Eric A Longenhagen: Howdy from Port Charlotte and sorry for the delay. I had planned on chatting from the Rays stadium during their Extended Spring game against the Orioles, but the Orioles (according to personnel on site) canceled. So I hustled over to a Halloween-themed coffee shop down the road.

Eric A Longenhagen: The Red Sox and Twins canceled three of their four extended ST games this week due to lack of pitching availability on both sides (Boston twice, Minnesota once) so I’ve seen a little less baseball on this leg of the trip than I had planned. I will try not to be machiavellian about how I respond, but I’m pretty frustrated with those orgs at the moment.

Tom: Eric, Justin Campbell keeps coming back strong in short outings. Is he back on the radar as a potential 4? Rule V eligible, so wonder how he fits for Guards future. Thanks!

Eric A Longenhagen: Saw him the day before camp broke and was at last night’s game with a scout who covers Cleveland and we both think Campbell is back from the dead. He was throwing harder for my source than he did for me on he last day of ST and has been sitting 93-96 so far, averaging 94.4 mph. That’s up from college. He pitched well in the spring outing I saw, four pitches, feel, built like a starter, moves like a starter.

Eric A Longenhagen: Let’s see if he can hold that velo all season as he goes from 0 to a whole slate.

Guest: How high are you feeling on Jonah Tong these days?

Dan Szymborski: It’s clobberin’ time!

Dan Szymborski: AI is getter better at making fun of me, BTW.

Guest: Vegas had notably much worse ratings on the Twins than both ZIPS and PECOTA (not to mention the fans). Has anything you’ve seen in the Twins playing what has been pretty good baseball so far justified that much higher projection in your mind?

Dan Szymborski: Well, Taj Bradley’s been really darn good, I mean sub two FIP

Dan Szymborski: and Mick Abel has been really solid too (and one of the boom picks)

Dan Szymborski: I’m not confident at all they’re this good, but I think this was always a team in the .500 vicinity

Brendan Gawlowski: Hello everybody. A little list housekeeping to start… I wrote up the Rangers system yesterday, and Eric tackled Sacramento last week. He’s currently working on the Nationals and I’m writing up Kansas City. Hopefully both will be live by this time next week.

Brendan Gawlowski: I also went out to Everett last week and wrote up some notes on a few Top 100 guys — Farmelo, Bremner, Celesten — and a few other guys, including Luke Stevenson, who has a chance to make the list on our next update.

Brendan Gawlowski: It appears Johnny Level has homered again

Brendan Gawlowski: I’ll have Brecht and the Spokane/Vancouver game in the background, maybe we can all follow along with that together too

Brendan Gawlowski: Otherwise, let’s get going

Insert Witty Name Here: Have you watched Painter’s games at all this year? SSS of course, but curious to know how you think he looks.

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon! Welcome to my first chat of April

Jay Jaffe: I was out of town last week, traveling in Austria with my family, retracing some ancestral roots and testing out my newly-acquired dual citizenship. It’s very weird to drop in on baseball when there’s a 6-hour time difference in that direction, to say the least

Jay Jaffe: Yesterday I wrote about Andy Pages, whose hot start I followed from afar https://blogs.fangraphs.com/with-a-hot-start-andy-pages-has-turned-the…

Jay Jaffe: For tomorrow I’ll be writing about Davey Lopes, my first favorite ballplayer, who passed away last week.

Bob: Do you think the Brewers will regain their magic this year?

Jay Jaffe: if I’ve learned one thing, it’s never take the Brewers lightly. They always seem to find a way to contend, and in that division, that’s often more than enough

Eric A Longenhagen: What’s up party people? Happy Friday from my old man’s place in Catty, and thanks for being patient while I helped my grandmother with some stuff this morning. I’m gonna keep things to about 45 minutes today so I can catch my flight to Florida.

Oaktown Blues: Eric, thanks as always for your thorough work and unparalleled depth in the A’s prospect list. This is like Christmas morning for me!

Eric A Longenhagen: Hey thanks, it was fun to sit on them for a bunch of the spring and feel good about wrapping my arms around the whole lot of these fellas. Kade Morris!

Oaktown Blues: A 45 FV is a big jump in your eval of Junior Perez, considering he didn’t get a mention on their list last year. What changed for you? Just more confidence in the whole profile thanks to contact and defense gains?

Eric A Longenhagen: I was too light on his CF defense last cycle and that piece is the biggest reason why Perez > Bolte.

Dave T: Is MIL Luke Adams’ overly-passive hitting profile sustainable? His contact quality and approach are excellent, but he’s still not swinging the bat enough. And I’m worried about his defense.

Dan Szymborski: And awaaaay we go!

Kyle Manzardo: I have the largest difference between xBA and real BA among qualified batters, is there hope for me or am I broken?

Dan Szymborski: I think you’ll be fine

Guest: “more tools than can be found at a Florida spring break kegger” just give Dan the Pulitzer now

Dan Szymborski: Pulitzer Prize for B- Snark

Guest: it’s April and it remains to be seen if he’s replacement level, average, or better, but is it too early to say Jordan Walker is meaningfully better than he was 2024-25?