Dan Szymborski: Greetings all!

Dan Szymborski: Sorry for the lost chat last week. I was getting COVID vaccine deux.

Dan Szymborski: And definitely felt awful afterwards!

ballsandgutters: Proud FG ad free member here….

So about 5 years ago you and I got in a Twitter fight about whether Carlos Beltran is HOF worthy.   I said no.      I think I’m gonna win on a technicality.     BTW – if you want to get me a beer ask Eno for a rec

Dan Szymborski: Thanks for the support! I’d grumble about you winning on a technicality but…

Dan Szymborski:

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, good people, and welcome to another edition of my weekly chat. You have no shortage of me on FanGraphs today: 

• I wrote about Carlos Rodón, Craig Kimbrel, and hidden perfect games

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/carlos-rodon-and-craig-kimbrel-attaine…

• I had the honor of serving as the guest host on this week’s Chin Music podcast with Kevin Goldstein https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/chin-music-episode-9-counting-with-jay…

• I had the honor of chatting with Jason Martinez about Fernando Valenzuela for this week’s FanGraphs Audio https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/fangraphs-audio-ross-atkins-feels-fort…

• And speaking of Fernandomania, I’m quoted a couple of times in Jesses Sanchez’s great MLB feature — a discussion that inspired my own piece last week https://www.mlb.com/news/featured/remembering-fernandomania-40-years-l…

Jay Jaffe: (here’s my piece on the latter: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/remembering-fernandomania-40-years-later/)

Jay Jaffe: and while I’m hyping things up, for those of you with kids and grandparent-grandchild relationships in the picture who might be looking for an appropriate Mother’s Day (or Father’s Day) gift, here’s my mother-in-law Paula Span’s collection of New York Times articles on grandparenting, drawn from her own reporting and personal experience with my daughter, aka “Bartola” https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Bubbe-Diaries-Audiobook/B091J7M7FL

CoryMC: Any Vladdy articles on the site planned for the future? He’s looked absolutely fantastic to start the year.

Another Blue Jay question, what the heck happened with Danny Jansen?

Jay Jaffe: New contributor Carmen Ciardiello  debuted with a piece on Vlad Jr. I’ll be keeping my eye upon him for a future article as well, but let’s see him get a larger sample size under his feet first https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-obvious-vladimir-guerrero-jr-tweak/

Jay Jaffe: This, though

Eric A Longenhagen: Good morning from Tempe, everyone. Probably gonna hold things tight to an hour so I can split for some minor league ST action. Also, I get vaccine dose #2 today, so I’m two weeks away from making some very rash decisions. Look forward to seeing you out there.

Philip: Target date for the Padres list?

Eric A Longenhagen: Nationals early next week, then I start with the Northwest Valley Teams (SD, KC, TEX, SEA), which are the clubs I’ve been sitting on during the co-op and early minor league ST here in AZ. I’d guess the Mariners or Padres are first out of the gate since I expect there will be less movement there

Mike: Hey Eric – how concerning is Rocker’s decreased velo? It’s been a handful of starts now. If the velo just doesn’t come back (at least not before the draft), what’s his outlook?

Eric A Longenhagen: I’d bet he still goes somewhere in the top 10 if it doesn’t rebound. Rocker in the low-90s is still better than most of the other first round college arms. Maybe he’d slide past Madden but that feels like it. It’s not like Hoglund has a huge arm or anything.

Matt: When is your first scheduled mock draft?

Meg Rowley: Hi everyone! Allow me to fetch a seltzer and then we’ll get underway.

Sad, Confused Marlins Fan: Huge baseball fan and I just heard about this Atlantic League. Can you give me a atlantic league for dummies ? 🙂

Meg Rowley: Not a dummy – there’s a lot to know, but for your purposes, it is probably good to start with this piece on the most recent round of experimentation MLB is going to do there (they’re an MLB partner league): https://theathletic.com/2518208/2021/04/14/moving-the-mound-the-double… and how past players there have felt about testing other rule changes there: https://www.si.com/mlb/2019/07/25/baseball-rule-changes-atlantic-leagu…

Meg Rowley: Jay Jaffe will have more for you tomorrow!

Sammy So-so: Corey Kluber looks to my admittedly non-scout eyes like he might be cooked, but Jameson Taillon seems to still have something left in the tank even if the results aren’t there yet. But what does science say, Meg? Thanks!

Meg Rowley: There was always risk with Kluber given the injuries and the dipping velo (which he should be able to survive without given the strength of the cutter and curve but there is a limit to these things), and the early going here hasn’t been particularly encouraging but of course it is three starts (though, three brief starts!). Taillon I think you should be mostly encouraged by. Tony wrote a nice thing about him and Brent Honeywell Jr. that’s worth checking out: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/for-two-al-east-pitchers-results-arent-imp…

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks! Welcome to my first official chat of the 2021 regular season.

Jay Jaffe: I’m pleased to report that I’m freshly vaccinated with my second shot, but I have to admit that while I wasn’t feeling any negative effects when I set this chat in motion about 90 minutes ago, the mere act of going to pick up my lunch seems to have set off some wobbly legs and general fatigue. Gonna try to power through this for as long as I can, but you might want to have the bullpen ready.

Jay Jaffe: I was up late playing beat-the-clock to finish this piece on Fernando Valenzuela and the 40th anniversary of Fernandomania before my symptoms kicked in https://blogs.fangraphs.com/remembering-fernandomania-40-years-later/. Remarkably, in 20 years of writing about baseball, I had never written more than a few hundred words at a time on one of my all-time favorite players.

Jay Jaffe: anyway, on with the show

Mike Trout: I am inevitable

Jay Jaffe:

Dan Szymborski: April!

Dan Szymborski: April.

LFC Mike: The over/under for the answer  “It’s April” has been set at 5 and a half for this first chat after a week of baseball. And now….the man you would let punch you in the face and then give you his autograph….Heeeeeeeere’s  DAN…

Dan Szymborski: Aprilteen

Guest: FYI – the current link on the homepage for this chat 404’s

Dan Szymborski: Should be working now!

Dave: Are you available to hit for the Cubs?

Meg Rowley: I have to chat!

Meg Rowley: Sorry, Cubs! Also, hello all, and welcome to the chat. Let’s get going here.

Saul: 6 games in, what are your way-too-early takes for the season

Meg Rowley: That it’s very cool to see Yermín Mercedes doing this, and that despite the risk and it perhaps not being the totally optimal way to use him, I hope Shohei Ohtani is healthy enough to justify him doing the two-way thing all season.

Meg Rowley: Really groundbreaking stuff, I know.