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Be met you finally in 1067, the fan, we got some stuff to figure out, it's MLB opening

week.

The first baseball game will be tomorrow night in San Francisco, I believe Yankee's

giants that came will be on Netflix Thursday is Nats opener in Rigglyfield, which will

be really dope.

Now, you know, it's an interesting season for the Nats, not a ton of expectations, this

is just mean, Brian.

My friend Chris Williams, who's a very funny guy, just tweeted out a screen grab from

Fandall.

He said, come on, Fandall, let me get this bread and he tried to wager a billion dollars

on the Nats under 64 and a half wins, Fandall will not take his action.

So there's a few things we have to do, it is MLB opening week on Odyssey sports presented

by Netflix.

Baseball is back, maybe opening night is live on Netflix tomorrow, March 25th, Aaron

judge in the New York Yankees clash with Rafael Divers and the San Francisco giants MLB

opening night Yankees giants live on Netflix tomorrow 8 p.m. Eastern 5 p.m. specific and

it's Rafael Divers.

All right.

So opening night tomorrow, then opening day for probably most clubs is Thursday, if not

all, certainly for the Nats, it is in the Orioles.

Nats open on the road in Riggly, we're going to be at spankies, shenanigans pub in

Liseberg on Thursday, because we're going to be at a bar restaurant on Thursday, I kind

of think we should do glizzy day tomorrow.

I went there.

That's what I just said.

I have the air fryer in my car.

Should hold on.

If I've been in your car since the last time we did this, well, no, you need to go clean

that.

I mean, we clean it here.

Right?

No.

If I take it out of my car, the chances of me remembering it are slim.

Jeff, can you handle, can you clean an air fryer here?

You're, you're our guy.

Can you clean it here?

Last time?

Yeah.

I cleaned out the training.

Yeah.

All right.

So we'll clean it.

All right.

Now, to make glizzy day interesting, should we all try to set a number of hot dogs we could

eat?

Yeah.

I'm, I'm eating about two or three of them tops.

Let's not try and do anything more than that.

That's got to wear out.

We could bring all types of things.

We don't have to do just brides.

We, it's not going to a baseball game.

You get a choice.

Well, Brian.

Can you see some regulars, some some of cheese into some of jalapeno peppers?

I guess I'm half smokes.

We do that.

Why don't we all like bring our condiments?

So we each bring like young condiments, young buddy, who's bringing, I will go get the dogs.

You're, you're getting dogs.

Somebody else get bread.

Now, I get the bread too.

I'll get the buns as well.

I'll get the air fryer.

I'll get the buns and the, what's your problem?

Jeff, I'm bringing some drinks, because we can't just be down at hot dogs without

nothing to drink.

No, we got to have something to drink.

I don't think white Brian wants to eat hot dogs that worked.

Don't eat hot dogs out.

How many dogs you're going to put down tomorrow?

Maybe one.

And you can all, you should then, Brian.

Yeah, I mean, the first one, scarred me enough, and then I have to do it again.

I don't know if I can eat another hot dog in the studio.

Thank you, Washington Commanders.

I could be incentivized to try to eat three hot dogs.

I think that would be by far my best.

If you eat three dogs, boy, that's going to be amazing.

I'll give it, if, especially if I can do it over the course of the four hours,

I think I could do three dogs. That's a lot.

Um, oh, I could do at least four over the hours.

So B, are you just bringing dogs?

Are you going to bring a variety pack?

I'm bringing variety of dogs and I'm bringing some more bread.

Some more buns.

All right. Got buns.

I'll bring some venison glizzies in.

You actually have them or do you have to get them from big Tony?

I have them.

Bring them in.

What the hell?

Probably got them from big Tony.

So the conversation about MLBO for the week

is we're going to get to our goats.

And this one's pretty simple.

Everybody's been to a baseball game.

Baseball games are always fun.

You can get, especially nowadays,

you can get anything at a baseball game.

You can get tacos, lobster rolls,

whenever you want nachos.

Yeah.

But what is your favorite thing to get

at a baseball game?

What is the goat of baseball game concessions?

I have my top three prepared.

You are certainly welcome to go first

if you want to, Brian.

I go.

I like nachos with jalapenos.

Is that number three?

That says.

Yeah, I go through with that one.

Get me a beer.

It's number one and a dog too.

One beer.

Beer.

Two hot dogs.

Three nachos with jalapenos.

Yeah.

And you're talking about like just the cheese

and the little cup.

Were you dipping in?

No, I like the jalapenos when it's all over it.

Just because I like to get the flavor and everything.

So you're one seed.

Your goat of baseball concessions is beer.

Beer.

Okay.

Phone number 86361067.

I'm real about mine, Jay.

86361067.

You can call me and tell us your goat of baseball concessions.

My list.

My brother from another mother.

Me and B's list is almost identical.

The only difference.

My number three item.

I love when you get the soft serve ice cream in a miniature helmet.

I think like the the batting helmet with the ice cream in there.

That's elite.

Okay.

Number two hot dogs.

There's nothing more American than getting a dog at a baseball game.

When I was a kid, I used to go to a lot of Orioles games and that's didn't exist then.

Somehow in the 90s, we thought it was suitable for the capital of French Canada to have a

baseball team and not the capital of the United States to have a baseball team.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But you know, things have been wrecked.

Crazyness.

But by far the one seed of baseball games.

The number one concession at baseball games is beer.

Yeah.

Just a big old draft beer is what you want at a baseball game above all else.

Yeah, yeah.

White Brian.

What is your list, sir?

My third is a sausage and peppers.

Two.

Now on a bun though, right?

Yeah, I got to be on a bun.

Two would be the chicken finger basket with like the bunch of fries on the bottom and like

five big chicken fingers on the top.

And number one is the half chocolate half vanilla with rainbow sprinkles in a mini helmet.

Okay.

No beer for you.

That's four.

The rainbows.

I'm not the ice cream thing.

You don't kill me with the ice cream thing.

I never had ice cream at a baseball game.

Really?

Never.

It's awesome.

No.

Yeah, that's some good ice cream to be here.

I had ice cream at home.

How do we feel about white Brian clarifying that he needs rainbow sprinkles?

That's why I like to see like a sprinkly, a sprinkly type guy.

All right, Jeffrey.

Okay, so my number three.

I was with the chicken tenders too.

The chicken tenders and fries.

Number two.

I got to go with the sausage and peppers.

They just hook them up at the baseball game.

And yo, that smell when you walk by is intoxicating.

Yes, it's like when you walk by anti-ans in the mall or something,

that's that's the one seat of food court smells as anti-ans.

They'll integrate what you are now.

The sausage and peppers smell at a baseball game just sucks you in.

It's hard.

It's hard to walk past that vendor.

And my number one.

My number one.

It's more specifically at net stadium.

They used to have like these nachos, right?

But they were piled up like I'm talking about.

I think it was like brisket or something.

They was piled up and it was my first.

It was like it was when net stadium was like fairly new.

It was my first game there.

And I just see this person walk by with it.

And I'm like, I went that I finished that whole nacho.

It took me the entire game to finish it.

But you think Lil Jeff could finish that?

No.

That Jeff's a no.

Yeah, that's your finish everything.

Lil Jeff would pass it around.

Jeff, Jeff now like have some sunflower seeds and be full.

What, so what you, it's a little barbecue place down with bread and live.

Yeah.

They have this brisket nacho.

Unbelievable.

I'm in on that.

Unbelievable dog.

So Jeff and white bride don't have hot dog on their list.

They go sausage and peppers.

Bro, I would not eat like I will eat a had dog.

But I wouldn't I'm like, I don't have to be very hungry.

But Italian hot dogs tomorrow.

Yeah, but Italian sausages.

I like Italian sausage better.

They're banging.

Yeah.

And grunts.

Stallion.

Your top three, sir.

So this is actually really hard.

As you know, I love baseball and I love baseball food.

Number three is the bat beer.

You're at a bat beer at like Nashville's park or like Dodger City or something like that.

I've had a bat beer before like 25 ounces of beer in there.

It's incredible.

It tastes good.

You got to drink it fast, though, because if it's hot,

if it's July and the bottom of that beer gets warm,

warm beer at a baseball game sitting outside is tough.

It's tough.

Never be a beer at a baseball game.

Ever.

That's crazy.

Ever.

Why not?

I just never weird.

Like I just never do.

I've done it.

That's not a real man.

I've done it at a at a like hot dogs or beer.

He's not a real brother.

I drink them at commanders games.

That's the only time of the year I drink beer.

Evan and I know even when you were fat, bro.

How do you eat with that beer just filling you up?

I can't do it.

You sweat it out.

You sweat it out.

You know, bro, when I drink beer, I feel so full, bro.

I can't even eat.

Yeah, get you a bud light.

Oh, man, you gotta do something different.

All right, Saturday night.

Saturday night.

Number three is the bat beer.

I kind of hope.

So, Saturday is number three is the bat beer.

I hope it's two and one are just different variations of beer.

My number two is a goose isle.

Number two, this is that Nats Park.

The crab pretzel.

Crab pretzel is good.

Like, is it a ballpark food?

It is an R ballpark.

Like, the crab pretzel at Nats Park is incredible.

This.

Stallion reveals his goat of ballpark concessions

and will take your calls when we return.

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Tomorrow, we will be out and about watching opening day

with you at Spanky's shenanigans in Leesburg.

He mentioned Finley at 10 a.m. to about two,

and then we're there for a watch party

all the way through opening day until our show deep into the evening.

So, coming out to Leesburg,

Spanky shenanigans and watch the game with us.

The fellow managing his first ever game will be Blake butera,

the brand new skipper of the Washington Nationals.

We waddle down half-street went into his office

before he got on the plane to go to

regly to take on the Cubs and asked him

about kicking off a brand new season

in Back at Nats Park for the first time

since his introductory press conference.

Yeah, I think it's just great to get here

and see grass on the field,

which looks outstanding by the way.

You guys seen the field.

Yeah, it looks immaculate.

We've gotten lucky too with the weather yesterday and today

out there today in BP.

It's perfect weather.

Just fired up to get started.

One of the hardest decisions that you have made

and that are still yet to make.

Yeah, I think all the decisions lean up to this point

have been really hard.

None of them have been easy.

You know, you have those conversations with the guys

that unfortunately maybe don't make the team

for opening day but also like make sure they understand

like they're still going to be a big part of this thing.

There's going to be plenty of opportunity

throughout the season as we all know.

You see across the league every year the 26

that you break camp with

ends up being more like 45, 50, 55

when the season's all said and done.

So these guys are definitely going to make an impact

in our team although it's still, you know,

tough news to deliver.

Teams say all the time,

oh, we're going to have guys going back and forth

or you know, our lineup for that first series

is just indicative of the match up with Chicago or whatever.

But it feels like you guys might really mean that

when you say it.

Like what is the philosophy about forming the roster?

We're all making our predictions.

But how much of it is it about who can help you

gain one at Riggly with that lineup or that pitching staff

as opposed to these are our 26 best?

Yeah, I think you said it.

The good thing is you can kind of script out how you start

the season off because we know who we're going to be

facing those first six or nine games.

And yeah, a big piece of it is maybe the last one or two spots

might go to somebody that will help us win

against those few teams.

But then also I know you said you hear a lot of people say it

and don't mean it.

I mean it when I say we're going to be using a lot of our

players in AAA and maybe even double it at some point this year.

I feel really good about the depth we have.

Your goals for spring training,

sort of great you guys against those expectations and goals

and kind of some things that you still

are looking forward to here in the regular season.

Like how do you feel like you guys accomplished

what you set out to in spring training

and kind of where are you now in terms of that process?

I think in terms of accomplishment,

I would say that we have really made a lot of headway.

I don't think we're done yet

in anything we wanted to necessarily accomplish.

But we've made a lot of headway on defense,

base running,

our pitching staffs come a long way to where

the decisions we've had to make at the end of camp here

have been really hard

where maybe we didn't think there'd be as tough coming into camp.

So that's just a credit to our players,

our pitchers for the jobs they've done.

That's manager Blake butero on Grant and Danny.

What went into the decision to send Dylan down to the minor leagues?

Yeah, a really tough decision of course.

But like we talk about the 26 man to start opening day

versus what this year's going to look like,

there's no doubt in our mind that Dylan's

made a big part of our future success year

and we told him as much.

Like we love Dylan if anything,

we feel better about Dylan actually getting to know him

these past six to eight weeks

than we did coming into camp.

And I know sometimes that might be hard for him to hear or understand

but we told him like,

this is an opportunity for him to take a deep breath,

to get back to being Dylan himself,

get some confidence.

And then ultimately come up here and be ready to stick.

And you know one thing we mentioned to Dylan was like,

we don't want you to come up here and feel like you're fighting for your life.

We want you to feel like you're in a good spot,

you have your rhythm, your flow.

When you get up here,

like you're going to make an impact on our major league team

and be an impact major league for a really long time.

So it's our job to make sure that he knows exactly what it is

that he needs to work on in AAA

to get up here and not only stay here but dominate here.

It makes perfect sense, you know,

with not only how things have gone but then the spring,

but I think a lot of people were shocked.

It feels like you guys are building a relationship with him

and maybe it was one of those things where

it's almost impressive like it takes stones to do that.

I don't know if that happens here in the past.

Did you worry or do you guys worry about like building the relationship with him

or did you already feel like it was in a good enough place

and he would take it well?

Like because it's not like it's year three with him, right?

You guys are still learning him and he's learning you.

For sure and that's why I think the relationship piece

that Paul and I both hit on,

you know, back in October, November

when we got in these roles is really important

because you have to establish a relationship and a trust

to be able to have these difficult conversations with players,

with staff members, with members of the organization.

So ultimately do what's best for us as a group.

I think when you develop that relationship

and you show them like you mean what you say,

it puts you in a position to have those difficult conversations

and make them maybe a little bit easier.

Blake, what are the metrics, milestones,

things you're looking for from Dylan to say?

You know what? Okay, now he's ready.

Now he's back to being Dylan again

and he can come up here and stick as you said.

Yeah, I mean, the specifics I'll leave to Dylan

and the hitting group, but in terms of just overall,

like, you know, one thing I talked to Dylan about is

is watching him from afar.

I didn't get to know him and I told him this,

but it just looked like he was, you know,

maybe try to put a little bit pressure on himself.

I've never been the second overall player taking a draft.

I can only imagine the, you know,

the expectations that come with that.

And he's at the end of the day, he's a human being.

And Dylan's an incredible person.

He works his tail off like all the intangibles,

all the qualities you want.

In a future, you know, cornerstone in an organization

is like Dylan embodies those.

And we made sure to tell him that like we love Dylan to death.

And we have no doubt in our mind

that he's going to be an impact player

and the big leagues and help us win for a long time.

Right now he's just given him a chance to get back to himself

and give him some runway to go play every day

and get back to feeling comfortable.

What are some of the things as the manager of the Naths

and we're talking about Blake Putera

that you're really excited to see it at the start of the year?

Like, I'm jacked up for Kate

and that way he's throwing the ball

or a lot of people say James Woods' power, whatever.

Is there something having been around this group now

where you go?

I can't wait to see what that's like

when we turn the lights on for real.

Yeah, there's so many guys that I wish I could hit on right now

and I don't want to some of the leave people out.

But you mentioned Kate.

Just so excited for him to take the ball

on opening day and wriggling.

Just all the work he's put in,

all the frustrations and injuries

and things he's gone through to get to this point.

And just he embodies all the qualities that we want

in leaders of this organization.

He's so selfless.

He's an incredible teammate.

He's out there every day watching his teammates pitch

and compete throughout spring training.

I'm just fired up for Kate.

We all know CJ, Woody, Dale and those guys

are going to do their thing.

And then I mean, Brady, Brady's coming on, right?

Like Brady's another one that we feel really good about

in terms of, you know, just a young guy

that's going to make an impact in organization

and be a heck of a player for a long time

and he's starting to turn that corner.

A lot said about production in spring training,

not mattering a ton.

But when you have the 1300 OPS

and you hit 450 or whatever Brady did,

it's probably not a bad thing either.

Like how much of that was maybe the results

as a response to the process

or what did you think of his spring?

Obviously the numbers were crazy,

but that doesn't always tell everything.

Yeah, and one thing we talked to Brady

about coming into camp was

like everything under the hood is really good.

Like he moves about fast,

hits ball really hard.

He has power to all fields.

All those things.

The biggest thing for him was like controlling the strike zone

and understanding like when you get to this level,

pitchers are so good that you can't try to cover everything.

So and Brady's been able,

just because he's such a good hitter

and such a good athlete,

to cover everything up until this point.

So making him shrink the zone a little bit

and focus on what he does really well in the zone.

And that's what he did in spring training.

And the results were the results because of that, I think.

So I know it's a small sample size.

I don't want to get too fixated

and what he hit or what his OPS was,

but just the fact that he was able to,

you know, take the information we share with him

and go work on those things the last eight weeks.

And he's in a really good spot.

Blake Gutera, first your manager in the Nats.

Do you think you'll have any nerves or jitters

before opening day like a player will managing your first game

or because you're in the dugout?

It's a little different.

There will definitely be nerves and jitters for sure.

And I think any day that you come into opening day

and you don't have that is probably you need to check yourself.

Regardless of who you are,

it's just such an exciting moment.

Especially to open and wriggly field

and it looks like the weather might be actually decent.

I know we were all worried about that a few months ago,

but no, again, in the day, just any time you get to put on a uniform,

go play baseball and get to work with these guys,

this group of players, group of staff.

Like, it's awesome.

So I want to ask you about lineup construction.

You got a couple of nerds sitting across from here.

I can't wait for this kind of stuff to try to think along with you.

But there's a lot of dads who are going to be taking their kids to ball games,

right?

Or sitting the little egg lineup.

Stevie's the fastest.

He hits first.

Timmy's good at bunting.

He'll hit second and Dylan is a big strong kid.

He'll hit third.

What goes into the decision making?

Just peel back the curtain a little bit in terms of there's so much there.

There's so much prep and there's so much thinking about it with you and your staff,

which I, again, I think it's going to be incredible.

But walk me through that kind of process where you go,

okay, for this game, this is why we're going to deploy in this way.

Yeah, there's a lot of impact there.

But a small glimpse would be first off,

it's a collaborative process with our coaches, with our front office,

to make sure we're not missing something.

We're seeing something from every perspective.

Secondly, our job as a staff as a front office is to put our players in a position to have success.

And in order to do that, we need to make sure that we are covering all of our bases in terms of

who's pitching against us that night, which guys are not fatigued, which guys are strong and a good spot.

And ultimately, we have numbers that show us how a player is supposed to perform against a

certain type of pitcher or a right hand versus left hand, some of those things.

So then you're just working off of who are facing, who they have in the bullpen.

And ultimately putting these guys in a position to have success.

And with that means that some nights, guys might be hitting second, some nights,

they might be hitting seventh, some nights, some might be on the bench.

But also understanding that what we told our players is just because you're not in the starting line

up one night does not mean you're not going to play. You'll see a lot of pinch hits,

you'll see a lot of defensive switches, you'll see a lot of pinch running, things like that.

So ultimately, we just want to be flexible and creative with how we can best position our guys.

A lot of NAS fans listen, Blake getting ready to come to the ballpark next week for

the opener here against the Dodgers. What's your message to them as you kick off the 2026 season?

Yeah, I think just to the fans, we're going to do everything we can to make them proud.

And it's our job, our responsibility to play our tails off every day, play the game the right way,

come ready to work and get better throughout the season. And you know, I know this city,

such a, it's a sports city. They love, they love their sports. And we're going to do everything

we can to make them proud. Thanks for the time. Thank you guys. Appreciate it.

New Nax manager Blake butera on Grant and Danny here on the fan. Next, it looks like the

touch push is here to stay. We're Grant and Danny on the fan.

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For the Washington Nationals and just to let the listeners know, he will be joining us every

Wednesday at 9 a.m. throughout the nationals season. Paul, welcome in.

You should talk to you again. Hey, what's up guys? I'm doing great. How are you guys doing?

So Paul, Jason's not here today. I'm going to ask the question on his behalf since you're

going to be a weekly guest and your predecessor, Mike Rizzo, had two during his tenure. We need a

walk-up song. Yes, we do. We do need that. So we'll give you a little time to think about it. Have you ever

had a walk-up song in life? When I was playing, when I was playing in college, I had a number of

walk-up songs throughout the spring season and then you got a summer ball and you'd change it up.

But I'm going to have to think of one. It's been a minute. What were some of your walk-up songs?

You guys are going to kick out of this. Do you remember the scene in Billy Madison where he's

walking down the stairs? I can't even remember the name of the song, but that was a good one.

I'm from St. Francisco and I played at Cal, so there's a song out there called the St. Francisco

Anthem that I used for a bit. And then I actually liked J.Y. It had forever young for a little bit.

That was another one. That seems to be a popular one. A lot of people do that one.

We'll give you some time to think about it. He was big on Chicago. He was a Chicago guy.

Before that, he had imagined dragons. He had, I think, centuries.

Yes, centuries. I think that was his. You lost some time to think about that.

You know what I wanted to ask you is when we sat down with you, when you were introduced,

I think Jason, maybe it was Cakes, asked you about whether you were in a higher general manager.

And at the time, you weren't sure if you were going to, you ultimately decided to hire a general

manager. It got me thinking like, well, how did the job response, responsibilities,

how are they split up? What is the distinction between President-based ball ops and the general

manager? How does it all work? It's a great question. When I said that at the start, I meant it.

I think I was something mindset that I was going to not hire one, at least the foreseeable future

at the time. And then the more I just got to learn how this skill sets everyone internally,

those that we brought in externally, I was like, you know what, I think we could really use this,

not just as a sounding board, but also someone that could really drive some of the areas where I

think we could use some expertise and some help. So obviously, we landed on Oni. Man, Oni's great,

he's got to, I think I said it when we hired him, he's got a really unique way about him,

where he, you know, in most rooms that he walks into, he is the smartest guy, but he doesn't like

let people know that he's the smartest guy. Yeah, I'm looking at his background. As a teenager,

you're talking about Oni Columbia, he developed the baseball empirical analysis system or beans

for evaluating players and contracts using Microsoft Excel. He just created it out of thin air

as like a teenager. I don't know what you were doing as a teenager, Paul, but I know what I wasn't

doing as a teenager, developing empirical baseball stats and analytics. Yeah, I wasn't doing that as a

teenager. By the way, with the explosion of AI for all of us, right? Over the last year or two,

how has that impacted analytics? Yeah, I think, I mean, it's, it's, I got used to saying like,

it's coming fast, you know, I mean, the bottom line is it's already here. I think there are a couple

ways to really, really use it, but I think the two primary ways that come to mind is like,

it might, it could either make our work much more efficient or just create like, you know,

what we need in a way that, you know, we couldn't really do before. And that could be anything from

like, shoot, you know, like the software that we use to look up scouting reports and stat lines and

all that, you know, to like, hey, how should we have scouting reports structured and that sort of thing?

Yeah, could you come up with like a new stat like quicker? Like you could just plug in a few

data points and say, you know, come up with a stat for this or, you know, I mean, I wonder if you

can even come up with a whole new analytic easier. Yeah, I'm sure you could, I mean, the possibilities

are endless. Right. Yeah, I mean, you can get into like, yeah, health, like picture injuries,

all that. I mean, there's, it's, it's, it's coming fast, you know what I mean? So it's something

we've spent some time on, but it's like any industry, you know, I mean, you just want to make sure

that before you really jump in, you want to make sure that you're actually leveraging the right way.

So I think the fan base knows that this season is part of a rebuild, but why don't you give us

a couple of reasons that fans should really be excited. Some of the players that, you know,

Kate Cavalli is your, is somebody who was drafted, I think 22nd a couple years ago. And he's had

10 Major League starts. Give us some of the guys we really should be honing in on to be excited

about as we start the season. Yeah, Kate's a great one. Um, Kate's unique in that, uh, I think,

you know, before this whole new group hopped on board, uh, really excited about the talent.

Uh, he just hasn't pitched a ton because of, uh, because of the injuries. And so, um, now it's like,

okay, he's healthy, he's ready to roll, uh, but also he's made some adjustments to his mix, uh,

his pitch mix, which, uh, I think you guys will start to see, uh, today that, uh, that have us

optimistic. And, uh, and he's just like, you know, outside of, you know, all the, like, the qualities

of him as a pitcher, he's just, uh, he's one of my favorite guys that come across, uh, in the game,

just from a playing standpoint, like the, the leader that he is, the character that he has, all those

things. He's a great model for the rest of the team. What's a, what's a good expectation for a

young pitcher like him? Like, is it, like, what would you design? What would you determine?

It would be a success. Like, if you got, I'm just throwing a random number of 25 starts.

Would that be good enough? Would that be considered a success? Or you want more? Like, give me, give me

a threshold here. Yeah. Uh, honestly, we don't really put expectations on it. You know what I mean?

And, uh, yeah, for, for K, for K, uh, specifically, uh, we do want to take care of them. We do want

them to, uh, stay healthy throughout the year. And, uh, I know that's a goal of his, right? But,

the other piece of it is just the performance, right? Like, we, we want him going out there and, uh,

in Kane guys and, in limiting walks and limiting damage. Um, and, uh, and that's all

front of mind for him. And I think, uh, you know, a way that, uh, he's going to do that. And I know

Kate's crazy about this. He's just going to attack from the jump and, and, uh, really beyond the

offensive, uh, yeah, from the get go and going right at guys, racing at two strike counts,

and then hopefully put them away when he gets those two strike counts.

Join by Paul Taboni, president of baseball ops for the Nats. He's going to join us every Wednesday

at 9 a.m. throughout the Washington National season. Uh, so we have to touch on the Dylan Cruz

emotion. We were all pretty surprised when the news broke last week. The he was being sent down

to AAA Rochester to start the season. How did he handle that news? And what's the immediate

plan for him to improve and get back up to the big club here in DC?

Yeah, the, the private, uh, simplest way I can say it is I walked into that meeting with Blake

and Dylan and I with a, uh, you know, holding Dylan in really high regard. And I came out of the

meeting, uh, like, with holding him even in higher regard. Like he's just, uh, he handled it exactly

how you'd want someone to handle it. Like, obviously, yeah, disappointed. Like he, he wants to be in

the big leagues. But at the same time, uh, there was this underlying sense of, of confidence and focus,

and how he was going to attack, uh, what's coming in the, in the near future. Uh, there's no feeling

bad for himself. Like he's just, I mean, he's, he's cut out the way that, uh, that we want him cut out,

just, just mentally. Um, and then, you know, I, once again, we told Dylan this and I would tell it

to you guys as well. Uh, I think oftentimes when you're on the receiving end of that conversation,

it's like, uh, shoot, these guys aren't fans of me. And, uh, and it was actually the opposite.

And I know that sounds ironic, but, uh, what Blake and I hammered home to him is like, man, we're,

we're making this decision because of how much we love you. And this is a shot for you to just

clear your mind. Let's get you right. And, uh, then you'll be back here soon around later. Uh,

really ready to hit the ground running and not, uh, not, not searching for, uh, for parts of his game

that, uh, you know, he's, he's displayed in the past, but obviously spring training, uh, would,

would come and go, what, what's he struggling with specifically? I mean, obviously he's, I know,

I, we're old school. I just look at average. You know, average don't look very good. What,

what's he struggling with specifically? So when I've seen, uh, Dylan at his best, and this is

dating back to like my scouting days, uh, Washington, Motone, and when he was a high school player,

Washington, Motone at LSU, during his draft year at LSU, watching him at time, he is, uh,

he's putting together competitive at that after competitive at that. And really what that means for

me is, uh, case, right? So there's not a lot of, you know, he's not chasing heroes that, you know,

above his own or, or spin in the dirt. Uh, and then when he gets a pitch, a mistake, uh, in the

heart of the plate, he's tagging it and doesn't have to be a homer. Uh, doesn't even have to be a double,

right? But he's putting a barrel on it. And, uh, that to me is, is when he's at his best,

and it was a message that we delivered to Dylan, which is like, man, we're not asking you to be

someone that you're not. Really what we're just asking you is to, to, uh, to do what you've,

you've shown you can already do before and then bring it every day. And, uh, I think that's

comforting to hear as a player because once again, there's this underlying sense of confidence.

Like, oh, damn, I can do this. You know, I've done this before. Um, and then defensively and on the

base path, like he's such an awesome athlete. Uh, I think it's just, uh, making sure that that

athleticism, uh, manifests and really good, uh, production, either defensively or on the

base path. My understanding though is that is pretty good. You're not worried about that as

much right now, right? Or was that wrong? No, he'd Dylan's a, Dylan's a stud out there. And, uh,

especially in the outfield, like he, uh, you know, that, uh, I don't worry about that. Like he's just,

he's got great feel for the game. He's a great athlete. Uh, he's got a great head on the shoulders.

Like, uh, that's, uh, I think that's going to be a strength of this game for, uh, for years to come.

Talking to Paul Taboni, president, baseball operations for the nationals. He's going to join us

throughout the season Wednesdays at nine o'clock. Somebody tweeted a sticks renegade is, uh, the song

from Billy Madison. Oh, that's a good question. Um, you mentioned Blake, your manager Blake

Patera, 33 years old, first major league baseball managing gig. Uh, tell the fans that style of play

that we should expect to see. Uh, it's a lot of what I just hit on with, uh, with Cade, right? Like,

and really in all phases of the game, offensively from a pitching standpoint on the base pass, whatever

it might be, we want to be on the offensive. And, uh, we want to be aggressive. So if that means

getting strike one, um, if that means, uh, you know, not waiting around in our bat. And if you get

something, oh, whoa, over the middle of the plate, uh, being prepared to put a really good swing on

it. Um, we just, we want to play aggressive, but we want to play smart. We also don't want to,

you know, run its outs on the base pass. Uh, and, uh, and so it's that, it's that combination of,

I think being on the offensive, but also being intelligent and, uh, the decisions that we're making.

Uh, that's, uh, you know, I think that's hopefully what our, what our identity is going to be. And, um,

and we just want to be a pain in the butt, uh, to play every day. Like Blake mentioned it, uh,

yesterday in the hitters meeting, he said, Hey, I want people to feel, uh, what it's like when they

play the nationals. Uh, and if that means putting pressure on them, that means playing the game

the right way. Um, we, you know, we just want people win or lose, right? To walk away like,

man, that team is, uh, it's coming, you know, I mean, and hopefully coming soon around later.

Paul, can you walk us through some of the baseball tech upgrades that you've overseen with the

gnats since you've taken over as president of baseball ops and explain it in layman's terms,

because we're all mid 50s. We're not young like mid 30s, like, like you and your, your GM and your

manager. Yeah. Uh, well, I'll remind you guys that come from a, uh, scouting background. Like,

it, you know, obviously, I played in college, but then I scoured it. And so a lot of this is, uh,

of the past five, 10 years has been new for me as well. And, uh, really what I blow it down to is,

uh, you know, the industry has just gotten so good, uh, at, uh, developing players. Um,

there are a lot of tools now that can help you, uh, help players develop in ways that,

you know, we didn't have them in 1990s or, you know, really 2000s. And so, um, that could be

anything from like in, in bullpen's, right? Uh, we'll use, uh, like crackman systems to, instead of

saying like, man, that's a, that's a great breaking ball. Uh, you're able to say like, okay,

that breaking ball at 85 miles per hour, moving, you know, this many inches horizontally and this

many inches vertically, like, this is, uh, this is how that pitch actually plays in the big leagues,

right? And then the training, uh, every day can be, uh, dictated towards getting players,

uh, and their pitch mixes, for instance, uh, two basically the, the shapes that you want,

right? And, uh, in the same goes on the hitting side, like, I know a lot has been written about

traject, but, uh, man, instead of just, uh, today, like for the first time, uh, facing map

void, uh, you know, if we're at home, we can hop into, uh, that, that, that, that engage and

there's an executive machine in there and you can get 10 app ads off of map, map void before

you actually face them, right? So, uh, it's just, we're, we're, it's obviously such a, uh,

competitive landscape, right? We're just doing everything we can, uh, on the margins to help our,

our players better, uh, better prepare and better develop. So we knew Rizzo pretty well, uh,

had him on the show for years. He didn't bite us out and we'd take him up on it a couple times

a year maybe, maybe last, maybe once a year, we go and we sit in the suite with him and watch

the game with him and have, you know, all his, like, computers and all the stats guys there and,

yeah, have you guys, I assume, are you going to be watching kind of from that same vantage point

that Mike did and then are you, have you upgraded that room? Have you added a bunch of, uh,

like toys for you guys while the game's going on? Uh, well, I'll mix it up. I think, um,

I like actually, uh, watching the game from the stands, uh, on occasion, uh, but also, uh,

watch out there and to be honest, I think you'll, you'll walk into that room and say not,

not much has changed, you know what I mean? Like, um, yeah, there, there may be some subtle things

that we're tracking, but usually you have those on your, uh, on your computers anyway. So, um,

if you're looking for, uh, yeah, yeah, I was going to say, if you're looking for, uh,

some crazy piece of technology in there, uh, you're probably not going to see it.

Right, right, right. I guess the main thing you guys, what are the main things you're looking at

right away? Like exit velocity, that kind of thing? Uh, yeah, I mean, even, even simpler than that,

like, uh, being able to see like where, uh, where the pitch in the zone was that we either

belong at or, or we grew, yeah. Um, you know, a lot of this stuff is up on the scoreboard now too,

right? Like if you want to know the, like the, what we call it, the action on a pitch, right?

And the movement profile, uh, a lot of these stadiums now are showing that. And so, uh,

we don't need it right in front of us in the suite because you can just look at the, the jumbo trunks.

So, um, being then, you know, obviously we have what we call our advanced reports and, um, you know,

our, uh, basically our game plans and how we want to attack hitters or, um, you know, attack

pitchers and, uh, just think throughout the course of the game, you're, you're thinking to yourself,

like, man, are we being disciplined to this plan? Are we actually executing it? Are we not, uh,

those type of questions? So are you going to be boots on the ground in Chicago for the opener?

Or are you watching it here? Yeah, no, I'm, uh, as we speak, I'm, I'm walking on the warning

track. It wriggly right now. You can probably hear the moors behind me. Uh, pretty cool, man. Yeah,

pretty cool. Yeah, uh, great stadium. Obviously, it'll be, uh, it'll be a fun day. Excellent.

Excellent. Excellent. Thank you so much, buddy. Every Wednesday, throughout the

night season, and best of luck in your maiden. They give your song. They give your walkup.

Yep. We know that you're giving the players homework. This is your homework.

All right. Sounds good. I'll make sure I'm prepared next time. All right. Great. Thank you,

pal. That's Paul to Bony, president of baseball, uh, that's for the Washington national.

New buddy is out in Chicago for the opening. He's going to join us every Wednesday at 9 a.m.

throughout the national season. When we come back, we're going to give you a chance to win

tickets to see the wizards. Also a pair of tickets up for grabs for three 11 at Mary, whether

post the volume will give you a chance to win those next. Take me out to the ballgame.

Today's opening day. Uh, does it feel like it in our city? I know there's not a home game.

The nationals are opening it wriggling against the cubs today. 221st pitch.

Cade Cavali will be the day one starter. It doesn't feel like opening day in our city.

Good morning, everybody. Sweet 16 games tonight. A smeltest later on in the show Ben Fox,

who is Yahoo's sports betting analyst. We've had a bet on the show before. He'll join us at 11 a.m.

Grant Paulson will jump on with us at 11 35 to preview the Nats season. One in which

the odds makers say will be the second worst in baseball. They're over under on win total.

64 and a half as an average number. Only Colorado is worse. And they're much worse at 56 and a half

for 57 and a half. The Rockies for a second consecutive year predicted to be just horrendous.

But the Nats are right there. Um, and there's separation between them as the projected second worst

team in the league and the teams that would be third, fourth and fifth worst teams in the league.

They're, they're terrible, uh, entering this season. New general manager, new on field skipper.

Um, will be interesting to watch to see whether or not this team can make some strides towards

perhaps a contending team not next year, but maybe two three years down the road. But I want to talk

about just, you know, opening day in this town. I, I think most of you don't know this about me.

Maybe you recognize it when we're into playoffs and October baseball, but I really love baseball.

I've always loved baseball. Um, now not growing up with baseball, not having a team here

for 34 years, which, you know, a lot of you experienced. I mean, I'm just barely old enough to

remember the senators. I remember my father taking me to a 1971 game, uh, when Denny McLean made his

debut as the senator's pitcher. The reason I remember that is not because of Denny McLean. I just

remember that when we came out after the game, the car had been stolen. True story. The car had

been stolen, uh, and that was a traumatic event for a young child. Um, but, uh, that was,

that was RFK in the early to mid 70s. Um, but anyway, after they left, I didn't as many of my friends

did. I didn't adopt the Orioles as my team. Uh, I just didn't. I don't know why. I think I just

always had this sense that I wanted to wait until we had a team back in Washington. I'm glad I had

a sense at a young age that there was a big difference between Washington and Baltimore. They're two

totally separate cities personality wise and many others wise. Um, and, you know, during the 70s,

during the 80s, there were always pushes to, to bring baseball back. I mean, you know, RFK

stadium on Sundays during football season, big banners, you know, baseball in 1978, baseball in

1984 back in Washington. You know, there was that moment in which it looked like the San Diego

Padres might move to Washington. Uh, but it didn't happen. I mean, 34 years without baseball,

I will tell you that I had a little big Tony in me as a kid. Um, and what I mean by that is big

Tony's favorite teams are the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Montreal Canadians, the San Antonio Spurs,

Duke, you know, he's just always on front runners. And in the mid 70s, the Oakland A's were my favorite

team. Vita Blue was my favorite player. Catfish Hunter, Ken Holtzman, Reggie Jackson. Uh, that's,

you know, Sal Campanaris, Bert Campanaris, Sal Bando, Mike North. Those teams, I love those teams

in part because I was a kid and I love the different uniforms. Like the Oakland A's were like the first,

I bet this is true. Although they were probably doing it in the ABA and maybe even in the AFL in

the 60s. But I think the Oakland athletics or the Oakland days of the 1970s, the great teams that

they had, the multiple world series titles that they, uh, that they won. I think they were the first

team to have more than just a home and in a way Jersey. They had white, they had yellow, they had

green, they had three different jerseys. I might, I might even be missing one. I mean, it took a while,

Max, just so you know, for, you know, multiple jerseys, alternate jerseys. It was the same for every

team, you know, white at home, gray on the road, dark on the road. Uh, and, you know, as a quick

aside, last night, I was just kind of flipping around channels and I happened to have landed, uh,

briefly on the NBA network where the warriors were playing a home game against the nets.

Just pull up a highlight from last night's warriors nets game and tell me if it looks anything

like a golden state home game. The floor is completely different. The uniforms are completely

different. I actually, I know this is old man get off your lawn kind of a stuff, kind of stuff,

but I hate that there's at least no consistency with what the floors look like. Like I, if I turn

on a game, I want to immediately identify, oh, that game's in Detroit, that game's in Philly,

that game's in Washington, but everything changes. It seems like every night. I mean, it's hard to

decipher quickly where the games being played, although you have it, you know, with a scoreboard,

you know, on the set, the team typically on the bottom is the home team. Um, where the team mentioned

second, if it's horizontal is the home team. But anyway, back to baseball in the 70s, not necessarily,

but I loved baseball and I still think October baseball is as good as it gets in sports. The tension

of playoff baseball, I absolutely love it. When the gnats moved here, I was beside myself.

I remember those first few years listening to, you know, Charlie in particular, you know, Dave eventually,

but listening to the games on radio that were not televised for those first few years,

home games all the time. I mean, I was into it, you know, that one particular season,

when through the half waymark, they were 51 and 41 at the 80, at the 81, 51 and 40. I think it was,

that was actually exciting that they were, you know, much better than anticipated their first year.

And look, from 12 through 19, 2012 through 2019, that was exciting. I mean, to have playoff

baseball in Washington, I remember doing the show with Tommy, you know, from the stadium before

game one against the Cardinals in 2012, kind of chilly, you know, in October and gray and cloudy,

and it just felt like playoff baseball. And I'm like, wow, this is a big deal. Like this is what

we've been watching some of us in October with other teams, you know, over a long period of time.

And now we get this, you know, to ourselves. And of course, there were scars built up rooting for

this team during 2012 and before 2019, you know, the painful playoff losses. I mean, the game five

loss to St. Louis that first year in 2012 with the big lead so painful, then the same thing happens

against the Cubs and the Dodgers, you know, at home, before finally making that world series run,

which started with that incredible wild card wins. So does a thinning hit. You know, it was,

it was phenomenal. It was great. And it was like, wow, we're not turning into a baseball town,

because I don't think that's ever going to happen as long as the football teams here. And it's

the number one story. And I would also suggest, I doubt it's ever going to happen as long as the

current ownership is in play. It's just not an ownership that is top notch in terms of winning

being the most important thing, making money or losing as little money is much more important

than the former. But some of those years, I felt like opening day was exciting. But man, we are now,

you know, in this, this is going to be the seventh year. Now, 20, you know, 2020, it was terrible

luck would happen to our baseball team. You win a world series and there is an amount of incremental

revenue jump, goodwill, new fans that jump on for a first time champion. This is something I

remember during 2020. I found this article that was written about the first time your city's sports

team wins a title and what it means to the franchise. It's like this massive increase in revenue

because of sponsorships, because of tickets sold, because of everything that comes with being

the defending champions. And they didn't get a chance because of COVID to have a normal sort of,

you know, bounce that the world series in October of 2019 would have provided. So there was some

bad luck not to mention that our owners are in commercial real estate and commercial real estate

ended up taking a massive hit because of the pandemic. So it was the worst possible situation following

the game seven win in Houston. You know, what would happen over the next couple of months? So

bad luck for sure. But I mean, this team, you know, since that world series, you know, take the 60 game,

you know, 26 and 34 losing season during the pandemic pandemic out of it, 65 wins, 55 wins, 71 wins,

71 wins, 66 wins. And this year projected to be fewer than 66 wins. I've seen a lot of

predictions of 100 plus losses, you know, they lost 107 in 2022. And the bounce that they hope to get

actually is completely deflated in my opinion. I don't feel it. I think it's snuck up on us. And

then by, by the way, how the hell do you watch these games? I mean, there's no more massing.

They're part of the MLB TV, you know, conglomerate now. You know, if you don't, if you only have

YouTube TV, I believe you've got to stream these games at 1999 a month. I'll tell you what,

for this team right now, couldn't be a worse time to not be available easily in terms of the

games being televised. I know that I think Xfinity Comcast has a channel that those games will be on

same with a couple of other spots. But worse possible timing, not to have, you know, it bundled into

a cable package or available over the air. I mean, 1999 a month for this team. I can't imagine

it's going gangbusters. Does it feel like opening day to you? 3012, 300, 980, 3012, 300, 980?

This in many cities is a huge day, huge in Baltimore, in Boston, in New York, in it, you know,

in Philly, in Chicago for two teams in Detroit, in Houston now, in Seattle, in LA for sure,

San Francisco. These are tried and true traditional days on the sports calendar. I don't think it's

become that for us. I think it had a chance to, and I think it felt like that for a while. It may

speak to just the nature of what I think we've become as a sports town, which is after the football

team, it's bandwagon. It's, you got to be good to really draw a mass audience. And then it's

fleeting, you know, it's, it's jump on board for the biggest games at the end of the year as you're

going into the postseason or into the tournament or whatever it is. I mean, even, you know, some of

the, look, I think the caps fan base, obviously from a volume standpoint, it's far from the largest,

from a passionate, dedicated, loyal standpoint, it's probably number two in this town behind

our football team. Now again, the numbers won't support it being number two in overall volume

of fans. But in terms of how loyal they are, dedicated and non bandwagon-y they are,

they're probably second to the football team. Everything else got to win, got to win big to

really draw a big crowd. And the gnats are so far from it. The wizards are so far from it,

we think. Hopefully not. Maybe next year. Does it feel like opening day in Washington, DC? I

understand it's not a home game, but it's still opening day, the first of 162 games.

This is a big, effing deal in a lot of places. We don't have our home opener until Friday,

April 3rd at home against the defending champion LA Dodgers. By the way, I think I mentioned this

the other day when we had Mark Zuckerman on the show to kind of preview the season and talk about

the World Baseball Classic. And that is, it's a brutal start schedule last season. They open up

against the NL Central favorites, then the Cubs, then they're on the road, then they're on the road

against the NL East favorites in Philadelphia, and then they're home against the NL West favorites

and the defending champion Dodgers. Say hello to your first nine games. I'm looking forward to

watching Cabe Cavalli pitch today. I'm looking forward to following James Woods young emerging,

hopefully superstar kind of a career. I'm concerned about Dylan Cruz. He's down in AAA.

I think there's a reason to be concerned. Maybe it's too early. Does it feel like opening day

to you 3 0 1 2 3 0 0 9 80. And if it doesn't, why not? We earned for baseball for so long. And now it's

been back here for 20 years. And it just seems like very much underwhelming. It does to me anyway.

You can call us right now at 800 636 1067. Get in line to play Nats by the numbers. Just ask you some

relatively simple Nats questions. And if you answer correctly, you'll win either Wizards tickets.

See them and take on Philadelphia or a pair of tickets to go see 3 11 and dirty heads when they come

to Mary weather post pavilion, July 22nd, 800 636 1067. We'll get you lined up and quiz you on

your Nats numbers knowledge. It's a little bit of a tongue twister there. You know when Max Scherzer

was here and he was dominating and helped them win a World Series and all that stuff. There was

discussion of well, is he going to retire? And he goes to the Hall of Fame. Is he going to have a

Tigers lid on or Nationals lid on? Right? And he's with the Diamondbacks to start. But you've

only been on three teams. Do you know since then since he's moved on from the Nationals? How many

have been with hold on? Let me see if I can figure it out. He's been with I know he was with the

Mets. Yes. He was with the Rangers for a bit. Yes. He's with the Blue Jays now. He got him all Dodgers

and Blue Jays. Yes. He's been on the Odyssey. Yeah, you're going to have to drag him out. He's been

on the Marigold route. He's going to pitch it till he's 50. Yeah. He's 41. Yeah. I just

right. I think you're going to have to drag him kicking as long as people are willing to pay him

and he can still perform. I mean, pitch as long as you can. Yeah. Play as long as you can. I always

think that. Yeah. Stay in the mix. It kicks. Can I ask you just a dumb question? Yeah, please.

Well, feel free. You're a fellow Android guy. Are you a Samsung guy? I am a Samsung guy.

Yes. Correct. There was some sort of a weird update or whatever. I got a picture of my kids

on the front of my phone. And now I've got like two, it's spread across two panels. I don't want

that anymore. I just want the picture centered. Yeah, I can't help you. I don't know how to do that.

It's so annoying that you go to your photo library and then set your background. Maybe by

setting the, I have to reset it. That's something you're going to have to figure out. I would just

go back. Right. But I would go back to my one daughter. I'd go back to the original photo. I

mean, set it up that way. I'll try again. I'll reset it. But I don't have Android. Yeah. I don't

know why it's doing that. It's setting it over. It's centering it over two panels. I want it to

center over just the front page. I really can't. I'm getting angry. I understand you're getting

angry. Let's go to the callers to see if they can answer these pretty simple gnats by the numbers

questions. All right. Let's go to fantastic prizes. Go to Simion. Simion. What's up? You're all

the juggies. Morning, guys. How are you? Hello, Simion. How are you? Within three, either way, I need

the number of gnats wins in 2025. Day one. Sixty. Six games. Oh, you nailed it. How

long? Sixty six. Well done on the number. You win two tickets. See the wizards Wednesday, April,

1st. They take on Philly. Take the joy of G Wiz with you wherever you go on mascot day,

presented by empowering education. The first 10,000 fans at the game get a G Wiz fuzzy friend,

courtesy of capital once. So enjoy the game. All right. We have one more prize up for grabs.

Who is next? All right. Let's go to Hugh. Hey, Hugh. What's up, buddy? Hey, what's up, guys?

Hello, Hugh. According to fan graphs, within $10 million, either way, give me the gnats,

2026 projected payroll. You got 10 million to wiggle room either way.

90 million. That's way over. No, he wins. Really? He wins. It's between 87 and 107 million. 97 million

is the projected payroll now. Spoiler alert. I think 30 plus million of that goes to Steven

Schrosberg. He comes on the books after this season. You win a pair of tickets to 311 and dirty

heads. So glad you made it tour Wednesday, July 22nd at Maryweather Post's Pavilion tickets are

on sale this Friday, March 27th at 10 a.m. For tickets and more event info, visit thefandc.com

slash events. I am excited to see Kate Cavali because of some of you who has had a lot of

promise. Oh, yeah. And I was looking in Rochester last season. His ERA wasn't great, but his

last four or five starts, he was really, really good. So you heard taboni talk about how maybe he's

changed. I forget the exact phrase, he said, but the way that he's going about pitching.

Well, attacking and once you get ahead, you know, get some old two counts and punch him out.

So I think he's somebody I'm excited to see. Can I give you some numbers? I was thinking

out for these guys along the same line. Tell me if you agree. So for Kate Cavali asked taboni,

he didn't really want to answer. But I say, he needs 25 starts for a minimum, I'd say for it to

be considered a reasonably successful kind of year. That's fair. I would say I'm going old school.

I would go sub 4.2 ERA. I'm not going to go crazy. All right. I like. He's got a Rochester

starts. Yeah. Right. With the amount of starts. Okay. That's very healthy. But it can't be 25

starts in his ERA's five five. All right. Give me that one. By the way, the average ERA for starting

pitchers in 2025 is 4.21. Right. He said ace. Right. Yeah, but I'm just giving you the average.

For I mean, I really want to say sub 3.5 bond. That's crazy. That's it's not crazy. If you're

one of the better pitchers, he's not Paul schemes. I ain't who he is. All right. How about this?

Brady House, who I actually like, I don't know, like Savannah, she doesn't really, she's not

real big on Brady House and people are disappointed. If he can hit 18 homers, it would be dramatic

improvement last year. I mean, you're starting third base. We can't hit four bombs. That's

what he hit last year. If you could hit 18 homers, you get a huge spring. Did you see what he did

in the spring? Yeah. Yeah. What do you need from? I don't know if you have this in projections.

I think that's fair. Might be too much. I might Luis Garcia. Luis Garcia has been moved to first base.

Yeah. To me, traditionally, first baseman, her power guys, right? Yeah.

He hit 30, 40 homeruns if you're a first base. That could do that. I mean, last year he hit 16,

the year before that, he hit 18. And every other year, it was a single digits.

I mean, this is why the projections are low in terms of total numbers.

If he can hit 25, that would be massive. That's a big jump. Yeah. 18 to 25.

Yeah, it is. You know, it also has a big jump from four to over 20. Like I think Brady House might get.

It'd be tough. He had four in 261 at bats. The guy to really watch in Savannah mentioned his

Dale and Lyle. He was the player of the month in the National League in September. In limited play,

he hit nine homeruns. And I believe he hit just under 300 and was fifth in rookie of the year.

Right. He's a former second round pick. But Dale and Lyle might explode this year.

All right. What about for only 22? Maybe 23. What about for James Wood? So James Wood is by far our

biggest sort of star. 40 plus homeruns. And last year, he had 31 bombs in 94 RBI. I was

pretty impressive for a mediocre team. Still only hit 256. I want 40. So if he hits 40 bombs

regardless, if he hits 240, 250, but 40 bombs, you're happy. I don't care. He could. Right.

Do you care about call swarvers batting average anymore of the amount of times he strikes out?

No. I feel like he's an exception at a ridiculous clip. I feel like Wood should be better than that.

Probably. What you know, do you know what? Do you often you struck out last year? I think you

struck out close to 200, right? 221 time. Oh, it was over 200. 221 time. Every third time he went up

to bat more than that. Every 2.8 times he went up to bat. He struck out.

Don't care about strikeouts anymore. I do not care. You're a Tony Glyndt would go a whole year and

maybe strike out 20 times. I know. 20. I mean, he's five, one of the greatest hitters of

maybe the greatest hitter of all time. No, but they used to kill even power guys. If you had a

one of my guys, Eddie Murray, if you struck out more than 100 times, it was like, that's kind of

nubby. Yeah. That's wild. I don't care about that anymore if you can hit it over the fence. I

kind of think if there's anybody else who I just want to put like numbers on, like what I would

how about K-Bare Ruiz? David even been super happy with his defense, right? K-Bare struggled last

year. He only got in 16 games, two bombs, 25. You know, I mean, the nationals are in a similar

spot as the Wizards where it's not going to be about wins and losses. It's about development.

So whenever we have Will Dawkins, the Wizards GM, he says he cares about the wins and losses,

but he really just hopes that, you know, the guys are improving, that will Riley, that

Bob Carrington, that all the young guys are improving. So I think the guys you really need to look at,

the focus on that are part of the long term picture for the watching nationals.

It's Cade Cavalli here. You're going to see on the mound at 220 today. It's, it's, you know,

as the guys you mentioned, Brady House, Dale and Lyle, James Wood. I guess K-Bare Ruiz.

He's still in 27. I know. It just hasn't really lived up to it. He needs a significant

contract. They did, but he needs to have a big year. He needs to have it like a healthy year

at a minimum. And then you need Dylan Cruz to get right. You need Hassel to come up and be legit.

Yeah, he's got, he's got, he's, I think he has potential. Here are the numbers that are really

working against the bats. 366 million. That's what the match are spending on their payroll.

The fill is just spending 284 million on their payroll and the brave are spending $250 million

on their payrolls. So even with all the development that we're talking about and steps that these

guys are going to take, it's going to be tough to compete with those teams. They're spending

$250 million plus dollars. It's a big ask. Nationals coverage, by the way, brought to you by

Main Street Bank, cheer local, bank local. Main Street Bank is a business focus community bank,

proudly serving the DMV since 2004. Visit mstbank.com to learn how to put

their team in your office. Main Street Bank member FDIC, Equal Housing Opportunity Lender,

220. Yep. That's the first pitch. By the way, the Nats coverage begins at 150 right here on the

fan. You can join B-Mitch and Finley at spanky shenanigans in Leesburg starting at 10 a.m.

They're broadcasting live. Then you can watch the game along with Grant and Danny at spank shenanigans

and then they will broadcast live once the game is done. It's a big day here on 1067. The fan,

when we come back, we'll be joined by branded to him from the Washington capitals.

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