InsideCoroner

I saw Stone with the Phillies before he wound up with the Orioles. He was one of the fastest players that I ever saw… combined with some of the worst baseball instincts that I ever saw. On that ground ball Santander hit, he would have been diving back to first so as not to get doubled off.

I was trying (and struggling) to think of the last Orioles player who would have scored from first on that Santander grounder just inside the third base bag. I was even going back to Eric Davis… or Alan Wiggins. That was impressive.

One of my best friends growing up was addicted to gambling, there wasn’t a day going by that he didn’t have about six bets going at once. I think we were all of 18, and you would try to hang out with him but you could tell he couldn’t fully focus until he knew if the Mets would hold that lead in the 9th and whether Ohio Stare would cover the spread. And this was in the pre-Internet days with a bookie over the phone and ESPN updates, I can’t imagine how bad that would have been if he had easier access. It felt inevitable that pro sports would get in bed with the gambling sites but I wish they had kept them all at arms’ length rather than adding sports books to stadiums and including on-screen odds. I find the whole thing distasteful.

Escaping that jam in the 3rd inning was huge. Abrams singled, then a bad throw by Gunnar (and failure to block by O'Hearn) puts runners on second and third with no outs. Kremer strikes out Thomas looking on a nice outside sinker, and then punches out Smith and Meneses with good fastballs. The whole game hinged on that half inning, so credit to Kremer for turning it up a notch.

So this year’s team are the H2O’s?

The game could always use a little more Charley Finley-styled pot stirring, if you ask me.

Serious question... would a home team be allowed to change the dimensions of their park between each game or series? Like, if the LF wall was on a sliding adjustable track, would it be legal to move it in pre-game when we're scheduled to face three lefties, and move them back again when Means is due to face a RHP?

Depends on where you live, but if the light rail is on your route, it's pretty easy to park at one of the light rail stops, take the train (2 bucks each way) and then getting out of the light rail lots (like North Linthicum) is a breeze.

Nice to see some power out of Adley hitting as a righty. He only had one homer last year in 115 PAs as a RHB.

Thank the Oriole at Camden gods for offering water at select, semi-secretive locations for only $4.10 a bottle. John Angelos, we knew you were a humanitarian, but this largesse will not be forgotten.

You’re not going to go into every old thread of ex-relievers and start a panicked discussion, are you? (Tony, can you preemptively lock the Richard Bleier Appreciation thread?)

Left-handed relief is not my burning concern right now. Especially not left-handed relievers on the downslide.

The ones that I found excruciating were the no-hitters against us. The two I found especially humiliating were the ones by Wilson Alvarez (August ‘91) and Clay Buchholz (September ‘07), because in both cases, it was the second start of their major league careers.

Teeing it up? This wasn’t Tommy Hunter, it was 100 mph at the very bottom of the zone, right on the black. Duvall just went down and got it.

The binoculars thing came from Odor, which came from some of the guys playing Call Of Duty together. I’m glad to see that gone, that got tired even faster than the chain did.

so Very Possibly Naughty?

I thought Mullins had a fair chance at the Varsho leadoff triple but he Trumboed a bit in front of the wall and instead just stabbed his glove out. Santander had a bad game with the glove, but playing LF in Boston takes a lot of work. I think it was a mistake to just stick him out here figuring there’s less real estate to patrol.

Particularly when combined with wealth.

None of their five steals drew a single throw. That’s got to be pretty unusual.

If he gets on base he won’t be annoying.

That’s pretty awful. I think if I had a billion dollars, I wouldn’t use it for philanthropic purposes or buy a share of the Orioles. No, I would use it to buy rights to all the Yankees broadcasts and spread them over 162 different streaming platforms, just to make life misery for their fans. “Telemundo+? C-SPAN Premium? What the hell?”

On Stuff, he’s a 40, which is the lowest of any pitcher on the big league club. On Control he’s a 70, which is highest. I was surprised at the 40 rating and wonder if that’s going to render him unplayable because even the Royals and Tigers hammered him. The injuries also seem a tad inflated. In 30 games, Urias is already on his second IL stint. Mountcastle got hurt sliding into 3rd on Opening Day and is still out (hello, O’Hearn). I had an opponent hit two of my batters in a row and both had to leave the game.

Okay, with still another day to wait,I started playing OOTP ‘24 a few days ago. I’m managing one AB at a time rather than just rushing through it. I didn’t make any trades. After 30 games and a .500 record, the club is 1st in the AL in runs scored and OBP (.772), and dead last in ERA (5.59). In 34.2 IP, Cole Irvin has allowed 42 ER and 10 homers for a 10.90 ERA. At what point do you start to worry?

D. I think if they had not made the mistake of mentioning “liftoff”, then by normal offseason standards this would be a C… maybe even a B. But they got our hopes up, unfairly, and then body slammed them.

I don’t think they’re going anywhere either. I just like that a journalist is actually calling John’s trustworthiness into account for making an inane statement that he had no plans to ever honor.