24fps

The beach at Conspiracy Land is fun to play on, just don’t go in the water.

I am perfectly content to let all these "other teams" be losers for every bit as long as they think serves their best interests. I'd also like to say I respect people and organizations who stand on principle, but in this case I really don't see the point.

Or it also could be that he makes a distinction between Actual Major League Baseball Players and maybesomedaymightbemajorleaguebaseballplayersiftheygetgoodcoachingandifthingsbreakright. I hate it when professional judgement - rightly or wrongly - gets in the way of a convenient and damn satisfying narrative.

Irvin is quickly becoming that rarest of Orioles players - the one who gets more respect from the OH than the team itself.

I wonder as well. Unless there are serious health or family issues, the timing is pretty odd.

A team this talented with several qualified minor leaguers deserving of ML at bats is not a normal situation. Santander - who I like a lot - is smart enough to know that times have changed. I don't think he's under any illusions at all, nor anyone else.

I expect a barter-based black market to spring up immediately as such an injustice won't be tolerated for long in one of the proud thirteen original states.

Not when he actually makes an attempt. That's what's puzzling.

Great write up. I like the pitching match ups and look forward to the O's breaking out of their funk when it comes to soft-tossing junkballers. WTF is up with the downvote?

Gosh. Right now the O's are only spending around $0.98 million per win. If ownership really cared about the fan base (full disclosure I'm a FANatic) then they should immediately up the payroll to the Yankees $2.8 million per win to close the terrifying 2-game gap with a mere 2/3rds of the season left. There's really no compelling argument to wait a minute longer.

I like pizza too. In other news, it looks like the woodwork is leaking roaches again.

He used the same logic that proves there's no such thing as a bad minor league contract. Literally.

The bullpen inspires almost zero confidence. The approach to integrating the abundance of positional talent in the minors seems incoherent. No doubt that's partially responsible for people thinking that Hyde and Elias are too reliant on vets.

At least it's not against a truly terrible team like the White Sox.

What an oddly specific strained analogy. Lemme guess, this happened to a friend.

I'm sorry, but I was the biggest proponent of not resigning Nelson Cruz and you can't take that away from me.

I think the first step to answering this question is to establish the expected distribution of runs per games. Any volunteers?

Potential labor issues would be one part of it, although no umpire would need to lose his job over automated balls and strikes. I also have a theory - which admittedly borders on the crackpot - that there's a desire on MLB's part to retain an ability to manipulate the game to maintain some sort of idealized balance between offense and defense. Expanding and shrinking the strike zone as necessary would be an important tool in the toolbox. Don't expect me to defend this notion too vigorously, but we all know that the specter of league-wide anemic offense is one thing that keeps Manfred up at night. Now that the technology is all but proven and there are websites dedicated to putting umpires under the microscope every single day, it's only a matter of time before the pressure to change becomes overwhelming IMO. I predict that it will take a playoff impacting mistake to provide the tipping point though.

The best umpire so far this year has been wrong over 5% of the time, the worst close to 10%. I suspect historical averages are similar There is simply no persuasive argument to not institute technological assistance to calling balls and strikes unless you can clearly demonstrate that the outcome would be worse.

3 may as well be 300 the way the team looks tonight.

So there is a God...

So the score is now: Cards 5 O's 1 Masyn Winn -2?

So I just checked in and it looks like Kremer coughed up a sizeable hairball and the slugging O's lineup is getting no-hit after 5. At least one of the of the Cards' players thinks it's cool to wear number 0. Stupidest thing ever. There, I feel better...

I would certainly be comfortable with that and I suspect Rubenstein would be too. Like others, I think another team would offer more. Five years is also my limit and other teams will go longer IMO. I am very much looking forward to recalibrating my notion of what's affordable for the Orioles and what isn't. The truth is is that everubody here has zero idea what Rubenstein will and won't do when it comes to the budget. Zero.

Not at all.