Moose Milligan

I don't think Mountcastle is all that underrated. Just yesterday I pulled a card of him from a pack of Topps that labeled him as one of the Stars of MLB. Kind of silly, but something like that is how you know that he's on the national radar a bit more than someone like Santander. Other guys I got in this subset are Scherzer and Julio Rodriguez. I think Santander is practically unknown on a national level. But I agree with the above, I think Urias is even more underrated, especially amongst the fanbase despite the GG.

Elias in the Warehouse like

I'm assuming if he wants to get more movement on his 4 seamer, he'll have to alter his grip a little bit, apply different pressure with the fingers, etc. Easier said than done, though...or else everyone would have a fastball with great movement.

How can you not remember? I mean I know we both hate the WBC but he robbed Machado. Late innings, like the 7th or 8th, helped preserve a win. It was in an elimination game.

That said, this was a great moment. Kinda sucks that Adam Jones' greatest moment came at the WBC and not in an Orioles uniform though.

Third here. I hate it, too. Strictly because of the fact that guys can get injured. Though I think that if a pitcher has arm issues during the WBC, he'd have had them anyway in camp or early on in the ML season. But say a guy tears his ACL in the outfield going after a ball or on the bases, then I'd be irate. Can't imagine their ML club would be pleased, either.

I think this is where it could be headed, especially now with the balanced schedule (ugh), the DH in both leagues. Where Bowden's plan kinda loses me is the need for "divisions." This is something that would be necessary if they're going to adopt an NFL approach where the winner for each division makes the playoffs and the wildcards are the two or three next best teams in the division. But if they're going to adopt an NBA approach, just two conferences...or in this case, leagues...and the top 6 teams get in from each (I'm aware that the NBA has more teams in the playoffs but for what Bowden is saying, keeping the 12 team MLB playoff format). The NBA has "divisions" but they don't matter. What matters is finishing in the top 8 of your respective conference. I really hate the balanced schedule, I hope they do something like doing away with interleague play at the very least. But I don't think that's on the table, they'll never go back to that.

Yeah, I think Dan deserves some credit here. Good thread, WC. DD was a good GM despite having a hand tied behind his back almost at all times (no international scouting and signing in South American countries, Peter Angelos, Showalter, the Chris Davis fiasco, etc). As mentioned, he did find some really good unknown players in Miguel Gonzalez and the little heralded Chen who were good performers. He did what he had to do in order to keep the major league team in contention throughout most of the 2010s and I believe he did his best at drafting with a franchise that, under the Angelos reign, hadn't given too much to attention to the farm system. His fingerprints are still on this team, I'm not upset about it. I liked DD, he was the first competent GM we'd had in a long time. I think this sums it up best. He wasn't infallible, but his years here were mostly good. Good teams to watch, sell outs at Camden Yards, playoff appearances, etc. I would add to @glenn__davis's list that he gave in to Buck Showalter a little bit too much. The Davis contract is evidence of that but I also feel like there were a couple of other times (I can't remember off the top of my head) where Buck got what he wanted, perhaps at the expense of the team moving forward. Buck, as much as I liked him, too, made no bones about the fact that he wasn't interested in a rebuild or developing young players, etc. He wanted his guys, his vets and I think that's another area where DD had a hand tied behind his back.

25! Great knees! Has to catch all 162.

Yeah, it's easier to dig your heels in.

I don't think anyone thought we were going to be competitive last year.

I have, too. But he'd never cop to anything. And then he'd say even if the move turned out wrong (Brandon Wood and Casey Kotchman) that it was still the correct thing to do.

Just giving you a hard time dude, it's ok. Everyone here except SG has had funny moments.

You can't walk that back dude. Not gonna happen. You thought he had upside. Had you meant upside relative to the other options available for the league minimum, you'd have said it.

Based on what? His awesome 2020 and 2021?

Loolllllzzzz @Pickles thought he had upside I think judging by the initial reactions, a lot of people didn't like it....but to the point above, I don't think anyone felt that he was going to get the playing time he did.

Took about a week.

Nah, no one reacted this way to the news about picking up Odor.

I can't remember the board being this negative about a new player.

I'm approaching Frobby level status of being annoyed by the talk about Frazier. Everything that has been said has been said. But I'm also still annoyed by his presence on the roster. What a conundrum.

Mountcastle was at .305 OBP last year. It'd be amazing if he could somehow get to .347.

I like Vavra, he's one of the few guys on the roster that looks like he has a good approach at the plate. I'll sacrifice some power for some OBP skills. That said, he's gotta be able to stand out somewhere defensively if he wants to bring some real value.

Didn't know RZNJ was attending one of the Caravan events. I'll throw in a few bucks if anyone wants to start a gofundme for his bail money.

Hope he's right about the Super Bowl.

That might have been him but I thought he was too busy campaigning for them to sign 4 first baseman to have any kind of social consciousness. But it’s possible. It does sound like something he might say.