Moose Milligan

Despite this game getting away from him, I agree.

Man, if this guys last name had to be a food, Burger is very appropriate. He certainly couldn’t be Jake Salad.

That’s fair.

He did. Picked that one up, too. It’s more about the event, I believe. If some random guy for the Cubs got 9 RBI in a game, he’d get a card. But it also has to do with the player. Last year Gunnar and Adley got cards for their ML debuts. Got both of those, too. If it’s a high profile prospect they’ll get a card.

Both.

It’s that and the tattoos, too.

I think you’ve got until tomorrow at noon for that Adley walkoff card.

Clevinger looks like such a tool.

If someone does something of note (like a walkoff homer) Topps makes a card of it that’s available for 24 hours. They’ll print as many orders as they get and then they won’t print it again. However many orders they get, that’s it. I think they printed about 9,000 copies for Adley’s big opening day performance. I’ve ordered a few, John Means no-hitter, some Ohtani ones. They’re pretty cool.

https://www.topps.com/cards-collectibles/topps-now/adley-rutschman-2023-mlb-topps-now-reg-card-114.html Adley went ahead and got himself a Topps Now card.

It took him awhile but he came around!

Seems to be hitting the ball harder, too.

Watch the video I just posted. Go back and read the articles that were written around the time he was acquired. He was acquired to be a rotation piece.

Again, I don't care that he pitched well in ST. Unfortunately baseball reference has done away with the spring training stats and the rating system they used to determine the quality of opponents players were facing. If Cole Irvin was facing bonafide major leaguers in Spring Training, fine. If he was facing guys who were about to get demoted the next day, I would say his ST stats and performance are pretty irrelevant.

I don't care that he started 30 games each of the last two years. Here's Roch (organizational mouthpiece) in January saying that he has a chance to start OPENING DAY unless they don't want to throw a lefty in Fenway. He says they're maybe finally done with the rotation. It was never a doubt that he was going to have a spot in the rotation.

Gunnar Henderson is viewed as a potential rookie of the year candidate, a potential cornerstone for the franchise, and an overall key piece for us moving forward. He fared overall pretty well in his call-up last summer and has nothing left to prove against minor league pitching. Yes, he gets gifted a roster spot. Cole Irvin didn't debut until he was 25 and is on his third team in 5 years and has a career 4.59 ERA. The Oakland Athletics, arguably the worst team in the majors, didn't view him as a core member of their organization when they traded him for a minor leaguer. When he was acquired, it was widely reported that he would have a rotation spot, he wasn't acquired for any other reason. Those are the differences in the two players as I see them and if you can't understand why I called your claim on Gunnar Henderson's roster spot false equivalency in comparison to Cole Irvin's roster spot then I'm not sure what to tell you. They couldn't be any more different, therefore I have no issue with Gunnar Henderson being gifted a roster spot and I had a bone to pick with Cole Irvin being gifted a roster spot.

This is false equivalency.

I thought this was the Adley thread.

I take ST performances with a grain of salt. Quite frankly, I don't care if Irvin was pitching well against the Twins non-roster invitees. We'll agree to disagree that he was gifted nothing. IMO, he was gifted a rotation spot.

Yeah, probably. Either way, it sucks. I'm assuming they liked Irvin's analytics and peripherals and figured they could do something with him to help him get to the next level. And it's not working.

I agree. I have a soft spot for Watkins. I'm annoyed by the fact that they gifted Irvin a rotation spot when he looked to be the type of guy that would have to fight for a rotation spot in spring training. In regards to positivity, I dunno. We took 3/4 from the A's and that's usually a good thing but the A's are so terrible and that series could have easily been 3/4 for them. Despite the fact that we won three games, it was a struggle to do so against the team that's probably the worst in the majors.

I think on his best day, he'd be a #3 starter.

Irvin demoted, apparently. I'm not upset about that because he's been awful. But I'm upset that the Irvin moved was looked at as a key offseason move and we're not even 10% of the way into the season and he's been demoted.

I don't care about the lack of power. He gets on base.

True. Looks like Kelenic might have it figured out now, too.