As the Athletics of Sacramento arrive at Camden Yards and the Orioles put another starter on the IL, Luke Jones and Nestor discuss this home stand and current injury realities as Trevor Rogers readies to return against the Yankees early next week.

Luke Jones and Nestor discuss Orioles homestand with Athletics and Yankees and current injury realities

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Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Orioles’ upcoming homestand against the Athletics and Yankees, highlighting the team’s current injury challenges, particularly with Kade Povich and Jordan Westburg. They noted the Orioles’ recent struggles, including a 2-4 record in Miami and a 5-game losing streak to the Yankees. Jones emphasized the need for better defense, especially at third base, and suggested playing Blaze Alexander more frequently. They also touched on the team’s potential for improvement, citing the importance of players like Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman. Jones expressed cautious optimism for the team’s wild card prospects.

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Host and run the Maryland crab cake tour event (Maryland Crab Cake Tour) on Wednesday, including presence at Faidley’s as part of the tour
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Conduct interviews next week about Preakness topics with Donna Brothers, Randy Moss, and Dick Girardi (arrange and complete conversations)
• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Bring/give the Orioles Hawaiian-style shirt (American Standard heating and air conditioning shirt) to Luke (one shirt in the bag)
• [ ] Stop by Faidley’s on Wednesday to participate in the Maryland crab cake tour / crab derby
• [ ] Take Scarlett (niece) to her first Orioles game on Saturday and handle pregame plans (lunch/pregame, photos, and fan assistance pin request)

Maryland Crab Cake Tour and Preakness Week

• Nestor Aparicio discusses the Maryland crab cake tour, which will take place on Wednesday, coinciding with Preakness week.
• Nestor mentions various guests he will be talking to, including Donna Brothers, Randy Moss, and Dick Girardi.
• Nestor shares a story about giving a crab cake to April at Planet Fitness, who was hesitant to scratch it.
• Nestor talks about Mark Viviano’s interview at Planet Fitness, where he quizzed Nestor about Jason Lock and Jason Madden.

GBMC Visit and Farnham and Dermer Sponsorship

• Nestor mentions GBMC’s visit twice this week to discuss orthopedics and the “Walk a Mile in Their Shoes” event.
• Nestor recalls the perfect weather day of the event and wishes every event could have such weather.
• Nestor talks about Farnham and Dermer’s visit and the new gear they provided, including a Hawaiian shirt.
• Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the Hawaiian theme of the shirt and the need for appropriate attire for the upcoming games.

Orioles Game and Nelly Concert

• Luke Jones talks about taking his niece to her first Orioles game and the excitement surrounding it.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the odds of Nelly performing one of his songs during the game.
• Luke shares memories of listening to Nelly’s music during his senior year in high school.
• Luke mentions the excitement of his niece, who is looking forward to the game and the Nelly concert.

Orioles Injury Realities and Pitching Staff

• Nestor and Luke discuss the Orioles’ current injury realities, including Kade Povich’s forearm tightness.
• Luke highlights the importance of the bullpen’s performance in recent games.
• Nestor and Luke talk about the Orioles’ struggles to win more than two games in a row since early April.
• Luke emphasizes the need for better defense, especially at third base, and mentions Blaze Alexander as a potential solution.

Orioles’ Offensive and Defensive Performance

• Nestor and Luke discuss the Orioles’ offensive performance, noting the contributions of Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman.
• Luke mentions the need for better defense, especially from Kobe Mayo and Colton Cowser.
• Nestor and Luke talk about the potential for improvement from players like Trey Gibson and Jordan Westburg.
• Luke emphasizes the importance of playing better defense to support the pitching staff.

Orioles’ Wild Card Contention and Future Prospects

• Nestor and Luke discuss the Orioles’ chances of being a wild card contender, given the current state of the American League.
• Luke highlights the need for better performance from the starting rotation and the bullpen.
• Nestor and Luke talk about the potential for players like Kyle Bradish and Trevor Rogers to improve.
• Luke mentions the importance of Chris Bassitt’s performance and the need for better defense from the infield.

Luke’s Niece’s First Orioles Game

• Luke shares details about the gifts he got for his niece, including an Orioles hat and a stuffed Oreo bird.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the excitement of taking a child to their first baseball game.
• Luke mentions the importance of making the experience memorable for his niece.
• Nestor and Luke talk about the excitement of the upcoming game and the Nelly concert.

Orioles’ Upcoming Series Against the Yankees

• Nestor and Luke discuss the upcoming series against the Yankees and the importance of winning games.
• Luke emphasizes the need for the Orioles to compete better against the Yankees.
• Nestor and Luke talk about the state of the American League and the Orioles’ chances of being a wild card contender.
• Luke mentions the importance of the bullpen’s performance and the need for better defense.

Orioles’ Injury Concerns and Depth

• Nestor and Luke discuss the impact of injuries on the Orioles’ performance, including Kade Povich’s forearm tightness.
• Luke highlights the need for better depth and the importance of players like Trey Gibson and Jordan Westburg.
• Nestor and Luke talk about the potential for players like Blaze Alexander and Colton Cowser to step up.
• Luke emphasizes the importance of managing injuries and the need for better performance from the starting rotation.

Orioles’ Future Plans and Defensive Improvement

• Nestor and Luke discuss the Orioles’ future plans, including potential roster moves and defensive improvements.
• Luke mentions the possibility of playing Blaze Alexander at third base and the need for better defense.
• Nestor and Luke talk about the importance of improving fundamentals and making better decisions on the field.
• Luke emphasizes the need for better performance from the infield and the bullpen to support the starting rotation.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Orioles homestand, Athletics, Yankees, injury realities, Kade Povich, bullpen, third base, Blaze Alexander, Mayo, Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman, Trevor Rogers, Kyle Bradish, wild card contender.

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SPEAKERS

Luke Jones, Speaker 1, Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W, N, S T am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We’re Baltimore positive. We’re positively taking the Maryland crab cake tour back out on the road on Wednesday. It’s a big day. It’s a Preakness week around here. Even though the horse isn’t coming. I’ll be talking to all sorts of people next week about that, including Donna brothers and Randy Moss and Dick Girardi. I will have the horses of the assitek. And they never leave us. They never go to Belmont. They don’t extend, they don’t skip. They’re there. These are the art pieces, and they’re really kind of cool. I gave one of these out to April over at Planet Fitness. Timoni. She didn’t want to scratch it. She’s like, No, it’s too it’s artsy. I’m not going to scratch it. It’s going to mess it all up. And I’m like, I like, but you might win. So I price checked it. She won two bucks. So we were playing a fitness on Thursday. We had a good time. Mark Viviano, the real. Mark Viviano talked to the AI Nestor at Planet Fitness for an hour and 18 minutes on Thursday, illuminating radio when he started quizzing me about Jason lock and for I must add, and he didn’t read the April Fool’s joke. He was took back that I could actually do anything funny or that caught people off guard. Our friends at GBMC visited twice this week about orthopedics, as well as walk a mile in their shoes, which we did last month. And I will forever remember that event as the perfect weather day of my lifetime. I just stood out in the middle of gbmcs parking lot, and I thought, can’t every event? Can’t the American Diabetes Association walk this weekend? Can’t they get that weather? They can’t have that weather only. GBMC has that also. Our friends at Farnham and Dermer Zach Dermer came out. He adored me, and he learned from Dennis O’Donovan our AI Insider, and he gave me some new gear. He thought this was foreign and Dermer and American Standard heating and air conditionings, answer to the Orioles Hawaiian shirt giveaway. He thought you and I would look good in a Do you look good in this? John Miller, the broadcaster. John Miller, yeah, he would always worked well with the Hawaiian themes. So I feel like I need poi, and I need some of those donuts that I had in Maui with the UB in it for wearing my foreign a Dermer, Baltimore, orange baseball orange for you, Lucas, and I have one in the bag for you. It might fit.

Luke Jones  02:17

Sounds good. Sounds good

Nestor Aparicio  02:20

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already,

Luke Jones  02:20

yeah, oh yeah. Absolutely. Got good gear. And, you know, the, the the orange and the, you know, kind of the Hawaiian thing there, makes you a little more Zen, right? What you need after watching Thursday night’s game, that just gets you all fired.

Nestor Aparicio  02:34

Jack, I need a lavender in late August, don’t, you know, don’t give me a violet. We’re not going with it. What did they call their color thing? They had a name for it,

Luke Jones  02:43

the color rush.

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Nestor Aparicio  02:44

No, no, the thing that they did two weeks ago, it was nothing. They had a name. They gave it a branding. What did they call it? The new something, or the the old look, or the new little whatever the hell they call they had a name for Come on. Oh, I didn’t work. Neither one of us remember it.

Luke Jones  02:59

Are you just talking about the theme for whatever,

Nestor Aparicio  03:01

for what their release was.

Luke Jones  03:02

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What is it new rising or something?

Nestor Aparicio  03:04

Yeah, it wasn’t rising. That was so 2000 it was so Ed Reed, either way, you know, I mean, this weekend, speaking of swag, getting some good swag this weekend, you’re gonna get yourself a Tupac bauble at Friday night. Are you?

Luke Jones  03:18

By the way, it was next flight. That’s what it was. Sorry, next

Nestor Aparicio  03:21

flight.

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Luke Jones  03:22

Yeah, that

Nestor Aparicio  03:23

sounds like, like a brewery giving me little cups of beer. That’s what next flight says. That

Luke Jones  03:30

doesn’t sound bad, actually, right? I mean, anyone loves a good flight, if you’re, you know, next

Nestor Aparicio  03:35

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week. So I’m good, man, I got a good next flight. So, but anyway, but this is our new color rush gear. Sorry,

Luke Jones  03:43

yeah, to go back to what you just said, A Tupac bobblehead on Friday night and Nellie concert on Saturday, which, as I already said, as everyone knows, I’m taking my niece to her first Orioles game. So we’re

Nestor Aparicio  03:57

gonna hit the odds right now. I say betting odds right now. Luke’s niece gets one Nellie song, right this minute, I’m checking Vegas, I’m checking the odds. I’m checking 12 to 121, that your niece gets one Nellie song, 12 to one.

Luke Jones  04:17

In all honesty, knowing my sister and I’ll openly admit, I mean, Nelly became a big thing in what the summer of 2000 I think that’s when he really blew up. I mean,

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Nestor Aparicio  04:27

not in here, that was close.

Luke Jones  04:29

I mean, that was the summer before my senior year right there. I mean, I can remember, it was one of the rare times in my life where I went to Ocean City, Maryland, and we’re cruising. I went with buddies, you know, a bunch of my friends, this

Nestor Aparicio  04:40

ocean city right here, this one right here we

Luke Jones  04:43

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were. We were cruising down coastal highway listening to Nellies, new album at the you know, we actually listened to CDs back then in the car. So but, but knowing my sister will probably be like heading out, but we’ll kind of slow. Do it to try to catch a song. I mean, we’re gonna

Nestor Aparicio  05:02

have to leave in the game early. They’re gonna say what my dad said to me, you come to the game. We do nine innings.

Luke Jones  05:08

I mean, I look at it like this. I mean, if she’s that tired, there she’s gonna be with three adults, two of them being her parents, that if she falls asleep, one of us will hold her for for the duration, right? So she’s usually pretty good about that. She’ll, she’ll fall asleep in the car as soon as we as soon as we leave, like by the time we’re out of the parking lot, but, but she’ll, she’ll be excited. It’s funny, since we’re talking about this and we’ll get to the game, because, well, it’s not all that fun to talk about Thursday night’s game, but my mom watches her every day, and I had been teasing this surprise for a week or two now. Well, I said it to you the other day that she’s really excited about getting a ride in my car. She’s only been in my car to, you know, to go on a trip a couple times because I don’t have a car seat. Imagine that. But she said to my mom the other day, I think Uncle Luke’s taken us to the beach. I was just like, oh no. She might be disappointed with this. Now. She’s thinking, we’re going to the beach, but, but, but it’ll be fun. She’s excited. Everyone’s excited, and

Nestor Aparicio  06:09

she doesn’t know where she’s going,

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Luke Jones  06:11

not I’ve teased to her that we’re going somewhere. She’s

Nestor Aparicio  06:15

four, right?

Luke Jones  06:16

I mean, she she’s up, she’s two weeks away from being five, so really, she’s five, but she knows Uncle Luke works at the ballpark and covers the Orioles. You know, for I don’t know if she completely gets what that entails, but she knows I go to lots of baseball games and lots of football games, so I would guess it’s probably at least crossed her mind, but it’s not necessarily something she’s going out of her

Nestor Aparicio  06:41

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way.

Nestor Aparicio  06:41

Uncle Luke takes Scarlet to work day on Saturday. See Nelly. I mean, you know, the one thing for her, you have to let her know that if she goes with Uncle Nestor, the parking won’t nearly be as good.

Luke Jones  06:52

Yeah,

Nestor Aparicio  06:53

let her know that. So,

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Luke Jones  06:55

yeah, yes, using the, you know, going down there, I’m going to do a little bit of pregame. They’re, they’re probably going to get lunch or something like that. And then, yeah, once, once I’ve

Nestor Aparicio  07:04

I’m so excited for you. I can’t wait to see your sister’s pictures. This is

Luke Jones  07:07

great. Yeah, she’ll, she’ll document it better than I will. I mean, I’ll take pictures too.

Nestor Aparicio  07:12

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The only thing I can equate it to was that my mother, late in her life, had never been to a Ravens game. My mother went to a million

Luke Jones  07:18

or I remember when you took her, yeah, I

Nestor Aparicio  07:20

took her to a Jets preseason game when sexy Rexy was coaching the Jets. And, you know, it was preseason, like, there’s plenty of room around. She had the greatest time, man, she saw a touchdown in the fireworks. And that’s like, I have video of her, like, doing that. So, like, there was, like, it was really Disney worlder for her to see fireworks that close like and she was, you know, 8588 you know, she was in her late 80s when I took her so I can’t imagine. I do remember the first time, yeah, you had those snapshots. I remember the first time I walked in Memorial Stadium, and it was on the first base side. We went up the little hill where the where the bobble heads were, where they had the concession stand that sold things. And I walked in on the first base side. And I remember when you walked into the portal, you know, the grass would just get wide and green.

Nestor Aparicio  08:15

And,

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Nestor Aparicio  08:15

you know, my dad always got to the ballpark early, so it was like, kind of empty. The first time I ever saw the ballpark but, but I remember what a stadium looked like when I saw Memorial Stadium. And I don’t know, you know part of your childhood, that’s a It’s a big day on Saturday. I hope the weather holds up. I hope that baseball. Let’s talk about the baseball team a little bit. Luke Jones is here We. Are we doing a Maryland crab cake tour out about Wednesday. Luke’s gonna stop by fadeleys as well. I don’t know where we’re gonna be on Wednesday. Dude like this Yankees thing and the A’s coming in. I have my A’s Power Belt out my Darrell Knowles, catfish Hunter, campy campaneris A’s belt. There’s just so many. I mean, now, Povich, right?

Luke Jones  09:01

Yeah. I mean, it’s just one thing after another, right? Every time you feel like you’re starting to gain a little bit of traction. I mean, they won the first two in Miami. Trevor Rogers is it’s by all accounts. I mean, it’s barring something strange. It sounds like he’s going to pitch Monday. I mean, that’s his first day. He’s eligible to come off the IL so you’re they were going to have a choice to make between Povich and Brandon young, assuming they weren’t going to call Trey Gibson back up here in the not too distant future, which maybe they will, you know, I mean, obviously he was optioned, and he’d have to stay down anyway, but yeah, Povich, forearm tightness. MRI Friday, now you’re in a position where he leaves after three innings and the bullpen. Give the bullpen a lot of credit. They pitched a whale of a game after that. I mean, Cano comes in and gives them a couple innings, and they get Dietrich ends comes in and gives them two scoreless Aiken. Aiken works out of a jam right in the eighth inning, and

Nestor Aparicio  09:56

then they battle, and they get they tie the game, you know, like it’s.

Luke Jones  10:00

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And it’s just they just, I

Nestor Aparicio  10:01

thought they

Nestor Aparicio  10:01

were gonna win. I really

Luke Jones  10:02

did. I thought they did. I thought they were too. I mean, it’s but it’s just, that’s what’s frustrating. I mean, they win two in a row and they still want a series, right? I’m not in the same way that when they won on Tuesday night, we said, well, they weren’t gonna lose every game going forward at the same time, you look at this thing and you think back to what was it the second week of April when they won six of seven that, you know, kind of culminated with that Arizona comeback win the day that Albernaz got hit in the face. And they haven’t won more than two in a row since then, and they’ve only run one two in a row a couple times since then. I mean that formula right there, you know, put aside the ugliness of the Yankees or the eyeball test of losing to the Red Sox a couple weekends ago, or

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Nestor Aparicio  10:43

getting swept by the pirates.

Luke Jones  10:45

It’s just, well, I’m talking about since then, but it’s just really tough to gain any traction then. I mean, like when, if you just know that regardless of how they play or how they look or what’s their strength or what’s their weakness, you kind of look at it and say, Yeah, you’re going to struggle to just hover right around 500 at best. So, and that’s what we’ve seen, right? And obviously you have the ugliness of the Yankee series, and you lose five in a row, then you’re in a position where, yeah, you fall in five below. And now it’s a case of, okay, they won a series, good. They didn’t fall on their face in Miami, fine, but they had a chance. That was a winnable game on Thursday night.

Nestor Aparicio  11:23

Winnable losses are tragic for them.

Luke Jones  11:25

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Yeah. I mean, it’s just because

Nestor Aparicio  11:26

they’re not good enough for that. Sure,

Luke Jones  11:28

sure. No question. I mean, that was another game and and obviously we’ll get to Mayo, and the fact that, I mean, you’ve got a below replacement level offensive and defensive player playing third base on a regular basis. I don’t know how much longer you can do that. You know, Jordan Westberg is not coming back now, at least in the third base capacity. Is there still a consideration that he could DH, or something like that? We’ll see, but it’s clear he’s not gonna be their third baseman at any point in 2026 I mean, I can’t fathom after he’s been shut down here recently. So you look at that and you say, what’s, what are the alternatives here? I’ve said it for a while now. I would be playing Blaze Alexander at third base every day, at least for the time being, because whether he’s going to hit or not, that’s a question. But he’s going to defend, and he’s going to be an upgrade defensively for you. And when you have a pitching staff that is struggling and a pitching staff that doesn’t you know it’s middle of the pack when it comes to strikeouts at best, you need to have the best possible defense you can have, and blaze Alexander gives them something that Kobe Mayo does not. Now, that said, Does that mean I would be excited about the prospects of Alexander starting the next four and a half months at third base on an everyday basis? No, and that’s where I look at this thing and say, Mike Elias, is there a move to be made to go out and go get a decent third baseman, not saying trade for an all star, but is there a Ramon Arias caliber third baseman you can go get that will upgrade you defensively, and someone that can swing the bat a little bit, because I’ll continue to say it. I like Kobe Mayo as a person. He works hard. I do think there are raw skills there. We saw that last September, if the Orioles, if this were 2021 and the Orioles were still in the midst of rebuilding, and there were no expectations at the major league level to win. Sure. Keep throwing them out there every day, keep sending them out there every day, keep writing his name in the lineup every day and see if he finally gained some track.

Nestor Aparicio  13:30

They did that with Mount Castle back in the day, right?

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Luke Jones  13:33

But even with Mount Castle, remember once upon a time they, you know, he, first of all, he started out in the minor leagues as a left side of the infield guy. He was a shortstop, then a third baseman, then he, remember, he came up the covid year, and they were playing him in left field. They they continued that experiment a little bit into the following season, not long, and then he settled in at first base, let’s face it, and this was the always the problem when Jordan Westberg, when we find out about Jordan westburg’s elbow, early in spring training, the Orioles made up their they told you what they thought about Kobe Mayo as a third baseman last year, right? Westberg missed plenty of time, and yet, Mayo, they made up their mind and saying he’s a, he’s going to be a first base

Nestor Aparicio  14:14

dude. At one point, I thought this was going to be Westberg. It’s second holiday, it’s short and

Luke Jones  14:20

third. I mean, you know,

Nestor Aparicio  14:22

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right, right? I mean, we haven’t said that out loud in a long time, but that’s the actual

Luke Jones  14:26

Yeah, once upon a time. I mean that. I mean that was absolutely the thought, especially when you think back to gunners, you know, first calendar year in the majors, that was absolutely the thought of what was going to happen, right? Yeah, you drafted

Nestor Aparicio  14:39

a one, one short stop,

Luke Jones  14:40

yeah, you thought he was gonna and at the time it, there were more questions about gunners ability to stick it short, and

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Nestor Aparicio  14:47

Westberg was playing second.

Luke Jones  14:49

Yeah, so, but point is, their options aren’t that right now, and you’re not going to have Westberg back at least defensively for the rest of the year. I would assume, although I’m more inclined to just think, just have the surgery. The

Nestor Aparicio  15:06

other thing about Westberg is so much better a player than any of these guys that we’re talking

Nestor Aparicio  15:10

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about. I mean, sure,

Nestor Aparicio  15:13

better player than holiday right now. And holiday ain’t anything right now, but, like, sure, you know, but holidays best days,

Luke Jones  15:19

but isn’t anything right

Nestor Aparicio  15:20

now, I just want to brag on Westberg for a minute, because it’s like he’s one of the reasons I believe 92 wins. So was Zach efland. So, you know, I go through the list of things I believed in that

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Luke Jones  15:30

already,

Nestor Aparicio  15:30

not only I don’t believe in them, they don’t exist. They’re not there. It’d be like believing Trump. They’re non existent. You know what? I mean, like it doesn’t it’s evaporated. So this is what they are now. They are Blaze Alexander or Kobe Mayo until further notice. They are, you know, Trey, whatever his name is, in the outfield. And these guys that never play, you know, O’Neill. And I, I’m exasperated by how quickly they’ve gone through hope?

Luke Jones  16:04

Yeah. I mean, it’s because nobody’s

Nestor Aparicio  16:06

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going to the ballpark this weekend, thinking there’s a playoff team. And certainly, if you show up on Monday, even with Rogers pitching, you’re thinking like, how are we going to win two out of three of these against the Yankees?

Luke Jones  16:17

I mean, it’s baseball. So on that front, I’ll say it’s baseball, and I’ll say this, they they need to compete at a much higher level against the Yankees this time around. There’s no question about that, what, whether they get swept again, or whether they lose two out of three, or whatever happens. It needs to the eyeball test. Needs to look way better. I mean, there’s no doubt about that. You can’t, you can’t have another series where you’re completely outclassed in every way.

Nestor Aparicio  16:42

Well, thes are better than you think they are too, and then they have the nationals next weekend, but this is

Luke Jones  16:46

but, but at the same time, and not to cut you off, but look at the state of the American League as a whole. Okay, the Yankees are great, and Tampa Bay is right behind them, and they’ve been great.

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Nestor Aparicio  16:56

Atlanta has been good in the other league, right?

Luke Jones  16:58

But in the American League, look at the rest of it. Everyone’s like the Orioles right now. And look, let me be clear, that is not me saying that, that that means, by default, the Orioles are going to be the cream that rises to the top. I have my doubts as much as anyone, if not more than a lot of people out there, based on

Nestor Aparicio  17:14

what

Nestor Aparicio  17:15

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still need to win 88 games or whatever, even in a bad year, right?

Luke Jones  17:18

But that said, as much as we’re complaining about the Orioles right now, Toronto’s worse, Boston’s worse, right? You look at the Al central right now. Cleveland, going into the weekend, is the only team that’s above 500 they’re 20 and 19. Everyone else is under 500 the west right now, and that includes the first place athletics. No one is above 500 or I’m sorry, the A’s are one game over. They won Thursday, my apologies, but they’re one game over 500 I mean, there’s, there are a lot of teams that look very well. That’s why you have

Nestor Aparicio  17:52

to handle your ass. My mom would say to you right now, I don’t care what the bill uses in the Elliots are doing down the street, let’s worry about what we’re doing right here. And the right here, right now is, honestly, Luke, you’ve seen this team play. You know what they’re up against in regard to their pitching now, with pub, like, just all of this, you You either believe in some of these guys, or you don’t believe in Colton cows are coming up in the eighth inning and breaking the bat and dug out and like, like, I just looking at them right now. Is there any way this team can be 20 games over 500 the rest of the way? If they can’t, then they can’t be an 88 win team.

Luke Jones  18:32

Well, I guess I would. Well, if you’re going to say no, then that means you and I are complete idiots, because you thought they were going to win 92 games, and I thought they were going to win 90, right? I

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Nestor Aparicio  18:41

thought they were a different team,

Luke Jones  18:42

but, but Zach eflin’s Not worth 10 wins as a starting pitcher, you know? So is there a way

Nestor Aparicio  18:49

I think Jordan westburg and holiday and just the things that I believed in that I don’t, but not only do I not believe in them, they’re not they’re not here anymore.

Luke Jones  18:59

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Well, let’s not put holiday in there with Westbrook. Hollow, they just began a rehab assignment again. So, I mean, Westberg shut down. I’m

Nestor Aparicio  19:05

somebody’s contribution for this season.

Luke Jones  19:06

No, I understand. But if you’re gonna ask, tell

Nestor Aparicio  19:08

me if holiday coming back, being 20 games over 500

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Luke Jones  19:13

Sure, there’s a way. If not, then you and I are.

Nestor Aparicio  19:15

I’m not buying Bradish right now. I’m not buying Rogers right now as ones and twos. They don’t look anything like that. I this team doesn’t have anything like that. Bassett might be washed up. Might be, I don’t know. We’ll find out, right? Okay, but, so,

Luke Jones  19:27

but, but you’re just that. You’re just using recency bias and saying that you weren’t saying that about Bradish a month ago, months

Nestor Aparicio  19:34

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ago,

Nestor Aparicio  19:35

the last time I saw him pitch was last October,

Luke Jones  19:37

okay, and right. And he looked really good then, and he and he was fourth in Cy Young voting three years ago, and his stuff looked excellent last September. Look, I’m not like your concerns are legitimate but, but I will push back on the idea that there aren’t ways for this team to get better just because.

Nestor Aparicio  19:53

And I would also say that they don’t need to be good. They just need to be too under 502 over 502 under. Two over four under, get back to one over like that’s what it feels like they’re going to be, right? I don’t think they’re going to fall apart and fall down the mountain, although there’s much more possibility for that, sure

8

Luke Jones  20:12

there is

Nestor Aparicio  20:12

than there is for them to be 20 games over 500 right now, based on what I see. And if you wake me up five weeks from now, and Rogers has a one point, not one nine era over the last six starts, and Brad is just throwing darts, and he’s five and one with a two, two, and Henderson’s hitting the ball, and Alonso’s earning his money and holidays back in the lineup, and Colton cows are figures things out enough to be credible. And blaze Alexander somehow, is hitting 264, and playing a decent third base. I mean, I

Luke Jones  20:44

the only

Nestor Aparicio  20:45

8

point all of those things happening makes them a team that can win two out of three games against maybe the Yankees, maybe in July, not now.

Luke Jones  20:55

I mean, it’s it’s baseball though, man, like bad teams beat good teams all the time. It’s baseball. I hear what you’re saying. My point is, just because Kyle Bradish has a 503 era in his first seven starts doesn’t mean he’s going to have a 503 era in his next seven starts. In the same way that neither of us thought he was going to have a 503 era in his first seven starts when we were talking about this the third week of March. Look, I’m not saying all those things are going to go right. I do think some of those things are going to go right. That said, what else could possibly go wrong? They might lose another player to a serious injury, right? I mean, we don’t know, so I’m just things that are going

Nestor Aparicio  21:33

to go

Nestor Aparicio  21:33

right for me are going to be Henderson’s going to hit the ball and Alonzo is going to hit the ball. I don’t know if rushman is going to stay right. I’m still not bought in, but I’m, I’m getting there, and that would be a really good check mark for the Tyler O’Neill’s and Taylor wards who have or haven’t contributed, right? I mean, I’m not expecting Taylor ward to hit 68 doubles this year. I mean, he’s been Ultra hot for a month. I would expect there’ll be a month he’ll hit seven or eight home runs, because he’s got also profiles that way at some point, you know, but he’s been the strangest one of all, because I didn’t count him into anything for the 92 wins, he’s been a big part of putting them on that road to keeping them respectable at this point.

8

Luke Jones  22:13

Sure, sure. No question about it. And again, let me be clear, when I’m pushing back on what you just said, that doesn’t mean I’m expecting every single thing to go right. But in the same way that we talked about this a lot last year, and I talked about the idea of the way major league front offices think at this point in time, where you you have modeling, you have prediction models, you have projections right. And I I argued that last year, the way things played out was like a bottom 2% kind of scenario of everything that went wrong that you could possibly, almost possibly imagine went wrong that they did. I’m not saying every single thing has to go perfectly the rest of the way, but yeah, a lot of those things need to be way better. That said, I have also seen Kyle Bradish pitch at a very high level in the major leagues before, so just because he isn’t right now doesn’t mean that he’s not going to the rest of the year. That’s the point I’m trying to make that now. That said, when you look at the state of this division, I mean, do I think they’re going to win the division? No, of course not at this point, because the Yankees are the best team in the American League. And I’m, while I’m skeptical that Tampa Bay is going to continue to play at a 676, clip, they are clearly better than anyone thought. And there, that’s why, even though, even in the offseason, everyone was kind of tossing them aside, I would at least acknowledge every time that they’re the rays and every time you count them out, that’s when they end up being really good out of nowhere. So But, that said there are three wild card spots, and there are a lot of teams that look like the Orioles right now, in in various ways, someone’s going to rise to the top in some way. Now that doesn’t mean you’re going to have three wild cards that end up being 91 win outfits, but you would assume you’ll have three wild cards that are somewhere in the neighborhood of 84 to 90 wins when it’s all said and done. Can the Orioles be one of those teams? I mean, mathematically, sure, but yeah, they’ve got to play a heck of a lot better, and they’ve got to figure out, like this pitching staff for all the injuries, and that’s fine, right? It hurts that you don’t have Zach Eflin. It hurts that you don’t have Dean Kramer for at least for a little while longer. What are we going to see from Trevor Rogers? What’s going to happen with Kay bovich? We don’t know, but that said, Trevor Rogers did what he did last year. Kyle Bradish has pitched like an ace or an ascending guy that looked like he could become an ace before Tommy John, which, you know, he’s a couple years removed from that now. And they clearly thought a whole lot of Shane boss to give up the capital that they gave up in terms of prospects and to extend him. They need those three guys to be better. There’s no question about it. They need Chris Bassett to be better. It doesn’t mean Chris Bassett is going to be what he. Was six years ago or five years ago, but they certainly need him to be better than he’s been to this point. Is there evidence for some of those things happening? At the very least, sure do. In fact, I would go as far to say that I expect at least a couple of those guys to be better, if not markedly better. Is that going to be enough? Well, then you talk about the bullpen, then you talk about third base, then you talk about the state of the outfield, then you talk about the defense. Is the hitting is Gunnar Henderson going to get back to? I mean, forget, forget even the first half of 2024 just a more consistent version of himself that’s not striking out a ton and is drawing more walks and being more of a catalyst for them offensively. I mean, they need that. There’s no doubt gunner Henderson has a, what, sub 270 on base percentage right now. I mean, that’s no one’s projecting that at the beginning of the year that said, Do I think he’s going to continue to have a 260 on base percentage? No, I don’t, because there is a track record, but until he does it, you know, you’re kind of looking at looking at it through the lens of man. It’s like Adley rutsman and gunner Henderson, kind of flipped flip statuses right now in terms of where each of them are off.

Nestor Aparicio  26:14

Well,

Nestor Aparicio  26:14

to our point, like it doesn’t matter that the productivity is not coming from holiday if it is coming from Jeremiah Jackson,

Luke Jones  26:20

8

right? That said Jeremiah, Jackson has really cooled off big time and has a turn.

Nestor Aparicio  26:25

That’s not a shocker, right?

Luke Jones  26:26

Right, exactly. And that’s where you’re hoping, can Jeremiah, or can Jackson holiday get right? And this rehab assignment goes better, and he’s ready to go, and you’re getting,

Nestor Aparicio  26:38

you know,

8

Luke Jones  26:38

not the all star MVP pie in the sky, vision of what you thought Jackson holiday was going to be. But

Nestor Aparicio  26:44

you know,

Luke Jones  26:45

a guy that can be a little bit better than he was last year, you know, incremental progress.

Nestor Aparicio  26:50

8

We’ll see. Yeah, my hope for this thing to be great has Wayne, well,

Luke Jones  26:54

I would agree with that. I would agree with my hope for it to be great is pretty much out the window at this point, I like, but that said, Can enough things go well from this point on that they’re a legitimate wild card contender? Sure, sure. But that said, I am. I don’t

Nestor Aparicio  27:14

know if that gets anybody excited around here. Fills our stadium beyond Tupac, you know, like i i two games under 502 games over 500 I don’t know that that’s, that’s not an impressive train. And I feel like that’s that their best case scenario would be to get the five games over five if they get the five games over, I would do something like eat a chicken wing, or something like Jim Palmer. You know what I mean? Like, I just, I don’t I’m not feeling that sort of momentum or consistency from them at all.

Luke Jones  27:45

I mean, again, let me be clear. I push back on you. I’m trying to lay out scenarios, right? I’m trying to lay out what can happen. And look, it’s baseball, just like you and I had no idea. No one had any thought that the Tampa Bay Rays would be 25 and 12 through their first 37 games. Let’s call a spade a spade. No one even even 10 Oreos

8

Nestor Aparicio  28:08

look like that for six weeks at any point in late July or August when Richmond’s played in the All Star game. Henderson’s coming on, trying to get paid. Alonso’s earning his money. And they’ve got four guys, not five, but four. Pub Kramer in there with it, five guys that are going to go out and take the ball every day and give you a chance to win this bullpen is going to mature up and catch your gonna throw strikes and canoe is gonna look like it’s 2023 and he’ll see is going to come back and be perfectly fine, like I dude. I mean, I gave a shout out to Brett Hollander because I had, I had and Josh Lewin, I had Viviano on, and we were just like he and I went at it, dude, shame you weren’t there. You wouldn’t have gotten a word in Edge wise. But it was Jamie. Weren’t there. You can listen to it. It’s only an hour and 18 minute segment so, but I listened to Hollander in the car the other night, and like, the amount of enthusiasm he has on eighth inning singles just fantastic. So him and Lewin, like I said to my wife, I sometimes I get in the car, she’s like, well, you hate that, you hate everything. And I’m like, no, what? Things don’t suck. I say they don’t suck. You know what? I mean. Jim Palmer and Ben McDonald do not suck. Kevin Brown doesn’t suck, but it kind of sucks that he’s in on the WWE it’s Keith Gordon solely. I mean, he’s me, Gene Okerlund. They all are, you know. So that’s the part that is that stinks about the broadcast and stuff, but the enthusiasm that I get, or the enthusiasm they’d like to sell, right about all of it. You know, Melanie’s eating the greatest ice cream things ever, and they were in New York and like it is a television show for me, Luke, I keep saying that to you. It is a nightly four hour soap opera at this as a 57 year old man, and how they present it on television is every. Thing. I mean it literally, it, it’s a television product, and I rarely go, and I’m not seeing Tupac or Nelly this weekend, and I don’t need a bobblehead, although it is kind of cute with a little bandana, I just selling the hope that this team can be can punch in July or August right this minute, I can’t do it, and you can’t do it, not with a straight face.

Luke Jones  30:26

That’s fine, but

Nestor Aparicio  30:27

I wish I could. But

Luke Jones  30:29

8

the point I’m trying to make is the Tampa Bay race starting the way they have now. They can be a mediocre club the rest of the way, and because they’ve done that, they’re going to be in the thick of the wild card race,

Nestor Aparicio  30:41

right,

Luke Jones  30:42

right? And because nobody’s gonna come catching that, and that’s why I’m trying to make this point. Like, look, I’m not sitting here with conviction saying I think the Orioles are gonna win 90 games like I thought they were six weeks ago, right? I mean, I’m not sure I had a great level of conviction at that point in time, because I had quite I just thought things were

Nestor Aparicio  31:00

gonna go right for these, these

8

Luke Jones  31:01

people, not

Nestor Aparicio  31:02

that they even deserve it, Katie Griggs and Don rovac And,

Nestor Aparicio  31:05

I

Luke Jones  31:05

8

mean, if there were, if there was anything to point to that you thought was going to go better than last year, it’s the one thing that hasn’t, and that’s the injuries again, right? And that’s where, sure, again, you know, that’s where I look at this thing and say, If

Nestor Aparicio  31:17

holiday were out there every day and looking like mayo, it would be different than him not being out there at

Luke Jones  31:21

all. I mean, again, I’ll go back to I hate to keep dwelling on this, because every player is different, and I’m not. This is not me accusing anyone of negligence, or to accuse Jackson holiday of that he’s not tough or anything like that. Okay, so let, let me be clear about this, but go look at what Corbin Carroll’s doing for the Diamondbacks right now he had the same exact injury that Jackson holiday had at the beginning spring training, and he’s been fantastic this year. My point with that is not to say that Jackson holiday should be doing that same exact thing. Point is that a handmade bone injury isn’t necessarily supposed to be like this, this grim, damning, your season, catastrophic thing that happens. And yet it’s kind of felt that way so far. But

Nestor Aparicio  32:09

it is only may 8, right? He comes back Memorial Day, and

8

Luke Jones  32:13

he could, and maybe he becomes one of, you know, maybe, and, and it takes him a month or two to really get going, and then by the second half of the season, he’s playing

Nestor Aparicio  32:21

well, by the way, for anybody out there, high hopes for a one, one. I mean, come on, like he should be an impact. He should start, start. And I know, if you’ll say he’s 22 he needs to start to be an impact player when he comes but

Luke Jones  32:31

he’s got to be on the field to do that. Yeah, right. I mean, yeah. So, so that’s, that’s all I’m saying. Are there paths? Are there pathways? Are there scenarios for them to start playing better, and, you know, not to sit here and say that they’re going to play like a 100 win outfit the rest of the way. No, I don’t think they’re remotely I didn’t think they were constructed that way before the season started. Right? That’s why I didn’t pick them to win 100 games. But it is baseball, and guys can get hot, and guys can figure things out. And I do think this rotation, while it’s been wildly disappointing to this point, I do think there’s enough upside there to think that it can be better, which I did not think that about where they were a year ago at this time, when we were still talking about, like, Brad ish, like, okay, maybe he comes back in August, same with Tyler wells, you know. But because you were talking about, you know, Charlie Morton. And even though it’s kind of funny, you know, Sagano is actually pitched half halfway decent for the Rockies

Nestor Aparicio  33:28

8

Kyle Gibson this time last.

Luke Jones  33:29

Yeah, yeah, right. I mean, that’s so again, I’m not, I’m not presenting this to sound like everything’s hunky dory and to be really excited. I’m just saying, Do I think there are things that can get better and will get better? Yes, I do all that being said, Just because you’re really banged up now doesn’t guarantee that you’re going to stay perfectly healthy the rest of the way. And we saw that first and Thursday night with Kade Povich, who look not saying he’s someone that’s critical to their success by any stretch, but someone has to pitch, right?

Nestor Aparicio  34:03

They need him. He was out on the mound. Yeah.

Luke Jones  34:05

And if you keep having these injury, if these injuries continue to mount, and especially when you’re talking about a forearm, something related to the elbow, if he had

8

Nestor Aparicio  34:14

gone out and giving him six innings the other night, he’d be pitching in Yankee Stadium, or can’t charge on Tuesday against the

Luke Jones  34:20

Yankees, right? And, yeah, and not to mention, you know, if he doesn’t get hurt Thursday night, their bullpens in way better shape for this weekend series, right? There’s always a trickle down effect there. So we’re going to see they need to win series. They need to, they absolutely need to hit the ball to their credit. If you look at them, over the last three, four weeks overall, the offense has picked it up. That needs to continue. They’ve got to get gunner Henderson, right? You know, to me, we’re at a point where you’ve got to do something at third base. I You can’t keep trotting Kobe Mayo out there, because you’re sending the message to the rest of the team that the results don’t matter. Well, you’re not waiting on wet.

Nestor Aparicio  35:00

Burg either, right? Sure.

Luke Jones  35:01

8

So

Nestor Aparicio  35:01

any

Nestor Aparicio  35:02

thought that holiday play third, that’s silly. Now

Luke Jones  35:04

I don’t, probably not, you know, I’ll give you, I’ll give you an option that you may end up seeing. And believe me, I’m not saying it’s someone to get excited about. They picked up Christian Encarnacion strand or strand from, I guess it was, I’m drawing a blank now. Sorry, it’s, that’s

8

Nestor Aparicio  35:22

a lot of name for a back of a jersey

Luke Jones  35:24

Cincinnati. Sorry, I wanted to make sure I thought it was they acquired him from Cincinnati. He’s, he’s a guy that put up a lot of numbers of triple A his limited opportunities in the majors. He’s kind of like mayo, quite frankly, 501 plate appearances and a 679 ops, which is a little bit better than Kobe mayo, but he’s put up numbers. They have actually had him working at third base a good bit at Norfolk here recently. Do I think that’s happening tonight or tomorrow or the next day? I don’t know, but he is someone else to at least take a look at, but I’m of the thought, and I’ve said this a lot about cows are in the outfield too, and I say that completely being down on his offense, but at some point in time, defense needs to matter. For this club, your pitching is not good enough to compromise your defense to the degree that they do on a nightly basis. And that’s where I’d say put plays Alexander at third base for the time being, see if he can get into a groove. I mean, his bat doesn’t have the upside that Mayos does in a vacuum, but Mayo’s not producing whatever his upside is, so it’s a moot point, but put him at third base. At the very least, you’re going to get better defense at third. And if you’re I’ll continue to say this, if you want to send Colton cows are down to triple A or Sarasota to try to fix his swing. By all means, do it, but if you’re just going to keep them on the bench, I’d rather see him out there playing better defense, because you’re not getting anything from Tyler O’Neill, right? Tyler O’Neal has been a zero with the bat too, so I know he had an RBI single the other on Thursday night. But what has he done for them? So you’ve got to play better defense. You’ve got to find a way to play a little bit better defense. I’m not saying that that means that it’s going to be good or, or,

Nestor Aparicio  37:13

yeah. I mean, we didn’t even come on here ranting and raving about him throwing the ball and in the midfield like it’s

Luke Jones  37:18

8

but, but he did and and by the way, they also had a couple other defensive mistakes in that game. Like, that’s the thing for me, that I need to start seeing improvement in that way. Like, look again, no one is saying that this team’s going to be the 2014 Orioles or the 1966 Oriole infield or whatever. But at the same time, I want to see some growth and some improvement in terms of knowing where to throw the ball, making good decisions. And those are things where, yeah, I’ll call out Craig Albernaz and the coaching staff on an everyday basis. Now that said, because they are so, so poor, fundamental, you know, fundamentally unsound. That’s where I really questioned the entire organization to say, if these guys get to the major league level and they look like this. What exactly is being taught in the miners then, right? So. But if, if we’re going to lay out scenarios for them to be that team that’s one of the wild card teams or in wild card contention in August and September, these are the kind of things they’ve got to find ways to at least make incremental improvement. And if, but if they don’t, then, yeah, it’s tough for me to think that they’re going to be anything but a sub 500 ball club that is going nowhere, pretty fast, so we’ll find out. But yeah, losing Povich, who now you know, fortunately, Rogers looks like Rogers can just kind of step right in. Unfortunately, you know, you still have Brandon young, who’s going to be pitching every five days, and you know he’s looked over

Nestor Aparicio  38:46

this was not the plan.

Luke Jones  38:47

And that’s where it’s so discouraging, right? Because, again, the injury part, and again, that’s not a cop out, because there’s a lot of stuff that they can control that they’re not doing well either. But to have the number of injuries they’re having again. I mean, that’s just look. I mentioned Trey Gibson in spring training. What did I say to you at the time? I said he’s one of those guys that could be interesting come when I said July or August, not the first week of May. And he did a nice he did a respectable job in his major league debut. He

Nestor Aparicio  39:19

goes out and pitches with a four, two era at this point, for the first two months, figures it out and rounds it into their three, seven, the next eight starts, if they could get that out of him in six innings every night. Oh, my God, that’s better than what Dean Kramer’s on his best day.

8

Luke Jones  39:35

But, but you’re but the fact that you’re already having to dip into that level of your depth. No, that’s good, and that’s why, even though I can lay out scenarios for them to be much better than they’ve been, doesn’t mean I have a lot of conviction thinking that’s going to happen. But hey, come on, I wouldn’t

Nestor Aparicio  39:52

bet on it.

Luke Jones  39:53

Win a series against the A’s and then

Nestor Aparicio  39:56

8

go, just go in on Saturday for me, for

Luke Jones  39:59

Yeah.

Nestor Aparicio  40:00

Be fun. You

Nestor Aparicio  40:00

know your niece deserves a victory on Saturday, her first.

8

Luke Jones  40:03

You know what her victory will be? The cotton candy that that we get her at some point. And

Nestor Aparicio  40:09

do they

Nestor Aparicio  40:09

have some little pin that they give little girls, like, when you fly, like it says, Yeah, I’m sure they do

Luke Jones  40:14

8

my best. My best buddy reminded me of it. He said, Yeah, go, go to fan assistance, right behind home plate, and let them, let them know that Scarlett’s first, this is our first game, and they give them a little pin or button. So

Nestor Aparicio  40:26

my wife discovered this on the 3030 tour back in 2015 we went to 30 ballparks in 30 days. We did it for give a spit. By the way, Dennis O’Donovan, who was on the show, is with there goes, my hero. So that’s how I know him, my AI guy who was at Planet Fitness this week. You’ll hear him on with us, with Zach Dermer for foreign and Dermer as well. And for whatever reason, and I don’t know why. It was the day we were with Jack Harbaugh in Milwaukee. We saw the Brewers play the Cardinals, and Jim was going around by that point, doing the fan assistance thing and getting tchotchkes, getting stickers, getting little kids stuff, getting fun stuff, and and we were looking at concessions and stuff. Like, I wound up buying a Dodger hat for like eight bucks. It was a visor. I really screwed up. There was a there was a California Angels Halo visor that was like $5 and I thought, I’m not going to wear this again. I really should have worn it, if nothing else, just to wear it for schmuck and maybe for Rod Carew at some point, or Fred Lynn, or some of the guy Doug des sensees I’ve had on. But we went around and we, you know, we were shopping, going to seeing all the stadiums and all that. And she wound up getting this. Milwaukee Brewers, it’s the mitt. It’s the mitt. MB, it’s the 1982 logo that

Luke Jones  41:46

logos and sports, all things of 1982 aside, it’s, it’s one of the best logos of all time. It is, go ahead, sorry, I had to throw that in there. I

Nestor Aparicio  41:55

should have brought that up with monitor when I saw him a couple weeks ago. I forgot he was there too. But nonetheless,

8

Luke Jones  42:01

and the Expos logo, I mean, those are great logos.

Nestor Aparicio  42:03

Oh, yeah, she took the sticker and stuck it over the brand, which was on Kenneth Cole, or whatever it was, you know, the brand on her suitcase. So her suitcase, for the last 12 years, has had a Milwaukee Brewers logo on it. Oh, you know, in the middle, it was a Kenneth Cole reaction is what it was. It was a maroon suitcase, and she had it on there. And finally, in Italy, she sent me a picture. The handle finally broke up. We bought that thing in San Diego in like 2005 like she had that 21 years. But she put one of those little stickers on that. She got a fan assistance in 2015 and everywhere we went for like, 12 years, people thought we were from Milwaukee, I swear to God. And I don’t know why she put it on there. I think she put it on there because it just fit. It was circular. It just sort of like, I want to stick that sticker on there. Yeah, she stuck it on there. And

Luke Jones  42:55

it’s funny, that’s to

Nestor Aparicio  42:57

8

there. So Get, get some stickers, as I was, my, role for Scarlet. Get some Oreo stickers with little happy birds on it, the Angry Bird, and I’m gonna beat your butt bird and all that. What’d you get? You got her stuff, right? You got her

Luke Jones  43:10

chocolates? Oh, yes, there’s like, kind of, like a between. My mom helped a lot with this, so I’m thankful to her. Thanks, mom. But yeah, got her, you know, she’s got an Orioles hat, a stuffed Oreo bird, you know, kind of stuff,

Nestor Aparicio  43:22

kind of

Nestor Aparicio  43:22

Oreo hat. Not one of those stupid ones with the o’s,

8

Luke Jones  43:25

no, no, no. It’s the car you

Nestor Aparicio  43:26

got her legit, okay? It’s a

Luke Jones  43:28

cartoon bird hat,

Speaker 1  43:28

8

yeah,

Luke Jones  43:29

oh, yeah. I She, yeah. I am very, I think she, you know, I’m not opposed, like a little one, if they want a pink Oreos hat or something like that, fine. But if it’s me getting it,

Nestor Aparicio  43:42

this is traditional,

Nestor Aparicio  43:43

Luke,

8

Luke Jones  43:43

yeah, you’re not. I’m not getting her the fitted hat, you know, because those are like $50 at this point in time. But a hat that looks like the cap on the field, there’s no doubt. But it’s a cartoon bird. You got to go with the cartoon bird. So something

Nestor Aparicio  43:57

magic happens. Luke’s taking his niece to her first ball game this weekend. The A’s are in town. We are around. We’re gonna be doing the Maryland crab cake Tour presented by the Maryland lottery. Luke was mentioning ocean. Said that ocean city looks like you don’t remember, but that’s it, right there on the Maryland treasures. Mr. Wildwood, guy, in July, can’t go to the All Star game in Philly. I’m on the B. I’m in the Jersey Shore. Man, so I was actually had a girl mentioned the Jersey Shore. Me a Planet Fitness the other day about suntan lotion. So it is summertime. If you’re going to the ballpark this weekend, enjoy yourself. We will be down at fayley’s on Wednesday doing the crab Derby in advance of the Preakness. That ain’t even here anymore. By the way, Donna brothers and I got added on text over the weekend about she’s like, still coming to Baltimore? I’m like, You’re not coming to Baltimore. You’re going to Laurel. She’s like, well, we’re going to call it Baltimore on the broadcast. And I’m like, Well, it ain’t Baltimore, you know,

Luke Jones  44:46

go over. Well, yeah,

Nestor Aparicio  44:47

8

said that yet, it ain’t Baltimore. So

Luke Jones  44:49

that’s like, when someone tries to say Baltimore is part of the DMV, right? I mean, it’s just like, nails on a chalkboard, right there

Nestor Aparicio  44:55

at a boy, and that’s coming from a kid from southern Pennsylvania,

Luke Jones  44:59

so sure, of course,

8

Nestor Aparicio  44:59

right?

Luke Jones  45:00

I, you know, I say, I always say, I was born in Baltimore. I lived in Baltimore. I don’t live in Baltimore. Now I’m not gonna, dude, you’re as Baltimore

Nestor Aparicio  45:07

is that pizza John’s hat on your head is

Nestor Aparicio  45:09

8

what

Luke Jones  45:09

you are. I appreciate you saying that. That is a major compliment, especially pizza John’s you ain’t

Nestor Aparicio  45:15

taking your knees to a Phillies game, and thank God for that. You gotta, you gotta be working against your old man for the rest of your life on this one. So when did she go to her first Phillies game? Is Greg figured this out or? No, I don’t, I don’t know. I mean, they did a flyers game. They took her to the Sixers a couple years ago. She’s afraid of mascot, so might keep away from fanatic. Man,

Luke Jones  45:34

right? Fanatic really scar her. See, that’s why, that’s why I got her the Oriole bird. Stuffy, like hoping,

8

Nestor Aparicio  45:41

dude, Tommy was sort of died scarred by the Philly fanatic. You know, think about it. You know, it was a lifetime thing for him.

Luke Jones  45:48

Although you remember Tommy la sorta had you be thrown out in Montreal. Remember, he had him thrown out of a game, great stuff. I mean, like, great stuff.

Nestor Aparicio  45:57

No wonder you love professional wrestling. We’re gonna be at faidley’s on Wednesday, Lexington market. It’s all brought to you by GBMC and Farland, Dermer Zach came by, hung out. I don’t know if you’ll ever do it again. He did deliver me a fantastic Hawaiian American Standard heating and air conditioning shirt. And this is this. This is nice in here. This is he went all out here. He got one of the nice shirts that breathes. These are like a real golf you can wear this really golfing. He’s Luke. I’m Nestor. We’re back for more. We’re Baltimore positive. Stay

Nestor Aparicio  46:27

with us. You.