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Meg Rowley FanGraphs Chat - 8/28/18
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Meg Rowley
2:45
At the moment? Irritated that I had to pay for Thursday's preseason game as part of my ticket package. I am looking to feel less about football generally.
brad
2:45
Can the Yankees catch the Red Sox?  they still have 6 games against each other and the Red Sox have a tougher schedule.
Meg Rowley
2:45
It is certainly possible, though I'm still inclined to favor the Red Sox, particularly if they get Sale sooner rather than later.
Michael Scott is a Pirates Fan
2:45
Barring a miraculous Chris Archer turnaround, does Michael Scott have anything else to look forward to?
Meg Rowley
2:45
I don't know why, but Michael Scott is 1000% a Mets fan.
Adam
2:46
Meg, you're someone who often talks about that challenges that come along with rooting for certain players, teams, and institutions across sports in the wake of injustice or inequity. Given our roles as sports fans (and our broader life roles as advocates for positive change), do you think fantasy sports has an impact on our (the fans') ability to connect with and influence the sports we care about? On the one hand, it could perpetuate a sense of dehumanization (e.g. when a player gets suspended, thinking "you ruined my fantasy season!"), but the flip side is that we may become more invested in their success both on AND off the field, naturally rooting for those who tend to stay out of trouble and leave a more positive footprint.
Meg Rowley
2:47
I play fantasy baseball (badly, infrequently) so this not to knock the whole thing, but it sure has seemed to inspire a lot of awful fan behavior.
2:48
Now, I think the people who engage in that behavior likely would be jerks no matter what because they are jerks.
Fantasy is just the vocabulary they choose for that bad behavior.
2:49
But I do worry about it furthering the fan instinct to side with ownership over players because we get in the habit of thinking like what we think owners and GMs think like.
Bo
2:49
who would be the most difficult of the likely NL teams to face in a one-game WC?
Meg Rowley
2:50
Dodgers if they don't manage to win the division. That sounds not fun.
AC
2:50
I get what you're saying about voters discounting Cash for an analytics driven strategy, but I personally give Cash more credit for actually having to be the one implement it and get all of the players to buy in. Ben and Sam taught us how hard that can be!
Meg Rowley
2:51
For sure. I'm really curious to read manager of the year voter columns (hey, that's new!) to see how that gets sorted out.
Bo
2:51
Seems a lot of blame for the 2018 let-down in Washington is directed at Dave Martinez... How much of that blame is fair?
Meg Rowley
2:52
I don't really know, which probably means less that he is getting? They do seem to have some real clubhouse issues, but that is hardly all of it.
This also isn't the first time in recent memory this has happened, and the manager isn't the connective tissue, so...
John
2:52
Braves just resigned Tyler Flowers for $4m next year. Is the whole pitch framing craze over?
Meg Rowley
2:53
Allow me a moment to look something up.
2:54
I just wanted to make sure I remembered his latest framing numbers from BP correctly.
2:55
Framing is really important! Teams are also selecting on the skill now, so the number of truly terrible framers at the pro level is fewer than it has been in a while.
stever20
2:55
Sale's got to come back and pitch well down the stretch.  If Snell wins 20 and has a sub 2 ERA with Sale with 13 wins and an ERA around 2.40- Sale is in deep trouble.  FIP is pretty much meaningless to voters.
Meg Rowley
2:56
Sure, in the event Snell is a better pitcher, his odds of winning the Cy are certainly better.
2:57
Some voters will take advanced stats into consideration; others won't. Many are likely to look at things like K% and BB%, and Sale has him beat there. I also think we're unlikely to see wins used as the tie breaker there.
Bo
2:57
But Eddie Vedder is a Cubs fan...?
Meg Rowley
2:58
This is what I'm saying. The whole thing is madness.
James
2:58
Was the Astros' comeback and eventual thrashing of the A's yesterday a sign that the AL west is returning to sanity?
Meg Rowley
2:59
Don't look to one game for adjustments, that way madness lies.
BUT it was a good reminder that when that offense works, goodness can they be a conveyor belt.
Guest
2:59
Phillies just added Jose Bautista, which to me makes an incredibly bad defense team worse, which can be backed up by stats or the eyetest. How important do you think this is? Is the extra hitting worth it?
Meg Rowley
3:00
It hasn't mattered to them before now so...
Mike Chernofftherails
3:00
What are the Indians doing with the outfield? Even in a down year is acquiring Cutch not a better than playing Melky/Allen/Guyer?
Meg Rowley
3:00
imagine it's a money thing
bighen
3:01
I don't have a horse in the race but Snell's ERA is 2.05, so under 2.00 is definitely in play at least and FIP is irrelevant for in season awards.  Woulda shoulda coulda sort of thing doesn't matter.  He can surely win if Sale out a bit longer
Meg Rowley
3:01
He can win! I still think it'll be Sale! Exclamation points!
Brian CashGod
3:01
I've never played fantasy sports and am frankly a bit more oblivious to it than I probably should be - can you expand on the bad behavior from some fantasy sports fans?
Meg Rowley
3:03
Kyle Seager and his wife had their third kid earlier this summer. Kyle Seager went on paternity leave. At least one fantasy writer complained about it, as Seager's bat was starting to pick up, and a few fans gave Julie a hard time about it.
That's pretty gross.
Person
3:03
Machado, Kershaw and Grandal are all set to be FA this offseason. Can you remember a year when a team lost that many elite players? Might make for an interesting article to look at teams projected FA WAR
Meg Rowley
3:04
I think Kershaw is likely to return, and Grandal isn't out of the question. I never really expected Machado to stick around.
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