Dan Szymborski: And thus the chat began. Suspiciously, it began on time as well.

Philly Fan: How much of a hit did Phillies’ WS prospects take with Wheeler’s injury?

Dan Szymborski: I didn’t do an article on the topic, but I did run the numbers and at the time, they dropped from 11.7 to 9.8 in ZiPS purely for the Wheeler injury

Ben: If/when expansion happens, which cities are you hoping get  team?  Which ones would you bet on getting a team?

Dan Szymborski: I hope Nashville gets one. That’s purely for selfish reasons – gives me yet another park five hours or less away!

Dan Szymborski: And I like excuses to visit Nashville. The state of hot chicken in SW Ohio, at least in the Dayton area, is truly sad.

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks! Welcome to another edition of my weekly chat.

Jay Jaffe: It’s my daughter’s birthday today so I’ve been running around like crazy, but the second installment of my annual Hall of Fame progress report is up: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/cooperstown-notebook-the-2025-progress-rep…

Jay Jaffe: Part I, covering pitchers and catchers, ran last week https://blogs.fangraphs.com/cooperstown-notebook-the-2025-progress-rep…

Jay Jaffe: Before I get going, thanks to a couple participants in last week’s chat for ideas that directly led to articles. Reader Your Name pointed out that at the time, the Pirates didn’t have a single player with a wRC+ of 100 or better, regardless of playing time. That would be a first if they pulled it off, as I discovered: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/aargh-the-pirates-are-in-danger-of-making-… Since then, however, Tommy Pham and Spencer Horwitz have nosed over the line. We’ll see if they can maintain that

Jay Jaffe: Also, reader Nasty Nate asked for a look at Nathan Eovaldi, who’s having a sneaky great season: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/nathan-eovaldis-sneaky-great-season/

Jay Jaffe: For tomorrow, I’m looking at the AL MVP race, which is far from the Aaron Judge cakewalk that it looked like during the first half of the season — particularly if you take note of Cal Raleigh’s pitch framing as well as his prolific home run pace

Eric A Longenhagen: Hello from sweaty, stormy Tempe where we’ve had a weird mix of 110+ degree heat and moisture the last few days. There were several heat-related incidents with players at Bridge Camp yesterday. Looks like it’s going to break next week and our weather patterns will change.

Eric A Longenhagen: Let’s get to your questions, might be a shorter chat this week as the only game in town is west valley today, which means a longer commute for you friendly neighborhood prospect writer.

Mike: Minnesota going to keep Abel and Bradley in the minors to lose every game?

Eric A Longenhagen: Their deadline was the only one that felt like a true, complete bottoming out, so maybe? I can see them wanting to give Zebby all the runway, but Urena and Hatch idk. Did Hatch tweak something in Japan they want to see vs MLB hitters for an extended spell? Trying to take the most generous read of the situation but yeah they might just be tanking. Which, ok.

Alex: Do the Braves have a chance to have more than one(Didier Fuentes) Top 100-ish prospects for 2026?

Eric A Longenhagen: Ritchie’s had a good year and held his stuff even though his innings load has doubled. Will they be as aggressive with him as the other young arms, or will they be gun shy because AJSS and Fuentes were clearly undercooked?

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks! It’s been a minute since our last chat, to say the least. Summer goings-on, especially a family vacation that ran Tuesday to Tuesday, did a number on my schedule here. Anyway, I’m back in Brooklyn and back on my b.s., so here we are.

Jay Jaffe: Yesterday, I wrote about the season-threatening shoulder issues faced by Zack Wheeler and Josh Hader https://blogs.fangraphs.com/injuries-put-the-seasons-of-zack-wheeler-a… since that went up, Wheeler had his blood clot removed by thrombolysis, but that doesn’t address the cause of the clot, and we’re waiting to hear from the Phillies as to whether he’ll pitch again in 2025.

Jay Jaffe: On Thursday and Friday of last week, I wrote about the Dodgers’ face-plant (https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-dodgers-have-face-planted/) and the Padres’ surge (https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-revamped-padres-have-surged-into-first…), then of course the Dodgers swept the Padres to retake the NL West lead.

Jay Jaffe: Tomorrow I should have the first installment of this year’s Cooperstown progress report; my plan is to follow up with a second one next week.

Jay Jaffe: Anyway, on with the show…

Pitchers for the Hall: Great article on Logan Webb today from Mike Baumann. I know it’s early in his career, but do you think that today’s version of the ultimate inning eating sinker baller is on the start of the path to the Hall?

Dan Szymborski: It is noon!

STiVo: There are some prospects demolishing the minors (e.g., Wetherholt, Jones, Griffin).  How high do you think ZiPS will be on those kinds of guys going into 2026?

Dan Szymborski: CHEATING!

Dan Szymborski: trying to get some early projections! tsk tsk

Dan Szymborski: sorry

Dan Szymborski: Wetherhold ought to have a big number