Moose Milligan

Much ado about nothing.

I agree. And Bichette and Biggio can get better, too. Bichette was already pretty damn good last year, Biggio has some pop. Those two both had a higher OPS than Vlad, actually.

Every family has a grumpy uncle at the Thanksgiving table.

And yet we spend an inordinate amount of time here with you here daily.

Elias can't be running the Orioles in full autonomy because Davis is here and @Can_of_corn told me that means that the Angelos tribe still has to be making the decisions. Because we all want to like Elias and think that he's a smart baseball guy and if we like Elias and think he's a smart baseball guy there's no way a smart baseball guy that we like would keep Davis on the roster because we all like each other and think we're smart baseball guys and none of us would keep Davis on the roster.

I liked Stevie. Not sure what anyone expected of him last year. Yeah, not the best ballplayer around but he played hard, hustled, did whatever was asked of him. For a "blue collar" town like Baltimore, you'd think a guy like Stevie would have been better received.

I liked Villar, thought he was a solid player. Bundy, I think we see eye to eye. I was never really enamored with him. A great start would surely be followed up with a disaster. I agree that you finish 5th with them or without them, though. Connolly was more looking at overall win totals, not climbing the standings.

I don't know if Igelsias offsets Villar. Iglesias was 1.5 last year, Villar was 4.0. Now does Villar do that again this year? Not sure. Our infield defense got a little better but as far as having someone at the top of our lineup that our opponents have to respect, we didn't get better. I thought last year was entertaining, too. They didn't roll over for anyone. They would take a beating and come back the next day and act like nothing happened. Looking forward to you trying to keep up with your daily ray of light posts.

Yankees got Cole. We'll have to see him a couple times, at least.

Connolly over at @TonySoprano's all time favorite family friendly site (other than the OH) THE ATHLETIC wrote a good column about how the Orioles could be worse than last year, also how they could be better. If dear Soprano were here, he'd tell you that it's worth a subscription. And it is. It's paid content so can't copy and paste but I'll provide the highlights. 5 ways they'll be worse: 1. The rotation is a painful mystery 2. Losing Jonathan Villar will sting 3. The division got better 4. This is still an evaluation year 5. Summer trades are likely — if basically anyone plays well 3 ways they could be better: 1. Tighter defense improves overall play 2. The bullpen can’t be as bad as it was 3. Last year’s surprises take another leap What say you? I agree with the 5 ways they'll be worse, especially reasons 1, 2 and 3, not so much 4 and 5. We'll be evaluating some good prospects like Hays and Mountcastle and lesser prospects like Kremer and Akin. While Kremer and Akin are probably going to be members of a bad rotation, you never know...they could step up. Trades...eh, by that point what's done is done and this team will be well on the way to cratering. Surprisingly, I agree with his 3 ways the team will be better, more so than the ways we'll be worse. That said, a better defense doesn't matter if the ball doesn't stay in the yard. It remains to be seen if MLB uses the same balls that they did last year or reigns it in a little but the rotation looks like it'll be dreadful. I can see us approaching the homer record we set last year. Either way, we'll be in the running for the #1 pick.

Only took him 30+ years to figure it out. What an obtuse buffoon.

He did, but I dunno. That Pennington homer was just different. That swing was a controlled, furious violence that was unlike any of the other swings I've seen. It made a Nike commercial, which I can't find anymore. I can't find it anywhere, really. I want to see a video of it now but no such luck. EDIT: Nevermind. Shortly after the 2:15 mark

Yes. And I'm curious to see if any of the international signings (I know they're a long, long way off) appear on anyone's radar next summer.

I've yet to see a swing like that one. From anyone, ever. Griffey taking Pennington deep was something special.

Fair enough, it makes sense.

i think this is a decent critique. Especially pointing out that Mancini, Hays, Mountcastle, Hall, GrayRod all being here. In regards to roster construction, we all know what's going on here. Wins at the ML level aren't being prioritized which I, personally, am ok with. We knew it was going to be ugly. In regards to the draft, taking AR was a no brainer, for sure. But the rest of the draft appeared to have a philosophy and a targeted effort behind it, too. IMO, he's done a fantastic job with the international program. I am not sure if you're lumping that in with the behind the scenes stuff but the J2 signings this year were pretty much on front-street. There wasn't anything behind the scenes about it. Also, in contrast to the previous GM (who I think gets unfairly criticized around here), he's very accessible, engages with the fans, media...that accounts for a lot in my book. I'm aware that it's window dressing and ultimately doesn't really matter but it's nice to have someone who is a relatively open with what their ideas and goals are and what they're doing to achieve them.

You'd trade a month of his career on the front end for a year on the back end, closer to his prime?

You're assuming that what's good for Means would have the same impact on Mountcastle. Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't. I see where you're coming from and don't necessarily disagree but at the same time Mountcastle is going to be in Baltimore. While there'll be a learning curve for him, eventually he'll reach a point where he can hang or he can't.

I'm not sure what you can expect from a development perspective from a handful of at bats in September. Maybe it shows him what he needs to work on in the offseason but I doubt not bringing him up in September is going to stunt his growth.

I gave it a B, just initial reaction. Really, what's holding me back from an A is the handling of Davis. I kinda get it, I mean maybe he wanted to see if he could get him back on track. And that's fine. But whatever they tried, it didn't yield results. Davis just clogs the roster, no two ways about it. And maybe Elias views it as "Well, he's terrible, but he's not TOTALLY hamstringing this roster until Mountcastle is ready, until we need to put Mancini at 1st base full time...until then, we'll keep seeing if we can turn him around." While I disagree with that logic, I understand it. I love everything else he's done.

Expecting a deluge of posts about how letting a hard thrower with poor control go. To which I reply: Note the forlorn look in his eyes. This must have been taken shortly after the Griffey homer. Poor Brad just couldn't ever find the strike zone.

Hey, it's one thing to rag on an over the hill, holier than though douchebag rockstar who's been irrelevant for a few years. It's another thing to bring up someone who's somewhat polarizing in news and politics today. It's my fault for baiting Drungo (did you see how he couldn't resist? it was awesome) and getting off course here, but let's not go down this rabbit hole any further and get this thing closed.

I'm sure he does a lot of good. And I'm sure he'd love to tell you all about it. But when he starts saying that his music is "almost holy" well...I'm going to go listen to Motorhead.

Well, I'm pretty positive. But I'm sure if you were able to ask him, he'd tell you different. That is, if you could get him down from his cross.

Interesting, I'd like to know what the conscience of people was in the 1700s and 1800s when they owned slaves. Even up through the 50s and 60s when there were separate bathrooms for blacks and whites and blacks couldn't play in the MLB, I'm sure everything was peachy keen cause Leave it to Beaver was on TV. Was society in better shape than it is now, or are things just different, tech is moving at a rapid pace and you're scared? Who's more sanctimonious than the NFL? Easy. Bono. When it comes to someone being more sanctimonious than anyone else, the answer is always Bono. Carry on.