Eric A Longenhagen: Hello one and all from Battery Avenue in Marieta for our live draft chat.

Eric A Longenhagen: Meg and I walked from the hotel here and both were sweating profusely. I told her that her hair looks fine.

Eric A Longenhagen: My mock just went up. It sounds like Washington is still negotiating, however.

Eric A Longenhagen: In case you missed it, my final rankings are live:

Eric A Longenhagen: The Board | FanGraphs Baseball

Eric A Longenhagen: Here is the mock

Dan Szymborski: Sorry, took me some time to get in!

Tacoby Bellsbury: What is your favorite portdanteau?

Dan Szymborski: Dang, I know I have some but I can’t think of them!

Dan Szymborski: I did once describe the feeling of getting mad at Hall of Fame voters for not voting for deserving players as Blylevengeance.

Dk: What do you see the Mets doing at the deadline?

Dan Szymborski: I don’t think they’ll go CRAZY, but they may add some depth, especially to rotation

Dan Szymborski: It’s time for a Szymborski chat
The man is sarcastic and fat
He’ll zing with a smirk
and plug his own work
and pretend that ZiPS WAR is a fact

Guest: Do we need a better way of calculating free agent contracts? Devers contract may be underwater but I would rather pay devers 8 240 (what’s rest on his contract) than vlad 14 500 or whatever insane number Kyle Ticker is going to get. Seems like a Devers would be the cheapest way to get talent / WAR on your team

Dan Szymborski: It’s complicated philosophically!

Dan Szymborski: And we tend to go through cycles. There’s a period where teams spend a lot and then there’s regret and everyone starts getting stingy for a year or two

Endy Chavez: Is Brandon Nimmo intentionally trading walks for home runs? Should he trade back?

Dan Szymborski: Honestly, his swing rate bump is fairly small, I’m not sure sure how conscious a decision is made

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folk! Greetings from Wellfleet, where I’m on my annual family (semi) vacation

Jay Jaffe: This is my working week up here, which kicked off with my tribute to the late Dave Parker, who sadly passed away less than a month before his Hall of Fame induction https://blogs.fangraphs.com/remembering-the-cobra-dave-parker-1951-202…

Jay Jaffe: I don’t think you have to be a strong proponent of Parker’s HOF case to feel the sadness that comes with the timing of his death. I’m glad he experienced the outpouring of joy, appreciation and love that came with the news of his election.

Jay Jaffe: I’m working on my annual midseason look at the best team defenses, and will have something on Clayton Kershaw’s run for 3,000 strikeouts later this week as well.

Jay Jaffe: Planning to take in a Cape Cod League game sometime after the 4th

Jay Jaffe: anyway, on with the show

Dan Szymborski: It’s chat time!

James: Half of the Astros current rotation is basically guys picked up off the scrap heap. Is their performance sustainable and do any of them have middle rotation potential going forward?

Dan Szymborski: This is something the Astros are really good at, though. And really, most of the rotation is just averageish, which is sustainable. Brown and Valdez being good really carries the group and there’s no reason to be suspicious

Galen: If the Twins decide to sell pieces off. What would you expect the market for Buxton and/or Correa to be?  Buxton would have to wave his no trade, but I think he might if they are out of the WC race at the deadline.

Dan Szymborski: I’d expect Buxton, if actually tradeable, would fetch a good price. Correa’s been kind of meh, so I don’t think the Twins would get a nice return if they’re not eating money

Dansby Swansong: Dan, what are the major issues with the expected lockout after the 2026 season?