Moose Milligan

I'm good with that if he doesn't start the other two games.

I guess so, but I think you could find a bat against lefties in any system, no matter how weak.

Complaining about negative rep is always an endearing trait.

My favorite thing to do when people start whipping up fantasy trades is to do the reverse. If the Orioles were trying to trade for that player (in this case, if the Orioles were trying to trade FOR Mountcastle, if Mountcastle was playing for another team) what would your reaction be? And who from our system would you want to give up in order to acquire that player? Because I can't think of anyone we currently have that I'd want to trade FOR Mountcastle. Westburg, Ortiz? Kjerstad? That's hysterical, absolutely not. A lower level minor leaguer? I'd rather see what that player could become instead of knowing what Mountcastle already is. He doesn't hit particularly well overall, but he's hitting lefties this year better than he has previously in his career. His plate discipline is abysmal. He's not a butcher in the field, but I don't think he's a particularly great defender...at least not great enough to warrant keeping him in the field despite his bad hitting. He doesn't do anything well, except hit lefties. That's, like, 30-40% of a hit tool. It pains me to say this because I think he's a good dude and I think he's well respected in the clubhouse. There's that pesky chemistry thing again that can't be quantified. But if we can find a trade partner for him, I don't think we'd get anything back that's of any consequence. Again, do the exercise: what would YOU trade for a first baseman that has a .264 OBP this year? So...no, I don't think he has any trade value. We might be able to find a taker due to the fact that he's 26, he's had some success before, but his career stats are trending down, not up. If anyone took him, it'd be a team like the Royals or Athletics or Rockies...a team that's on the rebuild where he can go and play every day and maybe a change of scenery or a different hitting coach helps. But if you're any of those teams, why would you give up a prospect?

No.

I think G-Rod comes back at some point. Is that counting on him? Dunno. IMO, he just looked way lost and I think he's got a lot to unravel before becoming a positive contributor. I think he's got a lot more to work on than anyone wants to admit.

I wouldn't count on G-Rod or Hall for anything this year.

The 1989/2012 moment was last year. A lot of the posts are critical because that's the very nature of a sports message board. Sitting here and agreeing with everything they do isn't fun, nor is it interesting. I think a lot of us understand the strategies, we just disagree with them from time to time. But yes, a lot of people jump to the conclusion that Hyde is incompetent (for whatever reason, I think this is one of the sillier takes on here, but armchair managers are always right when something the real manager does goes wrong) and that Elias won't spend because the Angelos family won't let him.

I think this board is a better, more relaxed place when the team is completely awful, as counterintuitive as that may seem. We all know what the team is, we all accept it, and we can all (mostly) agree on what needs to happen next. I think this board becomes uptight and a bit more chaotic when the team is winning because we're not used to it and people stress out about it. "Are we this good? We're not this good. We're barely winning games. HYDE IS AWFUL AND WE'RE 15 GAMES ABOVE .500. HOW COULD HYDE DO THAT? Are we this good? We're not this good. Oh look, we lost two straight, the wheels are coming off," etc, etc. When this team is bad, the vision is clearer (play the kids, draft well, develop well). Now that we're good, people are a little more divided on what needs to happen next. We can all agree that the rotation needs to be upgraded, but what prospects to trade? There are varying disagreements on what needs to happen in the infield, although I think everyone wants to see Westburg and more of Ortiz. IMO, people just get WAY more uptight on here because they're waiting for the other shoe to drop. I think in the back of everyone's minds, there's a 2005 collapse right around the corner and they're bracing themselves for impact.

I like our chances but I think Toronto is one of those teams that is very talented and not playing up to their potential. They can wake up at any time. Need to have the good Kremer and Bradish show up.

Well deserved player of the week.

I am prepared to be underwhelmed. I think we get a bullpen piece or two and no rotation pieces. They're gonna hope that G-Rod has his issues ironed out, even then he's going to be on an innings limit so he'll be useless come September when it's time to shut him down. I don't think of Hall in any conversation in regards to starting pitching anymore. Elias is going to finally promote guys like Westburg and maybe even Kjerstad to see if the offense can get a boost, I don't think he'll trade for a bat. He'll also say that if/when Means comes back in August, that's better than getting a starter at the deadline because we didn't have to give anything up. I'd be shocked if we got anyone of note, including Chapman.

K.

CoC hasn’t chimed in, so I’ll do it for him. They’re holding guys like Westburg down in order to gain another year of service time. It is as simple as that.

Like I said, if SG has an issue, he needs to take it up with the official scorer.

Especially after a concussion! He was going to be terrible from here on out, yet we were supposed to hope that no one else would notice and we'd be able get back some quality talent in a trade for him.

1. Wild pitches are a stat against the pitcher, not against the catcher: https://www.mlb.com/glossary/standard-stats/wild-pitch You can blame @Frobbyall you want, it doesn't change the definition of what it is and who the stat goes against. The first sentence on this page is crystal clear "A pitcher is charged with a wild pitch" As such, I really don't care how many "wild pitches" Adley has allowed because they're charged against a pitcher. This is a fact, not your opinion. If you want to write a letter to the official scorer and tell them that they should charge Adley with a passed ball instead of one of our pitchers with a wild pitch, I would suggest you do so. 2. I don't care. 10th in the majors is still above average. 3. I also don't care. However, you're the one who brought up the power vs. OBP trade off. Given one or the other, I'd prefer OBP. In a perfect world I'd love for him to have great power and great on base skills.

Not upset at all about Volpe struggling. Not in the least. You do realize that if we hypothetically were to sweep the Jays this week and put 3 more games between us and them, the likelihood of having to play a "big series" against them in August or September decreases, right?

First of all, you and I both know that most bases are stolen on the pitchers, not on the catchers. If you want to have a discussion about how we've moved on from Buck's obsession with time to the plate and how we need to get back to that place in order for Adley to throw out runners to add value to his MVP candidacy, we can do that. I'm not about to flip out on Adley not being able to throw out base stealers in a year where the game has been changed in order to encourage and allow more base stealing. That said, as it stands, he's in 10th place in the majors when it comes to CS%. https://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/fielding/_/position/c/sort/catcherCaughtStealingPct I think you're confusing wild pitches with passed balls. Adley has precisely zero passed balls this year. Again, I'm not going to flip out on Adley every time Bautista (who leads the team in wild pitches with 6 in 31 innings) airs one out over the umpire's head or spikes a splitter at 55 feet and it gets by him. There's only so much he can do. And yeah, I'm fine with a lack of power if he gets on base at this clip and finishes top 5 in walks. Power isn't everything, I really don't care although obviously I'd like to see it. I'd rather have him with an on base percentage hovering around .400, not making outs and keeping innings going. Per @Frobby's point, the team has been winning ever since he came up. That's the most important thing.

Everything, apparently.

What

I don't think anyone here or anyone in baseball really thinks that Jonah Heim is going to be a better player than Adley Rutschman. Just because we're at a snapshot in time where Heim is .6 WAR ahead doesn't mean anything, which you've already sort of agreed to in this post. Just because Adley might not be an MVP candidate this year is meaningless. I'll agree that they're running him into the ground.

I’ll take the league leader in walks.

I do believe SG wants to be looked at as someone who has original thoughts. Is anyone, anywhere saying they’re disappointed in Adley? No. But SG is. And that makes him a rebel of sorts, if you will. A contrarian. Someone who “can think outside the box” because he’s on a different plane than the rest of us. Adley’s just fine.

OPS up to .804.