Aaron Kennelly

Much like the Brewers, they suck. Except they suck even more than the Brewers.

"Why'd you let that drop, Anthony?" "Because, like always, you put guys on first and second, Horseteeth."

Lackey better get on his plane to Detroit before Hawk finds him.

Fly it! Gimme back first place.

Javy. Yeesh.

Maybe we shouldn't freak out every time the offense fails to score 5 runs.

Hawk is irate. New York review crew has an agenda against Renteria.

Dammit, Hector.

Strike out the side, Hector. I want to see you fixed and retake 8th permanently.

Carl!

Don't let him start again, Theo.

Here we go!

Hawk said that they should meet up with Lackey and settle this after the game.

Hawk is losing his horsefeathers.

What the horsefeathers are you doing, Lackey?

Willson is horsefeathering insanely good.

If we added Verlander, barring any injuries, Hendricks/Arrieta piggyback Game 4? That might allow Kyle to get it up to 87 or so.

I'm guessing the Tigers would want to pay at least some of it to acquire a couple prospects. I think that's the only way to really allow themselves to tell their fan base that they traded Verlander. Regardless of what he is now (which still seems very good), he's a legend there. Just basically "selling" him couldn't go over well. But, I mean, if the Tigers paid some of it... would we really care about giving up a couple of these prospects to get Verlander? But yeah this is what was so great about the value of the Quintana deal is it allows something like this (especially with all the money coming off the books). Hell no, we don't care. I'm ready to ship off every single one of them for the next five years. And if any just so happen to survive, then maybe they can help us out here or there. But, I'd be fine with going that route. Money shouldn't really be an issue for a World Champion Chicago Cubs team. But if it allows us to spread it around elsewhere, that might be the best route anyway.

He looked really nasty in this game (better than 3 ER in 7 IP says). Was sitting 96-97 and hit 98 on his final pitch... pitch 119. horsefeathers them for letting him throw that many pitches (they were trying to tell themselves they were still alive in the WC race). Really it's just been the walks, and he was much better there the last 2 games. Watching this game, I wouldn't have thought anything about his command issues. Go get this guy and start him in place of Lackey on Sunday in Milwaukee. It actually makes sense for both sides to just send Lackey to Detroit in the deal to offset like $6 million in salary and so the Tigers can have an innings-eater down the stretch. Sounds good. One of the things I like about him is that he limits the long balls, which he's always been great about doing. But that is going to prove to be a vital task for pitchers for as long as the ball is juiced. And, while his HR/FB rates have gone up the last couple years, it's really only gone up at about the same rate as the whole league's has gone up. So he's still decidedly above-average at it. Plus his velocity numbers look fantastic. And he's Theo's kind of durable workhorse.

Is this what we're doing, though? Using our $ to get a guy, since we don't have the prospects? I don't know what I want or what to expect. But I kinda want Theo to just go nuts and make a couple more trades.

Verlander reminds me of David Ortiz at the end of his career, when there where multiple times each year, for like three straight years (except for -- somehow -- in his final year), when I thought he was done, and he kept coming back stronger than ever.

Also, his wRC+ was 122 in 2015 and it is 122 this year. So, basically, he's made all of these huge changes and he's no better or worse, he's just doing things completely differently.

Mike Moustakas is having the strangest few years. There were a couple Fangraphs articles that explain why he's so strange. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/instagraphs/the-biggest-change-in-approach-that-weve-seen/ http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/mike-moustakas-swings-for-the-fences/ Basically, he'd always been a dead-pull fly ball hitter, but he never hit for enough power, and made a lot of weak contact and popped the ball up all the time, leading to really low BABIPs and overall just shitty numbers. But, in 2015 he started going the other way a lot and wasn't hitting the ball in the air all the time. And he was hitting over .300 and having his first good season offensively. I remember watching a game and the announcers were talking to him about how hard he worked on changing his approach. But then at mid-season, he went back to being a dead-pull fly ball hitter, except he was actually good at it this time, and he hit for a ton of power. And his first-half numbers and second-half numbers were of similar value; he was just trading some BA and OBP for slugging. Then, he got hurt last year. But, in 113 PA, he was kind of similar to the mixture he had in 2015, not as many fly balls, not as much pulling, with a poor BABIP, and lots of power. But, he also became a lot more selective. Last year, he swung at 22.2% of pitches outside of the zone, which was over 10% less than his previous career low. Then he comes back this year, and he's back to hitting the ball in the air and pulling it at the levels of his most extreme, except he's already hit 29 homers. But, now he is swinging at everything. It's the most extreme shift in approach from year-to-year since they started tracking plate discipline. He is swinging at 57.3% of pitches overall and 42.3% on pitches out of the zone. Javy, for his career, has swung at 42.3% of pitches out of the zone. Moustakas was at 22.2% the year before. Ben Zobrist is at 22.7% for his career. He went from having Ben Zobrist's approach to having Javy's over one off-season. The really strange thing to me is that he was a horrible hitter for years while singing for the fences, then changed his approach and became a good hitter. And he changed back to what made him horrible, except he did it basically right at the All-Star break in 2015, which is when the juiced balls were introduced. What kind of serendipity is that?

Scooter Gennett is hitting .316/.365/.607. He's hit 18 homers in 263 PA.