Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the Orioles returning from Anaheim to see the A’s and Yankees at Camden Yards with the Heston Kjerstad promotion and the curious Rashod Bateman deal with the Ravens before NFL Draft. A big week of sports ahead in Baltimore.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
year, bateman, good, team, draft, playing, orioles, days, hit, wide receiver, baseball, player, heston, friday, pick, hayes, give, talking, worked, luke
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor J. Aparicio
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home, we are wn St. am 1570, Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive while I’m holding the Pac Man scratch off, so we’ll be giving away I’ll do the waka waka waka waka thing that I did with John Martin to embarrass myself this week, we’re gonna be failures on Friday, from two until five, I have received word that my friend, the rue vignarajah, who is running for mayor will be joining us in the three o’clock hour. I think, Lenin raskins coming by in the four o’clock hour because he feels bad for me because I’m not a real media member. We won’t be able to cover the game on Friday, and I’m under review and Luke is going to be at the draft. So I think Leonard wants to go to the baseball game with me. So I think Lennar might be stopping by a faith. He’s gonna have some other guests as well. I have a message out to mayor Scott, everybody that is running has been offered equal time. Some have taken advantage of and I just wanna make that clear as we do political things. Our friends from the Maryland lottery gonna give me Pac Man to giveaway families I gave away a whole bunch of these as the Orioles scored runs and gunner Henderson was gonna Henderson Ning agree mount station on Wednesday and then like I get in the car on Fifth Sixth any I think they’re gonna and then there’s there’s three runs then there’s then there’s that then they’re like playing for their life. It was a little bit of a crazy afternoon. Look, you and I are going to gather on Friday we’re going to talk about Liberty pure solutions, clean water, and our friends at Jiffy Lube. I’m gonna give away PAC man’s we’re gonna watch the AES come into town. I’ve done a whole bunch of radio. Jason turbo who wrote that great book on Charlie Finley, who lives in the Bay Area came on great peace with him. We’ve talked about Kenny logins that’s how freaking good that piece was. Brad volution join me with a piece for you Lucas, which is a little bit of Oakland A’s a little bit of wax Paki type of stuff. And then this great WrestleMania thing about the Iron Sheik threatening to kill them and how you wrote a book about it. Awesome. I also had the great Susan Ford off on who created footsteps for people like you and me to walk upon. She covered the Orioles in 19 7980 and 81. And she was the Dave Kingman rat lady and she has a Baltimorean whose father worked at the Domino Sugar plant. Well, we now have open Luke, how are you? Um, you know, I watch a lot of baseball. You’re up late. I was up late. I kind of fell asleep on the Monday game and then Tuesday I stayed up and it was wacky Wednesday Watch the Green Mountain station. You know I said garden variety two out of three series when and and I’m but it really kind of was it? It was a little little dodge. Certainly. Tuesday night. Rodriguez getting beaten up it you know, they come home. They’re in great shape the Yankees coming in. But it was it was a mixed bag in Anaheim.
Luke Jones 02:35
I mean, they won two out of three. Right. I know. It was a perfect I mean, but it never is in baseball. I mean, to me, it kind of was garden variety. I mean, I think what we’re seeing about this team is kind of we thought it was going to be net individuals like called catalyser like Jordan Westberg are playing at levels that I think even the most optimistic of fans wouldn’t have necessarily thought that kind of production from those guys. This quickly in a season especially coming off of you know, encounters case struggling big time last year in Westberg being more pedestrian, but you said it, you know as we are recapping opening day you said it they’re gonna hit the baseball and they have and they’ve hit it with authority, leading the league in home runs and scoring runs and even drawing some walks this series as we saw some of that going on Colton cows are being one of those guys. But they took two out of three. I think Grayson Rodriguez, his performance on Tuesday night aside, I think you’re thrilled with what Albert Suarez did in his second start, I think you’re perfectly fine with what Dean Kramer did, you know he didn’t pitch as deep into the game as you would have liked but he struck out 10 Guys and sometimes when you strike out a bunch of guys, it’s gonna ride, you know, it’s going to raise the pitch count a little bit. But the the area that we talked about that I talked about a lot, the area that I still think will need to be fortified between now and the trade deadline with an eye toward October and not just getting there. But wanting to make a deep October run is to strengthen the bullpen and I think we’re continuing to see the bullpen be choppy hasn’t been a disaster. But you have games like Sunday, for example, or not Sunday, Wednesday afternoon game. I’m thinking Sunday, but like Wednesday, for example, where you jump out to a lead, but then you know it does get a little hairy towards the end there. So no, I think I can’t say I’m shocked by it. Craig Kimbrel has been next. I don’t think there have been concerns there and as he continues to move his way up the career saves list. But you know, even your Cano and not so much on Wednesday, but we’ve seen Danny coulomb appear a little shaky at times. So you know, those are the main three guys going into the year so you know beyond that, it’s a lot of hit and miss you know, guys will have a good outing guys will have a good week or two and then not so good. You know, like Keegan, eight can be a good example of that. So Yeah, by and large, all of that being said, they’re 16 and eight coming home for a weekend series against Oakland and then a big series with the Yankees to follow. So you’re playing 667 ball, you’re winning two out of three consistently. I mean, I think there’s the word is thrilled when it comes to this baseball team, even if we’re acknowledging that no, not everything is perfect. And again, there’s no such thing as perfection in Major League Baseball. You know,
Nestor J. Aparicio 05:28
new homestand new crabcakes Santa Fe Liezl. Trump salad, the 25th anniversary documentary coming out, it will be out by the time we get there on Friday. I’m really hoping folks enjoy that we’ve worked real hard on that. So I want to give a tip of the cap to Greg Landry, our friends at Blue Rock productions, tassel transfers. Certainly I’m wearing my curio, well in the shirt. They’ve been a great supporter of my 25th anniversary. Wendy Brown, finer sister Rebecca, the whole Brown family, everything they’ve done a foreign daughter there for 20 sale on their point of sale issues. Last week aside, everybody’s getting their discounts taken care of things. But certainly getting the film out. This weekend, we got draft where we’re going to talk a Bateman and signing and all that stuff. And we’ll have draft picks to talk about, or at least a maybe we won’t have a pick on for I don’t know, we might not have it on Friday. If Luke Jones has predictions that I’ve been hearing and reading all week. Do they bring up like a lottery pick prospect with every homestand is that part you’re gonna run out of at some point, they only have so many one ones and one twos and one fives. Because they only stunk for so long, because they don’t stink anymore. But they’re doing something that, you know, there’s been a lot of teams that have stuck, they stunk for a long time. And the old man would let him pick regular players, he fired general managers over it. But when you pick these guys, to your point, I mean we can we can go through all the top 10 picks in the last 50 years of Major League Baseball draft. They’re now getting these guys to the show with incredible regularity, even if they do start their career one for 30 and they all do going back to Brooks Robinson in 1955. As John Eisenberg who came on this week, by the way, Eisenberg released the Earl Weaver tapes and all that we had the greatest Oriole, I haven’t even platformed and not even on YouTube yet. It’ll be playing this week. I’ve got so much good stuff that we talked about. But this team, we haven’t. Heston’s almost a Nester I know more nesters than I know essence and that includes Charlson he was pretty good one play God every, every every Easter for me when I was a kid, but has been cursed that here he is, right. So, you know, we’ve talked about all this and that guy’s coming up and every conversation I had with baseball fans and had a dozen on the Greenmount stations. All like Austin Hays has done it’s over with for him. It just it’s over with. And this is in 10 days, dude. And he and the kid, the other kid, the second baseman, we’re gonna send him back. Yeah, he can hit o 67. Whatever. The problems we talked about you and me for seven days and a Florida driving around Sarasota Fort Myers, just you and me in the car talking about what do you do with all these guys?
Luke Jones 08:04
Yeah, I mean, it’s a great problem to have, but it is still something you have to figure out. And as you mentioned, I mean Heston curse that comes up Austin Hays on the aisle, because he hurt his calf in that Saturday night game in Kansas City. But as exciting as that is, and I understand he started on Tuesday night as mountcastle was dealing with a little bit of a sore knee, they slide over and the first base Santander goes to DH for the night. How much is it gonna play? I mean that that and that’s part of this because the colon cancer is not sitting down at this point in time. I mean, he’s hitting he’s hitting left handed pitching at this point, he’s starting against lefty so until further notice, he’s not just the good side of a platoon starter. He’s an everyday starter.
Nestor J. Aparicio 08:45
So weird platoon, they could start to think about in the fifth or sixth inning bringing, you know, two at bats into at bat. I I’m making that up because it never worked that way. But starters would go longer. And righty lefty was more of a three at bat thing than a bad thing in your game in the modern game of baseball. Yeah, I
Luke Jones 09:04
mean, but that’s what’s challenging, because yeah, how quickly do you make that move? And we’ve even seen Brandon Hyde encounter that some of the shirts he did last year as well, when you have someone like O’Hearn who, you know, hasn’t been in fairness to him, I’d almost like to see what he looks like against more lefties. Because of the progress he’s made. The governor has hit left he slowly started going off in the last 312 and exactly Colton cows or couldn’t hit righty, lefty, ambidextrous, whatever it was last year. Now he hits everybody. So so that’s kind of what you run into here. But you know, it’s an interesting it’s a challenge. I mean, it is a challenge. And I think even with you know, you see fans pick apart every single lineup and look at it’s makes for good banter, right? I mean, who’s hitting where should gunner be in the leadoff spot,
Nestor J. Aparicio 09:54
you know, that all day and it feels like our hair, you know, like literally but that’s
Luke Jones 09:59
what Baseball though, like your baseball is set up to second guess and discuss and first guess and third orioles.com or@masson.com.
Nestor J. Aparicio 10:06
But that you know, anywhere, I just mean in a general
Luke Jones 10:09
sense. I’m not trying to pick fights with any specific subset. It’s just that’s kind of how it works. But when you look at when you’re Brandon Hyde, and you look at this roster, and I mean, Earl Weaver, famously wanted to talk about it every year with Hank Peters, he wanted his best roster, because he’s gonna use everybody. So you know, but you do run into the challenge of trying to, you know, because, you know, you’re gonna have to call on different guys at different times because of injuries because of an injection because someone wakes up with the flu, whatever it is that you don’t want Matteo and aureus and guys like that to sit 10 days in a row. You know, I’m not saying that they’re gonna start every other game or every third game, I mean, that they’re obviously not, but you still want to pick your spots. So that’s where it is challenging even when you bring up someone like Heston curse dad, who is killing it a trip away, you still look at it and say, Where’s his path to playing? Because I think we saw on Tuesday night even though Grayson Rodriguez, I mean, just struggled got hit knocked around big time, but I think we also saw why a lot of people think Heston curse, dad’s best position is d h, or maybe first base eventually, in the major leagues, because, you know, kick the ball around a little bit. So when you have a player like that, who is kinda sorta DH, you know what, that would be his optimal position. But you already are dealing with that with mountcastle and O’Hearn every night against the right handed starter. So you already have Santander who you want to use as a DH every now and then. So it’s not easy. I mean, it really isn’t. That’s
Nestor J. Aparicio 11:44
just the kid gonna get the next 10 days.
Luke Jones 11:48
I mean, if we’re just doing a pure trade off, you know, he replaced Austin Hays and I know they they brought up the catcher for one day because he was on the taxi squad. But how many days? Or how many passes? Austin, he’s getting every 10 days at this point in time, you know, since cows are took over in left field, not much. So that’s where I looked at curse that coming up. And I’m not second guessing the move, but I’m questioning how much is he really going to play? And once he’s come back comes back. And you know, they’re not going to DFA Hayes. They shouldn’t nor should they. But what do you do? You know, does he go back into that spot? He feels like the better fit as the reserve outfielder at this point in time, because he’s better defensively swings right handed. But at the same time, you do have curse dad who has done nothing but hit at the triple A level. And well, he’s kind of stuck. And he’s here now. But and
Nestor J. Aparicio 12:40
he’s also a special talent. He’s a super talent. He’s not a third round. He is. He’s He’s sure he’s a guy. You’ve always other than his illness. And we can you know, we can talk about that. And he’ll talk about that, I’m sure. But like, other than that, derailing him in the same way that Tommy John’s about to derail Bradish or you know, whatever, any of these guys to get injured or get sick. He’s the real deal. Right? I mean, you know, he’s put up numbers at AAA, given his pedigree that make you say, took them a year longer, maybe. But now, fair enough, he’s here and, you know, took Ryan O’Hearn to organizations, right? Like, you know, some of these guys get to like, go down at different
Luke Jones 13:17
points. No question, but you still run into the question of if you’re asking me who the better fit is, as a fourth outfielder who’s not going to start regularly. Austin Hayes or Heston curse that it’s Austin Hayes, because he’s better defensively, he swings from the right side of the plate. And he’s got more speed. Now. I’m not saying that that’s not an argument for him to start. That’s the argument for who’s the better fit as a bench roll player. So that’s why right. That’s why Ryan McKenna stuck around the last couple years, as long as he did, quite frankly, to the chagrin of many Orioles fans. But yeah, it’s again, these problems to have it’s not a knock. It’s just it’s where they are. And that’s why, you know, more people were questioning and wondering, might they pull off another trade in the offseason? And look, they can make a trade at any point, right? They need pitching. You can never have too much pitching. I think that’s evident. You know, regardless of what’s going to happen with means and Bradish here in the next couple of weeks,
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:14
you think that’s the level?
Luke Jones 14:17
Yeah, be stealable. Of course he is. Um, that’s it. Now, I’m not saying I’m not saying that. I want to trade him or that you need to trade him. But he’s the consensus top 40 prospect in baseball. I mean, of course,
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:31
they say you have to get some serious, man, you gotta get corporate for sure. Yeah.
Luke Jones 14:35
Well, I mean that I don’t know if there’s a Corbin burns deal to be made, but you’re certainly getting something of real value. There’s no question about that. Where, you know, when you start talking
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:44
to Dylan see sky, right. He would have been in that conversation.
Luke Jones 14:47
Yeah, I mean, I you know, allegedly, I mean, write the story last year, I mean, which was never confirmed, but the conjecture was that they were they wanted holiday and do really want
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:59
it Something Elias, was it gonna give them beyond? You know what? I mean? That’s given the the brewers.
Luke Jones 15:08
And that’s what’s been funny about this. Look, how where does the line end in terms of what teams asking for the moon? And Mike Elias, also not wanting to part with good talent, because why would you, you know, you want to try to hold on to it as much as you can. But, you know, that’s where it is kind of interesting because it’s no secret around baseball that the Orioles are so flush, I mean, this embarrassment of riches that they have at triple A, I mean, through the whole system, but really at triple A right now, in terms of guys that are ready, you know, quote unquote, ready to sink or swim at the major league level. All the other teams know that so they’re all trying to say, well, you know what, we’re not gonna make this easy on the Orioles either, they want an established major league player, we know they have a lot of players that they could part with. So we’re gonna be picky too. So, you know, you kind of get into this game of chicken, so to speak, but But you know, in the meantime, like, it’s, it is challenging, and it is, you know, it’s a great problem. It’s the epitome of what I guess the kids would say, first world problems. But, you know, you bring up Heston curse that and just how many at bats are there for them? Really, you know, it’s, it’s challenging, like, even with my scenario earlier in the year when I was talking about, or talking about Colton cows or being a, you know, a pseudo fourth outfielder that’s going to rotate in with Hayes Mullen, Santander that was still working under the assumption that Colton Couser wasn’t gonna look like an MVP candidate, the way he has over the first month of the season are certainly rookie Rookie of the Year favorites. So, you know, it just forces your hand a little bit, and you look at your roster. And, you know, that’s not to say that they’re not going to fit per stat into the lineup as much as they can and give him some opportunities and not have them sit too long. Although there certainly doesn’t seem to be an expectation that Hayes is going to be out too long, but it’s where it is at this point in time. I mean, you look at their starting nine, on a nightly basis, Connor Henderson, he’s playing every day, Jordan Westbrook playing every day at third base. Now, a holiday is playing against right handers and gotta hit on wins on Tuesday night. And that was good to see and, you know, had some better at bats. So hopefully that’s a sign of better to come. First base, O’Hearn or mountcastle. And if it’s a right handed starter, the other ones da Ching. And those guys deserve that. So you look at this and say, how exactly do you work in someone like her stead easily? So you know, that’s that’s kind of where they are a little
Nestor J. Aparicio 17:35
quad away from getting a couple of back to send it back when you brought them up? It’s like, Hey, dude, you might be here a couple days we got an injured player. You know, keep crushing it get up here. Take advantage. A kid take advantage your opportunities, you know, like, yeah, I to your point. I don’t know if he comes and goes for us for for 10. Can they send him back? I don’t know. You know, I mean, I don’t know if any of these young guys and to your point. It feels like there’s some showcasing going on at some point. You’re because if they all get together or healthy, including Bradish and means and you know, all the other darts that they have in the organization, including the Suarez guy that he’s Venezuelan, I got to point that out again, I’m gonna continue to point that out. It’s my people. Venezuelans doing great things. Yeah, I this is the most fascinating baseball team. And I can’t leave the house without everybody talking to me about it. Right. Whether I was at the bowling alley, I was at the bar. I was at a conference the other night, everybody I everywhere I go. I don’t post pictures everywhere I go. But quite frankly, this documented things been tearing me up the last 10 days. So some nights I just like I gotta get my face off the screen and get out and get a drink. In addition to doing like, you know, 160 hours radio, we look John’s here. He’s Baltimore Luke, He will be joining me at fade Lee’s on Friday prayers saying that five times real fast. The Oakland A’s are in I have great radio in the next couple of days. I mean, just like awesome stuff that we’re doing through vignarajah is gonna join us on Friday. Luke’s gonna be there from two until three. I’m gonna have a shrimp salad and you’re gonna get some Pac Man scratch offs and the Maryland lottery. We’re gonna it’s weird couple days, right? Because we have the draft Thursday, we only have one press credential and only Luke is entitled to it. So we have two things going on Friday night a game and the draft. Luke is going to be dedicated to the draft but he is going to be down to pregame with the Orioles on Friday. We’re going to have the tech service like percolate and percolate and percolate and percolate and pick picks Orioles games Yankees are in on Monday, whether it’s gonna get good this weekend. Documentaries out I want to say that Thursday night, please go watch a documentary. Please give me feedback. Make fun of me laugh, cry, do whatever you want to do say I didn’t know that. I can hit pause. It’s definitely Stacy Keibler to her looks like her. So it could be anything. It could be you there’s a lot of people. They’re gonna show up in the documentary. Football by the time some people you Hear this they’ll have a draft we’ll have a pic and we want to build deal or whatever. There was such such anticipation from you and everybody else that is in the nerd circle, the offseason, about fifth year and Bateman and OA and take the floor on this aside from the draft because we’ll have all fresh stuff to talk about Friday, Friday morning at Bally’s. We’re going to baseball games not gonna play any baseball between now and Friday night. I don’t think. But, you know, the Bateman thing I bet they lie at the podium, I don’t want to begin like going down that river, but they do and whatever they say, but this is what they do. And what they do, says that they like him maybe as much as they say they like him even when two years ago to cost us and I love my wide receivers, you know, right? So this is how you love a player, you pay him right and say I like you. Yeah,
Luke Jones 20:51
but it’s interesting. So much because they’d be looking to extend him. But you know, the initial obviously the team never announces what the actual money is. You know, there has been conjecture, you know, a couple, no, no reports out there that I’m comfortable with confirming at this point, but the early indications are this is not for a whole lot of money. And I just find that to be fascinating. Look, I
Nestor J. Aparicio 21:22
know he’s not gonna get this offense, right. I mean, he’s not gonna go out into the market as that guy because this offense probably won’t allow that for him. Right. And it already has flowers, right. So to some degree, probably
Luke Jones 21:34
not, that’s sure. But that said the wide receiver market is exploding to such a degree such a dramatic magnitude at this point in time that even if you put up 50 catches, you know, even if you put up 700 yards, you know something along those lines, which I don’t think is out of the realm of possibility for Rashad Bateman, you’re you’re gonna get paid, and you’re gonna get paid pretty handsomely on the open market, especially when people look at your skill set the fact you’re a former first round pick, it’s got solid sides, you got good speed, the analytics say you’re really good route runner who separates really well. So and again, as you and I are discussing this on the eve before, you know, on the eve of the draft and seeing how this is all going to shake out. He the fifth year option was set to cost $14.3 million. I think everyone was in agreement that based on his body of work to this point. Certainly not warranting that. But going back to what you just said and going back over all of the bullish comments made by John Harbaugh and Eric Acosta about the potential of Bateman in this offense. There’s certainly some projecting going on here. There’s certainly some idea of saying, You know what, his kids look really good at times. He’s flashed at times, go back and look at what he did the first three games of 2022 before he had to lose Frank injury. I mean, he he was putting up 100 yard games you know, there’s there’s only three games I get it. It’s a small sample, but he was showing explosiveness and big playability and all that so if you’re a team, like the ravens, where they have never shown a willingness other than a one year deal on Odell Beckham Jr. They have not shown a willingness in a very long time you have to go back to the Anquan Boldin deal probably to pay anywhere in the neighborhood of near the top of market for a wide receiver, a free agent wide receiver. So with
Nestor J. Aparicio 23:35
all due respect, Smith to write I mean, they signed a Hall of Famer, he just Yes, yes, they did. But yeah,
Luke Jones 23:43
exactly. Exactly. That was middle middle of the market, you know, somewhere along those lines. So but but the idea is, if you feel there’s meat on the bone for Bateman, that hasn’t been realized yet, and there’s potential that hasn’t been realized yet. And he feels that he’s healthy. He played all but one game last year, there is a school of thought to say you know what, it might be a slight overpay, or it might be a little bit longer of a commitment than we would we would look at it through a vacuum. But if you have some cost here and some projection here that you think this could end up being a bargain in a year or two, then why not explore a contract extension. But again, you know if this was truly and if this ends up being as affordable as it was, it’s one of those where I honestly question it from the player’s perspective and say, okay, Rashad, you didn’t put up big numbers last year, but Beckham is going to be out of the picture this year. They’re probably going to draft a receiver at some point. But if you know whether it’s first round, second round, third round, fourth round, who knows if they’re going to be you know, they have say flowers and Mark Andrews and as I say, likely to contest with in terms of for for targets. There’s certainly good potential for Bateman to have at least a step forward, you know, at least a decent step forward. And if that’s the case, then then you kind of wonder, why would you sign such a small contract extension? So it’s great for the team, there’s little to no risk here. If, in fact, the numbers that are potentially out there are, you know, end up being anywhere close to that, which, you know, some people thrown out there that it’s, you know, $15 million for a couple years tacked on, which would not be very much. I mean, that sounds like a lot, maybe to people who are thinking in terms of 1015 years ago, but it’s not for a wide receiver anymore. So I just found it interesting, because, to your point, you mentioned the liars lunch, and you mentioned, truths, half truths, and darn lies, you know, like to all the things that a team will say, in the offseason, but they were very bullish talking about Beck, or talking about Bateman, and what he can do and what they’re counting on him doing this coming year. So I think a big part of that is, it’s got to stay healthy in the spring in the summer. Gotta get on the practice field and on the same page with Lamar Jackson, because how many times did we see big play potential, and Lamar Jackson overthrows it, or there’s a miscommunication or Bateman drops, one, there were all sorts of plays, felt like it happened every week for a while there where you would see those two looking like, wow, that’s six or Wow, that’s a 40 yard game. And it was just off. So you’re hoping that on field chemistry can improve, with Bateman being healthy and on the field? Lamar being there for the entire spring and summer, no contract issues with him. So, you know, we’ll see how it plays out. But was certainly an interesting, you know, not not as dramatic as the contract extension signed at the draft last year. But certainly surprising to see this because, you know, if you had asked anyone on Twitter, you know, Ravens fans on Twitter, I mean, if there was more likely the Bateman was going to get traded or extended? Right, you know, at the draft, where people probably would have said traded. So was it interesting to see. But again, traded for what? Well, I mean, there’s all kinds of different ways. I mean, you know, there’s ways you can pick swap, you know, you could trade a player for another player, you know, at another position of knee
Nestor J. Aparicio 27:08
for the 73rd pick in the draft. Is that like literally? Is that what it would have been like, look like to you?
Luke Jones 27:16
I mean, I don’t know if it would have been quite that much. But
Nestor J. Aparicio 27:18
again, some of that also, that’s even speculative, right? So like, yeah, talking about the value of these guys, and certainly their salaries and where they are. It’s the same thing with Austin Hayes, makes a little bit of money. Certain teams would say, you know, I got a cheaper, I got a cheaper, I’ll have hamburger instead of steak, you know what I mean? And there is a point, but of that.
Luke Jones 27:42
But there but that said, you’re talking about someone who’s a first round pick, you’re talking about someone who everyone knows is played in an offense first with Greg Roman and even Yeah, we’ll see how it plays out with Todd Monken. Year two, but certainly not an offense where other than the number one wide receiver, you know, as a flowers, sure he gets his targets, Hollywood Brown got his targets, other than the number one wide receiver, because we know Lamar loves to throw to the tight ends, and understandably so because they’re really good. Yeah, you’re not going to get the volume for lucrative production. So you might have a team that would say, Okay, we’re not going to give you a second round pick, maybe we’d get you a third as long as you have you kick in a fifth with him, you know, something along those lines mean, could that have been possible? Sure. But again, they end up extending them instead. And now he’s under contract through 2026. And, you know, what, again, he
Nestor J. Aparicio 28:36
is unlike what they can say guard right now, which is we have a solution? We haven’t you know, we have we have two first round draft picks, at least. Yeah, at least part of one. We have no Swagelok we you know, we have we have another shore? Sure. Now,
Luke Jones 28:49
I don’t think let me be clear, I don’t think this move disqualifies them from taking a wide receiver. And I was always skeptical about first round. I don’t think it disqualifies them from the possibility of adding another wide receiver in the third round, you know, something along those lines? I you know, I wouldn’t say that at all. But it does add a little stability, because keep in mind prior to this extension being announced, ze flowers, only wide receiver on the roster under contract beyond 2024. So it adds some stability. Again, we’ll see what happens, you know, even if Bateman doesn’t really improve that much, statistically speaking, you still look at what the market dictates. It probably will end up still being a deal. That’s fine. So well, you also
Nestor J. Aparicio 29:33
look at it and see what could you get in the draft that’s going to be better than him when they haven’t been very good at it to begin with. And if he’s good enough to your point to catch 4060 balls in this offense and be a target and some weeks be a factor. To your point. He was a factor two years ago in the beginning of the year, if he can be a factor in what they’re doing. He doesn’t need to be the factor. He’s not expected to be that and the bloom on his first round draft pick. You’ve already you know, piss that away, saying he’s maybe a third maybe a fourth. I mean, he’s not that guy. And he’s probably not perceived to be that guy. And I do wonder, you know, the Cardinals ponied up for Hollywood Brown and believing he was something and, you know, other than injury that he kind of sort of was what they thought he was going to be, even though they haven’t been great. Yeah, I’m wondering what the other team would value and say he’s worth a third, we believe we can do better with him than we could take in a fresh player. Well,
Luke Jones 30:25
and part of it also, is this why this draft is regarded as being quite deep at the wide receiver position. So how much of a market was even going to be there present itself in that regard, too. So, you know, again, pending what the actual numbers are. And when the deal was officially signed and filed to the NFLPA you know, it’ll come out, but it was a desecration by Eric de Costa? No, it sounded like an opportunity more than anything else. Again, you know, if they were giving him it, let’s put it this way. And this will be my final thought on it. If they were giving him the 14 million that 14 point 3 million was the fifth year option. If they signed him to a two year $30 million contract, you’d be scratching your head and saying, why, you know, what, what is he done to warrant that? So it’s clearly less than that. It’s much less than that. So from that standpoint, if you project and you still think there’s some meat on the bone for this guy to get better, if he stays healthy, if nothing else, then I’m good with it. You know, I know he was already gonna be on the team this year. So it doesn’t change your Superbowl chances, but or your trajectory, but it’s nice to have a little more stability at that position because you certainly don’t want to be in a spot like they were a couple years ago when they lost Rashad Bateman. And then you saw what they had left after they traded Marquis Brown, so they have a flowers. They have Rashad Bateman, as you pointed out, they have Aguilar isn’t the best wide receiver group in the league, far from it, far from it. But they’ve had way worse there. And like I said, I still would not be surprised at some point. First half first four rounds of the draft, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them still come away with another receiver to add to the mix. Yeah, we
Nestor J. Aparicio 32:06
talked about how deep their wide receiver room was because we believed in Bateman last year, we believed in Beckham last year, and we thought flowers could be pretty good. He was better than either one of them. And either one of them were great. And all the bluster about it too great room. And that keep in mind is draft weekend unfolds for this week, and everybody’s got their report cards, and this team has improved itself by this much and the Browns are going to be great again and their quarterback who’s a mystery is just going to be awesome. And every stop, you know, I mean, like
Luke Jones 32:34
everyone loves their team this time of year, but other than the Cowboys
Nestor J. Aparicio 32:39
time, you know, look good getting off the bus team, you know, with his beats on his head, and, you know, tall statue. Like, yeah, he looked good. Getting off the bus. I saw the numbers. I saw the production. It’s real, it’s there. And it was all about not a lot, really in the end. A lot of money for him, but not all, you know, it wasn’t all that.
Luke Jones 33:00
As we said that ended up more as much as anything else. Whether you agreed with it or not as much as anything else that ended up being a Lamar tax. I mean, it it, it felt like it at the time, and I think it’s still proved out to be that way. That felt like at least in part an olive branch to try to get the ball rolling with Mr. Jackson and hey, they got a deal done a few weeks later and he signed and he just wanted a second MVP in five years. So from that through that lens, it was fine even though yes from a production standpoint. He was not a $15 million receiver I think anyone would recognize that he’s
Nestor J. Aparicio 33:34
no Jones he’s Baltimore look he will be a fade these with me we will be giving away a PacMan scratch also in the Maryland lottery, our friends at Liberty pure solutions, keeping our water clean, and Jiffy Lube keeping us lubricated and oiled up right. Clean filters, all that good stuff. If you do multi care. We are going to be failures on Friday, the documentary comes out Thursday. I have no idea what the future holds around here. I’m gonna have crabcake tours throughout May. I haven’t figured it all out yet because I’ve been just too damn busy. Because we have great radio here to all of our guests this week leading up to this Oakland weekend Laurie Brown came on John Eisenberg. I just there’s so much going on David Richardson hosted me green Mel bowl on Wednesday. And we did two hours on the past present and future of Maryland racing. And I’ve spent a lot of time talking Maryland racing year over 32 years, I was one of the more fascinating conversations that I’ve had. So I went there, tune up tune in ballin, watch the documentary go to Baltimore positive.com Would be great stuff coming your way over the weekend because I’m just sort of back loaded with so much great radio this week. So well. And big appreciation. Everybody in anticipation of the documentary had a lot of time words people saying nice things and sharing a whole bunch of pictures. And even Luke’s anticipating his his role in this presentation. I am Nestor. We are WNS TA and 1570, Towson Baltimore. Lot of football a lot of texts coming your way if you’re on the wn St. texter rivers and certainly baseball then better better good to me all weekend long and the New York Yankees coming to town on Monday it’s going to be 80 degrees hallelujah we got a contender in Baltimore stay with us
