Moose Milligan

I can't remember an Oriole who's at bats I've enjoyed watching more in quite some time. Maybe Markakis back in his rookie year. Watching Adley's at bats compared to previous players on the Orioles is like having a sip of a great red wine after you've been drinking MD 20/20 your entire life.

Paging @Can_of_cornto the thread.

But it's really not hard to figure out. It's service clock games, plain and simple. I just saw this on twitter and have yet to verify it but the WAR of Mancini in Houston and Phillips here is both 0.1. So it's been a wash.

14th this week on ESPN. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/34379354/mlb-power-rankings-week-18-red-hot-nl-teams-take-top-two-spots

Nah, I've never noticed that about Hays. I mean, I love the crack of the bat as much as anyone but I think that anecdote about Buck O'Neil saying that the sound of Bo Jackson's bat was always a load of crap. Yeah, he said it while Jackson was taking BP in an empty stadium, of course it's going to sound different, it reverberates off 40,000 plastic seats. Of course it's going to sound different when Frobby is 4 rows back instead of 13 and up the line. The idea that certain players have a different sounds off the bat is ludicrous. Sure, someone might square one up better in one instance that sounds a bit louder, but at the end of the day it's a ball hitting a bat. Maybe the only variable is the type of wood being used but that shouldn't make as much of a difference. I like being romantic about baseball as much as anyone else and I love Bo Jackson mythologies but it's a bit over the top at times, too.

Nice swing, but you guys are suckers for the acoustics in a minor league stadium. It's the same reason that hard hit balls in spring training games sound amazing. Anyway, glad to see he's off to a good start. Here's hoping he's legit. It's going to be nice to see a left side of the infield with Henderson and Holliday at some point.

Not when there are better options available. Nevin shouldn't be playing anywhere over Vavra.

C'mon. I mean, propping up Kelenic and Tork as guys with top billing who have done absolutely nothing isn't a strong argument to make. Using that logic, you could justify holding any prospect down out of fear that they won't be good coming up. Spreading at bats that would go to McKenna, Odor and Nevin to Vavra and Stowers is a low bar to hurdle, really. I think you might be inferring that Stowers coming up and OPSing .900 is unlikely and I'd agree with that. But asking to be an upgrade offensively over any of those three guys isn't asking for a lot. And like Tony says, he's not a butcher with the glove.

I'm weird ALL the time, Garden Stater. All the time.

Like I said, exhausting.

Disagree. If you watched the Jeter documentary on ESPN, he talked about being up with the Yankees in '95, sitting on the bench and experiencing the playoff run and the series against the Mariners. IIRC, he called the experience invaluable. You can leave it to the experts all you want, that's fine. But Henderson is dominating, one could argue that he's proven he can handle upper minor level pitching just fine. There might be things that he needs to fine tune at that level that are imperceptible to us, but I don't see how beating up on minor league pitching for two months is better for him than seeing what he can do against ML pitching, taking that experience into the offseason so he knows what he needs to work on before spring training '23. Same with Stowers, to a lesser degree. Yeah, he's not dominating the way Henderson is but I think he's shown he can mash at the level that he's at.

Anyway, I agree that Stowers should be up, but the hand wringing about it is getting a bit tiresome. Same with Henderson, too. We can all agree that these guys would be upgrades over what we currently have. Yeah, it sucks that they're not up, but beating this dead horse into a bloody unrecognizable pulp is exhausting.

Oh, look at that. RZNJ is here to calm everyone down with an inhale/exhale. Which might work, except the irony is suffocating.

No, Drungo, no, I love ya but it's not always all about you. Sheesh. And like I said, I'm fine with soccer. I'd rather watch it before hockey, that's for sure. In fact, as far as team sports/ball sports go, I'd probably rank it 4th. And yes, it's awesome that the go 45 mins at a time without a commercial, this is true.

I'd pass on Syndergaard, unless it was a one year deal. He hasn't been healthy since 2019 and hasn't had a really outstanding season since 2018. I'd be fine with Clevinger, too. I'm really waiting for @Sports Guyto show up and tell me how I should feel, though.

Cindy, is that you?!?!?!

I think the light show is a bit much. But the whistle is really cool.

I didn't want to lose 100 games. I think I would have been thrilled at 70+ wins. Any way you cut it, it doesn't matter. Even if the bottom falls out over these last two months there's reasons to be excited moving forward. In years from now, we'll point at 2022 as the season it all started to turn around and that the plan was coming together.

I totally get that and I don't disagree with any of that. But if they're in a wild card spot at the end of the month and they still have these guys, I think Elias is going to look at it as "Yeah, we're doing just fine WITH these guys, I'm not touching anything." That...and like it or not, Odor seems to be loved by his teammates. And that doesn't matter to you, me, @Sports Guyor anyone else here because we know that a Henderson promotion would make this team better on paper. And as much as the guys in the clubhouse hate to admit that this is a business, they would be forced to acknowledge it if Odor, a guy who's beloved in the clubhouse is sent packing for a rookie. I've gone on record and said that Odor is one of my all time favorite "Bad Orioles," but I agree Henderson should be up after the 23rd and he should be gone if Elias is serious about a playoff run.

He's not the only one that can't stand soccer... Actually, that's not true. I kinda like soccer. If it's on at a bar, I'll watch it. I get it, I understand it. Kick the ball around, the offense tries to penetrate the defense from a variety of angles. The momentum builds and builds, someone gets a shot on goal and it's exciting. Or someone like Maradona makes a run against like he did against England in the '86 World Cup, it's magical. But I can't stand soccer fans who have an air about them because they can talk about their favorite Premier League team. I don't care what time you're waking up on a weekend to watch a game, I'm not impressed. And yeah, leave Ben alone with the soccer stuff, it's pretentious and obnoxious.

I have faint memories of it. I remember going to a game, can't remember who it was against. I had been to a game in '86 or so but don't remember that at all as I was about 4 years old. In 1989, I remember getting to Memorial Stadium, we were sitting in the upper deck for a night game. Walking out of the tunnel, seeing the green grass and just being awestruck by it. Just standing there, and then my dad tugging on my shoulder to go to the seats. And I remember hearing what I thought were boos, I didn't understand why these people would boo their own player. Some fans near us explained that they were really saying MOOOOOOOOOSE for Randy Milligan. Hence, the user name. I just remember understanding baseball for the first time and knowing that the team was fun and exciting and people were surprised by it. I have also watched the VHS tape more times than I can count. I still have it, even though I haven't had a VHS player for over 15 years. For those of you who haven't seen it or want to see it again, here it is in all it's glory. Even the cheesy intro with Dave Johnson and Kevin Hickey: What a cheesy video. The whole writing letters thing. The Field of Dreams intro. The Tom Petty song. I mean it's just unbelievably bad and cheesy and it's SO GOOD all at the same time. I also love it when the '89 Why Not? team comes up and @DrungoHazewood is forced to rely on his great memories and inevitably says "If I knew then what I knew NOW...." which is the beauty of it. No one knew why this team was doing so much better, no one was looking at Milacki and Ballard's k/9 rates. Speaking of the devil.... Randy Milligan truly was a player ahead of his time. Just like me, I'm a man ahead of my time.

I've come around on Brown, even though he still tries to be cute ALL the time, "....and the 11th overall pick of the 2019 draft deals to the FIRST overall pick of the 2019 draft..." he's still distant to Thorne but way ahead of Garceau, Newman and anyone else...I'm looking at you Michael "Randall K. Myers" Reghi. Those are low bars to hurdle for sure, but seriously dude, STFU about Arsenal and soccer. No one cares, we're not watching a soccer broadcast. McDonald is fine, but I still prefer Palmer even though Palmer's getting up there in years and might not be as quick as he used to be. I haven't listened on the radio in awhile but I've liked what I've heard from Geoff Arnold when he's been on TV.

They need to get better starters in here. I would roll my eyes if they whiffed on other starters and had to bring Lyles back. As pleasant as a surprise as he's been (by not being completely terrible) I am wondering if we're catching lightning in a bottle for one year though. As noted, his ERA at home with the deep wall is way different than what's been posted on the road. That stat alone should be a good recruiting tool for whatever FA pitchers are out there. So anyway, count me in the "no" camp for bringing him back in 2023 but I wouldn't be surprised if they did.

I'd be surprised, too. But the clamoring for Henderson is getting obnoxious. Either he gets called up after the 23rd or not at all. But no one who follows this team closely can be surprised that Elias would hold him back to get another year of service time.

You guys are hilarious. Orioles Twitter is hilarious. Yes, he's not going anywhere. No use whining about it.