The fair criticism of foul umpiring and broken MLB review system

Was the Pete Alonso home run fair or foul? Science said it was fair; the umpires called it foul. Luke Jones and Nestor throw the flag on the MLB video review system, camera angles and contribute to the general lousy mood around Baltimore after another Orioles late loss to the New York Yankees at Camden Yards.

The discussion focused on another Orioles loss to the Yankees, centered on a disputed Pete Alonso fair-foul home run call and the Orioles’ continued inability to sustain momentum in the wild-card race.

Replay Problems

• Nestor and Luke agreed the Alonso ball appeared fair and that the replay result undermined confidence in MLB officiating.
• Luke explained two technical issues: broadcast camera angles are not always perfectly aligned with the foul line, and MLB replay generally wants two supporting angles to overturn a call.
• Luke added that teams could see ball-tracking data in the dugout, but MLB does not use that technology for fair-foul review. Nestor argued MLB should use more cameras, tracking, and existing technology to get definitive home-run calls right.
• Open question: Why does MLB still exclude ball-tracking and better camera placement from fair-foul review?

Game Context

• Both said the blown call was significant, but Luke stressed it did not solely lose the game because it was still tied at that moment.
• Luke pointed to the Orioles’ broader failures: only one leadoff runner reached base for the second straight night, the offense again disappeared, and late-game execution was sloppy.
• Specific issues mentioned were Cam Sanders in the eighth inning, Pozzo on a ball in the dirt from Cano, and a wild pitch that allowed an additional run.

Season Pattern

• Luke said this loss matched the Orioles’ season-long pattern: brief positive stretches followed immediately by setbacks.
• He cited repeated missed chances after reaching two games under .500, including dates on June 5, July 19, July 31, August 5, and August 16, when progress was followed by losing streaks.
• Luke said the math still leaves them alive, but he expects them to remain a few games out into the final week rather than taking control of the third wild-card spot.
• Nestor said his remaining optimism comes from the possibility that the offense, especially hitters like Gunnar Henderson and Colton Cowser, could improve more than the pitching over the final weeks.
• Open question: Can the Orioles finally produce sustained offense before bullpen depth and pitcher fatigue become decisive blockers?

• Return to Fishmonger’s Daughter in October to distribute additional Maryland Lottery Raven scratch-off prizes to listeners. (@Nestor Aparicio)
• Attend the Koco’s Pub Crab Cake Tour event in Laraville on Wednesday the 26th to participate in the segment and interact with attendees. (@Nestor Aparicio)
• If there is any new official information about Danny Pinter’s injury status, share it with listeners via the WNST Tech Service.
• Host the Best of Baltimore award show at Koco’s Pub on Wednesday the 28th, including having Ron Cassie and Max Weiss on the show and making them explain their decisions. (@Nestor Aparicio)
• Prepare fun props for use during the Best of Baltimore award show segment at Koco’s Pub. (@Nestor Aparicio)
• Select and schedule 28 musical memories to feature during the August 3rd 28th anniversary broadcast as part of the WMST anniversary celebration. (@Nestor Aparicio)
• Plan and organize the December 35th anniversary celebration for being on the air, building on the current 28-year milestone. (@Nestor Aparicio)

Disputed Home Run Call

• Nestor and Luke opened with the Pete Alonso fair-foul review and agreed the call appeared incorrect.
• Luke explained replay limitations involving imperfect camera alignment and MLB’s requirement for supporting angles.
• They questioned why MLB does not use dugout-visible tracking data or additional foul-line camera setups.

Orioles Loss Breakdown

• The hosts said the call changed the feel of the game but was not the only reason the Orioles lost.
• Key baseball factors included weak offensive output, limited baserunners, late defensive sloppiness, and bullpen issues.
• Luke cited Cam Sanders, Pozzo, Cano, and the wild pitch sequence as central late-game mistakes.

Wild Card Outlook

• Luke argued the Orioles have shown the same pattern all season: modest progress followed by immediate regression.
• He referenced several dates when the club got back to two games under .500 and then quickly lost ground again.
• Both agreed the race remains open because competing teams are also inconsistent, but neither described Baltimore as trustworthy.

Roster Concerns

• Nestor said he still expects more from the offense than the pitching down the stretch.
• Luke discussed concerns about offensive inconsistency, including Kobe Mayo, Gunnar Henderson, and Colton Cowser.
• The discussion briefly shifted to the Ravens, where Luke noted concern about Danny Pinter’s injury and uncertainty at center.

Nestor Aparicio 0:01
Welcome home. We are WNST AM 1570 Tassel, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. We had one heck of a crab cake tour stop over in the Ville. We were at Fishmonger’s Daughter on Wednesday. Dennis Kolazzos came by from Koons Ford. We had Zach Dermer from Farnham and Derma, Bill Cole. It’s like old home week. Damie was making food for me and stuffing it down my face. Had this, I don’t know about the word hate, H A K E. It’s too close to hate, which some of us have been hate watching the Orioles lately. Dennis admitted that he hated cats on the air the other day, which I didn’t like at all, so I had to correct them on that, but hate is a fish, and it’s delicious. And get the collard greens as well over Fishmonger’s Daughter. It’s all brought to you by friends at the Maryland Lottery Raven scratch-offs to give away. They were kind of like shut down at lunchtime. They open for dinner. I’m gonna come back and give some more of these out in October. We’re coming back to Fishmonger’s Daughter. We’re so excited about that, and I did have a delicious, delicious meal there, as well as that loop and drink that’s got the tequila in it. They tried to give me a second when I’m like, no, no, no, no, no. I don’t live in Catonsville. Stop with that. So we had a great show over there. We’re going to be at Koco’s in Laraville on Wednesday, the 26th. And I, I’ve let my hair out because it’s sort of like my rally hat to think like when I get angry at the Orioles. I feel like I should let my hair out, so I look like Weird Al Yankovic. Luke, I don’t know, dude. You’re going down. You’re witnessing this this thing. By the way, thanks to GBMC and Farnham and Derma as well for our crab cake tour. So, Baco’s you know I I don’t know what to say except that I gave it to Charlie Brown Lucy treatment the other day. The ultimate disappointment. The Washington Generals and the Harlem Globetrot. I mean, pick anything you want. That second place. When it’s Orioles Yankees, back to me and Alan McCallum looking down the line in right field, coming up on the 30th anniversary of this in a month, right? Literally, of Jeffrey Mayer. What has gone right? I mean, and what? And I know it has nothing to do with Kobe Mayo or Pete Alonso. I’m just saying from a from our from the van, not Katie Griggs who doesn’t know her Birdland from her Oriole Magic, we’ve witnessed this. This is-it’s uncanny. Made a home run stolen from. I mean, literally. Like I-I’ll take the side of Greg Bader, the Mass and Broadcast Crew, whatever the just the trajectory of where the the foul line is in that, and you have sat behind home plate till they put the Jewish club in, and then they melt down and lose anyway. So I can’t even say, “Well, they took the home anyway. Tony Tarasco, man, I saw it. I saw it. Scott Carson saw it. We all saw it. He reached over. I I’m 30 years into making those arguments, dude. Shut the door and give me an argument to make. Don’t give up a couple of runs. I mean, I don’t. My hair is out, and I’m pissed off. I’m sorry, and thank you, Planet Fitness, for sponsoring. But but here we are.

Luke Jones 3:08
I mean, they they blew the call. I’ll say that. And you know, and you know me, I’m I’m quite diplomatic, way more diplomatic on these types of calls when we’re talking about it with Ravens games or you know any sport, right? Appreciating homers

Nestor Aparicio 3:21
in that way ever. No, you and I. You want that? You can find that other. But you and I, one of the reasons I love you, and I love doing this 20 years into this with you, is we don’t always see it the same way, and we fight, we can have a good time, whatever. But like, neither one of us is going to look at. I’m not conflating, but I am saying a murder of a woman in the street in Minnesota getting shot in the head, say we didn’t see it. I mean, like we’re not people that don’t call it the way we see it. That was it was outrageous to me. I mean, at that point in the game, I mean, just it was just an outrageous call as I saw it, and I’m not outraged by much.

Luke Jones 3:56
There are a couple things, and I don’t want to dwell on it too much because, as you said, it’s not as though the Orioles didn’t have a chance to win the game over the next couple. But I guess it is

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Nestor Aparicio 4:05
the lead story. If we’re sitting at taking photos, oh, it’s absolutely the right. Okay,

Luke Jones 4:08
I mean it’s going to be the lead one of the lead stories around Major League Baseball for the next day or two. I mean that’s that that’s what we’re talking about here. A couple things with the call specifically. One, I thought it looked very apparent that it was fair. The Orioles dug out all responded in a way not being hopeful, but expecting it to be fair, right? So there are a couple things at work here, and we saw this actually happen. I want to say it was the Phillies series. I think a few weeks back, there was a call down the right field line, and the issue it looked foul according to the angle that you think is right down the line, however, you come to find out the camera is not exactly aligned with the foul line going down to the foul pole, so it it creates not an optical illusion necessarily, but it just doesn’t give you an accurate angle. So can I ask

Nestor Aparicio 4:59
just a fair question? Maybe you can we can Google this. Maybe how many cameras do they have set up in a general sense at these games? And we’re talking about chipping balls now in football and how tennis works. And it’s sort of like people are betting a lot of money. A lot of people had Pete Alonso. Let’s make it rain. Let’s play Big Poppy. Somebody had 20 bucks on him to hit a home run and got banged out of money too. So like that, that’s on the like. I never think like that because you and I are gamblers. But I’m like, dude, you got billions of. You’re a billion dollar industry. Don’t act like they act. Quite frankly, like Chris Yolman and Katie Griggs are running the place. It doesn’t give me a lot of confidence in betting on it or being a part of it, if you can’t get a home run call right in 2026, I mean, come on, man, come on, man.

Luke Jones 5:48
I mean, I’m look, I’m people who gamble and bet on sports. Those blind spots and limitations when it comes to officiating in any sport have always existed and still exist. So you buy or beware in that way. Sure. So, so you’re not wrong on that. But really, it’s the other point that you just made for me. It’s you want people that are watching it to have confidence in the product, right? That when you see something that looks quite apparent, and you watch wrestling, by the way, which is a number. You love wrestling, and that’s a thing, but I don’t watch wrestling. Right, exactly, and that’s the point I’m making. But but to go back to what I was saying, I because I was mentioning two things here specifically. One, you do have issues at times where cameras aren’t necessarily directly down the line, and that matters, especially when it’s close. Now this one, I don’t think it was so close where that meant, oh well, this is you know we can’t overturn this. But as Pete Alonso explained it specifically at his locker after the game, his understanding and how it’s been explained to him, and I don’t know if it was explained to him individually or he’s just been around and fair foul calls down the line are a thing throughout the throughout baseball over the course of a season, especially

Nestor Aparicio 7:01
when you’re a power hitter like him, you’re the way.

Speaker 1 7:04
But the way you’re going

Nestor Aparicio 7:04
to hook one when you hit try six other times, sure.

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Luke Jones 7:07
Or teammates are going to do it, right? I mean, someone’s going to do it, right? And you’re going to be part of that. And you do it, and you do

Nestor Aparicio 7:12
it in in in the batting cage and wonder if it’s fair. Like when you know 530, you’re they’re hitting. You’re like, is it fair? Is it foul? Because it’s fun, right Yeah, and there are. It was fun when I was a wiffle ball. Sure,

Luke Jones 7:23
and there are instances where it is going to be a difficult call for the third base umpire or the first base umpire if it’s down the right field line. So, the one issue is the limitations with camera angles sometimes not being what they might appear to be, and that happened in the Philadelphia game a few weeks back, Orioles fans were convinced. I think it was Colton Kowser hit it down the line. I believe if it wasn’t the Philly series, if someone has a better memory than me, then I apologize. Anyone who’s listening, but it was a few weeks ago, and it was similar, and it was one of those where the camera angle made it absolutely made it look fair. But I could be totally honest. My specific spot in the press box, I have a really good look of down the right field line. Now down the left field line, you know, because the press box is a little bit on the third base side now, but I could see that in real time. And my honest thought was that it was actually foul. But the the television camera that you think is directly perfectly down the right field line, but it’s not exactly. It made it look fair, so you run into problems with that. And you know, to finish my thought on what Pete Alonso had said, it’s been explained to him, and I assume that’s you know a general explanation that teams get that when you have one of those fair foul calls down the line, or really any call for for it to be overturned, they’re looking for two camera angles to support. Hey, this needs to be recorded, or this needs to be reversed, or this is confirmed, right? So so you run into that problem. But the other problem, and this is where I think so much of the frustration lies, is we see in modern baseball teams have tablets in the dugout, right? There’s ball tracking data, Hawkeye, and and all kinds of technology. The Orioles could see on their tablets the ball tracking technology showing that the ball was fair. Yet, Replay Review does not use that technology specifically for fair foul calls, and I think the big time frustration for me-you go back. I think it was 2008, I believe, is when replay. It was actually implemented in the midst of a season because there was forget the exact call, but there was controversy, and it it had happened enough times in recent years where everyone’s like, “Hey, why aren’t we doing this? I mean, the NFL has replay, full-blown replay now. Why aren’t we doing this? Soccer

Nestor Aparicio 9:46
has replay, right? But but

Luke Jones 9:48
well, but I’m talking about 2008 specifically. But I’m

Nestor Aparicio 9:50
talking about modern, like they were 10 years ago. Wouldn’t like that kind of stuff, right? But but they were last strong. But the

Luke Jones 9:56
frustration here is replay review was introduced in May. Major League Baseball specifically for these kind of calls before it then expanded to do more, and you don’t you still can’t get this right. And again, the Orioles are looking at tablets in their dugout. I like

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Nestor Aparicio 10:14
data. I like science. I know you do too, right? Yeah,

Luke Jones 10:17
and get the call right. Whether we’re

Nestor Aparicio 10:19
using get the call right.

Luke Jones 10:20
Whether we’re talking about that, whether we’re talking about putting a camera, you know, in the same way that we have pylon cameras now in in football, in the same way, can you put a camera right at the base of the foul pole, looking up, and then you’d get a definitive angle of does the ball cross the the the left field foul line in fair territory or not, and that would that would help address the ones that are so high that go over the foul ball. All that, so

Nestor Aparicio 10:46
well, chipping the football would be the easiest thing in the world to figure all that out. And it’s still they still got little Willy Wonka oompa loompa’s running around with sticks, like literally. So, and man, people are betting on every part of that. And I just think, look what the NFL-we’re three weeks away from a bad call and a PI and like all of that, right? Right. But for God’s sake, a home run call in baseball, and you can’t get it right. This isn’t a-I don’t even know. The baseball’s not definitive now, right? Like even when a guy slides into second base in the back tag or the front tag, whether he skirts the bag at second base at shortstop, like my cousin probably did 600 times during double plays with Nelly Fox, right? Like, or whether the first baseman’s foot’s dragged off the bag, we look at all of this. We we can we can see the strike zone down to a millimeter when you tap on your helmet in 10 seconds, and we can’t get a home run call, right?

Luke Jones 11:49
Right, exactly. Holy

Nestor Aparicio 11:50
hell! What? What? Who’s running this place, Katie? Well, who’s running this place?

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Luke Jones 11:56
It’s not. It’s Major League Baseball. Rob Manfred.

Nestor Aparicio 11:59
She’s my representative. I got to call her to get the ownership. Apparently,

Luke Jones 12:03
but I think you just look at this, and Chris Bassett said it best. And he’s a union guy. You know, he he’s he’s a player that’s spoken about some of the issues that are going to we’re going to be talking about to the forefront that are going to shut down the sport. Quite frankly, but he said it, and it’s hard to disagree with him. He said, “Look, this comes down to money. Major League Baseball could implement all of this technology and get all the camera angles you need and all the tracking data you need. That’s already there, mind you. But to have umpires and have Mission Control in in New York, that’s looking at you know the replay center to have all this in place, and then you shouldn’t have this issue. And and to your point, you know this isn’t pass interference, right? Pass interference is a very subjective call. What you might think is pass interference compared to me, compared to eight other people, we might get six different opinions there, and I

Nestor Aparicio 13:02
use soccer as an example. When a guy’s diving, or when a guy really got kicked, you know, the acting part of soccer’s part of the theater of it, as anybody that would really understand it, and the way that you love the WWE, and you know, you know. By the way, I shared a Ric Flair thing the other day, and all that shows up my timeline now is Dusty Rhodes. So yeah, it’s crazy coming in with the elbow. So I would say for me, I just the nuance of the game, and I’ve always said this about basketball. And you and I don’t talk basketball much, but the hand checking and what is a foul and what is charging and what is in the lane in real time. You with big men moving very fast, skin on skin. You know, wearing these wacky jerseys. You know, on a parquet floor, trying to delineate see things up and close. And then the chicanery of soccer, of the diving in baseball. Other than Sam Basayo pretending he got hit and it was whiffy whiff, and it hit the hairs on his. Like I, I’ll hear all of that, but my God, I keep going back to this, and and I’ll get off it because we’re 20 minutes into this, and I I’ve been doing Tony Tarasco for 30 years, and I’ll do it again in a month.

Luke Jones 14:15
By the way, don’t forget Nate McLeod’s in in the division series in 2012. I mean, that whether it hit the foul pole or not, right? I mean, in Game Five. Yeah, I mean, these

Nestor Aparicio 14:24
things feel like they should be definitive in the modern era, and it shouldn’t be me being a get off my lawn old fart with long hair from Dundalk yelling about it. It should be like they should want to get it. They should wake up effing embarrassed. Yeah, all of them. I mean, the the umpires should get docked. They they should get three days off and say, dude, like you got to get these calls right. Yeah, like you just got to get these calls right in a pennant race game in Baltimore that involves the Yankees. It’s bad enough. It’s it’s the Diamondbacks and the Rockies in the middle of the night and nobody sees it. But like, so anyway, you have. Anything more on it, or do you want to belabor? You want to take some phone calls? What do you want to, you know? Or like, I I still want to get to the part where they pissed themselves, sped up their lunch after that, and lost the game, and they were even given a run because the Yankees catcher was stupid enough to opt to second base. I mean, Palmer lost his mind. I mean, Palmer’s like, oh my God, there’s two like like Palmer went off the chain, and I love when Palmer goes off the chain about bad baseball. It’s what makes yeah. I mean,

Luke Jones 15:26
I I don’t have a whole lot more to say about the replay review call, except yes, look, there are so many times where it’s tough. I mean, even you go back to the the play at the plate in Arlington, what two weekends ago? I got yeah, two weekends ago, where it kind of looked like he was never tagged, and yet they they they upheld the call. Even that one, it’s it happened so fast. You don’t have all these different camera angles. I could at least I could swallow that one. I could accept that one. But in the

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Nestor Aparicio 16:01
annals of history, getting calls wrong for years, I’ll hear that a guy tagged the guy with the glove and had the ball. I mean, all of those tricks, hitting ball, like all of that nonsense. I mean, on streaming is still the idea. But where we are now, we’ve had teams win win World Series, bang and effing trash cans, and get away with it. Like, stop! Everybody’s got to watch with every with every dude. Be on the. I talked to John Martin, who’s now seeing. We are talking about

Luke Jones 16:28
we are talking about a sport where a team threw the World Series 100 107 years ago. So all

Nestor Aparicio 16:34
the more reason to get on the up and up. Pork bats, cork muscles, juiced balls, juiced gonads, the clear, the cream, the Androstein Dione, the no speaky, the the strikes, the money, the where’s it going, the the client of mine who is into $120,000 in tickets, up from $88,000 in tickets. Who’s canceling their Oriole season tickets this year? $120,000, and they’re canceling. Like, like get the calls right. Make the game on the up and up. That especially when it involves the Yankees, because it’s already fixed. I mean, and we’re going to get into that. It’s already they already get everything, all the money, all the all the everything. Get the call right, and that’s not bleeding heart Nestor or Peterlon. That’s just it would be the same way if it was the other way around. And now we can get to the Yankee jinx if you want to. And I’m going to work my Peter Angelos, Luke, you’re calling the offices of Peter G. Angelos this morning. I would tell you, it’s just that black cat. It’s that black cat running around Camden Yards. That’s the way Peter once explained it 20 years ago. It’s in Peter Principles about how we got our ass kicked by the Yankees, and that was 20 years ago.

Luke Jones 18:00
Yeah, I mean, specifically with that, sure. I mean, I understand what the perception is going to be. The Yankees have been much better than the Orioles for the better part of the last 40. You know, not not 40 years because the Yankees stunk in the ’80s as well. But last 30 years, yeah. I mean, it’s call spade a spade. But that’s when I will bring it back to the rest of the game. The Orioles got their leadoff man on once for the second straight night, right? They didn’t hit the ball again. I mean, it’s it’s really that simple. Yeah, I I I I didn’t love what I saw from Cam Sanders when he comes in in the eighth inning. That’s that’s evident. You know, I didn’t love Pozzo’s effort on the ball in the dirt from Cano. I thought that was pretty below the bar, if I’m being honest. A little too lackadaisical, considering how huge that moment was when it’s still just a one-run game. But you know, I mean, look, I’m not going to downplay that call. You know, the Pete Alonso home run gives them the lead there in the bottom of the seventh, and you’re proceeding differently the next couple hours or next couple innings. You’re feeling differently about it. It is a different game from that moment on. But that said, the Pete Alonso call did not lose them the game because it was still a tie game at that point in time. And then they give up two runs, right? I mean, infield hit to just a little dribbler to Mayo, and I I don’t think Mayo could have thrown him out at first. I really don’t. He tried the Manny Machado thing actually, which I thought was kind of funny and almost pulled it off. But you know a little bit of bad luck right there specifically. But then you know you can’t let the second run come in on the wild on the wild pitch, right? I mean, but again,

Nestor Aparicio 19:43
sloppy, just sloppy, just sloppy,

Luke Jones 19:45
sloppy in that moment. I mean, it’s not as though their defense was awful from start to finish. Doesn’t need

Nestor Aparicio 19:49
to be. Just it’s one moment in time when it tends to be,

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Luke Jones 19:52
yeah. And and but but it’s not just the Yankees though. It’s you’re right when you’re playing good teams, right? I mean, but it

Nestor Aparicio 19:59
hurts more when it’s the. Yankees independent, like I said, and you pee peed on me Tuesday, like it’s a big series, but it doesn’t feel big, and they’re under 500. How good can it feel, and whatever? And then some the people that went down there on Tuesday night, and even Wednesday night, and I guess on Thursday night, there’s some energy there because the Yankees. I mean, Yankees bring their own energy, right? I mean, Yankees fans are bringing fun. There’s there’s there’s ballpark sounds. There’s ballpark sounds that don’t feel that way when the Twins are in town or whatever, right? But like, all of that being said, they’ve come up small.

Luke Jones 20:36
I mean, they’ve done their whole year though. I mean, and that’s my thing. Like,

Nestor Aparicio 20:40
they won three in a row, dude. We got all lubed up around here, and now they’ve lost three.

Luke Jones 20:44
They won three in a row. Every team in baseball wins three in a row, at least a few times. You know what I mean? Like, is

Nestor Aparicio 20:51
this the part where, like, when Fonzie and Richie got together, where Fonzie admitted that he was?

Luke Jones 20:58
I mean,

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Nestor Aparicio 20:59
I was wrong for believing in this team, Luke. Now I don’t even say I was wrong. I just want to say you were right. Well, I’ve already admitted this. I already kissed your ass on Facebook. They were about your negativity. Your your negativity.

Luke Jones 21:11
It’s it’s it’s reality. It’s believing what I’ve watched for five months now. You know what I mean? Like that’s this is who they’ve been all year long. I said this. I cited this to you on Monday when they were going into the finale of the Tampa series. They’ve had five instances since June the fifth where they’ve gotten back to two games under 500. The five instances they’ve lost all five. Let me read off what happened in each instance because it’s not just losing that next night, on June the fifth, they were two games under 500. They lost four in a row then to fall back to six under. Right, july 19, they were two games under 500. They lost three of their next four to fall back to what four games under 500. july 31, they got to 200. That was the that was the Gunner Henderson triple night against the Phillies. You know, you’re thinking, hey, this could be the. Well, they lost their next two, and they ended up selling at the trade deadline, right? august 5, two games under 500, they lose three in a row. august 16, two games under 500, they lost three in a row, and we’ll see ending the result of the finale. Bradish against Garrett Cole. This is just who they’ve been all year long. They take one or two steps forward, and then they immediately take two or three steps back. I mean, that’s just that’s how it’s worked all year long. I’m not saying that. And look, I’m also not going to throw in the towel because the math. Go look at what happened on Wednesday night. Every team other than the Minnesota Twins lost in that, you know that whatever you want to call this race, as I keep calling it, keep calling it with using air quotes. So math, the math is still going to continue to give them a chance, and they’re not out of it. But at some point in time, like you can’t keep falling for the Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown, I mean that’s that’s just what happened. I’m not remotely surprised by what’s happened the last three nights. I mean this is what has happened. They they hit the ball for about a week and now they’re back to not really swinging the bats the way they need to. Now, granted, the Yankees have great pitching. That’s that’s a big part of it as well. I mean they they have tremendous pitching because by the way, the Yankees’ offense is terrible. Their offense has been worse than the Orioles the last couple months. But they at that point, if you want to be a playoff team, you’d like to think you could beat a good team. I mean, and they did that over the weekend, right? That’s where the belief comes. It comes with that, but then you also look. Well, what’s their record against not so good teams? And their record against not so good teams is very underwhelming as well. So this is just this is what they do. But I’m also not going to completely say, not going to say it’s over. It’s not. But this is what all these teams do. Texas looks good for a moment. Then they have a two and five road trip against the A’s and the Angels, right? Toronto looked awful two weeks ago, and now they’ve come alive. So to me, they’re the they’re the recent team of interest. Cleveland, Cleveland’s playing 333 ball since the All Star break. They’ve been woeful, but they have a track record that you’re not counting them out, and they have the same record as the Orioles right now. Detroit, about a week ago, Detroit was kind of the the sexy pick amongst you know to maybe even win the AL Central.

Luke Jones 24:28
You know they’ve they’ve been playing lackluster of late, so I don’t know like who someone is going to be handed the third wild card spot, and all these teams are going to continue to trip over one another, and I’m expecting the Orioles to continue to trip over themselves because that’s what they’ve done. I don’t think they’re going to fall out of it entirely. I think you and I are going to continue to have this similar tone of discussion because I don’t think that any of these teams are going to run off. I don’t know, 1111 wins. Yeah, you want to pronounce them dead when they

Nestor Aparicio 25:01
lose three games in a row at home, and and you know there’s not that’s not going to happen. You’re right. You’re right. I

Luke Jones 25:08
mean, if if you ask me like right now, if even it looks

Nestor Aparicio 25:11
and feels dead, it’s not.

Luke Jones 25:12
Yeah, if you ask me right now what I think is going to happen with the Orioles, I think we’re going to go into the final week of the season, and they’re going to be in a similar position. I I don’t think they’re going to be leading the pack. Like I don’t think they’ll be in the third wild card spot. But we’ll say if

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Nestor Aparicio 25:26
they can win eight of the last 10, right? Yeah,

Luke Jones 25:29
they’ll be they’ll be in a position where there are two games out, two and a half games out, something like that. But it might be that there are three other teams ahead of them at that point in time. And I think we’re going to be saying this until the last week of the season. And that’s what Rob Mansford wants, anyways. A nice little scream, but with six cities trying to get a playoff berth. And the more and more you’re looking at this, I’m not. I’ve I’ve said for a while that I was convinced that that the third team, the third wild card will get above 500. I don’t know if that’s going to happen at this point. I mean, even looking at the Orioles right now as as they go into the finale against the Yankees, 61 and 66. I mean, they have to go 20 and 15, which isn’t unbelievable. They haven’t done a 20 this year. You know, July they did. Yes, you know they’ve had some stretches where you said that where you’d say okay, they’ve done that, but not many. But the

Nestor Aparicio 26:19
past does not equal the future. I, you know, as I see it, and and I’m saying you’ve got five

Luke Jones 26:24
months of past now, specifically

Nestor Aparicio 26:25
with the Orioles. As shoddy as the bats have been, and as decent as the pitching has been, there is really when you you always say regression to the mean. It’s one of your fun terms that you use, like the like the kinetic Chain,

Luke Jones 26:42
that one makes me sound smart. The regret, well, the

Nestor Aparicio 26:45
regression to the mean to me is that all of these pitchers are tired, and some are more tired than the hitters are going to be in September. In regard to this particular group of pitchers, nobody in here feels like a horse to me. Now, I don’t know where you are with Bassett because he’s got more arm in him for the next month. That he could be the bright spot in the rotation, in that he’s fresher. Yeah, I’ll hear that right than Bradish or than Rogers or these guys that are getting up in the buck buck and a halfs when they haven’t done that before, and I’ll start to hear that the fatigue, the tired, the big game, like all of that. That I don’t expect the pitching to be as good the next six weeks, and I always expect the hitting to be better. And that’s going to be on my tombstone with Mike Mike Elias. You know, I always expected the hitting to come on, and every morning for for two years now, every morning you come on when they lose, and you’re like, oh, they struck out 14 times. They had six hits, and or when they did have 11 guys on base, they stranded 10 of them. And when they lose, it’s really we look at the offense and say it didn’t it didn’t do enough. It’s not that they scored eight and gave up 10 because that you and I thought that might have been more the maybe not because we thought the pitching was going to be pretty good with Basset Nefflin. At least I did. I thought 92 wins. There was a

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Luke Jones 28:09
potential there. Yeah, yeah. I thought the 92 would be. We’re both wrong. So I

Nestor Aparicio 28:13
neither one of us have been awfully wrong about the pitching because it’s been good enough. I mean, literally good enough. But the offensive thing, I keep waiting and waiting and waiting, and I keep believing and believing, and that is the only fountain of hope you can have the next six weeks. Is Gunner, Gunner, you gonna wake up? Yeah, Colton Cowser sitting there staring at his tablet. I’m like, dude, you can’t identify the seams on the ball moving. That’s really like, um, maybe you should check his vision. I mean, I’m not being mean. I’m not. I’m thinking of my like literally. I’m thinking like you can’t identify the ball, and a lot of guys can’t. It’s the big leagues. That’s the game, right? Yeah. But like that’s really the issue with him. The issue with him is he he can’t see the movement on the ball, and he’s getting fooled and making he looks foolish because he can’t see the movement of the ball.

Luke Jones 28:58
Well, I mean, it’s just it comes down to these are the best players in the world. This is baseball at the absolute highest level in the world, and it’s hard to you. You see lots of guys that are great at triple A, and that’s their ceiling, right? They they can’t hit at the major league level. It’s the definition of a quad A player. Or and you see this a lot in the modern game. I’ve I’ve made this reference a few a few different times in passing, as much as we focused on Gunner Henderson, look at Vlad Guerrero with the Blue Jays. I mean, he hasn’t hit a home run at Rogers Center all year long. Now he’s he’s on the shelf at the moment. But point is, he’s a he’s a player who’s even more established than Gunner Henderson. More Chris Davis. He’s he’s being paid to do the job, so so so you kind of look at this and and it’s a reminder. And I don’t say this to excuse anyone, but it is just the reality. It’s really hard, and in this day and age, I feel like you see even more extremes year to year with performance. I almost feel, in some ways, you’re starting to see hitting. And major league hitters almost go the way of bullpen arms, where you’ll see guys have these great, great, great years, and then you’re seeing like the the valleys are way more extreme. Also, so being

Nestor Aparicio 30:12
consistent at doing that is got to be.

Luke Jones 30:15
It’s becoming yeah, and because

Nestor Aparicio 30:16
of the specialization, because everybody’s Nolan

Luke Jones 30:18
Ryan, like literally, and there’s you know, and there’s so much there’s so much emphasis on slug and not as much caring about swing and miss, right? I mean, all that. So you end up having these. First of all, you have so much more diversified offensive profiles. I mean, it’s one reason why I’m not as hung up on strikeouts as you. But I would say if someone’s going to strike out a lot, they better hit for a lot of power and they better draw some walks then too, because if you’re just striking out a lot, but you’re not doing those things, then no, that’s not a very, very useful profile whatsoever. Man, look at

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Nestor Aparicio 30:48
Kobe Mayo’s baseball card here at the end of the year, dude. He’s going to hit 22, 24 home runs. He might get his average up to 238 or something. That it would even look sort of like, all right, well, he’s young. I mean, let’s work with him. He’s a good athlete, you know. Like, like he’s got the power. He’s got his top. His

Luke Jones 31:06
ability to hit left-handed pitching alone is going to keep him in the majors at least for the foreseeable future. Now, can he expand that profile to since July one? He’s been better against right-handed pitching, but you still see that that is his very obvious. He’s going to see more

Nestor Aparicio 31:22
right-handed pitching than left-handed, and that’s the thing. Sticks around long enough, you know.

Luke Jones 31:25
But that right, the profile of hitting lefties. Well, that means you’re going to be a bench and the short side of a platoon, right? I mean, that’s so. And look, some players are just that, right? I mean, the Orioles have guys in their in the team’s Hall of Fame. Gary

Nestor Aparicio 31:40
Rennicky’s my favorite all-time Oriole, right? Like, so I, yeah, you know, he knows that. Yeah, so I mean, but

Luke Jones 31:46
but you just look back at to bring it back, and and I guess just to focus on the big picture, not just what happened specifically Wednesday night with the call. I mean, this is just if you’re surprised by this, and when I say you, I mean just everyone in general. If you’re surprised by this, if you’re taken aback by this, I I question whether you’ve paid attention. I mean, this has kind of been the story all year long. They’re just they’re not a terrible team. Luke,

Nestor Aparicio 32:13
you should bet on this. I don’t usually recommend that. No, that

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Luke Jones 32:16
that that’s that’s when they that’s when they make me look foolish because that’s when they play well for a series. You know what I mean? Like you know, this team, this team took a two or three from the Dodgers in Chavez Ravine, right? This team just took three out of four from the Rays, but then you see them revert to this frustrating group that actually is when you look in the the grand schema of the full season, it actually has been fairly consistent. What you can come to expect, they’ll have their nice little frustration

Nestor Aparicio 32:46
is consistent. Correct. They’ll they’ll have their

Luke Jones 32:48
nice little run of a really good series or a good week or you know they they had that what was it the 10 and four that they had in late May into early June and then their their next eight series after that they won one you know they they fall back. They’ve been between two and nine games under 500 since may 1. I mean, like that’s where they’ve been. Like that’s a long, long period of time to be within a you know a seven or eight game range like that. And my guess is they’re going to finish the season somewhere between two games and nine games under 500. When it’s all said and done, that said, the way this race continues to go, no, it’s not over. But I will say this: as much as we talk about the hitting, you’re starting to see more cracks in the bullpen specifically now. I mean, it was Josh Walker on Tuesday night. It was Cam Sanders on Wednesday, right? I mean, that that’s starting in addition to the worst, well, you got

Nestor Aparicio 33:42
your questions. You got league minimum pitchers for the most. I mean, these are guys that were

Luke Jones 33:45
DFA’d at one point. I mean, I mean, Cam Sanders, the Pirates, the Pirates sent them to the Orioles for cash. I mean, you’re

Nestor Aparicio 33:51
trying to drive the car down the road like it’s a Mercedes, and you’re putting a Hugo bumper on it, and you’re you’re putting the cheap gas in, and you’re just and then you got to go play the Yankees.

Luke Jones 34:01
Sometimes you’ll get when when you have that kind of car. Sometimes you’ll get it started and it’ll be fine for a while, right? But then inevitably, it’s going to break the gas on the coastal

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Nestor Aparicio 34:11
highway and it ain’t there for you. Luke is here. He’s Baltimore, Luke. Dude, at least we have fake football on Saturday afternoon at 1o’clock, right? Yeah. I mean, at least we have that. Well, we’ll

Luke Jones 34:20
have, well, you know, as we get closer to that, we’ll talk about it. I mean, lots of concern about Danny Pinter being carted off on on Wednesday did not sound good. Don’t have official word as you and I speak in real time, but I think the Ravens are bracing for the worst there, which kind of dude. We did a

Nestor Aparicio 34:37
whole segment on like we we not going

Luke Jones 34:39
to say he’s good. He was going more on him than we

Nestor Aparicio 34:41
did on Loop the other day. Yeah, literally. I

Luke Jones 34:43
mean, now you’re starting to look at okay, what does Ethan Posick look like? What what what does Javon Gwynn, who is a Dwayne Ledford guy, going back to their days in Atlanta, what do they look like at the center spot? We always talk about this with injuries, right? You’re going to have them. You. Hope they don’t come at positions of your greatest weakness. That’s where you look at this and look. We have no idea if Danny Pinter was going to be able to do the job or if he was going to hold on to the job or anything like that. But it is bad

Nestor Aparicio 35:10
news.

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Luke Jones 35:11
It’s not great. I mean, it’s certainly not great. I’m, I’m, I’m not. It’s not the death knell because again, we don’t know if he was any good. If we’re just calling a spade a spade, but when he was the one that was the leader in the clubhouse at a position of such great question. Well, he was the best they

Nestor Aparicio 35:24
had as of yesterday,

Luke Jones 35:25
at least until Posik proves he’s healthy and gets back to pre-injury form. So we’ll see. You know, again, if we get anything definitive on that, we’ll we’ll send that out via the WNST Tech Service.

Nestor Aparicio 35:37
All right, it’s all brought to you by Cole Roofing and Gordian Energy. We had Bill Cole out on Wednesday at the Fishmonger’s Daughter. We, I got to give more of these out because I love the Kiss Face Bird. So I’m going to be at Koco’s on Wednesday of next week, celebrating my Best of Baltimore award. Ron Cassie and Max Weiss, who are no strangers to this year program, are going to come on, and they they got a lot of explaining to do. I mean, really, and I’m gonna I’m gonna make them explain themselves. I’m gonna have some fun props as well for that. Our 28th anniversary is this month, August 3rd. We’re gonna celebrate that next Friday. I’m going to unleash 28 musical memories to go down memory lane here as we get into football season. Have a little bit of fun with our 28th anniversary because you know Damie said to me at Fishmonger, she’s like, “When are you doing another oyster tour? I’m like, “I did one two years ago. Like on day 26, I had 26 oysters, and it was just a lot of oysters, man. I did crab cakes. I was gonna do crab soup last year. I just decided to do my favorite foods. This year, because some people, special people, have asked me about music, and I put stuff up that Luke doesn’t even know about me with the band Chicago or Triumph or any of these bands. Even losing Frank Beard this week from ZZ Top, man, those guys. People ask me all the time, like, was the nicest rock stars you ever met? The guys in ZZ Top were so so cool to me, so I’m going to tell those stories as well as some other stuff. So I’m working on 35th anniversary in December for 35 years on the radio because I think it’s a big deal. And 35, by the way, was Gary Renicky’s number. Just so you know, it was my you know it’s my favorite Oriole. And Messina, those are probably my two favorite Orioles. I mean, I Brady Anderson until he was a jerk to me, but now he’s like the number nine anyway because I like Reggie Jackson when I was a kid. But give me a 35, so it’s our 35th anniversary of being on the air. But we’re celebrating 28 years of WMST. All of it brought to you by friends at the Maryland Lottery, GBMC, Farnum, and Derma. We’re going to come together at Koco’s Pub in beautiful Laraville. You’re going to get the crab cake, but I’m going to get the shrimp because that’s what I do there. I’m going to get a Greek salad as well, and a burger night’s Tuesday night. We’re going to be there Wednesday afternoon, and we are looking forward to it. Luke’s going to be at the ballpark as long as they don’t drive him. At some point, you’re going to get gray hair from this baseball team. The football team’s playing fake football all weekend in Minnesota, and they come back next week, and we’re really getting ready for real football around here. I’m getting ready for like a real season. I’m seeing all of you drop your kids off at college and doing all this good stuff. I’m seeing leaves change here, which is freaking me out a little bit because I can’t have the end of summer. The Orioles are going to keep the season alive one way or another. We’re WNSTA in 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stop talking. Baltimore positive.