Kevin Goldstein: Hi everyone. Let’s get this going. I’m horrible at maintaining my personal schedule, so I have a radio hit in about 20 minutes, but I’ll answer some early and then stay awhile after I’m done. Hope everyone is enjoying all the great work here at FanGraphs and hopefully listening to Chin Music!

Jeremy: Despite the hype, it’d be completely absurd to expect Bobby Witt Jr. — a guy with only AZL experience under his belt? — to debut in 2021, right?

Kevin Goldstein: I think it’s a bit heady, but I certainly don’t think it’s completely absurd. Let’s see how he looks once minor league games get going and re-assess. He’s really good.

Fate: While you worked with the stros, who was(is?) your favourite hitter who tore up the minor leagues but never got a real MLB chance?

Kevin Goldstein: For the most part, I think players get their chances if they earn them. Nobody really stands out.

Russ: Thoughts on Bielak/Garcia as depth since Framber’s status is still in question?

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks! It’s nearly 70 degrees outside in Brooklyn and it’s taking all of the willpower I can muster to remain in front of the computer for this chat, but a commitment is a commitment, and I’m here. A bit of housekeeping before we launch this thing forward…

Jay Jaffe: Today I’ve got a piece on the historical precedents for Juan Soto’s performance and what that could mean with regards to a contract extension and a spot in Cooperstown https://blogs.fangraphs.com/extending-juan-soto-all-the-way-to-coopers…

Jay Jaffe: Yesterday, I took a look at the impact on the Yankees’ bullpen caused by the loss of Zack Britton, who’s having surgery to remove bone chip(s) in his elbow. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/loss-of-britton-puts-a-dent-in-yankees-bul…

Jay Jaffe: And in a trifecta, I took a look at the spring debuts of Shohei Ohtani, David Price, and Stephen Strasburg, and the implications for their respective teams .https://blogs.fangraphs.com/shohei-ohtani-is-on-the-comeback-trail/ https://blogs.fangraphs.com/david-price-is-ready-for-whatever-and-so-a… https://blogs.fangraphs.com/strasburgs-return-and-a-thumbnail-guide-to…

Jay Jaffe: I also spoke to RJ McDaniel about Ohtani for today’s FanGraphs Audio https://blogs.fangraphs.com/fangraphs-audio-joe-block-talks-pirates/

And now, on with the show.

Ben: If he had kept on playing, did Nick Markakis have any foreseeable chance of having a decent HOF case by piling up counting stats?

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon and welcome to the sixth straight week of my Friday chat — and yes, clearly I’m keeping track.

Jay Jaffe: While the queue fills up, a bit of housekeeping. This week, I took a look at the potential fits for free agents Jake Odorizzi (http://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-remaining-market-for-jake-odorizzi/) and Jackie Bradley Jr. (http://blogs.fangraphs.com/finding-a-fit-for-jackie-bradley-jr/)

Jay Jaffe: Then I doubled back to Bradley today after he signed with the Brewers and joined a crowded outfield (http://blogs.fangraphs.com/figuring-out-jackie-bradley-jr-s-brewers-fi…)

Jay Jaffe: I also took a quick look at the impact of the announcement that the start of the Triple-A season will be delayed at least four weeks (http://blogs.fangraphs.com/in-expected-move-mlb-delays-triple-a-season…)

Jay Jaffe: Also, a piece I worked on about our team-level rotation projections is being held over to next week, as we needed to tweak our assumptions regarding innings per start and thus total rotation innings,  which were a bit outdated.

Jay Jaffe: Anyway, on with the show!

Eric A Longenhagen: Good morning, good morning! Don’t know about you but I’m enjoying all the baseball (obvs with a dusting of COVID-related angst) and hope everyone else has, too!

Eric A Longenhagen: Also, I’m packed full of allergy medication right now, so let’s see what that means for this chat

Takao: Thoughts on post-hype guy Tejay Antone? Seems to be consistently in the upper 90s now (97-99) with an improved breaking ball. Struck out 5 in 2 innings his first outing.

Eric A Longenhagen: I’m in big. Had him 40+ FV’d last yearand thought that was properly aggressive at the time, but his velo has just kept climbing. I he’s a real impact bullpen piece at worst and could probably start if they want him to, tho don’t think he’d sit 97 as a starter.

Eric A Longenhagen: Also note that, he’s one of the only guys whose spin rate in the big leagues has taken a leap from what we’ve sourced in the minors

Jack: Thoughts on the start to Jud Fabian’s season? The K rate is worrisome for the top half of the first round type of guy.

Dan Szymborski: Welcome to Dan’s first ever chat using a Ryzen CPU!

dimepackage: Hey Dan. Can the ACT projections be utilized in a points league? If so, how?

Dan Szymborski: I’m not sure, in what sense? As in an automatic tool? I don’t really use automatic tools in fantasy.

Jimmy: 3 year zips tomorrow?

Dan Szymborski: Should be next few days.

No link: No link on homepage of fangraphs

Jay Jaffe: Hey folks, good afternoon and welcome to another edition of my now-regular Friday chat (this is the sixth week in a row, my longest since the first month of the pandemic).

Jay Jaffe: Today I’ve got a piece up on Carlos Correa (https://blogs.fangraphs.com/what-to-make-of-carlos-correa/), which was inspired by a FanGraphs Audio spot I did with Kevin Goldstein (https://blogs.fangraphs.com/fangraphs-audio-bill-james-updates-his-ran…) discussing last week’s piece on Fernando Tatis Jr. (https://blogs.fangraphs.com/fernando-tatis-jr-has-a-clear-shot-at-coop…) as well as Kevin’s piece on the next $400 million deal (https://blogs.fangraphs.com/who-will-be-the-first-400-million-player/).

Jay Jaffe: I spent much of this week in Remember Some Guys mode, writing about the return of Oliver Perez (https://blogs.fangraphs.com/hello-again-cleveland-oliver-perez-returns…), the departure of Shin-Soo Choo (https://blogs.fangraphs.com/shin-soo-choo-heads-home-to-south-korea/) and the indy-league detours of Scott Kazmir (https://blogs.fangraphs.com/schlepping-from-sugar-land-scott-kazmir-on…), who spent a few weeks last season in something called the Constellation Energy League, where among other things he competed against a team laden with the large adult sons of Roger Clemens. In acknowledgement of all of this, I have donated my royalties from all of these pieces to David Roth’s Foundation to Remember Some Guys

Jay Jaffe: Before getting to the festivities, I have to recommend this Washington Post piece on “Baseball Bugs” the famous Looney Tunes cartoon which was released 75 years ago this month: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/02/25/baseball-bugs-bunny-l… You can watch it here: https://www.supercartoons.net/cartoon/629/bugs-bunny-baseball-bugs.htm…

And now, on with the show…

Dellin Betances With Wolves: How come no HOF love for Brett Butler? -3rd best leadoff hitter all-time, best bunter ever, received MVP votes in 6 seasons, cancer survivor …

Jay Jaffe: I’d dispute the notion that Butler is the 3rd best leadoff hitter of all time, first off. Kenny Lofton was a similar hitter but a much better baserunner, and everybody forgets that Pete Rose was an elite leadoff guy, taking more than 10000 PA at the spot.

Beyond that, Butler’s fielding metrics are downright brutal (-84 via B-Ref) such that he finished with 49.7 WAR, about 19 fewer than Lofton and not enough to really make a dent in an advanced stat-based Hall conversation

Eric A Longenhagen: Good morning from Tempe, AZ. Spring training is upon us. Hope folks can stay as safe and healthy as possible, please don’t fly here to see any of it.

Fate: Noticed that Will Craig and Resly Linares were not mentioned in either PIT’s or TBR’s list respectively. Time to abandon ship on them?

Eric A Longenhagen: Linares was released and I’ve never been on Craig.

Billy Beane: Will Aaron Antonini make the bottom part of the STL list?

Eric A Longenhagen: Yes

Not Evan: Hey, Eric. Where do you think Royce Lewis would rank on the Top 100 now, since he tore his ACL? Thanks!

Dan Szymborski: It is a chat.

Jon: With whom do Odorizzi and Bradley Jr. sign, and what do their contracts look like (in terms of years and dollars, not in terms of what a contract actually looks like)?

Dan Szymborski: No idea where, but I imagine we’re now at the verge of looking at 1 year deals, probably under $10 million

Sadman: have you used any deep learning techniques in zips and why are you so great?

Dan Szymborski: I use unsupervised learning in awards model and my still experimental Hall model, but I mostly use more traditional techniques with ZiPS itself.

PB Defenders: Haven’t seen even a rumor about Maikel Franco signing with someone.  ‘sup with that?!