Adding up the math of the first week of the “next chapter” of Orioles baseball, Luke Jones and Nestor discuss foul weather, unlikely stars and the Orioles Magic youth in Norfolk hitting the cover off the ball and banging on the walls of The Warehouse at Camden Yards. Mike Elias has good problems to begin the 2024 campaign.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
game, orioles, royals, point, ballpark, corbin, phillies, rain delay, day, baseball, burns, rain, o’clock, good, night, sitting, team, play, bats, thought
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor J. Aparicio
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home, we are wn St. am 5070, Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive we are headed to a weekend where the arrows are going on to rank and walk off wins and lots of fun and we’re gonna get into that and I hope to do that on Tuesday over at Costas in will be there in the morning up until two o’clock when I’m going to put the microphone down and pick a beer up and probably get some Oysters Rockefeller or some crab Imperial that’d be around two o’clock but we will be there courtesy of our friends at the Maryland lottery as well as Liberty pure solutions Jiffy Lube, I’ll be giving away the 10 times the cash the remaining ones I have also gets a PAC man’s Friday we will be at fade Lee’s in the new Lexington market and it is beautiful. You know, they’re trying to talk us into doing this Alfresco. I said I’ll check the weather forecast and that but Luke will be down at two o’clock. We’ll be there live from two until five at fade these in the new Lexington market that is on the 12 before the Brewers game, we will have Corbin burns pitching for us and they won’t. But they might have to yell Hall who knows. Luke Jones joins us now. After a you know, I saw some Mike Hargrove video of him getting thrown out of a playoff game like three pitches in back in 30 years ago and I thought the human rain delay your like ever since you took over the beat and they threw me out like 20 years ago. I just feel like you sit through a lot more really awful rain delay things than I ever did back in my day. And I could ask Alan, who came on he did your job 30 years ago, how many rain delays we actually sat through but do my heart broke for everybody down there Thursday. And then the game started we went to a meat cheese and I’m watching like nobody’s there and everybody deserves freezing. And I’m freezing getting out of the car and getting wet a mile away. And I’m like, oh, and then they won. It was nice. So it you know, they rescued really what I said to my wife and like they’re losing and Burgess and pitcher while we’re sitting at the bar to meet us and I’m like, there’s two or three of the Royals in this weather. But you know,
8
Luke Jones 02:00
yeah, well, and they had one hit through seven innings. I mean, that’s how listless and uninspiring it was until they finally awoke in the eighth inning and ultimately went and walk off fashion thanks to James McCann, but a very weird day. Look, anyone who’s gone to a lot of baseball games over the course of their life. You’ve sat through some rain delays. I mean, it’s inevitable. It’s baseball, right. Unless you’re unless you’re played at the tropper live, lived in Seattle or something like that. I mean, you’re used to an outdoor ballpark, you’re gonna have some rain delays, you may have sat through a one hour rain delay, a two hour rain delay, maybe even a three hour rain delay, but a five hour rain delay. And this is where I will take the Orioles to task a little bit although they I think they did redeem themselves in offering a ticket voucher to anyone, not just people who were in the ballpark that night, but anyone who had tickets for what was supposed to be a 105 game on Wednesday. That is
Nestor J. Aparicio 03:01
such an easy thing to do. It’s like Southwest Airlines giving me a drink. Right. You know what I mean? Like it’s just not a big deal for them to invite people back to the ballpark. Correct?
Luke Jones 03:11
Correct. But the measure that they should have taken and don’t tell me that all no one could have foreseen this because the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday night. They had a 105 games scheduled with the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday in the same way the Orioles did with Kansas City. On Tuesday night. They shifted their game from 105 to 405. Understand and you know it I think it was sent out through the Citizens Bank, you know the name of their ballpark, you know, but but it was their Twitter account or their ex account, whatever it’s called these days. And they flat out said looking at multiple forecasts. We’re going to move this game in anticipation of there being a lengthy rain delay other otherwise. And the Phillies in red still sat through a rain delay on Wednesday evening in the same way that the Orioles would have. It would have been so much easier it would have this would have been so much easier to stomach for fans for stadium workers who by the way, they’re not all paid over time and get extra money to sit around all day long. I mean, I confirm that with some some workers at the ballpark.
Nestor J. Aparicio 04:16
8This is the look of frustration. When I did the math on how much money Angelo’s made Angeles made $1 million a week for every week that they own the baseball team for 16 150 weeks. They made 1.7 I mean, and you got workers making and this Yeah, I mean, it’s right. It’s so good. And Mr. Rubenstein should take note of this and I think he maybe he did at the end of the evening. Well, and
Luke Jones 04:41
look, they’ve given out vouchers in the past for long range delay. So I don’t want to say that that was a David Rubenstein mandate, but right from the from the standpoint of saying, Look, this didn’t sneak up on them. This forecast looked awful as I remember the first time I checked was probably Sunday evening or Monday afternoon and you can You’d see Monday didn’t look great Tuesday didn’t look great. But I even said to you, in our previous conversations, you know, if you look at the hourly those days still look like they were gonna be able to get in baseball. And they did. But Wednesday looked like the worst of
Nestor J. Aparicio 05:12
the bunch, like disclosure from my from my point of view here because people keep asking me about this Luke as they should. And I’m glad they do. I was denied a press credential opening day denied a press credential on Sunday on Easter when we didn’t have anybody in our seat because you were allowed in the seat. And I’m not by Greg Bader, who still runs the place. And Wednesday was the day I wanted to go, you know what I mean? Like you see the schedule, and you’re like, make your, you know, when you’re making your thing. And then from the whole time, they denied the press credential, I thought about still going down there, because I don’t mind giving Mr. Rubenstein a few bucks. But the weather was just, it didn’t lend itself into my calendar five days ago to say, that’s a day you’re gonna go to the game or not. And I don’t say I’m a fair weather fan, but like, I don’t go to 42 degree, rainy day guy. It’s just not a great plan, you know, ever and I would hate to be coming from Hagerstown, or Saulsbury or Shrewsbury, or any Berry, you know, Woodbury any berry to, you know, sit down there for six hours in the rain. It’s, it’s not fair to you as my employee. It’s not fair. It’s not fair. It’s not right.
Luke Jones 06:19
Well, look, I’m not worried about myself. I’m getting paid to cover baseball. But for people, like you said, and you could see it, go to the Orioles Twitter account and see their initial announcement whenever it was 1230, whatever it was, that said we’re not going to start the game on time. And then there were no updates until
8Nestor J. Aparicio 06:39
Yeah, definitely. Do you like to have that Turk? Or are you just waking right? Whether today,
Luke Jones 06:44
so if it would have been end? Look, let’s let’s also in fairness, look at the circumstances. Yeah, the weather wasn’t great. The Royals did not have Thursday off. So it wasn’t as simple as keeping the Royals in town and making it up on Thursday, they had a night game back in Kansas City on Thursday evening. The mutual off day that would have made the most sense was the day before they were to visit the Nationals the last week of the regular season in September. And I can understand in early April, not wanting to burn that let that off day not knowing what could happen and knowing what other potential makeup games you might need to make up at that point. Now, knowing that’s five and a half months from now, this would have been so much simpler and so much easier to stomach understanding that they needed to get the game in if at all possible to look at the radar and do what the Phillies did and say, Look, we’re there’s no way looking at at the mid day forecast, no way we’re gonna be able to play then. But if you do look at it, later in the day, it looks better, not great. But better. We’re gonna move it back to 405. And then that would have given people the option of whether they wanted to make the drive then it could have given other people who might have wanted to see Corbin burns, and then you have an evening game and suddenly, hey, it’s it’s 50 degrees. I know it stinks, but I get to see burns, I had to work and I couldn’t go at 105. And also for people to exchange tickets, because they do have a much more flexible exchange policy than they had in the past. If you move that game back to 2405, and then it’s just a two hour rain delay. Look, you’re still gonna have some people that are annoyed. And look, it’s April baseball. But to your point, a lot of people made the decision they weren’t going to go to begin with. Yeah, but for
Nestor J. Aparicio 08:28
the people. I mean, we drove downtown in the cold in the rain at six o’clock because my wife was craving a meat cheese period. And we didn’t have any problems doing that. And we didn’t have any safety problems or red light problems or parking. Like we you know, we could have gone over the game. We sat at the bar and watched the game in the rain. And you know all I thought about with this and I want to ask you this first things first is the Corbin burns parts interesting to me, because if I’m the manager and I now Buck things, and I now and I’ve been around these baseball people, they’ve blocked me out for 18 years as I told Mr. Rubinstein’s people, so it’s for you to figure out or ask them or get a pulse on? Are the Kansas City Royals and see enough are a bunch of pricks enough for the managers because I know visiting teams and the players associated like all of that’s involved in this radar, Bob Turk, the coal sharing, I mean, everybody’s involved in this the umpires right, and there’s revenue. There’s the business side of what are we telling our fans in the PR side, which you know, the Orioles famously always gotten wrong because they have the wrong guy, Greg Baker sitting in that chair, but just why I don’t have I don’t have a credential to sit out there in the rain with you and eat hotdogs on Wednesday. But I would say to you, is there any force of baseball people from alias to the managers, to the coaches to the players? Is there any faction that really wants to go out and play in what I experienced walking a half a block from a meat cheese to my car, and I got wet. I mean, I got I got wet walking out in the third inning, maybe fourth inning, we got in the car Are I listened to Jeff on all the way home I came home I watched the game you know the whole deal, right? I had a Baltimore night in the rain, where I was thinking like I want to be at the game and my wife and I always have these well tickets for free if they just open the gates if it was five bucks. I’m like it’s pretty cold and wet and it doesn’t feel like they’re gonna finish it and it feels like it’s gonna be half assed in the Thursday Night Baseball way, which is why I would think the Orioles would look at this on Tuesday night and say our number one pitcher our dude is going I don’t want him out there slipping around. I don’t want them out there half ass warming up. I don’t want them out there stop and start and stop and start and it’s not good for him. It’s not good for his arm. It’s April has been in Florida for eight weeks. Like I’m thinking like, that’s my billion dollar arm that’s my that’s the guy has to start game one in October or I’m effed. And it’s st same thing with Lamar Jackson. I treat these guys like they’re all Lamar Jackson. Right? So I would think the Orioles would make a movement to say let’s take care of our pitcher and move the finger six o’clock let’s take care of our fans and move the thing to six o’clock let’s take but the Royals in the Major League Baseball and then the then the weatherman. I’m like yeah, well no, no, no, no, we got a game Thursday. We’re getting the hell out of here. Alright, so you want to go play in the rain. The rain is gonna be the rain. You know, you can’t control the weather right? But it’s the baseball people really want to go out and slop the way burn slop in the early part and got banged around a little bit and had some like, and it just, it’s not good for anyone and I’m not saying gotta get the game in because I always hear that baseball got to get the game in and now that they don’t come back to town. It’s way more weird. I was explained that to my wife the other day is usually early in the year you played your own division. You saw it three more times. You attack a game on you play a doubleheader in July 29 Bad bad bad bad, but it shoots and fireworks off do whatever you need to do get banned. But are there baseball people that want to go play in that crap?
Luke Jones 11:51
8Yeah, yeah. Because the logistics of losing an off day the last week of the regular season when you’re you know, tired as can be and not knowing what other rain outs and other
Nestor J. Aparicio 12:05
okay let me rephrase that question with the Royals rather play in driving rain from one until the
Luke Jones 12:10
royal the Royals didn’t want to come back to bottom? No, no, no.
Nestor J. Aparicio 12:14
You’re not hearing me if the game was gonna get in at seven o’clock six. Isn’t? It? Did it did? Why wouldn’t the Royals the night before? Oh, yes. Why would the Royals want to sit at the ballpark all day in the cold and wait and play ping pong, as you know was famously brought up in the conversation as baby play cards and ping pong all day? Wait, wait, wait. Like it would seem to me that the Royals, the baseball people would say it’s going to rain we can’t play like the Phillies did and move the game. I’m wondering what the force of nature that the Phillies would do it one way and they wouldn’t do it the other way. And I remember for my 22 years with a press credential sitting through many rain delays of how much pissing and moaning the Yankees and the Orioles would do amongst managers, owners umpire like it was just really hard to ever get anybody to agree on anything other than we’d rather go play in the driving rain, because that’s who we are. I don’t know. I mean, I just it felt dumb that they were out there playing in a general sense, because it was pretty wet.
8Luke Jones 13:12
I mean, they wanted to play in a general sense. Could did the royal I mean, I don’t know if the 605. You know, moving it to 405 on Tuesday night or at 8am Wednesday morning. I don’t know if that was on the table. I’m guessing from a Royals perspective, there probably would have been some trepidation and doing because they wanted to get home because they are playing Thursday. So they’re probably thinking well, okay, we’re either going to wait around at the ballpark or okay, we can move the game to four or five, and we waited the hotel for three more hours. Neither option is ideal for us. But we want to get it in. We don’t want to come back here.
Nestor J. Aparicio 13:47
Why is the ROI? That’s the Royals. And that’s a good one that that’s, I mean, I’m here, right?
Luke Jones 13:52
I mean, I’m assuming that and let’s be clear, like let’s not what the Phillies did on Tuesday night. That’s not the norm of what you typically see in baseball, right? I mean, you typically don’t see a game time change the night before, or the morning of typically, it’s either postponed ahead of time or you wait it out, right.
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:14
8Moving to playoff game on three hours notice.
Luke Jones 14:18
I’m not that’s not what I’m saying. I’m just saying how can you? My point is can you recall too many other examples where that’s happened and they’re
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:26
not proactive look who owned the team and look at the sport, you know, the games under two hours. They’ve made a lot of changes lately. Make Me Think Like, maybe they should be thinking about this in the Phillies were that’s all
Luke Jones 14:38
right, right. Sure. And look, I don’t want to belabor it too much because what they did do in credit to them, which I think this was the bare minimum but they allowed for re entry. So anyone who left the ballpark who lives in fed hill or somewhere local, who was able to come back if they wanted to come back three hours later, they did allow them back in the ballpark. That’s typically not something they do so good on them for that At the very least, they had open seating. I mean, look, it was a nice, nice atmosphere, considering there were only five 600 people there. I mean, it was actually it was kind of fun if it had to feel like a big time high school baseball game or something like that. And I said to
8Nestor J. Aparicio 15:15
him, he said, I looked up and stands were full behind home plate. And I’m like this let people come down
Luke Jones 15:20
immediately. Yeah, right. And look, it’s good to do that when you’re in that. I mean this and in fairness to them. I mean, they had three straight days of rain. It wasn’t ideal. It was cold. Like we understand it’s early April baseball. It’s been a, I was just reading it before happened on this chat with you. You know it, the amount of rain we’ve gotten over the last, you know, already starting in April is crazy. So I mean, it’s, it’s tough. It is difficult this time of year, you don’t want to just start banging games left or right, because you know, you’ve got five and a half, more than five and a half months of season ago. So again, the easiest measure that they could have taken would have been to take a page from the Phillies delay it delay the start. So forget about the media, stadium workers fans, though, you know, police were working around the ballpark to
Nestor J. Aparicio 16:13
but Corbin burns share. And that’s where I that my long winded windbag saying is. There’s
Luke Jones 16:19
8only so much you can do about that part. But I agree it’s a shame. And I’ll say this, and this is where let’s position or transition back to talking about the game. I mean, coal Reagan’s is a heck of a pitcher, too. I mean, he was impressive. I mean that changeup. He looks like the kind of picture that I see all star game potential for him in the future. I mean, there’s no question about that. If not right now, he completely shut the Orioles down. So it is a shame just in a general sense that you get this pitching matchup of Corbin burns, obviously being the big ticket item for the Orioles in their new way. He’s going up against Cole Reagan’s who is looking like the ACE for the Kansas City Royals for the foreseeable future. That yeah, it was played under such less than ideal conditions, and in front of so few people. But that said, they did at towards the end of the game announced they put up a message on the board, they put it out on social media, they acknowledged that this was a an extreme inconvenience, to have that long of a rain delay. But an effort for the teams and Major League Baseball to want to try to get the game in that’s what happened. And they did offer a voucher for another game Monday through Thursday. The rest
Nestor J. Aparicio 17:28
of it I’m talking so much about the club, the new club that they need to create, in this way, that if you’re a part of the club, and there’s been flexible tickets, and like all that kind of stuff, and a lot more of that. Yeah, yeah. And and like, I’m gonna continue to talk about it as though it is getting better. You know what I mean? Because I, you know, even that part of it, but it gets better when they’re more proactive. And they don’t have a bunch of disgruntled people on social media and they got poor Brett Hollander running around eating everything in the ballpark and putting it out on social media. And, you know, I’m sitting there wondering like poor Luke, and you know, because we’re involved in a toe, and there’s part of it, where people are asking, What are they doing? What are they doing? What if you’re sitting there and you don’t know what they’re doing? Communicate? Communicate? I mean, this is this is what I told Mr. Rubenstein sky. Oh, nobody. They said, You have communications people there that I’ve never met because they don’t communicate. They don’t commute. I mean, they’re not really communications people, their their barriers to the famous people is what they are. They’re their doorman. I mean, so communicate it clearly, concisely, to everyone to your point to Corbin burns to and to, you know, to the Royals to and to the hotel they’re staying and that there’s going to be late checkout. Like there’s just a lot of logistical things that have to be involved in it. And if you look at the forecast, and you know, you cannot play baseball, between one and four, because it’s just me too awful to play. And you’re looking at it. And every I looked at it as a fan, and said, I’m not going down there. You know, like, Come on, man. I mean, who what do you do and make good decisions, mate. All I can think about when you’re pissing on him, just do better. Mr. Rubinstein do better. And that’s going to be my message. Please do better, please, I beg of you. The
Luke Jones 19:15
game time changed that they didn’t make. Okay, you get to a certain point where it’s too late to change the time of the game. Very early on in that rain delay. Again, it was very evident looking at the hourly, because it got to a certain point where you saw Okay, their plan by by about three o’clock that they didn’t Can’t they didn’t postpone the game at that point. You knew they were going to play at that point in time. There was so much time in sight. In the poker world. It’s called pot committed, right? I mean, you’re so far along. And now you see when the clearings going to be it’s not 11 o’clock at night. It’s somewhere around six or seven. It actually did clear up a little more quickly than they were calling for thankfully because at one point I thought it might be eight o’clock when they were going to play and then you’re talking about insanely, I mean, it already was insanely long day, but even more so. And then you’re getting into the Kansas City Royals getting it back into town for their game on Thursday night in the wee hours of the Thursday morning. So three
Nestor J. Aparicio 20:13
executives from them and three executives from us at nine o’clock the night before and look at it. And just I’ll say, let’s call it the six. Okay, great.
8Luke Jones 20:20
Let’s call the 6050. Everybody’s gonna do 605 They weren’t gonna do 605. But four, but 405. At the very least, people that were coming in, you know, stadium workers are coming in at nine o’clock in the morning. Now it’s noon,
Nestor J. Aparicio 20:33
right? So at two o’clock, you can say it’s not four or five, it’s 535 at that point, because you continue to communicate. And that’s the part that I don’t regret. Because people were Dude, I got in the car and drove to a meat cheese and a gay man started and I’m just checking my app, I looked down to games. And the first thing I said to Jen, on the Falls route, I’m like, oh, game started, put it on, you know, like, I mean, nobody rings a bell when the game starts either, which is like, just do communicate with me push something my way, in some way to tell me to nudge me to go to my television, other than oriental classics or whatever. God knows what they’re putting on medicine for five hours? I don’t know, because I put it on at one o’clock looking for it. And I’m like, I’m looking out the window. And I’m like, Hey, playing, you know, I mean, and I think we all have a baseball sense to baseball town. You know, I mean, just do better. That’s all do better. And then let’s talk about the game. You want to do that?
Luke Jones 21:26
Well, I just have one final thought. When you get to the point where you didn’t move the game, right? You didn’t do it Tuesday night, you didn’t do it early Wednesday morning, an hour into the rain delay, at that point in time, bite the bullet and say, Look, we want to really try to get this game in. It’s not going to happen in next couple hours, it’s probably going to be closer to six or seven o’clock. And it was like I said it looked even less promising than that at a couple points in the afternoon. At that point in time, say, we understand this can be a very lengthy rain delay. At that point in time. You could have said then rather than when they announced you could have said anyone who’s elects to leave the ballpark, we will allow for re entry when the game does restart. You can exchange for a future game which I think that was on the table anyway. And but instead you had three or four hours of silence until you got to the point where they announced when first pitch was there were different. Along the way, there were different checkpoints where you could have communicated better and tried to make the best look even if they move the game to four it still would have been a two hour rain delay. That’s still less than ideal, right? The Phillies by the way, just to give full context here. They still had a long rain delay in Philadelphia even after moving the game to four o’clock. I don’t think they got started till I think it was a three plus hour rain delay even for them. So look, lousy day, you’re trying to get things in. I understand it’s early April, you don’t want to burn it off day. You have guys that are sitting around and so they lose their off day, right? Yeah, it’s not an off day for them. Even if you bang the game. There were different ways that they could have done this better. It should get better. I think it will get better. To your point. Hopefully the new ownership group looks at this and say, Hey, I understand MLB and the Royals and all that. But we got to communicate to our people better we got to communicate to our fans, our trade our stadium workers a little bit better. We could have been a little more proactive about this. And that was the point and the Phillies attempted to do that. It still wasn’t great. In Philadelphia. They got the game in they lost. The Orioles did win though. So for the people who did stick around at the very least after a pretty listless first seven innings. And Corbin burns really was grinding it out didn’t have as great off other than the cutter but still was competitive still only gave up a couple runs the Orioles now to come back. And how many times did we see it last year where they look kind of lifeless and they were behind in the late innings. And sure enough they come roaring back and that’s what they did on Wednesday night. So at the very least for the people who stuck around all day long. They got to go home happy and they got to go home with with a voucher for a future game. So I will commend the Orioles on that element of it. But yeah, on the field. It was not looking great. The first seven innings as Cole Reagan’s completely shut them down.
Nestor J. Aparicio 24:12
8Meteorologist Luke Jones with your Camden Yards weather report. We’re gonna be overcast is having some conversations about the bridge. We’re going to be watching some baseball on Tuesday. Next Friday, we’re going to be at fade Lee’s the new families at the new Lexington market. It’s awesome. And Luke’s gonna have a family’s crab cake whether he wants one or not, he might even have two. And we’re gonna do that every friday from two to five it’s gonna be live. It’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. I’m gonna have some 10 times to catch me get those PacMan scratch awesome rods as well. We’ll have those fade these. We’re going to be a Coco’s on the 18th but that might get moved to the 19th or the 17th. Stay with Stay tuned on Coco’s Marcellin are still in negotiations on that. We’ll be back and fake news on the 26th as well as we get through this Staying on the field for a minute. And, you know, I will talk about burns and just bad weather days and really awful things that can happen in April to pitchers and whether it’s line drives off of Bradish or, you know, whatever weird stuff would happen to start a season and be weird. Starting and stopping in the cold and the rain would have been awful for birds awful for any pitcher. Certainly, so that tragedy didn’t happen. But to your point, the bats went like crazy cold, like, like, I don’t know, at what point in the season they’re gonna have for hits over 16 innings or whatever it was, whatever the math was, you tell me but it was a little in a lie. And then putting runners in scoring position and having like, ureas have awful at bats. And then finally a guy like McCann comes through and, you know, we talked about Jordan Westberg the other day and these young players, you know, Rush middle hit a walk off at some point. So Henderson and mountcastle probably get to and the lottery promotion is you know, with the grand slams, there’ll be granted all that stuff’s gonna happen. But the sort of bats going so cold in the cold against the Royals, and looking at losing two out of three to the Royals and some slop and, um, to go to Pittsburgh to kind of start the year. We all know they’re going to be good. I mean, I’m very bullish on them winning 9095 I really am. I just don’t know where the wins and losses come from. But you know, two rabbits out of hats and you know, and a couple of blowouts in the beginning. But the bats being quiet. That’s something you and I should talk about.
Luke Jones 26:39
Yeah. First things first, and this is where I’ll give the Royals some credit. I think the Royals are better than people. Most people were expecting them to be now that doesn’t mean I’m not saying they’re gonna win 95 games, anything crazy like that. Let’s be very clear, but good approach at the plate really made contact going the other way. I mean, Corbin Burns is a strikeout machine. And I think he had what three and five and two thirds innings so it speaks to them putting the ball in play. I think they had a good approach over the course of the series, even at times when the Orioles pitched well. And it’s not as though the burnt wasn’t awful or anything like that. He just wasn’t the dominant Corbin burns that he can be. And we saw an opening day but I think good approach from them Bobby, what juniors up? Yeah, he’s there gunner Henderson he’s a stud right? I mean, there’s a reason why the debate was Adley rutschman or Bobby Witt. It just turned out really nice for the Orioles and Mike Elias they drafted gutter Henderson in the second round after they took rutschman I mean it can get into worked out any better
Nestor J. Aparicio 27:36
you imagine the backup in the province and then they would have a catcher but you know, who knows? Right? Sure. Sure. Is puts a little more work into this. So just a cost on the football side. I’ll give them both that that when they make these decisions that you know Kyle Hamilton you know Okay, all right. Good. Cool. Did you know Yeah, I see what you’re doing now. So we could go back what Bobby with this forever, right?
Luke Jones 27:57
Well, Bobby Witt wouldn’t have been. It’s not like that would have been the wrong choice. It’s just it worked out great for the Orioles that you have Adley rutschman And you got Gunnar Henderson in the second round, you know, I mean, look, I mean, that was part of the debate. It was okay. Do you want the stud catcher who’s closer to be in Major League ready although at that point in time in 2019 the Orioles weren’t worried about having a prospect who was Major League ready they had so much work to do, or did you want the stud shortstop who look if you’re gonna ask me stud shortstop who’s four years younger or the stud catcher out of college? I’m probably if you tell me that they’re both going to pan out I’m probably going to lean a little more towards the shortstop in all honesty, but Adley rutschman. We know what he means for the Orioles at this point in time and in the foreseeable future. And they got Gunnar Henderson right I mean, if Gunnar Henderson’s not there in the second round they don’t take him then maybe the debates more interesting but as it stands right now it’s a massive win for the Orioles and good credit till
8Nestor J. Aparicio 28:57
there’s also a point to how bad the Royals were to to you know they’re both terrible Yeah, right.
Luke Jones 29:02
You’re picking one until you’re both terrible I mean, we don’t have that and the Royals have been really really bad even as the Orioles were getting much better the last couple years. The Royals have stunk so
Nestor J. Aparicio 29:15
that aside to your point Oreos are coming.
Luke Jones 29:17
8Yeah, I mean that to the degree of the Orioles. No, but I think they’re gonna be better and look the Al Central. I mean, is anyone overly impressed with the central mean? Okay, the twins. Oh, here the Tigers having a good young core. I think the Tigers are more interesting than they’ve been. You know, I mean, who knows what the White Sox right. I mean, the White Sox they’re off to a bad start this year. But but you know, I kind of look at that division. Minnesota I think is still by default the favorite but I think Kansas City could make some noise there. And it’s funny to say that because I’m saying that about a team that dropped their first two series of the year but I think they just they look more competitive. They maybe they remind me a little bit of where the Orioles were two years ago which they still weren’t great. Still didn’t make the playoffs but ended up being better and much better the second half of the season. But going back to the Orioles, the approach at the plate. Yeah, it hasn’t been great. I mean, let’s face it. First two games, they hit the heck out of the ball. And since then it’s been choppy, right. I mean, they didn’t hit the finale against the the angels. Monday night, they needed the walk off from Jordan Westberg after Kimbrel had blown the Save in the night, which you know, it’s a bloop a couple steals in a sack fly. It’s not like it was a terrible performance. And then on Tuesday night, they didn’t hit the ball against Alec Marsh. So, you know, they’ve got to get the bats going. There’s no question about that. The weather has been tough, but the weather was tough for Kansas City against Corbin burns, and they square them up and did a nice job, you know, and put a couple runs across the board despite the miserable condition. So I think they’ll get going. I mean, look, I burn said it best. He was asked about the conclusion of the homestand kind of just, you know, your summary of the first six games and said, Hey, we want to series were foreign to and I don’t think anyone in this clubhouse right now would say we’re playing anywhere close to our best baseball right now. So that speaks to one what this team, you know where they are from a talent level standpoint, but also their expectations. They have very high expectations for themselves. At this point, this isn’t, oh, this was really fun the way it was in the second half of 22 or last year where they came out of nowhere and won the Division. They’re the hunted now, they’re gonna get their best shot from any team they play at this point in time, right? I mean, from a mindset standpoint, in the same way that we talked about the ravens and have for years, the Orioles are in that position now where you look at them and say, hey, they’re really good. They’re not going to sneak up on anybody. So the bats need to wake up there’s no doubt about that. You know, they’ve got a number of guys that are off to a pretty slow start and I’m going to say it because it needs to be said because you take a look at the number of runs the triple A Norfolk tides are scoring right now and you see what Aston Karstadt is doing and Jackson Holliday hitting leadoff home runs and Kobe mayo and Connor Norby and Kyle sours. I don’t love the Orioles bench right now. I mean, Let’s call a spade a spade. You’ve got Jorge Mateo who is fast but you got you got to be able to get on first base. They have Matteo running around in centerfield and I get it it was against a tough lefty and they’re trying to protect cows are a little bit but I don’t love that I don’t love seeing Ryan O’Hearn and right field the previous night can run down a ball that I think a good right fielder in the major leagues typically catches and to your point Ramona Reyes is off to a bad start and look six games, right? I’m the ultimate guide to strategy.
Nestor J. Aparicio 32:41
You know, I mean, you got to have a better bet with the game on the line if that Sure. You’re gonna stay in a team that expects to win 100 games right?
Luke Jones 32:52
And Mike my concern with a Reus and look I mean, one specific at bat look anyone can have a bad a bad time to time that’s going to happen but hitless through the first homestand and haven’t seen them really hit the ball hard all that much. So not at all suggest anyone who’s sitting there saying Oh Luke is calling for them to DFA arena is far from it. You’re the king of short sample size, right king of hot takes. But you know, you do have these guys at triple A that are just waiting for opportunities. So my point is when you have a bench that right now consists of James McCann as your backup catcher, no issues there, of course, and he was the hero on Wednesday night, Tony camp. Call a spade a spade. Tony Kemp doesn’t if we’re talking about the Orioles truly putting their best foot forward. We’re not talking about service time and Jackson Allen. Tony Kemp won’t be on this baseball team right now. I mean, let’s just call it what it is. You have Matteo or Reus on the bench every night?
Nestor J. Aparicio 33:50
Did that’s gonna count by June. You know that? Well, I’m
8Luke Jones 33:52
sure it will. But that said that’s why it’s important to win games on Wednesday. Now
Nestor J. Aparicio 33:57
here’s how it changes the changes when you Reus gets key at bats and can’t knock in a run at all that doesn’t even have a strategy to not get a run.
Luke Jones 34:06
Right so but but the point is you have a bench right now that compared to guys that are waiting for opportunities at triple A My point is a Rius need to perform the tail need to perform Tony camp I would say needs to perform. I don’t think Tony camp to your point. If he’s still here in June. I’m very surprised and nothing against him. He’s a good guy. Guys in the clubhouse like him, but he’s, he’s a fringe major league player at best at this point in time. I mean, just look at the numbers. I’m not trying to talk at a turn here. Like
Nestor J. Aparicio 34:35
8is there anything you want to say about that box score Thursday night? I mean, it’s just it came across to me at four in the morning and I’m like 10 RBI, is that the season I’m like, I’m looking at like, I’m looking at the box score. And I’m like, is that a is that the first couple of get? And um, I just looked at all rutschman Okay, um, you got Rajesh Bialetti I’m mixing them all up. Now at this point. I’m like it 26 hits 21 was crazy. See
Luke Jones 35:01
yeah, I think go back and look at what the Orioles grapefruit League record was and look boy you want to talk about we always thought about fake football in the same way with grapefruit league but what if we said the Orioles or the Ravens had the long preseason winning streak people always lost the plot there they tried to talk about horrible caring about that or this coach caring about now they always had really good second third fourth team guys much better than the opposition second third 14 Guys so the same idea applied in the grapefruit league with all these guys that triple A and to a lesser extent double A but really triple A and the Orioles they want all those grapefruit league games because you get to the fifth inning and you have the backups in all these prospects for the Orioles against other teams quad a journeyman Oh,
Nestor J. Aparicio 35:53
Jackson holiday bad against the Red Sox in the seventh inning and he’s like a major league guy batting off a guy that’s just you know an organization guy they’re gonna send a double A right
Luke Jones 36:05
so the same thing the same expectation applies in triple A when all these guys some of them who played in the majors already like like a star wars like a Heston curse that they’re playing against other teams triple eight rosters holiday, the gap and it’s 429. It’s spring training and we’re all like but but the point is, you look at triple A, I mean, the rosters floated, you look at their top five or top six. And that looks like look, I don’t want to go as far as the craziness that you hear and like you always hear about this like Alabama could beat the Carolina Panthers. You know, I’m not gonna not go into that degree. But you look, get the top five or six that Norfolk’s trotting out in their starting lineup every night. I’m not saying that it would be, you know, better than a lot of teams in baseball, but those six guys will be slotted into a lot
8Nestor J. Aparicio 36:56
of major league line a lot hold on three or four of them are going to be a part of this lineup by this time next year. Of course, of course.
Luke Jones 37:03
I mean, it’s only natural. And that’s why when
Nestor J. Aparicio 37:05
we talk about Santander and we talked about mountcastle We talked about Mullins, we talked about Hayes, they better be thinking about diving on piles now. And we’re talking about your Reeson Matteo being gone six weeks from now like literally right? So and Holland and these guys being here. This is happens fast. If you go back and you look at the Norfolk roster from this time two years ago today, and we’re all screaming Where’s Robin? Where’s Robin? Where’s rutschman?
Luke Jones 37:29
8Yeah, yeah, I mean, it’s yeah, that’s just part of it. So or some of those guys that are at Norfolk right now. They’re gonna be in the majors elsewhere, because Mike Elias is going to trade one or two of them for a pitcher. So
Nestor J. Aparicio 37:38
we’ll have another Corbin burns. Yeah.
Luke Jones 37:40
I mean, that’d be nice. I don’t know if it’ll be that. But some someone.
Nestor J. Aparicio 37:44
Oh, the White Sox gonna have three of these guys. We’d have seats. Yeah,
8Luke Jones 37:48
I guess you know, I mean, last year, they were they were just so determined to get Jackson holiday and the Oreo said, now you’re not getting Jackson holiday for Dylan C’s. I don’t know if that ever changed in terms of what they asked for. But point is you asked me about the triple A box score. Yes, I saw it. Yes. It was spectacular. And yes, it’s a reminder of where the Orioles stand with their farm system compared to just about any other team in baseball. So hey, Goodwin after a really difficult long day for the fans and I really empathize for people. I walked around in the concourse at one point at like three o’clock 330. And I was actually shocked how many people were still around. Glad to see the Orioles take care of them should have should have been done in a more timely manner. But they at least you know, took care of them in a couple of ways. And they got to see a win at the end of the day. And that’s what it’s all about. Orioles, finish up the first homestand and embark on their first road trip catching the Pittsburgh Pirates pirates off to a good start. So it’s gonna be challenging. And in case you were wondering whether or not going to be great in Pittsburgh in early April, either so shocking. I know.
Nestor J. Aparicio 38:58
Well, it’s Pittsburgh. Is that really you never really want to recommend it. I spent a month there for a couple of hockey games. So a couple years ago. He is Luke East Baltimore. Look, I am Nestor. You can find us anywhere that social media takes us our 25th anniversary documentaries coming out in a couple of weeks working hard on that through the weekend. And really working hard on get ready for the NFL Draft. Getting ready for some elections around here as well. I had some candidates on this week. We’ll be doing a little bit more of that Mariela crabcake tour comes to Costas on Tuesday we talking bridge and community in the peninsula. But we’ll be on Friday at Bally’s at the Inner Harbor. I’ll be Coco’s the following week. Then after that on the 26th. At the back of fade least in the afternoon live from two until five at rimes Luke will be coming down for crabcake and I’ll be staying for a beer and probably some shrimp salad and some proper macaroni and cheese because that’s the way I roll. It’s a cucumber salad too, because it’s delicious. There I am Nestor we are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore. Now thinking about steak fries all day and like big potato wages and catch up stay with us Baltimore positive
