Dan Szymborski: There’s a time for every purpose under heaven, even SzymChat

Guest: why is ZiPS still so in on Jack Suwinski’s bat?

Dan Szymborski: One thing is I’m not sure taht wRC+ is working correctly on the FG page at the moment

Dan Szymborski: But it’s still an extremely small sample

Dan Szymborski: and full fat ZiPS isn’t that much more negative

Guest: With the new BatCast data, do you think it will turn out to be better to have tightly clustered A and B swings (in terms of length or bat speed), or to have a smooth continuum?

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks!

Jay Jaffe: Welcome to another edition of my Tuesday chat. I’ve got a piece up today on Jung Ho Lee and the Giants’ unrelenting wave of injuries (https://blogs.fangraphs.com/jung-hoo-lee-goes-down-amid-a-brutal-strin…). Yesterday I wrote about Jo Adell finally breaking through (https://blogs.fangraphs.com/jo-adell-is-finally-putting-it-together/) — a piece I’d had in mind for a few weeks after a reader asked about him here in a chat!

Jay Jaffe: All of which is to say that in addition to having a good time interacting with our readers in these chats, they’re a good place to get an idea of what you folks are interested in, and I come out of each one with at least a couple of ideas — not all of which come to fruition, but they’re still useful. So thank you for that. And now, on with the show

Shotamania: Shota has the lowest ERA in his first 8 starts (0.96) since Fernando Valenzuela way back in 1981.  I’m just old enough to remember Fernando-mania.  Should we be talking about Shotamania?

Jay Jaffe: As somebody whose baseball fandom was in full flower during Fernandomania — I cut his box scores out of the Salt Lake Tribune and taped them into a three-ring binder — I’ve thought about this comparison, and even considered doing a Shotamania piece, but  Kyle Kishimoto, who’s not old enough to remember Fernando, beat me to the coverage https://blogs.fangraphs.com/shota-imanaga-is-pitching-like-an-ace/.

Jay Jaffe: Obviously, Imanaga is on an impressive run, with a 0.96 ERA and 2.30 FIP through eight starts. Is it a mania? I don’t think it’s had anywhere near the cultural impact of Fernandomania, which tapped into the Los Angeles Dodgers’ original sin of building their ballpark at Chavez Ravine, which forced the eviction of nearly 2,000 Mexican-American families living there.

Dan Szymborski: G’day!

Dan Szymborski: It is a time for chats.

seth: el-ly el-ly el-ly

Dan Szymborski: THATS A STATEMENT NOT A QUESATION

Champdo: If Riley Greene stays healthy do you think he’s a 4+ war player this season? Also what do you think a Greene extension would look like?

Dan Szymborski: I think so, it wasn’t even a stretch coming into the season either

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks, and welcome to another edition of my Tuesday chat!

Jay Jaffe: I’m a bit late in setting this up today as I was scrambling to file a piece on Padres knuckleballer Matt Waldron that will actually run tomorrow.

Jay Jaffe: We’ll give this a few minutes for the queue to fill up and for me to finish this structurally unsound turkey sandwich.

Jay Jaffe: Yesterday I took a look at Paul Goldschmidt and a handful of other former All-Stars who have been playing at or below replacement level through the season’s first month. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/paul-goldschmidt-and-the-crowd-below-repla…

the person who asks the lunch question: What’s for lunch?

Jay Jaffe: My usual go-to when I make a sandwich at home: Boar’s Head cracked pepper smoked turkey on Arnold Country White bread with mayo, mustard (eye-watering stuff from Philippe The Original, home of the French dip), sliced cucumber, and Potbelly Giardiniera (ikyky).

Dan Szymborski: TIMEFORADANCHAT AH CN ADAR OF EMIT

the person who asks the lunch question: what’s for lunch?

Dan Szymborski: Some stir-fried chicken I made on Tuesday.

v2micca: Braves appear to be testing their depth early.  Are their losses going to be enough to give Philly a reasonable window of opportunity to take the division?

Dan Szymborski: I’m writing on this for tomorrow!

Angels firstbaseman: Nolan schanuel could obviously use some work at AAA but why don’t they call up a gold glove first base man named evan white to replace him?

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks, and welcome to my Tuesday chat. Apologies for the technical glitch in terms of the pre-chat queue but we should be up and running.

Jay Jaffe: Pouring one out for Whitey Herzog, the Hall of Fame manager best known for piloting the Cardinals to the 1982 championship and two other pennants.

Jay Jaffe: And pouring another one out for Carl Erskine, a true mensch who not only helped the Dodgers to five pennants and their 1955 championship — and threw two no-hitters as well — but became “a fierce champion of human rights, racial equality and, when his late son Jimmy was born with Down syndrome, became immersed in fighting for people with special needs.”

The Hall of Fame honored Erskine with the Buck O’Neill Lifetime Achievement Award last summer https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/2024/04/16/indianas-carl-erskine…

WinTwins0410: Jay, I hate to “remember some guys” too much to start a chat, but it seems like we’ve lost a lot of interesting baseball guys lately — Ken Holtzman, Whitey Herzog, Carl Erskine, Fritz Peterson, Jerry Grote and even Pat Zachry.  Curious if you plan to do a full-on article about Whitey.  I am hoping you will!

Jay Jaffe: Forgot about Holtzman, who was a big part of the A’s three straight championships and holds the record for most wins by a Jewish pitcher (174).

Jay Jaffe: I’m thinking about whether I can pull off a Herzog tribute in a timely fashion.