Orioles Theory

HUGE Jordan Westburg Injury Update + Miami Marlins Series Preview - Ep. 11

• Tyler Barberis • Season 1 • Episode 11

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In today's episode, Tyler, Jake and Clay dive into the current state of the Baltimore Orioles, along with a preview for their upcoming series in Miami:

- Jordan Westburg Injury Update

- New York Yankees Series Recap

- Trey Gibson's MLB Debut

- Miami Marlins Series Preview


SPEAKER_03

Yo yo yo, what is going on, ladies and gentlemen? Welcome back to Orioles Fairy, your number one one-stop shop for all things Baltimore Orioles related. I'm your co-host and creator of the podcast, Tyler Barbarish. Join with me on my right and left hand men, Clay Selgen and Jake Oren. We got a fun one to talk about in this episode. Well, it's not really fun because we're going to be talking about how the Orioles seem like they're on the verge of collapse. We've also just gotten some news very, very recently, moments ago, that there's some new Orioles injury updates that we'll talk about as well. We're going to talk about this Yankee series that is going on right now. When you guys hear this, um, on podcast version on Apple, Spotify, uh, the Orioles would have played their fourth and final game in this four-game set against the Yankees. So we're gonna talk a little bit about, you know, the first three games. Not gonna talk about this game tonight a whole lot. We are gonna preview a little bit of the Miami Marlin series that starts uh on Tuesday. And we're also gonna dive into a little bit about Trey Gibson's MLB debut. I thought it was pretty solid. Um, I thought he has a pretty high floor, the fastball looked encouraging, the stuff looked good, but we're gonna dive into that slowly. But before we do that, gotta give uh Jake and Clay an opportunity to say what's going on. Fellas, how is uh your guys' weekends?

SPEAKER_01

Jake you had to do it.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry. Uh uh didn't really do much. It was a good weekend, uh kind of relaxing, um, which is always fun to have. Uh, but typical weekends, they go by too quick and back on the grind. How about you fellas?

SPEAKER_01

Weekend's good. Finally done driving, stuff's back at the new house in Texas. So uh kind of uh in the middle of uh middle of unpacking, but got a little temporary setup in the room. But hopefully the studio will be all set up, hopefully the next couple days. But yeah, it's been nice. It's 82 degrees, been outside all weekend watching the games. Basketball games have been crazy. So uh yeah, I know Jake, I know Jake doesn't really care about basketball. Well, Tyler, how was Luke Holmes?

SPEAKER_03

How was dude? Luke Holmes was it was epic. It was a great concert. Went with my uh little brother. He played in Nealan Stadium here in Knoxville, Tennessee, in which Clay got to check out for the second time now as he was driving down. Clay and I hung out. We did an Orioles rebuild on MLB the show. Um, we only finished year one. Did we make the playoffs? Do you remember?

SPEAKER_01

We made the world series. We lost the world series. We made the world series and lost in seven to the big bad Dodgers.

SPEAKER_03

It was uh so if you need to know if MLB the show is fake, it is indeed fake because the Orioles took the Dodgers.

SPEAKER_01

Zach Efflin had like a two ERA, like yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Zach Efflin was disgusting. It was a very, very fun time. You got to spend time with Clay, which is always a pleasure. But yeah, Luke Combs was great, had a great time. He's a great performer. Uh, if we got any country um fans in here, highly recommend going to check out Luke Combs. He's a baller. But uh 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 Square 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, fellas, now we gotta dive into these injuries, and then we'll obviously talk about the Yankees um a little bit later. So my plan was to talk about Trey Gibson's MLB debut, and I still want to do that because he is a top prospect, fifth uh fifth best prospect in Baltimore's farm system. But came out um literally 11 minutes ago. Jake Rill reported that up uh that Gibson will be optioned down to AAA to make room for newly acquired Oriole, right-handed pitcher Lou Travinho. Um, not sure what to expect out of the Lou. Don't know if he's gonna be able to give us a spot start here and there. Maybe play an Albert Suarez escroll is kind of what I'm thinking here. But given the current state of this Orioles rotation, I wouldn't be shocked if we did see Lou, you know, give us a four-inning start, um, especially in these next couple games um that we have against Miami. Um, to follow up on that, uh, Jackson Holiday and Heston Kirstedt will both be re-evaluated to potentially begin to begin a rehab assignment soon, uh, as Jake Rowe reports here. I'm reading all of Jake's uh tweets that he's tweeted over the past uh 20-ish minutes. Holiday will hit live BP tomorrow with AA Chesapeake. If all progresses well, he'll play in games down at AA later this week. And then lastly, the final bomb was released six minutes ago. Jordan Westburg, uh still dealing with that right UCL sprain in his elbow, was still feeling discomfort in that elbow when he was throwing. The Orioles are shutting him down, and he will be re-evaluated later. Fellas, we can address the elephant in the room. Jordan Westburg's long-term health is getting dimmer and dimmer every single day.

SPEAKER_04

I mean, look, is there anyone had the rescue? No, no, there was not hope in the beginning. Dude, you should have just had the freaking surgery right then and there. Just get it over with. I I knew this was gonna be a terrible idea trying to get him playing in you know late June, early July, trying to just have him at bat, get like get some at bats. It's it's it's not worth it. It is not worth it. Thank you. I thank you, Brad.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely, just get the surgery over with. Who would have thought they learned with Braddish? I mean, that happened to Bradish two years ago.

SPEAKER_04

Oreo learning from mistakes? No, never, but we're not making mistakes.

SPEAKER_01

But it's the same thing I've said, and all of us have said this whole time. We can bitch and complain and moan, but nothing's changing until Michael Ias is gone. At the end of the day, this is gonna be the same cycle that continues and continues and continues. It's not changing. Happened to Braddish, happened to Westburg, and that's just that's the tip of the iceberg. We're sitting here now, we're sitting here on May 4th. Yeah, that's the tip of that's the tip of the Westburg. I like that, Tyler.

SPEAKER_04

Wait, is it is it uh is it Star Wars Day today?

SPEAKER_01

It is Star Wars, and tomorrow is Star Wars Day. I don't watch Star Wars, so uh you guys can roast them. But tomorrow's Cinco de Mayo, I'm fat. We will be celebrating Cinco de Mayo.

SPEAKER_04

That is the holiday and Mark. Never heard of that holiday.

SPEAKER_01

Well, you know, you know, but no, I mean to just finish what I was saying. It's just nothing's changing at the end of the day. We knew this was happening. We tweeted out today, and it was theory. Kobe May was hitting 165 in his last seven games. He's one for 16. Blaze Alexander, he finally had a two-hit game yesterday. He looks horrible. You know, I and I'm a big Blaise Alexander guy, but you're not gonna get that production from Westburg this year. You gotta cut bait at some point and figure out all right, the the left half of the infield is not hitting. Gunner's hitting, but he's still only hitting 213. We gotta figure out something. You got Weston Wilson playing games. Weston Wilson's the only thing he's good at is being bad. So, you know, no one's hitting Clay.

SPEAKER_03

Stop it. It's one of those things where with Westburg, and like I can kind of like understand your viewpoint, Clay, of like kind of like cutting dead weight-ish, but like at the same time, and and and I'll follow up with this as to why I semi-do agree with you. Westburg, right? Guys like Kowser, like those were two players that were very instrumental in our early success in 2024, not as much in 2023. Westburg a little bit more than than than Kowser um in that 2023 season. But like in 2024, this team was 20, 25 games above 500 heading into the all-star break. And then they like we all know kind of as like when the decline started to happen. It was, you know, that Texas Rangers series in the final game, we lost like 11 to 2, and everything after that, it just crumbled. But with the Westy, it's like you can everyone knows that this is an injury prone player. When he's healthy, he's a great player, and we saw that last year. But his injury history from 2024 to now, 2024 fractured right hand when he got hit by the pitch in that uh Blue Jays game. Um, and then he had a left index finger sprain in uh late June, early July of 2025. Then he had a hamstring strain as well in early 2025, which is why he missed a lot of you know that that that spring. And then he had a right ankle sprain in August um after injuring that in Boston. And then obviously in uh January of this year, uh he had a right oblique strain that he tweaked in camp, and then obviously the right elbow UCL tear. At that point, you do have to get surgery, and like we're all optimistic. Like, all right, maybe West D can come back in June or July and you know be the offensive reinforcement that the O's are probably gonna need at some point. But I think the big expectation was like, all right, we have Kobe Mayo. We traded for Blaze Alexander for a reason. Holiday's not gonna be out that long. Like, that's what we were all kind of like thinking in our heads. Like, what if Mayo brings over the September success that he had last year and it you know is apparent early on in the season, then we don't have to rush back Westburg. But now it seems like when Mayo was struggling outside of you know that that that five-game stretch that he had in Kansas City and Boston, he hasn't done anything else besides that. Blaze Alexander can't figure out how to pull the ball. Jackson Holiday still isn't healthy, and it's like maybe that's why they were trying to speed up Westburg. But at the end of the day, this is a guy that has years of team control. Everyone considers him and Addley Rutchman to be the glue of this team. When those guys are healthy, this team is much better. We haven't seen Adley Rutschman and Jordan Westburg play more than like 20 straight games with each other since that early 2024 season. And it's not a coincidence that this team is losing games now because of it. So I do agree Westbrook should 1,000% get surgery, especially if he doesn't think he's gonna be himself. And another big important note as well you know when you're a third baseman, you gotta have arm strength. You can have a noodle arm over there at third. If this is the type of Westburg that we're gonna see, where you know his arm strength just completely worn out, he's gonna have to be a second baseman. Gunner may have to go back to third, and Holiday may have to take shortstop. And I don't think that's what this team wants to do. I don't want it to be like that. But right now, all you can think about is like the worst possible scenario because that is Jordan Westburg to a T. The worst possible scenario every single time. Jake, anything to add on Westy or Claire?

SPEAKER_04

No, I mean, I mean, I've I've been saying it since the injury first was reported that why wait? There's no need to wait. And people were making fun of me. Uh, you know, blah, blah, blah. He would get it next year with the lockout. There's no lockout guarantee. We don't know what's going to happen next year. All I know is all I know is right now, and that was the best possible scenario for him. Just get the surgery, get it over with, and come back better than ever next year or 2028, whatever the fuck happens. Now, now it's delayed, and now we, you know, let's say we have a season next year, and it's going to be him trying to rehab and maybe might get ready for opening day, might not. I've we've seen this song and dance, it should have been done months ago. It's malpractice, and that's all I want to say on that before I start mathing some people that deserve it, but have, you know, I'm tired of mentioning in there.

SPEAKER_01

You know, and and to close with Jake said, I mean, me and Jake agreed on this in spring training when this happened. You know, if Jordan Westburg, in this original plan that Jordan Westbrook was going to come back in June or July, all of a sudden he's gonna be DHing this whole entire time. The plan was for him to DH. So you're gonna be taking bat bats away from Samuel Basaio and guys that are gonna be DH'ing every time that that Adley needs a day off, he can't DH. So, you know, you're shooting yourself in the foot. And, you know, and this will probably be a clip, and and people will disagree with me, but where do these GMs get off with this? You know, I'm I'm sick of this analytical nonsense. You know, Peter Bandit, Craig Breslo, Michael Ice, where do these guys get off thinking they can change the game? You know, yeah, Dave Dombrowski didn't win in Philly. You know what? They fired their manager last week, and he's not gonna win a ring there. That window's closed. But you know what I'll say about Dave Dombrowski? He wouldn't have bullshitted all offseason, went and said, you know what, yeah, maybe we could have overpaid Fran Burvaldez. He would have overpaid Fran Bravdez, and it would have worked out. All of a sudden, you know, yeah, we were banking on Trevor Rogers and Kyle Braddish being good, and they weren't. And unfortunately, that happens. But instead of just giving Framberg 37 million, you gave Chris Bassett 18 million and said, you know what, we could save this 19 million dollars and do nothing with it. We could pick up Lu Trevino on May 4th if we want to. But instead, but you know, if you sign Framberg, all of a sudden Trevor Rogers gets hurt, and you know, hopefully he's back next week. Kyle Bradish is pitching like shit. You know what? You still got Framberg, you got hope. Shane Baj, you're banking, you're banking on these analytical guys that that that look good on on baseball savant, not these guys that have done it.

SPEAKER_04

I will say Trevor's not hurt.

SPEAKER_01

I don't know, Trevor's not hurt, Trevor's sexy.

SPEAKER_04

But I will say, yo, dude, a flu's a flu's fucking nasty. And you know, you're I mean, I've had the flu a couple times throughout my life. You're not the same for a couple weeks after the fact either, dude. You're fatigued, you've lost weight, you can't hold anything down. I wouldn't be surprised if this fifty, I mean, if he you know misses a couple more starts, and you know, he's not even when he is pitching, he's not even back to 100%. The flu's nasty, and you know, it it god forsake it happens to the Orioles, and it just seems like when one thing bad happens, it all goes bad. It's a little domino effect, but we've been seeing this for years, so it's not really shocking. But I just want hopefully he comes back, and you know, the flu doesn't knock him out too long. But right, I mean, exactly. It's just this team right now is a disaster. Things have gone disastrous, and the funny thing is, we're a game out of the out of the wild card. That's how crazy baseball's been this year. Is we're 15 and 19 and we're a game back for the wild for a playoff spot. Boys, take it as you will, but that's kind of embarrassing.

SPEAKER_01

It's embarrassing for the league, but at the end of the day, you know, yeah, and like you said, you're right, Trevor Rogers isn't hurt. He's sick, and it's gonna it's gonna derail him for a while, and you can't control that. But I mean, we're sitting here, yeah, we're a game out of the playoffs, but it doesn't feel like we can make up that ground. We're 15 and 19. It's ridiculous. It doesn't, I mean, this team feels the same as it did last year. I mean, it's just I don't know what to say, but Michael Ias has got to go. At least, and I I'll give Dave we need a GM like Dave Dombrasco, president of basically.

SPEAKER_03

Time out, time out. We're going down a rabbit hole here because we talked about this last week. Nothing's changed. We're gonna talk about it next week. Nothing's gonna change. But the one thing that has to change, it doesn't have to be Elias' approach. He brought players, it doesn't have to be Albernez's approach. Like, we still haven't even fully we don't even have an identity yet, and that starts with the players. And we're gonna talk about that later because that's why I have the Shades of 2025 segment here on the right. Right now, everyone can say that this team sucks. They'll have one game where they score 10 runs, they look great, and then the next game they suck. The pitching is inconsistent, the bullpen's inconsistent and consistent, they're good, but they're inconsistent. Starting pitching sucks. The players aren't playing for each other when players are playing good, the other half isn't playing good. We're not playing full team baseball. All of that we already know. Like, like that is something that every Orioles fan understands right now, and you can't expect it to change overnight. Now, there are certain things, there are certain players that can come into the clubhouse and completely change it, right? Like holiday, right? If he gets healthy, maybe the players start playing it a little bit more for him. Even Westbrook, even in like July or like June, if he's like semi like halfway there, maybe he'll start being in in the clubhouse with us and then we'll start winning. Like it's all momentum in baseball, and the Orioles have none of it right now. We will talk about that later. They haven't been a good team for the past two years, a year and a half, how however long you want to pick uh ping it on. But I do think there is a little bit of a bright spot. I know he's down in back down in uh triple A, but I do want to talk about Trey Gibson a little bit because he looked good. I was honestly impressed, man. Like I thought he was gonna get shelled, dude.

SPEAKER_04

I really did. Especially after that Ben Rice Homer in the beginning. I was like, here we go, buckle up. I feel bad for the kid. But no, no, he turned it around and he you know he looked like he was having some fun out there, which was the it was actually the brightest spot I've seen is someone actually going out there on the ball field and having some fun, smiling, you know. I mean, I don't know about you guys, but remember like you know, a couple years ago when Adley was coming up and Gunner was coming up, you had that like that excitement. You're like, oh dude, I'm sitting right in front of the TV. I can't wait to turn it on, watch these, watch these young bucks. I dude, I'm gonna be honest with you. I really didn't I didn't get that same feeling in my stomach when I saw that you know, Trey Gibson video of him coming up. You know, I feel good for the kid and I'm excited to watch him. It just this team has a sour taste in my mouth where it didn't it didn't let me really experience Trey's debut the way I really wanted to. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01

And I agree I I felt that feeling, and like you said, when Gunnar and Adley came up, it was like that 2025 team.

SPEAKER_03

We're talking about Trey Gibson here. Come on, let's go.

SPEAKER_01

We are we are we are talking about Trey Gibson.

SPEAKER_03

We're talking about a start, we're not talking about the vibes. I wanted I want us to talk about what was good in his score.

SPEAKER_01

How can we how can we have how can we have vibes for Trey Gibson when this team sucks?

SPEAKER_04

Well, I don't want to talk about the vibes, I want to talk about Trey Gibson. Trey Gibson, I you know, the he he really just made one mistake, and it was just he just hung a couple breaking balls, yeah. And other than that, I I really liked his placement, I really like the velocity. I think I think the kid is going to be good, and I wish he stayed up. I I mean you need that. I liked what he gave in this start, and you know, five innings, you only round three, I believe. That against a Yankees team that's hot and heavy right now in Yankee Stadium for your first start. That showed grit, that showed balls, and I like that from Trey. And I just wish they gave him another one because I think he could be very good. Very good, very surprised. Very, very surprised from him yesterday.

SPEAKER_03

And I was honestly pretty impressed with his fast with his uh fastball VLO at it average 95.6 miles per hour. I thought this was a guy that was gonna come out throw 93, 94. I guess 97. Yeah, yeah, and and and and like he's a power pitcher. Like, like I just by what I've seen from him and in the minors, I haven't had like any chance over the past like four years to when I started, you know, kind of like making content here on Orioles Twitter. I haven't had any time to go to minor league games because I've been in college the whole time. But if I were to watch like a Trey Gibson start from like Norfolk or like double A of a few years ago, like I'd think this is a finesse pitcher. I mean, he has his what death ball is what he calls it, kind of like a changeup splitter sinker type thing. Um he didn't really pull that out a whole lot. It was like here it says he threw his slider 28% of the time, but I I'm assuming that's what it was because I don't think he really had a slider. Um but I mean like I was impressed, but at the same time, like you can't bank on this guy to like completely revitalize your pitching rotation right now. And I do think you know, bringing him back down like will be needed, and I'll expect to see him back up in June or whenever or whenever this team needs a starter. That's the one thing though, Clay is they can't just be burning his options, like he already has has one now. And what if we call him up on Friday and then he struggles in like his next two starts, and we have to send him down again, and all of a sudden he has one more option left.

SPEAKER_01

So it's kind of like my question is to who's gonna start Friday? Because it's gonna be Bassett, Povich, and Young in Miami tonight's Braddish, I believe. So Friday, who's starting? I mean, Albert Barr is accepted as a reliever. I mean a Friday problem.

SPEAKER_03

I don't know. Throw throw two innings. I mean, it could be a Friday problem.

SPEAKER_01

I think I think I think if you had Trey come in and play the A's at home, had his home debut on City Connect night, and then they have an off day that Thursday the next week, he'd start that Friday in Washington. That'd be two good games to get him kind of eased in after starting in such a tough stadium to start in. And yeah, he he showed himself, he proved himself, and it looked great. I mean, three runs on five innings in Yankee Stadium in your major league debut, that's I can't ask for much better.

SPEAKER_04

The the real stat that I liked that popped up that I saw was besides Judge and Rice, who are probably their two best players, I mean, the rest of the lineup went one for 15. I mean, and that's it's a pretty deep Yankees lineup, too. So, I mean, you know, you you you hang a couple balls, you make a couple mistakes, and they pounce. On you like good teams do, but it didn't phase you. You kept attacking, and you got you know guys that needed to be out, you know, those seven, eight, nine hitters that had been seemingly killing us all year, got those guys out. Um, it's unfortunate the bullpen kind of blew it for you, but yeah, I I I really liked what I saw from uh from Gibby, and I'll be honest with you, really shocked me because I thought he was going to get shelled, boys. So really happy to see that. And I really hope this is something that really helps build momentum for him and the rest of the pitching staff for sure.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, no doubt. I mean, he had a 40% chase rate here. I'm looking at a savant page, he had a 40% chase rate in that game, and the savant page isn't like fully, you know, set up just because he doesn't have enough fittings or whatever it is, but right, right. Uh 52.9% ground ball rate, too, which is pretty nice to see now. Um, the average exit velo in that game from Yankees hitters against Gibson, of course, was 92.9 miles per hour. So gotta get that down a little bit. But the makeup is good. Gibson was is still is one of my favorite prospects in that farm. I do like him more than Luis DeLeon. I just think that Gibson has more of a starting pitching profile to him. He's got five pitches compared to like De Leon's three, at least three that he's really comfortable with throwing. Um, he's got five pitches. I was shocked by his VLO, like I previously said. And I don't know, gives me a little bit of hope. I can kind of feel like maybe like a little Kyle Braddish arc here, where you know, Braddish's first start against the Red Sox that he made in 2022. Um, I remember watching it at my grandparents' house, and like uh I wasn't very up to date with those farms because I was still younger. I was like, what, 17 or 16 years old or something, so I wasn't like stuck in their farm. But like I remember seeing Braddish and I was like, all right, well, like great fastball, has a super nice slider. Kind of felt like that when I was watching this game. Um, and Braddish only went like four and two-thirds too in that game, same as Gibson. So um we'll see what happens here with Gibby. If he does come up and start that Friday game, would not be mad at all. I'd love getting another look at him, but um all we can do right now is just you know continue to follow on what he does in the minor leagues. Um, overall, I was impressed um enough against a good lineup. I'd give a start like a 6.2 out of 10. We'll go on the out of 10 scale.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, we all yeah, I would I would have been I would have been like 6.4, 6.5. I thought it was really it was really good. You know, I like to see him push to six, seven innings, but for your first start, five, you know, four and two thirds technically, that's fine with me. You know, I think it was uh definitely a uh start you can build on for sure.

SPEAKER_03

Amen. All right, we're gonna talk about this Yankee series that is going on right now. Like I said, we're not really gonna dive into the game tonight, uh, just because uh this will be out tomorrow morning at like 7 a.m. on podcasting platforms, and there's really no point in talking about a game tonight. That when tomorrow morning we'll know the result and all that stuff. But first three games, uh, game one, seven to two, that was just a fall apart game. So I was pretty busy this weekend. So he the only game I watched was the one yesterday. The previous two, I was kind of just tracking on my phone. Was that Povich's start, the series opener? Yes, yes, or was that yeah? Okay, so lost seven to two. Pete got a homer, uh, which was good. It was a one-one ball game, and then Povich just completely lost it there in the second inning. Will Warren having nine strikeouts, three hits, twirl twirled an absolute gem on us. Um, Gunner went 0 for 4, Ward went 0 for 4. He didn't even walk. Gunner and Ward, they went 0 for 8 combined with five strikeouts. Oh, Adley included, they went 0 for 12 with six strikeouts. Pete was the only guy who who played, he had two walks and a homer. Like, and then the only other hit or the only other hits outside of that was Basal and Blaze Alexander. Like, you're not gonna win a game like that, especially when Ben Rice goes crazy on you and the whole lineup does. But in excuse me, in games like that where you have Povich, like you really did want to hope that he could give you a similar start to like how he did against the Giants a few weeks back. But uh a soft toss in lefty and Yankee Stadium against guys that can hit on both sides of the plate against lefties wasn't a good combination to start with. The only hope that I had going into this game was if we could attack Warren early, and it kind of felt like that after Pete got that homer. He thought that maybe some momentum could be built. But obviously the Orioles are gonna do the Oriole thing, and when they get a run, give up five the following um inning or or the in the bottom of the inning. But I don't know, that was just a game that you could just tell those didn't have in their back pocket. Clay, Jake, anything on game one?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, no, it was just it's just typical. I mean, I did I will say Alonzo's looking pretty nice in this series, although I can't really say anything about it with Yankee Stadium being a little league park, but yeah, it's a different conversation. But um, yeah, I I really had high hopes for Pobich going in here, and I really thought, you know, if he pitches well against this Yankees lineup that he might cement himself, some cement himself into this rotation for the foreseeable future. That did not happen. Um, just leaving too much over the plate. Um, they're talking about attacking these guys. You can attack everybody all you want. When you leave pitches middle, middle, uh a good team like the New York Yankees are going to pummel you. And we've been seeing that, you know, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday so far. Um, so it's it's really tough for this rotation right now. And frankly, it's just it's I'm not shocked, boys. I'm not shocked. Anything on game one?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, game one. I mean, it was just it was the typical Oriol game this year. The Orioles had three hits and had 12 strikeouts. That's you know, you could talk about Povich had a bad second inning and he did, but at the end of the day, even if you take that second inning out of the way, when you strike out four times more than you get hits, you're not gonna win.

SPEAKER_03

That's yeah, no, well said. All right, we're gonna move on to game two here. That was the Cody Bellinger game, man. I mean, yeah, they had a little bit of life at some point. I think it was a 6-4 ball game going to the um bottom of the seventh inning. Yep, yep. And uh Bradish once again didn't really do what we hoped that he would do, give up five earned runs, walked four, only struck out four, gave up two homers, 89 pitches, and and only recorded 12 outs. I mean, if you were to tell me that Kyle Bradish would have a 5-0 three ERA through his first, what, six starts, I would have called you insane. Uh, I wrote an article about Bradish in like February, and I was like, the Orioles don't need an ace, they already have one. Braddish had the seventh lowest ERA in baseball uh since the start of 2023 with a maximum or with a minimum of like 160 innings pitched or something like that. Um, and he has just not looked like himself so far. The sinker doesn't have the control, the and even when he's trying to throw that fastball, he's not locating with that. The velocity is a little bit lower than what it was a few years ago, and that's expected with all of his injuries that he's had to his throwing arm. But the slider isn't generating the swing and misses early, and he's not locating it well either. I haven't seen a backdoor slider on the first strikeout all season long, and that was like Kyle's Forte in 2023. Just push him in on, move him off the plate by throwing that sinker in that looks like it's going inside, then comes back in, and then you drop in that slider on the outside third of the zone. Bradish isn't doing that this year, and I think you know, a lot of that, yeah, could be confidence. Maybe he doesn't like the defense that he has behind him because sometimes those backdoor sliders, you know, they can be taken the other way, especially if you're, you know, like a lefty, but um, or a uh righty, excuse me. But ultimately, like, or no, if you are a lefty, yeah, no, I I said that right the uh first time, but like ultimately this team, they're gonna need Kyle Braddish to figure his stuff out because a lot of us had faith that he was gonna be the guy. Some of us even argued that he was gonna be better than Trevor Rogers this season, and he's honestly a liability out there. I think he has one start this season where he went six innings, and um Shane Baas is trending in the right direction. Bradish seems to always be trending in the worst direction, but outside of that, Braddish did not look good. Offense was a little bit better in this one, but once again, Gunner only had one hit, struck out twice. Alley went 0 for 4. Tyler O'Neill had a pinch hit opportunity, and or no, he didn't have a pinch hit. Kowser had a pinch hit opportunity. He actually drew a walk, which is pretty good. Tyler O'Neill took two walks in that game, but the bottom of the order, Jeremiah Jackson 0 for four, Weston Wilson 0 for two, like expected. Uh Dylan Beavers did draw a walk, which recorded a run. Blaze Alexander 0 for four. His batting average is now 174 with a slug of um, well, this was actually yesterday's uh two two two days ago, but his slug was a 203 there. Just not good offensive output, especially when your pitcher gives up five runs in the first uh four innings. Uh Calais.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, no, I mean, like you said, you know, there's a couple things to say about that. We had four hits, obviously, not gonna win with four hits, but you look at the run, you scored four runs. You also walked five times, you had more walks than you had hits, and it's something I've preached all year. If you're gonna score, you gotta get on base no matter how you do it. So walking and scoring four runs is great. Unfortunately, the pitching wasn't there, but you gotta find a way to hit the ball more. At the end of the day, four hits is unacceptable, and you're getting out hit 37 to 50 37 to 15 the series. So it's you know, can't happen.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, tough, tough. It's um it's more or less just usually when I watch Kyle Bradish pitch, I don't have to I don't have to worry about command and control walks. Now I have to hold my breath because I feel like he's you know walking every other battery. He's bouncing breaking balls three feet before the plate even starts. Um just not Kyle Bradish esque, not the not the uh the ace that I've known and loved um coming up through through our system this past couple years. Um yeah, it's it's it's going tough right now. Um, but hopefully, hopefully uh he can find it. He can find it. It's it's more it's more command than anything, I feel like, within his control, I feel like than anything right now. It's just he's all over the place. And when that happens, it gets in your mindset. Baseball's a mindset game.

SPEAKER_03

So we move. We move. All right, we're gonna talk about the game yesterday a little bit, just because they want to preview this this moment series. We talked about Gibson a little bit. The offense was a little bit better in this one. They had nine hits, although they only scored three runs. They had bases loaded in uh what was that inning? The top of the fourth, they had bases loaded, no outs. Um, and Kobe Mayo grounds into a double play, runs scores, damage significantly limited there for uh New York. You gotta come up big in those moments, but Pete, yeah, he did go two for four again. Maybe uh he is turning a corner here. It does seem like, however, Taylor Ward 0 for three, Adley 0 for 4. Um, it's hard to give Pete, you know, the run support when even though he does go 2 for 4, Ward and Rutschman go 0 for 7 combined, and they only get on base once via Taylor Ward walk. So not a lot to be proud of there. The defense was pissed poor in this one as well. It's just the same old Orioles things. Anything that that you guys have to add on that, and then we'll dive into this upcoming Marlin series.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I mean, I I I'll actually say something positive for once. I you know, they actually kind of somewhat looked like a baseball team yesterday. I mean, outside of that Andrew Kittridge inning in the what was it, the eighth? I mean, it was a four-three ball game. You know, they were in it, they got Max Freed out of the game before the before the end of the sixth. So, I mean I give it as a win, I guess. Take take the little things and hopefully they add up. You got a couple hopefully easier series coming up. You got to take advantage of before you hit that June run where you're just playing Gauntlet.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I thought 11 11 to 3 was not really indicative of what the game felt like. So um, you know, bullpen's been up and down, been down recently. You know, Andrew can't, you know, as a vet in that bullpen, you just can't surrender.

SPEAKER_02

You're not gonna go in the game like that.

SPEAKER_04

No, I mean you basically just folded the game right then and there. Um, but it's baseball, so we move.

SPEAKER_03

Exactly. We move. All right, we are going to dive into this upcoming Miami Moreland series, but before we do so, one more time for our friends at O Squared Residential Design. If your kitchen or bathroom needs a championship level makeover, these are your MVPs. Family operated excellence serving the state of Maryland. Hit them up at osquaredesign.com. That's osquaredesign.com. All right, let's talk about this preview for the Miami Marlin series starting tomorrow at 6 40 p.m. Eastern time in Lone Depot Park, down in sunny Miami, Florida. It'll be Chris Bassett versus Sandy Alcantara. Not the best matchup in the world for the fellas. However, Chris Bassett did have an encouraging last start in that Houston Pass series. Six and two thirds. Chris Bassett, we know, boys.

SPEAKER_04

That's the Chris Bassett we know.

SPEAKER_03

Only had one walk, seven hits, but he had seven strikeouts, only gave up one earned run. Yeah, now he almost got through seven, gave up a few uh um softly hit balls up the middle, end up pulling him. But six and two thirds for Chris Bassett, you take those. However, the big question is will he be able to outduel Sandy in this one? Unlikely, but maybe the offense has a little bit of juice in this game. The Orioles, um, not sure how they hit Sandy. If one of you guys want to fact check that for me, I'm kind of interested to see how the O's do again. Sandy Alcantra, but this Marlins team is no slouch either, man. I mean, they're 16 and 18, got up to a hot start. Uh, Kyle Stowers is back, I believe. So Orioles will be seeing an old friend there in uh Kyle. Um, but Sandy this year, he's been great. Uh 304 ERA uh in 47 and one-thirds innings pitched, 1.16 whip. That guy's just charting out quality starts this season, and I expect him to give Miami another quality start tomorrow. The difference is can the Orioles not had let Sandy get a quality start? Can they run him out the game in the fifth inning, put up four runs on him? They did against Jacob de Grom earlier this year. Sandy, I'd say, is on that same level of pitching former Cy Young winners both. Um, so we'll see. Uh, did anyone search up what the O's do against Sandy?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so I mean, the one positive thing that the Orioles have going for them tomorrow is that a lot of these guys haven't faced Sandy. Unfortunately, Pete Alonso has, and in 40 at bats, he's hitting 150. Tyler O'Neill's hitting 100 and 10 at bats, so one for 10. You know, Taylor Wards looks to be one for four with a Homer, Gunners 0 for three, Adleys one for three. So you'll have your chance at it. I mean, it's kind of a the Orioles got dealt a tough five days between Freed, you know, Cam Stedder tonight, Alcantra, and then Uri and Max Meyer the next three. So, you know, they'll have their they'll have their battles in the next five days. Yeah, gotta be good pitching, though. Gotta beat it. So, I mean, I I have a positive feeling. I mean, if the Orioles can do what they did yesterday, hold on.

SPEAKER_03

I'm losing you guys here. Wait a second. Hold on. Hey. Probably. All right, we're all good now to go.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I mean, you know, if they do what they did to Max yesterday and get out, get him out of the game in the fifth. The Marlins bullpen isn't that good. So, you know, you can get into their pen. Hopefully, Chris Bassett can eat five or six innings. I mean, he's played he's played the Marlins plenty. So, you know, he's gotta get to get into their pen and hopefully do something with it. But, you know, you got to win games. Like Jake said, you gotta be good pitching to win games.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, all right. We'll move over to game two here, Jake. You bet lead off on this one. It'll be Brandon Young versus Yuri Perez. Yuri's a very, very fun young arm. Had uh Tommy John a few years ago, but he's been pretty solid this year. Uh 36 and one-thirds innings, 4.46 ERA for Yuri, 39 strikeouts. So he's striking out more than a batter every single inning. Um, however, this is a guy that's not going to give you a whole lot of depth in his start, a whole lot of length in his start. However, he will generate a lot of swing and misses. His past five starts, uh, most recent one coming against Philly here uh on Friday. Five innings, four hits, two earned runs, two walks, six strikeouts. And against San Francisco, five and one-third, seven hits, four earned runs, two homers, two walks, six strikeouts. His best start of the year was against a very, very good Milwaukee Brewers lineup. Um, six innings, three hits, uh, no earned runs. They did score a run, but it wasn't counted towards uh Yuri. Not sure why I didn't watch that game. Uh, one walk, seven strikeouts against the best offense in baseball right now, the Atlanta Braves. Four innings, seven hits, three earned runs, two walks, two strikeouts. So, you know, you kind of understand what you're gonna get with Yuri here outside of you know that one outlier start in Milwaukee. He'll give you five. He'll get a lot of swing and misses. Uh, the big question is can you get on base against him? Because if you can, he's a tall guy, has a long windup. Maybe this is the series where the Orioles start to steal a little bit of bases, um, start to swipe some bags. Now the question is, will they be able to get hits when they have runners in scoring position? Uh, probably not, but Yuri Perez against Brandon Young. Uh, Brandon Young's been okay this year outside of that one blow-up start that he had against uh Houston. You can kind of just tell that. Like, I had a feeling that those were gonna get shelled in that game. Lance McCullough's just seemed like a guy that was gonna have six innings, nine strikeouts, and two order runs, and that's like pretty much what he did. Uh so hopefully Brandon Young can um bounce back from that previous start there. Jake, uh, I know I said you were gonna bat leadoff. I apologize, but take the reins for me, King.

SPEAKER_04

Hey, no problem with that, man. Look, just like Alacantra, I mean, not many at bats against Yuri Perez. Honestly, the only one that has a hit is Pete Alonso. He's kind of shelled him. He's four, he's uh four for three, or excuse me, four for six with three hits. That's good. Three and uh one extra base hit, which is ended up being a homer. Look, you said it perfectly. The way to beat this guy is pitch count, work walks. The problem with the O's is when you work walks, which they they have been doing pretty well this year, and I feel like you know, just kind of watching the game, that they they take a lot of pitches and they work a good amount of walks, which is you know, it's it's that's a good thing, but it's it's you gotta get them in, and that's what we struggle with. So getting this uh this guy out early would be huge for the O's. Uh Clay mentioned their bullpen isn't that good. It's not middle of the order, middle of the pact. Um, but other than that, I mean it's gonna be the same thing talking about with these O's is can you pitch well, can you hit, and can you play defense? And I don't think all I don't think all three of those phases have been connecting at the same time at any point this year. Um but why not start it in the beautiful city of Miami, Florida? Um and I I think this could be you know one of those teams where they're good. Marlins made the playoffs last year, they're young, they're scrappy, they beat good players. The Marlins?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, yeah. Oh, that was like no, that was like 2023.

SPEAKER_01

No, they didn't make the playoffs last year, but they looked good last year. Did they were like the 2023? Yeah, was it two years ago? They knocked the Mets off.

SPEAKER_03

It was 23 years old. They lost the Phillies in the uh Wild Congress. Yeah, in the wild.

SPEAKER_01

They fired uh Kim, uh GMX. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

But they've been scrappy. I mean, I mean they're young. Yeah, they're a good team. I mean, they're very good team. They're kind of we're on the O's trajectory of of rebuilding, and I mean, it's kind of neck and neck right now, which is crazy to think about. But to get Yuri, you gotta you gotta work him because the guy has great swing and miss stuff.

SPEAKER_01

He's got a live arm, I'll tell you that.

SPEAKER_04

I know.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, he does. All right, final game here in this set. Um, all these games are at like 640. Um, game three, uh, Clay, you were wondering earlier like who starts on Friday. Right now, uh Bradish is um oh wait, no, this is on Thursday, excuse me. But Braddish is ready to go apparently here on ESPN on uh Thursday for the final game in this series. It'll be Kyle Bradish versus Max Meyer. Max Meyer for former top prospect righty. This guy's having a great year. Uh 268 ERA, 40 strikeouts in uh 37 innings of work. It's coming off the best start of his career against a group, a good Philadelphia Phillies lineup. Don't want to say great anymore because they're not too great this year, but seven innings of one hit, no run ball with seven strikeouts. Uh only gave up two base runners in this one against Philly. Um, and then you even want to go before that. He hasn't let up a run since um 420. Blaze it. He hasn't given up a run since April 20th, um, where it was a um win against the St. Louis Cardinals, five and a third, three hits, uh, two earned runs, eight strikeouts. So this is a guy that hasn't given up more than five hits all season. He hasn't he has not given up more than five hits all season in a single start. Um, strikeout numbers are very, very strong. This is a good pitcher. And um, the Orioles, once again, they're gonna have to do their work against Max Meyer. Um, he's not a he's a guy that is not gonna give you a whole lot of free bases, kind of averages like 1.2 walks a game. Um, but he will make you swing and miss. He's only given up, I want to say, one homer all season. Um, two homers all season, excuse me, and he's made seven starts. So this is a real really, really good pitcher, young and live arm, like you kind of said earlier. Uh Klay, um, Orioles are gonna have to do their work, and so is Kyle Braddish, because uh hopefully this can be the start that Kyle Braddish turns things around. Clay, anything to add?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I'll just say I I wish I wish for the Marlins' sake they could turn out hitters even half as good as they turned out pitchers. I mean, they traded Edward Cabrera, they just they have so much pitching that I mean I if the Orioles could take their pitching and give them most of our hitting, I think we'd be in a much better spot right now, you know. And maybe send Colton Kowser to the Wolves and and and whatever the hell else for Max Meyer.

SPEAKER_03

I'll see you in Valhalla, brother. Rest now. Jake, anything to add?

SPEAKER_04

No, man. No, you guys summed it up perfectly. I mean, I'm just I'm at the point where you just gotta start playing good ball. And um I'm not really one to be negative all the time, but it's hard not to be right now. But I think in with this series, importantly, with these three pitchers, I mean, if you go out and you perform, you know, with your bats against these three guys, I mean, that's that's a really good start to building momentum for the future. So I think this series is very important. Uh, you're four games under 500 right now, and I think it's it's really getting to that point in the season where the early stuff is now that conversation is starting to wind down. It's really not early anymore. We're in May now, and you gotta start stacking wins. So, you know, I know there's a there's a game tonight. Um, so really they really should be starting that stacking tonight. But for the sake of this conversation, um, the Miami series, um, it really is pivotal in this season because I I think you lose that series, then you have to go to Oakland, wherever the hell the athletics are playing. Was that Florida still, Buffalo, or one of the other? I don't know, some stadium. It it could this this season could start uh unwinding. So unraveling. Yeah, yeah. So it's really pivotal for tonight going into Friday that we we get right here. So we'll see. We'll see.

SPEAKER_01

You know, I just want to add one thing. You know, my dad used to always say, he would say, you know, by Memorial Day, you know who you are. You know, by Memorial Day, we'll have played probably about another 20 games, and you know, we could either be 500, we could be above 500, or be in a worse spot than we are now. So, you know, by Memorial Day, if they haven't figured it out, and you're going into June with that gauntlet, it's kind of like, all right, this, you know, buckle up, but time to go.

SPEAKER_04

Start to go.

SPEAKER_01

But the next four days, you know, if the Orioles can just give you some sort of sliver of hope, sliver of confidence. I mean, I hate being negative. I I know Jake does, Tyler. Tyler, I know you do too, but you know, we need something. You got to give us something, throw us a bone.

SPEAKER_04

Just a little heart. Just want to see some heart on the field. That's all.

SPEAKER_03

I agree. Yeah. And you know, these next couple of series, and Jake, you made a good point. It all does start tonight. Like, you can't go into New York and get swept, and then all of a sudden you're on a five-game losing streak, especially after you won 10 to 3 and 5 to 3, and you had what six homers in one game only last week. It's like you ran out of pyro.

SPEAKER_04

Ran out of pyro.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, exactly. And now they're running out of losses. So it's like, I feel like right now, all you got all you gotta do is win this game tonight. Hopefully, Shane Boss gives you a good start. You go into Miami, you take two out of three there. You're three and one in your last four. You're not worrying about you know that four-game losing skid that happened last week. You're worrying about this week. Yeah, all of a sudden, you win three out of your next four. You're only what two games behind 500. You have a series against the athletics at athletics at home. You win another two out of three there, and all of a sudden, you're going you're hosting New York for a three-game set. Trevor Rogers is back healthy, and all of a sudden, this team has an opportunity to be 22 and 21 all the time.

SPEAKER_04

And then you start having the fans, the city, the team having a little juice. It changes things in baseball. If you know, when you're flat, everyone's flat. When when things start rolling, you know, the whole city's behind you, the whole team's behind you. You look like a different team. And you know, this ain't the same Miami Marlins, it's not the same uh Vegas Athletics.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, whatever you want to call them.

SPEAKER_04

Sactown Sacktown, baby. I mean, these these are these are scrappy teams now, and they're not gonna be as easy as they used to be, but they are very winnable games. So um like Clay's, you know, father or grandfather said, I forget which one he he mentioned, I believe you said your father. Indeed, indubitably. That yeah, it's like this we're gonna start realizing who this team is here very shortly, and it starts tonight.

SPEAKER_03

So no doubt. Well, that's gonna wrap things up on today's episode of Orioles Theory. Once again, for those joining us on live stream, thank you for tuning in. Uh, hopefully the O's catch another dub tonight. But for those listening to this Tuesday morning, uh, if you guys want to listen to the um oh well, this is at the end of the video. So I was gonna say if you want if you just want to skip and listen to the Marlins part of it, go to the 30-minute mark, but they're not even gonna hear it because it's gonna be at the end of the video. Anyways, once again, if you guys are live, thank you guys for tuning in for all of our viewers at home. Thank you guys for choosing Orioles Theory, your number one source for all things Baltimore Orioles related. You guys can check us out on all streaming platforms, Spotify, Apple, um, Amazon, podcasts, Pandora, wherever you get your podcasts. We got you guys cut it covered for the whopping price of free ninety nine. Make sure to check us out on all socials TikTok, uh, Instagram, uh, X at Orioles Theory on TikTok and Instagram, and on X, we're at O's Theory for Tyler Barbarous, Jake Orin, and Clay Selgen. We'll see you guys in the next one. Peace out and go O Go's Go O's, boys.