JotCast | August Fagerstrom FanGraphs Chat -- 5/3/16

August Fagerstrom FanGraphs Chat -- 5/3/16

august fagerstrom

12:05

let's do a chat!

12:06

I wanted this week's chat soundtrack to be the new Drake record, but unfortunately it's horribly boring, so instead watch the new Radiohead video and then listen to a bunch of other Radiohead while you're at it

Bork

12:07

Hello, friend!

august fagerstrom

12:07

Hi, Bork!

Shawn

12:08

Outside of a few bad pitches, Matt Moore has looked great so far this year. Think this is the year he finally puts it all together?

august fagerstrom

12:08

I've never been a big Moore believer, but I touched upon him a bit in the Rays post I wrote last week. Everything he's doing -- velocity, movement, command -- either looks exactly like rookie season Moore, or better

12:09

I think this is the first time we've seen him healthy in 3 years. His command's sharper than it's ever been. I'll go ahead and puta "buy" label on him

Cory

12:09

What can the Tigers do to fix their rotation? It has two good starters and then nothing else. Fulmer looks like he's definitely good enough to stick. Should they try to make an early trade?

august fagerstrom

12:10

The weird thing is, the rotation looks exactly like what it should've been expected to look like. Zimmermann's been a bit better than expected, Verlander a bit worse, but Pelfrey is terrible, Sanchez hasn't looked right for 2 years and they've got no depth

12:11

I suppose they could make a trade, but I also don't think the viewpoint on their rotation has changed much from the preseason, and they were apparently fine with it preseason

Dan

12:11

Is Victor Martinez officially back? Guy is raking.

august fagerstrom

12:11

Yeah, he was pretty clearly playing through injury last year. Amazing what guys can do when they're not compensating for an injury

j6takish

12:12

Is Sandovals injury real?

august fagerstrom

12:12

Yeah. I thought it was fake when they 15'd him. You don't fake a surgery

Erik

12:12

I think you mentioned liking Radiohead before. Heard the new song yet? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI2oS2hoL0k

august fagerstrom

12:12

Beat you to it!

Well actually you posted this before I did, but I hadn't seen it yet!

Like it! Like the video! Love Radiohead!

Mike

12:12

how much crap can the braves throw at the wall until something sticks? There has to be another halfway decent major leaguer in the system somewhere, right?

august fagerstrom

12:12

a lot.

12:13

a lot of crap.

Total Clown

12:13

Stroman has previously looked like he was trying to induce lots of groundouts. This past start, it seemed to me like he was actively trying to K people. Is it plausible that actively decided to try to get Ks again, like some sort of philosophical change of approach?

august fagerstrom

12:13

That is certainly something a person can do, yes

Whether or not *this* individual person is doing it, I'm not qualified to say, having not seen either of the starts in question

Jimmy Sak

12:14

Latos can't possibly keep this up? Right? He's gotta be a sell high guy because I just sold him for Carpenter.

august fagerstrom

12:14

He can't keep *this* up, no, but Latos has never really been a bad pitcher. He's just been hurt. He's always gotten the job done when he can take the mound. Wrote about him in the offseason as someone who I thought could be a steal if he just stayed healthy

12:15

The strikeouts are a bit worrisome. He's putting too many balls in play. But I've been a Latos believer, and a sub-2 ERA through *five whole starts* to begin the year's not gonna change that stance, I don't think

Sam

12:16

What the heck is going on with Russell Martin at the plate? I don't see him striking out 40+% of the time that much longer, but is there reason to believe significant offensive regression is coming this season?

august fagerstrom

12:16

He's seeing a bunch more pitches in the zone this year. That's never a good sign

Danny Almonte

12:17

Chris Carter showing any real signs of a new approach, or is he just getting lucky? ROS expectation?

august fagerstrom

12:17

He's doing the same thing all the Brewers hitters are under this new regime: swinging way, way less

Tough to say whether that's a positive change for him in the long haul, but it's something different, at least

Earl

12:18

Yan Gomes still a good hitting catcher? As far as his bat goes, amongst catchers, where would you rank him? top 10, top 5?

august fagerstrom

12:18

I haven't been sold that he's even the best catcher on the team for more than a year, now, but now the guy who I think is better has a fractured thumb.

Last year's struggles were easier to write off, due to the injury

12:19

This year is a bit more frightening, though it's obviously still early. The approach is just terrible though. Seems like the kind of thing that could be exploited. He needs to adjust back

Erik

12:19

Despite the hot start, the Phillies' playoff odds are still 0.1%. Even if you don't think they're nearly as good as their record shows, that seems quite low. Does that demonstrate better how much humans overreact to small samples, or how computers are slow to react to new data?

august fagerstrom

12:19

little bit of both!

whenever you start to get excited about the Phillies maybe being a real team in 2015, take another gander at the lineup

Oliver

12:20

Tell me good things about Domingo Santana

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