Welcome home we are W n s t, Towson Baltimore, Baltimore positive or positively into a beautiful week of road baseball, OTA football division baseball actually. And, you know, I look Joe is going to join us now we’re getting his crabcake tore out. We’re going to be Cooper’s north on Tuesday. We’re going to be at state fair on Thursday morning. The Orioles play one o’clock against the Blue Jays. We’re doing a little brunch, which gives me a chance to check in with chicken and waffles, maybe some shrimp and grits over steak fair. Oh, brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. We’ll have some Pac Man scratch offs to give away he gave some away at Bally’s last Friday, when Luke and I got together and talked about walks our friends and liberty pure solutions making our water clean as well as Jiffy Lube, multi care for keeping us out on the road so we can do what we do. I’m wearing my Costa shirt, we’ll be there on the 20th. And the Orioles take take on the Yankees then and you know I was strategic about my June crabcake dates like I’m going to be strategic about my September oyster dates. I you know, I know the Yankees and this problem of them winning every night. You can’t do anything about that until you get there. This is where the team goes on the road and hopefully make some hay I’d say they’ve been a good home team. They’ve been a good road team. Division games gave one away on Sunday. And the general state of the team to me is they’re still hitting the ball well, and the Mullins thing continues to be an issue breaking baths and like, you know, all sorts of things, but for the most part, pitching aside and where they’re gonna be with that. You gotta love what you see with this team. Two out of three days. Yeah,
I mean, overall, I mean, we’ve talked about that. I think that’s what was so frustrating about this weekend that you take two out of three, but it felt disappointing because of the John means news because of the Tyler wells news and what that could mean. Not so much right now. But just the depth and the upside and knowing that there’s four months to go in a regular season, and then there’s October after that. But on Sunday, I mean, the issue was the hit 15 hits, I mean, that match their career high, but they left 13 Guys on base and certainly a missed opportunity there. To say the least. But since you mentioned them, I mean, the Cedric Mullins thing isn’t getting any better. And yes, he made a sparkling play, rob the potential home run the defense you still really like but I’m going to end up site at this kind of not inflection point, but just really speaks to where he was at the time and what he’s been since then I go back to mid April, when Mullins had that walk off home run against the twins since then Nestor so we’re talking over 100 plate appearances, which is a pretty sizable
we’re talking since April 19. Batting 139, with a 177 on base percentage and a 194 slugging percentage. I mean, he’s hitting like a pitcher. I mean, we’re having this is the Jorge Mateo conversation from a year ago with what Cedric Mullins is doing at the plate or not doing at the plate right now. And, you know, we saw it in, you know, the set, what was it the seventh inning when he strikes out and slams the bat down in frustration, breaks the bat, throws his helmet down. It’s tough, because you’re talking about someone who we’ve seen play at a high level, we’ve seen him be a 3030 guy, although I’ll remind that was three years ago at this point in time, you know, that wasn’t as recent as you’d like it to be. And we’ve seen him. You know, we’ve seen his numbers declined since then now, last year, I think there was an overwhelming sentiment and hope that it was stemming from the injuries. Keep in mind, he had multiple groin issues that he dealt with, you know, starting on what was it Memorial Day last year, and then had the setback right after the all star break and landed on the aisle again, and I think most people, including myself, thought that it was much more about that. And that can be unhealthy wood chain change things in 24. But, I mean, this is a real problem. And I think you look at the outfield in its totality. Obviously, we’ve talked a lot about Austin Hays, in fairness, Austin Hays, and I’m not saying that he’s been great since he’s returned, but since he’s returned, and you know, it’s only 3634 at bats, whatever it is, because he’s not playing every day. You know, he’s become their fourth outfielder. He’s gotten to 94 since then, and not hitting for a ton of power or anything like that. But he’s been better since he’s returned from the aisle. To me, he’s played like a fourth outfielder. And I mean that in a complimentary way. As far as since he’s returned Now it doesn’t mean I want to start playing him ever Today again, but that’s looked better. But you kind of look at the rest of the outfield we’ve talked about at Santander, you know, big day Saturday aside, you know, hits the homerun on his bobblehead day all that he hasn’t been the best version of himself, Colton Couser has fallen off. And he hasn’t been as great since his amazing April, although drawing walks, certainly has helped his on base percentage and his overall profile. You know, the guy that I’d like to see play more regularly is Kyle’s towers. But that doesn’t mean I’m, I’m convinced that Kyle’s towers is going to be the answer either. So you know, it really I mean, Marlins is by far their biggest problem right now in the outfield. I think that’s evident. And part of that is you want to try to keep his defense in there. But I mean, the bat has been so bad now for seven weeks, six weeks, seven weeks, that it’s becoming more and more of a problem. And I think you saw it again, and that seven thinning, which by the way, I would have pinched it for him in that spot. You know that that was a spot where you know that there were a couple guys on and you had an opportunity to to increase your lead. I understand the thinking that it’s a one run game, and you’d like to keep his his defense out there, you know, for the final two innings. But I would have pinch hit for him there. strikes out. You see the frustration, you know, look, he’s, he’s not hiding from it. He talked after the game on Sunday. And he flat out said, it’s been tough, you know, I’ve got to be better. I’m trying to work. I’m working every day. I see him out there. When I get to the ballpark at 230. In the afternoon, Esther has taken extra BPS doing things to try to get better and to try to get out of this, but it’s just not happening. And again, it’s not quite as simple as just saying, Oh, well, Ben Schumer, oh, send them down the Norfolk. And I’m not saying that those things aren’t going to eventually happen. But as I said, you kind of just need more consistency from your outfield in general. Because, you know,
we’ve talked about it with Hayes, like I said, Couser in the month of May go look at the numbers that what has it been consistent? It’s been hot and cold, right? It really has been Yeah. And when you guys like mountcastle, and other places you already know are hot and cold. Unless and one thing about rutschman and Andrew I mean, every time they come up, you feel like they’re taking lease hit a double down the line, and they’re at least gonna have a disciplined strategic approach at the plate. And you see how exceptional they are, especially when we’ve sat here and dealt with a lot of lousy for a long time. And some pretty good. And, you know, when you mentioned Mullen sort of losing it, whatever it is the Chris Davis thing, right. I mean, you know, on the heels of seeing how precipitous a fall can be thready ballplayer, I mean, I guess there’s cases everywhere, I think of Chris Davis, more than anyone else around here, because not just because of the money or whatever. And the the diagnosis involved in all of that, and what was going to be legal and what was not going to be legal in regard to attention. And I think about players on that arc of, well, when they’re 2526, they’ll come into being really good. When they’re 30. If they have that skill set, they’ll probably still have it at 32, it starts to move in the other direction. And in the modern era, that’s when guys start making more money, which makes it even harder. If you’re less. I asked Adam Jones, you have to go play in Japan, they they just they don’t have any place for you anymore, if you’re just pretty good are really good. But you’re 32 or 33, or 34. So I don’t know where that arc is for all these guys, and used to be whole thing. And this is where I’ll point out once again that I am Hispanic and Venezuelan, that my people, my people would come over and fake birth certificates happen all the time. And you never knew how old anybody was. I don’t know that that’s going on so much in York, Pennsylvania these days. But in a general sense, there’s an aging process for all of this, where three years is a long, long time. And it’s kind of sad for him and for hazing. Like you’re already with Asian. Bad too. He’s a fourth outfielder and I’m like an all star last year. You can’t find space. You can’t get the confidence level that he’s going to hit you 90 For the rest of the way. I don’t know. But we we get exploration labels like milk cartons on some of these guys. And then some guys just fall off so crazy. And I bring up Chris Davis, that it’s kind of jaw dropping, and you really can’t put your finger on it. Yeah.