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Travis Sawchik FanGraphs Chat
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Travis Sawchik
12:05
Greetings!
It's been awhile with the holiday last week ...
But don't worry, we haven't really missed anything ....
12:06
29 of Dave's Top 50 free agents remain unsigned
Baseball Guy
12:06
Best guess as to who's still out there in, say, June, waiting for the "right offer"? I got Arrieta.
Travis Sawchik
12:06
I would be shocked if a top name was waiting until June ... but I could see some high-profile March signings
Estevao
12:07
Starlin Castro has 1280 career hits and he'll turn 28 in a few months, if he gets 180 hits the next 2 years and averages 170 over the following 8, he gets 3000, that's a longshot, but would it make him a Hall of Famer?
Rethorical Question
Travis Sawchik
12:08
It's a long shot for sure, if he had played 20 years earlier ... I think so. But the voting electorate is changing and is going to be less into counting stats
CamdenWarehouse
12:08
Independent of what is causing the slowness, do you think the slowness of the offseason itself is a problem for MLB?  Does the sport need some amount of interesting going on in order to maintain interest going into the season or will March 29 come and everyone will be as interested as ever?
Travis Sawchik
12:09
This is a good point. Ideally, MLB should want all its big names to sign before spring training to fill in the offseason news void ... Instead the void is being filled with stories about collusion, future labor fights, etc
Andy
12:10
We keep 8. My first 7 are set. Who should be my last?
Keepers:
1B- Goldi
2B- J. Ramirez
SS- Correra
3B- Bryant
OF- Stanton, Hoskins

my options are Carrasco, Pham, Yu Darv, Braun, Shaw.

Whos would fit best in my team?
Travis Sawchik
12:10
Looks like you need an arm so Darvish or Carrasco, who are probably not too different in value
M Wolicki
12:11
Why don't we see more guys taking Justin Turner type discounts? I'd think once your making piles of money, that you'd want to win. Fraizer to NYY comes to mind.
Travis Sawchik
12:12
I think in any profession you want to be paid at a rate comparable to your talents and peers ... also there might be pressure from MLBPA to not take discounts
Jobu
12:12
More likely to be worth 3 wins this year: Brantley or Kipnis?
Travis Sawchik
12:12
Kipnis. I think he has a better chance to stay on the field for a full season
Jobu
12:12
Lindor extension: 7/$150 — about right?
Travis Sawchik
12:13
That seems about right, but he turned down $100 million last winter ... so I'm not sure he'd do it
Rickie
12:14
The Blue Jays have quietly added to their outfield and backup infield without spending much money. Do you think they use some of those savings to land one of the remaining big name pitchers on the free agent market?
Travis Sawchik
12:14
Blue Jays are a team in that middle ground that should probably buy aggressively ... or blow it up. It doesn't look like they intend to blow it up, and there is increasingly a lot of value to potentially be found in free agency, so I'd buy
Estevao
12:15
How accurate is this ranking

Proper Top 10 Shortstops.

1A, Corey Seager
1B, Carlos Correa
3, Francisco Lindor
4, Trea Turner
5, Andrelton Simmons
6, Xander Bogaerts
7, Brandon Crawford
8, Elvis Andrus
9, Didi Gregorius
10. Addison Russel.

Tier 1, Correa and Seager

Tier 2, Lindor and Turner

Tier 3, Simmons, Bogaerts, Crawford, Andrus, Gregorius and Russel.

Note: Simmons is kind of in between tier 2 and tier 3.
Travis Sawchik
12:16
Let's stop and appreciate the shortstop talent in the game right now. It's a golden era for the position
1-5 is Tier 1 for me
Kristen
12:16
How well will Darvish's stuff age over the life of the lengthy contract he'll soon be getting?  Will the huge variety of pitches he can wield and therefore not being dependent on just one or two out-pitches compensate for declining velocity?
Travis Sawchik
12:18
Good question and I do think Darvish has the skill-set to age more gracefully than some other high-velo arms. The Dodgers showed us in the second half that through sequencing and pitch usage, Darvish has remaining upside
Bryan in Boise
12:18
Rumor has it Boston has an offer of 5 years at $125 million? Feel like we have been at this point for over 2 months now. If this is actually true one would think JDM should take it right now.
Travis Sawchik
12:19
I don't see many teams beating down the door to give JDM a sixth year. I'd be pretty surprised if he doesn't sign a five-year pact (maybe with an option) with Boston
Phil
12:19
Where do you see the Pirates confidence in Meadows as the long-term running mate for Marte and Polanco in the OF?  Was interesting that midrange OF prospects Reynolds and Martin were part of the Cutch/Cole returns...
Travis Sawchik
12:19
I have to think while the Pirates remain optimistic re: Meadows there confidence level in his ability to stay on the field and maximize his gifts has probably declined
Bryan in Boise
12:20
As we get closer to spring training who do you think has more leverage when it comes to contracts, ownership or the players agents?
Travis Sawchik
12:20
The clubs have the edge as the calendar moves toward spring training
12:22
I've shared this in a few posts, but Royals Review researched our crowdsource estimates (2013-17) and found that deals signed before Jan. 1 were for 4% below the crowdsource average and deals signed after Jan. 1 were for 25% below the crowdsource average
Waiting is not going to benefit many FAs at this point
Big Joey
12:22
What is the % chance Conforto returns in May, is back to normal and his career is unaffected by his injury?
Travis Sawchik
12:23
Man, I was so disappointed with that injury. Conforto was becoming a franchise cornerstone bat .... I trust modern medicine but I might not expect him to be 95% or better until 2019
Tom
12:24
I would love if Fangraphs would add a feature that allowed you to search players in the "Leaders" section that were currently Free Agents. Just a suggestion and I don't know who to suggest things like this too anymore now that Dave is gone.
Travis Sawchik
12:24
Not a bad suggestion. I will pass it along
Tilly
12:25
What do you make of Baseball America putting Acuna above Ohtani in the new rankings?
Travis Sawchik
12:25
I'm good with it and I would rank them the same way. Ohtani already has a red flags re: his elbow and pitching prospects are riskier than hitting prospects ... and Acuna is a better position player than Ohtani, of course
Andrew
12:26
Odds this is the year the White Sox' whole thing starts coming together?
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