JotCast | FanGraphs AL Wild Card Chat

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Kevin Goldstein

9:46

I agree.

5 Run Homer

9:47

Sometimes being a good manager is about vibes and Alex Cora has great vibes in the dugout

Kevin Goldstein

9:47

I agree.

Dan Szymborski

9:48

I would definitely reseed

asinwreck

9:48

Surprised Holmes isn't back out for the fifth?

Dan Szymborski

9:48

Especially given the odds that the wild card will be better than one of the three division winners

Kevin Goldstein

9:48

Gleyber is so much better at 2B than SS.

Dan Szymborski

9:48

(And I'm back)

Jon Becker

9:48

A little bit surprised bout Holmes but if the next guy was going to be Severino I'd want to give him a clean inning

Kevin Goldstein

9:49

Dan: What ARE the odds that a WC team will be more than the 4th or 5th best team?

Dan Szymborski

9:49

Yeah, it's one thing to keep Gleyber at shortstop when he's mashing the ball. But when he's struggling there, too, take one thing off his plate.

The 6ix

9:49

People in Toronto want Montoyo fired. Ridiculous.

Kevin Goldstein

9:49

I agree again!

Two Dads Playing Catch

9:49

What do you think about the Ausmus to Mets rumors? I think he's boring and they should put some effort into finding a guy who could actually bring a direction for the team

Kevin Goldstein

9:49

I don't think Ausmus is a bad name, but I agree it's uninspiring. I will say for the 582nd time: Will Venable is going to be a really good big league manager, and soon.

Dan Szymborski

9:50

Uninspiring is about how I'd put it.

Personally, I think there are too many interesting people to give chances to that I rarely would settle with uninspiring.

5 Run Homer

9:50

The players in Toronto clearly love Montoyo. Shouldn't that be much more valuable than bullpen management, which is basically voodoo at times anyway?

Kevin Goldstein

9:51

It matters . . .

Pinstripe Perry

9:51

Asking KG specifically because he's been around him, is the thought that Joe Espada could be a good manager at some point?

Kevin Goldstein

9:51

I think he deserves a shot. I wonder if Astros stink will hurt him, but AJ got another chance and did a phenomenal job this year in Detroit.

Brian CashGod

9:52

Cashman is an S-tier GM, and while Boone isn't a great manager, he's not the core issue with the Yankees either. The reason they haven't made a World Series since '09 is because ownership is not incentivized to do so - from Hal Steinbrenner's view, why spend more money to have the best team in the league when you make almost just revenue as much for having a merely competitive team, but bring home a lot more profit? Great for him of course, but incredibly frustrating as a fan that Cashman has been kept from taking the incremental steps to maximize the team's talents.

Tom

9:52

Really incredible to me that the projections have both of these teams at higher odds of winning the WS then the Rays.

Dan Szymborski

9:52

Not in ZiPS

The FG methodology never really likes the Rays

Two Dads Playing Catch

9:52

Javy Baez with Juan Soto plate discipline is a __ win player on average

Jon Becker

9:52

I bet Dan could give an actual answer here but I feel like 8 is the floor here

Dan Szymborski

9:53

I'm not directly involved in that part, but my hypothesis is that we should probably be more conservative with playing time projected so that depth is valued.

God, I don't know. All the wins?

Conner from AZ

9:53

I sort of disagree with Cashman being an S-tier GM. He’s good, but I don’t think he’s at the level of guys like Friedman or Farhan

Pinstripe Perry

9:53

Glad to hear you think he's worth a shot KG. Just think Espada's the type of guy NYY would be looking at (was 3B coach there for the beginning of this run) if they move off of Boone to appease the masses.

Dan

9:53

Would you be surprised if the Mets hire another first-time manager? I feel like a lot of the issues stemmed partially from inexperience (and I tend to believe that Luis Rojas is going to be a good manager, as many others have noted)

Kevin Goldstein

9:54

As we have reached the halfway mark, a quick thanks to the hundreds of fine fine people hanging out with us tonight!

Steve

9:54

Curious while watching Severino, how much does the overall pitch data change on a guy who has suffered serious throwing arm injuries? Are they completely different guys, even after being well past the recovery phase?

Kevin Goldstein

9:54

Very player to player. Ranges from suddenly better to exactly the same to way worse.

Guest

9:55

If you could start a franchise with 22-year-old Mike Trout or present-day Erik Neander, whom would you choose?

Kevin Goldstein

9:55

Trout. Trout. Trout. Trout. Trout.

Jon Becker

9:55

Trout. There's one Trout, there are plenty of very very good front office people

Kevin Goldstein

9:55

What Jon said.

Jon Becker

9:56

Odor for Velazquez here BTW, so we're about to see how mobile Urshela is at short after hurting his Literally Everything sprinting into the dugout on Sunday

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