Meg Rowley: Hello and welcome to the chat!

Gerald: Do you like prospects? Baseball prospects to be clear.

Meg Rowley: Gerald, we’ve already talked about this.

Omar Linares: Can we please take a second to laugh at Mike Rizzo for trading away Blake Treinen and Jesus Luzardo for Ryan Madson and Sean Doolittle?

Meg Rowley: That seems like too big a reaction, and an unkind one.

Meg Rowley: Doolittle has been hurt for stretches but still managed a two win season this year, and I don’t think most people thought Treinen would be quite this good.

Joseph: Do you see the dodgers keeping Urias as a RP? How does May and White look based on #s

Dan Szymborski: I think the Dodgers are going to try to get him in the majors as a starter until he proves conclusively that it’s in their interests to not do do.

Dan Szymborski: They’re just being slow right now – if they were on the fence, I think they would have kept him totally relief in the minors until next year

Bo: Who are your two bets for home field in the NLDS?

Dan Szymborski: I think Cubs or the Brewers if they catch the Cubs have enough of a cushion to be a very good favorite.

Dbo: Both chicken tenders and boneless chicken wings are just different types of chicken nuggets

Jeff Sullivan: Hello friends

Jeff Sullivan: Welcome to Friday baseball chat

squeeze bunt: Why is anny Margot so bad at stealing bases?

Jeff Sullivan: Why is Rougned Odor even worse?

Jeff Sullivan: Margot wasn’t particularly bad last season. Been worse this year. Stolen bases are about a lot more than raw foot speed. He might just somewhat struggle to get good reads of first moves

WP41: How much value would you guess Javy Baez being able to play multiple premium positions has provided to the Cubs this season?

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon and welcome to another edition of my Thursday chat! Thanks for stopping by. I don’t have anything witty to say, but the thumb is healing nicely — had my two stitches out on Sunday and the thing no longer looks like a trainwreck in a plate of rigatoni. Let’s get to it.

stever20: totally get what you think should happen with Sale and the AL Cy Young.  But what do you think will happen should Sale not get to 162 innings?  Does he have a realistic shot?

Jay Jaffe: That’s a very good question, and with the Red Sox taking a particularly conservative approach such that he’ll fall short of 162 innings (he’s at 150 and figures to have two turns left, both possibly after his team clinches the division) I think the race might be up in the air. I’m starting to think that Blake Snell’s combination of 20 wins and an ERA title might carry the day, regardless of the strikeouts (where he’s a respectable but not dominant 8th) and the advanced metrics.

tb.25: What does JAWS say about Chris Sale? I realize I haven’t seen much on his HOF candidacy except his appearance on some JAWS tables (and if you’ve written about him, forgive me!)

Jay Jaffe: Sale’s at 43.0 WAR as he nears the end of his age-29 season, which isn’t historic but is 11th since the start of 1969. It’s a mixed bag in his neighborhood, with five obvious HOF types at the top (Clemens, Blyleven, Kershaw, Pedro, Maddux) at 50.5 to 62.8, then Felix at 50.0, Appier at 45.8 (big drop), Seaver 45.3, Saberhagen 44.9, CC Sabathia at 43.4 and then Sale; Verlander’s 9 spots lower at 36.4 and there are guys like Stieb, Gooden, Tanana and Zambrano between them, with Mussina (37.7) the only real HOF type guy in the middle.

Bottom line: it’s all going to depend on Sale’s ability to carry this into his 30s, and avoid what happened to Felix, but he’s got a good base to build upon.

pkddb: Using whatever method you feel needed, was there a more dominant pitcher you have experienced in your adult life than Pedro in his prime?

Kiley McDaniel: Hello! Slight delay today for some paperwork issues but we’re all good now and Scout is napping. Let’s see what you people have for me

Kiley McDaniel: Oh, and in the way of promotion, we have a couple fun things coming, I will guess, on Monday. We have a new weekly podcast about prospects and the big leagues, from a front office POV. Here’s episode 2: https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/fangraphs-audio-presents-the-untitled-…

Kiley McDaniel: We also did a refresh of THE BOARD, as our last update before we get into the offseason list time of year

Kiley McDaniel: As always, THE BOARD is here: https://www.fangraphs.com/scoutboard.aspx

Kiley McDaniel: and the article detailing why some guys are rising is here: https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-final-pro-side-update-to-the-board…

Oyster Burns: roansy have better upside than justus?

Meg Rowley: Hello, and welcome to the chat! There are a lot of Mariners and Mets questions in this here queue, but I’ll try to mix it up as much as possible.

Mr. Dobolina: Who is your favorite Cubs player

Meg Rowley: Hey look at that! Baez is hard not to like, and why try hard to enjoy an enjoyable thing less. I was pretty wrong about his ability to take a step forward. He has been great, great fun.

Jedidiah: The Mariners could save $14 million next year by installing Vogey as their DH. They’re not going to do that, are they?

Meg Rowley: I think it is a toss up whether or not they bring Cruz back. They’ve expressed public interest in that, but teams fib sometimes, and he’ll be sure to test the market anyhow.

Meg Rowley: I would like to see Vogelbach get something approaching anything like regular playing time, and I would very much not like to see him playing first so…

Dan Szymborski: It is time.

stever20: do you think MLB should do something for pitchers like they do for batters who don’t get to the PA threshold?   Say Sale gets 159 innings, for ERA counting purposes give him 3 more innings, but like 3 runs as well?

Dan Szymborski: I think what makes it awkward is that it’s zero for batters, but the inverse for pitchers is infinity!

Dan Szymborski: So the solution isn’t as elegant.

Pio: Margot is now two years into his big league career and still hasn’t shown much. Does he deserve the starting CF spot next year or should the Padres open it up to competition?

Dan Szymborski: I think that’s a bit of an exaggeration of his struggles

Kiley McDaniel: Hello, I’m coming to you people on Friday since I was on the road Wednesday. Let’s get to your questions

I hate avocados: When will we see rankings updates next?

Kiley McDaniel: I’m guessing Monday? We have one more update of about 15 players to shuffle around before we head into the offseason. We’ll probably lock all those in this weekend as far as where they go exactly, but the list is done

Arms: Long term who makes the better MLB Pitcher? Shane Bieber or Chris Paddack? Or will both be exceptional?

Kiley McDaniel: Similar kinds of guys, but Bieber is already there and performing and hasn’t had a TJ, so I’ll take him, though Paddack has a little more ceiling

Matt: are you buying the Luis patino hype? I believe he should be considered a top 100 prospect, plus velo, athletic, throws strikes, 3-4 usable pitches

Eric A Longenhagen: Hey from Tempe, everyone.

Eric A Longenhagen: Not much to link to because I was off last week and have been doing work on the guts of the Board this week in preparation for the offseason, so let’s hop right in to this…

Padulla: Out of all the recent international signees by the Yankees, which one are you most excited to see?

Eric A Longenhagen: Kevin Alcantara, who is simply the kind of player I like to watch. Yankees instrux games start the 25th. Haven’t seen their roster yet but lots of July 2 signees are here in the fall for instrux so he can be seen, domestically.

Ben: The Yankees system didn’t quite hit the highs of previous years – should Yankees fans be disappointed? Or is the ‘fall’ of the system in rankings more due to Major League graduations, which are obviously good?

Eric A Longenhagen: I think it’s clear their recent record of player dev means the system is always ‘good’ if there’s malleable talent in the lower levels, and there is.

Jay Jaffe: Hey folks, good afternoon and welcome to another edition of today’s chat. Apologies, there will be a few minutes delay in me getting started as I’m putting the finishing touches on today’s post, regarding Jake Odorizzi’s no-hit bid.

Please enjoy this if you haven’t seen it already

Jay Jaffe: OK, back, and as noted, working at a slight disadvantage due to a bandaged left thumb, which I sliced off the tip of on Sunday morning in the service of chopping garnishes for my breakfast tacos. A LOT of blood a trip to urgent care, two stitches, all while trying not to freak out our two-year-old daughter.

The tacos, which used chicken from this recipe (https://lifemadesimplebakes.com/2017/07/instant-pot-shredded-chicken-t… — I used all thigh meat), were delicious nonetheless.

Ozzie Ozzie Albies Free: Why are so many helmets flying off players heads? Shouldn’t they be a bit snug to where they don’t?

Jay Jaffe: I can’t believe Rob Manfred hasn’t corraled a blue-ribbon committee to look into the matter, because you know Bud Selig would have been on it like… like a toupee on Bud Selig

Jonny: With the Cardinals being in the thick of the race now, and Tommy Pham putting up a 166 wRC+ and 1.1 WAR so far with the Rays, do the Cardinals regret that trade now? Or do they really think Pham is a net negative? Or do they just really really like Justin Williams?

Jay Jaffe: We know that tensions were pretty high between Pham and the team based on a number of issues, including playing time, his contract renewal, and his long road through the minors. We also know that the Cardinals have had tremendous outfield depth in recent years, depth that led them to trade Stephen Piscotty and Randal Grichuk this past winter and not miss them at all. I can’t say I know much about Williams, but I do know they wanted to create more space for Harrison Bader and Tyler O’Neill