Don’t look now but the Baltimore Orioles have won 14 of their last 20 games and are headed to Tampa looking to continue to rectify the awful April and May with another series in a minor-league stadium against a MLB club. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss legitimate Orioles’ optimism after an Angels sweep featuring better pitching and a return to the lineup for some key young players ready to compete.
Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Baltimore Orioles’ recent performance and upcoming challenges. The Orioles swept the LA Angels, highlighting their improved pitching and offensive contributions from Jordan Westburg and Cedric Mullins. They emphasized the importance of the upcoming series against the Rays and Yankees, noting the team’s recent 14-6 record over three weeks. The conversation also touched on the impact of injuries and the potential for trade deals. Nestor expressed optimism about the team’s progress and the importance of maintaining momentum in the coming weeks.
Luke Jones and Nestor discuss …r Angels sweep and run of wins
Mon, Jun 16, 2025 7:44AM • 48:46
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Orioles optimism, Angels sweep, run of wins, Baltimore community, Maryland lottery, All-Star break, mini camp, blockbuster trades, Shohei Ohtani, pitching improvement, Jordan Westburg, Cedric Mullins, healthier roster, division standings, road trip.
8
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones, Speaker 1
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T am 1570 tasks in Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive, positively coming at you in a week where the Baltimore Orioles are going to be going on the road. Now I’m taking the show on the road. We’re going to be at the Y in Randallstown. I’ve been talking to John holy and his crew over there for a long time about trying to do something cool. This is going to be a cool thing. Juneteenth in progress, and kids in the pool and summer and safety and local and community and wise and all sorts of things going on. Julian Jones, Councilman is going to be out with us, as well as Barry Williams, who was a long time educator in Baltimore County who I love having on the program. So it’s just going to be some great stuff going on. It’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. I’ll have a lottery tickets to give away. You got to be of the right age, and I’ll tell everybody that, because I almost screwed up at faintly the other day. Thank God for parents, good parents out there in the city. At Lexington market. Over the weekend, Luke and I talked about the Orioles trending toward the all star break, and where we would be, and all these cool crab cake tours we got set up, and all the fun we’re going to be having here All Star game a month out, mini camp this week, I welcome Luke back in on the vine after a you know, we sound really stupid on Friday afternoon, not talking about that three game sweep that we didn’t see coming. And, you know, like all this stuff in the big blockbuster trades and the Ohtani is going to pitch. I mean, just when you think baseball gets boring, at least, you know, picks things up for 72 hours, even though all it did was rain all weekend. Man,
Luke Jones 01:37
yeah, I always say it, and I say it in jest, obviously, because you know how much I love the game and I love the history of the game, but I always tell people baseball is boring until it isn’t anymore. And then you’re like, wow, what just happened? I mean, obviously we’ll get into the Devers trade. I mean, Shohei Otani is going to start and pitch, be on the mound for the first time in a long time this week. But the Orioles, they do what you would want them to do if they’re going to try to get back into this thing, and that’s sweep a team that’s not that good, although I’ll acknowledge the angels have a better record than the Orioles at the moment, but they sweep them over the weekend, and they beat two left handed starters in the process, and it’s one thing to talk about Anderson on Saturday, who’s a reverse splits guy, but on Sunday, you say Kikuchi had a good season. I mean, he’s a legitimate, really good left handed starting pitcher, and they took it to him, and then they added on late in the game. You know, Gary Sanchez hits a Grand Slam Jordan Westberg another home run. So a good weekend for the Orioles, right? And I think this kind of brings us, and you and I were chatting about this briefly before we began our segment. You look at this week that’s coming up. They go down to Tampa. They’re playing at Steinbrenner field, and the weirdness of that, but the rays are coming off of a sweep of the Mets and have looked really good and are playing good base one another one of those years where you just you look at the division and on paper, you say, well, the rays aren’t going to be that good. And, well, they’re shaping up to be pretty good, the way it’s looking right now, but they’ve got four with the rays, and then they go to the Bronx and play the Yankees right after that. If you can have a good week. Then I’ll start to buy in a little bit in terms of, maybe you can get closer and closer to 500 as the all star
Nestor Aparicio 03:29
8break crawling. Right? Now, right? I mean, you know what? I mean, they were in the fetal position. They fired the manager, you know. I mean, like they started to crawl. Now, if they can get up off to their knees, right? You know, it’s start to, you know, move a little bit toward the all star break. I’ll hear all of this because cows are Westberg. I hinted that like cows are, and I still look at the strikeouts, I look at all that, and say, Who’s trade bait if they are trying to move in or out, and what things happen. And then all the bright general managers are having blockbusters over the weekend, right? The Dodgers have to figure out if they’re $50 million guy should be a pitcher or not, and he’s going to be a pitcher. And a lot of people shocked by that, because they’re they got 10 guys on the i l or whatever they got going on the Dodgers. We should have Dodger problems around here right now. But I would say from a baseball perspective, for where this franchise thought it was when you and I were wandering around Toronto drinking Getty Lee’s beer, and I’m getting blisters on my feet, and Adley Richmond sitting two home runs, and Tyler O’Neill’s hitting home runs for his countrymen. That bat whatever that team was supposed to be 810, weeks ago. If it can be that for a little whatever, 600 not 740 but it can play that way for a week or two. I mean, you start putting sweeps in and around, and they’ve played much better baseball over the last two or three weeks as a split to say, duplicate that do. Implicate that. I always say, have a 17 and nine kind of month, and you know that would show me you’re coming, and they’re on the way to that to some degree right after having, like, a really rough stretch last
Luke Jones 05:15
week. Well, I mean, I wouldn’t even say it was that rough of a stretch from the standpoint of, okay, they lost two of three to the A’s last weekend, but they lost two or three to the Tigers. I mean, the Tigers had the best record in baseball at some point, and especially when you’re facing Tarek school. This is what we talked about when we were breaking down their issues against lefties. Derek schools not the best case study in terms of the Orioles issues against lefties. It’s everyone else. So but to your point, and you just said, Look, they’re 14 and six over the last three weeks or so. I mean, that’s 700 ball over a 20 game stretch. Now, are they going to play 700 winning percentage baseball for longer than three weeks? Probably not, but that speaks to they were 18 games under 500 and now they’re 10 games under 500 and look in isolation. 10 games under 500 still isn’t impressive, and it’s still disappointing, but they have played much better baseball, and as we’ve talked about, it’s mainly been their pitching. You go back since May 24 that was the day of the double header in Boston. They lost the first game, and then Trevor Rogers pitched the night cap and pitched so well, and they were able to win. But beginning with that, they’re 14 and six, but you look at their team era fifth in the majors over the last three weeks. Now it’s three weeks, right? That’s not a whole season. That’s not a whole quarter or a whole half of baseball, but considering how bad this pitching staff had been, and more specifically, this rotation had been, for them to have the fifth best era in baseball for a three week stretch. It is progress. I’ll take it. Yeah, right, yeah, no question. And that was even you look at the week, it’s above the bar, as we would say, the John Harbaugh bar. Yeah. I mean, Charlie Morton pitched very well one Friday night until the rain. It was weird. I was having thoughts back because last year, a week, this weekend, a year ago, was when the Phillies came into town, and there was such a buzz. The ballpark was filled, albeit with Phillies fans too, but it was such an atmosphere, two of the three best teams in baseball at that point in time, and the Orioles took two out of three Friday. In contrast, Friday night had two plus hours worth of rain delays, and the game was on Apple TV. That was as close as you get to if a tree falls in the woods and no one’s there to hear it doesn’t make a sound. However, they won that game. They won on Saturday, and that was even with Sagano not being at his best. The bullpen has been fantastic for a while now, and obviously Batista has is trending better and better. They’ve added Kittredge back to the mix even, you know, he gave up a home run on Saturday, but it’s another arm that you trust. Dominguez has been very good here of late. So you go down the list. Brian Baker, we’ve talked about all year. So they’re pitching. They’ve pitched well, and what, what’s been good to see here in recent days. You alluded to it, but Jordan Westberg being back, and Jordan Westberg hitting home runs and being productive, cows are missed the weekend after crashing into the wall Thursday night. It’s not going on the aisle. Sounds like he’s gonna be ready to go. Ready to go. He was available off the bench Sunday. So I, I assume he’s going to be playing down in Tampa. You know, Tyler O’Neill. They’ve shut down again. So it’s not as though everything’s going perfectly for them all of a sudden, and mount Castle, right? But they, they, they suddenly have a healthier roster. They do have guys that are trending in a better direction. Gunner Henderson finished this home stand. He had at least one hit against the lefty in each in all six games of this home stand. When you look at what his numbers had been and still are against lefties this year, that’s encouraging. That’s That’s more like the gunner Henderson, all star, at least fringe MVP kind of guy, you know, he’s looking better and better and has looked more representative against lefty pitching. So, yep, progress. Good news. These are things to feel better about. Does it mean that they’re automatically going to get back in the race? You know? They’ve got a lot of work to do, right? And this week’s going to be very telling in that way, because the rays are playing good baseball, and the Yankees have been the class of the division, albeit coming off of a bad weekend against the Red Sox, but they’ve been in first place. So you know, if you can go on this road trip, and I don’t know if you can go five and two, then we’re having a different conversation. Then you’re seven games under 500 and you’ve now played really good baseball for four weeks.
Nestor Aparicio 09:46
Well, these are also the teams that you’re, you’re you’re division, and you can make biggest week of the year. Can make every even if you’re in last place in 15 games back this is the biggest week of the year at this time. This makes or breaks your season. In or whatever you would say at this point in the season. If they were two games behind the rays right now, this would be an enormous week for them to make up ground. Still is still is. I mean, making up. Grant, look, I watched the team broadcast over the weekend. I’m the guy that my wife and I still build our lives around this, and wonder why the hell we do, especially when the games aren’t available in the Apple TV thing. And we’re like, Hey, I bet cost us will have it on over timoni, and we’ll go over there to the new location. So, I mean, there is a little bit of like that to say it might get me out. I mean, even on Sunday afternoon, if not for the rain and other things, I thought, yeah, let’s go over to Coopers and watch the game or whatever, and, you know, grab brunch on a Sunday afternoon, the things we like to do. But when the team’s in last place, I don’t it’s top of mind for me, because you and I are going to talk about it. And I’m sort of in on the soap opera, and have been since 1973 so I never leave the soap opera. I just don’t dedicate hundreds of hours of my life to it. Even though, when I come back in and see things like the Otani thing happening this week and these huge trades happening, and when I get beaten up about trade talk with Colton cowser and saying the creativity of all of it. They beat up left handers over the weekend. I want to say nice things about them. Beat up left handers over the weekend. Sweet baseball, have most of their young players back. And you know, I don’t want to call mount Castle Mullins. I don’t, certainly don’t want to call O’Neill dead weight. But the not the young guys, not the guys under team control and and one one and first round and lottery pick and potential and high ceiling and like all of that stuff, but also not proven the way Mullins is, or the way you would think mount Castle was, and certainly the way Tyler O’Neill showed himself to be, to get that kind of money, they’re all trying to get that contract. That contract. All of them would like to have the money Tyler O’Neill’s getting and not performing, right. And ditto for Kittredge, who’s now getting a chance. But and the bullpen coming to life in Batista, which is the real truth serum, is to say, if the bullpen can hold up and they can hit the ball and they play. And it’s wrong week for this, because hockey, you know, is on to complimentary. We always accomplish complimentary hockey, complimentary baseball, where, yeah, the pitching is good right now, time for the hitting to get good. I’m going to play the role of Luke Jones, you know, from April, hey, hey, come on Mayo holiday. Let’s go. Okay, Gunner Adley, you’re the leaders. Let’s do this. Westburg. You’re sort of the, you know, the five tool secret weapon we have here. You’re the Swiss Army Knife guy in all of this. I think Westbrook’s a straw that stirs the drink for me. And because Richmond, as is proven not to be, I thought that I don’t know what I think a gunner. I just think he gets the ball. Yeah, I don’t know that he’s a shortstop. I mean, we can go, we can go in and out of all sorts of things, but I look at all of it, in the totality of it, and say, Can they play 640 baseball against Tampa and the Yankees this week. Right now, the way their pitching is, the way their lineup is Westbrook back make getting cows are back, wherever they are, Mayo, getting the at bats that mount Castle would have had O’Hearn. All the things that that they have going for them. Can they win a bunch of games this week and do what Doug the senses did in the summer 1979 the summer 1979 during this week, by the way, create a little Oriole magic and win six out of seven, and go up Yankee Stadium, beat their ass a little bit on Saturday, and get people all whooped up around here thinking they get back to 500 Yeah. I mean, they’re capable, much more capable that than the team they were putting on the field a month ago. That’s all. I mean, the bats that the Dylan Carlson, just, just all, you know, whatever. That was, right? I mean, we are now on to all right, I’m not going to judge them based on Brandon Hyde. Since that I read about in the Baltimore banner, I have to get some reporters on for that. But, but for me, you know the man selino thing, it’s really an indictment of Brandon Hyde, if the team starts playing 650 ball, and they’ve started playing 650 ball, and a little bit of a nutshell, you know, now they gotta go play the good teams, and they can hang on. I mean, I got nothing else to do in July except defend democracy, which I did down at Patterson park for four hours on Saturday. You know, that’s all I have to do, is democracy and evaluate the Orioles and hold Sashi Brown and Chad Steele and the Ravens responsible, until such point with the NFL investigation comes out, that’s all I’m doing. Also, whoa,
Luke Jones 14:51
they’re playing better. I mean, they are, and we’ve said that now for a few weeks. I mean, you’re, you’re, we’re just citing can they. Employee, 600 ball. Can they play seven? They played 700 ball the last three weeks. Now, not going to sit here and throw a parade when you sweep the Chicago White Sox or even the LA angels, because the angels are, you know, they came into town one game under 500 and they’re four games under 500 now after a sweep, but you think about the formula for being a good team anyway, right? It’s beat up on the bad teams, and you hold your own against the other good teams. I mean that that will generally equate to being, I don’t know, 90 win team, something like that, at least in the wild card contention. So this is a great test for the Orioles this week, going on the road, facing the rays who are feeling really good about themselves, maybe playing their best baseball the season right now, and then you’re going to go play the Yankees, who are actually really a little bit right now. And that that was the funniest timing about the Devers trade is it comes in the aftermath of what they did against the Yankees over the weekend. But the point with that is, you, you have an opportunity now to command at least a little bit of attention. To your point, there’s still 10 games under 500 you certainly didn’t have a lot of eyeballs on the product compared to a year ago at this time, where they were playing the Phillies, and all of baseball was talking about it. And then they were going to the Bronx, and they were playing the Yankees, and, you know, they won two out of three. They had the big finale. But that was also, there were guys being hit. There was some, some tension between the teams, all of that. So you’re not there. You’ve got a long way to go to get back to that point. But,
8Nestor Aparicio 16:31
oh, this would be like an incredible story if they inch in and get the last, you know, wild card, and they fixed their pitching along the way, and, you know, like
Luke Jones 16:42
incredible story, that’s where you look at this thing. And you do acknowledge, while there are a ton of teams that are in this category, but you look at the wild card standings, it’s not as though the top three teams are all 15 games over 500 right? You don’t have a bunch of juggernauts in the American League where you say, oh my goodness, you have no chance. Now we’re still talking about a slim proposition here. And the flip side could occur too. They could lose six out of seven this week, and they’re back to 15 games under 500 and then then that kind of feels like all right, you know now you’re well, well, under a month away from the all star break. You’re a little over a month away from the trade deadline. You’re 15 games under 500 so you’ve made up a few games, but that’s it. At that point, you’re like, Okay, it’s over. Like, this was the last scare in the horror
Nestor Aparicio 17:35
movie. Where do they need to be? In your mind, on July 31
Luke Jones 17:41
8two under July 31 I feel like you need to be at 500 or like at 500 very close, right? I mean, I mean, I because, because, what are we talking about? Then are you just standing pat? Or, if you’re not selling, are you looking to buy and you’re trying
Nestor Aparicio 17:57
to, I want to do a longer thing on the trade thing and the blockbuster thing, and the balls to do it, and Mike Elias and Cal Ripken getting involved over the weekend, like I can do all of that, I’ll keep this on the field for now in this segment, because I do think that there’s a much larger picture in all of this. If they start to breathe life this week, right then I think we’re having different conversations about but no matter what we’re having conversations right this minute about what they would look like as a contender in August or September, and what would that look like with their current state of pitching and the notion that the manager was part of the problem as well as the injuries, and that Colton cows are, is an all star and Nestor, you’re out of your mind trading a guy like that for anyone you know, or, or, but, but I’m saying for that core bunch of players that you have pumped up, that they have pumped up from, let’s go through their skill set, Adley rutschman and Henderson. Adley was supposed to be the better player, right? But those two guys better be Willie and Hank in this organization, or Frank and Brooks and and then right behind that, there has to be Westberg holiday might be, you know, he might be the best of the whole bunch of them. I’m a Westberg guy. Cows are people make. And then there’s Mayo curse that who, where are we now? And all of that. These are the guys that are getting the bats now, because it’s not male castle. And if somehow they can patch this thing together with their pitching, because the pitching is going to go downhill. I I’m gonna make one prediction right now, if that, if I could bet on this, I guess I could bet on this, if I want to now, but I would bet that the pitching won’t be this good, but I can also very easily be talked into more grand slams and more John Martin having to run around pay $5,000 winners for the Maryland lottery, like we saw on Sunday, because I do think they’re capable of scoring 10 runs again with the. Potential of the lineup being better. So I’m, I’m a buyer. You know, it’s 6499 right now. Melanie, sell away. Rob Lohse, bye, bye. Everyone buy some mass. And it’s time, you know, let’s, let’s go. Is that good?
Luke Jones 20:15
Yeah. And look again. I still, I still, struggle with what exactly it means they’re playing better. I mean, they’ve been playing better for three weeks now, and we’re not just talking oh well, they’re one game over 500 over their last three weeks. They’re 14 and six over the last three weeks. I mean, that’s, that’s a pretty decent sample of baseball, albeit it’s three weeks, right? It’s not a full season. There. There. I agree on the pitching there will be some regression, but I think on the flip side, that, does that mean that they’re going to drop back to being one of the very worst pitching staffs in baseball? Not necessarily, if you’re doesn’t have to be that way, right? I’m saying but. But what I’m saying is, I think you can find a middle ground here where, okay, they’re not going to have a top five pitching staff in the majors, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to drop down to 29th again. You know, they’re they could
Nestor Aparicio 21:03
have a top five offense for a month, easily. Well, they could have a top five offense for the rest of the year. I’d
8Luke Jones 21:09
like to say that. I’d like to say that that’s what we were thinking it was going to have to happen if they were going to be a contender entering 2025 but it’s been nothing close to that. Now, the injuries have certainly been part of that. I mean, we’ve seen it. Jordan Westberg being back the last week. He’s a really good player
Nestor Aparicio 21:27
to talk optimistically after a sweep and say they are 14 and six, because I don’t think, you know, month ago, gloom and doom freak this week, you know, when it’s really hitting the cellar and they were really a rapper firing the manager of previous day, you know, like all of that going on, like to say they’d be 14 and six and inching back in and we can be talking good about players being back and them being healthy and being productive and looking like the team we thought they were going to be in March. So it’s not hard to get me to buy into the fact that they can be beyond competitive. You know what? I mean, that that they, they didn’t have to throw the towel in and be woeful and, you know, just be a last place dog ass, 24 games under 500 team, right?
Luke Jones 22:13
Yeah. I mean the hope all along, even when, you know, when we were talking about this being at its worst, which is when they let Brandon Hyde go. Of course, you know, the thought was, all right, you’re 18, under 500 or what. You know, they they continued to lose the for the first five games of mancellino, a first week of mancellino. But the thought at the time was, at least get this thing, that you’re back going in the right direction again, that you’re playing better, that these guys are showing some fight, showing some dog in them, so to speak, rather than just to your point, just laying down and going through the motions for the next four months and it being absolutely miserable. So on that front, this has been very encouraging, right? So they’ve played better. They’ve certainly pitched better the offense. It hasn’t been, it’s not as though the offense has been outstanding over the last three weeks. It was great on Sunday, it’s been good to see them. You know, Saturday and Sunday score some runs against left handed starting pitching, which they hadn’t done all year. I mean, I think prior to Saturday, I think they had four wins against the left handed starting pitcher all year. I mean, that’s, that’s where it’s been. And they won back to back games against left handed starters. I got to mention,
Nestor Aparicio 23:26
8just an unbelievable l, o, b, r, i, s, p, right? Like, boom. I mean, like, just nights where they would just have 12 hits and three runs, just crazy stuff.
Luke Jones 23:36
Oh, no question. And look, they still have too much of that, right? I don’t want to completely say that everything’s fine now, because it’s not. And there
Nestor Aparicio 23:44
go. By, God, your strikeouts. And if you’re going to strike out 175 times a year, you’re probably going to do that with runners in scoring position too often. Sure,
Luke Jones 23:53
so. But I also would remind you that strikeouts across the board, across baseball are a bigger part of the game than they had been. It’s how it works. I mean, it is,
8Nestor Aparicio 24:07
forgive me, that I want to channel my papa Joe Chevalier,
Luke Jones 24:09
just the truth. I mean, I’m just telling you. I’m just telling in the same way that there weren’t.
Speaker 1 24:15
Let me tell you about those stats you got there. Let me tell you about all those dozens of guys. There weren’t dozens of analytics.
Luke Jones 24:21
8There weren’t dozens of guys that threw in the high 90s and hit triple digits 20 years ago, 40 years ago, 50 years ago, like there are today. It’s a it’s a different game. Not saying It’s better. It’s different, but if you can continue to move things in a better direction, westbergs back and healthy cows are we assume we’ll be back in Tampa and healthy. Gunner Henderson has looked much better against left handed pitching here the last couple of weeks, which was really when you look at the breakdown of him, his numbers against right handers are as great as they’ve ever been. He’s been fantastic against right handed pitching. It’s been absolutely woeful against left. So to see him start hitting lefties again, which he’s been able to do in the past. It’s not as though this guy’s been a straight platoon player or anything. So that’s better to see we talked about Richmond. He cooled off this home stand, but we saw him at the great road trip before that, and still contributed to their offense.
Nestor Aparicio 25:17
Well, Gary Sanchez can look like what Adley rutschman was supposed to be. And I
Luke Jones 25:23
don’t know if it’s so much that, but Gary Sanchez, over the weekend, back off the IL reminded why Mike Elias, whether we liked it or not, and I didn’t really love it at the time even, but that’s why they paid him eight and a half million dollars to be your backup catcher, to contribute against left handed pitching and make some starts. And that would be a day where he’ll DH, or Adley Rotman will DH, and being in the lineup and hit some home runs. I mean, Kerry Sanchez, we’re talking about someone who was an all star in a 30 home run hitter for the Yankees. Now it was a long time ago, but it speaks to the skill set. So not saying that people have didn’t have a right to be disappointed. He was awful the first month of the season. I also think he wasn’t healthy, you know, with that risk. So we’ll see now that he’s back. We’ll see how he contributes. It was good to see over the weekend, it we’ve talked about this a lot. They haven’t been healthy. And as much as people want to beat up Mike Elias, and understandably so, for certain things. Other things aren’t necessarily things that I think anyone could reasonably predict to have happened for them. And the same thing with Brandon Hyde and now Tony mancillino. There are things to pick apart, and there are still things to be concerned about, and there are still things that I question, regardless of how this team plays the rest of the way that I think need to change and improve and need to be tweaked, but the injuries were always a big part of this. I mean, they were, and that’s not a cop out. That’s just living in reality news flash. When you don’t have your best players on the field, generally your performance is going to suffer. I mean, like, is that such a hard thing to figure out? It’s not. So they are healthier. They’re not completely healthy. As we said, O’Neill’s been shut down again. I mean, at this point, I’m starting to wonder when we’re going to see him, if we’re going to see him, right? I mean, that’s just the reality. But in the meantime, you do have Westberg back. You do have cows are back. You do have Gary Sanchez back. You have Ramona RIAs back after he was on the IL for a while. Cedric Mullins is back after he was on the IL for a while, they’re pitching slowly but surely. It feels like it’s moving in the right direction
Nestor Aparicio 27:30
again. I think if I had Mike Elias out for a cocktail of my favorite pan Latin bar a little park there in Tampa this week, we went out for a little lunch together. I said, What do you think September looks like? He would say, Rodriguez will be pitching for sure. Bradish might be in for some innings. You know, I’ll get us some help August 1, because I’m going to deal X, Y and Z for A, B and C and, you know, hey, you know, like we’re gonna, we’re like, so I don’t whatever their optimism is on the inside. And I’ll get to Cal Ripken and Rubenstein’s money and the mass and broadcast and bad commercials. I’ll get into Brian Robert. I’ll get into all of that in the next segment, because we’re going to talk about the league and trades and stuff like that, but in a general sense, the interim manager part of mancellino and this spate of success that’s happening right now, and all of this positive energy, you and I are blowing their way right now toward George Steinbrenner minor league ballpark next to Raymond James Stadium is where the Ravens once had glory, and Then they’re going to go to Yankee Stadium this week. This week. This is an interesting week that this is as good as it’s been for them, that they they are getting horses back on and there does feel to be a little cavalry, and there does feel to be like they could breathe life back into the season after a lot of people gave up for them on dead and I don’t you know. I mean, they are what they are, till they start hitting the ball. But they start hitting the ball, and, you know, and they were always kind of hitting the ball, pitching to your point, been outstanding, and getting the innings they need to get hitting against left handers. All that gets tested this week where they could put the season back together, if they can continue to show those signs of life, winning some games, playing complimentary baseball, playing, playing good defense, catching the ball, catching the ball, you know, not getting picked off, not getting caught, stealing, just stuff that just runs you out of games, taking outs away, giving outs away, yeah,
8Luke Jones 29:39
and Look, they could also come crashing back to reality here, very, very quickly, right? You lose three out of four to the raise, and you’re swept by the Yankees. You’re back to 15 games under 500 and then it’s like, all right, that was fun off. They’re playing better and and that’s, that’s the bed they have to sleep in at this point, because they made that for themselves. When you fall 18 games under 500 you don’t. Have time for a bad week. And when I say that, it doesn’t mean, oh, you can’t lose a C A series the rest of the year. No, we’re not saying that, but you have no wiggle room to have a stretch where you lose nine of 10, or you lose nine of 11 after they just won nine of 11 recently, like that’s gone. You had your eight game losing streak, right? I mean that you had that as the manager was being fired and the new guy was taking over, like getting a bye week in the NFL, when you get a high five, you just get it again, right? I mean, so it’s just, it’s go time the rest of the year. And it doesn’t mean you have to play 700 the rest of the year, but overall, like, over the next three and a half months, you’ve got to play great baseball. But that said having acknowledged that, and understanding they have no margin for error, and yeah, if the injuries start to pile up again, or if the pitching crack comes crashing back down to the levels that it was a month ago or six weeks ago, where it was just horrendous, you know, rotation and bullpen, and we’ve seen it be better probably, I think there’s going to be a finding the happy medium somewhere, and we’ll see if that’s good enough, right, whether it is happy enough or not. But the reality is, the final wild card spot as we begin this week, as the Orioles are traveling to Tampa, and they’ll take on the raised in a spring training ballpark. The mariners are the final wild card right now. They’re 36 and 34 I mean, that just speaks to where it is. The Blue Jays are the second wild card. They’re 38 and 33 I mean, this is
Nestor Aparicio 31:33
I gave them latitude to two under three under by the all star break, which doesn’t feel far away. If they can hold some weight and win a couple of games and hold some weight, win a couple of games. You know, that’s not getting hard to play five or six games over 500 over five six weeks, I mean, and that’s why I’m saying like that they could get back in this and, and, and the only reason they could get back in this is their eight games over 500 the last three weeks, right? So, like that, you know, we’re, we’re not blowing them flowers that you’re sending, flowers that they kisses that they haven’t deserved. They’re playing better under Mancino. They’re playing better with players being back, the younger players. Holiday, Henderson has started to awaken. Pitchers have pitched good enough. You know, I’m Batista is alive and well i Yeah,
Luke Jones 32:20
that’s 100 the other day, by the way. I mean, he hit 100 the other day. He’s looked better. Yeah, and, and we talked about this a lot last year, and obviously it was such a big story over the last couple months, not having him. But there really is something to the idea of what Jordan Westberg means for this team. And I’m not willing to go as far as you. I mean, you suggest that maybe he’s the best of them all. I don’t know if it’s so much that, but of the young guys, I almost feel maybe he’s the guy who has the highest floor out of those guys, that it’s like he’s kind of a glue guy. He might not be the guy that’s going to be an MVP candidate at his best, like, like gunner Henderson is, but he’s really good, and see on him is where I put it. Yeah, I could see that. I could see that. I mean, I
Nestor Aparicio 33:07
8mean, I don’t know any of these guys. I view them from outside. He would be the BJ, sir, off of that group. I’d leave him the hell alone. I’d say hello. I’d be nice to him, but he would be game, game ball game ball game. And more than that, I caught him the straw that stirs the drink, and that’s where I’m gonna leave it. And, you know, and essential pile diver, as Buck would say,
Luke Jones 33:30
yeah. I mean, I think it’s funny, because we’ve talked so much, especially this year, with them getting off to the start that they did, and where they find themselves now, which is still, I mean, they still have the third worst record in the American League. Let’s, let’s also realize where they where they are. Even after playing the way they did the last three weeks, they still, I can talk about the three wild card teams, but in between, the Orioles and the three wild card teams are still the twins, the Red Sox, the Rangers, the Guardians. So despite the fact that I sound like we Greg Bader program, me, they still have a long way to positivity. Yes, yeah, but, but, you know, but we have to give the whole picture here, right? They are playing better, and that’s good to see, regardless of whether that’s going to equate to them actually getting back into any semblance of real contention. But I do think it’s interesting with Westberg, because we’ve talked a lot about the leadership piece, and we’ve talked about the idea that they don’t have a lot of quote grown ups, meaning, like established, long time major league players. I mean, we’ve talked about how O’Hearn has kind of become that guy for them, and you kind of think about where he was for most of his career before arriving in Baltimore, but Westbrook’s even acknowledged this, and he’s a quieter guy. He is. He’s acknowledged I’m generally someone that want to go about my business. I’m not necessarily going to say a whole lot in terms of that. I want to you know that I’m going to jump in front of the cameras and microphones and. Or give a rah rah speech or anything like that. He says, you know, my teammates tease me that I don’t smile a whole lot. That’s, you know, it’s not that I don’t love playing baseball and I don’t love my teammates. It’s just my generally, I’m all business when I’m on the field. But he’s talked a lot about this because he’s played well, and we’ve talked to him before games and after games this past week, and he’s talked about the fact that the injury last year, and then him missing, what, six or seven weeks this year with the hamstring. He’s talked about how it’s given him, it’s revised his outlook a little bit, not so much on the team, but just how much he loves baseball and how much he’s missed it. You know, he’s he’s been on the sideline way more than he’s been on the field since last August so and he’s even said that he’s making it a point to to smile a little more, have a little more fun, talk up his teammates a little bit more. But it feels like he’s doing it in an organic way. It’s not as though it’s like this personality transplant, but it does feel like a young ball player who maybe feels a little more comfortable in his own skin, and maybe is taking on a little bit more of a leadership role, rather than deferring to having more veterans the way they did two years ago, when he was coming up as a rookie, right or even last year, when you still had burns, you still had Santander, yet you had some other guys that Were a little more veteran minded. So of that young group, he does feel like the guy that’s the little more of the glue guy, a little more of the leadership quality, doesn’t? You know? I don’t think that means he’s necessarily the best player, but he’s one of the best players. He’s certainly at his best, might be their second best player, right? I mean, I’m still going to put Henderson’s upside over anything else they have, but I think Jordan Westberg is really, really steady. We saw this even the first half of last year, even when before Adley fell apart in the second half of the season. I remember you and I talking, and I think we were even suggesting he might be the second best player on this team. And that was an impressive leap for him, because he was one of the few rookies, you know, when he came up as a rookie, he’s one of the few guys they had that didn’t struggle at an insane level for a month. But at the same time, he was much more of a league average player when he was a rookie and came up in 2023 go look at 700 ops. You know, didn’t show a whole lot of power, you know, double gap power, but not a lot of home run power. But, you know, you look at him, and he’s hit three home runs since coming back. And as much as we mock their moving in the left fall left field wall, after moving it back, he’s certainly someone who benefits from it as a right handed hitter. So, so it’s good to see from him, but I don’t know it just hearing him speak to the media, and, you know, a lot of these guys tend to be more reluctant, you know, to say a whole lot, and that’s not uncommon for young players, but Westbrook seems like he’s a little more it feels like he’s answering a need for them in A way of one being back on the field and knowing what kind of player it can be, but it feels like he’s filling in a little more of a leadership quality that maybe they’ve lacked, that they’ve needed, and not saying, like, you know, I’m not ready to slap the CEO on him and say he’s the captain either, but he’s certainly someone who feels like he’s stepping into that role, even if it’s a little bit reluctantly, of saying, hey, you know, like, hey, let’s have fun. This is fun. Like, we’re back together. We’re healthy. The band’s back together, so to speak. You know, I’m back houses back. Some other guys are on the way. And look, we’re playing better baseball. We’ve been better over the last three and a half weeks. We have some things to feel better about ourselves in looking what we’re doing still, we have a long way to go. No one has any false you know, there’s no false expectations here that we’re totally fine, like we’ve got a long, long way to go still, and it’s going to start with this week. But it has been interesting to see him look like he’s growing up a little bit now. And I don’t mean that he was immature, because he was always, he always felt like one of the more mature of the young group, you know, just just in his personality. But it seems like he’s a little more comfortable being a little more of a spokesman, which, you know, as much as we perceive Adley rutschman or perceived him, you know, as the one one and the guy, you know, he doesn’t feel like, at least in front of the cameras, he’s not that guy. So, you know, for what, for what it’s worth, worth? I do think westburg Being back has really had a positive impact. And you know, cows are obviously he’s got upset. He has a little more high variance to his play, because he does strike out as much as he does, and you know, he will crash into a wall, even though he’ll also make some great plays, doing things like that. But I feel like he’s a little more of the guy that keeps everyone loose that because he’s funny and he’s got that kind of personality that he can be a little bit of guys will gravitate to him, a little bit in that way, just to laugh and have fun, which I. They need to have that as much as there’s nothing to laugh about the way they played the first two months on a day by day basis. You still have to have that if you have any shot of turning this thing around. So, you know, the vibes are much better. And again, that could come crashing down here over the next five days, very quickly, but they are playing better. They’ve pitched way better. The offense feels more complete. I mean, I’d be remiss. Sunday was their second highest run total of the year. I mean, other than opening day, it was their best output. And by the way, Adley rutsman didn’t play. Jackson holiday didn’t play. Ryan O’Hearn didn’t play. Colton cowser didn’t play. So they hung 11 runs on the angels with what we would call a B lineup, you know, a spring training lineup on Sunday. So you know, you’re going to feel a little bit better about yourselves. And I’m still not ready to declare them officially. Quote back, you know, everyone asks, Are the Orioles back? I mean, they show me what this week looks like, and if that looks like I’m moving the goalpost. No, it’s not. It’s because you were 18 games under 500 and you’re still 10 games under 500 but it definitely feels better. It when you’re inside that clubhouse and you get the sense that these guys are looser. And I absolutely think westburg and cows are coming back, has a big impact on that, not just on the field and in the lineup and how they perform, but I think those are guys, from a personality standpoint, mean more to this team, even if they are Yes, young players, and they’re not the established veteran players that we’ve talked about this team lacking.
Nestor Aparicio 41:37
You know, if I was the old guy just throwing stuff up on the radio just for good times or taking phone calls around here, I would, I would listen to the fact that Jordan Westberg would be a 2000 hit guy who would be a 14 season guy who would win um two World Series with the Phillies in 2030 and 2031 and then go on and be a 36 year old veteran guy for the Cubs after that and make, you know, 100 $80 million playing baseball. I have no problem believing that, that he’s a pile diver, that he’s a guy people that, once he establishes himself here and makes his money and does whatever he’s going to do, he’s going to be a guy that because he loves baseball, and he’s going to be the 3234 takes care of his body. You know, has been injured in the beginning here, and had really kind of bad luck, um, you know, I, I look at it and say, of all the guys I would bet on in that way, that profile, because I that’s a 56 year old version of me who’s watched baseball for, you know, half you half a century, that he feels like that kind of character to me. That’s all
Luke Jones 42:39
i Yeah, and that’s why I was saying, like, even if gunner Henderson’s this team’s best player and has the most upside, westburg is the dependable guy. Now, it sounds kind of silly saying that on the heels of how much he’s been injured since the second half of last year, he’s got to stay healthy. I mean, that’s the case for any player, right? That a broken hand like he had last year, there’s nothing, you know, you get hit by a fastball on the hand. Yeah, most guys are going to be out because you’re going to crack the bone. But you know, it was a hamstring injury this year, so he’s got to stay healthy. But I’ll give you a description that Bucha Walter would give about a player like him, because he would say this about guys like JJ Hardy and Nick Marques. He’s one of those guys that you lay your head on the pillow at night and you don’t have to worry about him at all. You know? He’s one of those guys that’s just going to be dependable. You know what he’s going to give you? He’s going to be a rock solid player. He doesn’t necessarily do any any one phase of the game at an elite level, but he’s going to play well across the board. And he’s going to be a guy that’s dependable and a gamer, you know, that’s what I think, the belief is, that Jordan Westberg is going to be that guy for them. And, you know, again, he’s given them a spark. He’s swinging the bat Well, right now, coming coming off of the IL and I call him Swiss Army. Enough, that’s pretty good, right? Yeah. Well, we play second and third base. You know, he plays two spots and plays two spots well enough, you know, I don’t know if he’s going to be a Gold Glove defender, but I think he’s a guy that’s going to be steady, like, like I said, I think he’s the guy that of all their young players, to me, he feels like the high floor guy, like he’s the guy that you’re going to get a baseline performance from him, that you’re going to feel really, really good about. And at times, he might look like a star for stretches, but you’ll go
8Nestor Aparicio 44:20
through their record when he’s in the lineup and when he’s not, for me, okay, well,
Luke Jones 44:23
well, think about it. This is very simple. I don’t even need to do that. Think about how great they were in the first half last year, and then they struggled in July. Now he was there in July when they started to struggle a little more, but he got hurt the day after the trade deadline. He got hit on the on the hand, and was on the i l until the last week of the season, man, and came back, and in all honesty, he wasn’t ready. I mean, he he, he wasn’t Jordan westburg. They were sub 500 teams 60 days there. Yeah, yeah. And then think about he exited the lineup. What was it? April 27 or 28th was the last time he had played, and then he was on the aisle. And look how bad they were. For at least the first half of that stretch. So, yeah, he’s important. And it’s not, it’s not just him, obviously, but he’s one of those guys that’s, that’s important. I mean, he might be their second best player, right? And he’s a guy that has already been to an all star game, and probably, if he can stay healthy, probably has a few more of those in him over the years. So it’s great to have him back. It’s really good to have cows are back. You know? It’s good to have some of their other complimentary pieces back, like Gary Sanchez, and we’re going to see what it looks like again. Sweeping the angels is great. You know, good job, right? I mean, the angels have hung around 500 so it’s not like they’re terrible. But this is the week now. This is the week you played better for three weeks now, you’re going to go on the road. It’s going to be hot down in Tampa. It’s a weird environment. You got to bring your own energy. The rays have played very well here. Of late. They pitched very well. So it’s going to be a challenge, four game set. It’s hard to play four game series on the road and win a series, but if you can do that, and you can go to the Bronx and
Nestor Aparicio 46:02
getting under fly balls in minor league ballparks with open skies on 92 different nights. Yeah,
Luke Jones 46:08
8looking, I guess, I guess the good news is they just experienced that in Sacramento not long ago. I mean, it’s just weird. It’s so weird up what 735 starts. I mean, this is like my childhood that. So when they started games when I was a kid, 735
Nestor Aparicio 46:20
so proper. Give me a time to get two drinks in before I go. Get something done. Get a run and mow the lawn. Do something
Luke Jones 46:25
go, go, win two series on this on the road. Hey, easier said than done. I get it, but this whole thing is easier said than done, right? I mean, you’re 10 games under 500 so you can do that. You have a five and two week, and then you come home and you’re seven games under 500 and you have now played that kind of baseball for almost a month at that point, then, yeah, it’s it’s feeling more plausible than certainly feels better than it did when they were 18 under or 14 under, when they fired Brandon Hyde or whatever it was. So you know it, they’re having more fun and they’re playing better. What’s that going to mean for the next six weeks? We’re going to find out. But I think this week specifically is going to be telling, because you’re going up against first place team and the other team in the division who is playing as well as anyone right now on feeling good about themselves. So it’s not going to be
Nestor Aparicio 47:16
easy. Luke Jones is my dude. He is covering all things ravens mini camp this week, even though we just did a lengthy baseball segment the Orioles at George Steinbrenner field, then heading the Yankee Stadium. It’s going to be a Babe Ruth kind of week this week, if not a mike Messina kind of week. We got a lot going on around here. We’re doing the Maryland crab cake tour at the Y in Randallstown, with John Hoey and a bunch of folks. Barry Williams is going to be with us as well as Councilman Julian Jones. So a lot of things happening around here, moving parts on the Maryland crab cake tour, including our 27th anniversary. Brought to you by curio wellness. I’m wearing my curio shirt, as well as liberty, pure solutions and coal roofing and Gordian energy put me out on the road. My 27 favorite things to eat are coming in August. I’m I feel like Santa Claus, and I’m staying fit. I listen, man, I had Q on last week for Planet Fitness. He’s down here at the Towson location, feeling pretty good right now, for the first time in a long time, getting my getting my swerve back, getting my vision back, getting my 20 miles of walking into New York and then eating my face off. But I’m a lot going on with the crab cake tour. A lot going on this summer here. A lot going on politically that I will get to later on in the week as well. And my marching in Patterson park that I’m proud of. But in the meantime, Orioles are in Tampa. Luke is in Owings Mills. Lamar Jackson’s in Owings Mills. It’s mandatory mini camp week, and the Orioles trying to claw back into things in the American League East. I am Nestor. We are W, N, S T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore positive we.
