Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the cold Birds bats against Blue Jays in a 3-2 Monday night loss as Adley Rutschman added homers and Kyle Stowers returns in a crowded and struggling outfield offense.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
mullins, hit, bats, hayes, year, lineup, point, santander, week, game, outfielders, orioles, monday night, runs, play, night, big, ravens, inning, preakness
SPEAKERS
Nestor J. Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home we are W n s t test Baltimore, Baltimore positive. We’re positively into Preakness week here. And a lot of home baseball, won a lot of baseball games. Not recently but I’m sure that’s about to change. Seattle Mariners coming to town this weekend. Luke has been monitoring all things Toronto Blue Jays. Well, I have been chasing the Northern Lights, as well as Ann and Nancy Wilson who were spectacular at the CFG Bank Arena on Monday night. The Orioles not so spectacular, but you know, we talked about this extra inning thing, dude. And you get into this crapshoot and you gotta strike guys out. I don’t know, I’m sure this is gonna become a you know, the Inquisition on? How do you like the extra inning rules at some point because when you when it’s like, we cheat the one out when you lose, you’re like, what happened?
8
Luke Jones 00:51
It’s true. But at the same time, the home team should have the advantage in such a format. And the Orioles had three hits all night. So I don’t want to hear about the extra inning format. They didn’t hit the ball other than Adly rushman he he had a great night to solo home runs. But when your only other hit is Ryan O’Hearn in the first inning. They squared up some balls. I mean, no hurt himself got robbed of a homerun over the course of the game, but just not a whole lot going on against Jose Barrios who has historically had a lot of success against them. You know whether we’re talking the last couple years or going back to even what the end of the Adam Jones book show Walter Dan Duquette days. So yeah, they’d have to hit the ball. It’s the third time all year they’ve lost two in a row now. So I don’t think that’s anything to be overly concerned about. But you got to pick it up. offensively. There’s no question about that. And especially when you look at some of the guys that have pulled off in the case of someone like Colton Couser or Cedric Mullins who hasn’t hit for all but about a nine game stretch in April. So it can’t be Gunnar Henderson every single night. It can’t be Adley rutschman hitting two homeruns. You know, obviously, this lineup, top to bottom has been very good overall. But, you know, up here recently, offensive has been a little quieter than normal, but their pitching has been so good overall. So they’ve continued to win. So we talked about it all the time. It’s the ups and downs of 162. I don’t think it’s anything to be overly concerned about. But I said going into this Toronto series, that this blue jays team has underperformed, I still think they’re talented. I still think they’re capable of being better than what they’ve been to this point in the year. And even Monday night they’re dealing with guys under the weather, I think even burritos wasn’t feeling great. Didn’t know if he was going to pitch on Monday night, but certainly pitch well. And we saw that they’ve got some talented arms in the back end of that bullpen as well. So, you know, it’s the kind of game that there’s not a whole lot to break down other than you’ve got to swing the bat. So you’ve got a mountain more than two runs and three hits of offensive or 10 innings or you’re most likely going to be beat so I think probably for me the most interesting note of the night was probably Corbin burns. He was pulled after 85 pitches and not an injury. No indication of an injury, anything like that. But Brandon Hyde and burns himself confirmed he was kind of out of gas. I mean, it was a tight game. He hasn’t been getting a lot of run support here of late he at least got a couple runs on Monday night after getting nothing his last couple starts but you know he had he acknowledged he had kind of emptied the tank and he would have liked to have gone deeper. I think the Orioles would have loved to have seen him go on another inning. But he didn’t and even though Craig Kimbrel came in in the seventh it just your chain shorter than for the rest of the game especially when you go into extra innings so I’m not blaming Jacob Weber or anyone else I mean Cano gave up a solo homer I get it you know, but but that’s going to happen from time to time. Again, you give up three runs in 10 innings that should be enough to win but it wasn’t on Monday night because they just didn’t swing the bats.
Nestor J. Aparicio 04:04
Burgess had some tough luck right and especially with him being the one and their offense being so spectacular most nights but they’ve had a couple of nights in the first month where like 234 hits that’s that alarming but in a case study on a night by night basis when they struggle with a pitcher and it feels like seventh eighth inning close game even winning on Monday night you feel like somebody’s gonna hit a double somebody’s gonna hit a home run as McDonald and Mike board is a crooked numbers you know at some point will happen but on the nights when we sit here the morning after three it’s how did that happen? There is a part where How did that happen? Because they are so good.
Luke Jones 04:48
Yeah, and again, I mean they’ve been one of the best offense is in the American League right all year. They’ve hit homeruns look at them for as far as leading the way and run scored but no of late The runs have been a little tougher to come by overall, I think the last week or two, we’ve seen them cooled off a little bit in that regard. So it’s going to happen. It is strange with burns, though, because I think what they won, he didn’t get the decision in each of those starts. But he won. I think it was their first five games that that he pitched, they won. And since then they’ve now lost for four straight games in which he pitch so that’s unusual, especially for an ace. And it’s not as though he’s pitched poorly. You know, has he been his most dominant self in these games in terms of big time strikeouts? And all that? You know, maybe not. But he’s still pitched well, but yeah, I mean, he exits after 85 pitches, you’re leading to to one at that point in time, you’re hoping it holds up? Another good, good inning for Kimbrel. That was good to see. But then Cano comes in, and he didn’t have it. So I mean, this is just this is the nature of baseball, not just for the Orioles in 2024. But any team you know, we’ve talked about it that starters don’t go as deep says why you need so many bullpen arms. Because when you have a chain that goes three, sometimes four innings, sometimes longer than that, depending on the night, the odds of someone being off, you know, there’s someone the odds of someone not firing on all cylinders, is relatively high. So you better either score some runs in the late innings, which the Orioles are apt to do Monday night not withstanding, or you just need to have a lot of hope and depth. So again, it’s just one of those games one of those nights, quite frankly, where they just didn’t swing the bats and they went up against a good pitcher. So no shame in that. But now, certainly the pressures on to if you want to win this series got to take these next two. And you know, it is a case with Toronto where they’ve been struggling. You want to keep them struggling, right you don’t want to let another team in the ALS get off the mat you know, even though they’re trailing the Orioles in the Yankees by a good bit already, you know, a quarter of the way through the season, but you don’t want to give the Blue Jays any hope and even seeing some of the reporter coverage coming out of Toronto. I saw more than one reporters say how big of a win that was for the Blue Jays. And, you know, whether it is or not, we’ll see. But it really does speak to how much they’ve been struggling and how much they felt they desperately needed to win that game on Monday night. Even with some guys out of the lineup under the weather thing
Nestor J. Aparicio 07:23
8happens quick, right? I mean, they’re playing early, early afternoon Wednesday. So this thing’s gonna be over with before we blink these little mini series. We don’t see any of these teams as much as we used to. We’re on to Seattle this week and won’t be a fatalist. By the way. I am not holding up my my PacMan scratch offs. I don’t know what the heck, they went in the middle of the night, but I have them and I will have them on Friday along with our friends at Liberty pure solutions as well as Jiffy Lube. Multi care will be there from two to five. It’s Preakness week, there’s just so much going on. Like in a general sense at the NFL schedule is happening on Wednesday night. We’re going to be all over that. Obviously the Ravens opening out in Kansas City and Lamar Jackson and Patrick mahomes. And you have anything you want to say on that for get back to baseball. Give me two seconds on that just because like it’s there, and we’ve tweeted about it, but I thought they would do that on Christmas night. But I tell you what, for the for the Ravens. You wake up, nobody’s played you’re either Oh, one one on one. And oh, it feels like that there’s a lot of extra juice on that game. And the ravens are now involved in it.
Luke Jones 08:23
I mean, there’s there’s always a lot of extra extra juice for that game. I mean, it’s, it’s fun. It’s going to be great to talk about I mean, there’s always more emphasis on the first game, because whether we’re talking mini camp training camp first preseason game, third preseason game, there’s always that that narrative of you’re counting down to Kansas City now, right? I mean, you’re counting down going out to arrowhead and playing in the opener. Last year it was oh, countdown to week one against Houston. So so there’s always that added emphasis for week one anyway. But I mean, it’s an AFC title game rematch. I mean, it speaks for itself. I’m with you. I wasn’t convinced that it’s going to be the Christmas game, because who knows what’s going to happen with that in terms of is Netflix getting those games or not? I mean, there have been there’s been lots of smoke that that’s the indication, but I did think that they would at least save that game for later in the year. But it doesn’t really matter. I roll my eyes at the at this being a revenge game. It’s not. It’s not it’s not even close. We’re we’re at the point with the Ravens. All that matters is what’s going to happen in January anyway. I mean, they have to get there obviously. But in terms of legacy in terms of exercising past they
Nestor J. Aparicio 09:36
go out and beat the Kansas City Chiefs 43 to 13 on opening night and you know, I mean it’s January 21 and buffalo what difference does it make? Right?
Luke Jones 09:44
I mean, it’s great in the moment. Don’t get me wrong. It’s great when you win in week one, you always want to win in week one, but it’s not exacting revenge. It’s not exercising demons. It’s not getting back at them. It’s week one. It’s beating them in week one, right? I mean they beat them in week two Back in 2021, and people at that time hope that it was a sea change. And it wasn’t so it’s fine. I’m not. I’m excited about it. I think it’s going to be great. I think the rest of the NFL is probably going to be really excited to see that rather than Kansas City hosting, I don’t know the chargers, you know, and trying to hype up like Jim Harbaugh’s returned to the NFL, in terms of, you know, which is fun, but I don’t think that’s moving the needle for most of the country. You know, unless you’re a Michigan, when
8Nestor J. Aparicio 10:28
you kick it off, you’re trying to kick it off with a game everybody wants to watch not a game that everybody wants to see the champion, play another team, right? Play the Cowboys or something like that. Exactly,
Luke Jones 10:36
exactly. So I think from that standpoint, it’s gonna be fun. You know, I’ve heard some people say, well, it’s better to get them early in the year. At the same time, Zach, or first test is defensive coordinator going out on the road against Kansas City. That’s a pretty big test for a rookie defensive coordinator. So you can spin it already
Nestor J. Aparicio 10:56
asking how the offensive line is gonna play that night? Because that’s the question we’re gonna have. Let’s May, we’re gonna be here in that one for four months. Yeah,
Luke Jones 11:03
8no question about it. And on the flip side, Kansas City Hey, Rishi rice probably isn’t going to be event he’s probably gonna be suspended, at least for the beginning of the season. So they’re not going to have him and will Hollywood brown be up to speed with Patrick mahomes At that point, I mean, there’s all those different questions early in the season Hollywood’s
Nestor J. Aparicio 11:20
round running around as a toy for Patrick mahomes Just as his dream come true, right?
Luke Jones 11:25
I suppose so. So hey, it’s a big year for him. He took the pillow contract the one year deal with them. So I mean, this is gonna be a big year for him. And you’ll be definitely be interesting. And I mean, you’re looking forward to week one. It’s exciting. First time the ravens are in the kickoff game since 2013. We know how that went. We know all the circumstances behind that. So it’s still fun now and certainly a big matchup in week one, I mean, talk about throwing, being thrown right into the fire. Here we go. No, no, no time for a slow start unless you want to be all in one. All
Nestor J. Aparicio 11:58
right, back to baseball just for a minute now. Roster moves. We spent a lot of time talking about Westberg emergence. We spent a lot of time talking about where Mullins and Hayes are going to wind up in this crowded field of of roster manipulation. With Mike lies before deals are made and we’re all in agreement that they’re going to get bullpen help. And that might be a Norbi it might be a mayo, it might be ist ours, it might be won’t be holiday, but they’re gonna be making moves but this outfield situation and where they are especially when nobody hit the ball on Monday night, right? So it’s not just a one position thing, but how long is the rope on Mullins? How we you know, where’s the rope for A’s to come back? We’re worthy at bats for curse that if they’re never gonna give them a glove and they really don’t want to give them a glove. Well,
8Luke Jones 12:48
that’s why you saw some shuffling on Monday afternoon I Heston curse. Dad goes back to Norfolk, Kyle sours returns to the majors for the first time and literally a calendar year. It was Mother’s Day last year, when he found out he was being sent down. And then, you know, had some injuries and some bad misfortune in terms of the rest of his year at Norfolk. But, you know, they bring towers back, cursed that goes down, I think towers gives you more athleticism in the outfield, more of an option defensively in the outfield, and he swung the bat, he’s hit for power at Norfolk. So I don’t have a problem with that through the lens of if you’re looking for someone to be more of an option defensively in the outfield not just be another bat in the lineup. I think ours is the better option right now. I still think Karstadt in a big picture sense, assuming not a trade. And that’s a big assumption right now. But I think curse dad’s long term profile still fits much more as DH, maybe a first baseman, maybe a right fielder. But look at those positions right now. I mean, were you going to take O’Hearn out of the lineup? No. Were you going to take mountcastle out of the lineup? No. Are you going to take Santander out of the lineup? Not consistently. So that curse that it played out exactly as I thought it might. So
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:04
this speaks to the opportunities for all of these guys, because it showed up, you talked to Hayes down in Sarasota, he came up and he was hitting 320 We might not have heard of Couser like so you these guys. They get wildly pipped in this situation. It’s ours. Now. He’s really popular with these guys, where he’s one of them. Right? And has waited a year. You know, sample size will be small to your point, you know, he’s not gonna He’s not going to be the star in this lineup, but taking advantage of opportunities so that you can be the guy in the trade to the Cubs or whatever, you know, so you can get to a place where there are three guys in the way blocking you
Luke Jones 14:40
or where it becomes that you’re the guy that looks like you can be the fourth outfielder that’s really productive in a part time role and you’re and you can pinch hit in and be productive in that role. I mean, not everyone can do that. I know that sounds silly because you say oh, you’re talking about being a bench player. But I mean, Terry Crowley’s going into the Orioles Hall. came later this summer up. He’s a guy who could pinch it right? So we got
Nestor J. Aparicio 15:03
8guys that run for 240s they can’t they can’t bond that they don’t even have to bond because they’re 30 years old and they’ve just quit on bunting you’re like so these these things that can be learned, like playing better defense and things like that where you could skill yourself up a little bit. You know, that’s a difficulty for Kurt’s that at this point in his career that he’s been given that X mark of of the bag glove guy. Well,
Luke Jones 15:27
I don’t think it’s so much that he’s bad defensively, but that’s not his biggest strength. And when you’re talking about the role that they’re looking and I we talked about this when we reconvened after the weekend series against Arizona. Mullins was benched for two games. Reset benched a couple days off to clear his head however you want to characterize it, but I noted to you that in those two games you had Heston curse dad play left and one of them and Ryan O’Hearn was playing left in the other that’s when you’re talking the left field at Camden Yards now I’m not talking pre big wall that wasn’t as big of a deal but now you need someone that can play centerfield quality defense and left because you just had that much room to cover. So I think that’s another reason why you see them swaps towers for curse debt. Also, Austin Hays activated, Ryan McKenna designated for assignment so you know that defensively that’s not as as as drastic, but we know Hayes plays a good left field at Camden Yards. So I’m gonna be fascinated to see what this looks like. Because I think you look at the circumstances. We talked about Hayes and his struggles early in the year, we talked about cows are seizing that job. But let’s also call a spade a spade cows are has cooled off pretty substantially here over the last few weeks. I’m not as concerned about him as I am Cedric Mullins right now, but he’s cooled off. Mullins has struggled mightily. I mean, big time. I mean, we’re talking sub 600 o PS, at this point, that’s not good, especially on the heels of him struggling with the bat the second half last year,
Nestor J. Aparicio 17:06
and not the kind of contact that he was getting before which no homeruns and all that, but just
Luke Jones 17:11
lots of pop ups. Yeah, lots of pop ups and lots of you know, flailing at times, the swing doesn’t look like it has much conviction. I mean, he’s just not, he’s not conveying confidence at the plate right now. So that doesn’t mean I’m benching him indefinitely. But, and this goes back to the point that I made before the season started. I have at this point now, five outfielders you know you have your three veteran incumbents going into the year Couser. And now Kyle sours, use them cycle these guys in a little bit. And I don’t mean if someone gets hot and has three hits that they their bench the next night, I mean, give all these guys opportunity, see who gets going and whoever gets going, then they play, you know, they play for the next few days, and you kind of do things that way. Point is, you’ve got multiple guys that are capable of doing this. They’re talented, in the case of someone likes towers, hasn’t had a ton of opportunity, since being called up to the majors for the first time two years ago. Let’s see what this looks like and see who emerges. And, you know, I mean, the simple truth is if you’re austin Hayes and Cedric Mullins, or Santander to a lesser extent, although sometimes there’s no he’s produced, for the most part, it hasn’t been his best year, but he hasn’t had these extreme struggles like Hayes and Mullins. But, you know, we’re talking about guys that aren’t under contract for much longer mean contract here for Santander, Hayes and Mullins contract years next year. So you do have to weigh all the different factors. What first of all, winning is paramount on any given night, right? I mean, that that’s what you want. So you want guys that are going to produce and hit and and do the job, but they also need to be thinking about it through a long term lens in terms of wanting to find out about Colton Couser which they have no and certainly he’s played at a high level and he’s been a rookie of the year candidates so far. You want to find out about Kyle’s towers you know do I think he’s going to be a starting outfielder for the Orioles? Probably not but I’m also not going to dismiss that possibility I’m not I’m not going to dismiss the fact that maybe he could be a really good number for outfielder for you which is still an important job and be an upgrade over what Ryan McKenna was the last couple years so you want to find out those things so I want to see these guys play you know, I don’t want to see Cedric Mullins just getting guaranteed Oh for for naming the lineup no questions asked. You know, same for any of these guys, quite frankly, if you’re not going to produce let some of the other guys get some at bats and see if they get going. So that’s how we found out about cows are early in the year right. To your point with Hayes when he got off to such a bad start. So yeah, we’re I’m interested to see how it’s gonna play out. I don’t think this by no means do I think Kyle’s towers is going to play every night. He didn’t play Monday night after getting caught up but I do want to see how this shakes out, and especially Mullins right now looks bad. I mean, he’s hitting 185 Scott, uh, on base percentage under 250. At this point in time, I mean, you know, we’re so far beyond the days of talking about him hitting leadoff. I mean, at this point, it’s does his name does he deserve to be in the lineup every night and his defense is still great, you know, I mean, so he’s still brings value in that regard. But, but he’s got to get going offensively. And like I said, I think back to the the walk off Homer he had against the twins in mid April. And he was in the midst of a really good kind of eight nine game stretch then. But other than that, he’s done nothing offensively, you know, a couple home runs, but it’s been very little and no consistency whatsoever with him. And recently, the bats to me, guys, we’ll go through stretches. I mean, Couser, as I said, is really tailed off a little bit here the last couple of weeks, but he still has some games where he’s hitting the ball hard, and you’ll see some some things that you still like overall, but hasn’t been a whole lot to like about Cedric Mullins at the plate for several weeks now. And at this point, I think it’s starting to become a concern because I think it’s reflecting a lack of confidence that he’s showing, just watching him play right now.
8Nestor J. Aparicio 21:19
Look, Jones is here. He will be there and Oriole Park at Camden Yards for the conclusion of the series on the Wednesday afternoon as well as Seattle Mariners this weekend. We’re gonna be out of phase with Maryland lottery scratch offs in Pac Man got Preakness this weekend. I’m going to be out of the racetrack on Thursday morning for the alibi breakfast. I was at the post position draw on Monday night because I’m still a media member. And by the way, David Joseph, I won’t apologize David Joseph from the Maryland Jockey Club and from the the Magnum people who greeted me at the door. And let me know that he does indeed consider me a media member. And you heard me say on the air that I wasn’t, and he was happy to give me a press pass. So thank you, David Joseph, so I will call off the dogs on all of the but I did get thrown out of the Preakness press box two years ago, even though he punched Pilate at that and said, you know, wasn’t him but it wasn’t him. But like, I’m good with the Preakness people, I guess that’s my point, at least for this. This week, total changes again, so whatever but it is a busy week around here. Mullins and Hayes and their struggles and the foundational part of them being on the bus before it was good. They get more leeway. You said how long I don’t know. Hayes sort of the comeback for him. Sport a probably last hurrah, right? Well, given how many of these outfielders are in line that when you are given your opportunity, it’s about production. Now, nobody’s going to have any feelings fans do. fans don’t want training and see any back. But you know, we’re at the point here are these younger guys getting at bats, and even stauer is getting another opportunity, which I don’t think he knew he was gonna get another opportunity you and I certainly haven’t said his name a whole lot of I called him stout and three months ago, that’s how far gone he was. And I forgot his name. I confused him with a bad 70s actor. The veteran guys in this sort of opportunity to where where’s the line with Mullins? And where will the line be with Hayes I guess, and even Santander to some degree, and he’s been the more productive of all of them. But it all it feels for me out here that if I were talking to these guys in the clubhouse and hearing what they’re really thinking, it’s as crowded a thing as I’ve seen. I don’t know that I’ve seen the organization ever have this sort of pressure upon at bats, because why pressure? They’re first place. They haven’t played a whole lot of games, the first place in my adulthood, they have not been expected to win a whole lot in my adulthood. And certainly respect them to when we do it. We expect them to win 100 games now. Right? But who’s gonna be in the lineup when they do it? Because like, to, to our point, we go to spring training, thinking, Well, you know, Hayes moans Seth out there. If they, if they’re doing what they’ve done in past years, that would be really good for winning. It was all along. But we didn’t consider what if they don’t. And where these young guys are coming along, because this has been a pretty choppy effort amongst the veteran guys. To your point, the incumbent guys and we are in election day today. I forgot about that. Oh, we’re only electing a mayor today. The incumbent usually has a you know, a better seat that Brandon Scott had probably yesterday as well, but the incumbents are expected to perform. We talked about it all offseason and then it’s May. And all of the younger guys were already saying, Well, what are we projecting the game one lineup in October who’s going to be in that lineup? Dude, you talking about betting on sports? So I don’t if you and I had to put that in a hat right now and say who are the outfielders for the playoff version of this team? I don’t know. Because nobody sort of grabbed the ring Couser enough to show He belongs. But the rest of these guys feel not only disposable, but forgettable if somebody else were to come in and start while he Pippin, you know? Well,
Luke Jones 25:11
I think I’m not that down on Santander. And I realized he hasn’t had a phenomenal season by any stretch of the imagination means hitting to 12 right now, but, and I’m going to use some more traditional stats that I’m not the guy that dwells on these stats, but he’s also on pace for 28. home runs at 100 RBIs. Right now. So it’s not as though Santander has been, has struggled to the degree that Mullins or Hayes has so so I’m still confident he’s gonna be there unless
Nestor J. Aparicio 25:40
they mark Reynolds productivity out of that at that position, right.
Luke Jones 25:47
8But But who else has given you that? I mean, you know, I to assume Kyle sours or Heston curse that are going to do that as essentially, I noticed ours technically isn’t a rookie. But you know, that’s a big assumption. Santander is gonna be in the lineup. And at this point, I think Colton Houser is going to be in the lineup, as I said, He’s cooled off, there’s no doubt about that. And he was always going to, you’re not going to hit at the pace that he hit for those two weeks in April without cooling off at some point in time. And like I said, I, you know, I know he had some not so great at bats on Monday night, and even over the weekend, but he’s also had a bath, where he’s hit the ball hard and done good things as well. So but yeah, with Mullins and Hayes at this point, you know, what are you getting? I think, in the case, a Hayes, I’m still willing to give the benefit of the doubt from the standpoint of I was even down in Sarasota, you know, we were down in Sarasota, when he was getting over a stomach bug that cost him about a week to 10 days of spring training at bats. And, you know, then you carry that over to the regular season and you get off to a slow start. And then you hurt your calf and you’re on the IL and then you go to a rehab stint at buoy and, you know, hit a couple home runs. So
Nestor J. Aparicio 27:00
you’re talking about him and I’m talking about the other side of the position was filled with a guy who was hitting 400 for a month, right. So like, that’s, that’s the part that you don’t necessarily expect when these guys are doing well. But they’re so crowded, they have so much well,
Luke Jones 27:14
but we also know things can change. And he’s not an outfielder. But look at Jorge Mateo. Look at how we were talking about him last July, August and September. I said it on many occasions, I didn’t know why he was still on the roster, quite frankly, you know, you’re really going to carry this guy just to have a pinch runner on your roster, come the postseason, and he’s turned himself around to the point where I’m not saying he’s a starter longterm by any stretch of the imagination, but he’s played a good second baseman that was a great double play. He started on Monday night and we’ve seen him look more comfortable there. The offense has been good enough for what he is, which is really an extra infielder. You know, a guy can play second and short, can play outfield, if you have a couple of guys go down, and it’s the extra, you know, extra innings game, whatever it is, but the speed and his offense has been not great. But it’s been okay. You know, that’s, that’s the profile of valuable utility player for you. So we’ve seen Mateo bounce back. All these guys are capable of bouncing back. I’m not ready to bury Cedric Mullins, I’m not ready to bury Austin Hayes. You know, those guys are going to continue to be on the roster, but they do need to produce. And there’s no guarantee that you’re penciled their name in the lineup every night. You know, we’ve seen that already with Hayes. And I think we’re, we’re about to start seeing it with Mullins, I think based off that what we saw over the weekend, and the fact that he was over four with two strikeouts on Monday night. So you know, get these younger guys some opportunities. That said, we also know that these young guys getting opportunities does not guarantee that they’re going to produce right away. You know, we’ve seen that with set hours, although he’s he’s never been a guy that’s gotten every day playing time at the major league level. It’s always been like, you know, he’s starting every other game or making two starts and five date days or something like that. So, you know, does he get more of an opportunity this time, we’ll see. And in the case of Couser, we saw it last year. Everyone thought he was ready. He wasn’t he’s looked way better this year. But now it’s a time for him to make another another adjustment because he has cooled off pretty considerably here over the last few weeks. So that’s look that’s going to happen not everyone’s going to hit 300 and and be Mr. Consistent and look like Gunnar Henderson all year and you know, even Gunnar Henderson, hey, he was over four with two strikeouts on Monday night it happens to even the best players in baseball. So you’re gonna have some of that. But there is certainly pressure, whether you’re talking about the veterans, or these young guys, when they do get the call to come to Baltimore and their name is written in the lineup to produce. I mean, you have five outfielders right now who have either been and also are at the major league level. In the case of hazer Mullins, someone who’s been a 30 homerun guy like Anthony Santander who was in a contract year now. So there’s a different layer of pressure for him. And in the case of Colton Couser, and Kyle’s towers, two guys who have been heralded prospects more. So Couser stauer is not as much love nationally from a in a prospect way, but has still been highly thought of at different times. So you have five guys who all have designs of being starting caliber, caliber players, whether the it continues to be in Baltimore, or whether it’s somewhere else eventually. So they’ve got to produce, and they’re all at different points in their career. There’s no doubt about that. But in the meantime, yeah, the Orioles for as much as the lineup has produced overall, and the run profile and the homerun profile and all that. There’s no reason to be concerned, you know, when you look at them statistically compared to other teams, but yeah, they need to get a little more consistent production out of their outfield. There’s no doubt about that. And we’re gonna see how it unfolds. And to answer your big picture question that you posed, what, what is the outfield going to look like? Come September and October, I think, to be determined, right. I mean, it’s certainly to be determined. I think we have a pretty good idea. But at the same time, you know, Cedric Mullins gotta go out and, you know, hit more like he did in 2021 not look like what he looks right now, which is the guy in 2019, who got sent to the miners. So you know, he’s really struggling, he’s got to get going. So the veteran guys to your point, Brandon Hyde will have more patience for they’re not going to release these guys or anything crazy like that. But, you know, we’ve seen it with Austin Hays already. If you’re not going to produce and someone else comes in and takes your job then. So be it. You become the fourth outfielder. So, yeah, we’ll see how it plays out. I do think we’ll see Hayes and sours here over these next few days. And we’ll see what they can do with the bats. See if they can get going. Yeah,
Nestor J. Aparicio 31:53
we go from you know, it’s Whack a Mole dude. You know, like this week it’s pitching and it’s, it’s Craig Kimbrel. And now he’s a seventh inning guy. Oreos in the Blue Jays get it going through Wednesday afternoon. We’ll be at Faith. He’s on Friday. The alibi. Breakfast is Thursday, the Preakness the Saturday. Election is today get out vote. Please do that. And we got a big week. Bob efforts coming on this week. Don brothers will be here this week. Lots of racing just because I’m sticking that in we also had the PGA Championship and Richard Sheppard on from classic five over Forest Park as well. So just a big, big spring week hanging out with the birds I am Nestor. He is Luke we are WNS TA in 1570, Towson Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore. Positive
