Author Archive

FanGraphs Audio: Patrick Dubuque, Baseball Philosopher King

Episode 851

Baseball Prospectus’ Director of Editorial Content, and newly minted SABR Award Finalist, Patrick Dubuque joins the program to discuss ethics in baseball transaction journalism, what we might and ought to expect from baseball ownership, and various ills plaguing today’s game. We also share a few editorial pet peeves. Oh, editor talk.

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

You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or other feeder things.

Audio after the jump. (Approximate 1 hour play time.)

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A Brief Note on Edgar Martinez, Hall of Famer

Edgar Martinez sits at the center of my first really clear baseball memory. I have others, hazier ones, with moments that snap into more specific relief. I remember walking up the ramps of the Kingdome. I remember the brief moment of chill you’d experience when you entered its concrete chasm, separated suddenly from Seattle’s July warmth. I remember baseball guys doing baseball things, but which guys and what things are lost. Liking baseball, loving it, has persisted, but I don’t remember specific home runs any more than particular days of kindergarten, even though I still know how to read.

I have a hard time sussing out what of the rest of Game 5 of the 1995 ALDS is real memory and what is the result of having rewatched it, over and over and over, when I was in need of a good thing to hold on to. I do not feel confident that my impressions of Randy Johnson in relief, entering as he did to “Welcome to the Jungle,” are borne of the moment; nine-year-old me would not know to smirk at how much of his warmup was broadcast, would not have thought the hairstyles of those in the crowd funny. That’s what hair looked like in 1995.

But The Double is there. The Double I know. The Double I remember back through the years and into the corners of my living room. I recall the moment before the pitch was delivered. I remember my step-mom nervously fidgeting with the stakes of the moment and the gnawing concern about how long the game might go, how close to bedtime it would stretch. I remember yipping for joy, in that high-pitched way that kids have, annoying but pure. I remember, even if I didn’t yet quite have the vocabulary to talk about obsession and yearning, thinking, “Oh, I have to do this again.” I remember believing that Edgar Martinez was great. (I do not recall a single pitch of the Mariners loss to the Indians in the ALCS. Sometimes our memories spare us.)

I think much of baseball’s fastidious statistical chronicling is attributable to a native curiosity, a desire to be able to answer how this thing over here relates to that thing over there, even when the this and that are separated by generations. But I think a not-small part of our motivation to catalogue lies in an anxiety over the state of our own memories, whether we’re still sharp. We don’t just seek to make sure the deserving are immortalized; we seek to trust our own mortal lives, to know that we know things as they were. That we are reliable narrators. That the moments around which I built my fandom and my professional life, the root of this thing I sometimes recall more carefully than the details of my own biography, is as I thought it to be. That something so foundational need not be met with the same disquieting sensation I experience when I can recall what the third reliever on the Reds’ depth chart looks like, but for a moment, can’t muster up his name.

Edgar Martinez was a Hall of Famer, only for a long time he wasn’t one. And you start to wonder in those moments, despite knowing so many who agree with you, whether we haven’t all gotten it wrong, whether we aren’t a little less smart than we thought. Whether he was great.

And so I think it helps us to feel complete when we are affirmed in this way. We feel our memories and lives rich with detail, our mental pictures not only accurately rendered but placed in their proper context. Perhaps it takes me a beat longer than it used to to recall a player’s name from 1995, but this thing I know. I used to, as a very young person, think that Dan Wilson was a Hall of Famer. I was tiny and dumb and enamored with catchers, and there he was, our catcher and so the best catcher. But he was not the best. To Cooperstown he could only credibly go as a visitor, a witness to his friends’ greatness. I didn’t know what it meant to be great in any sort of a rigorous way back then; good childhoods aren’t often marked by an excess of rigor. I didn’t know. Except maybe on occasion I did.

After all, Edgar Martinez is a Hall of Famer, just like I remember him.


Meg Rowley FanGraphs Chat – 1/22/19

2:01
Meg Rowley: Dear readers, a moment. I have to sort out a small editorial matter and then will be right with you.

2:01
Meg Rowley: Appreciate your patience.

2:03
Meg Rowley: Hello, and welcome to the chat.

2:03
Lunar verLander: Do you think there will be another free agent spring training camp like there was last year?

2:04
Meg Rowley: I wouldn’t be surprised, although I don’t have a great beat on how effective players thought that was last year, and of course it all depends on the timing of signings.

2:05
Meg Rowley: Players are understandably agitated about this winter not course correcting last year. They are increasingly vocal about their objections.

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FanGraphs Audio: Craig Edwards Notes Several Coincidences

Episode 850

FanGraphs writer Craig Edwards joins the program to discuss this offseason’s chilly free agent market, what Yasmani Grandal’s deal may signal about the state of labor going forward, the decoupling of winning and profit in baseball, and what (apart from a strike) we might write about in the event of a labor stoppage.

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

You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or other feeder things.

Audio after the jump. (Approximate 47 min play time.)

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Meg Rowley FanGraphs Chat – 1/15/18

2:01
Meg Rowley: Hello everyone, and welcome to the chat!

2:01
Meg Rowley: Apologies for the slight delay in getting started– I had to check in with some writing sorts.

2:01
Damian: Where do you think the big market teams will be once rising sea levels makes our major coastal cities uninhabitable?

2:02
Meg Rowley: What a happy, happy chat.

2:03
Meg Rowley: The answer here seems like Chicago, Denver, Seattle and St. Louis, (some of those obviously being quite large already) and also that we should take climate reports more seriously.

2:03
Jack : Would you prefer Harper or Machado for the same money/years?

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Meg Rowley FanGraphs Chat – 1/8/19

2:00
Meg Rowley: Hello everyone, and welcome to my first chat of 2019.

2:00
Meg Rowley: Happy New Year to all!

2:00
Jim: What will the White Sox get from Boston for Kelvin Herrera in 2 weeks?

2:01
Meg Rowley: I don’t think it’ll be that quick of a move, but barring a bevy of other signings, I wouldn’t expect him to be in a White Sox uniform come the end of July if he’s at all decent.

2:01
Meg Rowley: (prepares to see immediate trade news break)

2:01
Wade: Hi Meg, can something please happen

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FanGraphs Audio: Jay Jaffe Does Exactly Three Swears

Episode 849

With the January 22 announcement of Cooperstown’s newest class around the corner, Senior Writer and Hall of Fame expert Jay Jaffe graces the program to discuss the latest HOF voting trends, the shifting standards for starting pitchers, and what we’d ideally like the institution to be. Be sure to check out all of Jay’s excellent HOF coverage for FanGraphs dot com here. And do not fret– Jay’s swears have been rendered safe for both work and any children who may be within earshot.

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

You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or other feeder things.

Audio after the jump. (Approximate 51 min play time.)

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FanGraphs Audio: Jeff Sullivan Learns About the Rodeo

Episode 848

Jeff Sullivan returns to FanGraphs Audio to reflect on the time spent he and the rest of the FanGraphs staff spent in Las Vegas for the Winter Meetings, discuss a few of the trades and signings that went on there, and also learn just how it is that rodeo cowboys get bulls to buck when they ride them. The answer will disturb you.

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

You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or other feeder things.

Audio after the jump. (Approximate 1 hr 4 min play time.)

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Meg Rowley FanGraphs Chat – 12/18/18

2:00
Meg Rowley: Hello all!

2:00
Meg Rowley: And welcome to the chat. It is very nice to be back here with you after our jaunt to Vegas.

2:01
Dann: Why would anyone, let alone a contender like the Cubs, invest 2 years and $5m into Daniel Descalso, who can’t play shortstop, when Ian Happ and David Bote each offer basically the same flexibility with considerably more upside at less cost?

2:01
Meg Rowley: Because he’s made some adjustments that make him much more interesting, everyone needs a bench, and it isn’t very much money.

2:02
2:02
pelkey: Since you’re a Vegas expert now, what would you say the odds are haniger gets traded?

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FanGraphs Audio: Eric Longenhagen Briefly Considers Yoko Ono

Episode 847

Lead prospect analyst Eric Longenhagen makes his triumphant return to FanGraphs Audio to discuss the offseason’s early action, including a bevy of Mariners deals, the Cardinals trade for Paul Goldschmidt, and the signing of Nathan Eovaldi. We then turn our attention to such varied topics as former University of Washington quarterback Jake Locker, the potential banning of the shift, and what we think the rest of the winter might hold.

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

You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or other feeder things.

Audio after the jump. (Approximate 1 hr 2 min play time.)

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