Making sense of a very sensible deal with Bradish

When owner David Rubenstein said the Baltimore Orioles were “open for business” back in April after signing Shane Baz, we said we’d believe what we see in payroll spending. This week, Mike Elias inked top-of-the-rotation starter Kyle Bradish to a 5-year, $90 million deal that Luke Jones and Nestor highly endorse for the future of the franchise. We should all agree that starting pitching is pretty important.

Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Orioles’ recent success and the signing of Kyle Bradish to a five-year, $90 million contract. Bradish has a 3.5 ERA in 86 career starts and is seen as a key piece for the team’s rotation. The conversation also touched on the upcoming trade deadline, potential needs for the Orioles, and the importance of managing Bradish’s innings. Nestor shared his experience at the All-Star Game in Philadelphia, highlighting the challenges faced by media and the importance of community engagement. Both hosts expressed excitement for the Orioles’ upcoming games and the start of the Ravens season.

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Host Zach on the show this week to discuss the air quality and smoke concerns.

Kyle Bradish Contract and All-Star Week Recap

• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the recent signing of Kyle Bradish to a five-year, $90 million contract.
• Luke Jones explains the financial details, noting that Bradish had two more years of team control, making the actual contract a three-year, $60-7 million deal.
• Nestor and Luke reflect on the volatility of pitching contracts, mentioning other pitchers like Corbin Burns and Grayson Rodriguez.
• Nestor shares his excitement about the Orioles’ recent winning streak and the upcoming games against the Braves.

Kyle Bradish’s Career and Injury History

• Luke Jones highlights Bradish’s impressive career statistics, including a 3.5 ERA in 86 career starts.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the risks associated with pitching contracts and the uncertainty in the industry.
• Luke mentions Bradish’s arm reconstruction and the challenges pitchers face with injuries.
• Nestor and Luke agree on the value of Bradish’s contract, considering his past performance and potential future contributions.

Orioles’ Rotation and Future Plans

• Nestor and Luke discuss the stability of the Orioles’ rotation, mentioning Kyle Bradish, Grayson Rodriguez, and Brandon Young.
• Luke emphasizes the importance of managing Bradish’s innings to avoid injury risks.
• Nestor and Luke speculate on the potential impact of the upcoming trade deadline and the Orioles’ needs for a third baseman and bullpen arms.
• Luke highlights the importance of adding a high-end reliever and a right-handed hitting outfielder to improve the team’s performance.

All-Star Game Experience and Media Interactions

• Nestor shares his experience at the All-Star Game in Philadelphia, including interactions with other media members and players.
• Nestor expresses frustration with the media treatment at the event, particularly with Adley Rutschman’s dismissive attitude.
• Luke and Nestor discuss the challenges of covering the All-Star Game and the lack of access to players.
• Nestor reflects on the overall experience, noting the positive aspects of the event despite the media challenges.

Philadelphia’s Hosting of the All-Star Game

• Nestor praises the city of Philadelphia for its hospitality and the organization of the All-Star Game.
• Nestor shares his experiences exploring the city, including visiting the Liberty Bell and attending a World Cup event.
• Luke and Nestor discuss the impact of the All-Star Game on the local community and the importance of hosting such events.
• Nestor expresses hope that Baltimore will do a good job hosting the All-Star Game in the future.

Orioles’ Future and Trade Deadline Strategy

• Nestor and Luke discuss the Orioles’ chances of making the playoffs and the potential moves at the trade deadline.
• Luke outlines the team’s needs, including a starting pitcher, bullpen arms, and a right-handed hitting outfielder.
• Nestor and Luke speculate on the availability of top prospects like Gunnar Henderson and Colton Cowser for trades.
• Luke emphasizes the importance of balancing the team’s needs with the potential costs of acquiring new players.

Personal Reflections and Upcoming Events

• Nestor and Luke share personal anecdotes about their vacations and the importance of family and friends.
• Nestor mentions his plans to attend a concert at Mako in Ocean City and his love for pizza.
• Luke talks about his family’s tradition of visiting Wildwood and the special memories created there.
• Nestor and Luke look forward to the upcoming Orioles games and the start of the Ravens season.

Nestor Aparicio 0:01
Welcome home. We are WNST AM 1570 Towson, Baltimore. It is Baltimore positive. I am back from the All Star game. Lucas is back from the beach, and the Orioles are winning some baseball games. It’s fun around here. Luke will be at Ravens training camp. Yeah, it’s that time of the year, middle of next week. Any breaking news happens first on the WNST Tech Service. It’s all brought to you by Cole Roofing and Gordian Energy. Even though Billy Cole’s ducking me ever since we had that cheesesteak over at Sorrento’s, it’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland Lotter when we get together at Pizza John’s in Essex on Friday this week. I’m gonna have a crab cake at Pizza John’s on Friday because some people think they don’t have a crab cake there and they have a good one, so I’m going to order one on the menu. Also going to order some manicotti because I had Slim Manicotti on this week too. Slim’s playing down at La Scala on Thursday night for the Mount Washington Pediatric Hospital. And I also want to give a shout out to my dear brother Alan McAllen who lost his mom last week, and we are celebrating her life this week in education and music, and celebrating her life on Thursday evening this week. So if you know Alan, you love Alan, you’ve listened to Alan. Throw Alan a note. He’s going through some tough times right now with his family. This guy went through tough times with his family last week, chasing this little one, that little one, sisters, brothers, mothers, all of them, beaches, keeping the kids out of the waves. He disappeared. Not only did the Orioles go undefeated during your vacation, which some folks want to send you back to Ocean City, Maryland, just to get ready here for another week. Maybe we could win some games this weekend against the Braves. Luke Jones is back, and not only that, mr. Rubenstein and mr. Arigetti are open for business while you were gone, and decided to take yours and my best advice and find a way to sign Kyle Bradish. Did we get numbers on this deal yet? I’ve seen everything, but like, like numbers. Where, where, how much money they give

Luke Jones 1:51
him? Yeah, five years, 90 million. And when you look at it in terms of the fact that Bradish, you had two more years of team control after this year, it kind of comes down to a three-year, 60-7 million-dollar contract to buy out those first few years of free agency. I’ll take that any day of the week. Look, pitching risk comes with pitching, right? Whether it’s Derek Skubel or Paul Skeens or The Miz or anyone, like Corbin Burns, right? The Orioles could have signed Corbin Burns, re-signed Corbin Burns two winners ago, and look how little he’s pitched. You know, hasn’t pitched at all for over a year now. So it’s the reality of the industry. It’s very frustrating. It’s very volatile. There’s a lot of uncertainty, but in the case of Kyle Bradish, you’re talking about someone that, in 86 career starts, has a 3.5 ERA. Racer

Nestor Aparicio 2:48
Rodriguez, three and three with an 8.23 ERA. Sure, I’m just going through other names of. Yeah, they could have given him a bunch of money two years ago instead of buy cuts, right? And a lot of people would have

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Luke Jones 2:59
been happy about that, and they would have signed him the weekend

Nestor Aparicio 3:01
we went to Texas. That you had a clubhouse badge and I didn’t. They were trying to throw me out of the building. If they would have signed Grayson Rodriguez to a a Boz deal, I don’t. You and I wouldn’t have yelled about it. I don’t think, right? No,

Luke Jones 3:13
I wouldn’t have. And and keep in mind at that point, any deal he would have signed at that point, you’re not. You weren’t going to give him $100 million or anything like that. So,

Nestor Aparicio 3:22
but you were thinking he was Jim Palmer for a minute.

Luke Jones 3:24
You were hoping. I mean, if not Jim Palmer, you were hoping he was going to be, you know, Mike Messina or something. Maybe 90% of Mike Messina, something like that. But, but no, I mean, I love this deal. I absolutely love this deal. To me, I’m not sure. I don’t know what the drawback would be, other than just that’s the case with signing any pitcher to a four or five-year contract. Are you going to be in that business or not? If you’re not, then boy, you got to develop a lot of pitching, a whole lot of pitching, and and we know that the Orioles, even if they have pivoted somewhat here over the last couple years, in terms of drafting more pitching than than they did early in the Michaelias era, well, Kyle Bradish has been the biggest success story. Keep in mind, Kyle Bradish was the headliner, even though we didn’t necessarily identify him as the headliner. Although I think most people did when they traded Dylan Bundy to the Angels once upon a time, but the Orioles did most of the developing for Bradish. Right, he was drafted in 2018, and and they they acquired him very early on. Right, so I love this deal. I think this is the kind of deal that if you had told me you have a chance to sign Kyle Bradish to five years. I probably would have gone even a little bit higher than what they did. You know, I probably would have if it was 29 now, though, right? He is. I mean, he is. He’ll be 30 in September, and he’s had his

Nestor Aparicio 4:54
arm reconstructed.

Luke Jones 4:56
He has, as have everybody. Yeah, feels like most pitchers. It’s not, but if you haven’t, I don’t want

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Nestor Aparicio 5:01
you. Something got to go wrong. Right, exactly.

Luke Jones 5:04
That was the thing with Corbin Burns, right? He was so durable, and then he’s not like your knees. Do you

Nestor Aparicio 5:08
have any scars on her knees yet from falling down? She doesn’t. She will. So, so look,

Luke Jones 5:12
I’m not. I can’t sit here with any amount of certainty. Michaelias can’t. The whatever GM you love in baseball, Andrew Friedman go through the list of any great baseball mind in a front office. You can’t sit here and predict the future. I mean, someone is going to give Terrick Skubel an absurd amount of money here in in a few months. You don’t know how that’s going to go. I mean, you just don’t.

Nestor Aparicio 5:35
I I thought that when I saw Dylan Cease at the All Star game. You know, I’m I’m standing out there on the porch at the All-Gain Lansing, looking Eduardo Rodriguez was an All-Star, and I had to look, and I’m like, that’s the same Eduardo Rodriguez. And then I looked, and I swear to God, I saw a guy six foot seven who looked like Andrew Miller wearing an MLBPA thing. It was Andrew Miller. I

Luke Jones 5:57
was gonna say it was probably Andrew Miller. Andrew

Nestor Aparicio 5:59
Miller was standing next to Eduardo Rodriguez out on the deck, and I was trying to like get a picture of both of them together, and I pointed it out to the young man that works for for WPAL, whose dad, the testoni. I had never really met him. All those young folks, they all took a shine to me, Luke. You know, it’s the silver coming in now. They might some of them might listen to me, but I actually saw Melanie Newman in person for the first time. I didn’t talk to her because didn’t think she probably wanted to talk to me. But I saw I saw Brick Garoli, who didn’t want to talk to me, who didn’t want to talk to me. So the never has never talked to me. But I saw like all the media and all that. But seeing like these picked the biz, you know, I I was in front of Justin Verlander for like 20 minutes, seeing the silver come in on him, and thinking, “Dude’s made $300 million doing this. You know what I mean? Like he’s out here. That kid over there throws 100 to three, but he ain’t made 300 cents yet. And Radish is one of those guys. Like you go, I was wondering how much money he had made before signing this. Like this is next to nothing. I mean, it just it completely like why didn’t he hold out for 100 million? 90s enough when your arm’s blown up and you’re 29 and and you’ve been eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and trying to get to this point. Your arm fell off and you’re you get surgery and this doctor and that hospital and this rehab and that and this like all of that, like bravo. I mean, for Kyle Bradish, and you know what? I I hope the reliever’s next. You know, I I hope he comes out, can throw 98 gets his money because he didn’t get his bag either. And I’ve seen so many of these guys. I mean, Wayne Chen got his. You know what I mean? Some of the Miguel Rodriguez, Miguel Gonzalez might have not have gotten his. I don’t remember, but you know some of these guys, Rodrigo Lopez. Some of these guys, when they get fired, you mentioned Chris Tillman. Like these guys’ arms fall off. So good for Kyle Bradish. That you know he’s done enough to warrant this. I’m I’m on Team Bradish. I’m on Team Boss at this point. And I guess the point for me is this sets up what they’re rotating labor stoppage aside, next year. Sure, right. I mean, that’s the caveat for everything. Nobody last week was pretending they’re playing baseball next year. By the way, when I was at the All Star game, there’s nobody that thinks they’re playing baseball on Oakman Day next year. By the way, yeah. The

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Luke Jones 8:13
question will be: Will there be an All Star game next year? That’s probably. I talked to Tom Verducci. I talked to probably better. I talked

Nestor Aparicio 8:19
to Rosenthal with LinkedIn. I talked to Buster. I talked to all of them in Philly last week, one on one. I’ll bring them on the show. It to think that they’ve got part of their pitching figured out and paid for-that was something during the Angelos era. Unless it was a Baldo Jimenez, they didn’t have anything.

Luke Jones 8:36
Yeah, when you kind of look at it now, and look, we’re going to see what happens the rest of 2026. I’d be lying to you if I said I’m excited about this year’s team the rest of the way, and that and that’s even if they make it. You should watch them play

Nestor Aparicio 8:51
when they were you were on vacation. No, but but I’m

Luke Jones 8:53
just saying. I but for what where they are in terms of setting up their rotation. You don’t believe they’re winning the World

Nestor Aparicio 8:59
Series this no no no goodness

Luke Jones 9:01
no but. But you’ve got Kyle Bradish now through 2031. You’ve got Shane Boz, same same timetable. You now have Brandon Young, who’s emerging as, and I’m not saying that that means he’s going to be their number two or their number three. It might just be that he becomes a new Dean Kramer over the next three four years, where he’s somewhere in the back half of the rotation, and you just count on him. Point is, you’re starting to see some stability in this rotation. Of course, always pending health of any pitcher, right? Look at the Dodgers, how much money they spend, and look at how they’ve had to duct tape their rotation at different times the last years, you can never. There’s nothing that’s foolproof, right? There’s nothing that’s entirely safe. I’m not going to sit here and say there’s no risk whatsoever summing Kyle brought into a five-year, $90 million extension, but when you consider to this point, to to the point you just made. Through 2026, you’re talking about someone who has made or 7.38 million dollars to this point in his career. He’s already provided surplus value for this ball club. You know, just looking at that alone and what he’s done, even taking into account the injuries, you know, the the elbow injury and the time off, and you know, missing most of 24 missing most of 25 but he’s got number one, at least number two upside, right? He’s having, you know, it hasn’t been a perfect return from Tommy John, but I mean, let’s let’s look at his numbers. I mean, what he’s done this year, if if someone had said you can sign up for Bradish to this point coming out of the All Star game, and we already saw he was scheduled to pitch Sunday, they pushed him back to Tuesday. I told you a couple weeks ago, my expectation was you’d see them move him to the back of the line. Well, now that you own his elbow, you treat his elbow as

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Nestor Aparicio 11:00
your own.

Luke Jones 11:00
Yeah, I mean, you’re trying to win, yes, but you also need to be mindful that he’s already at 107 innings, and you’re talking about someone who last year threw 32 major league innings, the year before threw 39 and a third. Now, he did throw some innings in the minor, so I think you need to you take that into account as well. And I’m not, you know me. I’m not someone that will arbitrarily just look at pitch count and look at innings and just say, “Oh, well, that’s that’s it. It’s cut and dried. It’s never cut and dried. You have plenty of biomechanic data where you’re looking at his arm slot. You look at his velocity per inning. You see how he bounces back. You ask him how he feels during his workday. You ask him how he feels after his bullpen day, all those different things. So, but but the point is, he’s someone you might have to ease off the gas a little bit here and there, the rest of the way in 2026. That doesn’t mean you’re necessarily going to shut him down. Like I’m not suggesting that. But what they did over the weekend, where they said, “All right, I’m guessing my assumption, Nestor, is there was never any true intention to have him pitch on Sunday. They might try to say, “Well, we wanted to give him a couple more days. He had a chance to exhale. He just signed his new contract. I think all along they said, “Okay, we need to massage his innings here and there. You know, if we get an extra off day, maybe we’ll skip him at some point just to give him an extra rest, we’ll make it clear he’s not injured, but moving him to the back of the line coming out of the All Star break, you know that’s basically you know you might be able to save a start so to speak, but and you’re winning anyway, and right exactly you have other options that you feel okay about right I mean so point is you’ve got Kyle Bradish now locked up long term. Yes, you do want to manage him, keep him healthy, and how he’s going to feel the rest of the way. You know, fingers crossed that he feels really strong, and you can continue to to take him out there. Now, I don’t know if you’re going to redline the engine, so to speak, where you’re going to have him at 105, 110 pitches. I’m, I’m not sure how much you’re going to see that from him the rest of the way. But how much do you see that with all that many pitchers anyway in this day and age? But I love you know me. I’ve been a big bradish guy for a few years now. I absolutely have been. He’s got a 361 ERA. He’s made 19 starts. He’s over 100 innings already. This has been, you know, he’s six and nine. I mean, that’s a lot. Big part of that is, you know, this team hasn’t been very good overall, right? But he’s had some stretches. Remember, April wasn’t great for him. He had the two lousy starts in June at the beginning of June, but other than that, he’s been really good. And he’s the guy that, unlike Boz, where I think when you extend Boz, the upside, the ceiling is has really not shown itself, other than just some glimpses here and there. In Bradish’s case, go look at his second half of 22. Go look at his 2023 season, we’ve seen this guy look dominant, right? We’ve seen this guy look fantastic. This is a guy who finished fourth in Cy Young voting in his first full year in the major leagues. Keep that in mind. So, yeah, he’s he’s 29. He’s not a he’s not a young man, but he’s not. You know, there’s no reason to think if he can stay relatively healthy that he can’t be, if not a number one, a heck of a number two for you for the next 345, years. And when you’re thinking in those terms, and you’re thinking about what that deal is-five years, 90 million-but in terms of what you bought out, three years, 60-7 million. Man, I’ll I’ll do that any day of the week, and you can’t, you know, you can’t guarantee that he’s going to stay healthy.

Luke Jones 14:48
Can’t do that with any pitcher. But he’s he’s been back and and has looked, you know, he looked good last year when he came back in September. So I love this deal. You know, the Boss one, I think they’re. Was much more debate, right? As far as where he was, the fact he hadn’t even thrown a pitch for the Orioles, considering how much they had traded for him to get him from Tampa. But in the case of Bradish, this is a guy who’s been really, really good for them. He’s already been a surplus value, and I think he’s the kind of guy that you know, with the velocity, the spin that he has on the breaking balls, there’s little reason to think he can’t be a really, really, really effective pitcher for them for the next five years, and you cross your fingers with the health, just like any other pitcher. But you’ve got to take some risk, and I think for a team that has money to spend, but is not, you know, we know it’s not a endless budget. I I like this investment. I really like this investment. And if you had told me a month ago the Orioles will sign Kyle Bradish to five years, I would have guessed probably would have been a touch more than $90 million Like I said, I probably would have gone to 100 Feels a little discounted to me, right? Well, but you’re taking into account he’s still a couple years away from free agency. You’re he’s taking into account yes he has had an arm injury and Tommy John and he can live on 90 million the rest of his life. I mean this is you know like we said to this point he had made what I said $7 million total through the rest of this season mind you so you know this is this. I think this is one of those. To me, this is a a home run for the team, and I think for him. All right, did he potentially leave some money on the table two years from now? He could have if his arm

Nestor Aparicio 16:33
falls off like Corbin Burns. He’d be real happy to have. Oh, no

Luke Jones 16:35
doubt. So I same thing with Batista

Nestor Aparicio 16:37
if that ever happens. Yeah, I think this

Luke Jones 16:39
one is a win for both sides. And like I said, I I love this extension. I I really anyone who doesn’t like it, I would really question. Like, then who are you going to invest in, right? I mean, like if you’re not going to invest in Kyle Bradish at on the at these terms at at this rate, I’m not sure who who you’re investing in. I mean, Frember Valdez right now has a four something ERA right I mean he was the guy we talked about quite a bit over the over the winter I mean there’s no guarantee you know Dylan Cease great year right he’s having a fantastic year okay what about the next six years I mean you you don’t know like you we could do this game with anyone right if you’re going to be risk averse then you better develop everyone, and then you’re just gonna churn pitchers of when you have club control, and then you trade them and you flip them, right? I mean, that’s that’s a really difficult thing to do. That’s what the Rays have mostly done, and you know, even they’ve had some dry spells doing that. So it’s really difficult to do. I I love this move. I’m happy about this move, I and I think when you look at the Orioles’ rotation now for the next few years, you know you got Bradish, you’ve got Boz, you’ve got Brandon Young, who’s got plenty of club control left. You know, well, you know I’ve seen a lot of people talk about Trevor Rogers now. I mean, Trevor Rogers has been great since you know over the last six weeks, I mean, he’s pitched really, really well. There’s no doubt about that. You know, is there an extension in the cards for him? I don’t know, but at the very least, those first three that I mentioned, I mean, you’ve got some, you’ve got some the makings of some stability, and of course, you’re always knocking on wood when you use stability in the same word as pitching. But without being able to predict the future, without being able to guarantee the health of anyone, I very much like this move. And I, you know, not that there isn’t more, won’t be more work to do because, you know, I mean, you’re not going to you’re not going to bring back Zach Efflin, you’re not going to bring back Chris Bassett, you know, Dean Kramer’s getting closer and closer to free agency, which you know I I don’t think you’re going to extend Dean Kramer, right? I mean, I think he’s what he is, right? He’s back of the rotation guy that you like, but you’re going to wish him well probably at the end of next year or or whatever. That’s you know whether you trade him or in the off season or whatever you try to do, but I think with those three, you know, having Bradish, having Boz, having Brandon Young, and you know Brandon Young still want to see him continue to do his thing. Still want to see Boz get better, mind you. But I like, I’m liking where their rotation is certainly more than I did six months ago. Let’s put it that way, I guess. Especially now with these couple of these guys under control for not just the foreseeable future, but the next five years. Well, I mean, six months ago, Grayson Rodriguez was a part of this too, right? Yeah, was a part of this stable. So they’ve changed the stable. They’ve decided Boz is an is, and they traded a number one pick for him, right? And then gave him money. So this is this is a complex template that really over the next 14 days, how the team you and I better sit up, right? These are the most important 14 days. Oh yeah, of the next couple of years for them. That these seven days since you were gone in Wildwood, they’ve won. Now they’re playing Boston. Then they get Atlanta. They’re gonna fill.

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Nestor Aparicio 20:00
In here next week before the Detroit in the middle of that, but Philly in here next week before the trading deadline. Where are you in the? I mean, we’re going to talk a lot. We’re going to do a lot of baseball the next two weeks. So I think when you left, you thought, well, it’s over. We’ll come back, kick dirt on their graves. We’ll do the whatever the trade line is, and then we’re going to get on the football next Wednesday. Well, we’re going to get on the football next Wednesday, but the baseball thing, I’m sitting up straight. You know, Russia showing up in New York next week. I’m going to some shows. I’m running around like I’m sitting up straight about the baseball team since they started to win because they’re in the race. Even as much as you and I have thrown dirt on them 100 times, and so is everybody else. So are the fans who haven’t shown up. If they wake up in Boston, and you and I regret not going Tuesday night, even though it’s supposed to ring. Because the rest of the thing’s such a mess, I am fascinated to see how Elias is going to treat this trading deadline now that he survived it long enough to do it. Right? People say, “Well, he’s going to survive his job. You’re going to write, “They should have fired Mike Elias, he’s going to win the World Series. Good, I’ll be glad to swallow those words at any point. But in regard to this, Elias is running draft, which we did. You know, trading deadline, which is where we are, and the team has stepped up here. Now, whether they step up this week and keep this little impossible dream going, but they’re going to be into some interesting possibilities by the end of next week, given the shift of them themselves in in and the Red Sox in this to say, is there a race? Who are we dealing with? What do we need? I mean, what are their needs? They don’t have a third baseman still. They didn’t have one when they had Blaze Alexander, right?

Luke Jones 21:40
Well, I mean, Blaze Alexander had become the third baseman against right-handed starters, which means you’re the primary third baseman. So, you know, I mean, with his injury, I think there’s probably a good chance he’s back. I don’t know when, and you know, even even then, what’s that look like? Is he going to be the same guy when he comes back, you know, having missed, you know, six weeks, whatever, eight weeks. I’m pitching them as

Nestor Aparicio 22:05
a good team. I’m pitching them as a team in the race. Well, I mean, they’re a team in the race. Sure. Then the the next week’s deal gets very. I don’t want to say desperate. Okay, but these new owners and like to do something. You’d like to do something. You don’t want to look desperate, but you want to look like you’ve won seven games in a row, and you want to say to your fans, “We want you to come to the ballpark in August, and we believe in Pete Alonso and Kyle Bradish and Brandon. That you know, hey, we’re we’re gonna. The manager couldn’t figure it out. They couldn’t play defense. Everybody was injured. They’re in the race, and I’ll sound like Rob Long saying that. You know what I mean? Like I’ll be the one pitching the optimism for them, but the optimism then leads to all right. You better make some deals next week, and they better smell like better than Jack Flaherty.

Luke Jones 22:57
Yeah, yeah. I mean, we’re gonna see. Is there a blockbuster to be made? I’m a little less inclined to think that’s happening, right? And and part of that is you know their their system their farm system isn’t as top heavy with premium prospects at the very top as it once was. Not not to say there isn’t think of

Nestor Aparicio 23:20
a guy they have in their organization that they could trade next week that would have more value than if they would have traded him two years ago. Well, I mean that’s unbelievable. I mean that’s unbelievable. See, I don’t know about.

Luke Jones 23:30
I think you’re talking about the guys that have arrived in the majors, right? Like the guys talking

Nestor Aparicio 23:35
about the perceived value of Kobe Mayo 18 months ago and the perceived value of Colton Cowser 30 months ago, and the perceived value of Henderson, Ruchman, and Holiday, who were are that’s the three-headed beast. I mean, Cows are nice, Mayo, even Westberg. I’ll give you all of that. Holiday, Henderson, and Ruchman. The three of them were Terek Skubal. They were the good-looking kid in school. Everybody wants them. Hall, you know, Hall of All-Star Games, and we get them. We plug all. I don’t know. I don’t. They would have had massive value at any point to bring back a mat to bring back Terrick in a deal. And none of those guys smell that way to me anymore in any way, financially, service time, and or perceived upside. No one’s giving you their organization for Gunner Henderson, thinking they could they could figure him out tomorrow. But but

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Luke Jones 24:30
you’re also and you’re not

Nestor Aparicio 24:31
trading him. I get it. I was just going

Luke Jones 24:33
to say you’re not really going to trade from your major league roster, right? I mean, typically, typically.

Nestor Aparicio 24:38
I’m just saying you’ve allowed much like Lock and Four, if I brought him on, and it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to invite him, but that the expired fruit on all of these, dude. I go back to Sid Thrift telling me that Curtis Goodwin and Jeffrey Hammonds were going, you know, like pumping up your own guys is something you and I have accused them of doing all along, but when. Baseball America is pumping them up, right? When you actually stunk for a decade, so that you take guys third and fourth, Heston Kerstad, Colton Cowser, all of these guys, and you’re thinking like, well, they at least should be complementary big league players to what you’re doing right now. And other than Alonzo and all the money they gave him. I mean, again, Ruchman went to the All Star game, and I’ll get to him in a minute because I, I talked to Adley Rutschman. I had a few words with him last week in Philadelphia. I think all of the values of these players, other than Blaze Alexander, have gone down not off, and I and that’s why the trade deadline is interesting to me to say, well, they’re not gonna. To your point, they’re not dealing off the top of the deck, right? They’re gonna deal off the bottom of the deck, and the bottom of the deck used to sound like, well, we’ve got this guy, we could throw in the deal. They already traded their first round pick from last year. One of them, yeah, yeah, yeah, right. They still

Luke Jones 25:56
have like Irish, who they he’s not a

Nestor Aparicio 25:57
catcher, right?

Luke Jones 25:58
He could be, yeah. I mean, he’s an outfielder slash first baseman, but yeah, I think the guys you’d be looking at more are you know, I mean, I’m looking at MLB.com. Their top 30 prospects right now, you know, all those other guys you mentioned long since graduated. So you’re looking at Nate George, you’re looking at Ike Irish, you’re looking at Joseph Zerwa, who’s had a really Zerwa, who’s had a really promising start to his professional career as a left-handed pitcher. I mean, you have Trey Gibson, who we have seen for some stretches. Wahiwa Aloy, the shortstop, who looks promising. He’s 22 years old. So they’ve got, but these aren’t guys that are in the top 15 when you look at those top 100 lists around baseball, so, but you’ve got some pieces, and you asked me a few minutes ago what are their needs. I mean, they can really improve in a lot of different ways, right? I even after I just got finished talking about having some perceived stability in their rotation for the foreseeable future with the guys that they’ve extended and with the emergence of Brandon Young, you could obviously use another starting pitcher, right? I mean, the idea that if you acquired someone and then Dean Kramer gets pushed to the bullpen, or maybe you send Dean Kramer to the the team that you’re trading with, or or maybe you you acquire another pitcher and then you trade Dean Kramer for something else. I don’t know, but you could always get another starting pitcher. I’ve already said this. I’ll continue to say this. You need a serious high end back of the bullpen high leverage reliever because you know you’re not counting on Ryan Helsley to come back the rest of the year. You can’t count on Felix Batista to be there in September suddenly. I mean, if if either of those things happens, God bless, great, right? I mean, that’s just that’s something that will something additional that could help you, but you can’t plan for that. So, I mean, really, I look at it in terms of I’d like to add two relievers if you’re asking me ways that I’m trying to improve this ball club, so but I just you know I talked about the pitching. You and I have talked about this offense. You and I have talked. You you mentioned third base. I would still say I’d like to acquire a right-handed hitting outfielder. You know someone that can upgrade my defense and put me in a position where if I’m facing a left-handed starter that I’m not having to put Leodi Taveras in center field because Colton Kozer can’t hit lefties, right? Tavares doesn’t belong in center field at this point in his career. I mean, the eyeball test, the defensive metrics suggest he’s not really a guy that should be playing center field at this point in time. So, what that means is you need to, you’d really, I don’t know if you need, but you’d really, really like to go out there and acquire an upgrade that could help you with your outfield defense. Could be another bat that you could start against left-handers, and you know, go about improving your team that way. I mean, we just rattled off bullpen arms, third baseman, another outfielder. Like I said, I I still wouldn’t dismiss another starter, right? I mean, they’ve. It kind of sounds like I’m talking about a sub 500 team. Hello, I am right. So so they have plenty of needs, and but that’s what makes this so interesting, and that’s what’s going to make this trade deadline in a vacuum, like around the league. It is such a seller’s market because how many teams are definitively selling right now? Right. I mean, okay. Let’s just stick. Forget about the National League. Let’s just focus on the American League just for a moment. The Angels, yes, but they’ve already turned over their front office. What exactly is that going to look like? Right. There’s been a lot of talk that they could trade off a couple of their, you know, the top starters in their rotation, which are interesting names. You know, I I think you you talk about Detmers, where like that’s someone that’s been talked about quite a bit. You know, whether we’re talking about the Orioles or anyone else.

8

Luke Jones 29:55
I mean, you know, I’ve heard Reed Detmer’s name thrown out there a whole lot in terms of. Someone that would be interesting that you could acquire not just for this year, but you know, moving forward. Now he doesn’t have unbelievable numbers like he has a four-one ERA right now, but you know that’s someone that would be interesting, you know, because there’s some control that goes beyond that. But so you have the Angels, the Royals definitely have, you know their 20 games under 500? The the athletics have completely fallen off a cliff the last couple weeks, so they’re out of it. They’re going to be looking to sell, but you know they’ve got some of their biggest names are hurt. You know, Detroit. You know they’ll continue to say they’re trying to do it right. They’re you know, but it’s getting really late for them. You know, with with the Scoubel’s reality as far as where they are, but beyond that, like, are the Blue Jays selling? Right? Is Houston selling because they got swept by the Orioles? Right? I mean, and then you’re getting in everyone else. Well, Minnesota has the same record as the Orioles. Seattle’s a game better than the Orioles, right? So, point is, just looking at the American League, and obviously you can do the same thing in the NL, but there aren’t a lot of teams that you can very quickly, definitively define as sellers right now. So that’s kind of the the rub. I just named three or four different things that you would like to do if you’re Mike Elias or if you’re you know hypothetical GM trying to improve the Baltimore Orioles, but what kind of inventory is going to be out there and how much is it going to cost? I mean, even a couple bullpen arms, man, that bullpen arms are going to be in high demand. So how much are you willing to part with? And that’s where you’re going to give

Nestor Aparicio 31:41
up Ike Irish, your number one pick for a bullpen arm. I don’t. Yeah, I mean,

Luke Jones 31:45
like, like that’s where I kind of look, and and that’s where already mentioned Andrew Miller.

Nestor Aparicio 31:48
He’s

Luke Jones 31:48
unavailable, and this is going to sound a little bit like a party pooper here, but I’ll go back to something I said earlier in the conversation. I’m not going to sit here and act like I believe the Orioles are going to win the World Series or can win the World Series this year. Do I think they can make the playoffs? Sure. How much am I willing to do to improve my chances there? When I kind of look at the field and I say, “All right, I mean, if Boston keeps winning at this rate, they might win the division. I mean, forget about being a wild card. They might they might overtake Tampa before it’s all said and done, but I kind of look at this, you know, this entire, you know, muddy mess of wild card contenders, and I say, yeah, I’d like to make some improvements, but at the same time, it also feels very random. Like who’s just going to get hot? Like the Orioles are hot right now, the Red Sox are hot right now. Who’s going to get hot in September, right? And it might be that simple. It might be who who runs off nine of 11 to win 86 games, and they get in as a third wild card at 86 and 76 And who knows? It might not even be that take that much. But I kind of look at it and say there’s almost like a game of chicken. Like everyone’s kind of looking at the other teams, and who’s going to give up the most to go get, you know, a bullpen arm. You know, like all right, someone’s going to go get Terek Skubel. Maybe it’ll be the the Dodgers or the Phillies or who knows who. But but but I just you know it’s gonna. It’s tricky. Like this is a really. This is this is what everyone thought when they moved to three wild cards, where you would have the entire league, save for two or three teams, still trying to convince themselves that they’re in it. And here we are. Angels are out. Royals are out. Athletics are out. Right? They’re all 15 plus games under 500 That you’re you’re done done right. They’re all you know the A’s are eight and a half out of the the final wild card spot now, but everyone else. I mean the Tigers are still holding out some hope. The Blue Jays are still holding out some hope. The Astros. I mean so well we’re seeing all these teams. Yeah. Right. I mean we saw the

Nestor Aparicio 34:00
Astros. The Red Sox are the thing. We’re in the middle of that this week. It’s going to be Atlanta comes in, then Detroit, then Philadelphia comes here next week. So it’s these next two weeks. These are the best two weeks of the season for baseball. Yeah, and they’re on a winning streak. They’re playing a team that’s great. They’re at Fenway Park. The weather’s up. You know, like let’s go. This is this is going to be fun to. This is what we wanted to watch baseball in football season because the Ravens start next week and lots changed since you went to Wildwood, Luke. Including, I don’t know if you know this or not. They gave me a Major League Baseball credential. By the way, why did you go to the All Star game, dude? I you were in Wildwood. I invited you, and it’s just you’re loving education, dog. I mean, like it’s the All Star Game.

Luke Jones 34:44
I’m on vacation. It’s Wild Star Game. It’s Wildwood. Hey, I’m glad you got to go, and you know, I mean, it’s. What did

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Nestor Aparicio 34:54
you make of the Ruchman thing? Can I just ask you?

Luke Jones 34:57
What his answers to your question specifically? Not much. I mean, look, I’ve, I’ve,

Nestor Aparicio 35:04
he looked at me with that ask a better question, and I’m like, that’s where, like, in a different circumstance, I would have gotten shitty, but I didn’t. I didn’t. I just, ha ha. I’m just a guy from Baltimore. I said to him, I like, like, how hard is it? Like, it was like being with John Harbaugh. Like your question’s not good enough, buddy. Yeah, plumb that in a question for me. Come, come on, dude. It was 115 degrees. It was like

Luke Jones 35:32
well, if it was 115 degrees, that might have been part of the problem. Yeah, yeah. From from no, but I’m just saying from his perspective too. Not excusing it. I’m just

Nestor Aparicio 35:40
well, it was just the human condition. It was far less than ideal. It was one of those media things where I got my press pass, and you told me once they give you the pass, you won’t want anymore. I’m out there, and I’m like, they don’t want us here. If if they if they cared about us talking to these baseball players, they they would have found a better circumstance for them and us. I mean, it’s just it’s just poor. It’s it’s just yeah. I mean, so I mean, in a general sense. But that being said, I went up. I had a good time. I I saw friends. I talked to people. I saw the man who saved my wife’s life. The doctor. I ran into him like he held my name, and I looked at him, and I was like, I now of a sudden I’m I’m you know I’m I have Phillies fans coming up to me asking me if I was okay because I was a disaster. So and I got, you know, I love baseball, right? So like being a part of that and seeing it after so many years, seeing the fan fest. I went to downtown Philly, and that was really-it’s for your nieces, and they’re gonna love it. They’re gonna love it. How baseball needs to cater to young people. 2030. How many? How old are your kids gonna? Your your nieces gonna be?

Luke Jones 36:39
Nieces? So Scarlett will be nine at that point. At

Nestor Aparicio 36:42
four, at five, right?

8

Luke Jones 36:43
Yeah, be nine, and and Evelyn will be six.

Nestor Aparicio 36:46
Yeah, that’s totally for them. It’s in the and they’re gonna have a Budweiser to Corona thing for your sister and her husband have a beer. Like they have a whole. It it it’s just an indoor playground, really. A little bit of not a bad thing. And you know, stand in line to do this thing, and you get a hat, you know, an all-star game hat with Gillette on the side or whatever. So I didn’t stay long. I mean, to be really honest with you, it was very. It wasn’t as much fun as ’93 for me because of this and that and whatever, and it wasn’t as big. So I would just say, from Philadelphia’s perspective, and I stayed in two different hotels, two different nights. Katie Griggs is going to booja ya about what it’s going to do to the community and what it’s going to how it’s going to put the spotlight. Okay, I mean I hope we do a good job with it. I hope we get good weather. Um, it was hot in Philly, but it didn’t rain. I keep thinking like if it had rained, how so many of the major that press conference on the Monday thing-I don’t know where they were going to put it if it rained. You know what I mean? Like literally, it felt like they just threw it together. Put the this press conference over there, that thing there. Let’s get it to get them out of town. I wonder if they would have

Luke Jones 37:51
put in like the club level or something like that of the station. They should have done it

Nestor Aparicio 37:55
that way. It was 105 degrees. It was it was poor.

Luke Jones 37:59
See, when I was in Miami, they did it on the warning track of, but I’m not saying that they need to cater

Nestor Aparicio 38:04
the media, but if the media is going to put lights on these people, put them in a situation where Adley Rutschman doesn’t say yeah, yeah, and look at me. Like I, I, I didn’t appreciate that. I spent three days to go to Philadelphia to cover the sport for their fans, for Adley Rutschman’s fans. I’m one of five or six Baltimore people that were there. Doesn’t matter if you didn’t recognize me or not. Ryan Riffen got the fist bump and got the “I’ve got your back. So Ryan let him know he had his back. Which so I’m thinking, like, what is-is this what the media is? This is where we are at this point, and the disillusionment part of it is not lost on Verducci and Rosenthal, they all came up to me and they’re like, “Yeah, you’ve been gone a while. Welcome back. It ain’t the way it used to be. All the things that you said to me, and I’m like, it ain’t the way it used to be because they don’t want us there. And they every minute of every day, you feel like they don’t want you there. So that’s

Luke Jones 38:57
I’m not I’m not going to push back on that notion. I mean, yeah. I mean, that’s my my

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Nestor Aparicio 39:02
my impression is they don’t want us there. None of them. But

Luke Jones 39:04
that makes doesn’t it make it that much more important that people are still there? Then even if they don’t want you there. Yeah, no, probably makes it

Nestor Aparicio 39:10
more important next time. I’m just saying that rhetorically, I’ll be a bigger prick. I mean, I won’t come up. I’m seriously, I’ll be a big prick. If if Ruchman sees me, I’ll be a prick because he was a prick to me, and I didn’t appreciate it. And whether he thinks he was a prick or not, he’s a prick. So, nonetheless, I could have asked him about last year, the year before, the one-one status, his trade status, the team stinking, the team being Passio taking his job. I could have done a million things to be a jerk, of which I’m capable of being, but I’m not. I’m not a jerk at heart. So I went thinking like, I’m here. I’m going to ask questions that I was interested in. I was interested in how important has your health been to being an all-star? That’s a good question. How important to have another catcher like Basayo that they’ve given money to that catches twice a. To keep you healthy, so you can be here. Yeah. Give me a better question, and then the last question. Tell me why you’re excited about your team and why we’re all going to come and watch you. I believe in our guys. Okay. All right. I’m going to go talk to someone else. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, as

Luke Jones 40:21
I tell, I say that’s me being a

Nestor Aparicio 40:23
prick on the radio, and that’s me taking three days of my life getting on a train, going up there, trying to be a professional, actually going out in 100 degrees, wearing a backpack, sweating my ass off, so I could beat everybody up, have Japanese guys hit me in the face with their with their giant cameras while they’re chasing you know their guys around, and like I just don’t. It’s it’s it’s not community. It’s not nice. It’s not kind. It’s not baseball that I grew up with. It’s not a reason to make me come to Chicago next week, or come to Camden Yards, or get on the plane to go to Boston tomorrow. So I just want to throw that out. People ask me how my experience was. I went there to talk to baseball players. Some of them wanted to do it. Some of them didn’t. But none of them wanted us there. Nobody wanted you there. So that’s that’s my vibe on it.

Luke Jones 41:14
Fair enough. And as I tell people, I mean, whether I’m talking to fellow reporters or interacting with fans or people in my own life can only ask the questions. You can’t force them to answer it. You know what I mean? It’s just.

Nestor Aparicio 41:27
And that being said, the Philly experience that I had was wonderful, right? Like I stayed downtown. I had never really. I haven’t taken the subway there since 1981, since I was a boy. I’ve never taken the

8

Luke Jones 41:37
subway in Philly. Like, like I, yeah. That that’s that would be. I’ve been to Philly plenty of times in my life. My whole life, right? Like, why would I fly into the parking? I’d be like, oh,

Nestor Aparicio 41:47
yeah. I drive into the parking lot, I park, and I leave. I’ve been to Redding Terminal once or twice in my life, and I’ve stayed at the downtown Philly Marriott once many, many years ago, like 30 years ago. I got my car broken into. Had all my equipment stolen, all my radio equipment. Dwight Weller’s equipment was stolen back in the ’90s. I had a girlfriend. Had a room up there. Went up. My car got broken into. So like literally, I’m that guy in Philly. But and I’m not down and on Philly or whatever. But or even the All Star game itself. But I had a unique experience to experience an All Star game 90 minutes away. There were a lot of Orio people there. You know, I saw Oriole Hatch, the second biggest fan group. There wasn’t Yankees or Mets in regard to, and it really is all the colors of the rainbow. That’s the neat part of the All Star Games. You see Mariners fans, you see Padres fans, you see Diamondback. You know, you see jerseys everywhere, and it’s neat. It’s cool. I I can’t wait for us to get it back. It’s been 33 years. It’s overdue. We didn’t get it because I led the walkout on the other owner, so we could talk about why we haven’t had the All Star game here and why baseball isn’t normal here, and it’s very normal in Philadelphia. I mean, the stadium’s packed. I mean, as a media member, I got there on 100 degree day both days at three in the afternoon. I mean, I’m got there when Barry Bonds got there at 230 on Monday, and seeing the stadium come to life, seeing the workers there, seeing how much the Phillies put into it on a daily basis, and being on the subway with their workers-you know, getting to the game early in the day and seeing the importance of all of that-but I had a Philadelphia experience to see. Now, look, they had World Cup the week before. You know, they’re used to big things in Philly. They have four teams and all of that, but I didn’t feel like it enveloped the city. I didn’t feel like it. It was everywhere I went, everything I did. I felt like it was at the convention center, and it was at the stadium, and it came, it went. And Baltimore will embrace it differently, I think, in that way. But I would say this for Philadelphia, for the reputation it has and all that. I had the nicest ushers, the nicest security people. You know the guys in the clubhouse area downstairs. I became friends with the two guys that ran the clubhouse because I was watching World Cup with them. We started talking about Howard Esken and Philly and the 90, and they they realized everybody knew me. I’m standing there like everybody knows you, dude, and I’m like, I just I I’ve been doing this a long time. I mean, and all the celebrity types stop, you know, the the Ken Rosenthal stop and start talking to me, and the Buster, all the people they recognize are like, dude, you must know some people, and I’m like, I’ve been doing that. There’s a long story with me. Remember the walkout guy? Oh yeah, you’re the guy that did that walkout on the Oriole, and they have their Philadelphia accents and water and daughter, daughter, daughter. So I had a great Philly experience. I so I don’t want to, but the Rutschman thing and how the Orioles treat me disgraceful. It just disgraceful how they treat our organization and how they treated me disgraceful.

Nestor Aparicio 44:40
And if they would have done anything they could do to stop me from having to pass, which makes it even worse, which tells you who they are, and I won’t be covering the game, and I won’t go back down, and I won’t stick a mic flag in Gunnar Anderson’s face and ask him why he stinks. I won’t do that. I’ll just do it here on the radio. I don’t know. I mean, I I had Kenny Cooper on over the weekend. And we talk about people that, and I know you weren’t an indoor soccer guy, but when you think of Kenny Cooper, what do you think of him from the outside all these years later? What’s the bio on Kenny Cooper? The kind of person he is.

Luke Jones 45:13
Positive, right? I mean,

Nestor Aparicio 45:15
yeah, good guy. Like,

Luke Jones 45:17
I mean, as someone who knows nothing about indoors, he

Nestor Aparicio 45:20
talked to me about selling the game here and never stopping selling the game. The Orioles have stopped selling the game here. You know what I mean? Like you know, just we’re the Orioles. We roll out the ball. We pay our players a lot. You know, and I looked at Rush. He’s made 20-$7 million Comes off as a guy that’s made 20-$7 million That’s all I’m going to say. He is Luke. I am Nestor. Luke will be at the ballpark later in the week. We were headed to Boston this week. We’re not headed to Boston because it’s Luke’s mom’s birthday and he’s all worn out. You’re getting old, dude. These kids are brushing you down at the beach, dude.

8

Luke Jones 45:51
I need a vacation after vacation. How many slices of pizzas you eat last

Nestor Aparicio 45:54
week? And and here I want to invite you to Pizza John’s on Friday, but you’re going to be at the ballpark. I’m going to eat some pizza on Friday. I’m going to tell you right now.

Luke Jones 46:01
I mean, I’m looking forward to some pizza. Seven

Nestor Aparicio 46:03
days, two slices a day.

Luke Jones 46:04
Oh,

Nestor Aparicio 46:05
more than that.

Luke Jones 46:07
I mean, on average, probably not more than that. See, like we, so our vibe, we’ll have it for dip. Just have it for just dinner a few different times, but then the nights we don’t have it for dinner, you go in and have a a slice, right? It’s like you’re on vacation, right? You’re eating, you know, you’re not eating six meals, but you’re not eating. I feel

8

Nestor Aparicio 46:30
that way about my pizza joint in New York. So my my joint Tradita is at 27th and Broadway, and it’s so central that I always say to myself, I’m going to get something else to eat, and then I think, well, I’m only six blocks away, and it’s four bucks, and it’s so good, and I can’t get it tomorrow, and I wind up literally going to New York and living on cheese pizza because, like, it’s so good, and it’s four bucks, and it’s it. No matter where I am, if I’m on 14th Street or 48th Street, I feel I can get the 27th Street within 15 minutes, and I do, and that’s it. So I, I unders, I love pizza. I’m going to Pizza Johns on Friday. Right.

Luke Jones 47:09
Well, it’s funny. I said to my family, I think I think it was the next to last day, and I said, you know what, guys, you know what we need for post vacation blues that’ll help in the next week or two. We’re gonna go to we’re gonna get some Pizza Johns. How about that? I’ll soothe

Nestor Aparicio 47:24
you.

Luke Jones 47:24
Everyone smiled big, so you know. All right,

Nestor Aparicio 47:27
I’ll sooth you. I’ve had

Luke Jones 47:28
I’ve had people ask me like, which do you like more, Max or Pizza Johns? It’s like you’re asking me who my favorite child is, right? I mean, I can’t do that, but I love them both. They’re you know, and as I I put up a post on post vacation, so this was I’ve visited Wildwood every summer of my life for at least a long weekend, typically a week. Sometimes I’ve done as long as a week and a half. You know, but you know I like that place, but I love the company I keep there, and and with my family, think back to my dad. You

Nestor Aparicio 48:03
and I went to Wildwood. Wouldn’t be any fun for you, right? Because it’s not, but it would be

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Luke Jones 48:06
different.

Nestor Aparicio 48:06
Like, yeah,

Luke Jones 48:07
things that would be special to me may may not resonate with you. Like in the same way that like if you’re an Ocean City person compared to Wildwood, like things at Ocean City that

Nestor Aparicio 48:16
I have so many memories in Ocean City. I go past, and I don’t like I’ve been to Ocean City a few times, but yeah,

Luke Jones 48:22
but it’s nothing special to me. It’s the people you’re with. It’s the people you’re with that make it special. And the

Nestor Aparicio 48:28
memories you make that I think

Luke Jones 48:29
of, you know, I I think of my grandparents. You know, my mom’s parents. We would go with them every year until my dad passed away 22 years ago. So memories with them, memories with my dad, memories of course with my mom and my siblings, and now with my nieces. I mean, total blessing. I mean, you come home. I don’t know a Wildwood song, and I’d

8

Nestor Aparicio 48:49
sing it because I could say Ocean City, Maryland. I don’t know. I’d never heard a Wildwood ad. So, other than you and Ray, you know, my mother. Well, your family was Philadelphia oriented. My my grand, my mother’s father, my Italian family, the arenas. They had a bakery in South Philly. My mother went to Wildwood. My mother, my my my my, not my mother that everybody, little mother, my real mother went to Wildwood. So she talked about Wildwood forever. I literally have never been to Wildwood, New Jersey in my life. I’ve never driven through it. I’ve been to Atlantic City twice in my life, in and out for a concert, and in and out for a concert. I I went for two concerts in Atlantic City, and they were in and out. I spent one night in Atlantic City in my life. I just I’ve never been on the the Lewis the Ferry. No, I’ve never done it. I’ve been to Rehoboth and seen it sort of, but I’ve only been to Rehoboth eight times in my life, and all in the last 15 years, I’d never been to Rehoboth in my life before my marriage. I I’ve been to Dewey six times in my life still to this day, and all for concerts. So like I always love live music. Ocean City, Ocean City, Ocean. You know, like the beach thing is is your thing. These people that have been to with the Stone Harbor. And like all, like where Flacco goes and Avalon, I don’t

Luke Jones 50:03
Stone Harbor. I know them on a map,

Nestor Aparicio 50:05
but it’s just not my it’s not my beach, you know. Yeah,

Luke Jones 50:07
but no, you ask the the the big song that they still play on the boardwalk and everything. It’s the the Bobby Rydell song from 1958, Wildwood Days. I mean that that’s the song. No, I don’t know

Nestor Aparicio 50:17
that song.

Luke Jones 50:19
So no, it’s nobody listening to it now. It’s exactly what you would expect it to be, right? I mean, it’s so, but no, it’ll

Nestor Aparicio 50:25
like it.

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Luke Jones 50:25
It’s fun, but but like I said, it’s not even about the place. It’s it’s the people you spend those time. You know, whether you’re talking about family, friends, like you know, to to have the the blessing of getting to go somewhere the same year with your family. And look, some people are you travel way, way more than I do, and that’s awesome. But for me, like, I I just love going to the same place with my people, you know. Like, and and it’s great, you know. It’s it’s not even

Nestor Aparicio 50:54
you didn’t go to the All Star game. I’m glad you took the phone off the hook and disappeared for a while, like a Billy Joel song. You know, and look what happened. The Orioles won seven in a row. Go back to the beach. We’re sending Luke Jones back. I’ll send you across this bridge to this beach, Ocean City, Maryland. I don’t know if I’m doing Mako in a couple weeks or not. I have no idea if I’m even going to the beach this week. The Orioles might start winning and force me to watch them play. Wouldn’t that be bad? The Ravens open next week as well, you can find Luke luke@wnst.net You can find him on the internet at Baltimore Luke. You can find me anywhere ness@baltimorepositive.com You can find me at Pizza John’s on Friday. Luke will be at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. John Allen is joining me on Friday. We’re closing down East Point Mall. I put a picture of the poop plant up, the old poop plant that you have to be the poop plant they tore down in 1985. I swear it feels like it’s still there, but I put a picture up on the internet. I’m getting nice OG feedback from all my old Dundalk people. We’re gonna take a walk through the mall and we’re gonna meet at Costas on Friday night. So if anybody wonders, hey Nestor, when you get crabs down Costas, you know you can’t get them in Timonium because I was there on I watched World Cup there. I had I had Crab Imperial there on Sunday. We’re gonna get some real crabs on Friday night down at Costas. Come on down, crack some crabs with us. Say hello. If you’re an old East Point Mall person, meet us at the mall at 5o’clock on Friday. And if you’re a Pizza Johns person, meet us anytime at Pizza Johns. I’ll be there all afternoon on Friday. So Essex, East Point Mall, Shispera’s Point, Dundalk. It’s a Friday night in Baltimore. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland Lottery in conjunction with our partners at GBMC. I am walking a mile in their shoes. This is this year’s shirt. I’ll get next year’s shirt ready to go in April of next year. GBMC are our partners in keeping me alive and well, as well as Farnan and Dermer. They are the comfort guys, and I have Zach coming on this week because this air quality thing got me all weirded out about the smoke. You picked a good time to go to Walwood last week, Luke, especially because the Orioles started winning some games. I’m Nestor. He’s Luke. We’re gonna come back and talk some football right after this. We’re Baltimore positive.