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Kevin Goldstein FanGraphs Chat - 12/13/2021
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Kevin Goldstein
12:57
It's a very cranky group today. It's my chat. I choose the questions to answer, and I'm going to answer them. I try to share my thoughts and educate and entertain. Why are you getting so worked up about this? When reporters hype one candidate, maybe they think he's the best candidate? Maybe they like the person? It feels like you are looking for some kind of answer to fit some kind of narrative, frankly.
Stormin' Norman
12:57
Why is MLB network showing nothing but baseball games from yesteryear, Labor strife related?
Kevin Goldstein
12:58
Pretty much. Have you seen the MLB.com website lately? It's really weird.
Jacob
12:58
I laughed at the answer to the Simmons and Hicks question!
Kevin Goldstein
12:58
That's two of us!
Inaccessible Rail
12:58
Sorry some guys are giving you such a hard time today. I'm embarassed on behalf of the FG readership.
Kevin Goldstein
12:58
It's fine. The FG readers and commenters and podcasts listeners are an overwhelmingly wonderful group.
Ben
12:59
If a very high percentage of a prospects' homers came with two strikes, would you consider that to be beneficial or not very important?
Kevin Goldstein
12:59
I wouldn't make any assumptions off that. It's just very incomplete information. What's' the sample size? What were the pitches?
Guest
12:59
Thank you for introducing me to the Bad Bad Hats, seeing them in Feb
Kevin Goldstein
1:00
Whee! People getting into podcast music makes me happy.
Becker
1:00
NOT INCLUDING guys you know from the Astros, who would you like to see be an MLB manager for the first time?
Kevin Goldstein
1:00
Will Venable.
Ex Libris
1:01
Know you have said you don’t read management books that pass around the office but have you ever given a book recommendation to a staffer while with Houston?  Or a player
Kevin Goldstein
1:02
There were some magic realism fiction books I recommended to someone who asked what I read, but that's about it.
Jacob
1:02
Just curious who are you talking to on the Owners side? Is it FO folks or MLB office folks?
Kevin Goldstein
1:02
Yes.
VERY ANGRY CHAT QUESTION ASKER PERSON!
1:02
Boy the lockdown is affecting these guys HARD.  Chill the F out, Fellas.  Kevin's doing us a solid here.
Kevin Goldstein
1:03
And all of you are doing me a solid by asking so many good questions and hanging out with me for 90 minutes, but yeah, it's a baseball chat, we can have a little fun here.
David
1:03
What are some of those magic realism fiction books you have recommended?
Kevin Goldstein
1:03
Various Coover, DeLilo, The Magus by Fowles, etc.
Steve
1:04
You'll know things are getting serious when MLB Network only shows games from 1994
Kevin Goldstein
1:04
I've actually really enjoyed watching some of these [ducks].
Quarantino Martinez
1:04
Is it weird that we know what players make and not what owners make?
Kevin Goldstein
1:04
The players think so.
Dave
1:05
Stearns brought in Singleton and White, Elias brought in Nottingham (and Ruiz before that, and others). Curious why you think GMs are attracted to failed prospects they are familiar with from prior jobs. Is it simply that, familiarity? But they didn't work out, why would it be different now?
Kevin Goldstein
1:05
There certainly is a bit of a devil you know aspect to it. Teams need depth and teams need backup plans and teams need break glass in case of emergency players.
Jacob
1:05
What teams are trying the most interesting things to you in the analytics/player development spaces?
Kevin Goldstein
1:06
Dodgers, Astros, Rays, Giants come to mind immediately. There are more.
KB
1:07
How extensive is a team's projection/scouting database? Translations for every league on the face of the planet? I'm imagining Clay Davenport level data on steroids haha.
Kevin Goldstein
1:07
It varies from team to team, and the good ones are the ones most willing to admit that many of them are highly flawed.
Aearl00
1:07
Has there ever been a time when you thought the Astros had a deal to either trade for or sign a player and it never happened?
Kevin Goldstein
1:08
Holy crap so many times. Biggest one was going to bed in the team hotel quite sure that the team had acquired Bryce Harper.
Devil you know…
1:08
Do any teams hire outside help to make their front office hires?  So many industries do but it seems like in baseball it’s all
Kevin Goldstein
1:08
There's Korn Ferry, which does a lot of the GM search stuff, but not really at the lower levels.
Jack
1:08
In the scenario you outlined where some games would be missed (the hypothetical 154 game season), is your thinking that an agreement would come together sometime in March with an abbreviated offseason/Spring Training. Essentially - how much time would there need to be between agreement and opening day?
Kevin Goldstein
1:10
I think things start to get dicey around 2/1. I think you'd need about a two-week ramp up, just logistically to get spring starting on time. So yeah, my most likely scenario is a compressed ST that begins in March, a delay to the season starting on time, some scheduling work to mitigate the damage with double-headers and the like, and somewhere around 154.
Vince L.
1:10
Are trades usually a one-on-one conversation, or does a GM usually have his AGM and others involved in trade talks?
Kevin Goldstein
1:11
They're weird. It's mostly a one-on-one conversation, but at the same time, the most likely response to a change in an offer is "I'll take it to the group." Then the inner circle huddles and discusses and decides how to respond. Like I handled some FA negotiations, but I wasn't the one deciding on the offers or the counters. Those were group decisions with the GM having the ultimate say.
BlueJayMatt
1:12
Do teams ever go back and re-evaluate a failed trade? If they target a player and he turns out to be terrible do they re-visit their thinking and valuation that was completed prior to the trade to make changes to (hopefully) do better next time?
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