- 3 months ago
Everyone is wondering what the Nats should do at the deadline. Is it too late to fix things?
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00:00So they are 20-31 at home, which, by the way, is staggering
00:03through 51 home games at this stage, right?
00:06So just doing some quick mathematics, let's say it's 3-13.
00:09They are 18-18 at all other games at home.
00:17Can you believe that, by the way?
00:19I mean, it's uncanny how all of their losses,
00:24and especially the most devastating ones,
00:26with the exception of this weekend, because I had two of those,
00:28but it feels like a lot of their devastating,
00:32oh, no, they blew it ones, are,
00:35hey, Danny Ruye has the Nats post-game show.
00:37Your post-game show with Danny Ruye, yeah.
00:40I mean, that's tough. That's tough.
00:43I'm trying to find the exact quote here,
00:45and I'm probably betraying a trust,
00:47but I think it was totally fine.
00:49From Grant Paulson, on Friday night at 12.40 a.m.
00:55You know exactly where I'm going, don't you?
00:57Yes, I do.
00:57I'm on the way home.
00:59This is what this latest Nats thing has done to us.
01:03So I will tell you, in years past,
01:05when they're a million games out,
01:07and it's, you know, season's over,
01:08playing out the string,
01:09who are they selling at the deadline,
01:10what can they get back?
01:11These kinds of texts aren't flying as regularly.
01:14Yeah.
01:14This is competitive Nats-type texts, okay?
01:17This is the show chat.
01:20I know how irrational this is,
01:22and especially coming from a guy who doesn't believe in jinx,
01:26but I am just filled with rage towards you
01:28every time they blow a game with you standing in the tunnel.
01:35I took a picture of you on Friday night
01:37where you're just standing there as the Yankees are.
01:39I look so fat, by the way, Toby.
01:40Toby took this picture of me,
01:41and it was like,
01:42is that what I look like from behind?
01:45Oh, my God.
01:46I know it's not the point of the story,
01:47but Toby took it and posted it,
01:49and it's fine.
01:49Like, I'm not going to curate photos,
01:51and, you know, like someone's like,
01:53no, can we do another one?
01:53You want to Photoshop it real quick?
01:55I would have loved it.
01:56I would have had a scrubber tool on that one.
01:58If you have access to any kind of Photoshop,
02:00that side punch is disgusting.
02:03Though it looked like a potato chip,
02:05the ruffles in a potato chip,
02:07on the side of my shirt
02:08as I'm sitting there with one arm up on the railing.
02:10And I'm like, good God almighty.
02:14Is that what I look like?
02:15That?
02:16Because I couldn't control the angle.
02:17And so Toby takes this picture
02:19and is like, it's about the baseball.
02:20For me, it was like,
02:22look at this fat Gila monster
02:24that's going to not take the field
02:25because the Nats are giving up runs in the ninth.
02:27Back to you.
02:28Either way, I take a picture
02:29and just the misery,
02:31and it was so uncanny, Danny,
02:34as we're standing down there in the tunnel
02:36because I'd also gone down
02:37just in case there was going to be
02:40a post-game interview.
02:40I was going to get a video of it
02:41just to document that it happened
02:43for the fourth time this year
02:45for Danny Ruye.
02:46So we were going to put it on the 106.7,
02:48the fan socials,
02:49but we're standing down there in the tunnel
02:51and we see the home run
02:52and we're like, oh, no.
02:54There's just no way.
02:56It's just ridiculous.
02:57And then it's a one-run game
02:59and literally before another pitch gets delivered,
03:03I go, Danny, keep it right here.
03:05And Luis Garcia and James Wood,
03:07they're coming up the next inning.
03:08Next pitch.
03:09Gone.
03:09I mean, literally it was the next pitch.
03:11It's like, oh.
03:14Just so tough.
03:16Just so tough.
03:17So we've had this running dialogue,
03:20the three of us,
03:21you, me, Grant,
03:22and then, you know,
03:22by extension, of course,
03:23Daris, Strobes, everybody else.
03:25What should they be thinking about
03:27doing at the trade deadline?
03:29And I've gone back and forth
03:32on this a million times.
03:34And one of those,
03:35I think it was the week
03:36of the Phillies shipping guy.
03:38That's plural for shipping.
03:39I think it's where I go.
03:42This is against my beliefs,
03:44my belief system,
03:46my, the way that I operate.
03:47Okay.
03:48In general,
03:49if I have looked at my roster
03:51and said to myself,
03:53self, we are not a championship team.
03:55I am now going to sacrifice the short term
03:57at the altar of the longterm.
03:59That means I am selling high.
04:01If I can get something,
04:02I'm not going to do it
04:03just to hear myself make a phone call.
04:04Of course,
04:04assuming you get,
04:05you get good value.
04:06Sure.
04:06Whatever that looks like,
04:07right?
04:07Depends on the market every year.
04:10Until that Phillies week,
04:12I was like,
04:12I'm not buying at the trade deadline.
04:14I don't even care who it is.
04:15Cause I want my Brad Lord.
04:18I want my next three or four of these guys.
04:20And with the way this organization,
04:21this organization is now developing talent
04:24in the minor leagues.
04:25Look at the numbers.
04:26These guys are putting up.
04:27It's the same guys year over year.
04:29It's a different set of players.
04:32What they've done at the major league level
04:33with journeymen,
04:35with cast offs,
04:36with dudes that nobody else
04:37really wanted that bad.
04:39It's been remarkable.
04:41I'm going,
04:41I will not hand,
04:43I'm not giving away a single lottery ticket.
04:45Even a guy that right now
04:46isn't in my top 30,
04:47isn't in the top 45.
04:49You have no idea.
04:50And it's worthwhile.
04:52Whereas the previous group,
04:52it's like,
04:53I don't care what he's ranked.
04:55They're not going to get the most out of him.
04:57And it's,
04:58I was going to say it's no knock,
04:59but it is a knock.
05:00I mean,
05:00it's kind of the reality of the situation on the ground,
05:01right?
05:02Yeah.
05:02I was until that Phillies week,
05:04a,
05:05I pretty much don't care who it is.
05:08Don't trade anybody
05:10that might make the major league roster
05:12in the next three years
05:13or four years.
05:14Even I'm going to try to keep this window open
05:16and kick it down
05:17and not ever go in the other direction.
05:19We should be in a hoarding assets,
05:21hoarding prospect mode.
05:23That week broke me.
05:24And I was like,
05:25they got to do something.
05:26I,
05:27even if it means
05:28the potential of watching a guy
05:30when they do the telecast in like five years,
05:33you know,
05:33what's funny,
05:33he was traded for a reliever named,
05:35uh,
05:36you know,
05:36Johnny bag of balls.
05:37And he's now a third place hitter
05:39on a 95 wind ball club,
05:41the pitch.
05:41Like,
05:42even if it meant that,
05:44right?
05:44Can you believe they got this guy for this guy?
05:46Like,
05:46even if you end up in one of those stores,
05:49I was like,
05:49I'm willing to do it.
05:51This past weekend against the Yankees,
05:54I might've swung the pendulum back.
05:56Oh.
05:58And I don't know why.
05:59I'm trying to do my own emotional inventory,
06:01but I ask you just kind of state of the union here.
06:04Where are you on the trade deadline?
06:05August 3rd.
06:06So we are now pretty much three weeks away,
06:0920,
06:10you know,
06:10like 18 days away from,
06:11so almost three weeks from the trade deadline.
06:14It's easy to say,
06:15it depends on what to do in the next three weeks,
06:16but come on,
06:17how are you feeling about it?
06:19Buy,
06:20sell,
06:20or yet?
06:21Well,
06:21so just real quick,
06:23take an inventory coming out of the break.
06:25They start with the A's who have lost nine in a row.
06:27And then they go to Colorado.
06:29That's six games that let's just say they win the two series
06:31because they're not facing the Yankees.
06:33And they basically won just about,
06:35you know,
06:3690% of their series leading up to it.
06:38They go four and two in that stretch.
06:39They're back about 500,
06:40right?
06:40So it,
06:41it's not like they're far out of the race.
06:43So to,
06:44to act as if,
06:45oh man,
06:45those three games against the Yankees decided their season,
06:48I think is a little bit ridiculous,
06:49but I've been by all along.
06:51And it's like,
06:51it's a soft buy Danny that they have,
06:53right.
06:54They have places.
06:55That's an important clarification.
06:56Say what you mean by that?
06:57Like they're not going after Tarek Skubel.
06:59Like they're not,
07:00they're not going after a roll this Chapman.
07:02They're going after guys that they can acquire for a reasonable price that
07:07isn't going to seriously hinder their future.
07:10And if they do it correctly,
07:11you can trade from positions of depth where that guy might turn out to be a fine major
07:17league player.
07:17You could trade him and he turns out to be fine,
07:20but I didn't really have a spot for him because I've got James Wood,
07:22right?
07:23So those sorts of moves where,
07:25yeah,
07:25he's a good player,
07:26but I got someone who could help me now.
07:29I'm in still in that lane because my thought process behind all this,
07:32Danny,
07:32and I'm curious to hear your rebuttal to this,
07:35who was going to come help this bullpen in 2027?
07:38Do you have anybody in the organization?
07:41Probably not.
07:41Are you going to have to go spend money in free agency?
07:44Yes.
07:45Have they done that?
07:47So my thought process is you're going to have to improve this bullpen in 2027
07:52and probably again in 2028.
07:54You don't have internal options really.
07:56So if you're going to have to do it,
07:58what's the point in waiting until the off season?
08:00Unless you're just going to open up the checkbooks or you're going to be able
08:03to find,
08:04remember Dylan Floro a couple of years ago was effective for half a season.
08:07Unless you can bargain hunt and somehow find guys like that,
08:11then sure.
08:13But my thought process is you've got a ton of outfielders.
08:16So the point that I'm really happy to see that Robert Hassel cleared waivers
08:20and everything.
08:20He's back with the organization.
08:22You've got a lot of outfielders.
08:23All four of your triple-A outfielders could be on the major league roster right now
08:28and it wouldn't be like,
08:29oh,
08:29that guy doesn't fit.
08:30Right.
08:30So you've got that.
08:31You've got a guy in Gavin Fien who is now playing in the outfield and a ball and he's
08:36maybe an outfielder of the future.
08:38And you just added some more talent through the MLB draft.
08:41So I think you trade from positions of depth to go get a controllable reliever and that
08:49helps you for 27 and 28.
08:51And in the off chance that you go and stay hot and go on a run, they help you in
08:5626 as
08:56well.
08:57I just don't see that you can have this type of a season and continue to go, well, man,
09:02a bullpen.
09:03Too bad, man.
09:04If they had a bullpen, you can still do something to help them.
09:07The point is, is that that's the easily fixable starting pitching is not right.
09:12I mean, you, you saw Tampa do this for years where you go, what's my best ROI where I go,
09:18I could spend 25 million.
09:20I'm making up this number at the top of the market for a starting pitcher that will not
09:24deliver statistically in the last two or three years of his deal.
09:27And it's going to be an albatross.
09:28It's going to be a killer.
09:29Or I spend a few million more this year.
09:33I spend nine instead of six and I could have a better bullpen and manipulate matchups
09:39and do the things, the numbers that the nationals do, that they're now a part of their Tampa
09:43North doing that sort of deal where you, where you go, we will play percentages.
09:47We'll play to the spreadsheet.
09:48We'll play to the, all the analytics.
09:49And you can come up with a pretty decent staff that way.
09:52I get that, that it's more easily fixable than your starters.
09:57I just kind of keep going back to, there are so many innings that have to be covered.
10:02And even though Michaelis was, was really good in his role this past weekend, again,
10:06where he was four shutout, only allowed one, uh, one walk and five base runners all in,
10:12but gave you four shutout innings.
10:14I will take that from my quote unquote start or whatever the hell he is or supposed to
10:17be.
10:18Littell's been up and down, but I'm still going to the fact that 60% of their starts,
10:24which means you're talking about covering five plus innings of baseball games are guys
10:32that aren't competitive on a, on a consistent enough basis.
10:35They're big leaguers and all due respect to them, but you know what I'm trying to say
10:38for a group that's trying to compete, it still puts too much pressure on an offense.
10:42And you saw what happened this weekend.
10:43What is if you're not angry at the nationals offense, correct, but that's baseball.
10:48The dog days happen.
10:49Good pitching happens.
10:50You're not going to score 12 a night and that's an unfair expectation.
10:54It's now to the point that if you don't have seven runs, bro, did you even lift right
10:58with it?
10:58So normal thing, anything equalizes anybody, God forbid, goes into the slightest funk on
11:04offense.
11:05If Luis Garcia is not Stan Musial, if James would, and I'll player of the week.
11:09Oh, thank you.
11:09If he's not the player of the week, he's allowed to go over 10.
11:13All of a sudden I've now, I've now turned in a lottery ticket and it may not be a big
11:18loss, right?
11:19Because they're lottery tickets, but I just, I can't stomach it.
11:23I may be back to sell.
11:25Really?
11:25Because, because I think you, I think you can't do, I think there's no way you can do
11:28nothing.
11:29I think nothing is wrong, right?
11:31It definitely is.
11:32It's either up or down.
11:33Yes.
11:35It's a difficult spot to be in.
11:37It's not an easy spot to be in this.
11:38Cause I don't think they plan to be here.
11:40Like the fruit is all, not all of it.
11:42A lot of the fruit is ripe before they were ready to go to market.
11:45Yeah.
11:46And to me, this is why in my scenario of a soft buy, you get in a couple of guys
11:52that
11:52can help you, but they're here in 27 and 28 because you need to get those guys anyways.
11:56And you're just getting a step ahead.
11:58So you have them for a half season.
12:00Does that cost more?
12:02Probably.
12:03How soft can that buy be?
12:04Cause you're talking about a top 30 there probably, right?
12:07Yeah.
12:07Don't you think?
12:07But I don't mind trading from some of the depth here at like an outfield position.
12:11Like if you had to give up a Christian Franklin, who's their 19th ranked prospect, according
12:16to pipeline, does that hurt?
12:17Sure.
12:18But tell me the next time you've been 20s.
12:20Tell me when a Christian Franklin can get you an at bat here in DC over Dalen Lyle, Jacob
12:26Young, James, what are Dylan Cruz?
12:28Probably not anytime soon.
12:29Yeah.
12:29So you still have Andrew Pinckney in that scenario.
12:33You still have Robert Hassel now in that scenario.
12:35He's not on the 40 man, but he's still back with the organization and Joey Weimer is still
12:40readily available, right?
12:41So I just think to sit there and do nothing to your point is the wrong move.
12:47And you go on the flip side of it.
12:49So if they can't do nothing, right?
12:51And you say, well, I don't know that they should buy.
12:52Well, then does that mean they should sell?
12:54Well, I think that would go over very poorly with the fan base and very poorly in the clubhouse.
13:00So you do something more on the small side to appease both sides of it and say, hey, we
13:06did something.
13:07We didn't go all in because we understand the timeline, but we still did something to help
13:11you.
13:11So that's it.
13:12That's interesting point.
13:13So if you go a, the way that it could sell, so to speak, a soft sell is, well, look
13:20what
13:20happened.
13:20You know, these three weeks, you didn't play great.
13:22We're now seven, eight games out of the wild card.
13:25This is kind of the, we sunk down to maybe who we really are.
13:28And the response internally could be, yeah, if you'd done anything beforehand, we wouldn't
13:32have fallen off the table.
13:34Our offense is top five.
13:35And now who knows if it's still number one in three weeks, but it's like, it's close.
13:38You know what I mean?
13:38We're still great.
13:39They're going to be great in that area.
13:41And this one glaring forest fire is still raging.
13:45And you went, well, at the end, we didn't have any water.
13:47It was like, God, if you, if you'd done something.
13:49So I could see how that might not go over well.
13:51I also just sort of, it's an ancillary data point on this part of the conversation, but
13:57the, they, they haven't been bitten or hurt by the, they call up Toby, you get your teeth
14:03kicked in and they send your ass down.
14:06Those kinds of moments, a lot of times can fray things by all accounts.
14:12They're not afraid, right?
14:14The guy that's part of the core down toiling in Rochester, nobody cares.
14:18Uh, Brady house, the guy that is tearing the cover off the ball and they could use a
14:22right-handed bat in, um, your, yo Morales, no interest in calling that guy up.
14:27If I, if I'm looking up, I'm going Andres Traparo and another big at bat.
14:30And I got this dude that's hitting three something with all the bombs down to AAA.
14:35Yep.
14:35He can't get a swing to help me in a, in a, in a playoff chase.
14:38What are we doing?
14:39Like there could be those moments where they're a little frayed, where it starts to come loose
14:44and it hasn't, especially for a young ball club.
14:46So it makes me think that maybe it won't have those cascading repercussions.
14:51Impossible to prove until it happens or doesn't, but it's just an interesting data point is
14:54all 800-636-1067.
14:57I realized I've not made a very good case.
14:59I fully acknowledge that.
15:01I'm just kind of talking about my feelings at this point.
15:03So I guess that's kind of what we're doing.
15:05800-636-1067.
15:07I would say Tobes, you, GP, not to put words in his mouth and a lot of other people.
15:12I think yours is the majority view that this offense is too good.
15:16They should be adding, not selling the future, but adding in some way.
15:20I think I'm now okay with them.
15:23Not only not adding, but maybe that means soft selling.
15:27800-636-1067.
15:29Should the Nets buy or sell at the deadline?