Meg Rowley: Hi everyone, and welcome to the chat – thanks for hanging out and for tolerating my absence last week during Prospects Week.

Meg Rowley: Let’s get started.

LLW: You are given ten pills, each of which will increase the baseball talent of the person taking it by 1 win over the course of the 2021 season. Do you allocate all ten to Mike Trout so we get to watch the greatest offensive season of all time, spread them out among guys you like who are struggling, or something other strategy?

Meg Rowley: What if I gave one to Mike Trout and the remaining nine to the Angels rotation, so that we see both Even Better Trout and Even Better Trout in October.

Meg Rowley: My other answers involve Nolan Arenado and Francisco Lindor, but they are overly mean, so let’s stick with the thing everyone actually wants.

Jeremy: Thoughts on Kelenic’s open dissatisfaction? I think he has every right to be upset, but shouldn’t he have to prove it in Spring Training first before saying he belongs on the team?

Kevin Goldstein: Hi everyone. I would make a Monday joke here, but who keeps track of days anymore? Lots of great stuff on the site today. Eric and I discuss how teams will prepare for this years draft, RJ on the Mather mess and the usual great transaction analysis from the team. Hope you’ve enjoyed what you’ve seen this year and if you haven’t already, consider becoming a member. Also, I’m podcasting again and you can find Episode 1 of Chin Music with my guest co-host David Roth and Pedro Moura on Dodgers stuff, it was a lot of fun and happy to be talking again. But enough about me, let’s get to you.

Chase: Thoughts on SF Giants currently and outlook on future? Farhan has done a nice job IMO

Kevin Goldstein: Farhan has done a nice job IMO as well. I think he’s great. He also seems to have to patience of ownership which allows him to do things the right way and not act rashly, which is a rare luxury. I especially liked the Sanchez signing. High risk, but big upside as well.

RP: Favorite Houston restaurants? Do you like banh mi?

Kevin Goldstein: I never lived in Houston, but had some great meals there. Favorite place by the ballpark is Irma’s Southwest, a Tex Mex place run by a great family. Quick lunches were usually at this dumpling place called Doozo’s in this weird mall/food court setting that was about a ten minute walk away.

Andrew: I really hate being a Mariners fan.

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, and welcome to another edition of my Friday FanGraphs chat. That’s four in a row, my longest streak in quite some time!

Jay Jaffe: Today I’ve got a fun piece that grapples with the possibility that Fernando Tatis Jr. has already shown us enough to suggest he could wind up in the Hall of Fame — an article that’s confusing the hell out of people for whom binary answers are the only answers. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/fernando-tatis-jr-has-a-clear-shot-at-coop…

Jay Jaffe: As I write this, i’m listening to the first edition of Kevin Goldstein’s new podcast. I don’t generally get to listen to podcasts because it’s very hard to think of words when somebody is speaking words in my general direction, but I’m excited to hear what KG and co-host David Roth are up to  https://blogs.fangraphs.com/chin-music-episode-1-the-regal-beagle/

Jay Jaffe: Word of warning: if you have a question about prospects, all I’m going to be able to do is point you to articles about prospects. I’m not Eric Longenhagen

Jay Jaffe: And with that, on with the show…

MM: Hey Jay!  Do you think the Tatis signing will affect negotiations between the Dodgers and their shortstop Corey Seager?

Eric A Longenhagen: Good morning from Tempe. Thanks for coming to the chat and, I assume, checking out the Top 100. Let’s get to your questions.

MB: Can you talk more about Ashby being the top Brewers prospect? Wasn’t expecting that.

Eric A Longenhagen: Sure. Turang was a fairly late cut from the list. He and Ashby were very close on the ordinal rankings. I think Turang has a shot to be a 50 based on his glove and OBP skills, but I think there’s real risk of him just getting blown away by velo at the top of the zone because of how deep those hands load, and that his “patience” my by passivity. So he fell out but you could argue him as a 50. Taylor Trammell same thing.

Eric A Longenhagen: Garrett Mitchell still has his pre-draft 45+ FV grade. Basically he’s Travis Swaggerty (speed, CF, raw power, not sure if he’ll get to it in games) just several levels behind Swag.

Eric A Longenhagen: Ashby was nasty in the Fall. If you put him in Milwaukee’s bullpen tomorrow, I bet he’d be awesome in a leveraged role, and he has a long-term chance to start as a strikeout-heavy five and dive type

Eric A Longenhagen: and I’ll just take that guy rather than bet on Mitchell’s swing changing

Dan Szymborski: And welcome to the chat!

Dan Szymborski: Should Fantographs be a FG skin option? Let us know!

Dan Szymborski:

George: Andrew Stevenson: Legit Starter or a fourth outfielder

George: Andrew Stevenson: Legit Starter or 4th outfielder? I know its small sample size and huge BABIP, but 2019 and 2020 statcasts support the hitting. His LA and Exit Velos are up and he can absolutely burn on the basepaths and plays a good OF.

Dan Szymborski: Can’t see him as a viable starter at this point. His cups of coffee are good, but small sample as you say and his minor league performances are fairly bleak

Meg Rowley: Hi everyone and welcome to the chat. Let’s get started.

JJ: Not a question but I feel super elite browsing FG in dark mode. Would recommend membership to anyone reading this who isn’t currently one.

Meg Rowley: It is so cool! I’m glad you’re enjoying it. I’ll remind our chatters that it is benefit for all of our Members, regular and ad-free.

Meg Rowley: Our writers are rad and because they do work that has their name obviously attached every day, they get their due praise, but Sean Dolinar is really FanGraphs’ unsung hero. The dev work that he and David do is so great.

Anthony: Who do you think takes the A.L West?

Meg Rowley: Despite their departures and some concern about the rotation, I think Houston emerges but if some of the upside plays in the rotation pan out, LA isn’t a wild guess.

Jon: Under Luhnow, the Astros seemed to have a practice of basically giving out no minor league deals to veterans (maybe anyone?) during the offseason (IIRC, Jared Hughes was the only one they signed last offseason). What was the reasoning for that, and what did you think about that?

Kevin Goldstein: Hi everyone. Welcome to the chat. Starting half an hour late today as I was talking to some baseball execs and agents about circus clowns (no, seriously, you’ll see soon), but we’ll hold tight to the 12pm ET on Monday’s in the future.

Kevin Goldstein: Fun first question and nice catch! I didn’t know anyone noticed. The Astros generally signed 1-3 veteran minor league FAs a year. Most teams averaged 10-12, and I remember one year where a team exceeded 30. The general thought there was that the org and depth and wanted to learn about the kids as opposed to insurance policies. I agree with it in general, but always pushed to sign a few more. I would have been in the 4-8 range most years.

Matt: Do teams ever hold grudges with agents? Would the Mets ever be less willing to engage with Bauer and agency if they thought they had a deal?

Kevin Goldstein: Grudges yes, but not in anyway that would prevent you from engaging. Plenty of agents I really liked dealing with, and some not so much, but no reason to let personal feelings about their representative get in the way of trying to acquire someone who can help the team.

Asinwreck: Great conversation with Steven Goldman at his podcast today. Will you write a lot about your experiences in the Dominican Republic? (Please write a lot about your experiences in the Dominican Republic.)

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon and welcome to today’s chat — the first time I’ve gone back-to-back weeks with a chat since… September! Some housekeeping while we wait for the queue to fill…

Jay Jaffe: On Monday I published my latest five-year outlook for the Hall of Fame voting https://blogs.fangraphs.com/changing-times-the-next-five-years-of-bbwa…

Jay Jaffe: And then yesterday and today I published a two-part series on the remaining free agents with spring training less than two weeks away. Here are the position players https://blogs.fangraphs.com/still-on-the-shelves-part-i-top-remaining-…

Jay Jaffe: And here are the pitchers https://blogs.fangraphs.com/still-on-the-shelves-part-2-top-remaining-…

GenericDodgerFan: Bauer has to be signing with the mets i think

Jay Jaffe: Seems quite possible it could go down while we’re in this chat. We’ve all got one eye on it