wildbillhiccup

In this case by disengaging. Enjoy the 2024 season, Moose. I'm tapping out of this thread and this forum.

This entire thread is one big circle that just keeps repeating. There's nothing new for anyone to post or say at this point I've largely ignored it for weeks, but I'm really just sick of seeing it at the top of my feed. I want to talk about and focus on the actual team and not some bizarre hypothetical based on no facts or even rumors that folks keep bringing up just to tell us how they think Bauer is being black-balled and innocent.

No one can definitely say, but there are certainly some pretty big red flags. I also don't buy into the black balled conspiracy theory that all of MLB isn't touching him just for off the field antics. I just think they probably don't think the realistic juice is worth the squeeze. 1. He wasn't even the best pitcher on his (Japanese) team last season. He was also so bad early in the 2023 season that he was demoted to the minors. 2. He's an admitted cheater (i.e., tacky stuff). Pre spin rate increase he was a mediocre / 4.00+ ERA picher.

Serious question. Why hasn't this thread been locked? At this point there's no rumor or even hint of truth to the possibility of Bauer signing with the Orioles or any other team. And it's evolved into the Bauer fan boys / truthers just bumping it the top to reiterate the same stale points that often have little or nothing to do with baseball.

It's pretty clear to me. They want to shed salary, but still try to contend. The Mariners are doing the same thing. Soto was a salary dump and they knew that Snell would never be a good investment. Cease is a similar high Ks/high walks guy, but much more affordable.

Oh Lord, about 1/2 of this board is about to be on tilt.

Was the list just for this season? That part was unclear to me. If it wasn't then Ohtani should have been ranked #1. Until he completely abandons pitching or hitting he's the best/most valuable player in baseball and it's not particularly close.

I dunno man, what Juan Soto has managed to accomplish by age 25 is pretty damn amazing. I have no issues with him being a top 5ish guy and he might be my favorite for AL MVP this season.

If any of you Comcast subscribers still pay via monthy checks in the mail you should make them payable to "Comcasst" for the foreseeable future.

They should be happy. I was assuming the author accidently flipped the ranking numbers for Cease (i.e., it should have been 75th and not 57th).

It takes next level incompetence and lazy research to put together a list that is not only a terrible real life ranking, but also a terrible fantasy ranking.

They should, but I don't think they will. I'd personally like to see Elias be a bit less conservative in the trade department. Sure trading a player like Urias or Mateo might backfire if a player gets injured, but it's an educated risk and one that I think is worth taking if there's a market for either player.

The budget for MLB's entire Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) Program is just over $30M. The Rays alone just invested nearly $20M for a "facelift" to their Dominican Republic facility. The population of the DR is just north of 11M. The population of NYC alone is almost 9M. If you want to argue that there's no hope for MLB to win over the African-American community that's perfectly fine, but they've really done little more than try to use a tiny water gun to put out a blazing fire to try and fix the problem.

It is (and has), but that hasn't stopped MLB from developing international talent in impoverished countries. It's just a shame they don't invest the same time and money into the impoverished parts of our own country. It's a completely untapped pipeline of talent.

You're a better man than I am. I would have taken the low hanging fruit and posted a GIF of Token from South Park.

My point is your "cultural" argument is teetering on the lunacy that got Jimmy the Greek fired in the 80s. Small kids are never going to gravitate to a sport that isn't marketed to them and presented as a viable option for them to play. There's also an economic aspect as MLB is probably only second to hockey in terms of the personal expense it takes to play the game. It's has very little or nothing to do with culture.

Yeah, ok Jimmy The Greek. Whatever you say.

I'm willing to chalk up the team's lack of diversity (if any) to the Oriole's complete ineptitude in the international market for YEARS. I suspect we'll see things start to balance out over the next five years or so now that we seem to have finally caught up with the other teams in that regard. All that said, I find it hysterically how many of what I suspect are predominantly white males are getting triggered by a silly little meme. And this is coming from a white male! Loosen up buttercups.

The reality of the situation is that MLB does very little if anything to actively market itself to the African-American community. And their annual "celebration" of Jackie Robinson might have started out as something that was genuine, but it's evolved into a self serving "yep, we checked the box again this year" thing. Which is really unfortunately because it's not just holding the sport back from a diversity perspective, but also from a talent perspective. They have an entire pipeline of talent right in their own backyard that they continue to le be monopolized by the NFL and NBA.

I'm not sure I can get behind trading for the lead singer of a band who wrote a song called "Yellow" (and not Orange).

Right place Wong time maybe?

Maybe we should make a minor trade with the Royals to acquire Kyle Wright or Beck Way. Then we can have either Wong/Way or Wright and Wong on our roster.

Or maybe just lock the thread and call it a day? Someone can start a new one if there's every something tangible linking him to the Orioles.

Disprectful and also a bit irrelevant to the point that I was trying to make. I'd also say that Bauer sicking his legal dogs on a "lives in my parent's baseman" blogger after claiming he had turned over a new leaf is even worse.

IDK he feels more like The General than Geico or Liberty Mutual.