Brendan Gawlowski: Hello everybody. We’re going to go relatively short today so smoke em if you got em.

Goule: Feel like Im not seeing enough River Ryan ROY talk. Is that because he’s older? I see an easy path to 20 plus starts.

Brendan Gawlowski: I agree with you, I think he’s really good.

Steve: Where does Chowolsky fit among top SS prospects right now?  Is he in the Griffin, McGonigle, Made, De Vries et. al. group or the next tier down?  How quickly does he get to the majors?

Brendan Gawlowski: I’m optimistic on the guy but let’s let him see some pro pitching before we really get nuts.

Alec: (apologies for being completely unrelated to prospects but) JUSTIN VERLANDER IS HOME! I have no idea if they’re doing a six man rotation when either Olson is healthy or Melton shoves in presumably Toledo to start the year but the prodigal son has returned!

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks! Happy pitchers and catchers day to all, even if your team — those besides the Diamondbacks, White Sox, Giants, Braves, and Red Sox — reports tomorrow or Thursday instead of today

Jay Jaffe: You can check that information here if you don’t know. https://www.mlb.com/news/spring-training-2026-first-workout-dates

Jay Jaffe: If you missed it, my latest piece was a tribute to a pair of rubber-armed lefties from the 1960s and ’70s, namely Mickey Lolich (who passed away last week) and Wilbur Wood (who passed away in mid-January). https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-300-a-tribute-to-the-ultra-durable-mic…

Jay Jaffe: A few of you asked/requested I write about Wood but I was swamped by Hall of Fame coverage at the time so couldn’t get to it but… well, Father Time remains undefeated.

Jay Jaffe: Lolich is the third member of the Tigers for whom I’ve written a tribute during my time at FanGraphs after AL Kaline and Bill Freehan. From the 1968 Cardinals I also wrote up Lou Brock, Orlando Cepeda, and Bob Gibson when they passed. The World Series took place before I was born but I’ve got a pretty decent working knowledge of it.

Jay Jaffe: anyway, next on my plate is a roundup of some smaller transactions as camps open. We’ll see just who that contains when the bell rings. And now, on with the show…

Matt: When does the top 100 content start to drop?

Eric A Longenhagen: Middle of next week! Draft rankings, How’s My Driving?, Top 100, Picks to Click, and bunch more stuff from starts rolling out Wednesday.

Jim: What are the chances that Wei-En Lin adds velocity as he ages? Seems like he could be a mid-rotation starter if he did.

Eric A Longenhagen: I think he has that kind of ceiling but it’s more about him finding feel for strikes and consistency rather than velocity.

Key Jangler: Can Tai Peete be a Drew Stubbs-type?

Eric A Longenhagen: That’s not crazy. It’ll probably take a while but, yeah. Power, defense.

Brendan Gawlowski: Finishing a call with Eric and James, so I’m going to get started a tick late today. My apologies.

Brendan Gawlowski: My Angels list went live last week, as did Eric’s Phillies list.

Brendan Gawlowski: There may also be some polls in this chat

Brendan Gawlowski: First up: We’ve got prospect week coming up soon, and I will (probably) be doing some sort of feature in addition to the Top 100, helping on the college baseball update, picks to click, etc. What would be of most interest to you?

Brendan Gawlowski:

Brendan Gawlowski: Okay, sorry for the delays, let’s roll

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks! Greetings from Brooklyn, where it’s almost freezing — which seems genuinely balmy after temperatures in the teens all last week. We’re apparently in the midst of the longest stretch of sub-freezing days in NYC in the past 65 years. Hoping my new space heater arrives today, but wish it had been around last week (I have a lower-powered but less energy-efficient one).

Jay Jaffe: After taking a few days off last week to recuperate from te Hall of Fame election cycle crunch, yesterday I wrote about the Giants signing Luis Arraez to a one-year deal https://blogs.fangraphs.com/on-second-thought-giants-sign-free-agent-l…

Jay Jaffe: Today I have the first of a two-piece series covering the still-available free agents. This one rounds up the position players and will probably go up while I’m mid-chat; apologies if I have to duck out here and there to answer an editorial query.

Jay Jaffe: Two things to note before we get started, both of which went by on Bluesky. First, today is the day that the BBWAA has published the ballots of all Hall of Fame voters who granted permission; apparently it includes about 100 which aren’t in Ryan Thibodaux’s Tracker. He and his team will be adding those. https://bbwaa.com/26-hof-ballots/

Jay Jaffe: Second, distinguished FG alum Eno Sarris has updated Stuff+ and the new data will be making its way to our site soon (https://bsky.app/profile/enosarris.bsky.social/post/3mdxtcmtwi2)

Jay Jaffe: and now, on with the show

Eric A Longenhagen: Hey everyone, good to be with you again on a crisp Friday morning in the desert.

Eric A Longenhagen: Please go check out the Phils scouting reports: Philadelphia Phillies Top 34 Prospects | FanGraphs Baseball

Eric A Longenhagen: and the Angels Los Angeles Angels Top 36 Prospects | FanGraphs Baseball

Eric A Longenhagen: And for the newbs, see that there’s all sorts of other cool stuff on The Board The Board | FanGraphs Baseball

Matt: Since the Angels list just went up from Brendan, curious if you have any “system overview thoughts” about the Angels system?

Eric A Longenhagen: I think it’s a little more fun than it is good. I really like the toolsy international guys, I like Alvarez, Quintero, Flores (all potential top 100 guys twelve months from now), they find hard throwers that don’t always develop in other ways but sometimes they do (Jose Soriano turned out to be good)…