Kiley McDaniel: Hello! Movers just left so I’m mostly settled in here in Atlanta. A quick rundown of all the content we’ve been publishing since the last chat:

Kiley McDaniel: All findable here at the prospects main page: https://www.fangraphs.com/prospects/

Kiley McDaniel: I introduced our updated prospect asset value concept in the context of a JT Realmuto trade, after last week’s chat was chock full of JTR questions: https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/so-you-want-to-trade-for-j-t-realmuto/

Kiley McDaniel: we have the new scouting primer: https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-new-fangraphs-scouting-primer/

Kiley McDaniel: prospect graduations from the 2018 season: https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/instagraphs/2018-prospect-graduations/

Kiley McDaniel: Craig Edwards’ 3-part series where he tells you how we put a asset dollar value on every prospect in baseball: https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/an-update-to-prospect-valuation/

Meg Rowley: Hi all– allow me one moment to respond to a Very Pressing Email.

Meg Rowley: Ok, all set! Welcome to the chat. Let’s see what nonsense we can get up to today.

Lunar verLander: …you’re not REALLY out of coffee, are you? That’d be some kind of nightmare-ish hellscape…

Meg Rowley: No, thank goodness. I made more.

Billy: Any chance Paxton rumors / action heats up again soon? Or does all the “dust” need to settle for Ms FO makes any more moves (assuming they’re still around)?

Meg Rowley: I would imagine that it might delay for a day or two, but MLB has announced an investigation, and it seems almost certain their trade activity won’t wait for that to conclude.

Dan Szymborski: It’s a’ me, Mario!

Dan Szymborski: OK, not really.

Dan Szymborski: I’m going to hold off the off-topic questions until we get to the Lightning Round.

Ginny: do you think “extremely available for trade”  Kole Calhoun has a market? and does the Angels trying to trade him give indication of their actions in the FA market?

Dan Szymborski: I think he has *some* market, but I think it’s wishful thinking on the Angels if they think someone’s going to pay as if the first half of 2018 never happened.

Dan Szymborski: I’m not sure it makes a lot of sense for the Angels to trade him.

Jeff Sullivan: Hello friends

Jeff Sullivan: Welcome to Friday baseball chat

Jeff Sullivan: I made it on time to this one! Take that, haters

Xolo: Fangraphs has the Padres projected at 77 wins with fairly pedestrian Steamer numbers for all the big rookies. With that in mind, wouldn’t it make sense for them to go after a guy like Corbin now and see how it goes?

Jeff Sullivan: I do think the Padres are likely to target at least one interesting and talented pitcher, but I don’t think they’ll want to pay what Corbin will command

Jeff Sullivan: If you figure Corbin will get an offer from, say, the Yankees, the Padres would have to offer more on top of that. The Padres can’t compete with the Yankees’ budget. I’m looking for San Diego to target a cheaper starter, with a couple years of team control remaining

Eric A Longenhagen: Howdy howdy howdy, let’s do the thing…

RIP McCovey: What is your take on the Farhan Zaidi hire for the Giants and the sentiment that he could move Bumgarner?

Eric A Longenhagen: I dig the hire, Zaidi seems capable of helming a club. I’m skeptical that about Bum being good when the Giants are good again, so I think it makes sense to explore the idea of moving him.

Junction Jack: What’s the buzz around JB Bukauskas in Arizona? The stuff has looked very sharp from what I have seen.

Eric A Longenhagen: He looks good. 94-96, t98, four pitch mix, everything has flashed plus. Changeup hasn’t been as good nor used as heavily of late. Don’t think the fastball plays like 95+ because this is a small guy who also has a short stride and I tend to think of him as a nasty multi-inning relief piece more than a true 170+ inning starter, but he is good.

Jim Leyland Palmer: Have you gotten to see much of Daz Cameron in the fall league? What do you think the Tigers have in him?

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks, and welcome to another offseason edition of my Thursday chat series. I’m immersed in the Today’s Game ballot, the third installment of which just went up this morning https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/thrills-provided-by-carter-and-clark-n…

stever20: what surprises, if any, did you have with the award finalist announcements on Monday?

Jay Jaffe: While it took me a day even to get to looking at the list of finalists because of how immersed I was in the Hall stuff, I guess the biggest surprise — but not all that big of one — was that Chris Sale didn’t make the AL top three in Cy Young voting, owing to his late-season absences. That’s not to begrudge Verlander, Snell and Kluber their spots, it’s just a gauge of the steep cost of Sale’s absence and subsequent struggles upon returning.

Beyond that, slight surprise Lorenzo Cain slipped out of the NL MVP top three and Javier Baez in, but both had great seasons. Not a major quibble, though.

The Old Buccaneer: Do you see the Zunino/Mallex deal as one likely to work out for both teams?

Jay Jaffe: quite possibly. I think Zunino’s ongoing ups and downs on the offensive side are indicative that a change of scenery could help. Smith turned in a nice season and fills a hole that the Mariners have really struggled with in recent years.

____: Thoughts on Bill James’s statements? https://mlb.nbcsports.com/2018/11/07/red-sox-senior-advisor-bill-james…

Kiley McDaniel: Hello all from the almost empty Atlanta house, which will hopefully be filled by next week’s chat

Kiley McDaniel: ICYMI, we posted a top 50 free agents thing that I did the rankings/predictions for: https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2019-top-50-free-agents/

Kiley McDaniel: And then all the stuff Cistulli wouldn’t let in the formal rankings, including buzz on timetables and under the radar spending teams went here: https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-free-agency-analysis-fangraphs-doe…

Kiley McDaniel: I’ll have one more offseason-focused article probably going up tomorrow and I’m editing a podcast with some FA talk as well

Kiley McDaniel: Now to your questions, which also appear to be offseason-focused

Tommy N.: Do you think a Donaldson three year deal to the Padres makes sense?

Meg Rowley: Hello!

Meg Rowley: Welcome to the chat. Apologies for my very brief lateness. I was on the phone with one Carson Cistulli.

Meg Rowley: If you will allow a moment of earnestness and also sincerity: Please go vote if you have not and your state has not made it impossible for you to do so.

Meg Rowley: If your state has, shame on them. If your state hasn’t, think of all those having a hard time voting today, and go do your voting.

Guest: When does “2019” begin for the purpose of no-trade clauses? Jason Heyward has full no trade rights in 2018, but not 2019. I started wondering about coupling one or more surplus value guys in order to try to move his contract but then ran into: when does ‘2019’ begin?

Meg Rowley: I believe the league year or championship season is defined in the CBA, so a moment.

tb.25: “The only FanGraphs chat that lets you obnoxiously spam emotes.” AKA the best FanGraphs chat.

Dan Szymborski: Good aftermorninevening!

Euan Dewar: Hey Dan! No question, just hope you’re doing well and enjoyed the Blizzcon festivities. Was fun to look at twitter and realise a baseball analytics person I like was also chopping it up in WoW on the regular 🙂

Dan Szymborski: For the Horde!

Matt: Have you ever thought about the ramifications of your non-inclusive chili ideology on the bean people?

Dan Szymborski: People who use beans can still eat it fine, ti’s just not chili.

Jeff Sullivan: Hello friends

Jeff Sullivan: Welcome to Friday baseball chat

Jeff Sullivan: Usually I’m late to start because of a pre-chat podcast. Today it was a pre-chat phone conversation with the boss! Always something

Jeff Sullivan: First Friday baseball chat in a while with no active…baseball. Weird feeling. Also weird that it already feels normal

Bork: Hello, friend!

Jeff Sullivan: Hello friend