Eric A Longenhagen: Good morning from Tempe where the temps are starting to crank to 20+ degrees above what is typical for March. I’m sure it’s fine, my dad says this is just cyclical.

DR: Are the Yankees doing something specifically bad with their high dollar international talent?  I know the fail rate is pretty high when considering a 14-17 year old population. But it seems (perhaps because NYY prospects get more publicity generally) that they have had significantly worse outcomes among their high dollar guys.

Eric A Longenhagen: Agreeing to deals earlier and earlier opens you up to more risk of failure. It’s already a volatile market due to the youth of the players on signing day, the error bar is bigger when you’re reaching verbal agreements with 12- and 13-year-olds, to say nothing of the ethics of it.

Seth: If you’re Steve Cohen, should you leverage your immense wealth to find advantages beyond the field, like building an electrical substation near Dodger Stadium?

Eric A Longenhagen: Have a robust scouting staff even as teams like the Cubs and Braves hemorrhage scouts. Start cultivating and/or understanding talent in places that are either largely unscouted (like Africa) or places with a finite amount of space, like Asia. Obviously, the Dodgers have already manufactured a revenue and talent stream from Asia and have a head start in Africa. Better get going.

DR: Does Vance “Spring Training Babe Ruth” Honeycutt’s absurd ST output allay any fears that came up during his bad 2025?  I know Aberdeen is a terrible place to hit, but he was bad everywhere. I don’t think anyone who saw him in Aberdeen would’ve predicted this many HRs in 2026 as a whole, let alone ST

Dan Szymborski: A rarity! Dan is on time and not distracted by arguing something with someone elsewhere

robertobeers: A man a Dan a chat cat update tadputactahcanadanama

Poncetification: When pondering Ponce, how does ZiPS weigh the surge in Korea vs more mediocrity in Japan vs MLB and MiLB way back when?

Dan Szymborski: Most strongly (since it’s most recent), but it’s also treated like a league between AA and AAA

Dan Szymborski: That doesn’t mean the best players aren’t as good as MLBers, but the depth of talent isn’t the same, and a pitcher/hitter will face mostly non-MLB talents’

Dan Szymborski: ZiPS sees NPB as between AAA and MLB

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks!

Jay Jaffe: Got a late start in creating this chat so I’m going to give it a few minutes to fill the queue. In the meantime, here’s my freshly-published piece on Jesús Luzardo’s extension  https://blogs.fangraphs.com/philly-ing-up-luzardo-inks-a-five-year-ext…

Jay Jaffe: and if you missed it, here’s Friday’s look at the Mets’ new-look outfield picture https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-mets-search-for-the-right-choices-in-t…

Jay Jaffe: Re: Luzardo, he was one of seven extension candidates highlighted by Dan Szymborski just yesterday https://blogs.fangraphs.com/lets-sign-some-contracts-2026-edition/

Jay Jaffe: I wish we had a World Baseball Classic game on right now as backdrop — there were so many games yesterday I couldn’t focus on and yet nothing tonight until 7. Blergh

Mike: Does the success of he WBC make the olympics more or less likely for mlb players?

Eric A Longenhagen: What’s up everyone? Good morning from the FanGraphs Desert Vista Compound where I’ve got double-barrel action on the TVs already: Cuba/Panama and a mix of the very early college games…

Eric A Longenhagen: The Mets list ran today, so folks should check that out. Braves and Yankees are next.

Eric A Longenhagen: Let’s hang out for a while today and watch some sports.

Alex: Can you see the Braves farm system ranking mid range by next year? Large draft bonus pool for the 2026 draft and Alfredo Sena signing next January?

Eric A Longenhagen: Probably still toward the bottom, growing prospects into 55 FV guys or better is what really moves the needle on our rankings.

Scotty: Afternoon Eric. Anyone you’re impressed with that you’ve seen recently on the backfields?

Brendan Gawlowski: Hello everybody

Brendan Gawlowski: Tigers list went up last week, if you haven’t seen it yet. In theory we should be posting a Mets and a Braves list this week although. I’m most of the way through delving into Atlanta’s system and it hasn’t been pretty.

Brendan Gawlowski: Also, my wife likes to submit a question to these with a random username and she gets very excited if I pick it. Just thought that was amusing to share.

Brendan Gawlowski: Anyway, let’s go.

Big Fan: It’s spring and all, but this is my first look at John Gil and I didn’t realize he’s Pete Alonso but playing SS.  Did he grow/change over the winter, or is it just a handful of homers early in spring training?

Brendan Gawlowski: Yes he looks enormous now. I don’t know if it’s a good change but here’s an example of how “that guy used to be a shortstop?!” happens in real time

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks! Welcome to my first chat of March, a month that will feature actual regular season baseball and before that, the World Baseball Classic, which starts at 10 ET tomorrow night (which will be Thursday in Japan)!

Jay Jaffe: Apologies in advance because the first 15 minutes of this chat are probably going to be a bumpy ride as I’ve got a grocery delivery about to arrive and it includes frozen stuff so I can’t just let it sit.

Jay Jaffe: Yesterday I wrote about the Yankees outfield picture in the wake of the addition of Randal Grichuk https://blogs.fangraphs.com/yankees-add-randal-grichuk-to-fill-a-niche…

Jay Jaffe: Last week, inspired by a couple exchanges in chats from earlier this year, I looked into Jarren Duran’s 2025 season and the state of the Red Sox outfield picture (https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/fitting-jarren-duran-into-the-red-sox-…), and then hitter month-to-month consistency through the lens of wRC+, a Duran-related tangent (https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/jarren-duran-jorge-polanco-aaron-judge…)

Jay Jaffe: I’m planning a follow-up on the last of those using Statcast data.

Jay Jaffe: Ok, let’s get started with the questions, mindful of the fact that I may soon have to step away