Gwynn & Chris On Demand
6.25.24 Gwynn & Chris Hour 1: Padres walk it off!
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Chris Elo, Matt Scravey, another edition of Gwen and Chris. Well, I think because last night ended so well, personally, I think we should start with the bad stuff first. All right. Let's get it out of the way. Let's get it out of the way. Let's get this. Rip it off yesterday. We showed up to the yesterday. You know, I'm not going to lie. I felt like I was whoaged for a little bit because yeah, I'm breaking news to us. We were down there in the, in the, yeah, in the, why didn't do any tweets and doing each week. So I guess I guess I can't be. Chris gets confused between texts and tweets. Yeah. I do. I'm still trying to figure out all that he does, but I'm sitting in, I'm listening to Mike Schilt, you know, me, meander through having to tell all of us that for Nando's going on the IL, you's not going to make his next start. The different roster moves that had to also be made because of the move. And then he explained a bit, you know, Toddy's quad issue is actually of the bone and they're going to give it some rest and it sounded like rest meant at the very least, maybe before the all-star break, more likely after the all-star break. So that wasn't the best news. And so, you know, typically when that kind of stuff comes, you hear what all teams always say, right? They pair it the next man up phrase and, you know, the schedule just keeps rolling and it does. All things true. But that definitely wasn't a great start to the day, Chris. No. And here's how Tony Gwen Jr. gave us the, the lowdown with a text, not a tweet. And then here's what he, here's what he wrote. Here's what he wrote, Scraib. Toddy is heading to the DL. Rito and Azakar down, Rosario Johnson and Maser up. That is using the fewest amount of words possible, I think that's just saying the most. Yes. And that is exactly how it's to be done, my friend. When I learned how to sports right, I was lucky enough to learn under a guy by the name of Dave Distill. And we've talked about him before on the show. He was the San Diego editor, sports editor of the LA Times. He gave the big A its name. When he covered the Angels in Orange County, then he came to San Diego. He gave Air Coriel its name and he was really a fabulous guy and rest in peace, Dave. Fantastic writer, but he's always teach me that your goal is to say the most in the fewest amount of words. And I always tried to do that. And you did that yesterday, Tony, by I think one thing about 11 words here, you got five transactions in. It's pretty good. Pretty good. Pretty good. Thank you, sir. But you're right. It wasn't great news. I mean, Fernando going down and we were hesitant here as some of the reports kept coming in from different places. Annie was saying so, Kevin Asie was saying so that it was looking like it might be after the all-star break. Scraving I didn't want to press that too much because we were thinking he hadn't actually spoken at that time and we didn't want to get everybody in a complete panic. But then when Fernando did talk and he says, quote, it's a huge gap, I don't want to put it out there because people are going to expect stuff, but it's going to be some time. We know what the right stuff we're trying to aim after the all-star game, but we're talking about something serious in my bone in my right leg. So, you know, now I'm starting to think that even right after the all-star break might even be wishful thinking, but you know, the good news is this team and Jackson Merrill said it after his big game the other day and Jerkson Profar said it after his big hit last night. This team, Tony, is full of a bunch of ballers and you know, they keep finding ways to win I know that you know, we've gone over the thing about being 500 and this, that and the other. But that's four walk-off wins in the last seven games at home. First of all, it's exciting. It's fun baseball to watch just if you're a fan, you're getting to enjoy some great games. But secondly, it's one thing to say, oh yeah, we have a never never say die attitude. I think everybody thinks they have that, but you actually go out and prove it. You know, this pottery team is proving it time and time again that they can, you know, find a way back and win these games. So that's a feather in their cap and to Jerkson Profar, I mean, second guessing is not fair. Dave Martinez had a decision to make. Louisa rise is one of the best hitters in baseball the last three, four years. I don't blame him for walking a rise. But as soon as Jerkson came up and you know, he's over four last night, he's popping the ball up, et cetera. But Tony, it has been his magical season and I just thought, man, they're really playing with fire to give him a shot here and he burned him and you know, it's another magic moment for Profar and the Padres. Yeah, you can you probably only get to that by being a Padres fan, you know, because ultimately Dave is managing in in the moment and he's watched those previous at bats and as a rise had already hit two bullets off the lefty on lefty matchup earlier in that game. So I think, you know, I think there are probably about 28 other managers that would have done the same, but on the flip side, you're right. Jerkson has, you know, been that dude all year long with with patella tendinitis or not. He finds a way to get it. I was so happy. He stopped running. He was like, I'm not I'm not finishing this run the second. Not only that, Tony, when they started to jump on top of him, I was like, yeah, away from him. Please. We need as an Edwin Diaz right here in the middle of the field. I mean, to your, to your point though, to your point though, about this team, right? They have, they have at this point, you got to believe that that's part of their DNA because yeah, whether, whether it's actual games that they've done that, or whether it's the fact that they'll lose five straight and then turn around and win four straight, four out of five, five out of six, that to me is also kind of reproving the same point, right? Like, you know, a lot of teams they, they, they run, they lose five straight, six straight, and that'll kind of bleed into bad baseball, right? Maybe they lose, they win or they lose two out of their next four, you know, it's, and it kind of trickles down. Potters have answered every one of their losing streaks with a big winning streak to fall. And it's a resilient, it's a resilient bunch. Now that being said, having, trying to figure out a way to continue to be this, when you are now starting to miss multiple pieces, yeah, over a long stretch of time, at least, I mean, long stretch, meaning all star break ish, right? So we're talking two and a half, three weeks, right? At least, yeah, that, that's a, that's a, that's a bigger task. You were kind of doing it in like increments, right? You're doing a, you're doing it quite a bit with your pitching staff. You've been able to plug that, those holes to some degree, offensively, you've pretty much had everybody out there, Manny's been banged up, covered from the elbow, hip flexor, quad for Toddy Patel, but they all have been in there now, you're actually removing that piece out of the lineup. And so that's a little bit of a different task, but pro far still swinging a bad well, Manny's heating up. So it's like, if there is a time for somebody, because this happened last time, right? Manny went out, Toddy heated up, and it kind of like supplemented the offense. Now, Toddy's gonna go out, Manny's heating up, and now you hope that he can supplement because those are the type of dudes we talked about. They can carry offenses, offenses at I, you know, so that's kind of, I guess if you're gonna lose Toddy, then it's a good time to be losing him because Manny's starting to heat up. Well, I said it a couple of weeks ago, that I felt like they were gonna have to tread water for a while, because then you go without your top two pitchers in your rotation, and I know Darvish and Musgrove haven't necessarily pitched like that, but they still are numbers one and two in the rotation, and you take them out, you've already got bull guards out. Now you've got Fernando out. That's four of your five 30 million dollar ball players, none of whom are even lacing them up right now. That is a challenge, again, I challenge the Yankees to try it. Take four of their five away. Take the four or five away from the Orioles, take Henderson and Richmond and I don't know that there's a team. I don't know that there's a team deep enough in baseball to just take four to five guys out. And that's kind of what the Padres are dealing with right now, and you mentioned the guys that are coming through, I mean, you know, look, gosh, Yoka's kind of, you know, has a renaissance here and big hit last night, and you know, Meryl just continues to be the last guy you want to face with some runners on and, you know, they're almost making me believe that they can survive the next two and a half weeks without Fernando and Bogart's and all these pitchers. You know, I don't know if they can, but you know, magic wins like this, magic wins like three straight walk off Homer games. You know, that goes a long way. Remember they won nine games by one run last year, the whole year, this year they've won 10 already. There's a deal though, and we saw this, I feel like it was, what, 22 when you start to win games like this, you start to believe that you own these type of games like it starts to become a belief thing. And it doesn't really matter who, who, who it is and who's in the lineup in those situations. You know, if you're close, somebody's going to come through. If you start doing this enough, Padres went from what they had what two walk offs all last year and one came really early, one came like in real into the season. Yeah, something like that. Yeah, we're waiting all year for a walk off. It's. Right. So now we can't get enough of them. Now we were living in it right now. And this is, you just, again, I still am cautious because of the length of time they got to try to carry this, but to this point, man, it's, it's been pretty good. Yeah. Another thumbs up for Matt Waldron. He, you know, gives you. Yeah. Yeah. Can we talk about another? He's the only the, did you see this, Tony? There's only four other Padres in history that have had nine straight starts of allowing two or fewer runs. And he's now the fifth to do that. That's how hot this guy is. So he gives you another big game, you know, the bullpen. I mean, I, you know, look, De Los Santos, he gets guys out, but he just keeps giving up these home runs. And that's something he's going to have to figure out, you know, and you think in everybody thought when Cenzel hits that ball out, you know, it's time to probably pack up and get out of here. I'm not going to lie. I just didn't, where I was watching the game, you know, it is. And then he makes the catch and foul territory, but you know, I, I just had the feeling the Padres came in the lot in the dugout and said, you know what, all we got to do is get one guy on and the tying run comes to the plate. That seems to be their attitude and Solano, you know, rips a double just like that. The tying run was at the plate and, you know, they came through and Merrill came through and I, you know, pro far, I can't say no, could you please explain to me, since you told me explained to your son, Trey, how pro far hit that ball 380 feet, Tony, because he was fooled on the pitch, really it was a split. It was diving kind of down and away. And you know, my, my man Harvey throws hard, he's like 99. So, you know, you're getting ready for the heater and sometimes, you know, in anticipation, your body can get out, get forward, right? You know, the idea is when you, when your foot lands and you're in the hitting position that you're like, you know, somewhere close to 50 50, you don't want to have your weight forward. And so what could happen when you're anticipating a fastball and it's something slower, you end up kind of leaking forward, but in this case, his hands stayed back. And so he still had, you know, the mode, the kind of momentum he's generated going forward, but his hands stayed back and that gave him something to hit that ball. Now it also had to do it where the defenders were playing. If I'm not mistaken, I think, let me put my little score sheet up real quick. Thomas was in right. Yeah, Lane Thomas was in right. He was playing straight up and right and the center fielder was playing towards left center. So he hit it in the perfect spot and, you know, yeah, those guys had no chance to get to the ball. Thomas didn't go close. No, he really did. And I also think he was a little bit shallow, you know, because he was trying to maybe cut down the guy from second scoring on a base hit and Jericho hit it in the right spot. Which he's been doing all year. Yeah. I mean, he just does. You know, when Christian Yellich loses a ball in the lights, it's on a ball that profile hits. Yeah. No, just one of those notes. That's how I'm saying he's, that's why I would have faced a rise. I'm glad they didn't and, you know, a rise could have got to hit. We don't know, but I really felt when Profar came up, something, you know, magical is about to happen again. And you know, I was excited that he did it. The fans went crazy and this is great fun baseball. I mean, we're having so many, how many already, you know, storybook games of their been and we're at the midway point, you know, they're still three and a half months to go. You hope that you get some more and you ride this magic a little longer. So it was sweet, sweet, sweet. Good start to this, to the series. Uh, all right. That's a good start to the show. Let's get to break when we come back. More going to Chris on the other side. Hi, welcome back. We are underway following a thrilling pottery victory last night, seven, six in 10 over the Washington Nationals, shame on you, Scott, my golf partner, Scott. T today came up to me and said, man, tough loss for the Padres last night. Oh, oh, wow, your boy went to sleep, wow, you have to know the result to make sure six three. That's what he saw. Did you play into it? He tried to have small, he tried to have small talk before the first hole in bag fire. Yeah. Then he hit into the rough. No, I don't know if he hit into the rough. Did you, did you play or did you like play into it? Like, I know it was a tough loss. It was tough until a pro fart came up with that hit. This hour, 97 through the fan brought to buy the San Diego County fair. Let's go retro to San Diego County fair. It's now through July 7th, the magic of the midway live concerts and a nostalgic celebration of fashion, culture and more by your tickets now online. Learn more on what's happening at sdfair.com. That's sdfair.com. So last night, a lot of things happened, but my worst fears came true, Tony. Our guy, our former guy, CJ Abrams had a big night, three hits, and it seemed like every time Joey Minesis came up, CJ Abrams was on base and it seemed like every time Minesis drove him in, as a matter of fact, he did three times and that tied the game up. We got Mackenzie Gore pitching a night, so obviously, you know, the Juan Soto trade still lingers in the minds of fans and we're going to talk about that with Spencer Nussbaum of the Washington Post, get the nationals side of that deal. See how they're feeling about that in these in these day in this day and age, but we'll talk about the nats a little bit with him coming up in this hour. Just a little bit later on, another rendition of the fantabulous sports game show. Chance for Scrabie and Tony to go ahead to head, chance for you to play along and have some fun in the three o'clock hour. Of course, you Darvus was supposed to pitch tonight, Tony, but along with the news that Fernando was going in the injured list came the information that Darvus was not coming off the injured list. And so Adam Major will make the start in his place. Again, we don't know a whole lot more other than to say there was some more inflammation in the elbow. And you add this in right to, you know, Musgrove and Fernando and Bogart's and it's a lot of star power that the Padres are having to do without right now. Yeah, I don't know what to do. You have to just go with Major and see what he's got again. And he's a little bit better last time I got against Milwaukee through some more strikes. That's all I would tell him. Trust your stuff, because he's got good stuff, doesn't he? He's got great. I don't know if he's got great stuff. He's got good stuff. Yeah. But he hasn't thrown it for strikes. That's right. Yeah. You know, there's a, you see it often at the big league level, you know, there's a fear is probably too strong of a word, but you're, you're not completely sure. You know, it, it, for hitter, it's different, right? I mean, you're the one trying to hit the baseball, for pitcher, if, if you are a little unsure, it kind of shows when you're up there, right? You can't get out of the zone, you're, you're missing because, you know, prior to him getting the big leagues, what we, what we heard and what he had produced was a dude who didn't throw a lot of balls. He was in the zone a lot, but that hasn't been the case. But you know, I think the way it should be looked at is here's another opportunity for him to prove that he belongs. He is fortunate to get this opportunity as quick as he is, because someone got hurt. But this is, this is how it works sometimes. And so he'll have a chance to, to come out to Padre certainly are going to have to depend on, I think basically his clock is how long it takes burrito to get stretched out. Because if they don't see any improvement by the time they stretch burrito out, I, I, my guess is that they'll be flip flopped. Burrito will start making some of these starts, burrito will start making some of these starts, or they'll at least give burrito the opportunity to see what he can do as a start, but he's got to get stretched out. So what does that look like? That's my guess three, four starts. Let's hope somehow Darvish can get back before that. But I don't, you know, I mean, he's just not going to think about that anymore. I'm just going to go with what you got rather than what we don't have. I mean, we can, we can think about it because ultimately, you know, we have a talk show. So we, we, we'll, we'll need it for, for, you know, for some material, but that's how they'll think about it. They don't, you know, Darv's not there. Todd, he's not there. So they, they can't worry about it. I got to get ready for the games. And so major gets another opportunity today, but burrito is, is definitely going to get stretched out into being a starter. We'll see how long that takes. And, you know, they've been, they've kind of been able to do that because, you know, Morde Hone is turned into what he's turned into. Now, I mean, had that had Crona Worth made that play last night, it would have been Morde Hone, Estrada, Suarez game over seven, eight, nine. Yeah. And when you, if you, listen, I've been on a team. We're, we had a seven, eighth, nine in Gregorson, Adams, Bell. And it didn't matter that we were scoring like three runs a game. Because if we had three runs and you only had two and we got to the seventh inning, it was game over. And so I mean, I don't know the Padres are there yet with, I mean, but Morde Hone has thrown the ball. I mean, in so many different roles, he's thrown the ball extremely well, extremely well to the Padres not see him as a starter anymore, because I feel like he could be a starter, but they went with. I mean, he got, he had success as a starter, but he also got hurt as a starter. And you know, why mess with a good thing right now? I mean, this is, as well as he's thrown the ball for as this a period of time that I can remember in his Padres career, typical baseball fan over here wanting more all the time. You know what I would say to Adriana and Morde Hone, if he wants to start, I would say, if you don't want to do the dishes, don't be good at doing the dishes. And your wife said she in there for the first time, screw it up, break a couple of plates, and then you won't have to do the dishes anymore. What about when your wife sticks forks down instead of another, that's another subject? But my point here is that Morde Hone has become valuable in the relief role that he's in. So you can't take them out of there and make them a starter, which is probably what he would like, but he's too good at doing the dishes. He's having, he's having a go right, a heck of a season right now. Yeah, he's doing a great job. Mackenzie Gore pitches tonight. It'll be fun watching him. Maybe fun, maybe a little anguish for a lot of people who, you know, we're sorry to see him go in the Soto trade. He's six and six. He's pretty good, Tone 3.49, you know, he's, he's had, I don't know, I want to say seven of his last nine outings. He's allowed two runs or less. Maybe even better. Let me see. Two, nine out of eleven. He's allowed two or less. So, you know, he's been on a pretty good run and I almost made it through the first half hour of the show without mentioning the Padres still really can't hit left handed pitching too well. They got three last night against Corbin, but then they went to sleep after that. So, you know, another challenge offensively. Try to put some runs up and help measure out tonight against Gore. I don't care how many runs this score against lefties, as long as they have the lead. Yeah, right. That's all that matters. They had to lead even with the lefty in there. They just did. They made the play. Yes, they did. You know, now they got Gore. They know what it looks like. They faced him last year. You know what that will remind me of last year? I don't know if you guys remember the win last year in D.C.? I do. Oh, yeah. Who was the guy who hit the home run? Was it Kim? No. Come on. Rugned Odor. Rugned Odor. That's right. This was before Blake Snell like started getting going. That game happened on my birthday. That's how I remember it. That win reminded me a little bit of like that. It's kind of like snatching the win from draws of defeat right there. Right. Yes. That's how I felt last night a little bit. That was Rugned's contribution last year. Man, I forgot all about that. Come on. I can't forgive them. Rugge. Rugge is all we call them. I don't know what they call them. I mean, I do know that Mike Schill calls everyone with a Y at the end like weighty and pro-fee. Things like that. Like Tony. Tony. Yeah. Tony. I call him Tony. Yeah. Mine is easy. Yeah. All right. We'll step aside here. As mentioned, Spencer and Nussbaum are the Washington Post on the Nationals and you know, I wonder if they. That's a good one right here. 237 on the clock. Tony going to join you. Chris Elo. Matt Scrabie will be joined by our guests here. I'm not sure how to say his last name yet. Spencer. Is it Nussbaum? We're going to find out here shortly. Yes. From Mr. Scrabie. Spencer and. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Spencer and for now. Spencer. Mr. Spencer. My man. Yeah. Um, Padres back in action here today. They got today tomorrow and then they head to Boston where the schedule gets a little bit friendlier, if you will, day off Thursday, day off Monday in Texas. There we go. Come home. I believe there's a couple day off in this nice home. This is the longest home stand. I think we have up the season. Oh yeah. It goes. Yeah. You get back from Texas. You get two against the Mariners, day off Thursday, three against the Braves, then all star break. The nice thing is, is the potters have played more games than anybody. They have. So they have to have more off days left than everybody. Good point. I'm just my, you know, my trigonometry degree. Your trigonometry degree. I mean, a simple math is a simple math. Is it not? They have less games and just as much time. So I'll trust stands to reason that they'll have more days off. Yeah. No, they, they definitely have more time coming off and it's at a good time, right? I mean, get some of these aches and pains to kind of calm down and give your bullpen a much needed rest. So you're going to see, I guess you're going to see, you're going to see Mike Schilt coach pretty hard through these next two to try to see if they can stack these two victories up, two or one or two next victories up and then have that off day to kind of reset your bullpen. In other ways, having Waldron get through six yesterday helps that tremendously. Having King get through six, even though it didn't end up being in the correct a result, that helps kind of get your bullpen back in order a little bit. Yeah. And, you know, I mean, Suarez, we, we just kind of gloss over him, but, you know, another clean inning last night, just so, so happy with this guy and a strata, too. Yeah. So, and, you know, the, the pens taking a little shape. The only problem with all of this conversation, Tony, is we're happy that they won last night. We're happy brewers, but we've been happy like this before and then something crappy happens for about three or four days. So that crappy. This is like four straight losses. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So, you know, hopefully that's not the case. Hopefully not. This time. Let's bring our guest on joining us on Gwen and Chris Washington post Spencer Nussbaum joins us here. Spencer, how are you? Thank you for your time today. I'm doing well. It's nice to be in San Diego. It is. Very nice weather. Very nice weather right now. You're catching us at a good June. Usually June is a little gloomy during this time, but you're catching us right. We get a chance to see a former Padres last night in CJ Abrams put on a nice show, Mackenzie Gore going here for them tonight. What's been your take on CJ this year? He seems like he's covered a lot of ground from the time you guys got him to the player he's turning out to be now. Yeah. You know, it's funny when they got him from the Padres. I think he had like two home runs that year and both were at the Padres. There wasn't a whole lot of power in his bat. You could see the skill was there, but he hadn't really come into his own as a player. These last two seasons and especially you look at the second half of last year and the start of this season, it's like he's a whole new player. You know, he started to find his groove middle of last year when when Davey put him at the top of the lineup. And, you know, every since then he's talked about, you know, finding his confidence, finding his rhythm as a hitter and, you know, it was a little streaky in the sense that he got off to a really good April and had a slow may, but it feels like things are turned around in June. If he gives an OPS over a thousand, like, you know, what what he's been able to accomplish this season and, you know, it might not be getting a whole lot of ulcer votes, but he's kind of on the bubble as one of those, you know, premiered becoming one of those premiere short stops in the league. So, yeah, it's been really cool to see his development over the past year or so. Spencer, the trade in and itself, which happened in August of 2022. So we're coming up on almost two years, Josh Bell came here. He's obviously no longer here, Soto came here. He's no longer here. You mentioned Abrams, Mackenzie Gore, both still there. Luke Voigt came and went, Jarlin Susana, James Wood, Robert Hassel III. I know Wood has made a lot of noise in the minors. How do the people in DC grade this trade now? And if you can go back, how are they grading it then, as opposed to now? Yeah, you know, it's funny. You look at the core of what Washington is right now, as you said, and I mean, it's, you know, basically guys from that trade, CJ is their best position player at the moment. Mackenzie, it's far as stuff goes, results-wise, it's close, but he's, you know, potential-wise. Your best pitcher, James Wood, one of the best prospects in baseball. And then you have those kind of lottery tickets in the minor leagues as well that you hope pan out. When you put all those things together, like, yes, the, you know, DC loved Soto, loved Soto in a way that, you know, they've only loved a handful of athletes, especially one to, you know, are now, you know, 25 or whatever it is at this moment. All that being said, when you get that sort of fall and when you look at where the franchise is at right now, you know, I think that they can live with that. I think they see, you know, they weren't going to be anything without Soto, or they weren't going to be anything with Soto and just Soto. And now they have a foundation to build upon. I think there's always going to be, you know, a, you know, a collection of fans who are not going to love it, but when you, when you think about where the team is at and the fact that, you know, they have a promising future, largely because of those guys they got from the Padres, you know, that you can't complain too much, especially with, you know, how they produced. Go down about it. Spencer Nussbaum joins us here on Gwen and Chris and Spencer, you know, aside from the Padres guys, this team is, I would say, a surprise to folks this year. I mean, they're playing close to 500 baseball there, right behind the Padres for their last wildcard spot, as we speak, I mean, how has this team been able to do it? I mean, how has it seems like, at least from now, aside looking in that they've overachieved to this point, how have they done it? Yeah, I think that's the assessment from everyone outside of the clubhouse. That's included in the media. They weren't supposed to be here at this moment, and that is a huge, huge credit to their pitching. You know, they had a ERA as a staff and as a bullpen over five last year. It's in the, you know, mid to high threes. They've gotten great production on Mackenzie Gore, Jake Ervin, Mitchell Parker, who is walking five guys for nine in the minors this year, has thrown more strikes than almost anyone else in baseball as a rookie. Yes, Patrick Corbin has not been good, but has passed three star teeth and great. Yeah. It's really a credit to the pitching staff. They brought on Sean Doolittle in the off season as the assistant pitching coach to, pitching coach Jim Hickey and those two have worked fantastically together. They've kind of, you know, added a more data centric approach after being old school for a long, long time, and it really has been at the strength of their pitching. The offense, you know, guys have been up and down at different times, and they've never really been consistent for more than a week in a row, but just game after game after game they're pitching the lights out. Spencer, do you think the Nationals five weeks from now will try to pick up somebody and maybe use, you know, some of these minor league guys that they have to try to get a little bit better make a, make a run or is the fact that they're ahead of schedule, maybe going to keep them from, you know, you know, make them kind of resist the temptation to do it. Yeah. I think they're going to lean on resisting in the sense that you don't really want to let good be the enemy of great with where you're at. I think this team has over achieved, and if you look at town on the roster, it doesn't necessarily scream a team that can make the playoffs year after year after year. That said, the guys in the minors, James Wood, Dylan Cruz, you know, both top 10 prospects and baseball, those are guys who can kind of shepherd a team into the playoffs, and even with trading your depth pieces, you don't want to give up on, you know, a lottery ticket. And in the past few years, one thing that general manager Mike Rizzo has done really, really well is flipping those veterans for core pieces. You know, they got Lane Thomas for John Lester. They, you know, have picked up pieces on the fringes. They have a new pitcher, DJ Herrs, who has flipped for Candelier this year and has looked really good. I think they're going to still stick with that path. Maybe, you know, tree guys, like Jesse Winkner, and then you could float around to some of the pieces in the bullpen are, you know, available as well. I don't see them as buyers just yet. Not buyers. You mentioned, you know, some of the pieces that they have, Winkers having a pretty good season. I know the, there was talk that Lane Thomas was a guy last year come deadline time. Are those the type of pieces you expected to expect to be move come deadline time? Yeah. I think that Rizz is really selective with those sort of players. You know, last year, he mentioned he views Lane Thomas as a foundational piece and other teams were not viewing him as that. That being said, you look at, again, the depth that they have in their outfield, especially in the minor leagues and it'd be hard to say that he's not going to at least shop Thomas around a little bit in the sense that, you know, you only have so much time left on his contract. You have, again, like these guys coming up soon. So I think that, you know, he'll take calls, but, you know, I think it's more likely than not that Lane Thomas is a Washington national for the rest of the season. That being said, I don't know how much higher that percent chance is over 50%. Spencer, Spencer, I want to ask you about our guy from San Diego, San Diego State Aztec for life, Steven Strasburg. Now that he's a couple of years removed from how things ended for him there in DC, did he build up enough cache as a World Series hero and have enough of a career to always be admired and loved in Washington, DC? Or does the fact that he got hurt and never really was able to live up to that last contract detract from Steven Strasburg and the minds of DC fans? Yeah, I think there's always going to be a select group of people who are going to view Strasburg and that sort of light. But you talk to people in DC, you look at how people interact. When conversations about Strasburg are brought up and really at this point, it's all love at this point. Like what he did for the franchise, you know, they were year after year after year getting in the postseason and couldn't get it done. Before he got there, they really weren't very relevant as a franchise. You rise in Washington and bring something special and obviously, you know, breaks his body down in order to win, you know, World Series in 2019 and that, you know, you can't tell me that doesn't contribute all those innings he pitched that year to think Wheeling the League and innings pitched, pitching all those innings in the postseason and winning one for DC. Like, yes, there are going to be people who talk about the contract and that, you know, I don't want to say rightfully so, but obviously that's on the front of mind when you get all that money. But he got that money because of what he did, unfortunately not for what he, you know, lived up to after the contract. But he did everything his body could to get back and, you know, just with the type of injury it was with TOS, he couldn't get back on and I think that people in Washington understand that and they understand what he tried to do to get back in it. Last one for me, Spencer, Mike Rizzo, one of my favorite GMs in this game, still at the helm with the Nationals. Where is this organization in terms of the team selling and, you know, some of that business that has been going on, is that something that's still up? Are you talking about with the ownership? Yeah. Yeah. So the learners have said that they're not selling. That being said, Ted Leonesis who owns a bunch of the other pro franchises in DC, you know, the Wizards and whatnot, he is seemingly chimed into radio stations every month or so and said, look, you know, I'm willing to buy this team if it's put up. So, you know, they said that they're not selling for now. They took it off. But would I be surprised to see different ownership in a year, especially with, you know, maybe the market rising on the Nationals with how their future looked this season? I wouldn't be surprised. But at the moment, the learners have still said that they're not selling. I only brought up Rizzo because I know there was some discussion in terms of his extension and being with that organization a little bit longer, but sounds like they're not selling it at this point. So, hopefully that he gets to stay longer. Yeah. I mean, he's done a pretty good, I think he's looking pretty good right now. Yeah. Kind of an extension of that for me to finish things up, you know, I don't know that everyone out there understands the history of baseball and the nation's capital. I mean, you got to go back 100 years, the Washington Senators won a World Series in 1925. They eventually became the Minnesota Twins, then the Senators came back and they became the Texas Rangers. Now, it's been 20 years since the Nationals started. The expos turned into the Nationals is baseball finally settled in DC forever, you think? I would have to think so at this point. It doesn't look like they're moving, you know, you read things from 2005 to 2010 and there was interest in the team, but it really wasn't where it's at right now in the sense that people wanted a team, but they also want a team that looks good. And, you know, for a long time, they waited and waited and waited and I, you know, I would be shocked if in the next 20, 30 years we hear anything about the team moving out of the case. Well, Spencer, enjoy your stay in sunny San Diego. We certainly appreciate your time coming on and hanging with us. Perfect. Thank you, guys. Thanks, Spencer. Spencer Nussbaum joins us, Washington Post, joins us there in Gwyn and Chris. Good conversation talking about the Nationals, some of the Padre pieces that are now Nationals. And now, let's see if the Padre is going to win a series here tonight. Yeah. It's so nice. I was happy to hear that Strasbourg gets mostly love which he deserves. I know the money probably rankled some people because he wasn't able to play that contract, but the Washington Nationals franchise would not be what it is without Strasbourg series, either. No, they wouldn't even, I think, and Spencer didn't say this, but he arrived on the scene. That franchise was, you know, probably on the verge of not even being there anymore, but he comes in, Bryce Harper comes in, all of a sudden are going to the playoffs every year, and then Strossie takes him to the World Series. Look, if one person did that in San Diego, I mean, look how revered, I don't know, Chris. What? One more series here? I don't know. Are you kidding me? You don't know because we've never won a championship, but if a player led us to the title, it seems like it's, it seems like it's intoxicating. Like it does. It seems like if you win a title, you no longer can do wrong in terms of the fans. Now, the team, you know, they, they get sour on you real quick, but you win a World Series, man. It just, like, it's like a, it's like a four year haze. You just are just in it. It seems like from the outside looking and I've never actually experienced it either. Think about how you think Scravey yourself and others think about Joe Musgrove, just being a hometown guy who beat the Mets through no hitter. Oh, I thought you were throwing me under the bus for some reason. We love Joe Musgrove. We're, we're always going to revere Joe Musgrove here. Just think of you. Just think of you wins two games in the World Series one year. Oh my God. I mean, he's already kind of done it with the, the, the start against the Mets in the wild car. No, but that's what this is saying. You know what I'm saying? It's a whole lot of the two World Series wins. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. I'm sorry. Stop you. It's like hour on the way you hear the music. That means daily gambit on the other side. I do it while making coffee. I do it in the car. 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