Heard him justify decisions according to the validation of other organizations multiple times. When asked whether Moose and Hosmer are developing as expected, he said (among other things) he gets calls from other organizations about how good the Wilmington team is. When asked about whether mistakes were made in passing over some of the college players who have already broken in with other major league teams, he said (among other things) they picked the players “others would have picked”. He needs to realize that whenever he appeals to the wisdom of other “baseball people” he has associations with in justifying his decisions, as he did in the case of the Betancourt trade, his critics hear him 1) responding weakly and defensively and 2) disregarding other perspectives, which are obviously gaining a following as the club falters so badly.

Also heard him say “at the end of the day” several times, planting the suspicion that Dayton is actually Brian Sabean’s bastard child.

To clear up the pitch count thing, Moore said, after Soren Petro recounted Meche’s use this year and recent ineffectiveness and in some many words asked Moore if he ever tells Trey to stop abusing him because the club still owes him $24 million:

Before the season began, and long before we got to spring training, shortly after last season was over, I sat down with Trey, I sat down with Bob McClure, and I said, ‘Guys, look, here’s the deal: I want our guys, I want our starting pitchers conditioned to go deeper in games. I want them to throw more pitches,’ because I think, in 2008, I felt that we were a little, I would say, just too careful with some of our guys. And I understand what we’re trying to do. We don’t want to put anybody in a position that they’re not going to be with us in the future with where our baseball team was. So, I made that statement, I made that directive to all of our people.

I think, it’s such a feel thing, Soren, with regard to how long you leave a pitcher out there, and for me, I don’t even, during the game, I don’t even notice the pitch counts most of the time. Yeah, it’s Dean, or Jin, or Mike Arbuckle may remind or say something, or there’s something on the telecast — Arbuckle really doesn’t worry about the pitch counts either, to tell you the truth — but it’s more of who’s, you know, what the matchup is, is he free and easy, is he locating his pitches. I think it’s, with Gil, I think it’s as much as the amount of pitches he throws in one inning or over a two-inning period. If he commands his fastball better, it’s not as big an issue.

That being said, it’s something you certainly have to look at, and, you know, I felt that it was the absolute right thing to do, with Gil Meche completing the game against Arizona. Gil felt that he could continue to pitch. You rely a lot on what the pitcher is telling you, especially a veteran-type pitcher.

You know, there’s been other issues that we can all look back, and Trey would probably look back, and second-guess himself, but you know what? Sometimes the second-guessing doesn’t work either, I mean, what you would have done differently, and so forth.

But I think we can always do a better job with managing the number of pitches, and managing the match-ups and the situations better. It’s part of the learning experience with a pitcher or a particular situation. So, it’s something, you know, you’ve gotta look at.

He went on to say something about Greinke as well, no doubt because Petro mentioned Greinke in his question also, but I don’t think those comments clarify his point about the use of the starters, or how they gauge it, whatever it was, so I didn’t transcribe it.

It’s all on us. There are no excuses. But, boy, we sure have had a lot of injuries and players under performing and bad luck and we don’t have any money!

I thought, was Moore’s answer to Petro’s question about whether he could spare more time to extend the interview after Moore had commented, “I’m sure we’re running out of time.” Petro asked, “Dayton, you mentioned time… I’m fine on time; are you fine on time?”

Even though it was obvious that Dayton wasn’t really sure what Petro was talking about, he began to answer as if the question referred to the progress of rebuilding or something along those lines: “Yeah. I feel very good about…” So Petro interrupted to clarify that he was simply asking whether it was OK for the interview to continue.

I’m thinking, wow. That’s Moore now so accustomed to operating in justification & reassurance mode that he’s reciting the “I feel very good about it” speech even before he can be sure what the topic of discussion is. I think it says a ton about his true level of comfort in his position.

But, lest anyone think I’m making a mountain out of a molehill, let me offer a true molehill: Dayton, your payroll is “predicated” in part of fan attendance, not “predicted”.