After Grayson Rodriguez went down in spring training, we knew this rotation was going to look shaky as the Orioles’ season began but the first week has been a preview of what’s to come and that means the relief corps will become taxed. Luke Jones and Nestor go to the hill on the Orioles’ early-season pitching issues of depth and bodies in bullpen.
Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Orioles’ pitching issues, highlighting the need for starters to go deeper into games. Zach Eflin and Dean Kramer showed promise, but Charlie Morton and Sagano struggled. The bullpen performed well, with Felix Bautista needing time to regain form post-Tommy John surgery. The offense, led by Adley Rutschman and Cedric Mullins, has been strong, but the team needs better pitching consistency. The Orioles are 3-2, with key players like Gunnar Henderson expected to return soon. The conversation also touched on the broader MLB landscape, including the Braves’ early struggles and the Yankees’ strong start.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Orioles pitching, bullpen depth, Dean Kramer, Felix Batista, Charlie Morton, Zach Eflin, starting rotation, bullpen efficiency, Gunnar Henderson, offense, crab cake tour, Maryland lottery, Baltimore baseball, MLB season, injury updates.
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, M, S, T, AM, 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore. Positive. We are in baseball season. We will be at fade Lee’s on Wednesday, doing the Maryland crab cake tour. I got the tour off to a little start on Monday, had my first crab cake of the season with Dami Hahn and fadelies. They have a big thing going on with NBC this week, and tapings going on down there. And we will be talking more about that on Wednesday. We will have these scratch also the Maryland lottery, the magic eight balls to give away, probably have some monopolies to give away before the end of the month as well. And the dates are all up up at Baltimore positive and baseball season is here. Luke and I spent parts of last week in Toronto, as well as Buffalo, where I had the best beef on whack ever. And the kids that did the big turn for Mark Andrews and for diabetes, we spent some time with their pop. So some things are going on. We’re brewing up things here. Certainly the Orioles are brewing up an opening day. It was postcard, right? I mean, perfect weather, perfect everything Red Sox are in Pedro. Martinez is a picture for them anymore. That’s good. Uh, Luke Jones joins us now. We will discuss the pitching side of things, because we talked at length about cows or injury bats, O’Neill, platooning, all of that. We’d like to think the bats are going to be fine, and the bats will hold them together, and we’re going to get we’re going to get gunner Henderson back, and there’ll be a cavalry going on there this week. Pitching, I don’t know. We’re not even a week into this, Luke, and we knew it was going to be a little bit of a choppy ride all along. The Batista thing on opening day was a most people were gone by then, or even drunk and gone by then, anyway, so, but they you do wake up and you say, All right, what do what do we have? What do we have in the bullpen, and how is this going to hold up? I know one thing’s good. Didn’t have to play on Tuesday.
Luke Jones 01:49
Yeah, no question about that. I mean, it’s rare when you play the first five days of a season anyway, but when you have a time through, first time through the rotation, where, hey, Zach Eflin, thumbs up. You know, I mentioned in a previous segment, Kate hovid does things that you like and and I think there could be a good pitcher in there, but he’s not there yet. From a pitch efficiency standpoint, we talked about Sagano on Sunday, before the cramping, you know, at least showed some nice things. Pitched competitively over four innings, but Charlie Morton did not look good. Dean Kramer at least pitched into the sixth inning, which at least gave them some length, but gave up five runs in the process. So yeah, this starting rotation, the first time through, has been, let’s say it’s exactly what we thought it would be. Because I I expect Charlie Morton to be better than he was Friday night at the very least, but not great. Well, when you look at and obviously tis the season for small sample sizes, I think I looked Tuesday, when, before the league was starting action, I think the Orioles were 28th and starter era, which, yeah, that sounds about right, but their bullpen had been for the most part. You know, their bullpen era is in a good spot. I think it was top 10 over the first five games. Again, it’s five games. But, you know, kind of gives you an idea of where they are. And I think the bullpen, for the most part, is pitched pretty well. I mean, certainly Batista ironing out the kinks there. There’s no doubt about that. And we talked about that. That’s why it was so good, that he didn’t come into the game when it was four to three in the ninth inning, rather than, you know, being in a spot where it was eight to three. And he and he had a little bit of cushion, because, you know, Guy has pitched since August of 2023 you know, let’s, let’s give him a little bit of time here before we sound the alarm as long as he’s healthy, as long as he’s healthy, and the stuff is trending up in terms of velocity and how he’s feeling and movement on his pitches and all that. But we’ve talked about it. I mean, this team is three and two through its through its first five games, and in those three games, they hit the ball. In the two games they lost, they didn’t hit the ball. And in one of those games, you know, they they pitched so poorly that it didn’t really matter. But Sunday, it was a winnable game, and they didn’t, they didn’t hit. So we know it as this rotation is currently constructed. And you know, with the bullpen, I think there’s more upside for the bullpen and I look at the rotation right now on paper, you know, at least there’s potential for the bullpen to be pretty darn good, especially once you get into the summer and Andrew kittridge is back in the picture and and all that. But we knew that pitching was going to be a challenge, and well, for the most part, through five games, that’s played out exactly as we thought it might. But the good thing is, you do have guys who can hit you can score runs, because they’re going to need to win games like that more often than not over the course of the year, it’s really shaping up to feel that way.
Nestor Aparicio 04:56
You mentioned the early season stuff, my dad. You know, being the mathematician trying to teach me math at a young age on the back of baseball cards, you know, they’re all playoff averages. You know, 286, 143, you know they’re all divisible by 12 and 15 and 18 on the math side, because we are that it’s that fresh into the year. Um, but the pitching part of it is something we talked about with Dave shining a couple weeks ago. Pete Jones, you and I went back into it as to, I mean, even you and I in the fight about how much money to give a seventh starter and Kyle Gibson and when the availability would be for some of these guys, because they’re going to have trouble in a general state don’t have great pitching. I you know. And you mentioned Dean Kramer. I want to talk about Dean Kramer here, because I like Dean Kramer. He’s got my hair. You mentioned, well, you gave him some length. Went six innings, five runs. And I’m thinking, you know, in the old days, they didn’t let him do that when he was the fifth starter. They had to go get him in the third inning or the fourth inning before that would happen. Because if Dean Kramer could give you six and two runs every night, he you know, that would be a different kind of team. We’d be real happy with that. So if you’re going to get six out of them, expect it to be five, right? And probably he will be one of the guys unlike 41 year old Charlie Morton Sagan, who are already cramped and is an older cat to begin with, Gibson and whatever he’s going to be whenever he gets here, until then, Dean, get a six. I don’t care if you give up seven, just get us. Get us. We’ll score eight if we have to. I think there is a little bit of that with the younger arms and Ethel is not that guy either, that if there’s a guy, you’re going to let him out there a little while longer and let him clean up his own mess or make a bigger mess. I think he might be the guy in that way that you’re like, I gave up five but he made six innings. My old printer would always say good, fast, cheap. Pick two. Pick two. You can’t have all three. And I would say the same thing is true for most of these pitchers, maybe not effluent, but if you want some length, they’re going to give up some more runs. They’re going to have to battle through it. And Kramer was one of the worst at that right amongst young pitchers, in a general sense, get a couple base runners on guy makes an error behind you. Umpire doesn’t give you a corner call, and a guy hits a double. Just working through all of that, Kramer was one of the guys that struggled with big innings. No
Luke Jones 07:31
question, as many young pitchers do. I mean, it’s, how many times have you seen a young guys moving along? He’s chugging along. It’s looking like it’s shaping up to be a good outing, and then, like you said, Someone boots a ball, you know, a bad throw. You don’t get a call on a two on a two, two pitch. It goes to three, two and you walk them. Hey,
Nestor Aparicio 07:48
dude, if Newcomb gets after Mullins in the first inning, the game’s different.
Luke Jones 07:52
Yeah, no question. I mean, it’s, you know, you hear the expression game of inches a lot across different sports, quite frankly. But baseball really is when you’re talking about the strike zone and things of that nature, you know, just where you where you barrel up the ball, you know, on the bat, the torpedo bat. There we go. We got the torpedo bat mentioned in there. But, yeah, you make a good point as it pertains that they’re starting pitching right now. Where look. You want to see shiny eras. You want to see good numbers, all of those things that you talk about when you’re evaluating pitching. But you know, the thing that I really look at as you look at the Orioles rotation the first time through, and granted, you’re coming out of spring training, even 30 years ago, guys weren’t stretched out on opening day to the same way that you would expect them to be stretched out in June. You know, you didn’t see. I can think of the strike year in 95 when the Orioles opened in Kansas City. What remember Kevin apiary had a no hitter going. And remember, there was a abbreviated spring. And, you know, there was so much talking like, how much more can you let this guy go all of that? But you look the first time through the order. Eflin, six innings on 78 pitches. Thumbs up, perfect. You couldn’t have expected more from that, that you’ll take that right. You’ll take that every day of the week in this day and age. But Morton, three and a third, 80 pitches. Kramer, as we mentioned, five and a third, 81 pitches at least got into the sixth inning, gave them some length, even if gave up five runs in the process. Sagano, four inning, 73 pitches. Had the cramping he was going to he was coming back out the pitch the fifth and then povidge, who, you know, he racked up the strikeouts, you know, did some nice things. But four and a third, 94 pitches. I mean, I think the fact that the Orioles allowed him to go 94 was a reflection of that was your fifth straight day playing a game, and your bullpens worked a heck of a lot over the first five days. So you know, to your point, nice for them to have an off day on Tuesday to kind of exhale a little bit and settle in before they go back on the road in a couple days. But you look at that and for. Me, it’s not even, you know, whatever the era is, you know, of those five guys the first time through the rotation, that’s secondary to me right now, you’re just seeing guys that aren’t getting through five innings. You know, it, it used to be. Years ago, we talked about, man, you need guys that need to get through seven you know, can a guy pitch into the seventh inning, the eighth inning. I mean, forget about that talk, right? I mean, we’re Yeah, and we even talked about it last year. It’s not like Kevin or Corbin Burns did that all that much. You know, pitching into the eighth inning, let’s say as a true ace in Major League Baseball and in the modern day. But you know, when you’re talking about guys that are not getting through four, not getting through five. It’s one thing to ask, Okay, how many runs are they giving up in the process? Just from a functionality standpoint, you’re just you’re putting a lot on your bullpen when that’s happening. And keep in mind, who was the long man in their bullpen on opening day? It was Albert Suarez, he’s on the shelf now. So you have eight guys in the bullpen that, you know, Aiken can give them some length. But Aiken’s a guy that I think they actually look at the season he had last year and say, We want to use him in some maybe not high leverage pitching in the eighth inning of a one run game. But he’s a guy that we might want to pitch in the seventh inning on occasion, you know, in closer games, because we think he’s good. So you just look at that and you say, you don’t have that. You know that six start, the proverbial six starter, swing man, kind of reliever in their pen right now. You have more of, you know, eight relievers you know, guys that you know. And like I said, Aiken can go more than an inning. Matt Bauman went more than in the inning a couple days ago in Toronto, but you don’t have that guy that’s necessarily you’re going to hand the ball to it. The starter gets knocked out in the second inning on because he takes a line drive off his forearm, and it’s going to give you four innings. They don’t have that reliever right now, so it just puts a lot of strain on your entire pitching staff, top to bottom. So that’s where I look at this and say from. And you know, that’s why I your Kramer point resonated with me, where you just need, they need to give functional, competitive outings, even if it’s not the prettiest statistically, get through five innings, get into the sixth inning and have a chance. Now, the offense has to play a part in that, you know, because if you give up four runs and your offense only scores one, and it’s four to one going to the late innings, well, yeah, you’re in trouble, you know. And that’s baseball, and you’re not going to score eight runs every single night no matter, no matter how great your offense is. We saw this last year for as much hand wringing and complaining there was about the Orioles offense over the second half of the season, they finished fourth in the major leagues and run scored per game, even with that underwhelming second half. So it speaks to, one, what their offense can be, and two, just what offense is in general, in 2024 2025 you know, the where we talk about pitching being what it is, you know, with bullpen arms and all that. But you know, they certainly are going to need their starters to go deeper than what we saw this first time through. And again, it’s complicated by the fact that these guys weren’t throwing 80 and 90 pitches in grapefruit league outing. So,
Nestor Aparicio 13:18
but usually they’re going to need that to happen. And I would have told you in March, even though it’s April. Now, that’s probably not likely with this group. Well, you and I both would have said that, well, then
Luke Jones 13:28
they’re just then they won’t go anywhere. They have to do that at least. You can’t get four. You’ve got to get guys that are at least getting you through five, at least on some semblance of a consistent level, right? It can’t be, but
Nestor Aparicio 13:43
what’s it going to look like? What’s five going to look like? I mean, that’s why I said brazen, that Kramer got through six. We gave up five. I mean, we’re talking about is that, is that
Luke Jones 13:54
I’m talking about this has to do with navigating a season and keeping your pitchers healthy. I mean, that’s really what I’m talking about here. So you know Charlie Morton, if he can’t get out of the fourth inning, then he can’t be in the rotation long term. I mean, like, seriously, I’m not asking guys to go seven. Let’s be clear. I’m not. I’m not even asking that guys have to complete six on a consistent basis. That’s going to be a challenge. So you know what you’re saying. I agree to that point. But if guys aren’t even getting into the fifth inning, let alone talking about the sixth or the seventh, then that’s going to be a problem. So you know, or you’re going to have to figure out a way to to put a another long man or two in your bullpen, and you got to kind of approach it that way. So you know, I’m not trying to sound the alarm here and again. Guys aren’t fully stretched out, you know, coming out of spring training, and you know that they were throwing 90 pitches per start down in Sarasota, but it’s got to be trending in that direction. But we know that I’m not expecting this rotation to be top five or in. In the American League, or top 10 in in the major leagues, or even, you know, I, I think if you told me right now, Luke, I’ll give you the opportunity. The starting rotation can be 16th in Major League Baseball and era, I’d probably sign up for that right now, given what it looks like on paper. But, you know, they’re they have to find a way to navigate and get a little bit deeper in the games. I mean, they’re just going to have to. But to your point, and I agree with your point, what’s that going to look like if it’s giving up four runs, that’s still not a pretty era, but generally speaking, with what we think this offense is going to be, that will still give you a chance to win, but if you give up seven runs, well then, yeah, that’s that’s going to be a big time
Nestor Aparicio 15:46
problem. So well, they had a nice lead on opening day. They had a nice thing going on, and it went away, and then they were in a tight game, and in the end, they needed the bats because Batista wasn’t good enough on the back end. So we were rotation, rotation length. What about the eighth and ninth innings? Yeah, well, I mean, what about when you’re up six to five, six to four in the eighth who’s going to get you to the finish line? And they need better than what they had on opening day from Batista and and listen, I’ve been the guy from the beginning saying I am skeptical that he’ll ever look like he looked two years ago, because I’m kind of a grown up and have watched this a long time. I don’t know where the bridge between one of the best things we’ve seen in 50 years of relief pitching here, versus what this is going to be off the choppy start,
Luke Jones 16:38
yeah, but he also pitched well on Saturday, right? I mean, he struck out three on Saturday in a scoreless ninth Indian.
Nestor Aparicio 16:45
I think is their closer right now? Right? That that’s what this is, right? I think
Luke Jones 16:49
so now, is he their their closer in the same way that he was two years ago, where he’s going to pitch back to back nights, or maybe three out of four nights or, I mean, my goodness, we were talking about a guy who was giving them two at two, winning saves at times two years ago. No, he’s not going to be that. And I’m in agreement with you from the standpoint of, look, even if he never had the elbow injury, was he going to duplicate what he did in 2023 in the same way that when Zach Britton was perfect for a year, could you expect him to keep doing that year after year? No, of course not. That doesn’t mean he can’t be really, really good. That doesn’t mean he can’t be an all star reliever again. That doesn’t mean that even this year, coming off of Tommy John surgery, that he can’t be above average and be a really good asset for you in the bullpen. But if you’re going to ask him to carry the entire load, then yeah, it’s it’s probably not going to go the way you need it to because it can’t be one guy. It can’t just be one guy. I’ve said this to you. You’ve heard me say this over and over. I’ve been a broken record now talking about, how come September and then when you’re getting ready for October, you better have four or five arms in your bullpen that you really, truly trust to pitch in just about any situation, because that’s, that’s the name of the game. You know, even in the regular season, it’s become that way more so, but especially when you get into October. So, so, yeah, I hear you. Batista struggled on Monday, you know, I, I still want to give this guy a handful of outings to really establish himself, reacclimate himself to pitching in the majors again, you know, giving him time to recover after starts, and making sure the arms still feeling good and everything but, but, yeah, you’re going to need other guys to step up in the process. That’s why I was so pleased to see them do what they did on Monday, where they had a collaborative effort out of the pen to back up what Kade povidge did. I mean, Bauman, you know, pitching back to back days and hanging up, you know, getting a couple more outs without giving up a run. You know, Dominguez, I thought looked good. That was good to see, because we’ve talked a lot about what kind of a rough spring he had. You know, I mentioned Keegan Aiken, who, you know, could kind of sort of be graduating into a little more of a meaningful role in the bullpen. And then, you know, I thought Cano looked great, you know, I saw some people on social media, and I even had a couple, you know, kind of say it to me, wondering why Batista went into the game even after the Orioles scored four runs. One he was already warming up. And I think again, they’re at a point right now with him, they’re trying to manage him physically in terms of not having them warm up three times a game and then not go in. They’re not trying, you know? They’re not pitching them back to back days.
Nestor Aparicio 19:31
Yeah, he’s not touching a baseball on Tuesday no matter what. Yeah, yeah.
Luke Jones 19:35
I would think I don’t know this Nestor. I’m guessing it’s probably until June that they start talking about him potentially pitching back to back days, right? And a lot of that’s going to depend on pitch count and all of that. So, you know, there, there’s a little bit of management going on with him. It doesn’t mean he’s injured, but he’s coming back from major elbow surgery. You’re not just going to throw him into the. Ryan’s den, and act like the last two years never happened and and he’s 2020
Nestor Aparicio 20:04
as an example, as an example, let’s use this. It’s going to rain on Friday in Kansas City, right? So, like they might not get the game in. They might get they might have a double header on Saturday, Sunday, whatever they’re going to do if there’s a game where it’s five, four in the eighth and Kansas City’s got two on and one out, two outs, whatever. You know, whoever’s in there is going to have to go, because they’re not going to go grab him to try to save their ship on April the ninth. That they’re not going to do that right now, right? I mean, that’s different. That’s clear. He’s not going to be a two winning guy. They’re not going to warm him up, bring him in, have him go sit on the bench for 810, 12 minutes, however long, the next day, and then come they’re not going to do that with him.
Luke Jones 20:49
I’m guessing they won’t. I’m guessing that’s June. I don’t even know if that very scenario. I don’t know if that’s when I said June. I was saying more in terms of him pitching back to back to back days, back to back nights, maybe by August. And a lot of this going to depend. Where are you in the wild card race? Where are you in the Al East Division race? All of that. And the big, the big factor here is, we can, we can set these arbitrary deadlines or these arbitrary dates. How’s he feeling? Well,
Nestor Aparicio 21:19
he’s got to get guys out. Yeah,
Luke Jones 21:21
on Monday, exactly right, yeah. And again. And neither one of us are making that big of an issue of of how he pitched Monday, but yeah, if he struggles, then yeah, you have to revisit when you’re using him. No question. Just like any pitcher with me, never personal the guys. It’s somebody’s got to get that guy out. Well, I mean, it is Craig Kimbrell, last year, was their closer until he wasn’t anymore, because he couldn’t do the job. So, you know, so there’s going to be a lot of with Batista, especially, there’s a lot of feeling out here. That’s why it’s so important that Jen, your Cano, pitched the way that he did on Monday, and Dominguez pitched the way that he did on Monday. And you’re going to need other guys like Aiken, and, you know, for better or for worse, Brian Baker, who actually has looked quite good his first couple outings. But you know, you’re gonna need to pass the baton again. I don’t know if Felix Batista at any point in 2025 is going to be that multi inning guy, you know, I don’t know if you may just say we can’t do that and and you know what it might even be? We have to be grown ups here. We have to recognize that. Yeah, Felix Batista did that two years ago. And what happened? He blew out his elbow. So maybe we need to say, we need to treat him like Mariano Rivera. Remember Mariano? Greatest of All Time, right? He was famously a one inning guy. You never saw him go more than one inning. He was one inning right now. He might do it back to back nights. He might do it three out of four nights. But one inning
Nestor Aparicio 22:50
which only rev up the engine. Yeah, for one song, right? Might be that with Batista, they say there’s no encore. We don’t sit pictures down and get them back up. That’s
Luke Jones 22:59
bad. We’ve got to be grown ups here and recognize that no matter how incredible his arm is when he’s healthy, that he’s still a human being.
Nestor Aparicio 23:09
And this isn’t stratomatic Baseball, yeah, and that, that kind of goes back to what I was
Luke Jones 23:13
saying about, you know, I saw some people questioning, why’d you still bring Batista into the game? It’s because he was warming up and you were revving up the engine, and you want to try to get this guy some innings, and look, I’d rather have him pitching with a little bit of a cushion right now than a one run lead, because, well, we saw on Monday. He’s still not. He’s not peak Batista, or whatever peak Batista you hope is going to be this year. So that’s, I’m not saying that as a criticism. It’s, it’s understandable. So yeah, you’re trying to figure this out. And in the meantime, they’re, they’re probably going to need Dominguez to close some games here and there, and they’re probably going to need a canoe, or it might be a Gregory Soto, because the ninth inning includes two lefty batters do up, you know. And you know, whether it’s Soto Aiken, whoever, so, you know, you might have to do a little bit of that on occasion. I think that’s just where they are. So I think the good news where I do take a little more solace, even though, you know, I’ve expressed concern about the bullpen, I at least see upside with their arms, that I think the talent is there, especially when you can get Kittredge back in the picture, you know, come June, or whenever he’s ready to go, he’s, he’s starting to play catch and do some things. I mean, he’s, he’s mobile. It’s not like he’s on crutches or anything like that. But, you know, they’re going to need their bullpen to do a lot of heavy lifting. And that’s where I look at the makeup right now, and I say, okay, you don’t have a long man, really. So that’s where I look at go back to the rotation and say these guys got to find a way to get a little bit deeper in the games. And you know, you feel good about effluent. You know, Kramer, at least, got into the sixth inning. I’ll continue to say this. I like Kade povidge there after seeing what he looked like when he made his debut last summer. And seeing how he profiled, then I see a pitcher who’s much more competitive now. He just has to find a way to be more efficient. And when he can do that, I think he can be a legitimate Major League starter. I’m not saying he’s gonna be an ace or anything crazy like that, but I think there’s, there’s talent in there to like, I mean, he struck out eight in four and a third. I mean, you don’t strike out major league hitters without having ability. But he’s got a you can’t be at 94 pitches in four and a third. I mean, that’s just not going
Nestor Aparicio 25:28
to work. Well, he’s so picky, right? I mean, you know that’s we would craft the left hand, or whatever the modern version of Scott McGregor would be, but, but that’s, and that’s
Luke Jones 25:38
a good lineup he’s facing now, although I will say I’d be remiss. Like, what is going on with Raphael Devers, right? I mean, he looks like Chris David, like late career Chris Davis, right now he’s, he’s lost. I mean, he doesn’t even look he’s not close, you know. And I know he, you know, he’s dealt with shoulder issues. You know, both shoulders have an issues the last year or so, but, but, but, you know, povid is going up against a good lineup. Keep in mind, he, this was his first opening day. He’s pitching the home opener. Yeah, there’s a lot of pressure. I
Nestor Aparicio 26:09
said that’s big for him itself, you know, big crowd the whole thing, yeah, so that’s where I look at this and say, Look again. I don’t want to, you know, I’m not going to give the kid a standing ovation, because he got through four and a third innings, but he gave them a chance to win, you know, and you need better. You need more efficiency. He’s got to be better, you know, more economical with his pitches. But he competed, and I think you’ll take that. I mean, I liked what I saw for him way more than I saw from Charlie Morton, for example. So, you know, see what he looks like next time out. But you know, they’re they definitely, I mean, this can’t be Zach efland gives you a quality start, and then you’re just crossing your fingers the the rest of the way. Well, isn’t that really where it kind of feels like that’s where they are. I mean, that’s when we knew that, a week ago, right? I mean, we come out of this thing and say it’s a box of chocolates. I mean, yeah, um, Sagano is very much, don’t know, never done this, right? And I’m not going to judge him, you know, call me freak this week. And I’ll tell you, you know, let me see six or eight of these in order, in turn, the body of work when he can get to the sixth inning, or if he can get to the sixth inning, 35 year old guy, right? So, like, I don’t know.
Luke Jones 27:19
And I’ll also say this, I mean Sagano and Morton, of course, that’s why a lot of us were wondering, okay, you’re spending 24 or not, 24 $28 million on a 41 year old pitcher who’s had a really nice career, but he’s 41 and a 35 year old pitcher who had a heck of a career In Japan, but it was in Japan, you know, so. But I will say this, you know, and we mentioned him. Look, Dean Kramer, over the last few years, I know he’s been the guy that everyone’s been quick to want to replace or move to the bullpen or or what have you. But let’s keep in mind, 2022 3.23 era. 2023 4.12 era 2024 4.1 era, he’s taken the ball, he’s mostly stayed healthy, and he’s given them a chance to win, if he can at least be that guy again. That’s still going to help your rotation and help the overall makeup of your pitching staff. So look, Dean Kramer, it’s not a one, not a two, he’s not a three on most contenders. He’s probably not even a four, he’s probably a five, but he’s been a legitimate Major League starter the last few years. It’s not great, you know, it’s, you know, he hovers right around league average, but you’re also not going to have five all stars in your rotation, you know, unless you’re, unless you’re the Dodgers. And maybe you can have that, although they can’t keep pitchers healthy. So that’s kind of a moot point anyway. But you know, they’re going to need, they’re going to need Dean Kramer to be the best version of himself, that’s for sure. Because, you know, unlike these other guys, he’s 29 where these other guys you’re talking about are mid to late 30s, or in Morton’s case, early 40s, that you just, you know, they kind of are what they are at this point, whereas Kramer, you’re hoping that he can at least be, you know, the the league average starter that he’s been the last few years. Because, man, if they can’t get that from him at the very least, then, yeah, it’s boy. You get to a point where you’re really starting to wonder how this thing’s going to hold together. And you know that nightly quest for 27 outs just gets longer and longer when you don’t have starting pitchers that can at least get you through five innings, even if it’s not a shiny era. Luke
Nestor Aparicio 29:41
Jones is here. He is Baltimore. Luke. He will be covering the great sport of Major League Baseball all season long here and out on social media. We are monitoring what’s going on with the Ravens. We’re monitoring what’s happening with the Terps, and that this the mess there. I took a selfie with their queen. We’re from Baltimore, that’s why. And. And you can check all that out at social media. Luke and I will be at fade Lee’s on Wednesday. We’re going to talk torpedo bats on Wednesday. So I want to give us some options to do that before we do that, though, you do spend a lot of time in Major League Baseball network and catching up anything around the sport the first week, other than the torpedo bats that is worth speaking of, other than the fact that Atlanta goes under to San Diego. San Diego and La are, like, perfect the first week. I mean, there, there were some gaudy starts and some concerning starts, but kind of a, you know, we got our own pie here in Baltimore that we concern ourselves with. But, you know, it’s a start of the season everywhere, and hope springs eternal, even for the Red Sox fans I saw on Monday, yeah, you
Luke Jones 30:43
know, you mentioned Atlanta, but not just that. They’re off to a bad start. Jerks and pro far popped for peds. I mean, he’s got an 80 game suspension. I mean, that that was a big signing for them, especially as Acuna is coming back from the ACL still not ready to play, although he’s going to be, you know, not too long away. And then I saw, you know, they put Renato Lopez on the IL with the shoulder injury. So, I mean, for the Braves, it’s just, you know, it’s kind of, you know, you look at them as one of the few teams in the NL, you know, I kind of look at the makeup of the National League going into the season. And obviously, you know, San Diego is off to a good start, so good for them. But you look at the overall national league, the Dodgers are, I mean, the Dodgers are overwhelmingly the best team in baseball. I mean, Vegas, you know, look at their win, their win total, over, under, compared to anyone else. I mean, it’s, it’s obvious. But you look at the National League, I kind of look at Atlanta, at least before this week, because they are off to a an alarmingly bad start, and now they have some attrition as well. But you look at them, I look, I still look at the Phillies, even though, you know they’re, you know, they’ve got an older roster, especially, you know, some of their position talent, but you know, those are the teams I really point to that have a chance to actually compete with the Dodgers, right? You know, when you get into October, those are the kind of teams that you point to. But you know that that Atlanta situation, that’s not good. I mean, oh, and five is one thing. I mean, how many teams in baseball are going to have a five game losing streak over the course of the year? I mean, just about everyone. So you’re not, you’re not sounding the alarm that you’re doomed, but you know you lose pro far, who was a big addition for you. And you know you, you know you’re getting Spencer Strider back in the not too distant future, but you know what else going to happen? So that kind of stands out. You know the brewers are owing for me, we, we spent a lot of time talking about the torpedo, torpedo bats. And I mentioned that another segment to you, you know, the, yes, the Yankees did a lot of damage. It’s a lot of bad pitching in that series for Milwaukee. So, you know, they were one of the better stories last year when they traded burns, and everyone kind of wrote them off, and yet they still made it, you know, still, you know, took care of business and played in into October, until the Mets, you know, knocked him out. But, you know, you look at that, and, you know, in the Al, I mean, the Red Sox were kind of becoming the media darling pick in the Al east, with Garrett Cole going down, and all the Orioles pitching concerns. And you know, they’re one and four. And as I said, Raphael Devers, like he it’s not just that he’s over, it’s that he’s he’s barely making contact. I mean, he’s striking out at the rate he is. I mean, it’s kind of Chris Davis, like, right now, you know late career Chris Davis, not the, not the good version of Chris Davis. So, yeah, that’s, those are my early impressions. But you know me, man, you let the season breathe. You got to let the season breathe at least a couple weeks before you really start jumping to any conclusions, unless you’re talking about injuries, and that’s where, you know, kind of comes back to the Orioles being one of those teams that they’re dealing with it. You know, good news is I do expect gunner Henderson back, you know, if not by the finale against the Red Sox, I expect him back early on this road trip. I think he’s just about ready to go, and that’ll go a long way. You know, as much as we’ve talked about the offense doing what they’ve done, I’ll remind everyone they’ve done that without their best player. So they are doing something right, even if you know, the offense has been a little choppy in terms of Feaster famine.
Nestor Aparicio 34:20
He is Luke Jones. He is Baltimore, Luke. We are covering baseball. We are covering football, the NFL owners meetings, which I am banned from, and Luke can’t be I could do a lot of things to Luke Jones, but I am not going to break out that Elon Musk chainsaw and slice him in half and send half of them to Florida and half of them to Camden Yards. I had all of them in Toronto last week, two countries, one baseball team and the Orioles headed off to Kansas City this weekend. We are headed, thankfully, for my second crab cake of the week at Faith Lee’s. We’re going to be at Faith Lee’s on Wednesday. I will have the scratch off so the Marilyn lottery, the magic eight ball scratch offs giveaway. Come on down. Say hello. The great Mark Viviano will join us. I don’t know if Luke. Never done a segment with Mark Viviano, but that might happen, because Luke’s going to join us and talk about juiced bats in New York. Come up with a new name for that. You know, I think I gotta go up to New York soon and and go up to the Bronx and get some nasty Nestor T shirts at a deep, deep, deep discount in the Bronx right now. So I’ll be doing that at some point over the next couple weeks as well. We’re also going to have Terps talk here. I’m going to be chasing some people down to discuss the N i L the the portal, and I mean as as chirps fans, we’re all looking at this and saying, all right, we don’t recognize the new Wild Wild West. They don’t recognize it in Indiana either, where everybody’s in the portal. I am not in the portal, and it the only April Fool we have here is, well, me, I guess I am Nestor. He is Luke. We are W, N, S, T, A of 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stop with my name rhymes with Jester. Nestor, Jester. We’re Baltimore positive. Stay with us. No fooling you.
