Moose Milligan

C'mon. Anyone who's saying that more interleague, less in-division games is simply saying they're tired of going up against the Sox, Yankees, Rays and Jays. I sincerely doubt anyone would be clamoring for less in-division games if we were in the AL Central or AL West.

Didn't get a chance to watch much of the games over this weekend due to life events so I missed the awesome MASN commercials on who our next opponents are while informing me how "the game is still the game" with the baseball right in front of the umpire's crotch and the stupid kid bouncing up and down on the bed. I figured they weren't playing today but I was dismayed to see that we've got two random-ass games against the Cubs tomorrow and Wednesday and then two more against the Cubs in July. I don't know what in the chicken fried f*** MLB is thinking anymore, but interleague play is terrible. Awful. It was fun and interesting in the late 90s but the novelty has worn off years ago. I've got no interest watching my team play the Cubs, and quite frankly I'd rather see us play the Yankees or Sox. Sure, we'd probably lose but at least we'd get to see how we're stacking up against teams in our division which is the most important thing, IMO.

This team's never going to compete.

https://www.audacy.com/1057thefan/sports/orioles/mel-proctor-stories-from-his-time-calling-orioles-games

If by breaking camp with the team, you mean playing in Norfolk until mid-late May so they can manipulate the service clock, sure.

Yeah, that's another move that really hurt. On a similar note to Cortes, it's not like Gausman found success right away, either. He went to Braves and was great immediately but then was terrible the next season. He was alright for the Reds but they cut bait with him, too. I suppose the one argument that could maybe possibly be made for keeping Cortes is that he was here on the 2018 team which was historically awful. So we could have kept trotting him out there. But the argument against THAT is that he was a Rule 5 guy. And before the 2018 season started, we were kidding ourselves into thinking that maybe that team could be alright. So when he crapped the bed in early April, well, it only made sense to offer him back to the Yankees because people still thought that team could compete and there was no room for a guy to be that bad. And yes, the Orioles completely screwed Arrieta up with his mechanics. They forced him to get away from what made him successful in college which was stupid.

It's not like he gave us a reason to hang on to him. And then NY let him go a 2nd time, Seattle let him go, back to NY. IMO, it hurts more when a guy like Arrieta goes to Chicago, literally gets off the plane and turns it around right away. Sure, it sucks that we had Cortes but others had him before he found his success, too.

Wondering why I bought those slabbed Bowman rookies on eBay last week.

Glad to see Kremer is still terrible.

I can see a scenario where the Yankees banish him to Baltimore and then proceed to thrash us for years, reminding of him where he is and where he could have been.

He's always had that, IIRC.

Ugh. You know it's serious, or at least semi-serious when an athlete is courting other doctors for other opinions, i.e. "we want to find someone who'll tell us what we want to hear." I keep telling myself to be thankful that it's not his arm but this still sucks.

He does have a fantastic eye. I love how many pitches he's seeing per at bat. We all wanted to see him come up and hit right away. And I think we all have some Wieters PTSD so we're a bit on edge about not seeing immediate results. I'm still taking comfort in the fact that he's got the most professional at bats out of anyone on the team, and it's not even particularly close. He's hit some hard balls lately, right at some defenders. Sure, there's some swing and miss but I expect he'll pick it up and get on the right track here in a week or so.

Ah, so that's what it is. It's about you, the work you put in and people disagreeing with you and you taking it personally. Or you not getting enough credit when you're correct. For the record, I actually agree with you when it comes to what we thought we should see by now. I agree that there are some nuggets on offense but the pitching leaves much to be desired. Like I said, I do believe we're a step up from the types of guys were were trotting out in '18-'20 but it's still a far cry from where we need to be. Hence why I said MAYBE about that trio of pitchers because I certainly don't think any of them are a 100% lock to be here. I got into a twitter spat a few days ago with some of the chodes from one of the other Orioles sites about how Zach Peek is a guy to watch out for. Like, c'mon, seriously? There's certainly a segment of the fanbase that thinks anyone in the system can turn out to be a contributor of the next good team and it is annoying.

I would, too.

Cause I said "maybe" because...well, it's baseball. And a lot of **** can happen between now and 2023. Or the end of this year. I never expected Akin to get good, yet here he is. Same with Lopez. Holding up these three guys and saying they are what they are at this point and saying they can't be part of the next contending team is a bit irrational and weird. If we were talking, like I said, about David Hess, Yefry Ramirez and Tyler Wilson, sure, I'd say that they're terrible and they placeholders. But I think the Bradish/Wells/Zimmermann trio is a tick or two above the guys we've had here before. Hence the "maybe". But Tony wanted, like, a definite, concrete answer which...again, I find weird. None of these guys are top prospect types in the G-Rod/AR class so why would I say any of them should definitely be here?

A little bit of schadenfreude at the Girardi firing today.

I'd lose any of the little remaining faith that I have.

Right, you can't chalk Kjerstad up to dumb luck and not chalk others up to dumb luck as well.

Thanks for the rundown of what you asked and what I said, I had a hard time remembering. I can't wait for the moment in 2024 when we revisit this post and you hold my feet to the fire about Bradish, Zimmermann and Wells not being in the rotation. Okay, Tony. You win. They all suck, everyone sucks, Elias sucks, Sig sucks, MASN sucks, there's no one on this roster that'll be here for the next contending team except Rutchman if he ever stops hitting like the 9th place hitter on a D3 women's softball team.

At the same time we take note that starters are going less and less innings and there's an emphasis on bullpens in today's game. Yep, that's exactly what I said.

Maybe Bradish, Wells and Zimmermann. These guys certainly aren't great but they're better than the David Hess and Tyler Wilson types.

Sure, and I get that. But you can't pretend to be surprised that MASN, which is pretty much the propaganda arm of the Orioles is spreading...propaganda. But you also can't ignore what Cora said after the Sox series. https://www.masnsports.com/blog/austin-hays-on-alex-cora-s-comments-and-more Now I dunno if Cora was just being nice or whatever, but those are comments you didn't hear in 2020 with a similar record. Sheesh, someone slap me. I can't believe I'm being the optimist here.

Where’s @wildcardto spread his positive pixie dust? @Tony-OHi see where you’re coming from and I agree with a lot of it: rookie coming up and acting like he belongs, G-Rods lat strain, the overall record, some roster decisions, Cowser (looking like a bad pick more and more each day) Kjerstad (bad luck) etc. I wouldn’t want to be accused of main stream media propaganda but you’re ignoring the turnaround of guys like Akin, Tate and Lopez. Sure the record for this team and the 2020 team is the same but this team has a different feeling about it. They just took 3/5 from Boston IN BOSTON. Would you be creating this thread if they went 2 for 3 against the Mariners? But getting back to the propaganda thing, what else would you expect from MASN? That’s what any RSN would do.

Spoke too soon.