Aaron Kennelly

Nice

Lester's in mid-season form in barking at the ump.

That one poster here (can't remember which one) is going to be so angry.

I love Willson so much.

That worked well. Let's keep that narrative going.

Good start, Jon. These guys are hopeless.

I really need a non-national Lester start so I don't have to hear about his relationship with Contreras anymore.

I need it in gif form so I can repost it forever.

Well, that was awesome.

I'm really going to enjoy the Cardinals losing 90 games the right way this year.

I think my total was incorrect. Did you catch that I had edited my lineup before the deadline to switch out Byung-ho Park for Yasiel Puig?

That game was surreal. Just a very weird vibe. I don't know why but I felt upbeat going into it, despite also being distraught. And then Eddie put me at ease. I felt really good about our chances after we won that game.

Can Dex bunk with you, TT?

Was it BP who ranked Buxton over KB on their list of best players under 25 last year, during KB's MVP season?

Honestly, I couldn't be any happier with what's happened so far. I didn't have many concerns heading into the season. I was especially bullish on the young position players. I have a ton of confidence in Schwarber, Almora, Baez, Contreras, and Russell. I think Almora is going to be a solid everyday player because of his defense giving up a good baseline. I was even more enthusiastic when he hit for a bunch of power this spring. The same line of thinking applies to Baez and his defense -- plus he has so much talent that I'm just assuming he gets better in certain ways, here and there, with no basis for this belief other than that he is Javy and he can do whatever the horsefeathers he wants. Contreras is going to be a star, I am sure of it. Russell, too, if he isn't already. And he's going to slug the hell out of the ball. Schwarber is going to dominant at the plate. His defense won't even matter; he'll be that great of a hitter. So what might be normal concerns -- the young guys -- aren't for me. My concerns were more along the lines of: Well, we have a really nice 'pen, but relief pitchers are stupid and unreliable and we have some that could possibly be broken. And Jake was kinda shitty for a good part of the year last year. What if he turns into complete horsefeathers? And Lackey is old. And who knows about our fifth starter? Plus Heyward is trash. And, now... the bullpen looks great. Jake has been fantastic. Heyward is off to a great start, And, well, I really don't have any concerns anymore.

Honestly, I never even entertained the idea of Heyward being "fixed" or whatever. It was just easier to remember how good we were even with him being so horrible last year. I'm trying not to get my hopes up yet, but my god we'd be unstoppable.

He's swung 36 times and has only whiffed twice. 94.4% contact%. Lots of stuff to like with him right now. Him hitting the ball that hard five times in one game is shocking.

How do you check these? You have to go to mlb.com and click on Gameday for the game. Once there, if you click on the "Feed" tab, you can get statcast data on exit velocities.

Exit velocities for Heyward today: 99, 97, 101, 100, 96

Oh my god, he might actually be fixed. Screw you Brewers again, though.

Happ's blocked too don't you think? Javy's probably going to be the everyday 2B next year and Zobrist will become the utility guy. Happ could take La Stella's spot but how much playing time could Happ hope to get unless he plays in the OF. There's going to be injuries. Happ can move into the utility role or into the everyday spot of whoever gets hurt. His versatility gives us even more options. Also, after Almora proves to be a 5-win player this year, then there is no need for Jon Jay, and Heyward kinda takes over Jay's role, which allows more time for Happ/Bryant/Zobrist/whoever in the the outfield, which opens up more PAs for Happ, coming from wherever.

From the start of June through the post-season last year, Jake failed to give us 6 innings in 11 of his 24 starts. He only had three starts during the 2015 regular season in which he didn't give us 6 innings, none after June 16. He's given us at least 6 in both of his first two starts, without throwing 100 pitches in either game.

Exactly how I feel. And I'm pretty sure he could dial it up to 95 too if he wanted to, tbh. Did anyone hear him on Waddle and Silvy the other day? They asked about his velocity and gave him an out asking if he's holding something back after a long postseason last year etc and his answer was something like "I don't really care what I'm throwing as long as I'm getting people out" Everyone kept coming to Jake last year with stuff people had been noticing, asking him what's wrong, how's he going to fix it, etc. And every time, he was like, "Whatever. I'm just going out and doing my thing, yada yada yada." We'll never get an answer from him about what's actually going on. He's the last person to ask. So it'll be left to a million people to posit ideas about his velocity this year.

The new market inefficiency is that every pitcher throws under 90 mph.

Then those two stupid losses are going to be really frustrating when we look back as we track down 117 wins.