Latest / Birdland Territory / O's and Matt Blood mutually part ways. More changes to come?

Transcript

O's and Matt Blood mutually part ways. More changes to come? · Birdland Territory

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Oh, Birdland, it was not what the Orioles and their
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: fans wanted in Toronto. They lose 2-3, and they got
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: hammered Sunday afternoon 8-1. So the Orioles are 72-78 with
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: 12 to go. We're almost past the point of giving
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: games behind. We're not going to look at that for
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: a couple days because it's just not fun to look
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: at anyway. But I assure you, if you've happened our way,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: we're not doing 30 minutes on the game today. That
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: wouldn't get us very far. But we've got a lot
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: of interesting topics to get into. On Birdland Territory, this
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: edition with Steve, Tim, and Brad. And let's start with this.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: On Thursday, big news broke. Matt Blood is no longer
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: with the Oriole organization. He was one of the first
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: lieutenants hired by Mike Elias. He served in various roles
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: since September of 2019. Vice President of Player Development and
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Staff Development. At the end, he started out as Vice
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: President of Player Development. I'll say this for Matt Blood.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: On his watch.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: The Orioles produced the number one farm system in baseball
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: and three straight years of number one players by Baseball America.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: He was overseeing the draft in 2024 and 25. I'll
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: tell you, some of the guys they drafted in 25,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: that was a whopper draft for the Orioles. But anyway,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: he is leaving the organization. It was reported first by
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: the Baltimore Banner. It was reported as mutually agreement between
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Matt and the team by the Baltimore Suns. And so
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: my reporting this weekend tells me he probably got a
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: little bit of a push out the door. But I
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: think Matt Blood will resurface somewhere in baseball is my guess.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: He's a pretty sharp young guy and pretty highly regarded. Now,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: here's the bigger question, guys, as we start this. What
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: does this mean from here? Was this the first salvo
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: to drop? To me, it kind of suggests, again, speculation,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: no knowledge of anything inside that Mike Elias will retain
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: his position. but maybe some around him may not.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you're right, Steve.
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: I think this is just kind of, I think with
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: the new player development side of things like the draft
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: and having high prospects on the list, I think maybe
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: it's just kind of changing a few of the faces
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: and the guys that are going to make decisions and
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: the development of these guys.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: Because you hate to say it, but at this point,
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: it's almost.
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: Like that group, that big crowd that they had that
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: came up was supposed to be the next wave, It's
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: kind of a disappointment at this point.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: You had the division championship. You had the wild card.
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: From that point on, there's no other way. It's a
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: failure at this point. Maybe you just got to get
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: some new guys in there, some new ideas. I don't
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: really know, but it's definitely an interesting fire or let
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: go at this point.
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: You just wonder if there's going to be other guys
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: behind him.
• 2:50
  Speaker 5: Well, I'll say this and echo your sentiment, Steve, where
• 2:54
  Speaker 5: Matt Blood, this was years ago and I was producing
• 2:58
  Speaker 5: at the time that the afternoon show, Matt Blood would
• 3:00
  Speaker 5: join us every other week.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Seemingly, we had him on so many times.
• 3:05
  Speaker 5: He was very gracious with his time. And at that point,
• 3:08
  Speaker 5: the major league club obviously was struggling. So it was
• 3:11
  Speaker 5: more promoting the young guys coming up. But the unfortunate
• 3:16
  Speaker 5: reality of sports is it's a, what have you done
• 3:20
  Speaker 5: for me lately business. And, and right now the major
• 3:24
  Speaker 5: league development has been called into question. And I think
• 3:29
  Speaker 5: rightfully so, because this team is four games out of
• 3:33
  Speaker 5: the wild card spot with 12 games to go. Obviously the,
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: the playoff hopes are really fading fast at this point.
• 3:40
  Speaker 5: So it's, It would be back-to-back years in which the
• 3:44
  Speaker 5: Orioles don't make the playoffs. It's likely to be back-to-back
• 3:48
  Speaker 5: last-place finishes.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: And you can't keep its status quo.
• 3:53
  Speaker 5: Now, the big question that I have is, is he
• 3:58
  Speaker 5: the sacrificial lamb? Is there more moves to come? I
• 4:03
  Speaker 5: tend to agree with you, Steve. You probably don't make
• 4:07
  Speaker 5: that move often. If you're going to get rid of
• 4:10
  Speaker 5: Mike Elias, but maybe I'm wrong. How I would view
• 4:13
  Speaker 5: it is if you get rid of Mike, it's sort
• 4:17
  Speaker 5: of a clean house situation there for the most part.
• 4:20
  Speaker 5: When you fire your president of baseball operations, that's typically
• 4:25
  Speaker 5: the operation method there. But I'm guessing there's more to
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: come from this.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: I hope Matt Blood's not being made the fall guy
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: for the collective disappointment in this young core not advancing
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: their careers. Because I'll say this. Gunnar Henderson came to
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: the major leagues and produced an 850, 860 OPS. Colton
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Couser came to the major leagues and was second for
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: the rookie of the year. Adley Rutschman came to the
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: major leagues and took him to winning baseball. Jordan Westberg
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: came to the major leagues and was an all-star. So
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: these players, either through injury or lack of performance, have
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: fallen back. But we can't say they were never good
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: major leaguers. That to me, and it's sort of to
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: your point, Brad, as you mentioned, the lack of development
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: of this core. And now we're seeing some ramifications. Yeah.
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: And I think I really I towards the end of
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: my career, you know, you start thinking about certain teams
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: you're on and teams that had more success than others.
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: there was development at the major league level. And I
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: really think that's overlooked so much. I think it's, so
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: quick to get these guys there. And now the major leagues,
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: it's almost like guys are very disposable. It's, Oh, he's
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: going to have success and he's going to be on
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: the team forever. And this guy, he's not like, I
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: just feel like it's really quick to get rid of guys,
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: get them up and get them out.
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: If they're not, if they're not producing.
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: But when you have a system like the Orioles, they were,
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: you have these guys that are supposed to be your
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: top five, six hitters plus pitchers all.
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: Come up together.
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: And you just see the stagnation that they've had the
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: last few years in development. You just kind of have
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: to like, Figure out where is the breakdown? Why do
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: they get to the major leagues, have success, and are
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: not able to sustain it? And to me, that was
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: one of the biggest things. I look back at teams
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: that got better when I got to them and we
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: all kind of got better together was guys were either
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: in the middle of their career and they were able
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: to finish out their careers. Guys were at the beginning
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: of their careers and they were able to get to
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: certain levels. And it just does not seem to be
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: happening with this team. It kind of seems to be
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: taking almost a step back, maybe even two steps for
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: some of these guys.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: There's just some disconnect.
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: And I'm not saying this is Matt Blood's fault.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: No, it's not.
• 6:40
  Speaker 5: What I'm saying is all of those guys, Steve, you're 100% right,
• 6:45
  Speaker 5: had a ton of success early on in their career.
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: But for them to either stagnate or fall back, I
• 6:54
  Speaker 5: don't know what the answer is.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: But what I do know is this. This team... was built.
• 7:01
  Speaker 5: This year and really the past couple years for their
• 7:04
  Speaker 5: young core to carry them. This team was built for
• 7:08
  Speaker 5: their offense to be their superpower.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: And we've spent so many episodes this.
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: Year just befuddled at the offense coming up small more
• 7:21
  Speaker 5: often than not. And ultimately, a huge reason why this
• 7:26
  Speaker 5: team is going to end up failing to make the
• 7:28
  Speaker 5: playoffs is is because this core has not delivered enough.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: Very true.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: Very true.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: And I, and I go back to, and again, I
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: don't know if this is anything to do with anything,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: but they keep changing hitting coaches.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: And a couple of years ago, they were fourth in
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: the majors and run scored with Borg Schulte and Fuller.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: They changed to Cody Aschie in that group. Now they
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: have another group in how, you know, again, all these
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: coaches may be wonderfully talented and great at what they do,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: but they keep, you know, how many changes can you make?
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: How many messages can Gunnar Henderson and those guys hear?
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: And again, they all have to take the fall here.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: The individual players, it's their life, it's their career, but
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: all these things you're throwing at them, I think the
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Orioles just need to evaluate all of this and see
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: if they're doing the right thing. Now, let me mention
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Matt Blood's 2025 draft. And here's another thing about the Orioles.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: I assume Matt Blood had almost everything to do with this,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: but we don't know for sure who makes the draft picks.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: But Matt had a huge hand in scouting, developing, and
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: drafting these players with a bigger staff, of course, as
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: he would tell us. Ike Irish, Vaheva Aloy, Joseph Jerwa,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: JT Quinn, Jaden Luray, Caden Hunter are just some of
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: the players drafted in 25. I just watched this kid,
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: Braden Sloan, the other night, best reliever this year in Frederick.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: He was the 17th rounder that year. Oh, by the way,
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: Shane Boz, two 25 draft picks were traded to get him.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: I think two, maybe more. So that draft has already
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: gotten a major leaguer for the Orioles and maybe more
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: to come. So Blood did a lot of good things here.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: He's worked previously with the Rangers, and we'll see where
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: he goes from here, and we'll see where the Orioles
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: go from here. I hope you guys... At the end
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: of this season, the team addresses this quickly.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, go ahead, Tim.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: No, look, we talked. I can't remember if it was
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: on the episode or off.
• 9:37
  Speaker 5: David Rubenstein needs to talk, and there's no way around
• 9:42
  Speaker 5: that at this point because it's one of two outcomes
• 9:46
  Speaker 5: here for me.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Mike Elias keeps his job.
• 9:50
  Speaker 5: And David Rubenstein, Michael Arrigetti, this is just an ownership
• 9:53
  Speaker 5: press conference. Mike doesn't need to be there. No one
• 9:56
  Speaker 5: else needs to be there. This is an ownership press conference.
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: This is assuming Mike stays. You need to go up
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: there with conviction and say why Mike Elias is the
• 10:07
  Speaker 5: guy to lead this team out of it after back
• 10:10
  Speaker 5: to back subpar seasons and falling short of the playoffs
• 10:14
  Speaker 5: and potentially back to back.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: Last place finishes or loses his job.
• 10:23
  Speaker 5: And you need to explain that the future direction of
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: this franchise and, and look, it's, it's a very difficult thing.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: I say it a lot. We're talking about someone else's job.
• 10:33
  Speaker 5: It's always tough, but the reality of the situation is this.
• 10:38
  Speaker 5: When you look at Mike Elias's tenure in Baltimore, eight
• 10:44
  Speaker 5: years here at this point, two playoff appearances, winning 101
• 10:49
  Speaker 5: games in 23, making a wild card in 2024, but
• 10:53
  Speaker 5: that team really slipped up in the second half. And
• 10:56
  Speaker 5: from June 21st, 2024 to now, they're well over 20
• 11:00
  Speaker 5: games below 500. That's a big sample size. The manager
• 11:05
  Speaker 5: has been fired, talking about Brandon Hyde. There's been a
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: lot of changes, like you mentioned, Steve, the hitting coaches
• 11:12
  Speaker 5: that Mike is a common denominator here, and he would
• 11:17
  Speaker 5: tell you that this isn't good enough. He would tell
• 11:20
  Speaker 5: you that this was supposed to be a sustained winner,
• 11:25
  Speaker 5: and it hasn't been.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: No. No, and I've written about, we've discussed the platoon
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: advantages they attempt to get daily. We see it to
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: the bitter end. It's not working as well anymore. At
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: one time, it worked beautifully for the Orioles. It's not
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: working as well anymore. So some of these things you
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: wonder and hope, I hope, As a follower of the
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: team and a kid who grew up loving the Orioles,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: that they changed some of this. Whether they will or
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: not remains to be seen. Let's talk about this from
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: the weekend. Kyle Braddish goes to the IL. That will
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: end his season. 4-12 ERA, nearly a 1-5 whip. 5-8-3
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: has passed nine starts. I mean, clearly he was either
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: tiring or something wasn't right. The good news for me
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: here is it's an IL stint with nothing to do
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: with his arm or shoulder. As it was announced, Braddish
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: goes to the IL with a lower abdominal disc. Easy
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: for me to say. At least that's less concerning, I
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: would think, on the surface than anything else. And we
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: saw him, guys, mid-year. He was himself. But end of year,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: he was not.
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and I really think you saw everything you needed
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: to see from Kyle Braddish for this season going into
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: the offseason before 2027. And yeah, I agree with you, Steve.
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: I'm glad it's not like his knee, his hip, his elbow.
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: There's no joint issue. It's more of an abdominal strain.
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: They're going to find out, they said, with more imaging
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: coming up. And I just think hopefully all that.
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: Comes up clean.
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: And this is just more of, hey, he's reached his
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: innings max. He was feeling a little discomfort. There's no
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: reason to push him here. We've kind of fallen out
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: of the playoff picture. and get him to the offseason
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: healthy because he is your ace moving forward. And he
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: showed it at times almost, I'd say, three quarters of
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: the season. And I just really think that last quarter
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: he did get tired. He did get kind of worn out.
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: And it's really tough to come back from Tommy John
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: and pitch an entire season. And he pretty much made
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: it the entire way. There's only two weeks left in
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: the season. Went out there, made all of his starts,
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: which is also an encouraging sign. And I just think
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: this is a huge positive moving forward to the 2027 season.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: It's so clear he wore down, guys. And how could
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: you not?
• 13:30
  Speaker 5: You know, throwing most amount of innings he's had since
• 13:33
  Speaker 5: 2023 with 155. On July 22nd, he had a 3-4-9
• 13:40
  Speaker 5: ERA on the season. And then since that point, Steve
• 13:44
  Speaker 5: flashed the graphic 5-8-3. But he had a 13-game stretch.
• 13:48
  Speaker 5: From May 8th to July 22nd, where he pitched to
• 13:52
  Speaker 5: a 2-8-4 ERA. That is Kyle Braddish. That is almost
• 13:56
  Speaker 5: half of a season of vintage Kyle Braddish.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: So I'm not concerned with how he ended the year.
• 14:05
  Speaker 5: I'm happy, like both of you guys said, he's making
• 14:08
  Speaker 5: it out healthy from an arm standpoint.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: And I'm expecting vintage Kyle Braddish next year. Really, what
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: you saw.
• 14:16
  Speaker 5: was his two best pitches, and Ben McDonald talked about
• 14:20
  Speaker 5: it a lot, was it yesterday, on mass. The curveball
• 14:24
  Speaker 5: and slider, they just haven't been that good over these
• 14:29
  Speaker 5: past couple of months.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: Opposing batters hitting.
• 14:33
  Speaker 5: 500 off the slider this month,. 300 off the curveball.
• 14:36
  Speaker 5: You go back to last month,. 389 off the curveball,. 300.
• 14:40
  Speaker 5: off the slider and even before that month uh over
• 14:44
  Speaker 5: 300 off the slider so you've been seeing it it
• 14:47
  Speaker 5: slide down the lack of command the walk rate is
• 14:50
  Speaker 5: way up uh i think it's the prudent move to
• 14:54
  Speaker 5: to shut him down.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: So uh the good news here is kyle bradish is
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: signed through 2031 five years 90 million he got an
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: extension this year he winds up throwing 155 innings which
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: means 180 200 is in play next year. We wondered
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: at the beginning of the year, he threw 55 last year,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: majors and minors. How far could he go? He went
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: pretty far. And I thought the Orioles would back off
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: him early in the year. They didn't. And so, but
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: he made all his starts until here, the last one
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: or two. So again, that's great news for Kyle Bradish.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Just look at the numbers, 23 and 26. He was
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: not himself at the end, but the Orioles saw it,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: as you guys said, Those stats mid-year. We saw it.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: We know what he can do. And he's probably the
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: opening game starter next year, knock on wood, for this
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: abdominal situation is minor and behind him here in a
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: couple months of rehab over the winter. When we continue,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: I had a chance to meet Andy Azocar. This 19-year-old
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: from Venezuela filled up the stat sheet on the farm
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: this year. Wait till you see the homer he hit
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: in the playoffs to the off-field defense. against Greensboro. We'll
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: show you that. We'll talk about him. We'll touch on
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: Pete Alonzo, 100 RBI guy now. Sam Basayo really struggling
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: as the season comes to an end. We've got some
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: interesting topics coming your way here today on the Birdland Territory.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: All right, guys, I keep wanting to call him Andy Azekar.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: I believe the pronunciation is Azokar, 19 years old from Venezuela,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: who I learned a lot about when I went to
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: interview him in Frederick Thursday night during the South Atlantic
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: League playoffs. Had a wonderful interview with some interpreting help.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: This kid was mediocre in the stat sheet at low
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: A in 2025, and he broke out big in 2026.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: On August 3rd, his world was rocked when he was
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: traded from the Red Sox to the Orioles as part
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: of that Ashley Rutschman deal. I think Oriole fans thought, wow,
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: look at those two pitchers they got. But guess what?
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: They got a third who could be a top 100,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: and he actually is already via fan crafts. He's number 82.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: I want you to see this homer he hit in
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: the playoffs. He's got all fields power, big, strong, right-handed hitter.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: He gets an outside fastball here, and watch what he
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: does with it the other night. against Greensboro Grasshoppers at
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: their field. He hits it out to right. And so
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: he has just filled up the stat sheet this year.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: 19 years old from Venezuela. He's listed at 6'2, 165.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: That you can see, that is not correct. He's closer
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: to 200. There's the dugout picture I took of him.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: And he's filled up the stat sheet this year. I mean,
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: this kid has been something special. He had a nine-game stretch, guys.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: I went back and looked at his game-by-game. end of July,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: end of August, two teams. He had some of those
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: games for Boston, some on the Oriole watch. Over those
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: nine games, he was 23 for 44. He drove in
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: 15 runs. That's 523. I'll show you again his homer. Brad,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: this is some power to the off-field here.
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you don't see that too often, especially in the
• 18:24
  Speaker 4: high level, somebody like that. But it's funny, when you
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: show this highlight, I saw the home run, but then
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: I saw him running around the bases. And you happen
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: to mention the 160, and I'm like, that is not 160.
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: That's a grown man there. He's still not that uniform
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: and pretty good. So, yeah, you hope he's only– I
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: think you said 19 years old?
• 18:41
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: So, yeah, that's big time going opposite field like that.
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: And when you see somebody that as they're maturing, like
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: a 19-year-old, you've seen it bad like that, but then
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: you start to see their body start to mature and
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: get closer to their– to their mid-20s, you could tell
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: there's going to be more power coming from that body
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: because that's a great swing.
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: A lot of times at those levels, it's all pull.
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: You'll see some opposite field doubles and stuff like that,
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: but you don't see too many guys going opposite field
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: for power like that.
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: So that's really cool to see.
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: And then it's good to know that they got him
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: back in the Adley deal also because, like you said,
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: those couple of pitchers got all the headlines. But it
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: sounds like they got a great outfield bat in return also.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: Well, he's, as they say, tooled up. I saw him
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: throw in that series in Frederick, and he has a
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: cannon for an arm, too, plus arm. He started in
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: center field. He can play the corners. Here's one thing
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: that's very interesting. His contact rate, this is the percentage
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: of times you swing and put the ball in play,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: was 68% in July with Boston. In August with Baltimore,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: it was 81%. so i don't know what they did
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: with this kid they when i tried to explain it
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: to me they weren't giving away any secrets here but
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: he's making much more contact and he doesn't strike out
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: big to begin with 22 which is not huge for
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: a power hitting kai you know 30 or more you'd
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: be concerned there's no red flag there so i think
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: there's a lot to like average exit velocity is 93
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: There's one Oriole regular who tops that, Pete Alonso. So again,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: he's not hitting the major leaguers, I know, but I'm
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: showing you at 19, this kid's producing 93. So pretty
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: impressive stuff.
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: And I think just throwing in the fact that he
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: hits it 93 miles an hour exit velocity average, but
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: then he's making contact that much.
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: That's good.
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: That's a good sign. That's what you want to see.
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: And if you start to get some lift on it,
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: that's when you start seeing a lot more home runs.
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: So those are definitely encouraging, especially at such a young
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: age against Guys he's probably facing are a couple years
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: older than him at least, so really encouraging to see
• 20:41
  Speaker 4: those kinds of stats.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: He's going to love hitting in the Bowie ballpark when
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: he starts next year. I bet you he gets to
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: AAA before the year is out. He'll be age 20,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: by the way, next year at this time if he
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: can get to AAA. Again, 885 OPS, 35 doubles, 21 homers,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: 98 runs, 20 steals, and 86 RBIs. Other than that,
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: it's been a quiet year for Indy. Azokar. I'm trying
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: to remember how to say his name. Here's another note
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: I'm seeing out tonight. The Orioles are moving a per
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: source catcher, Ethan Anderson and infielder Aaron Estrada from AA
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: to AAA. So that's exciting. One more week of AAA.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: AA ended today. Six more games for the Tides and
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: Ethan Anderson and Aaron Estrada. Estrada is also a Venezuelan
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: switch hitting second baseman are moving to AAA Norfolk. So
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: Pretty exciting stuff happening on the farm. All right, guys.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Pete Alonzo, our daily appreciation for this guy. 100 RBIs today.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: That's his fourth in the last five years.
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, what else can you say? The guy.
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: he produces it's whether it's home runs or whether it's
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: driving guys, he produces and he's done it every single year.
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: I think when you looked at the back in April,
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: you're thinking, man, I don't know. I don't know if
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: this season is going to be the same. So that
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: goes to show how good a season has gone from
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: May until now. So it was a couple of weeks
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: left and what a fitting a hundredth RBI little, excuse me,
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: bloop down the right field line, but you take them anyway,
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: you can get them, but congrats to him. It's another
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: unbelievable season. I feel like when you go into a season,
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: especially somebody like Pete, uh, You think 30 homers, 100
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: RBIs is where you start. And he's at both of
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: those numbers. Or if he's not at 30, he's close
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: to it. And going back to New York for a
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: chance at his 300th home run coming up. So that
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: would be cool to see. It's always cool getting to
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: see somebody go back. But Pete Mintz, playing with him
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: in New York and seeing what he's done for some
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: of the families from 9-11 and the firefighters and the
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: policemen and everything like that, I think it's just kind of–
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: full circle. And what a time for him to get
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: to go back, have a chance to his 300th home
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: run in the stadium that, that drafted him. And he
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: had all those amazing years. So it's a credit to
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: him and he's just still producing. And that's a great
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: thing for the Orris fans.
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: Also.
• 22:57
  Speaker 5: That's exactly what I was going to say, Brad, I
• 23:00
  Speaker 5: I'm really rooting like heck for him to hit a
• 23:03
  Speaker 5: 300th and city field. That would be just such an
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: awesome site for Pete and, and really a great exclamation
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: point on a fantastic year. And I, There's been a
• 23:16
  Speaker 5: lot of disappointments this season, but Pete Alonso is not
• 23:20
  Speaker 5: on that list at all. He has been everything the
• 23:23
  Speaker 5: Orioles could have asked for him, from him and more,
• 23:27
  Speaker 5: especially when you consider the defense. And who knows, maybe
• 23:30
  Speaker 5: we'll see if he's a Gold Glove finalist, a nominee,
• 23:33
  Speaker 5: or ends up winning the award.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: Pete has just been.
• 23:36
  Speaker 5: Fantastic, and it's going to be really, really cool for
• 23:40
  Speaker 5: him to go back, play against his former team these
• 23:43
  Speaker 5: next three nights.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Steve the Optimist will say we're going to spend a
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: lot of time over the next few weeks talking about
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: what's wrong with the Orioles, and that's fine, and it's appropriate,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: and it's warranted. At some point, if we take a
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: few minutes to think about what could be right for
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: next year, we'll start to think about three starters locked in, Radish, Boz, Young.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: We'll see what happens with Rodgers. Some real promising bullpen
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: arms we saw, potential makings. And who knows what's going
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: to happen with Helsley and the mountain. So the bullpen
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: potential is good. Pete Alonzo's back. Oh, by the way,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: get some of these young guys back going. Who knows
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: if Gunnar has an 800 OPS next year. I know
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: big F Steve Gunnar was terrible.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: I got it.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: I got it. I'm just saying when we, sometimes when
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: we see the glass half full, there are some things
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: to like, I think. Yeah. You know what?
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: One of the things I think that will kind of,
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: kind of go under the radar is that Pete will
• 24:42
  Speaker 4: have a full off season with the Orioles. And I think,
• 24:44
  Speaker 4: A lot of times the hitters like to talk to
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: each other if they ever go down to Florida. I
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: know Pete lives somewhere in the Tampa area, so it's
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: not far from Sarasota.
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: You never know.
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: Those guys might want to meet up. Let's do some
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: hitting stuff. And I just think Pete is going to
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: give these guys a lot more advice than he had
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: a chance to give them this year. And I think
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: that's going to be a big thing this offseason is
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: he's just somebody you've got to watch and understand how
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: he prepares, understand how he goes about his offseasons. Once
• 25:08
  Speaker 4: he gets in season, there's just a lot of things
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: that these younger guys, they haven't had this type of
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: guy around them, I feel like.
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: Their entire careers.
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: Gunner, Adley, when he was here, you know, they haven't
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: had this steady veteran who's been a producer who came
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: over to the Orioles and shows them what it's like
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: to play at such an elite level every single season.
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: So I really think that's going to be a huge
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: plus for these guys moving into the offseason is having
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: Pete Alonzo as a ready, readable, available source for them
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: to use this offseason going into their training and moving
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: forward in their careers.
• 25:40
  Speaker 5: It's sort of like the conversation we were having heading
• 25:43
  Speaker 5: into the trade deadline when it looked like the Orioles
• 25:45
  Speaker 5: were going to sell.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: This isn't a teardown. The cupboard is not bare.
• 25:50
  Speaker 5: This is not a 100-loss team devoid of talent. There's
• 25:55
  Speaker 5: still plenty of talent there, obviously, that you can add
• 25:58
  Speaker 5: to it. But, heck, even ownership, and obviously it didn't
• 26:01
  Speaker 5: end up working with the injury. They spent $ 5 million
• 26:04
  Speaker 5: on Luis Robert Jr. this year alone just a couple
• 26:08
  Speaker 5: of weeks ago.
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: Who knows?
• 26:11
  Speaker 5: The Orioles could go out, make a big signing or
• 26:14
  Speaker 5: a big trade for an outfielder that they need, continue
• 26:17
  Speaker 5: to tweak the roster, continue to maybe tweak some philosophy,
• 26:20
  Speaker 5: to be frank.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: But this is not a teardown.
• 26:25
  Speaker 5: This is not something where, oh my gosh, there's no
• 26:28
  Speaker 5: chance that this team can get back in contention next year.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: It's not that at all.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: Let's spend a few minutes on Samuel Basaya, who's really
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: struggling here as we come to the final games, five
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: for his last 37. But I want people to remember, midseason,
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: I looked up his OPS. It was 768. Okay, now
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: it's 705, no hits on Sunday, so that would be
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: a little below league average. He's chasing in the bottom 6%,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: means he chases worse than 94% of major leaguers. He's
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: got to clean that up because if he keeps doing that,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: he won't get strikes to hit.
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and I noticed last week, too, it was– He
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: had some of these really mature at-bats when he was
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: going good, before he got hurt, before all those bizarre
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: situations that we talked about with Sammy back in, I
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: think it was May or June at this point now,
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: but he just, the first pitch swings to me last
• 27:22
  Speaker 4: week were like very bizarre at-bats and not Samuel Basayo
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: that I've come to know this season while he was
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: getting deep in counts, getting balls that he wanted to hit.
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: It was almost like he was, trying to go out
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: there and just take the at-bat right away, the first pitch,
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: and he'd have a weak pop-up or a weak ground
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: ball with guys in scoring position less than two outs.
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: And it was just some of these weird at-bats that
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: I just did not see earlier in the season. And
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: whether it's him trying to force it, and the reporters
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: today were even asking Alvarez about him seeing guys really
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: kind of forcing the issue, the guys at the plate.
• 27:54
  Speaker 4: But Sammy, to me, has really been kind of like
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: forcing his at-bats, really not giving himself a chance. He's
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: just trying to go out there and recognizing the pitch
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: is one thing, but having it be somewhere you can
• 28:05
  Speaker 4: hit it early in the count is a total other thing.
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: And I think that's where young hitters really are able
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: to elevate their game. And we saw that from him
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: in May and June. And after he came back from
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: the IL, I just had not seen that as much.
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: So that's something that I really hope that he's able
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: to work on this off season. Even these next couple
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: of weeks, I really hope he takes these next couple
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: of weeks. very seriously and goes out there and just
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: tries to get some kind of resemblance of the player
• 28:26
  Speaker 4: that we saw back in May and June, because he's
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: a huge, huge piece for this team. Obviously not next year,
• 28:32
  Speaker 4: but for the next seven or eight years from now too.
• 28:34
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 28:36
  Speaker 5: And I think there's a multitude of things when it
• 28:38
  Speaker 5: comes to Samuel Basawi. You mentioned him coming back from injury, Brad,
• 28:42
  Speaker 5: and that was August 19th. So it's 19 games at
• 28:46
  Speaker 5: this point does this doesn't include today. He's hitting 158,
• 28:50
  Speaker 5: has an OPS of 490. Guys, on June 9th, he
• 28:54
  Speaker 5: had an OPS over 800. He got off to a
• 28:58
  Speaker 5: bit of a slow start, then got going mid-April, went
• 29:01
  Speaker 5: nuts in May, and carried over in June.
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: I think it's injuries. I think you can also say,
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: this is his first big league season.
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: He's a rookie.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: He's playing 162 for the first time and dealing with
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: bumps and bruises.
• 29:19
  Speaker 5: And, and I think there's also the point, we know
• 29:23
  Speaker 5: that Sam wears his emotions on his sleeve and, and
• 29:26
  Speaker 5: we saw that bubble up in the dugout. What was
• 29:28
  Speaker 5: that a week or two ago at this point, him
• 29:30
  Speaker 5: kind of punching the wall. Can that sometimes get the
• 29:34
  Speaker 5: best of him? Is that something that you can kind
• 29:37
  Speaker 5: of corral with maturity? I think there's a lot of
• 29:40
  Speaker 5: layers to this, but look, I'm not worried about Samuel
• 29:45
  Speaker 5: Basayo long-term. You know, it hasn't been, you know, a
• 29:49
  Speaker 5: great finish to the year, but I think the arrow
• 29:51
  Speaker 5: is pointing way, way up on Samuel Basayo.
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt. Let's not forget 17 homers, 51 RBIs.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: OPS was league average beginning today, knocked down a few
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: points after he takes an over. So he could still
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: finish above average OPS in his first year, even with
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: injuries and even with his performance falling off at the end.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: And I think like you said, Brad, these last few
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: weeks would be big to generate some momentum for him
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: going forward and finish on a high note, take some
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: confidence into the offseason. Well, guys, we managed to talk
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: for 30 minutes and hardly mentioned the game. What a
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: great job by the three of us. We had interesting,
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: insightful topics to talk about. And we didn't mention the
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: Orioles got their clock cleaned by the Blue Jays 8-1.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: But they are 72-78 headed to Shea State. Well, what
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: is it now? It used to be Shea State.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: City Field.
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: City Field. Thank you.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, City Field.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: Gosh. You sure Abbotsfield is here?
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: Shea was the best. The big Shea, man.
• 30:52
  Speaker 5: Oh, man.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: Steve, let's try to keep up with modern day ballparks.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: All right, guys, I enjoyed it. We'll see you in
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: a couple of days. And thanks to the fans for
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: continuing to follow our show. We'll catch you next time
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: on another edition of Birdland Territory.
• 31:09
  Speaker 4: If you made it this far, you'll love this next video.
• 31:11
  Speaker 4: Check it out right here and make sure you subscribe
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: to Birdland Territory for more Orioles coverage like this multiple
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: times a week.