Moose Milligan

I’ve never seen a thread here pondering if the Orioles were ever going to spend money. Anyway, I’d like to believe Elias that they’re going to increase payroll. But he’s a smart guy and I don’t think he’s going to be foolish about who he spends on. I can easily see a scenario where he’s targeted some guys this off-season and gets into a bidding war of sorts and bows out one the dollars/years get to a point that doesn’t make sense. He doesn’t add significant payroll, people on here are bitching incessantly about it, meanwhile the 2022 team was better than anyone ever thought they’d be and they’re about to graduate Gunnar Henderson and Grayson Rodriguez. And other guys in the minors can still keep the minors in a top 10 ranking perhaps. You snowflakes need to prepare for another offseason of the Orioles not spending significant money and not bringing in big sexy names in free agency.

From a pitch count perspective I didn’t mind but he’d only struck out three batters. That’s not enough, I was worried that they’d start to hit him.

Letting Kremer out for the 8th inning tonight. Remains to be seen how it plays out but I don’t like this.

It’s be nice for the Orioles to be a forward thinking team when it comes to signing their good young talent early.

Gotta lock up Adley.

What can I say? I was ready for Wieters 2.0. But the nature of sports message boards are hot takes and being reactive to every little thing.

First of all, miss me with the thread title. It’s pure speculation. I like Trout as much as anyone else but Anaheim would have to eat a lot of salary with his recent health issues. I could easily see this being a disaster for whoever trades for him.

That’s a dagger.

Odor walking on 4 pitches is insane.

I don't care about them. I care about me.

That's gotta be frustrating. MLB needs to get rid of the blackouts, they're shooting themselves in the foot on that one and don't seem to care.

I just took a second look, I hate it even more. September is games against the Diamondbacks, Angels, Red Sox, Cardinals, Rays, Astros, Guardians, Nationals and Red Sox again. ****ing fine. FINE. I mean, if you're going to have a balanced schedule with bull**** interleague games all summer, at least make September nothing but games against your division so they mean more down the final stretch. But I'm telling you guys, I can't WAIT to see us play the Reds at home in late June! What a matchup that will be!

No one hates, you. I don't 100% hate the balanced schedule in theory, it's the fact that they're putting interleague play in there and having us play teams that I (yes, I am being selfish here) have no interest in watching us play. Hell, I barely have any interest in watching us play the A's, I'm certainly not interested in watching us play the Brewers. I know, I know, but I will anyway. I'd be more in favor of the balanced schedule if they eliminated the interleague play aspect from it. I can't imagine fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates (if there are any left) are interested in games against the Rangers. It's thrilling, I'm sure.

Yeah, I'd have been good with a balanced schedule with no interleague play unless they wanted to do a rivalry series where we'd play, the Nats twice a year, Yankees play the Mets, Angels/Dodgers, etc. I agree, they went too far in the opposite direction.

Oh man, this place was fit to be tied for the first month of the season. And I'm not above it, I was right there, too. I was trashing this team left and right.

I don't like it. I know a lot of you are going to be all happy and **** about not having to play so many AL East games but, IMO, that's what makes this interesting. That's what makes this great. We're in the hardest division in baseball and we've got to fight like dogs to get to the top. The games matter more and you know the Rays, Jays, Yankees and Sox up and down, inside and out. There's no hiding anything. For years and years we've watched this team get their brains bashed in and FINALLY are becoming competitive again and then they take away our stiffest competition? No f'ing way! I've been watching this team and waiting for Rutschman and Henderson and G-Rod and Hall and everyone else to come up so we can go toe to toe with the Yankees, like, 30 times a year and win more than we lose against them. I really don't care about playing the Marlins. I don't care about playing the Padres (Manny's been gone long enough for me to really find any interest there). I don't care about playing the Phillies, or really, any National League team. Interleague baseball was a cool thing back in the late 90s but I find it borderline insufferable now. Obviously, I'm still going to watch but no one here can tell me they're interested in a Orioles/Rockies matchup in late August at the same level they'd be interested in a Orioles/Rays game. The stakes are automatically higher. I'd rather see if we can beat a guy like Baz or McClanahan instead of whatever ****kicker the Rockies trot out there. I mean, if they're going to go this route, why even have the two leagues anymore? Just make it like the NBA, an Eastern and Western conference and the top 8 teams from each conference get in the playoffs. With this new schedule, there's really no need for East, Central and West divisions anymore or the American and National leagues.

No. I think they'll be above .500 for the year though which would be insane and nothing to sneeze at. Missing the playoffs would be a bit sad but if anyone were to be asked back in April if they'd be happy with a team that won more than 81 games but missed a wild card spot, we'd all take it in a minute.

Gotta see if he's playing this way next year. Baseball landscape is littered with one year wonders and guys that finish a season looking like they've turned a corner and can't replicate it the following season. I'm cautiously optimistic because the talent level is sky high, but we'll see. Enjoying the ride right now though, he's awesome to watch.

The turnaround since he's got here from Washington has been amazing.

The first inning was impressive and it kept him from going deeper in the game. I was surprised he didn’t strike out at least 8-10 of our free swingers, it felt like some of our guys were able to rein in their tendencies for a bit. Their bullpen is depleted. I think we can take another game in this series for sure, maybe even a sweep.

Righty Rutschman is still good. But not as good as lefty Rutschman. I know you guys bag on Dave Johnson but I kinda like him.

I dunno about that. Practically every bullpen has a guy in triple digits. It’s not as rare as it was 15 years ago.

He’s also famous for DUIs. Maybe he gets one before the next game.

He got lucky. Abreu doesn’t typically swing at that.

“It wasn’t that far inside…” Dave Johnson