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Meg Rowley FanGraphs Chat - 5/8/18
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Meg Rowley
12:29
I think he has shown legitimate improvement but his inability to work deep into games effectively seems like it is a feature rather than a bug. He's young and he'll certainly get his chances, and the FIP is surprisingly good but I'm not sold.
kevinthecomic
12:30
how much further ahead in their division would the angels be if they had not started pujols in the 4-hole EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.?
Meg Rowley
12:31
I dunno, how much further ahead would they be if they had better starting pitching and a deeper bullpen?
12:32
The Angels have a team wRC+ of 111, which is tied for second place with the Yankees and Red Sox.
Not saying Pujols is lighting the world on fire, but I don't think he's the biggest issue on that roster.
that'swhatdysaid
12:33
Are the dodgers really good or really bad?
Meg Rowley
12:33
The Dodgers are pretty hurt, and have some players showing signs of decline.
Ray Liotta as Shoeless Joe
12:33
Is it okay to not get excited about the London series? I understand wanting to expand MLB's market, but the game is almost unwatchable for West Coast audiences and it is in the middle of the summer, not in the beginning of the season like the games played in Japan have been. Why not focus on the Canada/Mexico markets first?
Meg Rowley
12:34
You are never obligated to be excited about things, though it is useful to allow yourself to be excited about at least some things.
But that doesn't have to be this thing!
12:35
I think the rationale is to try to expose a new market to the game; baseball is a well established sport in Canada and Mexico. But you don't have to watch those games.
I will say, I have a few ex-pat friends who live in London and they are really, really excited to get to watch baseball live. So that's something, I suppose.
CamdenWarehouse
12:36
You wager on baseball.  You have bet your future comfort that baseball will be around long enough to get by.  You bet your happiness on the Mariners.  Not all wagers involve money.
Meg Rowley
12:37
I have other skills by which I could make money, and thank god, other sources of happiness.
Hold me close, ohtani dancer
12:37
The Yankees just took 15 of 16 and Stanton, walker, and Gardner haven’t even started hitting yet. How scared should we be?
Meg Rowley
12:38
We allllll laughed about how fun it would be to have the evil empire back. We chuckled, like chumps. Big ol' chumps.
Aaron
12:38
I think we can say that Kershaw's time as *unquestionably* the best pitcher in the league has come to an end, right?
Meg Rowley
12:38
*unquestionably*, yes, I think so
12:39
Not saying he can't round back into form when he is healthy, but now we're going to wonder, is he going to stay healthy? Does the velocity decline matter? Can he adjust? It's more of a conversation now then it used to be.
Post Malone
12:40
Over/Under 2 emptying of the dugouts over the next three days in The Bronx?
Meg Rowley
12:40
We really ought to teach folks better means of conflict resolution.
Matt
12:40
I don't remember the exact numbers, but someone pointed out the other day that Sanchez's run suppression via his arm netted positive against his passed balls.
Meg Rowley
12:41
So far neither has contributed much, but neither has been a negative. Historically, you're right-- they about even out. It's really all about the framing anyhow.
Slurve
12:42
How good is Andrelton Simmons now that he's hitting for well over a year?
Meg Rowley
12:42
Really very, very good.
12:44
We all adopt a skeptical posture toward defensive metrics, as well we should because they can be funky and noisy, especially over limited samples. But some guys you watch and are able to believe it. It feels rational. Simmons is one of those dudes. And now he can hit. His performance so far this year seems to be buoyed at least in part by some BABIP outperformance, but he's still good.
I'll be curious to see where the power numbers and home run total ends up for him this year.
12:45
Remember how he hit 14 home runs last year? That was weird... OR WAS IT?
Lunar verLander
12:45
Mike Petriello brought this up on Twitter this morning; how many AL short stops will make the All Star Team?
Meg Rowley
12:46
It's a very crowded field. I expect Simmons might be on the losing end here, because they'll want to get bigger stars in the game, and Machado is both worthy and the only good Oriole.
12:47
It's not really important, but it is a bummer for those guys. I think it matters a lot to some players.
Caps in 6!
12:47
Which other fanbase most “gets” what it’s like to be a Mariners fan? Brewers? Padres? Rays? Pirates? Someone else?
Meg Rowley
12:48
All of those teams have been to a World Series, so sleeper candidate: the Nats?
12:49
Seattle is weird because yes, they have been very, very bad, but they've also managed sorta transcendent stars anyhow.
There's a reason "Felix is ours and you can't have him" was a thing.
Wilber
12:50
The Dodgers front office has long been considered one of the best in the game, which I agree with, but have they hurt themselves with over-conservatism? With their resources and peak Kershaw over the past couple seasons it seems like they would have been better served emptying the farm and going all in. They have more money to pour into scouting and development and have shown they are one of the best drafting teams.
Meg Rowley
12:51
First, think about how many of those guys are contributing at the big league level. Second, I think it is more that they've picked their spots. They weren't afraid to trade prospects for a Darvish rental. And that almost worked out for them.
Ray Liotta as Shoeless Joe
12:52
Share, with the group, a business word.
Meg Rowley
12:52
Architecting
Slurve
12:52
Baseball's All Star game is far and away the best pro All Star Game in the USA... Is Hockey 2nd?  MLS vs. an elite Euro team?  Football and Basketball are horrible...
Connecting…