Dan Szymborski: It begins.

The Average Sports Fan: Is Piscotty a real trade piece?  Does his contract help or hurt?

Dan Szymborski: After his 2017, it probably hurts a bit.  I don’t think he’s a real trade piece at this moment.

Nate: Give us a hypothetical return if the Giants trade Bumgarner this winter, pretty please?

Dan Szymborski: Given two years, I think he’d land a top 20 prospect and a second somewhere in the top 100 and some lotto tickets.

Ubaldo Jimenez: Should the Orioles resign me to a 100 million dollar contract?

Dave Cameron: Happy Wednesday, everyone.

Dave Cameron: I’m gettting a little bit of a late start today, but we’ll fire this thing up in a couple of minutes.

Andrew : Will Stanton be traded by the Winter Meetings and too what Team?

Dave Cameron: Since we’re dealing with a guy who has never run a team before, it’s hard to know what Jeter is going to do.

Dave Cameron: My guess is the teams that are interested will eventually tell the Marlins that they’re moving on if they don’t get an answer.

Dave Cameron: And I wouldn’t be shocked if that happened next week.

Paul Swydan:

Paul Swydan:

Paul Swydan: Hi everybody!

Paul Swydan: Just me tonight. Jeff is out of pocket.

MattyB: Does Keynan Middleton have a reasonable shot at taking over the Angels’ closer role during the 2018 season?

Paul Swydan: His chances probably depend on 1) can he cure his home run problems? and 2) Who gets hurt in front of him. But certainly not impossible.

Eric A Longenhagen: Good morning, everyone.

Roadhog: Is Franklin Barreto traded for an impact player?

Eric A Longenhagen: No idea. I don’t know why Oakland would trade a cost-controlled 21-year old with tools that big and who has already had success at Triple-A.

Paul R: Is McKay better suited as a pitcher or first basemen? If the latter, what kind of power numbers you see from him?

Eric A Longenhagen: I preferred him as a pitcher but I can see why some scouts liked him at first base. He has effortless plus raw power and some scouts thought, if he focused on hitting, he’d be a 55 or 60 hitter, too. So that’s like .280 with 25 homers or so.

Mozeliak: Any sleeper prospects in cardinals minor who may get into next years top 100?

Travis Sawchik:

Travis Sawchik:

Travis Sawchik: Greetings!

Travis Sawchik: I put on about three pounds in six days

Travis Sawchik: Not in the best shape of my life

Travis Sawchik: Now let’s talk about Ohtani …

Dave Cameron: Happy Wednesday, everyone.

Dave Cameron: I have to get my turkey in the brine so we’ll start in a few minutes after I do that.

Dave Cameron: Alright, let’s get this thing started.

Zonk: Mashed Potatoes or Sweet Potatoes?

Dave Cameron: I prefer sweet, but we serve both.

Zonk: Which of these ingredients belong, or don’t belong, in stuffing:  Sausage, Apple, Nuts of any kind

Paul Swydan:

Paul Swydan:

Paul Swydan:

Paul Swydan: Hi everybody! FYI you’re all underrating pecan pie!

hscer: There’s more than one kind of “cranberry sauce” y’know!

Paul Swydan: Ah touche.

Eric A Longenhagen: Mornin’. Let’s get right to it….

Dan: Assuming he comes over this winter, will Ohtani be the #1 prospect in baseball?

Eric A Longenhagen: Yup, I noted he’d be #1 on last year’s 100. Did have some injury issues in the past year, though.

Tommy N.: What do you think of Cal Quantrill now after his first year? Seemed like his breaking pitch needs a lot of refinement

Eric A Longenhagen: Agreed, that’s been the book on Quantrill for a while. Velo, command, changeup all in place. How much can the curveball progress?

Bobv: Anyone not protected from the Rule 5 draft that surprised you?

Travis Sawchik: Greetings, folks

Travis Sawchik: Please let me know one thing you are thankful for before submitting your next question! Tis the season

Travis Sawchik: Let

Travis Sawchik: ‘s get started …

dominik: regarding context neutral: would you like to go fully context neutral and use xWOBA for WAR (and possibly also awards)? I can somehow understand james argument, if you consider other luck based factors on award votings (BABIP and HR/FB …) why not go fully context dependent and use leveraged stats? you would need to normalize for team strength but that shouldn’t be hard to do.

Travis Sawchik: I think award voting and player skill are two different things

Eno Sarris: old school, well titled

emlazar: What kind of market is out there for Stephen Piscotty?

Eno Sarris: I bet there’s a decent one among the rebuilders. He’s shown the ability to hit for power and the fly ball drop last year was not so precipitous that you can’t see it coming back.

BK: Judge or Altuve tonight?

Eno Sarris: Guessing Altuve, people going to talk about how well rounded he is.

emlazar: Could you see TOR or SEA targeting someone like Joc Pederson? What kind of a return would LAD be looking for?