You are viewing the chat in desktop mode. Click here to switch to mobile view.
X
Jeff Sullivan FanGraphs Chat -- 1/18/19
powered byJotCast
Prev Page View Full Chat
Jeff Sullivan
10:49
But you just can't look at this through the lens of better baseball. Yes, some players would be improved if they didn't have to stress so much about sustaining themselves. But more importantly, the players would be making a living wage. The humanitarian reason is the most significant one
10:50
For what it's worth, there is some momentum for this all to change, even on the team side
Jack
10:51
The free agency system works for the owners because they get so many years of affordable control of their players, years that usually cover their best seasons. In theory, the system should work for the players because there’s no salary cap and they can ask for however much they want once they get to free agency, but teams seem to have caught on that they were paying big money for their decline years and are less willing to do that anymore. The system entirely sucks for the fans. An offseason we were looking forward to for several years has been pretty dull. Harper and Machado are still out there in mid-January, and there are only a couple interested teams. Would baseball be better if it had a max contract like basketball? The PA would probably never agree to it because it would limit the earning potential of the mega stars, but if there was a max contract, Harper and Machado probably would’ve signed in November, and there probably would’ve been a lot more interested teams. It would be better theater
Jeff Sullivan
10:52
Firstly, the overwhelming majority of baseball fans pay only limited attention during the winter. The offseason is only entertainment for the real baseball nerds like us. The average fan checks in every now and then and smiles when baseball is back on TV
10:53
A max contract would be unwelcome for the reasons you already said
10:54
The CBT threshold needs to be a lot higher. Pre-arb salaries need to be higher. And arb salaries need to be higher, or arb years need to be more limited
Hello
10:55
Volcano fun fact, please?
Jeff Sullivan
10:55
Mount St Helens was in a state of continuous eruption between 2004-2008! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004%E2%80%9308_volcanic_activity_of_Mou...
Hello
10:56
Any cool volcanoes in sub-saharan Africa?
Jeff Sullivan
10:56
god yes
Daniel Carroll
10:57
The opening Caesars line for Mariners wins was 74.5. It seems to me I'd take the over because I think they're more likely to finish 80-82 than 68-94. They're not going to be good, but I don't see them being a 100-loss team. Do you agree?
Jeff Sullivan
10:57
I think it's a pretty fair line. They currently have a lot of zeros or near-zeros and the bullpen is quite bad
10:58
Mitch Haniger is the only player on the team I'm comfortable saying will have an above-average season
Mark
10:58
Jeff - What would be the White Sox motivation for leaking the low Machado number? Or is it not them? I would think it would only invite competition.
Jeff Sullivan
10:58
I have no idea where that leak might've come from
Tim
10:59
As someone who is interested in entering the glamorous world of baseball blogging, what led you to this job? Like, what were you doing before? Do you have any advice?
Jeff Sullivan
10:59
I was a freshman in college who didn't like to party and whose girlfriend went to a different school. And so I blogged. This was in fall of 2003
11:00
That eventually led me to part-time for SB Nation, which led me to full-time for SB Nation, which led me to full-time for FanGraphs. But the circumstances have changed, pretty obviously, and the path I took isn't as open as it once was
11:01
Best advice, very simply: write, and write often. Make yourself write when you don't want to, just for the experience. And write for the Community blog! Over the span of a few weeks or months, if you're steady, you'll find your voice, and you'll find out more about your strengths and weaknesses. If you want to get noticed, having one good idea isn't enough -- you have to demonstrate reliable consistency
All right, I need to get rolling
So thank you everybody for hanging out, and I'm sorry for what I didn't or couldn't address. We'll do it again next week at the same time, and until then, be well and have great days
Connecting…