The Baltimore Orioles took two of three in Anaheim and return home to Camden Yards looking for signs of life in a disappointing season. Luke Jones and Nestor talk about the bats and arms and realities for a team mired in last place in the American League East.
Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Orioles’ recent performance, noting they went 2-1 against the Angels, with key returns of Zach Eflin and Tyler O’Neill. They highlighted the importance of health and performance from key players like Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson, who have struggled this season. Jones emphasized the need for consistent contributions from the starting pitchers and the bullpen. Despite the recent series win, the Orioles remain 9 games under .500, with upcoming games against the Twins posing a significant challenge. The conversation also touched on the broader context of the team’s rebuilding process and the importance of key signings and injuries.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Orioles revival, Anaheim series, Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Felix Bautista, injuries, starting pitching, bullpen, health updates, lineup construction, momentum, Memorial Day, Twins series, Baltimore positive, COVID state.
SPEAKERS
8
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive, proudly supporting our friends at COVID state. I’ve got my new cop and gear on the 125 it looks so sharp. Big appreciation to Dr Jenkins and everybody over at COP, and we’ve been continuing those conversations. They’re graduating over there this week. So hang in there. For all of you graduates out there, all the mothers and all the sons of mothers, including this guy. We’re gonna be doing the Maryland lottery crab cake tour, not this week. We’re gonna be out in Vegas this week at the Maryland party, but we’ll be back on it on the 28th we down at fade Lee’s later on in the month, when the St Louis Cardinals come to town. Luke Jones will be there. He will be there all week as the Minnesota Twins come to a Baltimore after kicking the Orioles as pretty good last weekend, Orioles got off the shine a little bit over the weekend, went two out of three in Anaheim. If you did not follow along late night, that’s what we’re here for. Luke. What’s going on? Man? A some good news. Finals, certainly not the kind of trip you want. And we were wondering whether the general manager, the manager, the hitting coach, the pitching everybody’s fireable this time last week, but, um, you know, they’ve settled in at nine under 500
Luke Jones 01:16
well, you hope they haven’t settled in at nine under but they’ve got work to do. There’s no question about it, and we’ve talked about it. The challenge to when you fall 10 games under 500 is you can want to go on a 12 game winning streak all you want, but we know even great teams don’t do that that often. So you really do just have to plug away and find a way to win series and win another series and win another one after that. And if you can do that over time, you can start creeping your way back closer to 500 so I’m not going to sit here and say that winning two out of three from the LA angels who are similarly poor in terms of their record, is anything to do cartwheels over. But when you’re where the Orioles are right now and how little success they’ve had over the course of 2025 you’ll take a series win. And I think more importantly than even the series win, Zach Eflin returns on Sunday, they had Tyler O’Neal return for this series. You got to get healthier. I mean, we’ve talked about it. The injuries aren’t a cop out. The injuries don’t explain everything we’ve seen, but we know it’s a very real part of what’s gone on for them in 2025 so for them to turn things around to the degree that they’re going to be in the race and they’re going to be relevant and interesting over the course of the season, getting healthy, or at least healthier, is going to be that’s a must. There’s no doubt about that. So you look at how the last few days have played out. Kyle Gibson, not so much on Saturday night, but Sagano pitches really well on Friday night. And Eflin, I’m not going to sit here and and say that he was fantastic, but he settled in after a rocky first inning and gave him a chance to win. And Oh yeah. It was also nice to point out the Orioles scored seven runs, most they’ve scored in the game since the day before Easter back on April 19. So it’s a step. It’s not a big step. I’m not sitting here saying that a series win over the angels proves anything other than Hey, you got a series win over the angels and you salvage some semblance of feeling okay about yourselves to end a road trip that started off really poorly. I
Nestor Aparicio 03:31
don’t know if we belabor this as they come home in regard to what’s good and what’s bad. And when you’re this far under 500 what’s good is getting a real picture back right? And effin, that’s good news. Good news is Batista is still on the mound. It’s the middle of May. It feels like he’s moving into more of a rotation where he could pitch two days in a row, which were questions we had in February and March. So I go back to those spring training questions we had and saying what’s being answered and what’s being challenged and what’s just falling apart. I mean, Jackson holiday looks like a major league baseball player. Kobe Mayo does not. Preston kersta does not. These pitchers and who’s going to settle in and where, this time last year were like, well, who is this? Suarez guy? What is this? At this point, Brian Baker looks like it might be okay, and and Batista looks like he’s at least healthy and can be your closer the rest of the year, and give you results you’re looking for if you have a four, two lead in the eighth inning, right? And, you know, I mean, you have to have that first or six four lead, whatever it’s going to be at this point with this team. But I’m trying to find like signs of life. You have vital signs in some way to say, can they get up and be this? And I Dude, you’re so right. And every time I watch games with my wife, I channel you because I hear the the nasty little prickly Luke Jones. Every year, hitters have to hit. Young hitters have to hit. Rushman, rushman, Henderson, Henderson. And until they do this is this isn’t going to go, until those guys go. And you’ve been right about that all along. And even when they get the pitching right in order for this thing to go, Adley rutschman sitting 195 when they start the game on Sunday, it is, I mean, we were on fire at the end of last summer, about it. Here we are now. I don’t know what to say about the people they have who are failing the individual players that are not the collective, not the injuries, not Mike Elias or sigmai Dell or how much money they spend, or whatever they gave Charlie Morton, a lot of money he’s failing. Adley rutschman Has the Biggest belief in the organization he’s failing right now. Yeah,
8Luke Jones 05:44
no question. And you mentioned another positive from the weekend that I’ll point out, more specifically, Gunner Henderson starting to hit the ball, and he’s starting to hit the long ball. I mean, Gunner Henderson’s numbers, they’re not where they where you want them to be from a peak performance standpoint. But you know, at the end of business on Sunday, his average is up to 264, he’s slugging 473, he hit two home runs over the weekend. Got a big RBI triple on Friday night that gave them a nice insurance run in a close game. So so that was good to see, but you’re right, and I wrote this at Baltimore positive.com going into the weekend, you know, as as I’m kind of reflecting on the Orioles being 10 games under 500 and trying to be level headed about it, but also trying to be realistic and understanding the gravity of the situation for them, you need your stars to be stars. I mean, look, we we anticipated the pitching having issues. And then you add in where Grayson rod, where you guys, is health wise, you add in that Zach Eflin goes on the IL what April 7, or whatever it was, and he misses a month of the season. And you know some of the other guys that have scuffled, other depth players that could have been in that conversation going down. You mentioned Albert Suarez, for example. Be nice to have a healthy version of him. Given where they were with their pitching staff, or something like him,
Nestor Aparicio 07:03
right? That’s what Sure. No question when everything’s scuffling, we’re saying, Who can be sure? Who’s going to come in and be better than we think they’re going to be right? Sure.
Luke Jones 07:12
But at the same time, it does come back to your stars, it does come back to the expectations. And look, some of this is heavy as the crown, right? Some of this is just, that’s the reality when you’re drafted one one, in the case of Adley rutschman, when you become the top prospect in baseball at one point, like gunner Henderson was in the fact that gunner was Rookie of the Year and he finished fourth in MVP voting last year, you need your stars to be stars. I mean, a year ago at this time, and this isn’t hyperbole. This is go back and do a Twitter search, do a social media search, and you find this we were making soft. And let me be clear, this wasn’t to say they were going to the Hall of Fame, but the parallels were not difficult to see in terms of where the Orioles were when they drafted Adley rutschman with their first pick under Mike Elias and gunner Henderson with their second pick under michaelias, at a point when they were essentially an expansion team starting over because they were that bad coming out of 2018 Hmm, that sounds like something similar in the history of this town. From a sports standpoint, Jonathan Ogden and Ray Lewis, again, not that these guys are going to be those players, Hall of Famers, but in terms of importance, in terms of being the faces of your franchise, a year, a year ago, you know, as recently as seven or eight months ago, we were talking about them in that, in those terms, and 400 $500 million question, and that’s a big part of it as well, right? I mean, you think the last World Series team for the Orioles, Eddie Murray and Cal Ripken leading the way, right? I mean, that’s what you’re talking
Nestor Aparicio 08:44
8let’s give Adley rutschman or gunner 100 million. Well, they won’t take 100 million. It’s not enough for them, and they’re hitting 210 right? I was just
Luke Jones 08:50
gonna say at this point, I wouldn’t want to give Adley rutschman 100 million the way he’s played over the last calendar year. So, I mean, you’ve got to get these guys going. Gunner Henderson is more and more looking like himself, more and more starting you know, whether he’s playing like he did the first half of last year, he’s playing at a higher level now, and you’re really seeing that rushman. I mean, he had a gift RBI triple on Sunday. Did hit the ball hard a couple times. Had a almost a home run taken away. Could have been a home run at least. Was going to hit off the top of the top of the wall later in the game. So it was good to see that. I will say this. I want to be objectively fair and looking at him and how he’s playing now compared to how he played the second half of last year, he has made better contact overall. The Walk rate has gone back up, the strikeouts he’s cut down on from where they were in the second half of last year. But all that being said, he’s still hitting 203, I mean, he has a 338, slugging percentage. I mean he’s, he’s, he’s got a an ops that’s in the low six hundreds at this point in time. That’s not a one, one. That’s not what the Orioles signed up for, Adley rutsman. Be. And I think what makes it even more painful and and this applies for both these guys, really, is you see the absolute star, the rock star that Bobby Witt has become. And remember he was drafted second in in that 2019 draft look that it was always possible, considering he was a high school shortstop, high school player compared to a college player is always going to have more upside. There’s more potential, but there’s also a higher bust rate. And at the time, rutschman was considered the much, much, much safer prospect. And if Hadley, rutschman was continuing to be the guy he was over his first two years in the majors, that’s not to say that Bobby Witt still wouldn’t be a better player, but you’d look at that and say, okay, no one can tell the future. No one knows what’s going to happen five or six years out. You know, even if you’re the smartest baseball guy that’s out there, you’re still not going to know exactly how guys are going to develop. But we still love Adley rutschman. Well, that over time, that decisions looking worse and worse and worse. So what’s the answer? I don’t know at this point in time,
Nestor Aparicio 11:04
if you never saw the light on, right? I mean, we saw the light on in this guy from the minute he came up, changed the team. They started winning the whole streak, thing about not getting swept, and him being involved in all of that. It’s like we got a different player here, and all of a sudden, you’ve already started well, he won’t be a catcher after he’s 30 and he’s already 26 I mean, I don’t know the weeders ever went this bad. And I don’t know what point we looked at Matt weeders and realized he wasn’t going to be Johnny Bench. He was going to be, I don’t know. I don’t know what a middling
Luke Jones 11:40
catcher is. I mean, he was still an all star catcher. It’s just he wasn’t this guy that was going to have a fruitful 15 year at least haul, a very good kind of career, which I think that was kind of the that was kind of the minimum thought of what Matt weeders was going to be. And it’s funny, you brought this up. And I don’t say this to be flippant. This is a very simplistic way at looking at Adley rutschman Right now, but his first two years. And when I say his first two years, I mean from the time he was caught up till the roughly the all star break last year, July one, when he got hit on the hand with the foul tip, wherever you want to start the timeline, right? But those first two years, Adley rutschman was better than Matt weeders was at his best at he was better than Matt weeders was at any point. However, since then, Hadley rutman has kind of been, and I’m not talking about weeders when he moved on to the nationals or the Cardinals, and, you know, was more of a part time player, but weeders as an Oriole, Hadley rutschmann’s kind of been worse than that weeders was at any I agree with so, so it’s just that’s such an odd contrast right there that you go from one extreme to the other. Look, I don’t say this that I’m writing him off, that this is who he’s going to be the rest of his career. But last year, you could, at least, we kept talking about, what is he healthy? Is he healthy? He’s got to have something going on, whether it’s the hand. He had a back issue in August that even kept him out for a game or two, but you’re this far out, and yes, he’s been better. It hasn’t been as brutal as it was in the second half of last year, but you need to get this guy going, and I’ll say at the very least if he’s going to continue to hit in the top half of the order, where he’s whether he’s Batting second, like he’s mostly bad, where he’s mostly batted or batting cleanup like
8Nestor Aparicio 13:21
damage to me, in his mojo. He was the leader of the team. He was a path that guy on the ass guy. He was a rah rah guy. He was an enthusiasm guy. Where is what happened here? And I don’t you know what? I don’t play psychologist on the radio, but I’ve watched baseball 50 years. I don’t know that I’ve seen anything quite like this. I mean, and I’ve been through all the one ones, Ben McDonald notwithstanding, you know, going back to, I didn’t go back to Steve dalkowski, but I go back to Jim Fuller, you know what I mean, and, and I and Earl, EARL WILLIAMS, and what potential is for a catcher. In that case, this organization dealt for 150, years ago. This is a one, one who did it on the field, not a guy that might be able to do it. See we saw it. We saw it happen early in his career. And to your point, it’s so important the guys that are that good, that can be that good, they’re not, not every Heston kerstat and Colton cows are is going to work out. But the one, ones who get to the big leagues and they show you they can do it, the fact that they wake up 24 months later and they’re in their 20s and can’t do it, it’s, it’s weird, yeah.
Luke Jones 14:34
And look, I mean Adley rutschman, even as he profiles right now. I mean, he’s still a major league player. And all you know, you’re not going to get rid of them or anything crazy, but you need him to be a difference maker as much as we can break all of this down, and they have so many issues right now. I mean, even after winning two out of three, I mean, let’s face it, the angels gave them a pretty big hand a few different times on. I mean, the angels did the kind of things that we’ve seen the Orioles been doing. That explains why you’re in last place and 10 games under 500 as far as your low point. But you can break this down, and you can keep looking at every element of this team. And let’s face it, nothing has really been particularly good. I mean, the starting pitching has been very poor. The bullpen over the last three weeks has been poor. The offense has been not as poor as the starting pitching, but well below average to poor.
Nestor Aparicio 15:28
They don’t have one player who would be an all star right now that they literally, they don’t have one player, probably not. I mean, the moments went over 20 over the weekend, and we were all about o’hearns
Luke Jones 15:38
8kind of been their most consistent player, but at his best. And I don’t say this to be to take a shot at him, but he’s a, he’s a DH, and he’s, no, it’s the heavy side of a platoon. But he’s not going to start against many left handed starters. I mean, that’s what you’re talking about. He’s a the heavy side of a platoon. DH, and, yeah, he can play a little first, and he can play a little right field for you, but, but no all of those issues acknowledged, and that’s not to take to let anyone else off the hook but Adley rutschman and gunner Henderson. When this team did what they did two years ago, they were leading the way. And yeah, you can talk about some of these. You can talk about Santander. You can talk about Aaron Hicks being a nice, nice veteran presence, like he was at the time. You can go down the list of their pitch I mean, Bradish was phenomenal over the course of the season, Grayson, Rodriguez was excellent over the second half. You can talk about all those things, but very, very plainly point blank, who are their best players? Adley rutman, Gunner, Henderson and Felix Bautista, well, Batista, they lost at the end of that season. And is, to your point, he’s, he’s performing well, gave up a home run on Sunday. That was, that’s the time you want him to do it, not in the one room. Nice having a closer, but you have to have a lead. They haven’t had a whole lot. That’s the thing. I mean, he went a week. He went a week in between appearances, because, and this is where I know some fans, because some will want to pick on Brandon Hyde about every single thing. And believe me, there are plenty of things that you can point to. I mentioned the lineup construction, for example, but some we can’t even mention, sure, but, but at the same time, with Felix Bautista, you’re in a position where at this point in time, and maybe that’s going to start changing as we get into the summer, but for right now, they’re not pitching them back to back days, so you’re in a spot where you don’t want to waste him pitching just because he needs work in a game where you’re down seven to three in the eighth inning, because why you might be in a safe situation the following day, and you don’t, you don’t want to burn him, and then he’s unavailable the next night. But they’ve kind of been in this holding pattern when they had this losing streak that they had going into this series, that he’s just kind of, he’s sitting in the bullpen then, and you want to get him in the game. But to your point, you want it to be a safe situation. You want it to be a meaningful situation. But, but, but, you know, it’s, it’s been good to see him do what he’s done. He’s looked really good overall. I mean, the fastball Velo has still ticked up. It’s not where it was pre injury, and he may never get back to 102 or 101 or 100 consistently, but I’ll say this much, his split looks really good. I actually think his slider might be better than it’s ever been. I mean, that was more of a show me pitch for him, and he started some really good ones in his last few appearances. So maybe we’re just seeing the, you know, the the evolution of Felix Bautista post, Tommy John, and look, he could still hit 99 I mean, it’s not like he doesn’t have fastball velo, but if he has better secondaries to go with that, that’s still going to play really well when you’re six foot five and you’ve got the extension on the mound that he has where it looks like he’s, you know, the pitch is coming into your living room, so to Speak. So but to get back to my big picture point here, this team’s going to pull themselves out of this. And again, is it completely fair? No, is it a case where it sounds like you’re giving other players a pass, sure, if you want to, but they need Adley rutschman to play like the two time All Star catcher that he is. They need gunner Henderson to play like the all star shortstop that he was last year. And we’re starting to see that from gunner, and they need Felix Batista to be Felix Batista, even if their save situations have been fewer than you’d like to see. So you know that’s again, that’s a very simple, basic way of looking at it. But we talk about this all the time with the ravens, with Lamar, your stars need to be stars in the biggest spots. I mean, that’s one, one thing we’ve talked about with the Ravens in January, and it’s been baffling, because the guy’s so brilliant, and he has played better the last couple January, but we’ve talked about it, Lamar being what he’s been in the regular season, which is absolutely brilliant, but that not showing up in January, and that being such a source of frustration, because you’ve seen this guy play at such a brilliant level for not a game, not two games, not not a month. We’ve seen this guy do it year in and year out when he’s healthy. The end, it hasn’t translated to January. So this isn’t that. I mean, we’ll forget about October for the time being. I mean, they’ve got to get back to 500 before that’s even a meaningful talking point at this point. But you need your you need your best players to to be your best players. I mean, again, that’s a Captain Obvious, no duh statement, but that that’s where the Orioles have been. And I that’s not to say that Adley rutschman shoulders all the blame, but, man, I mean, this is a long time that he has not been a very good player, and it is baffling because of what you said. I mean, he struggled for about three and a half weeks when he was called up in 20 in mid May of 2022, and then from that point on, he got to the second week of June, and the rest of the year, he was the MVP of the team 2023 he was an all star catcher from from opening day through the end of the season. And even last year, I mean it, we talked about, I remember you and I at fade Lee’s talking about Adley rutschman. And you know, it had profiled a little bit differently, but he was hitting the long ball. He had really good numbers through the final week of June, and then we thought maybe it was the foul tip the hand, his health. I mean, you can’t keep just saying, you know, unless there’s some chronic issue we don’t know about. You know, that doesn’t explain the start he’s gotten off to this year. I mean, he had the brilliance on opening day, two home runs, and since then, you’ve kind of just been waiting for that guy to come back. And like I said, he’s drawn more walks. The plate discipline has looked more Richmond like, but the rest of the production, I mean, you’re still waiting for it to be there. So, you know, you’re hoping maybe Sunday, I mean, a gift triple that guy loses in the sun or whatever. You ended up having two hits, you’re hoping that can get him going. Because if this team’s going to climb out of the hole they’ve dug themselves in, it’s all hands on deck. And you need your best players to be really good performers for you, because they’re the guys that you expect to do the extraordinary things this rotation is not going to do extraordinary things. Zach Eflin can give you good things. Sagano can continue to do what he’s done, I suppose. I mean, he’s been one of the very few bright spots. Dean Kramer’s looked way better. But you know is this, is this is this rotation ever going to be a strength? No, well,
Nestor Aparicio 22:22
you mentioned all of this, and I was going to say you mentioned all these pitchers, and none of them are all stars. Sagano is just getting through 568, you know what I mean, like? I mean he’s, he’s like, a number two or three starter, you know, maybe somewhere in there, two on a good day, of four on a bad day, but not untenable. Four digit eras and where we are with Morton and and even waiting on Kyle Gibson all this time. I don’t know where the solutions are coming from. And that’s where I’m like, where’s Grayson Rodriguez at this point? And I’m yelling about that 10 minutes after referen gets back. I mean, if they’re going to be if they’re going to play 500 ball right? Like, for a while here, just to tread some water, they’re gonna need to get better starts. They’re need to get to get and they got a little bit of that over the last week, yeah, but like, having starting pitchers be three four innings into this four out of five nights, that’s it’s just not that’s not gonna work. And I don’t know who their length guys are, efflin is a godsend for him if he’s going to stand on the mound every fifth day for the next four months.
Luke Jones 23:27
No question, no question. And again, when, when I, you know so much of my talk as we’re you know, talking in this specific conversation is on rushman and on gunner Henderson. Of course, everyone else needs to be better too. This isn’t picking on Adley rutschman That that that’s all that plagues them. There’s plenty that plagues them. But if I’m trying to rank the things that I feel some conviction about getting better, I’d like to think it’s Adley rutschman. But as we go on longer and longer, I start to wonder like, okay, is this just who he is now, and the league figured him out, or Catchings warn him down, or whatever. I mean, again, I’m as baffled by it now as I was the second half of last year, where you kind of hope that I don’t say that, obviously you understand what I mean when I say this. You hoped that there was something physical going on with him, because otherwise you’re saying, Why is this going so south for him? But all of that being said, of course, they’ve got to be better in every way, right? They’ve got to be better defensively. They’ve got to run the bases better. I mean, the angels having two guys at third base on Sunday. I mean, it was bad news bears. Oh, yeah, like I said, and that’s what I said. I mean, look, when the angels play like that in the finale, you better win two out of three, right? So, so fine, like, it’s good, but we need to see the Orioles not doing things like that. And maybe they haven’t done anything that extremely terrible, but we’ve seen them run in. The outs. We’ve seen them give, give at the other team, extra outs defensively, but you’ve got to be crisp. And those are the kind of things to me, so much of the focus on Brandon Hyde, you know, when people talk about the hitting or the lineup construction, or who’s playing, who’s sitting, all that, to me, the the poorest reflection on him and the coaching staff has just they came out of the gate just looking really sloppy. You know, it wasn’t Chris baseball. I mean, guys thrown to the wrong base, things like that. To me, that was the bad reflection. But when Brandon Haida and the coaching staff and, you know, look, just because they win two out of three, and Mike Elias has given votes of confidence and but we’ve now seen the pirates in the Rockies fire their manager. I don’t think Brandon Hyde’s getting fired, you know, like here in the here and now, as you’re also
Nestor Aparicio 25:50
the second worst team in the American League and the fifth worst team in baseball, right? Yeah. I mean,
8Luke Jones 25:53
they’ve got up to me, and I don’t know this. This is purely me speculating, because Mike Elias isn’t going to I’m not privy to what how Mike Elias truly feels, in contrast to what he’s saying publicly about Brandon Hyde, which is, this is how it always is, you support you, support you, support you, express confidence, and then the AX falls at some point in time. And whether that happens or not, I think is going to be very dependent on what happens these next couple weeks. We’re two weeks out from Memorial Day. I mean, it’s, it’s go time. You’ve got a schedule here that on paper. Now all these other teams are looking at the Orioles on paper and saying, Hey, this is an opportunity for us. But the schedules of as soft as it’s going to be at any point over the rest of the season, this is where you need to I’m not saying you need to go 13 and one over the next couple weeks, but you’ve got to win series consistently and start exhibiting, you know, showing some effort or not effort, showing evidence that this is moving in the right direction again. And that’s why I said it was nice you get O’Neill back this weekend. Hopefully that adds some depth to your lineup. Gets, you know, he gets going, he starts doing what you expect him to do against left handed pitching. All of that, by the way, they beat a lefty on Sunday. We need to at least recognize that, because that’s such a big part of what what has plagued them going back to last year. But you just, you got to get the ball rolling in the right direction. But to your point, and this is where, as much as I’ve beat up the offense over the course of 2025 you’re, you know, this is absolutely the truth. They need their starting pitching to give them a chance to start gaining some steam and picking up some momentum and and feeling better about yourselves and starting to acclimate some of these guys back into their lineup? You know, westburg still, you know, hamstrings still bothering him a little bit. So, you know, his timelines delayed a little bit, but it sounds like, sounds like he’s supposed to start playing games with Norfolk here over the course of this week. It might be another week or so until we see him back. But Kittredge now has what, three rehab appearances under his belt. I’m guessing he’s not going to be too much longer. That should hopefully make your bullpen better. You’re hoping you can slot him into the seventh or eighth inning, and then what does that do? That knocks everyone else down a peg, and you’re hoping then that means your bullpens better. And you don’t have that the couple guys at the you know, I say the back of the bullpen, but it’s almost like the front of the bullpen guys that are gonna have to pitch in the fifth inning of a game where your starters not doing well. That, you know, he makes your bullpen deeper. So, you know, they’ve still got, still have a ton of guys on the IL they’re still waiting on, you know, cows are just starting to do some baseball activity. He’s still, you know, we knew it at the time that was a two month, at least a two month injury when that happened, and you know, so that’s going to take him into early June, most likely. So you’re hoping that it won’t be too much longer after that, after that. But you know, you’re waiting on him. You’re I don’t have, I’m not holding my breath on this one, because he’s got to show that he can advance through a progression and essentially a spring training. You know you’re hoping, you’re still hoping Grayson Rodriguez gives you something in the second half of the season, but I’m not holding my breath on that until I see him healthy and pitching at least in minor league games. So you know, they’re still missing a lot of guys and,
Nestor Aparicio 29:20
well, they got O’Neill back, and you talk about the money they spent in the off season, I don’t I mean, he was, I was never all that hot on that deal that they didn’t have to chase Santon there, but it feels like a replacement draft pick, and they spent a lot of money on him. Yeah, and he’s hitting 208, what do we expecting him to hit? What? 238, we expect him made a couple of home runs.
Luke Jones 29:41
They want to see him hit from a hit for more than seven to two. I want to see him hit for more power. I mean, he’s got to hit 30 home runs to be worth it, sure. Well, and here’s where you try to have some cautious optimism as it pertains to him. And look, the injury history is there. I mean, you didn’t have to be Mike Elias to see that go. Look at his baseball reference page, and you see how rarely he’s even played 100 games in a season. So the fact that he has a neck issue and misses two weeks with that, I mean, as long as it’s not anything chronic, you live with it, and you hope he’s healthy. But what you’re hoping is, if you go look at his numbers, right when the neck issue first creeped up, and he tried to play through it for about 10 days. But his numbers at that point, they weren’t bad. I mean, he wasn’t off to a blistering start, but his numbers were fine. Like, it wasn’t like he was awful. So you’re on his best day, he’s gonna
Nestor Aparicio 30:32
8be streaky, like Mount castle. He’s getting three zero runs in a week, and then he’s gonna go to sleep for two basically,
Luke Jones 30:37
basically, and, and there’s another guy, I mean, Ryan mountcastle, it was good to see him hit the ball with some authority in Anaheim, because it’s been a major struggle for him for a long time. I don’t put him in the same category, obviously, as rutschman and, you know, Gunner, getting off to the slow start, starting the year on the IL but go back and look at Mount Castle’s power numbers since last July. I mean, it it’s not first baseman, middle of the order, like whatsoever. So it was good to see him hit the ball hard multiple times. When you’re
Nestor Aparicio 31:09
mentioning how this team has sucked for almost a calendar year now, and we go player for player, and I don’t have anybody. I said there’s nobody who’s an all star. There’s nobody that’s having a career year, except for Ryan O’Hearn, I guess in his platoon Jackson holiday at his first full season,
Luke Jones 31:27
he looks like an average major league baseball player. Yeah. I mean, he looks like he’s ascending. I like what I see, but yeah, the overall numbers aren’t overwhelming. They’re just, Hey, that looks legit. Yeah, you’re, you’re on your way, and we’re not sending it back to Norfolk. We, of course, not a Norby anymore, and I, you know, I like seeing even though it didn’t work out for them collectively, because they lost Saturday and they did nothing, you know, against, you know, against a, you know, kind of a guy with good stuff, but had a era well over five, and he shot some down over five and two thirds, but I
8Nestor Aparicio 31:59
was having trouble pronouncing his last name, because, yeah, what kachanowitz, I think, yeah, yeah, I’m a little little
Luke Jones 32:06
uneasy. And I I try to avoid pronouncing someone’s name if, if I’m not sure that’s why, uh, that guard the Ravens hats Sala, you know, the six round pick that they’ve sits cut. But I just referred to him as big Salah because I his last name. Go. Good luck, but I like seeing Jackson holiday in the leadoff role. I kinda that was intriguing to me. You know, I understand you don’t wanna put too much on him at the same time, his kid’s been under the spotlight since he was in high school. He’s bad holidays kid, so he’s faced plenty of pressure. Does putting him in the leadoff spot go over the line there? He
Nestor Aparicio 32:44
doesn’t look like his confidence has been. I mean, he looks like he’s in better shape than rushman from a confidence level right now. You know, as far as where they are every night, I mean,
Luke Jones 32:53
8he’s been a way better player than rushman this year. So yeah, so I’m intrigued by that. And they, obviously, they lowered him in the order they face the lefty on Sunday. He’s not going to lead off against left handed starters, but against right handers, especially with Mullins having, having cooled off dramatically here over the last couple, you know, two and a half weeks or so, you know, I’ll say at the very least I do like I want to see Jackson holiday hitting a little bit higher in the order, just whether it’s lead off, whether it’s, you know, hitting him second. I don’t know, um, but that’s been good to see. But, yeah, you kind of look at this lineup one through nine, and we get it. They’re at a point where, on any given night, they’re having to rely on a an Emmanuel Rivera. You know, they’re playing curse dad more than they would have liked. And unfortunately, he hasn’t taken advantage.
Nestor Aparicio 33:41
He catches. Got one of the great Oriole names right up there with Chico Simone and, you know, the rest of them, you know,
Luke Jones 33:46
yeah, yeah. I mean, Maverick Hanley, squeeze Bart and, you know, had a sack fly. I mean, it was good to see. I mean, I mean, considering how little production they’ve gotten from Adley rutschman, you know, it, it’s nice
Nestor Aparicio 33:59
they’re getting at bats in the big leagues for Maverick Handley is not something in February that Mike Elias, well, especially
8Luke Jones 34:06
when you threw, especially when you threw eight and a half million dollars at Gary Sanchez, which that’s that’s looked dubious at best. You know, as far as that signing so but we, we also know the Orioles back in 23 back in 2012 back in 2014 if you’re a team that’s worth anything at the end of the at the end of the season, you’ve got to get contributions from guys like that over the course of 162 it’s got to be some routine garden and your steel pierces and, yes, your delta yummy, right? Yeah. I mean, you need some of that. So that’s where I said, Look Sunday again, the angels. The angels very much, helped them win that game on Sunday. But maybe you hope, you cross your fingers, you know you you say a little prayer, whatever it might be that you. Maybe that’s a sign, especially with Eflin coming back, O’Neill coming back, Kittredge right around the corner, westburg Shouldn’t be too much longer. You’re hoping maybe things are starting to turn for them a little bit that way. However, they’re coming home and they’re facing the twins again, who just swept the Orioles and are red hot themselves. So you know, we’ll see as as Weaver and so many of the the great managers would tell you, momentum is as good as the next day starting pitcher. And you know, we’ll see how that looks as the Orioles come home after the off day, and we see Kade povidge take the hill on Tuesday night.
Nestor Aparicio 35:34
Well, nobody got fired on the trip, right? So at least, you know, like they made it home, Brandon heights stole the manager. They won a couple of games over the weekend that unto itself, was something. In the middle of last week, we were like, starting to
Luke Jones 35:47
wonder, yeah, wonder at the very at least, wonder, not saying it was a fait accompli by any stretch, but you’re, you’re asking the question, and that just speaks how bad things have been.
Nestor Aparicio 35:55
8All right. Well, they’re home, and Luke will be there this week. The 20 Twinkies are in town, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoon. Make sure you remember a noon start on Thursday. I’ll be down at faintly on Thursday for the Lexington market crab derby. That is Thursday around lunchtime, right around game time. I’ll be in crab cakes. You’ll be at the ball game. Come by. Have a you can race a crab against BJ, sur off, he’s a competitive dude. I mean, you don’t want to, you mess with BJ, talk about one once. I can’t beat BJ in a crab race. So that’ll be on Thursday night of fadelies. We’re going to be doing the Maryland crab cake tour, beginning on the 28th again, firing that thing back up down at fadelies for the St Louis Cardinals in town on the seventh of May. We’re back at Green mount station in Hampstead, beautiful Carroll County. Looking forward to get back up there with Dave and Chris and everybody. It is a big horse racing week around here. It’s freak this week. I will be joined by Donna brothers. I will be joined by the great Dick Girardi, one of my dearest friends, who comes back and my first compatriot at the sports first in the News America in 1984 down from Philadelphia via Towson. We talking about a sovereignty less freakness, a triple crown less freakness. Also Randy Moss is going to be dropping by this week as well. So little bit of horse racing this week. And I will be in Las Vegas, Nevada this weekend, not just because Sammy Hagar is going to be there, but the Maryland party that 2000 real leaders, the governor, everyone goes out to Las Vegas for three days, and network and business I will be doing Baltimore positive from the middle of the Encore poll. It’s nice. I’ll have my flip flops. He’s Luke, I’m Nestor. We are wnst. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore positive. You.
