JotCast | FanGraphs After Dark Chat

Paul Swydan

5:57

What is tonight's best matchup?

BOS (Price) vs. NYY (Cessa) (7.4% | 8 votes)

BAL (Gausman) vs. TOR (Sanchez) (57.4% | 62 votes)

CLE (Clevinger) vs. DET (Verlander) (9.3% | 10 votes)

NYM (Sydnergaard) vs. MIA (Koehler) (13.9% | 15 votes)

SEA (Hernandez) vs. HOU (Fiers) (12% | 13 votes)

Total Votes: 108

5:58

Which (potential) injury revealed today is most crushing to its team?

Wilson Ramos (Nats) (35.2% | 43 votes)

Steven Matz (Mets) (4.9% | 6 votes)

Corey Kluber (Indians) (59.8% | 73 votes)

Other (0% | 0 votes)

Total Votes: 122

5:59

If you had to pick right now, who wins the AL pennant?

Red Sox (65.4% | 85 votes)

Indians (3.8% | 5 votes)

Rangers (16.2% | 21 votes)

Blue Jays (7.7% | 10 votes)

Orioles (2.3% | 3 votes)

Mariners (0% | 0 votes)

Astros (0.8% | 1 vote)

Other? (3.8% | 5 votes)

Total Votes: 130

6:00

If you had to pick right now, who wins the NL pennant?

Nationals (2.1% | 3 votes)

Cubs (70.7% | 99 votes)

Dodgers (17.9% | 25 votes)

Mets (1.4% | 2 votes)

San Francisco (3.6% | 5 votes)

St. Louis (0% | 0 votes)

Miami (3.6% | 5 votes)

Other? (0.7% | 1 vote)

Total Votes: 140

9:00

Hi everybody!

Jeff Zimmerman

9:00

Byron

9:01

So it looks like the Dodgers are going to let Julio Urias pitch in the postseason going past his innings limit. Thoughts?

Paul Swydan

9:02

I think that flags fly forever, and that innings limits are arbitrarily set by teams out of fear and not science. Let the kid pitch.

Jeff Zimmerman

9:02

Not a huge deal, but I may start his spring training late next year

Aladdin Sane

9:02

Voted Kluber because the wording made me think we are assuming, for poll purposes, that he'd be out for the season.

Paul Swydan

9:02

No, I'm not assuming that, for the record. But perhaps I could have worded it better.

Stevil

9:03

Hello there / Boa noite. I'm going to ask what should be on every Mariner fans mind: who starts the one-game Wild Card match up for the M's if they get in, Felix on short rest, or Paxton. I'm conveniently leaving Iwakuma out of the discussion.

Jeff Zimmerman

9:03

I think it is Iwakuma, but I don't know how their rotation is set up. Get to the game first and then worry about

9:04

Paul Swydan

9:04

I think you do everything you need to do to get to that game, and worry about who's available later. If I'm not mistaken, you get to set a different 25-man roster for that game than you do for the ALDS, so if you need to set a roster that includes 12 relief pitchers, you set one that includes 12 relief pitchers.

Carrotjuice

9:04

Would it be in bad taste for the voters to award Jose Fernandez the Cy Young posthumously? From a statistical standpoint, he probably has the strongest non-Kershaw case.

Paul Swydan

9:05

We were debating this internally. There was no clear consensus, and I don't think that I have a clear answer either. On the one hand, you want to respect the process for the sake of history. On the other hand, Bob Welch and Barry Zito have Cy Young Awards that should belong to Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez, so sometimes history is ridiculously unfair.

Jeff Zimmerman

9:05

A little. I think voters should just assume he was shutdown early and judge from there. I think I would give him a bump if it was a close call with someone else.

Shaemoose

9:06

Is there anything to my quick estimations that pitchers with low fastball velocities have positive ERA-FIP? if you look at the bottom 20, only 5 of them have larger ERA's vs FIP.

Paul Swydan

9:06

Jeff would know this better than I would...

Jeff Zimmerman

9:07

Most of those slower guys have low GB%, those are the guys who beat FIP with a link coming ....

http://www.baseballheatmaps.com/use-ground-ball-rate-to-determine-when-dips-breaksdown/

Mariners 101

9:08

Do the Mariners have to win out in order to make the playoffs?

Paul Swydan

9:09

Probably, yeah. The good news is that if they can weather the storm against Houston, they have four gimmes at home waiting this weekend.

Jeff Zimmerman

9:09

They may, there problem is not the distance, but the traffic

Ceej

9:10

When a player, like Baez, is said to have fast/strong hands, what does that actually mean for hitting?

Paul Swydan

9:11

It means, I believe, that he gets the barrel of the bat through the strike zone quicker, and thus is able to better handle good fastballs.

Jeff Zimmerman

9:11

The are different. Fast means he can wait on the ball more and make his swing quickly and possibly adjust during the swing.

Paul Swydan

9:11

What Jeff said.

Bill Belichick

9:11

I can win in baseball too

Paul Swydan

9:11

Well OK.

Jeff Zimmerman

9:11

Probably with Brady as a cleanup hitter

The Letdowns

9:11

So how can we ever trust Strasburg again?

Paul Swydan

9:12

Not sure, I haven't trusted him for a long time.

Jeff Zimmerman

9:12

People should not have to begin with

Next Big Thing

9:12

Next season who will be the rookie callups who will dazzle us?

Paul Swydan

9:12

YOAN MONCADA.

9:13

Could be this season but veteran presents.

Jeff Zimmerman

9:13

Presents huh? Everyone loves presents.

Dynasty Dilemma

9:13

Have an option to extend upto 4 years. Sale at $45, Thor $40, Gray $19, Jon Gray $17 and Aaron Sanchez $21. Any of them worth it or should I throw back to auction?

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