I'm swamped with work deadlines so this is going to be relatively short.
After a slow start to the season Cincy finished April strong, winnign series against NL central foes St. Louis, the Cubs, and the Astros. Jay Bruce is the hottest hitter in the NL right now, and has hit HRs in his last 4 games.
The Cubs splitting a series against the Phillies feels like a series win for this squad, though the fact that the Phillies roster is 5000 years old takes a bit of luster off the accomplishment.
Pitching Matchups
Tuesday: Jeff Samardzija, RHP vs Bronson Arroyo, RHP, 6:05 PM CT
Hopefully this is also 80s hair band night at GAB.
Samardzija looked good in his last outing after two rough ones. A big part of it could have been his velocity, which moved closer to his excellent first start after being down for starts two and three. He's had some bad luck with batted balls (.352 BABIP) but most of his problems seem to have been posthoc rationalized to be that he loses whatever program he's on and ends up having a big inning.
Arroyo has pitched shockingly well in his first four starts, and a big part of it is due to the fact that he's not walking anyone. He has just two walks in four starts. He's also giving up half as many homers as his career numbers would suggest. Fun fact – he posted a 5.71 FIP last year, and despite that was thrown out there for nearly 200 innings.
Wednesday: Paul Maholm, LHP vs Homer Bailey, RHP, 6:05 PM CT
Maholm finally had start where he did Paul Maholm things last time out. He still gave up a HR, which has been his main problem this year, but most importantly he induced 15 ground balls. He only had one strikeout, but blowing away hitters is not his gameplan.
Bailey's seen a small dip in his strikeout rate this year but has otherwise been right about what you would expect. He beat the Cubs on 4/20, giving up 4 runs (1 earned) in seven innings. Shockingly, he only managed to strikeout two members of this lineup.
Thursday: Ryan Dempster, RHP vs Mike Leake, RHP, 11:35 AM CT
Dempster looked great before his DL trip, and hopefully he can get back on track quickly. His injury never sounded *that* serious anyway.
Leake has not looked good at all this year. his strikeout rate has dipped below 4 K/9 and batters have hit 38% of balls in play for line drives. According to fangraphs pfx numbers, batters are just destroying his changeup.
Sure, but it should be pointed out that he’s a fastball-sinker pitcher who works up in the zone. He’s going to give up a lot of hits.
Mercurial OutfielderQuote Reply
Mercurial Outfielder wrote:
GBTSQuote Reply
Holy tits, Arroyo gave up 46 home runs last year.
GBTSQuote Reply
@ GBTS:
Mercurial OutfielderQuote Reply
What would F7’s hair band name be?
Mobile RiceQuote Reply
@ Mobile Rice:
Johnny Transform
Mercurial OutfielderQuote Reply
Mobile Rice wrote:
Creed.
uncle daveQuote Reply
F7 moonlights as Captain Morgan in commercials.
Also that MO link was crazy
dylanjQuote Reply
@ GBTS:
uncle daveQuote Reply
Is that JCVD?
Mercurial OutfielderQuote Reply
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
Indeed. He’s a renaissance man, eh?
uncle daveQuote Reply
(dying laughing)
Van Damme is in “Breakin”? That’s awesome.
GBTSQuote Reply
@ dylanj:
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Dammit, Nats, couldn’t you hit Bryce a little higher in the order?
ACTQuote Reply
Breakin’ 2 is the best movie of all time.
When I worked for the media department with the Iowa Cubs in college, I would occasionally play the scene where Turbo dances up the walls and ceiling during pitching changes. The perplexity of the crowd was audible from the press box. (dying laughing)
GBTSQuote Reply
Rick Ankiel is the no. 3 hitter. Damn.
ACTQuote Reply
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
He’s actually a dancer by training.
joshQuote Reply
That Zimmermann guy can really throw.
ACTQuote Reply
is the Cubs game going to happen?
joshQuote Reply
Bryce!
ACTQuote Reply
Rain delay theatre:
Aisle424Quote Reply
GBTS wrote:
Further research indicates that it was his first Hollywood role. By the way, I was pleasantly surprised by “JCVD” — worth a look if you have a couple of hours to kill.
uncle daveQuote Reply
GBTS wrote:
1. is this true? if so, please continue to #2.
2. HOW ARE YOU NOT WORKING FOR A PRO SPORTS FRANCHISE?
EnricoPallazzoQuote Reply
B-Jax —> 2x doubles in the first inning
Rice CubeQuote Reply
@ EnricoPallazzo:
This is true. It was a summer internship.
I also held the record for the summer where I was able to get seven different sound effects over the PA after a foul ball before the batter re-entered the box.
GBTSQuote Reply
(dying laughing)
#30 Tigers are beating the #9 Royals by nine runs in the fourth.
GBTSQuote Reply
@ GBTS:
You’re making the mistake of looking at the scoreboard, when you should be checking the fWAR. The Royals are fWAR-ing the hell out of the Tigers now.
ACTQuote Reply
GBTS wrote:
Lemme guess: broken glass, Homer Simpson, wet fart, “sproing”, sad trombone, shrill and terrified scream, “No more yankee my wankee, Donger need FOOD!”
uncle daveQuote Reply
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKuBMihmVHQ#!
Mind. Blown.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Damn, I never knew Van Damme was such a good dancer.
MuckerQuote Reply
game postponed
Recalcitrant Blogger NateQuote Reply
sickels with a quick write up of a game in nasty weather
Recalcitrant Blogger NateQuote Reply
Recalcitrant Blogger Nate wrote:
BerseliusQuote Reply
I yearn for the day when all stadiums (stadia?) have retractable roofs.
ACTQuote Reply
F7 throws tomorrow, Dempster on Thu, Maholm pushed back to Fri
BerseliusQuote Reply
@ ACT:
I would use stadia.
I read that the Red Sox had considered some weird bubble wrap roof. I wonder if that was for real or if they had hired a mad scientist.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
@ Rice Cube:
OR?
joshQuote Reply
Ted Lilly through 3.1 innings: 1 K, 1 H
Vintage Lilly.
ACTQuote Reply
Batters are hitting about .100 against him this year, despte a really low K-rate.
ACTQuote Reply
Mobile Rice wrote:
great white. duh.
EnricoPallazzoQuote Reply
Rice Cube wrote:
you think that’s real? the blooper real would suggest that it is. either way, it’s badass.
EnricoPallazzoQuote Reply
Dodgers have 3 homers so far. None by Matt Kemp.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
@ EnricoPallazzo:
I’m not really sure but I thought it was sweet nonetheless. I think they had a pre-broken iPhone for the last bit.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Yadier Molina has four stolen bases.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
@ Rice Cube:
Trade him for a bag of balls
BerseliusQuote Reply
Speaking of the Dodgers, I’m going to be in LA next week. I thought about catching a Dodgers-Giants game in Chavez Ravine but it appears to be an enormous/expensive pain in the ass to get from UCLA to Dodger stadium if you don’t have a car, so that sucks.
/cool story bro
BerseliusQuote Reply
@ Berselius:
Did you ask one of your chums at UCLA whether there’s a shuttle? I imagine that they’d have something like that since they want to snag all that money…
Rice CubeQuote Reply
@ Rice Cube:
I’m going for a conference. The people I know aren’t really baseball fans, unfortunately.
BerseliusQuote Reply
ACT wrote:
Bobby HansenQuote Reply
I can’t believe we had a rain delay and no one posted this:
Mercurial OutfielderQuote Reply
@ Berselius:
Heathens.
Try this…
http://www.recreation.ucla.edu/insidepage.aspx?uid=9dc479c6-19c7-4bed-878d-af358a6f01f6
The Dodger Stadium Express link does say that the buses stop running towards midnight. Quicky search suggests it’ll cost you $58 by taxi. I can see how it’d be hefty. Not sure what it is about CA but most of their public transit systems suck. Chicago has spoiled me.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Next time you should go to a conference in SF. Hell of a lot easier to get to AT&T/PhoneCompany Park (dying laughing)
Rice CubeQuote Reply
@ Rice Cube:
Get on the line with MSRI and tell them to do a program in scientific computing already (dying laughing)
BerseliusQuote Reply
bubbles spotted at the Nats game:
Mercurial OutfielderQuote Reply
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
The corpse of Frazier Thomas approves.
Suburban kidQuote Reply
Berselius wrote:
Suburban kidQuote Reply
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=21073869&topic_id=&c_id=mlb&tcid=vpp_copy_21073869&v=3
Wow.
GBTSQuote Reply
children are the etc etc
http://obstructedview.net/minor-leagues/the-children-are-the-future-cubs-minor-league-update-sponsored-by-the-weyland-yutani-corporation.html
BerseliusQuote Reply