Outshined_One

There also have been substantial advances on the hitting side of baseball science that have significantly cut down on the movement/velocity tradeoff. If you remember your Steve Stone days with guys like Zambrano, he would harp on Z needing to work low-90s to get the most out of his two seam fastball, but the problems are (a) velocity is much easier to repeat than extreme movement; and (b) data and technological advances have made it much easier for hitters to recognize those pitches and pound them in the zone. It's possible we see MLB rule changes to help tilt the advantage back to pitchers, but the best way to counter good hitting is velocity for the time being.

I'll put it this way with respect to the Cubs' pitching on the farm, this time last year you'd be justified giving it a D-, and holding back on giving it an F only because Jaxon Wiggins existed. This year, it's more like a C-. It's still bad, but it's improving, and it's likely to continue improving next season when we actually see guys like Townsend in-game.

Comparing the Cardinals to the Brewers as 2000s-era WWE villains, though, you were more likely to watch when The Rock was top heel compared to when Randy Orton was top heel. It's like, sure, Orton was and is a perfectly capable villain, but it's just not the same.

A thousand times this. Kyle Schwarber deserves sainthood for jamming a stake through their hearts in 2015.

I was at Game 3 of the 2017 NLDS and it was the most intense game of baseball I've ever experienced in person. Lots of fun in retrospect, but I also aged 10 years by the time Wade Davis finished the 9th.

If you dig into their batted ball data the last three seasons, there are some weird horsefeathers things happening. A team shouldn't be able to sustain these sorts of BABIP numbers year after year while not hitting HRs and having one of the top offenses in the NL. We're in Cardinals Pixie Dust Territory, and whether that means they cracked the code or are stealing signs or started sacrificing small children to a demon god, who the hell knows?

@Jason Ross threw cold water on this idea a few pages ago. The under the hood stuff doesn't match up with what the Cubs like. He comes across like a more aggressive Murakami, and that guy likely would have set the K record if he'd played a full season. /I still like him, though...

His dad was an arm wrestler. AN ARM WRESTLER!!

I expect the Sox will be back in the next postseason. There's enough young pitching to keep them competitive into August/September, and I genuinely think Roch Cholowsky is the real deal.

That's where I come down with Happ. Extend the QO, try to negotiate a home town discount on a 2-3 year deal, and if he decides to walk, so be it.

I get really irked when outlets try to frame them like small time mom and pop businesses being forced out by Goliath, when really they own properties and businesses worth millions of dollars, run a business model based on freeloading, and (speaking from personal experience) are genuinely unpleasant people. Don't get me wrong, horsefeathers the Ricketts family in all sorts of ways, but this is one of those fights where I'd rather everyone lost.

Link Why ESPN is still giving these people any oxygen is beyond me.

Ditka deserves an untold amount of horsefeathers for anything politically-related he's ever said/done, but he also deserves credit for the '85 Bears.

Alright, alright, let's gently put the thread back on track here. Where was I? Oh right, trade Shaw to Sacramento. They have some fun guys who are probably desperate to get out.

You know he'd turn into Scott horsefeathers Rolen the moment he was traded to STL. In other words: