JotCast | Travis Sawchik FanGraphs Chat

Travis Sawchik FanGraphs Chat

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Travis Sawchik

1:04

ATCQ

1:06

Re: hitting over pitching - we've also seen the Nats construct some excellent teams by implementing a sort of reverse strategy - trade away all high-level pitching depth, aggressively, for Trea Truner, Adam eEaton, etc.

Travis Sawchik

1:06

Many ways to skin a cat, but I prefer the one with less inherent risk

Brian Cashman

1:07

MLB.com giving Vlad a 80 hit grade is simply ridiculous, made to sell a headline is my guess. There are maybe 2 hitters in MLB with an 80 hit tool (altuve and votto).

Travis Sawchik

1:07

If there's a milb who can reach that mark it's Vlad. Jr

Rollie's Mustache

1:07

I think Chad Kuhl had something like the major's 2nd highest avg. fastball velo last year. He seems like a really interesting guy heading into 2018. Thoughts on him?

Travis Sawchik

1:07

He is interesting. Needs a third pitch to come into play

Desperate, confused Marlins fan

1:08

Love what the Phillies are doing, signing a bunch of relievers to them trade them in July when teams need relievers, what say you?

Travis Sawchik

1:08

It's not an awful plan when you have like $70m in spending power this offseason

1:09

... And those are front-loaded deals

AJB857

1:09

Most of the Astros best players didn't come from "tanking". Altuve. Springer. Gonzalez. Keuchel. Verlander. Gurriel. McCann. Gattis. Reddick. Marisnick. Giles. Harris. McHugh. Peacock. Devenski. Appel didn't work out and Aiken didn't sign. Whitley was drafted 17th in the first round. When will Fangraphs educate the masses? Luhnow was just smarter, that's all.

Travis Sawchik

1:10

Tanking alone doesn't get it done ....

1:11

Correa, McCullers, Bregman and Tucker, though ...

Ideally, it's good to be smart AND have premium draft picks/bonus dollars

Slew

1:11

Lots of Machado talk early in the offseason, but recently crickets. Do you think he gets moved?

Travis Sawchik

1:11

Sounds as if he's moving ... to shortstop

1:12

And ideally, I sign him as a shortstop next offseason if I'm a team paying for him

Brian Cashman

1:12

Talk to me about Greg Bird, is he more "Nick Johnson" or does he finally stay healthy and shows off that bat! (Because, in that line up!! If he puts it together with .850 OPS and 30+ bombs!)

Travis Sawchik

1:12

I'm buying Greg Bird

He's going to have a monster year with health

Bryan

1:13

Aiken not signing turned into Bregman

Travis Sawchik

1:13

True ... but still a product of being poor

in the standings

Bort

1:14

The Rockies make all kinds of sense as a mystery team for Eric Hosmer, right?

Travis Sawchik

1:15

Hosmer's batted-ball profile could also play up in Coors

Matt Kemp

1:15

How come nobody wants me man? I just wanna play some baseball. I'm in the best shape of my life for the third or fourth time now.

Travis Sawchik

1:15

Take a number, Matt

Ned Yost

1:16

McCullers was a compensatory pick. In the mid 30's. And the only reason they could sign him was because they intentionally passed on the consensus number 1 player (Buxton) and signed Correa for underslot money. So a majority of teams would have taken Buxton, not gotten McCullers, and been nowhere close to the World Series.

Travis Sawchik

1:17

The Astros were creative with getting Correa at a reasonable bonus, but it's not like they would spend a top pick on Correa if they didn't think he was a future star

The Ghost of Wade Boggs

1:18

So say that with Machado's transition to Ss, for whatever reason he's somewhere within the passably below average to the average range relative to the position defensively. Considering his elite defensive value at 3B, would he still have more value in the FA market as a SS due to the offensive positional adjustment, or is he going to be more valuable at the hot corner?

Travis Sawchik

1:19

I want the positional adjustment, and I suspect he could also be an above-average defender at short

Moreover, with fewer and fewer balls in play, Machado at SS gives me a chance to add more offense into lineup

Lazzaro Da Fietta

1:20

Bellinger = 40 Bombs?

Travis Sawchik

1:20

Yep

Alright folks, thanks for all the great questions

We'll do this again next week