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Jeff Sullivan FanGraphs Chat -- 6/9/17
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Jeff Sullivan
9:28
That being said, his pop-up issue is significant, and limiting. Right now he has eight homers and 19 pop-ups. That's crazy
He already has three more pop-ups than he had all of last season
Baryolo Cologne
9:30
Where does Shark fall right now on your pitchers ranks? His #s this year have been elite (xFIP, K/BB, K/9, IP, etc.), but are being masked by a terrible ERA
Jeff Sullivan
9:30
Really good
And the ERA mostly just reflects a poor start. Since April 28, his ERA is 2.93
...with two walks and 64 strikeouts.
9:31
Think about that. Since the beginning of May, Samardzija has a K/BB of 59
Nelson
9:32
Opposite sides of a trade-
Would you rather have the career of Josh Hamilton (higher WAR, more money, but tons of injuries and issues) or Edinson Volquez?
Jeff Sullivan
9:32
Volquez. Winning a World Series puts it over the top
S
9:32
Will Ian Desmond manage to be a league average player by the end of the season?
Jeff Sullivan
9:32
Given this start, no probably not
9:33
He already has to make up for a -0.5 WAR through 150 or so plate appearances
Now, he probably *is* a league-average player, but his end-of-season numbers won't reflect that
Quietly disappointing player on an otherwise overachieving ballclub
Tj
9:34
With Gray/Quintana/Cole all scuffling, does that make it more likely that someone will overpay for one, or an unforeseen pitcher comes on the market?
Jeff Sullivan
9:34
I'll take the latter
9:35
In fact, just saw Kiermaier is out about two months with a hip injury. If the Rays go in the tank, we'll have more Archer talk
Ross
9:36
With Wilson Ramos on his rehab assignment and expected to join the Rays at some point this month, who should they keep around as his backup when he's ready, Norris or Sucre?
Jeff Sullivan
9:36
Well, we'll have to see if Norris can avoid a suspension
That could make their decision for them
Alec Asher Wojciechowski
9:38
So... Lance McCullers, change-up artist?
Jeff Sullivan
9:39
It's good to see him throwing more of them, but I don't think it's actually all that great of a pitch.
9:41
Had to take a minute to do some quick research. Something is changing here!
McCullers has barely thrown half his changeups for strikes, so that shows some wildness. But his movements are all substantially different from a season ago
9:42
Seems like a lot more tail. I'll pen that in for a next-week article
Bruce
9:42
Whats stopping teams from pulling any stunt lineups at the end of the season? Like why wont we see Bonds or Tebow get a few ABs? Are GMs afraid of the backlash?
Jeff Sullivan
9:42
40-man roster spots are pretty important
9:43
Every organization out there thinks it has 40 players worth a damn. You don't want to punt a player to force in a gimmick
Plus, if the Mets brought Tebow to the major leagues, they'd have to put out a lot of internal fires
Baryolo Cologne
9:45
Do you think we'll continue to see Alex Cobb getting "it" back or is this who he is?
Jeff Sullivan
9:45
His split-change used to be one of the best secondary pitches in baseball. It's missing, now, as Cobb hasn't quite gotten the feel of it. If that never returns, he'll never be what he had been pre-surgery
Steve
9:46
Is deGrom going to be another Mets casualty or will he be okay moving forward?
Jeff Sullivan
9:47
I don't see anything I don't like in his numbers. The ERA doesn't bother me. It's just, you do have a power pitcher here, whose 2016 ended due to surgery
So, don't worry about the performance. Just know that you've got a heightened injury risk
Ray Liotta as Shoeless Joe
9:49
I understand that folks aggressively dislike change, but I cannot help but share my opinion on the website redesign. The lack of delineation and perspective makes the article listing confusing. On the desktop, articles appear in two columns without a time stamp, requiring readers to rely on memory to know which articles he or she has read and what content is newest (does one read left to right by row or left column before right column?). Community Research is buried, and beneath the tools is a "Top Articles" section and an "Essential Articles" section. The addition of front page images and graphics has [slightly] slowed loading times

I know the advantages in the mobile format can be many, but I do not think they were wholly achieved with this change. I would rather zoom in one time than scroll down to locate an article. This could be solved with the mobile menu linking directly to Rotographs or Hardball Times, etc. I would compare this with the MLBRumors approach: a clean application capable of a thumb-swip
Jeff Sullivan
9:50
I don't know very much about website design so my opinions aren't worth anything. I don't even really...go...to websites, very often, outside of doing my own work. But I can assure you that the site is going to be open-minded moving forward about tweaks and adjustments now that the changes have gone public. We all got to beta test as a staff, but the staff is small, and the reader audience is large. You will collectively come up with some very good suggestions that eluded the lot of us
Matt
9:51
Jeff! Tom Murphy is coming back soon! Wolters is playing pretty well...is he going to get any PT? Is that bat going to start blowing up balls in COL and force it's way in?
Jeff Sullivan
9:51
Wolters is going to remain the regular for the time being, because pitchers love working with him. Plus he somehow has an OBP north of .400!
Tony Wolters!
Tj
9:51
Will Judge hit one 125mph this year?
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