District 34 podcast: Turner, Papelbon and the draft

The Nationals offense is hot coming into the summer months! After their third straight 10-run game and victory, the Nats are looking to close out this 11-day road trip with a sweep of the White Sox before returning home.

It's an exciting and eventful time in the baseball calendar with the First-Year Player Draft starting tonight. The Nationals hold the 28th, 29th and 58th overall picks in the first two rounds, so Byron Kerr and I give you a brief preview of the possible areas general manager Mike Rizzo and assistant GM and vice president, scouting operations Kris Kline will address tonight.

In this episode, we'll also take a look back at the Nats' road trip. Byron was in Cincinnati with the team when top prospect Trea Turner was called up while Ryan Zimmerman was on paternity leave. We'll discuss the Turner situation (or lack thereof) and figure out how the Nationals should proceed with the young infielder moving forward.

Also, Jonathan Papelbon has recorded 15 saves in 17 opportunities this season. But he has struggled at times, most recently on Sunday in Cincy. Is there cause for concern for the Nationals closer? And if so, should the Nats be looking to make a change to the back end of their bullpen?

And finally, the Nats are coming home! We preview their weekend series against the Phillies and next week's three-game set against baseball's best, the Cubs.

We hope you enjoy this week's episode of District 34!

Note: The District 34 podcast will be recorded each week; therefore, all Nationals records and statistics will be current at the time of recording, but may be different when the episode is downloaded.