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FanGraphs After Dark Chat - 12/22/15
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Paul Swydan
9:35
I wouldn't deal any of them! Ahhh. Honestly, probably one of the shortstops, just because it's probably less useful for you to have two shortstops.
DesetRat
9:36
What is the meaning of life?
Paul Swydan
9:36
Baseball. Baseball is life.
hanna
9:36
do you look at the questions in the queue?
Paul Swydan
9:37
Is that a trick question? Yeah, of course. It's not automated.
Pike
9:37
Can Harper repeat in '15?
Paul Swydan
9:38
Probably not, there's only nine days left in the year.
9:39
(Yes - he can be this good for a long time.)
hanna
9:39
Do you like the FOX decision to promote SMoltz to do play by play with Buck, Ousting Reynolds and Verducci?
Paul Swydan
9:40
So, there's two separate decisions. One, the decision to go from a three-man booth to a two-man booth, which I really like. I loathe three-man booths!
9:41
But two, I don't really like Smoltz. I rarely learn anything from him. On the other hand, I wasn't a huge Reynolds or Verducci fan either, so I guess this is a net positive. But I'm certainly not blown away.
Phil
9:41
How did you first become interested in baseball?
Paul Swydan
9:41
From my dad. And also video games.
Conscious Reality
9:42
Where do you stand on all the recent [non-sensical should go without saying] talk like "Fernandez for 5 plus-prospects, rable-rable" or "Carrasco for Puig, rable-rable" or "Archer for Seager, rable-rable" that FG has been fostering the last few weeks [see Fagerstrom, et al]??
Paul Swydan
9:43
I have grown less and less thrilled with the constant trade rumors. But that's our job, and I'd rather have questions I don't love than no questions at all!
hanna
9:43
I sent that before the chat started, when it asked to start to fill the queue. I was wondering if you looked back at all the questions piled up (if there were any).
Paul Swydan
9:44
Oh yeah, I usually start with the first questions asked, and then work my way up and down from there.
Dave
9:44
Ozuna for Bauer seems to make perfect sense -- FL needs SP, CLE needs OFs. Both still fairly young, high upside, cost-controlled. Who says no? Which team would have to chip in a minor leaguer or two to make it work?
Paul Swydan
9:45
Hmm. I think that is actually a pretty good trade. The Indians need an outfielder, and the Marlins seem less than enamored with Ozuna, so even though it's a net loss for them, they might just do that.
Chris
9:45
78 wins for the Royals in 2016? Come on!
Paul Swydan
9:45
Don't hate us!
hanna
9:45
Will Trout ever be as valuable as he was because his stolen base numbers have gone down? Or is taking the extra base still valuable enough? Will Trout ever steal again or is Albert stopping that from happening?
Paul Swydan
9:45
I don't think Pujols is stopping Trout from doing or being anything.
Dr Evil
9:46
Is the SABR community doing a poor job assessing variance when looking at deals or trades? Seems like everything is cast in a mean projection, aggregate or rate stat and not much attention is given to the range of outcomes in those #'s
Paul Swydan
9:47
So, this is a tough question. On the one hand, we may be. On the other hand, I think some of this is implicit, and if you're always couching things with vague language that there are a multitude of possible outcomes, you would tend to have a lot of long, drawn out copy that people wouldn't be thrilled about reading.
Chris
9:47
Is this a veritable Hate the algorithm, not the player-type situation?
Paul Swydan
9:48
With the Royals? A little bit, yes. But they also did lose Cueto, Zobrist and Gordon, and haven't really replaced them. Yet.
Phil
9:48
How do you deal with non-industry friends asking you for inside info?
Paul Swydan
9:48
My friends are smart enough to know that I don't have any inside info. :-)
Phil
9:49
Do you ever find that as a fan you are conflicted to have to treat someone like Pujols as an albatross contract? He is a historically great hitter whose lower body health has faded fast and he sensibly took the most money on the table... but I feel like many view him with a relative lack of respect anymore given he simply cannot live up to his contract. It's a shame how money-driven our view is sometimes. Being able to witness 2000's Pujols should be treasured by people.
Paul Swydan
9:50
I mean, sort of. But more than that, it's mostly annoying that he's bad now.
9:51
More than that, it's annoying that he's ruining Trout's prime.
Brad
9:52
Loathe more? 3 man booths or stl Cardinals or joe maddon?
Paul Swydan
9:52
3-man booths. But Maddon is close. I don't really hate the Cardinals.
Dr Evil
9:52
How would you feel about a CBA change where you can only pick in the top 5 one out of every 3 years to not incentivize slashing and burning as a rebuild strategy.
Paul Swydan
9:54
That's an interesting idea. I'd have to go back and see how often teams pick in the top five in consecutive years to see if it has truly been a huge problem in the past.
hanna
9:54
Was that sarcastic about Pujols ruining Trouts career?
Paul Swydan
9:56
Not really. The Angels are tied to his contract, and if it wasn't for that contract, they could be signing someone awesome. Like, this offseason, they could have signed Heyward, for instance. How cool would a Heyward-Trout-Calhoun outfield have been?
Phil
9:57
I know a win is a win.... but doesn't it feel like a better strategy for the O's to gain another ~4 WAR via Kazmir + re-signing Pearce or Parra over C. Davis? I guess it is a lower ceiling, but having enough roster to not trot out a AAAA OF or DH seems better to me. But, maybe that's just bias.
Paul Swydan
9:58
The Kazmir+Pearce/Parra route is probably how I would go if I was them, yes.
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