Rates & Barrels - Is the Nationals' Rebuild Ahead of Schedule?

Episode Date: May 1, 2024

Eno, DVR and Britt discuss Mike Trout's knee injury, José Abreu's demotion to West Palm Beach, the Twins' unusual home-run celebration, and the newest additions to the City Connect uniform lineup, before taking a look at the Nationals' current rebuilding efforts.  Rundown 1:12 Mike Trout Has a Torn Meniscus; Looked Like He Was 'Back'. Before Injury 9:46 José Abreu Optioned to rookie-level West Palm Beach 18:09 Bring Food to Home-Run Celebrations? 22:22 Thoughts on Mets, Rays City Connects 29:49 How Far Along Is the Nats' Rebuild? 45:21 Early-Season Series of Note: O's-Yankees, Rays-Brewers & Dodgers-D-backs Follow Eno on Twitter: @enosarris Follow DVR on Twitter: @DerekVanRiper Follow Britt on Twitter: @Britt_Ghroli e-mail: [e-mail] Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/FyBa9f3wFe Join us on Fridays at 1p ET/10a PT for our livestream episodes! Subscribe to The Athletic: theathletic.com/ratesandbarrels Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Rates and Barrels, it's Wednesday, May 1st. Derek the Ripper, you know, Saris, Britt Giroli here with you one day later than usual. Life happens as they like to say on this episode. We've got some news and notes from around the league, including a disappointing turn of events for Mike Trout, who was off to a good start, at least from a power perspective this season. We're going to dig into a home run celebration that would probably draw a health grade F from most most municipalities. And we've got a question about the Nats rebuild

that we're gonna dig into. How far along is the Nationals rebuild? Kind of a big picture question for us today. We're also gonna talk about a few early series that we've been excited about that are in progress. And I think each of them got more exciting for different reasons since the time that we put them on the rundown on Monday morning

for the show. So lots to dig into today. If you haven't joined the discord yet you can do that using the link in the show description. Let's talk about Mike Trout first this was the fresh news of the day on Tuesday night Mike Trout has a torn meniscus ten homers through 29 games this season he even stole a base again on Monday night before this injury was announced on Tuesday. Angels making a little shuffle in the outfield at DFA and Aaron Hicks adding Kevin Pilar as sort of the depth adjustment here. But this is just the latest in a growing list of disappointing

mid and later career injuries for Trout that are really keeping him from showing us if he's still even 80 or 90 percent of the player he was at his peak. Like from a power perspective and just by the fact that he's being aggressive on the base pass again, I was becoming increasingly optimistic that he was still that guy based on what was happening through the first month of the season. Yeah, what's awful about it is,

I don't know if you guys saw the video, but you could tell that he was struggling to not cry. This is something that I think people forget that these, cause they're like, well, it gets paid anyway. Like these guys care. And I think it was Ken Rosendahl for us in the beginning of the season who did this story with Trout that was like, he really this spring wanted to prove to people that he can still be that guy. Like this in his head was a season that he had targeted as like, you know, I'm going to silence the doubters that people said, I like, you know, I'm going to silence the

doubters that people said I can't stay healthy and I can't stay on the field and you know, my best years are behind me. And then he goes out and he has a ridiculous start. I mean, you look at what he's done home run wise, and I think there are some teams that are pretty close to him in terms of team home runs. When I wrote the White Sox column, they only had like three more home runs than Mike Trout through the first month of the season. Really frustrating, I think, even if you're not an Angels fan, if you're a baseball fan, because unfortunately, you know people are going to say, well, it's the same old thing, can't stay healthy.

Yes, it's not season ending. I think four to six weeks was the initial timeline. But you wonder, four to six six weeks and then does he rehab to come back, right? Like is he, is this something that kind of lingers all year at his age? It's just, it really sucks. There's no other way to put it. I enjoy watching him. I felt like he was a man on a mission this year and he looked like it for that first month. And now we're not going to get to see that anymore. And whether or not the Angels were going to be a playoff team or not, it's still exciting

to watch the best player in the game play on a nightly basis. And we're just not going to see that. And I just wonder how much this accumulated injuries over time is just going to continue to compound itself. It's the back, it's the leg, it's the knee, right? He's older than he even appears to be, I think, because of all the injuries that he's suffered. So I wonder how we're going to look at his career. Are we going to look at it as what could have been?

Because no doubt he's a Hall of Famer. But are we going to say, what if he had stayed healthy? I think that's going to be a huge part of his legacy. Yeah, it's it's sad. The news actually came down while I was talking to Brent Rooker about injuries across the sport and even even hitter injuries and we were talking about just the fact that these players are pushing themselves as far as they can go. You know we just saw that Tristan Casas has you know internal injuries akin to being in a car crash because he's turning so fast and know, when I look at Mike Trout,

I see a guy who looks like a free safety, looks like a linebacker. And, you know, he's really pushed himself to swing the bat as far as, as hard as he can, run as fast as he can. And I think we're seeing some of that kind of, it's a little bit like, you know, guys throwing as hard as they can every single time. You know, he's a little bit like, you know, guys throwing

as hard as they can every single time, you know, he's, he's been, when he's in, he plays as hard as he can. And, uh, it's too bad because if you, you know, I don't know if he's necessarily the very best player in the sport anymore, but, uh, by a WRC plus, which is just a park adjusted, uh, number for offense, Aaron judge, this is the, over the last three years, Aaron Judge, Jordan Alvarez, Jose Alto, they show here, tiny Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Mike Trout. That is the top seven. They all have like 1200 played appearances or more.

He's about 300 played appearances behind most of them. Even even Aaron Judge. So yeah, it's definitely part of his legacy. I think he's a Hall of Famer already. I think he would have been kind of an inner circle kind of, you know, in the same sentences as Babe Ruth and Barry Bonds. Now I think he's more a guy you talk about, like you talk about Mickey Mantle. That's not that far off It's not like a Sandy Kofax package. I don't think where you know, he's only good for like five or six years and what could have been

but you know, he still has some work to do to get into you know, even the Mickey Mantle territory. He's about 30 war short of Mickey Mantle. So, you know, we we've got to hope for some some better health from him. Maybe maybe just stick him at D.H. You know, like maybe preemptively say, hey, we're trying to keep you healthy. Can you just bat for us? I think that's a big part of it.

Or even just doing that more part time, which was never an option when Otani was there, because that was the spot Otani had. I'm surprised to see this. If you look at Mike Trout's career, he's played over 1,400 games in the big leagues, only 81 appearances as a DH. Like that's, you know, because of his, initially he had a lot of value as a defensive center fielder.

He likes playing there. Yeah, it's a big part of it. But at some point, you know, if you say, one way we can take some of the wear and tear off your legs, people underestimate how much outfielders are running and moving around during a game. And center field runs more,

because they cover more. If you could take some of that off, that would help. Some guys feel like it translates into their advance and they're not as locked into the game. There's a statistical component to that. It's called the DH penalty. You are 10% worse than you are normally if you're not playing in the game. There's a there's a there's a statistical component to that. It's called the DH penalty. You are 10% worse than you are normally if you're not playing in the field. Yeah.

So because like you're sitting there, you're sitting on each at bat, you're not like, you know, you can impact the game and make a great catch after you strike out with the bases loaded. You're staying warm, like physically. So I don't know actually if the stop and start for Mike Trout keeps him that much healthier. I don't know. I don't. Could you play Trout keeps him that much healthier. I don't know. Could you play him first base? I mean we saw Bryce Harper make that move. I think that's sort of the compromise. You're still moving around. You're not as inactive. I mean, DHs have things they can do.

They can go underneath the tunnel and ride a stationary bike and do stuff like that. If they want to stay loose, it's not the same. But JD Davis pointed out to me, if you do that, you're not acclimated to the lights. So there's actually this weird part where somebody says, hey, you're up and you come from in the tunnel in the dark and you're like, ah! Can't see anything. Yeah, that's a good point. I just don't, yeah, I think first base is a good compromise.

I don't know if you can put him as DH and that solves all your problems. Then you're also clogging the DH spot for the angels. For guys who need a blow. They've been used to that. Yeah, they've lived that life for a while. Teams don't like that though. Teams would prefer to be able to use that to give guys a blow. I think the first base plan would be the thing I would try to go to trout with. I say let's let's do it the Phillies did with Bryce Harper you know, let's let's just see if we can get you back to

130 140 games by taking wear and tear off your legs show him with data show him how much he's moving in the outfield Versus how much he'll still move at first base by comparison. It's not good people have this impression that first baseman or statues They're not I think you run in the outfield, you run like a couple miles a game, and I don't think first baseman are running a couple miles a game. No, it's less, it's less, but it's probably the happy medium.

And for all of the things that we just said about Trout, there's a few things that still jump off the page statistically, more stolen bases in 29 games this season. He had six already in seven attempts than he had in the last three seasons combined. He had five over the last three seasons together. Lowest strikeout rate from Mike Trout. That's part of what Britt is talking about.

Yeah, he was motivated. He was there. Everybody, I'm still here. Yeah, he wanted to kind of silence the doubters. I thought he was a little spicier than we've ever seen with some of his quotes this spring. Mm, that's true. He just did a Q&A with Sam Blum last week that went up on the athletic as well.

A lowest strikeout rate that we've seen since 2019 for Mike Trout. So hopefully on the other side of this meniscus injury, four, six weeks from now, two months from now, whatever ends up being, we can see a nice productive second half from him. A little bit of a flyby here. We knew things weren't going well for Jose Abreu in Houston. They decided to option him to West Palm Beach, their rookie level affiliate, which is basically a way to getting him back to their spring complex to let him sort of revamp his swing. Given that he's a veteran with, I think it's five years service time, he had to approve

this. So something that he and the organization sort of came to an agreement on. I'm just wondering if it's going to work. Are we going to see Jose Abreu figure it out, mechanically rebuild the swing, come back and offer something to the Astros later on this season? Or is this just sort of the first step on the way out the door for an early release? Because, Britt, you suggested they would just eat the contract. I thought they were going to try and suck it up, get through this season and then

maybe cut bait early next year if they couldn't get them back on track. Well, I think this is them going through the, like you said, the first step, right? Now, what's fascinating is he had to agree to this. He could have said, nah, forget you. But he has said to reporters, and Chandler Rome had a good story about this, about how embarrassing this is and how he wants to put things back together. And it's been such a dramatic tumble for a guy who was a silver slugger and an MVP to this. I do think this still ends in a DFA. The other factor is he's not even helping them on the field. He's like a negative three defensive run saved. So he's killing them. And the Astros are, as we know, not off to a great start. So I'm good on him for agreeing to do this. I don't know how many players would have been okay with this. I do think there

is some pride there. And like he said, he is embarrassed. I just, I'm not sure he can get back to that prior form, right? Like what is it that needs to be unlocked that the Astros have done such a good job of maximizing these guys. What is it that, you know, Troy Snicker and the rest of their coaches can't figure out, you know, it, that to me is a little confounding. And I feel like we're going to look at this contract, which was made by Jim Crane. Remember they signed him before they had a GM. This is when they had got rid of James Click. We're going to look back on this deal and say, this was one of the worst deals that they've made in recent

history and they've avoided these deals. Right? But there was no GM and there was an owner who loves stars. He wanted Josh Hader. He wanted a Breyu. And this is going to end up blowing up in their face. So no, I'm not super optimistic about this. I think it's a good first move. But what do you do? How long does he stay down there? What does he have to do? It's so hard to evaluate how guys do in the minor leagues. We just have a Jackson holiday. So what does he have to do? Crush at the West Palm Gulf Coast League? What does he do? Does he move up through the system? Right. Does he feel good about himself? Because I don't think it's like a confidence thing, right? He's not a 22-year-old kid. So what? He's going to tear it up in their AAA or the sugar land.

And then you bring them up and he has a bad couple of games. I don't know what this does besides by time. Organizationally, I think they're going to figure out what they have in low profito a little bit. Um, if you can get to, if you can get a month before a brave says, Hey, what's going on a month is actually a decent amount of time. People make decisions on a month. We see, you know, we see young kids get a month before they go back down.

We see, uh, people do waiver claims, give them a month and then let them go. A month is enough time to see what you can like see certain things in batted ball stats. For example, in a month, a barrel rate is important. Uh, a Brea who has not hit a barrel in the first month. And so that's that's important we're about to get bat speed numbers from baseball savant in the next couple of weeks and when we do get those numbers I will assume that we will see that Abreu's bat speed is in the bottom quartile of the league and that he's lost his bat speed. That's what I see when I don't see a maxi V over 109. He's always had one over 113 in the past.

When I don't see barrels, when I see a hard hit rate at 27%, the worst of his career. And I think this was a long time coming because we all remember last year he started out poorly and then he kind of rallied. But when he rall rallied I think he did enough to say oh you know he got it back he got it back well his rallying that second half where he rallied quote-unquote he was nine percent above league average that's basically average for a first baseman um and then on top of that it would have been his worst career season if he had done that. Like what he did in the second half last year was also worse than he wasn't before. So we already kind of saw, oh, his rallying, like his bounce is more of the, the cat variety than the like, uh, then they're like, oh, he's back variety, you know?

And so I think we, we saw basically last year, the harbingers of what's happening now. So it's on Loper Vito to hit the ball hard and show them that, you know, he can be a above average first baseman. And then I think you're right. I think it's headed for the DFA. Do you guys think you could barrel up a ball in one month? One? No. I don't either. My max exit velocity, I know this because I did a little bit of training, 74.

All right, all right. 74. Just to let everyone know when you think you can play better, when you're screaming at the TV saying you think you can still do better. Or when me as an analyst, I'm like, well, he hasn't hit a ball 110, so he's totally toast. I've hit a ball 74.

They're literally kids hit the ball harder than that. Would that even bruise if it hit me? You'd be able to just get out of the way, I don't think it'd hit you. Yeah, you could see it coming. You'd be just going to dodge it. Oh gosh. And I love that you said it takes a month for people to make decisions as a good chunk, except for Peter Bendix.

Did you guys see that press conference? No. The Marlins? I did not see the Peter Bendix press conference. guys see that press conference? No. The Marlins? I did not see the Peter Bendix press conference. Was he talking about his catchers? Oh, yesterday people were asking him. They're the worst, I think,

are they the worst team in baseball right now? I didn't check this morning. Oh boy. Them and the White Sox have been duking it out. Peter Bendix basically said yesterday, and this made the rounds. Oh, they have one more win than the White Sox. On social media that a month isn't enough time to make any decisions that they, you

know, he's still optimistic that they're going to turn it around this year and that he just kept hammering that a month wasn't enough time for him to, you know, make some roster moves to shake things up. You know, people are a little upset by this because they didn't upgrade the Major League roster at all either. You know. Well, I think I mean, I think the plan for him is, you know, give me five years. But you only gave Kim Eng one. Yeah, no, yeah.

I mean, it's a double standard. You're sure you're right. Definitely a double standard. What buttons are you pressing? The state of the organization was they were lucky to get to the playoffs last year. There was still work to be done. Oh, I mean. It was partially, it's a partially built roster because they've had injuries.

They've had major injuries to key pitchers. Yeah. Their strength is pitching and they've lost key pitchers. So the position player death has been a problem. I think my month comment was a little bit more about a single player. Yeah. When you start, if you take like 26 players, then you're multiplying all the all the noise, you know, but to not make any I think shake ups at all has kind of bothered people. And then they sent down that one who is Lopez?

We do know from from source reporting that they are talking. And that you know, they are considering moves. It's not like they, you know, we know that like Arias is semi on the block. Right, right. We know that's happening. I mean, is Josh Bell gonna be a Marlin at the end of the season? Probably not. Luis Arias, probably not. But who does he have to call up to be like,

well, Bell. That's what I'm saying. I don't think there's that many toggles other than bringing back Max Meyer. And then of course, Max Meyer gets knocked around a little bit of AAA. They have him working on his pitch mix. He's not throwing his slider as much as he did when he was with the big league club.

So there's the adjustment there. Oh, is that really what's happened? That's what happened in his last outing. Oh, interesting. But it reeks of a rebuild and no one is talking about that. They're like, well, in the short term, we're going to turn it around. I think just be honest and own up to people that it's going to take five years if that's what you were tasked with.

Cutting payroll, going more heavy into analytics, and having a down couple seasons, just be honest with people. Yeah. I'm with you there. Let's get to a new home run celebration in Minnesota because I haven't seen a lot of celebrations with food. I just wanted to get a fair foul assessment from each of you on this one. I'm glad we got confirmation from Rocco Belladelli on this.

The sausage that you've seen the twins tossing around after home runs, courtesy of Ryan Jeffers, is a summer tangy sausage. Rocco's head's in the right place because he was talking about his concerns that when the packaging opens, they're still keeping this thing in the plastic. It's going to be a problem. Like it's going to smell because it has been refrigerated. It's been at a warm temperature, cooled off at night, warmed up again.

Not really the way you want to store even a very well preserved meat, like a summer tangy sausage. So where does this rank on your scale of bad and gross home run celebrations? This is the first like what other home run celebrations have you grown? I know what's a little bit gross. The Homer hose. The Homer hose. That's a little gross.

I mean, that's like, if there was COVID, they'd all get it pretty quickly. Ashley, you said that and I was paying attention. I've been at the last two games with the Yankees and like they don't put their mouth on it. They just take it like a hose. Oh, they kind of squirt it out of their tongues. Yeah, like, you know, when you're drinking out of the hose, like when you were a little kid, you didn't physically put your mouth on the hose. You just kind of got the water.

Yeah, OK. All right. That makes it a little bit. So so the Homer hose is a one grossness factor. The sausage is like an eight or nine. And I don't know that there's any in between. And there's and every other one is zero. Like what other what other one has been gross? An eight or a nine, an eight or a nine would be

if they started eating it. It's like many of the scale. No, I would, you know, eight or a nine, it's gonna start growing things. Like it is. It's gonna be green soon. Like, listen, I'm all for the wacky home run celebrations, but does it have to involve like E. coli? No. You're right.

Yeah. We don't, we don't want that. All the twins are out. With a stomach bug. It's not going to make it to summer. It's May already. Maybe that was an April celebration. A little cool this time of year.

You can get away with it. It's warming up now. There is a little bit of a corollary for me. We have a little league team in our league that has taken an empty water bottle, just obviously just trash and tied it to a stick. And that's their mascot. And they are undefeated, I believe. And so there is I think the value is people, I think, want to ascribe the value of something like this to superstition and like,

you know, sort of belief that we can win because we have the Homer sausage or the the the Homer trash thing. I think what it actually is is shared experience. I think it's the value of shared experience because teams are disparate groups where you have little clicks, you know, you have the starting pitchers, you know, you have the guys who only speak Spanish playing cards, you know, you kind of you have these little clicks in clubhouses that you can kind of identify almost by walking in the door. You know, you see little groupings of people. If you bring if you have something like this, it's something that all are experiencing together. And so I think that's what sort of brings them together. It's a team building experience a little bit more than like a superstition like, you know, wearing the same underwear over and over again.

That's nine out of ten. That's kind of gross. Ten out of ten gross. Stop wearing the same underwear every day. The summer tangy sausage is, it's unique. I'll give them that. It's not nearly as good. Last year they had a good celebration. They had the fishing vest. It was the land of 10,000 rakes because they called Minnesota the land of 10,000 lakes. Fun fact, Wisconsin has more lakes than Minnesota.

Yes, I live on that side of the border. I'm here to educate and inform the public. The original rivalry inserted there. I know, geez. I like Minnesota so much. Like it's weird. Find it to be the silliest rivalry of all. The original rivalry is inserted there. I know, jeez. I like Minnesota so much. Like, it's weird. Find it to be the silliest rivalry of all.

The fact that people on opposite sides of that border have any sort of bitterness towards each other. It's passive aggressive most of the time anyway, because that's how we feel in this part of the country. That's how the Midwest rolls. That's how we roll. One other aesthetic question for you. I think you're right.

The shared experience makes a lot of sense. More City Connect uniforms drop, and I'm waiting for these to be a total disaster because of the other uniform problems we're experiencing this year. So here's if you're watching on YouTube, you can see them. We got the Mets and we have the Rays, a lot of gray. Interesting thing you might be able to see on this particular shot. I noticed that they've got the bridge on the Mets cap. That's a nice pull.

That's a really good design. Similar to what they did. So you can like batting helmets. Yeah, they got it on the batting helmets too. I think that's a really nice touch. I think that's a way to like take something that's a little bit like bland by color, but make it really interesting by design.

So I think those are probably a thumbs up for me as a neutral. I don't have a rooting interest with the Mets or anything like that. That's hard to see if you're looking at YouTube right now and you haven't seen the raised one is that it's kind of, it's not black or white or gray. It's like black with, um, it's supposed to kind of look like, uh, it looks like a chalkboard. Yeah. After you erase the chalkboard, there's still remnants of chalk on it.

That's sort of the texture of it. Or also like asphalt. Yeah. Because it's like a skateboarding kind of graffiti thing going on. I also like their hats. Their hat is the bridge as well, but it's a ray.

It's like a ray with a bridge on it. It's a pretty cool hat. These, I think, are automatically, they rise to the top two or three in the sport. And they might rescue the whole enterprise because I have to look at the San Francisco ones, which I think are bottom two or three in the sport. I mean, these things are these awful creamsicle

Just they look terrible and they don't really make me think of the city at all Like it's like all white and like I get the fog idea But then make it gray like I don't it's it doesn't make any sense to me. It looks awful I think I saw these there were these three guys behind home plate and a game I covered recently that wore the whole city connects head to toe with their own name on the back of their jerseys. And I couldn't help myself. I pointed and laughed.

That's rude, man. It's pretty rude, but I was like, look at those guys. I'm going to agree with you. I think I honestly put the race hat at one for city connects. I don't know if there's a better hat. Um, nationals are pretty good too. I put the Nats, see ice, I think when you go with jerseys, we're going with uniforms. The top three to me are the Nats, the Padres and the race.

And I don't have an order for them. I think I appreciate them all in different ways. They're creative. They're cool. Um, you know, it's right. We haven't had a real big hit. It feels like since the Nats or the Padres, whichever one came most recently. I think the Philly one is pretty bad actually.

The Philly one is awful. The Dodgers one is terrible. They just put most in front of their, like, it's just... Yeah, no risk at all. And I think the Mets hat is good, but I think the uniform top is safe. It's really safe. It's really safe. It's very safe. It's not bad, it's just very safe. And I think Baltimore went with safe to the...

Also safe. It's bad. It's just a white... It's just a black, dirty Baltimore and white and across it. Baltimore is in rainbow-ish colors and it's like you can't clip these wings and it's bad. Oh, that's not good, dude. They had so many cooler things they could have done. I think. I think Texas is safe and boring.

With the Mahjong tile. Yeah. I mean, at least they tried a little bit. Like, yeah, like to me, if you're going to take a risk, take a risk. And I think the Rays just did it the right way. Like I'm going to get a hat. I might even get a Jersey too. Like I haven't bought anything. I think they're awesome. I think they're really cool looking. The San Diego ones are, are, are popular in our household. We have a bunch of San Diego City Connects. We even have a City Connect poncho that that's being passed around the family. Yeah, you go, my family's out there and like I've

been to a decent amount of games and I feel like you it is very common to see those in the stands. I guess Colorado's okay. I don't think those. Everyone else is just okay to me. I don't know, do you guys have anyone else in the top three? The Brewer ones are okay. I don't think those is just OK to me. I don't know. Do you guys have anyone else in the top three? The Brewer ones are OK. I don't know if there's good as some of the better ones, but they're not. They're not bad. It's the light blue with the brew crew. It kind of looks like the Santa Cruz logo lettering on it, which is if you've seen that stuff, you'll really see it's bad.

I oh, I wouldn't want to put the White Sox one in the top three or fighting for it. I like the White Sox one. It's safe and it's kind of boring, but it's cool. I think it looks cool. I don't know. It's like, I would want one kind of. If I had to pick a City Connect jersey to wear every day for a month, I would want the Nationals cherry blossoms.

Get me a Victor Robles one, I'll own it. I'll wear it every day for a month. PJ Maxx, $29.99, send it my way. I'll pay you back on Venmo. Make it happen. I guess Ruku kind of reminds you of the old. I'll see if I find one around here. Ruku reminds you of the old Brewer's jerseys a little bit.

Yeah, they're a little bit of a throwback. Miami's red ones aren't bad. Those are, you know. Oh, they're kind of like soccer jerseys. Yeah, those are not bad. Those were a nod to the sugarcane. We're talking about top five is here. That's the next three might be Milwaukee, the White Sox and the and the Marlins. Yeah, I like the Marlins ones. I think a lot of them are just kind of like, yeah, that's

fine. And that's good enough. But the ones that are bad are bad. I think the Philly ones are pretty bad. Philly. Yeah, Philly already has so many cool, like the powder blue, like the alternate jerseys that like it was just gonna be hard to do another like, oh man, must have this, you know? Yeah, the regular jerseys are pretty cool. I like their regular jerseys.

Every team that has good regular uniforms struggles with all of the, this happens across other sports too. Wrigleyville. Yeah, like you got a pretty good classic uniform. I like the Cubs pinstripes, you know? And then Wrigleyville, you're like, ugh. Or the Dodgers, like really? Yeah, the Dodgers ones are stupid.

In football, this happens when they do the colorway of jerseys. Packer stuff never looks right. Like the Packers green and gold stuff looks the way it does and it's great. Every weird jersey they wear looks stupid. This happens across every sport. Is this going to end or are we going to deal with City Connects forever? Once they hit

all the teams, are we done? They'll call it something else. They'll make up a new name. I don't know what they'll call it. Jerseys of the future or double inverted retro. They'll come up with some stupid name and start a whole new series every single time like clockwork. We already have like the camo on like we already have the mother's day and the father's day and like at some point we tapped out or no I guess no capitalism has no limit. There's no limit. Now we will continue making new uniforms. Oh god the military ones. I know.

The camo. Not a fan. Let's move on to the nationals rebuild since we're talking about those cherry blossom jerseys, which have been retired, right? They're not using those anymore. Really? Or they're going to be retired after this year if they haven't stopped wearing them. Okay. I was like, I thought they wore them this year.

I think they're wearing them this year, but I heard they're retiring them. You're taking the best jersey that you've had in your franchise's brief history and you're just stopping. Sure. Supply chain issues, I guess. It's hard to make a lot of those cherry blossoms, apparently. Well, that is the reason they're not doing player weekend jerseys,

because they can't get pants for the regular games. They're still struggling to find pants that don't rip off their butts. So they announced they're redoing players weekend, they're bringing it back, but they're not letting players make other nicknames on their jerseys because they can't get the jerseys in time. Sounds about right. Yay. It's a big question for the day. How far along is this Nationals rebuild? Are things going well in DC? I mean, Britt, you're

there. You're witnessing this firsthand. I think about them as having a good head start on a rebuild because they've done well in the Juan Soto trade in particular, right? They didn't crush every single player in the deal, but James Wood looks like he is going to be a well above average regular, if not a star. So to get a player like that back and to get Mackenzie Gore and to get other guys that should at least play in the big leagues, that's a nice haul. And when you hit a trade like that and get it right and you get some early draft picks you hit a trade like that and get it right, and you get some early draft picks you connect on,

oh, and CJ Abrams looks amazing too. Like that's a franchise altering trade when you get it right. And it can be a franchise altering or destroying trade when you get it wrong. Am I putting too much weight on that? Because I think you look at that, plus like Brady House and the way that system's starting to

come together, Dylan Cruz, their first round or last year, it looks like their core might be coming together a little faster than most rebuilds. Yeah, well, it's tough because just down the street is the Orioles where I feel like rebuild was supercharged. Just took a long time though. It's hit this crazy high level, but that took a long time to do. Yeah, but they were really good last year and they were really good the second half of 2022. So if you look at it, they bottomed out in 18, 19, 20 is kind of a wash and 21. So it really wasn't that bad. It wasn't like they rebuilt for seven years. They were just so bad. So I think the Nationals, if you consider

in 19, they win the World Series. 20, let's call it a wash. They were terrible. 21 is when they really were like, okay, let's fire sale, right? They started trading guys. Scherzer and Turner went at the deadline that year. And then of course, Wansoto goes in 2022. And so I do think they're moving quickly. I think next year is going to be the key because if they really, they kind of sent up the bat signal, right? And not really improving the major league roster and saying like, Hey, let's see how these guys do. We think we're still a year away from even trying to supplement.

But I think if they're going to have these guys continue to improve the way they have and they've played well, you look at their record and honestly, they could easily have like three more wins. They had a couple of games that were decided by like a bad call or a bad bounce. So you look at how they've been able to perform. And I agree with you. Look, they don't make that one Soto trade. They are five years behind as an organization.

And people didn't think at the time that Mike Russo could even win that trade. People were like, you can't trade Juan Soto for anything. But because AJ Preller exists, they were able to get so many guys. And I've heard numerous times that people in the Padres organization were pounding the table saying, don't include James Wood, who was 18 at the time. You know, and obviously he had that high ceiling, but you never know the guy that young, what they're gonna be. And he's looking like, you said, he's still looking like he's gonna be the centerpiece

of that deal in terms of his ceiling, talent-wise. Let's not also forget that Kate Cavalli, rehabbing from Tommy John's surgery, could be a factor next year too. So I do think the rebuild is headed in the right direction. My main question with them remains, are they going to be able to consistently develop? Because the Orioles, the rebuild is over,

but their pipeline is so good because not only did they kick first and yes, they tanked their way to winning, but some of these guys that are coming out are not, weren't these like herald, top heralded guys, like look at Ryan O'Hern and what he was able to do, right? Look at Colton Couser. You know, these are not like the Adley-Rutchman picks of the draft. So I do think for the Nationals to truly take that next step, they have to be

able to draft and develop. And there are some signs for the first time since I was there in in nineteen you look around and you can see some guys who are home grown on the big league roster the question is can they keep that pipeline going and have a finally figured out a way. To develop a guys because they revamp that player development system again. And I think they knew it was a problem. And if they're not able to develop these guys, then all these guys you got in the trade are great and all, but they're not going to improve the way you need them to improve. So I think this is a big year for the Nationals coaching staff, the big league staff and the minor leagues, to get these guys better and see where you go from here.

Like if these guys are coming up and they're getting shelled and they're regressing, I don't think you can blame the Dodgers or the Padres for sending you like bad goods, right? It's on the Nationals to continue these guys development to finish them as players. And if they can do that, I think next year, they can start to be a fringy wild card team if they go out and supplement that roster appropriately. Yeah. I am ill prepared to say nice things about the Nationals.

The player development. I've been saying bad things all along, but I will, I have to say they deserve some flowers. And this is what I, I really, really was surprised by this. The Washington Nationals right now have the third best pitching staff in baseball. Well, that's a mind blowing first month stat because. But exactly, yes. Even though it's only a month. I am speechless.

You couldn't have seen that coming, even if you're trying to say, what spicy take can I put out there for the first month of the season? What small sample size voodoo can I get lucky with? You still wouldn't have picked that. No, but aren't the Red Sox up there, too? April is a great school. But I bold predicted the Red Sox up there too? April is a great fool. Well, no, but I bold predicted the Red Sox to having a good pitching staff, but what I said was it would be top five

in the American league, not second best in all of baseball as they are right now. So. They're in their best, like start in a hundred years or something, pitching staff-wise. Yeah. So, April is a little bit of a fooler. It is, so yeah. So I do think there's some long term question marks on the pitching side, but the fact that they've gotten it to this point, I think speaks well of like, Mackenzie Brewer

is now I think hitting sort of 60 and 70th percentile outcomes for himself. You know, like it's, they didn't screw him up. You know, like it's they didn't screw him up. You know, like one thing you can't do in player development is screw people up. You can be too, too much in it and twist too many dials. And that's kind of what was going on in Mackenzie Gore in San Diego. If you ask me, too many dials are being pressed, too many buttons are being pressed, and he didn't know what the hell was going on. And now it's been more simplified and he's he's one of the better outcomes for himself that you could see.

And I think that speaks well to like, you know, adding Sean to a little changing up the processes a little bit, uh, being a little bit more, uh, uh, statistic forward and progressive as an organization. So that speaks well of that. So maybe Kate Cavalli will come out of this rehab and, you know, be one of the better versions of Kate Cavalli. Maybe that's possible. If that is possible,

their batting right now is what's behind. Right now they're the 19th best in position player war and by WRC plus they are 20th. So they're a bottom third team offensively and that's where the excitement is. You still got James Wood and D Cruz coming. You know, so I think like they are set up. And then the last pit, the money bit, which is something that usually bring up, I think they, it's hard to know what they will do in a post TV agreement environment. If they will go back to their spending ways. But they have $62 million on their payroll next year, of which $35 million goes to Stephen Strasburg.

So they are about to get really, really cheap. And maybe everything lines up for 2027 being a big spending year, or maybe even in 25 and 26, they start spending because they know in 27, they're gonna get $35 million back. Yeah, well, they also restructured that deal a little bit when he agreed to retire. They deferred some of it,

because it is crushing them. Yeah, and so Patrick Corbin, the big deal is Patrick Corbin is up after this year. That's another part of it. That takes off a big load. I mean, really the only person on a regular contract in 2025 is Kavit Ruiz for 5.4 million and an option on Joey Gallo for eight.

That will not be exercised. No, I think you gotta spend starting next year, even if it's just a little bit to show these guys that you like believe. And it's going to be, you know what it's going to be? It's going to be what they did last time. It's going to be a starting pitcher. That's how I see it. I see them buying a starting pitcher.

The ownership loves the free agent starters. They do. And he's super interesting. He signed some of the better deals. Strasburg might be one of the worst deals, the second Strasburg. The first Strasburg deal wasn't that bad. And the Scherzer deal might be one of the best free agent deals for a starting pitcher ever.

Yeah, I agree. And when they got Corbin, it was seen as a coup and they wouldn't have won the World Series for that Corbin. That was one of the worst ones, I think. Yeah. And now it is. But that first year they got him a 19, it wasn't. Right, exactly.

So I could see him playing in the starting pitcher market next year and maybe adding some bats. But I don't know if he'll go buy Juan Soto back or anything. No, I don't think they're going to that sort of spending level. I think you're right to question whether or not they'll go back to earlier payroll levels. That might be something that a new ownership group down the road would end up doing, but- Yeah, do they get sold when they're at their leanest?

Do they get sold when they have a $50 million payroll and all the kids- Clean sheets. Well, yes and no though, because you can argue that if they still had one soda ownership, the new owners would like having a star. I think they have to figure out the Mon situation because when the Orioles changed hands, David Rubenstein took over the beginning of this month, one of his top to-dos was figuring out Masson. And I think once they figure out the TV rights, like are the Nationals going to own them? Are they going to sell them to MLB?

Is the money going to go up that they're going to be owed? That I think has a big part in all of this. I think that's probably hanging over both the Ori think has a big part in all of this. I think that's probably hanging over both the Orioles and Nationals when it comes to spending. With the Nationals, it's harder to see because they're in rebuilding and they wouldn't be spending much anyway. But for us to all yell at the Orioles for not spending, maybe some part of it is we don't know how much money we're going to get from our TV deal, which then puts them in the bucket of like, you know, the Rangers and the D-backs and the Padres,res where you know, they are all kind of wondering how much money they get from the TV deal. It's hard to spend when you don't know exactly what's coming in. If I said the Nats are a playoff contender in 2026 based on where things sit today, is

that fair? It's not impossible, dude. I believe it. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if they're going to win the division. I think they could be fringy next year. I think they could win 70 games. Maybe a 500 team if everything goes well next year

and then playoff contention the year after. I'm here to say, like, I guess like I'm wrong about them. Like, this is way better. You know, it's funny how CJ Ames breakout and Gore kind of, you know, pitching well. It might just be enough to sort of change my opinion. Plus their balance sheets are so I'm surprised about how clear, like I kind of in my head was like, oh, they have all that deferred money. They're going to be dealing with it forever.

And now you look down, you're like, oh, they have two more years of Strasburg. That's it. Yeah. Aren't they still paying Max Scherzer? But it's small. That's going to say it's not showing up on, on, on. I don't know. The Osher money, because he deferred a bunch of it, but it's not a lot, I don't think. A lot of deferrals in that organization.

They love deferrals. Strangely, they offered Soto no deferrals when they offered him that 440. So yeah, I think they could be like the Orioles where next year, the end of the year, they're playing really well and we're like, ooh, not enough to get there, but kind of exciting to watch. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's be like the Orioles where next year, the end of the year, they're playing really well.

And we're like, ooh, not enough to get there, but kind of exciting to watch these guys. And then the following year, you're like, okay. I don't think they're gonna maybe go out and win the NL East, but look at the Phillies. The Phillies are gonna, like the window is now on the Phillies. And so you're like, is there a path?

I think so. And what's the Mets sort of up and down? Like what's the Mets plan look like? Here's your spicy toss-up question. Who makes the playoffs sooner? The Mets or the Nationals? I think you'd assume the Mets, cause they're already in a position right now where they're in the middle, deeper pockets. We trust that they're going to put it all together the right way with the Nationals is a few more questions, but things do seem to be trending in the right we trust that they're going to put it all together the right way with the Nationals. There's a few more questions, but things do seem to be trending in the right

direction because if they're going to keep the pace longterm in that division, it seems like some combination of three out of Atlanta, Philly, and the Mets and the Nats will be consistently good. The Marlins will be the up and down team that doesn't spend that when they're good, they're from when they're not there a doormat. That's a tough place to win consistently. If you don't develop and hit on waiver claims and minor trades, I kind of want to see a little bit more success on the pitching side. Like I,

I, I'm watching Kate Cavalli pretty closely because they don't have any pitching prospects, you know, in their top sort of 10 prospects that are, that are, there's nobody, there's no pitching name that we're waiting for. Yeah, that's going to be the next. Besides Cade. Yeah, besides Cade, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Whereas like the Orioles, you look at them, they have a ton of bats. We talk about all the bats. They have extra bats. They have Norby, they have Mayo,

they have all, they have more bats to come. But one thing that doesn't get talked about as much about the Orioles is they actually have some interesting arms to an arm brister and Kate Povich. And there's some guys coming up that are interesting to that. I would rank ahead. You know, I might put Povich ahead of Kate Cavalli, you know, and he's the guy that people don't talk about. I think the other thing that's a little underrated about what the Orioles have done is that they get good mileage out of guys like Dean Kramer and Tyler Wells. I realize they're not aces, they're not 200 inning starters, very few guys are anymore. Put them in positions to succeed. Ask only what they can get out of them, you know, and like.

Kramer looks legit. Yeah. He looks like at least a good backend starter. Wells for the first half of last year was like a 310 ERA with a near one whip like that. Even for a half season is really valuable and you can pull guys like that into roles and get that kind of result. So if the Nats can start to find ways to do things like that, that would be one way to sort of bridge some of the gap between the lack of prospects and then the kind of top heavy nature of their pitching staff right now.

Someone to watch also is like Josiah Gray, like, you know, you know, what will they do with him? He's been okay at times as a starter. Would he be better in like a three an instant? Would you be a better reliever? You know, it seems like there's some potential in there, but the fastball is not that good. So maybe he just needs to be a reliever and throw it really hard so that the shape doesn't matter as much. You know, so there's Josiah Gray and Kate Cavalli have a lot to say, I think, in the next couple of months about like in the next few months about where this organization is going pitching with.

And they may not even run out of runway as starters until after next season, which just based on the depth or lack of depth means they've got time to figure it out. Sometimes that ends up being all you need as a starting pitcher. A few early season series that caught our interest, we'll get to these kind of as a flyby. Orioles-Yankees, like we said a few weeks ago, this was a potential budding rivalry in the AL East. Britt, you were on hand for at least the first game of that series on Monday. That was a Grayson Rodriguez strong pitching performance against the Yankees lineup that was putting tons of runs on the board over the weekend. So what'd you see at the yard on Monday night?

I saw the Orioles pitch, pitch really well. I mean, it's crazy because they had lost two of three to Oakland. Obviously the big deal was Craig Kimbrel having back issues. But you look not only at Monday, but last night too. And they've pitched, they've pitched really well. They've played these close games against the Yankees and really missing now their two best relievers because Bautista is out as we know and now down Kimbrel and they've been able to piece it together. And I think, you know, the highlight of that first game is going to be Gunnar Henderson

hitting another home run before he's 22, the guy's a star. There's no question about that. But I think, and Brandon Hyde said this after last night's game, the fact that they've been able to hang with them relief pitching wise, because they were really beat up coming out of that Oakland series and take the first two. So at worst they get a split here in a huge series. I think speaks volumes about this, this Orioles team, right? Cause they're young and you know, we're still wondering how

they respond to adversity. And I think you look at games like the, the last two nights and you're like, okay, you know, this, this team has it, they have it going on. And what I thought was so interesting, we talked about Kramer, he had a little incident, I don't know if you guys saw with Juan Soto last night. Soto hits this mammoth shot. I think't know if you guys saw with Juan Soto last night. Soto hits this Mammoth shot. I think it was the first one onto Utah Street this season and he stares at Kramer and then after the game he said well Kramer didn't like my Soto shuffle, so I Felt the need to stare at him, which I thought was a little Bushley gonna loss. Maybe keep the smack talk to yourself

right The Orioles fans definitely were like, and you lost. Yeah, like, you know, something after you win, you could kind of like throw the shade that way, but they didn't win, and I don't think they were up the whole game. I don't know. Well, Soto this year has been more rambunctious,

I think, than usual. Like he's been- He's got an edge. Yeah, he's been throwing the battle harder on homers. He's been, you know, he's been more sort of outspoken. And I don't know if it's trying to prove he's a leader or just trying to rally the troops or just being on a on a different type of team than the Padres. But it seems a little different this year. One thing that that, you know, I see going forward is, you know, Corbin Burns against Luis Hiel, I'm taking Corbin Burns. Kyle Bradish and John Means come back in the next two games after that,

and Bradish, like, his VELO was not back to normal on his rehab. So there's a little bit more riding on that than I think they might have expected or then maybe people realize. I think that they are a World Series contender if Bradish can can pitch to, you know, 90% of where he was last year. But and John Means himself, you know, sometimes doesn't strike anybody out, but sometimes still gets the outs like can they can they get along? Is that like is it more the Rangers package where they're just going to outslug and just figure out the pitching? Maybe.

I mean, they got burns for this very reason, right? Exactly. But you're right. They still could use another starter. Maybe they do it at the deadline, right? I don't know. There's that opportunity. And then one last thing I just want to point out real quick that's kind of funny because

we were talking about this in terms of rivalries. My son is reading like a novel that's historical. My worst foot forward as a baseball writer and analyst is history. I don't know it that well. I came to this country. It doesn't grab me as much as maybe other people. I didn't know this before and sorry if everybody knows this, but the Yankees were originally the Orioles. Did you know that? I didn't know that. So the Yankees were originally the Orioles, and then the Orioles went defunct, and in 1903 the Orioles were purchased and moved to New York and renamed the New York Highlanders. So that is kind of an origin story for a rivalry, you know,

it's like you're kind of like we were the same team at one point. But I just thought that was a cool a cool little side angle to this to this budding rivalry as we put as we put it. Yeah, I that's one little twist in franchise history that I actually had not previously read it. If you look at every franchise's history page, half the teams at least came from multiple places. Here's a tiny bit of trivia. So there were 13 Charger members in the American League and the National League. And some of them have stayed in their same city, but only one of the American League,

the original 13, only one of the teams has stayed in their same city and but only one of the American League, the original 13, only one of the teams has stayed in their same city and kept their same name. Austin. Huh? Is it Boston? It's not Boston. They, I think they were like the, the, the red stockings or like there's,

you know, like. You're right. They were the red stockings, which I still consider the red socks. I know it's really close. So it's kind of a nitpicky kind of bit of trivia, but there's one team that kept their name the whole way through. And it's sort of surprising. The Tigers? It's the Tigers.

Oh. Everybody else had like different names and a lot of them moved cities, you know. Yeah. Even the, these original, these Orioles were originally the St. Louis Browns. Yes. Yes. Yeah. I've been on that beat for nine years.

I was familiar probably more than anyone with the history. But it's interesting to note, and there definitely is a rivalry. The atmosphere, The Last of Knights doesn't remind you of like an early May game at all. These games mattered Orioles fans. And I think they've had it at the Yankees now for a long time. It was a very one sided rivalry. The Yankees would just come in and fill the stadium and was the madman thing. I don't think about you at all.

Yeah. Speaking of getting pretty heated, though, for this time of year, Brewers raise like two organizations that are very similar. They're the Spider-Man meme in a lot of ways. Like any of that, I miss that. Well, so I think it was just a Chris Gucci on the show for most the game. Freddy Peralta was pitching well. Jose Siri hit a home runoff from early in the game.

The Brewers were up big and Peralta with a three-o pitch hit Siri in the game, the Brewers were up big and Peralta with a 3-0 pitch hit Siri in the upper thigh, like a running inside fastball missed badly. And he was really good. It doesn't have great command. Peralta was really good last night. And they showed the replay of the home run and they asked him about it to the game. Jose Siri didn't really do much of anything after the home run. He flipped the bat a little slowly walked out of the box and jogged around the bases. It was nothing out of the ordinary. There were a couple hit

batters in the fifth. I think Harold Ramirez and Reese Hoskins got hit. So the pitch that hit Siri was the third hit batter in like two innings. And they started to think there was like a bean ball war developing maybe. But even in this postgame comments, Chris Gucci only didn't really do himself any favors. You could dig into that kind of on the side. But then it got even crazier. Bedtime happened in the Van Riper household. I come back downstairs and I see highlights of Abner Uribe throwing punches at Jose Siri. So Siri grounds out.

Uribe covers the bag. It's not even a close play. And you could tell Uribe says something to him based on where the camera is. I don't know if Siri said anything first, but Uribe says something, kind of whips the ball over to one of his infielders and then bench is clear and have to try to separate these two guys, which is, I have no idea where all that came from. We may never know, but the Brewers have had a few random calls kind of working against them. They had one on Monday night.

There was a dead Jake Bowers followed through on a strike three and clip Renee Pinto in the back of the head with his back swing. But that was a it would have been a wild pitch where the runner on third would have scored, but it was a dead ball because of it. Pat Murphy got ejected. Then he got ejected on Tuesday after all the crazy stuff that was happening. So tempers have been running a little hot in Milwaukee here over the last couple of weeks. But this was a series we had circled that has just gone completely in a different direction.

Maybe both these teams have a strong narrative of disrespect. Just a chip on their shoulder. Yeah, chip on their shoulder kind of. It might make sense. Cause if you think about it, maybe these two organizations don't get as much respect as they should. Maybe that's something that that's aligned with them. It's like, yes, they don't spend as much, but also, you know, the another thing that's common to common is that, you know, I myself did not think the brewers were a candidate to win this division this

year. Um, and you know, even projection systems don't love the Brewers a lot of times. And and like, you know, the Rays. Yeah, they they have like one reporter. You know, like you think about in terms of media, too. Like how many people cover those two teams? Yeah, well, that's fair. Dodgers D-backs is the other series we were going to talk about.

We have time. There was a bee delay. Yeah, that's fair. Dodgers D-backs was the other series we were gonna talk about. We had time. There was a bee delay. Yeah, that was great. It's amazing. Let's just talk about the bees. Then the best part I thought was that the bee guy throughout the beekeeper, sorry, throughout the first pitch.

That's so good. I literally like that. What a day. Yeah. He was apparently at his son's. And then someone made an MLB logo with the beekeeper in it. Yeah. Yes, yes. He was apparently at his son's little league game.

Like talk about like a call, right? He's watching his kid play little league, gets a call. He's like, you're needed at work. You're needed. There's a B situation, which I don't know if that happens a lot. Is it like in beekeeping? Yeah, like emergency B situation. But somebody needed to call him. So he might've been called before in these situations.

Then he gets there and it's at the stadium. You know what I mean? And then the next thing he knows, they're like, well, so you saved the game. Can you throw out the first pitch? Like, what a day. Yes. You're at the game, you get the call and they're like, well, so you save the game. Can you throw out the first pitch? What a day. Yes, you're at the game, you get the call, you're like, who is this? The D-backs. What do you need? What's going on? Oh, yeah.

Is this like uniquely a baseball-y kind of situation? Like, can you imagine, like, what would they do in a football game if the guy came and got rid of the bees? Like, is there a ceremony on the first pitch? There's no way to like celebrate the beekeeper. Yeah, that's true. Coin flip? Would he coin flip? Yeah, he'd flip the coin. He'd get to go on the field for the coin toss. Yeah, I guess so.

Yeah, also the stadiums are not set up for bees. Where would the bees live? Right, yeah. I'm a little surprised they lived, was it in LA or was it in Arizona? This was in Arizona. Yeah. I'm surprised. I mean, how often is that roof open?

I don't know. Bees found their way in. They're going to find their way in. Yeah. It was an exciting game last night too. Christian Walker hit two homers, including a walk-off evening out that series. Dodger Sword ran things on Monday night. Maybe there's going to be like a bee night now.

There you go. It's going to be unusual delay series jerseys. They'll get to that before they stop making extra jerseys. I beg of the Diamondbacks to not bring live bees into the Dugoutta celebrations. Oh my God, yes. That would be worse than the old sausage. Might be funny, but would also be terrifying

at the same time. We have to go on our way out the door. A reminder, you can get a subscription to The Athletic at theathletic.com, slash rates and barrels. Find Britt on Twitter at Britt underscore Jiroli. Find Eno at Unisaris. Find me at Derek van Riper. Find the pod at rates and barrels.

We are back with you on Thursday. Thanks for watching!