Mark Zuckerman on Joey Gallo's return

Zuckerman on James McCann of next week Dan Koko with you on that extra pregame joined by Mark Zuckerman from Masson sports.com and some roster moves for the Nationals today Joey Gallow comes up got over that hamstring issue so he is activated to the Nationals roster Travis blankenhorn sent down to triaa Rochester and Robert Garcia also activated off the bereavement list so good to get him back in Davy Martinez's Bullpen but Mark let's start by talking about who else James would this guy his first 21 games as a big leager were solid not you know he didn't struggle he didn't overly impressed throughout those three weeks his last 21 games he's hitting 373 he's got an Ops over 1100 and he did something on Sunday that fans had been clamoring for he finally hit a home run to the pole side this thing was a bomb they said it was 417 ft I think they might have shorted him a little bit there what did you make of the swing and how James has kind of been coming around overall well you just mentioned all those numbers the fact that he had put up those numbers with out pulling a ball in the air uh is remarkable to me and tells you how much more there is still coming from him of course you knew he had this in him I think it's a product of how he's been pitched so far a lot of breaking balls a lot of soft stuff away and he's just going with it and driving the ball to the opposite field which is what a really good hitter will do he finally got a ball in the inner part of the plate a fast ball that he could turn on and you saw wow the damage he could do with that so what's stood out to me about him is the progression we've seen pretty much every week that he's been here uh hitting the ball the other way hitting the ball hard first on the ground then getting into the air he had that little stretch was striking out kind of clean that up starting to draw his walks again and now driving the ball with some real authority to right field it to see all that kind of progression here in just the span of what six weeks in the big leagues it shows you not just how talented he is but how smart he is how much he can adapt on the fly at the big league level the kind of stuff that takes other hitters a long time to do there's still six weeks to go in this season where's he going to be at the end of this I'm excited to find out where's Zuckerman on Jacob Young he going to be at 23 25 years old let's look into the future a little bit this guy has the potential to be really special and it was cool seeing the reactions of all of his teammates and the fans at Citizens Bank Park after he touched that baseball off the Nat's social media team had a great post kind of highlighting those instant reactions Mark let's talk about Jacob Young Who that Sunday game in Philly suffered what looked like a scary injury early in that ball game making a sliding attempt on a play in left center field we take a look at it here he took up a big chunk of the turf stuck his knee into the grounds there and clearly was going through some discomfort for the next few Innings he grinded through it and then he ended up driving in the eventual game-winning run what have we seen from Jacob in terms of his toughness and his ability to find a way to help his team on any given day well the toughness he's going to give everything he has out there in center field especially I mean you saw some of the plays he made in that Series going up against the wall to make the Fantastic catch uh and even that one as ugly is it looked he Davey said he went out there to check on him Jacob said hey just give give me a minute I'll be okay you sure are you sure you want to run it all no no no I'll be fine just give me a minute get on my feet and be fine um he's not a physically imposing guy but he plays tough uh as as as well as any big strong individual and the question you know we know what he is defensively that's not going to be an issue the question is going to be can he contribute enough offensively uh to Merit playing every day in the big leagues and quality at bats like that one in a big spot late in the game that's what's going to keep him up here they're not expecting him to be a you know All-Star hitter he doesn't have to hit at the top of the lineup if he can be just productive enough and play that great defense for them he can bat ninth on a really good team and utilize his Zuckerman on Kyle Finnegan speed find a way to put the ball in play and let his wheels work for him on the offensive side of the ball as well so we talk about a couple offensive stars of that game wood and young and young helping out defensively as well and then Kyle Finnegan wraps up that save uh and win for the Nationals in the inning he hadn't gotten a save opportunity Mark in almost two weeks the save chances for finny of Lade have not been there and whether it's because he's been pitching in non-save situations or just because it's been fluky he hasn't pitched as well over the last couple weeks as he has throughout much of the Season he did pick up the save and that was great to see what if anything have you noticed different from Kyle over the last few weeks as we get deeper into the season well I think it starts with right around the trade deadline I know he will say that it wasn't on his mind but it had to be on his mind those last couple days he had the big blow up in in Arizona the day before the deadline once he was told you're not going anywhere you're a closer I think there was a sigh of relief everything's going to be all right then you had that stretch where he didn't pitch at all I think it was a week that he went without any appearances and so you're going to be a little bit Rusty and I think he's the type who needs consistent work you don't want to overwork him but I do think he needs some kind of consistent work uh to feel right the thing I he he talked about this that great as the first half was all star appearance this little stretch the numbers don't look as great all of a sudden the er's in the threes he is really determined not to let that Define his season he wants at the end of the year to be able to say I had a great season not just a great first half uh so I think there's a lot on the line for him here over the last six weeks and I've been interested to see he's been throwing a lot of those uh Splitters kind of up in the zone I think that's been getting him he needs another pitch you can count on you saw a few Sliders in that series against the Phillies I'm curious to see if he starts doing that a little more something a little more off speed throw the timing off is not just sitting on the fast ball yeah and it was the splitter up that got Trey Turner the game-winning RBI in that walk-off for the Phillies uh in game two of that series Mark thanks for the time as always