JotCast | Jeff Sullivan FanGraphs Chat -- 11/3/17

Jeff Sullivan FanGraphs Chat -- 11/3/17

Jeff Sullivan

9:07

Hello friends

Welcome to Friday baseball chat

Our first Friday baseball chat of the offseason

9:08

I am fully prepared to take your offseason questions while being unprepared to answer them

Dookie Howser, MD

9:08

Did the Red Sox hire Tony La Russa as some kind of cruel joke?

Jeff Sullivan

9:08

The current Red Sox front office sure looks different from the Red Sox front office of just a few years ago

Bebop

9:09

give me a hypothetical trade that helps fix the Cubs bullpen...a trade with the Indians where they get Zach Macallister, Otero, Merrit, Clevinger for Montgomery, Edwards & Schwarber work?

Jeff Sullivan

9:09

They could sign Brandon Morrow

9:10

The elite relievers aren't out there, at least not in free agency. There's no Jansen, there's no Chapman. This was also a season of re-learning that really good relievers can emerge out of nowhere. I'm not convinced the Cubs won't just load up on talented arms and hope to find another Blake Parker or something

I also don't think they would be that interested in moving Edwards, playoffs be damned

Ned Yost

9:11

Can you talk a little about Jake McGee? His FIP away from Coors was 1.95, the Ks are there, control was decent. What kind of deal is he looking at in free agency?

Jeff Sullivan

9:12

Not too old, re-gained a lot of his missing velocity. Not the strikeout machine he used to be but McGee is positioned to get two fairly pricey years on the market

9:14

One minute, having some technical difficulties with a podcast just recorded before this

9:15

Sorry for this annoyance

9:18

This is very annoying for all of us...

9:19

All right, we're back to normal now

Alec Asher Wojciechowski

9:19

In a crazy hypothetical where the Yankees decide that Hinch is the only manager for them, what kind of talent would they have to give up for the Astros to part with him?

Jeff Sullivan

9:21

Obviously, there's not much of a history of compensation for managers

When Theo Epstein went to the Cubs, they sent the Red Sox Chris Carpenter (not that one) and Aaron Kurcz

I'd think in this weird-ass hypothetical, the Yankees would have to give the Astros a third-tier prospect or two

Jack

9:22

Going into into this year, perhaps more than any other year I can remember, almost everyone seemed to agree on who was going to win each division. In each case, the majority turned out to be correct, and most division “races” weren’t even close. I know the offseason hasn’t even started yet, but it seems like each one of those teams will once again be picked by the majority to repeat as division champs, though I’m sure there will be people predicting the Yankees to overtake the Red Sox. So I’m not gonna let you answer this question with the Yankees. Excluding the Yankees, which non-division winning team in 2017 has the best chance to win their division in 2018?

Jeff Sullivan

9:23

I'm tempted to say it's either the Brewers or the Mets

Neither team has that great of a chance, especially with the Brewers missing Jimmy Nelson, but the Cubs are going to need a lot of pitching help they might not get. And the Mets might get their own healthy pitchers to stay healthy instead of hurt

Really wouldn't take that much to make the Mets competitive again

Safety Stegosaurus

9:24

Does Apizza Scholls live up to the hype?

Jeff Sullivan

9:24

Nothing good ever lives up to the hype, but it is delicious pizza

Bebop

9:24

if you were the Cardinals, would you trade Matt Carpenter this off season? Seems like either Carpenter or Wong should go.

Jeff Sullivan

9:25

I wouldn't make a point of it, no. He's too valuable, and they're still trying to be competitive

YDG

9:26

If you could take control of the FO for any team that didn't make the playoffs, who would you go with?

Jeff Sullivan

9:27

Padres, maybe. Zero expectations, very little pressure, potential for a fast rise

Good place to live

CamdenWarehouse

9:27

whew - I'm really glad we're moving into offseason baseball coverage. The playoffs are tedious with the same things being said again and again just changing team/player names etc.

Jeff Sullivan

9:27

I love the playoffs, work demands aside, but it is nice to get to this point and remember that there are 30 teams, instead of 10 or 8 or 4 or 2

9:28

I'm ready to write about teams who aren't the Astros or the Dodgers

Well, let me say, I'll be ready to write about those teams next week. Right now I'm all out of juice

Matt

9:28

What type of decline, if any, do you expect to see out of Lester in '18? If it is somewhat steep, does that necessitate a more aggressive FA/trading strategy for SP acquisition?

Jeff Sullivan

9:28

I expect that Lester's going to be fine. But I also expect that the Cubs will be very aggressive looking for quality rotation help

Mark

9:28

Stanton is wearing a ___ jersey next season.

Jeff Sullivan

9:29

different

Take that, Mark

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