Who is ready to be an October hero for Orioles?

With playoff fever quelled by the sluggish play of the Baltimore Orioles in the second half, Luke Jones and Nestor wonder if the bats can turn on and the bullpen can meet the challenge of an October run as the Kansas City Royals come to Camden Yards for a Wild Card week battle.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

game, orioles, playing, kiko, bats, week, bullpen, hit, days, santander, talking, second half, months, baseball, win, runs, october, season, team, luke

SPEAKERS

Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

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Welcome home. We are wnst am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, still hoping that you’ll give us one of those little presets on your your radio dial there, wherever you are, if you’re not off in satellite or Howard Stern land. We’ve got an unbelievable week of sports here. I mean, obviously the Ravens coming off a huge victory over the Buffalo Bills. We got baseball on the brain all week long. We have and kind of the fun part is it’s a little bit like Bruce Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love. You go into that fun house, you don’t know, you don’t know what you’re going to get, and that’s going to that’s what makes it fun. But we’re going to get at least two games here on Tuesday and Wednesday. Luke and I are going to talk about that next Friday, allegedly, with rain, you know, all of that weather, we would have an off day before an American League Championship Series. Therefore, I planned a crab cake tour on the 11th of October to celebrate Luke’s birthday. He turns 29 all over again. And I am, of course, turning 29 all over again next weekend as well. October 11 will be a pizza Johns and Essex. It’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. I have these Raven scratches. These have been the luckiest batch ever. I mean, people are yelling at me at Costas, I won five bucks. I won seven bucks. I don’t know they won seven. He goes a five minute, two. Somebody won 10 the other day, somebody won 20. Last week, I faintly, I have the Raven scratch offs. The Ravens have been scratching off pretty well. Of last two weeks, scratching all victories. Will hope to see that happen again in Cincinnati, our friends at Jiffy Lube, multi care, power Luke up getting back and forth from Camden Yards to Owings Mills. He won’t be in always mills. Much this week, if the baseball team holds up, as you know, I am banned because I’m a bad guy. I’m writing to David Rubenstein this week’s my first letter to the new owner of the Orioles, asking him why he’s behaving like the old owner of the Orioles. So I hope you read that. I hope you’re under w n s t tech service, 410, 821, w n s t, you text and join and you’re on about 6000 of you now on that. Hear it in Luke’s voice when you hear it and it is brought to you by Cole roofing. I’m gonna have you say Cole roofing, cold roofing, and we’re going to add that as a little audio attachment to that for Luke, because Luke is working hard getting out things like wild card matchups and game times at four o’clock, 434 o’clock. Get the babysitters for the kids. Get the day off, early from work. Come on downtown. Meet me. At me, she’s for lunch, and get ready for quite a magic carpet ride here. Luca, How you holding up? Man, late night, Sunday night. Big victory. You know, Chad Steele and Greg Bader trying to Texas Chainsaw you in half. So I can have half of you in Owings Mills and half of you downtown. And it’s a big, big week for the ravens, two and two taking a division game, one of them 10 away. But I don’t think there’s going to be any oxygen, especially for you, as you said to me last week, playoff baseball, dude, I’m not worried about the bills or the Bengals, you know. And good for you, because I need you to focus this week.

Luke Jones  02:55

Well, I mean, you can focus on that on Sunday, right? I mean, and it even plays out this week, especially if they advance to the Division Series, then Sunday, they have an off day, and you can watch the ravens and the Bengals. So I think through the

Nestor Aparicio  03:06

is that, like your Deacon Jones speech on the seventh day, he rested and played football,

Luke Jones  03:11

not resting, none of that for the time being, but, but there’s the postseason for baseball. It’s so unique. And I guess this applies for the NFL as well, because obviously, you know, you can be as excited as you want, as confident as you want, and you have a bad three hours and it’s over, but this is such an exciting time that you have six months that it builds to this. And specifically with the Orioles, I mean, we knew from May that they were going to be in the postseason. Now, we didn’t know how rocky it would be in the second half of the season, but I think come the third week of May, and certainly by June, when there were 24 games over 500 you knew that this was going to be happening. You just didn’t know. Okay, division, wild card, what, seed, all of that. So you have this build, and especially when you don’t have a first round buy like the Oreos had last year. I mean, this can be over in two days, or we could be talking about this two weeks from now, or we could be talking about this a month from now, or five weeks from now, we’re talking about a parade. I mean, that’s what we’re talking about here, in terms of the range of outcomes. So it’s very exciting. It’s very nerve wracking. You know, if you haven’t clipped your fingernails, you’ll probably be okay, because there’ll be plenty of nail biting as it pertains to starting Tuesday afternoon against the Kansas City Royals, but it’s such an exciting time, and I think for baseball fans especially, you know, depending on how you feel about other sports. October baseball is just so much different because you’re so programmed as a regular season baseball watcher that no single game, you know, no individual game matters that much. You know, as ugly as a losses, well, you got a game tomorrow and okay, the. It applies for Wednesday. If they have an ugly game Tuesday, okay, they have Wednesday, but then they’re playing for their season. So it can end so quickly. We saw this last year as great as the Orioles were in the regular season, it was over just like that. So that’s that can be a blessing. If you’re the upstart team, you’re the underdog team, you’re the team that’s trying to overcome, say, a rough month of September, like the Orioles did, until, you know, the last five days or so, or you know, you can be that team that, you know, kind of wilts under expectations. So we’re going to find out a little bit about this team. You hope that all of the adversity that they went through. And I and I was talking about this back in July and August and September, Nestor, I said over and over, I don’t, I can’t guarantee it’s going to be this October, but I said that everything they went through this season, I do think is going to benefit them in a big picture sense. At some point now, it might be next year. It might be two years from now, I don’t know, but I think it was important for this team to survive, so to speak, what they did. And you know now, they’ve got guys back, other than Grayson Rodriguez and other than the guys that we knew were out for the year. But they got everyone else back. You know, Jordan westburg is back. Ramona Reuss is back. They got the guys back in the bullpen. They got Heston kerstad back, who I assume will be a bent bad off the bench for them. So, you know, now it’s a matter of, hey, you get to roll the dice. You know, you mentioned in a previous segment talking about Buck Showalter using the term pile diver, the other term that he always talked about is October is all about earning the right to get there, and then you roll the dice. I mean, you really don’t know how, of course, you want to play your best and put your best foot forward, but you just don’t know, because we’re tre again. It goes back to baseball players, baseball coaches and managers, baseball, media, baseball fans were all so conditioned to not make too much out of one game, and this is the exact opposite of that. Now, especially when you think back to when you had the wild card game at least. Now it’s the best of three at the very least. But, I mean, it’s it’s beautiful, but it can be a nightmare too, because ask the Ask the LA Dodgers, who, regular season wise, they have been the class of baseball for close to a decade now, right? Look how much October success they’ve had, or lack thereof. Short series, it can end very quickly. So I don’t say that to scare anyone. It’s just, it’s how this works, and that’s why it’s both exhilarating and nerve wracking as can be, because you just know that, gosh, you just have a bad day or two, and it can be over just like that.

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Nestor Aparicio  07:49

Those of you who’ve been following our journey around it, you know I’m doing the Maryland oyster tour here, 26 oysters, 26 days, 26 ways for our friends at Liberty, pure one 800 clean water as well as curio wellness. And we’re in the top. I’ll have my orange top on on Tuesday, Wednesday, maybe Thursday, as the Orioles play, also our friends at Jiffy Lube and and royal farms, putting this out on the road through this oyster tour and making things happen. I you know this the hitting side of this. We’ve talked about the pitching and your concern, right? Your palpable concern about the bullpen. And I look at, you know, burns Eflin, and let’s say Kramer Suarez, whatever that would look like on Thursday if they’re playing for their lives, and who’s still available and who gets beaten up early. So Suarez has to come in in the fourth inning on Tuesday or because every day you’re playing you’re playing Tuesday, like it’s game seven. Kind of feel like you know the eighth inning your game seven, you got to win, got to win, got to win. You get that one under your belt. Now you got to win one out of two, right? But you don’t want to come back to the ballpark at 430 on Wednesday, in that game that you have to win to keep your season alive. One of these two teams is going to have that all four of these series, San Diego, all the way around. I mean, my God, the Braves and the Mets playing two games on Monday and the Diamondbacks trying to figure what plane they’re getting on to go to Milwaukee, and what I mean, the circumstance the Orioles have, other than what Barry Bloom said a couple weeks ago, which is, I don’t want the Yankees to have four days off. It’ll screw up their pitching. It screws up everybody’s pitching. Well, let the Dodgers in the Phillies worry about that. Let the Indians and the Yankees worry about that this week. And I want to talk format with you a little bit, because we are going to New York if we win, not to Cleveland Houston, because it the receding and the way it works. It’s just this is their format, and I want to give you some oxygen on that. But before we do that, I want to give love this weekend, as I was on my oyster tour going out into Catonsville and over to that place where they brew that Baltimore blonde that has nothing to do with Baltimore, all my old newspaper people got together. I saw some of your colleagues. I saw childs Walker and Jamison Hensley. I found that the Jamison Hensley, don’t tell him. I said this, you won’t see him this week anyway, and Lord knows, I won’t see him. He lists. Since the wnst, he admitted this to my senior editor, Christian Zhang, who took me off my 21st birthday beer. We’re now all old farts, but all the old sports writers got together over the weekend, and we’ll play this game with you, even though Mike Marlowe wasn’t there, and he was always the editor of the playoff section. I didn’t have any playoff sections when I worked at the paper. I was there from 84 to 92 we didn’t, we didn’t get to produce any playoff sections, but we did have those season preview sections we did where Earl Weaver was coming back to manage the Orioles in the 80s and whatnot. And when we did that, Jim Henneman or Ken Rosenthal, or if it was in the morning sun, it was Richard justice or Tim Kirk or buster only, any number of my colleagues who all worked at the sun in the News America and a rich, rich tradition, schmuck would have been right little column, or Eisenberg or Litwin, or whoever it would have been. But if you were my beat reporter, and I did stand up for you rich sharer, and I had a long conversation about Kevin Byrne and his thoughts about our coverage, and I said, and I looked around the room at Kevin van Valkenburg was there, by the way. So it was a, it was a Kevin Eck, a lot of Kevin’s, all the Kevins were there. My dear friend Andy noble retired, and the Mets still suck, and they still haven’t won a championship. 36 years at the paper Andy and they still haven’t won. But I was shocked at how many people listen to our station, listen to our words and all this. If I put together a preview section for the playoffs, and I can break out my 79 and my 83 from the evening sun and news American, because I was such a newspaper head. And you know that? That’s why our breaking news tech service is so awesome, because I believe in breaking news, 410, 821, W, N, S, T, thank you, Cole roofing, but I want to do this with you and do a preview section, preview you and me like pretending we’re at the news. Dude, here’s what we can do. We could pretend that we’re at sports first. You were born the first week. Sports first launched. A year later, you killed it. 84 also took our football team. My God, you you only got, you got barely got to see a couple colts games in your childhood. 41 years ago. 4141 years ago this week. My God, you and the Orioles World Series trophy are the same age. You’re only two weeks older than that. So let’s go through this because you’ve talked pitching, we’ll talk Reagan’s Lugo waka right, and their bullpen, and thankfully, it doesn’t look like the 2014 Royals bullpen, which I still have some night frights and some sweats about. And I know Buck show Walter does as well. So does Adam Jones and marques all those guys, right? He was gone at that point. But I would just say this for the hitters you said before the trading deadline before Elias was dealing for bullpen help and dealing for Eloy Jimenez and figuring out Slater and all the injuries in West Berg and Matteo. All that happened. You’re like, if they win the World Series, or if they’re successful in October, it’s going to be because they’re STARS or STARS mahomes and Kelsey in the playoffs. You know, you go home with Taylor Swift, you take the trophy home with you. You know, I look at this with this team, and I see guys who are in the Hall of potential, you know, in the Hall of very good for now, rookies of the years, one ones that have made it, cakes that have baked. In the case of gunner Henderson rutchman, was a cake that baked and then flopped. It’s more of a souffle. At this point. We’re trying to figure that out, right? And we’ve been through the weeders in the market, and we’ve been through this 10 years ago where that team could have won a World Series, right? And I would defer to you, on the night when we saw the rat as big as me in the Bronx, when they lost that game five that night there, if that had gone the other way, and you talk about roll the dice. Peter Angelo showed up, and it’s one time I think you were in a room with him, right? Was that night in the Bronx after they lost, and I waited for you out on that park bench outside, because

13:53

I’m a bad guy. I

Nestor Aparicio  13:55

can’t think of anything that offends me more than being called a bad guy by Greg Bader in the Baltimore Orioles. So Dear David Rubenstein, you’re gonna get my shot banning me from your press box. On behalf of Peter Angelo, it’s disgraceful, but nonetheless, that was their best shot 14. They went to the American League Championships, but they just weren’t the best team. They had a real chance in 12 for me to navigate the next couple of weeks, if they could have, because they had a little bit of depth in their pitching with Shannon Gonzalez, they had a little bit of that, and Machado didn’t know who he was yet. And, you know, I wanted to see another 24 bats the next series from those guys, right? They didn’t get there, but I felt like that. That was a potential team. And you always talk about the Miss Billy Cundiff kick that we always talk about while Harbaugh sat on the sideline, not knowing how many time outs, by the way, two time outs in a row the other night. I have the video of him yelling. I have that, so I’ll use that. I will meme that up. When I learn how to make memes, I don’t really know how to make those or gifs or gifts, or they gifts or GIFs, I don’t know have to. Ask the ocean callings people, but let’s go play by player. All right, so the stars to be stars. Let’s start with a profile of who gunner Henderson is. I mean, he’s one of the

Luke Jones  15:11

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best players in the American League, you know? I mean, Gunner Henderson was their best player, most valuable player. He was arguably the most valuable player in the American League over the first three months of the season, because Aaron judge didn’t slept through April, inexplicably. When you go back and look at his numbers in the month of April, but you know, I mean, he’s, he’s their best player, and he got a good month of September, after a not so great August. And they need gunner to be great. I mean, look, and unless you’re counting on the Ryan o’hearns of your lineup, and Ryan O’Hearn, we’ve seen him in a couple long balls recently. That’s been good to see. But you know, gunner is your best player, and I mean, he’s the he’s the most dynamic player they have, and that that’s taken nothing away from anyone else. But he had a near 900 ops. He had 37 home runs. At 92 runs driven in, batted 280, had a 364, on base percentage slug, 529, I mean, what more do you want? Needs to be a little steadier defensively, sure, but we also see him make great plays. And I, and I’ve reminded you over and over, go look how many errors Cal Ripken made in his age 23 season, his age 24 season, it’s a similar story. I think gunner Henderson is going to be a heck of a shortstop before it’s all said and done, but you need it. Just like any position, you got to be steady, you got to be sharp, you got to be on point. So, I mean, what’s really great about this series, and this is where, in in some ways it’s unfortunate, because it won’t have as much oxygen, because it’s the best of three, no matter what either team wins. You know, this thing’s over in three games or two games.

Nestor Aparicio  16:43

You don’t get stats here. You’re gonna get 810, 12 at bats, tops, right, like, literally,

Luke Jones  16:47

right, but, but we’re gonna get gunner Henderson and Bobby Witt Jr. I mean, you’re talking about, I mean, the two best young shortstops in the game. I mean two of the best young players in the game at any position. What they do. I mean, it’s that’s fun. I mean, that’s cool when you think about that. And like I said, I mean Bobby Witt in the second half, if Aaron judge doesn’t exist, we’re talking about Bobby Witt being the overwhelming MVP of the league. Like no questions asked MVP of the league. It’s up. Darren judge exists, and that’s his problem, so but, you know, with Gunner, I mean, I think, you know, they played around with the idea of him hitting third or fourth, and I think in an ideal world, yeah, you probably would have him hitting second or third. But for for this team this year, as it’s presently constructed, he makes sense in the leadoff spot. And if you notice, when they put him back in the leadoff spot, that’s when he got himself back, you know, hitting the long ball, and doing the things that gunner Henderson does. So look, I mean shortstop, like I said, both these teams. I mean a plus shortstops, you know, A A plus shortstops. I mean, that’s, and that’s that’s exciting when you’re talking about guys that are, oh, 23 years old. I mean, that’s that says a lot for the future of both of these franchises. Bobby Witt under contract. You know, the the Orioles will be talking about it as soon as the season ends, whether it’s this week or early November, we’re going to be talking about it again. When are you signing gunner Henderson? When are you signing gunner Henderson? Are you trying to you trying to extend him? But like, because he’s that special of a talent,

Nestor Aparicio  18:26

let’s keep going through this and and I don’t, I want to say rutschman Next, and I want to, you know, let you profile him, but you might want to do Santander, and you might want to do westburg, or you might want to do cows. I don’t know where you want to go, but I think we need to talk about rutschman in relationship to what he needs to be, what we think he is. And in my sort of flippant emails, my dear Rubenstein and how I’m feeling about journalism, this is the point where these players, and especially with rutchman, if you’re going to be that generational guy, and you’re going to get that $200 million deal, and Mr. Rubenstein is going to have to step up and out in a way financially to show what they’re doing here when they hire canopy to spend the 600 I’ll be all the things are them off the field that have to do with the business of the team. This is where the stars become stars, and tough decisions have to be made for who you keep, who you don’t keep, who we can sign, whether Corbin Burns is going to be an Oriole next year, and at what cost, or, you know, whether he’s this year’s Blake Snell, I don’t know. And and how many starts Corbin burns gets this time of the year versus, because that’s how you get to be a stars. You make six starts in October, not one, even if you make one, great one. You know, next day you lose Kramer stinks the next day, and you’re out, does it? This is treacherous for all these guys, their money, their careers, their reputation. It’s such a small sample size, but rutchman and the and the gang and I’ll let you pick. You can pick the order, because. I just, if I had to pick it, we’d have to talk about rutschman, and then I think Santander, and then next westburg, and cows are as we go through and Mullins, you know? And right? I mean, all mount castle. I mean, they got a lot of players, any of these guys, I’m not going to sing the Oriole magic song, but I might for the segments over but every night there’s a different star. That’s the magic of Oriole baseball. That need to be all these guys need to be one or two of these guys over the next two or three days. So that we’re talking about hopping a bus along the Hudson River line on Saturday. Maybe you and I are up in the Bronx. I would pay $18 for a playoff ticket in New York. I guess I would go up with you and get a bed. And they got good food up there. I’ll introduce you some good Korean places. We can watch the ball game on Sunday. That sounds fun, doesn’t it like little a, l, D, S in the Bronx this weekend. Gotta get there. Rushman, let’s start with him.

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Luke Jones  20:57

Well, tale of two halves, I still have my questions and suspicions that he’s not healthy because he has been that bad in the second half. Anything you’ve heard about Adley rutschman In terms of slumping in the second half has most likely been understated Nestor, a not saying this to pick on him among qualified hitters, he’s been one of the worst five to 10 hitters in baseball in the second half. I mean, it’s that bad. He’s been completely lost. I mean, you look at the numbers since the all star break, Adley rutschman is batting 207 with a 282 on base percentage and a three on three slot, 303 slug. I mean, he’s been, he’s been replacement level since the beginning of July. He’s been replacement level. James McCann had a better half at the plate. If this were blind names. I

Nestor Aparicio  21:46

mean, I can pull Mendoza’s splits up and it’s, you know, seriously, right? Like, fun of that, or whatever. But whatever that Mark Belanger thing is, I was, like, eat some peach cake here. Thank you.

Luke Jones  21:57

I mean, I honest. I don’t say this to be flippant or to pick on the guy I don’t dislike, Adley rutschman. The Adley rutschman that we saw from about three weeks into his major league career until the end of June was exactly what he had been, a two time all star, a guy that belongs at in the top two spots in your batting line, in your batting order, and you know, hits for pop, draws, walks, gets on base, hits, doubles, drives and runs. I mean, nothing about him to dislike other than, okay, well, he’s slow, he’s well, he’s a catcher. Imagine that, right? But he’s been completely lost. I mean, this is going to sound a little strange Nestor, and you could say, maybe you shouldn’t say this, because there would be more hope then for him snapping out of it and having a big October. Part of me almost hopes that he is dealing with an injury. That’s how bad he’s been in the second half. I mean, this isn’t a slump. This is he’s been one of the worst players in baseball, worst qualified hitters in baseball, in the second half of the season. You know, he his profile wouldn’t warrant playing every day. That’s how bad he’s been offensively. So that’s where I I say, in a big picture sense, I’m hoping we find out three days after the season ends, or two weeks after the season ends, whenever that is, whether that’s this week or in November 3, that we find out that, you know, Adley rutschman has been dealing with this and this maybe, you know, so it’s just, it’s perplexing this, because it’s he’s been that good. He was that good for his first two full two plus calendar years, years in the major leagues. And to to struggle to this degree. You know, Gunner Henderson struggled in August. But go back and look at what gunner hit in the month of August. It wasn’t so bad that you’re questioning whether he should drop out of the leadoff spot or he should be benched for a few days. I mean, that’s how bad ruchman has been at the plate in the second half. So if he is healthy, then you hope that maybe the light the light switch does flip on here, in in this on this stage, in these circumstances, because you know what he’s capable of being. But again, you’ve been that bad. You’ve struggled that to that degree, for that that long three months. I have a hard time believing that he’s 100% healthy, because if he is, then boy off season, priority number one might be, you got to fix Adley rutschman, because that’s how bad he’s been in the second half of the season. At the plate. Again, the numbers don’t lie. I mean, for to be such a prolific player and to struggle to the degree that he has, like I said. I mean, we’re probably going to see him on game one. Here’s my prediction for you. You know, if someone listening to this right now, maybe the lineup will be out when, when they’re listening closer to first pitch, but it’s a lefty on the mound, Cole Reagan’s Corbin Burns has not that. He hasn’t had ruchman Catch him, but he’s had James McCann catch him quite a bit. I mean, James McCann’s going to is. Gonna catch. And I’m guessing Adley rutman is going to be the DH, but the saving grace there is Adley is better from the right side, or has been better from the right side this year. But, man, I mean, again, look at the second half numbers. James McCance had a better second half at with the bat than than Adley rutschman has. So you can tell my angst here. I mean, it’s, it’s because I’m just so perplexed and I think he’s hurt. It doesn’t get set unless he’s 27th that we’ve seen has affected him or or he remember he had, he had a back issue a while back that he missed a couple games as well. Or, hey, we see this all the time in football, and it can happen in baseball as well. You know, a core muscle issue, a sports hernia issue, something like that, where it’s not so debilitating that you can’t play, but boy, is it debilitating in terms of being the best version of yourself. Again, the numbers have been so bad for so long for a guy who was so good over his first 26 months in the in the major leagues, calendar months in the major leagues, that it just doesn’t make sense to me that he’s fully healthy, and this is just a quote slump. It’s gone on way too long to think it’s just that. All right, let’s

Nestor Aparicio  26:09

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go down here. Santander westburg, Mullins, where do you I mean, you got 3030, guys. Santander is what he is this year too. And I think the fans are a little concerned, like, Alright, you’re not going to pay Santander the way they didn’t pay Nelson Cruz a generation ago, or whatever it is. And say, take those home runs. Take whatever that is elsewhere, for whatever $80 million he’s going to get over the next three or four years, right? And where would that pop come from next year if he’s not here? In the same way that if Corbin Burns is one and done. Starts a game here, and we don’t get to New York over the weekend, and whatever. There is a little bit of you might be seeing Corbin Burns’s last start. You might be seeing the last train here for some of these guys, that even if they win the World Series, they’ll be worth more money, I guess, to some degree, right for all of these guys, but they are playing for big money, big stakes, with just a couple of at bats and a couple of pitches, really, on Tuesday for burns. Team’s going to change. You know, we already had Mullins one foot out of here six months ago, right? And Hayes turned out to be the guy that got tapped on the shoulder and let it let away from the bachelor garden. But, you know, things are going to change, and things change quickly. And this is the time of the year where I remember Bill it said at Super Bowl, 35 get a look at each other. So last time you’re going to see each other like this, that’s kind of the way this thing’s going in that way. But I’m wondering. Santander Mullins, sort of veteran guys look kerstat Cows are Westbrook. They’re here to stay. Some of these other people are playing for big stakes and and have a real stake in the hearts of Mount Castle too, Oriole fans,

Luke Jones  27:51

yeah. I mean, it’s, this was always going to be the awkward time period, you know, we talked about this before the season even started. And then you get into, you know, like, Austin Hayes, for example, got off to such a bad start. Colton cowser had that big, I mean, monster, two and a half weeks in April, and he was a starting player from that point on. Now, we can debate, you know, whether Colton cows are would benefit from resting against certain lefty starters, things like that, but I think we feel pretty confident he’s going to be a starting outfielder for them for the next four or five years at the very least, right? I mean, it feels that that way. And, you know, Santander, I mean, that’s the that’s the pressing one, because he’s a free agent, right? I mean, he’s going to hit the market if they don’t resign him. You know, it’s complicated, because I’m not opposed to resigning him at the same time, what’s it going to take to do it? You know, I’m certainly not enthusiastic about giving him a five or six year deal. You know, I don’t know how he’s going to age as a player as well as he played this year. My goodness, he was 40 plus home runs right for first time, and Oriole done that since Trumbo eight years ago. But wow, say that. How does his profile say? Trumbo

Nestor Aparicio  29:02

again? Wow, man. I forgot about

Luke Jones  29:08

2016 right? There you go. 47 home runs, yeah, but, but you look at and they resigned him, and that didn’t turn out so well, right? So, I mean, part of it is, hey, he had a great contract here. Good for him. He’s going to get paid by somebody, but I’m, I’m open to it. I’m not opposed to resigning Anthony Santander, but how much, how long? And I think what, what hurts from an Orioles perspective here, in terms of the decision making, is the year that Heston kersat ended up happening, having with. You know, it really felt like he was starting to hit his stride offensively when he got beaned, right? I mean, ends up on the concussion list, comes back. Wasn’t right. Symptoms returned. He’s back on the list. Miss most of the summer. That was not just because of his potential. That was such an important information gathering period for the Oriole. I think, and trying to evaluate him and what he is. I mean, what is Heston kerstad Right now, I’m not giving up on him, let’s be clear. But if he had had a monster second half, you might have said, You know what? I I can try to sign Anthony Santander at my price. And if that doesn’t work out, I feel really good about Heston kerstad, but I don’t think anyone can say that with any level of anything that isn’t hopes and prayers and based on his prospect ranking, you know, at one point in time. So, so that’s where it’s tough. But you know, Santander is the middle of their lineup. Look, has he been a little more feast and famine at times over the last couple months where, if he’s not hitting home runs. He’s not doing a whole lot, yeah, but you could say that about just about anyone in this lineup. We talked about that with this lineup just being all or nothing, a little bit too much over the last two to three months. You know, we’ve seen that. So look, he’s going to be hitting third or fourth. I mean, I think that’s clear. You know, left, left handed or right handed, right? I mean, sweet switch hitter doing what he can do. I mean, it’s very valuable. We’ll have plenty of time to talk about what happens when this ends. But, yeah, you’re going to need Anthony Santander to hopefully hit a couple of long balls for you, hopefully more than a couple, if they’re playing deep into the month. So you have him. You mentioned Mullins. You know, I think he’s such an interesting case. Because, yeah, if you had asked in June, you would have said, Oh, well, he’s probably going to be non tendered. I mean, but because he struggled to that degree. But I think what you saw, first of all, we have to recognize what he’s become. He’s a platoon bat now. I mean, you really don’t want him starting against left handed starters. I you know he we have a couple years now, you know he’s far enough from move from when he hit the way he did against lefties in his 3030, year to say he’s that’s probably, that’s the aberration. That’s not what you should expect. So that said, I’m not ready to just non tender them either. So I think you keep Cedric Mullins around for another year and you’re hoping he can have a good month. I mean, he had a good second half, you know? I mean, he was for as much as we were talking about him potentially being sent to the miners. For goodness sake, fans were talking about that. We talked about not saying that that was likely, but had to acknowledge it was possible. He was doing that poorly second half of the season, he batted 266, 374, on base. 457, slog. You know, he had nine home runs. You know, he stole some bases, drew some walks. You know, cut down on the strikeouts a little bit. But the reason why he was able to do that, or part of the reason why was they started to limit his starts against left handed pitching. So, you know, that’s, you know, that’s that. That’s the one thing that you know that is tough when they go and go up against the left handed starter like Cole Reagan’s, for example, or take your pick of any other lefty they might see if they advance deeper into the postseason, is, what do you do with your outfield there? Because, okay, Santander is fine and right, but you know, what are you doing with Mullins? You know? Does that mean cows are playing center and Mullen sits? Okay, what

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33:01

you know, do

Luke Jones  33:02

you really, do you really like your other options out there? I mean, Heston, kerstadt, left handed, right? I mean, well, this

Nestor Aparicio  33:10

is where, you know, hides, gonna have these decisions in, in, in a small test tube here, over the next couple days, is saying, what matchups Do you like? Where are you going? McCann’s gonna get it bats, you know, in the right so, like, I don’t know what their best lineup is, because it’s a little bit of a whack a mole on a daily right. And whatever decisions have been made the last 60 or 90 days haven’t been the right ones, because rushman hasn’t hit and Guy slumped and guys got hurt, and you’re playing with Austin Slater and Emmanuel Rivera, and guys weren’t even on the team. So I, I just think these next couple of days, it’s a bright spotlight. I mean, as Buck show off about leaving Zach Britton in the bullpen in Toronto, he’s still thinking about that. So I it’s tough, and there’s all these moving parts, and there’s a reason to say, well, I like mountcastle In this situation, or I like a learner in this situation, or I like this guy’s bad, or I don’t want him against left Anders. I want him against right Anders. But it’s all going to get magnified the next couple of days, because to, I think, to to both of our points, to be kind to all of these players, you know, everybody’s contributed. You know what? I mean, everybody’s had a moment. I mean, even if it’s James McCann’s valor, right? I mean, everybody’s had a moment. Everybody’s had a big hit, a big home run, everybody’s made a big play. Everybody’s throwing the ball into the dugout as well, right? Everybody has struck out with runners in scoring position. I promise you, everybody on the team has done that. That just can’t be the story the next couple days that’s all

Luke Jones  34:48

8

well. I mean, if it is, then they’re going home, right? I mean, it’s that simple. And look, every everything that we’re saying here applies to the Kansas City Royals. It applies to the Houston Astros, who are more experienced than anyone in this American League field. Anyway, it applies. Eyes to Detroit Tigers. It’s going to apply, apply for the Yankees and Cleveland. You know, when we get to the Division Series, whichever matchup, you know, the Orioles, if they win, we’ll play the Yankees, and the winner of the other wild card series will go to Cleveland. So, you know, I mean, everyone deals with that. What we’re talking about with the Orioles is not exclusive to them. I mean, it’s the same pressure, it’s the same short series, it’s the same stakes. I mean, you’ve got to be on your P’s and Q’s. I mean, you made mention of Emmanuel Rivera. Hey, that guy swung the bat. Well, I mean, if you’re talking about the sixth inning and Game Two game game one’s a bad example, because they’re obviously facing a left handed starter, so Ahern’s not, presumably not going to be in the lineup, because he rarely ever starts. You know, rarely ever gets at bats against lefties, let alone starts against one. But it game two. You know, when Seth Lugo’s pitching, they go to a lefty, and suddenly o’hearns Do up. Emmanuel Rivera might be the first guy off the bench. I mean, he swung the bat well for them. I mean, over the weekend, I get it, the game’s worth the highest stakes. But Emmanuel Rivera, over the last you know, over the since he’s joined the Orioles. I mean, he swung about, well, in the second half, he batted 313, he hit, what, four home runs for them. He I mean, look at his ops. I get it. It’s a small sample. But if you’re looking for that, every night, there’s a different star candidate to to maybe be Rick Dempsey or Kiko Garcia or someone like that, where you say, oh my gosh, it might be Emmanuel Rivera, who knows. So point is, whoever it is. I mean, they’ve got to rise to the occasion. And like I said, with this, they’re better equipped now to handle a lefty starter, having Westberg back, having a RIAs back in the mix, even though Arias generally, over the last couple years, has done better against right handed pitching. But you know that that is an issue just beginning with the outfield, because you have Mullins and you have Colton cowser. I I don’t really want to give Austin Slater at bats if it were me, because, okay, maybe in the past, he’s hit lefties. Well, go, look at his splits. This year he hasn’t hit lefties. Austin Slater had a decent couple couple weeks for the Orioles not long after he was acquired, he hasn’t done anything with the bat since then. So, so you’re kind of trying the way when you have these platoon options, you’re trying to weigh, okay, what’s going to optimize our lineup? But defense matters too. So that’s where you say, You know what? Even though I don’t love them going up against Cole Reagan’s, I probably want Cedric Mullins defense in center field, and I want cowsers defense in left field. And okay, Mullins is going to have to at ninth in that scenario, or eighth. So be it. But, I mean, this is what you have to juggle when you have these, some of these players that are a little more platoon dependent kind of players. So we’re going to see again, they swung the bats well over the last week in the Bronx and over the weekend in Minnesota, the way they, you know, we’re resting a couple guys here and there, but for the most part, their regulars played. You hope that Jordan westburg has enough at bats under his belt. You know, I mean, at this point in time, we’ve seen some hits. You know, he didn’t, didn’t put up monster numbers over the last week. But you said it, it was September training, right? It was September training for him and arias and Jacob Webb and Danny coulomb and Heston cursed at him, and go down the list of guys that have come back, so we’re going to see. But yeah, we know the potential is there. We saw this team first three months of the season most home runs. They were leading the way in slug and ops and yeah, they didn’t walk a whole lot, but they hit a bunch of home runs, a bunch of doubles. You know, can they find that again? Because if they don’t, I’m guessing they’re pitching in its totality. You know, once you get beyond Corbin burns and beyond Zach Eflin and you get into the bullpen, I’m guessing they’re pitching isn’t going to be so dominant, so elite, that they’re going to be a team that’s going to be able to win scoring two or three runs, I’m guessing they’re going to need to do more than that. And hey, that’s the challenge, because you get to October, what do we always talk about, pitching, pitching, pitching in a general sense. So that’s why I kind of default back to not being as confident about their pitching depth. That’s why, yeah, they better score runs. They better hit like they did the first half of the season. If they do, then I like their chances going up against anyone. If they don’t, then it’ll probably be a pretty short stay in the month of October. But hey, roll the dice and see what happens. There’s no one dominant in the Al we’ve said that for three months now, no one they should be afraid of. They just took two out of three from the Yankees. They split with the Astros back in August, even when the Orioles weren’t playing all that well, they still did that. Who are you scared of? Doesn’t mean they’re going to win, but certainly there should not be an intimidation factor, and that’s where you hope the experience of last year and all the stuff they went through the second half of the year, and I’m using a more polite. Word stuff instead of another S word that they endured over the lap the second half of the year. You’re hoping that, you know, that’s that’s callous them a little bit, you know, to borrow a phrase from John Harbaugh, you’re hoping that that helps these guys now is, you know, they start fresh. They start anew. It’s October, oh, zero and zero, and now it’s a matter of, get to one and oh, you get the two and Oh, or two and one, then you’re moving on. And then you’re talking about the New York Yankees after that.

Nestor Aparicio  40:27

Did you say Kiko Garcia? Did you say that on this program? I did. Do you know of my affinity and relationship with Kiko Garcia? Are you aware of this? Or No, you’ve

Luke Jones  40:39

mentioned it in passing. You got to remember Kiko is before my time. I was born in 83 but I read I so you know, I

Nestor Aparicio  40:47

am celebrating, by the way, happy birthday to you, in case I forget and the Orioles get eliminated and we don’t eat any cake and you feel bad about things on Thursday, but Happy birthday to you. We’re going to be celebrating your birthday next week with Raven scratch, also the Maryland lottery, we’re going to be a pizza Johns next week. It’s all brought to you by our friends, as well as Jiffy Lube MultiCare, powering Luke up to the ballpark, not powering me to Owings Mills, because we will not have coverage in Owings Mills this week, because the the PR departments of the Orioles and the Ravens have decided to blackball me or brown ball me, because, like Kiko Garcia, My people are Latin. 1979 Luke, I liked Kiko Garcia for I don’t want to be offensive to the deacon in you for one goddamn reason, like Earl Weaver would say, had the same birthday. Kiko Garcia shares my birthday. It’s next week, october 14, so it’s my birthday and kikos, Kiko turns 71 I’ve had Kiko on the show one time. And this is anybody who loves Ray Bachman and wants to do nice things for Ray, and there’s a GoFundMe for Ray. Ray’s battling cancer right now. We love Ray. Ray on our birthday, got Kiko Garcia to call in. And Kiko i I’ve only met Kiko Garcia one time in my life. And I always talk about Oriole magic. This was the summer 1979 and I’ve always tell you, I went to 31 games before Steve trout through the the the six hit shot out in August against Flanagan. And one night in June or July, you can go look it up. I think it was in June, because I was off from school. School was out, the artist played the Red Sox, and Kiko got like, three hits that night. And hit, you know, it was the star of the game. Beat the Red Sox, and I don’t want to brag about what we then became a sponsorship with Crown gasoline. Crown gasoline sponsored me. Thank you. Emmy Rosenberg, 30 years ago, had really funny ads that Mark Rowe wrote about me taking a surfboard across the back River. Maybe I should vintage play some of those old commercials, but Chico was a star of the game, and Luke I was a junior Oriole, and I won the little thing with the junior oral thing to meet the player of the game after the game. And the player the game was Kiko Garcia, and I got to go down one of the very few times I got to go to the bird feed room, which was really called the hit and run club then, which was sort of a thank old little club meeting room under Memorial Stadium that they put some carpet in, had a little podium in the front, and I think they had a little buffet station over on the side, and I got to meet Kiko Garcia in summer seven. So we share the same birthday. So next week’s my birthday, this week’s your birthday. Next week we’re going to have our birthdays together. We’re going to celebrate we’re going to have the pelts of the Yankees on the wall, nasty Nestor the other one, Carrick Cole judge, all of them be on our way to Cleveland, Houston, Detroit, I don’t know, maybe somewhere that’ll be a pizza John’s next week. So a happy birthday to you. I’m trying to dream a little bit. You don’t believe that when we get to pizza, John’s gonna be playing baseball, right? You don’t believe that? Oh,

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Luke Jones  44:03

I mean, look, I wish you’d stop painting it like that. I

Nestor Aparicio  44:08

mean, like you’re worried about Ben, you just are, we haven’t I am half an hour, yes, I

Luke Jones  44:13

am. I just, you know, I just, and again, that doesn’t mean they can’t get to the Division Series. And look, by the way, if you look at the schedule, what october 11 that would be between a potential game four and five of the Division Series? So bad over? No, no, but I’m just saying that could be, boy, if we’re talking about game five and we’re getting ready to Orioles, get ready to go back to the Bronx, I

Nestor Aparicio  44:34

8

mean, boy, that that’s gonna be, that would be, I have to get the show over and get out.

Luke Jones  44:38

Oh, yeah, no question. But look, I mean, it just it comes down to what I said in a previous segment. And I don’t want to belabor the point, and they certainly have capable arms. You know, it’s not as though it’s the cupboards bare, but I do wonder, because, you know, we’re not talking about the. Yeah, I think back to February 1, when they acquired Corbin burns, we were dreaming about burns. Bradish, Grayson, Rodriguez, John means now they would have never acquired efflin under that scenario. I think that’s clear, but you wouldn’t have needed quite as much depth with your bullpen. Now, where you’re talking about, you know, burns, okay, check Eflin, assuming that he’s good. And you know what happened that last art against the Yankees. No big deal. He’s been excellent for them. So check Dean Kramer is your number three. My goodness, two months ago, everyone was saying Dean Kramer didn’t even belong in the rotation, let alone be in the number three. So it speaks to where they are. Attrition wise. Albert Suarez, st, you know, same deal with him. They were ready to put him in the bullpen. So it doesn’t mean it can’t happen, but I just I My concern is those innings piling up in the bullpen, knowing that Danny cool on missed three months after elbow surgery. Jacob Webb missed a month with a sore elbow. Recently, yen your canoe had forearm tightness and hasn’t really looked right since coming back. It’s just a lot of stuff there that you know, a lot of ifs and buts and oh, I don’t know about that. To for me to say with confidence, I think they’re going to be playing until the last week of October. But Who the heck knows? What do I know? What do I know? Seriously, if everything happened the way you thought, this would all be boring. So see what happens. See, and I’ll say this for everyone who tells me all the time, oh, they rely on the home run too much if this team’s playing in October. And this goes back to what I said, and I’ll take it a step further. It’s because they’re going to hit a boatload of home runs over the next three weeks, if they’re playing it in the World Series. I I absolutely feel that. So see what happens. I hope I have to rewind

Nestor Aparicio  46:53

that clip that, you know, after they’ve hit 18 home runs and 14 games and, you know, right? I mean, that’s, that’s a Rangers did. Yeah,

Luke Jones  47:03

it’s what the Rangers did last October. I mean, I get it. Of Aldi and Montgomery were great, and their bullpen pitched lights out, but they had a boatload of home runs. So, you know, let’s see what happens here. I mean, Earl Weaver,

8

Nestor Aparicio  47:14

let’s go. Do we run home runs out the entire first half gotta,

Luke Jones  47:18

gotta build runners and story. But I’ll leave you with this again, no matter, no matter that too, but no matter how confident, or your lack of confidence, whatever your level is, let’s enjoy this. This is the first time the Orioles have been in the playoffs back to back seasons since 96 and 97 it’s the first time they had 90 plus win seasons back to back, since 82 and 83 I mean, I get it, it’s going to be disappointing if this doesn’t go well, and we’re going to be lamenting, Oh, if only Brad ish, or only Grayson Rodriguez, or only Felix Batista’s elbowed in break last August, you know. But this is still very rare territory, and that doesn’t mean expectations won’t continue to grow, because they should, because they have that kind of a core. But let’s also enjoy the you know, you mentioned it with all the regular season stuff, enjoy the journey here, because, my goodness, we’ve all suffered through so much lousy, lousy baseball for the better part of the last 40 years, with very few exceptions. Right now we’re in the midst of one of those exceptions, so let’s see what happens. Hey, I’d say this much and I’ll leave I know I said I’ll leave you with this a year ago at this time, when we were previewing the start of the postseason. I don’t think you and I mentioned the Arizona Diamondbacks. I don’t think we mentioned them once. I don’t think they were even talked about and they were in the World Series Three and a half weeks later. Who the heck knows? That’s why it’s beautiful.

Nestor Aparicio  48:46

Well, the pitchers are are getting chilled out in New York and and the bats are cooling off there as well. So they’ll get their down days. We’ll get back after it. Luke’s got baseball all week. We got football all week. I hope you read my letter to David Rubenstein and take it seriously. Hope he takes it seriously, because 56 years old, and I’m not going to stand for being treated like garbage by the new administration, which all I’ve ever done is love the team and supported the team and sent Luke on our behalf to cover the team professionally for you, our tech services back up, 410, 821, W NST, just Text Join to that you’re back on big thanks to Cole roofing, all of our sponsors, putting us out on the road, the mayor of the lottery, curio wellness, foreign daughter, making our oyster tour happen with our friends at Liberty. Pure solutions, one 800 clean water as well as Jiffy Lube, getting Luke back and forth to Oriole Park at Camden Yards and royal farms powering us up. We call them wise conversations. We’re going to have a lot of those at a great, great day at Costas last week, on the crab cake tour with a fellow who wrote, guy named Kevin Leonard, who wrote a capital center retrospective book. You’re going to be hearing a little bit of that this week. We just had great crab cake tours last couple weeks, the oyster tour is about to really get underway. You got to see everything platform at a ball. More positive. Luke’s writing, I’m writing. We’re talking, we’re watching, we’re tweeting, we’re out on social media. Make sure you’re following Luke at Baltimore, Luke, and make sure that if you enjoy what we do here on the internet or on the web or driving around, set a spot on your dial for am 1570 and make sure you’re in our tech service for all the breaking news, because it’s back up and running. No longer in my voice, it’s it’s Luke’s voice and Cole roofing. Back for more. We’re Baltimore positive. Stay with us. You.