the same place.
01:25There's nothing you've got to figure out.
01:26You've been there plenty.
01:27But I want to talk about your first story,
01:30which was the column that you dropped on the Nats
01:32and Paul Toboni's staff and this idea
01:35that Toboni really hasn't thought a ton
01:38about the past or even had a quote in here
01:41which I found interesting about
01:42not having a lot of thought about
01:44what fans have been through because he's trying
01:46to do this thing the right way, whatever that means.
01:49Give me an idea of the idea for the column
01:50and then what you found with your reporting.
01:53Yeah, and I appreciate you laying it out.
01:56I talked to Paul last Monday.
01:58It was my first time meeting him.
02:00We sat down for about 40 minutes in the dugout
02:02and at one point, you guys have talked to him
02:06and heard him now.
02:07He says to me, this is going to sound bad, dot, dot, dot.
02:10And I learned right away with talking to him
02:13that he's not the kind of person
02:14who says a lot of things that sound bad.
02:16He's very well-spoken.
02:17He's very smart.
02:18Even on answers where I felt like
02:20he was veering off course,
02:21he would slow down and get himself on track
02:23in a pretty artful way.
02:25And then he says this quote
02:27that I put at the top of my story
02:28and kind of wrote the whole column on,
02:30which is that he hasn't really spent any time
02:31thinking about what fans have gone through.
02:33Now, I think of that as two ways.
02:35If I try to go through a fan lens
02:36and now as someone who's writing about,
02:39I think, the fan experience
02:40and what this team owes people who support it,
02:42I think on one hand,
02:44if you're someone who really cares about this build back up
02:47of the Nationals,
02:48and I'm going to not say rebuild
02:49because Paul doesn't say rebuild.
02:50I'm going to say they're building the team back up for now.
02:53If you care about that,
02:54then you kind of want a dispassionate approach.
02:55You don't want him hitting the turbo button
02:58just because the team has been bad for a half decade.
03:01Really, really bad.
03:02Worse than any team but the Rockies.
03:04But on the other hand,
03:05I think whether it's in the ownership group,
03:08whether it's on the business side,
03:10you'd want someone in those upper echelons
03:13of the organization to understand
03:14that while this is new for Paltavone and his group,
03:17it's not new to fans.
03:18They've been at this for a long time
03:19waiting for this team to get back to what it was.
03:22So I think on one hand,
03:23there's a logical baseball plan,
03:24and there's also something that might be dissonant
03:26with how the actual average person experiences the team.
03:29So, Jesse, it's fair, I think,
03:31for fans who have lived through it.
03:33I mean, this regime, this front office,
03:35Paltavone and Company, did not.
03:37They're not responsible for it.
03:37They're here to do the new thing,
03:39and they should be judged accordingly.
03:40But I can understand a fan's reticence
03:42to maybe just buy that hook, line, and sinker
03:45because kind of the other shoe that may or may not drop
03:47is learner, expenditure.
03:50Are they going to pay when it's time to pay?
03:52I don't know the answer to that
03:53as someone that lives this thing.
03:55You know what I mean?
03:55I'm there, too,
03:56and I have no idea how it's going to go
03:59when they kind of turn in their work
04:00and some of these prospects are here in the show
04:02ready to win and they could use some help.
04:04Will they get it?
04:05I don't know the answer to that.
04:07Yeah, no, it's a great point
04:09because, and I wrote in the story
04:11that I think Paul Taboni does deserve
04:13a chance to ask for patience
04:15because he's new.
04:16Yeah.
04:16And frankly, because teams playing well, right?
04:19They're right around 500.
04:21They're most runs scored in baseball.
04:22But at the same time,
04:24if you're asking for my patience again
04:27and we're in 2026 and in 2021, 2022, and 2023, and so on,
04:31I was told the baseball is going to look bad,
04:34but it's going to be okay
04:35because in three or four years now,
04:37we're going to compete now.
04:39The checks do, right?
04:40Like it's three or four years,
04:42at least from the first time
04:43we started hearing that from the organization.
04:45And no matter what voice it is
04:47or no matter who's in charge
04:49or who's tasked with running the team,
04:51if you show up to Nats Park in this year
04:53and it feels similar to it did five years ago,
04:58like you're going to start to get frustrated.
04:59And so the best thing the front office right now
05:02has going for it
05:02in terms of having a grace period
05:04is that the team's playing really well.
05:05And that's a credit, I think,
05:06to both their staff they put in place,
05:08the front office, the process,
05:09because they took, frankly,
05:11the same players that were around
05:12in the last few years
05:12and they've made them a lot better.
05:14And that's a huge credit to them.
05:15But I think you're totally right.
05:16If you're going to ask for patience
05:19without the guarantee
05:20that there's going to be spending,
05:21like that's hard to keep doing.
05:23So I'll be curious to see how often
05:25that sort of idea comes up
05:27and how many years or months even
05:29they try to sort of frame that
05:31because eventually it's going to be,
05:32if we don't have any hard evidence
05:34that this thing's going to actually
05:35start looking like it did in 2018, 2019
05:37in terms of payroll,
05:38then what are we being patient for?
05:40Jesse Doherty with us on Grant and Danny.
05:43I do feel like there is more confidence
05:45that the Nats got this right
05:47and more confidence into Boney
05:49from this fan base right now
05:51than there was even three, four months ago
05:53because of how the team has played
05:55at the major league level,
05:56even though I don't think
05:57that should be the metric at all.
05:59Like to me,
05:59what's happened at the minor league level
06:01is incredible.
06:02And that's where I feel like,
06:04my goodness,
06:05these guys are going to be rock stars.
06:07If they could do this with this group,
06:08what can they do with some money
06:09and some veterans
06:10and committed ownership,
06:11whether this group decides to do that
06:13or they sell this thing
06:14after the work stoppage or whatever.
06:16But I'm curious to get your thoughts on that,
06:18just how well this has gone
06:19and how much more obvious it is maybe
06:22that this pivot to the R&D,
06:24the analytics,
06:25the data,
06:26the technology,
06:26all the things they've invested in
06:28was the right play.
06:30Yeah, it's such a good point
06:31because I think that in worse years
06:34or when there's less of a plan in place,
06:37kind of having someone with the team
06:39divert your attention
06:39to the minor league
06:40felt kind of like a,
06:41well, exactly that,
06:43a diversion, right?
06:43Well, you don't want me to think
06:44about the majors
06:45because the product's so bad.
06:46When you're both scoring runs
06:47at the clip they are
06:48and then also having the success
06:49in the minors
06:50that you're talking about
06:50with all these prospects
06:52and the way they're progressing
06:53with guys jumping levels
06:54left and right
06:55with, frankly,
06:56the record being really good.
06:57I mean, like, you know,
06:58it's not about winning in the minors,
06:59but if you're winning more often
07:00than you're losing,
07:01you're playing good baseball
07:02and that's good.
07:04Like, I think you're totally right
07:05that like it can be both true
07:08that this feels overly familiar
07:10for DC fans
07:10who have been told for a while
07:11to think about the minors,
07:12but that in this year,
07:142026,
07:15it has a lot more validity
07:15because the results
07:17are really, really popping.
07:18I mean, you put,
07:19you know,
07:20you stated it right on the head,
07:21Grant.
07:22Like, it's like every day
07:23there's something
07:23you could put your thumb on
07:25and say,
07:26wow, this guy's really improving
07:27or look at this video
07:28or look at this stretch
07:30this guy's on.
07:31Like, I think, again,
07:32like it's okay to recognize
07:34that this feels like,
07:35you know,
07:36pulling your leg,
07:37you know, in the past,
07:38but in this year,
07:39I think this group deserves,
07:40at least for the time being
07:41and for a good honeymoon period
07:43to like,
07:43to present that
07:44and it be genuine
07:45because right now
07:45the results are speaking
07:46for themselves.
07:47Jesse Doherty with us here
07:48on G&D.
07:49So another takeaway
07:50I pulled out
07:51and you can tell me
07:51if I got this wrong,
07:52Jesse,
07:52but it was that,
07:54hey, what's happening
07:54at the big league level
07:55is nice
07:56and we're having fun.
07:57We're all having a good time.
07:58I'm having fun.
07:58I know a lot of fans are too,
07:59but for Toboni,
08:01they've still got a plan in place
08:03and some fun
08:04or if they were 10 games worse
08:06than we all thought they'd be.
08:07I don't know how that'd be possible,
08:08but bear with me.
08:09That wouldn't alter the plan either.
08:11That kind of,
08:12that was sort of
08:13one of the takeaways I had
08:14and I'm wondering
08:14how that might manifest itself
08:16as this season progresses
08:17in terms of trading folks
08:18or promoting guys
08:19to the minor leagues,
08:20et cetera.
08:21Was that your thought as well
08:22and how might that manifest?
08:25Yeah, it was
08:25and I think something he laid out,
08:28which I plan to kind of explore more
08:30maybe in a future story
08:31was that if you're tracking
08:34toward 100 losses,
08:35the deadline's pretty clear
08:36and if you're 100 wins rather
08:38and if you're tracking
08:39toward 60 wins,
08:40the deadline's pretty clear
08:40and I said to him,
08:41well, right now you're tracking
08:42toward 80 wins
08:43and he laughed
08:43and it was kind of like,
08:44well, I'm glad the deadline's
08:45not today, right?
08:46That's a really confusing spot
08:47to be in.
08:48And on one hand,
08:49and this is going to sound
08:50like a GM answer,
08:52the schedule kind of guides you
08:54toward what to do
08:54and there's two more months
08:55until teams typically tell fans
08:58how they view their roster,
08:59which is we're going to add to it,
09:00we're going to add a little bit,
09:01we're going to subtract from it,
09:03we're going to sort of
09:03do things on the margins,
09:04we're going to make some
09:05really, really big moves
09:06one way or the other.
09:07He doesn't have to do that right now,
09:09but I do think that
09:10what he was describing
09:11is that like that quote
09:13about him as a young Giants fan,
09:16which is timely
09:16because he's there tonight
09:17to see, you know,
09:18the Nationals play
09:18his hometown team
09:20is really important
09:22and I think something
09:22I'm going to go back to a lot,
09:23which is like he would not
09:24have been satisfied
09:25as a young fan
09:26had the Giants just signed
09:28a couple big name veterans
09:29who felt good and exciting
09:30in the moment
09:31because they were almost ready
09:33or seemingly ready,
09:35he would have wanted them
09:36to wait until they were
09:37definitely ready
09:37and to make those additions
09:38because if the result
09:40at the end was in three
09:40or four years,
09:41they're back at the same spot,
09:43then he would not have been happy.
09:44Now, I think one element
09:45of that is maybe a young fan
09:47who grew up to be
09:48a baseball executive
09:48used the game differently
09:49than the average young fan,
09:51right?
09:51He's in his shoes
09:52because he's probably
09:53really been into
09:53the sort of behind-the-scenes
09:55roster-building machinations,
09:57but I think that sounds like
09:59how he's going to guide this team
10:00and he's thinking of himself
10:01as a baseball fan
10:02and what he would have wanted
10:03from the team
10:03when he was growing up
10:04and I think that's a fascinating
10:05look into his brain,
10:07you know,
10:07drawing both from his
10:08personal experience
10:09from the other side,
10:10you know,
10:10from the stands
10:11and then combining it now
10:12with sort of how he views
10:13roster-building in 2026.
10:14The column is on notice.
10:16The Nats passed.
10:18Doesn't matter to Paul DeBoney.
10:19That's a good thing.
10:20It's really well written
10:21by Jesse Docherty.
10:22You should check it out
10:23if you're a Nats fan.
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