It’s no secret that the bullpen of the Baltimore Orioles has been its weakness. And that was before all of the starters started getting injured this summer. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the Orioles bullpen woes of Mike Elias and Brandon Hyde and what the plan will be when it really matters next month.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
bullpen, orioles, month, craig kimbrel, point, weeks, pitching, webb, game, year, october, pitch, starts, team, part, games, oyster, days, win, trust
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
8
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T AM, 1570 Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore, positive. We’re positively taking the Maryland crab cake tour and oyster tour, because it’s a month with an R out on the road. We’re doing 26 oysters in 26 days. We’re doing the Maryland crab cake tour five times this month, including at Cocos and wearing my cocoa shirt on Wednesday. Lots of celebs this month out on the Maryland crab cake tour. So let me tell you a little bit about our friends at the Maryland lottery, in conjunction with Liberty pure solutions, and our friends at Jiffy Lube MultiCare getting us out on the road. We have new sponsors, all sorts of things going on around here. Coppet State University, Dr Jenkins going to be with us this week as well. Mark Viviano and recig are going to be with us at Cocos on Wednesday the fourth. That’s this week. My oyster tour begins on the fifth with our friends over at Gertrude. John shields going to be joining us. I’ll be having an oyster every day. I’ll be all over the community in the car every day, doing stuff, lots of writing happening as well. Next Friday, we’re at Cooper’s for the Fells Point festival. Dave shining is going to join us down there, as well as NFL agent Chad weaseling going to join us. They’re former Terp as well. We’re going to be out on the eastern shore at mogans in Salisbury on the 17th the 20th. We’re going to be a fates at Lexington market. Congressman John Sarbanes going to be our guest on that. There’s a huge oyster recovery partnership event on the 26th of September to bno Railroad Museum. And you’re invited. Folks can come down and support the oyster Recovery Act. And then we’re going to be at state fair on the 24th with Angela also Brooks Prince, George’s county executive, to have no fear, larry hogan spoke. Have been on the phone with me. Mike Rishi and I are going to set that up at some point later on this month as well. We’re going to be a Costas on the 27th doing the crab cake tour, and then hopefully finishing it with our governor. Wes Moore later in the month, down in Annapolis. So lots of things going on by the time we get to October. Let’s see. The season ends on the 29th of September, the Orioles at Target Field in Minnesota, and then Wild Card Game one october 1. So we’ll see if the Orioles get those days off. Luca, I want to ask you, as we get through four weeks out on this on playoffs, and they would be playing game one on the first of October or game one of the division series on the fifth of October. How you feeling about that? By thing now that it’s, it’s there, right? I mean, it’s certainly they’re not five games out of the buyer, five games into the buy. This is what these games are about in that Yankee series coming up a couple weeks. And quite frankly, we’ve talked a lot about the bullpen in the last week or two. We need to talk more about it, because it’s changed, changing all the time. But where they’re going to position themselves, and whether you want them playing on october 1 last year, they didn’t. It kind of cost them that weirdness of having five days off which they would have if they are the number one seed, but we’re going to be root for them to be the number one seed. But I don’t know. I don’t know the value of that.
Luke Jones 02:44
Oh, the value is easy. I mean, you’re getting too caught up in small sample and just whatever the result is. I mean, the the Orioles could have played in that wild card series and lost, could have lost two games, and then it’s over. I mean, it’s that quick. That’s why I try to avoid that. And specifically with this team with their injuries, with their guys that are coming back, and understanding that Jordan Westbrook’s probably going to need at least a little bit of time to knock off some of the rust. And same with Danny cool and same with grace and Rodriguez, and go down the list of all Ryan mountcastle. So they’re going to need as much time as they they can get. And also, you want to be able to set up your rotation. I mean, a lot of people, we spend a lot of time talking about game one, Game Two, game three, starter. But depending on how that regular season ends, if Corbin burns, and I don’t know what it looks like right now, and you have off days and all that, but if Corbin burns, or Zach Eflin, have to pitch that Saturday and Sunday against Minnesota, and you’re in the wild card series, they can’t turn around and pitch two days later or three days later. So when, when you can set your rotation is when you have that buy and when you have some time off to reset things. So, you know, it’s funny, believe it or not, I’ve recently, and this was just very informally, but Adam Jones was at the ballpark not long ago, and he came into the media room after the game for 90 seconds before Brandon Hyde came in for his postgame and this was the last homestand, and he actually posed the question, would you rather have the five days off and play the Division Series, or would you rather keep playing as the wildcard team? And I said to Adam, and he agreed with me. I said, Well, check back with me when I see what the results are, and then I’ll tell you which is the better one. So they want the buy. I mean, they do when you’re a team that’s dealing with health, when you’re a team that very much has questions on the pitching side, rotation and bullpen, and it’s there for you. It’s sitting
Nestor Aparicio 04:37
there for you. You can earn it, I don’t say easily, but you can earn it yourself by beating the Yankees up two weeks, you know? I mean, like you can, and they have the soft schedule, they have the White Sox, they have all of these. They have, there’s some benefits here. They only have to be up by one game, right? Like, all they have to is win by one and it’s sitting there, so that that really is the goal this month, along with health and everything else, it’s just now we’re now, it’s time to look at the. Standings. I’ve looked at the standings much the last six months. Now’s the time to look at it. I
Luke Jones 05:04
think it is. Well, sure, yeah. I mean, absolutely. Here’s the other factor, the Orioles. And look, you gotta play against everyone else. You gotta take care of business, but the Orioles need one more win against the Yankees to clinch the season series. So if they can do that, and even if they go, let’s say they go nuts, but they stub their toe a little bit and lose two out of three to the Yankees. But if you finish in a tie, the Orioles would win the division. There’s no longer a game 163 right? We know that. So, so they’ve got that going for them in the sense that one more head to head win against the Yankees, and they had the tie breaker there. So, but you want the buy? You want the rest? I’ll continue to say that, and I get it, baseball players are creatures of habit, and it’s strange. It’s like having the all star break. It’s definitely peculiar. But I will gladly take my chances with that, rather than this best two out of three format where you can’t set your pitching staff at all really, and you have a bad 24 hours, and you can be done, right? You lose two games. I mean, how often, other than the White Sox, right? Let’s put the White Sox aside here, because they’ve lost 41 to 45 but other than the White Sox, how frequently do we see bad teams take two out of three from good teams all the time, every week in Major League Baseball, you see that, so you want to avoid that at all costs. Right? Going up against another playoff team and a best of three, whether you’re playing at home or not, that’s just that is a scary proposition, so I’ll take the buy any day of the week, and especially with their health and with what’s going to be a limited pitching staff in some shape or form. You want to try to set that as well as you can. You want to calibrate that as effectively as you can. And then you go play, and you see, and you hope that you play well. I mean, we can say all we want about the Orioles with the bike. They didn’t play well against Texas. You know, they played poorly. They didn’t hit in game one, they didn’t pitch in game two, they didn’t either in game three boom season over that quickly. So, you know, I want, I would want the buy. And I don’t, you know, I don’t care what’s happened with the Dodgers and the Braves the last couple years. Give me the buy and I will set my rotation, set my bullpen. Get guys rest, play some sim games for those guys that are going to be coming back from injury, like Jordan westburg, for example. Westburg, for example, get him those at bats over those four or five days and see what happens. But Orioles have a long way to go until we’re talking about that. And I know you and I talked in a previous segment, want to talk a little bit about this bullpen, which quietly, very quietly, and I still have major concerns and major question marks, and I’m sure we’ll bring up a certain Craig Kimbrel in a moment. But quietly, this bullpen has done a better job the last couple weeks. If you look at the numbers, over the last two, two and a half weeks, it has been better. At the very least, it was a low bar for a quite, quite a while there, but it has been better, and that’s been good to see, at the very least, knowing that Jacob Webb and later on this month, Danny coulomb, still on target to return and be part of that bullpen,
8Nestor Aparicio 08:11
you know, like the Kimbrell thing, and who’s going to be the closer? And from the season that season began, you said he wasn’t really going to be the closer. I don’t I think he’s been treated that way at various points where the automatic is, let’s get to him in the ninth inning. And that went well at various points in June and even into July, and there was all star conversations about him at that point. Where are you on? The rest of it? And where are you on? I guess trust more than anything else, and you hope you don’t get into tight games with the White Sox, you know, the Rockies thing was crazy because you just hit the ball all night long out there. There’s no way a bullpen is going to shut down for four or five innings at that point the bullpen. And it goes without saying. It goes as the starting pitching goes right. The better the better the starting pitching is, the better the bullpen is going to be, in a pretty general sense, from a rest standpoint. But as we get into this, what is the bullpen, what is and where’s, where are they on Webb and these other guy like, Where would this thing ideally? Ideally, Kimberly would look like, you know, 2009 Craig Kimball or whatever, but, but ideally, what do you see happening here? What do you think Brandon I wants to accomplish this month to get this thing to some matter of settled, if not by the time they get to New York two weeks now, by the time they get the real games a month from now?
Luke Jones 09:37
Yeah. I mean, I don’t know what settled is going to look like. I think this is going to look a lot like it did last September when Felix Batista went down where it’s matching up. Look Craig Kimbrel. You mentioned the pie in the sky. Idea of Craig Kimbrell, 2009 he’s he’s far more likely to be off the postseason roster entirely, rather than becoming that at this point, he’s running out of time. I mean, it’s just a sim. Bull Nestor. He’s running out of time at this point to even get on a roll for long enough where you trust him to be part of your bullpen. And that doesn’t mean I think the ship has sailed on him being the closer at this point. I mean, he hasn’t. He hasn’t been the closer since July, right? I mean, Sir Anthony Dominguez, yes, had the stretch the rough series against the Mets, and still gives up a few too many long balls than you’d like, but for the most part, he’s pitched well, so, you know, it’s him and Cano as far as the back end, you know, the good news is Gregory Soto has looked better we saw on Sunday, you know, not high leverage in the sense that it was a one run game that he was closing out, but starting to seem like they’re easing him into some more relevant situations, and he’s handled that well, and we’ll see. You know, he’s missing bats. He hasn’t been walking people as frequently. We’ll see again, he he was up and down, and that’s why Philadelphia was so willing to trade him, right? But he’s also someone who has been an all star caliber closer in the past, you know, go back, going back to his time with the the Tigers. So you have him, you know, seeing all Perez, Brandon Hyde wants to trust Perez, right? We see him bring Perez in in meaningful situations, but he walks people. I mean, you look at the walk rate, and it’s still concerning to me to really trust him consistently in the eighth inning, you know? So I’m not saying he’s out of the mix, but that’s that walk rate doesn’t work for me. It just doesn’t. So, you know, I’ll give you the guy that people will laugh because he’s when he’s not good, he’s pretty bad. But go look at Keegan Aiken’s numbers for the year. He’s actually been one of their better relievers, which does say a lot about the overall makeup of their bullpen, but he misses bats. He strikes people out generally when he starts with a clean inning. I mean, he’s not someone you want to bring in with with traffic on the base paths, because that hasn’t gone well. But, you know, he’s done pretty well for them. So, you know, Matt Bowman of late has been good. Burt Smith of late, not so good. So, you know, I think those, those are the guys you’re looking to. Jacob Webb has started a rehab assignment. Feels like Webb could be back, you know, sometime, maybe within the next week or so. You know, you know, I think they’re gonna He’s gonna get at least one or one or two more outings at Norfolk, because he hasn’t pitched in a month. But his first, first out outing went well there, so he’s gonna be back in the mix. So look, I’ve said to you for months now, for an October bullpen, the the wreck, the minimum requisite, is you need four guys that you feel you can throw out there in just about any situation, from coming in in the fifth inning in a postseason game all the way through the ninth inning, you need four guys at a minimum that you feel that way about right now. Dominguez Cano, you know, we’re going to see if Soto can get there the next couple weeks. We’re going to see if you know CNL Perez again, he’s got a he’s got to throw strikes. You know, certainly Jacob Webb could fit into that category. They’re really, really hoping that Danny coulomb will come back and look like Danny coulomb, because we know how important he was to this team’s bullpen first half of this year and certainly last year. But I’m not sure there’s a spot at the table for Craig Kimball at this point. I really don’t Nestor, because you’re if it’s going to happen, he needs to start pitching better yesterday, right? I mean, this isn’t something where, oh well, you know, if he starts pitching well on September 20, then, yeah, they’re going to feel good enough about putting it No, that’s not going to work. He’s got to start pitching like a legitimate, you know, guy with his pedigree needs to how he needs to pitch now
Nestor Aparicio 13:48
they get rid of him. Part is out there on the fan base, right? Like, get rid of him. Look, I might need him in October. I mean, I don’t know. It is about his salary. It’s not about his performance, right? I
Luke Jones 13:57
8mean, like, but you know what? I would have agreed I agreed with you two weeks ago, certainly a month ago, certainly two months ago, and back in, you know, May, when he went through his two and a half week stretch, of course, right? We’re starting to get to that period where, I’m not saying it’s imminent, because who, who’s replacing him in the bullpen, right? I mean, what you’re going to call up some of these triple A guys. Look, when Jacob Webb comes back, that’s another story. When Danny coulomb comes back later this month, assuming he does, that’s another story. But that said, I’m not remotely convinced Craig Kimbrell is going to sniff the postseason bullpen, let alone, you know, become their eighth inning guy or their ninth inning guy. So with that in mind, we are getting down. We are in the last month of the season. Nestor, at some point in time, there’s a sunk cost, right, where the money spent, and if he’s showing no signs whatsoever of turning it around, and you know, over the last six or seven weeks, you know, he’s had what, one or two periods. It’s a time where, you know, it looks better for three or four outings, and then Brandon Hyde tried, tries to work them back into a situation that’s semi meaningful, and then he blows up again. I mean, I think the clock’s ticking for him even staying on the roster. I mean, I really do, because you get to a point when are you going to trust them, right? I mean, if he continues to pitch like this, you’re not just going to randomly put them in an randomly put him in an October game. I
Nestor Aparicio 15:24
just remember when Buck Showalter let the season go down with the ball down right, like, literally, if the season were to go down with Craig Kimbrel in the seventh inning of game three. But this be terrible. You’re like, hey, you know, it’s just the optics. I mean, I Why are you pitching him right? I mean, the fans would say that.
Luke Jones 15:38
I mean, I just, I really think we’re getting to the point now where, if this turnaround doesn’t start happening immediately, I think he’s going to be out of time. I mean, I just because think about this, typically, when you’re talking about the, you know, and as baseball rosters are currently constructed, you have eight man bullpens, right? You know, 13 pitchers, 13 position players on a 26 man roster. You got your five band rotation, you’ve got eight guys in the bullpen. Typically, the eighth guy in your bullpen does what Nestor mop up duty, right? But part of mop up duty is providing some length, if it’s a 10 to one game, for example, what Craig Kimbrel or what Cole Irvin did on Monday afternoon, Monday evening, by the time he came in, but he came in and he got a save because he was pitching at a blowout and he tossed three innings. That’s typically what you expect out of the last guy out of your bullpen. Craig Kimball. Can’t do that. Craig Kimbrell can’t pitch back up back to back days. So if he’s not going to start pitching, being able to trust him in any kind of a semi meaningful medium leverage situation, then I’m not sure how much longer he’s going to be on this roster. I mean, it’s just because, yes, the money was a factor a month or two ago, but at some point in time, it’s like, what are you holding on to them for? You’re certainly not going to bring them back next year. You’re not going to exercise that option. That ship sailed three months ago. But even for the postseason bullpen, if you have no level of trust to use him, then what’s the point? I’d rather throw another you know, I’d put another starter in that position that can give you some length at the very least. So the clock is really ticking on him. I mean, it really is. And I’m probably being kind in saying that. I know most fans were done with him three weeks ago or a month ago, but I think even, even the financial part of this now we’re getting to the point where you start to say what to save. You’re going to hold on to him. Why? Because you’re paying them for another three weeks based on what so the clock is ticking, and it’s, you know that it’s getting louder, right? I mean, he’s got to start turning it around, because you’ve got to see it for two or three weeks to trust that he that you’re even going to want to use them in the postseason. So, you know that clock, you know for some of these other guys, it’s the clock’s ticking because Danny cool needs to get back and be healthy to pitch right? Jacob Webb same thing. Grayson, Rodriguez on the rotation front. So the clock’s ticking for them on that front. But for Kimbrel, the clock’s ticking in terms of, yeah, start looking like you’re a major league reliever again, let alone a high leverage reliever. So you know, I, I’m much, I’m getting much closer to the point where we’re talking about his job security. Because if you’re not, if you have no trust in him whatsoever, to pitch in October, and right now, there’s zero trust. And if that doesn’t change in the next two weeks, you know, where in mid September, you’re saying, hey, Craig Kimbrel is starting to look better again, then what’s the point? What are you keeping them around for? I mean, you know? I mean, it’s just, it’s where it is right now. I mean, he’s been that bad for that long now. So, you know, he’s not striking people out. He’s giving up the long ball. I mean, go down the list. I mean, there’s not a he might just be done. You know, he might be done. I mean, it’s, it’s that simple. And again, saying you might be done isn’t being disrespectful. It’s probably being kind at this point. So I don’t know. Man, it is extremely difficult for me to look at a path for him to be a meaningful part of their October bullpen at this point in time, because he has struggled that long now. I mean, we’re talking about struggling to the degree that he has for a month and a half now, where he’s just running out of games and, oh, by the way, it’s not like the Orioles are sitting here saying, Oh, well, you know, tonight, tonight, we want to try to pitch Craig in the eighth inning. I mean, that’s got to win these games. You know, you don’t have a six game cushion to mess around with that. So it’s really, it’s getting down to the wire for him if he’s going to salvage the rest of his season, if the Orioles are going to salvage the rest of their investment in Craig Kimbrel. But I, for me, the money is starting to become less and less of an issue because, you know, we’re getting down to a month to go in the regular season. It’s not that much money to eat. Then at that point in time, if he truly isn’t going to help you in any meaningful way,
Nestor Aparicio 19:57
he’s Lou Jones. He’s Baltimore, Luca. He’s getting ready for baseball and football, and football and baseball, and we’re getting ready for playoff baseball around here, one way or another, big games at home this week, and the home stand and people coming out, and the football sort of taking the night off for everybody this week. The enthusiasm around the team, I know we talked about playoff tickets and the $65 thing, and it does feel a little bit more when they came home on Monday, like there’s an atmosphere that’s coming. And look, the playoff tickets are going to come out. I hope people have money for it, especially if you’re thinking, there’s going to be a run and you’re going to go to five games next month. You know, cost couple grand to do that. And I remember the football AFC Championship game tickets that were 689, $100 you know, that’s what World Series tickets would look like if ever gets here. But fans are rolling into this with this incredible expectation. But I think there’s been a real disappointment about the Orioles over the last 90 days with the injuries and saying, are they capable of winning? And I know you and I talked about the bats earlier this week, and whether they can win the World Series or not, I there’s nothing I’ve seen, not even when they’re getting their ass kicked or playing poorly in Colorado or even getting swept two weeks ago. Whatever it is, it’s baseball, even when they’re losing two to nothing, and Corbin Burns is pitching against the worst team and planet they can win the World Series. And that’s the that’s the part I’m not going to waver from at all. I’m not going to be the guy saying they can’t because of Kim. I can’t because of it wouldn’t even matter to me if Suarez starts game one and Kramer starts Game Two, and Stranger things have had they can hit the ball, they could score 12 runs that night and win, because they are capable of that, because this is two and a half years now of being a 90 win team, you know, like, really, there are three seasons into being a really good baseball team, and I’m not going to judge them after they’ve been kicked in the groin, and all their pitchers have been hurt, and three other position players have been hurt in the last six weeks, eight weeks, I’m not gonna say they’re they are diminished this minute. I’m not convinced they’re diminished a month from now, I’m not radish and all, they’re not getting it. But put ethlin in for Bradish. That’s not diminished to
8Luke Jones 22:15
me. Oh, I It’s diminished upside. But that said to your point that you just made when you put Zach effin back into that conversation, then the loss of Kyle Bradish, which was devastating, when you consider what he meant to this team last year, it’s it’s mitigated, right? I mean, it’s mitigated. It’s not the same team as last year. That’s obvious, right? I mean, the makeup of this team is way different. I made the point. Oh, and I guess it was Sunday, you know, the lineup that they tried it out there in the finale against the Rockies. And I made the point, man, this is the September 1 lineup everyone envisioned back in spring training, because you’re seeing Emmanuel Rivera and I mean, just Austin Slater. I mean, you see these guys in this lineup where you’re just, you know, you had no expectation that those guys would be Orioles, let alone in the starting lineup. But, you know, there’s still some projection there. We’re able to project out. You know, what this looks like with efflin pitching the way he is, assuming he stays healthy, and that’s a big if, right, when you have shoulder inflammation, it’s nerve wracking, at least until we see that he’s making starts and looking like himself and feeling good after the fact and all that. You need Corbin burns to be Corbin burns again. I mean, no duh, obvious captain, obvious statement. You need Grayson Rodriguez back. You need Albert Suarez to continue to just do what he’s done, which has just been so commendable the area. And again, this, it’s been our topic of conversation in this segment that I still have my questions and concerns about as it pertains to trying to project out this baseball team a month from now and beyond in October, is the bullpen. You need four guys that you feel excellent about. When I say four, that’s the minimum. You’d love five, you’d love to have six, but you need a minimum of four guys that you can toss out there and you feel great about and they they really haven’t had that most of the year right, even earlier in the year, when the bullpen statistically was doing better than a lot of fans and media realized or expected, there was still always a sense of, do you have enough strikeout capability? Do you have enough guys that can miss bats. Do you have guys that can strand inherited runners? Can you do all those things? Do you have guys that are going to throw strikes and not issue free passes? That’s still a major question mark to me, that that’s still, for me, the biggest question mark about about this baseball team. Yes, they’ve got to hit, right? They’ve got to hit way better than they did in August. If they don’t, then they’re not going to win in October, and they’ll probably be a pretty, pretty quick exit. They’ve got to be healthy with their rotation, right that. They need effluent, right? They need Corbin burns to be Corbin burns. They really, really need Grayson Rodriguez to come back and look like himself and and if he isn’t, then Albert Suarez needs to continue to do what he’s done, right? But you at least have options there. I just laid. Out four guys for you right there that conceivably could be really good parts of your postseason rotation, but the bullpen is still that’s still dicey at best right now, again, it’s been better look at the last two and a half weeks. Gregory Soto, what scoreless in his last seven or eight appearances. Keegan Aiken, as I mentioned, you know, CNL, Perez, some walks aside, still has been over good overall. Matt Bowman’s been good yen your canoe has, for the most part, been, you know, what you like to see out of yen your canoe, you know, of late, after some stretches this year where he hasn’t been quite as good. And as I mentioned, Dominguez, you know, the long ball makes me nervous, but he’s pitched really well, aside from that, those couple hiccups against the Mets. So, you know that, that’s the makings of, you know, then you throw Webb back in, you throw cool back in. That’s the makings of five or six options there that you feel good about. And, you know, throw the Hail Mary that Craig Kimbrel gets situated, right? I mean, that’s a Hail Mary to me at this point, because I just, I’m not expecting it. But of that, of those names I just mentioned, you need four or five of them to really be pitching at a high level come the end of this month. And if they are, then Hey, see how it shakes out. Roll the dice. You know, because all these teams in the Al have question marks somewhere. I mean, they just do so but, but for me, that’s still, that’s still the part I had the most difficult time picturing the best case scenario, right? Because, you know, it’s just, you know, it’s not a lot of guys that have track records in the role that they’re being asked to fill right now. I mean, even Sir Anthony Dominguez. Mean, yeah, he closed games for the Phillies here and there a couple years ago. He did it as a as a rookie, way back in 2018 but generally that hasn’t been his role. You know, yen, your canoe would probably, I would love Cano as a seventh inning guy rather than an eighth inning guy, you know, I, I’ve said it all year, their bullpen has kind of been miscast all year, you know, knowing that Felix Batista wasn’t walking through that door and with Craig Kimbrel, yep, save for, you know, the first three weeks of the season and then mid April or mid May through the end of June, you know, you haven’t been able to trust them, right? So, you know, that’s still a lot of ifs in that group. There’s a lot of wow, if this happens and that happens and if this happens, it’s still a lot that has to go well. So for me, if you’re asking me to size up the Orioles collectively, and oh yeah, I’ll throw this in there, defense needs to be more consistent. That’s still too choppy. But the bullpen, for me is still the area where I look at it and say, I still don’t trust that as a legit October caliber bullpen that in recent years has become abundantly clear you need to have a lights out bullpen if, if you’re going to make a deep run. And it doesn’t mean that they’re all name recognition guys. I mean, Texas didn’t have a lights out bullpen on paper last October, but those guys did a really nice job. So it can come together. But still, a lot of lot of projecting, a lot of optimism that you’re trying to project out there. You know, again, it also begins with Webb and cool on coming back. So, so we’ll see. You know, but by and large. Your overall point about this team and can they make a deep run? Can they go to the World Series? Look, whoever’s going to do it. Things come together, right? We saw that Texas and Arizona were perfect examples of that last year. No one at this point last year really thought that either of those teams. Certainly weren’t viewing them as the favorites. You know, maybe the Rangers, because they’d had some good stretches over the course of the year, and they had that lineup and what and and, you know, some of the starting pitching that they had, but no one thought that they were the favorite at this time last year. So, you know, it’s go. Time figure this out. Bullpen has been better the last couple of weeks. They need to continue that. And we’ll come up for air at the end of September, and we’ll see what this bullpen looks like. But you know, at this point in time, I am not counting on Craig Kimbrel, because I think, I think the conversation has shifted now to whether he’s going to be on the roster, let alone if he’s going to be any kind of meaningful part of their bullpen in October? Well, if,
Nestor Aparicio 29:23
if not him, then whom? And I guess that’s the question we’re going to ask all month and try to figure out where these seats are. And, you know, I mean, Soto’s okay and surrender. I mean, these guys that we had no idea they’re going to be a part of this team six or eight weeks ago now, every single night, you’re kind of counting on them. If you want to take three or four days off in the middle of October, in the middle of this thing, get a little bit of rest. Talk about rest for gunner Henderson, rest for players and rutschman, all of that. That time off they’re gonna be battling for that. That’s why we’re cheering every night. That’s why we’re watching them trying to say, Finish at even with the Yankees and win one game three weeks from now. And you you get the banana or and keep Houston away and just keep winning. But it’s a long month around here. We got a lot of football, lot of baseball. We have a weekend of football around the Terps are back out on the field as well. Luke and I have been monitoring all kinds of baseball and football action, and nothing more important, of course, than Thursday night, as the Ravens kick off against the chiefs, Luke will be in Owings Mills this week, getting you ready for that. He’ll also be at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, as the birds are home, we’re gonna be around out of Baltimore. Positive. I’ve been doing a lot of writing. I wrote what it’s like to have a company now, 26 years into owning wnsd and still being banned by both teams. Greg Apel said last week on the show that it’s my brand being banned by the teams. And I thought that’s interesting. I don’t really know what to do with that, but Luke has double worked, but he’s doing a great job, very capably, double worked, I might add this week, as we’re covering everything and welcome back if you haven’t been here for a while, appreciate y’all reading. Hope. Check out the documentary. If you haven’t been around this summer as well, you’re back for the football. I’m Nestor. He’s Luke. We have plenty of football ahead, plenty to talk about with Patrick mahomes and Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens. Stay with us. We’re Baltimore positive. You.
