Archive for Chat

Eric A Longenhagen: Good morning from Tempe on a gorgeous Friday, I’m excited to overeat baseball today. I’ve got Squeeze Play on but the Kentucky/Wake game is the big one starting shortly, so if you have to pick one I suggest that.

YardGoat: Hey Eric, do you have a prediction for who makes it to Omaha?

Eric A Longenhagen: Last week I mentioned Georgia Tech, UCLA, Auburn. Auburn’s path was made easier by the way the brackets shook out. If I’m looking for a deeper seed to sneak in it’s coming from the Chapel Hill and Lincoln regionals.

Justin Krupp: Have you seen Luis Hernandez in person this year or heard anything from scouts to lend context (good or bad) to what hes done so far this year?

Eric A Longenhagen: Yeah, like six times. I like him, I don’t think he has the enormous physical tools of a guy who we eventually rank 3rd or anything like that. He’s a skilled, smaller player who gets a lot out of his body because of how well he rotates.

Eric A Longenhagen: Do they not have velos in Morgantown? Lemme crack the trackman real quick…

Dan Szymborski: And heeeere we go

InsertWittyNameHere: Are there rules about player walk up songs?  Could someone just have spoken word slam poetry or a Rodney Dangerfield No Respect joke?

Dan Szymborski: There are some rules, though I’m not sure precisely WHERE they’re written down

Dan Szymborski: 15 seconds, no inappropriate lyrics, themes, etc.

Dan Szymborski: and it has to be licensed

Guest: With Jared Jones expected to return this weekend are the Pirates better off running a 6 man rotation to help limit innings for Ashcraft, Mlodzinksi etc.. or send Chandler to AAA for his control issues.

Brendan Gawlowski: Hello everybody

Brendan Gawlowski: I need a couple minutes before we get going, finishing up something real quick. Sorry about the delay.

Brendan Gawlowski: Okay, sorry about thaaaat

Brendan Gawlowski: As I’m sure you saw, we did our Red Sox last week, fun system. Big thanks to Eric for swooping in on complex stuff so I could be fully present while covering the B12 tourney.

Brendan Gawlowski: He’s tackling Pirates right now, I’ll be pivoting to… Giants? I think the Giants.

Brendan Gawlowski: But for now away we go

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon! I hope you all enjoyed the three-day weekend.

Jay Jaffe: I flew solo while my wife and daughter drove upstate to visit my father-in-law (I had to stay behind to dog-sit). Did a lot of dad-puttering around the house, some repair projects, some yardwork, and a trek to Jersey City to see the 50th-anniversary celebration — and perhaps the final show ever — of The Feelies.

Jay Jaffe: Anyway, back to baseball. Before we get started, I need to note that as with last week, we’re trying a new system with our chats, where you’re required to log in to FanGraphs to ask a question. You don’t need to be a Member, but you do need to have an account, just like you need an account to comment on any article. This is still something we’re evaluationg. If you have feedback, feel free to just leave it as a question, or you can send a note to support@fangraphs.com.

John Tereniak: Would Phils have been better off signing Machado than Harper when they were looking at both way back when?

Jay Jaffe: Eh, I’m not sure. Yes, it’s harder to come up with a great third baseman, and the Phillies have had their problems there since then (Alec Bohm has had one season above 2.0 WAR) but I think Harper was the better fit for the city and the culture, as Machado has been for the city and culture in San Diego

Jay Jaffe: the two are almost dead even in fWAR 27.9 to 27.7 for Harper, and that’s with an additional 107 games missed due to injuries

Eric A Longenhagen: Hey from the shade at Scottsdale Stadium as the Zags and Dons stretch for this morning’s elimination game. I’m here to see Karsten Sweum and Mikey Bell, among others. Sorry my attention will be divided but it’s conference tourney time and we’ve all just gotta do what we’ve gotta.

liljebbie10: One other question, with Esmerlyn Valdez coming up today, what are you thoughts on him? What is his upside for the Pirates?

Eric A Longenhagen: I updated his tool grades and report on The Board and on his player page. Here is a brief version:

Eric A Longenhagen: Selectivity, power, less pull ability than last year, really late on a lot of heaters so far. Bad defense. 45. Nice piece, 5-thru-7 hole bat with OBP and power. I don’t believe in the year over year improvement in his K% and still think he’s a 40 contact hitter and barely playable on defense, so not a true “everyday” guy, but still a contributing piece.

Surplus Valuez = Profits = Stolen Wages: Happy Friday. When yous were doing the Cubs list, was there any feedback that Juan Cabada may end up in the OF? Or is there high confidence for the IF?

Eric A Longenhagen: Second base but not great there.

Dan Szymborski: Since there is a time to every purpose under heaven, so to there is one for SzymChat

WonderWall: Is Zips buying what Kyle Harrison has been doing so far?

Dan Szymborski: Mostly-ish?

Dan Szymborski: He’s “down” about three tens of a run in the ZiPS ROS basic model

Dan Szymborski: and right now, his 2027-2029 ERA+ projections are 103, 107, 109

Dan Szymborski: So it’s at least confident he’s a 2/3 dude

Brendan Gawlowski: Hello everybody, sorry for the weirdness the last couple weeks.

Brendan Gawlowski: I was violently ill last Tuesday and skipped last week’s chat out of necessity

Brendan Gawlowski: This week I’m back in AZ and was flying down during the normal chat window

Brendan Gawlowski: So, expect this to be a little smaller and we probably won’t go as long as normal. But we’ll see where it takes us!

Hazmat Corntail: Anthony Eyanson is off to a fast start so far, and pitching tonight. He was 40+ after the draft could he be in the top 10 pitchers in next year’s 100?

Brendan Gawlowski: Working on the Red Sox list and, spoiler alert, he’ll be in the 50’s

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks!

Jay Jaffe: Welcome to another edition of my weekly chat. Apologies for missing last week, as I was in the midst of my big Ted Turner/Bobby Cox tribute piece and didn’t have the bandwidth to pull this off.

Jay Jaffe: Before we get started, I need to note that we’re trying a new system with our chats, where you’re required to log in to FanGraphs to ask a question. You don’t need to be a Member, but you do need to have an account, just like you need an account to comment on any article. We’ll see how it goes. If you have feedback, feel free to just leave it as a question, or you can send a note to support@fangraphs.com.

Jay Jaffe: I’ve got a piece on the Padres’ surprising spot in the standings — first place in the NL West — despite the underperformances of Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, Jackson Merrill and others which should go up while this chat is underway.

Jay Jaffe: Yesterday I wrote about Blake Snell heading for surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow. Dr. Neal ElAttrache will be using the same NanoNeedle procedure as he used on Tarik Skubal — the Skubal Scope, as some are calling it — which could shave about a month off his recovery time https://blogs.fangraphs.com/everybody-whos-anybody-is-getting-loose-bo…

Jay Jaffe: oh, and here’s that Turner/Cox thing. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/ted-turner-1938-2026-and-bobby-cox-1941-20…

And now, on with the show…