Moose Milligan

Pity.

This post makes me happy.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/36253087/wr-jameson-williams-four-lions-suspended-betting Sports Guy:

I think Bartolo Colon was the most beloved PED guy that MLB has ever had. He was busted for PEDs, no one cared. He was a jolly fat guy who pitched forever, hit a homer that everyone remembers and his teammates adored him. I can't think of another PED guy who's adored as much as Colon was.

I would pay Mussina Yankees money to see Tony's reaction at a Mussina reunion!

Ugh.

Tork is looking like a bust.

He had a dust up the other day, you don’t have to look far to find it. Someone, IIRC, on the Cardinals did something in the batter’s box and Mad Bum was calling him a p**** and saying **** you to him. I mean, on a scale of offenses that can happen on a baseball field from a 1-10 this was maybe a 2. He’s like any other hyper competitive ballplayer. I believe the old school term for this was “red ass.” That said, I don’t think we need to explore signing him. Not because of the reasons listed above, but because we’ve got depth. The days of Harvey and King Felix types should be over.

Bro. No one in this thread has said that gambling is worse than alcoholism or anything of the sort. This isn't a dick measuring contest in regards to which addiction is worse, but that hasn't kept you from trying to make it one, for whatever reason. The way you're carrying the torch against alcoholism, I'm assuming you've been affected by it and if so I am sorry to hear that. But to try to help you out, I don't think you really understand the problem. You can tally up the amount of DUIs in Maryland and then try to look for gambling charges (I'm not sure what those are) and try to make some sort of comparison as to which is the worse vice. That's a little short sighted and foolhardy. If there are 100 DUIs in Maryland it doesn't really matter if there are 90 gambling charges (again, not sure what a gambling charge is)...both are problems. The thing with gambling that you're really failing to understand is that it's not always as obvious as a DUI. It's people gambling away life savings, their homes, their kids college funds. It's not as obvious (and a lot of the time, alcoholism isn't always obvious either) as someone swerving all over the road or someone showing up to work drunk with their breath reeking of booze. Gambling can be a bit more insidious; it's easy to spot someone at the stadium falling down drunk but it's probably harder to spot someone whose bank account just hit zero because his team didn't cover the spread. In other words, just because you can't see the physical effects on someone who's got a gambling problem doesn't mean it's not an issue. So again, stop trying to make it a dick measuring contest about which the worse vice is. It's obnoxious. In fairness, he was answering a question that he was asked.

Love to see it. Thought Sale might have a bounceback season, but I'm glad to see they gambled on Kluber and he's getting rocked. To see them both getting rocked is a beautiful thing.

ESPN has the Orioles 14th this week, up from 17 last week. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/36225579/mlb-power-rankings-week-3-battle-rays-braves 14. Baltimore Orioles Record: 11-7 Previous ranking: 17 Adley Rutschman might get the most attention on the Orioles, but he isn't the team's leader in WAR. That title goes to shortstop Jorge Mateo, who's off to a hot start hitting .362/.418/.638 with three homers and eight stolen bases. Mateo ranks fourth in position player bWAR. After sweeping Oakland, Baltimore took two of three against the White Sox, keeping pace with the rest of the division. -- Lee

This is correct. I saw an interview with Dowd that was from 8-9 years ago where he was speaking at a college. He told of a a secret meeting with Rose where they laid out all the information in front of him, he still denied it all. They wanted to make a deal with him before it all went public and all hell broke loose. They wanted to keep it under wraps. That right there tells me that MLB, at the time, wasn't hung up on the gambling issue....all Rose had to do would have been to cop to it, he might have had a fine to pay and a suspension. MLB didn't want it public, they didn't want to ban Rose for life....it's not as if they uncovered it and immediately hit him with the ban hammer for gambling. They tried to work with him. The other thing that no one talks about is that MLB had a bigger issue with the shady characters that Rose was dealing with in order to place his bets. There were ties to the mafia and to coke dealers, which, in the mid 80s, you didn't have to look far to find. But keep in mind that MLB was just coming out of the Pittsburgh drug trials in '85. They didn't want it known that Rose was associating with coke dealers and bringing shady people around the clubhouse right after it was public knowledge that the Pirates mascot was dealing blow at Three Rivers Stadium.

Eh, sort of. Like I just posted, Means is due back at some point. Even if/when they shut G-Rod down due to innings limits, we've got guys that can pick up the slack. Irvin doesn't have to be the innings eater if he continues to pitch terribly.

This is a really good rundown. Also, you forgot Means and whenever he's slated for his return.

I haven't seen any updates (here or on Twitter) about Mateo's injury or if he's headed to the IL. Anyone?

In response to facing bad offensive teams, I will say that the Orioles pitching has done what good pitching SHOULD do against bad offensive teams.

Perez looks like he still has some good stuff but he's certainly not as effective as he was last year. Quite frankly, if Bradish, Kremer and G-Rod can build upon what they've done lately, I am not at all worried about Irvin being a contributor at all.

The last time the Orioles allowed a run was in the bottom of the first inning during the White Sox series. That was G-Rod's blowup inning where he allowed 4 runs before settling down. Since then, it's been straight zeros across the board. I'm not saying the pitching is this good, but I also don't know if the pitching was as bad as it was to start the season. The truth, as usual, is probably somewhere in the middle. But for now, it's nice to have a streak going like this.

I don't think anyone said that gambling is worse than alcohol, that's a conclusion you've jumped to that no one here has said. If you're paying attention to the discussion, the ads are just a symptom of the larger issue, which is MLBs decision to get in bed with companies like FanDuel and DraftKings.

Lol, SG, your stance for gambling is pretty much, like , "This is great, it's bringing viewership and attention to the sport, I don't care about anyone's problems, they're not my problems and if you have a gambling problem, I don't feel sorry for you, you should have known to not gamble."

I don't disagree with any of it. I'm a capitalist too, a business owner...I like making money. It's important to make money and to advance the sport. But to ignore the other issues that surround gambling because baseball has a marketing problem and a problem with attracting young fans is selective ignorance. Mind you, I just hate the gambling stuff because I find their ads to be tacky and predatory and I know it's not going anywhere, but I also can't ignore the other issues that can crop up. There are no solutions for problems, there's only tradeoffs. And so if one of the tradeoffs to trying attract viewership and younger fans is bringing along problems that are associated with gambling, those need to be examined, too.

So they can make money?

I will say this in regards to Rose...the fact that he broke baseball's "cardinal sin" has always been a bit hollow to me, considering the era that the "cardinal sin" rule came from...an era where a lot of ballplayers held down jobs in the offseason and could be swayed by throwing a game for a few thousand bucks. Just because some crotchety wild haired old judge said it's the worst thing ever 100 years ago doesn't make it so. I'd argue that baseball's "cardinal sin" was keeping an entire race of people from playing the game for decades, thus keeping the overall product of MLB from being as good as it possibly could be. Or the owners colluding in the mid 80s to keep salaries down, thus essentially "throwing" the game.

How do you figure it wasn't their fault that it happened? IIRC, the NFL was the first sports league to really embrace it...are you saying that it was a slippery slope and inevitable?

This is pretty much where I am. I don't care about the morality of gambling, I just find all of the advertising tacky and gross. In regards to Roy's OP, it definitely makes MLB's stance against Rose a little awkward...and I've long been a Rose supporter for the HoF. While what Rose did and what MLB has tied itself to are separate things, they do fall under the big umbrella of gambling. MLB isn't advertising or condoning that it's players and managers gamble on the games they play on, but they still condone gambling. Unfortunately, it's here to stay and I don't see FanDuel or whatever the other gambling sites are going away anytime soon.