Meg Rowley FanGraphs Chat – 7/2/19

by
July 2, 2019
2:00
Meg Rowley: Hello all, and welcome to the chat.
2:00
Meg Rowley: A few bits of housekeeping before we kick off.
2:01
Meg Rowley: Tickets are still available for our Cleveland event, but they are going fast.
2:02
Meg Rowley: They can be purchased here https://blogs.fangraphs.com/instagraphs/fangraphs-cleveland-all-star-e…
2:03
Meg Rowley: It should be a very fun time, and someone (read: Kiley) is likely to say something goofy, so if you’re in the area, join us!
2:03
Meg Rowley: We will sell tickets at the door. Those sales will be cash only.

You Aren't a FanGraphs Member
It looks like you aren't yet a FanGraphs Member (or aren't logged in). We aren't mad, just disappointed.
We get it. You want to read this article. But before we let you get back to it, we'd like to point out a few of the good reasons why you should become a Member.
1. Ad Free viewing! We won't bug you with this ad, or any other.
2. Unlimited articles! Non-Members only get to read 10 free articles a month. Members never get cut off.
3. Dark mode and Classic mode!
4. Custom player page dashboards! Choose the player cards you want, in the order you want them.
5. One-click data exports! Export our projections and leaderboards for your personal projects.
6. Remove the photos on the home page! (Honestly, this doesn't sound so great to us, but some people wanted it, and we like to give our Members what they want.)
7. Even more Steamer projections! We have handedness, percentile, and context neutral projections available for Members only.
8. Get FanGraphs Walk-Off, a customized year end review! Find out exactly how you used FanGraphs this year, and how that compares to other Members. Don't be a victim of FOMO.
9. A weekly mailbag column, exclusively for Members.
10. Help support FanGraphs and our entire staff! Our Members provide us with critical resources to improve the site and deliver new features!
We hope you'll consider a Membership today, for yourself or as a gift! And we realize this has been an awfully long sales pitch, so we've also removed all the other ads in this article. We didn't want to overdo it.

2:04
Meg Rowley: Also, Eric and Kiley are updating THE BOARD as July 2 signings become official, so keep an eye on THE BOARD for that: https://www.fangraphs.com/prospects/the-board/2019-in-season-prospect-…
2:05
Meg Rowley: Also, they are being noted on the FG Prospect twitter, which is a good follow: https://twitter.com/FG_Prospects
2:06
Meg Rowley: Their July 2 preview, which notes a bunch of the issues with the market and with getting up-to-date reports, is here: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/instagraphs/july-2-international-amateur-p…
2:06
Meg Rowley: Also, just so everyone is aware, the site will be dark July 4 and 5 for the holiday. Please have good, safe fun, and don’t do dumb things with fireworks.
2:06
Meg Rowley: Ok, to the chat.
2:06
Jackson: So, what did we learn, if anything, about the long term prospects of having baseball games in England? I mean, other than the fact that the stadium they played in might be the only thing with a higher park factor than Coors field?
2:07
Meg Rowley: I don’t imagine a ton.
2:07
Meg Rowley: I suspect that there is more of a market there than we realize, even just counting ex-pats in the UK and on the continent.
2:08
Meg Rowley: I have a friend who has season tickets to the UK NFL Series and loves it. Imagine there is room for that sort of thing.
2:08
Bread Gardner: It’s time for the annual All-Star Roster Kvetch-a-Thon, sponsored by I Can’t Believe It’s Not Snub-ber!  Kick it off, Meg!
2:08
Meg Rowley: I care about this insofar as the players really care, and it has a material impact on contract stuff, but otherwise, I find I can’t really get worked up over the snubs anymore.
2:09
Meg Rowley: I was happy for Ketel Marte. I was jazzed for Hunter Pence. I am amped for Vogey.
2:09
matt: Which side wins in 10 team pts league assuming both teams have depth.
2:09
Meg Rowley: The one who asks a fantasy question in a fantasy chat?
2:09
NIck : Do you think it would make sense for Strasburg to opt out of the remainder of his current contract after this season?
2:10
Meg Rowley: So based on talent, yes. Based on the health history giving teams a good excuse to not give him a big contract? In this market, I would be very nervous.
2:10
Roberto Beers: In Sue Bird’s The Player’s Tribune piece, she described “Megan’s Extremely Megan perspective” (the titular Megan being Megan Rapinoe). Can you describe what “Meg’s Extremely Meg perspective” would be?
2:11
Meg Rowley: We should try to be as kind as possible. It is almost always better to complain in gchat than to subtweet. Baseball is a good, low stakes way to feel sad. It’s FanGraphs, not Fangraphs.
2:12
Chris: When are you changing the site name to Chubgraphs?
2:12
Meg Rowley: ChubGraphs*
2:12
Davy: Did you see Giancarlo Stanton’s instagram message to the Angels? What a wonderful thing to do.
2:13
Meg Rowley: I agree. It’s just such an awful thing, and it’s the sort of moment when it is very hard to say the right thing, and having felt it makes it easy to both know what to say, and hear what is being said. It was a lovely expression of care.
2:14
Meg Rowley: I hope his family and friends start finding their way to peace and healing soon. By all accounts, Skaggs was just a lovely guy. It’s so awful.
2:14
Meg Rowley: (and now, to transition very awkwardly)
2:14
SHOUTING BECAUSE HE’S INCREDIBLE: FERNANDO TATIS JR HAS GONE FROM FIRST TO HOME ON A SINGLE, SCORED FROM SECOND ON A BALL THAT DIDN’T LEAVE THE INFIELD, HIT A BASEBALL 440 FEET, AND TWICE SCORED FROM THIRD ON A POP-UP TO THE SECOND BASEMEN, ALL IN THE LAST 10 DAYS
2:15
Meg Rowley: I just find myself watching the Padres a lot. Like, a lot a lot. 2019 is great.
2:15
no-use: For the HR Derby, so far: Carlos Santana, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Christian Yelich, Pete Alonso and Josh Bell.  Who do you want in the last 2 spots?
2:15
Meg Rowley: Gimme Joey Gallo and America’s Large Adult Son, Daniel Vogelbach, please and thank you.
2:15
kyle: what’re your thoughts on Jp crawford and his recent spike?
2:16
Meg Rowley: that it is encouraging and also 75 plate appearances
2:18
Meg Rowley: It is 75 encouraging plate appearances! But I’m not ready to say it is totally different. The BABIP being so much higher than in prior years is a thing to at least be aware of, but so is the fact that his hard hit rate is up. I’m Monitoring the Situation Closely.
2:20
Roy: Is there any way to view past comments and replies to articles on here?
2:20
Meg Rowley: You mean other than looking at the piece?
2:20
Meg Rowley: (Not snarking just not clear on the question)
2:20
taylor: jeff mcneil is officially an all-star. can we finally start talking about him ? his batting average has *always* been extremely high and he’s been consistently overlooked and under-reported on. thanks !!
2:23
Meg Rowley: He’s gotten some but not a ton of prospect attention. The BP guys were high on him early, though the timing of injuries and some changes he made mean he didn’t make a list really, even there. Stephen Loftus wrote about him for us last September https://blogs.fangraphs.com/jeff-mcneil-and-rewarding-boldness/
2:23
Meg Rowley: Jay covered him in April https://blogs.fangraphs.com/jeff-mcneil-is-a-throwback/
2:23
frankiebones: Assuming Ohtani is healthy enough to start every 5 games in 2020, how many plate appearances do you see him accumulating for the season? Will he bat in games he pitches?
2:23
Meg Rowley: I do not want him to not pitch, but he is making a case to not pitch. In which case, a lot of PAs!
2:23
Alec: PUT VOGEY IN THE HOME RUN DERBY
2:24
Meg Rowley: Yes.
2:24
Alec: For future London Series’, are they looking to only send East Coast teams for logistical travel purposes? Would be fun to see the Dodgers or Padres get a chance at some point soon.
2:24
Meg Rowley: Cubs and Cardinals are next year, so their at least Midwest friendly.
2:24
Father Padre: Is Fernando Tatis the most watchable player in MLB right now? The sheer variety of ways he can wow you in every phase of the game is delightful
2:25
Meg Rowley: He is very much on the list. Had a friend describe it to me recently, after Tatis had a great break for home against the Giants (I think?), as “oh right, he reminds you the Padres can be really fun now, and will be really good soon.
2:26
Big Joe Mufferaw: Hot Take: MLB purposely doctored the balls in the London Series so they would move less. Goal: Fans love offense and boy did they ever get a lot of it.
2:26
Meg Rowley: Hotter Take: the existing 2019 ball already fulfilled this purpose
2:26
Janus: Have you ever accidentally clicked the roman ads in gameday? It sure would be nice to not have to deal with that.
2:27
Meg Rowley: There are a few ads on MLB TV this year that are reallllly starting to irritate. For instance, are men experience a crisis of shaving in this country? Are you all in some sort of very serious crisis?
2:29
Mason Jarre: Best pitcher traded in the next 29 days will be (I won’t even ask you to who)?
2:30
Meg Rowley: For sure? Bumgarner. For maybe? Zack Greinke.
2:30
richie: congrats to yr good son vogelbach on making the all-star team !! are you doing anything to celebrate ?
2:31
Meg Rowley: Vogey is all of our good son. I would never dream of keeping him all to myself.
2:31
Lunar verLander: …can we do dumb things WITHOUT fireworks?
2:31
Meg Rowley: Just don’t do anything mean or permanent, please.
2:31
Bryan in Boise: why does MLB feel the need to have every team have one representative at the All Star game?
2:31
Meg Rowley: because they want fans of all 30 teams to watch
2:32
Bread Gardner: I’m starting to think you get a sick sense of satisfaction from posting fantasy questions and pointedly not answering them. I suppose we all have out mischievous foibles.
2:32
Meg Rowley: I don’t assume a totally consistent audience week to week.
2:32
Chris: Will the lack of an August deadline make the July one more or less interesting? Seems like teams might overreact without the safety net.
2:33
Meg Rowley: More. I think I will sleep less. But I wasn’t likely to sleep a lot anyway!
2:33
Chris: How crazy is it that Tatis is not an All Star?
2:33
Meg Rowley: Medium. He’s a rookie and he plays for the Padres.
2:33
Big Joe Mufferaw: Gleyber Torres is somehow under rated.. The kid is hitting near 300, good D, on pace for around 40 bombs. Is he in the top 10 in trade value rankings?
2:34
Meg Rowley: Tune in starting July 15 to find out imo.
2:34
Juiced Balls: Will I continue to be a part of the game for the foreseeable future? Do audiences and mlb executives like me?
2:34
Meg Rowley: I think the league is likely aware that offense would collapse without you, so yes.
2:34
Lunar verLander: Do you think the recent surge in home runs cheapens the HR derby?
2:35
Meg Rowley: No. Dee Gordon hitting home runs cheapens home runs (sorry, Dee). The guys they have actually hit them far enough to be impressive.
2:35
bosoxforlife: Coors Field is getting a bad rap. It was clearly limiting D.J. LeMahieu’s offensive production. Seriously, isn’t Yankee Stadium the real bandbox?
2:36
Meg Rowley: I liked Jonathan Judge’s take on this question
2:36
Meg Rowley:

DJ LeMahieu may be putting the other part of the “Coors effect” on display: what happens when half of your games no longer are in a unique batting environment that distorts other stadiums for you? Now, he can just be better everywhere, all the time.
1 Jul 2019
2:37
Bryan in Boise: did you ever see Ketel Marte doing this when he was coming up with the Seattle organization?
2:38
Meg Rowley: This exactly? No. Did I think he was better than he played in Seattle, when he was very young, and for a stretch, literally underweight because of mono but needed because Chris Taylor got traded for Zach Lee and printer paper? Yes.
2:39
Roy: Yes, for instance if I comment on an article and a week  or two later want to find my comment, is there any way to look in my profile to see my own past comments and replies to it? Sorry for the specific logistic but I’ve been looking around for the feature
2:39
Meg Rowley: Hmm I don’t think so, but I will ask.
2:39
tan mom: its weird how i pay for a premium service like mlb.tv and yet still am given ads to watch.  plus they didn’t start putting them in until a few years ago.  my question is, when will the content just be advertisements?
2:40
Meg Rowley: Ads are annoying, but I also think given the price of MLB TV for what you get, it’s still a steal.
2:40
Matt Boyd: How much do people need to squint to see me as the best pitcher to be traded
2:40
Meg Rowley: Maybe they’re busy watching the home runs you give up? (I think you’re good, too, don’t fret.)
2:42
matt: Speaking of DJ LeMahieu – is he better than Jose Ramirez ROS?
2:42
Meg Rowley: Man, I think so.
2:43
joe: Lourdes he is looking good: .360 | .401 | .750 in 147 PA since his return.  If this was May 1 and he had a month like that I feel there would be a lot written about this streak.
2:43
Meg Rowley: We’re gonna have something on him soon, actually.
2:43
Meg Rowley: Will it be a lot of words? I think an acceptable amount.
2:43
bosoxforlife: Everybody is knocking the Red Sox for not getting bullpen help in the off-season. They could have picked up Trevor Rosenthal or Mychal Givens to go along with Carson Smith and Tyler Thornburg. Isn’t the real answer that bullpens, except for a very few like Chapman, Kimbrel and Jansen, are just a crap shoot.
2:45
Meg Rowley: Bullpens are definitely a volatile part of any roster, and you can add and still have it not work out, but even knowing that, and perhaps especially knowing that, it was pretty weird to count on Ryan Brasier and… hope quite so much.
2:45
J: I, for one, will dearly miss not understanding how on earth August trades worked.
2:45
Meg Rowley: (professional baseball writer and editor nods vigorously)
2:46
rick: if you could have any player be the face of your organization / be the guy to build around , who would it be ?
2:46
Meg Rowley: Current Rookies: Tatis
2:46
Meg Rowley: Young Dudes: Lindor
2:46
Meg Rowley: Less Young Dudes: Trout
2:46
Gleyber Torres: When did I learn to walk? All of a sudden my walk rate was over 20% last month
2:47
Meg Rowley: I mean, based on averages, probably when you were like one and a half?
2:47
Meg Rowley: yuck yuck yuck
2:47
Meg Rowley: holiday week!
2:47
Cove Dweller: But who would you want for a veteran presence?
2:48
Meg Rowley: Adam Jones or Hunter Pence
2:49
john cale: Is Joey Gallo the plus CF a top 5 player in the AL?
2:49
Meg Rowley: Yes.
2:49
Dan: Who is most likely to win the all star game? I assume it’s pretty close to a coin flip given the way the players will be used right?
2:50
Meg Rowley: Probably. Tomorrow, Craig will have his annual look at the rosters. Tune in!
2:50
John: Which teams buy long-term assets at the deadline?
2:50
Meg Rowley: Let’s maybe try this question again with language that makes it sound more like you’re talking about human people?
2:50
Brodie Van WAGON: To be fair in the world of baseball trout is still a pretty young dude…
2:51
Meg Rowley: Pretty Young but a little older than Lindor and has been around longer and I wanted both.
2:52
pumpsie: Why is Eric Sogard suddenly good enough to be in the top tier of trade-available second basemen? What is he doing differently this year?
2:52
Meg Rowley: I will be honest, I have not watched even one Sogard PA.
2:53
Meg Rowley: But sounds like I should.
2:53
Ed: Why does everyone take the MLB All Star Game so seriously? It’s an exhibition for goodness sake. No one takes the NFL or NBA All Star games seriously at all. Is it Bud Selig’s fault?
2:54
Meg Rowley: Yeah, I think it actually being linked to something real for a while does it. Also, humans are goofs.
2:54
All star game: The 30 reps to get all fan bases to watch kinda makes sense if say you have Machado being the only Orioles rep some years, but I doubt any Marlins fans are tuning in to see Sandy alcantara
2:56
Meg Rowley: Sure, in an given year, it falls down, but that’s what I imagine the initial thought was
2:56
Tom: When you take offense to trivial things like referring to baseball players as assets(newsflash: they are), it diminishes things that actually should be taken offense to.
2:56
Meg Rowley: Language is pretty important, and it takes very little in this instance to afford people more dignity. So easy!
2:57
Baseball: Using the words “buy” and “asset” about sports trades are not derogatory. First of all they are shorthands and refer to the contracts, not actually the humans. Secondly, MLB players are not repressed groups, they tend to do pretty well on the whole. Getting weird about using standard business terms when it comes to a business in my opinion is kind of cheapening the actual harm that comes from using racist/misogynist/other hate language towards groups that are actually repressed.
2:57
Meg Rowley: Hello again, Tom.
2:58
Meg Rowley: Also, we can be a little put off by little things, and a lot put off by big things. We contain multitudes!
2:58
john cale: Would you rather trade for Mike Minor or Lance Lynn?  They’re both having very different, but similarly fantastic, seasons thus far
2:59
Meg Rowley: Lance Lynn.
2:59
Guest: Eh, I agree that it takes very little to have integrity when referring to players, but also you aren’t the offended party so it’s a little presumptuous for you to say what players/athletes get offended by.
2:59
Meg Rowley: I didn’t say they get offended.
3:00
Meg Rowley: One may, if one chooses, exercise one’s imagination, and also empathy in situations like this.
3:00
pumpsie: I agree wholeheartedly with you on the asset issue, Meg. Fortunately, as editor you have the last say, and the power to change the narrative!
3:00
Meg Rowley: Truly mad with a very specific power.
3:01
Meg Rowley: On that cartoon-villain note, I need to get rolling. Thanks everyone for the questions, and sorry for what I didn’t get to.
3:01
Meg Rowley: Do not be surprised when there no new words on FanGraphs (barring trades/BIG news/Dipotoing) Thursday and Friday.
3:01
Meg Rowley: Have a great holiday all, and a good All-Star break, too.





 

Meg is the editor-in-chief of FanGraphs and the co-host of Effectively Wild. Prior to joining FanGraphs, her work appeared at Baseball Prospectus, Lookout Landing, and Just A Bit Outside. You can follow her on Bluesky @megrowler.fangraphs.com.

16 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
docgooden85Member since 2018
7 years ago

I have noticed a lot of business people say things like “We have room for 1 more resource.” What they actually mean is they can hire another person. Since “resource” is not simpler to say or understand than “person”, the only apparently legitimate reason for the alternate term is to dehumanize the object of the sentence. So if that isn’t your motive, just say “person”! Really simple.
P.S. “Human resources” sounds a little bit like processing humans for parts.

13
kevinthecomic
7 years ago

I thought I might find the asterisked (*) reference to ChubGraphs down here. Apparently not.

3
docgooden85Member since 2018
7 years ago
Reply to  kevinthecomic

The Grand Junction Rockies got really mad at one of their fans for suggesting they do a promotional mascot re-naming to benefit the Humpback Chub, an endangered local fish species. Deadspin has you covered if you’re trying to Google it. It’s even dumber than it sounds (the team comes off poorly in particular).

3
kevinthecomic
7 years ago
Reply to  docgooden85

Oh brother! But I gotta admit, that’s the first thing I thought of when I saw “chub”. Still, the GJ Rockies should have done their due diligence before tweeting.

0
Maggie25
7 years ago

The old “getting mad about this is offensive to people with real things to be mad about” trick. First of all, Meg’s tone was nothing more than mildly critical. Second of all, talking about human people as if they are human people would be a pretty good baseline I think. Sure, the business world may talk that way, but just because capitalism uses jargon to dehumanize people doesn’t mean that you have to do it too.

10
Maggie25
7 years ago
Reply to  Maggie25

Ok also I’m not here for arguments about baseball players being rich and so not in need of protection. On the one hand, sure, obviously they’re not hurting in the sense that even the lowest-paid major league player makes much more than an average person, but on the other hand, the same problems we’re seeing in MLB where everything is done in the name of economic analysis, which has the effect of owners being richer than ever, is happening in the rest of the world too. You don’t have to applaud owners for getting good value out of an asset when what that really means is paying a person less than they were worth.

7
shortstop
7 years ago

I realize this is an analytics-focused website, but I’m incredibly disappointed that over 24 hours later, the death of an active major league player has received nothing more than a passing reference in a live chat. Yes, life goes on, and baseball goes on, but in my opinion it’s in poor taste to essentially ignore what happened collectively as a website full of accomplished writers.

-2
Meg RowleyFanGraphs Staff
7 years ago
Reply to  shortstop

It certainly wasn’t meant as a slight against Skaggs. It’s an awkward, difficult topic to write about, and an odd one to assign. In this case, we deferred to the many excellent, moving tributes to Skaggs written by those who knew him, either personally or professionally. I will say that Ben and I do briefly address his passing on the episode of Effectively Wild that will post later this evening.

13
shortstop
7 years ago
Reply to  Meg Rowley

Thanks for the response, Meg. Likewise, my comment wasn’t meant as a slight towards you or any of the other writers here. I guess as an Angels fan it just hit close to home. Keep up the good work here at FG!

2
Meg RowleyFanGraphs Staff
7 years ago
Reply to  shortstop

And it wasn’t read as a slight. I struggled with the right way for us to handle it, and appreciate the feedback. I’m really sorry for how this must feel for you. He seems like he was a really special guy.

3
docgooden85Member since 2018
7 years ago
Reply to  Meg Rowley

Even in 2019, sometimes the instant take isn’t the best one. Nobody even knows what happened. We can still talk about it in a few days. FG should be commended for waiting to say something thoughtful rather than chase the trending topic clicks.

4
Defenestrater
7 years ago

For the finding past comments thing, I just discovered that you can search a username in the search tool, and some of the chats where you commented in the chat will show up. At least for me, some other articles also showed up, but not ones I had commented on.

I think the reason that comments on regular articles do not show up is that you have to load the comments beyond the first thread in order to view them. I went to an article I knew I had made a comment on and did a Control-F search for my username, and the comment did not show up in the search until I loaded the comments. By contrast, comments posted in the chat are part of the text of the article itself (after the transcript is posted), so they show up in searches. Based on this, I think making a feature for searching for your past comments on articles would mostly consist of extending the current search function to the comments that you would normally have to load.

In the meantime, do note that you can search for the article itself if you know the name or the topic. You can also look at the Author Archive for the author of the article if you know that.

2
RobertMember since 2017
7 years ago
Reply to  Defenestrater

Nice sleuthing. I came into the comments to post that I’d really enjoy this feature.

0
kevinthecomic
7 years ago

I usually don’t comment on “offensiveness” or lack thereof but thought I would share something that I have learned over the years.

Many people have many different personalities and can react to situations in sometimes surprisingly different ways. So, for Meg to find calling a baseball player an “asset” offensive is totally OK. In fact, if you have followed Meg’s work for any length of time you will know that she is a deeply caring person. However, it is also OK for someone to find referring to a baseball player as an asset (or resource) not offensive! There’s no right or wrong here. Different people can hold completely different opinions on the same subject at the same time and that’s OK.

A lot of it goes back to personality. For example, some personality types feel other’s pain so acutely that it is as if the pain causing stimulus is happening to them. Other people need to experience or witness egregious amounts of pain before they feel anything at all.

I guess my point is, everybody goes out into the world every day and does the best that they can. Let’s appreciate, or at least acknowledge, that others may have a perspective different than our own. None of these perspectives are necessarily right or wrong, they’re just different.

2
world_dictator
7 years ago

Really seemed like Meg mailed it in during this chat.

-1