Meg Rowley: Good morning! I hope everyone had a good long weekend, and isn’t too sad about going back to work.

Meg Rowley: And hey if you are, well you’re reading a baseball chat, so hopefully that helps.

Dane: Vlad Jr. When will he be up and what do you expect from him this year?

Meg Rowley: It’ll be interesting to see how, if at all, Donaldson’s injury shifts things for them. I know he described it as minor, but the Blue Jays’ hold on contention is verrrry tenuous.

Meg Rowley: I still think the service time stuff holds him down because I am cynical and bit mistrusting by nature, but there is an opening.

Meg Rowley: And I expect him to just hit the crap out of the ball. All the way to Jupiter a lot of the time. There will likely be defensive silliness, but you won’t mind because he will just hit the crap out of the ball, in my considered opinion.

Jeff Sullivan: Hello friends

Jeff Sullivan: Welcome to Friday baseball chat

Jeff Sullivan: Sorry about that delay — very much podcasting this morning and afternoon for some reason

Put me in coach: Worse contract at this point – Heyward or Pujols

Jeff Sullivan: Pujols. Heyward, despite everything, still isn’t an overall negative

Jeff Sullivan: It is too bad though — earlier this season, it seemed like Heyward was showing some real signs of life. They’ve all but disappeared, although in fairness he has experienced a concussion

Eric A Longenhagen: Morning from Tempe. Let’s get right to it…

Mertz: Is Corbin Burnes’ recent mediocre performance more of a function of his home park/league, or is he really having problems?  Do you see him making any MLB starts this year?

Eric A Longenhagen: Very likely the ballpark. Not sure he debuts this year because so many other viable guys are already on the 40-man and Burnes is not. Houser, Woodruff, etc.

Larry: Still feel like Gorman is the most likely pick for Atlanta?

Eric A Longenhagen: Yep

Dan: Thoughts on Cubs pitching prospects so far this year? From Underwood to Albertos, a lot seems to happening, good and bad.

Jay Jaffe: Hey hey, folks!  Welcome to another edition of my Thursday chat. As I’m less than 24 hours away from flying solo with a 21-month-old toddler who can channel the Antichrist, i’ll be cutting this a bit shorter than usual so that I can figure out which whiskey will knock her out the longest. And with that, let’s get to the questions…

John Oleruds Helmet: Mr Jay! Shine thy light upon this chat!! Grace us with thy wisdom!!!
Is it possible after Mariano and eventually Mussina and (possibly) Schilling that we may not see another pitcher inducted into the Hall until Verlander??

Jay Jaffe: The late Roy Halladay is eligible for the first time this year, and I think he’s got a chance to get elected, if not this year then soon. Lee Smith will be eligible for the first time on the Today’s Game ballot, and given that he broke 50% on the writers’ ballot before, you have to figure he’s got a shot in that format. But those two and the three you mentioned might be the only pitchers who get in until somebody currently active, and as I noted last week, Verlander is pretty much at the head of the pack now given his age and recent dominance.

Dave: Howdy!  Robinson Cano seemed like an eventual shoo-in for the HOF before his PED-related suspension.  What are his chances now?

Jay Jaffe: I’d say they’re pretty low, but we’ll see how the voters handle Alex Rodriguez when he becomes eligible in 2022. We’ve yet to see a previously PED-suspended player top 23.8%.

bonnie: If you were casting a baseball flavored remake of Space Jam, who would be your star and who would you pick to make up the MonStars?

Meg Rowley: Good morning, and welcome to the chat!

Meg Rowley: I am clearly not Kiley, who is off watching college baseball.

Meg Rowley: I am a sad Mariners fan, which the queue has clearly guessed at. Let’s get started.

The Old Buccaneer: Is the Mariners’ second base situation worse than the Dodgers’?

Meg Rowley: Let’s assume that the world isn’t so cruel that Gordon’s injury will require more than 10 days. In that case, no, at least not among starters. Dee Gordon is good!

Meg Rowley: Obviously losing Cano until August is this horrible, devastating thing and I am sad about it every day, but if Gordon is back soon, they’re probably better off than what Utley and Forsythe offer? Maybe? Let me have this, ok?

Kiley McDaniel: Kiley is here but Scout needs a quick potty break, so we’ll get going a few minutes behind schedule

Kiley McDaniel: Okay we are back

Kiley McDaniel: Quick update on my schedule: headed out tonight to see Mason Denaburg vs. Triston Casas in the FL state HS playoffs and will head out tomorrow morning to Clearwater to see Shane McClanahan face Wichita State in the AAC conference tourney, may run back over on Thursday to see Tim Cate as well, but may also stay here to see Florida/Tampa if the pitching lines up

Kiley McDaniel: Now to your questions…

Jim in Chicago: If Casey Mize doesn’t go #1, where does he end up?

Kiley McDaniel: This seems to be the question of the moment. Detroit is seriously thinking about other options at 1-1, and the talk of this got around right after out mock came up. The specifics about what medicals Mize has shared, what Detroit has, what other teams have and what those medicals say is a little hazy and some of the answers are protected by HIPAA so we won’t get everything we would like to know pre draft.

Travis Sawchik: Happy Monday, folks

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

Zock Jr.: I don’t know what’s better: Mookie’s performance or the fact that xwOBA thinks he’s actually deserved better results.

Travis Sawchik: Trout is still the best player in the world but Mookie is making it an interesting conversation. He’s always had elite eye-hand skills and now he’s learned to produce game power

westcoaster: Travis! Mookie is on pace for like a 50/40 season. No question really, just wanted to point that out.

Travis Sawchik: Not bad

Jeff Sullivan: Hello friends

Jeff Sullivan: Welcome to Friday baseball chat

Jack: Is C.J. Cron for real?

Jeff Sullivan: I’ve always liked Cron as an obvious source of power. There were hints of some development that got hidden in his “down” 2017; the Rays jumped on the chance to land some upside

Jeff Sullivan: That being said, he’s neither a premium defender nor a premium pitch-taker, so he’s limited in how valuable he can become. I think, at the time, it made enough sense to basically swap Dickerson for Cron, but not because Cron was on the verge of becoming a four-win player or anything

greg: What kind of trade value does Scooter Gennett have?

Eric A Longenhagen: Hey, everyone. Finishing up a podcast. Will be here shortly

Eric A Longenhagen: Okay chat, I am here

Eric A Longenhagen: Sorry. Pod went long, because they’re fun to do with Carson and Kiley.

Eric A Longenhagen: Ok

Mike: Anything you’d change in the top 10 of the mock based on new info?

Eric A Longenhagen: Swaggerty to 9, McClanahan out of the top 10, Grayson Rodriguez anywhere from 10-TEX

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon/morning and welcome to another edition of my weekly Thursday chats.

First, some housekeeping. In last week’s discussions of favorite sandwiches in NYC, I mourned the loss of the fried chicken sandwich from Van Horn Sandwich Shop, but I neglected to mention the loss of a sandwich that trumped even that: the Italian at Bierkraft, a Park Slope specialty beer shop that also did great subs. For meats, theirs had house roasted  ham, hot sopressata, proscuitto di Parma and something called petit jesu, which is a garlic-and-red-wine salami that looks like this https://stinkybklyn.com/shop/charcuterie/petit-jesu/. Also arugula, tomato, onion, roasted red pepper, balsamic and EVOO.

Jay Jaffe: That and a pint or bottle of any craft beer was a reliable go-for dinner or a picnic lunch back when my wife lived nearby. And per my complaint about not being able to get a decent Italian sandwich nearby — no, i’m not paying $18 f’ing dollars to the place with 150 different combos at Dekalb Market, edit your damn menu — it’s because none will ever measure up to that one.

(and yes, I do have a jpg of a menu for a place that went out of business three years ago. What’s weird about that?)

Accountability about sandwich remembrances is what I’m here for.

Marshall: Would you vote for Chase Utley for HoF?

Jay Jaffe: Hell yes. Hugely underrated player because he was not only an exceptional hitter but fielder and baserunner as well. Ninth in JAWS at 2B https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/jaws_2B.shtml but I think he’s gonna get burned by the Rule of 2,000 as he needs 126 more hits and I’m just not sure he gets enough playing time to get there.

John Oleruds Helmet: Mr Jay! Enlighten thou with thy wisdom across the chativerse!! With the way front offices have devalued aging veterans and the prominence of players increasing their launch angle at the expense of contact, could a 3000 hit player become an impossibility in our lifetime like the 300 win pitcher has become??

Jay Jaffe: Well, we’re probably going to see Miguel Cabrera and Robinson Cano reach 3,000 within a few years, but after that, it could be awhile, as nobody active has more than ~2,100 and the guys that do (Markakis and Reyes) are 34 and 35. But I do think somebody like Altuve and of course Trout will have shots at it, if they stay healthy. We’ll have more of ’em than we do 300 win guys, for sure