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Travis Sawchik FanGraphs Chat
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Travis Sawchik
12:50
And he's a fantastic writer, too, so we'd have a great Web site coverage
12:51
As for the current real-life executives, I'm really impressed about how the Dodgers have extracted a lot of value out of players already in-house or they've acquired
He Hate Me
12:51
The problem with your 8-team divisions is that it reduces, rather than intensifies intra-division rivalry. With 7 other teams in your division, you have to play them all the same number of times, so that waters down how many series you can have. Four-team, geographically-aligned divisions with 20-22 games vs each rival per season would stoke the rivalries right up. As a fan, you really get to know your close rivals almost as well as your own team when divisions are smaller.
Travis Sawchik
12:52
With a balanced scheduled without interleague play, you'd still have a lot more intraleague diversity
Jeff
12:53
What you say makes more sense in theory than in practice - sure, "rivalries" are good. But as an NHL fan seeing the same matchup over and over and over again devalues each meeting, and that's when you have a good teams to begin with. Seeing the same game between bottom-feeders over and over is even worse. That's not growing any interest whatsoever. Additionally, just watching games on TV between teams in a far-off division isn't the same as being in South Florida and getting to see, say, Aaron Judge up close and personal. Give me more schedule diversity, not less.
Travis Sawchik
12:54
I think the value of having an other-league star come to a city every four years is overstated, and there's just as many poor interleague draws and interesting ones
12:55
And with the playoff field likely to expand, we ought to want to see those races decided against common opponents in-league with a more balanced schedule
And as a side benefit, the World Series and All-Star Game become much more interesting if there is no interleague history
Bob
12:56
Bigger accomplishment? Winning a WS in real life or in Hardball Dynasty?
Travis Sawchik
12:57
It depends on the Hardball Dynasty world in which you are competing
Greg
12:57
What's the biggest thing holding the Yankees back from making the next step? One more starting pitcher, or the lack of contact hitting, or something else
Travis Sawchik
12:58
The Yankees are in great shape. The might need to replace Tanaka, but the next 'big' step should be some of their top prospects arriving, and the 2018-19 FA class
Braves Belt
12:58
If they expand to Charlotte, will we see an Orioles-Nationals style endless lawsuit about revenue splits between the Braves and Charlottes?
Travis Sawchik
12:59
I don't know enough about TV territory rights to answer that ... But seems pretty unfair to have an MLB club in another state have rights over your own commonwealth
Jeff
1:00
"more regional rivalries to be created" - I think this is our fundamental disagreement. I don't believe you can just create a rivalry, and I don't think teams are automatic rivals just because of proximity. Rivalries are organic, born out of circumstance. Trying to create them just feels inauthentic, the kind of corporate drivel that plays well in a press release but not in a stadium.
Travis Sawchik
1:01
College football is exhibit A on why geography matters in creating rivalries, moreover, with 8-team divisions, there's automatically an increase in potential division rivalries (I don't know much about the NHL dynamic that was previously mentioned)
Jordan
1:02
Travis, it looks like Betances will likely be moved this offseason and Castro may also be expendable given the Yankees' young IF prospects (Andujar, Torres). If you're the Pirates, would you consider a Cole for Betances and Castro swap? Maybe the Bucs include another lesser piece as well.
Travis Sawchik
1:02
Betances had no idea where his stuff was going at the end of the season, so he would be a secondary consideration. I'd want some controllable assets for Cole
D.B. Sweeney as Shoeless Joe
1:02
What's for lunch?
Travis Sawchik
1:03
Hmmm. Leftover Mellow Mushroom *house* pizza and perhaps a salad
The salad's purpose is solely to erode guilt re: the entree selection
Nic
1:04
Help me Travis? As a Yankees fan, I don't know whether to be excited for the future, or bummed out that they were 1 game away from the world series and lost.
Travis Sawchik
1:04
It's possible to be both but I'd be more excited about the future than bummed about 2017
Colt Holt
1:04
In an expansion draft, what teams face the most risk? Recent rebuilders (Braves, White Sox)?  Young core (Chicago Cubs)? This is assuming the draft were this winter, not where they will be in ~3 years
Travis Sawchik
1:05
I'm looking forward to FanGraphs expansion draft content
D.B. Sweeney as Shoeless Joe
1:05
If I'm a player there's no way in heck I want to travel deep into Mexico for games.
Travis Sawchik
1:05
I haven't been, but isn't Mexico City proper a pretty great city?
Sleepy
1:06
If Montreal gets an expansion team, I really hope they don't simply recycle "Expos," since the Expos (and their franchise history) are currently in DC.  Kinda like how Cleveland recycled "Browns" even tho the Browns (and their franchise history) are currently in Baltimore.
Travis Sawchik
1:06
I disagree and the ballcap/logo remain a major seller
TommyLasordid
1:06
How big of a factor is the lack of Astro southpaws?
Travis Sawchik
1:06
It's not insignificant, imo
Paccus
1:07
If you'd be okay with swapping Col/Hou between NL/AL, and adding a team in Charlotte, you'd end up with pretty ideal 4 team divisions.
Travis Sawchik
1:07
Colorado should want to be in the AL, right? Get that DH into Coors?
Todd Boss
1:07
Why do people think Montreal would actually work as an expansion city??  They were dead last in attendance for their last 7 years in Montreal, and routinely drew 13th out of 14th in every year from the early 80s, even when they were winning.  They couldn't get private financing for a stadium 20 years ago when stadiums were "just" $200M ... now they're 5x that.  Who is going to build a new stadium there?   Then you have currency/tax issues, RSN issues, and cultural issues.
Travis Sawchik
1:08
I don't think the last seven years in Montreal is a good test of whether baseball would succeed.... They drew 2 million fans multiple times in their history and had an awful stadium situation. It's also not a transient place, which I suspect would allow it to support the name on the front of the (road) jersey
Batflips for BBs
1:09
This is asking you to look VERY deep into your crystal ball. Could you POSSIBLY see, in some distant future, for the MLB to expand to either Europe or to encompass the NPB? You'd have to be VERY careful with traveling in this scenario, barring the development of faster traveling in this distant future.
Travis Sawchik
1:10
In the very distant future, who knows what anything will look like, so, sure. But I don't see anything like that happening in the next several decades. I could see more of a true World Series, a sort of Baseball Champions League being a thing
Sterling Mallory Chris Archer
1:10
Correct answer re: owning a team and picking the exec - Jeff Sullivan.
Travis Sawchik
1:11
I'd offer Jeff a high-profile job, for sure. Jeff can be GM, Nick president of baseball operations
Colt Holt
1:11
Isn't there a pretty compelling case that another LA and/or New York team could benefit MLB most? Help further decrease the market inequality to small teams (versus creating more) and push even further the local rivalries?
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