Aaron_Kennelly

Fantastic PA, Jorge.

Hendricks has been fantastic, Time to get some runs. Walk- and dong-heavy inning, boys.

Even casual fans know this team is good, so they're coming to the park ready to cheer. Give them a break. It's every single fly ball........ Maybe they are just excited to see outfielders catch routine fly balls?

So Hendricks has thrown 32 strikes out of his 38 pitches. That's cool.

There's 2 outs and the pitcher is on deck, that base makes a big difference. Yeah, that's a bit of an overreaction. And Maddon wants to run because we have a lot of fast, athletic guys that are good base runners. I get it: It's frustrating to run into outs when our offense is so loaded. But, we ran a lot last year, and had a great deal of success with it. You are just gonna have to live with a few outs on the base paths. The two Bryant caught stealings were ugly. But, it's not quite worth that reaction. Also a caught stealing isn't a TOOTBLAN: those are reserved for when you make an out like a nincompoop, not when you are just being aggressive.

True. Tried beating the shift, but popped it foul. He showed bunt on the second pitch, as well.

And so it goes.

Boo! Bad call.

Hot damn, he's good!

Damn, Kyle bringing the heat today. Got it up to 87 there!

Yeah, Gray isn't my first choice, for that reason. Carrasco is at the top of my list. And I saw someone else mention Chris Archer and Jose Fernandez. I forgot to originally include them, as I don't see them being traded. But, if they were, it goes: 1. Archer 2. Carrasco 3. Fernandez 4. Gray. If not, then I'm out on any big deals. I like Fernandez more than Carrasco, but factoring in years of control, I lean Carrasco.

Dexter has been working with Barry Bonds for two off-seasons. It should be noted that Bonds once went an entire season with an OBP of .609. Absurd.

And, yes, Theo is glad he called that guy.

So Dexter currently has a .590 OBP and leads the majors in fWAR at 0.9. And, with the Schwarber injury, his decision to come back seems to be working out pretty damn well for all concerned parties. But, Dexter is angry, and his Revenge Tour has only just begun. He is full of spite and will not stop inflicting pain until he has humiliated and annihilated every team that passed him by this winter. Not a vestige will remain of the once proud franchises of the National League. We know that Vengeful Dexter is pernicious. But, how did this all happen? Where did it all begin? Let's flash back to a cold day in February. Dexter is sitting in a hotel room in Baltimore, ready for the long, cold winter to end. Suddenly, the phone rings. Dexter is unaware of who might be calling him in a hotel room in Baltimore, but he reluctantly picks up. "Hi, is this Dexter Fowler?" "Yeah." "The Dexter Fowler that played center field for the Chicago Cubs last year?" "Uh... yeah. Who is this?" "This is Theo Epstein, President of Baseball Operations for the Chicago Cubs." "Um, hey, Theo. How's it going?" "Not bad, Dexter. I am just hanging out in Arizona right now, and I hear things aren't going very well for ya." "Yeah." "So, Dexter, I've been thinking, and I'd love to have you back on the team again this year." "That's great. I'd love to come back." "Also, I just wanted to say I am sorry that I haven't been in contact with you all winter. I should have called you sooner." "Yeah, sure. Don't worry about it. It's no problem." "OK, well, I'll see you when you get down to Arizona." "Alright, bye." Dexter hangs up the phone, relieved. Finally, he can cross one thing off his off-season to-do list. http://i.imgur.com/A6V7wJ2.jpg

His road ERA for 2016 is about to look very bad.

So, yeah... a lot of great things from Bryant and Russell. They are both swinging less overall. They are both swinging significantly less at balls out of the zone. They are both making more contact overall. They are both making more contact at pitches in the zone. They both have had significantly fewer swinging strikes. The Bryant development is, frankly, downright scary. There was a lot of hand-wringing about him swinging through balls in the zone last year. That's not happening anymore. His increase in Contact% is coming entirely from balls in the zone. His O-Contact% is actually down. So he is not swinging at balls out of the zone and hammering the ones in the zone. And with what a beast he already was... frightening. There was a point last year where I was like, well, you guys are studs and do a lot of things really well: hit for power, add speed, defense, etc. But those Contact% hovering at or below 70% are disconcerting. Now Bryant and Russell are hanging around 74%, which is actually completely acceptable for guys like them that hit for pop and draw walks. Like, if they just chill at 74-75% all year, they are going to be horsefeathering animals. And that's not even taking into account that they are more discerning at the plate, too. Goodness.

a comparison between last year and this year: swing % on pitches outside the zone: 2015: 30.5% (20th) 2016: 23.6% (28th) swing % on pitches inside the zone: 2015: 69.4% (4th) 2016: 66.4% (14th) % of pitches swung at, total: 2015: 47.5% (16th) 2016: 43.7% (28th) % of swings that draw contact: 2015: 74.8% (30th) 2016: 76.5% (18th) Yeah, all the rage has been our discipline, but we've also been a lot better at making contact. And the best part about those numbers you listed: They stabilize much more quickly than other stats. Things like swing% and contact% stabilize in 50-100 PAs. There might be some noise, and we might regress. But, this is definitely meaningful, at least as meaningful as something can be after 9 games. And, of course, we should probably have expected those things to improve when adding in a couple of experienced hitters, with great backgrounds and discerning eyes, in Zobrist and Heyward. But, the really fun thing is what we are seeing from Russell and Bryant so far. These are really young kids, who could be expected to improve in these aspects. And so far, it is a very rosy outlook. Bryant: [pre]Season O-Swing% Z-Swing% Swing% O-Contact% Z-Contact% Contact% Zone% F-Strike% SwStr% 2015 30.6 % 76.2 % 49.8 % 49.2 % 75.8 % 66.3 % 42.0 % 60.8 % 16.5 % 2016 23.9 % 74.2 % 48.1 % 43.8 % 84.8 % 74.2 % 48.1 % 52.6 % 12.3 %[/pre] Russell: [pre]Season O-Swing% Z-Swing% Swing% O-Contact% Z-Contact% Contact% Zone% F-Strike% SwStr% 2015 31.4 % 70.1 % 48.9 % 51.3 % 82.3 % 71.4 % 45.2 % 61.4 % 13.7 % 2016 26.0 % 59.3 % 40.4 % 60.0 % 82.9 % 74.6 % 43.4 % 82.4 % 9.9 %[/pre]

Agreed. Once Baez replaces Kawasaki, I can honestly say there's not a single spot in the 25-man I would want to use any resources on upgrading. If they falter or one of the other NL Central teams is hanging annoying close or if there are a run of injuries, sure. But as it stands right now, they project to win the division by 10+ games and the playoffs are still a crapshoot, so there's not really any ROI on trading for MLB talent right now. Agreed. However, if you can get a guy like Carrasco or Gray that has multiple years of control, then it might be worth it, if the price isn't completely exorbitant. That being said, horsefeathers pitchers. So maybe not. But, yeah, renting a player is a big "NO." There's always the Trevor Cahaill/Fernando Rodney/Austin Jackson August Special if we want to fill out a spot or two, which really would only need to be done in case of injury.

I assume he will still have the opportunity to take BP before he has to face our pitchers.

When is our division lead up to 10 games?

. Yeah, you are gonna be way off once it is 12-0.

Hey, there's that offense I've been clamoring for.

Come on, Addi, make it look ugly.

Jorge has done that quite a few times this year: Piss me off to no end by chancing junk early n the count and battling back and having a nice PA.

This bullpen has been great.