With a full rotation of effective, quality starts against Tampa and Atlanta, the Orioles pitching feels better than it did when John Means and Tyler Wells went down for the season. Luke Jones and Nestor marvel at the effectiveness of the rotation and how they’ll need it with the Phillies and Yankees ahead.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
pitching, talking, innings, pitchers, orioles, games, thought, bullpen, suarez, corbin, team, year, point, season, luke, rotation, rodriguez, day, burns, runs
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor J. Aparicio
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home we are W n s t desk Baltimore and Baltimore positive we are positively in to a homestand. And folks get down to the ballpark here this week. Whether it’s the Braves next couple days, Phillies this weekend, we’re getting out in the community we’re going to be cocoa stop by before the game. By all means, pretend you’re going to Memorial Stadium just come down to Coco’s get a crab cake with us. We’ll be there on Wednesday. And then on Friday, we’re going to be down at Cooper’s tavern, the original, you’re reaching out across from Pendry on the square in the cobblestone down of Fells Point looking forward to that run firm it’s going to stop by for Max’s to be told some rock and roll stores had Mark Bryan from hooting the blowfish, who was a huge ordeal span dropped by his band is out on the road this week or this summer. So a lot of things happen in the Maryland lottery throwing me out on the road. This is the last time you’ll probably see the PAC man’s because I’m gonna have to go rush sevens by the end of the week. Maryland lottery put us out on the road for the Maryland crab cake tour. I’m wearing my Costas shirt. We will be there next Thursday. If you hate the Yankees who hates the Yankees? Oh, meet me. We’ll be in Dundalk. It costs us next week hatin up on the Yankees. I just hope Nestor Cortez is pitching because I’d like to hear Jim Palmer, say my name out loud. It just puts a twinkle in my eye, our friends and liberty pure solutions keeping our water clean, as well as Jiffy Lube, multi care putting us on the road. And I would be remiss if I didn’t say that when Luke Jones joins me at 5am to do these segments after laboring deep into the night with Orioles baseball when the games end at nine o’clock. It’s sort of perfect for me becoming a senior citizen and getting my Arp. It is nice to wake up with coffee my co roofing mug courtesy of our friends at Royal farms for keeping it real fresh and real fast. And I don’t have any fried chicken to hold up at this point. But I do have some delicious cookies here from the Woodley Baker says a free plug for you guys, Woodley, because your chocolate chippers are good. What’s going on, man? Um, they don’t lose, do they? I mean, they like they never lose. I mean, like, I don’t know how often we said I you St. Louis, but that was so two weeks ago. There. This is an amazing baseball team. And as the guy standing locked out watching it on TV, you’re there. You couldn’t be there Tuesday night, your sister’s going to be giving birth to another little little Jones Papoose for you. But this is an exciting thing to have this team come back playing baseball like this. And look, the Phillies fans are going to fill it up this weekend. I don’t have any doubt about that. But this team’s great.
Luke Jones 02:27
I mean, and they need to be right, because the New York Yankees aren’t losing games, either. I mean, that’s really what we’re talking about here. I mean, we’re talking about I mean, the Orioles now or 22 over 667 winning percentage. And they’re in second place. And it really just speaks to what kind of division race this is. So I think it’s really a credit to them on Tuesday, when you kind of consider the variables and we talked about this a couple days ago, but you finish this al East Road Trip, you know, one, one stop in Toronto, and of course, they were down in St. Petersburg, a weird wraparound weekend series that ended on Monday night, not Monday afternoon. Keep in mind the Braves had been in DC. So they actually enjoyed some rest and relaxation in Baltimore and we’re waiting for the Orioles to return to town. You get the bad news about Danny coulomb go on to the aisle and we can certainly talk about that because that’s a concern depending on the severity with left elbow inflammation. This pitching staffs over work just from the sense of not having off days. And lo and behold, they go out there against one of the best pitchers in the National League, a left handed pitchers and Max fried. And Jorge Mateo comes off the aisle three run homer, Albert Suarez gives them a really another really rock solid start. Or he’s just been whether it’s been in relief or in a starting role. He’s
Nestor J. Aparicio 03:49
Venezuela, pointing that out. I just gotta throw that in. He’s Venezuelan. He’s been he’s
Luke Jones 03:53
been a godsend for them one of their unsung heroes where we’ve talked about this those guys that you’re not expecting any contributions from at the beginning of the season. But knowing if you want to do anything special, you’re going to need those contributions along the way. We’ve talked about that with Jacob Webb talked about that with Suarez, you know, to a lesser extent ko Ervin because I think Corbin was expected to be on the team and expected to contribute but he’s been better than anyone would have
Nestor J. Aparicio 04:18
expected to be painfully mediocre. Yeah, yeah. Station for him, right.
Luke Jones 04:24
Yeah, you expected him to be your five starter or your swing man in the bullpen and you look at his era you would expect for
Nestor J. Aparicio 04:30
us to be painfully mediocre even less than that because he was thought to be less than that. And all of these guys just keep stepping up I mean it’s and the top of the rotation this week specifically, all the concerns we had last week when they’re put means out there put wells out. We’re talking about Cramer Wednesday coming back and all that Bradish takes takes a deep breath and then comes back almost those a no hitter Rodriguez almost Sosa no hitters and where my constant shirt I was over there cracking grabs on A Sunday afternoon with that. And then burns goes out Monday and shoves. It’s almost, you know, I get Leo MYZONE on here, he’ll tell you what those cats were like when they were golfing together down in Atlanta, and night out. And while the Braves are here, Let’s shove it at them a little bit. But this is what that looks like. And I don’t know that it’s sustainable dude. I mean, I don’t know that Suarez and I don’t know that they’re gonna win 16 games and FERS that are sub three and make it the rest of the way and make 24 starts this year 2018. Like, I don’t know, but I don’t know who’s coming over the hill that’s gonna look better than they’ve looked lately. Or in totality. Just they be where they are. They all look like they’re ready to take the ball every fifth day and not ready to go back to Norfolk or the South Korean league or whatever you would want to say about Suarez. He’s a guy though, that when you and I were running around down Sarasota, and I was doing hot yoga, and they were letting you in. A lie is talked about Suarez a lot, right? Like, I mean, he was one of those guys that he he made noise enough in March to think that you’re talking about him and Judy is a pitcher, but you thought it might have been in a relief role.
Luke Jones 06:09
Yeah, and it still could be that at some point later on in the season. I think Albert Suarez is just one of those guys that they identified. They signed him late last year. And they worked and they tweaked some of his mechanics and you know, added a little bit of life to his fastball. And I mean, he’s just been really, really good. Now, you know, you look at some of the peripherals and you know, at times, does he walk up a guy or two more than you’d prefer? Sure. I mean, he hasn’t been perfect. But considering the expectations he’s been. I think he’s fifth on the club and innings. I mean, that right there tells you something. One, what he’s done, that he’s pitched enough that they’ve kept him around. And to me, it speaks to some of the physical concerns they’ve had with their pitching and yet, they haven’t missed a beat. I mean, look at where they are right now as they were going into Tuesday’s action. Yeah, I’ve really been kind of just looking at runs per game, and runs allowed per game, going into Tuesday night’s game, let the major leagues and run scored per game. They were fourth best in runs allowed per game. So their pitching is getting it done. Even if it looks unconventional, even if, to your point, you asked the question, is it sustainable? I think everyone in baseball is asking that at this point in time, even the Yankees with the rotation that they’ve already had, with Garrett Cole coming back here in the near future. There are still questions whether it’s going to last until October. I don’t think the Orioles are unique in that way. And that’s why I think Michael is is going to continue to scan the market and see what’s out there bullpen wise, or potentially adding another starter. But these guys are getting the job done. And because Albert Suarez going to pitch meaningful games in September and October, I can’t sit here and say that I have any idea if that’s going to happen. But he’s pits in some meaningful spots for them in the first half of the season. And all those games still count at the end of the day. So it really is impressive when you get the contributions you’ve gotten from him. Ko Ervin is what third on the team in innings. He has a sub three era. I mean, again, if you look at the peripherals, you say, Okay, well, these guys aren’t striking out a ton of people, whatever. I hear that, but they’re getting the job done. And they’re getting the results. And they’re doing it at times where there have been some health struggles. So you made the point and I wrote about it at Baltimore positive.com. One of the really cool things about that race series other than just the fact that they swept in one floor in a row was it was the first time that we saw the Oreos in any given order. Corbin burns, Kyle Bradish, Grayson Rodriguez all pitching back to back to back. That’s one of the first things fans thought about when the Orioles acquired Corbin burns from Milwaukee back in early February, two weeks before the start of spring training. And to see those three pitchers in a row. Well, there’s the upside there’s there’s the makings of your postseason rotation. But guys like Cole, Irvin, and Albert Suarez and Jacob Webb in the bullpen, those are the kinds of guys that are going to get you help get you to that point. For then the big boys to pitch in October and be big be the top three in your rotation. So, you know, it’s a collective effort in the bullpen now without Danny Coloma, at least for the next two weeks, you hope it’s not more severe than that Brandon Hyde was non committal about it. He said he’s on undergoing some testing. They’re hoping for the best you know, he kind of felt it felt it in his elbow when he was playing catch the final day in St. Petersburg. So that that would be potentially a big loss because we know how big Danny coulomb has been in that bullpen the last two years but in the meantime, you keep playing the games you don’t stop the season right? It truly is next man up as much as that expression is become such a cliche to the point where it annoys me but there is truth Do it, you know, you’re not going to stop or pause the season. So that’s why it’s just that much bigger when you get Albert Suarez going out there and throwing, you know, getting into the sixth inning, and not allowing any runs. You know, it’s that simple. I mean, again, the walks, you know, the pitch count, got them a little bit at the end, but he pitched well enough to throw 97 pitches early in the season, when, when they first call him up, you know, you don’t even know if he’s going to be the quality of pitcher that you want to be out there for 97 pitches. So again, it just speaks to what he’s done. And it also speaks to what the organization did in terms of identifying him, even though he had been cast away and pitch pitching over in the Far East and hadn’t pitched in the majors since what 2017 For him to do what he’s done. And to do it once again on Tuesday night on a day where the Orioles were tired and oh yeah, that’s true. I didn’t even mentioned Gunnar Henderson got the night off, didn’t play. And they still get the job done.
Nestor J. Aparicio 10:59
I think it’d be Luke Eric like that. How are we going to pay him full money when he slowed, managing and in it, whatever they call it, the NBA?
Luke Jones 11:08
Yeah, I mean, it took him until what the 66 game of the season to finally sit down. I mean, it’s not quite Cal Ripken, but a Gunnar Henderson, he’s entitled
Nestor J. Aparicio 11:17
to a daily play 157 Is that will be the number 165. What do I
Luke Jones 11:22
mean, knock on wood short of some kind of a physical ailment? I mean, yeah, he’s gonna be 158, something like that. I mean, a lot of it’s going to depend on what happens at the end of the season, you know, where are they with the division? Where are they with the wildcard all that, you know, if they’re in a position where they clinch in, and they can’t improve their standing with three days to go, he’ll probably take two games off then. Right. So but yeah, all these factors that we talked about, Tuesday was not a game where you look at it on paper and say that the Orioles had their best shot of winning. And they go out and win a ballgame. And they win a ballgame relatively easy, so easily. So it’s very, it goes back to your original point is a really, really good baseball team. And just seems like we talked about all last year, that they hit some bumps in the road, and they either just overcome them, or they rebound very quickly. And we’ve seen that now after the ending of that Toronto series where they dust themselves off and now they’ve won five straight again. Look,
Nestor J. Aparicio 12:27
Jones here he is Baltimore. Luke, you can find them out on the interwebs anywhere Instagrams, follow of course out of Baltimore positive.com, as well as am 1570. We’re hopefully you’re listening and setting a dial for us as we get into the summer here. So a couple things. I’m keying in a little bit, it’s Father’s Day wheat, and how much you love your dad, I love my it’s one thing we share, we lost our fathers. Both pretty we’re both pretty young when it happened. And so this week, I had Ed Miller on from classic five golf up at Pine Ridge we’re talking about he spends every father’s day watching the US Open with his dad. So he’s a golfers golf pro. It’s what they do. Pinehurst this weekend. So you go check that out as well. So on behalf of my dad, I brought him up a couple of times this summer, because you and I have been actually stat nerding, which is like look, the last 15 years, you’ve been all analytical. You give me ish when I mentioned how many wins a pitcher has, but I think it’s it’s still a barometer, it’s still it’s, it’s a measurement point. That’s old school. That doesn’t mean as much as it used to and never meant that much then quite frankly, you know, maybe it meant something to feel Reagan, you know who would come in and vulture victories at the end the games back when you could pitch three innings in the middle of the game and do such thing. Stats and history and I brought up the Braves and the big pictures. So if my dad came back tomorrow, and I do want to point out my 25th anniversary, a plug for curio and foreign daughter here this week on father’s day that we did this 25th anniversary documentary and there’s one line in it. And there’s literally only one image and the whole thing of the scoreboard page, and the box scores and the standings. And I’ve told Luke many times we joked about this two weeks ago, because the young kids don’t know what the loop leaders were. And I put all that together. But the one thing I never told you I did and Rick Vaughn would absolutely second disk because he was on the phone at 330 in the morning from Oakland or Seattle with Ken Rosenthal and Jim Hanuman back in the 80s is that in the middle of the night during the evening sun, I had to manually input the stats. So if Tippie Martinez got a save 2.12 And a third innings, two hits I would literally manually update those stats for the paper because they didn’t have like, this is 1987 They weren’t like instant ally sports updated them weekly. But to get it to the morning paper I had to literally go in and say you Alan Wiggins one for three and add it to whoever was on the team Bill Ripken, Cal Ripken, Bill swagger Do you know I’m making I’ll put the late 80s. So I did that every day. I don’t get a newspaper anymore. I don’t look at the Oriole stacks in totality every day I look at it on my phone and box scores. And it’s mainly the hitters rarely the pitchers. You know, I just see like, oh, Rodriguez is in the fourth, he’s given up six hits two runs, I’ll just look at the end, I let it go. And I don’t look at every box score anymore. Because I don’t get a newspaper. I don’t. I don’t do it the way I did it the first 35 years of my life, right. So today is the first day that I’m going to fully admit that I’ve looked at the Orioles pitching stats in totality since late April. So I’m looking at this. And I’m thinking if your dad came back today and said, I’m gonna watch the rest of summer Oriole baseball with you, Luke, my dad came back and they’d say how how’s the team doing here? They’re really good. And I would have to mention names, but I’m just pitchers get dad or ACE is seven and two with a two Oh, ad already thrown at six and two thirds innings? I mean, like, That’s Jim Palmer stuff, right? Yeah, number two starter and he’s like sort of a young guy. The young gun only found 63. And he’s but he’s seven and two or the 327. And he’s made his turns. The sort of changing left handed guy that we thought was the fifth starter. He’s not the fifth starter because the third starter is gone. And the four starters out. And the guy that we were sort of counting on the other kg left hander threw no hitters who had Tommy John, he’s gone too. But we got this guy. He’s thrown 62 winnings, sticks and to win the 287 era, only to give you a hits, right? I give you all that. But just we’re just talking to our dads because they liked these sort of numbers. What about our four star? Well, he’s been injured a little bit. We’ll see if he comes back. He’s only three and four with a 432, which sounds like every fourth or fifth starter in the history of baseball. And then we’ve had this Venezuelan sensation not named Aparicio. Or Nestor, who’s somehow in his mid 30s, found the Jamie Moyer fountain of youth. And he’s throwing 44 innings. He’s three in a row with a 161 weighing garland stuff like crazy numbers, right? We have any mentioned Bradish, who was our best pitcher last year. I don’t know whether to call them a one a two and I don’t know what the hell he is in this thing. He’s a question mark because he’s been injured. He’s only thrown 34 innings. Some of them no hit. And he’s got a 262 era. This This has been the rotation. And if you don’t mention any of their names, burns Rodriguez Irvin Cray, any of the names in any of this means even made a couple stars, but it’s otherworldly. It’s McNally Quasar Dobson, I don’t know what to say about these kinds of pitching numbers, from starters, innings, given injuries, given the fact that it’s not five guys or six guys, I just gave you eight guys right total that have been involved in this. Only seven are going to continue or six are going to continue. I didn’t I didn’t throw Povich in there. But these are the kind of numbers that you go back to the mariners in Taiwan or any of the great Yankee teams, any of the any of the teams that had great pitching, pick any team in the last 30 years that had three four really good pitchers. They didn’t have to be Madison, Glavine and small today, you know, that have to be that this is extraordinary, let alone clutter Henderson and right forget the bats forget Westport forget all of that. housers and Oh, Cal section out there. This this this that’s rigotti, bro.
Luke Jones 18:48
Yeah, and I mean, really, you need to look at it in the aggregate because bullpen guys throw more than ever. One thing that, you know, as we’re doing this exercise and talking about this to our respective fathers, but Colin Burns is the only one that’s on paste up, sniffed 200 innings, right? I mean, that’s I mean, Grayson Rodriguez at this point. I mean, he’d have to get on an absolute roll and they’d really have to take the governor’s off, so to speak for him to to really get high up there in 171 80, whatever it would ultimately be. Same with coal urban, so
Nestor J. Aparicio 19:24
by design,
Luke Jones 19:26
partly by design, but you know, Grayson Rodriguez, he would have been someone that if he didn’t have the shoulder issue, which cost him what three weeks, I mean, that he might have been in that conversation. He might have been on the heels of burns in terms of earnings, but he wasn’t so but but yeah, you look at it in the aggregate you look at that, as far as what they’ve done. It’s why I said to you and looking at this, just from a league wide perspective, and just looking at this in terms of strictly speaking runs allowed per game. The Orioles were fourth going into Tuesday’s game, and that’s before they tossed the shut out so They’ve been really, really good guests. We focused on the bats and rightfully so when you’re leading the league in homeruns, and slugging and you’ve got a bonafide MVP candidate, you have a slam dunk, all star catcher, you have two other guys in Ryan mountcastle and Jordan Westberg, who are at least going to be in the All Star conversation at their respective positions. So yeah, you’re gonna focus on the offense. There’s no doubt about that. But Corbin Burns has been everything they could have envisioned when they acquired him back in early February, and I get it. No, an ace in 2024 Isn’t what an ace was in 2010, which was isn’t what an ace was. 99 has the same value, which Mike Mussina was not what an ace was in the way that you thought about what Jim Palmer was as an ace. I mean, there’s always the evolution and just how the game has changed. And again, it’s not to debate whether that’s good or bad. It’s just understanding where you are in history. So but he’s been fantastic. And yeah, it Corbyn has been so big for them. And Albert Suarez has been so big for them, because, again, those were very Rindge type contributors, you know, more so SUAREZ But again, colored and if you had told me back in March that, that he’d be what he’s doing, you know that he would do what he’s doing right now, I would have been surprised because I would have told you, if everything was going well, Corbin would be the long man in the bullpen. You know, if John means and Kyle Bradish were both healthy and not just one of them. And you know, Tyler Wells was still in the mix. Again, I thought wells would have been a bullpen guy over the long haul of the season. But for for Corbin to do what he’s done. And look, in terms of real time. Is he actually their number three starter starter? No, of course not, you’d still you know, it’d be burns Bradish Rodriguez in whatever order you want. But in terms of innings in terms of contributions, in terms of consistency, and in terms of think about that stretch a few weeks back where he was actually in the bullpen at the start of this long stretch with no off days, or very few off days. And, you know, he had some, he had a period of time there where he didn’t know when he was going to throw. And yet he seamlessly has moved back into the rotation. And it’s pitched really well. I mean, these are things that you can’t take for granted, especially in this day and age, especially understanding the fragility of pitchers health being at an all time high. When you have guys that can do that. One, you want to take care of them as much as you can. And that’s why they’ve gone to a six man rotation. That’s why they pushed Kyle Bradish back a couple of days last week, even though that created some fan angst, I think they knew what they were doing there. And we’ll see if Kyle Bradish or any pitcher holds up over the long haul. That’s, that’s what makes us so it can make it so fleeting. That’s why I enjoy this because you just don’t know. And we’ve talked about the example of what the rays have become this year, on the heels of all the pitching attrition and injuries that they endured last year, you just don’t know. But in the present, and where we are right now, which is approaching mid June, I mean, we’re two and a half months into the 2024 season, their pitching has been terrific. And it’s not going to get any easier. Case in point go and you know, with the Phillies come into town, and then they’re going to the Bronx next week, not having Danny Colome against some of those left handed hitters, you’re talking about those two teams having, you know, that’s gonna be a challenge, you know, and that’s just hoping for the best case scenario of Coolum just missing 15 days and being back. I mean, we don’t know, we’ll have to see what the testing looks like. But this team just finds a way. And it’s such a credit, to their talent, and to their makeup. You know, I looked at this the other day. I said it anytime they have a rough patch, and you start to wonder, it starts to feel like the boat starting to teeter or rock just a little bit. They write themselves so quickly. I mean, they have won three game losing streak all year. Now. That was the three games slide in St. Louis. But I think I think I went back and looked, I think they’ve only lost two straight. Think for other times all year, you know, we’re rapidly approaching the midway point of the season. And they’ve just they’ve been that consistent. And we talked about that all last year. And it’s the reason why they were a 101 win team last year. So you know, this is this is very rare. I made the point to you. A few days ago when we were talking about where this team stacks up in terms of past Orioles teams in the regular season. October is a different conversation that we’ll have when we get to that point. But I mean, you go back to 79 and 80. You go back to 6970 71. I mean, that’s what we’re talking about here, this team, at least from a regular season standpoint, the kind of success they’re having right now, the kind of pace that they’re on right now. And I mean, I don’t need to tell you that’s a long time ago. So
Nestor J. Aparicio 24:57
it’s a lot of fun. One thing I was gonna say to you on the on the stat side with the pitchers is that you liked that fancy war stat right wins above replacement right replacement being the key word. Yeah. And when you start to take Batista innings out, you start to take means innings out, you start to take wells innings out guys that they thought this time last year or over the last couple years they’ve they’ve sort of waited on means believed in all of this and you’re going to replace those innings with a junk left hander Irvin with it never has been 30 Something been all over the world. You know, right hander that’s right out of the major league, you know, casting, central casting, and you’re going to put these guys in, and then you’re going to have a guy who’s got some arm problems, who was your number one last year that you’re worried sick about? That you’re gonna try to make it go, you know, without cutting on him. And, and then means goes, wells goes. And you’re like Kpop, which is pitching and by the way, era, little God, I hope he gets it down. By the time you’re listening on Thursday, I hope it’s at least three digits at this point. We trust that it will be but you know, he’s the next one to step up. Right? I mean, all of these guys are going to get the ball. And these are above replace replacement innings. These are innings to replace what they were counting on means to do what they were counting on Kramer to do. And to your point, my point, how could it be any better? How could their stats for our fathers in their generation this generate any generation, you look at what we’ve seen from starting pitching from the team for whatever five innings It is six innings it is because it’s not seven or eight anymore. And realizing the rest of that has to come from whatever the remnants of Danny Colome. And all the rest of the wells and the guys that aren’t here anymore, are going to have to soak that up as well. And that’s where allies and the trade and the depth of the organization and whether Norby was a showcase or whatever they’re going to do to move players around in the organization to fortify the roster. We’re six weeks out on that. But the starting pitching, that would have been a lot more bleeding, to be thinking about oh, my god, Irving’s terrible, this kid Povich can’t do it. We you know, we lost Bradish. I mean, like all of that still on the table for July or August. It’s all possible. But from where I sit here the first 910 weeks of the season. It’s It’s remarkable. The starting pitching, they’ve gotten to your point where I said to my wife, we’re watching the game like this team. So good this team site. Yeah, we say that. And I’m like, we’ve almost taken for granted real quickly. Because they’re just been years and years and years, where they haven’t had anything resembling anything like Corbin, like any of the top three guys, like any of these guys were, you know, one, but Dard once for a minute, you know, they just haven’t had this kind of pitching organizationally, even when they were good 12 and 14 and 16. It wasn’t like this. Yeah,
Luke Jones 28:04
I mean, they never had the upside in their rotation that they have with those top three. And I’m including Bradish. In the top three, understanding he hasn’t pitched as much. But we have enough of a sample size to know that if Kyle Bradish is healthy, he’s a terrific pitcher. I mean, his strikeout rate is up this year. I looked at it, I get it. It’s a very limited sample, you’re talking 34 And a third innings. But his strikeout rate, where it stands right now, which is 12, something, it would lead the Major Leagues among qualified pitchers. I mean, that’s how good his strikeout rate has been. So the stuff has been outstanding. It’s just a question of okay, is the elbow sound? How’s he recovering? How’s he feeling? How’s he doing throwing a bullpen in between starts? And again, that’s why we talked about what this six man rotation and what they’re trying to do here. If you need to give him a couple extra days you give it to him? And and that’s why I said to you, I think I said before burns through seven innings once again down at the trop on Monday night, that if Corbin burns needs an extra day or two at some point in time you have to do it. I mean, you just have to do it.
Nestor J. Aparicio 29:05
When you’re 22 games over 500, you’d have to win every night. And this is where the pennant race part of being number two. And every time you bring up we’re chasing the Yankees all I think back to 1980 because I was 11 years old, and you couldn’t catch him. We couldn’t get in and you win 100 games and you’re really good better than everybody except them and you don’t you don’t get to play in October. That’s not the case. And there is a point for me with Bradish where I think it’s bubble gum and paperclips at this point. And any thought alias is it thinking he’s getting 28 innings out of Bradish in October and one of the world’s I mean, I don’t know that he thinks like that. I think he’s thinking more along the lines of we need Kyle Gibson and now I lost my left hander. Now I gotta go get up. DJ Ryan, Andrew Miller kind of left hander. And I’ve still need another right hander to do whatever we thought Wells was going to do because we’re not really sure. We got that guy. And so I mean, I still think they’re gonna add two or three pitchers. That’s That’s June 12 Is my day we’re recording this Luke Jones even if they hear it on the 13th or 14th. I will I believe they will do for a starting pitcher, I believe they will do for a left hander I believe they’ll do for a right hander unless they find something here unless Povich becomes the greatest thing ever and fits right in because I don’t I don’t think they can trust Bradish his arm and I don’t think you can. I’m not being disrespectful to my Venezuelan brother because you know, whistling years would have me but you know I don’t know that this war as an urban experiments that we’re gonna get what the SATs I just gave our father’s a minute go. For father, I don’t know that we’re gonna get that out of the next batch the next sample size. I don’t know that I’m gonna be sent here in August. And you know, we’re gonna have sub three era zone. There’s cats. I can’t count on that, especially with the Yankees bats coming. You know, we’re just getting into it playing every day. All the things we’ve talked about this pitching things very, very fluid, bro. And we’re gonna be talking about it every other day all summer. But
Luke Jones 31:04
it is and but again, I don’t say this to be flippant about it because I agree with you. Every team is talking in those terms. I mean, they really are okay, the Yankees Yankees have a better starting rotation than the Orioles right now? Um, I don’t think I’m talking out of turn or being disrespectful to the Orioles in saying that. But I think they do. But at the same time. Any team that’s out there? I mean, look at the Braves right now. Nestor. I mean, just you know, as we’re in the midst of this series with Atlanta, what the starting Wednesday, Wednesday night starting pitcher was listed as Spencer swelling Bach. That’s not Spencer Strider. I mean, seriously, I can’t get a more blood example than that, in terms of just how fleeting this can be where you lose your guy. I mean, to your point, talking about guys like Suarez and Corbin to a lesser extent. But still, again, Corbin exceeding expectations, at the very least, who in this rotation right now? Do you expect to continue doing what he’s doing right now? Corbin burns, yes. And you pray right? Just because he’s your ace that nothing compromises his health and he’s been durable over the course of the last four or five years. That’s why the Orioles traded him or traded for him because he’s been so great. Grayson rod.
Nestor J. Aparicio 32:19
This is why they would have to consider giving them $150 million dollars. They’d have to consider it well. 150
Luke Jones 32:24
You’re not even you’re not even close, bro. Well on what he’s gonna get. I mean, that’s not even in the I don’t think that’s even in the ballpark as far as what he’s gonna ultimately get anyway. Well, we’ll have plenty of time to talk about that. But Corbin Corbin burns. Grayson Rodriguez, yeah, you feel they’re going what they’re doing right now. They, they’re gonna continue to do Bradish. It’s, it’s all about health. It has nothing to do with his ability at this point. Brad is just phenomenal. He’s He’s, he’s absolutely one of the best pitchers in the American League. He proved that last year. And for him to come back after the spring do UCL and the uncertainty and I don’t know if he’s going to make it to October. I don’t know. No one knows that right now. But he’s been terrific. When he’s pitched. I mean, he there has been nothing diminished about him. Maybe the command hasn’t been as onpoint as last year. Is that? Does that have anything to do with the elbow? Or is it just that he had a disrupted spring and start to the season which really matters, as we’ve seen with the likes of Jordan Montgomery, who didn’t have spring training and look at how he’s doing this year? I mean, that routine really matters. Put the health part aside. Routine really matters for starting pitchers. But he’s been he’s been outstanding. So I have no idea. I can’t sit here and predict the future on any of these guys. But to your point when you’re talking about Suarez, when you’re talking about Cole, Irvin, Cade Povich, who knows, you know, I want to see more from him. But it’s got to be better. Right? We talked about it, that his first start, aesthetically, you know, the boxscore It looks really ugly. But I think if you actually watched the outing, I thought there was a lot to like, except for a couple pockets of that game where some command and couple bad pitches to Vlad Guerrero Jr, which, by the way, he’s been on fire the last six weeks. Other than that, there was a lot that I actually liked about him. So we’ll see what how this looks. But I’m in agreement with you, in terms of I don’t see Mike Elias standing pat, or I don’t see Mike Elias, letting the trade deadline pass and the best you’re doing is Fujinami. And Jack Flaherty this time around. I think you’re going to need to fortify and keep in mind, Dean Kramer. Every expectation he’s done Bullpen’s he’s going to be going on a rehab assignment soon. It’s a triceps issue. It’s not his elbow, it’s not his shoulder. All indications are they fully expect him to come back. So he’s going to fit into that picture somewhere and that will certainly help. But yeah, you can easily persuade me to get on board and terms of adding another pitcher. Now I’ll say this much. You laid out the scenario of Michael is not necessarily expecting Kyle Bradish to be there come October, which I don’t think he’s necessarily thinking that, but I think you certainly have to plan for contingencies, right, you need to have all those contingencies in place. So the idea becomes, if Kyle Bradish does run into health concerns, or if it’s Rodriguez, like, Yeah, well, I mean, let’s just throw out the different contingencies that are out there, then yeah, you do need to aim higher in terms of adding another rotation piece. But for me that where things stand right now, I don’t think it necessarily needs to be a guy that you say is, oh, he becomes our number two starter or He becomes our number three starter. You need someone who can give you innings and competitive innings and a chance to win every time they throw. They go out there. And I’ve just used Kyle Gibson as an example. You know, that that kind of a guy? Is that something that would, at a minimum be attracted to them by the trade deadline to navigate the final two months? Whether you’re talking about the division, whether you’re talking about having a wildcard spot clinch however, it shakes out? Sure, no question and, again on the bullpen, especially now with Danny coulomb and the uncertainty there. They’re gonna have to add a couple bullpen arms. And I say that with no disrespect to what they have out there, but let’s face it, Let’s call a spade a spade here and I’m not trying to diss them individually. But when Brian Baker’s your replacement for Danny coulomb, you need bullpen help in terms of not immediately, but in terms of thinking about September and October and what you want to have in the back end of that bullpen. And as I said to you, it’s not just about Craig Kimbrel it’s not just about missing Felix Batista. It’s not just about Janja Cano. It’s not just about Danny coulomb and whether or not he’s going to be back and healthy and as effective as he’s been in the last two years. It’s about having multiple guys that you really, really trust. I was having this conversation with someone the other day, you know, a big Orioles fan. Somebody really knows baseball, and we’re talking about the bullpen. And by and large, the way I would describe the Orioles bullpen and look statistically the bullpen is way better than people give them credit for. You know, you see fans and people with angst on social media. You would think they have the worst bullpen in the league and far from
Nestor J. Aparicio 37:24
man you go through and see the era Israel sub three sub four equally outs, they don’t pull a lot of games around here.
Luke Jones 37:32
I mean, the peripherals would you like them to miss more bats? Would you like them strike out more people? Would you like the inherited runner percentage to be a little bit better? Again, no question about that. It’s not it’s not even close to being the best in baseball either. Let’s be clear about that. But the overall description, you know, my qualitative description of this bullpen is I think they’ve got a slew of guys that you feel really good about in sixth and seventh inning rolls, right. Middle relief relievers, guys that, okay, okay, sixth, and seventh inning, close games, those are really important things to let’s be clear. But you have a slew of guys that I feel really comfortable using in those spots. However, when you’re talking about a one run game in the eighth inning, and the ninth inning, that list that I really fully trust that’s going to get the job done. It’s short. I mean, it’s much shorter there. And look, that’s that’s a lot of teams. Let’s be clear about this. And I mean, not everyone has the kind of bullpen that Cleveland has or talking about the Yankees with what they’ve had with clay Holmes and some other guys in their pen. But that’s where I look at this thing and say, Can you add two relievers that one is a guy that has either had some experience closing or is at least very capable of doing that on nights where Craig Kimbrough either isn’t available? Or looks a little off? Or you and your Canola is not available? And do you have another you want to go top shelf with that with that?
Nestor J. Aparicio 39:02
I want it I want so you’re looking for a fourth starter, a Gibson starter, and a legitimate step up to where we get somebody else a bad teams closer is what you’re asking for. Yeah,
Luke Jones 39:15
I mean, on a simplistic level, yeah. I mean, that’s kind of what I’m looking for. And then another reliever that maybe isn’t quite that left handed. I mean, of course, it was not coming back. Sure. Yeah. Okay. No doubt. And keep in mind, Danny coulomb got right handers out, too. I mean, we have to think about lefties differently now because it’s because
Nestor J. Aparicio 39:35
they can’t go one two. There’s no right. Yeah,
Luke Jones 39:40
right. What Brian Mattis was for the Orioles a decade ago that left handed one out guy that doesn’t exist anymore. So you need to have some lefties who can at least be competitive against right handed hitters, even if you’re going to look for that pocket in the lineup that might have three out of four batters that are swinging from the left side. So but the other arm would be a lefty. And okay, maybe he’s not a guy that I feel great about pitching in the ninth inning, but he needs to be a seventh and eighth inning guy, you know, a guy that’s higher leverage. So I mean, that’s what I’m looking at here and and let’s be clear, Nestor, that those that shopping list right there, that’s not going to be cheap no I’m not saying you’re gonna have to trade Jackson holiday for that but you’re gonna have to give up something meaningful in your system to get that a couple of meaningful pieces in your system but you just look at the makeup of this team. You look at where they stand. You look at the fact that I mean Gunnar Henderson’s having an MVP season Adley rutschman is having a fantastic season, the number of guys top to bottom in their lineup that are just, I guess, aside from Cedric Mullins, because hey, even Austin Hayes had three hits on Tuesday night and good to see him back in the lineup and continuing to swing the bat much, much better. But you know, you just have such a great opportunity here. And you don’t want to gut your farm system. But at the same time, we’ve talked a lot about this farm system and the guys that are at triple A right now who, you know whether you’re talking about Norby, whether you’re talking about Heston curse dad, you know, Kyle sours when he’s been sent down at various points over the last couple years, I mean, you, you have guys that are ready to contribute either in Baltimore or somewhere else. So use that use some of that some of those prospects to go out and augment this 2020 14. And be, let’s be clear, you can go out and get a couple relievers who have team control beyond this year, you know, it doesn’t have to just be a rental, you know, it’s not, not every trade has to be what Corbin Burns was, which was a rental, I’ll be at an ace rental. So go out and augment. So it really, you know, we’ll see what happens. And I feel like you could make a trade today, you can make a trade two weeks from now, or it could be six weeks from now, but they’re gonna have to add a couple pieces. And I don’t say that, with the thought that this team isn’t good enough as its presently constructed. It’s the thought of October and wanting to be even better, and whether it means you overtake the Yankees or whether it’s just positioning yourself to be that much better. And whoever you’re playing in October, I mean, that’s really where we are. But the All that being said, Go back to your original point. This team deserves all the credit in the world because especially from the pitching stop pitching side of things, even the hitting with Jackson Holliday not working out immediately the way they thought it would, but especially on the pitching side with some of the challenges they’ve had for them to pitch and perform the way they have in a division where the Yankees have just been on fire really, since what early May you know what, when you really look at the record since these teams played at Camden Yards, which is what now six weeks ago, and to think, where they where they are, but the Orioles are right there. You know, especially when you look at the last column having played a few less games. I mean, it’s it’s fun, and it’s gonna continue to be a really fun summer. And yeah, we’ll see what happens in the Bronx next week. This this weekend is going to be fun with the Phillies coming to town and just knowing that that could potentially be a 1983 we
Nestor J. Aparicio 43:16
do in next week that’s keeping us out in New York, you and me. I mean, seriously, I mean, are you playing the role Uncle Luke? Now? I mean, what’s going on here? We should we should get on a bus and go up to New York on Tuesday and Wednesday, let’s go. Let’s go to the Bronx still.
Luke Jones 43:31
springing this on me last minute here. But I mean, it’s gonna be a big series. I mean, this is
Nestor J. Aparicio 43:37
at one o’clock on Thursday, but I don’t want to miss big games in the Bronx. Let’s go.
Luke Jones 43:40
This is gonna you know, these this next week and even include the Braves. Although they’re certainly not playing as they have the last couple years. I mean, look at some of our injuries. Can
Nestor J. Aparicio 43:48
I say this? We play in New York, September 24 25th. And 26th. Just for just to keep put that, you know, just file that after the Ravens play the Cowboys in week three, the day it doesn’t matter, Luke it I like I look, we’re gonna we’ll fight about this in September about winning the division and all, but like, it does, but it doesn’t. You just said it, it does
Luke Jones 44:11
matter. You do want to be the number one seed if you can do it, or the number two seed if you
Nestor J. Aparicio 44:15
sit home and ice yourself and then you can’t picture it three days later, or well,
Luke Jones 44:19
but this but the alternative is you have one of these teams like Arizona last year who isn’t all that good, but they get hot over the last two and a half weeks of the regular season. They come in the Camden Yards, and they beat you twice in 30 hours and your season’s over even though you were 15 games better than that team in the regular season. So you can look at it either way. Your point is well taken though. This isn’t 1980 in the sense of you don’t win the division you’re going home so yeah,
Nestor J. Aparicio 44:48
well that’s why I can’t get all geeked up to go to Yankee Stadium next week to get tuesday wednesday games in June because there’ll be a big deal. We went three of them
Luke Jones 45:00
Oh, yeah, exactly. I mean, if they’re in first place, then you’ll be saying, Oh, love that. Oh, man, what
Nestor J. Aparicio 45:05
a good time we had New York. But
Luke Jones 45:09
it’s fun because both these teams are really, really good. There’s always a sense of thinking that your opponent like that you fear them or there’s any. There’s none of that. Let’s be clear about that. But both these teams are really good. And that’s why any of these you don’t play them 19 times anymore, but any of these matchups, and you said this back in May when I was dismissive of it. Important, exciting, meaningful games coming up here in the Bronx, but meanwhile, Orioles trying to take care of business against the Braves and Phillies coming in and some potentially enticing pitching matchups over the weekend. We’ll talk about that later in the week as we get closer, but definitely going to see some good starting pitching at least on paper this weekend with the Phillies coming to town. Well,
Nestor J. Aparicio 45:55
I’m thinking about as I seen the Braves play a game all here. The Braves are in town the Phillies are coming this weekend bring the cheesesteak eaters down here. I didn’t make it to see the stones the other day but I did spend some credible time in Philadelphia over the weekend with Thomas Conwell and the young Rumblers so they’ll all be coming down sold out Saturday so $80 to sit in the bleachers on Saturday night you know the Phillies are bringing those cheese steaks and those pretzels down here. So you’ll see the red around town you will see the planes up in the sky this Maryland Fleet Week this week. We’ve been promoting that will be a Cooper’s tavern, Fells Point on Friday, I probably won’t be given away the Pac Man. So I’m going to have the Gold Rush sevens by the time we get here on Friday. Thanks to Ross and John at the Maryland lottery. We’re going to be Coco’s on Wednesday with received and Max Weiss. There’s a rumor that Alan McCallum stopping out and Tom Pierce from classic five, who’s one of those Philadelphians, so we’re going to talk to him about Mike Schmidt, Pete Rose, and maybe I’ll bring my 1983 World Series pictures Bustos out this weekend. Have a good time with that. He’s Luke, he’s Baltimore leukemia. We’ll be covering the Ravens all week. He’ll be covering the Orioles all week because neither one of them let me in because I’m a bad guy. But the training camps going on this week. Lamar is there all that stuff. You can find it in Luke’s locker room and we have a new audio for the Baltimore positive. And Jessica valus from Hartford design is gonna be joining us at cost this morning. My Costa shirt, hats big fat crabs there along with grace and Rodriguez five innings and no eight ball on Sunday. We back there next Thursday before this Yankee sweep. I’ll say that out loud. Somebody’s gonna be sweeping somebody’s butt. Maybe Thursday I’ll be 202 I don’t know either way. It’ll be a big game next Thursday. It’s gonna have to cost this and join us. That is next Thursday the 20th and then on the 25th which is Tuesday. We’re going to be at Pappas pub in Parkville. The old school, old school Pappas Taylor Avenue over Parkville now let Cockeysville know Glen Burnie no Bellaire though they had a really good golf tournament on Monday got some perfect weather as well. So big mother had merely crabcakes represented by Liberty pure solutions and our friends at Jiffy Lube multi care pick appreciation to wise markets as well another annual sponsor. We don’t give them enough lobby space wise, wise. I got to talk about rewards I gotta get some ice cream. I got to specialty ice creams downstairs I got the coconut chocolate. It says limited edition on it. And then my favorites the butter butterscotch swirl. So that’s all going on this month wise markets through to get your reward points. She gets your ham or in this case hotdogs and hamburgers for the Fourth of July. I am Nestor he’s Luke we are wn St. am 1570, Towson Baltimore. These wise conversations continue. Right after this
