Dan Szymborski: Welcome to chat!

Dan Szymborski: Feel free to flood with questions, no matter how goofy, because this didn’t appear on the site until five minutes ago, so my queue is looking rather ribsy.

DR: Where is the FG draft week coverage?

Dan Szymborski: That’s Eric’s department! I’m sure he has stuff planned

Greg: Is run differential more or less predictive if you remove the most extreme outcomes on either side of the spectrum (i.e. remove 5 biggest wins and losses for a team and then calculate run differential). Thinking about teams like the Pirates who have some sizable losses but very few sizable wins. Are they more like a -125 run diff team or a -85?

Dan Szymborski: I think generally, considering how many games there are, it wouldn’t really change things much

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks! Welcome to another edition of my Friday chats. Apologies that it’s been awhile — travel and holidays have gotten in the way.

Jay Jaffe: A bit of housekeeping: today I’ve got a piece on Shohei Ohtani’s improvement as a pitcher https://blogs.fangraphs.com/ohtani-the-pitcher-has-overtaken-ohtani-th…

Jay Jaffe: Yesterday I looked at what’s gone wrong for the Giants https://blogs.fangraphs.com/giant-steps-backwards-for-last-years-107-g…. Earlier in the week I looked at the anticipated returns of the Red Sox’s Chris Sale (https://blogs.fangraphs.com/with-a-rough-stretch-approaching-red-sox-l…) and the Mets’ Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom (https://blogs.fangraphs.com/for-slumping-mets-help-on-the-horizon-in-s…) as well as the disarray both rotations had been in due to injuries.

Jay Jaffe: Also wanted to share this obituary of Dodgers superscout Mike Brito, who passed away yesterday at 87. Ubiquitous around Dodger Stadium with his radar gun and his Panama hat, he signed 32 future major leaguers including Fernando Valenzuela, Julio Urías, and Yasiel Puig  https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/obituary-mike-brito-legendary-…

Jay Jaffe: [color: var(–primary-app-color);]

[/color] That’s some serious bling

Jay Jaffe: And now, on with the show

Dan Szymborski: Greetings all! I’ve recovered from the trendy malady of the 2020s more or less so we’re back on regular schedule.

The Guy who asks the lunch question: Glad to have you back, Dan. What’s for lunch?

Dan Szymborski: Coke

Dan Szymborski: (the soda, not the drug)

Dan Szymborski: My appetite has been very poor over the last week. On the plus side, I’ve dropped 11 pounds

Bruce in 2023: Who do you like more as an extra bat in a daily roto: Jarren Duran or Jake Meyers ? Thanks.

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks! Welcome to the Cape Cod edition of my Friday chat, as I am nearing the halfway point of my stay in Wellfleet.

Jay Jaffe: This week has been a mostly working one. Today I wrote about the two no-hit bids that were broken up in the ninth, along with some history https://blogs.fangraphs.com/miles-mikolas-and-tyler-anderson-both-had-…. A friend reminds me that I missed a chance for a Roger Angell tie-in with his coverage of Mike Mussina’s near-perfecto from 2001 https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/09/24/legends-of-the-fens

Jay Jaffe: Yesterday I covered the dreadful Tigers offense, https://blogs.fangraphs.com/an-historically-bad-offense-is-just-one-of…, and earlier this week I hit the Braves’ winning streak https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/acunas-return-is-just-one-piece-of-bra… and Walker Buehler’s injury https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/walker-buehlers-three-months-off

Jay Jaffe: I have yet to see a Cape Cod League game — the plan is to do so Tuesday, but I’m just back from the Edward Gorey House in Yarmouth Port, which I highly recommend

Jay Jaffe: Connecting it back to baseball, official MLB historian John Thorn sent this along

Jay Jaffe: It’s from a drawing done for Sports Illustrated in 1983 https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/Lots/auction-lot/BASEBALL-EDWARD-…

Eric A Longenhagen: Howdy, might be a shorter one today so I can get things together to go to the Combine.

Guest: How are your cats doing?

Eric A Longenhagen: (thumbs up) Fran has settled into middle age and is now very chill, barely leaves the yard. Archie spends most of the day across the street in my neighbor’s yard but she’s cool with it. He hasn’t been in a fight that has warranted a vet visit for many months now.

Joe: Any feed back on the Braves Elian Corrorreal?

Eric A Longenhagen: Sadly no, he wasn’t part of their Extended group and so I don’t have anything on him. Flagged him just for hitting near the top of the DSL lineup but couldn’t find anyone who saw him.

James: Esteury Ruiz is popping off this year. Eye, power, base running, OF defense – he is just killing it so far. How much of the helium is legit?

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks, and welcome to another edition of my Friday chat! A bit of housekeeping before I dive in…

Jay Jaffe: Today I’ve got a piece on Joc Pederson’s non-fantasy football exploits, mainly based upon his pulverizing of baseballs https://blogs.fangraphs.com/joc-pedersons-giant-step-forward

Jay Jaffe: Yesterday I took a look at Noah Syndergaard’s new-look approach https://blogs.fangraphs.com/new-look-syndergaard-struggles-in-return-t… and earlier this week I checked in on Dominic Smith’s demotion https://blogs.fangraphs.com/dominic-smiths-slide-sends-him-back-to-tri… and a rough weekend for the White Sox https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/underachieving-white-sox-drop-keuchel-…

Jay Jaffe: There will be no chat in this spot next week as it’s the last day of school for my daughter, but the week after that, I’ll be rappin’ at ya from Cape Cod!

Jay Jaffe: Oh, and I spoke to the great Jayson Stark about the late, great Roger Angell for this week’s FanGraphs Audio podcast! https://blogs.fangraphs.com/fangraphs-audio-jayson-stark-on-roger-ange…

Jay Jaffe: And now, on with the show…