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Kevin Goldstein FanGraphs Chat - 3/7/2022
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Me
12:49
What kind of food do Astros employees get? Typical office food? Is it same as players? Worse?
Kevin Goldstein
12:49
Lunch is on you. If there's a home game, you can do media dining.
Phil
12:49
Important question that came up on Effectively Wild: is a pitcher who throws underhand a submarINer or a subMARiner?
Kevin Goldstein
12:49
I'm going to say the former, and yet, I'll be fine if you say the latter.
Andrew
12:50
Really digging the new Bartees Strange track.  Any newer songs that you would recommend?
Kevin Goldstein
12:50
Listen to Dry Cleaning.
171
12:50
Did you have your own office at the ballpark or was there like a communal workspace for people who weren't primarily working out of Houston?
Kevin Goldstein
12:51
I had a desk in an area that the analysts used. Having an office would have been an inefficient use of space.
B Iff
12:51
How much more emphasis if any is placed on those prospects who played in a wooden bat league.
Kevin Goldstein
12:52
Cape performance is huge. Some because of the bats, some because of the level of competition.
Kingpin
12:52
Could the union, or a group of players, organize a series of games in college stadiums in CA, FL, TX, etc. to make money to fund the union's lockout stipend fund?
Kevin Goldstein
12:53
I believe so. I think a barnstorming home run derby tour thing would be fun too.
Phil
12:53
Here's one thing I'm having trouble understanding. Why did Manfred say that delaying the season start would be "disastrous," when he must have known, based on what the owners' proposals were, that that would happen? It seems like it doesn't really put that much pressure on the union, but exacerbates the general sense that MLB is in crisis and also that Manfred is not that good at negotiating. Wouldn't the tough negotiating position be, "We'll wait as long as it takes?"
Kevin Goldstein
12:54
There's a massive PR game being played, and on both sides. Every statement you see is meticulously crafted.
Mitch
12:54
Are all major league front offices actually located at the ballpark? Or do teams use other locations as well?
Kevin Goldstein
12:54
Almost every one. I know of a couple that are not, but like across the street or something. Everyone is right there, as it were.
Guest
12:56
Do you have any sense of ownership concern of the damage a lockout and missed games causes? It feels like very little based on the way negotiations have gone.
Kevin Goldstein
12:56
I think they've been exceptionally short sighted for the most part.
JWR
12:57
Very glad you are back but what do you miss most about working in a major league front office?
Kevin Goldstein
12:57
I do miss having some skin in the game, if that makes sense.
Chris
12:59
How staggered would people be to learn what average team revenue is each (non pandemic) season? Like are we talking >$600M?
Kevin Goldstein
1:00
It's complicated, and why simply 'opening the books' isn't the total answer. There's so much adjacent revenue. Teams charge for parking, but often teams have side companies that they own that run the parking so it's not directly baseball revenue. Even bigger is all of the real estate holding around ballparks, that are also technically not on the books.
David
1:01
Why don't we just have a pitch clock yet? Seems like such an easy solution. Do players really hate it that much?
Kevin Goldstein
1:01
They'll come around. All of the players are coming up with it in the minors.
Frank Thomas the Tank Engine
1:01
What was the worst interaction you had with someone from another team's front office?
Kevin Goldstein
1:02
Can't see I ever had some kind of extremely bad one to be honest. I had a couple of ugly ones with agents, but that's part of the job....
troke
1:02
Do players get any proceeds from merch sales or does that all go to the team?
Kevin Goldstein
1:02
If it's player licensed stuff, yes they do.
Thame
1:02
How soon could we see expansion? Is that even being discussed in this CBA fiasco?
Kevin Goldstein
1:03
It's not being discussed, and I think MLB is waiting for some level of normalness, which we haven't had since 2019(!) to talk about it.
Jughead
1:03
What’s to stop the players from bowing out of the home run derby and all star games?
Kevin Goldstein
1:04
Nothing.
Mitch
1:04
If a "smart" team like the Rays, Dodgers, etc. call and ask for a player who is not super highly thought of by your org, does that make a FO question that player? Like, would they do a deeper analysis on that player to try to figure out what they are missing and why that team wants him?
Kevin Goldstein
1:05
It certainly should!
171
1:05
I bought Elden Ring on saturday, played it for about 2 hours and then requested a refund on steam. It was my first go at a souls game and I just decided that it wasn't for me.
Kevin Goldstein
1:05
That's fine. It's not for everyone. It either clicks for you or not. Like what you like.
Otto
1:06
Favorite tv show?
Kevin Goldstein
1:06
I don't know. We really enjoyed All Of Us Are Dead on Netflix which we just finished. I like some of the mumblecore out there like Joe Pera and John Wilson's work.
Jon
1:07
How long have teams like the Astros, Dodgers and Rays had access to "Stuff+" numbers to evaluate pitchers? How many years ahead are the FOs on advanced metrics?
Kevin Goldstein
1:07
They are ahead, I don't know about years, but they are definitely doing things well beyond Stuff+.
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