The Best NL Central Fans in Baseball 2020

he's good! he's not exceptional, i don't thin, unless he pulls a luke voit.

but he's pretty good! will always root or nogowski

Finally gave in and have been watching and listening to the Reds a bit on radio the last month or so, including a couple of the games against the Brewers this weekend.

Got to say the Brewers catcher Omar Navarez really reminds me a bunch of John Kruk when he is batting.

not only is nogowski now hitting .452/.489/.548 with the pirates, he's also wearing the number 69. a cult hero in the making

for some reason, seven of the 15 major leaguers ever to wear 69 did so with pittsburgh

i'm telling you, this nogowski is the answer

Got to love the Reds once AGAIN showing signs of being decent then coming out of the Allstar break fumbling and stumbling.

Their bullpen is trash.

reds are suddenly only two behind the padres for the second wild card and still have nine games remaining vs the pirates

who they have done pretty well against...80 something to 20 something runs this season so far?

reds are "sneaky good"

Reds bullpen gave away a boodle of games early on (I think at least 7-10 games in the last couple innings). The additions via trade and getting Lorenzen healthy seems to have bolstered that part of the club.

They have a very deep lineup and bench. They really have to find a place for Moustakas to play since Farmer and India have played so well. Going to have to find a place for Senzel too who is starting to rehab in Louisville this week.

Their starters are also clicking right now.

jon lester OUTDUELS brandon woodruff

it's been a pretty fun game.

LARS NOOTBAAR

god, i hate jon lester

even if he was doing better...i just hate how he walks around

btw, speaking of how to walk around and be cool, if you want to window into the homerism-view of yadier molina from a cardinals fan perspective, this is what i think of as yadi walking around and being cool:

We love these guys! Good luck to our friends @yadimolina04, @UncleCharlie50 and the @Cardinals on #OpeningDaySTL! Go Cards!! #TimeToFly pic.twitter.com/oSWNFgjPJB

— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) April 5, 2019

come on, that's cute

come on, that's cute!

pirates dfa gregory polanco

sometimes he seemed on the verge of figuring it out . . . but even that was a long time ago

After his leadoff HR today, Lane Thomas is hitting .333/.411/.587 in his first 73 PA since the Cardinals traded him to the Nats.

— Andrew Simon (@AndrewSimonMLB) September 5, 2021

He seems really good...what happened to him in STL?

always buried behind too many outfielders, and also mike shildt continually choosing to play infielders in the outfield over his actual outfielders.

this year, for example, the preferred OF configuration has been tyler o'neill in LF, harrison bader in CF, dylan carlson in RF. injuries messed that up for a while, but the 4th OF hierarchy went something like this:

tommy edman (a brilliant infielder, and decent outfielder given that he just wings it out there)
justin williams
austin dean
lars nootbaar (who rules)

before that, back to 2019, it was a similar situation except that dexter fowler was in RF and ozuna was in LF, and lane thomas has to battle with randy arozarena and tyler o'neill for 5th OF, as shildt bizarrely played jose martinez as the 4th OF. jose martinez is one of the most entertaining players in baseball history, both just in the dugout and on the field. but that was a hilarious disaster for martinez, who is also one of the worst outfielders i've ever seen

anyway, lane thomas - always the 4th or 5th guy, even as the cardinals found room to trade away other outfielders like arozarena and adolis garcia, both of whom are battling for ROY in the AL right now

i'll probably be wrong on this, but i don't think lane thomas is actually good. he's not quite pete kozma, but i don't think his hot streak will continue into next year. then again, that's what i thought about luke voit when they traded him away. oops!

ultimately i think thomas' best spot is still as a 4th OF. he plays an average CF, which is useful (although i don't know what the situation is with Robles and whoever's playing left), and he's kind of an average hitting/speed/tools kind of guy, someone who doesn't hurt you in any obvious way.

He might be temporarily rejuvenated being on a new team, getting regular playing time. But he is looking good with the bat. Nogowski was also briefly on fire after the cardinals traded him.

ts: jose martinez in the outfield vs matt adams in the outfield

i think it depends on your sense of fielding humor

matt adams in the outfield was kind of your classic beer-league softball slugger who is actually pretty athletic, and he just doesn't belong in the OF and it shows.

jose martinez played the OF like no person has ever played outfield before. he would take the craziest routes every time, he'd be yelling at himself and the world as he ran toward it, he would leap way too early or way too late and then do a comic book routine crash and somersault off the wall. he was 6'6" and the most awkward

this is a+ NL Central analysis

Jesse Winker got hurt and pretty much the Reds lineup has fell apart. Too many strikeouts and not enough OBP.

i don't think lane thomas is actually good.

- me, last week.

he's still been pretty good! since joining the nats, he's .293/.383/.515, wRC+ 138

i still think ultimately he's not actually good. but there is the factor of a player like thomas finally getting a chance to play every day in the big leagues and being pumped as hell to do it.

also does anyone care about this WC2 chase? could be fun

Does it mean much to a Cardinals' fan to be chasing a wild-card spot? It's such a big deal in Toronto (and I know there are franchises even worse off).

it does to me, that's for sure. the cardinals have had a long enough stretch of above .500 that there's been enough time for this topic to be debated for years - are we fans happy, satisfied, or dissatisfied with the cardinals being consistently "pretty good" instead of "the best team in baseball good", where the latter would more likely to win it all of course.

actually, here: https://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2021/9/4/22656590/saturday-stream-of-consciousness-can-this-season-be-successful

a very recent take on that, and you can read through the comments. there are smart ones and dumb ones, they run the gamut.

i remember the 2006 (83-78) and 2011 (90-72) WS teams, and they were so much worse than the 2005, 2004, 2015, and 2014 teams. but none of those teams won, while the lesser teams did, and in the 2011 case did it in the most spectacularly joyful and unexpected way imaginable (at the time - there have been some very good WS since in terms of entertainment value).

anyway, even a lesser team can easily have a good 20-25 game stretch where everything comes together as planned, for once, and everyone's jumping and high-fiving all the time. for that reason, it means a lot that the cardinals are consistently in a position to make that possible nearly every year.

for example, very nice to be looking forward to the game tonight, dreading woodford's start, knowing that this is make or break time and they still have a shot

I mean that's the beauty of baseball, if you're lucky enough to make October the one month where you run hot you can make history. see also those two Royals World Series teams. as a Brewer fan I'm not really sure how to approach this postseason, this may actually be the single greatest Brewer team of my life but it's totally within the realm of possibility that they lose a 5-game series.

fwiw I find it hard to root for the Cardinals (sorry, you understand) but watching them take out that Philly team with the megastacked rotation was pretty fun

i would never root for the cardinals if i didn't grow up there, i get it. i mean, that run of braves teams in the 90s and 00s, holy shit. every fucking year. and the yankees around the same time. it's like change the channel

There is a baseball player named Lars Nootbaar.

That is all.

You got that right

I really don't mind if the Reds don't get the chance to get beat by the Dodgers in the playoffs, but f'k the Cardinals eternally. That said, the Cards do get IN the playoffs they can embarrass the Dodgers as I hate those dudes more (really more the Garvey ones but they all bleed blue).

Brewers have never won it all, so I would be A-OK cool with them doing so. Love Tony Gwynn but Machado is such a choad, I never want him to win anything more in his life in baseball - so cannot go for the Padres.

Indifferent to the Braves but like that is going to happen. Not a chance unless they face the Indians again in the WS.

Giants I am kinda neutral on overall, but it would roil Dodgers fans for them to win ANOTHER one - so that I could probably be ok with happening.

What are the “Garvey ones”?

Hahaha, I’m intrigued by that as well!

My NL non-cardinals “win it all tiers” are:

pirates
Brewers
Padres
Mets
Reds

Dbacks
Rockies
Marlins
Nats

Cubs
Giants
Phillies
Dodgers

https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediumlarge/2/los-angeles-dodgers-steve-garvey-april-12-1982-sports-illustrated-cover.jpg

I hated that popeye armed dude.

That said, I liked Ron Cey with the Cubs and any dude that looks that awkward and is actually good at their sport is ok. Turner definitely has some Penguin vibes with the current Dodgers.

Ever since the Reds brought Junior 'back home to Cincy' - it has not been all that much fun to follow the team.

That said, I grew up a Bears, Reds & IU Hoops fan...it's not been all that good a run for ANY of them for a couple decades plus - I'm a bit embittered.

"Is Steve Garvey Really Too Good to Be True?"--wait a few years, Sports Illustrated.

is yelich hurt? or his arm, at least?

congrats to the pittsburgh pirates, on the anniversary of roberto clemente's 3000th and final hit, for achieving their 100th loss for the fourth time in my life

also congrats to me for having watched absolutely none of their games this year, because why on earth would i

Congratulations, Karl Malone!

https://www.mlb.com/news/adam-wainwright-cardinals-agree-to-extension

thank you. remember, i'm the guy who was begging wainwright to retire after 2019 (and 2018). what can i say, i know a gamer when i see one!

just had a look at all-time pitching stats for the cardinals, and at some point very recently Wainwright passed Dizzy Dean for 2nd place all time pitcher WAR. kind of surprising considering how long the franchise has been around.

has there been an investigation of how he's doing it? i mean, he has That Curveball, but how has he rebounded/scoffed at mortality?

there's been a fangraphs article, that's about the best i know of

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-incomparable-adam-wainwright/

my own thoughts,

watching (every single - seriously) his games this season, it is very much that terrible cliche "pitching instead of throwing" thing. his command is as good as i've ever seen it, his curveball seems to be as good as ever. his arm slot and all that shit is pretty much identical from pitch to pitch, and he has the best defense (arguably) in baseball behind him. so even though his pitches are slow as shit, the relative difference between them is still stark, the arm slot's still the same, and lots of balls get put into play and turned into outs. he's been relatively "lucky" with HRs this year (11%/FB) but i credit that to the weak contact that he tends to induce.

i don't even know what the league average HR/FB % is. maybe 11% is high, who knows. regardless, he doesn't walk many so when he gives up a HR it often seems to be a solo HR in the 7th inning variety.

also went way into games repeatedly this season, almost as a matter of habit. he will get downvote cy young votes this year and totally deserves them. it's hard to quantify "veteran leadership" kind of stuff but in the dark ages of this summer for the cardinals, when they were walking people with the bases loaded a record number of times and hitting batters a record number of times, he was the only one who seemed like a normal baseball man, every 5th game.