The Baltimore Orioles went 3-4 on an important AL East road trip through Tampa and New York. As a last-place team, that’s not good enough but it was the way they lost games that was more disturbing. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss 8-0 blown leads, almost getting no-hit at Yankee Stadium and the indignity of losing another one-run lead in the 8th inning in The Bronx.
Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Baltimore Orioles’ recent performance and challenges. The team is in last place, 18 games under 500, and faced a tough road trip, including a near no-hit loss and a blown eight-nothing lead. Key injuries include Adley Rutschman’s oblique strain and Maverick Handley’s collision. The conversation highlighted the team’s inconsistency, the impact of injuries, and the need for significant improvement to make the playoffs. They also praised the recent Roku broadcast featuring Buck Showalter and Jeff Nelson, noting its freshness compared to MASN’s broadcasts.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Orioles collapse, Yankee Stadium, Adley Rutschman, pitching issues, road trip, Texas Rangers, Tampa Bay Rays, Buck Showalter, Jeff Nelson, Roku broadcast, in-game interviews, player injuries, trade deadline, playoff hopes.
SPEAKERS
8
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore, positive. Uh, positively getting the Maryland crab cake tour out on the road. New place this week. Well, it’s actually an old place. Used to be the Batemans in Reisterstown. It’s readers crab house in that Plaza, uh, right up in beautiful Reisterstown. We’ll be there Thursday afternoon. There’s a rumor Alan McCallum is coming by. I will have Back to the Future scratch offs. I may even try to recruit Luke Jones to come out, stop and say hello. But the Orioles are in town all week, the Texas Rangers in town, the Tampa Bay Rays in town. Luke and I will be talking Oriole baseball all week, despite the fact that this is a last place team, despite the fact that they came one sawed off shotgun away from getting no hit on Saturday Yankee Stadium, and despite the fact that Sunday, I don’t even really know what that was. Uh, I’m bringing Luke in, Luke, it was your niece’s birthday over the weekend. It’s hot as hell right now. They’re in last place. The Rangers will feel comfortable with 92 degree game time temperatures. They move these games back to 630 they do. You know there’s going to be five degrees more to give them than 735 was with Rex Barney, but I don’t know. Man, the road trip. We had some hopes for them. We said some nice things about them earlier last week. It was a little bit of scuffling. It was a little bit of a mess, a little bit like of what the season has been, which is one day they can score a bunch of runs and look okay, and one day they can get a starting effort that looks good, and one day gunner and Adley, and these guys will hit the ball, and the next thing, they’re on the DL and they’re in last place. It’s just it’s been a nightmarish year, and I thought it was a little bit of a nightmarish weekend in New York and in in the way that it was. Yeah, I mean,
Luke Jones 01:49
this still comes back to the fact that they fell 18 games on right? I mean, you have a three and four road trip. You don’t feel great about it, but it’s not disastrous. It’s not embarrassing in a vacuum, right? You split with the rays who have a better record than you, and you lost two out of three to the Yankees. And you could have, should have won on Sunday, and then it’s winning two out of three. The two losses that we think about on this road trip that were truly embarrassing were blowing an eight nothing lead in Tampa, and then on Saturday, as you alluded to, not getting a hit until the eighth inning and you know, losing in blowout fashion, in that way. But I’ll
Nestor Aparicio 02:23
think about how they pissed away Sunday too. That was another that was its own. Put that in the, you know, put that in the louver for how out of piss away game Yankee Stadium. And I’ve seen them. I mean, when I think of Yankee Stadium, specifically the old one in the late 90s, I almost got flippant and just tweeted this out. Have they ever beaten the Yankees when in any game that matters in the history of my life, have they ever beaten the Yankees when it matters? I don’t think the I don’t think the answer is yes. I don’t think you can find an occasion where they’ve beaten the Yankees when it matters. I mean, there’s games in 1993 where they won a game or whatever, but it doesn’t matter, because they’re in last place, matters to them a little bit. But I do think when they go up there, other than that rat we saw that was this big during the playoffs 11 years ago, I it is a house of horrors. Anything is possible there, and the Orioles can blow anything in Yankee Stadium over the course of my lifetime. It’s no wonder people hate the Yankees the way they do,
8Luke Jones 03:25
yeah? I mean, I guess, I guess you’d have to define for me what what meaningful games are, right? I mean, they bought No, but they’ve won series there. I mean, they absolutely have. I mean, they want to. They want a big series there in June last year, that was their high water mark, right? So they’ve done that. I don’t know how big this series was really, if you’re actually looking at it like the rest of the league looks at it right now, right? I mean, the Orioles are 11 games under 500 you know, for me, I don’t know if it was so much a nightmare, as much as it’s another missed opportunity, right? For me, it’s not so much. Oh, well, you went three, three and four, and there’s another week gone from the calendar now, right? Another week gone from the schedule. Now, for you to make up ground, right? I mean that that’s really what this we’re talking about, the math at this point for me,
Nestor Aparicio 04:13
well, the most important thing to the team is that the most important thing to the team is, can we make the playoffs? That starts, that starts the conversation, and most days it looks like they can’t. Most days it looks like
Luke Jones 04:24
they can Well, and that’s the thing. Have they played better baseball over the last month? They absolutely have. I mean, they’ve been, they’ve been, I don’t want to say much better, like, like that. They’ve been so dynamic that throw a parade grade or anything like that. But they’ve clearly been much better than they were at this time a month ago, right? They’ve shaved, you know, it was 18 games under 500 and after they won on Friday night. I mean, it’s the first time they’d gotten it to single digits under under 500 I mean, there were nine under 500 but that just speaks to how hard this is. That speaks to the math working against them. I mean. They’re at a point now, as they come home, you’ve got 85 games to go. Yeah, it’s mathematically possible, but you start thinking about it through the lens of you got to play like 91 and a half win team the rest of the year just to go 500 to win 85 games, which you know, 85 and 77 would kind of be the, for me, the bare minimum, that you need to really think you have a chance at being a wild card. Yeah, you’ve got to play like, what a 1919, over 508,011 but you’ve got to play like a 99 win team the rest of the way. I mean, that’s the kind of pace we’re talking about over the last 85 games here. So, I mean, the mats just not working out for them. And I think even, even before we got to the conclusion of the weekend, Adley rutschman on the IL now with an oblique, he’s going to be out until after the all star break. Because, I mean, that’s, you know, it’s a minor oblique, but that’s a month, right? I mean, an oblique, or a rib cage or anything like that, that is not something that someone rushes back. I mean, you can’t swing a bat, you can’t throw a ball. You can, I mean, and this is someone who has two swings right, right handed and left handed. So you lose him. Westburg has a finger issue. It, thankfully, it looks like it’s not going to be, you know, it’s not broken. You know, X rays were negative, but they’ve already said two or three days. But does it end up being more than that? Is there a ligament issue? Whatever? I mean finger, you can’t swing a bat. So, right? So, so you but you have that with Westberg, you had a run of starting pitching, starting with Trevor Rogers in that eight nothing blown lead, where you had three out of four starts that didn’t even go four innings. As a result. You option yen your canoe to the minor leagues on Sunday, which I get it? He’s he’s had a very uneven season. He had a really bad stretch in May. I think this was much more. They needed a fresh arm in the bullpen. Thankfully, Kramer gave them five and two thirds and was solid on Sunday. But Sagano, last three times out, hasn’t gotten through five innings, Eflin has been bad the last two times out. So every time it feels like they’re gaining a little bit of momentum, they’re playing better, more bad has cropped up. So you just look at it, and it’s just, it’s tough to be optimistic. Looking through that lens, you can look through the lens of, you know, guys playing better, guys that were hurt all year or back, you know, like cowser and Westberg until Saturday, you know, and assuming he’s not going to be out here too long. But you know, you can look at Gunnar Henderson being better against left handed pitching the last few weeks. You can look at things like that, but there’s still so much working against them, and it begins with the calendar at this point. I mean, it’s just, you know, whether you, if you don’t believe they’re good enough, I mean, then that’s a moot point. But even if they are good enough to play pretty decent baseball the rest of the way, how well can they play? Because you just, you know, the calendars really starting to work against you in that way, especially when you look at it through the lens of the trade deadline. I mean, we’re roughly, you know, five weeks from the trade deadline. So I think when you come out of this road trip again, three out of four, is it a disaster? Is it embarrassing? You know, just looking at that, no. But then you look at the fact that they dropped a game where they led eight nothing. They dropped Sunday’s game, which wasn’t like a travesty, but certainly a missed opportunity, right? I mean, just look at the eighth inning alone. They had a chance to add on to their two one lead. They didn’t. And then Brian Baker, you know, they were able to drive up the pitch count against him. I think he got a little little fatigued as the inning went on and gives it up. You know, Baker has been really good, you know, I don’t second guess him being in the game there, he’s been one of their very best for leavers. But
Nestor Aparicio 08:45
8my thought about how horrible it is is I’ve seen two to one leads, one run leads inning at Yankee Stadium, course, and it’s just, it’s how many Armando Benitez is, how many Baldo Jimenez is, how many, you know, like, just, I’ve seen that act before. That actor, Yankee Stadium explodes late that afternoon. They’ve been losing all day. It’s hot as hell, and you go out of their head. No, I’m feeling like we lost two out of three, three out of four, whatever it is, especially when they’re better than you, and they’re better than you every year, money every year, they’re a better team every single year, always, unless you suck long enough, and your genius GM drafts five one ones, and they all work out and their obliques aren’t strained, and the new owner comes in and buys good pitching instead of bad pitching, and nobody’s arms fall. I mean, all of these cautionary tales are things that your father and my father, they’d recognize losing Yank at Yankee Stadium 30 years after my father’s death, they’d recognize that. What they wouldn’t recognize is how imbalanced the sport is financially, how screwed up it is that you have to lose for a long time and tell your fans you’re rebuilding. I mean, the whole premise of it when you go play the Yankees is they should be in a different league if they’re playing in a different sport. You. When they have five MVPs on the team, you know, in the lineup in any given day. So I’ll say all that’s baseball, and that’s the unfairness of baseball, and I’ve been at that for 35 years, but for the Orioles, this time around, I’m trying to find excuses for them this summer, or find the pathway out that doesn’t lead to the firing of Mike Elias or the emergence of David Rubenstein or the Cal Ripken bobblehead thing this week, we’re in the middle of a really, really lost season, and I’m trying to digest exactly what this means for the Birdland members that aren’t going to give them money next year, like my buddy mark and different people to say, and then the Roku thing, which we’ll get to in a minute, because I pissed on Roku all last week, Buck Showalter and Jeff Nelson have made me true believers after a weekend of Roku, but I thought the broadcast was good. On Sunday, we could continue to talk about them losing, if you want, but I thought the broadcast was
Luke Jones 10:50
good, yeah, and I mean, full disclosure, I didn’t get to re watch the entire game, but I watched a good solid portion of it. I watched take the first three innings, and I watched the last two and a half innings.
Nestor Aparicio 11:03
You should have heard about Buck talking about the humidity in Baltimore. I mean, Buck was just fantastic. Bucha was almost doing it to piss off Greg Bader. Buck was saying things on Roku that he could never say on mass, and criticism, second, guessing everything, asking gunner Henderson if the ball comes to you going to third or not with this, when a guy’s on second punter, like, either did those kind of things, pretended that he didn’t hear him. Like, but Buck was great. Buck was and Jeff Nelson was great too. I’ve known Jeff for 35 years, Catonsville, his pride, always a great guy. Always made me feel at home in New York. He took me around the Yankee Stadium clubhouse and introduced me to people on his team back in 9899 so that I always had a great relationship with Chuck Knobloch and Paul O’Neill like me, Roger Clemens, all those guys were great. So I mean, I’m in and when Denny Nagle showed up too, that kind of helped things too. But, you know, I love the Yankees of the turn of the century because of Jeff Nelson. So yeah, there was all and Joe Torrey was a great guy too, but, but all of that being said, Jeff Nelson and Buck Showalter provided a better broadcast than anything Madison’s ever done, because it was injury. It was compelling good. It was a baseball conversation. It wasn’t a patronizing Kevin Brown apologizing for everything that goes wrong so he keeps his job. I like it takes one day of Buck and Jeff Nelson and Mac vesturgen Calling a legitimate game and legitimately second guessing everything, acting like a manager, acting like a fan. What would you do? What should they do? What’s the strategy here? Like all of that stuff that Palmer’s not allowed to do that because they lose too often. I mean, literally, I found the broadcast to be really good, and they were winning for three and a half hours of the broadcast, so, or three hours of the broadcast, so it wasn’t anything flipping. It was just enjoyable to be in a baseball conversation that’s not neutered, yeah? Like, literally, I watched neutered Rob long cheerleading and Melanie Newman and the giant orange bird on her chest and and the broadcasters all have their bird heads on, and when there’s a replay, they have to take the Orioles side, or Greg Bader will get mad at them. I mean, it’s it was. It was liberating to actually watch a baseball game at the bar with buck and Nelly. It really was because they was off with anybody. They were good. They were good,
Luke Jones 13:25
right? And there, and there’s also, there’s also a novelty factor to it. I mean, if you if they did the rest of the season, it might not feel exactly that
8Nestor Aparicio 13:34
way. Well, they didn’t know a lot about the oils. I mean, Buck didn’t even really know a lot about the Yankees. Me bucks coming in off the golf course or wherever. But
Luke Jones 13:41
I think, I think what’s interesting about it, because you and I have talked about this a lot, and look, I’m not going to sit here and say and defend everything that Major League Baseball is doing from a TV perspective, with different streaming services. And we’ve talked about this. I mean the NFL putting playoff games on streaming services, right? The world’s changing TV. I mean, TV in general, that industry in general, is trying to figure out what it’s going to look like because of cable and satellite going bye bye and we’ll go bye bye permanently at some point in the next well, newspapers have chosen paywalls Exactly. See how that works, right? And exactly. So everyone’s trying to carve this out. But I think when you have something like this, first of all, as I said to you, Roku, it’s free, right? I mean, it’s free. I have a Roku device that I use to stream on my TV in my living room. So I’m very familiar with, you know, the Roku has their own live TV channels that they do. It’s, you know, it’s, it’s free, advertised based, you know, streaming television, right? I mean, that’s, that’s actually a part of the streaming market. You know, where you have Roku, you have, I think it’s Pluto. You have to be. I mean, these are actually streaming services that are free, basically an email address and that’s it. I mean, they don’t ask for a credit card, anything, so, so that’s, that’s part of it. That’s, that is refreshing. As far as the Roku thing. But I think where, this is where, not just baseball, but I think the NBA is a big thing now. I mean, obviously the finals, the season ended on Sunday night, but NBC is going to be part of the NBA national TV package. Again, there’s been a lot of talk about nostalgia, right, the NBA on NBC, and thinking back to those days, I think, I think they’re all looking for something that’s going to differentiate their product, beyond just hey, we were showing Major League Baseball games, or hey, we’re showing NBA games and and I think with and we’ll use Buck Showalter as an example here, how great would it be if you had, and obviously you need to have competent broadcasters. You have to have someone who can do it. Not every former major league baseball manager would make a good color analyst. But I think how great would it be if you had one of these streaming services? Heck? I mean, it doesn’t have to whoever. NBC, you know, Fox, ESPN, if they ever dip their toes back into baseball here at some point, which I’m guessing they will in some capacity, maybe not next year, but at some point, because it’s live, live sports, and that’s valuable to networks that are trying to look at what the Manning brothers have done on Monday night to be a side that’s a great example. I think there’s something to be said if you had a broadcast, especially if you’re going to do a three man booth like Roku just did. And okay, it worked with manager and former player in this instance, and Jeff Nelson and Bucha Walter, you know, obviously know each other all that. But if you had a, how about if you had a former manager and a former General Manager, and maybe you would have a broadcast that, obviously, yeah, you’re going to talk about that, that game. But you could also have the dynamic of a manager and a general manager. You’re now a month out from the trade deadline. What kind of conversations are they having right now? You know, it would be an opportunity to kind of pull the curtain back a little bit and and share a little bit of inside baseball, right? You know, no pun intended, of in terms of just something different, you know, something that’s going to differentiate your broadcast. I think one thing that I’ve noticed with some of these, and I’ll use Apple TV as an example, because I had, you know, I had a trial, two month free trial of apple at the beginning of the baseball season. So I did see some of the broadcasts. They the pictures great, I mean, the technology that they use and all that. It’s a good broadcast. And in that way, I found the actual broadcasters to be competent, but it’s bland. You don’t really know who they are. And I think that’s where it’s maybe a missed opportunity when you have one of these limited novelty kind of packages. And you’re not doing games all the time. It’s not Roku doesn’t have a game every single week the entire season. I think it starts started in like, mid May or
Nestor Aparicio 17:51
and they’re all the weird 11am yeah, it’s either 1111, 30 or 11am and sometimes it starts at like, noon. You know, it’s not meant to be like, replacing European football is, right. It’s meant to be the 9am game on a Sunday morning. Sure, sure. I
Luke Jones 18:05
8mean, we talked, we’ve seen that with London games in the NFL. Now they do. It’s, you know, between London and the other Europe games you get, you know, five or six games that start at nine in the morning. But, but I think it’s an opportunity, like I said, to do something creative. On the flip side, you and I have talked about this, the on field in game player interview. I mean, they did it with Gunner Henderson. I think most of those end up being a whiff. I have heard a few on ESPN over the years. If you have a player who really wants to do it, you know, a player who really wants to do it, not, hey, we’re asking you to do it, and they, you know, PR, really need you to do it. And and then they’re just like, fine. You know that? That’s what gunner felt like on Sunday. He didn’t really
Nestor Aparicio 18:47
want to do it. And then he walks over to second base, and he has to tell everybody he’s Mike. They don’t know. And, right? And I go, it’s really awkward, man. It feels like I know enough about baseball. I’ve been around these guys my whole life, before they threw me out 20 years ago, like this isn’t good. Buck knows it’s not good. Nelson knows it’s not good. They all think this is a dumb idea. You’re not going to get anything out of me. I’m playing shortstop. I got a guy on second base. Shut the f up and let me play the game like it’s that there’s the files the game. It really does. It diminishes the significance of the game. You could talk to these guys between innings, and the massive thing turns into a disgrace. It turns into like a joke, where they’re throwing peanuts at each other, like, I just do it right, or don’t do it at all. And to me, and you shouldn’t do it at all, because there’s no right way to do it all. Star game, fine, have that. But I mean, and I think that’s even goofy, but it, it sort of shows you how unserious the all star game is when they turn it into Max packing doing that. I just, I hear you. It’s not good. And I don’t know how anybody in a meeting, male, female, black, white, baseball player, Owner, anyone. And go into a meeting and say, this is a good idea. The players hate it. The coaches hate it. It’s terrible for it’s not any good so why don’t they just say this is a bad idea? To extend this, this is dumb. We’ve been trying this for 20 years. It’s dumb. Do something else. I want the Presidents around the stadium do a shell game. Do get a get a hip hop DJ, do something different. Talking to players in the middle of the game is dumb. That’s it. I’ll never get down off of that old guy thing.
Luke Jones 20:33
From a competitive standpoint, in game standpoint, I 100% agree with you. It’s fine in the All Star game because it’s an exhibition. I mean, it is, but I’ve seen a few here and there where it’s good, but the only time it is, it’s when the player is, you know, a media good guy candidate, right? I mean, someone who is really thoughtful, really wants to do it, probably, frankly, you know, who players who want to do it, guys you probably have thought about going into media after their career. I mean, that’s, that’s probably so I’ve seen a few of those over the years, but, but you’re right for the most part, it’s not good. And, I mean, I mean, heck, if you watch the NBA Finals, I mean, obviously they’re not doing it in game, but they’re talking to players now in in between breaks and, you know, in between quarters and stuff like that, which I just think is insane, especially
Nestor Aparicio 21:23
the other thing that’s dumb is driving John Harbaugh as he’s going off the field, right and trying to get 10 seconds out so, because it makes the network happy, it’s so but I think
8Luke Jones 21:33
the point here, and this is where I think it goes back to complimenting. You know, you like the Roku telecast. I liked it. You know, I think they had a good there was a good chemistry between the three guys that they had in the booth on Sunday. Is you’re going to have some things that don’t work out right. You’re going to have some things innovation doesn’t always work out. I mean, look at, look at the Oakland A’s with with bright colored baseballs way back when, you know, Charlie Finley and some of the things that were tried. Bill back tried different things. Hold on
Nestor Aparicio 22:03
one second. I don’t want to be too interruptive of you, and I always am, but you just said, Charlie Finley, I am having his niece on the show this. Oh, that’s funny. She has written a book on it. Was her father was the business mind of Charlie finley’s Brother. Her father was Charlie finley’s brother, and he did all of the business. And because it was a, it was a little family business, the Oakland A’s, right? But so I’m having Nancy Finley on. So I just wanted a book, and I just want, I just want to throw that into it out,
Luke Jones 22:32
but, but the point with that is some of these innovations will fall flat and they won’t last. I mean, I could think back to Fox doing the glowing puck with the NHL back in the 90s, right, in an era before HDTV, which, in defense of them, no, it didn’t work out. No, it. No one liked it. But at the same time, what was one of the big complaints in that era? I mean, even today, to some extent, it’s tough to follow the puck. So, you know, so
Nestor Aparicio 22:57
8by the way, the blue and red puck of that got the Stanley Cup to my studio Fox Television, when they had the rights in the early nine, mid 90s. Was 1998 they brought the it was the year that caps lost to the to the Red Wings. They brought the cup to my studio over in Towson, well, I moved in here in August, the 90s. It must have been like in April of 98 March, April, May of 98 they brought the Stanley Cup to me. And the whole promotion was, I did sports radio. We had the ravens, then the Orioles. They wanted me to talk hockey for a day. They offered me the cup in the studio, as long as I didn’t, because this is when caught Claude Lemieux was pooping in it on a Howard Stern Show and doing crazy stuff. They brought me the cup. But the whole premise was, watch hockey on Fox. You can now see it because the puck moves, yeah, yeah. But the whole point with
Luke Jones 23:52
that is, when you have innovation, and we’ve talked about this a lot, right? I mean, we’ve talked a lot about, how are you going to grow your audience? We’ve talked about it specifically with baseball, but all these sports are trying to figure this out. I mean, the NFL is trying to figure out every way they can to stay on top, to keep the overwhelming edge that they have over the rest of the sports world and and really almost the entertainment world in general. I mean, when you look at the TV ratings that the NFL does compared to everything else, not just other sports so but you’re gonna have some things that are whiffs, and you’re gonna have some other things that you say, hey, that’s, that’s pretty good idea. I mean, you know, I mean, one of the things about the XFL that that NBC and the NFL stole was, you know, having the camera on a cable over the field. I mean, that was something that was a really interesting innovation, right? And that’s something that the NFL stole from the XFL, quite frankly. So so you’re going to have things like that, you know, some of it, I’m in agreement with you. I’m not a big fan of the in game player interviews by any stretch of the imagination. And for every good one that I have found, yeah, there are 10 others where they don’t really want to do. It, or they can’t hear. You know, the technology doesn’t hold up properly, so, but you’re going to have some of that, right? You got to take some chances when it comes to some of this stuff. And I will, I will not beat them up too much on that kind of stuff, as long as they’re delivering other elements that are good. And, you know, again, I thought it was a good telecast. And, you know, I think I’ve talked about this a lot, when you’re talking about the Orioles or any of these teams, we’ve talked about some examples I’ve cited, that there have been some other teams and other sports that are struggling, and they’ve actually put some of their games back on free TV. And I think, I think there’s probably a sweet spot to find, whatever the middle ground is going to be as far as, far as, yeah, you need to make your TV revenue, and you’re gonna have to figure that out, and baseball’s gonna have a work stoppage that is probably going to coincide with with figuring that out in a couple years. But
Nestor Aparicio 25:49
boy, every time you bring that up, I know, I, believe me, I don’t say it with any joy. I mean, what if David Rubenstein knew about that when he bought in because I don’t think Peter did. I think Peter just bought the thing he Peter had no idea they were going to go on strike. Peter made it up as he went along. Yeah. You know, it was all new to him. Was kind of like what Peter bought the team at that within a year, year and a half and buying the team and but, you know, this doomsday thing of the end of next season is every baseball person I talked to talks about that. That is so not what this sport needs for four decades into my coverage of it, you know what? I mean, it’s just not
Luke Jones 26:25
what it definitely, definitely not. I mean, you never want that. I mean,
8Nestor Aparicio 26:29
it’s Montreal. They the franchise. Last time it’s true, the rate the orals up tremendously. I mean, had this the strike is the reason the Nationals exist. Let Make no mistake about that. For you kids out there that have rooted for the Nationals at any point or gone to a nationals game. They only exist because the strike destroyed the Montreal Expos. Like, that’s really the reason they’re
Luke Jones 26:47
there, right? I mean, would Washington have gotten a team at some point? I mean, maybe, but it would, it certainly would have been then. It wouldn’t have been that team, right? Maybe they would have stolen Oakland by now, exactly. I mean, you never know, but, but, yeah, I think if you’re going to do some things that are different and you’re leaning into streaming, it is nice to have some balance where you say, okay, with Roku, you literally down, you know, download it. It’s free, and you watch the game. And it was a good experience. So download
Nestor Aparicio 27:14
it. I went to the roku.com I clicked it, clicked, yeah, yeah. Hit it right. It popped up. It was kind of the app. It was kind of gray at the top and bottom, and I thought, do I only get to watch this in sort of this tone? And then it kind of went away after 10 seconds, and I got the whole picture. And I was watching the game literally from the beginning. But I did think to myself, they’ve diminished themselves by doing this, by putting the thing on Roku. They’ve diminished themselves by playing at 1130 in the morning, they’ve chased some people away, or some people, or did they
Luke Jones 27:44
8find something? Whatever they might have found some people, though, on the flip side, this is also about as I as I was just saying to you there, if you go and look at where streaming is right now, yes, everyone thinks in terms of Netflix and things that you subscribe to, but it’s F, A, S, T, like I said, free ad based streaming television. That is actually it’s starting to make a little bit of a dent in the market, because you have cord cutters who have haven’t subscribed to cable or satellite for years, and now they’re seeing some of these streaming services go up in price. So I guess what they’re saying, I I’m not spending all this money for eight different streaming services. So now they’re cutting out some of those. And meanwhile, you have Roku channel to be Pluto boo boo. There are a couple like, No fubos are paid. I mean, all of them have some free streaming channels. You know, a lot of it’s like, niche, it’s old reruns and, like there’s a price is right, Bob Barker era channel that you can literally watch old episodes of. The Price Is Right. But the point is, baseball might have found a few people that way. I don’t know. I think it’s fine on a one off. I don’t want to see all Sunday games moving to 1130 obviously. But you do need to do some things differently, and you’re experimenting, and some things are going to work, and some things are going to get panned, and some things stink. And other things, you might say, Hey, that’s a decent idea. We need to tweak this. But maybe we have some. I want to
Nestor Aparicio 29:07
see the decent idea that really grows their brand, that gets them more money, that gets them more engagement, that gets them more fan. Because they don’t have that idea. I’ve been sitting here watching, I haven’t seen any idea. They’ve come up with the nets, by the way, saving people, pitch clock, pitch clock. That’s do not diminish that you you that absolutely has been a game changer, because the games aren’t for I’ve talked about it. Well, right? There you go. You just said something that you said they haven’t done anything they absolutely did. Now I don’t know if it’s had a great effect on pitcher’s health. As far as I don’t know that that’s created new fans. It’s made the old fans stick with it better. I mean, literally, I don’t know they have fans because the game moves faster. Okay? I think baseball fans are baseball No, I but I also I don’t know where they make another Luke and Nestor. The only way they make another Luke and Nestor is if Luke has his niece anything and teaches them, right? I mean, I just don’t think. People are 35 and have never watched the baseball game, and they’re starting around on Roku at 11 on a Sunday and say, Oh, the Yankees are playing the Orioles. I’ll watch that. It’s not
Luke Jones 30:09
but I think we could kind of but it’s a very general question that you’re asking. But you know, how do you make a baseball fan? Why does it? Why does anyone like anything? You know what I mean, like, I don’t know. Like you either like it or you don’t. I don’t know. And, no, that doesn’t as I just said, Yes, innovate and all that, but the game is a game. I don’t I don’t want baseball to become football. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 30:31
don’t make it harder for the people that already like it to find it. That’s kind of my that’s where I’ve been. You know, those of us who are still following along, don’t make it tough on us. That’s all and and if you want new people to find it on Roku, if you’re convinced that you picked up new baseball fans, new nano fans, new Oriole fans, or that you’ve serviced them by doing an 1130 game on a Sunday, I don’t know. I don’t
8Luke Jones 30:54
know. You know, I hear you but, but I, and I hear you criticize a lot of what they do, but I also don’t hear you suggest what they should do a lot of times and that, I guess that’s my point. I’m not like, I’m not going to sit here and say that I love that they put games on Apple TV. I don’t, and there’s not, some of it is just, Hey, Apple gave them money, and they’re going to do it right, just like the NFL is putting playoff games on Amazon now, because Amazon gave them a lot of money. And I’m not saying that that should drive everything, either, but you know, at the same time, you know what, what should they do, right? I mean, if we’re going to criticize, let’s also be constructive then. And what should they do? You know, your tone to me almost sounds like, well, baseball is just for old people anyway, so I don’t know, like, well, the
Nestor Aparicio 31:41
gunner Henderson doesn’t make the game more exciting. I would agree with you the pitch clock. I’ve been
Luke Jones 31:47
wrong A 10 year old, you’re right. But you know what? Though a 10 year old might think it’s amazing they talk to gunner Henderson. You know what I mean? We also have to recognize that every innovation and every when you cast a wide net, not every single element is going to be for you or me. So I also try to look at it through that lens. That’s why I said, you know, I’m not big and I hate the input the in game interview for a player that’s on the field from a competitive standpoint, and most of the time it ends up not being that good. That said, there have been a few examples when, because ESPN, the Sunday night game, they’ve done that for several years now, there have been a few over the years where it’s actually really, really good, but it has to be a player that really, really wants to do it, someone who is a spokesman for their team. Sean Casey, yeah, you know, I mean Anthony, it might have it might have been Anthony Rizzo that that I heard do it a couple years back where it was really, really good. I’m just like, wow, this is actually a time where this was actually really interesting. So I hear you, there’s a lot more of
Nestor Aparicio 32:49
8of John Harbaugh, sassing, you know, no question, whoever’s there, and believe me, that you know, the sideline, halftime interview with
Luke Jones 33:00
a head coach, or, you know, in the NFL or even the NBA, 95 out of 100 times it’s completely forgettable, right? You might get one time, one or two times where they actually say something really interesting. You might get two or three times where they are kind of a jerk, and it’s interesting in that way, but the rest of the time it’s the same paint by numbers, question and answer that doesn’t share any insight, and it was a waste of John Harbaugh
Nestor Aparicio 33:32
wanting to kill Brent Harris during a preseason halftime. Was an all timer for Yeah, that was, and that shows the real John. To me, that’s what, that’s what everybody should see of John, honestly,
Luke Jones 33:43
but, but, you know, again, if you’re going to try to innovate, you’re going to have some things that aren’t going to work out, right? I mean, we, we all, if we’re in any kind of space that has any type of creativity, we all should take some chances every now and then. And you know what? Sometimes it’s not going to work out, and other times it will work out, and other times you’ll say, oh, yeah, that wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great. I don’t know if I’ll do it again, right? I mean, so all these sports are trying to figure this out. I mean, they really are, because, as we’ve talked about a lot, the TV landscape is shifting so dramatically that they’re all figuring it out. And it’s not just sports. I mean, all of these streaming services that have shows that they produce. And, you know, I’ve seen interviews where they’re talking about it, are they going to have the revenue that to justify spending the money they do to make the shows that they do? Right because of subscribe subscribing numbers, not only being at a certain level, so they’re all trying to find a niche, you know, in a world that’s increasingly niche in terms of what everyone likes, you
8Nestor Aparicio 34:46
know, well, that’s why things like the show that Akbar Miller does, these new sports, that parkour, American Ninja, American Ninja war, like all of these things that have nothing to do with base. Football, basketball, soccer, you know it, right? I mean, and even, like the gambling shows, the poker I got Phil Gordon coming on this week, by the way, a poker champion. He’s got a bracelet. You know, these, these other things that weren’t traditional sports. I remember when when Ted Leon’s has told me that all that your nieces are going to spend their whole lives watching a television screen of watching other people play video games against each other. Yeah, like that. That was going to be a thing. That’s actually it is a thing. It absolutely is a thing. No wonder these kids are a mess. No wonder the country’s falling apart. And I don’t know what to say, Luke Jones is here. He is Baltimore, Luke, but it is crazy week, and bitching about media and well, I mean, we can get on. Listen, I’m as guilty as anyone of talking on the field off the field. Do we have enough to talk about the Texas Rangers to do a whole nother segment? Or should we just stay here and just say it’s going to be 100 degrees and really hot, the team stinks.
Luke Jones 35:53
Well, I mean, we’ve already covered it, but let’s recap it. Adley rutschman on the Il. You know, looks like he’s gonna be out until after the all star break. I mean, it sounds like it’s not a serious oblique, but even a minor obliques usually about a month. I mean, that’s what you’re talking about. Westberg with the finger. We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention, man, what a nasty collision. Maverick Henley at the plate. I mean, it was so jarring. And look, there was no, I don’t think there was anything malicious about it. It’s just he’s coming for the ball, and what it was jazz Chisholm is running towards the plate. I mean, it’s, it was so jarring, because that has been legislated out of the sport. You know, the Buster Posey, you know, were rules that came in and and you hadn’t really, I mean, home plate collisions had kind of decreased over the last couple
Nestor Aparicio 36:43
decades at second base. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean, just take taking out that Ray Fauci Pete Rose, sure, yes, sure, but, but to see that happen and again, I don’t, you know, I don’t fault
Luke Jones 36:56
8either guy. I think it’s just it happened. It can happen unfortunately, in the same way we talked about the the line drive into the dugout with the rays reliever last week, which, you know, thank goodness it’s, it sounds like, you know, some of the reports are that he’s going to be okay. And we all remember the ball tragedy. And, yeah, but, yeah, so, but, but when you see something like that on Sunday, I mean, obviously it put the Orioles in a bind, from the standpoint of, you know, they had already lost Adley rutschman. I mean, Gary Sanchez thinks he’s getting the, you know, the day off, and suddenly he’s catching but, man, that was just scary. I mean, you just, it’s a reminder of how the game’s changed in the same way that, like in the NFL, we see what the NFL is in 2025 and then you go watch the old NFL films of the 2000 ravens, let alone going back and, you know, looking at like Mike Curtis and football players from the 60s and the 70s, where they’re taking their heads off and, you know, it’s just how the game was played. But seeing that collision, I mean, that was kind of a throwback, flashback of, man, we don’t, you don’t see that. I was worried more about his arm, like, I mean, he just, and then just helicopter, yeah, yeah, yeah. But, you know, hopefully, I mean, I know Tony mancellino said after the game they were going to be kind of evaluate him, evaluating him completely. He did acknowledge that, you know, they’re going to keep evaluating him for a concussion. He didn’t say he’s in concussion protocol, but at least said, Hey, we’re keeping an eye on him all the way around, because we know that. I mean, that was just a nasty collision, so you know between that, but gunner Henderson, the ball or the bat flies over the screen into the crowd. You don’t see that that often anymore. I mean, it’s just a weird day. I mean, as disappointing as it was because the Orioles lost, it was an entertaining baseball game. I mean, it was, the broadcast was good, but you know when, when it ends the way it did, and then caps a three and four road trip that, as we were talking about a week ago, felt like it was a really big opportunity for the Orioles, and there were three and four, and that was with the acknowledgement that it could have been five and two. I mean, they had an eight nothing lead in Tampa that they blew. And then Sunday’s game was obviously very, very winnable, you know, if not for the fact that you couldn’t tackle on a couple runs, you know, some shoddy defense, you know, base running, you know, they got one hit on Saturday, dude. And, well, Saturday they got blown out. I mean, eff was horrible, and they didn’t, they didn’t do anything. Well, ethlyn being
Nestor Aparicio 39:21
horrible is a problem a lot. Horrible is a problem in a lot of ways, for trading
Luke Jones 39:25
deadlines, for a lot of things, right? And even saganoscano hasn’t been horrible, but he hasn’t been as good as last few times out. I mean, he hasn’t. He hasn’t gotten through five innings in his last three stars. I bet the hot weather is going to mess him up a little bit. It’s that, I think that’s a factor. And hey, we’ve talked about this, whether you’re 22 or 35 this is a game of adjustments, and he’s the league has now seen him in a major league environment. He’s had success. That’s not to say he’s not going to continue to have success, but they know what. They know. He’s not pumping 99 either. And that’s the big part. And you’ve heard me talk about that a lot when you’re a guy that’s not going to miss bats, boy, you have to be fine. You have to be so fine in how you dot your pitches and you got you have to command your pitch sequencing. You can’t be predictable, and it’s tough. And that’s not to say he’s not going to get back on track and continue to pitch well, but his last three times out four and a third four and two thirds, three and two thirds on on Friday, and they won that game. So, you know, hats off to them that they won the game. But man, it, if you’re trying to stack up how the Orioles make this run that everyone’s still at least holding on to a sliver of hope that they make more bad has cropped up here recently, and that’s the problem. When you fall 18 under in May, everything’s got to go perfectly the rest of the way. And we’re seeing that that’s not really happening. And, well, you have to be the opposite of 18 under, and they’re not capable of being that, right? It just doesn’t no rushmen in, no pitching, no no. I mean really, not much. Really. Not much, really. I mean, really, what happened. I mean, really the story of the road trip. I mean, even though we talk about those two terrible, you know, eight, nothing blown lead and almost be a no hit on Saturday, but the road trip, five innings, five innings, two and a third innings, six innings from Charlie Morton, that was, you know, they really needed that one in Tampa, three and two thirds, three and then, okay, five and two thirds from Kramer. They’re, they’re starting pitching has started to backslide, you know. But remember that backslide your bullpen every time? Yeah, exactly. And their bullpen has been fried. I mean, that’s, that’s why they had to send yen your Cano, who I get it, had a really awful outing this week, and hasn’t been as good. But if you actually look at Cano over his last 10 outings or so, other than the one in Tampa, he’d actually been pretty good. So he has options, and they needed a fresh arm. So I think it was way more about that than, Oh, you know, younger Cano stinks, and we’re not happy with how he’s
Nestor Aparicio 41:54
just had to do so many things that they didn’t want to do. Yeah, and in the years when, like, the Ravens have been faltered. They’re they’re playing players. They don’t want to play players. They know they shouldn’t have to play. And the fact that that the catcher was the catcher on that play speaks to you know, now they’ve lost the backup to the backup catcher. Yeah, you know. And they don’t want Gary Sanchez to be the catcher, so they’re going to play for a month with a double a catcher. I mean, pasaio
8Luke Jones 42:24
I mean, I, you know, since we’re talking about catchers, I mean, we’ll see when they didn’t bring him up over the weekend, obviously, there was a lot of reaction, and mancellino made some comments that were he was speaking in generalities. Look, Tony mancellino is managing the Baltimore Orioles. He’s not watching intimately what’s happening at triple A right now. He’s getting the reports. He sees the numbers just like anyone else. But you know, he made some comments about wanting Bucha to be in a position where he’s completely destroying the league, and then people are saying, well, look at his numbers. Look how many home runs He’s hit. I’ll also point out, go, look at his career starts behind the plate at triple A. You’re still talking about someone who doesn’t have 30 starts as a catcher at triple A under his belt yet. So that said, he is a special talent. Adley rutschman is going going to be out for about a month, it looks like, and who knows? I mean, well, they don’t want the kid to come up and look like holiday did last year and that, and that’s or like mayo, or like Kirsten through the guys, it’s towers the guy. That’s where I struggle with this. And this is where we need to remember triple A numbers are not the major league last place. What difference does it make? Hey, I will say this much. I absolutely want to see Bucha up here at some point. But is it now or is it
Nestor Aparicio 43:41
all? Does he have a better chance of hitting the ball eight weeks from now or now? Really? Is he gonna blow that much?
Luke Jones 43:45
Yeah. I mean, you know, and that’s, I don’t know how much it’s that, as much as you know, where is he behind the plate? He’s got a great arm. I mean, there are tools for him to be a catcher. A lot of people opined, oh, is he gonna be more of a first baseman? Is it gonna be a DH? He has tools as a catcher. Now. Does that mean he’s going to be a number one starting caliber catcher for a decade, or is it going to be something that, you know, we’ve seen guys what? Carlos Delgado came up as a catcher originally, right? And BJ serhoff was a catcher. Murphy was a catcher, yeah. So I don’t know what his long term path is going to be in that way, but I do wonder if you’re not going to pull the trigger now, and I’m not saying they won’t, because maybe finding out that Richmond is going to be out a month changes their viewpoint, rather than, like, if he was only going to miss a couple days, if he was going
Nestor Aparicio 44:36
8to miss a week or two, also setting the expectation he might have to go back. You know, we’re gonna bring you up and that, yeah, the hardest part is always when you send them backwards,
Luke Jones 44:44
right? And that’s where I remind everyone, this kid’s not quite 21 years old. I mean, that’s, that’s what we’re talking about here. He’s young. He’s an exciting prospect. I mean, I’m sure you’ve seen at least enough Twitter videos from the Norfolk’s account. I just got someone out. Got some serious. His power. I mean, he really does. But does that mean he’s ready right now? I don’t know. He may always been hitting those for two years, and Heston kerstad has great numbers at triple A right over the last few years. So so we we need to get away from and think about it. We’re also talking out of the other side of our mouths, and all the Orioles have rushed these prospects, these guys aren’t ready for the major release. And then what? At the same time, everyone wants to rush Messiah to the majors, right? So look, I’m not, I’m not for or against it, per se, but he is young. He doesn’t have a ton of experience catching at triple A because he’s had some health issues here and there that have, you know, kind of limited him behind the plate the last couple years, but maybe they might be changing their tune if Adley Richmond is going to be out four weeks, right, which, I mean, Tony mancillino said that most likely it’s going to be after the all star break. So, you know, because we’re less than a month away from that. So, you know, maybe that does change things, but maybe not, you know, maybe, I mean, hopefully Maverick Hanley is okay, or we might be seeing what Chadwick Trump might be back as their backup catcher or or whatever so but this brings us back to what you just said. I mean, the season’s just been such a nightmare in so many ways, and yes, the ways that I’ll hold Mike Elias accountable. Brandon Hyde’s already out the door, right? I joked with you a month ago, I said Brandon Hyde gonna have a better summer than anyone connected to the Orioles, and he is, because he’s away from this, and he’s probably enjoying having more fun than buck on Sundays, exactly so. But the injuries are a big part of what’s happened. I mean, there’s no way to to downplay that part. It’s not an excuse for everything, but it’s absolutely part of this. I mean, how could it not be? When you look at how many guys have been on the IL so that’s not absorbing everyone. Let me be clear. I’m not being Mr. Apologist that everything’s okay if they were healthy, but the injury piece is a massive part of what’s gone wrong. And well, they’re 33 and 44 with 85 games to go as they come back home and host the Texas Rangers. And you know, the path is becoming less and less plausible, especially with some of the bad that creeped up on this road trip. I mean, it’s the math is really against them at this point, when you only have 85 games to go, and knowing what kind of pace you have to pay play just to get back to 500 let alone talking about 85 wins, 88 wins, something like that.
Nestor Aparicio 47:27
He’s Luke Jones. He’s Baltimore. Luke. You can find him out on the interwebs. I am doing the Maryland crab cake tour on Thursday in Reisterstown. We’re going to be out at readers crab house. I hope I’m pronouncing that right. I grew up with a Greg writer and a Greg reader and but it’s readers crab house, I believe R E T, E, R S. It is in Reisterstown. We’ll be up there in the afternoon on Thursday. Alan McCallum to be joining us. Councilman Izzy Patoka, who I’ve been threatening to have on for a long time, is going to be coming on to talk about state of Baltimore County. We had Julian Jones last week at the Y so we’re moving around. Having some political conversations, have some community conversations, having some baseball conversations, some football conversations, all sorts of things going on here. This week, we’re actually going to talk about extermination and bugs and and flying creatures and mosquitoes and all that kind of stuff as well this week, because they’re out, including the lightning bugs everywhere right now. So Luke, we’re just days away from gold watermelon and proper heirloom tomatoes. So I’m into that all summer long. It’s summertime around here. Everybody cool out out there and keep the air condition down. Keep the Mojo together. The Rangers are in town playing the Orioles Luke will be sweating it out with free, complimentary hot dogs at Oriole Park at Camden Yards this week, as the Texas Rangers come to town, and we’ll see how that goes. No football right now. Little low key there. Hockey’s over, basketball’s over, and we turn our attention toward a war in Iran on the Fourth of July. It’s lovely. We’re America. I’m Nestor. He’s Luke. We are wnst. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore positive in last place baseball and how great buck Showalter is. Buck, come back. I miss you. Bucha.
