We always learn more about baseball when venerable ESPN insider Tim Kurkjian returns “home” to Baltimore to talk Orioles, ownership and the realities of the MLB labor war escalating. Deadlines, trade talk and the love of the game are all in this one.
Nestor Aparicio and Tim Kurkjian from ESPN discussed the Baltimore Orioles’ trade deadline strategy, emphasizing the need for another starting pitcher, possibly Freddy Peralta or Joe Ryan. They debated the ownership’s influence, particularly John Angelos and David Rubenstein, and the impact of potential MLB labor issues on trade decisions. Kurkjian highlighted the Orioles’ defensive struggles, noting only four teams have more errors. They also discussed the importance of the trade deadline, the potential for a work stoppage, and the positive impact of the automated strike zone and pitch clock on the game’s pace and enjoyment.
- [ ] Talk to Rick Vaughn about finding the video of the Camden Yards baseball day with Nestor and Frank Robinson.
Orioles Trade Deadline and MLB Labor Realities
- Nestor Aparicio introduces the show, mentioning upcoming events and guests, including Tim Kurkjian from ESPN.
- Nestor reflects on his experiences at the All-Star Game and other events, highlighting his interactions with colleagues like Ken Rosenthal and Tim Kurkjian.
- Tim Kurkjian joins the conversation, discussing the Orioles’ position ahead of the trade deadline and the importance of acquiring another starting pitcher.
- Nestor and Tim discuss the ownership situation with the Orioles, mentioning the influence of John Angelos and the potential impact of David Rubenstein.
Orioles’ Trade Deadline Strategy
- Nestor and Tim agree that the Orioles need to be buyers at the trade deadline, given their current position in the wild card race.
- Tim emphasizes the importance of acquiring a starting pitcher, mentioning potential trade targets like Freddy Peralta and Joe Ryan.
- Nestor expresses concerns about the ownership’s understanding of baseball and the role of Mike Elias in running the team.
- Tim believes that Elias should be given time to improve the team, especially if the Orioles make the playoffs, but acknowledges that his job could be in jeopardy if they fail to perform.
Defensive Issues and Player Performance
- Nestor criticizes the Orioles’ defensive play, noting the high error rate and the lack of consistency in positioning players like Gunnar Henderson and Jackson Holliday.
- Tim acknowledges the defensive issues, noting that only four teams have more errors than the Orioles this year.
- Nestor and Tim discuss the challenges faced by young players like Henderson, who is struggling with a high strikeout rate despite showing power at the plate.
- Tim attributes Henderson’s struggles to the difficulty of hitting in today’s game and expresses confidence that he will turn things around.
Impact of MLB Labor Issues on Trade Deadline
- Nestor and Tim discuss the potential impact of the pending MLB work stoppage on the trade deadline, with teams needing to make moves now rather than waiting for next year.
- Tim mentions that many executives believe teams should focus on the present and make trades if the opportunity arises.
- Nestor and Tim agree that the Orioles should be aggressive in their trade efforts, given the uncertainty surrounding the 2024 season.
- Tim highlights the importance of the trade deadline for general managers, who must decide whether to buy, sell, or stand pat.
Defensive Fundamentals and Team Dynamics
- Nestor and Tim reflect on the importance of defense in baseball, citing the success of the Orioles’ teams in the past that emphasized strong defense.
- Tim shares a statistic from Paul Evans, a friend of Nestor’s, highlighting the defensive prowess of players like Louis Aparicio, Mark Belanger, Cal Ripken, and Brooks Robinson.
- Nestor and Tim discuss the challenges of managing a team with young players who are still developing their defensive skills.
- Tim emphasizes the need for teams to focus on fundamentals and prevent giving away outs, as Earl Weaver would say.
The Role of Technology in Baseball
- Nestor and Tim discuss the impact of technology on the game, including the automated strike zone (ABS) system and the pitch clock.
- Tim believes that the ABS system has worked better than expected and has been well-received by fans.
- Nestor appreciates the finality and fairness that the ABS system brings to the game, reducing disputes over calls.
- Tim acknowledges the potential for a fully automated strike zone in the future, though he remains cautious about the impact on the game.
The Future of Baseball and the Orioles
- Nestor and Tim discuss the overall momentum of baseball, with recent successes like the World Series and the WBC.
- Tim expresses hope that the game will continue to thrive despite potential work stoppages and other challenges.
- Nestor and Tim agree that the trade deadline will be a crucial moment for the Orioles, with potential moves that could impact their playoff chances.
- Tim predicts that Monday will be a busy day for trades, as teams make last-minute decisions based on their current standings.
Personal Reflections and Final Thoughts
- Nestor and Tim share personal anecdotes, including Nestor’s experiences at the ballpark and his interactions with colleagues.
- Tim talks about his family’s love for baseball and how it has influenced his career and passion for the game.
- Nestor reflects on the positivity and community aspect of baseball, despite the challenges faced by the Orioles.
- Tim and Nestor conclude the conversation with mutual appreciation and a commitment to continue covering the game they love.
Nestor Aparicio 0:01
Welcome home. We are WNST AM 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. Getting the Maryland Crab Cake Tour out this week. We will be at Costas and Timonium on Thursday in advance of the trade deadline. Alan McCallum and Luke Jones will be joining me to talk all things baseball. Probably a little bit of football as well. All they brought to you by the Maryland Lottery and our friends got the Ravens scratch-offs to give away. It’s Raven season. Luke’s out in Owings Mills all week as well, so you’ll be hearing a lot of that AM 1570. Also, our friends at GBMC and Farnan and Dermer. They are the comfort guys. Zach’s going to join me at Acosta’s on Thursday. We’ll be doing more of that. I’ll be running around with Getty Lee on Monday in New York as the trade deadline comes, and I was really fortunate to run with a lot of old friends in Philadelphia at the All-Star Game. Big thanks to Major League Baseball and John Blundell and everybody there, Pat Courtney, for giving me a credential so I could run into people like all colleagues of mine at one point. Ken Rosenthal and Tim Kirkens about to join me right now. Man, I saw Nightingale. I talked to Verducci. I talked to all the old gangsters out there, but you’re right down the road for the most part doing that podcast you do, and always at ESPN. And I always see you at funerals and All Star games, Tim Kerchon. It’s it’s very unfortunate, man.
Tim Kurkjian 1:10
Yeah, well, I could do without the funerals. I’ll take every All Star game you can give me. But you’re right, I only run into you when well, when something good or really bad happens. Count me out for the bad.
Nestor Aparicio 1:21
Well, you got that Orioles hat behind you, so maybe you’ll get an Oriole playoff game here at some point. I, you know, I love talking baseball with you in the history of all this, and you covering the Orioles all these years later. And we’re up on this labor thing that sort of, if I’m going to have a serious conversation with anybody like you, sort of starts and ends with that. But as it pertains to the trade deadline, as it pertains to money and the off season and this pending war that’s going on, it strikes me as even more important that I saw David Rubenstein on Friday next to Kyle Bradish and giving him money after giving Boz money after giving Basayo money after signing Alonso. That they’re going to be buyers this week, as I see it, because they have no other option but to try to continue to win and figure their way into the tournament because they can and they’re there and I don’t expect anything different. I’m wondering how they can improve next week, Timmy.
Tim Kurkjian 2:11
Well, I’m with you. I think they have to buy because they’re even though they’re three games under 500 and they’ve been outscored for the season, they’ve won six out of 10. They’re only two out of the wild card, and you’re the Orioles, and you’ve made a lot of plans over the last couple years to get better. You can’t just give up on a season when you got when you’re only two games out of the wild card. Earl Weaver, who I quote all the time, Nestor used to tell me, “If you have a chance to win this year, you have to win this year. Then you figure out next year. Next year. So what they have to do, obviously, is go get another starting pitcher. That’s not going to be easy to do because a lot of teams are looking for a starting pitcher. You know, the Mets are going to move people. Freddie Peralto likely will be moved. Maybe the Twins will move Joe Ryan, who could really help any team, including the Orioles. But there’s there’s just not that much out there that is going to just dramatically change where the Orioles are. But they got to go get another starting pitcher. That’s pretty obvious to everyone.
Nestor Aparicio 3:17
As a man who once met Peter Angelos and covered the Orioles during, you know, you’re you’re widely quoted in the Peter Principles back in the day because you were writing all the stuff, the crazy stuff that happened. The Elias thing here at the end, and John Angelos, I mean, he is not Rubenstein’s guy. Everyone that knows anything about the Orioles tells me Arigetti’s really running the team, and Rubinstein’s a little bit more of a figurehead, doesn’t know baseball so well, doesn’t have a feel for any of it. Eric Getty thinks he has a feel for it. You remember when Angelos thought he had a feel for it? When Larry Laquino really did have a feel for it, the Elias thing and the fact that he survived this and continues to survive this and got a vote of confidence on Friday. You and I’ve been at this a long time. See a lot of general managers hired and fired through all of this. I I I don’t know what to make of the ownership that’s made its own bobbleheads, and now he’s going to write a book on ownership when he hasn’t proven anything about ownership. I find the press conferences to be like he doesn’t know much about baseball, so that kind of worries me a little bit. But Elias is running all of this. You’re either pro Elias or you’re not, right? If your guy’s running it, but he is making all of these key decisions for the future of the organization, it certainly feels like he’s safe, right? It
Tim Kurkjian 4:26
sure seems that way, Nestor. And maybe he should be safe through the trade deadline and through this season, because if they surge here, make the playoffs, and let’s face it, Nestor, you make the playoffs in the American League, you have a chance to do some damage in October. This is not the National League where you make the playoffs. It’s the final team, and you’re a 500 club, and yeah, you got to run into the Dodgers and the Brewers and the Phillies and some other teams. This is the American League where it’s wide open. So I think you have to give Michael. A chance to make this team better at the trade deadline. See where the season goes and how it ends, and then regroup after that. So I think he’s safe for the moment. And when I say the moment, that doesn’t just mean today. But I think he’s going to get some time to to continue to improve the team. But let’s say he doesn’t do anything at the deadline. Let’s say the Orioles finish under 500, way out of the playoffs. Then I think you’re going to have to examine this again.
Nestor Aparicio 5:30
Tim Kerch is here from ESPN, and of course, his podcast. I’m going to let him get all the oxygen in the world to promote all that. The Elias thing for me, he wasn’t hired by them, which is always. I mean, in any industry, that’s a that’s a question mark. They’ve given him a lot of money and a lot of latitude. I don’t think they know enough to know enough to fire him and go find another baseball guy. They seem like the type of people that would hire somebody outside the realm to go. Cal Ripken would be be the one ironing it or whatever they would do at that point. But in the case of Elias, he’s Always been very reticent to give up on young talent. Not the Corbin Burns, notwithstanding, in the Ortiz deal or the Stowers, and but just in a general sense, trying to get more talent for next year. Picking up an Efflin, maybe a little tepid on the Jack Flaherty thing a couple of years ago, and what he was willing to do. That he’s really valued his own players, Kobe Mayo, Heston Kurstad, down the line. I’m wondering if this is a now or never thing. We’re like, if we’re not even going to have a season next year, only half a season next year, or whatever, and we’re this close, that he wouldn’t be a little more guns blaring this week to try to make this thing better right here, right now, and I don’t know that I’ve talked much about that the last three months because I thought they were going to be a seller at one point because they were terrible. But now that they’re a buyer, it feels to me he may buy a little more top shelf just because of the circumstances of all of this. He’s not tethered to the Angeloses anymore, and there might not be a season next year. So, what good are these prospects, as Earl Weaver would say, what about next year? Next year,
Tim Kurkjian 7:02
right? I agree, and you know the potential work stoppage next year, which is where we’re headed at the moment. I think changes the trade deadline at least slightly, and yet I’ve talked to enough executives who think, look, you can’t worry about next year. You got to, you know, you got to go with what if the if the offer is there, you got to take it, and you can’t think about next year. But I’m with you. I think if you’re not sure if we’re even going to play next year, what are we saving people for? We got to go now, and that’s what I think the Orioles will do. I think that’s what most teams will do is say we got a chance to win. We got to take it now.
Nestor Aparicio 7:43
Elias is fired. I’m hiring Timmy Kercher. You’re hired. You want to go for it now? I’m all yeah. But the here and now. Let’s be realistic about the team, Timmy. I mean, they pitched well. I and I look. I’ve watched a lot of baseball. My name’s Aparicio. I’ve never seen a team worse defensively than this. It feels, and this is one of my criticisms of one of many, but just in a general. And I’ve only met Michael Ice twice. I have no dog in the hunt, but they don’t take defense seriously here. And maybe the sport doesn’t. I’m not sure in a general sense. But this is bad news. Bears every night they’re either making errors or making mistakes or making brain farts or just in a general sense they do not play the game of baseball crisply here defensively, and that just sort of screws up. It costs extra runs, extra outs, frustrates the pitchers, frustrates the frustrates everybody, and then they strike out 15 times a game too often, and they’ve they’ve had real problems with Henderson, Holliday, Rutschman, the star players being the aircraft carriers there need to be, but I would just start with defense in general. I’ve never seen anything like it on a night by night basis, Timmy.
Tim Kurkjian 8:47
Well, Nestor, only four teams have more errors than the Orioles this year, and if we remember, just a few years ago, they set a major league record for fewest errors in a season, and that’s going to have to change now. The strikeout rate is everywhere. It’s not just the Orioles. The Orioles strike out too much. So does every other team. And and I’m really confused by the defense in the major leagues because the players are bigger, stronger, faster, and probably better than ever. The defense should be better than ever, and I’m not sure it is. Plus, the base running is the worst I’ve ever seen in all the years that I’ve covered, and so the brain farts that you’re talking about from the Orioles, those are everywhere also. And it’s concerning that the game should be played better than it is right now by the Orioles and by every other team. But you’re right; they’re not going to make the playoffs if they don’t tighten up that defense, and there is no excuse for defense being below average anywhere right now, given how athletic these players are
Nestor Aparicio 9:50
and the amount of training they get, right? Like, I mean, I understand hitting a baseball’s the hardest thing in the world to do. These guys are throwing it fast. I met the Miz two weeks ago, and you know, like I and I’ve met all. Ryan 3030 years ago. So, and also met Frank Tanana when he had to figure it out with more finesse stuff. That you, the the speed of the game, the bat speed, the ball off the bat, but it’s still a ground ball or a fly ball. It’s still a cut off man, and the base is still not like I don’t understand the the thinking that’s involved in this, but then I watch Jackson Holiday. He’s at second base this day, third base that day. Shorts. They just move these guys around. Colton Cowser’s in center field. He’s in left field. I there is a part for your Earl Weaver. I never saw Mark Belanger play second base or third. He played shortstop. You know what I mean? Like literally, my cousin played shortstop. They didn’t look at him and say you’re little. Play second base a little while. Like that part of it, with all of the math, all the analytics. I don’t need the Exumer or Weaver and his note cards, or bring you back, or or even Richard Justice to to say like we can’t give outs away. That’s just bad math in a general sense, right?
Tim Kurkjian 10:58
Right. That that was Earl’s thing. You know, we only get 27 outs. We’re not giving any of them away, therefore we’re not going to bunt. But what it used to drive Earl crazy when someone would miss the cutoff man, and then instead of first and third with one out, it’s second and third with one out, and now the double play isn’t in order. That that used to drive Earl crazy. And speaking of your cousin, by the way, Paul Evans, who’s a buddy of mine, who’s a great statistician. By the way,
Nestor Aparicio 11:28
I saw Paul Evans four days ago at Alan McCallum’s mother’s funeral. He taught with her. It and they didn’t know each other. It is Saltimore, and Paul’s beautiful guy. So go ahead. But I love Paul. Oh,
Tim Kurkjian 11:39
Paul had a stat not too long ago, and I can’t-I don’t know the specifics of it-but it was rating basically the greatest defensive players of all time. And of the top six were your cousin Louis Aparicio, Mark Blancher, Cal Ripken, and Brooks Robinson. Four out of the six played for the Orioles, and all four of them played on the left side of the infield. So when you want to talk about the importance of defense, just go back and look at the Orioles from 1966 to ’83. How they won more than any other team during that time was they they prevented runs by with great pitching, but they also had a great defensive team because nothing in the world bothered Earl more than when someone couldn’t make a play or didn’t throw to the right base or made a mental mistake. Again, you get 27 outs. We’re we’re not giving them any more than 27, and we’re not giving up any of our 27. It’s a good lesson for all teams today.
Nestor Aparicio 12:48
Was it Jason Stark that came up with the quote that pitching and defense wins championships? Was it? Why does pitching and defense wins championships, right? Like literally, and the Orioles have figured the pitching part of it out a little bit, even with losing Ethlin, even with the problems they’ve had, Brandon Young’s been good. I mean, Kramer’s back. Like, there’s a part of it where the pitching’s been much better. We were so concerned about the bullpen. They’ve got that part of it figured out. So, for that reason alone, you would think some of these bats have to wake up. But the Gunnar Henderson thing here, I mean, I only shudder to think if he were a Yankee or a Mets or a Red Sox. I mean, we’re a kind place here, Timmy, right? But carrying a 220 into Philadelphia in a pennant race, it would be problematic for him. What’s happened to him? I mean, that that’s a as much of a as where Ruchman was last year, the year before that. That’s been a real problem when this organization, when these one ones and Henderson wasn’t a one one, but he’s a one something that that they don’t become the star players you need him to be.
Tim Kurkjian 13:51
Yeah, I’m really confused by Gunnar Henderson because he’s a great kid. He cares, he tries, and he has remarkable ability. I’ve made it clear, Nestor, many times the hitting environment today is the hardest that I’ve ever seen in all the years that I’ve covered. I don’t know how anybody gets a hit anymore with the stuff that we see. But having said that, 221 is unacceptable for a player of Gunner’s ability, and even though he’s got what 18 homers, he’s hitting the ball out of the ballpark. The last time I was at the at the ballpark, and I don’t go there all the time like I used to, but they they just told me somebody told me he swings at every pitch the same, like oh two pitch he’s swinging as hard as he can at every pitch, and that just doesn’t work. But this is what the industry has created, hit the ball out of the ballpark. We don’t care if you hit 221, as long as you get hit hit with enough power, hit enough home runs, drive in enough runs. But that’s not happening either. So I have no doubt. I have no doubt that Gunnar Henderson is going to turn this around and be a great player again. But this is the beauty of baseball, Nestor. How this can happen to a guy this talented? No great NBA jump shooter shoots 50% from the floor one year and 18% the next year. But things like that happen in baseball all the time because of the degree of difficulty of the game.
Nestor Aparicio 15:19
Well, we all know how difficult it’s been. We’re watching the Orioles. Tim Kirchen is here from ESPN. Plug your podcast with the. I didn’t even meet your son in Philly. I felt like give me give me the lowdown because this has become the Kirchin family affair, and I love it.
Tim Kurkjian 15:31
Yeah, we we our podcast is in its third year. We have three episodes a week. One of the episodes is a interview, and we get some really cool guests. We’ve had Jim Palmer, Cal Ripken. We’ve had a bunch of Hall of Famers, Tom Glavine, bunch of them, Johnny Bench. We laugh what we learn on our podcast, Nestor. I’ve just we’ve just decided that to get on the air and scream at each other like so many other people are doing these days just doesn’t it just doesn’t fit my personality nor my son. So we, you know, and it works because he likes baseball and he knows something about baseball. But he he doesn’t know what I know. I’m kind of glad he doesn’t know as much as I know because it creates a good environment where when I tell him something, he hasn’t heard this story, and he reacts like someone who’s surprised and amazed and something like that. And yet he knows everything. I mean, I know baseball, basketball, and sitcoms from the ’60s, and that’s about it. He knows everything else. He knows pop culture. He knows music. He he’s a wizard with technology. So he’s always helping me understand how the world works while I explain to him certain days how baseball works. So we have a lot of fun. We have a lot of laughs, and we’re going to keep it that way.
Nestor Aparicio 16:50
Tim Kirchen is here, and you can check out his podcast anywhere good podcast. So get give him the name again.
Tim Kurkjian 16:55
Is this a great game or what? And it’s it’s the best game ever, Nestor, and if you’re paying attention every day like I do and like you do, all sorts of really interesting, fascinating, crazy things happen, and it’s our attempt all the time to just point that out.
Nestor Aparicio 17:13
Why do you love baseball, Tim Kirchen?
Tim Kurkjian 17:16
Well, my dad was a really good player. My dad Was a mathematician, MIT undergrad, doctor in mathematics. Loved the game. Loved the sport. Loved the stats of the game. Taught me the stats of the game. My two brothers are in the Hall of Fame at Catholic University for baseball. This was the primary language spoken in my house growing up. So this isn’t something baseball that I got interested in after college. This has been with me my entire life. When I was five years old, I loved it, and now I’m almost 70 years old, and I still love it. And that love and that feel for the game that thankfully I have was instilled by my father, who just taught me everything I needed to know about this beautiful sport.
Nestor Aparicio 18:02
Well, I’m an Aparicio, so I come at it sort of honest through all of this, and I talk about, and you know, you didn’t come on the show for a number of years, and we were in last place for a number of years, and Angelos was Angelos. The positivity part for me, and I talked to somebody. I was out having crabs on Sunday to honor my mother at her birthday, and a lady came up says, “You go to the ballpark much. I’m like, well, I’ve been three times this year. I said, but here’s what, and I say this to Luke all the time, and you know they don’t let me in down at the Orioles and like all that. The game on television since the box came and since the strikes, and specifically the last five months, literally since the last time I’ve had you on the podcast, I think you were on the first week of the season, and we were sort of feeling out talking about the umpires and three challenges. The last time I had you on. Since that time, even though the team’s been kind of whatever it’s been, and I watch it every night, pace of play, shift being gone, relief pitchers staying in, and I’m not just going to the bullpen five times in the seventh inning to match up, but the strike zone on television has made the television experience for me, and I’m 57, and I’ve been watching baseball. I love going to games. You’ve seen me in every ballpark in the country, but the television part of this has made it so much superior to sit in, especially when Ben McDonald’s calling the game or Jim Palmer, which we’re blessed here. We have this great announcers that teach us the game, but the strike zone thing for television, I think it’s the greatest thing the sport has ever done to make it cut and dried, make the game cut and dried, give everybody a fair chance to challenge. They measure these guys, even Freddy Potek, even short guys like you and me and Rosenthal. You know, like I, it’s I like it, and and I I think that the television part of this, if they can get that right, and that’s up to Greg Bader at Masson or Rob Manford at Major League. But the television presentation of making the game John Miller, Joe Morgan fun, you know what I mean? Chuck Thompson, Brooks Robinson, locally fun, where it’s part of what you do. The television part of the strike zone, because the strike zone is the game. I just if I ran into Rob Manford, I would have told him that because as someone that sits at home and watches it every night, and I don’t go to a lot of games, it makes me not want to go to games because I can’t see the strike zone. But but when I’m home, that is just the improvement of all improvement for my enjoyment of the game.
Tim Kurkjian 20:17
Well, the ABS system has worked better than I thought it would, and the biggest surprise for me is how much the fans enjoy it. So when there’s a a challenge and then the home team, whatever it is, wins the challenge, people really get excited about that. And as much as I’m against too much technology in the game, I acknowledge this has worked better than I thought I just hope at the end of the season they look at this very closely and say, “All right, did it work? And if it didn’t in certain levels, then let’s improve it. Let’s make it better. But I think we’re headed for someday, and someday is maybe not next year in three years, but someday soon we’re going to have a fully automated strike zone, and maybe that’s good. I’m not sure. I just know that this has worked slightly better than I thought it would.
Nestor Aparicio 21:07
I like the challenges. I I think it’s more like American Idol, where you get judges right and say, I think that’s good. I think that’s bad. I think that’s a strike. I think that’s a ball. Well, let’s go find out what it is. And I think that it’s created another lane of interest for me on a pitch-by-pitch basis. That there is finality. The one thing you don’t hear is anybody yelling in a dugout. If they’re yelling, challenge it. You know what I mean? Like, but there’s there’s all of the there’s a finality instant that I sort of like better than where Palmer would always come from. We’re going to get a high strike zone, low strike zone. You’ve lived in that every night, where pitchers knew umpires’ tendencies, so to catchers to set up. I think it’s created more of a balanced playing field for me. I just think the game’s more enjoyable with the finality of that and not having that be disputed every every every pitch, literally.
Tim Kurkjian 21:57
Yeah, and the pitch clock, as you talked about, has made the game quicker, crisper, more enjoyable to watch. So that that’s the whole point to to finish here, Nestor. Is that with possible work stoppage coming up, baseball has tremendous momentum right now. October was one of the great October’s I’ve ever seen, and the best World Series I’ve ever covered, and that’s 45 straight years. The WBC was great this season, despite all the strikeouts and the you know the pedestrian ways in the American League. It’s been a fascinating baseball season, and I just hope we don’t ruin all that by not playing next year or having any games wiped out next year. These are the things that we need to work on to make sure that baseball continues to head in the right direction,
Nestor Aparicio 22:45
give me one Orioles something trade thing. Are they going to make the playoff? Do you mean they’re going to do something this week, right? I mean, relief pitcher, third baseman, now it’s something’s going. There’s going to be movement on. I believe there’s going to be some movement on Monday, right?
Tim Kurkjian 22:58
Yes, there has to be some movement. The key with the Orioles is, I think they’re going to buy, but a lot of people are say going to come after Taylor Ward and say, “Hey, we need him on our team. Even though he’s only got what seven home runs, he’s had a pretty good offensive season overall, and he can help a lot of teams because so many teams, Phillies included, need a right-handed hitter, so this is the balancing act for the Orioles. If what do we do when every when people are coming after one of our guys? Do we just keep him, or do we trade somebody but hopefully get better while we trade? It’s a it’s this is why the the trade deadline is so so interesting because this is when GMs earn all their money right now. Are we in? Are we out? Are we going to add? Are we going to subtract? And it’s a really. I’ve had general managers Nestor tell me, if we win tonight, we’re going to buy tomorrow. If we lose tonight, we’re going to sell tomorrow. Because some look at it and say, difference between three games out, five games out is big difference. So who knows? I can’t wait to see what happens. And Monday is going to be, I think, a pretty darn busy and interesting day.
Nestor Aparicio 24:11
And not just because I’m seeing Getty Lee in rush in New York. Luke Jones will be on it. Any breaking news happens first on the WNSD Tech Service. It’s all brought to you by Cole Roofing and Gordian Energy. My thanks to Tim Kirchen of ESPN. Go listen to his podcast. You know, one day Rick Vaughn is going to find the video, and I’ve been beating him up of you and me and Frank Robinson calling balls and strikes and Schmuck throwing heat from the hill and Keith Mills playing. We all played baseball at Camden Yards that day. Vaughn’s got the videotape of it, and I’m trying to pressure him. So put a little pressure on him when you see him, okay?
Tim Kurkjian 24:45
I don’t think Schmucker was throwing heat that day, but I guess he shucked me
Nestor Aparicio 24:50
out. Frank Robinson rung me up on a three-two pitch. It was out of the strike zone, and if I had ABS, God rest his soul, Frank Robinson, he he. Erred that day, and I let him hear
Tim Kurkjian 25:02
it. All right, I’ll talk to Rick Vaughn. I’ll do my best.
Nestor Aparicio 25:05
All right, I made a really good defensive play. I just want to put it on the internet. I’m not going to put the strikeout on, but I’m going to put the double down the line on. Tim Kirchin here from ESPN. Go follow him. No one knows the game better. And I’m glad I got to name all of your colleagues, and I’m glad I got to see you in Philadelphia. It’s always great to catch up with you. Thank you.
Tim Kurkjian 25:23
Good to see you, Nestor. Take care.
Nestor Aparicio 25:25
I texted him. I told him be a thrill to have him on the show, and it always is. Tim Kercher from ESPN, my one-time colleague when I was a very, very young man at the Baltimore Sun back in the 1980s. We are WNST AM 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking. Baltimore, positive.
