Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 300 | Washington Nationals | Profile & Projection

Episode Date: March 13, 2021

You guys ranked the Washington Nationals MLB's #13 team! Jomboy, Jake, & Plouffe preview their 2021 season Presented by DraftKings 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.

Welcome back to talking baseball presented by Draft Kings. It's another team profile and projection for yurt. Yerf! 2019 World Series champs, the reigning 162 season world champions, Washington Nationals. They're good. They got a lot of talent. They had the first losing season in a long time last year. In the short season, they hadn't had a losing season since 20.

2011. Winning, winning, winning, winning, they lost. They came in fourth in the division last year. Things fell apart. Juan Soto got a fake positive, which kind of just set their season on the wrong path. Jake, did they have a lot of changes? Jim, I see no changes. All I see are racist faces.

But besides that, on the Nationals, they lose a lot of guys with good memories, a lot of heartstring losses. Jim, you win a World Series and that's what happened. Sean Doolittle. Hegan, friend of the pod. Adam Eaton, he gone. He joined up with Larusa. Michael A. Taylor.

He gone. Kurt Suzuki, Hegan. Howie Kendrick retired. Ascrabbs. Drewel Cabrera. Anibal Sanchez. I mean, a lot of memories. A lot of guys.

But they did add some bodies. Josh Bell comes over. Kyle Schwarber. What are they going to get out of those big boys? Brad Hand, sneaky big pickup. John Lester still doing the damn thing. Alex Avila. So we got some MLB bodies coming in and they've they've kind of changed the whole look of this Nationals lineup. Trevor. Still a damn good lineup. He asked me. Catcher, we got a guy

Jan Gomes. Been kicking it around for quite some time. First base, like you mentioned, Josh Bell coming over from the Pirates. Looking for a big bounce back year. Second base could be Luis Garcia. Could be Starling Castro. Kind of a little spot up for grabs there. Short one of the more underrated players in the game. He's so underrated that he's not underrated anymore because everyone always just says he's underrated. So in that instance, you know he's really good. So maybe he's rated properly.

Trey Turner at Shortstop. Third base. We've got a young guy that needs to come step up if they want to take it to the next level. Carter, key boom. In the left field, the newly acquired Kyle Schwerber coming over from the Cubbies, trying to get that lefty stroke back.

In D.C. center field Victor Robles and in right field maybe the is he the best hitter in the game right now like just hitter. Gerardo Parra? Oh Soto. They got a stacked lineup. Jim

I know they got a stack rotation. Please tell me. They do. They got 36 year old Max Scherzer they got 31 year old Patrick Corbyn, 32 year old Stephen Schrosberg 37 year old John Lester over jade of 34 in their top four pitchers joe ross rounds it out how about that they also got the young guys eric fettie austin both relievers daniel hudson will harris brad hand wanders thraro so some big names some aging guys scherzer's a psychopaths strasberg's a boring but good guy

Patrick Corbyn had a good year, I believe. Not great last year. Not great? Okay, not great. Never mind. Take it back. No one had a good year last year for them. Take back.

Aside Soto. He's the best ever. Shurzer was good. Shurzer was good too. Was he? Yeah. Stop paying attention to them because they weren't good. Yeah.

Weird year. Very weird year for them. They were behind on games. Soto was out and they were never good. Soto was out with a fake COVID thing. That's tough. He probably would have won the MVP. That's a,

shame that that happened to him and them. Yeah. Guys. Jake, who's the lineup do you like better? Yeah. Serious question. Phillies or nationals? Phillies.

Okay. Just making sure. Yeah. No, I mean, their lineup doesn't do much for me. If you guys were listening to the regular season podcast, I always wanted one more. because then you can buy into Carter Key Boom and Robles, the young guy, who's going to pick it up a little bit. I love Trey Turner, the most overrated, underrated player in baseball.

Soto, stealing it from Trevor Plouf, counts as two guys. It literally does. You know, Josh Bell and Schwerber, I kind of like the coin flip. You got upside chances there. But you needed another guy. Right now I'm looking at Starlin Castro, Jan Goams, and then, you know, the days they're not playing. It's Alavila.

Does Luis Garcia get the call and he's the guy? I don't know. I don't know enough about him. You're a slap dick till you're not, Trevor Plouf. So I'd like one more bat. I do love this. I love the rotation. I'll be honest.

You do? I really do. Still. How could you not? I do. They get Strasbourg back coming off the injury. We'll see what he looks like. Weird carpal tunnel.

Some tingly feeling. That's always a little scary. Whoa. Dad? Mad Max. and Patty Corbyn. You know, Corbin, I think, if the season was 162 last year, I think he figures it out and he's fine. Scherzer, I'm more worried about health than anything else.

But, hey, he saved some innings last year. So I'm back in just like that. I like it. I don't like the lineup at all. What's a team that we did that was like this? I like it. I don't like it at all. Yeah, I like the rotation.

I don't like the lineup at all. I think you got three guys here. You got Turner, you got Soto, and then. then you have one of Bell or Schwerber. I think that you can fully rely on. I don't know which one it is. I just think one of them will have a good season. I don't think I think the odds both of them do are lower, but that would be awesome.

But like plus plus offensive players that are you can go into the season. I think you got three and I don't know who makes up the third. That's not a lot at all. At all. I mean, Key Boom has played only a little. bit, but he'd have to really break out. He has the chance. He has a legit problem.

He hasn't yet. He could also hit 220 this year, and it's like, oh, yeah, young guy. So, question for you, Jake. Okay. How, because you were pretty down on the Phillies. How do you compare these two? Because I have them in their same tier, different ways getting to the same result, right around 500.

So I'll say this. With the nationals, you know I believe in organizations, and what you said about the nationals at the start was kind of eye-opening, that they've had a winning record every year except last year since 2011. The Phillies, on the other hand,

have had eight straight losing records. So I do think there's something organizationally there. The formula for this team when they did win the World Series wasn't too different than this. There was Anthony Rendon, who got to give him his love, the guy's a monster.

outside of that, the formula ain't that different. There's Howie Kendrick, too, though. Howie Kendrick was doing things, but, you know, again, it's not that crazy. I mean, Adam Eaton, too. I mean, it's a lot different. If this team stays in it. Rendon Eaton, Eaton, Kendrick, are three big guys. Josh Bell, Kyle Schwabre.

Like, that's picking up some of the offensive slack there. Okay, okay. Here's what I'll say, and this is another part of what makes it different. If this team's going to be good, we know Scherzorben Straussberg are going to be a big part of that. Yes, I don't think you look back at the end. If they need to add a bat, that's a lot easier than adding an impact starting pitcher. I like that. Okay, and the Phillies need to add an arm and that's harder to do.

So if this team is in the mix and those starting pitchers are doing their thing, you can make an impact move a lot easier that can change for these Washington Nationals. So, you know, all of it in the pot, I'm not sure what it means. And, hey, I keep playing the, if one thing happens, this team, you could circle that as well. I mean, Soto, Turner, or one of those three pitchers, and the whole dynamic has changed. Chris Bryant to the nationals? That was a rumor this offseason. That's what I'm saying.

Like, these gnats, I think they're in the mix. I still think they have a little bit of a budget if they want to. so I'm buying that stock Hobby Baez and Trey Turner up the middle holy I like what you're saying

you kind of convinced me right there sexy I convinced you that he likes them more than the Phillies which I can convince me He made some very good points there as well I agree They can upgrade

more easily And there is a team like we're saying I mean Jake did you did say the Cubs are possibly going to be winning the division at the trade deadline, so those guys might not be available. But if they are available, this is a team that they fit into perfectly. What went through your head there? You got excited to Google something.

I want to see if Trey Turner's ever played second base. Why? Who you have fine shortstop story? You have them trading for Story? I've been looking for my Trevor Story team all off season, and there's not a place. If the Nats were in it, I think Tray Turner is still humble enough that he'd consider something like that. 25 games started at second base in 2016. You know, I...

Put Trevor Story at third base. Who cares? I think Trevor Story cares. I think he thinks he's the best shortstop in the game. For half a season, though? And he's got some numbers. I've figured it out. He's got numbers that defend that.

I don't know. I think keep those old men start and pay. pitcher healthy. And I think this Nats team is going to be in the mix. Do you think any of the younger pitchers, the Fettys and the Votes and the Rosses need to like do anything substantial?

They just need to go quality start, like give you five innings and stay healthy? It just can't become a problem. Like if you can't get four innings every fifth day out of your fifth starter.

So the bar's pretty low. Both, Ross. We'll see if anybody else gets in the mix, but. Who's this guy, Will Crow? Will Crow. I don't know. He came from the Pirates. No, he's sick.

I think, did Will Crow leave? He was in the Bell trade. I believe they traded into the Pirates. Oh, so he is with the Pirates now. He was one of their top prospects. Okay, they still haven't listed on Fangraphs with the Nationals. Sorry about that. I was going to say, man.

I mean, somebody can step up, like you're saying. Like you've got these old man pitchers. Is somebody going to step up? I don't know their organization well enough to go through and say, this guy's in the cup and do this. This guy isn't going to come and do that. It looks like Luis Garcia. Yeah.

Number one prospect for them. Is that correct? Yeah. He's currently 81 in the top 100. I think he played a little bit last year. I think there's a weird Is he... He did.

He played a lot of games, but 40 games last year. He's young... Oh, no, I'm confused. There was another... I just tricked on the wrong Louis Garcia. God damn it, Jake, you ugly CS and MFer. Yeah, he's crazy young. He's 20.

So... I don't know. Like, that... Okay, so let me dream. Dream, Jake, you dream. Because Daddy's in on these gnats. There's a Luis Garcia. for the Astros as well that made his debut last year.

Yeah. Hotest name in baseball right now? Hotest name in baseball. Luis Garcia. There was three Luis Garcias that pitched or that played in baseball last year. So what these gnats can be by year end. We love Turner. We love Soto.

Schwaburner and Bell, somebody figures it out, right? Carter Keyboom. Can he be good? How does John Sterling pronounce Key Boom's name? Caboom. Caboom. Caboom. I mean, dude, talk about a good home run name.

Caboom? Yeah. Fortunately, that's not his name. Well, I mean, those are details, David. Let's say Luis Garcia is real. Yeah. You know, or he's an upgrade from Starlin Castro. You know, there's a world where all of this works.

I don't know. I don't know. I got a question here. Please. Our guy, Kaboom. In 2020, 99 at bats, it's 200 but

walks enough where he has a 344 on base percentage okay that modern baseball that that's okay but then he slugged 212 you can't be named

kaboom and slug 212 I've heard this guy has power zero homers last year one extra base hit it looks like in 99 played appearances that's not going to get it done not a third base well travi jean

Jim, you got to luck into a few extra base hits Caboom You know what I mean? You get 20 hits and only one extra base hit That's insane That's like hard to do that Let's look up his Hard hit barrels ratio stuff

You guys talk more A couple minor league seasons with 16 home runs There's something The bullpen This has kind of been an issue for this team for a few years Brad Hand comes in What's really good last year and there's a whole Brad Hand contract situation.

Man, Jeremy Jeffers was good last year. Hand, Rainy Hudson, Will Harris. Like, you can piece together a bullpen there. On the bench, do I like anyone? Andrew Stevenson's Young. Does he do anything? Josh Harrison, Trev's guy. Gerardo Parra comes back with the baby shark.

That's kind of dangerous. If you start losing in your baby shark and that's weird memories of yesteryear. I don't know. Man. I love doing these because you really get a good sense and a good feel of what you can expect, dive pretty deep into these teams, and I'm just,

it's pretty iffy here. A lot of things got to go right. A lot of things got to go. Key boom on his batted ball profile, zero percent solid contact, zero percent barrel. I don't know what happened there. That's kind of crazy.

I don't get it. Yeah, I don't, that's his, you're in a lucky next year base hit. His similar batters comparison from 2020 is, I'm not going to say it out loud. But if you were to hear them,

you'd be like, oh, no, I don't want those guys to be my comps. Not great. I have a question for Jake. Wow. Sorry, Trev. Trev, you can answer it, but Jake's obviously the biggest national fan. Any chance. Scher gets moved.

This team is so out of it. Whoa. That Scher gets moved. Any chance. Whoa. Mad Max Scherzer on the move. Final year of that giant contract he signed, one of the few...

Excuse me, let me rephrase. A giant contract that kind of paid off for everyone. Yeah, so my God. That's one of the better contracts ever getting out. He earned his keep. They won the World Series. It's win, win, win. Making 34-milly this year.

42 is what I have in front of me. I know he has, like, like, all. time deferment stuff. Yeah, it could be, so the A.AV might be different. The A.A.V I have is 28. Okay. So I guess my thing would be at the trade deadline, you know, your little midway point in the season, who's going to have the budget to bring on $13 million worth of contract? I'm guessing they'd eat a lot of it and hope for a return of, like,

players. Also, that's what I have to be, like, way out of it. I know it's low, but I wanted to present it. Any chance. You know, because they have Soto, they have Corbyn for more years, they have Strassifer for more years, it could help them replenish the system if there's a team out there that wants, if they're completely out of it, there's a team that wants them. I think it's a better headline than actual chance of happening. Like, I think you, I think rumors. Yeah, I think you'd see enough tweets and articles that would almost make you mad. like the Nationals are three games out of the wild card. They're not going to trade Max Scherzer.

Yeah. He is one of the best free agent pitching signings of all time. All time. That's Jake. Since he came over in 2000. What? C.C. is comparable to Scherzer's a little bit. Is he though?

Because he came over. He came over. 2015, 16, 17. 18, 19. And this couple. Scherzer stayed good the whole time. Cici did have those down years in the middle and everyone was mad. Scherzer's been top five Sigh-Young votes.

I'll just shut up. One, two, three, four, five. Five out of six years. I meant, yeah, I wasn't comparing to two of them. I meant C-C's was another long deal that I don't think is looked out as terrible. Treve, do you face this guy? I don't know. I lost my train of thought.

You guys kept interrupting. me. I was trying to throw Max Scher's some love, and all you guys could do is talk about your Yankees. I tried to bring it back. I tried to bring it back. Max Scherzer's on the bomb. Yes, I faced him. He's disgusting. I have horrible numbers against him. You know, it wasn't fun at all. It's still, I'm sure it's not fun at all to face that guy. Still, to this day, even though he is 36. Uh-oh. Numbers update? Oh, no.

Trevor, you went one for 17 with 8Ks. Give me that hit. One walk. I guess he hit you. with a couple pitches. Oh. It was bad. There's a three-played appearance discrepancy, but only one walk. What was the hit?

Let's find out. Trevor, he saw you in the batters box, and he said, look at this right-handed hitting. Line drive single to center field on April 29th, 2013. Hell, yeah. Here's the thing. I didn't get good until he was out of Detroit. So he was faced me when I was a horrible ball player. You chased him out of the division.

no he I love when he left I love everything about Max Trudeau that's why I got so mad when you guys interrupted me I just I love what this guy does I love what he brings to the table you like his eyes

I'd love his eye which one I like the dark one okay I like the light one I like both well Sean hit 300 strikeouts in 2018 that doesn't happen anymore

yeah no He faced 985 batters in 2011. It's a lot. Your last step out against him was a sack fly. Hey. Eat shit. Anything for the team. I also love the 200 ending mark.

I know that's an old school thing. But when you got a guy, they can do it. And I don't know if he's there anymore or if they're going to let him be there anymore. But I just love seeing 228, 228. I love that. Seven years in a row he did it. It's pretty nuts. And then before that, it was 195,

195, 187. He's, he's just that guy. He does everything you want in a starting pitcher. Hall of Famer. First ballot. You think so? Probably. I want to look at the Nationals' April schedule

and see if it's as brutal as the Phillies. Okay. Okay. Mets Braves. Yep. Then Dodgers Cardinals. Mets Braves, Dodgers Cardinals. That's a fun.

Fun first four series. Who? Then the D-backs and the Cardinals and the Mets and the Blue Jays. Man. Are there good teams in baseball this year? Yeah. Yeah. About it.

In the National League. The East, man. Both Easts. Yeah, in the National League. God damn. Traffic jam. Can I say one more thing about Max Scherzer? I would love that.

Thank you. Thank you. I won't interrupt. You know, when he has that, there's the highlight of him like saying MFer in his mouth just like mouthing it being crazy that's real and I like that there's too many guys now that are doing it that it's like they're trying to do it and I can tell and everybody can tell so if it's not real don't do something like that but when you see you get like Max Scherzer he is that intense and I mean that's part of the

whole like thing with him obviously he's got the stuff but like when you're facing him you're like fuck this guy's like this guy hates me This guy's a psycho. This guy. He's a psycho. Yeah. It's a little scary. You're effing mine.

You're effing B-M-Fer while he's in his wind-up. It's good times. What's there over under 84? Draft Kings have there over under an 84 and a half. Okay. We're turning the knob up a little bit, huh? I think about this. What did I have?

I'm going under. I don't like their lineup. What did I do for the Phillies? It's a good line. You went over on a coin flip. Coin flipped it, but I had them winning 81. I have these guys winning 83. You had them winning 80 and a half.

I'll go over. How about we add a little bit of help in a name you're familiar with, Story Bryant. I did like your take, Jake, that this is an easy team to add help to. It's an add help team. and Juan Soto might be a freak of nature. We haven't talked about that enough. He is, he is.

You see that nude picture of him? No. Me neither. I'd love to see that. I haven't seen one. I don't know if there's one out there. I'm taking the over. I'm just trying to find it.

I'm taking the over. I think this works and the Phillies and the Mets have a little more collapsed potential. Yeah. A lot of people don't talk about the CP. Crystal Palace. Going going. Maggie's.