Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks, and welcome to another one of my Tuesday chats. This one is from the field office in Wellfleet, where I’m stationed for two weeks with my family — working this week, off next is the plan. Not long ago, my piece on Jack Flaherty’s bounceback went up (https://blogs.fangraphs.com/a-change-of-scenery-has-worked-well-for-ja…), and yesterday I looked at the injuries to the Dodgers’ Mookie Betts and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (https://blogs.fangraphs.com/dodgers-double-whammy-as-yamamoto-and-bett…)

Jay Jaffe: Tomorrow I’ll have something on the Yankees and Anthony Rizzo’s broken arm. Injuries have cut into my list of players I was planning on checking into; some of those might have to wait until after I return. We’ll see

MP: Kelenic going to get an article soon about turning his season around? Just a hot streak or do you think some of this can stick?

Jay Jaffe: Kelenic is 24 years old, and while that’s too young to write off, a quick look at his splits and trends tells me not to get very excited about two hot weeks. Yes, he’s hitting the ball harder but not that hard, he’s also chasing more than you’d like, and unlike last year, he’s really struggling against lefties.

Section 34: Will Fangraphs ever do an Orioles top prospects list this year?

Jay Jaffe: Assuming they don’t secede from Major League Baseball, I would think so, but I don’t make the schedule. I imagine they’re coming soon – obviously, it’s a deep system with lots of interesting players who are becoming more relevant as the July 30 deadline approaches.

Dan Szymborski: It’s a chat!

David: Dan-is there anything in the numbers that shows what is wrong with the Braves right now? A cursory look makes it seem like the metrics of this year and last year are relative close.

Dan Szymborski: Well, a number of hitters are underperforming! Olson, the injured Acuña, and Riley all had prominent spots in the zstats update I posted yesterday

Tacoby Bellsbury: What baseball player archetype corresponds to each of your cats at this stage in their careers?

Dan Szymborski: Oh geez, I’m not sure

Dan Szymborski: Mercutio’s kind of Fernando Rodney-y. Constantine’s kind of moody

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks, and welcome to my first chat of June!

Jay Jaffe: We just posted my piece on Aaron Judge turning himself around after a season-opening slump: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/aaron-judge-is-slumping-no-more/

Jay Jaffe: Yesterday I wrote about Luis Severino’s resurgence https://blogs.fangraphs.com/luis-severino-is-in-a-better-place-than-la…

Jay Jaffe: My lunch just arrived as this chat began so please bear with me for a few minutes as I get some nourishment

Gerald H: Opening day 2025….what team do you think Juan Soto is on?

Jay Jaffe: I’d say it’s either the Yankees or the Mets, with the Giants probably the third team I’d name but their current regime’s precariousness probably working against them.

Dan Szymborski: It’s a chat!

Red: hey Dan! Can you put in a good word with the site team to add a date range function for minor league stats? Would be an awesome QOL improvement!

Dan Szymborski: I keep a bit of a list of things to bring up when we talk stuff at staff meetings, I could add it

Dan Szymborski: I’m pretty sure from the raw data we have, we at least have the ability

John M.: Have you ever tried to make any kind of projections about how Negro League players would fare if they were in an integrated MLB? Or how MLB players would fare if the leagues were integrated then?

Dan Szymborski: I’ve tinkered a little, but nothing substantive

Dan Szymborski: Greetings!

Dan Szymborski: I’m sad to report that the chili I was making last week when we chatted did not turn out well.

Dan Szymborski: I got careless with the salt and the whole thing was way too salty.

Dan Szymborski: So I had to eat it with VERY improper cheese and sour cream added in to mute the saltiness.

Joe: Can Gil be a front line guy? Or Schmidt? Both have looked great

Dan Szymborski: Both are certainly making their cases. Pitching development is weird, so when a guys’ working out a lot of the time it’s just him working out

Dan Szymborski: There’s a time for every purpose under heaven, even SzymChat

Guest: why is ZiPS still so in on Jack Suwinski’s bat?

Dan Szymborski: One thing is I’m not sure taht wRC+ is working correctly on the FG page at the moment

Dan Szymborski: But it’s still an extremely small sample

Dan Szymborski: and full fat ZiPS isn’t that much more negative

Guest: With the new BatCast data, do you think it will turn out to be better to have tightly clustered A and B swings (in terms of length or bat speed), or to have a smooth continuum?