Bryants Disco Ball

Maybe it's because the Cubs' offense has once again mentally fatigued me, but who cares? The Cubs can't score and eventually one of our relievers will be the one to blow it.

Kyle needs to make sure he covers his mouth on those mound visits.

Hahahaha. I actually laughed.

He's 3-3, he's not gonna be a goat At the same time, all the scrutiny is about his defense. And there will be a slight focus on his two errors. There just will be. Fair or not.

Gawd, I feel awful that I don't even worry now about Starlin going back to the DR for the offseason.

Castro has been grounding into double plays recently on hit and runs, too. Maybe see if he can bunt or something.

I'll settle for a measly single if it can score a run.

Proud of KB

First pitch to KB is gonna be right down the middle, right?

Not directed at you, but it's funny if anybody suddenly thinks this offense is going to take off. Will probably be a lot like it was four days ago. But is it? They're due for better luck hitting with RISP for one. Sorry for this lazy response, but blah, blah, blah. No idea what this is supposed to mean, but between the rookies adjusting to the majors, more balls leaving the yard, and the RISP average coming around somewhat, there is every reason to believe the offense will be much improved in the 2nd half. It means that the offense has been bad for a good amount of time now, and I don't care about what should be expected to happen when while watching every day I see no changes. By all means, I so very much hope that what should happen starts happening. Until it does, it's just complete and utter noise.

Not directed at you, but it's funny if anybody suddenly thinks this offense is going to take off. Will probably be a lot like it was four days ago. But is it? They're due for better luck hitting with RISP for one. Sorry for this lazy response, but blah, blah, blah.

Outstanding play by Addison with that throw.

Not directed at you, but it's funny if anybody suddenly thinks this offense is going to take off. Will probably be a lot like it was four days ago.

Would have been cool to score a run. Oh, well. Can't expect the three, four and five hitters to come through every time.

His numbers to this point look good, but are not likely to be indicative of his true talent. During that 2 month hot start his BABIP was .436. The numbers I posted after his BABIP was like .356 or something around there. As the BABIP drops, so do his numbers, and he's exposed for being what he truly is: a no power, slap hitting, zero patience guy who relies on his speed to get base hits on his weak grounders (2nd in majors in infield hits, IIRC), and steals bags indiscriminately regardless of whether or not he should (leads majors in caught stealing). I also can't find a leader board for it, but he's probably in the Top 10, maybe even Top 5 of outs created. Castro is #1 (yay) with 276 (his number is bolded on B-R). Gordon is at 260, which I would assume is not far behind. So we might could possibly have one of the least productive middle infield offenses in history if Gordon was in the lineup instead of Russell. Also his OBP since June 1st is only 9 points higher than his batting average. His average is .286. You have to be some kind of terrible to pull that off. He's seriously Juan Pierre incarnate. And I know the discussion has moved off of Gordon, but still. Gordon is snake oil, and if he's as good as others think then the Marlins have no reason to move him, but if the Marlins end up being keen on moving him then something is rotten in the state of Denmark, IMO. This is 100 percent word for word how I feel. And people who don't like Gordon don't have to worry. Can't imagine he's this front office's type of player at all.

If he's killing it you stick him in left. What if Coghlan is tearing it up? Platoon him with Fowler in CF and pray. What if Fowler is tearing it up? Oh. Never mind.

I'm not sure any team we'd be getting a pitcher from would have that much interest.

I have to think if Theo and Jed thought it would be that bad he wouldn't be getting called up. It's a good point. Although if they thought it would be totally fine, there wouldn't be talk of him not playing every day nor would they carry three catchers again. I haven't seen one inning of his minor league work so perhaps it's an irrational fear. But I just see a bunch of passed balls, pitches in the dirt that go for wild pitches, runners stealing against him and every close pitch being called a ball instead of a strike. However, maybe that's being a tad over the top.

Hahahaha. Nice.

Have to admit I fear him as a catcher. I just always felt he'd end up our LF next year. (Which he probably still will). I just am concerned it's going to be a train wreck with him at catcher this season.

Nothing wrong with having Hendricks at the back of the rotation. I will say, however, that while I'm happy with the recent performances I don't take much from them. He has pitched against the Mets, a Staton-less Marlins team and the White Sox. A pitcher still has to perform and make pitches, but this recent stretch was set up for success.

probably more strategy in this than in the national league game You son of a bitch.

This.

Well then if you are talking about that then the increased "strategy" a pitcher must use to face a 9th quality hitter negates any lost should I pinch hit questions. Also, only idiots double switch their best hitters. Fair enough. To sum up, I'm just saying that I enjoy the different decisions a manager in the NL has to make compared to the AL, and that I like NL style of ball better. Managers in general don't mean much, but the decisions they have to make during the course of an NL game is something I find more fascinating and fun.

Yeah, sorry. This is my first one. But I will stop talking about it now, as nobody is suddenly going to change their minds.