00:00Look at Kyle Braddish tomorrow. I'm excited for this one. I'll speak personally here. I mean, Kyle Braddish from a
00:07personal side of things, favorite player on the team. I just love his stuff. I love his makeup. Love watching
00:12him pitch. It's just it's a different level of excitement for me. So when he's trying to put together this
00:16first full length season post Tommy John, it's going to come with some challenges. It's going to come with, you
00:23know, we hope good durability.
00:24But from the manager side of things, the Orioles side of things, how they try to keep him as fresh
00:31as possible. I think it's only natural for them to maybe slow play him a little bit out the gate.
00:38Doesn't have to be ridiculous to the point where he's through four with a pretty low pitch count.
00:44And they're saying, you know what? Let's just call it today. I mean, there can be a little more discretion
00:48than that. But I think to see him do what Trevor Rogers did yesterday.
00:54I think that would be a long shot, even if he's pitching well, even if he's cruising even better with
01:00less traffic on the base paths than Trevor Rogers had yesterday.
01:03I still think they might err on the side of caution with him. When you look at what it's going
01:07to take to get him through a full, what we assume, 32 starts this year, hopefully 175 innings pitched minimum.
01:14Is that something that Albernaz is going to have to do? Try to protect him from himself?
01:19We have a chance for fan frustration here because I think early in the season, this is my gas speculation.
01:24The Orioles haven't said this. There will be nights when Braddish is rolling and they get him out of there
01:30because Nolan, he pitched 32 innings last year.
01:33He's the best they got. They got to keep him around, not just into July and August, but hopefully deep
01:39into October.
01:40So you don't go from 32 innings to 200. And if you pitch him six and seven innings every night,
01:47he'll be at 150 in August.
01:49So the math just tells you there were going to be nights. They're going to bring him out or a
01:56sooner than we need or expect or hope because here's why Nolan in he in 240 innings since 2023, his
02:05ERA is 278.
02:08His whip is 1.046. His K rate is 10.1. His ERA plus is 146.
02:16He is an ace that they have to keep healthy. So if that means he throws five innings in some
02:23April starts, so be it.
02:24I think that's the way it's going to have to go. And so maybe I'm going to be proven wrong
02:30and he'll throw seven and a third on Saturday, but I don't think so.
02:33And again, eight starts in 2024, six starts in 2025. Minor league games extended that a little bit, but not
02:42a lot.
02:43So they cannot pack 200 innings on him. Or maybe if they do, it's got to be they get to
02:49the World Series.
02:50And when you add it all up, oh, look, Braddish threw 188 innings. So we'll see how that's going to
02:55work out.
02:55You mentioned the fan side of it. Tough to stomach, tough to accept. I think that would really only be
03:01the case if, all right, he's out of there after five really good innings.
03:05And then the first reliever out of there just gets blown up. Well, and that could happen, right? Well, and
03:10it is. Yeah.
03:10But you're not going to a high leverage guy in the six, probably.
03:13Mm-hmm. It's the cliche that winning cures all. But if his starts are meaningful in the sense that maybe
03:22they're not long, but they still contribute to wins, nobody's really going to bat an eye.
03:26I think people will see the long-term vision there. But yeah, in the short term, you will get some
03:31frustration.
03:32My question is, where does the idea of six-man rotation or piggybacking come into play here, more so piggybacking
03:41for someone like Braddish?
03:41If you're going to cap him at five innings, let's say, and it's not a hard rule, five innings every
03:47time, but we'll say that for the sake of argument.
03:49Would that be a scenario there where instead of going with the mysterious or more shaky, lower leverage reliever arm
03:56that you could have?
03:58I don't know. We'll do the Cade Povich thing again, where he comes in and takes three innings or takes
04:04you the rest of the way, and we save the bullpen.
04:06I mean, is this getting a little too radical here? Are we getting too in the weeds?
04:10I think piggybacking in the major leagues is a real challenge. Could you do it on rare nights? Yes.
04:17Could you consistently do it for weeks and weeks? That seems difficult because those two pitchers now are both out
04:24for a couple nights after that.
04:26And so sometimes if you piece it together with three or four bullpen guys, all three of them could pitch
04:32the next night if they only throw an inning or an inning and a third.
04:35So that's sometimes why they use the bullpen the way they do, because they want that pitcher to be available
04:39the next night.
04:41So how they handle Braddish is going to be interesting.
04:44Elias has said a couple times they've obviously given that a lot of thought.
04:48They've had a winner to think it through.
04:50And, you know, he has said there are ways we can get him through the season, and that's what they're
04:56going to need to do.
04:57I mean, to get where they want to go, man, just think about it.
05:00If they get a healthy Braddish with what we saw yesterday from Trevor Rogers, then the Orioles will have two
05:06unheralded aces.
05:07No one's calling them Crochet or Max Freed, but guess what?
05:13They can pitch as well as those guys, and maybe they will.
05:17We'll be saying their names.
05:18Their names will be in the Cy Young conversation.
05:21Frambois Valdez who?
05:21We don't need that.
05:22We don't need Ranger Suarez.
05:24Who are these guys?
05:25And, oh, by the way, Braddish was fourth for the Cy Young Award in 2023.
05:28He's already been at that level.
05:30And that, Nolan, I've heard from people in baseball who say, you know, can you take a pitcher from 30
05:37innings to 150?
05:39Sometimes that's more doable if he's done it in his past.
05:43And in 2023, Braddish threw 168.2 innings.
05:47He had a full season, 30 starts.
05:50So asking him to make 30 starts this year is not unprecedented in his career.
05:54He hasn't done it in a couple years, but you're not asking him to do something.
05:59He hasn't done it at the Major League level.
06:01And, oh, by the way, that year was fourth for the Cy Young Award.
06:04Before we let you go here, one last thing.
06:06Jackson Holliday makes his, you know, season debut tonight with AAA Norfolk, the rehab assignment beginning.
06:13Started to swing there late in spring training, but obviously not Major League ready because he didn't have a spring
06:19training at all.
06:21Expectations for him to return.
06:23And I think a lot of people were hoping to see the Gunnar Henderson type of timeline last year where
06:28Gunnar missed the majority of spring but was there, what, a week later, two weeks later.
06:33Right.
06:33Do you think that this is the same thing that he just...
06:36Could be fast.
06:37There's no need to rush this because Blaze Alexander is going to be a pretty good second baseman in the
06:41short term for the Orioles.
06:42I mean, defensively, he's probably ahead of Jackson now.
06:46Offensively, I don't know about that.
06:47But I'm intrigued to see what Jackson can do with a full year, and obviously he's not going to get
06:52a completely full year, but it shouldn't be long before we see him in the big leagues.
06:56And, I mean, the guy has pop.
06:57We saw that last year.
06:58He was drawing a ton of walks over the final two months.
07:02That's the Jackson I think can hit at the top of the order.
07:04I think this could be one day a 350 on base guy in the big leagues because he was that
07:08on the farm.
07:10And, I mean, he was taking 1-1 for a reason.
07:12All that talent is still there, and he's a great kid, oh, by the way, with a great family where
07:18he learned the ropes of baseball.
07:20So, there is a lot to still like about Jackson Holliday.
07:24Some fans are disappointed because he didn't become a phenom right out of the box, but so much attention was
07:30on this kid.
07:31What a white-hot spotlight he was under for a while.
07:33Remember when he made his debut?
07:35It was like there's nothing anybody else could talk about for like a week.
07:38And on the road, too.
07:39Yeah, I know.
07:41Even Red Sox fans, I think, are like, oh, here's the top prospect.
07:44Let's go.
07:44I'm just so impressed with Jackson that he has no ego.
07:48A kid who's been told how great he is since he was, I don't know, eight probably, with a famous
07:54dad, a famous family.
07:56And he is a down-to-earth kid.
07:59And so, he's a great kid.
08:01Wish good things for him.
08:02Excited to see him play tonight.
08:04And it shouldn't be long before we see him in Camden Yards.
08:06Well, hey, this was great stuff today, Steve.
08:08Always a pleasure.
08:09Fantastic Nolan, great job.
08:10I've worked with three hosts in the last 24 hours.
08:12Little musical chairs here.
08:13You guys are pretty good around here.
08:15We try.
08:16You did a great job.
08:17You've been doing a great job here at the fan for a long time.
08:20I'm glad to see you getting the run on the air you're getting because you're showing what you can really
08:24do.
08:25I appreciate that.
08:26And hopefully, this is not the last time that we work together.
08:28No, we need to do this again.
08:29Absolutely.
08:29I would love that.
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