8/3: DBags (Greinke) @ WC Cubs (Quintana) 1:20 on CSN and MLBN

[David]

lol of course the wind shifts just in time to keep rizzo's in

[NotSoSober]

horsefeathers ass Wrigley. I Hope it rains

[Sammy Sofa]

Look, I'm not like that weirdo that thinks Bryant is some kind of choke artist...but his season is shaping up to be a relative disappointment, yes? I mean, as "disappointing" as a 5 WAR season can be; it's just not exactly what I think any of us were expecting from him.

[David]

Look, I'm not like that weirdo that thinks Bryant is some kind of choke artist...but his season is shaping up to be a relative disappointment, yes? I mean, as "disappointing" as a 5 WAR season can be; it's just not exactly what I think any of us were expecting from him.

 

no? what?

[Derwood]

Look, I'm not like that weirdo that thinks Bryant is some kind of choke artist...but his season is shaping up to be a relative disappointment, yes? I mean, as "disappointing" as a 5 WAR season can be; it's just not exactly what I think any of us were expecting from him.

 

his OPS is with a few points of his career total, so....no? Unless you expected the reigning MVP to make another large leap in production

[Aaron_Kennelly]

Just call it. Can't play in these conditions.

[David]

i don't think i could say disappointing 5 WAR season with a straight face unless i was talking about mike trout...and even then

[Sammy Sofa]

Look, I'm not like that weirdo that thinks Bryant is some kind of choke artist...but his season is shaping up to be a relative disappointment, yes? I mean, as "disappointing" as a 5 WAR season can be; it's just not exactly what I think any of us were expecting from him.

 

his OPS is with a few points of his career total, so....no? Unless you expected the reigning MVP to make another large leap in production

 

Nah, I just wouldn't have expected him to "only" be a 5 WAR player this year. Again: relative disappointment.

[Andy]

Flood the damn place

[Sammy Sofa]

i don't think i could say disappointing 5 WAR season with a straight face unless i was talking about mike trout...and even then

 

Man, I used quotation marks and context and everything to keep it clear and you still blip-blorped all over the damn place.

[David]

so glad we could have started this though

[David]

i don't think i could say disappointing 5 WAR season with a straight face unless i was talking about mike trout...and even then

 

Man, I used quotation marks and context and everything to keep it clear and you still blip-blorped all over the damn place.

 

there's no context that can make your sentiment make any sense. it's nonsense. no, he isn't disappointing me in the least.

 

the only reason his WAR isn't on pace with previous years is his defense isn't grading out as well, and i'm not going to put too much stock into big year to year fluctuations like that that can't really be explained. that and the boost he usually gets from baserunning, which is also highly nebulous.

 

 

edit - he also played a LOT more OF last year where he graded out super well.

Edited August 3, 2017 by David

[Aaron_Kennelly]

Fun day.

[BigbadB]

If they can't just postpone it, at least make it long enough that Grienke can't go anymore.

[BigSlick]

Look, I'm not like that weirdo that thinks Bryant is some kind of choke artist...but his season is shaping up to be a relative disappointment, yes? I mean, as "disappointing" as a 5 WAR season can be; it's just not exactly what I think any of us were expecting from him.

There's basically no way a .900+ OPS season can be a disappointment so I'm not really sure what you're expecting. I expect Bryant to get better and better, but players performance doesn't fit a nice curve up and down with their peak and decline. And he's really really good and nearly putting up the same numbers as last year except with apparently a decline in his defense right now so I'm not getting it.

[Sammy Sofa]

i don't think i could say disappointing 5 WAR season with a straight face unless i was talking about mike trout...and even then

 

Man, I used quotation marks and context and everything to keep it clear and you still blip-blorped all over the damn place.

 

there's no context that can make your sentiment make any sense. it's nonsense. no, he isn't disappointing me in the least.

 

Of course there is; relative to what I was expecting from someone as good as baseball as Kris Braynt, I was not expecting to see that much of a drop in player value. Again, I intentionally said "relative disappointment" for a reason.

 

the only reason his WAR isn't on pace with previous years is his defense isn't grading out as well, and i'm not going to put too much stock into big year to year fluctuations like that that can't really be explained. that and the boost he usually gets from baserunning, which is also highly nebulous.

 

 

edit - he also played a LOT more OF last year where he graded out super well.

 

And that goes a long way to explaining why it's swung so much vs. someone like, say, Rizzo. Thanks!

[Sammy Sofa]

Look, I'm not like that weirdo that thinks Bryant is some kind of choke artist...but his season is shaping up to be a relative disappointment, yes? I mean, as "disappointing" as a 5 WAR season can be; it's just not exactly what I think any of us were expecting from him.

There's basically no way a .900+ OPS season can be a disappointment so I'm not really sure what you're expecting.

 

I guess I was, simplistically, expecting something between an 8+ WAR season and a 5 WAR season. I was surprised to look him up on Fangraphs and see that it projected out to that much of a shift; I was expecting to see him end up something like a 7+ WAR value.

[Aaron_Kennelly]

I'd say he has been a relative disappointment. He hasn't hit with as much thump as I'd expect. Fewer homers than you'd expect when the whole league is whacking dongs.

 

He's just been a little off. Not hitting it as hard. Hitting more grounders. More grounders have led to a few more DPs, too, which has affected base running numbers.

 

Defense, like David said, eh, not worried at all. He's dropped a little. Perhaps should expect some regression to the mean in base running and defense. But I think he's equally likely to be as good as he was the last two years in both.

 

He is being more selective at the plate, though. And he's making a lot more contact. So those are very good signs for the future. So, while I do agree that he has been a relative disappointment, it hasn't been enough that I even care, since I think he's made strides that could make him even better.

[David]

he should just go back to pulling everything and he'll hit more dongs

[Sammy Sofa]

I was surprised to see the defensive numbers; it speaks more to how relatively little I've seen of them this year, but I was expecting him to grade out pretty well at 3B again. I mean, the team as a whole had a pretty obvious and unexpected downturn at 3B, but I was assuming his wasn't as drastic for whatever reason.

 

In no way was I thinking this was indicative of how he was going to be for the rest of his career, nor would it mean that he was now bad. It just wasn't what I was expecting to see at all. Like, if a guy who was a 5.2 WAR player one season and a 2 WAR player the next, you'd presumably be wondering, "uhhhh, what happened?"

[imb]

Umm yeah, Bryant's power has been a big disappointment. Overall he's obviously still excellent, but he could be sexcellent.

[BigSlick]

I think one of the reasons the first half was rough, other than the starting pitching, was that almost none of the young players got better, which we reasonably could have expected at least some of them would. They all either tread water or had a little slippage in production (or a nearly lost season for Schwarber, who has turned it around in a large way since the break). Edited August 3, 2017 by BigSlick

[Aaron_Kennelly]

I was surprised to see the defensive numbers; it speaks more to how relatively little I've seen of them this year, but I was expecting him to grade out pretty well at 3B again. I mean, the team as a whole had a pretty obvious and unexpected downturn at 3B, but I was assuming his wasn't as drastic for whatever reason.

 

In no way was I thinking this was indicative of how he was going to be for the rest of his career, nor would it mean that he was now bad. It just wasn't what I was expecting to see at all. Like, if a guy who was a 5.2 WAR player one season and a 2 WAR player the next, you'd presumably be wondering, "uhhhh, what happened?"

 

I'd say the main culprit is that he is valuable in a number of ways. Like, if Miguel Cabrera has an off year (which he has this year), it would be very obvious since all he does is hit. But, Bryant is very good at a number of things. And they've all conspired to be just a little worse this year. They might look like nothing more than rounding errors on the surface. But, taken together, all these things he's just a little worse at have led to an off-year. So it sneaks up on you. But it isn't as much of a worry going forward as if a guy that could only hit -- ahem, Schwarber -- forgot how to hit.

[Brian707]

Hopefully Greinke can't go and they put Tuesday's pitchers in

[Aaron_Kennelly]

Oh no, it stopped raining.