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What’s up with the Orioles? · Foul Territory

0:00
Speaker 1: When you have an actual owner, somebody who is serious,
0:04
Speaker 1: unlike the ownership that they had previously, it does add pressure.
0:14
Speaker 2: And there he is.
0:15
Speaker 3: Jacob, Welcome to foul Territory. We appreciate you taking the
0:18
Speaker 3: time to be with me and aj and Eric and
0:21
Speaker 3: you recently wrote an article on the O's woes, saying
0:24
Speaker 3: is this the Orioles a rock of bottom or is
0:27
Speaker 3: it just who they are?
0:28
Speaker 4: Now?
0:28
Speaker 3: What did you learn from that piece?
0:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, listen, it's been a tough start to the season
0:33
Speaker 1: for these guys. It's sort of an extension of what
0:36
Speaker 1: happened in the second half last year. Inconsistent starting pitching,
0:42
Speaker 1: offense also inconsistent, and really struggling with runners in scoring position.
0:46
Speaker 1: This team has an amount of injuries that makes it
0:49
Speaker 1: extremely difficult for them to kind of get over this hump.
0:53
Speaker 1: Zach Eflyn, Grayson Rodriguez, a bunch of other starting pitchers,
0:57
Speaker 1: Colton Kaowser, Tyler O'Neill. It's hard to overcome those injuries.
1:00
Speaker 1: But at the same time, with the way they're playing.
1:03
Speaker 1: This past week, outscored something like fifty three to twelve.
1:06
Speaker 1: They went one in six. Last Sunday they got blown
1:10
Speaker 1: out twenty four to two and then only won one
1:13
Speaker 1: game in the next six. It's tough to see them
1:15
Speaker 1: turning this around, but it is early. They're gonna get
1:18
Speaker 1: guys back from injury, and the expected stats offensively do
1:22
Speaker 1: suggest that some of these guys are going to start
1:23
Speaker 1: to break out. But honestly, they need to tread water
1:26
Speaker 1: here in the next couple of weeks so that maybe
1:28
Speaker 1: by the summertime they can go on a little bit
1:30
Speaker 1: of a run. But it looks like they're starting to
1:32
Speaker 1: fall behind.
1:34
Speaker 5: This is when they were supposed to be good. And
1:36
Speaker 5: don't give me listen. Injuries are injuries, okay, but every
1:39
Speaker 5: team has them. The Cubs lost Justin Steele, the Dodgers
1:43
Speaker 5: of don't have Kershaw Glass now Snell. I mean, there's
1:47
Speaker 5: every team can look at it and say, oh, we
1:49
Speaker 5: have injuries. What do they need, first of all, to
1:51
Speaker 5: do to get out of this besides a pitch better
1:53
Speaker 5: and score more runs, that's the obvious answer. And then
1:57
Speaker 5: how much of this is on their offseason? We keep
1:59
Speaker 5: harping on this that they didn't go out and get
2:01
Speaker 5: them make the moves they needed to make, whether it
2:03
Speaker 5: was a big arm, a big bat, whatever they need
2:06
Speaker 5: to do. Trade some of these young guys. So the
2:08
Speaker 5: question is how do they get out of this? And
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Speaker 5: how much is this goes back to the off season?
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Speaker 1: Yeah, so how do they get out of this? Honestly,
2:15
Speaker 1: I don't know. That's probably above my pay grade. I
2:19
Speaker 1: think in the short term, like I said, you just
2:20
Speaker 1: got to tread water. They got the Yankees coming to
2:23
Speaker 1: town than Kansas City. The schedule in May gets a
2:25
Speaker 1: lot easier. Seven of the eight teams that they play
2:28
Speaker 1: in May are are below five hundred right now. But
2:32
Speaker 1: what could they have done to avoid this? I think
2:34
Speaker 1: you hit the nail on the head there with the
2:35
Speaker 1: off season. Listen, two things can be true. At the
2:37
Speaker 1: same time, this team didn't. The injuries are a major
2:41
Speaker 1: factor here, right You mentioned everybody has injuries, but for
2:44
Speaker 1: this team, it's tough not to say that a significant
2:47
Speaker 1: portion of this pie is the fact that the injuries
2:52
Speaker 1: have really taken a toll. At the same time, people
2:56
Speaker 1: looked at their off season and said that they needed
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Speaker 1: to acquire a starting pitcher who was close to a
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Speaker 1: guarantee of being solid, at least somebody that could be reliable. Instead,
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Speaker 1: they went out and got two guys on one year contracts.
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Speaker 1: One of them has been good in Tomo Sagano, and
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Speaker 1: the other one in Charlie Morton, has has a ten
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Speaker 1: point three to nine ERA, and so there's all. I
3:16
Speaker 1: think the off season discourse was sort of hijacked by
3:20
Speaker 1: the quote unquote ace discussion with Corbyn Burns and acquiring
3:23
Speaker 1: an ACE, and all of that was fair to an extent,
3:26
Speaker 1: because you do need a pitcher like that for the
3:28
Speaker 1: most part to go far in the postseason. But for
3:31
Speaker 1: this team it was less about an ACE, especially when
3:34
Speaker 1: you consider the fact that Corburn Burns seemed almost like
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Speaker 1: a certainty that he was going to be out West.
3:38
Speaker 1: Instead of an ACE, it was about getting a starting
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Speaker 1: pitcher who you could bank on, somebody that was more
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Speaker 1: reliable than a forty one year old and somebody coming
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Speaker 1: over from Japan, because those one year deals have a
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Speaker 1: high have a high rate of missing, and one of
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Speaker 1: those guys, it appears, has been a whiff Listen, this
3:56
Speaker 1: team is ten and eleven in games not pitched by
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Speaker 1: Charlie Morton and their own six when he does pitch.
4:01
Speaker 1: So I'm not saying that the only reason that this
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Speaker 1: team is struggling right now is Charlie Morton and the rotation.
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Speaker 1: It's deeper than that, But what could they have done?
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Speaker 1: I think you have to get in a time machine,
4:10
Speaker 1: go back in time and maybe invest more in your
4:13
Speaker 1: rotation this offseason.
4:15
Speaker 2: Have there been answers to that because we've heard rumors
4:17
Speaker 2: of Sonny Gray was look to be traded to the
4:21
Speaker 2: to the oreas we heard what came out about Corbyn Burns,
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Speaker 2: you know, getting the huge deal AAV but getting more
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Speaker 2: over the long term of the contract from the Diamondbacks
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Speaker 2: and wanting to go out west. Have there been answers
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Speaker 2: from Michaelias and the ownerships saying, you know what we
4:41
Speaker 2: did misstep, We're gonna make the difference at the trade deadline.
4:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd say yes and no. Right, So, like Mike
4:49
Speaker 1: has given some information about the dealings with Corbyn Burns.
4:53
Speaker 1: You know, the team did offer a four year, one
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Speaker 1: hundred and eighty million dollar contract that would have made
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Speaker 1: Corbin Burns the highest AAV pitcher in base but that
5:00
Speaker 1: was a shorter deal than what he ended up getting
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Speaker 1: from Arizona, and the deal from the Diamondbacks did include
5:05
Speaker 1: an opt out. And at the same time, it was
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Speaker 1: the first offseason with David Rubinstein, and they did spend
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Speaker 1: seventy three you know, about seventy three million dollars in
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Speaker 1: their payroll, jumped from being bottom five and every year
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Speaker 1: under Eliath prior to now being a round league average
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Speaker 1: I think fifteenth in baseball. And so they did go
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Speaker 1: out and spend money. But it's how they went about
5:26
Speaker 1: spending money. And in terms of looking at the other
5:30
Speaker 1: pitchers who were on the market, I'm not again, I'm
5:33
Speaker 1: not talking about the aces right Blake Snell's hurt right now.
5:36
Speaker 1: The chance that they were going to be able to
5:37
Speaker 1: outdid the Yankees on Max Freed was small. There weren't
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Speaker 1: really any aces other than Garrett Crochet who were traded.
5:43
Speaker 1: But when you look at guys like Nathan Yavaldi, Luis Severino,
5:47
Speaker 1: Use Kakuchi, Nick Povetta, guys like that, that would have
5:51
Speaker 1: made a lot more sense for this team. I'm not
5:55
Speaker 1: quite sure why they opted to go for Charlie Morton
5:57
Speaker 1: over those guys. Now again, if they had sign one
6:00
Speaker 1: of those guys instead of Charlie Morton, where would this
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Speaker 1: team be. I don't know, maybe a five hundred team,
6:05
Speaker 1: maybe slightly below five hundred. I don't think the the
6:09
Speaker 1: I don't think there would be panic among the fan
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Speaker 1: base if they had invested more in the rotation this offseason.
6:14
Speaker 1: But if they had done that, I still don't think
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Speaker 1: that this team would be anywhere near where people expected
6:19
Speaker 1: them to be. And that's because of all of these
6:21
Speaker 1: other factors, the underperformance of the offense and the injuries.
6:26
Speaker 2: Jose King Thomas four and oh for the Brewers, like, yeah,
6:29
Speaker 2: you can, you can keep going down the list Hindsight's
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Speaker 2: twenty twenty. But does this seventy three million dollars that
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Speaker 2: the new ownership group allowed Mike Mike Elias to spend
6:41
Speaker 2: put mich Elias on an unnecessary chopping block that he
6:44
Speaker 2: didn't think he needed to be on because he kind
6:48
Speaker 2: of maybe punted right now or he didn't he didn't
6:50
Speaker 2: do as well to start the season with these with
6:53
Speaker 2: that seventy three million.
6:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, Listen, it's tough to be overly critical of Michaelias,
7:01
Speaker 1: his regime and this offseason considering generally speaking, how well
7:05
Speaker 1: this front office did at the beginning of the rebuild.
7:09
Speaker 1: And you can't forget despite the postseason failures, that they
7:12
Speaker 1: were the American League's winning his team from twenty twenty
7:15
Speaker 1: three through twenty twenty four. With that said, when you
7:19
Speaker 1: have an actual owner, somebody who is serious, unlike the
7:24
Speaker 1: ownership that they had previously, it does add pressure to
7:28
Speaker 1: everybody in the organization, Michael Lias especially, and so is
7:33
Speaker 1: David Rubinstein willing to look past a ten and seventeen start?
7:38
Speaker 1: Is he willing to look past giving Charlie Morton fifteen
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Speaker 1: million dollars for a ten point three to nine ear
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Speaker 1: a in April? Is he willing to look past a
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Speaker 1: three year, fifty million dollar contract for Tyler O'Neil, who's
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Speaker 1: now on the injured list for the fifteenth time in
7:51
Speaker 1: his career. In the short term, I think so right.
7:54
Speaker 1: But in the medium term, if this lingers throughout the season,
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Speaker 1: if they bleeds into next season, if they don't get
8:02
Speaker 1: this turned around at some point, if they don't start
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Speaker 1: capitalizing on what was perceived to be a championship window,
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Speaker 1: then yes, the the onus is on Michaelias, and that
8:13
Speaker 1: is when the pressure will start to build.
8:17
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9:18
Speaker 5: Okay, So then the question becomes for you and for
9:21
Speaker 5: everybody that's an Orioles fan. Is Michael oas great at
9:24
Speaker 5: rebuilding and not great at taking the next step?
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Speaker 2: Is he?
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Speaker 5: Because he was never the guy in Houston, he was
9:31
Speaker 5: the guy under the guy. So is he great at rebuilding?
9:34
Speaker 5: But maybe he doesn't know how to take? And there's
9:37
Speaker 5: I don't know, it's just a question that I've seen
9:40
Speaker 5: in oriole Fans I've talked to say, maybe Elias is
9:42
Speaker 5: great at getting the prospects, but not great at taking
9:44
Speaker 5: them to the next level.
9:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, listen, I think that's gonna be something that in
9:49
Speaker 1: five to ten years we can look back on and
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Speaker 1: answer that question. It is something that goes through my
9:52
Speaker 1: head on a consistent basis when I look at this
9:55
Speaker 1: front office. I think the more important question when I'm
9:58
Speaker 1: looking at Michael Ayas in this front office is how
10:02
Speaker 1: quick is the learning curve? So let's say that there's
10:05
Speaker 1: some partial truth there, which is that Michaelias and Matt
10:08
Speaker 1: Blood and all of these guys in the front office
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Speaker 1: they're great at the rebuilding portion, the scouting, the development,
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Speaker 1: the drafting, but maybe they're a little bit behind on
10:17
Speaker 1: some of the other aspects of this. The question is
10:21
Speaker 1: are they going to be able to learn from the
10:24
Speaker 1: mistakes over the past couple of seasons. Are they going
10:26
Speaker 1: to be able to learn from this or are they
10:28
Speaker 1: going to keep making the same mistakes. I look at
10:31
Speaker 1: the rotation or the starting pitching editions that Michaelias has
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Speaker 1: made since twenty twenty three. There are some real successes there,
10:38
Speaker 1: right they went out and traded for Corbyn Burns for
10:41
Speaker 1: a year, and they did give up some prospects, but
10:43
Speaker 1: it's not like they gave up a haul to get
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Speaker 1: Corbyn Burns, and he was outstanding for them. They made
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Speaker 1: the best starting pitching addition at the deadline last season
10:52
Speaker 1: when they went out and got Zach Eflin, who I
10:53
Speaker 1: believe has a two point seventy five ER with the
10:56
Speaker 1: Oriels since that trade. They signed Kyle Gibson in twenty
10:59
Speaker 1: twenty and despite the fact that I think he had
11:01
Speaker 1: a five ERA, he was important for that team and
11:03
Speaker 1: was good. But then you look on the other on
11:05
Speaker 1: the flip side, they've had some real swings and misses
11:08
Speaker 1: when they've tried to acquire starting pitchers. Jack Flaherty at
11:11
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty three deadline had a seven ERA. You
11:14
Speaker 1: look at Charlie Morton ten point three point nine ERA
11:17
Speaker 1: right now, and then at the deadline last year, the
11:19
Speaker 1: other starting pitching addition they made was Trevor Rodgers. They
11:22
Speaker 1: gave up Connor Norby and Kyle Stowers, two guys that
11:25
Speaker 1: it didn't exactly have places on the major league roster
11:28
Speaker 1: in Baltimore, especially Stowurs, but those two guys are playing
11:31
Speaker 1: really well in Miami right now. They were MLB ready
11:34
Speaker 1: bats when they traded them away, and all they got
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Speaker 1: was Trevor Rodgers, who started four games for them last season,
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Speaker 1: had a seven ERA and is currently on the injured list.
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Speaker 1: So the question for this front office moving forward, and
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Speaker 1: something that I'm going to be tracking, is how do
11:47
Speaker 1: they let what's happened in the past inform their decisions
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Speaker 1: in the future.
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Speaker 3: Jacob, there seems to be more questions than answers right
11:54
Speaker 3: now for the O's. But if you're looking at a
11:56
Speaker 3: silver lining, I just go to the tweet that you
11:58
Speaker 3: had on X about the schedule upc. You really broke
12:01
Speaker 3: it down in terms of the April opponents and what
12:03
Speaker 3: they have to look forward to, and it seems like
12:06
Speaker 3: there's a bit of an upswing at least they could
12:07
Speaker 3: take advantage of the teams in May tell us more.
12:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, So, like I'm let's I think there's two sides
12:13
Speaker 1: of this coin, which is, let's look at the If
12:15
Speaker 1: I'm going to be sort of negative or bearish about
12:18
Speaker 1: this team, there's a pretty easy case to be made.
12:20
Speaker 1: They're ten and seventeen. Their run differential is like negative
12:22
Speaker 1: forty At this point, it's just hard to envision the
12:25
Speaker 1: rotation getting back on track. And there are some young
12:28
Speaker 1: guys who have been struggling over the past, you know,
12:31
Speaker 1: five months or so that there's questions about whether they're
12:35
Speaker 1: going to turn it around. And they also play in
12:37
Speaker 1: a pretty competitive division. So that's the bearish case. The
12:40
Speaker 1: bullish case is partially this tweet, which is that the
12:42
Speaker 1: schedule so far has been difficult. And if you look
12:45
Speaker 1: at the guys who are going to be returning, presumably
12:48
Speaker 1: Zach Eflin will return in May, Colton Kowser in June,
12:51
Speaker 1: Grayson Rodriguez in July. Those are not team timelines, to
12:55
Speaker 1: be clear, that's just me guessing. And then you look
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Speaker 1: at Andrew Kittridge could come back in May or June.
13:00
Speaker 1: He was supposed to be a big reliever in that bullpen,
13:03
Speaker 1: and then Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells can come back
13:05
Speaker 1: second half of the season. There is a case to
13:08
Speaker 1: be made here that this team could easily get back
13:11
Speaker 1: on track in May. I just think they need to
13:14
Speaker 1: get to the point where maybe by the time the
13:17
Speaker 1: team gets to June first or even the break, or
13:20
Speaker 1: they're five hundred or a little bit above five hundred,
13:23
Speaker 1: so that at the deadline they can go out make
13:25
Speaker 1: a big splash and then make a push in the
13:27
Speaker 1: second half. But the question is they're ten and seventeen.
13:30
Speaker 1: Let's say they lose this Yankee series, they're gonna be
13:32
Speaker 1: eleven and nineteen. Then they have the Kansas City coming
13:35
Speaker 1: to town, a team that they've struggled against, and then
13:37
Speaker 1: you're looking at it and the team's really behind the
13:39
Speaker 1: eight ball.
13:41
Speaker 5: Jacob, you mentioned guys struggling. I got to ask, there's
13:44
Speaker 5: two guys that come to mind. Adley was hurt, so
13:47
Speaker 5: we'll give him a path. I mean not Athley Gunnar.
13:49
Speaker 5: Gunner was hurt at the beginning of the year, so
13:50
Speaker 5: we'll give him a pass to his early struggles. Adley
13:52
Speaker 5: Rutchman has struggled since the second half of last year.
13:55
Speaker 5: What's going on there? And then Jackson Holiday is a
13:57
Speaker 5: guy they brought up. He obviously had huge x mecas
14:00
Speaker 5: he's still young, but did they rush him to the
14:02
Speaker 5: big leagues? I know they sent him back, but did
14:04
Speaker 5: they rush him by giving him what they gave him?
14:07
Speaker 2: And does he need more seasoning?
14:09
Speaker 1: Yeah? So what's funny about this offense which ranks. I
14:13
Speaker 1: think bottom ten in baseball and run scored in OPS,
14:15
Speaker 1: and the numbers with runners in scoring position is a
14:18
Speaker 1: big reason for that. I think they're twenty seventh in
14:21
Speaker 1: baseball there and sixth for their last sixty in those situations.
14:25
Speaker 1: Those are fickle numbers that you would think would positively
14:28
Speaker 1: regress for them across the season, but who knows. On
14:32
Speaker 1: an individual basis. What's weird about this team is that
14:35
Speaker 1: I'm not really concerned about any of these guys individually
14:38
Speaker 1: compared with what I expected them to be. You mentioned Gunner.
14:42
Speaker 1: I think he's third in Major League Baseball in average
14:44
Speaker 1: exit VELO at like ninety six miles per hour. Gunner's
14:46
Speaker 1: going to be fine, Adlee Rushman. I know the baseline
14:50
Speaker 1: numbers look like this has been an extension of what
14:54
Speaker 1: the second half looked like for him last year. The
14:57
Speaker 1: underlying numbers do not suggest that. The underlying show that
15:01
Speaker 1: he has been much better at the plate. The plate discipline,
15:05
Speaker 1: the chase rate, the ability to put the bat on
15:08
Speaker 1: the ball, all of those things have been much better
15:10
Speaker 1: for him. I just think that there's been some bad
15:12
Speaker 1: luck there. Again, the expected stats for a lot of
15:14
Speaker 1: these guys have have been are much better than the
15:18
Speaker 1: overall numbers. Jackson Holliday, I'm not too concerned about just
15:21
Speaker 1: because I thought in the first half he would be
15:23
Speaker 1: about this, which is like a two thirty to two
15:26
Speaker 1: to fifty hitter. I think his OPS is in like
15:28
Speaker 1: the six to fifty range. I expect him to get
15:30
Speaker 1: better as the year goes on. I don't think they
15:33
Speaker 1: rushed him I don't know what else there was for
15:35
Speaker 1: him at Triple A. I do think that it's okay
15:38
Speaker 1: if they give him some days off against left handed pitchers,
15:40
Speaker 1: especially since Ramona Reus, like low Key under the past year,
15:44
Speaker 1: has been one of this team's best hitters, and so
15:46
Speaker 1: getting him in the lineup as much as possible is important.
15:49
Speaker 1: The really only guys that I think that there's legitimate
15:51
Speaker 1: concern about is Tyler O'Neill. He really struggled before he
15:55
Speaker 1: went on the IL, and he's always had some injury concerns.
15:58
Speaker 1: And then Ryan Mountcastle that the Wall coming in was
16:00
Speaker 1: supposed to be a big boost for him. That hasn't
16:03
Speaker 1: really been the case yet. That could be something when
16:05
Speaker 1: the weather warms up, he could go on a little
16:07
Speaker 1: bit of a hot streak. But I think his ops
16:09
Speaker 1: right now is like five point fifty, so he's been
16:11
Speaker 1: struggling and they really need him to be a thumper
16:14
Speaker 1: in the middle of the order. And then just one
16:15
Speaker 1: guy I want to talk about that I think is
16:17
Speaker 1: sort of forgot here because everything about this team is
16:20
Speaker 1: about how bad the rotation is, and that's fair to
16:22
Speaker 1: focus on. Colton Kowser is a really important part of
16:25
Speaker 1: this team in so many different ways. He makes When
16:28
Speaker 1: he's in the outfield, he turns the outfield from being
16:31
Speaker 1: a below average defensive outfield er to win above average one.
16:34
Speaker 1: When he's in the lineup, he is the guy that
16:36
Speaker 1: sees the most pitches per plate appearance of anybody in
16:38
Speaker 1: the lineup. He has the pop to hit four, and
16:41
Speaker 1: he has the plate discipline to hit leadoff, and also
16:44
Speaker 1: just for the vibeshich which aren't great right now, just
16:46
Speaker 1: because how could they be great when you've been out
16:48
Speaker 1: scored fifty three to twelve in the past week. He's
16:52
Speaker 1: somebody that keeps things light and he's an important part
16:55
Speaker 1: of this team. And the fact that he's been out
16:57
Speaker 1: is pretty It's been evident since he got injured.
17:00
Speaker 2: Any idea of how soon he's going to be back,
17:02
Speaker 2: because I haven't heard that.
17:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, we don't know that. The team loves to be
17:07
Speaker 1: pretty cag on these things. My mental guess is like
17:10
Speaker 1: June ish early June. I think the original timeline was
17:13
Speaker 1: eight to ten weeks when he got hurt, which was
17:16
Speaker 1: around April first, So I'm expecting some time in June.
17:20
Speaker 2: All right, Well, let's talk about it's all been doom
17:22
Speaker 2: and gloom in Baltimore. I get it, they're under five
17:25
Speaker 2: hundred team. Is this Cedric mullins last chance with the
17:28
Speaker 2: Orioles And if they don't turn this around, does he
17:31
Speaker 2: become a monster trade chip for a team who doesn't
17:34
Speaker 2: want to trade prospects so they could trade some of
17:36
Speaker 2: the older guys.
17:38
Speaker 1: Yeah. So if Cedric Mullins keeps playing like this, which
17:42
Speaker 1: is kind of vinted Cedric Mullins twenty twenty one, Cedric
17:45
Speaker 1: Mullins when he was a thirty thirty guy, That's the
17:47
Speaker 1: way that he played in the first half in twenty
17:50
Speaker 1: twenty three when he was this team's best hitter before
17:52
Speaker 1: he got hurt that year. And it's really the way
17:54
Speaker 1: that he played in the second half last year after
17:57
Speaker 1: he had a really tough first half. If he can
18:00
Speaker 1: keep this together for a full season and return to
18:03
Speaker 1: the type of guy that he was in twenty twenty one,
18:05
Speaker 1: this will almost certainly be his last year in Baltimore
18:08
Speaker 1: because he's going to price himself out for, you know,
18:11
Speaker 1: get himself presumably a four or five year contract, sort
18:15
Speaker 1: of like what's Anthony santan dere got, maybe a little
18:17
Speaker 1: bit more. Because Cedric Mullins has the ability to play
18:20
Speaker 1: a good plus centerfield defense, now is that going to happen?
18:25
Speaker 1: I do expect some regression here for Cedric Mullins. I
18:28
Speaker 1: don't think that that's any slight on him at all.
18:31
Speaker 1: He's he's just been so outstanding this season. It's a
18:34
Speaker 1: little bit surprising considering that we have a three year
18:37
Speaker 1: sample now from twenty two to twenty four, where he
18:40
Speaker 1: was a slightly above league average hitter and a good
18:42
Speaker 1: defensive center fielder. A player like that, Let's say he
18:45
Speaker 1: regresses back to being that a seven to twenty to
18:49
Speaker 1: seven fifty ops guy with good but not elite center
18:53
Speaker 1: field defense, at least what the metrics would show. If
18:56
Speaker 1: he ends up being that, then I think that there's
18:58
Speaker 1: a possibility that this team looks at this and says, hey,
19:01
Speaker 1: this is an important piece for us. We don't necessarily
19:04
Speaker 1: have the prospects and the miners who are ready yet.
19:06
Speaker 1: Enrique Bradfield advance, honeycut. You know those guys aren't exactly
19:10
Speaker 1: ready to be every day center fielders that they won't
19:12
Speaker 1: be next year. Could the Oilers look at that and say, Okay,
19:15
Speaker 1: Cedric Mullins is worth a two year deal? And is
19:19
Speaker 1: that possible for Mullens to take something like that. I
19:22
Speaker 1: think that that could be within the runner of possibility
19:24
Speaker 1: if he ends up being what he's been the past
19:27
Speaker 1: three years. But if he stays this hot, I think
19:30
Speaker 1: he's going to price himself out of Baltimore. To your
19:31
Speaker 1: second question, could they trade him at the deadline? Man
19:35
Speaker 1: Oriols fans are close to riding right now, and if
19:37
Speaker 1: that happened, I think Oorals Twitter would probably burn to
19:40
Speaker 1: the ground. I would not rule anything out because of
19:44
Speaker 1: how shrewd this front office is. If they get to
19:46
Speaker 1: the point where they conclude that they have no chance
19:49
Speaker 1: of making the postseason, would they trade Cedric Mullins potentially?
19:53
Speaker 1: Remember in twenty twenty two, when they were still quote
19:55
Speaker 1: unquote rebuilding, they were a couple of games back of
19:57
Speaker 1: a wild card spot, and they traded Jorge Lopez and
20:00
Speaker 1: Trey Mancini, and those trades worked out really well for
20:02
Speaker 1: them and got them important pitching prospects, but that did
20:05
Speaker 1: hinder their chances of making the playoffs that season. And
20:08
Speaker 1: then what did we see the next year? We saw
20:10
Speaker 1: the Arizona Diamondbacks in a similar position, had just come
20:14
Speaker 1: off or rebuild. They acquire guys at the deadline, and
20:17
Speaker 1: then they go on a surprise World Series run. So
20:19
Speaker 1: nothing would ever surprise me with this team, but I
20:22
Speaker 1: would be a little bit surprised if they had the
20:24
Speaker 1: trade that Tedrick Comunt was at the deadline.
20:26
Speaker 3: A lot to keep our eye on, for sure, Jacob
20:29
Speaker 3: great information is always incredibly prepared. We appreciate you being
20:32
Speaker 3: a part of foul territory today. You can catch him
20:34
Speaker 3: on Jake Calvin Meyer on X and you can read
20:37
Speaker 3: him in the Baltimore Sun.