clapdiddy

Now, if we could pull one off with Mr. Machado...

So did Rafael Palmeiro's first two free agent contracts.

I just meant that he was limited to one position, which also happens to be the position to which Trumbo is best suited.

I'm not sure that risk aversion and bad judgement aren't equivalent. The Trumbo contract was livable. Only 3 years, not too big of a deal. The problem with it is that we already had a limited fielding guy in Davis and our best up-and-coming prospects were outfielders. Davis had a history of PED usage. Could that not be considered a risk?

A risk averse team doesn't sign Davis and Trumbo to the contracts they received.

Agree with your take on free agency. It's a nice way to supplement your team, but not build one. You are absolutely right about developing pitching. It's obvious that we'll never attract a top-tier starter, so we need to develop them. I think we've got some good, young arms in the system. I just hope that we stop worrying about TTTP and focus on commanding the fastball.

I'm not sure these two are contradictory.

And just to add to this, we are likely stuck with him for the next two years. So, let's hope he returns to his normal output.

I think both of these guys should be playing at least a few times a week right now. Rickard's participation would be pinch-running and possible late-inning defensive replacement at this point.

I'm curious as to how he looks defensively. I honestly can't see how he'd be any worse than Rickard offensively.

Bum! They should release him now.

I think after he hits the required games limit, they can send him down. He'd still have options.

Good luck to him in college. Looking at his early tweets, it appeared that he was looking forward to getting his pro career started. Guess either Texas A&M or his parents convinced him otherwise.

Considering we spend almost nothing on international signings, this better get done.

Wow...this looks like a guy they should try to get done. We need all the pitching we can get.

Where MacPhail is the "Percolator", Duquette is the "Tinkerer".

Don't wish any ill will to David Price...he seems like a decent guy even though I can't stand the team for which he plays. It's a shame to see this. Frankly, I won't be a bit surprised to see some issue with Sale at some point because of his unorthodox delivery. Again, not wishing this on any player.

Good for Nick! He's definitely one of my favorite O's of all time. I wish him nothing but the best...except when the Braves play the O's!

Yup. Can't afford to lose these games. If you get blown out, you just shake it off and move on. But, losing winnable games, especially in this fashion against a bad team, are killers.

Maybe it's just me, but this 2016 team reminds me of ANOTHER anniversary team. There are similarities, but they aren't EXACT. That team is the 1986 Orioles. They played pretty well, reaching a season-high 12 games over .500 on August 5, 1986 (my 20th birthday), then fell completely apart, mostly because of horrific pitching. As a matter of fact, the August 6th game, in my opinion, was the kickoff of the serious decline in Orioles' baseball. That was the game where they battled back by hitting 2 grand slams in the game, only to lose to Texas 13-11. This year's team plays better defense than the 1986 team, but the pitching is what ultimately undid them. Their hitting also fell off quite a bit after that August 6th game. I hope the results are different this year...but it's something that's stuck in my head recently watching this team.

Both Sedlock and Harvey are having the "ball coming out of their hand" well. I'm not sure if that's good or not!

No matter how bad KG was here, he'll always have a soft spot in my heart based off of this.

Yup. Dude was downright nasty last night.

I don't like the rule, but it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

I didn't vote in this thread, which is unusual for me. I remember at the time feeling kind of "meh" about it. I think Tony wound up being right. Parra has been pretty awful while he's been here.