Dave Cameron FanGraphs Chat – 1/21/15

Dave Cameron: May have to start a few minutes late today, as I’m working out of the house this afternoon. If we start late, we’ll go a little long to make up for it.

Dave Cameron: Alright, I just finished off one of the better meatball sandwiches I’ve ever had, so I should probably plug this place: if you’re ever in Greensboro, NC, check out Giacomo’s Italian Market. Everything’s homemade, and that was really good.

Dave Cameron: Now for some baseball.

Comment From Eric
What do you think are the most likely landing spots for Shields?

Dave Cameron: Toronto seems like the clear fit to me. They still have money to spend, prefer shorter term contracts, and have a clear need for another big time starter.

Comment From lostpond
Are you looking to hire any interns for Fangraphs? I’m a college student with a variety of experiences and I would love to work for the site.

Dave Cameron: We got so many incredible applications for the position we posted last week that we’re almost certainly going to try and find spots for more than the one or two people we were planning on bringing on board. We may pull in few interns from the group as well, so feel free to send in your application if you’re interested.

Dave Cameron: And if you were one of the hundreds who applied, we haven’t even gotten to the point of contacting people yet, so don’t get discouraged if you haven’t heard from us. The responses were overwhelming, so it will take us a bit longer to read everything.

Comment From Jeremy
Thanks Dave. Would Rougned Odor get a Strasburg conversation started? 6 years of control for a 2B who didn’t sink in 114 games as a 20 year old.

Dave Cameron: He might be able to be the top guy in a deal if there were several other strong pieces in the trade, but it wouldn’t just be Odor and some filler. It would have to be Odor and 2-3 other legitimate big assets.

Comment From Shawn
Happy Stephen Strasburg Trade Scenario Chat Day!

Dave Cameron: I’m prepared.

Comment From THE Average Sports Fan
Who is the worst team in the NL Central?

Dave Cameron: The Brewers or the Reds. Neither are terrible, but that division is just tough.

Comment From David
So do you think the Nationals go all-in on 2015 with this so-called “super rotation” or do they eventually deal Zimmermann or Strasburg?

Dave Cameron: I think they’re open to either scenario. If someone wants to make a strong offer for an SP, they’ll take it, but I would guess they’re okay keeping those guys and going for it if the deal isn’t there.

Comment From Apanda Hugginkiss
Do the Cubs see some untapped potential in Fowler? Maybe in the power department? Also CF is smaller in Wrigley than Houston.

Dave Cameron: Maybe. Probably more likely that they just wanted to clear a spot for Bryant, though.

Comment From Colin
Change in Citi Field dimensions: do you predict a large effect, small effect, or no effect?

Dave Cameron: Small.

Comment From Joe W
Does Rickie Weeks have anything left in the tank? Is he worth a flier for the Jays?

Dave Cameron: That’s one of the few teams in baseball he would represent a real upgrade for.

Comment From Nate
Sullivan seemed to think this would be a nice challenge trade that he’d love to see happen, but what about a Baez/McKinney for Strasburg deal?

Dave Cameron: I wouldn’t take that if I was the Nationals. Baez is too high risk for me to be the main piece. If it was a bigger deal where they got 4 or 5 guys and he was the center, maybe, but not just Baez and one other guy.

Comment From Joe W
In your opinion, for the situation the Jays are in, is it smart to begin with Cecil in the closer’s spot or worth it to overpay for a proven closer (i.e. Soriano, K-Rod) and slide Cecil into the setup man role?

Dave Cameron: They need an SP and a 2B way more than a closer.

Comment From Eminor3rd
Is the “Race to .500” a sustainable condition (at least until postseason rules change)? Or will the field become so competitive that “Boom/Bust” again becomes a market inefficiency to be exploited?

Dave Cameron: Bud Selig spent 15 years trying to get MLB to this point. They’ll protect their competitive balance now that they’ve achieved it.

Comment From mtsw
If Dylan Bundy shows he’s ready for a spot in the Baltimore rotation in spring training, what should the Orioles do with their (already overcrowded) rotation? Send Bundy down to AAA anyway? Ubaldo in the bullpen? Is there a trade market for their expiring contracts (Chen and Norris?)

Dave Cameron: You never need to worry about not having room for all your pitchers. Someone always gets hurt.

Comment From JCA CPA CA
How about Xander and Mookie for Strasburg and Desmond? maybe another piece or two

Dave Cameron: Red Sox wouldn’t even think about doing that.

Comment From Hank Dog
Is there any chance MLB sees a deflationary period anytime in the next decade? MLB’s inflation levels have greatly exceeded the market and I’m wondering how sustainable that is especially considering some of the deflationary fears spreading in certain parts of the world.

Dave Cameron: I think we’ll see slowing inflation once the TV bubble bursts, but live sports are a hugely valuable commodity in this day and age of cord cutting, and no one has more live sports to sell than MLB. This inflation can’t be sustained forever, but there’s no reason to think live sports are going to stop being coveted by cable/satellite companies in the near future.

Comment From Theorist
Zimmermann and Giolito for Betts–could that be a thing that would happen?

Dave Cameron: It’s interesting, but I’m not sure either side is happy with that. Which maybe means its not insane, but I don’t know WAS wants to lose Giolito with so much pitching heading out the door, and I think the Red Sox really want to keep Mookie.

Comment From Eminor3rd
What was it like DECIDING to become a father? Was there a specific light bulb moment, or were you long looking forward to the commitment and just waiting for your own clean bill of health/some other condition? Did you have any doubts that you were willing to make the plunge?

Dave Cameron: I’d be lying if I said the leukemia issue wasn’t a factor. There was part of me that wanted to wait until I was more sure I wouldn’t die and leaving my wife as a single mom, but at the same time, we’re both in our 30s and didn’t want to miss the chance to have a family because we were afraid it would come back. It basically came down to just trying to life our lives without the fear of cancer.

Comment From Tigerfan
Odds that both S Green and A Simion are avg MLB starters this year?

Dave Cameron: I like Green a lot more than Simon.

Comment From Jersey
Miguel Gonzalez for Charlie Blackmon seem reasonable? Gonzalez has 3 years left to Blackmon’s 4, but Steamer600 also sees Gonzalez as the better player, 1.0 to 0.7.

Dave Cameron: I’m not sure Gonzalez is the kind of pitcher the Rockies should be targeting.

Comment From MASN Profiteer
Dylan Bundy: still profile as a top of the rotation arm if he’s healthy? He did what he did in the minors without his cutter, which has been described as “unhittable.” Kiley says that if he can get his arm speed back to previous levels, he’s got Jose Fernandez type stuff. Agree?

Dave Cameron: I saw one of his first starts in the minors when he was destroying everyone, and it was insane. 95-99 with crazy good secondary stuff. If he ever gets back to that, yeah, he could be very good. But velocity peaks early, and odds are he never gets back to that.

Comment From BassmanUW
Dexter Fowler’s defense appears to be among the greatest splits I’ve seen between the scouts and the numbers, considering the long run of UZR and DRS saying he’s a bad center fielder. When the scouts seem to all pretty much view Fowler as an average to plus fielder and it’s in such contradiction to what UZR says, does it make you think UZR might not capture this guy well, or the scouts are missing something because Fowler looks like a guy who should be a good defensive center fielder? Or potentially some of both?

Dave Cameron: Probably a bit of both. There’s no question that Coors Field could have screwed with his numbers a bit, but then he went to Houston and got even worse, so that argument lost some weight this year.

Comment From Sean
seems inevitable the Red Sox will trade for an ace in 2015. if you’re in charge, do you make the move now or wait until midseason?

Dave Cameron: I’d wait. I think there’s a strong chance that Cueto/Hamels will be on the market in July, and possibly others as well. I don’t think it will be that hard to get a guy like that in a few months if the need still appears to be legitimate.

Comment From 20longyears
Most say Cards have a slight edge in NL Central. What X-factors for Cards or Pirates are most likely to swing the division to Pittsburgh?

Dave Cameron: Pitcher health. The Cardinals rotation is full of medical concerns.

Comment From Guest
If we assume he’s available… Should the Cubs be actively pursuing Strasburg? I know every team in baseball should kick the tires, but the Cubs can arguably out bid anyone. Is it the right point in time to trade assets for him or should they wait and sign someone next offseason if they want another ace?

Dave Cameron: Strasburg/Russell and something makes the most sense of any deal I’ve thought of.

Comment From Eminor3rd
What’s the best way to begin to “dabble” in the stock market, if you have, say, $1000 to play with?

Dave Cameron: Don’t. Go to Vanguard, put $1,000 into one of their Target Retirement Funds (preferably through an IRA to get the tax benefits if you’re not maxing out your IRAs already), and forget about it.

Dave Cameron: The replacement level return for passive investing is so high that active investing makes sense for very few people.

Comment From Hank Dog
It seems that more sellers are requesting mlb ready players. Do you see this as a reflection of the value of prospects/ cost controlled players or is it the result of the added wild card?

Dave Cameron: No one wants to be the Astros anymroe.

Comment From KB
Hot off the Gallardo deal, the Brewers should look to move Lohse now too, right? They can’t possibly plan to compete vs. Pittsburgh or St. Louis (and maybe Chicago), not to mention Washington and LA.

Dave Cameron: They can move him in a couple months. His value isn’t high enough that the risk is too high to hold onto him until midseason.

Comment From Stephen
Hey Dave. Does Dexter Fowler’s trade change how much he is offered in arbitration? The Astros offered him $8.5 million before the trade, do the Cubs have to honor that number or can they give a new number?

Dave Cameron: Once numbers are filed, that’s the number.

Comment From hscer
This huge deferment for Scherzer, is it sort of like those team-friendly deals for young players? That $15M might be worth less in 2025 than 2015, but it might also sure be nice for him to have at that point in his life.

Dave Cameron: Well, unless he was careless with his money, he’d have it at that point in his life if it wasn’t deferred too.

Comment From BassmanUW
The Cubs don’t really have a pitcher you look at and say “man, that’s a great 3 in the rotation” behind Lester and Arrieta. But they do have about a half dozen guys (Hammel, Hendricks, Wood, Turner, Doubront, and Wada off the top of my head) who are nice back end of the rotation pieces, or at least guys with upside. If you were building a staff, would you rather have that clear 3, or the rotation depth to fill out the back end of your bullpen?

Dave Cameron: Depth. People overstate the marginal difference between pitchers and underestimate just how many you need to get through a season.

Comment From Anon
So if Shields signs with Toronto, do you move Sanchez to the bullpen or have him start in AAA?

Dave Cameron: I’d put Sanchez in the bullpen for the rest of his career regardless of what happens with Shields, but I’m definitely low on Sanchez relative to others.

Comment From Mooking for Love
Has RAJ learned nothing from the Cliff Lee debacle last year? Any recommendations for another team for me to jump ship to after the Phils go through another tradeless season, and dare I say, a RAJ extension? *gulp*

Dave Cameron: That Cliff Lee got hurt doesn’t guarantee that Hamels will. They’re taking a risk, but it could pay off. It’s not clearly crazy to wait until July. It is clearly crazy to not trade him by August 1st, though. If the deadline comes and goes and they still haven’t traded him, they should all be tarred and feathered.

Dave Cameron: (Assuming he doesn’t get hurt by then, of course)

Comment From King Flops
Now that the Orioles have let Cruz and Markakis go, failed to trade for Fowler or Saunders, and failed to sign Aoki or Rasmus, what should they do? Is there anything remotely appealing out there?

Dave Cameron: Maybe get a GM who wants to be there first. It’s impossible to know how much this inactivity has to do with Duquette’s situation, but it’s hard to think it’s helping.

Comment From Someguy01
Your thoughts on Dave Stewart going with Tuffy Gosewisch and Oscar Hernandez at catcher?

Dave Cameron: They’ll pick up some out of options guy on waivers in March.

Comment From Bill
how did you end up living in Greensboro?

Dave Cameron: I live in Winston-Salem, actually, but I had to take my Mom to the airport this morning, and so I stuck around to have lunch over here and get some work done.

Comment From JC
Do you trade some of these FAs to-be if you’re the Nats’ GM?

Dave Cameron: They tried. Teams don’t want to give up a lot for FAs to be.

Comment From lorecore
If Hamels were a FA, how would his likely deal compare to Lester/Scherzer’s?

Dave Cameron: Similar to Lester.

Comment From MASN Profiteer
What’s the deal with DD and Toronto? If you were an Orioles fan, what would you hope for?

Dave Cameron: Let him go. No good comes from keeping an employee against his will.

Comment From mtsw
Is MLB reportedly “facilitating” Duquette’s move to division rival Toronto the league’s payback to Angelos for taking the MASN dispute to court or is that too petty and underhanded even for them? Does the fact that the Nats feel comfortable dropping $180M on Scherzer while the Orioles roll into 2015 with a lower payroll than last year despite a playoff appearance tell us anything about the likely outcome of the MASN dispute?

Dave Cameron: I don’t think they’re related. I think MLB wants to have executives in place that won’t rock the boat, and they know Duquette will keep the Blue Jays in agreement with the policies Manfred is likely to try to get passed.

Comment From Jersey
I’m glad you don’t make your writers work on the weekends, but how come you don’t save some of the articles to post on the weekend?

Dave Cameron: Because traffic is 2-3 times higher during the week. We want people to read our stuff, so it makes more sense to publish when people are reading.

Comment From Jaack
Which is higher, the return the Nats want on Strasburg or the return the Phillies want on Hamels?

Dave Cameron: Strasburg is worth a lot more.

Dave Cameron: But I wouldn’t be surprised if Amaro didn’t realize that.

Comment From JC
Does a package centered around Marco Gonzales and one of Piscotty/Grichuk get a Hamels? (if Amaro comes back to reality)

Dave Cameron: No.

Comment From adam
It is assumed that Roark gets bumped to the pen, do the Nats see him as their own Petit after the Giant’s success?

Dave Cameron: If they keep everyone, he goes to the pen, but no team gets through a season with just five starters.

Comment From Luke
How does Fowler’s acquisition affect Alcantra’s plate appearances?

Dave Cameron: Would guess this turns him into a utility player, so he’ll play more 2B than he would have before.

Comment From ML
Apologies if i missed this somewhere..what are the potential baseball effects, if any, from our newfound sovereign relations with cuba?

Dave Cameron: Ben Badler is the guy who really knows this stuff, and he’s talked about how he expects this to lead to a situation where the Cuban government effectively sells players to MLB.

Comment From Dugan
Was wondering how you got into your field of work and what advice you would give a college student trying to do something similar

Dave Cameron: I got lucky. David Appelman wanted to add content to FanGraphs, and I had just quit my full time job, so I needed a part-time gig to help pay the bills.

Dave Cameron: In terms of a career path, I’d suggest trying to build something unique. There are thousands of kids who are passionate about baseball and would love to get paid to give their opinions about stuff. If you want to stand out, do something they don’t do. Specialize in something. Become an expert in a particular area, rather than just be a generalist who can write a little bit about a lot of stuff.

Comment From Nevets
What’s the point in the Astros adding Rasmus? One year removes chance they can net anything in a trade, and there’s only a slight chance of him being worth a QO. Seems like this just takes away PT from their nice group of young OFs.

Dave Cameron: The Astros have a nice group of young OFs? Really?

Dave Cameron: There’s plenty of time for anyone there who doesn’t suck to play.

Dave Cameron: Getting fewer guys who suck on the roster isn’t a bad thing.

Comment From David
Do you think Boras sold the Lerners on this notion of Scherzer being a late bloomer, less innings, “pitching odometer” etc. After all, being a late bloomer who would age well was one of the main selling points on Werth and perhaps Werth’s success actually helped Scherzer.

Dave Cameron: Certainly possible. The Lerners clearly listen to Boras’ sales pitches.

Comment From mtsw
Just pre-season optimism or does it seems like most teams are better in general going into next season than usual? Crop of guaranteed-to-be-awful teams seems like it’s at an all time low.

Dave Cameron: Definitely true. Teams are no longer punting seasons like they used to.

Comment From Lee
If you were the Red Sox, what would be a fair trade for Strasburg? I wouldn’t trade Betts for him but would Swihart as a centerpiece be enough?

Dave Cameron: Would have to be a package built around him, with several legitimate other pieces involved too.

Comment From bob
I understand the attraction in trading Strasburg but it still leaves the Nats with two starters who have expiring contracts next year. So what about Fister? Would he bring back much of anything? Would Fister and Desmond to the Mariners make any sense with maybe Miller and pieces coming back?

Dave Cameron: The market has twice declared that Doug Fister’s trade value isn’t that high. He’s now a year from FA and his strikeout rate just sank after switching to the league where Ks are easier. I don’t think dealing him for a strong return is realistic.

Comment From Pete
Re: Fowler. Can you explain how acquiring Fowler clears a spot for Bryant? I saw that move as an indication that they’ll keep Bryant in the minors until the super 2 deadline because now they can’t move an IF like Baez or Olt to the OF

Dave Cameron: Valbuena was their 3B. Now they don’t have anyone ahead of him who is any good.

Comment From Orioles
Bud Norris and Matusz for Neil Walker – who says no?

Dave Cameron: I have no idea why the Pirates would do that.

Comment From Walt
do you think the front office analysts are often asked what’s the high side/low side to our team expectations with the probability associated with either of them? i would think this is a common exercise that guides some of the decision fans might have trouble digesting (maybe ownership wants to take the 25% chance at making the playoffs instead of tearing down)

Dave Cameron: Yeah, a lot of teams are running simulations and coming up with probability matrixes that give them a realistic range of outcomes. How high up the chain that information goes is often the difference.

Comment From j
Mookie for Strasburg straight up. Who says no?

Dave Cameron: Maybe both. I love the idea, but people on both sides say they wouldn’t do it.

Comment From Doug
What are the odds that Amaro EVER gets what he thinks is a fair deal for Hamels?

Dave Cameron: If the Reds don’t put Cueto on the market and Hamels is having a great first half, they’ll get a strong return. Maybe not quite what they’ve demanded, but there will be $10 million less to eat in salary and the supply of alternatives will be mostly gone.

Dave Cameron: That’s the best case scenario for Philly, though.

Comment From Bossman
Will the value of prospects continue to sore exponentially as the salaries of free agents continues to congruently increase? Despite the increased $/WAR figures, the league minimum amount has remained constant, so those cost controlled years seem to carry more value every year.

Dave Cameron: Actually, the league minimum has gone up a lot in recent years. It was $200,000 not that long ago, and is now $500,000. And I wouldn’t be shocked if it went up quite a bit again in the next CBA.

Comment From Vslyke
Does your response earlier mean that the window to apply to FG is over? If not, when is the deadline?

Dave Cameron: You can still apply. We’re culling the lists the next few days, so I’d say Friday is probably a realistic deadline.

Comment From J
I would love if the Jays signed Shields. But isn’t there a good chance their rotation is fine without him? Rotation had a lower FIP than O’s last year, their defense is much improved (Saunders>Melky, Smoak>Lind/EE, Donaldson>halfyrLawrie, Pompey>Rasmus, Martin>Navarro), plus a full year of Stroman who you could argue is best starter in AL E. Again, they should really try and get Shields if they can, but not a terrible situation in rotation.

Dave Cameron: Last year’s numbers aren’t really all that important to this year’s rotation. I see basically zero depth there beyond the starting five.

Comment From David
Are Strasburg’s annual velocity deeps concerning to you? Jordan Zimmermann’s velocity is remarkably consistent, within one hundredth of a mph each other the past 3 years

Dave Cameron: Velocity declining with age is totally normal.

Comment From Pr
I know you thought Scherzer would be one of the worst off season contracts. But is his contract now better than the Lester one?

Dave Cameron: I’m not sure if it’s better, but they’re pretty similar.

Comment From Tyler Moore
With the dearth of RH power and my lack of a real position in Washington at the moment – why aren’t more teams considering trading for me?

Dave Cameron: I think the Souza trade and Werth injury means they’re keeping you.

Comment From J6takish
What do bad teams gain from smart low risk signings? Rasmus at 8mm for one year seems smart but he isn’t the kind of guy who gets a QO and what can he really get you at the deadline?

Dave Cameron: Wins aren’t useless even for non-contenders.

Comment From mtsw
Given how most pro athletes spend their money, isn’t “he wisely invests most of his salary in safe growth assets” sort of an insane assumption to make as the default way Scherzer would spend his money as it comes in?

Dave Cameron: Scherzer is a smart dude. Reads FanGraphs, even.

Comment From Tanner Roark
This is some BS. I know wins and ERA aren’t great but how does 15 wins and a 2.85 ERA get me booted from the rotation?!

Dave Cameron: This should tell you all you need to know about how much teams use Wins and ERA anymore.

Comment From BassmanUW
Midseason trade idea for Phillies to try to increase return: see if they can convince Utley to agree to a trade to a contender and try and package Hamels and Utley. There will be some team that wants a starting pitcher that could also really use Utley for a year and a half and can absorb the salary.

Dave Cameron: Yeah, it’s a worthwhile concept.

Comment From Guest
Please explain why people are projecting the Red Sox to do well in 2015. They lost 92 games in 2014, and other than the perfectly avg Pablo Sandoval and the oft injured new position Hanley Ramirez their team is awfully similar (without Lester, and Lackey too)

Dave Cameron: Because players don’t perform exactly the same in 2015 as they did in 2014.

Comment From Barry Obama
How is the State of the Fangraphs Union?

Dave Cameron: I’m thrilled with how the site is doing. I love our staff, and I’m thrilled that we got so many incredible applications to join us. We’re really lucky.

Comment From King Flops
You can’t seriously think the Orioles should just let him go, right? What is the point of signing a GM to an extension if you are just going to let him out the first time he wants?

Dave Cameron: It’s standard practice in MLB to let your employees leave for a promotion. This is a promotion.

Comment From Rated Rookie
Dave, have you ever thought about writing/publishing/finding an outlet for your memoir-ish, autobiographich reflections? When your humanity is the subject of your writing, it’s especially good.

Dave Cameron: Well, thank you, but I don’t think I’m quite old enough yet to write a memoir. Or maybe I am but I’m still in denial.

Comment From Joel
Your traffic higher during the week because people are screwing off at work. At least that’s what my friend tells me.

Dave Cameron: Traffic patterns match office hours exactly. It is amazing to watch the spikes at 8 am and the decline at 5 pm.

Comment From Jersey
The site traffic thing is at least partially chicken-and-egg though right? No content -> no traffic…

Dave Cameron: We’ve experimented with weekend content to test that out. We do run Laurila’s Sunday notes piece too. But it’s pretty clear that the audience is just a lot smaller on the weekends.

Comment From Jimmers
“How about Xander and Mookie for Strasburg and Desmond? maybe another piece or two”.. Really??? They wouldnt trade a unproven “SS” who hit .196 .228 .295 after june 8th (and below avg D) and a prospect with extreme SSS experience for Strasburg and a proven 20-20 SS… You lost me there Mr Cameron

Dave Cameron: It’s almost like trade value isn’t about just which player is better.

Comment From Walt
now that we know Lester and Scherzers contract, what would you estimate a Cueto contract next year?

Dave Cameron: A little south of Lester. He does have the injury history to overcome.

Comment From Jimmers
Why do you value Betts SOOO HIGHLY? Brett Lawrie came in and had a similar debut, and he was already a better prospect.. Look at him now.

Dave Cameron: There will always be examples of players who either busted or succeeded. Pointing those out is useless. Look at the overall population of similar players and see what they generally do.

Comment From Dan
Why is Strasburg worth a lot more than Hamels? Yes Hamels is older, but he has 4 years left on a reasonable salary while Strasburg only has 2 left. Both have been essentially 4 win pitchers for the last 3 seasons. Please explain.

Dave Cameron: Those extra two seasons come with an extra cost of $75 million or so. There’s no way you could possibly think that Hamels is worth 2/75 in 3-4 years from now.

Comment From Shawn
Is Winstom-Salem a nice city to live in?

Dave Cameron: I like it. Cost of living is very low, crime is low, there’s no traffic. Lots of positives.

Comment From Blueyays
Traffic may be higher during the week because we know that’s when you post new articles… I don’t seee any reason why weekdays would get more traffic, when people have less time on their hands.

Dave Cameron: People read the internet at work. They go outside or watch TV at home.

Comment From Big Hurtin
Taijuan Walker and Brad Miller for Strasburg. Who says no?

Dave Cameron: The Mariners reportedly already turned down Walker/Miller for Strasburg and Desmond, so no chance they’d do it without Desmond.

Comment From Blueyays
Though I should say, I agree with not saving articles for weekends, it would be kind of pointless to just wait – after all, we can still read something posted on Thursday on Saturday :p

Dave Cameron: Correct. For those who want weekend content, you can make this happen on your own.

Dave Cameron: Just don’t read everything we post during the week.

Comment From BassmanUW
The Cubs are also not keeping Bryant in the minors until the Super 2 deadline. He’ll be in the minors until they Cubs get the extra year of service time, which is something like 9 games into the season. For those 9 games, the Cubs will get by at 3B with some combination of Olt, La Stella, Baez, and Alcantara. It might be ugly, but it will only be ugly briefly.

Dave Cameron: It’s more like 20 games into the season, but yeah, I agree he’ll be up by May 1.

Comment From EC
Strasburg for Kris Bryant. Who says no?

Dave Cameron: Cubs.

Comment From harmony
Coudl the Red Sox snag Jordan Zimmermann with Jackie Bradley (to replace Denard Span in 2016), Joe Kelly and Matt Barnes (to replace Zimmermann and Fister in 2016), and Garin Cehccini (to replace Ian Desmond in a rotated Nats infield in 2016)?

Dave Cameron: Yeah, I think the Nationals would jump all over that. Red Sox wouldn’t give up that much.

Comment From Shawny
Re: Yoan Moncada- isn’t part of the value of having a top prospect the idea that he’s cheap for a number of years? Moncada isn’t going to be cheap. Is it similar to spending $80M on the #1 overall pick? Not saying that isn’t valuable, just that there’s some real $ being spent to just compare Moncada to a top prospect

Dave Cameron: Moncada will still be subject to the same six years of team control as everyone else, so he will be cheap in his pre-FA years.

Comment From Hank Dog
I’ve heard grumblings through this website and others that interns in baseball operations are paid less than what they could get for their skills in another field. Is it the same for entry level positions in baseball? And do you see this trend remaining because of what I would assume is a high demand for the position even if underpaid.

Dave Cameron: Yeah, everyone in baseball operations below the GM is underpaid, often significantly so. There’s a huge baseball discount because so many people want to work in baseball.

Comment From Josh
Martinez, Grichuk, and another mid-level prospect get Hamels?

Dave Cameron: Not enough for me, but I’m not that high on Martinez.

Comment From Santos
“People are screwing off at work”… he says, on Fangraphs, in the middle of a work day…

Dave Cameron: Hey, we’re not complaining.

Comment From mtsw
There’s a popular theory in the business press that all the productivity gains produced by computers were gobbled up by a concomitant increase in people’s ability to fuck around and waste time on the internet at work.

Dave Cameron: Eh. People used to just do this around the water cooler. Now they just ignore their coworkers and use the internet instead.

Comment From Orioles
Dave, I don’t get the Duquette argument that it’s standard to let an employee leave for a promotion. The Nationals aren’t going to let Roark go just because another team would pay him more to play a larger role. I understand that one is a player and the other is an executive, but I don’t get why the same concept shouldn’t apply?

Dave Cameron: Players and executives aren’t the same thing.

Dave Cameron: Do you want to work in a job where a competitor wants to give you a promotion and a big raise and you’re not allowed to go?

Comment From Henry
Re: traffic: Was/is USS Mariner’s traffic pattern similar to Fangraphs?

Dave Cameron: Team blogs aren’t exactly the same, since many of them get evening spikes during game threads.

Comment From Santos
I rarely check this site on the weekend because I don’t use the computer on the weekend like I do at work (all day long). I would miss a ton of content. I don’t think I’m unique in saying that.

Dave Cameron: You are the norm.

Comment From Jack
Love the airport in GSO

Dave Cameron: It’s really great. From curb to the gate in ~5 minutes, even if you’re checking a bag.

Comment From Julian
Why isn’t Hit f/x public? All the teams have it and pay for it so releasing it wouldn’t undermine its profitability.

Dave Cameron: Actually, not every team has it or pays for it, and releasing it the public would cause the market for it to disappear entirely. Teams will not pay for anything that they can get on FG for free.

Dave Cameron: And if Sportvision can’t sell it, what incentive do they have to do it?

Comment From mtsw
Seems like an obvious evening traffic generator for FG could be to do game-time chats at night where a writer is discussing what’s happening in the various live games. Could be a great mlb.tv companion.

Dave Cameron: We toyed with it a few years ago. It went okay, but wasn’t a huge success. It seems like people prefer game threads with fans of the team they’re rooting for, and since FG isn’t a central hub for any one fan base, they had alternatives that perhaps better fit what they wanted.

Comment From ar
how does sportsvision get exclusive contracts to collect the data?

Dave Cameron: They put the hardware in place.

Dave Cameron: That said, MLB’s Statcast system might change all this, since they’re taking tracking data in house. And maybe they will give it away.

Dave Cameron: But we’ll see.

Dave Cameron: Okay, I should probably not take up this table at Giacomo’s any longer than I already have. But seriously, come eat here. This place is great.

Dave Cameron: Thanks for hanging out everyone.