JotCast | Dan Szymborski FanGraphs Chat

Dan Szymborski FanGraphs Chat - 4/29/21

Dan Szymborski

12:03

The appointed time for chat has arrived.

12:05

Also changed my avatar. Some of you were confused why I looked so old at 42. That was the Old Dan Szymborski avatar.

12:06

Greg

12:06

Can Huascar Ynoa stick as a starter? Pretty much fastball/slider only so far.

Dan Szymborski

12:08

I do worry about two-pitch starters. I've wanted Kevin Gausman to develop an actually effective breaking pitch for years now to at least a cutter or something.

12:10

Hitters are very adaptable creatures. I'd love if Ynoa's occasional change was more of a weapon he could use

Appa Yip Yip

12:10

How many small children did you have to shove to the ground to be first in line to write the Bridich/Rockies piece?

Did your gleeful cackles haunt the night?

Dan Szymborski

12:11

Ha! Actually, I wasn't on the PC when it happened and Ben helpfully pinged me right as it was announced, enabling me to get dibs!

We usually go by dibs except for certain particular topics. I get dibs on ZiPS things, for obvious reasons, but I don't believe I get Rockies dibs

psweeting

12:12

What were the ZiPS 99 percentile projections for DeGrom and Trout this year?

Dan Szymborski

12:12

Percentile projections for pitchers not yet out of beta

but for Trout

12:13

The 99th percentile projection was a .307/476/780 line with 55 homers for 10.8 WAR

Hey, it's a *99*

Fat Spielberg

12:14

Do deGrom's teammates hate him? Or maybe they like him too much, so they put a lot of pressure on themselves, causing them to fail? Or maybe they're just bad at baseball? Which is it?

Dan Szymborski

12:14

I have a deGrom piece in the hopper RIGHT NOW!

12:15

Morbo

12:16

Dan, it's still April

Dan Szymborski

12:16

for NOW

Dan Next Week

12:16

"May!"

Sharp

12:16

It appears that the woes of the Brave offense were a bit overstated and they're actually going to be just fine haha

Dan Szymborski

12:16

I wasn't overly worried - it's a team with Acuña, Freeman, and Albies. I'm concerned about depth there on the offense

Appa Yip Yip

12:16

Should the Rockies trade for Nolan Arenado?

Dan Szymborski

12:16

MAYBE THEY CAN THROW IN ANOTHER $50 MILLION

12:16

Why is ZiPS trying to pump the brakes on the Huascar Ynoa hype train?

Dan Szymborski

12:16

ZiPS hates everything.

Jefferson

12:16

Jesse winker is now top 10 by wRC+, but still cannot hit LHP. Is he a forever platoon player? Does Zips see any hope for improvement in his splits

Dan Szymborski

12:17

There's always hope there with experience. Shawn Green and Ryan Klesko moved beyond needing platoon partners.

12:18

Also remember, it's 200 PA of lefties

Generic platoon splits for hitters are better predictors of future platoon splits than ACTUAL platoon splits untill you get to a LOT of PA, in the 3000 total range.

And even that just gets actual platoon splits to the level that it is *AS* predictive

Jefferson

12:21

I busted out the "a taco is a sandwich" hot take the other day. It made a lot of my friends very mad at me. I'm going to go eat a sandwich for lunch

Appa Yip Yip

12:21

I hear Brodie van Wagenan is available if there are any open GM jobs

Kyler

12:22

Guillermo Heredia has improved his projection significantly since the start of the season. He's really looked good at the plate. He's the Braves CF for the rest of the season isn't he?

Dan Szymborski

12:22

He's been very solid, but Pache is Atlanta's long-term play and it'll be hard to derail that too much

Estevão

12:22

It's moneyball deja vu for Beane in 2021. Semien gone, Hendriks gone and no money to replace them

Dan Szymborski

12:22

Plus the wild win-loss streaks

Andy

12:24

Any thoughts on Meadows? Is he just experiencing bad luck, or is he just a light hitter?