Aaron_Kennelly

It's too bad more fans didn't show up for the Chris Guccione Show tonight.

Y'all thought this show was over!?

http://gifrific.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/ron-swanson-computer-throw-out-parks-and-rec.gif

The big difference for me is that a lot of people don't know the dangers of boating. Everyone knows the dangers of drinking and driving. When you get into a car drunk and drive, you know that you are horsefeathering up. Fernandez might not have realized how dangerous being in that boat was.

hahaha... go horsefeathers yourself, Rodriguez.

Grimm's sucked lately. Weird year for him.

So this ended up being an amazing trade. Coghlan's been worth a full win in 119 PA. He's been good defensively, despite me still having no faith in him out there. His BB% with the Cubs is 16.8%. His OBP is over .400. And he just looks much better lately. He was doing that weird thing where he was backing away from pitches that were on the outside of the zone. And his swing looked like junk when he came over here. But he seems locked in right now. To see the biggest reason for his improvements, look at his 15-game rolling average on Contact%: http://www.fangraphs.com/graphs.aspx?playerid=6878&legend=1,2&statArr=107&split=base&time=game&ymin=&ymax=&start=2016&end=2016&rtype=single&gt1=15 He went from a guy that I was fine with just releasing to a guy I am more than fine with starting in the playoffs.

I'm sure a lot of it is by design. At least with Jon Lester, I'm confident that is a big reason why he was signed. But, judging by how freaked out Theo was about starting pitching health in that article from last week, it's definitely not totally by design. It never can be.

No question about it, I'm rooting for the Nationals in that series.

This article made me very jealous of the Red Sox offense (as it's over twice as good as ours) But I guess second best with one of the best defenses and pitching staffs in history will have to do Meh. I've been pretty pissed about not having as good of an offense, but I'm over it. Also, I'm probably just trying to contort the numbers to rationalize things. But, I don't think the gap is actually too big. For one thing, we have pitchers hitting. That's a biggie. And, speaking of pitchers hitting, we are being held back a little more even, because our pitchers have been so good. Our starters have thrown more innings than any other team's. So they are going to be in games longer and pick up more ABs. And, since our offense is good and guys are constantly on base, we'll cycle through the order faster. And that means even more ABs for our pitchers. Our pitchers have taken 388 PAs -- the most in the league. The Nationals' pitchers are second with 361. The Giants are the only other team with at least 325. The Nationals' pitchers have taken 6.01% of their total PAs, which is the second-highest amount. Ours have taken 6.34%. That's pretty significant. Take out the pitchers' ABs, and it looks a lot closer. http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=np&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=0&type=8&season=2016&month=0&season1=2016&ind=0&team=0,ts&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&sort=16,d And I think the Red Sox are getting a big boost by playing in Fenway. Wrigley has been really pitcher-friendly this year. I think we've had a lot more games with the wind blowing in than usual (as was the case last year, too, I believe). And Fenway has been incredibly hitter-friendly this year. We've had, by far, the better offense on the road this year. http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=np&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=0&type=1&season=2016&month=16&season1=2016&ind=0&team=0,ts&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&sort=9,d I'm not sure if this could be proven, or if anyone's looked into it at all. But I think Fenway is pretty much the perfect place for that team, especially in this environment. They have a bunch of really good hitters. And they have a bunch of righties with line-drive strokes (Pedroia, Bogaerts, Betts). Those guys are perfect for pounding the ball off the Green Monster. And I suspect they are getting an extra boost by the rise in power, league-wide, this year. There will be more homers over the Green Monster, if they get enough loft under them. But, with fly balls travelling further, there are going to be a lot more of the lazy fly balls and line drives that are going to come bounding off the Monster instead. I really think this is probably the biggest reason for their crazy offensive numbers and their crazy high BABIP (other than them being, you know, good). Look at their BABIP on the road. Their ISO is a little lower. And their K% is a little higher, but that can be said about most teams on the road. But the big difference is their BABIP. It's .307 on the road, which is perfectly acceptable for a team of good, young, athletic hitters. But, it's .340 at home. That's insane. Fenway and Coors have been off-the-charts this year.

The superbike racing article is probably the greatest thing ever written in the English language.

Oh well, our starters are going to go 8 innings every start in the playoffs, and we'll be up 6 runs by that time, anyway. Right?

It's officially boring now. We are too good.

Give me another grand dong.

JAVY GRAND DONG!

http://i.imgur.com/OCB8ih7.gif :x

https://twitter.com/evanwoodbery/status/780063413921648640/photo/1

Oh man, they are so bitter at GRB. I love it. They hated the Ross ovations so much. I wish we could play them in every game for the rest of the season for maximum schadenfreude. I really want to post this string of gifs as a response: http://mlb.mlb.com/images/1/1/6/154439116/101315_nlds_schwarber_homerun_statcast_medres_bq4qks7r.gif http://mlb.mlb.com/images/3/1/6/154345316/101315_chc_montero_fist_pump_med_ium9crdx.gif http://mlb.mlb.com/images/4/5/2/154339452/101315_chc_dugout_dancing_med_dvd1h8sv.gif http://mlb.mlb.com/images/9/7/0/154227970/101215_chc_vedder_celebration_med_b746pmy4.gif http://mlb.mlb.com/images/5/7/4/154370574/101315_chc_teammates_pointing_med_udr95l6b.gif http://i.imgur.com/zHfqOHt.gif http://m.mlb.com/images/7/8/6/154367786/101315_chc_final_out_lo_dd_tzwg585r.gif http://mlb.mlb.com/images/4/0/0/154368400/101315_chc_onfield_mob_med_dd_esmbimgk.gif Poor, miserable Cards. http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/stltoday.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/3/d4/3d4f6cf4-5f13-55d8-b77f-4e0860172867/561e7b185ac89.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C848

6-1 damnit. We have 3 against the Reds. So if 4-3 is acceptable, then that means 1-3 against the Pirates is acceptable. It is not.

I'll take it.

Good horsefeathers, Carl's Jr.

You could pretty much just keep running until you score after putting a ball in play. The Cards will take care of the rest.

nice defense

Amazing.