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August Fagerstrom FanGraphs Chat -- 1/26/16
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august fagerstrom
11:43
hey guys! gonna be a few minutes late today but I'll make up for it by chatting long
11:44
get those questions in, and I'll be here shortly after noon EST
12:08
ok! I've now equipped myself with a reuben sandwich and am ready to chat. chat soundtrack is this live Fela Kuti recording:
Chad
12:09
Your thoughts on Low tier SP, Kyle Ryan, Shane Greene, and Steven Wright?
august fagerstrom
12:09
certainly isn't a promising group, but out of the bunch I'll take Greene, for the upside.
FTF
12:09
What would be your NL East favourite ?
august fagerstrom
12:10
I've been on the Nats train most of the offseason, but giving it a closer look after Jeff's post the other day, I think I like the Mets by a win or two. Just a really solid group of players. Too much uncertainty on that Nats roster, though I do like them to bounce back
I think they'll both make the playoffs. Wouldn't surprise me if either one won 90 games. But for the division, I'll give a slight edge to New York
FTF
12:11
Who is your favorite player of all time ? And, if not the same, currently playing ?
august fagerstrom
12:11
Omar growing up as an Indians fan, though as a baseball fan I look back very fondly on Maddux
Peyton Manning's forehead
12:11
Steamer projects Daniel Norris to throw 132 innings this year. He combined for 150 last year between AAA and the bigs. Is this projection just assuming injury/demotion? He seems to be slotted in as the Tigers #4 all year, right?
august fagerstrom
12:12
Most likely, but he hasn't been guaranteed a rotation spot yet. Once rotations are finalized during ST the confirmed guys at the back end of teams rotations will likely get bumped up a bit
Gus
12:12
Will we see Bradley Zimmer this year? Should we see Bradley Zimmer this year?
august fagerstrom
12:12
probably not/maybe
Paul
12:13
Biggest fantasy impact for a rookie who wont be up opening day?
august fagerstrom
12:13
Gallo
just has to find the PT
Closer Carousel
12:13
Pick who closes in Tampa - Boxberger, McGee, Other
august fagerstrom
12:13
Boxberger gets the first crack but the leash will be short
NutButters
12:14
When writing your articles, do you usually start out with a list of points you wish to cover and then work inside-out trying to fill in the spaces left within your word count max (assuming 1k words usually)? Just a fellow writer admiring how many of you guys crank out your pieces so quickly. Carry on!
august fagerstrom
12:15
Roughly. My process goes something like this: I come up with a topic (either something topical that I chose the day before, or picked from a running list of topic ideas I keep in a text edit document), make a quick outline of 5+ bullet points that will be different speaking points/paragraphs, do all my research (tables/charts/gifs, etc.) the night before, so all I have to do morning of is write. Then wake up early, and sort of write around my different visuals.
12:16
Similar process as when I'd cover a team, just writing around visuals rather than writing around quotes.
CoolWinnebago
12:16
What happened to Pujols? The power is still there, shouldnt he be walking more by default? Doesnt seem like this should happen to a guy who used to be pretty disciplined at the plate. His OSwing rate skyrocketed.
august fagerstrom
12:17
easy answer is: he aged. when a player ages, he loses certain facets of his game, and you wouldn't expect eye/recognition/discipline to be one of them, but there's no telling how a player will react to losing other facets of their game
12:18
this is why giving big guarantees to players on the wrong side of 30 is scary: there's just no telling how guys will handle the aging process
Bork
12:19
Off the top of your head, which pitchers would be hurt the most if pitch framing was to become non-existent?
august fagerstrom
12:19
Cueto and Kuechel quickly come to mind as guys who work the edges
would make sense that guys who show up with the highest bottom edge% on that site would be impacted pretty heavily
12:21
horizontal edges, too, to a lesser extent
Dark Horse
12:21
Boom or bust on Ender Inciarte? Lack of help in ATL outside of Free Freddie but potential leadoff guy with hidden value?
august fagerstrom
12:22
Lack of help doesn't phase me. He's a fine player who's better than most realize, maybe not an ideal leadoff guy with his walk rate and major platoon splits (I get the feeling some teams like their leadoff guy to be an everyday player, and Inciarte ideally is not an everyday player) but the Braves don't have too many options with which to work
Dyke Man
12:23
Who closes in Texas this year? Diekman looked unreal upon acquisition.
august fagerstrom
12:23
Tolleson's job to lose, though I'd wager Kela is second in line. Organization seems high on him.
12:24
one thing's for sure, it's remarkable how they were able to turn that bullpen into a weapon
Kevin
12:24
Hey August, read the transcript last week, and let me just say that never even mentioning Jake Arrieta's cutter/slider/whatever it is in your discussion of best theoretical arsenal was crazy.
august fagerstrom
12:24
lotta good pitches in baseball!
Joe
12:25
Do the Orioles have the worst rotation in baseball right now?
august fagerstrom
12:25
not the worst, but it's bad
Art Vandelay
12:26
I really enjoyed your Gibson piece, I liked the way you attempted to explain an outlier from your previous piece. Is it possible another reason for his lack of Ks, also on the shoulders of Kurt Suzuki, is just bad (or conservative) sequencing?
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