Having a ball with balls and strikes in first MLB weekend of ABS

It’s been a revolutionary, game-changing concept for the sports of baseball. The first weekend of the ABS system and the challenges of pitchers, catchers and hitters has changed the strategy every night in MLB. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the concerns, drama and impact of the “new” and improved strike zone.

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Host the first stop of the Maryland crab cake tour at Faidley’s near Camden Yards at Lexington Market next Friday when the San Francisco Giants visit.
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Arrange and conduct a follow-up discussion with guest Steve L. Miles next week on the show about his upcoming appearance, covering topics such as baseball and law.
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Return to Koco’s Pub in Laurelville later in the month to film a segment focused on their crab cakes and coconut shrimp.

Orioles’ Opening Weekend Recap and Upcoming Events

• Nestor Aparicio discusses the upcoming Maryland crab cake tour, starting next Friday at Faidley’s in Lexington Market.
• Nestor mentions the opening of the Fishmonger’s Daughter in Catonsville by the end of the month.
• Nestor plans to have Steven L. Miles on the show next Friday to discuss baseball and law.
• Nestor introduces Luke Jones, who spent the weekend at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, describing the weather conditions as summer on Thursday, winter on Saturday, and spring on Sunday.

Press Box Experience and Game Conditions

• Luke Jones shares his experience in the newly heated Hennepin press box, noting the cold conditions on Saturday.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the challenges faced by Taj Bradley and the offense due to shadows and cold weather.
• Luke describes Sunday’s game as laborious but notes the team’s series win and the importance of starting the season well.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the ABS system in MLB, its impact on the game, and the novelty of the new technology.

Impact of the ABS System on MLB

• Nestor and Luke discuss the esthetics and accountability of the ABS system, comparing it to other professional sports.
• Luke highlights the strategic importance of challenges and the need for teams to be intentional about their use.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the potential for full automation and its implications for catchers and umpires.
• Luke emphasizes the importance of count leverage and the potential impact of the ABS system on offense and pitching.

Orioles’ Offense and Pitching Performance

• Nestor and Luke discuss the Orioles’ offense, noting the team’s struggles with strikeouts and the importance of hitting.
• Luke highlights the potential of Tyler O’Neill and the need for the team to find consistency in the bullpen.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the performance of the starting pitchers, Bradish and Boz, and the importance of keeping them healthy.
• Luke mentions the potential for a six-man rotation to manage workloads and ensure the team’s success in October.

New Players and Defensive Performance

• Nestor and Luke discuss the new players on the team, including Kobe Mayo, Blaze Alexander, and Jeremiah Jackson.
• Luke praises Kobe Mayo’s defensive performance at third base and his confidence at the plate.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the importance of the team’s defense and the need to improve from last year’s bottom-tier performance.
• Luke emphasizes the need for the team to win games while acknowledging the imperfections and question marks.

Upcoming Games and Future Plans

• Nestor and Luke discuss the upcoming games against the Texas Rangers and the importance of maintaining momentum.
• Nestor mentions the team’s upcoming road trip to Pittsburgh and the need to stay positive and focused.
• Luke highlights the importance of the American League East division and the need for the team to compete with other playoff contenders.
• Nestor and Luke conclude by reiterating the team’s potential and the importance of supporting the Orioles throughout the season.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Orioles baseball, ABS system, bullpen questions, offensive struggles, pitching performance, defense issues, series win, Taj Bradley, Kyle Bradish, Tyler Wells, Kobe Mayo, Taylor Ward, Jeremiah Jackson, Shane Baz, American League East.

SPEAKERS

Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones

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Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W, N, S T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore, positive, positively back on the grid. And it’s this close to April, and it’s baseball season. And here we go. We’re gonna be doing the Maryland crab cake tour, beginning next Friday at fadeleys at Lexington market, the real one. They are opening the fishmonger’s daughter soon, like by the end of the month, by the time the the Ravens of a five game, or the Orioles of a five game leading a at least, they’ll, they’ll be open over at the in Catonsville to fishmonger’s daughter. Meanwhile, we’ll be there. Next Friday, the San Francisco Giants gigantes will be in town. Luke doesn’t even know it yet, but I did have a commitment from Steven l miles to come down and talk some baseball and law and some fun with me next Friday. So we’ll talk about it next week as well. So I love Steve. Steve’s one of my life for friends so and he’s never been on the show, which is even crazier. This guy’s on a lot. You like him more than you like me, most of you anyway, especially after the weekend. PS, he should still be in prison, under a prison he’s a pedophile. Hi. Brandon Carr, Luke Jones is here, and Luke Jones spent the weekend at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, which was summer on Thursday, winter on Saturday, and the bats had a spring on Sunday, did they not? Luke Jones, yeah, that

Luke Jones  01:22

was pretty good. And also, I will say, and you know, me write that down, by the

Nestor Aparicio  01:26

way, you know how to write this stuff. That was

Luke Jones  01:29

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quite good. And you know, I’m someone who doesn’t like to talk too much from the media experience standpoint, because I don’t think a lot of people care about it.

Nestor Aparicio  01:38

Quite frankly, better in a press box?

Luke Jones  01:41

No, no, the food’s a totally different story. And I pat I’ve packed every day for years anyway, but the windows that close now in the new press box, very much appreciated that on Saturday, I absolutely will say that.

Nestor Aparicio  01:54

But what were you wearing for the game Saturday? Inside the newly heated did they still call it the Hennepin press box?

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Luke Jones  02:00

You still do okay. They have a picture of Henny up right where he walked. Were you wearing that

Nestor Aparicio  02:04

far and in Dermer, a sweatshirt? Was that good enough on a 42 degree day?

Luke Jones  02:08

Or, you know what? I still had a sweatshirt because they didn’t have the heat cranking, but it felt fine in there, right with the windows closed. It felt fine. So Craig

Nestor Aparicio  02:16

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Thomas got to send him the bill. So

Luke Jones  02:19

but sat, but yes, Saturday was it was pretty brisk. Someone told me, I did not see an official list or anything like that. Someone told me that was one of the colder games in the history of the ballpark, which, you know, I believe it was in the 40s, but yeah, kind of strange that you get the weather that you got on Thursday. It’s very cold. Saturday, then Sunday was pleasant. One or two of the windows were open in the press box. But well, after

Nestor Aparicio  02:43

the debacle on Saturday and they lost and it wasn’t good, I thought to myself, maybe Bradish is like quar. Maybe he’s just not a 42 degree pitcher, because there aren’t a whole lot of guys that are, yeah.

Luke Jones  02:53

I mean, it’s, it wasn’t just that. And then on the on the flip side with the offense, I mean, the shadows were rough too. Oh and, and, let’s face it, like don’t get me wrong. I’m not going to sit here and say Taj Bradley is a Cy Young Award winning pitcher or anything like that, but he throws 100 so when you’re talking about the shadows and someone that’s throwing hard for the opposition, not I’m not excusing it, but I do understand why they had the issues they had on Saturday, but good to see them get a series win. I described Sunday as very laborious. I think it was very much a grind. I mean, not only did they fall behind for nothing, but just back and forth. And certainly, the concerns about the bullpen were not eased in any fashion on Sunday, that’s for sure. But hey, it’s a series win. They didn’t get their first series win till mid April last year. Last year, so you’ll take it. It wasn’t perfect. They had their issues in every phase of the game at some point over the course of the weekend, but it was good enough, and they got a win, and they got a series win, and you don’t apologize for that. And I think the nice thing is, they’re not exactly firing on all cylinders just yet, but they still found a way to win two out of three. And that’s saying something, especially the way you and I talked going into this series, going into the season, saying, hey, this team needs to get off to a good start. So they won on opening day. They get a series win. Plenty to talk about, plenty to unpack, including the ABS system, which is it’s only time to do

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Nestor Aparicio  04:20

an hour on that you and me and I’ve already recruited Alan every baseball person i It’s the first time in my in our relationship, in at least 20 years, where I’ve been texting all my baseball people. Mark Messina, Alan McCallum, Eric, everybody you hear on the air with me. These people. I like them, and they like me, all of them, all of these guests, like, we don’t flirt much. We don’t text much during Rando June games about how Bradish looked, or what we don’t text about baseball in the way that, like, it used to be the biggest part of my life, Luke, I know you don’t know that part of me, because I’m an old angry, get off my. On guy now, but like, I used to be with the roto groups back in the day, and, like, every night and Mark Messina was my roommate, eat pizza all night and up watching baseball all night and deciding who was the loop leaders were, like, there was a real culture for baseball to do that. But the ABS thing kind of, like, I started texting people. I know I’m like, this is revolution. Just watching Sunday’s game. It was like watching a game I’ve never watched before. It was like watching, like a fun version of baseball.

Luke Jones  05:32

Yeah, I think for me, the beyond the obvious, getting more calls correct right, beyond the by the way, Kevin Brown saying that, Derek Shelton, you can’t argue with the robots. Just phenomenal line right there. I mean, absolutely brilliant, but the esthetics of it. What other forum in professional team sports has something happened where the players, the coaches, the umpires themselves, or the officials themselves, the fans and the media are all on the same footing, albeit just for a few moments, watching a screen, waiting for the correct call to be revealed in terms of whether the call is confirmed or whether it is overturned. The esthetics are

Nestor Aparicio  06:27

wild to promote Kino and my friends at the Maryland lottery. It reminds me when I’m sitting in Costas and I’m wearing my Koco shirt, you know what? That’s interesting, the little ball pops up. You’re like, Did I win? Or did I not like a lottery ball?

Luke Jones  06:40

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It’s it’s such a fast and I do want to say this, I do want, before I make a final judgment on it, I think right now there’s, there’s the novelty part of it right now. So that cloud that, that can cloud evaluation a little bit, but it’s wild man. I mean, in

Nestor Aparicio  06:59

the eighth inning of a World Series game. It’s going to be very wild. Forget the eighth inning,

Luke Jones  07:03

the ninth inning with two outs. I mean, look at what happened in Sunday’s game with the controversy over Ryan hesley tapping his head. And, you know, he taps his head, goes to the brim of his cap, and then taps it again. He tapped it on. I mean, there was no controversy,

Nestor Aparicio  07:17

Derek, there should be no controversy. I’m guess.

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Luke Jones  07:19

I’m guessing Derek Shelton didn’t see the first tap. But as I wrote in my 12 Orioles thoughts at Baltimore positive.com Who would have imagined if somebody told you a few days ago or a few years ago that the simple padding of a pitcher’s cap would prompt a managerial ejection, it just speaks to wow. We’re in new territory. We’re not in Kansas anymore as it becomes as it comes to baseball, but we talked about this with the pitch time, or the pitch clock a few years ago. How obviously, the pace, you know, the timing of the game, you were able to speed that up markedly. But the esthetics of the game itself, other than just the pitchers working more quickly, didn’t really change it, right? We could talk about the effects, we could talk about pitcher health, things like that, but the game itself still largely remained the same to the point that you and I and baseball fans don’t even pay attention to the clock like it’s just in the it’s completely in the background. Now you have a violation once every other game, maybe every three games. You know, it’s not, it’s not very often. But with this and Sunday was a little more extreme. I don’t think you’re going to have 10 challenges every single game.

Nestor Aparicio  08:31

And we saw that when you had bad umpiring, you will what? Well.

Luke Jones  08:35

But there’s also the tactical part of this. Teams need to be strategic. Players need to be unemotional about it. I mean, the the twins themselves were guilty of a a challenge late in the game where, like, Look, man, you you can call a challenge with two outs in the ninth if it’s a called third strike in that situation. But I mean that pitch he was rung up on was clearly a strike. I mean, he wasted his last challenge, and then his team didn’t have that then. So you do have to be intentional about how you go about it. Teams have to be strategic. Any teams that that did not or are not having ongoing meetings about how to use the system, you’re doing yourself a disservice, because the last thing you want to do is be in a position where you’ve exhausted your two challenges in the fourth inning, and then the rest of the way, you’re at the mercy of the umpire, right? It is not a small thing.

Nestor Aparicio  09:27

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So it’s this is not a small, subtle change to the game. It’s a big change.

Luke Jones  09:31

It’s really fascinating. And I think the teams that are more strategic about it and more intentional about the how they want to use them, when they want to use them, and the players themselves who are really good at doing it, I think catchers are going to be the ones over time who most likely are the most successful. But man, the teams and the individual players that are really good at using the challenges and knowing when and how you. There’s absolutely going to be an edge created there. I mean, I’m not going to say it’s dramatic, but it’s it’s real. It’s real

Nestor Aparicio  10:06

Absolutely, walks in the strikeouts and strikeouts in the walks in one game. It flipped the game. It flipped the game situation. And by the way, the after the booted ball out in center field, not booted ball, but he lost the ball. Yeah. Well, I said light, son, you’re right. Still the light, yeah. But either way, that tag, that phantom tag at shortstop, the fact that that wasn’t challengeable is is kind of weird to me, because he didn’t tag him, and it cost them a run. It cost twins run at the end,

Luke Jones  10:41

you’re talking about going,

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Nestor Aparicio  10:43

I sorry, I second the third, second to third. Yeah, swipe tag.

Luke Jones  10:46

Yeah, that was, it was odd, yeah. I mean, they said it was out of the baseline, but it’s he was not out of

Nestor Aparicio  10:51

the baseline, and the dude was holding the ball in his hand and had his glove forward, yeah, even if he hit him with a glove, he didn’t

Luke Jones  10:57

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have the ball. Yeah. I mean, we’re always, we’re gonna have plays that don’t, you know, we’re not going to be perfect. Because I don’t think anyone wants perfection as far as what it would cost, right? I mean, I’ve said this. I think they’re going to

Nestor Aparicio  11:11

wind up having a third challenge in the end. They think there’ll be three for a team, like timeouts in the NFL, timeouts,

Luke Jones  11:17

I don’t know, I still don’t know, if we go full automation at some point,

Nestor Aparicio  11:21

but full automation, then you can’t challenge anything.

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Luke Jones  11:23

Well, there’s that, and that also, then it really takes away an important skill that catchers possess right now, in terms of presentation and framing and all that. So you would eliminate that entirely. I don’t know again, I think it’d be, it’d be a little too hasty to make definitive judgments right now, but so far so good. There’s no doubt about that, and it’s

Nestor Aparicio  11:46

enhanced the experience of watching the game.

Luke Jones  11:50

Yeah, so and, and it’s not just, I mean, you think about it in terms of a lot of strike three and ball four, but I don’t know, man, like you look at numbers, the difference between a two one count and a one two count. I mean, and, and not necessarily that someone’s going to challenge a one one pitch in the third inning, but when you get in this in the seventh or eighth inning. I mean, look at Pete Alonso when he challenged, it was earlier in the count of when he ended up flipping the ball in the right field for the RBI. But those are situations. I mean, count leverage is huge. You You hear these in this day and age, in baseball with analytics and the way that front offices and coaching staffs and even the way players think about the game. I mean, you know, you hear the term count leverage, which has always been there, but it just sounds a little little fancier to hear it in those terms. But they all talk about it. So the idea that you have a system in place that could turn a one one pitch that’s called a ball into a strike or vice versa, I mean, that’s major. That’s absolutely major. So it’ll be interesting to see in the long run whether this potentially helps offense tick up, because pitchers aren’t necessarily going to be able necessarily going to be able to count on getting those two extra inches off the plate in certain situations late in the game, where it tends to feel that

Nestor Aparicio  13:11

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that way that they do. I can see Greg Maddux getting a challenge now back.

Luke Jones  13:14

Yeah. So, So, who knows? So, but

Nestor Aparicio  13:16

preferred strike zone, so, so, you know, I

Luke Jones  13:19

don’t want it. You know, there were still plenty of interesting baseball putting that aside. But, man, it’s we talked about it throughout the spring, and it’s one thing to see it in a spring training game, when it’s just the test run, you know, it’s just the, you know, the trial run for all these guys testing I would call it

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Nestor Aparicio  13:36

cute in spring training. It is. It’s beyond cute. Now it’s unbelievably strategic. It’s it’s crazy. And I don’t know if you exhumed Earl Weaver Casey Stengel or Billy Martin or Tommy Lasorda right now and said this how they would view it. It would be fascinating to me to see what Whitey Herzog would think of this and fat it’s fascinating to hear what Jim Palmer thinks, yeah, to me

Luke Jones  14:00

on a nightly basis, yeah. I mean, I think it’s really, I mean, it’s again, I want to see, I want to let it breathe for a while and really see one, but it came to life Sunday.

Nestor Aparicio  14:11

Oh, talking about it right now is it is breathing for sure.

Luke Jones  14:15

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And the big thing with this for the umpires, hey, there’s more accountability for them now. And part of that, going back to the you made the Greg, Greg, use the Greg Maddux example. If you’re an umpire like you know that that the tap on the heads coming if it’s a borderline pitch. So the idea that you know over the years, and we all remember this certain certain umpires who are a little more pitcher friendly, certain umpires who are a little more hitter friendly, I mean, they’re scouting reports on these guys over the years, for years. I mean, that’s, that’s pre analytics. I mean, you know, Earl Weaver knew who was behind the plate on any given night and what that kind of night was going to be most likely. But now, like I said, it’s going to be fascinating to see how you know what the trickle down effect of this is in terms of how the umpire. Players call the games, how players handle these challenges.

Nestor Aparicio  15:03

So you’re old enough, chess protectors right outside. Chess protectors in one league, inside in the other. You got the low strike in the National League getting hit in the American League. Because umpire saw it differently, because of the chess protector, right?

Luke Jones  15:15

No doubt. Well, I mean, there was that the umpires who sat, you know, who set up right behind the catcher, or on the first base side, or a little bit on the third I mean, you know, there was all all those intricacies, but now there’s, there’s a definitive system in place, and now it’s standardized, right? I mean, they measure all the players the same way. But all of that, there’s no complaining about that. Derek Shelton can complain about Ryan Helsley not tapping his cap quickly enough. But in terms of the calls themselves, there is no arguing with the robots. So it’s very interesting.

Nestor Aparicio  15:49

When they measure, you try to crouch up a little bit, right?

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Luke Jones  15:54

Yeah, no, they have to, I’m sure they literally put, you know, they come against the wall. They have no shoe, no shoes on. They measure them standing straight, like it’s very like it’s, they try to standardize it. There was even, I forget who mentioned this. It it was, it was some spring training game I was watching. It might not have even been the Orioles. They actually talked about the idea that they actually would do the measurements in the morning, because there’s even scientific evidence or data that says you’re, you know, that that your height can change ever so slightly over the course of the day, which I, you know, I don’t know if that’s true or not. Sounded sounded good, though, so, but they’ve tried to standardize it. They’ve tried to do make this as consistent as they can. And we’re going to find out, right? I mean, there are going to be, there gonna be some calls that go against your team, you know, they’re gonna be some calls that help your team. But I think, you know, having talked to Pete Alonso and Tyler O’Neill after Sunday’s game, specifically, you definitely sense the play. I think the players overall very much. I think they appreciate it, and I think they like where this is going again. I want to see it over the course of weeks, not just a few games, over the course of months, not just a few weeks of games, but man, it’s certainly getting people talking, and I think it’s getting them talking in a positive way, rather than something where, you know, like, for example, when we talk about challenge system, whether the NFL, baseball, whenever, when you have these long replay reviews, I mean, I mean, even the blaze Alexander slide at second base, you know, kind of looked on replay like he wasn’t tagged. I don’t know if it was 100% definitive, but it sure looked like he wasn’t tagged, and the call ends up standing, you know, less of that and more of the Swift, definitive, hey, it’s a ball, it’s a strike, and then move on. I think that’s nothing but a positive, as long as it’s not going to slow down the game. And you know, we’re only talking about a couple seconds here and there when the

Nestor Aparicio  17:54

challenges do occur. Here’s Luke Johns on Nestor, we are into baseball season around here. We’ll get some football. It’s almost draft month around here. On the football side of things as well. I’m wearing my Koco’s Pub shirt. We’re going to get back to Koco’s later on in the month to have a big fat crab cake over there in laurelville. I’m going to be after those coconut shrimp. It’s going to be fun. It is good to be back on the beat here and and talking some baseball. All right. So on to the team itself and the pitching and the hitting, what? Where do you stand on all of it? From the obviously the bats to me, and you and I waited about nine months last year for the thing to come together. Never did, but I feel like they’re going to hit the ball. I mean, I think there’s a lot of pedigree for them to hit the ball. I do think the pitchers were high. Ministers got two top of the rotation pitchers, and then after that, nothing. I think the bullpen. Part of this for the Orioles beating up other teams bullpen is going to be as much a story as other teams trying to beat up on the

Luke Jones  18:53

Orioles bullpen. Yeah. I mean, I think that’s fair. I mean, they need to hit this team. This is my biggest complaint about them early last year for as much as they had their issues pitching, none of us were surprised by that. What was surprising was how bad their offense was. So yeah, it’s not ideal when you start out what they they were prior to Tyler O’Neill hitting the home run in the in the fourth inning, prior to that fourth inning on Sunday, they’d started the season 11 for 70 with 25 strikeouts and only two extra base hits. You can deal with strikeouts if the slug comes with it. But they weren’t slugging over the first couple games. But certainly they came alive on Sunday. That was good to see. I I don’t even think and even talking to Albernaz about it after Saturday’s game. I don’t think it was even a case where the bats, you know, like the approach was awful. It was just too much swing and miss. And we talked about it, the shadows were there. Taj Bradley’s got good stuff. And, you know, guys, guys can press coming out of the gate, right? You’re excited. You want to get off to a good start. I mean, you know, one of the. Things that I heard over the first week of the season. You know, it was a absolutely dreadful Netflix season opening game, but Barry Bond said it in the pregame. If Barry bond says it must be true, he said, no one wants to go for four out of the gate. So there’s a little bit of that that goes on. I think you saw Gunnar Henderson frustrated on Saturday, for example. But you have to think with this lineup, with the depth of the lineup, with the different options that they have. I mean, we’ve already seen some different lineups in place. I mean, Tyler O’Neill, you know, he’s a guy we’ve talked about, is he even going to be an everyday player? Is he going to be more of a platoon guy for them with the way their lineup is currently constructed? But, you know, we’ll have questions about the bullpen. I absolutely have questions about the bullpen. Nothing’s changed on that front, especially watching Sunday’s game. But well,

Nestor Aparicio  20:48

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Saturday was good. Nunez looked alright.

Luke Jones  20:51

I’ll get to him, because I to me the ABS obviously was the most interesting dynamic in general. He was the most interesting development of the weekend for the Orioles. I thought, so I’ll get to him. But we knew that the bullpen would have question marks at best, and we knew that the defense would have some choppiness. And we certainly saw that, and that’s the best way you could care characterize it, but they’re going to hit and you know, okay, Bradish. Bradish wasn’t great. Boss wasn’t great. They weren’t horrendous or anything like that. But, you know, as far as what we saw from this team, yeah, you’re waiting for the bats to come alive. And they finally did on Sunday, and that’s some really good at bats. You know, Adley rutschman, off to a good start. You know, big pinch hit RBI double on Sunday was good to see Dylan beaver’s atone for losing the ball in the sun, Pete Alonso with a great approach going the other way. I mean, so there was plenty to like on that front, but it took a while for it to happen, that’s for sure. And was good to see them erase a for nothing deficit early on Sunday, when you’re saying, oh, you know, you went on opening day and suddenly you’re looking at potential series loss. So was good to see them come alive. And yeah, they did cut down on the strikeouts, 24 strikeouts over the first two games. And I think what they only had five. I think it was on Sunday, so that was a little more in line with what you’re hoping to see, not quite as much swing and miss.

Nestor Aparicio  22:17

I agree with you on Saturday that the shadows were a problem. But I do think aggressiveness in first pitch swinging and and pitchers ability to throw a first pitch strike, you know, to be in the fourth inning with 33 pitches. You don’t want that against any starter. And I mean, the game really has evolved into get into the bullpen, right? I mean, and if the if the starting pitcher is bad enough, you’ll beat him up enough to get him out by the third or fourth inning. Anyway, even if he’s good, you’re going to get him out in fifth or sixth. So make him work a little bit. Make him throw strikes and don’t ground out the shortstop, on, on, oh and first pitch swinging, and reach for a ball out of the out of the strike zone, working counts, just working counts. There you go.

Luke Jones  23:07

Yeah, and, and it wasn’t even that they weren’t necessarily doing that. I mean, Joe Ryan was great on opening day. I mean, he was dominant, yet they still made him throw 85 pitches and he was out in the sixth inning, right? I mean, and that was with they’d only gotten one hit, and they’d only walk. They had only walked twice against him. I mean, Taj Bradley like and let me be clear, I’m not this isn’t a cop out for them. They you can’t strike out 16 times, like they did on Saturday. But the shadows were it was part of the game on on Saturday, it was a four o’clock start, right? You’re always going to have that. That said the twins dealt with it too, and they still managed to score four runs. So they won. Good for them. They were better on Saturday, but yeah, even Todd Taj Bradley, who you know, struck out nine, threw 92 pitches in four and a third innings, right? So there is that even if you’re not getting on base, even if you’re not driving in and scoring runs, at least make pitchers work, at least get the pitch count up. And we know in this day and age, I mean, we’re seeing it. We’re seeing even fewer and fewer pitches. Pitchers throwing 100 plus pitches in games. 90 is kind of become the new 100 especially. I mean, early in the season, we’ll see, you know, but, but even going back the last few years, you tend to see unless it’s your your stud, number one and number two starters. Most these guys like if they’re at 90 pitches through six innings, unless a bullpen has really been taxed in recent games, you’re generally going to see that them go to the bullpen at that point in time. I mean, that’s just kind of where the

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Nestor Aparicio  24:38

game is. Like pitch number one from Nunez better than like pitch 98 from any of their starters, 1,000%

Luke Jones  24:44

so it’s definitely a different way, and that’s why guys like me have expressed so much concern about the state of their bullpen. Because Who are those guys right now? Ryan hesley for the ninth inning, checks every box, no questions asked, right? He has to say. Dave’s it was a little little dicey, you know, he’s had some traffic, but, but, but, no concerns. But, I mean, even opening day, okay, we saw Tyler wells pitched the eighth no problem. Tyler wells in the eighth inning on Sunday was a totally different story, right? So, it was great to see Rico Garcia strand the bases loaded in the seventh inning to clean up geraldo’s mess. It was great to see yen your canoe strike out Buxton in the eighth inning and strand the bases loaded to clean up Tyler Wells’s mess. But, man, you don’t really want to have to be doing that in game three, where you’re already going through your bullpen the way they did so but you made mention of them, and you know, this is where you know, the most interesting and promising development pertaining to the bullpen over the weekend. Nunes was fantastic on Saturday, and I get it, they he was it wasn’t high leverage, in the sense that they were down four to one, but that change up and really that sweeper that will play against lefties and righties respectively. So he’s got a good arm. It’s a great story. I mean, this guy’s a converted infielder, right? He’s only been pitching professionally for a couple years. There is a reason why michaelias targeted him in the Cedric Mullins trade. There’s no doubt about that. And all he did was go to Norfolk last year after the trade deadline, and he pitched well there. And all he did this spring was turn heads, I get it the Keegan, akin injury, kind of changed the circumstances for him to begin in the Major League bullpen. But dude, I’m telling you what I’ve seen, and that’s even including a couple of outings I was able to watch on television. You know, in the spring with Nunez, I would not be shocked if we’re seeing him pitching in some more and more important situations. Sooner rather than later, you might be

Nestor Aparicio  26:47

there emerging what canoe was three years ago, maybe. Or Yeah, exactly.

Luke Jones  26:51

8

I mean, you hope, because they need more of that. There’s no doubt they need more of that. I mean, it’s good to see cano do what he did. Was good to see Rico Garcia do what He did on Sunday. But generally speaking, you don’t want to be in a position as they were on Sunday, where their bullpen, I’m looking at the box score right now. Not only did they have to cover the final three and two thirds, they also needed to. They threw 103 pitches to do that. Boss threw 78 pitches. They threw 181 pitches as a staff collectively. So 103 pitches from your bullpen on Sunday. That is not a long term sustainable formula, to

Nestor Aparicio  27:28

say the least. So it also means you better hit the ball in a seventh, eighth, ninth inning too,

Luke Jones  27:33

no doubt. And they were able to do that. They added, they were able to tackle on some insurance, which was much needed. But if

Nestor Aparicio  27:39

you don’t like our bullpen, look around the league, right?

8

Luke Jones  27:41

I mean, oh, I mean, there’s some good ones out there. I mean, Cleveland. I mean, look at the Guardians, one of the big reasons they’ve been a playoff team the last couple years. And obviously they’re dealing with a different story now, with with the betting scandal, with a couple of their former big arms. But, but you know, the teams that you’ve heard me say it for a few years now. You need a minimum of four guys that can pitch in just about any situation, right? Because, you know, Helsley is not going to be available for every single save situation, even when kittridge comes back, he’s not going to be available to pitch in every single eighth inning of a close game. You need at least four dudes out there in the bullpen that you can throw out there. And, you know, have them face just about anyone, in any situation, and feel like they’re going to get the job done. If you don’t have that, man, you’re starting pitching. Better be exceptional, and you better hit the, you know, what out of the ball. So they’re looking for that right now, and that’s not and, you know, let me be clear. I mean, I’m not piling on Tyler wells, he had a bad outing on Sunday. You know, he could still be, and still needs to be a really important part of their bullpen. You know, Kittredge sounds like, you know, he’s gonna be back sooner than later. You know, I don’t get the sense that there’s concern that he’s going to be out long term. I mean, I could see him starting a rehab assignment at Norfolk any day now, that’s how close I’m saying he could be here. Yeah. I mean, yeah. So, you know, it’s not as though there aren’t options out there, but, man, it’s just a lot of unproven, a lot of unknown, or in canoes case, just coming back from a bad season. You know, if Cano can be even, even if he’s not the 23 version, the 2024 version of Cano would go a long way towards helping this pen because, I mean, helsley’s got, we saw it. I mean, he touched 102, on opening day. I mean, the arms there, and I think they’ve kind of tweaked where he is, you know, he’s throwing a split now that that looks legit, I think that’s going to help him certainly defend himself against left handed hitting. So, you know, we’re going to see how it plays out. I mean, Helsley, I think is going to be, I think he’ll be excellent, right at the very least, he’s gonna be fine in the ninth inning. But, man, you’ve got to get there, and the way they did it on Sunday is certainly not the way you want to have to do it on a nightly basis. If you don’t want your bullpen to be fried by Memorial Day, that’s for sure. Well, you know, on the

Nestor Aparicio  29:58

pitching side, and we’ll talk. About Boz in the contract, we’ll do that, and we’ll do even more on the ABS a little later on, but let’s staying on the function of the team and Jackson holiday, maybe being around the corner Jeremiah Jackson can hit the ball right? You know, Blaze Alexander, I think part of this Taylor ward with an unbelievable defensive play, I thought in left field on a really a ball that could have rolled to the gap and late in the game, that could have stirred the bullpen up even more. I’m trying to gage the new guys, and I’m really trying to gage Tyler O’Neill too. I feel like I didn’t see enough of last year to, like, say, what, why? How, hitting bombs, being healthy, being healthy, being healthy, being healthy, as we wait on Westberg and holiday and Kittredge and all the rest of this. But you only play with the guys you have. But for me, the notion that they’re these new players, and there’s so many of them, as you pointed out there, they by the way, Joe Enoch lost a bet with me over the weekend on text, so I got to give him a hard time. He’s like, Can you name how many of these players were on the opening day roster last year? I thought, well, I was sick as a dog on Friday, but I know Luke said six from last year, so, so I won the bet because of you. I answered six right away. He’s like, Hey, you’re a genius. I’m like, No, I’m an Oriole fan. Don’t tell Katie Griggs whatever you do. Mark fine. I’m not really an Oriole fan. I’m a I’m a journalist, but the notion we have so many new players, and trying to figure out what they are, and then trying to figure out, to your point, like the Nunes is in the Jeremiah Jack, these these fringe guys say, well, they’re not Jackson holiday, and, you know, they weren’t acquired in the Grayson Rodriguez deal, but getting to know the new players, even their number, just seeing Shane bosses blondeness wearing while Bill Hagee and storm Davis’ jersey, just the familiarity and getting used to what their tendencies are, what kind of player Taylor Ward is going to be. I’m fascinated by all of it, because it is all kind of new. All that being said, I need Adley to be Adley and gunner to be gunner. You know, the stars to be what we’ve seen here in the body of work. And you mentioned Cano, he’s one of the things that I think looks familiar, because Shane boss does not look familiar to me, right? I mean, Bradish looks familiar to me, but all of this has some newness, where we’re not on here beating him up the day after the day after the game. We’re just trying to scratch our head and say, well, Taylor Ward made a nice play out in left field. Maybe he’ll be a fine left fielder. And then you see the twins, guy who couldn’t throw the ball to shortstop from left field, and you know, Gunner Henderson’s missing cut off guys all this sort of spring training stuff. But there is an ebb and flow of the game for me with new players and saying, I like that Blaze Alexander guy, or finding your the players you like to watch three games into this, yeah.

Luke Jones  32:48

And some of that is just to let it breathe, right? You just want to watch them, right? And, I mean, you mentioned Taylor ward. I mean, Taylor Ward played a Buxton double into a triple on opening day, right? I mean, there’s going to be some of that, right? I don’t expect guys to be perfect coming out of the gate because it isn’t spring training anymore, but you want to see enough signs, right? You want to see enough promise. I mean, I’d be remiss. We’re this deep into our first segment talking about, you know, the series win. How about the defense that Kobe Mayo played at third base for as much as we talked about that from the moment that Westberg, we know he’s not going to start the season and he’s going to be on the i l, I thought Kobe Mayo played a really confident, capable third base, right? I don’t expect it to be perfect, but he didn’t look like someone who was bracing for the ball to be hit to him, and that’s a really good sign. I think Kobe mayo, to me, he’s, he’s probably a pretty good case study. As far as you know what’s happened to this team the last couple years, as far as these young guys, where you know you’re you have the success, you’re drafted early, and you go through them, you ascend through the minor leagues, and all these guys, I mean, they, they had nothing but success over the course of their baseball life, for the most part, right? And you get to the majors, in the case of mayo, who really struggled, right? I mean, had his cup of coffee and, you know, bounce back and forth third base, and then settles into playing first base. Has a good month of September, and then the Orioles go out and sign Pete Alonso. And you’re thinking, okay, am I even going to be here, come opening day or come opening day or the first day of spring training? And then, you know, westburg situation, Mayo’s back at third base. You know the position where the Orioles had already kind of deemed him not good enough to stay there. And you know, so far so good, right? That’s not to say he’s not going to have his hiccups and issues, but he’s playing with more confidence, and I think we saw that with him at the plate last September. I thought Mayo’s had some good at bats here early on. So, you know, you just want to see that. You want to see guys look the part. You know, you mentioned Blaise, Alexander, Jeremiah Jackson, prior to mid you know, the. Halfway point of Sunday’s game, Jeremiah Jackson, one of the few Orioles hitting coming out of the gate. So that was good to see. So, you know, I mean, it’s, it’s baseball, and even us old time fans are certainly guilty of overreacting to the earliest of the early games. But we also know they’ve played three of 162 when you get through the first series, when you get through the first home stand, it’s six of 162 I mean, barely a blip at this point in time, but each one of those games matters, especially in the American League East, where you could have four teams making the playoffs. I mean, that’s what kind of competitiveness you’re going to find in this division, we expect that, don’t we? I mean, it’s tough for me to ever expect it, but I certainly would not. It wouldn’t remotely surprise me, right? I mean, I I certainly expect multiple teams from the Al east to to get into the playoffs, because I just, I don’t know if there’s enough quality in the other divisions, you know, or at the same quality, let’s say. But how

Nestor Aparicio  36:01

8

many of those teams are capable of winning 90 games? Yeah, I mean, you

Luke Jones  36:04

know so. But that said, you kind of think about that benchmark, and you say, Well, how easily can you win 90 games playing in this division, knowing you’re going to be playing all those teams as often as you do, you know you’re not playing them 19 times anymore, but you still play them two home and two away series, right? I mean, so it’s still a significant portion of your schedule. So so with that being said, you don’t want to dump games. That’s why, as laborious, as much of a grind as Sunday was, when your bullpens throwing 100 plus pitches, you better win that game, right? You don’t want to throw 100 plus pitches and then you have an L next to your name that that day. So that’s where you look at it and say, Yeah, they’ve got a they’ve got to find more consistency in their pen. Yeah, they need to be. They need to find a level of defense that hopefully is closer to average than bottom 10, as far as what their defense was last year in baseball, not just the American League. And you know the rotation as the season goes on. You know, I’m not nothing about Bradish. You know, his V load was down a tick late in that game. You know, nothing alarming, but you know you want to keep an eye on it at the same time, because his first start, and it was 40 degree weather, right? I mean, I not, I’m not sure you’re expecting peak Kyle Bradish in that scenario. Boz on on Sunday. I mean, there’s a four run second inning other than that inning, he pitched pretty well, like you know, it spoiled the outing. There’s no doubt. But at least he got into the sixth inning. So, but this rotation, I think, has the potential, the potential to be a strength for them as the year goes on, which, my goodness, when was the last time we said that about an Orioles team? I mean, we thought it might be the case for a minute with Corbin burns, but then you had the injuries with, you know, brat Bradish and, you know, Grayson Rodriguez later in the year. So you never really got to see that upside materialize in the way that you wanted it to so but, but with this rotation, if it can stay healthy, and I’m looking forward to seeing these guys make, you know, 28 starts, 29 starts, 30 starts. You know, they might, they’re probably going to use a six man rotation at some point in time. I mean, Drew French. We talked to him on Sunday morning, their pitching coach, he acknowledged with Kyle Bradish, specifically because Bradish, look at it. I mean, look at how many professional or major league innings he’s thrown over the last three years. It’s not a lot. So you’re not necessarily expecting Kyle Bradish to throw 185 innings for them this year. They might have to back off him from time to time, skip him a couple times over the course of the season. If you have the depth to do that, that’s not a problem, right? Because the idea is you’re hoping, you’re hoping that you’re going to be in a position to play some more games come October. So, you know, but, but for the time being, win as many games as you can while acknowledging that, yeah, they’re going to have some flaws. There’s some question marks, there’s some imperfections about this team, but you come away with the series win. You do that even if it’s not the most esthetically pleasing over the course of the weekend. I’m good with that, right? So you know this team, we knew it had its imperfections, and some of those absolutely showed up over the course of the weekend, but you’ll still take two out of three and be happy with it. He is

Nestor Aparicio  39:22

Luke Jones. I am Nestor. We’re talking baseball because it’s that time of the year. He’ll be out at the ballpark. We will be at faidley’s near the ballpark at Lexington market next Friday, when the San Francisco Giants come to town after they go to Pittsburgh and travel off next week a little bit here, a couple games at home with Texas Rangers. Luke be down at the ballpark at Oregon park at Camden Yards. If you’re following along at Baltimore positive, you’ll know positive, you’ll know all of that. If you’re on the W NST tech service we’ve been doing here for about 20 years, you’ll get breaking news first, including when the Orioles give a whole lot of money to a pitcher like Shane Boz. We talk about that and more. I am Nestor. He is Luke. We are W NST. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stop. Talking all the more positive you.