Dan Szymborski: The ancient prophecy that was foretold, about a chat coming at noon has now come to pass.

Chet: Can you explain the frank Thomas comp for Tyler white in your recent ZiPS projections?

Dan Szymborski: There are two Frank Thomases of note in history.

Dan Szymborski: One is FRANK THOMAS

Dan Szymborski: the other is Frank Thomas.

Dan Szymborski: rather than use all caps, for the purpose of ZiPS comps, Frank Thomas is Not That Frank Thomas

Jeff Sullivan: Hello friends

Jeff Sullivan: Welcome to Friday baseball chat

Jeff Sullivan: I’m sorry about that extra long delay — had a podcast go slightly over

Bork: Hello, friend!

Jeff Sullivan: Hello friend

Bork: In which way will Melnyk drop the ball with Duchene & Stone?

Eric A Longenhagen: Hey there, it is I. Today’s chat will be quick and I will need to update The Board if/when the Realmuto trade is official

Starbucks Nightmare: Is Morgan Cooper alive

Eric A Longenhagen: Yes but the Dodgers typically take things very slowly with the injured college pitching they’re constantly drafting.

John Stamos: Any words on Maximo Castillo in the upcoming Blue Jays list?

Eric A Longenhagen: a bunch of 50s, he’s in the Others section

Cave Dameron: How fast can you throw a baseball right now?

Kiley McDaniel: Hello from ATL now that it’s warm and all the tourists are gone, things are looking up

Steve Sanders: When will the Blue Jays team prospect list come out?

Kiley McDaniel: This week for sure, rankings are locked now but we’re working on those reports and prospects week stuff side by side

Cave Dameron: If you had to convert any position-player prospect into a pitcher, who would it be and why?

Kiley McDaniel: You can see the top arms in the minors here: https://www.fangraphs.com/prospects/the-board/2018-in-season-prospect-…

Kiley McDaniel: I’d probably pick Robles or Pache b/c you want pure arm strength but also athleticism and body control

Meg Rowley: Hello, friends.

Meg Rowley: Welcome to the chat!

Meg Rowley: Very little is happening in baseball. In Seattle, it is quite cold (for Seattle).

Bo: How much longer do you think the Harper and Machado sweepstakes last? Who signs first?

Meg Rowley: I still think Machado goes first.

Meg Rowley: In terms of when, I wonder if we’ll see them before the end of the month at this point.

Dan Szymborski: ITS CHAT TIME

Dan Szymborski: BUT NOT ALL CAPITAL LETTERS TIME EXCEPT FOR ME

Dan Szymborski: <full-on corrupt>

LFC Mike: It is rumored that during the lightning roundtoday  Dan is going to go all Adam Levine on us.

Dan Szymborski: When you come to my chats, you get my industry leading NoNipple© Guarantee.

CamdenWarehouse: Does ZiPS give you a list of comp players and then you choose the one that is funniest, most painful for that fan base, etc. or are they all the closest comp?

Jeff Sullivan: Hello friends

Jeff Sullivan: Welcome to Friday baseball chat

San Diegan: Are the Padres signing Harper or Machado OR BOTH???

Jeff Sullivan: Not both!

Jeff Sullivan: Probably not one of them, either!

Jeff Sullivan: But their interest is legitimate. I assume they’re going to end up priced out, but Machado is such an obvious fit that they might as well remain involved

Eric A Longenhagen: Hello, it is I. I’m sure most of you know where the content is, so let’s get right to it.

randplaty: Is there a case for Tatis Jr over Vlad Jr? Or is that a non-starter?

Eric A Longenhagen: Sure, if you think Vlad moves to 1B/DH sooer than later and also have strong eval of Tatis at SS, I get it. I think Vlad stays at 3B for two years or so before he has to move.

randplaty: Any chance Luis Urias is a plus defender at second? He looked great defensively in his major league debut.

Eric A Longenhagen: Sure, you could argue he’s fine at short, too.

GPT: Read your Giants instrux notes, great stuff. Anybody else stand out to you? Jairo Pomares, Jalen Miller, Yorlis Rodriguez?

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon from Brooklyn, where it’s a comparatively balmy 11 degrees (-4 with wind chill). The Hall of Fame circus has left town, but having missed last week’s post-announcement chat slot, I’ll still take questions on that topic, as well as hot stove stuff

Syndergaardians of the Galaxy : Even though I am an obsessive baseball fan, i don’t know much about Hector Santiago. So I was surprised to see him #6 on the Mets starter depth chart in Szymborski’s ZIPS article on the Mets, ahead of Cory Oswalt. Is this just a projections thing, or has there been word that the Mets see him this way?

Jay Jaffe: I wouldn’t read much into it, honestly. Santiago has been a versatile and occasionally competent swingman over the years, while Oswalt was dreadful as a rookie last year. We’re talking about a projection for 38 innings versus one for 19 innings, and the likelihood is that there will be some jockeying in the spring, and perhaps another free agent added on a minor league deal who supersedes them both.

Guest: I tweeted you this already but:
Scott Rolen:
70.2/43.7/56.9/ 17 Yrs / 7 ASG / 122 OPS+

Biggio:
65.5/41.8/53.7/ 20 Yrs / 7 ASG / 112 OPS+

Thoughts?  Shouldn’t he be getting a lot more love from stat people?

Jay Jaffe: Rolen gets plenty of love from “stat people” — it’s the general BBWAA electorate that has been relatively reserved (17% included him this year), but that’s also a function of the clogged ballot, which will become considerably roomier over the next five years, as I wrote earlier this week (https://blogs.fangraphs.com/closing-the-floodgates-the-next-five-years…). I expect Rolen’s vote share to climb, especially as he’ll be the next guy in the Raines-Martinez-Walker lineage of players who get a push from the analytics community

yojiveself: Would you give Harper/Machado a 10 year contract?

Kiley McDaniel: Hello friends and also other people, it is time for us to chat

Kiley McDaniel: ICYMI, we posted an Orioles list and tomorrow we’ll be posting the Yankees list, but I’m taking a quick break from writing reports to chat with you people. Here’s the prospects index page with anything you may need from us: https://www.fangraphs.com/prospects/

Tommy N.: Mejia, Morejon, Renfroe too much for Realmuto if he doesn’t want an extension?

Kiley McDaniel: I don’t think Realmuto is being traded with an understanding he’ll sign an extension with the new team. I get the impression this is a 2-year rental and then he hits the market and maybe he likes his two years with you enough to give you a slight discount when everyone is bidding.

Kiley McDaniel: And that package isn’t insane, I’m not sure SD wants to pay that much and I don’t have a sense for if the market has cratered enough that you have to pay as much as we thought some teams may at the beginning of the offseason

Jeremy: How do you evaluate Yusei Kikuchi against other guys in his (likely) 55 FV bracket, like Chris Paddack, Brent Honeywell or Mitch Keller? Clearly higher ceiling and lower floor, but would that change his FV as well?