Archive for Chat

Eric A Longenhagen: Howdy howdy, let’s chat

GPT: Have you had the opportunity to see Giants spring training yet, any standouts if so?

Eric A Longenhagen: yes was there yesterday, actually. Sean Hjelle looks pretty good, certainly the fastball does. 92-94 with tough angle and some life. Gregory Santos was 93-95 yesterday, some plus sliders. Marco Luciano looks incredible but we knew that already.

David: More total future value: The three first-rounders the Padres signed in 2016 (Quantrill, Potts, Lauer), or the three future first-rounders (Rolison, Bishop, Bleday) they called but didn’t sign on day three?

Eric A Longenhagen: the latter group

Edgar: Is late 2020 a feasible debut for Andrew Vaughn? Despite height, can he be a 25 HR guy?

Jay Jaffe: Hi folks, welcome to today’s chat! I’m in a brief not-rain delay as I finish up a quickie Instagraph on Ichiro. Will join the party soon.

Jay Jaffe: OK, I’m back. Had a quick brainstorm for something to say about Ichiro that I found interesting. Thanks for waiting that out, happy 2019 MLB season to those celebrating, and on with the show!

Russell: Do you think MLB/HoF will make Ichiro wait a full five years or make a special exception for him?

Jay Jaffe: I briefly address this in the forthcoming post but at this point, I don’t see the Hall making an exception. He’ll be eligible for the 2025 ballot instead of 2024, but I think the tradeoff — the chance to retire on his own terms, in his native country — was well worth the delay.

Ray Liotta as Shoeless Joe: Jesus Luzardo is out for a month. What a bummer!

Jay Jaffe: Fuuuuuuuuuuuudge.

I’ve only seen bits and pieces of his work but I’ve been a Luzardo fan since I first heard his name, on the basis of its similarity to The Jesus Lizard, a kick-ass 1990s band that is either number 1 or 1A when it comes to live acts (the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and the Waco Brothers are the other two vying for that title). They blew the doors off every venue I saw them at from about 1990 to 2017, when they came out of retirement for a final tour. Oh, and their best album is called GOAT.

Get well soon, Jesus Luzardo.

Kiley McDaniel: Coming to you live from ATL a little later than usual because I’m moving onto my third contractor now. Scout has chased all the squirrels and chipmunks and is taking a nap next to me. On to your questions:

Ben M: It feels like to date we aren’t getting the same type of negative reports on the high schoolers that caused players like gorman to slide last year. Is that accurate?

Kiley McDaniel: Not a question I get very often. I think Gorman may have stood out more because he was a top 10 overall prospect for us wire to wire but had some clear deficiencies that got a little worse during the spring

Kiley McDaniel: That said, we kept him in the top 10 (we settled on him at 7th, he went 19th overall) because we thought those things were fixable and the strengths were too good to pass up

Kiley McDaniel: So I wouldn’t say that was a unique amount of negative info on a top prospect. We have said Abrams probably can’t play SS longterm, Witt has real hit tool questions, Espino has a really long arm stroke and may throw too hard too early, etc. which is on par with the Gorman stuff

shf9: What’s going on with Carter Stewart?  He’s falling fast down your draft rankings.

Eric A Longenhagen: Hi everyone. Links to all the prospect stuff can be found at fangraphs/com/prospects so let’s get started. This will be my new chat time for a while since it doesn’t conflict with minor league spring training.

Mike from Tempe: I’m going to go to Giants minor league spring training games next weekend, at their facility. Any advice on where to sit or any other pro-tips? Also when does BP happen? 1.5 hrs before game? Thank you Eric!

Eric A Longenhagen: My advice is to not go to the Giants facility for their minor league spring games. It’s not a viewer-friendly place to watch games for you or I, I’m just staying away. Go to their road games.

Santa’s Reindeer: You guys listed Josiah Gray and Michael Grove as potential top 100 guys on next year’s list. What’s the biggest thing you guys are looking for from each/both of them this year that would move them up?

Eric A Longenhagen: Gray would be development of a third impact pitch, Grove is a blind dart throw based on LA’s track record with injured college arms.

Anthony: Did you read Ben’s piece on the old Reds scouting reports? If so, how different do you think current scouting infrastructures look now than they did 20 years ago?

Meg Rowley: Hi everyone, and welcome to the chat!

Dr. Strange: What’s your opinion on the suggestion of lowering the mound/ moving it back?

Meg Rowley: I think two feet is super aggressive, and is probably a bad idea.

Meg Rowley: The effect it’ll have on perceived velocity is likely to be pretty significant, and I’m not convinced the league has a great handle on just how significant.

Scarlet Witch: How much money will Trout demand? Over/under $375 million?

Meg Rowley: Over. He should demand the over.

Dan Szymborski: The appointed time for chatting has now arrived.

Mystery Chatter: What up playa. Need a late-round MI. How does Adames strike you?

Dan Szymborski: Needs to be a fairly deep lead

Mark: Can you name some quality pitching under control for 3ish years that might be trade candidates?  Is Michael Fulmer the most valuable trade candidate in that type of grouping?

Dan Szymborski: There really aren’t a ton of guys like that, honestly

Dan Szymborski: Gausman was one but was traded last year

Kiley McDaniel: Hello from ATL where Scout is laying on her bed but you can tell she’s gonna pop up and ask to go outside as soon as the neighbor dogs start barking

Kiley McDaniel: and if you’re in Phoenix this weekend, come meet the FG Staff https://blogs.fangraphs.com/fangraphs-meetup-scottsdale-march-8/

Mark: Any high school pitchers that you think can jump into the top 5?

Kiley McDaniel: Feels like there will be a lot of draft questions today, so here’s our updated rankings for those interested, and the dropdown at the top brings you to 2020 and 2021 rankings as well: https://www.fangraphs.com/prospects/the-board/2019-mlb-draft?sort=-1,1…

Kiley McDaniel: Daniel Espino is the top prep arm right now but has his first real game this weekend. Buzz has been positive about progress with feel, but he’s also a shorter prep righty where velocity is still a big part of the package and the arm swing is really long.  Doesn’t mean he won’t be really good, but teams are really wary of prep RHP and to take one that high, you need it all to line up. Add that with the recent track record of prep arms that sit 95+ not being very positive in terms of health/development and I can’t see him getting to top 5, maybe 8-10 if he really shoves all spring. Matt Allan is in the discussion right behind him, then there’s a pretty big dropoff.

Kiley McDaniel: Matt Manning went late top 10 and had a really good frame, top end athlete, two 65-70 grade pitches and even some teams wouldn’t take him up there.

Gub Gub: Favorite John Candy movie…GO!

Dan Szymborski: P, T, A. Though I have a soft spot for Harry Crumb

GY: Hanley have anything left in the tank?

Dan Szymborski: No.

James m: Where are some good fits for Dallas Kuechel?

Dan Szymborski: LIkely writing something about this!