You are viewing the chat in desktop mode. Click here to switch to mobile view.
X
Cardinals vs. Nationals NLCS Game 1 Chat
powered byJotCast
Prev Page View Full Chat Next Page
Ben Clemens
9:13
And I can't help but think they just say this about everyone who succeeds without throwing hard.
Dystopian Future
9:13
But that's the thing about bunts, they're not limited downside. It's an out. You're wasting an out. It's limited upside big downside. A better example is an article predicting a player to suck; if you're right, it isn't that great, you still feel kind of bad. You're wrong, you look like a total fool.
Ben Clemens
9:15
That's a sacrifice bunt, right? If you're bunting for a hit, the upside is a hit, and the downside is better than an unproductive out. Bunts relaly do have lower success rate breakevens (when done right) than regular hits. It's just that people are way too willing to sacrifice bunt, as in bunt without the expectation that you'll often be safe.
Anonymous
9:15
who's the biggest retirement this year? (non-Bochy edition)
Ben Clemens
9:15
Probably going to be McCann. He's not a Hall of Famer but Hall of Very Good for sure
Alfredo
9:16
CC is a HoFer likely
Adam2
9:16
CC!
Ben Clemens
9:16
Yeah my bad. I forgot about his because he announced it so long ago.
CC is better than McCann.
Dystopian Future
9:17
Ichiro is probably officially retiring now at the end of the season. Felix Hernandez might not get signed. CC Sabathia is retiring.
Ben Clemens
9:17
Haha fiiiiiine Ichiro too. Ichiro has already retired as far as I'm concerned.
9:18
This might shock you; per fWAR, McCann has more WAR than Felix.
I also don't think Felix will retire, but wow.
Byron Buxton
9:18
Odds that Cole Hamels retires?
Ben Clemens
9:19
Oh, maybe not 0, but 0-ish. He tried to get one last start in this year off the IL so that he could showcase himself for free agency.
Adam2
9:20
Do you think teams would have given McCann presents?  Do you think he wasn't sure they would and didn't want to open himself up to disappointment if he announced early and nobody celebrated for him? :(
Ben Clemens
9:20
This actually seems like a question for Meg, who is FanGraphs' foremost authority on wondering about players being melancholy.
9:21
But I will say- Brian McCann was worried he'd have to fight himself for violating the unwritten rules of baseball if he showboated his retirement too much.
Final answer.
9:22
I did enjoy the mixture of McCann and Acuna on the same team. Like, I love everything about the way Acuna plays the game.
And I'm sure McCann hated every bit of it.
And that makes me laugh.
9:23
The Braves are a team full of fun players that also randomly had the biggest grump in baseball
Dystopian Future
9:23
I don't know, from a lot of the things I read it sounded like McCann really loosened up when he went to Houston. Did he regress back to how he used to be?
Ben Clemens
9:23
Yeah haha this is mainly tongue in cheek at this point.
He chilled out on the Astros, and generally chilled out with age.
9:24
He was involved in the whole Beltran bat funeral thing.
Lunar verLander
9:24
He led the burial of Beltran's glove!
Ben Clemens
9:24
Er, glove funeral.
Guest
9:24
what does “tongue in cheek” mean?
Ben Clemens
9:24
As in, I don't seriously think he'd fight himself for showboating.
Byron Buxton
9:25
Is Adam Eaton a suboptimal #2 hitter? Would the Nats be better with Turner/Rendon/Soto hitting sequentially?
Ben Clemens
9:25
I just like poking a bit of fun at truly a great baseball player who has had some regrettable fun police moments.
Ben Kaspick
9:25
I think so. He's more of a throw back No. 2 hitter. I'd like to see more Soto, less Eaton.
Matt
9:25
Giles fought himself for not pitching good.
Ben Clemens
9:26
Audrey Stark wrote a great summary of self-inflicted injuries:
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/a-modern-history-of-self-inflicted-basebal...
Albert
9:26
"He'll lay down a bunt too" -- I hope not!
Matt
9:27
There's a part of me that thinks flipping Turner/Eaton would be optimal. I get the idea of wanting Turner up front with an open base, but Eaton has a good OBP, and Turner has more pop. Turner gets his "lead off" situation if Eaton makes an out.
Ben Clemens
9:28
Honestly, the margin between who is first and who is second (in terms of win contribution) is really low, and I think the Nats probably derive more utility from going R/L/R/L
Like Ben said, I wouldn't hate seeing Soto second.
Connecting…