Moose Milligan

What trades? @Sports Guyneeds to show up and tell me how I should feel about them.

I agree with the almighty SG. They should be giving him starters innings now. Other than Means, who else would you rather see starting games on the current roster than this guy? And yes, yes, I know...Rule 5, Rule 5....

Didn't watch last night, but saw he went 2 for 3 with a homer, 3 RBI but almost more importantly, two walks. Batting average is up to .269, OBP is at .309. .787 OPS. His slumps appear to be the extended type, he was terrible to start the season. But the flip side, his hot stretches seem to be able to be just as long, too.

So glad to see teams stocked full of South American talent. Here's hoping one or two of them can make some noise and shoot up our rankings headed into 2022.

Ya'll need to cool it with the Sister Sledge. Might give Frobby a stroke.

Gone from Dillon Tate and his electric fastball to Dan and Buck conspiracies. Took less than 3 full pages to do it, too.

Ohtani is truly great, deserves all good things coming to him. But I'm going to quickly get tired of all the "first player with at least...30 homers and 90 strikeouts" or whatever obscure trivia sportswriters can serve up in order to try to paint a picture of how good he is. "Ohtani is the first player with 25 homers, 50 walks, 40 doubles and 100 strikeouts as a pitcher with an ERA under 3.00...blah blah blah blah blah...."

Didn't know Bowden smokes weed. The market for Mancini will be interesting over the next month. I can see it both ways, I can see him definitely being traded...I can also see him being kept.

I'm just expecting that he'll play for the Orioles at some point and hoping for the best.

Well, you would pull stuff from Fangraphs because you're bougie. I can't help it if draft status is what gives guys chance after chance and doesn't let lower picks get the same opportunities. This fact seems to baffle you. I'd actually forgotten Tate went that high.

Why worry? Look, there's nothing to worry about. If AR, G-Rod and Hall were up and performing poorly, I'd be worried and upset. But they're not. And at this point, you've just got to root for individual performances. I want to see if Mullins can carry this performance to the end. And can he replicate it next year, or is he a one year wonder? Can Means have a strong 2nd half? Can Mountcastle keep coming on like he has been? Can Mancini break out of this slump that he's been in? To a lesser extent, can Akin and Kremer do anything to make me a believer? Anyone worrying about wins and losses is bound to be disappointed. This whole season was always about one thing and one thing only: figuring out who's a piece for the future. Some guys are stepping up, some guys are weeding themselves out.

CoC just has an irrational distaste towards Dillon Tate. I figured he'd be the perfect wet blanket for the opening post and he delivered. But whatever, he's a grump and he's wrong. He obviously got his stats from bb-ref which is a great page that I visit practically daily but their stats don't update until the morning. Had he been interested in painting an honest picture, he'd have grabbed the stats from ESPN.com's (*gasp*) page which has everything up to the minute. So it's really 7.7k/9, 2.91 bb/9 1.19 WHIP. CoC is just gonna have to wait until bb-ref updates in the morning to get his ERA+, FIP xFIP updated stats, but that's okay (they'll be better than what he just posted after today's outing).

I'm not expecting anything. That's not to say that I'm not expecting ANYTHING. I'm just tired of making pronouncements about what he will or won't be. Or who's career he'll have. Buster Posey's? Yadier Molina's? Carlton Fisk's? Ivan Rodriguez's? Matt Wieters'? Joe Mauer's? Second, the constant speculation of when or when he won't be called up and the surrounding scenarios and situations around it, service clock time, etc... It just goes on and on and on and on and on and on... It's tiresome. I'm just over it. I'm enjoying seeing how he's handling AA pitching and hoping that he'll have a seamless transition to the majors at some point. Constant speculation about when he'll be up and how he'll turn out to be...well, let's just say your maw-maw would tell you that you'll turn blind.

The half with the rings? Yes.

@Can_of_cornto the thread.

Outfield Defensive Excellence by DJ Stewart. Bonus chapter: Hitting the Cutoff Man My 2021 in Baltimore by Chris Davis, foreword by Mickey Jannis Pro Hitting Tips by Maikel Franco Taking Aim at 2632 by Austin Hays, introduction by Anthony Santander Making It Past The Fifth Inning by Dean Kremer

Hope he has a blast. Good for him.

I think you missed the part where I said a guy like Lowther will have to have exceptional secondary offerings if he’s barely hitting 90. I don’t know what Davies has, I don’t watch the NL much. But I’m sure, given the stats you’ve laid out, that he does have good secondary offerings. I’m also not expecting these guys to be a staff ace, that’s silly. But these guys have been completely awful this year. I’d love to see any of them turn into a Davies type but the odds are stacked against them. Mind you, I’m not arguing to get rid of these guys or to send them down, I think they should keep trotting them out there and seeing if they can turn a corner. But I’m not getting my hopes up. The issue here, as I see it, is that Davies never made it to Baltimore before he was traded.

I'm not sure why anyone thought that these guys would amount to anything. I thought Kremer might have had a chance but he's proven to be arguably the most worthless one of the group. I'll freely admit, I thought Means was just another guy, too. His stuff wasn't impressive when he came up. But for every Means you get, there are a bunch of other guys who have middling stuff and don't do any one particular thing well. Means, at the very least, has his changeup. And pretty damn good command. A guy like Lowther or Akin...they don't do anything exceedingly well. And just because they're somewhere between 10th and 15th on whatever prospect list we have doesn't mean anything. Lowther can barely hit 90 mph, and like it or not that probably won't play well in the majors right now unless he brings something else to the table that sets him apart. But I haven't figured out what that is. Akin, same difference. Throws a little harder but the stuff is pretty below average to average (on his best day) to begin with. I think the Elias/Holt stuff, the modern techniques, tools, etc, it's nice to think and fantasize about but I think you've gotta have some good raw talent to begin with. Look at Arrieta. Look at Gausman...and then look at guys like Akin, Lowther, Kremer. There's a giant delta there. I'll freely admit too, I was really critical of Gausman while he was here, but if I had to ride or die with a guy like Gausman or Akin/Lowther, give me Gausman every day. You can't get mad at water for being wet. And you can't expect guys who have middling stuff to suddenly turn into Greg Maddux. It just doesn't happen...or else every rotation would feature 5 guys like Greg Maddux who top out at 93 but have ridiculous secondary offerings and incredible movement on their pitches. If Elias/Holt could tease that out of any old Akin/Kremer/Lowther type, trust me...they wouldn't be stuck in Baltimore. And I realize I'm exaggerating with the Maddux thing, I'd take those 3 guys at a 4.25-.4.50 ERA and be happy with it. But that's most likely not going to happen. Yeah, but they probably won't.

No problem with any of these moves.

Wasn’t singling you out, Froberto Alomar. I don’t think anyone here would question your loyalty and devotion.

No way, Arrieta had better pure stuff.

I don’t know why you guys are saying you’re done or this season is killing it for you, etc. First, that’s not true. If you’re on here, you’re paying attention in some way, shape or form. Second, most of us survived ‘98-2011. If you can survive that, this is a cakewalk so far. Third, some of us survived ‘86-‘91. ‘89 is in there but it’s offset by ‘88. Anyway, that stretch of team history was a quick fall from grace after the ‘83 title. For most of my life this team has been complete crap. But I figure I’ve got enough time, energy, emotion and money invested, I deserve to see it through.

Lol 39 pitches, 17 for strikes. What a joke.