This Day in Awesome Fielding: (1989) After overrunning Cardinal shortstop Ozzie Smith's fly ball down in the left field corner, Giants’ Kevin Mitchell recovers by reaching back and catching the ball in foul territory with his bare right hand. The National League's eventual MVP's amazing play occurs in the first inning of the Giants' 3-1 loss to the Redbirds at Busch Stadium.

Watching the Blue Jays fall apart yesterday was bittersweet...on one hand, yeah I lost my bet. But on the other hand, fuck the Blue Jays and it serves those big-headed pricks right. I thought Gibby was gonna stroke out.

Couple quick notes:

• The White Sox offense might be for real. I guess I'm not convinced yet because it's the White Sox, and though their lineup is definitely the best it's been in years, they can only outrun their peripherals for so long. What I mean by that is they still rank near the bottom of the league in most offensive metrics, including wOBA (25th), hard contact (25th), and OPS (27th). Now, I thought that they've improved since the start of the season, so I looked at just the last two weeks worth of data and saw no significant difference. In the last 7 days though, they are among the top half of teams in terms of offensive production. This is definitely something to keep an eye on over the next few weeks.

• If I had to rank the top 5 offenses in the league right now, my list would be as follows:

1. Cardinals (.367 wOBA, 125 wRC+, .856 OPS, .224 ISO)
2. Diamondbacks (.346 wOBA, 106 wRC+, .809 OPS, .203 ISO)
3. Pirates (.353 wOBA, 118 wRC+, .804 OPS, .133 ISO)
4. Cubs (.346 wOBA, 110 wRC+, .793 OPS, .181 ISO)

5. Rockies (.343 wOBA, 92 wRC+, .801 OPS, .208 ISO)

   Notice something there? All NL teams. Not only that, all teams come from the NL Central and West, which are two of the most competitive divisions in all of baseball. None of this really means much right now because it's so early in the season, but I did find it interesting how that shook out.

• A note on Shelby Miller (and why I'll more than likely be staying away from the Cards/Dbags game today): Miller's fastball velo has dropped 1-2 MPH from last season (1.2 MPH drop on his 4-seam, 2 MPH drop on his 2-seam), which might be his issue as both of those pitches have been his downfall this season thusfar. It is however worth noting that he has historically been a slow starter, with a career 5.14 FIP in March/April. For comparison his May FIP is 2.90. Some pitchers need some time to get going, and Miller could very well be one of them.