{"id":78157,"date":"2016-04-25T13:54:34","date_gmt":"2016-04-25T13:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sandbox.web.rcn.net\/rcntv\/?p=78157"},"modified":"2023-04-11T19:33:56","modified_gmt":"2023-04-11T19:33:56","slug":"sportstalk-shop-chiefs-16-primernationals-prospects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-chiefs-16-primernationals-prospects\/","title":{"rendered":"The SportsTalk Shop:  Chiefs &#8217;16 Primer\/Nationals Prospects"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It wasn\u2019t the typical start to the baseball season for the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.milb.com\/index.jsp?sid=t552\">Syracuse Chiefs<\/a>\u2014the top minor league affiliate for the <a href=\"http:\/\/washington.nationals.mlb.com\/index.jsp?c_id=was\">Washington Nationals<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>While the parent club posted some nice wins during the first week of the regular season, their Triple-A team, the Chiefs, had to play their \u201chome opener\u201d in another state, and only got two games in (both part of a seven-inning doubleheader) during the first week of the regular season.\u00a0 Despite that, Syracuse got off to a good start to its season as well.<\/p>\n<p>We had a chance to speak with Syracuse Manager Billy Gardner and a couple of their players to ask them about this year\u2019s team and about an unusual start to the 2016 season.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Z61GYAMVkpY\" width=\"425\" height=\"350\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The Chiefs manager also talked about one of the organization\u2019s top pitching prospects, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.milb.com\/player\/index.jsp?sid=t552&amp;player_id=595918#\/career\/R\/pitching\/2016\/ALL\">A. J. Cole<\/a>, who started their season opening game.\u00a0 Their first game of the season was supposed to be the previous Tuesday in Syracuse, before it was moved due to unsafe playing conditions at their stadium.\u00a0 Gardner speaks about Cole pitching in 40-degree temperatures and also talked about how the strong finish to the 2015 campaign can benefit him this season.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fehf45YQyeM\" width=\"425\" height=\"350\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>One of the top young players in the entire organization is shortstop <a href=\"http:\/\/www.milb.com\/player\/index.jsp?sid=t552&amp;player_id=607208#\/career\/R\/hitting\/2016\/ALL\">Trea Turner<\/a>, who we caught up with to ask about his style of play, his reaction to some high praise from his Triple-A manager and his goals for the 2016 season, which, he (and many Washington fans) hopes will result in a quick call-up to the Nationals.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MRHd_St9hfU\" width=\"425\" height=\"350\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The Chiefs should be a fun team to watch as they feature a mix of both up-and-coming prospects along with seasoned veterans that should add a lot of depth to the organization overall.\u00a0\u00a0 In terms of the team\u2019s success, they do have an opportunity to finish among the top teams as currently constructed in the International League.<\/p>\n<p>As far as prospects, the Opening Day roster features Turner (ranked #2 in the organization according to mlb.com), Cole (ranked seventh), pitcher <a href=\"http:\/\/www.milb.com\/player\/index.jsp?sid=t552&amp;player_id=608723#\/career\/R\/pitching\/2016\/ALL\">Austin Voth<\/a> (ninth), catcher <a href=\"http:\/\/www.milb.com\/player\/index.jsp?sid=t552&amp;player_id=600474#\/career\/R\/hitting\/2016\/ALL\">Pedro Severino<\/a> (tenth) and third-baseman <a href=\"http:\/\/www.milb.com\/player\/index.jsp?sid=t552&amp;player_id=605474#\/career\/R\/hitting\/2016\/ALL\">Matt Skole<\/a> (29<sup>th<\/sup>).\u00a0 Fortunately, the Nationals have not suffered nearly the number of injuries that they had at this time last year, allowing the Chiefs to benefit by holding on to just about everyone on its roster thus far.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The International League always plays a competitive brand of baseball, and the Chiefs, who have won five of their first nine games, seemed to have \u2018weathered\u2019 their rough start to the season and look to be competitive all summer long.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ll have more on Washington\u2019s top minor league affiliate, along with interviews with their top prospects during the course of this season, both here at \u201cThe Shop\u201d as well as on our Thursday \u201cRCN SportsTalk\u201d show.\u00a0 Also, you can catch more of these above interviews by viewing the April 14<sup>th<\/sup> edition of \u201cSportsTalk\u201d through RCN On-Demand.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Feel free to give us your feedback and send us your sports comments and questions via email (<a href=\"mailto:rcnsportstalk@rcn.com\">rcnsportstalk@rcn.com<\/a>) and tune in to our weekly show\/<a href=\"http:\/\/www.rcn.com\/atvn\/sports-talk\/\">podcast <\/a>to hear us read and respond.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It wasn\u2019t the typical start to the baseball season for the Syracuse Chiefs\u2014the top minor league affiliate for the Washington Nationals! While the parent club posted some nice wins during the first week of the regular season, their Triple-A team, the Chiefs, had to play their \u201chome opener\u201d in another state, and only got two&#8230;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"Yoast SEO Relevanssi index exclude","inline_featured_image":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5],"tags":[645,644,646,547],"class_list":["post-78157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-sports","category-the-sportstalk-shop","tag-aj-cole","tag-syracuse-chiefs","tag-trea-turner","tag-washington-nationals"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The SportsTalk Shop: Chiefs &#039;16 Primer\/Nationals Prospects - ATVN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The SportsTalk Shop: Chiefs &#039;16 Primer\/Nationals Prospects - ATVN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It wasn\u2019t the typical start to the baseball season for the Syracuse Chiefs\u2014the top minor league affiliate for the Washington Nationals! 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