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Travis Sawchik FanGraphs Chat
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Travis Sawchik
12:01
Howdy folks ....
Let's get to it
Mike
12:01
Liked your article about Kenley Jansen, but its too bad you didn't ask him about any of the other stuff he's been doing to vary the use of the cutter including:

Quick pitches with the new rules for using a stretch position as a 'windup'

The more prominent use of his slider

The addition, in that very at bat you linked against Sean Rodriguez, of a hesitation move.   In the Rodriguez AB, he threw a strike, did a Kershaw-style bounce leg kick for strike 2, and then quick-pitched strike 3.   You can see on strike 2 that Rodriguez ends up on one foot for a couple seconds and is completely off-balance.
Travis Sawchik
12:02
I did focus on just one aspect of Jansen but the general point was this a pitcher who is more sophisticated in his approach than is publicly recognized and your points fit to that idea
Bronx Bombers
12:02
Barring injury, we're at the point where Tanaka is a lock to opt out, right?
Travis Sawchik
12:03
If he can continue pitching anything like this, I agree ... And even if he's so-so down the stretch he's a good bet to opt out
jkdff
12:03
Tyler Glasnow is absolutely clowning on the IL. He's K-BB% is 29.4% (not a typo). Pittsburgh can't let this continue any longer, right?
Travis Sawchik
12:05
I think the Pirates avoid Glasnow gaining a year of service time by keeping him down until Aug. 26 ... so that has likely played a role. I assume we'll see him in Sept. if the service time issues are behind him
Steve
12:06
Stanton the NL MVP favorite at this point?
Travis Sawchik
12:06
I think so. He leads the league in WAR and home runs grab our attention ... but Paul Goldschmidt has been fantastic
Dunt
12:07
Lucas Giolito was really good yesterday. I don't have a question.
Travis Sawchik
12:08
Giolito has followed a frustrating trajectory but it's way too early to write him off and that was an encouraging outing
Dom
12:08
Do franchises have proprietary data on their pitchers similar to Rapsodo?  By that I mean, spin efficiency, spin axis, and all the other advanced pitching data points.
Travis Sawchik
12:08
I assume a certain group of teams do, perhaps not all.
Pie
12:08
Checked the August splits to see how close Hoskins batting line was to Giancarlo's for the month (not close at all), but it turns out he isn't even having the second best August this season. Did I fall asleep and miss something with Nelson Cruz?
Travis Sawchik
12:08
I might have missed this, too
Zock Jr.
12:09
Devers or Hoskins: ROS and Career?
Travis Sawchik
12:09
Hoskins/Devers
Hoskins has been so fun to watch, but I will take the player who is four years younger and can play third
for career
Kiermaier's Piercing Green Eyes
12:09
How did you enjoy Player's Weekend? Most of the unis were hideous, but the nicknames (an at bat of Outlaw vs Sherriff was a highlight), bats, and clips of players explaining their names or reading the lineup cards was fun for the weekend.
Travis Sawchik
12:10
I thought it was fun and inspired. I thought the uniforms were somewhat generic but not hideous. Smart of MLB to showcase their players' personalties a bit more. I think it proved the desired results
12:11
Now what I want to see next is a Fans' Weekend where the people, the public, get to choose what nicknames to place on players' jersey nameplates
LegallyEagle
12:11
Early or safe to say Chapman's contract with the Yankee's is officially a bad contract?
Travis Sawchik
12:12
I'm concerned ... If Chapman continues to lose velocity while the rest of the league gains velocity he's not going to be special and maybe not even that effective
Sterling Mallory Chris Archer
12:12
Fantasy question for next year.  In standard leagues, what round is Buxton, Hoskins, and Giancarlo going to be drafted?
Travis Sawchik
12:12
9/3/1
Guest
12:13
Whats more realistic AVG/HR per 162 games for Byron Buxton -- .250/20 or .270/25
Travis Sawchik
12:13
I'm bullish
Mike
12:13
Agreed, Travis, a man could write many pages about all the things Jansen does to make his single pitch effective.

Its in the same vein as Rich Hill's curveball:  So many things besides 'throw a 2nd/3rd pitch' someone can do to get more mileage out of one phenomenal pitch.
Travis Sawchik
12:13
It's an argument for mastering one, or few things, instead of trying to do many things at a 'meh' level
Mark
12:14
I keep hearing the relax on Hoskins train, look what happened to Eric Thames. This justifiable?
Travis Sawchik
12:14
Yes and no.  We of course want to be careful about small sample sizes, but these are different players (and some of thames' cooling off was injury related)
MVP
12:15
Stanton has by himself put the Fish back in the WC discussion.  Not a question, just in awe.
Travis Sawchik
12:16
It's been fun to watch from a distance. The closed stance seems to be working just fine http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/giancarlo-stanton-is-closing-off-and-tr...
What's scary for the league is Stanton has continued to keep his K% at a career low while his HR/FB and ISO marks have jumped to career bests
He's reached a new level
Pete
12:17
What would an offseason trade that sends Stanton to the Yankees look like? Let's say Miami is paying 25% of his remaining salary.
Travis Sawchik
12:17
Stanton's trade value is tough to figure with the remaining dollars and opt out ... but he definitely has raised his value. At this point it's not a cash dump
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