Jeff Sullivan: I KNOW

Jeff Sullivan: I know I know I know

Jeff Sullivan: So let’s just move on and talk baseball and pretend this never happened

Comment From big boy brandon geluso
late brah ya heard?

Jeff Sullivan: At some point down the road we’ll all look back and this will be a delightful character trait

Jeff Sullivan: See this is why I always chat for like two hours

Dan Szymborski: You know what I hate? When sportswriters are seen as the bottom of the writing pyramid, slack-jawed mouth-breathers too stupid to do anything else with their lives.

Dan Szymborski: You know what I hate more? When the BBWAA voting members do their very best to prove them right.

Dan Szymborski: Welcome to today’s edition of the Very Angry Zim chat.

Comment From Dan
Do you have Zips by you ATM? Curious what Zorilla’s defense looks like at other positions in +/- terms

Dan Szymborski: I don’t, windows is updating there.

Comment From Mike
Every year ZiPS predicts Ben Rever will hit a HR and I laugh. Can you go into the process that leads to such a crazy projection? If he’s “rounding up to 1” is he slowly dropping from 0.8 HR to 0.6 HR or something?

Comment From Dave
Do you hate your boss for making your work today? Do you wish he’d tell you to just bag it and go do something else instead?

Jeff Sullivan: He didn’t make me work today! I’m doing this of my own volition, but I figure I’ll only chat for an hour or so before doing something else with or near the family

Jeff Sullivan: But that depends on the audience. If everybody’s otherwise occupied, I’ll get rid of this and no one will ever know it attempted to happen!

Comment From Evan
Where does Balfour go now? Crain?

Comment From Sam
Do you think the Rays are favorites to land Balfour at this point?

Jeff Sullivan: Balfour’s going to be an interesting one — the Rays will be in there provided his price is lower than it was, but if the Mariners get somewhat bold or miss out on other targets they’ve been asking about a veteran closer type and Balfour could now cost a lot less than Rodney

Eno Sarris: I’m here! I’m here. I’m very very tired. Boy woke me up at four am today. So please, be very weird to keep me awake.

Eno Sarris: see you at the top of the hour

Eno Sarris: Lyrics of the day:

“But Sabermetrics has its flaws. One of them, for evaluation purposes regarding the Hall, is not accounting enough for statistics era to era.”

oh ok fine since we’re off for the holidays here’s my hipster holiday music lyrics of the day

“I think it’s good to go out
cause if you don’t you’ll never make a memory that will stay
I think that you should wake up
I think I want to live my life and you’re just in my way”

Comment From Andy
eno!!!!!!

Comment From Cubdom
Word is Tanaka not happening – does this in any way affect shark baits value?

Eno Sarris: Sure, he’s probably the best non-Price pitcher “available” if so.

Dave Cameron: It’s post-winter meetings, pre-Christmas. Because of the holidays, this will be my last chat for a few weeks, most likely. So, let’s make this one count.

Comment From Kevin Towers
With all the ridiculous moves I’ve made, why do I still have a job?

Dave Cameron: Because it doesn’t look ridiculous to an owner to get rid of a player coming off a bad year. Towers specialty of late is selling low on talented guys coming off poor performances.

Dave Cameron: Not hard to sell those kinds of moves, even if they’re not a great idea.

Comment From STiVo
I loved Zimmerman’s articles on hitter aging curves. How robust do you think the findings are, i.e., that “Chances are the [position] player is likely producing at his career-best [at the beginning of his MLB career]”? Great start… But a lot more work is needed, right?

Dave Cameron: Yeah, I’d tread carefully on conclusions. It could just be a blip.

Paul Swydan: Hi everybody! I’ll be flying solo tonight, I believe, as Jeff is under the weather. Get your questions in. This will be our last chat of the 2013 calendar year! See you soon. (polls at bottom of transcript)

Paul Swydan: One chat for the year left. One beer left. Let’s do this thing.

Comment From Sgt. Knobface
Am I crazy to believe that Middlebrooks, Boegarts and JBJ will all produce 2+WAR? Or are you crazy for not believing so?

Paul Swydan: You’re not crazy, but at the same time, I wouldn’t peg it as a likely occurence. One of them is going to fall under that bar. I’d say the least likely to fall under that bar is Bogaerts.

Paul Swydan: Sorry, baby spit up everywhere.

Comment From David
Andrew Albers or Vance Worley?

Jeff Sullivan: Hey guys, let’s baseball chat

Jeff Sullivan: If I disappear for a few minutes it’s probably because someone is at the door for a routine apartment inspection

Jeff Sullivan: Happening today somewhere between nine in the morning and five in the after-morning!

Jeff Sullivan: Alternatively I’m just taking a really long time to move on to the next question or answer

Jeff Sullivan: that was not a person at the door! that was me losing a link to something! anyway

Comment From Guest
Why does Fangraphs project 8 NL teams to get 300 PA at DH?

Dan Szymborski: And boom goes the dynamite.

Dan Szymborski: DISCLAIMER FOR GRUMPY PEOPLE: DAN’S CHAT MAY NOT MAKE MUCH SENSE AT TIMES, MAY GO OFF-TOPIC, AND MAY BE COMPLETELY ARBITRARY AND DAN IS THE BENEVOLENT TYRANT. CONSUME AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Comment From GSon
dynamite is overrated..

Comment From Jake
Thought on Ellis to the Cardinals (given we don’t know the $ but that it’s a 1-year deal)? Seems very Cardinal-esque

Dan Szymborski: He’ll be useful as a backup plan to Wong – he’s better than either Descalso or Kozma. I don’t hate the Infante signing, but Ellis would have been a good fit there that would’ve left more dough for a pitcher

Comment From RotoLando
And now, broadcasting LIVE from the ZIPS Command Center, deep in the heart of the Severnaya Bunker, it’s the Sultan of Shorts, the Raja of Oddjob, The Big BABIP Himself, Daaaaaaaaaaaaan Szymborski!!!!

Eno Sarris: Will be here in 15!

Eno Sarris: Lyrics of the day… next line describes my next move

I wasn’t always cargo
I was once kind of my own

I guess I’ll pack up my mind
It took so much effort
Not to make an effort
Oh, what a flawless design

It was always worth it
That’s the part I seem to hide
And the busy ant empire
Put all your clothes inside

Comment From Staypufft
Always nice of you to show up 13 minutes early to let us know you’ll be 2 minutes late.

Eno Sarris: And then I throw a curveball and show up a minute early!

Comment From Carls Golf Bag
Eno!!!!!

Eno Sarris: Just a bunch of excited balls.

Dave Cameron: We’ll do an extra long chat here from Orlando today, so in order to preserve a little bit of a normal lunch time, we’re just going to start an hour early. Hot stove talk obviously will be a priority, but the queue is now open for your questions.

Comment From Dave
Which team is having the least eventful winter meetings?

Dave Cameron: Maybe the Orioles. All the rumors about the O’s is that they they aren’t interested in this guy or that guy.

Comment From Bkgeneral
Phillips or Espinosa a better fit @ 2b for NYY?

Dave Cameron: Infante.

Comment From Alex
The Tigers have to explore trading Scherzer right? The 2014 team looks to be going nowhere. Is a Scherzer/Jackson package possible (or a 3-way ala Granderson/Jackson 2009)?