We’re not sure how much is too much disgust in regard to the Baltimore Orioles. Here’s an idea: fire Mike Elias and start over! Luke Jones and Nestor kinda disagree on this topic. If you love baseball, you should tell your friends about our intelligent, spirited and passionate debates.

Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Orioles’ struggles, including the significant shoulder injury to Felix Bautista, which will sideline him for the rest of the year. They highlighted the team’s numerous injuries and poor performance, questioning Mike Elias’s leadership and the ownership’s direction. Despite the Orioles’ off-season spending, they remain in last place. They debated whether Elias should be given another off-season to turn things around, noting the need for better leadership and accountability. They also discussed the importance of rebuilding the bullpen and the potential impact of new leadership on fan engagement and ticket sales.

• [ ] Analyze the Orioles’ pitching situation and options for rebuilding the bullpen.
• [ ] Discuss the team’s young core players and their development.
• [ ] Evaluate the potential offseason moves and spending needed to improve the team.

Orioles’ Current State and Announcements

• Nestor Aparicio discusses his beach trip to Ocean City, Maryland, and mentions the Maryland lottery and the crab cake tour.
• Nestor Aparicio talks about the Orioles’ recent performance, including their attendance and the Christian faith night.
• Luke Jones shares the news about Zach Eflin’s back surgery and Felix Bautista’s significant shoulder injury.
• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the Orioles’ ongoing issues, including bad decisions, leadership, and numerous injuries.

Impact of Injuries on the Orioles

• Luke Jones emphasizes the significant number of injuries the Orioles have faced, affecting their performance.
• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the broader industry issue of pitchers’ arms falling off, referencing the Dodgers’ list.
• Luke Jones argues that the Orioles’ poor performance is due to a combination of bad decisions, leadership, and injuries.
• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones debate the off-season moves and the potential impact on the team’s future.

Leadership and Accountability

• Nestor Aparicio criticizes the current leadership, including Mike Elias, for lack of accountability and transparency.
• Luke Jones acknowledges the need for better leadership but argues for giving Mike Elias one more off-season to prove himself.
• Nestor Aparicio expresses his lack of confidence in the current ownership and management, citing various issues.
• Luke Jones and Nestor Aparicio discuss the importance of having a true leader at the top of the organization.

Future of the Orioles and Off-Season Plans

• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones debate the potential off-season moves and the need for significant spending to improve the team.
• Luke Jones argues that the Orioles have the financial resources to make substantial improvements but need better leadership.
• Nestor Aparicio expresses skepticism about Mike Elias’s ability to spend the necessary money effectively.
• Luke Jones and Nestor Aparicio discuss the potential impact of new leadership on the team’s future.

Fan Engagement and Perception

• Nestor Aparicio criticizes the Orioles’ treatment of fans and media, including mistreating Jim Palmer.
• Luke Jones argues that the Orioles need to improve their communication and engagement with fans to rebuild trust.
• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the importance of having a leader who understands Baltimore and its fans.
• Luke Jones emphasizes the need for the Orioles to address the perception issues and improve their overall approach.

Conclusion and Next Steps

• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones agree that the Orioles need significant changes, including new leadership and better communication.
• Luke Jones reiterates the importance of giving Mike Elias one more off-season to prove himself.
• Nestor Aparicio expresses his skepticism about the current management’s ability to turn things around.
• Both agree that the Orioles need to make substantial improvements in the off-season to regain fan trust and improve their performance.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Orioles, Felix Bautista, Mike Elias, injuries, bullpen, leadership, offseason, ownership, accountability, young core, trade deadline, fan engagement, ticket sales, rebuilding, performance.

SPEAKERS

Luke Jones, Speaker 1, Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, AM, 1570 task, Baltimore. We are Baltimore, positive. If you’re watching out on the webcam, you’re like, hey, Nestor shaved and got a haircut. Yeah. One to the beach. We’re doing the Mako thing this weekend down in Ocean City, Maryland, where I’ve made a lot of memories, some I can even talk about the Maryland lottery presents our pressure luck, as well as the lucky sevens doubler. This might be our last segment with the 26th anniversary, because I I’ve got the 27th anniversary right up here on the screen. All I got to do is change her out. We will be doing that. Senator Chris Van Hollen is committed. Controller. Brooke learman will join us. Representatives of all sorts of city and state government. My favorite Republicans are coming on this week, if that means anything to anybody as well. So if you’re still listening, we’ll be down at the beach doing our thing, and we’ll also be doing the crab cake tour, beginning next Thursday, and the whole schedule is up at Baltimore positive. Big month ahead. Here for eating. I just unleashed number 22 which was clean cuisine in Owings Mills, our friends at Fiesta Mexicana, still a part of my breakfast this morning on day three, as promised with the trace Lake Chase cake, Luke, I know you’re watching the food. I mean, My food’s more interesting than you know how many I had more meals. Yesterday, the Orioles had hits. And I know on Christian faith night, of which you share, there was an interesting post game thing, and they sold like, I looked up and saw the attendance. I’m like, I’m not a bad who they giving away? Oh, they were giving away, God at this point. And I don’t know, man, if, if there’s any intervention, if I could call George Burns right now and bring him in and say, fix this mess. We went through that for an hour the other day. But, well, pitch game from Dean Kramer,

Luke Jones  01:49

it was, but, I mean, the lead of the day is what we found out before the game, which is Zach Eflin out for the year. He’s having back surgery to repair a herniated disc. Probably not shocking when he’s been on the Il a couple times with that lower back issue, but certainly, you know anyone who had any designs, thoughts, considerations at this point for a qualifying offer for him, I think that feels like that’s out the window. I mean, maybe you talk to him about a more reasonable deal, but that’s certainly not your plan a scenario for a starting pitcher at this point in time, but the big one, and I think we’ve all kind of been bracing for this, considering, I think Thursday marks three weeks since the Orioles put Felix Bautista on the IL Tony mancellino announced before the game, quote, significant shoulder injury. He’s going to see a specialist here in the coming days, I assume another specialist, and they’ll have more information about that, but he’s obviously out for the rest of this year. We don’t know about what that means for next year, but when you hear the word significant when it comes roughly three weeks after or not, roughly a little over three weeks after he last pitched. That’s not good, right? So it just adds. And as I kind of joked, as I posted the article on my Facebook page, on Facebook page, on social media, we keep saying it can’t get any worse, and the Orioles keep proving us wrong with how this year has gone. I mean, we’ve talked so much about bad decisions, bad leadership, bad play on the field, all those different things, right? And all that applies. But when you take a step back and look at it from 30,000 feet the number of injuries they’ve had, and that’s not to this isn’t to excuse Mike Elias. There’s a heck of a lot of work here that needs to be done over the next what, seven months until the eight months until they get to opening day next year. But

Nestor Aparicio  03:52

you’re now an organization where, if you get drafted here or here, your dad’s saying, what are they doing to make dice arms off in Baltimore? But you know what? That’s an industry issue. Go

Luke Jones  04:02

look at the Dodgers list right now. I mean, but like, really? And look, that’s not to completely turn a blind eye to it, but I guess the point I’m trying to make is we’re at the point now where I’m not sure that there was an off season to be accomplished, that the Orioles wouldn’t still be somewhere in this like, okay, maybe they wouldn’t be in last place, but we’d be talking about their ability to make the playoffs, or to make a run in the playoffs or whatever. You just get to a point where you look at these injuries and you just say, like, okay, and again, that’s not to excuse everything else that does absolutely need to be addressed, and the underperformance and the manager and coaching situation, and what you’re going to do with your pitching staff, and how are you going to rebuild your entire bullpen that now is looking more and more likely that Felix Batista is not going to even be in it, right? So that’s just it’s not good. I mean, again, they could assign burns, they could assign Santander, they could have gone outside someone like. Blake Snell, and we’d still were

Nestor Aparicio  05:01

your guys in the off season. Who did you want to sign? Hey,

Luke Jones  05:04

I I’m full disclosure, Mike, not my guy, but a guy that I feel her, yeah, and that hasn’t worked out, you know. So

Nestor Aparicio  05:12

that was the Callum’s guy. My guy was scuba this time last year on the trade thing, and I thought the crochet thing was interesting. But without giving up the holidays or like that, that’s where we are. All of a sudden, my Colton cows are people are looking around saying, Oh, wow, you were talking about dealing him in May. And I’m like, Well, that’s what all these guys are. They’re a stock, you know? I mean, they’re no different a stock than the Orioles were a stock when you and I went up to Toronto and got our passports checked in Niagara Falls and drove around and thought, they’re good to be a contender. They’re not going to be a seller. They’re not going to be in last place. Batista’s arms not going to fall off. Tyler O’Neill’s not going to have 110 bet. Well, maybe he will. You know, I mean, some of this you could look at and say maybe some of it with the F Lins in the I mean, certainly Charlie more, mean, anybody that’s over 32 Suarez Gibson, just go down the list of the I mean, this from the outside in. If you and I come in and we bought the team, we fire Elias, we mean, and by the way, I’ve been doing a lot, we’re sure about that. I don’t know. Like, Well, I think if I was in, I mean, if I was a new owner, and this was my first taste, was two seasons,

Luke Jones  06:29

if I was a new owner, and if this is my first taste, I’d probably been wanting to get out. I mean, that’s how, that’s how badly it’s

Nestor Aparicio  06:35

maybe the old man’s doing that. I don’t, he’s 75 year old man. I mean, I he’s a billionaire. Why does he want to deal with this? Why does he want me saying his name on the radio? Why does the whistler need to be around to resurrect this? They can’t resurrect it. They don’t know what they’re doing. I mean, they have no I mean, God knows what ish they’re going to do to the stadium, like, who knows what they’re going to do to Johnny Bravo and club level Janet Marie Smith’s playground to f it up further than the Angelo clowns did, moving the fence in and out and like, I mean, there’s just so much wrong, and I have no 00 confidence. What do you have confidence in? You have confidence in the lives. I’ll tell you this dude, and this is since I got issue on Monday and I lost my mind because they’re in last place. Nobody’s going to the games. I mean, rock Abaco and Rob long they’re not allowed to be pissed off. Kevin Brown’s not allowed to be pissed off. They’re not. Brett Holland is not allowed to be pissed off. None of my jobs if they’re pissed off. So I will bring a requisite amount of pissed off in this in regard to this orange disaster of 40, not the curio logo, the disaster of this baseball operation. For the 27 years, I’ve owned the own the radio station here, and had to come on and opine about awfulness in August. But I I’ve been doing a lot of AI stuff and training this summer, and learning and trying to stay young. So when I shave, I still look, I don’t know 52 and not 57 um, I saw something about leadership that popped up, you know, it was one of those graphs that, you know, those things, that info graphs that pop up on Facebook that I screenshot about AI leadership, running businesses, things that I try to get better in in life, you know. And the first one was accountability. I mean, like, right at the top, right at the top of the wooden chart, right at the top of Brian Billy’s chart, right at the top of anyone’s chart that runs anything. And Mike Elias has really, this has just been poor all the way around, and not getting in front of it, and not being out in front of it and not being I mean, whatever that little Mia call put to the fans was the other day. I mean, I don’t know it just doesn’t. I have no confidence that they’re going to fix this, that it’s going to be markedly better next year, and

Luke Jones  09:15

that’s fine. And look, I’m not sitting here saying that everything’s going to be fine, you know, because, you know, you made the comment about, if I were running the team, would I fire? I’d give michaelias One more winner. I think we fully, I fully recognize. I mean, look, I was more pessimistic about their off season than you were when we were talking about this back in March. So I think some

Nestor Aparicio  09:40

of you were, by the way, you Dave, shining with

Luke Jones  09:44

that being acknowledged. I think that’s where I’m coming from, a place. And this isn’t to say that your opinion, that you would move on from him is invalid. It’s not. We’re This is subjective. We’re talking about this, right? So my thoughts more likely because of a new owner sure got in hiring. I’m at that point, and that’s fine, and that’s fine. And look, if that happens, I’m not going to sit here and be stunned. I’m just telling you what I would do proceeding from here over the last year and a half, has he done a particularly good job? No, of course not. That said I’m also not going to ignore what the five years leading up to that and see the good work that was done. So I need to see a Michaelia that’s changed. I need to see a mike Elias that is learning from mistakes and is need to see a mike Elias that makes a home run of a hire for a manager and to fill out a coaching staff that, to me, completely needs to be rebuilt, because you’re not seeing nearly enough success stories. I mean, heck, you’re seeing regression from your young core. I’m not talking about the three guys that they’re trotting out there in the outfield at the moment, right? I mean, that’s, that’s secondary. You know that that’s not even secondary. That’s at the bottom of the list, embarrassing as it might be on a given night right now, but you know, I need to see that. I need to see what this off season is going to look like. I need to see one, ownership giving him the money to spend, and two, spending the money wisely to rebuild this bullpen

Nestor Aparicio  11:17

if he’s going to be the one doing the shopping. I have to have, I have to have more of a level of, I mean, he fired his manager on Saturday and hit until you’re done, you’re just done. For me, it’s just, it’s like, the difference between Little White Lies and like, now you I don’t I don’t trust you anymore. I don’t trust and I’ll tell you what, from a finance perspective, just me being a fan, thinking that he’s going to be the one that’s going to dole out the next $500 million that the organization throws out, because that’s going to take that kind of money, right? I mean, they’re gonna have to sign a player, a $300 million player, and a couple more 80 and $90 million I mean, needs to be 300 O’Neill’s. But they do, you know they’re gonna, they’re gonna spend a significant amount. I mean, come on, dude, next five years, they better spend seven $50 million right? I mean, they bet so potentially that, right? Sure, sure.

Luke Jones  12:14

I mean, I disagree with the idea that they’re going to go out and sign a $300 million free agent. Now they might

Nestor Aparicio  12:19

their own guy. I’m talking, okay, fine, fine, dude. I am in your Disney World. They’re gonna turn this around and be a playoff team. Well, if they are, then gunner Henderson holiday is gonna they’re gonna have to get paid a boatload of money, a boatload of money. They don’t

Luke Jones  12:37

need to keep all those. I’m not resigning Adley Rotman. I mean, I’m just calling it,

Nestor Aparicio  12:41

okay, no, no, I’m

Luke Jones  12:44

done with him in the in the idea that, I mean, he’s 27 already, right? Is he gonna hit 295

Nestor Aparicio  12:50

even if he runs and drive in under even if

Luke Jones  12:53

he returns to where he was a couple years ago? I mean, you and I had this conversation even before Adley rutschman struggles began over the last year. And by the way, he is hitting since he’s come back from the IL go. Look at his numbers since he’s been back, he’s one of the few guys in that lineup hitting right now. But that aside. I mean, I just, I don’t see where it’s a good investment to to sign a catcher who, yes, he’s been a two time all star. I don’t think he’s the guy that they thought he was going to be six six years ago. That doesn’t mean he’s a bad ball player. It doesn’t mean it, you know, that he’s a bust. What? Dude, those

Nestor Aparicio  13:29

first three months you and I were like, oh, you know, oh my God, he’s a he’s the best player on the team in

Luke Jones  13:36

the first two calendar years. I mean, you know, he was everything you thought he was going to be, and since then, I mean, and some of that’s the defense, but, you know, I’m getting, getting in the weeds here a little bit, going back to the point, but go getting back to who’s spending the money. Yeah, I mean, and they need, they need to spend money. Sure they, as I’ll say over and over, they spent a lot of money this past winter. Go look at what their payroll was compared to what it had been the previous year. Now it wasn’t the long term commitments, but they spent a good chunk of change last winter. Now, it certainly wasn’t spent well, right? It wasn’t spent wisely. I mean, hey, the Orioles gave Chris Davis $160 million at one point. They’re still giving them money with the deferments, you know, and all that, so, but they have a lot of work to do. There’s no question about that. And let me be clear, because I am saying I would give Mike Elias one more winter. That is not me necessarily saying that I have 100% confidence that he’s going to turn it around. I don’t. But at the same time, whoever I would hire to replace him, how am I going to have 100% confidence there. So I My biggest hope is one, they can’t duplicate this. I mean, this has been a when you look at a bell curve, or you look at, you know what these guys do with analytics, right? I mean, they have predictive models that they enter in all the data. They have all their players, and they kind of go through all these different scenarios. You know, this is the percent likelihood of us being an 88 win team, a 90 win team, an 86 win team. I mean, this is what we’re seeing. It’s like a bottom 2% kind of outcome, right? No one can forecast the number of injuries that they’ve had. No one can forecast the amount of underperformance that they’ve had. Now that’s not me just shrugging my shoulders and saying, oh, everything’s fine next year. Keep doing what you’re doing. Guys, no, far from it. They’ve got to make a lot of adjustments, as I have pointed out to you, even before this trade deadline, in this draft, even if you go back to last year’s draft, the last couple drafts, michaelias has emphasized pitching more than he had in previous drafts. Does that mean that you’re going to see the fruits of that right away? No, of course not. So, yeah, they’re going to have to go out and find pitching, sign it, trade for it, right? Still, still try the the minor league sign, free agent signings, diamonds in the rough, like Albert Suarez is, you know, they’re gonna have to do all of that like it has to be an all encompassing, multi pronged attack. But that said, and that’s where maybe we’ll bring this back to Tuesday night, more specifically, because they got great pitching from Dean Kramer on Tuesday night, he pitched eight innings. That was his longest start since what his complete game against Houston going on three years ago. He was fantastic. They’d score a single run. They they have scored 23 runs in 10 August games. And yes, the bottom of your lineup being Ryan Noda, Dylan Carlson and Greg Allen certainly is going to be prohibitive of you being the most formidable offense you can be. But sounds like a B league game down in Fort Myers at Blue Park against the Red Sox in March. And this is what’s going this is what happened. And when Brandon Young is starting, it sounds even more like that, no question. But this is what happens when you trade Cedric Mullins and Ramon Laureano at the trade deadline, and then a week later, Colton cowser and Tyler O’Neill

Nestor Aparicio  17:06

June. And said, If you hate it now, what do you see it in August and but, and there’s no impetus to think that Elias wasn’t going to burn it to the ground to get rid of everything that he felt like he could get rid of. And there was also the point where, like, who was going to play, but knowing the Batista’s arm fell off. And, I mean, they’ve lost innings that they weren’t thinking they were going to lose innings, and certainly at bats from outfielders that they didn’t feel like they were going to have to give

Luke Jones  17:35

it bats to. And this is where I made the comment. And this, again, this is we all agree it was a bad off season, right? I was saying even before the season, I didn’t like the off season. My point is, this has gone so poorly in terms of the injuries, and you can’t forecast for that, that number of injuries that they’ve endured this year. My point is, even if Mike Elias had a better off season, I’m still not sure the Orioles would be in a position right now to make the playoffs, right? That’s how poorly This is gone. But the point I was making, you know, as I talked about the outfield, Jackson holiday is in the lineup, still. Jordan Westberg, still in the lineup, got under Henderson’s in the lineup, Adley rutschman’s in the lineup. Ryan mountcastle, who’s, you know, hasn’t played a whole lot this year, but is a major league

Nestor Aparicio  18:17

hitter, right? Proven, these aren’t exhibition games even feels

Luke Jones  18:21

like and Kobe Mayo is in the lineup and they still got shut out. They have they’ve averaged under three runs a game in August for as much as we had every expectation about the bullpen being a disaster, and we know the starting pitching has been a disaster for most the year. That hasn’t been the reason they’re losing games over the last week and a half. Their offense has been the reason why they’ve actually not not every night, let me be clear, and their bullpen has had a couple meltdowns. There’s no doubt about that. But if you had told me how these first 10 games have gone from a pitching standpoint, I would have been hopeful that they would have won a couple more games. They haven’t. They’re not scoring any runs. I mean, they just aren’t. So that’s part of where I look at this thing and say, Look, we can put michaelias Right. Michaelias and ownership right at the top of the list, right, and then we can put the coaches right underneath that. Players have to be accountable too. And when you look at their group, their young core, it’s very underwhelming. And that’s nicest way to put it right. We’ve talked about this. I mean, Jackson holiday has had a better year than last year. His Ops is under 700 right now. I mean, he still has a long way to go to prove that he’s a one one now he’s 21 years old. There’s nuance talking about all these guys, right? Average Major League ballplayer for this right now he and look for a 21 year old if everyone else were where they needed to be in their development,

Nestor Aparicio  19:46

can’t come back at next year and hit 214 in the first 400 at

Luke Jones  19:50

bats. He needs to be better next No, but he needs to be better next year. I mean, he has a 692, ops right now and again. He’s already, he’s already better than he was last year. So the point. It is he needs to continue that trajectory. Jordan westburg, hey, he’s put up pretty nice numbers. The problem was the availability, right? The problem was he had a hamstring injury, Injury. I don’t have too many concerns about Jordan Westberg, other than you need to stay on the field. Gunner Henderson, has put up overall. He doesn’t have bad numbers. But where is the home run power? I mean, gunners hitting 284, by the way. I mean, that was one thing, you know, the last couple years people talked about, you know, what can he hit for a higher average? Now he still strikes out. I mean, that’s the game, you know. I I see people talk about strikeouts. Go, go, Look, even the teams that don’t strike out a whole lot still strike out a ton in modern baseball. And that’s a commentary on the game, and I’ll hear that, you know, I’d like to see him walk more. I’d like to see all these guys walk more. I mean, even guys that you know, like Colton cows are who walked at a pretty decent rate last year, not walking at all this year, right? So, Adley rutschman, we’ve talked, we’ve been over that, right? Kobe Mayo has scuffled over the last week and a half since the trade deadline. I want to see him get back on track. So, you know, you want to see cows are get back in the lineup, right? I mean, so, I mean, we can talk about all these other moves that michaelias needs to make, and I wholeheartedly agree, but so much of this is still going to come back on that group collectively. And, you know, I’m not even going to put Heston kerstadt in that group anymore. I mean, he has some kind of health issue that the club is being very hush hush about. I haven’t caught wind of what it is. I’m trying to be respectful of that from a humanity standpoint, but certainly not counting on him at at any meaningful to any meaningful degree. Moving forward, you know, you hope acaio and beavers are going to come up here in the coming days and look good. What’s the

Nestor Aparicio  21:51

status on that? And what’s the August?

Luke Jones  21:54

August 15. August 15. Okay, August 15. Now I’m not

Nestor Aparicio  21:58

saying the old fart, or me about all the awards and all the money, the contracts and all of that,

Luke Jones  22:04

what, what’s, what’s ended up happening? We always used to think about it in terms of service time, right? We used to think about how a guy wouldn’t be on the opening day roster because you were trying to hold back their service time. And many teams have done this, the Orioles included, right? I mean, it’s, yeah, some people would would refer to it as a bug for the system. And, you know, the teams would say, hey, it’s a feature, right? I mean, we get an extra year of club control So, but, but for years it was that, or you would hold a guy back until, what, June, something for trying to avoid super two status for arbitration. But obviously the what the PPI, the performance incentive program. I probably butchered the actual title of it because I don’t have it in front of me. But remember a few years back that was introduced with the last CBA, and this idea of if players were called up in May, like they would be in the past, and they finished, and they won Rookie of the Year, they would get, you know, they would get a full year of service time. And teams, and there are caveats to this, obviously, a part of it is you need to be on top 100 lists. You know, the the idea was to do this so that teams wouldn’t just hold guys back deliberately. So you know, that was done to kind of fix the beginning of the year service time manipulation. So what we’ve seen now, and teams have kind of responded now, is when you have these prospects like a Samuel bassio or Dylan beavers after the monster season that he’s had at triple A, because Dylan beavers has not been a top 100 prospects. So under that part of the rule, he would not be eligible for it. But if you maintain his rookie status, which, what it’s 45 days, I guess it is in the major leagues or a certain number of at bats. Well, that takes you right around August 15, 16th, you know, right, right there is the cut off. But the idea is, you maintain their rookie status, and then they can go into next year still being eligible to win Rookie of the Year. And if they do, then you get a draft pick. Right at the end of the first round. You get a compensatory pick, you know, whatever cows are, earned them one. Yeah, exactly. So. So that’s what we’re seeing now, instead of the beginning of the season service time manipulation, which still happens, mind you, not not specifically to the Orioles, but generally speaking, now we’re seeing that become more of a thing, whereas in the past, I don’t think teams really cared as much about exhausting rookie eligibility. So

Nestor Aparicio  24:39

I mean, it’s really going to be a nerd time for you and me in the off season to be talking about Players Association, the labor war, sure and current issues in regard to where the fissure is going to be, not just financially, but sort of ethically and spiritually, about player movement. Um. Um, arbitration eligible, all of that. I have to relearn that from 1994 because some things have changed, and this is homework for you. But just What? What? What’s ideal, what’s not ideal about this? Because I think a bunch of the young guns got together after the Joe Torre and Tommy Lasorda era and tried to get more creative on rewarding teams that would do things the right way in regard to rookie, just all of that, right? This is a little bit of a little bit of a biscuit that that they they’ve built into the game around the edges that not maybe everybody knows about, but they only understand that when they’re like, bring up this guy, nobody’s, I mean, the ish I see on Twitter. I mean, it’s just unbelievable how uneducated the fan base can be, because they’re not great about teaching their fans about really, how esoteric, dude, it took me half my life to figure out what a buck was or what waivers were, right? Like these. These are terms that like the people collecting the bobbleheads. You know, go around and ask them. They may or may not know it, but it’s absolutely fundamental to understanding why, besides, not behind home plate two weeks ago, right?

Luke Jones  26:16

And one correction, not for for Colton cows, for gunner Henderson winning rookie of the year two years. Sorry, right? No, no, no, it’s fine, because I had to check myself on that as well. The way it works is a player earns a full year of service time. So like Adley rutschman, back in 22 he finished second. Remember, Julio Rodriguez won Rookie of the Year. Adley rutschman earned a full year of service time for finishing second. Teams get draft picks if it’s a PPI eligible player that wins rookie of the year. So but

Nestor Aparicio  26:49

this is a complex little, fun little model to incent to teams and send players make agents happy that this has been installed in recent times because teams were purpose gaming the system. Sure. I mean angelos, I mean just the whole way through. I mean, you know? I mean but

Luke Jones  27:07

all the way, but they, but they game the system as far as beginning of the year. But what’s happened is, you now have teams gaming the basically the previous year in August and September, right? So, right, yeah. So that’s why you’re not seeing visayo and beavers. Look, I get it. I understand it, right? That said, I also think when you look at this, and this is where I kind of go back to the young core, right, and where they are, where their headspace has to be at this point. And this is where I have concerns, because there is a human element at work here you have a young core that saw an underwhelming off season, that saw this team get off to a lousy start, right? And they’re and they have to own it, right? I mean, those guys have underperformed as well. I’m not this isn’t me giving them a pass however you get to the trade deadline. I think even young ball players understand the reality of, if you’re in last place and out of the playoff race, that you’re going to see pending free agents traded. So I think I don’t think that was a bridge too far. I think they understood that, however, you also traded Ramon Laureano, Ramona reas, Brian Baker at the beginning of the month, Andrew Kittredge, who all had some form of potential club control for 2026 so they’re looking at that, and they’re saying, Okay, well, you know, Arias could have been our utility player next year, and Laureano was one of our best hitters this year, and you traded him, and, well, our bullpen already wasn’t great to begin with, and now you’ve traded a couple guys that could have been Part of that next year. And so they’re kind of scratching their heads right and humor me. Brian Baker away, and you think he was worth 70 or 80 innings for next year? I but what do I know? You know? And the Kittredge get rich and like this perfect inning the other day. And this is not, this is not me saying that michaelias was did the wrong thing here, I’m trying to step into the shoes of these young players in the young core. They’re seeing that, and then they’re seeing right after that. Okay, why? Why are we signing minor league like the Cubs, minor league, you know, Greg Allen was in the cub system. Why are we signing him and not calling up Dylan beavers like why is Bisaya still at triple A so if you’re these young players, the message that you’re getting over and over and over by these actions are, doesn’t matter, right? Nothing matters right now. So my concern with that, especially when you’ve had an interim manager for the last the Final Four and a half months of the season, is, man, there’s a lot of losing going on. And I really it’s the old adage, it’s tough to stop losing that, you know, I don’t

Nestor Aparicio  29:49

know the reason not bring bisail And these guys up to subject, yeah. I mean, if, yeah,

Luke Jones  29:52

if you want to be think about it in that way. You

Nestor Aparicio  29:55

talk so much about Adam Jones and Joe or select and you. There’s been a whole boatload of losing around here. There’s no one that’s touched this organization, Cal Ripken included, that didn’t do a whole boatload

Luke Jones  30:09

of losing, a ton of losing, the second half of his career, or not even the second

Nestor Aparicio  30:12

minute Angelos took over, it was kind of over. And even before that, it was kind of skating away from me. BW, before they got down to Camden Yards, but Camden Yards, the television network, the arrival of the Nationals, horrific ownership, horrific drafting, drafting in a way that everything you and I’ve talked about here the last five minutes, that’s bored the crap out of everybody but Angelos fired Mike Flanagan for drafting Matt weeders because he forbid him to draft someone that was not going to come around to my way of thinking on a contractual obligation to the organization. Yeah. So you know, they were never drafting the best players. And that went on for a decade and a half, dude and signing the wrong players, whether it was David Segui and Jeff conine or and Sydney ponson, Sydney ponson, or whether it was given Chris Davis money or, look, the Machado thing, I had my own issues as to whether he was a pile diver or not. I know he’s what they bought, but they botched it. They didn’t get value

Luke Jones  31:21

out, right? I mean, they should have traded. They should have traded him a year So, sir,

Nestor Aparicio  31:26

I mean, we don’t get on the ticket prices. What they’ve done the media people, their television, Mickey Mouse television network, just all of it, the potentiality, the my Deepak Chopra for the day, my pure potentiality, just, but, but I would

Luke Jones  31:41

say a lot of what you just cited correctly, like Elias did address a lot of that over the first five years. And so that’s where I look at this. And I do struggle with the idea of just saying he’s gone, no questions asked, move on, or we recognize this for what it was, which obviously was missteps, but also underperformance, awful injury, luck, coaching, poor coaching, or coaching that needs to be better, things that need to be revamped, things that need to be tweaked, and I think about that compared to starting over entirely and honestly not seeing no evidence from the new ownership group of a capability of knowing that they would hire I never want to say the right person, because I always think there’s more than one correct answer, but you need to go out and find a correct answer if you’re going to do that. That’s why I am. Begrudgingly, I don’t know if that’s the right word. Maybe hesitation in saying this. I am inclined to give Mike Elias one more off season. But if we’re talking about this a year from now in a very similar light, of course he should be gone, right? Of course, you have no choice. I would

Nestor Aparicio  32:56

just say this. I mean, from these bean counters, these clowns that are running this joint right now, that that’s why, like, I have no confidence that they know anything about what they’re doing inside of the stadium to make it look representative. Or I don’t even know who’s in charge of $600 million crap. I’ll see Craig Thompson down at the beach, and I’m sure you’ll Whistle by me with one of his, uh, his lawyer buddies, and not giving me any answers into anything, into where they’re putting the Jim Henneman press box up into the corner of the wherever there’s a lack of transparency, there’s a lack of accountability that goes into being a billionaire. I’ve learned that with bashad. You saw that when he looked at me on the pool deck like he’s never seen me in his life, that the off season part of this. If they want to deodorize this for the fans, hang the general manager and say, we hire Buck Showalter and and people come running back with their Birdland membership because they need to sell tickets this off season. I mean, forget the baseball team and fixing the baseball team, and that’s, that’s your gig, that’s your game, and all that. They need to make some noise to give people who are fans confidence. And I don’t know that Elias, no matter what he does, I think he’s, he’s in the Fred Flintstone parlance, he’s square. Now, you know, I think the fans have turned on him in a way that is,

Luke Jones  34:25

you can’t let the fans run the baseball but you can’t let the fans run the baseball team. I mean, I don’t disagree with that, but I’m just saying, like, if I saw how many people were there Saturday night, though, look, I It’s bad. And this, I’ve, I’ve been plenty critical of Mike Elias. My point is, Nestor, I’m not sure that there is anything they can do in the off season that’s going to truly SAP salvage that that isn’t going to be isn’t going to be more of a wait and see kind of deal and just seeing if this team’s better next year. I mean, it’s. Uh, you know what? Try to go trade for show Hey Otani or something. I

Nestor Aparicio  35:05

don’t know. I guess my point is westburg can be westburg and and holiday can be going to the Hall of something, and they can all be really good next year. But who’s going to pitch? I mean, at the end of the day, all of this stuff we talked about when we thought this was a hitting machine, including Tyler O’Neill. But anybody thought curse that was gonna stick, but Nestor was gonna stick. They could

Luke Jones  35:26

game. But who was their rotation when they won 101 games two years ago? I

Nestor Aparicio  35:30

know those well. Who was their rotation when they have weigh in? Shannon, no, but that, that stack of guys, nobody laughed at them and thought they were going to be great, Chris, but

Luke Jones  35:39

my point there that right there is why there is a path. A lot has to go well. There’s no doubt about that. They need things to go well internally, and yes, they need to go out and make some really, really good moves. But my point is, this isn’t a case where you necessarily the only path is to go out and sign a pitcher to a two, $50 million contract. And I’m not suggesting that you were definitively saying that, but the point is, there is a lot of ways to rebuild a pitching staff, and I will continue to go back to using the Toronto Blue Jays as an example. Go look at what the Blue Jays were a year ago. At this time, everyone thought they were cooked. Everyone thought they were done. Everyone thought that they’re, you know, the Blue Jays were kind of two years ahead of the Orioles in terms of their rebuild and their young core and getting to the playoffs, not necessarily having a whole lot of success in the playoffs. I was

Nestor Aparicio  36:34

in Toronto that night at Massey Hall with Getty Lee and Alex license, where the whole place was a buzz that they needed show a Otani, right in

Luke Jones  36:41

order to be and they didn’t get us, and they were and they were in last place last year, and everyone was completely down on them, and look where they are a year, a year later. Now that doesn’t mean the Blue Jays are fixed completely and that they’re going to win the World Series and all that, because just making the playoffs isn’t the end game either, right by point is fortunes can change really quickly. And when things snowball and go really poorly, it can really spiral really quickly. And we’ve seen that happen. And you still look at this team really, you kind of go back to where they are right now, which is what going into Wednesday, 13 games under 500 you still go back to what was the major driving force for them being that bad. It was a seven and 23 stretch back in late April into the third week of May. And obviously you don’t eliminate that. But beyond that, if you took that out, just humor me for a moment. If you took that specific three and a half week stretch out, they’ve kind of been a team that’s kind of been right around 500 and go look at the wild card race right now. There are teams that are a few games over 500 right now that are very much in the thick of it. That’s not to forgive them and say everything is okay. That’s to show that there is a path to getting back on track. And when things spiral, they can go really poorly, and in the same way back in 2023 Do I think that team from a true talent level was really a 101 win team in terms of like being this dominant, unbelievable juggernaut powerhouse? No, but they were really good, and then things got rolling, and they did well in one run games, the 2012 team was another example of that. Go look at their run differential in 2012 we talked about that an entire summer of whether that was sustainable or not. They ended up winning 93 games. When things go badly, they can go really badly, and this spiraled early, and they’ve never been able to recover. Now that is not an excuse. That is not everything is fine. That is not a guarantee that they’re going to be back in contention next year. They have a lot that they have to do. My goodness, this is the the definition of a heavy lifting off season for a general manager who has not operated in that fashion, right? He’s been methodical. He’s been much more conservative with what he’s done. So yeah, there is going to be a major challenge for michaelias to step outside of his comfort zone if he’s going to be the guy assuming the ownership is going to give him one more off season, which based on how he operated at the trade deadline, I’m guessing he he’s going to get another off season, right? And we talked about that two two weeks ago, looking at those moves, and the kind of moves that were made were indicative of someone who thought he was going to be around for at least one more off season. So I don’t know, man, and look, I was as critical as you were still critical about how he handled the Brandon Hyde firing, and more specifically, the aftermath of that firing, hiding for three days and then talking to a reduced crowd in Milwaukee about it, that that was very poor leadership. There’s no question about that.

Nestor Aparicio  39:59

Again. Keep going back to what they find. It’s not poor, you know. I mean, well, just in a general sense, it’s all been really poor since this guy bought the team. We’re year and a half into this, okay, I haven’t seen it. I didn’t know if

Luke Jones  40:14

you were talking about Elias tenure or, more specifically, you know, the last year and a half. Yeah, I’m not gonna sit here and stick, stick up for the new ownership group. I’m with you. What

Nestor Aparicio  40:24

exactly? I don’t know what they’ve done that’s been good, and therefore I can’t, I mean, the only thing to my crystal ball and say they’re gonna renovate the stadium, they’re gonna renovate the baseball team, they’re gonna invest a bunch of money. Know what they’re gonna do? They’re gonna, they’re just, they’re, they’re just gonna make television, but then their ravens are doing make it. Then it probably television, but then it probably doesn’t matter who they hire. If that’s true, and it might be, I don’t know. I think that’s true, reinvigorate, re, inspire. They need to do so many things that they’re clearly this group is incapable of doing that. This Man has done all that he’s gonna do, which is come out in his fishing cap, throw out hats and and get make a bobble out of himself, and make commercials with himself, like that, like that. All that happened, and now they’re in last place, and he’s hiding, guess what? I know all I need to know. I know all I I’ve seen this movie. And to your point, maybe he’s sorry he got in there. Maybe he is. And you know why? They don’t know how to fix this. They can’t just throw money at it. They can throw bullshit at it, which they’re going to try to do, but they can’t just throw money at it. And have have Baltimore people, the people who support this baseball team, even people like me, who support the baseball team, who are mistreated, they can’t get my money again, and they can’t get the money from people, as well as the investment they’ll get, the time they’ll get, I’ll buy the cable television package or whatever. But if you’re really going to rope me into a night out down there on a Tuesday or a Wednesday, are you going to get me paying attention to them in the off season enough to write them a check or to show up at their caravan or whatever thing that’s less than it used to be. It’s always and it’s not me being to get off my lawn guy about moonlight madness and them selling 3 million tickets. But that really did happen, yeah, and it’s, it’s not happening now. They used to have 10,000 people at Fan Fest, right? I mean, like they need, well, whatever that was, it’s gone. And Katie Griggs doesn’t know anything even about it, and doesn’t even care to hear about it from people like me. That if I sat with her and said, You do know that I came down here a handful five nights in the 90s where there were 50,000 people at the stadium on a December night, selling out your stadium for a year, that’s how. And you’re still eating off of that. You’re still eating off of that giving out bobble heads of boob pal. I mean, you mean, like, I don’t they just, you’re thinking about it from a baseball thing. And whenever I talk to you Alan, whatever they Great, great. That’s that’s awesome, and that’s what nerds do, and that’s what we’re here for, and that’s there aren’t enough people to think about it that

Luke Jones  43:09

way. Fix that they’ve got to fix that nobody’s coming to watch. I

Nestor Aparicio  43:12

agree, but until such time, they have to fix the perception of that to get people’s wallets. And between here and next day, it’s like the Lamar thing. How about start with can’t even fix it in Buffalo. Lamar has to wait until January 29 in order to be able to fix it for the fan base here. Same thing with Harbaugh and all the rest of them, but with the Orioles, they they can’t start by season.

Speaker 1  43:38

How about start by not alienating your hardcore, of the hardcore fans that you just did over in my lane now you’re in my lane. Of what can you control? I mean, they forget about drawing new people. They’re these measures that they just unrolled and the emails that people are getting. They’re it’s, you would almost think they’re actively trying to drive people away. You’re not recruiting anyone new, but they are pushing away your 29 game plan holders and your 13 game plan holders. I mean, they’re absolutely doing that right now. So not

Nestor Aparicio  44:11

recruiting anyone new, that is inherently but the problem, but, I mean, that’s what Christian knights for, that’s what all these nights are for is to bring people in and give them a little taste of Oriole baseball and make them actually be a baseball fan enough to care about the Rule five draft and service time, so that they’re not out on Twitter being a twit bring up Messiah. What dude, if you understand baseball, you would not be but their fan base doesn’t even understand baseball all that well, like really, when I see the stuff that gets yelled, but they’re the ones buying the tickets, man, and they’re the ones that don’t like Elias. I don’t like Elias because of accountability. They don’t like him because of the bullpen. And we began. Conversation first 15 minutes about guy’s arms falling off, but I’m just saying, like the number one thing that they could do is find a new leader to put in front of it, not name Rubenstein or the Whistler, Buck Showalter, um, something that would be attractive in that Rick Dempsey Cal Ripken kind of way. You know what I mean, like something that would be a carrot, not a not an elixir, not something that would really fix it. You know, Frank Robinson, something that would be popular and maybe fix it. I don’t think Elias is going to fix it. I don’t think he’s a great leader, and I certainly don’t think that he’s helping them, quote, unquote, sell tickets, whatever that means in modern parlance. And they’re doing enough damage with people twice as arrogant as him sending out the Birdland memberships, which is its own problem. Again, I asked you eight minutes ago, what’s good about this? None of it I mean and as it all comes together with the owner and his financial obligations to his partners in 1,000,000,008 and this thing bleeding money like right now, and that you want me to go 400 million more into it, Adley ruchman or whomever pick player X Holton cowser, I want to make everybody happy. But whatever it is, my point is the Elias, if you have, don’t have the confidence that he’s the guy to spend your next half a billion dollars here, because if you’re going to be picking around the carcass in the off season, and having a $17 million Charlie Morton and a $15 million Japanese guy I’ve never heard from, and you know, Charlie Sheen from the California penal League, I don’t none of that. I don’t expect them to inspire anybody in the off season. They’re not inspiring people that. And that’s my point. Rubenstein still going to own it. Griggs is still going to be running it, and Elias is still going to be running it in your world. And probably, I believe that’s the reality, that he’s going to run it. I don’t think this is going well.

Luke Jones  47:03

I mean, that’s I agree with that. I guess my point with some of what you’re saying is, but I’m not sure there is a like. I’m not sure there is a path that’s going to inspire anyone in the off season right, other than just April 1 rolls around, and it’s a way better product, right? That’s how much damage is done here. I’m not sure that there’s an off season to be had that’s actually smart in terms of spending money, that’s necessarily going to wow people to the degree. But first of all, there are very few ball players that actually, wholeheartedly, authentically move the needle in terms of tickets. I think it’s more like shiny new toys, right, in most cases, where you sign someone and you’re excited about it, but that’s not going to move the needle. I’m not talking logic here. I’m talking about, like, in reality is there? I mean, I would tell you, like, how are they going to sell a freaking ticket in the off season.

Nestor Aparicio  48:05

Go help them sell tickets. I mean, they’re in our ticket department. How are they going to sell tickets?

Luke Jones  48:09

I mean, based based on the model they’re rolling out, they’re not going to sell tickets. I mean, they’re just not right. So that that’s where we’re

Nestor Aparicio  48:16

going to continue to bleed money, and their front office is going to be desperate and bean count and ask the fans for money, and Rubenstein and his money bags guys are going to stand there and say, Where are the wins? Where’s the money? If they care enough, I don’t know. I really don’t know what billionaires care about. I know what he cared about, having a bobblehead and being a hero, being a philanthropist. And I can tell you what billionaires care about. They care about money. Care about billionaire, Okay, fair enough. Um, look, I’m not

Luke Jones  48:43

going to sit here and try to paint a rosy picture, because it’s not rosy right now. We all understand that. That said, Unless and look out here if you want to fire michaelias and hire a new general manager, fine. Like I’m not gonna believe me if the Orioles announced that on the last day of the season, I’m not going to sit here and say, oh my gosh, they’re screwed moving forward, right? I’m not at all saying that. I’m trying to look at it as balanced, as realistically as I can, acknowledging that injuries have played a massive part in what’s happened for things to go this poorly, acknowledging that they should, and I emphasize, should, have plenty of money to spend this off season, when you consider the money that’s come off the books and was going to come off the books even before the trade deadline. So they do still have a young core that’s intact. They have a farm system that is better than it was a year ago based on the players they’ve drafted based on the players they’ve acquired via trade three weeks ago, two weeks ago. So there is a lot on paper there to still have, and I don’t know, optimism, hope, whatever you want to say, there is a pathway to fixing this, but a lot has to go very. Very well. Now I will say this, and this aligns with a lot of what you’re talking about. Man, I wish there were a Larry lucana Lucchino to hire right now, right? A someone that would be a figurehead team president, not just a figurehead, because a figurehead implies that they’re not really doing anything. A team president who is well versed enough in baseball to act as not as Elias boss, in a way that he’s going to overrule him, he or she would overrule him, but in a way that reminding him to see the forest for the trees, in a way that emphasizes that messaging is really important in a way that never, ever in a million years, would have allowed him to fire a manager and not speak to fans and reporters about it for three days. You know, to understand what makes Baltimore Baltimore? Yeah,

Nestor Aparicio  50:57

we need those to ban reporters. I’m sitting here. I mean, dude, so I mean, so like, let’s start with what’s wrong with them. What’s wrong with you? People you want, you don’t want questions,

Luke Jones  51:09

really. But I’m what I’m saying is if, if you wanted something,

Nestor Aparicio  51:14

stop mistreating Jim Palmer. Tell him that. Start with that. Start with that. Stop mistreating Jim Palmer there, I said it, but I needed to say that for

Luke Jones  51:26

my solution beyond the baseball part of this, that’s what what I see, you need a leader in place. And that doesn’t necessarily mean that Mike Elias is thrown out, but you need a true leader at the top of the organization in the way that David Modell served in that capacity, in the way that Dick Cass served in that capacity for a long time, right? And you know, not to say that whoever it is is going to be perfect, but man, I’m not going to sit here and defend their leadership. There hasn’t been any. I mean, that’s the problem. There hasn’t been anyone. It’s kind of been the, you know, pay no attention to that, that man behind the curtain. I mean, that’s what it’s been. Where? Where is the contrition been? Where is the

Nestor Aparicio  52:11

you know, this guy worked for John angelos, who was out doing all sorts of things. And he had to sort of walk around, when I go up to him in Fort Myers and say, Where’s my press pass? Dude, wait a week. We’ll have new ownership. I haven’t I’m still waiting to hear from like Elias. It was a year and almost a year and a half ago now. I mean, these people have been like gangsters in regard to me. Um, just dishonest. You know, Mark, fine. No bueno, not. None of these people and fans aren’t responding to it, period. And that’s that

Luke Jones  52:43

comes down to this. It comes down to this. You have an organization and a front office more specifically, and this is where I would you know, this is where Mike Elias needs to evolve and adapt and improve if he’s going to continue to be the general manager moving forward that they have prioritized pushing the future and delaying gratification as much as possible. And the PPI thing with Dylan beavers and Samuel Visio is the the latest example of that, and the trade deadline and example of that. But it is amazing to me. It’s staggering how much enthusiasm and goodwill that new ownership and the front office, which has been here longer, but you know, the front office that led the Orioles to where they were a couple years ago. It’s amazing, however, how much enthusiasm and good, well, goodwill, that group is staggered in a year, year and a half, right? It’s,

Nestor Aparicio  53:41

well, we talked about this a year, year and a half ago, whether it’s me and Marty Conway and, you know, Mari Brown, I remember Barry bloom used that word you used this week. He called it scar tissue. You called it scar tissue, you know, healing. I call it trauma. They haven’t even they, they’ve just piled on, piled on. Well, they just bring Bader back over. Let him run it again. Bring TJ Brightman

Luke Jones  54:04

back. And there’s just been no acknowledgement whatsoever of just how miserable this and michaelias did say, I’m sorry a couple days after No, but I’m I’m trying to, I’m trying to be as fair as I can be here

Nestor Aparicio  54:22

tonight. You’re sorry but, but that’s

Luke Jones  54:25

that’s been the extent of it, and forget about the media for a moment. Speak, speak to your fans.

Nestor Aparicio  54:31

That’s how you speak to your fans. You answer you. You answer tough questions from people when they can ask them, but they’re not, not from, not from your gallery. They’re they’re not being challenged by anybody. They’re not being held accountable. Kyle goon, write a thing about them the other day, and now they’re good. They’ll treat him like manure. You know what? I mean? Like, that’s who they are. That’s, that’s who they are. I mean, come on, dude, you’ve been around this 20 years. I. I don’t expect this to get better. But while I’m saying and I’ll leave it at this, because Joe Enoch had a great point about walks and strikeouts and sort of philosophy that next time we get together, I’d like to do a deeper dive on that. But the notion that whoever’s running the baseball team, and I don’t mean the Stan Casten or the Larry Lee keen on top of the baseball Willy Wonka, the mike Elias, whoever that is, is going to have to spend a significant amount of Mr. Rubenstein’s money in this off season. And that needs to be done with confidence. And that’s where one Corbin Burns is a quarter of a million. A billion dollar. Million. Geez, billion dollars. So if you want to sign a real picture, if there is such a thing, if school were available and you wanted to go get a guy, that’s what it costs to get a number 1000

Luke Jones  55:52

I mean, I don’t know how many times I have to say it this, you don’t have to sign a $300 million picture to have a good starting rotation. I mean, you just

Nestor Aparicio  56:02

don’t $18,000,000.41 year olds either.

Luke Jones  56:06

There needs to be a middle ground here, right? I’m not saying they go from one extreme to the other. I think that’d be the I think that’d be foolish to go sign a pitcher to a $300 million contract for what this team is and

Nestor Aparicio  56:16

what they’re paying. They signed a three year deal for $90 million for a pitch. And you’re talking, you’re talking my language. Then, right, okay, but that’s still $90 million and then there’s, you know, we agree on this, they’re gonna spend $180 million on payroll next year, if we’re gonna take them seriously. And they have, what, 40 million on the books. I mean, like, I mean, it’s not

Luke Jones  56:36

much. They have plenty to spend, like, even, even if you want to go on a lower end, even if you want to say they’re at, like, 160

Nestor Aparicio  56:41

so is Mike Elias, the guy the fans want spending it. And what can he bring back? It’s like that Marlin open in Ocean City. What’s he going to bring back and put on the scale that we’re all going to be like, good job. Here’s my wallet. I don’t, I don’t know that there’s anything they can do other than put a new leader in to maybe inspire, hey, at least we’re in a different direction. That’s all I’m saying.

Luke Jones  57:03

Okay, but who’s the general manager that’s going to inspire fans who, by your own admission, don’t know the rule five draft from a sacrifice bunt? Yeah, but, but that’s, that’s part of my point, as far as you can’t let the fans drive your decisions on fixing the baseball now tickets and marketing and just treating people better and being kinder and acknowledging how much of a mess this has been and how miserable this has been absolutely but I don’t want fans deciding whether michaelias is going to be the general manager or not. I don’t think they’re ever going to acknowledge that. This is because I don’t think the fans could even tell you who they want to be the next general manager then,

Nestor Aparicio  57:41

so that couldn’t even acknowledge the other people were a mess, which is its own mess unto itself. So I’ll wrap it at that. We’ll talk about walks and strikeouts. We’re going to talk about training camp. We’re going to talk about the Dallas Cowboy. Have a stem cowboy, fake football this week. I’m really in Ocean City this week with real Maryland lottery scratch. Also, that will begin next Thursday. Fadely Pizza, Johns, Coco’s, cilantro and and and and Costas and timoni. We’re coming to get all of you, our friends at Curia, our friends at Liberty, pure solutions, as well as GBMC putting us out on the road with crab cake tour our 27th anniversary. So Luke and I can my God, how many summers are we going to do this? Complain about last place stay with it’s a pleasure. It is not a pleasure. Oh, your hat looks good, and I want some pizza now. Four.