Aaron_Kennelly

http://www.ivyleaguelifestyle.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/GIF-bitch-please-contempt-deadpan-disbelief-good-John-Cleese-Monty-Python-o-rly-really-skeptical-stare-stupid-GIF.gif I should have explained myself better. Obviously Jake Arrieta will be fine. I meant, in regards to him being God-mode Arrieta of last year. I think he can still be that good even if he gives up contact more often.

Honestly, I think two things are happening. Firstly, he hasn't been as sharp as he was last year. I'm talking about the walks mainly. His command has been a little off at times. Secondly, I think he has figured out the secret to generating soft contact. And he already had last year. That is by throwing ridiculous pitches with ridiculous movement, and being able to throw a bunch of different pitches equally as well. He's just a hard guy to square up. But, this year, he may have taken the soft contact idea to the next level, by realizing that he has Addison Russell, Javy Baez, Jason Heyward, et al,. behind him. If you have that good of a defense, and guys aren't going to inflict major damage against you, why not just let those fellas behind you do what they do? It's obvious everyone wants him to stay fresh. So let's save some bullets by having him get through innings quicker. Pitch to contact until you get in trouble, then try to wipe guys out. He hasn't been quite as good, but I think he'll be absolutely fine, with his stuff and the defense we have.

For a millisecond I wanted to get angry and start typing, then I just threw my hands up and laughed. Who cares? Have fun in Washington, Dusty. I will, however, get angry is Jesse Rogers or one of the writers goes back down the 'Dusty is actually a great manager' road. We've always known Dusty and his philosophy/approach were dumb. I'm hoping the people that cover this team can see that after the last 18 months or so. http://gifrific.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Ron-Swanson-Says-Dont-Even-Care.gif

For a millisecond I wanted to get angry and start typing, then I just threw my hands up and laughed. Who cares? Have fun in Washington, Dusty.

that twitter account hasn't tweeted since last fall and back then they sounded like a typically pathetic 80's obsessed fan crying for more day games and being paranoid about losses. Not sure how much of that is even related to Len.

Sure, but does he even care about or run differential!?

If only Willson Contreras was here, he might help prevent us from a 20-7 start.

Yeah, that lineup is ugly -- well, at least it is as ugly as you could make a lineup with this team. Oh well, we'll still win 7-2. I'm really pumped up for this game, though. I know after the last series we pretty much quelled all the talk about, "We'll see how they do when they play some good teams." And a loss here or there doesn't really matter with this team, except maybe from a historical perspective. But I really want to exert our dominance against everyone, especially the other top teams. So a split here is just not acceptable in my completely warped reality. Getting the first one would be a major step toward taking at least three.

Offensively, he's doing a lot of things well and it's being covered up by a .204 BABIP. Walks are up, strikeouts are down. He's still a dumpster fire defensively so he's not high on my list of guys I'm excited about, but he's at least got the vague raw potential to dong his bad defense away, and he definitely belongs on an MLB roster regardless. I didn't think the day would come, but it appears that Kyle is higher on Soler than I am.

On a similar note, the guy that we traded for Dexter and the guy that Dexter replaced this year, Valbuena and Coghlan, respectively, have both been worth -0.4 fWAR thus far this year.

I'm bumping this not only because of the homer, but also to let everyone know that Starlin is playing at a 2-win pace. Zobrist is above a 3.5-win pace. Starlin's also been worth -4 DRS and -1.6 UZR at second. That's for everyone (myself included) complaining about stupid Zobrist ruining our dream defense by playing second while Bryant has to play in the outfield. For the record, Zobrist has been worth 0 DRS and 0.9 UZR at second.

58% of us didn't think we would win over 100 games?

hehe... remember before the season started, when we thought we were only 100-win good and not 120-win good?

He had already used the entire bench and Adams is super duper slow. Makes sense. I turned in at the last second, and the guys on the Phillies feed made no such mention of that.

Matheny just had Carlos Martinez pinch run for Matt Adams. He was the potential winning run. Cards have the bases loaded with 1 out, and Piscotty gets an infield single, and Martinez is tagged out after over-running the bag at third. They won on the next batter anyway. But can someone explain pinch running with a pitcher, who apparently is such a poor base runner that he makes such a horrible TOOTBLAN?

Rizzo, Bryant, and Fowler are all playing at least at a 9-win pace.

Equal to the odds that we win the division.

Anthony Rizzo has a 1.039 OPS, despite a .225 BABIP.

Sean Rodriguez is a psychopath. And we are living in his head, rent free. Who starts jawing with the opposing bench in the middle of an AB? Embarrassing.

Let me just reiterate that Ron Coomer is the worst play-by-play man that has ever existed. Please don't let him do that anymore. I swear he doesn't realize that his listeners can't see what is happening on the field.

Let's start this series off right. Maybe get to +100 in run differential? That would be swell.

When I saw him in the Quad Cities last week, Kellogg was working 87-90. Might it have something to do with him only being on 4 days rest for the first time this year?

I don't think it was the stadium gun. The Wisconsin pitcher the night before was routinely 94-95 and the lefty on the mound last night for them was at 92-93 a lot. Unfortunately, I think that's the last time I will see South Bend this year, though. And, yes, Eloy looks much better than Soler in the field and on the bases. He's definitely more of an athlete.

I was at the South Bend game again last night. Kellogg is an interesting case. He was only sitting 84-87 with his fastball last night. But, he was still so damn effective. He gave up hardly any hard contact. A lot on the ground, a lot of weak contact. Several hitters were visibly frustrated and two different hitters even yelled at themselves, one after a ground out and another after a strikeout. He pounded the zone, got ahead early in the count and kept his fastball down. He did a great job of mixing in his off-speed stuff. And both his changeup and curveball looked really good. Both pitches generated a lot of swing and miss. He kept hitters off-balance, and they stood no chance against either of those pitches. The fastball certainly wasn't overpowering, but he does have a nice plane and must be getting some movement on it, because nobody really hit his fastball hard, either. He was able to hit 88 and 89 a couple times in the sixth inning with it. He knows how to pitch. And he has everything you would like to see in a pitcher: big frame; a smooth, effortless and repeatable delivery; great command and control. It's just... that velocity. We'll have to see how he holds up against tougher competition in higher levels. He's outclassing the guys he's facing right now, though. And, who knows, maybe the velo will tick up to 90 or so? Matt Rose's home run was a shot. He got all of it. Eloy is Soler. He hammers fastballs and looks really bad against breaking balls. When he hits it, he gets his money worth, though. His double was scorched. Dewees beat out an infield single. He didn't really show blazing speed on it, though. When he did impress was on Eloy's double, when he scored from first. Eloy's ball was a rocket and there wasn't much time between him hitting it and the left fielder playing it off the wall. Dewees was flying and taking optimal turns around the bases. He runs the bases really well. P.J. Higgins is a prospect. I like him a lot. He's got a really strong arm. He's a good receiver, too. He's got soft hands, nothing herky-jerky. He'll need some work on blocking balls. He had a little trouble with a couple. But, he did make a few nice stops. He'll need time to develop behind the plate, but I think he looked fine. And his arm will definitely work back there. Higgins is a very disciplined hitter, too. He's got a great eye and he waits for pitches he can do something with. There aren't any holes in his swing, either. I'm not sure how much power he'll hit for; it's more of a line drive swing. But he does hit the ball hard. He hit a double that one-hopped the wall in straight away center. It was launched over the center fielder's head. He hit a single, too, that was right at the shortstop, but it ate him up. It was a rocket and the shortstop really was just trying not to die, rather than make a play on it. Eddy Martinez is fast. There was a ball that got away from the catcher when Martinez was on third. It rolled only about, maybe, 15 feet, right up the first base line. I don't know how the hell Martinez scored on it, but he did. Couple that with his arm and good bat speed, maybe there's something. But if he can't play center, my expectations are tempered. Also the fact that he is clueless at the plate really tempers my expectations.