The injuries mounted, the errors added up and the offense withered through the summer. We always worried about the pitching but in the Wild Card round, Corbin Burnes and Zach Eflin were tremendous. The offense was atrocious and the season is suddenly over. The Orioles scored one run in 18 innings. Luke Jones and Nestor lament a lost season after the Wild Card meltdown losses to the Kansas City Royals.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Orioles elimination, Wild Card meltdown, Maryland crabcake tour, Raven scratch offs, season tickets, World Series potential, Texas Rangers, pitching woes, injury impact, Adley Rutschman, Ryan Mountcastle, postseason frustration, offseason plans, veteran talent, pitching rotation
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
8
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, Baltimore. Positive we are. We’re on to Cincinnati soon, but not just yet. Next Friday, we’re going to be on to the Maryland crabcake tour. Back to the Maryland crabcake tour. Now, the Orioles have been eliminated. I’m going to be setting up some things. We’re going to be at mama’s on the half show. I’m going to sort of extend this oyster tour and really have fun with it, because I put October aside. Our friends at the Maryland lottery put the entire fall season aside, not just for pumpkin and spice and apple pie, but Raven scratch offs. We’re going to be next Friday pizza Johns. Yes, they have a crab cake at Pete Johns. I’m going to eat it. I’m gonna share it with Luke Jones if he wants it, because it’s Luke’s birthday. Man, what a dude. They got eliminated on your birthday. I mean, like, wow, wow, wow, wow. I forgot that part. Our friends at Liberty pure solutions, sending me out on this crazy oyster tour, and I’m wearing my liberty pure shirt. And our friends at curio wellness, the 26th anniversary crab and oyster as promised by Jessica Vallis, will be premiering this week with the launch of the oyster tour. And Lucas been back and forth. You know, our Jiffy Lube and royal farm sponsorship that sends you back and forth from Camden Yards to owing smells, not to be sending to Camden Yards up, but maybe one more time here, unless there’s other news that we’ll know about, but, uh, what an ending. Dude, it’s never easy, but you pitch, you don’t score. Fans aren’t there bad vibes, just bad at bad, just bad, bad, bad, bad. I mean, two guys got hit on the hand with pitches. I mean, if the series went on, I don’t know if they play, dude, I it’s just a thought. And you know, they’re gonna go out and sell season tickets, and you can read, my dear David Rubi, but you could do all of that. But the baseball side of this is, whatever this was this year wasn’t good enough. And it’s kind of a shame, because it really was good enough for a long time. If they play in the World Series in June, this team would have won the World Series, or could have won the World Series. Yeah,
Luke Jones 02:03
and that’s where I really go back to taking a look at this. You know me, nestors guy, and I’m a guy that I take pride in, not being the guy that’s going to overreact to things. If this had been a team that played fantastic baseball in August and September, and did this two game sweep thing, because that happens. I mean, the Houston Astros, we were talking about them a lot. They’re pedigree, right? They’ve been here, they’ve been to the ALCS, how many years in a row, and they got swept, right? It’s over for that under
Nestor Aparicio 02:36
one games. And I don’t know, they led for an inning in those three games. Like, you know what? I mean, they got just whitewalled last year, and that happened to 21 year old ball players when Nate devaldi gets involved this time of year,
Luke Jones 02:47
right? So, so for me, it’s not nearly as much, even though, right now it’s so raw, it’s so painful, believe me, there are a lot of watery eyes in that clubhouse, more so than there were in Arlington a year ago, absolutely, I don’t think it was even close in that regard. And I think a lot of it has to do with what you were just saying. They had a 101 win season. There was a perception that they were ahead of schedule, right? I mean, they they made the the massive jump from 21 to 22 and then another really big jump from 22 to 23 to go 101 and 61 and be the number one seed and win the Al East title. So even with that disappointment, I think there was also a sense of, hey, we’re fine. This is just the beginning. And I think there was also a sense of Texas Rangers just kind of beat our butts, and they were just really, really good and we were bad, but they were really, really good. I don’t know if you can say that when you’re talking about losing one nothing, and then two to one, and I think more so for me, and this gets back to my bigger point here, in terms of where you go from here, not that all is lost, not that all these players stink, not that they need to fire everyone, or, you know, everything you’re seeing on social media. And I get it, fans are very frustrated, as they should be. But I think for me, that frustration stems from the fact that we saw too much of this, starting in really late June, right after that Yankee series, they lost five in a row, right? That was kind of the start of, hey, this is not, they’re not going to be 30 games over 500 at the All Star break. And they weren’t.
8Nestor Aparicio 04:27
What was also the reality that Bradish and means weren’t coming back, sure, sure. I mean that they had lost a lot of
Luke Jones 04:33
right? And I think we, and we need to continue to recognize that. I understand there’s
Nestor Aparicio 04:38
that, just so you know, like for me, I’m going to lead with the fact that, and if I sat with michaelias Not to kiss his ass or anything like that, I’d say, Dude, you put together a team that could have won the World Series that very well if Rodriguez’s arm doesn’t fall off. Bradish means is always a little bit more. You know, on the edge for me, I. Yeah, but my God, like I and then what happened to westburg? And, I mean, even the trading deadline, getting effalin, I’m kind of okay with, you know what? I mean, like, he didn’t win, he didn’t do a great job at the trading deadline. I’ll say that. I mean, I can be critical of that, but I don’t know that you could pick up the pieces for the pieces that were lost and at bats that were lost, and I don’t think Mullins was healthy early in the year, right? Like there’s this and rushman crying at his locker. And you you can speak to that, like, I’m not going to kill these guys at all. I’m just not. I mean, I I just, I think there’s a lot 25 year old catcher who’s going to the Hall of great falls apart after he takes a foul tip and refuses Bull Durham refuses to mention it to anybody until he said tears at the locker after it’s over with. And even now, you’re still guessing, like, what happened? How bad was it? Because he’s probably not the kind of kid that’s gonna like, lead with that, because it’s too he’s too Joe Flacco for that. I mean,
Luke Jones 05:59
8I, you know, I’ll get to my bigger point that I was trying to make, and then, you know, we can start to go through this, because there’s
Nestor Aparicio 06:05
meandering. No, no,
Luke Jones 06:06
it’s okay. Look, I It’s raw, and we, we’ve, we’ve done this a lot with the ravens, and now, unfortunately, and I think this, this adds to the frustration when the Orioles are doing the same thing, only it’s October instead of January. That frustration mounts. I mean, think about it, in this town, when we’re talking about high profile postseason success, or just say postseason success period. Okay, the Ravens beat the Texans last January. Did get to an AFC title game. They did take a step, but that team was the best in the NFL during the regular season. So it’s still It feels leaves you wanting. The Orioles have not won a home playoff game since the Delman young game. Look. That was an amazing moment. Anyone who was in that ballpark knows, and again, it was the Division Series. Wasn’t a World Series, but that was an incredible moment. They haven’t done anything to to be happy about since two days after that, when they clinched in Detroit, right, when bud Norris pitched well, and Nelson Cruz hit the ball off the right field foul pole, right? I mean, that was a decade ago,
Nestor Aparicio 07:10
yeah, so than that, and you are to celebrating a birthday that, like, the only thing they had before that was and Dino and Ripken, right? I mean, I mean, like, you know, we you and I referenced the Messina Tony Fernandez, Armando benit. I mean, like, I What’s 27 years ago, Alan and I were on that I got, I let my beard grow. I thought I had a playoff beer go and I’ll shave it for maritime magic on Friday night. But I would just say, like, everybody hangs on this. Delman young moment, I don’t know what number two is, being happy? The Red Sox got knocked out. That’s a mo. It was a moment. But, I mean, like, there’s a lot of 27 years left Cleveland with Roberto Alomar and like, did one moment in 27 years. It’s insane, but, but yes, look
8Luke Jones 07:58
older. Older fans are used to this at this point, but even when you’re talking about 20 somethings, which used to it, I don’t disagree with that Nestor, but I’m trying to keep it more modern. Again, we’ve been talking about what’s happened for 40 years, for, you know, as long as I’ve known you 15 years. But you know, even for 20 somethings, who are the ones that populate the ballpark, you know, like that. You see the die hards that you see on Orioles Twitter, for example, right on social media. They were kids or teenagers with Delmon young, and now, 10 years later, it’s like, Hey, we got this new core, and Mike Elias and Adley Richmond and gunner Henderson, and they’ve had a lot, you know, they’ve won, what, 100 you know, almost 200 games over the last two years. You know 192 games over the the last two years. But if I mean, they’ve taken an offer in the postseason, that’s frustrating. However, let me get back to my bigger point here, that for me, is going to drive the off season. You know, it’s that this thing just started going sideways in the second half through July through August, when people were starting to talk about their offense not being as consistent enough as it had been, you know, as consistent as it had been in the first half of the season. I was a guy continuing to defend that, because I’m looking at the larger sample size, right? The larger body of work had said, Hey, April, they swung the bats really well. By the way. May they didn’t swing the bats incredibly well, but they pitched really well. And May is when Kyle Bradish was came back, and John means was there for four starts at least. And they had, you know, Grayson Rodriguez, and of course, Corbin burns doing his thing, Albert Suarez had started to emerge at that point. So you know, their pitching was healthier at that point. He did for a time, right early in the season. He did. But then you go on to June. They had the monster schedule. They absolutely raked. I mean, they had a team ops of 847, in the month of June. I mean, that’s excellent, especially in this day and age with its run. Scoring and not
Nestor Aparicio 10:00
sustainable either. Well, I mean, if they did that for six months, they went on, sure, sure, yeah. I mean, if they were but, but the point went wrong for this team. I mean, if nothing went wrong for this team, and I mean, nothing like holiday mayo. I mean, if those guys would have hit in August, we wouldn’t be talking about how bad they were. I mean, those at bats were replaced, those humans, those arms were replaced by sub optimal Chase McDermott, Kate Povich. I mean, we’re just different humans do we’re talking about 22 year old kids doing the job that Grayson Rodriguez was doing as a 25 you know, like, like, it’s, it’s a massive step down the caliber of the Austin Slater’s and the Eloy Jimenez’s that were taking at bats, not to mention whoever was Taking innings here after everything went haywire with injuries, not, not with failure, with injuries. And rushman could have taken that thing and said, I’m down a month, and I gotta get right and it whatever rushman did, what? And Lord knows, I don’t have a press pass to ask him, you do, and they he won’t answer if you ask him, you know, like whatever it comes out that whatever happened, I’m convinced he’s hurt. I mean, I until wake me in three years, if he stinks, and he’s not even a matt weeders, and he’s like, I don’t believe that about that kid. I think he’s hurt. And I think a lot of guys were hurt, and I think I will, I will be the first guy to make that excuse if I was out, if I add a boy, Brandon Hyde. I run in them with the ROFO. And he knew who I was, and I knew who he was. We went for a walk. I would say, man, you know, I’m not going to be the guy beating Brandon Hyde up about not being able to win with the cast. I just gave you Emmanuel Rivera. Throw them all in. Oh,
Luke Jones 11:58
Emmanuel Rivera, actually, he performed well. So I you know, he’s not the best example, but on paper, and I like him on paper. On paper, of course, he would be someone you would cite, you know, and certainly not someone you would be penciling into your opening day starting lineup next year or anything like that. But again, the larger point that I’m trying to make here is this trended in this direction for a long time, and I think for as much as we kept talking about guys coming back and the individuals who were going to make it back in September, and look, a lot of those guys did make it back. But in the meantime, July, things started to go not so great. And obviously they had pitching woes at various times, although the pitching was really good at other times. I mean, the rotation was kind of became a relative strength. By the end of the season, they did an admirable job in that way. I mean, Dean Kramer stepped up. Zach Eflin being acquired, stepped up. I mean, Zach Eflin pitched way better with the Orioles than he did with the rays this year. You know, Albert Suarez, we talked about him all year, right? And what he did even Kate Povich, who you know, certainly not someone that I’m just gonna pencil into my starting rotation next February, but he had some good starts down the stretch. So there’s been such a there was such a hyper focus for so long, and I’m as guilty of this as anyone of looking at the pitching, but the bats, August, a 691, ops, right September? It was really the last seven days of September that saved them from having another really lousy month. I mean, they ended up having a 714, ops, which isn’t great, but it’s not awful either. But until, you know, right around September 20, the Orioles were having the kind of offensive month that the Royals had, which the Royals scored fewer runs than anyone in the league in the month of September. You know that, but again, speaks
Nestor Aparicio 13:48
8to
Luke Jones 13:49
Right exactly. It’s not like they’re sitting there saying, Oh my gosh. We look at all these runs, we scored three runs and our opponent scored one in two games. I mean, that’s what we’re talking about here, but, but that’s where we’re I can’t put too much on two games in terms of how I’m going to evaluate in terms of how I’m going to approach the off season. I’m looking at the the last two months, but that that goes into what you were just alluding to. This team was banged up. And look, people are going to say, well, they had, they had the regulars in the lineup by the end of the year. Jordan westburg admitted, admitted he wasn’t 100% yet. I know from talking to some people in the post game clubhouse, the sense I got is Ryan mountcastle had something torn in his wrist. I mean, he he might need to get surgery this offseason. He was trying to make it back, right? And, and people will say, Well, you shouldn’t be played in playing injured. That’s fine. But guys like Kelo Jimenez, we saw how that works, right? We saw how that looked. I mean, that guy, I don’t know if he had a hit, more than one hit in the month of September before they finally optioned him. But gunner. I mean, not gunner, Henderson, Adley rochman, here’s. The quote, I asked him a question, not so much in terms of, I didn’t even ask him if he was healthy. I asked him, point blank, Adley, you’ve had so much success from the really, from the time you arrived two years ago, and you had such a strong first half. You had a really rough month of July, and it seemed like no matter what work you put in, you know, because we saw it, I saw him take an extra BP and doing those things. I never, never once suggested he wasn’t working hard enough. But all that may be worse if you’re hurt, maybe, maybe. But, you know, I asked him, why couldn’t you get going? Why couldn’t you rebound from at the time you just said a bad July, right? I mean, anyone’s entitled to a bad month? Gunner Henderson didn’t have a very good August, although net his August never approached what we saw from rutchman in July, August or September, in terms of just being that bad. And someone else asked him a question later in the session. It’s like a five, I think he spoke for five or six minutes, you know, not long, but pretty long by post game standards. And he at two different points, the quotes were acknowledging needing to quote, let my body get right. And at another point, and this was his other answer. He said, your body goes through a lot of things during the season. Now I saw some of the replies I saw on social media to those quotes that I put out there. I mean, fans just sometimes it’s okay to put their phone
Nestor Aparicio 16:23
Well, I mean, I told you, the night was murderous. Was the Night the Orioles get eliminated, right? People are nuts. I mean, literally, people are not the night a team gets like, everybody’s firing the coach lock and four is out of his mind on the general manager thing I feels personal to me like I don’t. So they were on pace to win 110 games, and everybody got hurt. I mean, to me, that’s the lead. I’m not going to bury that, and rushman would be a huge part of that. And by the way, gotta say something, because I know you’re about to ran again about rushman, but go ahead, the PNC ad got pulled at the end, you know, the catching ad that he was doing. And they went back to the Mr. Weird. Were a boring bank guy, because it just felt like he was doing so, you know, like, even the marketing side of what they were trying to do with him is like, dude, turn it down. I’m trying to get healthy it. I felt that. And I saw that just watching the games every night. I feel for the kid, I feel for the criticism he’s had. I just want to say that so, because I like the kid, he’s a leader,
Luke Jones 17:25
but if you’re going to be on the field, you have to perform, right? I mean, there’s, there’s the other side of that, that if you’re so hurt, you’re so injured, or you’re so hurt, or you’re so beat down. I mean, I talked about this a lot. He was replacement level. Go look in fan graphs. You can do all the filters you want, right? You can filter from July 1 through the end of the season. It’s a bottom five hitter among qualified Major League batters in, you know, around the league, like, I’m this isn’t hyperbole. He was that bad. But, you know, he was asked there was a follow up when he mentioned the your your body goes through a lot of things during the season, and someone said, you know, anything specific, and he declined. So clearly, he’s trying not to make excuses. I took that quote, and I’m assuming you took that quote as he’s got something going on, going on. Now I’m not, I know a lot of people have just made the assumption that it was the, you know, the foul tip he took off the hand in late June. Maybe that was, however, keep in mind, this is a guy who missed a couple games with a back injury, back tightness in August. I did watch him take batting practice on Wednesday, and it looked fine, you know, there was not like he was grimacing anything like that. However, couple details that will lend itself again to what we’re saying. Brian evil was watching him. And then a couple points, and obviously I have to stand by the dugout. You know, I’m not, I’m not right there at the cage. You know, the way that the team broadcasters can be like Jim Palmer, for example, can be right there. You’re not allowed out on the grass anymore. No, no. I mean that that hasn’t been that way since I’ve been on the beat, you know, going back to 2010 Oh, man,
8Nestor Aparicio 18:55
I used to stand at the cage with Greg B Genie, yeah, yeah. We
Luke Jones 18:58
have to, we have to be on the warning track, you know, behind home plate. But, you know, and, and at a couple points he was even, you know, he had a few words with Brian evil. Now, they might have been talking about the weather for all I know. I again, this is still more conjecture, until we get something concrete. But you do, you connect the dots there? I mean, we’re still talking about someone that, even though we talked about the fact that he wasn’t walking as much, and I remember you and I had an extensive discussion at fadelies back in probably late May, something like that, yeah, um, talking about the fact that, hey, even though the Orioles have scored all these runs, they they haven’t walked a whole lot. And I said to you, and I kind of broke it down. I went player by player, and Adley rutschman was the major outlier,
Nestor Aparicio 19:43
more based on last year, apparently, sure, sure. I mean, the hit he got in game two was a first pitch swing. Well, yeah. I
Luke Jones 19:49
8mean, I don’t want to use anything about the second half of his season, because it was just a disaster. But early in the year, go, look at the numbers. I mean, okay, he wasn’t walking as much, but the. Lug was up, you know, it hit home runs. You know, his overall numbers were good. So that’s where you look at this thing and say, how do you go from being an all star in the middle, like in the first half of the season, and then you just become a bum? And when I say a bum, obviously, I’m using a caricature, right? Just talking about in terms of a bad statistical profile. Yeah, right. So that’s where you look at it and say, Okay, this isn’t a case of someone who got old in the middle, you know, in an off season, or like Chris Davis, you know, circa 2018 so it lends you to believe that there was some kind of an issue here. Now, again, I don’t know if it’s the hand, I don’t know if it’s the back when you talk about things like bat speed and torque and power and things of that nature, I wouldn’t be shocked if there’s a core muscle issue, right, something like that. I mean, how many ravens players over the years that we heard get sports hernia surgery after a season, and you kind of wondered why he didn’t have a great second half of the season. I mean, this happens a lot slow.
Nestor Aparicio 21:01
I mean, anybody in our audience moving from here to the toilet is a hard move, right?
Luke Jones 21:07
And again, I’m speculating on that part of it, but I’m just, I’m not convinced that it’s, it could just be his hand. I don’t know, but I’m hoping we’re going to get some clarity here, because, again, even some of the replies to my social media post, and look, it’s just like when you get a bad phone call on the radio. It’s the vocal minority, right? You know, most of your fan base doesn’t feel that way, but there’s enough frustration in general about this club that I think it would behoove them, if Adley rutschman has been playing through an injury, for them to disclose that at least enough information to say, hey, look, we know he had a bad second half. Adley knows more than anyone. He’s been trying to work through it. He’s going to be fine. And, you know, I have ruchman’s last quote, you know, or his last you know, with that specific answer, it was, I’ll be ready to go for spring training. So
Nestor Aparicio 22:00
I mentioned soapbox about this and about honesty and integrity and being honest, but people are gambling on this stuff too, right? And that’s the that’s on them. That’s but that’s on them. Yeah, that’s on Owings Mills. To say, Are you being honest about your injury report? Are you being honest about what you’re putting on the field? Are you being honest? And this would be for Mount castle. He’s playing for money, and pitchers who are pitching for money and in contract situations where I ain’t making any money, bitching about being hurt, I gotta go play. I gotta do whatever I can do right now, if I’m Ryan mountcastle, to make sure that I’m not Trey Mancini, two years from now and out of you know that I’m just not good enough anymore because of an injury, or perception of injury, or any of that. I think it’s that’s the part of this that I never understood till I got hurt. And I was a guy that spent my 20s and 30s around all these athletes all the time. I remember when I saw Rob Burnett tear himself up. It really because he and I had a relationship. Seeing the amount of pain he was in as a football player is the first time I had come in contact with that since football game I saw baseball players, but Ripken would just go out there and play, and all those guys were half roided up anyway, you know, before all of that, and baseball players didn’t get hurt that much. Everybody, you know, pitchers pitch, you know, I mean for the most part, other Messina getting in a fight and couldn’t with Aspen. But like I saw the first injury, and I’ll never forget this, when I got injured, when I had my knee torn up in 2006 and I was in crutches in the locker room, and Todd Heap was in crutches in the locker room. I remember going over to him, and everybody was calling him a sissy. And was it Greg Lloyd who hit him? I’m Greg Lloyd. I’m a different era who was the the linebacker you remember this stuff better? To me, Porter was a porter. Maybe I don’t know either way. I remember saying to Todd heap, I knew it this freaking hurts, dude. This sucks. Knee surgery sucks, and it hurts. And I cried the other day because I couldn’t move and like going to the bathroom, sex, driving, breathing, it hurts, the drugs I have to take. And he’s like, yeah. Now imagine I’m out trying to play for a conscience is Todd heap being a beautiful guy just saying, yeah, like, I’m playing with my career on the line. You think I don’t want to be out there? And dude, I was almost 40 years old when that happened. It took me that long doing this, as I bragged to Mr. Rubenstein in my letter, I could wallpaper his wall with my credentials, and I saw young hockey players trying to make it, Russian hockey players, Hispanic players like Armando Benitez, who couldn’t even spell his he was illiterate. Literally couldn’t write his name, couldn’t sign an autograph, and out there getting crushed by these fans, the emotional, the physical, and then the pain and the injury is something that my gray beard’s growing in. I feel for Adley rutman. You know what I mean? I do in a way that, like, I think he’s hurt, and I’ll just, and I don’t know him. I have no I like, I just just watching it, watching that. Kind of level of player, not become that player and fall off, and all of us questioning it. And the first thing he says that the locker with tears in his eyes is mentioning, like, things happen during the season your body. That’s code for me to say, that’s like saying I had a mental health issue, or anything that would be a sickness, or my dad’s been battling something, or, you know, my mom has cancer. It’s sort of like, I get it, man, like we’re all trying to be professionals. You’re doing the best you can when you can’t physically get the post. You know, they see that in horses with the limp humans will just sit there and say, I’m fine. I gotta play coach. I’ve seen it. I mean, look at the guys getting hit in the head, who go back into football games because they had to make a living, and that went on for 100 years, right? Like so I would just say, be kind to Adley rutschman. For me, I’m I’m going to be kinder Adley rutschman. How about that? Because of all the war sure
8Luke Jones 25:56
commercial that that’s fine, this team can’t get a complete pass for the health issues. Though, there were enough healthy performers the last couple months of the season, guys that we’ve been accustomed to seeing producing, not producing, and that’s where we do bring it to what happened these last two games. Gunner Henderson, zero for seven, four strikeouts. Adley rutschman, one for eight, two. Ks, right? And mount Castle, oh for seven, 4k. So, okay, those last two guys, you know, we’ve covered that all right. I mean, Mount Castle came back for the last week. He missed over a month, right? I mean, that wrist, which was odd how they handled it at first, because they kept him on the roster and they played short handed for three or four days before they finally put
Nestor Aparicio 26:40
him on, said, but set on the air. I think he’s done. He’s down in Florida. He’s done, like you’re, I mean, I think he’s coming back. I
Luke Jones 26:46
mean, so he tried to, he tried to make it back. And again, we can debate. And at some point in time, you do have to say, look, if, if you’re so hurt to the point where you can’t help the club, then it’s, you know, it wasn’t Adley rutschman anymore, assuming whatever it was. So at that point, it’s like, is it real? Does this make sense? You know, if Lamar Jackson suddenly looks like Tyler Huntley out there, and I, I’m picking on Tyler Huntley a little bit, but, you know, you get my point. Then something, you know, you’re asking, What the heck’s going on, right? When it’s a long time, when it’s, you know, the if Lamar was played like that for eight or nine games, which is what Adley rutschman did in half a baseball season, you know, you’d be asking questions. But Anthony Santander, one for eight, two strikeouts. Jordan westburg, he acknowledged his hand wasn’t 100% but, you know, he got some hits at the end of the end of the regular season. You know, when he came back one for six with the strikeout, Colton cowser Did fracture his hand when he got hit on Wednesday night, so he would have been done, right? I mean, he’s going to be in a cast. And, you know, I he quipped, he’s like, man, it’s going to mess up my golf game for the first two months of the off season. You know? I mean, obviously he said that in jest, he’s disappointed in everything,
Nestor Aparicio 28:02
8but he’s a real character anyway. He
Luke Jones 28:04
is, he is, he is, and look, he needs to become more consistent. It’s maddening how great he can be at times and how bad he looks at times. But look at where we he was a year ago. I mean, he wasn’t even on the postseason roster last year because of how bad he was when he was called up. That’s why it’s important to keep the proper perspective when we’re talking about Jackson holiday or Kobe mayo or Heston kerstad, right?
Nestor Aparicio 28:29
I mean, how they adjust to
Luke Jones 28:30
that failure? So, so that’s the thing, I mean, so, so I look at all of this, and this is where we need to, and this is where this is going to be a huge offseason for Mike Elias and the brass, because and we can talk, we can get into this and more. You know, we can break it and have another segment about this. I mean, it’s the off season now. We’re gonna have plenty of time to talk about the baseball team and what they’re going to do. But how do you react without overreacting? What happened here over the last couple months absolutely warrants some reaction, and I don’t know exactly what that is. I tend to not be on the the hasty side. I’m not, I’m not going to sit here and say fire the hitting coaches, but I do think you need to take a long look at your process. And is there something we’re missing beyond the injuries? You know, the injuries are a big part of it, and the pitching side, especially, right? Good news is Felix Batista should throw a bullpen the other day at Camden Yards. He’s going to be full go by spring training. Now, fingers crossed that the elbow is fine, and because we know that what John means, there’s never a guarantee that that everything’s fine. But on the pitching side, we’re going to talk about a lot of that, because there were a lot of injuries and Corbin burns, what? What that’s going to happen there? Or who are they going to get to replace Corbin burns? Uh, where’s Grayson Rodriguez in all this? Right? I mean, all of those factors, but I think they need to look at their lineup, their offensive profile, their personnel, and say, you know, how do we make this better? Now, some of it’s going to be guys just come back healthy, but do we need to add a little more established veteran? Talent. And when I say that, I don’t mean Austin Slater and Aloy Jimenez and Emmanuel Rivera, right? Someone established doesn’t have to be a MV, former MVP, but you know, someone that can swing from the right side, someone that can get on base from the right side, right? I mean, they they hit Austin Slater for Ryan O’Hearn in that game. If you’re going to hit Brian O’Hare against the lefty, it’s got to be a better option than Austin Slater, right? I mean, that’s just, that’s not good enough. You know, that’s, that’s a second division bench player right there at this point in his career, and hurts so run. So that’s where you look at this thing and say, Okay, how do you react without overreacting? Because I think there is some work to be done. And you’ve heard me talk about this, and we’ll get into this in more detail. I think the Orioles were kind of caught in between with move, you know, starting to feel like you’re going to be moving on from Austin Hayes, which they did. Who knows what’s going to happen with Santander? Who knows what’s going to happen with Mount castle? Who knows what’s going to happen with Mullins, as these guys are, you know, in Santander’s case, walkier, other guys last year of arbitration. You know, that’s kind of a pivotal time. But did you see enough from the young guys to just hand them the reins? Is that the appropriate response either? So they’ve got some work to do. You know, that always not lost. And again, I’m with you on the injuries and that explaining so much of this, but I don’t think it’s as simple as, oh, we just run it back. I think last year was much more of a run it back and add an ace, which they did, and the ACE pitched exactly how you wanted them to in game one. But I think, I don’t think this teammate needs major surgery, but I do think there are some procedures to be done. I do think there’s some outpatient stuff to do, you know, to use the medical analogy, so we’ll see. But boy, what a discipline, what a disappointing way for it to end at the same time. Nestor, you’ve heard my tone. You’ve even caught you were even joking about calling me Debbie downer, I haven’t been by about late August, I got to the point where I didn’t know if that this was going to happen for this team. I picked them to win this series. I would have picked them to lose against the Yankees. But I can’t sit here and say I’m 1,000% shocked that this happened, even if it’s incredibly disappointing to be be swept a second straight year in October. Lou
8Nestor Aparicio 32:18
Jones is going to be down at at the other ballpark, the other side of the parking lot for the next, oh, three, maybe four months. We’ll see how far it goes. Ravens are head Cincinnati this weekend. We’re headed next Friday to Pizza John’s. Was Luke’s birthday. The orals got eliminated on his birthday. Whoa, whoa, I’ll get you crab case though. We’re gonna pizza at Pizza John’s, I’ll have Raven scratch offs to give away from the Maryland lottery. That is Friday the 11th. Um, also celebrate Sammy hagar’s birthday. Jim Palmer, John Wooden Stacy Keibler, all you know, all the good people born on October the 14th. So october 11, next Friday, will be pizza. John’s. I’m going to be setting up more crab cake tours, all those brought to you by friends at Jiffy Lube, a multi care. Um, my oyster tours rocking right now. You’re going to see that at the Baltimore positive. I’m going to, you know, I waited for baseball to either figure it out. It’s over with now, Maryland oyster Tour is brought to you by our friends at Liberty. Pure solutions. They keep my water clean. Well water clean. If you’re anywhere in the Baltimore area, they’re located in North Baltimore County. But it’s a lot of people well water. Don’t know how to treat it. Don’t know what’s up. You get that green thing going on. Don’t drink that water. Call it be pure solutions, one another, clean water. Make sure that that’s working for you. As well as our friends at curio wellness and far and daughter had a great conversation with Wendy bronfen This week, supportive of living classrooms foundation and maritime magic. That big event is Friday night this week. We’ve always been supportive of living classrooms foundation as well. I did a big show last week with a guy who did a capital center retrospective, so you’re going to hear some of that on the radio here this weekend. We’re going to get you ready for the Cincinnati game, but we’ve got a lot of ish to get out of our systems here on the the Orioles elimination. I hope you read my letter to David Rubenstein. I hope you read my letter today. Eric DaCosta, I hope you read my declaration of independence, because I’ve been doing this a long time, a long, long and I hope to be doing a long more time, as Luke and I would tell you, you know, there’s only one way that this is going to work, and that’s for me to be honest. That’s the only way I can continue to do this. So for those of you out there reading the David Rubenstein, letter, I appreciate it. Send me some feedback. I’m a very available individual Nestor. Aparicio.com he’s Luke. I’m Nestor. Stay with us. We got plenty more on the Orioles and what lies ahead?
