Matt Moore got fined a nominal chunk of change by Major League Baseball on Thursday for speaking out in favor of his friend on Twitter, and if that happens to be the going cost of honesty, he will accept it. One of the great byproducts of the 23-year-old's coming-out party this season with the Tampa Bay Rays is that no longer do the shackles of rookiedom or youthfulness keep him from telling his truth.

Like, say, about the inefficiency of the restaurant business.

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"I like eating good food, but I don't like dealing with, 'Oh, it's going to be a couple minutes 'til your table is ready,' and the small talk that goes along with it," Moore said. "Like, coaxing the waiter to make sure they're not going to spit in your food. And, 'Oh, we'll take your drink order now,' even though I'm the type of person who knows what I want when I get there, so I'm ready to order first thing. And it's going to take, what, an hour and a half to eat dinner? If I'm at home, I can be done cooking and eating in like 45 minutes usually."

However Seinfeldian that may sound – Moore happily makes passing references to the show – it is an insight into the mind behind one of baseball's next great pitchers. Moore is a pragmatist, a utilitarian, a thinker at a position that demands clear-sighted consideration. He could be a thrower, what with a fastball that reaches the high 90s from a left arm that spins a slider and changeup, too. He wants more, and so he seeks it in varying places, one of which is at a nearby locker.

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The friend for whom Moore had to open his checkbook was David Price, and the more he and Moore have gotten to know one another, the more they've realized their similarities go well beyond the arm with which they throw. Following Price's tiff with umpire Tom Hallion over the weekend, Moore took to Twitter and summarily crushed Hallion. This was little brother standing up for big brother. And Moore doing his little part to repay a debt.









This is how it works with the Tampa Bay Rays: success is a trust. It is passed down from a player before he moves on, to another team and a bigger contract, and the only way the chain of winning continues is if the new generation embraces what the old teaches. James Shields gave it to Price, and Price is giving it to Moore, and soon enough, probably sometime within the next calendar year when Price is likely to get dealt, it will be Moore's responsibility to give it to those who follow him.

When Moore arrived at the end of the 2011 season, was handed a playoff start after all of 9 1/3 major league innings and proceeded to shut out the Rangers for seven innings over 98 frightening pitches, he announced, bullhorn clear, that he was the heir. Everyone in the Rays' organization knew that, Price especially, and as he cottoned to Moore he saw their likeness. Moore grew up in a military house where, as he put it, "you didn't get two wakeup calls." Price's dad, Bonnie, made him punctuate yes and no answers with "sir," lest he get a smack upside the back of his head.

Because they understood one another and enjoyed each other's company, Price knew he could talk honestly with Moore. And so twice after difficult road starts last season, Price and former Rays utilityman Jeff Keppinger joined Moore in his hotel room to discuss the art and craft of pitching. Mechanics and stuff never came up. Moore is in that echelon with Price, Clayton Kershaw, Gio Gonzalez and Chris Sale, the left-handed starter with undeniable stuff.

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