Aaron_Kennelly

lester can totally believably (and probably legitmately) turn it into an error though, so no problem True.

They are definitely bunting to break up a no-hitter in, like, the 8th inning today.

Nice start, Jon.

Sit down, Sean.

That's not your pitch, Jason.

hahaha

Framing magic!

To be fair, Javy has already been basically a full win better than Jorge when looking at just their defense and base running. Just using BABIP to hand wave at Jorge's problems by comparing him to Javy isn't fair. Also, Javy's not really getting too much BABIP luck. He's got good speed and can beat out infield hits. He's shown he can bunt for hits. He's not hitting infield fly balls. He's hitting a ton of line drives. He's just been hitting well. And a .356 BABIP doesn't really rate on the "incredibly unsustainable" spectrum. There are things that look bad in his periphs, though, sure. Mainly, he swings at too many pitches, especially ones out of the zone. But, he is making more contact, and he's making more contact than Jorge. Jorge's BABIP is low for a reason, too. He's hitting a ton of fly balls, but they aren't going anywhere. His HR and fly ball distance is really low. He and Heyward were both among the lowest in the league in this category the last time I looked. That said, I'm not giving up on Jorge. And, in fact, I am taking these changes with Jorge as a positive. He sucked last year, anyway, so something had to change. And his defense hasn't improved, so something about his offense needs to change. And he is trying to change. He's getting the ball in the air more. His launch angle is much more conducive to hitting for power -- specifically, hitting home runs. He wasn't going to be good enough offensively by hitting balls 110 mph into the ground. He needed to get more loft out of his swing. He is now. Maybe it's just a phase while he tries to get comfortable with this new approach to his swing. The Ding Dong Johnsons will come. But the BABIP difference has happened for a reason: Jorge has hit like horsefeathers and Javy has hit the ball well. Take from that what you will. Maybe it has been fluky. Obviously, I don't think Jorge's BABIP will stay that low when he is hitting the ball on average 93 mph, or whatever it is at. But, the overarching issue with Jorge is this: He can't afford bad BABIP luck and remain an effective baseball player, because he sucks at everything else. Javy might be able to.

... and they never beat us again. The end.

Gleyber was 2-5 with a walk and no strikeouts.

Iowa won 17-2. Almora 3-6 with a triple, a SB, 0 K. Contreras 2-5 with a triple, a BB, 0 K. Alcantara did alright too: 3-3 with a homer, 3 walks, and a stolen base.

I love him so much.

But, hey, let's throw a bunch of money and/or a trade package at a problem that doesn't exist. That's a great use of our resources to look for a young, glove-first catcher, when we have the horsefeathering best catching prospect in baseball hanging out in Iowa.

If that were really the case, I'm not sure they'd bother with Schwarber at C, much less assign him 20% of the starts there this year. More accurate would be to say that glove-first catchers are much easier to come by and they see (underappreciated/underpriced) value in them. Bingo. They know that people aren't paying for framing numbers. So they can get them for free. Catcher defense is something that is undervalued on the market. That is why they like defensive catchers more. Willson Contreras, however, will be on a rookie contract and will probably give us some value with the bat. So they are probably more willing to overlook his pedestrian defense, with all the surplus value he will give them with his bat. Sorry, Tom, you are getting Willson Contreras and you will like it.

As of right now, here's where our guys rank on the MLB fWAR leaderboard: 3. Fowler 10. Bryant 11. Zobrist 13. Rizzo 29. Russell All five starting pitchers are among the top 30 pitchers in MLB in fWAR, too.

Anthony Rizzo is on pace to score more than 130 runs, drive in more than 150 runs, hit more than 50 homers, and walk 120 times, while striking out fewer than 90 times. His OPS is comfortably over 1.000. He ranks fourth among MLB first basemen in UZR and third in DRS. He also ranks fourth in fWAR among our position players.

Such an awesome stat. To be fair, we are usually leading by 8 runs after the 8th inning.

Get hot, J-Hey!

What a badass.

Watching Sean Rodriguez walk back to the dugout after a strikeout will never get old.

What's the name of that guy that played second for us in the playoffs last year?

Ball 12 with Federowicz catching.

Grand dong time.

Yay!

Make it a run differential game.