FanGraphs After Dark Chat – 4/11/17

2:48
Paul Swydan:

What is your favorite kind of spread (that you would eat as a sandwich)?

Peanut butter (63.0% | 126 votes)
 
Almond butter (6.0% | 12 votes)
 
Cookie butter (2.5% | 5 votes)
 
Cream cheese (6.5% | 13 votes)
 
Nutella (10.5% | 21 votes)
 
Vegemite/Marmite (1.5% | 3 votes)
 
Sunbutter (0.5% | 1 vote)
 
Cashew Butter (1.5% | 3 votes)
 
Other spreadable cheese (3.5% | 7 votes)
 
Other (say in comments) (4.5% | 9 votes)
 

Total Votes: 200
2:49
Paul Swydan:

Which current position player WAR leader is most likely to be in the top 30 at the end of the season?

J.T. Realmuto (10.9% | 27 votes)
 
Khris Davis (20.7% | 51 votes)
 
Jay Bruce (5.2% | 13 votes)
 
Chase Headley (2.8% | 7 votes)
 
Ian Kinsler (43.9% | 108 votes)
 
All of them (0% | 0 votes)
 
None of them (16.2% | 40 votes)
 

Total Votes: 246
6:19
Paul Swydan:

What is tonight’s best matchup?

NYM (Harvey) vs. PHI (Buchholz) (10.0% | 22 votes)
 
STL (Lynn) vs. WAS (Gonzalez) (4.5% | 10 votes)
 
CIN (Davis) vs. PIT (Taillon) (2.2% | 5 votes)
 
MIL (Peralta) vs. TOR (Happ) (1.8% | 4 votes)
 
ATL (Colon) vs. MIA (Straily) (1.3% | 3 votes)
 
BAL (Bundy) vs. BOS (Pomeranz) (49.3% | 108 votes)
 
SD (Weaver) vs. COL (Senzatela) (6.3% | 14 votes)
 
TEX (Hamels) vs. LAA (Skaggs) (10.9% | 24 votes)
 
HOU (Musgrove) vs. SEA (Miranda) (1.8% | 4 votes)
 
ARI (Ray) vs. SF (Samardzija) (11.4% | 25 votes)
 

Total Votes: 219
9:00
Paul Swydan: Hi everybody!

9:01
Paul Swydan: Vegemite doesn’t have the least number of votes. What a time to be alive.

9:01
Jeff Zimmerman: Hi

9:02
Dahl Makhani: No hummus? Shame on your western-centric spread selection!

9:02
Jeff Zimmerman: Honey for the spread

9:02
jim,: meat spread

9:02
Paul Swydan: You eat honey sandwiches?

9:02
Paul Swydan: I have definitely NEVER seen a hummus sandwich, and I am Lebanese, so I have plenty of exposure to hummus.

9:02
Jeff Zimmerman: Yea

9:03
Paul Swydan: Well, OK. Learn something new every day.

9:03
BIG ED: Worried about Bregman’s rather mild start?

9:03
Paul Swydan: Nope. It’s a week.

9:03
Jeff Zimmerman: No

9:04
Paul Zimmerman: Dukes Mayo is best. Would you take Max and Moncada for Manny in a 10 team redraft. 3B and SS would be Castellano and Seager.

9:04
Paul Swydan: I’ll reiterate – this was for spreads you eat AS a sandwich, not ON a sandwich. I like my mayo, but not as the sole ingredient.

9:05
Paul Swydan: As for the trade q, I wouldn’t want Moncada in a redraft league, no.

9:05
Paul Swydan: And while I think you mean Max Scherzer, there’s another popular fantasy player named Max in Max Kepler, so…please be specific.

9:05
Jeff Zimmerman: Keep Machado

9:05
CaptainPeanutbutter: If you were given 200 points (on the 20-80 scouting scale) to build a pitcher, how would you distribute them? For sake of this exercise you can’t choose knuckleballher?

9:07
Jeff Zimmerman: 50 for FB, CB, SL, and control. Bland, but a league average pitcher

9:07
Paul Swydan: 60 control/command, 60 fastball, 40 off-speed, 40 changeup

9:08
Paul Swydan: that’s pretty tough, unless you didn’t want us to use points for control/command

9:08
CaptainPeanutbutter: wtf is cookie butter?

9:08
Jeff Zimmerman: Yea

9:08
Paul Swydan: It’s gross. It’s something just north of cookie dough, I think. I dunno, Trader Joe’s sells it. But people like it.

9:09
Hannah Hochevar: I know they can’t all be Mookie Bettses, but was Carson’s Yandy Diaz optimism a little misplaced?

9:09
Paul Swydan: No, few people deliberate things for a longer period of time than Carson. If he believes in Yandy Diaz, you can trust he thought about it for a long time and had good reasons.

9:09
Jeff Zimmerman: Carson’s optimism is always misplaced

9:10
Yangervis Solarte: What does my ceiling look like?

9:11
Paul Swydan: I think we saw it last year.

9:11
Jeff Zimmerman: That white popcorn stuff

9:11
4min33: Pesto

9:11
Paul Swydan: Man, either people really didn’t understand the question, or I am way out of the loop on what kind of sandwiches people eat.

9:12
snid: If trading one for a much need bat. Which? MadBum,Kershaw,or Sale ?

9:12
Paul Swydan: Even though he’s been great so far, you’d trade Sale. Always trade the AL pitcher.

9:12
Jeff Zimmerman: I might be a little slow tonight. I am watching a congressional race. I am in a heavy Red district and the Dem is up big early. People are freaking out.

9:13
Jeff Zimmerman: Agree with Sale

9:13
rich: would you drop either Ray or Bundy for Cotton?

9:13
Paul Swydan: No, not yet. If you have a caliber of pitcher worse than them, I’d drop that person for Cotton.

9:14
Jeff Zimmerman: I think all three have the same issue, innings. I think Cotton has the best chances of being shut down early

9:14
Sam: I just got offered Harper, Robbie Ray and Glasnow for my Maddy Bum, Edwin Diaz and JD Martinez. Its a 12 team Roto league and my other pitchers are Price, Maeda, Paxton, Teheran, Bundy, and Greinke. I almost want to pull the trigger, but my hitting isn’t terrible and I feel like i’ll miss Maddy. No idea what to do here. Who gets the better deal?

9:15
Paul Swydan: Leaning do it. Especially since we really don’t know when JD Martinez will come back.

9:16
Jeff Zimmerman: I don’t think I would do the trade. Ray and Glasnow are replaceable. Losing a top 20 bat, top 5 Starter, and top 5 closer for the ~5th best hitter

9:17
Paul Swydan: Hmm. Jeff makes good points. I am a little higher on Glasnow than I should be, also.

9:17
Matt: What level of fever dream would Noah Syndergaard look like as a closer? But seriously, and realistically, could he give Chapman a run for his money as most ridiculous pitch-for-pitch spectacle? What would the arsenal look like?

9:17
Paul Swydan: Yeah, he would. Hopefully we’ll never find out.

9:18
Jeff Zimmerman: It would be amazing.

9:18
Zeff Jimmerman: What happened to Walker? He looked great this spring with a sparkling K/BB ratio but has been really mediocre in his first two starts. Also looks like maybe his velo is down.

9:19
Paul Swydan: This spring, everyone in a MLB camp was pitching against far worse competition than usual due to the WBC. So what he did in the spring was even more completely irrelevant than it would normally be.

9:19
Jeff Zimmerman: He pitches for the DBacks?

9:19
Paul Swydan: Also, what Jeff said.

9:19
Jeff Zimmerman: I would put no stock the ST numbers.

9:19
Zeff Jimmerman: Which of these slow starts are you worried about: Bautista, Story, Broxton Rendon,Votto

9:20
Paul Swydan: If you’re making me pick, I guess Story or Broxton, because they has the least convincing track record. But not really any of them.

9:20
Jeff Zimmerman: One sec

9:21
Q-Ball: After 3 more Ks today, what do you do with Byron Buxton? AAA assignment to build confidence? What?

9:21
Paul Swydan: In the meantime, I’ll tackle this one. The answer is you do nothing.

9:21
Paul Swydan: Maybe some extra BP or something, but a demotion solves nothing.

9:22
Jeff Zimmerman: I have a formula looking at relevant early season approach/distance stats and all look decent. None

9:22
Q-Ball: With all the veteran Cuban player busts, Gurriel potentially being the latest one, is it possible that scouts vastly overrated the level of competition in Serie Nacional? Is it possible that Cuban baseball actually kind of sucks?

9:24
Paul Swydan: I don’t think the level of play is an issue. Eric Longenhagen wrote in the THT Annual we published in November about how the level of play is on the down slope. That is a known issue. I don’t think we can fully comprehend what it means to finally escape that island, and what it takes to be a productive player afterward.

9:24
Jeff Zimmerman: I think there are/were good players but old Cubans were some of the few players teams could really drop some money on. And speaking of players low on my early season rate, Gurriel is almost dead last

9:24
Paul Swydan: I also think teams that signing the older Cuban players have rushed them, to their detriment.

9:25
Zonk: Early division leaders include: BAL, LAA, MIN, ARI. Which of those do you believe in? Which is a mirage?

9:25
Paul Swydan: I don’t believe in any of them.

9:25
Jeff Zimmerman: Baltimore, that’s it.

9:25
Billy Beane: Jharel Cotton throws:
A. A Changeup
B. A Screwball
C. A Magnificent Work of Art
D. A & C
E. B & C

9:25
Jeff Zimmerman: D

9:25
Paul Swydan: C. Just ask him what he calls it, and let’s move on.

9:26
Jim Lonborg: Don’t want to overreact to one start, but this Pomeranz outing seems like a big deal with Price still out indefinitely. Would be awfully nice not to be counting on Wright.

9:26
Jeff Zimmerman: If healthy, Pom can be a useful pitcher. The key is health

9:27
Paul Swydan: He pitched well in warm, summer-like conditions. He only needed 91 pitches to get into the 7th. That’s all great. It’s still just one start, and the O’s did him a favor by starting two players who can’t really hit that well in Gentry and Mancini.

9:28
5 Run Homer: Yandy made a dandy (heh) play today, so Cistulli might not be dumb

9:28
Paul Swydan: Carson is smarter than all of us. That he chooses to make cases for unheralded players is more of a function of always looking for something other than what’s in our faces.

9:29
Jeff Zimmerman: Carson’s not dump

9:29
Wally: Over or under : Joe Ross’ true talent level is 3 WAR/yr?

9:29
Paul Swydan: I’ll take the over because I’m an optimist, but you set the bar pretty perfectly there.

9:30
Jeff Zimmerman: Under

9:30
Jeff Zimmerman: I see too much Tyson in him

9:31
CaptainPeanutbutter: ” After the cookies are baked to a fabulous finish, they’re crushed into a fine powder and mixed with magical ingredients (read: vegetable oils) and turned into a smooth, spreadable substance we call Cookie Butter.” Gross

9:31
Paul Swydan: Yeah, not a fan. But there you go – well north of cookie dough.

9:31
Yorba: What’s your earliest baseball memory? I remember being at a Yankees-Orioles game and seeing Thurman Munson hit one out.

9:32
Jeff Zimmerman: Like the “baked and crush”. Sounds like they tried to find a use for the broken cookies

9:32
Paul Swydan: Well, that’s uplifting, I guess. But it still tastes terrible.

9:33
Jeff Zimmerman: Royals games with a Willie Wilson out-of-the-park home run. I saw Willie hit another one out soon after that. He usually didn’t hit many HR’s

9:33
Paul Swydan: My earliest memory is going to Fenway for the first time. It was a night game in ’85. My dad bought me a program – I still had it until a couple of years ago. Seeing the lights reflect off the infield grass was the most perfect thing I had ever seen. I couldn’t tell you much about the game, but my dad let me stay home from school the next day, which was pretty awesome of him.

9:34
Paul Swydan: I didn’t really FOLLOW baseball though until late in ’87. My first poster was a Mark McGwire poster, followed closely by Mike Greenwell and Roger Clemens.

9:34
Paul Swydan: As such, I wasn’t scarred by the ’86 World Series. Lucky me.

9:35
Erik: Why not 80 FB, 50 offspeed, 70 command? Is that better or worse that 80 FB, 70 offspeed, 50 command (basically Chapman)?

9:35
Paul Swydan: Well, I was thinking starting pitcher, so I wanted three pitches. But sure, the Chapman route is pretty good too.

9:36
Jeff Zimmerman: I’d rather have an average starter than a great closer

9:36
Morris Buttermaker: When you say too much Tyson do you mean you worry about injury or you doubt the ability?

9:37
Jeff Zimmerman: This cat at Marlin’s Stadium is pretty cool.

9:38
Jeff Zimmerman: All fastball – slider, no command. Very much like Pineda. Sometimes great, most of the time not.

9:38
Forsyth: Paul’s impression of Pomeranz’s outing tonight?

9:38
Jeff Zimmerman: All yours Paul

9:39
Paul Swydan: I thought he was very good. I thought Farrell predictably stuck with him for longer than he should have. He gave you six innings of shutout ball. Be happy. Give your reliever a clean inning. But ole Johnny Farrell just couldn’t help himself.

9:40
Paul Swydan: The Orioles are booting/muffing play after play in this inning. I’d be a lot more embarrassed for them if I was paying closer attention.

9:40
Marcus Banks: Why are the Yankees off on a Tuesday?

9:40
Jeff Zimmerman: Home opener yesterday

9:40
Jeff Zimmerman: Royals the same way

9:40
Paul Swydan: Yup.

9:40
Paul Swydan: There’s always a day off after the home opener in case the opener is rained out.

9:41
Paul Swydan: At least for teams that have to worry about rain. Not all teams do, obviously.

9:41
CaptainPeanutbutter: is chicken/tuna salad a spread?

9:41
Paul Swydan: I guess if you want to get technical, sure, but that’s not really where I was going with the question.

9:41
Jeff Zimmerman: Paul?

9:41
Von Schloss: Autobots or Decepticons?

9:42
Paul Swydan: Autobots, obviously. How could you align yourself with that cheatin’ ass Starscream?

9:42
Jeff Zimmerman: Autobots, I could not stand Star Scream

9:42
Paul Swydan: AGREEMENTS!

9:42
Woodrow the Impaler: So I stopped taking my meds and I’ve noticed that if I squint real hard I can see Jose Martinez of the Cardinals turning into Joey Bats 2.0… please tell me that this isn’t just one of my psychotic hallucinations again because my 10 team NL keeper league team begs it to be true.

9:43
Jeff Zimmerman: Not happening

9:43
Paul Swydan: He seems like he could be a league-average player, which is saying a lot for a guy who only tallied 18 MLB PAs through his age-27 season. But the next Bautista? No, can’t go that far, sorry.

9:45
CaptainPeanutbutter: what? the deceptions were the best! They can fly!

9:45
CaptainPeanutbutter:

9:46
Paul Swydan: Yeah, they could, and that was cool. But I still vote Autobots.

9:46
Paul Zimmerman…: I’ll eat a Duke’s Mayo sandwich. The question is would you be satisfied with a pitching staff made up of Sale/DeGrom/McCullers/Morton/Lynn/Lackey and Sonny Gray and David Price on the DL?

9:46
Jeff Zimmerman: Skyfire was an autobot

9:47
Jeff Zimmerman: I think that is standard in a 12-team league, great in a deeper league

9:47
Paul Swydan: I’d still be happy with it in a standard league.

9:48
CaptainPeanutbutter: skyfire was an autobot, turned decepticon, turned back autobot, if you want to get technical.

9:48
Paul Swydan: I didn’t, but thanks, haha.

9:48
Jeff Zimmerman: No I didn’t but now I know and knowing is half the battle.

9:48
Sean Manea: What do you make of me after 2 starts?

9:49
Paul Swydan: So far so good!

9:49
Jeff Zimmerman: OK, health will always be an issue. Also, I have never seen you throw great, even when you were in college.

9:49
Ken Tremendous: Transformers suck.

9:50
CaptainPeanutbutter: (I like transformers A LOT) if you couldn’t tell.

9:50
Paul Swydan: Do not. Michael Bay might have taken it too far, but that’s on him, not the Transformers.

9:51
Pikup Androppov: Who strikes out more batters this season Sale or McCullers?

9:51
Jeff Zimmerman: Sale on innings throw

9:51
Paul Swydan: I’ll say Sale. But if McCullers stays healthy, it’ll be close.

9:52
Bassitt of Deplorables: Who is the best player you would refuse to draft on the grounds he’s too boring? (I assume entertainment value IS a factor for most people…I may be wrong)

9:53
Jeff Zimmerman: I’ll draft anyone if they’re a good price. Have you seen my boring ass Tout Wars team?

9:53
Paul Swydan: I wouldn’t not draft a player because he’s boring. I’ve not drafted people because I don’t like them or (back in the day) because they were Yankees, but never because of a boredom factor. If anything, that might make them steals.

9:53
Mr Puddlesworth: I have to assume people are only picking vegemite as the hipster contrarian option

9:53
Paul Swydan: Who knows – maybe it’s really good. Don’t knock it before you rock it.

9:54
Jeff Zimmerman: Or they’ll consume beer anyway they can

9:54
anonymous: What is the most practical, cost-effective alternative to rigging up multiple TVs to follow simultaneous baseballery?

9:54
Paul Swydan: MLB.tv?

9:54
Paul Swydan: Four games on 1 screen

9:54
Jeff Zimmerman: Yep

9:54
Jake: My GF hasn’t texted me back for a full 2 hours and I’m concerned it may be because she’s a Clay Buchholz fan. How long should I wait before calling 911?

9:55
Jeff Zimmerman: Give her a few days

9:55
Paul Swydan: If she’s really a Clay Buchholz fan and isn’t related to him, I mean, maybe you don’t want to text her back at all. Just sayin’.

9:55
Nick: What is your prognosis on King Felix ROY?

9:56
Paul Swydan: Nick, we say ROS – rest of season. ROY stands for Rookie of the Year. Don’t confuse us like that.

9:56
Jeff Zimmerman: I don’t know for sure, tough to tell after seeing his talent drop that past few seasons.

9:57
Paul Swydan: Again, not willing to read much into performance just yet.

9:57
Lance Chips: I like Peter Pan peanut butter. It’s legit, yo. What you think about this trade…Miggy Cabrera/Neftali/DeGrom for Max Scherzer and Wade Davis. Is Max a big enough upgrade from DeGrom to do that? I could use the big closer upgrade.

9:58
Paul Swydan: I wouldn’t do that. I don’t think Scherzer is a big enough upgrade to justify giving away Miggy like that.

9:58
Jeff Zimmerman: No way. If you need a closer, but try to trade for Davis and ignore the rest of the pieces.

9:58
Sterling Mallory Chris Archer: Thoughts on the first Archer ep last week?

9:59
Jeff Zimmerman: He threw pretty good for the Rays.

9:59
Paul Swydan: I enjoyed it! I think the notion that they were able to pull Archer out of that pool in any sort of alive state is a little far fetched, but beyond that, the story seems fun.

9:59
CaptainPeanutbutter: Did you see the cubs game last night? Those hats were…yuck. Not a big fan of the gross on the side or the gold majigger on the top. Gold numbers/names were alright. You’d think they’d have a less gross hat to try to sell.

10:00
Paul Swydan: I’m sorry, I missed this. What did the Cubs do to their hats?

10:00
Jeff Zimmerman: So it will sell a ton.

10:01
Vinny Chase: Name the best and worst stadiums you have been to…please?

10:02
Paul Swydan: Best: Fenway, Coors Field, old Yankee Stadium

10:02
Paul Swydan: Worst: Olympic Stadium, Three Rivers, Chase Field (when the roof is closed)

10:03
Jeff Zimmerman: Kauffman – best, Chase – worst (but cheap beer) . Sadly, Fenway is great historically, but not great once in your seat.

10:03
Paul Swydan: Chase Field is a totally different and average place when the roof is open, but when the roof is closed, it’s like playing a game in an abandoned warehouse.

10:03
Paul Swydan: You’ll have to sit in my seats next time, Jeff. There are some seats that aren’t the old wooden kind.

10:04
Jeff Zimmerman: Sounds good.

10:04
Paul Swydan: Well, OK, are they wearing those in games? I think those are great. I’d like all teams to go back to wearing this kind of uni when they’re the champs:

10:05
Jeff Zimmerman: I expected worse

10:06
Paul Swydan: “I expected worse” is probably the motto of this chat, so before we dig ourselves any deeper, we’re going to call it a night. Thanks, as always, for hanging out. We’ll see you next week…if vacation week doesn’t consume us whole!

10:07
Jeff Zimmerman: Bye





Paul Swydan used to be the managing editor of The Hardball Times, a writer and editor for FanGraphs and a writer for Boston.com and The Boston Globe. Now, he owns The Silver Unicorn Bookstore, an independent bookstore in Acton, Mass. Follow him on Twitter @Swydan. Follow the store @SilUnicornActon.

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Robertmember
6 years ago

My wife isn’t Lebanese, but has spent a good amount of time in Lebanon. I don’t know if she picked this up there, but she makes delicious hummus sandwiches with sundried tomatoes. You should try it Paul!

That being said, she also thinks peanut butter is disgusting. Peanut butter would be my pick over cream cheese (a bagel for breakfast is a sandwich) and hummus.