Best of Nationals on 106.7 The Fan/Team 980: LIVE from Spring Training!

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First of three days with the Nats out here,

as they celebrate the start of a new season

and camp continues as they get tuned up

for a lengthy Major League marathon.

And we're joined now by their first-year manager, Blake Muterra.

Kind enough to stop by.

Thank you for a few minutes. We appreciate it.

Always good to be here. Thanks for having me.

How is spring training number one treating you so far?

And what's surprised you about sitting in the boss seat

to this point?

I don't think it's about the seat, maybe specifically.

It's more so just about the guys, right?

Like just having a chance to talk to them in the off season.

I know I told you guys in November,

like it's just been awesome to hear how hungry

and motivated they are.

And then you get here and you actually get to know them

and spend time with them face to face

and realize like everything you're hearing on the phone

is exactly right and even more.

Like these guys are, they were all here early.

Weeks before they needed to be here,

or out there for optional early work defense,

the things that you, you know, you don't necessarily call fun.

Like everyone likes to hit.

When you see guys out there working on their defense

and their base running early,

it just goes a show that there's great kids in this club house.

There's great players, they're hungry, they're motivated,

and makes it exciting for us to staff.

Well, we weren't in the club house for about 10 minutes.

We got in this morning and it became pretty clear

that it's now, I don't want to say standard practice,

but pretty common that guys, once their work's done,

a lot of times you're sticking around.

We've been coming down here a lot of years

and it doesn't mean like previous teams

were like that bad chemistry and then like that

when someone wasn't doing that.

But I think it kind of speaks to what you're talking about.

There seems to be a degree of,

we're all in this together.

I'm hanging out for my teammates.

Yeah, 100%.

Yeah, I think that speaks to that guy showing up early, right?

Yeah.

Position players being here for pictures

and catchers camp before they needed to be here

just because they want to be around their teammates.

They want to get to know everybody.

They want to be together.

They missed each other over the off season

and we have a lot of new faces too

and it seems like all these players

are pretty excited to get to know

kind of the direction we're going to be going in

and it's our job as a staff

and as a group to make sure that's clear.

What are some of the things, Blake,

that you guys are harping on,

focusing on the most and emphasis?

I don't just mean maybe like,

oh, we're handling the fundamentals or whatever,

but even within the game,

like let's turn hard hit balls into this

kind of launch angle window.

What are the areas that you would say?

Here's the emphasis of our camp so far.

There's a lot of things

and I don't want to get too deep into this

but one thing we met on this morning was about

making sure our players know that

these next seven to 10 days in spring training

if they hit a base hit to the outfield,

if they think there's a chance

they can make it to second base

and turn it into a double, go for it.

Like, find out what you kind of can't do right now.

But in the other day,

if we're gonna err on one side or the other,

we're gonna err on the aggressive side

and we're gonna run the bases really hard.

I also talked about holding runners tighter

and things that maybe don't show up

in the box score or the stat sheet, so to speak,

but the things that help you win ball games,

the smaller details,

I think fans really care about and appreciate.

Those are the things we're gonna be really good at.

When you talk about for the next week,

let's push it on the base pads.

Is that to an extent saying,

hey, if we're out in the next few days,

that's gonna be more acceptable

because we're learning right now when we redline,

like, is that kind of what you're getting at?

Yeah, right now, like these next seven to 10 days,

but also making sure that whenever these things happen,

whether it's a positive or negative,

the next day, we're going over it as a group,

whether it's video, whether it's just a conversation

about, hey, would you see there?

Why'd you decide to go to second?

Why didn't you decide to go to second, you know?

Why'd you go first to third on that play?

Why'd you hold up?

Like, and then showing the video

and maybe comparing it to the time

that they did go first to third and it worked

or didn't work vice versa,

just making sure we're constantly teaching

and helping these players get some of that experience right now.

Look, Guitar Joins is here on Grant and Antilock

for spring training in West Palm Beach.

So, again, we've been coming here for a long time

and this just looks different, right?

There's different equipment.

There's different stuff.

Guys are throwing into those, you know,

the big mats for trying to make every pitch look similar

before kind of dives or breaks or changes direction.

So I think for fans that hear numbers, analytics,

sort of smart ways of doing stuff,

how does that manifest itself day to day for you guys?

You should kind of implement what you want

in terms of player development, how you guys are going to play?

Yeah, it's huge.

I mean, there's so many different bits

and pieces of technology or cameras

or whatever you want to call it in terms of helping development

and it goes a long way, especially because nowadays,

these guys, you know, have this stuff

and the facilities they work out at, right?

So they're used to having it.

They're used to using it as a tool to make adjustments with.

And our coaches are really good at that.

Now it's part of building out our coaching staff,

making sure there was experience and time spent

using these things, but also, I mean,

it was part of, you know, the process of going through

through the interview and building out a staff

which is like, are we going to have these things?

And, you know, a huge credit to our ownership group

and to our front office that they've invested

in a lot of this technology.

And these resources that we have as coaches

and the players have and you couldn't see, you know,

more excitement and, you know, a lot of guys

are just really happy with the stuff we have now.

Blake, I've heard you mentioned several times

that in the 2020 pandemic season,

the race, when you were with that organization,

used 59 lineups and 60 games.

Is that an indication that there may not be

an everyday set lineup and give me an idea

of some of the benefits and the drawbacks

of just set it and forget it,

which I kind of came up thinking,

hey, if I got to, if I know what I'm doing,

I don't have to look at the wall.

It's probably more helpful,

but you guys are going to mix and match a lot more.

It seems like.

Yeah, I think, you know, as you go throughout the season,

obviously, it would be nice just to have a lineup,

you just set it, forget it.

But at the end of the day, like,

pitchers, pitchers are different every night.

Whether it's a variety or a lefty

and they have different pitches.

And now we have information to understand,

like which of our hitters do better against

which certain pitchers, right?

So a lot of us can be based upon who the starter is,

who they have in their bullpen.

Also, you know, putting into the fact,

like which players are playing well,

which ones are comfortable, defensive positioning,

stuff like that.

But yeah, I think we need to be open-minded.

So I think people like talking about lineups

and what the lineups are going to look like on opening day

and just think that's what's going to look like for the year.

And it's like, no, no, we need to make sure

we have our best lineup every night.

It doesn't necessarily mean it's the same one.

I'm sure you don't have rules,

but do you have general lineup philosophies

that like you live by or that you still view

as baseball truisms?

Yeah, I think it's changed over time.

I think everyone was thinking the best hitter team

hits third, and that's how it is.

The guy that's fast and gets on base hits first.

And it's like, some of those things still might be true,

but there are some nuances in terms of how often a guy

might come up to bat throughout a season

if they're batting second versus third or third versus fifth.

Also, how often times guys come up to bat

with runners on base when they're fourth versus eighth.

So there's a lot of different things I go into it.

And it's also dependent upon what our roster looks like

and where guys feel comfortable hitting.

What does success look like for you guys this year?

In terms of player development,

whether you wanna talk standings or not, up to you,

but the metrics and things that you're kind of driving

guys towards, what does success look like in your view?

Yeah, I think you mentioned it like the technology

and the resources we have now in the minor leagues

and the major leagues, like we're gonna develop,

we're gonna continue to develop.

And I think that talking with a lot of our players,

making sure they understand and we understand

it's a staff that it's our job,

whether you're in the big leagues or not

to help you become a better player.

And it was part of the same thing we told Miles Michaelus

when we signed him as a free agent.

A guy that's pitching the big leagues for 10 years now

and told him like, hey, we still think there's more

and you can become better and he 100% agrees with that.

So no player on our major league team

is a finished product by any means.

You wanna make sure we're continuing to get

every player better.

And so I think when you talk about success,

it's, hey, this is what so and so did last year

and then you look at what they're doing this year

and there's an improvement.

Whether that be, they're not chasing as often.

Maybe they're not striking out as often.

Maybe their defense has gotten better.

They're a better center field or a shortstop

or second baseman or catcher than they were last year.

Those are the things that we really care about.

And as a result, I think when our players become better

players as a result, our team becomes better.

And that's manager Blake Bittair on Grant and Danny

here on the fan.

Do you expect this year to use an opener in any way

or more than five starters at some point?

Do you think this is a pretty traditional

five-man rotation when it all gets sorted out?

I don't know that anything will be traditional,

so to speak, from start to finish.

I think we're always gonna be open-minded

and look for ways to win on the margins.

Whether that be an opener, whether it be mixing a lineup up

and whether it be pinch running in certain situations,

we're always gonna look for the best opportunity

to win a game, win an inning, win a series.

In terms of position battles,

I think I'm thinking of maybe a couple spots at starter,

maybe some bullpen roles, a couple position groups,

what are you not know yet as you guys

are kind of going about it?

Where you're like, let the players decide in a way.

Yeah, and we're trying to leave everything pretty open.

And a lot of it, too, is we're giving guys exposure

to different positions.

You know, you talk about James Wood

and he's playing some more right field this year

where he didn't play last year.

And Dale and Lyle is playing a little bit more left field

when he was in right before.

And moving some guys around, whether it be a Nassim Nunez,

then Kaper-Ruiz has looked great behind the plate.

So I think we're trying to be,

I use the word open-minded again.

We're trying to be open-minded

and give some guys some opportunities

and different positions.

And kind of seeing where they feel comfortable

and where they feel most comfortable

and where it best fits with our overall picture

of what we envision our team looking like.

What have you discovered since doing that

about a couple guys where like, damn, I didn't know

you could do that.

Or, you know what I mean?

Have you been surprised at all by a couple guys

where you know what, he's more comfortable here,

maybe than I thought.

Yeah, I mean, right away, like talking to James,

he's like, I love right field.

I've played it a bunch of the minor leagues,

but you know, I never really played it up

up in the big leagues.

And so it's like, hey, let's go out there

and let's do that.

Which is just something like that.

They had Lane Thomas and Wright

and they had J.Y. in center.

So it's like, oh, we'll put you in left for now.

But then it just seemed like everyone was like,

oh, he's always gonna play like that.

I guess that's what he is, right?

But he's played more right.

And you said he came to you

and basically said he was comfortable there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And he's so young, right?

Like, we forget how young James is.

And, you know, say again, he's not a finished product.

Like, we need to be open-minded

to get him out there in different positions

and being able to showcase his ability.

He has a really good arm.

He's moving well out there

and he really wants to get better on defense

and a credit to him.

That's hit and performed as well as he has in the box

to want to get better defensively

and wants to pick his pitchers up.

Like that speaks volumes.

I'm gonna tap into that player development side,

less the manager side

because for people that don't know, Blake for four years

was one of these excellent minor league managers

but it spent so much time as well

helping to develop top talent in Tampa Bay.

Specific to James or Dalyne,

but young players,

they're trying to get better on defense

where Dalyne struggled last year.

Is it easier if they get to play one spot?

Something in James, you're right when Dalyne's in left

but then Dalyne's in center.

If Dalyne's in the lineup with J.Y.,

he's probably in right now.

James is back in left, I'm assuming

unless he just put James in right full time.

But if I'm playing two positions,

does that make it harder to make those strides he's trying to make?

It's a good question.

I think it's a question that a lot of us

have a lot of time talking about.

When I was with Rays formerly,

we had this discussion multiple times

where it was like if you move somebody around,

is that worse than just keeping it one spot?

And I don't think anyone has the definitive answer.

I think everyone's a little bit different.

But talking to you guys do it like in the infield

where you would have like,

you know, Vidal Bruhan or somebody play like four days at second,

four days at short,

I know the Orioles do some of that.

Yes, yeah, yeah.

So it's a lot of that.

You try to build it out,

but also you're always talking with the player

and making sure like they feel comfortable.

And you hope that they're going to be honest with you

about like, hey, I need more time at this position.

I feel really good here.

Let me spend a little bit more time here.

And there's been a lot of that throughout camp so far.

And making sure, one, like when we break camp

in two and a half weeks that if we do want to play somebody

at a position that they haven't necessarily played recently,

that they feel good there.

So it's just making sure we have,

we're crossing those eyes and dotting those,

or sorry, we're crossing those tees

and dotting those eyes before we leave here.

For your starting staff,

you mentioned Michael,

a workhorse has been around forever.

He's going to eat some innings,

but you're talking Kate Cavalli,

who's had some injury in his past.

Just like gray on his way back from an injury,

Brad Lord was kind of not necessarily injured,

but starting rotation, then not.

And then back to starting and then not.

And then middle relief and then sort of popcorn.

And then we'll start here again.

Like everything between,

how do you view that rotation,

kind of a, coming together?

B, is there any kind of extra restriction

because of some of those guys and kind of the recent past?

No, the good thing is that we don't have any restrictions

right now.

You know, talking with Josiah Gray,

like the biggest thing for JoJo

is just making sure he's healthy.

Yeah.

He got out there in an impression on the amount

in our last game and it was just fun

to see him out there.

The stuff was really good.

He was having a blast with a big smile on his face

and just, you know, I think you made,

you know, mention like,

forgot what that felt like.

You know, it'd been a while since he had gotten

to pitching a game and pitching a game

already felt healthy.

So that's the biggest thing for JoJo.

And then, yeah, we have some really good options

that we feel good about with Miles and Kate.

Kate's looked unbelievable.

His body is unbelievable right now.

He's putting a ton of work this off season.

He's healthy.

I mean, he just looks like a front line starter for you

and a guy that you want in your rotation day

and a day out and, yeah, I mean,

Foster Griffin obviously coming over here.

He's pitching today.

Brad Lorde, like you mentioned, we have Mitchell Parker,

we have Jake Eater, you know, we have a handful of guys

that we feel like we have some options that we really like.

First day, you get into this office here

and you're the manager of a big league team.

Is there a moment where you close the door

and you just kind of sit there and look around

or I guess there's something fun you get to set up

and put on the desk and you're like, wow, I did this.

I mean, I'm here.

Did that happen?

Not really.

You know, if you people ask that question

and I don't think I've really taken the time

to like sit back and think about it in that scheme,

but I probably should, but I don't know.

I just really want to make sure that we're fully buttoned

up and ready to go as we head into year one

and I think the one thing I always hear is

like you can never be too prepared

so I don't want to, we'll cross that bridge

and add a later point.

Just remind me again and we'll do that.

I heard a great story that on, I think it was your debut game.

Somebody had asked you for like,

hey, can I get the lineup card after the game, a little kid.

And he's like, yeah, no problem, of course.

And then during the game, someone's like,

make sure you grab your lineup card and you're like,

oh, no, you already promised it to the kid.

So what happened?

Yeah, so you know what, it's funny.

The kid's name's Tristan and Tristan was here

out back asking some guys for autographs

and I was walking by before the game

and he's like, hey, Blake, can I get the lineup card?

And I'm like, yeah, sure.

So getting the dugout and you mentioned it,

our bench coach Michael Johns was like, hey,

you want this one we're done, right?

And I was like, I kind of was like, and like, why?

And he's like, it's your first one.

Make sure it's in your desk.

I'm like, oh, man, I told a kid that I would give it to him.

So it worked out well because he was supposed to leave.

He lives in DC.

He was supposed to fly back with his dad to DC.

I saw him the next day and I'm like, Tristan,

you're still here first.

I got to apologize.

I owe you a lineup card.

And he's like, snowstormed at DC.

We're here for four more days.

Am I great?

You're going to have all four lap cuts?

That's great.

That's great.

Worked out well.

Well, thanks for joining us.

We're excited to be here through Sunday.

Hang out around the facility.

I'm sure we'll be staying a lot of you.

But congrats on a fast start here.

It seems like the energy and the players are pretty

happy with how everything's going.

Yeah, thank you.

I do want to say real quickly, and we're

talking through starting pictures.

I forgot to mention Jake Irvin.

He's looked unbelievable so far as well.

And another one that will be a good in the mix for us.

Shoot, we were going to bring that up to him when we talked to him.

You know, we didn't get mentioned with Jake Irvin.

Jake's our guy, anyway.

We love Jake.

He's a big human being and a big hockey fan, too.

He's the guy on this clubhouse that when I come in and something's going on with

the capitals, he's the one I seek out.

So if you're into talking hockey, that's the guy you're calling into your office.

All right.

Let's do it.

Break down the NHL class.

All right.

Thank you very much for the time.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate you guys.

Blake butte are the managers of the Nationals with us.

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This is the fan.

But we are very pleased right now on site here in West Palm Beach to bring on to our show,

the president of baseball operations for the Nationals, who's now in his first spring

training run in the show, Paul Taboni, Paul at Scranton Day.

Swing is here and the shopping list is long, time to make a lows run.

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Kevin Sheen here to tell you about when our HVAC systems started acting up recently.

Foley Mechanical was the first call we made.

Dan Foley came out himself and worked directly with my wife.

And let me tell you, that's saying something.

Foley's no corporate chain.

He owns the business top to bottom.

His crew is outstanding.

Their experts, especially with older homes and radiator heat, which is rare these days.

Game Mechanical covers DC, Maryland, and Virginia, and proudly installs a Manna HVAC systems.

Trust me, they know what they're doing.

This is Attorney Amida Zari from Zari Law.

If you've been injured in an accident and feel like no one is fighting for you, it's

time to fight back.

Zari Law at 888-828-Hurt, that's what one call you can put a proven legal team on your

side.

Zari Law has been serving the DNV for over 15 years, proudly fighting for our local

enemy.

I was born and raised right here in the DNV, and my team is made up of experienced, reputable

local attorneys dedicated to fighting for injury victims just like you.

Follow us on all social platforms at Zari.law.

That's a-z-a-r-i-dot-l-a-w.

Don't wait, don't settle.

Fight back with Zari Law.

With offices in Maryland, DC, and Virginia, my team and I are ready to stand up for you.

Call 888-828-Hurt, that's 888-828-HURT, and let us fight back for you.

Andy, it is great to catch up again.

How are you?

Don't great.

Appreciate you guys having me on.

This is fun.

I was enjoying watching you sit here for a couple of minutes as you were getting ready

to join us because you're extremely locked in, I would say.

There's going to be 162 of these, and then dozens more in March, and this is just one

remaining.

But you're kind of watching very intently, is this your normal in-game energy?

Yeah, this is it.

Partly, it's because I love it, but the other part of it is I want to be locked in.

You know, I want to be able to- if Prowlis is on the bump right now, I want to be able

to go up to him after this outing and be able to talk to what I thought he was doing

well and what he might not be doing well, and I think players and staff members appreciate

that.

How much of this is still- you guys obviously are using so much information, it's so much

data, it's so much written out stuff, spreadsheets, and how much of it's still for you as a scoutsie,

right?

Is someone that played the game and are obviously familiar with the way it is at a high

level?

Things that you're picking up that the mortal man wouldn't.

Yeah, I don't think that'll ever leave me.

You know, just those more traditional parts of the game, I brought up to you guys in

the past, not just the scouting side, but we talked about the coaching side and the

art of coaching and all that, like that's so central to who we are.

It's really like getting that right and then layering on the information, the analytics

that you speak of on top of that.

You mentioned Prowlis on the Mount Farlis listeners, Luis Prowlis throwing an innings acquired

in the trade.

This off season one of the guys from Boston that you went over and got a piece that you

liked in the Red Sox organization and he's out here throwing 100 miles an hour in the

first week of March.

So he's showing off the stuff.

He is a picture that our listeners will very much get to know this year because he's

going to be a part of this nationals pitching staff at the major league level at some point

this season.

So far into camp, give us some of your thoughts if you would Paul just on what you feel

like has gone about how you expected and some of the things you've never run a shop before

in this regard, what's going on now?

Yeah, I think you're your first question.

You know, when you put the staff together on the front office side, the major league coaching

staff, the minor league coaching staff, so on and so forth, it all looks great.

You don't know exactly how it's all going to look when you show up to West Palm and they've

been great, not just all individually, but how they've worked together and how we're challenging

and supporting the players.

It's been awesome.

So, you know, that's going great.

I think the adjustment that I've had to make that a bunch of us have had to make is I

think you're used to working with certain material or with certain people and when you leave

an organization, that's obviously flipped on its head.

So, it's getting used to some new ways of doing things and we all are challenging ourselves

with adapting quickly and doing the best we can.

What are your questions that you're like, not negative when it's so, you know what,

I want to get the answer to this by then to spring or that I don't know as this roster

forms or for players and their ceilings and things like that.

What are things that you're going, you know what, I don't have an answer yet and that's

okay.

Great question.

I think so at a really high level, right?

We have a bunch of development goals for all these guys, right?

And we need to see them play in a good amount of games before we find out if they're actually

making strides in these spaces, right?

So, that's a big one and then just as it relates to the roster, I don't know if you're

alluding to it, but as it relates to the roster, mainly in the pen, you know, like it's

a wide open race and we've communicated that to the players and so these next two weeks

I think will be, will be fun to watch, you know, see who steps up and who really goes

out and grabs a spot and will help us starting opening day.

Paul Taboni, president of baseball operations with the nationals live from West Palm Beach

where we are at the Cacti Park of the Palm Beach's Nats are playing the Mets in front of us

as we bring you a live Grant and Danny on the road.

These two thoughts are intertwined, but I was a little bit surprised with not going out

and getting more veterans this off season, both because over the last few years here that

has been a philosophy to trade guys at the deadline, you could kind of pay for that value

and get some prospects back for your minor league system, but also one of the things we talked

about when you were hired was maybe having some veterans that could help run the clubhouse.

What was the idea behind maybe not doing much of that and in the way of not having pieces

to trade maybe at the deadline but also having young guys run things, do you feel like you're

still in a good spot in those areas?

Yeah, it's a great question and I think it's a difficult one to really do perfectly

and what I mean by that is like we obviously went out and got miles, whatever he is, 37

years old, he's pitched a bunch in the big leagues and overseas and I think he's brought

a great element to our staff, I would say the same about Foster, I know it's a little

bit of a unique deal where he went over to Asia and pitched well over there, but things

coming back, but I think he has some of the same knowledge that a lot of these veterans bring.

On the hitting side, the offensive side, what I think you're trying to balance is ideally

you want that, at the same time if you're going to dedicate a roster spot to that, that

means that one of these guys that we want to give run right to in the big leagues and figure

it out, one of those players might be starting a AAA, which isn't necessarily the worst

thing but that's the trade off.

We thought a ton about it and we'll obviously continue to keep our eyes open but that's

the problem that we're looking to solve in our head and I'm not sure we did it perfectly,

you're having done it perfectly to this point but we are really happy about the group that

we have in house.

Back to the starting rotation, Paul, are there guys, Kate Cavali for a while was kind of

all fans radar with injury rehab and his lengthy process coming back to us, I agree, coming

back from injury, bad lord situation last year, starter, then reliever, then starter, then

reliever, then kind of anything between, do you have kind of restrictions as the wrong

word but sort of for guard rails in mind for how those guys will be deployed maybe early

versus middle versus late or is it just everything off?

Walk us through that.

Yeah, so for a bunch of the guys that you just mentioned, right, I guess with Kate,

JoJo and Brad, they're all in different spots, right, like Kate is like fully built up,

he's ready to roll.

We've been really intentional about his workload and games to make sure that he's ready to

roll and I think he's, he's ancient to, to log a bunch of innings because of, you

know, the injuries in the past couple of years.

So he's good to go, you know, the JoJo, obviously he's, he's coming off the injury, right?

So we just want to be a little bit more delicate with him, he probably saw it, we waited a little

bit to get him into games in spring training and so we just want to be smart with him and

then Brad, you mentioned it, like the roll, right, and the roll uncertainty, to me it's

a lot easier to build a guy up to start and then scale it back down as opposed to, like

you build him up as a, as a reliever, like a one in a guy or a multi in a guy and then

you go up to Brad a week before spring training ends and you're like, hey, we want you to

be a starter, like that's, that's not a fun starter, right, right, yeah, so we've all,

you know, how we've approached each of these guys individually has been with purpose

and we've communicated why and like I said, I think they appreciate that.

Did Josiah Gray, if it goes the way you want it to ideally, would he be in the big league

rotation to start the year?

It's TBD, you know, like I know we only have a few more weeks left, but we've got to

see, see more of them and the reason why I say that is because there are a bunch of other

guys in the rotation too that are going out and have looked great, you know what I mean?

So we, we're going to, we're going to go with the best five guys that we have and if we

get to the end of camp and JoJo's that guy, great, and if not, we're going to obviously

continue to support the heck out of them and get them to that spot eventually.

And Brad, Lorda, you mentioned one of those guys, Paul, who last year pitched in the rotation

in the bullpen and you would imagine if JoJo is rehabbing or intrapolay or what have you,

maybe it opens the spot.

How do you make a decision on a guy like that, is it, where does his stuff play best long

term?

What are the metrics tell us?

I mean, last year at a year or a up around five is a starter, but down around two, seven

is a reliever, smaller sample, but it doesn't get to a point down the road where if you've

just had more success doing one than the other, you leaned that direction.

How does that go?

Yeah, so there are certain profiles that I think play better out of the pen, certain

profiles that play better as starters.

Brad's a unique one where like it's not abundantly clear one way or the other, kind of where

his, his best spot is.

That said, we made the decision early, like we want to build them out as a starter and

to us, like, and it's really tough to get up to the big leagues and have a ton of success

right off the bat as a starter, but at the same time, like if the more starters that we

can grow here and develop long term, I think that's really going to suit us well, but even

the short term, like we have guys burst on the scene this year and able to help us in

ways that maybe they haven't, like in past years, that's going to really help us as a team.

So that's what we want to stay focused on.

Paul Taboni with us here, all great in any live from West Palm Beach.

As we watch, the nationals take on the meds here in spring training, I know player development

is such an instrumental thing for you guys and getting, you know, players to get as close

to their maximum and then maybe even exceed that.

Who is somebody that you think will benefit the most from you guys's approach to maybe,

I can not to write anything that happened in the past under the bus, but you guys have

a new way of doing things.

It's just great.

I've been coming down here for so many years.

There's a lot of equipment that we never saw before, you know, a lot of different techniques

and things and just philosophies.

Who's someone that you kind of call your shot here to go, fans, wait till you see what we

do with blank?

Oh, man.

That's a great question because it's tough to pick one, but you can pick one the way you're

allowed.

You're the boss.

I'll start with, really, our whole catching group, you know, like I think it's a sneaky

part of the game.

I think you're the casual fan, but over 162 games, it really matters and that's how you

receive the ball.

Right?

And so whether it's Milly or Cabard or Harry Ford or Riley or whoever, right, Trace?

Like, man, if you have whatever it is, 250 receiving chances a night and you steal 10

strikes, whatever.

You extrapolate that over 162 games, like that's that's making the team a lot, lot better

and my hope is that we make great strides there.

So I know that's a little bit of a nuanced area, but you know, that's an area in field

D, not just like secure in the ball, but I would say this about the outfielders too,

like really making sure we're doing a good job getting off the ball and if you look at

their pre-pitch, like, you know, what we want to see is when the pitch is coming through

the zone, you'll see like a little hot for most guys.

And the reason being is because the best athletes in Major League Baseball aren't necessarily

the guys that have the most range, but everyone can control their pre-pitch and how fast they

get off the ball.

And so, if CJ can get to, you know, 10 or 12 more balls this year, right, effectively

that's 10 or 12 more airs that he can make, right, to be what he was last year.

So, but if he's making eight or 10 of those plays, right, or even 12 of those plays, like,

we got a chance to unlock a really good defender.

So, and I would say that about really all our infielders and outfielders for that matter.

Paul Taboni on G&D, just using the game in front of us to talk for a moment.

So Robert Assel just drops a basin into the outfield.

And now Christian Franklin's batting, who came over last year when Mike DeBartolo was

the interim GM and a deal with the Cubs at the deadline.

And he's one of these guys who, there are organizations where he might be the last outfielder

on the big league mix.

You know, he's one of those guys who's kind of done it at the high levels of the minors.

And the outfield is where you're deepest, and so he's down the depth chart.

As like Hassel's still waiting on opportunities, how do you see that position group going into

the year?

Yeah.

You're on it, Grant.

Like, the Christian's been really exciting and actually hit a ball hard earlier today.

But I think the cool thing for Christian really for all the players is for the most part,

we have a new group in here.

You know what I mean?

So we're viewing all these guys with open eyes.

And, you know, I don't think we're ready to commit like any of these spots at anyone

at this point in time, but Christians in the mix and say the same about Robert and

the rest of the guys.

So, and I'll say too, that deal that Mike D and the group made, like not just with Christian,

but we've got to kid the minor leagues named Ronnie Cruz back in that deal and he's, there's

another hit for Christian.

He's been great in the early going and I'm really excited about Ronnie as well.

So yeah, shaping up to hopefully look like a pretty good deal.

Let's put a little rally together in front of us ears, Franklin drops an RBI knock into

left center so the boss likes what he sees Paul Taboni is on the show.

We've talked so much on the on the air about James Woods, potential Dylan Cruz was a second

overall pick.

Dale and Lyle was the national league player of the month in September last year.

So those are the the marquee names Jacob Young's fascinating though, an elite gold glove,

platinum glove type defenders, 98th percentile and outs above average.

Savon's number three center filter last year.

But if you look at the offense, he ranked 241 of 242 center fielders or players rather

with 350 played appearances.

Does he need to hit more, do more to be an everyday guy or is his defense good enough organizationally

where you guys could say defense is so important to us that even at this level, if this is what

it is, Jacob Young still an everyday player.

Yeah, so I'll tell you what I told Jay why in the rest of the group, which is like the

standard here isn't to hang around in the major leagues, you know what I mean?

Like the standard should be to be a really good fricking player in the major leagues, right?

And so if if Jay why is a great a great defender, but not a great offensive player, like he'll

probably hang around in the big leagues for some period of time, right?

You could have a long career doing that.

You could have a long career doing that, right?

But at the same time, when you talk to Jay why he's like, I don't want to just be known

as the guy that hangs around in the big leagues, right?

And so, you know, he made some awesome adjustments in the off season that I've carried over to

camp.

He's moving the bat faster and he's, you know, an issue with him was he's got contact skills,

but a lot of what he hit was on the ground, right?

And so just making sure that he's sitting in the ball more on a line and in the air, I

think is a focus for him because although he's maybe smaller in stature, he's a strong

dude.

And so that's, that's been a focus for him, this off season, he's carried it into camp

and outside of the the injury, he's been, he's been great.

How do you balance sort of, you know, some of the philosophies, just say the way that you

guys approach, Henning, just you mentioned that, you obviously want more barrels, who doesn't,

right?

That's that's the name of the game.

But the sort of best practice versus, hey, maybe this is in the way a guy naturally moves.

Does that make sense?

Like if you got, you want guys looking their hands at X, but they actually do it in a slightly

different way.

What's the balance there for someone's comfort versus how they actually move?

Walk me through that and when you're identifying a player and trying to get them to reach that

developmental ceiling.

Yeah, it's a, it's a great question, like very rarely, will we go to a hitter and say,

like, hey, we want your hands here, right?

Really what we try and do is, this will get a little bit into the weeds, but we put them

in what we call training environments, right?

That will hopefully adapt the changes that, that the player wants that we want, right?

So if we want, you know, J-Y to hit more line drives, right, we'll basically set up

a training environment that promotes that.

And if he starts hitting more line drives than that training environment, and it shifts

his hands to some different place, like for the most part, we're good with that, right?

Gotcha.

But, and then hopefully, and then we'll just track if it falls into gameplay, which we

can always kind of revert back to what, you know, J-Y or whoever has been in the past,

but that's just generally how we think through it.

Baltimore need the president of baseball operations with the nationals watching spring

training baseball.

In front of us here, a three-three game is they play on into the fifth inning now in

West Palm Beach, Grant and Danny with you live on the fan.

As far as the bullpen goes, you've talked about, basically, an open competition.

Do you guys want to open the season with someone that you've told?

You're the closer in the ninth inning or the closer is a little bit, but like, you're

the high leverage guy, or is it okay with you if day-to-day it's a match-up?

Yeah.

I don't know if we'll, like, annoy a guy, the closer, but I am a huge fan of giving

guys clarity on just generally what their role is going to be, right?

So if a guy is going to be pitching in high-leveraged spots and, you know, we're going into the

year knowing that, like, we're going to communicate that to him, right?

And if we're using a different guy, and it's like a match-up guy in the sixth or an

opener or whatever it might be, like, we want to communicate that, so they have clarity

and they can best prepare.

Who's someone?

Maybe it's not a reliever.

But the entire group is almost new, except for Mike D that's sitting in your suite watching

these games.

You guys are super plugged in, you scouted players from high school up, you know everyone

in the big leagues.

Who's someone just out here at camp that you guys have kind of, as a consensus, talked a

lot about this?

Maybe that guy was better than you thought, coming from the orgs, Boston, Philly, wherever

you guys were.

On the major league front or the minor league front?

Either way.

Just a player that you go, damn, we didn't really know he was that good.

Oh, man, gosh, that's a good one.

I'll give you two names.

Both on the minor league front.

This is probably the player development background coming out of me, but I guess I like that.

So the kid I just mentioned, actually, Ronnie, Ronnie Cruz, I think he's one to be really

excited about.

He just moves around great at shortstop.

He's going to hit the ball really hard.

He's just, and he's, man, he, like, the offensive traits that he has are intriguing.

So he's one that I'm really excited about.

And then the second kid is the kid named Marconi Jermon.

I don't even know if you guys know that name, but he just came over from the Dominican.

He was one of the best players in the Dominican Summer League last year.

So he'll be a 17-year-old in the complex league this year, but he's got chance to be

a really, really good player, which is exciting.

The more those guys, the better.

Fully amid the 17-year-old that just came over as a whole in my game.

I didn't have that one yet.

Exactly.

That's why you're in your chair, though.

So the points of emphasis, we talk so much about this, this is kind of the dark side of

it.

If someone's not meeting the expectation for the sake of argument, they're big league

in every ball out of the box, can't be bothered to take the hard turn or it's base-running

mistake.

So they, you know, can't get the punt down or whatever, not that you guys are, but in the

time.

But you know what I mean?

Is there a, that red line kind of, so to speak, not that you're going to sense

someone packing, but the, hey, now we need to step in and correct some things.

Walk me through what that might look like with you and Blake and the staff and office.

Yeah.

I think if we're doing a really good job, like, Blake's not having to get involved.

I'm not having to get involved, like MJ or any other coaches aren't having to get involved.

It's, hey, if a guy doesn't run a ball down the line, it's, whoever, Drew Millis, right?

I'm looking at him, like, he pulls someone aside and he says, like, hey, like, need a little

bit more from me there.

And it's not received, like, Drew's being a jerk to me.

It's just like, it's received a chance.

This is what we do again.

Like, this is who we are.

Right?

And so, but really what I'm getting at there is, like, you know, the best teams that I've

observed and that I've been on, like, they, a lot of that's pleased by the player group,

not those above them.

Paul, you have four boys, right?

I do, yeah.

So have they been down here at West Palm the entire time and you're multitasking with the

family and the team, are they making quick trips?

No, they, they're, they're coming down.

They haven't been down yet.

They're, uh, our older two are itching to get down here and they'll be running around.

You guys might see them.

So, um, they'll be looking for, for some high fives from you guys, I'm sure.

Yeah, I was, well, probably not from us.

Might be the guys in the red jersey.

They've been in the real grown ups.

I don't think the, the radio guys get them overly excited.

They don't have our baseball cards, but I can only imagine what that's like.

I mean, it's just been such a whirlwind for you with all the family stuff at home.

And then this, what about when you've gotten away from the ballpark?

It's only been a couple of off days, but what have you done down here in Florida?

Um, you know what, I actually have, I'm embarrassed to say I haven't got out, uh, a ton.

But, um, I'm hoping to, uh, at some point in the next couple of weeks, I will say I went

over to, um, whenever to Palm Beach Island, uh, one day after we got out here and, uh,

saw the beaches there or whatever.

I thought it was like fantasy world.

Um, I've really never, like, seen a place like that, um, but, uh, but yeah, I would love

to get down to Miami for, uh, for a WBC game or two and, uh, maybe catch a, uh, a heat

game or, um, you know, do whatever, but I need the spots, like in, in your one, I don't

have the spots, which I'm embarrassed to say, you'll get them, uh, this has been great

to catch up with you, man.

Good luck.

Continue success.

Appreciate you.

Appreciate it.

Appreciate you guys.

Yeah.

Thanks for having me on.

President baseball operations, Paul Taboni with us on Grant and Danny.

We're just getting started from West Palm Beach today, a lot to come on the show, including

our dive into Trey Young's debut with the Wizards, also the commanders moving and shaking

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Head of free agency, you're listening to the fan.

A year ago, James Wood, in just his first full Major League Baseball season, was an all-star.

He is the face of this franchise for the nationals moving forward.

We caught up with him today and talked to him about his offseason.

Yeah, I mean, I definitely won the seasons over.

I mean, you want to take a little step back.

It's a long year and kind of just evaluate and then take some time off.

But I mean, I felt like I was able to do that.

And then I felt like I got back to work.

And, you know, just felt like I got a good base in my lower half.

Feeling like I'm in a good spot and ready to go for the year.

How different do you feel kind of at this point?

This year compared to maybe the same milestone last year heading in to another season.

Yeah, I mean, I think body wise.

It's night and day.

I feel great going in.

I mean, I've been working with the training staff all season.

They've been doing a great job, so I feel like I'm ready to go.

James Wood of the nationals, ungrant and dandy.

Last year, second half, obviously, didn't go the way you wanted.

It seemed like maybe just looking at you moving around now,

like you just weren't moving quite the same.

How are you physically?

Were you completely healthy and how different do you feel now?

I mean, at that point, you're never really 100%.

But I feel like that goes for everybody.

But I think the big emphasis by this group and myself kind of going into the all season

and spring training was just feeling as good as I can by a game 162.

So that's definitely a big goal.

With the new coaching staff, new front office,

what are some of the points of emphasis when it comes to you and how to have,

you know, maximize your incredible talent this year?

Yeah, I mean, this is a big emphasis on controlling the zone,

just throughout the whole lineup.

And I mean, they're really just trying to get the best out everybody.

So I mean, they've been very group to work with.

So I feel like it's just been a productive ring so far.

How different do things feel around here, like mindset, philosophy-wise?

There's so much made about the analytics push now at this new group.

How noticeable and tangible is that for you?

Yeah, I mean, it's definitely pretty different.

But I mean, I don't think it's like the whole like a huge like nine day difference.

I mean, you're still going out here and you're getting your work in.

I mean, I think the process of it is different.

But and obviously it's a pretty much completely different staff.

But I mean, yeah, they're just great to work with and it's a bunch of different ideas.

So is it nice just for you to have whether it's all the way up at the front office level

and how they view baseball or even just on the coaching staff to have a fresh set of eyes

and just someone who says, hey, what if we tried this or hear something I saw?

Yeah, it's definitely a different way of looking at things with this group.

And yeah, I mean, I think everyone's kind of just excited to get a full year

and it's kind of just you and see where we can go from there.

How much right field do you think you're going to play?

I'm not sure.

I mean, they said just be ready and just be comfortable in both.

So I mean, whatever the manager and the staff feels like he gives us the best chance to win.

I mean, I'm okay with wherever.

Where do you feel more comfortable left to right?

I mean, before last year, I would say right.

But I mean, I feel like I started to get the hang of left a little bit.

So I mean, I feel pretty comfortable in both.

James Wood is with us on Grant and Danny here on the fan outside of baseball this off season.

What were some of the things you got to do that kind of helped you recharge the batteries a little bit?

Yeah, definitely spent a lot of time with family.

I know we were talking about basketball earlier.

I was out down in Austin with my sister and she's just in coach with the G-League team there.

So I was helping her out and practicing all that.

I asked him, I said, I'll go to basketball player, where are you?

So I will pose this question to you.

Let's say James Wood chose not to play baseball.

Your path was in basketball.

Are you in the NBA right now?

Yeah, I think so.

I mean, but if you if you ask me to play in high school, you might not say that.

But like, I think if I put everything towards basketball, like,

when I started really focusing on baseball, I think by then I would have been a different player.

And I don't know.

I mean, I feel like I put up a bunch of time in the baseball.

So if you put all that time in the basketball, I feel pretty confident I'll be in the NBA.

What's your game?

Are you a shooter, a slasher?

I mean, I would imagine if you played basketball and that's what you trained,

your whole body would be different.

Uh, I don't know, honestly.

I mean, I always say I'd be like a 3 and D.

I mean, my jumper's got a long way to go, but I mean, it's like I was saying,

like if every swing I took in the cage was a jumper, I feel a lot more confident.

Makes sense.

If you guys had, you probably can't with contracts and whatnot.

But if you guys had like a competitive pickup tournament or something,

three, playing three on three, who would you anticipate being the best basketball players

in the clubhouse?

Uh, I mean, I've seen Nas and CJ play and they're pretty good.

So, I mean, they'll definitely be on the team.

Um, I would've said Derek Law last year, but he's not with us anymore.

That's actually the most surprising thing I've ever heard.

He looks like a goofy old dad, just a white goofy guy.

I've seen his highlights.

You could play, um, I'm trying to think.

Did he wear like a headband and do a bunch of hook shots?

A bunch of knee pads.

He's wearing LeBron's and like just, no, he looked like a hooper.

I mean, he would be playing 2k with him all the time.

Like, he's from Pittsburgh, so it's not like he's, he's not with like what you kind

of expect with how he kind of looks.

I'm totally judging a book by its cover, but he would have been the last pick in any draft.

Yeah, I mean, his age might begin to him now, so he might not make the cut.

But he's definitely in for consideration, but I haven't seen many of these guys play.

But back in terms of baseball, how long do you feel like it takes you to get locked

in at the plate, heading wise, how many A.Bs, how many live pitches do you feel like

you need before your James what?

Uh, I don't know.

I mean, I feel pretty good right now.

I mean, I know the numbers don't, don't say that, but I mean, I feel like my time is

good.

So I mean, it's just really a matter of time.

I feel like everything kind of changes when the season starts.

I think once the season comes around, I'll be more than ready.

How much do you expect to run?

It seemed like last year, just stealing bases and being aggressive on the base paths.

Maybe it wasn't at the same level as year one, like moving forward, what do you think

you'll be there?

I can't really tell you, I mean, just when I see opportunity, I'm just trying my best

to take it.

And I mean, hopefully I just do a good job putting myself in the best spots to take advantage

of those.

I mean, it kind of just depends on how many of those opportunities we get.

In terms of, you mentioned at the plate, commanding the strike zone, right?

And sort of, is there anything mechanically or approach wise that you feel like you're

going to tweak and do differently to help with that?

Uh, I mean, I feel like I did a pretty good job of limiting chase.

I mean, I just think now it's just more maximizing some pitches in the heart of the zone.

So, I mean, you want to do that without adding more to the chase, you know?

So, I mean, it's not really like you want to tip toe around that, but you definitely

just, I would like to be a little more aggressive in the middle of the zone.

James Wood, Washington Nationals and fan of the New York Giants, who a year ago right here

at this table said if the Giants had another awful season, you would abandon them and be

a commander's fan.

So, I'm happy to hear that you're now a commander's fan.

It's nice, buddy.

They stuck together last year.

Yeah, that's not true.

I was saying the commanders were pretenders last year and everyone was ripping me for it.

And I guess I was right.

So, the Giants got a hard ball and now I mean, we'll see how those two games are this

year.

But I mean, I think the Giants are bad, so.

Jackson Dart, fan franchise quarterback?

Yeah, he's the truth.

Does it know you that he wears those glasses that don't have prescriptions in him to look

cooler though?

I don't care.

You've run for two touchdowns and though for 240 yards and win, I mean, and obviously

you didn't win, but like, it was his fault and he was doing his thing, so I mean, he's

the truth.

You know who was sneaky better than I thought, actually, if I could compliment you instead

of just zinging the Giants, came scataboo.

Now, I think he's going to be like a three and a half yard per carry plotter for most

of his career.

But I thought he did some things.

Yeah, I was impressed too.

I mean, I wasn't really sure what to expect, but yeah, he was legit, but I mean, now I'm

here and they might sign another R running back or draft one or that might be smoked so

you guys trade up.

So we'll see what happens.

Are you excited about John Harba?

Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, he's definitely some stability.

I mean, he's, I feel like he's been 10 wins every year, pretty much in Baltimore and

that's pretty much the opposite of what we had.

So I mean, we'll see what he does.

I mean, I feel pretty good about it though.

You don't watch movies, I know.

Are you do binge TV shows?

Like, what do you do?

You just sit at home and like, look around, a video game.

Which game do you play?

Right now I've been playing Call of Duty a lot, but I'll mix it up.

I'll play a little mad and it says like a good single player game, I'll get on that for

a little bit.

Dude, are you like an online churper where you get the headset on and some port 12 year

old's getting pounded by a big ligger?

And they don't know?

No.

No.

I'm a mute.

I listen to it.

I mean, maybe sometimes, but I feel like those, my days of that are a long time.

Do you ever break character like, high or low energy or like, have you screamed before

or like, what, what is the most extreme you go?

Ah, I don't know.

Like, when's the last time you yelled?

It's probably been like two or three years.

Like, try to yell right now, just like, say, yeah, I can't.

You ever been in traffic?

Yeah.

Did that ever make you mad?

It's like, cut off.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, you'd be like, dude, why'd you do that?

No, I mean, I don't, I don't honk my horn.

Like, I don't know.

What would make you honk your horn?

Is there anything someone could do?

If someone like just genuinely doesn't see me, I'll honk my horn, so like, notification,

safety.

Yeah.

More for safety.

Yeah, but like, if you honk my, if you honk at me, then I'll just, I'll, I'll just

get petty.

Okay.

I think turns green.

No movement.

One, one thousand, two, one thousand.

I'll flash my lights.

I won't.

What a move.

What is so kind?

That's so kind.

That's so kind.

Last one I got for James, what are the Washington nationals?

Last year, first half, incredible.

Unbelievable.

End up finishing the season still at people look back at your season and it's like, it's

a really good year, right?

What about this season?

The success is...

I mean, I think first and foremost, I'm, I'm, I was a boring answer.

It's probably a note you want to hear, but I just want to be healthy the whole year.

I mean, just being able to do that last year, like, I learned a lot about the good half

and then I learned about a lot about the half that really wasn't very good.

So I mean, I mean, I mean, we're, I'm young, this team's still really young, so I just

think being out there with all these guys and just learning together and growing together

is probably the most important thing for all of us.

Before we do that, we're joined on site by Robert Hassel, it just got out of the game.

Only in spring training.

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The steps he's sitting here with us, chatting on great and dandy.

So thank you for being willing to do that.

Of course, thank you guys.

So how did- I mean, things today were productive.

You guys have seven runs and 11 hits.

But for you, you're not just trying to get out there, get a hit, get a run like a normal game.

You're putting in work.

What were you able to check off the to-do list to get closer to being ready for end of March?

Yeah, I think, you know, this is the longest offseason I've had.

I've been to Fall League the past three years.

So I was definitely a little bit rusty coming back face and live pitching.

But yeah, that's pretty much what it is.

You got to check the boxes, do what you've, you know, this is year six for me now.

So I mean, it's, I'm used to doing the same sort of things to get ready every spring.

And that's kind of what I did.

But I feel pretty good right now getting, getting back into swinging things.

You mentioned kind of the long offseason.

Is that the biggest difference for you just in general at the stage of your career?

Yeah, it was different because, you know, my coming back and doing live ABS and stuff

like that, I could feel that I had time off.

It wasn't necessarily with my eyes.

I felt like I was seeing it really, really good.

Just the bat was a little slow timing.

It was a little bit off.

But, but yeah, like I said, I'm glad they were able to put us in front of a lot of live ABS

and then obviously we're paying these games.

So I'm getting back into it.

Yeah.

Robert Passel of the Nationals on Grant and Danny.

So last year, you were able to get to the big leagues and play in 70 games

and really get a feel for the major league level and the competition.

Would you come away having learned and about yourself, what did you come away with in terms

of confidence that you can be an everyday guy going forward?

Yeah, I think that's the biggest thing for me is to be able to prove that I'm an everyday

guy.

I gained a lot of respect for people coming off the bench and being able to succeed because

that was a real challenge for me last year.

I accepted that, you know, that was sort of the role I might be playing with the outfielders

we had out there.

But it was tough.

It was tough.

But I learned a lot, you know, a year ago coming in the spring training, I hadn't felt

what it felt like to be in the big leagues and now I know I can do it, play in front of

those big crowds.

It's the same game.

I felt like I pressed a little bit too much on myself.

That's not the place where you want to do it in the bigs.

You kind of want to be a lot more under control and calm.

But yeah, yeah.

I mean, it helps me gain confidence knowing I've already played at that stage.

I've gotten a lot of reps up there and, you know, looking to put it together this year.

It was, Poltaboni was in that seat about a half hour ago, they're in one of your

at bats.

And I'd mentioned the outfield spot here is convoluted.

I mean, this is one of the few areas on this team, this rebuilding club where there's

too many guys and not enough positions basically because you've got James and Dylan and

Dalyne had the incredible season last year and the Jacob Young's elite defensively.

There's five of you.

You get three spots every single day.

What is it like for you in this competition knowing if they just let me play every day,

I might be fine.

But I got to win that job.

I got to have that role and you don't know if it's going to happen or not.

That's exact.

I mean, you nailed it.

I think, you know, nothing's given.

Everything's earned.

But, you know, I do.

I think I'll have no problem whatsoever having, you know, if I get in there every single

day.

There's a couple of our coaches last year saying, man, when you're in there every day, your

stuff is elite, you know, because you're going to have down days.

But if you have days off in between, it's really tough.

But, you know, I know I can do it.

That's who I've been.

Being out there every day, I took, I take a lot of pride in that.

But yeah, I mean, we got a lot of guys, but we can't, we all got each other's backs.

We're all trying to do the same thing.

We want to make the big league team.

We want to play every day.

But you know, I just go out there and be the best I can be if that puts me on the field

for them.

Great.

If not, I can't lose confidence or anything because of it.

I got to know I'm still an elite level player that can be out there every day and hope

a team.

What did you want to add to your game as you progress here?

I mean, obviously, you mentioned you've got a track record of success.

I'm a huge fan of yours.

Just not just because you're sitting here, but in reality, I think you're going to be

a star.

No, he said 30 minutes ago.

I'm not trying to throw them under the bus.

No, I, I may, I'm, you know, if I could buy stock, I would.

I'm a Robert Hasselguy.

Thank you.

What, what was something that you said you don't want to, I want to keep adding every

year as, as a worker as a guy with the kind of talent that you have?

What did you want to add?

Well, I, I think it was, it wasn't so obviously every, I want every part of my game to get

a lot better.

We, we talked about, I've talked about some swing things, some timing things.

I think most of it's mental.

I had, I had great success in AAA because I felt, I felt the confidence every day, like

I was the man on the field.

Being up in the bigs, it was a little bit less of that and it's, it made me realize how

big of this game is mental because just me feeling that, a little less confidence or

like, you know, I'm not playing every day, you know, am I good enough to play up here?

You know, that sort of thing that you kind of wrestle with, you know, it can, it can

put you in a rut and then you got to go hit 100 miles an hour.

It's like, no, you got to be at the top, you got to be the most confident person you

can be.

So I think you, most of it to answer your question, most of it was mental with me.

The hitting coaches have been awesome this year with helping me with little cues, trying

to keep the bat in the zone longer, swing a little bit harder, but, but yeah, every, it's,

it's mostly mental with me.

I'm going to ask a question that seems like it might be dumb before I ask it and you

could tell me if it is.

Oh, it's fine.

Is there any part of you at some point last year or like if you're just sitting watching

that would rather be playing every day in AAA, even, I mean, I'm assuming the money's

a lot different too.

I'm not dumb, but just because if, whether it's not here, it's for another team, but you

are getting the best out of yourself.

Yeah.

Or is it just, whatever it takes big leagues because I'm in the five star hotel and I'm

flying with the boys and whatever.

Right.

Right.

That's, I mean, that's a great question.

I mean, the answer is for me, you want to be in the bigs, even, I want to be able to

help them.

I know, you know, if I'm, if I'm coming off the bench, I'm not going to be on the bench

every single game.

I'm going to get my opportunities, but to a certain extent, you're right.

I mean, for a guy like me who has always been an everyday player, you know, you do.

You're itching to get out there every day.

You really are.

And not necessarily wanting to go back down to AAA and do that, but just, just want to

earn my spot on the big league team to prove I'm an everyday guy because you can't, you

can't prove you're an everyday guy until you play every day.

You know what I mean?

And that's kind of how I look at it and, you know, like I said, nothing's given everything

is earned.

I feel like given the opportunity, I'll, I'll be able to show that.

The vibe we've gotten from talking to folks, we've only been here a couple days, but it's

been a, this front office, this coaching staff, very much a, here's what we think we can

help you with.

Here's how we can develop you, et cetera.

A, if you felt that and B, you know, it, it sounds like there's some enthusiasm with

that.

Guys going, it's not what I can do for you.

It's what you guys can do for me.

That, that's refreshing.

It feels like.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's, that is been a huge saying this year so far.

I've gotten more instruction from these guys here in this spring training than I have

in five years being in Pro Bowl.

What do you mean by that instruction from them, like specifically?

Well, instruction like, like, I mean, we're all in big league camp here.

I mean, our stuff is good, right?

But it's fine tuning the little things, whether that's cues, I'm a big, that's a big

thing for me is certain cues in the box, not necessarily like swing changes to stuff

to think about.

Um, I was talking with a couple of the hitting coaches before today about, you know, how

I kind of tilt my shoulders and I'll do it a lot on the left, these two going, watching

back on film.

I'll tilt my shoulders for, for whatever reason, trying to get unlock power or whatever

and I'm clipping balls or I'll roll it over and top it to second base.

And that was the thing we worked on.

I worked on today.

So I took it into the game.

I kind of like over corrected it tilted my shoulders kind of down like I was going

to drop it right into the ground and I think it leveled my swing out and I had two kind

of line drive hits.

And that's, that's the sort of thing I'm talking about.

And you think this spring, just to drill down on that, there have been more of those subtle,

nuanced tips, that kind of thing has just happened more often with his group, more often

with this group than I've personally gotten with a couple of years with the Padres and

a couple of years with this team as well.

So I, I think, man, I love all these guys are, I mean, really, I, I mean, I really

mean at every, every single coach we have is really excited.

You can tell they're hungry.

We got a younger group.

Not that that matters as much, but I feel like a lot of the coaches have a lot to prove

and same with us players.

And your manager is nine years older than you.

Like a lot of Simon Matthews, the pitching coach might not be 30 yet.

Yeah.

I'm not, I'm not suggesting you have to be in your 20s, but there is something to be said

when you're 24 like you are sitting here.

These guys are speaking the same language, they're doing the same things at night.

You know what I'm saying?

That can't be a bad thing.

Yeah.

Speaking the same language.

You know, I think that was, it seems to me like that was part of the plan.

Um, coming in, like I said, we, we got, it's young all around.

Uh, so I mean, they, they relate to us a lot better.

Some of these guys just got done playing not too long ago.

They have some of the newer analytical ways of looking at stuff that can help guys.

So, uh, you know, like I said, it's been, it's been really helpful.

And I'm really blessed to be with these guys.

Robert Hassel with us here on Grant and Eddie live West Palm Beach Spring training

as we watch the Nats and Mets plan right before us.

Robert Hassel finishes the game, walks upstairs, hangs out with us.

It is pretty cool.

One of the perks of being down here, just in terms of, you mentioned the mental side

and feel comfortable and things like that.

You touched on something I want to drill down on.

The hardest thing to do, I think, I think baseball provides this is trying easy.

You know, in, in basketball, if your shot's not going, you can make it up with

effort. You can rebound, play defense, et cetera.

There's a little of that in baseball.

You can go track a fly ball or, or back up a base, but it's what, it's so damn hard.

All you want to do is help.

And it's like crap.

I'm over for it.

I didn't help today.

It's, how do you find that balance of your competing, but also trying easy?

It's, it is the sort of keeping on the green there.

Yeah.

I mean, it is.

And it, and it really is, it's, it is for me too.

It's not like I go home and sit in a dark room all day if I'm over for it.

But, I mean, it bothers me.

It really does.

And, you know, I'm still trying to adapt to that.

You're going to have bad games.

I feel like that's the competitor in me too.

I want to make sure I keep that obviously.

But, yeah, I mean, it, it's crazy because I fell into it a little bit last year in the

bigs, but sometimes you press and you press and you press and you press.

Sometimes what works better is the complete opposite.

It's not, it's hard to say care less because this is our job.

I'm sure we show up every day and do it.

But sometimes that's honestly kind of the approach you have to take.

It's back, back off just a little bit, you know, like don't, it, it sounds bad,

but don't care as much.

You still go to your same work, but don't press and press and press because you're,

like I said, you're putting, you're putting yourself in a rut if you're,

if you're mentally down on yourself or whatever the case may be.

And, and there's a lot of times last year where I saved myself in the last

that bat, you know, and made it, made it a good day.

So that's kind of what I think of it.

Sometimes you got to do the opposite of what you think might work because this game

is, it's crazy, man.

So, yeah, Robert, you grew up when high school in Tennessee.

Are you still live there now?

Still live off season?

Yep.

Who are your pro teams, like outside of baseball, obviously, as a fan?

Um, and do you want to go outside of baseball?

Yeah, like, who do you like to watch in root for?

Uh, well, Titans, um, sorry, buddy.

I like the hesitation.

He's like, well, it's almost like you're admitting something that you, you feel bad about.

You get the scratch report.

You're like, oh, the Titans.

Yeah.

He's sailing your chest a little bit, you know, Titans predators.

Um, I'm not, I'm kind of cat really casual.

Football fan and hockey fan.

I'm not too deep into it.

I, all the moves and roster moves and all that.

But not crazy into it.

So you wouldn't say you're a huge sports fan as a viewer.

Not, it's hard for me to get into it.

It's hard for me to get into football, basketball.

I like hockey.

I respect hockey a lot because their hand-eye and stuff is similar to what we, you know,

what is demanded in our sport.

But, uh, but yeah, I'm not.

Yeah, I like to wrap the Tennessee teams I do, but nothing crazy.

I saw, like, in fact, fellow Tennessee.

And now Bryce Harper has moved to Nashville, I think.

Yeah.

Former, uh, and that superstar here now in the Philly and they, he was on a pod.

And he was talking to, uh, a couple of former NFL players.

And they were talking about, like, the hardest sport to play.

And I don't think there's any debate among even athletes that the hardest thing to do

would be to hit a baseball.

That goes without saying.

But otherwise, would you say Major League Baseball still the hardest of all the sports to play?

I think so.

I think, obviously, people could make a good argument for something else.

But I mean, man, and, and, you know, people watch on TV and a hundred looks like 90.

And it's just, it's different when you're playing the game.

And it's, it's extremely hard.

Uh, I would challenge anybody.

It doesn't think it's the hard to sport to go out there and try to face.

I mean, the sneaky thing is monotony sounds like a pejorative.

So that's probably, I need a better word here.

But the everyday nature of the grind, man, the grinds, like just going to the ballpark

to sit and be fat and watch you guys every day.

I'm like, I've done this nine days in a row in this homestay.

And I'm not, I don't feel it today.

Yeah, you're out there for three and a half hours.

Yeah, and, and, and like last night, it's raining and it's windy.

And I'm like, that's spring training.

We can just go home, right guys?

And your guys are like, not, we're locked in with Venezuela.

Yeah, beaten beaters getting out of a gym.

And like, this is day seven of 29 here.

You know, it just, no one else does that.

It's, it's tough.

It's a grind and, and I'd be lying if there wasn't some days where we wake up and feel exactly that.

Like, you know, it's, it's going to be tough day today.

But I think that's what, that, that's what makes me respect the guys that are able to produce one play 162 in a season.

And two, to have really good numbers by the end of the season.

I think that's respectable because of, you're just not going to feel even perfect 10% of the time.

Right.

You know, you're going to have to battle a lot of days and then still go out there and face the best pitchers in the world.

So is every at bat over this, I know this is the goal, right?

But is this how it works?

Is every at bat grinded like, it's games that one of the world series in the bottom ninth or are there games where it's like the eighth inning?

It's nine to two.

It's a getaway day.

I'm not saying you're, you're not trying, but you're like, this isn't the ninth inning of the world series.

Or is every at bat the exact same for you?

I think maybe the only situation would be if there's a position player on the mound.

Because if you think about it, there's a lot of getaway days.

You know, you're going to get, you're going to get a lot of getaway at bat.

So you got to be locked in.

I think a lot of a lot of hitters just kind of have that switch.

You know, they can even be joking on the on deck circle.

But when they get in the box, there's kind of that natural switch because we've been playing the game the whole our whole life.

And a lot of people take pride in defense and stuff too.

But hitting is the thing, you know, and hitting is the thing for position players.

And so that's what I kind of see kind of get locked in.

We caught up with you a couple years ago.

I think it was in buoy, right?

We kind of let the join us then.

I feel like you're a lot stronger now than you were a couple years ago.

Is that, would that be fair to say?

Up 25 pounds, 25 pounds from last year, even from last year.

Yeah, so I, it was so a lot, but for different reasons.

Yeah, I was, yeah, I was, I was, it was, it's been a struggle.

And I figured out this offseason, you know, I was training the same.

I've always, you know, put a lot of work in the weight room and stuff.

But you've never been a bulky guy.

No, that's not who you are.

No, no, right.

I've had a hard time gaining weight.

There wasn't, there's not a whole lot of guys up in the big stat that are playing at 180 pounds.

And that's what I finished the year at.

And now I'm like 205.

How much did you lose over the season?

That's a thing, right?

Six, six, seven pounds.

Yeah.

Is that on purpose?

No, it wasn't on purpose.

All we, you don't even realize how much you say it.

You didn't know you were with five year old either.

Yeah, yeah, but I don't, I don't lose that much.

But the main thing with me is, it's been eating more.

Simple as that.

I wasn't eating as much.

Yeah, I wasn't eating as much.

It directly translated to me gaining weight, which pretty self explanatory.

But I really nailed that down this off season.

The guys told me, bulk up a little bit.

So I did that and I feel really good doing it.

My body feels good.

I'm not a sore every day.

And that's what I wanted to ask was, how does that, how does that material last?

And that's the answer.

I've been really, I've been really surprised.

You know, I feel like I would be, I would be moving slower and all that.

But that hasn't been the case.

And my body thanks me for doing that, too.

Like I said, because I haven't had the little muscle, you know, whatever it may be,

the soreness, all that.

I haven't felt that yet.

So feeling pretty good, yeah.

Robert Hassel of the NX, stopping by our set up here at West Palm Beach, hanging out right

above home plate in the nationals playing and leading a spring training game against the

Metz.

Thank you for the time.

We really appreciate it.

Thank you.

I appreciate you guys.

Appreciate you.

Miles Michaelis was added by this Washington Nationals club to come over and provide veteran

depth.

And an important piece he's going to play now in this rotation, moving forward and he's

kind enough to give us a few minutes and join us now on Grant and Danny.

It's great to have you on the show.

Thank you so much.

It's a pleasure to be here, if you guys.

Well, we're fired up to have you both in town, part of this rotation, providing that

veteran presence on the program as well.

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I gotta ask first, after spending the time you did in St. Louis nearly a decade in one

organization, it's gotta feel like transferring schools or something, like what is this experience

even as a veteran who's been in the big leagues for over a decade?

What's that like?

Yeah, it's different, it's kind of like when I came back from Japan the first time

going to the Cardinals, you know, show up first day of spring training, got like some

new shoes on, I want to look good, I want to like, you know, try to fit in with the cool

kids.

You waitin' around for it out in the day, you know, I'm thinking, I want to wear them

and say, but it's been fun, and you know, I've been, you know, I've played against a

lot of these guys the last couple of years, I've seen them from the dugout, and you know,

we've got some mutual friends, you know, Paul DeYoung was here last year, you know, I got

some intel on some guys from him, and you know, the guys here said that they loved them.

So, you know, it's guys that I'm, you know, used to seeing, but now I'm in the, you know,

I'm in the same dugout, so it's nice, and I've been, you know, super happy with how everything's

gone, everyone's super nice, everyone's, you know, we're all after the same thing here,

you know, we're, everyone's trying to get better and get ready for the season.

How much do you feel like you have to be coachmentor guy, because it's like, we were talking about

changing schools, it's like a lot of these guys are school age, playing in the show, you know

what I mean?

And, you know, you've been around, though, block a couple of times, do you feel like responsibility

or is it, no, let them find their way?

Like, what's that like?

You know, I'm, I had a little bit of that role last year, you know, being one of the older

guys in St. Louis also, you know, me and Sonny, and the year before that with when Gibby

was there and Lance Lynn, but, you know, something I've been kind of building towards, and,

you know, this team being maybe a little bit younger than some of those teams I've been

on the past, I'm, I'm very approachable, you know, I'm, I'm very loose in the clubhouse,

not like sit, I was playing cards other night, you know, nice loose atmosphere, trying

to get to know everybody, but, you know, we have such an incredible coaching staff here,

you know, some of these guys that, that we're working with, that I'm really just here

for like those extra questions, like extra support, I mean, so, and I'm, and I'm ready

for it, you know, and, and if that's what, what guys are going to come ask me questions

then, then I'm cool then.

Well, to your point about the staff, like, all these younger guys were raised in this

environment of everyone else that has subnate their pronator, and like, they know, like,

down to the, the, what, what their fingernails do in every pitch, hitters know their barrel

velocities, all this stuff is different than when you came up, like, so they're raised

in it, so, speaking that language must be different too.

Yeah, a little bit, but I think some, some of the stuff that I'm better at would be

some of like those more nuanced things, like, yeah, you know, you can spin it, you can

spike it, you can, you can do this or that, but it's the, the subtleties within the game

that the younger guys, and you have to learn by experience, but, you know, I had the benefit

of, of thrown to a guy like Yachty, you know, earlier in my career, and just his ability

to, to read a hitter and like, read a game, and I think that's some of the things that

maybe, you know, that I tried to learn, that I would try to impone on guys like, dude,

like, you could spin it all day, but watch the hitter's reaction, right, because maybe

he's going to tell you something the way he takes a pitch, that makes you think, okay,

I'm not going to spin this one, because he took a good swing at it, even if, you know,

the, the percentage is say this or that, like, you got to do your homework on guys, some

guys will, will sit on stuff and do that, and that's where those, those nuances of kind

of learning the game, right, like, all the information in the world is great, but when

you step out there, you have to compete, and the game is going to throw different scenarios

and different things that you, every time out there, you know, at, at 37, I'm still

learning, I play with guys in their 40s, and they will tell you that even at 40, they

were learning new things every day, and, and it's fun, because, with all the new lingo

stuff, you know, I think it's good, because guys can come ask me questions about, you

know, maybe some of those, those smaller nuances of the game, and I can ask them, like, well,

you know, how you, I see you spin the bike, how you holding it, and they've got some tools

and some tricks and some stuff that maybe I'm not used to, where I can learn from them

as well, so that's been fun too.

New Nats starting pitcher, Miles Mikelis with us on Grant and Danny from West Palm Beach

here in Florida on the fan.

What was the offseason like for you, because you know, if you want to play, there's going

to be plenty of options for your role, but it happened at the tail end, so did you just

kind of sit it out for your agents like, hey, let's wait six weeks and make calls, or

was the whole time you're getting phone calls?

You know, I, I think my, my agents making most of those phone calls, and then, you know,

when he gets, you know, solid leads and, and good conversations, that's kind of when

the things come my way.

But I wonder, like, are you just sitting at home with the wife and the kids for like a month,

not, he, there was like a day-to-day update, like, how does that work?

Um, you know, I, I tried not to, not to be bothersome, like, I don't want to be a high

maintenance client, or anything like that, so I don't know what my agent would say, but

I think I'm fairly low maintenance.

You know, I may call him, excuse me, I may call him like once a week, or that just like

send him a text message, like, hey, no need to call anything new, and he just be like,

no, I'm like, okay, fine, I'll text you next, next one is like every Wednesday, I'm

checking in like anything, anything, anything.

But yeah, I mean, a, a standard offseason down here, you know, front of the sun, South

Florida, I'm, I'm, I'm a South Florida local guy, you know.

You're Jupiter, Florida guy.

Yeah.

Born and raised here.

People back home don't know that's like what, 30 minutes from where we're sitting?

Like 20, 20.

Okay.

Yeah.

Jupiter Hi-06, go warriors.

So do you still live?

Yeah.

You just going out with your family right now?

Yeah.

Yeah.

We moved into, and we moved into like our new house, like right at the end of the season.

So we've been, you know, I've been gardening projects, we got like chickens, and I'm stocking

upon with some bass and stuff.

So I'm just, I'm, and I got four kids too.

So, you know, sitting on the couch with my wife, absolutely not, running around all over

town with my kids and, and everybody in tow, yes, you know, at the beach on the boat,

you know, at the barn, you know, my, my girls and my wife ride horse and stuff, I mean,

we're just, you know, I'm, I don't really sit down till the end of the day, maybe at dinner

from lucky.

I mean, lunch standing up sometimes, maybe sit down for breakfast, you know, stay in busy

stay in active, working out, you know, I got to, you know, I got to gym my house playing

catch, you know, you know, a lot of ball players in the area.

So, you know, game of catch is good, play catch with the, good buddy mind most of the winter.

So, it'd be a good one to ask our Matt Holliday question too.

So Matt Holliday, his house is for sale, and there's a bunch of like the basketball

court, pickleball court, batting kids.

Yeah.

Like he's just got like nine sons that I'll go first overall in the draft every two years.

And it's just like this assembly line.

He picks another one and they go first of the draft because of all these courts and stuff

that he has.

So we did a topic on the show a couple days ago, and maybe you have one, but like if you

could have any awesome sports amenity at your house, what would it be?

Like I went with, well, they're a few, but like I was thinking like full basketball court.

Somebody called in and said they wanted like to redo one of the holes for us.

He's holding a gusta.

Okay, so I've got a little bit of that.

I have a part three in my front yard.

Yeah, you do.

I have a big one.

Yeah, that's miles, Michael.

So it's like a hundred and fifty yard, you know, 160 yard shot over the pond in the

front.

So this is water hazard.

Have you hit a hole in one on it?

No, it's really, it's really tough because it's, it's a turf green because real, I mean,

I didn't go like crazy with it.

Yeah, the main that's on like a grass green would be insane.

So it's turf.

Like a hundred and fifty yards out, it's kind of bouncing off.

But there's like five little pin placements on it and like there's some rough, there's

some higher turf in the front.

Like you can chip.

It's like a 60, 70 by 50, like, you know, kind of putting green.

I got like a strip turf as like a tee box so I can, my kids hit off the turf.

So we like hitting golf.

So like golf, maybe yeah, but you were saying like like simulator things, there's a, there's

like a, I'm big into fishing, there's a fishing simulator out there where like you can hook

your fishing line up to like this, like electric real thing and they show like a fish fight

and you can fight.

They have them program.

You can fight the real fish.

So like I always joke with my wife like, oh, I can't fish, it's raining or whatnot.

I'm going to go in the garage and pretend to, pretend to fish.

So like the back of my, my cause, the program, I don't know, weights are like 14 pound bass

and then yeah, it's got it's, wow, I haven't, I've looked it online, they're like a couple

thousand dollars.

So it's a little, the foolish expense with, with the ocean being right here.

Like a fishing simulator doesn't make sense.

I'll just go fish like for actually, I can't go to the garage and pretend to fish and

bring dinner back inside.

You know, so what would your wife say, would she be like, oh, great idea, Miles, or she

would be like, are you kidding me?

Like if you told her you were doing that, she would say that it's probably a silly idea,

but she wouldn't stop me.

Like, you know, if that's where your heart, which is your heart desire, that's almost

worse.

Right?

Well, that's really what you want.

And then you did it.

You know, I think it would be fun.

You know, you put it upstairs and the bar maybe like next to the pool table, you know,

boys, night, poker, play some pool, fight some fish.

Real in the fish.

Yeah.

It'd be fun.

How have you evolved over the years as a pitcher?

You know, I want to say I haven't evolved too much and I think maybe that's one of the

reasons my last couple years haven't been great.

You know, I'm here, you know, when I talk to the coaching staff, the pitching staff, with

the gnats, I think one of the things that I was big on that I want to hear from them

is, you know, how can they help me?

You know, maybe evolve and change a little bit, some ideas, you know, maybe a little bit

of the pitch shape, a little bit of the usage, you know, my plan of attack, so to speak.

And they had some really good, really good insight as to how they might want to do that,

which, you know, another reason why I'm, you know, really excited to be here and work

with these guys.

But I've always been a strike thrower and I joke before we got on here, I joke about

like the technology and I'd like to see, you know, artificial intelligence hanging

to strike baseball.

Because I think if you look at the numbers, my, my strike percentage is really high, but

even, you know, that one to O2 count when guys are vulnerable, I'm still throwing a lot

of strikes in the zone when I probably shouldn't be, you know, you got a guy on the ropes,