Meg Rowley: Hello all, and welcome to the chat!

Meg Rowley: Allow me to press “publish” on a post. A moment.

Meg Rowley: Ok, the moment has passed!

Meg Rowley: The button was pressed!

Meg Rowley: Let us chat.

Bread Gardner: Nobody seems to understand that the Yankees held off on signing Machado so they could sign Nolan Arenadohhhhhwaitasecondoops.  (But seriously, did anyone actually buy that?  And good for Nolan!)

Dan Szymborski: internet come back, any kind of fool could see

Dan Szymborski: there was something in connecting to you

Dan Szymborski: baby come back, I’m sorry I-S-P

Dan Szymborski: I need downloads, I can’t just live without you

Dan Szymborski: (Doing this chat tethered to a laptop tethered to phone in a neighborhood in which EVERYBODY APPEARS TO BE DOING THIS)

Dan Szymborski: Big wind storms in OH yesterday! Lost power for 6 hours. All I had cellphone and sadness.

Eric A Longenhagen: Hey everyone, looks like they’re gonna try to play this A’s/Mariners game so this may be a shorter chat, but after last week’s marathon I’m sure you’re all cool with that.

Trent: What would it take for the Cubs to get into the top half of MLB farm systems this year? A miracle?

Eric A Longenhagen: It probably means Roederer and Davis take huge steps forward, maybe one of the young pitching prospects, too. That’s a good start toward a climb.

Tommy N.: Where would Tatis and Machado rank in the best SS/3B combos in baseball?

Eric A Longenhagen: Probably top 5 once Tatis is fully formed, right? Turner/Rendon, Ramirez/Lindor, Correa/Bregman, Arenado/Story…kinda run out of obvious ones in tthat area after that.

Twitter Handle: If you had to choose one of the Padres pitching prospects likely to turn into a 1/2; who would it be? Gore, Morejon, Paddack, Patino, other

Jay Jaffe: Hey folks, welcome to today’s chat. It’s going to be a short one, because I’m finishing up a piece on the disappearing knuckleball and have to depart for my first installment of physical therapy; last week, I was diagnosed with rotator cuff impingement syndrome, a relief since I thought I had re-torn my labrum, which I first tore in 2003. Hang tight and I’ll get to the questions shortly…

Jay Jaffe: OK, I’m back

Kurupt FM: Assuming equivalent salaries, who would you rather have for 10 years, Machado or Harper?

Jay Jaffe: If marketability is a primary concern, Harper is probably the choice, but the fact that Machado plays a more important defensive position, and is still a very skilled defender, probably points the needle in his direction for me.

Tucker: Is there such a thing as a rate of diminishing returns in MLB. Meaning does Machado impact San Diego projected wins or playoff odds at a greater rate than he’d impact the Yankees?

Jay Jaffe: There are basically two key factors in play: how good is the player Machado is replacing, and how many wins was the team projected for previously. Ofhand I’m not entirely sure where the point of inflection is in the two wild card era, but I think it’s around 85 wins where the addition of each additional win increases a team’s playoff odds much more substantially than it would otherwise, and once you get above 95 wins, each additional one doesn’t change things that much. See https://tht.fangraphs.com/rethinking-the-win-curve/ for a fairly recent look.

Kiley McDaniel: Hello from ATL, just wrapped up a call and now I’m here to chat with you while Scout is busy in the other room eating what the food robot provides

Jay: Does the Machado signing move up a potential Tatis callup from June to say, late April?

Kiley McDaniel: Will be interesting to see how SD handles this situation. Do you speed up Tatis’ 2019 look so he’s ready for the 2020 push? Same with the pitching? If they aren’t ready, do you trade some depth for now help? Or is Machado just a solid piece and he’ll be there when the kids show up? Do they have a bunch more money to spend or was this all of it?

Lots of questions and I do not have those answers right now. I would assume this means more aggressive in the right spots and so Tatis may move up quicker, which shifts Kinsler to utility.

tommyboy: 2019 draft question. How concerned are you about Logan Davidson’s lack of wood bat performance and how much higher would he have ranked if he at least performed a little on the Cape?

Kiley McDaniel: Think he may just always be a 4 bat, 5 power shortstop, which is fine.

JH: You and Eric have mentioned about adjusting the top 100 list after getting feedback from teams.

Any players where you got that sort of feedback but decided “nah, we’re good?”

Meg Rowley: Hello, and welcome to the chat.

Meg Rowley: HAPPY MACHADO DAY

Mark: Mannnnyyyyy!!!!!!!

MadKyleDisease: MEG ITS HAPPENING

CamdenWarehouse: Congrats to Dave Cameron!

Chris: I heard some guy signed. Your thoughts?

Dan Szymborski: Powered by bourbon and a few packs of Smarties, it’s the Dan Szymborski Chat!

Rick C: Can you elaborate further on the projections for Soto vs Acuna?  Of course Soto being above Harper even was a surprise, but he’s more than a full win ahead of Acuna.

Dan Szymborski: Acuña projects as more valuable as a centerfielder, he can’t leverage all his talents in a corner!

CamdenWarehouse: Reminder – Moose is a Hall of Fame pitcher. Mousse just signed a contract with the Brewers

Dan Szymborski: If Babe Ruth can share with like a dozen guys, Moose can share.

Dan Szymborski: It’s not even Mussina’s to hoard: Moose Haas, Moose Skowron, and Randy Milligan shared it with him with nary a protest!

Jeff Sullivan: Hello friends

Jeff Sullivan: Welcome to Friday baseball chat

LudeBurger: Prospects, Jeff. Prospects.

Jeff Sullivan: Not your guy, LudeBurger

The Electrician: Do you think there will be a rush of free agent signings once teams move their guys to the 60 day DL and open up 40 man roster spots?

Jeff Sullivan: Already seeing it. Oakland used a 60-day stint to make room for Robbie Grossman. Also used one to make room for Brett Anderson. Arizona used one to make room for Caleb Joseph. Miami used one to make room for Sergio Romo. Kansas City used one to make room for Jake Diekman, etc

Jay Jaffe: Hi folk, and welcome to another edition of my Thursday chat. First off, today is a year and a day since my FanGraphs debut, so a big thanks to all of you for following along as well as to my boss, David Appelman, for having the good sense to hire me, to editors past and present (Carson Cistulli and Meg Rowley, respectively, with Dylan Higgins pinch-hitting in there as well), and to all of my great coworkers.

Second, happy pitchers and catchers to those of you celebrating — yes, there are a lot of distractions currently, particularly with the free agent stalemates, but with the opening of camps, we can at least be reassured that winter is on its way out the door. On with the show…

John: Hi Jay! What role do you think statistics should have in team halls-of-fame? Have you heard of any analysis on what kinds of players are or are not in a team’s hall of fame?

Jay Jaffe: I don’t think it’s really necessary to get too number-crunchy with team Halls of Fame. If a team feels as though it wants to honor somebody, particularly a player (or non-player) who made a huge impact in a short time, even in non-statistical ways, I think that they should.

Case in point: Frank Robinson, whose passing reminded me that the Indians retired his number and erected a statue in honor of his barrier-breaking stint as MLB’s first black manager. Robinson’s teams posted a .496 winning percentage in his two-plus seasons at the helm, and obviously he wasn’t the same offensive presence as he was at the outset of his career, but he nonetheless left a big mark there.

Alex: Should we be worried about free agent pitchers that sign late in spring training and how they’ll fare early on in regular season?

Jay Jaffe: Anecdotally, it does seem like last year’s batch of players who signed late tended to struggle. Pitchers such as Alex Cobb, Lance Lynn, Yu Darvish, and Jason Vargas, and htters such as Eric Hosmer and Logan Morrison. That said, J.D. Martinez signed late (Feb 19) and put up an MVP-caliber season.

In June, Craig Edwards took a look and didn’t find much of an effect (https://blogs.fangraphs.com/did-spring-training-matter-for-free-agents…) , but to my knowledge I don’t think he circled back once the season was over. It’s a topic worth closer study.

Mat: Over/under of 170 IP for Kershaw?

Eric A Longenhagen: Hi there, everyone. By now you probably know where the top 130 list is, so let’s get right to this. Kiley will be along shortly.

Jared: Who are some potential high leverage RP’s in the upper minors, with big stuff? Eric (not sure who’s doing the chat) gave me a good list last year at this time that included Jose Alvarado.

Eric A Longenhagen: That list you’re referring to was last year’s Picks to Click article, and this year’s version of it drops tomorrow.

Jackson: Swaggerty: is it his defense that puts him so high? Highest ranking I’ve seen from a publication.

Eric A Longenhagen: CF with speed and power, his tools belong there. You could argue the swing issues should force him down toward the other power/speed CFs with contact issues, but whose bat are you betting on improving, the new guy or someone like Monte Harrison who hasn’t made much progress over several years?

Jim Bob Cooter: Why you guys so down on Franklin Perez? Is a lat injury now considered serious or something?