August Fagerstrom FanGraphs Chat — 4/26/16

august fagerstrom: Hello! My internet is being weird so hopefully this all goes smoothly.

august fagerstrom: In a Death Grips mood today. Death Grips — Government Plates

august fagerstrom: Also, if you’ve missed the announcement, make sure to check out this cool thing myself and other baseball writers will be attending in New York in June: www.fangraphs.com/blogs/staten-island-yankees-sabermetric-day-event-on-june-19th/

Jake M: Milky Cabrera after a awful first Hal last year had a 110 wRC+ in the 2nd half and now has a 155 wRC+ with the best strikeout to walk rate in baseball last time I checked. Turnaround I can believe in?

august fagerstrom: Milky!

august fagerstrom: Let’s begin.

Mike: With the Szymborski caveat that it’s still April, what/who is your most disappointing early season team/player so far this season?

august fagerstrom: Gotta be the Astros and Carlos Gomez. They looked like the only team that stood out in the American League, pre-season. Not that I still don’t believe in the roster, but, yeesh

Nate: How long will it be before exit velocity is used to determine soft/medium/hard contact rates?

august fagerstrom: Seems like this should happen as soon as we have confirmation that Statcast is actually gathering information for every ball in play. Beyond that, I’d hope that five years from now, we have devised a BABIP-type stat that includes batted ball information. That would massively impact the way we evaluate pitchers, and even hitters to a certain extent

Riley Martin: Are the White Sox good or are they just the best of the worst?

august fagerstrom: I picked them to the win the division, so yeah, I’m a believer

august fagerstrom: apologies, had to step away for a moment

CecilFielder: I suggested this to eno and he seemed to like the idea- there should be an Instagraphs posts letting us know everytime a rate stat stablilizes. would be a huge help!

august fagerstrom: Thing about this is, I think it encourages the misconception that at 49 plate appearances, swing rate isn’t stable, but at 50 it suddenly is

august fagerstrom: It’s a sliding scale

Bill: After looking mediocre-to-bad in CF, Adam Eaton has looked amazing in RF so far this season. Should he make a permanent switch to RF going forward?

august fagerstrom: Well it should be expected that he’d perform better in a corner than in CF. He’s also the only other CFer on the team, and the other one, the one who’s currently occupying the space, is trying his hardest to play his way out of a job

Trevor Story: End of my story?

august fagerstrom: You’ve walked a bit more since the last time I looked at your page!

august fagerstrom: Those strikeouts are still frighteningly high

AskJeeves.com: What happened to me?

august fagerstrom: The fact that you need to ask this question is reason enough why people didn’t trust you for information when Google existed.

Jimi Hendrix: Who is GOAT? Me, Jimmy Paige or Eric Clapton?

august fagerstrom: Impossible question

august fagerstrom: I’m partial to “texture” guys like Jonny Greenwood and David Gilmour myself

Sirras: Thor wasn’t completely dominant – PANIC CITI!

august fagerstrom: Carson on our Slack last night:
cistulli
10:33 PM Hey, if anyone’s interested in a topic, explaining how Noah Syndergaard ever gives up any runs ever — that would be an acceptable topic.

Erik: The Phillies first base platoon has been worth -0.9 WAR so far. Will this be the worst position in baseball? Or is there some escape?

august fagerstrom: There’s no reason it can’t be

august fagerstrom: In fact, it was projected to be so: http://www.fangraphs.com/depthcharts.aspx?position=Team

august fagerstrom: (also, looking at that, I think you’ve possibly mistaken that page for actual production. That’s projected production. They’ve actually combined for -1.1 WAR: http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=1b&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=0&type=8&season=2016&month=0&season1=2016&ind=0&team=0,ts&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0)

Nick in CLE: Man, it’s crazy how much better Lindor is hitting in the majors than he did in AA/AAA. Sample size still isn’t huge, but are we close to being able to expect Lindor to be an above-average hitter going forward, in addition to being a superstar defensively?

august fagerstrom: I really don’t know how to wrap my head around this. I covered Lindor through the minor leagues and he never looked anything like this at the plate

august fagerstrom: When he came up, I was thinking he’d be a 90ish wRC+ hitter. Last year swayed me more toward league average. Now I’m thinking maybe 105-110 is where the current true-talent lies, but he just keeps on producing at a 130 clip. It’s insane. Last year’s power has dipped, as expected, but his patience from the minor leagues has returned, and he’s still spraying the ball all over the field. Basically, he’s *looked* more like the hitter we all expected this year, but the production hasn’t dropped at all

august fagerstrom: And he just hits the ball hard as hell, which, paired with the speed and ability to spray the ball all over makes the mid-.300s BABIP look somewhat sustainable

Ben: How much trouble are the Astros in?

august fagerstrom: Based on the projections, they’ve still got a better-than 1-in-3 shot to make the playoffs, and the best odds of anyone in their division, so things could be worse

Josh: Delino Deshields is striking out a ton, which obviously is not good considering his skill set. He’s also been successful only twice on 5 SB attempts. Do you think he’s the most at risk of losing playing time when Choo returns?

august fagerstrom: He hasn’t been too much different than what he was last year, and the Rangers seemed to like him quite a bit last year

august fagerstrom: Other problem is: who plays CF?

august fagerstrom: Not that Deshields is a great CF, but he can play there, and your other options is Desmond. Or Mazara? Though he never played there in the minors as far as I can tell, which sure isn’t a good indicator

august fagerstrom: I think the playing time all just gets distributed evenly, or someone else gets hurt and it works itself out

august fagerstrom: Having too many capable players isn’t the worst problem for a team to have

Ben: Last week I joked about Harper hitting more homeruns than the Braves this year……I don’t know if it’s a joke anymore.

august fagerstrom: We knew the Braves were going to be bad, and their offensive ineptitude is *still* staggering.

august fagerstrom: I believe Jeff is planning on writing about this today

Scott: August, are you buying Kluber for ROS?

august fagerstrom: Kluber is good

Whale: Rodon looked to be a breakout candidate. But the 2016 version is a 2 pitch guy, barely throwing his change. Walks, already high, are up too. Thoughts?

august fagerstrom: He looks almost exactly like last year’s guy, just with a little less velo, and last year’s guy was super excited. Your opinion shouldn’t have much changed. Remember: this dude has thrown fewer than 200 innings above *college* ball, and has already proven himself as an above-average starter in the major leagues. That’s insane

august fagerstrom: He’s still figuring things out. I’m as high on him as ever

Kvn: At what point this season does Bryce Harper start getting the Barry Bonds treatment?

august fagerstrom: Nobody will ever again get the Barry Bonds treatment

august fagerstrom: just found something weird, hold on

august fagerstrom: Largest zone% increase, qualified hitters, 2015-16:

1. N. Cruz, +7%
2. M. Cabrera, +6%
3. W. Ramos, +6%
4. M. Kemp, +6%
5. Bryce Harper, +5% <–

august fagerstrom: huh?

august fagerstrom: Assuming that’s an effect of his eye being so god damn good that pitchers are having to come in the zone because he’ll literally take every pitch that’s a ball?

Jon Snow v2.0: Try and prevent me from overreacting to Nate Eovaldi last night…. I dare you.

Big Joe Montferrant: Eovaldi is finally Striking out people, and his ERA is now looking more and more like his FIP/xFIP. Is this the year he breaks out?

august fagerstrom: Big Joe Montferrant failed your test

august fagerstrom: Those comments literally came back-to-back

august fagerstrom: Eovaldi has been exciting a bunch of times before and then gone back to being not-exciting. Not convinced yet

august fagerstrom: Though I now see he’s altered the pitch mix quite a bit this year! Going to that splitter a third of the time. Maybe there’s something there. Might have to look into that

Rick: Any chance that TJ House gets called up to fill in for Carassco? Or is Bauer more likely to get the chance to start again?

august fagerstrom: Bauer’s already been moved back to the rotation

Johnny5Alive: I hope you’ll be joining the stoolies for some all you can drink Mets baseball the might before your staten island Yankees meetup

august fagerstrom: is this english

Sirras: Fast forward 20 years – who has the best career of Trout, Harper, and Machado? What did they do better than the other two?

august fagerstrom: Still going with Trout. Can’t ignore his production through 23 vs. Harper. He’s already got more than half of a Hall of Fame career in the bank

august fagerstrom: Though Harper is a third of the way there, to be fair

Mr. Wrestling IV: Aaron Nola has looked pretty good. LOB% seems to be the only issue. When does that start to stabilize?

august fagerstrom: like never

august fagerstrom: more than a season

Jim: If syndergaard had the mechanics of tim lincecum how hard do you think he could throw? 108? 110?

august fagerstrom: Probably less hard than he does now?

august fagerstrom: Because it would be horribly unnatural for his body

Toca: yell my name. it’s fun.

august fagerstrom: TOOCCAAAAAAAAAAAA

Igloo: Adam Jones changing his approach or is this his more decline?

august fagerstrom: whoa!

august fagerstrom: this is weird. Hadn’t been paying attention to Jones this year. I’ve been calling his decline for three years now and he keeps proving me wrong. This is… weird. The scariest part is definitely the ground balls. He’s been living off his power and power alone for some time now. If he doesn’t elevate the ball, he could be a disaster

rick taylor: have you tried sammy’s grill yet?

august fagerstrom: hi zack. i went on saturday for an omelette. it was okay. sammy isn’t very friendly

Ben: Erick Aybar is…..really bad. Is this a case of a guy who just doesn’t want to be where he is? He was at least a decent player with the Angels.

august fagerstrom: He was pretty bad last year, too

august fagerstrom: Not much margin for error when you start with his 2015. He’s 32

Alex: Tyler White got off to a hot start and people were believing. Now he’s been ice cold. Who is the real Tyler White?

august fagerstrom: Probably right around his projection still, which is what we should’ve viewed him as this whole time. I think people misinterpreted my follow-up post on him as me saying he was going to somehow continue what he’d been doing. The entire premise of that post was that after 15 games or whatever, even if he went right back to his rest-of-season projection (which we should almost always expect) for the rest of the year, he’d banked enough production in the first two weeks to finish the year with a ~125 wRC+. That’s where I drew the comps from

august fagerstrom: Before the season, we should’ve expected him to go forward as a slightly above average hitter. During his hot streak, we should’ve expected him to go forward as a more-slightly above average hitter. And now, we should expect him to go forward as a slightly above-average hitter

Dug: Thoughts on Odubel Herrera? It looks like he has improved from an already impressive rookie season.

august fagerstrom: I can’t wrap my mind around the walk rate. The swing%, zone% and contact% don’t make any sense for a jump from 5% walks to 20% walks. I mean it’s obviously more encouraging than not, but I can’t seem to make any sense of it

august fagerstrom: Think Jeff was planning on writing about this soon, too. Always count on Jeff.

Jimmers: Is Noah Syndergaard over rated? (serious question)

august fagerstrom: if you think he’s the best pitcher in baseball then yeah

The Man with the Plan: JOEY GALLO POWER

august fagerstrom: The Rangers should probably trade a hitter or two

Sirras: What is the worst nickname anybody has ever given you and why is it July?

august fagerstrom: probably “Gus”

august fagerstrom: just a gross sounding name

august fagerstrom: (apologies to all the Gus’ out there)

Erik: When someone like Harper or Trout debuts so young and so good, do they still follow the standard aging curve? Do we expect them to keep getting better until age 27-29, or have they already been as good as they’ll ever be?

august fagerstrom: They can’t get much better

Jimmers: Has Mike Trout become “boringly” good? Because we feel we have seen the best, and we feel Harper has a higher ceiling?

august fagerstrom: I think so, yeah

Jimmers: Can we please give Barry Bonds like 10 AB this year?

august fagerstrom: I seeeeeeriously want this to happen, and every time I hear something new about Bonds, I think the likelihood increases

august fagerstrom: Like I actually think there’s a 2% chance he suits up this year. Which is up from 0% over the last ~seven years

august fagerstrom: How could he *not* get the itch, being around the game every day?

august fagerstrom: Sam Miller said on Effectively Wild the other day that an anonymous Marlins player was confident he could hit like .320 with 20 bombs. Obviously that’s hyperbole, but I’m 100% confident Bonds could still be an above-average hitter against MLB pitching. He already has an organization that wants him, which was his problem back in 2008

august fagerstrom: I literally want this to happen more than anything else in baseball

august fagerstrom: The problem is the National League. He could only be a pinch-hitter

august fagerstrom: I hope the Marlins season just goes in the tank and this happens. Bonds and Ichiro playing on the same team in 2016. Could you imagine

Matt Damon: MATT. DAMON.

august fagerstrom: i love your dedication to doing this

Eric: What’s the deal with Pujols? Last year he had a .217 BABIP, this year he’s at just .136. Given the small sample, I’m sure that will increase, but is he really a low-.200’s BABIP hitter now?

august fagerstrom: Yeah, he is. He puts the ball in the air often, he pulls his grounders, and he’s slow as hell

august fagerstrom: Obviously .136 isn’t going to continue, but .230 or .240 could be his true-talent level

Snowflake: When is a triple play not fun?

august fagerstrom: I derive very little pleasure from the 5-4-3 variety

Sirras: If you could be one type of baseball player (ex. slugging corner OF, speedy shortstop, power pitcher, finesse pitcher, ace pinch hitter, etc), what would you want to be?

august fagerstrom: I think I’d want to be a closer

august fagerstrom: Mostly just because getting to run in from center field with your own song would be sweet

august fagerstrom: But also the leverage:playing time ratio is outrageous

august fagerstrom: You can consistently be a hero by doing basically nothing, relative to your peers

august fagerstrom: Either that, or John McDonald

august fagerstrom: Because John McDonald played 16 years and made a shitload of money and no one ever even noticed him once

Bork: Neat triple play post. Are the majority of triple plays caused by terrible base running or just dumb luck?

august fagerstrom: yes

Ted: If you could build a staff of any five guys for this year alone, who you taking?

august fagerstrom: Kershaw, Syndergaard, Sale, Scherzer, Arrieta

The Man with the Plan: Is there any chance AJ Reed DOESN’T get called up to the Bigs, injury aside.

august fagerstrom: very doubtful

Jimmers: If you started a franchise today and for some reason you could pick any 3 players in the world to start of with. Who would they be and why?

august fagerstrom: Trout Harper and Machado because they’re really really good and not pitchers

Jimmers: Who is one player that at one point you hated, but learned to love over time?

august fagerstrom: Jhonny Peralta

Jeffrey: Because it still so early in the season. we all should jump off the Bandwagon because he’s going to come back down to earth right?

august fagerstrom: yep

njs: i read a piece in the NYT by ben lindberg (sp?) about a pitch algorithm he and another sabermetrician were working on to more efficiently call a game… are you aware of any other similar research (or anecdotes about teams who may be trying this too)?

august fagerstrom: Sam Miller wrote this (the other sabermetrician was Ben Lindbergh). I’m not aware, no, but I bet if you buy their book (http://www.amazon.com/Only-Rule-Has-Work-Experiment/dp/1627795642) which comes out next week, you’ll learn more about it!

Sirras: What player do you have an irrational love for?

august fagerstrom: Domingo Santana

Larry Bernandez: Suppose a team is down a run in the bottom of the 9th, and with 2 outs and a man on base, the batter hits a home run. Then the runner faints and cannot finish running the bases. Who wins this game?

august fagerstrom: There’s got to be some sort of medical emergency exception

august fagerstrom: I think even in my batter-passing-out triple play scenario, the ump probably calls time before the third out, on account of the batter passing out in the field of play

Chris Owings: Does everyone underrate me?

august fagerstrom: how do you think you should be rated?

august fagerstrom: you’re not very good

Slide’nURdms: Ricky Nolasco has both a SIERA & xFIP under 3.00, and is getting 53% grounders from the heavy use of his slider. Is this sustainable, or will teams start to sit on the slider and turn him back into a pumpkin?

august fagerstrom: oh no

august fagerstrom: don’t do this to yourself

Pete: Can you please tell Justin Upton that the regular season has started? Thank you.

august fagerstrom: he looks like his brother from 3 years ago

Art Vandelay: According to Clapton, it’s Prince.

august fagerstrom: myth, busted: http://www.snopes.com/eric-clapton-quote-about-prince/

Enlightening Round: Is Thor’s inability to hold runners a concern going forward, last night was brutal….

august fagerstrom: Greg Maddux couldn’t/didn’t hold runners either

Make WAR not Love: The NY VIP tix were sold out by the time I tried to buy ::throws tantrum:: You guys going to do a NYC meetup on Saturday or Sunday night?

august fagerstrom: we’ll be around

mtsw: Is there a source for tracking changes made to stadium’s batters’ eyes over the years?

august fagerstrom: no but this is an interesting idea

august fagerstrom: Definitely something that could have a very real effect on how the parks play that goes largely unnoticed and unreported

Hank: I really enjoy watching Lindor play. Its great to see players who are out there and can laugh at their own plays.

august fagerstrom: He is the most fun

John Esq.: Who’s the best prospect to be called up in June?

august fagerstrom: Lucas Giolito

CecilFielder: Re: instagraphs stabilization posts- Just hit us with some bar graphs of % stable! Im reaching here but I think it could be a fun excersize

august fagerstrom: this might pique your interest: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/a-new-way-to-look-at-sample-size/

Erik: Is it fair to say that BABIP is best used as a measure of luck, while BACON (if that’s really the name) is a better indicator of skill? I’m thinking specifically of Harper’s currently poor BABIP, which only looks bad because so many of his hard hits don’t end up as balls in play.

august fagerstrom: I definitely do not think it’s fair to say BABIP is best used as a measure of luck

august fagerstrom: That’s not to say BACON doesn’t have its uses, but BABIP being a “luck stat” is an old trope that should be thrown out by now

august fagerstrom: Just a heads-up: please don’t spam the queue with the same question over and over again. I’ve got a lot to sift through, and it becomes increasingly difficult when people spam the same question a bunch of times. I’m often a half hour or so *behind* the queue, so it’s very possible I just haven’t gotten to your question yet. Either that, or it’s a fantasy question that I’m probably not going to answer anyway, in which event spamming the queue will make me no more likely to do so

kevinthecomic: I want to expand on the conversation regarding stabilization rates being a sliding scale — most, if not all, of the projections we get are point estimates — if showing a point estimate for stabilization is inappropriate, why are point estimates appropriate for projections? — any chance we could see a distribution? — the paranoid side of my personality, which is the dominant side unfortunately, is concluding that the sabremetric community doesn’t show distributions because then it would be abundantly clear how much it actually CAN’T predict the future and would then subject itself to nay-saying from the old school/troglodyte side of baseball

august fagerstrom: Yeah, this is a very good point. I think a much better job could be done, and this is true for all projection systems and all websites which host them, of displaying error bars along with projections

august fagerstrom: I really like how BaseballProspectus gives you the option to look at the 10 percentile PECOTA projection, 90th percentile, etc.

august fagerstrom: I think on the standings page in particular, it could be helpful to include some sort of error bar disclaimer. Could help avoid all of the awful “FanGraphs PREDICTS my team to win XX games this year. Outrageous!!1!1!”

august fagerstrom: Problem is, the people who make those ill-advised statements probably don’t understand/wouldn’t care to understand the concept of errors bars in the first place, so who knows how much it would actually help

august fagerstrom: I do agree with your general stance, though.

jon: many of the young Cub hitters are showing fairly significant drop in K’s (Bryant, Russell and Soler). How much do you think these gains will hold?

august fagerstrom: Tough to say, but it definitely seems like an organizational philosophy to put more balls in play, so it’s certainly an early-season trend worth watching

Richard: Concerning your “Nobody will ever again get the Barry Bonds treatment” response, is that a: because nobody will be that good, or b: because intentionally walking him that often was a mistake?

august fagerstrom: a: yes b: yes

robbob: Rasmus isn’t actually going to walk that much RoS is he?

august fagerstrom: He sees the lowest rate of in-zone fastballs of anyone in baseball, and if I recall correctly, this isn’t some new, fluky sample size thing. Pitchers are really afraid to give him a fastball over the plate. If he’s learned to lay off some of the bad breaking stuff he chased in the past, then a boost could be in order

august fagerstrom: Obviously not going to sustain a 20% walk rate, but

Argo: Last year I patted myself on the back for trading Eovaldi and Rasmus for Pineda? Talk me down from the ledge

august fagerstrom: it doesn’t actually matter

august fagerstrom: that should be enough

august fagerstrom: bad trade though

CecilFielder: Can you explain LOB%? like why is it important in one sentence

august fagerstrom: because it’s subject to a ton of noise, and can be one of the driving factors in a pitcher’s ERA not matching his peripherals. this is a flawed example of course, but pitcher A gives up one single per inning for nine innings and has an ERA of 0.00. pitcher B goes hitless for eight innings and then gives up nine consecutive singles in the ninth and has an ERA of 8 or whatever. they both essentially pitched the same, but pitcher A was more fortunate in how his runners were distributed

august fagerstrom: that’s probably got more to do with luck than skill

august fagerstrom: that wasn’t one sentence, but hopefully you get the gist

august fagerstrom: always regress LOB% heavily toward the league mean or, in a large enough sample, that individual player’s career norm

Dizzy Trout: Now that Brantley’s back, how does the playing time shake out with Rajai Chisenhall J. Ram etc

august fagerstrom: Ramirez probably takes the biggest hit, because he’s looked terrifying in the outfield and there isn’t an everyday spot for him in the infield, though I do suspect he cuts into Uribe’s playing time vs. RHP at 3B. Naquin/Davis platoon in CF, Chisenhall/Byrd platoon in RF

Johnny5Alive: yes, there is an all you can drink mets outing on June 18th. hosted by barstool sports. since you will be in the city, and love baseball, it should be a thing you attend.

august fagerstrom: from what I know about Barstool Sports that doesn’t seem like something I wish to attend

The Man with the Plan: TOOCCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

august fagerstrom: Oh. Jose Berrios is being called up. That’s exciting.

mtsw: Adam Jones has been battling a rib injury that’s affected his swing, forcing him to miss half a dozen games. No reason to panic on him yet (unlike it’s actually an oblique injury in disguise) since he should improve as he gets 100% healthy again.

august fagerstrom: thanks for the info! helps explain some of the weirdness. definitely still something I’m keeping an eye on

Mark: As a tortured Washington sports fan, how excited should I be about the Nats start? I know they’re playing terrible competition, but at least they’re winning plus BRYCE HARPER.

august fagerstrom: You should mostly be excited that they have a real good roster

Eric Blair: Does the Donaldson trade offset the Thor trade?

august fagerstrom: This is a fascinating question

august fagerstrom: I don’t think so, because the Syndergaard trade shipped off d’Arnaud, too, and Franklin Barreto could still be really, really good

Erik: On Odubel Herrera, from watching the games it seems like he’s fouling off tons of pitches, leading to long at bats in which pitchers eventually throw four balls. Think he saw 18 or 19 pitches across his first two plate appearances on Saturday. Is that random variation or a real skill?

august fagerstrom: Little bit of both, but I’d lean slightly more toward random variatio

august fagerstrom: the fouling off pitches is a skill, I think. The at-bats with a bunch of fouls ending in walks is probably some noise

dbet: Who is the oldest player to get an at bat in the majors? Could it be Bonds?

august fagerstrom: Julio Franco, I think

august fagerstrom: He was 48

august fagerstrom: Bonds is 51

august fagerstrom: Maybe I’m missing someone

Jose: Is Barry Bonds the greatest player of all time?

august fagerstrom: yes

j6takish: Stick him at 1b, DH will be available in AL parks. Goddamnit I want bonds to play. I’m thinking like 225 avg 350 obp and just enough dingers to get people talking

august fagerstrom: That’s about what I might project, too.

august fagerstrom: The funny thing about making a Bonds projection in 2016 is you never know if it’s laughably high or laughably low.

CecilFielder: Matt damon guy- can you PLEASE explain the matt damon thing? its been years…

august fagerstrom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnPWJOJYVKc

Dsafari: Saw death grips last week I probably shat myself but it was socially acceptable

august fagerstrom: I saw them at Bonnaroo a couple years back, but Zach Hill wasn’t there which was a pretty big bummer. Also, re-cracking the rib that had just healed a few days prior was kind of a bummer, too.

august fagerstrom: Show was still insane though

august fagerstrom: Unparalleled energy

Bob Sacamano : Barry Bonds v Troy Percival

august fagerstrom: one of my favorite at-bats ever

Bob Sacamano : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol2_UkJS6kw

august fagerstrom: someone on the Angels bench says something to the effect of “that’s the longest fucking homer I’ve ever seen”

Jon Snow v2.0: When do Berrios and Glasnow get called up?

N.W.enO: Who’s the next pitcher to get called up? How good will he be?

august fagerstrom: Between the time of you guys asking this question and me getting to them, the Twins answered it for you!

H. Rowengartner: Do you think we will ever see Jose Fernandez reaching the 7th inning with regularity? If not, is it the early season walks or an approach the Marlins are taking?

august fagerstrom: ever? yeah

august fagerstrom: latter question: probably a bit of both

Big Joe Monferrant: If all the people using player names in the chat were actually the players themselves, would you answer the questions differently? (Like telling Chris Owings he isnt very good)

august fagerstrom: god I hope that wasn’t really Chris Owings

august fagerstrom: though, at the same time, if he’s here hanging out in a FanGraphs chat, could explain him not being very good

Big Joe Monferrant: Hmmmm, youre saying Lindor is more fun than Beltre?

august fagerstrom: I posted something on Twitter about Lindor being the most fun player in baseball and I got alllll these tweets about “WHAT ABOUT BELTRE/ANDRUS/SAL PEREZ, ETC.”

august fagerstrom: can we just enjoy a player being really fun and not turn everything into a debate

august fagerstrom: I’m not like actively dissing Adrian Beltre by calling Francisco Lindor the most fun. I’m pointing out that he’s really fun and we should all enjoy him

CecilFielder: have you read The Arm? it sounds amazing.. I feel like the stories in there are insane

august fagerstrom: about a third of the way through and planning to knock out a good chunk as soon as I wrap up this mega-chat and eat some lunch. love it so far. Jeff is such a good writer

august fagerstrom: speaking of which

august fagerstrom: I’ve chatted for about 90 minutes!

august fagerstrom: Gonna wrap this up and do those things now

august fagerstrom: Thanks for hanging out, everyone! sorry for all the questions I didn’t/couldn’t get to, today. The queue was a madhouse

august fagerstrom: Adios!