The "Jason Heyward Drinks Delicious Cardinal Tears" Sploogetime Thread

[SKO]

I could go on a serious, irrational meatball rant about this dude at the drop of a hat.

*drops hat*

Because what we need around here is MOAR IRRATIONAL MEATBALL RANTING.

To be fair at what point does it become not irrational? Because a .650 OPS from a $23 million dollar a year outfielder on June 29th seems like a perfectly rational thing to be mad about.

I mean, calling for him to be benched or DFA'd or sent to the minors or whatever would obviously be meatball, but I think shouting "god fucking dammit, Jason, hit the fucking ball" is well within the rights of rational people at this point, even if Irrational Folks like myself jumped on the train faster than others.

I didn't say it would be irrational, Pen did.

Yeah but you seemed to agree with him, I'm just positing the question to everybody. I think we can safely start to move the dial on the Official Rational Fan Stance on Jason Heyward from "Regression to the Mean! Just Be Patient!" to "Okay what the fuck is wrong with you, man" is all.

[Yeti]

I had a half a notion to be all FYSKO for that single in the 15th, but then I realized, despite the different circumstances, I was going to be like Billy Heywood cheering hard once Jerry Johnson finally got a hit.

[SKO]

Kris Bryant had 5 extra base hits Monday night, and Jason Heyward has 5 in his last 19 games (none in his last seven)

[Quality Start Machine]

Kris Bryant had 5 extra base hits Monday night, and Jason Heyward has 5 in his last 19 games (none in his last seven)

To be fair, nobody expected Heyward to match Bryant's offensive output.

Heyward has been offensively putrid all season, but at some point he's got to correct himself, right? There's nothing in his career to indicate he'll remain this horrible.

And as long as the Cubs are banged up, there aren't really a whole lot of other options in the 2 spot. Even Zobrist hasn't been doing a whole lot of hitting lately, last night's HR notwithstanding.

[SKO]

Kris Bryant had 5 extra base hits Monday night, and Jason Heyward has 5 in his last 19 games (none in his last seven)

To be fair, nobody expected Heyward to match Bryant's offensive output.

Heyward has been offensively putrid all season, but at some point he's got to correct himself, right? There's nothing in his career to indicate he'll remain this horrible.

And as long as the Cubs are banged up, there aren't really a whole lot of other options in the 2 spot. Even Zobrist hasn't been doing a whole lot of hitting lately, last night's HR notwithstanding.

You would think that, but his career numbers indicated he would usually correct himself by now. June is one of his best months, and yet he's been even worse in the second half of this month than he's been all year. I'm starting to think that "sore wrist" was more than they let on and it's sapped him of all of his power.

And I am fine with him staying in the 2 spot for now since the options are indeed limited, but I would hope once Fowler and Soler are back Joe will at least contemplate moving him down to the 5th or 6th spot. Fowler/Zobrist/Bryant/Rizzo/Contreras/Heyward/Soler/Russell would be fine. 

[Oleg]

I could go on a serious, irrational meatball rant about this dude at the drop of a hat.

*drops hat*

Because what we need around here is MOAR IRRATIONAL MEATBALL RANTING.

To be fair at what point does it become not irrational? Because a .650 OPS from a $23 million dollar a year outfielder on June 29th seems like a perfectly rational thing to be mad about.

I mean, calling for him to be benched or DFA'd or sent to the minors or whatever would obviously be meatball, but I think shouting "god fucking dammit, Jason, hit the fucking ball" is well within the rights of rational people at this point, even if Irrational Folks like myself jumped on the train faster than others.

The rational argument could be that his defense and baserunning are still keeping him on pace to be a major league average player despite his pedestrian offense contributions.  Think about that for a minute...the guy is hitting like Ronny Cedeno and is still at least a major league average player.  Also rational, that's not really worth $23MM per year but here we are.

He's not coming out of the lineup.  The team wouldn't be as good without him.  Yet, you can still be rationally frustrated at his offense, arbitrary monthly statistics be damned.

Am I sounding like a Heyward apologist?  Cause I think I'm becoming one.

Also, who the fuck are the idiots suggested he be DFA'd or optioned (as if that was an option).

[SKO]

I could go on a serious, irrational meatball rant about this dude at the drop of a hat.

*drops hat*

Because what we need around here is MOAR IRRATIONAL MEATBALL RANTING.

To be fair at what point does it become not irrational? Because a .650 OPS from a $23 million dollar a year outfielder on June 29th seems like a perfectly rational thing to be mad about.

I mean, calling for him to be benched or DFA'd or sent to the minors or whatever would obviously be meatball, but I think shouting "god fucking dammit, Jason, hit the fucking ball" is well within the rights of rational people at this point, even if Irrational Folks like myself jumped on the train faster than others.

The rational argument could be that his defense and baserunning are still keeping him on pace to be a major league average player despite his pedestrian offense contributions.  Think about that for a minute...the guy is hitting like Ronny Cedeno and is still at least a major league average player.  Also rational, that's not really worth $23MM per year but here we are.

He's not coming out of the lineup.  The team wouldn't be as good without him.  Yet, you can still be rationally frustrated at his offense, arbitrary monthly statistics be damned.

Am I sounding like a Heyward apologist?  Cause I think I'm becoming one.

Also, who the fuck are the idiots suggested he be DFA'd or optioned (as if that was an option).

I don't think anyone other than meatballs I see people mocking on twitter have actually called for him to benched or worse, I was just asking what even constitutes an "irrational meatball rant" against Heyward at this point. Bitching about his offense and not being worth the money so far is 100% rational and justified by the numbers, so you'd pretty much have to be calling for him to be benched or worse for it to be "irrational meatball" talk. 

I think anyone with half a brain knows that, at worst, all that's going to happen is he eventually gets moved down the lineup. Joe was still batting Castro cleanup at this point last year I think so he's definitely reluctant to damage a guy's confidence or whatever by moving him down the lineup.

[Eli]

Kris Bryant had 5 extra base hits Monday night, and Jason Heyward has 5 in his last 19 games (none in his last seven)

To be fair, nobody expected Heyward to match Bryant's offensive output.

Heyward has been offensively putrid all season, but at some point he's got to correct himself, right? There's nothing in his career to indicate he'll remain this horrible.

And as long as the Cubs are banged up, there aren't really a whole lot of other options in the 2 spot. Even Zobrist hasn't been doing a whole lot of hitting lately, last night's HR notwithstanding.

You would think that, but his career numbers indicated he would usually correct himself by now. June is one of his best months, and yet he's been even worse in the second half of this month than he's been all year. I'm starting to think that "sore wrist" was more than they let on and it's sapped him of all of his power.

I don't think he'll be this bad forever. But I think he might be this bad for the rest of the year because whatever is bugging him (minor injury, trouble adjusting, mechanical problem) is going to be tough to fix before the offseason.

[Oleg]

Kris Bryant had 5 extra base hits Monday night, and Jason Heyward has 5 in his last 19 games (none in his last seven)

To be fair, nobody expected Heyward to match Bryant's offensive output.

Heyward has been offensively putrid all season, but at some point he's got to correct himself, right? There's nothing in his career to indicate he'll remain this horrible.

And as long as the Cubs are banged up, there aren't really a whole lot of other options in the 2 spot. Even Zobrist hasn't been doing a whole lot of hitting lately, last night's HR notwithstanding.

You would think that, but his career numbers indicated he would usually correct himself by now. June is one of his best months, and yet he's been even worse in the second half of this month than he's been all year. I'm starting to think that "sore wrist" was more than they let on and it's sapped him of all of his power.

I don't think he'll be this bad forever. But I think he might be this bad for the rest of the year because whatever is bugging him (minor injury, trouble adjusting, mechanical problem) is going to be tough to fix before the offseason.

Can we get an arbiter's decision on the over/under of rationality in this post?

[Eli]

Kris Bryant had 5 extra base hits Monday night, and Jason Heyward has 5 in his last 19 games (none in his last seven)

To be fair, nobody expected Heyward to match Bryant's offensive output.

Heyward has been offensively putrid all season, but at some point he's got to correct himself, right? There's nothing in his career to indicate he'll remain this horrible.

And as long as the Cubs are banged up, there aren't really a whole lot of other options in the 2 spot. Even Zobrist hasn't been doing a whole lot of hitting lately, last night's HR notwithstanding.

You would think that, but his career numbers indicated he would usually correct himself by now. June is one of his best months, and yet he's been even worse in the second half of this month than he's been all year. I'm starting to think that "sore wrist" was more than they let on and it's sapped him of all of his power.

I don't think he'll be this bad forever. But I think he might be this bad for the rest of the year because whatever is bugging him (minor injury, trouble adjusting, mechanical problem) is going to be tough to fix before the offseason.

Can we get an arbiter's decision on the over/under of rationality in this post?

5?

[Slaky]

Kris Bryant had 5 extra base hits Monday night, and Jason Heyward has 5 in his last 19 games (none in his last seven)

To be fair, nobody expected Heyward to match Bryant's offensive output.

Heyward has been offensively putrid all season, but at some point he's got to correct himself, right? There's nothing in his career to indicate he'll remain this horrible.

And as long as the Cubs are banged up, there aren't really a whole lot of other options in the 2 spot. Even Zobrist hasn't been doing a whole lot of hitting lately, last night's HR notwithstanding.

You would think that, but his career numbers indicated he would usually correct himself by now. June is one of his best months, and yet he's been even worse in the second half of this month than he's been all year. I'm starting to think that "sore wrist" was more than they let on and it's sapped him of all of his power.

I don't think he'll be this bad forever. But I think he might be this bad for the rest of the year because whatever is bugging him (minor injury, trouble adjusting, mechanical problem) is going to be tough to fix before the offseason.

They aren't the same player at all but I remember Moises Alou wasn't very good in his first season.

[SKO]

Kris Bryant had 5 extra base hits Monday night, and Jason Heyward has 5 in his last 19 games (none in his last seven)

To be fair, nobody expected Heyward to match Bryant's offensive output.

Heyward has been offensively putrid all season, but at some point he's got to correct himself, right? There's nothing in his career to indicate he'll remain this horrible.

And as long as the Cubs are banged up, there aren't really a whole lot of other options in the 2 spot. Even Zobrist hasn't been doing a whole lot of hitting lately, last night's HR notwithstanding.

You would think that, but his career numbers indicated he would usually correct himself by now. June is one of his best months, and yet he's been even worse in the second half of this month than he's been all year. I'm starting to think that "sore wrist" was more than they let on and it's sapped him of all of his power.

I don't think he'll be this bad forever. But I think he might be this bad for the rest of the year because whatever is bugging him (minor injury, trouble adjusting, mechanical problem) is going to be tough to fix before the offseason.

They aren't the same player at all but I remember Moises Alou wasn't very good in his first season.

He was also 35 years old as opposed to 26.

[CT III]

Kris Bryant had 5 extra base hits Monday night, and Jason Heyward has 5 in his last 19 games (none in his last seven)

To be fair, nobody expected Heyward to match Bryant's offensive output.

Heyward has been offensively putrid all season, but at some point he's got to correct himself, right? There's nothing in his career to indicate he'll remain this horrible.

And as long as the Cubs are banged up, there aren't really a whole lot of other options in the 2 spot. Even Zobrist hasn't been doing a whole lot of hitting lately, last night's HR notwithstanding.

You would think that, but his career numbers indicated he would usually correct himself by now. June is one of his best months, and yet he's been even worse in the second half of this month than he's been all year. I'm starting to think that "sore wrist" was more than they let on and it's sapped him of all of his power.

I don't think he'll be this bad forever. But I think he might be this bad for the rest of the year because whatever is bugging him (minor injury, trouble adjusting, mechanical problem) is going to be tough to fix before the offseason.

My thought has been it's a nagging injury that's not so terrible he can't play, and with the rest of the OFers dropping like flies he's gutting it out.  Ideally if they maintain the large lead in the division maybe he'd be able to do a DL stint when Soler and Fowler get back, since they've got insurance (HA!) in the form of Coghlan.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

Kris Bryant had 5 extra base hits Monday night, and Jason Heyward has 5 in his last 19 games (none in his last seven)

To be fair, nobody expected Heyward to match Bryant's offensive output.

Heyward has been offensively putrid all season, but at some point he's got to correct himself, right? There's nothing in his career to indicate he'll remain this horrible.

And as long as the Cubs are banged up, there aren't really a whole lot of other options in the 2 spot. Even Zobrist hasn't been doing a whole lot of hitting lately, last night's HR notwithstanding.

You would think that, but his career numbers indicated he would usually correct himself by now. June is one of his best months, and yet he's been even worse in the second half of this month than he's been all year. I'm starting to think that "sore wrist" was more than they let on and it's sapped him of all of his power.

I don't think he'll be this bad forever. But I think he might be this bad for the rest of the year because whatever is bugging him (minor injury, trouble adjusting, mechanical problem) is going to be tough to fix before the offseason.

They aren't the same player at all but I remember Moises Alou wasn't very good in his first season.

And his ears are probably still ringing from the ride he received for 6 innings from this leather-lunged meatball (*points to self*) who was sitting in the first row of the LF bleachers during the first Cubs/Sox game of the year that year (2002) expressly for that purpose.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

So I guess I'm saying I should go easier on SKO.