This is not a playoff-caliber Baltimore Orioles roster as we approach the All Star break and it’s now time to evaluate the numbers of years, money and real value of the “assets” of the entire organization. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss realities of Orioles buy or sell position in July at the trade deadline with “star” talent, a sob-.500 record and the future of Mike Elias very much becoming the fan focus – on and off the field.

Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Orioles’ recent performance, noting their inconsistency and frustration with the team’s 8-13 record over the past 21 games. They highlighted Kyle Bradish’s struggles with first-pitch strikes and the team’s inability to sustain success. The conversation also touched on the potential trade value of Adley Rutschman and other key players like Gunnar Henderson and Jackson Holliday. They expressed skepticism about the team’s current leadership and strategy, questioning the long-term viability of the young core and the impact of the ongoing labor issues on future plans.

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Create a red, white, and blue American flag logo using AI for the upcoming Fourth of July week segment.
• [ ] Edit the segment to remove the F-bomb by adding a beep instead of muting the audio.

Orioles’ Recent Performance and Frustrations

• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the Orioles’ recent performance, noting their frustration with the team’s inconsistency.
• Luke Jones highlights the team’s record, mentioning a recent series where they won the opener but lost the series.
• The conversation touches on specific games, including a win against Trevor Rogers and a loss against Brandon Young.
• Luke Jones mentions Kyle Bradish’s struggles with consistency and his issues with first-pitch strikes.

Kyle Bradish’s Performance and Team Consistency

• Luke Jones elaborates on Kyle Bradish’s performance, noting his ups and downs over the past month.
• The discussion includes Bradish’s issues with walking batters and the team’s overall struggles with situational hitting.
• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the team’s inconsistent play, comparing it to previous seasons.
• The conversation highlights the team’s inability to sustain success, with frequent two-step forward, two-step back scenarios.

Adley Rutschman’s Future and Team Strategy

• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones debate the future of Adley Rutschman, discussing the possibility of trading him.
• Luke Jones expresses surprise at the pushback against trading Rutschman, given his recent performance and age.
• The conversation touches on the team’s overall strategy, including the potential impact of the labor situation on future decisions.
• Nestor Aparicio questions the team’s asset management, citing past mistakes like the Manny Machado trade.

Orioles’ Leadership and Management

• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the leadership and management of the Orioles, expressing dissatisfaction with current decisions.
• The conversation includes criticism of the team’s ownership and the impact of the labor situation on future plans.
• Nestor Aparicio mentions the potential for a new general manager and the need for fresh leadership.
• Luke Jones highlights the importance of making the right trades to improve the team’s future prospects.

Upcoming Games and Team Outlook

• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the upcoming games against the White Sox and Reds, expressing cautious optimism.
• The conversation includes a comparison of the Orioles’ current performance to previous seasons and other teams.
• Nestor Aparicio mentions the impact of the labor situation on the team’s future plans and the need for better asset management.
• Luke Jones reiterates the importance of making the right trades to improve the team’s future prospects, despite the current challenges.

Nestor Aparicio 0:01
Hello, we are W N S T A M 1570 Towson Baltimore. It is Fourth of July week here at Baltimore. Positive, should get a red, white, and blue logo out in AI to say make it an American flag. I should probably do that. We’re coming up on our 28th anniversary. It comes up on august 3, so we’re looking forward to that. It is going to be a great summer around here, a football later on, some Maryland crab cake tours, all presented by the Maryland lottery. Conjunction with our friends G B M C and Farnum and Dermer. Loose got Farn and Dermer on. You know, I don’t know why you don’t have your little orange Hawaiian Farnham and Dermish. I was almost put mine on, but it’s being laundered right now. But I did go with my peachy cost is because this is an Orioles segment, we’re getting this close to not doing them anymore, and Luke’s gonna be going on vacation. I am going to be in Philadelphia for the All-Star game in two weeks, so we’re gonna have some baseball in the brain here, and obviously the Orioles still home for a couple more days as we get going here, but football season’s coming soon, Luke isn’t it? It is, it

Luke Jones 1:00
is, and it can’t get here soon enough at this point in time. I mean, it’s just, look, I mean, we’ve, we’re broken records talking about this, this ball club. I mean, it’s another series where Friday night they win. It looks good. Trevor Rogers pitched really well, and it was a tidy three one victory, and we’ve talked about this a lot. This notion of winning the first game of a series, and how that should set you up to win a series, right? I mean, like, you look, you’ve got two games left, and say, hey, just win one of those, and but we’ve seen a lot here recently where I mean, even since that good 10 and four stretch that they had, and they were two games under 500 They’ve lost four different series where they’ve won the opener since then. Since then, I mean, we’re talking the last few weeks, so it’s just.. it’s not a way to get yourself back to 500 let alone above 500 and it just leaves you very frustrated. I mean, like I said, Trevor Rogers pitched really well, they played not perfect baseball, but they did enough. Blaze Alexander had an early two-run single, I guess it wasn’t that early as the fourth inning, and Mayo gives him a little bit of insurance later in the game, and the bullpen was tidy. Tyler Wells pitched well, and Grant Wolfram and Ryan Hellsley recorded his first save since late April. You’re saying, okay, you’re set up to have a nice weekend, right? You won Friday night, and then you just see Saturday, where you know they kick the ball around early on, and it cost them a couple runs, and you know Brandon, Brandon Young had a really interesting game. I mean, he got a ton of swing and miss, I mean, to the point that it caught up with him a little bit, little bit from a pitch count standpoint, but you know, you got another representative start from him, good enough, and they didn’t hit the ball right, and okay, they, they get a comeback in the bottom of the eighth inning, had a chance to walk it off, and they don’t, and they have another breakdown in terms of situational hitting with the contact play very late in that game, and you lose, but even then you’re thinking, okay, your ace is going on Sunday.

Nestor Aparicio 3:13
Well,

Luke Jones 3:13
not the best version of Kyle Bradish, struggled to throw strikes, and

Nestor Aparicio 3:17
that’s been on and off, right? Like it was coming along, right? Yeah, yeah, I mean,

Luke Jones 3:20
he’s look, I want to be very clear, he’s still their best, he, I mean, it’s not even close the amount of upside he has compared to anyone else in their rotation, he is their host, I mean, if they’re going to be a playoff team, he’s going to be, but they need more than that, but he’s got to be a big, but yes, he needs to be their ace, like he needs to be that guy, and look, since second week of May, overall he’s been really good. I mean, the, and the numbers would bear that out, but he, if you recall, he had back to back clunkers to start June, and you’re at that point, you’re kind of like, oh, like, what’s going on. And then he had two brilliant starts, but then on Sunday struggle to throw strikes, right? I mean, the one thing that’s been.. it’s not a good thing when I say consistent, but he’s had a lot of issues with getting ahead, right? First pitch strike percentage is like the worst in baseball, or has been right in that territory all year. Can you overcome that? Yes. Does it make it more difficult on yourself? No question about it, right? Whether it’s in terms of simply driving up your pitch count or putting yourself in more stressful situations, walking a few more guys. I mean, it’s Massen had a statistic during Sunday’s game, Bradish has the most walks in the majors with two outs, and lo and behold, that’s what we saw on Sunday, right? I mean, you look at that, you know, Sunday started out okay, right? Peter Alonso hits a home run, it’s two nothing, you’re thinking, hey, you got Bradish on the hill, you’re on your way, and then the bottom of the third inning arrives, and two outs, Bradish issues a couple walks, and then you know Garcia has the two run double, I mean it got away from. Them, and then Kobe Mayo makes an error, right? So the pitching breaks down, and then the defense breaks down, right after that, right? And before you know it, you’re, you’re down three two, right? So it just, every time you think this team has is showing a little bit of something that’s encouraging, they just, they revert, right? They go right back to being what they’ve, what they are. It’s funny, we’ve used the term consistency or inconsistent, and a lot of people have used that, you and I’ve used it, just like anyone else, but they’ve actually, they actually are kind of consistent when you look at how they, I mean, like you just see these things happen constantly, right? I mean, we’re going to look at this, you know. We’ve talked a lot about this 10 and four stretch, you know, which started with the seven and three home stand, and all that. That’s been way more the outlier than how they’ve played otherwise, right? I mean, look at how they played over the better part of the first two months. Look at how they’ve played since that 10 and four stretch. I mean, and I’ll give them, I gave them credit during that time, but you’re talking about a two, two and a half week period there. Other than that, it’s been more like this, where you might win the first game of a series, and then you drop the series, or you kick the ball around, or you know, you issue a few too many walks, your offense disappears. I mean, look what happened to them again against Littell on Sunday. I mean, this is a guy who has a 5.29 ERA, and he’s shut them down twice this year, right? I mean, it’s.. it’s just.. it’s very frustrating. And in our previous segment, you know, we talked a lot about the big picture and the brand and lack of interest, and the fact that they didn’t draw a ton of people, even though it’s two local teams playing over the weekend, and it’s late June, and all that, but it’s just it’s this constant two steps forward, two steps back, two steps forward, three steps back, right, three steps forward, three steps back. I mean, they can’t win more than three games in a row, they’ve, they’ve struggled to earn any sweeps whatsoever this year, except for a couple, right?

Luke Jones 7:04
I mean, it’s just they just can’t sustain anything, and even when they had a stretch where they started to sustain, look at how choppy at best it’s been since then, right? I mean, this is very similar to last year in that way, not that they had the disastrous start, I mean, last year, remember, first 50 games, they were 16 and 34 so obviously they didn’t start nearly to the disastrous level that they did last year, but if you go back to last year, they, it was even a West Coast trip, and they played well, they had a stretch of nine of 11, and they got themselves, I think, to 11 under, and at that point, if you were trying to, to make any argument for the rest of the year to be relevant, interesting, whatever, whatever descriptor you wanted to use, that needed to be the jumping off point, that needed to be the springboard, in the same way that 10 and four needed to be, not that you are going to continue to win 10 out of every 14, right? I’m not saying they’re going to play 105 win ball the rest of the year, but that needed to be where you say, okay, you’re almost back to 500 just start winning series more consistently, right? You don’t even have to win six in a row or nine of 10, just win two out of three, win two out of three, win two out of three. If it’s a four game series split, but since then, you know, since that 10 and four stretch, which remember it, that that stretch kind of culminated with that comeback win in Toronto on that Friday night, where they were losing, and then they, they went nuts, and they won 13 three. Since then, however, series loss, series split with Seattle, series loss, series loss one two out of three against the Dodgers. Okay, bravo, good job. And now two more series loss immediately after that, right? I mean, that’s it, kind of cancels it out, it’s not kind of it completely does. I mean, it completely does. I mean, they’re they’re eight and 13 over their last 21 games since they had their really nice stretch. That’s, you know, they’re they’re back to being, you know, they’re one game better than their low water mark in terms of games below 500 However, the difference, right, we think about it in terms of, like, how many games under 500 are you okay? They’ve.. there’s also another month gone from the calendar now, right? That there’s an opportunity cost there as well, where you say you know it’s one thing to be eight games under 500 on may 20 when you have four plus months of baseball left, but now you’re talking about being seven under 500 What

Nestor Aparicio 9:43
accelerates the pace of 700 ball you’re going to have to play in order, right? Exactly, now

Luke Jones 9:47
you’re now you start to get into the territory, basic

Nestor Aparicio 9:49
math, right? Literally, right,

Luke Jones 9:51
it’s math, you know? Like, you know me, I’m almost like the

Nestor Aparicio 9:53
magic number, right? Sure, sure,

Luke Jones 9:56
but and yes, anyone that’s trying to be the. Missing, there are still some out there, and look, God bless, I applaud enthusiasm, right? Because it’s not easy to be enthusiasm. I’ve watched the first 85 games, sure, sure, I have too, but, but yes, you can keep talking about the wild card race, and I’ll hear that mathematically it’s not over, it’s not over by a long shot mathematically, but at some point in time, don’t you have to? Aren’t you competing against yourself at some point in time, right? Aren’t just, are we good enough? Are we playing well enough? Is our defense good enough? Is our, is our situational hidden good enough? Are we pitching to the to the level that we need to pitch consistently? And look, the pitching overall, especially the rotation over the last month, has been much better than it was early on. I can acknowledge that, but when you look at each area of the game, you look at every player, and you kind of just throw it all together. I’ve heard other people say this, and I agree wholeheartedly, man, the sum of this team is absolutely less than the parts, and I’m not even like getting into all this team so talented, right? I question that when it’s not showing up for as long as it hasn’t shown up now, but at the same time, you just look at this and just say, man, this is just not. it’s not inspiring, just isn’t, and I mean, while you do look at the rest of the wild card race, and yes, there are only three games out of the final wild card spot, but I do start to look at some teams that are starting

Nestor Aparicio 11:37
to,

Luke Jones 11:37
starting to look better, like look at Houston, for example, right? I mean, they were real, really in a bad place. They’re two games under 500 now,

Nestor Aparicio 11:47
but you mentioned Pedigree about them at some point. Sure. And where’s the pedigree with this outfit here? It’s not.. it’s not anything like we have the ability to run back and catch up, and like all of that. You know, this is so different team than Corbin Burns and Cedric Mullins and Austin Hay, you know, whatever that was three years ago. I mean, especially three years ago. Yeah, I mean, Henderson and Ruchman were a part of it, but almost feels like they weren’t. It was what happened to those.. no, no, no. Well, yeah, I understand the point. From a leadership growth, hey, we’re moving forward, not backward, in a general sense, Henderson especially feels when we should talk about him. I started to ink a letter to him about a week and a half ago when they played at Dodger Stadium. It may be more of an all-star break thing for me with him, but my God, what that young man’s career.. and we went through this with Ruchman this time last year and the year before that, right? Like, were these guys that look like phenoms have that Mark McGwire 201 year in them,

Luke Jones 12:45
yeah. And look, I mean, you just said it, sometimes that does just happen, right? I mean, and I’m not not excusing it, I’m trying to recommend the most of the Hall of Famers

Nestor Aparicio 12:55
that I’ve seen.

Luke Jones 12:57
Well, let’s not compare them to Hall of Famers, because they don’t, they haven’t earned that to be in that space, right, Middle

Nestor Aparicio 13:03
River. I mean, we ran here, we’ve talked about Gunner, he can’t fit the ball to first base half the time, you know what I mean, like defensively,

Luke Jones 13:12
I see, I’ll push back on that a lot. The defense is the last of my concerns with Gunner Hendricks, I agree, and let me be clear, that’s not, that’s not me suggesting that he’s a gold glove shortstop, and

Nestor Aparicio 13:23
that’s me just conceding that he’s going to hit the ball, which he hasn’t done. I

Luke Jones 13:28
mean, we’ve said that a lot. I mean, how many times if we had an ombudsman just keeping track of how you watched

Nestor Aparicio 13:36
him do it for three years when he was 21 years old, right?

Luke Jones 13:39
But, but at the same time, yesterday’s not today. Yeah, at the same time, no, I’m going to go back a little bit here. 2024 first half, he was MVP level, right? I mean, if you had taken a vote on June 20 or June 30 or July 3 of that season, I’m guessing Aaron Judge probably still gets the nod, but Gunner Henderson was right there. I mean, that’s what kind of year he was having, but it’s funny, we did this a lot with Ruchman because of how precipitous his fall was, how striking, how jarring it was, how he looked from the second half of 24 through the end of last year, but if you look at Gunner Henderson, well, his second half of 24 was not as good as his first half, and then obviously last year he had the, what was it, the rib cage, oblique intercostal, whatever it was that, that you know, a rib cage issue that landed him on the IL to start the year, even though he only missed the first week, but remember he missed a good chunk of spring training, then as a result of that, and it did cost him his first week of the season, and then we, we come to find out after the fact, after the season ended, that he did have a shoulder issue, not something that he couldn’t play with, but something that conceivably. Lee zapped him up some of his power, and we talked about it. I mean, Gunner didn’t have a terrible year last year, but the home run power wasn’t there, right? But you look at where he is this year, he’s hit, he’s hit home runs. I mean, he’s on pace for a 30 home run season, but you know, 221 that’s one thing, but a 291 on base percentage, right? I mean, still having a sub 300 on base percentage this late in the year, so even Gunner, you know, even though we didn’t look at it through the same lens as what happened with Ruchman, but same kind of deal, you’re talking about two calendar years now since he looked like that MVP level Gunner Henderson, so that, or look

Nestor Aparicio 15:42
like the $500 million contract guy, sure, right? Either way,

Luke Jones 15:45
and look, I mean, he’s still.. they’re all

Nestor Aparicio 15:46
playing for a contract, and like all of that, but.. but it’s.. it’s inconceivable that two years ago on that fly over, when the Phillies were here, that we would be sitting here talking about this level of an organizational disaster where their aircraft carriers aren’t carrying water pistols right now, any of them, I mean, in regard to not just trade value, but what you would really get in a trade value in regard to the other team thinking we’re going to be the one that gives him $300 million or he’s going to be the one that gets us to a pennant race, because I know Elias, poor Michael, I just had to answer those questions from those hand-selected media, hard questions from people like Rock Cabaco that work for him, like I, like I don’t know what their trading deadline thing is, but these are their assets, and I’m not, you know, fixing the first three letters of that, but these are their assets, and how they utilize them from Araghetti and Rubenstein’s perspective of the whole chess board, and why Elias is the guy moving these pieces around right now, or eating them in various cases. That’s really the issue for me with the real future of the organization, not the ticket sales, not the strike, not Katie Griggs, not the All-Star game in 20, none of that. The real future of the organization are the allocation and management and strategy behind these assets. And look, man, you and I are a decade gone on Machado, literally, it’s been a decade, man, since he’s been gone, and they mismanaged that asset, we said it then. God bless you, Dean Kramer. And used by the way, I couldn’t think of using the L Diaz’s name on the air two weeks ago. Like I was like, began with a Y, it was weird. It was an you, you, you, you, I haven’t even

Luke Jones 17:35
thought about that name. There you go,

Nestor Aparicio 17:36
dude. You, that’s why I brought it up. You might have a hard time coming up with that one, if I ask you, remember who the gem of that Manny Alexander Juan Bell deal was going to be, or whatever, the Jim Fuller, the Earl Williams, I mean, seems like the

Luke Jones 17:49
Dodgers knew what they were doing, right, trading him away almost,

Nestor Aparicio 17:53
and I remember when his manager at Bowie said love you, Sparrow’s point, but nonetheless, for me the allocation of the assets and managing these assets, and over the next 32 days for the trading deadline, saying all right, we good here, we love good air, okay, next year he’s going to be a 220 hitter, can you fix him, there’s gonna be a new manager, it’s gonna be a new general manager, he’s going to be here. He’s the battleship, he’s the thing we got. Visayos over here, Ruchman, you got to get on him now. And he’s brighter than he was, but he ain’t your catcher of the future. You just drafted two catchers, and you just gave another million dollars.

Luke Jones 18:35
I’m going to stop you on that, because we need to update that. Bodine’s gone, they traded him. Fair enough, you’re right. And Ike Irish isn’t playing. He’s an outfielder. I mean, he’s.. he’s not.. I don’t think he’s caught eight. Well, either

Nestor Aparicio 18:47
way, Adley Rochman is not the catcher of their future. I don’t think so. I don’t think they’re gonna give no trillion dollars to be their catcher the next five years. It’s

Luke Jones 18:55
interesting you mentioned that, because I was just going to pose the question. I find this interesting, and maybe I shouldn’t, and maybe I’m saying this too detached, thinking more as just someone who’s covering baseball rather than being a fan, but I’ve been surprised with how much pushback there is locally, whether we’re talking fans or even reporters, and not, and I don’t mean reporters like that. I’m accusing someone of being a homer. It’s not that, but I’ve been surprised at how much pushback there is on the idea of trading Adley Ruchman. I mean, are we just going to completely ignore last year in the second half of 24 Are we going to completely ignore that he’s already in his age 28 season, and let me be clear, he’s had a nice bounce back season. He’s also had two IL stints now, in addition to the two last.. what is

Nestor Aparicio 19:49
his value now? Now the key, he’s no longer the one one that you’re getting, please ship anything. I

Luke Jones 19:54
think he still has plenty of value, because

Nestor Aparicio 19:56
okay, all right, I mean, you don’t think so? I don’t, I think he has plenty of value. I don’t think it’s going to rock the organization to deal him, and no, what they got for Machado when they got it, I wouldn’t expect much more than a four. If you’re gonna get young players, if you’re gonna get young players,

Luke Jones 20:17
Manny Machado is a home, you know, was already way more accomplished at that point than Adley, but my

Nestor Aparicio 20:23
point is, my point is, if you get a use the LDS, which was worthless, and if you get a Dean Kramer, which has whatever value, did we get anything else in that deal? Am I when there a relief pitcher for a minute or two in the beginning, or so? I don’t even know, right? Like, was Evan Phillips in that deal?

Luke Jones 20:38
I’ll look it up now, because I’m curious, it doesn’t even

Nestor Aparicio 20:40
matter, because he never, he wasn’t. Yeah, well, I mean, not tribute,

Luke Jones 20:43
he was a contributor elsewhere, but not for the.. I don’t think he was in that deal. Let me.. I’m gonna look now, though. Just because I’m curious, wondering what we’re

Nestor Aparicio 20:51
gonna get for Ruchman, right? Like, literally, right? Like, what? No, no, it makes it worth getting rid of him, versus to your point, well, he’s our one one, he’s come back, he’s going to be our catcher next year. Well, all right. Now, now you have decided you’re going to let him get the free agency, because he’s going to get there anyway, because look who his agent is. So, and then you have the strike, right? And this is where we had a big segment two months ago about how the strike’s going to affect all of this. I can’t, it’s going to affect all of it, from money, years, philosophy, ethos, predictions of what I mean. All these dumb ass owners we have, they don’t know anything about baseball. They just think, well, we’ll work it all out, like the fans used to say. Well, there’s so much money there. There’s these guys are making a million dollars, you know, these guys are making $50 million a year. Are they going to strike? We’ll find out, but are they going to walk off? How tough is this going to be? But this is always ugly, and the baseball labor thing, and I don’t know how these billionaire hedge fund guys are going to view their assets in all of this, or how they’re going to view the humanity, or to your point, your fee fees, because they don’t have any fee fees about any of this, and I don’t think Michaelias has any fee fees, whatever fans feel about Adley Rush, because they bought the jersey, or like him, or whatever, dude, these are asset people, that’s what I said, I started with asset management, that we’re now into the asset management piece of how do we win next year, because this year doesn’t look so good,

Luke Jones 22:20
yeah, so just to first of all, it wasn’t Evan Phillips, it was Zach Pop who was actually pitched in the major, some, you know, obviously nothing of consequence with the Orioles, and that was a cat

Nestor Aparicio 22:32
deal, that’s right, Duke made that decision, yeah,

Luke Jones 22:34
that was Duquette, yeah, I mean, that was July date,

Nestor Aparicio 22:36
Elias will be gone, and we’ll look back on you’re trying to give Ruchman away here the next month, Elias will be the one that gets whatever we get at this point, and I’m a little uncomfortable with that moving forward. If he’s not my guy, he’s not my guy, but he’s their guy. Well,

Luke Jones 22:50
you don’t have to trade Adley Richmond next month, and when I’m bringing up that trading Adley, Ruchman, I’m not even suggesting that it needs to be at the trade deadline, but if, if it’s going to happen, you don’t want it to be at next year’s trade deadline, you know, you don’t want it to be Machado, you want it.

Nestor Aparicio 23:04
What’s predicated on that for you over the next 30 days? What, what would make you other than a good return, and we never know what the return, it’s just it’s going to be a bunch of guys, right? Like, what makes it a good idea versus a bad idea in your mind over the next month to even consider it? Even though I feel the conservative nature of the way this thing is gone. They won’t deal him. I don’t think they’ll deal him. I

Luke Jones 23:24
don’t think they’re going to either, because that’s where you do go into what does that mean for 2027 right? Right. And put the put the labor situation just to the side for the moment. We know it’s there, but when you’re just trying to look at, let’s pretend

Nestor Aparicio 23:41
they’re going to play baseball.

Luke Jones 23:41
Yes, yes, and that’s where, for me, I guess I’m almost answering my own question, because I started this by saying, have I been surprised by, you know, that I’ve been surprised about the pushback, but I guess for me, I’m just looking at it through the lens of, so what is the game plan? Then you’re just going to play it out with him, and then let him walk after 27 or do you look at it through the lens of, okay, we’re probably not going to trade him now. However, if this year doesn’t go, you know, continues to look as listless as it’s looked, what are the prospects for next year, even if there is a season, and you know the CBA gets worked out in February, let’s say, and there ends up being a full season, all that. What is our pathway, and that’s where I really look at it, in terms of, okay, if you want to keep them, then are you trying to extend them, and if you’re trying to extend him, what makes sense is first of all, is he amenable to it? Now, you know, Alan Rochman’s not a Boris guy, but is he amenable to it? And is it something for

Nestor Aparicio 24:50
pointing that out? I forgot that. No, it’s

Luke Jones 24:52
okay. I mean, that everyone else, you assume

Nestor Aparicio 24:54
they are. Yeah,

Luke Jones 24:55
Gunner Holiday and Westberg, you know, even though Westberg, at this point, I mean. You know, kind of inconsequential until he’s not, but but the point is, like, and when I let me be clear, this isn’t me saying like I’m eager to treat to trade Adley Rochman, I’m not suggesting that, but I am wondering what makes sense, like if it’s on a team, if it’s a deal that’s friendlier, not friendly to the team. I’m not trying to, like, speak about this in unrealistic terms, but if you had a deal, like a four-year deal, you know, I’d have to, like, kind of look at some of the top catchers and what they’re making, and all of that. But let’s just say it was a deal that’s not making him the highest paid catcher in baseball or anything crazy, right, but a good contract, like I’ll hear that, I suppose, but at the same time, this guy’s going to be 30 years old the first year of his new contract with whatever team he’s playing with at that point in time, right, and even though his defense has taken a massive, you know, he’s had a massive bounce back with his defense, he’s been good defensively. I mean, he, he has been as much as we think

Nestor Aparicio 26:03
a contract would look for, like for him, right? It’s tough for me to, if he hit the market right now at 28 or 29 would anybody look at him as a five year catcher at

Luke Jones 26:13
probably 28 million, because there’s so.. there are so few.. I don’t know if 20.. like, I don’t.. that’s the part where I’m begging a little bit of ignorance here that I haven’t looked at this a little more carefully, but the point is we know there aren’t very many catchers in baseball that can bring the combination of offense and defense that he brings, and that he has brought this year that he brought earlier in his career that he wasn’t bringing that combination last year or the second half of 2024 so I guess for me it’s probably a bigger picture feeling that I have that I don’t really have warm and fuzzies about any of these guys right now, because, like, okay, Adley Ruchman’s been way better, they’re still not winning, right? You know what I mean, like, so I guess I don’t know, like I’m kind of just talking in circles about this as I’m going on, but I guess for me there are a lot of people out there, even reporters, and even reporters that I, you know, I’m not being disrespectful, I respect opinions and all that, but like this idea that Adley Ruchman should be untouchable or anything like that, like I don’t see that right, that he’s still this rare China that he’s the Mona Lisa, because I just, yeah, and I mean, look, has he lived up to expectations overall? No, and look, part of that is also seeing what Bobby Witt Jr. has become, which, that’s hindsight, right? I mean, I’m not, I’m not judged, I’m not going to judge Michaelias too harshly on that, considering the industry consensus was Richmond, right, and it’s real easy to look at it seven years later and see how it’s played out, but, but that’s, but that’s still part of how you feel about it, right. That’s still, I still remember Ruchman coming in and patting everybody in the ass in the beginning and bringing this whole level of energy that felt they started playing really, really well about three or four weeks after he arrived, right. I mean, like it was like an aircraft carrier, whatever that word felt that way. Yeah, and you know, since since then, not so much. Now again, he has been much better this year, and I want to – I’m trying to give him his proper due there. Like, this isn’t me saying I hate Adley Ruchman as a player, but I also do look at it and say, well, are you going to sign them? Are you going to win, even if you keep them next year? Right? Like, go down the list of all those different questions, and yeah, the labor situation has to be a consideration, you know, in addition to all the other variables you mentioned, and that’s where I look at it and say, you know, what, what, what could you get for him at the trade deadline, or if not, then probably not

Nestor Aparicio 28:59
enough, sit here talking, but could you,

Luke Jones 29:02
but what could you get for him over the winter, if it is a new GM? Right? I mean, think about when Mike Elias first came in. I mean, think about, you know, not that the Orioles had a ton of assets left on the roster at that point in time, but you know, a year later he dealt Dylan Bundy, right? Dylan Bundy went to the Angels, and they got Kyle Bradish, right? I mean, if you could tell me right now that the Orioles could trade Adley Ruchman and get another Kyle Bradish caliber, I don’t mean like, you know, just like that kind of upside arm or something like that, I mean I’d have to at least consider it, you know, I mean, but again, some of this is just like I’m not enamored with any of this at this point in time. I mean, they have Besaia locked up long term, great, right? I think he’s a really talented player, you know, that he still has some maturing to do, and you know, there’s still some refining to his. Game that I think you’d say about any 21 year old, but you certainly see ability, and there was a he was the one that was always going to be easier to sign long term, right? I mean, player international players are generally speaking always going to be a little bit easier to sign, because so many players come from such humble beginnings, right? We understand that, and I’m not even like, like, that’s not a criticism, that’s just looking at it from a reality standpoint, but I don’t know, I just, is Adley Ruchman going to sign something that’s sensible, that makes sense for you as an organization, not really knowing where this thing is even going at this point in time, or is it an opportunity to flip him as he’s in the midst of a Renaissance season, and you get a couple assets for the future, but I mean, is Michaelia is going to do that, knowing that he might be gone in three months? Probably not. Let me be clear. I’m not holding my breath. I’m not even suggesting that they should trade him at the trade deadline, but I guess I’ve just been surprised at how many people are so quick to even shut down the idea when you just consider where they are right now. Right, this feels more and more like they’re in no man’s land, like, like the exact space you don’t want to be in right there. They’re not really good enough to really believe that this is going to become something special, and frankly, there aren’t enough prospects, even in this system, at this point to think that there’s a second wave that’s going to be better than the first wave. You know what I mean, like, but on the flip side, they’re not awful, they’re not horrible, you know. That I mean, the system’s different now, anyway, with, you know, the idea of tanking or getting the number one pick or anything like that. Even if you.. but for Elias to talk about being a buyer, this.. what does that even mean? Oh, I mean, to me it means there are games under 500 dude. But like, if there are eight games under 503.. like, if all he was

Nestor Aparicio 32:00
going to do was go into the dugout and say things that he didn’t mean three weeks later, I, I don’t know, and, and look, we look at these press conferences differently, he’s not gonna say that they’re full of manure, and I still look at it like the fans are watching this, maybe the fans have accepted that the social media of the Orioles is full of men or, and that they are just going to perfunctory and performatively lie or say whatever the fans want to hear, whatever, but then there really is the reality of they’ve got TikTok in a month in this particular season with this particular brand of players with this particular asset group and this guy making the decisions of Elias that this time next year, if they have astute ownership, and I don’t think they do, and that was so last segment ago, that they would move on and freshen up here and try to put a fresh face on it for their customers, for people like me that have lost faith in Michaelia’s. Yeah, just for full disclosure, and

Luke Jones 33:00
obviously I’m not going to read the entire transcript of everything he said on Saturday, but you know he was asked about being buyers, and here’s the quote, and I’ll read it to you, and I tweeted this out at Baltimore Luke and at WNST, but I really hope so. We’re planning that way in case it’s the case, but I’m going to have to look at the circumstances and what happens. I will be doing the right thing for the franchise, regarding regardless of everything else. We’re going to have to see what the standings are and what our team’s looking like at that time, but we’re certainly making those preparations, meaning to buy everybody in this building’s in the mindset of going forward in 2026 I mean, look, I have plenty of issues with Mike Elias, and where this franchise is. I don’t really have a problem with that statement. He’s basically saying, yeah, as of now we want to buy, but he’s acknowledging they’ve got to start playing better. I mean, they do. I mean, if they even if they just go 500 between now and the trade deadline, if you’re seven games under 500 doesn’t make much sense again,

Nestor Aparicio 34:04
like where they are right now, for me to say, like, and this is such a fan thing, they’re gonna buy, they’re gonna sell, you might not do anything, like, like to your point, if you feel like there’s more value in Ruchman at the end of the year than now, I mean, only way you do deal, you’ll deal anybody for anything, if it’s a good deal, and if it’s such, especially in a year where you can’t win the Rays, with any of these guys, somebody wants Alonzo’s contract, give it to him, you know, I mean, like, like nobody would want a Lon Joe’s contract, which makes it a bad contract, so I like to me, at this point, standing pat doesn’t get me mad, making bad deals gets me what gets me mad is they stink and they have the wrong people running the team and they’re not in front of it. Yeah, that’s what’s got me angry. But that was led the segment we did about their ownership, because this is really this is an ownership crisis. The stadium’s empty, the team. Stinks, the assets are withering. They’re not up to speed. The leadership doesn’t feel right. The manager certainly does. This guy does not feel like a major league man. There’s nothing about this guy that, that nothing in three months that says to me, yeah, I like him. Yeah, I like something about him. I’m out. I’m just out on Craig Albernas.

Luke Jones 35:21
I’ll say, I think it’s too soon, but I’m not,

Nestor Aparicio 35:24
you’re not in, I’m

Luke Jones 35:25
not impressed. I mean, I’ll say this, even though he’s had his moments of things that you know that haven’t necessarily been the best thing to say, you know, the Bisayo thing, for example, regardless of what was actually going on, you know, that’s something you need to keep in house as much as you possibly can, but from a media perspective, he’s been willing to go into more detail in answering thoughtful baseball questions than Brandon Hyde, who just didn’t say a whole lot, just in general, right, just

Nestor Aparicio 36:00
not about communicating with the, but fans don’t indicate with the fans.

Luke Jones 36:04
Fans, well, I understand that, but and that’s why, but, but that said, fans only care so much about that if you’re winning, and think about it, all of Buck’s Buckisms, they played way better when the those played way better with the fans when the Orioles were winning, when they weren’t winning, it just sounded all it’s the same old thing from Bach, right? You know what I mean. So, so, so, so, there’s some of that, but, but just, I’m glad you, you mentioned Standing Pat, because honestly, if you wanted, you know, gun to my head, what do you think’s going to be happening on August 3, the trade deadline, I’m guessing it’s going to be something that resembles Standing Pat way more than anything else. Yeah,

Nestor Aparicio 36:46
I agree with that, because,

Luke Jones 36:48
because I think I don’t think their assets are no, you’re, you’re not, you’re not going to

Nestor Aparicio 36:53
get the most. He doesn’t, Ruchman is, is it going to none of these guys have that kind of value to move these little things? I mean,

Luke Jones 36:59
okay, so as a

Nestor Aparicio 37:00
seller, as a seller,

Luke Jones 37:01
let me provide, let me provide this caveat. Taylor Ward is going to be a free agent at the end of the year. Okay, if they are still seven eight games under 500 or if they’re a little bit worse, then it’s then it’s an easy decision on him. But let’s say they’re two

Nestor Aparicio 37:20
under,

Luke Jones 37:21
you’re two under three off

Nestor Aparicio 37:22
the wild card,

Luke Jones 37:24
you know, even, even then, though, like they got to do a lot of winning this month to make that bottle. Here’s the other thing that’s, that’s interesting. I’m not sure there’s a whole lot in their minor league system that’s going to get them anything that’s going to really move the needle. I mean, okay, could you? Yeah, they’re.. I’m not saying there’s nothing in their system. It’s gonna move the

Nestor Aparicio 37:44
needle when you’re four games under five, right?

Luke Jones 37:46
I mean, that’s the thing. What are you

Nestor Aparicio 37:47
even trying to shop for at this point? They’re satisfied having lousy third base. They’re sad. I think it’s.. it’s a little late for that. You know, that’s

Luke Jones 37:55
where I think it’s interesting, even though the net result sounds like standing pat. If you had. you know, if there weren’t so many questions about the GM at this point, which, let’s face it, if there weren’t so many questions about the GM at this point, this club would be playing better, because then we’d be saying, hey, things are fine, right, let’s buy all that, but you do wonder, like, like if David Rubenstein called Luke Jones and said, “Hey, do you want to be a general manager? First of all, that’d be a terrible idea. Full disclosure, however, if I had my opportunity, that’s where I do wonder if I’d try to approach it almost like the Rays have at various times over the last 20 years, where you know maybe it’s you’re trying to shake things up, and I don’t know, maybe you trade Jackson Holiday for a really good pitcher, and I don’t mean necessarily like just a rental, but I don’t know, that’s interesting. I

Nestor Aparicio 38:54
mean, that would be blocking luster around, and I’m just for them, because this organization has never dealt like that. They didn’t want to deal with shot. I mean, it speaks to the creep that owned the team for 30 years, but like they didn’t make those kinds of splashy things after 96 or 90, after Becky, like left, that was the end of that, because they, the end of them being competitive enough to do anything splashy and go deal for David Wells at the trading deadline, or whatever, like Jack Flaherty aside, and whatever other Lonnie Smith’s, and you know, was it Kevin Bass? I’m trying to think of these names from back in the day. Let’s

Luke Jones 39:28
try to keep it in the present. Yeah, I understand

Nestor Aparicio 39:30
that, but like, but those are the kinds of additions that would make no difference here in any way, and that’s why your Stan Pat thing, I’m like, yeah, what are they really going to do, Deal Jackson Holiday, because that doesn’t feel like anything that they’re, that’s in their scope, right? I mean,

Luke Jones 39:45
you kind of look at who they’ve traded. I mean, think about it. I mean, disappointment that he was only here one year aside. The Corbin Burns trade was great. Joey Ortiz is a utility guy, DL Hall’s her. It again, you know what I mean, like that was a phenomenal trade, even for one year of Corbin Burns. That was a great trade, you know. You look at, okay, Stowers, that if you knew Stowers was going to blossom to the degree that he had, but he’s also had some injuries, and you know, I mean, hasn’t.. I don’t think he’s going to become an MVP either, right? You know, for the most part, the guys that they have traded, you know, with some of these deals, even some of these deals that ended up being underwhelming at the trade deadline the last few years, they haven’t really traded an abundance of guys that have blossomed, and you say, “Oh my gosh, you just traded that guy, you traded that guy, like there hasn’t been an Eduardo Rodriguez, right? You know, even though they got Andrew Miller, and they, Andrew Miller, did everything the Orioles wanted him to do in that deal, but then you saw what Eduardo Rodriguez became for a long period of time. I mean, you know, even with the Stowers deal, like Norby just got sent back to Triple A, right? Norby’s back in Triple A, you know, Rogers, so is Jeremiah Jackson. Well, I mean, but Jeremiah, he was a minor league for no, I’m just saying, no, no, no, no. I’m glad you mentioned it. He was going to the Hall of Fame

Nestor Aparicio 41:08
three weeks ago, because, like, and we look, we’re baseball people, utility guys are like fringe guys, or Blaze Alex, you know, whatever they are. You ride the hot hand until it runs its.. they can’t all be Steve Pierce, man, they can be, and

Luke Jones 41:22
Jeremiah Jackson will be back at some point, you know, I mean, and contribute, sure, sure, hopefully in a pennant race next year, but no, like when I, and look, I was, when I dropped Jackson Holiday’s name, I wasn’t saying that, intending that to be like a hot take, but or anything like that, I’m just using him as an example, but you know, whether it’s a trade deadline, whether it’s this winter, and, and again, probably more likely if something were to happen like that, it’s going to be this winter, if there’s a new general manager, although, is there even going to be an off season? Right? I mean, like, these are the kind of things you talk about with the winter meetings and all that, but, but I just, I, we talked about this a little bit last year, if you remember, like, we, I made the point, probably just in passing. I don’t even know what we were talking about specifically, but I made the point of wondering if there was something to the idea of trading a member of the Young Corps, and I don’t mean like Kyle Stowers. Ours was always meant, you know, he was always kind of like that’s a great,

Nestor Aparicio 42:22
the Stowers traders, I mean, look, I beat up Elias, not I don’t even beat up Elias, it’s Judge that to me, it’s great

Luke Jones 42:29
last year, and Rogers, the last few starts is starting to look like a useful starting pitcher again.

Nestor Aparicio 42:35
Well, and he has been a useful starting pitcher, so like that wasn’t a bad deal, and Stowers, to none of us saw that 30 home run thing at him, like

Luke Jones 42:43
I said, I mean, he’s, you know, he is hitting better now, and he’s getting going now, but he missed a lot of time last year,

Nestor Aparicio 42:51
there was a lot of question about whether he was a major league baseball player, he was asking, oh, he’s been a

Luke Jones 42:55
great story, and you know, I love the kid, I mean, I, Kyle Stowers, one of the nicest ballplayers I’ve ever been around, you know. See,

Nestor Aparicio 43:01
I didn’t know that about him. Nice

Luke Jones 43:03
kid,

Nestor Aparicio 43:03
I know. He must be loved by his teammates. It also speaks to, like,

Luke Jones 43:06
to make trades, like, you have to give up something to get something. The idea, I.. I’ve heard different general managers, different managers, different head coaches across different sports talk about this idea. You know, the idea isn’t to try to fleece another team. The idea is that you make a trade that’s going to work out for both sides to then do what, make another trade in the future, right? I mean, that’s why there was so much, you know, pearl clutching and so much angst about what happened with the Ravens and the Raiders, right, the Crosby deal, and all that, and you know, but, but you know, to bring it back to this, I mean, you know, they gave up Stowers who blossomed, Norby has not blossomed, and Trevor Rogers was a dud for them short term, but he was great last year, and what trade

Nestor Aparicio 43:59
this month makes this team better for next year,

Luke Jones 44:01
and it’s funny. I mean, what

Nestor Aparicio 44:03
would they, what would they give up, and what would they get asset-wise? To your point, it’s contractual with Ruchman, and it’s well, I think you’re radical with Holiday and Henderson at this point, like they are your aircraft carriers.

Luke Jones 44:16
Yeah, but, and it’s funny, this is stream of consciousness. I wasn’t intending to bring him up in this context, but I mentioned Taylor Ward. Well, Trevor Rogers is the other guy, he’s gonna be a free agent, you know what I mean? Like, so if you’re going to sell, and again when we talk about selling,

Nestor Aparicio 44:35
he might like him enough to give him some money and keep him around. What’s he worth? He’s not getting $100 million from anybody.

Luke Jones 44:41
Oh, I mean, do you see the Shane Bos contract that the Orioles gave him? I mean, you know, and you’re talking about someone hitting the market. I mean, and don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying he’s not gonna get insane. The market

Nestor Aparicio 44:52
is so weird because it gives you the pick of anybody you want, and they’re all fucking pitch pitchers. Oh, you’re gonna have to go back and edit that. Yeah, I mean, you’ve ever done that, yeah, they’re all, you know, they’re all just pitchers, their arms are today, not tomorrow, yeah, literally, so not tomorrow,

Luke Jones 45:10
but, but really, those are the two names that come to mind, assuming they’re not going to make the kind of leap that says, okay, you’re definitively going to buy, you know, those are the two guys you look to. I mean, Richmond’s more interesting to talk about, or you know, any of the other guys more interesting to talk about. But in terms of what typically goes on at the trade deadline, you know, those are your two best expiring assets, and you know, I mean, we could, we could kind of look at a couple of the bullpen arms, but you know, and they’re

Nestor Aparicio 45:44
not surging with value in a year when you stink, you know what I mean. This isn’t, do we deal Tony Gwynn when we’re in last place? Yeah, if we’re the, you know, like this isn’t

Luke Jones 45:54
dealing Machado in 2018 correct? Yeah, correct. Of course, there’s no,

Nestor Aparicio 45:58
you don’t have to do anything, yeah, right.

Luke Jones 46:00
So, so that’s where, when I read, when I just read Elias’s full comments about the trade deadline. I mean, there are a lot of things I can take issue with as it pertains to this front office and his leadership, or lack thereof, post Brandon Hyde firing, or all kinds of different things we could talk about. I didn’t really have a problem with what he said. I mean, what you know, he’s not going to say a full month before the deadline, unless you’re 30 games under 500 I’m interested in what he’s going to do right now, what he’s going to say, right, exactly. And,

Nestor Aparicio 46:33
and that is going to be back to the field, White Sox, Reds this weekend, Fourth of July, hot as Hades all week long around here, balls gonna fly like home run riches, John Martin, get gonna have to give it away this week, Maryland lottery. Luke will be at the ballpark, sweating it out this week. We have Fourth of July, and then Luke’s going on vacay. We have an all-star game. I’m going up to Philadelphia for the All-Star game in two weeks, and then it’s gonna be football season coming in on a trading deadline, where we will reassess how many games under 500 the Orioles are at that at that point, because they will be, they will be under 500 when they get up on this, otherwise the whole city will be on fire if somehow they go 13 and one the next two weeks and pick this thing up, which we all feel like they might not be worried on the White Sox final shot on that, because they’re in town, they’re kind of an interesting group, because you’d like to look over the hill and say, well, maybe the Orioles could be that next year, and you know, the Scoob, or next Google thing, they’re pitching situation for them, the Scoople thing was a thing in that division, because the Tigers were supposed to be the team, and you know, the White Sox have been better than advertised. There are a whole lot of teams in baseball you could say that about. You’d like to think the Orioles would like to think about that this time next year to say they’ve been, you know, a curbside team for a while, the White Sox, and it feels like they’re picking it up a little bit. And they come in here, it’s the best White Sox team we’ve had in a while, right? Yeah,

Luke Jones 48:00
well, I mean, the White Sox are interesting in the sense that if you recall, what was it five six years ago, they had kind of a similar breakout to almost like how the Orioles did it, where you said, oh man, look at all these good young players, they had

Nestor Aparicio 48:15
the pictures, that’s why I said, right,

Luke Jones 48:17
but it, and then it just, it really went not so well, right? I mean, like, you look at them, I’m pulling up their records right now. They won 93 games in 2021 right? And they made the playoffs back to back years. Now, granted, 20, now that was a COVID year, weird, we all understand that. But then 81 and 81 and then 61 and 101 and then, of course, they had the historically awful season two years ago, but, like, they’re back ascending again, and they’re in, well, there is that

Nestor Aparicio 48:48
Astro Ball theory, we’re going to get bad, and then we’re going to get better players, but what I’m saying is, like, they, they have, but they had a similar five years ago, like, you were thinking, hey, this is an exciting young team that’s made the playoffs, and all that, and then it just crashed and burned again. So, like, well, they dealt their players instead of signing them for the most part, right? This is a great conversation we’re having about Ruchman and Henderson and Holiday. To say, all right, we give them all the money they want three years from now, are we in the playoffs? And then you would say, well, depends who the pitchers are.

Luke Jones 49:19
I would say, yeah, I mean, it’s just I’m not excited about this group anymore. I just am not. But my final point, and it’s on the White Sox, who, you know, they played well. It’s helped them that Jose Ramirez is out, and the Guardians have really fallen off here over the last couple weeks. But I think you look at this last stretch here, White Sox, then they go to Cincinnati. I mean, the Reds, you know, were a nice story early in the year, not so much since then. Cubs at home, Kansas City at home, All-Star break, it’s a lot of home games, right? And obviously this, this point has already lost some of its bite, because they just lost two out of three at home to the. Nationals, but point is, you’ve got a quite a stretch here of home games, and go look at the post all-star game schedule, they’re on the road a lot, so this team has been decent at home, it’s been a bad road team record-wise, you know, this, this kind of feel for Michaelia is talking about being a buyer, okay? These next 10, you know, these next two weeks going into the all-star break, and we’ve said this like three different times, so I feel like a broken record, but feels like it’s the last stand in terms of, like, are you going to really try to make anything out of this season, or are we just going to keep having the same conversation over and over and over and over, and I think it’s probably the latter, but

Nestor Aparicio 50:44
we had it over and over and over, so much. I dropped an F bomb in this segment. First, I know, right? Five years edited out. I don’t even know, but I did drop an F bomb. That’s how I am. I’m disgusted by every aspect of them at this point, the ownership, the way I’ve been treated, the way the fans have been treated, the way the Birdland people have been treated, the way they treat Madison, the way they continue on with these grand dolls and baiters, and this dead weight of this Angelos era, and everything that they bring into it, and the way that they position themselves. I’m just, I’m disgusted by them, and I’m disgusted that I gave them three hours of my time, 3540 43 years into this, but 35 years in the radio career, 28 years into doing this every day of my life, and just thinking like such a, it’s been such a poor value proposition for me of late, and I feel the weight of that, and I think fans feel the way to that, and your point of, like, there are a lot of pissed off Orioles fans right now because of the investment we’ve all made, financially or otherwise. Whatever the investment is, it’s sort of like we’re not getting our money’s worth, we’re not getting value out of this.

Luke Jones 51:56
I’ll continue to go back to the point that I’ve made over and over as it pertains to the Michaelias era, right, how much you sat through of deliberately first he entered it was bad, right? It was really bad before he got here, and I want to make that point, because I want to be fair, but to then sit through deliberately staying bad kind of baseball for a few years, multiple years, and then it got really interesting and really exciting for about two calendar years, and ever since then we’ve been saying that’s it, all of that for two calendar years of, you know, two playoff appearances, albeit not a single playoff win, and that’s it. Two years later, we’re still waiting for that to come back, right, for that to return. And as more time goes on, you know, this all makes a lot more sense if you just accept that, that, that this is what they are, right? They’re just, they’re not very good, like the fact that you just said out loud that you don’t believe in the young core, and that they’re sycophants, or, or you know, draft people that look at it and think like that they’re these golden children, because they are, they’re one ones, I mean, but like,

Nestor Aparicio 53:11
what does that get you? They’re eight games under 500 summer, it’s 100 degrees, nobody’s coming to the ballpark, nobody’s excited about this, and all of it, other than Ben McDonald and Jim Palmer, pretty much lousy.

Luke Jones 53:25
I don’t believe that they’re building anything special at this point in time, and like that’s not even a bold statement to make at this point, and, but, but if that’s the, if that’s how you feel, how are you going to pivot, not just in terms of Mike Elias, but like everything you do right, and that’s.. I just don’t feel like in the, in the poker world, this is when you’d, you’d say you’re drawing dead, meaning there’s not a card in the deck that’s going to win you the hand, feels more and more like they’re just drawing dead with this era of Orioles baseball, and maybe that’ll.. I hope I’m wrong, boy, I hope I’m wrong. Yeah, I’d love to see a turnover over

Nestor Aparicio 54:05
standing any attendance, and the vibe say you’re not wrong at all. Look, we at the ballpark, he’ll be sweating it out. You got a rap, you good?

Luke Jones 54:14
That was kind of the F bomb

Nestor Aparicio 54:16
out of the segment.

Luke Jones 54:17
Yes, we need to do that. You know, we don’t need to get you in trouble here, as we’re, you know, taking a little..

Nestor Aparicio 54:24
I’m sorry, but I’m not.. I like, I’m not right, it, you know, put.. put a nice.. don’t mute it out, put a nice beep over it. My discuss is a special kind of disgust after meeting Katie Griggs, and you know, and these people that run the place.. it’s just a.. it’s a different kind of disgust when the arrogance sits on top of the incompetence that sits on top of the empty stadium it sits upon, and then, and charging premium prices. So, you know, he’s Luke, I’m Nestor. We are WNST AM 1570 Towson, Baltimore. I’ll start talking politics and community, that’ll get me happy. Back from our Baltimore Positive. Stay with us. Happy summer.