Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks, and welcome to today’s chat! It’s a crisp fall day in Brooklyn, appropriate for the September stretch run.

Jay Jaffe: I’ve got a piece today on Kevin Gausman https://blogs.fangraphs.com/fip-or-flop-why-kevin-gausman-isnt-part-of…

Jay Jaffe: yesterday I wrote about Trayce Thompson https://blogs.fangraphs.com/trayce-thompson-makes-a-splash-as-the-dodg…, and the day before that the very slumping Juan Soto https://blogs.fangraphs.com/juan-soto-isnt-having-a-juan-soto-year/

WildCard: If you were a fan of one of the three (likely) AL wildcard teams— would you secretly be rooting for third to trade home field advantage for a matchup against the AL central winner? Or would you rather home field advantage against one of the other stronger (by record at least) WC teams?

Jay Jaffe: This really is a bit of an unintended consequence of the way MLB came up with the new format. Zach Crizer wrote about it at Yahoo just the other day https://sports.yahoo.com/race-for-last-how-the-new-mlb-playoff-format-…

Jay Jaffe: My instinct tells me the odds are better by facing a weaker Cleveland team even if I’m on the road, but I worry about getting too cute by trying to steer myself to one opponent rather than another, and my gut tells me that keeping the home games might be better.

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