Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the Orioles and Ravens confluence of relevance during NFL Draft weekend and how Lamar Jackson news has been followed by emergence of Adley Rutschman and Grayson Rodriguez as the boys of an orange summer in Baltimore.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
draft, ravens, people, orioles, years, baseball, talked, winning, lamar, lamar jackson, fun, teams, game, baltimore, point, long, weekend, weeks, thought, pick
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
wn st Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive we are positively into draft weekend around here. Went to a Maryland crabcakes was I had my first crabcake of the weekend on Thursday Captain Larry’s down in Federal Hill was fantastic. Great guests down there. Shana tobac. local realtor and my dear friend formerly of the rusty scupper many many years ago and I in studio flirtatious visitor from 20 years ago back talk about the hurt the Patagonia also my friend Todd shoulder, talking Derby Derby hopefuls all week for Blondo Millis shoulder and as well as Chris real who does Baltimore tours better than anybody all the brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery got instant lottery scratch offs. We did have some winners data capillaries going to be a fake Lee’s on Friday. And then next Thursday at MC falls oyster and real to start the month of May we’re going to be in Middle River while some great guests for that as well. Luke Jones joins us now look, I don’t know if you know this or not, but I’ve been to Maui for like 1011 days and sort of flew back. Did I miss anything when I got back on Thursday? You missed
Luke Jones 01:01
a little bit and I mean, we talked about Lamar Jackson. We’ve talked about ze flowers How about the Orioles 17 and eight and they can best third best record in the majors and I mean there’s a lot of good stuff happening on the local sports front there’s no question years
Nestor Aparicio 01:18
you’ve been at this with me. I mean, it’s hard to imagine but it’s been 15 years for you and I this week and this month with ravens news the draft the Lamar Athan, that’s now like ended the Lamar Athan, I gave it a name, you know, but the Orioles being relevant right now. And you know, no offense to the capitals or the wizards or the bullets or playoff times or lacrosse fans or even Preakness Derby fans, because it’s all of that. But just from your perspective, as active as we’ve been around your this has been a really active couple of weeks for you personally being at the ballpark. The teams don’t let me actually be a reporter. They discriminate against me, but they let you go. But you’ve been working a lot. And there have been double duties or been press conferences during games. It’s been a really, really active couple of weeks while I was out sunning myself.
Luke Jones 02:02
It’s fun, right? Yeah. Busy, but good busy. And I think in the case of the Orioles, they had some they had some really good years under buckshaw, Walter. But with this on the back end of just awful exhausting rebuild baseball, where you’re talking about 110 plus loss seasons, for them to now be in this position. And look, do I think they’re going to continue to play six at baseball and win 110 games? Now? I don’t think that. But what we’re seeing now, and we’ve talked about it, we’ll continue to talk about it as they’re playing the Detroit Tigers over the weekend. It’s that soft underbelly of the schedule on paper, and what have they done with that? They’ve taken advantage of it. They’re winning series. They’re winning series openers, which which makes it that much easier to win series when you take game one. And they’re beating teams that they’re supposed to beat now. Does that mean it’s going to continue when they start playing, you know, Atlanta here soon, and Tampa Bay? I mean, the rays, they’re not quite the 84 Tigers, but they’re doing a decent impression of them with what they’ve been able to do to this point winning 80% of their games. But when you get to those tougher opponents, can you hold your own? If you do that, and you’re beat up on the teams that you should beat up on? Boy, that’s going to add up to a lot of wins. And that’s going to keep you firmly in the playoff mix. And that’s going to lead to a very relevant, compelling, exciting baseball season. And that’s what we’ve seen in April. There’s a long way to go. There are very fair questions about this team that I still have on the pitching side and more specifically the starting pitching. But we’ve seen it look better over the last couple of weeks. I I made mention when you when I talked to several days ago, that even Oakland hung some crooked numbers on them a couple of weeks ago on the pitching side. So that’s where it has been encouraging and, you know, take draft night. I mean, a lot of people were focused on what the Ravens were doing and basking in the Lamar contract extension and all that. Now the Orioles looked like they were on their way to maybe losing a series opener for the first time all year and they battled back and what do you know, Joey Ortiz and his major league debut knocks in a few rounds for them. I mean, it’s just it was in
Nestor Aparicio 04:22
Captain Larry’s on Thursday. Okay, and I’m doing the show and some fans came from the neighborhood and hung out. And on a day when the ravens are drafting when Lamar Jackson is in the midst of the biggest Lamar Athan there is I had people at the bar asking me about Adam Frazier. Like you know what I mean, and I actually thought they were talking about Lyles and Gibson started talking pitching, because to me pitching is the question. People were talking about the second baseman getting a bat and it blocking players. And, you know, when I was out with Mike Elias two weeks ago, the press comes people are asking about like an outfielder that’s getting shuttled back and forth to North look like, you know, the fact that we’re talking about things like that. On the baseball team, really, people are talking about baseball. And I felt that when I was away, I felt that on my timeline, I know you and I talked about the kids going out on Sunday and running the bases, something you and I didn’t get a chance to do because of the arrogance of the organization during our, our that, that they are changing some things including winning, winning is the first thing they’ve changed that to some degree. We’ll see how that plays out. But that’s not going to be enough to bring people back I think the pack the stadium, I think there’s this conversation where they get in your DNA every day like they were for your dad and my dad and for both of us as kids were, that’s, that’s hard to do. When you lose 100 games for a decade or two or three, right a lot. You lose a lot. And there’s no open the conversation around Adam for I found that to be amazing. I’m like, nobody’s talked to me about some eighth hitting second baseman around here in a long, long time.
Luke Jones 06:01
Yeah, I think, you know, you just said it. It’s the nuts and bolts that are starting to attract more and more viewers more and more fans more and more people that are engaged with the product, it doesn’t mean you’re necessarily watching every single night. But I’ve used this. And look, this is not an exact science whatsoever. But I’ve mentioned this before, and I mentioned it again, Nestor, I have a text, thread a text chain with some of my very best friends from high school. I mean, I’ve been out of high school now 20 plus years. So we go back a long ways and have that group and it’s about 10 of us. There are only I would say there’s only two other guys in that group who are really consider themselves luggage intimate, serious baseball fans. What I’ve noticed, and this started second half of last year, and really has picked up here over the course of April. The Orioles game is being mentioned on a nightly basis in our in our little text thread, where it’s been mentioned, and even by a few of my friends who are much more casual baseball fans. So look, that doesn’t. That’s just my that’s my world, right? It’s
Nestor Aparicio 07:12
one thing for my world that people to follow baseball every year just sucked and they were terrible. But people are coming back and pure and peeking in. Now my wife and I are right, like so. And what’s under the hood is you know that this is their chance to do something new. And I’ve talked about that a lot. I’ll continue to talk about that. Because this is their challenge, not my challenge. This is their they have to be irrelevant franchise again for the city. And for making people come back. They have to make one peep. They have to have good television broadcasts, which they haven’t had in years. Which bend MacDonald was certainly made better. There needs to be some there there. And there is when you start the season 17 Eight
Luke Jones 07:53
no question. And we talked about this. And I vividly remember us talking about this a few days before the season opened up at Fenway. At that point in time, Lamar Jackson still wanted to be traded, right? Who knew what was going to happen where they’re going to trade him was he just going to play on the tag on another kind of lame duck black cloud hanging over the team kind of season. And I said at that point in time, this is an opportunity for the Orioles to not overtake the NFL because the NFL is king in every single market that it exists. Even in markets where it doesn’t exist. The NFL is still king as it pertains to American sports. But I thought it was a great opportunity for the Orioles if they could get off to and I think I even set up 14 And seven start which are pretty close, you know, when you kind of look at where they are right now. I said this is an opportunity for them to create some buzz for themselves generate some interest for themselves. And now, okay, people are jazzed up on the Ravens right now. And they’re excited as they should be Lamar is under contract not going anywhere. They just drafted ze flowers, though, add some more players over the course of the weekend. And we’ll be talking about them plenty. But the Ravens still don’t play another game then for four plus months in terms of a game that actually matters, that talk and fake football in August. So the fact that the Orioles have gotten off to this good start on the heels of what was a very surprising 2022 They have carved out some interest for themselves. Now to your point, there’s a long way to go on the field and also off the field in terms of what needs to happen for baseball and the Orioles in Baltimore to to thrive and be healthy and to grow from a long term standpoint. So a lot involved with that. And we’ve talked about and we’ll continue to talk about that. But what they’re doing in the present is they’re certainly helping themselves by playing well. Getting off to a good start getting people excited, getting more people to tune in and watch the game or listened to the game if they’re out. And you know, it’s been fun. And you have this group of young players that I can tell you Nestor these guys are fun and you know we talked about it with the home repose of the Dong bog or whatever, however, you know, whatever people would have described it as. But that right there is a reflection of guys that are having fun, right? And what’s the easiest way to have fun playing baseball, especially when you’re talking about adults? You know, I understand little league, you know, just the love of the game and everything. When, right winning, cultivates that that kind of atmosphere. But you have these young guys that grew up together in the minors, and now they’re coming together at the major league level, and they’re having success. And I think the longer that goes on, and we saw this last year, you know, with the 10, game winning streak at the start of the summer, and we saw how that really, you know, that’s that was able to spring, they were able to use that as a catapult to hang in contention all year. So you get off the kind of start. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, you get you get off to this kind of start. And now it’s Adley rutschman, first full year, and all some of these other guys first full year and, you know, a guy like Cedric Mullins, Orion mountcastle. Guys that have been around a few years now. So that’s all coming together. Meanwhile, you add more. And we talked about this with Grayson Rodriguez a couple of weeks ago, Joey Ortiz, who? I’m not sure it’s necessarily going to be here long term in terms of that he’s here to stay. But it got off to a great start in Detroit on Thursday night. What driving in a few runs. But that’s that’s what’s exciting. And to go back to your Adam Frazier point, there’s, there’s more talent on the way, you know, they have Jordan Westberg. And I mean, Jackson Holliday just got promoted to Aberdeen and he’s homering and tripling at Aberdeen and kids 19 years old. I
Nestor Aparicio 11:38
mean, he’s only younger Jackson at this point. He’s not even the real Jack’s.
Luke Jones 11:42
Right. But But Jackson Holliday might be in the majors by the end of next year, the way that he is going. I’m not saying that’s definite. But the point is, what we’re seeing at the major league level is compelling. It’s better. They’re winning games more consistently. Yeah, they still have a ways to go. And I’m still not ready to put them into an elite serious World Series contender kind of category. Certainly, I need to see them do more than beat the Detroit Tigers. That seems like that until we start talking about that. But the point is, they’re on their way. And that’s all you can ask for at this point in time after seeing, especially the last four years, just how brutal it was to watch on a nightly basis. I mean, even if you were trying to stay engaged, knowing that they weren’t trying to win at the major league level, it was a tough watch, man. I mean, we talked about it over and over the number of times, I’d be at the ballpark. And look, I love baseball, it’s my livelihood. And I, I am blessed to have the kind of opportunity to do what I do. But the number of nights I’d sit at the ballpark and say, Boy, these three hours of my life, I’m not getting back there downtown, nothing in the second inning. You’re you’re seeing now then be on the other side of that. And this being an ascending team. And it’s exciting. And look, it’s not a Ravens or an Orioles thing, there’s always been room for plenty of enthusiasm to go around. But the Orioles more often than not haven’t held up their end of the bargain in that regard. So for them to get off to this start, especially with there being so much angst until the last couple of days with the Ravens. I think it really it just it puts them in a position to get a little more support. And yeah, they’re not going to sell out every night. We know that’s not going to happen. They’re still going to have those lean weeknight type gates, but with a better product. And continuing to do promos and giveaways and bobbleheads and different things like that. Yeah, I think there’s a path here for them to become more vibrant again, and more a more viable type of long term entity compared to what we’ve seen here for, frankly, for a very long time. So it’s exciting. They’re fun to watch. And they’re winning games and for where they are right now, where they’ve been the last four or five years. It’s a pretty good place to be and certainly an exciting place to be if you’re a fan.
Nestor Aparicio 14:02
Well certainly for anybody tuning in and saying hey Ted, it fell draft weekend man why you guys thought about the other good. So this is a problem we have not had here right? The mixing and mingling of baseball and football together on a draft weekend. But let’s get back to the draft for a minute here we have plenty baseball and the Rodriguez is and all that stuff going on over the weekend. The draft itself at the top of the draft and the quarterbacks and what happened so much of the Lamar story was whether Carolina wanted him or whether the Colts wanted him or whether the command who wanted it was the Buccaneers are these places where he was gonna get tax benefits that we talked about for all these all this time? And you and I vehemently disagree on who won the negotiation right like I mean it to me the Ravens at the end caved a little bit and Lamar caved a little bit in they’re gonna go play football now can they win, but for other franchises to watch these awful franchises draft, their quarterback or their next guy or Carolina where These teams are going to be for the ravens to bring themselves back into relevancy in 124 hour period for this year, not 24 hours. Yeah, man, but start with Odell Beckham, the last two weeks where the thing was sliding in the wrong direction that they have now pulled it back even on day two of the draft where the wide receiver room stacked the quarterback sign the linebackers in I mean, there were thoughts and we’re going to do Patrick queen, their thoughts that they were going to do for DeAndre Hopkins. There’s all sorts of things that happen. Now that it’s settled out, at least for one day, and there’ll be some more pics this weekend. A lot of that drama is gone as to what they were doing. If you would have told me on January 10, that on the second day of the draft, Lamar will be signed, they would have Odell Beckham they would draft a kid that they apparently wanted. Maybe they wanted the other kid from Ohio State more, you know, I don’t know which of those wide receivers when there was the run in the middle of the draft. But it was very interesting, entertaining first night of the draft. And there’s gotta be a little part of you in the WWE that just loves that the NFL is completely stolen Vince McMahon Zakka.
Luke Jones 16:04
Right, right down to Roger Goodell. Even with you know, they’ll put him with Make a wish kids are, you know,
Nestor Aparicio 16:15
the draft begins with three murder kids families from Virginia, and Stan, they’re smiling. And I’m thinking Dude, this is gross. I’m watching this on TV these these people’s kids been murdered. And you’re sitting there taking photo ops like he got just got drafted by the Ravens you
Luke Jones 16:34
can see he gets it made
Nestor Aparicio 16:35
me want to vomit. Like, I didn’t like it. And then the league does a lot of things I don’t love. But boy draft night has become something like, do you want it in Baltimore? Yeah, but if I went down there, what the hell would I do? JGS you suck. I mean, I don’t like the whole thing. And it doesn’t look like a lot of people came in Kansas City the way they didn’t Philadelphia. It didn’t look like a quarter of a million people showing up for it. But the trash night has become this. Cardiac. I mean, it’s insane. When you used to dance with some shopper Hold on. We got pick a football player. I mean, like the whole thing is just it’s weird, dude. I mean, being as a guy that sat on the felt forum floor when they drafted John Ogden and Ray Lewis. It’s just a little weird.
Luke Jones 17:22
Yeah, all it’s no question. I mean, think back to when at what it used to be on a Tuesday morning. And you know, ESPN would televise it, but no one would talk about it. I mean, it’d be something you’d read about in the paper the next day, and
Nestor Aparicio 17:33
you imagine Adley rutschman, three years ago, getting drafted and coming out and having a doorman and having to put on the hat. And
Luke Jones 17:41
it’s that and then walk out
Nestor Aparicio 17:43
and do this wrestling? I mean, Adley rutschman? They had they took that from him, you know, they should do that for the baseball players. Right. I mean, see what they did on Thursday night.
Luke Jones 17:55
And in fairness, I mean, the MLB draft has a little more pomp and circumstance and it used to the the differences there, no one watches cut. Not no one few people, far fewer people watch college baseball than college football. So it kind of lends itself because hey, college football rolls right into the draft. You knew these guys, you watch them at Ohio State or Alabama or Florida or wherever. But yeah, it’s a spectacle. And the point I was making about Goodell is, no matter what they try to do, he gets booed regardless. So that’s where it’s like Vince McMahon, right? He’s full now
Nestor Aparicio 18:26
the guys are picking him. Round, right? Like that’s the new thing. You get a chance to pick him up and throw him around like a rag doll. And you do it.
Luke Jones 18:35
Yeah. The bro hugs with Goodell. I mean, that’s been a thing for a long time now, but it’s still weird to me. I don’t know. But it’s a spectacle. And, you know, I mean, it was an interesting first night of the draft. I think one of the things that had been talked about a lot, I mean, beyond the quarterbacks, and obviously we saw we’ll let this slide down the board. Yes. There have been some reports that he could go first overall, which I was never buying that but certainly was surprised to see him not going up the top half of the first round, let’s say. But I think one thing that had been talked about a lot and I thought this played out was there was there was a lot of volatility in terms of just how good the class was. How many bonafide slam dunk first round grades there were, and the idea and the potential for there to be some surprises. And we saw that I mean, how about the fact that you had two running backs go off the board before a wide receiver went off the board? I mean, how many times is that happened in recent draft memory? I mean, that’s just something you don’t see. And look, I get it Bijon Robinson out of Texas is considered a special talent at the running back position, but positional value is something you’ve heard me talk about a lot, you know, as far as, you know, kind of nerding it up from a football analytics standpoint, but to see him and then Gibbs you know, Jameer Gibbs from Alabama go off the board 12 to Detroit, you know, that was surprising. You know, you see some names that had been thought of as maybe a top 10 Pick, and, you know, they’re still hanging around 1015 20 picks later, and then some other names that were thought to be, hey, maybe that’s an early second round guy. And suddenly, they’re, they’re out there, you know, they’re, they’re already off the board. So, you know, there’s always that to some extent, but I think what you saw with this draft was, I think there was a little more variance, maybe in terms of how these players were drafted. And I think, you know, even going back to the Ravens was a flowers mean, Eric d’acosta said after round one that they got some calls, they had some opportunities that they couldn’t move back. And I think it was interesting when you looked at the ravens, considering Deontay banks out of Maryland who ultimately went to the Giants, but he was there. And obviously, the Ravens still have some need at corner. And we’ll talk about that as we get later into the draft. But you had him you had Joey Porter Jr, who, you know, I thought might be a top 10 or 12 Pick, and well, clearly, I was dead wrong about that. So, but the point was, they had some opportunity opportunities to move back and they could have and, you know, but Eric said that we like ze flowers too much, too. You know, for the draft capital we were getting in return to move back. We didn’t really think it was worth it. So, you know, I said all along if the Ravens were gonna move back, they had to have teams that were eager and willing to come up and that’s always part of the equation and according to them, they they had a chance but ultimately, they decided to stay put but you know, the draft it’s yeah, it’s fun. And I do have to laugh because you mentioned the draft spectacle we were even joking about this in the in the media room in Owings Mills, that you look at the pundits and every single pic they love, right every single prospect they love and I get it. You don’t want to be the guy that’s a complete downer over someone’s career, right? You don’t you don’t want to be Bill Polian.
Nestor Aparicio 21:59
You don’t want to be you know, about a
Luke Jones 22:01
21 or 22 year old is fulfilling his dream. And you don’t want to be the guy saying, oh, that’s an awful pic. Even if you’re thinking that even if you’re thinking that’s an awful suit. Well, sure, there’s some of that too. But there’s just a lot of unknown. And it is funny because, you know, not that I do this, but if you want it to, you record the draft and then play it back a year later, two years later, and you hear some of the things said, and you see how excited some of the teams are. And you say, well, if only they had known
Nestor Aparicio 22:29
Josh Rosen, didn’t you?
Luke Jones 22:32
i Hey, I’ve famously have said this, not Josh Rosen. I have famously said, Look, I was a 14 year old no nothing. And now I’m just a 39 year old no nothing, but I like to try and leave better than Peyton Manning. I’m the one guy that will actually admit it, even though there were plenty of people. Did you
Nestor Aparicio 22:47
admit that to Ryan leaf once?
Luke Jones 22:49
I think I did. So.
22:51
I mean, that’s but that’s just hey, that’s, that’s what makes us fun.
Luke Jones 22:54
I mean, if everyone thought the same way about it, it’d be boring. Right? So yeah, you’re gonna have some pics that are end up gonna be terrible. And then you’re gonna have other picks, like, Hey, how about the Baltimore Ravens moved back to 32 to draft Lamar Jackson Five years ago, I’d say that worked out pretty well, from a value standpoint, that worked out a little better than Josh Rosen, as you mentioned, or Baker Mayfield, still, you know, I mean, it’s, it’s fun. It’s fun. And I mean, it’s something that has become, you know, you mentioned the spectacle for me, I can remember being in college, and I would buy a draft guide. And I would, I’d know all the prospects, and this was long before I was doing it for a living or anything. I do feel that draft coverage. It’s gotten to the point where it jumped the shark when everyone in their grandma was starting to publish a mock draft. But it’s a big industry. And it’s a big conversation piece. And it’s fun, and people like talking about it and they’re debating this weekend, they’ll continue to debate will laugh at draft grades that are given two days after the draft ends or two hours after the draft ends. But you know what the Texans won
Nestor Aparicio 24:03
the draft? I mean, obviously, they pick second and third.
Luke Jones 24:05
Well, I would say look, look at the Philadelphia Eagles. I mean, they get Jalen Carter ninth overall. And you know, at the end of the first round, they get Nolan Smith. I mean, they get to Georgia guys, which they had already, you know, they’re already collecting Georgia guys before Thursday night, but you look at the Eagles you say the rich get richer and how he rose. But by the way, I want one thing I’d want to mention, even though Eric downplayed it, Eric should be by and how he wrote has been a very fine bottle of wine for getting the deal dealt with Jalen hertz, which I still think is a major reason why they got so much traction gained so much traction with Lamar here and got something done. But you look at the Eagles. What they were able to do. You mentioned the Texans. I mean, boy, they were big players. We’ll see how it turns out for them. But they were aggressive, super aggressive. So you know, it’s fun and some of the team Right now that were poking holes that with what they did, or making fun of time will tell whether they were truly dumb or maybe they’re smart. So it’s fun. I try not to make too much of it. And, you know, every year we do this, and, you know, the ravens are one of those teams that every year is praised. You know, it’s a few surprises that they receive on a yearly basis. And some of those draft classes proved to be legitimate in that way. And we can look at others and say, that wasn’t quite as good as people thought on draft night. So, so it makes it fun. There’s no human still human beings. At the end of the day, it’s still more art than we like it to think, you know, even though we tried to make it science.
Nestor Aparicio 25:38
Well, last week, I went to Hawaii and I snuck out and telling me we’re going and we went to the same hotel we went to four years ago, and I know you know the story, you saw the picture. But four years ago, we checked into a hotel and now we went down to the pool. I walked into the pool, I looked in the pool, and Kyle bowler was in the pool with his wife and family. And I wanted to spend three days with Carl bowler on my Hawaiian vacation. Because everywhere we went, we ran into him and his family at dinner and like around so we went back last week, and we checked into the hotel, and the first thing my wife is like, you should send a picture to bowler and just say where are you? Where the hell are you today? And I thought, well, you know, those are draft mistakes from you know, 1520 years ago, 20 years ago now free right? So we go back to all those years and I remember sitting in padonia station when the bird changed the Terrell Suggs and you remember these draft nights forever, and obviously Thursday with the Lamar Jackson signing and his a flower situation. This has been you know, the Ravens have had a rough offseason I guess in the media and with the fan base and whatever. But they’re ready to play football and we’ll be ready to watch the draft all weekend long. Good news is Cabo is not playing football for the Ravens this year. Lamar Jackson getting all the money and all the glory and a lot of guaranteed money but not all the guaranteed money looks at Owings Mills. You’ll be monitoring Oriole baseball is there on the road in Detroit all weekend. We’re gonna be here all weekend as well during the Maryland crabcake tour. First the captain Larry’s on Thursday fate these on Friday next Thursday we’re MC falls, oyster and real or real in oyster oyster in real I believe it is in in Middle River. The old su island will be down there on Thursday, giving away Maryland scratch offs and the instant lottery. The throwback to the lotteries first never scratch oh we had a bunch of winners on Thursday Captain Larry’s you can always find Luke at Baltimore Luke you can find me NES at Baltimore positive.com We are wn St. Am 5070 Towson Baltimore and we never stopped talking NFL draft Oriole baseball in Baltimore positive
