Meg Rowley FanGraphs Chat – 5/5/20

Meg Rowley: Hi everyone, and welcome to the chat.

Meg Rowley: I hope everyone is doing well, at least in COVID-19 adjusted terms.

Meg Rowley: A couple of things to highlight – first, Dan’s KBO ZiPS projections are live! https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2020-zips-projected-standings-korean-baseb…

Meg Rowley: Tony recapped the ESPN opener: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-wait-is-over-in-the-kbo/

Meg Rowley: Jay has Part 2 of his interview with Dan Kurtz: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/nothing-lost-in-translation-meet-dan-kurtz…

Meg Rowley: In non-KBO news, Eric is doing a video series cutting together his Diamondmind play and instructs video. The “pilot” dropped yesterday: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/yeomans-work-pilot/

brad: Meg, Let’s say baseball opens on July 1, and then a week later a player tests positive….then what????

Meg Rowley: Then what indeed. This is a place where testing and contact tracing are very important (one of many) – you’d need to test everyone they’ve come in contact with. You’d need to quarantine a great many people. At least some of the games would need to be postponed.

Meg Rowley: In all likelihood, most if not all play shuts down.

Sir Nerdlington: Thank you and the team for all the content. I can’t find the energy to consume news any longer so I appreciate the escape you guys provide.

Meg Rowley: I’m so glad to hear that it has been a welcome distraction.

Meg Rowley: We really appreciate you reading the site!

Lunar verLander: This is a reminder that Mother’s day is in 5 days. That is all.

Meg Rowley: For those who have relationships with their moms, call your mom! Especially this year! She’s worried about you! For those who don’t, sorry for this weird day. I hope you find a fun alternative thing to do while safe at home.

Short term memories: Cant pick which to watch next: The Sopranos, Silicon Valley, or Bobs burgers. Any advice?

Meg Rowley: The Sopranos. It’s a commitment but it is worth it.

Becko: I think your first instinct was right: it has to be the card in the museum and not the hat, since the hat was fictional. Or at least the hat on the card was. And that’s the hat that you’d want in the museum, were it extant.

Meg Rowley: Becko is referencing this very fun episode of EW, in which Sam, Ben, and I each drafted five things from our lifetimes to put in the Hall of Fame:

Meg Rowley: I should have just picked his backwards cap to keep the category clean, but that’s ok. Not the silliest mistake I made that episode!

Whatta Shame: Babe Ruth never got a chance to manage a team, but his playing career was extended because his mere presence sold tickets and brought interest. How did that not also apply to managerial position? Would you consider him not getting a job in the sport after his playing days as one of the great injustices in the sport’s history?

Meg Rowley: No, not really. The color barrier was intact until 1947. Injustice has a pretty high bar to clear.

Meg Rowley: Your millage can certainly vary on how important the off-field stuff should have been in determining whether he got a managerial opportunity, but especially given the time, it isn’t that surprising.

Aceman: Is there any thought of publishing more Community Research articles?Would be a way to add a little more content at no cost,no

Meg Rowley: We’ve been publishing them (as you might imagine, the queue is a lighter than usual given the hiatus)! We’ve thought of the community blog as a separate endeavor from the work of contributors and our staff, and I think that’s the right instinct – the work is trying to accomplish a different thing and its editorial oversight is looser than work that say, Jay or Craig produces.

Meg Rowley: The value for the writers is getting feedback on research in progress. It isn’t meant to backfill work paid writers would do.

Archer: Do you have a KBO team of choice? If so, how did you pick them?

Meg Rowley: The Giants, mostly because of Sung Min and Josh, partly because the team has been fairly ineffectual of late, which, as a reformed Mariners fan, feels very cozy.

2-D: Do you think there’s a chance they could push back the three batter minimum rule until next year? Or is this the kinda thing we should be doing open to trying in a non-traditional season?

Meg Rowley: I think since it has already been agreed to, it is unlikely to be rolled back, especially since teams will almost certainly have expanded rosters.

RAH: Are you tired because you watched KBO baseball, or is this general wear down from never ending quarantine?

Meg Rowley: Mostly the KBO

Meg Rowley: My experience of the quarantine wear down has mostly been concentrated on Saturday’s (weeeee). I think my brain has resisted the stress of (gestures at all the things) this during the week when I have to keep FanGraphs plugging along.

Meg Rowley: Saturday everything unclenches, sort of like how I always got a migraine the first day after finals in college. Real cool use of limited downtime, let me tell you.

Rick Murphy: I’m in a horrible mood for no reason. Do you have any cures?

Meg Rowley: I don’t offer this as a substitute for actual meds/therapy if things are more serious, but generally doing something that requires me to focus on physical activity helps me because it takes me out of my brain a little – I like to weed my yard or go for a run, but honestly, a walk around the block, or even just cooking something a little more involved.

Meg Rowley: Also, just speaking for myself, I have felt at times lately a pressure to be Ok because relative to so many, I am. But also, this is an awful, stressful, scary thing – reacting to it with stress or anxiety or grumpiness isn’t pathology imo. It’s just being alive.

ResumeMan: Do you know what the best way is to time-shift the KBO games without cable? Can you do that on ESPN+?

Meg Rowley: I know that ESPN is going to do rebroadcasts, which I assume you’ll be able to stream?

Meg Rowley: https://espnpressroom.com/us/press-releases/2020/05/espn-reaches-agree…

2-D: Did you watch the KBO last night? If so what did you think?

Meg Rowley: That it felt really wonderful to have baseball on, and that I am surprised they didn’t make an LA crew do that game (they did a good job, it was just so late!).

Meg Rowley: It felt very, very good to have a game on

Jeff: Francisco Lindor is a HOF talent at SS who will hit FA in his prime. How much can teams definitelynot collude him down to while crying lost revenues?

Meg Rowley: Way too early to know – he’s not a free agent after this year. I think the top of the market is likely to mostly be fine – the rest of these dudes, less so.

BarryBondsJuicedForOurSins: In retrospect, a 31-year-old Michael Jordan strolling into AA and hitting over .200 and stealing 30 bases might be his greatest accomplishment.

Meg Rowley: Ehhhhh… It’s not unimpressive given what else he was doing and his age and inexperience relative to the level, but

David: Watching KBO and participating in the chat with Ben last night was amazing. Dixon Machado is going to be a difference maker for Lotte. And plus Lotte is located in Busan, the coastal city of Korea. Perfect fit you for you Meg

Meg Rowley: Plus, I might have a cool-ass hat making its way to me .

Meg Rowley: Really all-in on the Giants.

E: Are you caught up on the current season of Survivor?

Meg Rowley: Don’t watch survivor. I’m not much of reality TV fan. I watched Laguna Beach and The Hills back in the day, and I watched The Bachelor one season because a woman I went to high school with was on (she won!), and then that year that all of baseball twitter seemed to, but it’s not my bag.

Jimmy P: Will my partner Heater and I ever be able to snuggle up at a baseball game in 2020?

Meg Rowley: Would be very surprised. 2021 maybe though!

Chuck: Which current player would be elite in another sport? Other than Mookie and bowling.

Meg Rowley: Amir Garrett was a four-star basketball recruit.

Meg Rowley: So he comes most immediately to mind.

Meg Rowley: Jordyn Adams, in the Angels system, was going to play wide receiver at North Carolina, but then blew up NHSI tournament and got enough in the draft to sign.

Mountie Votto: Biggest potential winner of the shuffled divisions with DH? Reds? Dodgers?

Meg Rowley: One Craig Edwards is going to write on the very subject of the DH for FanGraphs dot com tomorrow, so I’ll let him answer, but my instinct is the Dodgers

Meg Rowley: Mets/Nationals might be sneaky up there

2-D: Are chats during KBO games going to be a regular thing?

Meg Rowley: Not super regular just given the timing, but perhaps if there is enough interest that emerges?

BarryBondsJuicedForOurSins: You gotta say who the Bachelor winner is now, you know this

Meg Rowley: Catherine Lowe

Meg Rowley: Think she and her husband had their third kid pretty recently – seem to be doing well. The rare Bachelor success story!

MikeM: Any idea what happens to players with vesting options tied to ABs or IPs if there is not season?

Meg Rowley: When Passan originally reported it, he indicated it would be prorated for the number of games played, like salary, assuming there’s a season. Of course, we know that the owners now want salary concessions, so  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯?

Meg Rowley: I imagine they’ll end up prorated.

Mountie Votto: Do we have any inclination when the transaction freeze will lift?

Meg Rowley: Imagine a few days before the start of spring training 2.0

David: KBO is like a blast from the past. More balls in play, more situational hitting, less about the 3-outcomes that we’ve been accustomed to in today’s MLB.

David: Also, a guy like Warren Saupold who couldn’t last in the Tigers roster gets to be a star in the KBO. CG, 2 hitter, 0 ER game last night for the Hanhwa Eagles!!

Meg Rowley: It was so nice to see something different. I think the point Dan Kurtz made in his interview with Jay about how the KBO should be appreciated for what it actually is, instead of always being compared to MLB is a good one.

BarryBondsJuicedForOurSins: I don’t know who that is.  Reality TV is one of the five reasons we are we are right now.  I hate it.  I hate a lot of things these days.

Meg Rowley: Ok! Not sure why you’d ask then, but ok! It’s not a thing you have to like. Like I said, it isn’t really for me either. Catherine is nice, though.

Sean Huff-Scheidel: Anyone else watching the rebroadcast of Jeopardy GOAT for the next two weeks? It certainly *feels* like a sport while there aren’t many to watch

Meg Rowley: I’ve been watching the old eps that are on Netflix.

Meg Rowley: It’s fun and so normal, and Alex Trebek so earnest and lovely.

Meg Rowley: Also, his voice would be a great ASMR podcast.

Meg Rowley: Highly recommend.

Geust: Chat-specific movie rec: Train to Busan.  Fast-paced zombie movie form South Korea that has a baseball player as one of the heroes and was partially influenced by the 2015 MERS outbreak there.

Geust: Maybe a little too on the head for some right now, but if you like a good horror flick…

Geust: Or is the saying on the nose?

Meg Rowley: On the nose!

Meg Rowley: But with zombies, they’d probably be fine with either!

Meg Rowley: Neither are as good as brains, but…

Meg Rowley: One thing I’d say: don’t watch Contagion. Don’t read Zone One. I mean do, but not right now.

Meg Rowley: If you want a virus flick, I encourage you to watch Outbreak. Deeply goofy, pretty bad movie with Dustin Hoffman and a young Cuba Gooding Jr., but also, it has a helicopter chase.

Ben: What do you think the long term effects of American viewers getting into KBO/CPBL baseball might be like? Do you think it will remain popular to keep up with once MLB is back?

Meg Rowley: I think the broadcast timing might make things tricky, but I think the style of play will really appeal to a slice of the audience that longs for more contact (this is not a COVID-19 joke!).

BarryBondsJuicedForOurSins: i’m just bored.  very, very bored.  didn’t mean to come off harsh, sorry.  really appreciate you and everyone at fangraphs.

Meg Rowley: All good.

Meg Rowley: We’re all at least a little grumpy right now.

Chris: Which player is going to bat 400 this season and cause all sorts of debate about Ted Williams record?

Meg Rowley: ohhhhh

Meg Rowley: hmmmm

Meg Rowley: So, my instincts don’t diverge that much from the BA leaders from last year – maybe Tim Anderson on another BABIP tear or Ketel Marte or LeMahieu?

Meg Rowley: Moncada is a sneaky good pick here.

Mountie Votto: Thoughts on the Pirates player intentionally “throwing” at a Reds batter in his MLB The Show stream? Seems in poor taste, considering their reputation, but it is just a video game after all

Meg Rowley: Would want to hear how they talked about it before answering.

Meg Rowley: There’s a version of it that acknowledges the sins of the past in a nice way; there’s a version that’s obnoxious.

Meg Rowley: Maybe it is good to get it out of your system?

Meg Rowley: Imagine how little patience we’re going to have for someone who starts a fight this year.

Meg Rowley: Ok pals, I need to get rolling.

Meg Rowley: Thanks for the questions, and sorry for what I didn’t get to.

Meg Rowley: I hope you’re all safe and well.