It's Willson's turn

[jersey cubs fan]

What a savage. I love this guy.

 

 

Contreras is going to bring out the worst in me, I assure you.

 

Clearly you are confused by what a meatball is.

 

It's a circular, meat based food. But that's not important right now.

surely you can't be serious

[David]

What a savage. I love this guy.

 

 

Contreras is going to bring out the worst in me, I assure you.

 

Clearly you are confused by what a meatball is.

Apparently so. Please enlighten me.

 

I'm not so sure you are (confused)...in what way do you mean he's going to bring out the worst in you?

[Sammy Sofa]

A "meatball" was coined by sulley to describe a type of fan (ie - most fans) who have terrible opinions. They tend to love things like grit and guys who run out grounders and "play the game the right way." They get boners over the unwritten rules, hate showboating and fun and are generally, well, meatballish. Their idea of good players tend to be annoying little white guys like Theriot or Eckstein, while non-white players who dare to show any emotion are just lazy, selfish attention hogs who only care about padding their stats.

 

Think of how the average Cubs fans rails about Sammy despite how amazing he was. THAT's a meatball. A meatball might even love Contreras now because he's the new hotness, but if he keeps up his awesome little displays of confidence and coolness, as soon as he struggles they will LOATHE him and be calling up Barry Rozner to hurl spittle about how he's the new Aramis.

[David]

A "meatball" was coined by sulley to describe a type of fan (ie - most fans) who have terrible opinions. They tend to love things like grit and guys who run out grounders and "play the game the right way." They get boners over the unwritten rules, hate showboating and fun and are generally, well, meatballish. Their idea of good players tend to be annoying little white guys like Theriot or Eckstein, while non-white players who dare to show any emotion are just lazy, selfish attention hogs who only care about padding their stats.

 

Think of how the average Cubs fans rails about Sammy despite how amazing he was. THAT's a meatball. A meatball might even love Contreras now because he's the new hotness, but if he keeps up his awesome little displays of confidence and coolness, as soon as he struggles they will LOATHE him and be calling up Barry Rozner to hurl spittle about how he's the new Aramis.

 

sulley didn't actually coin that

[Sammy Sofa]

The hell he didn't. sulley is ground zero for a term that has taken off, and he will be forever robbed of the credit.

[Cubbie Swagger]

A "meatball" was coined by sulley to describe a type of fan (ie - most fans) who have terrible opinions. They tend to love things like grit and guys who run out grounders and "play the game the right way." They get boners over the unwritten rules, hate showboating and fun and are generally, well, meatballish. Their idea of good players tend to be annoying little white guys like Theriot or Eckstein, while non-white players who dare to show any emotion are just lazy, selfish attention hogs who only care about padding their stats.

 

Think of how the average Cubs fans rails about Sammy despite how amazing he was. THAT's a meatball. A meatball might even love Contreras now because he's the new hotness, but if he keeps up his awesome little displays of confidence and coolness, as soon as he struggles they will LOATHE him and be calling up Barry Rozner to hurl spittle about how he's the new Aramis.

Okay. Your definition of "meatball" is really strange and overly specific.

[Cubbie Swagger]

 

Clearly you are confused by what a meatball is.

Apparently so. Please enlighten me.

 

I'm not so sure you are (confused)...in what way do you mean he's going to bring out the worst in you?

I was half kidding in the sense that Sofa called me a meatball previously, but also half serious in the sense that Contreras will bring out my inner meatball with his grittiness and intensity.

[David]

A "meatball" was coined by sulley to describe a type of fan (ie - most fans) who have terrible opinions. They tend to love things like grit and guys who run out grounders and "play the game the right way." They get boners over the unwritten rules, hate showboating and fun and are generally, well, meatballish. Their idea of good players tend to be annoying little white guys like Theriot or Eckstein, while non-white players who dare to show any emotion are just lazy, selfish attention hogs who only care about padding their stats.

 

Think of how the average Cubs fans rails about Sammy despite how amazing he was. THAT's a meatball. A meatball might even love Contreras now because he's the new hotness, but if he keeps up his awesome little displays of confidence and coolness, as soon as he struggles they will LOATHE him and be calling up Barry Rozner to hurl spittle about how he's the new Aramis.

Okay. Your definition of "meatball" is really strange and overly specific.

 

No, that is exactly what it is.

[Sammy Sofa]

A "meatball" was coined by sulley to describe a type of fan (ie - most fans) who have terrible opinions. They tend to love things like grit and guys who run out grounders and "play the game the right way." They get boners over the unwritten rules, hate showboating and fun and are generally, well, meatballish. Their idea of good players tend to be annoying little white guys like Theriot or Eckstein, while non-white players who dare to show any emotion are just lazy, selfish attention hogs who only care about padding their stats.

 

Think of how the average Cubs fans rails about Sammy despite how amazing he was. THAT's a meatball. A meatball might even love Contreras now because he's the new hotness, but if he keeps up his awesome little displays of confidence and coolness, as soon as he struggles they will LOATHE him and be calling up Barry Rozner to hurl spittle about how he's the new Aramis.

Okay. Your definition of "meatball" is really strange and overly specific.

 

How have you possibly never heard of this.

[jersey cubs fan]

http://368u832brsvln0jui33yn6ny.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/28/2016/05/cleavers-organic-paleo-Parsley-Fennel-Meatballs-product-290x180.png

[Cubbie Swagger]

No, that is exactly what it is.

 

How have you possibly never heard of this.

 

All I was implying is that when I think of the word "meatball", I think of it in a much broader sense where you don't have to be quite as big of an idiot as you described.

[davell]

The hell he didn't. sulley is ground zero for a term that has taken off, and he will be forever robbed of the credit.

 

What most have forgotten, is his second choice was Corned Beef.

[jersey cubs fan]

No, that is exactly what it is.

 

How have you possibly never heard of this.

 

All I was implying is that when I think of the word "meatball", I think of it in a much broader sense where you don't have to be quite as big of an idiot as you described.

What he described was a broad definition with specific examples.

[Sammy Sofa]

No, that is exactly what it is.

 

How have you possibly never heard of this.

 

All I was implying is that when I think of the word "meatball", I think of it in a much broader sense where you don't have to be quite as big of an idiot as you described.

 

Sounds like you're on an Aristocrat bender.

[Sammy Sofa]

The hell he didn't. sulley is ground zero for a term that has taken off, and he will be forever robbed of the credit.

 

What most have forgotten, is his second choice was Corned Beef.

 

Drowned in thick onion gravy.

[minnesotacubsfan]

http://368u832brsvln0jui33yn6ny.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/28/2016/05/cleavers-organic-paleo-Parsley-Fennel-Meatballs-product-290x180.png

 

 

Meatballs are always appropriate

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Sammy Sofa]

[expletive], the original thick onion gravy post still might be my favorite thing on NSBB ever:

 

http://www.northsidebaseball.com/archive/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=52926&p=2090310&hilit=onion+gravy#p2090310

[Cubbie Swagger]

No, that is exactly what it is.

 

How have you possibly never heard of this.

 

All I was implying is that when I think of the word "meatball", I think of it in a much broader sense where you don't have to be quite as big of an idiot as you described.

 

Sounds like you're on an Aristocrat bender.

This one just went WOOSH right over my head.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

I'm totally sold on him as the starting catcher if he can be passable at the plate. I don't know about his framing yet but early returns are very high on everything else defensively.

statcorner thought he had a good game

 

oddly he lost several strikes but also added a bunch, for +2 strike calls total...but as i said before i think that ump was either screwy with his zone or plain bad

 

 

Cubs Related had a nice writeup on that: http://www.cubsrelated.com/2016/06/willson-contreras-framing-from-first.html

 

I didn't have much of a point of comparison so I pulled up Lackey's previous start in Washington, and it looked like the net strikes was about the same.

[sneakypower]

Cubs Related had a nice writeup on that: http://www.cubsrelated.com/2016/06/willson-contreras-framing-from-first.html

 

I didn't have much of a point of comparison so I pulled up Lackey's previous start in Washington, and it looked like the net strikes was about the same.

my hopes have just been 'not-Beef-Castillo-bad' so any data point that allays that fear is a welcome one

[David]

yeah...if he's at least passable as a framer i'm pretty convinced that he's going to be an all around beast

[David]

I'm totally sold on him as the starting catcher if he can be passable at the plate. I don't know about his framing yet but early returns are very high on everything else defensively.

statcorner thought he had a good game

 

oddly he lost several strikes but also added a bunch, for +2 strike calls total...but as i said before i think that ump was either screwy with his zone or plain bad

 

for anyone too lazy to look, statcorner had him at +1.40 calls per game (this is obviously a tiny sample, but yeah), which puts him slightly ahead of where ross has been, and would be good for 10th best in baseball if we're not qualifying...for 90 pitches and above, it'd be 8th...btw Miggy is #1.

 

http://www.statcorner.com/CatcherReport.php

[Aaron_Kennelly]

From my biased initial view of him, he looks like he is a natural behind the plate that just needs some polish. He's so athletic and moves around well. That tag being a good example. He also made a nice lunging snag of one Lackey threw way outside. His receiving looks fine to me, too. He's smooth with his glove. Soft landing. He can do that little deke with his glove and then hold it in place to sell it. It's the finer points that he needs to work on. Like when he got out of his crouch for some unknown reason -- something that was mentioned in the Fangraphs scouting report of him the other day. That piece also mentioned him sometimes being slow to react to balls missing up above the zone. I saw that happen when I saw him play in Iowa the other weekend. He also dropped a ball in that game, the other negative mentioned in that piece.

 

He should be able to improve that stuff with more experience and training, I would imagine. Some of that stuff just needs to be drilled into his mind. The instincts and mechanics look fine, though. But, really, if he is going to hit .300 and take walks and hit for some pop... I'm not too worried about him occasionally getting out of his crouch. I love that he's athletic and quick for a catcher, too. That fits in well with the rest of the guys -- beating out infield hits, beating out potential double plays, going first to third, etc. He just looks like the real deal. And he has a good makeup and work ethic from everything I've read. Combine that with his passion and his hit tool... yeah, just be passable at framing and you're fine with me.

[CubinNY]

From my biased initial view of him, he looks like he is a natural behind the plate that just needs some polish. He's so athletic and moves around well. That tag being a good example. He also made a nice lunging snag of one Lackey threw way outside. His receiving looks fine to me, too. He's smooth with his glove. Soft landing. He can do that little deke with his glove and then hold it in place to sell it. It's the finer points that he needs to work on. Like when he got out of his crouch for some unknown reason -- something that was mentioned in the Fangraphs scouting report of him the other day. That piece also mentioned him sometimes being slow to react to balls missing up above the zone. I saw that happen when I saw him play in Iowa the other weekend. He also dropped a ball in that game, the other negative mentioned in that piece.

 

He should be able to improve that stuff with more experience and training, I would imagine. Some of that stuff just needs to be drilled into his mind. The instincts and mechanics look fine, though. But, really, if he is going to hit .300 and take walks and hit for some pop... I'm not too worried about him occasionally getting out of his crouch. I love that he's athletic and quick for a catcher, too. That fits in well with the rest of the guys -- beating out infield hits, beating out potential double plays, going first to third, etc. He just looks like the real deal. And he has a good makeup and work ethic from everything I've read. Combine that with his passion and his hit tool... yeah, just be passable at framing and you're fine with me.

I don't think yesterday is a good indication of anything. From my very ameture point of view, at the start of the game he was obviously hyped up. He jumped around a bunch and stabbed at balls, he did not receive the ball well at all. Lackey was obviously not in sync with him. As the game wore on he looked like a different catcher than when the game started. He was receiving well, was much more calm, and he looked very good behind the plate. Overall, I would say he is very quick but not very smooth. I think he will fine.

[stitchface]

Does he really need to take his helmet off after every pitch while batting?