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Meg Rowley FanGraphs Chat - 4/5/18
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Justin
2:23
How much of managing is hard skills (literally knowing how a hitter/pitcher looks based on your level of understanding of baseball) and how much is the soft skills of both communicating with players/execs and dealing with media? As an educator, I really need to know my stuff, but if I can't communicate it or exhibit emotional intelligence....
Meg Rowley
2:24
The in-game strategy and general baseball smarts certainly matters, but a crazy amount of being a manager is people management stuff we never really see.
Duncan
2:26
Paxton confidence one game in?!?!
Meg Rowley
2:27
I am not that concerned. We've seen his command slip at times before, the secondary stuff was still good, the velo was there, he was throwing to a non-Zunino Mariners catcher, and he was facing a good lineup.
If we're a couple starts in and it still looks like this, it'll be different but sometimes guys have crummy days.
Chuncey Wiggins
2:28
Who do you like to win the Masters?
Meg Rowley
2:28
Someone who is good at golf (it is golf, right?). It isn't my game, though I am pleased it brings many other people joy.
mcmadbat
2:28
How soon before we see an Ohtani extension and for how much?
Meg Rowley
2:30
Hmmm very good question. How much, I don't know. How soon? Him having this nice start seems like it would help them avoid accusations of having worked something out in advance.
2:31
The Phillies signed Kingery before he ever took the field! Ohtani is doing this! Extensions are warranted!
They also presumably have very little urgency to do anything.
Keith Hernandez
2:31
Conforto homered off Strasburg. How many more of those before we can stop holding our breath over his shoulder?
Meg Rowley
2:33
I always hang on to worry about guys who got hurt in the way he did for an illogically long time, because if he got dinged up just swinging who is to say it won't happen again.
BUT, it's a new medical staff and he just homered off Stras, and those are both good things.
TKDC
2:34
If Ohtani signs an extension in 2018, how convinced will you be that it was pre-arranged?
Meg Rowley
2:35
Some, just because the world is full of tricksters, but I also think MLB has shown recently that they can mean business when team's misbehave, so only some. It would be a hell of a risk to take.
Early Baseball
2:35
Have you changed your opinions on any teams ~5 games in?
Meg Rowley
2:35
Not changed my mind all the way.
2:36
But that said, an Ohtani who can do this (assuming he keeps doing it) is a big part of why I liked the Angels as a WC2.
2:37
Cleveland's lineup looks less fearsome than it did with Santana but that seems like a very small sample thing.
Mark
2:37
How crazy was that EE inside the park home run?
Meg Rowley
2:37
Easily one of my favorite baseball things in recent memory. Could only have been improved by him carrying the parrot around with him.
Burt Reynolds
2:38
Do you have more faith in Ohtani or Darvish at this point? Their arrows seem to be trending in different directions.
Meg Rowley
2:39
I don't want to overreact to one Darvish start. Darvish is very good. I don't want to overreact to one Ohtani start. Ohtani is very good and also new.
2:40
I think obviously you are right that they are trending in different directions but that has everything to do with one of them being 31, almost 32 and the other being 23.
Puffinstuff
2:40
How many at bats do you give Healy before you begin to worry that this is not going to solve your long term first base problem?
Meg Rowley
2:41
I have never been a Healy believer, so I worry now!
Stay sharpish, Vogey! Be ready with a bat that plays very soon, Evan White!
Nick
2:42
35 degrees at the Twins home opener today.  My mother is there.
Meg Rowley
2:42
Hey remember to call her, ok? It is a nice thing to call your mom.
Justin
2:43
Tanaka might just quietly come through and have the best pitching season of the people-who-are-lumped-together-because-of-their-nationality.
Meg Rowley
2:44
Pretty good so far! And really, isn't that further argument that we should really appreciate them for the sorts of pitchers they are, even as we delight in the fact that they bring diversity to baseball?
Peter
2:45
Why did baseball decide not to have a full slate of games on Friday?  I loved having almost every team in action starting at 7.  Is this going to be the norm all season?
Meg Rowley
2:46
It has been a weird start, hasn't it? Lots and lots of day games, a bunch of off days, and then you fold in the cancellations and it has felt a bit halted. I think that it evens out in sort order.
I think they built in the off days anticipating weather nastiness.
Jkim
2:46
On a scale of Mike Trout going 0-5 in a random game to Mark Prior's career after 2003, how panicked should Dodger fans be with Kenley's terrible 2 outings so far?
Meg Rowley
2:47
Travis just wrote a good piece on this very question: https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/kenley-jansen-and-april-and-march-alar...
The answer is some, I think.
2:48
Velocities are down this time of year. I think we probably haven't made enough hay out of the release point changes. I think it'll probably be fine.
Adam
2:49
Over/under 45 homers for Bryce this year?
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