Jeff Sullivan: Hello friends

Jeff Sullivan: Welcome to live baseball chat

Jeff Sullivan: Approximately nothing has happened in baseball for a couple of weeks, so this ought to be gripping

Comment From Tony G.
Are you surprised that Shields still hasn’t signed?

Jeff Sullivan: I think everybody is. I usually don’t worry about these things when they drag out, but there’s something about the calendar flipping to February

Jeff Sullivan: I think it’s in some way an encouraging reflection of the baseball market — teams are less willing to pay for what a player has already done. With Shields, you sell the durability, the innings totals, but teams now are genuinely afraid of what all that durability might mean now

Dan Szymborski: Whew, just barely made it!

Dan Szymborski: Stupid post-Super Bowl oversleeping.

Comment From Dan
It’s actually still a dream.

Dan Szymborski: I’d make a joke that I’m posting naked, but I don’t want to give you guys nightmares.

Comment From Mike T
Snowing and sleeting here… need baseball to get here soon!

Dan Szymborski: I get post-sports affective disorder between football and spring training.

Kiley McDaniel: I have the least snappy intros in the prospect chat game and I’m gonna keep it that way

Comment From Total Clown
Hey Kiley, is that prospect you just wrote about legit?

Comment From Pale Hose
Is Carson Cistulli legit?

Comment From RotoLando
Hell yeah, it’s time for the legittest chat on the internet

Kiley McDaniel: Good to see you guys have your game face on

Comment From CoolWinnebago
Keith Law’s (Sorry!) top 100. What are your feelings on it? Im no expert but parts of it just seem nonsensical to me. Ex. Joe Ross at #63 and Matt Wisler omitted. Judging from your org write ups your list will have many disagreements with his.
Also, remind me when your list is coming out.

Eno Sarris: I’ll be here shortly shorty

Eno Sarris: Let’s start off mellow

{“author”:”Billy Valds”}:

Comment From Carl
You can target one player in a trade — are you going after Paul Goldschmidt (8th round keeper) or Anthony Rizzo (20th round)?

Eno Sarris: Give me Rizzo and the 12 rounds!

Comment From Miketron
How intrigued are you with Travis Snider now that he is in Baltimore?

Paul Swydan: Hi everybody! I’m flying solo tonight. Jeff is having some computer trouble. Sorry to postpone last night, but after three hours of the snowblower vibrating my hands, the last thing I was up for was rapidly typing for an hour. Hopefully you understand.

But I’m here tonight, and starting at 9 pm ET we can talk all the baseball talk you can talk. Or something. See you soon

Paul Swydan: OK, let’s do this.

Comment From Rated Rookie

Paul Swydan: This was more or less me yesterday.

Comment From DC
Whatcha think about me trading a $17 Carlos Gomez for $17 Hanley and $5 kris Bryant? These values would be set for 3 years.

Paul Swydan: I think that if you can make up the steals elsewhere then this is a no-brainer.

Dave Cameron: It’s a Wednesday, so we’re chatting. Because the wife is at the dentist, leaving me with both child and dog, there’s a chance we’ll start a little late today; I don’t know how well I’ll be able to work and care for two attention craving beings at the same time.

Dave Cameron: Alright, Mom’s home just in time for the kid to start screaming, so let’s talk some baseball while I ignore it.

Comment From mtsw
Any good reason to think Travis Snider is a better options for the Orioles outfield than De Aza or Lough? Does he make more sense as half a DH platoon with Delmon Young?

Dave Cameron: Why is it either/or? They didn’t DFA De Aza or Lough. Having three useful outfielders is better than having two.

Comment From David
Casey Janssen can’t replace Clippard because almost nobody can, but do you expect a rebound from him next year?

Dave Cameron: Yeah, he seems like a decent bounce back candidate. Probably more of a decent arm than a relief ace, but he could be a nice little addition.

Jeff Sullivan: Hey guys

Jeff Sullivan: Having some operational issues but this should be resolved any moment

Jeff Sullivan: There we go. That was weird

Comment From Amoeba
ASTROS_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 2014 GB/FB ratio
Evan Gattis_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 0.87
Colby Rasmus_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 0.81
George Springer_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 1.15
Jon Singleton_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 0.85
Jose Altuve_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 1.60
Jed Lowrie_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 0.71
Luis Valbuena_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 0.66
Jason Castro or Hank Conger_ _ _ _ _ 1.26 (0.79)
Chris Carter_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 0.53
AVG_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 0.94 (0.89)MARLINS_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 2014 GB/FB ratio
Christian Yelich_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 3.42
Marcell Ozuna_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 1.44
Giancarlo Stanton_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 1.06
Michael Morse_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 1.37
Dee Gordon_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 3.13
Adeiny Hechavarria_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 2.26
Martin Prado_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 1.65
Jarrod Saltalamacchia_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 0.93
AVG_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 1.91

Is it fair to say that Astros and Marlins have opposite team construction philosophies?

Jeff Sullivan: Well that’s a hell of a way to start

Jeff Sullivan: Let me try to parse whatever this is trying to say

Dan Szymborski: From his secret lair here on Skullcrusher Mountain, it’s the Dan Szymborski FanGraphs Chat!

Dan Szymborski: (No presidents as I am not home)

Comment From Dan
Do you have the Zips PC at least so we can get some projs?

Dan Szymborski: On my laptop, so no. There would be long waits between.

Comment From Eric
Your best guess as to where Shields lands?

Dan Szymborski: That’s hard as he’s the last really desirable free agent standing so there are a lot of options.

Kiley McDaniel: I’m starting to run out of non-snappy things to say to kick off chats.

Comment From Raza
Where would you rank the Yankees farm system? Top 10? Top 15? 20? Bottom 10?

Kiley McDaniel: Just wrapping up their list right now. I have them 11th at the moment, but as covered in my last piece, the idea of ranking the systems depends on what you want to emphasize, since there isn’t an objective method for this yet.

Comment From j
Your Yankee list coming out today?

Kiley McDaniel: That’s up to the editors when it gets published, but about 30 min away from finishing it…once I finish this chat, of course. Currently at 6900 words.

Comment From The Butter-Upperer
Kiley, Old Bean, your chats are top drawer material.

Eno Sarris: be here shortly.

Eno Sarris: my car is cold, and for some reason that puts my shuffle on the fritz, and this is the first song in my ipod so I’ve been listening to a lot of this recently

{“author”:”RHINO”}:

Comment From Fish
Haven’t been to one of these in a while. Is it still weird?

Eno Sarris: Probably.

Comment From Tony G.
I realize that this is a broad question, but I hope you’ll answer it anyway. I’m in an AL-only league and currently focusing on the type(s) of strategy I will use going into this season. Care to share some thoughts/pointers based on your own approach? Thanks!