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)?

Paul Swydan: Hi everybody!

Join Jeff and myself – and maybe even Chris – tonight at 9 pm ET to talk some Hot Meetings and Winter Stove action. I mean, Hot Winter and Meetings Stove. I mean … you know what I mean.

Get your questions in, and I’ll get some polls up (polls at bottom of transcript). See you soon!

Paul Swydan: Hey gang, what’s shaking? Baseball things happened today. Let’s talk about them!

Comment From Joe
How many GMs read FanGraphs?

Paul Swydan: More than the average bear, I’d wager.

Jeff Zimmerman: At least half at one or another.

Paul Swydan: And when I say read, I mean, article are likely provided to them in form or another. Don’t know that lots of GMs are actively refreshing the site to see what new form of chicanery we’ve concocted each day. They have lots of stuff to do and junk.

Jeff Sullivan: Hey everybody! It’s the winter meetings!

Jeff Sullivan: So let’s talk about the meetings and all the attendant rumors and whatnot.

Jeff Sullivan: Not real interested in the HoF voting yesterday. Worked out reasonably. Miller should be in. Didn’t want to go in after his death. Okay. Let’s just go ahead and not chat about that

Jeff Sullivan: Hottest topics at the moment are a Trumbo three-team trade and I guess Rajai Davis going to Detroit

Comment From SMC
Danny Espinosa to NYY makes too much sense to not happen.

Jeff Sullivan: I like the rumor about the Nationals balking at the idea of trading Espinosa away. No they aren’t. Cute try though. More than happy to move him.

Dan Szymborski: And we are live

Dan Szymborski: just transitioning over – I’ve been chatting at ESPN for last 2 hours

Comment From Mr. Wrestling IV
Dan, it’s 12:02, are you alive?

Dan Szymborski: I hope someday to live-tweet my death on Twitter or whatever the social network thing at the time is.

Comment From Anon21
Fitting that Halladay—seemingly a pretty classy athlete—retires away from the Phillies, whose fanbase is a subhuman pool of sentient slime.

Dan Szymborski: That’s too mean! I know lots of great Phillies fans. Every fanbase has a subsection of terrible fans.

Eno Sarris: See you in fifteen!

Eno Sarris: Lyrics of the day from one of my favorite songs of all time, and not just because it comes from the modern Brian Eno:

Bear in mind
we all fall behind
from time to time

Should be easy.

Comment From Jon
Happy Repeal Prohibition Day, Eno!

Eno Sarris: Sometimes, kids, the government makes good decisions.

Comment From Chris B.
Oh, cool. While convincing myself to love Will Smith, I found the Oliver five-year projections box on player pages. This changes … some things a little bit.

Eno Sarris: Those are pretty awesome.

Dave Cameron: Going to start a few minutes late today; I’m pretty under the weather and didn’t get much sleep last night, so I’m trying to gain some level of consciousness before answering questions.

Dave Cameron: Okay, coherence not guaranteed, but let’s try this.

Comment From Mooser
Better deal for Yanks, McCann or Ellsbury

Dave Cameron: McCann, pretty easily.

Comment From SMC
I’m a NYY fan. How should I feel about Ellsbury?

Dave Cameron: Feel that he’s a good player. Be happy he makes the team better.

Paul Swydan: HI Everybody!

Soooooooooooooooo….anything happen in the baseball world today?

My goodness. Today there was a veritable bonanza of baseball things. Let’s talk about them, shall we? Jeff Z and I will be here at 9 pm ET to talk all about it. Until then, I will put up some polls (polls at bottom of transcript), and you can pop some questions in the queue.

Also, don’t forget to buy The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2014, on sale now!

See you at 9!

Paul Swydan: Hi guys, sorry, I was on the phone. Let’s light this candle!

Comment From JonCor
In terms of all the moves, why today?

Paul Swydan: I wish I had a good answer for this. I have absolutely, positively, no idea.

Paul Swydan: Jeff will be along in a sec.

Comment From Pat
Considering their abundance of young arms, should the Mets consider trading low-upside, but steady Dillon Gee to fill their OF/SS hole?