Eric A Longenhagen: Good morning from Tempe, AZ

Eric A Longenhagen: some quick plugs…

Eric A Longenhagen: the next three draft class rankings have been updated and expanded: 2022 Draft Prospects | THE BOARD | FanGraphs

Eric A Longenhagen: International Players list will be updated Monday, then team lists start Wednesday (Angels)

JC: Is Jeremy Peña ready to start for the Astros opening day?

Eric A Longenhagen: Yes, quality of contact in DR right now is not as good as last but still think there’s enough SLG there to make him a 50 SS. Gonna be a great defender right away, hit a few extra pull-shots into the Crawford Boxes because of how his swing works.

Dan Szymborski: And we are LIVE

Dan Szymborski: Because a taped chat doesn’t work since I won’t have any questions.

Dan Szymborski: Or I guess we could do the Mr. Show sketch thing where all the questions submitted are for next week’s chat.

Dan Szymborski:

Joe: Bryan Reynolds, Matt Olson, Corey Seager, which left handed bat ends up in the bronx?

Dan Szymborski: I can see Reynolds ending up in New York

Ben Clemens: Hey guys, welcome!

Ben Clemens: Let’s talk some baseball

Ben Clemens: I’m joined by Dan Szymborski and Luke Hooper, and it’s gonna be a good one

Ben Clemens: I mean, maybe it will be a bad one, I don’t actually know

Ben Clemens: But if it’s close, that’s awesome, and if it’s not, well, there’s SO much baseball (and non-baseball) to talk about

Ben Clemens: It’s Ian Anderson and Luis Garcia tonight, and the Braves need length out of Anderson

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, and welcome to today’s chat! Thankfully the technical snarls that knocked last week’s chat off the table aren’t an issue today; apologies to those who showed up to that one or waited around for it to materialize to no avail.

Jay Jaffe: As I’m on recap duty for Game 3 tonight, I did not write for today but did a piece about Eddie Rosario’s hot streak yesterday https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/despite-a-rough-night-eddie-rosario-ha… and spoke to Kevin Goldstein about Dusty Baker https://blogs.fangraphs.com/fangraphs-audio-kris-bubic-chats-changeups… and my recent piece on his managerial evolution and Hall of Fame case https://blogs.fangraphs.com/dusty-baker-job-security-and-the-hall-of-f…

Joe: How would you explain to the less analytically inclined why we care so much about pitcher K% but not nearly as much about hitter K%?

Jay Jaffe: Pitcher strikeouts strongly correlate with run prevention and future success, but the relationship doesn’t work the same way for hitters, in that a lot of high strikeout hitters have good power and generally strong production.

Dick Allen is a Hall of Famer: This year only 5 hitters with 400 or more PA matched or exceeded Mr. Allen’s career wRC+.  It’s a similar number every year.  Dick Allen is a Hall of Famer.

Jay Jaffe: Dick Allen should be a Hall of Famer. Dick Allen is not yet a Hall of Famer. Hopefully on December 5, that status changes (see here for more about this year’s Era Committee schedule https://blogs.fangraphs.com/with-experts-on-the-negro-leagues-involved…)