Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the torrid pace of the surging and greatly improved Baltimore Orioles. How is Jorge Mateo doing this? D.L. Hall and Kyle Stowers are coming. Adley Rutschman and Austin Hays are hitting the ball. The starting pitching has been solid. And the back end of the bullpen has been lights out.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
games, bullpen, year, point, orioles, play, hitting, player, talking, pitching, matteo, hyde, impressive, season, jorge, henderson, weekend, thursday, team, month
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
Looking back, WN S T, Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive hoping you’re setting your dial out there and am 1570 We still have a radio station around here and you still have a dashboard. Make sure you’re checking that out. We’re gonna be checking out the Maryland crabcake tour on Thursday new place we’re gonna be in Middle River. Then at the end, the back river neck row at the end of rocky point back where I grew up as a kid down on the porters beaches. We’re gonna be down at MC falls oyster and real. I’ve never been there yet. I’m looking forward to that northern McFaul family pretty well. We’re gonna be doing the crab cake over there. We have some great visitors and friends. We’ll be giving them away some scratch offs in the Maryland lottery, the 50th anniversary scratch off. We had some winners the other day on Thursday, we had some winners that a captain Larry’s had great conversations down there with Shannon tobac. And Madhu Chris real and Todd Schuler came out then on Friday, we went to fade these we had comptroller Bill Henry with us on Friday, Ron Legler from the Hippodrome one of the really good dudes in the city as the Hippodrome rips it up on the back end of Chris Rock and all the subscriptions we talked some some awesome crabs and cat fish and all sorts of stuff all brought to you by our friends at window nation got the window nation shirt on as well. We’re into May 8, six 690 nation you buy two you get two free five years 0% financing do what I did, except get a better deal than I got last summer we do. I love our windows. I tell you what, this guy has been appearing out the window and not jumping off the ledge in regard to ravens football but but Orioles baseball, it’s so you know, I know people are gonna tune in, they’re gonna say, Hey, why are you talking about the Orioles? Didn’t they sign Lamar? And it’s fascinating that we’re in the main I don’t know which direction to go in. But we did a pretty deep dive on the draft. How about those Baltimore Orioles, Luke Jones, they, they can’t lose a series, can they
8
Luke Jones 01:44
they can’t lose a series, they can’t lose a series opener which they literally have not done that yet this year. But boy, you get to the end of April on your 10 games above 500. And I get it, we can talk about the schedule, we can talk about the fact that they’ve beaten up on teams that aren’t that good. But your 10 games over 500 At the end of April, I mean, just think about that in terms of what you have to do the rest of the way to just be a 500 team, or just be a 90 win team, you know, which is the kind of territory that should secure a wildcard or be right there at the very least you the more work you do now. The more you beat up on some of these lesser teams, the less you have to do against some of the behemoths that you’re going to be playing in the not too distant future. And look, that doesn’t mean that they’re going to continue to win every single series and they’re going to continue to play, you know, 700 ball, you know, 680 ball, whatever it is. But it’s been fun. And they don’t necessarily make it easy. And you look at it, they rarely win and blow out fashion. Like like we’re seeing Tampa Bay who has a plus 100 Run differential stain, by the way a month is crazy, right? I
Nestor Aparicio 02:59
mean, it’s not quite the 84 Tigers but but your score three runs more than the other team all month long. It’s insane.
Luke Jones 03:05
It’s impressive. It is so so from that standpoint, it’s not the juggernaut that they’re just blowing you away on a nightly basis. But why they’re just winning games and the things that they do? Well, they do really well. And we’ve seen it with the bullpen since the first 10 days or so the season, the bullpen has been outstanding. The starting pitching overall has been better, not perfect, but better. And certainly we can talk about someone like Dean Kramer or Kyle Bradish being very much up and down since coming back from the aisle, but they’re winning games. And it’s just been a lot of fun. And I got it, it’s the Detroit Tigers, you should take three out of four from a team like Detroit, but they’re doing it, they’re doing what they’re supposed to do. And that’s a big part of it. When you’re talking about a 162 game marathon, you’re gonna go through your bumps and your valleys and you’re gonna go through some rough patches of the schedule where you’re playing tough teams, and you’re gonna lose two out of three and and you might even lose four or five in a row at some point. But you put in the work that the Orioles have put in over the first month of the season. It just puts keep yourself in so much better position to endure some of those tough times that certainly will be ahead at some point. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 04:20
8I you know, I wonder where the tough times are right or the tough times when mountcastle is hitting a buck and a half and can’t get out of his own way and can’t drive and runs or the tough times when they have three or four nights where their pitcher can’t get out of the fourth inning. Are there tough nights where they have a four three lead in the eighth inning and the closer comes in and pitches it all the way and gives up a three run home run and walks guys. Like all that’s gonna happen but it’s a season bad that bad things are gonna happen. But when you have a 10 game cushion to start with, and then I see them doing things that good teams though, which is exactly what I just mentioned that they didn’t do it You know, Detroit late in the game, not really sure where they are with the eighth inning situation and ninth inning. We’re talking about this all offseason, in the deal they made last summer to sort of clean out their bullpen to make space for other guys. And this has been interesting to watch them. And watch Brandon Hyde tried to set up whatever the seventh eighth and ninth inning looks like, especially on a day when his closers already spent, right. Like, how are you going to play this? And how are you going to get away with it? And all of a sudden, they might have two closers.
Luke Jones 05:32
That’s what’s wild. I mean, I think back to the trade they made where they sent Jorge Lopez to Minnesota and yeah, all along. I was fine with trading Trey Manzini, because especially with what they were able to get, which is a guy you know, such Johnson is recovering from Tommy, John, it’s good to
Nestor Aparicio 05:49
be on this team right now. Is your point. 10 games over 500? Where’s the place for Trey? Man? Seanie on this team right now? Exactly. Because we
Luke Jones 05:57
see when Adley rutschman is not catching Where is he? He’s da Qing more, just about every time he’s not catching what he didn’t start the first game of the doubleheader. But then he ended up pinch hitting and coming in to the game later on. So you wanted to have that spot that if treatments he was on the roster, you won’t have quite as much flexibility. Their point is, you know, putting aside the tray deal, Jorge Lopez, you looked at that deal. You said, okay, you know, I mean, this is a guy who still has some club control. He’s they’re closer. It was just a nice story making the all star team and you see they get what five pitchers back I think was five pitchers. They got back four or five. And Junior Cano kind of felt like he was just a throwing. I mean, this is not a young man. Right. In terms of Prospect status. He’s not 22 or 23. It’s in his late 20s. And when he pitched, albeit limited sample last year for the Orioles. It was not impressive. Command didn’t really seem like he knew where it was going. The stuff was okay.
8Nestor Aparicio 06:55
He’s got a vague, you know, doesn’t know where the ball is going kind of and last year felt that way.
Luke Jones 07:04
Yeah, totally felt that way. And I mean, I can remember talking to some reporters, even before he was caught up. And keep in mind, this is a guy who was in the minor leagues two and a half weeks ago, which is just wild when you think about it, as far as the high leverage spots that he’s been in, and he’s done so well with. But yeah, there was a lot there was sentiment that why is this guy gonna stay on the 40 man roster? Why aren’t they D, F, D, F, ng this guy, and you’re out right on the Norfolk and, you know, if you have some injuries later in the season, or he gets on a heater, then, you know, call him up and see how he does. But for him to do what he’s done. And it’s different than Batista because he doesn’t throw 101 miles per hour. But he’s got the sinker, he’s got the, you know, he’s got the off speed stuff that just moves so well. It’s just, it’s been really impressive. So when you have him, and we’ve seen what Brian Baker has done since his rough outing on opening day, you have two guys there that you’ve been able to slot in in that eighth thinning or in the case of Cano filling in as the closer when Batista has been unavailable, because as I mentioned, a couple minutes ago, they played all these close games. So you’ve had a lot of safe situations, a lot of high leverage spots late and games that you can plug them in there. And not only is he getting the job done, but he’s getting the job done pretty convincingly, you know, he’s missing bats, and these are tiring hitters and he’s not walking guys. He’s not pitching into jams. I mean, it’s just, it’s been really, really impressive. So we saw this last year, from the time the real started thing, turning things around in June. What was the big calling card for them, it was their bullpen, and even though the bullpen is not constructed in the same way, and they even have some good problems ahead with Dylan Tate and Michael Givens in terms of slot and slotting them in and who’s going to go as a result? Yeah, they’re just in a position where their bullpen is pitching at a really high level. Again, you’d like to see more consistency from the starters there. They are getting better starting pitching than they had been the first two and a half, three weeks of the season. It was great to see Grayson Rodriguez do what he did over the weekend. And you know that I think Kyle Gibson, for the most part has been kind of what they figured he would be. But it just comes back back to that bullpen where you have guys that are just doing a really good job for you. And even on Sun day, when you are in a position where you didn’t have some of your best bullpen arms available. They got two scoreless innings from Austin both who was stabilized a little bit though he walked a couple hitters and Danny coulomb is kind of in this year’s version of CNL Perez with Perez struggling out of the gate but you know for Conneaut to come in, get the last out in the bottom of the eighth and then gets the soup for you. It’s just it’s it’s impressive. And now the challenge is doing that for six months. And that’s easier said than done and we’ve seen plenty of teams get off to a good start and then go sideways and vice versa teams that will get off to a slow start and find themselves as the year goes on. But again, you go back to a 19 and nine record and it’s not even as though they’re firing on all cylinders. You mentioned mountcastle I mean, other guys in that lineup not hitting you know, we’ll get into Jorge Mateo and some guys like that who have been off to great starts but they’re they’re fine. The controversial Adam for him. It’s not always the most comfortable, but they’re winning. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. Someone who did you know, with you and I talked about the RO Quan Smith signing in a previous segment with as it pertains to the ravens, Adam Frazier, I was not a big fan of that signing whatsoever. But hey, it’s got three home runs now which either was Bob and Bob crazy.
Nestor Aparicio 10:48
On Thursday, noon exactly
Luke Jones 10:49
8for his pop.
Nestor Aparicio 10:51
Yeah, I’m getting accosted about Adam Frazier. And I’m thinking it strapped weekend. What’s wrong with you people out there? Look, Jones is here. He’s Baltimore Luke, we’re in a little bit of a delay on on his Wi Fi and our Wi Fi around here. What am I everybody will be at MC falls on Thursday during the Maryland crabcake Tour presented by the Maryland lottery winner nation also going to be celebrating 25 years of wn St. This summer. They’re not going to be playing any football between now and September any meaningful football and this baseball team continues to march on win series. You talked about the lineup and getting through slumps. And I guess at some point, Roger will have a slump too, right. I mean, but but AES is certainly come back into where you want him to be. And I think from a lineup perspective, you mentioned these pitchers and how many of them there are. There’s deep depth in some weird way in this organization and a cavalry coming on. Elias really knows what he’s doing. And if we’re going to tip caps anywhere a month into this thing and say, How is it going? Boy, the Ravens would love for it to be going this Well, the first week of October when they I mean, as far as the first month. It it’s like dreaming other than a blind drive off a foot and a couple of you know, a Trump fly ball three weeks ago that we’re still talking about because it’s the only game they lost the whole month. These are first world problems for the orals. I mean, this is it’s been impressive for me to watch it as the naysayer a nasty Nester and Peter Angelyn. It this is no offense. And I tell people this all the time when they give me manure about all this. This is why I thought this is what it’s supposed to look like. This is what I’ve been waiting 30 years for, like no offense to 12 and 14 and 16. That was good. That was fun. It was five minutes it was Buck ridin weeders, like a mule. And it’s signed in the wrong players and the old man still being the old man. And like all that. I don’t know, I think the organization I’ve met TJ Brightman I’ve seen John Angelo says Zach, I’m not gonna ignore that. And I’m but I’m not going to focus on it when the team is where they are. Because on the field, they’ve done everything you can ask the organism. I mean, this. It’s been a dream first month, I don’t know what else to say like, it’s a pinch me thing to watch this and say, oh, and they’re on the front end. And this isn’t fake. It’s like, this is real. This, this is the real thing.
Luke Jones 13:17
It is. I think you’re selling in 2012 and 2014. Short. I mean, this team still needs to do this for six months. And that’s not to say that they won’t, let’s be clear, but point was not in 2012. They won 93 games. And in 2014, when it was 96 wins, I think it was off the top of my head. But point was they did that for six months. It’s not easy to do. And at this point you made you made mention comparing it to the Ravens. Keep in mind 19 And nine that’s that’s akin to getting off to a two in one kind of start in football. You like it right? You’re excited about it. But we also know there’s a long way to go. So I think it’s also important to keep that proper perspective, however, to share in your enthusiasm because I am enthusiastic about this baseball team. There are things that you see that can still get better. I mean, they’ve done what they’ve done with Gunnar Henderson not hitting the ball. They’ve done what they’ve done with some starting pitchers not performing at a particularly high level like Dean Kramer, for example, who arguably was their best starting pitcher over the second half of last season, you know, you could at least make that argument. So we started in the big leagues. Yeah, it’s so it’s not as though everything’s going perfectly, but when you have the kind of pitching depth that they have, specifically in the bullpen, and we’ll again we’ll see how this plays out with the rotation and that’s even with thoughts of John means being added to the mix sometime in July and you don’t want to put too much on him but that’s there. You know, we saw DL Hall in a cameo cameo during the doubleheader. You know, we’ll see where he fits in as they get deeper into the season and not saying that that’s a sure thing either but the point is, there’s still other guys on the way to augment Get what they already have. I mean, we saw Kyle sours recalled on Sunday and bad cleanup, which is kind of strange. But when you think about that, as far as the guy being recalled, and he’s put right into the cleaned up spot for a team that’s, you know, at the time was nine games over 500. So, but it just speaks to the talent that they’ve assembled. And that’s where to the point that you were making a couple minutes ago, you do complement Mike Elias and the organization and there’s still work to be done, there’s still going to come a time, like the trade deadline, for example, where they’re going to have opportunities to say, All right, this is looking really even better. What can we do to improve our fortunes for the rest of this season and 2024 and 2025? So those decisions, those questions are still there. And I’m not going to shy away from that. And I’m not and I know, you won’t, either in terms of talking about payroll and talking about doing things to augment the core that you have, doesn’t mean you’re doing it to tear down the core, you have means you’re augmenting your comp, you’re supplementing that. So when those opportunities come, that question still remains, will they pull the trigger on that? Will Mike Elias do it? Will he have ownership support to do that, but in the meantime, you still have to play well enough to put yourself in that position, to be a buyer to put yourself in a position to go get what other piece you need to get, you know, financially trade, a prospect, whatever it might be, but you have to put in the legwork over these next few months to be in that spot. And you can’t be happier than what they did in April, I guess if you’re the rays, right? I mean, that’s the one thing you could say. The the rays have just been so good that it’s crazy that you wake up on May 1 And you’re 19 and nine and you’re still three and a half games out of first place. So yep. But you kind of knew that right? Didn’t take maybe the rays maybe we thought it’d be Toronto, maybe we thought it’d be the Yankees. But the ALS is tough breaking news, right news flash. Uh, so, but the Orioles are proving to be just as tough. And I think that’s what’s going to be interesting. As we get into May, they play Tampa Bay here in the not too distant future. They’ll play they’ll go to Toronto, they’ll go to the Bronx. And later on in May, we’ll see how it plays out. And again, they might even lose a series or two, imagine that. But again, the work that they put in over this first month of the season, they’ve put themselves in position to have a really fun summer. And at this point where they are in the rebuild, and where they are payroll wise, where they are contractually with all these guys. That’s a fun place to be because you know that there’s still room to make this thing even better.
Nestor Aparicio 17:41
Well stack them up this week against Kansas City and then Atlanta over the weekend, they get some real competition finally, and they’ll play some home baseball here before Preakness time, Luke Jones would be covering all things Orioles baseball, the cavalry and the piece where the DL haul thing happens and sours. And I mean, it’s not like Buck where he’s hiding out relief pitchers at the at the Residence Inn. But they certainly are not playing normally, and they are shuttling and there’s always options, you know, with the young players and then you start the burn them up. Where are you with all and say, these are two big prospects. They get sort of quietly mixed into Lamar, you know, sweepstakes over the weekend. There was no oxygen for anything in Detroit over the weekend, including rain out and a doubleheader. But in the case of the Calvary, it’s showing up quietly, pitching a little bit, hit me not hitting a little bit hitting in the cleanup spot, right. So all those questions I saw Mike Elias get three weeks ago when he shifts the hours out. Those come back again and say, and this has made me the point of the young man, I think he was at six at the bar I kept in Larry’s on Thursday, talking to me about Adam Frazier was we have too many players to be screwing around with washed up veterans, you know, we have too many young guys that we need to make room for. And I think Elias has been at this a long time. And you know, St. Louis and Houston and watching what this pipeline looks like and how to integrate these players. But the names you and I have been talking about it like we’ll talk about Jackson holiday today, right? Like that names here. But it’s not far away. All of a sudden, none of these guys are.
8Luke Jones 19:24
Yeah, I mean, in the case of Jackson holiday, I mean, he’s still 19. So he certainly we’re not going to see him this year, but I would not dismiss the possibility that we see him at some point second half of next year, which again, not saying that that’s bouncing back on her head itself, but yeah, well and that’s why I was even talking with someone. I was actually talking with someone at my church on Sunday morning about Gunnar Henderson saying you have to be patient. I mean, this guy’s 21 He’s still walking. I mean, even though he’s hitting sub 200 He’s going to 348 on base percentage, so he’s still getting on base. And look, I’m not saying that’s everything. But my point is, he is still finding a way to contribute even though at the surf fish, it doesn’t look very good. So you have to be patient with these young guys. But you mentioned Kyle’s towers. I think he’s an interesting case. We saw him get caught up last year hasn’t played when he’s been in the majors a whole lot. They clearly haven’t shown a lot of confidence in him against left handed pitching, which I think is something that you know, people blame Brandon Hyde for that. But let’s be clear. Lineup construction is not a Brandon Hyde only thing. This is a that’s a collective collaborative effort that the front office is heavily involved in. And yes, Hyde might have the quote final say, but I read Moneyball. Yeah, exactly. I mean, you under you understand how this works in the modern era. So but the point with Kyle’s towers is, and this is just one example. And they’re doing this with all of their guys at this point in time. But you kind of look at it at this rate now where he’s been at triple A, it’s kind of done everything he needs to do at Norfolk. But the question becomes, is he better than Anthony Santander in right field? Is he better than Austin Hayes in left field? Do you feel confident about his ability to play defense and left field which is a way bigger conversation piece than it was pre 2022 with the wall being different now and there being so much more ground to cover out there? So those are the questions you’re kind of looking at with all of these guys now. And that’s where things do get complicated a little bit because you have someone who has been a trip away, you know, Jordan Westberg is another example of this. I mean, a guy who has had extensive at bats a trip away and extensive success. So that’s why a lot of people like me, looked at the Adam Frazier signing and looked Frazier’s you hit a home run. He’s been okay. It’s not that he’s hitting 220. You know, let’s not act like he’s been, you know, robot Roberto Alomar or anything like that. But all of these decisions, you’re at a point now where you are looking at it in terms of a competition, you are looking at it in terms of his player a better than Player B, a name that I mentioned in passing, but I’ll bring him up now because there is so much infield depth and we just saw Joe your tees for a cameo and he did some nice things over the weekend in Detroit before they optioned him out on Sunday, which a big part of that I think was that some lefties lined up? You know lefty starters going against them? And you know, now you bring you bring ours back because you’re going to be facing some right handed starters. But in the offseason, there was so much talk about Jorge Mateo and the fact that his on base percentage was so low last year. Everyone loves his defense. Right let’s let’s be clear about that. Everyone loves a speed. Let’s be clear about that, that that was stating the obvious and even his biggest detractors last year saw the value there. But the big caveat over the course of the offseason was what he’s got to post a higher on base percentage than he did last year. In order to be beat. You have to remain an everyday player. When you do have Joey Ortiz coming you do have Jordan Westberg you have Gunnar Henderson who can play shortstop. Yes, you have Jackson Holliday, who’s a couple years down the line, but they have a lot of infielders. Newsflash, I think we all can kind of see that at this point in time. But look at Matteo. I mean, this guy has arguably been the MVP of the American League in the first month of the season. I mean, he’s been the Orioles even with rutschman playing at a high level. He’s been the Orioles MVP in terms of wins above replacement. So you know, he’s still on bases. He’s hitting for power. Still playing really good. Excellent defense. And, yeah, he’s even mixed in, you know, not a ton of walks, but he’s cut down on the strikeouts and walking maybe a little bit more here and there. But the point is, I mean, I don’t think he’s gonna hit 347 all year. You know, let’s be clear about that. But we’re seeing someone who already made a jump last year, looking like he’s making another jump this year. And we now you’re talking about a guy who started a profile something
Nestor Aparicio 24:03
we weren’t counting on. No, not at all right. This is a guy. You’re taking over 500 You over pretty. We’re expecting Richmond to be watchmen. We’re expecting Mullins to be maybe not what he was doing. But worth he’s a major league player. I mean, we’re expecting Major League production. We’re not getting that right now out of let’s say Henderson right. I mean, even last year with Austin Hays to some degree, the fall but like this is the balance of the JJ Hardy’s in the Adam Jones is in the nick Marcus say you got a lot of players Machado at that time. David, what are you going to get out of them and when you get 57 home runs out a day, you went a lot of games and when you’re getting nobody was expecting that in a Chris Davis either, by the way, when I go back 10 years ago as far as what your Texas gave them away, right. This is how it gets better the way in Shen’s and these guys are just better for a little while. You know Rodriguez a little better for a little while. Then you I’m excuse me, Gonzalez. I was thinking Miguel Gonzalez better for a little while than you think they can be. And Matteo, that guy right here right now. And this is sort of gumming up all of their the minor league route to who’s going to be a shortstop who’s and what this is eventually going to look like. When they’re playing October winning baseball. What’s the who’s gonna be the pile divers, as Buck would say, right. Matteo didn’t think he was one of them all of a sudden a month in you’re like, you know, maybe.
Luke Jones 25:31
Yeah, yeah. It’s like I said, I mean, you look at the walk rate, which is trended up again, not dramatic. But I mean, how about the fact this is a guy who struck out 147 times and 533 plate plate 533 Plate appearances a year ago, in his first 83 plate appearances, his 12 strikeouts? I mean, that’s not that’s not, especially in today’s game, that’s not very much at all. Right? So I mean, it’s just it’s really impressive. Anytime he’s hit for power. He’s got 11 extra base hits. So again, I’m not saying he’s gonna continue to play at an MVP level, but boy is no longer really throwing water on the detractors. Yeah, I mean, and look, this isn’t this wasn’t the critics weren’t being haters, the guy had a 267 on base percentage last year. I mean, that’s, that’s not good enough for a starting player. But if you can, and I don’t think it’s gonna continue to be 395 either. But if he can have a, I don’t know, say a 333 25 on base percentage, and is giving you some pop, and boys, you know, he’s fast this can be and this defense is Gold Glove caliber. I mean, you’re talking about a very valuable player there, you’re talking about a guy there that you’re not going to be anxious to trade unless, oh,
Nestor Aparicio 26:50
8first base, and the new system that gives the pitchers the squirts. I mean, anybody that creates speed on the base pass, it’s changed the game for once you get on base, and they can’t sit there and play games with you all day and slow the game down and pick you off, that it’s it’s forced action, it’s made the game better and gotten more guys like him are going to have more value, we’re going to be revisiting the 9082 cardinals, and you know, having three or four guys in your lineup that when they get on base change the pitchers add. That’s big. That’s huge.
Luke Jones 27:23
Yeah. I mean, I don’t think the change is so dramatic that we’re going to see this massive Renaissance, but it’s certainly adding that element of the game back into the conversation. There’s no question about that, specifically, when you have Matteo and Molins. Who, by the way, were one two in the Al it’s still a basis last year. So it’s not as though the Orioles didn’t have that element. But we’re seeing that play out even more so with the rules, as you mentioned, but I mean, we mentioned it, I can I can think back to way back when when the Orioles first hired Mike Elias. And we were reading up on what happened with the Astros, putting aside the cheating scandal for just a moment. But as far as how they rebuilt that organization, the name that came up that was very prominent that was not on the radar at all was kind of a fringe kind of prospect was who Dallas Keitel, right. And we saw how important he ended up being to their early years of success. And it really lends itself to what you just said. I mean, in the case of Jorge Mateo. I mean, this is a guy who was in the Yankee system and he was with the Padres. I mean, he was a waiver claim. The Orioles claimed them off waivers in 2021. I mean, guys are claimed off waivers that they’re not a prospect right. I mean, they’re they’re someone that has been disposed of they’ve been discarded, and the Orioles did not Cirrus clearly did not think that they were going to get something like this. But they figured at the time, because well, when you’re 110 loss kind of outfit, you can, one you got the number one waiver claim. And two, you can take some chances on some guys that have washed out that might have some raw skills that you say, Let’s get them into our system with our technology and our player development and our coaches and our scouts. And let’s see what we can make out of the sky. And hey, he did some nice things and limited action. Two years ago, he had a nice season last year, even with the on base this deficiency, you know, but because of his speed and defense, and hey, still hit 13 homeruns last year, so there was it was clear, there was some pop in there, you know, so for him now to have the start that he’s had this year. I mean, it’s It’s wild. And we’ve we’ve spent so much time talking about Adley rutschman, and rightfully so, and Gunnar Henderson and rightfully so and Grayson Rodriguez and other young prospects that are on the way and will continue to be on the way but you got a guy that was cast aside elsewhere and he’s been your best player over the first month of the season. So again, I don’t think he’s gonna hit 350 all year, but this has been a heck of a story and he is a major reason why they’re 10 games over Are 500 Going into the month of May?
Nestor Aparicio 30:01
Yeah, you media types are all focused on those first and second round draft picks. You gotta go with the undrafted, free agents sometimes you know, they go if you overlook. Look, Joe just never overlooked. He’ll be a covered Oriole baseball late into the night all weekend to city and Atlanta and of course, all things stress. I’m assuming Lamar shows up for OTAs and we’ll be around the building and there’ll be a Lamar lovin at some point here before it’s all over with courtesy of Chad Steele. We’ll be monitoring all of that and Owings Mills as well as a candidate yards and from Kansas City, one of my favorite ballparks where they still have a George Brett statue which still makes it awesome to me. Although you and I did spend one lonely night there watching a lot of people in blue have a good time a number of years ago. It’s a baseball week it’s football week and it’s a crab cake week as well. The Maryland crab cake tour moves to Middle River I’ll be giving away the Maryland lottery instance scratch offs a throwback to the lotteries first ever scratch off we had some winners lucky winners last week that a captain Larry’s and data fadeless as well. On Friday we’ll be on Thursday at Nick falls oyster in real in Middle River, homeland of Dave Johnson. I’ve contacted him and all that good stuff. We’re gonna have a great show Thursday afternoon two to five MC falls down the middle river come on down and say hello as well. All the information all the loops work can be found at the bottom or positive and if they sign Lamar again we’ll send another text or if they they give Patrick Queen away or if they call up another player will do something. It’s all brought to you by our friends at coons Baltimore for Dennis will be here on Thursday from three until five driving you home. No one more excited about all of this energy around town Dennis. We are wn sta a 1570, Towson Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore positive
