Moose Milligan

Typical weekend for you, amirite?

DeCinces for Dan Ford.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9027793/MLB-umpire-Brian-ONora-57-14-men-arrested-prostitution-sting-Ohio.html

RIP Dick Allen. A player I would have liked to have seen play and a guy who just seemed really cool. He put his hometown's name on the back of his jersey for a spell: Iconic Sports Illustrated cover:

Randy Milligan was a top prospect, but IIRC he couldn't crack the Mets and Pirates big league teams despite some big minor league seasons. He was a player ahead of his time. If he played today, he'd be viewed much differently. Might not have enough power to survive in today's game but for his time it was respectable. But no one was paying attention to that .391 career on base percentage. .130 point separation between his batting average and on base percentage, he walked more than he struck out for his career. Milligan was fine for the Orioles but they wanted a splash. I also didn't realize this until I made this thread but Glenn Davis was hurt in 1990 and missed a bunch of time. It was foreshadowing.

Corey Seager shoulders! Oh man!!!! Excited to see how he performs in 2021 and if the excitement surrounding him from the training site last summer carries over.

I don't see how any of those franchises could justify it. I don't see how the Orioles, with their tight pockets, could swing a trade that would allow the Yankees to get rid of Stanton or for the Phillies to get rid of Harper. Even if the Yankees or Phillies footed a large part of the bill, it doesn't make sense, the Orioles aren't going to spend that much on a player anytime soon. I guess the Cabrera/Hayward scenarios are more likely but I wouldn't bank on it. IMO, the Orioles and Davis are locked in a staring contest. The Orioles, I'm assuming, would love Davis to retire and leave the rest of that contract on the table. Davis knows that he's got to hang on for another two seasons to make, what, 40ish million? And then collect a nice paycheck each year until something like 2037. I'm uncertain as to why they haven't cut him yet and moved on, but whatever. At this point I'm fully resigned to the fact that we're going to have to have him on the roster for two more seasons.

Oh come on. Name one.

Cabrera is bad, but he's not on Davis' level. And we'd probably have to a large amount of Cabrera's contract to make that happen. I'm not sure if we really come out that much ahead. I'm not sure how it works, but I'm thinking that the deferred payments are also part of it...that any team who'd take Davis on would also take on those deferred payments. And if that's the case, any small insignificant chance of Davis being traded is eliminated. If they play all 162 this year, Davis needs to be cut, there's no way around it.

Put it this way: You couldn't pay another team to take Davis, even if the Orioles covered 100% of the contract. There's no room for him on a roster. Who'd want him?

No chance. Davis has a chance to bet the worst contract in the history of the game. No one is taking that on.

Deadlocked at 18.

The Orioles also drafted Dave Winfield in 1969 but he didn't sign, either.

I don't know about you guys but I'm excited!

Probably. But I like to think that if they don't re-sign Davis they extend Manny. I know that's not realistic though.

Do you assume if we let Davis walk that we don't extend Manny?

I understand. I just think he was decent here in 1990 and decent in Houston in 1991, I'm not sure why he wasn't more highly regarded by both teams. I agree he wasn't an obvious HoFer until his late 20s. I think Finley was great. An OF of Brady, Devo and Finley in the 90s would have been borderline elite defensively. But he, too, really didn't kick into gear until his late 20s and early 30s. And while I don't think he was ever named in the Mitchell report, it wouldn't have surprised me if he was using. Glenn Davis was very good, probably tied with Will Clark and Jack Clark as the preeminent slugging first baseman in the NL in the late 80s.

I don't think Schilling is a deranged lunatic. He has some unpopular opinions that he does a poor job of expressing. IMO, a deranged lunatic is someone who's dangerous to himself and others in society, I don't see Schilling being that guy. That said, I'd gladly have whatever "stain" Schilling has over Davis. I'd take 26 Ty Cobbs (cue @DrungoHazewood "He wasn't that bad of a guy! The Al Stump book was lies!") on this team if it meant we would win.

Schilling wasn't terrible in Houston the one year he was there. 3.81 ERA, 2.87 FIP.

I'm not sure I agree here. They developed Mussina just fine, but he was pretty polished coming out of Stanford. Gregg Olson was a high pick that was fantastic. Ben McDonald didn't turn out to be the guy anyone thought he would be, but he was still effective. Harnisch had improved from 1989 to 1990. I don't think Schilling was regarded in that class of those first three guys. I don't know if they would have developed Schilling to what he became but I think he'd have had a chance to become good here. He was good in 1990, albeit in a small sample size.

Thinking about it a little more: The Orioles were not good when they traded for Glenn Davis. They were coming off a 76 win 1990 season but there was some reason for optimism. 1989 had been great and with Ben McDonald and Mussina in the wings, there was some young talent to look forward to. If they don't trade for Davis and keep Schilling, Finley and Harnisch, they might not be as bad in 1991. And in 1992, they could have won more than the 89 games that they won. The whole 1990s probably looks a lot different for this franchise, including the playoff years of 1996 and 1997. I'm 50/50 on this one, honestly. I can see it both ways.

Well, yeah. But as far as player personnel moves go.

Thinking about this in @Sports Guy's choose one thread: There are two absolutely atrocious franchise altering deals that this franchise has made. I'm probably missing another obvious one like the Eddie Murray deal. While that deal was bad, I don't think it comes close to the Chris Davis contract and the Glenn Davis trade. The Orioles traded Curt Schilling, Pete Harnisch and Steve Finley to the Astros for Glenn Davis before the 1991 season. Davis was a tremendous flop, could never stay healthy while Curt Schilling went on to a borderline HoF career, Steve Finley hit 300 homers and stole 300 bases, won Gold Gloves and Harnisch ended up being a very solid pitcher. I don't think anyone could have predicted back then that those three would go on to reach the heights that they did. Now I was 9 when the Orioles traded for Glenn Davis, I remember being excited about it. I'm not sure what older and more sophisticated fans were thinking. I don't need to re-hash what a disaster the Chris Davis contract has been. The issue here for me is that we can see what Schilling, Finley and Harnisch did over their careers and while they might not have been able to replicate those careers in Baltimore, it's easier to think that they could have done so. With the Davis contract, the "what if's" become a lot more murkier. If we let Davis walk, do we re-sign Machado? What else could that money have been spent on? What would the roster look like today? It's a lot harder to say. So Glenn Davis vs. Chris Davis. Which was the worst in the history of this franchise?

Looking back on it, it should have been obvious. Cruz's highs weren't as high as Davis' but his lows weren't as low as Davis' either. I remember where I was when the Davis signing broke, I was on a hunting trip in Maryland. After my initial excitement, I paused and thought that the deal would probably mean Davis would most likely be bad for the last three, maybe 4 years. And there was a real chance that he could be bad throughout the whole contract. I don't think any of us thought he'd be THIS bad. I came back a day or so later and posted it here: BTW: This thread is hilarious: I think you can make an argument that the Davis contract is the worst move this franchise has ever made. Maybe worse than the Glenn Davis deal.