Dan Szymborski: And awaaaaaay we go!

Guest: Given his past performance, and what you’ve seen from him so far this season, when do you expect Lindor’s slow start will end?

Dan Szymborski: April 🙂

Houzer: More excited this year for Jack Leiter or McKenzie Gore?

Dan Szymborski: Maybe Gore slightly? The nats pitching holding up and a Gore breakout is their playoff path, and that intrigues me. Though I get more of a benefit with Leiter since he was on his breakouts list

Bubbles: Is there any research on how many pitches to a hitter it takes for swing metrics like O-Zone Swing % to start becoming signal over noise of small samples?

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks, and welcome to my first solo regular season chat! It’s been a few weeks since I could occupy this slot; at this time last week, I was in the midst of a fruitless trip to the DMV, where a reservation apparently doesn’t mean what you think it means. Anyway, it’s the first of April, which means that it’s my mother’s 83rd birthday; she’s not reading this chat, but I note it merely to introduce the guarantee that none of what follows will be in the form of an April Fool’s joke. I spend enough time mixing bullshit with earnestness in my online persona that some people have enough trouble figuring out which is which, so let’s just skip that part.

Anyway, yesterday I took a look at some goings-on in the Diamondbacks rotation https://blogs.fangraphs.com/jordan-montgomery-may-be-done-as-a-diamond…

Jay Jaffe: Hot off the presses, I’ve got a piece about the White Sox rotation, which through the season’s first four games has yet to allow an earned run — a fluky thing but one that’s earned them a run in Small Sample Theater. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-white-sox-rotation-has-put-up-mostly-z…

Jay Jaffe: Like, that sucker just went live while I started typing that paragraph. Don’t burn your hands. And now, on with the show…

flightsongs: Happy May Day one month early! What’s the most optimistic you’re allowing yourself to be about Dustin May this year?

Jay Jaffe: Let’s say 15 starts, some relief appearances, good performance and a spot in the postseason bullpen. Hope springs eternal!

StiebedTea: Howdy Jay! Let’s lump ’em all together and ask: Should Devers be swinging a torpedo bat right now?

Eric A Longenhagen: Hey everyone, starting early because I have much to do and there are already lots of questions in the queue.

Eric A Longenhagen: My work slate: James Fegan and I are working to wrap up to Blue Jays list, which will run early next week when Meg has the bandwidth to do something other than just PPRs. After that I’ll be solo’ing the Orioles list. I’ve been on a backfield or two every day this week to lay track for the lists that will follow Baltimore: CLE, LAD, CHW, CIN, MIL…

Eric A Longenhagen: I’m writing my PPR (relievers) and my chunk of a Bold Prediction post, both of which will also run next week.

Eric A Longenhagen: I might cut short chat at like 45 min today because I’m going to start my day at either Camelback Ranch or in Maryvale and then wrap it in Maryvale for the night big league game, and I’ve gotta write betwixt and between those.

Birds: Zach Fruit has had two pretty impressive spring outings, the second against a lineup of BOS regulars. Stuff+ grades strong from public models. Can he stick as a starter?

Eric A Longenhagen: Fruit’s stuff is way up (one of a couple Orioles for whom that is true) and he’s been sitting like 97. Looks reliever-y to me, but it’s great that his stuff is up this much.

Dan Szymborski: It’s a chat!

Dan Szymborski: It’s a chat!

PCA: PCA breakout potential? This year’s Elly De La Cruz?

Dan Szymborski: ZiPS at least loves him

PCA: Savant shows both slurve and sweeper as unique pitches. This is MADNESS.

Dan Szymborski: I think there’s serious daylight between them

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks! Welcome to another edition of my weekly chat — the third week in a row I’ve been able to do this (please clap).

Jay Jaffe: Yesterday, I wrote about the Hall of Fame’s latest tweaks to Era Committee rules and (reluctantly) weighed in on the recent news regarding Pete Rose’s potential reinstatement https://blogs.fangraphs.com/never-is-a-long-long-time-permanent-inelig…

Jay Jaffe: There’s a lot of confusion circulating around the latter aspect of that, so I hope I helped bring some clarity to the matter.

Jay Jaffe: Beyond that, I’ve got a look at Jacob deGrom’s spring debut and the overhauled Rangers roster in the pipeline for today.

Jay Jaffe: And now, on with the show

Brad: Pete Rose accepted a lifetime ban from baseball before the Hall had its stance ruling out people on the ineligible list, and it stands to reason he may not have accepted such a ban if he realized that circumstance. Should that change how we view his candidacy for the Hall?