Latest / Birdland Territory / What's next for Trevor Rogers?

Transcript

What's next for Trevor Rogers? · Birdland Territory

0:07
Speaker 1: One rough Monday for the Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Saint
0:11
Speaker 1: Pete's Trevor Rodgers gets hammered and so to the Orioles
0:15
Speaker 1: in a sixteen to six loss to the Rays. And
0:17
Speaker 1: they'll all come into the latest edition of Berdland Territory
0:21
Speaker 1: sizing up a rough, rough start to the series, and guys,
0:24
Speaker 1: it just goes to show this team's inability to build
0:28
Speaker 1: on momentum. This year, they went two and one against
0:31
Speaker 1: the Yankees and allowed eight runs in three games, and
0:34
Speaker 1: we all thought that's a nice start. Since then, they've
0:37
Speaker 1: gone one in three, allowing thirty five runs. Most of
0:42
Speaker 1: that came in two games. But that is in a
0:45
Speaker 1: nutshell is the inconsistency of the Orioles beat the Yankees,
0:49
Speaker 1: who looked unbeatable a week or two ago, and then
0:52
Speaker 1: get beat by the Nationals and the Rays. So let's
0:55
Speaker 1: start with Trevor Rodgers and Brad your background with pitching
0:59
Speaker 1: people talking about he's not getting out, you know, two outs,
1:03
Speaker 1: he's struggling, two strikes, he's struggling. Is he tipping his pitches?
1:07
Speaker 1: He almost last night didn't concede that. He didn't say yes,
1:11
Speaker 1: he didn't say no, he said, hopefully there's something there.
1:15
Speaker 1: They're barreling everything, even pitches on the edges. It sounds
1:18
Speaker 1: like he's thinking that could be part of this fix
1:23
Speaker 1: for him.
1:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, you just don't know.
1:26
Speaker 3: And the tipping thing is an interesting topic because it's
1:29
Speaker 3: something you don't want to bring up unless there's concrete
1:31
Speaker 3: evidence and that you know for a fact that's happening.
1:36
Speaker 3: Because it's hard enough to go out there and be
1:38
Speaker 3: a starting pitcher and be focused on trying to execute
1:40
Speaker 3: your pitches.
1:41
Speaker 2: It's another thing.
1:42
Speaker 3: To have to be out there. Am I doing this?
1:43
Speaker 3: Am I doing that? When I'm tipping pitches? So to me,
1:47
Speaker 3: it just kind of seems he's living in the middle
1:49
Speaker 3: of the plate a lot of times, and even the
1:51
Speaker 3: pitches on the edge, he's not really locating where he
1:55
Speaker 3: wants them to be. Like I mentioned, you guys right
1:57
Speaker 3: before the show that first inning, to Yanda Diez, he's
2:01
Speaker 3: he's just he meant to throw the change.
2:03
Speaker 2: Up away and it went in.
2:04
Speaker 3: The pitch was on the edge, but it was on
2:06
Speaker 3: the other side of the plate, on the edge, and
2:09
Speaker 3: I just think it kind of starts there. And the
2:10
Speaker 3: tipping is definitely an interesting topic because his last five
2:14
Speaker 3: starts or four starts have been pretty rough, and it's
2:17
Speaker 3: all seemingly with two outs and two strikes, and it's
2:20
Speaker 3: just getting that final pitch to get out of these
2:22
Speaker 3: innings seems to be the difference maker, and he's just
2:26
Speaker 3: not executing when he needs to in those big spots.
2:31
Speaker 4: Yeah, and Brad, that that pitch to Yondi Diaz, like
2:34
Speaker 4: that second inning pretty much sums up Trevor Rodgers season,
2:38
Speaker 4: it really does. You know, he was one out away
2:42
Speaker 4: from getting out of that inning unscathed. He gave up
2:44
Speaker 4: the one unearned run in the first inning because Gunnar
2:48
Speaker 4: Henderson had an error, but then things just snowballed after
2:51
Speaker 4: that di Az a RBI two RBI single where that
2:56
Speaker 4: fourth inning, giving up four hits and walking bat are
3:00
Speaker 4: all with two outs, and you look at the totality
3:04
Speaker 4: of his start. He gave up eight runs, seven earned.
3:07
Speaker 4: Seven of the eight runs he gave up were with
3:10
Speaker 4: two outs, And that has just been the unfortunate part
3:15
Speaker 4: of Trevor Rodgers season this year, guys, and the numbers
3:19
Speaker 4: are really really damning, especially over this past stretch of
3:25
Speaker 4: five starts, Opposing hitters have a three sixty two average.
3:29
Speaker 4: Ops over one thousand with two strikes against Trevor Rodgers
3:34
Speaker 4: in this five start stretch.
3:36
Speaker 5: It's just it's rough to see.
3:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, And to me, sorry, Steven, to me, a lot
3:42
Speaker 3: of times, when you're getting that bad of damage with
3:44
Speaker 3: two strikes, I feel like you're overthrowing. I feel like
3:47
Speaker 3: you're trying to do too much, trying to make the
3:50
Speaker 3: pitch move too much. And to me, that always seemed
3:52
Speaker 3: to be my problem when I got the two strikes
3:54
Speaker 3: and tried to throw an extra nasty pitch and it
3:57
Speaker 3: ends up being a hitable pitch or at least a
3:59
Speaker 3: pitch they can make contact on. And that's really what
4:01
Speaker 3: the Rays did last night. They just they refused to
4:04
Speaker 3: swing and miss and they put the ball in play.
4:05
Speaker 3: They didn't hit it hard a ton of the time,
4:07
Speaker 3: but they put the ball in play and they made
4:09
Speaker 3: the Orioles make plays, and a lot of times they
4:11
Speaker 3: just kind of felt where they weren't and it just
4:13
Speaker 3: kind of snowball on him really fast there.
4:17
Speaker 1: So, Brad, I don't know if you have any personal
4:19
Speaker 1: experience with this or teammates in your career, this tipping
4:22
Speaker 1: pitches topic. What happens behind the scenes with the pitching
4:26
Speaker 1: coaches and a pitcher. If they think this is going.
4:29
Speaker 2: On, it's funny.
4:30
Speaker 3: I have a very kind of crazy story facing the
4:34
Speaker 3: Red Sox in twenty eighteen. They just I didn't I
4:37
Speaker 3: don't know if I had bad numbers against them, but
4:39
Speaker 3: it was just different at bats they had against me
4:40
Speaker 3: for the previous four years. I go to the Royals
4:44
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty one in spring training and Andrew bin
4:46
Speaker 3: Attende's over in the clubhouse and I had to go
4:48
Speaker 3: out to him kind of laughing. I'm like, what did
4:50
Speaker 3: you guys have on me? He's like, he starts smiling.
4:52
Speaker 3: He gives me like a smirk, and he tells me
4:54
Speaker 3: the pitching ron Rennicky saw me licking my lips on fastballs,
4:59
Speaker 3: So it could be the tiniest little thing, and that
5:02
Speaker 3: that that, I mean, I don't ever remember. How could
5:05
Speaker 3: I stop doing that? If anything it was so you know,
5:08
Speaker 3: I'm not even thinking about that as a possibility, but
5:11
Speaker 3: he's telling me that, and I'm like, you gotta be
5:12
Speaker 3: kidding me. If you can eliminate one pitch, and if
5:15
Speaker 3: he's doing something, it could be I mean, it could
5:17
Speaker 3: be a plethora of things.
5:18
Speaker 2: It could be the way he's setting his hands.
5:20
Speaker 3: It could be the way he's tilting his glove, it
5:22
Speaker 3: could be the way he's going into his glove. If
5:24
Speaker 3: you can eliminate one pitch, it makes everything so much easier.
5:28
Speaker 3: And for me, if he is tipping, there's a good
5:30
Speaker 3: chance it's probably on his fastball, because if you can
5:33
Speaker 3: eliminate that pitch or know that pitch is coming, you
5:35
Speaker 3: can either jump on it early in account or you
5:38
Speaker 3: can eliminate it late in the count, and then that
5:40
Speaker 3: at that point you're looking for a sweeper change up
5:42
Speaker 3: with Trevor Rodgers repertoire for the most part. So for me,
5:46
Speaker 3: it's it's it can be such a small thing, and
5:48
Speaker 3: that's why I said it's almost like a It's a
5:49
Speaker 3: very sensitive topic to approach as a pitching coach because
5:53
Speaker 3: if you're wrong, it's like now you throw this thing
5:56
Speaker 3: out there, and it's like now your wheels are spinning.
5:58
Speaker 3: You're out there thinking about a million different things other
6:01
Speaker 3: than just executing your pitch. So it's it's one of
6:03
Speaker 3: those things they have to have concrete evidence, and I'm
6:06
Speaker 3: sure Drew French and the other pitching coaches are.
6:08
Speaker 2: They're looking at.
6:09
Speaker 3: Film left and right last night, trying to figure out
6:11
Speaker 3: if he is tipping something, Brad.
6:14
Speaker 4: I think the question that every Orioles fan has is like,
6:19
Speaker 4: is this fixable? Like no one expected Trevor Rodgers to
6:23
Speaker 4: duplicate what he did last year in eighteen starts where
6:27
Speaker 4: he had a sub to er that's more than half
6:29
Speaker 4: of the season. You extrapolate that over a full season.
6:32
Speaker 4: He's a runaway winner for the cy Young. No one
6:35
Speaker 4: was expecting that, but the falloff has been so immense
6:39
Speaker 4: to where you know, he's given up twenty five earned
6:43
Speaker 4: runs over his last five starts. That's in just nineteen innings.
6:47
Speaker 4: Last year he gave up twenty two earned runs in
6:50
Speaker 4: one hundred and nine and two thirds innings. So the
6:54
Speaker 4: big question is like, how do you get back on track,
6:57
Speaker 4: not to the guy that you were in twenty twenty five,
7:01
Speaker 4: but back to being competitive.
7:04
Speaker 3: Yeah. And the thing is I looked at his baseball Savona.
7:07
Speaker 3: I went and kind of looked at his where everything
7:09
Speaker 3: kind of was on his pitching chart in comparison to
7:12
Speaker 3: last year. There's no stark difference. I mean, to the
7:15
Speaker 3: naked eye looking at everything, I don't see anything that different.
7:19
Speaker 3: And I mean even watching his first starts earlier the year.
7:21
Speaker 3: I don't see anything that different to me. It seems
7:24
Speaker 3: his forcing fastball, he's not getting to the top of
7:26
Speaker 3: the zone as consistent as he normally likes. To me,
7:30
Speaker 3: that's kind of where everything kind of goes from in
7:32
Speaker 3: his pitching repertoire. So I think it's just been not
7:35
Speaker 3: being able to be locating that fastball up in the zone,
7:38
Speaker 3: which he showed flashes of last night. He had a
7:41
Speaker 3: couple looking strike threes there. I think it was in
7:44
Speaker 3: the third inning, and that's kind of where he wants
7:46
Speaker 3: to live, is up in that upper quadrant, in on righties,
7:50
Speaker 3: in on lefties, and I just think he's not able
7:52
Speaker 3: to get there as consistent. And when that ball comes
7:54
Speaker 3: down and you throw it to the middle of the zone,
7:56
Speaker 3: he doesn't have that huge ride that you know Braining does,
8:00
Speaker 3: are some of the guys on the staff. So I
8:02
Speaker 3: think when you start lowering it from the letters to
8:05
Speaker 3: just below the letters, it becomes way more hittable. And
8:08
Speaker 3: that's really the only thing I can see, And that's
8:10
Speaker 3: where I feel like they got to be scratching their
8:12
Speaker 3: heads right now, because this stuff is very similar when
8:15
Speaker 3: you look at it in comparison to the last year
8:17
Speaker 3: to this year. So I think that's got to be
8:19
Speaker 3: the most frustrating part of all this is that there's
8:21
Speaker 3: not one thing you can point out.
8:24
Speaker 4: And I think something that's even more frustrating looking back
8:27
Speaker 4: at last night, guys.
8:28
Speaker 5: Obviously Trevor Rodgers.
8:30
Speaker 4: Is the headline of that ball game, but that offense
8:34
Speaker 4: made Shane mcclanny didn't work. He didn't give up an
8:37
Speaker 4: earned run in any of his last four starts. I
8:41
Speaker 4: think it spanned twenty one innings or so, and they
8:44
Speaker 4: got four runs on six hits in five innings against
8:47
Speaker 4: Shane McClanahan. But the game just got so out of
8:50
Speaker 4: whack so quickly. It didn't mean much in the grand
8:53
Speaker 4: scheme of thing.
8:55
Speaker 1: You had just left the Oriel six games under five hundred.
8:58
Speaker 1: They're currently on a seventy one win pace. Last year's team,
9:01
Speaker 1: which was disappointing one seventy five, So this team is
9:05
Speaker 1: not even playing to that right now. The postgame interview
9:08
Speaker 1: with Trevor Rodgers last night was raw. It was emotional.
9:11
Speaker 1: Want to touch on that when we continue here on
9:14
Speaker 1: at Birdland Territory.
9:15
Speaker 6: Some wireless plans can get a little bit crazy a
9:19
Speaker 6: little bit off the charts expensive. Mint Mobile can get
9:24
Speaker 6: you started with three months of premium wireless four fifteen
9:28
Speaker 6: bucks a month.
9:29
Speaker 2: Pretty good.
9:30
Speaker 7: I like that the way gas prices are going up, Scott,
9:33
Speaker 7: We've got to keep more mobile plan down, and mint
9:35
Speaker 7: Mobile is your location to keep your mobile plan down.
9:38
Speaker 7: Can add family members. You can do all that for
9:40
Speaker 7: just fifteen bucks a month.
9:42
Speaker 6: That's less than a drink in many cities these days
9:45
Speaker 6: if you like bougie drinks. All plans come with high
9:48
Speaker 6: speed data and unlimited talking text delivered on the nation's
9:51
Speaker 6: largest five G network. If you like your money, mint
9:54
Speaker 6: Mobile is for you. Shot plans at mintmobile dot com
9:57
Speaker 6: slash territory. That's mintmobile dot com slash territory. Upfront payment
10:01
Speaker 6: of forty five dollars for three month five gigabyte plan
10:04
Speaker 6: required equivalent to fifteen bucks a month. New customer offer
10:08
Speaker 6: for first three months only, then full price plan options available,
10:12
Speaker 6: taxes and fees extra cementt Mobile for details.
10:17
Speaker 1: We can almost forget that. Trevor Rodgers got off a
10:19
Speaker 1: great start this year through three starts, but now over
10:23
Speaker 1: his last five is Thera's eleven eighty four and putting
10:27
Speaker 1: that in context. His VRA last year, which was one
10:29
Speaker 1: eight to one, was the best RA in Oriel team
10:33
Speaker 1: history for any picture with one hundred innings or more,
10:37
Speaker 1: Nott Palmer, McNally, kodyar Dobson, any of the greats. It
10:42
Speaker 1: was Trevor Rodgers. So it's a really dramatic falloff. He
10:46
Speaker 1: is a big guy with mental skills coaches. He's had
10:49
Speaker 1: a couple over the years. He has talked openly about
10:52
Speaker 1: how that's impacted him positively, and after last night's game,
10:57
Speaker 1: talk about falling on the sword. He said, they beat
10:59
Speaker 1: my aby tonight. I let everybody in this room down.
11:02
Speaker 1: This loss is on me. So he's not wrong. He did.
11:07
Speaker 1: He said what he needed to say. It's hard to
11:10
Speaker 1: get in his head, guys, you know what he's thinking today.
11:12
Speaker 1: Or if a mental skills coach now might be the
11:15
Speaker 1: biggest help for him. Who knows. But he has turned
11:18
Speaker 1: to those coaches in the past, and I wonder if
11:22
Speaker 1: that will be a part of unlocking him getting back
11:24
Speaker 1: to himself now.
11:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think I think that's really what he's
11:28
Speaker 3: fighting right now. I think watching that interview is it's
11:31
Speaker 3: as a former player, it's tough to watch interviews like that,
11:33
Speaker 3: because it's just you know, you everyone has been in
11:36
Speaker 3: that spot at some point in their career, whether you
11:39
Speaker 3: feel like it's one game you lost or you're just
11:41
Speaker 3: in a stretch where the team expects more So, watching.
11:45
Speaker 2: That interview, I kind of see it as like he's.
11:47
Speaker 3: Almost like a boxer that got punched early in the
11:49
Speaker 3: round and he wasn't expecting it. He had such a
11:52
Speaker 3: good run of stretch of starts last year into the
11:55
Speaker 3: start of this year that he's almost like discombobulated on
11:59
Speaker 3: like where do I go back to to get back to.
12:01
Speaker 2: Where I just was because this kind of came out
12:03
Speaker 2: of nowhere.
12:04
Speaker 3: He was cruising for such a long period now that
12:07
Speaker 3: it's like where do I go back to?
12:09
Speaker 2: What? What is my starting point?
12:10
Speaker 3: Where?
12:11
Speaker 2: Where was I last year? Where was I at the
12:13
Speaker 2: start of this year?
12:14
Speaker 3: It just feels like it's snowballed in these last five
12:16
Speaker 3: or six starts to the point of, oh, man, like
12:19
Speaker 3: what was that?
12:19
Speaker 2: Where was my mindset before this all happened?
12:22
Speaker 3: And with him, especially with the struggles he had when
12:24
Speaker 3: he first came over in that tree getting sent down
12:26
Speaker 3: a triple A, and he was very open about talking
12:28
Speaker 3: about the struggles he had mentally getting back on track
12:32
Speaker 3: and being the picture that they expected to get. I
12:34
Speaker 3: think right now he's kind of wondering, man, how like,
12:37
Speaker 3: where was I just three, four or five months ago?
12:40
Speaker 3: And how has it fallen so far off?
12:42
Speaker 8: It?
12:42
Speaker 3: Just he looked like he was struggling for answers, and
12:45
Speaker 3: I hate to see that for anybody that's going through
12:47
Speaker 3: a bad stretch like this.
12:49
Speaker 4: That was his first postgame press conference where the emotions
12:55
Speaker 4: came out. He was very critical towards himself because you
12:59
Speaker 4: can even go back to the prior start guys, and
13:02
Speaker 4: he felt like it was really close. He still expressed
13:05
Speaker 4: so much confidence in the starting rotation, but I think
13:09
Speaker 4: he realized at this point in his words, he cast
13:12
Speaker 4: them the game last night.
13:13
Speaker 5: And it's been a lot of.
13:17
Speaker 4: Uncompetitive starts for him in this stretch, and it's been
13:20
Speaker 4: really unfortunate. And you know, I remember interviewing him just
13:24
Speaker 4: prior to him making the opening day start and just
13:26
Speaker 4: talking about where he was, and he was saying, look,
13:29
Speaker 4: I'm not trying to be the guy that I was
13:32
Speaker 4: last year. I'm just trying to stay true to my process,
13:35
Speaker 4: be myself, you know.
13:37
Speaker 5: But where he went wrong in the past.
13:40
Speaker 4: He'd talked about really beating himself up, you know, when
13:43
Speaker 4: he's really struggling and piling on and that was something
13:47
Speaker 4: that was interested in seeing this season because it wasn't
13:51
Speaker 4: going to be that magic carpet ride that he had
13:53
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty five. We didn't think it would be
13:55
Speaker 4: this stretch, but he was going to hit adversity and
13:59
Speaker 4: how was he going to respond from it? And Brad
14:02
Speaker 4: and I have no idea if this is even on
14:04
Speaker 4: his head at all, or players and everyone's different.
14:08
Speaker 5: It's also a contract year for him.
14:10
Speaker 4: You know, he's gotta be truthful about that, where you know,
14:14
Speaker 4: each start and he's been opening the fact that the
14:17
Speaker 4: Orioles hadn't talked to him about a contract extension.
14:20
Speaker 5: You know, that was a month into the season at
14:22
Speaker 5: that point.
14:23
Speaker 4: Is that potentially weighing in on him with all of
14:27
Speaker 4: the other factors going on.
14:28
Speaker 5: It's it's a lot. It's a lot in these struggles.
14:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is. It's definitely a lot.
14:34
Speaker 3: And I think I mean, i'd be lying to say
14:36
Speaker 3: in twenty eighteen when I went through struggles on a
14:39
Speaker 3: contract year, You're not. It's just it's one of those
14:42
Speaker 3: things where you finally get a chance to get what
14:45
Speaker 3: you feel your worth, and it's just it's probably the
14:48
Speaker 3: last thought, but it I would venture to say, it's
14:51
Speaker 3: definitely a thought, you know, like it's and especially coming
14:54
Speaker 3: off of last year, just thinking it's going to roll
14:56
Speaker 3: into this year and then you know the contract comes up.
14:59
Speaker 3: It's something on the forefront of your mind. But it's
15:01
Speaker 3: definitely something there. And I don't think he's thinking about
15:04
Speaker 3: it right now in this particular stretch, but it's definitely
15:06
Speaker 3: one of those things you're thinking about throughout the season
15:09
Speaker 3: because it's just human nature. You just see it kind
15:11
Speaker 3: of creeps in there, whether you want to or not.
15:13
Speaker 3: And it doesn't add any help to the situation, that's
15:17
Speaker 3: for sure.
15:20
Speaker 1: You can see how much he cares. You can see
15:22
Speaker 1: that last night. We've seen that repeatedly with Trevor Rodgers,
15:26
Speaker 1: and he's how could you not be fighting yourself right
15:30
Speaker 1: now when he was terrible early, great and terrible again?
15:35
Speaker 1: And I hope he gets it back and would mean
15:37
Speaker 1: so much for the team. And when you see a
15:40
Speaker 1: player who cares as much as him, you feel for
15:43
Speaker 1: that if you have any human empathy anywhere, I think
15:46
Speaker 1: some fans just want stats. I get that, but somewhere
15:50
Speaker 1: there's a human element under in that uniform that we ken.
15:54
Speaker 1: I don't ever lose sight of. Man. Maybe I'm on
15:57
Speaker 1: an island here.
15:58
Speaker 8: I don't know.
15:58
Speaker 1: I don't think I am.
15:59
Speaker 8: No.
16:00
Speaker 4: Look, he's definitely a guy in particular, I've been very
16:03
Speaker 4: open about my mental health struggles over the past few years,
16:06
Speaker 4: and just anyone that can be that open having that
16:10
Speaker 4: platform being a professional athlete, like I'm always rooting for
16:14
Speaker 4: Trevor Rodgers to do well, but you know, looking at
16:18
Speaker 4: how the team is built, and I think that that's
16:21
Speaker 4: kind of one of the areas going back to the
16:24
Speaker 4: off season where Michaelias was talking about wanting to bring
16:28
Speaker 4: in a frontline guy and they were flirting with a
16:30
Speaker 4: Ranger Suarez, they were flirting with a fran Bravaldez. They
16:34
Speaker 4: didn't end up getting those type of players you brought
16:37
Speaker 4: into Chris Bassett, But in not bringing the upper echelon
16:41
Speaker 4: guy in, it puts a lot more pressure on a
16:44
Speaker 4: guy like Trevor Rodgers. It puts a lot more pressure
16:47
Speaker 4: on a guy like Kyle Bradish to be those type
16:50
Speaker 4: of guys to really raise the ceiling of this starting staff.
16:57
Speaker 1: It does. And if the team is struggling now on,
17:00
Speaker 1: every player wants to be the one to help turn it,
17:02
Speaker 1: and right now most of them are not able to
17:04
Speaker 1: do that. So you you hope it gets a little
17:08
Speaker 1: better in Birdland every night. It's another chance for that.
17:11
Speaker 1: That's one thing about baseball, man. Another chance is coming
17:13
Speaker 1: your way. It's hours away. We're gonna make a transition,
17:17
Speaker 1: not the easiest thing to do to a little more
17:20
Speaker 1: upbeat topic here, and let's do that right now by
17:27
Speaker 1: Fan Duel and Adlie Rutchman as our daily Fingers pick
17:31
Speaker 1: for the rest of this series at the trop And
17:34
Speaker 1: I mean, this guy is just swinging it's so much
17:36
Speaker 1: better this year, guys. Ninety one was his OPS plus
17:39
Speaker 1: last year low average one forty three now way above.
17:43
Speaker 1: He's gone from a six to seventy three OPS last
17:46
Speaker 1: year to eight sixty hit a home run Monday night.
17:49
Speaker 1: He's swinging it so well. Guys. He had twenty nine
17:52
Speaker 1: RBIs last year, is twenty six. Now we're about a
17:55
Speaker 1: third the way into the season. So he's he's on
17:58
Speaker 1: a pace. He looks like, what's gonna be All Star?
18:01
Speaker 1: What do you like better? And what has been different?
18:03
Speaker 1: As you watch him play this year.
18:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I did.
18:08
Speaker 3: Like I've mentioned before, I didn't watch a ton of
18:10
Speaker 3: last year, but just hearing about all the struggles and everything,
18:12
Speaker 3: to me watching him as is as if I was
18:15
Speaker 3: going to scout facing him. It's there's really not any holes.
18:18
Speaker 3: He's willing to take the single the other way, and
18:20
Speaker 3: if you make a mistake in, he's making you pay
18:22
Speaker 3: with doubles and homers.
18:23
Speaker 2: So it's it makes it really difficult at bat right now.
18:26
Speaker 3: Last night, perfect example was that single he hit the
18:28
Speaker 3: other way for an RBI, and I think it was
18:31
Speaker 3: the second inning or third inning. And it's when hitters
18:34
Speaker 3: are willing to do that, they're willing to hit the
18:35
Speaker 3: ball to both directions. It just makes the bat bat
18:38
Speaker 3: that much more difficult because a lot of times when
18:41
Speaker 3: you throw the ball away, it's usually off speed, and
18:43
Speaker 3: he's willing to put the bat through his own long
18:46
Speaker 3: and hit the ball hard the other way, and if
18:48
Speaker 3: you throw something in or you make a mistake in,
18:50
Speaker 3: he's able to turn on it really well. Last night,
18:53
Speaker 3: I mean, he crushed that home run to right field,
18:55
Speaker 3: right center field, and it was just such a really good,
18:57
Speaker 3: pretty swing, and it's the hitter.
18:58
Speaker 2: Everyone expects that Alley Road going to be.
19:00
Speaker 3: It's clearly last year he was struggling with injuries and
19:03
Speaker 3: you try to do a lot of different things, and
19:05
Speaker 3: it goes to prove this game's really hard when you're healthy,
19:08
Speaker 3: but when you're trying to battle through some injuries or
19:10
Speaker 3: this or that, it makes it that much more difficult.
19:13
Speaker 3: So to me, I just see an All Star hitter,
19:15
Speaker 3: which is what everybody expects in Berland of Ali Rutchman
19:17
Speaker 3: right now.
19:19
Speaker 4: He's just a guy that gives you a really professional
19:22
Speaker 4: at that and I think last year, maybe even the
19:25
Speaker 4: last year and a half, you can go back to
19:27
Speaker 4: the latter part to twenty twenty four, you know, expanding
19:30
Speaker 4: the zone some I think that there were some instances
19:33
Speaker 4: swinging on one knee, you know, that kind of popped
19:36
Speaker 4: up a lot. And he's just having a great, great
19:38
Speaker 4: offensive season. But I also want to give him some
19:42
Speaker 4: shine for what he's doing defensively, guys, because when he
19:46
Speaker 4: was selected number one overall in twenty nineteen, a lot
19:48
Speaker 4: of people thought that, hey, this guy's ready to play
19:51
Speaker 4: in the bigs defensively, you know, behind the dish right away,
19:55
Speaker 4: and he was great defensively early on in his career.
19:59
Speaker 4: I felt like it kind of tailed off some in
20:01
Speaker 4: the last year or two, but it is certainly back now.
20:05
Speaker 4: Him throwing out runners, really controlling the run game, you know,
20:09
Speaker 4: in the base pass and also you know, blocks, blocking,
20:14
Speaker 4: you know, all of these pitches in the dirt. I
20:17
Speaker 4: just feel like defensively, Adley Rutchman is really really back
20:20
Speaker 4: as well.
20:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, and last night, yeah, Steve, sorry, just last night
20:24
Speaker 3: to a real small, intricate part of that game. Foster's
20:27
Speaker 3: in the game. Drew French comes out of the dugout
20:30
Speaker 3: for a meeting. ADLEI Rushman was the one that said something. First,
20:33
Speaker 3: he had his glove up and he was talking to
20:34
Speaker 3: Drew French. Right after that, Drew French has his hand
20:37
Speaker 3: on his mouth, his hand comes down he starts patting
20:39
Speaker 3: Foster on the chest. Basically, Adley saw something that you
20:43
Speaker 3: have the stuff to do this, you have to be confident,
20:45
Speaker 3: and stuff like that from a catcher is just I mean,
20:48
Speaker 3: it's you can't put value on it. And I happen
20:51
Speaker 3: to notice that during the meeting. Obviously the inning didn't
20:53
Speaker 3: end up well, but he saw something told Drew French
20:56
Speaker 3: and Drew French immediately got very stern or words of
21:00
Speaker 3: urgement for Foster and stuff like that. When you see
21:01
Speaker 3: it from a catcher, that stuff goes such a long way.
21:04
Speaker 3: He's doing a really good job at the pitching staff
21:06
Speaker 3: this year.
21:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, his concern for his pitchers is clearly genuine. Even
21:11
Speaker 1: went up the West and Wilson every put up a
21:13
Speaker 1: zero coming off the field with the Oriels getting drilled.
21:17
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, hey, if you're gonna allaud anybody
21:20
Speaker 1: out there, you're in it with them. And he's in
21:23
Speaker 1: with all of them. So Adley's are Daily Dingers pick
21:26
Speaker 1: here for the rest of the series. Head over to
21:29
Speaker 1: fandoel dot com slash podcast to opt in for Daily
21:32
Speaker 1: Dingers and make your free pick on who's hitting a homer,
21:35
Speaker 1: playball and swing for the fences on FanDuel, an official
21:39
Speaker 1: partner of Major League Baseball.
21:41
Speaker 9: No purchase necessary, opt in required. Bonus issue does non
21:44
Speaker 9: withdrawable profit boost tokens. Restrictions apply, including any token expiration
21:48
Speaker 9: and max wager amount. See terms at sportsbook dot FanDuel
21:52
Speaker 9: dot com. Gambling problem caller tex one eight hundred gambler.
21:57
Speaker 1: Jackson Hadlay is back with the Orioles he was activating Monday,
22:01
Speaker 1: he didn't play in the game with a lefty on
22:03
Speaker 1: the man might see him start tonight. So what are
22:07
Speaker 1: your expectations for Jackson Holliday.
22:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think they think they just need to be
22:13
Speaker 3: a little tempered. I think it's, uh, you can't expect
22:16
Speaker 3: this guy to come and make this team a winning
22:18
Speaker 3: team and win all these games and come out on fire.
22:21
Speaker 3: It's obviously there's been a tough injury and his numbers
22:24
Speaker 3: in the minors weren't exactly the greatest, and he had
22:28
Speaker 3: a little setback in that injury. So I just think
22:31
Speaker 3: it's it's got to be a little tempered.
22:32
Speaker 2: It can't be.
22:33
Speaker 3: Expected to have this guy come back, be on fire
22:35
Speaker 3: and light this offense up. It's just I think you
22:37
Speaker 3: got to let him ease in, which was I think
22:40
Speaker 3: last night kind of great not starting him against the
22:42
Speaker 3: left and putting him in this tough spot that isn't
22:45
Speaker 3: his strength at this point in his career. So I
22:47
Speaker 3: think it's just gotta it's got to be a little temperate,
22:49
Speaker 3: and it's got to be give him some time here
22:52
Speaker 3: before he gets going and gets my bats underneath his belt.
22:55
Speaker 4: Yeah, Brad, I'm with you, and I've been saying that
22:58
Speaker 4: on on the fan, even going back a month month ago,
23:00
Speaker 4: you know, after his first rehab assignment. I just look
23:03
Speaker 4: at number one, he's a twenty two year old kid,
23:06
Speaker 4: you know, that's number one in the majors. But also
23:10
Speaker 4: the fact that he didn't have a spring training this year,
23:13
Speaker 4: and and you know, obviously it has been anything but
23:16
Speaker 4: smooth in coming back from the hamdma't bone surgery, going
23:20
Speaker 4: through three different rehab starts, and also going back to
23:24
Speaker 4: him being twenty one, this isn't a finished product. And
23:28
Speaker 4: last year Jackson took a big step from his rookie
23:32
Speaker 4: season to twenty twenty five. But even at that point,
23:35
Speaker 4: you know, six ninety ops, slightly below average, you know,
23:39
Speaker 4: still a little bit of a work in progress at
23:42
Speaker 4: second base. So I think expectations definitely need to be
23:46
Speaker 4: tempered with him. I'm also just very interested in how
23:49
Speaker 4: they're going to use him, right Like, how much third
23:52
Speaker 4: base is Jackson Holliday going to play? Because I think
23:55
Speaker 4: in the minors it was three games at second, three
23:58
Speaker 4: games at third and a couple games, So how much
24:01
Speaker 4: run is he going to get a third base? How
24:03
Speaker 4: much at second base? Could that be a little bit
24:05
Speaker 4: of a platoon situation with Jeremiah Jackson being a righty,
24:09
Speaker 4: Jackson Holiday being a lefty. I'm just curious how they're
24:13
Speaker 4: going to deploy him, especially early on.
24:17
Speaker 1: We'll be interesting to see Kobe Meadows playing better, swinging
24:20
Speaker 1: it better, so major Initially, Jackson gets more starts replacing
24:25
Speaker 1: Jeremiah Jackson at second base, Kobe stays in. We'll see
24:29
Speaker 1: if that's the way it's going to work out or not.
24:31
Speaker 1: I'm sure the Oil clubhouse is happy to have him back.
24:33
Speaker 1: When you've been so decimated by injuries and then someone
24:36
Speaker 1: you're used to playing with walks back in that door,
24:40
Speaker 1: that can be a lyft for all of them. So
24:42
Speaker 1: the Oils are looking for any lift they can get
24:44
Speaker 1: right now. Maybe Jackson Habibey can provide one. We got
24:47
Speaker 1: some final comments coming your way on the Birdland Territory.
24:53
Speaker 8: Big Bad Morning Show, Benny and Haney, Inside Access Live
24:58
Speaker 8: on YouTube weekdays. Six till Search Baltimore one five seven
25:02
Speaker 8: The Fan. Subscribe for daily Short's right to your phone
25:05
Speaker 8: and never miss what you missed one five seven.
25:08
Speaker 1: The Fan, Guys, the one thing it's unforgiving about baseball
25:14
Speaker 1: is if you're going bad or going good, you gotta
25:17
Speaker 1: do it again the next night. Last night's win, what
25:20
Speaker 1: counts one won't get you anymore. Momentum can be a
25:23
Speaker 1: real thing though, both ways, rolling downhill when you're rolling,
25:27
Speaker 1: and hard to get to the top of the hill,
25:29
Speaker 1: man when you're struggling. That's what I see with the
25:31
Speaker 1: Orioles right now. It just feels like they can't turn
25:35
Speaker 1: this momentum around. And Brad, is there any common denominator
25:38
Speaker 1: or any things teams drawn or try to do when
25:42
Speaker 1: it's a rut like this.
25:45
Speaker 2: It's you know what it is. It's it's you just
25:47
Speaker 2: got to go the next day.
25:48
Speaker 3: And it's that They've been saying that for a long time,
25:50
Speaker 3: and I truly think they're trying to do that. It
25:53
Speaker 3: just kind of seems when things are going bad, they
25:55
Speaker 3: just seem to multiply. To me, I just think about
25:57
Speaker 3: the game on Saturday and the game last night. The
26:00
Speaker 3: open has been lights out. They get themselves right back
26:02
Speaker 3: in that game last night, eight four, I know it,
26:04
Speaker 3: but it's still early in that game. They end up
26:07
Speaker 3: giving up four more and now they're down twelve to four,
26:09
Speaker 3: twelve to five, whatever it was, and they were right
26:11
Speaker 3: there with the bases loaded eight to four and got
26:14
Speaker 3: the strikeout. It just seems when you're winning games, those
26:18
Speaker 3: things don't seem to happen. You kind of keep the
26:20
Speaker 3: score right there and you keep the momentum on you
26:22
Speaker 3: in your dugout. But right now they're just not able
26:24
Speaker 3: to make that one pitch, not able to get that
26:26
Speaker 3: one hit to kind of keep things going in a
26:29
Speaker 3: positive manner, and it's just it's frustrating to watch, and
26:33
Speaker 3: it's just like we've talked about a million times. It's there,
26:36
Speaker 3: it's right there, and they just can't get that hump
26:39
Speaker 3: to get like you said, get that rock rolling downhill.
26:42
Speaker 3: It seems to be they push it and then they
26:43
Speaker 3: get pushed back, and it's just you just want to
26:46
Speaker 3: see them get on a little bit of a roll here.
26:47
Speaker 3: But right now it's when things are going bad. It's
26:50
Speaker 3: just it seems to be the bad things seem to
26:52
Speaker 3: happen and they you can't turn it the other way.
26:56
Speaker 5: It's something that we continue to harp on guys.
26:58
Speaker 4: They kind of get a leader in these games, and
27:01
Speaker 4: the numbers just bear it out. You know, when the
27:04
Speaker 4: opposing team scores first against the Orioles they're nine to twenty,
27:08
Speaker 4: so that just says it all right there, and you
27:12
Speaker 4: can look at the numbers and you bring up the
27:14
Speaker 4: point where you know, Pete has that huge two run.
27:18
Speaker 5: Double last night, you pulled within four runs.
27:20
Speaker 4: It looks like you're back in it despite being buried
27:23
Speaker 4: early on in that game, and then you don't get
27:25
Speaker 4: the shutdown inning, and then it's just another gut punch
27:28
Speaker 4: and ultimately you can only take so many of those
27:31
Speaker 4: throughout a game before it just ends up being way
27:34
Speaker 4: too much to overcome.
27:36
Speaker 5: And that's exactly what happened last night.
27:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, I really think mentioning the shutdown any I think
27:42
Speaker 3: that's been one of the glaring just things that have
27:47
Speaker 3: been causing them harm all season long. It's just you
27:49
Speaker 3: get a run, you get the offense going, you get
27:52
Speaker 3: them involved, and then they give up a runner multiple.
27:54
Speaker 2: Runs after that.
27:55
Speaker 3: It just it seems like it's been a theme here
27:57
Speaker 3: the last six to eight weeks of just scoring runs,
28:00
Speaker 3: giving up runs, scoring some runs, giving up runs, and
28:02
Speaker 3: that's just really hard to overcome. And it's hard to
28:05
Speaker 3: get on a streak when you just can't you get
28:08
Speaker 3: closer in the score or take a lead, and then
28:10
Speaker 3: shut them down and keep them in them on your side,
28:12
Speaker 3: and it's just kinds of seem to be a thorn
28:14
Speaker 3: in their side. Two outs, two strike hits for the
28:17
Speaker 3: opposing teams also just really just seems to be the
28:20
Speaker 3: main theme here in the thorn that they just can't
28:23
Speaker 3: get out of their side.
28:26
Speaker 1: With all that, the Orioles are a game and a
28:29
Speaker 1: half out of the last American League playoff spot.
28:32
Speaker 2: It's crazy.
28:33
Speaker 1: Every day they lose, I look at that, and there
28:36
Speaker 1: are still a game and a half now They've got
28:38
Speaker 1: to climb over four or five teams, and it's just
28:40
Speaker 1: no one's talking playoffs right now for this team. It
28:42
Speaker 1: seems like a pipe dream. But the math says you
28:46
Speaker 1: can talk about it, and the guys, there's one hundred
28:49
Speaker 1: and ten games to go. I'm not saying be patient.
28:52
Speaker 1: I'm not saying they're going to turn it around, but
28:54
Speaker 1: I'm saying there's plenty of time to do that. They're
28:56
Speaker 1: gonna be teams in the next one hundred games who
28:58
Speaker 1: are gonna surprise us on baseball by one team going
29:01
Speaker 1: sixty forty that we said. I didn't see that coming anywhere.
29:05
Speaker 1: The Orioles are trying to be that they just got
29:08
Speaker 1: to do it. We were ready and the talk is
29:10
Speaker 1: over with time to do it. And so but I
29:13
Speaker 1: would say, and I'm sure any fan would say, right now,
29:15
Speaker 1: they're not showing us any sign that they're gonna do it,
29:19
Speaker 1: So it's gonna have to come out of left field.
29:21
Speaker 1: No pun intended here by the Orioles.
29:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then really when you look at the next
29:26
Speaker 3: six weeks, it's going to kind of determine what they do.
29:28
Speaker 3: You know, the trade deadline is not right down the road,
29:31
Speaker 3: but it's gonna be here before you know it. And
29:33
Speaker 3: they have some pieces that that teams would want if
29:36
Speaker 3: they're out of contention, And to me, that's you know,
29:38
Speaker 3: being in the situation we're in eighteen. It kind of
29:40
Speaker 3: got to this point of the season and it was like,
29:42
Speaker 3: we're all gonna be gone. We had six seven guys
29:45
Speaker 3: who were gonna be free agents, and you just never
29:47
Speaker 3: want it to be in that feeling in the clubhouse
29:49
Speaker 3: because it just gets really tough. You know, there's gonna
29:52
Speaker 3: be guys leading you hate seeing that. You want to
29:54
Speaker 3: be a roster where you add on and you have
29:56
Speaker 3: a chance to get to the playoffs. And I feel
29:58
Speaker 3: like once you get to that like dooming record where
30:01
Speaker 3: you know it's we're not really going to be making
30:03
Speaker 3: a playoff front. You know, guys are going to be leaving.
30:05
Speaker 3: That's always the toughest part of being a part of
30:07
Speaker 3: a team and a group together, like this group has
30:09
Speaker 3: been here for a few years.
30:11
Speaker 10: I know we have plenty more episodes to get into
30:14
Speaker 10: when it gets to the trade deadline, but you know,
30:17
Speaker 10: Steve bringing out the standings, it's going to be fascinating
30:21
Speaker 10: to see how the trade market develops in the American League,
30:25
Speaker 10: because you know.
30:26
Speaker 4: This year just seems like such an outlier where in
30:29
Speaker 4: most years, you know, most of these teams will be
30:32
Speaker 4: so far out of it. Okay, you're looking to sell,
30:34
Speaker 4: but it seems like there's going to be much more
30:37
Speaker 4: teams in the mix, or at least they believe that
30:40
Speaker 4: they're in the mix in the American League, and it's
30:43
Speaker 4: going to create an interesting market for the for the sellers,
30:46
Speaker 4: and maybe they could end up really taking advantage of that.
30:50
Speaker 5: But get a long way to go before then.
30:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah we do so Monday night was they did
30:57
Speaker 1: in Birdland. But if krole Bradish shoves Tonight and the
31:01
Speaker 1: Oils win everybody's mood will be dramatically better. We'll keep
31:05
Speaker 1: our fingers crossed for that. No matter what happens, you know,
31:08
Speaker 1: we'll be here to talk about it. For Brad Rock
31:10
Speaker 1: and Tim Barblace, I'm Steve Moleski. Thanks for watching this
31:13
Speaker 1: edition of Birdland Territory