You are viewing the chat in desktop mode. Click here to switch to mobile view.
X
Jeff Sullivan FanGraphs Chat -- 5/11/18
powered byJotCast
View Full Chat Next Page
Jeff Sullivan
9:03
Hello friends
9:04
Welcome to Friday baseball chat
Palardelphia
9:04
Carlos Santana has been on fire lately. Looking at his rolling averages...was he walking too much (and not capitalizing on hittable pitches)?
Jeff Sullivan
9:04
My understanding is that, early on, Santana was basically just hitting into terrible luck. Mike Petriello wrote about it at MLB.com. His xwOBA was always strong from the get-go
Yu
9:05
Is this a breakout season for Maikel Franco?
Jeff Sullivan
9:05
Probably not
9:06
Looks like basically the same hitter he's always been
Syndergaardians of the Galaxy
9:07
Can you say anything that will make me feel hopeful about the Mets?
Jeff Sullivan
9:07
The 2015 Mets were below .500 in the last week of June
Kiermaier's Piercing Green Eyes
9:09
Archer and Snell have very similar peripherals. The main difference between post-breakout Snell and Archer for the last few years is that Archer gives up hard contact, which means homers and a high BABIP. How much longer would you want to see them maintain their current performances before we can consider Snell to be the better pitcher? (Hopefully this is praise for Snell and not a knock against Archer.)
Jeff Sullivan
9:10
It's encouraging that Snell is still avoiding getting into walk trouble like he used to. Appears that much of his second-half breakout is carrying over. His current strike rate is only more or less average, so that's not a *strength*, but I like that he has a broad repertoire
9:11
If I had to guess, an issue for Archer is that he's mostly fastball/slider. Batters swing through the sliders out of the zone, and then they feast on the in-zone fastballs. So that would lead to both strikeouts and hard contact
If this keeps up through the All-Star break or thereabouts, I'd be willing to consider Snell the better starter
Jack
9:12
Should the Jays just bite the bullet and give Morales the remaining $20 million or so on his contract to go away? He looks finished, and the roster is actually pretty crowded when/if it gets healthy, and they could use that DH spot to keep guys like Solarte and Hernandez’s bat in the lineup. And obviously Morales’s lack of speed and defense makes him a pretty useless bench player.
Jeff Sullivan
9:12
Since the start of 2016, Kendrys Morales has been worth -0.6 WAR
9:13
It looked like a bad contract when the Jays signed it, and now it only looks worse
9:14
There's no reason for Morales to be on that roster. I know teams are loath to give up on that kind of salary commitment, but the Jays have so many major-league-caliber players. The roster should be full of them
Rox Fan
9:14
Is it time for the Rockies' rotation to sue the offense for non-support?
Jeff Sullivan
9:15
Worst lineups in baseball: Rockies and Marlins tied, at a 75 wRC+
Last year, of course, the Rockies were fourth-worst
9:16
In a sense it shouldn't be this way -- Story, Arenado, Blackmon, LeMahieu are all fine. The rest is a void. This team could really use a healthy breakout from David Dahl
Nathan
9:17
Why aren't we talking about how good Leonys Martin has been? Should we be talking about how good Leonys Martin has been?
Jeff Sullivan
9:18
He'll get his attention eventually. But for one thing, we've already seen this from him before, and it was temporary. And for another, most people who write about baseball just aren't paying that much attention to the Tigers
Martin has been an early success story, absolutely. He might really be figuring something out. But even if you focus on the Tigers alone, Martin isn't as compelling a story as, say, JaCoby Jones, who just last season looked totally hopeless
THE Average Sports Fan
9:19
Is Eric Hosmer the final product of a secret government program aimed at driving all writers at Fangraphs insane?
Jeff Sullivan
9:19
I don't mind him
He can do what he wants. That's Dave's problem, not mine
Kiermaier's Piercing Green Eyes
9:21
Is Sergio Romo finished? So many walks and hard hit balls when the Rays have a small army of AAAA or better guys in Durham. Or given his career-high K numbers, maybe they think he can turn it around enough to be flipped for a low-end prospect?
Jeff Sullivan
9:21
Romo's not finished, I don't think, because I can't write off a guy with that strikeout rate. But he also has fringy stuff and shouldn't go against lefties, so it's not like he'd ever return a midseason prospect
9:22
He only has a role in a deep bullpen with multiple multi-inning relievers. He's such a specialist
9:23
Maybe there's no reason for Romo to coexist with Chaz Roe. They're trying to do the same exact thing
Todd
9:24
Anything jump out at you about former Top-100 prospect Alen Hanson in SF?  Any chance for him to be a regular ML player?
Jeff Sullivan
9:25
I don't see anything that excites me too much
Maybe he's figured something out, I don't know, but based on the early evidence he's simply overachieving. Haven't taken a deep dive, here
Johnny Triple
9:26
Eddie Rosario’s launch angle has increased to 20.2 this season from 12.7 last season. Is this the type of thing that can be sustained or is he a regression candidate for the rest of the season? Haven’t heard anything about a swing change.
Jeff Sullivan
9:27
Rosario is actually just carrying over what he did in last year's second half, when he started to aim for the sky
Between halves, he dropped his grounder rate by ten percentage points
If I recall correctly, it's not so much about a swing change as it is about a selectivity change. Just going after different pitches
9:28
His walk rate is so low he feels a little Rougned Odor-y, but at least you know the homers will be there
Yu
9:29
Is Andrew Heaney actually pretty good?
Connecting…