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Jeff Sullivan FanGraphs Chat -- 8/11/17
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Jeff Sullivan
9:21
Like, first place in the AL, or first place in the AL West?
9:22
I can see maybe a 10-20% chance they don't finish with the AL's best record, but the division is theirs. The competition is far too weak
Anthony
9:22
Luis Castillo close to getting shut down?
Jeff Sullivan
9:23
Should still have another few starts. He's at only +9 innings compared to last season
Providence
9:23
Tim Beckham has been raking since moving to Baltimore. Are you intrigued? Former #1 pick found something or just off to a good start?
Jeff Sullivan
9:23
Been a week and a half of facing bad pitching. I don't really care
Lump
9:24
Better young hitter for the future: Trey Mancini or Nomar Mazara?
Jeff Sullivan
9:25
Mazara is three years younger than Mancini is. Mancini is the better hitter today, but I think Mazara will develop into the better hitter and the better player
Joel
9:25
Ronald Acuna - will he live up to the hype? Who do you think he comps to best?
Jeff Sullivan
9:25
As a safety mechanism, you should operate with the assumption that no young player will ever live up to the hype
9:26
But to do what he's done, at 19? Acuna is clearly in possession of special skills. His season has been insane
Nick S
9:28
Why is the average pitch velocity under a pitcher's splits tab different than the vFA listed under a pitcher's season stats?
Jeff Sullivan
9:28
That's a good question! I'll ask someone who would know after this chat is over
fangraphs dan the fangraphs man
9:28
i've noticed much of the writing on fangraphs does not come from people with training in statistics, but rather those who know how to intepret them in the contest of baseball (which to be clear is a very valuable skill and makes for good writing). but i was wondering, what does fangraphs do to develop new stats? is there a behind the scenes R&D team? or do you tend to get new stats from external service providers?
Jeff Sullivan
9:29
I don't think FanGraphs is really in the business of developing new stats
9:30
I mean, this was the first place where you could find WAR, and everything, but there are already so many metrics out there, and we don't need to do much, aside from, like, updating the park factors. We have contracts to be able to provide other peoples' defensive numbers. At some point we're going to have other peoples' catching numbers, etc
And at a time when Baseball Savant is releasing so much of the processed Statcast data, I don't know that we need to be doing things internally
Joel
9:30
What analysis would you most like to do but don't have the necessary data to do?
Jeff Sullivan
9:30
Literally anything having to do with player development
Tom
9:30
Do you ever choose the podcast intro/outro music, or is that all Ben?
Jeff Sullivan
9:31
If you have any such podcast question, the answer is always Ben. Ben is the machine that makes the podcast possible, and he deserves all the credit for anything about the podcast you like
Now I suppose I could, in theory, suggest a song or a band, but I haven't done that, because it would feel like stepping on toes
Tim
9:33
Jeff, Austin Barnes has a 1.8 WAR with only 170 plate appearances. Should the Dodgers consider playing him more at 2B since he can also play there and Farmer has looked decent in limited time as a backup catcher?
Jeff Sullivan
9:34
I'm not sure the incentive is there. Playing Barnes more often at second base could expose him to a greater risk of potential injury, and while the Dodgers haven't been *great* at second base this season, they also haven't been bad. Forsythe has been fine, and so has Utley, so there's not much reason to change anything
LegallyEagle
9:35
Would any team be willing to take a chance on Cueto if he was offered for basically free (the team just having to take on the contract)?
Jeff Sullivan
9:35
Bad year and a flexor strain? Nope
Cueto's contract is at least temporarily underwater
Jake
9:36
The Rockies currently have the second worst wRC+ in baseball at 83, despite being third in runs and a .274/.333/.442 team slash line. The Astros lead in runs and wRC+ (129) with a .290/.353/.500 team slash line. How insane of a slash line would the Rockies have to have to be running a 129 wRC+?
Jeff Sullivan
9:36
Thankfully this is kind of easy! Nolan Arenado right now has a 124 wRC+. His slash line is .315/.363/.588
So something a little better than that
lol
9:38
OPS in Rockies games in Colorado: .838
OPS in Rockies games not in Colorado: .716
Jim
9:38
Hello, Jeff. Go Yard Goats!
Jeff Sullivan
9:38
They are not very good!
9:39
But it's a beautiful stadium, and, honestly, I didn't think I'd ever go back to Hartford after graduating from college. It's looking better than it did
Kevin Burke
9:40
Hello! I have a question. How does the "player to be named later" actually work? What stops teams from trying to send their equipment manager or the mascot or something as the player to be named later?
Jeff Sullivan
9:40
Generally, two sides agree on a short list of players who could individually be selected, and then by some deadline, the receiving team has to pick
Mariners
9:41
Are the Mariners done if (when) Paxton hits the DL?
Jeff Sullivan
9:41
I don't see how they can hope to do much of anything without Paxton, but we should at least wait on the MRI results
Hank G.
9:41
Other than the missed time, has the injury affected Mike Trout at all? He seems to have picked up right where he left off. He has an outside chance to still be the AL position player leader in WAR.
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