Luke Jones and Nestor take a hard look at Orioles rotation and bullpen and where Mike Elias is going to find solutions as the team stalls in first place.
Luke Jones and Nestor take a h…endance and bullpen of Orioles
Mon, Aug 19, 2024 9:06AM • 1:01:53
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, year, soto, pitching, orioles, fans, bullpen, dominguez, money, couple, weeks, team, kimbrel, point, thought, trust, games, craig, talking, craig kimbrel
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
8
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
Music. Welcome home. We are W, N, S T, Dassault, Baltimore, Baltimore, positive. We are positively taking the Maryland crabcake tour back out on the road as well as 26 oysters in 26 days for our 26th anniversary, beginning in September. That’ll start on September the fifth. This Friday, we’re going to be at not Costas, excuse me, fates, this week I’m wearing my Costa shirt. We cost this next month. We’re gonna be at Cocos on the fourth Luke will be joining me down at fates at Lexington market on Friday afternoon, between about one five, we’ll be down there for a little while before the ball game for the cheatstros come to town. All of it brought to you by friends at the Maryland lottery. We’ll have the Gold Rush sevens doublers to give away. Also our friends at Jiffy Lube MultiCare, as well as the Liberty pure solutions, putting us out on the road. Luke’s been out on the road all week long. They allow him in Owings Mills. They allow mccamden yards. He’s done both back and forth breakfast with the ravens and fake football on Saturday, and a lot, a lot of baseball. One thing Luke Jones cannot do, he’s a man of many talents. He cannot close games for the Baltimore Orioles that he cannot work long relief in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings. They’re going to New York now, right? And they have this thing, and then they’ll play the Astros. They have games coming up against the worst teams in baseball around Labor Day, so there is a little feeling of like they can get well again before the beginning of September, if they can figure this thing out, but the bullpen on nights when they get good starts, um, it’s got to shut the door. And so far, and I heard Jim Palmer say this about the dealings. Um, we’re now three weeks past the trading deadline, and Palmer’s given Elias big thumbs up on the deals. And I thought, Well, ethlin has been really good, sir Anthony’s been good. Um, so no, not so much, right, you know, and Rogers, not so much. But I don’t, we didn’t expect them all to come out and look like, you know, Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez, right? Yeah. I mean, I
Luke Jones 01:57
think it’s kind of what we talked about at the time, where Sir Anthony Dominguez has been really good. He’s been their best reliever. It’s kind of crazy that he’s gone from being cast aside by the Phillies, who, by the way, they’re having severe bullpen issues. And they’re probably thinking, Oh, we’d probably like to have Dominguez back at the very least, especially with Austin Hayes being on the IL but that
Nestor Aparicio 02:19
trade was about his option next year too, right? That they, they pretty much decided we’re not giving him 8 million bucks next year, so let’s get something for him, right? That was kind of the idea well, but he also hadn’t
Luke Jones 02:30
8been as consistent for them. You know, his era was right around four. You know, long ball had been an issue. We saw him give up a home run on Sundays, given up two home runs, and what’s otherwise been outstanding work by Dominguez. But you look at the state of this Orioles bullpen right now, it’s where you look at it and say, was there another deal to be made? Perhaps what you gave up for Trevor Rogers, and again, we’re going to see how that plays out over the next couple years, because he’s got a couple years of club control. I think there’s some optimism and hope and some idea in mind that not just whatever he was going to give them for the rest of 2024 but also what he might be over the next year or two. But when you look at what they gave up in Kyle Stowers and Connor Norby, was there another deal out there somewhere to be made to give up those two guys for another bullpen arm that maybe would be helping them right now, who knows? It’s hard to say. We know that some bullpen arms were moved that might have been better than what the Orioles acquired, but teams gave up a lot for it. So you know, it’s the state of their bullpen is not it’s not great right now, to say the least, when you’re talking about Dominguez, and even on Sunday, I mean, yen your canoe, we’ve talked about him certainly been more good than bad this year, and overall, has been good, but he’s had his stretches where he hasn’t been as good, and we saw him once again on Sunday, when he comes in with a couple runners on base, it tends To be more of a struggle for him. And I get it. People will say, well, Brendan Hyde should never bring him in when runners are on base. It doesn’t work that way, right? I mean, if you’re a reliever, inevitably, you’re going to have to inherit some runners from time to time. And, you know,
Nestor Aparicio 04:15
come in, you walk guys and stuff. As I in my in my cleverness, that’s a canono.
Luke Jones 04:23
Yeah, it is. But, I mean, we’ve seen that with Jenny or Cano. He’s had a few more issues with some walks and the long ball this year that has prevented him from being as good as he was last year. You know, he’s still on their list of concerns in their bullpen. Cano is still pretty low on that list because he’s one of the few guys left that I actually have at least some trust in, not saying I have complete trust in Him. But
Nestor Aparicio 04:47
we hasn’t been booed off the mound yet this
8Luke Jones 04:49
year. Yeah, wow, yeah, so And But even you know, you look at Sunday’s game, how it played out, CNL, Perez comes out for the eighth inning because there are a couple. 50s do up and what happens? He issues a walk, right? I mean, you can’t, you can’t walk Casa in that spot, especially with Devers coming up right after him. You can’t have that from your top left hander in the bullpen. Now, they want Danny Coolum to be their top left hander in the bullpen, but he’s not back yet. He’s not healthy yet. He’s throwing he’s on his way back. It looks like he’ll be back, hopefully, by mid to late September, but see now, Perez is the best they have from the left side, I guess, if, unless you want to throw Keegan Aiken out there and some higher leverage spots, because it’s certainly not Gregory Soto at the moment. So I that’s where I look at this, and I just laugh when I hear people crush Brandon Hyde look we there was an instance a couple weeks ago where I took him to task on a couple decisions that I didn’t really understand, more specifically on the pinch hitting side, but just very few options that you have any trust in right now. I mean, it’s Craig Kimbrell is obviously the headliner, right? Because he’s making the money he’s got, the career that he’s had. They acquired, you know, they signed him in the off season to be the Felix Bautista replacement, even if guys like me were saying at the time that you’ve got to understand what Craig Kimbrough is. He’s not going to be rock solid, consistent for all six months of a season. He’s going to go through some spells where he struggles. Now, what’s alarming about the present one is this has gone on now as long as it has back in late April and early May, that was about two and a half weeks where, you know, he struggled. They took him out of the closer role, they put him into some lower leverage situations, seventh and eighth inning, and he got himself back on track, and then he was really good for the better part of the next couple months. But we’re now talking about him not just struggling, but really struggling for over a month now. And you know, they took him out of high leverage. He did have three or four outings where it looked better, and then it was right back to not looking good. And then to your point on Friday night where he gets booed off the mound, and
Nestor Aparicio 07:10
it’s that’s a rare thing, right from a fan standpoint, you’ve been at the ballpark all your life. I spent the 90s here calling our fan base wimps, because they kind of were, like the Yankees, and Red Sox would come in, we would roll back out. Everybody’s afraid of the now our fans are, especially on Twitter, fighting with this guy that collects baseballs, trying to punch him out. I mean, the fan base has changed, and people were uppity last week about this Birdland, and they should be, you know, like pika is a Birdland holder, and he always tells me, I get discounts on beer. I get discounts. It’s like a good deal. He brags to me about what a good deal it is. I don’t know anything, because I’m all I get is the whistler telling me to shut up three months ago. So I haven’t, you know, I haven’t interacted with them. I haven’t been down to the ballpark. You’re down there because I don’t feel welcome at the ballpark. I’ll be writing about that two weeks from now. Um, but the fans doing a home player. I mean, I Doug Jones, right? I mean, I’m, I’m trying to, that’s the first one for a minute. We’re talking 25 years ago. Man,
Luke Jones 08:16
yeah. And look, I’m not going to get into whether you should or should not. I mean, look, he’s really struggled there’s saying
Nestor Aparicio 08:25
8I’m not, oh no, no, I understand. I’m just saying it’s a rare, rare occurrence for our fan base to beat up one of the home players. They’re used to. Beating up the Venezuelan sports journalists is what they’re used to.
Luke Jones 08:35
Yeah. I mean, and especially when you go through the leanest of the lean times, and more specifically, more recently, with the Elias era, with the rebuild. I mean, you’re booing guys that you know aren’t really major league players, and they’re just placeholders, right? I mean, so you don’t see too much of that, and again, not even getting look. Fans are frustrated. I understand it. I mean, the Orioles are paying Craig Kimbrell a lot of money, and he’s not doing the job. He’s not even doing half of that job, right? I mean, even, even if he was giving them some solid innings in the seventh inning or Friday night, great example. I mean, they’re, they’re trailing in a game, and he comes in and, you know, you’d like to see him keep it at a two run deficit, but because your offense was scoring a lot of runs on Friday night, and instead, he turns it into a bigger deficit, because he can’t get anyone
Nestor Aparicio 09:25
out. You call the low leverage when he comes in two runs down, because it’s not ninth inning, you one run ball game or whatever, but it’s still high leverage when you know you’re you have a chance to help them win, and you you make it a loss. I mean, I mean you’re teetering on that Well, I
Luke Jones 09:42
mean, you’re losing. So it’s not high leverage, but, yeah, it’s not mop up duty either, right? It’s a situation where you have to, you’ve got to contribute something. And this is where I’ll, I’ll stick up for Brandon Hyde a little bit, because you can’t just wait for it to be 10 to one. If you’re going to pitch Craig Kimbrel, you. Gregory Soto, and they just added Colin Selby, right? He took on. He replaced, replaced Kade Povich. You know, who made the spot start? I mean, those are clearly three guys that they have no level of trust in in a meaningful situation. Now, they basically have three guys, at least in Brandon Hyde’s mind that he trusts, ideally in tight games, you know, if everyone’s rested, and we saw it on Sundays, Perez Cano and Sir Anthony Dominguez. Now what it is on August 20, it’s what it is. They have a higher level in Burt Smith now than they did a couple weeks ago. And I think they trust Bert Smith more than Craig Kimbrell right now. But how much do you really trust him just yet? Right? And he’s pitched well to his credit. You know, he’s done a nice job for them at a time where they’ve had, you know, they’re missing some guys and other guys aren’t pitching.
8Nestor Aparicio 10:53
Webb came around this time last year and pitched well until pitched the way he’s pitching, quite frankly, right, right? And the same role in the same Hey, we need to sixth or seventh inning. Come in and get us to the seventh get us
Luke Jones 11:04
Yeah, and that’s the thing, but pitching well in the sixth or the seventh is a little bit different than on some nights, needing to see if he can do it in the eighth inning, for example, because you can’t pitch Dominguez and Cano and even Perez, who, you know, has we kind of were viewing CNN Perez as though he’s been great this year, and he hasn’t been right. It’s been up and down for him. But you can’t pitch those same guys. You’ve got to pass the baton around a little bit, and that’s where you look at Bert Smith, and I’ll even throw Keegan Aiken out there, who, frankly, if you look at Keegan Aiken’s numbers, and I know when he’s not at his best, it can look kind of ugly, and I’m not saying he’s great, and I’m not saying I have a great, a high level of trust in Keegan Aiken, but he does strike people out. He does have a three, six era. He has, at times, pitched in not extremely high leverage, but he’s pitched in some tight games and has done the job at times. But he’s your fourth or fifth best reliever right now. And if you’re in that top four or five, you’ve got a pitch. If you’re in the bullpen at all, you’ve got a pitch. It’s like I said, you can’t just wait for 10 to one, winning or losing to pitch Kimbrel. So
Nestor Aparicio 12:16
pitch in New York the next couple nights. We just got to figure out where it’s going to
Luke Jones 12:20
8be. He’s right, and again, that doesn’t mean he’s going back to pitching in the ninth inning in a safe situation. I mean, at this point, you know, he’s got to get on a roll. I mean, same with Soto I mean they’ve got to show some semblance of being able to do that at the same time, if you’re trailing by a couple runs and you’ve had a stretch where your starters aren’t going quite as deep, even though the Orioles got good starting pitching over the weekend, save for Corbin burns, which, of course, was odd. But you know, even with those stretches, you know, you’re still gonna have to cover two or three innings every night. I mean, that’s just, that’s the state of where we are right now. I mean, even the best starting pitching in baseball’s not going more than six or seven innings most nights, because that’s kind of, it’s kind of what the how it’s set up at this point in time. But they’ve got to, they’ve got to find a way to get, you know and hides talked about this over the weekend. You’ve got to try to get Craig Kimbrel back on track. I mean, you do it. And I know people will say at some point in time, well, at some point you have to cut your losses. But okay, but who are you bringing up then from triple A that you feel has even a fraction of the track record or potential upside and look, Kimbrel has been awful for a month now. I’m not going to sit here and sugarcoat that at the same time, from mid May until early July. Their Orioles fans ticked off that he didn’t make the all star team, right? I mean, that wasn’t that long ago. He pitched that well. So you’ve got to try to find a way to keep giving, picking your spots and giving them chances to work his way back into the mix again, and with hopes that he can look more like that guy again, because they’re going to need that. I mean, they’re going to need it from someone now. It might be Jacob Webb coming back in the next week to 10 days, and he looks like Jacob Webb again. And that will help. Certainly you’re hoping Danny coulomb comes back next month and looks like Danny coulomb, because we remember how good he was for the Orioles last year, how good he was until June this year, and how important he is, and someone who’s a lefty but gets lefties and righties out. So there, there is some potential help and reinforcements on the way, but in the meantime, you’re still hoping to get something out of Craig kimbre. You’re still hoping to get something out of Gregory Soto, who’s got a good arm, and you know, we’re talking about guys that are former All Star closers. Now, in the case of Kimbrel, maybe this is the end of the line for him. And as I’ve said over and over and over, for anyone who’s shocked by this, go look at his last six, seven years in the majors. He’s been up and down. I mean, you’ll see even season era. Would reflect that. So this wasn’t shocking to me. At the same time, this has been a longer period of struggle for him than we’ve seen, you know, in recent years, from Craig Kimbrell. So you know, it might be that age 36 maybe this is getting to be the end of the line for him, but I’m not there yet in terms of saying DFA him, because who else are you bringing up? I mean, do we think Dylan Tate’s going to be a factor, you know, if you bring him back from triple A? I mean, I just, I don’t see anyone that’s at triple A right now that I really have much conviction about that. I think is going to be able to really help them and move the needle at all more than taking my chances, trying to pick my spots with Craig Kimbrel, trying to pick my spots with Gregory Soto in hopes of getting them back on track. I’m not saying it’s going to happen. Nestor, and it’s unsettling, believe me, it’s very unsettling. You know, if you’re trying to name your postseason roster right now, I mean, is Craig Kimbrough even on it, right? I mean, that’s how bad it’s been. But at the same time, he, at least, you know, not that long ago, was on a run where he had pitched really well, and you’re still hoping that he can find that again. But as Brandon Hyde said, yeah, you can pick your spots and try to keep them out of high leverage or even medium leverage as much as you can, but at the same time, you can’t hide people. You know, in an eight man bullpen, in this day and age, you’ve got to have six or seven of them are going to have to pitch in some meaningful situations. You might have one guy that you can hide, but you certainly can’t hide two or three, which is where they are right now. So, so, yeah, as much as you’d love to pitch Dominguez and Cano every single night, they can’t do that. So some other guys are going to have to step up. But boy, it’s just, it’s really been, I mean, struggle is the nice word to use as it pertains to what Kimball’s looked like over the last month. But I I’m not ready to give up on it and give up on him just yet from a roster standpoint. And obviously, when someone’s making $13 million and there’s six weeks to go, that’s still a lot of money that he’s owed, but I’m still looking at it. I’m still trying to look at it as much as I can as an upside play to try to get him back on track, but the trust level is just not there when even on Friday night, when he comes in, down to and he can’t even keep the game where it’s at, where it is at that point in time, and give your offense a chance to come back. I mean, that’s it’s a really low bar when you can’t even trust him to do that much. But you know, it’s where he is right now. It’s where Gregory Soto is right now, and it’s very unsettling. Luke
Nestor Aparicio 17:47
Jones is here. He is Baltimore, Luke. And you know, I guess going back to evaluating the trades of the trading deadline, we’ll have plenty of time for that in the off season, but in the meantime, I wasn’t going to evaluate it on Thursday when he dealt for Eflin, or on Saturday, you know, when the trade started to happen. But you looked at the pieces, and you looked at what we considered, I would say, wholesale changes, but certainly far more changes around the fringe of the roster than maybe, maybe we thought a team that was at that point looked like they were going to win 105 108 games was headed toward right. But all these changes, it’s amazing. Three weeks in, as you look at it, we knew Kimball was in trouble. It’s good thing they have Sir Anthony right now, right? Like it’s a good thing they have him Zach Eflin. Good thing they have him right now, right? And we talk about Suarez, we can praise him all day long. Good thing they did that. Rogers, I listen right now. He’s made three, four starts, right like it is. He’s going to be here a couple of years. We’ll see where that value is over the long term of all of this. But for Jim Palmer to say he did a nice job at the trading deadline, doesn’t feel that way when they’re treading water, winning one, losing one, winning one, losing one, but when effluent takes the ball, or when Sir Anthony comes in in the ninth inning and can get them out of it, even if he does give up a solo rum run. But Soto was supposed to be part of this, and Rogers was supposed to be part of this in some sort of contributory way. You know, I think Eloy Jimenez was another guy that had a couple of, you know, big hits and helped them, at least in the early on. He’ll be a right handed bat they have now i i Give him a you gave him a b minus at the trading deadline. Maybe, I mean, I would almost move it up to a b plus or an A minus if effluents gonna take the ball every fifth day like this, because that unto itself is a savior for them. Yeah, well, him and and Dominguez. Like I said, Dominguez has been their best reliever. I mean, he’s their closer. He’s their closer. He had a four out sable on Sunday, and when they made the deal, they thought it was going to be Soto, I guess is my point. I think when I looked at it, I thought Soto’s the guy here that is going to be a game changer for them. He’s going to be an eighth inning guy setting up Kim role, is what I thought a month ago. I. I thought Soto would be the more effective of the two.
Luke Jones 20:04
Okay, um, I, I mean, I kind of viewed them through similar, you know, a similar lens. I mean, ensemble, yeah, yeah. I mean, and don’t get me wrong, I’m not sitting here saying that I expected Dominguez to become their closer as the way he kind of has, but at the same time, one thing that I did like about the Dominguez trade was go look at his postseason numbers and go look what he did for the Phillies two years ago in the postseason. I mean, it’s a guy who’s pitched in some really big spots and pitched really well in the postseason, whereas Soto came in in Philadelphia last year, and you know, it was a disappointment. You know that he was an all star closer in Detroit at a time when the Tigers weren’t very good. So, you know, you can always get into same way John means was an all star five years ago. Was he really, truly an All Stars? Or is he that team’s rep? But point is, Soto was really good in Detroit, not so good in Philadelphia. So, you know, so and that’s fine. I’m not saying you’re wrong and feeling that way. I think they were both upside plays, right? I think there were two guys that you saw that we talked about, guys like me have talked about a lot, that this bullpen needed more swing and miss, more strikeout potential, and there were certainly two guys who brought that. Now, Dominguez has delivered, you know, he struck out three in the ninth inning on Sunday. You know, he’s struck out more than a batter parenting since arriving in Baltimore, and he’s pitched, well, I also understand and this. I’m saying this as a Sir Anthony Dominguez guy, part of the reason he wasn’t in Philadelphia anymore is he’s kind of been that up and down guy, you know, maybe not as dramatic as Craig what we’re seeing with Craig Kimbrell in 2024 but he’s also been a guy that, at times, has been inconsistent, so we’re going to have to see how it plays out. I mean, it’s frustrating in the case of Soto, because, you know, they gave up Seth Johnson, who not going to sit here and say, was an amazing prospect, but was still one of their, you know, an interesting arm that they acquired in the tremancini deal a couple years ago and had Tommy John surgery, and I think is still someone who has a chance to be a major league pitcher, albeit maybe in a relief role eventually. But you know, point is they gave up something real for him in the same way that the Orioles gave up something real in Austin Hayes. But we know Austin Hayes wasn’t in the same role that he had been in to get Dominguez. But, you know, Dominguez has been really good Soto, not so good. You know, is there same thing with Kimbrel, you’re trying to pick your spots with Soto to try to get him on track, because he is someone that is capable of pitching at a high level and has the stuff to do it. But you can’t sit here and just have these guys on scholarship either. I mean, that’s what’s so challenging for Brandon high, because you don’t want to run Dominguez and Cano and Perez and I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Bert Smith and Keegan Aiken into the ground by not, you know, by pitching them in the close games and then saving these guys from mop up duty. Because you don’t always, you’re not always going to have pop up duty. You know,
Nestor Aparicio 23:05
there’s a three two game in the fifth inning happening every night, bro,
8Luke Jones 23:09
right? Exactly. And that’s the thing, if it’s three to two in the fifth inning and your and your starters hit his pitch count or is looking like he’s laboring and can’t go much longer, you know you can’t pitch Dominguez in the sixth inning because, well, if
Nestor Aparicio 23:23
your bullpens completely rested and you have everybody available and picked starter a burns whoever’s out of gas in the fifth inning, because they’re at 97 pitches or whatever, what is the Where do you go if you have to navigate three to Five of these relief pitchers all healthy on any given night against a real offense. Call Houston this weekend. Yeah, right. Like, what is ideal and what is October ideal at that point?
Luke Jones 23:51
I mean, what’s ideal in the present as it’s currently constructed? It’s those five guys that I mentioned that. Okay, Dominguez at the back, Cano at the back, you know, CNL, Perez, if it’s a pocket of lefties. But we saw even on Sunday eighth inning, two lefties do up to begin the inning, and he walks one and gives up a double to Devers, right? I mean, so you’re even seeing it with him. Burt Smith in the sixth or seventh inning. Keegan akin in the sixth or seventh inning. Gregory Soto mop up duty right now. Craig Kimbrell mop up duty right now. And you know what we’ll see about Colin Selby, who didn’t exactly have great numbers at Norfolk since the Orioles acquired him in a one of those deals for cash. You know, 5567, weeks ago, whatever it was. So it’s not ideal in terms of October, my goodness. I mean, you’ve heard me say, how many different times now you need how many relievers that you feel really, really strongly about using in just about any spot, at least four, ideally, five, right? And I’m talking about four or five guys that you can throw at any point depending on the match. Show they have two right now that I I feel good about Dominguez, and I’m still gonna give Cano the benefit of the doubt, you know. And Sunday struggles aside, again, he’s still been way more good than bad. But Cano, in an ideal world, might be my fourth or fifth rather than my second. And that’s, you know, that’s where you’re looking at this thing and saying, Boy, you hope Jacob Webb looks like Jacob Webb when he comes back. And how you kind of realize how important he’s been to them in 2024, and, you know, I’ve been a Jacob Webb guy this year, kind of pointing out how valuable he’s been. And you’re praying that Danny coulam comes back and looks like Danny Coulomb. Because if he does, then he’s a guy that in October, that I trust and feel really good about, you know, based on what he’s done the last two years. So Craig Kimbrel, they’ve got what, realistically speaking, about a month to try to get him back in order. And not saying that, even if they do that, I’m going to have 100% trust in Him, but I’m still going to have to go with it. Same with Soto, you know, you’re trying to get these guys on a roll. You’re trying to see what works, you know, Drew French and the, you know, pitching, pitching coaches are working behind the scenes, trying to get them back on track. You know, because you need it. You know, as as this, bullpens presently constructed, no, I don’t like their chances to go deep in October whatsoever. You know, I see the same thing everyone else does. I’m not trying, gonna try to put a positive spin on it. You know, Dominguez looks October ready. Cano, I think is October, you know, will be October ready, right? I mean, at least in that top four or five after that, it’s, I have no idea, you know. I mean, Bert Smith, is he ready to to be in some higher leverage situations? Maybe, you know, he’s been, he’s been better than I expected. You know, he’s done a nice job. You know, maybe he’s this year’s version of Jacob Webb, but he hasn’t proven that yet. So, I mean, it’s tough. I mean, even look at this series, the two games that the Orioles won. You know, with Eflin pitching the way that he did on Thursday night and Suarez DOING what He did on Sunday. You it still felt dicey in the final winnings, and that was even with the Brandon Hyde being able to use his top guys. I mean, it just nothing feels easy right now. Even in games where they’re they have a three or four run lead, it just does not feel easy whatsoever. And that’s why it’s such a tough place to be. That’s why it’s why, you know, we spend so much time talking about the offense, despite the fact that it’s still one of the best in baseball, and saying, hey, you need to be more consistent, because you’re certainly not getting that consistency from your pitching staff right now. So it’s hairy, it’s dicey. It is unsettling. That’s the nicest term I can use to describe it, because you look at where this bullpen, where this pitching staff, has been since the beginning of July, and you know, it’s bottom five, bottom six in baseball. I mean, it just is, you know, and that’s not even a
Nestor Aparicio 27:59
8series like that. I’m sorry. I mean, you can’t navigate October that way. You can’t.
Luke Jones 28:05
They have to be, of course. This is all about projecting right now, right? But this is all about trying to figure out, trying to get Craig Kimbrell back on track, trying to get Soto on a roll, trying to see if there’s a more consistent version of Cano, like I said with Cano. I mean, I understand people say, Well, you can’t bring them in with
28:25
runners on base. It’s like
Luke Jones 28:27
Brandon Hyde can’t if everyone has, like, this special condition, you know. And some of this is, you know, we haven’t touched on this quite as much. But when you look at some of their relievers that are, you know, kind of platoon dependent, right? I mean, Cano hasn’t been awful against left handed hitters, but certainly is better against right handers than lefties. You know, Perez, we’ve talked about him, and you know how he is against right handed hitting, you know? I mean, he’s bet, obviously, better against lefties, but, you know, with the three batter minimum that we have with with relief pitching in 2024 I mean, you can’t afford to have all these guys that are just so split dependent, right? I mean, you’ve got to have guys that can defend themselves against either side of the plate. So I don’t have the answers Nestor other than they’ve got to try to keep picking their spots with Kimbrel, picking their spots with Soto in hopes of getting them back in order. Because I just, I don’t know, like, what’s the upside at triple A that you feel better about? I just, I don’t know who that is. I really don’t, I don’t think it’s still in Tate. I just don’t, and I’m not trying to pick on him individually, but you know, I start
8Nestor Aparicio 29:39
trading Kimbrough for him right now, right? In regard, no
Luke Jones 29:43
especially understanding he would have to lose Kimbrel right now. I’ll say this, and I kind of joked about this privately with a couple of my friends over the weekend. You know, I think back to the story of aldmeda stepping in a pothole a decade ago, right? I. Are we getting to a point where something like that for Craig Kimbrel to kind of give him a reset? You know, you put on the IL for two weeks, not going to sit here and say, Absolutely not. I’m not saying that you can just conjure an injury,
Nestor Aparicio 30:14
then you’re going to bring him back in the middle of the pennant race on
Luke Jones 30:16
8September 10, and that’s the thing, right? So how do you, how do you navigate that? I
Nestor Aparicio 30:20
mean, it’s not like he doesn’t know that he is more veteran than anybody on this team at pitching in these situations, right? Exactly.
Luke Jones 30:27
And you know, that’s where we get into Friday night. And look, I’m not, I’m not going to sit here and bash the fans. I mean, fans are frustrated. I get that. He’s making $13 million and he’s not doing his job at the same time as I’m around this, you know, as I’ve been around this long enough, these guys know when they’re struggling. Do I think that really helps the player motivate? I mean, maybe it might motivate some guys, you know, and we’ve all heard guys that have been asked about being booed, and they’d say, Yeah, I’d boo me too, you know. Does that motivate some guys?
Nestor Aparicio 30:55
I like to think of myself as Terrell Suggs. I sort of like being booed. You know what? I mean, maybe, maybe. But point is, I
8Luke Jones 31:02
don’t if Craig Kimbrel needs to hear booze from the fans, and that’s the magic trick to get him back on track. Then I’ve seen it all. You know, he knows the Orioles know, but, but again, if you’re trying to massage this situation to get him in a place where you can trust him again. You know, even if it’s just it might just be that, Sir Anthony Dominguez, you hope, you pray, you cross your fingers, all that you hope that he continues to be as effective as he’s been, and if he does, he might just be the closer the rest of the year. But at the very least, can you get Craig Kimbrel back to a point where you can trust him in the seventh inning, if you can trust him in the eighth inning, you know, even if it’s not becoming the closer again, I’ll take that at this point. And you know, forget about the money. You know, it’s a sunk cost at this point, right? You’re paying them either way. So can you at least get him back to a point where you can trust him in some close games? Because they’re going to need more of that. Going to need more of that. Again, it can’t just be Dominguez Cano and CNL Perez. And again, I keep mentioning Perez as though he’s earned this great deal of trust, but it’s kind of where they are, you know, it’s the best of the rest at this point in time. I mean, that’s where they really are with their bullpen. So there aren’t great options. And yeah, they need Webb and they need Danny coulomb and yes, they need it’s going to be impossible for me to have confidence that they’re going to make a deep run. If they can’t at least get one of Kimbrough and Soto back on track. Ideally, you get them both back on track, and they’ve got upside, and they’ve closed games and pitched in postseason and all that. But if they don’t, at least get one of those guys to a point where you can trust them in higher leverage, then it’s really difficult for me to envision this going well even forget about October, talking about September and holding and being able to edge out the Yankees for the division and all that. So it sounds flippant, because I know, I know people, you know, fans want a pound of flesh when, when things aren’t going well, right? But I really don’t know if they have much of a choice other than just to continue to do what they’ve been doing, which is, try to pick your spots. Try to, you know, in the case of Soto, if it’s a sixth inning and it’s, you know, not a blowout, but not a two to one game, you know, you if there’s two or two out of three lefties or do up, you know, you try to put him in that spot and see how he does, but you also have to have someone ready to replace him. And you know, same with Kimber in some of these spots. So it’s not ideal, and it’s not something that’s inspiring much confidence, but it’s where they are right now, and that’s why we keep coming back to boy. They better hit the ball. They better hit the ball. They better hit the ball. Because you just look at the state of this pitching staff, and they are just not deep enough, rotation wise, or especially bullpen wise, as it stands, as we’re going into these final what, 11 or 12 days of August.
