Author Archive

2021 SABR Analytics Awards: Voting Now Open!

2021 SABR Virtual Analytics Conference

Here’s your chance to vote for the 2021 SABR Analytics Conference Research Awards winners.

The SABR Analytics Conference Research Awards will recognize baseball researchers who have completed the best work of original analysis or commentary during the preceding calendar year. Nominations were solicited by representatives from SABR, Baseball Prospectus, FanGraphs, and the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America.

To read any of the finalists, click on the link below. Scroll down to cast your vote.

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FanGraphs and RotoGraphs Are Hiring

As the 2021 season approaches, we’re pleased to announce that FanGraphs and RotoGraphs are now accepting applications to join our staff. We are hiring for a variety of part-time, paid writing positions.

Contributing Writer

FanGraphs
This is a part-time, paid position. Contributors will be asked to write twice a week. Pay will be commensurate with experience, with the opportunity for additional raises. Familiarity and comfort with the data here at FanGraphs is a requirement, but just as importantly, we’re looking for writers who can generate their own ideas and questions while providing interesting analysis or commentary on the game of baseball. From free agent signings to statistical analysis, teams’ top prospects to in-game strategy, we endeavor to cover it all, highlights to lowlights. Sometimes we do that with a bit of silliness; other times, we’re more serious. But what all of our work has in common is a commitment to asking interesting questions and using rigor, creativity, and the latest analytical tools to find the answers for our readers.

RotoGraphs
This is a part-time, paid position. Contributors will be asked to write, at a minimum, once a week. Pay will be commensurate with experience and workload, with the opportunity for additional raises. Familiarity and comfort with the data here at FanGraphs is a requirement, but just as importantly, we approach the fantasy game by looking beyond the surface stats to see what drives a player’s performance and use the tools and analytics at our site and across the baseball community to best predict how they might perform going forward. Contributors can take a broad look at the fantasy game generally, or zero in on a particular subject: league type (roto, points, Ottoneu), hitters or pitchers, prospects and dynasty leagues, waivers and FAAB, injury analysis, etc. Read the rest of this entry »


Meg Rowley FanGraphs Chat – 1/20/2021

4:00
Meg Rowley: Hi everyone, and welcome to the chat.

4:01
AJ: Way too early World Series matchup prediction?

4:02
Meg Rowley: Padres vs. White Sox. Is it the most probable matchup? Perhaps not. Is it a reasonable prediction? Yes. Would I enjoy it very much? Also yes.

4:02
Rob: How is it possible to own a billion dollar business with all the resources at your disposal and still fail miserably at vetting an incredibly important hire. I don’t get it. To be honest, it seems more like they don’t really care rather than they are incompetent.

4:04
Meg Rowley: I don’t think that they don’t care. An organization that doesn’t care doesn’t fire him. I do think that the fact of his hiring along with some of Alderson’s answers suggest that it is a process in need of reforms, first among them doing background with folks who Porter didn’t have an incentive to manage up to.

4:04
BlueJayMatt: No question, just a Jays fan feeling pretty good today. The next few years in Toronto are going to be a lot of fun!

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Meg Rowley FanGraphs Chat – 1/13/2020

4:01
Meg Rowley: Hey pals, will get started here in a moment – just wrapping up a call!

4:08
Desperate for a chat: Hurry up, Meg

4:08
Scotty: Meg, hello

4:08
Meg Rowley: Hello am here!

4:09
Meg Rowley: Sorry about that, everyone. Had to chat with Appelman. Let us chat!

4:09
E.L.: If you’re the Giants would you rather have as little money committed to 2022 as possible or would you spend a little now so your lineup isn’t full of holes in a year?

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Meg Rowley FanGraphs Chat – 12/23/2020

4:02
Meg Rowley: Hi all, and welcome to the chat. Give me just one moment to run something to the mail box before my carrier comes for the day!

4:04
Meg Rowley: Ok, am back.

4:04
Meg Rowley: Everyone be nice to their mail carriers – they are having a heck of a time.

4:05
Jerry dipoto: When am I making my next move?

4:05
Meg Rowley: Please not today, I have gifts to wrap after this and feel tired.

4:05
Syndergaardengnomes: What is Realmuto’s market now?  With the Mets out of the picture, where do you think he ends up?

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Meg Rowley FanGraphs Chat – 12/9/2020

4:00
Meg Rowley: Hi everyone! I’ll be getting started in just a few minutes here – just wrapped recording Effectively Wild and need to grab a seltzer.

4:05
Meg Rowley: And am returned, with a seltzer and some chips. Let’s chat!

4:05
Scotty: Meg…. hello

4:06
Meg Rowley: Hi there!

4:06
dude: Rank these OF for 2021; Arozarna, Teoscar, Carlson, JD Martinez, Laureano, Mountcastle, Winker.  Going to be thinking about who to prioritize as keepers and trade bait soon.

4:07
Meg Rowley: My name is Meg and I am once again going to ask you to direct fantasy questions to our fantasy writers, as they know what they’re talking about when it comes to fantasy, and I decidedly do not.

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Meg Rowley FanGraphs Chat – 12/2/2020

4:00
Chris: You’re back!?!

4:00
Bb: M-Ro is in da house!

4:00
Meg Rowley: Friends, I am indeed returned.

4:01
Meg Rowley: I appreciate your patience with my absence, but I should be able to be back in the mostly regular swing of things from now on.

4:01
Drew: Was the “flood” of coming non-tenders perhaps overestimated? Many of the bigger question marks such as Pham, Gray and Sanchez all seem on their way to tenders, and with the exception of Rosario so far no big profile name has surprised me much

4:02
Meg Rowley: I don’t think we can really gauge it yet. Outside of Rosario, you’re right that no big names have revealed themselves yet, but given the general uptick in non-tenders over the last few pandemic free years, I don’t imagine cost conscious teams are going to be suddenly overwhelmed with a sense of payroll generosity.

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Contract Crowdsourcing 2020-21: The Kolten Wong Ballot

Free agency begins five days after the end of the World Series. As in other recent offseasons, FanGraphs is once again facilitating a contract-crowdsourcing project, the idea being to harness the wisdom of the crowd to better understand and project the 2020-21 free-agent market.

This year, we’ve added a few new features to the ballots based on reader feedback. You now have the option to indicate that a player will only receive a minor-league contract, or won’t receive one at all. We’ve elected to show averages from the 2017-2019 seasons so that this year’s shortened slate doesn’t skew the numbers, but we’ve also included 2020 stats as a point of recent reference. 2020 salary figures represent players’ pre-pandemic contract amounts. Statistics are prorated to full season where noted; the projected WAR figures are from the first cut of the 2021 Steamer600 projections.

Below is a ballot for one of this year’s free agents — in this case, Kolten Wong, whose $12.5 million 2021 club option was declined by the Cardinals today. Read the rest of this entry »


World Series Game 6 Chat

8:06
Tony Wolfe: Get your snacks and drinks in order, everyone. We have our first elimination game of the 2020 World Series.

8:06
Lzfreak: I am simultaneously excited for this game and sad that it might be our last of the year

8:06
mort jelly: lets go

8:06
Kiermaier’s Piercing Green Eyes: Tuesdays are for the Chois. I hope.

8:06
Dodger Fan: Ohmygodohmygodohmgodohmygod

8:06
Guest: I am genuinely not ready for this

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World Series Game 5 Chat

8:02
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Good evening!

8:02
DJ Kitty: Jeff Passan noted Game 4 was among wildest World Series games he’s covered–with a “no (effin’) way” finish–also singling out Game 6, 2011 and Game 7, 2016.

Last night’s game was the only 9 inning game in that short list… can we quantify whether that was indeed the craziest 9 inning WS game?

8:03
Avatar Dan Szymborski: I actually have something on this for the morning.

8:03
CJ: I’m already dreading this series for Kershaw and Dodgers. Instead of reversing the ‘narratives’, game 4 ended up enforcing all of them. Now they have to rely on Kershaw to be super human – again – to reverse the tide and pitch until his arm falls off.

8:03
Avatar Dan Szymborski: Every playoff series has an awkward narrative.

8:03
Dodger Fan: I have no memory of last night. Please, no one tell me what I missed.

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