Dave Cameron: So, today’s chat will start a little bit late; still only have one car in Oregon at the moment and wife and kid need a ride.

Dave Cameron: We will aim to start around 12:15.

Dave Cameron: Alright, Dave’s Uber Service has been completed. Let’s do this thing.

Matt (Denver): Should Buck Showalter be fired for not using Britton last night?

Dave Cameron: No. In-game decisions are probably a minority of the ways that managers can impact a team, and by most accounts, Showalter is excellent at the other stuff. No one is perfect.

That said, if I’m Dan Duquette, I’m sitting down with Showalter and walking through the thought process of this decision, and trying to help him see why he should do it differently next time. If, after some reasonable conversations, he maintains he wouldn’t do anything differently, then I might make a change.

Dave Cameron: You don’t want to overrate in-game strategy as a part of the job, but intellectual curiosity has to be part of the process, and if Showalter refuses to believe that his decision was a mistake, then he might not be the right guy going forward.

Jeff Sullivan: Hello friends

Bork: Hello, friends!

Jeff Sullivan: Hello friend

Jeff Sullivan: Welcome to October 4 American League Wild Card One-Game Playoff Live Blog

Jeff Sullivan: I will be joined at some point by both Eric and Carson! And all of you and your blessed hearts

Eric A Longenhagen: Hi everyone, we’ve got some great questions in the queue so I wanna hop into things quickly, but just a heads up on what I’m up to today:

Eric A Longenhagen: I’m hitting instructs after the chat. Oak, AZ, SF and a KBO team. Looks like I’ll be doing the AL Wild Card live chat tonight with Sullivan, too. So come enjoy a more scout-y flavored chat if you’re so inclined.

Eric A Longenhagen: Ok, let’s do it.

Billy: Have you gotten a chance to see Corey Ray yet this fall? What are your opinions on him?

Eric A Longenhagen: I assume you mean the Brewers Corey Ray and not the Royals (who I saw throw a bullpen yesterday, he looked good). Haven’t seen CF Ray but heard he was on crutches this week so I’m looking into that.

Dan: Is Aristides Aquino a potential top 100 prospect heading into next year?

august fagerstrom: Pre-playoff chat!

august fagerstrom: We’ll get started at noon

august fagerstrom: Soundtrack is the new Bon Iver record, which might be my AOTY so far:

Bork: Hello, friend! I actually made it to a chat!

august fagerstrom: Hello, friend!

Pie: Do you think Mike Trout is good at baseball?

Dan Szymborski: Peanut butter jelly time.

Dan Szymborski: No dancing bananas. Just shut up and eat your sandwich.

Tim: I’m a big Dodgers fan, what is the teams #1 concern?

Dan Szymborski: There’s some angry Babylonian god that’s focused primarily on making their starting pitchers injured.

Dan Szymborski: Or having to go through the Cubs at some point

Erik: If a team made all of their signings and trades based strictly on ZiPS, never allowing themselves to allow their own intuitions to have any affect, how much better or worse off would they be than a typical organization? What type of great moves would they pull off? What would their biggest blunders be?

Jeff Sullivan: Hello friends

Jeff Sullivan: I guess I’m back to being late again

Jeff Sullivan: Welcome to Friday baseball chat!

CamdenWarehouse: Is there actually evidence that says mid range power guys hit more warning track fly balls than the bigger power guys or is this something that just seems correct?

Jeff Sullivan: I think to me and others it just *seems* correct. Now, this is something that would be possible to investigate with Statcast, so with good fortune someone will take it up in the coming weeks or months to confirm

Jeff Sullivan: I’d really like to know how evenly or unevenly fly balls end up being distributed

Eno Sarris: happy birthday dad! (I was actually at this show)

Seabass: Resign Ramos in a dynasty at $6? ($220 budget)

Eno Sarris: I dunno. Catchers kinda suck year to year. I kinda just look for whomever is healthy and having a good year. It was a good year but he’s turning thirty, has a torn ACL and maybe meniscus, and probably should be valued as a .270/18 HR guy going forward.

Eno Sarris: And can you value him for the whole year?

Toki: What is going on with Renfroe? Is he for real or is this a mirage and once pitching adjusts good times are over?

Eno Sarris: I like that he’s not missing more than the power, which is not real useful in small samples. Maybe he won’t strike out 25+% of the time, which means maybe he can hit .250+ with good power. It’s also more likely he starts with the team next year, which is important.

Dave Cameron: Happy Wednesday, everyone. It’s the final chat of the regular season; next week we’ll be in full on postseason mode.

Dave Cameron: So let’s wrap up the six month run with an hour’s worth of baseball talk.

Matt: Will the death of Jose Fernandez impact your Cy Young award vote?

Dave Cameron: I’ve spent a decent amount of time thinking about this over the last few days, and I continue to be of mixed feelings. On the one hand, Fernandez is a legitimate candidate, and we will never get to vote for him again; giving him the award would be a great way to say goodbye. On the other hand, I’m uncomfortable with the idea that an award for on-field performance should be determined by something like this, and think it’s not fair to Jose or the other contenders to decide my vote based on his death. In the end, I think I’m going to vote as if he was still alive, and not have it impact the ballot.

Tommy Lasordid: Considering the current health of both teams, should the Dodgers be considered favorites over the Nats?

Dave Cameron: I would say so, yes.

Paul Swydan: Hi everybody!

Jeff Zimmerman: Hi

Byron: So it looks like the Dodgers are going to let Julio Urias pitch in the postseason going past his innings limit. Thoughts?

Paul Swydan: I think that flags fly forever, and that innings limits are arbitrarily set by teams out of fear and not science. Let the kid pitch.

Jeff Zimmerman: Not a huge deal, but I may start his spring training late next year

Aladdin Sane: Voted Kluber because the wording made me think we are assuming, for poll purposes, that he’d be out for the season.

august fagerstrom: Just a heads-up, guys — had shoulder surgery on Thursday, and my left arm is currently totally immobilized and hooked up to a cryotherapy unit. Makes it sort of difficult to type, so bear with me on the speediness of this chat.

august fagerstrom: Soundtrack: The Antlers – Burst Apart

botchatheny : you are looking well

august fagerstrom: about how I’ve felt the last few days

petey: Sale/Kluber/Porcello looks like a total dead heat for the AL Cy. How would you decide a tiebreaker between them?

august fagerstrom: Sale: 5.9 RA9-WAR, 5.2 FIP-WAR, 6.9 DRA-WAR (6.0 tWAR)
Kluber: 5.7 RA9-WAR, 5.1 FIP-WAR, 6.1 DRA-WAR (5.6 tWAR)
Porcello: 6.2 RA9-WAR, 5.1 FIP-WAR, 4.7 DRA-WAR (5.3 tWAR)