JotCast | Game 163s Live Chat Jubilee Event

Prev Page View Full Chat Next Page

Jay Jaffe

1:25

walk a mile in my Twitter feed

Guest

1:25

Murphy looks baaaad turning double plays

Craig Edwards

1:26

He's not a good defensive player. The Cubs are making a conscious offense or defense choice.

Scott

1:26

How many teams need to win the World Series for this season to be considered a success?

Craig Edwards

1:27

0. If winning a World Series is the measure of success, the expectations are too high.

Jay Jaffe

1:27

One, because it sucks when we have no World Series winner, like in 1994.

I don't think any team really can afford to think like they're the late George Steinbrenner, where any season that falls short of a championship is a failure. This game is too hard, and even in a down competitive cycle, there are too many good teams for one to judge solely on who pops the final champagne cork.

Meg Rowley

1:28

There are so many ways to fail, and a lot of ways to succeed. Like, I'm a Mariners fan. My expectations are... altered by that.

Mike

1:28

re: Sean it always seems like most readers don't understand that FG doesn't calculate defensive metrics and receives a data feed that doesn't parse day to day results

Sean Dolinar

1:28

DRS is a feed from BIS and UZR is MGL's proprietary metric, so correct we don't have our own calculations for defense. Day-to-day defense would also be rather noisy.

1:29

Jay, how happy are you that your team entropy ended actually happening? You were on it for weeks, and it seemed like such a low chance of happening.

Jay Jaffe

1:30

Very happy, thanks! I've been on this particular beat for eight years, and we have gotten just one tiebreaker (2013) until this one. I feel like Linus van Pelt might have if the Great Pumpkin had finally shown up.

OddBall Herrera

1:30

You have to admit though that Dodgers fans are going to be disappointed with anything except a W.S. win, more so than fans of other teams...the specter of being a team that wastes all those chances, a'la the Nationals, looms large

Meg Rowley

1:31

I wonder though if the early season injuries and the late season theatrics changed that some.

Slappy McSlapperson

1:31

Does Baez ever have another season like this?

Meg Rowley

1:31

In a larger sense, it might be true, but they've actually played deep into October very recently, and this year has to feel at least a little different than last year did.

Jay Jaffe

1:31

I think that's true for some, especially given the anxiety over Kershaw's contract situation and the way that some portion of the fan base will never understand the Friedman front office, the platoons, the desire to get under the CBT threshold this year, etc. But look, the Dodgers last won the World Series in 1988, when I was a college freshman. I get the frustration.

Ginny

1:32

is there an underlying logic in counting today's stats? perhaps because otherwise it's technically "postseason"? seems strange, and it's strange this year will have two teams that played 161 games and *four* with 163

Craig Edwards

1:32

a 130 wRC+, 5ish win season seems to be a halfway decent possibility from Baez. I don't think he'll ever be closer to an MVP award, again, though that has to do more with the quality of the competition, generally.

Meg Rowley

1:33

A philosophical question for the ages, but I think it is as simple as it isn't the postseason. And remember, there are cancellations in a lot of seasons that mean not everyone plays 162.

Jay Jaffe

1:33

re uneven season lengths, go back and look at pre-World War II seasons.

Craig Edwards

1:33

Baez is 5th in the NL in WAR this year among position players. Last year, he would have been 9th.

Meg Rowley

1:34

It happened as recently as 2016

Sean Dolinar

1:34

Pirates and Cubs played 161 in 2016?

Meg Rowley

1:34

The September 25 2016 Miami/Atlanta game was canceled following the death of Jose Fernandez and the September 29 Detroit/Cleveland game was cancelled due to weather. Neither were made up because they didn’t hold playoff or draft implications.

Craig Edwards

1:35

as for 163 being postseason, they are breaking a regular season tie to determine postseason standings. It's limbo, but without game 163 in the standings, you couldn't look at the standings and see who won a playoff spot.

It used to be more common that teams wouldn't make games up.

Anonymous

1:36

Who's the biggest name retiring this year? Best player? (If they are different humans)

David

1:36

If MLB has a parity problem, what kind of solutions could be implemented to solve the problem?

Sean Dolinar

1:37

I guess the Pirates/Cubs tied, so 161 in the standings, but 162 in the stats. Cubs went on to win the WS.

Jay Jaffe

1:37

Re: retirements, it sounds as though both Mauer and Beltre are leaning that way strongly. Scioscia is done, Utley is done, Wright is done, V-Mart is done. Maybe Bartolo. We're gonna miss all of those guys in some ways.

Except Jose Reyes. To hell with him.

Meg Rowley

1:37

(It was the first tie game since June 30, 2005, when the Astros and Reds tied 2-2.)

Craig Edwards

1:37

Biggest player retiring is potentially Adrian Beltre. Then Ichiro, Utley, Mauer and Wright for me, unless I'm forgetting someone.

Meg Rowley

1:37

Ichiro didn't technically retire, remember.

1:38

He'll probably get a PA when the Mariners play in Japan.

Jay Jaffe

1:38

good point, though if that happens it will keep him out of the Hall for a year (2025 induction instead of 2024).

kevin

1:39

Lots of ifs here, but...if Yelich hits a 3-run HR and Brewers win..most dramatic MVP win ever?

Craig Edwards

1:39

that will be fun, though in my head--unlike Ichiro's--I have him as retired.

1:39

Yelich is the mvp right? Not necessarily should be, but will be?

Jay Jaffe

1:39

I'm pretty sure that MVP ballots would have ben mailed already, and it wouldn't surprise me if many were sent off well before the weekend, so not all of Yelich's exploits will have been considered.

I still go deGrom for MVP, but I understand the reasons why some prefer Yelich.

Craig Edwards

1:40

Will be Yelich. I still think deGrom has been the NLs Most Valuable Player.

Connecting…