Moose Milligan

Back in the day, I took a little bit of solace knowing that the Yankees won the World Series a year after Mussina retired. Ultimately I think we want some of these guys to care about the rivalries as much as we do and it's disappointing when we find out that they don't.

Pudgy Faced Applejohn. https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/b409b0e0-079d-4f91-960d-03bf48dfa148 Drungo?

Interesting. Figured slider command would always be "in."

I've probably been the biggest Akin critic and I'm happy to be eating crow. He's been fantastic this year.

I'll also add here that the days of players hating the opponents like fans do is long gone. Long, long gone. Sure, there might be some rivalries in the game where teams don't necessarily like each other (White Sox and Yankees certainly heated up over the weekend. Giants/Dodgers, Card/Cubs, Sox/Yanks) but the rivalries are mostly for the fans. I think the players get into it too, but only to a certain extent. That certain extent ends when you realize that these guys are all millionaires and play for the money, full stop. I'm sure they all want to win, but they want to have their cake and eat it too, which is fine. I don't begrudge a player for making more somewhere else. The days of a player sticking with a team for his entire career are long gone. Sure, you have a guy like Trout, but let's not forget that the Angels gave him a massive deal before he could ever hit free agency. That certain extent also ends when you realize that these guys all work out together in the offseason at various places like Driveline, etc. We've got a thread going about Manny Machado, IIRC he was working out with guys on other teams in Miami in the offseasons when he was here. It's just not the 50s and 60s anymore where players played for one team for the bulk of their careers and real rivalries existed. Rivalries are for the fans. I don't believe they're for the players anymore. Maybe a little, but it's certainly not the way it used to be.

Witt. Being younger helps immensely. I think we're going to have to see how special AR's bat is before he's moved off catcher to prolong his career. I agree with @Can_of_corn, him being a rookie at age 24 hurts his chances to accumulate any kind of significant stats.

I think there might be some truth to this. Additionally, Manny might have the advantage over Tatis in the sense that Tatis is always hurt. IIRC, someone posted on here a week or so ago that Manny has the most games played in the MLB since 2015 or so. I've always thought and I'll still maintain that the Davis deal prohibited Manny from getting the long-term deal he should have had here. I know you'll disagree with that but I think we can both agree that the Davis deal, at the very least, certainly didn't help. I will agree with you that they could have afforded both but we also know that this team won't spend what it can. I will agree with your last paragraph 100%, even though there's no evidence to support the claim other than you just have to look at the players they've given contracts to over the years. None of them are like Manny from that perspective. I am happy for him that he's found success in San Diego and having a monster year. It's great to see. The fact that he's on the west coast and in the NL softens the blow. If he was playing for the Yanks or Sox, I'm sure we'd all probably be singing a different story.

But if he didn't swing at that slider 6 inches off the plate all the time, do you think his on base percentage would be higher than .317? That's right, they don't walk. But I'd rather Jones and Mountcastle be more selective and walk a little more and not make the outs. Captain Obvious statement of the day right there. The way Mountcastle is going right now, it's a good question though. Why would anyone throw him a decent pitch in the strike zone? They might not have more hot/cold streaks than others but at least if they walked more, they wouldn't be making the outs.

They didn't. But that shouldn't let anyone stop them from making terrible points.

I was against the signing but he's proven to be a good addition. I really liked that interview, too.

Mountcastle also might be a slow starter, too. He was terrible to start last year. I agree with @OsFanSinceThe80s, he swings at everything. He's going to be a streaky guy.

How often did it happen when Dan was running a team?

I think the whole "taking on bad contracts to get a prospect back in a trade" angle is the stuff of message board wet dreams. I don't think this really happens in real life all too often.

I’m impressed by the quality of his at bats. Seems to have a plan. Works the count. Wants to see a lot of pitches.

He's certainly better than Owings. I don't get how Owings is still here and Nevin isn't.

Wouldn't it be a mind blower if the Orioles were just like "Yeah, you know what? Mussina left here and in retrospect we wish he'd stayed and went into the HoF with an Orioles hat on but hey. He was still great. We're still going to retire his number AND give him a statue." What if the Orioles just went ahead and did it anyway? Then we'd have to hear endless bitching about how Mussina is the only guy with a statue but no World Series ring and not wearing an Orioles hat on his HoF plaque. Maybe they could just put his statue somewhere else, away from the others. Kind of like a banishment or something. What else are you bitter about from 20 years ago? Just wondering. Mussina couldn't care less about the Orioles. Also it appears that he couldn't care less about the Yankees.

Proctor and Lowenstein were fantastic together. Lowenstein was hilarious.

Wait, they fired Lowenstein too? I'd not heard that. I think Mussina had enough foresight to know that someday, O's fans everywhere would want to give Angelos the finger and that we'd understand. Turns out, he was right. Anyway, Mussina had some great moments as an Oriole. I loved watching him pitch. How he decided to embark on the second half of his career was up to him but it doesn't take away from the joy I had watching him when he was here.

Are Orioles fans going to be butthurt when he goes into the HoF wearing a Padres hat?

Yeah, 20 year old Moose Milligan would be calling him a traitor, turncoat, etc. 40 year old Moose Milligan can't blame him for, as @Sports Guy said, jumping off the Titanic. Maybe going to the Yankees was a "**** you" to Angelos, maybe it was just simply taking the most amount of money offered. As someone who has long wanted to say "**** you" to Angelos and would sell out for making the most amount of money, I totally understand it. On top of it, I don't think he cares if his number is retired or if he has a statue or not. I'm sure he probably understood that if he went in with an Orioles hat on his HoF plaque, he'd get both. But he went in with a blank hat, so it's not like he went in as a Yankee, either. If he's comfortable with his decisions and how his career unfolded, I'm curious as to why a lot of fans aren't. I also don't believe this is such a hotly debated topic if he wound up in some place like Cleveland, for example. Just the fact that it's the Yankees makes people butthurt about it.

@Frobbyyou forgot a third, "I don't care" option.

He’s not a great player but he’s fun. Tremendous week for him.

Ommmg guys like what was your first thoughts of Adley today? I was like woah and then he struck out in his first at bat I was like nah not so much but then he hit a triple and it was like woah again so idk mixed bag but like I’m excited af cause the futures here and I think he’s really gonna be great lollll

Swings so hard his helmet came off! Oh Adley!

Can Adley hit a 5 run lead off homer?