Garcia & Wood Homer in Win

Walters is a great place to watch the NBA finals with friends to open late and located right across the street from Nationals Park. [MUSIC] >> Canning steps, kicks and swings the arm. And a fly ball deep right center field of the three-oh pitch way back toward the cap it goes and it is gone. It just clears the out of town scoreboard. Garcia hovers out of three-oh and the Nationals lead one to nothing. >> Canning to the belt, one-one to Woods. >> Swung on and drilled a deep right center field. Is it high enough? It is gone. Goodbye. >> Another laser beam over the right center field. Walton, a hold run for James 1. >> It's now the Nationals 3 and the Pine Ray's nothing. The O1 to Chaparo. >> So we have a crowd ball third base on there. Pest and having the shot out down the line. Nudious scores, the ball hits the sidewalk. Woods get to get stopped and third as the ball plays back in. In a second with a pitch in RBI double. His address, Chaparo. The Nationals a huge insurance run. They lead it forward to two. Chaparo picks up his fourth RBI with a crowd ball just inside the third base back. >> And welcome to Natch Chat, a Malgoldi host of the Algoldi podcast. My usual co-host, Washington Nationals insider Mark Sukerman of Natchetronal.com. He is off for this installment of the podcast, but it is great to have you with us. And my friends, we are going to have some fun. How about the month of May, 2026 for our Washington Nationals? They in the month of May, 2026 went 16 and 12. The team's best regular season month since going 17 and 11 in August, 2023. A four to win over the San Diego Padres at Nationals Park on Sunday afternoon to win the three game series. This installment in that's chat brought to us by Mason Calfys, the top legal recruiter in Washington, DC. Mason has been with us since our first season. You can reach him at 2024863535. The Nats in MLB's 2026 regular season now are 31 and 29 with a run differential of plus one. Yes, I did say plus before I said one plus one. We are through May and the Nats in this season number one of a restarted rebuild are two games above 500 with a positive run differential coming up later in the show. A special treat, a conversation that the creator owner and executive producer of this podcast him showvers had with Washington Wizards insider chase use of manual sports network. Chase is many of you know, big Nats fan. He and Tim used to work together on a Nats podcast for what was then NBC sports Washington. You can reach me on X at L. Goldie. I got this from Paul Whittington on X on Sunday afternoon wrote Paul a stat that will no doubt have algal the absolutely over the moon. The nationals have a positive run differential on May 31st. Thank you for that Paul. I am over the moon and I'm not talking about the Padres song moon song, but you hear me bring up run differential a good bit great to have the Nats two games above 500 with a positive run differential. Two points that I want to make before we get into the specifics of this win on Sunday afternoon. Point number one is something that I posted on X this past Tuesday night, May 26th. The 2026 Washington nationals remind me of the 2024 Washington commanders. I am getting 2024 commanders vibes from the 2026 Nats. The best season that any of Washington DC's big four pro sports teams, Nats commanders, capitals, wizards have had since the Nats won the 2019 World Series is the commanders 2024 season. Consider the following for the 2026 Nats and 2024 commanders. The following is true for each team surprising success. New front office and coaching staff breathing much needed new life into the franchise and lead offense led by a phenom in the commanders case, the quarterback, Jaden Daniels in the Nats case outbuilder James would great on the road. Good injury luck. A concern is the defense. A lot of parallels between the 2026 Washington nationals and 2024 Washington commanders point number two. And I said this in a post on X on May 24th. And I've said this on my podcast, the Algoldy podcast, but let's do this on this podcast. The Nats Blake butterra right now is a legitimate candidate for National League manager of the year. That is not hyperbole. That is not exaggeration. That is not being a prisoner of the moment. That is not a hot take. That to me is honest, accurate analysis of what is happening here. Blake butterra right now is a legitimate candidate for National League manager of the year. I mean, think about what's happening here. The Nats for this regular season had over under win totals in the 60s. And yet the team now is 31 and 29 and that butterra is just 33 and is in his first season as an MVP manager. And I'm sure that's not going to be a good one. And 29 and that butterra is just 33 and is in his first season as an MVP manager of having never played or coached above the single A level of professional baseball makes what he's doing even more impressive. But you know what he is doing would be impressive, even if he was like a 60 year old veteran, MVP manager Blake butterra is killing it right now. Only twice have we seen a Nats manager win National League manager of the year 2012, David Johnson 2014 Matt Williams. Matt Williams when National League manager of the year in his first season as an MVP manager, could it be might it be that Blake butterra will do the same. The Nats have become one of the best stories in baseball. You hear me bring up the process a good bit. The process right now is thriving. The Nats new analytics base process led by president of baseball operations, Paul Tuponi, general manager, Ani Kalambi and manager Blake butterra. The process is making an instant impact. It is so exciting. It is so encouraging to see this. What must Tuponi Kalambi and butterra be thinking right now? What must Tuponi Kalambi and butterra be saying to each other behind the scenes? You know the scene in the all time great movie office space in which the three main characters are all dancing and celebration at one point. That perhaps is what we have right now with Tuponi Kalambi and butterra behind the scenes. But of course there is still work to do. The Nats offense in the team winning two out of three games against the Padres at Nationals Park over the weekend was terrific. More good work on Sunday afternoon four runs nine hits which were two home runs two doubles and five singles three walks of the Nats did go just one for six with runners in scoring position. But James would he is the Nats starting right fielder and number one batter one for three with a two run homer and a walk would in the Nats to run fifth a one out to run homer to right center field for a three nothing Nats lead and this was some shot by wood. The homer per stat cast would project it four hundred seventeen feet and had a game best exit velocity of a hundred thirteen point eight miles per hour would punish that baseball. He now has an OPS of nine fifty nine Louise Garcia Jr. He is the Nats starting first baseman and number two batter went one for three with a solo homer Garcia in the Nats one run fourth had a lead off homer to right center field on a three O pitch for a one nothing Nats lead that homer went a projected four hundred two feet per stat cast and you know we talk about the process consider this Blake butera pinch hit for Garcia with Andre's Chapparo in the bottom of the seventh and the decision worked that well Chapparo had a pinch two out RBI double to left field for a four to Nats lead how often already have we said man Blake butera pushing all the right buttons when it comes to pinch hitting. Here's another example right there Garcia his OPS now is up to seven twenty C.J. Abrams he is an at starting shortstop and number four batter went two for four with a double and a single he now has an OPS of nine thirty three and K. Bear Louise he is an at starting catcher and number nine batter went two for three with two singles and went three for four on runners trying to steal. We set a new record for the most runners thrown out on attempted steals by a Nats catcher in a nine inning regular season game since the franchise moved to Washington DC in the 2004 2005 offseason and I say nine inning regular season game because Brian Schneider throughout the re-runners on attempted steals in a fourteen inning game in May 2005 but quite the exclamation mark for K. Bear Louise regarding his phenomenal month of May. I mean this came out of nowhere right K. Bear Louise just killing it in this now concluded month of May. Louise for the month of May had an OPS of one thousand one hundred seven. He for this regular season now has an OPS of eight twelve including a five eighteen slugging percentage. You know we talk about James Wood and C.J. Abrams as being the Nats primary candidates for this season's Nassau League All-Star team and clearly that is the case but there are others on the Nats who are at least making things interesting and could it be the K. Bear Louise emerges here as a true contender to be on this season's NL All-Star team. I mean it's unbelievable when you think about where we were with this guy just a few weeks ago but he has an eight twelve OPS. plugging 518 for the catching position, those numbers absolutely are all stark caliber. Then that's due process surging right now. (air whooshing) Then that starting pitcher in this 4-2 win over the Padres on Sunday afternoon was Zach Letel, and he again was good. No opener for Letel in this game. He was a starting pitcher who started a game. He officially allowed two runs in six innings with five strikeouts versus two walks. He gave up five hits, which were a double and four singles. He threw a lot of strikes, 84 pitches, 55 strikes, 29 balls. So Letel tossed six shutout innings, but he in the top of the seventh got charged with two runs and facing three banners and getting no outs, including giving up a first pitch, RBI double by Ty France to left field. To cut the nats lead to three one. So Letel did end up staying in the game for too long, but I really don't blame Blake Boutera for having Letel begin that seventh inning. Letel was pitch efficient. His pitch count was low, and so having him begin that seventh inning was not unreasonable, but the decision did not work out. But consider the turnaround for Zach Letel. He got off to such a rough start to this regular season, right? Six games, including five starts, ERA of 7.85 whip of 1.74, just awful numbers. But Letel for the month of May, six games, including three starts, ERA of 2.35 whip of 1.01. He was terrific in May. He was Blake Boutera during his post game press conference on Sunday afternoon on Zach Letel. And then you hear a follow-up exchange between Liam Griffin of the Washington Times in Boutera. Overall Zach threw the ball great. Super low pitch count, too, right? That's why he went back out there for the seventh, not throwing many pitches and really didn't have much trouble up until the seventh there. Just did a really good job of mixing speeds. The fastball velocity, luckily it was up. There was some carry on his fastball. So there was even ground balls early too, which was good to see. Just mixing his pitches, mixing his location and was very economical with this pitch count, which allowed him to pitch into the seventh today. Our bullpen was a little bit tired, of course, from the weekend. But the seventh there was really that lead off walk hurt. And then it was a but and then just that one hard double to left field now that ended his day. So it wasn't really like, you know, it kind of happened quick there in the seventh, but overall, a thought he threw the ball. Great. Zach entered May with an ERA over 7. And he hasn't allowed more than two runs at any of his last I think five or six experiences. Have you seen anything switch for him over the past month? There was just kind of, you know, regressing to what his name is. Yeah, it's actually good picture. He's been a good picture for a while, which is why we were so excited to acquire him when we did. But we also acquired him later. You know, it was actually after the offseason to where he didn't have the normal build up he's had going into his previous years. So we want to give him a little bit of time to kind of get his feet underneath him. He's also learning a totally new organization with new people. I think now he feels like he's in a good spot physically, mentally, emotionally. He's, you know, very well used to everybody here now and understanding how we operate. And it's been fun to watch and pitch. Yes, it has been and the naturally pitching in this four two win over the Padres on Sunday afternoon was good. Two natural levers combined for three scoreless innings or Randall Revolta officially tossed two scoreless and hitless innings. He came into the game in the top of the seventh with runners on second and third. No outs and the dance up 3 1. Revolta did give up an RBI sack fly by Nick Castellanos to cut the Nats lead to 3 2 issued a one out walk of Sungmoon Song and then got a strike them out throw them out double play. Well, the runners out at second and if they if he loses the challenge, it's a double play generating a cold strike out of Miguel on Doohar and catcher, Cape it Ruiz throwing out song on an attempted steel of second base and Ruiz made a perfect throw to second baseman, Jorby Beebus, Revolta then tossed a perfect top of the eighth and Clayton Beatr tossed a scoreless top of the ninth of the save and a curly W is in the box. The game ended via a strike them out the room out double play in the beta generating a cold strike out of Ty France and Cape it Ruiz throwing out Jackson Merrill in an attempt to steal a second base as Nassim Nunez who is at second base at this point, tag Merrill off him sliding off the base to end the game. Runner goes pitches low throw by Ruiz the tag by Nunez, he's off the bag, he's off the bag, he's out. He is out. Good stuff from Orlando Revolta in games one and three of this series. Good stuff from Clayton Beatr in games two and three of this series and each guy has done well for the Nets at the major league level in this regular season. Revolta 15 games 15 and two thirds innings e already of 1.72 whip of 0.89 and so here was Blake butera during his post game press conference on Sunday afternoon of the Nets going at 16 and 12 in May and then they'll hear a follow up exchange. Makes you feel good of course on any time you're playing well. Look, I think I said our goal from beginning has been to make sure that each day we're continuing to get better and better and that the goal is here to make sure we're playing better baseball in August and September than we are in the season. So I think if we continue on this track of guys put in the work and continue to get better day in and day out happy with the way things are trending right now. What is there left to get better? We need better to handful things. I think we've still made a handful of mistakes even in some games that we've won that if we want to be a really good baseball team we're going to have to do well whether it's playing good defense and we've been playing better as a late executing months in big situations. Of course, something will continue to work on but just cleaning up some small things here and there will take us from a good team to a great team and that's the goal. Good to hear all of that from Blake butera and I enjoyed this the official ex account of Ebo B an account that has 13.1 million followers that account on Sunday afternoon put out a post in honor of the Washington Nationals referencing the Nats being 20 and 13 over their last 33 games. The 2026 Nats have become one of these stories in baseball. Next up for the Nats is a three game series against the Miami Marlins in Nationals Park. The Nats have listed the following starting pictures as probable for the series game one Monday evening at 645 Cade Cavali game two Tuesday evening at 645 miles Michaelis game three Wednesday afternoon at 105 Andrew Alvarez you can find us on exit Nats underscore chat you can find us on blue sky at Nats chat podcast you can email us Nats chat podcast at gmail.com and we have a website that we invite you to check out Nats chat podcast dot com at which you can purchase a Nats chat podcast t-shirt. All Nats it all radio highlights on Nats chat or courtesy of the fan of the Algoldi I'll talk to you next time on the Nats chat podcast and we leave you now with Tim show for his conversation with Chase Hughes. Enjoy. [Music] Picking second will be the Utah Jazz and that means that the number one pick in the 2026 NBA draft goes to the Washington Wizards. The Washington Wizards win the 2026 NBA draft lottery. Remember they made a huge trade last season they added Anthony Davis they added tray young and now they will have a number one pick to pair alongside their young court. I'm going to be joined by Chase Hughes who covers the Wizards for monumental sports and as part of the Wizards radio team chase grew up in North of Virginia. We covered the Nats in 2019 as teammates including his podcast co-host during the World Series run. Chase even filled in for me on ESPN 980 during the 2014 playoff run. We've known each other a long time. Chase is a diehard fan of the local football team as well. He knows the Patrick Ramsey era backwards and forwards. Chase joins us today to talk about the Wizards recently winning the NBA draft lottery. Chase welcome to Nats chat. Thanks for having me man. It's good to reconnect. Yeah great to talk to you today and let's get right to it. What is the percent chance that the Wizards draft? AJ DePonza number one overall. I would say about 50%. It's really a toss up between him and Darren Peterson who played at Kansas. It's kind of an unusual year in the NBA with a lot of sports. You know who the number one picks going to be sometimes by like midway through the college season the year before in the NBA. It's very rare that you don't know on lottery night who the number one picks going to be. But in this case, it's still up in the air and it's largely because there's two arguably three guys who would be the number one pick in the average year. So the Wizards are in a fortunate spot to be able to choose between them. It's just not going to be a very easy decision to draw a parallel. It's not quite when the Nationals got the number one pick and it was Steven Strasbourg and Bryce Harper. It's like you're trying to choose between both of those guys. Okay. Is there anyone a third horse of the race or is it just a Bonson Peterson? Cameron Booser of Duke would be the third guy. I think he's a distant third. He doesn't have the sort of obvious superstar athleticism is the other two. But people might recognize that name. Cameron Booser because he's the son of Carlos Booser played at Duke. Just like his father, obviously people in this area. No Carlos Booser very well from back in the day when he was battling Maryland Terrapins in the ACC. All right. I'm going to give you my quick scouting report on all three players and you tell me hit the added button wherever you want on all of them. AJ DeBonza clearly a future NBA All-Star superstar. I don't know, but I like what I saw Peterson. I hated how he was. we tapped out a half time against BYU. I even hated more how we didn't play against number one team in the country on national TV against Arizona. To me, I would take him off my draft board. Third, Cameron Booser, solemn playing DC. Again, St. John's in the sweet 16 dominant post player. To me, he should be a sophomore in college instead of an NBA rookie next season. You take it away. I love it. When you said you saw him playing DC, I thought, oh, was he at the Duke Michigan game? I was there too. That's right. Cam Booser played in the NCAA tournament here suffered a tough loss to Yukon as well. Yeah. Put him out. Yeah. I mean, I, I wouldn't say the exact same things that you said, but I do agree to Bonsa is the leader in the clubhouse for me. You mentioned some of the risks involved with Darren Peterson. That's something the teams are going to have to weigh. And Cameron Booser obviously very well suited for college. And the question is, okay, will this translate to the NBA? But you know what's interesting about him is he has dominated every level of basketball from AAU to high school like this guy won championships everywhere he went. Obviously, really good college player. So if it's not going to translate to the NBA, then it'll sort of be like a buzz saw stopping when it hasn't stopped previously. Just what we also had, I think Booser is a better college basketball player than Cooper Flag. Though NBA, I'll take that. Wow. Okay. That's pretty high praise. Excellent. Excellent player. Yeah. No doubt about that. Trade. What a talk is through. What are the chances the Wizards trade it or is that just a smoke screen leading up to the draft? I think there is a chance. I think it's probably mostly a smoke screen. I think it's a matter of they've got to listen to their options so that they can weigh their options. It's due diligence. You know, you got to know what is on the table before you make your decision. But it's really rare that that happens. You can technically trade the number one pick, but it hasn't happened in eight years. It's very risky proposition. And I also think it's foregoing a very rare opportunity to pick first overall, especially in a draft like this. You know, put yourself in the shoes of an executive in charge. It might be the only time in your entire career. You might work 50 years in the NBA. You might only once get the number one pick, especially in a draft like this and you get to make that decision. So I don't think the wizards are going to take that lightly. And if you do trade back, we've seen many instances over the years, not necessarily with the number one pick, but teams overthink it. They're like, yeah, we like both of these guys. Why don't we trade back? We'll get another first round pick. And then you realize the guy who went in the spot that you traded out of is way better. And it becomes a franchise altering the stakes. So it's not going to be an easy decision to make whether they want to trade. It kind of reminds me. I know you're a movie guy of like the hurt locker where like Jeremy Renner had to choose like which wire am I going to cut? You know, the blue wire, the green wire. If you choose the wrong one, it could be a disaster. That's kind of like where the wizards are sitting right now. Chase and I have had some really fun movie conversations, but that's for a different podcast episode. And TV shows. Oh, yeah. You and I, we got the same taste. We've had a lot of fun in the. Yeah, I'll give you some credit real quick. You called succession very early on. Thank you. I was a late adopter, but I'm glad that I came around and you were a big reason why. Yeah. I didn't think forget that one either, but much appreciated. Anthony Davis, like catch me up on this. It's like, is he going to be playing for the Washington Wizards on November 1st, 2026? They're like, what is his deal? That's the expectation. I mean, the GM of the Wizards will dockens is held firm in that. He said they traded for him to have him play as a Washington wizard. But Anthony Davis in a series of interviews is sort of left the door open saying essentially he's not fully convinced that he wants to stay. And in the NBA in particular, if you're a superstar player with his pedigree with his salary, you know, you tend to have quite a bit of power. How much power he still has at his age at 33? You know, I'm not quite sure. What are the alternatives that he's alluding to? I'm not quite sure. But the expectation is that he'll play for the Wizards next year. But basically, he wants to hear more from the front office about their plan to build a championship contender because this is a guy who was one title who's already going to be in the Hall of Fame someday. He's already been named to the top 75 players of all time list. But knows that the clock is ticking on his career and he wants a chance to compete for, it sounds like at least one more championship. Can that happen in DC? It sounds like he wants that to happen within the next two years. So the Wizards have to make that case to him. So what do you think is going to be the starting five opening night this year? Trey Young is going to be starting at the one. I feel very good about that. That's after that is where the question start who starts at the two. I think if Darren Peterson is the number one pick, it's probably going to be him. I mean, they just drafted a two guard last year in Trey Johnson, but you're going to have to put some defense next to Trey Young. That's not his biggest strength. So I think it's either going to be Darren Peterson at the two or if they go with AJ DeBonza, he would start at the three in Kishan, George, who they drafted in the first round two years ago. He would play at the two. He six eight, but he'd be there to guard. And then after that, it's pretty straightforward. Anthony Davis at the four, Alex Sarr at the five. So I feel very confident about Trey Young at the one Davis at the four, if he's here, Sarr at the five. And then the two and three is the question mark for me. And it really depends on whether they draft Darren Peterson or AJ DeBonza. And if you were the GM, who would you be drafting? I would lean to Bonsa. He is the number one pick on most mock drafts right now. And that was the case before he went to the combine and measured in. It's six eight and a half with a 42 inch vertical leap in the same sprint speed as John Wall. So we're talking about like a uniquely special athlete who also is super reliable, plays every game, led the nation scoring has a very advanced skill set for his age, especially in the offensive end. There's very few question marks when it comes to AJ DeBonza. So I think the floor is high and the ceiling is obviously extremely high, but it's not an easy call because Darren Peterson has a lot of selling points as well. I'm hoping it's DeBonza. I think it should be DeBonza. So we'll see what happens this summer. Last question for you, Chase. I'm going to switch over to kind of football related, the new stadium we haven't talked since this is becoming a reality. There's going to be a new football stadium in Washington, DC at the RFK site. Just give me a reaction to the news. Obviously it's great that it's going to be on the site at RFK. I'm too young to have gone to a game when I was a kid, but I've heard the stories from my parents, my grandparents, how the stands would shake. So I don't know if they're going to be able to recreate that atmosphere entirely, but I am excited to sort of have the stadium beyond that ground, hopefully be more accessible. I go to FedEx like once a year. It's really hard to get to. I have my own strategy for like how to cut down on the commute time there and back, but it's very far away, right? But it's also still cool to get there and just be around so many fans wearing the same colors rooting for the same team. So to have that kind of atmosphere in DC is going to be great. The one thing that I am worried about though is ticket prices because I don't know if you've tried to go to a commander's game, but the prices since they got Jaden Daniels have essentially doubled. Like it last year, it was like a hundred something dollars just to sit in the nose bleeds. His rookie year and before that, I had this strategy where I'd always pick a game in October, middle of the season, beginning of the season, hype has died down. They're at home. It's against a bad team. They're probably going to win tickets are cheap. I go, the weather's still kind of warm. And I was trying to use that strategy last year after the word got out on Jaden Daniels and tickets were like two or three times as much as they were twice as much as it cost to go to a game in Baltimore when it's the Ravens who are a better team. And why I'm a little bit worried is that they want to have a smaller stadium than FedEx at RFK. So I feel like the prices are going to be even higher, but enough of me on my soapbox complain at about ticket prices. I'll still try to go to a game a year. And based on the renderings, it looks like it's going to be awesome. I'm with you. You can play all you want. The tickets are too expensive. I could pay you. No arguments here on this. Jay, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it. And tell everyone where they can follow your coverage this summer for the draft. Yeah, so you can catch all my coverage on monumental sports network.com. And if you're a wizards fan and you want to catch a wizards podcast, obviously this is a great nationals podcast. Check out off the bench wherever you subscribe to your podcast. We're also on YouTube and the monumental plus app.