Moose Milligan

Villar. Technicality that Elias didn't acquire him but he had a fantastic year while Elias was here. Hasn't been able to come close to it anywhere since.

Yeah, these are the players I was going to bring up. Maybe add Bryan Baker to that list, too. They've had some successes, they've had some failures. But I feel much better about Elias and Sig and whatever they do compared to past regimes.

I agree the actual win total should be between 78-82. But I disagree that 90 losses seems more likely. It would have to be a catastrophic year for that to happen, there'd have to be injuries to a lot of key players and others would have to perform exceedingly poorly, too. I mean, Tampa lost a lot of key guys last year and still managed to win 86 games. Now I don't believe we're as talented as them, certainly not in the rotation but factoring in the new balanced schedule where we play less against the meat grinder AL East, I don't think losing 90 games is more realistic than 90 wins. I know you're really down on the offseason thus far and I am, too. But I think there's a lot of good young talent here and more on the way that'll prevent a 90 loss season...unless there are insurmountable injuries and terrible performances.

This is where I think Elias might be getting a little cocky. In regards to bringing a good starting rotation together, he's relying heavy on the emergence of G-Rod and that Kremer and Bradish can continue the improvement that they showed last year along with a Means bounceback and maybe Voth being able to replicate what he did last year after coming over from the Nationals. That's a lot of belief in your processes, analytics, etc, and that think you can continue to tease good-to-great performances out of guys who have been viewed as mid-tier prospects and castoffs. So much so that you decline to move forward and sign FA pitchers that most likely bolster the rotation for the next 2-4 seasons to come. I've noted on here that I don't believe Elias is the type to swing a major trade in the offseason, he's not done it in previous offseasons and all signs point to the notion that he's not about to do it this time around. He's aggressive at the in-season deadline when he's got a chip to trade to acquire more talent for the system, not at the ML level. I sincerely doubt he's going to trade any of the young talent of note (anyone in the top 15-20 rankings) in order to bring in a rotation arm that could pay dividends. And that's fine if you're going to sign talent in free agency. But he hasn't done that. So he's rolling the dice on him and Sig and their process and analytics to get what he currently has to reach the next level. That's some balls. As it stands, this season really does revolve around G-Rod, Bradish, Kremer, Hall, Gibson and Voth.

No. I mean, maybe. I don't think it's that particularly clear cut. The Red Sox can score runs. The Yankees will be the Yankees are bringing back Judge and adding Rodon. The Rays were decimated by injuries last year, they can bounce back strong. I can see a scenario where we're better than those teams, Frobby outlined it well in the opening post. But I don't think anyone can declare that we're outright better than those teams as it stands here before the season starts.

I like the optimism.

Looking forward to it, but it gets exhausting after about 3-4 weeks in.

I don't even know if we have to hurdle it, maybe just gingerly step over it.

I mean, if the goal of Elias was slight upgrades all around on the periphery of the core group of guys and he thinks that's significant...well, fine. Still could have used a better rotation piece.

This is a low bar to hurdle.

Nah, their decision making recently seems to be poor. This is up their alley.

Thank goodness.

Is this one of those threads where we overrate our player when considering the return we should get for him? I love these threads!

Nevin was bad, but I don't get all the hate. I mean, he was what he was, a fringe ML player. Did he get too many at bats last year? Probably. Not his fault though. Hope he finds some success in Detroit.

It’s got some potential to be better but right now it’s a fair ranking.

I also don't see him as a guy who has a home before ST starts. It's perplexing why the Orioles would be considering him at this point. I can't imagine the Hosmer suitors are a strong group.

I'll disagree that defense is all about effort. He's not on the upside of his career anymore as he's 33 years old. You can still be a good defender at age 33 but I'm assuming his age is playing a part in his decline. He also has a very punchable face.

This whole thing is a win no matter how you cut it. It's hilarious.

It should have said sliding that 8 million toward a pitcher who's pretty good instead.

But it's not over, SG!!! You hear me?!?!!? IT'S NOT OVER!!!!!!!1111

Hope it's the Cubs and not us.

Come to find out @interloperis the brains behind MLB Trade Rumors.

Yeah because that’s what a hacker would do. I’m sure whoever hacked his Twitter 10 years ago had a grudge against Angelos. This is a great way to end the year. New guy in a senior level position hates his boss (welcome to the club) and the Orioles look like the incompetent boobs they are.

Came here to post that. Hysterical. Can’t hack dates and times of tweets, pretty sure.

Oh man that’s awesome