You are viewing the chat in desktop mode. Click here to switch to mobile view.
X
Craig Edwards FanGraphs Chat--11/19/2020
powered byJotCast
Prev Page View Full Chat Next Page
Craig Edwards
2:49
I think they will both rebound. Robles isn't reliant on his bat to contribute so he only needs to be an average hitter to be a good player. Hiura will hit a lot better than he showed.
Jugdish
2:49
Who is starting at ss for cincy next year?
Craig Edwards
2:49
Not sure. What about Didi Gregorious?
phil
2:50
How does ozuna's contract change depending on whether the DH is allowed next semester? Will teams reasonably anticipate the universal DH in the next CBA and just eat the defensive risk for a year
Craig Edwards
2:51
There might be a suitor or two that might shy away from him. I'm not sure an NL club would say absolutely not when what they really want is his bat. Maybe it ends up making the difference between an extra year in his deal or something.
Jacques Pederson
2:51
Does Sanchez make sense for the Cardinals? If they resign Molina, he could DH and catch a bit. They are already looking at a down year (maybe, not sure) and always seem to need to add a power bat
Craig Edwards
2:52
His bat hasn't been good enough to DH even if there is the DH in the NL next year. I'm not sure a team like the Cardinals that wants to compete but isn't assured of contention can really afford to just hand a bunch of playing time to a guy who might be replacement level.
Guest
2:53
I’m listening to today’s episode of Rates and Barrels, and they are discussing the value of WRC+ for assessing hitters value.  Where can we find a leaderboard for this stat or how can we filter to see that leaderboard?
Craig Edwards
2:54
If you go to our Leadboards page, it is right there closer to the right-hand side of the page. You can sort by it or include filters for the stat as well as make different minimums for playing time. You can also go across multiple seasons or separate by team, league, or position. https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y...
I find messing around on the leaderboards really fun.
Guest
2:55
Is there any analysis on stats that players earn in team wins vs in team losses?
Craig Edwards
2:56
Not really. I'm not sure it would be all that useful. If you want to know how much a player's performance in games contributed to potentially winning games, you could look at WPA, though.
Guest
2:57
What in the world of baseball are you thankful for this year?
Craig Edwards
2:57
In the world of baseball, I'm thankful that the season happened.
Chris
2:58
What teams need to make a trade before the rule 5 deadline tomorrow?
Craig Edwards
3:00
I'm not quite sure on individual teams, but if you are curious, you can look on our Roster Resource pages for players who are currently unprotected. Anybody with an R5 designation whose name isn't shaded in is not currently protected. https://www.fangraphs.com/roster-resource/depth-charts/cardinals
David
3:01
I see the usefulness in relation to the WAR stat.  if a player gets 4 home runs in a game his team loses, should those stats be apart of a players win number?  Saying they are 3.5 win player that year, it doesn't actually represent how many actual games they helped win.
Craig Edwards
3:03
But that doesn't tell you how good a player is or how the player performed, which is more important. If I'm comparing two players and I want to know who played better, I don't want how good his teammates are interfering with that analysis. Good hitters shouldn't be penalized if they play on a team with a bad bullpen. WAR tells you how much the player did to help his team win games.
Matt (Oceanside)
3:04
Shelly Osbourne reported that the Dodgers laid some employees off with no specifics. The Dodgers current payroll projects to be around 191 million after arb raises. Do you see this news as being a clear indicator that they are not going exceed the lux tax threshold of 210 million? It seems like if they resign Turner, even at a discounted 12-14 million a year, they don't have a lot of room to do anything crazy. Thoughts?
Craig Edwards
3:05
They might not just because they don't need to. They could also just wait and see how the season goes and whether there are fans and then decide in season they are fine with going over the tax and add expensive players at the deadline.
David
3:06
"WAR tells you how much the player did to help his team win games." But doesn't care whether you actually win or not? So calling them win shares is very misleading.
Craig Edwards
3:07
They aren't called win shares. They are called Wins above replacement. How many more wins the player contributes to his team compared to a replacement player.
Cube Jockey
3:07
To me, Molina seems to be a border line HOFer that will eventually get in based on reputation and the idea that his defensive contributions aren't fully captured by current metrics.  I don't see a two year contract turning out well if that's what he wants.  Any chance he plays himself out of the HOF over the next couple of years?
Craig Edwards
3:08
I doubt it. His reputation is what it is at this point. I don't think two bad years are going to change that much.
Dr. Bob
3:08
If I'm a NL GM, I'm going nuts not knowing if I need to plan for a DH next year or what my roster size is going to be. These are important considerations when building a team.
Craig Edwards
3:09
I'm sure there are some GMs who don't even now what their payroll is going to be. It's a tough offseason for a number of reasons, the DH included.
Blue
3:09
Odds that ticket prices, concessions and parking prices will drop to entice an aging fan base to return to the park or will we just stay home with a better seat watching mlb tv? Won’t that disrupt revenues for years to come?
Craig Edwards
3:10
I'm sure there will be packages and specials to entice fans back to the ballpark.
Guest
3:10
Will Carlos Santana find a team in’21?
Craig Edwards
3:11
For sure. At a minimum, he's a really good bench bat, maybe a starter for a few teams.
David
3:11
I've seen them referred to as win shares.  I've also seen players referred to as having x.x number of wins for season in reference to war.  For the most part, I ignore all war discussion about players.  Mostly irrelevant.
Craig Edwards
3:14
You don't have to care about WAR at all to enjoy baseball. There are plenty of things to love about the game without diving into WAR. I will say that if you want to have debates that compare players to each other, WAR is a great place to start because it attempts to take everything a player does on the field and give it value.
Isolated Thinker
3:14
If it's true that all Cubs are on the block, what kind of trade value does Willson Contreras have considering the current state of the catching position?
Craig Edwards
3:16
He's got some, but with two team-controlled seasons left, he's still only projected as a slightly above-average player. He's not getting the Cubs a haul of prospects.
GSon
3:17
The Indians have already stated they will trade Lindor..does it make sense for them to "retool" (not rebuild) with JRam and Carrasco as trade candidates.. with eyes on being able to rebuild their outfield and at least one spot in the infield ?
Craig Edwards
3:18
Not really. Assuming they get some MLB talent back, they can still make another Cesar Hernandez type move and with JRam and their pitching staff, they will still be contenders next season.
Mike Hawk
3:18
How do you think the NL DH will affect the overall payroll tally in the NL v. AL?  Do teams spend significantly more on that extra bat or utilize something in house?
Craig Edwards
3:20
I did some research on it a few years ago, but not that much money goes into spending for a DH. Sometimes it is a high-priced player, but they probably weren't signed to be a DH. Teams just don't go out and spend on a DH all that often because there aren't that many players who really fit that description as bat-only, really good players when they get to FA.
Guest
3:21
Should the yanks sign simmons, and bauer?  Trade for Lindor??  Re-Sign DJ?  Other...
Craig Edwards
3:22
I think they need to sign one of the decent SS/2B out there, but it doesn't have to be LeMahieu. They need starting pitching. Bauer makes sense, but not sure they are going to go there after getting Cole last season. A return of Tanaka makes sense, but they need another starter.
Connecting…