Eric A Longenhagen: Hello from Salt River Fields at Talking Stick where the starting lineups for today’s championship game are coming through the PA.

Eric A Longenhagen: I’ll likely post it periodically in chat, but here is the link through which you can watch the stream of the game. Live Streams | Arizona Fall League | MLB.com

Eric A Longenhagen: We’re about to get the anthem so I’ll likely step away for, what do we wanna say, over under 1:20 on the anthem?

Eric A Longenhagen:

Eric A Longenhagen: I’ll be taking your questions as we all watch the game and put the 2025 season…not quite to bed because it feels that way already… more like into R.E.M. sleep

Eric A Longenhagen: Meg is going to time the anthem for us.

Dan Szymborski: And awaaaaay we go!

Ryan: After writing your Phillies report, do you see them as a fit for Jarren Duran? If not them, who?

Dan Szymborski: If they want him and have enough to tempt the Red Sox, I think most teams could fit in Duran’s skillset

Dan Szymborski: I have to admit, I’m still not sure how much of the trade buzz is smoke and not fire, even if it makes sense due to the logjam

The person who asks the lunch question: Is it a lunch day? What’s for lunch, if so?

Dan Szymborski: No lunch today

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks! Welcome to the first offseason edition of my weekly chat.

Jay Jaffe: I’ve reached the midway point in my evaluation of the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee ballot, which was released a week ago. Festivus has come early, for today I took another look at Gary Sheffield, his never-ending list of grievances, and his prodigious offensive production https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2026-contemporary-baseball-era-committee-c…

Jay Jaffe: Yesterday, it was Carlos Delgado, who went one-and-done on the 2015 ballot https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2026-contemporary-baseball-era-committee-c…

Jay Jaffe: before them it was Don Mattingly and Dale Murphy, whose profiles you can reach via the navbar above either of those linked articles.

Jay Jaffe: Tomorrow’s subject is Jeff Kent, which leaves Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Fernando Valenzuela to round out the ballot.

Jay Jaffe: Before I sunk my teeth into the Era Committee stuff, I had a piece last week positioning the Dodgers dynasty within the context of other dynasties from the post-1960 expansion era https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-dodgers-dynasty-takes-its-place-among-…

Eric A Longenhagen: BWAH HA HA HA HA! Jump Scare!

Eric A Longenhagen: It’s Halloween, and you know what that means; running back to the store once you realize the amount of candy you’ve eaten necessitates another bag. Bah haaaa haaaa!

Eric A Longenhagen: James and my write-up on Asian pros will be live momentarily, though all the reports are already available on The Board.

Eric A Longenhagen: Okay, let’s hit your questions.

Insert Witty Name Here: Gotta ask the obvious: what’s the 70, 60, 50, 40, 30, and 20 grade halloween candy?

Eric A Longenhagen: I have a 70 on Reese’s and Almond Joy, a 60 on Kit Kat, Twix, Reese’s Pumpkins and Snickers, 50 on Hershey’s anything, 40 and below on all fruit-related candies

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks! Hope you’ve all recovered from last night’s epic World Series game

Jay Jaffe: I stayed up for the whole thing here on the East Coast, though i will admit that by the time the bottom of the 18 rolled around, I was under a blanket listening to the game with my eyes mostly closed. I did open them as soon as the pitch of Joe Davis’ voice rose, in time to see Freeman’s homer clear the fence

Jay Jaffe: Which is better than I fared during the last 18-inning World Series game in 2018. For that one I met Mike Petriello and some of his MLB.com colleagues at the late great Pacific Standard (sigh), watched Walker Buehler shove, went home after the 10th or 11th inning, hung on til around the 14th, and then woke up to Max Muncy’s on-field postgame interview and pieced together what had transpired, which was still in the TiVo spool.

Jay Jaffe: Anyway, yesterday I wrote about the contributions of catchers Alejandro Kirk and Will Smith to their teams’ respective offenses through the first two games, and both had contributions last night as well, though Freddie Freeman was thrown out by a country mile on Smith’s lone hit. Kirk’s 3-run homer was huge at the time. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/big-nights-for-the-backstops-through-the-f…

Jay Jaffe: let’s get to the questions…

Dan S.: Big start for Bieber tonight. Assuming no disaster or perfect game that moves his market significantly one way or another, what kind of contract do you think he gets this winter? Does someone make a long-term offer he’d consider, or are we talking like 2/40 with an opt-out?

Eric A Longenhagen: Howdy from the kitchen island in Tempe, where I need to pour coffee #2 before we start.

Tyler: Hi, Eric! Where are you at on Colt Emerson? He made some nice swing adjustments this year (dropping the leg kick for a toe tap) that helped him stay on his backside better, and he handled the AAA promotion well, albeit in a small sample.

Eric A Longenhagen: 2025 End-of-Season Top 100 Prospects Update | FanGraphs Baseball

Eric A Longenhagen: I bet he factors into the Mariners big league middle infield next year

Thomas: Has your evaluation/prognostication on Teey Yesevage changed at all with his performance over the last month (in either direction)?

I don’t really have a question, but…: Trey Yesavage?