Moose Milligan

Just knew that Burnes would revert to his CYN form against us. Predictable as the sunrise.

Hyde trying to get his team fired up. But that was a strike.

Pray they can avoid the sweep tomorrow. Last night really stings.

O'Hearn instead of Mountcastle. Looks like Hyde, Elias and SigBot have been reading the OH over the past 24 hours, thank goodness. Welcome back, Gunnar.

We are (mostly, I'm assuming) grown adults who **** around on a message board every day for our favorite baseball team. Some of us sit around and pontificate on and on about hypothetical trades. Some of us take pride in being able to analyze how much the Orioles revenue is and, in turn, how much they can realistically spend in free agency. Some of us freak out when we trade a player and the return that we receive. Others of us freak out on free agents we've signed. This whole thing is absolutely silly. If you can't grasp that, then we can't do business. So yes, HE GOT SENT DOWN TO ROOKIE BALL LOL!!!!

Can we just have this? Oh, right. You're the guy that doesn't like it when the rest of us like it when rivals players are doing bad.

Grounds for getting rid of him, I agree. Anything douchey can't be accepted.

We can agree to disagree...sort of. I don't know if Urias is on the next great Orioles team or not, but I think he's more on the net positive side of things than he is on the negative. Gold Glover last year and I'm not sure if the concussion he suffered earlier this year has had any adverse affects. His OPS+ has been over 100 each year since he's been here. That said, I wouldn't be upset if he was traded depending on the return. And that doesn't mean that I think we can get, like, a frontline starter for him or something delusional. Mateo brings stuff to the table, defense and speed. Mountcastle, for me, doesn't really bring anything to the table. You mentioned he can hit lefties and that's good but it's like a fraction of a skill. He's not good at the one skill (hitting) but he can be good when he's facing a guy that throws with his left hand. That, IMO, is not enough to keep him around. I've been hearing how unlucky he is for well over a year now, thanks to Kevin Brown, the charter member and president of the "Ryan Mountcastle Is Unlucky" club. I'm tired of hearing how unlucky he is, at some point he is who he is. He is 1453 at bats into his career. His WAR is 3.3. And I LIKE Mountcastle. He seems like a good dude, a nice guy. I WANT him to do better but I've just had enough of watching him flail away each night. If Elias, SigBot and Hyde got together and only agreed to play him against lefties, I'd be okay with that. But for some reason, that seems to be out of the question. I'm also not sure about keeping a guy whose sole purpose is to just hit lefties as a backup first baseman. He can't play anywhere else and doesn't do anything else well. It's hard to make a case to keep him if hitting lefties is really all he's good at.

Love seeing a throwback, high average hitter. Hope he can do it. And beyond that, he’s outperformed his xBA in four of his five major league seasons, including this one. If that’s a fluke, it’s a fluke that’s been perpetuated over five years and nearly 1,800 plate appearances.

In regards to the bad news, I think Mateo is along the lines of Mountcastle from an offense perspective; He can be scorching hot and make you think he's turning some type of corner, but the lows are awful. Like I posted in the thread I started last night, at least Mateo brings a great glove to a key defensive position. And speed on the bases, too. If he's not hitting, I'm still not opposed to him being in the lineup in the 8th or 9th spot because he brings that glove and, in the off chance he gets on base, he can be a terror. Mountcastle, as you mentioned (and I overlooked) can hit lefties. But I don't think that's really enough to keep him in the lineup against, you know, righties. I might have a stroke if he's in the lineup today against Burnes. Having BOTH Mountcastle and Mateo in the lineup when they're scuffling is a hard pill to swallow, you're looking at 6-8 automatic outs. I would be a bit hesitant to write off Urias, I think he's shown enough to keep getting some playing time. In regards to good news, you're correct, they've been able to tread water in this rough patch. They haven't COMPLETELY fallen apart and gone 3-7 or 2-8 over a 10 game stretch.

Last night stings extra because they're facing Burnes today. The good news is that his ERA is 3.75 but his FIP is 4.59. He's not as sharp as he's been from '20 to '22. But he's still very good and I'm sure he's capable of striking out 10+ against our swing happy group.

Make the playoffs. Anything can happen then. And they should be looking at '24 and '25. That's not a bad thing.

I’ve seen enough of Ryan Mountcastle. I hate to say it but I can’t stand it anymore. The valleys are too low, the peaks aren’t high enough or often enough. And he’s actually regressing, he’s worse this year than he was last year. You can’t start a first baseman with an on base percentage as bad as his. It’s unacceptable. A guy like Mateo, at least he brings a premium glove to a premium position. I do believe Mateo’s WAR last year was higher than Mountcastle’s entire career value which is absurd. Mateo, if he stays the full time SS this year, will probably lap Mountcastle’s career WAR again if he hasn’t already. But I digress. I was pretty harsh on the O’Hearn signing this past offseason but I also didn’t expect Mountcastle to be this terrible. O’Hearn is a better option right now. That’s partially because Mountcastle has made the bar so low to hurdle that it doesn’t mean much. But O’Hearn has flashed and his at bats are better than anything Mountcastle has shown. If I’m Elias, I’m admittedly selling low on Mountcastle to make room for a Santander/O’Hearn platoon at 1B and DH and bringing up Cowser to play RF. And quite frankly, I don’t care what I get back for Mountcastle, the fact that this team gets better without his presence is enough.

We get it. You think we need a new starter. I don't think anyone disagrees with that. I've been on this board for a long time, I've done my fair share of thread hijacking and changing the subject over the years. But man, you're beating the "we need a very good starter" dead horse into a bloody, unrecognizable pulp.

They didn't play together for very long, which is a shame.

Remember Christian Yelich? Whatever happened to that guy?

Urias for Cease!!!!

I forgot all about that. That's annoying. I don't think Mountcastle is dumb...I mean, figuring out that walks are a good thing shouldn't be hard to understand. So either he knows he could be a better hitter and help the team more by not flailing away and he continues to do so because he runs into one every once in awhile...or, he really can't control himself from swinging at bad pitches.

I missed where he said that, but if that's accurate, then that's really troubling. If he doesn't understand that his value is limited because he swings at everything and currently has an on base percentage of .273, maybe he's not the sharpest tool in the shed.

This might be accurate.

Great reference.

I always find it hilarious when you ignore small sample sizes to fit your arguments but then prop up small sample sizes for players you're not interested in.

That's unfortunate, because I like Vavra as a backup infielder/utility guy. But I recognize that his days might be numbered, too. I don't think Eliast and Sigbot would ditch McKenna for someone who's 33. But you never know.

I agree.

This is fair. Maybe a change of scenery is helping. I also didn't have an issue with him being signed for what the move was...a move to cover for Mullins while he's on the 10 day IL. I think the idea of ditching McKenna for him is a bit odd, though.