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Meg Rowley FanGraphs Chat - 4/7/2021
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Meg Rowley
4:34
Super Small Sample Size Snafus
Highway61
4:34
What are your thoughts on the All-Star game being moved and why were comments closed on the post that discussed this?
Meg Rowley
4:38
I think it was the right decision, and the only one the league really had after the positions it advanced last summer. I don't think a broader boycott is advisable given who that hurts, but to move a one-time event sends a message. I'm glad they picked a state that has much better voting access (this is a good explainer on Colorado vs. Georgia, since some superficial similarities are making the rounds: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/04/06/colorado-voting-law...), though I would have liked to see that articulated as part of their reasoning in addition to Denver's existing readiness to serve as a host.
4:42
As for why we closed the comments, given how the comment sections have gone in the past year on other pieces that deal with where baseball and social issues intersect (including a few that have surprised us with their force and nastiness), we thought it best to be proactive about it, particularly since we've gotten feedback from some regular commenters that the comments on these kinds of pieces are mess and that we should probably do something different with them. So we gave it a try here.
J
4:42
What aspect are you most excited to have back once you get to go to a game?
Meg Rowley
4:42
The sound of the park, especially when there is a lull in the action.
4:43
I did an empty ballpark game last year in the press box and it was weird in a lot of ways but the sound was what really jumped out.
Joe
4:45
BTW, just wanted to mention that, as insane as that No-Masks-In-Sight Rangers home opener was to see as a resident of Ontario, I'm extremely jealous of how increased access to vaccines + increased access to vitamin D, relative to us, have made your recent weeks very significantly better than ours. It's possible to do worse, as Ontario's inept premier has proven again and again!
Meg Rowley
4:46
Ugh, Joe, I'm so sorry to hear that. I hope the distribution rollout improves soon.
It really does make things feel better to have one or the other, and both is great.
So I hope that at the very least the sun comes out soon!
Joe
4:46
On the pod, your go-to food item that players need to be able to buy is salad. I guess what I'm asking is, why do you hate plants so much? You mash them up WITH YOUR TEETH???
Meg Rowley
4:47
I think the plucked lettuce's worst day is behind it.
v2micca
4:48
Braves finally got the monkey off their back by recording their first win today.  Still, the team's lineup has felt punchless to open the season.  Any chance the negative press surrounding them has had a detrimental effect?
Meg Rowley
4:49
I don't think the coverage of the decision to move the game has pretty clearly been about the state of Georgia and then the PR statement the team released, and not the players, so I'd be surprised.
Jacques Pederson
4:50
Meg are you on the Baddoo Bus?
Meg Rowley
4:53
Sitting in the thoroughly delighted section. Will he be this good? A league-average hitter? Bad soon?! Dunno honestly, but this is great fun, and he's exactly the kind of player a team like Detroit should try out.
What if he's a less good than this but still useful outfielder who's 22 and was a Rule % guy? What a score!
Bob
4:54
I wonder when or if MLB ever begins to take their marketing of players seriously. I still can’t get over the Angels-White Sox ESPN broadcast that wouldn’t stop talking about the managers. I’m no expert on marketing, but surely there’s a way to hype up Luis Robert, Shohei Ohtani  and friends. I mean, they do about 90% of the legwork themselves, why do broadcasts continue to cater to the very old demographic.
Meg Rowley
4:57
Well here it is probably useful to distinguish between the league and the broadcast. Certainly related, but the ESPN booth isn't employed by the league. But yeah, I think more could have been said about the players and less about the managers. I do think baseball's regionality makes A Face of Baseball tricky, though not impossible. Certainly Tatis is on his way! But I also wouldn't be surprised if the SNB demo skews older, which might mean a bigger part of the audience that wants to hear about TLR.
Kiermaier's Piercing Green Eyes
4:58
Justin Choi's piece on Jack Leiter was outstanding. I skip most of the content on non-pro ball, but that was utterly engrossing. (Also, the link to his Twitter next to his byline is malformed.)
Meg Rowley
4:58
He did a really excellent job, and I'll let him know that link needs updating!
Trey
4:59
I have a question about how the playoff odds are calculated. I noticed after the Braves got swept to start the season their odds of making the playoffs dropped by 15-ish%, but when the Orioles started hot they only increased to like 0.1% lol. Why is the sensitivity different between those teams?
Meg Rowley
5:00
The Orioles are still projected to be really bad is the thing.
5:01
Going 3-0 moved them up 1.7 wins, and put them at... 66.5 wins. The Braves went from 88 to 86.5 wins, which had much larger playoff implications.
Todd
5:01
Meg, you are giving the Pirates too much credit...they are totally inept. Word here is they are playing for another No 1 pick...we will catch the A's in a week or two
Meg Rowley
5:02
If this is in response to the disappointments piece unfortunately, and I say this without snark, I swear, them being pretty bad is what I expected.
Tel
5:03
Hi Meg, thanks for chatting.  I have to ask about the decision making process that got you to approve the all star game article, which was clearly very politically biased. (Among other things, it implied that the correct thing for MLB to do in response was to stop donating to the Republican party.)  Given that the site is struggling financially, is it wise to alienate half of your readers?  And you clearly knew it would do this since you did not allow comments (which probably only further serves to anger people when they can't even respond to it.)
Meg Rowley
5:05
The piece rightly noted that the league donates to politicians of both parties, and suggested it not give money to politicians who support curtailing voting rights (the specific phrasing was that the league should take a "pointed, public and permanent stance on positions like “no longer donating money to politicians who support this kind of thing”).
5:06
As I said, given how some of the comment threads on pieces like this have gone, and the feedback we've gotten around their utility, we closed them here. There have been some bits of counter feedback.
5:08
The piece was in response to baseball news and the rationale the league laid out for its decision.
Evan
5:11
Hi Meg! The Jays just put in Tellez to PH in a key spot to bat in the ninth, despite the fact he’s still hitless to start the season (it didn’t work and they lost). I think this is probably a fine decision, but is there ever something to the “hot bat” argument or is it just small sample sizes.
Meg Rowley
5:13
I know Rob Arthur and Greg Matthews did some research on this to suggest it might be real (though I'm not sure if that has been followed up on) but I think that 17 PAs is enough for the hand to be any sort of temp but average.
5:14
Ok pals, I have to get rolling. Thanks for chatting. We'll have more debuts from our new writers, so keep an eye out for those. Thank you to everyone who has become a Member, or renewed. I hope that you'll consider purchasing one if you haven't, or gifting one if you have! Until next chat, be well!
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