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Jeff Sullivan FanGraphs Chat -- 5/11/18
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Jeff Sullivan
9:29
Heaney is pretty good as long as he's healthy. Can't make any guarantees about that second part
Vicente Padilla
9:30
What’s a good baseball pun name for a new kitten?
Jeff Sullivan
9:30
Jim Cat
Orioles fan
9:30
Can you give us anything to be happy about or look forward to other than the returns we’re going to get for Machado and maybe Britton?
Jeff Sullivan
9:30
One answer: no
9:31
Another answer: at least the team should be forced to pick a new direction. Some kind of rebuild ought to be coming. No more of this flailing for the middle
Whether the right people are in charge for that -- that's very much up for debate
Gest
9:32
Were you able to see any of Gohara's appearance last night? Just from looking at the play-by-play, it didn't seem like his slider was fooling anyone.
Jeff Sullivan
9:33
Just the one game, but his velocity was kind of down even though he was pitching in the bullpen. And his slider wasn't the same one he was throwing late in 2017. Nothing to be worried about quite yet, but something to monitor over the next month or so
Deathclaw
9:34
Is Nomar Mazara breaking out? He has greatly improved against lefties and is also hitting the ball significantly harder. Or just a hot streak?
Jeff Sullivan
9:36
What we're seeing *right now* is definitely a hot streak, but also, Mazara is only 23 years old, and from the beginning he's shown some remarkable peak power
Now he's tapping into that more. I think he's somewhat leveled his swing, and he's hitting more balls toward right and right-center. I don't think Mazara is great yet, but he's absolutely better than he was
Kevin
9:37
Jeff, just wanted to say I'm a huge fan and that I hope you have a fantastic weekend!
Jeff Sullivan
9:37
Kevin, I hope your weekend is even better than mine
jimmy
9:37
Devon Travis has a wRC+ of 7 in AAA. Is he cooked?
Jeff Sullivan
9:38
No, but there's very little reason for the Jays to hurry him back
Even without Travis and Tulowitzki, the Jays are overloaded with infield depth. This is mostly by design, because, the team knew it couldn't count on Travis and Tulowitzki
Blessed Be the Chatters
9:39
Should the White Sox ask Matt Davidson to use a glove at Wrigley this weekend? Particularly, not of the batting variety?
Jeff Sullivan
9:39
Once or twice. No reason not to
Ross
9:39
Who are you most concerned about, the Indians, Cubs or Dodgers?
Jeff Sullivan
9:40
Dodgers
Seager is gone, Jansen isn't right, Kershaw might not be right, Toles had a setback, Turner isn't back yet, gap in the division is large
The Indians haven't wowed me, but their division absolutely sucks
9:41
It would be embarrassing if the Indians don't win that division by at least ten games
Put on your tinfoil hats!
9:42
At the beginning of the 2016 season, MLB announced that they were switching their official pizza sponsor from Dominos to Papa Johns. Papa Johns then announced that there would be discounted pizza for every grand slam hit, right around the time that people began to notice the spike in home runs. Coincidence? Probably, but still kind of interesting.
Jeff Sullivan
9:43
Grand slams by season:

2014: 84
2015: 108
2016: 110
2017: 133
2018: 147 (pace)
Take that, Papa Johns!
THE Average Sports Fan
9:43
What does Harvey need to do between now and trade deadline for the Reds to get something of value out of him?
Jeff Sullivan
9:43
Not suck
He needs to miss bats. Period. If he can't do it as a starter, then he needs to accept that he should do it as a reliever
9:44
If he doesn't miss bats, he'll be dropped in a month
FearAndLoathing
9:45
Is a Garret Richards rebound going to happen? what would it look like stat wise? His xfip is great, but he's rocking an elevated hr/fb rate (19.2 %), twice his career average, and he's walking guys more.
Jeff Sullivan
9:45
Richards has never been a command pitcher, and he'll never be a command pitcher
9:46
But his stat line right now is fine, and that folds in his one disaster start, where he allowed nine runs in 1.2 innings against the Yankees
9:47
He's not efficient, and batters have taken to waiting him out, because he'll frequently miss. But overall, this version of Richards is fairly good
Gest
9:49
What possible adjustment do you think there might be for pitchers to make to Acuna?
Jeff Sullivan
9:49
This would be a good start:
So far, 337 players have seen at least 200 pitches. Acuna has baseball's second-highest rate of pitches seen that were middle-middle
9:50
He's up there in between Alex Blandino and Jarrod Dyson
9:51
Pitchers just have to execute better. The early numbers are interesting -- Acuna has hit grounders and flies, and basically nothing in between
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