Kiley McDaniel: Hello from ATL. Scout call ran late but your next few lists are mostly done now. To your questions

Kiley McDaniel: Oh and in case you’re new here, I’m not gonna comment on other top 100 lists. The comment will be our own list, which is coming later

Bogs: Toss up: Nathaniel Lowe or Peter Alfonso?

Kiley McDaniel: Peter Alonso

Rays for Days: Hi Kiley! Is Wander Franco more so Manny Machado? or More so Carlos Correa?

Kiley McDaniel: He’s neither b/c people will be comparing prospects to him for awhile. Maybe Jose Ramirez is the closest thing in the big league like him?

Meg Rowley: Dear readers, a moment. I have to sort out a small editorial matter and then will be right with you.

Meg Rowley: Appreciate your patience.

Meg Rowley: Hello, and welcome to the chat.

Lunar verLander: Do you think there will be another free agent spring training camp like there was last year?

Meg Rowley: I wouldn’t be surprised, although I don’t have a great beat on how effective players thought that was last year, and of course it all depends on the timing of signings.

Meg Rowley: Players are understandably agitated about this winter not course correcting last year. They are increasingly vocal about their objections.

Dan Szymborski: Welcome to HolidayChat

Dan Szymborski: We have a light schedule on the site today, but since I messed up my chat last week, I didn’t want to miss two!

Soxtober2048: What would a reasonable return be for Joc Pederson from the White Sox?

Dan Szymborski: Let’s see a useful but limited player with two (I think) arb years

Dan Szymborski: Maybe one interesting guy somewhere at the back of hte top 150?

Dan Szymborski: Maybe someone like Basabe?

Jeff Sullivan: Hello friends

Jeff Sullivan: Welcome to Friday baseball chat

Mookie Butts: Why are the Yankees trying to win so much?  It feels like a personal attack.

Jeff Sullivan: It should feel like a personal attack

Jeff Sullivan: Do you remember what happened in 2018

Jeff Sullivan: I don’t think the Yankees liked that very much

Jay Jaffe: Hey gang, it’s my staycation week but a short window opened up in my schedule and I decided to take some questions. So let’s talk some baseball!

Mat: Jayson Stark recently posted his HOF ballot. With his voting for a Closer, DH, Coors players, and PED suspected players, do you believe all HOF barriers have now been broken?

Jay Jaffe: People have been voting for various categories within your list for a long time. We’ve had relievers in the Hall since Hoyt Wilhelm was elected in 1985, with five getting in from 2004 (Eckersley) onward. DH’s — depends on your definition but Paul Molitor (elected 2003) had a plurality of his games there, and now . PEDs, let’s not be naive, there are already users enshrined. And people — not a lot of them, but some — have been voting for Larry Walker since he hit the ballot in 2011.

Now, whether we get our first Coors player in is another matter…

B: Is Joey Votto a hall of famer if he retires today?

Jay Jaffe: From a JAWS standpoint, he’s close enough that I would vote for him — above on peak ( 58.8/46.1/52.4 for him,    66.8/42.7/54.7 for the standards) but with only 1,729 hits, he’d still have the Rule of 2,000 resistance to overcome, and right now that’s pretty daunting.

Alec: Today is his birthday. Do you think Don Zimmer should be in the Hall Of fame as a ambassador of the game?

Kiley McDaniel: Hello from ATL, just returned from Seattle and some delightful time with Eric and Meg including (huge shocker) great food and also Driveline Pro Day, which we’ll be writing up soon

Kiley McDaniel: Scout is wandering around the house trying to decide on which toy to play with while I’m at the computer

Andre: Does Kyle Wright or Ian Anderson have the stuff of a number one in the making?

Kiley McDaniel: We don’t see every #1 starter coming in advance, like Cliff Lee and maybe Jacob deGrom, but we see most of them coming (i.e. they were deemed to have ace upside before they did ace things). So, very unlikely for Wright/Anderson. Both have a chance to be a #2 but I would say #3 is what you’re realistically hoping for, which is a perennial 3 WAR player

Kiley McDaniel: If we say every pro pitcher has some non-zero chance of being an ace or every position player has some chance of putting up a 5 WAR season (call it 0.1%), Wright/Anderson are maybe 1-5%, so don’t plan on it, but they’re still elite in that they’re over 1% and that’s a very small population of pitchers.

Kiley McDaniel: And I’m eye-balling those numbers, but I think that rings true

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

Meg Rowley: Apologies for the slight delay in getting started– I had to check in with some writing sorts.

Damian: Where do you think the big market teams will be once rising sea levels makes our major coastal cities uninhabitable?

Meg Rowley: What a happy, happy chat.

Meg Rowley: The answer here seems like Chicago, Denver, Seattle and St. Louis, (some of those obviously being quite large already) and also that we should take climate reports more seriously.

Jack : Would you prefer Harper or Machado for the same money/years?

Jeff Sullivan: Hello friends

Jeff Sullivan: Welcome to Friday baseball chat

Syndergaardians of the Galaxy : I keep hearing that the NL central is the best division in baseball. I didn’t believe it, but I added up the projected WAR OF every division, and I’ll be danged but sure nuff, it really was the best. But what really blew my mind was the tiny separation in projected WAR between the #1 team and the #5 team in that division–11.5 WAR, barely half of the next best division. Has there ever before been a divisional projection that tight in the FG era?

Jeff Sullivan: Let me say this: it’s too early to perform this kind of analysis, because the offseason still has a long way to go, and our projections right now are just Steamer instead of Steamer and ZiPS

Jeff Sullivan: And I think what people probably mean is that the NL Central might have five at least decently competitive teams. In the NL East, there should be four competitive teams and the Marlins

Jeff Sullivan: I don’t know what more the Reds are going to do. I don’t know if the Pirates are going to do anything. But it’ll be fun. The whole NL should be fun — a lot crazier than this year’s upcoming AL

Jay Jaffe: Howdy folks and welcome to another edition of my weekly chat – and as before, this one figures to be Hall of Fame flavored. Towards that end, I’ve got a piece on big year-to-year jumps in the voting centered around Larry Walker, which should be up by the time this chat is over.

Ray Liotta as Shoeless Joe: Hey there Jay. Did you ever get into Strat-o-Matic or MLB Showdown?

Jay Jaffe: No. I played Strat a couple times but growing up, neither my brother of my other friends were into such things at the time. What I did play a bit of was  Avalon Hill’s Baseball Strategy, and a ton of Strategic Simulations Inc.’s Computer Baseball, which I wrote about for Michael Clair’s blog-a-thon a few years ago http://oldtimefamilybaseball.com/post/73880788748/the-basement-tapes-b…

Jay Jaffe: Sorry, I had to spend a couple minutes in Google tracking that down, and now my lunch — banh mi from Hanco’s — is here. So if things are as slow-starting as Larry Walker’s Hall of Fame candidacy, that’s why.

Brodie: So Grandal only got one year… looks like a misread the market pretty badly to offer four years…

Jay Jaffe: I’d say it was a misread of Grandal’s to turn down four years — if that was actually offered, and with Heyman, Nightengale and Rosenthal all reporting that he did have one, in the 4/$50-60M range (see https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/yasmani-grandal), then I’ll take that as solid. But he gets to play for a contender, in a hitter-friendly park, so if he stays healthy, he’ll get another shot next year without being attached to a qualifying offer.

Kiley McDaniel: Hello everyone! After a quick technical issues, we’re off and running

Kiley McDaniel: The weather is now solid in ATL and I might go outside and rake some leaves later. Red Sox list is finalized and Eric and I are writing up the capsules today

Harris: Very surprising to only see Matt Vierling in the honorable mentions on the Phillies list. Could he make his way on by mid season?

Kiley McDaniel: Most 5th rounders don’t make the list the summer after they sign. There’s some tools there, so if he performs again, he’ll be on there

Larry: What do you expect from Amed Rosario this year? O/U 2 WAR?

Kiley McDaniel: Over, still big tools and made some 2nd half progress