Aaron Kennelly

I still can't believe Schwarber hit that 449 feet. He slapped at it. What the hell kind of freakish power does he have?

Check swing, 450-foot dong.

DONGS!

It's actually shocking that it took 5 inning for Lackey to give up a homer to this lineup and in this park.

I thought this was Coors 2.0? Some of these need to start getting out.

What was his velo at in college?

There ya go, KB.

Cards lead down to 6-5.

That works. Not much more you can ask than for Lackey to pitch like horsefeathers but somehow not give up runs.

Oh god are they so bad that I've entered the Fred Zone?

Yeah you pretty much had to not notice that for me to have a chance. I'm out of transactions so I can't replace Contreras Never say never! One of my players is Kris Bryant, so I'm basically playing a man down also.

D-backs are Cobbing.

Cubbies strike first!

The Brewers are about to drop to .500. 52-41 to 59-59. Ouch. I might have been overselling them when I gave them 75 wins.

Cards suck, too. Give it a week and they'll implode.

Drop Willson Contreras and add Logan Morrison.

please don't cob

I'm probably the biggest hypocrite ever, since I help coach high school football, which is probably even worse than the NFL, since they're just kids. But I've definitely been turned off by the NFL. The concussion issue is definitely a huge part of it, but like Sofa said, it's the morality of the league in general. I've just slowly been turned off by all of it -- the concussions, domestic violence, the catering to their lowest common denominator fan base, and on and on. I've never been a huge football fan anyway, though. And I'll still watch a football game if it's on and I have nothing better to do. But I pay no attention to it outside of when the season is going on. I pay very little attention while it's going on. I still think a good game is fun though, because sports are fun. And I don't think too much about all of the players' brains being turned to mush while a game is going on. There was a play last year where a guy got hit really hard and knocked loopy and he started crying. That was incredibly sad to watch.

I think Wilson is going to be just fine. I think he's really good. And he'll be dominant and we'll forget all about this start. I also think his fastball is nasty, even if we haven't been able to pick up on it. As was said earlier, he has the highest whiff% of all lefties with his four-seam this year: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/pitchfx/leaderboards/index.php?hand=&reportType=pfx&prp=ALL&month=&year=2017&pitch=FA&ds=ws&lim=200 It was also 4th highest of all lefties last year: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/pitchfx/leaderboards/index.php?hand=&reportType=pfx&prp=ALL&month=&year=2016&pitch=FA&ds=ws&lim=200 11th highest of all lefties in 2015: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/pitchfx/leaderboards/index.php?hand=&reportType=pfx&prp=ALL&month=&year=2015&pitch=FA&ds=ws&lim=200 8th highest of all lefties in 2014: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/pitchfx/leaderboards/index.php?hand=&reportType=pfx&prp=ALL&month=&year=2014&pitch=FA&ds=ws&lim=200 So, yeah, it's always been pretty nasty. And I'm not so worried about his off-speed stuff. Looking at the two guys that are most similar to him: Sean Doolittle and Jake McGee, he seems like he's even better with his fastball than them. They all throw four-seam fastballs, like, 90% of the time. They're lefties. They have similar stuff on their fastballs. They are all good. But Wilson's fastball is better. For 2017: Wilson: 11.77 (inches) vertical movement, 5.5 horizontal movement, 96.6 mph avg. velocity McGee: 9.74 vertical, 6.39 horizontal, 95.55 velo Doolittle: 11.23 vertical, 4.08 horizontal, 94.99 velo It might be because his movement is coming vertically that we can't tell how nasty it is? This year he has the 3rd-most vertical movement on it: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/pitchfx/leaderboards/index.php?hand=&reportType=pfx&prp=ALL&month=&year=2017&pitch=FA&ds=vmov&lim=200 Of 349 pitchers with 120 inning pitched since the start of 2015, he has had the 7th-most vertical movement, the 57th-most horizontal movement, and the 37th-highest velocity: http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=pit&lg=all&qual=120&type=12&season=2017&month=0&season1=2015&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0 http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=pit&lg=all&qual=150&type=11&season=2017&month=0&season1=2014&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&page=2_30 http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=pit&lg=all&qual=120&type=10&season=2017&month=0&season1=2015&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&page=2_30 Of 384 pitchers that have thrown at least 500 pitches this year, his four-seam spin rate is 34th highest, too: https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/statcast_search?hfPT=FF%7C&hfAB=&hfBBT=&hfPR=&hfZ=&stadium=&hfBBL=&hfNewZones=&hfGT=R%7C&hfC=&hfSea=2017%7C&hfSit=&player_type=pitcher&hfOuts=&opponent=&pitcher_throws=&batter_stands=&hfSA=&game_date_gt=&game_date_lt=&team=&position=&hfRO=&home_road=&hfFlag=&metric_1=&hfInn=&min_pitches=500&min_results=0&group_by=name&sort_col=spin_rate&player_event_sort=h_launch_speed&sort_order=desc&min_abs=0#results It's definitely nasty.

Nah, he's in good hands here... Just ignore that I started the Schwarber thread, too. So Mojo is banned from starting any more player threads. http://a.fod4.com/misc/swansonsmile1.gif

we got the whole 9 vs duke silver yeah, the point spread on that one is astronomical To be fair, as We Got the Whole 9 said, I do agree with him that those things are products of him struggling. I just don't agree that "He isn't hitting line drives, ipso facto, something is wrong with his swing or approach." I would contend that those things really don't tell us anything, other than that they've resulted in a bad year for Bryant.

I can't wait for the sizzling Rick Morrissey take that is coming tomorrow.

Freddie Freeman's LD% is down 5% this year. His hard-hit% is down 8%. He's hitting .316/.416/.644. And, I'm not saying these aren't problems for Bryant. I definitely think they have been. Way too many grounders. Isn't hitting the ball as hard. But, he could just be having a down year. It doesn't have to be a swing change problem. And it doesn't have to be some mental issue in high leverage situations. Or some part of his game pitchers can exploit. It could just be a down year.

You've got to quit inferring so much from stuff like LD%. It's crazy unstable. It does do a really good job of explaining why things have happened. But it's hard to use contact quality stats to tell us much going forward. Remember when Miguel Sano and Aaron Judge were BABIP'ing over .400 and making no weak contact and you were going gaga over them and proclaiming that Judge was going to BABIP over .400 all year?