Orioles SWEEP the White Sox + Giants Series Preview - Ep. 9

Clay and Tyler break down the Orioles recent series sweep against the White Sox, along with a preview for their upcoming series vs the Giants.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Yo yo yo, what is going on, ladies and gentlemen? Welcome back to Orioles Theory, your number one one-stop shop for all things Baltimore Orioles related. We got you covered over here. I got my guy Clay Selgen in the booth with me for this one. I'm Tyler Barbaras. And before we dive into this one, make sure to follow us on all socials at Orioles Theory, Instagram, TikTok, uh, Twitter. We post endless amount of Orioles content on all platforms. So make sure to check us out there so you guys can stay as up to date on Orioles news, rumors, and drama as you would like. But before we dive into today's episode, we got to get a vibe check. Clay, how are we doing, brother? How are the vibes? Oh, just caught a sweep. Feeling good?

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Vibes are good. Um, I didn't expect us to sweep this weekend the way we'd been playing. Kind of evens out how everything went in Pittsburgh, but uh sweep's a sweep, whether it's the White Sox or the Yankees. So vibes are high. How you feeling?

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Good, man. And that's kind of how you have to take it, you know. Um, a sweep is a sweep, especially when you're three and six. You get swept in a series that you should not have been swept in. You get swept and you bounce back, sweeping a team that in the Chicago White Sox, they have been playing some pretty solid ball to start off the season. Uh, had a pretty strong series against the Miami Marlins, a series that they lost. But this is a team that can put up runs. They put up runs against a really good pitching staff against the Milwaukee Brewers, and it wasn't going to be easy, especially given the conditions. Uh, it was cold, it was rainy, it was wet. Clay, I know you were there, and I want you to dive into your experience being at all three games, or was it just two?

SPEAKER_01 2:13

All three. So, yeah, it was a blast. I mean, it was it was every time I've gone to the White Sox Park, it's it's a fun time, and fans really care. And you know, it's funny. We were talking, I was talking with Andy over at Oriol Express. You know, he was like, What's it like being in a stadium, you know, that's empty? And I was just like, It's cool. Because the one thing that I noticed, especially the what's it say Thursday? So the Tuesday game, it was the two o'clock central time. There was no more than 2,000 people there, but everybody that was there was into it, and it was it was exciting, and it was you weren't dealing with a bunch of casuals around you that were like, Oh, you know, I'm just here for the vibe. No, this was real ball now. So, you know, you're having a fun time, you're getting loud, you can hear the players, players hear you. You know, it was it was three really gritty wins. And to go back to what we were talking about, you know, if those wins were against a team like the Yankees, I feel like we'd be a lot happier. But the fact that we kind of had those struggles in these games and it was the White Sox, even though they're playing good ball, it was kind of like all right, but no, it was a very good thing.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

It was a level of okay, like yeah, like you're a little bit concerned, right? But I mean, like you said, Clay, a win's a win. And Chicago, the White Sox, they're a team that won a World Series two decades ago. So it's like they have the fans there, they're passionate, like they were a good baseball team only like what six years ago, five years ago, like they were competing, and now they don't really have a team to root for. But those 2000 select fans that you're talking about, those are still guys that maybe have season tickets, right? Or or they just love the game of baseball and uh they just want to want to go watch it for themselves.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

And you want to go see, you got people that want to go see Murakami. Oh, I mean, even though Murakami only came in for two years, I mean that's that's a name to bring in. That's a global marketing name that they brought in. A thousand percent. And I and I kind of really I relate the White Sox kind of to the Mets in a sense. Like, you got like to me, the Mets like Mets fans are the real fans of New York City. Like, if you go to a Yankee game, there's gonna be a whole lot of more casual, you know, people there. It's the same thing with Wrigley Field, as much as I love Wrigley, it's a casual, it's a it's a vibey place to go. Same with the Yankee Stadium. If you go to City Field, you're dealing with real baseball fans, you're not you're walking around, and these people care. You know, it's it's not your casual people, so it's always a really good experience, and and somewhere I definitely recommend going. Train system's easy.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I love me a good train system. I was in London um for about two and a half weeks from May to June uh last year, and they got their own underground system and it made everything easy. And and and being from the you know metropolitan area, you always gotta take advantage of the metro anytime you can. So a big advocate of uh strong underground uh uh systems. So, yep, public transit, better way to put it. But hey, before we dive into today's sports talk, let me give a quick shout out to our sponsor, O Squared at Residential Design. Look, we know what it takes to build a winning team, and O Squared knows what it takes to build winning spaces. They're a woman-owned, family operated company right here in Maryland, specializing in kitchen and bathroom renovations. Whether you're looking to restore, replace, or completely remodel, they deliver excellence in every square inch. Serving homeowners across the state of Maryland. Check them out at osquedesign.com. That's osquaredesign.com. All right, Clay, now it's time to get into the fun stuff. We're gonna dive into not the stadium and fan environment of the Orioles White Sox series, but the actual ball that was being played during this series. Obviously, Orioles picked up a nice clean sweep. Now, did they do it comf comfortably? No. But like we said earlier, a sweep is a sweep. One game one, two to one, one game two, four to two, and then they won game three, five to three. I honestly think that Brandon Young's game one performance was a massive turning point for this team, especially with the bullpen, um, given that they got pretty damn taxed in the Pirates series. Having Brandon Young give us five innings of two hit ball, zero earned runs, uh, only allowed four base runners. I mean, like, this is the type of pitching performance that you need from a guy that doesn't necessarily have a spot on this team. Brandon Young is a very up and down spot start type of guy. He's not really a bullpen arm, but he's a guy that if he's thrown into the into the fire, given a situation to start, best believe he's gonna churn out some good innings for you. Was very, very impressed with what Brandon Young was able to do in that one. Play your thoughts on Brandon Young's five inning, uh, you could say gem.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

Yeah, I would I would I would call it a Brandon Young gem, you know, close enough to his uh almost perfect game. Um no, I it's funny. I would the most unbelievable shit ever. Um, you know, I will I will give Brandon Young credit where credit is due. I talked a lot of shit over the weekend when you know on Monday when they announced he'd be pitching Monday. And not at him, just more at Michael Elias. I mean, we shouldn't have been at the point where Brandon Young's starting on April 6th, but I will give all the credit in the world to Brandon Young. He came up, you know, he danced around base runners, but he found a way to get out of it. He found a way to get through five innings. And personally, I was pissed off at the time, not knowing he was on a pitch count, why he wasn't back out there for the sixth when he had only thrown 68 pitches. You know, Brandon Young gave you exactly what um gave you exactly what we needed. And I I couldn't give him more credit. You know, we haven't talked since the Pirates series either. I want to give Kade Povich credit too. Kade Povich saved the bullpen for five and two-thirds on Sunday. And all of a sudden he's getting rewarded with a start on Sunday against uh against the uh Giants. So you know it it's these it's these key little guys that have to step up and do these kind of things throughout the year that's gonna bring the success. And thankfully Brandon Young did it. Thankfully, Cade Povich did it, and hopefully Dean Kramer's back up soon and takes over for Zach Efflin.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

Yeah, you know, that's that's really all you can ask for now is just someone that can fill the role of Zach Efflin. And we're and we are gonna talk about that on the uh segments. I got pitching concerns, so we're gonna dive into Zach Efflin's injury, talk about Kyle Bradish maybe a little bit. But yeah, I mean, you're just ex hoping that someone like a Dean Kramer, like a Brandon Young, like a Cade Povich, can just be a good enough five starter to get you to the trade deadline to where you can reassess the guys that you have in your clubhouse starting pitching rotation. But it's also like if you don't go out and get a Sandy Alcantara, if you don't go out and trade for uh a Joe Ryan or a Tarek Scuba, like those are pricey guys, right? Maybe you just have that much faith in someone like Trey Gibson, who twirled a gem by the way, earlier today. I think five or six innings, uh zero runs, picked up, I think five or six strikeouts. Is Trey Gibson a guy that you have that much faith in to, you know, be like a Cam Schittler, to be a Trey of Savage, one of those pitchers that they're a rookie, but they get called up in the summer and they just ball out for you in the regular season and in the postseason? Is Gibson the guy? Or maybe is it Luis de Leon? Like the Orioles have options, especially in their farm system of pitchers that can come up and make an impact now. But the question remains how many Mike Elias, you know, finds uh draftees um in the starting pitching room at the starting pitching position are gonna become strong major league arms, right? And and that question is is still um unanswered, right? We don't really know how good some of these arms are going to be. So I think it's important right now that you know Kyle Bradish figures it out. Shane Boz uh continues to build on a strong start against Pittsburgh. He's pitching tomorrow. It's important that we get a good Boz start. Uh, and really Chris Bassett has just got to figure it out. Because if you're banking on Trevor Rogers being the only guy that can give you six innings, uh quality starts, then this team is gonna sink like a ship, like how they did last year. But overall, um, in that Chicago White Sox series, we saw the offense get a little bit hotter in games uh two and three. Um it was really just the Gunnar Henderson show. You know, two home runs, picked up a double. Um, but Taylor Warto is another player that we have to talk about. Four for five um yesterday, uh three doubles. I mean, this is just a guy that's just gonna spray it all around the bar. Kirby leads MB in doubles, uh, has a 1039 OPS, which is 10th best in baseball, 383 batting average. I mean, this guy is on an absolute heater. Outside of a very, very slow month of March. Now he had a really, really good game against the Texas Rangers on March 31st. He went uh four for five. But this month, in 27 at bats, he's 12 for 27 with eight doubles, six RBIs, five walks, uh, and only seven strikeouts. Good for a 444, uh, 5'5, 515, 741 slash line. I mean, if this is the version of Taylor War that we're gonna get all season, and I don't expect him to be this good all season, uh, given some of his uh track record. He's very, he's a very, very good hitter in April. And then he tends to derail a little bit in the summer. But hey, if Taylor War wants to be our extra base hit machine, I am okay with that, especially if he's at the top of the order. You've got to have faith that Pete Alonzo is gonna start to drive in more runs. Gunnar Henderson's been driving in runs, Adley Rutschman. That's that remains to be unseen as to whether or not he can be an RBI producer. But you have guys all through the order that can drive in runs. The question is, who is it gonna be? And and and that is yet to be known. But Taylor Ward right now has been one of, if not the best uh driver of runs. Uh Klay, your thoughts on T Ward so far this season. Obviously, got him in the Grayson Rodriguez trade. So we kind of got him for free. Uh, what are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Taylor Ward's been everything we could ask for. And then some, you know, Wednesday, last yesterday, we threw him into the uh threw him into the two-hole, and all of a sudden it worked out. All of a sudden, Gunner had that protection again. Because I hate to say it, Pete Alonso's been struggling, and and Taylor Ward's put up the production so far that I expected out of Pete and Taylor combined. So the fact we're getting that just out of Taylor Ward's crazy to me. But you know, it's funny when you when you mentioned with these guys the Taylor Wards and everybody like Kyle Braddish, all of these guys at certain moments in the last that you know in the last three days wanted to give you a brain aneurysm. Whether it was Taylor Ward in left field with having a hand warmer in his hand, Kyle Braddish, you know, dropping the ball and walking and moping around. Like it there's still these moments that have to be addressed. We have to address the the elephant in the room that the fundamentals aren't there. We're talking about major league baseball players, and it's April 10th, April 9th, and we're making errors that shouldn't even be happening in February. So it's it's it's the mental game, and and O'Neill, O'Neal's RBI single uh Monday night didn't run it out, probably should have been on second base. Albert Nass has to come out after the game, talk. Oh, you know, I talked to Tyler O'Neal then, you know, what yesterday? I talked to Kyle Braddish after the fifth inning. These can't happen, these just can't happen. And you know, as much as we want to celebrate sweeping the White Sox, you keep having these mental mistakes against teams that aren't, you know, gonna be having the dog days of summer, they're you're not gonna win. So, you know, as as great as it's been, these little things can't happen.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

And I agree.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

That that's what sticks out to me.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

Yeah, no, fair. I mean, what's the saying? It's like bad habits build bad tendencies or or like bad something along those lines. And it is concerning seeing that we just make these mental lapses all the damn time. And I don't know if it's just a Baltimore thing because the Ravens do it too. The Orioles have always done it, whether that be Colt Kowser swing at a pitch that hit him in the postseason two years ago with bases loaded, or just what Kyle Bradish did the other day, or tripping on your own foot while you have a hand warmer and you're throwing hand, it's like stuff like that has got to be addressed, right? And and Clay, you talked about that, and Albernez has addressed it, but it's like if it happens again, is he really addressing it? And that's where the concern level can start to raise. It's like, okay, if this happens again in the San Francisco Giants series coming up, then they're then there's a bigger issue to worry about, right? Like then this team just has bad habits that they have to shake, right? And and and that's where it gets super concerning. So overall, it was a sloppy series. Um, they really, really struggled with runners in scoring position. Um, outside of literally Taylor Ward, I'm extremely curious to see how this team did with runners in scoring position.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

Um, but what one for 12 Monday before before we won it later in the game? They were one for 12 against Shane Smith. We had 12 left on base. We struck out eight times in three innings. This guy had 100 pitches in four innings, and we had and we had eight strikeouts. We had five walks and didn't score. Like that just can't we I hate to complain and I get it's early, but like Pete Alonso's hitting lower than my high school GPA, and I was like 300th in my class of 500 people. Like it just can't happen. That can't happen. Yeah, Chris Bassett, all these guys we've signed aren't working out, not yet. I mean, and I plan on Pete Alonso's gonna work out. I'm sure Ryan Helsley's gonna work out a lot of these guys are gonna work out, but now you're looking at Chris Bassett. Chris Chris Bassett's looked horrible, horrible. Zach Efflin, four innings this year, and now he has Tommy John surgery, which sucks. I love Zach Efflin. So now you're banking on Chris Bassett to get you to July so you can acquire more talent. We talk about, you know, maybe Trey Gibson comes up, maybe this happens, but what if we don't make that trade? Now we're gonna rely on a rookie to come up in July or August and hope that you know he has a trade to Savage postseason, which is very rare.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

Right.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

There's just a lot of flaws and a lot of things going wrong. You look at Ryan Helsley, Ryan Helsley struggled both nights against the White Sox. It just seemed it seemed like you know, he got it together, you know, after he threw six straight balls on Tuesday. But even Monday night, Monday night felt like it was over. It was every moment just felt like a three-run homer was coming to end this game. And the bull, I'll say this the bullpen looked good this week. The bullpen has looked good this week. They did. I'll give them that, but there's just so many things that that can't go wrong that will and are. And it's like little stuff like that where I wonder is Pete Alonso really the leader that we think he is, and it's not maybe it's not his talent, very, very early, but it is very early, but there's nobody in this clubhouse to keep these guys in check. It's obvious that I mean I like Craig Albernez. It's obvious that you know they'll he'll have a conversation with him, but nothing's changing. This isn't this is the same shit, same stuff that happened with Brandon Hyde, it's the same stuff that happened with Tony Mansolino. There's nobody like Tommy Fam in this clubhouse that will choke someone and say, get it together. Yeah, it's April 9th and we're playing like little leaguers. Like it just there's no one there to hold anyone accountable for anything.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

Yeah, no, I mean your crash out is is is valid. I mean, there are a lot of other fans out there that are feeling the same way you are, Clay. And you know, for me, I'm at the point where all right, we're 12 games into the season. We basically just finished week one of the NFL season, and uh we're six and six, we're in a playoff spot somehow, and it's like the American League isn't playing well, but I'm not worried about playoffs now, but I just find it funny that even though the Orioles are playing such a poor mediocre baseball mediocre, immature brand of baseball.

SPEAKER_01 17:52

Yeah, it's funny how baseball works out. It it's and it's crazy to me. Like when that Kyle Braddish thing happened yesterday, I was sitting row one and like on top of the dugout. I'm literally screaming. I'm literally watching, I'm watching what's a Meredith or Mary off go around third base. I'm like, pick up the ball. Yeah, and there's just no urgency, nobody cares. Nobody cares.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

Yeah, and that's what like I do have a small rebuttal to that play. To say that nobody cares, I I I think that's a obviously that's broad and they'd care, but like these mental calves can't happen.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

Like it's in it, and it's not just one, it's not just oh, Taylor Ward had a hand warmer in his hand. Oh, it happened. Oh, you know, Tyler O'Neill didn't run out of the ball. I mean, Colton Cowser didn't run out that ball to the plate. Yeah, Anthony Winners did it too, but it happens. He's a rookie, right? He's a rookie, it happens, but you know, Colton Kowser, that ball back to the pitcher, he didn't run that out. All of a sudden it got bobbled, he would have been safe. There's no repercussions for that. The guy's hitting 150. Right it it's it'd be different, and it's why I give grace to Taylor Ward. Taylor Ward's hitting 380, and we'd probably be three and nine right now without him. It happens if you're playing good, I can let it go. But when you're batting 150, if Pete Alonso's batting 180, I can't justify some of these things. You talk about being a leader, and then it's like every day this is happening. It's not just, oh, yeah, this is a one-off. And I hate to I hate to you know complain and whine and moan, but we watched the wheels fall off in April last year. We watched Brandon Hyde get fired in the second month of the season. You know, this team hasn't looked the same since July of 24. And we can admit that.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

You know, Clay, the one thing I will say is that this Orioles team, the one that they have this year, they wouldn't have swept this series. They would have found a way to lose at least one game, maybe even two. Gunnar Henderson obviously played a massive part with this go-ahead two-run shot. Taylor Ward with that double. Um, that was a massive, massive part in the game, but also in the uh game uh yesterday. Uh, we were down two nothing in the second inning, and it could have been a lot worse. Kyle Bradish turned a big double play. Um, and then in the third inning, Baltimore gets two more two more runs back, you know, and and then they also give them that, but it's like it's it's like they showed fight two in game three against Minnesota when they were down what four-nothing, and then O'Neill hits a three-run homer, and then Beavers hits a two-run double. It's like, no, there are some things that we have this year that we didn't have last year. There are some things last year that we don't have this year. Maybe last year our bullpen was a little bit better than it was this year, but it's also we're 12 games in this season. Players are still figuring out their roles on this team. Is Anthony Nunez the set of guys that Tyler Wells is is a rico Garcia?

SPEAKER_01 20:41

Like we only have to figure one out too.

SPEAKER_00 20:43

I agree, and and and we'll dive into him at some point. Uh, we're gonna give him a little bit more time with these bullpen ones because it's still absolutely it's very early, it's very early to make um to be critical of some of these guys. And I have been critical, yeah. Yaramil Geraldo being one for obvious reasons, but it's like Grant Wolfram, Rico Garcia, Dietrich Ends. It's like Wolfram right now is the only lefty in the pen outside of Tovich, and he has pitched what two or three straight days. And and a lot of things are going to change once Kitch Kitteridge comes back, once Aiken comes back, once Holiday comes back, Wesper comes back, Kramer gets elevated. Like this team, how it looks right now, to be six and six. Now we should be seven and five. We should have won at least one game in Pittsburgh. But to be six and six right now is a blessing, especially as you go back home to Baltimore to take on the Giants. And I'm gonna switch gears here a little bit. We are gonna talk about the Giants series, but one player that I do want to talk about is Kyle Bradish, and uh it's an inevitable conversation to have. Um, Kyle Bradish has not looked good this year. Uh now his swing and miss stuff is still the normal Kyle Bradish swing and miss stuff, but he has no control. I'm looking at his base. Baseball savant page right now, and his expected ERA is a 322 compared to his 527. So he has been getting a little bit unlucky. His expected batting average is 200, but his K rate is still 73rd percentile, 28%. But you look at the other things, his vat his fastball velocity is down. His average exit velocity for batters is 89.4 miles per hour. He's not getting as many chases and whiffs, only a 23.3% whiff rate. He's not as deceiving because he's in the zone with his fastball, with his sinker, and with a slider. And that's what makes Cal Braddish so so successful and so good when he's on, is that he has a sinker that he can throw to both lefties and rightties. He has a fastball that he can elevate with. Then he has the devastating uh uh slider and a curveball, too, that he can mix it up with. And right now, Bradish is falling behind in counts. His his first pitch uh strike accuracy is not good. And that's why we're seeing Bradish fizzle out, especially in the second inning. I don't know if that's an Orioles thing. Shane Boss has that issue. Um, Chris Bassett has that issue as well. It seems like the second inning with the five through eight batters or the four through seven batters is always these pitchers is kryptonite. And I don't know why it is like that, but I do believe in Kyle Bradish still going forward. I think the start that he has had is just a confidence thing, and confidence is a massive part in being a good baseball player. Like you we're seeing it with Kobe Mayo. That guy had the most confidence ever in spring training, and then he has a iffy first couple weeks in the big leagues, and now we can't even hit a fastball down the middle. It's like confidence is huge in baseball. Yeah, can't Kobe Mayo can't challenge either. That's a story for another day. But Kyle Bradish is one of those guys that when he's on, he knows that he's one of the best pitchers in baseball. And I believe that he'll have some sort of two to three game stint in late April or May, where he throws 18 innings of two or with only allowing two earned runs, and he has 23 strikeouts, and we're like, okay, Kyle Bradish is back. But it is still concerning because this early in the season, we all expected Bradish to be this otherworldly pitcher, this guy that could be the opening day starter, who could be better than Trevor Rogers throughout a 1-8-1 ERA last season. We all expected Shane Boss to come in and just be a lights out, high velocity swing in the sky, and he hasn't been that so far. We expected Chris Bassett to be an innings eater to give us five innings of two, three run ball, and he's been even worse than that. A lot of things are going wrong right now in the rotation. But like I said, we're only we've only played 12 games. There's so much ball left to be played, and so many more starts that that are in Kyle Bradish's tank. So I'm not very concerned now if he gets injured again. Now, now this is a big concern. But right now I think Bradish just doesn't have the confidence, and I really hope that it's not an injury thing. Because if it's a confidence issue, there's no doubt in my mind that he'll turn it back up in April or in May. Clay, thoughts on Bradish, then we'll swing over to the Giants preview.

SPEAKER_01 25:14

Yeah, um, you know, I think with Bradish, I think it's tricky. I I don't think he's hurt. I I think I think a little of it has to do with confidence, but I it's all in the numbers. You know, you'll you look at it, his fastball average goes from 96 in the first inning, maybe sometimes into the second inning to about 93 as the game goes on to the second, third, and fourth. There's something that that that could be found in the numbers. There's something that you know our pitching instructors, our trainers could figure out and say, why is this happening? And I think they will. But it it it doesn't concern me. I I think I I think, like you said, I I fully expect Kyle Braddish in late April, early May to have like three or four starts where we're like, okay, Kyle Bradish is back. But I also know that coming off of a major surgery like that, you know, it takes a while to build your arm back up, and maybe he's still going through those motions of okay, let me go throw heat in the first inning, but then all of a sudden it's like, all right, I, you know, maybe I overthrew in the first inning in a little bit, now I'm gonna feel it in the second, third, fourth, and he's gotta find that that happy medium of okay, this is where I need to sit right now and then turn it on as I need to. And and I think there's nothing wrong with that. Kyle Bradish has the stuff and the movement, especially on his off-speed pitches to keep guys off off off tap or off, you know, off kilt. You know, yeah. I'm not worried about it. You know, prayers, you know, fingers crossed that he's not hurt and you know, we don't have another start, or it's like all of a sudden he goes down and it's like, well, this is a lot uglier than we expect. So, you know, fingers crossed, but I I I think he'll be fine. I I think we should we should be fine and we should get into talking about this exciting series against your boy Logan Webb this weekend.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

Yeah, let's do it. You know, I love me some Logan Webb. One thing I do want to note real quick with the starting pitching rotation, or the starting pitchers in general, or the pitchers in general, excuse me, said outside of Yarmil Geraldo, the Orioles have only allowed six home runs. Braddish only has allowed one through three starts. Um, Efflin allowed one in his small start. It's like we're not seeing a trend of these pitchers giving up the long ball, which is very, very good. A lot of this stuff is like bloop singles or like someone like against uh Bradish's start against Pittsburgh. It it's it started with a walk, and then Connor Griffin ripped a 105 mile per hour double into the gap, and then after that it was just blue pit after blue pit after blue pit, and we saw that happen again in the in in the White Sox game. So it's like the hard hit contact Bradish isn't extremely, extremely susceptible to, which is good. And yeah, you're just getting people dime to death.

SPEAKER_01 27:56

I mean, that's yeah, exactly. You know, the White Sox. Yeah, I don't think the White Sox had a homer in the three. So at the end of the and it's like I said, you know, there's been times, you know, we've bashed Grant Wolfram, we've bashed Yarmel Gerado, and I'll continue to. He's horrible. But Grant Wolfram also came through and and had some key strikeouts, got out of clutch innings in that White Sox series. So these guys that you know, sometimes and we have to remember, these guys also have little experience. This Orioles bullpen is so inexperienced, so you know they're still getting adjusted. I mean, shout out to Anthony Nunez. I mean, he's came in and it's been clutch almost every time. Besides that, bobble and you know, missing the ball in Pittsburgh, that guy has been impeccable.

SPEAKER_00 28:34

So yeah, he's been nails.

SPEAKER_01 28:36

Yeah, I I have no hatred towards this bullpen at the moment. They've given me no reason to, besides Yaramil Geraldo. Guys like Cade Povich have stepped up, guys like Brandon Young have come and started and stepped up. I mean, if these guys pitch like they have this so far, I'm not gonna complain about this bullpen. I this bullpen how they're playing right now can get you to July.

SPEAKER_00 28:57

Rico Garcia has a 0.5 war in five and two-thirds innings.

SPEAKER_01 29:01

Like, yeah, guys men, guy, Rico Garcia. I mean, that's your setup guy. Rico and Anthony Nunes are your setup guys. I mean, hopefully Keegan Aiden comes back and you get a nice lefty. I still wouldn't be opposed to signing Michael Kopeck. I wouldn't be assigned to sign Lucas Giolito, but you know, that's for that's for Uncle Mike to make that decision.

SPEAKER_00 29:18

That is very true. That is very true. So it's that the Orioles aren't giving up the uh long ball. But speaking of home runs, O Square Residential Design hits it out the park with their kitchen and bathroom renovations. Whether you need to restore, replace, or completely remodel, they've got Maryland covered. Check them out at osquaredesign.com. That's osquaredesign.com. Shifting gears into the Giant series, O's return back home after a two series away stint where they will be taking on Landon Roop in game one. Shame Boz is on the mound for Baltimore Orioles, are currently minus 122 on Giraffe Kings over under set at eight and a half. How do we feel about Boz in this matchup play? 3.27 ERA, 1.18 whip, 11 innings. Isn't giving us that depth that we necessarily expected him to, but he looked pretty solid. He's gotten settled in after some poor starts um early into the game. I know against uh um Minnesota he had a pretty pretty sloppy um first couple innings and then he settled in. And same thing with the Pirates series, uh, had a rough few innings, and then he really turned it up a notch there. Um I like what Boz is going to be able to do. However, Landon Roop is no slash himself for two two ERA on the season. Um against the Padres, uh, his first start of the year, he went six innings, only allowed two hits, a zero earned runs, seven strikeouts, but against the Mets the other day, four and two thirds innings, seven hits, five earned runs, uh, but seven strikeouts again. So Roop is a big swinging missed guy. He's alrighty, 27 years old. Um curious to see if Baltimore can can can attack him early. Uh maybe this is the the the big Pete Alonso game or big Pete Alonso series. Who knows? Maybe he goes three for five with the Homer and three ribbies and just like that. Those offense is is is back, you know.

SPEAKER_01 31:21

So Pete Alonso is gonna break out at some point and it's gonna be great. I and I will say this about being in Chicago. It felt like every bar I was at, every restaurant I was at, people would come up to me. I'd be wearing my Pete Alonso jersey or just wearing an Oriol jersey. They're like, So you got the polar bear, huh? And it's just like the same conversation every you know 15 minutes. I'm just like, all right, well, he's hitting 180, so let's talk about this when he's hitting 250 and has a couple homers under his belt. But no, I mean, I'm I'm still so excited about it, and as we should be. But I mean, looking into Friday, like you say, Lane and Root, you know, big swing and miss guy. The Orioles are a big swing and miss team. So, you know, it's a good combination. Somebody's gonna have to crack at some point. Um, Shane Boss, Shane Boss got good stuff. I think the thing that concerns me with the Giants is the Giants are a nickel and dime team, you know, Lisa Raz, Matt Chapman, Jong Hu Ree, Jong Hu Lee, Chang's. Fucking oh, my my tongue is tied. Um, it's uh who's the other guy?

SPEAKER_00 32:17

Um in their outfield?

SPEAKER_01 32:20

Heliot Romo Ramos.

SPEAKER_00 32:21

Elliot Ramos, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:23

He can hit. I mean, these guys, I mean, they've had a couple fielding issues. Harrison Bader, known Oreo killer. You know, these guys have been, you know, these guys have you know get base hits and they get on base, and they've had a couple fielding missed cues. And Tony Vitello, Tennessee volunteer guy, just like you, Tyler. You know, he's he's still getting his feet wet. I mean, this is gonna be an interesting series between two two teams that have two young managers both trying to figure it out. You know, I I could see tomorrow kind of being maybe not a high scoring game, but I could see it being another kind of game where both starters are out after five and it's like four to three, you know, something like that. And and it might be like a four to three, five to four game. Each team has like 11 or nine hits, something like that. Like I it's gonna be a very good game. You know, I I'm excited to watch the Giants. I'm excited to watch Jung Hu Lee. I love when I went out and saw them last year in San Francisco. It was exciting, you know. I bet I that's a good team over there. I I think the NL West is exciting, and uh I'm curious to see what you think. I think I think we win tomorrow. I think we win Sunday and probably lose Saturday.

SPEAKER_00 33:23

Yeah, um, you know, game one, I think the it's very dependent on how Boz looks. If he can give us six innings of one run ball, strike out seven batters, only allow a few hits. Like if we get a Boz gem, I feel great. However, if Boz can only give us four and two-thirds innings, we gotta go to Albert Suarez or Cade Povich early. I don't have a lot of faith in that game. However, I do think the offense is due to bounce back at some point. Um, they're just on the brink of breaking out. Like they're like 11th in the league in walks with like 48. They're like 12th in OPS, even though it's a sub-700 team OPS, they're still 12th in OPS. Um, the one thing that I do want to see the Orioles do more of, and I don't know if this is the right series to do it because Patrick Bailey is such a strong defensive catcher. That's still more bases. They're uh they're 28th in the MLB right now in stolen bases with only four. Um, I really want to see that number go up a little bit. You've got to get more runners in scoring position. And even though they can't really hit with runners in scoring position, they're situationally hitting better. Like in the White Sox series, uh, there are runners on first and second, a wild pitch. Guys advance to second and third, Dylan Beavers sack fly um for a run to score. It's like that's how I want this team to play more. And once Jackson Holiday comes back, we'll start to see him steal a little bit more basis too, and that'll help. But I want to see Gunner start flying, flying a little bit more. I want to see Blaze Alexander start flying a little bit more. And I think if there's a series to try it, it's this one. Now I don't want to discredit Patrick Bailey. I said he's a great defensive catcher, but hey man, if you got confidence in on the base paths, let those guys run wild. But uh game one tomorrow should be a uh win, in my opinion, on Apple TV. 7.15 first pitch. Uh heading into game two, this is a little bit of a tougher matchup. Got low, we got Logan Webb, who actually had a pretty, pretty poor opening day start. Um, but he's already made three starts this season, and he is and he's bounced back in big, big, big fashion. Uh gave up six earned runs against the Yankees on opening night, but then he bounced back against the Padres, six innings, three earned runs, five strikeouts, then against the Mets, seven innings, seven hits, one earned run, uh, three strikeouts. Giants end up losing that game somehow. But Logan Webb is just a fantastic starting pitcher, and I've always loved what he can do. But I'm not concerned about if the Orioles can get to Webb. I think they could. My question is can Chris Bassett go toe-to-toe with Logan Webb if we don't get to him? And I don't know if he can. However, I do think Bassett is due for a good start at some point. At some point, I don't know if it's this upcoming one, but you don't get paid $18 million to just pitch three and one-thirds innings and give up five earned runs and leave the game. Like Bassett will have a good start at some point, and I do think that it could be on Saturday against Logan Webb, which is where it'll be a much needed quality start. Play thoughts on the game on Saturday.

SPEAKER_01 36:27

Yeah, Saturday is gonna be the toughest one. I think, you know, I was talking to my brother. I think the key is obviously taking two out of three each series. Saturday is gonna be the tough one. I you know, Chris Bassett, like you said, he's gonna get it together at some point. I have confidence. You know, this track record says we shouldn't believe otherwise, but you know, Logan Webb is Logan Webb. That's a really tough game. I think Friday I think tomorrow we're gonna win, you know, debut in the City Connects. The vibes are gonna be high. Yeah, sure. But something tells me, I mean, maybe that momentum comes from Friday into Saturday. I mean, all of a sudden we get it going. All of a sudden, say the bats break out tomorrow and now everybody's hot. Now all of a sudden we're jumping on Logan Webb. So you get five and a third out of out of Chris Bassett, two runs, and and it's a two-two ball game. The way the pens been pitching, maybe it maybe it works out. Maybe all of a sudden we win that game four to three. We get into their pen. You know, and Chris Bassett, you know, finally gives you that. Okay, he only gave you five and a third, but you know, you're in this ball game. It's not like in Pittsburgh where it was a second inning, and it's like, all right, well, I'm turning this off.

SPEAKER_00 37:25

Game's already over.

SPEAKER_01 37:26

Yeah, game's over, and Jason Lock and four is all over my timeline. Like, it's you know, like those kind of days have to be avoided. Um, but no, I I have confidence. I I don't think that it's far-fetched that we sweep them. I I don't think it happens, but it's also not one of those, like, there's no way. Like, you win Friday, you win Saturday, all of a sudden, all of a sudden you get Kate Povich on on Sunday. Their lineup is very lefty heavy.

SPEAKER_00 37:53

You know, maybe something happens there.

SPEAKER_01 37:55

Something happens all of a sudden you win sixth straight, and then you play Arizona. See what happens.

SPEAKER_00 37:59

Yeah, you know, Sunday, April 12th, that is the first game I'm going to this season. I'll be back home, gotta head back home, got some family business, but I'll be back home this weekend. So I'm checking out the game on Sunday. I'll be there with my brothers. Um, looking forward to it. Kate Povich versus Adrian Hauser. That's a 135-day game. Um Adrian, you know, I've yeah, Adrian Hauser. Uh 11 in 130. 11 in and 11 in the third inning this year, 397 ERA. Um, coming off a game against the Phillies where he went six innings, nine hits, four earned runs. Uh, this is just uh workhorse, man. I mean, he's gonna generate soft contact, um, ground ground balls. Uh, but this is the that's the game where you could use a Tyler O'Neill two-run homer, or a Pete Alonzo, you know, two RBI double in the gap, or maybe Kobe Mayo. This is his his game. We need some of these righty bats to really, really turn it up a notch um against a lefty in Adrian Hauser. Um, but K Povich, it's what type of version of Cade do we get? Do we get the high strikeout version of Cade, but the sloppy control version? Or do we get the locate the zone, generate a lot of uh soft contact, and we get five and two thirds, one earn run, two strikeouts out of Kate? Or do we get the five and two thirds, nine hits, eight strikeouts, four walks, four and run version of Kate? It's like pick your poison there. Um, but Povich, I didn't I wasn't able to watch a whole lot of the game um when Povich came in because it was on Easter, but uh gave up a lefty on lefty homer to O'Neal Cruz. That is never gonna happen ever again. O'Neal Cruz doesn't hit lefties well. Um but like if you get a good show showing from Kate, I don't see why you also can't win this game. Um I I think it is very dependent though on how the bullpen is, uh, how how their health is. Um, because I'm not banking on Kate giving us six or seven innings. I'm making on him giving us four to five. And I'm okay with that if the offense can get it going. Um this would be the series that I would love for the offense to get the bats going, especially going into Arizona, who is an offense that can get it going out of nowhere. Um, they have a lot of really, really good bats there.

SPEAKER_01 40:20

Arizona's a fun team to watch. Corbin King's fun team to watch. Yeah, they play exactly how I want the O's how you and I both have uh we want the O's to play. The small ball, get things done on the base pass. You know, and it's funny just talking about Adrian Hauser Sunday. I want to shout out that you know you turned 22 this week, but this guy got drafted when you were uh the good old age of uh seven.

SPEAKER_00 40:44

Hauser's 33, so I was seven years old.

SPEAKER_01 40:46

Adrian Hauser was drafted in 2011 by the Houston Astros. That's wicked. I want to say Michael Eyes was uh he might have been with the Cardinals still then. He might have been the Michael Eyes pick. I'm not sure, but shout out to Adrian Hauser. I can't believe he's been in the league for 11 years.

SPEAKER_00 41:02

He he actually had his best year in uh 2025 with the White Sox, he had a 210 ERA in two thirds innings. Yeah, I mean, he like he was on two teams last year, like he was good last year, and now he's on the the uh Giants being a uh starter for them. So who knows? But I don't know. I got oops, excuse me. I got faith in this Orioles series. I think they can do some really, really good things here against the San Francisco Giants offense that has been pretty, pretty sloppy so far this season. However, um they have gone to go in a little bit as of late, uh, 15 runs in their last three in a series against the Phillies, but really hoping that the bats can show up in this one. Because if they do, then we're gonna start to see this Orioles team start to take place in the way that we expected to. And um, if that happens, all you can really ask for is just to get back to 500. You were three games below 500 a week ago. If you can get to two games above 500 a week after, you feel fantastic about it. Um, five and one over your next six is always great. All I can ask for is a series victory um and not to get swept. So we'll see what happens there. But um, we're gonna wrap up today's episode. Thank you guys for tuning in. We always appreciate it. Um more thing, Tyler. Hit me, buddy.

SPEAKER_01 42:27

Now we're sitting here, it's April 9th. We got three against the Giants, three against the Diamondbacks, four against Cleveland, three against Kansas City. So that would be a total of 13 games before April 24th. Where do you think we sit? We're gonna come back to this April, April 24th and record. Where do you think we sit?

SPEAKER_00 42:45

I think it's an I think we win the Giants series. I think I don't really know Arizona. That's either gonna be we're gonna be sitting around, we're gonna be sitting four and two or three and three after these next two series. Guardians we're probably gonna split with or lose, so I'm still gonna say we're sitting at what five and five. Then we have the Royals series. I think this seems I think they could go on a seven to six run here. Um, I think they could go eight and five. Um, but I'm expecting seven and seven and six, they're thirteen and twelve, um and whenever it is, April 24th.

SPEAKER_01 43:29

But I also do think they'll be I'm intrigued by that Kansas City series. That's a place we've struggled the last few years. This team goes out there and wins two. Same with Cleveland. Same with Cleveland, but you know, if we go to Cleveland win two, go to Kansas City, win two, all of a sudden it's like all right, these guys are winning where where we usually don't, you know.

SPEAKER_00 43:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:46

So that that that's that sign to me, like, okay, maybe this is a different year. Maybe this is happening.

SPEAKER_00 43:52

I think it matters how they win. If their offense looks good, if their bullpen looks strong, if they're if they go down early in Fight from behind, then I'll be like, okay, this is great. Because I I love it when a team is down three to one and they come back and win like six to four. Like there's nothing more that I love than bullpen rallies. But I'd also love it if the offense can get starting pitchers out the game early. Like that was their MO 2024. They would shell guys like Zach Wheeler, they would shell guys like Logan Webb.

SPEAKER_01 44:23

Like they were just shell aces and struggle against Ryan Yarborough. Like that was exactly that was like, but you know, that I mean, I just if you can go into Kansas City and Cleveland and win two apiece each, you know, and and it's not games where you're shooting your you know, they shot themselves in the foot and we got lucky and won. You know, I if when we record April 24th, I have a feeling we're gonna go, what did I say? It's nine, it's three, six, ten, thirteen games. I think we could go eight and five at best probably. That'd be great. If if we go eight and five, three games of one thousand percent. All of a sudden you're maybe like a game behind the Yankees, something like that. You know, because they have the easiest schedule known to mankind. It seems like every every time you look at them like you know, the White Sox, just like we are. But no, I all of a sudden, you know, and if you sweep this weekend, and it's possible. I mean, we're not I'm not gonna discredit San Francisco. I've talked I've talked, we've raved about them, you know. We can sweep that series. All of a sudden you're three and no now you now you gotta win. Now you gotta win five games in ten.

SPEAKER_00 45:30

That's yeah. And one thing too, Clay, uh, before we we wrap it up, is that we haven't even like we don't have a in division matchup until what like early May?

SPEAKER_01 45:41

So uh Boston, that's it. Boston, and then we got the Yankees. When's Boston? Late April? That April 24th. So we're gonna be going into that April 24th.

SPEAKER_00 45:51

Yeah, you're going two and a half more weeks without playing a uh a team in your division, and uh we've always played Boston very, very well, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_01 46:00

So it's actually insane, dude. Sorry to cut you off. Looking at the schedule, we got Boston that April 24th series, and we got two series against the Yankees, two series against the Yankees the first two weeks of May, but then the end of May into June, we get three in Tampa, three against Detroit, and then all of a sudden it's three more against Tampa, four against Toronto, three against Boston, three more against Toronto, and then Seattle.

SPEAKER_00 46:24

Yeah, I mean that's that's that stretch is where the oh that that's gonna be the stretch where we figure out if this team is good. Because also, one more thing, Clay. I remember in 2023 when this team was still trying to figure it out. 2023, we were like, is this Orioles team legit? They're winning games, but are they legit? I remember there was a series in June, mid-June, where we went to the trot and it was a four-game set or three-game set. No, four-game set, and we were going up against like McClanahan, uh Efflin. Against some guys, Jeffrey Springs, Bradley, Bradley, and Glasnow. Those were the four pitchers that we were going up against. Four very good, good pitchers. It was no, it wasn't McClanahan because he was injured. It was Springs, Efflin, Glasnow, and Bradley. And I remember Efflin was the only uh pitcher that shoved against us. We lost game two, we won game one, we won games three and four. That was the series where Gunnar Henderson got a triple because Randy Arroz Arena lazily threw it to third base, and I was like, you know what? He hustled this team is this team is legit now. And it was in the middle of June. It was against a team that was number one in the in the division. They won the their first 13 games of the season. They started off 13-0. And I was like, if we want to be a good team, if we want to be a legitimate team, you gotta win this series. Like, if you split, it's a failure. You gotta win this series. And that's what they did. That stretch, like you said, Clay, where you have the trop, and then you go to Detroit, and then you have Toronto, and then you have uh uh Tampa again, then you have the Yankees, and then Toronto and Seattle, whatever, that is gonna be that one-month stretch where you figure out if this team is legit. So as long as you just keep your head above water for now and you get and you're healthy going into that series, maybe Westburg is back, then that's when the the ball is gonna start going.

SPEAKER_01 48:21

From from May 18th until Father's Day, June 21st, you're playing either division teams or teams that made the playoffs World Series or LCS last year. You got those division games I mentioned, then you got seven against Seattle, three against San Diego. You got to go to the Dodgers for three. That that month stretch is gonna make or break this team, and I'm excited for it. I I think that I'm actually happy that it's in late May, early June, because that is when these guys are going to be hitting their stride. So, you know, all of a sudden you get out of that stretch and say, say it's 22 games and you go 13 and 9, you know, 12 and 10, whatever it is, this team's going to the playoffs. That that's what I want to see. And you're probably you're gonna have Jackson Holiday back, knock on wood, nobody else gets hurt. You know, these guys are gonna be going, and it wouldn't shock me if you make a trade before that, too. Sure, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:12

A lot of unknowns still in the air clay. Uh those right now they sit six and six in a wild card spot somehow. But uh the next couple weeks, um, I think you're gonna start to see the offense get going a little bit. You'll start to see Braddish and Boz hopefully settle in, and then you're gonna be like, all right, this team has an identity again. Um, gotta start hit hitting some more homers, gotta be more uh clinical with runners in scoring positions, starting pitching's gotta be better. But you're starting to see the momentum shift in the O's favor a little bit, even though it was a sweep against the White Sox. Tomorrow's game against the Giants will be very, very telling. The series upcoming uh will be very telling as a whole. But thank you guys for tuning into today's episode of Orioles Theory. We always appreciate you guys. Make sure to follow us on all socials at Orioles Theory on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter. We're posting a whole lot of stuff on all social media platforms, Twitter, especially. Uh, we're trying to ramp up our uh content on that side of things. Make sure to listen to Orioles Theory on all platforms. We got you guys covered wherever you listen to your podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, uh, Pandora, Amazon Music or Podcast, whatever you want to call it. We got you covered for the whopping price of $3.99, $0. Make sure you guys check us out on all platforms for Tyler Barbarous and Clay Seljan. We'll see you guys in the next one. Peace out. Goos.