It’s hard to stay up late but even harder when the Baltimore Orioles are in last place in AL East. Luke Jones and Nestor set the stage for three games in Seattle and an unlikely first-time appearance in Sacramento as the MLB circus moves the lowly Athletics into a minor-league stadium.
Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Baltimore Orioles’ recent performance, highlighting their three-game sweep over the Chicago White Sox and improved pitching from Charlie Morton, Dean Kremer, and Eflin. They noted the team’s struggles, including a 14-game deficit under 500, and the impact of injuries to key players like Cedric Mullins and Mount Castle. They debated the future of manager Brandon Hyde and general manager Mike Elias, questioning Elias’s strategy of avoiding high-dollar pitching contracts. The conversation also touched on the need for positional versatility and the potential for trades involving players like Sugano and Cedric Mullins.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Orioles, pitching, injuries, trade deadline, young core, Charlie Morton, Gunnar Henderson, Jackson Holiday, Adley Rutschman, Mike Elias, Brandon Hyde, qualifying offers, rehab assignments, West Coast trip.
8
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 tasks of Baltimore. We are Baltimore, positive I am wearing my cop in 125 I like this shirt, man, I got this shirt. I’m like, am I going to wear that? And then I wore it. I’m like, That’s good looking shirt. So I’m wearing the shirt. Luke Jones is here. We are. We’re going to be up late, uh, weather’s going to be changing here this week. It’s gonna be nice and warm. I don’t know who’s gonna be watching these 10 o’clock games out in Seattle this week. And then off to I was gonna say Oakland, but it’s it’s really Sacramento at this point, I have some friends joining me. My, my, one of my mentors in life turned out to be the sports editor of the Sacramento Bee for a long, long time. He’s actually from Ocean City, Maryland. Tom Cousins gonna be joining us this week. Mari Brown’s gonna be joining us from Portlandia in Seattle to talk, see, I was gonna say Seahawks, no mariners. Luke Jones is here to talk Oriole baseball with us. After a I would get my broom out, dude. I you know, but was too busy sweeping the worst team in the American League, Chicago, White Sox. They won games over the weekend. And I almost like looked up and said, Are they seven games under 500 yet 500 No, no, they’re still going to be 15 or 20 games under 500 for even when you sweep and you get this far underneath, I heard Palmer over the weekend said they were chasing 500 Well, good luck with that. I that. They have to play Yankees baseball to get the 500 everything, 37 and 22 or something, just to get the 500 um, you know, tip the cat. They, they, they beat the whites. They’re not going to have a lot of three game sweeps this year. So let’s celebrate the one they have. Well,
Luke Jones 01:37
they finally have one, and it’s June, so but, but you’re right. And I think, look, I mean, when you’re when you play as poorly as the Orioles played over the first two months of the season, you’re looking for anything, right? I mean, we talked about this when they had their three game winning streak. The first one they had a little over a week ago. Then they, you know, they lose a series to the Cardinals, and you say, Okay, well, the Cardinals are better. As far as the major takeaway from a three game sweep over the White Sox, first and foremost, and I do want to say this, they’re pitching better. And more specifically, their rotation is performing better. I mean, Charlie Morton was good on Sunday, on Saturday, Dean Kramer was good. Eflin was really good on Friday. It’s amazing, no matter who the opponent is, how much more winnable these games feel when you pitch? Well, because, let’s face it, they had issues over the weekend. I mean, they they had base running gaff so on Sunday, I mean, they had some fielding miscues. Mean they, they certainly did not hit the ball at a high level, but they got good starting pitching, and they even had a couple hiccups in the bullpen, and that we’re still able to overcome it. So what? What does a three game sweep over the White Sox prove? Well, it proves they’re not the worst team in the American League. I think Chicago still comfortably has that title, but they have won six of eight. They’ve won seven of 11. They haven’t had even a stretch like that all year long. Is it fun? Yes. Is it indicative that they’re playing better? Sure. Does that mean that they’re about to go on this stretch where they’re going to rip 13 of 14 or something like that? I don’t see that. But well, you know when I see that? I see that in August, when they have all of their players, and Kobe Mayo is not starting fights at second base, and holiday still hitting the ball the way he’s hitting it, and westburg is back. And count, when they have that team, they’ll be better. I will hear that they’re an above 500 team, even with this pitching, even and they’re not going to be making trade deadline deals. I mean, you mentioned the ethland deal last year as something that would be potential, maybe, but I’m not counting on them dealing off the bottom of the deck to get real pitching. They’re going to use next year maybe a
Nestor Aparicio 03:53
8Trevor Rogers or something. Maybe there’ll be some sort of deal like that, but they’re not going to be a better pitching staff in August, unless Grayson Rodriguez and and Bradish are back, and how and if they then we’ll start to look at them the way we looked at them in February, which is this young, upwardly mobile team, not a team with a bunch of quad A guys in the lineup and a bunch of quad A guys pitching in old farts. Yeah.
Luke Jones 04:20
Yeah. I mean, look, if the trade deadline, if it’s going to bring anything, it’s going to be some subtraction, right? It’s going to be some dealing, a couple pending free agents. Could there be a move where there’s someone that has club control for 26 or something of that nature? Sure. I mean, who’s getting
Nestor Aparicio 04:36
dealt? I don’t even know. Does anybody want mount castle? You know what?
Luke Jones 04:42
I mean, no, right? Cedric Mullins, you look at Sugano and Eflin, just guys that could be dealt. I’m not saying they will be. That’s
8Nestor Aparicio 04:51
right. This is the end for him, yeah, but, but you’re looking, but he could be gone. It’s like burns,
Luke Jones 04:55
right? Anyone who, anyone who has an expiring contract, now, I think what you have to. Be mindful of. And where this does become a little more interesting is what happens with some of these guys through the lens of qualifying offers, through the lens of, do they take a qualifying offer, or do they reject it and they sign elsewhere? And you get a you get a comp pick, you know, you get a draft pick, which I think in some cases, you would question whether a draft picks going to be more valuable than what you’re going to get for a veteran rental. You know, I certainly don’t want to see them trade those guys just for the sake of doing it right, because this isn’t a team that’s in the mode that will in the mode that they were in five years ago, where you’re tearing down, tearing down, tearing down, and building it for the long term future. The idea here is still to try to get this team on track, to think that they’re going to be good and winning next year, right? I hope we’re not giving up on that idea, and that’s why I think it’s so important for them to play well the rest of the year. Play well in the second half of the season, get guys back healthy, get guys trending in the right direction, especially the young core. And that’s, that’s not to say everything’s going to go perfectly. I mean, we saw over the weekend. I mean, they lose Cedric Mullins to a hamstring on Friday mount Castle, or during Friday’s game, and then he goes on the IL so, you know, it looks like they’re going, you know, cows are going to be back this week. I assume Westberg is going to be back this week. You know, they both played some games, even at Norfolk. So whether it’s for Tuesday night or whether it’s later on in the trip, I’m fully expecting that, but you’ve got to find a way to stay healthy. I mean, we mentioned the pitching. I mean, the starting rotation has looked better of late. Are they going to stay healthy, right? I mean, we’re seeing it around baseball. Corbin burns left Sunday’s game in Arizona with elbow tightness. I mean, this is the game, and you know, there’s a much bigger discussion across the league to be had that will continue to have, but that’s the biggest $200 million
Nestor Aparicio 06:54
in them. It’s worse than having your feelings hurt. It’s worse than Grayson Rodriguez being hurt.
Luke Jones 06:59
8This is why I haven’t hammered for as much as I’ve been critical of Mike Elias in a lot of ways that element, and I don’t mean burn specifically, I mean being reluctant to dip your toes into the most lucrative of contracts for pitchers. But that said how the Orioles have operated opposed to that doesn’t work either. You’ve got to find some
Nestor Aparicio 07:24
middle ground fan base blaming Elias that. I mean, Corbin burns didn’t want to be here and and I had that conversation in Vegas with intelligent people. Yeah, they could have, they should have offered more. They should have devalue in years. And I’m like, What’s values in years? To a guy Miss $200 million and his wife wants to be in Arizona, where it’s 90 where it’s 90 degrees every day, like you ever been Arizona. It’s nicer there than it is here, in a general sense. You’ve been here last two weeks. It’s nicer there. So, like, I like the notion that it’s the team’s fault that a guy who wanted to sign elsewhere, like, it’s like blaming me for my ex girlfriend not wanting to marry me. 25 years ago, she she wouldn’t be here. That’s it. I mean, so the burns thing, the fan base that’s up uppity about that. Now that this injuries happen, maybe it’ll quell them down a little bit. But, I mean, give it $200 million to a guy that doesn’t want to be here, stupid. It’s really stupid. That’s bad business.
Luke Jones 08:18
It’s more the systemic issue, right? It’s more the pitching across the board, the idea that, okay, you’re not drafting pitchers in the first and second round of the draft, fine, because at the same time, that’s much more volatile trying to develop someone like that, rather than a college hitter, which is what the Orioles have. But we’ve talked about, and I don’t want to make this all about Corbin burns, because there are other issues on the field from the weekend that we can talk about, but for me, it’s more the systemic issue. It’s more okay. You’re not going to get big, big time contracts. Fine. I understand that, and I’ll continue to say, even though a lot of people will disagree, I still think that was a legitimate offer that the Orioles gave him, okay, it was shorter, yes, but they gave him a much higher average annual value than what he took in Arizona. It wasn’t like it was. It’s not like he got five years, $200 million in the Orioles offered three years, $120 million where you’d say, well, it was $40 million either way, per year.
Nestor Aparicio 09:12
Well, in the old days, Peter would just lie about whatever. Sure. I mean, the to share, yes, with Corbin burns, he sort of confirmed it, right? It was
8Luke Jones 09:21
a different it was a they they took a different approach. Their offer was different. I understand why Corbin burns didn’t want to take that offer. On top of the idea that it was pretty indicative. He wanted to go to Arizona, you know, his family’s there. He wanted to be on the West Coast, all that. But it’s not as though they offered a completely inferior offer across the board, because they did give him more money per year. And there was absolutely a way to frame that if, if you’re Corbin burns and Scott Boris and he actually wanted to be in Baltimore, you easily can frame that as, hey, we took more money per year, and he’s going to get another bite at the apple being two years younger than he. Would have been in Arizona at the expiration of the deal. So again, I don’t want to make this about burns. We’ve talked about burns 20 times, but I don’t know how much
Nestor Aparicio 10:07
better he would have made the team, but the perception at the top that he starts opening day and is there every fifth day instead of Charlie Morton every fifth day, that might have been a different kind of catalyst for them, but I’m still going to go back to no cows or no Westberg. Russia stinks. The rest of the pitching stinks. Just face it, man, the general sense this year, save this season for them, right? This year has been
Luke Jones 10:31
so problematic in so many ways and ways that, yes, you hold them accountable, and also ways where you just say, I don’t know how you can plan for that, right? I don’t know if you can plan for every single injury that’s happened, for every single individual underperformance that’s happened. I don’t know how you plan, as I’ve said to you, as much as Mike Elias and Brandon Hyde, who’s already been held accountable and will continue to talk about the rest of the front office, ownership, coaching staff, players themselves. As I’ve said to you, if you kind of look at it on a bell curve, I think this has been a a scenario of a crazy sequence of events and imperfect events that have happened where, you know, storm of of just a lot of stuff going wrong, where, you know, this feels like a a bottom one or 2% worst case scenario that’s played out in a lot of ways. And I don’t you know that’s not to excuse it. No, you have to address it. You have to look at it. The injuries have happened to the degree that you’ve got to look at your strength and conditioning program, because you continue to have these soft tissue injuries. I mean, we talked about this with the ravens, with Steve, Steve Saunders, five years ago, right? Or three years ago, whatever it was, and they made changes. You know that the Orioles did make changes in the off season, you know? I mean, they made some changes to their training staff and things of that nature. The question is, did they make the right changes? You know, we talked about the coaching staff, right? I mean, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention they brought in John Mabry over the weekend, long time major league player, long time major league coach. I mean, Ryan O’Hearn spoke very flattering words about him. It was with him in Kansas City. He said that Mabry was someone who kept him sane as he was covered, John Mabry, yeah, baseball card Cecil County guy, you know, grew up, you know his family were Orioles fans. So is that going to save their season? No, of course not. I’m not suggesting anything crazy. Can he help? Though? Sure, right? I mean, really, if this team’s going to salvage anything out of this season, and I don’t mean making the playoffs. That ship has sailed, right? It’s sailed. I mean, even after this three game sweep, you’re 14 games under 500 I mean, they have to play at an insane clip just to get back to 500 but you can play better baseball. You can
Nestor Aparicio 12:56
8feel better west coast this week. If you and I get together next week and they haven’t lost this week, then we’ll start talking about it’s a little more fun. Show me down the double digits, under under 500 but like in June, winning three after you just lost two, doesn’t do it doesn’t move me much. I saw the Cardinals, I mean, but just in where they are, and going into this West Coast thing, the uptick is O’Hearn and on holiday were uptick last week. I don’t want to get but the uptick, to me, is Charlie Morton. The uptick is getting pitching and just getting some kind of pitching that I could put the game on at 1135 tomorrow night, and they might be in the fifth inning, and it might be three two instead of seven to one. Well, the starting pitching was so bad in April and early May that it gave them no chance, really, right?
Luke Jones 13:46
No question. Well, and think about this, you know how much I beat up on the offense, and I will continue to do that of when it’s warranted. Right now. I mean, to your point, you look at the lineup and you have about three or four guys that you really feel any semblance of decency about and the rest are guys where you say, Oh, who’s, you know, who’s Chadwick Trump, you know, who are half these guys? I mean, you go down the list. You don’t want that jersey, by the way. Well, I mean they, they DFA them anyway, but you know, I mean they have Cooper, Hummel. I mean they, I mean they have guys that you’ve never heard of before that are playing right now. I mean, it’s just just where they are right now. But you know, they are going to get some guys back healthy. You hope that the health stabilizes. I feel like I I’ve tried to say that two or three times, and then they lose two more guys, or they lose someone else. But you look at this weekend, if I just told you before the weekend, or if I told you two weeks ago, let’s say, of just for the point of what I’m about to say here. Two weeks ago, I told you the Orioles were going to play the, you know, we knew they were going to play the White Sox. They were going to score two runs, four runs and three runs. You’re probably thinking, Oh, they probably lost two out of three at. Or maybe at best, they pitch well So, and that’s not to say that their starting rotation is going to be great moving forward, but they are pitching better. I mean, Charlie Morton, Let’s call a spade a spade. He’s been really good the last two starts. It’s too little too late. It doesn’t make up for what happened the first six weeks of the season. The
Nestor Aparicio 15:19
analytics of your game. And Charlie Morton would have been cut 20 years ago. They were looking at spin rate, they were looking at speed. Stuff was still there. They were looking at all of that saying it’s not playing, but
Luke Jones 15:31
it was a command. I mean, his command wasn’t there, but the velocity was number one pitch if you can’t throw your right? I mean, the difference has been the curveball has become a plus pitch again for him, right? I mean, that’s what. And the thing about throwing the big leagues for 20 years, well, made it to a million dollars. And regardless of this individual one year, $15 million deal, what they saw in him was someone who had experience, someone who had always figured it out. I’ve said to you even before we started talking about Charlie Morton’s immense struggles to the point where he was in the bullpen for the Orioles. You look at the history of his career, go back and look, this is a guy who reinvented himself multiple times. I mean, he was someone that in Pittsburgh, was part of the two seam fastball infield shifting, ground get ground balls. He was one of those guys, and had success with that for a while, and then he didn’t, and then he wound up in Houston, and they said Charlie got a really good curveball, throw it more, and that was basically the the gist of what made him an all star caliber pitcher, then for the second half of his career, with that curveball, which was, at its best, one of the very Best pitches in baseball. So, I mean, this is someone who’s had these ruts and peaks and valleys in the past, not to this degree. I mean, he was, he was at a loss for words of why it was that bad, right? There’s, there’s five era bad, and then there’s 10 era where you say, how do you continue to run this guy out there? They put him in the bullpen. It was shaky there for a while, but he did pitch better out of the bullpen, starting, what about the second week of May? And they got to the point where Kyle Gibson wasn’t showing any evidence of the stuff being good enough or anything. Where you could say, Okay, we could try to mold this. We can try to tweak this the baseline performance from Gibson, in their mind, there wasn’t enough there to play with. Now, I’ll point out. I’ll point out Kyle Gibson signed a deal with the rays. We’re going to see if the rays can fix him, and if they do, that’ll not look great for the Orioles, right? And we’ve kind of talked about that element of what’s gone wrong in 2020 I would think there
8Nestor Aparicio 17:40
was absolute chaos by the time that Kyle Gibson got into the rotation. I mean, they were just got into the rotation. There was no time to you’re just, you’re just giving but they gave him a lot of money, and I don’t know why they threw him out the side door that quickly, but I think all of that they threw the manager out the side door the same weekend, sure.
Luke Jones 17:57
I mean, you just looked, they’ve been reeling in every way. I mean, I’ve used, I’ve made the con, the comment so many times to you at this point where, in terms of just every phase of the game, you know, talking pitching, starting pitching, relief pitching, offense, defense, base running, I’ve made this comment that they haven’t exuded any redeeming qualities. You know, they haven’t done there’s nothing you can point to other than individual performance here and there, where you’d say, Oh, they’re not good at this, this and this, but they are really good at this. There hasn’t been any of that. They’ve been that bad across the board. So yeah, I mean, you get to the point, and even talking to a couple of these guys on Sunday. I mean, Brian Baker got the save on Sunday, because Batista pitched on Friday and Saturday. Did a nice job with it through a lot of pitches too. Yeah, but, but he, you know, Baker did a nice job. And he was kind of asked about where the team is. Morton was asked about it. He said that they do have a different feeling right now. Again, we’re not talking about saving their season through the through the lens of suddenly getting back in the wild card race or anything. There’s no suddenly when you’re 14 games under 500 This is a grind, just to get to a point where maybe you can talk about being close to 500 at some point in the second half of the season, but they are playing better, and when you play better, you win a couple series, you sweep for the first time all year, even if it is against the lowly White Sox who really stink, you’re going to feel better. And that is something that you’re hoping, hoping that they’re starting to that, that the worms starting to turn a little bit in that regard, at least to the point where you know, can you start approaching series and say, Okay, before it was feeling like, how do we not be you know, how do we avoid being swept knowing you’re very likely going to lose two out of three? Can you now start to approach these series differently and say, Hey, let’s win two out of three. You know, let’s win two out of three. I mean, Seattle’s a good team. You know, they’re going to have their their work cut out for them in that regard. But you know, they’re. Invincible. You know, it’s baseball, you know, try to try to win two out of three. And a big part of that is going to be, well, how does Sugano pitch on Tuesday night? How does Povich pitch pitch on Wednesday? You know, they’ll have Eflin going in the finale on the afternoon Thursday. So, you know, Morton said this, and he wasn’t being ironic. He he knows how poorly he pitched for the first seven weeks of the season, but he said it, and we all know it, starting pitching does kind of, in most cases, drive the bus. That’s why the Orioles were kind of doing this in an unorthodox way anyway, in how they were trying to build this thing. But when you’re pitching is as horrid as it was over the first seven weeks of the season, yeah, you’re going to find yourself 1516, 1718, games under 500 it unless you’re hitting the heck out of the ball. And we know they haven’t done that either. And a big part of that at this point is, I mean, just look at the lineup. They’re not healthy. You know, they’ve got to get guys back. I mean, they’re, they’re going to start getting some guys back. And you know, you’re hoping that gunner Henderson gets hot. You’re hoping that Adley rutchman At some point, starts looking something like what he used to look like. I mean, I I get a little more skeptical and concerned as more time goes on that we’re getting further and further, don’t we all, yeah, I mean, restaurants. I mean, it’s actually funny. Nestor, I I spent some time, you know, pulling back the curtain here. I spent some time over the weekend. I had a phone conversation with Alan McCallum. You know, I hadn’t talked to Alan in a while. We were just, it wasn’t something where we said, oh, we should be recording this on the radio. Yeah, I want that on the radio. No, but we were just, we were just talking, right? And we could look, we could do something like that with Zoom. We could do that. But I
Nestor Aparicio 21:47
was at the funeral Jim Henneman, and I had two different people within 20 minutes, come up to me and tell me how much they love Allen on the radio. Yeah, no offense to you, but they were like, Allen last week. You know, these are old school listeners, right? Yeah, and people who knew Allen from the press box when Jim Henneman was always in the press box. So, yeah, absolutely. So he doesn’t say to me, is he telling you, see,
Luke Jones 22:09
8but we were just, it’s funny, because I’ve said to you how many times I’ve felt flabbergasted, right? How I felt dumbfounded about why things have been this bad. Not the few Orioles have struggled. Everyone can see reasons why they’ve struggled, but why it’s been so bad across the board. And we both it’s funny. We talked, and at the end of our conversation, we joked, said we haven’t solved anything. I mean, it really just but we were talking about Adley rutchman, and it’s just of all the guys that have struggled. Look in the case of gunner, look, it might just be that the player he was in the first half of last year, maybe he’s not going to be an MVP candidate. But that doesn’t mean he can’t be an all star shortstop. That doesn’t mean he’s not going to be a very valuable player. And and it’s not as though he’s been terrible over the last year, far from it. I mean, go, Look. I mean in terms of wins above replacement and things of that nature, he’s still been a valuable player. It’s valuable player. It’s
Nestor Aparicio 23:03
just very lucky. Went to the Hall of Fame at 280 with 20, right? He hasn’t been, he hasn’t been MVP of the league in the same way, 310 and hit 38 home runs. I don’t know, you know. I mean, Cal
Luke Jones 23:12
Ripken was MVP of the league in 83 and 91 he wasn’t that the rest of his career, but he was still a heck of a player. But, you know, and you look at Jackson holiday, right? He’s looking like a guy who has a chance to be an all star at second base. Because, go, look around, who are the great second baseman in baseball. I mean, he’s put up, he’s putting up nice numbers, and he’s got a chance to do that.
Nestor Aparicio 23:31
But I wonder if he really wanted to play second base. I don’t know he really had a choice. I
8Luke Jones 23:36
mean, there’s, there’s some of that. I mean, I would question, you know, it, it’s funny, because I’ve seen fans debate about this, and, I mean, like, intelligent debate about this, where, you know, you kind of look at this. I mean, gunner is up and down and kind of finicky and short. Other
Nestor Aparicio 23:51
system, he would have been the shortstop. He would be the shortstop if somebody else drafted him, other than maybe the
Luke Jones 23:56
royal police. But at the same at the same time, I’m not sure the arm plays quite as well at shortstop. He looks
Nestor Aparicio 24:03
8like such a little guy. Yeah, I’ve never stood next to him. But against everybody else, he’s not tall. He was 20 years old. He’s kind of a small guy.
Luke Jones 24:10
He’s not tall, but he’s muscular. I mean, you look at him, you say he’s filled out
Nestor Aparicio 24:14
more like Joe Morgan than he’s built like Cal Ripken, yeah, well, and
Luke Jones 24:19
he’s built more like what you thought of a traditional shortstop was, right? I mean, Cal broke the mold. And, you know, we’ve kind of see that continuing to happen, you know. I mean, obviously the lindors of the world aren’t the biggest but, you know, we’ve seen Cal, you know, Jeter was on the bigger side Jackson
8Nestor Aparicio 24:34
holiday, and sit him next to gunner Henderson, you’d say, what the tall guy at shortstop, what the big kid at shortstop is, if we were picking up teams. I
Luke Jones 24:41
mean, again, you go you go back to Cal Ripken. He changed that all that 40 plus years
Nestor Aparicio 24:46
second base. I just think there’s a kid who grew up thinking he was going to be shortstop or third baseman in the big leagues. He’s playing on the other side of the field at this point, and it’s by force, not by choice. So the fact that you’re going to say, well, he could be an all star second baseman, i. Yeah, fair enough. But I don’t think that was in his that was in his dad’s eye or his eye four years ago, three years ago. And that’s
Luke Jones 25:06
8fair. But I would also say any organization that’s truly worth its salt in terms of drafting, you’re drafting shortstops. You’re drafting center fielders, but a lot of times their shortstops become center fielders in the minor leagues, you’re drafting, you know, you draft up the middle, because the idea is, if you can play shortstop, then you should be able to play second base or third base or move to at least a corner outfield spot. But if you draft someone that’s a third baseman, or you draft someone that’s already a left fielder, like the Orioles when they drafted DJ Stewart a decade ago, if you can’t play that spot, where can he play right? So
Nestor Aparicio 25:41
that’s like Kobe mayo, or cursed, or has to curse that they drafted a lot of guys with big bat and no glove they had, but
Luke Jones 25:47
Kobe mayo. But even Kobe Mayo was drafted as a shortstop, though. I mean, Ryan mountcastle was a shortstop, right? I mean that. So that’s kind of how it works. That’s
Nestor Aparicio 25:56
laughable to think those guys were gonna play shortstop in the big I don’t
8Luke Jones 25:59
know. Let me be clear, I don’t think anyone expected that those guys were going to play shortstop in the major leagues, but the idea is you want to have a baseline. It’s no different than in the NFL. Yes, Eric Decosta and the Ravens will tell you that they want guys that are productive in college. But what else do you need? You need the athleticism, you need the physical traits. We know that there are plenty of guys that that can be college legends, and they they can’t play a lick at the NFL level because they don’t have the physical that’s where they project stuff onto adoption. But it goes like that. It’s no different what I’m talking about with shortstops in baseball, shortstops and center fielders, I mean, best athlete available, exactly. And then you figure out where they’re going to play so
Nestor Aparicio 26:43
but you mentioned Jackson holiday at second base and blossoming and being an all star. I that’s an interesting thing, because we talk growth mindset. We you know, we talk about that in a general sense. There’s a kid that they said, go play second base. He said, Sure, I’ll just go be an all star in my second year. Read it,
Luke Jones 26:58
and let’s be clear, it certainly helps when, in 2023 when, when he’s ascending and getting closer and closer to debuting. Look he he’s not dumb that holiday. They’re not dumb. They see that gunner, Henderson’s Rookie of the Year. They see the Conner Henderson’s gonna be a guy that looks like he’s gonna at that point in time, you know? I mean, you know, obviously he hasn’t played quite as well, and Westberg was playing second base at that time, right? I mean, that’s so, so that’s and even last year, right? Exactly. You had gunner Henderson, all star shortstop. You had Jordan Westberg, either all star third baseman or second baseman, obviously, bouncing back and forth. So that’s where it’s an easier sell, where you say, All right, yeah, in an ideal world, I’d stay at shortstop, but that gunner, Henderson’s pretty good, and that Jordan Westbrook is pretty good. So, you know, you want buy in from that in that way. But you know, we’ll see how this evolves. I mean,
Nestor Aparicio 27:50
8and Henderson kicked the ball around a little bit too. There might be a point where they would look at Holiday and say, play shortstop, at Henderson third. Maybe, I don’t know. Maybe
Luke Jones 27:59
I think that’s I think that’s at least a fair possibility. And you know where it would be interesting would be if you do clean house and you have new coaching staff, it heck. If you have a new general manager in a new front office, they might view that differently. They might say, We think our optimal defense will be gunner Henderson at third base, Jackson holiday at shortstop and Jordan Westberg at second base. Now I’m not doing that in the middle of a season, but in the middle of a bad season. Oh, I mean, sure, September at the same time. I mean reality, part of the part of what I would like to see them do, and they’ve done a lot of this with the positional versatility. And I like that, don’t get me wrong, because it is, it does make for a more complete roster. When you have guys that can play a couple different spots, center field, you’re gonna have injury, right? There’s too much of a good thing, right? I mean, certainly, and I’m not talking about Jorge Mateo and center or, you know, the extreme examples, but at the same time, I would like to see them stick with guys I like the fact that, you know, when they made the decision to move Gunnar Anderson to shortstop, they’ve kept them there, right that you haven’t seen gunner continue to make sporadic starts at third base like he was a couple of years ago when They started making that transition, and part of that was Mateo, they thought was a borderline starting caliber player, and then he proved that he wasn’t. So at that point, you said, Okay, we’re going to play gunner at short so, and
Nestor Aparicio 29:31
Urias is more than decent with the glove. Yeah, yeah. But, but, and
Luke Jones 29:35
that was, you know, the thing with holiday for me, that where I kind of took the organization to task, was, it should have been very apparent in 23 that he probably wasn’t going to be their major league shortstop. So why didn’t you start getting him much more extensive time at second base instead of, I think he only played 20 or 25 starts at second base that year. He still played a lot of short. Short. I don’t know if, I can’t remember if he played much third. Westburg moved all over the place, but, but all these guys remain primarily at shortstop, where you kind of look at it and say, if you think he’s going to be a second baseman, let him play that, let him master that, let him get really, really good at that. And that’s something that I think kind of ended up being a hindrance for Jackson holiday last year, where he was still legitimately, really trying to learn and get comfortable at second base, in addition to, oh yeah, trying to face and hit major league pitching for the first time in your career. So a little lost
8Nestor Aparicio 30:34
on that floor. I mean, it was just a lot game, or that second game that he in the big leagues, and that was and now,
Luke Jones 30:40
and now and now, you’re seeing someone who’s comfortable with the plate. He’s still, he’s still a work in progress at second base. I mean, he had had a couple miscues over the weekend, but he’s looked better at second base than he did last year. But, you know, and we’re going to see how this evolves. I mean, a lot of this can depend on, you know, with especially bigger players like gunner Henderson. I mean, it might be where they say, they look at the defensive metrics and they say, we probably need to move gunner to third, that you’ll accept that the problem is, when you have guys that are playing third, and then they’re not good enough to play third, and then you’re like, Okay, well, are you going to play a corner outfield spot? Are you going to play first base? I mean, it’s kind of where Kobe Mayo is at this point in time, right? I mean, COVID Mayo is not a major league third baseman in my mind. So we’re going to see if he can be phase 291, with, I mean, and that’s, of course, all these you have to hit, right? I mean, there’s, there’s that. I mean, the problem with Mount castle at this point, and I’m not trying to pick on someone who’s on the IL right now, but my mount castles. Where’s the power? It’s been gone since last July. I don’t care how good of a defensive first baseman he’s become, if you have a, you know, if you’re a 600 ops kind of first baseman, where, yeah, I think he has a total of four home runs since July, early July of last year. I mean, that doesn’t play. I mean, you can’t be a major league first baseman with with that as your as your slash line. So, so, you know, we’re going to see how this plays out. And you want to get these guys back healthy. You know, you Colton cowser hasn’t played since March 30, you know, Jordan Westberg isn’t played since the end of April. Get these guys back.
Nestor Aparicio 32:16
What’s the timeline on those cats? They should be I mean,
Luke Jones 32:19
8I mean, cows are definitely going to be back this week. I mean, they’ve already said as much. Westberg started his rehab assignment a little bit after cowser, but he also wasn’t out quite as long. So I don’t think it’s impossible that we’re going to see both these guys on the road trip. And Laureano should be really close. I know Tyler O’Neill starting to do baseball activities and starting to swing the bat, he’s going to go on a rehab assignment as he should, because they should get Tyler O’Neill some rehab games to try to get going with the bat. I mean, this guy hit, regardless of the injury history. He did hit 30 plus home runs for the Red Sox last year. It’s not as though He’s incapable of playing major league baseball. So can I
Nestor Aparicio 32:58
say something on him? Because we haven’t talked about him. Go ahead. Sure, he’s not even on the
Luke Jones 33:02
team. Oh, he’s forgotten. Sure, I agree. Um,
Nestor Aparicio 33:05
the amazing thing about and this is the novice radio in me in the 90s, right? Like when I first came on the radio, the first 10 years, I’d always say, if you signed a guy and you give him a contract and on June 2, you couldn’t give him away for it. No one would want him. That’s really an indictment. I mean, it’s really an indictment to say like that, no one would take him or that contract. It tells you how awful it was, and it says that you’re really the outlier. You made a huge mistake. You know what I mean? Like with a guy like that and a bat like that. Like, I of all the mistakes in the off season, that’s, it’s not not signing Santander. It’s you gave money to the wrong people, wrong pitchers, in a lot of cases, wrong everything. I don’t know how Elias is going to survive this, right? Like, I started to write a letter to Rubenstein. I started to write a letter to Katie Griggs, because I, you know, I attended Jim Henneman funeral last week, and I got a lot of baseball information because I’ve been around baseball. So what happened? Imagine, when I’m around baseball people, that’s why they don’t want me to have a press pass, because then how dangerous I’d be. Because people talk to me. Everybody talks to me except them, because they don’t know me. But, you know, I started to think about where Rubenstein is, because you and I beat him up pretty good last week, and he deserves it, and he’s still hiding. Katie Griggs is still in witness protection, from what I can tell, we’ve talked about tickets and sponsorships and like all of that stuff. But then there’s the baseball side of this, of like, well, I know Rubenstein is going to survive. That’s why I wrote, what the headline that I wrote over the weekend, there’s only one man that’s going to fix this, that’s the owner, because he’s he’s the owner. I remember the old owner. He outlived everyone. He outlived every said thrift every buck show Walter, every Mike Hargrove, every Mike Flanagan, every Pat Gillick. The Orioles were effed up and are effed up because people. Peter Angelos was effed up and trying to get out of underneath of that with every Adam Jones and every Cal Ripken and every Brooks Robinson and every feel good and to your point, no one cares about any of them. They care about like Kobe mayo. And are we going to win tonight? Are we going to win tomorrow? That that’s all that can matter, even though they can show all the Oriole magic on the scoreboards and try to get our juices flowing with old uniforms and orange pumpkin uniforms and anything else that would get us and keep us interested in a team that’s 15 games under 500 Rubenstein is going to survive this. I don’t know whether I mean the last guy that ran this baseball club, a guy named John videlin. V, I D, a, l, I N, you’ve never heard of him because John Angelo’s hired him. He came here, sat the desk for 90 days and said, I’m out like literally just disappeared. I haven’t seen Katie Griggs appear since what last September was the last time she appeared in front of media, in front of the world, in front of her fan base, in front of anyone that’s she. They did a pat on the back for her over in what used to be the press box in the football stadium, and they put her pictures up. The Ravens did this for her. The Ravens did a big back slat for her and brought her over and did a whole no media, because you wouldn’t have any media there. It’d be like the CEO club, no no media at the event, but they did do the only time Katie Griggs has shown up on my in my world, was at the Raven stadium talking about LinkedIn with people I know, and I know everybody she they did a thing, and welcome her to sea level. And was a big country club wing ding thing in the black wing. And I want to say that was friggin February or mar I mean, I I haven’t seen her on television. I haven’t seen her on radio. I haven’t seen her quoted. So I’m beginning to wonder. And nobody knows her. Nobody I knows met her. I don’t even I don’t know. So I don’t know if she’s going to survive, but I don’t know how Mike’s Elias survives this. I don’t know how he comes back in the off season and handles Mr. Rubenstein’s money, the entire franchise, hiring the new manager, all of that, especially when the guy who made a bobblehead himself doesn’t know anything about baseball. He doesn’t know anything about baseball. So I don’t who’s going to make that decision? He’s a billionaire. He’s not going to sit around all day and interview candidates. What’s he going to do? What are you going to do the way they found Katie Griggs, but send a headhunter out to hire your team president who has four mutual connections with me in Baltimore. When she takes the job and you expect her to go out and and conduct business here, these people don’t know what they’re doing, and that’s going to be Michael Lester came up to me at the funeral lesson. He didn’t want to hear this, but he asked me about what do you think of the team? I said, the owner doesn’t know what he’s doing. That’s really problematic, and he trusts people whom he shouldn’t. And the michaelias thing, he might be trusting michaelias too much, not enough. Who knows? He’s a billionaire. It’s like Bucha. He’s sitting with John. Horrible. That’s your keeps you up at night. Doesn’t bother me. You know, you got problems I don’t have. I’m a billionaire. I don’t have any problems. I don’t it certainly feels that way with Rubenstein, this is going to be fun, or he’s not going to be a part of it yet, the fans are in and the business people are in and the players are in. I’m wondering about the leadership of the leadership, because I have no confidence in it. I have zero confidence in Greg Bader, Jennifer grand all, Katie Griggs, any of these people to run the business, and you and all the baseball people are throwing rocks at Elias. I’m throwing rocks at the owner because I know he doesn’t know what he’s doing, and I know he’s surrounded by people who are adults, because I’ve dealt with them. They don’t even know the first thing about being nice to people. They’re being mad at me because a dead guy’s dead like it’s insane and the stadium’s empty, and all of the problems they have with mass and streaming ticket sales revenue, all of that they dreamed up a year and a half ago about how this was going to be a rocket ship, and they were going to pick up 12% this year and 15% next year, and the all star game was going to add 18% to their base of the base of the base of the analytics of the fan base of the graphs of the charts, because That’s who Katie Griggs is. She’s not a she’s not a baseball mother hen, she she’s a bean counter. And there’s not a lot of beans to count. You were at the stadium last week. I just think the whole thing’s problematic. And if they’re taking a an elevator to the top, and Cal Ripken and David Rubenstein are getting together and praying about all of this and trying to figure it out. But Elias feels lame duck to me in a way, in a big way, and I don’t know, it’s June 2, that’s first and foremost for me.
8Luke Jones 39:53
I mean, we’re going to see. I mean, I don’t know. I don’t know what would reflect that he’s a lame duck defender. Other than just the team’s bad. I mean, well, what will define
Nestor Aparicio 40:03
that? Is he going to hire the next manager? Is he not? He runs baseball
Luke Jones 40:07
operations. I mean, I’ve, you know, I’ve said this before. He runs baseball operations. I mean, he hired Brandon Hyde. Now, did John Angelos have some semblance of being in the loop on that and everything. John
Nestor Aparicio 40:22
8thought he knew baseball. John was picking Sid Fernandez and Chris Sabin. What he did, but he didn’t. David Rubenstein is, is not that guy. John
Luke Jones 40:31
Angelo’s didn’t know baseball, and John and Lou Angelos and Bray, you know they, they managed to hire michaelias And look, we could
Nestor Aparicio 40:39
say michaelias because Eric Decosta told John to do it, but that’s a god’s honor truth. That’s really what happened. My point is
Luke Jones 40:47
that you know just because you know an owner doesn’t know something doesn’t mean that can’t have people around that are going to make good recommendation people
8Nestor Aparicio 40:55
around him. That’s my that’s my point. If the people around you are Brady Anderson and Buck Showalter and Rick Dempsey. And, you know, like, that’s clearly
Luke Jones 41:04
he has, clearly he has Cal Ripken. And look, I’m not saying Cal himself is going to make the decision, but lots of people know Cal Ripken and and where’s he? I mean, he’s, he’s still coming out to games pretty regularly. I mean, you see him sitting in the front row.
Nestor Aparicio 41:21
Are we above asking him? Is this kid above asking him what he’s doing? Is he really a figurehead? Is he getting paid 20 grand to sit behind home plate every I don’t like i What’s, what’s your role? Cal, what’s your role going
Luke Jones 41:35
8to be? Oh, I mean, he doesn’t have, I mean, let’s play. These
Nestor Aparicio 41:38
are fair questions. These are all fair. I mean, nobody’s off limits here if you’re going to be a part of this, and it’s one of the reasons Cal probably didn’t want to run this thing for years and years for Peter, because he knew it couldn’t be successful with Peter. He knew it couldn’t be successful,
Luke Jones 41:50
right? So, but, but to go back to your original point, I’m not at all convinced that michaelias is lame duck. Now, that’s not me saying that he’s definitely keeping his job moving forward, but it’s all conjecture at this point. You know, you know why you would know if he’s a lame duck, if someone was brought in that was added to the organ, you know, in the way that the Orioles just hired John Mabry to the coaching staff, if they hired an executive that had experience that was joining the front office, that’s where you look. Was coming in, yeah? Like, as an advisor, you’d say, okay, is this? Is this Rubenstein’s guy, and Mike Elias is gonna be gone in October, you know, so and to be clear, I don’t know, and I’ve said to you, look for as much as as I’ve criticized elements of what Elias has done, even gone back two or three years ago. I mean, I’ve never looked at him as beyond reproach at the same time. I also know how pathetic this organization’s baseball operations were in 2018 when he arrived, and how much progress they have made. Now that doesn’t mean the Korean scouts banning the Orioles scouts in Korea. Forget about Korea, the fact that they had no presence in the Dominican Republic, the fact that they had no international presence whatsoever. And look, I’m not saying that they have made every right decision. They obviously have not. You know, they’ve had mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. I mean, the ravens, They just
Nestor Aparicio 43:15
one of the worst teams in baseball. If I’m if I don’t know anything, and I’m the owner of the team and I signed up for this, I’d say maybe we need to get a new a new grocery and they might do that, and that. That’s why I’m saying, if Elias isn’t lame duck, he should be. You know what I mean at this point, just in a general sense of, you’re gonna let him pick the next manager. You’re gonna let him make you’re gonna give him another 100 million in the off season to go find more player. I don’t know. I, I, I’m feeling like that. He’s not here for forever. He won’t be here five years from now.
8Luke Jones 43:50
And to be clear, I’m not saying that I disagree necessarily. I’m just saying I can’t sit here and say with any conviction that I think he’s lame duck or not. I don’t, I really don’t know, because again, this season has been so outside the realm of our expectations, and that’s even vividly sit remembering sitting at Pizza John’s with you a week before the season started, and telling you how underwhelmed I was by the off season that said I didn’t in any way fathom that they’d be 17 or 18 games under 500 in late May. I mean, I I never thought that. I never expected it to be. I still don’t understand why it’s this bad, right? If you had told me everything that happened and and said it was there were three or four games under 500 maybe five games under 500 I’d say, yeah, when your pitching is like that, and your offense is under underperformed, and you’ve had the injuries you’ve had, yeah, I can kind of see, but for it to completely have fallen apart and gone off the rails to the point where Brandon Hyde is gone and we’re we’re sitting here talking in serious terms about Mike Elias future. I never would. Fathom that. And again, that’s speaking as someone who didn’t love their off season. So
Nestor Aparicio 45:04
we’re talking about Adley, Richmond’s future right now, because comes along in August and Richmond still hitting 205, I mean, dude, I mean, they’re not going to like, get rid of them, but that dynamic could change. Sure, I don’t know. I mean, I mean, how long before you bench the starting quarterback once you make him your number one draft pick, you know what I mean? Like, how much, how much rope Are you going to give him because he’s getting everybody else fired?
Luke Jones 45:27
So, yeah, yeah. I mean, it’s so I don’t know. I That’s why I’m so, as disgusted as everyone feels having watched this season and I’ve said to you, I mean, in my lifetime of watching the Orioles, I think this is easily the most disappointing team over the last 40 years relative to expectations. I mean, it’s
Nestor Aparicio 45:50
8something too, isn’t it? Well, it is, but, but at the same time, I mean, think
Luke Jones 45:53
about it, 1988 okay, I get it. You. You start. Oh, and 21 that’s historic. At the same time, no one had any designs that that team was going to be anything but bad that year, 2018 when they got off to such a horrendous start, 2010 I’ll throw that in there, when the year Trembley was canned, and Buck came in later that summer, those years, people thought, okay, maybe in 2010 they were at the point where they might be decent. They could be 500 ish, I think that’s what the expectation was. But they weren’t. No one was picking them to win the division or to contend and be a wild card. Same in 2018 I at that point, everyone had kind of seen where the Orioles were. At that point, everyone was saying, You need to be trading Manny Machado. You need to be trading some of these guys because they’re going to be free agents. And instead do cat and Bucha and, you know, they they tried to patch work together one more run. And, you know, they signed Cashner and Alex Cobb, and they were horrendous. But no one thought they were going to be anything more than maybe 500 ish at best. So this team was not that. This team was expected to be good, whether you thought they’re going to win 90 plus games or 87 they were expected to be a playoff. Yeah, exactly. I mean, Vegas thought that, you know, look, go, look at the the under, the over, under for Win, win total. So, so through that lens, I mean, it’s just been such a baffling season in terms of why it’s been this bad. Again. We all see the reasons why they haven’t been anywhere close to their peak, but for it to have fallen apart to the point where, okay, the pitching being bad, you could have antic anticipated that their offense being as bad as it’s been, even with the injuries taken into account just the underperformance that surprised me. I mean, that is absolutely surprised me, that that shocked me, quite frankly. I mean, I didn’t think this is going to necessarily be the best offense in baseball, but they’ve been closer to bottom five than top five, and I think they were built with the thought of being a top five offense Now, was there poor evaluation? There? Were there missteps? There? You mentioned Tyler O’Neill, of course. But I’ve said this has really been, you know, you say a perfect storm when things come together, this has really been an imperfect storm of everything going wrong. So that doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t be held accountable. Let’s be clear on that. I mean, even if I’m going to sit here and say I think Mike Elias should get one more off season to see if you can get this thing move moving back in the right direction, by no means am I going to sit here with the conviction to say that I’m 100% confident that he can do it. But at the same time, I’m also acknowledging, yeah, they have had a ton of injuries and a lot of things that have gone in ways that I just would not have expected them to go. So that’s where I think these last four months are very fascinating in so many ways. And, yeah, I think a lot of it’s going to, it’s going to go a long way in determining whether Mike’s going to be the guy this, you know, after the season, and still, you know, making buying the groceries and making the moves and, you know, handling the farm system, but, but I also think if you’re him, Look, you need to make changes. You need to make adjustments. You can’t keep digging in in the same way of doing things that you’ve done it, because clearly, these things haven’t worked
Nestor Aparicio 49:23
so well. It’s a little late to be drafting pitchers young. Oh, sure, sure. And the pitching is really, I don’t have no one would look at this from the outside. If somebody else takes the job and says, Where’s the pitching in the organization? It’s it’s problematic. At the same
Luke Jones 49:37
time, I don’t think it necessarily stems from saying we don’t want to draft pitchers in the first round. I don’t think that necessarily was the fatal flaw here. I think there is a heck of a lot of volatility in drafting pitchers in the first round, and knowing that you need your first round picks to hit that pitchers are that’s especially high school pitchers. Uh. Mean Boy, that said you have to account for it in the same way. On the opposite end of the spectrum, giving pitchers nine figure contracts, right? If you don’t want to do that, and you don’t want to draft pitchers in the first round and high school pitchers in the first round, that’s fine. Those are two extremes on the spectrum. You’ve got to do way more in between, and that’s where they’ve clearly been lacking. Okay, you don’t need to go sign Max freed or Blake Snell or even Corbin burns on the deal that he wanted compared to the offer that you made. But how many names have i thrown out there in recent years where I’ve said you could have gotten Nathan of Aldi when the Rangers did that deal worked out really nicely for them. And I get it, he’s he has his il stints, and he’s not always 100% healthy, but look, he was the Rangers ace when they won the World Series. You know, because the ground was on the shelf. But, you know, I mentioned effluent two off seasons before they got him. You know, when the ray signed him, Eflin was another pitcher where I thought that’s the kind of guy that you can sign to a two or three year deal. It’s not going to kill your payroll long term. Yes, it takes on some risk in the way that any player on a multi year deal has some risk, but it’s the kind of pitcher I thought would fit, though that’s the, you know, it’s the middle class, I suppose, of of starting pitchers. That’s where I think they’ve needed to, to take a little more risk and be a little more assertive in that market that I think they really, you know, they really screwed the pooch, you know, for lack of a better way of describing it, because I think, you know, they could have done better than Kyle Gibson. They certainly could have done better than Charlie Morton this fast off season. So that said at the same time, you know, there were a lot of people out there that wanted them to sign Blake Snell. He’s made, what, two starts all year. It’s also the the game. So, high risk, high reward, in a big picture sense, I also can see where they were coming from in trying to focus so much on their position talent. The problem is, Aston kerstad Doesn’t look like a major league player right now. Kobe mayo, we’re going to see in this latest stint, whether it’s better and even your guys that you thought like Adley rutschman who was a two time all star, what’s happened there? So they’ve got to get that figured out. I’ve said it, if this young core, if they can’t get this young core turned around, at least most of these guys turned around and look, one or two of them may not be that good, right? I mean, that’s that was always a possibility. But if they don’t get that part of this right, then, whether it’s October next year or the year after that, they’ll all be gone. Right? No one will survive either, right? If their young core doesn’t, if they don’t get their young core straightened out here in the next few months, no one’s going to survive. I mean, it’s just, it’s that simple.
8Nestor Aparicio 52:56
Luke Jones will survive a late night baseball all week we were in Seattle and Sacramento, even though my thing still says Oakland, I don’t know. The Orioles return home on the 10th next Tuesday against the Detroit Tigers. We’re going to be on a Thursday at Green mount station in Hampstead. I will have the Back to the Future scratch offs from the Maryland lottery. Just Maryland crab cake tour. We already got some guest book. My pal Howard share is going to be coming out and talk some hockey on Friday. Barry Trotz is going to be joining us here this week on the eve of the Stanley Cup Finals. Also, Brandon Stokely is going to join us from Denver, Colorado, this week. Talk a little football with us. Get some friends of Jim Irsay together here this week and talking about that while we talk some football. Also, my pal Tom Cousins, a former Sacramento Bee sports editor, will be here to discuss his lifelong love of the Orioles. He told me he’s gonna wear his hat, his jersey, the whole deal, from out in Sacramento as the Orioles. You know, Luke, If I were still in the FANBOY chasing business, I would have gone to Sacramento just to see a game there, because I’ve seen games in so many different stadia. You know, it’s sort of my little weird thing. I don’t know. I’m getting old now. I’m sort of given up on that at some point I’ll get to Atlanta, to Seattle, late night, Oakland. Oakland, Sacramento, over the weekend, clemento, John. Call him Oakland for at least the next 10 years. I
Luke Jones 54:10
saw John Miller and the Giants broadcast they played a couple weeks ago, and apparently they were calling him Oakland, not on purpose, although you kind of wonder the Bay Area thing you wonder, but I don’t know if it’s John Miller or his broadcast partner. Apparently, they started calling them oaklemento. I think that’s, that’s kind of the that’s the nice compromise name there. It’s
Nestor Aparicio 54:29
got John Miller came up with that. I’ll get, I think so, to talk to John in 20 years. But that sounds like him. I’m Nestor East Luke. We are wnst am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stopped talking Baltimore positive with my good looking cop and state shirt. You.
