JotCast | Dan Szymborski FanGraphs Chat

Dan Szymborski FanGraphs Chat - 6/27/24

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Dan Szymborski

12:43

ZiPS thought Bryant should have gotten like $100 million less than he did in Colorado. But he was always GOING TO get more than THAT

Tampa Fred

12:44

Cincy use to be my adopted hometown until 1979. I was hardcore Reds fan until then. Up to 24 games of so in my best years. What part of Queen City did you live?

Dan Szymborski

12:44

I live in the area (between Dayton and Cincy) not Cincy proper

my favorite place in Ohio is Jungle Jim's

Greg

12:45

"Every time I submit an article, I suddenly get the feeling that it was the worst piece of crap ever"

Aw don't feel so bad Dan, I'm sure that there are lots of people out there who think that about all of your articles ;-)

kevin

12:45

That did sound rude Dan but thank you for apologizing. The guys at Baseball America are very helpful

Esix Snead

12:45

No offense taken. Love you, Simba.

Dan Szymborski

12:45

I tend to use "bug X" as a less negative thing than most people

I'll tell people to "bug me on Twitter for X" all the time

12:46

but saying "go bug other person" sounds really dickish and it was unintentional

Biscuit

12:46

Who are your favorite "closers-in-waiting" that are behind guys that are likely to be traded?

Dan Szymborski

12:46

The latter makes it trickier!

12:47

Like Brock Stewart should be a closer at some point, but the Twins aren't trading their closer

I'm not sure there are a lot of closers that are going to be traded really

I don't think the A's are trading Miller

12:48

So...Tanner Banks maybe?

12:49

the Nard Dog in Miami?

Thinking Big

12:49

How valuable does ZIPS think Eddie Gaedel would be today?

ronniecakes

12:49

I read all of your work and you obviously know a lot of math and stats. Did you learn about modeling and statistics while making zips? Or also in school? I'm trying to figure out how to do the stuff you do and wondering if you can give a bit of perspective. Thanks

Dan Szymborski

12:49

Kinda out of ZiPS wheelhouse! (Gaedel, didn't hit enter)

12:50

I majored in math, but most of the classes weren't really directly applicable

12:52

and a lot I've forgotten, so please don't send me differential geometry questions

I've always been interested in stat/prob though and I learned a lot growing up, even as a little kid

like I designed a little paper and pen baseball game with real stats when I was 8

and I had a complex D&D-like system (though less complex than that) for playing GI Joes and Transformers

12:53

and I was already tinkering with translations and had made Bill James' Brock5 and Favorite Toy in Lotus 1-2-3 when I was in eighth grade

Ari

12:54

Is there an easy way I can see data for total complete games per season/team over the last 20 years or so?

Dan Szymborski

12:54

You'd ahve to do a couple excel formulas

but the leaderboards give you enough data to do it easily

but not instantly!

Guards Fan

12:54

How often does Fangraphs look at the positional adjustment for their WAR calculation, and how confident should we be when we compare players from different positions? If two players are otherwise quite similar, but WAR suggests one is worth more because they play second base instead of third base, would it be fair to judge them as similarly valuable players?

Dan Szymborski

12:54

I think they're roughly fair, if that makes sense

perfect precision here is fairly impossible

12:55

but remember, the largest chunk of the value still comes from the offense, which we ARE quite sure about

Greg

12:55

I know that this isn't your area of expertise but I keep seeing that Cade Horton has a lat injury when it sounds like the injury is to his subscapularis. Isn't that better described as a shoulder (or more specifically rotator cuff) injury?

Dan Szymborski

12:55

This is definitely not my area of expertise

when they started calling injuries capsule injuries some years back, I assumed that pitchers had recently evolved a new body part

brad penny for your thoughts

12:56

have you ever played thru any of the Diablo series?

Dan Szymborski

12:56

Yup, though not II

I have IV, but I just havne't played it as much as I expected. Not because I didn't like it, but there are just so many games to play

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