Orioles reinforce tone deaf approach to fans with Rutschman Black Monday 2026 selloff

Did the Baltimore Orioles throw in the towel on the 2026 season on Monday? Probably. But as Luke Jones and Nestor point out, this current project of Mike Elias isn’t working at any level and the haul for Adley Rutschman plus the other deals with Dean Kremer, Taylor Ward and Tyler Wells have certainly disgusted what’s left the of Orioles fan base. Another selloff; different ownership. Does anyone know what they’re doing at The Warehouse?

Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Orioles’ trade deadline deals, particularly the trade of Adley Rutschman to the Red Sox. Nestor expressed deep disappointment, citing the demoralizing impact on long-time fans. Luke acknowledged the lack of belief in the team and Rutschman’s decline, noting the industry’s positive view of the trades. They debated the team’s future, including the potential impact of a labor stoppage and the value of prospects like Grayson Rodriguez and Brandon Young. Nestor criticized the ownership and management for their handling of the situation, while Luke emphasized the need for a fresh perspective.

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Set dates for the Maryland Crab Cake Tour stops at Koco’s, State Fair, and the Fishmonger’s Daughter.
• [ ] Tell Jesse Minter that Nestor is watching him now.

Orioles Fans’ Reaction to Trade Deadline

• Nestor Aparicio discusses the 28th anniversary of WNST AM 1570 and upcoming events like the Maryland Crab Cake Tour.
• Nestor and Luke Jones reflect on the recent trade deadline, expressing disbelief and demoralization among fans.
• Nestor shares his long-term experience in covering the Orioles and the impact of the recent trades on the fan base.
• Luke Jones admits his skepticism about the team’s performance and lack of belief in Adley Rutschman.

Evaluating the Trade Deals

• Nestor questions the value of the trades, emphasizing the long-term impact on fans.
• Luke Jones mentions industry opinions, suggesting the trades were beneficial, but acknowledges the fans’ frustration.
• Nestor criticizes the decision-making process, particularly the timing of the trades and the lack of significant returns.
• Luke Jones highlights the team’s lack of success with Rutschman and the need for a fresh perspective in management.

Impact on Future Seasons and Fan Trust

• Nestor expresses disappointment in the team’s decision to throw in the towel during a crucial season.
• Luke Jones argues that the trades were a logical step given the team’s performance and the potential for a lockout.
• Nestor criticizes the new ownership and management for their lack of transparency and accountability.
• Luke Jones suggests that the team’s current state reflects a broader failure in leadership and strategy.

Historical Context and Fan Disillusionment

• Nestor reflects on the history of fan disillusionment, dating back to the Peter Angelos era.
• Luke Jones discusses the impact of past trades and the ongoing cycle of disappointment.
• Nestor emphasizes the importance of community integrity and the erosion of trust among fans.
• Luke Jones acknowledges the fans’ right to be angry but argues that the trades were a necessary step.

Prospects and Future Outlook

• Luke Jones discusses the team’s pitching prospects, including Shane Bieber and Grayson Rodriguez.
• Nestor and Luke Jones debate the potential impact of the trades on the team’s future performance.
• Luke Jones suggests that the team’s current strategy may be more focused on pitching than hitting.
• Nestor remains skeptical about the team’s ability to rebound and win in the near future.

Owner and Management Accountability

• Nestor criticizes the new ownership and management for their lack of engagement with fans.
• Luke Jones argues that the team’s decisions reflect a broader failure in leadership and strategy.
• Nestor calls for greater transparency and accountability from the team’s management.
• Luke Jones suggests that the team’s current state is a result of poor decision-making and lack of vision.

Fan Reactions and Broader Implications

• Nestor and Luke Jones discuss the broader implications of the trades for the fan base and the team’s future.
• Nestor expresses frustration with the team’s lack of commitment to winning and fan engagement.
• Luke Jones acknowledges the fans’ right to be angry but argues that the trades were a necessary step.
• Nestor calls for a more honest and transparent approach from the team’s management.

Potential for Future Improvement

• Nestor and Luke Jones discuss the potential for future improvement and the importance of fan trust.
• Luke Jones suggests that the team’s current strategy may be more focused on pitching than hitting.
• Nestor remains skeptical about the team’s ability to rebound and win in the near future.
• Luke Jones argues that the trades were a necessary step to rebuild the team for the long term.

Final Thoughts and Future Directions

• Nestor and Luke Jones reflect on the potential future directions for the team and the fan base.
• Luke Jones suggests that the team’s current strategy may be more focused on pitching than hitting.
• Nestor remains skeptical about the team’s ability to rebound and win in the near future.
• Luke Jones argues that the trades were a necessary step to rebuild the team for the long term.

Conclusion and Next Steps

• Nestor and Luke Jones conclude the discussion by summarizing their key points and next steps.
• Nestor emphasizes the importance of fan trust and transparency from the team’s management.
• Luke Jones suggests that the team’s current strategy may be more focused on pitching than hitting.
• Nestor remains skeptical about the team’s ability to rebound and win in the near future.

Nestor Aparicio 0:02
Welcome home. We are WNST AM 1570 Towson Baltimore. We call this thing Baltimore positive. Lots of stuff airing this week. Probably nothing more significant than this on the date of our 28th anniversary, and I’m about to change the logo here to some row houses for the vote of the internet out there, and we will be doing the Maryland Crab Cake Tour a bunch of times this month. We’re going to be at Koco’s. Just set a date at State Fair. Just set a date at the Fishmonger’s Daughter. So later on in the month, but obviously, the Monday trade deadline, Luke, dude, you and I-I don’t know if we pegged it wrong-and we are doing this piece literally a couple hours after the trade deadline, it hasn’t even marinated to me what happened Saturday and Sunday against the Phillies and whatever role that might play or where they are with Ruchman or. But my God, dude, I mean, I I’m looking up and down my timeline. I’ve been doing this 35 years professionally. Longer than that, if you count me back to the Baltimore Sun, listening to Phil Wood and Stan Charles and Jeff Rimmer, who’s coming on the show in a couple of weeks. Some old school people, Charlie. You know, you know. I go back to 84 professionally doing this. 42 years. I was at the Sirhoff press conference when he cried. I was in the locker room after they busted the team up in a one with Messina. You can talk about the last couple of breakups in this, and I’m not talking about any of that. It’s about how the people who are alive feel about the baseball team and what they did on Monday. I mean, I’ll let you take the floor. You’re going to do 90% of the talking in this one because I don’t, I don’t even know that I have much to say. It, whatever adjective, whatever you want to come up with for it, I just, it’s really demoralizing to the people that have supported this team for a lifetime. And I’ll just leave it at that.

Luke Jones 1:57
I hear you. First of all, the last time we talked about this, I think you were way more convinced that they were going to buy than I was. I’ve said for months now, I don’t believe in this team. Clearly, Michaelias didn’t.

Nestor Aparicio 2:10
They didn’t know that. No matter

Luke Jones 2:12
what, and let me be very clear when I’m about to say this: you also know I haven’t been a big Adley Rutschman guy for going on two years now, I think, and look, fans are ticked, and I completely understand that.

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Nestor Aparicio 2:27
Well, the question is, did they really got anything for any of these guys? That’s all. That’s always in the end of the day, because we’re still going fans two years from now, and everyone’s going to be a mariner or whatever. You know what I mean? So, right? Yeah,

Luke Jones 2:38
I mean, we we don’t know. Time’s going to tell, right? I mean, the base, the the industry seems to think they did quite well with these trades. I mean, Sean McAdam, the longtime Boston writer, put out a tweet not long after this deal was reported that there were some scouts and people around the industry that thought, like, oh my gosh, Boston gave up that much for Adley Rutschman. We’ll see, right? But I mean, really, this just comes back to for me. Obviously, what I already said that Michaelias didn’t have a whole lot of belief, and and frankly, what fans really did at this point. Yeah, I mean, what fans have

Nestor Aparicio 3:15
belief in him, though, right? Like at this point, and this goes back to the the core issue of him making all these deals and then going to Rubenstein and showing him the Sean McAdam, you know, pieces and saying, “Hey, hey, you know, I’m still your guy here. We’re going to rebuild too, you know, because that’s really what this is. I mean, they didn’t win a playoff game with Adley Ruchman, dude.

Luke Jones 3:34
Yeah, and and let’s be clear, let’s let’s not call it a rebuild in the sense of where they were in 2018 and 2019. They they’re working from talent and some long-term contracts that they have completed over the last year. The cupboard is not bare, but at the same time, this was confirmation to what I think many of us either had come to accept or I think fans were trying to be in denial about. This isn’t working. It hasn’t worked for two years now, and as much as I know, there’s these warm and fuzzies that some fans have about Adley Rutschman, and I understand that, and I understand what he represented, and I understand the player he was for two plus calendar years. I said it at the time very definitively that his first two years he was better than Matt Weider’s ever was, like almost from the time he set foot on the field. At the same time, I’m not going to deny and gloss over the fact that his decline in the second half of 2024 and his 2025 season, and while a rebound in 2026, still durability concerns that have impacted this club, and I think you look at the breakdown of his numbers, very much buoyed by a huge month of April. His numbers since then, nothing to write home about whatsoever. I think Rutschman’s a big part of the reason why this team’s failed over the last couple years, and I’m not going to gloss over that. Just well, they didn’t get

Nestor Aparicio 4:58
nothing for him, right? Got nothing as of today. Now the look they got rid of Kramer. We’re four days past that, right? Like, and he was the remnant of Machado, right? Like, so whatever they’re the grandchildren of this are, it we hopefully you and I are still going to be here to to document that in 2000 and first off 27, where there might not be a season, which is another reason they might. That I am dismayed that they threw the towel in two games back. I’m I’m just dismayed on behalf of the community, on behalf of the fans, not not on behalf of me, because I didn’t believe they were winning the World Series. But I believe, like Tim Kirkshan said to me last week, and like the headline at Baltimore Positive says, which is you’re a couple games back. Don’t throw in the towel on a season unless you’re really getting something. And in any of these deals ever, we’ll say ever. You telling me a deal where they got Scott McGregor? I mean, you know what I mean. Like I’m going back 50 years, dude. Like I don’t know that they’ve ever made any of these trade deadline deal days and gotten anything better than a Dean Kramer, and no offense, they can buy that pretty cheap on the open market. And part of this for me is you’re bringing these young guys in, and you’re going to sell this boujja that we’re rebuilding, and we’re going to let Mike frickin Elias do it when there’s no season next year and no spring. Like stacking all this, and what clowns these new owners have been, like literal clowns, these guys have been, and Arigetti clearly, and Rubinstein knew they were doing. I mean, Michael Ice didn’t do this in a vacuum, and my people tell me Araghetti’s the guy in Ripken’s ear. All what would Rubinstein know about the value of Adley? He, I don’t think he just. I just don’t think he cares. It’s very obvious he doesn’t. He’s not immer. He’s 79 years old. He’s a billionaire. He’s not immersed in this. So, the green light to tear the team apart has to come from upstairs. Whatever upstairs is, I see that as Arigetti. You can argue all day. Call Rob Long over at the fan. He’s inside. I’m sure he’ll tell you the truth. You know. I mean, there’s there. Call Cal Ripken. Call Ryan Ripken. They’re all in on it. They should know what’s really going on, right? I mean, they really should. Whatever’s really going on here, and I guess we’ll see what’s really going on. What might be really going on, honestly, is what I’ve talked about with business. Which Marty Conway, I mean, dude, everybody in the world texts me, you know, with these trades. And I had Marty on last week, and part of this is the dudes that own the team are preparing for whatever the work thing is, and however they see it, however they see it in regard to Elias being in charge or not, or hey, dude, you’re in charge now. Get us younger, get us cheaper. I can hear Araghetti just hey, I’m gonna own this team when the strike’s over. Like we want the Red Sox farm system here, not Adley fricking Ruchman, and I could hear you know what I mean. Like in the same way you feel that way, maybe I would feel that way, but I think for the season ticket holders and the people supporting this and financially supporting this, this is one more. And I’m going to say this really effing loud. I’m going to set to edit that. How effing tone deaf. How out of touch these billionaires, Katie Griggs, throw Ripken and his wife, who sit in the front row. Anybody who whose names on the ledger, how out of touch they are.

Nestor Aparicio 8:16
Griggs, Rovac, Fine, who thinks I’m not significant enough to let in, but you are like like just in a general sense as to how they’ve decided to run this operation on a daily basis from their television network to their Mickey Mouse website and the social media and the way fans feel and have been treated and the winning and the losing and the decision making and everything shrouded in mystery, including this, when are they going to front face this and really say what this is, whatever it is, and not boujohn me? They’re not. They’re not, and there is no accountability on any of this other than they’re kicking the ball down the the curb, and everything you said about Ruchman defends it, and they can say that it’s a fan. Hollander can say that Ben McDonald, because we’ve all seen it. This is not. It’s not insane to deal this off. It’s insane to deal this off in a season when you’re a couple of games out and you’ve tried, and you there might not be a season next year, and your fan base Is already on edge for a lot of reasons, and I’m not saying people are going away. I’m saying

Luke Jones 9:30
oh, I think they are.

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Nestor Aparicio 9:31
I’ve stopped paying these people a long time ago when I thought they were creeps, and that was Angelos, and that was dude was 20 years ago. It was 22 years ago that the bird assaulted me. 22 years ago, right? So like this was a long time ago, and all of the angst that people feel about giving them money and not feeling value, giving them money and seeing. Throw the towel in, give you know, I I I I don’t know what to say about that other than the invoices get mailed out, and I stopped paying the invoice when I saw had Chad Steele and Steve Bashadi how they did not value me in as a human being as a radio station in any way. I was not valued. What value do the Baltimore Orioles put on their fan base and their customers? Not collectively, even, but on a one-by-one basis, when these these bills go out, how important does this team remain to people when winning the World Series wasn’t even important to them this year for all the money they’ve spent and all the money we’ve spent. We, not me. I don’t give them money. I did give them some money this year, but in a general sense. And I think that that’s the issue more than the bag of beans they’re getting back for Rutschman, which might turn out to be a World Series in 2032, and we’ll all run back and pay full price. Blah blah blah blah. You know, like there’s there’s no pot of gold over the rainbow in this sort of customer treatment, and I’ll just leave it at that. We call them fans or whatever, but this is big dough for people that foot the bill, and I keep talking to them, and they’re taking not us because I’m not one of them. You, everyone, not you, Luke. The public for granted, and and this has been going off half my lifetime. And I don’t scream about anymore. I’m not yelling. I mean, I’ve written half of Free the Birds piece. Like they’re playing, by the way, on the 21st of September, which is the 20th. If I let a walkout on them, who would come? I don’t want. I have no energy, interest in believing. I told you when I did that on Angelo’s. I thought I could change him. I thought I could change the weather, dude. I shook hands with Michael Araghetti, one of the most arrogant men I’ve ever. He didn’t even know who I was. Didn’t care. He was arrogant on the face of him, ditto Rubinstein. I don’t think there’s any. They don’t care about any of this, and they’ll take the company line of “We got a bag of beans, we got a bag of donuts. We’re going to play next year. Yeah, we are. Yeah, we are. Yeah, we are. Until we don’t, and then we don’t. We will. We will soon. We will in May. We will in June. Yeah, we will. And when we do, we won’t have Adley Rutschman. We’ll have these players. We’ll have these young players, and I hope it works out for them. I do. I mean, I hope one day this works out for them. But Monday was a dark day for the for the franchise, right? I mean, really. I mean, when you consider failure and throwing in the towel on Ruchman and the whole thing. I mean, just throwing the talent on the season. On the season. Well, and

Luke Jones 12:42
I want to be clear, especially off the comments I made a couple minutes ago. I I don’t want to make it sound like it’s not something fans should be ticked off about, or or angry about, or just flat out, you know. But but again, to me, it’s it’s the biggest admission yet of of Michaelia’s acknowledging this isn’t working. Like it’s that simple, and like you know he he he can soft pedal it and he’ll spin it and and all of that. But I mean it’s just hasn’t worked for over two years now, and you know you you made you made mention of Dean Kramer who they just traded away and who’s the last piece left from the Manny Machado trade. You know there is absolutely a strong argument to make to not let the same thing happen with Adley Ruchman. If you let this go into the off season and there’s a lockout that shuts down activity and maybe cancels, who knows? Maybe the entire season next year. And does that year of control even manifest, or does it just go away? So

Nestor Aparicio 13:43
we can make baseball reasons all day, but they have to get their stakeholders on board, and they’re not. I understand, and they’re not.

Luke Jones 13:48
But I would also say they’re they haven’t won with Adley Rutschman. They’re 101 and 125 going back to early July with him in the lineup.

Nestor Aparicio 13:57
I’m not even convinced they did the wrong thing. I mean, right, right. Like I’m not, but I just feel like your talent. The season is the wrong thing. That and I mean here and now. It’s it doesn’t. I mean, I hear you. Yeah,

Luke Jones 14:09
I just. But they weren’t winning,

Nestor Aparicio 14:11
right? Okay. I just,

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Luke Jones 14:12
I just don’t like. And who really thought that? You know what I mean? Like, I think, I think anything they would have done on Monday, fans would have been ticked regardless because everyone’s just very frustrated with the overall state of affairs. And let me be clear: when I’m laying out arguments for why you trade Adley Ruchman, that is not absolving Mike Elias from being the one that’s in charge of this current mess. I don’t think he should continue. I think, I mean, you know what I’ve said for a while now that if you’re looking at arguments and looking at scenarios for how this thing is salvaged, it’s in my mind someone with a fresh perspective, new eyes, new ears, new ideas, and maybe they can salvage what’s left and. Maybe the scenario turns into Dan Duquette, who ended up reaping a lot of the work that Andy McPhail put in. Right? I mean, a lot of those guys were Andy McPhail’s acquisitions that Dan Duquette. Now, how many

Nestor Aparicio 15:12
players did we get on Sunday? Like the crane? Like I mean, all the deals. It’s 10 guys, 12 guys. I mean, it’s it’s it’s a lot. And then you go

Luke Jones 15:21
back to last year with a similar similar outcome last year, right? And and you know we’re going to see how that all looks. And obviously, it doesn’t mean that all those players necessarily are going to just be in your system and come up and play for you. You can flip guys and do all that, but but yeah, it’s demoralizing. I’m not going to sit here and just because I can justify it, and just because I can say honestly that I haven’t been much of an Adley Rutschman guy for a couple years now, because of what we’ve seen, because of the durability, all of that, it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t stink. You know, it doesn’t mean that it’s not a major bummer. And yeah, I flat out wrote it at BaltimorePositive.com. As much as I can justify this. Where do they go from here, right? I mean, you you have a roster that yes does have some long term commitments on it that have been made over the last year, and I do applaud that. But I I look at the current state of this roster, and for me, it it still feels way too close to some of the not horrible but listless teams that you can think back from 1998 through 2011. Not all those teams were 95 loss, 100 loss kind of outfits. There, there were some 78 win teams in there, but that’s not the goal. That’s not the objective. And for me, where as they’re presently constructed, and this was even with Adley Rutschman, quite frankly, and that’s why I’m not, you know, I’m not outraged about it from a baseball perspective. Well, they also have a catcher, but, but, but sure, right? I mean, that’s different.

Nestor Aparicio 16:52
That’s but that’s another reason. No, but let me let me finish

Luke Jones 16:55
my point here real quick because I still see a team that looks too much like those teams rather than something that is at all building something special right now. I mean, like that ship has sailed for me. You could still convince me last winter that last year was a blip, and yeah, they had a bunch of injuries, and these guys are going to rebound, and yeah, you bring in Pete Alonso now, and you bring in Taylor Ward, who, by the way, they traded four years of Grayson Rodriguez. Which look, this year, year one, yeah, Taylor Ward’s outperformed Grayson Rodriguez. But if you remember, I didn’t like that trade philosophically as much as anything else. But you know, you bring in those guys, it’s been the same result. They’re well, you march all the march. They went all

Nestor Aparicio 17:38
in, dude. They went all in in a lot of ways, signing Shane Boz and making the deal there, and giving all the money to Alonzo and Inking Bradish and Dave Gabe Cano some money. I mean, they’re going all in on the guys. I guess they’re going all in on. They can’t go all in on Henderson. He’s non-signable. Holiday is still blooming. Westberg’s whatever he is at this point. I mean, just a whole lot of maybe the Housers and these the Mount Castles Kozers all the curse. That’s they’re not they have no value right like literally. Um, yeah, I I I am shocked though. I I did not think when we were together on Thursday we alluded you me and Alan alluded like they might go this way they might go that way anything’s possible. I don’t think any of us were like this. Thing’s going to be busted up, and Luke and I are going to be on the on on the horn on Monday night, and the season’s going to be over, and the towel’s going to be thrown in, and that’s the direction they’re going to go as training camp opens. When they’re not, they were not dead in the water in the pennant race for whatever the pennant race is. They were not dead in the water, and next season feels dead in the water to every person I talk to, dude. Right? Like next season feels like nothing that’s going to be normal. I I just keep going back to the fact that they’re not in the Disney World business, dude. They’re in they’re in the Baltimore baseball fan business to some degree, and if they’re going to do this, at least articulating it in some way. I mean, Buster only was really hard on them last week before they did any of this, and said that they need to rebuild the trust of the fan base. Oh my God, they obliterated what? I mean, I don’t even know what’s left. I don’t know who other than their employees can feel good about them, about any of them, about them, about it, about the bird, about the money, about the leadership, about the management, about any of it. How do you even feel good that Cal Ripken’s gonna run? He’s seven. He’s pushing 70 years old, and he’s he’s like just not like he’s gonna like if they if that really is and I don’t think that’s gonna happen but like what what are they doing and who’s gonna face up and who’s gonna man up and who’s gonna get out in front of it other than Rubenstein every eight weeks with another contract and another signing that to them feels like a commitment. Right when you write a check, you know, like

Luke Jones 20:04
well, I mean they have made commitments. I mean

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Nestor Aparicio 20:06
they have,

Luke Jones 20:07
but but that said, I mean

Nestor Aparicio 20:09
it’s not making people want to write season ticket.

Luke Jones 20:11
You know, Mike

Nestor Aparicio 20:12
to them. The

Luke Jones 20:13
Angels made a long-term commitment to Mike Trout, and what has that gotten them right in ice in isolation? Right. So Again, I I guess if if there’s something that I would have liked to have seen, you know, if we’re going to look at this set of circumstances, you know, look at what Toronto did, for example. I mean, they’re not going anywhere, but they went out and got Soriano, who has control for the next what at least next year, if not two years. You know, it wasn’t just Adley Rutschman, but they traded away Tyler Wells, who has control for next year, right? I mean, you know, Michaelias can’t say that they’re still, you know, that they haven’t given up on the season when you’re trading away, you know, Remnant, three-time All-Star catcher and a guy that’s kind of been your de facto closer over the last three weeks or so, and so I don’t know. I mean,

Nestor Aparicio 21:05
well, they felt like the value’s higher again. I guess right. Again,

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Luke Jones 21:07
it’s if I’m being fully transparent, it’s tough for me to be like outraged that they threw in the towel because I just I didn’t have any belief whatsoever in in this team. They haven’t been above 500 since mid-April. They haven’t been 500 since april 30. They and to your point,

Nestor Aparicio 21:25
that’s the root of of.

Luke Jones 21:26
I mean, they’ve just lack of

Nestor Aparicio 21:28
anger about it in that way. Yeah,

Luke Jones 21:30
right, right. And and and again, I don’t. I’m not saying that to make light or that other people should agree with me. Fans have every right to be pissed about this. Fans have every right to be calling for Mike Elias. But that all started long before what happened Monday, right? And and that’s I think that’s my point. This was more just confirmation of what I think a lot of people have kind of either come to grips to or have just been in denial over is that this isn’t working. So what

Nestor Aparicio 21:57
is a reality set for them, right? They have to reset the reality for their fan base and for them, and what next year or the next couple years are going to be. And to your point, they weren’t going anywhere with Rutschman. I get that. And the other

Luke Jones 22:13
thing I would say, I mean, again, this wasn’t a tear down to the degree that what Dan Duquette did in 2018, right? I mean, Adley Rutschman’s the notable piece. Tyler Wells, I like him. He’s a bullpen arm, and and he’s a bullpen arm that was largely unavailable the last few years. And they didn’t

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Nestor Aparicio 22:30
feel like Dylan Henderson for whatever more they would have gotten for him, right? Like what they would have gotten, right? Like if they wanted to really just say, “I don’t. Well, they’re not signing him. Also, not. But he’s also played right. What is also

Luke Jones 22:42
has played horribly this year, and he’s got an additional year of club control left.

Nestor Aparicio 22:46
100, 100% I get it. I’m just saying, like, I mean, I hear something. I mean, look, I mean, you know, well, it’s

Luke Jones 22:50
like I saw something in tongue in cheek that you know, talking about other teams in the AL East that were looking for catching help after the Red Sox acquired Rutschman, and I felt like, man, you you could throw a grenade out there if you just subtweeted and say said, “Wow, the Orioles could probably get a heck of a package package for Basio right now. You know, obviously, I say that you know in jest, but

Nestor Aparicio 23:10
well, listen, I would see Rubenstein as doing his. I’m working on my David Rubenstein impersonation, but he would say, “We signed Alonzo, signed Besio, we’re still serious about this. We have Bradish for next couple years. We have Boz. We have a couple pitchers. We have Gunnar Henderson the next couple years. We’re reloading here. We’re committed. We’re spending money. We’re going to buy more arms. We’re going to buy more bats. We’re going to go out in the marketplace. Mike’s going to do a great. You know, he’s going to say all that until Mike’s not around, right? But like, there is a point to say. You know. we this is not the burn down you’re talking about with Duquette, right? Duquette, Duquette. The day after that happened, and Chris Davis is hitting 190. He was going to continue to hit 190. By the way, Storm Davis in the Hall of Fame. I didn’t even mention that. Chris Davis is very classy. I’m not picking on him at all. He had a great jacket, and the money he’s get like he’s done the best he can do with whatever, and it’s ancient history to me. And I’m glad that whatever love he got, he got. I’m not busting on him at all. But this is part of like the the burn and churn of all of this. Guys getting 150, 200 million dollars, team not winning, and it’s stacking up, and fans paying for it, right? Whether it’s Alonzo now, or Machado before, or Rifkin 30 years ago, or Albert, pick anybody you want. But there is heavy’s the crown, my man. You know this, right? Like, and and to me, there’s no crown when you don’t win playoff games, and another generation is passing on this thing. And I could see where this is not. They’re going to come back next year with Bradish and Boss. They’re going to come back next year with Henderson fixed, hopefully, right? Westberg healthy, man. Holiday season, yeah. Shortstop second, man. You know, I’m already pitching their. Well, I mean, not pitching Boojah because they’re like. Strike is going to like get in the way of all that. Let’s pretend that there’s less play. Let’s pretend it’s remedied,

Luke Jones 25:06
and and there’s going to be even even let’s say it’s a 1995 scenario where they play most of a season. Well, let’s even give that. And then they go in the off

Nestor Aparicio 25:13
season. They go spend a bunch of money on a third baseman. They get a right hand at bat in the outfield. They buy another reliever. You know. Hey, they

8

Luke Jones 25:19
they save some money. I mean, I mean, if we wanted to, you know, and you know, we could be as cynical as we want about that. And look, people can be cynical. Like I’m, again, I want to be very clear. I’m not defending this as much as I can understand it and I see it. And look, there, there’s, there’s been enough reporting out there that have indicated, and I think there’s enough evidence, and we know that Michaelias has thought so highly of Adley Rutschman. I don’t think for a single second that an extension wasn’t brought to him at a couple different points. Right? Whether there was any alignment in terms of what the Orioles valued him as, whether he had any genuine interest. If he had interest at a reasonable price point, you know, like I said to you over the last couple weeks in passing a couple times, you know, if there was a or sensible three or four year extension for Rutschman to be made, I was okay with that. Even as someone who has not been as high on that Edly Ruchman the last couple years, but but he’s going to be the Red

Nestor Aparicio 26:22
Sox catcher next year. But

Luke Jones 26:24
yeah, yeah. I mean, I mean, and you would assume. I mean, and this is where maybe you know I’ll finish the point. But you know, if he if he was looking for six years or seven years or something like stupid money for someone who’s going to be in his age 30 season going into his first year of free agency, then you kind of have to do this if you’re being if you’re being prudent, you know, if you’re trying to maximize value, yes, right, and understanding where they are right now. Oh, I don’t think they

Nestor Aparicio 26:53
did anything imprudent on Monday other than mr. Fans. It takes a toll.

Luke Jones 26:57
Yes, there. That is absolutely,

Nestor Aparicio 26:58
and I think that at this particular point for them. That’s just not somebody needed to stand up in the meeting in there and say, “I’m not echoing Peter Angelos, which is what he did in ’96 and ’97. I was going to say, I mean, and I’ve talked about that a lot this week because I currently see in

Luke Jones 27:18
’96, right?

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Nestor Aparicio 27:19
You know the Chris Widger thing. I like. I brought up last week. I don’t even had Jana Marie. I don’t even know who I brought it up with, but I like Evan Drellick. I’ve had all these great guests on this week, and I hope everybody’s enjoying it for our anniversary. But I, I go back to like the history of all of this and all of us living it, and Katie Griggs having no use for it or thought about it or whatever, and certainly Rubinstein and Araghetti not having any sense of their village, and this is the only village they’ve got, and it’s been burned to the effing ground. Beginning with Angelos with me 22 years ago, Free the Birds was 20 years ago, the Manny Machado, the Duke, like whatever your jumping-off point is getting, the 13-game plan was a huge thing for fans last year, and that has nothing to do with them dealing Adley Rutschman or even caring who the players are. I mean, I don’t know that the fans care who the players are as long as the result is there, and as long as for me, and I’ve always cared about this, that there’s some level of community integrity involved in this, and there’s not,

Speaker 1 28:22
and that’s long

Nestor Aparicio 28:24
since jumped my shark, and that’s why I give Rush money on a Tuesday night, and I don’t, and Getty Lee money, and I don’t give money to the Orioles because I feel like one brings a sense of pride and integrity, and another one brings I don’t shame. I don’t know what the word is for the Orioles, just I don’t know. I could equate it to like the Trump thing, where I feel like you’re just getting over. You’re just duping people over and over and over again at the same dice game, at the same pull the rug out game. This is a pull the rug out moment for the fans, and they’ve been rugged over and over and over again, going back to you know 0 and 21 in 1980. You know what I mean? Like for me, for for anybody of that age, and these are the old white people supporting this. They didn’t young white people or young anybody giving them real money, maybe 12 bucks on a Wednesday night to see the Astros play. By the way, Robbie Leonard invited me to the game for the afternoon game this week. You know, if I wanted to go out and see the the carnage, he said. I think it would use some other word, better words than that. He’s a lawyer, and I guess I’m going to the game this week. I mean, I I don’t. What can I glean from this other than talk to fans on the street? I mean, I had a freaking radio station taking phone calls about this stuff, and it got to be painful for me, for my soul, for my mojo. You know how I’m. It’s it’s. I am removed from it because I think so little of these people because they think so little of me, and you, and all of us, and and when. The rubber meets the road, or when I say the plastic meets the the ATM, you know the ATM plastic meets the chip, you know the the the swipe it here. I I I grab back at my credit card when I get ripped off and when I get lied to, and when it’s been going on most of my life, and I have to explain it to people. I don’t even like doing this segment, dude. Like this is just-we’re done with baseball. The season’s effing over. Like it’s just over. It’s over, and they’re going to go on strike. And every effing word I’m going to say from here out is going to be negative about them, right? Because there’s nothing-they’re not. We’re going to watch Kyle Bradish pitch every fifth day and hope that his arm stays together. And they’re going to pitch opening day, and it’s all going to be bulljaw because they can’t promise opening day, they can’t promise spring training. Anybody with any sense like me, who’s been doing this 35 years, is watching all this and feels like, dude, right now, if you had a dot, you’d be a really smart guy. You make a lot of money if you bet against them opening on opening day. When they say they’re opening in Tampa or whatever, March the 20 buck, yeah, you, you. I think you make a lot of money if you bet against that, the happening, given the circumstances, and that’s, I don’t know, that’s the part for me owning a radio station and being a sports guy all my life and doing this. That like, I can’t booja the the people, and yeah, I can’t walk away from this, and I got to sit here for an hour, and then you know what’s going to happen? They’re going to fade into into never never world. Some people are going to disconnect their mass and subscriptions for 20 bucks a month, and they’re just going to fade. And in December and January, February, you and I are going to be bitching. You’re not going to want to talk about it because you’re not really interested in the labor, and more than anybody else, because there’s nothing going on. It’s all rhetoric. It’s all bullshit. It’s it’s just on and on. And I’ve been through this five times, and it’s more money than it’s ever been. And what the the owners are going to tell you is Monday happened to make it better.

Nestor Aparicio 31:52
Whenever that day we get baseball back, whenever we sort it out with the billionaires and the millionaires, we’ll let you come back to the ballpark and pay full price for the bobblehead night, and you know, like I just, yeah, I don’t know. I’m tired, man. I’m, I’m just effing tired. On be for all of you, I am. I’m not screaming. I’m not doing free the birds. I’ll probably pat myself on the back on the 20th anniversary and say, what have we learned here? Because that is my civic lesson of how John Angelo’s is dancing around with $2 billion in Nashville right now, and all of you paid for it over and over and over again, and you’re doing it again. And I, I just, it breaks my heart, you know, for the for the city, for how good this in a week when I’ve had Janet Marie Smith on and Tim Kirchen and these people that were here and and they’re doing Oriole Hall of Fame stuff and nobody’s even paying attention, you know. You know, my friend was at the event the other night and couldn’t hear for all the money they’ve spent on the speakers. If you’re talking over it, nobody wants to hear what Chris Davis says. I don’t know. It it just all of it just leaves me. I you know I hate to sound depressed today because we’ll be talking football in an hour, right? And I got I’ve seen Rush this week. I mean I’m I’m good. I’m alive. I’m well. We’re all good. But like the baseball thing here is just such a depressing,

Luke Jones 33:05
yeah, off

Nestor Aparicio 33:06
topic. You know, and and they’ve gone into a hole here where they’re not going to matter for a long time, Luke. They really aren’t. You know that. You you know that. We’re not going to have a real conversation about them winning a World Series here for a while, where we can you and I can look each other in the eye, but but wouldn’t we have said that a week ago, though? Okay, yeah. I mean, and I think I think that’s my

Luke Jones 33:26
no. I just think that’s my point here. Like, look, I’m not sitting here saying that anyone shouldn’t be ticked or demoralized. And I’m not trying

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Nestor Aparicio 33:36
to turn you into my therapist here today. No, no, and I and I and however you feel that I want to say from the online and look, there’s fine to feel that way, you know.

Luke Jones 33:43
I, for me, I think there are different levels to this, and I agree with your point wholeheartedly about the present leadership just not nearly recognizing whether it’s arrogance, whether it’s ignorance, whatever, what the last four decades have been for for this? They’re in

Nestor Aparicio 34:03
denial, dude. I walked up to the owner of the team, shook his hand in a synagogue. I was the last guy in line, and I said, “There’s been a lot of trauma here. Sure, and he didn’t he didn’t want to hear it. He turned his back on

Luke Jones 34:15
me, and it’s not even that they have to apologize. Look, Michaelias had nothing to do with Peter Angelos. You

Nestor Aparicio 34:22
own it, though. But you have to

Luke Jones 34:24
recognize it, right? I mean, I don’t need them to apologize to me, but recognize it, right? And putting

Nestor Aparicio 34:31
Cal Ripken behind home plate and rubbing my back and telling me it’s all better-that’s not. I mean, that’s just not. That’s that’s not a

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Luke Jones 34:36
negative thing, but like that can’t be the only thing you do, right? I mean, there has to be. That’s for

Nestor Aparicio 34:41
show. I want for tell.

Luke Jones 34:43
Sure, and I mean, and and so much of this just comes back to, I think, as it pertains to the current era, not the last 40 years, but that certainly is connected. It’s connective tissue as far as the disappointment and failure and losing and all that, but. I think you just look at the tanking seasons, 1920, 21. The idea that they sold at the 2022 trade deadline because they wanted to maintain and maximize their future, right? The idea of selling off Trey Mancini and Jorge Lopez in 2022 at the trade deadline. What was supposed to be because you weren’t going to do and you and not buying at that point in time was to not compromise 2025, 26, 27. You know what I mean. And I think with how this wound up with a competitive window that short circuited after two years, I think fans just feel betrayed, and it’s the feeling that Michaelias promised that these years of not even trying at the major league level was supposed to produce not two playoff seasons and zero playoff wins, but the idea that you’re going to have a nice stretch of 789, 10 years, and let me be clear. That doesn’t mean they were going to win. No one should have thought that meant they they were going to win 100 games every year, or that they were going to win three World Series necessarily, or anything like that. But it was certainly going to be more than a oh you’re really good for a year and a half, two years, and then the window slams shut again. That’s not what that was advertised to be, and I think when you see this happen, which for me it’s much more the symbolism and the idea of Adley Rutschman and what he represented than what he actually had become over the last calendar year or two, which is a guy whose production wasn’t the same as it was over the first couple years, and his durability was really breaking down, so I understand it from that standpoint. But again, it’s just the big picture consequence of this hasn’t worked, and now, based on what David Rubenstein said very recently, with his couldn’t be more pleased with Mike Elias’s comment, which again I’ll continue to say, and in fairness to the organization, what little bit of you know benefit of the doubt I’ll give them. You always support individuals publicly. You support, support, support until you’re ready to move on, right? You don’t you don’t do this. Well, we don’t really like this guy, but we’re going to give him a chance for you know what I mean. So, and

Nestor Aparicio 37:21
it is precarious with the with the labor stoppage. Sure, I mean just all the way around. And I think

Luke Jones 37:25
that’s the thing that really complicated the decision to try to say moving on from Ruchman now as opposed to waiting to the winter, which is what I had kind of thought you’d see.

Nestor Aparicio 37:36
There will be no winter.

Luke Jones 37:37
I mean, quite possibly will be no winter, right? Well, that’s what that’s why. So he’s

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Nestor Aparicio 37:41
probably active on Monday all the time. But again, I I

Luke Jones 37:44
think this is just it’s like reality setting in for everyone that

Nestor Aparicio 37:49
it’s over. It hasn’t worked. It could end on September the 13th when they’re mathematically eliminated. Yeah, and and that’s my thing.

Luke Jones 37:55
And look,

Nestor Aparicio 37:58
but these two months are important to them, dude. From uh,

Luke Jones 38:01
but but it’s like I said to you though the other day when we were at Costas, do you really think that them getting in at 83 and 79 and getting swept or losing two out of three in in the wild card round? Not saying it wouldn’t have, but I’m not saying there’s no value to that just from a some kind of excitement standpoint. But do you think that that was really going to sell tickets for them for next year?

Nestor Aparicio 38:26
If they start the season on June 10th, are people going to be there? You’re going to say yes because they’re all. I don’t know about that. I I don’t know. People haven’t been there

8

Luke Jones 38:35
that much this year. I mean, attendance has gone down the last couple years. You know what I mean?

Nestor Aparicio 38:40
Opening day on May 27th next year because they’ve had they lose eight weeks, which the I mean, if they’re playing baseball on Preakness next year, I’ll consider it a day three. Yeah, I mean, if you were giving me the over under, if you give me the over under on it, I mean that’s complete conjecture

Luke Jones 38:57
at this point. I mean, we know there’s going to be a lockout, but we don’t know how long it’s going to be yet, right? And I think, or how again the

Nestor Aparicio 39:02
owners are going to be to break the players,

Luke Jones 39:04
right? Either way, right? Because and most people

Nestor Aparicio 39:06
think the players are going to get broken somehow. Like I’ve heard both sides. Like there’s a lot of money at stake here, but I know here, here in Baltimore, I don’t. It’s just more precarious than it’s been for me. I hear you. I believe me. I all the way around the state of the city, the state of the state. I want.

Luke Jones 39:23
I just want to make clear for anyone listening. I’m not making light of this. I understand that this cuts deep, but I guess for me it was just everyone was complaining about this team anyway. You know what I mean? Like, who was optimistic a week ago? Right, dude. I sat here watching him kick the ball

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Nestor Aparicio 39:40
around five nine. That’s kind of my point. So, well, you got to fire Elias, but they they don’t have the ball to do that. And he’s the one that made all the deals. So, like, here we are.

Luke Jones 39:50
For me, it’s not even that I have zero confidence that he can’t make some trades for some good prospects, right? And again, whether we’re talking. About who was it? Riley McDaniel’s the kind of minor league guy for ESPN, and I’ve seen some other minor league types. I’ve seen some reporting, you know, including coming from Boston. It seems like they did well for themselves. I mean, heck, in the in the Tyler Wells trade, the the Orioles got Michael Ferret back, who they actually traded to the Rays in the Bos deal, and you know he’s a pretty good prospect. He’s probably there was a decent chance you could even see him at the end of this year, but certainly next year. So, like you can look at all that and say they did well, but Michaelias and ownership, they can’t sell a shiny prospect ranking, like they could five years ago, right? Fans aren’t going to be fooled by that again. Whether whether it results, you know, whether it ends up better this time around, and these players are better fans are going to be

Nestor Aparicio 40:52
fooled by. But I know that when it comes time to giving them money, just not going to be influenced by it, right? I mean, like I’ll watch them. I’ll give them 20. Another Adley Rutschman is not for me.

Luke Jones 41:00
Another Adley Rutschman is not walking through the door, right? From a symbolic standpoint, what that meant in terms of hope when he made that debut in 2022, and we all remember the scene of him looking around the ballpark, and you know something out of a movie, whether whether it was campy or not, it happened, right? And people were excited about it, and oh yeah, they started winning within weeks of him arriving for the first time in a really long time, right? So, all of that, they’re not going to have that, you know. If assuming they continue and proceed with Michaelias, which until we see otherwise, I’m going to assume that that’s the case, right? You know, I I’m not saying whether they should, but I’m just trying to like gage it. He’s running

Nestor Aparicio 41:44
the place now.

Luke Jones 41:45
He’s running the place now, and and and they’ve they gave him the the green light to trade Adley Rutschman, right? Luke, I don’t

Nestor Aparicio 41:50
know if you know, but Luke Jones said that they got a lot of prospects back, and they did pretty good in these deals. They did, yeah. And that’s what that’s what he has. That’s not, but that’s not going to sell.

8

Luke Jones 41:58
But that’s not unlike four years ago, five years ago, and and let’s be clear, the idea of Adley Rutschman wasn’t selling tickets in 2019, right? Like, I I think everyone understood that, but there was at least the idea of, you know, I can hang on a little bit longer because Adley Rutschman’s coming, and that guy they drafted right after him, Gunner Henderson, he’s coming, and you know a year later, Heston Kirstadt’s coming, and Jordan Westberg’s coming, and Kobe Mayo’s coming. Park

Nestor Aparicio 42:30
when they still stunk. I guess it was 22. That was in the back of your mind as you watched. Stan Charles stopped me last time I talked to Stan Charles. I was I was there for a night with a friend of mine who had cochlear implant night, Jody Cutler had a book. You can Google it at Baltimore Positive because it’s a really cool thing. But it was cochlear implant night for for kids and people that are deaf that can now hear. It’s an incredible thing, including you know Brian Johnson from AC/DC. Just all sorts of people, right? Huey Lewis uses one. He can’t sing, but he can hear. It’s a miracle thing, right? So I’m there for that night. You were there. There was nobody there. It’s before they were good. It might have been like the month Ruchman came up. Might have been like April, May of like that year. And I remember running into Stan Charles, and I had a conversation like outside the Mayor Schaefer Plaza, out behind home plate. And I remember him being so, all the things you’re saying, you know, at that moment, which are Henderson’s coming, Ruch, they’re going to be good. They’re going to be good. They’re going to be good. They’re going to be good, and they worked for a couple years, and then they got really good, and they stopped April and May two years ago, and like the predictive nature, it’s just it’s baseball, and I get it. It is

Luke Jones 43:40
baseball, and but but again, like I said, I I think the greater point that I’m trying to make like there’s not going to be any of that in terms of selling that golden child. They’re going to be skeptical, as you know what, and frankly, they should be after what happened. And that’s where yes, from a business standpoint, from a recruiting standpoint, from a you know fan engagement standpoint, yeah this this is a dark day in that way because again for me I think people that are genuinely upset by Rutschman specifically I mean you know the other the other deals the Rutchman deal is what cuts deep here for for obvious reasons but again for me it was much more the idea of what he had represented than what he actually was at this point in time, and where this team actually is at this point in time. Now, the reality is, I mean, they haven’t had Ali Ruchman play in the last two weeks. They’re still two and a half games out. I mean, the rest of them still have

Nestor Aparicio 44:40
Boz. They still had Bradish. They’re still taking the mound. And I’m

Luke Jones 44:43
glad. I’m glad you brought that up because

Nestor Aparicio 44:46
that’d be some you know ish, wouldn’t it? If they go on a run after this,

Luke Jones 44:49
I mean, look at what happened with Detroit a couple years ago, right? I mean, they sold. I don’t think that’s going to happen. However, one they’re only two

8

Nestor Aparicio 44:56
games out. One interesting point.

Luke Jones 45:00
Do you want to make though from if I’m trying to look at this in terms of just where the organization is going from a baseball standpoint, from a how they? I think we’re slowly starting to see a shift towards the pitching side a little bit. When you consider one that they made the Boss trade and extended him, and look, I know Shane Boz. His numbers aren’t like overwhelming and don’t wow you. His defense has stunk this year for him, in particular. Go look at the number of unearned runs he’s given up. Go look at what his what their record is in his starts compared to some of the other guys in their rotation, despite the fact that he’s got decent numbers, like Shane Boss is not like he’s been. Don’t get me wrong, this jury’s still out in terms of him reaching the kind of ceiling that that Michaelias Lauded when they acquired him. But what he, if he were Grayson

Nestor Aparicio 45:54
Rodriguez, you’d feel good about right. I mean, he’s provided live, right?

Luke Jones 45:57
So, so you have him, you have Bradish back and healthy and bradish, got off to a rocky beginning. There’s no doubt about that this year. He’s pitched way more. There’s been way more good than not since about the first week of May. Well, they bought him and and they extended him. Brandon Young has been an overwhelming success story, and now you look at their system. I mean, Anthony Ironson from Boston is highly regarded. He’s at Double A. I know it’s not like imminent. Like he’s not going to be here necessarily definitively next year, but he’s on the way. Joseph Jura, who they drafted last year, has been really impressive, and I think they’re really excited about him. I mentioned they got Farette back. They got Kyson Witherspoon, who was Boston’s first round pick last year. They got Boston Bateman in the trade they made last year. I will say this: they wanted Adley Rutschman. Well, no, no, but I’m just saying. I will say this in terms of the pitching they now have in their system. It’s worlds better than it was at any other point under the Michaelias era, which let me say that’s damning with praise because the bar was extraordinarily low. But the point is, if I’m and let me be clear, this isn’t me making an argument in favor of Michaelias This is me trying to assess a pivot. And you’ve heard me say this the last year or so. If you did look at their last couple drafts compared to their first five or six under Elias. They they were starting to draft more pitching. They are, you know, and and and Alan made this point even in in our state of the Orioles that we did last week, that you know whether whether it was done conventionally or you know they kind of like their rotation’s been really good since late May. Now you know Kramer’s out of the picture, but he wasn’t pitching well for them anyway. You know we’re gonna see what what you know whether it’s gonna be Cade Povich or a little Daytell Kramer.

Nestor Aparicio 47:55
We haven’t said a word about it. Is there anything you want to say? We’re 50 minutes into this.

Luke Jones 47:58
I mean, I think with the way he was pitching, and considering he was going into his last year of arbitration, and considering some of the guys that they do have at Trip Away now, and some of the pitchers they’ve just brought in, I think you can make an argument that he probably was going to be a trade or a non-tender candidate anyway, especially if he was going to continue to pitch poorly. Now maybe Minnesota straightens him out, and the Orioles will look dumb. You know, like not saying that that’s out of the realm of possibility. Happen to Jake Arrieta. Well, I mean, but but it, you know, Grayson, go look at Grayson Rodriguez’s numbers right now. The the Angels haven’t fixed them, that’s for sure. You know, maybe they will at some point. Maybe he will be healthy and look like the guy he was, and then that Taylor Ward trade will look terrible then. But until he does, you know. It’s kind of is what it is, but it is interesting to kind of see them be in a position where they do. They are much more interesting looking from a pitching standpoint in their system than you probably have to go back to, I don’t know, maybe the end of the Andy McPhail era when you talk about the court. Now that didn’t work out, right? So again, prospects-they’re suspects, right? I’ll go back to what I said to you, you know, to you and Alan, as as we had our conversation at Costas. Look, this multi-year tanking thing, and the skepticism for that in general, not for the Orioles specifically, is always that if you’re constantly playing for the future, the future never quite gets here. Well, and a

Nestor Aparicio 49:24
lot of that was bojah that was Angelos related about building the team for money because it’s way way cheaper to play that game.

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Luke Jones 49:31
It can be, and for every example of it working like it did in Houston, like it did for the Cubs, you can find other examples where it didn’t work. Quite frankly, so skepticism is warranted, and I would say, based on the underwhelming, overwhelmingly, you know, like disappointing performance of the young core over the last few years, and what it looks like now, and I’m not not closing the book on holiday. Then they become a

Nestor Aparicio 49:59
disappointing. But you

Luke Jones 50:00
kind of, but well, not quite that. Really, though. But I would go back to and say, doesn’t really feel like all that tanking was worth it. You know, to to state the obvious, right? You watch a lot of bad baseball. I mean, well, they got Adley Rutschman and Gunner Henderson by the accidental terrible year, right? 2018 was what produced those guys, and that was the year they actually tried, right? So, and look, they were always going to be bad those years. It was a matter of to what degree would they try, or to how bad would they tank, all of that, right? I mean, teams have rebuilt in baseball for decades and decades and decades. It’s just, you know, the the more recent fad over the last 1015 years of truly tanking and like almost to the point where you sabotage your team. You know that that’s a little bit different animal than you know the way that, for example, the Orioles under Paul Richards in the late 50s and the early 60s had you know the Kitty Cor and bonus babies and all that. You know, there’s been that kind of stuff in baseball a long time, but but yeah, you kind of look at how this played out. And again, Adley Rutschman, there’s the symb, the idea of Adley Rutschman and what Adley Rutschman actually had become the last couple years, which to me was disappointing. If I’m just being honest about my assessment with that, and you know, not nothing personal, just the the idea that you know he wasn’t just like Matt Weiders, he didn’t become Johnny Bench or even Joe Mauer, but you know, it still stinks. I understand fans feeling the the way they do right now. I totally get it, but I guess my point is, I think a lot of those feelings were already there. This was just kind of the confirmation of, yeah, yeah, and it’ll get worse with the

Nestor Aparicio 51:49
labor stoppage, and it’ll get better if they ever win. And I’m hoping they do, and that’s. I mean, if I’ll throw the towel in with that because you and I are not going to be doing night by night baseball reports here, I guess, in the way that we, unless they play unexpectedly, and I guess we’re forced to, right? I mean, I don’t. Well, they still have Henderson. They still have, you know. There’s a way to go at this where Rubenstein’s going to be back. Yeah, you know, they still have Boz and Bradish taking the ball. They didn’t break up their rotation. They gave away Dean Kramer if he if he had arm problems, it wouldn’t have been even a big deal, right? They signed up,

Luke Jones 52:18
and I’d be very remiss that to this point in time we haven’t mentioned they didn’t trade Trevor Rogers. Whether they, whether you, I mean, you could make the argument that maybe they should should have Jess, but I’ll go back to what I said to you the other day. Are you saying

Nestor Aparicio 52:32
on Monday they don’t look at that as throwing the towel, and then they still they’re going to wake up? Oh no, no, we’re going to play five over five. You can kind of

Luke Jones 52:39
you can kind of sit here and you know, in the same way that look, when Brandon Hyde’s teams in 2019 and 20 and 21 took the field, yes, they were trying to win. They weren’t like it’s not like they were booting balls on purpose and stuff like that. Can I let me ask you a

8

Nestor Aparicio 52:56
question? If if if Ruchman was deemed out for the year sometime this week, Kramer was around the edges, right? Like the Ward thing when they dealt him. That was one of the first texts, right? Like after Kramer, who I see is insecure. That was Monday morning, right? I mean, I thought like, well, are they throwing the towel in? Because I thought to myself, like, can they live without him? Would they just put at bats in, and just like you mentioned, beavers, and just like just give the at bats to somebody else, let cows or play every like whatever they’re going to do, they’re going to do. Or you go

Luke Jones 53:34
acquire another Alfield, and you try to make the playoffs of what

Nestor Aparicio 53:37
you have, but you’re not going to make the case that with Taylor Ward we were a playoff team without him or not, and I would say the same thing with Ruchman. That if this were the case, and you and I were doing baseball this week, and these guys just happen to be on the DL or just happen to be wherever, we would still say they’re capable of going out and winning seven of the next 10, and then six of the next 10, and then splitting five of the next 10, and then going eight and two. They are capable of doing that. They really are.

Luke Jones 54:09
I mean, we’ve said they are. Well, this is my

Nestor Aparicio 54:12
optimism at the end because I would just say, like, maybe we’re not done talking with them. Maybe they win six in a row this week because they can do that. Because the

Luke Jones 54:19
American League stinks. You know what I mean? Like no, so would be

Nestor Aparicio 54:23
something if we go back on this. You know, 60 days from now, they’re actually playing a playoff game and winning one of them. I mean, because that and Rutgers on the DL in Boston, I would say the stranger

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Luke Jones 54:32
things have happened in baseball.

Nestor Aparicio 54:34
Right, sure, but I’m

Luke Jones 54:35
not expecting it. No,

Nestor Aparicio 54:35
I’m not. But my my

Luke Jones 54:37
final point on Trevor Rogers, though, they can give them the qualifying offer. They can still try to extend them. I’d like to extend Trevor Rogers, especially going into the lockout. All the uncertainty that we’ve talked about. If you had a rotation with at least Bradish, Boz, Trevor Rogers, Brandon Young, and then

Nestor Aparicio 54:58
well, it would start to sound as good as it did on a. Day five months ago, when I thought they could win 92 games with this outfit, right?

Luke Jones 55:03
Yeah, and and look,

8

Nestor Aparicio 55:04
bring me an f1, bring me a pitcher, bring me a rhetoric

Luke Jones 55:07
from the third week of May on. That group has lived up to it, regardless of not looking the way we thought it was going to look, with Efflin and Kramer not being contributors for them, and and Bassett being a disappointment even.

Nestor Aparicio 55:20
Sure, Brandon Young doing what he did. I mean, the Basset deal I thought was a real game changer for them. Yeah, I mean that’s pivotal time. They need 30 Starks. They need a veteran guy. You like all and on and on and on, and it wasn’t good, right?

Luke Jones 55:31
But but for me, my parting shot, if if you want, and maybe this is something that’s in the works now. We’ll see. He said that he wants to be here now. Maybe that’s lip service, right? If you want to do something that makes your fan base feel doesn’t make up for all this by any means, if you extend to Trevor Rogers too, I mean you’ve got a rotation that’s not saying that you couldn’t add something. Well, this is where

Nestor Aparicio 55:56
Rubenstein would say we’re spending 100 on this. We’re serious about this.

Luke Jones 56:00
Yeah.

Nestor Aparicio 56:01
Well, if you’re serious about it, why is Michael just running it? That’s we want, and that’s where

8

Luke Jones 56:04
I look at this, and I’m just I don’t really know where. If you’re serious

Nestor Aparicio 56:07
about it, why don’t the fans know it? Why don’t you get Cal Ripken out to articulate that to me and everyone else, so that people understand? Like, if there is an articulation to be articulated, this would be a good time to articulate it. Luke is articulating at Baltimore, Luke. How’s training camp? You doing all right?

Luke Jones 56:24
Yeah, pads are on now, so a little more interest there, and business picking up. They’ve been healthy for the most part early on. Knock on wood, but yeah, and that you saying that like that’s kind of the parting shot. How’s training camp going? Because fully acknowledging what we just said two minutes ago, yeah, no one’s feeling too good about the Baltimore Orioles right now. As it pertains to the present, we’ll see about all these prospects. Well, if you see Jesse Minter

Nestor Aparicio 56:53
this week, you tell him I’m watching now, maybe even more so. So we all are. We all are. He is Luke. I’m Nestor. We’re WNSTA in 1570 Tasker Baltimore. We’ll complain more about this later. We’re Baltimore positive. Stay with us.