There's no better time than the day after CJ Abrams, James Wood and Keibert Ruiz all have multi-hit games and all homer to get Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo on the air for his weekly appearance Wednesday with 106.7 The Fan's The Sports Junkies, which is presented exclusively by our partners at MainStreet Bank — Cheer Local. Bank Local. Put Our Team in Your Office. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender.
"The young guys have kinda been carrying us a little bit with their energy on the offensive side of the ball, so that's all good," Rizzo told the Junkies. "So when you got your potential core pieces for the future – Ruiz had a big night and James and CJ all played well and [Luis Garcia Jr.'s] been on fire – that's reassuring and refreshing to see those guys finish the season strong. And we've got a lot of games left and hopefully that continues."
On the Abrams homer in Tuesday's 11-5 win over the San Francisco Giants, the shortstop took a pitch that was on the outside corner and above the strike zone and the left-handed swinger smacked it (100.7 mph off the bat) and 387 feet to right.
"That's a pitch we often times tell our hitters not to swing at," the GM admitted. "It's neck high and 94 [mph] and it's hard to get on top of. But he seemed to get his hands on top of it, the barrel [to the ball] and hit it out of the yard. We preach to our hitters all the time – and as a young lineup – it's one of the most difficult things for a young player to do is recognize what your strengths are within the strike zone and your weaknesses because the pitchers are going to exploit your weaknesses and you have to stick with your strengths.
"I think CJ was guessing fastball and he got one and he was prepared for it even though it was probably a little out of the strike zone."
MacKenzie Gore, another young talent for Washington, was on the mound and while he pitched five innings, he got knocked around a bit for eight hits and five runs (four earned) with two walks and strikeouts.
"Well he gutted through that," Rizzo said. "That was an easy game – we've seen in the past – for pitchers to just fold it up. After four [runs allowed] in the first and they're out in the third inning and it's a bullpen game and it gets ugly.
"So, tip of the cap to him, he grinded out five and got rewarded with the win, but he wasn't crisp, he wasn't sharp. That's part of the process. With these young starters it's learning how to win without your best stuff and getting through and getting the team a W and pitching long enough to get a win is important... without his best command he gutted through and got us a W."
Rizzo said he is "definetly" pleased with where the young players in the Nationals rotation is with four guys in there now and several in the minor leagues who they believe can be front-end of the rotation guys in the near future.
And Wood, after a rough 0-for-15 stretch over four games, has really turned it on. In the rookie's last 10 games, he is 15-for-35 (.429) with six extra-base hits and 10 RBI for a 1.288 OPS. But the GM talked about how there will still be some "growing pains" as the 21-year-old still "learns the ropes" of playing in the Show.
"He's progressing beautifully at the big league level," Rizzo said of Wood. "For a player of his age that can do the things that he can do on the baseball field, it's incredible.
"With that said, we knew there were going to be growing pains defensively, base-running wise, playing a new position, hitting against these extreme, tough left-handed pitchers is gonna be a challenge to any left-handed hitter, but I think that you see constant slow progression and the precision that he puts into his workouts have been great. And he has performed admirably for us and I think you're just seeing this kid scratch the surface of what he can be."
But it was still something to see the 6-foot-7 rookie absolutely wallop a home run: 423 feet and 108.3 mph off the bat. And that pop, makes the next question an obvious one: Will the Nats be calling up another big prospect from Triple-A, outfielder Dylan Crews?
"I don't put any timetable on when we bring up guys," Rizzo said in response if the former No. 2 overall pick would be arriving at the start of September. "We always say when they're ready to come up we're gonna bring them up... He's a helluva player, he's learning the ropes at the Triple-A level, we really like the fact that he's increased his walk ratio and decreased his strikeout ratio. That was a goal we set when we moved him to Triple-A, so he's well on his way to achieving that. He's just an all-around really good player."
Down on the farm, Brady House, the Nationals No. 3 prospect, is "doing extremely well at the Triple-A level" and is showing his "prodigious power" and is learning the speed of the game at that level at third base and is gonna be a great big leaguer, the GM said.