Let’s make this clear: the Baltimore Orioles can win the World Series in 2025. But what is that pathway and where is the pitching eventually going to come from with this deep, young, talented lineup and organization? Let Luke Jones and Nestor Aparicio get you ready for Grapefruit games and what to watch in Sarasota.
Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the upcoming baseball season, focusing on the Orioles’ roster and the challenges of watching games. They highlight the potential of young players like Jackson Holliday and Gunnar Henderson, and the importance of a strong bullpen. They also discuss the complexities of streaming MLB games, including the need for a direct-to-consumer option and the potential for free TV games to attract subscribers. They express frustration with the current streaming model and the lack of accessibility for fans. The conversation also touches on the broader issues in baseball, including the decline of regional sports networks and the need for a new distribution model. Luke Jones and Nestor Aparicio discuss the future of sports broadcasting, focusing on the shift towards streaming services. They highlight the challenges of balancing profitability with fan engagement, using examples like the NFL’s move to streaming and the NBA’s experiment with free TV. Jones emphasizes the need for teams to set appropriate price points to attract fans without alienating them. They also discuss the impact of streaming on sports bars and the importance of maintaining fan interest through strategic pricing and content offerings. The conversation underscores the complexity of navigating the new media landscape in sports.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
baseball season, opening day, press credential, spring training, AL East, young core, pitching depth, bullpen strength, injury concerns, free agency, TV access, streaming options, direct consumer, price point, fan engagement, streaming services, direct to consumer, price point, fan base, NFL streaming, Netflix games, free TV, NBA example, cord cutting, sports bars, exclusivity, profit maximization, long-term growth, sports broadcasting, fan engagement
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, M, S, T, am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. And it is baseball season that sun is orange for a reason. Earl Weaver, the book is out. I’m feeling my Aparicio bloodlines. I have reapplied for the application of the application that I might be a podcaster or a radio host, so maybe I’ll have a press credential. But I know a guy who will have a press credential on opening day when we cross the border with Getty, maybe Rick Emmett of triumph, who’s going to be on the show next week. By the way, for opening day. We are not 30 days out. 28 days out on opening day. Luke Jones joins us now. Pitchers and catchers have reported. We got a couple of games under our belt. This guy looks good. That guy’s lifting weights and eating Wheaties, and kids are getting autographs, and the backfields are open, although I don’t know Who the hell’s down there in February to watch workouts on the backfields. But, you know, they’re going to play baseball in March, opening day, like, not even March 32nd like, like, March. So we’re going to be in Toronto. The dome will be over top. You’ll be semi drunk on really expensive Canadian beer, and we’ll be having a good time. You know, they the hot dogs there. They put little poppy seeds on the rolls. I’m just saying I’m going to get you a Canadian weenie.
Luke Jones 01:26
Okay, all right, I look forward to it. Yeah. I mean, hey, we’re a little over a month out, right? I mean, it’s, it’s not right around the corner, but NFL free agency is in a couple weeks, and then a couple weeks after that, hey, it’s go time. So games have started. You could actually watch baseball here in the Baltimore area with between massen and then, I think Sunday’s game was on MLB Network, or if you had a preview for MLB TV, like I took advantage of but yeah, a couple games and nothing terribly newsworthy or eventful, which is, hey, it’s good this time of year, right? The last thing you want is injuries or look at the rest of the Al east for a moment. Marcus Stroman doesn’t want to be in the bullpen for the Yankees. The Yankees lifted their facial hair roll, right? I mean, how crazy is that? That? That was a press conference. You know, Raphael Devers doesn’t want to move off third base, even though Alex bregmans away way better option for the Red Sox. There
Nestor Aparicio 02:25
Vlad, all my Red Sox fans have checked in. Peter King checked in with me last week to say he thought they overpaid. So there you go. Fair
Luke Jones 02:32
enough. Bregmans a heck of a player, though. I mean, you know, I think
Nestor Aparicio 02:36
they’ve got chasing Mookie Betts there, right? They’re always, you know, once you screw up like, I guess even around here we’re chasing Machado, but not really, because we have our own, you know, but, but if you’re the Red Sox, you were, you know, I guess, and the Yankees have to deal with Soto playing across the street now. I mean, it’s, you know, this, this is a good time of the year that hope springs eternal, and the cactus and the grapefruit,
Luke Jones 02:56
no doubt. But, you know, as I was kind of alluding to, I mean Vlad Guerrero deadline passed. I mean, seems like he’s already got a foot out the door in Toronto. I mean, we’ll see. I mean, there’s still a lot that can happen between now and next winter, but you kind of look
Nestor Aparicio 03:11
at all there his money.
Luke Jones 03:14
I mean, I mean, maybe I don’t think, though, you know, I mean, Vlad is going to be a much different tax bracket than what that deal was, but who knows? I mean, Toronto, we’ve talked about this, and, you know, I think the Blue Jays, in some ways, are kind of three years ahead of where you don’t want the Orioles to be, right? I mean, they had that young core. It’s not as though they didn’t have any success, but certainly didn’t get to a World Series or anything like that. Now you look at it and you say, where are they? Where are they going from here? I mean, last year, their big headline was, oh, they finished second place for Shohei Ohtani, which gets you nothing, right? So, you know, you look at the this al east and look, it’s gonna be a tough division. We know that Yankees are the favorite as they should be as defending al champions. But there’s, there’s some drama going on, hit some of these camps. Meanwhile, the Orioles, it’s kind of been quiet, right? It’s been fairly uneventful. You know, you haven’t had a Kyle Bradish injury reveal like last year at this time. So that’s been good. You know, they’ve got a couple guys banged up, but you know, Jorge Mateo and Trevor Rogers. You know, no one that’s critical to your success, so, you know, they’ve kind of just gone through it. I mean, I thought what was funny the first week of workouts was all the buzz around saganos First bullpen session, and everyone was gushing over that, which I thought was kind of funny. You know, I
Nestor Aparicio 04:37
think a lot of it’s funny. I mean, it’s just like training camp, man,
Luke Jones 04:41
let’s let’s be honest, Let’s call a spade a spade. It’s great in the moment because you’re looking forward to it. You’ve waited all off season. You know, whether you’re talking training camp in July and August or you’re talking spring training the difference and I was actually talking about this. I talked about this with my pastor Sunday morning, because I’ve said to you, he’s. Pittsburgh guy and the Orioles played the pirates on Saturday, and it was televised. But I made mention that spring training baseball and preseason football are really cut from the same cloth in the sense that you anticipate it, because it’s the novelty of it, and then you see it and you say, Oh, well, this, this isn’t really the real thing. The difference is, in August, when pre season football happens, there’s a lot to do. You could go to the beach and do all this time of year where it’s so miserably cold and all that you’re just looking forward to. Hey, baseball’s here. Springs right around the corner. Baseball’s right around the corner in terms of games that matter. So it’s fun, but when you actually watch these games, beyond, hey, got a chance to see Samuel basayo On Sunday, started for the Orioles behind the plate in clear water against the Phillies. So that’s those types of instances are fun. But you also realize that, you know, Emmanuel Rivera hit a home run on Saturday. Okay, well, what does that mean? Nothing, right? So you just kind of
Nestor Aparicio 06:02
look at, let me just say this, let’s have some fun here, because we’ll get onto the roster. We’re going to do whole segments on pitching, and there really isn’t a lot of news other than hope. And you know, my little cheap shot was you better hope Jackson holiday turns out better than Bucha kid did, or Guerreros. You know, some of these guys that were supposed to be in the Hall of awesomeness, or better than their fathers. And their fathers were damn good, all of them, right? Like that expectation that comes along that Ryan ripkens dealing with over, you know, doing radio now at this point, but spring training, um, I never thought much of it, right? As a kid like my dad, we weren’t the kind of family that was going to go to Miami for spring training. It wasn’t marketed that way, that you could get up on the players. I got up on the players Memorial Stadium. I was in Rick Dempsey and Scott McGregor’s face and Billy Smith, the late, great rich Dower, who left us a couple of weeks ago, who I never really got to know, but I did interact with, and I didn’t glom on to him, because he was my dad’s favorite baseball player, but he was my dad’s favorite baseball player, rich Dower. Go look at his triple. Go look at the International League stats for Richie dower in 7475 76 and he was sort of blocked by Bobby grits for a minute and a half. And yeah, nonetheless, that’s how much baseball I know and how far back I go for you kids out there, just because I haven’t had a press credential in 17 years. And if these people decide they don’t want to give me a press credential and give you one, I’m never going to not raise hell about that, especially now that Angelos is dead, I actually thought about John Angeles for the first time the other day spring training. John Angelos is one time I met John angelos, or actually winked at John Angelos in some way, was at Spring Training at the Old Fort Lauderdale stadium. But I’ve been going to spring training long enough that I remember when they didn’t have a home, and they were the homestead homies of half in Sarasota, half in Fort Lauderdale, sometimes in at the stadium in in downtown. Where the heck was it? Not, not the Lauderdale. Where the heck was it on the other side, the west side. They trained there for three years. I’m losing my mind. St Pete, they weren’t. St Pete, in 9293 94 I get it all mixed up because East Coast, West Coast,
Luke Jones 08:17
they shared. The stadium was the cardinal cardinals, right? Yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 08:21
and they had no locker room at Al Lang stadium. It was across in the by the way. That’s the Marriott where I got trapped in the elevator. You ever want to get trapped in an elevator in a Marriott, trapped at any elevator? Dude, that’s the one where the fire department showed up. It was a glass elevator like crazy, but spring training day game, Raphael Palmeiro, the whole deal, all of that, and going down there and being a part of that, I’m telling you, man, as a baseball fan, and then going out to Arizona. Probably six times I’ve gone to Arizona for spring training games. And I’m talking about, dude, you know, I’m a stadium nerd, and you know how it geeked up. I got to park in front of Jet Blue Park last year, and look at the fake monster on top of the spaceship that landed in the middle of Fort Myers. And you and I doing all the hurricane research, as well as some pizza and beer researchers. I remember it last year in Florida, dude. I love all of that, right? And it means nothing. And you watch me interact down there, you see me interact three or four times what as I drop you off, like Driving Miss Daisy, and they let you in, and I go to sit in a seat or do whatever the hell I do, move around, talk to people. The first three games down there, my friend Victoria is down there. Greg Landry, our executive producer for our documentary, he’s there with his wife. They’re they’re having a great time. I highly recommend it as a fun thing to do, but it’s not serious. I mean, you have a have a beach plan, have a fishing plan, have a Disney plan that you say, you know, my brother lives down there. I like to visit with him and his family, like I there. I booked it two weeks from now, full disclosure that this is what kind of guy Luke Jones is. I like identify. Like these couple of dates, because there’s Orlando and Epcot and this and that the Orioles are playing in Tampa, which, by the way, they’re going to be playing the real American League in the Steinbrenner stadium next to the January 28 2001 home of The Raven Super Bowl. Like there’s all this weird stuff, dude, I’ve gone to more spring training games in places that don’t even exist anymore. Plant City, baseball city, Haines City, Kissimmee, all of these stadiums. I haven’t been to Dunedin in years. I have never seen a game in Bradenton. Stop at the playing the pirates. I’ve driven past that stadium a million times. I’ve never walked in it. So I still have, like, bucket list things I could do in Florida to have a good time. I, you know, I’m all for it. I mean, I really am, and I and I think it’s silly, and I do think every game should be on. I do. I mean, I want to watch the team, and I want to grow into the team and all that. If you’re a billionaire and you get all this money, spend a few more bucks on hiring, you know, Pike and everybody else that puts these games on television, and put the games on television for the fans, especially the homebound fans, fans of senior centers that love baseball. It’s March, it’s February. It’s February as we speak, but like, put the games on I, you know, that would be if Katie Griggs is sitting in front of me. If I’m really, like, you know, I’m gonna be a dick at some point if they don’t let me in, because I’m gonna lose my mind. But I’m gonna, I’ll go over the top, but I’m going to be writing. If you want to see me, come off the top rope, go look at see Dear Steve Bucha. Justin Tucker, I listen. I don’t that’s not my jam. My jam is I’d rather be in Sarasota right now, doing the show the way I did for 15 years, in the dugout in the thing seven in the morning, cutting the grass. They locked us out. Poor Bill STEC had to let us since we could get on live radio at six in the morning, and Earl Weaver sitting here talking to Haney and harborough running the team, and Sammy prolazo is in the dugout, and Elrod wants to come out and hang out. And, you know, I mean, Gary Matthews wants to take me to get ice cream and go fishing, and Brady Anderson and I are water skiing on some crazy lake. I mean, I I’m telling you, man, I love spring training. I love it for all the reasons. But like, put the games on TV. Let us get into it, you know? I mean, let me buy into the soap opera in February instead of, I don’t know, man, if I see I have a long letter coming to Katie Griggs and all these people, because if they’re gonna lock me out, I got nothing to lose. But like, there’s so many recommendations for them. First things first. Get your television right, get your app right, figure out what you’re doing. Because I’ll say this, we’re going to talk about the baseball team all summer. They’re good enough to win plenty. You know, as I pointed out, they got a couple of number three, number four starters, as I see it, Rodriguez has potential. Effluent has potential to be like special this that Japanese kid. Sagan, oh, I’m the hooks in my mouth right? The orange the real me in real real I got nothing to do for the next morning baseball, and then it starts, and then it’s on every night at 630 and the next thing you know, we’re having Coco’s crab cakes and watching the Yankees. And I got my orange Aparicio Jersey back on and my press credential and my where’s the worst parking they could give me that C or D, whatever that one give me some bad parking and and I’ll be at the games, and I want to do that, but I’m looking forward to both opening days. You and I are going up to Toronto if I have to pay my way in with Getty Lee and Rick Emmett. I’m happy to do that. Get the little I’m trying to teach you the blue jay song. I don’t even have to sing it anymore, but I want to teach you it. And I got so many memories in baseball that I am dying to at 56 talk about I’ve made a list of people I want to have on the show. I want to figure out how to get see still less Cano on the show. I this morning at 4am I heard from Rick tellender, legendary Sports Illustrated writer, Chicago writer. He wrote a book with Steve trout. Pitcher Steve trout, who ended my streak in 79 I gotta have Steve trout on the show. So what I’m trying like Fred Lynn was my favorite baseball player. I’ve only interacted with him one time. I ran into him at a Super Bowl in a hotel. It’s effing Fred Lynn. So you run into Fred Lynn, you talk to Fred Lynn. So I want to, like, get some people on that I love, and I want to do some baseball this year, some down. I miss letting you know, like I’m not open hearted and all that about a billionaire buying the team and locking me out. But I am happy Mark fine is back at home. I am happy the team is going to be good. I’m wishing you and I were going to spring training. And do you want to tell everybody the real let’s go no K Fave here, Jones, tell everybody I had you booked on a flight into Orlando, Tampa, Sarasota, Dunedin, Disney World Air Supply was playing Epcot during flower period, which, you know, I wanted to be there for all that and drink around the world with you. And then you screwed it all well. Roger Goodell, screwed it all up, right?
Luke Jones 14:49
Long story short, you You had us tentatively scheduled to go down to Sarasota March 10 through the 12th, which is the 48 Hour tampering window and then the start of NFL free agency. So we could have gone, but you would have seen me look like this the entire time with my phone to spend time in Florida, like Exactly, exactly. So, hey, it didn’t work out. Would have been Roger
Nestor Aparicio 15:14
Goodell tampered with our spring training plan. Yeah. Well, he would say, Why didn’t you go another time, I literally just looked at it from a like, middle of spring training, if we’re gonna go, if we’re not, it’s February 24 now, so we’re gonna go last week. The time to go was then. And then I said, Well, screw. We’ll just go to Toronto and go to the real opening day. And yeah, maybe, maybe Getty will be there. Maybe,
Luke Jones 15:38
yeah, yeah. We’ll see how it plays out. But yeah, I mean, to go back to your first initial point about spring training and being down there, I think the best advice that I would give someone is get to Florida or get to Arizona as a vacation and put some baseball into it, right? I mean, I don’t know if you want to take it so seriously that you want to be on this strict itinerary, like, go to the beach, you know, go, go. You know, golf hard Orlando. You know, make, make, you know, rent a car and drive a little bit, but it’s fun, and it is nice, especially to escape the really cold weather that, you know, it’s been a brutally cold winter, and you know, baseball is right around the corner, so it’s fun. You know, it’s I canceled the flight from
Nestor Aparicio 16:23
going nowhere, you know? I mean, you know it’s okay. We’ll go to spring training next year. Maybe they’ll let me in next year. I don’t know. Let
Luke Jones 16:31
me be clear. I wanted to go. I just know what that would have been like for me trying to juggle what’s going on with free agency, and then people
Nestor Aparicio 16:40
see you as the nice, clean cut guy wearing the pizza, you know, Pete John’s hat. And like, you’re but, like, when you’re there, I am literally the driver. Like, I literally am just your chauffeur, literally, and you’re, like, serious about it, but you have a good time. I mean, like, we have chocolate down there, you know, like I there was a Latin bar in left field, for anybody that’s been to Sarasota, where that Cal Ripken field was going to be in deep left field. There was a Hispanic sports bar there. Puerto Rican guy owned it. When the White Sox trained there, and he was telling me, my last name is Aparicio, I was welcome to sit down and have anything on his menu, and I was going to do the show there. And look, the Angelos family made everything so tough and awful. I’m trying to figure these people out. They’ve made it really tough and awful on me. They’ve been very dishonest with me. I don’t want to sound like Donald, they’ve been very dishonest with me now. I’m not now, but like, they haven’t been on the up and up with me. And I don’t people ask me every day, and like, I would have been at Spring training last week, or whenever, you know, we would have found the right time to go down. It’s usually early because they’re just hitting fun goes and you have access to grab players as massen didn’t. I mean, all the stuff I was doing 30 years ago, nobody was nobody, nobody. WBA, I was in a hotel room summoning players like literally, that’s how they did their show. And Jeff rivers era, Josh Lewin, I don’t even know who the other hosts were. I think Hollander was still doing it a couple years ago. That way we used to do it in the dugout. We set up. We paid 1000s of dollars to hook up equipment. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. Sometimes we froze our ass off. Sometimes Peter schmuck was talking about being at the dog, dog tracks. I mean, we had the best time heist. Oh my god. Heist. Would sit in the dugout and hang it so we would have a really, it was a fun experience. Kabaka was running around as a real reporter back then. So I love all of that, and I sort of miss it a little bit. And I know the way around Sarasota. My mother in law lives down there, as you know, I know where the good turducken is. So I love the whole thing. And I for anybody that’s going down there, it’s great. And I just want to throw that out that it’s better than it was in Lauderdale, in a bad Stadium. The bad thing they’ve done a nice job down there, in a lot of ways, putting good baseball players on the field, having an experience. Janet, Marie needs a coat of paint. Mr. Rubenstein probably knows that I pointed that out last year, but like, in a general sense, I mean, I look Spry today, and I’m shaved up, and I feel and look young, and My back feels good today and all that, but it feels like a new day of Oreo baseball in a lot of ways, with Katie Griggs and thinking about, there is no John Angelos. There are no Angelos. There’s none of this. There’s the potential for them to pull off any trade that they want. That’s the thing about this, that I’m not going to be the D head in February tomorrow. They didn’t do enough pitching, and they did. They spent a lot of money in modern baseball. They bought 17 and 15 and $20 million pitchers, and they’re renting them, but that’s what they got to do, because they ain’t got them. And they had a chance to buy one, and he didn’t want to be here. And I’m not I’m not upset. I I really believe, and time will tell, and I’ll give, I’m not giving Rubenstein the benefit of the doubt on my press credential. I’ll give him the better the benefit of the doubt on pitching to say in July that they will make a bold move, or will have the ability to make a bold move, if they are in a position to make a bold move that won’t. To be a three or four or $500 million bold move. It’ll be, we’re gonna deal a player, or, you know, a West Berlin to get a picture, to get a thing to do something that they had the ability to do that. And I’m telling you, Mr. Rubenstein doesn’t know this. Certainly the whistler doesn’t know anything about baseball. Doesn’t know this, but they’ve never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, back to Bob Baylor, who I’d like to have on the show, if he’s alive, and every dude, if I just did a month, if I could find, let’s go Gerhard, you know, Ken Dixon’s apparently alive and well, and talking pitching, like all of these pitchers and players in the 80s and 90s that were going to be the next this and that, and the next great player that never turned out, and all of that. They have all of these players that right this minute, there’s a reason to believe they have six all stars on their roster who are under the age of 25 and they’re all working on minimum wage, and that this could be the greatest year ever for them, and they could win 112 games and not make the World Series, or they could win 92 games, get a picture at the deadline, stave off some bad injuries that are inevitable, and Jackson holiday winds up hitting 293 with 31 home runs, and drives in 113 runs. And people would say he’s a phenom. Now he looks like he’s Ken Griffey. Look at him. So they have all of this potential. They’re the best team they’ve ever been. They’re under different ownership, which doesn’t make me anything more than a chauffeur and dropping you off in Sarasota, but it does give them potential to make moves that they were never, ever capable of making at any point in the history of the franchise.
Luke Jones 21:49
Yeah, I mean, and this is why, look, I’m not gonna shy away from it. I was underwhelmed by their off season. I’m not gonna sit here and do cartwheels about their off season. There are moves that they could have made that go
Nestor Aparicio 22:01
ahead. What were they because, like, what? Well, but give me two $50 million to burns. I mean, maybe it’s
Luke Jones 22:09
not just that. I mean, I use the example of, and this is one example, right? This isn’t the guy that was at the top of my wish list, but you gave a one year contract with Charlie Morton, right? You gave a one year contract to a 35 year old Sagano who’s never pitched in the major leagues. And look, he might end up being really good. Adley Rutger was talking about him the other days, has six pitches, has a really good split, has a fantastic, fantastic walk rate in his career in Japan. In Japan. I mean, this is a guy who’s a command control guy, and we’ll see, right? Is he going to miss enough bats
Nestor Aparicio 22:43
for me? If you by the way, if he’s a phenom, you’re going to be crazy, because all of Japan’s got me up if he’s gonna be crazy either way. I mean, he’s Nando mania in the beginning. If he’s good, it’s going to be amazing. I
Luke Jones 22:56
mean, when you know they’ve had Japanese players, there’s quite a media following. I mean, even for Fauci Fuji a couple years ago, right? I mean, that was even a big and he wasn’t very good, but that was even a big thing. But for me, if you were going to go the one year deal route, I would have liked to have mixed in someone with a little more upside the name that I throw out there, and again, he might be terrible this year, but Walker Bueller, right? He’s no longer a Dodger. Had the Tommy John surgery last year in the regular season, was not even that good coming back from it. But you saw what he was able to do in October, you know, as part of the Dodgers World Series run ultimately. Now that’s a one year deal that could end up being a total flop, or he could look like a Cy Young, caliber kind of pitcher, again, right? Which is what he was prior to Tommy John surgery a couple years ago. So for me, I would have liked to have seen a target of a deal along those lines, for a pitcher along those lines, who, you know he, I mean, he’s, it’s not like the Red Sox are solely depending on him, by any stretch of the imagination. But hey, he’s 30, and he’s going to be another year removed from Tommy John surgery, and you’re talking about someone who he’s got a career 3.38 era. I would have liked to have just seen if you were going to go a one year deal route, the way that they have with their pitchers, I would have liked to have seen them target someone that might have a little more upside that’s all right, beyond talking about burns or or, you know, freed, or any of those guys, which clearly you were looking at making a steep, long term financial investment. So all that being said, Right? All that being said, understanding, you know, they’re off season. I said it all along, each of their moves in isolation, I understood, even if the collective body of work kind of left me underwhelmed, but I never deviated from this, and it’s what you were just talking about. Look at their young core of players, right? Look at this. I mean. You have Jordan westburg, who was an all star last year. You have gunner Henderson, who’s one of the best five or six players in baseball. You have Jackson holiday who struggled last year in his age 20 season, but still has all kinds of ceiling, all kinds of upside, right and you know, looks like he’s gotten a little bit stronger his body, he’s filled out a little bit more even, you know, he’s 21 years old in the outfield. You have Colton cowser, who was runner up for rookie of the year. You have Heston curse that Tyler O’Neill, I get it. He needs to stay healthy. But in terms of, if he stays on the field, and you can keep him on the field for, you know, what would be a realistic target if, if he can play 130 games, you know, 125 games, he’s going to demolish left handed pitching, which was something that was an issue for you last year, but he’s, he’s that kind of guy with his slug, you know, he, he’s got, he’s got as much upside as Anthony Santander, right? I mean, a lower floor because of the injury history, but, you know, that’s also why he didn’t get as much money as Santander got in Toronto. So, you know, you kind of go down the list, and you know, that’s before you even get into COVID mayo or Sam basayo, who I don’t expect to be a big factor this year, but the way that kid can hit and the way that he’s already had created some buzz early on in spring training, he might force his way into the equation come July or August, he’s 21 right? 20? Yeah. I mean, he’s really young, right? So you’ve got this incredible core of young talent. And let me be clear, we know that not everyone’s going to work on by the way, beside is 20 he’ll be 21 in August. So again, you’re talking about another, yeah, this is another Top 10 prospect, and
Nestor Aparicio 26:40
that kid’s going to be in Norfolk, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, he finished last year at Norfolk, yeah, I mean, but he’s not, he’s done it, so he’s, yeah, like,
Luke Jones 26:47
he’s done it, like, oh yeah. He’s not gonna, he’s not gonna be kicking the door down in April or May, but you might have to find a way to get his bet in Baltimore by August or September, you know. And again, that lends itself to what happens at the trade deadline, right? So the point is, with everything that I just laid out, that’s not to say that I’m going to sit here and guarantee the Orioles are going to win 100 games, or 95 or even 90, but I have a tough time sitting here saying that, Oh, I think they’re only going to be a 500 team. I don’t think losing Corbin burns and Santander is that devastating to what they are overall, but they do have to stay healthy, and you need to get Adley rutschman looking like Adley rutschman Again, and Jordan westburg can’t be hurt in the second half, which there’s no reason to think that he won’t be healthy. But you know, if you if everything goes well within the reasonable range of expectations, right? I mean understanding that, yeah, you’ll have some guys get hurt here and there and, you know, that’s, that’s just baseball. But if they have a a better season in terms of, you know, they’re they had some tough injury luck last year. Let’s call a spade a spade. You know, if that happens again, then, yeah, they’ll probably struggle to make the playoffs. But if you can stay relatively healthy. And I’ll keep going back to Grayson Rodriguez being, you know, the big name in the rotation, obviously, and then in the bullpen, you know, Felix Bautista. Look, I’m not sitting here going to say that Bautista is going to be exactly what he was in 2023 but as the year goes on, if he can be something in the in the ballpark. You know, no pun intended of that then, boy, that bullpen looks a heck of a lot better on paper than it did last year. You know, just talking about him, let alone Kittredge and Sir Anthony Dominguez and Gen yer canoe and, you know, Gregory Soto. And go down the list of guys that I think do bring more upside than they had in the bullpen a year ago at this time. So, you know, I just laid it out there that I still think this is going to be a really good ball club. And I think when you look at the makeup of not just the Al east, which is going to be a tough division, as it always is, but the entire American League, you know, Cleveland are they going to be able to duplicate what they did with their bullpen a year ago Houston. I mean, look at what kind of attrition the Astros have have dealt with, right? I mean, I think they’re going to take a step back. I don’t think they’re going to be bad, but I’m not sitting here looking at the Astros on paper right now thinking they’re going to be 100 win team either. So you look at the the entire league, you understand that there are three wild cards, you know, even if you don’t win the division, and for me, it’s tough to be too down on them, beyond acknowledging, yeah, when in terms of October, I do have questions about the upside for their rotation. Which brings it back to the point you made. You don’t have to have an ace on opening day.
Nestor Aparicio 29:40
Opening Day is going to go with this, right? You and I are going to be in Toronto, and by the way, for those of you who haven’t done the math on this, and you’re just tuning us in, or whatever, by the way, it’s Luke and I doing some some baseball here. But opening day is the 27th of March. That is a Thursday they open in Toronto at skydome, or whatever the hell they’re calling it this week. Right? You. So on that day is that that’s Eflin right, probably, or right, I would think, I
Luke Jones 30:05
mean, then obviously, you know, one little health thing, you know, someone feels a little grabbing their hamstrings. Just
Nestor Aparicio 30:10
call it where we are today, where we are today, with the at three o’clock in the afternoon at Rogers Center on the 27th of March, Evelyn will take the hill the next night they play because there’s no rain days, because they got a dome Friday night, they’re going to play in prime time. That’s going to be rod where you guys Saturday is going to be? What Kramer? Is it going to be? Is it going to be more? Maybe Charlie Morton, Okay, Charlie. What about Sagan? I think I’m
Luke Jones 30:36
guessing so it’s a four. I’m wonder if maybe Sagano, they have him make his first start in Toronto. It’s not the home crowd, it’s not the home opener, and maybe have Kramer start the home opener. So
Nestor Aparicio 30:49
Dean Kramer opens on Monday. Yeah, and you know you’re gonna have your own six days rest. You go back the Red Sox, you and I are doing the show that day? By the way, it’s the second of April at Faith leaves. Are we doing the show the Maryland crab cake tour that look forward to that crab cake? To that crab cake that’s a Wednesday. Yeah. So game two will be a little quieter, but Red Sox, people are going to be everywhere. Um, you know, I guess on that night now we go back to, alright, um, that’s going to be the one starter, efflin, and then Grayson Rodriguez will go in the afternoon game against the Red Sox. Then they go out to Kansas City, and they would go with Morton Kramer, but, you know, like I’m looking at this and saying, all right, they’ve either got a $15 million picture, a 19 $9 million picture, or Dean Kramer or something. And that’s just what I know about. That’s not where one of my Venezuelan brothers gets involved from last year and says, no, no, no, I’m gonna, you know, I’m gonna, you know, I’ll take the ball. So there’s all of these, or
Luke Jones 31:44
someone like or someone like Kade povidge, who, as I’ve said to you, I don’t expect him to start the year in the rotation, but go look at what Kate povidge did in September. It looked a lot better than what we saw in July. That’s all I’m gonna say. Doesn’t mean I think he’s gonna be an ace, or number two or anything like that. Point is, you know, as well as any baseball fan knows you’re you’re going to need more than five over the course of 162 there’s no question. Well, you’re going
Nestor Aparicio 32:10
to love it when it’s Bueller on the night we get together with faith these when it’s Bueller and Evelyn that night, and you’re going to say he could have been with us.
Luke Jones 32:19
Let me be very clear. I’m that’s just an example I’m using, right? It’s not like I’m banging the table at all, because Walker Bueller might end up being lousy, right? I mean, he’s one
Nestor Aparicio 32:29
of those guys instead, they picture this guy. They took their 15, $20 million and said, We’re gonna have this guy instead. I, you know, for i Listen, man, I there’s plenty of things I could complain about with the Orioles, and I will including press access. Well, you know, all this Justin Tucker thing’s on fire, and how important it is for fans for keeping these people on the up and up, just in a general sense, they state, Mr. Modell. And I’m going to bring this up because art’s name was, has been invoked several times in my life. Now I’ve said art modell. Art modell into my phone. Everything will show up art on my timeline. Now you know that, but you know Art said to me in the beginning, don’t be afraid. Never, never. It was, never be afraid to criticize me. If all you do is phrase me, they’ll never believe a word you say and oh, I have ankas area coming on. He does much better voices than that. Of all sorts of things this week playing a sound stage. But you know, I am as you’ve known me a long time. You and I’ve spent more nights in hotel rooms and weird places than anybody that would want to spend with me. So you’re freaking stuck with me to some degree and like I, I don’t sit here in February or even on a plane with you in February or March, going down to Sarasota, saying they could be the best team in baseball this year, and if they’re not, they’re going to be real close, and they’ll have the ability to strategically maneuver with cash and or players in whatever way they wish to outbid the Yankees or the Red Sox or the Dodgers or the Astros, or whomever needs
Luke Jones 34:03
deal number one or number two starter, or the Tigers
Nestor Aparicio 34:06
fall apart, and all of a sudden they want to get rid of their guy. And it’s worth the sun and the moon and the stars and the Orioles say, You know what? We’ll give you a Cedric Mullins and Jordan westburg. Take a little money, and we’ll do a little bit of this and that, and we’ll throw beside you in but you’re gonna give us a this, and we’re gonna move chairs, because I don’t think Elias is afraid to deal in it. I mean, he’s scared he ain’t married to your Jackson holiday, or my gun, or Henderson, or, like I There are guys he’s not gonna touch. Obviously, I probably just brought you that he won’t touch. But that being said, they have, they, they have a treasure trove of things other teams would want beside you, probably being, you know, sort of exhibit a to some degree that say we got a catcher. The rutschman thing worries me. I haven’t brought that up because I’m trying to be sunshine so I get my press pass back. Please, please. I’ll apologize the. My press pass back, which is where they left it with me, which is absurd. I just want to bring that out, because that’s true. But, um, I’m, I’m bullish on them, you know what? I mean, like, but the rushman thing, the bullpen thing, the starting pitching thing, the warts, to me, last summer they were good enough. Last year they got really hurt. I mean, just start throwing Bradish. And means, in, you know, healthy into this thing. Well, you know, start throwing the guys who fell apart into this thing, and this thing would smell differently. And Elias, if he and I were on a second drink, and he really wanted to be honest with me, I that’s the first drink thing to me, like you had a couple Cy Young guys go down, and you’ve been patching it together with daddy’s new money, but frankly, buying $19 million pitchers, renting them, instead of having, you know, Bradish and wells at the top of your rotation right now, and maybe even burns or, you know, a money thing. But I’m not, I’m not hung up on the $200 million picture. I’m I’m on your way of thinking on that, and not because it’s not my money, just because, like, if you matter what, it’s a limited amount of money, it’s a limited amount of money. Well, it’s
Luke Jones 36:03
a limited amount and, man, it’s just that’s a scary investment, you know, when you’re talking about that, compared to giving a $200 million contract to a position player, right? So, you know, I mean, philosophically, I that, i Hey, I said back in July, that I probably wouldn’t give Corbin burns a long term contract, because I’m just kind of shying away from that. But I’ve also acknowledged that also means you need to develop more of your own pitching then, right? I mean, if you’re if you’re going to make that decision, if you’re going to philosophically, have that stance, that’s where I do want to see them kind of beef that up. But you said it, and that’s the big key here. The big key here is you should be in a position financially and with prospects. And look, if it’s still in cease, and we’re using Dylan cease, because that’s the name that’s been talked about for the better part of two years, right? I mean, going back to him still being with the White Sox, you’re not gonna have to give up Jordan Westbrook to get Dylan cease, or you’re not gonna have to give up the Messiah, or someone like that, talking about two months of Dylan cease.
Nestor Aparicio 37:08
I mean, that might be, I don’t know it’s gonna be highest bidder. It will be, but it but at the same
Luke Jones 37:15
time, you also understand, in this day and age, especially, teams value their legitimate prospects more than ever. I want a spreadsheet because they’re so they are so incredibly valuable in terms of hypothetical value that you get. I mean, we talked about this a lot. Look as it’s aged a year later, even knowing that Corbin burns walked, I still do that same deal 100 times out of 100 DL, halls hurt again. Joey Ortiz, who’s going to be the Brewers starting shortstop this year. He had a great first half. Go. Look at his offensive numbers after the all star break. I think he’s solid. I think he’s a legit Major League infielder. Is he going to be a superstar? Though? No. So this is where
Nestor Aparicio 37:59
Elias cuts his teeth to not give Jeff Bagwell away early. And, you know, when we go back and he’s giving away Hall of Famers, it’s a different thing. Oh no. Then even giving away Eduardo Rodriguez, which, you know, I still go back and I’m not sneezing at that deal, because I’m just thinking about, in the history of the deals here, the Machado thing that was all effed up by the Angelos family.
Luke Jones 38:23
Yeah, there’s just some even with that being the rental that it was, and it never should have gotten to that point, we all acknowledge that they still ended up getting Dean Kramer out of that. Dean Kramer,
Nestor Aparicio 38:33
look, he’s not my name. Organization would have done was signed Machado, and he would have
Luke Jones 38:37
been they would have either signed him or really what they should have done? They should have traded him, either that winter or the previous
Nestor Aparicio 38:44
he looked me in the eye from two feet away the one time I had a press credential at the DC All Star game. It was the weekend he was sort of out the door going to LA going places and all that. And he knew who I was, which I was kind of taken aback, because I had never met the kid, but he knew who I was. And I got up on him, and I said to him, did they ever talk to you about never, so like they never even got to that point. I don’t know where that would be at this point, with Gunner Henderson or anybody else that they would want to keep, because I just think in the modern era with Boris and play in the market and how the tote board goes up every year, certainly, we talked about two $80 million in the NFL salary cap. Baseball doesn’t even have that situation
