Yeah. Now that I think about it that's a damn good line for a catcher.

5 in a row, let's go



edit: fuck

OK, so that was an embarrassing loss. That's the low point of the season (or at least I hope it will be).

Latos says "hi" to the Giants.

Games like that are part - but by no means all - of why we hate the shit out of that guy.

By the way in the Final Vote Bourn/Peavy is the correct answer

Totally legit reason.

This made me laugh, from Lookout Landing mariners blog:

"The Very Most .Giffable Mariner

"Something people have long said about Ichiro is that you should always keep your eye on him, because you never know when he might do something amazing. As we've come to learn, you should also always keep your eye on Munenori Kawasaki, because he is always doing something amazing. Differently amazing from the things that Ichiro can do and has done, but amazing nevertheless.

"I don't know if I would be able to explain the Munenori Kawasaki thing to a fan of another team. I don't know if I would have to, or if the .gifs could do it by themselves. Kawasaki has a .465 OPS on the season and I don't know if the Mariners would be half as fun without him. We've never been in this situation before, and we might never be in this situation again. Munenori Kawasaki is a 2012 Seattle Mariner, and that is just a thing that we continue to experience.

I have no idea how the Pirates are in first place. That team pretty much sucks at everything, yet they keep winning games.

In other stupidly wrong statistics, the Reds are 10th in batter WAR and 6th in pitching WAR. Somehow, aside from Votto, every young breakout hitter the Reds have had over the past few years has regressed. This team is ridiculously hackalicious, and it's disgusting to watch sometimes. Someone should be fired.

The answer is that Andrew McCutchen is pretty damn close to being the best player in baseball, and that the rest of them aren't nearly as bad as you think .

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.ph ... more-91621

In other news, MATT CAIN!

One person does not an offense make (see: the Reds). Also, third-worst in the majors is still really bad, and the larger sample size indicates that.

First half leaderboards (with combined WAR total) [*=not on all-star roster, not including rookies]

NL MVP
NYM 3B David Wright 4.8
CIN 1B Joey Votto 4.7
PIT CF Andrew McCutchen 4.5
ATL CF Michael Bourn 4.2
PHI C Carlos Ruiz 4.1
MIL LF Ryan Braun 4.0
STL LF Matt Holliday 3.6
ATL LF Martin Prado 3.5*
SF LF Melky Cabrera 3.4
MIA RF Giancarlo Stanton 3.0

AL MVP
LAA OF Mike Trout 4.7
NYY 2B Robinson Cano 4.2
TOR 3B Brett Lawrie 3.9*
DET CF Austin Jackson 3.7*
OAK RF Josh Reddick 3.6*
TEX OF Josh Hamilton 3.5
DET 3B Miguel Cabrera 3.2
CLE 2B Jason Kipnis 3.1*
TOR RF Jose Bautista 3.0
KC LF Alex Gordon 3.0*

NL CY
NYM RA Dickey 3.4
CIN Johnny Cueto 3.3*
MIL Zack Greinke 3.0*
WAS Gio Gonzalez 2.9
WAS Stephen Strasburg 2.7
PIT James McDonald 2.7*
SF Matt Cain 2.6
LAD Clayton Kershaw 2.5
WAS Jordan Zimmermann 2.4*
CHC Ryan Dempster 2.3*

AL CY
DET Justin Verlander 4.0
CHW Chris Sale 3.8
CHW Jake Peavy 3.5
TEX Matt Harrison 3.1
LAA Jered Weaver 2.7
SEA Felix Hernandez 2.6
BAL Jason Hammel 2.5*
TB David Price 2.4
NYY CC Sabathia 2.3
TEX Yu Darvish 2.2

NL ROY
ARI P Wade Miley 2.0
ATL SS Andrelton Simmons 2.0
STL P Lance Lynn 1.8
CIN SS Zack Cozart 1.7
MIL P Mike Fiers 1.7
[WAS OF Bryce Harper 1.6]

AL ROY
LAA OF Mike Trout 4.7
TEX P Yu Darvish 2.2
CHW P Jose Quintana 2.0
OAK P Jarrod Parker 1.9
OAK P Ryan Cook 1.5

Don't forget Mike Trout's numbers are for barely 2 months of work compared to Wright and Votto's three. Trout could get hurt tomorrow and miss the rest of the season and he'd still be Rookie of the Year. He's the single best player in baseball and he can't even drink yet. Just astonishing.

The new baseball math: .341/.397/.562 is better than .348/.471/.617.

The new baseball math includes defense.

John, I haven't been watching the M's much this season, for obvious reasons, but those Kawasaki gifs are awesome.

WTF is he doing just going missionary on Casper Wells?