As the All Star Game in Philadelphia features just one Baltimore Orioles player, Luke Jones and Nestor discuss how the lack of productivity of Gunnar Henderson has hurt the ballclub thus far into a dud of a season in Birdland.

Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Baltimore Orioles’ struggles, particularly after losing to the Chicago Cubs. The Orioles are in last place, eight games under .500, and have not performed well since their long home stand. Luke highlighted the team’s pitching improvements, noting their starting ERA is sixth in the majors and bullpen ERA is fourth since May 22. However, the offense, led by underperforming star Gunner Henderson, has been a major letdown. Nestor compared Henderson’s current performance to Cal Ripken’s early career, emphasizing the high expectations set for Henderson. Both agreed the team needs significant improvements to compete effectively.

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Host the Maryland Crab Cake Tour segment at Faisal’s on Lexington Market on Friday with Luke Jones, including coordinating appearances by the Maryland Lottery, GBMC, and Farnham & Dermer.
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Meet with GBMC next week as part of the Maryland Crab Cake Tour partnership work.
• [ ] Attend one of the Ore House Pub shows in Wildwood during the upcoming trip (either Tommy Comwell with the Dirty Pints on Thursday night or the solo acoustic set on Friday afternoon) and provide photos from the event.

Maryland Crab Cake Tour and Personal Updates

• Nestor Aparicio introduces the Maryland Crab Cake Tour and mentions Luke Jones will be joining him at Fateh Lee’s on Friday.
• Nestor talks about the Maryland Lottery and GBMC, and mentions his health improvements.
• Nestor and Luke discuss their vacation plans, including Luke’s trip to Wildwood and his niece’s boardwalk adventures.
• Nestor mentions upcoming events, including Tommy Conwell playing at the Ore House Pub and his plans for the All-Star game in Philadelphia.

Nestor’s All-Star Game Experience and Orioles’ Performance

• Nestor shares a story about a horse stepping on his foot during the 1996 All-Star game.
• Nestor reminisces about the 1996 All-Star game, including meeting Earl Weaver and receiving a Ravens hat from John Ogden.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the Orioles’ recent performance, including their loss to the Chicago Cubs and their current standing in last place.
• Nestor expresses frustration with the Orioles’ management and their handling of season ticket renewals.

Fan Reactions and Season Ticket Renewals

• Nestor reads a post from an Orioles fanatic hangout criticizing the Orioles’ management and season ticket renewal process.
• Nestor shares his own frustration with the Orioles’ treatment of fans and media.
• Nestor recounts a story about a friend, Melanie, who couldn’t afford playoff tickets despite being a dedicated fan.
• Nestor emphasizes the lack of respect and integrity from the Orioles’ management towards fans and media.

Orioles’ Offensive and Defensive Performance

• Nestor and Luke discuss the Orioles’ offensive and defensive performance, including the struggles of players like Gunner Henderson and Adley Rutschman.
• Nestor mentions his expectations for players like Henderson and Rutschman, and his disappointment with their current performance.
• Luke highlights the Orioles’ starting pitching performance, noting their ERA and innings thrown since May 22.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the bullpen’s role in the team’s struggles and the potential trades that might happen.

Gunner Henderson’s Performance and Expectations

• Nestor and Luke delve into the performance of Gunner Henderson, comparing it to Cal Ripken’s early career.
• Nestor argues that Henderson’s current performance is not meeting the high expectations set by his past performance and media hype.
• Luke acknowledges Henderson’s struggles but emphasizes the importance of a star player’s performance on a team.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the broader implications of Henderson’s performance on the team’s overall success.

Orioles’ Future and Management Decisions

• Nestor and Luke discuss the potential future moves by the Orioles’ management, including possible trades and changes in the coaching staff.
• Nestor expresses frustration with the management’s lack of action and accountability.
• Luke highlights the importance of addressing the team’s offensive and defensive weaknesses to improve their performance.
• Nestor and Luke conclude with a discussion about the upcoming events and their plans for the rest of the season.

Nestor Aparicio 0:01
Welcome home. We are W N S T A M 1570 Towson Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. We’re going to be doing the Maryland Crab Cake Tour Fateh Lee’s on Friday. I don’t know what the Orioles magic number to be eliminated will be by then, but Luke Jones will be there with me. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland Lottery. We’ll have the Maryland treasures, our friends at GBMC. I’m getting together with them next week, loving that and feeling healthier and getting better as I sit on my padded seat, as well as our friends at Farnham and Dermer, who I opened the windows for the weekend. The winch, I have fresh air, so Vernon Dermer, Zach, you’re on vacation, go to the beach next week, you have to worry about anything except the plumbing people. If your AC breaks down, that you need those folks in the American Standard, folks. 410 36777 We kid Zach, we give him the time off, and I’m giving Luke next week off. He just kind of takes it off, it’s his Wildwood week, it’s his Max pizza week, do you gain weight on your vacation, or typically

Luke Jones 1:04
usually a couple pounds? Yeah, I don’t do

Nestor Aparicio 1:06
it right if I do it right.

Luke Jones 1:07
Well, I mean, it does help. I mean, when you go anywhere that has a boardwalk, I mean, like part of my routine is in

Nestor Aparicio 1:13
your niece. I was doting on you and your love affair with your nieces, and how stupid you’re going to be with cotton candy, now that this kid can hold your hand and walk up and down the boardwalk.

Luke Jones 1:23
Oh yeah, I mean it’s.. yeah, I’ve already.. I was getting ready to say, when you have a boardwalk, the one thing you can do is you’ve got a place to walk plenty, right? Like your

Nestor Aparicio 1:34
sister and brother being knuckle heads and running around, now it’s turned into like you got like kids,

Luke Jones 1:40
yeah. I mean, like, and let’s be clear, it’s always been a family vacation, but yeah, when you’re talking about young adults, and you know, we would drag our mom to the occasional bar, or whatever,

Nestor Aparicio 1:50
Mom said for these kids, and then you take it out and get wild up, get crunk up North Wildwood, Tommy Wells playing, Tommy Comwell’s playing the Ore House next Thursday, I want to send you up there,

Luke Jones 2:00
we did so last year. Try, let me make sure I have this

Nestor Aparicio 2:05
aisle. I didn’t know where the hell it is. Avalon,

Luke Jones 2:08
well, there, I mean, there are a couple spots in Wildwood itself, but we actually did that once last year, I think. Go, go gadget was playing, and they’re just, you know, they’re relatively well-known cover band that just does a lot of, like, they’re famous for doing 30 songs in 30 minutes, like different stuff like that, but yeah, the young adults, I use young in quotes at this point in time, because none of us are that young anymore. We did that.

Nestor Aparicio 2:36
Here’s the deal, I’m sending you out, and you got to do one or the other of these events, next Thursday, the Ore House Pub, nine to one, that’s a late night, or put the kids to bed. Who do you, you don’t care about the it’s the all-star break. It’s Thursday night, Tom Conwell is playing, not just Tommy, he’s playing with the Dirty Pints, like Pineapple, the Dirty Pints. He’s playing at Sea Isle City at the Ore House Pub, and then if that’s like not good enough, take your mom the next day, five to nine, make your sister watch your own kids, and then take mom and take your brother and take your brother along for solo. He’s just him in the guitar, five to nine, you know, Eddie Lauer style at the Ore House pub on Friday the safety. I want to see some pictures of you and Tommy Comwell jamming. That’s what I’m cool. I can’t make any promises. I’ll pay for the drinks. Well, I’ll buy the ball. Oh, it’s

Luke Jones 3:30
not that, it’s just let me do it for you. And you’re also talking the last

Nestor Aparicio 3:36
great, you’re going to be cheap, you know, like money. You drink a lot. This is going to be a $50 tab for me, and it’s going to be the best night of your vacation.

Luke Jones 3:44
Yeah, yeah, but notice

Nestor Aparicio 3:46
how I’m like trying to do anything I can do other than talk about the Orioles right now in the Chicago Cubs, because we’ll do that at Faisal Friday. But, but I hope you have a great vacation, and hope you don’t see, I would say don’t watch any baseball, but I’m going to be doing your job in Philadelphia on Monday and Tuesday, running around, you know. Last time I was in Philly for the All-Star game, and Todd Radom and I are going to talk about this, because he’s coming on the show. By the way, this is his 30th All-Star game, you know? He’s done logos for the all, and he lives in Philly, so he and I are roast porked up. You know, we’re going to have a couple of dirty pints in Fishtown as well, on Monday and Tuesday, the home run derby. The last time I was there, something unique happened to me that’s only happened once in my life. I hope it never happens again. And I don’t mean Cal Ripken getting a broken nose from.. I was gonna say, I thought, did

Luke Jones 4:32
you have your nose broken too?

Nestor Aparicio 4:34
Yeah, and.. and I’m gonna share this picture too. I’m gonna pull it up because I grabbed it, and I want to make sure that I can find it, because my friend, then Scott Wachter, had a camera on the field in 1996 and I – this is the only picture that I know of that I have on the field, and it was actually taken, and I can’t do this at Faith Lees, I want to do it on the share to share it with our audience, people that love you. Hate me, and come in, because I talk too much. See, these horses here, these are the acidity courses, and the Maryland Treasures, the Merrill Lottery, and they’re similar to the thoroughbreds that run, and they’re nice horses. And all in Philadelphia, they have Arabs, which you probably saw on Rocky Adria, you know, running. They have the horses and the Arabs, but at the vet in 1996 they had mounted police and the cops, and I was getting my press credential underneath of the vet, which kind of looked like it was this glass office underneath, and there were horses and the ramps to the vet. You went to the vet, right? You’ve been to the, yeah, I mean, I don’t have much folly and very shaded and circular, and it was where all the ticket offices and stuff were, you know what I mean. And I went down there on the All-Star game, and it was really crowded and congested, and I was trying to get to the doorway, and there was a friggin horse, big white horse. The horse stepped on my foot.

Luke Jones 6:00
Oh, that’s when a

Nestor Aparicio 6:01
horse steps on your foot, that’s not like a person stepping

Luke Jones 6:05
on your foot, or

Nestor Aparicio 6:05
say pretty please, you don’t forget the day a horse stepped on your foot. So, I remember the All-Star game in 1996 like it was yesterday, even though it was 30 years ago. Now, you’ll give me the date, was it like july 13? I don’t know, but it’s this week, it was this week in 1996 so 30 years ago this week, and and I have I have one picture from the field that I’m aware of, and it happens to be this picture, and I shared this with Todd Radom, and it’s Earl Weaver. I love that shirt, by the way, which is why I think I’ll find this pass and this lanyard, which I still have, and I’ll share it. And Earl was out, and you love the flip phone, right? That’s a cell one flip phone. Great, but I sent it to Radom because he and I were going back and forth about the Home Run Derby in 96 Ron Howard, Opie, Richie Cunningham did a bumper for me. Jerry Stackhouse played in the, in the media, in the legends of the Home Run Derby game, and I just remember Jon Stewart, who’s now legendary comedian Jon Stewart, Daily Show, Jon Stewart, he also did a bumper, but Earl Weaver did the show, Earl did a bumper for me on the field that day, but the bunting, look at the bunting in the vet that gives it away as the 1996 all-star game, and my badge, truly a period piece there for you, and if you, if you could see the hat, the brim of the hat, that is the hat that John Ogden gave me on the days on april 19, 1996 at the Felt Forum, New York, that is the only Baltimore Raven hat that existed at the time, because they didn’t make them yet. We didn’t barely had colors. It was July of 96 and that hat is my Raven hat, 1,000,000% It’s my silver Ravens hat, that was the one next to Eddie Carroll and the mean machine phone in April, so 30, that’s something, yeah, years ago, yeah, the team still sucks, and I still miss Earl Weaver, and the All-Star game, we had more representatives in 96 because the baseball team was good in 96 and Cal Ripken was there, and he got his nose broken, it didn’t even matter, because I think Randy Myers or some other creeps were there nonetheless. How you’ve been going out to the ballpark, like seeing the Cubs fans kind of take the stadium over, and nobody there on television. Let’s get into the game, we’ll talk all-star game, but I, I’m going to the all-star game next week, and I hope you have the best vacation ever. That means, yeah,

Luke Jones 8:35
yeah, I mean, I hope you have a good time as well, but I mean, it’s don’t really know what to say at this point. I mean, it’s the latest example of they win three in a row, they don’t win their fourth in a row on Sunday, they come out of the off day, it’s home stand, you say okay. I mean, we keep saying, is this the time, if it’s going to happen, is this the time, is this the time, and well, they, they dropped the opener. In all honesty, I, I actually thought they might win Tuesday night and then lose the final two games of the series, so you know, but they’re just, they’re not good enough. And with the Boston Red Sox, by the way, having won their fourth in a row Tuesday night, the Orioles are in last place again. So

Nestor Aparicio 9:20
that’s the lead, by the way, and I didn’t, that really is the lead. The lead is early, I mean, it’s the lead.

Luke Jones 9:27
Yeah, I mean, it’s that’s the

Nestor Aparicio 9:29
headline.

Luke Jones 9:30
Sure, sure. I mean, they’re they’re back to eight games under 500 I mean, they’re they’ve made no hay whatsoever since going back to that long home stand that we talked about at the time,

Nestor Aparicio 9:41
fired this weekend. I’m asking out loud, I these guys don’t know what they’re doing. They’re drafting baseball, but like, would he fire Alberna as to make himself feel better? They’re all going to get fired anyway. I don’t know. I like, I’m looking at this, and I think I’m like, in all, I mean, what I say to Katie Griggs when. Run into her Monday at the All-Star game, and she’s getting her own All-Star game. Like, what do you say to these people?

Luke Jones 10:07
I mean, I think the fact that they drew 16,000 people on a Tuesday night against the Chicago Cubs with a crowd that had quite a few Cubs fans within

Nestor Aparicio 10:18
that says, like, but I think that says

Luke Jones 10:21
everything right there. I think people were speaking very loudly with their absence from the ballpark, and I mean that’s it’s pretty evident. I mean, we

Nestor Aparicio 10:32
sent you sort of a snarky text the other day because it came to me, one of the listeners who followed the season ticket renewal thing, yeah, the season ticket rule thing, he sent me a very cryptic, like, Facebook link, which always kind of weirds me out, but I trusted him. There’s an Orioles fanatic hangout, okay? And I’m gonna read what I saw here, okay? I just want to read this out loud, and I’m gonna pull it up, because it’s on the internet, and I don’t do this, isn’t my shtick to do John Oliver or Jon Stewart, and full screenshots up of everything, but I think in the middle of this, we talk about how crappy the team is on the field, off the field, how poorly I’ve been treated, how they probably would try to get on the phone and wreck my, my media pass on Monday or Tuesday if they hear about it. So I hope they do that. I mean, there’s such.. it’s creepy. I’ll hang out in Philly, I’ll get a cheese stick if they throw me out, you know. Last time I had a press pass that they’re their thing, their general manager came up and treated me like dog meat in Kansas City when his team was down three games to nothing, and that was all 12 years ago. So I don’t expect to be treated well on Monday, but this is how their fans are treated. Wow, not sure who in the Oriole ticket office needs to learn how to read a room or how to guess the best timing of announcements, but I received my 2027 season ticket renewal info via email today with a decision deadline of august 7. I gave you a longer deadline on the Boston trip, blue, and a first installment payment on august 11. What the hell, a W-TH? I would have gone with the F, but you know it’s a nice person here, Steve Jones. The season is barely half over. The team has been disappointing, yet you want commitments before the season even finishes. And I thought the Ravens were tone deaf. They at least wait until the season is over. Tone deaf, clueless, arrogant, desperate. There were only 40 likes and 49 replies and messages like whatever I know, and, and again, I don’t hang out at Oriole Hangout or in Oriole bars or in Oriole places, I’m generally persona non grata, because I called this shit unacceptable 20 years ago and staked my whole effing reputation, my company, my lifeline, so that Rob Long could get a job working for Mass and doing the pregame show 20 years later, right? Like, so on and on and on, so that the fan could have a relationship with Dub, with the Orioles years later, and Bal, and they could all run for cover 20 years later, when this is still a disaster, and the next ownership groups coming in, and unlike the old ownership group, that at least, and I tell you what, man, I got a – if anybody sees TJ Brightman, or any of the rest of them that treated me like garbage and hated me for 20 years, because the Angelo’s family told him to, at least those people, despite the awful baseball, would give him a free Diet Coke. My friend Melanie, whom I love, who took me to a game as her guest. I think you remember I grew up with Melanie from Dundalk. She had an extra ticket one night for a Birdland thing. It took me and my wife with her $12 tickets that she could barely afford, and was telling me how she couldn’t afford the playoff tickets. This is three, four years ago, and she loves the Orioles like her heart, like her family, and she was so proud of the fact that we could go into the air-conditioned place and get a free Coke, like literally. She was so excited that she could buy me a free Coke at the ballpark. Makes me want to f and cry, dude. I effed up last week, I’m not going to do it this week.

Nestor Aparicio 13:57
And I remember walking around that ballpark night that they were going to clinch, and there was nobody there, and the people that were there are people like Melanie sitting in the front row of some special access areas with their score books out, listening to Brett Hollander the way they listened to Chuck Thompson, the way they listened to John Miller, the way they listened to Fred Manford, the way that Jim Hunter, dude, these people have no respect for me. They have no respect for you, getting in your car and going down there every night. They have no respect for Steve Jones, Oriole Hangout, me, Rob Long, Melanie Newman, Jim Palmer, Ben McDonald, like, and I tell them to their face, if they had any integrity at all. I offered to bring them crab cakes and be nice to them, because I didn’t know them, because that’s how you treat strangers when you’re from Dundalk. You treat people with respect, you treat your listeners with respect, you treat your sponsors with respect, you treat your family with. Respect, you treat the people who respect you with even more respect. It’s terrible. This is what their fans are saying, not Nestor, say not the prick from Dundalk, the brick, Venezuelan, Aparicio, Outcast, Hispanic. I’ve had integrity from the beginning, I’ve told the truth. In the beginning, I’ll continue to tell the truth, but I’m telling you what, man, the empty seats tell the truth. Luke, and I’ve told everybody that would listen. Every one of those empty seats was full for many, many years, with your dad, your mom, your little butt, your sister’s little butt coming down a couple times a year, safety day, all of that, and we all grew into it, and people are walking away, man. People are walking away because of the price, the arrogance, the same way people get on Southwest Airlines, and they want $20 for this seat, $30 for this seat. For it’s like, come on, man, come on, and the Orioles can’t afford that. They don’t, they don’t have any collateral built up here. They don’t have any goodwill built up. They don’t have any winning built up. They don’t have any trust. I don’t trust them. What? Why should any of you listening or watching my voice at this point? Why should you trust them? I don’t trust them. I don’t to do anything right to make good decisions. I don’t even think that Rubenstein and Araghetti are even like smoked up about this. I don’t think they love the team enough to care how bad it is. Maybe they care about the money part of it, but they don’t care about Melanie, not Newman, my Melanie, my Dundalk Melanie, my friend. It makes my heart sick as I’m going to the All-Star game and looking through these old pictures and thinking, since that day with Earl Weaver, how much fun have I had as an Oriole fan, other than the press passes they’ve given me, in the radio shows I’ve done, and then the backside of Greg Bader for 22 years, getting back slapped like I don’t belong, like my station doesn’t belong, my audience doesn’t belong, the fans don’t belong, special fans belong, the ones that believe in the mystical Oriole magic, they’re the only ones invited, people with questions like me and Lock and Foro, who’ve loved it all of our lives. We’re not, we’re like Alanis Morissette, uninvited, and the Cubs fans are there. It’s just this is a sick time, and I don’t know where it’s going to go a month from now, too much. Like, how empty it’s empty out again, right? But they, they gotta, they gotta do something, you know what I mean. Jackson Holiday’s hitting the buck, like they got to do something, they got to shake a tree here this weekend.

Luke Jones 17:53
I mean, I don’t know what that is. I just don’t know what that is. The draft is literally this weekend, you’re not firing your general manager as the draft’s going on, and I’m not suggesting that you’re implying that specifically, but look, I mean they’re in last place again, we’ll see, and look, I mean, they’re not mathematically eliminated, they’re, we can continue to talk about the mediocrity of the American League, the wild card, yada yada yada, but they have the same record through 92 games as they had last year, process that for a moment, let that marinate for a moment. I mean, you think about what happened last year, specifically late April through the first two and a half weeks of May, at the point that they fired Brandon Hyde and Mancilina is going to be the interim, they played better from that point on, but better is a very relative term, right? And you continue to see this, just look, it’s not good enough, it’s substandard, it’s sub 500 they’ve played like a 75 win team for two calendar years now, and you know this latest example, and I, and every one

Nestor Aparicio 19:04
of their players has been below the bar, every one of them, Blaze Alexander’s side, which my right, I mean, and I had a long conversation with my wife about Dan Pleasac in the seventh inning of the game, when Blaze Alexander got the big hit, and I’m like, so I mean I’m, we’re watching and engaged, even so much, my wife’s like he’s, he’s cute, I’m like he’s fairly nice too, and his cousin, like, so you know, I’m trying to story tell around baseball in the middle of the season and keep my wife engaged when the World Cup’s a lot more engaging, you know, like I’m just trying to figure out how people stay engaged in this and how they can keep people in, you know, and I don’t know what that even means, like shaking the tree one way or another, but they’re in the middle of a season here that it feels like all of their instinct is to hide from all of this, and that’s not good.

Luke Jones 19:54
I mean, really, to answer your question about fan engagement, I mean it, I. This point, it’s what are your habits, right? Diehard, since childhood baseball fans watch baseball, and it’s there every night. You might not be as engaged, but it’s on in the background, at the very least. It’s the soundtrack of summer, right? Not to get too romantic, but beyond that, in terms of like anything that’s people are going to attach themselves to, anything that’s, you know, that you’re going to gravitate toward. No, I mean, it’s not there. I mean, this, this season ticket thing feels as much about, let’s get as many dollars as we can before baseball locks out the players, right? Over over the winter, and who knows how long that’s going to last, right? I mean, I think we all assume it’s going to kill the off season, at the very least, and that’s the probably the best case scenario would be that maybe they don’t miss games. I mean, that’s the best case scenario, let alone what impact that has, even that much, right, in terms of the off season and everything that happens, but they’re just at a point now. I mean, it’s, you know, they, they have some players that are good stories this year. I mean, Blaze Alexander, Brandon Young’s a great story, right? I mean, the fact that you can even suggest Brandon Young as being included in the All-Star game, he wasn’t. I’m not saying he should have been, but he’s a great story. There are far more disappointments than those good stories at this point in time, I mean, that’s stating the obvious before you even look at the win-loss record, so it’s just, it’s all just very deflating. There’s not a whole lot to grab onto that you’re overly excited about. I mean, Samuel Besayo signed long term, Shane Shane Boz assigned long term, and you know, Boz was final on Tuesday night. I just saw.. I can’t remember.. I, I came across this.. I think it was late Tuesday night, might have been very early Wednesday morning, but it was talking about Boz’s record, in, you know, the Orioles record in starts that he pitched, it’s awful, and that’s not really on, like, he’s let me be clear, I’m not saying he’s had a great year, he hasn’t, but he’s for the most part, he’s given them a very solid floor, he’s gone more often than not, he’s given them five to six innings, and I think there’s only been three games all year where he’s given up more than four runs, you know, games where you would say all right, he stunk, but their record when he’s pitched, they’re five and 13, Nestor, it’s not because of him pitching poorly, by the way, that’s

Nestor Aparicio 22:41
all eight games that are under 500

Luke Jones 22:44
I mean, you can break it down in so many different ways, looking at stuff like that, like they – they’re not scoring for them. I mean, I have it right here. I have his game log, and again, I’m not going to get too far into the weeds here, but here are the games that they’ve lost when he’s pitched. Here are the here are the run totals for the Orioles, 2325122340122 and that’s nine innings, right, right, right, that’s not like, oh, those are the runs they’ve scored when he’s been, that’s for the nine innings, the nine, or if they went extras, so I mean, there you go, and look, that’s not just him, I mean, they’ve, their offense just is not good enough, well, yeah, let’s fight

Nestor Aparicio 23:40
about that, because, like, I would say,

Luke Jones 23:42
for two years I’ve said that now season it

Nestor Aparicio 23:44
was all bullpen, and we were worried about the bullpen leading up to opening day, worried about the bullpen once they signed Efflin, and once they gave the money to, well, they gave the money to Boz after opening day, but it felt solid enough for me to be happy with it, Bassett, even I like Bassett, and, and we both had agreed that the Rogers radish thing was, you had to buy in on it, you had to buy in on the eight weeks from last year, sure, and that body of work that had to be an is not a might be for this team, you had to consider it that, and the bullpen was going to be the problem, and the defense was clearly going to be a problem, and I don’t know that I felt that way. I thought Holliday was going to the Hall of Fame. I thought Henderson was going to be an MVP candidate. I thought Alonzo would be fine, and he has been. I, we wondered loudly if Ruchman would bounce back. We wondered loudly what kind of a rookie year Bisayo would have. Westberg was sort of to me in the off season like he was going to come play third base and have 558 at bats and hit 271 and hit 18 bombs and be really good, Mister. There’s no doubt they like that’s what I thought he was. So when I think about all of this, the offense was something you bitched about constantly for a year and a half in season. Season off season, we were like, okay, that’ll bounce back, they’ll figure it out, they’ll be good. Let’s, let’s concentrate on the pitcher, let’s get to pitching together, let’s get the pitching together. And much like Elias, you and I don’t spend the whole offseason saying, how can we brush up the defense, let’s get some better Mark Bella. We don’t ever discuss that, and clearly they don’t either. So the things we talk about and the things we fight about on a daily basis with this baseball team, especially now that we’re in the soup and it is the All-Star game, and we’re going to get together on Fades on Friday, fight some more, but it’s going to be better because we’re going to have crab cakes and delicious cucumber salad. We’re going to be Fadley’s at Lexington Market on Friday, doing the Maryland Crab Cake Tour, presented by the Maryland Lotter with our partners at GBMC and Farnham and Darmor, it is our last show at Fadely. We’re going to move to Fishmonger’s daughter in Catonsville just after that, and I’m at Peachy Johns next week. We’re cost us later in the month, we’re doing all of that, but the bullpen, I said to you, that’s going to be their real downfall from here to the rest of the year is patchworking that, and they stink, and it won’t matter like all that, but how many innings that bullpen is going to see, where they’re going to come in in the fourth or fifth inning, or the fifth or sixth, instead of the seventh, eighth, or ninth, because your point, Braddish isn’t going to be going seven and two thirds when they’re 12 games under 500 or august 14, right? So they’re just not going to do that, so you’re going to see more bullpen, more Norfolk, more this, more that. Lord knows that they’re going to trade Rogers, Ruchman, they’re going to make some trades. They’re going to have to, if this thing, if this thing, they’re going to have to do something in the next couple of weeks that’s going to move around assets that we discussed for an hour the other day, you could find that at Baltimore Positive, but the starting pitching we talked about the money and the value and how far they go and all of that. The bullpen was what we talked about the most, and I’d love to say to you, hey, the bullpen is going to be a problem, it’s can it’s going to be the leaky thing, and every time I bring that up, you get really mad at me.

Luke Jones 27:05
I mean, I don’t get mad at you. I offense look, think back to when they were swept by the Rays back in the third week of May, right? They’re swept at the drop, they had fallen to eight games under 500 at that point in time. I mean, that was, that was really truly the not that we weren’t talking in terms of like being underwhelmed by how they started and all that, but they hadn’t had like the disastrous start that they had a year ago, right, but that point in time, right around may 20, that was really the first time when we really started talking in terms of like the season’s teetering like big time, I rocked the fire.

Nestor Aparicio 27:41
Michaelia’s piece that day.

Luke Jones 27:43
However, I’m just going to throw out a couple numbers for you right now. Just, if I had told you on May 20-second, that was the night that that was the morning the Tigers were in town to start that 10 game, and they

Nestor Aparicio 27:56
got good for a week after that, two weeks after they did, they did.

Luke Jones 27:59
But even before that, if I told you on may 22 from that point, from may 22 until July through july 7, that the Orioles, starting their starter ERA, would be sixth in the majors. Just wait, just wait, give me a second here. So their starter era since may 22 has been sixth in the majors. Their bullpen ERA since may 22 believe it or not, and I was surprised by this, fourth in the majors. Now that’s not me saying that their starting rotation is truly elite. Now that’s not me saying their bullpen, especially with it looking like Ryan Hellsley’s, you know, whether he has Tommy John surgery or what, feeling like he’s not going to pitch again this year, or if he does, it’s not going to be till September. Either way, there are needs there, there are still concerns there, but I just said it sixth and fourth in the majors, their rotation and bullpen ERA, respectively. What would you have thought if I told you that on may 22 Now I’m not sitting here saying that that means the Orioles would be leading the AL East. I’d like to think they could play 500 ball with that kind of pitching. Heck yeah, they better be better than now. You mean 500 overall or over that time, if you get that pitching, you shouldn’t be a sub 500 team, right? So the point is, you would have said from that point on they’ve, they’ve played over 500 kind of baseball, and I don’t mean a game, I mean 789 games over 500 from that point, which keep in mind they were 800 at that point, so I’m not saying your six best starting pitching in Major League Baseball, that’s placed in terms of ERA, and here’s the other one, let me, it’s not just that you’re getting that kind of pitching, you should be playing 625 ball, it’s not just that over that stretch, think of, think about modern baseball, we don’t see starters consistent. Be going seven eight innings anymore, we just don’t, I mean, Brad, nearly throwing a complete game in Cincinnati on Sunday is very much the exception, not the norm. So I just told you the Orioles sixth in starter ERA since may 22 Guess where they rank in innings thrown since may 22 They’re starters third, so even with our concerns about the bullpen, their starters, keeping in mind that 2026 is not 1976 their starters are giving them innings and pitching deep in the games relative to the rest of baseball, relative to the rest of baseball, they are getting a very representative effort almost every night from their rotation at this point in time, and

Nestor Aparicio 30:46
if they ran a financial analysis on this, which I’m sure Eric Getty and Rubenstein have done, they’re getting good value.

Luke Jones 30:53
Yeah, I would say

Nestor Aparicio 30:54
against teams that spent Corbin Burns’ money, especially to get pitching

Luke Jones 31:00
well, especially considering the two pitchers that they went out and signed, now Boz, they traded for, so that’s a little bit of a different animal. They gave up assets to do that, of course, and then obviously they signed them to a long-term deal. But think about it, 10 men, 10 million to Efflin, that they might as well have let little on fire, and Bassett, they didn’t get much more than that, and we’ll see when he comes back, right, but he hasn’t been good, so even with those two being major thumbs downs in terms of signings, they’ve gotten that from their rotation. Now I want to point out the first, the first seven eight weeks of the season count, also, right, and the rotation wasn’t good early on, and that, that was a big reason why they were eight under, but my goodness, you talk, you’re talking about six and a half, seven weeks now, where their rotation has been absolutely good enough and given them a very consistent chance to win, and they haven’t gained anything in the standings as it pertains to getting closer to 500 over that entire stretch, they were eight games under 500 going into may 22 and coming out of july 7, there’s still eight games under 500 That is a colossal failure for this offense, and I’ll throw the defense in there as well, because obviously the defense is poor, but they’re pitching. If I were Mike Elias sitting there, or if I were Sigma Dell, sitting in the, in the warehouse back on may 20, May 20-first, May 20-second, and I was trying to lay out, you know, trying to be predictive, trying to think, okay, what does this team need to get back to 500 to get above 500 to be right there, and let’s face it, if they were over 500 they’d be in a wild card spot right now, for better or for worse, whether they deserve it or not. If they were a couple games over 500 I mean, go look at the wild card standings, right? Wouldn’t take much to feel better about them. Yeah, I mean, Texas, Texas is, as you and I are talking on July 8, Texas is the third wild card at 46 and 45 It’s not a high bar, I would say that they’re starting rotation in their pitching staff as a whole, even with the health concerns and injuries and guys on the IL that they have, has has met whatever their expectations would have been to say, okay, this is what we’re going to need moving forward. That group has at least met that, if not exceeded that, it’s their offense, and I’m not, I’m not trying to be mean here, because I think a lot of this individual, or at least thought a lot of this individual as a player, Gunner Henderson’s killing this team. I mean, we just have to call spade a spade. This is a guy, this is a guy a couple years ago who had arguably the best season by an Orioles player since Cal Ripken back in 1991 Now, in terms of war, right, and that’s one measure I’m not, at the very least, you would say he had the best season by an Orioles shortstop, keeping in mind that Machado was, you know, primarily a third baseman, since, you know, since Cal Ripken in his prime, that’s what kind of production you were getting from Gunner Henderson. I mean, I’m going to use an analytics term, a sabermetric term, you know, Gunner was, you know, Gunner was like a 10 win player on his way to being a 10 win player, back in, you know, you look at what he did in 2023 look at what he did in 2024 first half of 24 I mean, my goodness, through the end of June, the debate is the ALM VP, Aaron Judge, or Gunner Henderson, and of course he wasn’t as good the second half of 24 but still had really good numbers overall in a vacuum last year. You know, we, we come to, you know, he had the rib cage issue in spring training. We know that zapped him of his home run power.

Luke Jones 34:52
We come to find out last off season that he was dealing with a shoulder impingement, but Gunner still had a really. Solid season last year, again, it wasn’t. He didn’t hit 3035 home runs, but he still had 34 doubles, he had five triples, he had 17 home runs. He batted 274 he had a 787 ops. He was still, you know, that was a 5.4 wins above replacement kind of season. That’s still at least fringe all-star caliber, you know, especially at the shortstop position.

Nestor Aparicio 35:24
Does he get in superstar treatment?

Luke Jones 35:27
What do you mean? Is he getting superstar treatment? What do you mean?

Nestor Aparicio 35:31
Feels to me on the outside like he’s been treated like he was a superstar from the beginning and was expected to be. I think the fans have some perception that he puts himself in the lineup, that Albernaz is sort of has to like genuflect in his direction, because he is, yeah, I mean, period, that they have to wake up. So, you just said, dude, I’ve never ever in 18 years heard you kill a player like that to say he’s

Luke Jones 36:00
idle in the team, and I’m like, man, that’s that’s let me harsh from you, like that. It’s not harsh, because look, we’re talking about relative expectations here. Gunner Henderson is still, as should be in the lineup every day, right? We’re not, this is not Luke Jones suggesting Blaze Alexander should become the everyday shortstop, and Gunner’s been no nothing like that, but you’re talking about someone who is supposed to, whether he’s going to be MVP of the league or not. Put that aside, he needs to be the Orioles MVP, and his numbers this year are much closer to being an average major league ballplayer this year, his ops is 699 If you want to look at ops plus, you want to look at weighted runs created, plus all weighted on base average. No,

Nestor Aparicio 36:50
there’s no part of his game with your eyeballs all with any stats. Look at and sadly, right? He’s been an

Luke Jones 36:57
average ball player this year, and that just doesn’t work for what, how this team is supposed to be constructed, and it’s funny, I actually got to thinking this randomly popped in my head the other day, and it made me think of Cal Ripken going from 1991 to 1992 and you know we didn’t think in those terms quite as much, because it was just batting average home runs, RBIs, obviously, Cal as defense, you know, shortstop’s premium position, there aren’t many shortstops in the league that that even put up the numbers that Gunner puts up at shortstop, even this year, right, that you don’t see that, and I’ll tell you this, dude, a little

Nestor Aparicio 37:39
younger than me, and I was on the radio for the bulk of all of that amongst me and my friends, and don’t tell Ryan Ripkin this, but in Cal’s career the streak was heavy, certainly at the newspaper I was at the paper every night when they were losing a lot of games in 88 and Eddie Murray and all of that, and Cal was finding his fame and his wife and his glory and Ron Shapiro, and the All American Boy, and his dad, and his brother, and then the bat, and then they’re Owen 21 and like all of that cow to this day is not perceived as the world’s greatest teammate, or like any of that by teammates, that was a media and a Baltimore creation in a lot of ways, and the fact that he, and maybe the Brooks’s back, his side of his bubblegum card, that he wasn’t Mike Schmidt offensively every year, and Cal Ripken wasn’t a rod every year offensively, Cal had some very, I thought, pedestrian 6/7 best shortstop in baseball, kind of years in that period of time. Once the Larkins and the that position changed from Little Louie and Ozzie Smith and Freddie Pot Tech to our best athletes going to play shortstop and hit 30 home runs a year, that was not the way the game was constructed, which made Cal a pioneer, but also, you know, Calettes and 250 fives and 18 home runs at 65 RBI, like it wasn’t all 330 34 home runs, 120 RBIs, far from that, sure, and Cal did it, and you looked and said that’s Cal every year, Cal wasn’t, I know he’s first, he’s Cal, and all,

Luke Jones 39:25
and he is first ballot, and he’s one, and he’s arguably the greatest shortstop of all time. I’m not going to give you

Nestor Aparicio 39:29
all of that, but in any given season, the fact that he was a 272 62 and wasn’t a 320 hitter, and wasn’t a threat to the home run every time he came to the plate, and wasn’t going to be a 40 home run guy, so

Luke Jones 39:42
so we’re talking about the difference between being one of, if not the greatest shortstop of all time, and being here’s what I’m saying,

Nestor Aparicio 39:49
Anderson had it, one of Cal Ripken’s, we’re getting off the rails here, because I was trying to make a

Luke Jones 39:53
point, but go ahead, go ahead, my point was I was talking specifically about going from 1991 to 1992 Cal Ripken. Had honestly one of the greatest seasons, I mean, from a shortstop, easily one of the greatest seasons of all time, in 1991 you know, Gold Glove, 34 home runs, hit 323 just

Nestor Aparicio 40:12
comparing Gunner Henderson to Cal Ripke means like, like that’s what we expect out of him, and I think we expect a 91 year out of him all the time, and I guess what I’m saying with Ripken is like it wasn’t like that, but with Henderson in the modern era, in the modern era, when you’re paying these guys $40 million a year, even Pete Alonso’s current year, if you take those stats and move them over, it’s not good at, you know, I mean, like, it’s not good enough. Cal Ripken’s mediocre years would not be good enough for Gunner Henderson right now, even though they were good enough for Cal Ripken. And I got that’s my left-handed, backhanded way of saying whatever Gunner Henderson’s doing right now, it needs to look like the 91 Ripken or kind of, or else. And that’s not

Luke Jones 41:01
the point. The point I’m trying to make here, and I didn’t make it to turn into a referendum on Cal Ripken. I mean, really, what you’re suggesting is Cal was merely one of the greatest shortstop of all time, rather than one of the greatest ball players overall of all time, which I would wholeheartedly agree. What you’re suggesting him doing every year would have made him one of the greatest players of all time, like on that list, you know, like Hall of Famers among the Hall of Famers. How we talk about Ray Lewis and Ed Reed amongst the Hall of Famers.

Nestor Aparicio 41:28
Let me, let me just, let’s play this game, because I want to talk with this. He’s 24 Cal Ripken’s 25th season of his life was 1986 He had 282 with 25 home runs and 81 RBIs. The next year he hit 252 with 27 home runs and 98 RBIs. The next year he had 264 with 23 home runs and 81 RBI, and he didn’t run. Dunner can run so far as other, and Cal was five times the defender at any position, and is lining up all of that, and then Cal hit in 89 he had 257 with 21 home runs and 93 RBIs, and then in 1990 he had 250 with 21 home runs and 84 RBIs. Those six years happened to be the six years I worked at the newspaper every night, I was the guy that entered the stats in the paper every single night, every night, and Ken Rosenthal was covering team every night, and Cal Ripken went five years without 30 home runs, five years without more than 27 home runs, five years without more than 98 RBIs, and five years where his batting average never top 282 and really hung in the 250-250-7252 range. So, when I put it to you that way, in the prime of his career, for 25 to 30, those are Ripken’s numbers. You could see why me and my buddies, when we’re 21 years old, playing Strat-O-Matic, would just look at him and say, nice player. It’s not Eddie Murray’s numbers, he’s not a first baseman. In the modern era, 35 years later, those five years, if I were to give you those five years for Gunner Henderson, right now, what would you pay

Luke Jones 43:04
for them? We’ve gone so far off the rails, I’ve been trying to make a point, and no, it’s okay, because I’m the one who brought it up, and I’ll own that, but the point I’ve been trying to make is Cal Ripken, in 1991 had an all-time kind of season, in 1992 even though his defense kind of buoyed his overall value still, but his ops went from 940 to 689 The Orioles in 1992 9091 they lost 95 games, you know, they were at near the bottom of the AL East, I think they were sixth instead of seventh, off the top of my head, but 1992 they won 89 games that year. They, they were still very much in it in mid-September against Toronto, and I think Milwaukee finished second that year, but they finished seven games out. Had Cal Ripken had anything close to the kind of season he had in 1991 In 1992 you can make a very strong argument that would have been the difference of the Orioles winning the division in 92 My point that I’m making right now, and again, I apologize for, you know, we got into the weeds and all that with talking about Cal Ripken, but if Gunner Henderson were having the kind of season that frankly we all expected him to have, and that doesn’t even mean that he needs to be MVP favorite of the American League, just be the all-star caliber shortstop that he has shown himself to be across multiple years at this point in time. I mean, he, you know, he was absolutely all-star caliber the year he won Rookie of the Year, he was. He was the starting shortstop in 2024 Last year, not quite as much, but still a really solid season in a vacuum, you know, even if the home run numbers were down. But the version of Gunner they’ve gotten this year, which has been league average offensively. His defense, and the defensive metrics vary. Some of them like him, others don’t. But his defense is very up and down, right. We see him make great plays, but we also see him have those lapses where you just say, what was that point? Is if Gunner Henderson were doing what we had expected him to be doing, I’m not saying the Orioles would be the number one wild card right now, but they’d be right there, they maybe they wouldn’t be a game over 500 but they’d be only a couple games under 500 like that’s what kind of player Gunner Henderson’s supposed to be, and instead, with him being a guy that’s been way closer to league average as a ballplayer than, you know, an aircraft carrier, he’s not the only one. I want to be clear, and when I say he’s killing this team, I don’t mean it, I mean it in terms of relative expectations. And Tuesday was another example of that, right? Adley Ruchman gets the big hit, Suzuki airmails air mails the ball over to the backstop, the puts the tying run and scores give extra bases in major league baseball when the ball goes flying, like I, that always like in little league, that I don’t think it went out of base, I don’t, I don’t think it went out of play, it just went off the backstop, yeah, but, but, but the point is that really felt like they had them on the ropes at that point, I mean, it’s Jacob Webb that’s in. I like Jacob Webb. If you recall, he was a guy that I would sing the praises of as kind of an unsung part of their bullpen. He’s not Mason Miller, though, right? You know, we’re not talking about an elite shutdown kind of reliever. Gunner strikes out on three pitches. I mean, how many situations this year have we seen him just not come through? You know, it’s not just what the overall numbers are, it’s, you know, that’s the guy that needs to come through and get the big hit for you in that spot. That’s the guy that pie in the sky, we’ve talked about him getting a $400 million contract right away.

Nestor Aparicio 47:00
Cal Rifkin, in his 22nd year, batted 318 with 27 home runs, 102 RBIs, and won the MVP. You know, really his first full year after 82 Wait, he played the full year in 82 but and then after that, the three eighteens and the, you know, all of that, the batting average took a hit in his late 20s, and the power took a hit, but he was a number, he was third in MVP voting in 89 even though his individual numbers were not extraordinary against the balance of his career, more of a uptick from the average, but like the numbers I read out loud, I didn’t do it to irritate you. I did it to sort of stimulate your thought, as to say Cal Ripken, in his early day, was a 318 100 RBI three. He only drove in 100 runs four times in his career in 21 years. He only did it four times, you know, 30 home runs, he only had 30 home runs once in his whole career now, Gunner Henderson move into the era of $50 million players and crazy expectations. When his 20-second year, he hits, or 20-third year, excuse me, hits 37 home runs, hits 281 steals bases, like all of this stuff, you’re expect fourth in MVP voting, right after being eighth in MVP voting. You’re expecting him to be aircraft carrier. I always think Battlestar Galactica and the Star Trek, Star Wars, but whatever. That I just call it Reggie Jackson, or whatever, the super, the superstar, the straw that starts the drink. He’s not been that this year, and Ruchman was drafted as a one one, and we haven’t gotten the holiday hitting a buck 80. I mean, we’re getting to accountability, we can go around the roster with all these guys, but we’re on the gunner train today, and I’m on the Ripken thing, because even if it all pans out, dude gets a billion dollars here, it’s 23 home runs, bats 257 and knocks it 85 on 85 runs. I don’t know that that’s going to be good enough for Gunner Henderson, even though it was good enough for Calgary. I mean, I

Luke Jones 49:10
noted, noted.

Nestor Aparicio 49:11
I took a long way saying that. I’m glad at least you’re not mad at me anymore. No, but my point, Gunner’s

Luke Jones 49:16
not even giving them that. I mean, oh, he has a 295 on base percentage, he’s slugging 404 he’s got a sub 700 ops, and, and look, when we, when we look at these numbers, I mean, we, I know it’s difficult, and I know a lot of old school baseball fans bristle at this, but we do have to look at the run scoring environment for the league, the 1970s baseball offense was very depressed compared to other times, you know, comparing numbers in 1975 to 1996 compared to 2026 is tricky. That’s why numbers have been created to try to, you know, put things on 100 point scale, as far as using ops plus things like that. Point is, Gunner has been sub, it’s been substandard, especially relative to exp. Expectations, and this team was not constructed to thrive with a version of Gunner Henderson that’s league average. Let me be very clear, a star can’t do it by himself, right? Mike Trout is one of the great case studies of that, of the of the last quarter century. I mean, go, you know, the greatest

Nestor Aparicio 50:22
player of all time on his side, you’re still talking about him. No, but I’m, but I’m just saying,

Luke Jones 50:27
Mike, but Mike Trout, see, I can you

Nestor Aparicio 50:29
imagine being Angels fans if we, if the Orioles screw this up, you know, I mean, we had to watch Arietta go somewhere else, and like other stuff, like the Machado, or whatever, but like it’s that’s what we’re looking at in this era, because if Gunner Henderson and Adley Ruchman and Jackson Holiday aren’t the real thing, or they go elsewhere and become the real thing, this is a real disaster, because everybody in baseball thought these are the real thing two years ago, it felt like these were the real thing, right? Yeah, well, and unlike Jackson Holiday, who’s never done it. We’ve seen Gunner Henderson do like Gunner Henderson had an amazing, incredible season as a rookie, and that was even with him getting off to a slow start. Like, remember the second week of May in 2023 there were people that wanted to send him back to the minors. By the way, this is exactly what we were saying about Ripken when he was hitting 199 at the all-star break, one of those years in the 80s, you know that was that was also much to him, you know, much later

Luke Jones 51:27
in this, and look again, this is not me saying Gunner needs to be MVP of the league, but when he’s not even in the conversation to be MVP of your team, it, in addition to all the other warts they clearly have, dude, that’s a major problem.

Nestor Aparicio 51:45
They’re 10 games out of five, and

Luke Jones 51:47
that’s right there. Like, I hate to put it in those cold terms. I’m not trying to be personal here. I think a lot of Gunner, the reason why I’m talking in terms that I am, is because I think he’s look at what he did in the World Baseball Classic. America was ticked off at Mark DeRosa because he wasn’t starting Gunner Henderson against left-handed starters, like he hit the big home run in the, in the semis, and four months later. Where’s that talking about? We’re talking about him in terms of, like, like what’s going on here, Spat in 223 23 I mean, this is.. I hate to, I hate to be that simplistic about it, because it’s.. it’s not their only issue, but the time has passed for us to be minimizing this. Well, we’re all bad on Tuesday night, he’s having a bad year. I mean, he’s having.. this isn’t a slump, he’s having a bad season at this point in time period, now Cal Rip can add those, but again, I’m just, I’m using 91 to 92 as an example here. The Orioles, Cal was incredible in 91 very little else was incredible about the Orioles that year. It’s why they lost 95 games in their Swan Song on 33rd street. The following year, Mike Devereaux had an amazing year, Brady Anderson had an amazing year. Mike Messina came on the scene, you know, first full year in the majors, and looked at the part of an ace. Rick Sutcliffe was good. Ben McDonald had a really good season in 1992 right? So you look at all those other things that happened, yet Cal had a very subpar year for his standards, and

Nestor Aparicio 53:17
it was my first year on the radio, and I took that calls, and that, so, so, when I say I vividly remember this touche, dude, it was 35 years ago, was 35 minutes ago to me,

Luke Jones 53:27
but my point is, if Cow had done anything close to what he did in 91 and 92 it might have been the Orioles winning the division that year, rather dogging on Cal

Nestor Aparicio 53:37
Ripken, because he was getting the contract around then too, so, so it was like $6 million a year, and nobody had ever earned such a thing, and he literally penciled himself into the lineup, and the third position, no matter what, his slot, me, dude, I took summer’s worth of bitching about Cal Ripken around here, that his kid would never understand, because he’s so praised at this point, and I’m telling you, you go back and look at it and see where Gunner Henderson is, and it’s, and for everybody in my audience that’s older than you, it’s not a silly argument, it really isn’t. And it’s also my part of being the patriarchal guy, is saying, all right, well, what do you expect? What would it be good enough? I know 224 is not good enough, but if he was at 262 and it were just a pedestrian year, but not a superstar year. People were even doing a little down on him, sure, even if he were had duplicated last year.

Luke Jones 54:30
This year, and I get it, he only hit 17 home runs last year, he has 16 this year. So, if you look at it just through the scope of home runs, well, hey, he’s voting much better, right? Yeah, he hit 274 last year, he’s hitting 223 this year, he hit, he had a 349 on base percentage, he has a 295 on base percentage. I will say, in fairness to Gunner, go look at his walk rate, it has gone up substantially since April, and he has cut down on the strikeouts. Problem is, in the process of doing that, his powers really dissipated and. You know, it’s a robbing Peter to pay Paul kind of principle, but overall point, and you know, we got into the weeds, talk about this, but my little

Nestor Aparicio 55:10
lousy ball club, and you’re still getting kids next weekend, while

Luke Jones 55:13
it is, but I’ll say this, a star player cannot do it by himself, Mike Trout, and even Mike Trout with Shohei Ohtani proved that in Anaheim. However, it’s really tough for a team to be good if their star player is just not going to be anything close to a star. The Yankees, right now, are you know, maybe they trended up a little bit against the Rays, I suppose, but they just had a long losing streak. They go look at what their lineup has been without Aaron Judge in it over the last couple weeks. Again, a star can’t do it by himself, but it’s really, really tough for a team to do it without their at least perceived star playing anywhere close to a star level, and that’s something the Orioles are dealing with right now. It’s not all Gunner’s fault, but we can’t keep minimizing the impact. Frankly, a devastating impact on just how painfully league average Gunner Henderson has been at the plate this year.

Nestor Aparicio 56:15
I’m going to soothe my soul with a fade lease crab cake on Friday. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland Lottery. Our friends at Farnham and Dermer, they’re the comfort guys, have only mispronounced it once this week. 410 36777 and our friends at GBMC. Luke is off next week. I am off to the All-Star game in Philadelphia, the city of Brotherly Love. There will be pretzels, there will be cheesesteaks. I told Radom, if he doesn’t buy me a pretzel that’s half frozen in the middle from one of those guys with the carts out in front of the stadium. I’m this, our friendship’s over with, so I’m having him on later on. So we have Philadelphia Brotherly Love All-Star Game, Adley Ruchman, Home Run Derbys, Luke’s Got Pizza. I’m around, we’re doing the Maryland Crab Cake Tour on the road. We’re going to be Coco’s later in the month we’re going to be Pizza Johns, we’re also going to be Acosta’s. I am Nestor, he is Luke. We are WNST AM 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking, Baltimore positive. And tell Cal, I love him, I really do.