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Meg Rowley FanGraphs Chat - 5/14/18
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Meg Rowley
12:00
Good morning! Welcome to the chat.
I am not Travis, but fear not: he'll be here tomorrow, and back to regularly scheduled programming next week.
Yu
12:00
What do the Mariners do about 2B now?
Meg Rowley
12:01
Ugh.
12:02
I think for the moment you're looking at some combination of the non-catching Romine, and possibly Taylor Motter and (sighs heavily) maybe Gordon Beckham sharing duties there.
It sounds like they are reticent to move Dee Gordon off center, but I'll be curious to see how long that holds up.
12:03
It's obviously a terrible loss for them, and a shame because Cano was having a hell of a good year.
12:04
Their margins were already so thin with that rotation and now they're faced with at least a month without Cano. Terrible present to my mom, honestly.
Wally Backman
12:04
does mccullers have ace in his future?
Meg Rowley
12:05
I think the gating factor will always be how many innings he's able to throw. I think the talent is there, but the particulars of that talent can mean not going super deep into games.
Yu
12:05
What is a superstar? Is Kris Bryant one?
Meg Rowley
12:07
This debate has always struck me as strange. A superstar to whom? To baseball fans? Sure! To people who shop at Express Men's? I mean, he's on those posters a lot.
12:09
I don't think baseball has had a star that has truly transcended the sport a la LeBron since Griffey, but with Judge and Stanton on the Yankees and Ohtani doing what he's doing, that might change.
12:10
Mostly though, I think how much it matters is overblown and misses one of baseball's greatest strengths. It doesn't have one face; it has a bunch. Why fret over every person in the country knowing who Mike Trout is when you can have a Lindor and a Correa and an Altuve and a Judge and a Trout and and and...
Wally Backman
12:10
whatsup with jean segura right now? is the walk rate just small sample size?
Meg Rowley
12:11
He's never been a big walk guy. The rate is down this year, sure, but Segura tends to reach via other means.
12:12
He's swinging at stuff in the zone more, but that whole top of the lineup has been pretty aggressive.
John Oleruds Helmet
12:13
Ms Meg!! Oh honored Mike Zunino fan!! With Baseball already being such an international game do think it’s really necessary to hold these London games?
Meg Rowley
12:13
It's an international game but it doesn't have much of a presence there, it's an easy hop for New York and Boston, and there's a large ex-pat community with money.
Wally Backman
12:14
It seems like Puig has been terrible. Is there something wrong? Small sample size?
Meg Rowley
12:15
He has not been great. The delta between his wOBA and xwOBA also suggests that there is some bad luck here.
billy beane
12:15
why is my pitching so bad and what should i do about it? i have several cornerstone and peak veteran position players.
Meg Rowley
12:16
In your defense, you had other, better options, but they're all injured because pitching is not good for you.
Coz
12:16
How much longer can the White Sox trot out Carson Fulmer?
Meg Rowley
12:19
Have to think the leash is getting shorter and at some point he might need to work on some stuff but they also aren't trying to win right now. His year has been brutal, though. I imagine it'll depend somewhat on when other dudes are deemed ready to go and how this Wednesday start against the Pirates goes.
Kiermaier's Piercing Green Eyes
12:20
Would selective use of certain advanced statistics make baseball more accessible? E.g. a friend was asking me about slash lines and how to interpret them and I instead pointed them to wRC+. It's much easier to process "20% better than league average" than have constantly-shifting mental heuristics on somewhat arbitrary measures of baseballing prowess.
Meg Rowley
12:20
I think it depends entirely on who you are talking to, and how you can best discuss and illuminate the game for them.
12:22
I've gotten this question a lot lately, and I think the first thing you have to consider is, what are you trying to accomplish in the conversation? Are they trying to assess who is a good hitter? Just enjoy the game?
12:23
I am a proponent of advanced stats and think they describe the game as it is and give us insight into how it might go in the future, but I think we would all be well served to remember that a lot of people don't engage the game that way and we don't gain a lot by being antagonistic. Not saying you're doing that, but I'm always shocked by how much feeling is behind these discussions still.
We won. Front offices think about the game like we do. If your friend gets behind wRC+, great. If not? It's probably ok.
Fuzzy Dunlop
12:23
Saw that Zobrist is 9th in WAR for all players that have played during his career-span...that has to put him in discussion for most underappreciated player of his era, right? Markakis being similar but not with the same production.
Meg Rowley
12:24
I think we have talked way, way too much about Zobrist for him to be truly underappreciated, but I do think that as we see more and more teams with guys whose positional versatility is a feature and not a bug, that we will appreciate his career in new ways, if that makes sense.
Chris
12:25
Welcome to FangraphsChat™ brought to you by FangraphBet™, your home for the best in daily sports betting. Have a question for our baseball experts on today's lines? Our exports are here to give you the best in FangraphBet™ advice.
Meg Rowley
12:26
I know that this Supreme Court decision is something that I am supposed to have an opinion on, and maybe care about, and consider deeply, but I can't bring myself to.
Gambling is never something that has given me a thrill, and I find the enterprise kind of icky, but I hope you all win a ton and don't get over your skis with your bets.
Kevin
12:27
Please don't jinx Odubel Herrera!
Meg Rowley
12:27
Ok!
Lunch Angle
12:27
Rian Watt's article on Jose Ramirez this morning is pretty compelling. Would you rather have him or Kris Bryant for the next say, five years?
Meg Rowley
12:28
It is sort of odd that we don't talk about Ramirez more. He is really very good! I think Bryant's absolute ceiling is higher, but it is much closer than you would think. I think I enjoy Ramirez's approach more, but that's a personal aesthetic thing.
Babe Lincoln
12:29
How old were you when you first realized MEG ROWLEY = ME GROWLEY?
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