Dan Szymborski FanGraphs Chat – 4/8/19

Dan Szymborski: Oh god, I’m here exactly at the time I intend to be here. IT IS TIME TO PANIC

Marvin Shabazz: What’s with this whole baseball thing?

Dan Szymborski: Smack hard balls with hard sticks, but not in a homoerotic fashion.

CamdenWarehouse: What would happen if Trevor Rosenthal were to face Chris Davis right now?

Gub Gub: It’s Rex Manning Day.  What are you going to do about it?

Dan Szymborski: First question: Baseball would lock up and blue screen of death and we’d have to start 2019 over again.

Dan Szymborski: Second, I will wait for autographs.

bolden bate bridge: Trout is hitting .393 with a .286 babip. Is the rapture upon us?

Dan Szymborski: Even luck can’t stop him. Mike Trout is the Scarlet Witch’s arch-nemesis.

It’s April: IT IS APRIL

Dan Szymborski: It is. FOR WEEKS

Chris: Verdusco, Clint Frazier, Tucker, is this the new normal for outfield prospects? Santana faced it last year before his trade to the mariners, and now it looks like the mariners will have a few prospects namely Kyle Lewis in the same position of being mlb ready with no hope of playing time. Thoughts?

Dan Szymborski: I think what it comes down to, especially for Tucker, is the team rather get an age 28 season than an age 22 season.

Dan Szymborski: Frazier, there has been other issues.

Davy: Do you know where and when open tryouts for the Nationals bullpen will be held? I have an arm, so I feel like I’ve got a shot.

James: I know this is a cliche of these chats, but how great is the talent differential between the Orioles and the Round Rock Express? I feel like a 25 man roster drawn from between those 2 teams would have at least 10 from the minor league team. Forrest Whitley would definitely be the opening day starter.

Dan Szymborski: Where AAA teams fail is their second-tier talent. A bad AAA player is *really* terrible, even worse than most Orioles.

laxtonto: Why are there stars in the sky?

Dan Szymborski: Because we burn trash.

Dan Szymborski:

chewbacca: would you rather have christian walker or yandy diaz for your corner infield slot?

Dan Szymborski: Yandy is dandy.

Dan Szymborski: Walker is BALKER and he’s not even a pitcher.

Gub Gub: What ever happened to that Michael Jordan guy the White Sox had a few years ago?

Dan Szymborski: He got a front office gig and drafted Kwame Brown

billsaints: I scanned Fernando Rodney’s career page this weekend. What a survivor! He needs a nice big piece written about him!

Dan Szymborski: His career’s been resurrected more than Kenny

Dan Szymborski:

Jules Bonnot: Could the Brewers’ rotation be underrated? Their pitching staff currently has a 107 ERA- (22nd), a 100 FIP- (16th), and a 84 xFIP- (4th!). Where’s the truth?

Dan Szymborski: It’s possible. ZiPS at least liked the Brewers rotation more than most

Ichiro for CEO: Can’t decide if Chris Davis 0-44 is worse than Trevor Rosenthal’s lack of any outs recorded in 5 appearances. Only solution is to pit them against each other for 9 innings.

Dan Szymborski: I have more hope for Rosenthal being able to play baseball at some point

laxtonto: When looking at classic DOE, when sitting with 4 factors should use fractional factorial of Plackett-Burnman?

Dan Szymborski: Get your dirty matrices out of here.

Phil: Is the Chris Davis contract the worst of all time?

Dan Szymborski: The Pujols fail portion of his contract is larger than Davis’s entire deal

Gub Gub: Can The Twins please sign Bartolo Colon?  I really want to see a mound visit between Colon and Willians Astudillo where they belly bump before going back to their postitons

Dan Szymborski: I can endorse this

Bo: Any idea how long until a team’s page on FanGraphs will default to the 2019 season instead of 2018?

Dan Szymborski: No. I’m sure there’s some big red button at Dave’s place

Eel Ffilc: Favorite part of Mania?

Dan Szymborski: The ending of Batista/HHH. Not because of the ending itself but because it meant I no longer had to watch any more of it.

Sam: Dansby Swanson’s breakout. Real or not?

Dan Szymborski: I’m cautiously optimistic, though I already was. Remember: Apri

Dan Szymborski: l

Demands!: Make a typo. NOW!

Dan Szymborski: I saved that for when I made a typo

LFC Mike: A good Monday to you Daniel. Hope you are fresh after a night of Wrestlemania viewing. Very interesting article today on Sporting News on the 34,294 missed strike/ball calls from umpires in 2018. Great stats and tidbits in this article. Even names the 5 best and worst umpires when it comes to calling balls/strikes.   A very nice start to the season for your man crush Mackenzie Gore.

Joe West: Hey Zimberski  …you can take that Sporting News article and shove it up your  Sky Line Chili Bowl. I am not the worst umpire in the league… I am second worst …So There!      A reminder that you can buy my two CDs Blue Cowboy and Diamond Dreams at all truck stops and flea markets across America.

Dan Szymborski: I have images for most situations.

Dan Szymborski:

BenZ: Can we take a moment to appreciate that while Mike Trout and Cody Bellinger are both at 1.2 WAR 10 games into the season, Bellinger has a .419 BABIP and Mike Trout only has a .286 BABIP. If he was closer to his career .353 BABIP, I guess he wouldn’t have “only” a 315 wRC+.

Acunami : How many wins is a manager like Kevin Cash worth over a tradition-bound guy like Brian Snitker?

Dan Szymborski: Honestly, I’m not sure you can quantify it, outside of the concrete playing Y player over Z

hscer: all hail future president Szymborski

Dan Szymborski: Trust me, you do not want this.

Nick: How do you see Josh Bell’s bat playing out the rest of the year

Dan Szymborski: Worse.

RJ: Has Ian Desmond resorted to taking out his competition for playing time?

Dan Szymborski: It would be kind of cruel for the Rockies to expect Desmond to play well, considering that him being terrible never bothered them before.

Dan Szymborski:

The Hanser the Better: Tell Jay Jaffe (if that really is his name) to stop his libel against Chris Davis. Crush is clearly just playing possum to break the longest hitless streak ever so it’s even more impressive when he breaks the single season HR record later this year!

Dan Szymborski: If it’s a plan, he gets some kind of best plan ever award

Los: I was driving home (Chicago) from the airport this morning at 3am and I see a billboard for the cubs that says Grit, Hustle, Focus, October. This got me thinking of that stupid Mets spring training poster. My question is, why do teams marketing department focus on these things instead of talent?
I can get the 25 most hustling, grittiest, focused people on the planet and they would suck at baseball. Is this a way for the owners to subconsciously manipulate the fan bases into thinking it is the players fault if they don’t win instead of management not putting the right team on the field?

Dan Szymborski: The larger annoyance is that grit, hustle, focus seem to be adjectives given to crappy white guys.

TB Tony: Is Tyler Glasnow more than a streamer? Should I hold onto him for the season? Also, same question for Shoenaker? Thanks. I love you!

Dan Szymborski: It’s early, but his command has been much improved and that’s always been the bugaboo

Nihilist Duda: Would a players strike or a lock out change service time for players under team control? Thinking the Padres vis a vis Tatis Jr.

Dan Szymborski: I would guess that it depends?

Dan Szymborski: I believe but am not 100% sure that players got service time for the strike since the games weren’t scheduled

Dan Szymborski: Like Gregg Jefferies wouldn’t have enough service time to be FA if he didn’t get 1994 time

Dan Szymborski: I’ve actually never thought of it before

Sand in my crotch: I’m working on Block Island this summer. Have you ever been?

Dan Szymborski: No

BillClinton: Could the Pirates actually be a little bit better than last year even though they did nothing this offseason again? Seems like a reward for bad behavior for that FO but—as a fan—I guess I’d take it.

Dan Szymborski: I think it’s more an ownership problem

The Hanser the Better: Dan Straily looked a little rusty during his first Orioles appearance. Would you rather have him to trade mid-season or the rule 5 ss they cut to make room?

Dan Szymborski: I’d rather have Jackson

Dan Szymborski: but I might be willing to cut someone else for STraily

Dan Szymborski: not to trade, because nobody ought to want Straily

Dan Szymborski: but to make sure that relievers don’t die

My chili: Has beans! Suck it weird last name guy!

Jeff: Dan, news today that Senzel is up and running.  Once he’s back in minor league games, how long realistically do you think he will need to be ready to come up and play CF with confidence?

Dan Szymborski: I think a month

Jeff: Thoughts on Tatis’ start thus far?  About what should have been expected?

Dan Szymborski: I think so. He’s still a 20-year-old that skipped AAA

Leon: What do you make of the Yandy Diaz lead off thing the Rays are doing?

Dan Szymborski: He *did* have a .360 OBP coming into the year in limited MLB time and over .400 at AAA.

Dan Szymborski: The larger question is why the Indians seemed so uninterested in him

John in VT: I call my smelliest farts Szymborskis.

Mean Gene: Mania main event: You think the finish was botched? Also: What can we expect from Kofi ROS?

bosoxforlife: Looks like MLB added a little more rocket fuel to their Titleists this year. If you can get it in the air then start your Cadillac.

Dan Szymborski: Looked that way. Kofi’s probably not going to be in the singles mix for too long I imagine

Dan Szymborski: Unless they drastically change how they book him

Joe: You get 1000 swings against Scherzer. Chris Davis gets 10. Do you make more contact than he does?

Dan Szymborski: Yes

Mooseknucklecurve : Yandy Diaz, Ketel Marte, Tim Beckham breaking out?

Dan Szymborski: Maybe-plu, maybe, meh.

Lilito: How many packs are you opening tomorrow and what deck do you want to play first?

Dan Szymborski: I’ve got 130 from preorders and 80 worth of gold, so at least that many. I have 12K dust, so I might top out the set with this amount.

RJ: Wait, why is the chat starting on time?

Dan Szymborski: I won’t let it happen again

LFC Mike: Dan..interesting piece you wrote on the Toronto/San Francisco trade last week. Dare I say one other reason San Francisco made the trade was because they needed a player to become the Pillar of the community. Banish me if you will but it was worth it.

Dan Szymborski: Banish you? You’re going to prison.

Bo: Which in your opinion has a greater impact over the course of a season… In-game tactical decisions by a manager or non-trade/FA signing decisions by a GM (call-ups, etc)?

Dan Szymborski: The larger decisions, easily.

tb.25: What is Mike Trout’s secret chili recipe?? Clearly it works

Dan Szymborski:

Dan Szymborski: Donkey sauce.

Nick Senzel: Barring any more injuries, am I going to have regular playing time once I’m called up with multi-position eligibility (2B/3B/OF)?

Dan Szymborski: It appears likely.

Laxtonto : Why did my internet go down in the middle of recording a video lecture? Why Dan? Why!!!!!!

Dan Szymborski: Dan is not your ISP

Jeff: Considering the Astros position and the way they’ve handled Tucker, does that make him potential trade bait this season?  Seems like they are a bit down on him these days…

Dan Szymborski: I don’t think they’re down on him.

jason: zips only has gary projected to play around 100 games, with a full season do you think he is like a true talent 45 hr guy like judge and stanton?

Dan Szymborski: That’s a bit aggressive to me.

Fandom City: Is there any hope for Jesse Winker once Nick Senzel comes back to CIN?

Dan Szymborski: I sure hope so. I’m not completely confident in the Reds decision-making, though not quite as sour as the Rockies

Laxtonto : Who is your favorite AAAA player of all time?

Dan Szymborski: Roberto Petagine.

Dan Szymborski: Though he’d have a career today

Jong-Hoon: Eloy Jimenez looks totally lost at the plate. Projections show him having a great rookie season, despite most rookies struggling to adjust to ML pitching. Should the projections have been more conservative for Eloy?

Dan Szymborski: Projections are generally conservative already

CamdenWarehouse: If you were talking (or writing) about Ronald Acuña Jr., would you refer to him as Acuña or Acuña Jr.?

Dan Szymborski: I tend to leave off Jr.

Morbo: Any suggestions for someone suffering from writers block, asking for a friend?

Dan Szymborski: Stretch yourself and write someone on a subject you’d never even consider, if it’s only for yourself

v2micca: My biggest take away from Jay Jaffe’s article today is that Chris Davis already has an intentional walk on the season.  I’m still trying to wrap my head around the logic of deciding that anyone else is the guy you want to go after in Baltimore’s Line-up.

Dan Szymborski: Mercy walking

Reid: Thinking of Chris Davis, what annual salary would you accept to be publicly known as the absolute worst in your chosen profession?

Dan Szymborski: Well, I’m already accepting it now, so I guess somewhat less?

CamdenWarehouse: Pujols at least has racked up some WAR over his contract

Balked: What is the most money a team decided to absorb just to cut a failing player (e.g. if the Orioles decided to waive Chris Davis at the end of this season)?

Dan Szymborski: The NPV of Davis’s contract was like $126 million at the time he was signed. This isn’t like Sutter; the O’s got that money deferred *without interest*

Dan Szymborski: Pujols has been worse than that.

Dan Szymborski: I rather lose $50 than get $5 back of $100.

GSon: Who is this Carlos Santana guy that hits in April?..

Dan Szymborski: Maybe he swapped with other Carlos Santana

Frank: How many times a week are asked how to pronounce your last name?

Dan Szymborski: Usually depends how many radio shows I do that I haven’t done in the past

Dan Szymborski: usually 2-3

Laxtonto : At what point do you mentally accept a player is not going to make it? Analytically you can pick a fair safe threshold, but mentally people want to give some players the benefit of the doubt but not others… Why oh great sage?

Dan Szymborski: I generally give up for good at 30

Dan Szymborski: Up until then, I think they should be given every chance to succeed, even if it’s only as a role player

Dan Szymborski: once you get into decline phase, it’s harder to justify

Adam: What do you think is the shortest degree of separation from a player playing today to Babe Ruth?

Dan Szymborski: Julio Franco was born in 1892, I think, so probably hoim

Dan Szymborski: More seriously, it might be Colon.

Dan Szymborski: I believe the key to getting degress of separation down is 1980 White Sox

Dan Szymborski: because of Minnie Minoso

Dan Szymborski: Minoso played with Joe Gordon and Gordon gives you a clean path to Ruth through a lot of late 30s Yankees

Dan Szymborski: And Bartolo played with Baines who was on the 1980 White Sox

AP: Which team do you think os in for a longer rebuild? Marlins or Orioles?

Dan Szymborski: Orioles based on the talent the teams currently have

Dan Szymborski: But I think the Orioles are likely better run

Laxtonto : At what point is Choo a legitimate trade possibility to Cle? He’s bad in the OF but, come on Tribe don’t do this to yourself running that OF every day…

Dan Szymborski: THe Indians didn’t care about the OF before, not sure why they sould now

Matt: Don’t blame me, I voted for Szymboskodos

Brood550: What is your stance on Boras’ rant about “snuff contracts?

Dan Szymborski: It’s nonsense, but Boras isn’t an analyst. His job is to be an advocate for his cleints

R: Dan, i wanted to let you know my fiance and i made chili with ground beef, ground turkey, and sweet potato.  it was delicious

Dan Szymborski: meat stew you mean

Ben Dover: Hey Dan would Fangraphs consider adding a rookie filter in then projections tab similar to the leaderboard tab?

Dan Szymborski: Interesting idea, I can bring it up

darrenasu: Regarding Tatis…if you are even holding your own in ML’s at 20 it is highly probably you are a star no?

Dan Szymborski: Usually

Iggy Pop’s Raw Power: Why are there peas in my fried rice?

Dan Szymborski: The Chinese place I always go to when I’m in Baltimore, China Moon, still recognizes my voice and knows to not use any peas.

Nate: Do you listen to sports radio at all? What’s your general involvement with typical sports media ie websites, newspapers, radio?

Dan Szymborski: I listen when I’m in the car, but mostly listen to music

Dan Szymborski: I’m *on* a lot of sports radio

Gub Gub: What do you read on the toilet?

Dan Szymborski: I have a bathroom laptop

Snid: The Earths rotation paused as I dumped all my Miami pitchers.

Laxtonto : Can you explain quantum entanglement theory to me?

Dan Szymborski: Spin-related, no? When you have a clump of ’em?

Zwak: Without including cash, who would the Orioles have to add to a Chris Davis trade to find a taker?

Dan Szymborski: I’m not sure if they could

CamdenWarehouse: Have you considered the possibility that Carson entertains himself by signing up for things with your email?

Dan Szymborski: Not evil enough

Rick: The Reds’ start actually seems pretty encouraging to me.  Sure, their offense has been abysmal, but that’s attributable to a .208 BABIP.  Their rotation, meanwhile, is showing a massive improvement over last year, ranking fifth in baseball in FIP-.  Is this too optimistic of an assessment?

Dan Szymborski: I have a piece about to go up. I’m less optimistic

Dan Szymborski: The hole is serious

Junior Soprano: Maybe this is a question for Jaffe, but any idea why it took Jimmie Foxx 7 years to make the HoF?

Dan Szymborski: That one I can answer!

Dan Szymborski: They didn’t do Hall of Fame inductions for a few years during WWII

Dan Szymborski: I don’t believe they did one in 43 and 44

Szymbo Slice: Your images are not posting btw…

Dan Szymborski: No? Not sure problem.

resumeman: Do you play Paradox games? If so do you plan on getting the upcoming Imperator Rome?

Dan Szymborski: I do. Probably at some point, a lot is in the hopper

CamdenWarehouse: Colon is not playing this year 🙁

Dan Szymborski: Still a chacne!

Matt: Is it possible that the Indians didn’t like Diaz because he was the cause of an increase in uniform expenses because he biceps kept bursting out of jerseys?

Zwak: Favorite heckle you witnessed at a ballgame?

Dan Szymborski: I once saw someone yelling at Mark Quinn something to the effect “I don’t know who you are, but you probably suck!”

AP – Juan: Carlos Rodon today, sneaky good game today vs tampa?

Dan Szymborski: I’m a longtime Rodon fan. I think he’ll be fine if he stays healthy

Ian: How many of the ?s in the queue are just silly/nonsensical?

Dan Szymborski: A LOT

Dan Szymborski: I can never answer more than like 15% of the Qs

Kurupt FM: Likelihood of playoff expansion in the next 5-10 years? Personally I feel as if it’d solve a lot of problems in the free agent market and make for more entertaining regular season.

Dan Szymborski: Probably fairly low. The markets available, unless they’re going to intrude on owners current markets, aren’t that exciting and probably more useful as extortion for stadiums.

Dan Szymborski: Though I don’t want expansion for the reason that we’ll probably end up with eight four-team divisions

Jay: RsBI or RBIs? Breaking the wrists or barrel past home plate? Is a hot dog a sandwich?

Dan Szymborski: RBIs, it’s a plural of an abbreviation. Judgment, no.

Takao: Saw your thread about video games on twitter… favorite games of the past five years?

Dan Szymborski: Man, I was going to say Crusader Kings II, but that’s a seven-year-old game now

Dan Szymborski: Hearthstone has to be up there considering how much I play it. Stellaris, Cities Skylines

Dan Szymborski: Bioshock Infinite

Dan Szymborski: Witcher 3

Nate : What stations do you appear on? I’m surprised because most sports radio shows wouldn’t appear to adhere to Fangraph’s principles.

Dan Szymborski: All over, though I tend to do St. Louis area radio the most, I think

Dan Szymborski: I do 105.7 in Baltimore frequently

Dan Szymborski: I’m on Orange County AM 830 with Rodger Lodge fairly regularly

Dan Szymborski: And on Canada Laughs/Canada Talks on SiriusXM with Todd Shapiro

Matt: Dan, you should get Joe Rogan to let you on his podcast.

Dan Szymborski: I think I need to move up a tier

Nate : Is your chat the most popular among all the Fangraphs peeps?

Dan Szymborski: I don’t know. Shame on you guys if it is, because I’m terrible.

David: How do the Mariners solve the roster crunch with Vogelbach, Bruce, and Encarnacion?

Dan Szymborski: Pretending Vogelbach doesn’t exist and hoping it just works out

Joe: The Indians are 6-3 with a sub AAA lineup. What do you make of this team?

Dan Szymborski: The AL Central is bad.

Borksadork: Why is it that you can only answer 15% of questions?  Are they that bad or do you lack the capacity?

Dan Szymborski: If I try to answer a higher percentage, it’ll get to 1 PM and I’ll only be up to like 12:20

Diamond Cutter: Perpetually World of Warcraft is the right answer

Dan Szymborski: That’s not a new game!

kevinthecomic: Not sure if you caught it, but ESPN mentioned on Sunday Night Baseball that Desmond’s GB% since he joined the Rockies has been 62%.  Woof!

Nate : Does Eno do a chat anywhere now?

Dan Szymborski: He’s done a few for the athletic hasn’t he?

Me Grow Ley: does a HR count towards BABIP?

Dan Szymborski: No

AP: What’s your stance on those who root for a NL and an AL team?

Dan Szymborski: Root for who you want!

Big Joe Mufferaw: Why is Angel Hernandez still a MLB umpire?

Dan Szymborski: Inertia

LFC Mike: Current baseball player you think would make a great wrestler?..Chris Davis is not the answer because he can’t hit anything.

Dan Szymborski: PUIG

Dan Szymborski: I want Puig in New Day so badly

Ethan HUnt: Is Puig a clubhouse cancer that has infected the Reds?

Dan Szymborski: No

Guest: Best Heckle: Double A game in 2008 San Antonio Missions vs Northwest Arkansas Naturals (dollar beer night!). About the third inning my friend shouted “Hey Right Field. How’s it feel to know the highest you can go is the Kansas City Royaaaaals!?”. The guy turned around to look who said it while cracking up at that one.

Dan Szymborski: I’m ashamed to admit that in my youthful days, I shouted “Johnny Nepotism” at Jonathan Schuerholz

Matt: Cancer isn’t an infection, Ethan.

Dan Szymborski: Some are believe to have that as a source

Dan Szymborski: I think

AP: Will there ever be a FanGraphs staff baseball game? If so, what position would you be drafted in?

Dan Szymborski: Manager?

Dan Szymborski: I may have played through my teenage years, but I’m outta shape

Dan Szymborski: On that note, it is time for me to depart, in such sweet, yet temporary sorrow.