Melvin, shut up already

by birdman on Nov 8, 2007 1:25 AM EST

"I don't want to make it seem it was Moore's fault. This kid was hungry to play," Mora said. "But I've been busting my butt for seven years in the organization. I'm a two-time All-Star, I've won a Silver Slugger [award]. I don't deserve that. If I have to take that crap, I'd rather go somewhere else."

"I don't want to play those games," he said. "I'm one of the best third basemen in the American League and in baseball. If you are going to move me, you have to make the team more competitive."

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/baseball/bal-mora1107,0,6622512.story

-------------------
Melvin, we would all love it if you went somewhere else. Unfortunately, you're not one of the best third basemen in baseball. You're more like the Sanjaya of 3rd basemen. Like Sanjaya, there are many people better than you but yet you stick around far too long for no discernible reason. Well, actually there is a reason, you're signed to a terrible contract which nobody will take off our hands. So, unfortunately, you are stick with the O's and we are stuck with you and your whiny ass.

[Bumped bcause this is the best news I've heard this offseason. -zk]

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The headline says it all...

"Mora mulling leaving Orioles"

MelMo, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, 'kay?

"Who the hell you callin' crazy? You wouldn't know what crazy was if Charles Manson was eatin' Fruit Loops on your front porch!" - Mike Muir, ST

by duck on Nov 8, 2007 6:45 AM EST reply actions

Jesus

Was this all it took to get him to waive that NTC and get the fuck out? Way to go MacPhail!

Friend of the Working Man

by Jonnypops on Nov 8, 2007 8:07 AM EST reply actions

re:

Mora forgot to mention his extensive playoff experience.

What money did he leave on the table? The O's gave him a pretty generous offer. They and the fans didn't expect him to decline so fast. So shut up and be grateful for the money.

I'm curious, about the not wanting to wait six years or so to get a winning team. What the hell is the alternative? This team with it's utter lack of depth is going nowhere any time soon. Best to ship out Melmo.

by drj on Nov 8, 2007 9:15 AM EST reply actions

inexcusable...

though, yeah, if he's SO put off that he'll waive ntc, so be it.

by jq higgins on Nov 8, 2007 9:36 AM EST reply actions

An astonishing statement:

"I'm one of the best third basemen in the American League and in baseball."

Let's just take a look at AL 3B with more than 350 AB. Melvin comes in:

9th in OPS
6th in AVG
8th in SLG
6th in OBP

But to be fair, Melvin does lead league 3B in....

GIDP

Friend of the Working Man

by Jonnypops on Nov 8, 2007 9:38 AM EST reply actions

To be fair...

Here are his defensive rankings (> 100 games):

T-5th in MLB in FP
======= Iwanamura (TB .975) Feliz (SF .973) Punto (MIN .973) Ramirez (CHC .972) Jones (ATL .971) Mora (BAL .971)

(ahead of Rolen, Glaus, A-Rod...)

5th in MLB in RF =========
Nunez        (PHI .3.27)
Zimmerman    (WAS 3.00)
Rolen        (STL 2.99)
Feliz        (SF 2.91)
Mora        (BAL 2.90)

(ahead of Beltre, Ramirez, Inge...)

O's Before Ho's.

by OEutaw on Nov 8, 2007 10:31 AM EST up reply actions

He didn't say....

"I'm an above average defensive third baseman." He said, "I'm one of the best third basemen in the American League and in baseball." That's just a joke and everyone (except apparently Melvin Mora) knows it.

by rebop on Nov 8, 2007 10:42 AM EST up reply actions

let's see some WARP numbers, huh?

melmo sleeps w/ the fishies!

by jq higgins on Nov 8, 2007 11:42 AM EST up reply actions

A-Rod & Boras....

must be sweating bullets now that "one of the best third basemen in the American League and in baseball" has declared his willingness to waive his no trade clause. Bet they're wishing they had just taken the extension from the Yankees, because A-Rod's value just plummeted now that Mel-Mo is on the market.

Anyway, who cares what Melvin Mora has to say anymore? Hopefully he will be saying it somewhere else soon, even if we have to eat some of his obscene contract. The important thing is he is willing to waive his no-trade clause.

Also, this doesn't deserve a diary of its own, and it's pretty obvious, but we waited one to two years too long to trade Tejada. Two years ago he was considered one of the best shortstops in the game, now teams are looking at him as an option at third base if they can't sign A-Rod, Lowell or trade for Cabrera.

Hopefully MacPhail can convince someone that all Tejada and Mora need to return to form is a change of scenery and we can get a decent return on them.

by rebop on Nov 8, 2007 10:12 AM EST reply actions

it shouldn't be too hard

to convince someone that a change of scenery will fix at least Tejada. I already believe it just looking at his exasperated face.

by elk on Nov 8, 2007 11:47 AM EST up reply actions

i think the same thing

He goes elsewhere and gains 10-15 points on the BA and a jump in power. Just because he's happier.

by drj on Nov 8, 2007 1:40 PM EST up reply actions

Maybe...

but all these teams are looking at him as a third basemen at this point and A-Rod, Lowell, Cabrera (and now possibly the mighty Mel-Mo) are all available. A lot of teams that were interested in him previously aren't anymore (at least at this point). He's seen as a second or third option for a contending club looking for an upgrade at third base now, rather than a shortstop you build your franchise around. I don't doubt he'll rebound somewhere else, but we are selling low. He should've been traded in 2006.

by rebop on Nov 8, 2007 1:58 PM EST up reply actions

Dump him

Mora has gone from one of my favorite players to one of my least favorite over the last year or so. It's not just that his production has declined. It's the poor decisions on the field and the whining off the field. I don't care who we get in return for him, I just want him gone.

by silverstadium on Nov 8, 2007 10:45 AM EST reply actions

left side of infield

the team, and the clubhouse, would (will) be considerably better off subtracting Tejada and Mora and their me-first attitudes and declining play on the field.

bring on Scott Moore and Luis Hernandez!

FUCK MASCOT MILLAR

by Dave at Bottomfeeder Baseball on Nov 8, 2007 11:34 AM EST reply actions

send him to the Yankees

I'm serious. Who cares? He, like Tejada, would be eaten alive by NY media. Also there's a real good chance Scott Moore -- though he won't ever approach Melvin's prime, probably -- is already just as good as Mora.

I think he probably got some letters from some of the friendlier and goofier Red Sox players thanking him for the bunt heard 'round Boston, Baltimore and New York, and now he thinks he's gonna get out there and mix it up on the market with A-Rod, Cabrera, Lowell and Rolen.

I can imagine Melvin Mora as a Minnesota Twin.

A TYPICAL, DISGUSTING DISPLAY!

by Scott Christ on Nov 8, 2007 12:29 PM EST reply actions

unfortunately...

in the article he said he's only consider a deal to an east coast team, which limits where we could ship him. i guess if Lowell leaves Boston and DOESN'T go to NY that would open open up two markets. but who knows, really? it's all just a guess at this point.

other east coast possibilities:

Philly: could use an upgrade (would MelMo be an upgrade over Greg Dobbs?) and is so close his family wouldn't have to move

Toronto: if Glaus is traded/suspended/doesn't recover from surgery, could be an option.

Pirates: are they east coast?

Atlanta, Florida, NY Mets, all non-starters. so the options are pretty limited. Melmo, welcome to the City of Brotherly Love, buddy!

FUCK MASCOT MILLAR

by Dave at Bottomfeeder Baseball on Nov 8, 2007 12:42 PM EST up reply actions

send him to the Pirates

by birdman on Nov 8, 2007 12:48 PM EST up reply actions

PIT is 4 hours from BAL

so it's almost as close as NY (250 miles vs 200 miles) and closer than BOS (400 miles). Toronto is 500 miles, so that's TWICE as far away as Pittsburgh.

"Who the hell you callin' crazy? You wouldn't know what crazy was if Charles Manson was eatin' Fruit Loops on your front porch!" - Mike Muir, ST

by duck on Nov 8, 2007 2:31 PM EST up reply actions

Only an east coast team?

Well last time I checked, Bowie is an east coast team. Is that not fitting for both parties?

Ahh, well, you know. Its a team effort and I guess it took every player working together to lose this one. - Doug Remer

by O face on Nov 8, 2007 7:36 PM EST up reply actions

this is just pure comedy

"The problem is you have people that have been in the big leagues for five, six years, and they think they own the Orioles," he said. "They need to fix that problem. I treat everybody the same, and it's something that I can fix if they let me fix it."

Hey, listen now, Mora has been in the league for nine years. Those six-year veterans are just posers compared to him.

What, exactly, are you going to be able to fix, Mora? Ya gonna teach the kids how to be frowny?

Mora maintained that he was "cool" with Dave Trembley, but said that he felt disrespected when the manager sat him several times in September to get a look at recently acquired Scott Moore at third base.

Yeah, Melving, God forbid a team that's trying to win actually LOOK AT ITS PROSPECTS AFTER ROSTER EXPANSION.

He was also disappointed in the manager's public criticism of enigmatic starter Daniel Cabrera. Trembley called Cabrera "unprofessional" after the pitcher threw behind the head of Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia, nearly inciting a brawl.

"What Cabrera did was wrong, and I told him that. I told him, 'You could have killed that guy.' But what [Trembley] said to the media wasn't right either," Mora said. "This is the one guy that I want to have on my team. We have five starting pitchers, and Daniel is the only guy to stay healthy and throw 200 innings. But nobody says anything about that."

See, that was a case of Melvin fixing it. Don't you get it? He told Cabrera what he'd done was wrong. Why did Trembley need to step in? Player discipline is Melvin's job; Trembley is just upposed to write the lineup cards.

I mean seriously, what planet is MelMo living on?

It's just a question of arrogant self-entitlement against drunken limp-dicked self-loathing--DaBB

by zknower on Nov 8, 2007 1:03 PM EST reply actions

Those 5 and 6 year "owners"

I loved that line. Who is M&M speaking of? The only guys I can think of are Bedard, Gibby, and Roberts. Bedard strikes me as a lone wolf in the clubhouse, but maybe that's just my impression because of how he treats the media.

I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Gibby and Roberts are the offenders, but what exactly did they do? Somehow form a clubhouse clique? Not be team leaders? What does it mean to not "treat everybody the same" the way our trusty leader MelMo does?

by silverstadium on Nov 8, 2007 1:36 PM EST up reply actions

In my head

he's talking about Brian Roberts. Now I don't think that Brian actually does anything offensive, ever, but just the fact that he's so popular and handsome and confident probably turns that sour puss Melvin off immensely so that he imagines Brian sauntering around the clubhouse like he owns the place.

by Stacey on Nov 8, 2007 2:51 PM EST up reply actions

Well we all know that Gibbons dosen't do ANYTHING

offensive.

by BENNYBIRDMAN on Nov 8, 2007 3:00 PM EST up reply actions

no, he's plenty offensive

by drj on Nov 8, 2007 4:09 PM EST up reply actions

It's because they aren't "pimpy" enough

It's just a question of arrogant self-entitlement against drunken limp-dicked self-loathing--DaBB

by zknower on Nov 8, 2007 4:33 PM EST up reply actions

Cabrera

There's just no way to defend what he did. I was glad Dave criticized him. Mora says Cabrera could have killed Pedroia, but I guess he thinks that's not such a big deal that it shouldn't have been kept in house. Anyway, what the manager says or doesn't say about other players is none of Mora's business. He gets (over)paid to play third base, not manage.

by rebop on Nov 8, 2007 1:36 PM EST up reply actions

Who the hell...

Who is this mental midget talking about? Five six years? That would be him and his buddy Miggy! They are the cancer's on this team. Send them both to Pittsburgh and let them rot away.

I mean really remove them from the lineup and I think we can still manage to win a whopping 69 games!!!

by MileHighBird on Nov 8, 2007 2:44 PM EST up reply actions

Lost in Translation?

I really hope the fact that English is not his first language is making this sound worse than it is (for Tejada's asinine-sounding comments in the past as well). Even people who are completely fluent in two languages (or more) admit that there is one language with which they express themselves best.

Maybe the cliques are native English speakers vs native Spanish speakers. If only we had native Japanese speakers, but that would imply that we actually had scouts in Asia. The persistent losing makes these natural divides wider, whereas winning has the opposite effect. This team needs diversity training! Some wins would help too.

by Cockeysville Crony on Nov 8, 2007 4:02 PM EST up reply actions

Cliques

I have heard rumors a few times that there are some rather bitter divisions in the Orioles clubhouse between the Latino and and non-Latino players. I doubt the Orioles are unique in this regard, but I imagine the chronic losing makes the split worse. When a team is losing divisions between players that would not be an issue on winning teams tend to get worse as people look for somewhere to place the blame.

by rebop on Nov 9, 2007 9:44 AM EST up reply actions

Well

add to that the tendency for white baseball players to be rednecks and for baseball players in general to not exactly be Rhodes Scholars and you've got a recipe for trouble.

Friend of the Working Man

by Jonnypops on Nov 9, 2007 10:17 AM EST up reply actions

redneck doesn't mean racist

As something of a redneck from a family of rednecks, this bothers me.

I know what you mean and everything, but believe it or not most of us don't care what color anybody is. The word does not apply to fucking Bill Riccio or any other, even more harmless, run of the mill, barstool shit talkin', never gonna actually do anything white racist. Those aren't rednecks, those are assholes, imbeciles, and white trash, and those terms aren't exclusive to an accent or a point of origin. There's a big difference.

But anyway, every major league clubhouse has a similar makeup. If there is an honest to God real problem with this for the O's, it would seem to me that something very serious should be done about it.

I don't think the idea athletes are generally stupid is necessarily true (actually, I think it's narrow-minded and pretentious), and I don't think it's a "recipe for trouble," either. It's up to the individuals involved, not just their ethnicity or where they came from, or what level of education they completed before they found out they could make a lot of money playing baseball.

You can't make a decent pie with rotten apples. If any team has a bunch of rotten individuals, that is a recipe for trouble.

A TYPICAL, DISGUSTING DISPLAY!

by Scott Christ on Nov 9, 2007 4:05 PM EST up reply actions

athlete stereotypes

"I don't think the idea athletes are generally stupid is necessarily true."

I think most people say that athletes aren't intellectually curious not necessarily stupid but that's just my impression. Stupid implies some mental deficiency while my description implies mental laziness. I wouldn't be surprised about the later, I'm skeptical about the former.

by birdman on Nov 9, 2007 4:32 PM EST up reply actions

I'll put my HS wrestling team's GPA

against the marching band any day of the week. My captain from last year is on a full academic ride this year in college and all 5 seniors are in school somewhere.

In general, I'd say, at least for HS, that athletes perform slightly ABOVE average in the classroom. I'd also say it's do more to motivation than innate ability, but the performance difference can't be put aside.

Look at any study of athletics and academics in HS. "It has been proven that high school athletes tend to have a higher grade point average (GPA) than nonathletes (Eitzen & Saga, 1993)" (source:http://www.thesportjournal.org/2001Journal/Vol4-No2/athletic-eligibility.asp)

I'm not saying it's true for professional athletes, but for HS, it's a myth - athletes aren't dumb and they do BETTER in class than their non-athlete peers.

"Who the hell you callin' crazy? You wouldn't know what crazy was if Charles Manson was eatin' Fruit Loops on your front porch!" - Mike Muir, ST

by duck on Nov 10, 2007 7:27 AM EST up reply actions

Athletes being stupid...

...is certainly a stereotype that's dogged them for ages now, sometimes it's deserved and sometimes it's not. We don't live in a world of absolutes. To tag all of them as being dumb is not my intention. The point I'm making is that baseball clubhouses are filled with men acquired for their brawn, not for their brains. This much is obvious from the comments emanating from our roster over the past few days. And this is how it should be. We're not cheering for a guy to go out to the plate and redefine quantum physics. But to get all uppity over the intellectual prowess of athletes is silly. You know good and well what I'm saying.

I'm not interested in getting into some pointless "You might be a redneck" discussion. Suffice it to say that I think it's pretty obvious a lot of pro athletes are not the most sophisticated people in the world when it comes to dealing with others, even their own teammates. You get a lot of selfishness. And a lot of it is the nature of the beast. These guys are taught to feed off their egos. To compete and to spend as much time as humanly possible working on their bodies. And they're treated like gods for their physical performance. Not mental. Not emotional.

Now there are plenty, plenty of athletes who don't fall into the emotional traps I list above. No question. But I guarantee you find a lot more pricks in your typical MLB clubhouse, particularly in this Free Agent world, then you'd find in most other work environments.

Friend of the Working Man

by Jonnypops on Nov 9, 2007 9:56 PM EST up reply actions

Ah, Melvin

You're such a fine 3rd Baseman that you make these statements that any All-Star could and would. Oh, what is that? You're not an All-Star, and haven't been, for what, ages? Oh, my bad. Well, that just means you can catch the next train outta town. And don't forget your 20 children.

by MurraysLaw on Nov 8, 2007 6:09 PM EST reply actions

shut it melvin

Your old and on a downward spiral. I hope they do trade him!

BE HAPPY DONT BE SAD THE ORIOLES CANT REALLY BE ALL THAT BAD!

by westcoastOfan on Nov 8, 2007 9:08 PM EST reply actions

the clubhouse division

i had the occasion to speak with a "baseball writer" who will remain nameless after a game last season. he indicated to me pretty strongly that Miggy and Melmo are completely oblivious to anyone else's preferences in the clubhouse and pretty much do what they want, including letting all their little kiddies run free all over the place. seems to me that would trigger a divide there all by itself.

is a major league clubhouse a place to let kids run free? is this some sort of team or league violation? what happened to the clubhouse as some sort of sanctuary. when i played in college, we certainly weren't allowed to take friends or even family in our house. of course, our coach was an old-school hard-ass.

FUCK MASCOT MILLAR and HORSESHIT HUFF

by Dave at Bottomfeeder Baseball on Nov 9, 2007 3:50 PM EST reply actions

Miggy and Melmo

"he indicated to me pretty strongly that Miggy and Melmo are completely oblivious to anyone else's preferences"

Next rumors that Clemen's name is on Mitchell's list of roid users, this is the most unsurprising news of the off season. It's amazing how much of a diva Melmo is for a guy isn't very good. As far the division between races in the clubhouse, I bet it happens in every clubhouse. I don't have a problem self segregation as long as it isn't self isolation (i.e. purposively keeping out group members out).

by birdman on Nov 9, 2007 4:29 PM EST up reply actions