PATIENCE: Washington Nationals' Offense STRUGGLES But Fans Should Trust The Process

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Get used to it Net Spans, there are going to be a lot of early on struggles and most

importantly, there's going to be a lot of losses.

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Nationals.

And later on in today's show, talk a little bit about Team USA and maybe where I was wrong

about a national who could have been on Team USA this year.

So we'll have that discussion later on in the program today.

In the second segment, the Nationals have made their latest roster moves and a very

familiar face.

Mitchell Parker has been optioned down to AAA alongside Andrew Alvarez, but I want to

tell you, do not count them out just yet.

So stay tuned for that discussion starting in the second segment.

We start off discussing really a lot of struggles with individual performances on the Washington

Nationals.

Also as a team right now, while the Nationals actually have a winning record, this offense

has been pretty disgusting so far, but also I got to tell you guys, don't worry about

it.

It's really not that big of a deal at least as of right now.

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If you look at the team stats for the Nationals at this point, it's nasty looking.

If you look at some of the individual performances for the Washington Nationals, it's also pretty

disgusting.

I think right now, like this offense is in a really bad spot, but also I'm not here

willing to panic at this point.

I have always said that I think in 2026 that this Nationals offense will surprise people,

but also I've always kind of thought in the back of my mind that it's going to take

a while for this offense to click in here's why you've got this new regime in town with

Paul Tbony on a Columbia, you've got a new 31 year old manager with Blake, but Tara,

all those things considered what do they do and what was it, how are they different

from the last regime with Davey and Mike Rizzo?

This is a regime that actually prioritizes analytics and they use the data and the different

things that they do to try to make players better.

I think throughout this off season, they have met with players individually.

They have tried to fix people's approach and their swings and really kind of get them

to hone in on the analytics.

One very telling thing was when Cole Henry was on 1067, the fan just a few weeks ago,

he went in and how the Nationals actually have their own way of getting true media to their

players now and they each have their individual accounts and that is something that they did

not have with Mike Rizzo and Davey Martinez and kind of the basis of the story is whoever

gave him that access which you'd assume starts at the top with Paul Tbony, they told the

players get acclimated with this site, play around with it and figure out what these

different things mean.

And so there is a learning curve when it comes to this stuff.

I'm not telling you that on a Colombian, Paul Tbony are there by themselves working

on players' swings behind the scenes, that's not what they are doing.

But I also think comes a new regime, also comes a new fresh approach.

This is, there is going to be a learning curve.

That's kind of the basis of this story.

And also quite frankly, it's just too early to panic.

I understand when you look at the stats as a team right now, like listen, they're bad.

Like I get it.

As a team, as far as all 30 MLB clubs go, the Nationals have the 29th worst OPS, they

601 team OPS.

And then you get into the slugging department which I care so much about.

The Nationals have the 28th highest slug, a major league baseball, which is a three on

the seasons spring training.

And then you work your way over to on base percentage.

This same team that has dead loss in on base, the 293 team OBP.

And then you get into batting average as well.

And it's not that pretty.

You have them as 29th in baseball.

The struggles very real.

We can all look at that and say, yeah, those are really bad numbers.

But also, I'm not here to tell you that you should be panicking this early on in spring

training.

And I get it like opening days next week, I guess it's really not that early on in spring.

But I also think that it's a little premature to go out there and have a full set on panic

attack.

It's too early in the season at this point.

And there is going to be an adjustment period that you're going to have to give these

players.

These are guys that in my mind, they're kind of getting a little overworked with information

a little bit.

And I do think that over time, people will adjust and you will have your cream and a crop

always rise in my opinion.

James Wood, he will be just fine.

Dale and Lyle, I think he'll be just fine.

Brady House individually has had a tremendous spring training so far.

Dylan Cruz has struggled.

You can go through those individual performances.

And if you really want to talk about being concerned about anything, you can maybe convince

me to be worried about Dylan Cruz.

Maybe you can convince me that CJ Abrams might not be off the best start in spring training.

We could talk about James Wood having a 367 OPS at this point and really just not seeing

the power there that we saw early on last spring training.

We can have those conversations, but quite frankly, it's not worth it in spring.

Because if you look at it, I hate to break it to you.

You start the season against the Chicago Cubs who probably won the NL Central.

And then you go to the Philadelphia Phillies who will probably win the NL East.

And then third, you have opening day against the back-to-back World Series Champions

Los Angeles Dodgers.

This is going to be a brutal start to the season, and I am not here right now telling you

that you should be panicking.

I think it's a little silly at this point.

The individual stuff, I get it, I guess.

But even then, I've got a couple of numbers that, with some superstars in past who also

have struggled in the spring training.

Mike Trowell hit 83-083 in 2014 during spring training.

He went on to win the MVP that season.

Bryce Harper had a sub-200 batting average in 2016 coming off his MVP season.

He went on to be just fine.

Hit 24 home runs in 2016, did have some injuries, didn't have the best season, but still

was a well above average hitter.

These individual struggles in spring training mean nothing to me.

Like it is way too early to sit there and say, you know what, I'm worried about this.

I'm worried about Dylan Cruz.

Not really worried about him at this point.

It is no worthy, I guess.

But I'm not willing to sit here and panic about any individual performances just yet.

There is so much changing with this group.

You have a new approach.

You've got a new background with data and analytics and really adjusting to the flow of it.

There is going to be a growing curve here and I do think the nationals are in the middle

of it as we sit here today and you are certainly going to feel that early on this season.

But I also think if you look back when we're in August of 2026 looking back on this team

in March, we might be talking about a completely different team.

And I'm not here to say that this is going to be a winning team by any means.

But I do think that this offense will actually be not that bad.

And I do think the adjustments that they are making now will help them in the long run.

You've got to figure out what guys will really kind of adapt to this new way about things

and with data and adjusting to the science behind making these decisions.

And I do think the nationals ultimately have their head on their shoulders and they

are making the correct decisions to ultimately help this team win down the road.

So I'm not worried about it.

But let me know what you think.

You can tweet at me at Ryan Claire 11.

You can drop a comment down in the YouTube section.

Just look up locked on nationals there.

But next nationals did make some roster moves and it was really the first big cuts they

have made so far in spring training.

So we'll talk about that after this.

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And the nationals have made their first cuts of spring trading.

But before that, thank you for making Lockdown Nationals your first listen every day and

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So the nationals have actually made their first cuts of spring training that are relatively

interesting.

They have optioned Mitchell Parker down in AAA and they have also optioned Andrew Alvres

down to AAA and the headlighting one here is Mitchell Parker and does it come as a surprise?

No, but I will tell you this, I would not count out this guy just yet.

Here's what I want to see though from Mitchell Parker because over the two years with the

nationals, he has actually appeared in 62 games and has made 59 starts.

Like that is a lot of starts and a lot of innings for the nationals and his rookie season,

we had that hot start and we all talked about Mitchell Parker being a legit piece of this

rotation.

Last year, it just got really ugly at times, made 30 starts, had a couple of appearances

out of the bullpen as well, 103 strikeouts and if you look at the action, 164 2 thirds

innings pitch, 178 hits and 164 innings pitch, but I don't think that we should just

count him out and I do think that's the same for Andrew Alvres, but I do want to talk

about Parker here first.

I would like to see the nationals try to work him as a bullpen piece.

I think that Parker, like while we all joked about it last year, like it was really bad

at times, it was very Patrick Corbinesque where you know, you hope he gets through three

innings and you only have like two orange runs given up and that's kind of what it was

like towards the end of the last season.

But I have liked what I've seen over all from Parker and where he is and I do think

for where the nationals are today, you could use him down the road.

Now it should not be as a starter, but I would like to see them work him as a bullpen

guy.

There is some progress, I think in that department, like I don't think that Parker is

a starter, but I do think a lefty that doesn't blow you away, who has a nice curved ball

and it kind of has a weird little arm slot and a confusing wind up that can throw hit

his off.

I do think that is something that the nationals could potentially work with as a bullpen guy.

So with him going to triple A, I do kind of hope they work him as that bullpen piece.

Now I would think that to begin the year, they're going to have him as a starter.

And I think that's okay.

But also I want to see them work him as a bullpen piece and see if he can eat some innings

and the bullpen and kind of be that guy to be that fireman, that Trevor Williams role

though I've always talked about Williams being really good at.

I would like to see that someday.

I just don't know if we'll get to that point with Parker, but I could tell you this, this

does not come as a surprise to have him optioned out of triple A. It is a big name and it

is a pretty relatively big move, but also it just was not good from Parker as a starter.

So I would not count him out just yet, but another guy I certainly would not count out is

Andrew Alvarez.

Seeing him optioned was actually a little bit more surprising when seeing Mitchell Parker

optioned out in triple A. And Andrew Alvarez, in the couple of starts he made with the nationals

last year, actually looked really good.

And five starts at a two, three, one ERA, 23 and a third innings pitch, only one home run

given up, which I thought was really impressive.

And 20 strikeouts in those 23 innings pitch, he had a ERA plus of 180, only six hits per

nine, only four walks per nine and right around seven and a half K's per nine.

That is a really good stat line.

And if you think about it, like Andrew Alvarez was formerly the pitcher of the year of the

nationals organization just a few years ago.

And at 26 years old and being a part of that really talented 2021 NLB draft class, Andrew

Alvarez certainly has a future and it's kind of not along the same lines as Mitchell Parker.

I think Alvarez actually has a future as a starter.

And I would like to see the nationals have them be that triple A ace down in Rochester.

I do think the nationals will ultimately work him as just that.

Like Andrew Alvarez is not going to come up and be some ace of the staff.

But I do think there is something to work with.

And you've got a lot of intriguing lefty arms right now with Alex Clemmie who we saw

over the weekend.

We saw Eli Willett's get some actions and number one pick by the way.

DJ Hurts who I really like and I really believe that he should be a part of this rotation

when he's back from Tommy John surgery.

You've got a lot of intriguing left hand and arms and I do think Alvarez will probably

get the first crack of all those guys considering that Clemmie is still very young, a raw prospect

and DJ Hurts is coming off Tommy John and there are no rush to bring him back.

I want to see the nationals do write about each of those guys though.

And I do think Alvarez, I would not be surprised we saw him by the middle of May.

I really would not be surprised at all in that area.

So watch out for that moving forward but also a couple of other cuts that really not surprised

me by any means.

But it's definitely noteworthy is you had Seever King who is reassigned to minorly camp

former first round pick had a pretty impressive spring and also in field or tray lips go.

Just two years ago.

I talked about tray Lipscomb being potentially your every day third baseman.

And I think tray Lipscomb is obviously very talented but unfortunately has not really

taken advantage of all of his opportunities.

You've seen some struggles, struggles to fence we at times.

You really have seen him struggle at the plate and unfortunately I just feel as if his

time is kind of past but also first baseman that Marivus.

The first baseman position has been wide open all camp and I think with Marivus like we

talked about him potentially being in the mix.

He looked pretty good offensively but just the nationals obviously did not pull the trigger

there and they're probably going with maybe an Abbi Ortiz or a Andres Chaparo at this

point and we'll see ultimately what the nationals decide to do but it will not be Matt Marivus

who was kind of in the thick of it if you got to think about it and with the opening day

just next week we're still talking about who will take over that first baseman position.

But amongst the other cuts you'll still have Janet pitcher Eater who has been option

to triple A Trevor got has been reassigned to minor league camp and that about does it.

I think the nationals are in a very intriguing spot and first baseman is definitely going

to be on all of our radars moving forward but I want to talk about team USA next because

they are now in the finals tomorrow they'll fit off with team Venezuela or team Italy and

I think I kind of have an apology to make I'll talk about that up to this.

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locked on nationals your first listen check out locked on nationals dot supercast dot com for

the every day or club mark the rosa I kind of owe you an apology I guess so for those who do not

know Roman Anthony was selected ahead of James Wood to be in team USA and I made the case right

here on this show locked on nationals thank you for tuning in that James Wood should have been

Roman Anthony and I think that James Wood is the better player than Roman Anthony now I think

Roman Anthony will be better down the road that is one of the games brightest young stars at 21

years old like he's a star player already as we saw last night he hit the go ahead home run for team

USA that eventually led them to a win against one of the best lineups that we have seen on paper

with team Dominican Republic I'm sorry mark the rosa you made the right decision and I've got

to say that coming off a week where I was crappin on the guy and I think a lot of us in every

baseball fan in the world was like Dero what are we doing man like you are not doing this managerial

thing well at this point you're not hitting the right buttons you're not doing the right thing

you're going up and last week we're talking about how you didn't understand the pool play and you

didn't know that team USA had to win to automatically get in and you just thought that you got in

but no that was not the case so fast forward now we team USA is in the finals they'll be facing

on a very good team Venezuela team or again with team Italy who obviously get the best of team USA

the last time we went against them it's a really juicy WBC but I will just say this maybe

Roman Anthony might be just a tad better than James Wood and I'm sorry I'm sorry I hate to say

that but Roman Anthony I think is a future star in baseball it's not even a future he is a star

then baseball he's a really good defender and also he has a great what the bat that can hit for

average hit for power and really just do everything that you want from a star player so I'm sorry

Mark Dorosa you might have been right thank you for making locked on nationals your first listen

what Mark Dorosa was not right about was this being a podcast that you should subscribe to he said

it he did not say that you know I'm just kidding I'll catch you guys in the flip side have a good one

go nats