You are viewing the chat in desktop mode. Click here to switch to mobile view.
X
Craig Edwards FanGraphs Chat--9/19/2019
powered byJotCast
Prev Page View Full Chat
Ryan
2:51
Craig, if there were an award for most middling player in each league, who would you pick?
Craig Edwards
2:52
Willians Astudillo has quite the middle. Not sure about the NL?
Big Joe Mufferaw
2:52
What do you talk about? sports?
Craig Edwards
2:52
Some say too much.
All time
2:53
Does a team ahve to win the WS to be among the best of all time? If not, can this "title" be won based on stats (so, run differential and such) even if they crap out like the 2001 Mariners?
Craig Edwards
2:53
Greatest of all time is pretty arbitrary, but I
would say yes.
2:57
I think in terms of being remembered as an all-time great team, you need to win the series. The Cardinals had better teams in 2004 and 2005, but the 2006 is the one remembered the most because they won. I don't think people think of the Mariners in the same way as the great Reds or Yankees or Dodgers teams because the regular season is part of the test of a great team and the postseason is the second part. Getting to the playoffs is a great accomplishment and winning in the playoffs is something of a crapshoot, but if you want the glory, you have to win the double of both seasons.
All time
2:58
The reason I ask that question is because I remember a chat with D Cameron in 2017 and people were asking in August (when they looked unbeatable) whether the Dodgers would be considered best all time if they won, and then they didn't. On the other hand, I think if you win 103plus and the title you're going to be talked about one way or another, even if you didn't have an RD like the 39 Yankees.
Craig Edwards
2:58
I think that's right.
Branding
2:58
My Dodgers really look a dollar short compared the AL WS contenders. Can you tell me why I should feel this way?
Craig Edwards
3:00
I'm not going to tell you how to feel, but if they make it to the series I don't know that over the course of a handful of games, Verlander-Cole-Greinke is that much better in terms of your chances of winning than Buehler-Kershaw-Ryu and that rotation is better than any other AL team outside of Houston. It's going to give the Dodgers a good chance of winning no matter who they play.
NL Cy
3:00
Who's your pick?
Craig Edwards
3:02
Give me another week. It's seemingly really close between Scherzer and deGrom, but there are some other cases to be made as well. I think I would lean toward deGrom right now, but the next week could make a difference.
Kevin from NBC
3:02
So, what's your deal? You ski?
Craig Edwards
3:02
Is this like a BOFA thing?
3:04
One more quick plug and then we'll be done. Wrote a thing Yadier Molina yesterday that shows just how crazy his career has been in preventing the run game. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/instagraphs/yadier-molinas-career-in-four-...
3:05
Also, I think Kiley and I might be switching spots next week, so watch out for that.
Guest
3:05
For Cy voting, shouldn't IP be irrelevant now?  If Pitcher A has more WAR but fewer IP than Pitcher B, don't we prefer Pitcher A because he's added more value, full stop?  It feels like IP was a heuristic for combining ERA (or other run prevention) and quantity, but now WAR does that for us.
Craig Edwards
3:06
Not everyone just take WAR at face value, though, and if you are trying to consider context for that WAR, it is helpful to know how the pitcher got where he did.
NL Cy
3:06
Follow-up on that, would you have voted for Ryu if he didn't blow up in August? Or would FIP still have swayed you to Scherzer/DeGrom?
Craig Edwards
3:07
I don't think Ryu ever jumped into the discussion with deGrom and Scherzer just due to park and defense that was keeping his ERA so low (along with his good pitching, of course).
Sam
3:07
The playoffs is a crapshoot, but it seems to me like Friedman's Dodgers are on the same trajectory as Rizzo's Nationals, putting a good to great contending team out there every year, yet with the same loopholes year after year(bad bullpen, bad in-game manager). Do you consider this more of a success or a failure?
Craig Edwards
3:12
It's a success. The playoffs are hard. Did the Giants have some secret formula where they went 3 for 3 in the playoffs but completely missed the other two years. How would the Cubs be viewed differently if Cleveland got like one more hit? The Dodgers have just had a little bit of bad luck in a few short series over the years. Keep in mind, this year and 2017 were the only juggernaut seasons. They were in the low-90s in all those other title years so it isn't like they should have expected a championship.
3:13
Even if you have a 60% chance of winning every series (which they haven't), you are still one in five to win it all in any given year. Even if you have a 20% chance of winning it all for six straight seasons (which they haven't), you still fail to win a title a quarter of the time. It happens.
That's going to do it for me. Thanks for all the questions. See you next week, maybe on Wednesday.
Connecting…