Luke Jones and Nestor evaluate the Orioles’ situation as the Houston Astros come to town. Bats ailing, arms flailing and a tailspin tailing, the Birds have played .500 baseball for more than two months through the summer and are searching for their spring mojo with lots of different faces in new places.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
pitching, talk, bullpen, games, runs, week, hit, win, give, orioles, team, night, pitched, bats, offense, series, ball, suarez, crab cake, great
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, n, s, t test Baltimore, Baltimore positive. I’ve got Cabin Fever, got Oriole fever, and there’ll be plenty of time to get to this football stuff. But in the meantime, we’re going to be on Friday at fade, Lee’s and Lexington market, doing the Maryland lottery, along with our friends at Liberty, pure solutions and Jiffy Lube MultiCare. We’re gonna be doing the crab cake tour, sort of kicking things off for Labor Day, when it’s gonna get crazy around here in September. Luke, do you eat oysters? I don’t think I’ve ever asked you this. You’re I don’t see a picky eater, fussy or not. You’ll try sort of anything but, but it is always interesting to me to see your palate. Are you an oyster guy,
Luke Jones 00:40
I’ve had them. They’re not one of my favorites, but I’m not like, if someone presented them to me and I was like, out somewhere and someone bought them for me, I’d eat them.
Nestor Aparicio 00:48
Oh, you would Okay. Out fried, raw, like Fried, fried,
Luke Jones 00:53
I’m definitely more of that. Yeah, you’re
Nestor Aparicio 00:55
not squishy. Okay, so nonetheless, I’m gonna do 26 oysters in 26 days. Jessica Vallis and Harford designs just learned that I’m trying to go with a remove the cupcake and put a clam and crab with a 26 in it. So we’re gonna have fun with this. That’s a clam, oyster and crab. Excuse me, I got my wife’s talking about clam roast and clam bakes and stuff like that. We’re gonna be doing oysters because you wouldn’t put a clam in an oyster shooter. I’m going to go all throughout the state in the month of September, talk about the oyster recovery program. Talk about where all these delicious crab cakes come from, as we talk about pennant race baseball, as we talk about Lamar Jackson and Patrick mahomes. But in the meantime, Luke is here. He will be there at Camden Yards, and we will be together at Faith these on Friday, before taking a little bit of respite through the holiday. To give you a breather. Me a breather. Orioles go out to the West Coast. They’re playing the Dodgers, the bullpen, the bullpen, the bullpen. We’re going to talk about it, but you want to talk about the bats, and I want to talk about just being a 500 team. And I mean, even Jim Palmer in New York. Or, you know, the last couple days has been sort of resigned to the fact that this is a different team than the team in May right this minute, as comprised, what they pitch, what comes out of the bullpen, who they’re counting on, and Dean Kramer and Suarez and Rogers. I mean, they’re really counting on those guys right now. And the bullpen they can’t count on and the offense they have to count on. And when these things don’t match up and they kick the ball around, I mean, we’re talking about a different team here in August than we were talking about in June. Brother, yeah. I
Luke Jones 02:32
mean, there’s no question about that, and the injuries dictate that. I mean, at some point in time, you have to acknowledge what they are right now, and that’s why, for all the hand wringing about the bullpen and the pitching in general, and obviously, the loss of Zac Eflin is just such a massive loss for them, even if it is only for two and a half weeks or three weeks, and he’s back in early September, which they’re hoping. You know, it sounds like he wasn’t even going to have MRI and all this imaging on his shoulder. It sounds like it truly is just little bit of soreness that that lingered after his last start, at least at this point. But that’s why I look at this series and say at the same time, they lost on Monday, they lost on Wednesday, they gave up four runs each in those games. Now, if you go and look at the league average for runs allowed an era that’s slightly better than league average. So for all the talk about Craig Kimbrough and now Sir Anthony Dominguez giving up home runs and the mess, it’s a mess, believe me, it’s a massive concern. These were two very winnable games, and look, I understand if we’re going to beat up the offense on the days where they don’t score on Tuesday, their offense scored a bunch of runs. And you know, that’s the reason why they won, because it was a good thing. Gave it away. So, so I’m not going to sit here and be unrealistic to say that the offense must score seven or eight runs every single night. However, when you look at this series, and when you look at the state of their pitching, and when they’re in this position where they’re waiting on f1 to come back. They’re waiting on Grayson Rodriguez to come back. They’re waiting on dandy cool and Jacob Webb and they have reinforcements. You need to bank as many wins as you can in the meantime. Right when you have winnable games, you must take advantage. So that’s where I look at this series and say that was a very winnable series. And I’m not saying a sweep, although certainly it could have been a sweep, but you need to win at least one of those two games where you give up four runs, which not saying throw a parade over it, but given the state of their pitching staff, I’ll generally sign up for four runs allowed in the game on any night, I guess when Corbin burns isn’t pitching at this Point, or Albert Suarez, because I just how, how realistic Are you going to be when core taking the mound, or Trevor Rogers has taken the mound? I mean, it was great to see Dean Kramer do what he did, another good start for him. That was great to see they’re going to need the best version of him, but this offense needs to pick it up. And you mentioned the defense, I think the defense. This collectively, has been better and has stabilized from where it was three or four weeks ago, where I think it was just plain bad for a while there, but it’s still not winning them games. It’s still costing them out since in certain circumstances, and even if it’s not something that leads to runs being scored, that’s still, excuse me, that still adds up. Because if you get in a in an instance where a pitcher has to throw an extra five or 10 pitches, or you need to bring someone else in, that not just impacts your ability to win that night, it trickles to the next day, right? It trickles to someone’s not available for the next game. Or, you know, a couple guys aren’t available for the next game. So there’s just, there’s too much of that going on. Still, this offense needs to pick it up. It needs to be way more consistent, and defensively, they need to be more of a net positive. At best. Their defense has been mediocre for a long time now, and the defensive metrics support that. And it’s just a formula that adds up to a team that,
Nestor Aparicio 06:02
let’s face it, has been a 500 baseball team since June or Yeah, depending on where you want to pick, you know, start the timeline slightly below 500 but I saw the mediocre part of the defense. We could take a deeper dive into that mediocre defense is you boot a ball on an early grounder and give them an out and strike out the next batter. Get a double play. You get, you know, it’s different than defensive lapses that create runs right like and like immediate runs, throwing the ball in the center field, giving somebody two extra bases, just, you know, at fifth inning, wrong time of the game, when the game’s three two, you let him back in, let him tie a game like the defensive lapses are situational to really be costly, and more than just like one unearned run, more like just putting the team in a really bad situation, sure, and
Luke Jones 06:58
sometimes it’s not even a lapse as much as, okay, it’s a double play that you could have turned. Wasn’t the easiest play in the world, but you could have turned on there fielding a foul ball, but you’re fielding it right, right? And that, you know that Santander play, we talked about it the other day, that wasn’t an easy play. I mean, that was right up against the wall, down the right field line, in an outfield and in a ballpark where you don’t play very often. So I’m not going to sit here and say that that’s a terrible misplay, you know, a terrible play that you didn’t make, but it’s a play could have made. And, you know, depending on who you talk to, a play probably he would say should have made, but he didn’t, you know, holiday dropping a potential double play ball on the relay. I mean, you know, there’s so many instances of that happening, where they’re just not making a play that could really help out their pitcher.
Nestor Aparicio 07:47
Exceptional baseball, when you play exceptional baseball, you win 105 110 games, but it’s really hard to do. And you could play at that pace for a month or three and then, but taking on the injuries I you know, beating up Elias, beating up Brandon Hyde. I mean, they they had it going on. They had Mojo going on eight weeks ago, and they don’t have it right now. And I don’t know how to Barry Manilow, up, down, all around, trying to get that feeling again. Um, that feeling comes when you have better baseball players. We talked about that for a long time around here. When you have better baseball players you win, and they’ve had that, and then you start to talk about four pitchers. You haven’t mentioned westburg, Mateo throw Hayes in there. Just, you know, he’s not here anymore, and he was a part of this, foundationally, a part of this. Yeah, it’s, you know, they certainly have a long way to go to feel like they’re going to win three or four series in October. You know what? I mean, that this is going to hold together, and they’re going to win 10 to six every night in the playoffs. I, I, I find that to be not a great recipe. And I also find that bats tend to rule the roost in in in October, when you hit the ball well, as Texas did last year, hitting those home runs, doing all that. So I see the potential in them being able to slug their way through this, especially if they get Rodriguez back. And even if it we don’t feel great about it in the middle of September, you might feel better about it by the second week of October, because that’s the way pitching is on how these guys would respond to whatever the weather is and whatever their workload would be, and that speaks to the bullpen depth, not this bullpen depth. Thing is that’s not getting fixed. Starting pitching might get fixed, and they might stumble to the finish line and finish two games out and have to play a couple of, you know, whatever that is. But if they can line up starting pitching and bats, healthy bats, westburg back, I mean, all the ifs, if some of these ifs and buts and candies and nuts become realities, if they just get some guys back, but, dude, the effluent things just that’s otherworldly, and it’ll lead me to the tech services we’re gonna talk about the text. Service here, and your role in that. We might do that at length at fadelies. But I must say this to you, Eflin went on the Il. I still call it the DL, because I’m old and have silver air. And my wife and I sat down to watch the game from New York the other night, and we had some pizza. John’s, I think we were having some pizza. Let I went over, grabbed some cheese steaks, and we’re sitting there, and I’m like, you know, effluents hurt. She’s like, I’m an engineer at Verizon. Have work to do. How would I know that? Besides, I didn’t get the W, N, S T text. And I said, oh, oh. So I’ve been hearing everyone you clearly, have not been sending it. We clearly, and I went through this with Bill Cole, but I just want to let you know Zach left Eflin in the future, that’ll be on the wnst tech, so my wife knows about it first. Okay, yeah,
Luke Jones 10:48
yeah. And, I mean, look, it’s a colossal loss, not just for what’s left of their rotation at this point, but Zach Eflin was just pitching really, really well. I mean, I’m not a win loss record guy when it comes to pitching, but he was four zero at an era, what right around two since joining
Nestor Aparicio 11:07
the big crush on that deal. You
Luke Jones 11:09
didn’t think, no, I like that deal. I said that, and I mentioned Zach Eflin, not every day when we were talking about the trade deadline, but he’s a guy that I mentioned he would
Nestor Aparicio 11:21
not be available because of the money, because of the vision. There were several reasons to think it might not happen, right, right? I mean, there
Luke Jones 11:29
were a couple reasons to wonder if it would but that’s why I said of all the talk of ownership. And, you know, I don’t want to veer too much into this direction, because that’s another conversation for another day. They did invest, though they did right exactly for all the talk of David Rubenstein throwing hats into the crowd and soaking fans out the bird bath section and all that, the fact that they picked up and committed $18 million to Zach Eflin next year was the best sign of Orioles ownership yet in terms of what it how it pertains to the baseball team and what happens on the field and supporting the front office, so being
Nestor Aparicio 12:02
ready to play in the future and not why we don’t deal Kobe mayo and Jackson holiday away for sure, Dylan cease, right? Like, but, yeah. I mean, this is sustainable, right?
Luke Jones 12:12
But, but with Zach effin, I mean, look, I didn’t think he was going to pitch as well as he did over those first four starts, but I thought he was going to give them really solid, high floor kind of work, which is what he basically did in Tampa Bay this year. You know, he had a era just over four with the rays, so it’s not like he’s been amazing, but he had pitched so well. I think he’s a good fit for the clubhouse. Anyone who’s heard some of his post game interviews and, you know, having talked to him a little bit, you know, he’s only been here a few weeks, haven’t gotten to know him extremely well, but good guy all
Nestor Aparicio 12:41
over, bringing a grown up into helps. Sure, there’s still a lot of young guys around here. I
Luke Jones 12:46
mean, he’s a guy who pitched, no he pitched out of the bullpen for Philadelphia a couple years ago and pitched, well, you know, was pitching high leverage for them after, you know, kind of an up and down career with the Phillies as a starter, you know, and it had injuries and consistency. I mean, you know, kind of basically all the former Phillies pitchers at the federal the Orioles roster right now all kind of fit that bill right now. But you know, it hurts, because, you know, when Grayson Rodriguez went down, and we just talked about this the other day, they had Albert Suarez to step in. Now it’s a matter of Cole Irvin for a spot start, but presumably Kade Povich back in the rotation, at least for the foreseeable future. And look, he pitched really well against Boston last Saturday night. But is that going to be what you get regularly? I’m still very skeptical of that. So if we were
Nestor Aparicio 13:34
going back to June into the Wayback Machine, and you and I do this five days a week talking about baseball length, appreciate everybody out there that listens and follows and follows your wisdom and whatever I have to offer here. But if we would have gone back in June and said the starting rotation when they go out to LA Labor Day week is going to be Cole Irvin, Kate Povich, you might have said Chase McDermott, you know, like these guys that were in Norfolk at the time or headed to Norfolk at the time, and Dean Kramer is going to be relied upon, and Suarez is going to be your two not even mentioning EFL as a deal, or mentioning, if you just would have said those bodies are your starters, I’d say you’re probably scuffling to be a 500 team, if that’s what You’re rolling out to every five days, you know. And not to mention the bullpen being on fire, I’d say, even if you had the Indians, I keep calling me Indians guardians, bullpen, maybe you’d say, well, they could be okay. But, I mean, put that into the time machine. We’re taking a kid from Norfolk, a left hander that loves animals, but you know, is what he is, Dean Kramer, who’s been a source of inconsistency, um, and Albert Suarez from the KBO, some 30 year old Venezuelan guy with a big arm and, like, we don’t know what we’re getting, and that’s what we’re going to that’s what we’re going to send a Yankee Stadium. Like, really, no. We’re gonna send the Dodger Stadium next Tuesday night, I don’t know. And by the way, burns not looking good yet. I mean, you know, like I’m waiting to see the next time burns looks like Kramer.
Luke Jones 15:12
Well, I that’s a little hyperbole. To look like Kramer, he needs to look like Corbin burns. I mean, you know, I mean, Kramer’s had back to back quality starts. Kramer, before that, we were talking about him. No, I’m just saying, just a quiet
Nestor Aparicio 15:24
just give me a quality start later. Just get me through six innings with two or three runs. He’s had a bad August. There’s
Luke Jones 15:31
no doubt about, yeah, I
Nestor Aparicio 15:32
mean, I till I start seeing that once or twice, I’m really worried.
Luke Jones 15:36
I can’t be really worried about, if I’m gonna be really worried about Corbin burns at this point that I’m having a court, you know, like I’m having a medical emergency, because my stress level is through the roof. You know, it’s, it’s what it is you just mentioned. If you told me all that in June, I would say the Orioles would better thank their stars are 74 and 54 I mean, someone broke it down. I think it might have been one of the Sun guys, you know that, but made mention that through the first 64 games, the Orioles were 42 and 22 right off to a great start at that point in time. I think that was slight right around when Bradish went down. So, you know, they had already lost some pitching at that point, but it was still much more intact to, you know, compared to the degree that we see now. But 42 and 22 and in the 64 games since then. So, you know, this is a split right at 64 games and 64 games 32 and 32 I mean, they’ve been a 500 baseball team for 64 games now, you know. And again, we can, we can cherry pick where we want to start the the timeline, and then the
Nestor Aparicio 16:44
same way that before the Cardinals series, we were saying over the last two years, since rutschman got here, they have played 600 mean, they were on a page. They’re 103 win baseball team all along for not 160 games more, like 250 games that they had, they had played at that pace for a long time,
Luke Jones 17:04
right? But, but, I mean, but even the cardinal series, they still played really good baseball. No, I’m saying through 60 days and all that, right?
Nestor Aparicio 17:12
I hear you at that point. We were talking about a body of work over 250 games, season and a half, two seasons, where they played 600 ball and bragged about that, once you go into 60 games, you know, you’re getting into up on, you know, half a season of being a 500 team. And there’s no reason to believe the next 20 they’re going to be any better than 10 and 10 or 12 and eight. You know, they’re not built right now to be 16 and four in the next 20. If they do that, they’ve really done if they pull away with this pitching, because they’re hitting the cover off the ball every night, because that’s what they’re gonna have to do, and the bullpen gets tidied up, and we get more Colin selby’s Getting outs than loading bases, unless Keno knows. I just like saying that, um, because I coined that so but, and I’m the guy, that’s the canoe guy, I still think you know, who’s going to be the Savior and all this, write that down. I just want to say something smart in August. It might make me look smart in October. I
Luke Jones 18:05
mean, I don’t know if anyone in the bullpen is going to be the Savior at this point. They just need, they need to get five, four or five guys going to the degree where they don’t have to be amazing, but just be dependable. Just be trustworthy. Just be someone that you can put in and feel somebody
Nestor Aparicio 18:22
better damn well, be the savior. They got to win about 15 games in October, but my and they’re gonna need to do it every night, and need five guys right now.
Luke Jones 18:31
They can’t announce the Mets. They can’t do it. One guy can’t be the savior, because one guy can’t pitch every night. That’s I feel like Ekman this
Nestor Aparicio 18:37
morning. I’m sort of channeling my argumentative. What the hell’s going on with his baseball team? But I can’t do that, because I know what’s going on with the baseball team. They don’t have any pitching. All their best pitchers are gone. They’ve got a starting five hitting the ball would be a 95 win starting five that isn’t in their rotation right now, like they’re hurt or Tommy John like a miracle. I mean, what’s the offense excuse?
Luke Jones 19:03
What’s the offense’s excuse, though? I mean, the entire group goes in the tank when Jordan westburg is hurt. Like, look Jordan Westberg, I’ve said this to you from a fan perspective. He might be my favorite player, but they scored three runs on Wednesday. They had three hits. They were gifted a bases loaded, nobody out situation. That should have been two outs and nobody on it was It wasn’t bases loaded, no out but first and second. Nobody out easy. Missed Strike three called and cows are thrown out at second base. They end up having a bases loaded, nobody out situation. They got one stinking run at some point in time like this, offense has to start playing like what they’re supposed to be. Jordan Westberg is missing. I get that. That’s a big loss. It’s hurt them against left handed starting pitching. I fully get that, but I looked at it, we’ve talked about Adley rutschman a lot, and earlier in the year, we were talking about the power and the walks had gone down. Well, the walks had gone back up. He had a bad July. He’s had an. Okay, August, batting average wise. Hadley rutschman, it’s now the final we’re entering the final week of August. He has two walks the entire month. Like, what is that? He’s an all star catcher. He’s won one he’s the guy they drafted over. Bobby Witt, he’s got to pick it up. Like, it’s that simple. And I’m not, you know, this isn’t me attacking him individually, as much as that’s one example of like they’ve got to hit. Ryan mountcastle is a singles hitter as a first baseman for the last two and a half months, he’s got a hit. I mean, Gunner Henderson hasn’t been on the 55 home run pace that he was the first three months, but for the most part, he’s gotten himself back on track. Okay, so great. Santander hasn’t hit for much average in the month of August, but his hitting home runs great. But, I mean, they’ve got too many wasted at bats in the lineup. They’ve got too many guys that are just so hot and cold that, I mean, again, we can keep howling at the moon about the pitching, and I agree it’s a colossal problem. It really is. I’m not going to sit here and say it’s not. In the meantime,
Nestor Aparicio 21:06
the solution to that is it that they’re going to pitch better. The solution is they need to hit better, right, right?
Luke Jones 21:11
But we’re still talking about two performances in this series where they gave up four runs. Now, again, I’m not throwing a parade for four runs allowed, but that’s slightly better than league average. They got average pitching performances in the aggregate, in the collective and they lost those two games because they didn’t hit the ball. So I’m not saying they that meant they needed to sweep, but this should have been a, at least a two out of three Series victory, and we’re having a very different conversation then. So, so
Nestor Aparicio 21:42
it’s a turning point for all their leadership, right? For Hyde to figure this out, for Elias to figure it out at the top down, Rubenstein, new ownership in here, how they’re going to react, and he’s sitting behind home plate watching his team get their ass kicked, you know, getting up and down, why he wants to be in the middle of the screen like I will be writing a letter to David Rubenstein about my access, as well as just what his intentions are for philanthropy here in Baltimore. But nonetheless, like that, all of this is new for all of them, including hitting the rocks for a lot of these guys, and including whatever confidence level they have in the pitching on any given night, and the the part where they’re pressing. I mentioned the fans the other day and the fans losing their minds. I would think that, you know, the players themselves, there is a real tightness coming about this as these games get tighter and they go out to LA next week, play in the middle of the night with subpar pitching every night, every night, they wish braddish was there. They wish Rodriguez was there. They certainly are going to wish elfin effluence there the next couple of weeks. Um, I know it David elfin, by the way, he covered hockey for The Washington Times forever. So I always effalin elfin, but I’m not dyslexic. Um, I would just say for them and the bats and where holiday is and where the expectation is for really young guys, really young guys, you know, we treat these guys like their book PAL and Frank Robinson and Brooks Robinson, Nah, man, they’re these. These are guys that have been, that have been in one Penta race. This is not that. This is not bris for the most part, that’s why you bring efflin in. That’s why you thought you brought Kimberly, I mean, and even Brandon Hyde managing in big games. He’s seen it from the end of the bench, next to Joe man, you know, like in other places, but I don’t know that that’s what every night when you’re managing in these tough spots and you don’t have good choices. I mean, the best choices you have are, come on cows, or let’s move hit the ball. You’re my guy. You know, you have all these one ones, one fours, draft picks, guys that have done it, guys that have done it, like Mount Castle, Mullins, all these guys have done it at some point to give you the confidence level, because you want to under one games like everybody’s gotten big hits in in Everybody on this team has contributed in a big way. I sound like I’m giving the manager speech in the movie, but everybody in there has had a big hit. So there is John Martin still trying to figure out to pay all the big hits, quite frankly, with the home run riches. But so they all have it in them. But it’s go time, bro. It really is. It’s and it’s go. Time for the bats, because the pitching is not going to come to your point. Four runs, four runs, we’re celebrating. That’s as good as it’s going to get.
Luke Jones 24:27
And that’s good. That should be good enough to win more more than you lose, right? I mean, that should for what this offense has been. And look, I’ve been the guy that between the two of us, I’ve stuck up for the offense way more. But at some point in time, you have to be realistic about where you are. And to me, they got two out of three winning performances from their pitching staff good enough to win. Doesn’t mean it’s great. I don’t expect it to be great. I mean, Cole Irvin’s back. Cole Irvin started on Wednesday, and I’m not picking on him, it’s just. And gave him a chain of affairs, right? He was competitive. It wasn’t good, you know? He didn’t get through five innings. I understand all that, but he didn’t get bombed, right? It wasn’t, I don’t expect the offense to win when the when the pitching is going to going to give up eight or nine runs on some nights, and that’s going to happen too, because it’s just where the pitching is. At this point in time, they’re going to have
Nestor Aparicio 25:21
some really, really demoralizing when we have a three day stretch where Suarez looks like a KBO guy for a night. You know, it was already I’m half freaked out about Corbin burns not looking right, because of all the rest of it, because and thank God for Kramer the last two weeks, right? Like some of these guys and Suarez too. I mean, these guys, these guys have stepped up. I would agree with that. The pitching has stepped it up a little bit here,
Luke Jones 25:45
um, I mean, a few guys have, you know now the bullpen, not so much, because even Sir Anthony Dominguez has gone into the tank now too. So there’s no one in the bullpen you trust at this point. So the bullpen is an absolute dumpster fire. I mean, it just is, gotta call it what it is. You’ve got to hope to get some of these guys straighten out. And look, it’s not easy, because you’re I, and I better get him straight now, when you’re up seven, three, sure, sure. Well, and they were in that position on Tuesday night where they had a lead, and then they were in a position where, oh my goodness, now you’re, you’re, you’re sweating it out. I
Nestor Aparicio 26:17
dozed off on that game. My wife elbow, but she better wake up. You know, I’m like, Ah, man, this damn bullpen. I can’t, you can’t go to sleep on the bullpen. That’s true. I found that out on Tuesday. I mean,
Luke Jones 26:27
no, no, lead is safe. I mean, I agree with that. And again, I’m not when I’m going nuts on the hitting here, that’s not giving the pitching staff a pass. I’m colossally concerned with the pitching at the same time, I also am trying to be realistic about the pitching, and that’s where I look at this. And again, I’ll say Monday and Wednesday, they got winnable performances from their from their pitching collectively. Doesn’t mean everyone pitched well, obviously. But if you tell me the rest of the way, or at least until they get Grayson Rodriguez and Eflin back, you know, let, let’s say at least they’re to that point, at least they’re as whole as they’re going to be, and getting cool on and Jacob Webb back. You know, if we’re going to assume all four of those guys are going to come back and at least look something like themselves, you you hope. But if you’re going to tell me, until that happens, I will sign up in blood for the Orioles to give up four runs per game because that that means they should have a chance to win more than they lose. They
Nestor Aparicio 27:27
can win the World Series doing that. Well,
Luke Jones 27:29
no, I’m that’s not what I’m talking about here. I’m talking about what they need to do until they get those guys back. And that’s why I look at this series and say, This is a series that it was very plausible, very reasonable to win two out of three with what they got. And again, pitching was lousy on two. Bullpen was lousy at in relief of Kramer. So you know, I’m not saying that the pitching, collectively that night was good enough. Their offense, you know, scored enough runs to make it and the Mets kicking the ball around, by the way, which was just hilarious. Their their little league sequence there. But the point is, with where they stand right now, there’s 74 and 54 going into this Houston series, right? So they’re 20 games on over 500 if they go 500 the rest of the way, that means they would be a 91 win team. Now, is that going to win the division? Check back with me on how the Yankees are doing, because the Yankees again, and this is the saving grace for the Orioles. Is every other team in the Al Houston a good example of that. Houston was on a major role, then they have a series loss, right? And are humbled a little bit. Seattle can’t hit the ball. Cleveland is having all kinds of issues with its starting pitching, and it’s it’s hitting not being enough. So you go down the list, I don’t know who that Juggernaut is going to be the rest of the way, but again, for argument’s sake, the Orioles, if they go 500 the rest of the way, 91 wins, that’s going to be they’re going to be in the playoffs with that, right? So I’m not saying that’s the goal, but my point is, until they get these other guys back, they need to try to tread water and bank as many wins as they just they can on nights where they get good enough pitching, when it’s decent enough, when it’s respectable enough, they’ve got to win those games. And again, this was a series where the two games they lost, they gave up four runs. That’s with this offense, being this group of position players, being as healthy as it is, and understanding that, yes, they really Miss Jordan westburg, but at the same time, Ramon Arias has done a decent job filling in for him, has actually been one of their better hitters over the last couple of weeks.
Nestor Aparicio 29:36
So those replacement metrics are fine for me, right?
Luke Jones 29:40
They’re acceptable, right? I
Nestor Aparicio 29:41
mean, they’re acceptable, you know, might have slumped, right? I mean, sure. I
Luke Jones 29:45
mean, you never know. But the point is, as a whole, that group is way healthier, because at this point, Jorge Mateo wouldn’t be playing that much, right? I mean, okay, we could, we could debate, you know, whether westburg would be playing more at second, and Jackson holiday would be sitting against some left. And all that. But point is, Jorge Mateo was falling back into being a role slash bench player before he got hurt. So I’m not looking at that as like this massive loss. Westburg is a massive loss. You know, he’s been one of their three best position players this year. And really, you know, second, easily their second most consistent, if not most consistent. So, you know, I just every time they pitch and get a respectable, acceptable, reasonably decent performance, which is collectively what they did on Monday and Wednesday, every time you lose one of those games, that’s a major missed opportunity to me at this point. So again, I’m not saying I demanded a sweep, but based on how they pitched on Monday and Wednesday, you got to get one of those games. You got to win one of those games. But they’re not swinging the bats. You know, they’re not swinging it consistently enough. I mean, they just don’t, aren’t and you know, we can talk about it more dependent on the home run. I mean, you know, they’re batting average. Team batting average is still up there, right? I mean, they’re not such a feast or famine where it’s home run or absolutely nothing. You know, they hit lots of doubles. They hit triples, but they’ve got to find a way. And they’ve been, you know, kind of non existent with runners in scoring position of late. And, you know, it’s just maddeningly inconsistent, right? I mean, they’ll put a good performance together, and then the offense sleeps for the next few days, and it’s just, you know, even, even, you know, we talked about it last Sunday when they won and scored four runs. I think they had three hits in that game. I mean, they’ve got to get more traffic on the bases. I mean, you just have to. So here come the Houston Astros and a team that, overall, this last series, aside, has played very well over the last couple of weeks. It’s gonna be a big test for them. There’s no question about it. And you hope that the pitching doesn’t get ugly, and you hope if the pitching is decent enough, and more specifically, the starting pitching is decent enough that your offense takes advantage and is able to score enough runs. I mean, they got burns, Povich, Suarez the first three games of this series. So burns and Suarez Are you know that those are the two guys you feel the best about. So you know, you’re hoping you get at least two of those first three and then you see what happens in the finale. You know, as far as the WHO THE TBA is going to be. So again, I hear all about the pitching. We can continue to howl at the moon about the pitching for the rest of the season, because even the guys that come back, they’re still not getting Bradish and John means and Tyler wells back and Felix Bautista back. So I get that, but that’s why I look at this and say, when you give up four runs in a game, you need your offense and defense to step up there. I mean, you really do, because that’s, that’s winnable. It’s a winnable baseball game as as I come to expect it with where this pitching is so they don’t take advantage. Yeah, I’m gonna, I’m gonna hold the offenses feet over the fire a little bit more than the pitching, because I do have higher expectations for that group, and they didn’t live up to it. Up up in Queens. He is Luke Jones.
Nestor Aparicio 33:06
He is Baltimore, Luke, you know, let’s get on the more important things, like the third and always important preseason game in Lambeau Field this weekend, Luke and I’ll be talking football this week. Lots of politics, lots of great stuff. Had great conversations, not just with our senators, our congressmen, various county executives and leaders on opioids and various things. On the eastern shore. Western shore, I’ve had Democrats. Have had Republicans. I’ve had independence on and I’m writing my declaration of independence beginning on Labor Day week. So you want to be reading my droppings and my writings and my column nests will come back to life in a rather large way. As I’ve been doing a lot of writing, we have a lot of new sponsors around here, our friends at Cooper’s pub. We’re going to be up there doing the crab cake tour. Excuse me down there at Fells Point, doing the crab cake tour on the 13th of September. That’s going to be a big weekend. There’s a big oyster festival going on. There’s a big oyster Festival on the 26th at the bno Railroad Museum. I’m going to be broadcasting from there as well, doing the crab cake tour in the middle of an oyster tour. But that is September. We got a pennant race. We got a lot of football going on. All of it brought to my friends at the Maryland lottery. I’ll have the Gold Rush sevens doublers at faithleys on Friday, again at Cocos on September the fourth. Boy, oh boy, just pizza. Johns is back on with us as a sponsor, and we’re doing a lot with cop and state. Dr Anthony Jenkins is going to be a familiar voice joining us more and more. Bill Cole came on this week. We’re bringing the wnst tech service back. I’ve been working, working, working for a living. Instead of saying, take this job and shove it, which I might do next week, I am Nestor. He is Luke. We are W NST. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, we’ll see it fade these on Friday, come down and get a crab cake. You.
