Nothing to Smile About: How the Rays Just Completely Exposed The O's

A brutal weekend at Tropicana Field leaves the Orioles searching for answers after a clear reality check. Plus, we break down manager Craig Albernaz’s blunt post-sweep media comments about the loss. #Birdland #BaltimoreOrioles #MLBonX

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:29

What's going on, ladies and gentlemen? Welcome into another episode of the Charm City Sports Podcast. It's getting harder and harder to do these episodes, folks. I tell you, it is really getting harder and harder to do these episodes. As the Baltimore Orioles swept by the Tampa Bay Rays this past week, by a unfortunate combined score. A combined score, and yes, this is real, of 25 to 8. An embarrassing three games at the drop. That's putting it lightly. I don't know where the Orioles go from here. They're 21 and 29. If they get swept again this weekend, I'm t we're we're not coming on here and and doing series by series episodes anymore because there's no point. They'll be unwatchable at the end of May. They will be an unwatchable team, and for Orioles fans, for Baltimore fans, you're looking ahead towards the NFL season. I mean, you're ready for a training camp to be here now, because this team is just not doing it for you. I'm sorry. I mean I know you want to be, you know, uh firm fist with your team, but what is this team doing for you? I mean, honestly. I looked just because I was curious at what the attendance record has been throughout the last couple seasons today. And I mean, the Orioles, even when they've had in the 23 and 24 season, they were ranked in the middle of the pack in the American League. You know, the attendance wasn't even at 23, they were the best team in the American League, 101 wins. And not many were attending the games then. And well, I shouldn't say not many, but not to the extent that I'm sure the Orioles and their ownership group were hoping for when they decided, hey, you know what we're gonna do? We're gonna stink from 2018 and go through a full rebuild from 2018 to 21 and even 22, and in 23 and 24 they ranked ninth and eighth respectively in terms of attendance in the American League. And for the majority of Camden Yards since its existence since 1992, the Baltimore Orioles for a good long while, they were top five in the American League in terms of attendance up until 05. They were first in attendance in ninety-six and ninety-seven. That's how far off this fan base has dropped with this franchise. And by the sure will of just, in my opinion, negligence, the Orioles ownership group and the Orioles front office, the ownership group didn't select Michael Eyes, but the Orioles front office has gone so far out of reach and out of touch with baseball, it it's really a shame in these last couple seasons. These guys are not being brought up in the proper way. These guys are not playing baseball the way it should be played. Now, the way that it was designed to be played, the way that it was we're far away from that. But you look at a Tampa Bay Rays team that is a small market team, that is a team that, in terms of the way that they are going to run their franchise fiscally, they have bought into the money ball way. In terms of the Baltimore Orioles, they are preparing their players to play baseball and not so much the money ball way, in terms of fiscally, in terms of, you know, as the Tampa Bay Rays, they just keep bringing bringing players up, bringing players up, letting players go in free agency, replacing those players in the aggregate? They're not going full hook, line, and sinker into analytics. There are teams out there that will do that, and a lot of those teams are not successful. You know, I look at the team that plays baseball just about an hour north of you, up I-95, which to be honest with you, I gotta wonder, did Michael Eyes put this team thinking he was putting together the carbon copy of the 22 Phillies, in which it's a lot of home runs. You're expected to hit a lot of home runs, but what you're not going to do is you're not going to get any slap hits. You're not going to get, which throughout that lineup of that Phillies team, there were players that were able to do so. I bring them up because there have been times where Elias just brings in former players from that 22 team throughout the last couple years. It feels like he's tried to kind of build similar to what Dave Dombrowski has done with the Phillies. Although Elias' ties are with the Houston Astros, and although the manager he brought in is from the Chicago Cubs, and obviously an organization that when Hyde was with the Cubs, that was Theo Epstein's oversee. But not even Theo Epstein was totally, totally bought into analytics. And not even the Phillies are fully bought into analytics. There's a little bit of feel there too. And in terms of the way the game is managed, there is a lot of analytics in that regard, but when it comes to developing players to solely just you gotta hit an exit VLO of over a hundred on every ball, in this count, you gotta get this swing off. You want this launch angle, you want, you know, to have the three main outcomes or or concrete outcomes, whatever the stupid phrase is, in baseball, whether it's a strikeout, a home run, or a walk. You know, a single, a double, a triple, you know, and all just putting the ball in play, that's not good enough in in the analytical world. And that's what the Baltimore Oriol feels like. It feels like that's what they are. They aren't building a team to have length throughout their lineup. They're not building a team to have a lineup that one through nine, you know, everyone is not supposed to be there is supposed to be some individuality within the lineup. And a lot of the best teams in baseball will have that. The Orioles do now, do not. Now, are they injured? Absolutely. They have loads of injuries, and that even, in my opinion, also correlates to the front office because as we as we talked about here, how do you have this many injuries? It c it can't be possible for a team to be this hurt. We talk about it all the time. This is not normal. Unless you are a veteran team, this is not normal. Now the Orioles got a little bit healthier, and Jackson Holiday, you know, was pinch hitting in those final two games in Tampa Bay, met the team down at the trop. We'll hear from him in a moment. But this is just unbelievable. Unbelievable. So let's start off with hearing from Jackson Holiday uh some decent news as we uh will get into some more of the bat.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

It's been fun, you know. Um always grew up watching a bunch of really good through baseman and being around Nolan Arenado, and uh so it's been fun to kind of go over there and learn a new position. And um, I mean, who knows? I might not even play out there, but just to have it and uh be able to go out there and um at least feel a little confident and um a little comfortable is has been fun.

SPEAKER_03 8:34

So was he one of the guys? Were you able to kind of reach out to him and pick his grain a little?

SPEAKER_00 8:39

I texted him and asked him if he got any extra gloves, and um he didn't, but my mom actually found one um at their house and and uh and sent it. But uh I mean just just watching um growing up and and watching videos and um I love to watch baseball, so just picked up a few things.

SPEAKER_02 8:56

How would you describe these sort of six weeks starting?

SPEAKER_00 9:02

Yeah, um kind of long, a little exhausting, honestly. Um but you know, there's there's good out of out of everything and um be able to spend time with my wife and um play with a bunch of teammates in the minor leagues that I came up with. And um so just trying to find the positive and and the negative. And um, but I'm I'm here now and uh just excited for whatever has uh in store.

SPEAKER_03 9:27

Never read too much into actual numbers at the plate in minor leagues, but do you feel like you were able to kind of in this last week here with the home run triple, kind of start to really feel your better in the box?

SPEAKER_00 9:37

Yeah, absolutely. I mean it helps whenever you um aren't in ton of pain trying to swing a bat. Um so that was a little bit uh a little bit better. Um well, took some walks, um, but it was definitely much easier to get off a good swing um than in the past. So uh yeah, I mean they weren't great, but um like you said it's it's rehabbing for for a reason. And unfortunately a broken hand isn't uh exactly the easiest to to kind of deal with, um especially when you're trying to push to make the team and um yeah, but the last last week was good. How frustrating was the stopping and starting and restarting, and how frustrated was that? Yeah, it was it was pretty frustrating, but uh I mean it's just it's just part of it, you know. Um I want to come up here and be able to help the team win. And at that point I wasn't probably much help, and uh to kind of go through some nagging things was uh a little frustrating, but I'm I knew it was kind of expected um a little bit, so uh to be able to kind of get through it is uh definitely relieving.

SPEAKER_05 10:43

Well let's just kick it off right here in order. The Orioles naturally the first game against the Rays, they showed off really the difference between the two teams. The Oriol starting pitching with Trevor Rogers did them zero favors. Shane McClanahan went out there and maybe didn't have his A game. He gave up four runs on six hits and five innings, but at least he wasn't giving up seven runs on eight hits and eight runs crossing in total and three and two thirds, like Trevor Rogers did. The O's got killed. Rogers also had two walks to go along with it. His ERA is now up to six point eight seven, and his last two starts, he has been horrific. For your opening day starter, who was the Orioles MVP last year, who got sick on April the 25th and then didn't come back until May the 12th, he's given up 14 runs on seven and two thirds innings, thirteen runs and fourteen hits and seven and two thirds innings, with six strikeouts and five free passes. It's embarrassing. Now that illness, I don't know what the hell the guy had. I don't know how you're on the 15-day IL with that bad of an illness, but it must have been pretty damn bad for this to be the outcome. And and he didn't even have a rehab stint. He was right back into it. They needed him to be ready to go, and that's the stat line. And after the game in the clubhouse, boy, Trevor Rogers certainly showed that there might be more going on than just him having two bad performances. Here he was.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

I was trying to answer for you. I I don't know. I just try to keep making pitches and it's just not going my way. Just did my cap to the rays, you know. Excuse my friends, but they beat my ass tonight, and I let down everyone in this room, and I'm just not doing my job right now, and that's lost is on me. Do you feel like you're potentially tipping pitches? I don't know if you studied that at all, or I'm just grasping as browsing. Hopefully there's something there. I know I've left a couple pitches in the middle of the plate, but I felt like I was making pretty competitive pitches on the edges, and they're just barreling everything. Um a couple of the balls that go my way, so talk to uh Vinci and Clem and see if they got some for me tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02 13:45

It may not appear that way, but he feels that you're close. Do you feel that way?

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Trying to be as professional as I can. Um deep down I think so. The past four or five starts, it's just been one inning where I've it's just gone off the rails with two outs. Um just nothing has gone my way. I feel like I'm really close. Um I still had the belief in myself. I I know how good I can be. Um I'm just doing the complete opposite right now. Uh I just hopefully that answers your question. I don't I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 14:22

That is frustration. That is in part competitiveness, that is an I need to be better attitude, but at the same time, that is a wearing your heart on your sleeve, and I'm sorry, but the frustration within him just seems like he's overcompensating for himself. And I think the opposition sees that, and I think it plays right into their hands. They know when they're frustrating him, they can sense they're frustrating him. The game within the game shows up, and Trevor Rogers is done, hook, line, and sinker. Now, game two saw a much better performance pitching-wise from one Kyle Bradish, who has now lowered his ERA to a 4.13 in two stellar starts. Now he gave up a run early in the bottom of the first, and he gave up another run in the bottom of the sixth, but for the most part, five and a third, four hits, sure, three free passes and six strikeouts, but it kept you in it. Only gave him two runs. The offense, one. And for all those analytical dorks that just sit there and solely look at numbers, and solely look at hard hit rate, slowly look at launch angle, slowly look at all that stuff. Here's some numbers for you. How about nine strikeouts, 0 for 5 with runners and scoring position, the leadoff hitter reaching once, which is a leadoff home run to begin the game, zero doubles, no triples, and grounding into two double plays. A computer is not going to win you baseball games. A computer can give you some fun stats, can tell you, hey, look how far he hit this ball. It would have been gone in this many ballparks, and this year his average home run would have been gone this many times in our ballpark. But at the same time, he's also this kind of a hitter and that kind of a hitter, and this, that, and the third. There is and listen, I can't I can't sit here and give you the ins and outs of it, but there are baseball people that understand the game from a feel standpoint, from a player makeup standpoint, that a computer cannot tell you. And when it comes time for them to come up into the major leagues and for them to be the guy, the computer cannot tell you that. Now there are ways to prepare guys to give them confidence, I suppose. But this that I am recording this into cannot do that. I am sorry, but it is not the end all be all. You have to have a feel. And this team is ran with no feel. That's the way it feels. That's the way it seems, because they are too damn talented to be looking like this. They are too good of players to be eight games under 500, to be this hurt, to be this damn brutal, night in and night out, and then yesterday it was horrific when they finally got a lead for more than an inning on the Tampa Bay Rays. The Orioles get out to a three-to-one lead heading into the seventh inning. The only way the Orioles have shown they would be able to score against the Rays consistently was via the home run, and Pete Alonzo hit the go-ahead to put them up two-one, and then Samuel Basal, he would follow two batters later, with his seventh, and it's a 3-1 lead. But in the bottom of the eighth, Anthony Nunez could not hold on. A guy that everyone felt very confident about earlier in the year. He then gives up a two-run double to tie the game, and then an RBI single. And then the Rays pull off the double steal as Richie Palacio steals second, and Ryan Vellate steals home. One through nine through the Rays lineup. Simpson, Camanero, Palacio, Palacio's obviously Mullins. Those are the guys you know. The Rays have 33 wins, and to be honest with you, a majority of those guys, I really don't know who the hell they are. Why? Because the Tampa Bay Rays have been able to create a culture within that organization. When you come up to the major leagues, this is what is expected of you. And this is the difference between the two clubs. And I got killed the other day for saying that I thought that the Baltimore Orioles, when it was time to bring up Gunnar Henderson and Colton Kowser, and Jordan Westburg, and Dylan Beavers, and Samuel Bessia, and the whole gang. Now, granted, they are young, and for the guys who just got up two years ago, you know, they're younger players. But for the guys who have been up that were supposed to take the place of Cedric Mullins and Anthony Santander and Austin Hayes and John Means, they are not answering the bell in terms of being leaders within that clubhouse. Now, granted, they brought in quote unquote adults to come into the room, like Pete Alonzo and Taylor Ward and Tyler O'Neill, but those guys aren't coming up in the minor leagues. A reason part of the benefit of having guys that have played in the minors together is they know each other. They know to be able to hold each other accountable. They played with each other for a couple years. It's not like they just get up here and it's the first time they met each other. Hey, how you doing? No, they played each other played with each other for months, maybe years in the minor league system. And for I mean, let's face it, and for this Baltimore Royals team, it's like they just grabbed a bunch of free agents. And for the free agents that are now here, and by by the way, I don't think Tyler O'Neill is much of a fit. We kind of talked about it last year. And I don't even know, I is Pete Alonso fitting in with this team? You know, is this just complain it was was it just, well, he was a great leader, but he was on the Mets. Again, an organization he knew, a bunch of players he knew. And it's not Pete's fault. It's the organizational's fault. Organization's fault. It's the players' fault not being able to grow into leaders and take accountability. Because I don't know if there's a ton of accountability going on in that clubhouse. I really don't. I had people saying, well, it's not like one pep talk's gonna fix it. No, it's not one pep talk. You're missing the point. This is a team, this is an all-together thing. It's not one guy standing up on a soapbox and screaming. This is going back to spring training. This is stuff that should have been in place going back a while now, being able to hold your teammates accountable. I don't see that within this team. I don't. And that's something that you see from every team that has success. You will have that. You will have leaders in those clubhouses. Whether it's guys that just got there, whether it's guys that have been playing in the minor leagues with their fellow teammates for years. There's accountability factor that is not there with the Baltimore Orioles. And then Ben McDonald, he had enough yesterday. The Mat obviously color analyst on Masson. Here was his quote. We can talk about analytics and what could happen and what should happen if you hit the ball hard. But I don't care if you hit the ball hard. I don't care if you hit it hard and you hit it to somebody. You're out. I don't care how hard you throw ball for. I don't care what your sprint rate was on your breaking ball if you bounce it three feet in front of home plate. I don't care. What I care about is do you make plays? Do you make pitches? Do you get hits when it matters? And that's what the Orioles are struggling to do right now. They are struggling to complete ball games. They are struggling to have all phases of the game go right at the same time. That's where the struggle is. So all this nonsense is eyewash to me about all this analytical stuff. You either do or you don't. And right now the Orioles don't. They are not doing it and they're not playing well right now. That's the bottom line. Is there enough time to fix it? Sure. There is, but as a collective, do I have the belief in this clubhouse to do so? Absolutely the hell not. Going back to last year. And you know what was interesting? Someone brought this up, I think it was Ryan Ripkin who mentioned this. He said or it was someone that said, I might be botching it, but Tony Mansolino, when he was asked what she would do differently, he said if Tony Mansolino, obviously the interim uh manager last year, he said if he was given the full-time manager job, he would change the way they do things in spring training. He said he would he said he would he didn't tell everyone exactly what he was going to do, but he was going to fix a lot of things. I think mainly focusing on the fundamentals of the game and hammering home the fundamentals more. You can talk about all the analytical crap all you want, but when that you know what doesn't work, go back to your fundamentals of the game. Go back to the basics. As was said in Bulldorum, this is a very simple game. You hit the ball, you throw the ball, you catch the ball. That's baseball. I mean, literally, if you want to sit there and and build your team through a computer, be my guest. But you have to at the same time hammer this stuff home. Because that's when you get to be eight games under 500. That's when you're at this point last year like 16 games under 500 firing the manager, which by the way, you can't put put it on Craig Albanz. You can't do it. You can't call for his head. You're gonna what? You're gonna change managers four times now in a calendar year. I'll count Tony. I mean, Tony Mansolino was interim, but you know, they didn't say, hey, you know what, you got it. And by the way, isn't that kind of telling? That's what he said he would change things. And he was not given the job. Interesting. Very interesting. Talking about Craig Albernez, here he was discussing the tough loss yesterday and the difference within the division.

SPEAKER_04 25:21

Oh, it's a big-time gut punch for sure. Um, you know, it's 3-1 lead going into going into the eighth, you know, with our guys that we trust a lot that have been throwing extremely well, and by no means did we ever think the game was wrapped up as white as 27 outs, but you know, with our guys, and we felt pretty good, and also some meat on the bone where couple of two days where we didn't go first to third on some balls in the outfield, where we don't need to get those extra runs, where where we're operating right offensively and on the base running side, like we're taking those extra bases and getting the third base with less than two outs and be able to stack flyer have the infield in and move the ball forward. Yeah, it's just playing a complete baseball game. You know, we've shown that we can play with anyone, we just have to allow ourselves to play with anyone, you know, whether be on the pitching side, defensively, offensively, like we're just gonna get everything clicking at once and and being aggressive on the bases, you know, like when we're pushing the envelope on the bases, that's when good things happen for us, and we're playing a little passive and just playing careful. That's when, you know, we lose some opportunities off the louder stuff to play like is there something actually stopping players feeling that they can be aggressive on the bases, or clicking, you know, offensively, defensively, or anything like that. Yeah, I say that in terms of you know, mentally it's nothing physical with these guys, and you know, I'm not saying it's mental, but also when you go into the game with that mindset of, you know, you want to take any any extra 90 feet, you want to grind out of bats, you want to take nothing for granted, and because you never know what can happen. You know, any team can come back, you know, and any team can, you know, win the game. That's why, you know, it's a really competitive league, especially the division, so you know, we just have to go out there and and play our game.

SPEAKER_05 27:15

As Ben McDonald said, some teams do, some teams don't. Right now, the Oriol don't, and the Tampa Bay Rays do. The New York Yankees do. And a whole lot more teams are going to start winning, and the Baltimore Orioles, if this continues, they're going to start dropping because the one redeeming factor of all this, as we keep talking here, is the fact that in the American League right now, as it sits, there are now just five teams above five hundred. And for the wildcard, the Orioles sit three and a half games out at eight games under 500. The Rangers hold the final wild card spot at 24 and 25. The team below the cut line is at 24 and 27. That's the Seattle Ma Seattle Mariners. It's in place still, but for the Orioles, I just don't know if it's obtainable. One and five on that road trip. To quote Bulldorum again, we're 21-29. How did we ever win 21? Moving on to the Detroit Tigers series, game one, we'll see Chris Bassett, who's 3-3 with a 5-4-4 ERA, and 0-2 with a 5-4-0 ERA versus the Tigers since 2023, and Jack Flaherty will take the mound for Detroit. Flaherty, of course, the former one-time Baltimore Oriol, is 0-5 this year with a 5-7-7 ERA. Gave up three runs on six hits in six innings versus the O's in 2024 as a member of the Dodgers, a year after, of course, being a member of the Baltimore Orioles. So I'm just going to say it right now. The Oriol the starting pitching is favorable, sort of, towards them. We'll get to it in a moment. But if there's a chance for this offense to break out and to really make you think, like, hmm, maybe they're getting on track here, and maybe they have a chance in this series. Game two, Brandon Young. 3-1 with the 4-2-5 ERA. He's been among the Orioles' most consistent pitchers. He started last year versus the Tigers, where he went 4-2 thirds innings, giving up three runs on four hits with six strikeouts. And then Fromber Valdez takes them on for the Tigers, the acquisition in the offseason. Many wanted him for the O's. He signed with the Tigers, and he's 2-3 with the 4-5-8 ERA. He's 1-2 with a 4-4-4 ERA versus the O's since 2023. He's pitched into the sixth inning in all four of those starts, but that ERA is favorable for the O's, both on the season overall and against Baltimore. And then game three, Trevor Rodgers, two and five with a six-eight seven ERA this year, won five innings where he gave up no runs on three hits with six strikeouts in 2024 against Detroit. That was his last time facing the Tigers as a member of the Marlins. And Cater Montero, who's 2-3 with a 3-8-3 ERA, young pitcher in the Tigers system, 1-0 with a 3-8-6 ERA, through two starts and three appearances against the O against the O's. He's given up six runs on 16 hits and 14 innings with four walks and ten strikeouts. Taking two out of three is right there for the taking for the Orioles. I don't want to go as far as to say they can sweep them, but that could also be the case, although it could also happen against Baltimore. I just something has to change within this team. And when I I don't know, I don't mean necessarily with the guys in the clubhouse, I mean within this organization. You keep doing it over and over. I mean, I heard someone say, well, it's the definition of insanity, which is one of the laziest sports takes ever is because ever because it's not. It's they're not doing the same thing o maybe fundamentally they are. If you're talking about that, then I agree with you, but if you're talking about putting the team together, not necessarily because they've turned over the roster a couple times here, while keeping the same young guys intact, unless you're saying they need to tear it down and rebuild it over again. There's one key piece, one headman that is still there, and he's the guy that I think has been deemed public enemy number one in terms of Baltimore sports figures over the last two years. And I think the writing is on the wall currently with Michaelis as the Orioles GM. I mean, it just looks like you know what you put together a lot of talent, but the way you are moving the chess pieces, we don't like it. And we want to switch things up. That's at least that's what I would have been saying after last year. I think that's what needs to be said. You can't do it now, but potentially coming up uh towards the end of the season, because unless this thing turns, unless this ship gets steered back in the right direction, I just do not see this ending in a in a pretty way for Michaelias. We hope to be proven wrong, but I just don't see it. Thanks for tuning in, folks, and hopefully next time we'll have a much better episode to be uh to be talking about for O's baseball.