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Travis Sawchik FanGraphs Chat
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Travis Sawchik
12:01
Welcome to my FanGraphs debut chat, everyone. I am sipping a generic seltzer water from Aldi and I am ready to go ...
Matt
12:01
Aaron Nola? Thoughts? Does the UCL sprain concern you at all? At peak, is he anything more than a mid-rotation guy?
Travis Sawchik
12:02
The UCL sprain is obviously concerning, though Tanaka has been just fine having not had surgery to correct the issue ... Nola has done really well controlling what he can control: K/9, BB/9, GB% and he might have more upside than that of a mid-rotations arm, 2017 is going to be interesting for him,
Guest
12:03
Why aren't there more MLB players from Taiwan? All those kids who throw 75 in the LLWS and nobody grows up?
Travis Sawchik
12:04
Interesting question. In general, I'm surprised more MLB teams do not commit more scouts to Asia. Some teams have one scouting roaming an area where much of the world's population resides .... There could be some undervalued markets remaining there.
BranBran
12:05
Greinke seems to be ranked around SP20 territory this preseason. That seems high for someone unusable in home starts, no?
Travis Sawchik
12:06
Unusable? I think he's a solid bet to bounce back (not to 2015 form, though) and I believe Arizona has brought in some receiving help at catcher
Outta my way, Gyorkass
12:06
Welcome to Fangraphs, Travis. What is going to be the general focus of your chats?
Travis Sawchik
12:07
Thanks ... I'm pretty open. I'm going to try and answer what I feel the best questions, and try to answer a variety of subjects/topics.
Matt
12:08
What are your thoughts on Jake Lamb? I was offered a trade of him for Alex Reyes, and after researching, projection systems don't seem to be so high on him. Do you think he continues last season's breakout?
Travis Sawchik
12:09
I like the bat/discipline track record in the minors ... and a double-digit walk rate and 29 HRs is pretty impressive in the majors. There seem to be differing opinions on his D but you don't have to worry about that
Monsignor Martinez
12:09
Greetings to you, Travis. What high school & year did you graduate? I graduated from Mentor in 2007, and student taught at Riverside.
Travis Sawchik
12:10
As I mentioned in my intro post, I am northwest Ohio native. I graduated from Mentor in '98. I'm very much your senior
Hunter Renfroe
12:10
What do you see as his ceiling? Is a Grichuk Comp spot-on?
Travis Sawchik
12:10
That bat is similar but Grichuk can play center ...
Brett W
12:10
Welcome, Travis. In your opinion, what are the duties of Pittsburgh pitching coach at which Searage excels?
Travis Sawchik
12:12
Thanks, Brett. Searage says his strength is empathy. In his ML career, coaches were always tinkering with his mechanics and he hated it. So he tries to listen and limit mechanical tweaks with his pitchers. It seems to be a powerful trait
Nietsniew
12:12
Welcome good sir!
Travis Sawchik
12:12
Thanks!
Scott
12:13
Travis, as a fellow Yinzer and fan of Big Data Baseball, I am extremely excited to see you on Fangraphs. What are your thoughts on the continuing McCutchen rumors? Is he a Pirate in 2017?
Travis Sawchik
12:14
I believe he open as a Pirate....and perhaps in LF or RF. The Nationals were the top and most logical suitor. But if the Pirates are scuffling perhaps he's available at the deadline. Of course if the Pirates are scuffling, he's a good bet to not be playing at a high level and losing value
CamdenWarehouse
12:15
Are you taking Dan's chat spot? Is Dan still going to chat with us?
Travis Sawchik
12:15
I am going to be chatting with you on Mondays at noon ... Don't worry, Dan will still be chatting (I believe on Wednesdays)
Fat Kenny G
12:15
Hi Travis. Welcome to the chats! How are you? Where you from? How's your parents doing? Who's your favorite team/player?
Travis Sawchik
12:17
Thanks/I'm well/Concord, Ohio/They're well, thanks for asking!/Raised a Cleveland fan and loved Griffey Jr. as a kid. That swing. Swoon.
Hank
12:18
Does Jurickson Profar have 20 home run upside? What type of offensive player do you see him becoming with an eventual full season of at bats?
Travis Sawchik
12:18
I do, especially in a favorable park. He was once a top 5 consensus prospect and he presumably still has much of that talent
Big Z
12:19
Who ends up as a better career hitter; Schwarber or Sano?
Travis Sawchik
12:20
I like both but Schwarber's bat seems special. What he did in the WS after missing almost the entire season was unreal
Bill
12:20
Gary Sanchez a consistent 4+ win player moving forward?
Travis Sawchik
12:21
That's a high bar but the improving defensive skill set and overall reported maturation make it plausible
Erik
12:21
What sorts of baseball things do you care about far more than the average baseball writer (or better yet, far more than the average FanGraphs writer)? What things do you care about far less?
Travis Sawchik
12:25
Good question! I'm not sure what meets the criteria of an average FG writer, it's a diverse crowd, but as a MLB/Pirates beat writer I really enjoyed enterprising, idea, trend pieces. I tried to blend human stories of process with analytics as evidence. And I will do some of that here, some journalism-type reporting pieces backed with data.
TwoSeaming
12:25
Jason Heyward.. any improvement in fantasy stats coming? Or is this who he is?
Travis Sawchik
12:26
That swing just looked broken last season. Can the Cubs rebuild it? Fascinating story to follow. I don't want to bet against him or the Cubs.
Otis Redding
12:26
what did you do before fangraphs?
Travis Sawchik
12:27
I covered the Pirates for Trib Total Media in Pittsburgh and I covered Clemson in South Carolina before that. I took a winding road to FanGraphs
Trainman
12:27
Travis welcome to first baseball chat. Out of all the Mets starters who are coming back from injury, who would you be most confident in out of Harvey, degrom, Matz and wheeler?
Travis Sawchik
12:28
deGrom since he has the longest track record of success
Nicole
12:28
Any thoughts on who will be the starting catcher for the Indians next season? Any chance they end up splitting time at some point next season?
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