Archive for Chat

Paul Swydan: Hi everybody! Jeff and I will be here at 9 pm ET, and we promise that we’ll try not to injure any pitchers!! Until then, get your questions in. See you soon!

Jeff Zimmerman: We will try to get started in 10 minutes

Paul Swydan: One sec. Jeff needs a beer.

Comment From Uncle Jesse
Any favorite new/up-and-coming type graphs/data visualizations you’ve seen recently?

Paul Swydan: I haven’t been in touch with the world much in the past week, but I know our data viz is looking up since we brought Sean Dolinar on board. If you guys have things you would point to in this vein, please share!

Comment From Bomok
Who would you prefer in a dynasty league, Dylan Bundy or Andrew Heaney?

Kiley McDaniel: Just texted an exec “this Olivera thing is getting pretty nutty.” He said “totes.”

Comment From Stanatee the Manatee
Can you grade Carson’s fielding in this video? https://instagram.com/p/z8p…

Kiley McDaniel: I was the one hitting grounders to him with one of those really skinny plastic bats, so my bad on the backspin that killed the second one. I believe his skills rate a WTF on the 20-80.

Comment From Vslyke
Your writeup successfully turned me and several other Braves fans off of Hector Olivera. What do the Braves see in him? He seems like a much better fit for a team that is, you know, trying to win now and not in 2017.

Kiley McDaniel: Here’s the thing: he’s a good player and he’s big league ready. I was trying to re-set expectations for some obvious reasons because this thing was spinning out of control. I think he’ll be a 50 FV for at least a few years with some positional flexibility and it everything goes perfectly, he could be a 60 FV. That’s worth $10 million per year for a few years and if he was 27 with no injury history and he was playing in games 6 months ago, then it would be more like $15M per for 5-7 years.

I’d encourage you to root for landing him for under $50 million and for something in the $30s. I think he’s a solid gamble for a mid-market at that price.

Comment From Keith
Any Braves July 2 info? Thanks

Dan Szymborski: Chat has started but I’m still not quite ready

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Comment From James
Zips LOVES Lucas Duda to the point where he’s a late 2nd round player in a 5×5 OBP! Thoughts?

Dan Szymborski: He may be an interesting sleeper in OBP leagues. Haven’t done my fantasy rankings yet

Comment From Power Ranger
Kind of a random question, but who do you trust to have a better season, Pujols or Carlos Santana?

Dan Szymborski: Santana I think still has more upside left.

Jeff Sullivan: Hello friends

Jeff Sullivan: I’m trying to chat from the FanGraphs house in Arizona. It’s loud and distracting and the internet is unreliable, but we’ll do the best we can do and exactly no more than that

Jeff Sullivan: I’ll start actually doing this in just a few minutes after the queue builds up

Comment From Eric
Hey Jeff. Can you help explain: when ZiPS was added to depth charts/projections Jays moved up from 37.5 to 39.4 projected WAR but went down in projected record from 84-78 to 83-79.

Jeff Sullivan: The projections aren’t based on WAR — they’re based on BaseRuns, and that can cause a few differences depending on team interactions. There’s also a bit of random noise, and the likelihood that while it looks like they dropped a win, they dropped a few tenths of a win. It’s not really anything to worry about

Comment From Greg
Which do you prefer, Cactus League or Grapefruit League?

Eno Sarris: Good morning from the FanGraphs house in Phoenix!

{“author”:”Anthony David”}:

Comment From mymaus
Is there anywehre on FG where I can get an export of Steamer projections with PT/IP adjusted by FG staff? It looks like these adjusted stats are only used in team projections. They would be EXTREMELY valuable to download.

Eno Sarris: I maybe mistaken, but I believe all projections not labeled “Steamer 600” are powered by our depth charts.

Comment From Matt
Will Prince Fielder bounce back?

Eno Sarris: I’m optimistic for him this year, but I do think things like this will continue to crop up.

Kiley McDaniel: Insert snappy intro here

Comment From Mike
Gee for Profar, who says no?

Kiley McDaniel: AMERICA

Comment From Jimmer
What are your thoughts on Funkhouser?

Kiley McDaniel: Seen him 5 or 6 times. Without fail, every time he’s been 91-95 t97, 55-60 SL, 50 CH, command flashes 50, solid chance to be #3 starter, but still some feel issues here and there. I’d guess 8-15 in the first round if he keeps this up.

Comment From mtsw
How would you describe your role on the Jason Garcia hype train? Do you drive the train? Did you build the train? Or do you merely ride said train?

Dan Szymborski: CHAT BEGIN NO GO TALK

Dan Szymborski: err CHAT BEING NOW GO TALK

Dan Szymborski: First off, our usual business.

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Dan Szymborski: I’m going to try to keep all the off-topic questions for the lightning round

Kiley McDaniel: Some hiccups with CoverItLive, but think we’re good to go now. Should get an hour in here but leaving soon to see Ian Happ/Maryland draft matchups this afternoon at the PG Complex, then Iowa RHP Blake Hickman jumps in the mix tomorrow.

Comment From hi
hi

Kiley McDaniel: hi

Comment From Jheff
How concerning is Max Pentecost’s shoulder surgery?

Kiley McDaniel: Long-term it shouldn’t be a problem, but in the insta-reactions to every first round pick, he obviously loses a little stock to those types of people

Comment From Colby
A lot of other red sox prospects are getting a ton of press this off season, how do you feel about Michael Kopech?

Eno Sarris: let’s start today off with a bang

{“author”:”jamacaman14″}:

Comment From Jack
How good is soler this year? Better than Cespedes?

Eno Sarris: Yes!

Comment From Jack
Betts or Soler in a keep forever league

Eno Sarris: See I’ve been thinking about this one and don’t know it’s like choosing between my sons. One has the plate discipline down, and .300/15/35 ceiling. The other is Mr. Power, and he has .280/35 type upside. Betts has the higher floor with regard to outcomes, Soler has the higher playing time floor.

Dave Cameron: Happy Wednesday. Let’s talk baseball for an hour or so.

Dave Cameron: The queue is now open, and we’ll start chatting at noon.

Comment From mtsw
Tell us what you think about the ESPN rankings of how “analytical” each pro sports organization is. The MLB rankings seemed to be “29 teams ranked by how often they reveal details of their front office to reporters and the Phillies at the bottom”

Dave Cameron: Ben Baumer, who did the MLB write-ups, isn’t a reporter. He worked for the Mets, and interacted with many of the people he listed. I thought it was pretty well done, and was mostly accurate in reflecting each organization’s efforts to embrace analytics.

Comment From PaKCman
So Ken Tremendous has to do a baseball analytics-themed sitcom next, right?

Dave Cameron: I realize I’ll probably get burned at the stake for this, but I watched one episode of Parks and Rec years ago, didn’t laugh once, and have never watched since.