The Baltimore Orioles have propelled themselves back into the American League pennant race with an impressive two weeks of baseball against AL East foes as they finish the run in Toronto this weekend. Luke Jones and Nestor reset the Birds and the Wild Card picture as the next few weeks features some stiff competition with the Mariners, Padres and Dodgers coming soon.
Luke Jones and Nestor Aparicio discussed the Orioles’ recent performance, highlighting their 7-3 homestand and a 2-1 road series win against the Red Sox. The Orioles are now half a game off the wild card. Jones noted the team’s need for better outfield defense and pitching consistency, particularly with Dean Kremer and Trey Mancini. The conversation also touched on the AL East standings, with the Orioles and Blue Jays on similar footing. Jones emphasized the importance of winning series and maintaining momentum, especially with key upcoming games against the Blue Jays and a nine-game road trip.
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Orioles’ Recent Performance and Wild Card Standings
- Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the Orioles’ current position, being half a game off the wild card.
- Luke Jones highlights the team’s recent success, including a seven-game homestand and a road series win against the Red Sox.
- The conversation touches on the Red Sox’s struggles, including their recent managerial change and the lack of a strong team vibe.
- Luke Jones mentions specific pitchers like Bassett and Bayo, noting their performance and potential issues.
Challenges and Opportunities for the Orioles
- Luke Jones discusses the Orioles’ need for better outfield defense and base running.
- The team’s recent performance is compared to last year, noting incremental improvements.
- Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones talk about the importance of winning series and maintaining momentum.
- The conversation shifts to the Orioles’ upcoming series against the Blue Jays and the potential for further improvement.
AL East Division and Competition
- Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones analyze the current state of the AL East, noting the Red Sox’s struggles and the Blue Jays’ recent performance.
- The discussion includes the impact of injuries on teams like the Blue Jays and the Yankees.
- Luke Jones emphasizes the importance of the Orioles continuing to win series and not falling back into deep valleys of performance.
- The conversation highlights the need for the Orioles to stay competitive and not let other teams pull away.
Orioles’ Upcoming Schedule and Key Players
- Luke Jones outlines the Orioles’ upcoming schedule, including a road trip to the West Coast and a series against the Blue Jays.
- The discussion includes the potential return of key players like Ryan Helsley and the need for better defensive options in center field.
- Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones talk about the importance of players like Gunnar Henderson and Cedric Mullins performing consistently.
- The conversation concludes with a focus on the Orioles’ potential to stay competitive and improve their standing in the division.
Nestor Aparicio 0:01
Welcome home. We are W N S T A M 1570 Towson, Baltimore. Happy weekend, everybody out there getting ready for the big two day mini camp with the Ravens next week. Luke Jones is getting ready for that. He will be out in Owings Mills next week. We got baseball to talk about. We’re also gonna be doing the Maryland Crab Cake Tour presented by the Maryland Lottery, conjunction with GBMC, as well as our partners at Farnham and Dermer. They are the comfort guys. Gonna be a little uncomfortable this weekend, as it gets hot out there. Make sure you’re keeping them in mind for your HVAC Orioles. What a half a game off the wild card, Luke Jones, who knew, right? I mean, you know, you scuffle along, you win two out of three. We start talking about this five hundreds, right over the hill here. I can almost see it, Luke.
Luke Jones 0:51
Yeah, I mean, I wouldn’t say who knew as much from the standpoint of, for a while there, that was the only thing the Orioles had going for them, seemingly was looking at the state of the American League, but you have a seven and three homestand, and then you start a road trip, and you say, all right, let’s continue that, let’s continue to play not perfect baseball, because there’s still things about this team that need to be better, there are clearly things that are flawed, but go win series, go win a series on the road, go win a series on the road against the team that, frankly, hasn’t just hasn’t been very good, has already fired their manager, right? And that’s what the Orioles were able to do at Fenway over three days, by the way. All those empty seats
Nestor Aparicio 1:30
up there is crazy, right? I
8
Luke Jones 1:31
mean, it’s just we talked about it before the series. I mean, like the Red Sox, they just, they don’t carry that same vibe that they had for a long time, like they had that aura that you talk about with the Yankees, that you talk about with the Dodgers, right, that you talk about with other high-priced teams, you know, even the ones that don’t carry or haven’t had as much success, you know, they spend a lot of money. You look at the state of the Red Sox and, like, who are their stars, you know, they, they put a lot on their young star players, and or what they thought were going to be star players, and that’s been, at best, a mixed bag. Mookie Betts is long gone. Devers is, boy, that’s the original
Nestor Aparicio 2:11
sin, isn’t it? A Mookie Betts, I mean,
Luke Jones 2:13
how can it not be? I mean, you right,
Luke Jones 2:15
regardless of what Mookie is right now, and you know you can certainly debate where he ranks right now among the best in the game, but yeah, I mean, you talk about a guy that was very much on a path and had already become the next great Red Sox player, and it’s just.. it’s odd. So, if you’re the Orioles, you go into Fenway and you say, “Hey, let’s win a series, and we talked about Boz and how well he pitched on Tuesday night, Wednesday, not so much, right? I mean, Bassett was not good, left early, was, you know, dealing with this back issue. We’re going to see about that. I mean, that’s still, you know, that spot in the rotation is still very much, you know, whether it’s going to be Bassett, whether it’s going to be Trey Gibson, whether it’s going to be Dean Kramer, and Basset goes to the bullpen eventually, whatever they need better there. I think we all would agree with that, but then Thursday they come out after being blown out Wednesday night, and you hang a six spot on the board in the first inning against Brian Bayo, who has the weirdest splits. I mean, he’s been a disaster as a starter when he’s pitched out of the bullpen. He’s pitched pretty darn well to me. It screams either leave them in the bullpen or at least give the guy an opener and have him come in in the second inch. What’s amazing, he
Nestor Aparicio 3:25
survived it. I mean, it looked like he wasn’t going to make it through the inning, right?
Luke Jones 3:29
Yeah, no question about it. So, but the Orioles, they score six, and they were helped out a little bit. I still think it’s wild, and the broadcast made a little bit of it, but didn’t talk about it too much. They were late challenging the play at third base. Bisayo was thrown out at third base, and that would have ended the inning at two nothing. Instead, the Red Sox were late challenging it, so they didn’t get the challenge. And then Mayo hits the three run double off the Monster, and before you know it, six nothing. So that was huge, right there. It was good to see Trevor Rogers pitch accordingly when you’re staked to a six nothing lead. I was a little disappointed with, with how he finished the day. You know, when you look at where the pitch count was when he was going into the bottom of the fifth, you’re thinking, man, he could get through seven, didn’t quite get through six, so that was disappointing. But relative to where he’s been recently, you’ll certainly take that. You’ll take that as a step in the right direction. My fear was he was
Nestor Aparicio 4:24
going to let him back in the ball game at six nothing, you know. It’s six nothing, that should be a walk over, you know, for your starting pitcher.
8Luke Jones 4:31
We also, it should be, but we also know how often it is not, especially when you’re playing at Fenway Park. So that was good from that standpoint. I mean, it was just nothing about the series that was extraordinary, other than just go and win a road series. It’s the fourth road series win they’ve had of the season. They haven’t played great baseball on the road, we know that. So you wanted to build on the momentum of going seven and three on the home stand. If you do that, if you’re going. To do that, go win a series, right? I mean, is a sweep better? Sure, of course it is. But you know, I don’t want to be completely unrealistic here, but you look at where they are right now. I mean, seven and three at home on this last home stand, now take two out of three. I mean, nine and four over a 13 game stretch. That’s the kind of stretch that good teams should have, not all the time, but at least semi regularly, right? I mean, it didn’t feel like they
Nestor Aparicio 5:28
were capable of doing this a month ago, right? Exactly,
Luke Jones 5:31
but, but I’ll also remind, right around this time last year, they had a stretch where they won nine of 11. Now, the difference was they were so far below 500 when they kind of, you know, when they crashed at the bottom. I mean, you’re 18 games under, so didn’t really matter. But the point I’m trying to make is they won nine of 11, and they got to a certain point where you say, all right, you’ve gotten yourself to a point where, if you take off now, you might give yourself a prayer. At least the Orioles aren’t in that spot, but you don’t want to see them fall back down the mountain. Now they’re at a point where to use to the point you made, they’re they can smell 500 again, they’re that close. So don’t go to Rogers Center and get swept, right? Don’t come home and have a two and four home stand or a two and five home stand and you’re really disappointed. So I think where they stand right now, it’s as simple as keep winning series, right? It doesn’t even have to be, you don’t have to rip off 13 of 14, I mean, if you do, great, like that, that’s awesome, but they’re in a position where you look at the state of not just the wild card, but I want to get into the AL East, and we can get into that in a moment with Aaron Judge and all that, but just keep winning, right? Just keep winning series two out of three, two out of three. If it’s a four game series, at least a split, preferably three out of four, that you know you do, that you start looking up at the standings, then come late June and going into July, and the all-star break, and getting closer to the trade deadline. You do that, this team will be in good position. Like, I’m not saying best in the league, but they’ll be in good position if they can manage that. So, you just need to, you need to not have the valleys be quite as deep, right? You don’t want to have these stretches where you lose seven of 10, right? You don’t want to be in a position where you’re getting swept, and they’ve gone through that, right? They’ve had some stretches like that so far this year. So nice, nice series win at Fenway. Wasn’t perfect, you know. Base running was, they ran into some outs. Outfield defense continues to be an issue, right? I mean, we’ve talked about it. They have one good defensive outfielder, and they continue to try to put non-outfielders in the outfield, and, and we see how that worked out the other night, but they’re certainly playing better baseball. They mostly hit the ball, you know, hit the ball enough. Certainly had the big inning on Thursday afternoon to set the tone. They’re, you know, they’re, they’re playing better, right? I mean, even, even we’ve talked about it, even their defense, which I just talked about, their outfield defense, leave something to be desired. There’s no doubt about that. And I don’t think that’s going to change, by and large, if you look at it over the last three weeks compared to where they were six weeks ago defensively, I’d say it’s been better, right? It’s been some incremental improvement in that way, and and that’s what you’re looking for, because again, you look at the rest of this division right now, and even the two teams that they’re looking up at right now, that with a sizable deficit, those teams are dealing with issues right now, so just keep winning series, just go out there and win more often than you lose, and get yourself back over, or at 500 and then over 500 and before you know it, you’re in a position that you can have some fun this summer.
Nestor Aparicio 8:46
I don’t know that we consider the American League East the big bad wolf anymore. I mean, it might be the NL Central at this point, with the way all those teams have played over 500 and part of that is that the Orioles have been draggy for, you know, most years, other than two seasons ago, for two years, the Red Sox, however, are about to go into this. Toronto had their problems for two decades, you know, where they can’t get out of their own way. They’re done the division on Sunday for like six weeks. I mean, they don’t, they don’t see any. Feels like they’ve been seeing these teams a lot, and not a bad time to make hay, you know? If you’re going to go nine and four, or you know, if they get through this weekend and somehow you know take two out of three against that, make you 11 and five going through the division, it’s a lot different than getting swept by the Yankees, you know, for sure, and picking up this sort of steam against these teams, but I agree with you, the Red Sox are not a factor, remains to be seen about the Blue Jays. Last year was a long time ago.
Luke Jones 9:43
Yeah, and keep in mind, last year, I mean, it’s not as though the Blue Jays got off to a great start last year, right? I mean, they’ve had a lot of injuries. I mean, I mean, look at, look at their IL, look at their rotation, the guys that they’ve lost, they are getting some of those guys back, they’re not getting all of them back. Well, you lose a shed,
Nestor Aparicio 9:58
too, you know, you lose those guys from last. Year to this year, sure, sure, we got their pitcher, and he stinks. So
Luke Jones 10:03
we’ve, and we’ve talked about it, looking through the lens of a lot of times we talked about this with the NFL, but if you’re the team that loses the championship, right, whether we’re talking about the World Series loser or the Super Bowl loser, or whatever, there’s absolutely a hangover
8Nestor Aparicio 10:18
there.
Luke Jones 10:19
One, you don’t get the proper, you know, the normal length of the off season, as so many other teams do, and that’s, you know, it’s something that you can celebrate, but there’s also the sense of disappointment that you were so close and you didn’t finish the job, and I think there’s a psychological part to that, that the Blue Jays, or, you know, the Patriots this year in the NFL, right? I mean, any, any team that is losing or lost the championship series, I think there there is a psychological test to that. So I think with Toronto, it’s, you know, we’re going to see, right? I mean, they have the same record as the Orioles going into this weekend series, and they just lost two of three, albeit to the Braves, I mean, no, no shame in that, but there’s certainly not a team that’s playing extremely high-level baseball or anything like that. Well, nobody was..
Nestor Aparicio 11:09
once you go to the World Series, the fan base isn’t set up for two games under 500 in June, right? Like, sure, just in a general sense, that’s, you know, that’s where you sell your tickets, you get it. Imagine if the Orr was went to the World Series last year and started tanking this year. How you know, demoralizing, I think that is for the fan base that had waited a long time to get up. I mean, and that’s a whole, that’s a whole country, not just a fan base, right.
Luke Jones 11:34
Well, and I think it’s, it reminds that it’s really hard to do. I mean, okay, we look at the Dodgers back to back, and we also know how much money the Dodgers spend. We know how well set up, set up, and position they are to endure some injuries, or or whatever. So that’s the exception, that’s not the norm, even for teams that spend a good bit of money, you know, not even talking about small market teams, but yeah, I mean, you look at Toronto right now, and they’re kind of riding the wave, right. We talked about this last year. I mean, they, they get to the World Series last year, they were in last place the year before, right? I mean, so again, it kind of speaks to just because you think you’ve arrived doesn’t mean you’re going to stay there, and I mean, the Orioles should be able to know they know that better than anyone, considering where they were three years ago and the first half of two years ago, and how things have gone ever since, right? I mean, at least in the
Nestor Aparicio 12:29
NFL, they have not for long, right? NFL, so in baseball last year’s a long time ago, it always is, I mean, it always is, and as much as these teams change, we’re Oriole fans, we’re used to the Yankees always being the same 30 years ago. The Orioles, it’s McGregor and Flanagan, you know, this this last year has something to do with this year. Baseball is so moved past that, like so is the all the sports have given roster switches, but, but especially baseball, for me, with the way pitching doesn’t hold up. There are no five starters, and I even think that it’s one of those weird things to do, where those Ruchman years go back, you know, look at.. I’m trying to think of some players that you think of as being really good. Mark McGuire was one of those guys, he had all these good years, and he had these turds in the middle of them, like whole seasons of that on the back of your baseball card, that’s what Ruchman has dealt with. It’s, it’s the hardest thing to do consistently, individually or team wise, which makes it even more incredible what the Braves did for 20 years making the playoffs. Or, yeah, I wouldn’t say so incredible what the Dodgers and Yankees do, because when you have five times as amount of the money as the worst teams do, you’re you’re going to find yourself in a competitive situation, that’s what makes baseball different than football or the rest of the sports. At least they have a salary cap, at least there’s some level of responsibility. But I still have to be
Luke Jones 13:52
smart.
Nestor Aparicio 13:53
Well, I thought when the Blue Jays were winning last year, and I said this to you, the way that patriotism works for the Blue Jays in Toronto, and when I’ve been there, it felt to me like the Blue Jays had a different responsibility, not about the shed, but about spending a lot of money, not necessarily being the Dodgers, but I remember being up there, speaking to that, was up there to see Getty Lee and Alex Leiser a couple years ago on the night when Ohtani was maybe going to sign with the Blue Jays, maybe he was flying to Toronto that night. That’s the kind of franchise they are. The one Ohtani’s available, they’ll put a bid in, or they’ll be in the running, or that’s not the Orioles. The Blue Jays are a different kind of franchise in regard to money and the way they could play it now. That’s not to say that mr. Rubenstein won’t be that way, but I’m with you. The Red Sox and the Yankees were the evil empire. Now the Red Sox kind of aren’t. Tampa always is competitive, no matter what they’re mean. They’re never going to have a payroll, but the Blue Jays are one of those teams where they shouldn’t be two games under. They should. Be spending money, they are owned by a brewery, they are owned by the country, they are, you know, I’ve always thought they’re the ones to worry about in the division, but they never seem to pull their pants up, and you know, and fly the way maybe they did in the early 90s, you know, where they’re perennially a troublemaker, and because they spend enough, or they’re smart enough, they’re not really either one, the Blue Jays, I don’t think, as we see them this weekend.
8Luke Jones 15:24
Well, I mean, it’s hard to say. I mean, we’re going to find out, but I mean, it’s funny you mentioned Bob Shedd, and like that was a talking point. Have you seen what his numbers are for the Mets this year? He’s been horrendous, so even there, right? Even if you, in many cases, I mean, the Mets are a great, great, uh, lesson for this, right? I mean, the Mets have spent so much money, and look at them, right? I mean, so it does speak to, yes, that that element of it is important, and it’s a major factor, but it’s not the end all be all. You still have to be really smart. The Dodgers, for as much money as they spend, and, my goodness, they spend so much money, they’re also really, really smart, and you look at their farm system, and the number of players on a day on a yearly basis of where they have injuries, and suddenly you’re saying, “Oh, wow, what’s going on with the rotation? And they keep it together because they’ve got good young players. To your point, it
Nestor Aparicio 16:14
doesn’t feel like the Red Sox are that anymore. Yeah, doesn’t feel like that from the beginning of this conversation. It feels like, oh, they’re trying to behave like the Orioles, not like the Yankees, right? Yeah, like just right. I
Luke Jones 16:25
mean, just, yeah, like Breslow in that front office. I mean, it just feels like there feels like they have something to prove at this point, where it’s like, you know, we, we can still be great, and we’re going to develop, and yeah, we’re going to spend money, but we’re not going to spend like the Dodgers, or I mean, the Yankees don’t even spend like they used to, right? I mean, that’s part of this, but I think you just look at the division as a whole, right now. I mean, Tampa has certainly cooled off. We saw firsthand they are not a team without some flaws when you look at their defense, or you know, whatever, you know, kind of look at their roster. I mean, it’s not – doesn’t, doesn’t scream they’re going to win 100 plus games, necessarily. And we’ve seen them come back to earth, the Yankees. Now, I mean, the Yankees had a great start to the season early on. It looked like they were going to run away. I think they’ll still be okay based on their pitching, but that Aaron Judge rib injury thing does not sound good. I mean, when they’re, when you get the sense that they’re trying to rule out thoracic outlook outlet syndrome, which typically is something you know we’ve seen that in recent years, as Zach Wheeler for the Phillies, for example, when you’re talking about that and stress reactions in the ribs and how that’s impacting your shoulder, and I mean, they’re they’re saying he’s going to be reevaluated in four to six weeks. I know they’re saying they expect him to play again this year, but in what to what capacity, right? To to what level of effectiveness? I mean, that’s Aaron Judge. I know the Yankees aren’t a one man team, but they’re kind of still a one man team when you consider just how extraordinary he is, and I think it was Buster, only tweeted it out on Friday morning. Since going back to 2020 the Yankees are 138 games over 500 when he plays eight games below 500 when he’s out of the lineup. So it speaks to how important he is. So that’s not me sitting here saying that, hey, the Orioles, you know, are in the best position of anyone in the division. No, they’re not, because those teams have a sizable lead. My point, however, is, you know, Tampa Bay, are they going to be able to keep up what they’ve done over the first two months? I mean, I think that’s a very fair question when you’re talking about a team that everyone was picking to finish last going into the year. So, is there some room to make up some ground there? The Yankees, again, a team that got off to a great start, they weren’t as impressive in May, and now they’re going to be without Aaron Judge for a good chunk of the summer, if not most of the summer, the way it’s looking now. So, what does that mean for them? I mean, they have pitching, yes, but that lineup without Aaron Judge in it. I mean, and you say the same thing about the Dodgers with Ohtani, or you know, go to go down the list of the very best players in baseball, right? But you wonder what that looks like, and where they are then. So, you know, you mentioned Toronto, Toronto and the Orioles are on very similar footing right now, as far as the standings go. So, is there one of those two teams that can make more of a run and make those top two teams uncomfortable here over the next six weeks? Let’s say the Red Sox do not feel like that, right? I mean, they’ve already fired Alex Cora, and they haven’t been any better, you know. There hasn’t been any spike in how they’ve played. They just.. they’re not very impressive. I think they have more problems than not. I mean, you know, it’s not as though they have no strengths, but it doesn’t feel.. you know, the vibes there don’t feel remotely good enough. So we’re going to find out, but.
Luke Jones 19:59
Yeah, to me, like, if you’re the Orioles, you look at the entire division right now, and I would even say, would I bet on this? No, of course not, because you know it’s a sizable deficit, but they’re eight games out of first place, like that’s not with four months of baseball left, that’s hardly insurmountable if those other teams are going to have issues and not look like juggernauts, so they don’t need to worry about that. And again, well, the Yankees
Nestor Aparicio 20:28
think of the Yankees will play 700 ball without Aaron Judges. Now, I mean, right? I mean, they’re
Luke Jones 20:31
just not going to do that. I mean, they, they, they haven’t played quite 600 ball to this point, and that’s with Aaron Judge in the lineup until very recently. So, again, that’s not me saying I think the Orioles are going to win the division, that’s me saying that everything’s kind of just sitting there for you to continue to play better baseball and put yourself in a good position that you get later into the summer and you get closer to the trade deadline. What’s not to say that the division is completely impossible at that point in time, but you have to keep winning series, right. We can look ahead and talk in those terms. The Orioles themselves, the best teams, especially teams that get off to a rocky start, like they did, and not, you know, got off to a bad start, quite frankly. You have to be able to compartmentalize, right? You need to go and win that night, win that series. Just keep winning series, keep stacking wins, play better baseball, improve in the areas where you need to improve, and they still have a lot of improvement they need to make. There’s no doubt about that. They need to get Ryan Helsley back, which it sounds like there’s a good chance he’s going to start a rehab assignment after this road trip somewhere in that neighborhood, so he could be back in the next couple weeks, you know. Dean Kramer still not, not in that territory yet. Dylan Beavers will find out about him. I mean, it seems like he’s progressing with the oblique, not, not that these guys are, you know, also, you know, these aren’t guys that are going to make them dramatically better, but part of that is, can you stay healthier, right? At some point in time, you’d like to think this team can have a stretch where they aren’t, aren’t dealing with injuries. I’d like to think that Jackson
Nestor Aparicio 22:11
Holiday, the next 90 days, at this point in his career, for where he is, you’d like to see him play every day and hit 260 right, like something that feels like we’d like to blossom him as a major league baseball player in the way that they were trying to blossom Kobe Mayo. You got to find something out of this. Henderson’s got to find the fountain of Gunner. You know, they’re just needs to be some the star pat, you know, Cowser. He didn’t have to hit three walk-offs a week, but he’s, he’s got to show that he’s more than you and Alan telling me, well, he’s the best glove, you have to put him out there, that that is a very, very low bar for a team that wants to be a playoff team, and as you and I have pointed out, a half a game out of the wild card for as much as they’ve stunk, it’s, you know, that that is good fortune for Katie Griggs and for Rubenstein, and for the fan base here. That in July, this could still be a thing, and it looks like it will be a thing in July, where two weeks ago it looked like it wouldn’t be a thing in July.
8Luke Jones 23:12
I mean, you certainly hope so. And while I agree that there’s good fortune in terms of looking at the state of the AL as a whole, it’s not like everything’s gone well for this team, right? I mean, even this run, I know Gunner hit a couple home runs on that home stand, but you’re still talking about a version of Gunner Henderson that’s not firing on all cylinders by any stretch of the imagination. Now, Pete Alonso has certainly looked way more like Pete Alonso the last few weeks. I have no complaints about Pete Alonso, who continues to save his infielders’ errors by scooping balls in the dirt, and all that. I mean, he’s, he’s been played a terrific first. If he wants to get into
Nestor Aparicio 23:49
a double play at any point in the first inning, do it in any way they score six runs. Yeah, yeah,
Luke Jones 23:55
right. I, and I’d rather, I’d rather not see him make the third out at third, but you know, I mean, that’s something that this team still does a little bit too much of,
Nestor Aparicio 24:03
but they do not play smart baseball. It’s like they, yeah,
Luke Jones 24:08
but you know what? You can.. there’s a lot of that that goes on. I mean, it’s.. I, you know, you watch MLB Network, or just watch condensed highlights. I mean, you see that kind of stuff everywhere. I think some of it’s just you and I are old guys that are kind of yelling at a cloud as far as what good fundamental baseball is, and you kind of look around the league and you realize, are there some teams that still do that? Yes, does it happen as consistently across baseball as it feels like it used to? Probably not. So, but those are definitely things they need to get better with. I’ll continue to say, I mean, and we saw this. I’d still like to see this team acquire a better defensive option for center field at some point in time, and Who knows, maybe Colton Kauser, if he can hit consistently enough. Puts himself back in the conversation to be the everyday center fielder, because as much as I think Leoti Tavarez has been a great story with the bat, his defense out there is not good enough, and plays Alexander certainly not good enough to be playing center field. So that’s something that I still look at, right? I mean, they have flaws. I still think when it’s all said and done, even with Ryan Helsley coming back, I still think if this team wants to be taken seriously as a playoff team, I still think they’re going to need to go out and get another high-leverage bullpen arm. You know me, I’ve been saying that since spring training, so I’ve been consistent with that, even even the first month of the season where the bullpen was over performing. You know, you’re still wondering how real it is. So they still have issues, there’s no doubt about that, and those issues have still shown up even over the stretch where they’ve played well, but point is, and when you do look at the rest of the American League, and there are lots of teams that have issues, right, this division now, even the best teams in the division have some major concerns, so I think one thing that we need to point out, and this weekend, obviously, they’ll play the Blue Jays, but after that, you mentioned it, they’ve got a nice long gap where they’re not going to play any teams in the division. However, Seattle’s in first place, they’re coming to Baltimore next week, San Diego, and it’s funny, you look at the Padres, so much has been made about the fact that Fernando Tatis started off the season such a long home run drought and not hitting for power. Manny Machado got off to a good start and has been really struggling since then. It’s the worst season of
Nestor Aparicio 26:35
his career right now. I saw a bit of peace on that, but
Luke Jones 26:38
it’s, but it’s funny. I mean, like, you look at the Padres, and you see a lot of things that haven’t gone well yet, that bullpen, you know, Mason Miller, and that bullpen is just unbelievable, that that they are in a position where they’re right in the mix in the NL West, so they’re coming to town, and then the Orioles go out west, and they’ll play in Seattle, they’ll play the Dodgers, right, so these next couple weeks, as much as we’ll get away, they’re playing better
8Nestor Aparicio 27:03
teams than the Blue Jays and the Red Sox. I was gonna say, I mean, they’re they’re gonna
Luke Jones 27:06
get away from the division, and we’ll talk about that storyline. And yes, the wild card race is wide open, and they’re in very good position, even right now, you know, with the assumption that you have to continue to play better baseball, but these next couple weeks, you know, that’s why I’m saying no, you don’t need to win 10 of 12, but hold your own and win these, win these series at home, go go out to the West Coast and hold your own, right? I mean, it’s that’s gonna be a, it’s a three city swing, they’ll finish up with the Angels, and obviously that’s a lesser, a lesser challenge on paper, but they have a nine game road trip coming up here in a week and a half, you know, not saying you have to go seven and two, but it can’t be two and seven, right? I mean, you don’t want something like that to happen, so these next couple weeks are going to be interesting for them, in terms of we’ve seen them get back on the horse, we’ve seen them get closer to 500 They played much better over the last two weeks. They needed to, can they continue that now? Can they go and win some series against some other good teams? Can they go on the road and win some series against good teams? That’s what’s that, what is what lies ahead, but first things first, go to Rogers Center, and you know, take care of business against the Blue Jays. See if you can win another road series in the division. If you do that, you come home, you’re very much on the cusp of being at 500 and then business will pick up with some of the competition that’s going to be coming into town.
Nestor Aparicio 28:39
All we can ask for is them to be competitive when the Ravens are doing their mini camp. Ravens have mini camp next week. Luke will be out in Owings Mills. The Orioles will be playing baseball all weekend long at Sky Dome up in Toronto before getting back home here next week for some home cooking and some Father’s Day weekend in the San Diego Padres. And after the Mariners start the beginning of the week, you can follow Luke at Baltimore. Luke, you can jump on our WNSD tech service. It is absolutely free. It’s all brought to you by our friends at Cole Roofing and Gordian Energy. Any breaking news, we’ll get it out to you first. In the meantime, tons of great interviews, tons of great stuff here at WNSD, as well as out at Baltimore Positive. I am Nestor, we are WNSD AM 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking, Baltimore positive,
