Dan Szymborski: The appointed time for chat has arrived.

Dan Szymborski: Also changed my avatar. Some of you were confused why I looked so old at 42. That was the Old Dan Szymborski avatar.

Dan Szymborski:

Greg: Can Huascar Ynoa stick as a starter? Pretty much fastball/slider only so far.

Dan Szymborski: I do worry about two-pitch starters. I’ve wanted Kevin Gausman to develop an actually effective breaking pitch for years now to at least a cutter or something.

Dan Szymborski: Hitters are very adaptable creatures. I’d love if Ynoa’s occasional change was more of a weapon he could use

Meg Rowley: HI everyone, and welcome to the chat. Going to grab a fresh cup of coffee and then shall get started.

o’s: will we ever see chris davis again?

Meg Rowley: Perhaps around town, having a coffee, running some errands…

Meg Rowley: I’m sure when he’s completed his injury rehab that he’ll be back, though I wouldn’t be surprised to see his playing time taper. There’s too much left on the contract and the club too far from contention for him to totally fall off, but getting a better sense of what they have in their young guys and any veterans who cycle through is too valuable to afford him a ton of ABs.

Andy: Where can my young daughter and I watch/listen to women analyze baseball. Podcasts do not hold her attention, but she enjoys broadcasts and YouTube channels like Fuzzy. She’s growing frustrated with the lack of voices like hers around a game she loves so much

Meg Rowley: There’s always the Yankees radio broadcasts, which are an audio option on MLB dot TV. And while their games might not be the most scintillating, you could try Orioles radio, where I believe Melanie Newman is doing play by play.

Eric A Longenhagen: Howdy howdy from lovely AZ, where I’m debating either hanging here in the Valley today and tomorrow to see more minor league spring stuff or making a last-minute SoCal drive to see amateurs.

Eric A Longenhagen: I only have a couple days of minor league spring left and then what will probably be a little gap between that and Extended (no schedules yet), which may be the best time to skip town for amateur stuff…

Eric A Longenhagen: anyway, chat…

Toshi: I remember you were concerned about Julio Rodriguez’s approach at plate during winter ball. Has your opinion changed since then?  Thanks.

Eric A Longenhagen: Yeah, still thirsty for sliders. Looks leaner and is running a full grade better now than the winter, though. Still making hard contact when he picks something good to swing at

Mike: Hey Eric – when do you plan to make your next update to your draft list on the BOARD?

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?