Red Reposter: End of the Greginning of the End

Leake is going to take on the enjoyable-if-hittable Brandon McCarthy tonight at 7 pm. The Cardinals are playing the Brewers right this very moment (Westbrook v. Gorzelanny), and the Pirates have a strangely 6:40 pm game against the Diamondbacks, too.

The big news is that Cingrani left his start early yesterday. He says he'll make his next start but c'mon. Let's please not tool around with a 23-year-old stud who's been balky for a few starts now. Let's rather get the dude some yoga and see what Grenolds can do. It likely won't be pretty, but it's worth looking at.

A week ago, Alex Pareene picked on some Internet Tough Guys, who are somewhat predominant in the sportsosphere. Being an internet tough guy is pretty amusingly pathetic, but since the phenomenon exists, someone has to pray for it not to. I'm glad Pareene is the one to do it.

My actual favorite story from the past week, and the one you absolutely must read: "Unremarkable men walk 40 miles for no particular reason."

Fangraphs explored the "battery effect" of catchers and pitchers and finds, well, not too much of one. I always wonder on things like this. Mesoraco's caught Arroyo a lot more this year, and Arroyo's not doing all that much worse than he did when Hanigan caught him. There's a lot of noise in these things, but hey, I'll let Fangraphs explain that.

Ichiro has 4,000 hits. It's only him, Ty Cobb, Pete Rose, and some minor league lifer that have that many professional hits, so the whole thing sets up a weird, Grahamophone-esque concept of what makes it a "major" league, how much those Japanese hits should count, and other such stuff. And there's a decent chance that he breaks Pete's record. I'm sure that'll be a pretty cool, low-key, event.

Since I don't think we've explicitly covered it yet, Hal's Joey Votto interview. Some great words from the hardest-working blankity-blank in baseball.

Todd Radom, the designer of the Nationals' and Angels' brands, discusses Mr. Redlegs at length. It's a fascinating read full of great and sometimes horrifying images (Mr. Redlegs-with-teeth is in my nightmares). So please, please, check it out. Especially you, RedConn. H/t to -MBP