Since the injury to Zach Eflin last week, the Baltimore Orioles have been cobbling together innings from Norfolk call-ups and Dean Kremer hasn’t even gotten the call just yet. Luke Jones and Nestor talk pitching depth and bullpen taxing by Orioles bad starters after Pittsburgh sweep and some innings eaters in Cade Povich and Brendan Young in the chill of Chicago.
- [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Attend the Maryland Crab Cake Tour events on Friday, positioned behind the wall at Camden Yards on Utah Street and then at Lexington Market, to promote Baltimore Positive.
- [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Host Stephen L Miles as a guest on an upcoming Baltimore Positive show segment.
- [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Schedule and host Baltimore Positive segments at Costas in Timonium on the 16th of the month, at Koco’s on April 23, and at Pizza John’s in early May once the exact date is confirmed with Michelle and Brett.
- [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Feature Dwayne Reader from the Clemente Museum as a guest on this week’s Baltimore Positive segment.
- [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Have Jesse Minter appear on the show later in the week after returning from injury, running around the complex and working on strength and conditioning.
Orioles Pitching Performance and Upcoming Events
- Nestor Aparicio introduces the show, mentioning upcoming events like the Maryland crab cake tour and appearances at various locations.
- Nestor discusses the Orioles’ recent performance, particularly the struggles of the pitching staff.
- Luke Jones highlights the inconsistency of Orioles’ pitchers, mentioning Trevor Rogers’ good starts and the disappointing performance of Kyle Bradish.
- Nestor and Luke discuss the impact of injuries and poor performance on the team’s pitching depth.
Concerns About Kyle Bradish and Chris Bassitt
- Luke Jones expresses disappointment with Kyle Bradish’s performance, noting his lack of effectiveness in his first two starts.
- Nestor and Luke discuss the high expectations for Bradish, given his past performance and potential.
- Luke highlights the issues with Chris Bassitt, including poor command and lack of strikeouts, comparing his performance unfavorably to Charlie Morton’s early struggles.
- Nestor emphasizes the importance of consistent pitching performance for the team’s success.
Impact of Injuries and Bullpen Strain
- Nestor and Luke discuss the impact of injuries to key pitchers like Dean Kramer and John Means on the team’s pitching depth.
- Luke mentions the increased workload on the bullpen due to the lack of reliable starters, leading to concerns about their sustainability.
- Nestor and Luke discuss the upcoming series against the White Sox, expressing concerns about the team’s ability to perform well in cold weather conditions.
- Luke highlights the need for better performance from the bullpen and the starting rotation to alleviate the strain.
Team Performance and Leadership
- Nestor and Luke discuss the team’s overall performance, noting the lack of consistent contributions from key players.
- Luke emphasizes the importance of leadership and the need for players to step up and perform better.
- Nestor mentions the impact of new leadership and the need for the team to show improvement to justify the investments made in players and staff.
- Luke expresses concerns about the team’s ability to perform consistently and the need for a collective effort to improve.
Future Outlook and Team Needs
- Nestor and Luke discuss the team’s future outlook, expressing hope for better performance but acknowledging the challenges ahead.
- Luke highlights the need for the team to address their pitching issues and improve their performance in key areas like hitting and defense.
- Nestor mentions the importance of the upcoming draft and the need for strategic acquisitions to strengthen the team.
- Luke emphasizes the need for the team to show improvement quickly to avoid a prolonged period of underperformance.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Orioles pitching, bullpen taxing, Chris Bassitt, Kyle Bradish, Trevor Rogers, Dean Kramer, bullpen workload, offensive struggles, Pittsburgh sweep, White Sox series, Adley Rutschman, leadership, injury concerns, rotation depth, defensive issues.
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 to Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. Click on us. Like us. Subscribe to us. If you’re around. We’ll be subscribing to some crab cakes on Friday, the Maryland crab cake tour, getting back out on the road. I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be right behind the wall at Camden Yards on Utah Street. We’re going to be up the road at Lexington market having some delicious crab cakes. Stephen l miles are stopping by. I’ve got some other great guests. Luke’s going to be in the neighborhood with the San Francisco Giants in town. Gave me a chance to text with John Miller. Next Thursday, will be at Costas. That’s the 16th of the month, and then the 23rd at Koco’s, and I should say Costa said Timonium at the racetrack. How soon they forget about the Dundalk location? I do not the 23rd will be Koco’s, and I’m getting back to Pizza John’s, which early May so Luke and I’ll get on that once I get that day confirmed with Michelle and Brett and everybody in Essex. And I’ve been hanging out in Essex. Couple of my best pals were together last week. We went pizza John’s and had some proper vegetarian pizza for all my friends there, Luke, how are you, hopefully better than the Orioles pitching has been here. I know you had an Easter weekend thing going on, and the Orioles had a sweet thing going on in Pittsburgh and but the pitching, as much as we’re worried about the bats and the defense and all that. It’s been very disrupted here by the Chris Bassett thing, certainly by the efflin thing, where Kramer is what happened to Povich on Sunday. Craig Albernaz has his hands full when he’s not getting himself thrown out.
Luke Jones 01:37
Yeah. I mean, right now you say all right, Trevor Rogers has been very good his first two times out. So check there. I mean your ace or, you know what regard, regardless of whether you were more Bradish or Rogers, he’s been the guy, right? And Bradish has not been very good so far. Buzz, I thought looked good over the weekend, so I’m feeling better about him. And I even thought if you went back and if you watched his start and didn’t just look at the numbers. His first start, he had one bad inning. I thought he was pretty good the rest of the way, and but, man, you look at the rest of this right now. I mean, as I mentioned, Bradish has been disappointing so far. I mean, there’s just no no ifs ands or buts about it. I mean, it’s two starts, but we’re talking about Bradish. I mean, someone that
Nestor Aparicio 02:21
he’s got to give you a chance to win Well,
Luke Jones 02:23
I mean, he’s got to be better than that. I mean, like you, you want this guy to be a guy that is at least somewhere on that, somewhere at least down the Cy Young ballot, right? I mean, he was fourth in 2023 and we talked about it even with his, you know, pre Tommy John elbow situation, and then coming back late last year, he looked great. I mean, didn’t just look good, he looked great. So that’s where it is, a little disheartening here. And you say, Okay, well, hopefully, you know it obviously, when he pitched on the first Saturday of the season, it was cold in Baltimore, and you know, the Velo ticked a little bit down late in that start. I thought his Velo looked better in Pittsburgh, you know, at least, certainly early on so, but it’s just, you know, again, they need him to be at least a number two starter, right, or at least an excellent number three, if we’re going to say Shane Boz becomes the two. But I’m still not. I’m more so disappointed with what Bradish has looked like. Bassett has been off. I mean, you go back to Sunday afternoon and, you know, you kind of look at how the top of the first and the bottom of the first started for the Orioles, you know, Taylor Ward singles gets thrown out trying to steal, right? So you think you have, you know, Guy on nobody out chance to score some runs early, and he gets erased on the basis it happens whatever. But then Bassett, oh, two pitch to O’Neill Cruz, and he clips his elbow guard. I mean, it’s just he, his command just has not been there. You know, he’s not not commanding his pitches. He’s walking people, which, you know, it’s not something you really think of Chris Bassett doing. It’s not striking anyone out. I mean, it’s, it’s been, been really bad. Even Charlie Morton early last year, as bad as he was, I could at least point to some peripherals that he was still getting swing and miss. He was still getting some strikeouts. There was some path there for him to be better, and he did, and he was better after the first five weeks, when, you know there was such a correlation with how he pitched and how how bad they were in the games he pitched. So I’m not saying he salvaged his season, but he pitched better like Bassett. I don’t see what the good sign is right now, other than, okay, he’s got a track record. He’s still pitched well, last year, he’s 37 but he’s not 41 like Charlie Morton was. But, man, it’s been
Nestor Aparicio 04:50
really bad. Well, they’ve really been out on him, the amount of money, just the whole, yeah, I mean, where I was in there, in the whole ecosystem of. Whether they can be a playoff team or not. To me, that hinged on, you know, 27 really decent starts from him, yeah, in a general high three, low two kind of way for that kind of money. For me, yeah. I mean,
Luke Jones 05:14
I, I don’t know if he was going to be that good, but he needed, he needs to go out there and just give to what you said about Bradish, I think certainly applies to Bassett. Give them a chance to pit to win every time he pitches right, whether that means three runs in six innings. I mean, that’s a four and a half era, but if you do that consistently, you’re giving your team innings. You’re making it easier to manage the bullpen. You’re giving your team a chance to win, assuming the Orioles are going to swing the bats better than they better than they have to this point, right? But he he hasn’t been competitive. I mean, and I know he got hit with the smash on the back of the leg, right, but wasn’t going well, even before that happened. You know, I’m not going to sit here and say that that’s the reason why he was out after two innings. He threw 62 pitches, right? I mean, he threw, he threw 100 pitches in his first start, and didn’t even get through five innings, right? I mean, you look at that and you just say, that’s, it’s really below the bar. You know, zero raise 14.21 through two starts. I mean, there’s just, there’s just not a lot that I’m saying. I mean, at zero strikeouts, right? He walked to, as I mentioned, he he hit O’Neill Cruz on the no two pitch to start the game, right? I mean, it’s just just been really bad. It’s been more Kyle Gibson like, and again, Kyle Gibson from last year, not the Kyle Gibson who was an important part of their pitching staff three years ago. So, you know, I’m not not panicking that that that his career is over, but at the same time. And I think you made the point last week in talking about this with older pitchers, when you’re talking about someone who’s 37 or, in the case of you know, Morton was an extreme last year because he was 41 but you kind of go down the list of and this is how the Orioles have operated with some of their pitching acquisitions in recent years. Right? They go for that guy to try to squeeze one more good year out of an accomplished pitcher who’s in the, you hope the November, but could be the the December 30 of their career. Right? Where you’re looking at it and saying, Okay, we think he’s got one more good year left in him. But we also know sometimes when it goes it goes quickly for a pitcher, so I’m a little concerned with what I’ve, you know, to put it, to put it lightly, even though it’s only been two starts, I’m really concerned with what I’ve seen from Chris Bassett, and he’s got to be a lot better, because this is, this hasn’t just been where you say, Okay, well, they, you know, they dumped a couple balls in, you know, they blew up a couple balls. You know, the defense didn’t. And, you know, I’ll hear the defensive part, you know. And what happened with Jeremiah Jackson not being able to get his foot on first base, but, man, it just, it’s been ugly, you know, in terms of the command, the stuff, not being real crisp, not getting any swing and missing, not saying, Chris bassett’s This major strikeout pitcher, but you got to strike out a few guys here and there. So it’s just that’s been really ugly, right? I mean, you know, and that’s a different story. I mean, that’s when it’s hurt, right? I mean, that’s, unfortunately, that’s the that’s the risk you run with any pitcher. And, you know, I don’t know exactly what caused the elbow. I mean, I talked about the arm slot, and maybe that had something to do with it, you know, what? With making some adjustments there, because he was feeling better with the back. But in the case of Bassett, it’s been so bad these first couple starts, you wonder, like, Is he okay, physically, right? Is there anything going on there that we’re not quite sure about? I mean, I don’t think the, don’t think the stuff has been, you know, I don’t think his Velo has been way down that you would say that screams like arm issue or anything. But at the same time, sometimes when pitchers are having an issue, the first thing that really shows up is actually the command. And, I mean, he just isn’t command. Is commanded his pitches very well. I mean, hit, hit O’Neal cruise with a oh two pitch. I mean, right off the bat, and walk a couple other guys. You know, you’re hitting batters. I mean, walked guys in his first start. I mean, it’s just that’s the one to me. You know, I’ve been more disappointed in what I’ve seen from Bradish more than alarmed or panicked Bassett. Oh, that’s been really, really bad. Luke Jones.
Nestor Aparicio 09:29
Here he is, Baltimore. Luke the Orioles are headed to Chicago, Illinois. It’s gonna be very chilly on Monday and Tuesday, maybe a little better on Wednesday, and they now go to very, very quickly, a bullpen night and Suarez to save them. Povich not to pitch. Cano got a little work in on Sunday because he hadn’t worked the bats are weird because they haven’t seen left handers in a lineup, but they’re. Own pitching situation leaves a lot to be desired as they enter this series, waiting on Rogers every fifth day kind of, sort of at this point, maybe boss.
Luke Jones 10:11
Yeah. I mean, that’s not where you want to be, right? You don’t want to be in a position where it’s like, All right, here’s the guy that’s going to give us a great you want to have a few guys that do that. No, that you’re not going to have five number one starters. We understand that. But right off the bat, again, when you have the issue with efflin and then you don’t know what’s going to happen team Kramer made a start for Norfolk on Friday. It sounds like they want to give Kramer one more start. I mean there, I think some of that is also a byproduct of he pitched in the WBC for Israel, the he gets optioned, right? I mean, the start of the season’s weird. I mean, who knows what they told they might have even said, Look, we’re going to slow play you a little bit here. You know, before effing got hurt, they might have told him, Hey, we’ll slow play you. We know you haven’t been a guy that necessarily gets off to awesome starts in April anyway. So, you know, they thought they could, kind of, I don’t know if I would say, like, ramp up Dean Kramer, but I think there was an idea of, get him a couple starts, get him into a regular routine, and then he’ll be ready to go, I don’t know, mid April, 3 week of April, whatever. And obviously, when you lose efflin, that’s, you know, that becomes expedited. And even, you know, they call up Kade Povich, and you know that they wanted cover for him, but I think the thought was he was going to start Monday, right? I think that’s probably what they had in mind. And then they’re in a position where they need someone to give them length on Sunday. And then they said, Okay, well, it’s going to be Cade and, you know, presumably, and you know, I don’t want to make any assumptions, because even after the game on Sunday, Albernaz didn’t confirm 100% that it’s going to be Suarez, but you would think it’s probably him, unless, unless there’s another roster move to be made that we don’t know about. And obviously we’ll, we’ll monitor that with the wnst tech service, but it’s just, again, this isn’t where you wanted to be 10 days into the season, right? You didn’t want to be where you’re on
Nestor Aparicio 12:07
the losing streak, going into the cold, yeah?
Luke Jones 12:12
Just, you know, it’s just, it’s unnerving. It’s unsettling, right? And that’s the best way to put it, you know, I’m not, I’m not panicking, but, man, you just that that’s not what you want. And you don’t want to be in a position where you’re already like, okay, when’s the next off day? Are we going to reset here all that? Like you don’t
Nestor Aparicio 12:26
want to be feeling that way. Well, they’re playing lunchtime Wednesday, so they’re really condensing a lot of baseball that if they go fall down the mountain on Monday, you know, yeah, listen, when you think you’re going to be good, you can give games away, or you can have a rough day, or just say we’re not. We’re going to give 80% today. We’re going to give everybody the day off. We’re going to rest up to go fight harder tomorrow, because we have a pitcher pitching or whatever they they’re not in any it felt like they were reeling after the game on Sunday. I didn’t like the body language and the kinds of answers that the Dylan beavers and the Chris Bassetts were giving they looked a little deer in the headlights. Certainly, Albernaz looked, it looked a little large for him when he’s out there. MF and the umpire about the fast pitch, quick pitching going on. I don’t, I don’t, it didn’t light a fire. You know what? I mean, it wasn’t that kind of managerial, you know, we’ll show them. I it just seemed a little silly. And then on top of that, I don’t know what the White Sox have under the hood at this point, but I know it’s going to be unpleasant baseball. It’s going to be cold and raw.
Luke Jones 13:37
Yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s Chicago in the first, the first or second week of April. I mean, it’s just bundle up. It’s going to be chilly. I mean, there’s no other way to put it. So the good news is, you do have Trevor Rogers going in game two. You’re really hoping that Kyle Bradish. And, you know, I think, with Wednesday being an afternoon game, I think it’ll be a little more pleasant, right? I mean, you would assume, but you want, going into the season, we thought, hey, that’s the one two punch. That’s, those are the two guys along with you, hope maybe buys right, going into the season, that by the end of the year, you’re talking about them feeling like, you know something that will play in terms of a playoff series. All that, right, all that optimism you’re, you’re just, you’re having in February, in the first three weeks of March, until, well, you roll the ball out and you play, right? So, but I mean, when the first game is, you know, presumably Albert Suarez, and presumably, you know the bull, you know, I don’t think Suarez gonna throw 110 pitches for you. So you’re gonna be relying on your bullpens. So that’s even against the White Sox, right? Who have been really bad the last couple years. That’s still not where you want to be and and the White Sox in the second week of April, that’s not the same animal as the White Sox in the third week of June, right? They’re four and five. They’ve actually. One three straight coming into this series. So, you know, you’re getting a version of the White Sox that feels better about itself than you normally would expect. So just need to go out there and play, you know, I’m not, I’m not as concerned about the body language. You know, what they say in post game like I think you can. There are lots of games where you look at a loss of a post game clubhouse, and you know you
Nestor Aparicio 15:22
can say anything to hang their hat on.
Luke Jones 15:25
No, no, I hear you.
Nestor Aparicio 15:26
That’s they’re they’re hanging on to Pete Alonso’s contract and his leadership writer, that the leadership that they’ve imported into this or the leadership of Craig Albernaz, to get involved and get in the middle of this and start thinking baseball when you’re out there hitting the cut off, man, fielding your position and work in a count and not getting thrown out on the base pass, and playing heads up ball and giving yourself a chance to win. Man, sure, I
Luke Jones 15:57
hear you. I mean, I really do. I mean, I I, I’ll say, I’ll go back to what I said at the end of the end of the homestand, and that was before the sweep, and it still applies. I’m not panicking by any means just yet, but, man, I wish there was more I could point to and say I’m impressed by that, right? I mean, there are only a few guys right now, and that’s what that sounds a lot like, what we were saying last year at this time, right? I mean, okay, Easter Sunday wasn’t as bad. I mean, they didn’t lose 24 to two on Sunday. Thank thankfully. But it’s not like, eight to two feels a
Nestor Aparicio 16:28
whole lot better. It wasn’t pitching, but what about the hitting, right? Like, to your point, like, what about working counts? What about getting on? What about not striking out 14 times in a game?
Luke Jones 16:39
Well, and that. And, I mean, look, they fell behind early on Sunday, and that’s going to happen sometimes, where you fall behind at six, nothing in the third inning. You’re probably most teams in that instance, probably are not going to have their best at bats. But prior to Sunday’s game, the walk rate had actually been solid overall. I mean, they’ve had some games where they’ve worked some walks, and they’ve worked some counts, even when they haven’t gotten a return in terms of lighting up the scoreboard. But, yeah, I mean, you look at Sunday, I mean, strike out 14 times and they don’t walk a single time. I mean, that’s, that’s not good enough. I mean, and give, you know, give Braxton Ashcraft credit. I thought he I thought he had good stuff, like I he was impressive to me. I mean, as I said, it’s not just schemes in their rotation. I think the pirates have some talented arms in that rotation. And you know, Jared Jones is someone that they don’t even have right now, as far as you know, a guy who’s coming back from injury and everything, who I thought a couple years ago looked really impressive. So, you know, we’re seeing an Orioles team that’s trying to feel it out right now. I mean, it’s new. We pointed to the new in terms of hoping that would equal being better, and so far, it hasn’t been that right through nine games. So just go out and play better. I mean, it’s that Buck show. Walter would say this right at times, it would just, you know, Buck would have his buck isms and, you know, clever things. He’d say, I don’t believe in the same role, but you know, all the different cliches and Buck Buck talk that we all appreciated until, probably until the end, and then you’re kind of sick of it. But at the same time, he would just say, Look, you just have to play better. And they’ve got to do that. I mean, they’ve got to be fundamentally much better. I mean that that, if you remember my biggest criticism of Brandon Hyde and the coaching staff last April and leading into mid May, when he was dismissed, it wasn’t, well, Brandon Hyde, you know? I mean, he wasn’t going up there and swinging the bat, right? He didn’t throw a pitch for the Orioles last year. But when you saw how sloppy the play was, that, to me, was a reflection of the coaching staff, and for as much as they talked about spring training, I mean, that being such a point of emphasis, and Albernaz talked about that a lot, even addressed it on Sunday after the game. We haven’t seen that carry over to real games. So then when I see that, I start to question the players way more so than because we’re talking about a different manager and a different coaching
Nestor Aparicio 19:20
staff, we’re going to say important leadership for $150 million in addition to trying to get 38 home runs out of all of that. Where, where is that step up to say we’re not going to play sloppy ball.
Luke Jones 19:33
But at some point in time, if that doesn’t happen, then you just start pointing to the players and say, well, they’re just not good enough, right? I mean, like at some point in time that’ll
Nestor Aparicio 19:43
bear itself out at 16 and 34 right down the mountain that then it becomes obvious, yeah, and,
Luke Jones 19:48
and it doesn’t even have to be that extreme, but if they just, you know, if you’re just middling and middling and middling and middling, well that’s just what you are. After a while, you know that? That’s why, for me. Me, I used Adley rutchman As an example, you know, in this discussion, you know, his strong start this year aside, we saw Adley rutchman look phenomenal for the first two calendar years of his big league career, from you know, and he he scuffled his first month, right, as as many players do. But basically, for his first two calendar years, Adley rutsman was as advertised. And the last year and a half, you know, going back to July of 24 we saw a very different Adley rush. What happened to that guy?
Nestor Aparicio 20:33
I mean, I’m assuming he’s injured. Do you feel that way?
Luke Jones 20:37
I think that’s part of it, but I think there’s more than that going on. But the but, but the point I was trying to make is, at some point in time, the timeline is so extended where he’s not playing well, you can’t just say it’s a slump, and at some point you start to ask if that’s who he actually is. Now that’s where I kind of look at the Orioles and say, Look, if you start considering you have a new manager and a mostly new coaching staff, and you brought in Pete Alonso, and you brought in these other veteran players, and you see too much of the same story as what we saw last year. That’s when I just look at this core and just say, maybe these guys just aren’t good enough, right? And we knew all along that not every single guy in that core was going to become an all star, right? We need to be realistic in that way. But that said, going back to last year, we haven’t seen a big enough percentage, a big enough portion of that young core trending in the right direction, right? So that’s where you look at it, and say, if they don’t look better this year, if it looks a lot like last year, considering the other variables, they changed, I don’t think that’s a manager thing. I think that’s these guys not being good enough and and, you know, and you’ve talked about this, I know you’ve made that point as well, maybe then you just have to say, well, it’s Michaelia and this infrastructure then, because, like, they have the conviction to believe in what they do. And you said, Okay, a new manager, new coaching staff, and these guys look the same way. Well, either the players aren’t good enough, and that’s on like Elias, or they’re the way they do things, their process overall isn’t good enough, and they never have
Nestor Aparicio 22:21
enough pitching, and that’s that’s a baseball issue, but certainly here, it feels like a week and a half into the season they don’t have enough pitching, and I know that because they they’re already going bullpen days and they’re already thin, and what they bought doesn’t look like what they thought they bought.
Luke Jones 22:39
I mean, I’ll say this, I I still want to be more bullish on this rotation than what it’s looked so far, because of, you know, the upside that you have with Bradish. You know the signs that we’ve already seen from Boz, but you know efflin is out of the picture now, you know, at least for the time being, whether it’s going to be for two months or for the season, right? I mean, TBD, typically, when you’re getting a second opinion, that’s usually not great, but there are instances where they say, you know, hey, this is, you know, PRP injection. Maybe he’s back by June. I don’t know. Point is you were looking at him, you were looking at Bassett to obviously be a major innings eater for them, and two starts in. I mean, it’s been woeful. And you know, no idea what you’re going to get from Dean Kramer. I mean, part of that, we haven’t talked about that element a whole lot, and especially now knowing he’s absolutely going to be back here sooner than later, how did he mentally handle how that played out at the end of spring training. And let me be clear, this isn’t me accusing the Orioles of, you know, like not shenanigans, but like doing him wrong, but because it’s competition, and if you’re not deemed one of the best five, then and you have an option left, but they still, you know, they don’t want to just get rid of you. That’s what happens, right? I mean, look at how the Dodgers have kind of the Dodgers who are an abundance of riches in terms of their depth and not spending and all that. But go, look at how they’ve handled some of their pitching the last couple years. Now, sometimes it’s just a guy that’s been hurt, but they’ve slow played guys, they’ve stashed guys, they’ve put guys in different roles. I mean, look at what their rotation was at the end of last year compared to what it wasn’t on opening day, right? I mean, there’s a team that has, you know, you see firsthand depth and all that, and it’s why they’ve been so good, because they’ve been able to spend to have that kind of depth. But, you know, in the case of Kramer, I want to see between the ears how he handled this, right? You want to see, hopefully, a renewed, you know, kind of ticked off for greatness, kind of Dean Kramer, you hope. But what if it’s the opposite? What if he went in the tank after this? I don’t know. I mean, we don’t know. It’s kind of a unique circumstance. I can understand. He was probably not. I’m sure he was ticked right to go to the miners. I mean, he’s probably thinking, oh. Mean, what the heck I led this team in innings last year, you know, I, I get it. I’m not an all star pitcher, but I post up, you know, I’m sure he was ticked. I I’d kind of be a little concerned if he wasn’t ticked. But does he channel that in a positive way, or do we see a dean Kramer that comes back and is not the best version? I don’t know. I don’t know, like that. I’m just being rhetorical, rhetorical and asking that. But you know, right off the bat, the rotations taken some hits. And you know how I felt about the bullpen, every concern I had about the bullpen has pretty much reared its head to this point, right? So I don’t know, they’ve got to hit better, and they’re starting rotation needs to be better. I said it to you when they kind of had the they haven’t checked the box.
Nestor Aparicio 25:42
They’re not having that. Literally, there’s not a box they’ve checked a couple
Luke Jones 25:47
individuals have checked boxes, right? I mean, I’ve seen a couple individuals pitch Well, or I’ve seen a few guys in the lineup swing the bat well, but collectively, No, it hasn’t been very good. And and to go back to the bullpen for just a moment, I talked about this when you know the day that efflin got knocked out or had to leave the game early because of the injury at that point in time, that happening, on top of how much work the bullpen had had to cover the previous two days, that’s when you just looked at the bullpen and say, yeah, it’s going to fall apart. I mean, these guys are overworked. We talked about it. This is going to work as they’re constructed on paper right now. You know, just just going off of what we think this group should be. The way it was constructed was the offense and the rotation are going to need to lead the way, at least to a degree that the bullpen is not being asked to cover five innings, right? Is not being asked to protect one run, you know, two one leads every single night, right? I mean, they, they need to be. I jokingly said this to you a couple years ago, and I know it’s something that resonated, because you brought it up. You need to have some blowouts mixed in there, but to kind of save your bullpen in that way, right? And good teams, Good to Great teams, are able to do that. You know, that’s that’s why you see great teams end up having a run differential of plus 150 when you’re in August and September so but to your point, I mean, none of that’s really happened so far. I mean, it’s just even the games they’ve won, the other than the the finale against the Rangers, their two other wins were grind, kind of games. I mean that that Sunday win against Minnesota, I mean, that was a slog. I mean, that was, I described it as laborious. You know, the way they had to win that game. That’s not the like. That’s not a sustainable formula, right there. So even two of their three wins to this point
Nestor Aparicio 27:45
them through the bullpen is not gonna go I mean,
Luke Jones 27:47
it’s just not good. I mean, they’re just not built in that way. So, you know, I mean, they just, it has to be better. It just has to be better that I know I’ve said that probably 25 times in our two, you know, our two pieces kind of talking about the Pittsburgh sweep, but just has to be. I mean, this was this weekend. Was below the bar. There’s no doubt about that. And there wasn’t a whole lot you could hang your hat on. Baza start a couple guys swinging the bat, not much beyond that to write home about. And they, they they earned the sweep that they that they received at the hand of the hands of the Pittsburgh Pirates
Nestor Aparicio 28:24
over the weekend. Never feels good after 79 and 71 but I am going to have Dwayne reader on from the Clemente museum this week. So if you hear that, I might break out my other Chicago like the powder blues from 68 he is Luke. I am Nestor. We have a little football this week too. Jesse mentors going to be out with a whistle running around a little bit in the complex, I think, by the end of the week, and strengths and conditionings. And we even have a draft in Pittsburgh coming up in a couple of weeks. He’s Luke. I’m Nestor. Stay with us. We are W N, S T am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore positive.
