Moose Milligan

Alright Kremer let’s go!

That thing was low to start with.

C’mon Adley.

C’mon you dildos, score some runs.

I’m betting @DirtyBird’s OH membership

Clearly Kathryn did a great job with Gunnar but has struggled with Cowser. At least when Cowser was in Baltimore.

No, I didn't mean this year, I meant in future years coming up.

Well it's kind of hard not to expect any dramatic moves when you're reading @Sports Guy's posts every day about how they're at the height of stupidity if they don't sign this guy or trade for that guy. But I agree, tempered expectations are best. I feel that Elias has earned the benefit of the doubt as well, but only to a certain point. It's nice to hoard prospects and everything but at some point something's gotta give...some of these guys are going to be needed to be traded to upgrade areas of need. Or what? Eventually start losing guys to the Rule 5? No way. As we've discussed, I can easily see him mostly standing pat this offseason and not doing anything major but at the deadline next year if we're in contention again? Can't let that go by, especially with the Flaherty lesson learned this year.

7/9 today, 300 rarity score. Jays/Giants threw me, so did Brewers/Cubs.

I'm all in on a guy named Woo. We can have a Woo Tang Clan in 2024. I agree with SG, they need to really make some significant moves for the pitching staff this offseason ahead and they can't screw around. I think we might differ that I put more emphasis on the bullpen, but we do need a starter or two. I'm not a huge Kremer fan but if we ride into 2024 with him in the rotation I'd be okay with it, depending upon what else is done. With Bautista out for all of next year, I'd really like it if they made a run at Hader. But I am conditioned to believe that this offseason will be a carbon copy of last year's offseason. No real big moves made, they'll bring in a veteran to take Gibson's place in the rotation on a 1 year deal (or re-sign Gibson himself), maybe sign a bullpen piece that isn't exciting and some head scratching signings that might pan out if they can sink their analytics into that player like they did with O'Hearn this year. This team won 101 games this year with all of the things that apparently went wrong. I don't think Elias is going to rock the boat too much, especially with Holliday on the horizon. Oh well.

Sacrilegious, but I want three division winners and one wildcard. Best team with the best record (1) plays the wildcard (4). 2 and 3 play each other. First series is a five game set, the LCS and World Series are obviously 7. Two off days for everyone after the season. Postseason begins immediately for everyone. I’m tired of postseason expansion and I get it, it keeps more fans engaged because their team has a chance to make it. I don’t discredit that and I realize what I’d prefer doesn’t allow for that. I also don’t care. I’m tired of seeing baseball trend towards the NHL where over half the teams in the league make the playoffs. It’s a joke. The NBA is about right there, too. NFL football is perfect, it can do whatever it does and I’m fine with it. My point is that as long as they keep expanding things, the answers and scenarios and schedules get more complicated and more annoying. How did we survive the 70s, 80s and 90s with fewer playoff teams? It’s impossible to comprehend. Keep the playoffs special. Keep it exclusive. I don’t care if Dwayne in Cincinnati stops watching the Reds in September because they’ve fallen out of the race.

There you go. Glad you get it.

Oh great. If he lays an egg tomorrow I can already see the “he wasn’t ready for the moment” and “he was too distracted for this game” posts.

Agreed. He was dominant after his call up. He was hitting triple digits yesterday and he threw some nasty change ups. No way you pull that guy that early.

Doesn’t matter to me.

Behold Tom Lawless, he of career two homers in 8 major league seasons...performing the most epic bat flip ever, in Game 4 of the '87 Series. If you want, FFWD to the 1 minute mark for the replay.

I also read somewhere (I think it was that Astroball book) that Sig was a prospect hoarder. It's getting a bit silly. Can't save them all. Some are going to be needed to be traded.

Poppycock. We know everything.

They wanna hire this guy. Grayson needs to take notes! Losing is a disease! As contagious as polio!

So Spencer Strider needed to write his thoughts in a google doc, that must mean that Grayson had a hard time focusing yesterday because the playoffs are a different beast. His fastball only drifted out of the zone yesterday because that's where his thoughts were. Somewhere else, other than the game and the enormity of the moment. It's a good thing we probably won't be advancing to the ALCS, he might be too scared to leave his house the day of his start.

It's possible. That's all it is...possible. Yet people are acting like they're certain the "moment was too big for him" yesterday.

I'm sorry you're not making sense enough for a dolt like me to understand it. If the concept was clear, any moron like myself should be able to understand it. But I don't. All you seem to be saying so far is that someone with tremendous talent couldn't throw strikes because it was a playoff game without any proof that the playoff game is the exact reason why he couldn't throw strikes. He couldn't throw strikes at the beginning of the year, could he not handle the moment in those lowly, early season games that don't mean anything?

Yeah, but the advantage you have in the FA market when it comes to bullpen pieces is that you can go after guys that have bucked the trend. I mean, GOOD guys like Hader (who I know we won't go after this year) or Kimbrel or David Robertson. Makes things a bit more predictable. I don't recall Elias saying that he's going to hold his prospects...if he did, fine. But that doesn't tell us who he thinks of as a prospect and who he'd feel comfortable sending away in a trade.

It'll be hard, but it can be done. The Rangers, as many have noted on here, can be streaky. If we can get to their bullpen in these games, I like our chances. The Orioles don't quit. They tried to mount a comeback yesterday and did an admirable job. That's one thing I've always liked about Hyde's teams, even the losing ones. They can get their brains beat in and come back like nothing ever happened.

Taking time for guys to warm up is fair, but someone (Webb) had to have been warm in time to allow that grand slam. It didn't have to be Webb, is all I'm saying...I'd have preferred for Hyde to have used a high leverage, later inning reliever in that spot even though the game was in the nascent innings. Webb and Baker are mop up guys at this point. I checked the splits, Perez is indeed not the best against RHB. But ideally we get some guys this offseason that can get batters out no matter what side of the plate they're standing on.