Dan Szymborski: And we are live!

Dan Szymborski: Or possibly dead and this is a very odd afterlife.

Sampa: The best part about being a padres fan is that we will all be dead someday

James: What does Zips think about Verlander’s next contract? Will anyone give him 3 years?

Andrew: Why are the orioles putting Gunnar Henderson at 1st base?

Dan Szymborski: Oops, sorry didn’t answer yet lol

Jay Jaffe: Howdy folks and welcome to the West Coast edition of my Friday chat. I’m in San Diego for some family stuff, putting in a full week of work followed by a week of mostly vacation. I went to Wednesday’s Padres game and wrote about Manny Machado’s rebound (https://blogs.fangraphs.com/in-a-revamped-padres-lineup-manny-machado-…) amid the revamped lineup

Jay Jaffe: Today I wrote about Justin Verlander’s comeback from Tommy John surgery. We haven’t seen a starting pitcher anywhere near this age (39) return from TJ and pitch well https://t.co/1TZOJFtWLD

Jay Jaffe: Word of warning as we do the chat: the wifi in my airbnb is brutal, and if it bogs down this could be shorter than usual but we’ll do what we can

Jay Jaffe: and now, on with the show

EuroBall: What are the Yankees waiting for to call up Peraza?

Jay Jaffe: I don’t think it’s in the cards this year. Sweeney Murti, who covers the Yankees for WFAN, had a good thread on this

Dan Szymborski: Hello people!

Dan Szymborski: And maybe some bots.

Dan Szymborski: Or cats or alien lifeforms.

Dan Szymborski: But probably people.

Wiz: Is there a team set up better than the Os over the next decade? I mean, WOW

Dan Szymborski: I mean, O’s won’t have Dodgers money but the should have a nice rest of 2020s!

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks, and welcome to another edition of my Friday chat. I’m back from a great weekend in Cooperstown, where I survived the 7-man induction ceremony in the blistering heat and got to do some cool stuff like go to the BBWAA party for Lifetime Achievement Award winner Tim Kurkjian at the Otesaga Resort Hotel, the Saturday evening cocktail party in the Hall of Fame plaque gallery, and the party the White Sox threw on behalf of Minnie Miñoso.

Jay Jaffe: I’ve been writing up a storm since returning, with just one entry to go in my annual Replacement Level Killers series, highlighting the biggest lineup holes on contenders. The corner outfielder installment just went up a little while ago https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-2022-replacement-level-killers-left-fi…

Jay Jaffe: With the trade deadline just 4 days away, i see no shortage of questions in the queue about potential trades. I’ll get to some but i’m not going to dwell upon too many because I’m not somebody who has a deep knowledge of prospects and farm systems.

Bill: Likelihood of Soto landing spots by percentage?

Jay Jaffe: Based on multiple reports it appears that the Padres and Cardinals are the two teams way out in front of the pack because of their mixes of controllable young major leaguers and high-ceiling prospects. I’d say that while it’s possible that no trade goes down, we’re looking at a 47.6289% chance of the Padres getting him (that’s an exact figure, btw), about a 31.4858333% chance of the Cardinals getting him, the Dodgers at 4.97367%, the Yankees at 3%, and then the rest of the field making up the remainder.

T: Do you think Strider and Harris would be enough to headline an Ohtani trade? And would you think about it if you were the Braves?

Dan Szymborski: It’s chat time!

Dan Szymborski: And yes, that’s a Gordon Solie reference in the teaser for the link on the main page to this chat.

Champdo: So I saw something about how most tigers hitters vertical bat angle has gone down this year. Could that explain their hitting woes?

Dan Szymborski: I saw it too and in fact retweeted it! Whether it’s the factor or not is a trickier matter. Causation is a cruel mistress. But it’s at least *interesting* and worth a deeper exploration

Dan Szymborski: Maybe I’ll look at it in August at some point. But this week is TRADE DEADLINE MADNESS~!

Dan Szymborski: or it better be!

Dan Szymborski: Good afternoon!

Dk: Who is your favorite to get Soto? When is he more likely to be traded? August or November?

Dan Szymborski: I think he’s more likely to be traded in the offseason

Dan Szymborski: I think the Padres might make a push

Dan Szymborski: Though I think where he ends up depending on how insistent they are in “bundling” Patrick Corbin in

Vic: On MLB draft night, so many Top 15 picks are spoke of in glowing terms. It’s inferred that many of them are likely a 50/50 prop to have a Francisco Lindor type career. How many of this year’s Top 15 even have a 20% chance of a Lindor type career?