Allen McCallum and Nestor discuss the Orioles spring one month into disappointing start to season

For those of us who thought the Baltimore Orioles could win 92 games this season based on emerging talent and the offseason “open for business” spend by new ownership and VP of Baseball Operations Mike Elias, we are suddenly doing a lot of revisionist history about the pitching, hitting and defense. Allen McCallum joins Nestor to discuss the realities of the first month of a disappointing start to a season that held a lot of hope in Sarasota for rookie skipper Craig Albernaz and what felt like more talent over the winter.to season

Nestor Aparicio and Allen McCallum discussed the Baltimore Orioles’ disappointing start to the season, highlighting concerns about the team’s pitching, defense, and lineup construction. They noted that the Orioles were predicted to win 92 games but are currently struggling, with key injuries to players like Zack F1, Jordan Westberg, and Jackson Holiday. McCallum criticized the team’s analytical approach, emphasizing the need for better defense and a more balanced lineup. They also discussed the importance of players like Trevor Rogers and Gunnar Henderson performing consistently. The conversation concluded with a focus on upcoming games against the Yankees and the need for the team to improve to stay competitive.

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Host the Maryland Crab Cake Tour events on the scheduled dates: Friday at Pizza John’s in Essex, Thursday the 7th at Planet Fitness in Timonium, the 13th at Faidley’s in Catonsville, and the 21st at The Fishmonger’s Daughter in Catonsville.
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Attend the Pimlico race to better understand the situation around Pimlico and the track.
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Plan and air a special show on October 4 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Jeffrey Mayer, featuring Allen McCallum as a guest.
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Invite and coordinate with John Martin to appear on the show this week.

Orioles’ Early Season Performance and Expectations

• Nestor Aparicio discusses his enjoyment of Maryland crab cakes and his upcoming Maryland treasures tour.
• Nestor mentions his frustration with the Orioles’ disappointing start to the season, predicting only 92 wins initially.
• Allen McCallum agrees that 92 wins feels implausible given the current performance and injuries.
• Allen highlights the incomplete feel of the Orioles’ roster, with key players like Zack F1, Jordan Westberg, and Jackson Holiday out for the season.

Starting Pitching and Offensive Struggles

• Allen McCallum criticizes the starting pitching, noting Trevor Rogers’ disappointing performance after a promising start.
• Nestor Aparicio reflects on the optimism based on the end of last year, comparing it to Jeff Ballard’s career.
• Allen and Nestor discuss the struggles of young players like Kobe Mayo, Heston Kirstad, and Colton Cowser, emphasizing the difficulty of consistent performance.
• Allen mentions the impact of defensive play, particularly in left field at Camden Yards, and the need for better outfield performance.

Defensive Issues and Managerial Decisions

• Nestor and Allen discuss the Orioles’ defensive struggles, with Allen arguing that the team doesn’t value defense.
• Allen criticizes the lineup construction, particularly the placement of young players like Sam Besayo and Dylan Beavers behind veteran hitters.
• Nestor and Allen agree that the team needs to remake the lineup and improve defensive alignment.
• Allen emphasizes the importance of having quality outfielders in left field and mediocre players in right field at home.

Philosophical and Analytical Approaches

• Allen McCallum criticizes the Orioles’ analytical approach, arguing that the team’s interpretation of data is flawed.
• Nestor and Allen discuss the impact of analytics on player development and team strategy.
• Allen argues that the focus on home runs is misguided and that the team needs to return to a more consistent approach to hitting.
• Nestor reflects on the changes in baseball over the years, noting the increased emphasis on data and analytics.

Future Outlook and Player Development

• Allen McCallum expresses concern about the Orioles’ ability to compete against better teams like the Yankees.
• Nestor and Allen discuss the need for key players like Jackson Holiday and Jordan Westberg to return and perform well.
• Allen emphasizes the importance of having a balanced lineup and improving defensive play.
• Nestor and Allen agree that the next few weeks will be crucial for the Orioles’ season, with important games against the Yankees and other tough opponents.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Orioles season, disappointing start, pitching issues, bullpen problems, defensive struggles, rookie manager, injuries, lineup construction, analytics, batting average, home runs, defensive alignment, player development, team performance, future outlook.

SPEAKERS

Nestor Aparicio, Speaker 1, Allen McCallum

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W, N, S T, am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore. Positive, positively getting the Maryland crab cake tour back out of the road, because I like crab cakes. I like them so much. I took one home from Koco’s. I split it up six ways. I put it on the English muffin. I had the old school Burke’s crab melt make me think about my old journalism days, but I also had a $20 winner the other day at Koco’s, and I hope to have some more on Friday. We will be doing the Maryland treasures. There’s four of them. You can have the boardwalk, you can have the ponies of assate. You can have the Bay Bridge, and you can have crustaceans and mollusks and herons if you wish. I will be having those on Friday this time around at Pizza John’s in Essex, probably with some french fries and some gravy as well. We’ll be a planet fitness in Timonium on the seventh. I’m looking forward to that, as well as the 13th at fayley’s and the 21st at the fishmonger’s daughter, which is faidley’s, but it’s fadeleys out in Catonsville. It’s brand new. We had dinner there last week. It was a lot of fun. It’s been a month since I’ve had Alan McCallum on doing some baseball here this week. While it’s still relevant, the draft is over. I’m, you know, I have the asset courses here somewhere, but I’m pissed about the whole Pimlico and like all that, and I’m going to go to the race and figure it all out. Alan, I I picked him to win 92 games. I was I was not being trite or impolite. I believed in the pitching. I didn’t believe in the bullpen. I knew the defense would suck, but I forget how much it sucks when it sucks, and how often it sucks, and how it sucks, especially in the late innings, when you start giving four outs after the seventh inning. Yeah, I I’m worried about them. I think Luke, after the Red Sox weekend, and they’re firing their manager and beating you down 17 to one. You come back Sunday, you can’t win your top of the rotation. Guys don’t feel top of the rotation right to spin. Just a lot going on here, and injuries and injuries and like all of that, rookie manager I don’t know. Man, where are you? Where are you on all this?

Allen McCallum  02:00

Well, 92 games doesn’t feel it’s not impossible, but it’s not looking good

Speaker 1  02:05

right now, implausible.

Allen McCallum  02:07

Yeah, you know, this is a club that, if you look around the rest of baseball, particularly the American League, sort of fits in with everybody else, because everybody, particularly in the American League, feels incomplete. This club feels incomplete. And then we, I mean, we know that’s true. Zack f1 gone for the year. Jordan Westberg is they’re flying the missing man formation forum, same thing with Jackson holiday. So you’re talking about two fourths of your infield right there, and that that hurts. It’s a club that is analytically challenged. And I’ll explain what I mean about that in a little while. I think you can certainly turn to the starting pitching and say, Wow, this isn’t exactly what I was hoping they would be, even what they expected. I don’t think anybody thought Trevor Rogers was going to have the RA under two. I think we were all thinking, you know, high end 2829, low end three, high threes, enough to keep you in the game. Six innings, seven innings on a regular basis, keep you, keep you in the game. And for the first two or three starts, that was the case. And I mean, he’s just gotten lit here the last three starts out, which is concerning.

Nestor Aparicio  03:31

Well, there was no body of work to buy in other than I don’t recall blind optimism, but optimism based on what the end of last year was, which to anybody’s been watching baseball as long as you and me, like last year, so not next year. Or that would have been, you know, every Jeff Ballard would have gone to the Hall of Fame Had that been the

Allen McCallum  03:50

case, right? I was just going to say, tell that to Jeff Ballard and Bob Malacca, right?

Nestor Aparicio  03:56

Look, or anyone that ever put it together first for a year or a season, or a summer, or a situation, or a mark fit rich minute or, you know, I mean, I go through a million guys that were five minutes of really good and very few, Mike messinas and very few, you know, I had Jamie Moyer on this week. Alan, Jamie Moyer came on and did 30 minutes of pitching. And it’s just, it’s, I had Casper wells out this week, right? You remember him as a prospect and a guy that you know was going to hit. He lasted five years. He’s selling insurance at Heller Koco’s. He was a guy that when I brought up like Heston kirstad and Kobe mayo and guys on the struggle and saying, This is really hard to do. If you’re Ken Gerhard, if you’re Craig Worthington, if you I just can go through all of the names of people, Jim Traber, Mike young, I mean, a lot of guys that can do it for me, Jeremiah Jackson for a month, right? I mean, Matteo two years ago, look like, Oh my God, he’s good. He looks, he looks like he’s going to blossom. And it’s just so hard to do consistently. You know, it

Allen McCallum  05:01

is, I heard a discussion about how, you know, Cal Ripken, Hall of Famer, went like four for 60 when he out of the gate as a rookie after a big opening day. And, you know, sometimes it just takes a little while to click. And that’s all true in terms of Kobe mayo and Heston Kirsten,

Nestor Aparicio  05:23

Once it clicks for two months and you see it, you feel like it can be that all the time and well,

Allen McCallum  05:31

guys go through slumps, I guess my automatic

Nestor Aparicio  05:35

card, you know what I mean, like, literally,

Allen McCallum  05:37

my point is that these guys aren’t rookies anymore. Kobe Mayo isn’t a rookie anymore. Testing cursed dad isn’t a rookie. Colton cowser isn’t a rookie anymore. So it’s not that you shouldn’t expect guys to struggle, that happens, but to be to look so lost at the plate at times, whether

Nestor Aparicio  05:57

they’re a major league baseball player, right here, right now, right. Literally, right.

Allen McCallum  06:01

Look for, I’ve heard criticisms about Mike Elias since the second half of 2024 you know, they won 100 and 101 games the year before they got to the playoffs that year. But things, all of this started to collapse in the second half of 24 and for, for all the criticisms earned or otherwise. The one thing that I would say is that in everything that he’s put together, what you look at it and say is, I still don’t know about these guys, and that’s a problem. You know, it’s great for every major league team to be able to bring up a young guy or two every year, so that they you’re always staying young. You’re always sort of running through the funnel, so that you’re not the Philadelphia Phillies where you’re locked into all these contracts with all guys in their 30, mid 30s, who may or may not have it anymore, and you’ve got nowhere to go. You want to be flexible. You want to bring up young guys. But you look at the number of guys that come through the system at Lee, Richmond having a great start to the season, although he got hurt, I still don’t know who Adley Richmond is. Gunner Henderson could be a Hall of Famer. Certainly looks like an all star. I still don’t know who gunner Henderson is, Colton kauser. I actually know who Colton kauser is, and that’s a problem. Jordan Westberg, as good as he is when he’s healthy, I still don’t know who he is. Kobe mayo and Heston kirstad. We should have a sense of who they are at this point, and we don’t the guys Dylan beavers and Sam aside, those are the guys that it’s okay not to know, because they are rookies, and that’s how that works. But, but, man, you just, like,

Nestor Aparicio  07:50

if we would have done this conversation in January, right? It would have been a Debbie Downer for the year. And, like, where we are because, like, we had optimism about, like, literally, most parts of this, right, they were, I’m not dumb and beaten. Maybe not the bullpen, which has been the fine part lately, but all the rest of this, when they bought Bassett, when effing came along in March and looked right, when Rogers and Bradish took the ball every fifth day at Spring Training, and went from 40 pitches to 50 pitches to 60 like and like, just all rushman healthy and upright. You know, they’re looking Pete Alonso walks in there. You got, you know, now we got a dude, you know, like, I just, I felt great about all of it, even like when they were bull John me and telling me and telling me that westburg was going to be all right, when I don’t think they ever really believe that. And Luke and I have gone nose to nose on this holiday thing about the handmade bone. And I said to Luke, I’m like, that’s really a tough injury, man. And looks like, well, Lindor is coming back, and all these guys, it’s an eight week injury. And I keep saying, well, Ford and Carol, right? I mean, and Luke kept bringing that up, and we saw him play here two weeks ago in the heat. It was really hot that day. Be glad you couldn’t make it. I invited you, but it was hot so but nonetheless, I just nothing’s gone right, man, and they got a rookie manager. And like I nobody’s on right?

Allen McCallum  09:21

Nobody we’re supposed to know Pete Alonso isn’t I mean, look, guys struggle out of gate. He’s in a

Allen McCallum  09:26

new league, new team, new place. I get it. I’m sure at the end that Pete Alonso will have 30 home runs at the minimum and hit 240 at the minimum, and drive in 80 run, 80 to 100 runs. I mean, I know that’s going to happen at some point, barring injury,

Nestor Aparicio  09:45

but, well, I certainly feel better about that. I if the only thing, if you’re asking me to bet on something right now, that’s the one thing, I guess that’s the thing they bet on, right like, literally.

Allen McCallum  09:56

So look, Nothing drives me the few things for. Drive me more fresh, more crazy in baseball than when the guys like Vlad Guerrero, Roman Anthony, are coming up for the first time, never seen major league pitching, and these guys like, they’re going to the Hall of Fame period on MLB Network. Before Guerrero was installed as the Blue Jays, they had him, you know, they do this thing to Shredder, and they do the top 10 right now. And they had him as, like, the top three, top third, third baseman in baseball. It’s like, that is nuts. And they do the same nonsense with Roman Anthony. And you know what, vladiro has turned out to be a really great player at first base, not at third base and but, but it didn’t happen immediately. It took time, and Roman Anthony is looks like he’s going to be a good hitter, but he’s not hitting 300 with 15 bombs, right?

Nestor Aparicio  10:42

There’s many Adley rutschmans out there, as there are Bobby wits.

Allen McCallum  10:46

So my my point is that it’s, it’s it’s difficult. And I think we know town knows that better than than Baltimore right now, that the anointed are not anointed until they are for me. And this is what the point I’m trying to get to for me. When people ask me about players, I say I need three years. I need three years to know who they are, three years of solid play or not solid play, to really be able to to investigate them. Well, Gunner Adley to some degree, Colton kauser To some degree, Kobe mayo, Heston kerstad, Jackson, holidays, entering his third year in Jordan, westburg. I mean, these guys are at that point, and the only one of them that I really know who they are is Colton kauser, and that’s not good. So that, you know there, there are some, there are some things to figure out here. We certainly yes, we knew about the defense. You know what? I can sort of live with the the occasional error at third base or second base, here and there. If those guys are being offensively productive, Kobe started to hit home runs. We’ll see what happens with that. But I want to go back to something that I talked to you about before the season started, and that’s the play in left field. Left field, I would argue that left field at Camden Yards may be the toughest left field in baseball. It used to be gap to line, but now in its new configuration, it is deep as well. You can’t the place to hide a mediocre outfielder at Camden Yards is right field. Colton cows are for whatever he is, isn’t as an offensive player. He’s pretty good defensive left fielder, and he made that made up the difference there. You stick guys out in left field that are that are mediocre outfielders at Camden Yards, and you’re gonna, and you’re, you’re gonna suffer the consequences, because those mistakes, one may not be listed as errors, and two aren’t going to go for one base, they’re going to go for two or three. And I think the the outfield play has has really concerned me. Once they put Leo to out in center field, it’s calmed that down a little bit. But I think that’s that’s a real concern.

Nestor Aparicio  13:01

Let me, let me bring this up with you, because Luke has brought this up on by the way, Alan McCallum is our guest. If you’re joining us Saturday and 1570 we love you for that. He says they don’t value defense, and that’s just born out in what we see on the field, and I if that is true, and Elias would fight with me on that. But even, you know, like, fine, whatever, he can join me and Jason lock and four in the corner, we’ll have a chat together about media access. And, yeah, when the black guy and the Hispanic guy get together and can’t get in and they wonder, why? On Jackie Robinson Day, which the game I went to, I went around, I’m like, you know, they’ve really been after this for a long, long time, to get more people that look like you and look like me to the games. And I just don’t, I don’t feel it, and don’t see it. We’re I was there, but you weren’t there. I invited you, though, but it was hot, but nonetheless, you know, I would just say if, if that really is the case, that they don’t value defense, then what’s in their little computer that everything you just laid out as two dumb baseball fans, former media members who dedicated our lives and still 43 years after they won, we stood here and watched them play every day, and we get together and talk once a month on the radio, and never cheese with you and I, if we get pizza. But, yeah, well, it’s a friendship, you know? I would just say, if they don’t value defense, how are they ever really going to win modern baseball? Modern baseball, you’re going to have seven sub par defenders and two adequate defenders out nine innings a game. Maybe you bring in a glove because you like a Dylan beavers off your bench to play the seventh, eighth and ninth inning to replace whoever Sherman, a bando you have, Rodriguez, whoever you’re putting out in the. Outfield, Weston, whatever the guy like moving these guys around, the Vicky Chase Alexander is going to be your center fielder in the sun. And think that that’s going to help Trevor Rogers or help Kyle Bradish when, like it’s not bad defense will get you blown up. My father told me that in 1973 which is why he taught me the fundamental importance of defense. And I can’t think of a team that’s ever been really horrible defensively, where that helps your bullpen in tight situations, seventh, eighth or ninth inning. Or, I mean, this team, you called it, you said it’s missing ingredients, or you said it’s You said something very early on that was incomplete. Incomplete, yeah. I mean, teams don’t run the base as well. Don’t walk much, strike out too much. They kick the ball around all over the place, and I don’t think they can help that. They don’t even hit cut off guys like they don’t think like a good defensive team, let alone getting under fly balls or losing it in the lights or whatever, communicating simple things like gunner Henderson. He’s going to the Hall of Fame. I’ve seen him make three plays out in center field with cut off decisions that just didn’t make any sense to me, thrown to the wrong base, crazy stuff. You know

Allen McCallum  16:20

why I’m sitting here with you right now? Did the origin of that? No, because in 1988 the Orioles were the worst team in baseball. They were so bad that they there was nowhere lower to finish. And in 1989 they resurrected themselves through defense and I and I sat four season and fell. Into, I mean, I liked baseball, but I fell in love with baseball because of Craig Worthington and Brady Anderson and Steve family and and Phil Bradley, who wasn’t a fleet of foot outfielder, but is a really quality defensive outfielder, Joe warslack and Cal Ripken at shortstop, anchoring a spectacular defensive team and learning the value of defense in baseball. One of the most beautiful things on a field I watched for about three or four seasons was Adam Jones to JJ hardy to Matt weeders, the relay play from the outfield wall to JJ to weeders, and they cut down a decent share of players, and when they didn’t, they made it freaking close, because those guys knew how to play defense, and I’ve never heard them articulate it. I’m sure they never will, but I agree with Luke that they clearly don’t value defense, and they don’t that they clearly don’t value batting average and contact, and we’ve talked about that as well, and I’m here to tell you that the game

Nestor Aparicio  17:45

you analytics nerds give them hell Alan,

Allen McCallum  17:49

get in there. I don’t have a problem with analytics. I don’t have I don’t have a problem with math. I don’t have a problem with analytics. My My issue is the interpretation of what the information is supposed to mean what you’re supposed to do with that information and the information, what they do with information often doesn’t make any sense to me. Like the Red

Nestor Aparicio  18:08

Sox firing their manager when the game gets moved back four hours. I mean the decisions made at every level with these corporate groups, like the decision to build a club level behind home plate and charge $500 and have the thing sit empty every day like I don’t that they make all sorts of decisions that are based on data, and that has made its way into baseball in the last 15 years, right? I mean, literally,

Allen McCallum  18:37

no problem with data. I have no problem with information, but the human interpretation of that is the issue. And case in point for all of the science that has entered the game, for all of the data, what it comes down to is, hey, if instead of going six or seven innings and throwing 9394 if you go four or five innings and throw 100 as much as you can, you’ll you’ll get more people. You’ll get more people out. Hey, forget the fact that we have more arm injuries than ever because of that, but spin the ball in the most unnatural way as hard as you can. And hey, if you adjust your your your swing level, you’ll hit more home runs. Well, the most people will tell you that home runs are an anomaly. They are not statistically the thing that’s going to happen the most obviously, right? So you’re turning away from a more consistent approach to putting the ball in play, getting hits so that you can up your home run average by what 10% 12% depending on what players you have, how that makes statistical sense, that you’re going to give away all the rest of the game for the to walk a little more. Okay, great. And, and. To chase the rarest component of the offensive element of the sport, just doesn’t make sense to me. And then we’ve talked about, I know I talked about the lineup with you. They’re putting on a regular basis. They’re the three guys that you would consider the most consistent in Ward in kenderson and Alonzo in the top three spots. They finally sort of pushed Alonzo back to the number four spot, but for the first two and a half weeks, three weeks of the season, they were putting unproven rookies behind the key hitters. And my issue with war, and we’ve talked about this, is that war looks at players individually, as if they the lineup that they’re in doesn’t impact what they get. And I think one of the reasons Pete Alonso was here is because gunner Henderson was in a lineup unto himself last year with no protection sans van daer was gone and he there was he wasn’t getting anything to hit. Plus, yes, he was hurt. I understand that O’Neill

Nestor Aparicio  20:56

didn’t, yeah. I mean, they Yes, Westberg was hurt. I mean, on and on and on. Yes, historically,

Allen McCallum  21:05

I believe that a good lineup feeds off of itself. If you put solid hitters through the lineup, it helps the people around them. Why wouldn’t you put and then they’re again, they’re starting to do this. They’re starting to put Dylan beavers a little closer up to the top in the sense that he’s a rookie that you believe can get on base, but he’s not going to be challenged with fastballs. Why would you because there’s no reason to pitch to him. Nobody that you you necessarily know or trust is is behind him in the lineup to to make you suffer once he gets on base. Well, and

Nestor Aparicio  21:39

this should be a traditional number two hitter from the beginning of time, right, literally,

Allen McCallum  21:43

right, a guy that you believe has hitting skills but needs help, and you put veteran guys around him to force pitchers like, I don’t want to pitch to that guy. I’m going to pitch to beavers to see what he can do, at least until he proves what he is. So instead, you have a guy like Sam besayo, who you know starting to hit, I have all the hope in the world that he’s going to be what what they are touting him as, but to put him behind your three top hitters, where there’s no reason to throw him anything that he can hit makes it just doesn’t make any sense to me. So they were consistently putting beside and beavers, in some order, right behind the three veteran guys, and nobody was pitching to him. Why that would happen? I don’t know. So there are things in the in the philosophy, that make no sense. And as we’ve talked about, as Luke believes, if they’re chasing slug, then they’re giving away batting average, they’re giving away contact. And I’m sorry, the essence of the game is making contact and trying to get hits and chasing home runs. I think is, I believe that chasing home runs has impacted a lot of their young players that, as opposed to going out and trying to be solid major league players, where you’re you’re putting the ball in play, and you’re getting your extra base hits based on your natural abilities, if everybody’s chasing slug. So I don’t even

Nestor Aparicio  23:08

know philosophically that I’ve ever heard them talk about these things and what they feel to be ideal. We see this as veteran baseball people, and Luke is a real journalist, and you and me as only guys that did this for 20 years each, on the inside, I I know the game has changed. You know, I chatted Casper wells about that, and Jamie Moyer about that. This week, I even had a chat with Paul Molitor. I ran into it a Springsteen concert. We talked baseball for 15 minutes and but I’m not in it, and I see it on television the way Rob long presents it, or Melanie Newman in the pregame show. And I know this sequestered nature from Luke telling me that, like, it’s not like you watch Butch and Cal Ripken play, you know, a tape ball, you know in the locker room anymore. It’s very digital, print out, phone, laptop, watching things in the way that maybe Tony Gwynn used to watch VHS tapes in the closet out in San Diego at the Murph with me. You know he had a key that you go into his closet. I know it’s way more sophisticated than that, and the mental part can wear these guys out for what they’re seeing, and even the ABS system, and, you know, the instant gratification of, I’m going to challenge that, and it hit the strike zone, and they’re not seeing the ball well. I think there’s a lot more stress on all of that as to the science of even like guys who play golf you see in your golf swing, and knowing exactly that you’re dropping the head two degrees of something, something, and having a computer tell you and show you over and over and over again, if you’re an amateur trying to hit a golf ball. It can be a little overwhelming, I think, for the players to have weaknesses that get exploited again and again and again, and they can’t get out of that. I think that that’s sort of the part of their game all the way around, that once I’ve seen very few of these guys pick themselves up, you know what I mean, and I’m waiting on holiday to get healthy enough to do this, but I haven’t seen anybody who was struggling, who has been aided by their work, maybe some pitching Cano, you know, a couple of I can throw my name at a couple of guys over how French keeps a job, and how the hitting coach was the worst guy on Earth last year, and the fence was back, and the fence was in and and we were going to get right handed hitters. We’re going to get left and we’re going to we’re going to buy the arms and raise the bats, or raise the bats and buy the arms like all these philosophical things i I can’t sit here eight years in with Mike Elias and pigeon hole him into doing much other than the way they’ve drafted to your point, and then the way they’ve spent money, and they’ve only had money for five minutes. Team Rubenstein and Eric Getty have only been here for a couple of minutes to buy him $19 million pitchers who I don’t know if Chris bass is going to be in the rotation in July, right

Allen McCallum  26:22

when, when we had, when we were winning for the first time about 15 years ago. And you looked at the Orioles rotation with Tillman and all those guys, Tillman did a good impression of a number one starter for like, two and a half solid seasons, and everybody else that you looked at way in Chen and and like Miguel

Nestor Aparicio  26:49

Gonzalez, I loved him, right?

Allen McCallum  26:51

I think most people would tell you that they were all sort of number two, number three starters, like a whole, like a rotation of number three starters. And you know what kept those guys in games, defense, defense was the difference in that and that. This that team did score runs, and they

Nestor Aparicio  27:06

were going to turn the play double play in the seventh inning, not boot the ball and have the bases loaded with nobody out, or just say it was a tough play, right, right? They had

Allen McCallum  27:19

Brock and oday in Britain at the back end. It was a great formula, which is why, well, oday made

Nestor Aparicio  27:25

you a ground ball so you had the field.

Allen McCallum  27:28

It was, it was a formula that made sense, right? And I’m here to tell you that the if you look at what they’re doing right now, look, I think Kyle bradst, you can see he still has his stuff, but he’s coming back from Tommy John surgery, and his stuff’s all over the place. He can’t, he can’t find strike one, and that’s a problem. You know, I think Shane Bos is good stuff. I think he’s a kid who’s trying to figure it out. Bassett, I was fine with them signing Bassett. I wanted Ron Harris, Suarez, they didn’t get him. I mean that. And I mean you offer him money, he doesn’t, doesn’t come. There’s not much you can do about that. I blame Michael. I ask for Garrett crochet and Bobby Wood, Jr, not being here. I’ll just throw that out there. So I mean, it sort of is what it is. But to say, Oh, well. But to not say, but imply by what you do that defense isn’t really that big a deal with what you’ve put together doesn’t make a

Nestor Aparicio  28:24

lot of sense. And I think he’d have a hard time if you and I got together with him and sat and talked baseball like I’d love to hear his philosophy on defense like that would be where I would push the conversation to make it interesting, because I don’t, I don’t hear any pushback from them about that, or what their pushback would be, because dude, I see the lineup he’s putting out there every night, and that was something that we called 92 wins, and I believed more in the pitching, and I certainly believe more in the hitting, but the defensive part of this has been intolerable to me, and I don’t know that it’s going to get better. That’s one of those things through the course of life. Guys that got to the major leagues because of their bat, the defense just never takes precedent to ever really get a lot better. Melvin Mora got better. I’m trying to think of a handful of guys. I mean, I can give you in the history of watching baseball, how many guys were strat O Matic fours that became twos or threes that became ones.

Allen McCallum  29:25

So the I mean, the other part of this is that if, right now, if you look at the I mean, the Orioles are right in contention, because a lot of other teams in baseball are having these kinds of issues, certainly batting at certainly scoring runs in batting average. And if you look at teams around baseball, 222, 30, that’s there’s a heck of a lot of that. And I just remember times you hit 222 30, you couldn’t play, you couldn’t be in a starting lineup on a regular basis. And it’s everywhere today, and the Orioles have. Vibes, mostly because they played a lot of clubs that have the same problems as they do when I’m terrified for them to play the Yankees next week, I think they’re going to get killed not because the Yankees have a vaunted lineup. They’re scoring runs, and they have some stars who hit more home runs with more regularity.

Nestor Aparicio  30:20

I am. I joined your concern, you know, based on the Red Sox and based on the Astros and how they’ve played. This should be a time where the Red Sox, Astros, A’s, they’re seeing some teams in here where they should see some daylight, and they’re underwater against these teams. And then the

Allen McCallum  30:38

Yankees have great pitching, and the Orioles can’t hit great pitching even. And I, I sort of thought this at the time, but even when they were when they won 101 games, and they they tore it up in the second in the in the first half of 24 what happened a lot of the time was that they sort of stayed in the game against the starting pitchers, and they beat up on the bullpens. So it would sort of be they’d be down by a run, or they’d be, you know, be two to two, and then they’d score four or five runs late on the bullpen. And that that happened a lot, if you go back and look at those that those two seasons, um, and right now, they’re getting shut down by good to mediocre pitching at times. Um, they’re still way too left handed. They still can’t hit left handed pitching, and that is there. There are some issues there. When they start playing really good teams, they’re going to look like the team that that is incomplete, that they are. They need to, I wholly believe that they need to remake this lineup, putting some more of their good hitters further down in the lineup, to give other hitters opportunities to see pitches. They need to figure out a defensive alignment. I know Taylor Ward does not have an arm for right field, but I would rather if, if if you’re gonna have Colton cows are out in the in the field, and he hasn’t been out there much recently, he needs to be in left field. Leo to various thank god, he’s gotten off to a good start, but they need a center fielder, and I think an alignment that that puts a quality outfielder out in left field and a mediocre guy you’re trying to hide in right field, at least when they’re playing at home, puts them in better shape. I still believe Kobe Mayo Can, can be a major league player, but, I mean, he needs to figure it out and

Nestor Aparicio  32:32

how long’s too long and and the Calvary is not coming. We’re waiting on westburg. We’re not waiting on anything now. We’re waiting on him here, man, here.

Allen McCallum  32:42

I mean, these, these were all the guys I’m

Nestor Aparicio  32:43

getting you five at bats every night. Go do something, man, you

Allen McCallum  32:47

know, I mean, you he lost his mind when they send him down to triple A like this, your moment, kid, you got to go get it. Look, Jeremiah Jackson, got hot for about 10 days. I think Jeremiah can hit, can hit, but, but, but, as is the case, the league adjusts, and the league is starting to adjust to him and and they need it. Everybody needs to bounce back from that and figure it out. So there, there are a ton of things about this club. Do I still think they can, they can be successful, sure. Do I do? I think that gunner Henderson is going to hit 200 all year? No, I don’t. I don’t think Peter Lonzo is going to hit 220 all year with with three home runs. I I’ve watched a lot of baseball in my life. I know how these things work, and the weather’s been inconsistent. They’re all. All those things are true. But now the

Nestor Aparicio  33:38

competition gets better, though,

Allen McCallum  33:40

well, exactly. And at some point you have to look at your club and assess what’s happening, and whatever it’s it’s great that your data is telling you, one telling you’re looking at data and saying, This is something, that this is what I believe maybe your interpretation is wrong. And I’m sorry, 30 years ago, more than that, my old college roommate, who was a math guy and an IT guy who didn’t know baseball, and I was trying to teach him baseball, and Randy Milligan was having a great, great start. And I was explaining he’s like, Why meet Why is he batting third or fourth? And I was explaining to me like, why wouldn’t you put your best hitter in the lead off spot. He gets more bats that way. And, I mean, that’s really sort of the first time I’d heard that, and I was explaining to him, like, you want to maximize what he’s doing, you want, hopefully to have more guys on base. Yeah, he gets more at bats. But if there’s nobody around him, what difference does it make? It you might score

Nestor Aparicio  34:41

the argument that was made most of my lifetime, and it’s not a scientific argument, is you’re only the lead off hitter at the beginning of the game, right, right? So, like, after that, it’s catch, no catch can that? After that, it’s slotting line. Ups in regard to pitching righty lefty matchups. Little bit less of that when you don’t have the specialist coming in of the way you did now, it’s more like off the bench in the seventh inning. Do I have a left handed or right handed bat I could stick in there to really put pressure on a left hander, right handed relief pitcher, right? So all of those are management things, but this is philosophical as to how the game has evolved to have gunner Henderson batting lead off when he clearly would be a number three hitter, if not a four or five hitter in any other lineup, but probably a

Allen McCallum  35:33

three hitter. And every other time after the first time you’re getting what is historically your worst hitter hitting in front of you, what difference does it make if you’re hitting lead off, if Blaze Alexander sitting 180 Alexander sitting 180 and the number nine spot. I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s a statistical anomaly, as far as I’m concerned.

Nestor Aparicio  35:49

Look or in the National League, where you have three Mario Mendoza’s batting the second baseman, the shortstop and the catcher Batting seventh, eighth and ninth. Or, you know, like, just in the old days was like three giveaway outs. You know, you wouldn’t want that leading off for Hank Aaron every inning. You know what? I mean, making the third out,

Allen McCallum  36:07

and the game has changed. And that isn’t there. I mean, they have the DH in the National League, there is. There’s much less of that throughout the sport. But the reality is, the nobody’s hit the 300 batting average is quickly becoming an endangered species in baseball. And you know, a lot of people tell you, Oh, it’s because the pitching is better. And I’m sorry, I just disagree. It’s because everybody’s chasing essentially the most rare thing in the sport. We’re talking about three true come out. Three true outcome baseball, walk, strike out, home run

Nestor Aparicio  36:47

and, well, if the approach changes, that then, then the the it’d be like hitting the golf ball. If your approach changes, the outcome is going to change, right?

Allen McCallum  36:55

Like, literally, not only is it boring, it’s fundamentally broken. To chase the most rare thing. And when you’re constructing a baseball team, if you’re the Los Angeles, even the Los Angeles Dodgers who everybody complains about, they’re not, it’s not that they have a ton of home run guys. I mean, they hit home runs. They have MVPs, guys who are good hitters. Freddie Freeman, the most fundamental hitter in the sport. Mookie Betts got on base better than anybody. Show you. Tony is a unicorn. There’s no point even bringing it up. Will Smith, who’s their catcher. I mean, this, that guy hits. I mean, they’ve got a couple sluggers in there. Te Oscar Hernandez, they were trying to, they were thinking about getting rid of her favorite

Nestor Aparicio  37:35

baseball players were always guys that hit 300 you know that? Rod Carew, George Brett, those were my guy. Tony, Gwynn, those are my guys always because you because

Allen McCallum  37:43

they’re on base all the time. You know,

Nestor Aparicio  37:44

I always knew they had more value than Gorman Thomas or Dave Kingman.

Allen McCallum  37:50

Fundamentally, if you tell me batting average and hits don’t matter anymore, I will tell you that I don’t care who you are. You don’t understand the sport. You don’t understand the you don’t understand the primary purpose of what happens in the sport. And look, baseball evolves. It is, it is. It’s played completely differently than when I fell in love with it. And I, I don’t have a problem with that. I don’t have a problem with analytics. I don’t have a problem with with data. I have a problem with what they do with the interpretations of those things and and how they’re teaching it. And for me, this club will only succeed at this point if they sort of change their approach to the club. Can they win with the players they have right now? Yes, but they need to. Actually, they don’t all need to be all stars, but some of these guys need to figure it out a little faster. I’ll certainly say that. And the time is now. I mean, over the weekend, they had the same record that they had last year before they went, I think it was five and 20 after that, going into May.

Nestor Aparicio  39:05

Well, they got seven games with the Yankees coming up in the next two weeks. So like, you know you’re going to be three and four, four and three, two and five, one and six. Like, I don’t think you’re going to go six and one against the Yankees. And if you do, we’re, you know, we then have a team to talk about, because we would have good starts, better defense. Somebody be hitting the ball, several people be hitting the ball. They big, because that’s what it’s going to take to beat the Yankees. Be five and two against them next week.

Allen McCallum  39:34

The idea of watching them go up against Max freed really, just, it just scares me and and I’m here to tell you, you look at the Yankees, they’re not that good. They’ve got great starting pitching, they’ve got Aaron judge, but you look at the rest of the guys in lineup, I’m been Ben rice is off to a great start. Okay, nobody else in that lineup is setting the world on fire, but they they’ve got great pitching, and Jim. Only they catch the ball and that you catch the ball, you have great starting pitching, and you hit a couple of home runs, you’re you’re likely going to win the game.

Nestor Aparicio  40:11

One more reason I got to get Mike Elias on to talk about catching the ball. That’s going to keep going back to that right and

Allen McCallum  40:17

the Orioles right now have surprisingly good bullpen. Very happy about that on most nights, but have mediocre defense, and you’ve seen it, they don’t win if they don’t have a big inning. I mean, for them, it’s all about the beginning. They you don’t see a lot of times in this lineup where, you know, you look through the innings, and they’ve scored a run or two or three, they’ve got enough speed on this team to manufacture, manufacture, run steel bases, that kind of thing. But you got to get on base. And right now they’re not even when they do the next guy is striking out way too much. So you there, there. You have no sustained attack on this team right now, and it’s tough to win that win that way all the time. When you’re looking at you, you’re searching for the beginning all the time, it’s just really hard to do that. When Pete Alonso and gunner Henderson, you know, get their game on track, the club will look better. They just will. And they need two or three guys to emerge. You know, we’ll see when, when all that happens. I believe that’s going to happen, but, but, but they need to. They need to change their approach they’re taking right now to how to manage his club. Not really working. It’s just not

Nestor Aparicio  41:37

Alan McCallum is here. He is our longtime baseball Insider. He is around town. I’ll get you out for a cheeseless crab cake or something sometime soon here. But I thought in the meantime, I better have you on because this thing, I don’t know, it feels like we get together a month every month or so. You know, we’ll get together around Memorial Day, and these next couple of weeks, very, very crucial next couple of weeks that some level of stepping up happens throughout the roster to be able to stay up with the Yankees this week. That’s all

Allen McCallum  42:08

by Memorial Day we’ll know, I mean, we’ll know enough to know what the what, what the future holds for the 2026

Nestor Aparicio  42:16

Baltimore Orioles. Anyway, in 43 years. Alan, I’m running out of patience. I really am, you know, you know, I get it. You and I have to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Jeffrey Mayer on October, whatever the date is, October 4, or whatever the date is, we’ll have to figure that’s what we’ll do. We’ll do a show that day. You and me

Allen McCallum  42:34

from somewhere, Nestor, I was 11 years old last time they won the World Series. And I mean, I they want it in my lifetime, there are a lot of there are a lot of people in this in this city, who love the Orioles, who have not seen them win a World Series. I lived through 13 losing seasons. I lived through 1988 I’ve seen them be the best team in baseball. Four Season. I’ve seen them be good for five solid years with guys that really made me proud to be an Orioles fan, Adam Jones, Nick marca’s. JJ, Hardy, Matt weeders before that. BJ, sir, Hoff and Cal Ripken and Chris hoyles. I’ve seen I’ve seen a lot. I’ve seen him good. I’ve seen him great. Haven’t seen him win since I was 11 years old. And I said this to you before, and I believe it, it’s never been easier in baseball to get to the playoffs, and it’s never been harder in baseball to win the World Series, because once you get once you get there, you’ve just got, what, two, three times the number of teams. Well, if it’s

Nestor Aparicio  43:39

so easy to make the playoffs, and they should make the playoffs, right?

Allen McCallum  43:41

So that, so that that’s where it is. And technically, right now, they’re still in line to do it, but they whatever cushion they had, they have squandered to it to two games under 500 record. And it’s about to get harder. The test is about to get harder, and they need to step up,

Nestor Aparicio  44:00

and they need to get healthier as well. I mean, just all the way around. I mean, I, you know, I believe in Jackson holiday. Let’s get him here. Westburg mystery, right? Like all of this rushman,

Allen McCallum  44:11

the reality is that, you know, efflin and Westberg are not coming back. I think it would be unrealistic to expect Heston kirstad to come back at this point, although, I mean, he’s, I know he’s doing baseball activities, but I mean, you can’t count on those guys at this point. Jackson holiday is not in that category. So I mean, your question is, the question is, who else? Who else gets the call is that it’s, you would hope it’s Jackson holiday.

Nestor Aparicio  44:40

How many at bats is holiday going to get this year? When are they going to start, and what quality

Allen McCallum  44:44

are they going to be? So then the next question is, is what we’ve seen from Brandon young real? Are we? Are we starting to see we’ve gotten basically one and a half good starts from the young? 50. Does he come back up and does Kyle brads figure it out? Does Trevor, I believe Trevor Rogers can figure it out. What I’ve heard and what I’ve read is that his velocity is the same that I read a total breakdown of how he’s moving incorrectly on his left side, and he needs to adjust that to get back to where he was last year. I mean, I’m not a motion expert, so I don’t know, but I know his velocity is the same. So is it mental? Is it physical? Is it both? Trevor Rogers is as much as you could look at last year and say it was a one, one and done. You know, he was an all star before. I mean, he he was, he’s been good before. So it’s not like it came out of absolutely nowhere. And he looked good for the look good this year for three starts. So there, I believe he can, he can figure it out and reset. So then the, you know, questions are about Boz and Bassett in the rest of the rotation, and what they’re going to be and and Lord knows, they need, they need to get a lot of these pieces on track now they just

Nestor Aparicio  46:09

really do. Alan McCallum joining us here, Luke, it will be at the ballpark next week. And of course, the Astros in, and the Yankees. And, you know, from a travel perspective here, the Orioles go out on the road. They’re going to be in Miami in the middle of next week, inside the dome when we were at Planet Fitness, out in Timonium. And then they do come home the athletics next weekend, then the Yankees before previous weekend, the Washington Nationals just don’t want to see him buried at this point in the season. And certainly want to see this thing feel more like that. Adley rutschman post game hit a couple of home runs. Thing, by the way, it’s been costing the Maryland lottery a little bit of money on those nights when they’re hitting five and six home runs. I had John Martin. He’s going to join us this week. I have the Maryland treasure scratch also be giving these away on Friday at Pizza John’s in Essex, kind of in the mood for a cheesesteak and some french fries and gravy. So I think I’m going to go there more than the Hawaii Hawaiian pie, which I enjoy in the supreme pie. And the works, give me the works will be an essay with with the food

Allen McCallum  47:11

you eat. I’ll never know

Nestor Aparicio  47:13

moderation, my friend. And then there’s Planet Fitness. I’ll be playing a fitness next Thursday, working it off on the seventh I bet that you know about my hot yoga thing and like, um, I have metabolism Alan. I got that going for me, but I appreciate that. But I am, I am dragged down by 43 years of not having a World Series for the Orioles. It is dragging down my mojo so and I don’t have my playoff beer going. I was thinking to myself, as long as the Orioles can win a World Series before the flyers win a Stanley Cup, I’ll feel good about that. So, you know, there’s my little poke at the flyers here, but I shouldn’t poke at them because they’re winning. He is Allen. I am Nestor. We are W N, S T am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stop talking Oriole baseball in Baltimore. Positive, you.