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I can see the logic in that order, to get Arenado some extra at bats over the long haul. That's the new school. As an old guy who is still old school, I still like the idea of putting Goldschmidt and Arenado back-to-back and using Carlson No. 2 ahead of that 3-4 punch. I like DeJong where you have him and the Cardinals would be thrilled if O'Neill could hold up in that slot.

But it's a lot more fun playing this game with Arenado in town, isn't it?

This stuff all works together, but an electronic strike zone does hold a lot of potential. For instance, would consistent zones train hitters over time to have a better feel for the strike zone? Would they develop better plate discipline through the consistent reps? And what impact would this have on pitchers, who would no longer have to adapt to umpires? Would that give some guys more confidence? Clearly umpires with moving zones can frustrate the guy on the mound and get into his head. Pitchers with less mental toughness would appreciate removing this X factor from the game.

The more I think about this, the more intrigued I am.

Yes, there are metrics. I guess the one I like is the Extra Bases Taken Percentage -- in conjunction, of course, with Outs On Base. Paul Goldschmidt has the reputation for great baserunning. Last year he stole just one base on one try, but his Extra Base Taken Percentage was 55 percent, which tied his career high. By comparison, Harrison Bader came in at just 21 percent.

This would be a good topic to dig into. There are a lot of cool metrics that prove whether or not a baserunner was so good as to be invisible -- as the Cards broadcasters used to say about Albert Pujols.

For a slow guy, Yadier Molina can steal some bases by being sneaky but taking extra bases is obviously hard for him. His percentage came in at 6 percent last year, down from 33 and 32 percent the prevous two years.

It's more complicated than that. Arkansas has a ton of momentum. With so many transfers -- and with their best player being a freshman -- they were bound to improve on the fly And they did. Certainly Smith helps the Razorbacks containt Tilmon, but they will throw a lot of combinatiins at him. 

Lately Tilmon has been checking Tilmon. He's not catching the ball in traffic and he's getting frustrated by non-calls around the rim too easily. If the good Tilmon shows up for this game and if the three guards all play well at once -- which is rare -- the the Tigers could play their way off the No. 8/No. 9 bracket slot with a big victory.