JotCast | Dan Szymborski FanGraphs Chat - 2/1/24

Dan Szymborski FanGraphs Chat - 2/1/24

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Dan Szymborski

12:59

Though it could just be the people I talk to

1:00

I'd be lying if I said I was as connected with as broad a group as, say, Passan or Robothal

Walton Dilcox

1:00

How can sports reach younger fans? As far as I can tell the avg age of a sports fan nowadays is 50+. I feel “young” as a fan and am 36

Dan Szymborski

1:00

I'm not sure

The thing is, sports have a LOT of competing things for attention

and there might not necessarily be a magical thing to bring in more fans

1:01

Like, if a 20-year-old likes playing PUBG, it's easier said than done to provide things that would lure them to sports

1:02

Remember, watching sports is largely a passive exercise

and a lot of popular things are things that you're personally involved in

My feeling on sports and younger fans

Put your best, most dynamic and compelling product on the field

and the people who are interested will give it a chance

1:03

and the ones who don't, probably won't

Now, remember, I've grown old in this industry. Cameron and I were once the young guys in the field

1:04

I'll be 46 in June. Just because I chill with others on Reddit and Discord doesn't mean I really have any "youth credibility" or anything.

I would avoid pandering though. I frigging hated that when *I* was in my 20s. I wanted the stuff I liked, I didn't need stuff targeted to me, and in fact, targeting stuff towards me shamelessly made me less interested

Jurf

1:05

Hi Dan! I've got a friend who says Keith Law, the creator of ZIPS says people shouldn't compare rosters via their ZIPS projections. I say you invented ZIPS and you said not to use the aggregates to try and guess Wins and Losses. Who's right?

Dan Szymborski

1:05

There's a lot of say here!

What exactly did Keith say that I'm supposed to rebute?

rebut

Trader Jerry's

1:05

Does ZiPS take park factors into account, and does its WAR projections for hitters change when they move teams and by extension home parks? Asking in relation to Jorge Polanco moving from Target Field to T-Mobile.

Dan Szymborski

1:05

Yes, and of course!

Daniel -

1:05

Really bad defensive 3B's tend to be kind of bad defensive 1B's as well, but by war, kind of bad 1b's are way less valuable than really bad 3b's. I feel like really good defenders at non premium positions are undervalued and really bad defenders at premium positions are overvalued

Dan Szymborski

1:06

The thing is, the REALLY bad defenders tend to get moved down the spectrum

TomBruno23

1:06

This whole chat is a left wing conspiracy to get Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce to endorse Joe Biden and I will not stand for it anymore.

laughing

1

Dan Szymborski

1:06

Maybe I'm just getting old, but I don't know why anyone cares what Taylor Swift does or does not do in her personal life.

1:07

Listen to her music if you like it, don't if you don't. What else is there to care about?

I don't get celebrity pop culture at all and I don't think I ever did

1:08

I own ever Decemberists album, but I couldn't tell you the first thing about Colin Meloy outside of the msuic

Dreamin

1:09

You ever just think about Brandon Webb and get sad? I know I do.

Dan Szymborski

1:09

I do

1:10

I did a ZiPS time warp a few years ago from one of the Diamondbacks guys, I forget if it was Buchanan or Pecoro

PIEcoro, sorry

Numpty

1:10

Given the inherent defensive advantage of lefty 1st-basemen, should righties consider wearing gloves on both hands when nobody's on base and they don't need to throw?

Dan Szymborski

1:10

Ah, there's a rule that you can only wear one glove

(I've pondered this before in terms of outfielders with nobody on base)

David

1:11

If the top free agents don't sign by the beginning of spring training, do they start losing value because it'll take them that much longer to ramp up/integrate with their new team?

Dan Szymborski

1:11

Not really

Lyle

1:11

Your ZiPS write ups the last couple years point out that the Mariners are continually thin on the offensive side of things. Have they made the right advances with the acquisitions this offseason? Or have they stay roughly the same?

Dan Szymborski

1:11

I think they've improved incrementally

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