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Meg Rowley FanGraphs Chat - 4/28/2020
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Nathan
2:26
I’ve really enjoyed watching the MLB The Show tournaments. Do you see a future where IRL baseball is replaced by eSports?
Meg Rowley
2:27
No, but I think eSports generally clearly has an audience that is ever-growing and will take up increasing space in the broadcast realm and in sports discourse.
Joe from Chicago and also Seattl
2:27
Please continue to say "banging scheme" and giggle with borderline obnoxious frequency on the pod, it makes me very happy.
Meg Rowley
2:27
Roger that.
TarzanStretch
2:28
On the lighter side there are crazy animals out there that have been unused by sports teams.  I'd like to see the "San Antonio Satanic Leaf Tailed Geckos" .  You have a favorite?
Meg Rowley
2:28
Really feel like there ought to be more rhinos and also, graceful, leaping plains animals?
Bob
2:29
I yearn for a world where, I, a simple misclassified and now furloughed independent contractor, would receive a small amount of federal assistance so I don’t need to live in my car next month, instead of the Lakers receiving $4.6 million.
Meg Rowley
2:30
It is impossibly frustrating how little of our politics is motivated by an understanding that we ought to use government to care for one another.
I hope things improve for you soon, Bob.
Ed
2:30
So imagine that MLB agreed to use the Florida/Arizona model for 2020. SInce most of those stadiums are built for Spring Training, couldn't teams also form an all star team with their top 30 minor leaguers and have them practice on the back fields? And then maybe play morning games against other minor league all star teams with the MLB teams playing at night? As a Mariner fan i would be just as interested if not more so in the progress of the minor league stars as I would be the real Mariners. Could we make that work?
Meg Rowley
2:32
I expect there to be backfield play at the complexes for sure - exactly how that's configured remains unclear. I think the focus will be on broadcasting the big league games. That's enough of a challenge.
Chris
2:32
Assuming we 'reopen' baseball while still observing a level of social distancing, is there any reason why the manager/coaches should be in the dugout? I imagine they will be, but how much of their roles really could be remotely performed?
Meg Rowley
2:36
I think the plan was to use the seats behind the dugout to spread everyone out. But yeah, I'd think a lot of the coaching staff could be up in the press box, and then use headsets like in football - you probably still have the manager at field level, but we could spread guys out. Not sure how enthusiastic about introducing more electronic communication to the dugout the league would be given recent shenanigans but public health is a pretty compelling reason to figure that stuff out.
TarzanStretch
2:37
Someone must be using 'Gazelles" as a team name.  Maybe a track team?
Meg Rowley
2:37
Looks like track and also a soccer company of some sort?
Dan
2:37
What happens to MiLB players who don't get a season? Do the best prospects flood winter ball and we have a super winter ball season later this year?
Meg Rowley
2:39
Again, I think some will end up filling out expanded rosters. Assuming there is a Fall League, maybe we see expansion there and will instructs. And then possibly for Winter Ball, though it isn't as if there will be no COVID-19 this fall and winter.
Yoervis
2:39
How many of the questions in the pool are on the M's?
Meg Rowley
2:39
Not as many as you'd think, but I'm trying to switch up who's asking stuff - lot of the queue is from the same couple of readers.
Kiermaier's Piercing Green Eyes
2:40
How great would it be if we actually were only capable of getting angry about one thing at a time though? Without resolution on the Astros scandal, that could be the only thing we would be upset about right now!
Meg Rowley
2:40
Sadly it appears that having a society is currently dependent on the ability to be mad at a lot of things at once.
Very cool system we have here? TBD.
Don
2:43
Is there a particular prospect you’d like to see the Mariners take this year?
Meg Rowley
2:44
Not sure if this is meant as a draft question, so instead I will use it to answer a different question and say that I am particularly interested to see how M's minor league pitchers develop, and how the org continues to refine its player dev there.
2:45
Logan Gilbert and George Kirby are the headliners, but some of the lower level dudes are interesting, too.
BASEBALL SZN
2:45
Which KBO team are you going to be an irrationally huge fan of and why?
Meg Rowley
2:47
Probably the Giants? Former FanGraphsers in the front office? Check. Middling success of late? Check. New front office emphasis on analytics? Yup.
Sounds like a Meg team
KC
2:47
As someone who regularly works from home, how do you keep yourself motivated and focused? I'm currently temporarily laid off from work and I'm trying to study for school next year and teach myself peogramming but I just can't stay on task. Near regular anxiety doesn't help,either.
Meg Rowley
2:49
A couple of thoughts here. First, this is not normal working from home. You didn't get a new gig that is work from home and now you're adjusting to that. Don't be hard on yourself about being distracted. I am very used to working from home and work way too much, and I'm often distracted right now.
2:50
I find that when I'm stuck, doing a couple of small things that aren't work related and aren't time consuming can help get me back in a groove. Stymied by an edit? Wash the dishes. Take out the trash. Go for a walk.
2:51
But mostly, this isn't normal. It's ok for it to feel fucked. We just have to do the best we can, and grade on a rather extreme curve.
Guest
2:52
When/how did you get into analytics?
Meg Rowley
2:53
Early/mid 2000s I guess - it was a combination of wanting to better understand the sport and also wanting to engage with an aspect of it where not having played wouldn't matter.
Guest
2:53
Someone asked Ben this yesterday, curious as to your thoughts: what 1 baseball stat is best to bridge the analytics/old-school divide?  Put another way, what 1 stat should a ballpark show in order to convey information usefully to both statheads and those who remember watching the Brooklyn Dodgers?  (Ben's answer: OPS)
Meg Rowley
2:54
I think OPS is a great answer, even though I think you start to go wrong if you get too into the nitty gritty of what goes into slugging.
2:55
What are analytics trying to accomplish? Better understanding what is happening and who is good. OPS lets you talk about that using underlying stats people understand.
Dr. Science
2:55
Any chance we see tandem starters this year?  I would think it would be easier to find two pitcher who can get through the order twice than one who can get through three times?
Meg Rowley
2:56
Imagine it will be on the table for sure as teams think about how to protect pitchers from injury but also want to get some length out of what they have.
Felipe
2:56
Do you play Fantasy Baseball? I do and I miss it everyday.
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