August Fagerstrom: Hi everyone! I do these now. Apologies for not being Kiley McDaniel, and furthermore for knowing little-to-nothing about prospects. You can ask me about literally anything else though! I’ll be back around noon to get things rolling

August Fagerstrom: ok, hi!

Comment From Kevin
So the Astros cannot possibly recover from that right?

August Fagerstrom: Sure they can! If anything, last night’s game highlighted how crazy and unpredictable baseball can be. I’m not sure game-to-game momentum is really a thing, especially when you have a good pitcher on the mound and a good team

August Fagerstrom: Also, Johnny Cueto hasn’t exactly looked like an ace since the Royals acquired him. Baseball is weird

Comment From Marc
Could the ALDS have gone any better from MLBs perspective?

Dan Szymborski: OK, I can’t let the suspense hang any longer. I have spoken. With my fingers. I’m not saying my answers out loud alone in my office because that’s whawt really crazy people do, not just regular crazy like me.

Comment From Phillies113
Dan, I imagine it’s going to be a short chat today, as nothing interesting or news-worthy happened this weekend, so there’s nothing to talk about.

Dan Szymborski: There were only like a half-dozen games! What a slow weekend!

Comment From Art Vandelay
The writers are tired of four-game MEGACHATS, huh?

Dan Szymborski: If you don’t have microchats, than the megachats feel less special

Comment From Minty
The Dodgers have two OF with much potential, do you trust Joc or Puig to figure it out first

Eno Sarris: Will be here shortly!

Eno Sarris:

Comment From Sgt. Pepper
I was 5 days old when the Jays were last in the playoffs. I don’t really remember it.

Eno Sarris: JOE CARTERRRRRR

Comment From Joe
SCORE! Bonus Eno chat.

Eno Sarris: Well, “bonus,” I wasn’t around earlier today…

Jeff Sullivan: Hello friends

Jeff Sullivan: Welcome to liveblog!

Jeff Sullivan: Joining me at some point will be Carson, I bet

Jeff Sullivan: For whatever it’s worth, this does not operate like a usual Q&A chat. There will be way too many people in here for us to put most comments though. Also I’m watching on MLB.tv which is always delayed by like 30 minutes so the chat will probably also be delayed in turn!

Comment From Sean
Hello Jeff, are you going to constantly yell about the managers not using their relievers?

Jeff Sullivan: I get bored of managerial criticism in the playoffs. As far as I’m concerned it’s mostly on the players to execute

Kiley McDaniel: I’m making a few calls but will drop in at noon eastern to baseball chat with you

Comment From Tim
Best college hitter in the 2016 draft?

Kiley McDaniel: Either Florida CF Buddy Reed or Louisville CF Corey Ray, both from Team USA this summer. Slight edge to Ray right now, but Reed has more upside and could overtake him this year. Both in the top 5-6 picks at this point for me.

Comment From Mike
The Orioles received some grief for taking Ryan Mountcastle with their 1st round compensation pick. But he performed pretty well in his first professional experience. What is his longterm outlook?

Kiley McDaniel: I like him as a prospect, I thought he was more of a 3rd round talent, but right before the draft there was buzz of a few teams looking at him in the early to middle 2nd round, so I think Baltimore had to take him there to get him.

Projectable frame, above average raw power, average to slightly above runner, makes a lot of contact, has had some trouble getting to the power in games but he’s still just 18. Most scouts say LF fit, but BAL thinks he can play 3B. Fringy arm and just okay feet/hands.

Comment From CoolWinnebago
Hi Kiley, have you written any in depth pitcher scouting articles? Specifically what you look for in throwing mechanics?

Jeff Sullivan: Let’s baseball chat!

Jeff Sullivan: My understanding is that yesterday Eno ran into a problem where the chat reached “capacity”

Jeff Sullivan: That was a mistake but I’m not sure if it’s been corrected yet so I guess we’ll just see

Jeff Sullivan: Might be a small group today. Don’t know!

Comment From TKDC
Where would you rank Boston and Atlanta’s front offices now in terms of saber-friendliness?

Jeff Sullivan: Boston’s higher. By a good amount, really. Many of the front-office staffers remain the same and Coppolella didn’t get any meaningful changes in responsibility

Eno Sarris: RockTober

Eno Sarris:

Eno Sarris: i’m here!

Comment From Eno Longer Here
I’m hosting a subsidiary chat in the comments section after you depart…

Eno Sarris: those people have been lonely, this is a great service.

Comment From Shawn
I recently learned that Goose Island Bourbon County always comes out day after Thanksgiving (at least in CT it does). Are there any other super popular beers that come out at 1 specific time every year that you know of?

Paul Swydan: Hi everybody! We’re one week closer to the postseason! That excites me greatly. Come chat with me (and possibly Jeff) at 9 pm ET and you’ll see just how excited! Well, in theory. We’re hosting a playdate in a little while, so I may be exhausted by the time 9 rolls around. And then I might say something foolish. So, really, it’s a win-win for you!

See you soon!

Paul Swydan: OK, let’s do this. Jeff might pop in later, but for now you’re stuck with me.

Comment From Nolan
Is the Shin Soo Choo deal going to be one of those contracts where our perceptions are poisoned by the first year of the deal? Choo has been well worth his salary this year, and the rest of the contract looks much better than it did after the 2014 season. It seems like this could be similar to the Werth or Soriano deals, insofar as it ends up being much better for the team than the first year would suggest.

Paul Swydan: You know, I want to choo-choo-choose him. But I think it’ll still look like an albatross. The bottom line is that you need the first three years to be very good values to balance the scales. That last year was a disaster makes it really difficult for it to be a good contract in the long run.

Comment From Noah
Is it just me or did an article just disappear from FanGraphs? I was just reading an article about the difference between the projections being flat out wrong (the Mets) and the projections not anticipating sequencing (the Twins). Now it’s gone! What happened?

Paul Swydan: Every once in awhile, we slip and accidentally publish an article that is either not finished yet or scheduled for the next day. Entirely possible that that just happened.

Kiley McDaniel: Giving you guys a minute to get some questions in before I start my yapping

Comment From Some Guy
What are you hearing about the teenage Cuban defector “Lazarito” that’s currently training in Haiti?

Kiley McDaniel: Fitting to start with one of the two buzziest topics among scouts right now. The hype on this kid is already pretty heavy and many heavy hitters haven’t really seen him before. I was going to write something about him this week, but it wouldn’t have too much hard info, so I figured it may be better for the chat.

Kiley McDaniel: So he’s a 16 year old Cuban named Lazaro Armenteros that defected. He’s about to start open workouts and I’ve talked to some scouts that saw him in int’l tourneys and one guy that saw him working out for smaller groups of scouts in the Caribbean recently.

He’s a built 6’2/205 with some projection, 65-70 speed, at least plus raw power and at least a plus arm, with the grades varying a bit on each of those grades given the incomplete looks and an age where things are still improving, but the lowest I’m hearing so far on those tools is 60. It’s a CF/RF fit, though he’s played some 1B/3B. You can see why Yasiel Puig is a common name mentioned as a similar player.

He’s more physically developed that almost all the recent big July 2 names you’d ask me to compare him to and the guys I talked to said he isn’t a tools goof with no feel, he’s actually got some instincts.

You can try to triangulate this and you end up in the Yoan Moncada type territory ($31.5M bonus from BOS that came with $31.5M penalty and two-year sanctions on signings over $300K) pretty quickly. Hard to say for sure if it’ll be above or below that, but everyone I’ve talked to said it will be huge money.

Way too early to know a team to project, but I’ve said many times that all the top Cubans this period will be tied to the Dodgers by default since they have limitless amounts of money and are going over during this period…which was a direct result of passing on Moncada late last period to instead go over for more than just one player. There’s a number of other Cubans that would be $5M+ types and would be pool-eligible once they get cleared to sign…so the Dodgers may finally find their financial limits in this market, but not without getting plenty of talent first.

Comment From Blaine
Wanted to thank you for the top notch content. You do a great job! I was just wondering what upside do you see in Blake Rutherford? How far is he from. Superstar draft prospect, 60 FV? And as a Braves fan, I see the Phils going with an arm at 1, do you think the Braves are in on Rutherford?

Kiley McDaniel: And now to the other topic getting buzz in scouting circles right now. I’m in the final stages of wrapping up my calls/emails on the draft list and there’s been some shuffling from the off-the-cuff names I’ve been mentioning recently in chats/twitter.

Rutherford has slipped a few spots but is still in the top tier of players, which is probably 6-7 names. He’s the oldest of the top prep prospects and is a tweener defensively without much physical projection. So, while the now ability is really good, he still projects and a top 10 pick, and he may have looked the best over the summer of this group, you can see why some scouts may downgrade him a bit when projecting into the future.