Meg Rowley: Hello, and welcome to the chat!

Meg Rowley: After a couple weeks of swapping stuff around this should (*should*) be the normal chat time now, which will avoid us having two chats at the same time.

Mike from Tempe: Is there any chance of getting minor league splits into the Fangraphs stat pages? Only reason I still use BR, and I’d rather stick with FG.

Meg Rowley: I will ask. Also, B-R is great and very deserving of your clicks!

john cale: rougned odor has a 225 wRC+ in the second half. maybe 24 year olds can still figure things out, after all.

Meg Rowley: Sure they can! They’re bright young things full of promise! We’ve also seen Odor be good for a stretch and then just be dreadful before.

Travis Sawchik: Happy Monday

Travis Sawchik: All three AL division leaders now have 92.5% or better division odds

Travis Sawchik: Let’s get started, shall we?

Kiermaierkegaard: Hey Travis! Are there any broader trends we can forecast from what the Brewers are doing defensively? “Positionless” infields etc…? What Stearns and Counsell are doing seems to be working, and it’s fascinating to me.

Travis Sawchik: I suspect the Brewers are concerned with cramming as much power into their infield as possible and taking advantage of a strikeout environment that has eroded defensive changes by 20% over the last decade. It is interesting!

ZZ Bottom: AL wildcard race the most compelling story rest of season?

Meg Rowley: Good afternoon from Boston, and welcome!

Meg Rowley: This should be the last week for a while where the schedule is wonky, so thanks everyone for being patient.

stever20: Is Bryce Harper officially back?

Meg Rowley: Was Bryce Harper ever really gone? I know this season has not gone the way that he or the Nationals wanted it to. I know that the increase in strike outs has worried some. I also don’t want to chalk it all up to BABIP.

Meg Rowley: But barring some injury we don’t really know about, I think this is a fluky, weird year, that we’ll look back on and think, “Huh, that was strange.”

Moelicious: Does Meg purchase overpriced stadium food or sneak in her own treats?

Eric A Longenhagen: Hi from Tempe, everyone. Let’s quickly do some housekeeping…

Eric A Longenhagen: We did a pref list on the prospects traded ahead of the deadline: https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/ranking-the-prospects-traded-at-the-de…

Eric A Longenhagen: I see that we omitted Jorge Alcala and that Brett Phillips fits under the Drury/Paulino/Meadows roster limbo area I like to cover, so I’ll add those guys in today.

Eric A Longenhagen: Also, we updated The Board: https://www.fangraphs.com/scoutboard.aspx

Eric A Longenhagen: We did updates to all team lists and moved players who were traded around.

Eric A Longenhagen: Carson also had me on the pod: https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/fangraphs-audio-eric-longenhagens-pros…

Jeff Sullivan: oooooooookay, done podcasting now

Jeff Sullivan: Hello friends

Jeff Sullivan: Welcome to Wednesday baseball chat

Jeff Sullivan: Next week, we’ll be back to normal, and I’ll reoccupy my standard Friday slot

Jeff Sullivan: This has been a hectic couple weeks

THE Average Sports Fan: Where you surprised the A’s didn’t make a move for a controllable Starting Pitcher?

Travis Sawchik: Happy Trade Deadline Day

Travis Sawchik: 59 minutes to go …

Travis Sawchik: Chris Archer appears to be the biggest chip that hasn’t moved that might (probably will?)

Travis Sawchik: Harper is apparently staying, Rizzo says

yerp: Who says no: Archer for Harper + international signing money?

Travis Sawchik: Tampa ends that call quickly

Dan Szymborski: OK, let’s get this party started.

Dan Szymborski: Not only have I left emotes on, but I’ve put “Peanut Gallery” on.

Dan Szymborski: Which may be the biggest disaster ever, never to be repeated, but let’s try!

Dan Szymborski: Seems to work.  Trade Deadline is supposed to be a non-stop erotic cabaret, so we can take some risks.

Bret: Will the Blue Jays be able to trade Roberto Osuna? If so, how much of a discount will they need to give?

Dan Szymborski: Aroldis Chapman was traded.  I expected they don’t, though.

Meg Rowley: Morning all, and welcome to the chat!

Meg Rowley: I am obviously not Jeff. We’ll be swapping chat times this week and next so that he can engage in various adventures.

CrashedDavis: more a Jaffe question, but you’re chatting: with statcast and the associated stats (plus future innovations) allowing us to much better judge over/underperformance, how are we going to evaluate that over full careers in HOF debates 15+ years from now?

Meg Rowley: Just as we have a much better understanding of who is actually good now than we did 50 years ago, I would imagine it will continue to enhance how voters think about who is worthy of induction.

Meg Rowley: I think there is a limit to how much stats like xwOBA can change that process, because ultimately the Hall is concerned with the careers guys really had, but it’ll have an effect.

Meg Rowley: I imagine it will also force us to change how many guys voters can vote for at any one time as we better understand just how amazing a lot of these guys are.

Eric A Longenhagen: Hi hi hi. There are many trades happening and I need to write them up, so we’re gonna keep things tight to an hour today. Off we go…

Lilith: Tony Santillan seems to be have a very under the radar great year. What else does he need to do to get on some top 100 lists?

Eric A Longenhagen: That’s Reds  2015 2nd rounder who had huge stuff (upper 90s, plus breaker) but was very wild as prep and early as pro. I agree the strike-throwing has been encouraging. Can’t speak for other outlets but he’s close to a 50 FV for us already.

LioneeR: Touki has taken off a bit this year.  I saw reports saying that he wasn’t allowed to use certain pitches in order to work on his changeup.  Does that happen a lot with prospects, or is it just certain teams?

Eric A Longenhagen: Certain teams are more strict with pitch usage as part of development than others but this type of thing is common to some extent.

Chris : The Padres should not start trading prospects for Archer or Syndergaard right?