Jeff Sullivan: Let’s baseball chat!

Jeff Sullivan: On today’s menu: baseball, of the real kind!

Jeff Sullivan: Is there even still fantasy baseball at this point in the season?

Jeff Sullivan: I might never know!

Comment From Sam
Since Marcus Stroman has developed his new sinker and is getting an impressive amount of groundballs is he a legit number 2 starter?

Jeff Sullivan: There’s the usual stuff about having to prove yourself for longer before you can be a legit anything, but I remember being surprised when I found that Stroman’s breaking ball compares well to that of Jose Fernandez/Yu Darvish/Corey Kluber. So that made me particularly curious, and while Stroman doesn’t throw that pitch very much, I like his overall profile quite a bit. Remember the height questions? I always hate the height questions.

Dan Szymborski: Firing this up a little early, but it doesn’t “really” start until noon. Need a little time to set up an experiment. No presidents today as a result.

Dan Szymborski: OK, let’s get ready to rock. As an experiment this week, I’m streaming this on twitch.tv as well, with voice and music (and you can ask questions there too)

Dan Szymborski: Twitch.tv/zimsmash

Comment From CuriousGeorge
“In FanGraphs’ version of WAR, a home run-robbing catch with two outs in the ninth inning of a one-run game counts the exact same as a catch 5 feet in front of the fence in the fifth inning of a game in which the outfielder’s team trails 11-0.” that is from the jeff passan article that is putting down war. what are you thoughts on that statement?

Dan Szymborski: Jeff makes some good points (as does Ol’ Dave) but I think that situational stuff in this way doesn’t enhance WAR, it simply adds a bunch of team information into a player stat.

Dan Szymborski: Now, if we had a reason to think that players at the MLB level had significantly different abilities in this situation that would be different, but we don’t

Nicholas Minnix: Hello, folks, sorry for the delay, but ready to roll!

Comment From Guest
Brandon Finnegan upside ROS?

Nicholas Minnix: I like the player, in fantasy leagues, unless it’s a holds league, there doesn’t seem to be much value beyond a little chipping away at ERA and WHIP, some extra K’s (which he can produce, surely). He won’t get a start, surely.

Comment From Kevin Towers
$@#$!! $@#$!! wusses @#$@#$! %$@#%ing #$@#!!!!!!

Nicholas Minnix: Haha, you seem to have captured that well.

Comment From Bluesox
What do you think is the source of the current slump in Oakland?

SublimeVEVO:

Eno Sarris: see you in ten

Comment From Ryan
Are you drunk…like right now?

Eno Sarris: Haha 9am West Coast time. I’m a derelict, but not that much of one.

Comment From Bobby Blownilla
Just lost Starlin for the year. In first place and HR/RBI most needed categories. Replace him with Alicedes, Mercer, or B. Crawford? All are on roster and fairly interchangeable. Not much else on wire. thanks!

Eno Sarris: If you have them all on the roster, play Mercer against lefties, Alcides the rest of the time and drop Crawford lol.

Neil Weinberg: Hey all, happy Wednesday. I’ll be here at 3pm to chat about baseball and baseball stats. This means questions about sabermetrics, our data, and related FG-centered concepts are strongly encouraged.

Other things are welcome too, but as usual, I’m not good at fantasy and prospect stuff, so ask at your own risk.

I’m @NeilWeinberg44 on Twitter, so follow me there and ask me questions at other times too. I’ll hang til 4pm for sure, and until 5pm if you ask lots of questions.

Comment From Hunter
How do you think teams like the A’s quantify chemistry? How much of an impact do you think it has in wins?

Neil Weinberg: I don’t know. I’ve heard all sorts of ideas. I’m not really sure how to go about doing it. I think it probably makes a difference, maybe something like 0-5 wins per season? But we’re talking about all of those wins spread across 25+ players. I would imagine players do better when they are happy and good chemistry makes them happy. How to measure that? No idea. I won’t even pretend to suggest we could do it from the outside in any way

Comment From A Concerned Reader
Where’s Dave? Is he okay?

Neil Weinberg: Dave’s on vacation!

Neil Weinberg: Which is good for Dave and will finally give me a chance to get more chat views than he does! Although Kiley probably crushed me.

Kiley McDaniel: So this is my first FG chat and I have nothing snappy to say at the beginning. Everyone lower your expectations accordingly.

Comment From Bret
Hey Kiley – do the Jays have anything in Kendall Graveman?

Kiley McDaniel: Eh, kinda. I saw him about a month ago for Dunedin and he was 88-92, touch 93 with plus life, above average changeup with no usable breaking ball, but some feel and an okay cutter. A swing guy/spot start type for now but was never supposed to be this good.

Comment From Ringtone Composer
Welcom, Kiley! What’s your specialty?

Kiley McDaniel: Off color jokes that I never publish on the internet, rap references and really dry scouting reports!

Comment From The Oriole Bird
who was your favorite player you ever scouted?

Paul Swydan: Hi everybody!

Paul Swydan: I’ll be here at 9 pm ET to chat. There are some fun polls already up. See you soon!

Paul Swydan: Hi guys, how’s everyone doing tonight?

I think I’m flying solo tonight, so let’s get to it!

Comment From Ryan
So if Verlander has a bad outing tomorrow, which headline do you like more: “Indians Expose Verlander” or “Junk Baller: Verlander Looks Poor on the Mound, Too”?

Paul Swydan: Expose is probably the only one of the two that would actually fly, and even that is iffy.

Paul Swydan: But you’re thinking. I like that.

Jeff Sullivan: here is a video of a volcano https://www.youtube.com/wat…

Jeff Sullivan: Let’s chat about baseball! Let’s not chat about fantasy baseball.

Jeff Sullivan: As a word of warning, I was completely out of touch over the weekend, so good luck getting an insightful answer on anything that’s happened extremely recently. One can catch up only so much

Comment From Alex
Favorites from the NL, AL?

Jeff Sullivan: A’s and Nationals

Jeff Sullivan: Still think of the A’s as the best team in the AL, but now I highly doubt they’re catching the Angels in the division, so that makes things complicated

Nicholas Minnix: Hello, folks! Hope you’re doing well. I’ll be with you at the top of the hour.

Comment From Tom
Votto droppable in an eight-team league?

Nicholas Minnix: Yes. But you waited this long! 😀

Comment From Vic
Does Syndergaard deserve some Sept starts?

Nicholas Minnix: Deserve is a heavy word. Don’t think it’d hurt to give him one or two.

Comment From Guest
You ok with starting Peavey and Lackey this weekend?

Eno Sarris: I’ll be here a the top of the hour

grahambop:

Comment From John Stamos
SWING

Eno Sarris: well maybe around 40% of the time.

Comment From Chad
Do you expect the Cubs to become players for Giancarlo this offseason? Almora, Edwards, McKinney, and a 4th, maybe a lower level arm anywhere close enough for the Marlins to agree?

Eno Sarris: When I tried to put together a package that equaled Stanton’s surplus value last year, it needed to be a top-10, a top-25 and another top 100 or two. I don’t think that satisfies the requirements, but he does have one less (fewer?) year of control.