Aaron Kennelly

dammit CB

I'm glad all this stupid BABIP crap is happening in a game we've already scored 6 runs.

Really shocking that Vinestal and Ski wildly appeared and made their presence known the last two innings.

Feels like I'm wearing nothing at all... nothing at all... nothing at all.

http://www.reactiongifs.us/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/it_isnt_fair_love_other_drugs.gif

Stop being boring.

Hey, be easy on the guy. He's already given up two runs and now you have to bring up his OPS falling below .700?

Especially their two young supposed studs, who aren't really. I like Martinez, don't see it with Wacha. Yep. Martinez could be. He isn't yet. Wacha is incredibly overrated. He's a nice pitcher, but not like some people think.

Especially their two young supposed studs, who aren't really.

What's this nonsense?

Hell yes!

Loading the bases for Zobrist probably isn't a good idea.

YES!

Give them the hope of beating Arrieta for like ten minutes, and then rip it away.

There we go.

Great job working that walk, Seal Boy. I don't know how he laid off of the 2-2 pitch.

Oh look, Ben Zobrist is on base again.

Yeah, from a super simplistic standpoint it feels a lot like when Castro would show "more patience" when all that meant is he was literally going to take some pitches no matter what and then start flailing to stay alive as opposed to actually seeing the ball well or better. Eerily similar. There are little differences that give me hope here, though. This could be me just blowing smoke or I might be showing my naiveté, but I retain some hope. Starlin was already pretty established as a big league player. He was still really young. But, he'd had some success with his own approach. So he may have been more reticent to make those changes. Javy is still developing, still finding out who he is. He was willing to change his swing to make more contact, and it worked. He knows he's sucked. So maybe he will be willing to make a concerted effort at improving in this regard. Starlin never really changed anything about himself. Throughout his young career, he was asked to change a lot of things. (And some of this stuff was stupid and frivolous.) But he was asked, "Hey, maybe be a little more attentive in the field. Or, hey, how about hustling grounders out." Nope. Starlin remained Starlin until the end. Some guys are who they are. There are a rare few who can change their identity. Who knows how to recognize these guys, though. Maybe Javy is one that can. I wouldn't put it past him. There are very few things the man can't do physically. Maybe with enough work the talent will shine through.

Could be. But I don't think this is really the reason for the lessened power, or at least it's not wholly responsibly for it. If you look at where Javy's gain in contact is coming from, it's on balls out of the zone. His contact on balls in the zone was up a little last year, but it is actually down some this year. It's his contact% on balls out of the zone that is way up, from 42.2% in 2014 to 69.3% this year. So I think the swing changes have helped him be able to cover more of the plate. He's also able to fight pitchers off. And he's able to at least not strike out on bad pitches that he chases. But, it's also much more difficult to be authoritative on balls out of the zone. This would explain the increase in weak contact -- he's making more contact on pitches that are likely to induce weak contact. So is this a bad thing? Well, I don't think so. It's nice that he is making more contact, regardless of where he is making those contact improvements. Being able to fight pitchers off and just putting more balls in play is a good thing. But here's the problem: Javy is swinging at more balls out of the zone than ever before. His plate discipline hasn't improved at all. It's actually worse. It might not look quite as bad, because he isn't flailing away at breaking balls he has no chance of hitting. Now he is at least putting those pitches in play. But, when you are swinging at as much junk as Javy and putting it in play more often, you aren't going to hit for as much power. That's the next step. The swing improvements are nice. It's a start. He couldn't survive making contact as rarely as he was. And he's improved there. He also probably can't survive with his plate discipline. So now we need him to improve there. It's a process. He's got another step or two to make still.

The one thing that has pissed me off the most is when he lets a ball go right down the pipe for a strike and then he swings at some junk way inside that jams him and he pops it up. He's done a variation of this several times lately. It's like he's telling himself he is going to be patient and get ahead in the count. And he just isn't going to swing at the first pitch. And then when it goes by, he says, "horsefeathers it, I'm not letting that happen again." And so he turns to Hacking Javy, but only after he already gets down in the count. Suffice it to say, that's not a good approach.

That was a lot of fun. Keep doing that.

Jorge Soler: Incredibly Handsome and Possibly At Least Replacement-level

Who has been more valuable the last two years, Jake Arrieta or Butters?

I don't. Send him packing and sign Matusz. Then again, I don't really care.

Oh horsefeathers, Eloy just hit another dinger.