00:00I think there's definitely a difference in those first couple seasons where the
00:04expectations are low but our expectations are high and that is the
00:08tough part is just keeping those expectations with the team and not
00:11letting the external noise kind of get to you and you know we got a lot of
00:14good guys on this team who have experience with that and I think we're
00:19built for it. There's nothing worse than having to you know watch your team from
00:22the sidelines and just wanting to be out there to help and you know be a part of
00:26it and be in the mix so I think especially like from the catch position
00:30it's like going from not being in every play to being in every play is just such
00:34a huge huge change and you know I love catching and love being a part of the
00:38team and I want to be a part of it all year and make a run. I think it's a
00:41little bit of both I mean you can obviously look for excuses in the year
00:44but that's just obviously it was the reality of the situation and I felt like
00:48I went out there and worked my butt off every day to do the best I could I was
00:51proud of the way I went out there and just locked in focus wise each and every
00:55day and yeah it sucks that we didn't make playoffs but to build a string
00:58together a decent year was I was pretty proud. It's Gunnar Anderson going to be
01:02part of the U.S. team World Baseball Classic. There'll be an action later on
01:06this afternoon against the Diamondbacks giving you a check out on ESPN but
01:11Gunnar coming out of spring training last year hurt remember missed the first
01:16week plus of the season and brilliant 2023 which got him rookie of the year was an
01:24MVP level player in 2024 starting shortstop for the American League All-Star team and
01:32then last year by pedestrian standards he had a really good year but when you put
01:41Gunnar Henderson on this four to five hundred million dollar contract guy and who
01:48knows how the finances will change or what the lockout will do to maybe calm salaries I don't
01:54think much could be looking at 700 mil I mean the guy's only what his mid-20s a really young
02:00player but he had a good year based on other shortstops like Bobby Witt has become the dude
02:08but Gunnar's not far behind him and the skill set is definitely similar and
02:16Gunnar Henderson his injury kind of set the tone for the slow start to the season
02:24and then Couser gets hurt in the first series Suarez gets hurt in the first series Westberg gets hurt in
02:34the first series and it just kind of started a season-long trend in which the Orioles wound up using
02:4170 players yeah I mean that's a bad team and a banged up team but Gunnar was proud of him
02:50you know
02:51bouncing back and have a good year it was a good year but it wasn't an MVP year it wasn't
02:57an all-star
02:58year and it wasn't a playoff year got better defensively the power numbers dip 20 homers
03:05it's not like he missed 40 games he missed like 10 the power numbers dip significantly but as he
03:15talked about after the fact there was an impingement in the shoulder and he couldn't
03:19really get to his thing rolling offensively because health which we didn't even know about
03:24he didn't even mention this to only get in here until the Birdland caravan back in January not to
03:30make excuses I guess that's what it is but it was kind of an interesting drop in power for a
03:37guy that
03:37you think you could just plug and play there's 25 right out of the gate so Gunnar Henderson yeah it
03:43sucked you to make the playoffs not only did you make the playoffs you finished last in the division
03:48after three straight winning seasons and leading the American League in wins just two years early
03:54then we heard from Natalie Rushman and you just heard him say it was brutal paraphrasing sitting
04:01on the bench watching my team scuffle when he did play he scuffled a scuffle that's going back since
04:07the all-star break as we've talked about a million times since 2024 got off to a really good start
04:14in
04:14spring training last year didn't carry over into the regular season and just as he started to get it
04:20together he got banged up both obliques cost him significant time second half of 24 he took the
04:28foul ball off the wrist right before the all-star break and was never the same after that and then
04:35if we remember he missed the start or two because of a bad back late in 24 even though he
04:41has never
04:42used excuses as a reason well last year you kind of got it built in you spent two stints
04:47on the IL but Gunnar a Gunnar stud Adley stud reputation stud accomplishments but someone that's been
05:00trending in the wrong direction I mean his OPS last year was below 70 that is unacceptable so we'll see
05:08what he brings to the equation health permitting and he had a really good game Saturday in uh spring
05:14training as he uh doubled and hit a home run but Adley Rutschman is kind of the foundation guy and
05:20you
05:20heard him say expectations were low when we first got here he's the one Nolan that started the big
05:26expectations because he was 1-1 and then you got Gunnar in the second round of the same draft
05:33who became a dude but Adley's the guy that was kind of the Pied Piper and you talk to the
05:39players
05:39you talk to the guys that cover the team Adley might not be a vociferous leader might keep to
05:46himself in a lot of areas but he's kind of the guy that you know sets the tone and is
05:52respected
05:53within that clubhouse so if he's back to being Adley Rutschman you go back two years ago
06:00no let's go back to July of 24 year and a half hey who's the starting catcher for the um
06:07U.S. team in the World Baseball Classic it's Adley Rutschman it's not even on the team it's Cal
06:13Raleigh who had a MVP level season himself so his stock has fallen for whatever reason injuries
06:22maybe got a little girthy maybe his plate discipline started to uh get a little out of whack because that
06:28was one of his strengths he could elite ball strike recognition skills I know a lot of oil fans are
06:36down on Adley Rutschman because Samuel Basayo as Adley was plummeting Basayo was rocketing up the
06:43rankings who they've already extended but Adley Rutschman I still think is a major piece to what
06:50they're trying to accomplish here in 2026 and after a last place finished in 2025 anything less
06:58to get into the playoffs is going to be an unacceptable year 83 and let me do the math there's
07:04it 162 games right yeah 83 and 79 is not going to cut it Nolan McGraw and they're not going
07:12to get to
07:13the playoffs and family Rutschman is hitting 220 with nine bobs and 29 ribbies and spends two stints
07:18on the IM I don't think that he's that it's like that contingent on one guy I I would disagree
07:25I think
07:26they can make it he does that you think they're a better team or a worse team well it's it's
07:31bigger
07:31than one person is what I'm saying like I hear what you're saying last year you know it it wasn't
07:37just Adley I mean everyone either stunk or was hurt you know I've maintained that I think I said a
07:44couple weeks ago the Orioles don't need Adley Rutschman to even be on the roster to get to where
07:49they want to go I mean you can't you can't put all this weight in one guy especially one guy
07:55who
07:55hasn't shown it in years interesting part of his comment there about the noise right the expectations
08:05that came with transitioning out of the rebuild and he said something about you know we got the
08:11right guys in the clubhouse we got the right mentality and we're going to leave the noise to
08:16the outside and maybe I'm reading into it a little bit but that made it sound like the noise infiltrated
08:22the clubhouse over the past couple years when those expectations were drastically increased after
08:28winning all those games in 23 and it was a very young roster sure they did some moves to bring
08:35in veteran guys pitching but it was usually just one guy every year and it was a rotating cast you
08:41know you get Kyle Gibson in there for a year then he leaves and someone else comes in they leave
08:46someone
08:46else comes in so there's really was no leadership continuity which is why I keep harping on the
08:52Pete Alonzo thing right because he's going to bring you the offensive firepower he's going to bring you
08:58the on the field stuff but he's also going to guide this clubhouse where they need to be he's going
09:03to teach
09:04them what they need to do to actually take that next step and hopefully coming from a big market
09:10in New York where the noise is always deafening even when it's not deserved there's always some
09:16chatter he's more equipped to handle it than anybody no doubt about it but guys like Adley Gunner
09:22at this stage of their careers they need Pete Alonzo to hold their hands and tell them how to navigate
09:26through 162 games I agree well you know what I mean I so I'm kind of disagreeing with you I
09:32think a lot
09:33of the noise was well their manager got fired in May they were the first ones that had to address
09:40it
09:40because the general manager and the owner just sent out an email on a press release and then Tony
09:45Mancolino hey Tone what's going on bud I'm doing all right man well you're the manager today go get
09:50some points and how he's thrown into the media it's again they got clobbered too by the Red Sox
09:56and Adley Rudd with Gunner Henderson and all the young players had to address the media and talk
10:01about their manager getting bleep canned instead of the general manager who didn't meet with the
10:06media until Wednesday in Milwaukee in front of a very limited media throng locally that should have
10:12been before the game so I think a lot of that noise was creeping in and the fact that they
10:17were
10:17over five in playoff games the previous two years I think that was becoming a thing no doubt and him
10:23getting hide getting fired came after not a 500 start not a somewhat no they stunk it up for well
10:30over a month so that's pressure and they had that quintessential Orioles loss the night before against
10:37Washington remember which led to his ouster so there's there was noise coming in and then the local
10:44noise and get somewhat loud but the national noise started to creep in like what the hell's going
10:49on in Baltimore Michael Ice did a crap job putting together the starting rotation what the hell's young
10:53wrong with all the young players I mean they didn't have a guy hit 20 home runs last year a
10:58year after
10:59finishing first I think it was second in the majors in home runs they had been one of the biggest
11:03bashers in baseball for the better part of two years and then last year had a hard time just putting
11:08runs on the board so I think the noise yeah it was there but there's no longer excuses and I
11:15think
11:15Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson and Westberg if he's around they got to go out there and do their
11:19things Eflin's been a tenured veteran for sure I mean they don't uh Helsley's a veteran player
11:27come on handle your business Pete Alonso tell us how to deal with this uh I think it will clean
11:32that up a
11:33little bit you know not teaching them how to swing a bat how do you go out there and play
11:37nine innings
11:38every day but clearly they were not capable of taking on the leadership role they were both given
11:43and they're not the only two guys the door was open anybody on this roster anyone of this young
11:48core want to step up and be the the leader the clear number one voice in this clubhouse feel free
11:54to do it it's all yours anybody can come grab it and nobody did nobody was that guy so you
12:00needed a
12:00Pete Alonso that's not their personalities you know their personality is how they play on the field
12:06you know and you know O'Hearn was that locker room guy you know so they had some veteran guys
12:13and O'Dore but I seem to remember Adley Rutschman after at the end of every inning being the first one
12:18hit the pitcher Gunnar Henderson was part of it yeah Gunnar Henderson was very effervescent when they
12:24were winning when the going's good yeah so that's I think more of an indictment it's like they kind of
12:29like we're used to being like awesome now we're not awesome anymore and they didn't respond to
12:35that well now Pete Alonso's coming from the Mets team how big was their collapse I mean so he's kind
12:41of lived it too where the the outside noise is a lot louder than it is here in Baltimore but
12:47either
12:48way Nolan says if Adley Rutschman doesn't play an inning the Orioles can still get to where they got to
12:53go
12:53I couldn't disagree with that more but that's why they play the games
12:58Masayo's gonna have to help me help him catch it he'll be all right
Comments