The Andy Poland show on ESPN 630 the sports capital. This is Orioles preview. Orioles closing out the two game series against the
Nats tonight covered here on ESPN 630 starts at six o'clock and Orioles win and a Tampa Bay lost to Boston and the Orioles clinch
The American League East and we are joined by Kyle Gibson who is the opening day starter leads the team with 15 wins and we will talk all about how this season has been so
wonderful for the Orioles with great promise heading into the postseason. But first I would ask you I know that Brooks Robinson was not around the team this year and this is your first year in Baltimore. But did you have any interaction with him during the course of the season.
Hey, good morning. No, I had I hadn't had a chance to meet him. You know, I had heard amazing things about him. Obviously he was, you know, a Hall of Fame putter and you know, he meant a lot to this community not only just on the field but off the field and you know, we could tell you know, even though I hadn't met him, you could tell the weight that you know put on the shoulders of the people in the organization, you know, they could.
Yeah, just you could feel the hurt, feel the pain because of what he meant to this organization. So, you know, it would be a lot for everybody to work through, but, you know, just obviously we lost a really good one yesterday.
No question. And I know that the Brendan Hyde talked to the team before the game and a number of the players had met Brooks Robinson last year when they honored him and he spoke to the team. What was your sense of of their the weight of this news to them when it came from Brendan.
Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, it was it was a situation that I don't think anybody wanted to have to approach before the game, but I think, you know, I really respect how.
How everybody handled it, you know, they didn't want anybody finding out, you know, in the game or on social media or anything like that. So, yeah, I mean, you could definitely tell that, you know, there were some players in there that you had had an impact on.
You know, it I think any time that you you spend your life and you use your life to try to help people and you use your life, you know, whether it's on a baseball field or, you know, in charity work and he was so good at.
You're bound to impact people in a positive way. So, you could definitely tell there were players in there that, you know, wish they would have been able to see him again and talk to him again and whether it's talk baseball or or just hear how he was doing.
You know, there'll be players in there that all that will miss that next interaction talking to Kyle Gibson and Brooks came from an era where players generally stayed with one team your career.
Kind of more typical of the way things go today, though, you did spend a long time in Minnesota and last year with the Philadelphia Phillies who made it to the World Series.
As I understand it, you had similar contract offers to go other places or what attracted you to come to Baltimore this year.
You know, I've always first and foremost, I've always loved Camden. It's been one of my favorite road parks to pitch in.
You know, I had the had the opportunity and sometimes the unfortunate opportunity to pitch against the really good teams and 14, 15, 16 and take some lumps a little bit.
But when this place is packed, it is so much fun to pitch in. And so that was that was one of the main drivers and then seeing how this team had finished up the second half, you know, hearing a lot about the young talent, hearing a lot about, you know, how they play the game and how they approach defense and how they just go about their business.
And then, you know, a few chats with with Brandon Hyde and Chris Holt and all the pitching guys as well, just I just had a really good feeling about it.
You know, players like Robinson Torinos and Jordan Liles that I played with before, you know, they had, you know, blowing things to say about the organization and the players and everybody involved and, you know, it just seemed like a really good fit.
And, you know, I'm glad it's really worked out.
There was also speculation that having moved the left field wall back and raised it a little bit was attractive to you. True.
You know, I've been half set a few times and I try to not think about, you know, how the park is going to take away home runs. I try to just keep the ball on the ground and see if I can take away home runs myself.
So, you know, I wasn't, I wasn't worried as much about the wall. Sure. I mean, when, when they say, hey, seven of the fly balls you gave up would have been out and set a homer. So we think that's a good thing.
And yeah, that doesn't sound bad, but, you know, I wouldn't say that I wouldn't say that was a big driver because for me, I'm trying to keep the ball on the ground.
You know, Camden itself was, was enough of a driver for me.
As I mentioned, you spent last year with the Phillies who made it to the World Series. And this is obviously the goal for this Orioles team.
I'm sure you've been asked about this a lot. What, what did you find last year in Philadelphia that was the key for that team getting there and what kind of knowledge can you pass on to this team this year?
You know, the team last year, we, we ended up just facing a decent amount of adversity between injuries and, you know, a couple, not a couple, a lot of rough losses early.
And we just didn't really, didn't really feel like we found our groove until later in the year where we really started playing clean baseball, good baseball all around and then we got healthy and, and got heart back as well.
You know, those were all big things that, that helped that team.
This team here, extremely similar to me when it comes to talent wise, just completely different on the age of the players.
If you take the number of veterans that team had in Philly last year compared to rookies and you flip that ratio, that's what we have this year, I'd say.
You know, which, which I don't think it's a bad thing. The young guys last year really injected a lot of energy at the right time for that Philly's team.
And these young guys all year have just really been the driving force on which way this team goes.
And even when it comes to how they are as people, I think that's why this team has taken off so quick.
So many quality people on this team that are not going to get in their own way and are not going to cause themselves to stumble and have hiccups on the field or off the field.
And I think that for me has been one of the more impressive things.
You know, you've been in the majors a long time. You came up in 2013 and I look at the way things have changed and how teams went about it this year.
Like it blew up for the mats and it blew up for the Padres loading up on high price veterans and teams like the Orioles are succeeding this way.
Do you think there's been a shift in baseball and in success the teams have with young players?
You know, I think there's always been a few that get sprinkled in, right?
You know, you look at how the Royals did it. You look at how the Astros did it at the beginning when they draft all those players.
I think if you can take three or four drafts in a row and hit like Mike in the front office have done, you can really set your organization up for a really good stretch for a long time.
I mean, I think I don't know that it will ever completely change because I don't think it's possible for every team to hit on drafts at the same time.
If they were 500 or 600 big leaguers in every draft, baseball would be really even more incredible to watch than it is right now, right?
I think there's still going to be that need for certain teams to go and get players because of injuries and stuff like that.
But it has been really cool to see how these young guys have played together for so long in the minor leagues.
And it's been a pleasure being one of the veterans they brought in and get to watch these guys play.
Well, the veteran presence was what was advertised with you working with the young pitchers like Grayson Rodriguez and Dean Kramer and Kyle Bratish, all of whom have had excellent seasons.
But you've had an excellent season as well at age 35, you won 15 games more than any other year in your career with opening day starter with the way everything has unfolded as it unfolded.
I'm sure it's past your expectations to some degree, but did you think it would be this good for this season?
You know, I wish I had probably three or four of these starts back where I can maybe limit a little bit of damage and give the team a chance to win into more games.
But overall, the majority of this season, I felt really good. I felt like I've been able to compete well at a high level.
These guys have made it a lot of fun. They play incredible defense, which is something that I've always needed and I use a lot.
And this season has been a lot of fun for a lot of reasons, but thankfully I've been able to stay healthy and be out there and hopefully offer, you know, answer some questions to these young guys.
Hopefully offer a little bit of wisdom, but these guys are so good.
These young pitchers are really impressive with how they go about in the tack and last night with Bratish, you know, going, hey, shut out against the gnats who, you know, everybody's playing for something.
Whether it's, you know, you name it right. Maybe it's not a playoff first, but the gnats are not there just, you know, swan flies letting us, you know, pitch.
You know, they're going out there and attacking and putting together good of bats and Bratish last night through the ball really well.
Yeah, no question about that. Now you're heading into the post season and these young guys, I'm sure are asking you questions about the big difference in pitching regular season versus post season. What do you tell them?
I think a lot of it is emotions, you know, a lot of it is pressure that if you can somewhat deflect it and not allow the moment to be too big.
You know, then you can go out there and compete for the best your ability, but you know, there's a lot of games we've been in this year that have been close that have been a playoff atmosphere.
And whether if somebody comes up and points it out or or a freezer or a mechanic or myself is able to point that out and say, hey guys, by the way, that's what it's going to feel like in October.
You know, you can give guys little glimpses here and there, right?
And, you know, hopefully, hopefully those tastes can can pop back up into their head when we get there.
And, you know, those moments can can seem to flow and they can have confidence, but, you know, it's just like maybe your debut or first big start where you just get a little bit more nervous.
You get a little bit more emotional and sometimes that leads to a few more mistakes and sometimes and really special players that leads to a little bit of a heightened sense of competition and then they can step up.
So there's been a lot of young teams have a lot of success in the playoffs and I think personal makeup and how you handle those situations has a lot to do with it.
Last thing and, you know, everybody's got their fingers crossed on Felix Batista, whether he can pitch again, but he's not available now.
And last night, Jan here can always just lights out in the closer role.
I know he can he can fill the job, but is there more pressure to go deeper into games because of the fact that Batista is not with the team right now?
You know, I don't think it is on starting pitching, you know, because I think, you know, just even getting to the ninth inning right is not is not an easy thing to do, but, you know, I think there's been times where, you know, it's obviously you can't replace a guy like that, right?
And, you know, there's there's just not many if any other Felix Batista isn't the entire league.
But you know what, I've been really, really proud of how that bullpen there's been certain guy step up.
You know, nobody has has had an ego about, you know, even when we took out can know in the ninth inning brought in seeing how just to face your dawn and Houston, you know, in the ninth inning.
I mean, that could have been easier situation for, you know, can know to be a little frustrated and want to have that spot.
And I think the bullpen understands that there's a lot of really good arms down there that have some really quality stuff and, you know, I think they've done a really good job stepping up in his absence.
And I think everybody obviously is is really hoping that he can, you know, come back in some capacity in the playoffs.
You know, he looked really good yesterday throwing, but we'll see.
But, you know, obviously he's somebody we missed, but you know, the bullpen's got a great job stepping up and and filling that void as much as I can.
I know the champagne is on ice tonight. I wish you many more celebrations in the next month or so.
And maybe this year you get the big prize. A great talking to you. Thanks so much.
Yeah, thank you very much. Appreciate you guys.
That's Kyle Gibson, who has been incredible this year with 15 wins opening day starter and is filled exactly the role they wanted him to and all the young pictures of.
Even even a guy like Grayson Rodriguez who started the year in the minor leagues, he's really come on strong at the end of the year.
And Bratish last night pitching as well as he did. He's the first pitcher who could finish the season for the Orioles with an ERA under three since Mike Musina did it.
And Musina has been gone for like 20 years or something like that. So just remarkable how the Orioles have performed coming up.
We'll take a look at what Brandon Hyde said about the turnaround this year and and how this team has done it as we continue with Orioles preview on ESPN 630.
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The story is preview. If you're just jumping in your car, you missed a really nice conversation with Kyle Gibson.
Veteran pitcher signed here, signed with Baltimore after being part of a World Series team last year with Philadelphia.
And he has been just an incredible presence for them as they have a chance to wrap things up tonight.
And Orioles win and a Tampa loss at Boston. And it's all over. They clinched the division. If it doesn't happen, Boston comes to camp in yards for four games.
They can got it done at that time. This is part of a piece that was put together about this Orioles season and the big turnaround.
And it includes the voices of Michael Lyes, the general manager who's done such a great job and Brandon Hyde, the manager.
This is an incredible baseball town. We could feel that. We feel the history.
Caloric in junior has reached the unreachable star.
Growing up in the 80s and 90s, I'm from Northern Virginia. Definitely came in the yards right in the Hyde and remember how full and electric the place was.
This is one of baseball's storied franchises, but 47 wins last year. It was an awful season on just about every account.
Michael Lyes, the new VP and general manager, how does he go about overseeing the rebuilding process in Baltimore?
This is a team that needed some refurbishment and baseball operations in the way that it went about business.
Kind of bringing in an analytics department from scratch. We had no real international scouting operation.
The deck was kind of clear in terms of the majorly coaching staff. So it was almost like an expansion franchise.
Mike really put a ton of work into building the organization from the bottom up. I knew what he was building and I knew how well he drafted.
And so I thought it was a great opportunity.
I'm very pleased to announce Brandon Hyde as our 20th manager in franchise history.
Just talking baseball with him that was pretty clear that we saw the game similarly, which is important because you're going to be talking to this person two or three times a day.
But I think most importantly, his resume, basically everything you can do in player development. He was a coach in the minors.
He was a manager in the minors. He was a farm director. Then he moved to the majorly coaching staff and ultimately bench coach for Joe Madden.
He was totally covered. So he'd been through a big rebuild. He knew what he was getting into.
And I don't think anything surprises him when you've got that kind of level of preparation in your career.
And look, we don't see this very often that the manager that gets to build up the team gets the ride them in the post season and Brandon Hyde is going to do that.
They have 98 wins. The only team in baseball that has more wins than the Orioles is the Braves with 101 and the Orioles have five more chances to add to that total.
And again, if they win tonight and the race lose, they clinch the division. Brandon Hyde was guest this week on the show podcast.
And of course, the questioning was about the incredible turnaround that they've had from 110 losses just two years ago to now 98 wins.
You know, when we hit on was a lot of waiver wire bullpen arms that were able to pitch in the division, but he's the came out of nowhere.
You know, he was in our minor leagues, but didn't know if he's going to throw a strike.
But we hit on guys like, honestly, Jorge Lopez with maybe all 13, you know, Brian Baker, C&L Perez.
These guys that were already there were waiver claims were able to pitch to the back end of the games.
And then you bring Richmond, and obviously that's a huge difference maker.
There is going to be a great player in the league for a long time with the maturity of some guys that had been there but gone through some really lean years.
But we're talented players, instead of Mullins, Ryan Mountcastle, Santander, Hayes.
So these type of guys that were that kind of wore the really tough nights for a few years were able to start having some success team success and feeding off it.
And come into the park now trying to think they're going to win games.
So a lot happened.
You know, I'm really proud of our team. We lost 110 games three years ago.
And through this kind of turn around, I think is incredibly unique and incredibly special.
I think maybe we are a little quicker than the people thought.
And also you got a credit, Mike Elias, who comes into an organization that's an absolute mess.
And he totally turns things around in a relatively short period of time.
Yeah, they went through some rough days, but Elias spent on the job since 2018.
So that's only five years. And to do this in five years is incredible.
Now, if you're with us with Kyle Gibson was on, he said, look, you know, you hit on some of these draft picks.
It doesn't happen all the time. Not everybody who gets drafted is a major league player.
But Adley Rushman, who was the number one pick of the draft, and not every number one pick pans out, but so far so good.
Austin Hayes. And then Gunnar Henderson, who's probably going to win the American League rookie of the year,
he's got his betting average up to 260 after a really rough start.
He has got 28 home runs, 82 runs batted in and had the lead off homer last night that stood up for the only run of the game.
So all those things are happening now going into this season.
A lot of people who cover baseball said, okay, you know, that's nice.
They had 83 wins last year. Things really turned around when Rushman joined the team after coming up from the minors in May.
But, you know, sometimes young teams, they take a step back in year two.
And a number of the baseball so-called experts had them picked for as low as fourth in the division.
Now they're in position to win it. And the question, of course, to hide is, well, are you surprised it happened this way?
Am I surprised? I felt like our VR team was a little disrespected honestly going into this year.
I thought people thought that I knew people thought that we were going to regress.
I thought that, you know, all the analytical smart people thought that we were going to go back, take a step back.
And when 70-something games, that was the projection or prediction or whatever.
I didn't read a publication. I didn't read any article where we were going to finish in the top three at all.
It was all fourth or fifth.
So I wanted our guys to feel, hey, people didn't believe what you did last year.
And I think they took that to heart and just kept going.
And so we're here, we're here, we're here right now.
I mean, I think it's a good, really good club.
And I thought it was a good club at the end of the year last year.
Yeah. And look, health plays a factor in all sports.
So you look at some of the numbers for games played.
They have been very fortunate with this. Austin Hayes has played 141 games.
And sadly, Richmond is in the lineup every day, either as a catcher or as a designated hitter.
So he's playing 150 games.
Your best player is on the field for 150 games with still five to go.
That's impressive.
Gunner Henderson has played 146 games for them.
Sedrick Mullins, who did miss some time on the injured list, has come back and has played extremely well.
Not the highest batting average hitting 238, but he's made some incredible plays in the field.
To have him in center field is a huge deal.
They also picked up Aaron Hicks off the scrap heap.
He was released by the Yankees.
He's given them some good plays.
He's hitting 262 for them.
He's hit six home runs, 23 runs batted in.
So a lot of things have fallen into place.
And health, as always, is a big deal.
Santander with 149 games played.
They haven't had starters miss many turns in the rotation.
We've had Kyle Bradish with 29 starts.
Dean Kramer, 29 starts.
Kyle Gibson has made 32 starts.
All those things add up.
So you've not only got young players who are performing at a high level, but they're staying healthy and they're staying on the field.
And if you look at other teams that load up on veterans, that's kind of baked in there.
That they're not going to be able to go every day.
When you've got young guys who are enthusiastic and getting out there and winning and playing every day,
that makes a huge difference in the team.
Yeah. And then the Batista injury could be the Achilles heel for this season.
But what I saw last night with Yaneer Kenoe coming out of the bullpen and pitching as well as he did to close out the game,
he has not been a closer most of the year and struggled a little bit when Batista still got hurt.
But his ERA 2.13 has really made a difference.
So we'll watch and see what happens tonight could be a clinching party.
And if they do, you'll hear it right here at ESPN 630 with the game starting pre-game at 6 o'clock.
Want to thank Kyle Gibson for coming on for Aurel's preview.
Thanks to Rex Mintern for running the show.
Thanks to all of you.
Listen, Tony is coming up next.
Then I'll see you back here tomorrow morning at 9 a.m.
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