Paul Swydan: HI EVERYBODY!

Welcome to the first FanGraphs After Dark chat of 2014!!!!

I hear there’s some sort of big announcement tomorrow. Something about a Hall of something? Ah, it’s probably nothing.

Anyway, Jeff and I will be here at 9 pm ET to cram as much baseball as possible into your ever-waiting gobs. So pop some questions into the queue and we’ll see you at 9!

Paul Swydan: Two minutes guys.

Paul Swydan: OK, let’s light this candle!

Comment From jv
Who is the best keeper for 2014 season? Josh Donaldson, Trevor Rosenthal, Patrick Corbin or Kris Medlen?

Paul Swydan: For strictly 2014, I will say Donaldson. Long-term I like Rosenthal, especially if he finds his way back to the starting rotation.

Jeff Zimmerman: Donaldson, I always like taking the hitter, but it is a tough call.

Jeff Sullivan: Let’s do this thing. Less late than last week!

Jeff Sullivan: This looks like it might be my last chat with CiL classic 🙁 I’m afraid of sweeping change

Jeff Sullivan: Or even minor, barely-noticeable change. To be honest I haven’t bothered to investigate

Comment From Swing and a Miss Puiggy
ruh roh….what changes are in store w/ CiL?

Jeff Sullivan: I don’t know. The screencaps make it look like big ones. Could be little ones but I like the current model! The classic model! Keep CiL Classic!

Comment From Froglegs Jackson
Do you know when ZIPS projections will start appearing on player pages?

Dan Szymborski: And here we are, the final Szym chat until Autordämmerung continues with the Hall of Fame announcement on Wednesday.

Dan Szymborski: And 2nd to last chat until I’m forced to switch to the new Cover it Live interface with more stuff.

Comment From RotoLando
Between the time when the oceans drank The Expos and the rise of the sons of Amaro, there was an age undreamed of. And unto this, Dan Szymborski, destined to wear the jeweled crown of Severnaya upon a troubled brow. It is I, his chronicler, who alone can tell thee of his saga. Let me tell you of the days of high conjectture!

Comment From Froglegs Jackson
PEANUT BUTTER JELLLLLLLLLLLY TIME

Comment From StevePete
Who’s the jackass who’s not going to put Maddux on their ballot?

Dan Szymborski: Probably Chass.

Eno Sarris: See you in fifteen minutes, I hope!

Eno Sarris: Lyrics of the day include the chorus because why not and let’s dedicate this year to numbers, no?

So people of the city I don’t need your counsel now
And I don’t need your good advice, you don’t have my lover’s touch

You don’t have my number, we don’t need each other now
The creed or the culture, we can move beyond it now

Eno Sarris: Happy New Year!

Comment From Guest
If you still use a checkbook, how long until you stop writing 2013 in it?

Eno Sarris: Was about to put 2013 on the title of this chat!

Comment From Miketron
Happy New Years, Eno! Any resolutions?

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?