Moshagge3

Breyvic Valera is filling in nicely for Cavan Biggio in Toronto. Another 2 hits today for a .825 OPS.

It's pretty simple: the Orioles are spending $65 mm to be garbage, and the Tampa Bay Rays are spending $74 mm to lead the division. The union wants to maximize player salaries, so which situation should be more troubling to them? ?????? Answer: Obviously the latter. The Orioles know they will eventually have to move to a higher payroll, the Rays feel like they can sustain their cheap payroll forever.

Maybe time will vindicate those moves, maybe not, but if were looking at what complaints the union will be bringing to the table, number one will obviously be service time manipulation, but number two will be the rumors of collusion behind the slow FA markets for guys like Harper and Machado. This is all about mid-level teams not willing to pony up the $ to push them past 85-90 wins, and it should be worrying to the union that MLB wants to set the playoff bar there. The stuff we tend to argue about, like why can't Elias find more guys like Urias or why hasn't Elias fixed Dean Kremer or moved on from Maikel Franco doesn't make a difference to the union.

If I'm in the player's union, I'm a lot more concerned about ostensibly competitive teams like Boston and Cleveland shipping out their stars (Betts and Lindor) because they don't even want to make an effort to retain them as free agents. Cleveland is a mediocre .500 team and Boston is sinking like a stone with RF/1B being a major hole for them, but with MLB looking to alter the playoff structure to guarantee a spot to teams in the barely .500 range, look for a lot of teams to try this model. That's what is damaging to the game, IMO, and that's what the union should be fighting.

They just gave Babe Ruth's number to the left fielder (looked it up, it was George Selkirk)??? That was the most surprising thing to me.

Just imagine how bad they'll be once they trade Joey Gallo and Kyle Gibson.

The Yankees' barebones COVID squad is now 4-1. What the heck.

Somehow, some way, Asher Wojciechowski is pitching for the Yankees right now.

Good thing they're getting amazing work from Nestor Cortes, Jr.

And Hess gets the win over the big bad Dodgers! (While also picking up a blown save.)

Last night is an example why baseball is the best sport to follow. Even in the crappiest possible season with the most frustratingly indifferent front office, you still get incredible moments like this. What's the NFL equivalent of what the Orioles are currently doing, maybe the Jets' 2-14 season last year? Are any Jets fans going to look back fondly on either of those two wins years from now? Of course not. Yet I will remember being at Cedric Mullins T-Shirt Night for a good long while.

Mullins now has a higher OPS than Aaron Judge.

I'll be so happy when Pillar retires.

It's demanding too much to want her to announce a substitution? That's one of her (not that many) responsibilities. Why is she there otherwise?

Lord, I needed that.

What's up with the sarcasm? I don't go to every home game; maybe she was just having an off day. Maybe the previous guy would have missed it, too. But you would want the MASN broadcast to tell you that there was a pinch runner and the Orioles' best hitter was out of the game, why shouldn't the people who paid money to be there be just as informed?

I don't really ask for a lot in my P.A. announcer, just that they actually, you know, make the announcements. The P.A. announcer yesterday did not announce Freddy Galvis as a pinch-hitter or Ryan McKenna as a pinch runner. Now, the percentage of people in the crowd that are actually invested in who's running is probably south of 50% (although losing Mancini's bat could have been a big deal if the game had gone to the 11th inning), but if your only job is to make these announcements, why can't you actually do it?

Can Mancini really not pinch hit?

Those are the only kinds of hits Sisco gets.

Eh, Cy Young voters don't care about win-loss record anymore.

He doesn't have to give in with two outs. Bad calls happen.

Third straight start with multiple HRs for Means.

The Yankees somehow found Gio Urshela and Luke Voit and turned them into stars. Then again, I think they probably have a Houstonesque sign-stealing operation we don't fully know about yet.

I had to go pretty far back to find a Rylan Bannon thread, but a couple of nice plays by him. I don't think we've seen a barehand play at 3B like that in quite a while, maybe since you know who.

I can't find it, but in these threads I'm constantly reminded of the SportsCenter commercial where someone at ESPN (Tom Jackson maybe?) was breaking down Neil O'Donnell's interception to lose Super Bowl XXX with some "analysts in training." He asks, what did O'Donnell do wrong? The young analysts suggest smart, hyper-specific things that broke down on the play until Jackson shouts "No! The answer is O'Donnell should not have thrown the interception! FUNDAMENTALS, PEOPLE!!!" I think about that every time people criticize Hyde because the Orioles aren't good at "fundamentals." "No! The answer is that your setup man and closer shouldn't combine to give up six runs in .2 IP! FUNDAMENTALS, PEOPLE!!!" "No! The answer is that your third baseman shouldn't have a .574 OPS! FUNDAMENTALS, PEOPLE!!!" Anyway, whatever the Orioles lack in "fundamentals" seems pretty unimportant compared to having lots of bad hitters and lots of bad pitchers. Brandon Hyde can bring in Tom Emanski himself and it's not going to make much difference.