Fatigued by the awfulness of Orioles

The Baltimore Orioles are a terrible baseball team right now. On a 100-loss pace after striking out 17 times and getting just three hits in another 9-1 loss to the Minnesota Twins. Stink. Stank. Stunk. Luke Jones and Nestor are getting fatigued by the awfulness of it all…

Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Baltimore Orioles’ dismal performance, noting their 13-21 record and a -63 run differential, the second worst in baseball. They highlighted the team’s struggles in both pitching and hitting, with specific mention of the Orioles’ 9-1 loss to the Twins. Jones emphasized the need for significant improvement, suggesting the team might need to play like a 95-win team to reach the playoffs. They also touched on potential changes in management and the impact of injuries on the roster. The conversation concluded with reflections on the broader implications for the team’s future.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Orioles malaise, pitching issues, hitting struggles, run differential, Memorial Day, 100-loss pace, player injuries, coaching staff, Mike Elias, Cal Ripken, player development, offensive performance, bullpen issues, team morale, fan frustration.

SPEAKERS

8

Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome all. We are W, N, S T am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. And this is the Back to the Future. Scratch us. I’ll be giving these away on Wednesday at red brick station in White Marsh. Take a little rest. But we’re going to be doing the show in Las Vegas next weekend, maybe with Elvis at the pool, I’m not sure, as part of the Maryland party that’ll be happening on Preakness weekend. And then we’re getting back to action. We’re going to be back at faintly later on in the month, and also going to green mount station in Hampstead, one of my favorite places to have crab cake and hang out with Chris and the group up there. So we’ll be doing that in early June. Can’t believe we’re talking June. It’s early May. Justin Tucker, still not a raven and Luke Jones, is it the pitching, or is it the hitting? Is it the hitting, or is it the pitching, or is this just a bad baseball team? As we put on the headlines at Baltimore positive. Can

Luke Jones  00:58

I just say yes. I mean, I always think back to Bucha Walter, and he would be asked an either or kind of question, and he would often just say, yes. It’s funny, I have to share this with you, because I shared this with my brother in law and with my brother. Things are so bad, and you know me Nestor, I’m not a hockey guy and I’m not a SOCCER GUY, and I don’t say that in a hating kind of way. I just those aren’t sports that I grew up following, and I still don’t really follow today, but on Tuesday. I mean, things are so bad with the Orioles at this point in time, I must say, Inter Milan in Barcelona was on CBS in the afternoons the Champions League semi final. So phenomenal match. I mean, it was, and I say that as a guy who doesn’t know a lick about soccer, but it was great. I really enjoyed it, you know, went to extra time all that. And the caps played game one against Carolina. Now, unfortunately for caps fans, and I say this, you know, with no Glee or anything like that, they lost in overtime, but I thoroughly enjoyed watching those two games over whatever that performance was from the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday night. And we’re saying that way too much at this point in time, and at some point we’re just going to have to accept what the Orioles continue to tell us over and over and over and over and over. I mean, we’re less than three weeks from Memorial Day at this point, which traditionally speaking, is kind of the the the checkpoint where you say, Okay, it’s not it’s not early anymore. Look, mathematically, yeah, there’s still a ton of baseball to be played, and I’ll hear every argument to be made in terms of the American League and three wild cards and all of that. But at some point in time you’ve got to start showing some semblance of a pulse, some semblance of life. I mean, this team is 13 and 21 right now. They have the second worst run differential in baseball, at minus 63 if you didn’t know anything about the players and you just looked at all these teams, you looked at the standings, you looked at run differential. The idea in baseball that run differential tends to be about something that you indicate, as predictive as something that will indicate okay as a team, really lucky, really just really bad. It’s indicative of a really bad team to be at minus 63 through 34 games and well, they

Nestor Aparicio  03:21

did have a 20 run differential in one of the games. So,

8

Luke Jones  03:25

I mean, they did, they did, but, but they also have plenty of other games where they’ve lost nine to one, like they did on Tuesday night, where you just say, I mean, it’s just, it’s bad, it’s bad. And does that mean, I think they’re going to lose 100 games like the pace that they’re currently on right now, probably not. But you start doing that,

Nestor Aparicio  03:44

thought about that. By the way, you said that out loud, they’re on 100 lost pace. That’s a hell of a number. I

Luke Jones  03:50

mean, they are. I mean, that’s where they are right now. Yeah. I mean, a 382, winning percentage. But you start to do the math, and you start thinking about this. So, and I’m not saying that this is the number this year, but generally speaking, since we’ve pivoted to three wild cards in each league, I think you look at, you know, kind of a benchmark of 87 wins, 88 wins, you know, that kind of feels about right? And maybe it’s less, maybe the third wild card will be an 84 win team this year, right? But just for for purposes of this exercise, for the Orioles to go 88 and 74 which you know would if they did that, you’d feel good about them being a wild card. At the very least, you’d feel good about them in general if they want 88 kills, right? Because that entails playing like a 95 win baseball team the rest of the year, even with this team at full strength going into the season or and I guess they weren’t at full strength going into the season, but I think you understand what I mean by that. I don’t think there were too many people who thought this was going to be a 95 win outfit. And when you look at the pitching, you look at the. Fact that they’re 28th and runs allowed per game. They are not now down to 23rd and runs scored per game. This isn’t below average offense. This is teetering towards just playing bad offense. And we saw that. And look, Pablo Lopez is a good pitcher, and you know, if it’s any given night, he can make some good offenses look bad, and he’s not even left handed, right? Exactly. He’s not even left handed so but I mean, you struck out 17 times on Tuesday night. It’s just at some point in time the Orioles emphatically are telling us what they are, by the way. Did you see the Will Clark? Video? Will Clark? No,

Nestor Aparicio  05:41

8

go ahead, you look him up. That just won’t roll the thrill played for the original guy, like he like, we’ll get to that in a moment. He just said something about curiosity out. Okay, the striking out thing was just sort of like he did a very, very profane thing about striking out and and sucking nonetheless. Go ahead, I have to get some comedy in here, because if I don’t, I’m going to sit with Mickey Coachella next week on this. I got, I’m trying to be funny. Well,

Luke Jones  06:07

that works. Let off. I mean, you know me, I’m not Mr. Soccer or hockey, and I’m telling you that I’ve resorted to, started to watch soccer and hockey because things are so bad, but, but I just, you look at this thing and it’s just all right, I’ll get I’ll hear Zach Eflin looks like he’s on track to return this weekend, and that’s going to help, but because, goodness, I mean, Charlie Morton starting another game now. So this team will own the heels of having a three game losing streak, and on a second they started tonight, they put Charlie Morton back in the rotation, right? I mean, for now, stop the music for a minute. They need to, you know, they’re, they’re pushing back Dean Kramer a day. I’m guessing it has to do with the line drive he took off his off his leg, but, but that’s, that’s where they are. Brandon young in triple A, which not saying. Brandon young looked great in his two starts as an Oriole. He’s on the IL now with with the shoulder issue. I mean, their pitchers either can’t perform or they can’t stay healthy. I mean, it’s just, it’s a bad baseball team, and I would love, I would love, nothing more than to be able to have a mia culpa in three weeks and say, All right, maybe we jumped the gun a little bit. But, I mean, this is they’re exuding everything that bad baseball teams do. The pitching is awful. Their offense is below average, to bad at this point.

Nestor Aparicio  07:30

Yeah, I think this is the stuff that gets people fired, right? And I know we talked about this a couple weeks ago, and I look at it and I just the organization and Rubenstein’s hiding and like he didn’t know enough to make a baseball decision to hire a baseball guy. I don’t who he listens to at this point, who’s got his ear, whether they know anything about baseball, people are writing to me now. I’ve literally got, I’ll read my letter out loud to you in a minute, because after a nine to one loss, we’re only going to go so we’re going to break down every strikeout, you know, I don’t know what we’re going to do, but, but you want to talk about Kate povidge A little bit. But as bad as it’s been, that was my thought, my thought, because I reread my dear Katie Griggs letter for my own edification, because I’m writing a letter to Justin Tucker, and I’m just trying to pick up my own writing tone on just where I am in life and the frustration that I have spoken to you about earlier this week, the frustrations that SIG and I spoke about last week, frustrations that I you know, that I wear on my sleeve, in a general sense, about the disappointment about on and off the field. I mean, with the Ravens on the fields, fine, until Mark Andrews drops the ball, or they miss a kick, or they don’t show up on the podium, or they have to cut their kicker for football reasons while drafting another. Like, it’s just on and on and on. But this baseball season was supposed to be something, you mean, like, this is not, you know, I mean, it’s not crying over spilled milk. This is like, this guy inherited, I’m talking about Rubenstein, a team that had a lot of problems, but the shining light was the one biggest problem is the field. And what’s on the field, you’re going to be okay with that dude, like you’re going to have good players, and this is going to be a good team. I don’t I’m exasperated, and it’s May. I don’t know what to say,

Luke Jones  09:17

Yeah, and look, they are very injured. I we have, we have to continue to acknowledge that they are very injured. And that’s a big part of this. And this is why I’m not sitting here saying that I would expect this team, as it’s presently constructed, that they should be 21 and 13 compared to 13 and 21 but you’re at a point where you’re very much in danger of burying yourself at this point. I mean, we already said they have to play like a 95 win team the rest of the year just to win 88 games. And you know, where’s the help coming? Okay? Oh, here, Elaine, it you hope it makes their starting rotation better, to the point where Charlie Morton doesn’t have to make any more starts, and whether they let them dabble in the bullpen for a little bit longer, or whatever happens five. Line, but that’s that doesn’t turn the rotation from horrendous to good overnight, or good enough overnight. And the offense, Tyler O’Neill just started a rehab assignment at Norfolk West Berg’s getting ready to start one those guys should be returning, but I still look at the the lineup on Tuesday night. And don’t get me wrong, it’s not a lineup at full strength, but let me just go down the names real quick. Mullins, Henderson, rutchman, O’Hearn, Mount Castle holiday cursed ad Mayo Carlson. The only name there that really stands out, like if we were talking about this lineup in February, is Dylan Carlson’s playing tonight, who? Yeah, the other eight guys are, whether it’s their best nine or not when all things, everyone’s healthy, they’re they’re legitimate guys. They’re guys that we’ve talked about, or guys that are on the come allegedly, like Heston kersta and Kobe Mayo the last couple years. Bucha

8

Nestor Aparicio  10:59

would say you better have some pile divers in there. We got the wrong team. But

Luke Jones  11:02

my point is, with that so that lineup, you look at that lineup and say, oh, man, the injuries are really catching up. I mean, those are eight guys that we’ve talked about as being either guys that are established major leaguers or guys that are going to be real things for you over the next few years. And, you know, I don’t want to pick on him individually, but Kobe Mayo isn’t a Major League third baseman. He continues to show that, and he struck out three more times. I mean, that’s this goes back to last August. I’m waiting for Kobe Mayo to show me a sign that he’s a major league baseball player. I mean, this guy’s a top 1520 prospect in baseball, and his struggles continue. And he’s not the only one, let’s be clear. And and we’ve seen that in terms of guys getting to the majors and giving too much of a vibe that they’re a quad a player. But meanwhile, Kyle Stowers goes to the Marlins and go look at his numbers. He’s on a terrific year. You know, maybe the Marlins figured something out that the Orioles genius player development couldn’t unlock. But it’s just, there’s a lot of frustration. I You could tell how frustrated I am watching this baseball team, because it’s a bad baseball team. This isn’t 13 and 21 with a minus seven run differential, where you’re saying, Man, they’ve had some rotten look and some one run games and no this. They played a lot of uncompetitive baseball, non competitive baseball, and at some point in time, like you just have to start believing what they’re telling you over and over and over and over. David, it we’re approaching. We’re the second week of May. Now they still haven’t won three games in a row. They’ve won two series all year. It’s not that early anymore to just keep saying, Oh no, it’s just a

Nestor Aparicio  12:48

bad when you you’ve only won two series all year, it means you lost the rest of them kind of, sort of, because you’re not splitting a whole lot

Luke Jones  12:54

8

anymore. And the game, the run differential, and everything the run differential would tell you. And let me pull it up just to be completely accurate and fair here, because

Nestor Aparicio  13:04

you can attack eight more on it’s a plus eight or a minus

Luke Jones  13:08

eight three. But I’ll give you a nerdy, you know, kind of a nerdy statistic here that people use so Pythagorean win loss record has to do with based on how many runs you’ve scored compared to how many runs you’ve allowed, right? And we already and we already said they’re minus 63 so they are 13 and 21 their Pythagorean win loss record suggest they they’re playing. They’re an 11 and 23 team, so from that standpoint, based on the run differential, they actually have a couple more wins than you’d expect. So that tells you that, I don’t want to say they’re lucky, but it tells you that just how bad this is. So, I mean, it’s something’s got to give. And

Nestor Aparicio  13:50

well, the gotta give is these players have to hit the ball because there’s no one else coming at this point. And to some degree, these pitchers have to pitch. Charlie Morton has to make it through five innings, one night sometime, and give them a chance to win. I and maybe that just won’t happen anymore. I mean, we’re right again. He’s 41 years old. That’s not, you know, yeah, you’ve been borrowing from Father Time for a long time. It, you know, he wins all wars.

8

Luke Jones  14:15

And to be very clear, even if you thought Tommy or Tommy Charlie Morton was, quote, washed up, even if you were in fear of that happening. I still don’t know if many people thought he’d have a 10 era, right? Maybe, maybe five and a half, six

Nestor Aparicio  14:32

or listen, but hey, with 41 it becomes unserviceable. It does. It’s where Kimbrel is, but it becomes like

Luke Jones  14:40

But at age 40, this, but at age 40, he was still, you know, it’s not, as I even said, he had a decent, he had a fine September,

Nestor Aparicio  14:48

8

like, dude, I’m with you. It’s a whole lot more problematic that Kobe Mayo can’t find the baseball than it is 41 year old pitcher. I mean,

Luke Jones  14:54

all right. I mean, all of it’s problematic. I mean, yeah, they have young players who are supposed. To be really good. And, I mean, Adley rutschman is hitting 211 you know, Ryan mount Castle, who did have an RBI double on Tuesday night, you know, drove in their only run right now, Mount Castle has a 315 slugging percentage. I mean, go down the list as far as how these guys are performing or not performing. I do find it interesting in this, you know, I say this in jest to a point, but maybe not Jackson holiday, who’s really started swinging the bat well. And you kind of look at his numbers, they’re, they’re looking quite representative at this point. I mean, he’s looking, looking the part of an ascending young player who’s playing better and better. He hits the ball hard, hitting 270, contact. Yeah, he struck out twice. I mean, every once. Struck out on Tuesday night, but you know, he had a hit. He’s hitting 272, his Ops is up there, 780, ish. But he recently noted that his dad noticed something with his stance and made an adjustment. And look, let me be clear. I don’t say this to in a way that’s making fun of the Orioles hitting coaches because it’s Matt holiday. I mean, a guy that’s going to go down as a hall of very good ish kind you know, he had a heck of a career, right? I mean, not saying a Hall of Famer, but someone who brings a level of credibility that the average player’s dad, even if they played in college or played, dabbled in minor league ball or something like that. But I say this in jest, but at the same time, well, maybe Matt holiday should be there hitting, right? I mean, and it’s funny. And again, I’m saying that tongue in cheek mostly,

Nestor Aparicio  16:36

but Peter Angelos were here, he’d be on staff, yeah.

Luke Jones  16:40

And again, I’m not seriously calling for that. However,

8

Nestor Aparicio  16:43

he’d say, does he know more than Rick Dempsey, is there? There is something to be

Luke Jones  16:47

said that I’ve noticed the mariners, for example, and the mariners, obviously, their offense was awful last year, and that was, you know, that was a big sticking point for them, in terms of they had this great starting rotation, and their their offense just didn’t do the job. They hired Edgar Martinez. They brought Edgar Martinez into their program as far and I don’t think he’s their official hitting coach. I think he’s like their offensive strategy advisor, something like

Nestor Aparicio  17:16

that. Well, only because Tony gwynn’s dead, I would say Edgar Martinez may be on Earth, the best year I’ve ever seen, but, but I guess, literally, maybe each a robe.

Luke Jones  17:27

8

But I guess my point is, and the mariners mean they have, you know, they have a general manager that’s cut from the same kind of teeth, you know, cut from the same cloth as a michaelias, you know, when you talk about where they are, but you know, Jerry de poto is, of course, who I’m referring to. I think he’s our president of baseball ops. But you know, they, they have Edgar Martinez in the mix there, who’s not someone that you would think of, that you know, is an analytics guy. And look, he might be very well versed in that, but I guess my point in making and saying that, and again, this wasn’t me seriously calling for Matt Holliday to be their hitting coach, but maybe there does need to be a greater emphasis on some coaches with a little carrying a little more clout from a major league experience standpoint. Maybe there’s something to be said for a little more emphasis on the human element. We’ve talked about that with the roster construction, with the veterans, but whatever the case. And again, this kind of brings it back to my big picture

Nestor Aparicio  18:27

question here. Also brings it back to my email. But go ahead, it’s

Luke Jones  18:30

good. It is. You know, my my question here is, you know, are we going to continue to just keep doing the same thing here? I mean, your player development gets these guys to trip away and ready to them for the majors. But is there something missing? Is there something that other teams have caught up to, that you need to make an adjustment here? As I mentioned, the changes they made from from a hitting coach standpoint, really kind of looked more like window dressing than drastic changes. You know, they promoted two guys from within, and they hired an assistant hitting coach from the mariners, who I just spent time talking about how bad she

Nestor Aparicio  19:07

would be. Was the hitting broken last year, or was it just broken in October? What was it for the second half? Second half? I mean, blaming the hitting coaches because Jackson holiday and COVID Mayo couldn’t hit or because the rest of them were okay, right? I mean, I don’t, I didn’t look at last year and say, heads have got to roll about the hitting. I would say that makes this year second

8

Luke Jones  19:28

half, though the hitting did fall off. I mean, we talked about it with Richmond, whether, you know whether how much of it was health and how much of it was bad habits, maybe direct tied to health, well, he’s still not. He’s hit, he’s been better in terms of

Nestor Aparicio  19:42

talk about bad instruction last so much less. That’s all I’m saying, I mean, but now we are because when

Luke Jones  19:47

everyone’s struggling, when everyone’s struggling, you have to ask these questions. You need to be self critical, you have to be introspective in terms of why this is the way it is. And that’s why i. You know, you mentioned Rubenstein, and look, that’s it getting to it will get to a point potentially where that becomes a bigger factor. But this is Mike Elias, who has to look at this at this point in time and say, Is there something that’s missing here? Because our hitters, who do great through triple A, including Coby mayo, they come to the majors and, you know, other you know, ruts been his first two years. Gunner, Henderson, of course. But we’re seeing enough guys struggle. Where is there something missing here? When I say struggle, I don’t mean like, oh, they need to be a 300 hitter from the moment they arrive. But some of these guys that you’re talking about prolonged issues, or guys that are regressing, in some cases where I ask, Is something missing? Is something the teams catch on to, something that you did that was cutting edge from a hitting development standpoint, and they’ve caught up, and they’ve now been able to adjust, and now you haven’t made an adjustment to their adjustment, right? I mean, I’m not saying that’s what it is, definitively, but, my goodness, these are the questions you have to ask. I’ve used this analogy since the second week of the season. The pitching is a D student that’s getting F’s right now, right? We didn’t think the pitching was very good, even when it was close to full strength, we had our questions whether it was going to be good enough. So yeah, the pitching is awful, but I can’t sit here and say that. I’m shocked that it’s been awful. I am shocked that their offense is what was supposed to be, allegedly, an honor student, you know, the strength of your team, and got a D plus average at this point. I mean, they’re below average, and their bottom 10 and run scored per game at this point. And I know they’ve, they’ve been banged up, but as I said, you look at that lineup Tuesday night on paper, that’s, that’s the lineup that everyone’s been hyping the last few years in terms of, oh, you get cursed at here, and you get Mayo here and, and it’s just like, what gives this? This is so far below the bar, and that’s it’s why I banged so much on on the hitting, you know, almost like we have you even joked as we were texting the other day. It’s almost like an avid Costello. Costello routine, three hits

Nestor Aparicio  22:19

8

in 17 strikeouts speaks for itself, right? I mean, it’s just, and, you know, let’s matter that they gave up nine. They did. They could open up four. And right?

Luke Jones  22:29

And let me be clear, and this is where we can bring it back, specifically to what happened Tuesday night. I mean, kapovid, things completely fell apart for Him. And, you know, I kind of looked at, I went back and re watched that inning even. And, you know, he went up against the lineup. That was what all but one hitter was swinging from the right side. You know, some, some switch hitters in that lineup too. But that third inning, he relied so much on curveball and fastball when you’re a lefty, going up against a lot of right handed hitters. You know, a big part of what was talked about this spring and early this season, when kadepovich has looked better, has been that kick changeup that he’s throwing. His change up wasn’t even a factor. He wasn’t even trying to throw it in that inning. And I so I kind of questioned the pitch selection there, and obviously located, poorly located a couple fastballs, poorly located a couple curve balls, and, you know, before you know it, it’s five, nothing. And then at that point, yeah, you’re thinking, Man, that this this game shot because your offense has done nothing early on, and now they’re down five, nothing. But, you know, I just, I looked at that, and I, you know, the other innings, he pitched fine, and at the very least, he gave them enough length that their bullpen wasn’t completely shot on Tuesday night, although certainly late, late in the game. It didn’t pitch well,

Nestor Aparicio  23:46

but it only takes one bad inning and it’s over. Yeah, no question but, but I

Luke Jones  23:49

just kind of looked at that inning and I kind of questioned even the pitch selection. So, I mean, it’s just, there’s nothing I like about this team right now. I mean, and I don’t say that with any level of hyperbole, there are certain individuals that are having good seasons, like Brian o’hearns having a really good year. We’ve talked about Mullins, although Mullins, the last two weeks, has really cooled off. You know, Jackson holidays, of all their young guys, Jackson holidays the one guy that it’s like, hey, it looks like he’s starting to really figure this out. And that’s that’s great to see, right? Because

8

Nestor Aparicio  24:21

with Gunner Henderson, figure it out again. I want to see, you

Luke Jones  24:23

know, I want to see gunner Henderson. Look and you know, Gunner swung the bat a little bit better of late, but you know, he’s still not hitting for power. Adley rutschman has drawn walks. The Walk rate has gone way up back where it was the first couple years. That gives me some hope. But the overall profile is a sub 700 hitter, 700 ops hitter. I mentioned mount castle kerstad continues to not look like a hit player. You know? I mean, I’m not ready to go that far, but certainly not looking like a starting to me looking like more like maybe a reserve, which, even then it’s a flaw. Called. That’s a flawed profile, because he’s not strong defensively. So it’s just, it’s not a whole lot to be encouraged by right now, other than Yes, Zach Eflin is coming back this weekend, the way it sounds, if his bullpen session midweek goes well, so that’s good. That will make them better. How much better? Well, he pitches once in the rotation, right? He goes, this is

Nestor Aparicio  25:23

where Kyle Gibson and the rest of this thing, like, I mean, it’s got names we’ve thrown out. You know, Chicano has to continue to give be the one guy every fifth day to give him a chance to win, yeah,

Luke Jones  25:33

8

but even, but even with that, you just look at this, it’s like, it’s not, it doesn’t carry the makeup of a team that has the ability to get on a roll. I mean, it just doesn’t, I mean, and to be clear, being 13 and 21 it doesn’t mean you have to win 14 straight and make it all up at once. You know you can. You’re still, there’s still enough time to say you win two out of three, you win two out of three, you win two out of three, you split a four game set win two out of three, right? I mean, if you can

Nestor Aparicio  26:03

late at night this weekend, trying to do that against the angels, right? And especially against these bad teams they’ve got, I mean, I don’t know they are a bad team,

Luke Jones  26:10

yeah, well, and that’s the thing. I mean, you look at it on paper and you say the month of May, I mean, the schedule sets up to get back in this thing, but at the same time, the twins and the angels and other teams that the Orioles are gonna be playing here in the coming weeks are looking at Baltimore and saying, man, they’re really struggling. This is a chance for us to win some games here. I mean, the twins are. Twins have been bad. I mean, the twins are, I don’t want to say kindred spirits, that they’re exactly like the Orioles. But remember the twins had that awful September last year where, you know, they didn’t make the playoffs, and you know that’s kind of carried over to this year, where, you know, again, they’ve been underwhelming and disappointing in the Al central but well, they looked really good with Pablo Lopez on the Hill on Tuesday night. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention this as well, another decision to second guess of Mike Elias Danny coulomb, he pitched on Tuesday night. Do you see what his era is? Zero? It’s still zero. Meanwhile, the Orioles chose CNL Perez, who has a nine two era. That’s one. That’s still, I said it at the time in the off season. I mean, they declined a $4 million option for they were worried about him, right? They assumed they were worried about his health. Well, a month and a half into the season, he looks fine, and he’s pitched well, you know, even missing enough bats, which was something I did acknowledge late last year. So again, whether you’re predictive models and your numbers that you run, and all that I question. Well, there’s something wrong with that then. And who knows? Maybe Danny cool and breaks down next next week, and Elias will look smart, but I don’t know. I mean, for for $4 million for what Danny cool meant to your bullpen the last couple years, that that always felt weird to me. But you know, so far he’s, he’s pitched really well for the twins. So just another decision you can kind of point to and say, you know, you start to ask questions as far as just how much confidence you have in any of this at this point, you know, front office, coaching staff players. I mean, it’s, there’s not a whole lot to be overly optimistic about as it pertains to 2025 I’m not, believe me, my my tone of doom and gloom isn’t that this whole thing is shot to the point where you’re going to have to go through a five year rebuild again. I’m not there, let me be clear. But I am very worried at this point that that 2025 could end up being a lost season. I mean, because it already is so far. I mean, a long way to, like I said, right? I mean, you have to, you have to play like a 95 win team. You have to play 586, baseball the rest of the year, to go 88 and 74 that’s just to go 88 and 74 and even if this pitching staff does get healthier, you need to make sure you don’t lose anyone else in the process. And again, this offense, you know, we’re waiting, right? I mean, we’re waiting, and it’s just it’s not getting any better. In some ways, it’s getting worse. I mean, go, look at what their run output has been the last two weeks. It’s been bad, like bad and terrible, terrible pitching with below average to bad offense, you know, not even take into account the defense or the base running, which those elements haven’t been very good either. I mean, they’re telling you loud and clear what they are. If they’re going to prove otherwise, then it’s going to be a drastic shift here at some point, sooner than later, but, man, it’s again, we’re less than three weeks away from Memorial Day, and this team’s got a lot of work to do to make things up, to show that they’re a better baseball team than they’ve shown really at any point here over the first six weeks of the season.

Nestor Aparicio  29:57

All right, so I got something for you here, and this is not. Thing of any conjecture of mine, I’ve not made a phone call on this. I have not called any member of the Ripken family or maroon team, or any of the people that I’ve known for 30 some odd years and traveled halfway around the world with at one point. Will walls long time listener. He’s one of the 10 that we have and wrote me a letter, and I can read it out loud. It has to with Katie Griggs and press passes and all that stuff. But just asking about Cal ripkens and involvement and three times a week now, people are coming up to me because Cal has put himself on television, behind on plate, his kids doing the podcast. It’s ripping this. It’s ripping that his brother’s on television every day. He’s involved in the ownership, part of the ownership. However, I don’t who knows what the financial arrangement to all of that would be. I have not been out, allowed to ask any questions I could. I guess I could text Cal if I wanted to. Maybe I shall probably talk to John maroon the whole what’s the Ripken story on all of this, but the story to the fans is your Edgar Martinez thing, your Matt Holliday thing, the notion that Cal Ripken was always going to ride in on a white horse with a number eight on it and save the day and save the franchise. I don’t think anybody believes that at this point, but some people do, and he is involved, and his hands are sticky, whether he wants it to be or not. I’m not in any way thought the Cal Ripken wants to take an 8080, hour a week job at this point in his life and be Mike Elias. I don’t think that’s the gig. I don’t know what the gig would be, and I know Cal’s now making he made commercials last year. Feels like he’s a little more removed this year, but I I have no idea the reality, because none of them speak to me, but the Ripken thing is dangling in the populace. That’s all. I’m bringing it to light because this is not the first time this week that somebody has said something to me about Cal Ripken coming back to run the team or something?

8

Luke Jones  32:03

Yeah. I mean, it’s, you know, it’s been rumored off and on. And when I say rumored, not meaning rumors from within the organization per se or within baseball per se, but just fan conjecture and everything. I mean, it’s been talked about for 20 years off and on. My question to that would be, I mean, what about Cal’s profile, other than a Hall of Fame player, since his career ended in 2001 you know? What about his profiles really prepared him now, Ripken baseball, and everything that you know, the Cowichan senior Foundation, all of that you know, that’s well and good, and I’m not making, I’m not diminishing that in any way. But he hasn’t really done anything over the last 20 years that would prepare him for any kind of a front front office role. I mean, does he is he

Nestor Aparicio  32:51

familiar with deify him and you demean the position and the job, if you knew anything about the job, and Cal knows the job,

Luke Jones  32:59

yeah. I mean, I just, I think there’s a lot, I think there’s a lot to it. I mean, I don’t know how well versed Cal is with analytics and the technology that look whether, whether you’re a believer in Mike Elias specifically, or not, all of those things are indeed part of baseball in 2025 you can, you can certainly say that there are some teams that maybe over emphasize those things, or some teams use those things better than others, but those things need to be used. Those are very much a reality of baseball in 2025 so for anyone, and I don’t say this to pick on cow, I would say this for any former player, any former manager, you know, like Buck Showalter, for example. I mean, I think a big thing that kind of led to buck having a shelf life with the Mets, for example. Was he knew enough with analytics, but was it enough that it kept everything the way you wanted it to?

Nestor Aparicio  33:51

8

Let me give you an example. My dear friend Barry Trotz and hockey left the bench to become, you know, to run the team, yeah, and in Nashville, where he’s a legend who never won, and they’ve been terrible, and I haven’t talked to Barry in a year and a half to I mean long time. I don’t, I don’t know enough about hockey. You know more than me. You watched it yesterday, and I talked about it yesterday with Leonard Raskin, a little bit about all the game seven madness the other day, and Winnipeg and all that, but actually, I caught a little bit of that. It was fun. Yeah? I mean, it’s fun, right? A lot more fun than losing nine to one and striking out seven times to three hits. But I would say that that’s, that’s a hard enough transition. If you’re Tito Francona, you think I want to go do that instead of this. This is like John Harbaugh doing Eric to cost his job, or Bill Belichick thinking he’s a recruiter in North Carolina now with his 24 year old girlfriend, who’s, you know, they’ve got all this salacious it’s just crazy but, but that the movement of that and the fans minds of seeing Cal Ripken there in the same way that you’re very tongue in cheek saying, Get get Jackson out. Old Man in here to be the hitting co you know what I mean, like, it’s not even sensible, but it’s also like we have a neophyte owner here, who, all he has is Mike Elias. That is his white knight and his North Star, other than maybe Cal Ripken. I made a joke already in this piece about Rick Dempsey being in in Angelos is here. How do you think Flanagan got the gig. Flanagan went up to, you know that that Brady Anderson used to meet with with, I mean, Angelos loved everybody whispering in his ear. Tom Davis, what do you think? What do you think? What do you think? Like Trump inviting Bill Maher? What do you think? What do you think? I don’t think Rubenstein’s that guy. He’s made a billion dollars his own way, cut several billion dollars his own way, but I don’t know what his management style is. I don’t know what his tolerance is. I do know this is bad baseball. You know what? I know it. The people know it, but what are they going to do about it?

Luke Jones  35:50

And let me just go back to this, because I want to make sure that I’m framing this the proper way. I’m not at all suggesting that there wouldn’t be a role for Cal Ripken in some capacity. And as I said, it could be something that, with everything the Orioles do, from a player development standpoint, and using the technology that they use, the analytics, the predictive modeling that their their analysts would use, that maybe there is a blind spot that someone like a Cal Ripken could help them with in some capacity. And this doesn’t mean he takes over, that he’s running the show. It would be, you know, some kind of consultant, you know, or, Hey,

Nestor Aparicio  36:27

some title is in Spain, right? Yeah. So we’re talking about who’s gonna look at this and do the work. And let me tell Rick. And let me be clear, it is. And let me be clear,

Luke Jones  36:36

as secretive as they are and as proprietary as they are, with a lot of what they do behind the scenes. That’s not to say Cal Ripken doesn’t have some input here and there on certain things, because, you know, say what you want. Cal cow is at the games quite often. You know, he attends regularly. Actually wrote to me about whether cow could get my press pass back, right, you know, like, so that’s where we are. But it’s also, hey, maybe he’ll run the team, you know. And again, it would, it wouldn’t be like for me, like, it wouldn’t be anything like, oh, Cal takes over as general manager, or anything like that, far from that. But is there a potential role? Is there a potential for something that he could identify to say, hey, you know, have you tried this? Or, you know, we used to do this, and you know, that’s where again, I and I say this as someone who’s been a baseball fan my whole life, there are plenty of terms I use now, and with analytics and advanced stats and knowing the technology that they use and all of that that I wouldn’t even even have dreamt of 20 years ago. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t elements of the game from 20 years ago that don’t still have a place. That doesn’t mean that you don’t have a blend of the human element and technology, or a blend of some old school principles with what is considered more cutting edge in 2025 so is there a blind spot there that the Orioles are missing? I don’t know. But again, when you’re performing like this, everything has to be on the table, and that’s why, you know, and we haven’t even mentioned him by name in this conversation, but like Brandon Hyde. I mean, do you have to look at making a change at manager or the coaching staff? And let me be clear, when I just asked that question, that does not mean that I think that this is all Brandon Hyde’s fault. I don’t The buck stops with Mike Elias. He runs the baseball ops. I mean, he’s in charge of all this. But that said, when you’re trying to swim upstream and you’re drowning the way that the Orioles are right now, what? What’s the one thing that you can kind of point to to make a change in hopes of some semblance of a spark? It is on the coaching front. Historically,

8

Nestor Aparicio  38:41

13 and 21 teams are headed towards getting a manager fired, yeah,

Luke Jones  38:46

whether it’s whether, whether it’s Memorial Day, June, early June, like Dave Trembley, or after the season, and

Nestor Aparicio  38:52

again, most cases that had to do with an itchy trigger finger of an owner, right? I mean, here, I don’t think that can be the case. I

Luke Jones  38:58

8

mean, I don’t know. I mean, again, it all depends on the power structure. I mean, Mike Elias is in charge of baseball in this organization. Now, if they have, if they lose 100 games this year, does Rubenstein and the ownership group reevaluate? I have no idea, or is going to react, right? That’s, well, that is, but that’s why that’s of all of this. I think it is. I think it is shot. He was going to fire Brian Billick after a 13 three, but he did, because he was a new owner and he wanted his own thing. I agree with you, in the big picture sense, but in the here and now, within the 2025 season, I think that’s a mike Elias call and but I think the problem, if you’re looking at it, and I don’t say this to be personal with Mike by any stretch, but I just think the reality is, when, when you put together the roster, and you were the one that was being criticized even before the season started, about not doing enough in the off season, and now you’re going to fire your manager, everyone kind of, you know, everyone will say, Okay, now it’s on you

Nestor Aparicio  39:59

trying to. Nice with the new one too. So and please Him. And like, I mean, that’s very obvious, right now, Kevin Brown looks like he’s

Luke Jones  40:06

gonna be that’s, that’s only natural. I mean, any organization, it’s gonna be that.

Nestor Aparicio  40:10

And I agree with all of that, but I think it’s all new, and this amount of struggle can lead to chaotic things. That’s all. I don’t know whether it will or won’t. I’m, you know, it’s like I wrote to Katie Griggs. I’m like Sting and synchronicity. You know, every breath you take, every step you make, every game you play, you know, every day you stay, I’ll be watching you and I but I’m watching it, and somebody better take charge of this. And I saw Elias and the dugout over the weekend, and it’s just been a crazy week between the Justin Tucker thing and har ball and the mike green thing and the draft, and I just you and I had settled in most of the winter after Andrews dropped the ball and didn’t show up, and then the Tucker thing happens that well, at least we’re going to have a baseball season. At least we’re going to get together three, four days a week, middle of the week, and we’re going to be talking about your wins and losses and a race and not firing the manager freak this week. I mean, it’s this is insane. I just I did not see this coming. You didn’t see this coming. I don’t think baseball saw this coming, and to this degree, not to this degree. Look, dude, if they’re the Yankees or the Mets, if they’re in a real media market where people like me aren’t banned, and the talk of the town isn’t Justin Tucker and his pants on and maybe the Preakness. I mean, the Preakness isn’t talk of anything for anybody anymore. Never has been, except for me and my my brain, but um, or that horse, right? People care about horse racing here, but they care about the baseball team until they don’t. And the team’s 13 and 21 and 21 and they were already having trouble selling tickets and and, you know, they’re trying to sell these, these 1999 a month monetization things. And I just this is, this is a shame. I mean, you know, I don’t know what else to say, and I’ll let you wrap it, because we’ll have to get back after go play an afternoon game on Thursday. We’re going to be at red brick station on Wednesday afternoon. But this has been a scuffle.

8

Luke Jones  42:02

I mean, they’ve, they’ve just, they’ve got to find a way to start gaining some traction here. I mean, you’ve got to start finding a way to inch back to 500 I mean, just, or the season, it will be over by mid June, late June, you know. I mean, then you’ll be talking in terms of, like, well, mathematically, you’re just, you know, you can get all these guys back, you’re not going to play like 105 win team, you know, when you get those guys back. So, I mean, they’ve got to find a way. I mean, if this team, right now were 17 and 17, it wouldn’t be all roses, right, but I think you could understand it, given the injuries that they have. But and you know,

Nestor Aparicio  42:39

13 and 17 over the next 17 or 34 I would take that if effluent comes back and makes them a 500 team for a while. I’d like to see that better. You know what I mean? I’d like to see progress, I suppose, five under at the All Star break. That’s, that’s, that’s good now, from my way speaking, that puts them in a position to compete. If you think radish is coming, or you think there’s a deadline deal, or Coby Mayo wakes up and hits the ball, or gunner Henderson catches fire and it’s 380 for a month and and hits 12 home runs next month. I mean, all of that’s possible. Sure, this isn’t Rio, Louis and and Dave Australia, right?

Luke Jones  43:23

And I don’t, I don’t think they’re going to play like 100 lost team all year, but at the same time, I wouldn’t have told you that they’d play, that they’d start 13 and 21 either, right? I mean, at some point in time, you There are countless examples you can cite all you want about teams that start slowly. I mean, we talked about the Astros last year. I mean, the 1982 Orioles started, had a poor April all that. But for every example like that, you’ll also find plenty of examples of teams that were supposed to be good, and they get off to a bad start, and they they just, they never really recover, or they do, but they, they recover so late into the season that you can’t make it up. I mean, the Astros in 2016 were an example of that. You know, they, they got off to a bad start after they’re kind of ahead of schedule type year that they had. They got off to a bad start, and then they, they just never recovered, and then they won the World Series the following year. So I’m not saying that’s going to be the Orioles by any means, because I’m questioning and or doubting just about everything at this point in time. But, man, I mean, if this continues the way it is, even over the next couple weeks, I mean, I don’t know how you don’t take a long look at having to make some some kind of change, and I think you know what I’m talking about there, but at the same time, they need everything to be better. And this is, this is not solely on one entity other than, if you want to put it on, Mike Elias, because ultimately, the buck stops with him, but everything has to be better, even even these young players. I mean, it’s not like these guys haven’t played baseball before. I mean, these are accomplished players. These aren’t snake oil. Oil salesman type prospects that maybe the Orioles tried to pedal to you 30 years ago. These are highly touted baseball America, baseball prospectus, fan graphs, the athletic MLB pipeline. All of them told you these were good young players. And you know, it’s, it’s not looking so hot right now. And that’s just, it’s really disappointing. Charlie Morton’s one thing, but then you look at everything else that’s going wrong, and that’s where you you know, it’s tough to feel as deflating as it feels in the second week of May. But here we are. Yeah, there’s a lot of time left, but, and you just gotta start showing a pulse. And this team barely shows a pulse for a game, or a couple games or a series, and then it’s right back to looking like this again. Well,

Nestor Aparicio  45:49

the capsule dropped the puck soon, and the Toronto Maple Leafs are dropping the puck too. I had Howie Mandel on this week. He’s playing down on Apples next week. Teaser, Toronto Maple Leafs fan. So I threw a little hockey reference, and I know you’re watching the NBA, the NHL. We got horse races next week, all sorts of things going on around here. You can find us both out on the interweb. You can find Luke out at Baltimore positive. He will be monitoring all things Orioles baseball as they conclude in Minnesota. And then go off to Anaheim this weekend. You can find me at red brick station on Wednesday, I will have the Back to the Future scratch offs to give away and Luke and I will be opining on all things fall out of Justin Tucker as I get out and about around the community and hear what the people are saying. I am Nestor. We are W, N, S T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore positive. You.