Sure, the team is going to be great but one day we’d all like to see Baltimore Orioles games on every day in March – and with a more stable center field camera. Luke Jones and Nestor recap a shaky start in Sarasota and spring training and hopes for Opening Day across Birdland with new ownership and a new ace pitcher and fireman in the bullpen.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
happen, pitchers, baseball, spring training, throwing, batista, day, kyle, games, hope, player, orioles, sarasota, play, year, pitch, baltimore, man, jamie moyer, coach
SPEAKERS
Nestor J. Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home we are wn S T and 5070 Towson Baltimore and Baltimore positive we’re gonna get the crabcake tore back and I tell you you know this February things tough 20 degrees in the morning I used to like sort of vacation this time here right now I’m sort of doing some things over here Baltimore positive in regards to all real season and the crabcake toward our friends at the Maryland lottery I’ll get back to given all this stuff away our friends at window nation as well 866 19 As we get some new sponsors coming on, we have cool stuff happening with the Liberty pure solutions and some water treatment and some information there. Also our friends at Jiffy Lube multi care want to give them some love as we get ready. You know there’s an exhale right like after the Super Bowl after you lose an AFC Championship game at home and sort of unprecedented after you get news that the sun is going to shine I keep going the wrong side of the monitor. The sun is gonna shine again over Camden Yards and Cal Ripken is going to be an owner of the team by the time I’m eating snowballs and they’re melting in the summer right with Jones joins us now I look I mean you and I usually go at this with like ravens offense coordinator coaching Lamar Lamar contract to Costa Indianapolis. Let’s get on a plane let’s go free. Let’s go drink all night at the Sun King Brewing Company. Let’s honor the great Peter King who retired this week. But instead like this exhale, period especially when I’m thinking politics Trump’s on my timeline. Like just you know, hockey, basketball, the things that you would fall into the Terps but this spring training thing where Roku Bakos tweeting out video of some guy hitting a home run or hitting like, like and I gotta be paying attention to this. I don’t know this feels like an exhale for sports for me when I’m getting ready for opening day I’m getting ready for a March Madness it doesn’t feel like it’s gonna happen here. But like if you and I are doing 6am Monday morning radio on the last week of February in Leap Year on there’s no Olympics there’s no like Maryland’s no good I mean the crosses early like whatever. Even it would be this is a weirdly slow time but it is giddy giddy giddy. I mean, in regard to sports fans, we want to talk about something. And even if it’s, um, you know, something as important as the wide receiver having domestic issues and people wanting to not talk about like, there’s just a lot there’s stuff happening, but none of it’s like happening this week. We’re buying tickets for the game Saturday.
8
Luke Jones 02:27
Yeah, yeah, I think there’s plenty happening as far as what’s coming up. But as it pertains to this specific week, it’s not a whole lot. Now, I will say this, I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the Combine does start this week. And if you’re really super into the draft, yeah, NFL network’s gonna have the coverage of the workouts later in the week. And there’s all that but for a lot of fans, and even frankly, it pulling back the curtain, a lot of media. There’s only so much that’s going to stem from that. That’s really headline worthy. Right now. John Harbaugh Eric Decosta are both going to speak in Indy. I’m guessing we’re not going to hear a whole lot of substance. We’re going to hear talk we’re going to talk about the positions of need that the Ravens have they’re going to talk in very general terms about adjusting Mata BK and whether they’re going to place the franchise tag on him and there are other pending free agents and what’s going to happen there. And on the flip side, Oreos, grapefruit league games have started. That’s great. Had a chance to watch the lousy centerfield camera on Masson on Saturday. And that
Nestor J. Aparicio 03:31
was I was having a migraine. I called my wife in on the like the third at bat. I had an I said, please come in here and tell me how you can watch this. And she’s like, Oh my God, it’s like, make it and she has eye issues from her kid. She’s like, it’s making my head hurt. And I’m like, I just turned it off. I’m like, I want to watch it, man, but I can’t watch it. It’s making me physically ill. And I was emceeing this LLS event on Saturday, but like I was caked up, I put it on at 1232 right and I’m watching rock sitting out there with some dude I’ve never seen before. Maybe I mean, maybe I saw him last year as a pregame show. But I’m like who’s the dude? Wow. Okay, and then then then Palmer’s basically saying they’re not at the game and like, I’m like, oh my god, we need new owners here. And this is the stuff that used to like set me off a little bit and I social about it. But in the in the in the the notion that there’s going to be a new owner in this hope that like this is really going to happen and maybe I’m I’ve been told by smart people I’m not being naive like this is really going to happen like that’s why I keep weak because you and I haven’t talked about it a lot in the in the aftermath of the football thing happening and you know, us doing the Charity Week and all that. I really hope it happens and I know the league will I mean everybody wants it to happen. I hope mama Angeles wants that to happen because inevitably she’s the one that’s going to be signing. You know that on for that I Hope it all gets done. But when things like that happen, it just shines like the bondo spotlight, you know on how awful it is. And I mean, this is the first pitch of spring training when they have an a programming in four and a half months, where I mean, clearly I’m paying for it. I’m not stealing it. It’s not super TV, my toaster. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I’m paying them for the product. And I don’t think it’s a real high bar to just expect something that’s professional that, again, the measurement for all of this isn’t just whether I have a press pass back in my own world, because it is people keep asking me, when will you know it’s fixed when I’m sitting in the press box, like a normal reporter, and being treated like a normal citizen, and having people wave hello, because I’m from Baltimore. And I love the team. And I wear a hat. My last name is Aparicio. And it’s the reason I’m here. Like, I feel like it’s fixed. But there are so many signs for everyone out there to just know how awful it is. And I continue to write about how awful it is. And people still, I’m negative. I did 78 charity pieces last week, and I’m the negative guy. But no, it’s awful. And it’s it’s, it’s apparent how awful and I just hope, and I’ve said this to you, I hope that when the light comes up, that they really do it significant next spring training, there needs to be 28 games on right, you know what I mean? There needs to be like a real change in all of it, all of it. It just needs to all be changed other than Mike Elias and what’s going on on the field. But every other aspect of it is so awful, that I just can’t get over it. But I keep thinking like your comes to brighter day. And I really hope it happens. Yeah,
Luke Jones 06:51
and that’s Look, I don’t want to sit here and talk about maths and its shortcomings to put it in the kindest way possible, because we’ve talked about that for a long, long time. And because you’re hoping a new day is coming much sooner rather than later. But yeah, it for me, it’s a reminder, and I’ll leave it at this because
Nestor J. Aparicio 07:08
8the presentation of the game, it is a present. And they don’t present anything for the next five days, right? Like they only put a game on a week or whatever, right? Like so this is their, this is their way of selling their sport. It’s so it’s the reason it’s not as great as it could be. And at some point, the Rubenstein group comes in, you want to pay rutschman You want to pay the the money has to come from us what I can’t turn the game off in the first inning of the first day because I can’t physically watch it.
Luke Jones 07:39
You didn’t have to turn the game off. You decided to do that. But the your point, look, I’m not going to disagree. And I don’t again, I don’t want to talk 30 minutes about the awfulness of maths. And because we’ve done that for 15. I’ve done that for 15 years with you right now. And it’s it’s a reminder, and I’ll leave it at this because I don’t want to marginalize what’s happening on the field because fans are really excited about that. And for the first time in several years, and come back, of course last year, of course, too. But it’s a reminder of how much work there is to be done for the new ownership group. It’s just one of many things as we’ve talked about as much as things on the field are looking up and up and up and up. After a 100 win one win season. There’s a lot to do on the business side beginning with mass and beginning with what the renovations for Camden Yards are gonna look like and the investments being made there. So but yeah, day
Nestor J. Aparicio 08:32
for every single fan was 1230 like you’re really excited about like, No, I mean, I felt like if there was a it was a destination, you know, I mean bars, bars all over Facebook or one o’clock come in we have drink specials come watch the Orioles and, and I mean loonies and the screens going like that, you know, like, I just thinking to myself, like, new ownership can’t come fast enough to rescue this because everything else we’re going to talk about Couser holiday, just keep we’ll get into that. All of that makes us tune in it’s well 30 You know what I mean? It makes you want to spend too much on midday tickets and start to even look at the calendar and thinking hey, man, Luke, you want to go to Toronto? Get your passport out let’s go see a game or whatever. And we got that you know, there’s a solar eclipse coming through right on April. I’ve heard Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So like that what’s coming through Buffalo and I was like, where’s the games and like, where are the Orioles? That we? So anyway, I you know, I’m thinking about like, How can I have fun with the Orioles again, and I’m thinking maybe you and I should just go to spring training because we go to spring training. The screen won’t go up and down.
Luke Jones 09:41
I’ll say this. And I’ve I saw a number of people acknowledge this and look, I watched some other spring training games. It can be windy in Sarasota, just like it can be at any spring training site. However, however, this was a good lesson of when you do it with a skeleton crew. Clearly the broadcaster cuz we’re not in Sarasota, you’re gonna have more issues and yeah, there were some other games I watched and yeah, the centerfield camera can have some issues from time to time. I’m not not disputing that Madison’s not alone in that reality of spring baseball, but just to better it’s all
8Nestor J. Aparicio 10:15
just do better. Of course. Of course. That’s that was that’s what got me thrown out 20 years ago was saying do better than this. And I know that the Rubenstein group, then I guess that is the hope for me, the hope for me is, you know, once a stupid spring training game on a Saturday, you know, like, okay, fine, great. The team itself and what’s going to happen, who’s going to play second base shortstop, just it is full of intrigue, it really is. And I think that’s why I want to watch the games where they don’t shake and want to I, you know, I’m the fish chasing the hook. Hook. You know, the team is the hook. There’s no doubt about that. And who’s gonna pitch that’s, I mean, there’s a lot of intrigue in this spring training. It’s not a whole bunch of set roster pieces, like it was in the Davey Johnson era. Yeah,
Luke Jones 11:05
I mean, there aren’t a ton, but the ones that are open, it’s intriguing. And of course, we’d be remiss if we didn’t begin with Kyle radish update. I mean, he’s throwing the so far, so good. I mean, that’s about all you can say. Right? I mean, it’s not. There’s not anything concrete other than he’s increasing a throwing progression. He said that he’s felt good after throwing, is he throwing bullpen sessions yet? Is he throwing some games yet? No. And to me, until we get to that point, that’s about where the update begins and ends, right? It’s throwing, he’s throwing from 60 feet, 75 feet, 90 feet. So far, so good. Hey, it’s better than the alternative of him playing catch from 60 feet, and his arm hurts. And he’s getting Tommy John surgery right away. So you know, we’ll just have to see. But in the meantime, there is more intrigue Corbin, for example, he didn’t start Saturday, pitch Sunday, did get a chance to see a little bit of that that was on the Pittsburgh cable channel since they were playing in Bradenton right up the road from Sarasota. But velocity was up, you know, he looked good. Now he’s missing that. And that’s not something you typically think of with color. And so there’s a perfect example, though. As much as you talk about the disappointment of not knowing what’s going to happen with Bradish for the entirety of the season. John means knowing that he’s behind, he’s not injured, but knowing he’s not going to be ready for opening day. I mean, Tyler wells Corbyn step on up. I mean, it’s, this is your opportunity. And I think Corbin is a guy that, you know, we spent some time talking about last offseason, when they acquired him via trade. And we thought he would factor into this rotation more than he did, had the really bad starts in April got sent down, the command was off, the control was off, which was uncharacteristic for what he had done up to that point in his career. And very quietly, he came back and I know he had a couple of stints where he was up and down. But because he already I mean, he had a sub for you know, his era was in the low threes from that point on now. It was mixed between some starts, and some bullpen appearances. But the point is, he quietly pits pretty well for them over the final four months of the season after that stint at Norfolk. So you’re going to need that whether Kyle Bradish comes back and pitches and is healthy at some point in time or not. You’re going to need more than just your projected five starters. I mean, that’s just reality. Everyone knows that. So it’s good to see four of them.
Nestor J. Aparicio 13:25
I look back to like Jamie Moyer and I was there the year that he was sort of a throw away guy and whatever. Then it goes on and pitches 15 years and like figures it out. And for guys that were high ceiling guys, and that’s pretty much you know, these guys take a gander on guys and the amount of guys they’re going to need with injuries and everything else being factored into it. That you know, you get a guy in a Bundy trade that a couple of years later, you get mileage out of the relief pitcher, Batista is now going to miss a year. I mean, everything it shows up on my timeline are about how many pitchers in this modern era are having surgeries and the training that we’re going through that if you and I were doing a legitimate radio row baseball piece, and they shut the league down and we got together and we’re really going to talk about the sport and what’s going on with the sport with pitchers and arms and all of that. But the one thing about this group from Houston straight through is almost every year. They they they make a guy they find a pitcher that they can do something with with with Vilo with stretching them out with taking a start or making them or lever a lever making them a starter finding roles for people even like finding whatever they found with canola last year, over a month that he’s like the greatest relief pitcher in the history is Bruce sooner for a month, right? I don’t. These guys are sort of geniuses about this. And when I start to see like Cole Irvin, they too like throwing the ball harder than he ever has. I’m thinking These guys know stuff. And it’s not like it was before where, you know, a guy goes away and comes back 25 pounds heavier. And we’re all winking about the, you know what they were doing back in the day. And like all that. This is legitimate sports science stuff, where they take guys strengths and say if you can do 2%, better on this, figure out one pitch, one motion, one arm slot, one thing that we have figured out about your body, about your arm, about your height, about your wingspan, about the way the rotation comes off your fingers, and spin raid, all of the science of all of this, these guys are really on the forefront of this. And that’s why I sit here on the outside, if I were on the inside, they probably lie to me and run for me as if I had a badge right at me. Last time I did, I sat at the kids table. But if I really wanted to learn about this, like at a high level, these guys are the mad scientist of this. And there’s a part of it much like we did with the cost and Azia when they could draft Ed Reed, or figure out how to find Joe Flacco when they needed him right. In a draft. These guys can take yours and find guys Rule five, double A pitchers that they’re getting in deals and turn them into a good relief pitcher, turn them into a one trick pony. That can be very, very useful. And that’s I guess that’s the brilliance of Elias and my Dell and this group and the way they’re training pitchers. Yeah,
Luke Jones 16:32
8and I mean, look, I think on the pitching side, there’s still a lot to prove for for this group, because we haven’t seen them draft a ton of pitchers. Right. I mean, we’ve talked about that every year. It’s been college hitters, and it’s been, you know, a gunner Henderson tight and Oh, who obviously was a major flagship individual for their player development, having drafted
Nestor J. Aparicio 16:53
like them being a sure thing like a running back, we’re like pitchers, arms fall off. So they’re by their very nature, you draft for one’s arms gonna fall off before he gets the AAA likes, at least with the hitters, you stand a chance like, keeping your job, I guess, right? Yeah.
Luke Jones 17:08
But I mean, really what you just described though, it’s a four letter word to so many older baseball fans, and not all and I want to be clear, I’m not I don’t wanna make too many generalizations, but the word analytics information, really, it’s information. It’s taking us data, but things that you’ve learned and things that you see about a player and, you know, you identify a pitcher that was somewhere else and maybe didn’t have the best numbers, but you say, you know, what, guy throws a really good slider. Why don’t you throw that more? I mean, that’s just a really simple example there. You know, it’s general, but they’ve had guys like that where someone has a really good changeup or, you know, they’re throwing a two seam fastball, but they’re four seam fastball seems to be better and has a pretty good spin rate, and why isn’t he throwing that and all those different things? But no, it goes back to a term that you and I talked about a lot in the Astros cheating scandal aside was talked about a lot. The idea of growth mindset, the idea of identifying players, identifying scouts, and people within your front office and coaches who aren’t satisfied with the status quo aren’t satisfied with, with the idea of a player being considered a finished product at any point in time, not just talking about guys in the minor leagues. But I mean, one of the early stories of spring training, and yeah, we’ll see how it plays out. But Colin burns, a guy who’s won a Cy Young Award. Yeah, he’s been working on a different breaking pitch, supposedly, and, you know, trying to expand his repertoire, which makes sense for him, not just for a new team, but hey, he’s going to be a free agent at the end of this year. So he’s trying to get paid not. He’s going to get paid, but he’s trying to get paid the absolute most again, so you know that everyone? Oh, he’s got a chance to be
Nestor J. Aparicio 18:54
a World Series MVP. Free? Sure. Like, what
8Luke Jones 18:57
are you? You hope so. Yeah. I mean, the Orioles certainly hurt. Hope so. So, but but the point is, with all of that, you have information, you have technology, you have player tracking, you have Yes, statistics that weren’t necessarily there five years ago, 10 years ago, certainly weren’t there 20 years ago, and you use it and that doesn’t mean that it’s failed proof. That doesn’t mean that you’re not going to run into some bumps in the road. And yeah, just because you have all this information about pitchers doesn’t mean that they’re not going to still get hurt. And we’ve seen that here firsthand with the Orioles with Batista and you hope not, but we know what the odds typically will tell us about what’s going to happen with Kyle Bradish here. But you know, in the meantime, you are trying to develop other guys and you said it I mean, you’re Cano, okay. He’s not going to duplicate what he did in May, April, May June, but he was still a good reliever the rest of the year. It’s just he wasn’t this ungodly, untouchable reliever, right. But the fact is, look at what he was when they acquired him from Minnesota when they traded for Halo Lopez, he was a mess. I mean, he was a guy when Ben McDonald said it that was wondering, why is this guy even on the 40 man roster he thought that going into last spring and you see what he became so that’s not to minimize the concerns in the bullpen without Felix Batista I mean you’re talking about a really special reliever you’re not going to have that’s not to minimize the the concern of the potential loss of Kyle Bradish that would that’s really going to hurt if he
Nestor J. Aparicio 20:25
can’t hang on this is where I step up and say Batista one though that specialty was canal wasn’t anything until he was and that’s where I think these guys and look man, I was down there in Fort Lauderdale where they’re lifting weights and and back alley and they did you know, I’m saying seriously, right. Like, like, I think somebody said in the broadcast, maybe it was Palmer or no one even Palmer, it was somebody in the broadcast. It’s something that Richie ban sells would walk down the aisle in Fort Lauderdale or something like that. I heard something over the weekend. And I’m thinking to myself now they’re sequestered in the back maybe was rock Ibaka that said that in the pregame now, they’re sequestered over here sequestered over there. And I’m thinking, yeah, and they actually, like, have success, and they actually figure out how to take guys. And I’m gonna make a broad generalization here that will make you chuckle. And if it gets back to Dave Johnson, I’ll make him chuckle. But there wasn’t much that Greg Maddux had that Dave Johnson didn’t have in regard to physicality in regard to being right handed in regard to being a command pitcher in regard to never, you know, breaking radar guns or whatever. And one goes to the Hall of Fame and once a serviceable major league pitcher. And on that fringe of this time of the year, St. Kenny be our number four, number five. And Jamie Moyer was that guy, and, you know, you go to the Hall of Fame at that point in their life, late 20s. And I see pitchers in this system, that find a thing that modern science would have them find that at least have, can have them be whatever the best they can be is because these aren’t bumps, you know what I mean? Like, we would say, Bruce Zimmerman is just, you know, quad quite what, I don’t know, man, like, it’s really hard to get anybody out at the major leagues and to hang around for a period of time and, you know, be a triple A bull Bull Durham guy, you know, in and out the difference between that and and being any, you know, for a month, or what we perceive Batista to be now that he wasn’t two years ago, right. And these guys that make major steps up it, this is the time they do that. And they do that to your point with Corbin burns, working on a new pitch working on it, they don’t they can’t work on a new pitch in November and December, they’re not throwing the baseball right? This is when they get a chance to air that out. And I guess that’s what makes this franchise my God I’m saying this outlet so interesting and so fascinating, is that they are cutting edge about how a guy that last year got farmed out in June because he was no good. Come back and maybe win 1518 games maybe make 30 starts this year, because he just in March figures it out and winds up in the rotation because means can’t do it. And you know, brandish his arms, no good, whatever, did their opportunities here and no one good teams, and I keep referencing the Moyer thing because it’s something makes me sound like an old man. And that’s fine. But it’s a great example, dude, I was there every day when Jamie Moyers do in March Madness pull cards, and he’s like, literally not going to make the team we’re in number 82 You know what I mean? And 15 years later, because he figures it out. And this is when guys figure it out. This is when it’s all fun and games to us. And they’re blowing bubbles in the in, you know, on spring training or whatever, make guys are fighting for their lives down there as much as they’re trying to fish and golf and do whatever. But in an organization like this, this is a they can make a lot of money here. Yeah.
Luke Jones 23:58
And look, I mean, couple things. I’ll give you a more modern example than Jamie Moyer. How about John means, I mean, John means in 2018 was called literally was on his couch at home. And the Orioles were limping limping, limping to that historically terrible last season, they had under buckshaw, Walter and Dan Duquette. They traded away guys, they needed arms. I mean, John means was called off the couch and he pitched at Fenway and got knocked around because the perception of what he was at that point was a guy that was an organizational arm, no more than that. And we saw what and I don’t want to say it was only because of Mike Elias and the new baseball ops coming in John means put in the work, right? And so many of these guys and this goes back to the growth mindset. One thing I’ll disagree with you about a little bit is it’s not just coming to spring training guys. Seek out instruction, whether it’s private instruction, you know, facilities like drive line, you know, different things like that over the offseason where a pitcher or a hitter will rebuild a swing, whatever it might be. Guys that are trying to do refine what they do they really, it was so much more of a, an art compared to a science. And that’s not to be little, what process was before in terms of player development and working on things. I mean, Ted Williams talked about the idea of launch angle and things like that. He just didn’t have Statcast tracking it for him. Right. So Jim, push
Nestor J. Aparicio 25:23
8my father, we’re alive this time of year, man, my father bought the science of hitting and gave it to me when I was five years old, by these reels about rod crew and how it like, and my dad loved that stuff, man.
Luke Jones 25:37
I mean, it’s always been a thing. It’s just now there are tools that quantified I mean, the idea of spin rate late life on a fastball, right, you know, a fastball that’s perceived that to have some rise. That’s, that’s a fastball that has really good spin rate. So it’s just things that, you know, concepts that had always been talked about, to some degree, it’s just now, analytics information, I’ll keep using that word information that you now have that you can quantify some of those ideas. And now, it’s not just a case of okay, there might be a picture or how about this, a specific coach, who is really, really gifted, those coaches were so valuable because you didn’t have technology that helped you with this now Brainiac won’t react with love all this right? But but now you have coaches who are really talented. And on top of that, they have information to go with that. So now you have to, you have to filter it out. And there there is such a thing as information overload. And I’ve seen it firsthand with some players who have flat out said yeah, I’m thinking too much up there. By analysis, right? Yeah. So there’s always a fine balance here. And Mike Elias even talked about it on the broadcast, you know, this idea of you try to make things as scientific as you can with what they have, but there’s still going to be some art that comes into play there. And again, that goes into growth mindset that goes into a player’s mental makeup goes into environmental factors around them family
Nestor J. Aparicio 27:07
life, what’s
Luke Jones 27:08
going on with you know, all those different things, you know, what, what kind of work ethic a player has, so, you know, but to bring it back, you know, we’re very general and how we’re talking about this, but to bring it back to the last week of February,
8Nestor J. Aparicio 27:19
you know, I mean, this reminds me of being around baseball and having football show up here and having Marvin Lewis and Jim Schwartz take me under their wing and Phil Savage, and literally talking to me it from the moment they got here, the football people here, the Ravens people, and this is 1995 96. And now the Orioles have Doug Melvin zone his way out. Frank Robinson is on his way out and Pat Gillick sort of on his way in feel Reagan, around that period of time. Every football person I would ever meet, would say, I can take that young man and make him better. For the minute I met Marvin Lewis, his whole thing was dude, I’m not a coach. I’m a teacher. I take Peter bol wears skills, I draw up ways to make him better. He goes in the gym, eats his Wheaties comes out. And we study how to do this better. I was around baseball every day in my life for 15 years before this happened, right? Like literally with a press pass like you at the cages talking to Greg vicini. They didn’t talk like that in baseball. I mean, Dennis didn’t, they just didn’t talk like that. They just talk like, well, he’s got the skill set. You know, he runs fast. He’s a five tool player. We’ll bring Jeffrey Hammonds in here and he’ll be what he’ll be. But then I would go out to San Diego and Tony Gwynn would show me his little suite. This was literally a closet dude. It was friggin closet. Like it was a closet. It was right off of the corner of the locker room. It was a closet, and he had videotapes, and there they were stacked up. It was insane. I mean, I’ve seen this with my own eyes. And that was as modern as the San Diego Padres and Major League Baseball could be at the same era. And the football people were Mel Kiper ring. And we’re we’re going to coach him up, we’re and that was the thing with Bill like always, is I can take a player and make him better. I’m smart enough to make that to study it and get them to be better. Baseball has gone to a whole different level with managing that. And again, the reason this team won 101 games is John Angelo’s. I’ll give him big props for this. You hired Mike Elias, it got out of the way, and like and he brought in smart people, the same people that Eric de Costa was studying to try to figure out how to do this and football better, the way Billy Beane and Moneyball and wherever the sport was going, and they’ve perfected this enough that their biggest detractor Mr. Oriole negative, just sits back and says, What are they going to come up with? How are they going to fix this year? Like I literally there’s going to be two or three guys who are going to make a market improvement. Because to your point, there’s evidence of this John means we go through the list you know, Batista. I mean, all of their stars were maybes in the old era, maybe they would become area to somewhere else. Maybe they would become whatever they were become somewhere else. But they can take Brad Bergersen and get three seasons out of them here, you know?
Luke Jones 30:17
Yeah. And really, I mean, as much as you’re looking for the major success story like a year canal, who goes from terrible quad A looking relief pitcher to pitching in the All Star game last July. Really what you’re looking for ideally, and more realistically speaking, is, even if it’s just incremental improvement from everyone, right, 1% Better 2% Better. And if you get that from enough, guys, when you already have a team that won 101 games last year, then that’s how you endure losing a Kyle Bradish and hopefully bringing in another starting pitcher at some point in time, which I still think whether it’s by opening day or the trade deadline, I still think there’s a good chance you’re gonna see that happen. I think you’re gonna see them bring in another reliever at some point. But in the meantime, yeah, you are taking a look at guys you have and you’re looking for whether it’s cold urban, throwing 95 miles per hour, which he was touching in Bradenton on Sunday, which was something he was not doing last year. And look, it’s one outing. Again, you don’t want to make too much of it. But there’s one example of yeah, you’re hoping some guys get better, and especially when you’re young guys. I mean, I look at someone like a Jordan Westberg. You know, I think, you know, we’ve spent a lot of time talking about the infield. But what about the outfield? We’ve had, you know, the Orioles have had Cedric Mullins and center, Anthony Santander and right Austin Hayes and left. And that’s been what the outfield has generally been four or five years. I mean, that’s kind of that was kind of the first group to to kind of settle in this new era. But think about this Nestor. Sometime there’s gonna be a free agent at the end of this year. Cedric Mullins is coming off of an injury plague season, he’s going to be a free agent at the end of next year. Same with Austin Hayes, who was an all star last year but we’ve seen him wear down in the second half the last two years. That’s not to say that those guys are going to be replaced on opening day or anything like that far from it. But when you’re thinking through a long term lens, I want to see Colton Couser do what He did on Saturday, which was hit a walk off home run although certainly wind aided in Sarasota if you saw the contact but I want to see Heston kirsta Take the next step. Yeah. What about someone like Kyle sours who we were talking about a lot a year ago, and
Nestor J. Aparicio 32:32
I forgot his name. I called him stout. I guess I was thinking about the the movie sort of stuff. But but but but yeah, like I just I’m like, where’s he in all of this? I mean, there’s only to your point, we’ve already got three major leaguers, and two other guys trying to figure out how to get in the lineup. That’s still nine.
Luke Jones 32:53
8Yeah, I think you know, in the case of house towers, and look, let’s be clear, as much as we were just giving the Orioles player development, their flowers. That doesn’t mean you’re gonna bat 1000. Right. And Kyle sours still is going to have an opportunity this spring. But let’s face it, I don’t think too many people are projecting him to be on their opening day roster like he was a year ago. But he’s still in the organization. If he has a good spring, I think couple questions for this team from a backup outfielder standpoint, who’s gonna backup Cedric Mullins I mean Ryan McKenna has kind of been the default at times and of course they had Aaron Hicks on the roster last year, but who’s the backup centerfielder right now can Colton Couser do it? It looked awkward when he was playing centerfield at Camden Yards last year, but he was a rookie. So you don’t want to you know, you don’t want to make a definitive statement about where he is defensively. But someone’s got a backup Mullins. Austin Hayes can do it. But if Austin Hays is in center, then who’s playing left and left field is a lot like centerfield in terms of the ground you have to cover. So I think that’s where Colton khalasar Kyle sours a throw another name at you you don’t think of as an outfielder, but his role has changed. Jorge Mateo. If you want to talk about a guy having value as a bench player, Jorge Mateo has got to play more than a backup shortstop at this point, because you have Gunnar Henderson and whether he’s here on opening day or not Jackson Holliday is going to be here in Baltimore sooner rather than later. You have to you have a already an all star caliber shortstop and Gunnar Henderson and the best prospect in baseball for Jorge Mateo to truly have some value. I want to see if he can be a backup centerfielder I want to see if he can play left field for them. And that’s not as a starter. But as a guy that, you know, can spell you in the late innings or if someone needs a day off. So there’s there are some questions there. But, you know, going back to just to finish the your question about stars, he had a rough 2023 We’ll see how he rebounds. It might be in luck. He wasn’t the number one prospect in baseball or anything like that. It might be that he’s not going to figure it out. To the degree that you hope to maybe a
Nestor J. Aparicio 35:01
year he is competing with the number one prospects in baseball That’s right. Yeah, right.
Luke Jones 35:05
Exactly. So and that’s, you know, that’s where we are right now with this with this roster, you have a lot of competition a whole roster
Nestor J. Aparicio 35:12
segment with you, man, like I, I want to go soup to nuts with you and where we are because I want to be educated as to where you think this is going because it feels real crowded. And it feels real crowded in a way like where they could do something off and get an arm that could be very useful at any point that we now in July whenever let’s break loose here. We’ll get some let’s do a whole bunch more baseball. We’ve sort of been roundabout with Masson and shaky cameras and you know, certainly not a shaky front office on the baseball side. But the shake up that is going to be this year of what we hope is massive ownership change, massive sort of comeback to the city sort of thing and some ideas and fresh ideas and Cal Ripken and it looking and feeling different on the beginning of spring training this time next year so we’ll continue to measure this you can find Luke measure him out of Baltimore, Luke anywhere, the interwebs traveled social media and a whole bunch of cool stuff going on around here in regard to sort of the development of what the new Baltimore positive is going to be. I’ve been working real hard on that. As well as crabcake row and a couple of Super Bowl all the stuff up all of it brought to you by friends at the Maryland lottery I’ve I’m gonna get the crabcake tour back out on the road. I have our friends in winter nation in mind as well. Jiffy Lube, multi care, we have a lot going on as we get ready for opening day we’re going to be doing some live shows downtown before baseball games on Fridays. I’m excited about that. So a lot of things happening around here that we will get you up to speed on including the ravens, the Ravens stuff happening and combine stuff happening as well. Luke and I will be after all of that we are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore. And we never stop talking Baltimore positive
