Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks! And Happy Hall of Fame Ballot Season. Yesterday the BBWAA released the 2026 writers ballot, which I took my first look at here https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-big-questions-about-the-2026-bbwaa-hal…

Jay Jaffe: It’s a weak first-year slate that doesn’t have anybody who will get in this year, and I see only one candidate — Cole Hamels — with any long-term potential

Jay Jaffe: Meanwhile, Carlos Beltrán needs to gain less than 5% to gain entry. My pofile of him should be going up shortly.

Jay Jaffe: Meanwhile, I’ve profiled six of the eight candidates on the 2026 Contemporary Baseball Era Committee ballot, including Fernando Valenzuela on Friday. Long story short, I think the voters should be looking at him as a pioneer rather than focusing on the good-not-great statistics  https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2026-contemporary-baseball-era-committee-c…

Jay Jaffe: For our weekly subscriber mailbag, I wrote an article-length answer regarding Committee voters potentially treating other candidates as pioneers as well. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/fangraphs-weekly-mailbag-november-15-2025/

Jay Jaffe: with that ample preamble out of the way, on with the show.

Eric A Longenhagen: Hello from Salt River Fields at Talking Stick where the starting lineups for today’s championship game are coming through the PA.

Eric A Longenhagen: I’ll likely post it periodically in chat, but here is the link through which you can watch the stream of the game. Live Streams | Arizona Fall League | MLB.com

Eric A Longenhagen: We’re about to get the anthem so I’ll likely step away for, what do we wanna say, over under 1:20 on the anthem?

Eric A Longenhagen:

Eric A Longenhagen: I’ll be taking your questions as we all watch the game and put the 2025 season…not quite to bed because it feels that way already… more like into R.E.M. sleep

Eric A Longenhagen: Meg is going to time the anthem for us.

Dan Szymborski: And awaaaaay we go!

Ryan: After writing your Phillies report, do you see them as a fit for Jarren Duran? If not them, who?

Dan Szymborski: If they want him and have enough to tempt the Red Sox, I think most teams could fit in Duran’s skillset

Dan Szymborski: I have to admit, I’m still not sure how much of the trade buzz is smoke and not fire, even if it makes sense due to the logjam

The person who asks the lunch question: Is it a lunch day? What’s for lunch, if so?

Dan Szymborski: No lunch today

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks! Welcome to the first offseason edition of my weekly chat.

Jay Jaffe: I’ve reached the midway point in my evaluation of the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee ballot, which was released a week ago. Festivus has come early, for today I took another look at Gary Sheffield, his never-ending list of grievances, and his prodigious offensive production https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2026-contemporary-baseball-era-committee-c…

Jay Jaffe: Yesterday, it was Carlos Delgado, who went one-and-done on the 2015 ballot https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2026-contemporary-baseball-era-committee-c…

Jay Jaffe: before them it was Don Mattingly and Dale Murphy, whose profiles you can reach via the navbar above either of those linked articles.

Jay Jaffe: Tomorrow’s subject is Jeff Kent, which leaves Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Fernando Valenzuela to round out the ballot.

Jay Jaffe: Before I sunk my teeth into the Era Committee stuff, I had a piece last week positioning the Dodgers dynasty within the context of other dynasties from the post-1960 expansion era https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-dodgers-dynasty-takes-its-place-among-…

Eric A Longenhagen: BWAH HA HA HA HA! Jump Scare!

Eric A Longenhagen: It’s Halloween, and you know what that means; running back to the store once you realize the amount of candy you’ve eaten necessitates another bag. Bah haaaa haaaa!

Eric A Longenhagen: James and my write-up on Asian pros will be live momentarily, though all the reports are already available on The Board.

Eric A Longenhagen: Okay, let’s hit your questions.

Insert Witty Name Here: Gotta ask the obvious: what’s the 70, 60, 50, 40, 30, and 20 grade halloween candy?

Eric A Longenhagen: I have a 70 on Reese’s and Almond Joy, a 60 on Kit Kat, Twix, Reese’s Pumpkins and Snickers, 50 on Hershey’s anything, 40 and below on all fruit-related candies