Eric A Longenhagen: Hey there, folks. Good morning from the kitchen island in Tempe, I’m stoked to see some guys throw bullpens and take BP today. First day of school feeling and all that.

Eric A Longenhagen: I’ve got a hard out at 11 (I have a radio hit to do and then wanna hustle to Diablo for the Dream Series workouts) so let’s get rolling.

Jim: Where does Colome rank among A’s prospects?

Eric A Longenhagen: Probably 4th or 5th

Eric A Longenhagen: I’ll take Jump and Morales over him for sure, maybe Barnett belongs with those guys. Arnold v Colome or maybe something like Montero v Colome are good questions tbd

go cards: what do you make of joshua baez’s contact improvements in 2025? outside chance at him being stuffed for 2026?

Dan Szymborski: Chat time!

Dan Szymborski: Well, a few minutes late as it woudln’t take my password on this PC for some reason

Donald: What would ZiPS offer for Greenland

Dan Szymborski: As the creator is a Georgist, I’d feel conflicted about projecting anything for land acquisition!

Fella: Been reports that the Mets could pivot to the trade market for offense if they come up short on Tucker. Who would be some candidates? Nootbaar?

Dan Szymborski: He’d certainly be a possibility

Brendan Gawlowski: Hello everybody! Thanks for chatting with me. Just as a little background: This is my first chat here. I spent the past couple of years as a scout for the Pirates. I mostly covered West Coast systems and a lot of my knowledge is from that part of the country. I’ll do my best with everything else!

Jack Martinez newly a Cardinal: I’m famous for this morning! And now a Cardinal! Please tell me all about me as a pitcher and a prospect!

Brendan Gawlowski: Michael Bowman will have a full writeup shortly, but Cliff notes: low-mid 90s FB w/cut, pairs with CH. We’ll see if he has a good breaking ball. Tends to open up early, which gives me concerns about his deception. Flier type.

Klubot3000: Where would Cole Young have slotted in the Ms list for you? I’m pretty encouraged by holding his own with the bat, but man did the arm stroke look awkward at 2B and the range left something to be desired.

Brendan Gawlowski: Toward the bottom of the 50’s. He’s young, I’d be patient. Tools aren’t huge though, he’s not going to be a star.

Red sox nation: Who’s doing what between you and Eric?

Eric A Longenhagen: Howdy ho from a brisk and refreshing Tempe, Arizona, where I’ll be able to see baseball in person a week from today.

Eric A Longenhagen: Thanks for joining me for the first chat of the calendar year. If you’re new, we talk about prospects in this space for about an hour on Fridays.

Scotty: Happy Friday, Eric. How often in your analysis do you use comps to shape your thoughts about players? I was thinking about who is a starter comp for Jaxon Wiggins and I was coming up with a blank.

Eric A Longenhagen: If I go looking for a comp it’s usually via the shape of a player’s data. Like, “Alfonsin Rosario’s contact rate is X% and his measured power is Y, what big leaguers have a similar contact rate and measured power, etc. and what did they perform like in the bigs…

Eric A Longenhagen: It’s more about understanding viable MLB baselines than going looking for a comp player to player

Eric A Longenhagen: And then sometimes you’re just watching a guy and think, “This guy looks like Jon Garland” or whatever

Dan Szymborski: Greeting friends, enemies, and the possibly neutral who accidentally found their way here with a misclick somehow

JC: What are your personal expectations for Alonso in Baltimore?

Dan Szymborski: I think he’ll be quite awesome for the first few years. I expect the end won’t be great, but it ought to be a better situation than Chris Davis, and I imagine the front office is realistic about what the abck end could like like

Lowetide: Hi Dan, I giggled about the ‘refrigerate’ pills tweet yesterday. I’ve done many similar things. Among Misiorowski, Mclean, Yesavage, Bubba and the rest of the young arms emerging now, is there one or two who shine beyond the rest for Zips?

Dan Szymborski: I mean, the drug seems to be working, but I should probably read things!

Bubba: I don’t mean to be insensitive, as this is a genuine question, but what makes ZIPS projections worthy of an article per team in a way that Steamer or The Bat is not?

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks, and welcome to my first chat of 2026! I’ll get this going momentarily (having a chat with a reporter about Hall of Fame stuff)

Jay Jaffe: OK, I’m back! Happy New Year to you all.

Jay Jaffe: Hope you had good holiday breaks. If you missed it, I published my Hall of Fame ballot explainer https://blogs.fangraphs.com/jay-jaffes-2026-hall-of-fame-ballot

Jay Jaffe: and yesterday began the One-and-Done portion of the ballot with a profile of Hunter Pence https://blogs.fangraphs.com/jaws-and-the-2026-hall-of-fame-ballot-hunt…

Jay Jaffe: I did include a couple of one-and-dones in the pre-holiday coverage, namely Alex Gordon and Edwin Encarnación, but I gave their careers longer treatments. Likewise for the next profile, Shin-Soo Choo.

Jay Jaffe: anyway, on with the questions!

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks, and welcome to my final chat of 2025! Very shortly my profile of Edwin Encarnación will go live on the site, my last of this calendar year but not of this cycle; I’ve got a bunch of one-and-done guys to cover in January. My Hall of Fame ballot explainer will go live a week from today, and will be in the mail the same day.

Jay Jaffe: In case you’re scoring at home, that’s four new profiles thus far (Cole Hamels, Ryan Braun, Alex Gordon, and Encarnación), eight holdover profiles, and three multi-candidate roundups. You can see the schedule here — with a link to our Crowdsource Ballot, if you haven’t already partaken (https://blogs.fangraphs.com/a-2026-hall-of-fame-ballot-of-your-own-and…) — or follow the links atop each post to get to the ones you missed.

Jay Jaffe: and now, on with the show.

John T.: In your Fernando Valenzuela Era Committee piece you mentioned electing more pioneers to the HOF. In that spirit, would you support electing more people with outsize influences on the game, even in unconventional ways—I’ve long thought that Dr. Frank Jobe should be in the HOF for the role he’s played in baseball history. What do you think?

Jay Jaffe: I think once we establish this as a viable route into the Hall, Jobe would definitely be one worth considering. I do find it remarkable that only two pitchers with TJs have been elected (John Smoltz and Billy Wagner), but that speaks more to the general dearth of pitchers elected over the past few decades than anything else.

Guest: If you had to pick a fifth starter for the Padres (and I’m praying for a trade or free agent signing to fill the fourth starter spot) would it JP Sears or Randy Vasquez and why?  Red is absent on both of their Statcast pages…