After a fourth consecutive loss on Monday night, the Orioles are reeling a bit with cold bats and a fatigued squad. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the depth of the Guardians bullpen and why Adley Rutschman doesn’t catch every night.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
bullpen, years, game, good, orioles, bat, catcher, week, catch, pitching, player, monday night, night, innings, point, great, day, lineup, play, talked
SPEAKERS
Nestor J. Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home we are wn St. am 1570, Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive we are in the middle of a homestand. We’re also in the middle of crabcakes season and we’re going up on the Fourth of July holidays. want to remind everybody that we’re going to be a little little respite for the Maryland crabcake Tour presented by our friends at the Maryland lottery we are having one final stop and Pappas on Tuesday will be Pappas in Parkville. Lots of great guests on Tuesday. You’ll be hearing that all week long. Some of them who even more my competitors at WB al for a little while. See everybody they fix everybody hates me at the competitors. Just the bosses that’s all John paddy be with us on Tuesday. Also going to have a whole bunch of other friends in a dignitary stopping pie, talking about all sorts of stuff we reconvene again down at fate Lee’s on July 12. We will not be there this Friday. Although you can be there get the crab cake get some chips out a beer before the game. And before Joan Jett squirts every one I hope that by the time we get to Friday, they will have won a game. It has been a dry patch here after nothing but water for the Orioles. They can’t seem to drink a victory at this point looks at the ballpark on Monday night. They’re getting closer, you know, I’d say and certainly when it comes to hitting the ball. Um, you know, 28 runs in two days last weekend and for since then, right? Yeah,
8
Luke Jones 01:20
I mean, you said getting closer. The pitching wasn’t the issue on Monday night. I mean, Kate Povich shook off a rocky start. I thought he was pretty good after the second inning gave up the home run to Jose Ramirez who does that to a lot of people but score two runs. I mean, you gotta gotta swing the bats. Heston cursed at two of those hits. What was good to see him back in Baltimore back and starting lineup, and he had some, some prosperity but not very much other than that, and clearly an Orioles team right now that’s struggling a little bit. And if you’re looking as I was kind of thinking about this, before we started our conversation. This is also a useful time where you see, okay, what’s under the hood for this team? You know, this is really the first time I mean, first time they’ve lost four in a row all year.
Nestor J. Aparicio 02:10
Adley rutschman has lost four in a row ever. Right? Is that is that’s correct, right? Oh, well, they lost
Luke Jones 02:15
four in a row twice last year. Okay.
Nestor J. Aparicio 02:18
8They lost two or two. They just has not lost five
Luke Jones 02:20
in a row though. Yeah. Five game losing streak, you have to go back to right before he was recall are called up back in May of 2022. So it
Nestor J. Aparicio 02:29
was five in a row lot.
Luke Jones 02:31
Yeah, yeah, I was there to document and Chronicle a lot of it. So. But look, we talked about this a little bit as we are recapping the Houston series, every team is going to go through some struggles, we know that the good teams are able to minimize it, the good teams are able to dust themselves off and then immediately start playing well again, the worst thing you want is not worrying about a four game losing streak becoming a 10 game losing streak or a 13 game losing streak. I mean that those are pretty extreme examples. What you don’t want is a four game losing streak to turn into a patch where you’ve lost six of 16 You know where you’ve lost. You’ve gone three weeks, and you’re seven games under 500 over the course of a three week week period where it’s really extending it’s a prolonged struggle. I mean last year, keep in mind, they lost four in a row last September. Remember, they lost four in a row. And that was that coincided with the beginning of that race series in mid September where Tampa Bay pulled into a tie for first place but the Orioles right after that one for straight one nine of 12 to clinch the division. Last June and July. I talked about this with you the other day. The Orioles had that stretch where they lost six or seven, they went to the Bronx. They had lost I think two or three to Cincinnati prior to that. And they were really scuffling it, it looked ugly. So they lose six of seven. And then they win eight in a row and 13 of 16 Immediately after that. I mean, that’s the mark of a really good team. Not that you’re never going to struggle. I mean, again, it’s the old adage every team is going to win 50 Every team is going to lose 50 Right. But the mark of a really good baseball team is being able to minimize and mitigate those patches that are off and this is clearly a rough patch for them. There’s no sugarcoating that, as good as everyone was feeling on Thursday night after the blowout in the Bronx. It’s been ugly since then. So and really, specifically the last three days. It’s been the offense just completely go into sleep. So they’ve got to pull themselves out of it. We talked about this. I talked about this with you. As we were waking up bright and early on Monday morning. So good Cleveland bullpen. I mean, Bobby was good. Obviously, he’s been one of their better starting pitchers. If not, you know their best. But, you know, their bullpen I said you can’t be trailing this team. And they were only trailing by one run but trailing this team. Going into the late innings and that was with a manual Class A unavailable on Monday night and they still couldn’t touch the Cleveland bullpen. So it’s a it’s a great bullpen. Probably the best in baseball if not the best. It’s certainly in the top two or three. So you need to be able to get to the starter you need to be able to score runs and put together some offensive rallies. The Orioles didn’t have a hit after the third inning.
8Nestor J. Aparicio 05:21
As you say they’d have a hit after seven o’clock. You’re literally right. Yeah, I mean,
Luke Jones 05:25
they, you know, they they scratch together a couple runs in the first few innings. And like I said, that
Nestor J. Aparicio 05:30
run around, helmet fallen off and hair flying all over the place. And I mean, it looked like home crowd not a great crowd. But home crowd home cookin nice night look like, this is the time to hit the ball again, you get six innings without hitting the ball at home. That’s really unusual for them. Yeah,
Luke Jones 05:47
8yeah. I mean, was it and like I said, I mean, Bobby’s a good pitcher. They face some good pitching over the course of this losing streak. I mean, there’s no question about that. I mean, especially the last couple days in Houston, and obviously, the opener, but that can’t be an excuse. You know, it can be the explanation for a couple of days, but you better pull yourself out of it. And that’s where I give this team still very much the benefit of the doubt. I mean, even with the four game losing streak 20 games over 500 As we’re in the last week of June. They’re fine. I mean, even even if someone had told you two weeks ago, they’re gonna lose four straight with the way the Yankees were playing at that point in time, you would have been saying, Oh, no, they’re gonna be seven games out. They’re still fine. But fine, you don’t want fine to turn into Oh, no, this is really becoming a prolonged stretch of struggle. So just got to start swinging the bats again. I know it sounds simplistic, but they’ve made it look so easy the last couple of years. So that’s where I do still have the confidence in this club to pull themselves out of it and start swinging the bats again, because as I said to you, we talked, we’ve talked so much about the pitching. And we’ve talked about the rotation and the injuries, talked about the bullpen even before Danny coulomb has the the bone chips removed from his elbow that I really felt for these next three, four weeks, this might be a time where you need to lean on your offense a little more heavily and even after this three game stretch where they’ve only managed four runs they’re still first in baseball and run scored per game. So it speaks to what their body of work but you’ve got to pull yourselves out of it so and hopefully has been cursed that does give them a little bit of a spark, you know, and maybe maybe Brandon Hyde shakes up the lineup just a little bit, you know, just to give guys a different look. Have guys feeling a little bit differently
Nestor J. Aparicio 07:35
after your race and McCann were playing on Monday. Right? Yeah,
Luke Jones 07:39
and Bullock. I mean, you know, we talked a lot about aureus. Earlier in the year. He’s actually swung the bat way better over the last month. He doesn’t play every day. But go look at the numbers when he has played he’s actually hit the ball. Well, McCann, it’s tough because Adley rutschman Can’t catch every night shouldn’t catch every night. You want his bat in the lineup as the DH. He can’t catch every day. I mean, perfectly weeders. Right. It’s funny, you mentioned that because we’ve talked about that in the past and in the midst of the Orioles not swinging the bat. So on Monday night, I actually went back to baseball reference and looked at the innings that Matt Wieters caught, you know, some of those years because I was just thinking about that, through the lens of how many games has rutschman been behind the plate this year. And I was comparing it to last year. And now April, April, May, June last year, compared to April, May, June this year. Yeah, he is catching fewer games. But I think a lot of that had to do with they wanted to see, or I think it was wanting his bat to stay at a certain level. And to do that, you need to try to give him more nights off at least behind the plate. I mean, a lot of catchers sit entirely Adley rutschman rarely sits entirely and DH isn’t as stressful. I understand that. But there has to be a give take there. But the problem is, McCann has to swing the bat at a certain level, at least, which he did for the most part last year. Especially after the first couple of months, you know, got off to a rough start but swung the bat fairly well after that. But it’s really been a struggle for him. But that being said, you still have a lineup that you’ve got nine guys in there, you know, we can point to one or two. But as I said offense around baseball, most teams even the other great teams have a couple guys in their lineup at the bottom where they say oh yeah, that’s you’re not getting much but the it’s a factor and it’s more magnified when you have a few days in a row where you’re not really swinging the bat. I mean, Jordan Westberg a couple of solo home runs in Houston and you know, they scratch a couple runs on Monday but you know, it’s been, it’s been it’s been pretty tough. I mean five hits, and again, not after the third inning on Monday night. The
Nestor J. Aparicio 09:49
rutschman things interesting because we are at the end of the month where they played a whole lot of baseball. Have you ever done a segment with Alan McCallum? I don’t think he ever came in and sat on the morning. show over your years. I mean, he was my original you. He was you for not as long as you’ve been you, but he was here for a decade, you know, covering the games and being a part of what we did and being a part of the show. He came on two weeks ago, we came out and did the show. And, and we chatted in regard to he always makes the point like I wouldn’t have drafted rutschman I would have drafted the shortstop, right? And that’s worked out great for Kansas City, and, you know, son of a player and Bobby Witten, all that stuff. And he said he wouldn’t have drafted him. And I always sort of pressed him like he’s a great player. He’s like, Yeah, well, I saw weeders. And I saw what catches do and i You can’t play him every day. You can’t play him every day. I understand you play water 57 times this year, you know, give him a couple of Thursday games off if you want. He’s 22. And that won’t affect him when he’s 31 or 32, or 33. catches are different. And I don’t argue with Alan on and Alan just hits and runs in saying they’ve done great with their draft they picked it. They picked the one one that’s made it he’s a catcher can play him every day. That’s and the matt Wieters thing. It would be very interesting if I if Greg Bader had not told buckshot Walter’s wife that I’m a bad guy and that I should be avoided for 15 years. Book show Walter and I would know each other and a buck and I were to know each other, I really would ask him, if I would have run into him later in life now say, did you catch readers too much? That’d be something I would ask him friend, a friend, man the man and say, What was your philosophy then? For that player, special player catching switch it or all that, and he never really became an offensive weapon. He was never He was a good player, a good hitter. But look him up made a lot of money. I liked Matt. Matt Wieters was actually very nice to me, the ones I’m at. I met him one time, I had a press pass at Yankee Stadium because the Yankees would defy the Orioles and give me a press pass Yankee Stadium. And I met Matt Wieters, like a week after he came up. It was the last time I was literally, like the last time was in an oral locker room. So whenever that was 1112 1011, it was long time ago. It was the new Yankee Stadium, though I can tell you that. So it’s 910 11 wherever it was. And I don’t have an anti Wieters thing. But I think the body of work for the fan base for anybody who’s paying attention, I was there that night, he hit the double and the rainbow came out that night he came up I mean, there’s a video of it up on YouTube. So I liked weeders a lot. And I wanted and I you know, prayed for him and hope for him and hope that it worked out. And it it he he was a really good player, but never great. And they treat him like a mule. And I don’t know who in the organization would have an opinion on that Brady Anderson’s long gone, lots of guys are gone. It does feel like Elias, and Hyde will have a different touch in this. But to your point, the touches back of catch has got to be able to play and not just be a rah rah guy and a good clubhouse dude, when he’s in there and we lose a game by a run, you would like to see a double down the line at least get some pepper started to be in the game. And Alan brings that up on rutschman I don’t I’m I don’t fight with him about it. And I would ask him and he would say the same thing like, call me in five years. And let me know if you’d like that draft pick, you know, like, call me in five years, if he’s signed if they give him money. I mean, to some degree, it’s so weird being a new owner in the mind of Rubinstein or getting your arms around new ownership with this and saying, Well, we got him and we want them to work out. We want him to hit 320 We want him to play every day. But we don’t want to give them $200 million if he turns out to be Johnny Bench because that’s a little bit of that with a lot of the players like give Henderson the money he’s a phenom. I know you love gonna hate you. I I feel the dripping you I talk to you every day on my life for baseball. I know you love gunner Henderson, if you own the team, where would the money go? And the rutschman thing is interesting because we’re now three years into this with knees. He’s college player, he played a little bit there. Where where is that? 2728 20? Where is it that he becomes a part time first baseman or a halftime DH or and now we can do that in the National League, which he that was really not available, you know, in previous generations, but it is an interesting conversation about him and when he’s out of the lineup. And when you use a one one on a catcher that you love and and I’ll throw this to you, but I’ll leave this the you’re like, Well, you know, they lost four in a row. And the first thing I come up with is the first thing I say isn’t Anderson. It isn’t Santander, it’s rutschman He was the rah rah catcher, the straw that stirs the drink. The guy that brings the clubhouse together. He’s probably the guy wearing the mop on his head like Frank Robinson doing kangaroo court. I don’t know I don’t have a press credential. So I don’t get to ask these guys. But like rutschman It’s this the centerpiece of everything they do. And taking care of him is paramount. I guess that’s my long way a bunch of Walter saying, you know, I don’t know if they really took care of weeders or not, but he didn’t go to the Hall of Fame. And we like to think that rutschman is right. I mean, based on what we’ve seen, like, we’d like to think how long is this sustainable six years? Eight years? 10 years? Where is it? But it’s not the same as going to Anderson and Alan’s right about that. Bobby will be playing shortstop and making a lot of money when when he’s 30 for 10 years now, I don’t know where Adley rutschman is going to be 10 years now. And that does worry me a little bit. I
8Luke Jones 15:21
mean, I don’t know if I would say I don’t know if I agree with the using the word worry. But yeah, I think you know, when you’re talking about a catering and keep in mind, these
Nestor J. Aparicio 15:32
picture value thing, and when you take the kid, what what do you think’s going to happen in is tricky, but that’s understood underneath everything that’s happened in Israel has been perfect. So it was for wieder. So when he came up, he was great. Understood.
Luke Jones 15:43
But we also know that the draft I mean, we’re already talking about it with hindsight, we’re already talking about it with information five years later, right? So you can only make the decision that is available to you at that point in time at the restaurant was a college catcher, who was on the radar for two years had been the best player in the NCAA had played in the College World Series. Bobby Witt for as talented as he was and regarded as he was was a high school kid. So you have the conference in position, you have the difference in a high school player. It’s very difficult to project that. And that’s why when I hear people scoff at the Ravens drafting, I kind of laugh because you just come across as you don’t know what you’re talking about when you’re they
Nestor J. Aparicio 16:26
8were laughing when they took John Ogden instead of Lawrence. And everybody booed when they took call Hamilton two years ago, right? $50 million on a safety, right. They don’t want to do it.
Luke Jones 16:35
But part of that is also acknowledging how this works. The idea is not to get something perfect. The idea is to make a good decision to make a right decision, you’re not always going to make the most optimal decision, because so much of it is luck, or so much of it is some semblance of art, rather than science, something about what’s involved in this. It’s automatic, right, exactly. So So you know, so so it should never be well, okay, well, that player was good. But you could have taken this guy. That’s not the standard, the standard is, well, you took a player who stunk who didn’t even make it who flamed out after three years. And not only did you not take that guy, but you also could have taken Player A, B, or C, who also would have been better than a
Nestor J. Aparicio 17:23
guy when he got when he had his problems, his health issues. He was a guy that looked like he was going to be Sergio Kindle, right? It was, it looks like that’s far away for him. This slide in a second pace. You guys gotta hit him. So he was another guy who’s special on draft day.
Luke Jones 17:37
And even and even that, and again, I’m not, you know, we don’t know if he’s going to be special or not yet. I mean, we’re, it was good to see him do what he did on Monday night, and we’ll see how this looks and how the outfield is going to shake out over the next couple years. I mean, that’s going to be a big thing. But even with that, you mentioned curse, that that’s a perfect example. He could tracted myocarditis, that’s not, you know, that’s not Oh, this guy is 20 pounds overweight, or, Oh, we did some digging on this kid. And he’s got a little bit of a drinking problem or, you know, whatever, causes a player not to red flag, red flag. Right. You know, that was not a red flag that anyone could have. foreseen. Right? I mean, that was something that in the midst, you know, whether he contracted it because of COVID or what, who knows, but we know COVID was something that caused heart issues, and even young people at that, you know, at its height, you know, at its peak with the pandemic, again, don’t know if that’s what caused it doesn’t really matter. Right, it just but it happened. And it’s something that happened that derailed his development for a couple of years. And there’s something that the Orioles couldn’t have foreseen that. I mean, unless you unless you want a team to be a fortune teller, there is going to be a lot of unknown so. So you always just try to make the best decisions that you can, as you know, going back to your original, you know, as we brought up Matt Wieters, I mean, the thing I would say about Adley rutschman, that makes him stand out is he shown a bat that Matt weeders, even at the beginning of the season, even in a stretch where he was rested a little bit more rarely ever showed a bat that really was on the level that we’ve seen Adley rutschman, at his best, you know, people would talk even early in that leaders career, you know, when he was ascending and look, that leaders was not a bad draft pick, that leaders was an all star player multiple years. It’s if the knock is that he didn’t go to the Hall of Fame. Well, I mean, it’s really, it’s a really
8Nestor J. Aparicio 19:32
bad draft pick. Yeah, exactly. was in the big leagues late for positions and was a great player. Yeah,
Luke Jones 19:37
but but the thing for me that I would always kind of push back on, you know, year 234. From that leaders, people would talk about, well, you know, he could move to first base eventually. And the thing that I would say at the time was, Has he really shown a bat that that would justify and warrant moving him to first base at some point in time, right, his bat, kinda was good for now. I kind of it was good and at times very good for the catcher position right in the same way that we generally evaluate and judge a second baseman’s offense differently than a first baseman or a corner outfielder, right? We know positional value. Now it’s why Cal Ripken was such an amazing generational talent. Why
Nestor J. Aparicio 20:18
Joe Morgan was the greatest ever, right? Because yeah, well, yeah. And
Luke Jones 20:21
8especially for their position where you have certain positions.
Nestor J. Aparicio 20:25
ratio would not be a Hall of Famer, even though he’s the world’s oldest living Hall of Fame, he wouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame in the modern era, because he didn’t hit the ball. He played a different game. The position was different in the 50s and 60s in shorts club, he stole bases got on base, that’s what you’re expected to do. When you’re a little Venezuelan guy playing shortstop. Now you have to be six, four and look like Alex Rodriguez to to you know, if you’re not six, two, you don’t you don’t fit the suit. It’s like being a quarterback, you know, like, so positions have changed over the course of history catcher hasn’t changed in one way. It’s really hard. I was a catcher when I was a kid, like putting on the pads, being out there doing that seven, eight innings a night, even if you get a little help later in the game and like, but the backup catcher is where this all started. And the whole conversation is when you have a guy that hits the ball like, like maze. You want to play in every day, you know that that’s part of the rutschman When he’s not in there and McCann’s in there. That’s not a half step down. That’s three steps down. That’s not Taylor Teegarden. It’s different. Yeah. And look, I mean, look, there are a lot of Taylor Teegarden. Player McCann was right.
Luke Jones 21:31
I think we’ve mentioned Taylor Teegarden more times over the years than hits he Scaggs
Nestor J. Aparicio 21:35
enough. This week. I haven’t but I just did. So yeah.
8Luke Jones 21:38
And look, you not to get too nerdy here. But you can almost look at it as a math equation where you say, Okay, could I catch Adley? rutschman? A little more frequently? Yeah, you could. But you know what that means? You probably need to do you probably need to give him more complete days off then than they do right now, which very rarely Is he out of the lineup entirely. You know, so at the very least, you’re getting his bat in the lineup almost every day. So yeah, you could catch him a little bit more, but then you probably have to give him more full days off over the course of the season to try to offset that. So is that added value better for those nights? So, you know, is that net gain? There? Does that justify the nights where he’s not going to be in the lineup at all? And McCann or whoever your backup catcher is going to be at that point? Their bats still going to be in the lineup those nights? Because again, Adley rutschman can’t play every day, then, you know, that’s where you kind of look at this. That’s where I think if you’re the Orioles, you’re excited about Sam Messiah, who’s that double A and is 19 years old and absolutely crushes the ball. And, you know, I I’ve heard conflicting opinions over the last couple years. But the growing sentiment seems to indicate that they think besides who’s gonna stay as a catcher. So I don’t mean this in terms of what that means long term for Adley, rutschman, or long term for besides
Nestor J. Aparicio 23:03
trading rutschman.
Luke Jones 23:07
But three, three years from now, that might be part of the conversation.
Nestor J. Aparicio 23:09
8You don’t know, do you want a million dollars or trading and get a young pitcher to trade? Why? Right, right.
Luke Jones 23:15
I mean, you just don’t know, you don’t know. So but the point, I do like Adley rutschman. I don’t want that. Let me be clear up be bringing up the SEO is not saying that they’re going to do that. But me saying that is in the next year, year and a half, they might be in a position where they do have two catchers that you feel great about their bats, you know, for both of them. So. So it’s it’s tough, but at the same time, again, bringing it back full circle to where this team is right now and where they were Monday night specifically. I mean, they had regulars in the lineup guys that you trust and rely on for offense on a nightly basis who didn’t get the job done either on Monday night. So
Nestor J. Aparicio 23:54
also struck out 13 times too. And I know that’s not a problem. But
Luke Jones 24:00
many, it’s a problem when it’s that many I mean, look, swing and miss is part of the game. We’ve talked about this. I saw the athletic this week, they launched a multi part series talking about state of pitching, what that’s meant for offense. You know, just things you’ve heard mean. nerd out talking about over and over and over more velocity more
8Nestor J. Aparicio 24:20
listens to the show, clearly. Yeah.
Luke Jones 24:24
They’ve done a little more groundwork of that. But I mean, I said it Cleveland’s got a good pitching staff. I mean, this is a good team, the best team in the American League right now record wise, you know, as much as the focus has been on the Orioles in the Yankees. Cleveland just been plugging along. And again, as I said, you can’t be trailing them late in the game because they have five or six guys that have, you know, two, two or less era is I mean, that’s just where they are right.
Nestor J. Aparicio 24:50
What do you love in our bullpen while we’re on this? Because I was going to ask about Povich because we’ve carried this Adley conversation into not fiction but into the reality of why McCann Explain why he’s not and how much they can play him and how many nights they’re off and who’s gonna hit the ball when he’s not the lineup right? Because he was in the lineup as a DH. But But who’s gonna hit the ball when you Reeson McCanna at the bottom of the order and Mullins is already more than struggling but over 200 He cracked windows and through all this has been better the last couple of years. Yeah, but the bullpen and pitching in the state of their pitching right now. The bullpen didn’t cost them the game and I didn’t even know over the weekend. The starters were fine, but they didn’t hit the ball. Where are you on Webb who got banged around the other night Perez coming in. And the shuttle the baker shuttle and you know what this is going to be? What its gonna look like when when the Yankees getting here two weeks from now. Look, I
Luke Jones 25:45
8mean, you’ve heard me say this all year. This bullpen, statistically speaking has been way better than just about anyone wants to give it credit for. So I will say this, that for the most part, these guys have gotten the job done when it’s mattered. Even Craig Kimbrel, who as I noted last week, during the Yankee series, he has yet to record a save when he’s entered with a one run lead. But that said, he’s done really, really well for most of the season, say those two weeks basically, he’s been good and at times has been really good. My problem with the bullpen overall lies in where everyone is basically slotted, I think if you talking about their collection of guys, and I’m not talking about Brian Baker, who’s up right now because of an injury and kind of where they are, even though they Brian Baker has been used in some high leverage, which kind of speaks to the problem and what I’m getting at here. I think if everyone was slotted down a peg, or two in the pecking order, I would like most of these guys, and I do like most of these guys, but most of these guys have done a nice job for them. But I would love to see each of them pitching an inning earlier than where they typically slot in. And I don’t mean that means the starter goes, fewer headings. That means they would have another arm or two at the back end of the bullpen to basically turn someone who’s pitching in the eighth inning to become more of a seventh inning guy somebody who’s been pitching more consistently in the seventh inning suddenly becomes a sixth inning guy. So that’s where I am. Yeah, you mentioned Jacob Webb specifically, look, and I know he had the really bad outing in Houston. In fact, that morning I had written this but I think you can make a really strong argument and this might be a damning with praise kind of thing as it as it pertains to the bullpen. But I think you can make a strong argument that Jacob in our best reliever when you kind of look at how they’ve used him how they’ve deployed him multiple innings, has pitched the eighth and ninth inning on occasion has pitched the fifth inning on occasion when the starter gets knocked out. It’s a tight game and maybe there’s two guys on he’s done an effective job straining runners much better than you and your kiddo mind, you know, as we’re kind of comparing guys. So that said, Do I trust Jacob Webb to pitch in in the eighth inning consistently? No, I don’t I’d like him that much more if he was slotted down a spot or two. And that’s why I keep talking about needing to add at least one high leverage arm that I’d love to be able to put right next to Craig Kimbrough and say these guys are my ninth inning guys, one and one a, you know, I don’t need Craig Kimbrel to be masquerade that he’s the guy he was 10 years ago because he’s not that said that. Craig Kimball is still good and at times has been really good and has gotten too much grief from fans at times. But that’s also acknowledging what he is, which is probably not going to be as reliable within a one run game or pitching back to back days or pitching three or four days. So you know that this is kind of a drawn out answer to what you asked me. I’m not down on the bullpen as far as any individual performance necessarily as far as the guys who’ve been here all year. It’s feeling that they’re all miscast right now that the idea that someone has been pitching the seventh inning right now for them a lot. I’d like to see in more of a sixth inning role or someone who’s been pitching the eighth inning. I’d like to see younger Cano not have this
Nestor J. Aparicio 29:25
is where it is out and you’re still sore about that. 11 months later, it’s still not really repetitious to your point, right? Yeah,
Luke Jones 29:32
I mean, that’s tough, right? And look, again, Craig Kimbrel was never going anyone who ever thought that Craig Kimbrel was going to be I think they thought
Nestor J. Aparicio 29:41
Kimberlin Cano would be the split part of that if you were to ask him in February, and given lies the saliva test, he would have said, those two guys will handle the ninth inning on on and off nights and then you would say, well, then who’s handling the seventh and eighth and that’s where I was thinking, right? Yeah, no, I
8Luke Jones 29:56
was just gonna say if you say that, this goes back to the Jorge Lopez Two years ago when people when they traded Jorge Lopez and look, that trade has clearly been justified right that trade has been validated in terms of vindicated for all the criticism they may have gotten at the time. But the argument that I pushed back on at that moment in time, people would say, well, Felix, Batista can be the closer and then I’d say, okay, Felix Batista to the pitch tonight, who’s gonna pitch the eighth? You can’t clone Felix Batista, although at times, he could pitch two innings. And that’s why you miss them so much. But the point is with what you just said, and maybe they did think that I’m not dismissing that suggestion, but the point was, okay, Craig Kimbrel. Like, that’s one thing for him to replace Felix Batista, but are you really going to expect you and your keynote to be better than he was the first half of last year which was extraordinary, but also not very sustainable when you looked at the peripheral. So, again, I don’t hate this bullpen and the numbers bear out that this bullpen has been way better and way more successful than people want to give it credit for. That said, it would be naive to look at that bullpen and not say you need one major upgrade. One major eighth ninth inning kind of guy that could close games and do that. And especially now with the coulomb injury. You need someone else that I think at least profiles at worst as a seventh or eighth inning guy you know, so you need two pieces in the bullpen not long story short, I’m sticking by that. But that said that doesn’t mean I think the rest of the bullpen is trash or anything like that. Steam wouldn’t be where they been, if not for the fact that their bullpen hasn’t been best in baseball by any means. But it certainly has not been this major liability that some would make it out to be at times, just because they’re trying to make their point that they want another bullpen or arm arm or two, which I do too. But again, the rest of that group, they’ve done a nice job. It’s just that I feel that they’ve largely been miscast, and you’re asking guys to do a little more than they’re capable of doing and they’ve been able to do it for the most part, but that’s where you are concerned that that’s going to catch up to you as you get deeper into the summer. Luke
Nestor J. Aparicio 32:08
Jones I am old enough to see Mike Devereaux and Brady Anderson scale the wall in the outfield. I remember Kenny Lofton made a great catch at Camden Yards. I don’t know if we ever seen anything like the one down the right field line in foul play. The other night yeah, I want to get that guy on the show. I gotta think I get it. He looked a little bit like Kenny main and Kenny’s a buddy of mine so it’s making me want to reach to Kenny and do like a Main Event stick with him like how did you catch the ball and just play along like you know Between Two Ferns that he actually did it because it looked a little like Kenny main but that was on Kenny I’ll just say that. Look Jones would be at the ballpark trying to catch the action on Tuesday night where I am locked out trying to get in I’m under review. I’ve been a bad boy. But we had homestand here and Luke his babies are made Uncle Luke’s on the beat teams home teams fighting for first place, Cleveland’s in here looking to beat us up. And then of course over the weekend, Luke will be down there for all things Texas Rangers for the getting together with the bad guys from last year. We’ll see how that goes for games this weekend. You can find me at Pappas in Parkville on Tuesday be there from two of the five may stay a little overtime today it’s gonna be a good time. And then on Friday we will not be afraid this but you can be afraid these we return the Maryland crabcake Tour presented by the Maryland lottery in conjunction with our friends at Jiffy Lube multi care and liberty pure solutions giving us clean water returns on July 12 We’re going to wait through the Fourth of July either corn on the cob or watermelon shoot off the fireworks all that good stuff then the Yankees are gonna come to town before the all star break we’ll be down there on Friday the 12 He is Luke He is Baltimore Luke you can find him anywhere the internet travels you can find me and that’s it Baltimore positive.com Lots of great stuff on the air all week real proud of the radio station this week with with cool stuff including a an exclusive and I’ve been wanting to say that it’s not exclusively I mean I don’t know who talks to Greg hawks in the car exclusive interview with Greg hawks from the car Saturday night. Some some cars music has been in my life this week. So good little Music Week going on here hooting the blowfish on Friday night at Hershey. Lots of great stuff out in the audio vault including Luke’s locker room sound as well. We are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore and we never stop talking Baltimore positive
