Meg Rowley: Hello, and welcome to the chat.

Meg Rowley: There is a lot of smoke in Seattle. It is a bummer. But, a chat!

Nick : Robinson Cano had a dramatic HR for the Mariners last night. Is this the Mariners keeping their heads above water for a little longer before they finally drown? Or is there a rescue boat nearby?

Meg Rowley: I think it might be best described as there is a lifeboat nearby, but the crew of the boat has dropped one of the oars in the water and also, the A’s are a giant shark whose fin we can see.

Meg Rowley: The AL West being a race is very exciting and winning is better than losing. And surely the A’s can’t win like this… forever? I think the division still probably goes to the Astros, but it is hardly a far gone conclusion, and the A’s still probably hold on to the second wild card, but the M’s aren’t dead yet.

Nick : Why is Luis Urias still not on the Padres?

Matt: Who is less likely to break my heart this week – Bumgarner at Mets, or Pivetta in TOR?

Dan Szymborski: Pivetta mainly. The Mets are sadder.

Dbo: Whoa, new chat time. Did Carson finally decide to have two Szym chats, one for food and one for baseball?

Dan Szymborski: As Travis has moved on to 538, I reclaimed my old, classic time slot.

Dan Szymborski: When Travis came aboard, it was important to introduce him to the FanGraphs audience that may not have been as familiar with his work as mine, plus since I was only an auxiliary fangraphser, it didn’t make sense to let me keep the sweeter time slot over a paid employee!

Pie: How does ZiPs view Kopech ROS/next few years?

Jeff Sullivan: Hello friends

Jeff Sullivan: Welcome to Friday baseball chat

Jack: Concern level for Kevin Kiermaier? Just hasn’t been able to get going offensively this year, and doesn’t really seem like the same otherworldly defender anymore, either

Jeff Sullivan: Wouldn’t be a surprise if the defense were beginning to slow down — that’s the way it goes — but I think Kiermaier basically just needs an offseason reset. Seems like he’s never found his swing and timing since coming back from the torn ligament, and it doesn’t make sense to me that he would’ve just fallen apart for no other reason

Jeff Sullivan: I think he’ll get back to being a pretty good player next season, but the Rays would be wise not to count on him to play 140 games

Ross: Offseason trade idea: Marlins trade J.T. Realmuto to the Yankees for Gary Sanchez. Who says no?

Eric A Longenhagen: Hi from Tempe everyone, I’m back from Area Codes/PGAA and chatting again. I’ll get right to it so I can finish today’s prospect notes and get those up this afternoon.

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

Eric A Longenhagen: I’ve been called a ‘Prospect Pragmatist’ so I guess not. I’m interested in them, though.

Snooker: If you were to rank the various organizations based on player development, who would be up top, who would be at the bottom, and where would the Tigers fit?

Eric A Longenhagen: Top ones for me are CLE, LAD, NYY, hard not to put BAL at the bottom.  Some orgs, and I think DET falls into this category, are tough to evaluate through this lens because their roster situations have made it difficult.

Eric A Longenhagen: So for DET they’ve moved a bunch of players in trades or acquired them and two dev groups have touched them, so it’s hard to say who’s responsible for success/failure

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon and welcome to another edition of my Thursday chat. Today I’m celebrating the four-year anniversary of the day I proposed to Emma Span, somewhere on the gorgeous grounds of the Getty Museum overlooking Los Angeles (we saw Clayton Kershaw pitch later that night), mourning the death of Aretha Franklin by playing her 1971 Fillmore West concert in the background ( spin it but only after your goosebumps from this, her cover of “The Weight,” subsides ), and waiting with anticipation as the editorial elves tackle an epic article near and dear to my heart, about the 1998 Yankees, whose 20-year anniversary is being celebrated in the Bronx this weekend.

Anyway, on with the show…

Bo: After reading your piece on Acuna, then Dan’s piece on ROY, I’m inclined to believe if he keeps up anything close to what he’s done since the break, he’ll take it home. Agree?

Jay Jaffe: I don’t think the last chapter of the race between Acuña and Soto has been written, by any means, and I do have at least some concern about the lingering effects of the former’s unsolicited, bush-league plunking by Jose Ureña last night. X-rays were negative, but until he’s back and mashing, I’m holding my breath.

Concrete fan: Do you consider the AL West a true division title race?

Jay Jaffe: The Astros’ lead has shrunk to two games, so it sure as hell is a race now.

Kiermaier’s Piercing Green Eyes: Ureña will miss one or two starts, the Braves potentially miss their star rookie while everyone else potentially misses great highlights and an amazing ROY race. Obviously the league is not doing a good job handling the externalities of head hunting. Should other people (ownership, manager?) be punished?

tb.25: 12:05?! You’re turning into those radio shows that start 5 minutes late to get listeners tuning in at the top of the hour to listen to commercials

Kiley McDaniel: You’ve figured us out

Kiley McDaniel: Scout is wandering around but I am here to chat with you people. Lets see what you’ve got for me today

D Money: Rank these guys – Madrigal, India, Kelenic & Swaggerty

Kiley McDaniel: Gotta have one of these every week. All of our rankings are sortable and available for your perusal here: https://www.fangraphs.com/scoutboard.aspx

Keefths: What do you make of what Nolan Gorman has done thus far?
Is the boy legit ?

Meg Rowley: Hello! Welcome to the chat!

mike sixel: I’m sorry I had fun at work today….won’t happen again…..

Meg Rowley: I assume this is in reference to David Bote.

Meg Rowley: One thing is, bat flips are fine. Bat flips can be great! Bat flips when one has one on a walk-off grand slam are terrific.

Meg Rowley: Another thing is, we could collectively be more selective about who we give the time of day to.

Mike: Are DRA and DRA- ever coming to Fangraphs?

Dan Szymborski: I think this is a chat!

CamdenWarehouse: no poops today?

Dan Szymborski: Carson set this one and doesn’t set up the poop and peanuts. I have a competing 2:45 one, we’ll see what happens at 2:45!

Matt: I think this is a late chat*

Dbo: You this is a chat, what if its just a bunch of robots trying to prove they aren’t robots

Dan Szymborski: EAT TURING, SCUM!

Jeff Sullivan: Hello friends

Jeff Sullivan: Welcome to Friday baseball chat

Jeff Sullivan: Just finished podding. Good to go now

Bork: Hello, friend!

Jeff Sullivan: Hello friend

Mookie Betts: So are MVP voters still too old school to see that I am in fact the one and only deserving MVP? Because in 20 games less I have done more than the rest!

Jay Jaffe: Hey gang , and welcome to this week’s chat. Apologies for forgetting to reschedule last week’s chat — because of the July 31 trade deadline, I swapped toddler care days with my mother-in-law, who is clutch (I normally take Tuesdays), then forgot how that would impact my normal schedule. Anyway, the deadline, my trip to Cooperstown, and my discovery of an awesome new sandwich shop in DUMBO (Untamed) are now under my belt, and we are all (metaphorically) richer for it. Onward…

Scott: Did you catch any of Fiers start yesterday? I thought he looked great and might even be a WC starter candidate

Jay Jaffe: I saw a bit of it, mostly as background while I finished up a forthcoming piece on Felix Hernandez. Fiers has bedeviled the Dodgers before, no-hitting them in 2015  soon after being acquired by an Astro. He’s a streaky pitcher, and I’d guess he’s got a shot at starting the WC game if he looks like he did last night

Gerb : Hey Jay, so back at the end of May I mentioned that Jose was on pace for a GOAT 3B season, and then you wrote a great article about it! At the time he had accrued 3.7 WAR through 244 PAs. I just wanted point out that since then he has added 3.8 WAR through his next 252. Are we at the point that 10 wins in a more likely than not?? Also apparently he’s decided he’s going 40/40

Jay Jaffe: Jose Ramirez’s ROS projection is for 2.0 WAR, so if you assume that’s the center of the distribution of a large number of outcomes, then he’s got a decent shot at 10. Dan Szymborski is a better person to ask about probabilities though, especially as he’s the guy with the projections. Regardless, he’s having an MVP-caliber season, and the longer Mike Trout sits with his wrist thing, the more possible that becomes

Nelson: Hey Jay, Max Sherzer sure seems on a HF path right? Just the hardware alone should put him in