Moose Milligan

You gotta like the moxie.

Yeah, but he's never alright, alright, alright.

Hays you idiot.

Way to work the count, Hays. You'll have to excuse me in advance, fellas. It's just been one of those days and I pretty much hate everyone at the moment.

Yeah, it works really well. Haven't had any issues with it. I got tired of the VPN game too after 3 years. Just want to be able to turn on the game and not have to worry about whether or not the VPN is going to crap out.

People that like watching pitchers hit get their minds blown when you explain that there's just as much strategy involved with a DH.

Tony, I agree with your overall premise but I don't think Neidert intentionally plunked Sisco with that pitch. With the new intentional walk rule, he'd just have to signal that he'd want to put Sisco on base and that'd be it. But yeah, last night I felt like we could have tacked on more runs in the first inning if Harvey wasn't batting.

I think he'll get better as the season goes along and can build up some more stamina. He wasn't great in the 5th last night but he was better than he's been.

Glad he's reporting. Still think he's a bust.

I don't. Maybe there aren't going to be as many of them, but there's always going to be a market for a deGrom, Cole, Bieber, etc. I agree that there's a shift in how the game is being approached these days but there's always going to a need for top tier guys. But teams are getting more creative with bullpens, openers, etc.

Where'd I say he needs to go 7 even half the time? Or that Means needs to go 7? I said a stretch of 6+ inning games. That could be 4 or 5 games. I just want to see some consistency.

First of all, that last part...that's nice and all, but you know as well as I do that John Means isn't in the Bieber/deGrom class. You took a small sample size of pitchers who started last night and jumped to some conclusions. None of those guys are aces. We're wondering if Means can be an ace...or at least a very good #2. I still stand by what I said...Means can start games where he has an elevated pitch count by the 4th or 5th inning.

Me too. I'd love it if that were on youtube or something. I laughed my ass off.

No wonder you liked Bedard. Best media Bedard exchange ever: Bedard: Okay, I'm only answering three questions. Media member: Why only three? Bedard: That's one. Means is off to a good start this year but I'd like to see him put together a stretch of 6 innings+ games. Right now he's got two 7 inning starts that sandwich a 4.2 and a 5.0 inning start. He didn't have his best stuff in either start but he was able to battle, I will give him credit there. I'm not saying he needs to go 7 innings of shutout ball each time out but I think he's gotta get past the 5th each time out if we want to look at him as an ace. IMO he's able to give you a gem each time out, but he's also able to give you a 4 or 5 inning start with an escalated pitch count.

I'm not upset. But you are making excuses for the Orioles.

I think we'll know a lot more by the end of this year, too. Furthermore, people can say "different regimes! different scouting directors and coaches!" Which is true. But that only means to me that the Orioles have had, in general, a hiring problem over the past 25+ years. I'm in the hiring business, that's what I do each and every day. I find people jobs. Our clients pay us a good amount of money to find them qualified candidates for open positions. Some of our clients are able to hire and retain people and keep them aboard for several years, some aren't. I'm currently working with a client that's hired 3 people over the past 10 months for one position (only one of them through us). The candidates they've chosen have been fired or quit. They have a hiring problem. The crux of this issue is that the Orioles have not just had a scouting, drafting, developing problem over the years but they've had a hiring problem. They simply don't hire the right people for the job and that's been consistent for a long, long time.

I'm quite frankly tired of people whining and complaining about the competition we face. It's not going to change anything. Tampa has figured it out, why haven't we been able to? They're able to develop good pitching and yet they have to play with a weighted schedule against OHMIGOSH the Yankees and Sox! Even if you what you say is true, the Sox, Yanks, Jays and Rays all have to pitch in the hardest environment in the league. And yet, they're able to have good pitching and we're not.

I think he's pressing a little bit. But I'm confident that he'll have had a solid season when it's all said and done. .275 with 25 homers, 80 RBI. Might not match what he did in 2019 but he'll still be productive.

'ol webbrick is a seagull...flies around, poops on everything. Flies away, comes back...poops on everything, etc, etc.

I had a feeling that was the case. Not surprising.

I agree, it's K or HR. And those increments happen so slowly over time that it's kind of hard to notice. I'd like less strikeouts, more balls in play...more doubles, triples.

I agree that their inability to develop quality pitching has been their biggest issue. Let's not forget Tillman was a Mariners prospect we traded for...I guess one could claim we developed him to a certain extent. But we have been absolutely terrible at scouting, drafting and developing pitching. You can argue that Britton was an elite pitcher we developed but he was a failed starter. Maybe the correct statement here is that they've been terrible at scouting, drafting and developing starting pitchers. But it's not like we've been promoting a ton of elite relievers, either. I will disagree that it's the most difficult pitching environment in the majors and I will also disagree that that is the reason that so many have left here and gone on to find success elsewhere. Oriole Park ranks anywhere from the middle of the pack to the lower 3rd depending on the year and depending on the metrics that you're looking at. It is a bad place to pitch but it's not easily the worst place to pitch in the majors behind Coors. In 2019, the Rockies, Rangers, Tigers and Nats had worse ballparks to pitch in. In 2018, the Orioles Park Factor ranked 18th and slightly favored pitchers. You can look up Park Factor here: https://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/parkfactor/_/year/2018 The failure to develop quality pitching sits squarely on a few factors: First, lack of international talent, we've been essentially fighting a fight with one hand tied behind our backs for 20+ years. Second, bad scouting and third, bad development. If you wanted a 4th reason, it'd be bad trades (Hader, Davies). Jake Arrieta is the posterchild for leaving here and finding success elsewhere. He was a stud in college that fell in the draft due to signability issues and we picked him. And then we tried to tinker with his mechanics, I believe it was Adair that had to make him do things his way. Arrieta threw slightly across his body which isn't good but it worked for him in college. Adair tried to fix that and it didn't work...and when Arrieta got to Chicago they basically told him "do what works for you, throw how you naturally throw" and he did a 180. It literally happened overnight, go look at what Arrieta was doing here and then go look at what he did in Chicago directly after the trade. Britton didn't like Adair, either. Maybe we could have made something out of Matusz with a better coach. Read this article: https://www.camdenchat.com/2016/4/26/11506982/orioles-pitchers-arrieta-britton-pitching-coach-rick-adair The Orioles have been terrible at scouting, drafting, developing and coaching pitching. They haven't been great at doing the same with hitters, but have been slightly better...Manny was so good, no one could mess him up, most likely. OPACY ain't a great place to pitch but the argument that it's the reason why we don't have good pitching is mostly false and downright lazy.

I like those early to mid 80s Cardinals teams. Practically no power but they could get on base at a decent clip, steal bases and had great defense and pitching. They were essentially a team built for Astroturf.

I think they have whoever doesn't mop up whatever mess Lopez creates tonight start on Saturday. So either LeBlanc or Plutko, depending who needs to go 3 or 4 innings tonight.

I agree, but you can't be disappointed in Akin if you had no hopes for him to begin with. Same with Harvey and Hays...you can't really get mad at water for being wet. Mountcastle has been the biggest disappointment, I agree. But it looks like he's shown some signs of coming around.