Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the wobbly state of the Orioles’ postseason realities after another long weekend on the road in Detroit with frozen bats and poor results.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
orioles, week, team, win, talking, year, yankees, playing, game, october, luke, hit, pitching, players, oyster, starting, ravens, home, good, weekend
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
8
Music. Welcome home. We are wnst am 1570 Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore, positive you can find us out on the internet, hoping that you are setting a spot on your radio dial for us so you can tune in on our Monday mornings. Hopefully it won’t be an OH and three Monday morning next Monday. It’s been a long week, and it’s early in the week. The Orioles have made it even longer over the weekend, if you were avoiding them at lunchtime on Sunday, they lost again, headed home. Now Luke will be really doing double duty. I’ve written at length about my declaration of independence. If you have read my letter to Eric the Costa, you would understand my anger and frustration. In a week like this, we only have one person that can cover both teams, but Luke will be attempting to do that this week, the Orioles be playing very important games, three games back, dude. You know, Hey, you want to stop talking about the Owen two ravens and John Harbaugh and Justin Tucker’s leg and lamar’s game and how crappy the offensive line is. Let’s talk about the Orioles. Luke Jones, yeah, let’s
Luke Jones 01:06
talk about them in what was a very frustrating weekend in Detroit, a weekend where they received good starting pitching. FM was good on Friday night. Burns was maybe the best he’s been all year, or maybe since opening day, let’s say, in terms of ton of swing and miss, they do win that game, although it got a little Harry in the ninth inning more than you would have liked, with Sir Anthony Dominguez on the mound with the four run lead, and lo and behold, Kate Povich gave them a very competitive outing on on Sunday afternoon and an opportunity to take a series and beat a team. I’m going to give you one that I saw in the midst of the Ravens game and as the the Orioles were on their way to losing on Sunday, I saw this. I can’t take credit for it, but the rate the Orioles have not won a series against a team that currently holds a winning record since beating Seattle Fourth of July week. That was the last time they took a series against the team that’s currently above 500 now they’ve got some splits. They haven’t won very many series over the last two months in general, but it just speaks to how long this has gone on. And look, I mean running out of time here, running out of games here to make up the deficit against the Yankees. I mean they out. They obviously have the trip to the Bronx next week, but still not hitting the ball. What’s, you know, the shame of this is, I looked up their stats early Monday morning in the month of September, 10 in the majors in era, fifth in starter era. So no Kyle Bradish, no Grayson Rodriguez, no. John means no. Tyler, wells their rotations been really good.
Nestor Aparicio 02:44
We were the most worried about at every moment, from the minute Bradish got injured, it’s like, Who will the Big Three be in October? How do we get there? We went from six to three in like two weeks back in June, right? And then they had Ehn, and he was a little bit of a question mark, but it’s been fantastic, and burns hasn’t been so fantastic. And I it’s, it’s a baseball season, dude. It’s a it’s a slog, man. It really is. And this is the point where you see how much cash you have, the best teams play the best right now. And that doesn’t appear to be this baseball team right now,
Luke Jones 03:18
no. And I mean, obviously there’s two weeks in the regular season, right? A couple weeks from now, we’re going to be talking about the postseason. I mean, it’s, it’s almost upon us. It’s fall training, as opposed to, they’re going to be in the postseason. They’re not going to squander a wild card spot, but are they going to hold on to the top one, or is it going to be a case where you drop below Kansas City, and suddenly you’re on the road for the wildcard round. I mean, that’s, you know, they’re only a couple games up on the Royals. Forget about, you know, put aside the Yankee talk and the division talk for a moment. They want to hold on to that top wildcard spot at least, because you’re playing a best of three. Sure as heck would like to be at home at the very least. But, you know, I just mentioned the starter era, obviously, the bullpen still having its concerns. Jacob Webb came back on Sunday, good to see, although he gave up a run. Danny coulomb sometime this week, maybe we see him back. So you know, other reinforcements on the way, how quickly. I mean, we’re down to the last couple of weeks. I mean, you can only keep saying later in September, so long until, well, it’s here. Are you ready to go or not? But the big issue and the biggest reason why they’re six and seven in the month of September, and the biggest reason why they had the August that they did in September, Nestor Raven or Orioles, 25th and run scored 20th and slugging, 23rd in batting average. We know about runners in scoring position and their issues there. I mean, just isn’t a very good offense right now, period. And I’ll continue to remind everyone for the proper context, proper perspective, offense around baseball is not very good. So sometimes, when you see the stats and you say all the Orioles are the absolute worst, no, it could get a lot worse. Believe it or. Not but for a team that wants to be a contender, for a team that is trying to prime itself for an October run, for a team that’s trying to get healthy and, I mean, instead, we’re talking about, you know, Jackson holiday losing at bats to live on Soto, who had a really good game on Saturday. I mean, that that’s where we are at this point, Adley rutschman. You know, he looks good for three or four games, and you’re saying, Okay, starting to look like Adley rutschman. And rutchman. And hey, he hit a home run on Sunday, great. But he’s got to, he’s got to do it like he’s got to look like Adley rotchman Again, not look like him for three games, and then you’re taking a bunch of offers again. So right now this offense, if it’s not gunner Henderson and Cedric Mullins at the top of the order. I mean, that’s not to say no one else is doing anything at all. And you know, Santander’s, you know, 40 home runs, I get all that, but this is just not a very deep lineup right now at all. And I mean, you’re waiting on Jordan westburg, you’re waiting on Ramona Reus. Certainly, if those guys can get back and look like themselves, that will help, but they’re just too many guys scuffling and not getting the job done at the plate. And you know, it’s put an unnecessary burden on their pitching staff that, you know, especially their rotation, that they got three starts that were worthy of wins over the course of the weekend. So to lose two out of three, it’s really demoralizing as you’re trying to stay in this division race with the Yankees and hold on to that top wild card. So really disappointing weekend in that regard. And but it’s, it’s what we’ve been talking about for, you know, the the overall struggles and mediocrity for two and a half months now, if not a little longer than that. And the offense really, really struggling since, you know, the beginning of August. I mean, it’s been, it’s been a long time now where this team has played really mediocre baseball, and it’s still the first two and a half months propping them up, right? I mean, if it weren’t for that, if those two first two and a half months didn’t count, we wouldn’t even be talking about the playoffs right now. But, you know, can they find a way to get themselves going offensively in concert with their starting pitching doing what it’s done, done, waiting for Grayson Rodriguez to come back, waiting for Danny cool on the come back. You know, Jake hoping Jacob Webb looks like himself first outing, not withstanding. You know, it’s a lot of hips, though. I mean, at some point in time, we’re down to the last two weeks and so many ifs, and you just have to wonder, realistically speaking, how many of those things are going to come to fruition.
8Nestor Aparicio 07:31
Luke Jones is our guest. He is Baltimore, Luke. He’ll be covering all things Orioles and ravens this week. And you know, if you don’t like talking about the offensive line. We can move over and talk about the offense of the Orioles or the offensive offense. Um, I’m not shocked that the Ravens offensive line kind of stinks. I mean, I’m a little shocked that the cost and Harbaugh in the off season, we talked about Joe delis Anders. I’m not shocked by that. You know that the fact that they were too I’m shocked by that, I am shocked that the offense just shut off for this team. I think we saw this wasn’t going to be a team that walked a whole lot, right, I mean, but a team that runs the bases pretty well. I’m shocked by how bad the defense has been over the body of work, especially over the last 90 or under 20 days, not necessarily, maybe April or May, but I’m shocked by the bats. I’m shocked by the defense, but way more so by we’re talking about mid 20s level production as an offense against the grain, at a time when for two years, there was a different star every night. They lived the Oriole magic theme. Everybody was going to hit the ball that. But there was a mojo about it. There was an energy about it that somehow lost with the injuries. And when you watch it now, you can put the sound down and just watch the body language of Brandon high. Watch the body language. I mean, there aren’t walk off moments, and there’s not sprinklers when you don’t hit the ball. There’s no sprinklers when you don’t hit home runs. We don’t all get to go and drink and squirt each other, and like all of that, this home stand would go a long way to turning things around by hitting the ball at home a little bit. And I know they’re not coming home to a king’s welcome. This isn’t like major league where the ballpark gets filled at the end. I saw that movie last year. I’ll be writing the Katie Griggs. You think I was tough on Eric the Costa last week. Wait till Greg Bader gets his letter. Wait till Katie Griggs gets her letter. Waiter, David Rubik, but from a fan standpoint, and the Mojo this week, with the football team and the team being home, and there’ll be 20,000 people, whatever there is this week they’re given. They’re unloading their closet and getting rid of their stuff, their swag, this week, the whole deal. And then they got to go to New York next week. And I don’t know if there’ll be four games back and uncatchable or two games back, and maybe you’re a game back and maybe catch them. It. It would really feel good to have a thing. I mean, this next two weeks, they need a thing. They need to win some games. They need to win some games with big bats. They need to excite the people that are going to the ballpark this week. And they need to create some level of energy to go to New York next week. Not five fact, you know what I mean, not really falling down the mountain further than they have fallen, and that’s really going to involve hitting the ball and hitting the ball at home, in their own ballpark, yielding the ball cleanly, starting to look starting to round out. And I said Fall training as a little bit of a, probably a training day reference there, in some way, to our old Morning Show host here, but the fall training of you and I going down to Sarasota in March and saying, are they going to be ready to play on opening day? Opening Day is October 2 now, right? Or whatever that game is going to be two weeks from tomorrow, Tuesday, whenever it’s going to be. They need to be in good form then, and they need to create some Mojo that they don’t have right now, because I think it’s too much to ask them to stumble to the finish line, to stumble into this wild card space, to play baseball two weeks from Tuesday, and have anybody expect anything different if they’re going to be, you know, five and eight over the next two weeks, or however many games they have left, if they’re going to be four and seven stumbling to the finish line, all you can hope for. They start hitting the ball better, start showing some vital signs of a team that can give us some hope two weeks from now, because the pitching has done that, the starting pitching has given me some
Luke Jones 11:39
hope. Yeah, I think that’s fair. One thing that I’ll slightly disagree with though. I mean, at some point in time, I’m not as shocked by the offense struggling because, I mean, look at the bottom third of their lineup on a nightly basis. I mean, Emmanuel Rivera live on Soto Jackson holiday, who look, and we talked about this a good bit last week, his last month has been not as bad as his first 10 games in the majors back in April, but still below been closer to that than the guy that we saw give than the 20 year old that gave them a really a jolt in early August when he got recalled. So I mean, you look at it when you have three or four guys in your lineup, and look Emmanuel Rivera and Livon Soto have actually had their moments relative to what your expectations would be for guys who weren’t even on the roster a couple months ago. But, I mean, what is that? I mean, Ryan O’Hearn has been become basically an everyday player. He’s not an everyday player, right? I mean, he’s played, not that he’s gotten a lot of starts against left handed pitching, because they haven’t faced a lot of left handed starters here over the last few weeks. But he’s playing more than he would have, certainly playing first base more than he would have, and he’s a downgrade defensively over Mount castle at first base. So there’s a defensive aspect to this. And we’ve talked at length, you know, whether we’re talking about holiday or or Colton cows are being as up and down as Colton cows are. Is, you know, even though, overall, he still has a good profile and still could very well win rookie of the year, but we know that he’s either really hot or it’s really bad, like there hasn’t been a whole lot of in between for him. We’ve talked about Adley rutschman Being a replacement level hitter for the better part of two and a half months now, save for, you know, these three or four game periods where you start to have some hope, and then he goes, Oh, for his next nine, right? I mean, and that’s one of your two best players. That’s one of your that’s one of your foundation pieces right there, right? I mean, Jackson holiday, we think will be a foundation piece, but he hasn’t done it at the major league level yet. So that’s why I said to you last week, when we had this conversation, if Jackson holiday was doing what he’s been doing as your number nine hitter, but you had your other eight guys healthy and kind of humming offensively the way that you would expect you could, you could carry that and you’d be okay, most likely, right, and he probably wouldn’t feel as much pressure as he feels right now, in the way that all these guys are feeling pressure because of their woes with runners in scoring position, or the fact that, you know, on any given night, it feels like they only have two or three guys hitting, you know, really doing any, you know, any threat of damage, so it’s just a lot. So from that standpoint, and don’t get me wrong, I’m not disagreeing with your overall point, but as more time goes on and they’ve had more attrition with the position players, even though it hasn’t been as magnified as the starting pitching concerns going all the way back to spring training with Bradish, and means, at that point, it still has added up, right? Because it’s not just Jordan westburg, but it’s also Ryan mountcastle, and it’s also Ramona Rios, and, yeah, I’ll throw Jorge Mateo in there, even though I Jorge Mateo wasn’t going to be an everyday second baseman, but the way Jackson holiday has struggled, he might be right now,
Nestor Aparicio 14:40
right? So
Luke Jones 14:41
8all of that adds up, not just because you missed their production, but what’s the trickle down effect there, when you’re talking about missing Ryan mountcastle? Okay, you still have Ryan O’Hearn, but now he’s probably seeing a few more matchups that you’d like to keep him away from otherwise, and he’s playing more first base. And you’d like him to play otherwise, Jackson holiday was playing just about every day. You probably would have liked to be in a position where you could sit him against more left handers and maybe not play him seven days a week. Maybe he’d play four or five, and that’d be in the way that you protect him. It’s what the Orioles have done with Cedric Mullins. Cedric Mullins turnaround in June. I give him a credit. I give him major credit for the way he’s performed since June. But you know, a big part of that is they’ve kept him away from left handed pitching as much as they’ve been able to, because he’s become more of a platoon player than he was three years ago. So you always have players that you’re trying to optimize their use, and when you’re missing as many players, whether you’re talking pitching, you know and you know what it’s done to their bullpen, or you know what it’s done to their starting rotation at times, or missing some position players, even if they’re only missing one All Star caliber guy in Jordan, westburg, it was an all star, not all star caliber. It still adds up in terms of having to lean on some other guys in matchups you don’t like, or maybe liking to give them a few more off days, you know, pick your spots a little more. And it’s, I mean, it’s, it’s undeniable that that isn’t a factor here, that that’s really built up on them, and I think is a big reason why they’ve struggled. So as more time goes on and we see these guys where, you know, you feel like you need a scorecard, it’s like, Wait, when did that guy join the roster? You know Nick mayton, you know Emmanuel Rivera, uh Levon Soto. Who are these guys? Well, when they’re playing and they’re playing in a pennant race, I mean, it just it speaks a lot to where you are, not to mention some of those guys that perform better than some of your your regulars that are scuffling. So just a lot of frustration. And I think you see it on a nightly basis with Brandon Hyde and how he’s talks. I think you’re seeing it with the players, not not that anyone is being unprofessional, or anyone’s jaking it, or anyone’s giving up. I just think they’re really, really frustrated. And to your point, I mean, you know, the light is, you know, this isn’t something that’s way out in the distance. Now this is two week two weeks from now, we’re going to be talking about a playoff matchup, and it’s going to be whether it’s wild card or whether it’s somehow winning the division and enjoying four or five days off to set your rotation and whatnot. But, you know, at some point in time, it’s getting really late, really, you know, early here, and they’re still waiting for some of these guys to come back from injury, and in the meantime, they’re still not doing what they need to do offensively. They’re not doing what they need to do defensively. And the bullpen is still, you know, you’re still looking to see, okay, can you find three or a couple more guys in addition to Dominguez, and I didn’t even mention it, my apologies on this. We found out Saturday night, yen your canoe, dealing with some soreness here recently. So what’s going on there? I mean, you want to talk about another final straw, you know, straw that breaks the camel’s back, as it pertains to the bullpen, Jenny or Cano, and maybe that explains why we talked about it last week in Boston, why he only threw two pitches and didn’t come out for the ninth inning. So just when you’re getting some guys back, the health questions persist. So you know, it’s just, it’s a lot. It’s a lot to keep laying out the if this, if that, when this, when that at some point in time you’re going to run out of time here if you just don’t start playing better period, regardless of who you’re hoping that comes back here in the next two weeks.
Nestor Aparicio 18:21
Lou Jones can be found at Baltimore, Luke. He can be found at Camden Yards. He can be found at Owings Mills. He can be found somewhere on the road between there and here, and royal farms, powering him up, getting him where he needs to go. We’re going to be at fadelies on Friday, doing the Maryland crab cake Tour presented by the Maryland lottery of Raven scratch offs to give away. Also our friends at Jiffy Lube, powering us up and getting us out onto the road, making it all happen. We’re doing this crazy oyster tour. We’re meeting all these oysters. Be putting that out of Baltimore positive this week as well. For the oyster recovery partnership. Next week, we have the B and O Railroad Museum event on the 26th of you can buy tickets for that. Come down if you love oysters, you want to slurp, you want to learn, you want to be supportive. A lot of oyster farmers gonna be doing the show next week as well. But Friday, we’re fatley’s with John Sarbanes. And then the following Friday, the 27th we’re going to be a Costas. I am wearing my Costas gear getting back down to Dundalk, and I’ll be slurping the Oysters Rockefeller there. I think our friends from Jo are going to be joining us JFC food and be joining us on Friday down at Damis place inside Lexington market. Come on down before the Orioles take on the Detroit Tigers, um, scoreboard watching and the Yankees, and how they match up against the Indians and how they match up against the Do you have any thoughts on even scoreboard watching all of this, as we’re saying, Who’s rounding in and who’s rounding out? Where would a match up be, and how could bats turn on in a game one because, let’s be honest, they don’t have to hit the ball this week. They have to hit the ball two weeks from now, and they have to pitch two weeks from now. And I That’s why I go into all this is saying I feel like this is fall training. I don’t need them to win every day. I need them to start feeling good about themselves.
Luke Jones 19:58
Yeah, I think that’s fair. I mean. Yeah, and look, I mean, obviously I was pre quite preoccupied with the Ravens on Sunday. I saw the beginning of the Orioles game as I was watching on my laptop. And then, you know, they kicked off and they didn’t hit it. Hit the ball. So that’s why they lost a home run, not withstanding. But, you know, you look at the landscape of the AO, and I’ve talked about this a lot. I mean, give the Yankees credit, they’re playing better of late, they’ve won seven of 10. I think the team that you know right now, if the postseason started today, the Orioles, would be playing the Royals. And you look at what the Royals have done, and you know, they’ve had their periods of time where it looks like they’re ready to take off, and then they stub their toe for the next week and a half. But I mean, they’re going to be a playoff team. You know, they’re, I think their ESPN has them at 97% at this point. So barring a collapse, they’re going to be in. They’ve won seven of 10. Bobby Witt has been everything that gunner Henderson was in the first half, right? And not to say that gunner hasn’t played well since his, you know, very underwhelming month of August. But you know, you’ve got a transcendent player there. They’ve, they’ve played really well. I mean, they’re that team. They’re kind of where the Orioles were a year ago, where you’d say, Wow, they’re, they’re this good this soon. I mean, the Royals go look at what their record was last year. They’re 100 plus win loss or 100 plus loss teams. So this has been really interesting for them. I’m not necessarily picking them to win the World Series or anything crazy like that, but they kind of feel like they’re the team how we viewed the Orioles a year ago, where you’d say they don’t really realize they’re not supposed to be this good this soon. So you know, and they’ve got some some pitching that certainly, you know, plays. So, you know, we’ve, we’ve continued to talk about Houston for a while now. I mean, the Astros, you know, finished the weekend on a four game winning streak. They far and away, have the biggest, you know, the most impressive pedigree of any of these al teams. But I don’t know, Nestor Aparicio standpoint. Obviously, the Yankees are, you know, have been on the at the forefront, and obviously they’ve opened up a three game lead, but it’s been much closer than that, even over the last two months, where neither of those teams played very well, right? It’s one of the reasons why it stayed so close, is both the Yankees and the Orioles have been mediocre since June overall, but until I start seeing the Orioles hit the ball and get some of these guys back and start to feel like they’re rounding in the form. To your point, it doesn’t mean they gotta win eight in a row here. But how about winning some series? I mean, we talked about this September schedule being on the softer side until leading up to that Yankee series next week. And they’ve got, you know, they’re got a losing record. There’s six and seven in September. So it’s go time. You know, at some point in time, like, I can’t just watch what everyone else is doing. At some point it’s like, what are you doing? What are the Orioles doing themselves to get themselves ready to make sure that they at the very least hold on to that top wildcard spot. You know, you don’t want to go on the road and a three game wild card format, where you lose two games in 24 hours and you’re done. I mean, that’s how quickly it happens. That’s why I’ve said all along that all things being equal, you’d rather have the first round by but because you just want to avoid the unpredictability of a best of three. But, I mean, it’s tough for me to kind of dwell on potential matchups and who’s playing well and who’s not. Because, I mean, the Orioles have lost series here to teams that you feel like they really don’t have a whole lot of business losing series to, but they’re mediocre. They’ve been a 500 team since June. They’ve been sub 500 depending on where you want to go back. And you know, because they were 24 over 500 at a few different points, and look where they are now. They’re 18 over, you know? So it’s a six game drop off there, right? So it’s tough. I I’m trying to look at that. And like I said, there’s no one in the Al where I say, oh my gosh, no one’s touching them. That team is so dominant, that team is just gonna cor
Nestor Aparicio 23:57
that you can’t go out and Corbin burns gives you six and two thirds, and you win game one four to two, because gunner hits a three run home run, and you run the base as well, and you turn a double play, and you Mullins, lays out and steals a double in the outfield. Like, I’ve seen this act, you know what? I mean, I haven’t seen it lately. And to your point, these guys in the lineup, I mean, I got guys with beards hitting home runs in Fenway Park. My wife’s like, Who’s that guy? You know, like, Who are these people? Who’s Austin Slater? Who are these people? And but I know who Kobe Mayo is, and I know Jackson holiday is, and they told me they were going to be good, and then they come up and they hit, you know, like, John blue Tarski, you know, 0.0 i The hope of all of that still remains, as we have this really wise guy around here named Luke Jones, who said before the trading deadline, they win or lose games in October, it’s going to be about gunner Anderson and Adley rutschman and their star players being star players. And I don’t disagree with any of that, and as long as they’re not where westburg was six weeks ago injured, and they’re available to play two weeks in. L and healthy, and I’m with you. Timing shadows. You know, time off pitchers not not being, you know, ready to go 4050, pitches in Grayson Rodriguez’s case, I don’t know where that’s going to be, but whatever all of that is, to assemble that and win game one. Yeah, gotta beat the Kansas City Royals in one game, not tonight, two weeks from tonight, here, there, wherever we’re gonna play it, you know, like, gotta win that game. Gotta win that’s when the lights come on. And they’re certainly capable to winning that game. Not just four to two. They’re capable of winning that game 12 to two. I mean, they’re capable of winning any game 12 to two. And that’s the part that I’m gonna I’m not gonna be the guy writing the Orioles can’t win the World Series on two weeks from Monday, unless go to Henderson and Adley rutschman can’t play and burns as bursitis. And you know, like, if they get these guys. They get these horses, no matter how bad they looked against Detroit last week, no matter how bad they look this week, we had Joe Flacco planking and camp Cameron getting fired, and they win the Super Bowl like I’m I’m not down on the Orioles because I’m up on their personnel. I’ve seen them all do this. I’ve seen cows or mount any of these guys that could catch fire that we don’t talk about much. I’ve seen it, and I can believe it can happen in game one, and I know it’s it can’t happen in game one this week. It can only sort of start to get a little better. And I just want to see some signs of life. I’m not even asking them to win every night. I’m not asking them to do what you ask them to do last year, blow more teams out. I just want to see fundamental good baseball. I want to see good pitching. I want to see them hitting cutoff man. I want to see defense being defense. I want to see routine plays being made, and I want to see them taking better pitches and having better at bats and against these bad teams against San Francisco and Detroit, against these teams that are just okay, and then the Yankees thing next week. I don’t want to see him go up there and get in a brawl and go head on thing. But I will say this, somebody from them throws it at the head of gunner Henderson. Shits gonna go down. You know what I mean? Like, I don’t think these teams like each other, and I think the Orioles are gonna, like, a whole lot less going up there being back four games. Back four games, because they that might be the case by the time they get there. I don’t know that depends about this week, but we are getting real nitty gritty. Feels like you and I talk so much football, oh and two, oh and two. Lamar offensive line. Wait, Cleveland, we’ve talked about her, enters Ben. We’ll be talking about the other Cleveland two weeks from now. I still hold that hope that they this can get exciting for a week or two, if not win the World Series, that they can win a series or a game, which you put them ahead of last year?
8Luke Jones 27:50
Yeah. I mean, no question. And again, I agree with you. No one should be writing them off. You know, if you’re asking me to predict, if you’d be asking me to wager, I’m not so sure I’d be putting a whole lot on it at this point in time, because it’s just gone on so long, I think, for me, and this is where I’m starting, and not that, you know, not that that anyone’s even been dishonest about it, because I think there’s always unknown when you’re trying to project out these injuries and trying to project when guys are going to come back, it’s, it’s getting really late, right? I mean, we’re already at mid September. It’s like, you know, Jordan Westbrook starting to swing and all like, I’m not saying it’s that he won’t be back, but you’re starting to look at some of these guys, like Grayson Rodriguez, you know, they, you know, he’s, it seems like live batting practice and like, so he’s getting close, but I was kind of hoping he’d already be past that. Maybe he’d be going being on a rehab assignment at this point, right? So you’re just, you’re running out of days on the calendar. I mean, you mentioned mount castle. It doesn’t sound like Mount Castle is playing again this year. I mean, that’s, you know, that that’s the latest update. Did not sound, no, they didn’t rule him out. But, you know, he was in Sarasota, and the wrist isn’t making a lot of progress and all that. So
Nestor Aparicio 29:00
curse that may, you know, maybe, right?
Luke Jones 29:02
I mean, now and there, and I’m glad you brought him up, because, you know, there’s, there’s a case, if we’re talking about offensive upside, you know, we’ve talked about Jackson holiday and Kobe mayo, because they’ve been on the roster, right? Heston kerstet, if you recall, before he got beamed in that Yankee series, what, in the second week of July, he was really, he had really been swinging the bat. Well, I mean, remember, he had the Grand Slam, you know, he had you know, he’d had some good moments, and gets hit in the head, comes off the concussion list. Clearly wasn’t right. Symptoms reserved, since he’s back on the concussion list. But they activated him on Sunday, you know, we’ll see. He’s got the, he has the kind of ability or upside that he could catch fire. I mean, they hit him clean up. You know that that shows you what they think about his potential, and it also speaks to the overall state of the lineup. But they might need something like that to happen, right? It might need to be Heston kerstad suddenly looks like Babe Ruth for the next month, right? I mean, look at the his name’s escape me. The. Rangers, outfielder last, last October, the kid who just got caught up at the end of the year. And look what he did. I’m sorry. You know this is going off three hours of sleep off a Ravens post game night. But you know, we’ve seen it. You know, we’ve seen young, young guys, suddenly it clicks for them for three or four weeks, even in October. I mean, I can remember, what was he? 18 or 19 years old, Andrew Jones for the Braves in 96 looked like he was going to be MVP of that series, and they were going to be on their way to winning that and then the Yankees, of course, had other ideas as that series went on. But look at what Andrew Jones did as a kid in October. So you never dismiss it at the same time. You can’t really predict that, either. And that’s where you’re kind of looking at this, where you say the Orioles have been have looked like this for this long now. You do wonder if they are going to come out of it, or it might just, you kind of chalk it up to a long year just and I’ll leave you with this point. I was talking to a couple other people in the press box before the Ravens game on Sunday. You know a couple people who don’t cover the Orioles, per se, but pay close attention. And I think we need to remember, and I don’t say this to make an excuse, because, you know, I mean, you’re gonna have to look at everything that happened. You know, whenever this is over, if they don’t win the World Series, right, or they don’t get to the World Series. But everything went so well last year, and things just clicked so quickly. And think about it, they had the dramatic. They went from 110 losses in 2001 to, what, 83 and 79 I think it was in 2002 or 2022 you know, 21 to 22 and then, of course, they won 101 games last year. I mean, you look at that kind of not just improvement, dramatic improvement, over those two, those two, three years, they weren’t gonna. They were never gonna. You know, the expectation wasn’t that they were gonna win 116 games this year. But one thing we need to remember with young players, and this is where the Orioles may be in hindsight. Or maybe some people even said, you know, I can recall some people even saying this in the off season. It feels like maybe they kind of got caught in between here, in terms of being full blown contender, but also having some guys that you’re going to be counting on that have never done this at the major league level, like Jackson holiday, or like Kobe mayo or Heston kerstad, who, you know, injuries have played a part there for him, certainly the last couple years. But you kind of go down the list, and it just feels like, you know, maybe the Orioles ended up being a little too much in between, you know, full blown, established, bonafide, no questions asked World Series contender, and also having these young guys that are still kind of learning and
Nestor Aparicio 32:49
8stunk, and that’s something we could not have counted on, right? He’s
Luke Jones 32:55
on the older side, right? I mean, he’s not 21 you know, he’s he’s older. He’s more established compared to, you know, Jackson holiday at 20 or 22 year old, Kobe mayo, or even Colton cowser, for that matter. But I use this example with you. I vividly recall this even in the off season. That’s one reason why I picked the Orioles, I think, to win 94 games this year. Now I that that’s looking like that’s too optimistic based on what we’re even seeing and what their pace is right now. But the reason why I saw that one things went so well last year, two, based on their run differential, you know, they true. Talent level might not have been a 101 win team. It might have been a few games less than that. But part of this was also looking at recent history. So many times with young players and young teams, we always think about it being linear, right? You improve from this year to the next, and then you get even better the year after that, and then you get better the year after that. You win the World Series. You know, it’s a nice, warm, cozy, fuzzy progression, right? But look no further than where sigma Idell and Houston were or and michaelias were in Houston a decade ago. Go look at that Astros team. In 15, they were wild a wild card team. They were, you know, look, look like, oh my gosh, this team is, they’re finally a juggernaut. And then what happened in 16, they had some injuries. They didn’t make the playoffs even, and then they won the World Series the following year. Now, granted, trash cans and all that, you know, put putting that part of it aside for just a moment. But the point is, this isn’t always linear, and as much as you have young players who suddenly look the part and do what the Orioles did last year and win 101 games, you also can have hiccups. And certainly the health has been a massive part of that this year, but they’ve also had some guys from a development standpoint. I mean, no one clear. It’s very obvious, Mike Elias and sigma Adele and Brandon Hyde did not anticipate Jackson holiday struggling the way it is, but he’s 20, and that doesn’t mean he’s got that doesn’t mean he’s not going to be a multi time all star or be a. Hall of Famer 20 years from now, but he struggled at age 20. He struggled way more than Manny Machado did at age 20 when he was called up 12 years ago and helped the Orioles in a playoff push. At that point, Manny, from the time he arrived in the major leagues, was a Gold Glove defender at third base, even though he had that was a new position for him, Jackson holiday new position, second base hasn’t gone as well. Transition from short to second is more challenging than short to third, based on talking to baseball experts and players and all that, but points still stands. Manny Machado, Gold Glove Defender from the day he arrived in the major leagues, and he was a league average offensive player as a rookie. As a 20 year old, he hit seventh or eighth or ninth for the Orioles that year. He wasn’t what Manny Machado would come become a couple years after that, but you know that he was a prodigy, and that doesn’t mean that Jackson holiday won’t be third in the MVP voting even next year. Who knows? I don’t know, but he’s not that right now. He’s not anything close to that right now. So as much as you have plans for development and as much as things went so well last year, until Felix Batista’s injury in late, late August, things have not gone well this year, in that regard, in terms of health, in terms of counting on some younger players to really step forward. Westburg was a great success story. Colton cows are a good success story. But you know, Jackson holiday, it’s kind of been benched for Levon Soto over the weekend, right? I mean, that’s where he is right now. He’s really scuffling. Kobe Mayo has really scuffled. So, you know, some it doesn’t always go perfectly, and sometimes, you know this, this is cliche. And I again, I’m not making an excuse for them. I think they’re going to have to take a long look at everything they do if this season ends up flaming out with a sweep in the wild card round, and they’re done. But we also have to remember that development is not linear. It’s not always just the perfect incremental. Hey, five games better than last year and five games better next year. I mean, it doesn’t always work that way. You know, sophomore slump is a term that’s been talked about for years in Major League Baseball. I talked about it with um Corbin Carroll, who was NL rookie of the year last year. His numbers now look good, but he had an awful first half. I mean, he was just horrendous. And he was a guy that was kind of the toast of baseball in October. You know what he did for for the Diamondbacks a year ago, so and it took him a long time to to kind of get going this year. But, you know, it’s a difficult game, and it’s a really difficult game for young guys and for young guys who have high expectations. That’s why I said to you when, when we were talking about Connor Norby last week, I said he’s been a really good success story, that trade doesn’t look good right now whatsoever. And yeah, hindsight, knowing what happened to westburg, it would have been great to have him. But I also am not going to sit here and say what he’s done for the Marlins offensively. He would have duplicated with the Orioles when the stakes are so much higher than the Marlins playing out the string as a lousy team. So you know, it’s a different it is a difficult game. It is a game rooted in so much failure. And for anyone, but especially young guys, sometimes you take some steps back. And unfortunately for the Orioles, even with putting aside the injury part, and that’s such a huge part of this, you know, they’ve had some guys that even in the midst of a season, I mean, Adley rutschman was an all star in the first half, and since July 1, you know, among qualified hitters, he’s been, you know, bottom 10, bottom 15, kind of guy. I mean, no one would have foreseen that, but it’s baseball, and guys fail, and teams don’t always live up to expectations. Unfortunately, this team exceeded expectations last year, and now this year, after the first two, two and a half months, certainly have not met them as they’re limping to the finish here. But to your greater point, there is still, they still have a chance here. It’s not over, right? Baseball is a game where you can catch fire just like that. So try to get healthy, try to show some signs like you suggest. It doesn’t even have to mean you have to reel off eight wins in a row. But let’s start getting this thing moving in the right direction again, because it just feels like it’s getting worse. If anything, you know, it’s certainly not getting better.
Nestor Aparicio 39:08
All right, the energy moves back to Camden Yards. This week. We have an OH and two football team. We have a scuffling second place baseball team. We’re off the Dallas for football, on to New York early next week to take on the Yankees. We got a lot of sports things happen. We got a lot of oysters to eat. It is the Maryland oyster tour. We are in our 26th year of doing this. So I’m gonna do 26 oysters in 26 days, 26 ways. All the brought to my friends at Liberty, pure one 800 clean water. They keep my water clean. I didn’t know anything about salts, and all I know is the water made the tub green and it was a mess. And trying to learn about all that. Then one thing though, you call them at 800 clean water. They just come and take care of it. So trust the professionals. Liberty, pure solutions. They’re right here in North Baltimore County. They’re also really good plumbers, our friends at Jiffy Lube, multi carer, power and Luke up getting back and forth to the ballpark, also sponsoring our Maryland crab cake tour. I will have Raven scratch offs as well as I got a hand. Fold these gold rush double or sevens. We had a lucky batch. Last week. We were down at Coopers and doing the show down there at the Fells Point oyster Festival, where Patrick Russell at Coopers and his crew down there, 26,000 oysters shucked over the weekend down on the square in Fells Point, we’re in oyster town. Oyster recovery partnership event is on the 26th at the bno Railroad Museum. We’re going to be educating folks about oysters, where they come from, how they grow, how they go, how they oxygenate the bay and clean the bay up. They are the filters for the bay, in the same way that my friends at Liberty, pure solutions provide the filter for the water that we drink, and then that’s how we get the crab cakes taste and so delicious. So I can get back to Costas next Friday and get some crab cakes down there as well. Crab cake tours at Faith leaves this Friday. It is at Costas next Friday into the playoffs. We are doing a crab cake tour, special birthday edition for Luke and I in October, all of us good Libras get together and eat pizza, pizza Johns and Essex. That’s going to be on Friday, October the 11th. Fingers crossed, Luke, right now, I don’t ask you to bet on anything, and I don’t even ask you for your ravens picks until Friday, because I know I’m not going to get them. The Orioles going to be alive on october 11, when we when we have our pizza John’s crab cake, they have nice crab cake at peach Johns, but I know you’re not getting the crab cake. You’re going to get the pizza. But are they going to be alive on July or october 11? If
Luke Jones 41:20
you want me to be honest. Now, okay, but Stranger things have happened. That’s it.
Nestor Aparicio 41:25
It’s just gives me a chance to shove it at you on the 11th, when they’re there in the ALCS and we’re having a good time. So I hope that’s the case. I hope so. I know one thing, you’ll be a year older by then, but I won’t be, because I don’t turn until october 14. So that’s a big weekend for great people, man, we got Sammy Hagar myself. Jim Palmer, it is a weekend to, I don’t know, go on the internet and bitch about things the way Palmer does, drink a lot of tequila the way Sammy Hagar does, and talk a lot of sports the way we do, and we’ll be doing around here the next couple of weeks. Lots great guests. Dave, shining from the Washington Post, came down to Cooper’s. He did not bring me a snoop Olympic pin from Paris. I was a little upset about that. Chad wiesling brought great energy and great information as well. We did the crab cake tour on Friday at Cooper’s as part of the fellas point oyster festival. You’ll be hearing that this week as well. And Mark Viviano was great last week over Cocos when we got the oyster tour started. So it’s big month. Great conversations, plenty to talk about. Let’s not bitch too much. You know, we still like we’re in season. We waited eight months for football to start. Let’s not beat ourselves before we get to Dallas. Hey, Vegas made the Ravens a one point favorite to start the week. So Vegas still believes even though they beat the Ravens last week. He’s Luke, I’m Nestor. We are W, N, S, T, am 1570 Taos in Baltimore Vegas used to mean something else. Baltimore positive. Stay with us.
