Paul Swydan: Hi everybody!

TheDudeofNY: Paul, have you seen Alien yet?

Paul Swydan: I have not. Might be awhile, going on a trip with the kids next week.

Paul Swydan: Oh, which probably means no chat next week. Sorry about that.

CJ: Who’s better Kershaw or Arrieta? Mike Wilbon on ESPN – Arrieta.. (Followed by a bunch of post season stats as his proof. Also mentioned that’s all that matters.) Was that a real opinion? My god the mainstream sports media. Do they not realize this is history in the making for Kersh???!!??

Paul Swydan: Mike Wilbon’s opinion on basketball or boxing is to be taken seriously. On baseball, I think he’s proven time and again that he is not to be taken seriously.

august fagerstrom: Gonna start a bit late today. Let’s call it 12:10 or so

august fagerstrom: In the meantime-

Bork: Hello, friend!

august fagerstrom: Hi, Bork!

Slothrop: Hey August congrats on the win for Cleveland. Happy for you and your fellow Clevelanders, and of course the players themselves

august fagerstrom: It’s been a really cool couple of days. Beyond the players/team, I’m mostly just happy for my father. That’s what’s had me most emotional since the win (and I’ve gotten emotional more than a handful of times). He’s lived his entire life as a die-hard Cleveland fan thanks to *his* father, and, like me, has also dedicated his life to working in sports. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have this job that I love so much. The bond sports can create between a parent and a child is the most special thing about sports in my mind, and knowing that he finally got to see a championship come to his city is the greatest thing about all of this to me

Eric A Longenhagen: Well, Happy AZL Opening Day to you too.

Eric A Longenhagen: Chat chat chat!

dock ellis: what do you make of rhys hoskins? anything there to get excited about?

Eric A Longenhagen: It’s certainly more effective than it is pretty — which is why you hear the Paul Goldschmidty nonsense connected to him, they share that — But still a 1B-only profile and he’s hitting in the same park that gave us Matt Rizotti, Darin Ruf, Tagg Bozied….

Eric A Longenhagen: He’s not a “no” for me, but when you step back and look at the whole profile, it’s probably not better than a platoon guy.

Eric A Longenhagen: I’ll get a first-hand look in about a week and a half, though.

JD: How much will Willson contreras be playing for the cubs, the rest of the season? Catches 2 of every 5 or more?

Dave Cameron: Happy Wednesday, everyone. We’re going to begin today’s chat with a life tip: if you’re selling your house, and you have a small child, don’t list the house the same week that you don’t have childcare. I don’t know what we were thinking.

Prates: Is Chris Archer just extremely unlucky? High BABIP, lowered his FB% from last season, but seems to be unlucky with high homers given up

Dave Cameron: When walks, BABIP, and HR rate all are all up the same time, it seems like it’s probably more “bad command” than “bad luck”. He’s got enough talent to get things turned around, but I’m guessing he’s just locating pitches really terribly right now.

Thatguy: Who are your early favorites to land Lucroy at the deadline?

Dave Cameron: Boston and Texas make the most sense. I could see Houston getting involved if they start making a real run at division again.

Dave Cameron: The Dodgers could also be in play, if they think that Grandal isn’t going to start hitting.

Paul Swydan: OK let’s do this. To answer a question I saw a couple of times, I don’t really consider Star Wars to be a space *travel* movie. Sue me.

Jeff Zimmerman: Holy cow, made it. I was just catching some college summer league baseball.

Paul Swydan: And my vote is probably The Martian, though there’s definitely some recency bias there.

Hannah Hochevar: Tarkovsky’s Solaris.

Paul Swydan: That I’ve never seen. Consider it on the list!

Honu: Worse look….man bun or mullet?

august fagerstrom: let’s do a chat!

Justin: Is there a site that has advanced stats for college players?

august fagerstrom: Not sure about advanced stuff, but The Baseball Cube is my go-to site for finding college stuff

einstein2u: I know it sounds crazy, but can Linecum be serviceable? maybe catch lightening in a bottle?

august fagerstrom: He can probably eat innings for a bad team

august fagerstrom: I doubt he’s much more than replacement level at this point though

Dan Szymborski: Stay awhile and listen.

Zonk: Reports are the Cubs are sniffing around the Yankees relievers. In your opinion, what would the Cubs need to add to Jorge Soler to pry Andrew Miller away? Is Soler alone enough for Chapman?

Dan Szymborski: Honestly, I’m not sure the Yankees are at the point yet at which they’ll really trade one of their No Runs DMC trio without being bowled over and I’m not sure a reliever is worth bowling someone over.

Richie rich: Who’s closing games for Minnesota a month from now? Do either Abad or Kintzler run away with the job or does Perkins come back strong and reclaim his throne?

Dan Szymborski: *If* he’s healthy — a pretty big if — I expect Perkins to be given as much of a chance as possible to get his spot back.

Big Joe Montferrant: Pineda has been MUCH better his last 3 starts with the change in arm angle. Do you seeing him being more typical Pineda ROS?

Eno Sarris: ‘nice’ day

Vinny From Philly: Am I going to be ok?

Eno Sarris: It’s not good. Biceps pain doesn’t make us all shiver like forearm problems, but it’s all one chain.

Anthony: Paxton is going to win a Cy Young one day….

Eno Sarris: Piece going up today about him! Just needs to stay in one piece.

Erik: With not too much separating the top 5-6 prospects in the draft tonight, the Phillies should abandon best player available and go with cheapest good enough player available instead, right?