The hot weather has certainly cooled the bats of the Baltimore Orioles. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the interesting outcomes and general ineptitude of this morbidly capable last-place baseball team. At least they got a hit on Wednesday night…
Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Orioles’ recent performance and challenges. They highlighted the team’s inconsistency, noting a loss on Tuesday despite a promising seventh inning. Since June 5, the Orioles have gone 9-9, failing to gain ground towards 500. They criticized the defense, particularly Gary Sanchez, and the bullpen’s inconsistency. Despite improved play over the last month, the team remains middling. They also discussed the potential trades of players like Gary Sanchez and Felix Bautista, and the need for better pitching and defense. The conversation ended with reflections on the team’s leadership and fan engagement.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Orioles, losing games, bullpen, defense, pitching, offense, injuries, trading deadline, young players, Adley Rutschman, Jackson Holiday, Gary Sanchez, Felix Bautista, attendance, leadership.
SPEAKERS
8
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We’re Baltimore positive. You follow us out online. We hope that you set a spot on your radio dial for us as you drive around the beltway. You can always listen live from anywhere in the world at Baltimore positive.com as well. I’m getting out into the world. We’re gonna be doing the Maryland crab cake tour on Thursday at readers crab house in Reisterstown, I will have the Back to the Future scratch offs to give away. I will also be joined by a litany of fun guests, including this guy, Luke Jones, going to join us on Thursday along with Alan McCallum. So it’s going to be a rare emergency last place huddle for the all star break, and certainly the trading deadline for the Orioles Izzy Patoka Council is going to be joining us out in Reisterstown and talking about the future of the county. We had Councilman Julian Jones last week. We have former county executive Johnny Oh. Week after next, we’re going to be a Costas and Timonium on the 10th and on the eighth. We’re doing some really special in the morning. We’re going to be at deepest squales. I have confirmations from Dan Rodricks, from Pete karenge from Joe Giordano, award winning photojournalist. So I’m really looking forward to the show as well as Joe and Dom and Darren and all of my italiano friends from Highland town or Holland town, as we would say around here. This guy’s people were from, as my mother would say, Isaac’s. But you know, I’ll get you out of pizza John’s, by the way, there’s a pizza John’s coming in August for you, Luke. I did it on a day when you can make it. You’re absolved from from Oriole Park duty. And by the time we get to late August, I would think that this, um, this has been quite a show. And I’ll just say this, after the loss on Tuesday night, I wrote you a late night tax and said they do piss games away in creatively interesting ways, and Tuesday night was no exception.
Luke Jones 01:49
Yeah. I mean, you’re talking about a game that the Orioles trailed going into the seventh and he didn’t have a hit going into the bottom. They’re getting no hit for the second time in four days. So yes, and you think about how exciting that seventh inning was. Gary Sanchez, it’s a three run homer areas goes back to back with him, and then you get a third straight home run from Ryan O’Hearn. At first time the Orioles had gone back to back to back since 2017 it was Jonathan scope Chris Davis and Trey Mancini. So it gives you an idea of how long it had been since they had done that, and at that point they’re leading five to four, and you’re thinking, wow, you get six outs here, and this is your biggest win of the year, and it’s the kind of win that, frankly, you need more wins like that if you’re going to try to climb back into it. And instead, they quickly give up the lead in the eighth inning with Soto, and then they lose in 10 innings. It’s the kind of game that it hurts either way, because you have a comeback and you do something that you think you’re in position to steal a ball game, and then you lose it. And as as I replied to you, as you mentioned our text late post game, text message, as I replied to you. I mean, you kind of look at where the Orioles are now, and we’ve all talked about this, right? They’ve played better over the last month. We all can acknowledge that, but it’s now been since June 5. That’s when their six game winning streak concluded. At that point, they were 25 and 36 in the 18 games since then, they’ve gone nine and nine, they haven’t made any more ground up in terms of getting closer to 500 and you think about that 99 stretch, you had that Oakland series, they lost, obviously, the game last week against Tampa, where they were up eight, nothing, and they blew that. They had a game on Sunday at Yankee Stadium, where they led until the eighth inning, and then you have what happened on Tuesday night. I mean, I just cited three or four winnable games right there over that stretch that you know. The difference could be that you go 11 and seven over that 18 game stretch, and suddenly you’re talking about being five or six games under 500 as opposed to 11, which is where they’ve been now for the better part of three weeks. So it’s just the kind of game that you got to win when you, when you do something like they did in the bottom of the seventh inning, you’ve got to, you’ve got to hold on and win there. And they didn’t do it. And, you know, the bullpen faltered, and they didn’t do anything else offensively, the defense was not good throughout the night. You know, I mean plays at the plate. I mean, got to make one of those plays, right? Whether it’s Gary Sanchez, you got to get a tag down, or gunner Henderson make a better throw. They just, they don’t do enough things well. And as I said to you, yeah, they’re better. But since that winning streak, since what they won, nine of 11, you know, they’ve kind of settled into being the profile of a 500 team since then. You know, not horrible, not what they were in May, to bury themselves the way that they did, but certainly not playing at a high enough level to to think that they’re going to. To go on the stretch. And, you know, I kind of laughed at myself as I was thinking about this. You know, what? The way we react? It’s like you’re trying to talk yourself into them being able to do this after a win, but then they immediately go out the next night and they lose, or they drop two of three, or something along those lines, just not consistent enough. They’re just not good enough in any one phase of the game. It’s better than it was in mid May. It couldn’t have been any worse. I mean, Brandon Hyde can attest to that. He’s no longer the manager because of how awful it was at that point. But it’s just they just don’t do anything well enough to really string together the kind of stretch that they need here, and it’s resulted in just being middling, you know, since, since the bottom fell out in mid May, they’ve, you know, they had their nice little run, and they’ve settled into being a very middling, mediocre, 500 kind of profile. And, you know, you said it, when, when they when they pitch? Well, they’ve got a shot to win when they don’t pitch particularly well, they have no shot. Charlie Morton wasn’t awful on Tuesday night. You know, there was traffic on the bases. And like I said, I think the defense let them down as much as anything in that three run fourth inning. But you know, they just, they didn’t swing the bats. They they let a guy who, you know, God bless him. Jacob Latz did pitch well, but that was his third career start. This is a this. This has been a bullpen guy until very recently. You know, he pitched in bulk his last time out for the Rangers. You’ve got to do better than that. And they did for one inning, but the rest of the night, it wasn’t good enough, and they come away with another loss, and they’re back to 11 games under 500
Nestor Aparicio 06:44
Well, you don’t have rushman, so this is much like not having westburg or not having cows, or you’re playing with the Dylan Carlson. You’re just doing you know, you’re doing things differently. Obviously, they don’t have Tyler O’Neill, they don’t have Ryan mountcastle, they don’t have guys. So, I mean, I looked up in the eighth inning and said, Who’s the guy playing third base? Who’s that guy? But Gary Sanchez is a guy they gave a lot of money to, and now kind of has to be, you know, the guy for a little bit, boy. It’s just what a poor receiver to some, you know? I mean, like, just I ball going through his legs. And I’ll tell you what, nothing pisses Palmer off more than when a pitcher can’t hold a runner. I mean, Palmer was a gold Glover. He was, you know, probably why he would have been a terrible pitching coach, because he just had, he was so much more skilled and so much more intellectual than all of them. It’s probably why he doesn’t get along with anybody inside of this ownership or these people, because he’s so much more intellectual about baseball than any of these people can be. And, um, I sense his frustration on knights. He’s watching it now because he’s getting older. You think we’re tired of them not winning since 1983 he’s tired of them not winning since 1983 and quite frankly, I get fed up with really tired baseball and bad baseball. And I’m really privately, I had Pete Williams on this week. And I’m like, this is getting old for me to do this for a living. You know this? It’s weighing on me. It weighs on my mental health to think, like, why am I giving them six days a week a half of the year. And like, what, what joy does this bring me? And I really feel like I sense that in Palmer, to some degree, that his disgust at all of it fired managers last place again, new owner is clueless, who’s made a bobblehead of himself and has disappeared. I mean, this a tired act, and I just feel like with Palmer, like he’s tired of it and and he’s a little mouthy about it, and I like that, but I don’t know that that that’s probably why they cut his games, because they don’t want him losing his mind when a pitcher can’t hold a runner on, when you’ve already got somebody on second base in the 10th inning, and you’re 10th inning and you’re a professional, you know what? I mean, like this, this team has played sloppy baseball like from spring training out it got their manager fired. They’re still losing games because of their own sloppiness, including an eight and a half million dollar catcher that can’t keep the ball in front of them, and pitchers that don’t know where the ball is going. And yeah, I don’t know. I it’s just it’s demoralizing. The all of it, the totality of all of it’s really demoralizing. Yeah. I mean,
8Luke Jones 09:29
I’m not going to sit here and argue with you. I mean, has it have, as I said, they played better over the last month. I mean, a month ago. Remember the line I kept using to you was this team exudes, exudes, no redeemable qualities whatsoever. There. They’ve gotten to the point where they’re not that bad, but it’s still not very good, right? It still leaves so much to be desired in so many different phases. I mean, the defense, the obviously, the pitching, the offense is underperformed, even even acknowledging the injuries, even understanding. Standing, they’re not at full strength, right? Now, you mentioned rutchman not being there, you know, Gary Sanchez hit a three run homer. I mean, his bat hasn’t been the problem seeing him behind the plate. You know, when he can’t get a tag down, or he can’t block a ball, that’s very disappointing, right? It’s probably why he’s a backup catcher at this point in his career, right? Not so much that he can’t hit, but when you’re not a good receiver, I mean, the bat has to be special then, and his bats not special, even though he’s hit some home runs since coming off the i l, but I just
Nestor Aparicio 10:34
wanted to look capable. I mean, as a home run hitter, fine, but I mean, sure, just when there’s a one run game, you need to hold runners on, guys on first base runner. Pitchers stink at holding runners on. I mean, you walk a guy on four pitches to start an inning, and next thing you know, he’s on third base. I mean, it’s just shitty. It’s terrible. It’s, it’s, it’s, you can’t win like this. You know, unless you’re going to score 12 runs a night, you can’t win like this.
Luke Jones 10:57
And that’s the thing. I mean, their offense has been nearly as disappointing as their pitching. But, I mean, it’s not just Gary Sanchez, though. I mean, Gunner Henderson made a bad throw to the play. I mean, they just, they’re not very good defensively. I mean, they’re one of the worst defensive teams in baseball, too. They have a couple exceptions in terms of good defenders, like Ramon Laureano is a heck of an outfielder, right? I mean, we’ve seen him with multiple outfield assists. Cedric Mullins can go get it in center field. You know, not here recently, because he’s made a couple substandard throws. He didn’t play on Tuesday night. Cows are, I think, is a plus defender overall, but you look at them across the board, it’s just not a very good defensive club. This is this wasn’t me being using hyperbole a month ago when I would say about them having no redeeming qualities as far as how they play the game as a team. They haven’t been good in any one phase of the game. They’ve had stretches like, for example, Tuesday night. Notwithstanding, their bullpen over the last month has been much better than it had been. Their rotation had a two and a half week run where it was much better. That was part of what kick started their winning streak and playing better. But that’s that’s regressed since then. I mean, you know, they’re pushing back Sagano. We’re going to see Brandon young make a startle on Wednesday, which I have no problem, pushing back Sugano a couple days, but he’s trending in the wrong direction. Evelyn’s been terrible his last couple times out. K Povich is on the i l, you know, look Bradish and all those guys that they’re throwing bullpens and doing that kind of stuff, but their returns aren’t imminent. So the rotation is what it is right now, the bullpen has been like I said, the bullpen over the last three, four weeks, mostly has been good, but it’s also had some games where they haven’t been able to protect the lead, right? I mean, we saw what happened in the eighth inning at Yankee Stadium on Sunday. Saw what happened Tuesday night. I mean, it’s just, just not to your point, you know. And regardless of you know, Jim Palmer’s an example that everyone hears. I think he’s everyone watching this team. I mean, I even, that’s why I said, even since that six game winning streak, 42
Nestor Aparicio 13:15
8years. I mean, 42 years, I know, you know. I mean, I prefer Jim Auburn for me and for everyone older than me watching this. It’s just
Luke Jones 13:26
it. But you know what? You know what I would say to you, at least you saw the glory days. I mean, seriously, I say it facetiously, and I’m trying to keep the focus on the here and now, because there aren’t many days left where we’re probably going to be talking in this context, it’s going to be, who are they trading away at the deadline? Who are they calling up in August, right? I mean, yeah. I
Nestor Aparicio 13:48
mean opening day right now is September 7 for the for the ravens, and we’re still talking about the Orioles for five minutes. But once the trading deadline hits, opening day becomes next March.
Luke Jones 13:58
Yeah, because you know you’re going to have it, training camp starts, I think the first full squad workout. Well,
8Nestor Aparicio 14:02
nothing they do after August 1 is going to matter, other than who’s going to pitch on opening day next year, literally, who’s going to be in the lineup next year. And I can tell you right now, Richmond, Henderson, cowser, yeah, we can go through they have all of these young players holiday mayo. They’re all going to be on the roster. You can, you can send their luggage down the Sarasota right now. They’re going to be there on Valentine’s Day, and that we’re now getting to the point where that’s the next thing, it’s going to matter for that. Yeah,
Luke Jones 14:28
well, I mean, I think there’s clearly some interest in Samuel biso. I mean, I saw a few people mention it on social media. Can he really be any worse than Gary Sanchez behind the plate defensively? You know, I’m, let me be clear. I’ve said all along. I’m not, I’m not sitting here and arguing that he shouldn’t be here right now. I just think strictly looking at what his offensive numbers are at triple A doesn’t give us a full complete picture as far as where he is as a catcher right now. Uh, of whether you want him here. But like I just said, I mean, Gary Sanchez isn’t getting the I mean, they they actually just signed Jacob, Stallings to a minor league deal. He’d been with the pirates for a number of years here recently, he’s more of a defensive backstop. Might be an upgrade over Chadwick Trumper or Maverick Hanley, but, but yeah. I mean, that’s what we’re talking about at this point. And like I said, this team, it was roughly three weeks ago. They got back to 11 under 500 and don’t get me wrong, I understand you can’t win every single night. I understand it’s baseball, but they’ve now let three three weeks drain off the calendar, and they’re still 11 games under 500 I mean, they haven’t gained any ground over the last three weeks or so, and they’ve had opportunities again. You can point out, you can go and point out at least three or four games that they lost over that stretch that could have been wins. And you know, then we’re having a different conversation. Then we’re talking about them maybe being only six or seven games under 500 right now, as opposed to where they are, which is still 1111, under. And you’ve got a chance. You do have a chance to win this series. You do that, that’s great. But then you have five more series after that, and you need to win all those series, right? I mean that if you’re not going to go on a long win 10 of 11, win 13 of 15 kind of stretch, then you’ve got to win every single series and win two out of three. And they just they don’t profile consistently enough to expect that they’re going to do that. Right? Again, they’re playing better, but they’re better has been more of a middling 500 ish kind of profile over the last three weeks, right? I mean, it had, it’s not that they won six in a row and then they won nine of 10 right after that, right? And then they won, you know, they won four in a row after that, right? I mean, it’s been, you know, you win a game, you lose a game, you win two games, you lose two games, you win a game, you lose two games, right? I mean, it’s just, it hasn’t been something that they’ve been able to gain any traction after that winning streak. So, you know, it’s, it’s where it is. The injuries are still a factor. It does sound like Westberg is going to be back, right? I mean, it sounded like he had a chance to play Tuesday, but sounds like we’ll either see him, you know, for the for the finale, or we’ll definitely see him Friday, after the off day, so they at least avoided, you know, a more serious injury with him on this occasion. But to your point, you know, you don’t have rutchman. Tyler O’Neill has restarted his rehab assignment. We’re going to see how that goes. You know, Mateo is starting a rehab assignment, even though I don’t really have a whole lot of interest in seeing Jorge Mateo play at this point. But, you know, it’s just they’re just not good enough. I mean, they don’t do anything well enough to to really sit here with any real conviction on my part to think that they’re going to reel off the kind of stretch of great baseball they have to play great baseball, fantastic baseball. That means
Nestor Aparicio 18:03
they need great pitching, and they’re incapable. They don’t do anything great. I mean, you,
Luke Jones 18:09
8I agree with that. You
Nestor Aparicio 18:11
said, Well, they’re one of the worst defensive teams in baseball. You haven’t said that out loud in three months, but that’s true. Thanks
Luke Jones 18:16
to I mean, like you know, all along, we wondered about the pitching. So I’ll continue to bang on on the other stuff, not being good enough. Their offense was supposed to be. We’re
Nestor Aparicio 18:27
tag teaming, and we’re like the executioners here. I beat him up about the pitching. You beat him up about the hitting. We could both beat him up about the defense. More like the moon dogs. That’s like, he wrecks the moon dog coming. We need three, like Samoans. There’s three of us to gang up
8Luke Jones 18:40
on. I mean, if I had to, if I had to, kind of divvy out the blame for, for Tuesday night and again, the pitching wasn’t great. I’m not going to sit here and say Charlie Morton was great. He also wasn’t a disaster, like he wasn’t horrendous either. But their defense really nice. Fifth starter the last month, he’s been better, like he’s been really good the last month. I mean, Nestor, you can make an argument. He’s been their best starting pitcher the last three weeks. Last three weeks, right? I mean, you could make that after Sugano went down the mountain, yeah, Sagano has been, hasn’t gone through, gotten through five innings and three straight starts. They’re pushing
Nestor Aparicio 19:11
him back now because they’re thinking he’s fatigued. He’s 35 He’s older
Luke Jones 19:15
than that. I mean, keep in mind, Jap, keep in mind the Japanese baseball culture is more of a six man rotation so, and they haven’t had an off day since, what? June 9, I think it is. So it’s been,
Nestor Aparicio 19:28
8I did not know the Japanese culture was a six day. Oh, yeah,
Luke Jones 19:31
that’s, that’s kind of, I mean, I don’t want to speak for
Nestor Aparicio 19:35
the you know baseball better than I that’s, that’s something that you just educated me on, that I did not know. Yes, so
Luke Jones 19:40
that’s been a fact. Now, I’ll say this in fairness, if you go look at his splits, he’s been actually quite good on four days rest, but we know there’s a cumulative impact there, right? I mean, with any pitcher you’re trying to keep guys healthy, you have enough data now to track velocity, arm, angle, all those different things. And it’s not like he’s been horror. Trouble. You know, effluent has been really bad. His last two starts, Sagano is just, it’s been much more of a labor, right? It’s been very, very much a grind. His command hasn’t been as good, hasn’t been as sharp. We know he doesn’t miss a lot of bats, so if he’s not pinpoint with his command, he’s going to get knocked around. So he’s he’s avoided being awful in those starts. But, I mean, he hasn’t gotten through five innings, so they’re pushing them back a couple days. You know, mancilino was flat out asked Hey, this isn’t an IL or injury or anything like that. He said, No, so think it truly is. Hey, let’s give him a couple days. Give him a chance. Let this heat wave to the extreme that it’s been the last couple of nights. Let that subside a little bit. It is going to be cooler this weekend, relatively speaking, and get him back on track. But, I mean, it’s just, there’s just too much working against this team. And as I said to you on Monday, as we were coming out of the Yankee series, the calendars working against them at this point. I mean, we’re we’re not that far out from the all star break, and we’re a little over a month away from the trade deadline. I mean, where, where do they need to be record wise, for anyone to really buy into the idea that it would be a good idea for them to do anything that’s only helping them right now, as opposed to, you know, and that’s not to say I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t completely eliminate the possibility of being a buyer, but if I’m whatever I’m buying, it needs to be something that’s helping me next year, because this year is just about, you know, I mean, it’s, it’s shot, right? I mean, and we talked, we, we’ve been saying that since mid May, and yes, they’ve played better, but they haven’t played well enough, they haven’t played great enough to really look at this thing objectively and think that there’s any practical chance here. I mean, I get it. The optimists will say, Well, look at the Tigers last year. You can’t base your strategy on what you’re going to do at the trade deadline and how you’re going to proceed from a baseball ops standpoint, based off what the Tigers did last year. That’s an outlier, and that’s a great outlier for the Tigers. And look they they took off, and they’re the best team in the American League. Now, good for them, but you can’t just point to the Tigers or any isolated example here or there of teams being 10 games under 500 or, I don’t know, six games under 500 at the All Star break, if they manage to do that, and think that that’s a good idea, you know, I, I think you need to look at this in terms of your selling off your expiring contracts that can actually get you something. And or if, or you’re talking about any of those guys, if you want to want them back for 2026 you should be talking extension right now then, but otherwise, you know, you’re looking for, what can you do? What moves can you make? Who Can you clear out of the way to try to recalibrate yourself for next year? Right? I mean, this isn’t a full blown tear down, rebuild like they were seven years ago, but
8Nestor Aparicio 23:01
who’s going to pitch next year? That’s the question for me, because I know who’s going to be in
Luke Jones 23:05
the lineup. Sure, well, but I would even say at that point, do we do we know that we know everyone that’s going to be in the lineup next year? Or do they need to go get a more established veteran back, and not Tyler O’Neill? Obviously, I don’t know, but your overall point I agree with, yeah. I mean, we got to look at that and figure out, yeah, who is going to start games for this team next year. And it can’t all just be on radish and Rodriguez and Tyler wells. You can certainly put them in the conversation with the entire group, but yeah, you better have a better plan than that. You can’t look at Kyle Brad You know, I’m totally fine with saying Kyle Bradish is in my rotation next year. I’m fine with that. You can’t look at it through the lens of he’s my ace, right? You can’t look at hit him as the number one. You’ve got to look at him as, you know. Hey, if he’s as his old self, then maybe he is. But I need to have someone else that profiles as, you know, and I don’t even get so caught up into the number one, number two, kind of starter we’ve seen teams. I mean, the Rangers won the World Series A couple years ago. They didn’t have a bona fide Corbin burns, like Ace they did. It was Jacob deGrom. And you know what? He was on the he was on the IL because he got had Tommy John surgery. So, but they clearly need more with the rotation. The you know, the bullpen is going to be another factor because of expiring contracts. I mean, you know, the interesting I’m not saying I’m for or against this, but you know, one of the more fascinating assets that they have, if, if some team wanted to absolutely blow them away. I mean, what would you have to get for to potentially trade Felix Batista? I think I don’t want to, but teams might, might offer you the moon for him. You know, the way that he’s pitching and trending. You know, I I’d rather. Not because then that’s okay, who’s your closer next year, right? I mean, you just get to a point where there’s so many holes and and even if you like, it’s not yet near Cano, right? So, right? And again, I’m only bringing that up because that’s one of the first guys I think teams are going to at least ask, you know, they’re going to at least ask and say, what would it take for us to get? Yeah, could
Nestor Aparicio 25:21
they trade Dominguez and Soto and get a bag of balls the way the Phillies did last I don’t know, you know, I mean, how much of it do you want to give away? What do you value? And to your point, it makes the cowsers and all these guys completely untouchable. But I think if you want to get something real, you’re gonna have to dip into trading things you don’t want to trade. And that doesn’t necessarily mean Batista. That means young
Luke Jones 25:41
8players, yeah, and again, I just for me with that conversation, I hear you, I also don’t know exactly what that’s going to look like, right? I mean, I mean, I, you know, whether it’s cows or Coby mail, you know, at this point. I mean, I don’t think there’s a bus IO deal to be made. I think besides going to be on this team next year, you know. And part of that is also, what is Adley rutschman At this point in time, right? I mean, and I don’t mean that in terms of, like, Oh, he’s not a starting caliber player, but, you know, all the conversations we were having 12 to 18 months ago about, I have no interest in extending Adley rutschman Right now, right? I mean, I don’t know for any, I don’t say for any price, but I’m not
Nestor Aparicio 26:23
sure he’s a major league baseball player over the next five years. I don’t, I don’t know that. He’s not just gonna, I wouldn’t go that, this
Luke Jones 26:29
or but, but he certainly, you know, you hear baseball people talk about guys that are aircraft carriers, right? You thought two years ago that Adley rutschman Was that he certainly hasn’t looked like that in over a year or a year now, so, you know, but, but that I’m just talking about more specifically with pasayo there. But, yeah, I mean, they’ve got a this is where Mike Elias, who we haven’t heard from since he spoke to What a coward
Nestor Aparicio 26:58
that guy’s turned over, what a terrible leader he is. He’s not. He leads from behind with arrogance. It’s it’s weak. It’s really weak. I mean, it’s disappointing. It’s as weak as Eric. The cost of going out to doing Casey cares for 30 people with no cell phones on last week, and sitting there with Viviano and doing a fireside chat for charity and never speaking to the real fans. You never taking it on, but just sort of hiding, and you have to pay $1,000 to come here. Eric da Costa speak, I mean, it’s I like Casey. Casey, you know, I like you. I want to support charity, but that’s some weak shit. Eric Decosta and and if anybody sees me, tell them, I’m looking for you. Because, like these guys who lead or making millions of dollars a year, who make these decisions, they don’t need to be out in front of it seven days a week, like the manager or the head coach, but the part where they’re cowards. Just I mean, you saw Eric Decosta be an ultimate coward in my space a year ago, running from me, I just leadership of these two teams, ah, you know, Lee leaves leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to front facing, when it comes to accountability. By the way, I’m still waiting on that, um, that investigation about the kicker. Have we looked into that? Is that happening yet? I mean, this is where things just go away. And it’s like nobody’s asking about Michael eyes, the team’s in last place. We’re asking about michaelias Every day, like we’re asking, What are you thinking? What’s going on? What What’s the temperature? Fans are buying tickets, some of them are although, and the other thing is, just how bad this has been, how empty the stadium is, how hot it’s been. It’s just, it’s just the empty sound of the stadium. Even on, I listened for a couple innings. I was in my car. I mean, the last two nights are a bad example. It’s 100 degree, yeah, but, but generally, when the 27,000 seats sold ahead of time, there’d be some people there. There’s no walk up because there’s no pre sale.
8Luke Jones 28:52
Well, I mean, there’s sick I think they announced 16,000 on Tuesday night. And, I mean, they do have ticket. I’m get, I’m guessing there are, probably were at least a few people who had tickets for the game, and they can exchange it not and, well,
Nestor Aparicio 29:04
they love to do these headlines with the Baltimore Business Journal. I saw Mark fine as Johnny Bravo and himself as the guy who’s here to save the Orioles while taking my press credential. The notion that they’re going to save the franchise and that they’re doing stuff, the headlines are now attendance is down X X percent, right? I mean, attendance is down, way down to come watch after two playoff years and a new ownership that sold itself, you know, we’re not Peter, we might be worse, because you’re giving us more credit than we deserve by a lot. Um, you know, I gave them a lot of credit last opening day, thinking, man, they they’re really on to something here. And I had tears in my eyes on the club level with that clown, that Whistler clown, thinking like they’re gonna fix this. This is good. This can be great again. I’m gonna get my Oriole stuff out. I’m gonna be proud to be an Oriole fan. Proud to be a Baltimore sportsman. Do you remember proud of my 40 year legacy of covering this baseball team, proud of doing free of the birds, so that some point 20 years, it’s been 19 years since I did free the birds, and I do wake up at this point wondering what the hell I’m doing watching this baseball team, what the hell anybody else is doing watching this. And it’s, um, it’s sad, it’s sad, I don’t know, because I felt such potential the last two years. I they, they put the hook in my mouth as an Aparicio and a baseball fan and said, Hey, we, you know, we’re gonna this is the resurrection. We’re coming back. No, they’re not. They’re not coming back in any way. And this is where I get salty about Elias being a coward, hiding and, you know, three day fires the manager and hides in Milwaukee. Kind of leadership is that that’s dog shit. I mean that in any walk in life terrible, especially if you’re making a million dollars a year, terrible. So I’ll leave and his decision making has been whatever you think it is. We could be more fair in one way or another, but when you’re one one, it’s not hard to pick Jackson holiday, you know what I mean, or Bobby Witt or whatever. By the way, holiday, we talked a lot about him after the Monday game and the home runs away. We haven’t compared to the bobby Witt yet, have we, but,
Luke Jones 31:15
you know, wait, holiday and Bobby Witt? No, I’m just
Nestor Aparicio 31:20
8saying like, the kind of player you know that he’s going to be a generational he, he’s moving more toward Hey, they took the right guy, not the wrong guy in Richmond that we look at, right?
Luke Jones 31:32
Yeah, well, I mean, yeah, Jackson holiday is one of the few guys that on this team right now where you say, hey, arrows pointing up. He’s getting better and better. I mean, go, look at his splits. He’s been as good against lefties as right handed. Somebody’s got to be Bobby
Nestor Aparicio 31:47
Witt here, if it’s going to save me, you threw a bone to Machado as the generational player. And I’m not going to argue that, but he’s so forgettable to me, you know? I mean, just in a general he was a great tool player
Luke Jones 31:58
for four years. I think you’re really underselling him. Manny Machado is going to the Hall of Fame. Man, go look at his numbers. He’s absolutely a Hall of Famer at this point in time. I mean, you, you’re underselling that. He was never here to stay. He was always a bit of a rental, hey. But that has nothing to do with what kind of player he is. Fair enough. He was a great player. I mean, he’s absolutely, he’s easily the best player they had on the field since Cal Ripken. And I say that with great affinity for for Adam Jones and Nick marcas and your guys who had whole very good kind of careers, you know, longevity. But I mean, Machado is, you know, the Orioles would love if, if Jackson holiday can be anything close to what Manny Machado still is, quite frankly. I mean, still doing it at a high level, into well into his 30s now, so, but yeah, I mean, it’s Jackson holiday, trying to get a great direction overall. You know, Gunner Henderson hasn’t been awful this year, but he hasn’t been an MVP kind of guy go down the list. I mean, Heston curse dad’s back in the minor leagues. You know, Kobe Mayo is what he is right now, right? I mean, I want to see him play, but I’m not convinced that that means he’s going to be a dude for you. Well,
8Nestor Aparicio 33:13
that speaks to draft and development. Did we get the right guy and did we develop him the right way?
Luke Jones 33:18
Oh, I mean, I, in some cases, I mean, and Kobe mayo, you know, wasn’t a firm, you know, wasn’t a top five pick. You know, I, I don’t really have the my issue isn’t with how they’ve drafted those specific guys. I think you would even find in some of these drafts, you’re kind of looking at some of the alternatives, and you’d say, okay, that they didn’t even necessarily pick the wrong guy, rutchman, compared to Bobby Witt, fine, right? I mean, I think the ship has sailed on that at the same time you make the decision that’s there at that point in time. And you, you know, Bobby Witt was, what, 17 or 18 years old at that point, Hadley rutchman was a golden spikes guy that had led his team to the College World Series, right? So I, you know, I look at that and I can understand it, right? I mean, the problem isn’t that Adley or that Bobby Witt has become the better player. The problem is that Adley rutschman has regressed to the to the degree and extent that he has over the last year, even a year ago, even two years ago, you would have said, Yeah, Bobby Witt would have been the better choice, if we’re using hindsight, I just
Nestor Aparicio 34:22
wanted to be Matt wieners at this point, sure. Just hit 216, and 15 home runs and play, play good backstop, and be that rah, rah guy. And I mean, at one point you called it, would you call it fake, fake, uh, energy, wouldn’t you had a word for it, you know?
Luke Jones 34:37
8I mean, I don’t, I don’t know not. So I’m not dwelling on that so much. I mean, I just, but just the reality of his first couple years, two years in, he was better than Matt weeders ever was, and over the last calendar year, he’s, and I don’t want to pick on him too much, he’s on the IL right now, but he’s not available at this point in time. So, so that hurts you, but over the last calendar of a year, you. He’s become something that’s worse than what Matt weeders was over the duration of his time with the Orioles. So,
Nestor Aparicio 35:07
you know, well, somebody better be Bobby Witt when you’ve been in last place for a decade and you’re picking 1114151, you know, whatever it is, like some of these guys have to be superstars on your watch, not Colton cows or no offense, he’s never going to be he’s never going to be great. In my opinion, I’ve watched it for two years. I think he’s going to be great. Yeah, right. But I mean, you talk about Machado, how great he and I’ll apologize to Machado on that, but I never liked the player. I never liked. I just didn’t and, and I never liked any of the energy that they weren’t going to sign him and all that. We’re at the point now where we’ve got part of these guys, well, of course. And, well,
Luke Jones 35:50
I mean, you know, I’m, I’m not saying he definitely would have signed, but you’ve got to have real, meaningful conversations for that to ever
Nestor Aparicio 35:59
possibly. He was also a rock head. So, you know, there was starting fights and just doing stupid, doing immature stuff. So, and that’s part of being young.
8Luke Jones 36:07
Gladly had him on my team the last decade, but I hear you at 40 million a year. I mean,
Nestor Aparicio 36:15
would they have won anything if they had? He’s not a winner. Him one nothing. You know what? I mean, like that, San Diego things all. But I love the Padres. I got Tony winter
Luke Jones 36:24
talking about it in a vacuum, though. I mean, just
Nestor Aparicio 36:27
8the player, the stats, okay, you but I mean, I’m here to talk about him. I’m talking about these guys here. Somebody better be as good as him. One of these guys better be as good as him. They’re gonna need to sign one. I think, I think holiday right? This week, we’re talking about holiday last year. It was Henderson. Two years ago. Was ruchman. We could all see how dude, I wanted to give Jonathan scope $100 million I’m an idiot, right? You know what I mean? Like, I’m not saying my opinion’s the only one. I’m just saying, in the totality, somebody better do it. Somebody better be that guy. And they better figure out who it is. And this is the kind of summer where, like your last place, this is a summer for there’s no pressure, you know, they’re going to play baseball in August and September. Hit 350 in August for a month, you know, show me that you’re emerging. Give me Give give me something to talk about November, December and January. That makes me excited about March and April next year? Yeah, because that’s really where we’re going to be. We’re going to be into that conversation in two
Luke Jones 37:27
weeks. Yeah, I I hear you see, for me, I need, I need better across the board. I need from the collective young core, and that doesn’t mean they’re all MVP candidates, and that was never going to be the case. Let’s be clear about that. I understand the point you’re making, but it needs to be more than that, right? It needs to be that someone emerges to be that. Sure, I’ll agree with you on that. You know, I don’t know if you can expect any of them to be Hall of Famers like Manny Machado, but it’s got to be multiple guys that are looking like, hey, they’re perennial All Star caliber kind of players. So I man selenos quote about holiday was so interesting the other night. He said, I’m not really so worried about him making the all star team this year. I understand it’s important to it’s important to me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m rooting for him to make it, and that would be cool for a 21 year old, but he said, I’m flat out looking at this like, what can I do? What can the coaching staff do over these next two years to get him to be one of the five best players in baseball by 2027 right? I mean, you know, and that’s only a couple years away, you know, I thought that was a really interesting thing, that on one on one hand, you could say, wow, you’re putting a lot of pressure on the guy. On the other hand, it speaks to what kind of pedigree he has, you know, his bloodline with his father and being growing up around the game, and the guy that he’s already the player he’s already become at age 21 when so many guys are at double A so, you know what? Holidays pointing in
Nestor Aparicio 38:53
the right direction? I thought about him this morning for some weird reason, because I knew we’re going to talk about him. I’m thinking stats got $200 million in the bank. He grew up in a mansion. He grew up in a different way. He just wants to play baseball, you know what I mean, like, and that’s a different thing than Manny Machado, you know, growing up in the hood and trying to make money and and try and and getting a signing bonus and all that. Even for ruchman and these other guys that you know, Gunner Henderson, being a 19 year old kid from Alabama, I don’t know much about their families or their wealth or whatever. I know holiday story, and I know when Daddy made $200 million it would change who you and I are fundamentally, in a lot of ways, if daddy had $200 million like, literally, I’ve seen this through athletes. I, you know, you know, I’m friends with Mark Messina, his brothers got 200 million, you know. Like, I know what all of that is and how it changes comfort levels for people, Jackson holiday doesn’t think about anything but baseball. He’s married. He seems like a nice kid. He looks like he doesn’t shave yet he looks like he looks like a Little Leaguer out there running around. Looks like there’s some joy of the game for him, because there isn’t any pressure for him to make $400 million to feed his family. Because he’s he’s having a great life. All he needs to do, stay healthy and hit the ball, and he’s going to have a wonderful walk in life at this point because of what his father did, because what his family represents. But that doesn’t same thing with Bobby Witt, whose father didn’t make as much as Matt holiday did, but just sort of like, by the way, I want to point this out before we take a break, because we’re going to take a break. David Siggy, who was a longtime friend of mine. I’ve known David 30 years, two time Oriole. Oriole draft pick. The whole deal. Lost his father and Diego Sigi too. So another major leaguer man, you know, my cousin’s the oldest living Hall of Famer, had a chat with Pete Williams, my baseball historian. We’re going out of Tampa this weekend, and we’re not going to that. I’m bringing Tampa guests in. Rick Vaughn will be here too. And just, you know, the legacy of a guy like holiday when I see him run around, it’s a different kind of want. It’s a different kind of thing. When you’re just there for the love of the game, you’re just polishing your craft. You’re not like, oh my god, Richmond’s like, I thought I was going to make 200 million. I might only make 15. You know what I mean, if I don’t figure this out, I’m going to be Chad with Trump, you know. And this is a living for these guys, but in holidays, case, he’s on borrowed time, this 21 year old kid running around, I kind of enjoy that part of it to something. And I enjoyed watching his dad watch him. I like that.
Luke Jones 41:21
I mean, the financial part’s easy to point that out, but he’s also been around major league clubhouses his whole life. He’s been around good teams. He’s been around not so good teams, dude. I remember
8Nestor Aparicio 41:30
Prince Fielder being a little boy. I remember two greens, his kid, junior at you know, yeah, you
Luke Jones 41:37
can see the clips of Jack little Jackson holiday following his dad around during batting practice things like that. I
Nestor Aparicio 41:42
totally remember Prince Fielder sitting in that in the Tigers locker room in the mid 90s with his father at Camden Yards, like I
Luke Jones 41:50
8remember. So, yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s a cool story. And you know, Jackson holiday may end up being the best of the of the bunch, right? I mean, and that doesn’t mean that the others aren’t going to be good players, or all stars, or things like that. But, yeah, just looking at it through the lens of 2025 I mean, you know, he’s, he’s the one guy that you feel great about out of their young all their other young guys have something, Gunner, Henderson, to a lesser extent. But you know, Westberg got to stay healthy. Richmond has fallen apart at the plate, right? I mean, he’s been better this year, but certainly not where he was the last couple years. And, you know, cows are still finding consistency, Kobe Mayo trying to find, you know, establish himself cursed ads back in the miners we’re waiting on. Visayo At this point, who, you know, again, might have a better bat than any of these guys when it’s all said and done,
Nestor Aparicio 42:41
we tape this right now, and we played this back in February as sort of an ahead in time. It’s been incredible, incredible.
Luke Jones 42:48
Or forget about that. Forget about February. We played this a year ago at this time right around now is when, when I was telling my wife, this is the best team I’ve ever seen taking two or three from the Yankees, and they had just or or two or three from the Phillies in Baltimore for that series that was sold out late week. Yeah, and you had taken two or three from the Yankees. I mean, we’re just past the one year mark of that point where there was very much a strong argument to be made. The Orioles were the best team in baseball, and we haven’t been able
Nestor Aparicio 43:19
to say that much in our lifetime? Literally, maybe 97 I could give you 97 2014
8Luke Jones 43:26
they were in that conversation by the end of the year. But, yeah, not often, not very often. And you know, I’m going to be 42 years old in October, so
Nestor Aparicio 43:36
Well, it’s a disaster. I’ll just leave it at that. You’re going to be at the ballpark, uh, sweating it out, raising town this weekend. I’m doing some Tampa stuff. I’m catching back up with Rick Vaughn. The highlight of the week was not even Jack Hughes from from Wang Chung. The highlight of the week is going to be Fred Lynn, fantastic. Freddie Lynn, number 19, sweet swing. And Freddie going to be on the program this week. So I caught up with him. So I’m looking forward to that. I’ve been finding some weird guests around here this summer. So I’m going to be reaching to the back of the rack to bring some people on and try to have some fun around in and out. The Orioles are in last place, and it feels like they’re there to stay. Luke can be found at Baltimore. Luke, I can be found anywhere you want to find me. We can be found at readers crab house. I hope I’m saying that right in Reisterstown on Thursday. We’ll be there in the afternoon. Luke and I’ll be there with Alan McCallum kind of early, having some crab cakes around one o’clock. Also going to be joined by Izzy Patoka. I have some other guests coming over. My pal happy Eddie from curio wellness and from The Real Housewives of the Potomac. I like Eddie. Eddie’s fun. Eddie lives here in Baltimore. Eddie’s Baltimore guy, Eddie Sefo, so we’re looking forward to talking to him about his cannabis business, and just, he’s a lawyer too, so we got all sorts of things, and he lives in the area, so it’s gonna be fun. Um, Thursday. We’ll see you there. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery, also our friends at Liberty, pure solutions, as well as curio wellness. The aforementioned, I’m wearing my Coco’s pub shirt. We’re getting back to Coco’s. We were doing 27 my 27 favorite things to eat, literally. In Baltimore during the month of August. It starts on August 3, which is our 27th anniversary. On threatening the 27th anniversary logo, we’ll see about that. He’s Luke, I’m Nestor. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 it’s house of Baltimore, and we never stop talking last place? When did the Ravens start? We’re Baltimore positive. I.
