By the end of Memorial Day, the Baltimore Orioles had won three games in a row for the first time in 2025 and Luke Jones and Nestor take a reprieve from all of the last-place woes of an awful baseball team that has questions throughout the organization as May turns to June.
Luke Jones and Nestor Aparicio discuss the Baltimore Orioles’ recent three-game winning streak, highlighting key performances from Trevor Rogers, Dylan Carlson, and Charlie Morton. Despite the streak, the team remains 18 games under .500. They reflect on the season’s struggles, including poor starting pitching and underperforming players. The conversation touches on potential roster changes, with a focus on young players like Jackson Holliday and Kobe Mayo. They also discuss the impact of recent management changes, including the firing of Brandon Hyde and the appointment of Tony Mancini as interim manager. The overall tone is cautiously optimistic, emphasizing the need for consistent improvement and strategic decisions to rebuild the team.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Orioles winning streak, Trevor Rogers, Dylan Carlson, Charlie Morton, Brandon Hyde, Tony Mancini, Ryan O’Hearn, Jackson Holliday, starting pitching, bullpen, roster changes, manager search, team performance, Memorial Day, Baltimore Orioles.
SPEAKERS
8
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T am 1570 towns of Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive and positively into the post Memorial Day holiday. Some point it’ll be 80 degrees around here. It’ll be 120 once it’s 80 degrees around here, Luke has been hanging out at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. We have postponed our faithly show on Wednesday from the 28th we’re gonna do that show on June the 13th, when the California, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim come in for a series. Luke has been at Oreo park of Camden Yards. Luke, I think when we got together last week, I think people missed it. I said we’re suspending all conversation regarding the Baltimore Orioles until they win three in a row. And lo and behold, they won three in a row over the weekend, and now we have to talk about them again.
Luke Jones 00:50
Yeah, and look at who’s doing it. I mean, Trevor Rogers with a good start at Fenway, Dylan Carlson. I mean, who would have thought Dylan Carlson one of their hottest hitters here over the last few days. And yes, Charlie Morton with his finest start as an Oriole, and we’ve talked about it. And you know, you try to look at this through the proper lens at this point. I mean, the record is what it is, the fact that a three game winning streak feels as big of a deal as it does right now. As far as prosperity speaks to just how miserable these first couple months have been, but one thing that if you have been able to stomach continuing to watch this team over the last few weeks that you have noticed, regardless of what the situation’s been, Charlie Morton has looked better the last few weeks, and to see him do what he did on Monday does not wipe away what the first five or six weeks were and his early work was, but he’s looking better, and they quit on Gibson quick, right? Yeah, well, and there’s the difference. And Morton talked about this, you and I talked about this back in April, you know, and we were talking about one thing that I was struggling with him before just proclaiming that he’s done or that he’s washed up, was, if you looked at it physically, it’s not as though the velocity was way down. It’s not as though the pitches you know, his curve, he wasn’t commanding, right? And that’s been an elite pitch for him. I think what you’ve seen the last few outings, going back to him coming out of the bullpen, was that curbs become a thing again. You know, when you looked at what he was able to do with some of the swing and miss he got against the Cardinals, you know, is he gonna be able to do this the rest of the year? That’s that’s the big question. How much does it matter? I mean, can he pitch well enough that the Orioles might be able to dump them at the deadline and pay off some money, and maybe they’ll get a couple lottery tickets. Who knows, but he was better on Monday. And what the theme that we kind of saw starting over the weekend at Fenway, after just the disaster that Friday afternoon was, I guess that was Friday afternoon, you and I were
Nestor Aparicio 02:58
poop, texting, oh, terribly with them on Friday afternoon, they were 18 games under 500 Saturday afternoon,
8Luke Jones 03:06
but, but when you win three in a row and you get decent starting pitching and your at bats have been a little bit better with runners in scoring position, it’s amazing how much more manageable it looks to win some ball games too little too late. Yeah. I mean, even if you look at them now, after a three game winning streak, just to get to 85 and 77 they have to play like a 98 win team the rest of the year. I mean, get back to me when this team’s won 11 of 12, or something like that, and then we can look at the math at that point. But one of the big questions for me when you make the move to fire Brandon hide and Tony mancellino Is your interim manager, and we’re going to see what else is going to happen in terms of manager, coaching staff, person, roster. It’s really awkward. Oh, it is, but, but, but my but, the point I’m trying to make is, what are you going to be the rest of the year? Are you going to continue to play like a 110 loss outfit, and you’re going to be that embarrassing and that shameful in terms of your performance relative to expectations, or are you going to get off the mat and at least play better the rest of the way? Is that going to save their season? No, but we’re not talking about this team as though it’s the dark ages that, oh, they’re going to lose like this the next three or four years. I mean, I hope not so. The thought is, how can you position yourself to really get back on track and hit the ground running for 2026 that starts now that’s not play this out with listless baseball for the next four months. It’s who, who’s going to show who’s going to show that? You know, the cream is going to rise to the top, and some of these young guys are going to play better hit the ball in every game this month. You look at him, Ryan O’Hearn. I mean, Ryan o’hearns looking like someone that, in a world where Aaron judge didn’t exist, he’d be talking about him having a chance for the batting title. Yeah.
Nestor Aparicio 04:52
I mean, his numbers are sort of replaced what Henderson was supposed to be, kind of sort of right and, and
Luke Jones 04:57
look, I mean, Gunner Henderson, go, look at the nine. He’s not having an awful year by any stretch of the imagination. He’s having an Anthony Santon there, but he’s, yeah, he just, he hasn’t looked like that MVP from from the first half of last year. And, you know, I mean, obviously now, with Adley rutschman, there’s a health concern with the foul off his mask. But for all these guys again, this is when I want to see what’s under the hood in terms of you as a competitor, in terms of you as a club, that everyone says how talented you are and all of that, let’s see you start playing better baseball the rest of the way. And is that going to be enough to save this year? No, I don’t think it is. But because you they dug a hole that deep for themselves. But that doesn’t mean that you just have to wallow in it and win 50 games and be that kind of team again. Or you get off the mat, you play better baseball. And you know, you see, you see what it looks like the rest of the way. And you see who you identify as, saying, Hey, okay, this didn’t work out team wide, Team wise. But to your point, Jackson holiday is looking like a player. You know, that’s why I want to see Kobe Mayo up here at some point in the not too distant future, and just let the guy play for two months and see what it looks like. Right? I mean, find out about some of these guys that you’ve been kind of slow playing and trying to thread the needle with, so to speak. So, you know, a three game winning trick. Great. Congratulations. You’ve looked like the team we thought maybe you would look like for at least a few days, but at this point, just still struggling
Nestor Aparicio 06:31
8with runners, scoring positions, runners everywhere.
Luke Jones 06:35
And again, this, this not, I’m not sitting here 19 to five and they
Nestor Aparicio 06:39
had a smear rule the other night. They had a guy, you know, they had a position player pitching again, fmway Park. I mean, last time we got together, it was like, embarrassing. Then it was like, All right, they got a split. They won a couple of close games. Now they’re like, on a Lou Baker here, you know, they’re on a real winning streak, you know, like, so I hard be it for me to poop upon them at this point. But, I mean, let’s take them one at a time. Trevor Rogers,
Luke Jones 07:07
yeah. I mean, Trevor Rogers, I mean, kind of, you know, obviously it was a double header scenario. I mean, he was in Boston for the originally scheduled double header on Friday. The second game got bang. So then he goes to Saturday and, you know, he looked good. The velocity was a little bit better than what we saw last year. I mean, I think there was a conviction to how he pitched. I thought he was aggressive, you know, wasn’t this overwhelming, you know, it’s not like he paid 13 guys or anything crazy like that, but it played. And I think all you can ask when you’re talking about someone who’s caught up as a 27th man, or someone who makes a spot start, or someone, in the case of like, you know, a Dylan Carlson, who is taking advantage of an opportunity, because you got a bunch of outfielders hurt right now, take advantage of that. So in the case of Rogers, he was returned to Norfolk. I’m guessing you know he’s going to get another opportunity here in the near future and take advantage of it. I mean, that’s what this is. All About, success in the big leagues. Man. This isn’t Chase McDermott here. This is, this isn’t Gabe Fauci. This is a guy who did it
8Nestor Aparicio 08:13
and all star, yeah. I mean, I mean, I be it for the Marlins, but still an all star. So, you know, having walking onto the field at Fenway Park. He’s been thinking about that for a long time. You know, having a chance to redeem and get back and have that kind of success that he had. I mean, it’s, you know, he stood on the Hill of Yankee Stadium. He’s not a neophyte about this, this, this finding the magic for all these guys. CNL Perez over the weekend, right?
Luke Jones 08:41
Yeah, well, I mean, CNL, Perez, you know, the last straw of him being DFA was, you know, he couldn’t get through an inning that they had to use a position player, right? I mean, you get to a point where the bar is so low that you can’t even handle mop up duty without having the struggles goodbye. I mean, and I don’t, I don’t say that to be harsh or personal. You know, CNL, Perez had a nice couple years as an Oriole, but it wasn’t trending in the right direction. And, you know, for me, I was at the point before that move went down. That to me, you look at this, you look around, what’s happened? Brandon Hyde, of course, it’s been a little over a week now. You know, going on a week and a half since he since he was fired, where you look at this and say, Wait a second, okay, we all understand how this General, General generally works with managers and head coaches, right? You can’t fire the whole team, so the manager or the head coach is the first to go. However, when you get to a point where you have certain individuals, like CNL, Perez, like you know, to a lesser extent, but still. Kyle Gibson, you know, was showing no signs whatsoever of being able to get anyone out. Charlie Morton, until the last few weeks, where it’s trended in a in a better direction. But my point with that is, you’ve got to start, you know, if. If you sent this message that you needed a new voice, a new message, a new manager, when do you start? When does that start trickling down to the players, where you say, if you’re not going to get the job done, we’re going to bring someone else up who is going to get an opportunity if you’re not going to take advantage of it. So you know, I think CNL Perez is, I want to say the first but someone who’s been around for a few years now, other guys that kind of fit that description at this point. I mean, you know, we’ve, we’ve talked about Jorge Mateo off and on for two years now, right? I, you know, I played a little bit of outfield at Fenway over the weekend. Again, they’re really banged up with Laureano on the IL now, the Colton cowser could be back by the end of the week, you know, as he’s continuing, continuing a rehab assignment. But when you’re in this position that the Orioles are in, where you know you’re 15 games under 500 your season shot compared to what you expected it to be, then I want to see guys get opportunities, and I want to see guys where you say, you know you’re not on scholarship, you know that, frankly, you know there are a lot of players on this team that are part of the problem of why they’re where they are right now. So that’s not to be harsh again. It’s not to be personal. It’s not to pick on anyone. But if you’re not getting the job done, and you’re kind of in this middle ground area now where you know this team isn’t going to realistically climb back into the wild card race at the same time, it’s not just having placeholders tanking like they were five years ago, either. That’s where, to me, it’s like, okay, give some young guys, give some different guys some opportunity. And you know, if you need to say goodbye to CNL Perez or Jorge Mateo or Charlie Morton, if he reverts to what he was and is awful six weeks from now again, then so be it. You know, you want to find out some some information at the back to
Nestor Aparicio 11:54
pile divers at this point. I mean, if somebody’s not going to be on the team next year, they don’t need to be around here this year.
Luke Jones 12:01
8That’s what I kind of and that’s that, to me, is where, hey, Dylan Carlson, gotten a chance to play the last few days. Hit a home run at Fenway. Hit the big three run homer on Monday afternoon. Good like good Dylan Carlson’s the kind of guy that you know might be someone that’s not going to necessarily say a starting player for you next year, but certainly could be on the roster as your fourth outfielder, your backup center fielder. What? What’s going to happen at center field? I mean, with Mullins being a free agent, you know, cows are can play center field, but Dylan Carlson, hey, you’re playing for the rest of this year in 2026 so he’s your Steve Pierce, yeah, you know, I mean, you’re looking for all of that, and that’s why I said, you know, for me, I could
Nestor Aparicio 12:42
be looking for a manager, because this guy’s not going to be the manager of the team. I mean, you wouldn’t think so, right, right, right. And that’s why all of this is so it’s weird, disjointed, and it shows me that the owner doesn’t know what he’s doing. Nobody around there has command of what’s going on. I don’t think they’re a better team without Brandon Hyde and this guy, to me, just watching the press conferences and the body language like I remember his dad. I remember Doug mancillino, who’s a longtime coach, and I, I think I interacted with his dad at various points, because I always interacted with coaches, because the coaches are always the smartest people. Didn’t take me long to figure that out. I learned. I only learned about baseball by talking to coaches, not by players, and they were more sharing as well. I’m not down on him. I just it’s just the whole look of it. Yes, it’s not smacking championship and confidence and strategy, and we know what we’re doing, it’s smacking of we’re flying by the seat of our pants, yeah, well, and our pants are on fire.
Luke Jones 13:50
Well, I mean, what? What scenario where you’re firing a manager in late May is going to reflect, well, with the things that you just mentioned. I mean, that’s just the truth. And I’m with you. You know, 18 games under 500 they’re
Nestor Aparicio 14:04
getting their ass kicked. 19 to five they got position players pitching at Fenway Park in a division game, and Brandon has got a manager there, and they’re 18 games under 500 I mean, like we’re shining up the turd here on Tuesday morning because they won a little bit over the weekend. But holy cow. I mean, like Friday night, Saturday afternoon, I’m sitting over Cooper’s eating a burger. Why? Praying that they, by the way, brought him good luck. They haven’t lost since I had the burger of the month at Cooper’s north on Saturday night. But, I mean, I’m in there was a time 00, they were up, one, nothing in the seventh inning, or something like they could have gotten swept Saturday. So just, it’s just, I don’t see a solution here, and I don’t know that I’m looking for one. You’re in the middle of the season. It’s, we’re now post Memorial Day. But like, where’s the leadership, man, you know? Well, I mean,
8Luke Jones 14:57
like I said, You. What is the script when you have to fire your manager in May, right? I mean, what? Well,
Nestor Aparicio 15:03
it’s not hide in Milwaukee. Four days later, into a press conference, the team comes back home. They’re winning. I agree. Like, there’s no leadership here. Where’s Mr. Rubenstein? 50,000 people got bottle heads everywhere. But like, where? Where’s the front for this. Tony Goliath knows the front. Mike Elias is hiding times a day. I
Luke Jones 15:27
but it’s Mike Elias. I mean, I I’m not saying it’s good, but Michael ice runs a show now. Is he going to be running the show after this year? I mean, that’s, I think that’s to be determined, right? I mean, I think that it’s a big question.
Nestor Aparicio 15:39
8Well, if he’s running high when they’re getting their ass kicked and fire the manager and then hide for I mean, like, this is we talked about this last week. I mean, yeah, I’m with you, but, I mean, they’re back home, how long is he going to continue to hide? But what I’m just saying, what I’m seeing on a daily basis, beyond Melanie Newman and the pregame show and Ben McDonald and Palmer looking like, really well tanned that I I’m just watching it, and I’m like, why am I watching it? And I know a lot of people were thinking the same thing, and they’re all saying that to me everywhere I go and sit on a bar stool. They’re like, this is unwatchable. Just terrible. This is, I’m going to cost this on Tuesday night and have some crabs and and watch him and just hear what other people think, because there’s
Luke Jones 16:23
nothing changing that right now. I mean, I don’t care how great your Leap, you know, Michaelia, but Mike Elias could have called a press conference at the moment that Brandon Hyde is fired. And that’s not, no one’s you know, it is what it is. There’s no fixing it, just like that. I mean, I don’t, you know, but there is getting in front of it to a point, but at the same time, what’s Mike Elias gonna say that any fans gonna feel good about right now? I mean, there, it’s a total mess. I agree with you. I said it last week. It was, it was exhibited poor leadership to not get in front of it. But, you know, let’s also, let’s also be realistic, and saying he’s there’s nothing he can say at the moment that is going to make anyone feel better. It’s going to be in the results. That’s why I said the rest of the year. It’s about fixing your young core. It’s about getting guys healthy. It’s about seeing who is going to be part of this team moving forward and who’s not. It’s about seeing what kind of trades you can make that not so much to position yourself for 2025 but where you can position yourself for the future, whether that’s selling off guys, whether that’s being a buyer and a seller hybrid that we’ve seen teams like the rays be in the past, where, okay, you’re going to sell off some pending free agents, but you also there might be a pitcher that you know, this year’s version of Zach Eflin, that You might say, hey, we’ll get this guy because we want him for next year. So, I mean, that’s really what you’re looking at right now. I mean, I’m with you. I mean three, three wins in a row. I mean, you know, it’s fun for a couple days, but it’s doesn’t change anything. I mean, I still have to play like a 98 win team the rest of the year just to go 85 and 77 which may or may not be good enough for to hang in the final wild card spot race. But
Nestor Aparicio 18:07
look at the lineup they have. I mean, Dylan Carlson aside, and the backup catcher, and ruchman now, and Sanchez was a Boston and Gibson was a boss, and you just go, Kittredge is pitching now, right? So that’s going, I, you know, finding the silver linings in, you know, whatever they they could deal off, which is, you know, I guess that’s, that’s you’re looking for productivity from the young guys to pad stats to say maybe they can be 18 and seven in the month of September, after being, you know, 16 and 13 in the month of August or so, you know, just something that feels like signs of life. But I do look at the lineup and I’m like, This is so less than ideal. Just look at the lineup and, you know, it’s not a good baseball team.
Luke Jones 19:00
Well, I mean, they’re not at full strength. I mean, they’re not even close to full now, you’re hoping that it’s getting closer, because cows are has already started his rehab assignment. Westberg is going to start it at Norfolk this week as well. So maybe by the time you and I are talking a week from now, they have those guys back in the lineup, and it’s looking more representative. But, I mean, that’s a big part of it. We’ve talked about this, you know, in trying to figure out why it’s been this bad, and I emphasize the word this right this in italics, why has it been this bad? It’s been a combination of, yes, the off season that you had, and not addressing your starting pitching nearly enough. It’s been injuries, it’s been underperforming. There’s been a dash of some tough luck here and there. You know, all those things thrown together then, yeah, you end up getting a scenario where, you know, you look on the proverbial bell curve and say, Yeah, this is one of the you. When you’re envisioning all the different scenarios that a season can play out, this has been about the worst case scenario that you’ll find. And I don’t say that to pity the Orioles or you know that it’s woe is me thing, but it’s been that bad. So you get to a point now, and you just mentioned it, I think what you’re looking for from this Orioles club the rest of the way, can you be like the 2022 team. Think about it, 2022 go look at what the record was in June. You know, they were 10 or 11 games under 500 then they they ripped off a long winning streak in early July, and they were a wild card contender the rest of the year. Did that was the rushman shot. Yeah, right. It was rutchman. And you know, some, you know, some of the other guys, you know, Gunnar Henderson, was called up what in late August, I think it was, you know, last week of August, whatever it was, but they were ascending, right? So I think what you want to see from this team the rest of the way is, can you get back to a point where the arrow is pointing upward, right? Can you get back to a point and say, look, the math is even this team’s even if this team starting with this three game winning streak that they come out of Memorial Day weekend on, even if they’re great from that point on, the math is very much against them the rest of the year. So, so even if that’s that scenario plays out, you’re really behind the eight ball big time. So we know the reality of that, you know? So can you get yourself in a position where the eyeball test is matching up? You know? You’re playing better defense. You’re getting better starting pitching with Kittredge now in the bullpen Batista now being allowed to pitch back to backs. You’re hoping he’s treated like more of a quote, regular reliever. You get Cano back on track, you know, you start to have the semblance of, okay, not the best bullpen in baseball by any stretch, but something that looks like some semblance of a, hey, if you get a lead to the seventh inning, you’ve got a chance to hold. Dude. I’m up for two in the seventh I gotta win. Like what they did on what they did on Monday, you know, Sir Anthony Dominguez came in in the seventh inning. Look good. Cano looked as good as he’s looked in a while. And then Batista pitched the ninth inning. I’m not going to say it’s going to be that easy every time out. And those guys have to prove that they can go out and do it consistently. But there was, you know, it, it looked like there was some semblance of design there that, hey, if you get a starter that goes six innings for you and pitches like Charlie Morton pitched, then, hey, we’ve got three or four relievers that we feel okay about at the very least. So, you know, I’m not saying that that’s what it’s going to be moving forward, but that’s kind of the idea. And you know, the same goes for continuing to run Jackson holiday out there as the leadoff hitter every day. I mean, one thing that I really liked about their approach, you know, even going back to the end of the Red Sox series, was, I think you’re just seeing a better approach. I mean, look how many opposite field hits they had against Fetty on on Monday. I mean, that was good to see. I mean, Jackson holiday going the other way, twice. Gunner Henderson going the other way once, or Hearn going the other way multiple times. I mean, that looked like a more I don’t think it’s necessarily like, Oh my gosh. They’ve changed their approach. I think it’s carrying out what they’ve wanted their approach to be all along a little bit more effectively. And how much of that is you’re getting a little bit better pitching, and maybe that does help your mindset a little bit. Mindset a little bit. I’ll buy that. I’ve never rejected that, that notion completely. I just didn’t like the idea that you were just, you know, not you just, in a general sense, people saying, Oh, this the pitching is bad. What do you expect the hitting to be? Well, what about the nights where the pitching was okay and they still didn’t hit? So, you know, you would just want to see a more representative effort, more representative showing from this team on a more consistent basis. And you know that doesn’t mean that they’re going to play great the rest of the way. It doesn’t mean that they’re not going to continue to have some woes, because I still don’t have a lot of confidence in this rotation as it’s presently constructed. But can you start to get into some stretches where you play. How about play 500 over the course of a few weeks, right? I mean, that would be an improvement from what we’ve seen. So can you just start? I’m
8Nestor Aparicio 24:10
with you with the rotation, finding guys that every fifth day is going to take the ball. I mean, it’s tough like that, that that that has to be a part of any winning baseball ethos. In the history of baseball, if you’re going to be if you’re going to be decent, you have to have three or four pitchers that are going to make the post, that are going to get in, and then wherever that cavalry is for radish in August, or Rodriguez in July, or, you know, any number. I heard Suarez, his name being thrown around, right? So like all of these names, including cowser and westburg and rushman and he’s out again, were all part of that thing. And it wasn’t going to be, you know, Charlie work, that was going to lead them to the press. Promised land. We had a pencil and as a fifth starter, he barely made it. As that he’s still around. So one of my game on Monday, so holiday game. So so far, where they are in this man, Celino era, is I? Yeah. I mean, they’ve won three games in a row. Say, I today, of all days, I’m not allowed to throw rocks. I’m not going to be there today. But
Luke Jones 25:25
at the same time, let’s not kid ourselves, right? I mean, let’s look at it for what it is. I mean, this has been a very bad baseball team. Of regardless of what any of our prior expectations were, they’ve been bad. They’re run differential and everything I’ve I’ve said this to you how many times where put aside what we thought these guys were supposed to be in terms of the actual play on the field, they’ve they’ve exuded no redeemable qualities. They’ve been bad pitching wise, bullpen and rotation, their offense has been well below average. They haven’t run the bases well. They haven’t defended very well. You know, I feel like the defense at times, has gotten a little bit better over the last couple weeks, but you know, you still see them have lapses. I mean that by the way, the Red Sox and the Cardinals had lapses, and that’s part of why the Orioles have won a couple of these games, and hey, but that’s also part of the luck factor, and part of like, if you’re going to turn things around, maybe the other team helps you out a little bit more often, but you just want to start seeing some signs of some things that you can latch on to and say, okay, as much as this has stunk and this season has stunk to the highest degree that it can stink for a team that thought it was going to be good, what can you latch on to? What can you point to to say, All right, that’s looking better, and that’s looking encouraging. We’ve talked about that with holiday, you know, I think Ryan O’Hearn, it’s fascinating, because this is a guy who, I mean, he finished Memorial Day. He’s hitting 340 right? I mean, he’s been really, really impressive. And we’ve talked about, this been a good story for a couple years now, but I look at someone like him, and immediately people are going to think, Oh, you can trade him at the deadline. But my question would be, what exactly are you going to get for Ryan O’Hearn, relative to, if you hypothetically say, I think I might want to keep him around, you know what? Because he’s actually one of the few grown ups we have in our clubhouse, and he’s kind of become a spokesman for this team in, you know, not in the way that he’s like the captain, but in the way that, when things are rough, he’s, he’s out in front of it, and he’s talking about, he’s picking up some other he’s also a
Nestor Aparicio 27:31
big, big disappointment of a guy who was a first round draft pick, sure, he’s been down the dark road, yeah.
Luke Jones 27:37
8I mean, a guy who was, you know, what, had chances with the Royals, and it never worked out. I mean, I mean, think about, I mean, the Orioles picked him up and, you know, it wasn’t like he was, oh, they, they picked him up and he was going to be on their team. I mean, he started in the minors in 2023 before they called him up. So he’s someone that I think is such a unique and I’m just using him as a case study right here, as far as if I’m michaelias, if I’m the the brain, the brain trust of this organization, baseball ops, right now, I’m not viewing this through the same lens that I did three years ago, where I’m trading Trey Mancini at the trade deadline, even though my team’s kind of, sort of hanging around in the wild card race, I’m looking at this differently now this doesn’t mean I’m not Trading Ryan o’hern. No questions asked. If someone wants to really give me something that’s really attractive, that I think can, honest to goodness, really help me next year and moving forward, then fine. But if it’s more of a case of, you know, it’s a couple lottery tickets and that’s about it, my argument would be, I’m not so sure Ryan o’hern isn’t more valuable staying put and being part of your team moving forward, at least the next couple years, than just trading them, because some teams willing to give you a couple middling prospects for them, that’s the kind of thing that I think, if you’re Mike Elias. I want to see how he sorts through this, you know? I want to see what adjustments are made. I want to see how he operates at the trade deadline. I want to see what, what’s going to happen with the managers. You know, we still don’t have clarity on mancellino. You know, Is he truly honest to goodness, going to be just the interim manager for the next four months? Or are you at least going to explore I’m not saying you have to do it, because we all understand that the pool of candidates is more limited in season than it would be come October. But are you going to explore the possibility? Are you open to the possibility of hiring a manager in the way that the Orioles hired Bucha Walter in August of 2010 after they can tremley two months, two months earlier? So you know, these are the things I want to know. These are the things I want to find out about some of these young guys. I want to see who gets off the mat. I want to see who bounces back. I mean, Trevor Rogers, maybe that was just a one off. Maybe that was, hey, it’s baseball, and weird things happen. Or was this a case of Trevor Rogers did some soul searching in the off season. He even talked about this, you know, after his start on Saturday, I. He acknowledged that he had some doubts, wondering if he was going to make it back to the majors, just the way things had trended so poorly for him over the last year, and he he admitted to kind of doubting himself. I want to see what this start does for him now, confidence wise, moving forward doesn’t mean that he’s going to be a fixture in the rotation, but maybe he this is the start of him turning it around. You know, I I want to see. You know, this has got check time for a lot of these guys again. There’s not really too many likely scenarios or too many paths to save their season. We all understand that. But can you get this thing? You know, it’s like trying to get something turned around and moving in the right direction again. And that’s, that’s that’s what I want to see. You know, that’s what I want to and it’s, believe me, a three game winning streak tells us nothing about that big picture question. It’s just a three game winning streak. Everyone, other than maybe the Rockies, will have a three game winning streak this year. But you know, I want to see, you know, I want to see things start to turn and start to look a little bit better. And it doesn’t mean it’s going to look that way across the board. Doesn’t mean that they’re going to go 20 and 10 over the next month. But start looking better, you know, start start looking like a little more like the team we thought you were capable of being this year. And, you know, from that point. I don’t know what grand conclusion you draw, but at least you feel better about things and you you feel better about this team’s prospects of being a contender next year, compared to if you just go through the motions and you just stink for the next four months, and you’re 50 and 112 or 55 and 107 and and then that’s when it gets really tough to look at this thing and say, All right, what’s the pathway to contend next year if you’re that bad for that long? That’s where I think you really start to fight the you know that the old adage, it’s really tough to stop losing. You know? You know, losing is a disease. You know, to think back to the natural and you know, the sports psychologist that was speaking to the to the Knights or whatever. But, you know, just start tasting some success a little bit more, start feeling better about yourselves. And again, it’s not going to save everything. It’s not going to make anything all better, but it sure beats the alternative of just falling lower and lower down the standings and further and further away from 500
Nestor Aparicio 32:24
I still continue to watch how they’re reacting to losing Mr. Rubenstein, Katie Griggs, the whole front office, all Elias, all of it, Al mansolino, is taking this opportunity for himself as well as you know, every, every Carlson, every every player who’s getting at bats and getting opportunities here, Charlie Morton aside, because he’s playing for pride at this point and he’s getting paid. But in many cases here, I’m wondering what the pathway forward is, if they continue to falter in regard to who’s going to manage a team, who’s going to pick the players, all of that. Who’s going to pick? The person that picks the players? Lucas here is Baltimore, Luke the Orioles are home all week. St Louis in town, in the White Sox this weekend as well. You could find Luke anywhere the internet is served. We’re doing some football as well this week. Some activities being held out, knowings mills that Luke will be covering later on this week and some questions about all those football decisions they’ve made with their special teams. I am Nestor. We are W N St. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore positive. I.
