Eric A Longenhagen: Hi everyone. There’s actual baseball being played here in AZ this week, rejoice rejoice.

Eric A Longenhagen: Oh, the Pirates list is done and being edited, I’d expect that tomorrow.

Eric A Longenhagen: Let’s begin

Owen: Dylan Cease: SP or RP?

Eric A Longenhagen: SP until he proves he can’t do it. I like the progression he’s shown since returning from TJ, less violent delivery, better fastball and curveball control.

Zonk: Is there something Mark Zagunis can do to get more interesting for you as a prospect guru?

Travis Sawchik: Welcome to my FanGraphs debut chat, everyone. I am sipping a generic seltzer water from Aldi and I am ready to go …

Matt: Aaron Nola? Thoughts? Does the UCL sprain concern you at all? At peak, is he anything more than a mid-rotation guy?

Travis Sawchik: The UCL sprain is obviously concerning, though Tanaka has been just fine having not had surgery to correct the issue … Nola has done really well controlling what he can control: K/9, BB/9, GB% and he might have more upside than that of a mid-rotations arm, 2017 is going to be interesting for him,

Guest: Why aren’t there more MLB players from Taiwan? All those kids who throw 75 in the LLWS and nobody grows up?

Travis Sawchik: Interesting question. In general, I’m surprised more MLB teams do not commit more scouts to Asia. Some teams have one scouting roaming an area where much of the world’s population resides …. There could be some undervalued markets remaining there.

BranBran: Greinke seems to be ranked around SP20 territory this preseason. That seems high for someone unusable in home starts, no?

Eno Sarris: I’m a dad so I’m not on top of all the trends so yeah i’m months late but whatever this guy is p good

Scott: Just so you know, you’re chat is supposedly happening in the past #Its2017Yo

Eno Sarris: I need another two months at least before this sinks in.

Bork: Hello, friend!

Eno Sarris: Hello!

Bork: What else can you use “I’m a dad” as an excuse for?

Dave Cameron: Happy 2017 everyone.

Dave Cameron: For Christmas, my son got me pneumonia, which was very thoughtful of him, and I’m not entirely back to full speed yet, so we might not make it the full hour today, but we’ll see how it goes.

Bork: What’s more likely to happen: Bautista signing with the Jays or waiting until after the draft to sign?

Dave Cameron: Signing with the Jays, by a lot. They need him, he needs them.

Jose Quintana: Why haven’t the Yankees or Pirates worked out a trade to get me?

Dave Cameron: Well the asking price is pretty high.

Paul Swydan:

Paul Swydan: Hi everybody!

Paul Swydan: Back to work.

Paul Swydan:

andres: David Peralta helps me? Muricio Dubon too?

Paul Swydan: This was tonight’s first question, which I always post. I’ll be honest though, I don’t get the context of it. I like both of those players…

Jeff Sullivan: Hello friends

Jeff Sullivan: Welcome to Friday baseball chat

Jeff Sullivan: I’ll let you know now this will be my last chat for a little while since right after Christmas I’m going on vacation

Jeff Sullivan: I’ll be back on January 13, which happens to be a Friday, which means I’ll be chatting, which means that time I’ll be asking *you* guys what’s been going on in baseball!

Bork: Merry Christmas, friend!

Jeff Sullivan: Hello friend

Eno Sarris: hey this is sort of holiday like

Bork: Hello, friend!

Eno Sarris: hello

hooha: Where would you recommend finding decent ADP data this early in the fantasy baseball season?

Eno Sarris: Couch managers has some stuff up.

hooha: drink of choice for christmas dinner?

Dave Cameron: Happy Wednesday, everyone. This is my final chat of 2016, as I’m traveling back east for Christmas, so let’s have a fun send off to a pretty lousy year.

Dave Cameron: But a lousy year that gave us a fun postseason, at least.

Brendon: How do player options work? Can a minor league player only be sent up and down so many times?

Dave Cameron: They really should just call them option years. A player can be optioned within a season as many times as the team wants, but they can only be optioned to the minors, without their consent, in three different years. There’s an exception that can get you a fourth option year, but it’s fairly rare.

Erik: What is the point of giving up any assets at all for Clay Bucholz? Does this indicate the Phillies don’t trust Thompson/Eflin/Appel? For a team at their stage of a rebuild, shouldn’t they be giving innings to prospects on the cusp on the big leagues, even if those prospects struggle?

Dave Cameron: MLB has mad it more difficult to turn current dollars into future value, so now large revenue teams like PHI can do that by taking on contracts that other teams don’t want, then hoping their value goes up and trading them for prospects later. If Buchholz has a decent half season in Philly, he’ll be traded to a contender in July, and the team will either have spent $7 million to acquire whatever prospects they can get for Buchholz then, or they can pay down the remainder of his contract and buy even better prospects for $10 million or whatever.

Paul Swydan:

Paul Swydan: Hi everybody!

Paul Swydan: Not sure if Jeff will be here or not. I forgot to talk to him today.

Paul Swydan: In any case, welcome to the last FanGraphs After Dark chat of 2016. It’s been a journey.

Josh: What options are there for LHH 4th Outfielders?

Paul Swydan: Perusing the list, I see Angel Pagan, Rajai Davis (though he’s better from the right side), Michael Saunders, Brandon Moss, Nori Aoki, Michael Bourn. http://www.fangraphs.com/freeagents.aspx?sign=all&pos=OF&nteam=all&oteam=all

Eric A Longenhagen: Good morning from Tempe, hope you’re all well. ICYMI, the Royals prospect list went up yesterday and I’m finishing up Detroit today before moving on to the NL Central. Let’s begin…

Roadhog: Any thoughts on Paul Blackburn?

Eric A Longenhagen: Teams typically need 10 starters to get through a season and Blackburn projects as one of those 10, an up and down depth arm.

Bill: I miss Josh Tobias and wish him the best. Thoughts on him?

Eric A Longenhagen: Good feel for the barrel, good approach, scouts don’t like the defense at 2B and he doesn’t have the power to profile anywhere else so it’s a bench bat profile. He’ll need to diversify his defensive portfolio moving forward.

John: Which level of the Padres minor league system will be the one to watch?