- 2 days ago
On the seven year anniversary of the Nationals' National League Championship Series win, it reminds us how long it has been since the Nats have fielded a winning product on the field. It has to change this offseason.
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00:00All right, to the Nationals very briefly.
00:02So the Nats yesterday, an anniversary dating back to 2019, seven years ago, clinched a World Series berth.
00:10And LCS, Game 4, they swept the Cardinals.
00:14They swept them, dude.
00:14They made it look so easy.
00:16I remember showing up to Nats Park for Game 4 of that series, and as a DC Sports fan, even
00:21though the Caps had just won the Stanley Cup,
00:23I remember thinking, there's no way this is going to be easy.
00:26There's no way they sweep them.
00:27This is obviously going to become a series.
00:31What's going to go wrong?
00:32And then they were up 7-0 in the first inning of that game, I think it was.
00:36But in the end, Charlie Slows on the call here, as heard right here on the fan, they sweep through
00:40St. Louis, and they were on to the series.
00:42Hudson has the sign now from Gomes.
00:44Coming set, looks like they want to go in.
00:47Here's the kick now.
00:49The pitch, fastball, his head in the air to left center field.
00:52Robles going for it.
00:53He's under and waiting, and he makes the catch!
00:56He makes the catch!
00:58Bang!
00:59Zoom down the fireworks!
01:02The National League Championship winning, Curly W. is in the box!
01:10And for the first time since 1933, we'll have a World Series in the nation's capital!
01:19I got chills listening to that.
01:22Goosebumps!
01:23That was seven years ago.
01:25It feels like 50.
01:26The Nationals have not been back to the playoffs since that 19 run.
01:30They were unlucky in 20 because they had a pretty good roster, the pandemic year.
01:34They had the outbreak start of the season.
01:35It's a 50-game dash.
01:37Since then, though, they sold off in 21.
01:39And then this forever rebuild, multiple front offices kind of began in earnest.
01:45I love where they're at with this new front office at the minor league level.
01:49They did a great job developing power and turning their prospects into better players this year.
01:55That's great.
01:57It's time to start winning baseball games again.
01:59And seven years is a long time to ask of a fan base to not win.
02:03You've lost, to some extent, like a generation of fans, I think, already.
02:08Every year, moving forward, that they try to rearrange the deck chairs and prioritize the minor leagues,
02:14you're doing more damage.
02:16And I think you've got to try to have your cake and eat it, too.
02:18Build this thing slowly and correctly in the minors.
02:21But they've got to spend money at the big league level this offseason.
02:23This ownership group, the learners, I think the number I saw is $25 million below any other payroll
02:31on their active roster going into the offseason.
02:34That is so inexcusable for a major market like D.C.
02:38And I think two things, Danny.
02:40One, they will spend a little bit more money this offseason.
02:45But two, if they don't, I think they should really be called out for it.
02:50I mean, it is time in town for us, for shows, for columnists.
02:56I mean, people really need to start talking about.
02:57I've kind of been patient because my point was, oh, you're rebuilding, so it doesn't make a lot of sense
03:03to spend.
03:04They're pretty close.
03:05We saw it this year.
03:06You're a couple players away from a wild card type team.
03:08There's no excuse not to spend money and improve your pitching staff.
03:12100%.
03:13And, again, whenever somebody hears spend money, you get the, oh, look at what the Mets did.
03:18They did win.
03:19No one's talking about that.
03:21No one's saying you have to be in a luxury tax type situation.
03:24Nobody's saying it's got to be ridiculous.
03:25If you did a couple of things this offseason to not even get to $100 million in payroll,
03:31you'd be dramatically improved given the way that their young core knocked the ball around the yard this year and
03:36going into next season.
03:37Give me two quality Major League relievers.
03:40A lot of times teams don't like spending big on the bullpen because there's volatility year to year among relief
03:46pitching arms.
03:47You think about guys like Edwin Diaz who was a roller coaster this year.
03:50There's a lot of examples of players who, from one year to the next in the back end of the
03:54bullpen, will go from dominant to pedestrian.
03:57But I think you've got to spend some money on a bullpen that is short on stuff and just doesn't
04:02have proven options.
04:03And they really should go out and get a solidified starting pitcher as well.
04:06But in a world where you get one arm, mid-rotation type starter, you could have Cavalli as your number
04:11one.
04:12Looked like an ace type pitcher this year.
04:14You could have Connelly early, who they went out and traded for from Boston in the Curtis Meade deal as
04:20your number two.
04:21Get me a veteran number three and then have a competition for the four and five spots between five or
04:26six guys in spring training.
04:27That's reasonable.
04:28That's respectable.
04:30Give me a couple relievers and give me a bat who can help James Wood with a little protection.
04:34Whether they trade C.J. Abrams or they don't, and I'm sure if they do, it'll annoy Nats fans.
04:38I'll be perfectly fine with it because they're going to get a ton back.
04:40They're going to add talent to the organization overall.
04:43And I think you'll get some big league ready talent.
04:45I also think Sneaky behind the scenes.
04:47I don't know if Abrams is a guy that A, will be here long term, and B, is a championship
04:51kind of player in terms of what you want culturally as the face of the franchise.
04:55But regardless of how it all works out, they're good enough.
04:59We're on the doorstep.
05:00The five-year-ago protection that you had to say, we're rebuilding, we're getting high draft picks, it's over, man.
05:07James Wood's too good.
05:09There's too much talent.
05:10Too limited of a window, yeah.
05:11Unfortunately, we saw it all first half.
05:13They probably didn't want us to, but they were the best offense in the sport.
05:16You've got a chance to win now.
05:18To Abrams' point, though, in years past, what it would have been would be no compensatory move.
05:24In other words, you trade Abrams and that's all you did, right, is you got worse.
05:29Ta-da, we're worse at the big league level.
05:30If it goes along with a spend and showing up other areas and maybe there's a big leaguer that comes
05:36back in the deal or there are guys at certain spots that you know could take his place.
05:41I think letting Bryce Harper walk, all that really meant was Juan Soto would play every day and so too
05:45would Adam Eaton.
05:46You weren't that much worse off.
05:48But then once you let Soto go, then you let Eaton go, there's nobody waiting in the wings to be
05:53able to fill that spot.
05:54You're not dealing from a position of strength there.
05:56If they were to remove CJ Abrams and sort of say, Nassim Nunez and Jorbit Vivas, there's your middle infield.
06:02Oh, God, that is such a slap in the face to everybody, right?
06:05As long as there are other moves that kind of supplement that.
06:07But to your point, they are, sorry, you're too good.
06:10You were successful at developing some of these pieces in these players.
06:13It has been time to frankly start to spend a little bit more because you're not going through 80 arms
06:19in a bullpen over the course of a major league season.
06:21But especially now, I mean, again, you turn in enough work that says you can be competitive with this thing.
06:27And it's validating because a lot of your philosophies and lineup builds and all the smart people in the front
06:33office using pocket protectors and calculators know what they're about.
06:36And they've got this group competing maybe above their weight class a little bit to some, but it's all according
06:41to plan for them.
06:41Yeah, so I guess you make a point here that I think needs to be addressed.
06:45On C.J. Abrams, if you trade C.J. Abrams for a gore-like package where it's five minor league
06:53players, that's not going to sit well with the fan base, and I think correctly so.
06:57But the deal I'm making for Abrams is to add some immediate major league talent at other positions and or
07:04high-end minor league talent that's close.
07:07See the Luis Garcia trade as an example, where you immediately got some bullpen help in that deal, and you
07:13got a couple of guys that will be in the major leagues this season.
07:16I don't think you trade Abrams to try to bring in a bunch of lottery ticket, high-ceiling, top 100
07:21guys in single A or something like that.
07:23I think if you're moving him, you're adding a young starting pitcher who gets to the show in the next
07:30few months.
07:31You know, you're adding a couple of arms that might pitch out of your bullpen that year and a really
07:36talented outfielder who's on the verge of playing center field or something like that.
07:40To me, that's the type of deal we're talking about.
07:42Well, but they need to get serious about trying to field a roster that costs a lot more money than
07:50the one that they currently have put together.
07:53The other excuse they had for a long, long time was the money they were paying Steven Strasburg.
07:59Yep.
07:59Was the money they were paying, you know, Nate, fill in the blank, Max Scherzer, or the deferred money on
08:03these other guys like Patrick Corbin or what have you.
08:06That's all gone.
08:07It's over with.
08:07So the $35 million a year for Corbin who's gone, the Strasburg money, your payroll used to look a lot
08:13higher up the rankings because you're paying guys that aren't here?
08:17Yeah, there are five active major leaguers that didn't have five that added up to what they were paying Steven
08:21Strasburg not to play for them.
08:22And it used to save their bacon a little bit when you would see these graphics on TV of what
08:26their payroll is because it still looks like it's closer to $100 million when in actuality they got to 26
08:31guys on the roster are making like $30 million or whatever.
08:34Indeed.
08:34And now you can't hide behind that.
08:36That money is gone.
08:37So everyone's, the secret's going to be out here.
08:39I give them credit for this.
08:41This is not just a complete, you know, beat them up session.
08:44They did spend a lot more money as a group, ownership wise, on the things you don't see.
08:49So we're talking today about the Milwaukee Brewers getting to the World Series.
08:53We're talking about the Cleveland Guardians and the Tampa Bay Rays on the precipice of a World Series.
08:58Those are smaller payroll teams.
09:00The Brewers spend more money on anybody on staffing.
09:04They have a bigger R&D department.
09:07They have a larger scouting department.
09:09Like if you look at the list of people that they would actually list in their analytics department, that all
09:15costs money.
09:15And the Nats went out and they got to Boney and they assembled what I call like the Avengers of
09:20the up-and-coming young executives in baseball.
09:23Ani Kolombi, their general manager, that costs a lot of money to pry him away from teams that want him.
09:28They did this at every department.
09:29Their coaches were better at the minor league level.
09:32Their staffs were bigger at the minor league level.
09:34They were using technology like the traject machines in baseball where you could take these at-bats off of a
09:39machine that has the exact pitch being thrown by the pitcher that night to the velocity.
09:44And then you program in how the ball moves.
09:46They could do that this year at the AAA level and the Major League level and in West Palm.
09:50They never had those machines before.
09:53So they're spending money on those types of things they didn't used to.
09:56That gives me a little bit of hope that maybe they're willing to write some checks.
10:00But that was a good first step.
10:03The new step and the new demand is baseball players, big league level, actual payroll.
10:09You have to spend money.
10:10Back to seven years ago, by the way.
10:12I think you sleep.
10:14Darius sleeps.
10:15This whole group of people assembled at the draft garden here in Occoquan sleep on the fact that Anibal Sanchez
10:22had a perfect game through seven and two-thirds.
10:24In game one of the NLCS.
10:27Like, it had to be against the Cardinals, too.
10:29They somehow had beaten the Cubs on the way also.
10:31Would have exercised almost every day even.
10:33I mean, I guess the Giants, too.
10:34But that was never close and it wasn't dramatic.
10:36The way that they just never showed up that series.
10:38That is funny.
10:39In 18, the Caps had to dethrone the Penguins.
10:42And then in 19, remember seven years earlier, the 2012 Cardinals overcoming the Nats in game five.
10:48They had to get past St. Louis.
10:49It had to be the Dodgers, right, who had broken their hearts.
10:52It had to be the Cardinals, again, sort of the scene of it to exercise those demons.
10:58And the first two games in St. Louis could not have been closer, tighter, oh, my God, you know, white
11:04-knuckle type playoff games.
11:06And Anibal Sanchez went seven and two-thirds of perfect baseball.
11:10After Zim had that diving catch on Tommy Edmond, everyone's going, oh, my God, he's going to throw a perfect
11:15game?
11:15He's going to throw a perfect game in St. Louis on the road.
11:18And I believe it was Jose Martinez as a pinch hitter dumped a single in the center field to break
11:22that thing up.
11:23But it didn't even matter that Daniel Hudson wasn't there because he was on paternity leave.
11:27Just that group was such a team of destiny, and we were sort of realizing it then in real time.
11:32I don't remember the specifics of the Scherzer start right after that.
11:36He was incredible.
11:37How about that in the shadows?
11:38He also flirted with a no-hitter.
11:40Yeah.
11:41I was at both of those games in St. Louis, and Sanchez, I think, was probably a hair better in
11:46terms of the pitching line.
11:47But Max, in a pitcher's duel where the Cardinals allowed one run, he was near no-hit good as well.
11:54He pitched into the eighth inning, I think, in his game.
11:57Gave up one hit through seven innings in the shadows.
12:00Wainwright started for St. Louis, and playoff superstar Michael A. Taylor hit that solo.
12:06Homer, and our boy Adam Eaton had that double down the line to finally break it open and get him
12:10some extra runs.
12:11How big was Spanky Eaton during that playoff run?
12:13We sleep on it.
12:14I mean, obviously, the headliners are the headliners, and they should be, right?
12:16The Rendons and the Sotos and Howie Kendricks.
12:19Adam Eaton had half a dozen huge, giant wheelbarrow huevos ABs for them.
12:26Grant and Danny on the face.