Moose Milligan

I am not a purist, but at the same time I hate messing with sacred dimensions. It does make sense though.

I mean, you tell me. Would you rather see a team strike out 17 times in a game or would you rather see them strike out 7 times and put pressure on the defense to make the other ten outs? It's not assumed that all 10 outs are easy, routine outs, either. Speaking strictly for myself, I am watching no matter what but seeing guys strike out all the time is getting annoying. For me, it's getting to a point where I'd like to see more balls in play and less strikeouts. Now I don't think that's possible anymore as we've reached a point where each team has a few guys that are hitting triple digits. 95 MPH isn't gas anymore. Not sure how you come back from that, but whatever.

I'm not sure what the definition of "even ground" is, but I like where we are. Vastly improved from years ago. If you can come across an Acuna, someone who you sign for a 100k but then they turn out to be an elite talent, you are sitting pretty. To do that, you gotta scratch some lottery tickets which is exactly what Elias is doing. I don't know what the success rate is for these guys that are 16, 17 and sign for a few million but, IMO, that's only half the story. It's all about scooping up as many of these guys as you can and seeing what shakes out.

So no one's ****ting their pants about them moving to Indiana but everyone's so afraid of Nashville? Angelos owns a home there and the law firm being there doesn't automatically mean he wants to uproot a baseball franchise and move it there. These people with a ton of money operate on a different level than the rest of us. And not that I can ever remember it being reported that John Angelos being at an Orioles game, but if he wanted to fly from Nashville to Baltimore on a whim to see the team lose, he could make that happen and it wouldn't be a pain in the ass to do so.

That's a really good summary, actually. Yeah, I would say this is more interesting than any offseason FA signing, to be sure. Which is a sad commentary.

I think I'm the only one here who really doesn't seem to care. I feel like I should, but I can't really find the wherewithal to do so. I think the only thing I'd like to see from this is more extra base hits. More doubles and triples. I'm sure someone has already started looking at how many homers would have been outs, etc. Kinda curious about that, but that's about it. I guess it'll be more interesting when they play the games. If they play the games. Ain't that right, @Can_of_corn?

It figures the Orioles have the two all-time best at something that's completely meaningless.

Holt the Wizard isn't there?

Depends on how elite the bat is and if he can adequately play another position after catcher.

Probably not. If he is, he’s on the fringe.

Eh, I dunno. I'd rather pay for it than the Sun, WaPo, etc.

I'm preferring to take a wait and see approach with what happens to The Athletic. Kudos to two guys for seeing a need for good sports journalism, gathering good writers and being able to sell what they created. One should be so lucky.

This is good to see. While our yearly disappointment in free agency is on pause due to the lockout, at least we can be happy with continued efforts int he international markets for young talent.

Point well taken, but Maddux was 20 and a 2nd round pick when he made his debut. Baumann was a 3rd round pick but a few days away from his 26th birthday when he made his debut. I'm with RZNJ, he didn't look great at all but he certainly deserves another chance.

Here's my depth chart for the starting pitching: 1. Means 2. Haha 3. LOL 4. GTFO 5. Are we done yet?

Where's the Nashville rumor stem from? I've not seen it mentioned other than some article that seemingly kicked this rumor off from some off-beat news source. Even then, I remember it seemed like pure conjecture. If anything, this seems like practically the only place that continues to give that rumor any kind of oxygen. MLB doesn't want OPACY empty. End of story.

Count me out on extended playoffs. I get why they want to do it, it draws in fan interest into the playoff push. "Hey, your 83 win team can make the playoffs!" But, IIRC, in the NHL...like, half the teams make the playoffs and that's always felt stupid. Pretty sure more than half the teams in the NBA make it, too...but I hate hockey and I like basketball so I'll prefer to use the NHL as an example of rewarding mediocrity. It's also just too much stress on the arms. I feel like if they're going to expand the playoffs, shorten the season to 154 games.

Think he can eek out a .330 OBP? Might have a spot on our 40 man.

I don't think Memelord Musk has any interest in sports. Just the impression that I get. But I'd be happy to be wrong about that. I don't know why I think Bezos would but whatever.

Nope, but I hope Bezos stops screwing around and buys the team. He can slap that Amazon logo on the side of the helmets, call the team the Amazons for all I care. Just get Snyder gone. Having the Fed Ex logo on the side of the helmet would, if I'm imagining this correctly, would have the arrow pointing in the wrong direction, implying that they're going away from the end-zone, which would be par for the course.

It's really terrible. I've avoided wearing anything with a Swoosh for years, except a pair of sweatpants around the house or a workout shirt at the gym...even then, I hate it. It's tacky on anyone, it's also super tacky on a sports uniform.

I agree, advertising on uniforms is stupid. I don't mind it on NASCAR because it's been a thing ever since I can remember. But on real sports uniforms? It's terrible. Nike makes the NFL jerseys, same with the MLB. Just like New Era sticks their logo on the sides of the hats.

I find the business side of baseball, the dollars and cents and revenue numbers to be inherently boring. So correct me if I'm wrong (probably am) but I'm assuming those revenue numbers are including TV deals which are astronomical. Attendance numbers and TV viewership numbers are down: https://frontofficesports.com/mlb-attendance-hits-37-year-low/#:~:text=Major League Baseball welcomed fans,the lowest figure since 1984. Even before Covid, it was declining from 2015-2019. https://www.forbes.com/sites/maurybrown/2019/10/04/from-terrible-teams-to-rising-costs-and-more-why-mlb-attendance-has-been-down-over-7-since-2015/?sh=24c6bbda31a8 This article says it's been declining from 2007: https://dailytrojan.com/2021/01/27/running-the-break-how-does-mlb-address-its-declining-popularity-the-answer-is-in-the-baseball-itself/ As I mentioned earlier, people under 18 aren't watching: If you want to use revenue as the only metric to look at to shape your argument, I can't argue with that. Sure, it's #2 behind the NFL. But if we're going to agree to that, you should also agree with me that the MLB doesn't have a global reach the way the NBA does. There's a reason why someone like Michael Jordan or LeBron James is known worldwide and someone like Mike Trout is barely known in his own country. That cannot be denied and if we're trying to have an honest conversation about the declining popularity of a sport, this needs to be a part of it. It's a slow bleed and it won't happen overnight. It hasn't happened over night. But you can't look at declining attendance numbers and declining demographics numbers and think that the game is okay. I don't think you'll see the declining numbers from baseball all of a sudden represented in another sport directly, but you'll see other sports gain in popularity across the board...like soccer, lacrosse, basketball, etc.

Fair enough.

It is lagging behind the NFL and the NBA in terms of popularity, I am not sure how you miss that. Turn on ESPN any given morning, all they talk about is the NFL and the NBA. MLB is an afterthought. Now you might not like ESPN but they cover and talk about what the masses want to see. Less kids are playing the game, less kids are interested in the demographics are for older males of a certain age. Sure, sports franchises are expensive but they only increase in value over time. That's not a metric that speaks to the popularity of the sport.