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Locked On Nationals - Daily Podcast On The Washington Nationals

How Big Of An Impact Will James Wood Have In The 2nd Half For The Washington Nationals?

Duration:
33m
Broadcast on:
18 Jul 2024
Audio Format:
mp3

Ryan is joined by Bobby Blanco from MASNSports.com, and they take a deep dive on future star James Wood. What kind of impact will the #1 prospect in all of baseball have for the Nats in the 2nd half? Bobby met with the Nats top 3 drafted players over the past week during their pressers, what were some of his takeaways from them? Which of the 3 have the highest ceiling? Then, we each give our trade deadline hot take as Ryan is thinking the Nats trade their MVP over the last two seasons.


 

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It's the lockdown podcast network, your team every day. We are joined by Bobby Blanco from Mass & Sports.com and in this first segment, we're going to take a look at James Wood, the number one prospect at Arnold Baseball has already started to make his impact with the Nationals, but how big of an impact will he have in the second half. And thank you all for making lockdown nationals your first list in every single day as we are free and available wherever you get your podcast. And of course, I'm your host Ryan Claire. You can catch me over on Twitter at Ryan Claire 11 and as well as our show page at L.O. on her score nationals for our latest nationals news notes. Make sure to check us out over on Twitter and of course while you're out to make sure to search up lockdown nationals wherever you get your podcast. So as we get into it today, as you see now, if you're over on YouTube, we are joined by Bobby Blanco from Mass & Sports.com, Bobby and I will be talking about some big news you could talk about here in DC that made no sense, but you get the point we're talking baseball with the Washington Nationals. So Bobby, later on, we'll be giving out a trade deadline hot take I've already shared mine with yours. I think it's a little steamy. I'll tell you that in the third segment of today's show and the second segment, Bobby, you got to be in the intro presses for some of these draft picks early on, you've got Luke Dickerson, Caleb Lomavita, and of course, Seaver King as well. We'll talk about that and just kind of their growth in the national system and kind of getting some projections. We're going to be really early on this, but when can we expect these guys in the major leagues? We'll have that in the second segment of today's show, but we start off with looking at James Wood and the impact that this guy could bring in the second half of the season and Bobby, I'm not going to lie with you. I think it could be pretty big, but before we get into it, this episode of Lockdown Nationals is brought to you by booking.com booking.com. Yeah, the right stay can make you a fan of any city, city, even your rivals. Check out booking.com for your stay today. So first and foremost, Bobby, as we got that out of the way, how are you doing? I'm doing great. I'm still trying to, I don't know if you guys can tell this early in the morning, I'm still looking pretty sleepy. So trying to catch up on my sleep after this all-star break, never forget to this, that actually an all-star break for us, members of the media covering the draft, covering other things. I'm sure we'll get some random news today. Something will happen. Something will happen today, of course, because why give us the day off, too? We're out of the ones covering the sport 30, 365 days a year. You know, why are we putting these days off? You know what? Yeah, you guys have had it rough. I'm not going to lie, because again, you get the all-star quote unquote break, and then you jump right into it with the MLB draft that Sunday, and then you have to do player press conferences, player breakdowns, and evals, whatever it does. You guys have had no break. When they move the break to the all-star, when they move the draft to the all-star break, it was the worst thing in the world. I knew this was going to happen. And we're never going to go back to it now because they love having it on during the prime time, it's the only sport really happening this week on the calendar, so they get all the eyeballs. But as soon as they did that, it was like the worst thing to happen to us before, because we used to have an all-star break, and now we don't. Used to. Yeah. Well, that is unfortunate, but something that isn't unfortunate so far is James Wood up in the Major League. So far through 14 games, Bobby, batting 245 a 333 OBP, a 321 slug and a 654 OPS on the season. James Wood, I think he has been better than what the numbers say, but kind of going into the second half of the season, Bobby, what do you expect with him? Like, do you think he'll have like this big impact on this offense and maybe even try to help propel this national team into an October series, you could say? Well, October series, I'm not quite sure about. I do think he's going to have a huge impact on this lineup. I mean, I think we're going to see him bat second, third, most often and not. I think maybe against left, he will see David bump him down to like fifth or sixth that we saw him do near the end of the first half of the season. But no, I think, I mean, you called him up for a reason. He's going to finish out the season at the Major League level. And you know, if you're looking at his first 14 games, small sample size overall, but we can break him down into smaller sample size, right? His first seven games were fantastic. He was hitting 320. He got the home run out of the way here, that five RBI game in that game, that same game. And he was walking at a similar rate that he was striking at. I think it was six to seven and then over his last seven games, I think he got a little bit out of his comfort zone, started chasing a little bit more. Now, I will say watching some games in Milwaukee and New York to finish out the second half, he did get some bad calls called against Tim Price, struck out a couple of times. I want to say it's at least three times, maybe only twice, but on bad calls, or he got put behind in the count on bad calls. But that's going to come. Like, I mean, we saw the same thing happen with Juan Soto when he was younger. You know, rookies don't get the benefit of the doubt from umpires. As James Groves and becomes more of an all star, a star-studded player, he'll get that kind of respect and that kind of call from umpires that we're used to seeing. I think his eyes too good, his eye has always been kind of similar to a Juan Soto where in that if he doesn't swing at it, it's not a strike. You know, like, so I think that'll come, but he did strike out a lot more over his last seven games than he did in his first seven games and he didn't walk at all. So that's my kind of barometer for James moving forward. The hits will come. I think the power will come, you know, and he will play an important role in this lineup, but you know, it's always going to be a, you know, up and down a game with adjustments for him. We'll see how he kind of adjusts back to the adjustments made to him over his second week of the season as a major leader. You know, like, I think it's kind of something that we saw with Aaron judge back in the day when he first kind of got in the league. When you were a six foot seven guy, like the strike zone is just number one bigger and even then almost have to adjust to that. Like it's not every day you see a six foot seven guy and line up. And so it's a little bit different with kind of adjusting to that. And also for James himself, he's going to have to make some adjustments as well. Because again, you mentioned it. He says 20 strikeouts for his first 14 big league games and, you know, like when you were a young prospect, especially when you're 21 years old, we've seen this time and time again now, Bobby, and we talked about this last week, but the prospects, they struggle. They do struggle making that jump from triple A up into the majors. So we see it now with James would, yeah, the first week was really solid, in my opinion. I was not really expecting him to just kind of take that and go on this matchable carpet ride where he's going to take the rookie of the year and just kind of just have a swinging perfect season. No one was expecting that. We do expect some turbulence along the way, and I think we're kind of hitting that road right now. As far as James Wood goes, though, what kind of like impact do you see him having? Like do you think that James Wood could put up by the end of the season when we're talking about him and the impact that he had? Do you think he could have some really solid numbers considering like maybe like a 750 OPS? Because if you were to have those kind of numbers, in my opinion, I'd be thrilled. Yeah, he's got 654 right now over his first 14 games. I don't think it's crazy that he can get that up over a hundred more points in the next two months. But like overall, just kind of generically, I think he's going to have a similar impact in this lineup that CJ Abrams is going to have in the sense that like when him and CJ aren't going well at the plate, this offense won't be going well at all. You know, I think these two guys are going to get a catalyst with Lane Thomas stuck in between them. We'll talk about more about him later when we're talking about Drake that line. But you know, those are the three main guys, possibly only two for the last half of the season. For the last month of the season, excuse me, that are really going to be the catalyst for this offense. And I think that's a kind of impact he had. I mean, not just, you know, hitting for average, hopefully that average comes up as well with his OPS. But like also drawing his walks, getting back to that, getting on base. I mean, those couple of games, I think I saw it in New York when they made some late-ending rallies or attempts at rallies. Like he had some good at bats late in the ninth inning and kind of like, you know, getting on base with a single, like a hard hit single or drawing a tough walk. And I think that's kind of the impact he's going to have where, you know, just because he's struggling right now, maybe this also Rick is kind of like the break that he needed to maybe like kind of reset for the second half. But, you know, I think he is still a tough out for pitchers and for defenses. So with the speed, with the exit velocities, all that stuff, with the eye, everything, he is just an overall a tough out. So I think he is going to have a huge impact on this lineup, how this offense produces in the second half. And with him and CG, like I said, I think it's how they go, this offense goes. So when they're struggling, this offense is going to struggle, but when they're on point and they're crushing the ball and they're getting on base, I think this offense can be a little more dangerous. You know, I think he brought up some great points there because again, CJ Abrams as you kind of mentioned there through the first half, if CJ Abrams is going to be hitting the ball and driving the ball in for power, hitting guys in, that's, that was the offense so far this season. And he was our consistent producer as long as Jesse Winkers there as well, but he probably won't be in the fold too long either with the trade deadline coming up in the next few weeks. But we'll have that trade deadline discussion a little bit later on, but just to kind of wrap up James Wood here, I think James Wood could go on a tear in the second half. It's a gut feeling. I don't know what it is, Bobby, but I just can't get past the fact that this guy has done it at every level that he's been at, he's 21 years old and also he's just one of the most composed guys I've seen come up from AAA, making the jump to the majors. And I think that's kind of one of those things that may be overlooked when talking about some of these prospects and he knows he's got pressure on him. So we'll see what he can do with his back against the wall in the second half of the season, but I'm predicting a little bit of a James Wood breakout. Why not? I can see it. We'll see. We'll see what happens, but Bobby, let's talk about some of these draft guys as the draft's on Sunday night, the national's top three picks. You've got Seaver King, Caleb Lomavita, and of course, Luke Dickerson, one of my favorite picks. I'll tell you why Dickerson is one of my favorite picks of that draft, but before we do that, let me tell you guys about some of our very good friends over at eBay Motors and guys. We talk about eBay Motors and, of course, passion, drive, and patience. 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So Bobby, we get back into it now as we look into the MLB draft, I mean, I'm going to say this right off the bat, I was stunned the way the Nationals kind of conducted this draft. And it reeks of one thing, you know, Brad Ziolik came from the Baltimore Orioles this last offseason, and now it's kind of one of the key moves, Danny Haas came over from the Arizona Diamondbacks as well, to kind of reshape their front office a little bit. And in my opinion, I don't even think it's a opinion anymore, and I think it's a fact at this point, Seaver King taking him at below slot at number 10 overall. That was the work of Brad Ziolik, because as far as I've known Mike Rizzo, they have taken the big swing, the big ceiling, taking the best possible player available, and maybe Seaver King was the best player available on their board. Certainly a lot of people high on them, but it came as a surprise, because we weren't really expecting that, or at least I was not expecting that. And even Seaver King said it himself in that press or that the Nationals weren't really on his radar. And so the Nationals, I'm assuming at this point in time it's going to be a below slot deal at number 10 overall, as he was projected to go like late teens, early 20s in that area. So what is your take on that? This is just the new reshape version of the Nationals front office, and this is how they envision approaching the draft going forward. Yeah, I think you're spot on right there. I think Brad Ziolik, we have actual data evidence that the Orioles have had the best drafts over the past six drafts, since Mike Elias got there, and they started picking with Abby Rushman, I mean, that's how they got Gunnar Henderson in the second round of a draft. They've gotten so many other top prospects, not in the first round, by kind of doing this method of going under slot in their first round picks and then going over slot in second and third round. So yeah, I think you're spot on right there. I think this new front office is kind of going that way. I think Brad Ziolik has more analytically driven, so we can kind of say, "Hey, let's reach for this guy, we're not going to have to pay as much because we have this group of prospects, draft prospects, and probably going to be available to us in the second and third round that we can, are going to have to overpay for them to sign IE high school players." And yeah, so I think that's, that played a major role, that and also sticking to college bets. They only drafted two high schoolers in this entire draft out of their, well, 21 picks. They only drafted two guys out of high school. You know, last year, it was a different regime, but they kind of said, "We're going to shift towards that because what happens when you draft college bets is you get guys with obviously more experience, especially guys playing in tough leagues like the SEC, like the big 12, like the ACC, baseball driven conferences, and, you know, they're closer to the majors. They're more prepared for the minor leagueers. We saw the nationals have, I think it was like four of their top five draft picks from last year's class, reached double A by the end of the season. And that's the kind of, you know, that's, to me, a sign that they think that they're closer to competing at the major league level than others do so that they have some top tier prospects coming in. These guys are on a fast track to the majors. So by the time that they're ready for the majors, the nationals are also competing at the major league level. And they have some more depth right there. But yeah, I think the, when it comes to Seaver King, I think that's exactly what happened. I was also a little surprised because I thought there were a handful of other guys that were rated higher than Seaver. I know some publications did have King rated in that 10 to 12 range in the draft, so like it's not, it wasn't that much of a stretch, but it was a little bit of a stretch. And I think for that under-spot kind of reason, I'll be interested to see what the money is, you know, in these coming weeks, I've seen reports that he's on his way to DC today to sign his paper. So we should be getting a figure sometime this weekend, hopefully, about how much he is signing for and then we can kind of then make some, some more evaluations and adjustments on how this front office approaches draft. You know, like it was a very interesting approach, in my opinion. And honestly, like, if you're going to sign me up for any organization out there and follow any organization right now, it's the Baltimore Orioles. So to see what they were doing there, cutting deals, at least we assume it was a deal that was cut at number 10 overall. And to get guys like Luke Dickerson out of high school, in my opinion, Bobby, the second round pick for the Nationals this year, Luke Dickerson, listen, I mean, not many people knew about him coming into this draft, but if you look at his profile, and then you look at some of the numbers this guy put up, he tied the high school record for home runs with Mike Trapp. I mean, in New Jersey, by the way, that is right then in there, I'm like, well, okay. And if you look at his profile, he's a pretty big kid, 18 years old, coming out of the high school ranks. I mean, 55 grade power, he gets got a 60 grade run, solid in the field. I think there are some swing and miss issues that he has had throughout his high school career. That's at least from what I've read so far. But as far as that goes, that is one of my favorite picks because I look back at the days where Brad Ziolik was with the Baltimore Orioles and there was one guy out of the second round named Gunnar Henderson out of a prep high school in Alabama. And I'm not saying that this guy is going to be Gunnar Henderson, but then if you look at their profiles and just kind of click two and two together, I get a little giddy about this pick. Now, again, the big question is, is can the nationals develop this kid? But not even looking at that though, this is like the exciting pick. Like this is why you take your Seaver King at number 10 overall and cut that quote unquote deal with him to have someone like Dickerson who may have gone to college, but you're probably going to give him a little bit more money in that second round and also Caleb Loma-Vita who we'll talk about after this. But Bobby, I love that Dickerson thing. I don't know about you. What do you say? Yeah, I think it's a very interesting pick. So many things to kind of digest right here. I want to talk about since we're discussing going over slot under slot when it comes to the Seaver and Dickerson and then also how Brad Ziolik ties into all of this. Let's go back to 2021, sorry, the Orioles have the number 5 overall pick. They select Colton Cowser who was out of come out of college who was projected to go later in the first round. They drafted him at fifth overall and they signed him for about one and a half million less than the pick value. Yeah. So looking for that towards that kind of thing for Seaver King. Now Colton Cowser is in the running for AO Rookie of the Year this year. And then the second round pick Connor Norby who a little under slot value but not as much who is now one of the top prospects on all the baseball. So it's kind of a similar thing where you've got to go really under value in the first round so you can go over value later or pay a little closer to value than you would have. And then when it comes to King and Dickerson look Dickerson you mentioned tying Mike Trout's record, home on record in Jersey. He would have beaten it but he started his baseball season late because he was too busy winning a hockey championship for his high school. I mean I love that profile by the way. Yeah. I love like a multi-sport athlete like when you kind of go in there. So and of course it's like hockey so it's like the sky's a little gritty like obviously I mean you got to love that. So six foot 185 I mean on skates that's probably like six three right. But you know I asked him about like how being a two sport athlete both where you're you know both sports where you're like handling a stick, a bat kind of thing kind of help you in your baseball and he was like yeah you know you have to be gritty around the net just like you have to be gritty in the batter's box. You got to have the battle and then the hand eye coordination is just like off the charts when it comes to hockey obviously and that translates so well into baseball both at the plate and fielding at shortstop. So I think this kid is super athletic. He had a commitment to UVA when he talked to us he did mention that he was ready to sign with the Nationals. He didn't officially say that but like he hinted that you know he's gonna bypass college and sign with the Nets and I think that's why he's going to because the Nationals are going to be able to underpay Seaver King with their first round pick and overpay their second round pick and Luke Dickerson. So yeah I think that's a very smart, cracky way to approach the draft. Now you mentioned the comparison to Gunnar Henderson I mean again he's only six foot 185 he's obviously going to grow into that more is he coming out of high school. I think Gunnar obviously ends up being a little bigger than him but that's still a solid strain to play shortstop to play maybe third base second but you know he versatility. I mean if he brings that athleticism from the ice rink to the baseball field then ask him to put him wherever they want and he will produce up the plate. So I think it was a very interesting prospect and yeah it's a very intriguing one as well and probably could be one of the fan favorites when we looked back at this draft in a couple of years. You know and we didn't even get to Caleb Lomavita but again there were rumors that the Nationals would quote unquote cut a deal with him as well at number 10 overall. I mean the guy is a solid catcher at this point in time coming out of college so there's really going to be no pressure for him. You got key barowees but the pressure is on key barowees but I'll have more on that for tomorrow's show Bobby but I will say before we move on Caleb was the best hands down draft press conference we have ever had. Fans are going to love this kid so personable so funny just like a happy smiley kid like he's just happy to be here. He was like this is my first press conference ever I'm so excited. So I think fans are he's going to be a fan favorite quickly in the stats form system. You know what like I'm not in all those but I will say like once you get to the major league level you're not really or at least for some of the guys you're not really thrilled to talk to the media. So to get someone like that it's nice. As long as he wants to talk to us as long as he loves it I'll take it. We'll see what it's like in next year when we're in West Palm Beach again Bobby. See if he's really about that and really if you want to talk to him. He's going to be his first major league spring training. He's going to be he's going to be he's going to be smiling all year to year old. That's at least the hope at this point in time but all right Bobby let's I'm going to give you my MLB trade deadline hot take. I got one for you and like I'm not going to lie like I I think it's going to piss off some nationals facts so so we'll get into that but let me tell you guys about our friends over at booking.com and this episode of lockdown nationals is brought to you by booking.com booking.com yeah with summer travel heating up especially travel for baseball games. 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It doesn't look natural for him. I think as far as you keep him out there and left field, the less that he will actually develop. I think the nationals will actually realize that because James Wood is not a left field. That's not where he's going to play. I think if they were smart and if they're really kind of thinking ahead of the future, you would trade Lane Thomas now. Now, are you going to get some massive prospect hall for him? No, but I think you should take the best deal possible out there for him. Let's say the Brewers call or name that team. Take whatever they are going to give the best prospect hall out there. You trade away Lane Thomas and then of course on top of that, you trade your all star closer with Kyle Finnegan. I think their price tags will never be higher as it is this deadline. They've got a few years left to control each of them. Again, the time is now, man. You see the future. I love Lane Thomas. I think he's been one of the master class trades of the Mike Rizzo era and alongside Trey Turner and of course, Juan Soto deal as well. Bobby, I think it's time to say goodbye to Lane Thomas and Kyle Finnegan. What do you think? I'm struggling with the definition of a hot take. I think that's the take. Everyone assumes it's going to be those two guys because they're the most intriguing. They're the biggest names for this team. I hear you. I think we had this conversation last time I was on and I don't see them trading Lane just for the sake of James Wood moving to right field. I see them trading Lane because someone blows them away with the package that Mike Rizzo can't say no to. I think the biggest thing that Lane and Kyle Finnegan have going for them besides their numbers, that productivity is that extra year of control. We saw Mike Rizzo leverage that same situation with Hunter Harvey for a pick at a prospect right before the draft. Now, the deadline, you might be able to muscle out a couple of prospects. It's not going to be a top tier prospect. You're not going to get a systems number one overall prospect. He got the number two overall prospect from the Royals, ran it, not a very strong farm system at the moment, but their number two prospect and a pick for Hunter Harvey before the deadline. That's before a team is getting desperate. I think the biggest thing with these two guys is that extra year and with teams getting more and more desperate, he could leverage that into a team's a top 10 prospect from a good farm system and then maybe someone else. Kind of like we saw with DJ Hers and Kevin Maday last year, but better because Jamie Candelario was only a rental. So I think that's the biggest thing going for them. My hot take is they are going to trade an out fielder and a relief pitcher. It's just not going to be the ones you think it's going to be. I think it's going to be Jesse Winker and Dylan Floro. I think Mike even hotter take, I think fans are going to be like, "There's no way." I think that Mike was going to be able to trade Derek Law at the deadline. There's a lot of his struggles at the end of the second half, and especially with his struggles with runners on base and heritage runners. You look at his numbers, when he comes in with clean bases, they're solid across the board. He actually has good numbers solid across the board anyways, but they're related because whatever he has in a heritage runner, so that's his core and gives a bunch of hits. So I think that it's going to be Jesse Winker. I think it's going to be Dylan Floro, and I think Derek Law actually does get spun at the deadline. It's going to be kind of like a John Lester late Thomas deal. I think he can get a prospect back, take a flyer on him, we'll see what happens, and maybe that guy blossoms into the next late Thomas. I don't think this Mike Rizzo sees this as the last deadline in a long time that they are sellers. They're going to sell off everyone on a one-year deal, and he's going to try his best to blow it on to guys, that he can also maybe spend next year, if necessary, but also contribute to a winning team if necessary, and that's Finnegan and Lane Thomas. My picks are Winker, Floro, and Law at the deadline for three to six prospects total. I'll take that any day of the week, and you know what else? I'll take Bobby Bonk on that. I'll take it any day of the week, Bobby. You're always welcome here. You have a home here. I feel welcome here. It's home, it's home, and I want to do West Palm Beach again with the next year. I want to do it. You come back to our Airbnb, we can have some fun at the pool. Yeah, you could stay with us. You could stay with us at West Palm. I loved it. I loved it. Bobby, always appreciate the time, man. Yeah, thanks for having me, Ryan. Good talking with you, and we'll see. We'll probably talk closer to the deadline. I'm sure we will, and you know what? That's Bobby Bonko from MassInSports.com. I'm Ryan Clary. We will catch you guys on the flip side. Nat's baseball starts again tomorrow night. A prime member. You can listen to this locked on podcast, add free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. (upbeat music)