Moose Milligan

Home just in time to see another disappointing finish!

You are? What are you going to do with him if you catch him?

Sad news if that's true.

If this team were on pace to win 100 games again this year and a few games up on the Yankees, would your opinion change?

I just think that anyone who feels that the Orioles are about to make it rain in free agency are setting themselves up for disappointment. I think we're going to spend some, but I also don't believe we're going to be making WOW deals with WOW free agents.

I don't get that. If Rubenstein authorized a 200 million payroll next year, you think Elias spends the vast majority of it to say he spent it? Or do you think he spends some of it on what he perceives to be a good deal/good value? What about Elias suggests to ANYONE that he wants to spend a lot of money?

That's a myopic view of looking at it. This isn't a company that just got a bunch of VC money. My hunch (based on nothing but feelings, no evidence) is that Elias himself likes wearing pants with deep pockets but has short arms. I think he's a bit petrified of giving out big deals to players in case they don't work out. I don't think he ever wants to be in a position where he doesn't have payroll flexibility...only to not use that flexibility. Like a guy who has a Ferrari in his garage but only takes it out twice a year when the weather is optimal. Too afraid to drive it cause something might happen to it. So why would he be the tightwad because it's not his money after all? Cause he thinks he can do more efficiently (cheaper) than other teams. And until July of this year, he's been right. So like I said, we'll see if he was the tightwad here this offseason...and I think there's a good chance that he is. I mean, how else do you get a job with John Angelos? It certainly wasn't by explaining to him about all the money he plans to spend in free agency.

First, paragraphs. Second, John Angelos isn't here. Thank God. Third, everyone thought that the special feeling that last year's team would carry over to this year and years moving forward. And for awhile, it did. The big question about the offseason is what Rubenstein will do/won't do. He's already said that he's going to listen to Elias and trust him implicitly. We're about to find out if Elias wants to open up the purse strings and spend some money this offseason or if he was the tightwad all along.

IIRC, I think you need legit medical reasons to put players on the IL. You can't just "give a guy a rest" and shelve him for a spell. That said, I agree with SG. If there's a way they can find a medical excuse for Adley to get on the IL and figure out his back problems, I'd be in favor of that. Burnes was fine last night until the last inning got away from him. He's been down this road before and he shouldn't be tired. He's been in pennant races before, this is nothing new to him. I hope he can work it out and I'm confident that he can...by all accounts he's a big student of his craft and very well prepared. He takes this seriously. If he can't, well, he's just hurt his free agency campaign that he'll be on this offseason.

I wasn't really sure how to word the options in the poll, so feel free to read here and vote accordingly. But it seems like there are some factions forming here on the OH surrounding the injuries the Orioles have suffered this season. Poll answer 1: The first faction seems to be tossing up their hands about the injuries and using that as a reason why the Orioles haven't been performing well lately. I don't need to rattle off the names of the injured players that have spent time on the IL as you already know them...but it's a list of significant contributors. The first faction seems to feel that it's been a stretch of bad luck and there's nothing that could have been done to supplant the sheer amount of guys on the IL with trade acquisitions and guys up from the minors. Poll answer 2: The other faction seems to think that the IL list is an excuse that that, somehow, Elias should have baked in contingency plans for every one of these players going down and that the "depth" should have been able to replace these players without any questions asked. That failing to being able to replace the starting pitchers, bullpen pitchers and position players adequately is some sort of an indictment on his plans, his strategies and the fact that he "loves being the smartest person in the room." To this faction, injuries merely should be a bump in the road and this train should have kept rolling without the players they've lost and the "depth" that has been mythologized around here is a mirage. No matter how you chop it up, this is all Elias' fault and probably a little bit of Hyde's, too, seems to be the reasoning here. Poll answer 3: Anyway, that's how I see these two different camps. I'm sure there's a third faction, where the stance is "somewhere in the middle" between the two positions so I've added that as an "other" option to the poll.

Or he's more occupied with his smokeshow girlfriend on Instagram and commenting on her every post. Priorities, Adley! No women during the season!

The offense is fine! Tell 'em, @Frobby! How many runs per game are we averaging?

Didn't know "annoyed Elias porn" was going to be a thing on OH this summer.

Start it. But that’s not the argument. The argument is that we could have had both Witt AND Gunnar. I’m assuming they’d be on the left side of the dirt and that would be spectacular. That assumes that Witt would have progressed here as he has in KC. No guarantees there, either.

Well, he's not having a great season. The book hasn't been written on these two yet...they still have a long way to go in their careers. And Adley means a lot to this team, there's no doubt about that. Leadership, intangibles, all those pesky things that aren't measured in WAR...they mean a lot and I do believe he has a lot of those things. But no one can tell me that the choice, as it stands right now, is obvious. What worries me about Adley is the back issue that he's been having lately, hopefully that's nothing long term. Witt is the dude. I do believe there's a chance that Adley is Wieters 2.0, a very good catcher but not the "Joe Mauer with power" that we thought we were getting both times now. But like I said, the book hasn't been written. At the present, Witt looks like a generational, transformative player. Adley just looks like a solid catcher that might be already experiencing a decline.

Is this how you react anytime things don’t go your way?

This is so silly.

Pop fly, of course.

Limp dick offense. Just awful.

Get some runs, jerks.

Why hit a 3 run bomb when you can fly out to CF.

Thought Tony might have hit the token too little too late dinger there. Oh, that's Gunnar's job.

Whoa

Ok, how

Cowser going for the 4 strikeout game. Safe bet he gets it.