It’s long past the point where the Baltimore Orioles have shown any consistency but they’re still in the pennant race. Next up: the Tampa Rays and New York Yankees. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the Birds’ make-or-break next two weeks to enter September in better position to make a serious Wild Card run in a pathetically ordinary American League race for an October playoff berth.
The discussion focused on whether the Orioles’ next 10 games against the Rays and Yankees will determine whether their season remains meaningful into September.
Race Outlook
- Luke said the Orioles remain mathematically alive because the American League wild-card field is weak; they entered the Rays series two games out despite being under .500.
- He cited broad inconsistency across contenders, including the Rays, Yankees, Red Sox, White Sox, Blue Jays, Guardians, and Tigers, and suggested 82–83 wins might be enough for the third wild card.
- Nestor framed the next 10 games against Tampa Bay and New York as make-or-break and argued the club likely needs something like 7–3 or 8–2 to keep September relevant.
Team Issues
- Luke said the Orioles have failed to sustain momentum, noting they were 9–12 since their seven-game winning streak and repeatedly stalled after brief positive stretches.
- The biggest concern was pitching stability: the rotation had been carrying the team, but recent starts were less sharp, including Shane Baz losing an early lead in Minnesota. Luke also flagged workload concerns for Kyle Bradish and Brandon Young, uncertainty around Chris Bassitt, and a thinner bullpen after Tyler Wells was traded.
- Offensively, they said the club still does not score enough despite some positives from Gunnar Henderson, Pete Alonso, Tyler O’Neill, Jackson Holliday, and Coby Mayo.
Roster Questions
- Luke said the outfield remains unresolved for next year and that the organization may need to spend externally because internal options such as Colton Cowser and Dylan Beavers have not fully established themselves.
- They also discussed roster-construction tension around defense versus offense, especially after trading Adley Rutschman and with several young players projecting better at DH or part-time roles.
- Open questions included: Can the rotation hold up through the final six weeks? Can the offense finally sustain production? Will any young position players claim everyday jobs before the season ends?
- Organize and conduct Ravens scratch-off giveaways at Catonsville’s Fishmonger’s Daughter on Wednesday the 19th. (@Nestor Aparicio)
- Organize and conduct Ravens scratch-off giveaways at Koco’s Pub in Lauraville on the 26th. (@Nestor Aparicio)
- Return to Dundalk in September to host another Ravens scratch-off giveaway event. (@Nestor Aparicio)
- Plan and execute Ravens scratch-off giveaway events at State Fair in Catonsville and Pete’s Johns in Essex. (@Nestor Aparicio)
- Play the Wildwood song during this segment, potentially playing it from the phone while recording. (@Nestor Aparicio)
- Prepare and announce the station’s 28th anniversary on-air on the 28th, tied to music and rock and roll. (@Nestor Aparicio)
Orioles Playoff Picture
- The Orioles are still in the AL wild-card race despite being under .500.
- Luke argued the weakness of the broader field keeps them alive.
- The upcoming 10-game stretch against the Rays and Yankees was treated as decisive.
Rival Team Context
- Tampa Bay entered on a nine-game winning streak.
- Detroit was cited as an example of a team still winning after deadline sell-offs.
- Other AL contenders were described as flawed and inconsistent.
Orioles Performance Trends
- The Orioles have not built on short winning stretches.
- They were described as repeatedly falling back after reaching two games under .500.
- Nestor and Luke agreed the team has been difficult and frustrating to watch.
Pitching Concerns
- Recent rotation performance has slipped from earlier standards.
- Shane Baz had a poor outing after getting early run support.
- Workload and durability concerns were raised for Bradish and Young, with uncertainty around Bassitt and the bullpen after Wells was moved.
Offense And Defense
- The offense has shown flashes from Henderson, Alonso, O’Neill, Holliday, and Mayo, but not enough consistency.
- They questioned whether the current roster hits enough to justify weaker defense.
- Trading Rutschman increased concern about both defensive value and lineup structure.
Future Roster Questions
- The outfield for next season remains unsettled.
- Luke suggested external additions may be necessary.
- Internal development questions remain around Beavers, Cowser, and Mayo.
Nestor Aparicio 0:01
Welcome home. We are WNST AM 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We call it Baltimore positive. That’s 28 years we’ve been doing this, almost 35 each and every day on the radio, which gives me the the blessing and the opportunity to come give Ravens scratch offs away in Catonsville at the Fishmonger’s Daughter on Wednesday the 19th, the 26th, we’re going to be at Koco’s Pub back in Lauraville. I stopped by and saw Marcella and her crew get their place open again this week after being off last week. I’m wearing my Costas gear. We’re going to get back down the Dundalk in September. We’re going to be out at State Fair in Catonsville soon, as well as Pete’s Johns in Essex. We were in Ocean City, Maryland, courtesy of our friends of GBMC as well as Farnan and Dermer. We had a great day down there on Thursday. Got down and back, spent some time with Senator Chris Van Hollen, Mayor Rick Mihan of Ocean City, Mayor Michael O’Connor of Frederick, as well as Tom Palazzo talking about this sports complex in Ocean City, that I’m sure Luke’s nieces are both gonna. Whenever they’re super soccer stars or lacrosse players or softball player, whatever they’re gonna do, they’re trying to get you down to Ocean City to do it with in a bigger way. Kind of like apparently these people go to Virginia Beach. Who the hell would go to Virginia Beach? Not me. Not I. But Luke Jones spends his time in Wildwood. Does Wildwood have a song? Was I? I don’t know any Wildwood marketing, so I’m still singing the Ocean City song from 1988. Yeah, it’s the. I mean, it’s from the 50s. It’s what Buddy? Is it Buddy Landell or Lindell? Something like that. There’s a song. I’m gonna have to look at that. Wildwood
Luke Jones 1 1:38
days. We’ve talked about this.
Nestor Aparicio 1:40
Wild days. I’m going to play that. I want to hear that. I might be playing that on my phone while we’re doing the segment. Luke will be monitoring all things Ravens all weekend long, but Orioles have managed to drag this season into late August, or
Luke Jones 1:55
everyone else has, I guess. I mean, it’s another series loss, but you go into now a very big series at the Trop. They can make
Nestor Aparicio 2:08
it all right. They can wash it all away, Luke.
Luke Jones 2:10
I mean, they they. I’m saying there’s still a chance. They’re a contender. Mathematically, there is a chance. I mean, like, and and it’s not even like a long shot. It’s it’s still sitting right there. I mean, it’s the AL is just bad. I mean, it’s funny. I was talking to someone out at Ravens, actually. You know, just another baseball fan. And by the way, I said what Buddy, Buddy, or Bobby Rydell. Bobby Rydell. That’s what. That’s you know, it’s a doo-op kind of song. I think Bobby
Nestor Aparicio 2:40
Rydell did the Grease song, if I’m not mistaken.
Luke Jones 2:42
Probably, yeah. I think the song. I I just googled it. The song’s from 1958, but but no, I mean just to to go back to this. I mean, there there was Rydell
Nestor Aparicio 2:50
High was the name. It was named after him, maybe. Okay, keep going. Yeah. So
Luke Jones 2:55
I mean, Tampa Bay. They’ve won nine in a row. They they just had an unbelievable road trip, albeit not not against the best teams. I mean, they swept Colorado, they swept Seattle, who’s really fallen off, and they’ve swept they they just swept the A’s. So and and the A’s have completely fallen apart with some of their injuries and everything. Not that they were great before, but but they’re going to go to the Trop. They’re gonna play four. You know, one of these weird Friday through Monday evening kind of series, and we’re gonna see what it looks like. I’m guessing on they’ll come out the other side of it, still mathematically in this thing because that’s just it’s been where it’s been since May, right? I mean, I said to you before we even started. I mean, the Orioles are coming off of this series, this you know first two legs of this road trip. Texas was the first one. The Rangers took two out of three from them. The Rangers have lost three in a row now, and just had a really unimpressive series in Anaheim. I mean, it just it’s the way this works. I mean, right now, what’s crazy as you and I are talking going into the Friday night opener against the Rays, the third wild card in the American League is Detroit, who just traded Terek Skubel and Casey Mize at the deadline, right? And they’ve played really, really well. And and by the way, I mean, I think there’s a good chance Detroit’s going to be in the playoffs. Whether it’s as the third wild card, they might win that division because the White Sox are have been scuffling of late. No one is great in the American League, even Tampa Bay. I don’t like they don’t feel to me like the way that you typically talk about the number one seed in the league, right? They don’t feel like the the team where you say, “Oh, that they’re an absolute juggernaut. They’re really good, and they deserve credit because they’ve been really good all year long. But you know, they’re they’re not, you know, I don’t think they’re winning. You know, I they’re not going to go on some kind of crazy. I mean, maybe they will because they’ve won nine in a row now. But you know, even with the nine game winning streak, I mean, they’re playing 617 ball. After that, right? I mean, this isn’t a team that’s you know on pace to to do something crazy, but you know now they’re on a pace pace to win close to 100 games, I suppose. But you know the Yankees have their flaws. We’ve I mean go down the list. I mean all these teams, the White Sox, or I just mentioned that they’ve fallen off. The Red Sox, after their 30 and five run, they just dropped five in a row, right? They just had a losing streak that they snapped in Toronto on the final day. So all these teams, you can poke holes in it. My goodness, the Orioles have as many holes as any of these teams we’re talking about. I mean, they’re very, very flawed. They’re not good, but I’m guessing we’d say similar about all these other teams if we were watching them on a daily basis. We might not say that about the Rays this weekend, right? Oh, well, that’s yeah. I mean, but at at the same time, if you if you not sweep, if you can split, you’re probably not going to be any worse for wear than where you were at the beginning of the of the weekend, right? I mean, that’s just kind of how this works. I mean, no one, no one in this wild card race is really taking the bull by the horns and you know grabbing the opportunity. I mean, maybe Detroit will now, but we’ve seen this. Every time it looks like a team’s going to do that, then they fall back to the pack, right? I mean, Cleveland’s a team. A couple weeks ago, I said to you, I thought they were going to. They’ve been awful since I said that. They’ve made me look really dumb. I mean, Cleveland’s been really bad the last couple weeks. They’re now four games under 500.
Luke Jones 6:35
Toronto’s actually playing better of late and just won a series against the Red Sox, so they’re they’re actually percentage points ahead of the Orioles now in the in the division. I mean, it’s just I don’t know, man. Like I I I have you know I’ve been out on this team for a couple months now, and I’m not. This is not me buying stock in the Orioles. It’s me continuing to sell on everyone else, that that doesn’t mean I think the Orioles are going to do it, but I don’t know. Like even over these next 10 days, where you play the Rays, you come home, you play the Yankees, and you play the Rays again. I mean, it’s a critical, very critical 10 days. They have to play their
Nestor Aparicio 7:15
best baseball. That they have to play October baseball the next 10 days if they want to be seven and three, eight and two. If they want to play baseball in September, that’s meaningful. That’s it’s nut cut time, as we would say. Like, like this is really it. Like, if you’re a baseball fan and you care about them at all, if they can win on Friday, win on Saturday, and stay in the game on Sunday, and you’re they like they need to they need to play better than they’ve played since. Of course, they beat up those teams in July, the bad teams-Houston, Texas, whatever that was around the All-Star break-that they look good for a week. They need to look good this week. This is the week. If they look good this week, they get to play meaningful baseball in September. If they look bad this week, it’s over. If they look mediocre this week, while we scoreboard, watch these other stiffs.
Luke Jones 7:57
Yeah, and that and that’s the scenario. I guess I was kind of laying out there. I
Nestor Aparicio 8:01
think it’s gonna be hard for them to go five and five this week.
Luke Jones 8:03
I’m not. I’m not gonna disagree with you, but at the same time,
Nestor Aparicio 8:07
a two and eight will end them, though.
Luke Jones 8:09
Probably, yeah, yeah. I mean, at that point, then they’re 10
Nestor Aparicio 8:13
under. Two, you
Luke Jones 8:14
know, two and yeah. I mean, but at the same time, I mean, you just said it. They have not been very good since their seven-game winning streak. They lost the Boston series, lost the Atlanta series, won the Detroit series. Needed a miracle comeback to do that. Lost the Philly series, beat the Angels two out of three. I mean, the Angels are the worst team in the league, and then they’ve lost obviously the first two series in this road trip, three-city road trip. So they’re nine and 12 since their seven-game winning streak. I mean, this is the same thing I talked about back in June when they had that. What was it, 10 and four stretch, and then I think they lost six of their next seven series or something like that. I mean, they’re doing the same exact thing, right? Where they’re just they play really well, and then they’re right back. They don’t build on it. They don’t sustain. They don’t take off in the way that the Red Sox did. I mean, the Red Sox had that 15-game winning streak, but it was larger than that for them. They went 30 and five over 35 games. Now they’ve fallen off since then, but when you go 30 and five over a month-plus period, you you have the grace of suffering a five game losing streak, and you’re still in really good position. So, but the Orioles just they haven’t been able to do that. And I think the thing that you know to to bring it back to the micro a little bit as we’re you know now zeroing in on this series and what lies ahead with the home stand coming up, I’m a little, I’m not not panicking over it, but I’m a little concerned. The rotation hasn’t been as crisp of late. That’s something that you know we’ve seen some shorter starts. I mean, Wednesday afternoon, the frustration there. Boz gets an early lead, right? How many times this year have we talked about the lack of run support for him? Beavers hits the three-run homer. They’ve got a four-run lead. You’re feeling really good about it, and Boz has his worst start of the year, right? And look, he had just thrown a complete game the timeout before, you know, the time before. So not going to sit here and say that, you know, that that’s an epic fail on his part. Like he was going to have a bad start at some point here, and he’s pitched quite well overall the last couple months, but that’s just that speaks to their margin for error and where they are as a team. Because you look at Wednesday’s game, they jump out to an early lead, Boz falters, and then the problem was the offense never, you know, that the engine stalled and they never got it going until what Tavarez hit a home run in the in the ninth inning when they were down four runs. So, but there there was a perfect example of a chance to to win a series. You have an early lead. You’ve got Boz on the hill, and you know I said four nothing. It was four to one because he gave up a run in the first inning, but then gives up a four spot right after that, and he’s out of the game. So it’s good for them that they got they had the off day on Thursday to to let the bullpen recover a little bit, but am a little, I have a little bit of concern about the rotation just not being as stellar of late as we were seeing. Because are they going to hit the ball any better? Is their bullpen going to be any better when you subtracted Tyler Wells, that’s where you look at it and say, for better for worse, they need their rotation to lead the way. I mean, that’s that’s what has kept them afloat. You know, at least to the degree that they have. I I say kept them afloat. They’re under 500, but you in this race, you know, this race, as I’ve referred to it in air quotes, but you know, that’s where I look at it and say, you know, we’ve talked about it. Bradish’s workload, you know, what’s that going to look like the rest of the way? Is he going to get a little tired?
Luke Jones 11:47
I mean, Brandon Young. I mean, this is Brandon Young’s first full year in the majors. He’s thrown a lot. I mean, that’s not to say he’s going to fall apart. He grinded his way through six innings the other night. That was that was a professional outing because he did not have his best stuff, and he navigated and got through six. I mean, that was a real credit to him, just as a major league pitcher. But you know how how’s he going to hold up the rest of the way, right? I mean, it’s you know Povich was optioned. I mean, we’re going to see Bassett. What’s Bassett going to look like, right? I mean, I know he’s healthier now, but they Bassett has been one of their big disappointments. I mean, considering how much money they gave him and how little he’s provided, so what’s that going to look like? And you’re going up against the Rays, right? And you’re going up against the Yankees. I mean, the two teams leading the way, not just we need a million dollar start out of Bassett. Yeah, I mean, but but you’re going to need all these guys to pitch well. And again, when I say I’m expressing a little bit of concern, it’s relative. I’m not. I’m not like panicking over it. But I’m just pointing out that in August, you look at the rotation numbers, hasn’t been as stellar as it had been for the better part of two months. Now that could just be one turn through the rotation, and it’s going to happen even to the best teams. Or, you know, you do wonder, you know, with Boz, he even said his his his velo was down a little bit the other day. Now it wasn’t alarming, alarmingly down. It wasn’t like, oh, oh my gosh, he’s hurt. But you want to see him bounce back. If he has another start like that, then you start to wonder: is he starting to get tired? Is there something going on physically? You know, we’ve talked about it with Bradish. You want him to stay strong the rest of the year, knowing that he’s rapidly approaching his career. You know, his career high in innings, and and what that’s going to look like. So, and and and obviously, to your point, if they have a two and eight over the next 10 games, they can probably at that point you’re 10, you’re 10 under 500. You can take your foot off the gas with a couple of those guys if you have some concern long term about their, you know, fatigue level, keeping them healthy, all of that. So, but until they get to that point, until that happens, until someone in this wild card race grabs the brass ring and and leaves everyone else in the dust. If that’s going to happen, you do have a chance. And as much as I don’t feel it, I don’t believe it, I don’t buy it with this team. The math very much says they’re in it, right? They’re two out going into this series. And again, you look at all these other teams; they keep losing games and losing series. I mean, I’m starting to wonder. If you would ask me three, four weeks ago, Nestor, what the third wild card would be, I would have said, “Oh, it’s got a. You know, you would think 85 wins. You know, something like that, at least. I don’t know, man. Like, you could you 79, baby. You could probably sell me now on like 82 and 80. Might might get it done. I don’t know. Again, Detroit has looked. I’ve been impressed with them. I mean, think about you know for for all the sad singing about Adley Rutschman being traded. I mean, they traded Scouble and Casey Mize, another All Star pitcher, and they’re playing good ball right now. I mean, they really. I mean that that series win the Orioles had against the Tigers that that’s actually aged pretty well. They can’t say that about too many things the Orioles have done, but that’s aged pretty well because the Tigers have played continued to play good baseball. So maybe it’ll be them, but I don’t know.
Luke Jones 15:16
8283, might get it done. Problem is for the Orioles, when you start looking now at how few games really remain, even to get to that that threshold, they’ve got to play some really good baseball the rest of the way. Now, I mean, when you’re five out or five under with what 41 games to go, I guess it is. You know, you’ve got to just to get to 82 or 83 wins, dude.
Nestor Aparicio 15:44
I do like that they got big games this week. I mean, like seriously, we’re watching this crappy football Saturday night. It’s the end of summer. Nothing’s going on. I mean, I had South Elkan on down at Mako this week. We’re talking about the the annual numbers for sports wagering and about all this. And this is one of those months where it’s like, dude, if you’re betting on preseason football, call Wayne 100 Gambler. Let’s let’s start with that. I mean, and that’s not even shtick. That’s sort of like, but it feels like this. This is a big time for baseball in Philadelphia, in San Diego, in New York, in places where they like baseball, in places where you have a chance. So you’re saying they have it, dude? I’ve known you 1718, years now. You’ve been doing this with me. How many August twentieths have we talked about a meaningful game at Yankee Stadium? Like I’m serious, right? Most of the
Luke Jones 16:33
Buck era. I mean, most of the Buck era. I mean, even the years they didn’t make it until the very end, right? Way
Nestor Aparicio 16:38
less than half the time. So this is one of those years where, like, dude, don’t win three games and make me wake up on Monday and talk about you maybe trying to get the 500 and maybe catching fire at the right time and be in that team. Yeah, dude.
Luke Jones 16:53
No, yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 16:54
I don’t see it either. I don’t smell it in any of these. And that’s what’s. I can’t even blame Dean Kramer or Tyler Wells or Adley Ruchman or any of the usual suspects of disappointment. Although Kozler’s here and there’s some other guys. We’re waiting on holiday now. I mean, Gunner, Gunner, Gunner, Gunner. You know, like on and on and on and on. Hey, Gunner, hit six home runs this week and let’s go play ball. Let’s go. Yeah, you know this is this is the time.
Luke Jones 17:18
I mean, even looking at what happened in the win? Right, Gunnar has three hits, hits a home run. I mean, had had his best game in a long time. By the way, you want me
Nestor Aparicio 17:26
to be the prick and be Charlie Eckman? What about Tyler O’Neill and his 15 million a year? What about Chris Bassett and the 18 million? I say, I mean, these are guys making a lot of money, man. Eltridge, all these names of all of these guys that we sign in the off season and say this is the answer. We wake up in August and say fire the general manager.
Luke Jones 17:47
I mean, in in fairness, Tyler O’Neill’s actually hit quite well since early. Yeah, he’s been one of their better hitters.
Nestor Aparicio 17:52
Carry the team, bro. Let’s go win some games. I
Luke Jones 17:54
don’t know about carrying the team. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 17:55
I mean, hitting the ball well when you lose two out of three in Minnesota. That that that’s a not throwing the ball around like the bad news bears four times in an inning, which I looked at last week. I just this is the time for them to do all the things that Albie says that they’re capable of doing and their potential and all of that and why they decided that they’re still a contender when they dealt Adley Ruchman two weeks ago.
Luke Jones 18:19
Well, I mean, what are they going to say? I mean, they. Michaelias can say that. He obviously doesn’t believe that, or or he doesn’t make the trades that he did. So, but I hear you. I think it’s even if this team were 63 and 58 as opposed to 58 and 63, and the shape of the race, wild card race itself, just looked different. Meaning, like we weren’t talking about all these sub 500 teams, even if they were a bunch of teams that were just a few games over. You’d like to think
Nestor Aparicio 18:47
you have to win 88 or 89. I just like that. I mean, the perception wins is 16 games over 500. This team can’t tell. This team’s not even a zip code near 80. I mean, they’d have to,
Luke Jones 18:58
man. If they did something like that, they’d have to go absolutely nuts down the stretch, but yeah, I mean it’s and that’s the thing. Like I, the temperature for this team is just so bleh amongst its fan base for sure. It’s just so blah, and I mean, if I mean the general manager signaled the same thing, right? I mean like, and I’m not even saying that to Frida. I I said to you at the at the deadline in a vacuum. If I were the GM, I probably would have done similar to what Michaelias did because I don’t believe in this team. But so so much of this, it’s just there’s reality and then there’s perception and then there’s what you actually think is going to happen, right? And in fairness, why I’m so unmoved by the well? They’re only two games out, or they’re only a game and a half out. We’ve been saying that since May, and they haven’t made any meaningful move whatsoever. The only time they have has been after they had fall into a season worse nine games under 500 when they rip off seven in a row. Right? They. Not made any sustained push. Where you know, think how many times. Like I joked about this last week after they had won two or three from the Angels to get to two under, and then they went to Texas and and they. I guess it was a Texas series, but I said at the time, I said the Orioles getting to one game under 500 is their white whale, you know, like like they just they can’t do it. They since late May or what was it, early June? I guess it was. What they they got to two games under 500 at that point, and they’ve been two games under 500 a few other times since then. They can’t get any closer to that to that. And not just do they lose, then they fall back like two or three or four games after that, and and that’s where it is. Like it’s it’s the boy who cried wolf. I mean, they’ll win just a couple games, and you say okay, and then they’re right back to kicking the ball around or not hitting. They get a a not so great start at a time where you’re you’re kind of counting on a good start, you know. The rotation has been really good since late May. I I don’t want to lump those in with the other shortcomings, but but Wednesday was a great example of just what bad teams do. You finally get run support as a pitcher, and then you have a bad outing yourself, right? So they just can’t put it all together. They just they just can’t. And I’m guessing that’s not going to change. We’ll see over the next 10 days in terms of what that means from a math standpoint in the standings. I’m guessing if you want me to predict right now, 10 days from now, I think we’re going to be talking about this team in very similar terms. I don’t think it’s going to be a disaster one in nine stretch, but I don’t think they’re going to go nine and one either. And I think, based on how everyone else plays, they’re going to be in very similar territory. And you know, they play just well enough for a little bit of time to, for us to have the conversation in the tone we’re having it now. But then they fall back, and it’s just such an uninspiring, frustrating. hate watch of a product at this point in time. I mean, it just is. I mean, I really feel that way. I I think most Orioles fans watch with disdain at this point. You watch because it’s your team. It’s it’s what you do as a baseball fan. It’s just the the ebb and flow of the calendar. You watch, but I don’t think anyone’s having any fun watching this team at this point. I mean, maybe some individual accomplishments here and there. You know, certainly hoping. You know, Gunnar Henderson had the big day on Tuesday. You hope that’s the start for him being better. You know, Pete Alonso swung the bat well on this trip. That’s there’s no doubt about that. I’m hoping Beaver’s hitting the three-run homer the other day.
Luke Jones 22:42
Is hopefully you know you’d really like to see him get going. I mean, man, you want to talk about big picture questions? What the heck is the outfield next year? I have no idea, man. No idea who the starting outfield will. Well, they have to spend money. I mean, right. That’s that. Part of those, yeah. Part of that solution is not in the organization at this point. I think that much is obvious, but you know, right now this outfielder trotting out there on any given night. I mean, I’d really like to see Dylan Beavers finish strong to the point where I say, hey, I think he can be one of those guys. Colton Kozer, to me, at this point, if you’re not going to trade him, you need to treat this as he’s a fourth outfielder. And if he happens to go, you give him a start, and he happens to rake, and and he goes on a heater for two weeks, then great. But he’s not nearly consistent enough to count on him to be an everyday player. And that’s speaking as someone who points out his his defense being a plus because it is, but you can’t be a zero at the bat the way he is for weeks at a time. So, yeah, I want to see Dylan Beavers finish the year strong. You know, I want to see what a crop,
Nestor Aparicio 23:53
dude. You’re about to. I was going to go to Mayo. What a crop of young guys where we’re sitting here and they’re all allegedly emerging and arriving, and none of them are arriving.
Luke Jones 24:03
None
Nestor Aparicio 24:04
of them. A really arrival. Are you
Luke Jones 24:06
sure about? Well, okay. Define what you mean by arriving. Mayo’s actually hit really, really well since early July. I mean, like to the point where just play him, play him, and play him, and play him. Whether he’s going to DH, you know, whether he’s going to spell Alonso at first base a day, but Mayo since july 1 he’s hitting 282 and he’s slugging 606. I mean, he’s been could argue he’s been their one of one of their two or three best hitters, if not their best hitter since early July. Now he he’s if he emerges
Nestor Aparicio 24:37
as Pete Alonso’s offensive numbers, they’ve blocked him by signing Pete Alonso. You know the the Ryan Mountcastle thing. Keep it as sort of just like well, but but you’re signed a catcher that you don’t feel like really is an everyday catcher. So you have the DH thing. So there really is a thing about having so many of these guys with bad gloves. Cowser aside. Well,
Luke Jones 24:57
and and and just the roster construction in general, right? I mean. Just it’s. I would say this with Ruchman out of the picture now, that does free up more of those DH at bats. By the way, he was
Nestor Aparicio 25:08
their best defensive player, right?
Luke Jones 25:10
Who he was the one guy
Nestor Aparicio 25:11
Ruchman that you’d look at and say really good defensive catcher
Luke Jones 25:15
this year. Yeah, I mean his defense wasn’t as good the last couple years. But I’m saying they traded
Nestor Aparicio 25:20
away their only
Luke Jones 25:22
stratomatic one or two. I don’t know if they have another one. I don’t know if they have anybody else on the field that I would say is. I think Kouzler’s a better outfielder than you think. Now I’m not maybe not a one, but he’s he’s a two two. And Pete Alonso’s been the two at first base defensively. I know he had the he’s played good, really good defense overall. A two is
Nestor Aparicio 25:42
just a. I mean, you gotta like all my good Earl Weaver stratomatic teams. I had five or six ones, but that’s playing Mark Belanger too, and you know, or Rick Dempsey or something like that defensively. I’ll hear all of that. I’m just looking at this team, and I do think of it as an old man stratomatic thing, and say, who’s really good defensively here? And Rutchman’s gone, and now I look around the diamond, and I’m like, “Well, Alonzo’s okay. Holliday might emerge to be fine, but like Kowser, you like maybe a little more than I do. When I start comparing them like Devereaux and Bradyant, really good defensive players, I look at those kinds of players through the course of time, and say he’s not that good,
Luke Jones 26:22
but I think he’s a really he’s a plus defender. I mean, the the metrics support that. I think he is. Well, versus the field. Not saying he’s Paul. Not saying he’s Paul Blair.
Nestor Aparicio 26:30
Yeah, but you know, but he’s, and I don’t need everybody to be Aparicio Belanger. And this player, but this is above. I just I needed to be Mike Bordick, which is really good. You know, but
Luke Jones 26:40
here’s the problem: they weren’t constructed to be that. Obviously, we’ve talked about the lack of valuing defense in this organization. However, they were constructed to say we’re not going to be as good defensively, but we’re going to do what? We’re going to hit. They don’t hit to that degree, they’re they’re a mediocre league average at best kind of offense. Yeah, but Kelly Mayo doesn’t hit well
Nestor Aparicio 27:07
enough to put him in right field. Say, let’s let him go be lousy. Like it’s just, yeah. I mean, with Santander, you you sort of felt that way once the bat emerged, or you know, any of the big bats, dude. I’ll hear you that a guy kind. It’s okay if Gunnar Henderson kicks the ball around the way he’s kicked it around this year. Every defensive miscue, every bad throw, every every bad everything he’s done with the glove. If he’s hitting 284 right now with 28 home runs and 97 RBI, the team would be a lot better, and we wouldn’t notice this. And whatever Dean Kramer’s on the hill, or whatever Shane Boz has to turn around and eat a fourth out in the second inning or the fourth inning, and give up a run or two more than they want to. They’re not four and 15 at you know at the end of the year like Shane Boss is going to be when this is all over with.
Luke Jones 28:00
Yeah, I mean it’s you just said it. I mean for Gunner specifically, but you can kind of go down the list. I mean if you were getting a more representative offensive version of him, they’d be in a wild card spot right now. Well, Mayno’s
Nestor Aparicio 28:12
hitting his way into being a lousy fielder because they’re gonna have to put him somewhere. That’s my point.
Luke Jones 28:18
Again, the the DH spot’s not nearly as when you had Ruchman and Basayo. Sure, the DH spot was very much blocked for most games. You know, maybe once once or twice a week at. But Alberzo is
Nestor Aparicio 28:34
going to play first base most nights, and that does open up the DH. And Basayo is going to catch most nights, right? Yeah, right. And I would.
Luke Jones 28:41
And I. But I would also say, Pete Alonso is going to. He’s going to get older over the. That’s that’s kind of a dumb thing. Is everyone gets older. But point is, he’s going to age a little bit more, being on the wrong side of 30. All that. That. The defense at first base. You’ll probably want to spell him a little bit more the next couple years. I’m being a
Nestor Aparicio 29:04
funny prick right now, but I’m like, can we just if there’s a if there’s a strike, they should just freeze him, like cry cryogenically because he’s going to age even if he doesn’t play next. Yeah,
Luke Jones 29:14
I’m kind of I’m searching for words to put it in the right in in the right way, but the thing with Pete Alonzo, with where he is right now in his career, look, he’s had a good year. I’m not, but they have him for four more years, and you kind of look at the trajectory, and you look at him just getting older, advancing into his 30s a little more. He’s probably going to become a guy that you’re going to want to DH a little bit more. Well, I was going to say maybe next year you go
Nestor Aparicio 29:39
to 135, 128, and you know, so there you go, and then you’re down to 105 or 110 in his 36th year, in his fourth year in the deal. But Michael Ice ain’t thinking about any of that right now, right? I mean, they’re trying to win this week, and and you and I again to bring it back to full circle, so we can end this and go watch bad. Saturday night. This is the week they need to play. This is the week that whatever your best glove kind of now or never. This is really it’s nut cut for these games. Yeah,
Luke Jones 30:09
and and I I think what’s disappointing is, you know, Basayo, he’s progressing like he’s swinging and doing stuff like that, but still haven’t heard about him doing a rehab assignment just yet, man. You’d like to have him back for these games, but doesn’t doesn’t feel already September. Does it feel like that’s going to happen? I mean, maybe the very end of the home stand. Who knows? But you’d like to have that because again, it’s the upside, right? The idea of seeing what he can do with the bat, and they they just haven’t scored runs. I mean, they’ve got a handful of guys who swung the bat better than you would think since early July. O’Neill, I mentioned, but he’s been more of a part-time player until very recently. Mayo, same thing for him. They’re starting to give Mayo a few more starts against right-handers, and he’s actually handled that okay. That’s been okay to see. Is that going to continue? I don’t know. Pete Alonzo swung the bat very well. Holiday had a phenomenal July. Got off to a rough start in August, and you’re hoping that you know that he can get back to where he was in July a little bit more consistently. But you know, no Basayo. Beavers hasn’t been all that good until his three-run homer the other day. Gunner, we’ve talked about that all year. Kouzler, we’ve talked about that all year. You know, now you’re in a position where, as much as Carlos Norvayes might be sound defensively, even though he threw a ball away the other day, but he’s considered a good pitch and catch, you know, kind of catcher. He’s not going to give you a whole lot offensively. You know, at least wasn’t doing that this year for the Red Sox. So, you know, you’re just you just wonder: is are you going to get enough there? And if you do, is the pitching going to continue to hold up? The bullpen, you know, without Tyler Wells, considering how well he had pitched before being dealt, you know, you just are there enough quality innings out there that you’re going to get. I mean, it’s just it’s tough to look at this and have any degree of confidence again.
Nestor Aparicio 32:10
But I will be watching.
Luke Jones 32:12
Yeah, of of course, of course. And and like I said, the math continues to dictate that they are right in the thick of it. But at some point, at some point, you’ve got to start playing better baseball and actually sustaining it. I think, I don’t know. I mean, maybe, maybe it’d be
Nestor Aparicio 32:32
september 10 when they’re still in it. I mean,
Luke Jones 32:35
maybe, maybe the if you’re writing the weirdest storybook kind of finish to this as you could, may maybe they continue to look like this, and they they win 10 in a row to close the regular season and somehow steal the third wild card. I don’t, I don’t know. I mean, it’s just it just doesn’t. It’s not good. It’s not fun to watch. It’s not a good product. It’s very frustrating to watch this on the nightly basis. You know, it’s
Nestor Aparicio 32:59
even more frustrating is to watch them go down and play a really good team, and it’ll be empty as hell and some nombulance and gross and gray there, and no one cares about that team even when they win.
Luke Jones 33:08
Yeah, no, it’s hard to disagree with that. I mean, that’s Razor. They’re a fun team. I mean, it’s pretty important. We’ll have
Nestor Aparicio 33:17
some fun this weekend. In addition to you having to sit out at the stadium in the Kevin Byrne press box that I’m banned from to watch fake football. Lucky you, Luke’s here. If there’s any breaking news, we’ll get to you first. Obviously, the we had the Wiggins situation this week. We talked about the secondary spot. I’ve been down in Mako in Ocean City. We’re going to be a fishmonger’s daughter on Wednesday. All are brought to you by our friends at the Maryland Lotter have the Ravens scratch offs to give away on Wednesday afternoon. Good guests coming to Catonsville this week as well. All of it brought to you by GBMC and Farnan and Dermer. They’re the comfort guys. I was very very comfortable at Mako. Like they put me upstairs in the back and thought that I would feel bad about it. Chris Van Hollen came. He’s like, “Hey, they gave you like they put you in the back corner. I’m like, “Dude, it’s 15 degrees warmer up here. It’s nice. I mean, you don’t really want it warmer in Ocean City. By the way, the Ocean City Convention Center Fish Pal, what a beautiful facility! Like, I mean, I’d never been upstairs there. I broadcast there the last five years. I went upstairs to the back. There’s this beautiful area where you look over the bay and Ocean City, good times down there. We had Mayor Rick Mihan on. Mako was happening. I, I, I had Republicans. I had Democrats. I had male, female, electeds, non-electeds, beach people. I even saw the Bodines this week. So I got a little pep in my step. We got baseball to watch this week. We got fake football on the agenda, and I’m working on our 28th anniversary, which we’re going to announce on the 28th, it’s going to have to do with music and rock and roll, as inspired by John Allen and some other friends who love music around here. He is Luke. I am Nestor. The season lives on, baseball fans, for real. They’re in it. I’m telling you, they got a chance. We’re Baltimore positive.
