Aaron_Kennelly

Let's go!

beauty

Hell of a play. Now win this damn game.

Thanks, Mallex.

yay

He's way safe.

Hey, Reds bullpen, please stop sucking for one day.

So today's the day we start attacking our fielding, running, getting-on-base god because of his slow start?

Maybe we should wait until the playoffs before we start deciding these things.

This game blows.

Well, at least we were able to tell the Braves how to play the game of baseball.

what the horsefeathers

Oh god, Lackey. You aren't a Cardinal anymore. Quit being a douche.

You're now a Chicago Cub, Tim. You aren't allowed to suck.

Ugh. I love having an arm like that in right, though. Time to get some runs. This is unacceptable.

There we go.

Stop sucking, bats.

That defense...

Damn. Oh well, good inning, regardless. Tehran won't last long.

Quick work.

I'm really gonna need to see an offensive explosion today, after the rain-out yesterday. Plus, I won't be able to watch any of the Pirates games. So I definitely need some dongs to hold me over.

Paul Blackburn: 5IP 4H 0R 1BB 4K. His ERA is down to 0.29 on the year.

I asked the same question last year. I was told that he couldn't possibly continue doing what he's doing at higher levels. Most people point to his lack of power as the reason he's not more highly rated. If he continues to hit and get on base at what he has done in previous levels and adds a little bit of power to his game he could shoot up some prospect lists. He does already have 2 HR this year already. He is 1/2 with a SB and a run scored already tonight btw. I mean, he was a completely different-looking prospect last year, though. At the time, he was a 22-year-old in A-ball with no power. Plenty of advanced slap hitters have maintained high batting averages at that level and then leveled off as they went up the ladder. For instance, Billy Hamilton hit .323 with a 12.8% BB% at high-A as a 21-year-old in 2012. It's easier for guys like him to succeed at that level. Also, Young's somehow hit even better this year, and improved other parts of his game, too. And he's done so at AA. Now it's starting to get real. But, a 22-year-old with a .067 ISO in high-A is never going to be a top prospect. Now, he may not hit for power, but he is walking nearly 17% of the time and K'ing about 6% of the time. That's impressive, when he's doing it at AA. Factor in his speed and his ability to play several positions, including second... well, he might be something now. So, good job on being on the Chesny Young Train before everyone else. But, if you had told me he would strike out even less than his already stellar rate, while walking more, and continuing to pile up singles at AA, I probably would have been in on him then, too. But, being that bullish on him at the time might have been jumping the gun some.

I can personally attest that there are Cards fans out there that claim that they would not trade rosters with the Cubs. well there was just that one cardstalk dude who thinks it's obvious/common knowledge that the cardinals clearly run out a better 8 and the cubs offense sucks (because batting average LOL) Yikes. I'm really looking forward to Aledmys Diaz crashing back to Earth. He's doing a lot of things that just aren't sustainable. Which, duh, that is kinda obvious -- I mean, Aledmys Diaz isn't going to hit .450 all year. But, the periphs just aren't screaming great things, either. His crash is gonna be hard. For one, there's the .413 BABIP. But, if you look deeper, there's some other fluky stuff going on there, some of it that is propping up that BABIP. He's got a completely unsustainable 24.1% infield-hit%. He's actually hitting a smaller percentage of fly balls than league average. His LD%, GB%, and FB% are all around league average. And the average distance of his fly balls and home runs are just a little above league average. It seems like he has about average to slightly above average pop, and his batted ball profile would suggest that his .310 ISO is a major anomaly. He's also been a major pull hitter. There is a negative correlation between pull% and BABIP, especially for someone over 50% in pull%, like him. Most guys that high are usually selling out for power. I'm not sure if he is or not. But if he's only going to hit fly balls at around a league average distance, he probably shouldn't be. His soft-hit% and hard-hit% both look good, though. He seems to be striking the ball well, even though he doesn't hit balls an especially impressive distance. Then, there's his K%. Right now his K% is 5.3%. That's the lowest in the league. Except, the problem is, his contact% is only 84.2% That's well above average, to be sure, but nowhere near high enough to sustain a 5.3% K%. For reference, Daniel Murphy had the lowest K% last year at 7.1%. His contact% was 91.9% There were 6 other guys with a K-rate below 10%, the next lowest being at 8.2%. They all had a contact% above 88%, with most being close to, or above, 90%. Guys with a contact% around 84% generally tend to strike out between, say, 12-15% of the time. He might be near the lower end of that because he isn't as patient as an Anthony Rizzo or a Jason Heyward, who have similar contact rates. Those guys strike out closer to 15% of the time because they are working deeper into the counts. But, those guys also are gonna get on base a lot more, because they have great walk rates, instead of Diaz's 5.3% BB%. Regardless, dude isn't gonna strike out 5% of the time, you can add about 10% onto what he is doing right now. So, anyway, this guy is going to plummet back to Earth. That's not to say he won't be a good player. He's got a good contact rate, he's hit the ball hard, and he seems to have at least average power. He also can play short, though maybe not very well. So he looks like he'll be a fine player. But there's gonna be a huge difference between what he actually is and what he's been.

I've, obviously, been a big fan of the run differential. +79, that's pretty awesome. But, even more pleasant, aesthetically, is seeing our runs scored and runs allowed written out, in full. We've outscored teams 136-57. That is absurd.