Moose Milligan

He might, but you've gotta put him at closer for six weeks first so he can show out. Don't forget that part.

Yeah, I think you're the only one who cares about this because you're the only one harping on it, which is fine. In regard to SG, you can't reign in the guy who laps the field with the amount of posts he makes. He's already "taken over" outside of the fact that Tony owns the website.

Okay, now you're just flailing around and throwing spaghetti at the wall.

SIX YEARS OF CONTROL

Oh, ok. Thanks, Reezy.

A good question. I love it when he swings from his heels at sliders in the dirt when there's runners on base. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Anyway, in the Athletic yesterday, there was an article about the ROY front runners in the AL. Mason Miller was #1, Cowser was #2. The article made note of how guys like Holliday, Langford, Carter and others who were pre-season favorites have not lived up to the hype and/or have been injured. A few things here: First, just because it was on the MLB Network doesn't mean it's real. That's people getting paid to...well, just talk. Do we even know that the Athletics would listen to trades for Mason Miller? Second, the Athletics aren't that bad this year, so far. They're 3 games under .500 in a division where the Angels are always going to crap the bed, the Astros look like they're finally cooked and the Rangers and Mariners are solid but not world beaters. I think a lot of us don't have much of a frame of reference outside of competing in the AL East. I believe that if you're in a different division than the one where two teams can have sky-high payrolls and one team is consistently in the running for the leanest, most well run team in the game, you probably look at things a little differently in terms of winning your division. The path the Athletics have to take to get to winning their division isn't as hard as what you have to do in the East in regard to the competition. Like, the Mariners weren't about to add Soto. They don't have to nail their rebuild like we had to in order to compete in that division. And I'm not sure where they are in their rebuild, but I think it's safe to say that they're not at the ground floor and Miller looks to be a big part of them being respectable. Third, if you believe that Mason Miller is the front runner in the AL for ROY (at least he's in the top 3, I think that's safe to say) I can't remember the last time a team traded a ROY frontrunner at any part of the season. Not to say it can't happen, but it's unlikely that it will. All of that is to say that I don't think the Athletics would be shopping him. They'll take some calls because it's polite to pick up the phone, but when you've got a guy like that and you're on the upswing in your rebuild, you're probably not going to trade him. Let's leave Basallo, Mayo and whoever else alone and move on.

No one said pitchers didn't exist...? He said "far more of a sure thing" which, if you're playing the semantics game...I mean, I dunno why to pick this battle instead of just letting it go...but "far more of a sure thing" means that they're a better bet to succeed. That's it. Is it factually true that drafted hitters succeed more than drafted pitchers? I'm not sure, and it would depend on what the definition of success is. I think it would be an interesting study and I think we'd all have to agree on the definition of what "success" would be in this case...just simply making an MLB roster? But it also wouldn't surprise me if hitters drafted would turn out to be more successful than pitchers, depending on the metrics chosen to measure, of course.

The Kenny Lofton comps were weird to me out of the gate, they still are. I mean, I get why they're made but I think people forget what a great hitter Kenny Lofton was. For his Cleveland years, he was .303/.379. He had years where he hit .325, .349, .333. In 1994, the year he hit .349 and was a 7.2 WAR player...in a strike shortened year. He was 4th in MVP because Frank Thomas was in his prime, Griffey Jr was on pace to break the home run record and Albert Belle was driving in a lot of runs and he hit .357, too. Now I don't know if anyone predicted Kenny Lofton would turn out to be the player he turned out to be, but I also just thought it was weird that people threw out Kenny Lofton's name out there as an idea of the skill set and type of player he can be...but I don't think anyone should be predicting Bradfield becoming that dangerous at the plate. Fully agree on a grace period and letting him develop, he wasn't advertised as a finished product, either.

This sounds reckless or maybe he's just that high on his speed that he thinks he can leg anything out. And that he's playing against better competition than he did in college. Maybe in college he makes it to third because the RF doesn't gather it cleanly, hit the cutoff, etc. Or maybe he's just that reckless.

I think this is a case where OPS might not be the best metric to determine the player. He's not a power hitter, he's probably not going to be any kind of a power hitter. I'm not saying he's Ichiro but Ichiro's career OPS was .757...and I don't think that really encapsulates what that guy brought to the table. What to look for, I believe, is what RZNJ has taken note of, that he's not slapping the ball but he's actually driving it to parts of the ballpark. That, and his walk rate/OBP. Right now, there's a .100ish separation between his batting average and his on base percentage. That's fantastic. So many times we look at what players aren't instead of what they are. Bradfield was drafted for his elite speed in the field and on the bases and that he's got a good eye at the plate. He was never advertised as a power hitter, it's unlikely he'll ever have a lot of pop. And that's okay if he can get on base at a good clip because if he's on base he can do damage. That's all to get back to my original point, I don't think OPS is the correct metric to measure him by when half of that metric isn't part of his game.

I said this and I meant it. But I was also surprised to see that he only has 75 at bats on the season. I'm not sure who they're platooning him with but I can't imagine the other half is just as productive.

I think their bullpen is going to be their MVP outside of Soto. I'm sure Cole will still be great once he returns, too.

Few million in the bank, taking a nap after banging Livvy Dunne and waking up to find out you’re called up to the majors. What a life that’s gotta be.

When Hays comes back and is an automatic out in the lineup, I don’t wanna hear any complaining.