Aaron_Kennelly

If you build it, dongs will come.

Schwarber should have came up to bat as the tying run. Get it together, blue.

yuck

Get out of here with this weak horsefeathers, Arroyo.

horseshit call

How about another Heyride?

Rizz!

So Pierce Johnson is getting ground balls and a ton of K's, but, yeesh, those walks. Zagunis seems to be coming around. Over his last 6 games, he's homered twice, walked 6 times, and only struck out 3 times. He needs to get his BABIP to come back around. But, I think he'll put up some good numbers this year.

http://deadspin.com/boston-sports-radio-host-gets-into-heated-argument-with-1794563842 This guy's co-host is a certain Kris Bryant-hating Boston idiot. Wow, that show sounds like torture.

I'm sure I've forgotten about others -- now that I remember Adam Warren being a pile of dog crap. But, I still Think Theo's probably batting about .950 here.

That's a good one. That's exactly what I'm looking for. Also, Adam Warren reverse-Coghlan'd us.

RIP Brett Jackson Yeah, that's the other thing about when he took over. The farm was bad. But, in hindsight, it was worse than everyone thought. Vitters, Jackson, McNutt, etc. None of the guys panned out. There was no help at the upper levels. Baez and Willy came along. Vogelbach was able to be used in a trade. But they were so far away. There was simply no way to win during those years unless a Jackson or a Vitters panned out.

Yeah, but LeMahieu was a prospect, and who knows what will happen with them. I'm talking more specifically about knowing when to cash out. And on a lesser level when to randomly buy-in on a guy like Coghlan or Valbuena -- which Stewart would fit into. But, he's obviously going to miss on those lottery ticket guys more often. It's the cashing out part where I think he's been uncanny, though. Has there been one guy who was with our big league club, left and got better since Theo's been here? The big league club was a bit of a mess when he got here, to be fair. The only feasible asset that could potentially still be better going forward is Castro, but last year was not good for him. We've traded a few more players that weren't old since we started going for it, though. There are other guys who we could've looked back at as trades that bit us in the ass. Welington Castillo, Dan Straily, Valbuena, Alcantara, Junior Lake... Soler could be in the future (he won't). And none of the proven veterans have rebounded and put together a good year after leaving, that I know of. They've all basically just died. You have guys like Emilio Bonifacio and Jason Motte, who were on their death beds, coming here and being decent, and then being below replacement-level after leaving. But there's no guys we took a chance on, discarded and then saw a renaissance. The LeMahieu trade is the one objectively bad trade. And I know Theo's lamented not knowing enough about our organization when he got here. But, with the random moves, the non-core guys, the supplemental veterans or non-prospects, there's no guy who got away too early.

Yeah, but LeMahieu was a prospect, and who knows what will happen with them. I'm talking more specifically about knowing when to cash out. And on a lesser level when to randomly buy-in on a guy like Coghlan or Valbuena -- which Stewart would fit into. But, he's obviously going to miss on those lottery ticket guys more often. It's the cashing out part where I think he's been uncanny, though. Has there been one guy who was with our big league club, left and got better since Theo's been here?

It's uncanny. And it's not just that he understands, oh that guy was lucky or had a fluky BABIP or something, or that he gets rid of guys before they get old and fall apart. He is somehow able to figure this horsefeathers out for guys with no "tell" in their age or stats. The Coghlan timeline is the absolute weirdest horsefeathers. How it that possible?

I get a twisted satisfaction out of seeing former Cubs immediately turning to suck after leaving here. And it's not that I don't like guys like Wood and Fowler. I really liked them both and will always look back fondly on their whole time with the Cubs. But, Theo is such a freak. He always cashes out his shares at the right moment. And he rarely buys in at a wrong moment, save for Edwin Jackson (and we'll see how Heyward works out). But, seriously, look at all the random guys we've had under Theo that have given us the best years of their careers. Fowler gave us what were, by far and away, his best two seasons, left after those two seasons and has been bad. Samardzija turned to horsefeathers. Garza turned to horsefeathers. It's even happened in-season. Hammel was good, then was traded and turned to horsefeathers with the A's. He re-signed over the winter and was good again. And he'll assuredly turn to horsefeathers with the Royals. Coghlan randomly gave us two 3-win seasons. Then he was traded before the next season and turned to horsefeathers, posting -1.5 WAR with his new team. Theo trades to get him back and he gets on base at a .391 clip and is worth a win in a part-time role for second-half of the season. He leaves and can't even make the Phillies roster in Spring Training.

The fascinating thing about people's perception of Heyward to me is that somehow they think he has been and always will be awful offensively, like he's never provided value there, so there's no reason to think he ever will. It's weird. From my interactions with non-saber-friendly people, him sucking last year was complete vindication that sabermetrics are wrong. It was like everyone else always knew he sucked, except for saber people. And then saber people still thought he was awesome, even though he sucked. I'm like, uh no, sabermetrics concur that he sucked last year.

Ah, it's the guy who took Travis Wood's spot -- who by the way has a 13.50 ERA, 7.82 FIP, and 8.10 xFIP.

It's got to be Arrieta, right?

The development of Addy and Contreras is fun to see. The really isn't any serious weakness position/batting wise on the team if we are judging them rationally. If the starters come around, which they should, this team can basically stand pat at the deadline, no problem. Yeah, and I guess things weren't so easy last year. We had that bad stretch before the All-Star Break, and then Arrieta went from god-mode to whatever you want to call 2016 Arrieta. And Heyward was, well, horrible. And injuries could easily dampen my enthusiasm. But, I'm sensing a whirlwind of good timing this year. Practically all of these position players are really good, and nearly all of them are really young, but now they have experience. We might be getting prime years from the whole lineup. And I'm encouraged by Arrieta in the early going.

In all honesty, I think this is a better team than last year's team. (My opinion on that may change, depending on how Hendricks looks going forward.) But it's going to be awfully hard to replicate those results. I mean, we won 103 games, won the World Series, had a crazy run differential and everything. I don't think we were lucky last year. But... it was all so very easy. That might not be the case this year. But I do feel this team might be better, with the addition of Schwarber, Heyward looking fixed, and the young guys seeming like they are improving.

That's just the baseline, so we can break the record. I actually think we'll win 135. I feel like you're pushing it now. But you are right more than wrong, so...... It was 140, but I've tempered my expectations after the slow start.

The problem with this sarcasm - which I did enjoy - is it's actually true. Imagine when they play the way they are capable and are firing on all cylinders. They can win the 118 Duke is predicting. That's just the baseline, so we can break the record. I actually think we'll win 135.

We are playing at a 95-win pace, and the reigning NL MVP is 11th on the team in wOBA: http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=0&type=8&season=2017&month=33&season1=2017&ind=0&team=17&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&sort=15,d And the World Series MVP is 12th.