His absence and late-inning availability while Adley Rutschman is nursing a hamstring injury has everyone talking about Samuel Basallo and his lack of playing time against the Seattle Mariners. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss his disappearance from the starting lineup and the bizarre (and far-less-than-credible) explanation of rookie manager Craig Albernaz.

Discussion on NBA Playoffs and Knicks’ Comeback

• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the Knicks’ dramatic comeback win, highlighting OG Anunoby’s tip‑in and its potential place in Knicks and NBA lore if New York wins its first title in 53 years.
• Luke describes initially tuning out with the Knicks down nearly 30, then checking back in as they cut the lead and ultimately stormed back, led by Jalen Brunson, whom he sees as a perfect fit for New York basketball.
• Both agree the moment was impressive and “special,” even for those who aren’t hardcore NBA fans.

Orioles’ Recent Performance and Brandon Young’s Success

• The conversation shifts to the Orioles, noting that they finally won, and are now 9–1 in Brandon Young’s starts.
• Luke praises Brandon Young’s consistency and performance: while not the most dominant arm, he’s essentially been the number one starter in terms of results.
• They discuss other pitchers like Kyle Bradish and Shane Boz, defensive miscues, injuries, and broader concerns about the roster and pitching staff.

Samuel Basallo’s Absence and Managerial Decisions

• Nestor and Luke dig into the mystery of Samuel Basallo’s usage: he sat three straight games while Adley Rutschman was out with a hamstring, yet Basallo was still available off the bench, pinch‑hit, and even caught.
• Luke argues that given Basallo’s actual usage, manager Craig Albernaz’s public explanation “doesn’t make sense” and strongly feels disciplinary rather than purely medical.
• They examine possible reasons for Basallo’s benching, including minor health issues vs. internal discipline, and question the logic of not starting him during a losing streak.

Jim Palmer’s Comments and Team Dynamics

• Luke cites Jim Palmer’s on‑air criticism, where Palmer says that if you don’t play Rutschman or Basallo while trying to stop a skid, opposing pitchers should be “elated”, and that this is “not the time to teach a lesson.”
• This reinforces the interpretation that Basallo’s benching is some form of lesson/discipline, not just rest or matchups.
• Nestor and Luke consider how such decisions might affect team morale, Basallo’s relationship with the staff, and the club’s performance in the short and long term.

Cultural and Communication Issues in the Team

• Nestor raises concerns that this may involve cultural dynamics and questions of “toughness” directed at a 21‑year‑old Latin player with a long‑term, $78M contract.
• Luke acknowledges that cultural misunderstandings and expectations around pain, toughness, and availability can complicate relationships between players and managers.
• They reference past examples in baseball and other sports where coaches questioning players’ manhood/toughness has had mixed results and can land differently across backgrounds.
• Nestor stresses that without clear, honest communication from Albernaz and the Orioles, fans are left to speculate about internal discipline, entitlement, and respect.

Impact of Managerial Decisions on Team Morale

• They discuss how repeatedly not starting Basallo during a losing streak—while still using him off the bench—could erode trust between player and manager.
• Luke suggests it’s likely that both Albernaz and Basallo may have contributed to the current situation (e.g., misjudging health vs. hurt, overreacting in communication), and both sides may need to adjust.
• Nestor emphasizes that the optics are bad: fans see a team struggling, a key young star not starting, and a manager refusing to give a straight explanation.

Ownership, Brand, and Fan Trust

• Nestor widens the lens to long‑running organizational issues:
  • Sparse crowds at Camden Yards,
  • MASN pulling a game off TV mid‑broadcast,
  • New ownership not yet fixing entrenched Angelos‑era habits,
  • Independent media (including Nestor) being kept out of the room.
• The Basallo situation becomes a symbol of broader transparency and integrity problems, with Nestor arguing that the Orioles “need to be better at everything” in how they treat fans and media.

Future Outlook and Team Performance

• They look ahead to series against the Padres and Dodgers, noting the Orioles are vulnerable and could slide further under .500 with a bad week.
• Luke underlines that winning games and getting Basallo back in the lineup would go a long way toward stabilizing things.
• Both agree that Samuel Basallo is likely to outlast Craig Albernaz and even the current front office if things go poorly, making it crucial not to alienate a core, long‑term player.
• The hope is that the internal conflict is resolved quickly, Basallo plays regularly, and the story shifts back to on‑field performance rather than off‑field confusion.

Action Items (from the show framing)

• Investigate and report on why Samuel Basallo was available off the bench but not starting (seek clarification from Orioles management/players and summarize findings for fans). (Assignee: Nestor Aparicio)
• Pursue access to Orioles locker‑room/press interactions to directly ask Craig Albernaz and, if possible, Basallo about the situation and share answers publicly.

Nestor Aparicio 0:01
Welcome home. We are W N S T A M 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore Positive, positively getting you ready for a hot weekend here in Baltimore, Maryland. San Diego Padres coming to town this weekend, of course. The Ravens now off the field at mini camp. All the information up at Baltimore Positive. Luke has been out in Owings Mills. He’s also been down at Oriole Park at Camden Yards the last couple days for the Seattle Mariners, who seven games with the Mariners, and doesn’t feel like a great time to run into them, although was nice for Jackson Holiday to run into a home run riches Grand Slam on truest sweet night of all things with the Maryland lottery, but we all know the real story. We’re the Knicks, right? Stevie Nicks specifically, as opposed to I don’t know, the Nick Cave that was down on the court at Madison Square Garden.

Luke Jones 0:50
It was incredible. I mean, I’ll openly admit I kind of tuned out when they’re down almost 30 points. It was 30 points, yeah, 945

Nestor Aparicio 1:00
at night, 10 o’clock, it was like, nah, I’m not putting that on, yeah.

Luke Jones 1:05
And at one point, and obviously I was checking in, because it’s the NBA, I know you’re not a big NBA guy, I’m not a, you know, I’m not a number one, you know, it’s not my top thing, but I was certainly checking in, and I had seen the Knicks had cut it to 15 or 16, and I’m like, okay, I mean, we’ll see. And then gets to the fourth quarter, and I absolutely dozed and woke up and saw, I mean, I, I didn’t miss the end, but boy, I mean, that was OGN and OB with the tip in that is going to go down in not just New York Knicks lore, but NBA lore. If the Knicks go on and win their first title in 53 years, they better not lose three in a row. Yeah, sure. Well, it was already, it was already trending in such a bad direction. I mean, you win the first two in San Antonio, and then Trump shows up, that Taylor Swift shows up, you’re losing by 30 and a half time, and it’s just, you know, the garden’s insane, and all of that, and you drop game three, and game four’s looking terrible. I mean, I, I remember I was standing out at not OTA, mandatory, mandatory mini camp for the Ravens on Wednesday afternoon, and a couple of us were flat out saying, whoever wins this game tonight, you know, whoever game wins this game Wednesday night, that’s momentum, it’s going to win the series. It really felt that way. So, we’ll see, but boy, was that an impressive, impressive moment, whether you’re a Knicks fan or even a big basketball fan or not. But I will say this, you know, Jalen Brunson is he fits that team in that city, and just the idea of New York basketball, he fits that perfectly, and for him to kind of, you know, obviously he didn’t have the tip in there, but for him to lead that kind of comeback, I mean, he’s already become a beloved figure there over the last few years, but he’s the new Clyde, pretty, pretty special, pretty special, and it’s not

Nestor Aparicio 3:02
over with, though. So

Luke Jones 3:04
they’ve got to finish the job, no question about it. But, but, yeah, that’s, uh, we came to talk baseball.

Nestor Aparicio 3:09
But how do you talk baseball after that thing? Well, I mean,

Luke Jones 3:12
they’re still funny to talk about with the Orioles. I mean, obviously they

Nestor Aparicio 3:15
won. That’s that’s the big news.

Luke Jones 3:17
They are now nine and one, and Brandon Young starts right. I mean, it speaks to it’s funny. I was thinking about this earlier in the game, you know, as he was already on his way at that point. He’d already thrown four or five shutout innings, and I was thinking, wow, if someone had told you in March that Brandon Young was going to have 10 starts under his belt by June 10, you would have said, oh, things aren’t going very well for them. Well,

Nestor Aparicio 3:41
things aren’t going well, very, and

Luke Jones 3:45
they’re not, but it has nothing to do with how he’s pitching, right? He’s been one of the bright spots, he’s been their number

Nestor Aparicio 3:52
two.

Luke Jones 3:53
I mean,

Nestor Aparicio 3:53
maybe they’re number one, really, over the balance of all of it. Yes,

Luke Jones 3:57
I think it’d be tough to argue that he hasn’t been their number one, just in terms of performance, now, is he the most dominant of their pitchers? No, Kyle Bradish has the most electric stuff when he’s right, and I put Shane Boz into that category when he’s right, but in terms of the guy that’s been the most consistent, in terms of the guy that’s giving you the steadiest performance, I mean, the one game they lost was the night cap of the double header against Houston, the game that you went to, where, where, if you keep in mind, Brandon Young certainly was not good in that game, but the defense also let him down early in that game, and what was not a good start for him was made even worse by the defense. So,

Nestor Aparicio 4:32
who was that left fielder, mr. Wilson? West

Luke Jones 4:36
was that a Weston Wilson left field game? Yeah, I think that was.

Nestor Aparicio 4:38
Well, he was playing third base that day. It might,

Luke Jones 4:41
yeah, well, some something like that. I mean, let’s face it, most of their outfielders aren’t very good, so

Nestor Aparicio 4:45
because Floyd Rayford wasn’t available, but,

Luke Jones 4:47
but, but he’s just, he’s been a heck of a story, and the thing that guys like me talked about a lot with him last year, even when he pitched well, right, even when he was in Houston and had the no-no late into the game, and we were. Sending out the WNST text alert. I forgot about that. Yeah, we talked a lot about his inability to miss bats, and don’t get me wrong, mean the strikeout numbers aren’t great by any means. On Wednesday night, he struck out five over seven innings. That’s, that’s solid, but it’s not, you know, it’s not something in the modern day that’s impressive. But he’s missing enough bats. He has a splitter that’s getting him some swing and miss. He got a swing and miss with the slider on Wednesday night. I mean, he’s just.. you’re seeing someone who’s more comfortable, you’re seeing someone who’s given you consistent performance. He looks like he

Nestor Aparicio 5:36
belongs. Yeah,

Luke Jones 5:37
he does. And I don’t want to.. I don’t want to get ahead of myself here, and I, I think in terms of if we’re going to make the argument for him belonging, you’re still talking about someone who still best profiles as a back end of the rotation guy. I’m not going to sit here, but I don’t know that Dean Kramer’s shoving him out of the rotation at this point. He might be shoving Rogers out of the rotation. Sure, sure, I absolutely, I mean, especially Trevor Rogers in a contract here. I mean, if he’s not gonna, and he’s pitched better of late, right? I mean, okay, like I’ll hear that. But yeah, I mean, Brandon Young’s been a heck of a story. And when you consider everything going on a four game losing streak, Adley Ruchman banged up with the hamstring, who knows what’s going on with the Samuel Bisayo thing, I mean, it feels disciplinary, I mean odd, bizarre, however you want to classify it. Point is, there’s a lot going on in addition to them just suddenly not playing well again. So, for Brandon Young to go out there and do what he did, and frankly, do it without much run support until finally the Orioles broke through late. I mean, they leave the bases loaded early on with nobody out. I mean, it was that was

Nestor Aparicio 6:48
ugly. I was sitting at Coco’s, I went to Coco’s, got myself a Greek salad, a little bowl soup. I didn’t put anything on social media, but I was sitting there at the bar watching that. I’m like, hey, bases loaded, nobody out for it, let’s go, man. Everybody in the bar is watching. I mean, out of the, but you know, holiday hits the Grand Slam, right? You talk about belonging, or what has to happen here, man. Where they are with Henderson right now, and especially with contracts with the two of those guys, with Henderson and Ruchman, not you’re not in any position to give either one of them hundreds of millions of dollars right now, you would make a case for Henderson, it doesn’t matter anyway, because Boris isn’t doing that, Posio signed, he’s the only guy that’s sort of signed amongst all of these, this thing’s going to work out, let’s say post Michaelias, let’s say after mr. Rubenstein’s book on sports ownership comes out that Jackson Holiday needs to emerge as being the next great thing around here. Did a lot of losing to get that guy. I just want to continue to point that out, that when he does good things, that starts my clock for well, whether they can be any good without Henderson and Ruchman, whenever they’re gone, because holiday will be the guy on the point at that point, two three years from now, right.

Luke Jones 8:05
Well, I mean, I only get

Nestor Aparicio 8:06
two three years from now, and a team had one in 43 years, sure. There are five games under 500 I don’t like the general manager, I don’t like the manager, I don’t like the owner. I’m not sure that I love their collection of star players. Neither one of us love the pitching, so neither one of us like the injuries, so I just keep thinking like when all of this is gone, when Araghetti and Rubenstein sell off to the Gypsies, the Saudis, two years from now, for whatever, they wouldn’t want baseball, but Holliday will be the out of all of this the guy that’s better still be standing here four or five years from now, where I mean, as I look at it, for me, I’m moving into that range now to say, all right, they’re not going to win with these guys, they’re going to win a World Series right now. What’s the next thing? Holidays a one one, and I know you may make the case that you know he might turn out to be an adequate baseball player, but he doesn’t look like he’s going to, he doesn’t look like Robbie Alomar right now, so far.

Luke Jones 9:02
Yeah, I mean, and I would, I would use more than adequate. I mean, he’s an adequate player now. I mean, he’s last year was a solid year for him. It wasn’t tremendous. It wasn’t what you’re projecting and dreaming of when you draft someone one one, but we’ve also talked about that. I mean, we’ve talked about recent one ones across baseball, who been sent to the minors recently, right? It happens a lot. I mean, Tim Beckham was a former one one, and the Orioles had him as a retread, right? I mean, like, you also look

Nestor Aparicio 9:32
at Bobby Witt, and you wonder, like, did we get Ryan Lee for Peyton Manning, right? Like, and this is where you start to measure all, and it wasn’t,

Luke Jones 9:39
and it wasn’t that, because you know, even if Adley Ruchman wasn’t the right choice, there, using hindsight being 2020 he’s, he’s already been a lot better than Ryan Leaf ever was, right? But yeah, like you’re looking at this and you’re trying to figure this out, and I mean, that’s why I look at the Bisayo thing, and I say, okay, either you have a manager that’s alienating one of your best. Young players, that’s actually been a success story to this point, as a 21 not quite 22 year old, or you have some level of an attitude insubordination issue, something right, that we’re seeing this because Craig Alberna’s explanation doesn’t make any sense if he’s healthy enough to come off the bench and even catch on consecutive days. Why is he not starting three straight days, especially when Adley Ruchman is out of the lineup and unavailable for three straight days with a hamstring issue? It doesn’t make any sense, and the only thing that makes sense is it’s some kind of a disciplinary issue. Now I’m not saying that it’s a dire thing, and that it’s something that’s beyond repair, or anything like that. I mean, that would be crazy to say, but how can you not look at this and ask the question, you know what’s going on here with this, and you know, of course, to the to the credit of those that were there for pregame, obviously, I’ve been at Raven’s mini camp the last couple days, and haven’t been there for pregame. He was peppered with questions, I mean, it was six questions in a row, like, why, why is he available. Well, this is where, when

Nestor Aparicio 11:10
real media gets involved, and I saw people complaining about the Ravens media on Twitter, and literally on the YouTube feed, is I’m a media member that’s watching the press conference on TV, because they banned me, but for no reason at all. But the baseball team, this is where we get into, are they going to be honest? Are they going to lie? And you’ve already said, well, Craig Albernaz says doesn’t make sense. Well, they’ll take your press pass for that, dude. You know what I mean? Like, you’ll call him a liar now. Like, I, I, if they lie, they lie, so to some degree, here, and again, stadium sleepy, they’ve lost four games in a row, they’re five games under 500 Oh, look at the Knicks, oh, look at World Cup, there’s million, oh, Luke’s not even here, he’s at mini camp, whatever that is. So, like, they just put you

Luke Jones 12:00
to sleep, but it, you said it feels disciplinary. Okay, I mean, what else would it be? I mean, what else would it be if he’s hurt? He’s hurt, and he can’t play, but he’s come in and he’s played, and, and we’re not even talking, okay? He’s got some kind of a leg, ish, not saying he did, or that he does, but the scenario exists of a Kirk Gibson in the 1988 World Series, right? The pinch hits once and hits a home run, and he hobbles around the bases because he can barely walk. He wasn’t going out to play right field in the bottom half or the next inning if the game continues, right? If it goes into extra innings, so that’s where I look at this, and it just.. it doesn’t make any sense, right? I mean, it doesn’t. When you

Nestor Aparicio 12:42
reference the Kirk Gibson home run, that was a great.. I’m just saying, I

Luke Jones 12:45
mean, like, there’s.. there’s pinch hitting. I thought that was the

Nestor Aparicio 12:48
greatest thing I’d ever seen in my life at that moment. 20 years old, it was tremendous.

Luke Jones 12:52
I mean, I’ve.. you know, I don’t have a memory of watching that live or anything like that, but I certainly.. you know, it’s one of the storybook moments in professional sports, right? I mean, I

Nestor Aparicio 13:04
never thought about him not having to go back out, play the outfield till you just brought up, but that’s my point. I mean, think

Luke Jones 13:09
about, he didn’t play again in the series, yeah. So, but that’s my point with looking at the messiah thing, and I’m just, okay,

Nestor Aparicio 13:17
you’re calling bullshit, that’s fine, you’re allowed to do that, especially allowed to do that at WNSD. Well, a few places were still allowed to do that around here.

Luke Jones 13:23
Albert S didn’t even give anything, you

Speaker 1 13:25
out.

Nestor Aparicio 13:25
No, I mean, but this is the issue, you know. But six questions for the manager, and you still think he’s lying. Well, it’s not even about lying, that’s just not

Luke Jones 13:33
saying anything, like, like there’s not. He didn’t say anything to even call BS on, because it’s just like, let me give you the I’m not going to read the entire transcript, but the very first question, why? Here’s the key, why is Samuel Bisayo on the bench again, but available late in games, and his answer, and I’m reading this quote, and this from this is from Jacob Calvin Meyer transcription, and look, I mean, the video was online, everyone can see, and you know, see the comments here,

Nestor Aparicio 14:00
watch him,

Luke Jones 14:00
yeah, you could take him talking, and but his answer was yes. Sammy’s had great work days the past couple days, and today as well. He’ll be available off the bench today as well. That, I mean, that’s not remotely an answer, right? So this to me sounds like if we’re trying to read the tea leaves, and look, I also understand if it is a disciplinary issue. Well, then you say

Nestor Aparicio 14:24
to him, is it disciplinary? Simple question, isn’t

Luke Jones 14:28
it? And that would have been my..

Nestor Aparicio 14:29
that’s why they need me in the locker room. I’ll point that out again, but go ahead. They need me in the locker room for days when I’m banned from both of them, and you can’t be at both of them. How about that? How about as simple as that, that we have two reporters and there are two teams. So today’s the day I’m allowed to be pissed about that, especially when you think the manager’s lying to everybody, not lying to you, not lying to Jacob Calvin Myer, who I’ve never met. I don’t just

Luke Jones 14:52
not saying anything. I mean, there’s, you know, well, they’re not being

Nestor Aparicio 14:55
honest to their fan base, and that’s, you know, above and beyond all the rest of it. It’s just, but we

Luke Jones 15:01
also understand that claim to

Nestor Aparicio 15:02
the fans what’s going on, that’s all. And if you don’t, we all do, then say you’re not going to tell anybody. Well, and I guess maybe he did,

Luke Jones 15:08
right? I mean, that was his way of saying we’re not going to, we’re keeping this internal, and look, keeping it

Nestor Aparicio 15:14
internal is disciplinary,

Luke Jones 15:16
right? Like it is, but my point is with that, I understand that they’re not going to air all the dirty laundry, and we don’t know. Again, could this be an issue where you have a manager that’s being unfair to a player, or do you have a player who absolutely has an issue and needs to be addressed? Right, and doesn’t mean it’s not helping a

Nestor Aparicio 15:38
team win. Okay, that’s where you and I come at, right? And that’s where, at it, on behalf of the fans who are listening or watching that on the internet, that that is our job. That’s become my number one goal, is figuring out when they’re bullshitting me, when they’re not. I mean, that’s literally the job these days, and to sit here and argue about it, and take phone calls over at the fan about it, and make excuses for it. If you’re Brett Hollander, you’re Rob Long, because you have to, because that’s your job, because that’s what you get paid to do. So they peppered all of this, but it doesn’t make any sense. It make any sense to Joe Enoch when the lineup came out at 430 yesterday, and I’m on there like the lineup doesn’t make sense to the people who support the team. This isn’t this isn’t rocket science, dude. You go down there with notebooks, and you ask questions, you expect an answer, and if the answer is no answer, then we investigate further, because that’s what we do. Somebody you know, if somebody would figure out if he was out late drinking, or if he broke a rule, or if he’s 21 years old, so I mean, but disciplining a person publicly on a public team that’s losing that could use said player, that’s why we’re here, that’s what we do, that’s what, that’s why we have a radio show, that’s why we, we created sports radio here for the masses 35 years ago, like I don’t, I don’t understand what we’re doing there. If they’re not going to be honest, and if they’re not going to be clear, then they should all expect us to call it what it is, and we’ll sit here and guess until we find out. You’re like, you didn’t think it was anything off the field, on the field, I mean,

Luke Jones 17:17
well, and this is where I do want to offer the proper context, especially, especially for those who aren’t necessarily watching every single night. What makes us speculate

Nestor Aparicio 17:26
more than anything else, which is all I want to give the proper

Luke Jones 17:29
context here. He did get banged up recently, right? He had the issue, they called it abdominal discomfort, and he came out. He know, if you’re the manager, can I talk? Sure, I want to lay this out for people who don’t, because I don’t want to make it sound like it’s disciplinary out of the blue, right? He’s dealt with a couple things here, minor things, right? He had an abdominal issue here that they even ran imaging on, and it was fine. Then he had the play at the plate in Toronto, had his wrist kind of bent a little bit, reacted to it in a way that made you fear the worst at first, but then they said that looking at his wrist, he has a bony growth on his wrist that apparently he’s always had, and it’s something that I, and I, and I think it’s something along the lines, probably of I’ll use one example, I on my arm here, I have just a little bony thing. My doctors look, you know, looked at it numerous times. There’s nothing wrong with it, right? It’s just like a cyst, or you know, it’s not any anything to be worried about. It’s not anything that needs to be removed or anything like that at this point in time, but if I happen to bump it on something, it really hurts for a couple minutes, right? So I assume Visaya was dealing with something like that, and could he

Nestor Aparicio 18:49
say he can bat, but he can’t catch,

Luke Jones 18:51
or like, but he can catch, but this is what this is what I’m getting to. So if you feel he’s not understanding the difference between hurt and injured, and if we’ve seen some of the comments, if you’ve seen some of the comments from Albernaz the last several days, it’s implied that, right, there’s been some implication of Sammy needs to understand over 162 you are going to get banged up some here and there, and sometimes you can’t play, but other times you can play, and especially in the situation, and he didn’t go into this detail, but we know Adley Ruchman is legitimately can’t play for a few days here, and it seems like he’s going to avoid the IL, but we’re going to find out over the next couple days, because if he’s still not ready, then you need to IL him, but point is, you do get into some situations where your team needs you, we need you, like this isn’t – we’ve checked you out, you’re fine, like there’s not – you’re not dealing with a muscle strain or a sprain or whatever it is, and we don’t know exactly how Bisayo reply responded to that behind closed doors, the fact that it has. Even been suggested publicly would lead you to believe that there’s some frustration there, definitely on Alberna’s part or the team’s part. The frustrations they’ve

Nestor Aparicio 20:09
lost four games in a row in the middle of part

Luke Jones 20:12
of it. Sure, no question. So, is there a scenario, and this is where, as much as I’m saying it does feel disciplinary, is there a little bit of all right, Sam? You say you’re banged up. We’re going to sit you down the next few days. We’re going to, you know, you’re available off the bench because we might need you, but so I don’t know. I mean, that’s the best I have for you, in terms of I’m not sitting here saying that he’s 100% I’m not sitting here saying that he hasn’t been banged up a little bit here, but there’s been a clear implication that he’s healthy enough to play, and he did play on Monday night and Tuesday night, albeit coming off the bench, but even coming off the bench and getting three at bats total, and even catching, so that tells me if he’s healthy enough to do that, why isn’t he starting, and that’s where you go back to the non-answers that were given on Wednesday to a series of questions, and saying, you know, this feels like it’s punitive to some degree, right? So, no, watch me

Nestor Aparicio 21:12
in all of this, by the way, like he’s got,

Luke Jones 21:14
he’s got a hamstring issue, he tested it out Wednesday, it sounded like it went okay, it sounded like he could maybe have been available, so probably seen

Nestor Aparicio 21:26
before the Padres. So,

Luke Jones 21:27
well, if he does, if he’s not ready to play now, you need to IL him, right? I mean, you can’t play a man down for, you know, you can do that for two or three days, you don’t want to do that more than that. So, we’ll see, but, but, yeah, it’s not, it’s not a great look, because, like I said, if you take everything that we’re trying to interpret here, and if it is a disciplinary thing, albeit a minor one, again, you’re not sending them to the miners or anything crazy like that, you’re not suspending them, but you either have a situation where you have a manager who is being over the top potentially, and alienating a player that is young and impressionable, and other players on this team aren’t playing well or aren’t doing things you want.

Nestor Aparicio 22:10
He’s also the only guy that’s gotten paid, and he’s there’s there’s an issue. I’m thinking about this like a 21 year old here, which is, I mean, I was 21 a long time ago, but like sense of entitlement. There’s the sense of he’s got $78 million Craig Albernaz has his $1.8 million contract, or whatever it is, and Craig Albernaz was a guy who would love to have had the skill set that Pasayo had behind the plate, and all of that. I think about this as rookie manager, right? We’re losing, we’re getting our ass kicked, my pitching is not good enough, you know. Just the ballpark’s empty, the man, the owner’s absent again now. Writing a book, apparently, got married last week too. So, there’s all this going on. It’s failing for the manager, right? Like, on a nightly basis, this is a sweat for him. It’s his first job. It’s not going well. It’s not going hundreds, yeah. It’s not going well, and as much as somebody, Brian Roberts said he was doing a great job last week on the broadcast. I’m like, dude, there are seven games under 500 at some. I’m like, like, Brian, no, you know, come on, you work for the team, but I mean, come on, dude, get Greg Bader out of your earpiece, or whatever you’re saying there, don’t embarrass yourself.

Luke Jones 23:22
Well, for

Nestor Aparicio 23:23
me, with, but go ahead.

Luke Jones 23:25
No, I was just going to say, there are, there are multiple ways to judge a manager beyond wins and losses, right? There can be, there can be teams that have that win and don’t have very good managers. There also can be teams that are really bad, but do have good managers. I would say I would put it way more in the bucket of, and let me be clear, I understand where you’re going with that. I don’t really know yet. Here’s

Nestor Aparicio 23:47
where I’m going with it. It’s been seven months, eight months since they’ve hired him from press conference to today, and everything, the body of work I’ve seen. And again, they’ve denied me a press credential to know him, so I come on the air, you sit in a room with him five days a week, I don’t, so I don’t. I got no dog in the hunt. It’s a television show for me, except when they turn it off and put Tom Davis on in the middle of the game, like they did the other night, too. So they’ve had a hell of a week around here in a general sense. And now we’re questioning the integrity of the manager, which is fine if he’s gonna lie, let him. I mean, I question the integrity of all of them on a day when you can’t even get there to be at the press conference for a 30 year operation that’s served fans and served their customers here much better than they serve their customers, I assure you, certainly with much more integrity over the body of work. I always think about the baseball team in the last two years, and I know they don’t think about it this way, because I’ve met them. I thought about, like, if you and I bought the Orioles, and we were going to clean up the Angelos thing, having been here, how many things we would have to do to take over a dirty operation. I thought about this when I was running for mayor of Baltimore, right, like. What place had a worse reputation than Baltimore? The first thing you need to do is work on the reputation, and part of the reputation is work on the reality of it. I don’t have to come out here and say that Rush was good the other night in LA, good for 72 good for old guys. She played good because she was a girl, and she did okay for she wasn’t Neil, but she, like, I can brag on that, because it was great. The Orioles are the same thing for my money, for my $20 beers, and for my tickets, and for sitting here giving them all the time that I give them. They pulled the television, the game off the television in the middle of the night. I mean, they didn’t even give me the game the other day as an entity. The owner’s off writing books about sports ownership, when that guy forget about him. I mean, like, I’m just.. I’m over the top on how bad the ownership has been, but part of this goes down to the manager and Sam Bisayo.

Nestor Aparicio 25:53
When the lineup comes out, that Joey knock and I, and you, and all the rest of the old white guys that are still left of us and Alan that still care about the team and are into it, into it, like you’re at the ballpark, you’re driving down, you’re running around on behalf of the fans, on behalf of me, and all of our sponsors to get answers for, for all of this, to cover sports, to create excitement around the team that can’t get 7000 people to the ballpark on a Wednesday night when they’re giving their dogs $20 to get dogs in, I mean, I don’t, but the manager to be playing games in the dugout about communicating with the fan base about why players are playing or not playing, the fact that we’re sitting here talking about that when they’re five games under 500 a night when Holiday hit a home run to me, the trust level of the operation, the integrity level of the operation, is where I get on all of this, and it’s so broken over three decades by the dead guy that I can’t blame it on anymore, that I can only point at Katie Griggs and Greg Bader and the Whistler, not even a Rubenstein and Araghetti, because they’re absentee, they’re not even a part of this Don Rovax, you know what I mean, like these are the people that have an empty stadium, have a television network that took their game off in the middle of the game, so much that I had to go out in the car and listen to Brett Hollander, and then the next day the manager’s not even being honest with the fan base about why guys are playing or not playing, and then we’re sitting here the day after they win and speculating about, like, they just need to be better, they just need to be better at everything again, all over again. My 34 years with Angelos, they need to be better than this, and in a lot of ways, and I just don’t, I, I’m not impressed by Craig Albernas, not on television, not on television, not on strategy, not on intellect, not on explanation, not on being a Baltimore guy, or like, be like rally in the, like, I don’t know, their stadium’s empty, Minter doesn’t have to worry about that, I mean, Minter, the Chad Steele doesn’t worry about that. I mean, they don’t worry about that. The baseball team has an optics issue. I mean, I’m sitting in Coco’s, I could have gone to the game. I went down to Coco’s and dropped 90 bucks on fun dinner, like I could have gone and spent 12 bucks. It was a beautiful night after the rain cleared. By the time I got in the car, went down Bel Air Road got to chocolate, chocolate chip cookies. I got a chocolate chip cookie, free plug for Woodley Bakery on Bel Air Road, old neighborhood, Moravia, right across from the late great Scottie Donahue’s Ford dealership. I mean, I was driving down Bel Air Road, and I swear to you, listening to the game, and because I was kind of shocked, started on time, because I kind of arrived at Coco’s at 645 like two at bats in, and I could have gone to the game, and there were people at the bar wearing Oriole hats, and I’m thinking, you’re here, you’re not at the game, games 12 bucks, it’s three miles away, there’s no parking issues, like to go to the game, like it depresses the ish out of me to sit just to see how empty it is on television every night, and then to think the night before then you put it on, and then that sit here the day after, and you and I talking about the manager not being honest with the fan base, and it was all over my social media because I covered the team whether they like it or not, so at 430 when the when the lineup’s out and Enoch’s on a thread yelling about it on Facebook, and I’m yelling about it, and we’re wondering. In the old days, we’d say, well, that’s why Rosenthal’s down in the dugout asking questions, or that’s why they let Luke or Nestor, or whoever, down there. If you’re not going to get a straight answer, then they’re no better than the Angelos people.

Nestor Aparicio 29:36
They really aren’t. I mean, like all the way around, all the way around, other than the obstinance that the old man had, and the complete incompetence of all of it, I don’t know. I don’t smell good on TV. It doesn’t smell good from where I am. The manager having guys like you that just wanted to be honest, and we have to sit here and question whether what’s going on. Scio, and I even have to say, was he out drinking? You’re like, no, no, no, and I’m like, well, I don’t know, there’s 21 year old guys, I, you know, I’m thinking it’s like a fan, I’m, I’m just, I’m just a fan with the beer at the end of the bar, you know, like, be clear, be or be clear that it’s disciplinary, we’re not going to get into, and then that’s the end of that, then you can just say, well, something happened, and sniff around if you wish, but not answering questions when you’re Craig Albernaz, and you’re trying to win integrity and fan points, and get people to the ballpark, and get people excited about your baseball team. It’s poor, it’s as poor as Jennifer Grand Doll or Chad Steele being communication specialists who don’t communicate. It’s just poor, that’s all I’m gonna say. Because I care about the baseball team, they’re in the middle of a home stand, that the only thing that matters here, they’re not the Knicks, they’re not the Vegas Knights, they’re not Team USA or any Somalia, they’re not the World Cup, they’re what we care about here, and it’s poor, and I just want to say that out loud. It’s poor that in the middle of the home stand where I’d like to go down and go, go see the Padres. It’s poor

Luke Jones 31:11
to bring it to bring it back to the micro of the actual situation. I’ll go back to what I said, I mean, and everybody

Nestor Aparicio 31:17
listening is happy, you just did that. It

Luke Jones 31:19
feels like you either have a manager that is struggling to get through to a young player, or flat out alienating a young player, or.. and again, I don’t want to make this that it’s all Craig Abernas, because for all we know, Sam Pasayos being a, you know what, behind the scenes, right? I mean, but you

Nestor Aparicio 31:40
can’t go up to Sam Bisayo and ask him after the game.

Luke Jones 31:42
Well, he was at, he was asked about this, not about being benched, but about the comments that have been made recently. That’s why I’m trying to give the full context. Sam,

Nestor Aparicio 31:52
are you healthy? Yes, I played. So, right?

Luke Jones 31:56
Or you have, like I said, in some kind of an attitude, insubordination, something going on right, and like I said, it’s not completely out of left field in terms of some of the comments that have been made going back to the Toronto series, but at the same time, it’s it’s not ideal either, either of those situations, whether it’s on the manager or whether it’s on the player, it’s good, right? And I don’t want to make it out to be that it’s this dire thing that he’s going to end up being traded, or losing four games

Nestor Aparicio 32:28
in a row, you’d like to have your best players on the field,

Luke Jones 32:31
and that’s where I wanted to bring up what Jim Palmer said on the air, and you know this was his direct quote, and I saw Andy Costa of the Baltimore banner transcribed it, but the quote was, “He’s the manager. He said it’s about accountability. He’s the one responsible for wins and losses. All I know, and I said this Monday night, “If you don’t play Adley Ruchman, you don’t play Samuel Bisayo, and you’re trying to win games, I’m happy if I’m one of the Mariners pitchers. I’m elated, I’m joyful. I would send them flowers if he’s able to play late in the ball game. I’m surprised he’s not in there, that’s all. I don’t think this is the time when you’ve lost four in a row to teach a lesson. I don’t care how young you are, but that’s just my opinion. And leave it to Jim Palmer, who is 80 years old. And so Jim Palmer’s

Nestor Aparicio 33:14
talking out loud about them teaching him a lesson. So then, then that tells me all that we need to know, that it is disciplinary.

Luke Jones 33:19
I mean, and look, I mean,

Nestor Aparicio 33:22
and by the way, Jim Palmer has told me that they treat him as poorly as they treat me. I just will say that out loud. I want to say that on behalf of Jim Palmer, who played with my cousin, whom I love, who I love watching on TV, who I feel awful that he’s been has had to endure 30 years of Greg Bader and John Angelos and Peter Angelos, and really lousy baseball on behalf of all of us, and have to make excuses for these people, and can is not allowed to even talk to me publicly because they would fire him. He’s Jim Palmer.

Luke Jones 33:58
Yeah, I mean,

Nestor Aparicio 33:59
I prefer what he says to what Craig Albernaz says in some, in some way of integrity. At the very beginning, Jim Palmer knew Brooks, he has integrity.

Luke Jones 34:10
Well, Jim’s 80 years old, and he’s not worried about what other people are going to say about it, right? He’s going to, he’s going to speak his mind. He’ll

Nestor Aparicio 34:17
eat a chicken wing when he damn well feels like

Luke Jones 34:19
so, right. So, but his point about them having lost four in a row, and you’re trying to win games, and is this the right time to teach a lesson or not? I mean, look, I’ll also say this, I would, Jim might be privy to more than what you and I have talked about, but to the point that you just alluded to, doesn’t mean he necessarily knows the whole story either, but you look at it from face at face value of what we’ve seen. They don’t want him to know this truth, because

Nestor Aparicio 34:49
they’re afraid that he’ll say it to me and I’ll say it on

Luke Jones 34:53
the air. They’re not afraid of that. They’re afraid of Jim just saying it. Period. Because Jim doesn’t have. Filter, he’s going to just say it, right? He’s going to speak his mind about it, and that’s why we love Jim Palmer, right? He’s been the highlight of Palmer more than Craig Albert, as so. But just again, to bring it back to the here and now, and to not be at the 30,000 foot perspective, they did win, they won, I assume. At I assume we’re gonna see Bisayo back in there today, because if he’s not back in there for the finale, then now it’s just becoming a complete S storm, because people are very aware now and are asking questions and are wondering, kinda like when Kevin Brown disappeared for two weeks, you can get away with it for the first day or two. I mean, think about it, I mean, even Monday night, Posia wasn’t in the lineup, and I thought, oh, you know, he was banged up, you know, they’re giving him a day for the wrist, I think you said that on Tuesday, yeah, and then when he’s not in there again, you’re like, okay, but, but he pinch hit the night before, why isn’t he? And then when it’s the third straight day, then that’s when you’re just like, all right, like, what, seriously, what’s going on here, especially because Richmond’s not in there, I mean, no, nothing against Sam Huff, dude, it’s very

Nestor Aparicio 36:04
easy if I’m a 21 year old guy with a $78 million contract to say to the manager, dude, and I was 21 and let’s be clear, Jack Gibbons, how I went, assist, I want to be very clear

Luke Jones 36:17
about this, and this is where I’ll defend Craig Albernaz, in terms of what, how his, whatever they are dealing with internally. One, you know, me, one of the biggest things I don’t like about current fan culture on social media specifically is it tends to be very pro player. When you lose, what happens? You blame the coach, you blame the manager. It’s never the player’s fault. And let me be clear, that doesn’t mean it’s always the player’s fault either. I’m going to be very clear about that. So, my point here, in trying to assess this, if it is a disciplinary matter, and it really feels that way, because otherwise it just doesn’t make sense. Like, if he’s not healthy enough to play, he wouldn’t be pinch hitting and then going into the game and catching. So, well, the lead story is that

Nestor Aparicio 37:00
Luke Jones came on here and said the manager’s being dishonest about this, that that’s where this began, that’s where the conversation began. I mean, it

Luke Jones 37:07
just, I was

Nestor Aparicio 37:08
going into Jackson Holiday and giving away John Martin’s money, but yeah, but I’m listen, I think this is a communication issue for their brand and for Albernaz’s brand and their young guy that they’d like to put on the side of the warehouse at some point and say Sam Bisayo is going to the Hall of Fame, he’s gonna hit 500 home runs, like this is weird, and if you remember Machado had a lot of problems early on too, just, you know, like being a young guy, and we’re talking about Jackson Holiday, you’re gonna bring him young and have him play 2122 23 you know, wine, women’s song, girls, late nights, young, dumb, and full of testosterone, and like all of that plays into all of this cultural, all of that plays into all of this for baseball.

Luke Jones 37:52
So, so what you’re hoping happens with this is both sides learn from it, right? You have a first time manager, and you have a 21 year old who’s in his first full year in the big leagues. I’m guessing the truth lies somewhere in the middle, in terms of maybe Albernaz, and again, I’m not talking about his pub front facing, I’m talking about what’s actually happening behind closed doors with the team. They’re getting

Nestor Aparicio 38:16
their ass kicked, and they had a fight in the room behind closed doors, they had some words, and I’m the manager, and you don’t speak to me that way, and like, like, I look, yeah, I’m

Luke Jones 38:26
just saying, like, and again, I don’t even want to speculate what exactly happened, or what exactly said, or what the exact reaction is, but I’m guessing when, when you look back at it, when both parties look back at it, I’m guessing there’s some truth, and there’s some fault that could go both ways, where, yeah, Sam, you probably do need to toughen up a little bit, in terms of not that you’re not tough, but in terms of recognizing what it takes to be a big leaguer over dude, if you’re gonna challenge a

Nestor Aparicio 38:53
Latin guy about his toughness, who’s 21 I just went, I just used the word culture, I just use the word culture, I just use that word, and if Craig Albernaz has been around white guys and black guys and Latin guys and all guys and total guys and nothing but guys and baseball guys and dudes and Trump voters and bearded guys and guys who shoot things, and like that’s the culture of baseball, that’s what he’s been doing his whole life, and if he’s got a 21 year old kid who’s paid, and you’re gonna start that, that’s why I bring up Machado, because Machado was considered uppity, and this and that, and arrogant, you know, mr. Miami, and mr. Hialeah, and like all of all of that, it, you know, it all worked out great for him, he’s got a billion dollars, he’s coming to town this weekend. He’ll either get cheered or booed one way or another, but he dusted this joint years ago and just said, I’m gonna, you know, it’s my money, and I just think when you’re.. if we’re 40 minutes into a segment, and if this is about a young Latin player. Being questioned about his manhood and his toughness, I could see that being a burr up saying that could be a burr up, dog. Okay,

Luke Jones 40:11
but what if there is an issue with it? Okay, do you just not address it? You know what I mean, like, you know you’re going into $78

Nestor Aparicio 40:17
million I didn’t, Mike, that’s what I would say, dude, you know, I’ve employed a lot of people. If I gave, if I gave any of my employees $78 million I trust me, my relationship, then

Luke Jones 40:28
I guess that’s what they

Nestor Aparicio 40:31
think when you give them $78 million But that’s human nature. This is managing humans still need to have accountability. Okay, but I don’t understand. So, so you’re so then you’re saying it is all Albernaz and Besayo is not at fault. I’m saying I have no idea. I’m saying they lose in games. The manager’s under pressure because he’s the manager. The kid’s not under any pressure at all. He’s going to survive all of this. He’s got 78 million. Well, if he, he’s under pressure. I’ll tell you this, though. When you’re, if he has

Luke Jones 41:02
any integrity, he’s under pressure, because he wants to play, and then he wants to live up to that contract, and he wants to be a great brother, and he wants to make 300 million in his career, not just what he’s.. and

Nestor Aparicio 41:10
you know what he doesn’t want to do? Go out and go over five tonight, and be hurt, and know that he can’t hit the ball, and say, I can’t, I can’t perform. You know what he also did? You know what he also

Luke Jones 41:18
doesn’t want to do, he does, he also doesn’t want to let down his teammates if he is healthy enough to play, and he needs, and he does need to toughen up. I’m just, it can go either way. And my point in saying that, you’re on the BJ

Nestor Aparicio 41:29
Surrhof side of the locker room, for sure. You know, I mean, look around this the whole time. Now, the gamer side, I’m saying, like, I hear all, I hear all of what I’m

Luke Jones 41:39
saying is, I think there’s a scenario where both sides have some fault and maybe need to handle, how many times

Nestor Aparicio 41:46
did John Harbaugh in the 18 years, and you only covered him for 15 or 16 of them? How many times did John Harbaugh privately, privately, I’m talking about the breakfast, and or when I got together with him, how many times did he privately question the toughness of one of his players? It happened a lot, happened a lot, a lot, a lot. That’s who John Harbaugh was. You’re not tough enough, Elemenor. I’m trying to think, all the guys he didn’t like, and the guys he liked, the Ben Cleveland’s, or whatever, Jermaine,

Luke Jones 42:23
Illuminaz, actually back with him with the Giants, man. If you want to talk about things that I never would have guessed, I would have never guessed that guy would have had the long NFL career that he’s had, because he, yeah,

Nestor Aparicio 42:38
but what I’m saying is John routinely questioned the manhood of the men, the mighty men of his locker room, sometimes for better or worse, right? You know, sometimes that works, sometimes it didn’t work. I, you know, depends if it was a white guy, black guy, young guy, an old guy, smart guy, a dumb guy, you know, a made guy or a not made guy, a guy that’s working on a contract, or a guy that never got a contract, like Zach Gore, never got a contract, you know? Like, so for me, there’s so much involved with money, there’s so much involved with culture, there’s so much involved with having testicles, and it being a dude thing that Katie Griggs will never understand, nor will Jennifer Grandal, because they just won’t. I mean, and if that makes me a bad guy, it does make me a Republican to say that, but women and men, this is a mighty men’s game, baseball, right? I mean, I guess, I mean, the hardball thing, questioning, you know, it’s like I should ask Trots one day if he ever questioned the toughness of one of his young Canadian men, or one of the Russian kids on his team, or, you know, the Swedes were always soft, they were always considered, they didn’t want to fight, that’s the hockey thing. Yeah, I know, you don’t know the hockey thing, right? It’s like we’re watching World Cup, oh, he’s Latin, he’s going to dive, that’s what they do, Latin guys dive, because that’s what they do, like there’s all this cultural stuff that goes on to that every time Craig Albernaz opens his mouth, I hear culture, I hear Eric DiCosta, strange enough, because he has the.. they’re from like 10 miles apart, they have.. they are like listening to me, and anybody from Dundalk, you know, like little different than if you grew up in Colombia, it’s 10 miles, but it’s.. it’s 100 miles on an accent, but Albernaz culturally I can even hear him barking at me in that New England accent, and it burns me up. It doesn’t, when my wife gets two beers in there and her R start to float. So I’m telling you, man, it is when you’re losing and the kids got more money than you’re ever going to have, and you’re battling over this, and the minute manhood gets brought in to a 21 year old Latin kid who’s in the big leagues, I don’t know, dude, like if you’re questioning his toughness, if that’s where this is, and other guys in the locker room are doing that, that’s bad, that’s just bad,

Luke Jones 44:58
and that’s where we kind of get into Samantha. Is it toughness? Is it not understanding your body to the point where, look, in a 162 game season, you’re going to get banged up some here and there, and there are times where, yeah, you’re, you might need to miss a game or two, and, but there might be some other times where, hey, our other catchers hurt worse than you, you do need to suck it up and play tonight, right? That exists, you know, but you’re not going to punish the guy. Well, if I.. well, that’s why I’m saying what has had something

Nestor Aparicio 45:30
else to lead to

Luke Jones 45:31
this, right? Yeah, and that’s.. and look again, I’m not trying to take a side here, I’m trying to acknowledge it’s very well possible that both sides have mishandled this to some degree, that it’s gotten to this point, that that something like this even gets out right. Teams have issues internally all the time, all the time. I heard something recently about the Ravens that I’m not going to share, and it’s not like, let me be clear, it’s not a bombshell or anything like that. It’s just an issue with the player last year, that again was off the record. It’s not a big deal or anything, but it’s something that I had no idea happened last year, you know. So, but it happened, and if you’re writing

Nestor Aparicio 46:07
proper reign three in February because they win the Super Bowl, maybe, maybe not, you’ll have a piece of that. Yeah, maybe it is, or

Luke Jones 46:14
maybe it’s something that’s completely irrelevant to what happens in 2026 As hard as it is

Nestor Aparicio 46:18
for people to believe, all I’ve ever done with my life is cover sports, and try to know the stories, and try to give the why, and try to give the real reasons. So, if I’ve been a little uppity here in the last 45 minutes about this, that’s fine. I’m the Latin guy who’s been treated like shit by these people, been thrown out, so I don’t like that. I don’t like.. I don’t.. and I’ve been around these teams to hear how other people talk about the Latin players. I’ve been at this a long time, and I know that there is a burr up factor. I saw this when Robbie Alomar and Palmeiro and I got into it 4030 years ago. Like, there is a serious thing going on in baseball with black, white, and brown, and it’s gone on from the beginning of time back to Jackie Robinson, and way before that, Satchel Paige. So, like, I’m just saying, if you’re questioning the manhood of a Latin player, or saying he’s not tough enough, and you’re going to discipline him, I don’t know that anybody’s going to the ballpark and getting over today, and just moving over the mountain, but we’ll see. Winning helps, winning helps a lot for all of them, you know, because when you’re losing four games in a row, and you’re benching his ass, and we’re all talking about it. Jackson Holiday’s Grand Slam aired the place out a little bit for five minutes, right? But now they got, they got the Padres coming in. This is, they’re very vulnerable right now. We’re talking about six, seven games under 500 to a week will wipe them out. A bad, they play the Dodgers next week. I mean, you know what I mean. They got to go. You and I are going to be getting out of bed at four in the morning, going to bed at 230 And next week, talking about them, you know, this is, they’re vulnerable right now. The whole thing’s vulnerable. Albernaz, Elias, Rubenstein’s off getting married, writing his sports ownership book. The team is this close to last place again, and nobody’s going to the ballpark, and they can’t even get their games on television, because Greg Bader doesn’t know his elbow from his arm. I mean,

Luke Jones 48:09
look, I mean, this goes back to what Palmer said, and that’s where you look at it and say, okay, whatever the issue is, is it something that that very much needed to be addressed, or was it something that wasn’t that big of a deal, or was it an overreaction, one side or the other, or did both sides overreact, or is this something that’s been an issue at times in previously? I don’t know, right? I don’t know, but it doesn’t smell right. And again, when you look at the comments that were made, again, regardless of toughness or pain threshold or hurt versus injured, or whatever, whatever, again, that’s like semantics, right? There’s some kind of, some kind of disconnect, or some kind of question here of not being on the same page exactly, and you hope that these last few days will be the end of that one way or the other, right? Because you don’t want this to be something that continues. Certainly, you don’t want there to be a disconnect or a falling out or player who doesn’t trust his manager or a manager who doesn’t trust his player. You don’t want any of that, because Sam Vision is really important to this team. There’s a good chance he’s going to be around long after Craig Albernaz, especially if we see ownership clean house. If the Orioles don’t succeed the rest of the way, right? You’ve already fired Michaelias, right? So you know if Michaelias gets fired, chances are Craig Albernaz is not going to be the manager of the Baltimore Orioles next year. I mean, that’s just how this works. The reason I think

Nestor Aparicio 49:40
Michaelias is fired is because I just, I think this team’s gonna have a real hard time getting up and running at this point.

Luke Jones 49:45
No, but I’m, but my point is, I’m not, I’m not pushing back on you, I’m saying that Sam Visia is going to be here, right? Yeah, but in Craig Auburn has his case, he’s not, so look again. Man, I don’t know. Craig Albernaz could be 100% at fault, or Sam Pasaio could be 100% at fault, and this should have been done three weeks ago because of some other issue. I don’t know, or it’s just a complete overreaction, right? But you need to get him back in the lineup, right? I mean, if he’s not back in the lineup now, after the discourse of the last 24 hours or so, and we’re gonna figure

Nestor Aparicio 50:21
out where Richmond is, or he’s going on the ILS. Then,

Luke Jones 50:24
then it’s a big issue, right? I mean, this is something that is an issue. You don’t want it to become a big issue, and that’s where I assume we’re gonna see Bisayo out there, and we’re gonna move on, and hopefully he plays well, and the Orioles get back to winning. It was a good win on Wednesday night. They need to win to salvage a split, and if you just

Nestor Aparicio 50:42
got here, we praised Brandon Young and Jackson. Now we did all of that, but this Messiah thinks it was a real

Luke Jones 50:47
story. I mean, how can it not be a story? I mean, fans were utterly confused by the comments that were made, right? Jim Palmer laid it out there, right? So this isn’t this isn’t the media trying to conjure something. He sat three straight days when you know your starting catcher is unavailable, and he pinch hit, and then even caught in those, you know, the first two games of that series, so you know if he’s.. I’ll leave out this will be my drop the mic moment, and he actually had a good game, so maybe that’ll indirectly be a happy accident. The Orioles, Craig Albernaz, and the Orioles willingly DH Tyler O’Neill over Samuel Bisayo on Wednesday night. Mic drop, I mean, like seriously,

Nestor Aparicio 51:34
he got a hit, didn’t he? Yeah, it’s two hits, two hits, like I

Luke Jones 51:37
said, good, good night for him. I mean, my goodness, when was the last time you had a multi-hit game? I mean, it’s so

Nestor Aparicio 51:42
I’m standing on second base at one point. He is Luke Jones, I am Nestor. Mariners are in, Padres are in, Ravens are off, World Cup is on, Knicks fever is on, and if you like the Stanley Cup, that’s happening too. Lender and I talked about that earlier in a week. He’s Luke, I’m Nestor, we’re WNSD AM 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking controversy, because it’s what we do in the media, we’re Baltimore.