- 3 months ago
Spencer Nusbaum from The Athletic joins JP and Steve Czaban to give a preview of the Washington Nationals going into MLB Draft, who they could draft with their first round pick and if they will make any moves before the trade deadline.
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00:00And with that, we're excited to jump on the Rude Guest Hotline
00:03and talk to our friend Mr. Spencer Nussbaum from The Athletic
00:06covering the Washington Nationals.
00:08Spencer, what's up, man?
00:09Thanks for making some time for us.
00:11Yeah, how are we doing today?
00:12We're good, dude.
00:13We got a big series starting tonight at Nats Park.
00:16I imagine that place will be packed, should be a lot of fun.
00:20What are reasonable expectations for the Nats going into the final series
00:24before the All-Star break, two games over .500
00:27with the big, bad Yankees coming to town?
00:31Yeah, well, you know what's funny is even beyond expectations, right,
00:34we've waited years for series in July, August, and September
00:38to mean something beyond what it could mean for future years.
00:42And I'd say this is kind of the quintessential moment of that, right,
00:46where you're catching a scuffling Yankees team,
00:48you're catching a Nats team that's covered well above where they usually are at
00:54and right around .500.
00:55So, yeah, honestly, I don't want to say the Nats are favored going into this series,
00:59but it should be a lot of exciting baseball ahead.
01:02Who we got on the bump tonight?
01:04Like, kind of, you know, take us through game by game where you think it goes.
01:10Yeah, so tonight they're going with an opener for Carson,
01:13an opener with Carson Palmquist before Zach Littell.
01:17And it didn't work so well last time out, but I still think against that kind of
01:22lefty-heavy Yankees lineup, they'll probably hammer those lefty arms home.
01:26And I think they'll probably be doing that throughout the series.
01:29And so even more than the starters, I think I'm paying so much attention to the bullpen
01:34in this series just because I think, you know, this team, as we well know,
01:39does a lot of mixing and matching.
01:40I think it's just going to be ramped up the next couple days.
01:43And then probably with Cavalli in the finale,
01:46you're going to want to see him go maybe six or seven innings.
01:50Nats have hit 132 home runs this year, tied for the most of any team
01:55with the Yankees who are in town.
01:57They're one of two teams with three guys at 20 home runs.
02:01Four guys have 15.
02:03The new staff said they were going to impart a new philosophy hitting-wise.
02:08And obviously, whatever they're doing is working.
02:10My question is, what are they doing?
02:14It's a lot of different things, right?
02:16If I were to sum it up as one thing, it's leaning into the traits that make guys special.
02:21If that makes sense, like Louie is someone, for example,
02:24Luis Garcia Jr., who makes a lot of contact and hits the ball really hard
02:28and can hit it in the air but has a really high chaser, right?
02:31And so they've stopped trying to really fix the chase rate
02:34and instead saying, hey, swing a little harder, make a little more contact,
02:38and lift the ball and take off from there.
02:41With James, it's, hey, we know you have a really late contact point
02:46but can lift the ball in the air when you catch the ball deep
02:50and you can have really good play discipline.
02:52Lean further into that and you see him take off.
02:54CJ, you pull the ball really well.
02:56Pull it a little more and take off.
02:58And it's just all these guys kind of maximizing their strengths
03:01and then on top of that, the game prep and the game planning
03:04has just been so much better this year.
03:06Interesting.
03:06So in other words, any hitter has two or three things
03:10that could be an issue or a concern.
03:13They're changing up what they want the guy to work on
03:17and saying, don't worry about thing B or C.
03:20Worry about A.
03:21And it's had some good results.
03:24And it might be a bit of an oversimplification, right?
03:26Because you still don't want Louie swinging at half the pitches
03:29outside the zone.
03:30You still want him to focus on that a little bit.
03:33But it's kind of changing the emphasis for them
03:35and it seems to be working.
03:37You don't want him obsessing about his chase rate
03:40as the primary thought when he steps in the box,
03:43which might have been the case before.
03:45And that might have taken away some of his hard contacts.
03:48You also said with Wood, he's got a late contact point.
03:53That's a term I'm curious about.
03:55I've never heard that.
03:57Yeah.
03:58So think about it in baseball, right?
04:00You can, when you're swinging the bat
04:01and your barrel hits the ball, you can either hit it early,
04:05which means kind of like out in front of the plate,
04:07or you can hit it late.
04:08So kind of when it's pretty close to the catcher's mitt.
04:12James's bat speed is so quick that he can still generate
04:16a lot of power, but catch it kind of deeper in the zone
04:19or further back where he makes his eye better,
04:23makes his play discipline better.
04:25And more than that, he has all that opposite field power,
04:27so he doesn't have to sell out to pull the ball
04:30like a lot of guys do.
04:31Talking with our friend Spencer Nussbaum here
04:33from The Athletic.
04:34You can give him a follow at Spencer Nussbaum.
04:38Dude, I'm curious this.
04:39This season has been a surprise,
04:41and I think Wood and Abrams have been great.
04:45That's not a surprise.
04:46They've shown all-star caliber play.
04:48What is the best surprise for you with this Nats team?
04:53I mean, it very clearly could be Garcia,
04:55but there's other folks.
04:57I mean, Foster Griffin as a pitcher.
04:59Like, what would you say has been the best surprise?
05:03Yeah, what's fun is I've thought about this question before
05:06and could list five or six names for you.
05:09The one who I've kind of always come back to is K.B. Ruiz.
05:12Because it really seemed at the start of the season,
05:14like, I don't want to say he was out of the Nationals plans,
05:18but he was trending in that direction, right,
05:20because the production on the offensive
05:22and the defensive side, more importantly,
05:26had just tailed off so much last year.
05:29What their catching coach, Bobby Wilson,
05:30has done to help K.Bare go from one of the worst
05:33defensive catches in baseball to one of the best,
05:36and what they've done with him on the offensive side of the ball.
05:38I mean, it's hard to think of a player who's improved their value
05:42more this year, whose confidence is higher this year.
05:46I'm beyond impressed with what K.Bare has done this season.
05:49I love that.
05:50I'm curious, too.
05:53MLB draft, I think it's tomorrow, right?
05:56Nats have the 11th pick,
05:58but we also have, like, the looming baseball shutdown,
06:01the work stoppage, the lockout, whatever you want to call it.
06:04So, what, if any, impact does that have on the 11th pick?
06:08Like, what do you expect to see from the Nats tomorrow?
06:11This is Taboni's first draft, right?
06:13Because it was still the interim dude last year.
06:17Yeah.
06:18I don't think the lockout will have any impact on the draft,
06:22but I do think this new group has changed their process a lot.
06:27And as my colleague, Keith Law, reported in The Athletic,
06:32I believe it was this morning,
06:33the Nationals have been heavily connected to two hitters,
06:37one of whom is actually a local product,
06:40Chris Okopian, if I'm pronouncing that correctly,
06:42and then, like, a two-way, you never want to say Shohei, right?
06:45Because who knows if he ends up being a two-way player,
06:48but Jared Gridlinger,
06:49two guys that the Nationals have been pretty heavily connected to.
06:53But I don't necessarily know that the impending possible walkout
06:57would have too much of an impact on their plans.
07:00A little sad, Spencer, that JP was unsure of when the draft was
07:04because he's already ordered 100 folding chairs, party supplies,
07:08and a bunch of chicken wings for the party he's hosting tomorrow
07:10for the MLB draft.
07:13You should have known this, JP.
07:15It's tomorrow.
07:15It's tomorrow.
07:17I mean, obviously, last year we were way more locked in on the draft.
07:20Of course.
07:20With the picks being a little different.
07:23The kid's name you mentioned,
07:26Hacopian?
07:28Yeah.
07:29I think his older brother plays at Maryland.
07:32Am I thinking of the right guy?
07:35So he used,
07:37now that you're bringing this up,
07:39I should probably know this,
07:39but I believe he used to play at Maryland
07:43and then transferred to Texas A&M.
07:45Okay.
07:45If he has a brother who's still at Maryland,
07:47I am unaware of that.
07:48All good.
07:49Highly possible.
07:50You're right.
07:50I think those are Churchill.
07:51I think they're like Montgomery County kids.
07:53That's cool.
07:54Yeah.
07:54I'm looking at,
07:55shout out to Terps Baseball.
07:56I'm looking at mock draft on ESPN.
07:59They have Hacopian going eight to the athletics,
08:02which don't even have a city name attached.
08:04So we'll see what happens tomorrow for the Nats.
08:07But Spencer,
08:07you wrote a really brilliant piece
08:09and I want to give you a chance
08:11to make sure folks know about it.
08:14With the young,
08:16the prospect who's,
08:17who's really fighting through some serious stuff
08:19with his family.
08:20Can you tell everybody about the Fitzgeralds?
08:23Of course.
08:24So the Nationals traded McKenzie Gore,
08:27obviously the soft season for a five prospect package.
08:30One of the players they got back,
08:31Devin Fitzgerald has,
08:33has really taken off this season and he struggled recently,
08:36but he's a top a hundred prospect.
08:38But as he's become kind of this star in the minor leagues,
08:43his mom,
08:44Colleen has been diagnosed with brain cancer,
08:47which comes with,
08:49with this specific diagnosis,
08:50gives her about 18 months to live is kind of the,
08:54you know,
08:55median life expectancy for that.
08:57So I wrote about obviously how the family's trying to get through this,
09:02how she is trying to get through this,
09:04how he's trying to keep,
09:05you know,
09:06a stable mind and a healthy mindset through all this,
09:09but it's,
09:10it's just been so hard on the family and they're,
09:12they're really kind of family driven mindset between all of them.
09:17So that's,
09:18that's what they're kind of using to try to get through this is,
09:21you know,
09:21Devin leans on Colleen,
09:23Colleen lives on Devin.
09:25Yeah,
09:26it's,
09:26it's a really sad story,
09:28but they're,
09:29they're hoping to eventually pay for all the medical costs and,
09:33and trying to get her all the,
09:34the care and treatment that,
09:35that she's able to get.
09:37That's great.
09:37I mean,
09:38anything we can do to amplify that message and have the Nats done anything?
09:41Do we know?
09:43Yeah,
09:44I think that's still,
09:45um,
09:46kind of TBD,
09:48but,
09:48um,
09:49I,
09:49I believe some stuff is going in the works,
09:50but I don't,
09:51I don't want to speak before anything is finalized.
09:53I get that.
09:54Um,
09:55as we,
09:56as we sit,
09:57just one more baseball one,
09:58uh,
09:59you know,
10:00all-star breaks here halfway through the season,
10:02that's playing good baseball.
10:03Do you have any inkling as to buying or selling at the trade deadline?
10:08Yeah,
10:09I think we could very well see them kind of do a mix of both plans.
10:12What I will say in terms of selling in this,
10:14this would be hard for a lot of fans to hear,
10:16and it'd be hard for the clubhouse to hear,
10:18but because there are so few sellers in the market,
10:21this kind of could be the opportunity where the nationals would get even far and away,
10:26more return than they'd get in the usual season.
10:28Um,
10:29so if you see them sell,
10:30that would kind of be the impetus to do so.
10:33Um,
10:33but they're,
10:33they're ahead of schedule right now.
10:35So I wouldn't be shocked if they kind of do a mix of,
10:37Hey,
10:38we'll sell a few pieces off.
10:39We'll buy a couple,
10:40uh,
10:41you know,
10:41bullpen arms or maybe a starter or things like that.
10:44Um,
10:44I think,
10:44you know,
10:45I'm,
10:45I'm kind of spitz on here,
10:46but that's because everything I've been told is that,
10:48um,
10:49kind of everything is on the table.
10:50So,
10:51um,
10:51I think they'll make that decision in the next couple of weeks.
10:54Very interesting because obviously everybody points to,
10:56CJ,
10:56but the way some of these dudes are hitting,
10:58they got other weapons they could,
11:00they could sell and keep CJ.
11:03Yeah,
11:04no,
11:04again,
11:05CJ,
11:05I think is,
11:06uh,
11:07the,
11:07the name that obviously everyone is circling,
11:10but as you said,
11:11you know,
11:11a team might want Curtis need a team might want Luis Garcia,
11:15Jr.
11:16He might want Jacob young.
11:18Um,
11:19you know,
11:19there's just,
11:20there's plenty of names,
11:21um,
11:22that other teams could be interested in.
11:23We'll see,
11:23um,
11:24how the nationals pounce because you do have to worry about how the clubhouse
11:28may respond to something like a sell-off.
11:30Um,
11:31but you also got to think big picture here,
11:32if you're the Nats.
11:33Especially if the clubhouse is about to be locked up for a year.
11:35Um,
11:36what is Garcia's contractual status?
11:39Yeah.
11:40So he's got,
11:41um,
11:42technically two years left of control.
11:43He's making about 6.8 million this year.
11:46Um,
11:46the understanding is that,
11:48um,
11:49obviously he's got one more year of ARB.
11:51And so the contract next year,
11:52the figure isn't exactly decided.
11:54Um,
11:55I would expect it to bump up quite a bit.
11:57And usually,
11:58right.
11:58You don't pay a first baseman DH type of ton,
12:00but with the way that he's been hitting,
12:02um,
12:03he could be set to make quite a bit next year.
12:05And so the question is again,
12:07do the nationals trade him off wanting to get,
12:10uh,
12:11money off the books or maybe reallocate that money somewhere else.
12:14Um,
12:15but again,
12:15that's me,
12:16that's me not knowing exactly how that's going to work out.
12:19But I mean,
12:20if you just want to look at the power numbers,
12:22Garcia's previous best season was in 24 when he hit 18 homers on the
12:26season.
12:27Right now he's at 20 through 87 game.
12:30So maybe you're selling it.
12:31Yeah.
12:31All time.
12:32Spencer,
12:33we got to run.
12:33Thank you for the time,
12:34dude.
12:34Appreciate you.
12:36All right.
12:37Spencer Nussbaum covers the Nats for the athletic.
12:40Check out his work,
12:41especially that story on the Fitzgerald.
12:42That's a powerful thing.