2016 Opening Day Live Blog

12:46

august fagerstrom: why do we have to boo people on Opening Day

12:46

august fagerstrom: hi everyone

12:47

The Dude of NY: Opening day has me exited like this.

12:47

Wily Mo Money Mo Problems: Could you please explain the Pirates’ lineup construction to me? I realize that the analytics support moving Cutch to the 2 hole, but it seems to be coming at the expense of moving Freese to 3. A top 4 of Jaso, Harrison, McCutchen, and Marte just seems like it *has* to be more productive, but am I looking at this wrong?

12:48

august fagerstrom: Freese batting 3rd is a bit odd.

12:49

august fagerstrom: McCutchen hitting second definitely seems like the right move. Surprised 3-5 isn’t some combo of Marte, Polanco, Cervelli, Harrison

12:50

august fagerstrom: Marte should probably be third. He’s a class above the rest of those guys. After Jaso-McCutchen-Marte it probably doesn’t matter much.

12:51

august fagerstrom: Then again the reason why they moved McCutchen out of the third spot was because of the “most times coming to bat with 2 outs and nobody on” thing so maybe they’re just rebelling against the 3-hole by sticking David Freese there

12:52

august fagerstrom: goodness gracious that John Jaso hair

12:52

jj: Is there somewhere where I could go to read about what the ideal lineup construction is?

12:52

august fagerstrom: this is pretty handy — http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2009/3/17/795946/optimizing-your-lineup-by

12:54

The Dude of NY: You should run a poll about which game today people are most excited to watch.

12:54

august fagerstrom: done!

12:55

august fagerstrom: I’d be pretty surprised if it wasn’t Mets-Royals. Tough to beat a WS rematch

12:56

Otis: If John Jaso could hit lefties the way he hit righties, are we talking All-Star Caliber player?

12:57

august fagerstrom: Career 127 wRC+ vs. RHP

12:57

august fagerstrom: That’s like a .350 wOBA

12:57

august fagerstrom: So that’s like Prince Fielder

12:58

august fagerstrom: About what he’s projected for this year.

12:58

august fagerstrom: Still no defense, and he’s up against all the best first baseman

12:58

august fagerstrom: Would be a real good bat. Good player. But he’d still be all bat, and he wouldn’t be the best bat.

12:59

Colin: Liriano to Carpenter, first pitch, what do you got: Takes a ball? Takes a strike? Swings away?

1:00	august fagerstrom: I’m saying takes a ball. Fastball, missed low and away

1:01	Otis: If the Cleveland Indians got league average pitching, how bad are we talking for their team?

1:02	august fagerstrom: League average projected SP WAR is about 13 WAR, so that chops 4 wins off. Think they’d still actually be projected for the best record in the division. They’d be like 1 WAR above the White Sox. That surprises me. I would’ve thought bad

1:02	august fagerstrom: Feels like it’d be worse

1:02	Who_Is_Zorbist?: Highlight play of the year is provided by whom?

1:02	august fagerstrom: Andrelton!

1:02	Maxwell: RE: Poll – Stroman v Archer is enough to elicit more excitement from me than the WS rematch. Love those dudes.

1:03	august fagerstrom: True. Story behind Mets-Royals will be cool though

1:03	Jafo: So is Pollock really cooked for the whole year? And if he is, is Socrates the answer?

1:04	august fagerstrom: Sure doesn’t seem good. Same thing that cost him an entire season in 2010

1:04	august fagerstrom: And the fact that he “hopes” to play this year certainly isn’t encouraging

1:04	august fagerstrom: Seems a Brito/Owings platoon is what they’re planning on now, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they brought in someone like Michael Bourn just because

1:05	august fagerstrom: Not sure that makes them any better but seems like something that could happen. They said they’d explore veteran options of guys who didn’t make OD rosters

1:06	Michael: Who’s up first for my Braves once Aybar is traded……Swanson or Albies??

1:06	august fagerstrom: Albies is 19

1:06	august fagerstrom: so

1:07	august fagerstrom: Swanson. Though it’s far from certain that Swanson’s up this year. He’s never played a game above low A

1:07	Eric: Prediction time: who wins the Cardinals / Pirates game, and what’s the final score?

1:07	august fagerstrom: Cardinals, 4-2

1:08	Tommy C.: Since Houston has so many 1B options (White, Gonzalez, Singleton), does A.J. Reed have a realistic shot of making an impact with the Astros this year?

1:09	august fagerstrom: Yes, absolutely. Gonzalez is a de facto first baseman, I don’t think the organization has any faith in Singleton, and White is a placeholder. Reed is the top bat in the system, he’ll probably be up as soon as possible

1:10	IHateKennyWilliams: I love how they immediately use W/L record to value Wainwright. On a scale of 1-10 how ready are you for everyone to forget that this stat even exists?

1:11	august fagerstrom: it’s pretty easy to ignore. but it’s going away, slowly

1:11	Scott: August, what or who are you most excited to see in this first game?

1:11	august fagerstrom: Pretty excited to watch Liriano pitch. He’s a lot of fun just due to how unique his approach is

1:12	august fagerstrom: Fewest percentage of pitches thrown inside the strike zone last season and one of the highest chase rates!

1:13	august fagerstrom: Excited to see Grichuk and Piscotty hit. Excited to see Matt Holliday play first base. Excited to see Yadier Molina catch pitches. Excited to see Andrew McCutchen do everything

1:13	august fagerstrom: Excited for baseball

1:13	Daniel: Who hits the first home run of the season?

1:14	august fagerstrom: John Jaso, second at-bat

1:14	The Hamburglar: How many ballparks have you been to, Fagerstrom?

1:14	august fagerstrom: A bunch. Like 23?

1:14	Pat: It seems weird to me that Martin is batting 8th for the Jays. Thoughts?

1:14	august fagerstrom: Seems weird that Pillar is batting leadoff, too. Not sure.

1:14	Colin: Career W-L record can actually be a good way to value a pitcher, I believe. Go look at the winningest career pitchers, no one lucked their way there.

1:15	august fagerstrom: Couldn’t straight up innings pitched essentially accomplish the same thing?

1:15	Bip: They just said Cole Figueroa made the Pirates’ roster! I didn’t know that!

1:15	august fagerstrom: Made me pretty happy. Cool story

1:15	august fagerstrom: Hey, baseball is about to happen!

1:15	Who_Is_Zorbist?: Prediction: Today is the only day this year the Cards are at or above .500

1:16	august fagerstrom: Super hot take.

1:16	Mike: Favorite ballpark?

1:16	august fagerstrom: Hey I called the first pitch!

1:16	august fagerstrom: Also OH MY GOD this camera angle

1:17	august fagerstrom: “John Jaso has to play defense” going well so far

1:17	august fagerstrom: Wow

1:17	august fagerstrom: Baseball is awesome already

1:17	Kvn: Jon Jaso looks like he should be in a White Zombie cover band.

1:17	JDX: John Jaso’s hair. 75 FV?

1:17	august fagerstrom: or 20 present

1:18	august fagerstrom: Sorry, back to Mike’s question — my favorite ballpark I’ve been to is the one that’s on our TV’s right now

1:20	Evan: Out of the 17 ballparks I’ve been to I liked Pac Bell and PNC the best

1:20	august fagerstrom: My 2 favorites as well

1:20	mtsw: Switch to Cards feed, camera angle is dead on

1:20	august fagerstrom: Doing this now. ESPN one was god awful

1:21	machetko: Re W-L, literally true that you assess a pitcher named, say, Wadam Ainwright, who had identical stats to Adam Wainwright but a career .500 record in the same # of decisions? I mean, you don’t think about him in any way differently?

1:21	august fagerstrom: I wouldn’t have seen it in the first place, probably

1:21	Bad Hermit: Will you be chatting all day? Others joining?

1:21	august fagerstrom: Me for game one, Paul for game two, Dave for game three

1:22	Zvazda: How did you switch to the cards feed? Isnt the game blacked out because its on ESPN?

1:22	august fagerstrom: MLB.tv

1:22	august fagerstrom: and oh my god it is so much better

1:22	august fagerstrom: wow

1:23	august fagerstrom: Gonna say the Pirates have the best batting helmets in the game

1:24	mtsw: protip: if you have cable but not mlb.tv the extra innings channels are free today, it looks like

1:24	Steve: Isn’t the MLB.tv feed like a full minute behind? Aren’t you worried about chat spoilers??

1:25	august fagerstrom: I just checked — it’s not very far behind. Well worth the camera switch

1:26	collin: did one of the announcers just say this last at bat could decide the entire game?

1:26	august fagerstrom: this game is a must-win

1:26	august fagerstrom: for both teams

1:27	august fagerstrom: first riveting review of the season! baseball!

1:27	Pikachu: There’s a way to get around that MLB.tv lag: http://www.bluebirdbanter.com/2014/4/2/5575172/watch-lag-free-live-games-mlb-tv-with-this-one-weird-trick

1:28	august fagerstrom: This could be helpful to some. I watch on my PS4, though, and I’m not sure this applies

1:29	jj: the new mlb.tv player doesn’t work like this, i think

1:29	august fagerstrom: counter-point

1:29	august fagerstrom: Adam Wainwright curveballs are fun to watch

1:29	august fagerstrom: #breaking

1:30	august fagerstrom: that’s a double entendre

1:30	august fagerstrom: McCutchen-Freese worked out pretty well first time

1:30	Pikachu: Not sure what jj is talking about – the method I linked to works perfectly fine for me, with no lag. Maybe it’s different for all though

1:30	august fagerstrom: counter-counter-point!

1:31	august fagerstrom: McCutchen running nearly put Wong in a position to make that play. Would’ve been fun

1:34	Fletch: Re: “Wainwright gets better as the game goes on.” All pitchers have a times-through-the-order penalty, no?

1:36	august fagerstrom: Yeah, theoretically they all should.

1:36	august fagerstrom: Wainwright is no exception

1:37	august fagerstrom: Man that Liriano change

1:38	august fagerstrom: So much movement. All of his stuff moves so much

1:38	Pikachu: Has Gyorko every played short in pro ball?

1:39	august fagerstrom: Played a couple dozen games there in San Diego last year. Believe that was his first exposure. Holliday is the one playing a position for the first time ever today

1:39	IHateKennyWilliams: slider was good too

1:39	august fagerstrom: Yeah that sequence to Grichuk was beautiful

1:40	Bad Hermit: He didn’t throw a strike to Grichuk.

1:40	august fagerstrom: He rarely throws strikes. He gets people to give him strikes.

1:41	Otis: Is Liriano’s change that filthy, guys are swinging at what seems to be terrible pitches, must really be fooling them!

1:41	august fagerstrom: All of Liriano’s stuff is that filthy

1:41	G: Liriano, straight dealing

1:41	Bip: He’s been locating great so far too

1:42	august fagerstrom: Wow.

1:42	august fagerstrom: That was just a masterful inning by Liriano

1:42	august fagerstrom: Classic.

1:43	august fagerstrom: ban all “ironic on-pace” jokes from Twitter please

1:43	G: Holliday is already done at first base. Odd.

1:43	august fagerstrom: wut

1:44	august fagerstrom: Huh. Pham out with oblique tightness. Holliday to LF, Adams in at 1B.

1:44	august fagerstrom: That’s not great

1:45	The Hamburglar: Polanco is going to go deep here

1:45	august fagerstrom: ^ This guy came pretty close

1:45	Bad Hermit: I don’t Twitter. “Ironic on-pace”?

1:46	august fagerstrom: “Francisco Liriano is on pace for 2,435 strikeouts this season” or wahtever

1:46	august fagerstrom: whatever*

1:46	august fagerstrom: Josh Harrison’s beard doesn’t even look real

1:46	august fagerstrom: from Daren Willman: “109.2 MPH off the bat of Gregory Polanco… He only hit 16 balls that hard or harder last year. Not too shabby.”

1:48	machetko: It’s really pronounced “jerko”?

1:48	august fagerstrom: That’s what I’ve always said, yeah

1:48	august fagerstrom: These outside targets by Yadi are crazy

1:48	august fagerstrom: He’s like in the other batter’s box

1:49	The Hamburglar: I kind of trailed off with Spring Training coverage, but when is Kang expected to be back?

1:49	august fagerstrom: 4-6 weeks, I believe

1:49	Daniel: Is there anything predictive about early-season off-the-bat speed of hits? A sign of improvement? (Similar to a pitcher’s velocity being way down)

1:50	august fagerstrom: Don’t have enough data for this yet

1:50	august fagerstrom: I doubt it, though, because a pitcher’s velocity pretty much has no variables, whereas a hitter’s exit velocity has plenty. Data is nosier

1:50	?: This camera angle is terrible. Every pitch looks like its in a batters box.

1:50	august fagerstrom: If you’ve got MLB.tv, switch to the Cardinals feed! It’s the most perfect camera angle

1:51	august fagerstrom: welp

1:51	august fagerstrom: Francisco Liriano has the first RBI of the season

1:51	august fagerstrom: Makes sense

1:51	Rols: What’s the strategy there with liriano swinging away?

1:51	august fagerstrom: He got a terrible pitch

1:52	zkello: The Pirates angle is perfect too

1:52	The Hamburglar: Is the Cardinals angle that much better than the Pirates?

1:52	august fagerstrom: Didn’t check. I just know the Cardinals one is perfect so I stuck with it

1:52	?: What was being reviewed?

1:52	august fagerstrom: Whether the ball hit the baserunner on first

1:52	Wahahah: Jaso double right here

1:53	august fagerstrom: called a dinger earlier, still feeling it

1:53	august fagerstrom: not quite, but still a good thing

1:53	Daniel: I think it’s cool that all the Pittsburgh teams have the same colors.

1:54	august fagerstrom: I agree with this.

1:55	august fagerstrom: That didn’t really look like a strike

1:56	august fagerstrom: Seems Wainwright is leaving a lot of curves up and yanking them pretty far gloveside

1:56	august fagerstrom: Another bad curve thrown to Freese there tbh

1:57	august fagerstrom: Daren Willman: “Statcast had Liriano’s GB at 104 MPH off the bat… Wow.”

1:57	august fagerstrom: Baseball is fun

1:57	Daniel: Command really doesn’t look great, and he’s throwing 89-90. Cold and early, though.

1:58	august fagerstrom: 89-90 is normal

1:58	august fagerstrom: Command is just off

2:00	CamdenWarehouse: I’ve never been to PNC and obviously you can’t tell everything (or even all that much) from TV, but I don’t see what is so nice about this park. What is it that everyone loves?

2:01	august fagerstrom: It’s clean and open. It’s got good food. The view from behind the plate of the bridge and water and city might be the best in the MLB. The field and stadium itself is pretty. It’s just a great place to watch a ballgame

2:01	Pikachu: Thoughts on the new Weezer album? imo it is v good

2:02	august fagerstrom: You’re not the first person I’ve heard say this. That’s surprising. Suppose I’ll have to give it a listen. Had all but written them off

2:02	august fagerstrom: Hey, a Cardinals batter was able to lay off Liriano’s out of zone stuff!

2:02	The Hamburglar: The view is breathtaking, even more so when youre there

2:02	Ethan: It’s beautiful, that’s what’s so great!

2:02	Tim Spooneyberger: Look from home plate out!

2:03	Kvn: Liriano is getting so much movement on his other pitches that he’s using the fastball in the zone as a putaway pitch and just freezing guys.

2:03	august fagerstrom: He’s a lot of fun to watch pitch

2:03	Bork: Whats Pittsburgh like around the stadium? We hear about other stadiums and the area around being good or terrible (aka Mets), but not really anything about PNC

2:04	august fagerstrom: Downtown is right across the bridge and it’s pretty nice

2:04	iHateKennyWilliams: http://f.tqn.com/y/pittsburgh/1/S/W/h/pnc_park_view.jpg

2:04	august fagerstrom: Yeah, I mean, geez. Look at that view.

2:04	august fagerstrom: That… was not a good throw

2:07	The Hamburglar: Why would you even bother with 2nd? There’s 1 out. Get the 2nd out at first, then trust Liriano to be nasty against a LH batter

2:07	august fagerstrom: Was a bad bunt. Right in front of the plate, as soon as he saw, it he probably made the snap judgment. Not much time to make that call! I like the aggression

2:07	august fagerstrom: That was a pretty sweet double play. Heck of a throw by Mercer

2:10	Owen S: I’m REALLY confused. WHat happened to the Cubs-ANgels game?

2:10	august fagerstrom: It’s not a regular season game

2:10	Nicholas : Have you been to Safeco, especially in the past couple years? I think it’s a better ballpark than AT&T. Yeah AT&T has the best views, but Safeco is easier to wally around, has a great bullpen area, has better food/beer, and better stadium things such as screens and reader boards

2:10	august fagerstrom: I have not. I really want to go

2:10	Frozen Yogurt: If you had to guess, will Joey Bats be wearing a Jays jersey come opening day 2017?

2:10	august fagerstrom: If I had to guess I would guess no

2:12	Scott: How excited are you for Kluber vs Price? I think thats the matchup that Im most looking forward to watching this week.

2:12	august fagerstrom: It’s a hell of an Opening Day matchup. Probably the best one this year

2:13	Jerome Walton: Is it odd that the Cardinals only right hander off the bench is the catcher?

2:13	august fagerstrom: Well they’re facing a lefty so they’re just all in the lineup

2:14	august fagerstrom: There’s that Wainwright curve

2:15	august fagerstrom: Probably the best one he’s thrown today

2:15	august fagerstrom: Threw two real good ones to Polanco there

2:15

The Dude of NY: OK, I’ve always enjoyed the atmosphere of Wrigley Field more than any other stadium. I remember during the peak of the rebuild a few years ago, my late grandfather took me to a game in mid April that was about 32 degrees outside. The Cubs were obviously intentionally bad then. The game was nearly sold out. Every time a Cubs hitter got on base, or a pitcher got a strikeout, everyone in the stadium would stand up screaming in joy. The Cubs were blown out, and basically nobody left until the last out was made. There was something really beautiful about that dedication. I’d never been a fan of any particular team before (just a fan of the sport) but that led me to Cubs fandom.

2:15	august fagerstrom: Yeah, I think PNC is my favorite stadium, but Wrigley is my favorite place to watch a game

2:16	The Hamburglar: Which ballpark has the best area around the stadium. Gotta be Fenway, right?

2:16	august fagerstrom: Wrigley is good for this. I might be biased but Progressive Field is in a pretty awesome location. Houston’s is right downtown and I like Houston’s downtown

2:17	august fagerstrom: Definitely not U.S. Cellular

2:17	Cousin Mose: How different are the analytics that front offices use?

2:17	august fagerstrom: I’d say they’re all getting at similar things, just perhaps taking slightly different routes to get there

2:17	august fagerstrom: Wainwright looked a lot sharper with his command, particularly the curve, that inning than the previous two

2:18	Colin: Would you take the Pirates or the Marlins OF this year? Long term?

2:18	august fagerstrom: Probably Pirates both

2:18	LJS: Who has the best rotation in the NL Central? How can I convince my panic-prone friend that the Cubs pitching staff is good?

2:18	august fagerstrom: Show him this http://www.fangraphs.com/depthcharts.aspx?position=SP

2:18	Kvn: So you’re saying Wainwright has gotten better as the game has gone on?

2:18	august fagerstrom: you sly bastard…

2:19	CHI: Wrigleyville is a good location when you’re from out of town, but live in Chicago for a bit and Wrigleyville’s rampant drunkenness and overpriced bars grow tiresome

2:19	august fagerstrom: Could definitely see this

2:21	august fagerstrom: MLB.tv feed froze for me :{

2:21	august fagerstrom: we’re back!

2:22	august fagerstrom: Matt Adams went with “The Realist” reaction on his check swing there

2:22	Rick: how do you have mlb tv and the chat on the same window?

2:22	august fagerstrom: I watch on my TV through my Ps4

2:23	august fagerstrom: -1 defensive runs saved credit for Jordy Mercer

2:23	The Hamburglar: Mercer has got to get that

2:24	august fagerstrom: It was hit real hard, tough play, but he’s gotta get a glove on it, yeah

2:24	Daniel: Pirates announcers: “Exit velocity should be how fast the pitcher runs off the field when taken out of the game.”

2:24	august fagerstrom: >_>

2:24	Brendan : Shouldn’t there be a Pitch Speed adjustment for batted ball velocities? Isn’t a harder thrown pitch going to generally lead to a faster speed off the bat?

2:25	august fagerstrom: If I recall correctly Alan Nathan did some work on this and found that something like 85% of a batter’s exit velo is due to him. The pitcher’s speed doesn’t play a huge factr

2:25	august fagerstrom: factor*

2:25	august fagerstrom: That did not look like a swing from center

2:25	august fagerstrom: Oh. He did.

2:28	august fagerstrom: Nice pitch by Liriano there. Better take.

2:29	august fagerstrom: Wow. That was fun.

2:29	Bork: ICE COLD BLOOD

2:29	Daniel: nasty nasty ansty

2:29	Wahahah: CLUCH

2:32	Yo-Yo: When do platoon splits normalize? Wong seems like he should never play against lefties, but when can we say that for sure?

2:32	august fagerstrom: Not sure, but it’s not 200 PAs. That being said, when the splits are that drastic, and it’s all we’ve got, it’s hard to feel too confident in the guy

2:32	King Gyorko: Liriano is simultaneously the best pitcher and best batter today by WPA

2:32	august fagerstrom: nice

2:34	The Dude of NY: Where did you get a live update of defensive runs saved from Jordy Mercer?

2:34	august fagerstrom: That wasn’t a real stat. Just saying, minus play

2:34	Sean: mlb.tv worth it? trying to deal with this ESPN view and its a struggle.

2:34	august fagerstrom: I love mlb.tv, though freezes can sometimes get annoying

2:35	august fagerstrom: The option to overlay radio broadcasts over the video feed and have 4 audio options and 2 tv options is really nice

2:35	august fagerstrom: Jeez. That was a quick inning.

2:35	august fagerstrom: Wainwright got better as the game went on!

2:35	Kvn: Wainwright has the curve now for sure.

2:37	august fagerstrom: Sorry, got caught up reading Willman and Petriello’s Twitter feeds. Super fun

2:37	The Hamburglar: Two Wainwrights don’t make a Wong

2:38	august fagerstrom: BOOOOOOO

2:38	The Hamburglar: I’ll see myself out

2:38	august fagerstrom: everyone say goodbye to the Hamburglar

2:39	august fagerstrom: lollllll that Wainwright swing

2:39	august fagerstrom: nicee

2:40	The Dude of NY: The Gyorko pop-out was the first fly ball Liriano has given up.

2:40	august fagerstrom: Only, what, like five put into play?

2:40	august fagerstrom: Hasn’t been much bat to ball yet

2:41	august fagerstrom: The one weird thing about doing radio overlays on MLB.tv is when the TV broadcast cuts to some dude talking and you just see a face say words you aren’t hearing

2:41	Bork: he went around

2:41	august fagerstrom: Looked like it

2:43	Colin: I love the way the home plate umpire asks if the batter went, it’s like he’s raising someone from the dead

2:43	Kvn: The audio feed flexibility is the best part of mlbtv though. I love the park audio.

2:43	august fagerstrom: Oh, it is! That was a first world problem complaint

2:44	august fagerstrom: I’m not sure I can handle John Jaso’s hair to be honest

2:44	senpaisanto: which radio broadcast? cards?

2:44	august fagerstrom: I’m listening to the Pirates one

2:44	machetko: MLB.tv automatically syncs the radio and the video?

2:44	august fagerstrom: Yes, and it’s great

2:45	Kvn: He can’t handle it either, that’s why he’s let it go to shit.

2:45	august fagerstrom: White dudes with dreads just so rarely looks good

2:45	Joe: Do you ever have a problem on MLB.tv of a radio broadcast talking about replays and things that don’t align with the video feed? Maybe I’m picky but I think that would annoy me.

2:46	august fagerstrom: Sometimes like I mentioned earlier when they cut to the video feed of the guys in the booth it’s a little awkward. But it’s worth it to hear radio announcers call a game

2:46

Lenard:

2:46	august fagerstrom: this is pretty good

2:47	Bad Hermit: What’s your favorite anime?

2:47	august fagerstrom: have never seen an anime

2:47	Wahahah: Homerun right here

2:47	august fagerstrom: almost!

2:47	august fagerstrom: thought it was off the bat for a moment

2:47	Sam Clifford: it blows my mind that guy is the pilot from Firefly.

2:47	august fagerstrom: Seeing him in other roles with short hair was a trip after seeing that movie

2:48	Anthony: Do you still backup your Estrada article? I don’t see him being any good.

2:48	august fagerstrom: Yeah, I like the change

2:48	august fagerstrom: And the fastball works up in the zone even without the velo due to the spin

2:50	K-Man: Will Marte have a ‘breakout year’ finally? He’s been good, but it seems like there’s still potential

2:50	august fagerstrom: Been a 4-5 WAR player each of the last three years

2:51	august fagerstrom: Pretty darn good

2:51	Slim: How does spin rate aid in a fastballs performance if it doesn’t add extra velo?

2:51	august fagerstrom: Prevents it from falling as much as lower spin rate fastballs, giving it that “rising” effect

2:51	august fagerstrom: Extra life even without the velo

2:53	K-Man: When you try and predict award winners, do you try to predict who other people will give the awrad to or do you predict the ‘deserving’ winners?

2:53	august fagerstrom: I didn’t give much thought to how other people would vote

2:53	august fagerstrom: Like MVP being on a playoff team, etc.

2:53	august fagerstrom: Probably should have

2:54	Bad Hermit: I thought that straight fastballs were the “rising” fastballs.

2:54	august fagerstrom: well if it’s straight, then it’s straight

2:54	Pikachu: Liriano can’t locate anymore, and the batters aren’t biting

2:55	august fagerstrom: Liriano and Wainwright swapped command about halfway through

2:55	august fagerstrom: And yeah, Cardinals batters are laying off pitches slightly outside that they were swinging at earlier

2:55	august fagerstrom: Nice little in-game adjustment it seems

2:55	Andrew: Were media misled into believing that Bauer was Tribe No.4 early in ST, did it jump to wrong conclusion or did CLEFO simply completely change their minds over the past couple of weeks?

2:56	august fagerstrom: Little bit of all, I think, though mostly it was just the assumption

2:56	august fagerstrom: Can’t tell if Cervelli stole that or it was just a bad call

2:56	august fagerstrom: I think the latter

2:56	Kvn: Clefo sounds like a reject Marx brother.

2:57	august fagerstrom: “The Sprinter”!

2:58	K-Man: Will Carson’s Daily Notes return for this season?

2:58	august fagerstrom: Imagine they will soon enough

2:59	The Dude of NY: Dodgers DL list to start the season

2:59	august fagerstrom: puke

2:59	Jeff: Should batters just not swing vs liriano? His entire game is based on swings and misses

2:59	august fagerstrom: They definitely should swing less

2:59	august fagerstrom: Thing is, that’s hard

3:00	august fagerstrom: Because Liriano’s stuff has tons of movement and he does a good job of starting pitches inside the zone and moving them out

3:00	august fagerstrom: Matt Holliday is brutally slow

3:00	august fagerstrom: Not like many people would’ve scored on that. He’s just slow.

3:01	august fagerstrom: Probably should be Liriano’s last batter?

3:01	august fagerstrom: lol josh harrison

3:02	august fagerstrom: HA he actually missed that. I thought he did that on purpose

3:03	The Hamburglar: More players should wear striped socks. So sharp.

3:03	august fagerstrom: More players should wear their socks up in general

3:03	Kvn: He might have tried to. It is why the infield fly rule exists.

3:03	august fagerstrom: Seemed pretty clear on replay that he just biffed it

3:03	august fagerstrom: David Freese’s footwork at third base makes me uncomfortable

3:05	IsIt2016Yet?: Have to think Liriano is done now, yeah?

3:05	august fagerstrom: Cardinals can only pinch-hit lefties to lead off, and Carpenter is next up, so maybe not terrible to let him start the 7th, actually

3:06	august fagerstrom: or they could just go to a lefty. got three in the pen

3:06	Ryan: Sorry if I missed any earlier discussion, but WHY do announcers insist Liriano is a strike thrower? LOWEST Zone% of all qualified SP last season.

3:07	august fagerstrom: do announcers insist this? Switching around audio feeds, I’ve heard 2 of the 4 mention how much he works outside the zone actually

3:07	Noel: The downfall of mlb.tv is watching the same commercial over and over. LG phone commercial, i hate you.

3:07	august fagerstrom: Yeah I forgot about this

3:08	IsIt2016Yet?: Re: Freese’s footwork: Hearing Kang ready in 2-3 weeks so he’ll be on the bench and platooning w/Jason at 1B shortly.

3:08	august fagerstrom: This is the plan, yes

3:08	august fagerstrom: goodness gracious

3:08	august fagerstrom: that’s about as far as you can hit a ball and not get a homer

3:08	august fagerstrom: Also that’s an IPHR for how many players in the Pirates lineup?

3:09	august fagerstrom: Cutch, Marte, Polanco, Harrison all for sure, right?

3:09	Owen S: Do you ever get anxious when you write a piece for fgraphs?

3:09	august fagerstrom: I’m constantly anxious about what my next piece will be

3:09	Jeff: Holliday is a really bad outfielder.

3:09	IsIt2016Yet?: As a not-Cardinals fan, I *love watching Holiday play LF in PNC.

3:10	IsIt2016Yet?: Hm. I don’t get any commercials on MLB.TV. Just a black screen until game resumes.

3:10	august fagerstrom: Would rather have this. I just mute it every time

3:10	Bad Hermit: Is Cutch still fast? I know his defense isn’t great at least.

3:11	august fagerstrom: Certainly above-average. His defense isn’t good because he has a bad arm and gets poor first steps in center

3:12	august fagerstrom: Impressive take by Polanco on that 3-2 curve. That was well-spotted

3:13	Scott: Tremendous AB by Polanco

3:13	IsIt2016Yet?: Polanco seemed to “get” Waino’s gameplan there.

3:15	biggskinny: Would Marte make a decent CF or will the pirates just have to stick with Cutch?

3:15	august fagerstrom: Pirates have the largest left field in baseball, which I’ve heard is a reason they keep Marte there

3:16	august fagerstrom: Wow! What a throw by Grichuk

3:16	Bad Hermit: Last year McCutchen BsR: -1.1. Last year Cervelli BsR: -0.7.

3:16	august fagerstrom: Baserunning ability =/= speed

3:16	august fagerstrom: what the hell was that slide

3:17	Incredulous Doubter: That slide was nowhere near as bad as Marte’s faceplant last year

3:18	august fagerstrom: did not know about this

3:18	august fagerstrom: Marte has a gangly body

3:18	august fagerstrom: Sorry, Polanco

3:18	august fagerstrom: Seems like one of those awkwardly athletic types

3:18	IsIt2016Yet?: Polanco will likely never be a “smart” baserunner but he does have a ton of BR value in getting the extra base.

3:19	august fagerstrom: I don’t mind the aggression there. He’s pretty quick, Grichuk was really deep, and he had to make an excellent throw to just barely get him out

3:19	Joe: Believe me, as someone who watches every pirates game, that was one of the best slsides of polancos career. It’s a miracle he doesn’t get hurt every time

3:19	august fagerstrom: Now I want to see a bunch more Gregory Polanco slides

3:19	Daniel: “Make em make a play” and Grichuk did

3:20	Hunter Pence: Awkwardly athletic you say? Who is stealing my schtick?

3:20	Who_Is_Zorbist?: https://i.imgflip.com/lkgyz.gif

3:20	august fagerstrom: LOL

3:20	Dr Evil: Do you like the parks with random ball generators in the OF (weird angles/materials that can cause goofy caroms)?

3:20	august fagerstrom: I love them.

3:20	IsIt2016Yet?: Polanco’s nickname in the low minors: “Sick Baby Giraffe”

3:21	august fagerstrom: forgot about this

3:21	Dave: That GIF was in the bottom of the 11th or 12th v. Cubs last year. Cubs walked off on that play.

3:21	august fagerstrom: I admire the barehand attempt

3:22	King Gyorko: Hazelbaker making his ML debut here

3:22	august fagerstrom: Against Tony Watson! Good luck!

3:22	Bork: I would not have believed Hazelbaker was a real name if someone told me it was

3:22	august fagerstrom: anything can be a name

3:22	august fagerstrom: looks at own name

3:24	Incredulous Doubter: http://m.mlb.com/video/v204097183/atlpit-marte-flips-over-on-forceful-slide-at-second/?query=starling+Marte+steals+second

3:24	august fagerstrom: nice

3:24	Lenard: That Polanco gif loading in slow motion on my laptop…oh my god.

3:24	august fagerstrom: set to Chariots of Fire

3:25	The Dude of NY: So, did Liriano pitch a good game today?

3:25	august fagerstrom: 10 k’s over 6 shutout is p good yeah

3:25	august fagerstrom: pretty Liriano game

3:27	august fagerstrom: actually first pitcher ever to have that line

3:27	august fagerstrom: 6/3/0/5/10

3:27	august fagerstrom: so, pretty nobody game

3:28	Daniel: thaaaaaaaaat is just surprising and weird and baseball

3:28	august fagerstrom: Seung-hwan Oh!

3:28	august fagerstrom: Final boss!

3:29	The Dude of NY: Yeah, but those 5 BBs

3:29	august fagerstrom: v

3:29	William: xFIP for the game is 2.79, which is very good

3:29	biggskinny: Who do you think has a better career, Grichuk or Piscotty? And how long can Grichuk hang in at CF?

3:29	august fagerstrom: Grichuk’s injury history scares me

3:29	august fagerstrom: Like his talent more but Piscotty seems safer

3:30	Incredulous Doubter: Final Boss is such an awesome nick name.

3:30	The Dude of NY: Why is the Final Boss pitching in the 7th inning? That seems more like a midgame boss.

3:30	Colin: Fun fact: Oh’s translator is named Eugene

3:31	Curious: So is “Oh” the shortest last name in baseball player history?

3:31	august fagerstrom: gotta be ried

3:31	august fagerstrom: tied*

3:32	Curious2: If you try and search for “Oh” on Yahoo fantasy players it tells you it needs at least 3 characters for a search

3:33	Bork: I wonder how good oh’s english is, with a meeting on the mound like that it must be confusing with the translator (I didnt’ see him out there)

3:34	august fagerstrom: Cardinals radio guys were just talking about this

3:34	august fagerstrom: Sounds like the mound visit clock doesn’t apply when you need a translator

3:37	Reach: Better starter in 2016: Vincent Velasquez or Juan Nicasio?

3:37	august fagerstrom: Still not sure I buy Nicasio: starter

3:37	august fagerstrom: We’ll see though

3:38	august fagerstrom: I like Velasquez

3:38	iHateKennyWilliams: oh looks like he has some good spin on that fastball

3:38	august fagerstrom: Command spotty so far

3:38	King Gyorko: just would like to point out that it’s spelled “Seung-Hwan”, on his FG page it’s Seung-whan

3:38	august fagerstrom: I hadn’t even noticed we got his player page up. That must have happened within the last 48 hours or so. I’ll let Appelman know, thanks

3:40	Bork: PITCH FRAMING AINT DEAD

3:40	Kvn: There’s that fluctuating outside corner to righties again.

3:40	Incredulous Doubter: this zone is WIDE

3:40	IsIt2016Yet?: wiiiiiide zone here.

3:40	august fagerstrom: Yeah, that outside edge to righties has been pretty loose all day

3:42	Bork: why did he swing at that

3:42

Bork: WHY

3:42	Bork: that’s like me swinging in the show

3:45	The Dude of NY: What happens if this game goes into extra innings, and overlaps with the Jays/Rays game?

3:45	august fagerstrom: what do you mean

3:45	Scott: august, how do you search for the fact that nobody has ever put up the line that Liriano just put up?

3:45	august fagerstrom: The baseball-reference play index! Very simple search

3:46	august fagerstrom: That didn’t look like much of a strike

3:46	The Dude of NY: I mean will you be chatting about this game with Paul chats about the Jays/Rays game at the same time? Won’t that be confusing?

3:46	august fagerstrom: oh. yeah. there’d be some chat overlap

3:46	DC: bb-ref is life.

3:46	Eric: I love baseball-reference play index!!

3:47	Bad Hermit: That Liriano line is unique in the history of the MLB by just those five variables? Insane.

3:48	august fagerstrom: You’d be surprised how often this happens, actually. I remember Sam Miller kept track of the uniqueness of all the pitching lines a year or two ago

3:48	august fagerstrom: Especially if you include home runs in the line

3:48	august fagerstrom: How about David Freese and John Jaso playing awesome defense

3:48	august fagerstrom: wut

3:49	Poor Man’s Rick Reed: Freese and Jaso defense prove there is no limit to Ray Searage’s magic.

3:49	august fagerstrom: HE’S TAKING OVER

3:49	Evan: love the freese signing. What happens kang is back?

3:49	august fagerstrom: Becomes Jaso’s platoon partner at first base

3:49	august fagerstrom: slash backup third baseman

3:51	Ethan: He’s better than the short-side of a platoon, right?

3:51	august fagerstrom: Meh

3:52	august fagerstrom: He’s like the breakeven point for a starting 3B for a contender

3:52	biggskinny: whats the best way to familiarize yourself with the best non-closing relievers in the game? I didn’t know anything about Oh or Watson before this game

3:52	august fagerstrom: maybe sort a RP leaderboard by FIP over the last year or two or something?

3:53	august fagerstrom: though that wouldn’t help you with Oh, seeing as that was his MLB debut

3:53	august fagerstrom: could export to Excel and delete guys with saves and voila, set-up man/middle reliever leaderboard

3:53	Fitz: % likely of this happening for Pillar: .291/.341/.445 19HR 28SB, 5.6fWAR

3:53	august fagerstrom: really unlikely?

3:54	august fagerstrom: take the way under on homers and OBP there

3:54	Incredulous Doubter: re relief pitchers… just read fangraphs obsessively

3:54	august fagerstrom: or this

3:54	august fagerstrom: do this

3:55	Daniel: That ball by Polanco was smoked

3:55	august fagerstrom: Both balls off the bat against Maness have been smoked

3:55	Mike: Second ball Polanco has STUNG today

3:56	august fagerstrom: Don’t really love that bunt but ultimately shouldn’t matter too much

3:57	august fagerstrom: ok

3:57	august fagerstrom: what

3:57	august fagerstrom: just bunting themselves out of the inning

3:57	august fagerstrom: weird…

3:57	Bork: owow

3:57	Bork: that was bad

3:57	ASUfool: wow… why squeeze?

3:57	Mike: Ugly attempt by Mercer

3:57	august fagerstrom: did he even get it down?

3:57	august fagerstrom: nope

3:57	august fagerstrom: geez

3:58	G: I would guess Harrison bunted on his own….that suicide squeeze was NOT a good call though…

3:58	august fagerstrom: like Maness just threw two fat pitches that got roped

3:58	august fagerstrom: then bunt-bunt with a suicide squeeze?

3:59	Hugh : Mercer the worst hitter, who starts, in the game?

3:59	august fagerstrom: true

3:59	august fagerstrom: oh. that helps, then

3:59	august fagerstrom: not a great route by Grichuk in CF didn’t look like

3:59	august fagerstrom: not sure how many CFers get to that anyway. especially considering he was already shading Mercer to RCF a bit

4:00	august fagerstrom: Michael Morse. Not a fast person

4:00	The Gitrog Monster: Morse is also dreadfully slow

4:00	Mike: 109 MPH double and 112 MPH single so far from Polanco today

4:01	Paul Swydan: Hi everybody!

4:01	Paul Swydan: The people never lie, August.

4:01	august fagerstrom: definitely option 2

4:01	august fagerstrom: I even voted for it

4:01	august fagerstrom: hi paul

4:01	Paul Swydan: What’s up everybody?

4:02	Paul Swydan: I’m here for Jays-Rays.

4:02	jesse: Is being a ding-dong an legitimate reason?

4:02	august fagerstrom: makes a good point.

4:02	Just Saying: Ding dong is a highly underutilized putdown

4:02	Paul Swydan: My Pirates NL Central pick is lookimng prettay prettay good right now. Let’s just chalk that up as a win for Swydan.

4:02	Paul Swydan: It

4:03	Paul Swydan: Ding dong is a great non-swear put down.

4:03	Paul Swydan: It was used quite well in Lego Movie, when Batman says, “Well, you were right about him being a ding dong.”

4:03	Hamist02: Paul, can you please publish the fact that jaso looks like Drexel from true romance. Please!

4:04	Paul Swydan: Alas, I only saw True Romance one time, so I’m not 100% sure on this one, but I feel like you’re right on there.

4:04	Ryan: How many ding-dongs will TOR hit today?

4:04	august fagerstrom: Did Molina just auto-take an 0-1 pitch for a strike?

4:04	Paul Swydan: Oh way to tie it in to baseball. I say just one. That Archer guy is pretty good.

4:04	Paul Swydan: Speaking of….

4:05	Königsblauer S04: DONT CALL IT A COMEBACK

4:05	august fagerstrom: well

4:05	august fagerstrom: mlb.tv went down for a second. came back, two guys on and no outs already

4:05	August’s Mom: I think you have run an excellent chat August.

4:05	august fagerstrom: Than– oh.

4:06	Paul Swydan: Oh man, are we in for another year of “where’s Melancon’s velocity?”

4:06	Hugh : Paul, under/over 160 wins for the Pirates this year?

4:06	Paul Swydan: Over

4:06	Joe: Sometimes I wish I could upvote in the chat like I do for the comment section. Either way, Paul you deserve +1 for quoting the Lego Movie.

4:07	august fagerstrom: Michael Morse: glove-first first baseman

4:07	Bad Hermit: Chat is two fast with two people managing it. Fight to the death please.

4:07	august fagerstrom: I’ll be gone before long!

4:07	Paul Swydan: Thanks! My kids are already learning the words to the Lego Batman Movie trailers. My daughter (she’s a toddler) calls it “Batman Movie Lego Show.”

4:07	The Dude of NY: Paul, you should really have started with this image:

4:07	Paul Swydan: I feel like people should get it without me having to put the pic in though. I have high expectations.

4:08

jesse:

4:08	Paul Swydan: What is this from?? haha

4:09	Lyle: How do Lego movies fit in with the things like DCU lore?

4:09	Paul Swydan: Hopefully not at all. The Lego Batman movie seems like a stealth satire movie like “Spaceballs” or “Blazing Saddles.”

4:09	august fagerstrom: woww that Melancon curve

4:09	august fagerstrom: nasty

4:09	Paul Swydan: Archer misses badly on his first pitch.

4:10	Don Draper: Why in the world does a team from Florida play in a dome? The best weather in the US and they play inside.

4:10	Paul Swydan: It rains a lot in Florida.

4:10	Bork: PILLAR TOOK A PITCH

4:10	Bork: ALREADY A GREAT #1

4:10	Bad Hermit: Lord and Miller aren’t directing the Batman Lego Movie Show. So, temper your expectations.

4:10	Paul Swydan: Oh, they’re tempered. But it should be a good kids movie if nothing else.

4:11	Lenard: Not that stupid strike zone thing.

4:11	Paul Swydan: I seem to be in the minority, but I love the strike zone box. Especially in these ballparks where the camera is off center.

4:11	?: Why are two dome teams opening up against each other, but Boston and Cleveland open in Cleveland?

4:12	Paul Swydan: Yeah, this was a missed opportunity by MLB. I had the same thought this morning.

4:12	iHateKennyWilliams: ESPN is usually accurate with it so its good

4:12	august fagerstrom: Yeah, I actually dont mind the ESPN k zone

4:12	Paul Swydan: I think it’s mostly because Tampa is boring and so they need an exciting team for them to open against.

4:12	august fagerstrom: seems better than most

4:12	Kvn: Good god the Trop is hideous.

4:12	Paul Swydan: Comments from every year.

4:13	Paul Swydan: Nice halfhearted hop from Logan Morrison on that hit.

4:13	Paul Swydan: “See coach, I jumped!”

4:13	Lenard: Also, does Archer look skinnier than I remember or is his fro just bigger?

4:13	Paul Swydan: I think it’s a combo of the hair and the socks.

4:14	august fagerstrom: seriously Matt Carpenter

4:14	august fagerstrom: I’ve got another game to watch

4:14	august fagerstrom: and lunch to make

4:14	Paul Swydan: I have to say, I HATE that the Rays are wearing alternate unis on Opening Day.

4:14	Mike: lunch at 4? you are a ding dong

4:14	Paul Swydan: This is why no one likes you. Tampa.

4:14	august fagerstrom: got a bit of a late start today. rough night

4:15	Bork: ANGRY BAUTISTA COMING OUT EARLY

4:15	august fagerstrom: here come the Cardinals

4:15	Paul Swydan: That was like a half inch too high and a half inch too in from Bautista parking it.

4:15	Paul Swydan: Two on one out for E5.

4:16	Bork: EE hits into a double play, calling it now

4:16	Bork: April EE is awful

4:16	Paul Swydan: Bork, you’re all over the place.

4:16	Shirtless Bartolo Colon: August, any leftovers you’re thinking about throwing out?

4:16	Paul Swydan: I’m so bad about eating leftovers.

4:17	Dave: Like the Toronto Blue Jays sleeve patch they are wearing… Is it for an anniversary or something?

4:17	Paul Swydan: Hmm, hadn’t noticed yet.

4:17	Paul Swydan: Hmm, that might be a wild pitch.

4:17	Mike: lunch doesn;t adjust itself based on your arbitrary begining point fro the day

4:17	august fagerstrom: does for me!

4:17	The Patch: 40th Anniversary, yeah.

4:17	Paul Swydan: Thanks!

4:17	august fagerstrom: this is some ninth inning

4:18	Bender B Rodriguez: leftover rankings:

4:18	Bender B Rodriguez: 1. Pizza

4:18	Bender B Rodriguez: everything else is no good

4:18	august fagerstrom: have leftover pizza in my fridge right now

4:18	august fagerstrom: the baseball game is over!

4:18	august fagerstrom: a team has a win!

4:18	august fagerstrom: another has a loss!

4:18	Paul Swydan: E5 with the gapper, 2-0 Jays. Of course, he only gets a single out of it.

4:18	august fagerstrom: the chat is now Paul’s!

4:18	august fagerstrom: I’m very hungry!

4:18	Paul Swydan: That was a nice piece of hitting, but the pitch also didn’t drop enough.

4:18	august fagerstrom: thanks, everyone, for chatting! enjoy more baseball!

4:18	Paul Swydan: Bye August! Enjoy lunch!

4:18	Andrew: Thanks August, enjoyed the chat and appreciate the response to my Bauer question.

4:18	Erm?: Bork’s prediction got borked

4:18	Bork: I take back everything I said

4:19	Hamist02: Yeah, August, you’re having an early dinner

4:19	senpaisanto: thanx august! yo paul!

4:19	Paul Swydan: Yo Adrian! I mean senapaisanto!

4:19	Lenard: St. Louis in the running for first overall pick next year

4:19	Shirtless George Brett: Archer has thrown alot of hittable pitches so far.

4:19	Paul Swydan: He has indeed.

4:19	Paul Swydan: Also, put a shirt on.

4:19	jacob: Archer has very bad command

4:19	Paul Swydan: Well that’s definitely not true.

4:19	The Dude of NY: Which is better for Rays/Jays: home or away feed?

4:20	Paul Swydan: I can’t stand listening to Buck Martinez, so I’ll say home. But this one is also on ESPN2, if you get that.

4:20	Banana: August is a ding dong because he didn’t post any of my comments. Care to break the streak?

4:20	Paul Swydan: Consider that streak peeled away.

4:20	Bork: The Rays should just trade Archer for a reliable pitcher, like Gavin Floyd.

4:20	Bork: You can’t stand Buck Martinez messing up any non anglo name? Come on, Paul.

4:21	Paul Swydan: It’s partly that, but it’s more than that. I just don’t like him very much.

4:21	Deece: dont listen to the jays feed ever, the announcers for the jays are terrible buck martinez and pat tabler need to go

4:21	Sean: the Jays feed on mlb.tv is pretty nice

4:21	Paul Swydan: different strokes

4:21	Paul Swydan: Wow, Archer is in real trouble. Single, walk, single, walk.

4:22	CamdenWarehouse: Breaking news: Tulo breaks leg jogging to first.

4:22	Paul Swydan: i laughed

4:22	Here until Wrestlemania: I am all about the Jays Radio broadcast. I want Jerry Howarth to call my funeral.

4:22	Poor Man’s Rick Reed: Audio opinions can certainly vary, but camera angle should be pretty definitive. Rays feed looking straight on.

4:23	Paul Swydan: Oh is it? I would switch to it, but I don’t want to be behind. Interesting that them and ESPN have two different feeds.

4:23	Dave: What non-Scully TV broadcast do you like best, Paul? I’m a Cubs fan, but I think Len Kasper and Jim DeShaies is hard to beat.

4:23	Paul Swydan: I like pre-2016 Red Sox games the best.

4:24	Paul Swydan: To be perfectly honest, I often have the games on mute these days. Most nights for me involve editing a THT piece, and I find it hard to focus when I’m listening to audio where I don’t know what’s coming.

4:24	Paul Swydan: In other words, if I’m watching Moonrise Kingdom or Winter Soldier for the 100th time, I’m good. It’s good background noise. Actively listening to a live game is totally different.

4:25	Paul Swydan: I like the Mets guys, I like the Padres, I like the Giants a lot.

4:25	Paul Swydan: The Rockies are terrible. The Jays are terrible. I don’t care for Hawk.

4:26	Paul Swydan: Most teams are in that muddy middle where they’re neither actively good or bad.

4:26	Here until Wrestlemania: Winter Soldier? Aight, which MLB teams are which Avenger? Oakland is obviously Hawkeye

4:26	Paul Swydan: I mean, let’s save this for a day when baseball isn’t exciting. This could be a whole thing.

4:26	CamdenWarehouse: I read a lot while watching baseball. I alternate between being able to move between the two seamlessly and having trouble reading. I get where you’re coming from.

4:27	Paul Swydan: Yeah, it’s different if I’m reading for leisure. I can get in a good rhythm of muting commercials and all that. But actively reading and editing is different.

4:27	Shirtless George Brett: I really like the astros broadcasts.

4:27	Paul Swydan: Can’t say I have much experience with them.

4:27	Bad Hermit: “Moonrise Kingdom or Winter Soldier”? I approve.

4:27	Paul Swydan: Thanks!

4:27	mtsw: multiple dimensions to best broadcaster. The guys who can provide good insight in a close, high-stakes game aren’t necessarily the best at shooting the shit in an entertaining way when the game’s at 8-0 in August.

4:28	Paul Swydan: That’s true, which is why I love Don Orsillo, because he is good at both. Might watch a lot of crappy Padres baseball this year.

4:28	Shirtless George Brett: I use Armageddon as my default backround noise. I think i could probably quote the whole movie from memory

4:28	Paul Swydan: Yeah that’s a good one. I watched that a lot in the VHS/DVD days.

4:28	mtsw: no HR in the first game. Who hits 2016’s first dinger?

4:28	Paul Swydan: Corey Dickerson?

4:28	CamdenWarehouse: Is this the first time a lineup has had two Logans in a row?

4:29	Paul Swydan: There can’t be too many times this has happened.

4:29	Paul Swydan: Here’s the Logan list – http://www.baseball-reference.com/search/search.fcgi?search=logan&results=

4:29	Mike Oxlong: Why are you listening to an 8-0 game in August?

4:29	Paul Swydan: Because baseball is awesome.

4:30	cistulli fan: Oh, it’s Paul. Any chance Carson joins too?

4:30	Paul Swydan: Gee, thanks.

4:30	Pumpsie Green: AL teams are Marvel, NL is DC

4:30	Paul Swydan: Not that simple, Pumpsie.

4:30	Tesla’s Sunken Arc: Thoughts on the don orsillo situation?

4:30	Paul Swydan: It was a disgrace. Let’s not get into it, I’m in a good mood. 🙂

4:31	Here until Wrestlemania: Trying to figure out how to put a “K” in Stroman’s name for a humourous strikeout related nickname. Strokeman is not gonna cut it

4:31	Paul Swydan: two choices off the top of my head. 1) MarKus, 2) StromanK

4:31	Paul Swydan: I like the sound of StromanK, like as one word. But MarKus is probably more marketable.

4:31	Paul Swydan: Even if it is misspelling his name.

4:32	Paul Swydan: OK, here’s Dickerson’s shot to make me look smart.

4:32	mtsw: If trends in names for newborn boys continue, lineups will be 40% Logans by 2050

4:32	Paul Swydan: Hah.

4:32	Storkman: Hi

4:32	Paul Swydan: hi

4:32	Irwin Comsey: No one thinks Stroman throws 200 innings this year, do they?

4:32	Paul Swydan: Why wouldn’t he?

4:33	Paul Swydan: Well, Dickerson didn’t homer. Nice play by Collabello there.

4:33	d: how likely is it Stroman’s major league K/9 start to resemble his minor league numbers?

4:33	Paul Swydan: I like Stroman a lot. He’s going to be very good.

4:33	Paul Swydan: It’s the rotation behind him that gives me pause.

4:33	Poor Man’s Rick Reed: StromanK. That’s why you get the big bucks.

4:33	d: related: MarKus is clearly the best option

4:33	Sean: Bello! Nice dive

4:34	Paul Swydan: Bello! They should dress him up as a Minion.

4:34	mtsw: Rays broadcast’s lineup graphic sponsored by sketchy sounding gold-seller. Is sketchiness of broadcast sponsors a reliable proxy for franchise value?

4:34	Paul Swydan: No, I think every team has sketchy radio sponsors like that.

4:34	AM: MarkUs is actually a product for assignment management in universities, I do prefer Storkman, K-deliverer.

4:34	Bork: Since Dickerson didn’t hit a dinger, who will? Attempt #2 paul

4:34	Paul Swydan: I’m all in on Dickerson now. No homers until the fourth inning!

4:35	The Dude of NY: I loved Stroman’s response to the 2b.

4:35	Paul Swydan: Oh, I missed it.

4:35	Paul Swydan: Oh, you mean the double.

4:35	Paul Swydan: I thought you meant to the actual second baseman.

4:35	Paul Swydan: Ohhhh, not sure about that out call.

4:36	Paul Swydan: Tie goes to the runner.

4:36	Who_Is_Zorbist?: LoMo pretty sucky

4:36	Bork: out by a millisecond

4:36	Blerick: out

4:36	Paul Swydan: Yeah, you guys are right. The second angle from center field was more definitive.

4:36	CamdenWarehouse: did he just say “clangs off the glove of Morrison”?

4:36	Paul Swydan: He did. I heard it.

4:36	Shirtless George Brett: Souza hits the first HR. book it.

4:36	The Dude of NY: WAIT WHY IS CURT SCHILLING HERE?

4:37	Paul Swydan: I went the whole first inning without hearing Schilling somehow.

4:37	Bad Hermit: Tie goes to the runner? That is the keen insight that I tune into FanGraphs for.

4:37	Paul Swydan: You know it.

4:38	Who_Is_Zorbist?: Kiermaier going inside the parker

4:38	?: Tie shoukd result in half an out and the runner only counting as half a run or out

4:38	Paul Swydan: Your theories intrigue me and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

4:38	Colin: Do you like the strike zone always being there on ESPN?

4:38	Paul Swydan: I do, Colin. I very much do.

4:39	The Dude of NY: Wow, the ballpark looks actually kinda crowded.

4:39	Paul Swydan: Well it is a Sunday.

4:39	Here until Wrestlemania: We need the first homer to be a werid catwalk that take 5 min of replays to sort out

4:39	Paul Swydan: We really don’t.

4:40	Paul Swydan: Hey, Morrison actually tried for that one.

4:40	Kvn: The problem with the box being there all the time is that it draws the eye away from the plate.

4:40	Paul Swydan: Someone needs better eye training.

4:40	CamdenWarehouse: Is the circle for the ball as it enters or leaves the strike zone?

4:41	Paul Swydan: That is a great question. I’m going to say it’s not as it enters, but where it is caught. But I’m not sure.

4:41	The Dude of NY: Re Theories: Sharing is a bunch of bull, too. And helping others. And what’s all this crap I’ve been hearing about tolerance?

4:41	Paul Swydan: Classic.

4:41	Sage: Fun fact: Kevin Pillar hit .278 against both lefties and righties last year.

4:42	Paul Swydan: Yeah he was perfectly balanced in that sense. But he only homered twice against lefties and 10 times against righties.

4:43	Paul Swydan: WHAT IS THAT MCCUTCHEN HUMPTY DUMPTY AD

4:43	Paul Swydan: Have you guys been watching that all month?

4:43	Lenard: I spotted John Rocker.

4:43	Paul Swydan: Seriously?

4:43	Shirtless George Brett: my understanding is that K zone is where the ball crosses the plane of the plate.

4:43	Paul Swydan: Well then.

4:43	Bad Hermit: The circle is for the shape of time while being flat.

4:44	Reed Johnson’s Goatee : he probably faced more righties

4:44	Paul Swydan: Well, that’s true, but 2 homers in 144 PA against lefties isn’t exactly great. .361/.083 SLG/ISO vs L, .412/.133 vs R

4:45

Tesla’s Sunken Arc: Wondering how the ball being “pulled back into the zone” by the catcher gets perceived by the ump. Surely the ump realizes if the catcher repositions his glove, and the umps are judging the pitch based on its position when it crosses the plate anyway. So, how is it that pitch framing has as large an impact on the game as the numbers suggest? We tend to demonstrate blown calls from the tv perspective, but umps have a totally different view. Could it be that call inaccuracies are based as much upon the direction of the pitch’s late movement than the framing of the catcher? For example, a slider falling out of the zone would be less likely to be a strike than one falling into it.

4:45	Paul Swydan: I mean, I think the glove tends to move naturally a little bit anyway. Also, that’s a pretty hard judgment to make, it happens in a split second.

4:45	Smooth: Over/under on games Jennings plays this year — 100?

4:46	Paul Swydan: I’ll take the over, but I don’t feel good about it.

4:46	Sage: I guess so. I would appreciate if the “splits” section of Fangraphs had the triple slash instead of just BA.

4:46	Paul Swydan: It does, just keep scrolling down.

4:46	Paul Swydan: I mean, all the info is there.

4:46	Lenard: Rocker as in the Dude from NY. Tolerance and all that.

4:46	Paul Swydan: Oh no, sorry. That’s a Simpsons quote.

4:46	The Dude of NY: My personal favorite

4:47	Paul Swydan: See? Simpsons.

4:47	Here until Wrestlemania: Has there every been a study on plyer defense against handedness. Is there a chance some fielders see the ball better off the bat of righties of lefties

4:48

Paul Swydan: There’s probably a chance of that, but I have not seen any such studies. I’m not sure you could do that with play by play data, you’d have to use video. Because the data is just the results. If you’re inferring that some fielders SEE the ball better, you’d probably need video to analyze their jumps/reactions to batted balls, etc.

4:48	Paul Swydan: You’d even need their reactions to say, foul balls, just to be sure.

4:48

Lenard:

4:48	Who_Is_Zorbist?: Souza gotta steal here

4:48	Tiago: When will advanced stats available for Blue Jays @ Rays?

4:49	Paul Swydan: Right this very second? http://www.fangraphs.com/liveboxscore.aspx?date=2016-04-03&team=Rays&dh=0&season=2016

4:49	Grant Brisbee’s bourbon glass: Did Raines’ & Perdo’s speeches + the 55K attendance do anything to help bring MLB back to Montreal?

4:49	Paul Swydan: I don’t know, I didn’t pay any attention to that. I doubt it though. He’s not exactly an unbiased party. Raines, that is.

4:50	Paul Swydan: Wait, what just happened there?

4:50	Paul Swydan: You don’t see that every day.

4:50	Shirtless George Brett: that was uhhhh wierd

4:50	CamdenWarehouse: Is the Fangraphs app ever coming back?

4:50	Paul Swydan: Nope. We’re focusing on mobile.

4:50	Paul Swydan: Kiermaier is still out though.

4:50	Guest: You ever get a complaint from someone who came to the website

4:51	Paul Swydan: Sure, we get complaints sometimes.

4:51	Kimball: It is deeply embarrassing that a team as appealing as the Jays has to play on that ugly-ass sad carpet. Outside of Toronto, Rogers Comm ownership does not get the criticism they deserve.

4:51	Paul Swydan: Yeah and they probably never will.

4:51	Lenard: Got the bag

4:51	Josh: why are unintentional walks included in FIP but not wOBA?

4:52	Paul Swydan: Oh, Josh. You have mistaken me for one of the smart people that knows things. You want to talk to Cave Dameron or one of the Jeff’s (Sullivan, Zimmerman) to find out the answer to that.

4:52	Sam Clifford: Are the complaints that Carson talks about random nonsense most of the time on the podcast? Asking for a friend.

4:53	Paul Swydan: I did hear that one time. I admittedly love Carson too much to take that one seriously.

4:53	YEET: I hate replays just due to the sheer fact that they are so boring and takes so long.

4:54	Paul Swydan: It’s a suboptimal system. It could be faster if MLB was willing to spend more money on it, but they’re not.

4:54	mtsw: One of the things I’ve missed the most about baseball is the home-feed announcers having to pretend that a review that is clearly going to go against their team might not.

4:54	Paul Swydan: Haha

4:54	Paul Swydan: You never know though.

4:54	CamdenWarehouse: That’s a large part of what makes the podcast great

4:54	Blerick: ppl that complain about carson should be ip blocked

4:54	Sage: Paul, are you planning on making another TV appearance this year?

4:55	Paul Swydan: Nope. I wasn’t planning on the first one either. Was very lucky to be invited on.

4:55	Shirtless George Brett: has anyone ever studied how many runs are saved by replays?

4:55	Paul Swydan: No, the sample size on replays is way too small for that. You’d also have to filter for specific types of replays, or by situation, which would dilute the sample size even further.

4:56	Paul Swydan: I mean, let me clarify – I’ve never seen such a study. Someone might have done it, but I doubt you would find anything interesting from it.

4:57	Paul Swydan: Two walks for Bautista. Hope you guys all play in OBP leagues.

4:57	Smooth: Manfred’s on the Rays’ broadcast? Has he been on any others yet?

4:57	Paul Swydan: Well, no. This is literally the second game of the year.

4:57	Shirtless George Brett: ok. could you do a WPA study or something though? See what the difference is between the call if it had stood and the call being overturned? I’m just interested what the actuall impact of replay is on the game.

4:58	Paul Swydan: Yeah, like I said, you could do it. But I’m not sure you’d find anything worthwhile. One thing that would throw it off is managers making desperate challenges when they know there’s a very low percentage chance of a call going their way.

4:58	Paul Swydan: But have to do it, because they’re down 3 runs in the 8th, and if they don’t get this challenge, the game is basically over.

4:58	Paul Swydan: That kind of thing.

4:58	Mike Oxlong: Going with Conger for the first Donger

4:59	Paul Swydan: Another whopper for the … copper!

4:59	Paul Swydan: Sorry, I’m full of Simpsons references today.

4:59	Sage: Any of you DFS players?

4:59	Paul Swydan: I’m not. Going to be dead in a couple of years anyway.

4:59	Paul Swydan: Filthy K on Tulo there.

4:59	Bob: You do Beat the Streak?

4:59	Paul Swydan: I did one year, but I lost interest.

5:00	Sam Clifford: In the NFL, a challenge flag is almost never thrown unless someone in the team’s “booth” has already reviewed the play and is confident it’ll be successful. It seems silly to me that MLB teams seem not to do the same thing.

5:00	Paul Swydan: But they do. That’s what takes so long, because MLB teams have to run down the tunnel to check, as opposed to having a coach in a booth with a dedicated view of monitors.

5:00	Paul Swydan: And THEN they challenge. Usually.

5:00	Bork: Also a used challenge is more useful then not challenging at all, even if the chance a call is overturned is very low

5:01	Paul Swydan: Right, that’s why an analysis of them might not show that much.

5:01

Lenard: In addition with replay, we’d still be working off just one year of data. It’s possible after 5+ years there might be something interesting there, but there is just way too much noise right now, especially factoring in that managers, umps, etc. had to implement the rule during the first month or so of the season last year.

5:01	Bob: DFS wont be dead. To many of the sports teams are investors

5:02	Paul Swydan: Sorry, but sports teams don’t run the world. If it doesn’t end up being illegal, the interest will fade away. Death by 1,000 paper cuts. They already dropped all college DFS.

5:02	Bork: MLB teams do that. Most employ a replay reviewer that they call

5:03	Paul Swydan: I don’t think they call them. I think they still run down the tunnel to talk to them. I think they’re only allowed to call the bullpen.

5:03	Shirtless George Brett: You see alot of bad challenges in football too

5:03	Paul Swydan: Way worse, in my opinion. Football coaches are not great at things that aren’t coaching football.

5:03	Smooth: Who wins a fight bw Florida franchise owners — Stu Sternberg and Jeff Loria? Loria, right? He probably fights dirty.

5:04	Paul Swydan: Oh I don’t think there’s any question it would be Loria.

5:04	Sage: College DFS accounted for 2% of all of their revenue.

5:04	Paul Swydan: Yes but there’s a perception problem there. That’s not how stories like that get reported.

5:04	k_lof: why do tv announcers insist on being so anti-analysis? i’m hearing phrases like “new-fangled shifts” and “you can take all the analytics you want, i’m walking him every time there.”

5:05	Paul Swydan: Because for a lot of people, once they have ascended to the top of their profession, they think they’ve made it and no longer need to keep learning. That’s what makes people like Vin Scully so special.

5:05	Smooth: Curious whether anyone else thinks the review of the neighborhood play is going to cancel out most if not at all of the gains in player safety from the new slide rule?

5:06	Paul Swydan: I think any Pirates fan will tell you that they’re happy to wait an extra five minutes now and then if it means their season isn’t cut short by having one of their best hitters intentionally injured.

5:06	Sage: My dream job is the guy who holds the audio box thing for the umpires to listen to during the replay reviews.

5:06	Paul Swydan: Well, at least you’re dreaming?

5:07	Sir Nerdlington: Top of the 3rd and mlb.tv suddenly gave me the unviewable, game blacked out message. Wha?

5:07	Paul Swydan: I got nothing for you, sorry. Try ESPN2.

5:07	Bork: They call. The assistant coach call the replay reviewer. At least I know its how it works for the Jays

5:07	Paul Swydan: Well OK.

5:07	Hamist02: Anyone else getting a system/feed error on their mlb tv?

5:07	Bad Hermit: By saying that DFS will be dead in a couple of years, I think Paul is more talking about Armageddon. Could be wrong though.

5:08	Paul Swydan: Hah. I just mean that it will wither. The prize pools are dependent on fickle, casual fans, who will move on to something else in due time.

5:08	Sage: My best guess is that, since these games are more widely watched, commentators don’t want to scare casual viewers away with complicated/boring analysis.

5:09	Paul Swydan: But there is a way to do that without deriding new information. Some announcers clearly just want to play to the lowest common denominator of their audience by insulting new information. And that’s sad and pathetic.

5:09	Cody: I know the Dodgers bench coach goes on the phone and gives a thumbs up/thumbs down for challenges

5:09	Paul Swydan: OK, uncle.

5:10	Sam Clifford: speaking of the simpsons, i thought Vin had voiced himself on all those episodes. I was disappointed to learn otherwise.

5:10	Paul Swydan: Haha, definitely not him. That’d be very cool though.

5:10	Lenard: Had nightmares for Stroman’s ACL there. Probably will every time he fields his position this year.

5:10	Lenard: Sir Nerdington, just turn it off and on again.

5:10	Paul Swydan: Yeah, sorry, I should have suggested that.

5:10	Paul Swydan: Longo with 2 hits. That’s gotta be nice to see if you’re a Rays fan.

5:11	Mike Oxlong: I wanted to be a garbage man when i was a kid because riding around hanging off the back of a truck was so cool. I’d be so disappointed now with the mechanical arms.

5:11	Paul Swydan: The mechanical arms are not only creepy, but I don’t think they save any time.

5:11	Shirtless George Brett: the worst thing about replay is when its used to see if a guys foot came off the bag a millimeter for a split second after he stole the base easily.

5:11	Paul Swydan: Yeah, the plays at bases are tough.

5:12	Smooth: I meant that the review of the neighborhood play will result in middle infielders staying on the bag longer, which could lead to more injuries despite the new slide rule.

5:12	Paul Swydan: Oh, I see. I don’t think that will be the case, but I guess we’ll see.

5:12	Paul Swydan: Oh!

5:12	Paul Swydan: Don’t see that from Goins too often.

5:12	Hamist02: I cut the cord Paul. No ESPN 2.

5:13	Paul Swydan: It is on Watch ESPN. Just get someone to give you their cable password.

5:13	CamdenWarehouse: 2015 will go down as the golden era for DFS?

5:13	Paul Swydan: I think so.

5:13	Bad Hermit: Pirates announcers called pitch framing a new term in the earlier game (“Talking about new terminology… pitch-framing!”). This is from an organization that has taken advantage of the concept for years.

5:13	Paul Swydan: Well it’s a new term for an old concept.

5:14	Lenard: My friend did a career presentation on being a garbage man in high school. The teacher failed him because that “wasn’t a real job”

5:14	Paul Swydan: Wow that’s pretty harsh.

5:14	Sir Nerdlington: At this pace there will be 0 homeruns hit in MLB this year.

5:14	Paul Swydan: I’m worried. Somebody hold me.

5:14	Lenard: Another student’s dad was a garbage man. All hell broke loose.

5:14	Paul Swydan: Oh wow.

5:14	Who_Is_Zorbist?: “For him that was a routine play”

5:14	Paul Swydan: Yeah, just for him.

5:15	Bip: Tulo’s hands are magical

5:15	Paul Swydan: That comment could be taken in a number of ways.

5:15	Who_Is_Zorbist?: No. Pitch presentation is a new term. Framing…old, old, old

5:15	Paul Swydan: Eh. I don’t think so. I never heard pitch framing before 4-5 years ago.

5:16	Bork: Manfred is on the Jays broadcast

5:16	Who_Is_Zorbist?: Morrison is terrible. Uncut Loney

5:16	Paul Swydan: That’s three times, is it not?

5:16	Paul Swydan: Just play Dickerson at first.

5:16	Paul Swydan: Or, you know, don’t. It’s the first four innings of the season. He’ll probably be fine.

5:17	Bip: All of the ways, is what I intended

5:18	Paul Swydan: Thanks for clarifying.

5:18	Shirtless George Brett: I like Manfred. So much more personable the Selig. Granted a wet bag full of yogurt is more personable the Bud Selig.

5:19	Paul Swydan: You know, I always thought this about Selig until I saw him in person. He was actually incredibly personable. He remembered anecdotes about the reporters’ lives and all of that. He worked the room pretty damn well. He just said a lot of unpopular things.

5:19	Paul Swydan: Having said that, I do also like Manfred.

5:20	Paul Swydan: As much as I can like someone who broke/bent every rule to land that A-Rod suspension.

5:20

Sir Nerdlington: Why are the Cubs playing a spring training game in Anaheim today only to open the season tomorrow…in Anaheim? Why not just make this one count. Not like that game wouldn’t draw a TV audience. Just when I think I’ve figured how MLB will make decisions based on revenue, they do things like this.

5:20	Paul Swydan: Because Anaheim is stupid, that’s why.

5:21	Paul Swydan: Archer has been better, but he’s still throwing a ton of pitches. He’s at 76 pitches and he’s only got 10 outs to show for it.

5:21	CamdenWarehouse: Pillar = bottom 5 lead off hitters?

5:21	Paul Swydan: Hmmm, probably not. Lot of crappy teams out there this year.

5:21	Mike Oxlong: I’d like Manfred a lot more if he lived up to his promise about Statcast data being public

5:21	Paul Swydan: Give it time.

5:22	Shirtless George Brett: Buck Martinez just said “young players are into the hip hop”.

5:22	Paul Swydan: This is why I don’t listen to Buck Martinez.

5:22	Thomas: Buck Martinez just talked about kids being into the fashion and the music and the hip-hop. Amazing

5:23	Joe: I know the answer to the Cubs game! They originally weren’t supposed to open the season until Tuesday, and the Cubs and Angels didn’t want to have 2 days off so they scheduled this ST game. But then MLB changed opening day to tomorrow for them so they got stuck with this stupid game today.

5:23	Paul Swydan: Yeah but they could have just cancelled the game today. So that answer, while illuminating, is still not sufficient.

5:23	Paul Swydan: Thank you for that though. I didn’t know that.

5:23	Dan from Orlando: Is it me or do a lot of 2b play too close to the bag opening up huge holes for right handed hitters

5:24	Paul Swydan: When there’s someone on first, this does happen. It’s not just you.

5:24	Boders: Lots of reasons not to like Buck. Always go to the other feed. I enjoy Tampa’s team so much more. Yankees when Cone on is pretty good too.

5:24	Paul Swydan: David Cone is great, and I’m not just saying that because he follows me on Twitter.

5:25	Paul Swydan: Not sure why Donaldson took that pitch.

5:25	Paul Swydan: Must not have been expecting it, because it was a great pitch to hit.

5:25	Shirtless George Brett:

5:25	Paul Swydan: The hipping and the hopping.

5:26	Ryan: That slider is not doing much sliding

5:26	Paul Swydan: Not enough, anyway.

5:26	Super: Donaldson looks exactly like Kelly Gruber

5:26	Paul Swydan: Flashback!

5:26	Maxwell: Had to mute the Curt Schilling broadcast. My friend and I are now curating walk-up music for each batter. “I don’t see nothing wrong” by R. Kelly for Donaldson was a hit.

5:26	Paul Swydan: FYI the song title is actually “Bump N Grind”

5:27	Paul Swydan: Wow, Donaldson and Bautista bailed out Archer in a big way. Gotta, gotta swing there.

5:28	Slider’s Kill Arms: Anyone else noticing Archer’s velocity on fastball down to 91 this inning?

5:28	Paul Swydan: Gameday has his four seamer at 94 and 95 this inning…

5:29	Paul Swydan: At least in that Bautista AB.

5:30	Adam: I’m always worried Bautista is gonna get ejected for arguing with the ump

5:30	Paul Swydan: Yeah he’s got a mean scowl.

5:30	Bad Hermit: ‘FYI the song title is actually “Bump N Grind”‘? I don’t approve.

5:31	Paul Swydan: Of the song title, or of me being a know it all?

5:31	Bob: Granted, Archer isnt sharp, but it seems like his defense really let him down so far

5:32	Paul Swydan: It’s really just been Morrison, no?

5:32	Sage: Thoughts on Brad Miller this year? Is he going to finally break out?

5:32	Paul Swydan: I like Brad Miller. I don’t know about break out, but he should be good.

5:32	Tom: Am I crazy for projecting the Blue Jays for 80 wins?

5:32	Paul Swydan: No, there are definitely scenarios where they only win 80 games.

5:32	Kvn: Has Stroman given up a fly ball today?

5:33	Paul Swydan: Speaking of the defense letting you down.

5:33	Paul Swydan: You just had to ask, didn’t you Kvn.

5:33	machetko: Stuart Sternberg, doing his best to show the fans how the 1% live and think.

5:33	Paul Swydan: To what is this referring?

5:33	Kvn: That was a liner!

5:34	Paul Swydan: Potato, potato. It wasn’t a ground ball.

5:34	Rols: So this is why the Jays can’t keep Jose and Edwin right? Money aside they both are DH going forward

5:34	Paul Swydan: Hmmm, I don’t know about that. Bautista just missed it. He was right there.

5:35	machetko: He’s being interviewed on the Rays broadcast and pretending that this isn’t the first time he’s had beer rather than

5:35	machetko: rather than Champagne at the game.

5:35	Paul Swydan: Is it a known thing that he likes to drink champagne at ballgames?

5:35	CamdenWarehouse: I really don’t think you can do the potato, potato thing in the written word. It loses its whole purpose.

5:35	Paul Swydan: I mean, I wouldn’t write it in a story. You knew what I meant though.

5:36	Paul Swydan: Quick snack break.

5:39	Bad Hermit: Not being a know-it-all, but the particular musical taste to be a know-it-all about that.

5:40

Paul Swydan: I assume you’re referring to the type of person R. Kelly is. My answer to that is much like with Michael Jackson, that is the music of my youth, and I fell in love with it before I knew who they were as people. While I no longer support his new music, I can’t help the feelings that I have to the music of my youth, even if I am conflicted about it now.

5:40	Mike Oxlong: Somebody get Kiermaier a Snickers. He turns into Puig on the bases when he’s hungry.

5:40	Paul Swydan: Now that’s funny.

5:41	Bad Hermit: First HR of the season coming this inning.

5:41	Blerick: Archer hurt?

5:41	Bork: Uh oh…Archer injured?

5:41	Paul Swydan: Seems OK to me.

5:41	Bip: Holy sh 10 K’s for Archer already? All but 3 outs? Gotta leave him in to go for 21

5:41	Paul Swydan: You really don’t though.

5:42	Guest: Who has the best chance of finishing last in the AL East?

5:42	Paul Swydan: I’d say Baltimore, but every team in the division has a decent chance of finishing last.

5:42	Bork: “YEAH LEAVE HIM IN” – entire AL east

5:44	Paul Swydan: Wow Baltimore running away with it. You guys don’t need to agree with me just to humor me.

5:44	Bad Hermit: It’s OK. Good movie taste, poor music taste. Potato, potato.

5:44	Paul Swydan: Hah. Can’t win ’em all.

5:44	Shirtless George Brett: I feel like this game is a pretty good foreshadowing for Archers season.

5:44	Paul Swydan: I think he’ll be better/more efficient than this on most nights.

5:45	Joe: Related: AL East most even division in baseball?

5:45	Paul Swydan: All of the AL divisions are pretty even. Certainly much more even than the NL divisions.

5:45	Paul Swydan: Colabello really fooled there.

5:46	Bip: Does anyone know a way to look up how many swinging strikes Archer has so far?

5:46	Paul Swydan: I think you just have to count them out right now on Gameday.

5:46	Deece: is chris colabello in the majors still in september, i dont think so. hit 320 last year with all those red flags

5:47	Paul Swydan: He’ll be in the majors, but I won’t be surprised if the Blue Jays move on from him at some point.

5:47	George Harrison: ESPN feed go down?

5:47	Paul Swydan: It didn’t for me…

5:47	Tom: Over/under more worse plays at first base for Hanley Ramirez than Morrison.

5:47	Paul Swydan: I’d say Morrison. But I’m biased.

5:48	CamdenWarehouse: I’m surprised not many voted for Boston.

5:48	Paul Swydan: Up to 6 votes!

5:48	Paul Swydan: Tulo’s still got it.

5:48	Paul Swydan: Well, I don’t know if that was a strike, but that was a pretty good play.

5:49	Anonymous: We’ve got barking!

5:49	CamdenWarehouse: what’s the deal with LoMo and Stroman?

5:49	Paul Swydan: No idea, my wife and mom walked in front of the TV right when that happened.

5:50	Kvn: Now that’s a fly ball, Paul!

5:50	Bip: Stroman “looked” at him?

5:50	Paul Swydan: LoMo is not the most mature player and he’s having a bad game. Not a huge surprise, I suppose.

5:50	Shirtless George Brett: I dont read lips but I think Stroman called him a bitch lol

5:50	Guest: Boston will be the worst sox team in the AL this year

5:50	Paul Swydan: There’s a hot take.

5:51	Bork: Stroman is just hype all the time and LoMo took offense to it

5:51	Anonymous: Schilling needs to knock it off with the ‘Just hit him in the shoulder’ mentality. It’s bad for the game

5:51	CamdenWarehouse: Stroman is not the most mature either…

5:51	Bip: Stroman is fiery and will give back what he gets, but it looks like LoMo made an issue where there was none

5:51	Paul Swydan: Yeah, that’s my take on it as well.

5:51	Bip: Amendment: Tulo’s whole body is magic

5:51	Paul Swydan: Oh Bip.

5:51	Bad Hermit: Damn. I was banking on Archer giving up a HR due to being tired. But maybe I shouldn’t show weakness while my prediction still lives….

5:52	Paul Swydan: Stick to your guns, BH.

5:52	Shirtless George Brett: I had several arguments on the offseason with Jays fans who felt Colabello should be signed long term to be the full time 1b

5:52	Paul Swydan: Sometimes it’s best to just let people be heard and then move on with your day.

5:52	Bip: Sorry for objectifying Major League Baseball players

5:53	Paul Swydan: Don’t be sorry.

5:53	Lenard: Given LoMo, who is the most fiery bad player that you can think of?

5:53	Paul Swydan: Definitely not LoMo. …. Paul O’Neill? Kevin Youkilis?

5:53	Paul Swydan: Those guys are retired though.

5:53	Hamist02: The orsillo move has to be the worst move of the offseason, no? Maybe tied with the Kennedy conract. Maybe. I feel bad for the guy taking his place. Lotta animosity that’s not his faul

5:54	Paul Swydan: No that wasn’t the reason. Like I said, let’s just focus on this game.

5:54	Bork: Colabello is a Jay until 2021. Why sign him long term…?

5:54	Paul Swydan: Right. Well, see my previous statement. Sometimes you just smile and nod.

5:54	dancing dan mcgrrrraw : think the jays will have the best winning percentage against left handed pitchers this year?

5:54	Paul Swydan: Well, they certainly should.

5:55	Who_Is_Zorbist?: Sean Rodriguez

5:55	Shirtless George Brett: Brett LawrieÉ

5:55	Lenard: O’Neill has 41 WAR though, not bad by any means.

5:55	Paul Swydan: Youkilis was good too. He was still a hot head. When you get so riled up that you offend Manny Ramirez, you know you need to take it down a notch.

5:55	Paul Swydan: Rodriguez is a good one.

5:56	Paul Swydan: Him being a hot head is especially funny since he’s not all that good.

5:56	Bip: Miguel Olivo bit a guy’s ear off

5:56	Paul Swydan: Yeah he can be as well, though at least he needs to be calm behind the plate.

5:56	Who_Is_Zorbist?: Balfour

5:56	Paul Swydan: Is he still playing?

5:56	Bad Hermit: Matt Murton’s head is pretty hot.

5:56	Ron Burgandy: Brick killed a guy!

5:57	Kvn: Urgueth Urbina killed a dude.

5:57	Anonymous: Dallas Braden

5:57	Paul Swydan: haha, Braden. Imagine yelling at A-Rod in the middle of a game. What a moron.

5:57	Mike Oxlong: Chris Johnson

5:57	David: Byrd

5:57	Kyle: How do you see the Yankees doing this year?

5:58	Paul Swydan: I had the Yankees down as the second wild card team in the AL until Miller got hurt. Then I got nervous about it and took Toronto instead. That is to say, that I think the Yankees will compete all year and just miss a playoff berth.

5:59	Joe: Time for a Dickerson Dinger!

5:59	Paul Swydan: Third time’s the charm!

5:59	Inner child’s plaything: Yeah, but who has not wanted to yell at arod midgame?

5:59	Paul Swydan: Sure, but then you remember he’s one of the best 30 baseball players of all-time, and you shut your mouth.

6:00	Shirtless George Brett: Chris Sale is really good but he is also a pretty big asshole too from what I have seen and read.

6:00	Paul Swydan: Well but being a a-hole is different than being a hot head.

6:00	Anonymous: I’m rooting for him to break the all-time HR record. But I’m also a troll.

6:01	Paul Swydan: It’d be interesting to see. I think people at MLB would be supportive just because he’s going to end up being a better ambassador for the game than Bonds has been.

6:01	Kvn: Forgot how ugly the devil Rays unis were.

6:02	Paul Swydan: I like the powder blue. But for Thursday day games. Not for Opening Day.

6:02	Bip: Madison Bumgarner is obviously really good, but man does he blow up at dumb crap

6:02	Bork: DicKerson

6:02	Blind Willie Johnson: Chris Sale was pretty hotheaded when he accused Vmart of having a guy with binoculars in the stands

6:02	Bork: GOD DAMN TULO

6:02	Anonymous: Vintage Tulo

6:02	Paul Swydan: Ha, I didn’t even flinch because I’m so used to seeing him do that.

6:03	CamdenWarehouse: All white uniforms are lame. Alternate should be the new normal.

6:03	Paul Swydan: I could not disagree more strongly with this sentiment.

6:03	Paul Swydan: Dirt and grass stains don’t look the same on blue and red uniforms.

6:03	Bip: Tulo’s magical glove and arm gets me all a-quiver

6:03	Paul Swydan: Bip needs to take a cold shower after the game.

6:03	Shirtless George Brett: Sale also tried to get into the Royals lockeroom to fight people last year during a game

6:03	Paul Swydan: Wait, seriously?

6:04	Kvn: Oh no they showed a circa 2000 flashback on the Rays broadcast. Was talking about those old ones. I like the powder blue.

6:04	Paul Swydan: Ah, OK, thanks. Yes, those uniforms were hideous.

6:05	Kam: Grey uniforms are the worst.

6:05	Paul Swydan: Oh my god, gray/silver is literally my favorite color. Get out of here with that.

6:05	Anonymous: QUIT MAKIN’ IT WEIRD, BIP

6:05	Bip: No joke: I’m already icing my groin after frisbee today

6:06	Paul Swydan: No, don’t stop Bip.

6:06

Kvn:

6:06	Paul Swydan: haha

6:06	CamdenWarehouse: http://nesn.com/2015/04/report-chris-sale-went-to-royals-clubhouse-to-fight-yordano-ventura/

6:06	Blerick: http://nesn.com/2015/04/report-chris-sale-went-to-royals-clubhouse-to-fight-yordano-ventura/

6:06	Merkle’sBoner: Karim Garcia was really bad, and really hot headed.

6:06	Paul Swydan: Who is Karim Garcia? (wink)

6:06	Paul Swydan: Oh, first reliever.

6:07	Bad Hermit: Even during the Civil War, Paul?!

6:07	Paul Swydan: You found the one time, good job BH.

6:07	Adam: Why don’t the jays wear their canada day jerseys more often? seems like a waste to make them for only one or two games

6:07	Paul Swydan: Blame Canada.

6:07	Jay: No wonder. Everyone wants to fight Ventura. Including Greg zaun.

6:07	Paul Swydan: Yeah, maybe the answer is Ventura.

6:08	CamdenWarehouse: Who is chatting tonight’s game?

6:08	Paul Swydan: Pretty sure it’s Cave Dameron. Let me check.

6:08	Paul Swydan: yup: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/instagraphs/opening-days-live-blogs/

6:08	Bip: No save for Webb today 🙁 161 to go

6:08	Paul Swydan: Indeed.

6:09	Paul Swydan: Hmmm, they just cited WAR on the ESPN telecast, but I think it was BWAR.

6:09	Nate: Who is chatting Wrestlemania?

6:09	Paul Swydan: No one. We don’t usually do live chats for scripted television.

6:09	dancing dan mcgrrrraw : dark horse for mvp this year?

6:10	Paul Swydan: No, it’ll probably be a baseball player.

6:10	Merkle’sBoner: Throwback Devil Rays hat was nice, though. If it’s good enough for Boggsy, it’s good enough for all of us.

6:10	Paul Swydan: The hat is not AS BAD as the uni, but I would never buy it.

6:10	Kvn: You’re incorrigible.

6:10	Paul Swydan: I sure am.

6:11	Paul Swydan: I would say Mookie is a darkhorse for MVP. But he got votes in our staff picks, so…

6:11	Bip: Joe Davis, new on the Dodgers broadcast, has already cited WAR on an exhibition game, and Nomar and Orel were about ready to throw him out of the broadcast booth

6:11	Paul Swydan: Not Nomar. Not Nomar!

6:11	B.B. Rodriguez: Tulo for MVP.

6:12	CamdenWarehouse: J Upton?

6:12	Paul Swydan: I can’t see the Tigers being good without Miggy being good, so Upton seems like more of a stretch than a darkhorse.

6:13	Bad Hermit: Does Odor qualify as a dark horse?

6:13	Paul Swydan: Yeah I think Odor is a good one.

6:13	Paul Swydan: If he hits the way he did in the second half all season, and the Rangers win the division……

6:13	Johnny Broccoli: Battle of the teams with the two ugliest home parks.

6:14	Paul Swydan: Skydome isn’t that ugly. Chase Field is worse than Skydome.

6:14	Anonymous: There is a timeline where Adrian Beltre wins MVP this year

6:14	Paul Swydan: Sure. But I can see Texas being good even if Beltre struggles.

6:14	Rols: Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that these commercial breaks really do seem shorter?

6:15	Paul Swydan: I haven’t noticed because I’m chatting with ya’ll. But I’m glad to hear it.

6:15	Shirtless George Brett: Jason Kipnis for MVP.

6:15	Paul Swydan: Yeah that’s a good darkhorse.

6:15	Mike Oxlong: ESPN guys just said cubs are totally under the radar. Is this real life?

6:15	Paul Swydan: Apparently.

6:16	Sam Clifford: Worst thing about the dome is that they don’t even think about opening the roof until May — and it’s awful with the roof closed.

6:17	Paul Swydan: But that’s precisely why they have the roof.

6:17	Bork: Cubs are under the radar to the average fairweather MLB fan though. Not a ton of everyday household names (yet)

6:18	Paul Swydan: I mean, sort of. They have Jon Lester and reigning Cy Young winner Jake Arrieta. Heyward got a huge deal this winter. You’re probably right, but it’s not open and shut.

6:18	Trainman: Stroman cruise control right now.

6:18	Paul Swydan: All game, really.

6:18	Paul Swydan: The Rays offense isn’t shutting down their haters today, that’s for sure.

6:19	Sam Clifford: Well, yes and no. There are plenty of days they could have it open in April, but they just leave it alone until May.

6:19	Paul Swydan: Ah, I see.

6:19	Johnny Broccoli: Chase Field is way more pleasing on the eyeballs than the Skydome. Though I’m more so referring to the playing field than the stadium as a whole.

6:20	Paul Swydan: I found Chase Field to be insufferable with the roof closed. I didn’t find Skydome the same. But it’s been a long time since I’ve been to either ballpark.

6:20	Sam Clifford: James Loney MVP

6:20	Paul Swydan: That’s not a darkhorse, that’s just a … horse?

6:20	Paul Swydan: Another inning for Webb, I like that.

6:20	Paul Swydan: Great wing by E5.

6:21	Paul Swydan: swing

6:21	CamdenWarehouse: Of course the Jays offense isn’t looking like the best in the world either…

6:21	Paul Swydan: No, but they’re on the road and faced a very good starter.

6:22	Von Schloss: Nationals have to be “under the radar,” right? Perfect storm of badness hit them last year and now they are completely written off by most fans, it seems.

6:22	Paul Swydan: As I said in the staff predictions post, the Nats are sort of a post-hype sleeper team.

6:22	mtsw: What percentage of Rocco Baldeilli’s value as a 1B coach comes from serving as a living reminder to prospects that there’s no guarantee they’ll make it?

6:22	Paul Swydan: That, but also he was a pretty good baserunner, was he not?

6:22	Paul Swydan: 14.4 career BsR

6:23	Stats Guy: Blue Jays on pace for 0 home runs this year

6:23	Trainman: Paul, after stroman how concerned are you about their rotation? Just took a glance and its.. Shaky in my opinion.

6:23	Paul Swydan: Very concerned.

6:23	Bork: James Loney MVP is a glue horse.

6:23	Paul Swydan: There it is!

6:23	Paul Swydan: Pretty sure someone called that earlier.

6:23	senpaisanto: would jose abreu count as darkhorse mvp?

6:23	Paul Swydan: He definitely would.

6:24	Mark: I’d say 3 runs in 6 innings vs Archer is pretty good, actually.

6:24	B.B. Rodriguez: Are people not worried about the Rays bullpen? I just saw Dana Eveland…

6:24	Trainman: Rocco baldelli.. Blast from the past

6:24	Lenard: Rocco had some sort of illness that forced him to retire, it wasn’t performance, if I remember correctly.

6:24	Paul Swydan: I believe that is accurate.

6:24	Trainman: Stats guy with the jinx

6:24	Anonymous: BIP is on meltdown alert

6:24	Bip: Tulo’s bat is giving me… no, enough is enough for today

6:24	Joe: Let’s hear it Bip

6:24	Vin: Tulo hands were so quick on that swing

6:25	Lenard: http://www.tampabay.com/sports/baseball/rays/illness-forces-tampa-bay-rays-outfielder-rocco-baldelli-to-retire/1147679

6:25	Paul Swydan: There you go.

6:26	Mark: Eh, the Jays rotation is better than it gets credit for. But even if you don’t buy that, like KC last year the Jays defence will make them outperform expectations/peripherals.

6:26	Paul Swydan: That’s a fair point. It’s going to be a good season.

6:26	Bork: Please continue Bip you’re helping out my tumblr fanfic

6:26	Trainman: Here comes Dana eveland!

6:26	mtsw: Stroman coming back out next inning now that it’s not close?

6:26	Paul Swydan: Yeah, he’s only at 81 pitches.

6:27	Paul Swydan: Would be quite the statement if Stroman can get a < 100 pitch CG on Opening Day.

6:27	Sam Clifford: Fancy new leg-kick in Tulo’s swing.

6:27	Paul Swydan: Tulo has always had a little leg kick.

6:28	Trainman: Stroman could go the whole 9 unless he has a few hiccups.

6:28	Shirtless George Brett: The Royals also had a really, really good bullpen and werent afraid to use it. Pulled starters earlier then almost anyone.

6:28	Paul Swydan: I believe than actually everyone. Didn’t their SPs have the fewest IP last year?

6:29	Paul Swydan: Dana Eveland, who knew.

6:30	Trainman: God when Devon Travis comes back, torontos lineup is going to even me more ridiculous. Better lineup: Jays or Cubs

6:30	Paul Swydan: I’ll say Jays.

6:30	Jimm: tulo in toronto for a full year is going to be something. Now ruin it by saying 0 chance he stays healthy

6:30	Paul Swydan: Well, it isn’t zero, but it’s definitely not more than 10 percent.

6:31	Bip: After that moment, everything changed: http://cdn1.sbnation.com/imported_assets/1770339/tulojose.gif

6:31	Paul Swydan: That’s awesome.

6:31	deDoom: I thought they specifically worked on adding a leg kick this off season, much more than what he had

6:31	Thomas: Tulo actually did say that he added more of a leg-kick after watching Donaldson and Bautista

6:31	Paul Swydan: Oh, well OK, but he’s always had a little something. Maybe you’d call it more of a hitch. Tulo is kind of like Cal Ripken – he’s always tinkering with his stance and swing.

6:32	Bork: Jays have huge SP depth though. I mean, they have darkhorse cy young candidate Gavin Floyd in their bullpen? Wouldn’t a team like the Rays love to have Gavin Floyd instead of a pitcher who can’t pitch a full game like Archer?

6:32	Paul Swydan: The only problem is that there is only one Cy Young candidate – Joe Kelly. He’s got such great stuff! He’s clearly going to win it.

6:32	Rols: Looks like Royals starters had 7th fewest innings in 2015

6:32	Paul Swydan: Ah, I sit corrected.

6:32	Paul Swydan: Lowest in the AL?

6:32	Trainman: Another 1 pitch 1 out. My god. Patience from the Rays would help

6:33	Paul Swydan: I mean, at this point, it doesn’t matter. Not like Osuna is easy to get hits off of.

6:33	Bad Hermit: Better lineup: Jays (with no DH) or Cubs?

6:33	Paul Swydan: Then I might lean Cubs. Though E5 can man first base for a few games a year. If Big Papi can do it, E5 can do it

6:34	Rols: Yes, lowest in AL

6:34	Paul Swydan: Ok, half right. I’ll take it!

6:34	Roger: Who has the best season: Stroman, Liriano, or Archer?

6:34	Paul Swydan: I’ll say Stroman. But Archer will be close. I don’t think Liriano will be.

6:34	Jay: I like Tulo at 5th. A great hitter to knock all those OBP machines in. Much better option KO machine in Smoak and Colabello.

6:35	Paul Swydan: Yup he’s a definite upgrade and game changer there.

6:35	Mark: Royals starters were lowest in AL in IP. But the Jays current rotation is superior to the Royals last year.Remember Guthrie and Duffy got 24 starts for them lol.

6:35	Paul Swydan: I’m still waiting for Danny Duffy to be good.

6:35	Paul Swydan: 92 pitches through 8. Not bad.

6:36	Archer: Lanaaaa!

6:36	Paul Swydan: ARCHEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRR!

6:36	Bork: Cubs have a better potential lineup, but until that potential turns into continued success, imma lean towards Jays

6:36	Paul Swydan: Yeah, that’s fair.

6:36	Shirtless George Brett: I’m I the only one who thinks its weird that the Jays are wasting Osuna in the bullpen? Seems to be a viable future starter candidate

6:36	Paul Swydan: Absolutely. I wrote about this last year.

6:37	Paul Swydan: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-upside-and-downside-of-torontos-young-relievers/

6:37	Mike Oxlong: Tulo at 5th comes at the expense of a turd leading off

6:38	Paul Swydan: 93 wRC+ isn’t that bad.

6:38	BK: Leave him in?

6:38	Paul Swydan: Yup.

6:38	PiratesFans: No faith Ray Searage to keep the Liriano magic going? Or simply that Stroman and Archer will be better, even if Liriano is good?

6:38	Paul Swydan: More that Stroman/Archer will be better. Liriano will be fine.

6:38	deDoom: Osuna has come out and said he wants to close, which is so weird with his 3 plus pitches

6:39	Paul Swydan: Young guys say what the organization wants them to say. When they don’t, there’s usually consequences – like seeing Liriano start on Opening Day instead of Cole because he had the gall to complain about his salary.

6:39	Sam Clifford: Hopefully next year, when Dickey is gonezo.

6:40	Jay: I agree on Osuna. If he goes to start, it would most likely mean a stint in the minors. How would that affect his free agency considering he becomes available at 26 years old.

6:40	Paul Swydan: It doesn’t have to mean that at all. They just have to be creative about it.

6:40	Sam Clifford: Yea — it’s not like Osuna came out and said he wanted to close/come out of the ‘pen until AFTER the organization put him there. When asked if he’d like to start, he said “maybe in a year or two…”

6:40	Paul Swydan: Exactly.

6:41	Trainman: Looks like stroman getting ready to pitch the 9th

6:41	Paul Swydan: StromanK

6:42	Paul Swydan: Big Bank StromanL

6:42	Paul Swydan: Big Bank StromanK

6:42	Shirtless George Brett: Its especially interesting that a team with such a limited rotation would relegate one of their better starter prospects to the bullpen.

6:42	Paul Swydan: Well they also didn’t have many good relief pitchers either.

6:43	Adam: Heres the article https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/roberto-osuna-doesnt-want-to-be-a-starting-pitcher

6:44	Paul Swydan: Thanks Adam.

6:44	Anonymous: Is Paul having a stroke?

6:44	Paul Swydan: I am not.

6:44	Paul Swydan: It was a reference to Big Bank Hank, one of the members of the Sugarhill Gang, the first rap group.

6:44	Paul Swydan: Or, the first popular rap group, depending on how you want to delineate things.

6:44	Jason in Dallas: Over/under on innings this season for Stroman – 180ip?

6:44	Paul Swydan: I’ll take the over.

6:45	Ryan: I’m watching the Jays feed because the Rays feed is slower for whatever reason, but this reminds me. FG should do another run at the fan rankings for broadcasts. I use that thing religiously.

6:45	Paul Swydan: Tell Carson!

6:45	Paul Swydan: He’s on the Twitters.

6:45	The Dude of NY: Actually, it’s StromanKKKKK tonight.

6:45	Jake M: Some good work from Dana eveland. An unlikely sentence

6:45	Paul Swydan: Every dog has their day.

6:46	The Dude of NY: The nice thing about StromanK is you can add Ks to the end for every strikeout he gets (with the exception of 3 strikeouts, obviously).

6:46	Paul Swydan: Well I was right about Dickerson hitting the first Rays home run. Half credit?

6:46	Bad Hermit: Have you seen the movie Dope?

6:46	Paul Swydan: I not only have seen it, I own it. Awesome movie.

6:47	The Dude of NY: Please explain why Carson thinks Milwaukee is getting a WC spot.

6:47	Paul Swydan: He tweeted an explanation on Saturday.

6:47	Blerick: While you’re at it, tell Carson I say: Hello

6:47	Paul Swydan: No promises.

6:47	Blerick: dingerson

6:47	LudeBurger: It’s April, which is great. But it’s still just April.

6:47	Joe: You were so close!!

6:47	Kam: I guess you were kinda right.

6:48	The Dude of NY: Quarter-credit. Let’s not go overboard.

6:48	BK: Great result, Jays fan who has Dickerson on his fantasy team

6:48	Shirtless George Brett: I half portion.

6:48	Paul Swydan: Nice.

6:50	Bork: Dickerson just gave all Osuna owners the chance of a save!

6:50	Jason Kipnis: What’s my overall end of season prediction?

6:50	Paul Swydan: I don’t know, Jason Kipnis, you tell me.

6:50	Ryan: A fine day at the plate for 2015 Rockies.

6:51	Paul Swydan: Indeed. A good reminder that good hitters are good hitters everywhere.

6:51	LudeBurger: someone just traded Odor for Kinsler/Jungmann in my dynasty league…ughhh

6:51	Paul Swydan: lol

6:51	Paul Swydan: vetoooooooo

6:52	Anonymous: Carson’s reasoning for picking the Brewers for the WC is ‘I am full of danger.’ Unsatisfactory

6:52	Paul Swydan: I think “Unsatisfactory” might be on Carson’s epitaph.

6:53	Jason Kipnis: My end of season production is about 2/3 of what it looks like it will be at the all star break, because have you seen my first/second half splits?

6:53	Paul Swydan: Yes, but those aren’t predictive. I wouldn’t worry too much about those.

6:53	Sam Clifford: I was reading the Division/WC/Postseason projection article… I have a hard time believing Cleveland beats out the White Sox for the Central. Seems like Boston is getting all of the talented-club-that-underperformed love.

6:53	Paul Swydan: I don’t know, I’m not big on the White Sox. But the AL Central is also very flat.

6:54	Tom: I really like Jessica Mendoza. I think she does a great job, she stays focused on the games and provides good analysis. Thoughts?

6:54	Paul Swydan: Agreed.

6:54	Bip: It’s the predictor’s fallacy: we know there will be a mystery playoff team, but it’s still more likely all the favorites will win than that you will correctly guess the mystery team

6:54	Paul Swydan: Agreed!

6:54	Anonymous: Why are people sleeping on the Indians? As a neutral, they look deep

6:54	Paul Swydan: I think it’s mostly their attitude. They decided to take the winter off, when they had plenty of holes.

6:55	Paul Swydan: Having said that, they led our Staff picks for the AL Central.

6:55	Paul Swydan: OK, last out here people!

6:55	Trainman: Finished my AL only draft, lucked into getting park and VMart at .75 with a $65 cap. Patience is a virtue but dang I’m tired.

6:55	Paul Swydan: Yeoman’s work, Trainman. Yoeman’s work.

6:55	Who_Is_Zorbist?: Osuna getting his 1st blown save. LoMo walkoff

6:55	Paul Swydan: Bold. Very bold.

6:56	The Dude of NY: The Indians took the Winter off? Did you forget about them winning the Mike Napoli sweepstakes?

6:56	Paul Swydan: Ha.

6:56	Bip: I think it’s that the Indians haven’t had any actual real good seasons lately to make everyone believe that they on-paper wins will translate. People still want to see it play.

6:56	Paul Swydan: That is a factor as well. They have been paper lions for awhile.

6:56	LudeBurger: the beautiful thing is that there is still another game tonight. #blessed

6:57	dancing dan mcgrrrraw : the defense being better on the indians will give them a couple more wins right?

6:58	Paul Swydan: It should.

6:58	Paul Swydan: Hooo hoo hooo.

6:58	senpaisanto: get ready:

6:58	Paul Swydan: What is that

6:59	Bad Hermit: As long as Carson doesn’t use the Plexiglass Principle to explain his Brewers pick then I do not care.

6:59	Paul Swydan: You never know with that guy!

6:59	Vin: Remember the Twins lineup in the mid 2000s that were called “the piranhas”? That’s what Kiermaier always makes me think of.

7:00	Paul Swydan: I don’t, actually. Sorry.

7:00	senpaisanto: you’ll see, paul – you’ll see…

7:00	Paul Swydan: Well that’ll do it.

7:01	Bork: Wrestlemania time, thanks for the chat Paul!!

7:01	Trainman: Back in an hour and a half.. Mets and royals, let’s go mets! Pizza and soda stream heck yes.

7:01	Paul Swydan: Thanks for hanging out guys. I’m actually going to end this chat now, and Dave will start a new one for Mets-Royals.

7:02	Paul Swydan: See you Tuesday for the FG After Dark chat!

BAL	CHW	LAA
BOS	CLE	OAK
NYY	DET	SEA
TBR	KCR	TEX
TOR	MIN	HOU

ATL	CHC*	ARI
MIA	CIN	COL
WSN	MIL	LAD
NYM*	PIT	SDP*
PHI	STL	SFG