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?!

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?