Orange

Why not keep him down until July to keep the extra year?

Why? Because we might get a draft pick?

So service time manipulation issues could possibly be worse? Crazy that they messed it up so badly. Why not just make a year a year regardless of how much of it a player plays in the majors?

Are the new rules about award voting just tacked on to the system we already had? In other words, if he doesn’t place high in any voting would we still benefit by manipulating service time? And if so… if we don’t manipulate the service time and he also finishes top two in ROY voting do we effectively lose two years of team control?? And if that is accurate then what is the benefit? More games played for a bad team now then what we hope are good teams in few years… plus maybe an extra draft pick if he manages to place top five in MVP voting? If I got all that right the choice is either “screw the future, we want Adley on 4/7” or we keep him down until July.

Okay, so I was perusing the 40-man roster and noticed something odd. We've got three hitters who throw righty and bat lefty. That's not the odd part, because there is a small edge you can gain by being a natural righty and learning to hit lefty. (Incidentally, it's Odor, Stewart, and Vavra.) The odd thing is that we've also got three left-handed pitchers who bat righty - Perez, Scott, and Smith. Why? Are you telling me they are natural righties and learned to pitch lefty? Unlikely. Maybe when they were in little league they were told that bats were like golf clubs and they only had the right-handed ones. Weird, right?

Wait... Dennis Sarfate is the 9th highest-paid player in Japan?

I was thinking of Harold Baines as a comp... but Nimmo is good, too. (Did you know that Nimmo has a career OPS+ of 131?? Baines had a 121 in 22 seasons... those guys can get on base.)

Well, he's the best we've got. His tone and cadence remind me of Joe Buck.

It's a bunch of solid guys, but Tate's my favorite. Surprised you'd have him as a 'maybe.'

Wow, same here... I was just debating it last week. I called DirecTV to cancel and they said since I swapped a wired Genie mini for a wireless Genie mini in August that I "agreed" to a 12-month contract. (Counts as new hardware.) So, whatever, I guess I'm paying $89/month until August.

Would you rather be a Royals fan or a Rays fan?

I assume they’re prioritizing 26-year-old 5th starter candidates over a talented-but-recovering-from-TJ reliever. If you hit on a legit SP it’s a big deal.

Yeah, Luis Palacios.

Or Luis Palacios. Lefty for lefty.

Alex Vesia for the win.

You do like $2m plus a $10m team option for 2021.

Yes, that’s the one! Four hit shutout... okay that works... I remember Menhart was a hard luck loser that day since his only hit allowed was a HR and lost 1-0.

My recollection is that both starters fired a one hitter and the difference was ours was a Harold Baines dinger to CF. O’s won 1-0. I think it was the Twins, perhaps? Hard to remember exactly... I was a little overwhelmed. I think it was 94, maybe 95. An even better memory was 93, though. I was dating the granddaughter of Chuck Thompson’s wife’s best friend. Somehow the whole family, including grandma moved to Florida... but grandma and granddaughter came back to Baltimore to visit for like a month and stayed at the Thompson’s. I won’t bore you with the details about being alone at Chuck’s house with the girl... y’all care more about the absolutely surreal experience of driving to an Orioles game in the backseat of Chuck Thompson’s car. I mean it was normal to hear his voice driving to the stadium, but not because he was driving!

I interviewed Mike Mussina one time… In actuality I was an intern at WBAL and I put a microphone in his face in the locker room. It was after a one-hitter though which is pretty cool. It’s funny what stands out… I remember Gregg Zaun’s wannabe hipster outfit in his locker with like a silk vest. That, and Cal being there was pretty epic.

I always thought the “break up the _____” comment was a reference to breaking apart monopolistic companies (like Standard Oil or AT&T).

Dealin' Bundy

September call up? Highly unlikely... But crazier things have happened.

First things first... The Baltimorons podcast does a nickname episode every year and it is exceptional every time. (Though nothing is a great as their Weird Al style remake of Shake it Off in Dan Duquette's impersonated voice - "Put it Off"... during the Toronto rumors. The implication was that he was putting off making any moves since he might be traded to the Jays. Seriously, find this on the podcast on iTunes... from about 18 months ago.) Okay, here we go... It's "The DOD", not just DOD. The Department of Defense is perfect. Dr. Jones in lieu of Mr. Jones... I know, Counting Crows and all of that... but there isn't much better than seeing Jones on 1B and someone hits a gapper to right-center and you yell out, "No time for love Dr. Jones!" Gausman will always be Donuts. In my house we call J.J. - "Jedediah Jeremiah"... Only because one night we were talking about what J.J. might stand for (without googling first) and this was the winner. Very fun to say out loud. I know he's been gone for a long time now, but my favorite was always Nathaniel McLouthorne. (also homemade) I like calling Manny "Mas Macho". Can we call Kim "Barbecue" since he's always roasting line drives? And, you know, Korean Barbecue. Better than Kim Chi which means nothing. Trumbo = Jumbo Since 2012 my nickname for Davis has been "Is there nothing Chris Davis cannot do?!?!?"... I admit it is just a little long, but I find myself yelling it all the time. Gallardo = YoGa Ubaldomore (even though he doesn't deserve it) "BRADBRACH!" - in a squawking bird voice.