JotCast | Travis Sawchik FanGraphs Chat

Travis Sawchik FanGraphs Chat

Travis Sawchik

12:04

Howdy

12:05

I hope all the fathers in the audience enjoyed their day

Let's get started, shall we?

Paul

12:05

If you were in Alex Anthopoulous' position, how would you handle the deadline?

Travis Sawchik

12:06

I wouldn't trade away too much of tomorrow, too much future surplus value ... but I'd try and make some marginal improvements

Bernie

12:06

I saw your article on the attendance numbers, specifically AL, trending down. Any word on the NL attendance numbers?

Travis Sawchik

12:06

NL numbers are also down ... just not as dramatically

I focused on the AL in that piece since the postseason field already looks set on June 18

12:07

While we can't predict ball, we have four AL teams with 96% playoff odds and nine AL clubs with 5% probability or worse

I think it's one of many contributors

dominik

12:07

how worried are you about the attendance drop? is it a temporary thing due to weather or so? terrible (tanking) teams like miami? general trend of not going outside and instead watch at TV? or a general problem of baseball?

Travis Sawchik

12:08

It goes beyond weather as I noted in the piece. Since mid-April attendance is still down 6.1% compared to 2017

12:09

I think there are a lot of things at play: cost to attend, quality of HD cameras and flat-screen TVs, tanking , teams trying to contend with secondary market

Baseball is still very popular. More people are probably watching than every before when taking into account the digital audience ... but owners still need people to attend games

Loge Mezzanino

12:10

Lorenzo Cain’s always been a pretty good hitter, but he’s never walked anywhere close to as much as he has this year. Can relative free-swingers turn into high BB guys more easily than we seem to give them credit for?

Travis Sawchik

12:10

It can happen but it's pretty rare ... Not sure what Mr. Cain is up to but Brewers have to be pleased

Coach K

12:11

Twins window is now... never a better opportunity. Now Carrasco of tribe is out. Would a fair deal be Buxton for Machado, Gausman or Bundy, Cisco and Britton (3-1trade) be good for both? If Buxton comes back limping and not hitting his weight, many teams with questions about him will have their answer. To me Twins need to get luggage out for Buxton. He is what brings back enough to make pennant run. Your thoughts please.

Travis Sawchik

12:12

There's zero chance of something like this happening. And since Buxton has already acquired a decent amount of service time, I'm not sure he's all that valuable to the Orioles.

ryan

12:13

Should the rangers consider a rebuild this season? I can see arguments either way. If yes, should they hold onto mazara?

Travis Sawchik

12:13

Rangers are yet another AL team that should be looking to spin off short-term control assets

Frank

12:13

Any concern about Albies? He was obviously over performing the first month of the season but since may 1st is slashing just .225/.266/.396. Seems like pitchers have started pitching him up in the zone and he can't get to it consistently.

Travis Sawchik

12:14

He's cooled off, certainly. But what he had done up until that point had been historically rare for his age so I wouldn't be too concerned.

Babe Lincoln

12:15

How much of what Brandon Nimmo is doing is sustainable? Seems like he married a legit swing change with already-solid plate discipline skills.

Travis Sawchik

12:16

I think it's pretty sustainable. I like the total package quite a bit.

Bork

12:16

Mike Trout is good at baseball

Travis Sawchik

12:16

Let's talk about Trout reaching 6.1 fWAR on June 18

6.1!

12:17

Angels have played 72 games

Trout is on pace for nearly a 14 WAR season

Bernie

12:18

What do the Brewers do with Thames/Aguilar combo? Keep the platoon and use one as a clutch time pinch hitter? Get Thames more time in left, and save Braun's body for late season?

0 FV

12:18

Eric Thames went off yesterday. With Aguilar continuing to play well and Cain and Yelich holding down the other two OF positions, do you think it's possible that Braun gets forced into a full-time bench/utility role? Could they explore moving him at the deadline, even with that contract? Even then, what to do with Domingo Santana?

Travis Sawchik

12:18

Brewers made one deal to break up their corner surplus in adding Miller but I'm sure they'd like to make another

yojiveself

12:19

What has been happening with Pivetta lately? have hitters figured him out?

Travis Sawchik

12:20

Three straight poor starts but that's not much of a sample. I haven't dug in for a look but Phillies have to be happy with total body of work thus far

Bernie

12:20

Ive been seeing some opinion pieces on how to give the batters more of an advantage in order to cut down on the K's, but they all could lead to more strain on pitchers arms (lower or move back mound). Is changing the strikezone the only realistic option if anything actually gets changed?

Travis Sawchik

12:20

Messing with the strike zone is going to have an awful lot of unintended consequences, I fear

Willas Tyrell

12:22

Who is the best player in the NL and why is nobody close to Freddie Freeman?

Travis Sawchik

12:23

Freeman is amazing and ought to have a real MVP shot

It's good to be the Braves

And Pache hasn't even arrived!

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