Eno Sarris Baseball Chat — 1/4/18

Eno Sarris: sometimes you long for a time that came before even though you know that time was rife with its own troubles and

Eno Sarris: I am HERE for this. sorry for being late. Kids are home, so if there’s an extended absence, one is running around naked or one is trying to climb the tree again.

Jimmy Ballgame: Whats the fantasy outlook for Josh bell this year?

Eno Sarris: If he regresses on the power a bit, I bet he improves the batting average and retains aobut the same overall value.

Bort: If I put on my Scott Boras thinking cap, it seems to me that a heavily front-loaded deal with an opt-out after two years with Colorado makes a bunch of sense for Hosmer. It incentivizes him to opt-out (good for Colorado, which might need the $$$ to resign Arenado) after 2019, and gives him an opportunity to pump up his numbers a bit and re-enter the market at a reasonable age. For Colorado, it gives them a short-term option to fill a short-term hole.

Eno Sarris: If he’s already gotten two seven year $147 offers as the rumors say, he doesn’t need to do this.

Eno Sarris: And as bad as that seems, the calculator spits out around $140 if you put wins at $9m/per and use his depth chart projection. Plus, the two teams that are trying to sign him aren’t attracting many other free agents, so it’s kind of a thing about ‘spending what you’re allowed to spend.’

big trade need help: I asked Szymborski this yesterday and he said yes…curious what your thoughts are. In an OBP dynasty league would you trade Benintendi for Ronald Acuna + Manny Margot?

Eno Sarris: Yeah I think so. I wouldn’t go as all in as one trade I saw for Acuna in a keep forever no escalator league (Acuna for Goldschmidt and Kluber), but this deal offers you ceiling and floor. As long as it’s not making you drop a bona fide player, I like it.

ryan: is visual/statcast based analysis going to be the major focus of team analytics departments going forward? should that be my focus if i wanted to get a team job?

Eno Sarris: It’s definitely the opportunity for a public analyst to make a difference and a name for themselves. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if, especially in this particular phase, teams are way out in front. They’ll say, hey, this is neat, we figured out most of this, though, what are your bigger ideas.

Hotshot: Renato Nunez have any shot at the A’s DH spot opening day? Hit bombs in AAA

Eno Sarris: He has no options left, so it’s now or never. I like his fly ball rate, but the final choice will have something to do the intricacies of the bench. Will Pinder make it? Smolinski? These guys offer more defense with their right handed power, so if Fowler is going to start in the minors, they may want one of those guys. Or Fowler starts in minors and they take Pinder and Nunez, and Nunez has a month to make himself stick.

Eno Sarris: Looking a little harder, I think the bench, even if Fowler makes it, will be Pinder, Nunez, Phegley, Powell or Fowler.

Minty: What’re your thoughts on Ozzie in a 10 team, OBP keeper?

Eno Sarris: Giddyap.

Matt: Dynasty – JP Crawford’s upside for Samardzjia? I know Shark is pretty consistent with the Ks, but that’s all I’m buying (and maybe QS). He’s a great option, but wonder how much the difference between him and the scraps at auction would be.

Eno Sarris: I’m interested in Crawford this year. Especially if OBP, he’s got an okay floor, and if he takes advantage of the ball, he could take off. FWIW, he had a great fly ball rate last year.

sockpirate: It feels like teams are limiting salary spending at a time when revenues continue to rise.  Is this an illusion?

Eno Sarris: I think three huge salary teams decided they wanted to reset the penalties, and that’s depressed the whole market. The Giants “should” be in on JDM, the Yankees “should” be in on Mike Moustakas, and the Dodgers “should” be in on Yu/Jake. None of the three will sign with those teams, and that means their agents are trying to push for a salary from 27 other teams that traditionally don’t have the same salary outlays. And teams like that, well teams in general, like to wait as long as possible to try and get a bargain.

Dee Plus Gordon: Good morning Eno. Who are some position players you’d most enjoy see change positions, either to improve performance or simply improve entertainment value?

Eno Sarris: Aaron Judge at shortstop? Jose Peraza catching? Gary Sanchez pitching?

Inquisitive A’s Fan: The A’s have the prospects to land one of Yelich/Realmuto. Yelich is the better player and under control longer, so he’ll cost the most. Realmuto addresses the more immediate need given the uncertainty of Maxwell’s status. Which player would you prioritize for Oakland?

Eno Sarris: I think their outfield is set and I’d personally be careful about spending future assets to get better now without knowing if they have any pitchers beyond Manaea.

Billy Beane: Eno, what do you think of the A’s CF situation this year? I think some combination of Fowler/Boog on the long end of the platoon & Pinder on the short end could be really good or really bad.

Eno Sarris: The projections see very little difference between Fowler and Kiermaier on offense, so it’s all about their defense. I’m not saying they have to be Kiermaier on d, but their bats can stay afloat if they can man the position. There’s already some doubt about Boog, since the Mariners played him off center.

The Texas Ranger: Is Willie Calhoun the real deal? I realize he’ll never win any Gold Gloves but can he put up decent numbers offensively this year?

Eno Sarris: Man his projections are sexy time. I saw him some and he can really hit. The power will come, with contact, and he’ll be able to overcome his lack of patience I think.

Hosmer’sABum: How much stock do you put into position scarcity? I’ve read that catcher is the only tough position to fill and I could move a late rd Machado for a last rd Sanchez plus a high pick. It’s only 10 teams with 3 keepers…

Eno Sarris: In a league like that, it’s only about best bat. The catcher thing is really only about two catcher and deeper leagues. There are 10 fine catchers in this league. There may not be 15-20 though.

WormsleyCommonGang: I can keep Blackmon @ $34 for this year – I’m not entirely sold on that. What do you expect from him and the Rockies this year?

Eno Sarris: keep him! this team has another year before the hard choices come.

Billy Beane: If you told your 12 year old self that grownup Eno would spend his life writing about baseball and sandos (we’ll leave out the beer til he’s old enough) what do you think he would have said?

Eno Sarris: sha right, that’d be tubular

Bert Campaneris: What does this buzz about Salazar being on the move foretell? How can you fix Salazar? What would be a good scenario for Salazar?

Eno Sarris: People want relievers so bad, he, at least for the first year or two, could probably be a plus inning wipeout righty reliever at the very least. I’d love to give him a try as an NL starter, get him on a roll by giving him an extra out per nine batters faced, and see what confidence could do for him.

CamdenWarehouse: I’m bored.  When are free agents allowed to sign with new teams?

Matty P: WHAT IS THIS LUDE NONSENSE I DONT UNDERSTAND IT JUST LIKE I DONT UNDERSTAND IAN DESMOND PLAYING 1B AHHH

tommy lasagna, sr.: at some point i’m going to stop asking myself when parenting gets easier.  it might be my dying thought.

Eno Sarris: on the nose lude.

Billy Beane: A week or so ago, you were taking about a lack of crunch on an egg salad sandwich. Don’t overthink it. Toast or a nice crisp piece of iceberg will do the trick.

Eno Sarris: Been using fried onions, that could be an easy sprinkle. (I pronounce it ‘sprankle.’)

Mathenaging: Will Justin Turner hit >25 homers in 2018?

Eno Sarris: His hurt so often and is 33. I’d take the under.

Nelson: Whats better for Hosmers roto owners? SD or KC?

Eno Sarris: Might take SD just to see if a new hitting environment and coach spurs something loose.

Anthony: Do you like Adalberto Mejia at all for 2018?

Eno Sarris: His fastball has some nice spin but it’s low velo and his changeup is atrocious. I’m out.

WormsleyCommonGang: In regards to fantasy leagues, is it time to think of loading up on front-end starters in the times of such potent offenses?

Eno Sarris: If you use wins, there’s an adjustment to be made, maybe. Starters are getting a smaller share of the wins as we take them out earlier. So I think there’s probably some tier there that you want to hit. Maybe you want as many top 30 starters as possible, because they get the wins. Some math to be done there. Because, yeah, wins is becoming the stolen bases of the pitching side.

Mathenaging: Is working from home a nice enough feature that I should stay at a job I hate? Even if the alternative is a job I like but have to like get dressed in the morning and stuff?

Eno Sarris: There are benefits, but also drawbacks: you’ll be on call for every house related problem, you’ll think  you can just run to the office to get work done at any time, your line between work and home life will blur.

Bruce: Inciarte or Margot? Who you got?

Eno Sarris: I’ll take Margot’s upside.

Nelson: Will AJ Pollock return to being a top 20 bat?

Eno Sarris: Yes. Only question is really health.

toki: Is Jon Lester toast?  His falling velocity and the fact his arm has over 2000 innings now is concerning.

Eno Sarris: I’m… out. Like maybe he’ll be okay. But as a frontline starter I’m feeling like his particular skillset was on more of a razor thin margin than we thought and that it may not work at 90/91 instead of 92/93.

Rubber arm: Is 10 day DL pushing us getting work horse higher, or encourage streaming? I am in 20 team 34 roster deep point league that I have to start 5SP(you can bench healthy SP in favor of an injury one)

Eno Sarris: Push up and down. More aces, more streaming.

Estevao: Corey Seager

2016

250/308/413     .163 ISO   95 wRC+ versus LH
334/391/557     .223 ISO   155 wRC+ RH

2017

325/389/527     .201 ISO   144 wRC+
281/369/457     .176 ISO   120 wRC+

He should be somewhere in the middle, but hitting LH this well, was a major step forward significant increase in BB%, last year it was at 7.9 it went up to 10.9
Corey Seager improved his play this year and is better positioned to succeed in the future now than he was a year ago.
http://maximustake23.blogspot.com.br/2017/12/corey-seager-improved-his…

Eno Sarris: except that one year platoon splits are a siren song. Pretty much meaningless.

WormsleyCommonGang: Is Luis Severino a top 10 SP?

Eno Sarris: Yes. That new change he was throwing late last year was a big deal.

Erik: The Phillies have enough payroll room to spend more this winter and still be major players in next offseason’s sweepstakes. How many dollars are they away from giving themselves, say, a 25% chance at a wild card spot? Can they make themselves competitive-ish without sacrificing their future?

Eno Sarris: They at 75 wins now. I think they’d want six more, and that’s expensive. If they could get a multi year pitcher asset, that might make a lot of sense. People might scratch their head about signing Jake Arrieta, but it could be about years two and three more than year one.

Bert Campaneris: Checking out pitchers’ market for my dynasty squad. Right now Archer and Cobb are heading my staff. What are some guys you can suggest to go after whose market may be a tad down going into the offseason?

Eno Sarris: Gausman is interesting. Manaea, Snell. I’d probably shop Cobb and keep Archer.

Jack: What is the new staff person’s job going to be?

Eno Sarris: Gonna write!

ohtani kitaen: i too am running around naked — try and stop me

Eno Sarris: Or maybe do this.

Shawn: Fave Beers of 2017? What style do you think will be hot in 2018 other than NEIPA?

Eno Sarris: Hoppy sours? Been saying that for a while, though. How about hazy hoppy sours. Good god. That’s going to happen. I had some great new to me saisons and sours this year from Speciation, Oxbow, High Water, Collective Arts. Hazy IPAs from Mikkeller, Brouwerj West were always in my fridge.

Astros: What do you think of Brad Peacock going forward? If the Astros land one of the big SP they’ve been rumored to be on, does he get relegated back to bullpen duty?

Eno Sarris: Swing guy I’d guess. Gonna be hard to maintain a sidearm slider and an overhand curve with the same mechanics, IMO. And there’s enough injury risk atop the rotation that he’ll be around and stretched.

Wes: Eno: I feel like I am in beer purgatory. I cannot do stouts or most winter beers and feel like it’s too damn cold for a sour. What do I do besides suffer until spring?

Eno Sarris: Browns?

bonnie: How would you feel if the Cards signed JD Martinez, moved him to first, then traded Carpenter and Gyorko for Donaldson?

Eno Sarris: They’d be one of the top three or four teams in the league and equal to the Cubs, though the Cubs might have a response in them.

Oddball Herrera: Just when we thought the free agent market was thawing, Boras pours dry ice all over it with a demand for 8 or 9 year offers for Hosmer…

DTH: took the extra week off work, so now I’m using your chat to ignore family instead of work. happy new year!

Sleepy:

Sleepy: There’s, like, a 2% chance that “Black Panther” is the greatest movie ever made.

toki: What do you drink when you do a “bad beer” night?  Hamms?

Eno Sarris: Usually only when forced to at certain spring parks, but then Coors Banquet.

Mavis: San Diego supposedly turned down Perodomo or Lamet and Hand for Baez. Good call?

Eno Sarris: Four years of control! I’d take Baez for Perdomo and Hand in a second, yes. I guess they want quantity?

GraphsFan: Steamer’s got 19 jacks for Devers… As a Devers keeper owner, please tell me this is low.

Eno Sarris: I’ll take the over.

Billy Beane: Is there any chance Hosmer is actually better at 1B than publicly available data suggests to the point where he is a good defender at 1B? No, right? Like they could all be a little low on him for some reason, but there is nothing that suggests he could actually be good, right?

Eno Sarris: Yes there is this chance. At the same time, though, his ground-ball approach seems to make him BABIP-dependent, more than most sluggers.

Sam: Eno, two keeper quandaries: josh Bell for $9 or Marwin for $8?  Faria for $8 or Jordan Montgomery for $4?  Thanks!!!

Eno Sarris: I like Montgomery but probably Faria and Bell.

Eno Sarris: With Faria’s depressed velo, might explore trading him in the keeper portion and holding J-Mont.

He Hate Me: ryan needs to learn statistics and how to code.

Eno Sarris: I think that was the given, he’s asking where he should turn his attention given those tools. At least that’s what I saw.

Vance: Eno, is the movement data for pitchers useful to compare to past years?

Eno Sarris: If you use Brooks, yes. Part of the reason we use them now on our pages.

Connor: What ever happened to Brett Lawrie

Eno Sarris: His 14-pack multiplied until he was just one big abdomen.

Eno Sarris: Seriously, I’d guess that people decided he wasn’t good in the clubhouse (I thought he was just garden variety bro), his D wasn’t great, and he had such a weakness against breaking balls that he wasn’t a great signing.

Bob Villar: was offered Rendon for Buxton and either A Sanchez/B. Snell.  It’s not stupid to reject that, right?

Eno Sarris: You believe in Buxton, that’s fine.

2-D: As a driver of a manual transmission I like to experiment with shifter knob grips and my circle change has produced nice results lately.

Mathenaging: Slow offseason. Buster Olney’s kids probably think he got fired.

Hunky Dory: I have no fewer than two warm, cuddly cats sleeping with me as I remain wrapped in blankets, inside, while the Northeast is wrapped in blankets of snow, outside.

Eno Sarris: Poetry.

Captain K: What are some good indicators of future reliever success? Looking for potential fantasy sleepers.

Eno Sarris: Strikeouts and velocity for fantasy. Main thing. But deeper, I think standout pitches are actually worth pursuing, at least for real-life team front offices. If you look at how the Orioles built their pen, it looks like a collection of oddities, standout weirdo pitches. They’ve been great.

Michæl: What do you see Wilmer Difo’s role being in 2018? What about long term?

Eno Sarris: Infield utility, possible cheap meh starting two B after Murphy leaves.

Slamboni: Do you think all the hype with Fernando tatit Jr is legit? I mean he dud crush AA last year… as a freaking 18 year old

Eno Sarris: Yeah for sure. Major question is if he’s going to play first. If he plays first, he could be the rare top ten prospect that may not give much defensive value.

Jake: The Padres’ beat writer said that the team’s offer is actually lower than the rumored 7 year, $140 million price tag and that the Padres don’t plan to bump their offer up all that much from where it is. Who is fibbing for leverage? Boras? The Padres? Another team? All parties involved?

Eno Sarris: In this case, and in many many many cases when it comes to rumors, usually the agent. Gotta love the agents, though, they have their clients backs even more than the dang MLBPA.

Mathenaging: Which Nick Williams, Rhys Lightnin’, Odubel, Altherr loses the most playing time next year with the Stanton signing?

Eno Sarris: As a righty, probably Altherr.

DBRuns: In Ottoneau format, who wins in a trade of an $11 Justin Smoak for a $5 Jesse Winker?

Eno Sarris: Winker.

kris: acuna for Goldschmidt and kluber?  How was that allowed?

Eno Sarris: Most of my leagues allow all trades. The guy who traded away Goldy and Kluber has won like three straight years.

Brett: What would a Yelich to the A’s trade look like?  Barreto/Luzardo/Shore/Montas?

Eno Sarris: Is that enough?

Nickles: Is Cole worth including Andujar, Adams and Frazier?

Eno Sarris: Floor wise, he offers a lot, but also: there’s a chance that a different approach to his secondaries and his fastball allows him to breakout. A ton of sliders, curves, and even more changeups… he could strike out more guys.

Sandy Ravage: Baseball question and a beer statement: Baseball – should my Rangers roll with Deshields in LF this year? I feel like he’s vastly underrated. Beer – If you ever come through Arkansas, get Lost Forty’s Snake Party. Double IPA that is astounding.

Eno Sarris: He’s the starting CF! Calhoun in left. DDSJ is a good player, better than his demeanor and work ethic seems to have predicted. That’s part of why people underrated him. Thanks!

Rick Souddress: Heaney’s return was really hyped last season before he promptly gave up every home run in the entire universe. Do you think he’ll be closer to his ’15 or ’17 performance this year?

Eno Sarris: He had to deal with both the post TJ command downturn as well as newfound velocity. He got a lot of whiffs and strikeouts. I think he’ll be a decent play this year, especially in deeper leagues. A little more feel for his fastball and change is all he needs.

Nickles: Do you believe Nola is a #1 type for a staff in a 16 team leaguer?

Eno Sarris: Yes.

Eno Sarris:

OddBall Herrera: If you had a free weekend and wanted to catch games at a couple different ballparks that are close together, what would you choose?  SF/Oak, ChC/ChW, Bal/Wash or LAA/LAD?  Leaning towards no on Chicago because there appears to be a big markup on Cubs tickets on StubHub…

Eno Sarris: Personally Bal/Wash because I haven’t done Washington and both are interesting nice parks. Oakland is a terrible park, as terrible as ATT is nice. LAA not very close to LAD actually, and an underratedly terrible park.

Bort: Help me get excited about Jharel Cotton’s upside in 2018.

Eno Sarris: His old pitching coach was telling him to throw low in the zone and he has a high spin high ride fastball and those pitches get murdered low in the zone.

Sleepy: RE:  M’s playing Powell off CF

Sleepy: Prolly shouldn’t use the M’s player development tactics as a baseline for anything…

Eno Sarris: lol

Matt: Baseball revenues are up and teams are spending less. This is because of the Luxury Tax, and falls at the feel of the union. Anyone who is looking at that trend as a problem with the ownership is focusing on the wrong thing. Teams are willing to spend for what they want, but don’t want to spend what they don’t need to. Its natural, good business, and exactly the thing that the Luxury Tax was designed to do. /rant

Eno Sarris: yup.

Tim: Curious to hear your thoughts on Dillon Peters.  Any fantasy upside there in a deep dynasty league?

Eno Sarris: Weird pitches. Lots of sink but not much wiggle or velo. I think maybe reliever.

Ryan B: Eno, that earthquake wake you up last night?? Scared the s*** out of me.e

Eno Sarris: Woke me up but I saw it was minor pretty quick. I was okay with it but cats were all upright. Then I sneezed and all the cats went flying.

Eno Sarris: 4.4, centered in Berkeley for those that don’t live around here.

CyGrips: How do you look at when certain positions drop off?  I recently tried to do it based on subtracting the two values of projected slot to return value minus the ADP.  This showed me + or – values at certain rounds per position.  Is there a better way?

Eno Sarris: that’s pretty good. We once did it visually by looking at auction values graphically and looking for tiers.

Floyd: Are you in on Chris Stratton for 2018?

Eno Sarris: Yes, actually. It’s a straight fastball, but he showed some sinkers that were interesting, the curve and fastball are both high spin — though I can’t prove that this is good in the numbers — and if he starts throwing his secondaries a little more, he could be a two breaking ball, good home play at least.

Daniel Castro: I’ll buy you a beer if you write an article about how I’m going to mash next year if a team lets me play everyday.

Eno Sarris: Projected to be 41% worse than league average but, sure, dude’s a horse.

Sonny: I’m all in on Jharel again this year. All those rolled over CH that ate up Healy are going to Chapman this summer and its gonna be niceeeee

Eno Sarris: Defense has to be part of it too. Had one of the lowest exit velocities, one of the biggest xwOBA – wOBA disparities.

Reykjavic Puffins: I know people are clamoring for the Rockies to do more, but if McMahon, Dahl, and Tapia are the real deal, then the Rockies are better off saving the money for Arenado/Blackmon/D.J. extensions. Am I wrong?

Eno Sarris: I think looking at wRC+ to say that’s a bad lineup is missing something. I think park factors don’t necessarily work really well for Coors.

2-D: Obviously rosters aren’t final yet but which team projection are you most at odds with right now?

Eno Sarris: are the Nationals the 9th-best team in baseball? Maybe I’m crazy.

jt: I’m in the middle of a snow hurricane. I hate everything.

Mike M: Bradley Zimmer vs Albert Almora Jr: who ya got? Settle a debate for a friend and I.

Eno Sarris: Brad’s got the tools, but Almora the contact. I love contact. I’ll take Almora, but Brad’s got the better ceiling.

ohtani kitaen: Good thing about working from home:  you never leave home.  Bad thing about working from home:  you never leave work.

jt: How long before we see another playoff run from Toronto? If you snark that the Raptors will make it this year, of course, I’m snatching your chat away from you with my hands in the fist and gun position:

Eno Sarris: They’ve got a few really interesting positional prospects coming up that are very close. Alford, Teoscar will be here this year. How much will they spend on pitching to supplement? Will they buy pitching in anticipation of those bats coming up or be more reactive? They aren’t the type of team to spend a lot… Maybe they trade Donaldson for major leaguers with more control time and are competitive again in two or three years?

Bert Campaneris: As I begin creating my draft board for the upcoming season, how much stock should I put in statcast data? I did not do it last year. What suggested data should I add, if so?

Eno Sarris: It’s made its way into the projections on our site, you may not want to do much at the risk of double counting.

Dirty Sanchez: Settle an argument I’ve having with my wife. Would you rather receive a fart directly in the ear or directly in the nose? No prior knowledge of the characteristics of said fart.

Eno Sarris: Ear man, ear. Smells worth than it sounds.

Hannah Hochevar: We shouldn’t say a player isn’t “worth” X amount of dollars/years. They are people and therefore priceless.

Eno Sarris: It’s true, but without shorthand this chat would get cumbersome quick.

Cole: How do you feel about Jesse Winker for 2018?

Eno Sarris: Not sure about all that power, but even with less power, the Reds need to make room for him so he can hit atop that lineup.

Erik: What are some good quick sandwiches I can make in the morning to take into work, that won’t be all gross and soggy by the time I eat lunch?

Eno Sarris: Separate your ingredients. one baggy with meats and vegetables and cheese, one with bread. small condiments at work… doable?

LoMo: Prediction on where Logan Morrison ends up? Projection?

Eno Sarris: Behind JDM and Hosmer somewhere? Royals?

Alex: Mike trouts shortened ~7 war season got me thinking what were some of the best 120ish game seasons ever, and in looking it seemed like a disproportionate amount came in the 1994 and 1981 strike shortened seasons. Is this coincidence as there were some stellar numbers being amassed, or does the truncated amount of games affect the war formula? (Jeff bagwell in 1994 btw, dear lord)

Eno Sarris: The thing is that WAR is a counting stat but it can be negative. So players that started hot in strike shortened years never had that cool down period that dried out their WAR total. I think that’s a little different than being hurt.

Dans-who?: What’s up with Swanson this year? I know it takes some guys a while but he was yikes last year.

Eno Sarris: I think the problem is with patience/aggression. Probably needs to be more aggressive to regain the thump on his batted balls, even at the cost of his walk rate.

LoMo: Does Logan Morrison make some sense in Colorado? How about the Mets, Padres, or Royals (if they miss out on Hosmer)?

Eno Sarris: yeah that’s where I was looking. Colorado a chance too.

Upton Sr.: Matt Olson – O/U 30 bombs

JD Martin: Over/under on 35 Matt Olson dongs?

Eno Sarris: Man I’m going to go over on both.

Erik: The whole point of Hosmer is that he’s super young for a free agent, right? I’m not particularly pro-Hosmer, but I feel like the anti-Hosmer people are ignoring how young he is for a free agent. Free agent prices are a lot less crazy when you’re getting a guy’s prime years, rather than just his decline.

Eno Sarris: It’s true, but there’s only so far you can take that. It’s baked into the projections after all.

Alex: What’d you think of that Home Run Derby VR at the owner’s meeting? Also, when are we getting a Fangraphs app?

Eno Sarris: I really enjoyed it. Once I figured out that contact was easy, I just swung as hard as I could, looked cool.

CarrotJuice: Grade each Cubs signing: Chatwood, Morrow, Cishek.

Eno Sarris: A, B-, B.

the lawrie: bro i’m fine

Drake: Did Samardzija learn a curve when joining the giants or was it an old pitch but modified, or is he tricking the system?

Eno Sarris: Had a curve, but returned to it for called strikes and homer suppression.

Eno Sarris:

Gub Gub: What do you think Franchy is short for?  I say Franchington

John S: Tatis playing first? I think you made the other junior Vlad.  Tatis will end up at third.

Eno Sarris: oooh poops. Yeah I was talking about Vlad. Tatis? Yeah I think he’ll be a 60 or 65 future value after the year he had. Legit.

Richard: As we’re giving Ryan unsolicited advice anyways, I think he should target player agents.  Seems to be more an untapped market and much easier to prove your worth by writing up tailored pitches for some of their players.  Could always make the jump to MLB later.

Eno Sarris: Yeah I’ve been thinking the same thing myself. Agent analytics need a little bit of help right now.

Luke: Tom only won 2 out of 3 years, I won last year and will again this year 🙂

Eno Sarris: Lol just trying to point out dude is not crazy bad, just crazy.

Closers: Is Addison Reed more appealing than Greg Holland?

Eno Sarris: I’d prefer Reed. I see Holland as a fairly high injury risk. Lost his slider for a good portion of last year.

Matt: Was just talking to a friend of mine and we’re trying to figure out if there’s a potential Archer-to-the-Phillies trade fit out there. Given his contract, even if the Phillies headline a deal with Sixto and Kinger (plus say, Nick Williams), would that be enough?

Eno Sarris: It might be but the Phillies have money. I don’t think they need a cheap ace.

The old professor: Bogaerts, Didi or Semien.. no costs associated

Eno Sarris: Didi, but X has the ceiling if ever changes his launch angle.

Billy Beane: Don’t know if it’s your jam but the Flobots diss track about that dumb kid that posted a video of himself joking about a suicide victim was dope. And it wasn’t even related! It was just him making a dumb rip-off of their song that they posted a week before he made everyone hate him!

CyGrips: Gary Sanchez just taken at the turn (1st round) in NFBC draft champions! whoa!

Eno Sarris: Went all in before last year where I could. Not selling.

Alonso: Is this new Yonder Alonso here to stay? CLE seems like a nice landing spot for him to repeat.

Eno Sarris: Even the lesser second half had a better launch angle and results than his previous career.

Dominik: What is the chance that we see an fangraphs x-rated night chat  with you drinking a couple of beers and talking your off the air language?

Eno Sarris: There is that one podcast. You’ll have to find it tho.

Erik: Could you explain briefly why you’re supposed to spend much more on hitters than pitchers in an auction draft? I kept my budgets around 50/50 last year and did quite well, but did I just get lucky?

Eno Sarris: Pitchers get hurt more often, stay hurt longer, and miss their projections more often.

Dan: Any insights into how batted ball profiles age?  I remember reading this interesting analysis of Starling Marte in 2015 that lauded his batted ball profile, but also left me thinking that his production is so dependent on his high BABIP that a small drop in strength/speed as he ages could push his production off a cliff.  Now that he’s 29 and no longer juicing (presumably), do you think that cliff is approaching?

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/starling-marte-and-the-quest-for-the-p…

Eno Sarris: You only hit more fly balls for a little bit, so yeah, starting out with a really low fly ball rate is not good for your power aging.

Eno Sarris: This is also relevant to Christian Yelich.

Snarfle: Any things that make you go hmmm that you’ve seen in the projections?

Lizard King: What kind of season do you think we can expect from Miles Mikolas in STL?

Eno Sarris: He was so standout in Japan… i’m going to get some shares.

Matt: What is the deal with lack of McCutchen interest? Could make sense for SF,CLE,ARI,SEA,TOR…etc. He has rebounded to being quite good and $15M isn’t much(maybe PIT could eat some cash too). 3-4 WAR would bring these team into contention.

Eno Sarris: One year of control I guess.

Snarfle: Ranking of works in which a white whale plays a central role:
1. Moby Dick, Herman Melville
2. Baby Beluga, Raffi

Jethro: To my great chagrin, a doctor recently said I may have a low gluten tolerance and suggested I cut it for a period to see. Do you know of any good gluten free beers or generally-available breweries that you like that brew them?

Eno Sarris: Stone delicious?

Lizard King: Over/Under on these stats for Miles Mikolas in 2018: 150 IP, 4.00 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 120 K’s

Eno Sarris: I’ll take better. Went to a good park, has two good breakers and ostensibly good command of a 93 mph fastball.

Barnold: Its cold in Florida.  Not cold like the Northeast or anything, but cold enough to go outside after taking the garbage out and say “Dang!  Next time I go out there, I’m putting on a sweatshirt!”

Snarfle: Do players get nervous when they bunt about having their fingers so close to the ball? I would be. Especially if bunting wasn’t really my thing.

Eno Sarris: Yes

Tim Tebow’s Thunder Thighs: Despite your famously developed pallet, do you ever indulge in childish, guilty pleasures?  Chicken nuggets, pizza rolls, frozen Jimmy Dean sandwiches?  I love me some nugs.

Eno Sarris: Fish sticks!

Snarfle: Jose Peraza is just another guy that we dream on because he would he so good if could hit a little, right?

Eno Sarris: Basically billy hamilton redux.

Wes: Does Profar start for the Rangers, sit the bench, or get traded? No options left.

Eno Sarris: Traded.

Barnold: What about Nick Tropeano?

Eno Sarris: Like him, and as the sixth guy in that rotation, he’ll pitch.

Estevao: Matt Holliday had wRC+ of 139, 151 and 141 as a Rockie, their overall batting WAR was 13.7, 12.1 belonged to Charlie and Nolan, the rest of the hitters amounted for 1.6 WAR

Eno Sarris: Park has changed some since.

Dan: How is it even legal for Yandy Diaz to have those arms and not hit a bajillion home runs?

https://goo.gl/images/i3SMLg

Eno Sarris: Launch angle! But yeah.

Stanley: I’ve never read anywhere the idea that Tatis Jr. would play first base. Most believe SS is possible, but 3B is likely. May I ask your source?

Eno Sarris: scroll up, I was talking Vlad.

Tommy Tutone: Eno talk to me about Teoscar Hernandez…what do you think his numbers look like this year?  And why are Zips and Streamer so low on his average?  Based on his minor leagues numbers isn’t .255 a reasonable outcome for batting average?

Eno Sarris: It’s a lot of strikeouts and fly balls and you don’t really project a minor leaguer into a plus major league BABIP until he does it.

Q-Ball: If you visit both ballparks in Chicago, though, you don’t need to rent a car or park, so there’s that…

Buddy: Break it to me easy. I love Ozzie Albies and traded a lot to get him in a keep forever league. When factoring in that I have great SP/RP depth how badly did I overpay? Albies & Jesus Lazardo for Danny Duffy, Ken Giles and Mike Soroka

Eno Sarris: You did fine. I always overpay in arms for bats.

Jimmers: Sup Eno, would you rank A-Rod’s 1st big contract as the top 100 mil dollar contract in baseball history? 7 years, 158 mil and 56.9 WAR

Eno Sarris: Yes.

Eno Sarris: It’s the standard.

Desperate, confused Marlins fan: Olson had a .238 BAPIP with a .259 average with a high K rate, can that average come up? those numbers tell me he pops up alot, right?

Eno Sarris: More in the minors. Last year just above average pop ups. Could BABiP .260-.280 even with current skills.

Billy Beane: Does Sonny Gray have 2 pitches or 8 pitches? Because I honestly can’t tell.

Eno Sarris: Wrote a whole piece about that. But as Greinke once said to me, if you can’t tell, does he really have them?

Batman: Remember how much everyone was hyping J. Cotton last year because of 1 pitch? Fun to look back on.

Eno Sarris: uh everyone? I think that was just me, dude! Also, I like his fastball and cutter, which were both above average by results.

Acuna Matata: Over/Under….Acuna hits 20 bombs and steals 20 bags in 2018?

Eno Sarris: over maybe on the first, firmly under on the second.

DD: Who is going to be the closer for the Angels?

Eno Sarris: Parker?

Bert Campaneris: I want to see an Eno sandwich with doughnut buns. I’ll be looking for it on Twitterdotcom

Eno Sarris: oh man oh man oh man

Sonny: Can someone explain Yelich to me? He’s fine. Is it the contract that makes him so attractive? The idea that he could change LA? I’ll take Benintendi (20/20 in his rookie year) who may not reach ‘Perfectly tweaked Yelich’ heights

Eno Sarris: Contract, age, position. But yeah I think I’m with Ben.

Sonny: No one can talk trash about 2017 Cotton if they didn’t watch that brutal INF defense butcher his batted balls. Crushed his confidence. I’m on board big time 2018

Eli Whitney: Speaking of Jharel Cotton, think he is worth a 1$ flyer this year in some deep leagues?

Eno Sarris: yes

Eno Sarris: Hey! I’ll do some fantasy prep work before next chat to have more sleepers and breakout types ready. I’m a little behind because having the kids home for the holidays makes things tough. Thanks for hanging out!