00:00yeah i mean like we talked about along like the the strike zone uh awareness has been there it
00:06was good to see him barrel up some balls and be rewarded for it so um he's been working his
00:11butt
00:11off with dustin and our hitting group so it was good to see that today you look good i mean
00:15with
00:15all our guys you want to keep them getting better with each outing stuff's crisper but to me like
00:21the the fastball was a little better than before um you know just like all these guys like they get
00:28their live bps underneath them as they get pulled up get their capacity going so that's always the
00:32case with albert today like i said before i wasn't here last season and what has to show in right
00:37now
00:37is what he's capable of it's yeah bat quality is right where it needs to be and like his setup
00:43change
00:43is is simple for him and repeatable and it gets him on he can adjust to a lot of different
00:48pitches
00:49that's what's seeing right now that is craig alberness orioles manager alby as he is referred
00:55to talking about has to curse that let's go back into the uh history machine second pick of the draft
01:022020 overall out of arkansas diagnosed with myocarditis right after that this was in the height of covid
01:13so that set him back a good year and a half
01:20then rips up his hamstring tracking a fly ball down in sarasota that sets him back so as a college
01:29drafted guys a little bit older like gunner for instance trapped it out of high school
01:35heston coming out of college i mean heston is 27 years old as we sit here today
01:43but rehabilitated himself got healthy and was putting up slow pitch softball numbers down on the farm
01:52and in 2023 had impressed the orioles brass enough that he was on the playoff roster
02:01against texas and did the same in 2024 now 2024 is also the day or the year he took the
02:10fastball
02:10off the melon against the yankees in the rain where brandon and i wanted to fight the whole
02:15yankee bench because some a-hole over there with the yankees was kind of laughing at the fact that
02:21has to curse that was eating dirt on that friday night but he made the postseason roster and then last
02:29year for whatever reason and there was he was sent back to the minors after a slow start
02:37there was an ailment which pretty much shut him down at the middle of the season
02:42and it was almost forgotten and every time the oriol brass was asked about heston cursed at
02:50i don't want to get in couldn't get into it yep if he's like oh he broke his foot it
02:57was that direct
02:59very cagey and describing it because it was probably something maybe not
03:05baseball related i don't want to speculate but comes into spring training 100 healthy as both
03:13michael eyes craig alberness said and what we're seeing right now from heston cursed at who had
03:19three hits last night or yesterday afternoon against boston i mean he's got his ops is like 12
03:26he's raking unfortunately for him it's good news and bad news good news is you're re-establishing
03:35yourself as a guy the bad news is knowing it in here too if everyone stays healthy there's no room
03:44on
03:44the roster for him to perform because as we've discussed a thousand times cows are your center fielder
03:52ward's your left fielder beavers and muscles of being right and uh tavarez is probably your platoon
04:00can play all three outfield spots and at a high level defensively so for guys like bradfield and
04:06heston cursed at and three for three of three homers vance honeycutt there's nothing happening here but the
04:13good news is and we'll talk to steve moleski later in the show because i was like there's that kind
04:18of
04:19sucks is i was in that ballpark no pun intended i don't see it i don't see any sort of
04:27positivity
04:27here and there's no trade value so you can't even flip in for a starting pitcher or utility whatever
04:33your needs may be bullpen arm etc etc there's nothing there but for everything that he's overcome
04:42and to come into spring training just fresh and healthy and revitalized and to have him hit the
04:48ball as hard as he's hitting it i think this is awesome now what the end game for him will
04:53be i
04:54don't know again barring injuries here in the final few weeks of spring training i don't see him coming
04:59north with the orioles but now we're looking at has to curse that as a guy like i don't think
05:05he's all
05:05that great defensively that i don't think that's ever going to change but there's an impact bat
05:10somewhere so nolan what do you think it has to curse dad at least and granted he could go over
05:1620
05:17over the next two weeks down in florida but are we if a feel-good story in the first two
05:24weeks of
05:24spring training games he would have to certainly qualify if not the feel-good story or near the top of
05:31the list yeah and you know what i really like is that it's not like he's just getting lucky where
05:36he's
05:37running into one every once in a while you know power wise home run wise and still striking out a
05:42ton no i mean his swing selection everything across the board just looks different out of him
05:49and that's why i'm willing to put a little more stock into it you know there's nothing about this seems
05:53like dumb luck just one strikeout so far for him in spring training now maybe you'd like a couple more
05:59walks has just one of those but if he's gonna hit to the level that he's hitting at i don't
06:05need
06:05him to walk and let's be honest here if he's gonna be a power guy i'm looking for him to
06:09swing for the
06:09fences for the most part between him and tyler o'neill this is kind of shaping up to be let's
06:18make this the
06:18season of good problems to have that that's the attitude i would hope that the orioles can luck
06:24themselves into this year after having so much bad injury luck the last two years in some ways you make
06:30your own luck but i think we can all agree that they were extremely depleted especially last year
06:35with over 70 guys on the roster uh to cover 162 games so if o'neill and kerstad are gonna
06:42both
06:42be at their full ability they're gonna make it a tough decision on craig albernaz i say
06:48i'm all for it yeah perfect world scenario if you could get some sort of science machine and we do
06:54have
06:55modern technology right where you give either bradfield kerstad's offensive upside or kerstad
07:02bradfield speed and defense you have your starting center fielder oh no the other guy's probably hitting
07:06third in your lineup but that's not how it works but vinnie for a prospect that was highly regarded
07:12like kerstad to kind of fight himself out of the doldrums and there have been many reasons for it but
07:18you know once you get to a certain age and he just turned 27 by the way on a february
07:2412th
07:25you know it's put up or shut up time because once you get to 28 29 and you're still kind
07:31of
07:31in this ballpark then prospect status goes bye-bye i don't think it may have already but this is the
07:41last chance i would think for him to prove to either the orioles or another team that this is a
07:46guy that's
07:46got an extreme upside here yeah and i i think you know watching him when he's at bat he just
07:53looks
07:53extremely confident when he's up there i think he expects to get a hit you know and and i i
08:00think
08:00it's kind of impressive because he's overcome a lot of adversity and if your management and like albie
08:06said this bob all albie knows is is what he sees you know which is great for kerstad because like
08:14what was the matter with this guy before you know kind of thing so a lot of times is you
08:19know
08:19being in the right place at the right time too plus what it does for elias my opinion is you
08:25know you
08:26feel good about setting him down so if a guy's gonna be gone for you know 10 games or something
08:32whoo no problem you know we can just throw him in there like you said though defensively like
08:37the the line shot he had out there to left he doesn't see it as quick and natural not as
08:44instinctive
08:45defensively as say a bradfield is who's a high level defender but we heard uh albert has say that
08:53he's making all the necessary adjustments at the plate it's almost like he's expecting what's coming
08:59to him and dustin lynn the hitting coach so they're they're working well so that's a good story
09:04another good story sammy basayo after we watch him go down he played yesterday and he was roping
09:10a couple of hits and he was doing some good things beavers had a couple of doubles
09:14chris bassett made his spring debut and you know i'm not judging one way or another he could have
09:22faced six batter struck all six of them out you look at it like okay that's great but you know
09:27he
09:27came in late to spring training and he was ramping up so uh it's all good in that area the
09:34orioles do
09:34come from behind to win the game after falling behind big but it is what it is so the birds
09:39are
09:39off today then they play the netherlands tomorrow their national team with trevor rogers on the hill
09:46and then they're back on the spring training diamond against major league teams wednesday against the
09:51houston astros so we're we're percolating today's the second 24 days from opening day how about that
09:59and let me just say this watching bradfield i mean that dude is like at a different speed than
10:07everybody else he was safe second on the stolen base oh no question and maybe there might have been
10:11a slight misread on the ball that dropped in front of him in right field but the one he caught
10:15i mean
10:16in the gap a beautiful thing to see so the orioles are off today roster kind of sort of coming
10:22together
10:22nolan are we at the uh space where they still need to bring someone in we know westberg's questionable
10:29certainly he's not starting opening day neither jackson holiday but we assume that jackson holiday
10:34is going to be back maybe before may may 1st no idea when we're going to see westberg yeah they
10:40were
10:41showing um holiday uh catching ground balls you know and with the hammock moan you know probably
10:48the hitting is probably going to be the longest you know because of the you know the the power and
10:54stuff that he's got to have with that but he can feel ground balls because it's his right hand
10:57you know so he can field them i don't know you know maybe he can throw but you know he's
11:01going to
11:01be doing stuff on the field more much quicker than the bat what do you think yeah and i don't
11:06know if
11:07there's really a savior out there to go grab free agent whatever it is i mean this is kind of
11:12the
11:12group that you got so you know whether you're fully confident in that infield situation with
11:17kobe mayo and some of his defensive shortcomings it's just kind of the guys you're you're working
11:23with it's either him or a tyro estrada right where you're maybe giving up some offensive uh firepower but
11:28going with more of a sure-handed thing defensively uh you know it's a bit of a puzzle you can
11:34move some
11:34pieces around uh you know who's going to play third and whatnot you know if you want to go mayo
11:39then obviously he would be at third but if you prefer to strada there could be a situation where
11:44blaze could play third estrada plays second so a lot of moving parts here but one of the other good
11:50parts about gunner going to the wbc is that it created a vacancy at shortstop as well so even more
11:56moving parts guys to get a an opportunity here
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