Dan Szymborski: It’s a-me, Szymio!

Scotty: Gunnar flipping Henderson, am I right?!

Dan Szymborski: Correct.

Slapshot: Is the Mets getting swept at home by the Cubs the most Mets thing the Mets could possibly Met?

Dan Szymborski: I think the most Mets thing would have been if an outfielder threw firecrackers at a group of war widows and the GM got busted for going on a DUI bender with a mail truck

Josh Nelson: Is Taco Bell’s Mexican Pizza actually a pizza?

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks, and welcome to another Friday chat!

Jay Jaffe: I’ve got a piece up today about the Rays’ surge into the top AL Wild Card spot https://blogs.fangraphs.com/amid-a-slew-of-injuries-the-rays-have-surg…

Jay Jaffe: And yesterday I wrote about the Mets losing Max Scherzer and (briefly, for now) first place in the NL East https://blogs.fangraphs.com/mets-lose-scherzer-and-momentarily-their-n…

Jay Jaffe: Also, I bantered with Dan Szymborski about Ohtani, Judge, and the AL MVP race as well as Zac Gallen chasing Orel Hershiser’s scoreless streak on this week’s FanGraphs Audio https://blogs.fangraphs.com/fangraphs-audio-catching-coordinator-bobby…

Jay Jaffe: Bear with me for a moment as my lunch just arrived…

Guest: Thoughts on the new rule changes reported yesterday? I’ve wanted pitch clocks for awhile but actually looking at the rule there’s 50 different ways that the batter or the pitcher can break the rule. I’m worried it’s gonna feel ridiculous when the Sox lose to the Twins because Aaron Bummer forgot how many times he stepped off the rubber or whatever.

Dan Szymborski: The appointed time that the prophecy foretold has now arrived.

Bo Callahan: Who would you rather have for the next 5 years? Adley or Julio?

Dan Szymborski: Such a cruel question to pose an O’s fan.

Dan Szymborski: If given the choice, I’d marginally take Julio

Dan Szymborski: young catchers always have an element of scary

Dan Szymborski: even terrific ones

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks! Welcome to the first New York edition of my chat in quite some time. I’m back from my two weeks in San Diego and I had my mind on the local ballclubs here — i didn’t get to see much of them from the West Coast due to the timing of games. I covered Tuesday’s game and Frankie Montas’ rebound (https://blogs.fangraphs.com/frankie-montas-and-the-yankees-get-back-on…), wrote about Francisco Lindor’s MVP-caliber season (some folks need to look up the meaning of caliber https://blogs.fangraphs.com/francisco-lindor-is-having-an-mvp-caliber-…), while also covering the Albert Pujols renaissance (https://blogs.fangraphs.com/albert-pujols-is-enjoying-a-renaissance/) and the latest turn in position players pitching (https://blogs.fangraphs.com/suddenly-position-players-are-sealing-more…)

Jay Jaffe: But wait, there’s more! I discussed the Yankees (and to a lesser extent the Cardinals and Jordan Montgomery) with Ben Clemens on the FanGraphs Audio podcast (https://t.co/XJLD76El9I), which also features David Laurila speaking to El Paso Chihuahuas broadcaster-turned-author Tim Hagerty

Jay Jaffe: Anyway, it’s a short chat today because I’ve got to do some dinner shopping in honor of my daughter’s sixth birthday

Jay Jaffe: so let’s get to it!

AJ: Thoughts on Julio extension?

Jay Jaffe:

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