Mark Zuckerman breaks down the Nationals 3-1 start to the season & Joey Wiemer's hot start

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And now the runner first goes, pitch outside, runner stops, runner from third breaks to the

play.

He will score.

Beboss still on the run down.

They throw it back to Harper chasing him, and Harper tags him on the back.

The inning is over, but the nationals execute the play to score the run, and Beboss ends

up being out two, four, three, to retire the side.

The nationals get two rungs in the inning.

In that speed, the Phillies last night, 13 to two.

Let me just mention that, yes, there are 158 games left in the year.

They've only played four.

They're three and one.

But currently, they're second in the national league and batting average, second and actually

tied for first and total home runs, second in RBI's and first in hits.

They've unloaded on people here in three of the first four games.

13 to two was the final last night, with Joey Weemer tying the major league record

for reaching base on his first 10 played appearances of the season.

Joining us to help us with what the hell is going on here in a four game sample size.

I understand very small is Mark Zuckerman, who covers the Nats for himself now, a sub-stack

totally worth it.

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Obviously, it's just four games.

We know that.

But tell me what's happened in these four to where they look like they're a capable offensive

baseball team.

Yeah, and they're doing it against two of what in theory should be two of the top teams

in the national league, the Cubs and the Phillies, which maybe adds a little bit extra to

this.

They're doing this to the Marlins and the Rockies or anything like that.

They're just getting contributions from everybody.

I think that's maybe the most notable thing about what's happened so far is it's not about

the star players.

James Woods had a bad start to the season.

CJ Abrams hasn't done a whole lot.

But they're getting it from up and down the line up and their bench.

It's a different line up every day that they're trying out.

There's a lot of match-up-based decisions being made.

When you look at their batting order when it comes out each afternoon, you're saying

yourself, wait, this guy's batting where?

He's hitting ahead of who, but there's a lot of strategy behind it.

They're trying to find the best match-ups, they're trying to use everybody they have on

their roster.

Last night, what stood out was they were just making contact.

There was not a lot of loud contact, but they were racking up hits just like putting the

bat on the ball and either hitting it where they ain't used the old phrase or actually hitting

it towards Phillies defenders who could not make the plays and they just took full advantage

of it.

It's really been something to watch.

Yes, it's four games.

Who knows what this is actually a sign of or not, but so far it's been a lot of fun

to watch.

Yeah, they had 17 hits last night.

I think 14 of them were singles.

That's pretty amazing.

Look, the story here of the first four games of the entire season for everybody is Joey

Weemer, who tied Carlos Delgado with 10 straight played appearances to start the season reaching

base on all 10 of them before he grounded out, I think, in the fifth inning.

This is not a name I was very familiar with before the other day and I have a feeling

a lot of people feel the same way I do.

So tell us about Joey Weemer.

Yeah, not a name, even a lot of us for most of the spring weren't even expecting to

make the team to be honest.

He came up with the Brewers a few years ago and actually was kind of highly touted and

had a decent rookie year.

He's kind of an all or nothing guy.

He can hit for power but strikes out a lot.

Plays a really good defense, runs the bases really well, but he's bounced around now

and over the last I think it's seven months he's been designated for assigning three different

times.

So the gnats pick him up over the winner on a waiver claim and he comes to spring training

and the thought is, well, maybe at best he's their fifth outfielder but he's probably

not even going to make the team.

And then what happened is when they sent Dylan Cruz down and then Robert Hassel as well

and they were short on outfielder and he got off a bad start to spring but he was okay

as it went on and they said, you know, we'd need another right handed bat especially in

the outfield.

The guy can play all three positions, we'll put him on the team.

Opening day they were facing a lefty so that made sense to start him as a right handed

hit against the lefty and he ends up homering and reaching base four times.

He sits game two because it wasn't the right matchup.

He's back in there for game three against the lefty, does it again, reaching base four

times in homers and so last night I think Blake Gutera probably didn't think it made sense

to play him against the righty but he figured I can't sit him now given what he's done

so he hit him nine.

He ended up getting on base two more times to tie the record.

It's a remarkable thing.

I think it's going to all ask no I don't but he is a guy who does have some talent and

if he can put it all together could bring some value to the team.

I don't think he's going to be an everyday outfielder for them but I mean what a start

to the season for him.

I can't imagine that anybody batting a thousand with an on base percentage of a thousand

has ever hit ninth before in any lineup at any time.

So that may have been a first but that may be harder for Elias to track down.

Tell me about the starting pitching in the first four games.

It's been solid.

It may be not spectacular but they've done what they've needed out of them.

Last night Foster Griffin and here's probably another name a lot of people who haven't been

paying attention don't know about.

He pitched briefly in the major league a few years ago with the Royals and the Blue

Jays.

He ended up going to Japan and was really good there for three years.

One of the best pitchers in Japan reinvented himself.

And that's all that and we've seen more of this across baseball in recent years.

Guys can resurrect their careers over there.

They get a chance to come back.

They gave him five million dollars.

And he makes what was technically his first major league start last night at age 30.

And he looked really good against obviously a very good Philly's lineup.

He throws seven different pitches.

He used them all over the course of the game.

He had to face Schwarber Turner and Harper three times and he got Bryce out.

He threw everything he had at Bryce and finally decided one more cutter on a three-two

pitch in the fifth inning last night.

Got him to ground out.

He's a real thinking man's pitcher.

Everybody has just been fascinated to see does the success he had in Japan translate back

here in the major leagues or does it not at least based on our first evidence the first

game.

It definitely did.

We'll see as teams start to get more of a book on him.

How that goes.

But that's another kind of one of those under the radar moves they made this winter.

Not a big name guy, but they think there's some potential there that what they saw in Japan

could actually translate in some success here.

Talking to Mark Zuckerman.

Again, I mean, it's just a nice way to start the season so that at least at the beginning

of a season people are like, whoa, I mean, they just beat the Philly's 13 to two.

They took two or three from the Cubs.

If they were to take one of these next two and open up the season with two series wins,

look, I'm assuming that they're going to draw well for their first home series of the

year, not only because it's the first home series of the year, but they're facing the

world champion LA Dodgers, you know, Friday, Saturday and Sunday this weekend.

But things have gone so well through the first four.

What's bothered you?

What's shown up in the first four that may have been a concern before the season and

is a concern now?

You mentioned James would me had a decent night last night.

But I think he opened up the season, something like 0 for 8 to start or something like that.

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Yeah, and a lot of strike out to it was very similar to what we saw the second half last

year when he really cratered after an all star first half.

He's taking a lot of pitches in the zone and swinging at a lot of pitches out of the zone

and that's something he's going to have to correct, obviously.

He was better last night.

He drew a walk, maybe a couple walks, you know, a little bit better.

He also was up.

I think at one point where the bass is loaded and just watched a fastball right down the

heart of the plate for strike three.

So he's still figuring things out.

Collectively, they're still not playing great defense.

There was some ugliness in Chicago over the weekend.

There was another botched play last night.

The bass running, the clip you played before we came on, it was a great example of the

kind of thing they didn't do well in the past where the old first and third double steel

where you get them to throw down.

The guy gets in a run down on the trailing runner scores.

They pulled that off really well.

But overall, the bass running has also been sloppy to run into some outs.

So there's plenty of room for improvement here.

But on the flip side, you can say if you're not playing clean baseball and your best player

isn't hitting yet.

You've gone three and one and scored a lot of runs.

Maybe that's a good sign of things because you would hope the other stuff works itself

out.

And if you start playing a little better baseball and get James Wooden, C.J. Abrams and

some of the other big names to start producing, well, maybe they do have something going on

here.

By the way, just any update on Dylan Cruz?

Yeah, he started at AAA.

I haven't watched or paid attention to everything about that, but I think he had a good opening

night since then a little less.

They're going to give him time.

I mean, this is not going to be a case of, oh, he's hitting 300 after a week or two.

We're going to call him up.

They need to see him have some real success down there.

Not just in the numbers, but just in the way he looks, the approach, everything else.

And then if there comes a point that they, okay, he's clearly shown he can excel at that

level, then you bring him back up here.

I think we tend to forget.

He never really dominated the minor league.

They brought him up, sorted because everybody thought, well, that's what you're supposed

to do with the number two overall pick.

It was, you know, a month after James Wood debuted, but he needs to start having some success

again somewhere.

And I think they're willing to be patient with that and not force that issue.

I mean, they're off to a three and one start, yes, but it's been clear that their approach

to this season is not about short-term success, it's about building something for the long run.

And so they want Dylan Cruz to be a part of that, but they're not going to bring him up

here to do that until he's already shown that he can do it at AAA.

Tell me, for those that don't know, the automated ball strike system, maybe yes, was introduced

for this season.

I've not asked you about this when you were on, prior to the season, beginning a few

weeks ago.

What is your opinion on it and what's been the reception to it so far across Major League

Baseball?

I think the reception has been fantastic.

It's kind of similar to the pitch clock a few years ago where there were skeptics and

ones they saw it in practice and said, oh, you know what, this is actually really good

for the sport.

I was in that same boat.

I didn't necessarily like the idea of the robot up, or if you want to call it originally,

but I got to see it a little bit in spring training last year and certainly got to see

it this year.

And what struck me with the two things about it, number one, it's quick.

It pops up on the scoreboard immediately.

The whole thing takes 10 to 15 seconds, so it's not slowing down the game the way I thought

it might.

And number two, because it's a challenge system and you're only allowed two of them per

game.

If you get it right, you can do it again, but if you get it wrong, that's it.

You're out of them.

So you really have to pick your spots.

You can't just call every single time you think the ump got it wrong.

You have to pick your spots when to do it.

So I think it's been really well received.

It's correcting the egregious mistakes, which is I think whatever one wanted.

There have been some big moments in games where it has come up.

There was a game since that either day where Eugenio Svara did it on the pitch.

From back to back pitch, I think the bases were loaded.

He was right both times.

The crowd was going bananas for it.

They loved it.

There's some drama to it all.

I think it's a great addition to the game.

I think they should leave it as it is.

Don't add more of it.

But it works quick.

It corrects the biggest mistakes.

And I think in the long run, it's going to help expose the worst of the worst umpires.

The guys who people in the sport have known for a long time are not good at this.

But if there's now tangible evidence of how wrong some of these guys are, hopefully

Major League Baseball can now use that to make some decisions down the road and not keep

retaining these guys for decades who are clearly not good enough or up to the job compared

to the rest of their colleagues.

I've just seen it a couple of times.

And to me, it's very analogous to Tennis where there's actually fan anticipation to

see what it's going to produce once it's challenged.

Just help me with this.

You get two of these challenges a game, but if you get one, do you just get a third if

you get both of them right or do you do you have two until you get until you get one

wrong?

Yeah.

You're allowed to get too wrong, I guess, per game and then you're done.

So as long as you get it right, you can keep going and you know, we've seen a few cases

where teams have done it.

But I think on average, in the minors last year, and I think in spring training, on average

about four challenges total per game, and the overturn rate is right around 50-50.

I think so far it's been better than 50 percent.

Catchers are the best at it.

Batters are a little worse than catchers.

Pitchers are terrible at it, so that most teams have told their pitchers don't do it.

It's mostly just been catchers and hitters calling for us.

So I want to make sure I understand this.

A hitter can call for it or the manager, the hitter has to tell the manager to challenge

it.

They're not only the hitter or the catcher or the pitcher, they're the only ones

allowed to do it.

So they can't get any help from the dugout and it has to be immediate.

You can't wait that somebody might say, oh, hey, that was a ball or that was a strike.

You have to see it in the moment and call for it right away.

So again, that's why what you're seeing called, you know, are the really egregious one.

They may not be the borderline calls because you're not 100 percent sure in that moment

that it was a mistake.

And the pitchers are the worst at it, interesting.

Well, I mean, they've got the most invested in it, other than that.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Exactly.

It's a emotional decision for them.

And, you know, their angle there for their 60 feet away from it, whereas the batter and

the catcher are right there on top of the plate.

Thanks, Mark.

Appreciate it.

All right.

You got a Kevin.

Mark Zuckerman, everybody at Mark Zuckerman on X and from there, you can link to his

sub-stack where he does a great job covering the Nats.

He's also got a podcast with our good friend, Al Galdi, called Nats Chat.

You can find that wherever you get your podcasts.

All right.

When we get back, we haven't played some of the Dan Quinn sound from out in Arizona.

We'll do that.

And we have found out more about the Tiger Woods arrest from last week.

We'll get into some of that as well.

Kevin, she and show the team 980 and the team 980.com.

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