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Jeff Sullivan FanGraphs Chat -- 10/13/17
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Jeff Sullivan
9:04
Hello friends
9:05
Welcome to Friday baseball chat
Technically my second Friday baseball chat of this Friday, for you east coasters
Bork
9:05
Hello, friend!
Jeff Sullivan
9:05
Hello friend
Ray Liotta as Shoeless Joe
9:06
Jeff, thanks for chatting last night and being back again now. It was a really tough loss for Washington, but, as in every elimination game, it isn't one play that ends a season. That said, I think there are multiple issues surrounding instant replay that the league will have to address after last night's game. Is baseball still a game of inches? Or, with instant replay, is it now a game of millimeters?
Jeff Sullivan
9:07
There's never going to be any way to remove all doubt or questionability from a difficult loss. That being said, it benefits no one for briefly-off-the-bag slide attempts to be reviewable as they are. Something needs to change, this winter
Kiermaier's Piercing Green Eyes
9:08
Will the Rays be confident enough that Alex Cobb won't accept a qualifying offer to extend him one?
Jeff Sullivan
9:09
Pretty hard for me to see the Rays wanting to risk that much money for that kind of pitcher. But given how Cobb finished, and given that the QO tag shouldn't hurt these free agents in the way that it used to, this could actually happen
9:10
Still remains to be seen exactly what the consequences are for free agents of this level, but Cobb ought to be able to find multiple years if he wants them
Ray Liotta as Shoeless Joe
9:11
Jeff Sullivan
9:12
It's actually the set-position part that might be most unenforced
I see time outs granted right as the pitcher is starting his motion, and I figure those are just accidental -- you can't know exactly when the pitcher will begin, and there's a lag in between wanting a time out and getting it -- but now this is something I'm going to have to watch for
Boy do I hate senseless delays
doodus
9:13
Hitting into the double play when Wade Davis couldnt throw a strike was the biggest screw up
Jeff Sullivan
9:14
In Adam Lind's defense, Wade Davis threw a first-pitch curveball right down the pipe
Now, I don't know exactly why Lind swung at a first-pitch curveball, but in general, there's nothing wrong with going after a grooved pitch, no matter what preceded them. The alternative was falling behind 0-and-1. Lind might not have seen such a hittable pitch again in the at-bat
Looks bad in hindsight but I think it was just a poor result
Ray Liotta as Shoeless Joe
9:15
Matt Wieters, who is bad, seemed to be the only person on the field who knew the dropped third strike contact rule. Would it behoove teams to have a physical copy of the rulebook with a low-paid intern to fact check umpires during games? Based on how quickly Twitter reacted to the play, I would think a number of fans with encyclopedic knowledge would happily sit silently in the corner of a dugout until called upon.
Jeff Sullivan
9:16
I doubt that would improve things at all
And I'm still not 100% convinced things didn't go as they should've, anyway
9:17
Even calling that a dead-ball out would've been an unsatisfying technicality, because Baez's contact with Wieters in no way meaningfully interfered with his effort to retrieve the baseball
Now, the fact that Baez was free to run in the first place is the dumbest rule in baseball, but it's at least a well understood rule
God last night was bizarre
Sharp
9:17
Do you enjoy detailed, reasoned, analytical questions or questions which provoke hot takes and zinger lines more?
Jeff Sullivan
9:18
Detailed, reasoned, analytical questions don't work very well in a live-chat format
If I see something that long in the queue I'll just skip over it
At the same time, this isn't really a good destination for hot takes
9:19
My hottest take at the moment is that people don't actually dislike puns
Zach
9:20
At what point do the Yankees move Judge down in the lineup?
Jeff Sullivan
9:20
When he's 36 years old and declining
9:21
Aaron Judge is the best hitter on the team. He will also strike out sometimes
Eric
9:21
Thoughts on the Yankees rotation?  Do you like bumping Gray all the way to game 4?
Jeff Sullivan
9:21
I've got no issues with it. Gray might be the least likely Yankees starter to succeed against this lineup, and, again, it's going to come down to the bullpen, anyway
Ray Liotta as Shoeless Joe
9:22
How long is the New York-Houston matchup this evening? How many innings will you watch?
Jeff Sullivan
9:22
The game will last 238 minutes. I want to watch, but, after last night, I might just need the day off
9:23
Haven't decided. Just watching a game is an awful lot easier than watching and live-chatting a game
TJ
9:23
Dusty Baker and the Red Sox - make it happen!
Jeff Sullivan
9:23
Something tells me Dusty Baker would hate that
doodus
9:24
How bad do the Dodgers look if they don't advance to the WS, narrative wise?  Worse than the Nationals this postseason?
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