Dan Szymborski FanGraphs Chat – 5/7/18

Dan Szymborski: DAMMIT ITS MAY NOW

Giants Fan: How bout them Giants?One thing I’ve noticed going on baseball savant is the xwOBA for almost every hitter suggest they’re facing bad luck (even Belt, Posey, Hundley) and if they were to come to the norm they would have arguably best lineup in NL, however the reverse is true with the pitching staff. Could the park and defense be playing a role in this? Or should I still expect their wOBA to move toward the xwOBA over time?

Dan Szymborski: I get similar, though far from the extreme that they’d be the best lineup in the NL.  I have my own method that does take into account park.

Dan Szymborski: Heck, just by runs created, they’re missing half-a-run a game you’d expect.

hscer: Perez, Goldschmidt, Zimmerman, Bruce, Taylor, Yelich, Desmond, Castillo, Weaver, and Jansen: are they conspiring to ruin my fantasy team?

Dan Szymborski: Naturally, yes.

tb.25: Yankees or Red Sox in a best-of-7 series?

Dan Szymborski: Yankees by a hair!

Travis Sawchik: If Nick Markakis makes the all star team, do I have to resign?

Dan Szymborski: BOTH of us?

CamdenWarehouse: Someone needs to tell Jotcast that the chat starts at 2:00 EDT not EST

Dan Szymborski: Having Carson in the wrong time zone is one of our few ways to fight back.

Andy: Rockies currently sitting right in that NLWC race with some sneaky good pitching despite some awful hitting.  Assuming the hitting picks up, you see them making a run for the WC2 spot?

Dan Szymborski: Yeah, they were always a contender, despite the front office’s best efforts to not maximize the team’s quality.

Dan Szymborski: They will be better overall, but the team’s vanity lineup spots aren’t going away.

Jay: How do all of the moving pieces settle out in NY? Nice problem to have, but when Drury and Bird return, it seems like a logjam in the infield and the outfield. What would be your optimum lineup?

Dan Szymborski: I don’t think Drury gets a starting job back.

Dan Szymborski: I think Walker may not be long for the roster.

Dan Szymborski: They’re carrying what, 3 bench spots?  I just don’t think Walker has much use at that point.

Webster: Gleyber or Merrifield RoS?

Dan Szymborski: Gleyber

THE Average Sports Fan: Are the Dodgers a good team?

Dan Szymborski: Yes, but having a poor run.

Webster: What do you think of Stroman rest of the way?

Dan Szymborski: I’m fairly worried, he’s been getting hit hard.

Dan Szymborski: At last check, he was way up there in exit velocity.  On the bad side.

Question Asker: Has anyone every looked at pitches per out (for pitchers) as a statistic to see if it tell us anything? I know Chris Sale tried to reduce his pitches per out a couple years ago in an effort to go deeper into games, but otherwise you don’t really hear much about anyone prioritizing it.

Dan Szymborski: I haven’t found much in the way of predictive value.  Could be I’m not looking in the right place or looking at the wrong thing.  It’s possible a *change* can be relevant, but I just don’t have the results yet.  Not sure who else is working on that

Vegan Man!: What is Tyler Austin’s trade value? Can he bring back anything of significance for the Yankees? Thank you!

Dan Szymborski: Not *quite* as much as one would think.  He had a nice season in the minors last year and a good start this year, but the market for players on that side of the defensive spectrum has been dead and I don’t think he’s going to fetch a lot without more “proof”

Dan Szymborski: And for the Yankees, with Greg Bird very uncertain, Austin may simply be more valuable to the Yankees than what they would get in return right now.

Tommy: The Diamondbacks have in their lineup 5 or 6 of the worst hitters in the majors – both this year and over the last half-decade – and somehow continue to score runs and win games.  SSS, sure, but is the most statistically improbably start in years?  Daniel Descalso hits 2nd or cleanup in like 70% of the games!

Dan Szymborski: It’s not like they’re scoring that many runs, they’re 8th in the NL in a hitters park

Dan Szymborski: They’re winning games because the team’s ERA+ is 140.

Dan Szymborski: Chris Sale is at 141 for his career.

Dan Szymborski: So essentially, the average pitcher on Arizona this year has allowed runs like Chris Sale typically does.

Dan Szymborski: If you have 13 Sales on your roster, you’re going to win a lot of games.

Dan Szymborski: But it’s going to be hard to maintain that because NOBODY has that many Chris Sales.

Dan Szymborski: 13 Chris Sales eats like 100,000 calories a day.

Dan Szymborski: An elephant eats, I believe 75,000

Vegan Man!: How much better can the Yankees get? They have 3 starters hitting below .203 (Gardner, Walker, Sanchez), 2 hitting below .240 (Hicks and Stanton), and no Bird, Drury, Warren, and Kahnle… I know Didi has helped to pick up the slack, but it seems like this team has even more room to improve? Thanks!

Dan Szymborski: It’s a terrific team.  There’s little question about it and the ZiPS over/under now, with the games in the bag is on the verge of 100

Vegan Man!: Any hope for Ian Kinsler? Awfully slow start… Thanks!

Dan Szymborski: Still hopeful

Al Gone Quinn: Strasburg has given up 8 HR’s this year, to date. How much of this do you believe is bad luck?

Dan Szymborski: Don’t go nuts about HRs in a month.  It’s a less stable stat for pitchers than the other true outcomes and it’s not particularly close.

Dan Szymborski: If he were getting hit harder, maybe then I’d be a bit concerned.

CamdenWarehouse: You know what would make baseball more fun? If my favorite team would take advantage of all of the ways you bring new talent into your system.  Like international signings

Dan Szymborski: Things the Orioles are against:

Dan Szymborski: International amateur signings

Dan Szymborski: farm systems

Dan Szymborski: trade for prospects

Dan Szymborski: spending money

Dan Szymborski: being aware of advances in baseball thought after about 1973

Dan Szymborski: There are just too many things they’re morally against!

SpaceNeedle: What are your opinions on Edwin’s Diaz future effectiveness? He had a great start to the season, but I’m not super convinced it will continue. His slider has looked much more flat this year, and his 98-99 decent movement is obviously tough to face, but not something that other relievers don’t have…

Dan Szymborski: You say that like 98-99 decent movement is a dime a dozen!

Vegan Man!: Over / Under 28 HR for Soler? Thanks!

Dan Szymborski: Still under

Nick Markakis: This season to date, I am neither a liquid nor a gas.  What am I?

Dan Szymborski: plasma

andrew: How do you reconcile large differences between xwoba and woba? For example, Odor .341 (xwoba) to .259 (woba), Heyward .377 to .291, Carpenter .402 to .285. Small sample? Something the model isn’t good at picking up?

Dan Szymborski: I have my own system, so I can’t speak to the specifics of value of short-term xwoba in terms of predictability

Dan Szymborski: But the error bars are still very large.

Shawn: Is what Caleb Smith is doing sustainable?

Dan Szymborski: I’m not convinced yet.  Yeah, it’s hard to spike that many strikeouts and it be total fluke, but he just doesn’t seem to miss bats as often as you’d expect with that rate

Matt: The Yankees will win 140 games this season. Convince me otherwise.

Dan Szymborski: That’s quite aggressive!

Bobby: Are the giants for real?

Dan Szymborski: They in fact exist.

Dan Szymborski: ZiPS had them at 83-79 at the start of the season, so they’re ahead of the pace, but it’s not like 19-15 is some drastically different start

Mike: Is Alford’s call up anything more than temporary coverage?  Is Teo locked in as a starter?

Dan Szymborski: They’re going to see what happens.  I don’t think it’s Teoscar that’s at risk.

Vegan Man!: Tatis Jr. is 19 years old and in AA. He’s hit 3 HR in his last 5 games and looks like he’s starting to adjust to more advanced pitching. Do we have any data on the MLB success of young hitters like him that have advanced quickly through minor league ball? Thanks!

Dan Szymborski: Generally speaking, guys that advance quickly are better anyway, so it doesn’t really add that much value.

Dan Szymborski: You advanced Tatis Jr. quickly because he’s awesome, he’s not awesome becuase he advances quickly, he’s awesome because of his performances that suggest he’s awesome.

Dan Szymborski: Does that make sense?

Matt: If the Hot Dog people were invaded by the Sandwichites, and had the culture of the Sandwichites forced upon them – would then, a hot dog be a sandwich?

Dan Szymborski: No

kderg: Is Ian Kinsler nearing the end? It’s only been a month, and he isn’t striking out much, but he has seemed pretty punchless so far.

Dan Szymborski: I’d be a bit worried and he’s obviously nearing the end, but I think he’ll cobble together a decent season this year

Say Wut: Are you all about roller skates?

Dan Szymborski: No

Say Wut: Would you rather see an end to all pain and suffering or a batter get 5 triples in a 9-inning game?

Dan Szymborski: I like triples, but I’d still have to go with the former.

Nick Markakis: Is Carson Cistulli to blame for my all-star caliber season to date?

Dan Szymborski: He is to blame for things that happen unless you have clear and convincing evidence otherwise.

Erik: I just learned today that Jed Lowrie was 34. I thought he was a young and potentially interesting 24. Guess he was just super forgettable for the last 10 years. What baseball player’s age is definitely not what you think it is?

Dan Szymborski: He’s been around forever!

Dan Szymborski: Now Jon Garland is *still* in his 30s for nearly another year and a half.

Dan Szymborski: Edwin Jackson is only 34.

Duffy: What do you think of Gleyber Torres so far? Seems he’s had some batted ball luck but the defense and ability to adjust are incredibly impressive.

Dan Szymborski: I think his upside is nearly unlimited.  The only question is when he’d be good enough AT THIS MINUTE to deserve the job.  He’s there.

Bo: The Braves’ bats sure fell back to reality over the weekend. Will they pick it back up, or did they spend the first month outplaying their talents?

Dan Szymborski: Well, they’re not a .600 team, but I think there’s now enough talent that they’re probably 85 or so

Dan Szymborski: The holes are getting fewer and the minor league system is churning out graduates.

Desmond: Ian is going to get better when the team travels back to Coors more often, right?

Dan Szymborski: Yeah, sure

Vegan Man!: Jose Altuve isn’t running. Do you think he will start, or is this a concerted effort on the part of the Astros to run less / keep him healthy? Thanks!

Dan Szymborski: I’m aware of any specific public statements to the effect.

Dan Szymborski: But he’s so good otherwise that you can argue that he’s too good to have stealing.

Dan Szymborski: The Astros are stealing less overall this year and I doubt it’s something that happens by accident.

Sean: On a scale of 1-10 how excited should Padres fans be about Franchy Cordero?  On the one hand he’s only had ~80 ABs this year.  On the other hand he is showing slightly improved plate discipline and pitch recognition.

Dan Szymborski: He’s a fascinating player because he *can* crush the ball.  He should be in the lineup at every opportunity,

Pink Greenie: How does ZiPS project playing time? I’m particularly interested in how it handles injuries.

Dan Szymborski: ZiPS isn’t really designed to be a specific playing time predictor

Dan Szymborski: In that it doesn’t know which minor leaguers will be used and which won’t.  This is intentional as I don’t like crossing the streams so to speak (my opinion vs. the computer)

Dan Szymborski: ZiPS season-to-season does have a very general, brute forced adjustment for injuries.

Big Joe Mufferaw: Who’s been your favorite player to watch/write about so far this season?

Dan Szymborski: Ohtani!

Dan Szymborski: He’s just so damn intriguing that nobody can resist following and talking about him.

Vegan Man!: Which impact SP do you see becoming available at the trade deadline? Fulmer and Archer come to mind, anyone else of note? Thanks!

Dan Szymborski: Chris Tillman!

Dan Szymborski: Oh, the good kind of impact

Dan Szymborski: I think Cole Hamels could end up elsewhere

Dan Szymborski: I don’t see much in the way of big name pitcher moving this deadline

Dan Szymborski: Most of the rebuilding teams have already sent away their starters with value

Bo: Where do you think Matt Harvey will be in a month’s time?

Dan Szymborski: A party

Billy Beane: Chili is good.

Dan Szymborski: Proper chili

Rock Kickass: You on the DeSheilds breakout train? How many SBs do you think he reaches ROS?

Dan Szymborski: While I’m not, he’s been proving me wrong.

Fat Matt: Last week I had a vasectomy, now you’re chatting…..I don’t know what’s worse

Adam: Am I wrong to really worry about Josh Bell? He hits so many ground balls…

Dan Szymborski: I’ve always been a bit worried about him.  He hit 26 home runs last year, but he never really did that in the minors and as a prospect, I felt there was a bit too much Yonder Alonso there.

CMR: Dan, hello. Who will have the better career: Paul DeJong or Addison Russell?

Dan Szymborski: Addison Russell

Nick L. : Who has more sustainability in MLB, Eric Lauer or Joey Lucchesi?

Dan Szymborski: Lucchesi, so long as he stays away from Immobiliare.

Justin: Fact: Yankees will play .800 ball through November.

Josh: Does ZiPS use statcast data at all?  How predictive have you found that stuff so far?

Dan Szymborski: A little bit.  In broad strokes, it helps, but I’ve only really gotten to the point where I’m happy with some of the the general data

Billy Beane: Dan, it is 11 AM and I have done literally no work. I don’t know whether to be proud or sad.

Dan Szymborski: Both.  We are a mixture of light and dark.

Snickers: Johan Camargo deserves a shot.  Discuss.

Dan Szymborski: Possibly, but the Braves find themselves in a position where winning now is an option, so it makes sense for them to be less risk-averse than they should have been last year

Rahul: Dodgers have been ravaged by injuries. How likely are they to win the division?

Dan Szymborski: ZiPS has them down to like 1-in-3, I believe.

hscer: Why won’t ESPN pay to get you a professional headshot photo?

Dan Szymborski: Photography hasn’t advanced far enough that they can make me look professional.

Hannah Hochevar: The Orioles are just playing a very committed game of rope-a-dope, right? Gonna win 45 straight in August.

Dan Szymborski: Maybe over the next 5 Augusts.

Dan Dan the Cheerleading Man: Is Matt Harvey “Dent” more like two face than Batman, and he’s now showing his ugly side which is an inept pitcher?

Dan Szymborski: He’s One Face now.

Dan Szymborski: Like Harvey burned the other side of his face too and now seeks to find a one-dimensional coin that’s just a line that he can flip somehow.

Bert: Nomar Mazara with a great week, just when I wonder if the power ever shows up. Is he a cornerstone hitter for the Rangers as they retool?

Dan Szymborski: It remains to be seen, but they should keep trying.

CamdenWarehouse: Matt Harvey has to land a starting job someplace, right? Any guess on where?

Dan Szymborski: Depends on his willingness to go to the minors.

Slurve: If Trout continues to be Trout, and isn’t unanimous to HOF, what impact would that have, if any?

Dan Szymborski: Ain’t nobody going to be unanimous.

Bo: Time for the Braves to start trading from their farm depth for immediate impact guys? Or is that more an offseason need?

Dan Szymborski: I don’t think I’d go that far yet.

Dan Dan the Cheerleading Man: Next time you are in Chicago, I recommend that you try the breaded steak sandwich at Ricobene’s. It is truly an amazing sandwich

Nick L. : Does Luis Urias really need to add a ton of power to be an impact bat? I have heard rumors that

Dan Szymborski: No

Big Joe Mufferaw: Is Neil Walker a DFA guy, or can they actually trade him for a couple lottery tickets?

Dan Szymborski: I’d be surprised if anyone gives lottery tickets for him.

Dan Szymborski: But weirder things have happened.

yossle: Is David Price done?

Dan Szymborski: No

Rex Manning Day: It’s May and ZiPS currently projects Mike Trout to finish the year with 9.7 WAR. I don’t have a question, I just wanted to put that out there.

Sean: Dan, what month comes before May but after March?

Dan Szymborski: Germinal

ComputerChairGM: Matt Harvey for Neil Walker? Could help both teams

Dan Szymborski: Seems more interesting for the Mets than the Yankees.

Dan Szymborski: Let’s be honest, Matt Harvey, right now, doesn’t really have a case over Random AAA Duffer

Dan Szymborski: The Yankees ought to have zero interest in lottery tickets on their active roster.

Dan Szymborski: Uncertainty has to be treated very differently from a team trying for 100 wins than a team trying for 100 losses

Mountie Votto: What would your plan for the Reds be? Shit is baaaaad, yo

Dan Szymborski: Trade what they have left, stay the course.

Dan Szymborski: Try to sell Votton on a trade.

James: Thoughts on Evan Gattis using the Billy Hamilton approach at the plate?

Dan Szymborski: Suboptimal

Nick L. : Fernando Tatis Jr. was slow out of the gate last year too. He seems to be heating up. Any worry he isn’t The Chosen One in San Diego?

Dan Szymborski: no

XuXuX: Cole Hamels has a $20 million team option for 2019, with a $6 million buyout.  Do you think that whatever team he’s playing on will find it worthwhile to pick up that option?

Dan Szymborski: I’d likely sign Hamels to a 1/14 contract this offseason.

Dan Szymborski: (the 6 is already gone, after all)

Josh: It’s funny to even consider getting excited about Trevor Cahill, but, should we be getting excited about Trevor Cahill?

Dan Szymborski: He had flashes last year too!

Dan Szymborski: And let’s not forget, 3 of his 4 starts this year were against dreadful teams

Pad Squad: The Padres have a lot of prospect depth but few future superstars. Do you think they should just let their prospects play out, or should they use most of them as trade chips to acquire real star-power in a year or two?

Dan Szymborski: Play it out.  The Padres aren’t as close to being good as they think they are.

Dan Szymborski: They shouldn’t be acquiring win now guys yet

Patty V: For the Projected Standings page you guys have on FG, do you update ROS projections based on injuries / trades / adjusting your prior expectations, or is it just an adjustment based on your original 2018 projection? Like a team over-performing is expected to under-perform to match the original prediction?

Dan Szymborski: I would never, in a million years, project in the latter way.  That’s not a projection.

Dan Szymborski: It would literally be desecrating Bayes’s corpse!

Matt: With regard to your Chris Sale analogy – why don’t more teams hire elephants?

Dan Szymborski: Oakland has exclusivity over elephants.

Dan Szymborski: Unfortunately, San Francisco allowed the elephant exclusivity in return for like 90% of California rights

Sean: Chase Field is no longer a hitter’s park, FYI. ESPN has the park factors  at .866 and the exit velo is way down.

Dan Szymborski: If you’re looking at one month park factors, you’ve done something terribly wrong.

Dan Szymborski: There’s a data trap, believing a miniscule sample size as more predictive becuase it happens to coincide with what you believe would happen.

Dan Szymborski: *One year* park factors are terrible.

Dan Szymborski: 19 home games and 15 road games?  With no chance at any kind of long-term evening out of teams and players?

Dan Szymborski: It’s woth an “oh, that’s interesting” but not much more.

Erik: The Torres-Chapman trade from 2016 continues to make no sense. Yes, the Cubs won a World Series, which could justify literally any trade, but couldn’t they have gotten a lesser reliever and held onto one of the top prospects in baseball? Don’t they win more World Series from 2016-2025 with seven-plus years of Torres versus three months of Chapman? Seems to be a big dent on Epstein’s resume.

Dan Szymborski: I didn’t like it at the time and I still dont’

Kyle: Why does everyone say “sneaky” with the Rockies? They had the 8th best rotation in baseball last year. The offense sucks, YOU are GM, how do you fix it right now? Every prospect is up for trade except Rogers.

Dan Szymborski: Send everyone who currently makes decision at the MLB level away on an ice floe

Guest: Why can’t teams trade draft picks?

Dan Szymborski: The belief at the time was that it would just increase the demands of the draft picks, who had more leverage at the time.

Dan Szymborski: and result in trades to the rich teams that could meet the asking prices.

Dan Szymborski: With the current system, it’s harder to justify

HappyFunBall: Can we add “winning baseball games” to that Orioles list?

Dan Szymborski: They believe in it, they just don’t know how other than falling into it

Erik: Do all your cool ZiPS things (other than player projections) live anywhere public? I know you’ve referenced projected standings and career projections before. If they aren’t public, do you intend to share them? I don’t own my own personal projection system so I don’t really have any insight into what would drive your decision either way there.

Dan Szymborski: I’m a bit arbitrary in the stuff I share

Dan Szymborski: I share a lot for free after all!

Justin: My Mets fan friend taunted me (Yankees fan) 18 games ago, saying “worry about my .500 team.” That has not gone well for him.

OddBall Herrera: I read this morning that the Orioles VP Brady Anderson (yes, THAT Brady Anderson!) is taking more leadership, and was in charge of the Tillman, Cobb and Casher signings.  The article didn’t appear to intend this as a back-handed complement…

Dan Szymborski: I thought the Cobb signing at least was fine, so it’d be a bit hypocritical for me to rip them for that.

Dan Szymborski: And they invested nothing in Tillman.

Dan Szymborski: But I really don’t like Cashner as a pitcher.

Mr. Fister: Do you think Kershaw will ever pitch 200 innings in a season again?

Dan Szymborski: Yes

HappyFunBall: More wins the rest of the way: BAL or MIA ?

Dan Szymborski: Still Orioles.  It’s not a compliment.

Nick L. : Can the Padres lose more games than they did last year but at the same time see more progress from their young players?

Dan Szymborski: Theoretically yes

Billy Beane: Hey Dan, fangraphs currently has the A’s at 9.1% for a playoff spot. You buying or selling those odds?

Dan Szymborski: Sounds about right to me

Ginny: Mike Trout’s 3.0 WAR so far has me wondering where he could top out in a “career year”

Dan Szymborski: He was probably near his ceiling.

Dan Szymborski: It’s not like he has 5 WAR above his normal season in him anywhere

CamdenWarehouse: Miguel Tejada is definitely not the age I thought he was

TJB: Mark Prior doesn’t turn 40 for another two and a half years.

Matt: Ok, let’s revisit the pain and suffering question – what if it was SIX triples in a 9 inning game? Does that change your answer?

Dan Szymborski: I still have to go with the world happiness

Mr. Fister: Is Walker Buehler already the third best pitcher on the Dodgers?

Dan Szymborski: It’s quite possibler!

kderg: If MLB expanded to 32 teams and put you in charge of picking the 2 new cities, where would you choose and what would the mascots be?

Dan Szymborski: Do I have any rules about the cities?

Dan Szymborski: I’d personally put a third team in the NY area and a team in North Carolina

Dan Szymborski: And they’d come with a proviso that if anyone EVER tries to make eight four-team divisions, 100% of revenue sharing goes to Jeff Loria.

Mountie Votto: Seems like the Reds should sell some assets, but what else will bring back value outside of Iglesias? Scooter Gennett has been solid in Cincy, but no one is gunna pay much for him. Billy Hamilton has value, but again, not gunna bring back a great deal of value. Any sleeper trade chips there?

Dan Szymborski: Duvall, Schebler.  No real blue chips, but they ought to continue getting interesting lottery picks.

mcmadbat: Hi Dan, I made a chrome extension that notifies you when your favourite players are about to bat or pitch. It sends an MLB.TV link so that you can jump to the game right away. I think it’s super helpful for people who want to see players on different teams (especially since quadview is gone).  https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/batter-up/jnafaeneoijiefchae…

Dan Szymborski: Note that I have not tried this.

Slapshot: If there’s ever a baseball fight that goes the way of the ending of Styles/Nakamura last night, with both competitors kicking each other in the groin, which two players do you feel would be most suited for doing so?

Dan Szymborski: Jon Papelbon and A.J. Pierzynski

Vinícius: Escobar can’t even field anymore, when the Royals will call up and give him some innings at short?

Dan Szymborski: Beats me, they never seemed to care if he was any good before.

Mountie Votto: Are the Reds this bad?

Dan Szymborski: No.

Mister Puppy: I’ve criticized the Orioles for basically a lack of caring (little effort, emotion) for the past couple years, but it just seems mean now. Watching the games all the players look legitimately depressed.

Dan Szymborski: You try not being depressed when you think you’re a contender and you’re 8-26

Dan Szymborski: It’s like being an 8-year-old and waking up for the birthday and you found out that you’re not actually going to Disney and then your parents abandon you in a well.

Fuzzy Dunlop: Do you think Harper will keep #34 in Atlanta next season?

Dan Szymborski: Harper’s not going to Atlanta

CamdenWarehouse: Billy Beane meant Chili Davis is good

Sandy Eggo: Eric Hosmer’s contract is looking great right about now! Over under 3 WAR for the year for him?

Dan Szymborski: The problem is that the best years aren’t that relevant for the Padres

Dan Szymborski: And that it’s mainly a five-year deal when the Padres want it to be eight and an eight-year-deal when the Padres want it to be five

Wes: I feel like you are the kind of guy who has 15 TVs on our wall. One with a dedicated video feed of the entire perimeter of your property. The other 14 with baseball on. My question, many baseball games have you watched at one time?

Dan Szymborski: I’ve done more than four, but I can’t really pay good atention to more than four

Slapshot: Over the last decade, which MLB player do you think got the poorest results from the most raw talent?

Dan Szymborski: Lastings Milledge?

Matt: A priest, a rabbi, and a monk walk into a bar. The bartender says “What is this, some kind of a joke?”

Dan Szymborski: A priest, a rabbi, and a monk walk into a bar.  They are friends and are having lunch.

Marichal: Will the Reds give Amir Garrett another shot as a starter any time soon?

Dan Szymborski: They ought to.  It’s not like the teams going anywhere.

Matt: Why doesn’t every team have a dead centerfield camera? The quick answer is that they can’t fit a booth there in all stadiums, but I call BS. The dead center camera never moves, and doesn’t need an operator. Every team should be able to build some sort of scaffold structure to hold a camera in the correct position so that baseball consumers can see what is ACTUALLY happening. /rant

Dan Szymborski: I think they should at least.  The center view is SO much better than offset

CamdenWarehouse: Single digit WAR for Trout?  What a bum

elfroggo: Do you think the Mariners have a legitimate shot at the postseason this year? What do you reckon the front office should do either for now or for the future?

Dan Szymborski: They have a legitimate shot, but the starting pitching is frgithening

Kosch: What is your chili obsession all about?  Who the F cares if someone puts beans in their chili?  Who the hell do you think you are?

Dan Szymborski: We have to observe some societal norms.

Nick : Why don’t the Padres bring back the brown? It would make them even a little less boring.

Dan Szymborski: Any Padres uniforms that don’t look like two different varieties of mustard are inherently failures.

Dan Szymborski: On that note, we’re after 3, so I have to head off for another week.

Dan Szymborski: Thanks for joining me, everyone, you can find my work at ESPN.com, chats and projections here at FanGraphs, and at DSzymborski on Twitter.

Dan Szymborski: And in today’s ESPN piece, I talk about the players with hot starts that are most changing what I think of them.  https://t.co/Ml7KIyoEdr

Dan Szymborski: DISCLAIMER:  NO ALBIES BECAUSE I ALREADY THOUGHT HE WAS AWESOME