So much disappointment for the fans; so many bad beats for the baseball team. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the rut of the Orioles after the team hit four home runs on Sunday and still lost by five runs after surrendering seven homers to the Kansas City Royals.
Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Baltimore Orioles’ recent performance, highlighting their 13-20 record and the team’s struggles with pitching and offense. They noted the Orioles’ 10 home runs allowed against the Kansas City Royals, setting a franchise record for the Royals. Nestor and Luke criticized the team’s lack of consistency, particularly in hitting against left-handed pitchers and with runners in scoring position. They also discussed the impact of injuries on the roster and the need for better performance from key players like Cedric Mullins, Ryan Mountcastle, and Adley Rutschman. The conversation concluded with a focus on the team’s future outlook and the need for significant improvements.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Orioles, Kansas City Royals, home runs, pitching, offense, injuries, Charlie Morton, Brandon Hyde, bullpen, run differential, young core, Adley Rutschman, Cedric Mullins, Ryan O’Hearn, Mike Elias.
SPEAKERS
8
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, where Baltimore positive. This town loves me. Luke Jones joins us now. We’re going to be doing the Maryland crab cake tour on Wednesday in my homeland of White Marsh, where my son went to high school. The hall very all I thought it would never work the avenue. What do I know? 30 years later, we’re gonna be doing the crab cake Tour presented by our friends at the Maryland lottery. I will have the the new scratch offs to give away, which are better than the old scratch offs. I’m having fun giving these new scratch offs away because it was such a good movie Back to the Future. I will have those to give away on on Wednesday in White Marsh. Luke, the Orioles can’t pitch. They don’t hit every other day. No one’s going to the games, even when they give out the Jedi, I am here, Luke, I am your conversation analyst. What’s going on, man, may the fourth be with you, by the way, may the fifth be with you too.
Luke Jones 01:00
Hey, the Orioles. You know, we talked about it, they took two out of three from the New York Yankees. And then on Saturday and Sunday, they made the Kansas City Royals look like the New York Yankees giving up 10 home runs. So, I mean, it’s every time you try to have a glimmer of optimism, a shred of hope that this thing’s going to turn around. Then the Orioles go back to telling you who they are, which is a bad baseball team, until they prove otherwise. I mean, 13 and 20 says it all. So Friday night was great. You know, Dean Kramer pitched well, and you get a crisp ball game. Not that they swung the bats incredibly well, but they get a big, big blow from Ryan O’Hearn, and then they win on Friday night. And you’re thinking, okay, just took two out of three from the Yankees. Great chance to take two out of three from the Royals, who came into the weekend playing pretty well, and then, well, Saturday and Sunday happen. And, you know, Saturday they they lose four nothing but and they didn’t swing the bats. I mean that that was I, I’ve said it over and over, if this team gets nights where they give up three or four runs, which I’m not saying is anything to throw a parade over, but given the overall state of the pitching, you’ll take that. And they got shut out so and then on Friday or Sunday, they get a day where they kind of answer back they hit the long ball. Jackson holiday has a really nice day, some elements offensively that you should feel good about and, well, they give up seven home runs, a franchise record for the Kansas City Royals, who, by the way, went into Saturday last in the majors and home runs. And well, again, you give up 10 home runs in two days. I want to
Nestor Aparicio 02:33
take that on as as an owner of a George Brent bobblehead and a guy who’s loved the Kansas City Royals forever. You were a little young, but I know you’re such a historian, so you know this, but the willie Wilson, Freddie Patek, George Brett era, the stadium was built not just to give everybody brain cancer, which it did, but also to hit triples and doubles, and it had these wide gaps and stuff. And I’m thinking when I heard that it was a franchise record, because I’m watching the game, like, seven home runs, doesn’t it seems like the Royals would have done that at some point in 55 years. And I’m thinking to myself, well, what would the franchise record for the Orioles speed? Did they ever hit nine or 10 and again, I mean, it’s a lot of home runs they hit in a sport where there was a huge dead ball era, where there weren’t a lot of home runs, where they moved fences back when the new stadiums got built, primarily in the late 1990s but then there were, you know, chicks dug the long ball. Everybody was was sticking needles in their arms. And, you know, Pudge Rodriguez is in the bathroom with the Raphael Palmero and Juan Gonzalez and Ruben Sierra, and they’re all hitting 50 home run, I don’t know, but, like, I’m shocked that it’s a record seven home runs in a game. I just sort of thought that would have happened before, but I don’t know. It’s a lot of home runs.
8Luke Jones 03:46
Man, it is. But Orioles pitching finds a way, I guess.
Nestor Aparicio 03:51
I mean, that’s all you got. I’m trying to do a history, and that’s all you got is the Orioles pitching stinks. I
Luke Jones 03:56
didn’t, I didn’t hop on here thinking we were going to do a look back at the history of the Kansas City Royal.
Nestor Aparicio 04:02
8I’m trying to think, how many likes, euros, mid seven, home runs. It’s a lot. I mean, yeah, now that I’m thinking about it, I’m trying to record eight or nine,
Luke Jones 04:09
probably. I mean, off the top of my head, I, you know, I like, I said, I don’t, it’s a
Nestor Aparicio 04:15
weird record to even bring up in the game, like the Royals mid seven, it got me thinking, like, well, they had the it’s, I don’t know how many times have I looked at a box score and seen seven home runs for one team? I’ve looked at a million box boards. That’s a lot of home runs.
Luke Jones 04:27
Man, well, and the two teams combined to tie the record for most, most solo home runs in a game. What 1111? Home runs, and you
8Nestor Aparicio 04:35
were at screwing around with Mike Green. You missed the historic game at Camden Yards. Yeah, sure. You want me to do the 13 and 20. You want me to have a sense of humor. You want me to fire the manager. What do you want me to do? I can go either way. I can fire the owner and the woman that doesn’t give me a press pass too but like too much, I am blown away. They’re setting records in really bad ways. And I think when we talk about the pitching stinking. And like we can make light of it. We could, and Dean Kramer could pitch well on a Friday night. Dean Kramer’s capable of pitching well every fifth day, which is why they give him the ball. I, I’m not sure Charlie Morton’s capable. I, I’m the Kyle Gibson thing. I’ll hear I like Kyle. I see his face and I like Kyle Guy. I’ve never I don’t know anything about Kyle Gibson, but I sort of like him. And the rest of this is just triple A trash, I mean, for the most part. And I think the bullpen thinking it was going to be some sort of strength, because Brian break Baker was decent at the beginning, and you’ll get submitting it out of Bautista. I don’t think the the bullpen has any strength either. So, um, getting efflin back is one of their only prayers, and I getting two 500 and feeling that I don’t know dog, I don’t know it’s at 6789, under. I’m wondering, wondering how they’re ever going to get pitching over a 30 day period, a 45 day period, to get back to 500 you know what I mean? And maybe I’m wrong. Maybe they’ll go eight and two next week and sort of button things up. Now, they’re in the lighter part of their schedule to some degree, but just on a daily basis. They don’t perform offense well. They don’t run the bases, they don’t take pitches, they don’t think in terms of banging a starting pitcher around and working him a little bit like they don’t. This isn’t a good team. You’re right, but I’m trying to work through how the hell this happened this quickly, that we’re in the middle of Maine, it’s going to be freaked this week, next week, and we’re talking lacrosse around here this week. Yeah,
Luke Jones 06:35
well, and again, let’s, let’s not completely bury the lead in terms of, yes, the pitching is horrific. They’re also very injured. That is part of it. I know people don’t want to hear that part of it, but go Look how long their injured list is right now. That is absolutely a factor in what’s going on here, that it’s this bad, right? That it’s been
Nestor Aparicio 06:54
pitched that way by their employees, because their employees control the message. So by the end
Luke Jones 07:00
8of the year, acknowledge it. But the
Nestor Aparicio 07:02
and I will agree with that. I mean, it’s absolutely part of it. There’s 100% that if you’re gonna shoot Mike Elias in the head, you have to talk about all of the good pictures, or the acquisition of burns, the acquisition of effluent. He did things to fortify this thing. It hasn’t worked out. It hasn’t worked out.
Luke Jones 07:19
I mean, he did some things now, other things, some things better than others. And look, I will hear 100% if you’re asking questions as far as, why can’t you keep players healthy? And you know, on the pitching side, I mean on the position player side, I mean all of that. So look, it’s just there’s a lot of frustration. And everything you say about the pitching, I’m not disagreeing with you. I’ll continue to come back to if you’re going to do anything, this offense needs to look like a strength. On Sunday,
Nestor Aparicio 07:50
lost by five runs. That’s our game. They got shut out on Saturday.
8Luke Jones 07:53
Nestor, like you’re cherry picking their offense has not been good. I just said that you didn’t like it when I said it, no, but I’m just saying at some point, like, like, you keep lamenting the D student getting F’s while I’m sitting here looking at what’s supposed to be an A student who has a c minus or a D plus average. Right now, I mean that I’m going to continue to hammer the the offense, because that’s what’s supposed to be good. That’s what this team’s strength is supposed to be. And it’s not good. It’s below average. It’s horrendous against left handed pitching. It’s terrible with runners in scoring position, I mean. And believe me, I hear you on the pitching side in terms of trying to gain traction and winning seven of eight, winning 10 of 11. You know, going on a two week stretch where suddenly you can go from seven games under to you’re at 500 the pitching absolutely creates plenty of doubt that you can do that. But I’d say the same exact thing about the offense, because Saturday was a very winnable game, even with the rain delay. I mean, Sagano coming back out there and going as deep as he did with a rain delay in the midst of that, that was kind of impressive, especially for someone pitching in the major leagues for the first time and not really dealing with many rain delays in the Japanese league when
Nestor Aparicio 09:10
he’s already earned his money. To me, because he’s 35 minutes long, Good signing they’ve made, he probably didn’t, you know, he didn’t get paid what he was worth in Japan, wondering whether he should come over or not. Well, he’s here, and he’s striking out Yankees, and he’s striking out Royals, and he’s getting ground balls, and he’s making it through 567, innings, and he’s looking like the part of a major league pitcher who got $15 million he’s 35 years old. He he might as well have pitched. He might as well be Jack Flaherty, who’s worked out for us like, literally, yeah.
Luke Jones 09:39
Except the problem is Charlie Morton hasn’t just, not only has he not worked out, but he’s been horrendous to the point where he’s a net negative, right? There are some pictures out there that you would say, okay, he hasn’t been very good, but it’s kind of a whatever you know
Nestor Aparicio 09:57
8case Melbourne is no good. You send it back to the minor to say. He needs some more he needs some more baking. When it’s a 41 year old pitcher, he gave $17 million to he’s pitched a big World Series games. You’re just like he’s he’s washed up, but, but you, you
Luke Jones 10:09
mentioned Kate COVID. If Charlie Morton, right now, had a 5.16 era, you wouldn’t be singing his praises, but it wouldn’t be so horrendous that you wouldn’t have a chance to win when, when he’s taking the ball some of the time, right? I mean, they haven’t had a chance to win. You know, at all when you
Nestor Aparicio 10:23
made the point when there were six games under 500 and he was oh and six, that if he just were three and three and had a couple of decent outings and had a six era, that the team would be 500 instead of six, seven games under 500 and, I mean, it’s, it’s that easy when you send a pitcher after every fifth day who’s going to lose. I don’t know how much longer they can. They don’t send them out there to start anymore now. So this is just it’s unspeakable that we’re here the first week of May, talking about a team that 192 games the last two years. And I don’t want to say we’re reading them rights, but you and I watched a lot of baseball. This does not feel like anything where they’re going to get up off the mat and become a 600 baseball team for a period of time that they’re going to need to be, to be a playoff team, you know, just to be a 500 team, they’re going to be a 600 team for a long time. And they don’t have that kind of pitching now, they do have that kind of offense when it’s all together. Take Westberg out, take cows around, take Urias out. Now, they got some guy. What is this guy’s name? This guy’s got the greatest name, Maverick candley, dude. If I wrote it, if I made a movie, I couldn’t come up with a stark if I made a, you know, if I made Dirk digler, I couldn’t come up with with a name as good as this. Literally,
Luke Jones 11:38
Maverick Handley, yeah, and nice kid, glad to see him finally make it to the majors. I mean, he was a draft pick back in what 2019
8Nestor Aparicio 11:46
between Harvey addicts and DRONGO Hayes would in the all time Oriole name game I did, and I looked it up. He was right near Glen Gulliver. But I thought Harvey haddocks was a better name than Glenn Gulliver. You agree with
Luke Jones 11:58
that? Right? Sure, sure. And I would also say he he doesn’t cost eight and a half million dollars as a backup catcher who can’t be any worse than what Gary Sanchez has been. So look, there’s Tyler two garden. He was my alt. That’s Taylor tea garden. Yeah, oh yeah. The funniest thing, I’ll give you a little inside baseball here. I mean, when the Orioles signed him, what was that? That was before the 2012 season, I guess he was their backup catcher for part of that season, but he got hurt in spring training. And, you know, I hadn’t done spring training that that, you know, that March, and you would get these, you’d get these periodic updates from Bucha Walter about Taylor Teagarden and how he was doing in Sarasota. I was convinced he wasn’t a real person, right? We heard these updates for probably three
Nestor Aparicio 12:43
and a half. There’s no way your name can be Maverick handy, you know what? I mean? Like, that’s just not possible. You know? Yeah, so, but,
Luke Jones 12:51
8but, you know, I mean what you just said. And look, I out here it and especially now they are banged up. Now, position player wise, they absolutely are, but they weren’t hitting even before all those guys went on the IL so, I mean, it just you, at some point in time, a team is 13 and 20, they have a minus 55 run differential. They have the worst pitching staff in baseball, certainly the worst rotation i i still like the bullpen more than the rotation, but it’s, it’s not a lead or anything like that, right? And certainly, over the last several days, is really disappointed. What if
Nestor Aparicio 13:28
they beat out six runs and they’re winning six to three in the sixth inning, but they
Luke Jones 13:33
also trust the bullpen? Well, well, it depends. I mean, it depends on the night I’m look younger. Cano gave up two home runs on Sunday, he hadn’t given up a run before that. I I’m not going to suddenly bury him, but the point is, is there, is there a bullpen so much better than the rotation that you feel like it can overcome the rotation? No, of course, not so but. But, you know, we keep providing this caveat that if the offense starts performing, if the offense does this, if they start, if this young core is truly as good as we and then, you know, we keep looking up at the standings, and it is what it is. I mean, their offense is below average in its totality. It’s horrendous against left handed pitching. It’s horrendous with runners in scoring position. Your stars are not playing like stars. I mean,
Nestor Aparicio 14:21
rush me sitting 216, 202. Curse, that’s a two, a curse that’s just a failure at that. I mean, curse that’s not ready to do this every day. He’s not, I don’t want
8Luke Jones 14:32
to call, I think it’s unfair to label
Nestor Aparicio 14:38
he’s failing right now, yeah,
Luke Jones 14:41
and again. I don’t want to, I don’t want to stamp any of these guys with a finality to it. But, yeah, I mean, we the silver lining to Colton cows are going on the IL was we’re going to find out about Heston kerstet. Well, he’s hitting 205, and he has a 349, slugging percentage. I mean, it’s you. Know, it’s not looking great. And, you know, maybe, maybe the defense isn’t, you know, I’m not. I don’t think he’s the worst outfielder in baseball, but he’s certainly not a guy that you look at as this great plus defender. He got doubled up and it looked like he was a bad look. He I, I think, I don’t think he was jaking it in the sense that he just wasn’t trying. I think he lost how many outs there were, which is, is inexcusable as well. But yeah, it’s a bad
Nestor Aparicio 15:25
8look. It’s a tape your head in the game. Luke, keep your head in the game. Yeah. So,
Luke Jones 15:29
I mean, it’s just, but yeah, you just look at this thing in its totality. The pitching, of course, the defense is not good. The base running is and their offense. You know, every time they have a performance like Sundays where, okay, they hit, they hit some long balls and, you know, they even answered back a few times. I mean, they showed some fight, which they hadn’t, you know, they hadn’t necessarily had a lot of games like that where, you know, they would fall behind and then someone hit a home run and they tie it up, or they even took the lead, and then the pitching just completely cratered in the late innings. And by the way, Brandon Hyde deserves any second guessing he’s going to get bringing Charlie Morton in in the eighth inning of a game where you’re down two runs. I mean, it’s not like they it’s not like they’re a bullpen had worked that much over the course of the weekend. I mean, Dean too, yeah, Dean Kramer pitched seven. I mean, what are you doing? Like, like, honestly? And you don’t, I don’t say that very often, and I think a lot of Brandon hides harshest critics pick out whatever they want to pick out to criticize him. Well, Charlie
Nestor Aparicio 16:30
Morris gonna be off the team soon, right? I mean, let, let’s, and it’s a lot of money, and it’s like Craig Kimbrel last year, but like, if he he can’t help you out of the bullpen, he’s not how you’re not you not putting him back in the rotation. And, you know, and the biggest reports for the Orioles, and this is tribute to Masson and and Melanie is, you know, everything is about who’s coming, who’s coming, who’s coming. Where are we getting help? You know, kittres is throwing the ball, and, you know, radish will be back, and Evelyn’s working on it. And, I mean, that’s all you have at this point, because what they have isn’t good enough. COVID, Mayo is up now, right? So we’re going to see 50 at bats out of him the next couple of weeks, right? Well,
Luke Jones 17:11
I mean, I think a lot of it depends how quickly westburg comes back, how, you know, Westberg and arias, it doesn’t seem like either one of those guys are expected to be out long term that said it for me. It’s not even about them. I mean, you’ve heard me say this for the better part of two years now. Nestor, why is Jorge Mateo on this roster still? I mean, do you really need a pinch runner once a week, twice a week, when maybe there’s a situation that calls for him to be the pinch to your point,
8Nestor Aparicio 17:43
because you use the second baseman, shortstop, third baseman, he was a flex infielder kind of thing. And he’s not even the second flex infielder at this point that they want to move around, right? I
Luke Jones 17:53
mean, I just think you’re at a point now, and obviously this point doesn’t isn’t as strong with Westbrook on the IL at the moment, but all I see Jorge Mateo doing is taking at bats away from Jackson holiday when there’s a lefty on the mound. And you know Jackson holiday, just play him. Just play him like I don’t this slow playing and not playing against left handers. And I get it. He’s, he’s, he hasn’t been great against left handers, but he’s had his moments. I mean, he’s it’s not like he hasn’t had any hits against lefties. Where I just look at it and say, you know, it’s one thing. And this goes back to my general point about their right handed hitters off the bench, and what you know, their lack of success against left handed pitching, where I said, look, it’s not like you have Steve Pearson, Delman young on the bench to start against left handed pitchers. So, I mean, I just look at this roster, and right now, again, it’s banged up. So this points not as strong, but generally speaking, play the young guys, cut the cut the dead weight from the roster. And, you know, to bring it back to Charlie Morton. I mean, you know, you can keep, keep them in the bullpen for a little bit longer, but, and this is where I’ll stick up for Brandon Hyde slightly, ever so slightly. I didn’t I can’t justify that from a strategic standpoint, but from a standpoint in a 30,000 foot look, in justifying Charlie Morton being on the roster if you can’t bring him in when you’re down a couple runs, with an expectation that he can keep it at a couple run deficit, then when exactly is he going to pitch? I mean, when exactly you’re going to use him? You need these bullpen spots. You know, you don’t have a rotation where you’re going to have two guys at the back end of your bullpen, not back and front end of your bullpen, who aren’t going to pitch very often,
Nestor Aparicio 19:39
putting Morton in that Suarez role. That’s not realistic who,
Luke Jones 19:43
8no matter what the role like, if you’re in the Orioles bullpen, given the state of the starting rotation, you’re gonna have to pitch some you’re in a game that matters. That said, Yeah, Sunday specifically looking at it in the micro I that was a head scratcher to me, and I can’t defend Brandon Hyde. On that. But in a big picture sense, if you can’t trust Charlie Morton to come in when you’re trailing by a couple runs at you know, whether it’s the fifth inning, whether it’s the eighth inning and you’re down three runs or something like that, if you can’t even trust them to do that, then, yeah. I mean, at some point in time, you look at this thing and say it’s a sun cost. I mean, the $15 million is spent, you know, there’s no, I mean, unless you think, you truly think you can figure out a way to to get him going. And I don’t know what that entails. I don’t know if that entails. Well, they keep looking
Nestor Aparicio 20:34
at spin rate. They’re looking at his arm and his arms fit. He’s throwing a fastball like I they have more science about everything, to look at him and say, well, he’s fit. There’s nothing wrong with him, you know. And he is a veteran pitcher. He ought to be able to do this. And I guess that’s why Brandon high gave him the ball in the eighth inning on Sunday. I
Luke Jones 20:55
guess, yeah. I mean, it’s just, it’s, you just look at this team and its totality, and at some point in time, you just have to accept and believe what they’re telling you. I mean, they they’re telling you they’re a bad baseball team, but because they don’t do anything particularly well. I mean, they just don’t what’s the strength of this team? We know it’s supposed to be the offense like Elias sat in the dugout Friday afternoon and and express the conviction that this offense is going to be better than it’s been. But, my goodness, we’ve been saying that since last July. I mean, it’s not, it’s not a particularly good offense. It’s and we know the pitching stinks. I mean, so what? What is giving anyone hope is
Nestor Aparicio 21:40
Mount Castle dead weight to you at this point, because I’m, I’m looking at Mullins, and I’m looking at O’Hearn, and they were both sort of given up for death. I mean, obviously, oh, Hern was giving up on but Mullins, this time last year was sort of, is it going to be him or Austin Hayes? He’s going to get out of the way, because cows are going to be an all star and and mayo is going to be an all star, and kerstett is going to be an all star, and holiday is going to be a Hall of Famer. And, I mean, that’s the way this has been pitched, and at a time when the fan base is vulnerable, they won 100 games two years ago. You have new ownership coming in. Everybody wants to believe in everything. Everybody wants to believe Rubenstein is going to be a great owner, and Elias is a genius, and sigma Adele is a genius, and Brandon Hyde is going to hang on and be a gamer Ball Coach that you know had all the roots from the World Series, lineage that he came from, and all of that. And rushman’s A one one, and Henderson’s a phenom, and holiday is going to be a feat like that’s how this has been pitched by us, by you and me, yeah, over the last two years. And now all of a sudden, you can’t tell me Kirsten can’t play, and cows are too hurt, and West birds too. He’s been out two years in a row now, and all the Rodriguez his arms gonna fall off. And, I mean, that is the promise. That is what we were selling. That’s what they’re pitching. I wasn’t pitching. Hey, Cedric Mullins and Ryan mountcastle and Ryan O’Hearn are gonna lead this thing. They’re they’re not. And Santa, there was another piece that, look, I know about power hitting 30 something, even Venezuelan guys that I like a lot. I know what that looks like. And Nelson Cruz is the outlier, and not it more like Chris Davis signings than there are like Nelson Cruz signings in regard to signing those kinds of players. So I had no problem with Santa there leaving, by the way, Tyler O’Neal, we brought him up. They gave him 60 million, right? We haven’t brought him up. We’re not even holding him responsible.
8Luke Jones 23:28
Yeah, well, and I’ll point out just because you brought him up. I mean, Santander is hitting 178 with a 577, ops for the Blue Jays. I mean, again, you kind of look at this thing, and what exactly is giving you hope right now, other than just the same hope that they’ve been selling for years. And I’m look, this isn’t the Orioles of 25 years ago hyping up their own prospects while the rest of the baseball world said that’s not really that good. Yeah, Alex achoa, I know. I mean, I mean they had some and it’s not like they, you know. I mean, Alex achoa was, Hey, Alex Ochoa got them. Bobby Bonilla, right? I mean, so clearly the Mets liked him enough, but he was no Chris which, but I don’t know to tell you that. I mean, they had guys over the years that they really liked a lot, but the rest of baseball was not as high on not let me,
Nestor Aparicio 24:16
let me do my drift here, because I just like doing it now. Nestor, I got a five two ball player, Luis Matos, Luis Matos, a five tool ball player. That was
Luke Jones 24:27
pretty good, pretty good. Yeah, pretty good. It’s funny. You mentioned that because I really liked Luis, I know
Nestor Aparicio 24:33
8you did. I did. I mean, it was way back when. And you know why you liked him. You were 12 years old, and they all know I was older. Well, but, yeah, this is the fan base. That’s what they do. You know, always overestimate. He had a good year. He had told me that. Sid, now we all always going to talk good about all ball, but we expect the broadcasters to do that too. But,
Luke Jones 24:55
but the point with all this is this was not just the Orioles saying this. This was baseball America saying this. This was baseball perspective saying this. This is Van de Graaff saying this. This was Keith law of the athletics saying this. I mean this. You know this. These guys are all highly talented, and now we also understand that that doesn’t mean everyone’s going to make it. And we also know there are varying degrees to this. In the same way that Matt weeders did not become Johnny Bench. It didn’t mean Matt weeders was a bust either, you know, he was a multiple time all star, right? He just wasn’t Johnny Bench. He wasn’t Joe Maurer with power. He was merely a good ball player, you know. So there can be some of that, like, just because someone doesn’t become a Hall of Famer doesn’t mean that they completely stink either.
Nestor Aparicio 25:41
I keep the wondering if, if Adley rutschman had, BJ, sirhoff career, would that be good? BJ, sir off had a really nice career, a lot of money, but PJ starts not a Hall of Famer, and he you’ll be at the crab races two weeks from now, that fade leads as well. So I’ll throw that in for him and Polly, but he’s a really good ball player. B I mean, I don’t want to, I don’t want in any way disrespect. BJ surf, but if that’s all that Adley rutschman turns out to be, it’ll be a disappointment, just because of what it’s been alleged to be that’s all,
Luke Jones 26:11
well, there’s that, and it’s also it was Adley rutschman, or who Bobby Witt and Bobby Witt looking like every bit the MVP
8Nestor Aparicio 26:20
playing on the home run when it hit that thing at left field was, was, yeah, rude. That’s all I’d say. You know, I mean,
Luke Jones 26:27
Bobby Witt would be looking like a perennial MVP, if not for Aaron judge existing in the American League right now. So, you know, and, and some people, I’ve heard some people say that, well, if you drafted Bobby what whit you wouldn’t have gunner Henderson, I’d say, why? I mean that those aren’t related. You draft shortstops, you draft center fielders, that you draft those guys, because the idea is, many of them are going to move off that spot if you drafted Bobby Witten. And you know, I’m not looking to make this a referendum as we talk about all these other issues, but if you draft Bobby Witt, Gunner Henderson’s probably you’re starting third base, hominy is a shortstop. Henderson, who knows westburg probably was a shortstop. It was absolutely, yeah. I mean, he was ops. He was a shortstop for most of his minor league career. So, yeah, but, but no, to get back to your point. I mean, the Orioles drafted these one ones and these first round picks. And gunner Henderson’s case, you know, next round, guys that were either top of the draft or guys that were the first couple rounds of the draft. You know, which are the guys that you have expectations for in the in the baseball draft, knowing that anything after that or is kind of a it’s a toss up. I mean, you don’t really know, but you know the results are, yeah. I mean, you’ve there have been moments in the case of rutsman, there were two calendar years where he looked like, okay, not Johnny Bench, but was looking like an all star slash fringe MVP candidate, let’s say, but since last July, he hasn’t looked like that. I mean, Gunner Henderson first half of last year. I you can go back and find it. He was my MVP for the American League through about the third week of June. Since then, you know, he he hasn’t been that guy. No, not that he was awful in the second half last year. Certainly wasn’t anything like what Adley rutschman was in terms of his struggle. His struggles. But didn’t play like an M, you know, like a top three MVP kind of player the way he was in the first half of the season. So, you know, but you go down the list, and then you then you do factor in the injuries and and what they you know, what Mike Elias has done, to quote, augment this roster. You know, when you decide to walk away from Anthony Santander, which I had no problem. I I did not have any interest in giving Santander a five year deal. I’ll, I’ll continue to say that. And if Santander makes three All Star teams over the next five years, then I’ll
Nestor Aparicio 28:52
say I was wrong. Well, you probably had no idea, no interest in giving Tyler O’Neill three years either. And that probably
Luke Jones 28:57
8not, probably I would have done that. But, you know, I, I guess they were able to talk me into it with the thought that it was going to open up more playing time for Heston kerstad, right? Well, we’ve kind of seen how that’s worked. Tyler O’Neill hasn’t been good and is hurt. And Heston kerstad, he’s
Nestor Aparicio 29:14
had all that being said, if cows are were healthy, how many at bats would curse that have? I
Luke Jones 29:19
mean, not as many as many as he’s been getting, but he’d be in some, I mean, you know, there’s plenty of at bats for them to pass around, sitting
Nestor Aparicio 29:26
321 and playing every day. I don’t know, you know, if he really were, I mean, he
8Luke Jones 29:30
one day hitting 320 he’s not going to profile like that, but he, I mean, he would help. I think, I think, I hope, I expect, I suppose, but say that about a lot of these guys right now who aren’t performing. I mean, it’s just, it’s very frustrating. I mean, it’s wild to think back to where they were a year ago at this time, let alone two years ago, where that was when they were really, really starting to take off, and to think that their best offensive players to this point, knowing. That gunner Henderson’s in the majors, Adley rutschman is in the majors. Go down the list, Jackson holiday, all of them. But to think that through the first six weeks of the season, seven weeks of the season now, Cedric Mullins and Ryan O’Hearn have been their best players. And look, I say that to compliment those two, but also, it’s pretty damning for their young core that Mullins and O’Hearn, who are, you know, at this point, basically 30 somethings. And I don’t want to disrespect Cedric, I mean, he’s been to an all star team 3030, Guy four years ago, but he he’s also cooled off a little bit, which inevitably he was going to but, you know, you look at the rest of these guys, Henderson starting to hit for average. I mean, his average is up to 260s not really hitting for a ton of power, though, rutschman, you can keep looking at the batted ball data, and yes, I absolutely will agree, Adley rutschman has been better this year than he was in the second half of last year. But, man, that was a really low bar, right? That was a really low bar in terms of, like, what the heck is going on? All Star. Bar, yeah. Do you belong in the big leagues? Bar, yeah. And, you know, I mean, again, we can look at, keep looking at these expected stats until you’re blue in the face, but at some point in time, it’s got to come to fruition. And again, you look at the production, or lack thereof against lefties, and the lack of production against with runners in scoring position. And you couple that with where their pitching is, they played like a 13 and 20 team. I mean, there’s, there’s nothing. Yeah, you can talk about the injuries. You can talk about, you know, I’ve, you know that people even keep track now of umpire data. And it looks like the Orioles have kind of been on the shorter end a little bit. You know, they’ll, they track to 30 teams, and they’ll say, but even if you want to look at the injuries, even if you want to look at that and say, okay, they’ve had some tough luck. It’s not explaining this. It’s not explaining this. They’ve been bad across the board. And at some point in time here, you know, it’s getting late early. I mean, it is the saving grace is at the American League East, you know, even the Yankees in first place, they’re not completely running away with it. The rest of the Al East is very mediocre. That’s about the only saving grace right now for the Orioles looking at this division. But at some point in time you put all that block, all that noise out. I mean, they’re 13 and 20 and they’ve got a lousy run differential. You know, their pitching is awful. Their offense at best, is mediocre. Their defense has been statistically and looking at metrics bad their base running has been. So what exactly are we looking at here to to truly have hope, other than just the same hope they were selling, even going back to the rebuild that you know, you keep waiting for these players to to start playing like that, and they’re not, and the ones who, you know, who who aren’t playing and are hurt, you know, they’re not contributing, obviously. So it just leads to a lot of frustration, and I’ll hear it F through on on Sunday, it looks like he’s, you know, whether he makes one more rehab start or not, he’s close. But, man, there’s just just not, not a whole lot to feel overly optimistic about, until this team just starts playing better. And, you know, they had a chance to win Sunday if they won Sunday, and it’s not like they lost 13 to one if they win that game Sunday. We’re having a different tone here in terms of, hey, they won two out of three. They won back to back series. They finished off a home stand at four and two. Now, the couple games that they lost, it didn’t feel so great, and their pitching still a major issue, and their offense still isn’t clicking all the way around, but, but it’s a win. You know, I said it to you during the Yankee series, just win however you can, even if it’s by one run, even if it’s winning ugly, so to speak. But they didn’t, and they finished off three and three, you know, fine, but nothing to write home about, kind of homestanding. Now I will say this, and I’ll leave you with this thought, and we’ll and we’ll pick it up, I’m sure, but you’re going on the road. Twins have been a mess since last September, although they won a series over the weekend, and the angels have been a mess for a long time, you know, overall for years now, even with Otani and Mike Trout, you know, going back years now, but you’ve got to win a couple series. I mean,
Nestor Aparicio 34:38
squandered Otani and trout won nothing. It’s would not be a shocker that, you know rushman and holiday and and and Henderson, you know, you got to go earn this. This isn’t the games
Luke Jones 34:53
I will say this. And I mentioned the Al East. I didn’t mention this team just in passing. I mentioned them with Santander. Yeah. Think back to how you perceived the Blue Jays five years ago. Didn’t the Blue Jays very much feel like the Orioles,
Nestor Aparicio 35:11
8Marcus, Stroman and all those guys? And
Luke Jones 35:13
look, look at how that ended up turning out. I mean, now they’re at a point. I mean, they okay. They signed lad, great. All right, they gave him half a billion dollars. Does that team have? Is there any optimism for them moving forward? It doesn’t really feel like it. I mean, okay, I guess they’ll be happy to have Vlad Guerrero out there in the same way that the angels have had Mike Trout all these years. And, you know, signed him long term and all that. But yeah, that that’s what it speaks to like for every Astros situation or cub situation where, yeah, you did, do get over the hump, and you do get to the top of the mountain, there are some where, even if you feel like you rebuild, well, you know, not, not talking about teams like the pirates, where they’re just like,
Nestor Aparicio 35:55
well, the pot trains are trying, you know, I mean, there are teams that are trying that can’t get
Luke Jones 36:00
there. But you sometimes you don’t get there. And I mean, I’m not ready to to completely call this thing finished in the big picture, long term sense, but boy, they have, really, they’re leaking a lot of oil at this point in time. And this is not, I’m not optimistic. I I’ve said, and I’ve said this for a few weeks, it’s not earth shattering up. But also wonder where’s
8Nestor Aparicio 36:22
the pitching coming from. What’s the off season going to look like for the I mean, they don’t have anybody at high Aberdeen who looks like a top of the rotation starter. They haven’t drafted those kind of players. I mean, this is some of the
Luke Jones 36:34
promising pitchers that they have down, down below. Guess what? They’re hurt too. I mean, they have some of their and look, none of these guys are like Grayson, Rodriguez, Dylan, Bundy, Hunter, Harvey type, top 100 prospect types, but guys that are at least interesting arms, they have a few of those that are hurt now. So, I mean, it’s just, you know where Mike Elias could and he was fully accountable on Friday, he said everything that he could say, I suppose. But you know, at some point in time, you just start losing trust. That is your front office truly as smart as you thought it was. Is your coaching staff as good as it was? Are your players as talented as you thought they were? And that’s where, that’s where I am at this point, I’m questioning everything. I mean, I just really am, and I don’t say that to mean that they’re completely doomed, that they’re going to be entering another multi year rebuild. But I am very pessimistic at looking at what 2025 is, because the Orioles aren’t giving me any reasons to be optimistic at this point in time. They’re telling us over and over and over again, they’re they’re not a good baseball team. And you know, as we’re approaching, you know that the second week of May, I’m believing them, because there’s not a whole lot that I feel great about now, other than the same old hope that we’ve been sold for years.
Nestor Aparicio 37:47
Luke Jones is here. He is there out on the internet at Baltimore, Luke, you can find both of us out at Baltimore positive. I will be on Wednesday at red brick station in White Marsh. I will have the Back to the Future scratch, also the Maryland lottery to hand out my big thanks to Liberty pure, our friends, a curio wellness as well, putting us out on the road and getting things done around here, it is springtime. We are past the derby on Dupree this week. I’ll be doing some horse racing next week. Also going to be hosting this program at the Maryland party in Las Vegas, Nevada next weekend. So I’ll be telling you more about that all week long. I hope you read my tribute to rocker Mike Peters of the alarm. I found a long lost audio tape of me singing a song with him for 25 years ago that I don’t think I even told my wife about it, or told Luke about it or anybody else, but I found it and I platformed it out at Baltimore positive lots of things going on. We had a great time last week at Cocos on the crab cake tour. Jamie Costello, Howard perlo from the Maryland party, also had great, great chat with rasig about zero tolerance. Luke spent Sunday at ravens camp with Mike Green. We’ll step out, we’ll take a break, we’ll come back. I am Nestor. We are W, N, S, D. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore. Positive. You.
