Moose Milligan

Can't walk a guy that's struggling as bad as Mancini is. Wisdom just seems like an Orioles killer. I don't know why I think that, but if this guy hits 3-4 homers in this series against us I wouldn't be surprised.

We really sold high on Trey. He's been awful since leaving Baltimore.

Are you serious? He's 2nd worst, IMO, after Angel Hernandez.

Good call. Safe bet.

I'm wondering what SigBot's mega computer has to say about Japanese import pitchers.

Also, given Frazier's history of success against Hendricks, this might be one game where I'd have preferred him batting leadoff to hopefully get one more at bat against the SP. But hopefully Gunnar is still on his heater and does some damage out of the leadoff spot.

I am not missing Mountcastle.

TBD is a crafty lefty.

For the ERA believers (aka me and @Frobby) Irvin 7.85 vs Hendricks 3.09 Gibson 3.90 vs TBD Kremer 4.74 vs Taillon 6.70

One of my favorite OH traditions is seeing wildcard get uppity when the Orioles are going good, him trying to explain why the Orioles are good, and then ignoring/downplaying other people telling him better reasons why the Orioles are good. Shine on you crazy diamond, wildcard. Never change.

Agreed. Even when I see someone smoking a cigarette today, I think to myself "People still do that?" But when you see a professional athlete just not giving a ****....I dunno. It's like "Yeah, I'm a top tier athlete, I can do this and get away with it, you probably can't."

I think it's awesome.

That's good. Shows they have steady hands and make accurate throws when they get the chance. I'm assuming the more advanced stats might paint a different picture on certain things. But fielding percentage is nice to see.

ESPN Power Rankings has the Orioles 5th: In regards to Power Rankings across the board, I think they're pretty fun and pretty telling. Like, no one was going to put the Orioles 5th after the first two or three weeks of the season because no one thought that highly of the Orioles headed into the season. The ESPN preseason ranking had the Orioles at 17th and by Week 4 they were 9th. But we're halfway through June and now they're 5th. In other words, ESPN is buying that they're this good. So if you're one of the Orioles fans out there that thinks the national media hates us or loves to ignore us for whatever reason, this should make you happy.

Right. I think the only thing I could think of in regards to how much these teams could spend is, like, on the amount of Rapsodo/Trackman machines in the entire organization. Do the Dodgers have multiple machines at all levels of their system where a team like Tampa has three or four? It'd allow the Dodgers to gather more information for more players faster. But that's a little over the top and ridiculous. Like you said, there's only so much return you can get.

Sure, I don't disagree that large market teams have an advantage and sway with the MLB. I believe a smaller market team like the Orioles can contend every year, the Rays have been doing it for awhile. And in the years that they don't compete, they rebound pretty quickly. The difference is that the Orioles can't afford to make mistakes whereas a team like the Yankees can just spend more to cover up whatever mistake they've made. That said, we're not really talking about sources of income here, we're talking about MLB putting a cap on how much an ML team can spend on front offices, analytics teams and technology. I suppose income discrepancy can be a factor here, but I don't know how much better results you can get from a Rapsodo pitching machine if you've got more money to spend. I suppose you can hire a team of more analysts to crunch data and have researchers trying to figure what the next big trend will be.

I don’t understand the thought process here. Frazier has gone a long way in prohibiting Ortiz and Westburg from playing, but there are other players who get in the way, too. And while Frazier does cost 8 million, that doesn’t mean Elias would have spent the 8 million somewhere else if he hadn’t signed Frazier. I’d take Frazier at 8 million easily just so I wouldn’t have to watch Odor strike out 2+ times every game.

As an Orioles fan that was born in late ‘81, this team has been crap for most of my life. But I’ve never not once thought “Gee, I wish MLB would do something to level the playing field so the Orioles would have a better chance to win games.” No, my thoughts have been more like “Damn, that Glenn Davis trade sure did suck,” or “Wow, that Chris Davis contract was a mistake,” or “How old is Peter Angelos again? What do you mean he’s going to let his sons run the team?.” In other words, the Orioles have always been the source of their own problems and whenever they’ve been able get out of their own way and win games it’s been fantastic. But the things they’ve been able to do to get on track at times over the years have been their own doing, too. MLB’s competitive balance is just fine. This whole thing is stupid.

They can blow competitive balance out their ass and across the room. Seriously, no one cares. The way sports leagues talk about “competitive balance” they act like they’d love nothing more of all their teams went .500 every year because that would automatically mean that more fans would be interested since their team was in the thick of things.

2 bullpen arms.

Correct. I don’t care if he’s getting AAA guys to swing and miss. He’s done that all along. He got sent down to work on command.

I want to see Bradish strike more guys out before anointing him as our best pitcher. I think he can get there though.

It's Wells.

God, I hate Schneider. There's no one more annoying looking in baseball right now, IMO.

**** off, Danny Jansen.