An ugly start to the series in Toronto as the Orioles lose the game and starter Grayson Rodriguez to a sudden injury prior to making his turn against the Blue Jays. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss what this could mean for the Birds’ postseason dreams and the unusual managerial decisions of Brandon Hyde.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
orioles, game, pitch, hit, mayo, hyde, pinch, major league, bullpen, pitcher, grayson, rodriguez, talking, cows, colton, brandon, lat, weeks, luke, thought
SPEAKERS
Nestor J. Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S T, tassel, Baltimore, Baltimore, positive the Orioles are on the road. The Ravens get ready to play some fake football down at Stadium on Friday. Then, with all the renovations, go to black wing. Please get me a $20 drink in the black wing, someone Luke Jones will be available to do that. He was invited down to their soiree this week where they spend all of your money on their stadium. Lucas at Baltimore, Luke. You can follow him from Owings Mills to Camden Yards. They allow him access. They do not allow me access, but I still talk about things. I’ll be writing a whole lot on Labor Day week about the season and about the chiefs and the Ravens and the Orioles pennant drive, and all of it will be on the back end of the back end of the Maryland crab cake tour and the Maryland oyster tour, brought to you by the Maryland lottery, as well as Jiffy Lube and our friends at Liberty pure solutions. I’ll have the Gold Rush seven doublers. We’re going to be doing that on the 23rd sneaking up on it’s only two weeks out on our next faith Lee’s event. I got my Coco shirt on. They’re on vacation here this week, getting their air condition fixed. We’re back at Cocos on September the fourth to kick off football season. That’s a Wednesday, and I will be joined that day by the great, great Mark Viviano of formerly of W I’ve always wanted to say formerly, formerly of w, b, a, l, 2w, J, Z, formerly of CNN, formerly of tbs. So there’s a mark Viviano will be talking kids in baseball, and undoubtedly Sam usual, lubrook and the St Louis Cardinals with me, maybe even Vince Coleman, and I don’t know, we’ll, we’ll figure it all out. That’s September 4. Luke pink, doings in Toronto. Man, I have a lot of friends up there. Allen McCallum, our dear friend Alan is up there. My friend David Richardson, who owns green mount bowl and who’s involved with the horse racing. All these pictures show up in Facebook. People traveling, breaking out their passport, which I know you have one because I’ve seen you in London to go up to Toronto. The first news was not good news. You know, I was off yoga game on Tuesday night and plan a fitness thing right pregame, and then, like, I got off the mat, and I’m like, Oh, what happened here, this Grayson Rodriguez thing? I know you’re wildly concerned about this.
Luke Jones 01:59
You have to be. I mean, this was not a good development for the Baltimore Orioles and their World Series aspirations and their aspirations of making a deep October run. And look, when you’re talking about someone who is scratched minutes before the game, that is a major concern. And it’s not, I’m not just talking about Tuesday night, and Tuesday night’s loss. Albert Suarez pitched admirably, saving the bullpen and leaving them in a position where they had a chance to win. We’ll get to Gregory Soto and some of the pinch hit decisions in the eighth inning, but the big story on Tuesday night is Grayson Rodriguez, when you’re talking about what was initially labeled as lat slash terrace discomfort, but the big word being there the lat. And if you recall, it was two years ago in June of 2022 when Grayson Rodriguez was on the cusp of being called up to the major leagues and he suffered a grade two lat strain in early June. Now we don’t know if this is going to be called a strain, the hope is this was something that he felt and initially, right away, said, Hey, Drew French, you know, other guys in the bullpen. I’m not feeling right. This
Nestor J. Aparicio 03:11
would be during warm up. This happened, correct? Yeah, this
Luke Jones 03:13
this literally, I mean, he was literally scratched less than 10 minutes prior to first pitch. Now, maybe the Orioles didn’t announce or, you know, didn’t announce it right away, but this was something that happened during his
Nestor J. Aparicio 03:24
warm up. Well, the minute you feel pain, you stop throwing. You don’t throw another pitch. Well,
Luke Jones 03:29
you hope so. But you also have guys who understand that sometimes their teams in a bind, or you have guys who are trying to fight through something, or it’s something in some cases, and again, we have no idea
Nestor J. Aparicio 03:41
other horses they want to pitch, they want to pitch, right for sure, but
Luke Jones 03:46
we, you know, we don’t know those details. And we hope this is not something that’s been bothering him a little bit here and there, and he was trying to pitch through it. We have no idea Brandon Hyde’s indications after the game was that he was feeling really good through a really good bullpen session in Cleveland over the weekend, which was his side session, and just felt this as he was warming up. But you know, the initial hope as Masson even showed a clip, and you could even it’s he seemed to mouth the words to Drew French, I don’t feel right. And the initial hope was maybe he was under the weather. And obviously you don’t like that in the moment. You don’t like him missing the start, but that would clearly be a scenario where, you know he’d be fine in a few days, but he’s going back to Baltimore. They’re going to do imaging, obviously they’re going to evaluate But getting back to what I was saying when he had a grade two lat strain two years ago, he missed three months of game action. He was sidelined in early June. He returned the pitch in five minor league games in the month of September. Now that was a pitching prospect at a point when the Orioles were just turning the corner in their quest to become a competitive team again. So were they concerned? Conservative? Were they careful? Yes, absolutely. But even if this is a lat, you know, a grade one lat strain, that’s generally two to three weeks, you’d be talking about a month, probably at least, and that would be the best case scenario, right? I mean, unless this was so preliminary and they were so diligent and Grayson Rodriguez was so vigilant about said, Hey, I felt a little tiny something in my lat, you know, which for anyone that’s, you know, I’m not an anatomy major or anything, but the lat is kind of, you know, towards the short, you know, the shoulder blade, the back. And it’s obviously something that you know is connected to your limbs, you know, with your shoulder and everything. So it’s upper back
Nestor J. Aparicio 05:41
when you’re coming through on a rotation? Yeah, obviously, right, yeah. So,
Luke Jones 05:45
so again, I don’t mean to sound the alarm here and you’re hoping for the best, and I’m not going to sit here and say that it’s a three month absence like it was two two years ago for Grayson Rodriguez, but if you look around at lad injuries for pitchers, any of consequence, they miss a lot of time. I mean they do. And when I say a lot of time, I don’t mean in the same scope of Tommy John surgery or something like that. But when you’re talking about the fact that we’re approaching mid August, this, this is the kind of injury where you miss weeks and sometimes months. So you’re talking about a tight window here to return, even if it’s a grade one latch strain. So I don’t need to tell you what ramifications, what consequences this would have on their rotation, as we were just talking for weeks and weeks and weeks leading up to them acquiring Zach Eflin, and
Nestor J. Aparicio 06:41
they put Suarez back in the rotation, at least it did on Tuesday night, and it will, for the time being, right? He’ll take the ball five days from now, assuming that Rodriguez is not ready to go this weekend.
Luke Jones 06:52
Yeah. And to add, I would say insult to injury, but it’s injury to injury. Tuesday also brought the news that Chase McDermott, who I still had some optimism, could factor into their plans down the stretch and lending a hand, whether it was, you know, it’s your number five starter, if someone has to miss a start, someone six, someone tweaks a hamstring or in the bullpen, he he’s been shut down with right scapula, a right stress free reaction in his right scapula area. So I would assume that he’s probably done for the year with something like that. Or, again, we’re talking about something that’s not a seven day or a 10 day thing. So so even some of your minor league depth that not going to sit here and say Chase McDermott comes up and takes the place of Grayson Rodriguez. That’d be silly, but he is someone that I thought still had a chance to lend a hand down the stretch. So at some point, Nestor and again, we’re going to find out just how serious this is. I would assume Grayson Rodriguez is, at a minimum, going to go on the IL for the minimum, stay, right?
Nestor J. Aparicio 07:55
He’s going to be shut down.
Luke Jones 07:57
That, to me, would be the best case scenario. I mean, think back in May. You know that when he had the shoulder inflammation, it wasn’t called a lat strain, anything like that. So I’m not saying it was related, but he missed two and a half weeks. Then now he came back and he made every start. I think he’d made, what, 14 starts since then. So it’s not as though he, you know, showed any lingering signs there, and he’s pitched well this year. And what, 13 wins and a 3.86 era and 10 strikeouts per nine, 2.8 walks. He’s had a really, really good season. But, I mean, this is a potential gut punch. This is the kind of move Nestor that if Grayson Rodriguez, if his availability is in question for the rest of the year, I think it really puts the Orioles behind the Yankees in terms of the pecking order, tough to win the division, tough to win in October. Yes, and that’s the thing I mean to me, the Orioles go from being one of the favorites in the Al to get to the World Series to kind of just another team in that mix, not at all suggesting that they would completely collapse, not at all suggesting they wouldn’t make the postseason, because you are still only talking about one pitcher who goes every five days or every five games. But when you’re talking about upside, I mean, Grayson, Rodriguez, other than Corbin burns, gives you the most of any pitcher including F right? I mean, I mean the idea was those three topping your October rotation, and then whether it was Dean Kramer or Trevor Rogers as your fourth, you were going to figure that out. But now, I mean, you take Grayson Rodriguez out of the equation potentially. I mean, that’s, that’s a devastating blow. I mean, that’s really a massive blow. I don’t want to say fatal, because he’s not Corbin burns, but he he’s the guy that can pitch like Corbin burns quite often when he goes out there. And you just, you need that upside, you need the production that he’s already given you, and that upside as far as when you get to October. And so you’re hoping for the best. And again, just not saying he has the same injury that he had to you. Ago, but lat issues are tricky, and lat issues are concerning and and the other factor with the lad issue is if, if it’s one of consequence, if it’s grade two or something like that, it’s the kind of thing that you need to give proper rest to, because there have even been pitchers who’ve had issues, and then it can even pour into the following year. So not good. And again, I know some people gonna say, Luke, you’re throwing dirt on the Orioles. You’re throwing dirt on Grayson Rodriguez, right now, it’s, it’s not a good injury for a pitcher to have again. Well, I
Nestor J. Aparicio 10:31
mean, let’s go back to Bradish. When radish happened in January, you were like, oh, oh, that’s why they went and got burns. They don’t have Bradish. This is when Rodriguez is a might be, not an IS, right? Like we looked at him and we were like, he’s the game three starter. Well, let’s let him pitch for a season. He ain’t done that yet, and he ain’t done that yet. Now, I mean, you know, he’s great when he’s out there, but that’s so was Bradish, you know, so is means pitcher. I
Luke Jones 11:02
mean, it’s any pitcher. I mean pitchers break I mean pictures with
Nestor J. Aparicio 11:06
five eras arms falling off is different than pitchers with three era so, you know, falling off and the guys that are is, is means Bradish, uh, certainly Rodriguez, moving into the is where, when you take the ball five six innings every fifth day and you can hold the other team down, that’s something not everybody can do. We’ve been looking for that for 30 years around here, since Messina and question, yeah, and the your caution and your intellect about this, and your expertise and maturity about this, not being a doctor, but we’ve seen enough pitching injuries to know, like Rodriguez isn’t taking the ball Monday, when the birds get home. Um, you know, based on that, would be just shocking. And I think the Bradish thing, I was a little alarmed with you back in January, saying, all right, you know, it’s off season. Just chill it out a little bit. Um, you know, if it bends, it breaks, usually with pitching. I mean, it’s very I mean, you, you’ve given me a couple of examples. The Japanese kid Tanaka that came over for the Yankees had his arm fall off and they held it together. The kid that pitches for the Phillies, Nola, right? I mean, but few and far between. I mean, arm trouble is it’s death for pitchers. Man, anything that affects that you cannot pitch at that level, at full effort, throwing the ball 95 miles an hour, when things hurt at all, even a little bit. I mean, yeah,
Luke Jones 12:29
well, and I think again, the call, the The difference here is when you’re talking about the UCL, when you’re talking about Tommy John surgery, anytime you’re talking about a pitcher with a rotator cuff or an elbow. I mean, those are obviously much bigger red flags. Look, I am not sitting here sounding the alarm that this means Grayson Rodriguez is definitely done this year, or that he’s gonna miss time next year, or anything like that. It’s a lat strain, right? I mean, we’re not talking about something, you know, unless you have a grade three lat strain. That’s typically not a surgical requirement. But it takes some time. It takes time to
Nestor J. Aparicio 13:02
recover. It takes time you don’t have time in the middle of August, when you’re in for exactly I mean,
Luke Jones 13:07
even even two years ago, when he was able to return in the month of September, albeit still pitching in the minors, and the Orioles are going to slow play him at that point in time. You know that that was an early June diagnosis, that was an early June injury. I mean, we’re two months ahead of that timeline now. So, I mean, if, if it’s a grade two, I can’t see any reason how or anyway, he’s coming coming back. I mean, maybe there would be a scenario under that where he’d come back, and maybe you could use him in the bullpen a little bit, but that would be so again. And I’m trying not to get ahead of myself here. You’re hoping that this was so preliminary, such a slight hint of discomfort, that they’ll do the imaging and they’ll say, You know what, we’re not even sure if this is really a grade one lat strain, but Grayson, we’re really glad that you said something. We’re really glad that we looked at this. We’re going to shut you down until you know you’re not going to throw for two weeks, and then we’re going to see how you’re feeling. We’re going to image it and see what the you know, if there’s inflammation all that at that point, and then we’ll build you back up, and we’ll target a second week of September, kind of return, right? I mean, if he can return in a month, then game on, right? I don’t know if that means they’re going to win the division, but they’re still in great shape. You know, they they lost on Tuesday night, and again, we haven’t even talked about the game, and there’s meat on the bone to talk about with the game, but the Yankees were postponed. They’ve fallen in the second place, albeit by just a half game. But they’ve got some wiggle room here. I mean, even if Grayson Rodriguez, like I said, even if he’s out for some time here, I still think this team still in a great position to make the playoffs. But if you don’t have him, if there’s questions about his availability, the rest of the way, it just it really changes the complexion of for me, how far they can go. You know, any scenario for me, you. With this team making a deep run is Corbin burns, obviously being Corbin burns, Grayson Rodriguez, being the best version of his of himself and Zach effel, pitching more like he did with Tampa Bay a year ago than he has this year, which, hey, he’s been good with his
Nestor J. Aparicio 15:16
fifth or sixth inning in those games. Game One, two and three, you have to have a chance to win. It can’t be seven to two in the fifth inning, and
Luke Jones 15:22
that’s where we go into the bullpen. And you can kind of get by. We’ve and we’ve seen this. I mean, Cleveland, when they went to the World Series the year, they took the cubs to seven games, right? You know, they they had two pitch two starting pitchers that they felt really good about at that point in time. But their bullpen was so locked down and so amazing that they kind of just made it work the other guy, when they’d start someone else, they were out by the fourth inning, and they just went through it with their bullpen. The Orioles don’t have that kind of bullpen, at least on paper right now, especially when one of the two guys that you brought in to make a difference for you, Gregory Soto has been a disaster so far. I mean, another disastrous outing for him in his three first three appearances with the Orioles, Soto has surrendered eight earned runs, nine hits and three walks. He’s gotten a total of four outs Nestor. So I
Nestor J. Aparicio 16:13
don’t know how you give him the ball again. I don’t know what scenario, what game losing? Yeah, what game you’re losing, bring them in.
Luke Jones 16:21
I mean, that’s the thing. And I mean, they sent out Keegan Aiken for him. And look, I’m not going to sit here and say, Oh, what a terrible move, because I saw the upside that Michael is saw, but it’s not happening for him right now. And I mean, you were in a position where Burt Smith pitching and, you know, had relieved Albert Suarez gives up a single Brandon Hyde goes to Soto. Look, there was a there’s been a lot of second guessing of Brandon Hyde various times lately
Nestor J. Aparicio 16:51
on lineups and substitutions, he is under a scrutiny that you don’t get under when you win 52 games, you know? But
Luke Jones 16:58
I think that was a situation again. And I’ve said this to you before. I’m a Brandon Hyde guy, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t times where I say, you know, I would have left this pitcher in for one more batter, or I might have pulled this guy a little more quickly than he did in this spot. Or I don’t know why he felt the need to use an act this, you know, a fourth reliever in a game where they’re up by five runs, rather than just sticking with the previous guy and letting him get a couple more outs. But you know, that was a spot where we’ve seen the Orioles over and over and over, and this is going to, this is going to transition into the pinch hitting decisions that they made a couple innings later. But we’ve seen the Orioles over and over and over. Prefer the platoon advantage. We’ve seen that with pitchers. We’ve seen that with the bullpen usage. We’ve seen that with pinch hitters coming off the bench. We have seen that over and over and over. And I see, I continue to see fans crush Brandon Hyde on that as though that is a move that he’s making with full autonomy and acting on his own. It is an organizational philosophy that they want the platoon advantage to the point where we see what happened in the in the eighth inning where Austin Slater pinch hits for Jackson holiday. I didn’t love that. However, Jackson holiday has one career hit against left handers in the major leagues. Austin Slater, who has not, by the way, my manager, has not been good against left handed pitching this year, which is a big reason why the Orioles got him for nothing, but in his career, and this is why the Orioles wanted him, he’s been good against left handed pitching, so I didn’t love that move. I can at least live with that move. And Austin Slater drew a walk, and it kind of worked out however you get to a couple batters later. And Colton cowser, who has been the Orioles best hitter over the last two weeks, I mean, had the hitting streak
Nestor J. Aparicio 18:58
all of that. Well, holiday hasn’t stunk either since they brought him. Of course, of course. But again, if you’re going with guys are hitting the ball well and playing well. Those are two. Those are the two guys in line. They’re better than rushman. Lately,
Luke Jones 19:09
we noted, and that’s why I said I didn’t love pinch hitting for holiday. I can accept that at least. You know, we can have moves that we second guess and say, All right, I see where you’re coming from there. And he drew, he even drew a walk. So it’s not like the move failed, even if he didn’t like the move, even if he thought succeed your process. So however, when you pinch hit Colton cowser against the guy who, yes, is a left hander, but if you look at the splits for the Toronto lefty, and you know his name, Cabrera Genesis Carrera. You looked at the splits, he did not have dramatically extreme right right handed, left handed splits as a left handed pitcher, and you’re going to send Coby Mayo up to the plate, who does not yet have a major league hit. Does not mean that I’m burying the guy. Does not mean that I’m not really excited about his potential, but you’re going to pinch hit Colton cowser, who also has been good against left handed pitching of late, much better than he had been for covid Mayo, Nestor, there’s no excusing that move. In my mind, that is a bad decision. It’s bad process. He was asked about it after the game.
Nestor J. Aparicio 20:25
I think he was looking for Mayo to home run or something, right? Like, like, muscle one up, because that’s what cows are, hits,
Luke Jones 20:31
home runs. Colton cows are. I mean, Colton cows are, if you look at how this surge he’s had over the last three weeks, I mean, there are a lot of people that thinks he’s in the in the driver’s seat to potentially win Rookie of the Year. I mean, that’s what kind of player we’re talking about here. And I get he’s not perfect, but to pinch hit someone who doesn’t even have a major league hit yet for Colton cows, or in that spot against the lefty who doesn’t have these extreme splits where righties crush him and lefties are helpless. I just that made my head hurt. That made my head hurt. And, you know, I don’t say things like that very often when it comes to second guessing covid,
Nestor J. Aparicio 21:11
which may have come up, and I was hoping for a big moment from him. You know what I mean? Like, in my heart,
Luke Jones 21:17
it’s not a movie, it’s a baseball game, it’s a movie. It’s not but he’s
Nestor J. Aparicio 21:20
capable, you see, so he’s got a bat.
Luke Jones 21:23
Colton cows capable. Colton cows has actually done stuff in the major leagues. I just I that’s indefensible for me. I can understand and accept begrudgingly, pinch hitting. Austin Slater for Jackson holiday. Coby Mayo for Colton cows are in that spot. Nope, nope. Can’t do it. I mean, I just can’t. And I’m a Brandon Hyde guy. I’m not someone that sits here and picks apart every move and basically crushes the guy based on the result and ignoring the first time. Are
Nestor J. Aparicio 21:55
you chippy with Brandon Hyde?
Luke Jones 21:57
I mean, it’s just, it’s a bad decision. I just, I don’t know how you defend that. I just don’t know how you defend that. I mean, especially, look, Kobe Mayo is going to be fine. And I think Kobe Mayo could be an all star corner infielder at some point in his career. I mean, I think he’s got that kind of potential with the bat, but that doesn’t mean you do that on august 6, 2024 when he’s yet to record his first major league hit, and he wasn’t in the starting lineup even to because you’re giving him a little bit of a breather, and you’re still trying to keep Ramona Reus in the mix. So if you look sick with the bat, by the way, too, if you preferred starting Ramona Reus over Kobe Mayo to begin with, you’re really going to pinch it Coby Mayo for Colton Houser in that spot. I just, I’m sorry, I just can’t excuse that one again. Holiday, Austin Slater for holiday. I can live with that one. I get it. Didn’t necessarily like it in that spot, but I get it pinch hitting for cows are there. I just but going back to the big picture question here in the Orioles lineup, think about it. Who has been platoon proof in terms of not being pinch hit for latent games depending on the lefty righty matchup. Gunner Henderson doesn’t get pinch hit for Jordan. Westburg this year has not gotten pinch hit for yet. Last year, he platooned with Adam Frazier, so we saw it with him. Santander and Richmond are switch hitters, so you don’t have that issue. But we’ve seen mount Castle be hit for, we’ve seen Ryan O’Hearn be hit for, you know, so we’ve seen this again. Is that all a brand and Hyde thing? Oh, it’s not this perception that Mike Elias and sigmai Dell are sitting up in, you know, where the front office sits during a game, and they’re just saying, Oh no, Brandon, they still in the righty lefty thing. Again, no, it’s an organizational thing. I mean, that’s, that’s why they acquired at two o’clock
Nestor J. Aparicio 23:49
that Mayo is going to bat in that situation.
Luke Jones 23:55
Yes, and no, I, I think that’s a situation where you got to open your eyes a little bit and look at reality, right? I mean, again, we’re talking about someone who doesn’t even have a major league hit. This isn’t This. This. If Eloy Jimenez was coming off the bench to hit for Colton. Cows are there? I still don’t like it, but at least there’s someone with a track record of Major League success, albeit not this year. But at least that makes sense and is grounded in a track record. Well, you’re
Nestor J. Aparicio 24:23
starting to say you’re feeling differently about cows or against left handed pitching. Then, is what you’re saying you feel different about that. I
Luke Jones 24:29
mean, in general, recently, yes, but covid Mayo doesn’t have a major league hit Nestor. You’re you hit right handed. Does that mean you should pinch hit for Colton cowser, I hit right handed. Does that mean I should pinch it for Golden Gaussian. Of course not. I mean, if we’re just going to be so married to the lefty, righty thing, then truly, you can just have a computer manage a
Nestor J. Aparicio 24:49
team. Well, they are analytically based. They do manage by whatever, but whatever has to be. Some of their use would be this morning. It would they have a reason on paper that you don’t know about, I don’t know about, I. Don’t know about it. I’m not allowed to ask him questions. But there is a reason. There was a rationale for it, other than just righty lefty. I’m sure that involved cows are in the picture. I would think that they’re thinking about it more than I would on a stratomatic and say it’s righty lefty. Let’s just go with it.
Luke Jones 25:18
I’m not sure there is okay, and that’s why, because covid Mayo doesn’t have any production, right? And, okay, Jacob,
Nestor J. Aparicio 25:25
I can see Brian, and I say, Well, we’re trying to get him started, you know? I mean that start.
Luke Jones 25:30
You don’t pinch hit him in a huge spot in the eighth inning, then play him.
Nestor J. Aparicio 25:34
I mean, like, well, you’re down three runs and you’re not yelling there, and you’re left, right? You know, let
Luke Jones 25:39
me be let me be clear. I’m I’m not yelling at you. You’re
Nestor J. Aparicio 25:45
gonna be all you want, but I’m just saying none of that made sense to be a jerk caller. I’m just trying to listen their side of you, the point of view, so you’re not killing them this morning. Lord, I don’t, I’ve never say whatever I want about him, right? I just I looked at it, and when Mayo came to the plate, I acknowledged that they were pinch hitting a left hander for a left hander, which is baseball, right? That’s baseball 101. That’s the way the gods draw it up to go, right. And I would agree with that, but when I saw him come up, I thought, well, they’re looking for him to get a hold of one the way he did 30 times in 200 plate appearances in Norfolk or whatever, and just put the ball up in the air and let him see if he can crush once even get a hold of one. And I That’s how I felt. Then I saw the at bat, and I saw he’s swinging at what he’s not swinging at, that sort of look of, oh shit, I’m overwhelmed here. I’ve done strong. I’m striking out 50% of my time. As he walked back to the dugout, I saw the whites of his eyes on the mass and broadcast, and I thought, what you’re thinking right now, that that probably was a mistake. When Brandon Hyde saw him walking back to the dugout, Brandon high probably looked over at cowser and thought, well, cows are might only hit a double down the line, but the inning would be alive, or if he struck out, I wouldn’t know if he struck out. About it, I could say, Well, I’m not batting a kid that doesn’t have a hit. Yeah, that’s what I
Luke Jones 27:09
mean, right? And that’s where I just look at this. And I just, I don’t, I can’t fathom that they did that. I mean, again, holiday at the moment,
Nestor J. Aparicio 27:19
I wasn’t outraged, I swear. I mean, you’re more outraged the day after. And again,
Luke Jones 27:24
I was in the middle. I actually, full disclosure, I had the game on. I was working on some writing. I was working on my 12 Raven thoughts from training camp earlier in the day. I actually thought initially, and again, I was kind of half listing a half watching and trying to get some writing done because I wanted to get to bed at a decent hour. But I actually had thought that they hit Mayo for Arias at first, and when I looked up and I kind of saw that he hit for cows or, like, it’s one of those things that it, I didn’t process it at first, because it was so nonsensical in my mind to do that in that spot, beyond the lefty, righty thing just because of what you just said. Kobe mayo, he scuffled in his first few games. And that doesn’t mean that
Nestor J. Aparicio 28:06
he’s, I don’t have him strike that walk back
Luke Jones 28:10
feels right. I mean, if you’re trying to get him going, then just stop playing for a Reus. Like, start them. Like, continue to run them out there and start them at right off the bat. Anyway. Jacob, Calvin Meyer, the sun put the splits out at as last night’s game was, I think it was as it was concluding would have been right after but So Genesis, Genesis Cabrera, the the left handed reliever for Toronto who was out there in the eighth inning, his splits in 2024 right handed batters, A 778, ops. Left Handed batters, an 817, ops. Pretty put, pretty platoon. Neutral there. Right Colton cows are splits in 2024 against right handed pitching, an 820, ops, against left handed pitching a 719, ops. Now better against right handed pitching is 719 so prohibitive, especially when you look at how he’s done over the last month or so against left handed pitching. That’s not an extreme there and again. Then you look at Coby mayo, and we’re going to use this numbers from the miners Nestor, against right handed pitching a 1048, ops, against left handed pitching a 776, ops. I don’t I hear what you’re saying, and I generally would agree with you, and that’s why I said Austin Slater’s career numbers against lefties. And understanding Jackson holiday is still an infant as it pertains to Major League Baseball, I don’t I didn’t love it, but I get it. At least. I didn’t get this because, to me, the whole rationale that you pinch hit for Jackson holiday with a vet is the same rationale you use for not bringing Kobe Mayo off the bench to hit for cows or who is also a rookie, but obviously has almost a full season now under his belt of Major League at bat. So I just I did not get that. I did not get that at all. And I still don’t get it the morning after. I won’t get it three days from now, and that’s I’m a Kobe Mayo guy. I’m not down on Kobe mayo. Down on
Nestor J. Aparicio 30:10
them after losing by three runs in a game where they stunk in the picture, and the relief, really pitching was awful and all that, I you’re looking for a free run, home run, from whomever there, or at least a double down the line to get back in the game. And none of that happened and well, and part of the issue was they had one hit until that, yeah, so so they deserve to lose, no matter they did.
Luke Jones 30:33
Of course they did. I mean, Albert Suarez was, you know, in Jackson holiday hitting another home run, spent
Nestor J. Aparicio 30:38
15 minutes going through one at bat, and cows could have struck out too. He could have
Luke Jones 30:42
but I can’t ignore bad process. That was really bad process there. And there are plenty of times where I defend their process, and I they are. They love the platoon advantage. They absolutely do. But that that was a situation where you can’t see the forest for the trees, like, take a step back and think about what you’re doing here, Brandon, and that I just I can’t excuse that. I can’t condone that whatsoever. Like I said, I could live with the first decision. Didn’t love it, but accept it. That was over managing, overthinking. I don’t even want to say overthinking, because I don’t know if there was a lot of thinking involved there, other than just righty, Lefty blind, because again, Kobe Mayo still looking for his first major league hit. I mean, oh, that was one that, all right. Luke a towel. I’m
Nestor J. Aparicio 31:30
gonna hammer him off. They’re gonna play some more games in Toronto. They’re gonna play some games in Tampa this weekend. All of our coverage up at Baltimore policy. We’re gonna be doing the Maryland crab cake tour on the 23rd when the cheatstros come to town on Friday the 23rd we’ll be at Faith these we’ll have the Marilyn lottery scratch offs to give away the gold rush, sevens, doublers, our friends at Liberty, pure solutions, keeping our water crystal clear, as well as Jiffy Lube, multi care, getting Luke out to Owings Mills this week, and then down to the ballpark on Friday night, as the Eagles fans come in, and we had the Phillies fans two months ago. Now the Eagles fans coming in here. I’m sure there’ll be more drunk on Friday night, because, let’s be honest, there’s not much more to do at preseason games on Friday night. Lucas around all week, and find him at Baltimore. Luke, plenty of Orioles information up Baltimore positive right now, plenty on the offensive line. John Feinstein joined us this week. I’ve had so many great guests around here. If you’re around last week, you saw all the stuff we did with sportico and the ownership part. John Eisenberg did an hour with me of the history of Orioles baseball and peel back some of the bird tapes. John Miller, the author of The Earl Weaver book, is coming on soon. Joel poily, who wrote the book on Tom Maddie, who’s based out in the Tampa area, is going to come on a little later on the week as well, talking about Tom Maddie, as well as other things. So it’s summer around here, they do play six nights a week, at least seven nights sometimes. So they’ll get back after it in Toronto. For all my friends up in Toronto, enjoy yourself up there. Have a good time. Enjoy the cleanliness of Canadian culture. He’s Luke. I’m Nestor. We’re gonna talk some football back for more. Wnst. Am 5070, Towson, Baltimore, where we never stop talking Baltimore positive i.
