The Nationals Are A Disaster I BMitch & Finlay

WJFK-FM / 106.7 The Fan

Tobi rants about the issues surrounding the Washington Nationals.

Transcript

00:00Mike Rizzo, we'll see how it goes with Adam Peters.

00:06He had a hell of a first year, but Mike Rizzo is the best general manager

00:09of this city scene since Bobby Beathard, okay?

00:11And Mike Rizzo delivered a World Series to this town.

00:17Mike Rizzo knows how to build baseball teams.

00:20Davey Martinez, teams start a little rocky,

00:23and he just is the most steadying, calming presence.

00:27Davey Martinez knows how to manage baseball games.

00:30This team, the Nationals, stink because of ownership.

00:36Ownership, period.

00:38The Nats are playing bad baseball right now.

00:40They've lost seven in a row.

00:42I am out.

00:44Hear me.

00:45I am completely out on the let's get rid of Davey crowd,

00:49the people that are mad at Davey about this.

00:52Now, are there specific things you want to point out?

00:54Yes, but I want to be very clear.

00:57However, Davey ain't the problem.

01:00Agreed.

01:01I'm not a fan of Davey as an in-game manager.

01:04I haven't been really in his entire tenure here with the exception of the 2019 playoffs.

01:09I don't know that there's a single manager that could have managed that playoff run any better than he did.

01:15But in general, I'm not a fan of the decisions he makes in games.

01:18I don't love his bullpen management.

01:20I don't always love his lineup construction.

01:22But right now, if you get frustrated by his bullpen management, his pitching management,

01:27it's difficult because he either pulls a pitcher too early or too late.

01:31He goes to the pen and chooses a guy who he can't depend on because, frankly,

01:35there's no one in the pen outside of Kyle Finnegan that you have any sort of confidence in.

01:39Last night, Jorge Lopez comes into the game and struggles, and he's just a head case.

01:44And I think you could have...

01:46Anyone that watched anything of Jorge Lopez, especially last season after what he did with the Mets,

01:51you could have known that he had a little bit of a hot temper.

01:54And him just...

01:55I don't know if you saw this, JP.

01:56When Davey comes to take the ball from him and take him out of the game,

01:59generally, what does the pitcher do?

02:00He just kind of stands there, looks at the manager.

02:03He was bouncing the ball on the rubber like he was playing basketball.

02:06He was just frustrated, just bouncing it, bouncing it, bouncing it.

02:09It's not a good look.

02:10It's not what you need out of a veteran arm, one of the few veteran arms left in that bullpen.

02:15And look, I think everybody deserves some blame.

02:18But you're right that a majority of it goes to ownership because the reality is,

02:23Mike Rizzo wants to rebuild the bullpen.

02:25And he wants to have more reliable arms in there.

02:28But he doesn't have a lot of resources to do so.

02:30On Mike Rizzo's side, last year, it's not like he had more resources last year than he did this year.

02:36And he was able to at least find a couple of arms.

02:37So not to say he was without blame.

02:39Because he brings in Lucas Sims, Khaled Poche, Jorge Lopez.

02:43Two of the three are already gone before the couple of weeks into May.

02:46So I understand that he's not without blame.

02:48But he's also not given a lot of leeway and a lot of freedom to go do anything.

02:53And Davey Martinez, frankly, just doesn't have a great ball club to manage.

02:56And even though I don't love the way that he manages a lot of times,

02:59it's hard to fault decisions when the other options aren't exactly better than what he has.

03:05So it's a really bad spot they put in where every party has a little bit to do with it.

03:11But a majority of it is.

03:12They just don't have the people because they're not spending enough money to field a baseball team

03:18that is overly competitive.

03:19Because I think the most disappointing part about this, JP,

03:21is when you've watched this team this season,

03:24they've been in a majority of these baseball games.

03:27They're right there in a lot of these things.

03:29And Rizzo was on with the junks talking about this earlier today.

03:32They're a team that has a small margin for error.

03:34And where does that help?

03:36Having a reliable bullpen guy.

03:38Having a veteran bat that you can trust in the lineup in the middle of the order.

03:42And they didn't spend for either of those things this offseason.

03:45So they're just in a really tough spot where they've been the last couple of years

03:49where they're on the precipice of taking a step.

03:51But they're lacking in certain areas that keep them in that 71-win range.

03:57Landfill, that was an impassioned Nats rant from a man, Toby.

Category

Transcript

Recommended