If the version of Kyle Bradish that re-emerged at Camden Yards against the New York Yankees on Wednesday is suddenly reappearing and the bat of Adley Rutschman has returned, then the Baltimore Orioles already have their first building blocks back to thinking about contending this summer in the American League pennant race. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss two outta three over the pinstripers for the Birds and Bradish back to shoving the ball every fifth day.

Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Orioles’ recent series against the Yankees, highlighting Kyle Bradish’s impressive performances, including a one-hit game on Wednesday. They noted Bradish’s improved curveball and overall pitching effectiveness. The conversation also touched on Adley Rutschman’s resurgence, with a .291 average and .550 slugging percentage. They acknowledged the team’s ongoing injury issues and manager Brandon Hyde’s acknowledgment of the need for organizational changes to address them. The discussion concluded with optimism about the team’s potential if key players continue to perform well.

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Attend and host a Baltimore Positive event at Fishmonger’s Daughter in Catonsville next Thursday and run the show live from that table
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Bring and give away Maryland Treasures scratch-off tickets at the Fishmonger’s Daughter event next Thursday
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Host Bill Cole as a guest at the Fishmonger’s Daughter event next week
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Provide the Raven schedule on Thursday night via the WNST tech service and announce it to listeners
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Cover breaking news while in Las Vegas and publish breaking updates first on the WNST tech service during the Maryland Party trip
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Arrange to have Marty Bass on the show (schedule and confirm a guest appearance) before the season ends

Orioles’ Recent Performance and Upcoming Schedule

• Nestor Aparicio welcomes listeners to WNST and mentions various guests and topics discussed in the show.
• Nestor introduces Luke Jones to talk about Orioles baseball, specifically their recent series against the Yankees.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the positivity from the Orioles’ recent win against the Yankees and the performance of Brandon Young and Kyle Bradish.
• Luke highlights Kyle Bradish’s impressive performances in his last two outings, including a one-hit game against the Yankees.

Kyle Bradish’s Recent Success and Future Prospects

• Luke Jones credits the Orioles’ PR team for noting that Bradish’s one-hit performance was the first since Daniel Cabrera in 2006.
• Nestor and Luke discuss Bradish’s potential as an ace and his past performances before and after his elbow injury.
• Luke explains Bradish’s recent success with his curveball, which he has been featuring more prominently in his recent starts.
• Nestor and Luke express optimism about Bradish’s continued success and its impact on the Orioles’ rotation.

Orioles’ Rotation and Injury Concerns

• Luke Jones emphasizes the need for other pitchers in the rotation, including Grayson Rodriguez and Dean Kremer, to step up.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the importance of consistent pitching and hitting for the Orioles to improve their record.
• Luke mentions the recent injury to Dylan Beaver and its impact on the team’s depth.
• Nestor and Luke agree that the Orioles need to build on their recent success and avoid complacency.

Adley Rutschman’s Performance and Future Outlook

• Nestor and Luke discuss Adley Rutschman’s recent success and its impact on the Orioles’ lineup.
• Luke highlights Rutschman’s improved defense and offensive performance, including his home run on Wednesday.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the importance of Rutschman’s continued success and its potential impact on the team’s playoff chances.
• Luke notes Rutschman’s reduced walk rate and its potential impact on his overall performance.

Orioles’ Injury Issues and Organizational Acknowledgment

• Luke Jones mentions Craig Albernaz’s acknowledgment of the Orioles’ injury issues and the need for organizational changes.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the importance of addressing the team’s injury problems to improve their performance.
• Luke highlights the need for the organization to look at their strength and conditioning programs to prevent future injuries.
• Nestor and Luke agree that addressing the injury issues is crucial for the Orioles’ long-term success.

Orioles’ Upcoming Games and Future Plans

• Nestor and Luke discuss the Orioles’ upcoming games against the Nationals and the Rays.
• Luke emphasizes the importance of winning games against the Nationals and building momentum for the rest of the season.
• Nestor and Luke talk about the potential impact of the Raven schedule release and the upcoming Preakness event.
• Nestor mentions various upcoming events and appearances, including a visit to Fishmonger’s Daughter and the Maryland party in Las Vegas.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Orioles, Yankees, Kyle Bradish, Adley Rutschman, pitching, injuries, rotation, offense, series win, Bradish’s curveball, Rutschman’s resurgence, injury prevention, Craig Albernaz, Baltimore positive, Maryland lottery.

SPEAKERS

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Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 towel Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive and the positively, just like Ace freely saying, getting back back into New York groove. I had a good time at fayley’s in the afternoon. We had Ivan Bates by. We had Megan McCorkle from the Baltimore stopped by. My pal, Jason seimer, came by and talked about going nose to nose with the primates in Borneo. Yes, it’s true. We did a little travel talk. All are brought to you by friends at the Maryland lottery. Have the Maryland treasures to give away. I gave him the he wanted the wildlife from the the Blackwater refuge, so I did that for him, but we will have all of these available at fishmonger’s daughter, that is the newest faithless location that on Thursday of next week, after we run the Preakness after the Orioles go to DC and then Tampa, and Luke Jones joins us right now to talk a little Oriole baseball and The Oriole magic against the Yankees and awkward times on Wednesday, you were supposed to be my football guest on Wednesday. Now we’re going to wait for the schedule to come out. We’ll talk about Rio de Janeiro, which I’ve done a few times as well. There are no bad series wins over the New York Yankees, even if they’re not the first place New York Yankees.

Luke Jones  01:20

Yeah. I mean, this is one of those times where there’s some positivity over the course of a few days. Series started out with with a nice win on Monday night. Obviously, Brandon young pitched well enough, you know, he battled about as well as you can expect. What your number eight starter going into the season, and obviously in the rotation with the injuries that they’ve had, and Kobe Mayo has the moment of magic. Right when they were, you know, they went from being no hit to suddenly they’re winning the game. And as disappointing as Tuesday night was with Trevor Rogers not pitching well whatsoever, and they’re down six, nothing early. Kyle Bradish, dare I say, the last two times out. You know, when you go back to the opener of the I almost said Oakland, but the a series where he pitched well, defense let him

Nestor Aparicio  02:08

down. But I’m gonna call him Oakland Raiders, Oakland, if I want.

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Luke Jones  02:12

Yeah, there you go. All right. But Bradish pitch really well last Friday night, and he was terrific on Wednesday afternoon. I mean, Orioles, as a staff, they held the Yankees to one hit. I have to credit Orioles PR on this, assuming they’re correct on it. This is the first time the Orioles one hit the New York Yankee since Daniel Cabrera’s one hitter at the old stadium in the Bronx. Remember that gave up a run in like the seventh inning. There are a couple errors committed, but

Nestor Aparicio  02:44

the big boy out there all wide open, but

Luke Jones  02:48

he pitched a one hitter in the Bronx at the old stadium 20 years ago. That’s the first time the Orioles have one hit the New York Yankees as a staff since then. But Bradish was the story. He was really good. You know that we talked about it a lot in spring training, right? And the whole debate about an ace not acquiring an ace who was going to be the one who was going to be the opening day starter, we talked about it, whether it was gonna be Rogers or Bradish. I know I was, I think you were at the time too, when we were kind of talking about this team, if things were going to go the way that you wanted them to go, that I think I felt like Bradish was the guy that most fit the profile of an ace, because of the stuff, because of what we saw him do a few years back before the elbow injury, all of that, and he’s looked like Kyle radish, the last two times out, the stuff has been really good, swing and miss, getting strikeouts. It’s been really interesting. Nestor Bradish, if you go back and look at him when he was at his best a couple years ago, before Tommy John and even coming back last year. I mean, part of this was also that he pitched the way he did in September, it wasn’t clunky or didn’t look very good. The Bradish we saw in April, the Bradish we saw over his first six starts or so this year, was not the guy we were seeing last September. So that’s where we were kind of asking questions, you know, how’s he feeling? Is his stamina build up? All of that these last two times out, he’s looked much more like that guy, but the difference his breaking pitch that had really been his money pitch to put away hitters, had been the slider going back to 2023 the slider, sweeper, whatever you want to call it, he’s featured his curveball very prominently the last two times out. I mean, set a career high his last time out. I think it was at like 30% of his pitches, 31% whatever it was. And he threw that a little more frequently, even on Wednesday. So he’s altered his delivery just a little bit. Craig Albernaz talked about that a little bit in the pre game on Wednesday. Shorten it up just a little bit. I think it’s helped him with his timing. I think the quality of his strikes have been a little bit. Better command within the strike zone has been a little better, but that curve ball has been I mean, that’s been a pretty brutal pitch for both the a’s and the Yankees to have to deal with. So I’m encouraged by that look. I’m not going to sit here and do cartwheels over one series win and say that they’re back or everything’s fine. They’ve got a long way to go, and they’ve got other issues to sift through, including another injury now with Dylan Bieber’s going on the IL but if you’re looking at your checklist of things that need to get better, Kyle Bradish was very much near the top of that. You know. You can talk about gunner Henderson. You can talk about Pete Alonso being more consistent. You can talk about Boz and we talked about Rogers a whole lot in the aftermath of a stinker on Tuesday night, but Kyle Bradish, that’s a pretty big check mark if Kyle Bradish is going to continue to pitch like he has these last couple times out and it looks a lot like the Kyle Bradish from a few years ago. So that’s good to see. Now they need some other guys in this rotation to step up in a, at least a somewhat similar fashion, you know, and kind of looking at Boz and I’m looking at Trevor Rogers, Bassett to a lesser degree, but Bassett at least be the guy he’s been the last couple years, which they signed him to be a number four or number five, right? I mean, that’s what he was. So they need more. But I’m really encouraged with what I’ve seen from Kyle Bradish the last couple times out, and nice thing is the bats backed him up, which they hadn’t been doing here of late, just collectively as an offense. I mean, you look at how little they’d scored against the Yankees over the first six games. It’s no wonder they were one in five over those first six because they didn’t pitch very well and they didn’t swing the bats at all. So they swung the bats. Rushman hits, a home run drives in three plays. Alexander, three hits. That was good to see a crisp game defensively, which we haven’t said that very often. So nice way to close the home stand, nice way to get a series win, especially after they were just it’s called what it was. They were humiliated in the Bronx last weekend. I mean, that was as ugly as you can play over a four game series. So for them to win two out of three, I like seeing it. I give it a two thumbs up. And now go to DC, take two of three from a nats team that is nothing special. And then after that, obviously business will pick up again as you’re going down to the trop and, I mean, the rays are the team that’s in first place right now, right? We’ve spent a lot of time talking about the Yankees, but Tampa Bay has been exceptional. So it’s not going to get any easier after this series. So it’s nice to get a series win. Go to DC, you know, a road game, but not really a true road series here over the weekend, but a chance to get on a little bit of a roll, build some momentum, get back closer to 500 and then, you know, at that point, you kind of see where you are. And we’ve talked about it this American League as a whole. There’s not a whole lot to write home about, other than the Yankees and the rays. So it’s as simple as, hey, can you win seven of eight. You know, can you win eight of 10? And if you do that, you’re in a pretty good spot to at least get your footing and then say, All right, let’s be the kind of team we thought we were going to be moving forward. But you’ve got to build on it. You can’t just have a you can’t be satisfied with the series win over the Yankees, and then go down to DC and get your feelings hurt down there, and then we’re just going to be talking in the same terms we’ve been talking for what, the better part of a month now. I can’t say that I sat and watched a lot of mass in two or three or four to

Nestor Aparicio  08:30

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watch nationals games since, I don’t know, since Bryce Harper went to Philadelphia and Strasbourg went to the Hall of pretty good so i But the Yankees and what we’ve seen from them, and I would agree with you, man, I wrote a lengthy piece last week, not burying them, but saying, what was that in the Bronx? And that’s led them on this rocky journey of being five games under 500 which is something that you and I find to be unacceptable, right? Like and if they string some games together here, and they’re three over 500 we’ll talk about them in different terms, sure, but when you’re five games under 500 and your pitching is not pitching, and your best hitters aren’t hitting, and the defense, I’ll give this bad on Wednesday, it was good Wednesday, but it’s bad overall, yeah, and it’s probably not that. That’s the thing that you and I can make a case that hitters might hit, Ward might hit 20 home runs the second half of the year, because he’s capable of that. Gunner, Henderson Alonzo, whatever holiday is, is a one, one, whatever. Any of these, beside, oh, these high ceiling guys, these guys that were including cows, or including mayo, including kirstad and down the line, all of them, they were all supposed to be high ceiling guys. The pitching side of this has always been when I believed in the pitching, I believed in them. When I haven’t believed in the pitching, I haven’t believed in them, and when I haven’t believed in the pitching and I don’t believe in the defense, it has created.

Luke Jones  10:00

It’s tough

Nestor Aparicio  10:00

conflating conversations with you and I over the last five or six weeks to watch them kick the ball around, not get great pitching and not hit the ball consistently, especially runners in scoring position, and especially their star players. But if anything is going to awaken it all getting good starts out of Bradish and Rogers as the two guys that we believed in the most, or baz Who was the guy that Mike Elias believed in enough to give money to a long term. Or Bassett, who is making more money than any of them, right, you know, in a general sense, right? Yeah. Or Kramer, who has been sent in and out and back and forth and this and that, and the poviches and the guy and, hey, Brandon young. I mean, they’re giving him opportunities.

Luke Jones  10:46

He’s got the best era out of any of them, even if you don’t believe in him, and I don’t,

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Nestor Aparicio  10:50

but he’s taking the ball and looking like Amanda Wurlitzer, you know, looking like this is the way it needs to look. So somewhere along the line. They can’t just get three mediocre starts and two lousy starts, and that’s a five. You know, there needs to be, if you’re going to be a playoff team, you have to have a one or several twos. You know, you need to be going through the rotation. You’re getting to the fifth or sixth inning, where on the nights when Peter Lonzo is not hitting the ball, or beat Alonzo is kicking the ball around, or some gunner Henderson’s kicking the ball around, or whatever it is that you give yourself a chance to win bullpen. For all of the gray hairs I garnered in February and March, worried about the bullpen, it seems like you and I spent so much less time talking about that since the first week of the season than we have about any other part of this but Bradish, two starts in a row. Bradish, great start against the Yankees, right? So they’re step one to being the 92 win team, or playing on some pace there of winning four or five games a week instead of two or three games,

Luke Jones  12:02

no question. I mean, you just said it. It does really feel like step one in that way, and he’s got to continue it. And obviously he’s not going to throw six innings of one hit all every time out, right? We under. We’re going to be realistic about it. But that, that stuff, that profile, that swing and miss, that ability to dominate, even in a way that even with Rogers as as shiny and sparkling as the era was last year. You’ve heard me say it a lot. You know, this isn’t a guy that strikes out a ton of people. This isn’t a guy that’s going to, you know, he’s a lefty. He’s not going to look like Eric scobel when he goes to the mound right. He’s not going to look like Garrett crochet when he goes to the mound. So that’s why I always expected some regression. Now the problem is, and we’ve talked about this, I don’t want to belabor the point, but it swung in the opposite direction what we were seeing from Bradish early on, like I said, I was just okay. We saw him be dominant last September. Where is that? And he got into the proverbial lab, right? He made some adjustments, you know, made a couple mechanical tweaks. They made a conscious decision to feature the fastball a little or not the fastball. Feature the curve ball a little more. I think that’s maybe what we have to remember with pitching. I mean, even the very best, it’s such a give take, right? It’s such a cat and mouse game of keeping hitters off your pitches, right, keeping them off your sequencing, everything you do. So I do wonder if it’s not simple, but he’s got a good curveball, and he’s always had a good curveball. He just hasn’t necessarily thrown it as much as a slider over the years, but I think it was a case of, maybe you feature that a little more probably plays a little bit better against left handed hitters, and it probably it messes with the hitter’s eye level, and it probably makes the fastball play that much better than, I mean, I can remember when Chris Tillman was at his best, and Chris Tillman was Never a guy that threw overly hard, right? I mean, Tillman was tall. He had good extension on his pitches, so I think his velocity played a little better than it was. But Chris Tillman was not a guy throwing 97 miles per hour, but when he was at his best, he had that big bending 12, 611, you know, 11, seven, kind of curve ball where, you know, it had a big break to it, and that would make his fastball that was up in the zone and up at the up at the belt, or just above the belt, get a lot of swing and miss with that. I just think that combination of curve ball, four seam fastball. So, you know, I’m not saying that’s exactly the same thing as we’re seeing with Bradish, but the point is, a big part of getting hitters to being able to get hitters out, is just keeping them off balance as much as you can. So you know, he’s changed up a little bit of his tendency, and he’s got the stuff that you know you do that, and he can get a lot of swing and miss as it is, as long as he’s. Throwing strikes. We talked about it a lot.

Nestor Aparicio  15:01

Bradish has the ability to do things that, that, that we have no one Kramer and the other guys, yeah. I mean, kind of ceiling, right?

Luke Jones  15:08

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I mean, maybe boss, but Paz Boz has never done it to any extended, prolonged degree in the way that Bradish did. For most you know, even go back to Bradish the second half of his rookie year, he showed that kind of ability. Did it throughout 2023 it’s why he’s fourth and Cy Young voting did it in 24 before his his elbow finally gave way, and he had to get surgery. And we even saw it last year again. Go back and look at his last four or five starts. You know, wasn’t a big sample, but he can be out. There’s no doubt about that. So he’s the guy that has the ceiling to be the one, whether it’s a true number one in the purest sense, or the Orioles one, right in the way that Chris Tillman was their 112 years ago when they when they won the Al East. But you know, he’s the guy that has that ability to dominate. So that’s, again, why I’ve been as encouraged and you just said it, it’s kind of if you’re laying out the road map for where they are right now and what all needs to go well, or at least some combination of factors that need to go better for them to be a wild card contender. Whatever you want to, however you want to categorize it. Bradish looking like this version of Kyle Bradish is certainly was high up there on the list and and if I’m being totally honest, if you were asking me about things that I have the most confidence in, he was probably higher on the list. I’m not saying that he that I had no doubt that this was going to happen. But the difference between him and some of those other pitches pitchers that you just said, I mean, you see the stuff. I mean, he’s got a sinker that, when he’s going, well, it’s 9697 as we said. He’s got a slider and a curve ball that both those pitches Miss bats. I mean, this is a guy that has four plus pitches and, you know, a lot of spin, good Velo. And I think the thing about him that we haven’t necessarily been able to fully appreciate because of how much time he’s missed, going back to when, even when he was a rookie, and going back to when he was, you know, 24 he’s a really cerebral guy too. He thinks about what he’s doing out there. And I think there’s a lot he puts a lot into it. He’s not just a thrower out there, and the way that you thought of like Sydney ponson with good stuff, but, you know, million dollar arm, 1010, Cent head, that’s what we always said about ponson for years, right? Bradish is a guy that I think is a really smart guy. He’s conscientious. I think he recognized that what he was doing through the first month plus of the season was not working the way he was planning on it to work. So he had to kind of go back to the drawing board, make a couple tweaks. Say, Hey, let’s, let’s feature the curve ball a little more, and it’s worked really well for him. Now he’s got to continue that. Right? We don’t just look at these two starts and say, All right, no problem, no questions asked. He’s just going to be this guy moving forward. But I am encouraged, because, again, this kind of goes back to in the same way we would talk about, what you expect Gunnar Henderson to be, which he has not been to this point in the season, whatsoever. What you expect Pete Alonso to be, which, for the most part, has not been whatsoever to this point, you know, Bradish even fully recognizing, yes, he’s coming off of, you know, he’s too not quite two years removed from elbow surgery, but he is almost two years removed from elbow surgery at this point. That’s where I kind of looked at him, and that’s why I was as bullish on him as I was in spring training, talking about him, you know, with no disrespect to Rogers or baz and his upside that clearly Mike Elias is enamored with, but Bradish is the guy that did it for a good year and a half, and that was when the Orioles were contending, and he started a game one in a playoff series. It didn’t go great, but he did that right. So that’s why you were pointing to him and saying, I have way more conviction and excitement about his upside than anyone they had last year, at any point during the season, with, with how bad their their starting pitching was, but

Nestor Aparicio  19:07

until once, Corbin burns, left, right? I mean,

Luke Jones  19:09

yeah. I mean, like, you know, when Grayson Rodriguez didn’t make it out of spring training, right? They didn’t have anyone. I mean, you’re talking about Morton, you’re talking about Sagano, right? You’re talking about Kyle Gibson. You know, in a almost impromptu being signed at the end of spring training. And we know how poorly that went. Whereas, you know, Dean Kramer was kind of the only, kind of, sort of the only proven commodity you have. And you know what Dean Kramer is? He’s not an ace, he’s not a number two. He’s, ideally, he’s your number four, your number five. So, you know, they hope to get him back at some point here in the not too distant future. I mean, it’s still, sounds like, you know, still at least a couple weeks away till we start talking about that. But, but again, if you’re trying to spell out the road map for this team to not be the disappointment they’ve been to this point, Kyle radish looking like he has the last two starts that you. That’s a heck of a start for them to continue doing that. But to your point, and I wholeheartedly agree, you still need a lot more out of this, the rest of this rotation, even if Bradish is going to be this guy moving forward, okay, that’s one out of every five, right? They still need markedly better. And I was even talking to another reporter after the game on Wednesday. We were kind of saying all right, between Rogers and Boz, you need to get at least one of those guys really going in a in a really good direction. And you know, you want

Nestor Aparicio  20:32

to, right?

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Luke Jones  20:33

You need one of those guys to really emerge here quickly. If they do that, then you start talking about this rot, least getting out of the bottom five in the majors in era, and starting to really gain some momentum and traction in that way.

Nestor Aparicio  20:48

Luke Jones is here. He will be there at Oriole Park when the Orioles return next week. They’re on a little bit of a road bender. We’ll be on a road Bender in fishmonger’s daughter next week in Catonsville. You’ll also see me out in Las Vegas for a few days at the Maryland party with my partner, Bill Cole and Cole roofing and Gordian energy. There’s any breaking news, you’ll get that first in the wnst tech service. And of course, the Raven schedule will be out on Thursday night. So if you’re hearing this on Friday morning, you can find it out at Baltimore positive, amongst a bunch of other places. I’m wearing my GBMC gear for walk a mile in the shoes we did a piece this week on obesity and getting the shot the GOP one, as well as our partners at the Maryland lottery and our partners at foreign and Durham. You’re wearing the gear there. We’ll get back to Pizza John’s on your head as well. We’ve been out doing crab cakes, talking about all sorts of things. And really, the more I get out, the more people talk baseball with me and all the places I am, especially this time of year, where they’re playing every day and the football team’s not really doing anything other than should I go to Rio de Janeiro or not? It’s dodgy. I’ve told everybody that Jason seimer agrees with that, the the path to relevance for them offensively, rushman was such a big talking point all winter, like they get rushman back, if rushman can come back or whatever,

Luke Jones  22:13

I

Nestor Aparicio  22:14

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don’t want to say I’m shocked on May 13, but if you want to profile this out to me about how Pete Alonso’s first six weeks was going to go, how gunner Henderson would fall back into this. I wouldn’t have profiled that rushman would have been the more productive player by a lot of the three of them. Not that that’s a bad thing. If you would have said rushman is going to out produce the other two guys, I would have said, really that Let’s go. I so as much as we beat them up because they’re under 500 and they do seem to sort of win every other day once in a while, and some of their losses have been more hideous than others, in regard to getting blown out and 17 to one, and like all of that, none of that matters if your optimism and my optimism hits and they get this sort of better pitching, better hitting, Fielding, yeah, wake me the day that if in a little better talking about this incredible turnaround, but we’re not talking about them kicking the ball around six days a week. I’ll hear that, but that would really shock me. I am not that shocked that Adley rutschman, who’s a one one and a character guy and a tools guy of high math Hall of Fame magnitude and showed it at the big league level for a year and a half could bounce back physically, physically, mentally, whatever was holding him back from being the best version of himself the last two years or a poor version of himself. You know, if this were a massive broadcast and our Rob long and you were Melanie Newman, we would just go on and on and on about how great he is. Ignore the rest of it. We don’t do that, but I do think that I’m trying to find the flowers in all of this. And saying is rushman success sustainable? I don’t believe in Jeremiah Jackson or Leo Tovar. You know, any of the flash guys that hit 364 for a month, and I feel good about that for them, for where they are, but I’m talking long haul here with rushman, especially given their tenuous circumstances in the pennant race or not dealing him, not dealing him, his value, his value into them, versus somebody else, where bisayo is in this Is he really your catcher 140 times next year. If you deal rushman for you know, whatever you feel like, the take is going to be on that, but rushman, I mean, I always say to you, let’s judge this on Preakness day, you’ll say Memorial Day. My wife will say her birthday. That’s the week after that. But we’re getting to the quarter pole of Judgment in this. The rushman thing. If that’s sustainable, that’s a really good thing, especially if Henderson and Alonzo wake up. Because I we weren’t talking about rushman a month ago waking up. We were talking more about like, hey, Henderson’s the aircraft carrier, and Alonso’s getting paid to do this, and, you know, Ward’s done it. So we had all of these other guys, but I don’t know, we talked a lot about rushman in the off season, but I didn’t, I wasn’t predictive of solid success for him, thinking he could be an all star catcher again, and that would awaken at this point in the year. You and I talked about Rico Garcia being their All Star representative. If they they were to get the call today, rotchman wouldn’t be far behind, right?

Luke Jones  25:48

Yeah. I mean, you could certainly make that argument. And look, I’m not going to sit here and say this couldn’t happen, but I’m also not going to sit here and downplay what he looked like for a season and a half, right? And just the struggles at the plate and just not looking right. And then you, you couple that with the injuries he had this past season, right, where two different obliques, you know, he had an oblique strain on each side over the course of the 2025, season. So you’re looking at that you’re acknowledging he’s in his age 28 season, which he’s not an old man, but in catcher years, that’s not You’re not a spring chicken either. So yeah, I think it was fair to wonder. I think it was fair to doubt. I didn’t think his career was over, but yeah, look like a major league player at various points during that stretch. I mean, I, I think that might be a little harsh, but Let’s call a spade a spade. You know, they did not, they did not draft him one one over Bobby Witt. And obviously no one knew for sure that Bobby Witt was going to become what he’s become when they drafted him seven years ago, the consensus was absolutely Adley rushman. Maybe, maybe michaelias could have proved his genius by taking Bobby Witt and going against the grave then. But that’s neither here nor there. You know, I’m not. I’m not. There are plenty of things I’ll, I’ll pick on, you know, I can pick on michaelias about that that aren’t that. But until you saw him do this again and look like this again, you really wondered, and you really wondered, what’s going on with him physically? Is he breaking down? I mean, his defense has been better, too. His defensive metrics are excellent

Nestor Aparicio  27:36

on him now,

Luke Jones  27:37

not not just talking about throwing, but block. I mean, the block, maybe not as much a block. Pitch framing. He’s done a really nice job with that, which, by the way, is still a thing, right? A lot of people were kind of wondering, what the ABS system, the challenge system, would mean, pitch framing might be more important than ever, if you kind of think about it in those terms. But, but he’s hit, and he’s hit for power. One thing I will say, if I’m I don’t mean this to sound like a Debbie Downer, but it’s just something that I’ve noticed his walk rate is is down quite a bit. If he’s going to continue to hit 291, and slug 550, with which he is through the end of business after this Yankee series, then that’s fine, but I do wonder if him hitting with that kind of authority and that slug again, does that force teams to start revisiting how they pitch Adley rutschman, and maybe they start pitching him more carefully, and then the walks back go back up. It’s just like what I said with Bradish. There’s we know baseball is a game of adjustments, and that’s such a cliche that anyone can toss it out there, but it doesn’t mean it’s not true, right? It doesn’t mean that that’s not reality. So I think you’re seeing someone who is healthier. I know Craig Albernaz has talked about this a little bit in turn, and how much of its coach speak and how much of it’s the truth. Well, the proof proofs in the results. He said that Richmond really spent a lot of time this offseason, getting his body right. I’m guessing. I’m not not putting words into his mouth, but I’m opining that maybe he got himself in a little better shape than he had been the last couple years, just like I kind of talked about with Lamar Jackson this past year, when you have an injury plagued year, do you need to go back to the drawing board and say Not, not that I necessarily didn’t work hard before, but maybe I need to work differently on my body to get the desired results, because I am getting older. So I think there was probably some of that going on. And I think we’ve seen with Rachman, okay, he had a home run on Wednesday, but we’ve seen the doubles come back. We’ve seen that that he’s not as pool happy as he had become, really going back to even the first half of 24 when his home run numbers went up, but then he crashed the second half of the season, right? So, so I think you’ve seen a little more of the approach going back to a couple years ago, maybe not the same walk rate like I said. That’s going to be. That’s the part of his game I’m going to monitor. Just as we get a little bit deeper into the season, especially fatigue is going to be a thing for a catcher. We know that that’s why they need to give him off days, and not just DH him on the days that he doesn’t catch. I’m a firm believer in that. You’ve heard me say that for a couple years now. I want to see that continue, but, but, yeah, I mean, this is, again, you spell out all the things you know when you’re talking in February, even if and you’re right. I wasn’t necessarily viewing an Adley rutsman Renaissance to look like the guy he was three years ago as a main rec prerequisite, right for this team to contend. But we did talk about if he can be closer to that guy he was a few years ago. Then we forget that’s a heck of a valuable player in that way. So it’s been good to see. It needs to continue. I don’t know if, I don’t know if he’s going to hit 290 I certainly don’t think he’s going to slug 550 you know, that’s, you know, that’s MVP conversation, like, you know, especially for a catcher. But if he can be way more this guy and not be the guy he was last year in the second half of 24 then that makes your lineup that much more dangerous, assuming gunner, Gunner Henderson’s not going to keep hitting sub 200 you know, he’s below the Mendoza line right now. You know, the longer this goes on, we start to talk about gunner in the way that we talked about Adley rutchman A year and a half ago. Like, what’s going on here? You know, What? What? What’s the deal? You know, is there something that’s needs to be fixed mechanically? Is there an injury? You know, whatever I mean, all those questions that you asked when someone is playing so out of character. But if they can get this version of Adley rutsman, and if they can get gunner Henderson back on track, which I at the end of the day, I still have a high level of confidence, I think most people do that, he’s going to be better than he’s been through the first six or seven weeks, you know, seven, eight weeks, whatever we’re at now at this point in the season. But if you get that, and if Pete Alonso starts looking more consistently like Pete Alonso, you know, he’s had his moments, but he’s also had some very substantial laws. You do that, you’re starting to have the makings of a better, more formidable lineup. You know, Taylor Ward, I want to see some more power from Him. He he’s had a few hits here the last couple days. You know, he’s drawing the walks. That’s great. I don’t want that to go away. But you do. You didn’t acquire Taylor ward to be, you know, sporting a 377, slugging percentage with one home run through mid May. Now, I love the 426 on base percentage. You know, I’m not going to shy away from liking that, but there, I think there’s a sweet spot he’s still looking for in that way. But you have those four and beside, we know how he has swung the bat now for about a month. That’s that plays at a high level. And then we’ll see about the rest, right? We’ll see about what Jackson holiday looks like when he’s finally back. We’ll see what Dylan beavers looks like when he comes off the aisle, which is a bummer, because he was really starting to swing the bat pretty well the last couple weeks. So that’s unfortunate. We’ll see about cows are right? I mean, well, no

8

Nestor Aparicio  33:14

basement, you know, they don’t really have a second and third outfielder. Yeah.

Luke Jones  33:19

I mean, there’s a

Nestor Aparicio  33:20

today experiment. I mean, we can go on and on about them beating up on the Yankees two out of three, and they’re as I began the whole thing here. There are ever a bad day to beat the Yankees in whatever way you beat the Yankees, especially when you beat free, right? I mean, so getting that from from Bradish is, you know, something for us to talk about and build upon that’s real, not a weekend flight with Jeremiah Jackson or, you know, somebody hit the ball for a day or two,

Luke Jones  33:52

8

right,

Nestor Aparicio  33:52

getting their number one started to look like a number one starter, which he looked like on Wednesday against a playoff caliber team. You know, that’s what we got out of Corbin burns most of the time two years ago. That’s what you’re going to need out of that spot. Whoever is that person to be that person? Yeah. I mean, one at bat really stood

Luke Jones  34:14

out for me. I mean, his curveball was great throughout, but he had a two. I can’t remember the exact count, but he had two strikes on Aaron Judge rutsman sets up on the outside corner. Bradish actually missed his spot, but he had such good run on his two seam fastball, his sinker, that it clipped the inside corner. And it was just it was nasty, and that right there is where he’s different than everyone else. He doesn’t need to have pristine, perfect command to strike people out and to be very successful. Now, he has to have control, right? He can’t throw it right down the middle. He has to have command that he’s not throwing, you know, thigh high home run balls down the Heart of the Plate, but his stuff moves, and he’s. Got such good spin and movement on his pitches that, you know, that little mechanical adjustment that he made a couple starts ago, it looks like he’s getting himself on track and again, long way. They need more. They still have a lot of issues. They’re still injured. In fact, there was a breath of fresh air in pregame, speaking on the injuries, Craig Albernaz. He wasn’t calling anyone out. I want to be very clear about it, but he had, he made a comment where, I think he was kind of saying, like, we’ve got to look at this as an organization. And, you know, I’ve been saying that going back to last year, we’ve got to look and make everything we need to do, or we need to change what we’re doing to get to keep our guys healthy. I think it’s above his pay grade to fix that as the field manager, but for someone of consequence in the organization to recognize that and not just chalk it up, oh yeah, we’re being bit by the injury bug. Oh yeah, we have some really bad luck. You’re never going to eliminate injuries. We understand that. But to for some public, you know, some front facing awareness of we’ve got to look at our strength and we’re more injured than we think we should be. And I that was just so refreshing for me to hear that. And I don’t think he was talking out of turn. I don’t think Mike Elias and the front office is turning a blind eye to that, but I liked hearing an acknowledgement of we’ve got to really look at this. And it doesn’t mean they’re going to fix it overnight. It might, it might involve some personnel changes, you know, come the offseason, where you might need to hire or fire some people or add some things or subtract some things, whatever. But, man, when I heard that, I almost did a double take. It was I didn’t ask the question, but someone else had asked the question, and I thought, You know what? He’s someone coming from another organization, an organization in Cleveland, that despite the fact that they spend very little money, they’ve had success. They’ve had playoff runs. I do wonder if he kind of looks at some things and say, Hmm, that isn’t necessarily how we handle things in Cleveland. Or hmm, we were doing this in Cleveland. Maybe this is something we need to try

Nestor Aparicio  37:13

Tampa or San Francisco,

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Luke Jones  37:14

sure. Of course, of course. So, so that’s something that you know isn’t paying, isn’t going to pay dividends overnight. But, man, that was that was just so it’s a low bar, right? I’m not saying him, him saying that doesn’t mean anything’s going to be fixed. Or I’m not saying that definitively something has to be fixed, but you need to be introspective to the point where you say we should not be having this many injuries with this many players, many of them young guys can’t win, yeah, like this, you can’t So, so that’s to hear that that was something where I thought, hmm, I do wonder how much of that is Craig Albernaz, and how much of that is just the organization acknowledging we’ve got to look at this, because this is, This is off right arm injuries for pitchers, I’ve always said I put that to not to the side, because they’re important, and that’s awful when that happens. But every team in baseball has arm injuries, right? Every team in baseball, it is a pitching epidemic. You know, Tommy John and elbows and shoulders and thoracic outlet syndrome, all kinds of different things. I mean, the human arm wasn’t made to do what these guys are doing in modern baseball from a velocity and a Spin standpoint, so I’m not talking about that nearly as much as obliques and hamstrings and those types of things that are happening way too much, not just with the major league team, but go look at their minor league injury list too. And so for to hear that from Albernaz, like I said, that was a little bit of a breath of fresh air, just for me, to hear some acknowledgement of that, rather than just chalk chalking it up, the bad luck we saw this with the Ravens several years ago. What did they do? They made changes. And you know what? They helped. They didn’t eliminate it entirely. It doesn’t mean that injury luck is non existent. It’s a thing, but it

Nestor Aparicio  39:06

is when there’s no one philosophy, everybody’s doing right, right? Well. But I also

Luke Jones  39:12

think it just it’s one of those things that’s a moving target. You’re never going to figure that out. You should always be trying to get better, and you should be evolving in your methods. It’s like I just talked about with Bradish with his pitching mechanics, it’s always going to be a moving target. You’re always adjusting. And Sports Science is a heck of a thing. Believe me, there are teams across multiple sports now where performance and injury prevention, man, there is money to be made in that industry if someone or some entity comes up with, you know, and it’s not a magic, you know, it’s not a magic pill. But in terms of, what can we do to keep our pitchers healthier? What can we do to mitigate soft tissue injuries? I mean, if you can do those things, boy, down. That is as valuable, if not more valuable, than any free agent signing you can make with an unlimited payroll. So I’m not saying the Orioles just because Albernaz says that, that doesn’t mean that they’re even close to solving the issue, but the first step to solving an issue or mitigating a problem is to acknowledge that there is one, and I’m sorry there have been so many injuries I can’t I wholeheartedly reject the idea that you’re just going to shrug your shoulders and say, Oh, well, it’s just tough luck. No, I think there. I think there are some things that nothing nefarious, nothing negligent, but some things that I think that if they need to be taking a closer look at that perhaps they could be doing that could help remedy and and mitigate some of this stuff that’s been happening.

Nestor Aparicio  40:46

8

All right, we’ll break on this and tell everybody to enjoy the Preakness this weekend. Enjoy whatever NBA, NHL you’re watching out there. We got the PGA event up in Philadelphia this weekend. RJ Shepherd joined us from our friends over at the classic five in Forest Park golf. We did the Maryland crab cake toward fadley’s. We’re going to be at fishmonger’s daughter next Thursday. It’s 21st we’re going to be in Catonsville. Great menu, great place. I have my own table in the front to do Baltimore positive. It’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. We’ll have the Maryland treasures scratch offs to give away. Also our friends at GBMC. I’m wearing my walk a mile a shirt from my my walking a mile a month ago on a beautiful day, was over at GBMC. Also our friends at Farnham and Dermer. We had Zach Dermer out last week at Planet Fitness, and a lot of guests out. Mark Viviano, if you’re driving around hearing these conversations, I’ve been chasing Marty bass around. I’ve been bringing his name up. I had Megan McCorkle on from live Baltimore, another W, Jay Z alum. Make it Ron mats. Find the find the roster. Get him on here to talk about Marty. But I know Marty’s heading out soon, and we were ships passing in the night, not like his ship docked over in Dundalk, but I will get Marty bass on before it’s all over with he knows I love him. So we got the end of the month. We have holidays coming up here, Memorial Day weekend as well, and we will have the Raven schedule first, you grab that on the wnst tech service. It’s all brought to you by Cole roofing and Gordian energy and Bill Cole will be my guest next week at the fishmonger’s daughter as well as we will head out to Vegas doing some local business. And I’m not doing the show from the Maryland party this year. I’m not even going to attempt to do the show from the Maryland party, but I am going to attempt to stay in the shade. He is Luke. I am Nestor. We are Baltimore positive. Stay with us.

Luke Jones  42:36

You.