Moose Milligan

https://www.mlb.com/news/10-best-mlb-right-fielders-of-decade 6) Nick Markakis (BAL 2010-14, ATL 2015-19): Markakis has been around longer than you realize: His rookie year was in 2006. His best seasons were those first years in Baltimore, but he has been remarkably consistent since entering the league. Did you realize Markakis has only missed more than seven games in a season once? Your team is always a little bit better if it has Markakis on it, and that’ll be as true in season 15 as it was in season one.

I would submit that if he did it again, it'd be the...I don't know how to say this...but for lack of a better term, the most unlikely feat in MLB history. Maybe tied with DiMaggio's streak. I'm not arguing which is harder, certainly hitting .247 for a major leaguer isn't a great feat. But doing it 5 years in a row? You'll never see that again. Hell, you'll never see it for three years in a row. That amount of precision is exceptionally rare in sports. Maybe that's what I'm trying to say, you'll never see precision like that again. I'm not here to debate the quality of that precision, just marvel at it. Cal had back to back .282 seasons. I know there are a couple other instances where a player has matched batting averages in back to back years. I dunno if anyone did it three years in a row.

Here's CoC right now:

Yeah, I dunno why you'd roll your eyes at that. I mean, I know you're trying to be cool. But if the Orioles had a guy like that, I'd hope Elias would send a plane for him.

Hope he's alright. Saw the Sox are sending a plane down to bring him back to the States.

wildcard? Did you hack Philip's account?

Trade value is never higher than it is now! Sell, sell, sell!

HEY. I had 26,000 at one point, what happened?

Couple dingers lately. Yeah, if he can keep that up along with the defense that's not bad.

He's pretty good, let's see if he can keep it going.

I can't imagine being a young baseball player, playing well for a Major League team and wanting to get married. I can't even fathom it. Anyway, I hope Means keeps up the great pitching and lands on the All Star team. I think it's a foregone conclusion that Trey is our representative but it'd be cool if we got two.

I thought I read on here somewhere that they'd basically hammered out details with AR a few weeks ago?

How that guy didn't turn out to be the next Lou Gehrig escapes me.

I think James Loney was, at one point, a Sports Guy all-star.

I agree about Richie. But if you want to bring up a guy like Mountcastle, you can't let Davis hack it out. Davis hamstrings the roster, especially with the return of Trumbo on the horizon.

Tony Womack. I say this because I spent some time at Guilford College in Greensboro, NC. Tony Womack went there along with Tom Zachary who gave up Babe Ruth's 60th homer in 1927. There had been some other MLB players that came through there, mainly before 1950. Tony Womack is probably the best to have come through there, with Zachary second. IIRC, he also held Guilford College football records which is almost like saying I was the best kickball player in my 8th grade class. Tony Womack lead the NL in steals three times while playing for the Pirates and it's not like he was a guy that got caught a lot either. His SB/CS ratios are fantastic for those three years. He also lead the league in triples once. Womack had moved on to Arizona by the time I met him before the 2001 season. I was in a sports management/sports marketing class and shortly before spring training started, he came through Guilford to visit. A little cocky but a nice enough guy. Answered questions, I remember asking him something about their new manager, Bob Brenly, and how he thought he'd be different than Buck Showalter. I can't believe I didn't ask him about Randy Johnson. Anyway, Tony stayed for the whole class. A good dude, I liked him. So it was a thrill to see him later on that fall in a big moment for the Diamondbacks in the World Series. Womack ripped a double off Rivera that tied the game at 2-2 in the 9th inning of Game 7. Womack was on 2nd when Luis Gonzalez hit his little duckfart over Joe Torre's drawn in infield: (There's no reason to post that video other than it's nice to see the Yankees lose a WS game 7.) Anyway, I thought all along Tony Womack was a good player until I learned more about baseball and advanced metrics. Womack had a good career, a career that a lot of guys would be proud to have. Played 13 years, lead the league in steals, triples, even made an All-Star team. But that doesn't mean Tony Womack had a great career under the spotlight of advanced metrics. He played in 125 games for those 2001 Diamondbacks, 518 plate appearances with a 64 OPS+. I'm sure we can find someone lower, but that's a pretty good starting point.

David Eckstein, Cardinals. Off the top of my head, but while he was a lightweight he probably wasn't as bad as I remember.

Sure. After watching Orioles baseball for pretty much all my life, it just becomes obvious when guys are what they are. I'm not saying I'm like @wildcard when I'm making way for a guy in the rotation after two good starts but it's obvious to me when a starting pitcher like David Hess, Yefry Ramirez or any number of the AAAA types we've had over the years just aren't that good. They have middling stuff. They can't command their pitches in the zone. They don't have a true dominant pitch where they can make someone swing and miss if they absolutely have to. Lately I've been giving @wildcard a hard time and @Can_of_cornand I and some other posters have been making jokes about SSS and what that means. But overall, yeah, I'm tired of seeing a guy like Hess or Yefry come up. You can look at practically any Orioles roster over the past 20 years and find guys like this. Tyler Wilson comes to mind immediately, a college pitcher who had a nice, easy motion but had extremely average stuff on his best day, that guy got hammered every time out...just like Yefry, just like Hess. I recognize that we have to look at these types to see if they can turn things around, but odds are...nope. And while I recognize that we have to give these guys chances, it sure doesn't mean I have to like watching them pitch and it sure doesn't mean that I'm NOT going to say that I don't think they've got the chops. Put it this way, do we REALLY need to see another David Hess start to understand what we have here? Speaking strictly for myself, I don't need to see another David Hess start. So look at Richie Martin. He was picked up in the Rule 5 and we knew what he was right away, an all glove/no hit SS. Has he done anything to disprove that? Has he gone on a hot streak to make anyone think "Damn, Richie looks like he's got a good approach going, he might be able to polish himself into a major league hitter"? Has made improvements as a hitter so far this season? Or does he swing and miss too much? How many fastballs have you seen him swing through this year? Does he usually look overmatched at the plate? Does he swing at pitches out of the zone too much? Or does he make solid contact but have a string of bad luck where he's just hitting line drives to defenders? Richie does do some things well, I think he's a good defender and he's got great speed. I think there's a chance he could fashion himself into a .220 hitter and be a utility guy, just like Tony said. But saying Richie Martin is a great glove/no hit type of guy is stating the obvious, we knew what he was billed at when we picked him up. He has performed as advertised, I think there was just some type of question if he was going to be a .200 hitter or a .250 hitter. Even as a .250 hitter, is Richie Martin good enough to be a starting SS somewhere in the majors? Maybe, but he'd always be on the fringe.

I don't disagree about that from Elias' perspective. However, I think we've seen enough of Richie to know what he is. Perhaps there are some advanced metrics/video items that they're seeing to make them think he can become an effective hitter. You can't teach speed, though...like I said, I like Richie and I hope he can figure it out at the plate enough to become a utility guy and carve a nice career out for himself.

Hyde, apparently.

I like Richie, but you can't have two Chris Davis level performers in the lineup and expect to win games. He's not going to be around much longer. I'm sure the defensive metrics say otherwise but I think he's a pretty smooth defender.

Someone get Frobby's address so we can get a shirt sent to him.

This is one of the funniest posts ever.

Who does he think he is, Alex Cobb?

A projectable right hander. @Luke-OH do I have my lingo down yet?