Episode 777
Travis Sawchik recently won his second consecutive title in the simulation baseball league of which he and a number of major-league beat reporters are a part. The tactics on which he’s relied for success, however, are the very sort that he’s condemned in actual baseball. Will he be able to sleep at night? Should he be able to? These are merely two of the questions he’s reluctant to answer on this edition of FanGraphs Audio.

Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @cistulli on Twitter.

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Audio after the jump. (Approximately 1 hr 16 min play time.)

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Free agency begins five days after the end of the World Series. As in other recent offseasons, FanGraphs is once again facilitating this offseason a contract-crowdsourcing project, the idea being to harness the wisdom of the crowds to the end of better understanding the 2017-18 free-agent market.

Below are links to ballots for five of this year’s free agents, including four catchers and also Yonder Alonso.

Alex Avila (Profile)
Some relevant information regarding Avila:

• Has averaged 268 PA and 1.3 WAR over last three seasons.
• Has averaged 2.2 WAR per 450 PA* over last three seasons.
• Recorded a 2.5 WAR in 376 PA in 2017.
• Is projected to record 1.7 WAR per 450 PA**.
• Is entering his age-31 season.
• Made $2.0M in 2017, as part of deal signed in December 2016.

*That is, a roughly average number of plate appearances for a starting catcher.
**Prorated version of final 2017 depth-chart projections available here.

Click here to estimate years and dollars for Avila.

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Episode 776
Mike Hattery is a contributor to Cleveland sports weblog Waiting for Next Year and served as FanGraphs’ writer-in-residence for the month of September. He’s also the guest on this edition of FanGraphs Audio.

Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @cistulli on Twitter.

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Audio after the jump. (Approximately 1 hr 5 min play time.)

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Episode 775
All of baseball’s division series are complete or nearly complete. Managing editor Dave Cameron discusses them exclusively or nearly exclusively.

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Audio after the jump. (Approximately 43 min play time.)

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Episode 774
There is, technically, such a thing as a pitching prospect; the presence of pitchers on draft boards and top-100 lists suggests as much. As the profile of the major-league pitcher evolves, however, so does the criteria by which minor leaguers and amateur talent have to be assessed. Should evaluators employ a “minimum acceptable velocity”? How ought the chance of injury be integrated into a Future Value grade? Guest Eric Longenhagen answers questions very similar to these, if not these questions exactly.

Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @cistulli on Twitter.

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Audio after the jump. (Approximately 56 min play time.)

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Chris Sale, one of just two legitimate candidates for the American League’s Cy Young Award, will start for the Red Sox this afternoon against the Astros in Houston. Sale has produced a season nearly unprecedented in certain important ways. The Astros’ offense has produced a season nearly unprecedented in certain important ways. The former isn’t an unstoppable force, nor the latter an immovable object, mostly because humans are irretrievably fallible. Relative to other mortals, however, both parties acquit themselves very well.

Unsurprisingly, Houston manager A.J. Hinch has deployed a righty-heavy lineup against Sale. Only Brian McCann and Josh Reddick will lack the platoon advantage against Boston’s starter. Over the course of his career, Sale has conceded a wOBA nearly 50 points greater to right-handed batters than left-handed ones. But that’s mostly because he’s rendered left-handers existentially moot. Righties have still hit poorly against him, producing a collective batting line roughly equivalent to Yolmer Sanchez’s own career mark.

So it’s clear that Sale has had success against right-handers. How, though? What specifically does he throw? The answer is likely relevant to his start against the Astros.

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Episode 773
Atlanta general manager John Coppolella resigned on Monday due to a “breach of Major League Baseball rules regarding the international player market.” While the specifics of his case remain unknown, the flaws of the league’s approach to international players are manifest. In an effort to reduce costs — by way of bonus pools, for example — owners have incentivized clubs to pursue illegal means by which to acquire international talent. What are the other consequences of these cost-cutting efforts? How can they be resolved? Managing editor Dave Cameron attempts to answer these questions.

Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @cistulli on Twitter.

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Audio after the jump. (Approximately 46 min play time.)

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Episode 772
When Monday arrived this week, managing editor Dave Cameron found it difficult to write about anything other than Bruce Maxwell’s decision to take a knee during the national anthem. When it was time to record the podcast on Wednesday, he felt similarly. The result? Hopefully, a responsible and nuanced conversation. In reality, though, probably something less than that.

Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @cistulli on Twitter.

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Audio after the jump. (Approximately 39 min play time.)

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Episode 771
The prolific Travis Sawchik has relocated from beautiful Mount Lebanon, PA, to beautiful Bay Village, OH. The move, however, has rendered him no less intent on exploring the wild frontiers of baseball analysis. Among the frontiers considered here: velocity and the human mind, the format of the Wild Card play-in game, and the scourge of interleague play on the sport.

A reminder: FanGraphs’ Ad Free Membership exists. Click here to learn more about it and share some of your disposable income with FanGraphs.

Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @cistulli on Twitter.

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Audio after the jump. (Approximately 59 min play time.)

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The 2017 campaign has been an unprecedented one for the home run. Both by overall totals and by rate, no other season rivals the present one by that measure.

The causes are manifold: a juiced ball, smaller stadia, a greater effort among hitters to hit the ball in the air, etc. A number of questions have been and will be asked about the implications of this season. The present dispatch concerns only one of them, though — namely, who (if anyone) will serve as the lasting face of this year’s record home-run campaign?

Allow me to begin by saying: I don’t care. Or, more precisely: I don’t care about the answer, per se. If it’s important to someone that Giancarlo Stanton forever remain the lasting image of 2017, then that’s fine. The prospect of formulating and presenting an argument to the contrary is nauseating.

Of some interest, however — as a means to exercising the critical faculties, if nothing else — is the variety of criteria one might establish to arrive at a reasonable answer. For those who are concerned with certainty, perhaps this smacks of relativism and sounds awful. For those among us who are resigned to the fact that reality is a myth and truth a moving target, then it’s probably acceptable.

Below, I’ve attempted to summarize the various criteria one might employ to determine the face of this record home-run season. First, however, I’d like to present a list of four players who merit the distinction for one reason or another. Depending on one’s preferences, any of these four is the correct answer.

They are (in alphabetical order):

• Yonder Alonso
• Matt Olson
• Jose Ramirez
• Giancarlo Stanton

Those are the results, basically. The process by which on might arrive at those results is detailed below.

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