The Baltimore Orioles remain “in the hunt” for both .500 and an American League wild card playoff berth and its been the big bats in St. Louis that have shown what the potential has been all along. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the team-MVP season from incendiary Pete Alonso and the emergence of complimentary big hits against the Cardinals as Sacramento and Denver await in a week where the Birds need to win games against dreadful teams.
The discussion focused on whether the Orioles can use a favorable stretch against weak opponents to stay in the AL wild-card race.
Playoff Push
Luke and Nestor agreed the Orioles must make their move now, with a road trip against the Cardinals, A’s, and Rockies needing to look like at least a 6-3 run.
They said the team has rarely looked convincing for an extended stretch despite remaining close in a weak wild-card field.
They noted upcoming home series against Boston and Cleveland could become meaningful if the Orioles capitalize on this trip.
Key Factors
Luke highlighted Pete Alonso as a major reason the Orioles are still in the race, citing his strong production since a poor April and his unexpectedly solid defense at first base.
They viewed the Alonso signing as a rare and valuable ownership investment, while also noting the roster around him has underperformed.
Luke also pointed to a strong outing from Chris Bassitt and said the Orioles need more complete games like that to support any push.
Open Questions
Can the Orioles finally sustain winning baseball against clearly inferior teams?
Even if they stay in the race, do they actually look like a credible playoff team?
Check current Oakland Athletics game ticket pricing via the ticketing app and inform Luke Jones whether prices remain unreasonably high before deciding on a future trip to Sacramento. (@Nestor Aparicio)
Bring up the family’s old 13-run baseball betting pool on the radio segment and invite listeners to share memories of similar bar bets. (@Nestor Aparicio)
Orioles playoff race
The Orioles opened the series in St. Louis with a lopsided win and remain within reach of the final AL wild-card spot.
Luke argued the timing is urgent because the schedule now features several weak opponents.
Both hosts said the team must prove itself by stacking wins rather than relying on other contenders to lose.
Schedule and competition
The Cardinals were described as struggling and vulnerable after a rough series against Philadelphia.
The next stops against the A’s and Rockies were framed as must-win opportunities.
Cleveland, Texas, Toronto, Minnesota, Detroit, and Kansas City were discussed as examples of how unstable the wild-card race has been.
Pete Alonso impact
Luke said Pete Alonso has been excellent since May after a poor April start.
His home run, RBI, OPS, and defensive value at first base were emphasized as major positives.
Nestor argued the Orioles might not still be in the race without Alonso.
Broader roster and team quality
They said the pitching has generally kept the Orioles afloat more than the offense or defense.
Chris Bassitt’s outing was praised as the kind of start the Orioles need more often.
They questioned whether the club has looked like a legitimate playoff-caliber team at any point this season.
Ravens training camp note
The final segment briefly shifted to the Ravens and Nnamdi Madubuike.
Luke said his slow recovery from a neck injury makes Week 1 availability uncertain.
They discussed whether the Ravens could use short-term injured reserve if his ramp-up remains limited.
Nestor Aparicio 0:01
Welcome home. We are WNST AM 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We call this thing Baltimore Positive. We’re going to be on Wednesday at Koco’s. We take a little respite here this week. It is our 28th anniversary here, so we’re going to have some Maryland crab cakes. All brought to you by our friends at GBMC and Farnin and Dermer, and I’m wearing my bowling shirt because I’m so proud of my 28th anniversary. We’re going to do some music this week. Orioles are going out to the West Coast. You will hear us certainly out of Baltimore Positive discussing that. Luke will be monitoring all things fake football as the Commanders come through. Any breaking news happens first on the WNST Tech Service. All of it brought to you by Cole Roofing and Gordian Energy and Orioles, St. Louis, Sacramento, and then next week into the beginning of the week they’ll be in Denver. A very very strange American League baseball road trip for the Orioles, at least on this case. But off to a good start at least. And I don’t know. I my wife just got back from a couple of weeks in New Hampshire. She hasn’t been paying attention to baseball. She came back, the game’s on. She’s like, “So how are they? What are they doing? And I’m like, “Well, they stink, but they’re still in it. And you know, at the time, they were winning 10 to 112, to one. You know, it was like it was like a pinball machine against the poor St. Louis Cardinals. But there really is a pennant race, and it’s going to happen in the middle of the night this weekend. And you know, we’re going to play some music interviews here this week, and I’m going to go on a little bit of a slowdown before football season begins in regard to talking to people. But I don’t know. I mean, it doesn’t feel like it’s top of mind around here the next 10 days of the football season starting. But to our point, they hit the ball a little bit. They pitch pretty well. They’re playing some really lousy teams, especially after they get out of St. Louis. They can resuscitate the season by the end of next week. Really,
Luke Jones 1:50
I mean, it’s just they’ve got to make their move now. I mean, it’s that simple. You’re got just about a month ago. You look at the AL Wild card standings. Although I’ll point out, Cleveland is really starting to play well, and even on Tuesday night, as the Orioles are winning 13 to one, Guardians are down five nothing in Anaheim, and you’re thinking, oh, you’re going to get pick up a game. Well, the Guardians came back and won in that game. So, but
Nestor Aparicio 2:15
like that Phillies come back on Sunday, just typical kind of comebacks, crazy shortbacks.
Luke Jones 2:20
But but when you look at Cleveland, and this is a perfect example of what you were just talking about, as they’ve reeled off what six wins in a row, they’ve started to play better baseball. Look at who they’ve played of late: the San Francisco Giants, the Colorado Rockies, and the L.A. Angels. I mean, like it’s the same thing we’re talking about. Make your
Nestor Aparicio 2:39
hay against these bad teams. It’s got. It’s like the Ravens. Ravens better win these early games while they’re playing these stinky teams. That’s all. And
Luke Jones 2:45
taking nothing away from Tuesday night. I mean, the the Cardinals just had a disastrous series against the Phillies, but the Cardinals have actually, you know, they’ve had a. You heard during the telecast, it’s a young team. It’s a team that’s certainly in transition. It felt like they were a little bit ahead of schedule early in the season, they’re not going to make the playoffs in the NL. The wild card picture there isn’t quite what it is in the American League, but they’re a team that hadn’t been playing all that poorly. But suddenly things are going really poorly for them. When you look at what happened Sunday with them against Philadelphia, you need to take advantage, and you really need to take advantage after this series, as we talked about when you’re going to you’re playing the A’s and you’re playing the Colorado Rockies. I mean, two of the very worst teams in baseball there, and on any given night, the two worst teams in baseball. So you’ve got to do it, right? You’ve got to make a run. I think we’ve all come to grips with the idea that the third wild card, whoever it’s going to be, probably isn’t going to have a record indicative of a playoff team. But that said, it’s going to be someone that’s better than four games under 500 or six games under 500. Someone is going to, you know, I would say the cream is going to rise to the top. That that’s relatively speaking, but we’re seeing it right now. Cleveland has pushed over 500, just barely, at least for right now. And I’ll also point out as we’re talking about Cleveland, because they’re they’re the flavor of the of the week. I don’t even want to say the month because it changes that quickly in this wild card race. But I’ll also point out when the Orioles come home. There’s been a lot of focus on hey, they’ve got a four-game set with Boston. Cleveland comes to town right after that, so that could potentially. Now we’re talking two weeks down the road. Go
Nestor Aparicio 4:30
down, baby.
Luke Jones 4:32
Potentially, that could be a very, very big week for the Orioles. But again, they’ve got to take care of business here. This needs to be a six and three minimum road trip. Look like a
Nestor Aparicio 4:44
playoff team for a week.
Luke Jones 4:45
Exactly, beat some bad teams. Look like
Nestor Aparicio 4:48
you belong. That’s all.
Luke Jones 4:49
And I’ll and I’ll say this: they haven’t
Nestor Aparicio 4:52
looked like they belonged all year. By the way, they they have not been impressive at any point. Even in even around the All Star game when they won a couple of games, beat Houston up. You know, swept. Two series or whatever, like they they haven’t looked like they’ve had their pants on. I mean, maybe one night they had to walk off, and we sit here and say maybe this is the beginning. Or Gunner hit a home run last night, big big whoop, as you would say. Like I mean, they’ve had big,
Luke Jones 5:13
they’ve had they’ve had impressive series. I mean, they swept the Rays. They they took three out of four at the trop. Well, and this
Nestor Aparicio 5:19
would be the beginning of something after getting swept by the Yankees, you know. But nonetheless, you look at this period of time and say, “All right, other than the Yankees series, look at how they played against Tampa. Look at what they did to St. Louis. They went out to the West Coast and they they they did they held their business. They came back. I don’t know a game over 500. You know, like get me to a get me to. You’ve been talking about two games under 500 as being sort of their their Waterloo. Yeah, they
Luke Jones 5:46
can’t get they can’t get past that. Yeah, I mean exactly. I mean they’ve. I’ll disagree with what you said in terms of they’ve had some series where it’s looked legit. I mean they took two or three from the Dodgers at Chavez Ravine, and it should have been a sweep when you look at how that played out. The game that they, I mean, they choked that game away. They almost choked away another one. Yeah, and if
Nestor Aparicio 6:06
you go back and listen to our radio the day after, we were like, ah, they played okay for a weekend. They have not looked like a good team for any stretch of period of time. That’s why now we’d be like, well, you don’t look like a good team. Go do it against Sacramento for crying out loud. You know,
Luke Jones 6:19
I mean, it’s it’s for me at at this point it’s not even perception it’s you’ve got to go win games right you’ve got to put yourself in a position where you’re at least on the cusp of being at 500 when you’re coming home right
Nestor Aparicio 6:33
out of last place for a night so that how about that
Luke Jones 6:35
sure well I’ll give him that but but even that I mean again okay four
Nestor Aparicio 6:41
games under 500, I shouldn’t be talking about you as a playoff team, but we are.
Luke Jones 6:45
It’s what it is. It’s like I said. I mean, I said it earlier this week. It’s tough for me to embrace that, especially when in the back of my mind I’m thinking, okay, we’re going to have a work stoppage and the owners to boost revenue on the other side of the lockout. Probably one of the first things they’re going to bring up is, hey, let’s expand the playoff field more more TV money from TBS and NBC and and Fox, and and we can make up some revenue that way. So then, with that thought in mind, you’re thinking, wow, look at this jumble of you know this collection of of mediocre to bad teams that still have a chance. If they wouldn’t
Nestor Aparicio 7:19
expand the playoffs instead of these three-game series, play some fives and sevens and have it count. Make it and forget this buy thing in baseball because baseball buy doesn’t work in baseball. Well, I’m not. No, I’m saying if they want when they’re going to do that, they can do that without letting more teams in. Letting more teams in isn’t smart. They’ve already got us in a pennant race that we’re not interested in somehow. Yeah, nobody’s buying tickets, nobody’s running out, nobody’s living on every game, and we’re in the pennant race. They putting more teams in the pennant race. I, I just philosophically as I’m thinking about this, but I’m with you. They don’t want us talking about the work stoppage anyway. They want us talking about this, I guess.
Luke Jones 7:59
And I would say, I mean, I would push back in saying that people aren’t interested in it. Now, is it moving the needle to the point that people aren’t are are going to the ballpark in droves? No. Do I think a few more people are watching the Orioles right now than would have been otherwise if they were eight out right now? I wouldn’t be
Nestor Aparicio 8:17
watching them right now if if they had no chance of being a playoff team right now, and they were four games under 500. I would be at the beach, you know. I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t be talking about them right now. The reason we’re talking about them is they’ve. I don’t say artificially, but they have created a system where 64 and 68 makes you playoff worthy. Right now, they’ve created that system already, and they
Luke Jones 8:39
like that. And and there and you just said it. I mean, there is a little more engagement, right? I mean, is it massive? Is it something that’s meaningful? Is it something that’s sustainable? Will the Orioles sell more tickets this off season if they make the playoffs and they’re you know out in the first round and they they finished 83 and 79? I I have a tough time buying. Katie Griggs is very
Nestor Aparicio 9:01
appreciative that they’re still in the pennant race right this minute, and she’ll take
Luke Jones 9:04
it. But and she’ll argue
Nestor Aparicio 9:06
for it at the league meetings again this year when they’re talking about expanding playoffs. Right, like all the people that are involved in this, whose nuts are on the line, and their jobs on the line, and their money’s on the line, and the revenues on the line, they’ll do anything to make revenue. They they just will. They’ll they’ll sell the games to Apple TV, so I don’t think there’s anything they won’t do, especially once they go to war here and revenue is going to be what they’re sharing. They’ll do anything to create more revenue. So if we’re talking about that, you probably are right. They they will, even though I don’t. To my point, I don’t. If you want to expand the playoffs, great. Make the series better. Make them more meaningful, so the Dodgers don’t win 114 games and have to win three games. I guess in their case they would get a buy, but the playoff system’s not great. Even though you and I would argue the playoffs are good when they start, it’s exciting because the Orioles can win. The Orioles can get into the playoffs with 79 wins and win two out of three, and next thing you know they’re playing home games. The weekend, and then they make money. So we’re not that far off of that, and they might be the weird team that that happens to this year because they might win the next 10 days. Maybe I don’t know. We’re sitting here talking about it. I neither one of us really believe in them, though, right?
Luke Jones 10:15
No, I mean I don’t. But but that said, I I don’t believe in Cleveland. I don’t believe in Texas. I don’t believe in Toronto. I don’t believe. I do believe one of
Nestor Aparicio 10:25
them’s going to win five more games than they lose this month. I believe one of them’s going to do that. I mean,
Luke Jones 10:30
Cleveland right now. I mean, you’ve heard me talk since the All Star break about how woeful the Guardians have been. I mean, go back and look. They’re over
Nestor Aparicio 10:37
500. It almost are over 500, right? I mean, sure,
Luke Jones 10:40
but Jose Ramirez, who, by the way, had a ham eight bone injury back in what was it June? I think it was missed about a month, came back, but was not right. Right, so it kind of goes back to the Jackson Holiday thing. I wasn’t talking about the playoff thing to go off on a tangent. I’m just, I don’t like
Nestor Aparicio 10:55
going off on a tangent after they win by 10 runs in the first night. I mean, theoretically, it’s a good time to talk about this because we’re not going to be talking about in three weeks. You know why? We’re going to be talking about the football team.
Luke Jones 11:06
Well, we might be talking about it if they’re. We’re still going to be talking about this if they’re in a playoff spot. I mean, if they’re still a game out. I wonder how
Nestor Aparicio 11:15
much they’re going to pass our lips once the work stopping starts, and I think we’re going to go months without talking. Well, because you’re not going to want to. We’re not going to want to. You said, and no one’s going to want to hear it.
Luke Jones 11:23
You said in a couple weeks, you know, a couple weeks, the season’s still going. But anyway, let’s, you know, weekday Ravens
Nestor Aparicio 11:30
are two and a, as I see it, and they’re not playing in the middle of the night. Hey, but but to the topic, yeah, let’s start hitting the ball that we’ve liked their pitching all along. We’ve lived with the bullpen. We’ve hated the defense, but the bottom line is, on nights when they hit the ball, like they did on Tuesday night in St. Louis, they’re gonna. I mean, we thought all along they would win some games nine to six on nights when they had bad pitching, right? They just haven’t. They haven’t gotten the nine. They haven’t gotten the six hits a lot of nights for crying out loud. Yeah, I mean,
Luke Jones 12:00
I’m not. I’m not going to lose my mind over one offensive explosion against St. Louis. But for what it was, one night. I mean, my goodness, Pete Alonso. I looked at it. He’s hitting 398 in August. I mean, he’s been absolutely unbelievable.
Nestor Aparicio 12:14
398
Luke Jones 12:15
for as much as he was underwhelming in the month of April, and he was. Go look at his April numbers. I mean, he was hitting I think 198 at the end of April, and you kind of look at how this team profiled collectively. They got off to an underwhelming start, right? I mean, we talked about it. They haven’t been 500 500 since you know the the start of May, so we can go through that. But when you look at his numbers from May 1st on, I mean, he’s just been absolutely terrific, and his numbers overall. I mean, at this point, 276.
Nestor Aparicio 12:46
All of a sudden, he has an eight.
Luke Jones 12:47
He has an 876 OPS. I mean, he’s he’s got you know he’s going to have over 90 RBIs going into September, right? I mean, he had four RBIs on Tuesday night. He’s up to 89. He’s got 31 home runs already. I mean, you know, it’s not an MVP season,
Nestor Aparicio 13:03
but it’s going to hit 35 home runs and drive in 100 runs. If you would have told that, and he’s going to hit two 60, 70, 80 something, he’s going to hit.
Luke Jones 13:12
And as the as the broadcast has pointed out on a number of occasions, and Craig Albernaz has mentioned a little bit more often than just in passing of late, he’s played really good defense at first base relative to what his expectate or what his reputation was with the Mets. I mean, he was not considered a very good defensive first baseman. He’s the best defender on this team. Maybe Kowser. I don’t. He’s up there. He’s up. He’s up there. I mean, maybe maybe he would have said Ruchman before he was traded, but yeah, I mean he’s been really, really good in that way, and they’ve needed that when you consider Gunnar Henderson’s issues and their third base issue in general defensively. Well, how about this?
Nestor Aparicio 13:52
We beat them up last year the day they signed him. Was it too much money, Allen? As first baseman is going to be a DH, his profile, his age, his leadership, his what you know, whatever all that is. Imagine if they didn’t sign him. I mean, the old Angelos would have never have given him that kind of money. Would have never. He wouldn’t have been attractive to him to come here. So the old way of doing business was Kobe Mayo would be playing first base or Ruchman or I don’t know. Yeah, but the old Angelos way, what we endured here for 30 years in regard to that is Pete Alonso was not the kind of player we could ever sign, for most of your lifetime, dude. Literally, you know, since since Albert Bell, we didn’t attract maybe Tahara. We didn’t attract many of
Luke Jones 14:38
that. That kind of feels like Miguel Tahada to me, like when you consider, like, okay, I mean, Pete Alonso’s not making Shohei Ohtani money, or Tahada
Nestor Aparicio 14:46
sign here, knowing they would suck, kind of, sort of. Alonso signed here, thinking Ruchman, Henderson, Holiday, new owner, money bags, young core coming, like new. A new manager who’s the sexy guy from Cleveland, who’s Stephen Voats’ buddy, like so on and on and on. Alonso signed here thinking they’d be a playoff team. I don’t know that Tahada did. Tahada took the money. So did Davi Lope. All those guys did. But but nonetheless, the perception of this franchise with Alonzo and being able to get him, I keep thinking like where we are now, and I look down. Who’s the second best guy on the team right now? They all stink. I mean, I’m looking up in there, 219, 220. Everybody strikes out. All of them have cement gloves, concrete gloves, like all of them. So I look at it and say, my God, the win of the offs. The only reason they’re in a playoff position is because they signed Pete Alonso when he’s hit 400 this month, and I don’t know. We weren’t doing cartwheels up and down Pratt Street when they signed him one way or another. It’s nice to have a superstar player, but it’s even nicer when he actually goes out and plays. Been a little better than the Tyler O’Neill experiment or Chris Davis or name any of these guys. Like this is a lot of money they gave him, and if they get dragged into a playoff race, if there’s games here two weeks from now and he continues it 400 for another week, which feels like on bad pitching in Sacramento in a minor league ballpark, he might hit five this weekend. Where would they be without him? And we we didn’t fly the flag like that last year when they signed him. We’re like, hey, really nice piece in the middle of the lineup. But I mean, it’s Gunner and Badley and Jackson, and I don’t know. I’m waiting on nice cats. I mean, I wasn’t
Luke Jones 16:30
underselling it like that. I said all I said back in spring training, Pete Alonso and Gunner Henderson can be Cal and Eddie. I, you know, but
Nestor Aparicio 16:37
they haven’t been. Yeah, one is Pete
Luke Jones 16:39
Alonso has been. I mean, Pete Alonso has been everything you could have asked for after the month of April. I mean, you know, anyone’s, you know, it’s a new, new surroundings, new league, all that kind of stuff. I mean, but, but no, I mean, I, I don’t know, I, I don’t. You’re, you’re remembering that differently than I do. I think a lot of people were really excited about that. I think the signing kind of came out of the blue, though, because it was a little bit like, oh wow, wow. Well, you know, it was out of the blue because they hadn’t done anything like that in the long, long, long time, right? I mean, position player. I mean, they’d never done it with a pitcher, but think if
Nestor Aparicio 17:11
they didn’t, it was a lot of money, and think if they didn’t sign him, how he’d be under 500.
Luke Jones 17:15
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I mean, correct. You know, fair enough. I mean, I’m trying to bring him his flowers here and say he’s been an impact player. He deserves his flowers. I mean, he he absolutely does. I think for me, what’s see, I kind of view it through the other side of this, where I look at it and say, when you sign Pete Alonso to a five-year deal, a player of that profile, you probably look at it and say years four and five probably aren’t going to look great, and that’s probably the best case scenario. I think you get my drift of how it can look. I mean, you’re just talking about a you know early 30s first baseman who doesn’t run well, right? Point is, what he’s doing this year is everything you wanted him and needed him to be this year, and collectively they’ve wasted that, right? In terms of not yet. Well, but you you understand what I mean by this, though, right? Let let’s we’re not lowering the his numbers.
Nestor Aparicio 18:10
We’re not supposed to stand out and be the best on the team against a bunch of. It’s
Luke Jones 18:14
not even it’s not even about that. I mean, no, that’s not the point I’m making. The point I’m making is you you got this premier bat to put in the heart of your lineup, and he’s done that exactly. But everything else around him, or not everything, but so much around him has underperformed that it’s going to end up leading to unless they sneak in as the third wild card, which should not be some standard that’s celebrated relative to what’s happened to this franchise over the last three years collectively, but that he’s held up his end of the bargain. The rest of them have not, and that’s where it’s disappointing because it goes back to an idea that I that I felt when they signed Alonzo back in December. It’s like, man, would have been great to do this three years ago, you know, like a player of that ilk three years ago being dropped into that lineup in 2023. Well, you know what they did?
Nestor Aparicio 19:09
They they went with the pitcher instead. They went for Corbin Burns, right? I mean, for for a big gun, not money wise, but like to bring in to import someone that was a difference maker. They went with pitching, which is, I feel like they they probably needed to do at that time, right?
Luke Jones 19:23
Well, but they it wasn’t an either or, right? Because to your point, Corbin Burns wasn’t this long term commitment anyway. But Santander
Nestor Aparicio 19:31
had those kinds of numbers that Pete Alonso. I mean, and boy, by the way, in his exit, Danny
Luke Jones 19:36
Santander is not Pete Alonso. I mean, even at his best, was never.
Nestor Aparicio 19:39
I understand, but the year he left, he was really producing at a high level. I
Luke Jones 19:44
know. My point is, being bold and making that kind of commitment is something that they needed to do three years ago, right? And now some of that is John Angelos didn’t want to spend money, right? I was going to say
Nestor Aparicio 19:56
they needed to do that for 25 years, but they they couldn’t. But I’m talking to track. Kind of player back in the day, it was off the table. Okay, I mean for long stretches. Well, we’re wondering why it took them so long to sign a player of to to spend that kind of money. It was ownership, but it was also the attractiveness of the franchise was not such that they could recruit. I and and I think Gunner new ownership, all of it. I mean, this thing smelled like 92 wins to us six months ago. Now it smells like well, they’re just trying to get the 500, and you and I beat them up every night, and they’re four games under 500. But they’re still in this thing, and I still think wherever they happen to Nestor,
Luke Jones 20:40
and then you’re then you’re going to say it’s over. But fine,
Nestor Aparicio 20:43
yeah. But but they they do have a deodorization plan here in regard to this, and to both of our points, the Alonzo signing’s been a great signing for them, and it’s been a good thing for them in the year now. And to your point, it probably is a wasted thing because they’re going to pay them a lot of money four years from now, and they Gunnar Henderson ain’t
Luke Jones 21:00
going to be here. I know that much. I just mean like this. I’m not saying it’s gonna be a wasted thing overall. I’m just looking at it in terms of like this year. I mean, he’s done everything they could have imagined, right? And everything they could have reasonably expected. Pete Alonso has given that. I mean, you look at you know it’s not gonna be the best season of his career, but it’s right in line with the best seasons that he’s had, and yet you look at the collective and you say, “Man, this is when we need to take advantage of peak Pete Alonzo because three years from now or four years from now, we’re probably not going to get a version of Pete Alonso that is this. Maybe I’m wrong. I’m not saying that to be disparaging. I’m just talking in terms of how these deals tend to age, right? When you’re talking about big money deals, when you’re talking about long-term deals, when the Phillies signed Bryce Harper to whatever it was-a 13-year deal or whatever it was-you view it through the lens of, okay, we’re really hopeful that the first six or seven years of this deal are going to be amazing, and then the next couple years will will at least be solid, and then the last couple years of that deal are going to be, we’ll we’ll we’ll take whatever we can get. But because the idea is you’re going to get surplus value early, in the in the first half of that deal, that will make up for whatever negative value you get. I mean, like you know, look, I mean, when the Angels signed Albert Pujols 15 years ago or what whatever it was, I mean, that deal was absolutely a loser for them overall. But you know, the the hope was that he was going to continue to be the great player that he was in St. Louis for four or five years, and I think they only got like maybe one or two years of. Well, you and I have to go through the
Nestor Aparicio 22:36
list of history of baseball. But you understand Chris Davis of all. But you understand that when
Luke Jones 22:41
you sign these when you sign these long-term deals, that’s why teams like the Dodgers and the and you know high high payroll teams you have more margin per air. Yes, a team like Milwaukee hypothetically could go out and sign you know not not a Shohei Ohtani kind of deal or Juan Soto kind of deal, but they can sign something more than Pete Alonso. Let’s say a $200 million contract. But if that ends up not working out, or if that ends up being so so, I mean that that cripples a team with a smaller payroll. I mean you just it’s a smaller margin for error. So again, to you know we’re kind of talking about. It’s okay that we ramble today because
Nestor Aparicio 23:22
they won 13 to one for calling that. Well, we you know
Luke Jones 23:24
we haven’t even mentioned Chris Bassett. We haven’t mentioned Jackson Holiday having three hits. I mean, you know, it was a good win. I mean, it that that was good to see. It’s how you wanted to start the road trip. It was a nice way to step on the neck of a team that was already not feeling great about the coming off the series that they had against Philadelphia, where they blow the ninth inning lead. That’s a weird
Nestor Aparicio 23:43
look going to St. Louis, and it’s kind of empty and you know quiet. I mean, that’s baseball town, you know. I mean, like, but
Luke Jones 23:49
they’re in transition, and we’ve talked about that. I mean, you’ve heard me talk about them a lot in a big picture sense, in terms of not so much what they’ve been the last couple years, but in terms of what they’ve been over the last 20 to 25 years, where you’re talking about a team that you know hasn’t necessarily had tremendous payrolls. I mean, there I just mentioned Albert Pujols. I mean, this was a team that won with him, won lucratively with him, and said goodbye. We love you, but we’re not going to make a 10-year commitment to someone who has already had his best days behind him, right? That they did that. I mean, and at the time that they were criticized in a lot of circles. I’m sure they were criticized a lot locally. And you know what? They made the absolute right decision. When you look at what Albert Pujols was with the Angels, by the way,
Nestor Aparicio 24:35
I was there. the The Ravens played the Rams. I have pictures of Jen and I underneath the Gateway Arch, with all of these protesting fans, sign Albert in Cardinals gear back. And whenever 2005, six, whenever year that was, we played out in St. Louis, played the Rams. My wife and I had dinner, went up the Gateway. Was 11? Was 11? I it all runs together for me. But I have. It feels like it was 20 years ago, but it was only 15. Okay, fair enough. We’re aging, but I I remembered the Cardinals played a home game that day, so there was Cardinals fans everywhere, and it was the end. It was September, and it was all sign Albert, sign Albert. So have at it, right?
Luke Jones 25:13
Yeah. So, but they won a World Series. They waved goodbye to him, and he went to L.A. or you know went to Anaheim, and you look at his numbers. I mean, even I, I even probably oversold how how good he was in his first year with the Angels. I mean, he he had one good to really good year. He had a couple more solid years, and then the back half of that deal stunk for them. I mean, the Cardinals absolutely made the right decision there, but they had won a World Series, and when you have a reputation for being savvy and smart, and you have a farm system, and yes, at times you’ll take your payroll to top 10 kind of level, but at other times it’ll be top half of the league or you know middle of the pack. So that was in my mind can still be the vision for the Baltimore Orioles, but you’ve got to run, got to be a well-run organization on on the field from a business standpoint, fan engagement, all of that, and we’ve talked so so much about those issues. But for one night in St. Louis, they swung the bats really well. I really like the fact that Chris Bassett, staked to a big lead, was able to pitch into the seventh inning. That one of my biggest pet peeves for a starting pitcher is when you’re staked to a bunch of runs and then you struggle to get through four or five innings, even. So he pitched well, and and Bassett’s pitched pretty well since coming back from the IL, I mean, I think that’s as much as you’ve heard me talk a lot about workloads for for Bradish and for Brandon Young and and even Trevor Rogers to a lesser extent with him, but with those guys and and and just the idea that you need to be mindful of them. I mean, Chris Bassett, I mean, he’s on a one-year deal anyway, and he missed two months with the with the back surgery. So, I mean, Chris Bassett, and he’s the kind of guy anyway that would say, “Give me the ball. You know, I’ll take the ball. That’s great, but you need to pitch well in order for the skipper to want to give you the ball and and keep it in your hands later in the game. So it was good to see him do that. So, you know, good win, good way to start the road trip. They need more of it, and certainly when you win 13 to one, the first thing you’re going to say is, “Hey, save a few for tomorrow night. And so we’ll see. I mean, you hope that it’s not setting up to be a two to one loser final on Wednesday night, but this is the time they have to do it now because you know we’ve talked about it. St. Louis is one thing, but when you’re playing the A’s and how bad they’ve been, really the last two months, especially they’ve been awful. I mean, the A’s in late June had a similar record to the Orioles, but since then, I mean, they’ve just you know they’re hurt, you know all that horrible. And Colorado, we’ve seen how bad the Rockies have been for a couple years. I mean, you need to bring your own energy. It’s going to be late night. Probably not going to be a ton of people in the ballpark. I mean, Sacramento. It’s weird because it’s a minor league park, so maybe maybe it’s not so much. My buddy lives
Nestor Aparicio 28:15
there. Yeah. So I have no. It’s not like the contingent.
Luke Jones 28:18
Yeah.
Nestor Aparicio 28:19
So the first guy that ever hired me. I was doing rock and roll this week in our 28th anniversary. By the way, Luke Jones is here. If you’re listening on radio, we’re doing a little football in this segment too because it is Washington week, but we’re doing our 28th anniversary. And and I’ve done oysters, I’ve done crab cakes, I’ve done food, I’ve done all that, and the music things really struck me this summer. I’ve been to so many great concerts. I’m doing my 28 favorite music memories and bands, so they’re all going to be really my best, my 28 best music stories is kind of how I’m coming at it and looking at it. And my first one really is that the the editor of the Sacramento Bee, the guy that still runs it, was the first person that said to me, “Hey, Stephen Tyler’s calling on that phone over there. Can you pick it up and ask him some questions in 1984? So, but all of my News American guys all went to Sacramento, and they, my buddy Tom Cousins, who’s from Ocean City, Maryland, was the longtime Sacramento Bee sports editor. So he lives there. The thing about Sacramento is when they got the team last year. First off, Cousins is a huge Oriole fan, baseball fan, whatever. He told me what he was paying for tickets there. Like when they went to Sacramento, they tried to scalp the people in Sacramento, like PSLs, sort of like Getty and Alex did when the tickets went on sale, or like Taylor Swift. You know, tickets are $500 because we have Major League Baseball here, and then on game like the Royals show up, and like nobody wants to go, and it’s five bucks. But like they they’ve even screwed Sacramento. So when you see the stadium empty there, and it’s a minor league park, it’s because they were charging major league. I don’t know if they still are. I’ll go on my app and let you know if you and I were to fly. And there is a point for me that if I were nerded up, I would have so dragged your ass to Sacramento because, like, when else are you going to see a major league baseball game in Sacramento? I mean, I’ve been trying to collect. Stadia, you know, through all these years, privately, you know this, but I think I’ve been to more NFL games and more stadiums than most people, most places, and I haven’t been to Munich or a lot of these places they’re playing games now. But the fact that they’re playing baseball in Sacramento, or that they played in the little minor league park, or the year that they played for five minutes in Buffalo, even though we couldn’t go, like I love that stuff. So for you and me to go to Sacramento, I would have done it. But I don’t know what’s the point, right? They’re playing like literally. We’re we’re barely going to watch it this weekend. What a bad look for baseball. Can we say that? Because we’re we’re probably not going to do a huge preview this weekend of that. But it it is. I mean, we’re 25 years past the Montreal experiment in San San Juan, at least in Vegas, I was out there a couple months ago. The stadium’s going up. Like they’re they’re building a stadium right on the strip, right next to MGM, right next to the airport where the Tropicana used to be, where I learned to play blackjack. They’re building a stadium, so the Oakland A’s will rise again, the way the Oakland Raiders rose again in Las Vegas, but PU to have to-I mean, we’ll watch it this weekend. But who would want to go see this at full price? I guess to my point with my buddy Tom Cousins, the longtime sports editor of the Sacramento Bee.
Luke Jones 31:14
Yeah, I mean, the the point I was just trying to make is it’s a smaller ballpark, so I don’t know. 8000 people there probably plays better atmosphere wise than if it’s 8000 in a cavernous 60,000. I would
Nestor Aparicio 31:26
think it would be fun for Pete Alonso to hit minor league pitching in a minor league ballpark for a weekend in nice weather. I would think that this weekend to take advantage they’ll score 30 runs this weekend if they hit the ball.
Luke Jones 31:37
I mean, been waiting to say that all year, but I’ll I’ll take 18 runs. You know, I don’t. He scored 13 runs last night.
Nestor Aparicio 31:46
Don’t you be cynical. By the way, did your dad have a 13 run club? At do do you remember this? This is a different game. Well, you’re not a gambler guy. My dad wasn’t a gambler guy, but he had a thing around the point where they they were all baseball heads, and it was it was 13 runs, I think was the number. Any once it was a pot, everybody put $1 a day in, and the pot would get you know substantial. There’d be two, $300 in a pot, and the team you would get teams to score 13 any any team. So it was really about a team going nuts like the Orioles did the other night. I’m gonna bring that up on the radio. Somebody’s gonna send me an email, ness@baltimorepositive.com, and say, Yeah, yeah, I remember that. But it was like a a bar bet thing back in the day. So have fun at it. But 13 one, I’ll take it.
Luke Jones 32:31
Yeah, 13 one. I mean, hopefully they save some for the next couple days. Win a series at the very least. I mean, you want to win this series, and like I said, these next six after that, you’ve got to go look like the better team, right? Three and three or something like no. I mean, like something like that would just be then it’s then it is like what are we doing here, right? I mean, if you can’t have a minimum six and three road trip against these three teams, specifically the last two. I mean, come on! Like at some point in time, we got to start taking this seriously. You know, from their from their perspective, like we got to take this seriously. Like we can’t just expect other teams to keep losing and hanging around that way. At some point, you need to make a push. This feels like the time to make the push, and then yeah, two games in 15 hours with the Cardinals here, right? Like, you know, I mean, figure it out, right? And and and figure this out on the West Coast, and figure this out in hotel rooms while
Nestor Aparicio 33:30
you’re together. That this is a week where if you treat it like it’s a playoff week, you’ll come out of and be a playoff team next week. Literally, like that. If if if this is a big week for them against these bad teams, and we’ve said that all year, but if this is a big week, they come home in a position for you and I to help them sell some tickets a week from now.
Luke Jones 33:48
Yeah, I mean it’s it’s sitting right there. I mean they’re okay. They’re two and a half out right now. If you look at it, some of the teams that were ahead of them have fallen back now. As I’ve said, when if you don’t like how the playoff race looks, wait five minutes. Right now, ahead of them in real time as you and I are speaking, Cleveland is in the wild card spot, and Texas is a game and a half ahead of them. But you know, Minnesota’s fallen fallen back here. The Blue Jays, after they went nuts for a while, they’ve fallen back. The Tigers have completely fallen apart. I mean, again, two weeks ago, I thought they were going to be the team, and they’ve been awful since then. So
Nestor Aparicio 34:25
they realized they woke up, realized the scribble’s not here anymore. And oh, and
Luke Jones 34:27
oh, by the way, I mentioned this the other day, but I’ll mention it again because they just won in Toronto. The Kansas City Royals, who are out of it, they’re out of it, but they’ve won nine in a row. And go look at some of the teams that they’ve beaten. So, when you’re talking about mediocre to to below average teams here in this wild card race, don’t sell short the idea that. And and I I can’t believe I’m going to say this because we’re going to be seeing this team. Don’t sell short the idea that a team like Kansas City or the A’s or the Angels. Could really screw this up for one of these other teams, right? I mean that that can happen anyway because it’s baseball, but especially when you’re talking about contenders, and I use that in air quotes, that frankly just aren’t very good. It’s not like it’s that big of an upset if the Kansas City Royals beat some of these teams, and sure enough, Kansas City’s played really, really well. It’s obviously far too late for them, as even after a nine-game winning streak, they’re still 15 games under 500 and eight games out. But teams like that can mess this up, so that should be a lesson to the Orioles to not just go to Sacramento and expect you’re just going to roll the ball out and win this weekend. Not to just think you’re going to show up in Denver and the Rockies are just going to roll over and you’re going to sweep them without much effort. You still need to go play good baseball. I mean, it’s that simple. And to your point, and and to what we’ve been saying all year long, the Orioles sustaining that and playing good baseball for extended periods of time, it’s been very very fleeting this year. It’s why they’ve been under 500 since the beginning of May.
Nestor Aparicio 36:04
Here’s Luke Jones. He’s Baltimore. You find him out on the internet or find him on the backfields in Owings Mills. You want to do anything on the football team here in Fake Football Week? Commanders in, and let’s not have any WNST text brought to you by Cole Roofing and Gordian Energy come your way in regard to injuries.
Luke Jones 36:20
Well, last opportunity for the starters for the for the veteran players to get some meaningful work against an opponent, right? They’ll have the joint practice Wednesday, the preseason game Friday. I mean, every assumption is we’re gonna it’s gonna be look very similar to what the first couple preseason games were, which backups playing and and all of that. So, lots of attention on the center spot, one thing that we did not mention, however, the other day when we were kind of reconvening and talking about anything that may have happened out of the Minnesota week, Namdi Manabike Jesse Minter was asked if there was enough time for him to be ready for Week One, because as you’ve heard me talk about it, it’s been such a slow ramp up. I mean, a very deliberate, very slow ramp up. I mean, he just started hitting the sled this week, that and and he’s been on the field since day one of training camp. So we’re talking almost a month, right? Four weeks since training camp started. Jesse Minter was non committal about week one, so I think, to me, unless we see a very rapid acceleration of his ramp up, we’re probably not going to see Madabike for the opener. My question then becomes: Is Madibike someone that they’ll just say is inactive the first couple weeks, or do you see him put on IR? Which keep in mind, IR in this day and age is missing four games, right? It’s not not saying half the season or anything like that. So I think the probably the better question at this point is not is he going to be ready week one. I think the better question is will they avoid putting him on IR, which would take him out four games and just say hey, we’ll just you know whether it’s one game, two games, three games, you know whenever you’re ready you’ll play. Or do they want to just do the IR thing? Then it’s a you know a more deliberate finish, you know more a you know more distinct finish line for him to be ready, and then you get an extra roster spot in the process because you don’t
Nestor Aparicio 38:17
expect him on the field September 13th.
Luke Jones 38:19
I I’d be. I mean, I was kind of surprised, or kind of leaning that way anyway. But the way that Jesse Minter, I mean, the question was not posed like Jesse. You know, it’s not like the reporter said, Jesse, will Namdi Matabike play week one? The question was, Jesse, does does Namdi have enough time to be ready for week one now? And the the fact that he was non committal, even answering that, that tells me, you know, unless something rapidly changes here, you’re talking about someone who’s probably not going to be ready week one. And maybe the better question is, is he ready week two? Is he ready week three? Is he ready week four? Or, like I said, do you put him on short-term IR and say, hey, this was this was always about the big picture. We’re going to be careful with this guy coming back from a neck injury. We’d much rather have him ready to go in November and December and January and the rest of his career rather than trying to push too hard for Week One. So we’re going to see how that plays out. Like I said, there’s an argument to be made that you’d like to keep another one of these young defensive linemen on the roster, and if that’s the case, maybe they put Madabike on IR and say, “Hey, let’s let’s let’s ramp this thing up for October and the rest of the season after that. Which, if they do that, I think that’s perfectly fine. I don’t have a problem with slow playing him. It’s just that it’s been so much of a slow play this summer. Yeah, I was starting to wonder already. Is he gonna be ready for week one? You know, well, they need him
Nestor Aparicio 39:44
in the in December. They they might not need him these first month. They’re we’ve talked a lot. They’re not playing great teams to begin the season. So like out of the gate, like slow playing him to and in the same way that Jackson Holiday beginning of the year. Let’s make sure he’s getting. Hits at the end of the year, I would think that with this neck injury, nothing’s a sure thing with him. By the way, just so that’s what he said here, and
Luke Jones 40:07
that’s the thing. And when
Nestor Aparicio 40:08
these are sure things, they paid him a lot of money, and he’s trying to play.
Luke Jones 40:12
And you want him back not just for the rest of this year, whenever that time comes, but you want him to be healthy and being able to play moving forward, right, and there is, you know, I. It’s been interesting to me to see him be out there for the first day the way he was, and you know, it’s been, you know, for for about three weeks the the the the protocol with him has been he goes through stretching with everyone, and then he’s working on a side field, either with their their head strength coach or Anthony Weaver working with him individually during positional drill work. Right? I mean, Anthony Weaver being the defensive coordinator kind of frees him up when they go into that positional group work. So that’s been the case, and you know it’s been very minimal. I mean, it’s been technique, it’s been agility, it’s been resistance training, it’s been running, all that kind of stuff, spring stuff. Yeah, I mean, he’s been in pads, like he’s working in pads and working in his helmet, but he hasn’t hit anybody. So the fact that he hit the sled this week-that’s a big step, you know, to to do that. But he’s still not doing 11 on 11 work. He’s not, you know, not even going through like the walk-through kind of stuff, the install kind of stuff. So, again, he he he took a step this week, but how deliberate is that going to be now, right? I mean, I don’t think you’re hitting the sled for two days and then it’s like, all right, let’s throw you in there for for 11 on 11 against the Commanders. Like, no. So again, that’s where I look at this thing and say, all right, how much of it is the team? And I think the other factor that I think we should all be mindful of when we’re talking about a neck injury is the mental part of this. How ready does he feel mentally? Even if doctors have said, hey, we’ve looked at it, we’ve imaged your neck is sound. You know, the procedure you had back in April, that everything’s looking really good. Everything’s, you know, if it’s healing, it’s healed. You know, everything looks strong, but there’s still that element when you’re talking about a neck, and and I think this applies for any injury, but it’s different when it’s your neck, right? Because you’re talking about your ability to just have a quality of life, you know. I think there is a an element of how ready does he feel, right? Not how does he look, not how does the MRI or or whatever imaging, not that. How does he feel? Is he in a place mentally where he’s ready? And I think that’s something that you deal with with any coming back from any kind of major injury, you know, players have talked about that with ACLs and things of that nature. But it’s a different animal when you’re talking about your neck, right? I mean, goes so far beyond football, right? So I think that’s probably a part of this that we shouldn’t undersell in terms of this ramp up and it being as deliberate and slow as it’s been, how much of that is even just Madabike just needing to go at a pace where he feels comfortable, where he feels confident in what he’s doing, and you know the way it stands right now, it’s not feeling like he’s going to be out there week one. And again, I think if anyone had said that back in April, we didn’t know if he was going to play at all. Yeah, these crypto bros would have given me odds on it. I would say he’s not playing september 13, right? But but but but again, that that part of it aside, you’re looking at this from a big picture standpoint, not just for this season, but the rest of his career, the rest of this guy’s life, right? You want to make sure that you’re doing right by him and that he feels comfortable, right? Yes, there’s a there’s a medical clearance part to this. There’s the liability part to this.
Luke Jones 43:49
Like we all understand all those elements to it, but there’s also just the mental part of this for him, where he feels good, he feels confident, he feels, hey, I can go out there and be me and protect myself and help my team and feel really good and not be thinking about my neck, not be thinking about be being you know like a a blind side hit or or anything like that. And I I would assume I can’t say this because I fortunately you know my my humble years playing football in my youth I never had a neck injury, right? Thankfully, so I can’t say that I understand what he’s going through, but I can certainly understand if it’s something that is an additional challenge that we don’t necessarily think about in the scope of coming back from an injury like that.
Nestor Aparicio 44:35
Luke Jones is here. He’ll be there all week long. A little bit of hitting on the backfields, a little bit of fake football this weekend, and next thing you know, we’ll have cuts this weekend. All of it will be brought to you by our friends, Cole Roofing and Gordian Energy. If you’re on the tech service, you’ll get that first. We’re also going to have some cool surprises on the tech service. I’ve been working this summer. It is our 28th anniversary this month on the 28th, which is Friday. I’m going to present some music stuff around here. We have hundreds of. Interviews with rock and roll and music legends-not just rock and roll, sort of all sorts of things. We’ll throw it all at you if you’re listening to the radio this weekend and into early part of next week. You don’t need more from the Oakland, Sacramento, Las Vegas athletics. But if the Orioles sweep, we’ll be doing all baseball, taking your phone calls on Monday morning here at WNST. But nonetheless, some music for the next week. We’re getting ready for football around here as well, and we’re ramping up for our 28th anniversary and the Maryland crab cake tour. I’m at Koco’s on Wednesday. It’s all brought to you by friends at the Maryland Lottery. We have the Ravens scratch offs to give away. Hope it’s a lucky batch. It’s gonna be lucky day for me. I get cream of crab soup. I get coconut shrimp. I get to take a crab cake home. Might make Baz might make me a nice orange crush at the bar to egg the Orioles on to continue this domination of the St. Louis Cardinals out in St. Louis. Also, we’re going to be getting the Maryland Crab Cake Tour out next month into September and October. Negotiating dates right now at Pizza John’s, at Costas. We’re getting back to State Fair for breakfast in early September as well to kick off the season in Catonsville, and we’ll be back at the Fishmonger’s Daughter, where we were last week with a an A team of Dennis Kalazos and Damie Hahn and Bill Cole and Zach Dermer from Farnham and Dermer. They also put us out on the road for our crab cake tour. HVAC. It’s been nice and tempered out there right now. It’s a good time to call 410 367777. Make him check it out for you, so you make sure your heat’s in good shape this winter. Hopefully, we’ll need the air condition again at some point this this summer. But the lost summer for me. I’m I’m working on my indoor tan right now. We are WNST AM 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking. Baltimore, positive. Stay with us.