Moose Milligan

Well, if that's the reasoning, it's pretty poor. There's more talent and not enough IF positions for all of them. Mateo doesn't fit in....quite frankly, let some other team try to iron his issues out.

Love some O'Hearn, arguably the biggest surprise of the season. But I'm not sure how I feel about him in RF. I mean, I know I don't like it, it's just to what degree.

It's really hard to understand. The ONLY thing I can think of...and it's grasping at straws, I'm not saying this is THE reason but it could be A reason...they think they can get him back to being a good hitter. That there's a player in there that's closer to the heaters he was on last year and this year. That they've got some newfangled analytics/camera system/tech that would blow our minds away and the rest of the general public has no idea about it...but whatever this software is, whatever this camera system is, it's telling Elias and Sig that they can get Mateo fixed. That's the only reason I can think they'd be keeping him around. Other than he's a good clubhouse guy, the team is winning, etc.

If not Ortiz, I'd go Kjerstad. I'd send Cowser down with the hope that Kjerstad can come up and rake right away. I'm not saying sending Cowser down is high on my priority list, btw.

Ortiz because it means that Mateo has to go.

Well, I know what I'm betting on. I really like Elias a lot. I think he's fantastic. But holding onto Mateo when it's plainly obvious that he needs to go is one of the biggest head scratchers throughout his tenure here. I'm fairly confident that Ortiz would have fielded that ball cleanly last night.

Meeting him was like meeting what you'd imagine Clint Eastwood to be.

What Gammons stuff?

Grumpy Frobby is an underrated Frobby. I'll die on this hill.

Makes me like Mussina even more. There's a guy who's comfortable with his career and doesn't care about much else.

Small sample size! Small sample size! Small sample size! Did I do it right? What do I get?

Missed one today. Cleveland/Cinci proved to be a problem, although I feel like it shouldn't have been. Two teams that have been around forever with plenty of players.

It sucks because Fuji has a prototypical high leverage arm. But I agree, I don't know how much he's cut out for it (I'd prefer to see him in low leverage situations) and it is a problem that we don't have a bullpen corps that can carry us when necessary.

In case there's any confusion, the C on the top middle today is the C of the Cincinnati Reds. The C on the left side above the Boston B is for the Cleveland Guardians/Indians.

Yeah, I agree. I think Elias doesn't give AF about anything other than doing what's best for the organization. In that view, he's laser focused, which is great. I'm pretty sure the Warehouse lurks here and I don't know if @Tony-OHwould want to attest to that publicly but I think he'd tell you straight up in person. It can get harsh here but no worse than what they probably hear from unhappy hecklers at the park.

Vlad was late, but I think the speeding up the bat argument is a little lazy, and Palmer relies on it all the time. By all accounts, G-Rod's changeup is a weapon. I'll agree on speeding up the bat is a bad idea when the MPH difference is, like, 3 or 4 off but if you've got a changeup and can get someone like Vlad way out in front for a swing and a miss or induce weak contact, that's not a bad thing. Plus from what I've seen, G-Rod's changeup has some nice action on it. I wouldn't have been mad if they decided to use it in that sequence.

I can't read the future but I read the book on Fuji and knew that control has been an issue for him. And while he's had some electric moments here, he's prone to not being able to hit the zone.

Appreciate it, thank you. But overall, it's my hope that Elias really doesn't give a Frenchman's **** about any kind of backlash, be it either here on this board or elsewhere in the Orioles fandom. I hope that he's doing what he feels is best for the organization and the team despite what people may think. And I THINK he's that dude because he traded Mancini and Lopez last summer, not seeming to care what anyone thought about it. IIRC, he even had to fly down to Texas to meet the team to explain everything after trading Mancini. I have no doubt that this board is looked at by people in the Warehouse, maybe even Elias himself. And so as 6pm was approaching, I really, really hope that Elias wasn't having a thought of "errrrmagerd, I can't NOT make a deal here, what do I do?!?" And if a meltdown happened because he didn't pull the trigger on a deal, well, so be it. So I'm assuming and giving him the benefit of the doubt that he thinks Flaherty is a good pickup for this organization despite my grumblings that I think we gave up a tad too much. And I'm also assuming that he's banking on that he and Sig and the analytics department can hack into what Flaherty does best and get better performance out of him. There's some things to like about Flaherty, most notably it feels like he's been around for a long time but he's still just 27. We agree that he's built a fantastic team and that he's above most criticism. To the people that think he's prospect obsessed, I find that actually to be a good thing after having witnessed this organization not be prospect obsessed from the 90s to the 2000s to the 2010s.

Never.

Still not sure what you’re arguing about. He can locate a fastball and was still doing so as he got close to 100 pitches. Fuji was locating his fastball out of the zone and in the bodies of the Toronto Blue Jays. There’s really no debate here.

Ok.

No. You guys are easily impressed by a crafty veteran pitcher getting outs in AAA. It’s like the old guy in a pickup basketball game who can score on guys 15 years younger than him simply because he’s been playing so long and understands the game better.

He was still hitting 100 too.

He was still under 100.

The armchair psychologists are funnier than the armchair managers.