The Fascinating World Of New Nationals Boss Paul Toboni

71.386 - 98.106 Rob Radford

Listen, I think it's important to start a day with a compliment and when especially when it's deserved. So congratulations on everything. And, you know, I guess my my first thing, Paul, is it's a really cliche question, man, like being getting your new job. It's a lot, right? It's a lot of stuff. And that's why I really appreciate you taking the time here. But what was this being a lot?

98.407 - 111.021 Rob Radford

Is it what you thought it would be? You've been around baseball. You've been around front offices. You've been at the highest level of front offices and everything else. But building what you want to build on top of doing the job, is it what you thought it would be?

112.857 - 127.558 Paul Toboni

I think so. Yeah. I mean, there are subtle differences, but for the most part, I think it's what I thought it would be. And I mean, I don't think it's a mystery. Like these jobs are pretty demanding. You know what I mean? Maybe if anything, I think you're.

128.433 - 141.833 Paul Toboni

you know, dragged in is probably the wrong way to put it, but you have more obligation outside of like the baseball obligations, um, that, um, maybe I just, I didn't quite empathize with enough, uh, but that's all part of it. You know what I mean?

141.893 - 157.596 Paul Toboni

And, um, the baseball side, obviously it takes priority and, and that's where like, you know, 90% of your, your, um, time is spent, but at the same time, you know, like the, the remaining 10 or 20% doing the non-baseball stuff like that's, it's really important. And, uh,

281.327 - 300.091 Paul Toboni

Yeah, I would actually, I mean, everyone views this differently, I think, but I would actually argue that more than 50% of the, the, the process of like selecting, uh, you know, whoever it is that you select, like it has to do with the quality of person they are and the quality of leader they are. Right. Uh, the, the, all the in-game strategy.

300.111 - 322.213 Paul Toboni

And, uh, I know there's a lot of, uh, attention page that it's, it's so important. Don't get me wrong. Right. But, um, you know, nowadays I think we have like, there's so much information, right? Like we just have a lot of, uh, tools that we can put together to help support these guys in their positions. And not only that, like we can support them with other people on the bench too. Right.

322.293 - 342.833 Paul Toboni

So, um, our bench coach, Michael Johns has been around the game for a long period of time. Right. And he can help Blake in that respect. And, um, but you know, it goes back to what I initially said, like, uh, part of the reason why I, and why we were so drawn to Blake was, uh, the fact that he is an unbelievable person. He's commanded the respect of, uh,

344.112 - 363.708 Paul Toboni

so many people in the game, so many different types of people from different types of backgrounds too. You talk about like the, You know, the young 22 year old analyst that's a whiz kid. Right. And then the, you know, 75 year old coach that's been in the game for 50 years. Like Blake has great relationships with all those people. Right.

363.929 - 388.423 Paul Toboni

And he's just got a really uncanny ability to to connect with folks and then to to hold a high standard and to to hold people accountable to that standard. So and then. Those without saying, like he comes from a baseball family and his dad was a longtime coach or is a longtime coach in Louisiana. I love talking the game with them. You know, I think he sees the game really, really well.