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Dave Cameron FanGraphs Chat
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Dave Cameron
12:01
Happy Wednesday, everyone.
12:02
Let's talk September baseball.
Or maybe October baseball!
Gary
12:02
A lot of Acuna talk this season. What's the best way for Atlanta to get him in the lineup? Dumping Kemp or Markakis makes sense, but could they use Inciarte as a trade chip and play Acuna in center?
Dave Cameron
12:03
Atlanta needs more good players, not to swap out the few they have for others. Neither Kemp nor Markakis should have a starting job next year.
Mel
12:03
What degree of moral turpitude do you assign the Red Sox for their electronic sign stealing?  Do you believe that Farrell did not know it was happening?
Dave Cameron
12:04
No way Farrell didn't know. In terms of moral turpitude, they broke the rules, they knew they were breaking the rules, and they did it anyway, so there's some guilt here, but as far as infractions go, this isn't that big a deal. Sign stealing isn't even against the rules. It's just the method they used that is problematic.
Bork
12:05
Heyman thinks the Red Sox should forfeit all their wins against the Yankees this year. What's your hot take on punishment for the Red Sox?
Dave Cameron
12:05
They should be forced to connect to an internet that only has Jon Heyman columns on it.
PF
12:06
Do you subscribe to The Athletic?
Dave Cameron
12:06
I do. They have a lot of good people there that I enjoy reading, and I think we should support good sportswriting when we can.
adam
12:07
At what point in September should playoff bound teams be worried about how they are trending.  IE The Dodgers are trending down/D'Backs are trending up, but we still have a month.  Playoffs are affected by hot/cold streaks, what's the September cut off?
Dave Cameron
12:07
There's no correlation between September performance and October performance. None.
12:08
The only thing that matters this month is whether you make it or not, and whether your guys are healthy or not.
Josiah
12:08
As a dodger fan, what should my panic level be for team to hold on and win west, and panic level for team in general?
Dave Cameron
12:09
0% on the division. It's as close to in the bag as things get. Think about how crazy these last few weeks are, and now think that it has to happen again for the next two weeks for the D'Backs to make up the rest of the gap.
In terms of the postseason, the team getting beaten right now isn't the one LA will roll out in October. Unless Seager's injury lingers, they'll be fine.
Bill
12:10
Did the Tigers do very well? I'm sad to see JV in another uniform, but it seems like we got a lot.
Dave Cameron
12:10
Yeah, I love that trade for Detroit. To get three very interesting prospects and shed $20M per year for a mid-30s guy with consistency issues is a big win, even if that mid-30s guy is a franchise icon.
Jaime
12:11
Is Vlad Jr. bat so special that he could be a 1B with no baserunning value and still be the best prospect?
Dave Cameron
12:11
Yes.
Zock Jr.
12:12
As an ethical Red Sox fan, I'm bummed, Dave. Bummed.
Dave Cameron
12:14
Were you bummed when the team was signing international players to "package deals" to get around the signing bonuses?
It's not like it's really news that teams will do whatever they can to get an advantage if they think they can get away with it.
PF
12:15
Is there a Fangraphs central office, or is all the article writing done remotely?
Dave Cameron
12:15
We're all spread out. Jeff and I both live in Oregon, so I guess this is the closest thing we have to a home base now. If we had an office between us, it would probably be in the middle of a forest fire right now.
Jonesing
12:16
If the Yankees were to hold onto the 1st Wild Card, who do you think they would like to start in the playoff game, assuming the luxury of lining up their starters?
Dave Cameron
12:16
The safe choice is throw Severino.
12:18
I'd probably go with match-ups. Facing a team with good LHBs? Start CC, have Green warming up from pitch one.
Ronald Acuna
12:18
Would I crack your top 50 if you recalculated your Trade Value list today?
Dave Cameron
12:18
Yes
Kris in Seattle
12:19
Was this version of the Verlander deal the only version Detroit was going to do? The one where the buy real prospects? A little miffed why Houston sold real prospects for salary relief on JV, but then that's the only way Detroit could sell that deal to the fans right? No way Houston just takes his salary in return for Preston Tucker right?
Dave Cameron
12:20
Well, given the price they paid, I'm not sure why HOU didn't claim him on waivers. That would have at least forced DET to consider the "let him go for cash savings only" option, and taken away the Cubs as another bidder.
But yeah, I bet in the end, they were only going to trade him for a real return.
Mike
12:21
According to Fangraphs' Playoff Odds, the Nats are a lock (100%) to make the Divisional Series while the Cubs are at 91.9%. And given the standings, that seems plausible. But the Cubs' chance of winning a Divisional Series is 51.2% while the Nats' are at 45.8%. For those #s to be right, it seems that your algorithm must like the Cubs quite a lot more than the Nats. Or am I missing something?
Dave Cameron
12:21
That looks like a bug. We'll investigate.
Guest
12:22
It's very disingenuous to say that sign stealing "isn't against the rules".  It's only not against the rules if you do it legally, which they did not.  Therefore what they did is clearly against the rules, also known as cheating.
Dave Cameron
12:22
The method they used to steal signs is against the rules.
12:23
The actual act of sign stealing is not.
Yes, they broke the rules.
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