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Meg Rowley FanGraphs Chat - 2/12/19
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Meg Rowley
2:00
Hello and welcome to the chat!
Allow me a brief moment to retrieve my coffee from the microwave.
Shall be back shortly.
2:02
I have returned. Many thanks for your collective patience.
Chris
2:03
Have the odds the Padres land Harper gone up or down since your last chat?
Meg Rowley
2:04
I suppose down slightly, though I still think I think that he ends up in Philly. I still think I think that.
EL
2:04
The Giants ZIPS projections look dire. Any reason to be hopeful this season?
Meg Rowley
2:04
If you don't spend your hope credits this season, they'll be worth less next season?
I agree with Dan that MadBum will probably pitch more than ZiPS does?
2:05
They could still spend some money on players who would make them better?
Chris
2:05
Who is the Padres Opening Day 3B? Mike Moustakas?
Meg Rowley
2:06
Barring Machado, seems like a real, real good fit.
oldmannearthesea
2:06
Do you think there's a case being built for some type of informal collusion going on?  Or do you just see this as a secular change in the market with no intra-league discussions taking place?
Meg Rowley
2:09
Capital C real deal collusion is a big charge to level, and I'm not convinced that is going on. I think the scarier and more probable motivator is that a lot of teams and teams' owners are arriving at similar conclusions about how the on-field product and profit are decoupling from one another. Collusion we could prove would in some ways be preferable, because if it were proven, the game has rules to deal with it.
I think what we have requires new legislation, as it were.
FanGraphsFan
2:09
Sheryl deserves a ton of credit (along with everyone else here).  She's like a full-time LAWYER and still has time to write multiple in-depth legal articles a week, on baseball.
Meg Rowley
2:09
Sheryl is a marvel. I will never understand how she makes time for us, but I am supremely grateful that she does.
Bread Gardner
2:10
ADULT MEN ARE BEING MADE MANY DOLLARS TO PLAY CATCH IN SUNNY LOCALES WHILE I AM BEING PAID FAR LESS TO SIT IN A SNOWY OFFICE AND I AM NOT BEING SARCASTIC ABOUT HOW EXCITED I AM
Meg Rowley
2:11
It is not terrible to remember, after a winter that gave us many very valid and serious reasons to worry about the organized, professional baseball, that baseball is in fact, the (Dylan, I'm gonna do a swear) god damn best.
Zock Jr.
2:11
Meg, what ace do you think is the biggest surprise? Like, if you cast your mind back 2-3 years and compare your impression then to now.
Meg Rowley
2:12
Oh that's a really fun question
Hmmm hold for a moment and allow me to look at something
2:14
Depends how you define it, I suppose. Paxton is in there. Patrick Corbin?
Oh you know who it is for me?
I have it.
You have to lean into a particular definition of ace but German Marquez.
Safety Stegosaurus
2:15
Which grammatical mistake annoys you the most?
Meg Rowley
2:15
The ones I don't catch, which does happen. I hate when I don't catch mistakes. Don't enjoy letting folks down.
ReallySeamus
2:16
Service time manipulation really bothers me, both as a fan who wants to see great young players ASAP and as somebody who hates seeing the labor force exploited.  Starting a service time clock from the moment a player signs his first professional contract would seem sensible to me, but I can't imagine teams would ever agree to that.  Is there a viable solution out there, or is this just something we have to endure given that the MLBPA seems to have bigger fish to fry?
Meg Rowley
2:18
I think with all of these, there's the tear down, start over, really make it a free fair market path, and the likely one. I think something like Sheryl's proposed solution of making a year of MLB service be any year where a player spends more time in the majors than the minors is the best we might get, and even that will face resistance. It has to hurt more for teams to keep top prospects down. It won't solve it completely, but it will help.
Give. Us. Vlad. Jr. Right. Now. Thanks.
The Amish
2:18
Give me Dan Vogelbach ABs or give me death
Meg Rowley
2:19
I am very sorry that you now have to be a ghost.
Cody
2:19
Do you expect EE to remain a Mariner through Spring Training?
Meg Rowley
2:19
I do. Doesn't seem to be any sort of market for him.
Will be weird to watch competent first base play from a Mariner. Hmmm.
TKDC
2:19
What do you think of this theory: Kyler Murray can easily fail at QB and jump back to baseball. He's going to get a shot this fall. He will be put into the fryer and if he fails in 2019 or 2020, he won't be too old at all to go back to baseball. It'd be much harder for him to go the other way.
Meg Rowley
2:20
I think it is easier to go that path, but I don't think we should underestimate what two years away from regular reps might do to a prospect who really needed to see good pitching.
Padres458
2:20
How good would a team be if all 25 players were free agents this offseason?
Meg Rowley
2:21
It would be better than you think up top, but probably not as good as some who are justifiably annoyed by the slowness of the season are maybe suggesting it would be because it would have scant depth.
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