Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 115 | Washington Nationals | Profile & Projection

Episode Date: March 17, 2020

The reigning champs let Anthony Rendon walk, brought back Stephen Strasburg, and plugged holes in the rest of the roster. How will they stack up in a revamped NL East? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It is another team profile and projection. And today's episode is your reigning World Series champions, the Washington Nationals. One of the newer teams in MLB, newest team, came into place in 2005. Won the World Series last year. We're the Expos. Yes, but the name. I don't know how it works. Okay.

The most recent name. Most recent name. The city. Rays. Oh, the Rays changed their name. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Most recent new city of a team? Most recent new city of a team.

Some metric. There's something there. Yeah. The most recent World Series champs. That's pretty big. It's a good way to label them. Kind of a really fun team last year. Yeah.

They had the old vibe. They had the youngest stud in baseball, not the youngest player in M-LB, but youngest stud in Juan Soto. The old dudes, they had the cockyness of Soto, the quietness of Rendon, the psychopath of Scher, the boring of Strasbourg, personalities up and down the board last year. And then their style of play was kind of old school. Put the ball in play, run the bases, timely hits, starting pitchers, no openers, you know. So good for them.

What a season. Yeah, they kind of went three men in a baby. That was so good. Let's do like 24 men in a baby. And it worked for them. Oldest team in baseball, right? Yeah. And that was with Juan Soto on that team.

And yeah, man, it all came together for them. Obviously, the wild card game, the one game playoff in Washington. They're down in the Brewers. Ball bounces off Christian's glove. The rest is history. Their pitching turned it on. Coming into the playoffs said it was a team. No one wants to get matched up with because of.

of their starting pitching. And then, yeah, Soto and Rindon were special in that lineup with everybody else doing their part around them. They take the title. They win all four road games at Houston. How about that? Road team won every game of the World Series. They had a lot of calls.

They had a parade, yeah. They had a lot of people call them when they made the World Series to say, hey, this is what happens in Houston. Be prepared. It's like the whole league knew they were cheating. Yeah, you know. And wanted Washington to win. I heard a rumor that Alex Kor gave Davey Martinez the call.

Yeah. But hey, Davey. Get your signs right. They did. They won. Good for them. Awesome World Series. This is a good World Series, right?

It's a good World Series. Seven games. And Game 7, Granky was about to be the biggest hero ever. Yeah. And then they get to them in the end. Howie doing special stuff. really fun run for your Washington Nationals. Can they repeat?

My good friend Jake here will tell you it is the hardest thing to do in sports. They had a lot of changes. They made a lot of changes. And okay, let's go through it. Ready? You ready for this, Jake? Ready. Who are their big losses?

They have one huge loss. He's got a big one in Anthony Rendon. Anthony Rendon. He was their best offensive player all regular season last year. A larger one in Fernando Rodney. We'll see if he comes back. He's technically not signed yet. He'll be back somewhere.

He's got to play in a different team, though. Isn't he starting to set the record for that? Is he trying? You got to stretch that out. Yeah, you got to go somewhere else. Dozier. He's gone. Helluksen.

I don't know if he did anything. Rodney, Dozier, are like the next level. Yeah. Gone. Then, who'd they add? Right? They had to add some people. A lot of guys coming back and a lot of new guys.

Yeah. So here are the new guys. They went out and signed Starlin Castro. Yep, 162. He's played 162 games last year for the Marlins. 30 years old. He's about to collect his 2000 hit this season. He's a four-time all-star.

A lot of people have no idea how to grade Starlin Castro as a baseball player. He's pretty above average, in my opinion, but he's not, you know, I think the expectation was really high when he broke him with the Cubs. and you thought he was going to be like, oh, my God, this guy's going to be amazing, the next 3,000 hit player. He plays for 10 years, maybe. He lingers around, maybe.

Lingerers, man. He's probably the best shot at all MLB players. Well, Trout's got to be pretty close. No, yeah, I think there's other guys. The youngest with the most? No idea. It's an interesting metric. He's been around.

He's got a chance. They also sign for infield help. Eric Thames. Thames? First base, corner outfield. And his contract looks pretty nice right now. He had another good year, and they sign him one for $4 million. So he'll just kind of add to the old guys platoonan type thing.

Because they also brought back ass cabs, ass crabs. Ascrabes. As Drubel Cabrera. Howie Kendrick had to come back, World Series Hero. Ryan Zimmerman came back. Remember when that one guy got so mad at us because we used the nickname Ascrabbs? I said if we invented it.

Right. That's been his nickname. Yeah. So, yeah, man. I mean, they brought back Daniel Hudson. That was up in the air. They did a lot. They did a lot of bullpen moves.

Jan Goams. Which I want to talk about a little bit. Talk about it. Their bullpen was poor last year. At the end, they really had do little. Two and a half guys. And Hudson, right? Rainy stepped up towards that.

Rainy stepped up, but doolittle on Hudson. And Hudson, I don't mean mean. Hudson, but he was like a flash in the pan. It was a weird situation. It was like a journeyman. Not an established closer, but he was great for them. Won the World Series. Awesome story about how he left in the middle of the playoffs to go for the birth of his child.

Awesome story. They brought in Will Harris, who was great. He was great. But they also, Jake, they made a bunch of moves. Like, they picked up Brian Harper from the twins. The twins designated him, right? They made a bunch of moves. and they picked up this other 27-year-old career minor league relief pitcher

who kind of had actually like good numbers last year. I'm trying to. There's Finnegan, Kyle Finnegan. Okay. And he's like they picked up a lot of guys that have options and they're basically stacking their AAA bullpen. Bodies. So they might have a revolving door.

Like they're like, hey, we're going to have to figure this out again. And we don't want, we want more options than last year. So we don't have to go. But also. there's that point. Another interesting point about the Washington Nationals, all those guys are going to go to double A because their AAA team is in Fresno, California.

So they actually put their better players at double A. Isn't that ridiculous? Like their backup catcher and their sixth starter, who's going to be Fetty? I don't know if you pronounce it right. Yeah, you got it. We'll be in double A. And then they think like Ryan Harper and Finnegan,

these guys are actually going to be in double A. So that's an interesting thing that is going on. Yeah. So we'll track where they are at a double A and AAA. Let's bring it up to the big squad a little bit because I think they deserve the love. They do. The Will Harris signing in hindsight is still pretty hilarious. It got its two days of jokes on the internet, but it's like, holy smokes.

Will Harris, okay, if you're not unfamiliar, Will Harris gave up the home run. Essentially lost the world. That essentially lost the World Series for the Houston Astros, won the World Series for the Washington Nationals. Now Will Harris will be there. opening day when the Nationals get their ring ceremony and raise the flag. And he's going to be wearing Nationals colors. You should get one. It's a,

That's a really weird situation. Yeah. Like, people ask like, hey, Will, how did that feel? And he's like, I mean, that's fucking weird. The more I think about it. What a mind pretzel to be put in. It had its moment, but it should also have another moment because it's pretty wild. When they get their rings.

and he's going to be standing on the field, and everyone around him is going to get a ring because he allowed them essentially. Kind of. Help them. Yeah. Partook. But they paid him the most money, and that's how free agency works.

People forget that sometimes. I just like those minor league moves because they know the bullpen is an issue. They had the worst bullpen in baseball last year. Yeah. So, yeah, and the depth of their rotation ended up paying off during the playoffs. I mean, Patrick Corbin basically turned into

a specialty reliever for them. And he was awesome during the playoffs. So, yeah, and they clearly caught some magic. They steamrolled the Cardinals in the NLDS. They went to game five with the Dodgers. And hey, man, you look back at that series, too. If we were playing with different baseballs, I think Will Smith hits a walkoff in that series.

Oh, boy, that was scary. So they, you know, the good Lord was looking over them or whatever you want to believe in. They win the World Series. Strasbourg comes back. He gets paid paid. And, yeah, Scherzer and the whole gang, do it. They still have a premier starting rotation.

Yes. One of the best. And if they're healthy and pitching to their average abilities, one of the best rotations in baseball. Yeah. I think Strasbourg. and Scherzer have a lot of innings on those arms now. So does Annabal Sanchez, but Anabal, the way he's still tricking him out there,

it doesn't really matter for him. Scher has now had a couple injuries the past couple years. I think that'll be something to keep an eye on. And then Strasbourg, I mean, he doesn't seem like a guy who he gets paid and, like, that's not what he's been in it for from the start. He just literally wants to play baseball somewhere. He's comfortable. Yeah.

All about comfort for Strazy. That was an interesting for agency a little bit. But in Patrick Corbyn. He's been a breakout player the past few years. So, yeah, it'll be interesting to see, you know, can someone like Fetty, who was a pretty big prospect, can he jump in and get the innings in the fifth spot? I don't think he will because the other two guys don't have options.

Right. So I think Fetty actually might start in AAA. And Joe Ross had, he had the nice playoff performance. So, you know, it'll be interesting to see if someone steps up because that, I mean, if they go five deep there. It's between, I believe it's between Joe Ross. Ross and Austin Voth. Foth.

Voth and Ross. Both those guys have no options. So I believe whoever isn't there will be put in the pen. And Joe and Joe Ross's splits, starter and reliever, are, uh, have you seen those? They're the most Jekyll and Hyde splits. You'll show. Joe and Ross. I mean, you have like, I think he has an 11 ERA as a reliever.

And last year he had a 302 ERA. as a starter. Prefer that. Prefer that. So I think he may be the fifth starter. Voth might be in the bullpen and Fetty might go back to AAA. But I really don't know. Nationals fans have a better gauge of that, but I think that's the situation.

The rotation is really good. The bullpen we talked about a little bit. Hudson, Doolittle, Will Harris now, Tanner Rainey. And, yeah, then there's kind of a litany of guys, like you mentioned, between AAA slash double A and the bottom of that roster. Who will duke it out for innings? And it's kind of one of these fun things we've stumbled into. Hey, if you pitch well, you'll be on the team.

If you don't, you're probably gone. Probably on. Yeah, yeah. 1117 ERA for Joe Ross as a reliever 302 as a starter. Does not like that pin. And then the lineup, another young guy who was on the team last year, but they're going to ask a lot more of them this year. or Victor Robles.

We locked into center field position. I mean, he's 22 years old. Adamie and Trey Turner, Juan Soto, Starlin Castro, Eric Tames, Kurt Sizuki. They have Carter Keyboom listed as the starting third basement on Fangraphs. I don't think that'll happen. I think you're going to see Ask Crabs or Howie Kendrick or one of those guys over there. Hey, throw Ryan Zimmerman in opening day star. Why not?

Let's have fun with it at least. Carter Keyboom is someone that everyone should know. I think he's going to come up this season. He's their big prospect. He was up a little bit last year. Yeah. But he's having a, so far, he's having a tougher spring. And I think if he went balls to the walls this spring, like just insane.

Force their hands. He had forced the hands. But he's not, and they have all this veteran, these veteran guys, so they might plug and play until they feel he's ready. Yeah, that's a good lineup, man. Robles, Eaton. You know what? It's similar to.

the Cardinals lineup, but they have better. Because it's a lot of like, if they get their timely hits, right. They'll be good. I'll say that about any team. I don't think there's a lot of all-stars in the lineup. Soto? No, it's Soto and then you're, I mean,

you're hoping Robles could take things. Or no, Trey Turner. Trey Trenors. But again, like right now they have Trey Turner penciled into the three hole, and Trey Turner's, a guy that I, you know, I ended up liking at the top of that lineup last year leadoff. I mean, he's got the potential to lead the league and stolen bases. And I think they'll probably slot him there.

But right now that's the problem. I mean, Anthony Rendon was such a special player for this team. MVP caliber and just did his thing. He raked and he played a gold glove level third base. And I think they are going to miss him in the middle of the line. lineup. I mean, it was Soto Rendon during the playoffs last year. Try to get through there. It was my big thing was if Adam Eaton and Trey Turner gave anything in front of those guys, they were basically going to score runs. And I don't know. My concerns with this team come with

the age. There are a lot of older dudes on this team. But they were the oldest team in baseball last year. Right. But I think they, a lot of what we said is they, they walked a little bit of a tightrope act. They were almost out in the one game wild card. They were a baseball away from being out in the NLDS. And I think if either of those happened, what would we be saying about this Nationals team if either of those things happened and Anthony Rendon left?

Yeah. Their big pull was Starlin Castro. But it worked. Right, right. It did. And I've got no qualms with that, but you also have to think about that stuff. And where 2020 is going to be a new season,

all of their pitchers pitched deep into the playoffs, as deep as you could go, literally a seven-game. World Series. And, you know, a lot of those guys aren't spring chickens. I keep saying, I'm talking about those spring chickens. I just have health concerns about this team and, you know, some lineup positional stuff that who's going to really help Juan Soto? When it's the dog days of this season, who's going to help Wonsoto?

You know, it's kind of bugging me out about the Fangraphs thing, and I shouldn't, like, take that seriously? What's bugging you out? Like they have... All right. So everyone always gets mad at us about this because the Yankees hitting coach and Eric

have the same last name spelling. One of them goes by Thames. One of them goes by Tim's. Tim's. And the other goes by Thames. So we always mess it up. Are we correct? Is it Thames?

It's Thames and Tims, right? The Yankees guy is Tims. I know that. Yeah, so this is Thames. Yeah. Same exact spelling. So we always mess it up. And they're like, how could you get that?

Oh, whatever. Anyway, Jake. Yeah. Howie Kendrick had a really good year last year. Howie Kendrick had a really good year last year. But, like, not even, not even, you know, how he's getting older and he had a good year for a 35-year-old. No, he had a really, really good year. An unbelievable year. For any type of player.

A 344 batting average, a 395 on base percentage, 966 OPS plus, all right? And he played 121 games. And he played like 40 at first, 20 at third, 20 at second. And he's not in the opening day long. That dude's going to be in the opening day long. If he does anything like that, he's going to get regular at bats. Yeah. And he absolutely is.

And I think the only concern is that's the clear outlier in his career. His second, his highest OPS in a season previous to that was an 844, and that was in 91 games. So he only has three seasons with, above an 800 OPS, and last year he absolutely rake. But, I mean, he's still, like, even his, like, year before then stuff is still better than Thames. Yeah, he's aging pretty well.

Tames had a pretty good last year. I think there's some platoon stuff there. Tames, he doesn't hit lefties at all, so first right, he's pretty good. Oh, okay. Well, then they're good. They'll split them up. Yeah, so, and that's what they can do. They can mix and match a little bit, and hopefully they can run out the hot hand, whether it is,

Kendricks, ass crabs, tames Who ever is in a... Baseball reference is saying it's pronounced Thames. Thames. Fucking I'll never get, right. So, yeah, I mean, this lineup can do some stuff. I mean, just on a given day,

just listen to the ages of the guys who can be in this lineup. Kurt Suzuki, listed as the starting catcher right now, is 36 years old. Ryan Zimmerman, 35, ass craps, 34. Howie Kendrick. 36, he'll be 37 this summer. There's just a lot of older guys on this team, along with the Young Stud and Juan Soto, that I don't know.

I'm a little worried about injury. Again, I think things came together for them pretty well last year. And I mean, I still have questions about that bullpen. Their final three in that bullpen are all 33 plus. So I don't know. I'm worried about the age thing a little bit. I know it worked last year. and I know Nass fans are going to hate me this year.

The division got better. They won the World Series and Anthony Rendon left. Yeah, I mean, that's all fair. John Gomes needs to have a big season. He, it was his first time, his first time not on the Indians. So New League, which I'm a believer in the New League, New League Blues.

But, I mean, he became a platoon. I don't think they were supposed to be a come-up platoon. And I think, you know, this is, He's looking for a bounce back year to use the cliche. Well, Kurt Suzuki raked last year. Kurt kind of took the job from him. In 85 games, Kurt hit 17 home runs. Yeah, it's pretty good.

So those two are going to be back there again, and I think the Nats are going to say, hey, whoever wants it. Yeah. Keep him healthy. Yon Gomes might be coming out with the hunger. Yon. Kurt Zizuki.

First player from Brazil, I believe, Yon Gomes. Well, no, first player from the Brazil to make the MLB. Yes. A lot of guys played there. Yikes. Yeah. A whole youth system. Tough.

You went there. That's tough. Yeah. That's tough. A lot of guys played. It's disappointing. No. It's disappointing. You got to make sure you're clear there.

Be honest with you. There's another guys from Brazil. Oh, Jan beat Andre Rienzo out by one year. It's tough for Rienzo. He knew he knew Gomes had him, though. Paulo Orlando is the next guy that has. a lot of time played. They're all from the same place.

Sao Paulo. Crazy. Crazy. Dude, what are these names? Who's this guy? Thiago Vieira? Tiago. Tiago?

I don't know him. White Sox guy. Also from Brazil. Good for Brazil. Big Brazil pod. Let's get another Brazilian in the major leagues this year. Yes, please. That seems like a number.

No-brainer. Where are you at with the Nats? I've been pretty loud and annoying as normal. I think, like I said, my end-of-day statement, I think it's terribly hard to repeat his champs. Just because, and literally age is a factor in there because I think the season wears you out normally, especially with playoffs, especially with older guys, especially someone like Scherzer who now has some injuries formulating is clearly at the back end of his career, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, I think Scherz is going to be a beast again. The division got better. Slightly. The division got better. And they lost their best player from last year, Anthony Rendon. Yeah.

The nationals for me, like, I don't, they're not a lock at all. No one is. Right. It's going to be close. They'll be in the race, though. Like, they'll be, I still like them over the Phillies. Yeah. If the Mets can actually play to their top potential, I think they're better than the NAC.

Because that's the other pitching staff, and it's kind of the same situation. Yeah. Kind of very similar, right? Yeah, I think... Mets might have more dudes in their lineup. The Mets' arms are younger. Yes. Mets arms are younger.

Corbyn and Strasbourg, I'm fine with those guys. Yeah. Scher, too, I still think he's going to be a crazy person. Oh, yeah. I mean, when Scher's pitching him out there, he's going to be great, but I think, I don't know. I like the Nats' chances to take the division still. I don't think they're going to blow them away. I think it's going to be a close race the whole way through.

I mean, and I like that they did all these like these under the table, AAA, quadruplea bullpen arm pieces. Because that's how you find studs. And you build up a depth of a bullpen. Like Daniel Hudson, they got him last year at the deadline, right? Right. And he had never. It was a rental.

And they're saying, let's just do that now and find these guys that we think we can turn into whatever. So they have a whole bunch of them. Yeah. I'm not down on them. I'm not like, oh, this is the team to watch. Right. They still, if they're going to do it, it's going to be a battle. It's not going to come easy.

Yeah, and that's my thing. I still think the Braves are the lead dog in this division. I think the Mets, again, if they weren't named the Mets, I think we would like them almost more than this Nationals team. I agree with that. I think the Philly. You know, they have some talent. Girardi, we respect him as a manager and what he can do.

We have their concerns are with pitching in this division that has a lot of pitching elsewhere. I don't know. I just think they had a little bit going on of a house of cards last year. It was a really nice house of cards. You're not trying to devalue what they did last year. And the House of Cards was awesome. I'm not. I'm not.

They won the World Series. It was awesome. But it was a House of Cards. I mean, we said that with any World Series. series run. I mean, you have a couple moments that flip a series and things like that. I just think the division got better. Rendon left. So what do you think? So, all right, let's go to the over under. Like, do you think that they're going to be like, you know, third in the division? Like, there's a chance.

There's a chance of that. Yeah. Like an easy chance. They won 93 games last year. Right. MLB over under 2020. What would you guess it is? I would. guess it's 86 and a half. I guess like 90 and a half, 91. If it's 90, I'm going under. It is 89 and a half. 89 and a half. Well, I said under 90, so I'll take the under there.

Yeah, I mean, it is tough because there's easily a world where this team does win low 90s games. But yeah, I'm going to go under. I have concerns about the age. The best player left. And I think, uh... Shout out Annie Ball Sanchez. Did we not give him enough love? Just twirling.

I love Anniball. He had like a 3-8 ERA last year. His FIP was worse. I think we heard this when we were at Twins camp. I was ploof talking to Sergio Romo. And I think Romo said still tricking him. Yeah. That's what Anibal does.

Yeah. I mean, they just go out there and they put on a magic show. Yeah. And Annibal was awesome last year. He was the most fun pitcher to watch in the playoffs. Sergio said he was doing the oldest trick in the book. Just shaking off fake pitches. Yeah.

Nah, not going to throw that. No, not going to throw that. Okay, I'm going to throw this. because he's like, I only got one. Still tricking him, though. Still tricking him. So, yeah, that's fun. And you know what?

I have been a little negative and will be on low snats this season. But it'll be interesting. I mean, is Carter Key Boom, you know, the top 25 prospect he's supposed to be? And can he come up and break out a little bit? Better than Rendon? Does Soto have another level to him? Yes. Does Victor Robles?

I mean, he was like 21 for a lot of, last year. What's, you know, what's he got? Crazy of you, they had Soto and Robles and still averaged out as the oldest team in MLB. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, Trey Turner has one healthy season under his belt. So. And right now, he's the guy, you know, he's supposed to be kind of the guy with Soto. So I've got my questions.

Could it all come together and the Nats are back playing in October? Absolutely. Could I see the Mets overtaking them? Yes. Is there a world where the Phillies overtake them? Yes. Yeah. I was low on the Phillies after actually doing the whole thing.

Yeah, when you get into that, when you get into it, like they need everything to go right. Like I said House of Cards, like the Phillies are playing a dangerous game where they need Nola and Wheeler to have like special seasons. Shout out Sean Doolittle, friend of the program. Shout out Sean Doolittle, friend of the program. Yeah, we're pretty sure. We're going to be here.

It's supposed to be an interesting guy. Do you think people say that about you? Um, I think they're too far on both ends of the spectrum. Like there's people that are just like, he's an idiot, like, probably doesn't have anything going on up there. And then there's other ends of speaking of them. They're like, Jake is awesome. And I'm like, no.

You think they're both wrong. You're going to miss out on that. Yeah. Right in the middle. The truth usually lies somewhere in the middle. Who said that originally? James Joyce. Thank you.

And that was. the end of this. I'm going to open up all the tabs I closed in search for the song that we play as the outro. How many free agents are on the Nats roster? 40 men right now. Nine.

Nailed it. I looked at it already. I know. But I didn't bring it up because you told me you didn't want me to bring it up every episode. Proud of you. I love that page. Only 19 homegrown. Let's have. Their episode of Homegrown is that.