The Baltimore Orioles fired manager Brandon Hyde on Saturday morning via a press release with quotes from David Rubenstein and Mike Elias. The owner and general manager then hid for three days while every player on the roster got asked about it on Preakness day. We think that’s lousy leadership. Luke Jones and Nestor react to Elias’ tardy comments on Tuesday in Milwaukee and more last-place Orioles losing after the Hyde firing. A shameful week and season in Birdland.
Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Orioles’ recent struggles following the firing of Brandon Hyde. They criticized Mike Elias for his delayed response and weak leadership, noting the team’s 15-32 start and the lack of clarity on Tony Mancini’s role. They highlighted the need for better pitching and player development, particularly for Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson. Jones emphasized the importance of accountability and professionalism from the management, while Aparicio called for a more proactive approach from ownership. They also discussed potential changes in management and the need for a clear strategy to turn the team around. Luke Jones and Nestor Aparicio discuss the Baltimore Orioles’ struggles post-firing of manager Brandon Hyde, expressing frustration with the team’s performance under general manager Mike Elias. Jones emphasizes the need for progress, even if it doesn’t lead to a playoff season, and highlights Jackson Holliday as a positive development. Both hosts lament the team’s lack of excitement and winning culture, comparing it unfavorably to other rebuilding teams that at least showed effort. They express disappointment in the current state of the team and the league, hoping for a return to fun and competitive baseball in Baltimore.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Orioles losing streak, Brandon Hyde firing, Mike Elias, Tony Mancini, Adley Rutschman, pitching problems, ownership accountability, leadership issues, player performance, rebuilding strategy, fan frustration, media relations, organizational changes, future management, team morale., Mike Elias, Orioles losing, Hyde firing, rebuild, Jackson Holt, player development, team performance, playoff season, young players, fan interest, baseball season, team progress, roster issues, fan disappointment, team direction.
SPEAKERS
8
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:02
Welcome home. We are W, N, S T am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are home from Las Vegas, Nevada. I have some fun pictures up on social media. I feel like I hung out with the whole rat pack out on the strip last week in lieu of missing Super Bowl 59 or whatever the hell it was, the Back to the Future scratch offs will be available at fade least once I get through my seasonal allergies here and figure out my vision. Thanks to Brian Granick, I will get everything. I will see things more clearly when the Baltimore Orioles start winning some baseball games. Luke, I I see a while i Dude, I tell you what, man, I spent three and a half days in Las Vegas with nothing, nothing but hardcore Maryland people. And I don’t mean University of Maryland. I mean like Baltimore. It’s a real estate convention that’s turned into this thing that’s much bigger than that. And I know Fox 45 did a takedown on the mayor. The other did silly. It’s stupid. I’ll be glad to answer to it. I was featured in it, so I got a lot of email on it over the weekend, but I would just say the one thing everybody there had in common, they’ll all love the ravens, who did a big corn hole tournament in the corner with a bunch of executives, a bunch of business people, and they all love the Orioles, man and the Ravens and the Orioles are, you know, this glue thing that when you go to that kind of an event with 2000 people, I couldn’t stop talking about the Orioles. There was no point where people would approach me about, How’s your wife? I listened to you and Luke, how’s your business? Was it? But they would always Hey, before you go, what do you think of the high thing? And as it unfolded in Elias and Rubenstein, were nowhere to be found that you and I followed up, we did a piece, I believe, on Sunday night, my days and nights are all confused. There’s a lot going on this week, including the holiday this weekend, but this losing streak, and they’re losing every night, and you know, you and I are getting after it, after the Tuesday night loss, which will be get the Wednesday afternoon game and the seasons over, Elias finally spoke. He did it in Milwaukee. It was 72 hours plus after the firing. I just I talked to Alan for over an hour. If anybody’s tuning in, if you’re at a Baltimore positive, Alan called me on Saturday night I’m in Vegas. He’s like, I need to come on. I need to talk about this. I just got a vent. And that’s the vibe I have from every single person. People are coming to me for the end of week, and they I know you don’t want to talk about this, but I need to know what you think about the hide thing. And I kept saying, scapegoat, right? I think there’s an owner who doesn’t know what he’s I mean, the long and short, I said this 100 times, owner doesn’t know what he’s doing. Manager got fired. That’s typical. General Manager kept his job. Maybe typical for the time being, but just all sorts of awful stuff’s about to happen here with sell off pieces. Who’s doing it? Who’s blaming who? I already got the David Rubenstein bobblehead, where they’ve, they have, instead of him throwing out the hat, he’s giving out a bag to put over your
Luke Jones 03:06
head. I saw that. Yeah, saw that. I
Nestor Aparicio 03:09
didn’t even share it. But, you know,
8Luke Jones 03:11
yeah, I mean, I’ve vented so much through the first going on close to two months. Now, we’re almost two months into this thing. I don’t know how much betting I have left to do at this point in time. I mean, it’s just, you know, the quote from Mike Elias was, Oh, it’s a pretty hectic few days. I just needed a couple days. So he talks in Milwaukee for in front of a fraction of the reporters that would have been in Baltimore, Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning or Sunday after the game. You know, it’s weak leadership. I wrote that. I said that to you Sunday night. I’ll continue to say,
Nestor Aparicio 03:48
handle this professionally. Sure. I mean seriously, call me John maroon, call. I mean, if you have Call, call Kevin. Call somebody. Well, not Kevin Berg, call somebody who will help you handle this professionally and tell you the right way to do call Chris pica. I mean, call somebody who’s a grown up and say we need to front face this brand in an authentic, legitimate, high integrity, high character, high everything after what’s happened here for 30 years. I mean, it doesn’t
Luke Jones 04:23
even have have to be that complex. Just answer questions over the weekend, answer the questions before you leave town. Honestly, it’d be honest. I mean, there’s, there’s only so and in defense of Mike Elias right now, not in defense of his body of work over the last you know, going back to the off season, and even before then, if you want to, there’s nothing he’s going to say at this point in time that’s going to appease fans. There’s nothing that’s going to be said that’s going to fix this overnight. We know that, right? So it’s damage control at best, but to not get in front of the media. It’s not get in front of your fans, most importantly, because ultimately, you. Media is the liaison for speaking to your fans.
Nestor Aparicio 05:04
8The Ravens do this all the time, and Andrews walked off the podium in Buffalo like this. Is just not having accountabilities, but it’s just everywhere. It really it’s just,
Luke Jones 05:13
it’s weak. It’s weak to say that you needed a couple days when Jackson holiday, who’s 21 years old, was the first player that was was asked about it on Saturday afternoon. I mean, the players all had to be asked about it. Tony mancinos been thrown to the wolves. Now it’s to answer for this before and after games. I mean, Frank
Nestor Aparicio 05:31
Robinson,
Luke Jones 05:32
yeah, it’s weak leadership. And you know, I’m not going to back down from that. You know, I don’t think there was anything overly illuminating or earth shattering, or all that terribly notable that came from his session in Milwaukee. I wish we had gotten a little more clarity on whether the expectation at this point is that mancellino is going to manage the rest of the year, or are they going to at least explore hiring a permanent manager. I understand your your pool of candidates is different in June, July, August, September, compared to the off season when any coach and every coach is potentially available. So but that wasn’t really verbalized, you know, wasn’t specifically asked. But again, this is part of the problem when you only have a few reporters who are covering the team every single day and regularly in front of him, compared to, I don’t know, a dozen, 15, you know, however many that would have been there Sunday morning had they done that, not
8Nestor Aparicio 06:30
to mention to people like me that they would lock out who would come to those kind of press conferences in the old days. Because if there was a press conference of that ilk, every Scott Garcia, a lot of people shows Mark Viviano myself, like we would all be there. Question all that’s gone away. There are no columnist. There’s no nothing. Well, it’s just, it’s, it’s weak, man, it’s just weak all the way around. For what this community’s given to these people, and I see what these the checks, the kind of people at the pool have written for sponsorships, and just all the things that make stadiums run and and, and too much, a lot is given to these people. This is not a lot of ask for guys making millions of dollars to have professionalism, front facing, authenticity and and brand and self awareness and some sort of emotional intelligence about the trauma that this fan base has endured, which is what I told the whistler on opening day. It’s what I told David Rubenstein when I shook his hand on it in a temple, I shook his hand and I said, Mr. Rubenstein, there’s been a lot of trauma here. They don’t want to explore that none of them want to face. As my dear friend Mike Peters once wrote from the alarm, absolute reality. Absolute reality. Last place, no fans massing back and down. Sport having problems. Imbalance in revenue to begin with, neophyte owner, young players not producing. I mean, the only problem they don’t really have is they don’t have a whole they don’t have Chris Davis money on the books. Yeah, one thing that they don’t have is dumb money anywhere. So, you know, check mark for that. But I don’t know that they have anything in place, from Rubenstein to Elias to mancellino to their media relations, to their marketing, to what Masson is, to what they’re going to do with the stadium, with Katie Griggs, to how they’re what they’re going to be when they I don’t know that there’s any strategy or blueprint. And I know the blueprint and strategy for baseball for Mr. Rubenstein perspective was, I got a genius. I don’t have to worry about baseball. I mean, I got Elias, I got hide I got young players. I have money. Let’s go. Let’s go do the hot dog races, and let’s and here we’re gonna win 105 this year. Fans thought that. I mean, maybe you and I didn’t think
Luke Jones 08:59
no one was no I think optimism was tempered compared to the last to last year, certainly going into the season. But you know, everything you just said, I fully acknowledge but for me, it begins with, you got to get this young core back on track. And I think based on what Michael I said, he acknowledged that, but he doesn’t know how to do it at this point in time. Now, he might figure that out at some point here in the next few months, and they may hire a manager that ends up being what they need, you know, in the way that Bucha Walter came in with Adam Jones, Nick Marques, Matt weeders, JJ, you know, that whole group, and it took a couple years, but then, you know, they found their stride, and they were a team that made the playoffs, and, you know, had one of the best stretches we’ve seen in the Camden Yards era for Orioles baseball. But you know, everything else you you mentioned, I agree. But
Nestor Aparicio 09:57
why not bucks Britain? Why? You know, and. I hear all of these outrages, Bill Ripken, and, I mean, you’re not just MC and, you know, whatever else that would come No, no running baseball. I
Luke Jones 10:09
8mean, some people might, some people might say Bill Ripken. Some people might take out. No one’s saying Rick Dempsey. I mean, but, but what I’m saying, 20 years ago, they said that whatever
Nestor Aparicio 10:16
it would be, whatever that would be, that would look like a paper clips and bubble gum and, you know, to bring the stapler out to put it back together, to make it look good, or image good, which is what the whistler has been doing with with Rubenstein for a year and a half. Is doing all this imaging of what it’s supposed to look like. It looks like a last place baseball team at this point, and it looks rudderless when your general manager is hiding and your owner, who put himself in front of everything, all of a sudden now wants no accountability for any of this, or to step up and have some sort of strategy, some sort of statement that he talks to everybody about, everything except this. He’s too busy for this right now. And I Yeah, the Kennedy Center thinks the worst thing that’s happened this year in regard to the real world for him, maybe the stock market as well. But this is important. This is important to you. It’s important to me, it’s important to a lot of people. Is important to everybody at the pool, at the Maryland party over the weekend. It’s important to anybody that’s been an Oriole fan that the issues stopped with Angelo’s not being here. And I have a feeling we stepped out of one pile of doo doo into another pilot, doo doo. And these are the times, these times of trauma, these times of why in the road, and which road are we taking? Why? What’s the strategy? What’s What are we going to tell the fans? Who’s going to tell the fans, what and why, so that we keep the fans engaged, even if, in the ravens, case, you what they do that is lie. I mean, the Ravens just make stuff up and it goes away, like trumpology does, like things that never happened. That’s how the Ravens handle things.
Luke Jones 12:02
They didn’t walk away. But they really handle it by winning a whole lot of games consistently year after year after year. I mean, the Orioles don’t have that going for them. They had that going for them for two years, and now they’re back where, I mean, this team’s as bad as every other rebuild team that Mike Elias had right now. I mean, is there a path? You would think, on paper, there’s a path for this to get better as the year goes on. I mean, you know he’s going
Nestor Aparicio 12:25
to begin, right? I mean, that that’s really the next step now is so much. Let’s get that’s I
8Luke Jones 12:32
mean, you’re not, you’re not trading gunner Henderson, you know, like, nor should you. You’re not trading Jackson holiday, nor should you. I mean, I certainly hope that’s not the plan is to go into a full blown rebuild again. You know, no one, no one wants to hear that it might come to that if this thing doesn’t turn around in the next 18 months, or something like that. But where’s the
Nestor Aparicio 12:52
pitching going to come from? Because it’s not coming from their system,
Luke Jones 12:56
you know. I mean, it’s, you know, Kyle Brad is going to be back. Tyler Wells is going to be back. You know, Grayson Rodriguez allegedly, is going to start throwing soon. I mean,
Nestor Aparicio 13:05
8these all names become suspects, not prosper me anymore. Kyle
Luke Jones 13:08
braddish is more than that if he’s healthy. Kyle Bradish is one of the best pictures in the American League. I watched Batista
Nestor Aparicio 13:14
meltdown like so so like, I just keep saying I understand today or tomorrow. That’s how you deal for Travis Rogers and and Rogers, I know a tradger, Travis Rogers. Trevor Rogers might as
Luke Jones 13:29
well be Travis Rogers, because he’s not doing anything in the majors. Yeah. No, I Randy, Travis, believe me, I hear you, and this is why you know, you know bone michaelias doesn’t have any answers right now and again. He might figure it out. Maybe he’ll hire some people here and the next few months that will help him figure that out. I would think if he’s learned anything now, it’s that they need to take a long look at how they view and approach pitching. It’s not as though they have had no success stories in his tenure. That would be unfair, but not nearly enough, not nearly as many as you need to have if you’re going to draft the way you do, which, as I have always said, I’ve never necessarily been vehemently against the idea that you would prefer hitters early in the draft, but you’ve got to account for that somewhere along the line, whether it’s Trading those many hitting prospects for quality pitching, whether it’s signing, whether it’s being a little more savvy in how you develop, how about the fact that we’re still kind of waiting to see what the international market? Which to his credit, because this is an organization that did nothing internationally for decades under Peter angelos, deliberately did nothing. You know that we’re six years into that now and still waiting for fruits to be produced. And you know the international market is a longer game, right? I mean, you are talking about cultivating relationships with 16 and 17 and 18 year old Dominican. Projects and signing them, and that’s a longer development process. So I’m not saying that that part of it I’m necessarily shocked by, but it’s all of those things combined. But what you ask is a fair question and that, but that’s where I keep coming back to for me, everything else is almost a non starter, if, I mean, you’ve got to get Adley rutschman back on track. I again, looked at it going back since July 1 of last year. This guy’s been a bottom 10 offensive player in baseball amongst qualified hitters. You know, guys that are markedly worse still have their job earnings aren’t in the meeting of mass right or out of baseball that still playing five days a week, and they’re still hitting them second in the lineup. I mean,
8Nestor Aparicio 15:46
having lost his mind about is there, is there something just like, how can you bat him there when it’s been a season of just Mendoza? Like,
Luke Jones 15:57
little part of it is they don’t have a lot of good candidates to hit high in the order, because their offense collectively is but Westberg would be that guy. They definitely have guys that I would rather hit second than Adley rotchman. You know, there’s five or six guys that I could name that I would rather have hitting second than Adley rutschman. You know, he’s he hasn’t hit any lower than fifth going back to last July, when he’s been a sub 700 you know, sub 600 sorry, sub 600 hitter since then,
Nestor Aparicio 16:29
sort of insult them the other day in some way, and saying, coddling their their first round picks, or treating them differently, or treating them like they’re still ones where, like somebody else would, I don’t care where you were drafted. Like, you need to produce, dude, you know what? I mean, I don’t care whether you’re 1113, whether your name’s kerstad or cowser or whoever you are, Henderson, like, you know, we, we got to earn our at bats up here, because this isn’t your last place baseball team, man, you know? And that would be the kind of tough luck, love, foot up the ass kind of thing, instead of what it is right now, where it feels like a whole bunch of guys feel sorry for themselves.
Luke Jones 17:06
8I mean, yeah, and I did allude to that. And look, I don’t know, I don’t know if coddled is the right term, because you we say that about Adley rutschman. Yet, look at other guys that you know they they struggle for a week, and you know, like Kobe mayo, he hasn’t had an extended look. Now, Kobe Mayo has looked bad in very limited, small samplings. I’m hoping that the time is going to come, and as far as I’m concerned, it can be sooner rather than later, because Ryan mountcastle was another guy, and I, I know he just had a hitting streak. Go, look at a slugging percentage. I mean, he’s, it’s a singles hitting first baseman who doesn’t walk at all. He plays
Nestor Aparicio 17:48
without the power. Oh,
Luke Jones 17:49
man. And, I mean, it’s just, but I look at that, and, you know, it is odd to me. And this goes back to what you were just talking about, that, how, how, how much rope someone like Adley rutschman gets, and I’m not, I’m not implying send Adley rutschman Back to the miners, but the fact that he’s still hitting in the top four spots in the order undisputed, no matter how poorly he
Nestor Aparicio 18:12
performed, a good example would be for high because he’s fired now. So it’s I mean, and who you would say that Elias is making the lineups up anyway, or a consortium is doing this anyway. But how many of the guys in the lineup, the young guys, how many of them have bounced around the lineup based on where they are right now? Holiday Batting ninth when he stunk, cowser, Mount Castle, moves down to 678, you know, like when guys weren’t, I mean, and this goes to Mullins, who was batting 10th at one point, right? Like, you know, they would move, they would demote guys in the order based on, are you hotter? Are you not? Right? As well as Westbrook played his way up, as well as Henderson Played his way up rather, rather quickly. It is, there is a special treatment being made here, in some way, to think like batting him where he is if they’re not a last place team, and I’m trying to make an excuse for them, and I’ve tried to be the good guys I get my press pass back. I would say that his confidence level is really important to the confidence level the whole thing. Let him stay in there. He’s a one, you know, like, if I’m if it’s you and me having a meeting privately, and we’re the manager and the coach, I’d say, Dude, leave him alone. Don’t embarrass him. Don’t push him down tonight. Tonight, he’s gonna get three hits, and you feel that way about him because he’s Adley F and rushman. I mean, you just do
8Luke Jones 19:31
I mean, I don’t feel that way.
Nestor Aparicio 19:35
You two years ago, he’s the best player on the team year ago. I mean, you love Adley Rotman, or you loved maybe past. That’s love, I mean,
Luke Jones 19:44
and look, it’s nothing personal. He’s been a poor performer for going back since la late June of last year. And you know, we were all convinced that he was hurt. And can we say that anymore? Or is it just that
Nestor Aparicio 19:58
8you could ask Brandon, hi, give this a. Live a test say, why did you not drop him in the order? What would Brandon? I’d say, I think, I
Luke Jones 20:04
think it would a lot of it would be the confidence thing you’re talking about. I think a lot of it would be what I have acknowledged this year. The approach has been better this year compared to the second half of last year. You know, he’s still too full happy ground balls, even if they’re hit sharply to the first baseman in the second baseman, rather than the line drives, gap to gap that we saw for you know, certainly his rookie year in 2023 now, first half of last year, we saw him hitting for more power, and I think that’s part of what’s gotten him into this mess, right, where he became much more pool happy, much more hitting the ball in the air, all that so you know. But let me be clear. I don’t want to fixate too much on the batting order part of this, I mean that that’s, that’s the part of the complaining about Brandon Hyde that was kind of white noise for me personally, much more so than just how they had performed going back to the second half of last year, and this being a team that had such a comeback spirit to it in 22 and 23 and the first few months last year, and how that’s just been completely gone. I mean, this team doesn’t have a single win this season when they’ve been trailing after six six innings. And I’m not saying that that’s a stat that that that most teams have an abundance of wins, but, man, even if you’re a bad team, you would have a couple by accident. You know, this takes big hits to do that, and they just don’t get, I mean, they’re, they’re woeful, with runners in scoring position, we know that.
Nestor Aparicio 21:36
And a lot of nice and let the ball at all. You look up, then they got three hits. But it’s
Luke Jones 21:41
just, I mean, Michael is this organization clearly doesn’t have any answers. And he was asked, you know, why has it been so bad? And I think he was truthful in saying, you know, he said, in enough words, if we knew exactly what the problem was, we’d have it fixed by now. So that, to me screams revamping your process, revamping your coaching staffs, revamping your analytics. I mean, that’s a lot of revamping your
8Nestor Aparicio 22:10
confidence as an organization, and that you know what you’re doing, and then Mr. Rubenstein thinks you know what you’re doing, and that Luke Jones and Nestor and both smoke on everybody else who’s beating on him, the Jacob guy that I’ve never met, and all these people beating on him. I mean, ESPN was beating on him. I mean, I’m in sports bars, sports books I look up. I mean, I was in the cabana at Encore with Bill Cole, and the scroll on PTI was the Oriole disaster coming up next on ESPN. I mean, it’s the
Luke Jones 22:41
biggest disaster in baseball this year. And I don’t say that lightly, because we’re talking about a Colorado Rockies team that is historically poor, but everyone thought they were going to be poor. They’re just historically poor. This is a team that’s very poor, that was supposed to be at least somewhat good. You know, even if you weren’t, even if you weren’t buying that they were gonna test the Yankees for the division, or even if you weren’t buying them being a playoff team, I think the worst of the worst, and I’m not talking people just looking for reaction, but people that had legit concerns and pessimism, I think there was still a sense that they’d be, you know, 500 you know, somewhere in that neighborhood. I mean, at this point. I mean, you look at their winning percentages as they’re winding down this Brewer series. I mean, they’re on the pace to be 100 510
Nestor Aparicio 23:36
loss out, yeah, they’re gonna have a hard time winning 70.
Luke Jones 23:38
8And, I mean, three weeks ago, even though their pace was pretty ugly. Then if you had said, Luke, are they going to lose 100 games this year? I would have said, No, of course, they’re not. But as the every game goes, every game passes, and everything on the win and every week passes, I’m like, I don’t know. I mean, this team’s just yeah, in terms of things getting better money. I
Nestor Aparicio 24:01
could have bet on that the Orioles are gonna lose 100 games this year. What kind of odds? I
Luke Jones 24:04
mean, and that’s one of the, you know, I made this point. I know I’ve made this point online and talking to people, you know, people just in my life. And, yeah, if anyone truly thought they were going to be this bad man, it if it wasn’t hindsight, being 2020 shame on you if you didn’t go to five different sports books and and bet the under and do whatever, whatever else you could do to the bet to make more money. Because, I mean, this is just, it’s wild. And, you know, I’ve talked about this some. I’ve talked about the fact that mentally, I’m still baffled that it’s this bad, this bad, right? Pitching being bad. The injuries look, if you told me who they would lose out of their rotation, you know, back in February, who would be spending time on the aisle. You know, cows played all of four games all year. Westbergs missed so much time. Go down the list. You know, you. If you said all that, I would say, Yeah, I’m guessing they’re probably under 500 but if you told me they were 17 under and buried and the season’s over even before Memorial Day, I would have been shocked by that, because I would have said, well, they still have gunner Henderson.
Nestor Aparicio 25:15
And gunner would be hitting 285, right now, with 10 home runs right, and 35 RBI, right? And ruchman would be batting 256 if weren’t going well, with maybe eight bombs and 22 RB eyes, yeah. I mean, you’d feel good. You just would go, well, O’Neill, they gave him all this money, and maybe he hasn’t been right, but he’d still have eight home runs and maybe be hitting 246 you know, just look at sort of a middling to low average season for for all of the players that would be considered some sort of malaise for the organization. And the Orioles suffered through that in the 80s. Go back and look at Cal Ripken numbers during the mike young era and during all of the they weren’t all that good. You look, everybody hit 250 and everybody hit 50 or 20 home runs, and there was nothing special about anybody, and they didn’t draw a lot of walks, and they were stationed to station, and the pitching wasn’t so good. And just you know that that I would have thought that that would have been the bottom for them, even with the pitching falling apart. And I’m in full agreement with you. I cannot believe how fundamentally awful everything from the disposition of this, how it looks, the optics. The bullpen wasn’t good to start with. It’s a mess. The starting rotation wasn’t good. It’s it’s abysmal. It’s legendarily. 1988 You know Dave Schmidt, Oswaldo Peraza, you know, Jay Tibbs, like, I don’t know what to say, but I the pitching for me on the baseball side, that’s going to be so hard to patch to get back to the caliber where you can, you can win 101 games, even if you get the hitting right. And I think for me off the field, I still go back to my biggest concern, is my biggest concern, which is, where, where’s the leadership and where’s the philosophy and where’s the expertise and where’s the know how, and honestly, just where the grown ups, just where. I mean, this feels really, really Greg Bader still running around the job. I mean, like I and their last place again, I that part of it, until they figure that part out and figure out whether michaelias is the right guy or not. And I don’t know the Rubenstein is qualified to do that. That is what worries me as much as who’s going to fix Adley Russian or they can fix himself, because over the next five or 10 years, the leadership it’s just been so fundamentally absent or deranged in many cases, over the last 30 years that they just need everything to be optimal. And there’s nothing about this, including how I’ve been treated, and just in a general sense for me, that I can say any of this feels like it. These are the right people to fix any of this, because they’re they’re sitting there and they’re not, they’re inactive, you know, we’re in the war, we’re getting shot at, and you can’t find them, and maybe they’re not the right generals. You know, they mean, like, I they really need to be in front of this from a billionaire brand. It’s May. We need to keep people in the boat. We need to get some confidence in here. They need Buck Showalter, you know, they need somebody to come in here and put their put the pants on and lead and front this and fix it, maybe the way McPhail tried for angels. I don’t know. I keep saying Pat Gillick, Dave Dombrowski, that’s thinking like a baseball guy. I’m thinking a whole lot more like a real leadership piece here, and that may or may not be Cal Ripken to be brought up. I don’t think it’s Cal Ripken, by the way, but something that would not just be window dressing, something that would fundamentally Larry, lakino, Janet, Marie Smith, this thing into blossoming again as a business, as a business, he as keeping people’s interest, keeping their confidence, keeping their money. I’m worried about that, because everybody’s just going to go away and they’re going to make news when they deal Cedric Mullins and whatnot. There’s no way for them to stay relevant, like this, Luke, that’s the relevance, the word I’m looking for,
8Luke Jones 29:46
and that’s fine, and I don’t disagree, but I mean, it starts with, is Mike Elias going to be your guy moving forward or not? I mean, that’s really where it starts. Everything you mentioned is valid, and I don’t disagree, but I. So there’s nothing David Rubenstein can really say right now, and I that’s not to say they shouldn’t be making those attempts, but there’s nothing he can really say right now, other than, you know, I still have full, full throated belief in michaelias to lead this thing and figure this out and or he says nothing because they’re planning to count them at the end of the year. And if that’s the case, then we’ll see if that plays out.
Nestor Aparicio 30:26
Why I said something in a statement about that, right about, basically, like I have to serve the best interest, yeah, no matter what my own future. He said something to that effect, and I’m that got me thinking about, yeah, it would be suicide for the organization to fire him before drafting. And I said, Well, maybe it’s not the best thing for having a lame duck GM drafting like Duquette and dealing off all the parts. This is a damn if you do, damn if you don’t, when you’re this bad. Yeah,
Luke Jones 30:57
I certainly would not, I would not endorse firing him now, before the draft, at the very least now, nor
Nestor Aparicio 31:04
8would I, nor would I. I don’t know that I would have endorsed Hyde, but you got somebody’s got to pay for it, you know. I mean, I think they’re a better ship this week than they would have been, one way or another. And yeah,
Luke Jones 31:18
I mean, that was, you know that? I mean, someone had to fall on the sword, and we know how this goes historically. It’s the manager. And like I said, if you were asking me to rank my 10 Reasons, the Orioles are in the place they are right now. Brandon Hyde wouldn’t have been, might not have been in the top three, but that said it was on the list because of how this team’s played since last summer. I mean, it’s just the truth and lackadaisical and not looking very fundamentally sound, and all that support reflection on the manager, especially as I said, coming right out of spring training, when, hypothetically, those things should be at their best, when you’re coming out of spring where there’s such a drill down, focus on those types of things. You know, the PFPs for pitchers and taking it in field every morning and all of that, which you don’t do that as frequently during a 162 game season, because you can’t, you don’t have, you know, you can’t run these guys into the ground. So you pick your spots when you take infield, and you pick your spots when you’re doing those types of drills over the course of the actual season. So to look that way, and that’s why I said and with Hyde, it may have been a case where it ran its course, we’ve talked about that a lot with head coaches and managers, and there’s a shelf life. And that’s why, when you have someone like a John Harbaugh or a mike Tomlin, or take your pick of anyone in this at least semi modern era that lasts as long as they do in any given sport. It’s impressive, because it’s really challenging to keep players engaged for more than 5678, years at a time. I mean, a lot of managers don’t even get to that point, right? That’s why I said, from a human element, I’m glad that Brandon Hyde at least got to taste some success, because back in November of 2018 when they hired him, we all said at the time, he’s Beau Porter, and the Orioles will hit will hire their AJ hints when they’re hypothetically ready to to win and connect, saying,
Nestor Aparicio 33:16
you know, he John A or sipping champagne by
Luke Jones 33:19
the pool, yeah? Well, like I said to you, you know, and this, this is bearing out even more so as we’re a few games into the Tony mancellino era, and things are no looking no better whatsoever. You know what? Once he gets over the disappointment of it, Brandon heights could have a way better summer than any of us watching this mess. I mean, fans at this point are hate watching. I mean, that’s what it is at this point, you’re watching it, and you’re ticked off online, and you’re arguing with other people online as far as what phase of the team is worse, right? That’s so fun, yeah, I mean, but that’s what it is right now. So, but you know, to go back to ownership, you know, we might find out a heck of a lot here in the not too distant future, but you know, first and foremost is going to be, you know, what is going to happen with Mike Elias here? And Elias was asked about ownerships involvement as far as the decision to fire hide, and he said that they were heavily involved in discussion. You know? He said that ultimately, that’s a move the general manager, the head of baseball operations makes. But when you’re talking about a move as grave as replacing your field manager, yeah, ownership is going to be consulted and that, that would always be the case whether you’re talking about, you know, a general manager or vice president of baseball operations, president of baseball operations with any team. I mean, ownership is going to be conducted or consulted on a move like that, whether ownership mandates it or not is obviously something people will speculate about, and whether you know the truth or half of the truth or none of it, you know it all depends. But
8Nestor Aparicio 34:52
when ownership is giving out a bobble head and showing up behind home plate and in every ad and making himself the first. On and doing reality television, showing up in the disco lounge after the game on opening day, and telling the players how much confidence he has in them and this great leadership. Where’s David Rubenstein? Good
Luke Jones 35:13
question. You know, my understanding is he was at the game Friday night, from what I understand. So you can take that for what it what it is
Nestor Aparicio 35:20
he’s hiding now. He’s not sitting down in the stands anymore. Like, you know, I mean, come on, dude. He’s a billionaire. He’s 75 years old. He doesn’t know better. He he hasn’t followed anything about sports to know how this goes, when the worm turns. Like, seriously, I mean, it’s, it’s embarrassing. It’s embarrassing to be hiding and to have been out themselves,
Luke Jones 35:40
8though, I would say, yeah, they, they
Nestor Aparicio 35:42
conduct themselves with guys like the whistler around them telling, I mean, I’m just saying in a general sense, it is a general. Said, that’s a very general. Yeah, I have learned this as an adult, that they, they are not used to being criticized, because they’re never criticized, and they don’t keep people around them to criticize them long enough to criticize them, so therefore they have a hard time handling criticism, which is why Steve Bucha, he ran away from me with the cigar last year, because they don’t want to hear it. And it’s not my job to criticize people. It’s my job to hold people accountable seriously. I mean, and the accountability of the $2 billion he spent in the $600 million of tax money and what’s the stadium is going to become, and the fact that he was doing photo ops with the with the mayor, I spent, I saw Brandon Scott several times over the weekend, and Brandon Scott and David Rubenstein walked into To Cocos on Friday together, and had crab cakes, and Marcella put a picture up, and I saw it. And then I was with the mayor. Well, I wasn’t with the mayor Saturday because he was at the race. Because I saw him early Sunday morning. I’m like, Dude, you’re at the race yesterday, weren’t he’s like, all day long, man, you know? So yeah. And I, actually, I went out to dinner on Saturday night, and Brandon Scott and I were at dinner the same place. So I got ran into him several times. He had lunch with Rubenstein, and I, you know, I bluntly said, was there anything about, like, the stadium and the land? He’s like, Oh, no, man, this is, like, we’re just having a crab cake getting to know each other. I’m like, Cool. That’s all you know. Enough said that’s, that’s a good thing. That’s a good thing, yeah, but I’m saying that’s public that was out in your Cocos. But then he fired the manager the next morning, and that’s and now you’re not seen. That’s not where my daddy taught me things I mean to be really honest with you,
Luke Jones 37:30
and this is where I just think, you know, again, not to belabor the point, but I’m going to belabor the point because, again, I think it’s it more than anything. It comes across as disrespectful to your fan base and, and you just said it a few minutes ago. We’re talking going on two generations now of Orioles fans who’ve watched mostly bad baseball, mostly bad ownership, well, but bad base, which leads to that ultimately, no question, right? And, but even before Peter Angela, the 10 years
Nestor Aparicio 38:01
will be bad at baseball and good at ownership. Edward Bennett Williams and off burger had, you know, had moments of that. But go ahead, I
8Luke Jones 38:07
don’t like calling owners good when their teams are bad, you know, over a long haul, you know. And again, we’re talking Edward Bennett Williams wasn’t the owner that, you know, wasn’t the owner for 30 years. But to me, it would have been so simple to have a press conference Sunday morning. I’m not sure that there would have been an insane number of media, considering the resources that were used Saturday at Pimlico for Preakness and people probably, you know, I don’t think it necessarily would have been such a media, you know, rush that it would have been overwhelming to them go in the auxiliary clubhouse. Mike Elias, David Rubenstein, sit down. David Rubenstein, can, you know, they both give an opening statement, and David could even say, Look, I’ll take some questions. But Mike’s the baseball guy. I trust him. He’s in charge of baseball operations. I’m a year into this. I as much as I love baseball, I’m not going to sit here and act like I have the answers on how to fix things. From a baseball standpoint, they should hire you to be their PR guy, but I’m just saying that’s what it would have been and and if he does that, yeah, he would have gotten a couple questions, and that’s fine, but most of the questions would have been for Mike Elias then, but the owners out in front would have been a united front. He’s he’s sitting there right next to him. And again, you could ask him things, but if you’re going to ask him about the players, they can be like, Look, Mike’s way more qualified than me. You know, I he has my support. I’m here sitting with him. This is a failure as an organization that we had to let Brandon go. I mean, that would not have been that difficult to do that and look, fans would still be ticked. You know, I’m not sure they win the press conference, but it’s at least an acknowledgement and saying, Hey, we know this is unacceptable. We know that people are really disappointed right now. We. Know that it’s been a lot. It’s been 41 years now since the Orioles last went to the World Series. We understand all of that. It’s not
Nestor Aparicio 40:07
performative or perfunctory. It’s the right thing to do. Sure, that’s what I mean, just for any business. I mean it’s the right thing to do. What’s the right thing to do? Like, when you get a meal wrong in the restaurant, to fix it, like but or attempt to, or most press
Luke Jones 40:22
conferences are performative. So like, look again. It’s like I said when he did finally speak in Milwaukee on Tuesday, Elias didn’t have a whole lot of to say of real substance, other than just stating the Captain Obvious things, because he doesn’t know right now, it’s clear that this organization is looking for answers. It’s clear that they are completely baffled and in defense of them, we all are right. We all are I picked this team to win 88 or 89 games. It shows you how dumb I was about this team, too. You know, I I’ve made this point in passing, but if you kind of looked at everything that’s gone wrong for them, and, you know, let’s, let’s think about it in terms of analytics. These guys run models and predictive analysis and all of that. If you had a bell curve, the Orioles being starting the year 15 and 32 you know, that’s probably in like, the bottom one or 2% of the worst outcomes that you would project, you would say, Yeah, our pitching, which is always going to be a weakness, but Dean Kramer’s having a year worse than his career average. Charlie Morton worse than his career numbers. Zach EF go down the list. Kyle Gibson not being able to give us anything, to the point where we D, F, A them after four starts, all of that, and then all of our hitters, how many of these guys having, you know, if not career worse, seasons down, seasons right? So many of those things going on, if you looked at it from a predictive standpoint, you know, it’d be on the far left of that bell curve in terms of, like, the worst case scenarios coming to fruition. So when that does happen, I am empathetic to a degree of, yeah, you you are gonna I think Mike Elias is dumbfounded. I think this team and this organization is dumbfounded, because they did have something that was going as well as it was going 11 months ago, and then it just, it’s almost like it just stopped overnight. And that’s where this thing is so
Nestor Aparicio 42:22
8odd to me, but it didn’t add a lot of injury. This isn’t even the same team right now, but the guys that are the part of the team and and I said this to Alan, I’ve done a little soul searching last couple days, because a full disclosure will go total you know, non K Fabe, Luke and I stayed on the line in Vegas after we did two and a half hours of radio. Luke admitted, like, this is really bothering you, like, off the air, like, I think this team, even when I’m not working from an intellectual, my intellectual capacity, which you know, people, some people would say, probably isn’t very high. But as I look at Teenage Mutant Turtles over yourself, those are, those are my brothers.
Luke Jones 43:01
So although I do, I did love the Ninja Turtles growing up, and I still have a Ninja Turtles t shirt that, if I can’t laugh in last place, what the hell, right? Yeah, but I’ve said this to you. I mean, I find myself thinking about this team even when I’m not at the ballpark, or I’m not doing radio with you, or I’m not writing something at Baltimore positive.com or I’m not even engaged in baseball, and I’m just thinking about it in terms of not like how I thought as a 15 year old fan, who I was just purely a fan, and that was it. But I’m just, I’m stumped that so much has gone this poorly across the board, and yes, the injuries, you can’t forecast that, and that’s a big part of this, the pitching being what it was. I didn’t love their pitching staff going into the season, so I understand that being a big part of this, but I’m dumbfounded why Adley rutchman has forgotten how to play baseball over the last 10 months, right? I’m dumbfounded by the fact that they have all these other players that underperforming to the degree that they have. You know? I’m dumbfounded that it’s just been as bad across the board. I mean, I’ve said, I’ve used the line, and I don’t say this to be mean, I’m talking about this in my 41 years, as you know, 41 years on this earth, and 38 of them as a baseball fan. And you know, 34 of them as a baseball fan, who could really remember every year of Orioles baseball from like 1991 this team exudes no redeemable qualities whatsoever in terms of its performance on the field. It’s not anything personal. It’s not even saying that, like they’re not trying. I don’t think their focus is very, very good. A lot of times, I don’t think they have much fight in them in terms of I just think they’re beaten down so badly at this point that they just feel like, you know, it’s Murphy’s Law, right? I mean, that’s what it feels like with this team at this point. What started
Nestor Aparicio 44:46
with the pitching man, it feels like, once the pitching confidence went away, that they were losing guys in LA, you know, this time last year when Bradish went down, means wasn’t coming back and Wells was long gone, and Batista. Is it coming to rescue pitch that poorly last
Luke Jones 45:02
year though? Nestor, I mean, go back and look like statistically, they weren’t. They weren’t. They had
8Nestor Aparicio 45:07
that pitching this year they, you know, they wouldn’t be this bad,
Luke Jones 45:11
you know? I mean, I mean, they still wouldn’t be very good if their hitting was going to perform like this. I mean, it really is just a house of cards that’s just collapsed on itself in every way at this point. And, I mean, I don’t know what’s going to get them out of this. I don’t think it’s Tony mancellino. And I don’t say that. I mean, I don’t know Tony mancellino that well, the team’s playing exactly like they played under Brandon Hyde. You know, we’re only a few games into this, as I, you know, pointed out to you. And jest, I mean, Frank Robinson, who actually was a pretty good manager, right? I mean, you know, not, not the same as a Hall of Fame player. He wasn’t a Hall of Fame manager in the same way. But Frank wanted various places, including 1989 with the Orioles, but he lost his first 15 as Orioles manager after he replaced Cal senior. I mean, he wasn’t turning that around so, but I don’t know. That’s where I would have loved to have gained a little bit of clarity from Elias in terms of, are you truly committed to just mancellino being the interim guy the rest of the year? Because it’s a long time. You know that that’s a really long time to you know, if you’re so determined to get this young core back on track and look, I could care less about the win loss column at this point in 2025 because they’re not coming around. I don’t
Nestor Aparicio 46:26
know what a teaching manager is at this point, but that’s my thing. Like, like bringing in a guy, a TITO Francona, and I’ll throw Larus some veteran Jim,
Luke Jones 46:39
8no. I mean, you know they were, they were equally awful under Juan Sam well as they were under Dave Trembley in 2010 when Buck came in, and in the first week in August, I they went 34 and 23 the rest of the year. Now, that was not an immediate sign of prosperity, because 2011 happened, and they weren’t very good in 2011 either. But you definitely saw a change in mindset. And I think it was a manager who brought a different degree of legitimacy and credibility and gaining players attention. And I’m not even saying that that’s what it has to be, you know. And I’m certainly not necessarily saying, oh, bring Buck Showalter back. But is there someone out there like that, that that is available right now? I mean, skip Schumacher is unemployed right now. He won Manager of the Year in 2023 in the NL, same as Brandon Hyde in the Al that year. I’m not going to sit here and say that I’m intimately familiar with him to the point where I’m going to pound the table and say that they should hire him, but they’re not going
Nestor Aparicio 47:41
to hire a guy who’s never been a manager before, as we would talk about in the NFL, but they’re in season here, which is way different than firings in the NFL and, oh, by the way, this city from a football perspective, you know, we had the Billick firing and the whole coring of Jason Garrett, but we haven’t talked about a football coach being hired or fired. Hardball has been in trouble, maybe twice, but never really in trouble, because he’s like a son to the owner. The owners are never going to fire John our ball. We never talk about that on the baseball side, we never talked about much because he’d never had any talent. There’s been buck, Davey Johnson, Buck and everything else. Maybe hargo for five minutes for potentiality or whatever. But this is that moment where you’re like, Well, why are we hiring the manager to analyze the analytics and analyze and analyze in lineups that tell us what the computer spits out? Or are you trying to get somebody to give Adley rutschman some, some, some nookies and some, you know, some confidence and attaboys, and I don’t, I don’t know, in the old world, you always wanted a manager that had a little uncle in him, you know, that’s was portrayed Major League. You always wanted that veteran, Buck Showalter, you know, the one of the field general. You wanted a leader. You wanted fire. You wanted Lou Piniella. You wanted something that would be you that Batista play last week. Forget that the meltdown, forget Cano before that. Forget the bullpen, but just the act of allowing the winning run and the thing that did Brandon hide in on Friday night, the act of allowing that to happen has to infuriate the manager. Not so much. He comes out, embarrasses the player in any but like, people have to be pissed off when things are that bad and, and I don’t want to give the old, you know, office line, but say heads have to roll right like there it, it feels so nonbulant, dude. I mean, all of these mistakes, all these it feels like every night they’re going to find a way to lose it feels like if they have second and third, nobody out, they’re going to find a way to get a pop out, a hard luck strike. Out on a corner pitch and be able to pitch at the umpire or the, you know, the computer about getting punched out, and then the last guy hits a lazy fly ball, you know, chasing a bad first pitch out of the strike zone, you know, like that. I’ve seen so much of it, and I can’t the Mojo, you know, the thing that rushman had that felt like that special quality of leadership to be what Shannon Sharpe and Tony Sarah gusta were on the football team, which was sort of like leadership, veteran leadership that does not exist in this environment right now, the cowboy up thing.
Luke Jones 50:36
Yeah. I mean, I just, and that’s where I look at this thing. And again, I’m not, I’m not trying to pick on Tony mancillino. He’s a third base coach, you know. I mean, he wasn’t hired to be the manager and but that’s where I look at this and say, is, what is he going to give you that is going to make things better than where things were when you tapped Brandon Hyde on the shoulder, you know, early Saturday morning and said, you know, we’re making a change. That’s where I look at this. And I say, you’ve got four months of baseball left. And again, it’s easier said than done. I know you can’t just necessarily, I mean, I don’t know if there’s ever been a scenario where you, you know, you fire away some teams assistant coach in the middle
Nestor Aparicio 51:19
of this, dude. Was Elias on the phone Sunday and Monday, talking to people about about a real manager? What was he spending his time doing? He and Rubenstein get together Saturday night, Saturday morning, and say, Hey, we’re firing the manager. Great. Okay, let’s do that at 11am let’s hide while we’re hiding, what are we doing? Are we trying to hire a new manager? Are we trying to settle people down? Are we trying what, you know, are we trying to talk to them, our players about changing manager, who’s doing what? Where are those responsibilities? And is the real story here? I got to make some phone calls out, and we got to find a manager. We got to find and
8Luke Jones 51:57
that. And that’s like I said, that’s why, you know, this is something that we didn’t gain a lot of clarity about on Tuesday. And you know what would have been one of the first questions I’d want to ask, you know, is Tony mancillino, your interim manager for the rest of the year, or is that TBD? Are you going to start, at least on in an informal capacity, to start looking at candidates for this managerial position. Well, the thing was
Nestor Aparicio 52:26
weird, because it did happen in the middle of the year, because idea, but that was like to have the whole pool of candidates at the end of the year. But even that one, that was too much. I
Luke Jones 52:34
mean, Juan Samuel was the interim for about two months. I mean, Trembley was fired like June 3, and Buck was hired August. I don’t
Nestor Aparicio 52:40
8mean that there were three leaders. I just mean finding your guy sure when he’s not already somebody else’s employee. Yeah. I mean right in the middle of the season, that’s like firing your head coach and saying, I’m going to hire Dick Vermeil to coach my team for the duration of this year, and then we’ll go get the hot assistant next year. Oh, okay, yeah, saying, like, the reason Buck was weird, he was unemployed, undesirable. I mean, the reason he got the job is nobody else wanted him, right? Like, like, Bill Belichick, at this point, he was doing MLB Network. But you right now, the ESPN candidates right now are unemployed managers, not employed managers who are about to get fired, or third base. I mean, you mentioned Buck Britain. You have anything to say about that, that that didn’t kind of happen from within, that they don’t like their whole system, because if they don’t like their system, I know. I know who’s to blame. The guy who built the system, that’s Mike Elias. Why
Luke Jones 53:43
I did find that interesting, because I think a lot of people were wondering if he would be that guy. I mean, obviously he managed, you know, he managed what double A and triple A for the Orioles may have meant, I’m trying to think of he met, managed even before then. But, you know, he’s still not that experienced, but at the same time, Tony mancellino. I mean, Tony mancellino is only a year older than me, you know, but Bucha also
Nestor Aparicio 54:10
knows these guys, and if he’s a leader who does maybe get the most out of them, yeah, if he’s I don’t know
Luke Jones 54:15
about him, but I also wonder if that’s even like, is that what you want? You know what I mean is that familiarity part of the problem right now. And I don’t mean specifically with him, just in general, do they need fresh eyes on this? That’s why. I mean, for me, manager, you know, someone outside the organization. And you know, you bring up an interesting point, the manager
8Nestor Aparicio 54:35
is going to want to bring his own lieutenants, his own, like all of that that well, they’re managerial, yes, and I want to come take the job. And manzalino is going to be my third am I going to have the same coaches? I’m gonna have the same system. I don’t know any of these guys. The middle of the year now I’m going to lead into next off season, because I got a four year deal. I really awkward thing, man. If it’s stuff that we haven’t talked about a lot on the radio here in 30. Five years because it’s weird.
Luke Jones 55:01
Well, it’s that well, and that’s why the buck Showalter thing was unique. I mean, he came in in early August knowing, knowing he was going to be here for the long haul. Now, they didn’t change. The coaching staff stayed intact. I think Juan Sam, well, left at that point, and, you know, that kind of made sense. But, you know, they kept it, and then they made some changes after the season, but, but, yeah, like without that, knowing that I still just, you know, is Tony man, Selena the right guy just to play out the next four months. I mean, I don’t know. I mean, it’s just this is so disheartening at this point in time, because I just, I don’t think they have the answers. I mean, I really don’t. I think Mike Elias is at a loss, and now again, then he needs to be fired and and it may come to that, right? It may come to that come September, this
Nestor Aparicio 55:57
hiding three days, sure, like if I own the team, I would run the team at the level that Rick Vaughn and everyone I’ve ever met who did this work the same time would say. There’s front facing, there’s accountability, there’s things that we I agree, Angelo’s family. That doesn’t mean you have the answer so much that it needs to come back and be when things are bad. We need to be in front of it even more, not hiding from it.
Luke Jones 56:27
8I agree at the same time again, they’re trying to figure this out, and I don’t think he has any answers right now, like meaning may 20 that
Nestor Aparicio 56:39
poor leadership and he should be fired, or they David Rubenstein should be working on his next pack, Gillick, or whatever he’s it might come to that.
Luke Jones 56:49
I mean, the season’s gone. Do we is Michael? If Michael is had the answers, they wouldn’t be in the position they’re in right but they’re
Nestor Aparicio 56:57
about to let him draft and they’re about to let him trade everybody off, same thing as manzalino. How
8Luke Jones 57:02
long are you going to go hiring a new general manager to draft? No one hires a new general manager in May or June. It’s crazy, right? Well, you know, like that, that part of it. Good teams don’t hire new managers in the middle when I say he doesn’t have the answers, right? Now, I’m I’m saying that being realistic now he might figure it out. They might be doing self scouting and introspective work right now, and they might discover they might, who knows, they might be hiring some consultants behind the scenes trying to figure some things out. I mean, we know the Ravens have done stuff like that. I mean, they brought in Al Saunders to help out their offense 15 years ago, or whatever it was. He hung around, you know, Jim fossil with, you know, going from Matt Cavanaugh to Jim fossil. I mean, teams do that kind of stuff, you know. But if he, if there aren’t answers, if there, if there isn’t a clear pathway and runway for this thing, getting back on track by the end of the year, then, yeah, I’m guessing David Rubenstein will probably, you know, the new ownership group will probably replace the general manager too. But well,
Nestor Aparicio 58:06
if we’re writing a story of what’s off limits at this point, Gunner, Henderson, Adley rutschman, got to fix him. You know, a couple of the other young gotta get westburg, and cows are back on the field. I mean, I mean the Mayo’s and the curse that’s are undealable because they have no value at this point players, until you hear Mayo
Luke Jones 58:22
up here, you know, he’s got to play. He’s got to play. Yeah, I mean, well,
Nestor Aparicio 58:29
8this is gonna be what you when you this week. These are the kinds of things like, what do they need to do now? Because they’re a last place team, you know, anything they do needs to feel forward, moving, not feeling sorry for themselves. Just need
Luke Jones 58:43
to play the young guys and let them play. I mean, they just do, you know. And I’m not saying that means you have to DFA, Ryan mountcastle, but could be Mayo needs to be here sooner than later, and you just got to play them. And they need to put them at first base, let them learn how to play first base. And it might look ugly. And you know what? The you run the risk that maybe he is a quad a player, because that does happen too, and and some of this might just be that some of these prospects aren’t going to work out to the degree that they thought. And maybe Jackson holiday is going to be an all star, and maybe gunner might not be an MVP, but he’s still going to be an all star. Adley rutschman Again, like, I don’t know, because this has gone on so long now that I’m starting to wonder, right? And he’s 27 you know, you can’t talk. You know, Kobe Mayo is 23 you know, Gunner Henderson will be 24 later this year. And gunner is not having an awful year by any stretch of the imagination. He’s, my
Nestor Aparicio 59:40
point would be Kobe Mayo won’t be allowed to be as bad as Adley rushman has been and still be around. And that’s why rutchman has been coddled to to a degree. Yeah, it has been also in that he was the real leader of the ship, the Attaboy. I mean, I saw him go out after the pitcher in the fifth or sixth inning and, like, do a little rah rah thing. When the game was still in the balance, three to two on Tuesday night. But, like, the rah rah thing doesn’t play when you’re not winning, and I get all of that, and you’re not playing well yourself. But that was a spirit that was, that was a special sauce, right, really?
Luke Jones 1:00:15
So I guess so. I mean, you know, I also think some of that stuff sometimes, you know you’re not, can be, can be more false hustle than you think, and not, not specific to him. I think some of that stuff can be a little false hustle, but you love it, and the optics of it look awesome when, what? When that player is a really good player, in the same way that your your team leaders can’t be the worst players on the team, right? They don’t necessarily have to be the best player on the team, but the 26 man on the right, that’s why Kyle Gibson coming back, and as much as they were trying to recapture some of the Mojo that he had as one of the team leaders in 23 and 23 won 15 games, and
8Nestor Aparicio 1:00:53
by the way, he did. Did he not declare that they were dishonest with him about keeping him? No, you fell for a fake okay, my bad. Sorry, there’s a,
Luke Jones 1:01:04
I saw it. You know, there’s a fake Steve moleski account out there, though, is there? I know that? Yeah, my best. So I handled that. But, yeah, there. That’s been a thing that’s been going around on social media. You know, the joys of Twitter, but, but, you know, it’s just but, but that was a perfect, perfect example. Like Kyle Gibson, being back in the clubhouse is great, but when he can’t get out of the first inning because his pitching is so horrible, you know, he’d be the first to tell you, like, you know, that’s not going to work. That’s not tenable. You know, Charlie Morton, you know, guy that has a lot of valuable knowledge and experience to pass on to other players. But you know, if you can’t get the job done, you can’t get the job done, you know? So it’s, this is, this is very, very, very messy. And it’s, I mean, it’s bad, it’s bad, and that I don’t really have the answers. You know that. That’s why you know when I’m sitting, sitting there hearing Mike Elias talk, I mean, he’s at a loss in a lot of ways, I’m sure. Does he have the wherewithal? Does he have the people around him? Does he have the intestinal signs
Nestor Aparicio 1:02:16
also say how much money he wasted to the Kyle Gibson things? Kyle Gibson threw 50 pitches and got paid $5 million like, it’s just sort of like, Dude, I’ve given you the money. You’re supposed to be the expert. What to do with my
Luke Jones 1:02:27
8money, no question. And I’m sure, I’m sure part, even if, even if, Mike Elias still has the support of David Rubenstein, let’s also recognize these aren’t light switches. These are these are scales, these are dials. And even if, even if, Rubenstein still has confidence in Elias, Let’s call a spade a spade. Is that confidence level the same as it was last June? Of course not. How could
Nestor Aparicio 1:02:54
it be? And he also didn’t hire Mike
Luke Jones 1:02:56
Elias, no question and that, and that’s always the wild card when you’re talking about scenarios like this. That’s why, you know Steve Bucha tea, well, that’s
Nestor Aparicio 1:03:03
what I would say. There’s more upheaval ahead here, just just in a general sense, there’s going to be upheaval in regard to managers, management, ownership, and just a matter of how drastic is, is is going to be indicative of who they are and define their character. And right now they’re failing it more than just baseball. They really are.
8Luke Jones 1:03:23
They are, but again, you’ve got to get the baseball part right, or the rest of that, you know, the rest of that’s, I’m not saying it’s irrelevant, but no one cares if you’re a good owner, if your baseball team stinks. You know what I mean? Kind of to the point I made a little bit earlier, but
Nestor Aparicio 1:03:41
bobbleheads are on sale right now, and even it’s
Luke Jones 1:03:45
they’ve got a lot of work to do, and that’s why I kind of said, I said it, you know, being facetious, but it’s also true, Brandon hides the one who, once he gets over this disappointment, he’s gonna have a really fun, good summer, you know, he’s gonna Spend time with his kids, and he’s going to be able to sleep, whereas Mike Elias and this these coaches, this front office, these players, it’s a lot of restless nights ahead to try to figure out exactly how you get this thing back on track. I don’t think it’s impossible, because I do still have some belief in this group of young players, I don’t think they were complete frauds all along. They clearly displayed talent to get to the point where they are now. But, man, you’ve gotta gotta make some not tweaks. I mean, these are major adjustments that need to be made. And like I said, might be Mike Elias needing to swallow his pride and say, gotta hire some people to come in, coaching staff, more experienced coaches, some maybe, maybe there’s an assistant GM hire to be made, to not replace sigma, but to go in with sigma, Adele and he Rosenbaum and, you know, to figure out something that might be a. Major blind spot, like pitching, and try to figure that, well, they have more analytics than they know what to analyze. So maybe there’s information overload. Maybe they’re looking at the wrong information. Maybe they’re not emphasizing the right information. You know, they’re so that’s why I said so much of this is just, you got to get behind closed doors in the warehouse and, boy, you you need to have a, you know, come to your maker moment in terms of like we’ve got to figure this out, or, you know what, we’re all going to be gone because new ownership. Maybe they’re still being patient with us, but we know that patience is going to be running out very quickly, as it should. Quite frankly, you know, I’m not saying Michaelia should get three years to fix this and to be able to rebuild again? No, that did that? No way. But you know, you’ve got to start. You’ve got to find some ways to get the arrows pointing upward, and with at least a handful of things by the end of the year. Is that going to mean a playoff season? No, of course not. It’s probably not even going to mean like a 500 season. Can you avoid 100 losses? I mean, great if you do, Whoop de do, but at least get me some more things that are looking like they’re back on track. You know, beyond just Jackson holiday, which kind of feels like it’s kind of the one big thing to feel good about at this point in time. You know, some other players haven’t, but he’s the one, from a developmental standpoint, that you feel good about where he is, but, man, they’ve got to get the arrow pointing upward on some of their other young guys. Or, I’m not sure there is a pathway for this thing to be salvaged, at least with Mike Elias in charge.
Nestor Aparicio 1:06:32
8I’m bummed because it got to be fun again and interesting again.
Luke Jones 1:06:37
I’m bummed out. I love baseball season and this. This stinks. This is horrible to watch. Even some of those rebuild teams. It felt like they had guys that were playing hard. And, you know, they’re some guys that, you know, I mean, would come and go, and we’d kind of laugh about them in, like, the the amazing Mets, kind of way back in the 60s, right? You know, all the those teams that were kind of Beloved, and, you know, they drew. They drew even, okay, crowds, even, like, like I said, this team’s just miserable to watch right now because you see something that it’s not even recognizable, other than just the names on the back of the jerseys that guys that you thought were better than they are. I mean, this just stinks. It really stinks.
Nestor Aparicio 1:07:20
He is Luke Jones, I am Nestor. We are wnst. Am 1570 task Baltimore, and we never stop talking Orioles, baseball in Baltimore, positive.
