Chris Russell Joins to Talk the State of the Washington Nationals

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00:00Our friend Chris Russell joins us from our nation's capital.

00:04He does afternoons on the Team 980, and you can follow him on X at Russellmania621.

00:11Always good to see you, Chris.

00:13We want to talk about the mess that is the Nationals to start with here.

00:20And, you know, I got to be honest.

00:22When Martinez had his moment in the sun, when he threw the players under the bus,

00:28in not so many words, he blamed the players.

00:32And, you know, he said the coaches have nothing to do with us.

00:35In not so many words, he said, we don't play.

00:38They're the ones going out there playing.

00:40We tell them what to do.

00:41We get them ready.

00:42We are ready.

00:43We do everything right.

00:44We do everything top shelf.

00:46And then they go out and F it up.

00:48I knew that day, I said on this show, that very day, he was fired.

00:53Yeah.

00:55Scotty, good to be on with you.

00:56First of all, thank you for having me.

00:58And I remember being at that game and driving away and going, oh, my God, he actually said

01:05what he was actually thinking, which was the coaches are not to blame and the players

01:10are, which is fine if you think that, even though that's probably wrong, but you can't

01:15say it.

01:16And I knew Davey was a dead man walking at that point.

01:20Mike Rizzo tried to walk it back.

01:22Davey tried to walk it back the next day.

01:24Mike Rizzo, a couple of days later, tried to walk it back.

01:26Like, oh, no, no, he didn't mean this.

01:28He didn't mean that.

01:29Listen, in the Lerner family, the owner's minds, along with an 11-game losing streak,

01:37which that was a part of that day, was an 11-game losing streak to the Marlins and the

01:42Rockies at home with crowds of 15,000.

01:46You knew Davey was gone.

01:47And the real surprise here is Mike Rizzo, the general manager and president, not so much

01:52that he was definitely going to be back next year, but the timing when you consider the

01:56number one overall pick on Sunday night going to the Nationals and, of course, the trade

02:00deadline.

02:02So he's been there forever, but that's kind of the way the cookie crumbles, right?

02:08In not so many words, they, you know, I think they needed to clean house because they've

02:15been so awful.

02:16I mean, let's just look at it here for a second because I knew you were coming on and I was

02:21kind of prepared for this.

02:24Home, 10 games under .500.

02:26Road, six games under .500.

02:29East, 11.

02:31I think it's like 11 games.

02:33Is that about right?

02:34Eight?

02:34Yeah.

02:35Maybe nine games under .500 against the East.

02:39Central, four and nine, five games under.

02:43Against the West, they've actually done decent one game under.

02:47They're still losing.

02:49They've won four and 10.

02:51They've lost three in a row.

02:53Like, it's gotten to the point, Chris, where I'm like betting against them every night of

02:58the week and making money five, six nights a week.

03:01Right.

03:02So, I'll take you back to the end of May.

03:04They scored, I think it was 36 runs over four games on the West Coast against Seattle and

03:09Arizona.

03:10And that was to end out May.

03:12And, Scotty, they never got off the mat after that.

03:14They were shut down by Corbin Burns the next day, the game that he got injured in in Arizona.

03:20And they never showed really any signs of life after that.

03:25They were terrible in June, terrible offensively.

03:28They're awful base running.

03:30They're not good defensively.

03:31Their bullpen stinks.

03:33They're starting pitching outside of Mackenzie Gore is very average, if not average, might

03:38be kind.

03:39And they were not playing with really a whole lot of juice or energy or fire or anything

03:45like that.

03:46Not to mention, you know, like last Wednesday, it was July 2nd, right?

03:51It's the middle of the summer.

03:52It's warm.

03:53Okay.

03:54A lot of people in D.C.

03:55They had 16,000 people there for the Detroit Tigers, the best team in the American League.

04:01And last Sunday against the Red Sox, a day where they run all sorts of kids, promotions

04:05and whatever, they had 26,000 and probably 12,000 Red Sox fans.

04:10So the owners are looking around saying, not only do we stink, but we ain't making any money.

04:14We're not bringing anybody in except for the road fans.

04:16They're like, that's like the Pirates.

04:19They're drawn like the Pirates.

04:21I'll say this.

04:22So I said this earlier.

04:25I think Tipper Gore is a really good strikeout pitcher, but they don't give him any support

04:30either.

04:30Like they, he pitches well, strikes guys out and they don't win.

04:34He reminds me of Skeens.

04:36Skeens doesn't give up any runs.

04:38They never score any runs when he pitches and he never wins.

04:41But the guy that we like talking about on this show is the Wood Doctor.

04:46He has hit so many home runs for us.

04:48And we, we bet home runs here every night.

04:51Carver High's taters are the stuff of legend.

04:53And we use the Wood Doctor regularly.

04:55I mean, every week, at least once or twice.

04:57I think he's been phenomenal.

04:59And, you know, this is what happens when you have a crappy team.

05:04People don't want to spend the money to go watch a crappy team.

05:07And you know that.

05:08Yeah, but he's not crappy by any means.

05:11And you guys are right on to bet him.

05:13And especially, you know, if you can get good value from him on a certain day against a

05:18left-hander, he torches left-handers, you know, so you may want to pay attention to your

05:22pitching matchups and whatever, maybe get a little different feel, a little different

05:26juice there, because he just absolutely hammers left-handers.

05:30And it's not just the home runs, but obviously, I mean, depending on what you're betting.

05:35James Wood is awesome.

05:36I think, you know, like any young hitter, he goes through a couple little bumps in the

05:41road, two, three games, whatever it is, where you're like, hmm, where's James Wood?

05:45But then he snaps right out of it, and he comes away with a five-hit game the other night.

05:49And you're like, oh, there's James Wood.

05:51And he, again, can torch left-handers.

05:53And that's so important, Scotty.

05:55And he goes to the opposite field.

05:57He drives the ball with authority.

05:58I think he's got three home runs over 116-plus exit velo.

06:02I mean, the guy can do pretty much everything, and he's actually turning out to be a pretty

06:06good left fielder, or whatever that's worth, in big baseball picture terms.

06:12That's worth something.

06:13Maybe not necessarily in gambling, but he can run the bases.

06:16He's got long strides.

06:17He does everything.

06:18So respectfully, I got about 45 seconds.

06:22Will they get this McLaren deal done?

06:24And will they live up to the lofty expectations that are set on that football team?

06:30Yeah, I think Terry McLaren's deal will take probably a little bit longer than the start

06:35of training camp, so I wouldn't be surprised to see a holdout.

06:37But eventually, I think they get it done, despite some acrimony and some bad feelings, somewhere

06:43in the neighborhood of $31 million to $32 million a year.

06:47And do you think they're going to win the division?

06:49No one ever wins that division back-to-back.

06:52Do you think they take Philly out?

06:55I think they've got a good chance.

06:56I mean, of course, it starts with Jaden Daniels, but it's really about the rest of their team.

07:00They improve their run defense.

07:01They improve their secondary.

07:03They improve their offensive line.

07:04I think they've got a good chance, as good of a chance as any other team in that division,

07:09I'll tell you that much.

07:10Chris, always good to see you, my friend.

07:12Have a great rest of the summer.

07:13We'll catch up in the fall for football.

07:15We'll catch up in the fall.

07:16We'll catch up in the fall.

07:17We'll catch up in the fall.

07:18We'll catch up in the fall.

07:19We'll catch up in the fall.

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