Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon and welcome to my first chat in this new time slot as well as my first one of 2021!

Jay Jaffe: While I wait for the queue to gain steam, some housekeeping… First, a fond farewell to colleague Craig Edwards, who’s making a leap to becoming an analyst for the Major League Baseball Players Association https://blogs.fangraphs.com/goodbye-and-thank-you/

Jay Jaffe: Second, I awoke to the pleasant surprise of having my Missed Time and the Hall of Fame series nominated for a SABR Analytics Research Conference Award. Colleagues Craig, Ben Clemens and Meg Rowley were also nominated in other categories, as were many friends and familiar names. Congrats to all of these fine nominees! Do read these pieces when you get a chance, and vote on them starting next week. https://sabr.org/latest/announcing-finalists-for-2021-sabr-analytics-c…

Jay Jaffe: Here’s a link to mine: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/missed-time-and-the-hall-of-fame-part-1, https://blogs.fangraphs.com/missed-time-and-the-hall-of-fame-part-2, https://blogs.fangraphs.com/missed-time-and-the-hall-of-fame-part-3

Jay Jaffe: Here’s my candidate-by-candidate roundup of this week’s Hall of Fame voting. https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/a-candidate-by-candidate-look-at-the-2… My 5-year outlook piece will run on Monday, and wow has it change even with nobody elected this year.

Jay Jaffe: Get your FanGraphs mug while you still can:  https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-new-fangraphs-mug-is-now-available…

Dan Szymborski: And hello!

Dan Szymborski: Welcome to a so-far uneventful Thursday!

@gallen27: Going along with the current stock market theme, what player do you think teams are shorting but you think should be picked up for high upside?

Dan Szymborski: Call me crazy, but I still like Odorizzi

brad penny for your thoughts: do you find it weird you have a wikipedia article?

Dan Szymborski: Yes. It’s a bit annoying since it’s a decade out of date too; it’s literally before I worked for ESPN!@

Dan Szymborski: And hello happy chatters, for this edition of SzymChat that appeared on the front page!

TD: Assuming the Mets have about $25m to spend, how would you distribute that money to improve the roster?

Dan Szymborski: I think I’d sign Justin Turner for $10 million and pay myself $15 million. It improves the roster.

Dan: Finally got on for one of your chats this year…

Can you do the ZiPS “what-if” I’ve been nagging you about for a decade, Bonds if he hadn’t been a victim of collusion in ’07?

I’m guessing ~50 more homers, ~135 OPS+ in three seasons.

Dan Szymborski: It’s only like the third one!

Dan Szymborski: He *was* quite old at this point so even if he hadn’t declined, it was going to happen. I can to a Time Warp on tha tthough.

Meg Rowley: Hi everyone, and welcome to the chat.

AJ: Way too early World Series matchup prediction?

Meg Rowley: Padres vs. White Sox. Is it the most probable matchup? Perhaps not. Is it a reasonable prediction? Yes. Would I enjoy it very much? Also yes.

Rob: How is it possible to own a billion dollar business with all the resources at your disposal and still fail miserably at vetting an incredibly important hire. I don’t get it. To be honest, it seems more like they don’t really care rather than they are incompetent.

Meg Rowley: I don’t think that they don’t care. An organization that doesn’t care doesn’t fire him. I do think that the fact of his hiring along with some of Alderson’s answers suggest that it is a process in need of reforms, first among them doing background with folks who Porter didn’t have an incentive to manage up to.

BlueJayMatt: No question, just a Jays fan feeling pretty good today. The next few years in Toronto are going to be a lot of fun!

Dan Szymborski: ANd we go!

Dan Szymborski: Welcome to the chat!

Dan Szymborski: Uh oh

Hi: This doesnt show up on the homepage. Chat is only accessible thru tweeted link

Dan Szymborski: I am asking!

Dan Szymborski: I will have to answer slowly! lol

Meg Rowley: Hey pals, will get started here in a moment – just wrapping up a call!

Desperate for a chat: Hurry up, Meg

Scotty: Meg, hello

Meg Rowley: Hello am here!

Meg Rowley: Sorry about that, everyone. Had to chat with Appelman. Let us chat!

E.L.: If you’re the Giants would you rather have as little money committed to 2022 as possible or would you spend a little now so your lineup isn’t full of holes in a year?