Do MLB players make more mental errors these days?

Throwing to the wrong base. Not knowing the count, not mention the unawareness about having a timeout or whether you’re monitoring the pitch clock in the ninth inning when you’re losing and out of the batter’s box. It’s more than just swinging and missing these days for Luke Jones and Nestor, as they discuss mental errors and physical mistakes as the Orioles try to stop losing baseball games.

Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Orioles’ recent struggles, noting their eight-game deficit under 500 and a four-game losing streak. They highlighted the team’s mental and physical errors, including missed scoring opportunities and defensive lapses. Jones criticized the Orioles’ inconsistency, citing their 16-34 start last year and recent series losses. They also addressed technical issues with MASN broadcasts, affecting viewer experience. The conversation touched on the impact of youth and speed in sports, using examples like Keaton Mitchell and Derrick Henry to illustrate the challenges of maintaining performance as athletes age.

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Call Greg Bader to check in and see how he is doing regarding the network issues and outages mentioned
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Read Inside the Owner’s Box: Conversations on Power and Leadership in Sports by David Rubenstein and prepare to discuss or reference it on air
• [ ] Go to the ballpark and report on the team on behalf of the show (attend games in person and provide coverage/updates)
• [ ] Attend the ballpark this week as planned (be present for coverage and segments)

Orioles’ Recent Performance and Mental Errors

• Nestor Aparicio discusses the positive atmosphere at Oriole Park at Camden Yards and mentions the Maryland Crab Cake Tour.
• Luke Jones and Nestor Aparicio discuss the Orioles’ recent performance, noting their eight-game deficit under 500 and the impact of a four-game losing streak.
• Luke Jones highlights the Orioles’ mistakes in the field, on the base paths, and in scoring opportunities, which have led to a sub-500 record.
• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones compare the Orioles’ current struggles to last year’s performance, noting the team’s inconsistency and the need for sustained good play.

Comparing the Orioles to Other Teams

• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the Orioles’ recent series losses to Pittsburgh, Tampa, and New York, which set the tone for their current struggles.
• Luke Jones mentions the Orioles’ wins against the Rays and Yankees, suggesting that the team’s performance is not entirely poor.
• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones compare the Orioles to other teams like the Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres, noting the high variance in baseball performance.
• Luke Jones emphasizes the importance of consistency in baseball, highlighting the Orioles’ struggles with scoring opportunities and defensive mistakes.

Technical Difficulties with MASN

• Nestor Aparicio shares his frustration with the technical difficulties experienced while watching the Orioles game on MASN.
• Luke Jones mentions that the issue was resolved for him through the MLB app, suggesting better support from MLB.
• Nestor Aparicio criticizes the MASN broadcast, comparing it to a television show and expressing disappointment in the lack of respect for fans.
• Luke Jones and Nestor Aparicio discuss the broader issues with MASN, including the lack of quality content and the impact on fan experience.

Orioles’ Offensive and Defensive Performance

• Luke Jones and Nestor Aparicio discuss the Orioles’ offensive performance, noting the team’s struggles with runners in scoring position.
• Luke Jones highlights the Orioles’ missed opportunities in the first two games against the Mariners, including a 2-for-20 performance with runners in scoring position.
• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the Orioles’ defensive mistakes, including a play at the plate and a pitcher’s error.
• Luke Jones emphasizes the importance of situational awareness and decision-making in baseball, noting the Orioles’ inconsistencies in these areas.

Player Development and Mental Mistakes

• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the impact of player development on situational awareness and decision-making in baseball.
• Luke Jones mentions the importance of coaching and practice in developing players’ internal clocks and decision-making skills.
• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones compare the current generation of players to past generations, noting the increased speed and complexity of the game.
• Luke Jones highlights the challenges of player development in a fast-paced, high-velocity game, emphasizing the need for experienced coaches and systems.

The Role of Analytics in Baseball

• Luke Jones and Nestor Aparicio discuss the impact of analytics on baseball, noting the information overload that players face.
• Luke Jones explains the balance between digital analytics and the analog aspects of the game, where instinctual decision-making is crucial.
• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the challenges of integrating analytics with the fast-paced nature of baseball, noting the need for a balance between preparation and in-game decision-making.
• Luke Jones emphasizes the importance of player development in managing the information overload and developing the necessary skills for in-game situations.

The Impact of Youth and Experience on Performance

• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the impact of youth and experience on baseball performance, noting the challenges faced by young players.
• Luke Jones highlights the importance of experience in developing players’ decision-making skills and situational awareness.
• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the role of experience in managing the speed and complexity of the game, noting the challenges faced by young players.
• Luke Jones emphasizes the need for a balanced approach to player development, combining experience with advanced preparation and analytics.

The Future of Baseball and Player Development

• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the future of baseball, noting the increasing speed and complexity of the game.
• Luke Jones highlights the importance of player development in addressing the challenges faced by young players.
• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the role of technology and analytics in improving player development and performance.
• Luke Jones emphasizes the need for a balanced approach to player development, combining experience with advanced preparation and analytics.

The Role of Coaching and Player Development

• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the role of coaching in player development, noting the importance of experienced coaches.
• Luke Jones highlights the need for coaches who can develop players’ decision-making skills and situational awareness.
• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the challenges faced by young players in a fast-paced, high-velocity game.
• Luke Jones emphasizes the importance of a balanced approach to player development, combining experience with advanced preparation and analytics.

The Importance of Mental and Physical Preparation

• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the importance of mental and physical preparation in baseball performance.
• Luke Jones highlights the challenges faced by players in managing the information overload and the fast-paced nature of the game.
• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the role of mental preparation in developing players’ decision-making skills and situational awareness.
• Luke Jones emphasizes the need for a balanced approach to player development, combining experience with advanced preparation and analytics.

Nestor Aparicio 0:01
Welcome home. We are WNST AF 1570 Towson Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive, and a lot of positive going on at Oriole Park at Camden Yards thus far this week. Luke Jones will be joining us momentarily. We’re gonna be doing the Maryland Crab Cake Tour all month long. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland Lottery. I’ll have the Maryland Treasure scratch-ups. I don’t want to miss Pac Man, Jen. I’m going to miss out on that promotion, and also our friends at GBMC, keep me healthy alive. We had a great conversation with Russ last week about the cancer centers and how hospitals are made, which great conversation there with GBMC, and our friends at Farnland and Dermer. I am wearing the Comfort Guys, the American Standard Heating and Air Conditioning. I think Zach got this, so I would feel festive after an Oriole victory at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Today’s not that day. Luke Jones joins us now. They’re, I don’t say falling down the mountain, but like when you’re eight games under 500 you can’t afford four game losing streaks, right? Like, so this part where we start to believe it’s got to get level set at 500 and I don’t know, they’re two weeks away from that at this point, the way they’re playing, right.

Luke Jones 1:07
Well, it just speaks to how quickly it can turn for the worse again, right? I mean, when you fall eight games under 500 we talked about it, I mean, not that it was as dire as last year, which at this point last year it was over, right? The math just was not going to math for them, you know. I mean, it was just that simple. It’s not that

Nestor Aparicio 1:24
far off, but it’s.. it’s a week of really bad baseball away from a lot of trouble again,

Luke Jones 1:29
of course, of course. But at the same time, you wanted to be in a position where you’re not needing to have this ridiculous stretch of baseball, and when you have two weeks of encouraging baseball, but now over the last four days it looks very similar, it feels very similar to most of the first two months of the season, that’s when you look at this thing and say, well, what’s the bigger sample size here, the two weeks where they looked pretty good, and you know I’m not going to disparage that. You and I butted heads a little bit about that, even just the other day. But when the bigger sample says that you’re a sub 500 team that makes mistakes in the field, makes mistakes on the base paths, can’t cash in runners in scoring position, does lackadaisical things, like be rung up on a pitch timer violation, because you thought it was ball four, and it wasn’t ball for the previous pitch. I mean, those things just don’t inspire, and those things just don’t lead you to believe that this is a particularly good ball club, and there aren’t – there haven’t been enough things consistently trending up over the course of the first two and a half months of this baseball season to be overly optimistic, now that doesn’t mean that things can’t change, and they did change for the better part of two weeks, but that needed to be the jumping off point, not the high water mark, and then you settle back into the law of whatever the first two months of the season were. Right? I mean, we talked about this. I mentioned this multiple times over the last couple weeks. Last year, when they had fallen to what, 16 and 34 it was right after that that they went on a stretch of winning nine of 11. Winning nine of 11, it’s a pretty good stretch. That said, it’s nothing special in the context of any 162 game baseball season for just about any team that’s not historically cross nine of 11 once or twice during the year, too. Right? So it kind of, that if you’ve been bad enough to lose that many in one time during the year, I’m with you, dun and 62 games, if you start breaking them down into 10s or fifteens, you’ll find some good stretches. Yeah, you’ll find some six and fours and some eight and twos. We had one last week, right? Right, exactly. I mean, look at the Chicago, the Chicago Cubs this year. I mean, look at them. I mean, this is a team that has long winning streaks and long losing streaks, and they’ve looked really good at times, and they’ve looked horrendous at times, right. We see the Padres here over the weekend. What do you make of them? I mean, you great bullpen, but and started off pretty strong. Since then, it’s been pretty woeful for them. So, I mean, there’s a lot of that, right. It’s baseball, it’s a game of high variance, right. I talk about the day to day of baseball. How a team will look so great one day and they’ll look bad the next, but oh,

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Nestor Aparicio 4:26
and three in Pittsburgh, oh and three in Tampa, oh and three in New York, back in April was, you know, that that’s oh and nine, that kind of sets up everything that’s happened here as to how they’re, you know, still under 500 right? I mean, like those three series, just that alone, and especially the way you know you get swept on the road like that early in the year when you’re injured and you’re banged up, it is what set them behind. Now, that being said, I don’t know what this is when they’re dropping three or four games in a row, and when they’re playing Seattle, they’re playing better teams, and I think that this web. Stretch, you mentioned San Diego. These are better teams, just in a general sense, based on where we are than the Boston Red Sox at this point, or even the Toronto Blue Jays.

Luke Jones 5:09
Yeah, but, but they swept the Rays, they took, they took two out of three from the Yankees the week after they were swept in the Bronx. I mean, I hear you to a point, but Seattle’s 35 and 32 like we’re not not talking about a juggernaut here, and they swept the Rays, who have a much better record than that. So, I hear you too. Maybe Rosarina

Nestor Aparicio 5:27
come up every time, and think he’s going to hit a home run. I

Luke Jones 5:30
mean, I hear you to some extent, but I just.. they’re just not consistent, right? I mean, like, even the things that they do well that are relative strengths for them, like the offense. Look at where they rank in the American League runs scored. They’re relative to a lot of teams, they’re still a pretty darn good offense, but you see problems and weaknesses within that offense that are really detrimental to them winning ball games on a consistent basis. And we’ve seen that. I mean, look at the first two nights of this series against the Mariners, two games that were winnable ball games for them, two for 20 with runners in scoring position. When you look at Tuesday night’s game, they had scoring chances early, right? They had golden opportunities early, and they came away with one run over those first couple innings, and that allowed Gilbert to set, settle in, and and pitch like the guy that you expect him to be, so I mean it’s, it’s just, it’s frustrating, right? I mean, we talked about it over the weekend, I mean, for all the talk about the bad call in Toronto, that you look at the other things that the Orioles could have controlled in that game and they didn’t, so you come home and you’re saying, okay, turn the page, you lose a series in Toronto, it’s not the end of the world, you and I were even saying that a couple days ago, but then you come out and I mean, it’s just, it’s getting that frustrating feeling again, right? It’s one thing to lose games and you just say the opponent was better. It’s another thing when you have an abundance of opportunities and you’re squandering it. How about me

Nestor Aparicio 7:07
leaving my yoga class and getting on the mat and coming back and listening to Hollander call the game, and they, they squeezed out another run, and I’m listening to the game. I came in the house, I’m like, that’s sixth inning, I want to watch the game. Tom Davis was on talking to Jim Duquette. I’m like, what the what? What are they doing? Greg Bader, I mean, I, Greg Bader runs Madison, by the way, call him, see how he’s doing.

Luke Jones 7:29
Well,

Nestor Aparicio 7:29
give my love.

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Luke Jones 7:31
Fortunately for myself and anyone who subscribes to Mass, through mlb.com which was always the way to go rather than relying on the Mass and app, Massen had no issue on the MLB app. Right? I was able, I was able to get to.. you didn’t miss the

Nestor Aparicio 7:45
game.

Luke Jones 7:46
No, I did not. I did.

Nestor Aparicio 7:48
So did everybody else, apparently. Oh,

Luke Jones 7:50
a lot of people, anyone who didn’t watch it. But I.. I think I even said it on air back in March when that.. when that was an option. I said, subscribe to the MLB app through the MLB. You know, you can do mlb.com and you subscribe to Madison that way, because I wanted better tech support from mlb.com and their app, rather than not knowing what you’re going to get with Mass in. But yeah, I mean, it’s just.. it’s another subplot to the.. to the day, by the way. The same day that David Rubenstein announced he’s writing a book on sports ownership, which I don’t think it’s focusing specifically on him, I think he’s talking to, but dude, you’ve been an owner for five minutes, like he’s

Nestor Aparicio 8:24
a clown. David Rubenstein, you’re a billionaire clown. That’s.. I’m two years into this. It’s a clown act, including the Whistler, who I met from the minute I met him. I thought, you would look, dude, you and I’ve been at this on the air, off the air. I thought this the day that they bought this team. I cried. I thought this is real change. I was in was two days after the Key Bridge fell down. Like I’m at the stadium thinking like this representative of this billionaire is actually talking to me like a real human, except that he wasn’t. He was just bullshitting me, so that has been this thing has been so Johnny Bravo, from the beginning all the way around, including the empty stadium, the empty app. I can’t last, then I came in with to put the game on, and Tom Davis was on television. I, oh, my choices were, go sit in the car and listen to Hollander again. By the way, Josh Lewin’s good. I mean, I shouldn’t say this, but I mean, like, the radio broadcasts have improved, you know, in periods of time to some degree over 98 rock, where it’s, it’s good. Hollander was appropriate when they were losing, at least. I said this to you, and like, you go down there on my behalf, on our behalf, on the fans’ behalf, report on the team. You park your car, you drive down from Pennsylvania, you’re in the stadium. I don’t do that. It’s a television show to me. It might as well be American Idol, or anything my wife watches on Tuesday night. It’s a television show, as most sports are. Is it on? Television, that’s all I could think about. Last night, I’m thinking, you guys are awful. No one goes to your games. You treat me like trash. You treat most people like trash. It’s and then I still care enough that you’re under 500 on a beautiful 80 degree night, where I could have taken a walk, I could have done anything, and I care enough to put the game on. And I come home, and the game’s not on in my living room, and I’m thinking, am I.. and there was no crawl on it to say we’re having technical difficulties, like literally all I saw was Tom Davis. I’m scratching my head, and I’m like, I swear to God, I thought it was in a Twilight Zone episode, because I flew all night from LA. I’m like, am I in a fever dream here? Is the game. Not, it’s on my app, it’s on in the car, and Tom Davis is on. I swear to God, I didn’t want to embarrass myself with you, because we have that kind of relationship. I was going to text you and say, is it on Apple TV? It’s Tuesday night, like, is it on Amazon? Is it somewhere? Because the calendar said it was, so I’m lost. I, of course, what I did, I do what anybody does. Go to the internet, sure. And the internet said we’re experiencing technical dope. I’m thinking, once put that on your channel. I thought, is it raining? I swear to God, I’m in Towson. I’m looking on my app, and I’m thinking, is it raining? It’s not raining there. I just got out of the car. They just scored a run, like I don’t know, man, dude. It’s just, I mean, it’s a television show at 830 that I put on, and it wasn’t on, and I’m thinking, and there was.. I had to go seek out what the hell was happening. It’s, yeah, I mean, it’s Bush League, and when I tell Don Roback, he’s Bush League. He sends me nasty notes saying that Bush League is an insult, F and A. It is. This is Bush League. When I come home and the game’s not on TV, it’s Bush League. There’s my rant. Three minutes, they

Luke Jones 11:55
had multiple outages, right? It came back, and then it went out again. I mean, I don’t even know that my cousin was texting me about it. I mean, and, like, I said, if you’re watching on the MLB app, it was fine, but

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Nestor Aparicio 12:07
you are a television show, that’s what you are. Well, think about it.

Luke Jones 12:11
No matter how it breaks down in 2026 whether you’re still giving your cable or satellite provider x amount per month for a regional sports network fee, or if you’re paying 1999 a month, or if you paid $99.99 at the beginning of the season to get the whole season, you are paying to subscribe to Massin for something, and with all due respect to Tom Davis, I have nothing but but but affection for Tom, but there is nothing else at all whatsoever on that network, other than Orioles baseball games that anyone wants to consume or watch, you know. You’ll watch Tom for five minutes if you put it on before the pregame show starts again. And I love Tom, I’m not trying to make him a punchline, but it’s, yeah, I mean, it’s completely inexcusable. It’s completely unacceptable. Greg

Nestor Aparicio 13:05
Bader runs the network, that’s that, that, that. Hello, there we go, there we go. Comes back to 2006 when that clown stood in front of me, telling me I’m not a real media member, because I was biased, that’s what he said. He said, “You’re biased. Yeah, I’m biased on behalf of the fans, on behalf of your customers, all of you in totality, all of your under five hundredness, and the fact that I still care in the middle of June 2026 is astonishing. It is astonishing that I care enough to put the game on, and then I could be angry enough the day after to say Bush League, just Bush League, all the way around, top to bottom, Katie Griggs, David Rubenstein, Araghetti, all the way down. I can’t blame it on Angeloso, by the way. I thought it was interesting that on Greek Heritage Night, mr. Angelos and Sons Network went kaput, but my, I have a lot of great friends right there. We eat some great food this weekend as well, down in Highlandtown, but I can’t blame this on Angelos anymore, although I can, because Greg Bader’s still hanging around, and they’re still hanging around with former Angelos lackeys, water carriers. I, but onto the field, I’ll go back onto the field, but when I can’t see the game, that’s a lead story that’s problematic, that I’m here on the radio talking about the game the day after when they couldn’t get the game on television. I mean,

Luke Jones 14:35
and also think about it in these terms, and this would apply for anything. If it’s not on, what are you going to do? You might wait it out, and you might be ticked off, or

Nestor Aparicio 14:45
go on with your life.

Luke Jones 14:46
You go watch something else, and it’s just another night where it’s not in the, in the forefront. I always went out to

Nestor Aparicio 14:52
the car to listen to it, because I’m here talking about it with you today, so they won’t let me in to see the games to talk about them as a. Medium member, because they have no respect for much except money. They respect money, is what they respect. But

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Luke Jones 15:06
the problem is people that are giving them money, they failed to deliver a product for look, an outage of 90 seconds or something like that. ESPN has technical difficulties off.

Nestor Aparicio 15:19
How long was it off? Do you? It was on innings,

Luke Jones 15:21
I don’t, I don’t know for sure, because, like I said, I didn’t have the issue with via the way, fixed it

Nestor Aparicio 15:26
started running Tom’s ads for Pete Cycle and Wise, and then the game started in the ninth inning, and they had to flip the

Luke Jones 15:34
way somewhat, I can’t remember who it was, and I haven’t verified this, so I don’t know, but someone was, was making mention that it seemed like it had an issue again when it went to commercial. Well, if you’re having issues when you’re going to commercial, what do you need to do? Don’t not go to commercial, and you just need to, you know, you just, you have, and Jim Palmer just improvise, right? They, you know, Kevin Brown covers, uh, college sports, you know, softball, baseball, that talk about that a little bit, or

Nestor Aparicio 16:06
just, just put the hot dog races up, it’s

Luke Jones 16:09
whatever, yeah, right, I mean, whatever,

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Nestor Aparicio 16:10
but what it can’t happen, it can’t happen, there’s right, can’t happen,

Luke Jones 16:14
especially like I said,

Nestor Aparicio 16:16
this isn’t Gunnar Henderson booting a ground ball, which is bad enough, or them losing a game, this people paying and caring enough about their sport, and

Luke Jones 16:26
and you’re not serving the problem in front

Nestor Aparicio 16:27
of it. Where’s Greg Bader today? Where’s Greg Bader to explain what happened today? Greg, I mean, it’s

Luke Jones 16:33
just it can’t happen. I mean, like I said, if it goes out for a minute, things happen, but when you’re talking about a, an extended outage, and multiple outages. I mean, that just can’t happen. But to bring it back to the field, for those who did not get to see it, I mean, wasted opportunities late. Also, I do want to go back, because we’ve talked about them as much as we have. Trevor Rogers, okay, outing, right? I mean, I think what’s disappointing is he gives up the three run homer to Mitch Garver. He was ahead 02 in that at bat, right? It’s just the latest example of Rogers just not being able to put people away, not missing enough bats. But that said, all that said, he gave them a chance to win, right? I mean, they were in position, the bullpen wasn’t as good as you’d like it to be, right? I mean, obviously, Rico Garcia gives up the home run in the 10th. Kittredge gave up a run, decided to give him the game, but when the pitcher

Nestor Aparicio 17:30
threw the ball to home plate, instead of going to first base, sure checking out, sure, I mean, they had a chance to win that game in the ninth inning straight out, and we’re talking about them victorious today, they’re well, and I mean, I, we say this, it’s just opportunities have knocked for this team, and they don’t open the door. I mean,

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Luke Jones 17:49
it’s hard to, hard to argue with that. I mean, look, not just in, you mentioned the ninth inning, it wasn’t just that they had the chance in the ninth inning, they had the chance with Gunner Henderson and Pete Alonso up to deliver in the ninth inning, and they didn’t do it right, they didn’t do it. 10th inning, they had the tying run on third, nobody out didn’t do it. I mean, it’s just, it’s that simple. I mean,

Nestor Aparicio 18:10
third baseman didn’t charge the ball on the Jeremiah Jackson play. Yeah, like, just there were all sorts of things, although I woke up for their errors, for the Orioles, you know, inconsistencies all along, or you know, not know what base to throw to in certain.. like, I, I tweeted about it in the middle of the night, I’m like, eighth inning of a major league baseball game. How are you making.. how do you not know the count, Leoti Tavarez? Yeah, how do you get the eight second rule, and in that circumstance, with the game online, like it’s just not, although it’s not baseball all the way around. The

Luke Jones 18:45
problem isn’t not knowing the count, it’s the response to it, right? He had a

Nestor Aparicio 18:49
timeout, each

Luke Jones 18:50
batter gets a time out, right? I mean, use your time out, collect yourself, put your shin guard back on, and then go and finish your at bat, right? I mean, so, but I do want to say this, because you just mentioned Seattle. I do want to at least give some compliment to their third baseman, wisdom that throw that play at the plate, and I saw a few fans complain because the Orioles do the run the contact play a lot when they have a runner at third base. That was a great throw. I mean, I, I had no problem whatsoever with sending him there. It took a perfect throw. I mean, he had to throw around the runner to base Alexander,

Nestor Aparicio 19:30
right? Yeah,

Luke Jones 19:30
yeah, yeah. I mean, that was a great play. I will say that was a great play. My

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Nestor Aparicio 19:34
master was working at that out. Yeah, yeah,

Luke Jones 19:36
sure. And he was on

Nestor Aparicio 19:39
during that indication, and the other thing you have to remember there

Luke Jones 19:41
is even, you know, he’s out at third, there you still, you still have a runner in scoring position, even after that happens, a hit still going to tie the game, so that’s why you, that’s why you send them there, you don’t hold up there, because well, then the runner’s out at first and. Or you know that you just, you lost an out, you know, you got to, you have to, you have to force some action there, that there are times where I don’t love the contact play, I don’t love automatically taking off from third base, that was a time where I had zero issue with it whatsoever, and and the third baseman made a great play, but they just, they had opportunities, and to me it was so glaring, bottom of the ninth, you have Gunner and Pete Alonso up, and they don’t come through, and then right off the bat, Randy Rosarana comes through on a pitch that was way outside, I mean, that was that was a Vlad Guerrero talking to the original Yogi Guerrero bad ball kind of hit from somebody in a big spot, and look, I’m not saying Rico Garcia threw a great pitch there, I mean it was off the plate, but it was up more than he would have wanted it to be, but the contrast there, that two of the Orioles’ big guns failed in that spot, and then one of Seattle’s big guns instantly came through, just frustrating, just very frustrating, and you know, now we haven’t even mentioned it. We’ve gotten this far into the conversation. Adley Ruchman’s dealing with hamstring tightness. Yeah, this Pasayo thing continues to be odd. You know, he’s pinch hit the last two nights, but he hasn’t started. I know he’s been a little banged up, but if Ruchman’s not in there when you want Pasayo in there, at the very least. I mean, it’s just, just too much with this team that’s just substandard, you know? Right? I mean, it’s not, it’s not horrendous across the board. And look to your point, Seattle’s not a bad team, but I mean, we’re, we’re not talking about, you know, we’re talking about a team that came into town just a couple games over 500 and now they’ve taken the first two games of the series, and you’ve got to scramble just to salvage a split, and you’re now in a position where you’re back to six games under 500 and no, that’s not the end of the world in the midst of this mediocre American league and wild card race and everything, but at some point in time you’re going to have to sustain good baseball for more than a week or two, right? I mean, unless you’re going to go on a three or four week stretch where you just play out of your mind, like Tampa Bay did earlier this season, right? That’s if you’re betting on that to happen, boy, I certainly don’t like their chances. So it’s just.. it’s frustrating because it felt in a lot of ways like they had turned a corner. They were playing cleaner baseball, the defense had been better. You weren’t seeing them make as many mistakes base running wise. I mean, they like to be aggressive. I mean, that’s, and if you’re going to be an aggressive team on the bases, you’re going to get some guys thrown out here and there. Well, you find the other

Nestor Aparicio 22:38
team to play defense, you have no problem with that, and that play at the plate, I had no problem with it. Was a great defensive play, and as we’ve learned, forcing the other team to make great defensive plays in the big leagues in the modern era. Go ahead,

Luke Jones 22:56
yeah. I mean, this is why I’ve said to you, I mean, you, I don’t see

Nestor Aparicio 22:59
Dewey Evans in right field or Dave Parker out there, everybody. You know, I don’t see Aparicio with shortstop or Manny Machado with third base. Like, I just don’t see automatic anything, not with this team, especially. You know, I don’t know how many teams are automatic. Show me a team that feels as good as, let’s say, the 79 Orioles. You know what I mean? Like, show me a team that is a great defensive team. They don’t think that way, to your point, Michael Eyes. They don’t, they don’t think like that. They just think he can hit. He hit Paul, Eiler O’Neill. He hit Paul, give him money, he got guns. He like, okay. And then when the guy’s ready to take an extra base, they’re going to run on you every single time. And I would agree, as a philosophy, I would agree with the Orioles philosophy. Run till they throw you out, you know, because, like, they’re not that good, but they take it.

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Luke Jones 23:50
But the problem is they take it to the extreme, and you get a situation like Blaze Alexander at second base the other night, right? I mean, where I mean, that just can’t happen, and he knows that picked off of

Nestor Aparicio 24:00
first base late in the game, right? Somebody got with a long lead and all of that. It’s just I don’t know. It’s not.. I don’t see heady baseball, and maybe it’s because you, you’re not an old fart, but you’re like in your 40s now. I’m like pushing 60, and I’ve seen and experienced so much baseball on television, situationally watching it, that I don’t know what a 24 year old young person who’s only had been on the planet 24 years, only been playing baseball 15 years, only been playing it professionally for seven, eight, or nine, you know, however long it is, with instruction and different things, that seeing situations for 50 more years in my case than some of these guys, you know, maybe in the, in the heat of battle it’s harder than that, but maybe it’s not, because I’ve been watching baseball all my life, and I know there are mental mistakes, and we would always point them out. I’ve been doing that on the radio for 35 years, but situational baseball in a where do I go with the ball, Who’s. My cut off when the game’s when the ball’s in play, which isn’t all that much in baseball, really, like the ball and play off the bat, it’s seconds, only a couple of seconds a night is the ball really in play in baseball. When the ball’s in play and they have to make those decisions, they fail the pop quiz, well, in so many cases, in so many, not the Orioles, Major League Baseball in general.

Luke Jones 25:26
I would say you definitely see way more of that than in the past. There are some teams that are still great defensively, the Dodgers, go look at their defensive metrics, I mean, and look how much of that is, well, the best players, but at the same time, you still have to identify it right, you still have to coach it, you still develop it in your system, and you still

Nestor Aparicio 25:44
have to do it every night. Every night, there’s going to be another situation that you have to make the right decision, and I just don’t see major league baseball players doing..

Luke Jones 25:54
I, I really.. and it has nothing to do. Players today are as smart as ever, in the sense of the amount of information they are given in the amount of preparation that goes into preparing for a 13 man pitching staff on any given night, or not 13 guys, because you’re not preparing for every starter, but eight guys, eight guys in the bullpen, and the starting pitcher, right on the flip side, as pitchers, you know that you’re dealing with lineups that have anywhere of six to eight guys, if not nine, that can hit the ball out of the ballpark, which was not the case 40 years ago, right? You’d get to the bottom of the order, and Belander and Dempsey

Nestor Aparicio 26:39
weren’t going to get you

Luke Jones 26:40
correct, correct, and not to say that every team has that, but a lot of teams have even guys that can hit home runs hitting eighth and ninth. So, what I’m trying to say is there’s, there is such an information potential overload. I don’t want to say it’s always an overload, because some teams manage this better than others. It goes back to the point that I cited that Joe Maddon made earlier this year on MLB Network. When you kind of get to the digital versus the analog, right, the digital is analytics, all the prep, all the numbers that that players and coaches and front offices have to sift through to gain edges, to gain advantages, to aid with player development, but you do get to a certain point when the ball’s put in play that it reverts to the game you played in Little League, right? Do you either do it, you don’t, and that’s, and that’s the analog, right? That that’s when, like, you know, it’s like the computers are turned off at that point in time, right? I mean, like, even, even pre-pitch, you know, you’re in your mind, you’re going through everything, you all your prep, and you know what’s the pitch most likely that that’s going to come in this count from this pitcher, what are his tendency, all those different things, and look, that’s that’s that part of the game is more sophisticated than ever, as I said to you, as we were texting about this on Tuesday night, the raw skill that player with which players play in 2026 as is as great as it’s ever been. The raw ability, I mean, in terms of the athletes, these guys didn’t

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Nestor Aparicio 28:12
play basketball and football and six other playing baseball when they were nine and that’s all they’ve done in their 26 like that’s

Luke Jones 28:19
no, and they’ve been trained in the, in many cases, many of them been trained in labs, like literal hitting and pitching labs, right. So, from that standpoint, you know, guys are throwing harder than ever, guys can hit the ball as impressively as ever, but they can’t bunt. There’s still that refinement that comes with playing and making sure you have experienced good coaches at every level of the minors, that yeah, it does feel like that part of the game is lacking at times, and again, it’s not everyone. There are phenomenal teams out there. I’m sure the coaches are in the dugout

Nestor Aparicio 28:57
saying, “My God, we ran that drill for three days. Oh, of course.

Luke Jones 29:01
Absolutely, it’s not

Nestor Aparicio 29:02
like situationally the coaches aren’t coaching, it’s the players in the heat of the battle. The pitcher gets the ball between first base and home plate and has not even thought, where am I going with the ball, and just shovels at the home plate, and there’s the glove with it in some cases,

Luke Jones 29:17
and that to me is one of the biggest arguments that I’ll actually hear in regards to analytics, right, where if there is such an information overload going on in terms of the actual at bat between pitcher and hitter, and throw the catcher in there if you want as well, that when and everyone else is thinking about their defensive positioning, do I need to move x number of steps to the left for this guy in this situation, all that, and again, I’m not being disparaging to that, I’m, you know, me, I’m, I’m about as far away from an anti-analytics person as you can get, but you do wonder if all of that pre-pitch information overload does, there is a full. All out, then, when it actually happens, and, oh, like the monitor’s off, and you need to go, go make that play. So, I don’t know, and I don’t know what the perfect solution is there, but yeah, when you see it, it’s ugly. I mean, it’s ugly. I mean, it’s one of those things where you want to see clean baseball, and again, like I said, there are teams out there that play great defense, you know, I mean, there are.. go look at the numbers, the Orioles have not been one of them. In a general sense, a pitcher should be your worst defender. In a general sense, he.. he’s off balance, throwing the ball, not thinking about defense at all, doesn’t play defense, maybe shag some fly balls in pregame, or whatever, you know, isn’t taking hot grounders at shortstop, or even at the mound, never catches a pop-up in a game, right? Yeah, like, so there is a point where it’s almost like being a pitcher who doesn’t hit, right? Like, you know what I mean? Like, a pitcher that doesn’t field, it’s not my job. My job is a relief pitcher, is the pitch, and then the ball gets dribbled out to you, and it’s not like you’ve never had a glove, or

Nestor Aparicio 31:00
you don’t know what you’re doing, but yeah, it’s major league speed at that moment, and you’re really not a major league fielder, like in the way you’d need to be. So, I think all the pitchers are a little vulnerable in that way, especially relief pitchers. Like, why would they be a good fielder? What would make them a good fielder? They have no experience doing that. They’re not out playing second base in the minor leagues, taking ground balls to become a pitcher, you know what I mean, like, so I think we saw the defensive thing is it’s bad enough, you’re not going to be great with your glove, I mean, you have an arm, you’re a pitch, you should be able to throw the ball to first base, no problem, but the decision making and the speed of it all, it is, they can practice it all day long, but when it happens in the game, there’s nothing practicable about it. It’s because of the speed of it. Do I go first? Do I go home? He made the wrong decision, but all that being said, it’s because he never rehearsed the right decision in his mind ahead of time. That’s all. Well, I

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Luke Jones 31:55
see. I, I’m guessing he probably did, but I think it just goes back to there’s so much that goes on pre-pitch, and there’s so much preparation that then trying to simulate that as well, the

Nestor Aparicio 32:10
violence of throwing the pitch and you landing off balance, and then the ball gets dribbled and the things moving at full instantly, you’re off balance, such a fast game, it is

Nestor Aparicio 32:21
a fat, it’s

Luke Jones 32:22
such a fast, very

Nestor Aparicio 32:23
fast, in that one of my, agree,

Luke Jones 32:25
look for all of his buckisms that were cute sayings, but didn’t really, in a big picture sense, I kind of wondered, like, how much is there really to that. Buck Showalter always talked about a player’s clock, internal clock, and I’ve mentioned that with Kobe Mayo this year. I think times you’ve seen Kobe Mayo, he’s a decent, he’s a decent enough athlete that he should be able to be a passable third baseman over time, and maybe he will be, and I think he’s had stretches where he’s looking about when you get the

Nestor Aparicio 32:56
ball that padding right of so many first base and rushing it from the moment it hits your glove, feeling like, Who’s running? Do I have enough time? Is it a fast guy? Is it a slow guy? Because the Jeremiah Jackson thing was also like, he’s not fast, right? Right. So there was a point on that on the one play where the maybe was that the triplet down third base, yeah, was where it’s like, well, you thought he was a fast guy, you had a chance to get him, you didn’t get him, and I think the third baseman, as he was sitting there, wisdom, he had some wisdom, he was thinking it through, and you know, in that moment, I think he’s thinking, you know, I, you can’t write a report, I knew that guy wasn’t a fast guy, you know, whatever, right,

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Luke Jones 33:38
right, and that play, look, I mean, he’s thinking it’s going to go foul. It’s still even, even with a slow runner, it’s still not going to be the easiest play in the world. Point is, he

Nestor Aparicio 33:47
wasn’t going to make that play. There are

Luke Jones 33:48
two, and we mentioned pitcher fielding. I mean, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention, I mean, we saw Ryan Kirkering of the Phillies. I mean, literally the Dodgers walked them off in the division series with him just making a brain dead kind of throwing error, right? I mean, just a ill-advised play completely, but there’s one, the game is really fast, and two, you’ve got to process and react very quickly, and you need to do it in a way that’s instinctual, but it’s easier said than done. Look, we even the last couple of weeks, we’ve seen some strange things happen. I mean, for anyone, for as long as you and I’ve been watching baseball, you still see weird things happen almost on a nightly basis, right? I mean, you just do. So I agree with you from the standpoint of it appears at times like guys aren’t prepared, and that’s there are certainly times when that happens, but I just think there’s a intersection between how you react and process and your internal clock with just how fast the game actually is. We’ve said this a lot, and we talk about it more in football, any. One who’s had a chance to be out there, and you know, forget media guys for a sec, for a second, we’re privileged to be there. That’s good. I’m not a media guy, but you were, but you were there for years, and you understand what I’m talking about here. But anyone who’s attended training camp, and you’ve had an opportunity that you’re as close as you’ve ever been to to football players, you see how fast it is in practice, let alone thinking about what that is in week three, or the divisional round of the playoffs. You realize how fast it is. Same thing applies in baseball. I can, I remember this. I don’t think I even mentioned it at the time, because you know there’s so many more pressing things going on at the time, but I remember the week of the Orioles getting ready to prepare to play in the division series against the Rangers. Right, they had a buy in the first round. They didn’t play the wild card round that year. They had a mock game or two at the ballpark, and as media, we were actually allowed to watch from the visitor dugout, and just watching from the dugout, that’s as close as I’ve watched major league action, not counting batting practice, right, which batting practice doesn’t have a crazy pace to it, but watching them basically play a sim game, a mock game, and just from the dugout, and it’s fast, and that’s where I’m not excusing anyone, but that’s where I think the key for players and player development is you’ve got to get that internal clock aligned with just how quickly it does move on the field, so it is there deficiency in that way in terms of player development. Yeah, I’d say so. I do think we talked

Nestor Aparicio 36:40
about it, because I mean, I wrote about it’s interesting in that this isn’t an oriole criticism, it’s a criticism of young 20 somethings playing a very fast game, right? But

Luke Jones 36:50
that said,

Nestor Aparicio 36:52
you’re a professional, the

Luke Jones 36:53
game is so much faster in terms of velocity and spin, and how I’ve said to you from a raw talent standpoint, now pitching actual, the actual art of pitching is a different story, but from a raw talent standpoint, pitching is more talented than it’s ever been. You at no other point in the game have you been in a position as a hitter where you are preparing to face up to eight or nine different guys that throw the ball, throw the ball hard, throw it in a variety of ways. I mean, you have guys that have multiple fastballs, you have guys that have multiple off speed, you have guys that throw multiple breaking balls. They don’t always, in many cases, they don’t know where it’s going exactly, and there’s that issue of command and refinement. And again, the craft of pitching is another story when you’re talking about Jim Palmer or Greg Maddux, or someone of that, that you think of with that kind of skill set, but just the raw ability that you go up against on any given night, there’s only so much bandwidth in the brain, right? I mean, like, think about it, like in any, unless you are such an overwhelmingly talented individual, and look, the very best baseball players fit that description. As far as that kind of intelligence, there’s just so much going on, and there’s so much information, and there’s so much to process that it to me, when you really understand that and consider that it makes some of the things that happen that look boneheaded a little bit easier to understand, I’m not excusing it, let me be clear about that, like, but the

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Nestor Aparicio 38:30
job is to be elite, it’s tough, well, that’s

Luke Jones 38:33
why, why do you think 10 years of service time is such a big deal in the major leagues, right, like that’s a big time celebration, Chris Bassett just had his, what, month ago, six weeks ago, whatever it was. That’s a big thing, because what’s interesting, I was actually just watching something the other day, someone trying to think which baseball writer it was. It’s escaping me right now, but they were making the point that we’re starting to find, because the pitching is, as you know, the velocity, the spin, the vertical break, the horizontal break, just how much there is that to overcome. They’re talking about hitters. You used to think of someone like kind of the line of demarcation for a player’s decline being closer to like the mid 30s, where you say all right, that guy might be just done. They’re finding guys are aging out far more quickly over this last 10 years, because just because of how hard everyone throws and how much spin there is, and like it’s tough. So they’re finding that when you’re 32 or 33 that that’s almost become the new 36 I don’t know, it was one person’s theory, I’m not sitting here saying that that’s factual, but it does speak to, well, this hard is making

Nestor Aparicio 39:50
it younger in general, no question, no question, yeah,

Luke Jones 39:53
more than ever, football too,

Nestor Aparicio 39:54
I mean, football, especially being Chris McAllister, and being a corner. Back at 30 is different than at 22 from a speed perspective in this sport, where linemen, the old Mike Munchaks and Bruce Matthews and Marshall Yondas, could play until they’re 3435 36 Clays Campbell, another guy in the shorter space, being a big strong guy, that’s different than the speed part of the game,

Luke Jones 40:20
and I’m glad you brought that up, because that speaks to that lends itself to the idea that we’re talking about here. If it’s become much more of a young man’s game, there’s less time spent in the minors in development, right? Because if you’ve got the raw skill that you can hit a ball 400 feet or you throw 100 miles per hour, we’re not going to waste those bullets and double and triple A forever. Like, get here and help us win, but when you do that, you sometimes have underdeveloped and unfinished players at the major league level who then will throw to the wrong speed level critical. I’ll

Nestor Aparicio 40:53
use Keaton Mitchell as an example of a recent guy, dude. When I saw him running at full speed, he looked as fast as anybody I’ve ever seen, right? Like, just in the last couple of years, just him. I’m using him as an example, not because he’s Anthony’s kid, or I barely.. I don’t think I’ve even met getting Mitchell in my life, but they threw him off. He’s playing for Chargers, right? Yeah, right. So, why would the Ravens not want him anymore? And the Ravens might look at him and say he will never be faster than he was when he was 21 or 22 and once he’s had a surgery or an injury, or this or that, 25 is different than 22 or 26 is different than 22 that when they tape these guys at 2021 whatever, however old they are in Indianapolis at the combine, whatever that is, 28 or 29 like that is the peak to your point, and once you get to be 32 or 33 no matter how good Derrick Henry is, or how fast he is, he cannot run away from people the way he did in Alabama, the way I saw him do it years ago. My wife was sick, and, and I remember that speed, that that Derrick Henry Hall of Fame thing that he had at that point, he doesn’t have that anymore. Neither does Lamar, by the way. Either Lamar is not going to be as fast as you remember him being in Cincinnati, breaking ankle six years ago, and that really does speak to something that, as I’ve gotten older and having done this a long time, the point you just made, the scientific point of 34 isn’t what it was 20 years ago, because most of these guys, in the speed that they play with in all the games, hockey, any sport you want, you know,

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Luke Jones 42:31
by the way, not to mention things that were going into 34 year old bodies 25 years ago, right, but that’s another, especially in

Nestor Aparicio 42:41
baseball, especially in football too. But yeah, that’s it’s an interesting point to say, like, why wouldn’t the Ravens want Keaton Mitchell anymore? Well, he’s not as fast as he was three years ago, and one injury, one surgery, and if speed’s your game, you’re just never going to be elite like that again. In the same way, my vision’s never going to be the way it was when I was 10 years old, and I could see a bus before my father could put all the glasses on me, you want, but like you seeing it and having the speed to do it, and having the youth and the ability to do it, there’s only one time in your life you’re at your prime, and then everything else after that, you’re just not anymore. I know I saw Getty Lee the other night, everything

Luke Jones 43:20
after that, everything after that is trying to maintain that as much as you can, and Derek Henry is the exception to that, right? No, he’s not the guy he was eight years ago physically, but he’s not that far off, and that’s why he’s continued to be as incredible as he’s been. I mean it’s funny, a

Nestor Aparicio 43:41
role this Chapman can still throw the ball under. This is a total aside. It’s funny you mentioned

Luke Jones 43:45
Keith Mitchell, but this just stuck in my brain. And we’re going to look back on, and we talked about it at the time, but obviously no one knew how it was going to play out and what happened in the AFC Championship game that year and everything, but when you look with hindsight, what a devastating injury that was to what the Ravens’ offense was the rest of the year, right? And they played great, right? I mean, it’s not, it’s not as though it showed up like that, they.. but when you look at what happened against the Chiefs in the AFC title game, man, if they had had Keaton Mitchell, maybe you’re, maybe you’re less apt to give up on the run, and so, like, you look at that, that’s that’s going to be one of the ultimate what if speed kills Mitchell doesn’t wreck his knee randomly, right? Remember, it was just like he just, like, it was like a false step or whatever, his knee just gave out on him, he was breaking away on a long run in Jacksonville. If that doesn’t happen, man, that feels like, and it felt it was a bummer at the time, because of how great his career had started, how how he had started him

Nestor Aparicio 44:51
up, because, like, the speed part of his game was like, oh my god, it’s all there is ugly when you see that, but then once there’s an injury, I. Could you say you’ll come back, and you’ll come back, but it’s.. it’s just.. don’t think it’s.. can ever be the same, you know, with speed, with me close power, but speed.. no, I don’t know,

Luke Jones 45:10
but here.. but.. but this is when, like I said, you get to a point where you’re trying to maintain or sustain what you have from a raw skill standpoint, but then that’s when you start to consider everything else. Look, I’ll sit here and question to this day whether we’re gonna find out whether that was wise to do or not. I mean, first, first, if Derek Henry sprains an ankle and is out a month, or what, it like, we’re gonna be having a very different conversation, especially if Keaton Mitchell’s running up and down the field for the Chargers, hitting some home runs, like, like he’s apt to do, but that’s, but that’s when you start to consider the rest of the game. How is he in pass protection? How is he as a receiver, right? What does he do on special teams if you’re not going to be the starting running back, right? So you consider all those things, and I know this is a baseball conversation, but that it’s the same principle, right? I mean, you have to consider everything, so when you get back to what we were talking about with the young players and mistakes that they might be apt to make, it’s always been that way to some degree, but as you get older, you might be cleaner fundamentally, and in most cases will be cleaner fundamentally. But what about your raw skill? What about your raw ability? Where is that? Are you made smarter, but you

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Nestor Aparicio 46:21
can’t get there as quick.

Luke Jones 46:23
That’s why, as much as we talk about AI, video games, all the, you know, all the things that teams do with science and technology, we are still talking about human beings playing a sport, and that’s why I continue to love it, even if it looks different, even if it’s not, you know, in some ways it’s not as good as it’s as it was, but I would also say in other ways it’s better than it’s ever been. But, man, it’s a heck of a thing, right? Getting old, and that’s it. Kind of speaks to the human spirit too. I mean, that’s why I’ve said to you over the years, some of my favorite athletes over the years have been guys that figure are figuring it out at the end. Late career, Peyton Manning was one of my, for whatever reason, and I was never a Peyton Manning guy, but seeing him try to figure out, like, remember, he didn’t have great grip strength at the end of his career, he wore a glove because of the neck issue and all that, I mean, see, he would also turtle

Nestor Aparicio 47:15
up instead of taking a sack, no doubt, but yeah, but

Luke Jones 47:18
seeing different guys at the very end of their career, just trying to figure it out, because their physical skills are shot, running

Nestor Aparicio 47:26
around Tampa, winning Super Bowls.

Luke Jones 47:27
So, I mean, it’s just.. there’s a certain, but to me, there’s a certain amount of charm to that. That’s just seeing Kenny Lee

Nestor Aparicio 47:33
sing Vital Signs the other night at 72 and try to figure it out, get a 40 year old female drummer who’s doing,

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Luke Jones 47:41
but that’s what makes it fun, right? And that’s why it’s easy to be disillusioned with sports in a lot of ways, but that’s where it’s important to, when you, when you can recognize something like I just mentioned, enjoy that. That’s one reason why I will never be the guy that says, “Oh, so and so needs to retire, he’s going to taint his legacy. I may have said that in the past, but as I get older, if you’re Joe Flacco, someone wants to keep paying you money, Kalias Campbell, someone wants to keep giving you a check to play football, play as long as you can, as long as that’s what’s best for you and your family. If, if you’re not the same player you were five years ago or 10 years ago, so what I mean, you’re still one of the best in the world, someone, someone still wants you to do it, so I will never begrudge a player, but, but it is fascinating to kind of talk about these players at different stages of their career, and yeah, sometimes what we’ve seen with baseball is you’ll see some guys do some really silly and dumb looking things, even if they are incredibly, incredibly talented,

Nestor Aparicio 48:43
I’m about to do a silly and dumb little thing right now. I’m going to read Inside the Owner’s Box: Conversations on Power and Leadership in Sports, David Rubenstein. There you go. So the book’s out. I’ll, I’m sure he’ll be on the show to talk to me about it. Luke’s going to be at the ballpark this week. The Orioles are home. The Ravens are also doing mini camping things. We’re going to be talking about that. If you hear Roquan Smith around here, hear the voice of Jesse Minter. I don’t know that we know what his voice sounds like. There’s 14 minutes in our audio vault, all brought to you by Farnham and Durham. It’s all up at WNST and Baltimore Positive as well. He’s Luke, I’m Nestor. We are WNSD AM 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stopped talking. Baltimore positive.