Stratos

Padres on a 6 game winning streak. Now only 2.5 games back of us. How annoying. I'll admit it would be kinda fun if we played them in the first round again.

We don't really have any effective relievers beyond Civale at the moment. I suspect CC is just going with matchups and/or throwing darts at a dartboard. Not much else he can do. It would be nice if the worst is over with these relievers and Cabrera can get into some low- leverage situations and contribute. Maybe he can make the 1st round playoff roster as a middle reliever if he does well.

Well there's free sports streaming websites...

The Cabrera reliever experiment begins. Fingers crossed.

Braves beat Phillies.

Phillies only have +37 run differential. Cubs are up +100 run differential on them. It would be wild if we didn't get the top WC seed. Either way, we're probably playing them the first round. League's best hitting vs leagues best pitching would be fun.

The broadcast today said he's been really bad against lefties this year, they're hitting like .395 off him. Probably needs to get that splitter working well. Otherwise I personally don't know. Maybe location issues and just generally not sharp with his pitches yet?

Haven't noticed any issues

We may never know. But the MLB would have a lot of incentive to cover it up if Ohtani were involved. If true that would absolutely harm the sport, and MLB would look partly responsible with all the online betting and sportsbooks they market.

They've been too good for too long to be lucky or this good. I think they cheat and I think they're the best at it, Like Houston was until caught. And not just cheating, but all the little things on the margins. They scrape and claw because they have to. I think Jed knows it and it might be one reason they nabbed Bregman. I mean last playoffs they positioned their roof so the sun was right on the Cubs dugout and played lame lowkey music during Cubs BP to mess with them. They're bush league. They hit on virtually every single player they sign. Nobody is that good.l

Unless you're a powerhouse team with room for error you essentially need a bunch of luck and to go on a heater in order to win a WS. So once Oct comes the leverage guys in the pen need to pitch like they were before the last few weeks, the SP need to be effective, and the bats need to keep hitting. We just need to pray the pen is just going through a bad lull and aren't cooked. Palencia should hopefully get sharp at least. I think someone like Thorton was getting by on some luck and great defence and is regressing to the mean. You wonder if someone like Webb isn't a bit gassed, it can be mentally/physically draining pitching in high leverage through the summer heat. Or he could be regressing to the mean also, who knows. Maybe they get a 2nd wind as the weather cools, but the bats stay hot.

And the go-ahead run on 2nd. Bring the corners in yes but the middle infield too? It was a gamble and I guess just didn't work out.

If they shave down Zeferjahn's grotesquely large adam's apple maybe he would pitch better?

I don't blame CC there. The pen sucks so push good SP performances as hard as they can.

Just be clear, I'm not saying i don't like PCA. I like him a lot, I just said I understand why some people from other teams don't. And yes, of fans from other teams, the younger fans I'm sure like him more than the older and more old school fans. Younger fans like excitement, just like i did when i was as a teenaged fan and younger.