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!

Dave Cameron: May have to start a few minutes late today, as I’m working out of the house this afternoon. If we start late, we’ll go a little long to make up for it.

Dave Cameron: Alright, I just finished off one of the better meatball sandwiches I’ve ever had, so I should probably plug this place: if you’re ever in Greensboro, NC, check out Giacomo’s Italian Market. Everything’s homemade, and that was really good.

Dave Cameron: Now for some baseball.

Comment From Eric
What do you think are the most likely landing spots for Shields?

Dave Cameron: Toronto seems like the clear fit to me. They still have money to spend, prefer shorter term contracts, and have a clear need for another big time starter.

Comment From lostpond
Are you looking to hire any interns for Fangraphs? I’m a college student with a variety of experiences and I would love to work for the site.

Paul Swydan: Hi everybody! Jeff and I will be here to cram some baseball down your cramholes at 9 pm ET! Or, at least I will be. To be fair, I haven’t talked to Jeff yet, and he’s a busy guy. While we’re sorting that out, take a look at some polls.

Paul Swydan: Whattup peeps! Long time no chat. Let us remedy this!

Comment From Guest
Dean Anna should be a verb

Paul Swydan: Definitely let us know which players you think should be verbs.

Jeff Zimmerman: Carson agrees

Comment From Blueyays
How was Banknotes Harper not in the verb poll?

Jeff Sullivan: Hey everybody

Jeff Sullivan: Welcome to live baseball chat

Jeff Sullivan: Last week, I had to end earlier than usual, because I had to go meet Rob Neyer and fall down on an artificial infield.

Jeff Sullivan: This week, I have to end *even earlier* for a different thing I have to do. We’re looking at something like a conventional hour or so. So, ask good questions

Jeff Sullivan: Or don’t, I don’t really care tbh

Comment From DerpyDan
Could you see Strasburg going to the mets for syndergaard and a complimentary player?

Kiley McDaniel: Why start being clever now?

Comment From Travis
Where do you rank Atlanta’s farm system now?

Kiley McDaniel: Haven’t done the Braves list yet, so they aren’t slotted into my (for the time being, private) org rankings yet. I have the Rockies 9th of the 16 teams I’ve done and the Braves have a better system than them. The next 2-3 teams above COL are kinda coinflips with ATL and the teams I haven’t done there’s only a couple that may be in this range. So probably 9th or 10th, give or take a few spots.

Comment From Bomok
Where would Rusney Castillo be on a top 100 prospect list? And what do you expect out of him next year?

Kiley McDaniel: I’d guess somewhere in the middle third of a top 100, but still too early for me that say that confidently.

Comment From Tommy
Given his contact issues, would Sano be nearly as intriguing if power wasn’t so down across the board?

Eno Sarris: yo! I’ll be here shortly.

{“author”:”Jagjaguwar”}:

Comment From hscer
guten Tag Eno, wie geht’s?

Eno Sarris: Gut!

Comment From Astro Boy
Does the trade to Houston increase the fantasy value of Evan Gattis? What kind of numbers do you expect from him this season?

Eno Sarris: I suppose he could hit closer to 30 than 25, yes. And with the DH, he should be able to play more. But! DHing is a skill, and we’re not quite sure he has it. If he does, it might be a great year. He’s a top-three or four catcher in redrafts either way.

Dave Cameron: Holding the kid so typing one handed. Queue is open and all that.

Dave Cameron: Alright, let’s do this.

Comment From Chuck
I understand the quick-and-dirty in regards to WAR equivalents for position player (2=Average, 4=all star, etc). Is there a good breakdown for RAR?

Dave Cameron: It depends a bit on the run environment, but the runs to win conversion is around 9-9.5 right now, so just multiply WAR by that and you’ll have RAR for that level.

Comment From jocephus

fangraphs legal dept?

Dave Cameron: Ken Tremendous likes us.