00:00From the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, and right at the start of our show at 2 o'clock,
00:05MLB put out its first update on voting in the National League as to how the votes are trickling in.
00:13Fans obviously determine the starting lineups in the All-Star Game, and good news, bad news for the Nationals.
00:19We'll start with the good news.
00:21C.J. Abrams is the leading vote-getter at shortstop right now, very narrowly over Mookie Betts,
00:27which surprises me, actually, but is very, very cool.
00:31579,000 votes, so as of this moment, Abrams would be the starting shortstop for the National League
00:36over Betts, Ellie De La Cruz, Trey Turner, and others.
00:40Here's the bad news, though.
00:42James Wood is 7th among outfielders in the National League.
00:477th.
00:49Andy Pajas, who's having a career here with the Dodgers, has over 800,000 votes.
00:53James Wood is sitting right now at 430,000 votes.
00:57Other players ahead of him in voting are Ronald Acuna Jr. of the Atlanta Braves,
01:02Brandon Marsh of the Philadelphia Phillies, Michael Harris of the Atlanta Braves,
01:07Teoscar Hernandez, a second Los Angeles Dodger,
01:09and Jordan Walker, who's having a breakout career year, former top prospect with the St. Louis Cardinals.
01:15But there are not three outfielders.
01:17There might not be an outfielder better than James Wood in the National League this season.
01:21And so for him to be coming in 7th in the outfield among National Leaguers is, well, that's a D
01:28.C. sports travesty, my friend.
01:29Yeah, it's a bit of a bummer.
01:30I mean, if you, you would be wrong, but if you go, I prefer the season of Jordan Walker over
01:36the season of James Wood.
01:37They're both all-star worthy, by the way, James Wood especially.
01:40And he didn't make your ballot because of things like that, I'd go, okay.
01:44Or, you know, C.J. Abrams loses to, think of, Cincinnati shortstop who, Dela Cruz, who's having a great year
01:52in his own right.
01:53If you prefer one over the other.
01:54Again, you'd be wrong, but that's more reasonable.
01:56When you see the guys that are just products of great fan base, great winning environment, the name recognition over
02:04the actual quality of a season that a player's having, it kind of lets you know, it gives away the
02:08game a little bit, right?
02:09Mookie Betts, awesome, great player, unbelievable, not having a particularly great season.
02:13C.J. Abrams is by far, should be running away with it over someone like that.
02:16And when you start to see some of those names where you go, all right, I'm just going to fill
02:19out all the Dodgers, because a bunch of those guys are all-star worthy, by the way, then it kind
02:23of gives away the game for me.
02:25Where it's not enough, Nats fans need to get on their horse.
02:27This will always annoy me.
02:29We are just not good at this as a sports town and as a fan base, certainly when it comes
02:35to the Nats and baseball.
02:37We don't stuff the ballot.
02:38We just don't.
02:39It's just not what we do well.
02:40Again, I know that this weekend, during the games, they were not putting on the board as often as I
02:47think they should have, motivation and the website and the link.
02:50Give me a QR code between every inning, where all I got to do is scan a QR code with
02:55my phone, and I can go vote five times for James Wood.
02:58That stuff is a no-brainer that the team needs to get on yesterday, but it's not really up to
03:04them.
03:04I mean, if you're a fan of the team and you want to see a guy start in the outfield,
03:08you got to support your best players, and James Wood is just not getting that love.
03:12Although I will point out that C.J. Abrams is number one, so it's not like you can slap Nats
03:18fans on the wrist for Wood when Abrams is leading, but that tells you, like, here's the example I'll give.
03:24Wood has 430,000 votes.
03:25Abrams has 580,000, so there is, like, 150,000 people that voted for Abrams and not Wood.
03:32Those obviously aren't Nationals fans.
03:35That might be fans nationally, but how do you explain that?
03:40To me, when I look at where James Wood is in the rankings, I go, okay, well, L.A., Atlanta,
03:45Philadelphia, St. Louis, stuff in the ballot box doing a better job.
03:49But then how do you explain away Abrams being number one?
03:52Can't.
03:53The only way is there's some kind of more name recognition for him, which I don't think is a household
03:57name by any stretch.
03:58Maybe he's been around a little bit longer, but, again, there are more popular players than C.J. Abrams who
04:03happen to play shortstop, right?
04:04So I can't figure it out, honestly.
04:05I can't imagine a Nats fan going, yeah, I could see it with C.J., but not James.
04:10I don't know.
04:11I think he's benefiting maybe from some Braves fans voting for him.
04:14He's a Georgia kid.
04:15He's local to that area, and the Braves do not have a shortstop in the All-Star conversation, you know,
04:21in the top five.
04:22The Dodgers with Mookie Betts do, so I don't think a ton of Dodgers fans would be voting for him.
04:26The Phillies with Trey Turner in the top four do, so I don't think you're getting, like, a bunch of
04:31people in Philadelphia voting for him.
04:33My guess is you're getting some Braves fans adding into the party there, and then nationally, he just has a
04:39little more flair and a little bit more pizzazz.
04:42You hate to say it, that sometimes, like, being a little more boisterous, the Ray Lewis dance when you walk
04:48out of the tunnel is what he was synonymous for.
04:50But London Fletcher's still not in the Hall of Fame, who just kind of went about his business and didn't
04:54do a bunch of screaming and shouting and dancing and stuff about looking at me.
04:58James Wood drops the bat, runs to first, then keeps running around the bases because he had a home run.
05:02C.J. stands there and admires it, pimps it a little bit, and has one of the, you know, more,
05:06I would say, cooler post-home run jogs in the sport.
05:11And he's just got some aura to him and a little bit more of a, like, a flair, if you
05:17will.
05:18James Wood, is he being, is it being held against him that he's just so nonchalant?
05:23It might be.
05:24He doesn't have a big personality that even when he does interviews, he's very understated and quiet.
05:28I mean, it's not like C.J. is very vocal either.
05:30Yeah, I was going to say, he's not sitting there.
05:32He gives you five-word answers.
05:34Yeah.
05:34And I'm not knocking him, I'm just saying he doesn't have a lot to say.
05:36Yeah, he's not cutting promos either.
05:37So that's the puzzle to me.
05:39I don't quite get it, but again, I'm glad that it's happened, and C.J. deserves recognition for it.
05:43Happy for C.J. Abrams.
05:43And by the way, if he does start at shortstop in the All-Star game, it's really good news for
05:47the Nats one way or the other.
05:48If he stays with the organization, awesome.
05:50You just graduated an All-Star game starter for the first time in several years in your organization who wasn't
05:56one and became one.
05:57But on top of that, if you end up trading him either at the deadline right after the All-Star
06:02break or in the offseason, the price tag goes up.
06:05But when he becomes an All-Star game starter at shortstop over Betts, De La Cruz, Trey Turner, Dansby Swanson,
06:11Mason Wynn, Connor Griffin, and everybody else.
06:13Indeed.
06:14So there's no downside for the Nats on this one.
06:16But the wood conundrum is I cannot figure it out for the life of me.
06:20Why?
06:20I, if both, if neither, if no nationals were up at the top, I'd go, yeah, you know, the fan
06:24base isn't showing up, showing strong.
06:26It hasn't happened yet.
06:27They're not climbing the ladder of attendance that rapidly.
06:30I get it.
06:30Other teams are having better seasons.
06:33Every brave fan of stuff in the ballot box, every Dodgers fan of stuff in the ballot box.
06:36I get it.
06:37That all makes sense to me.
06:38The fact that Abrams is up there and Wood isn't, I have a hard time figuring out why.
06:43James, James Wood's underappreciated.
06:45I mean, he just is.
06:46People get upset because I do my little, like, everyone's sleeping on him bit.
06:49The point with that has always been, people have no idea how good this guy is.
06:53You still hear people talking about, funny, strikes out, though.
06:56Like, people have no idea how great this player is now and how great he's going to be in a
07:02few years.
07:03Like, this is a guy that's going to hit 50 home runs in the major leagues and win an MVP
07:07award.
07:08And we've got him early in his career, prime of his career, right here in Washington, D.C.
07:13But him not starting in the All-Star game in Philadelphia would be awful.
07:17And it looks like we're a long ways from that at this juncture right now.
07:22Grant and Danny on the fan.
07:23Hey, another weekend, another Brandon Ayuk video dropped for us to discuss.
07:27This one was weirder than the other ones.
07:29Just a lot of dancing in his underwear.
07:31Next on the fan.
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