Archive for Chat

Dan Szymborski: And awaaaay we go

Baseball Learner: Crazy baseball rule change question. ESPN ran an article about the rise of hit batters relative to the past. The next day Curtis Mead broke his wrist on an errant pitch. What if hit batters got two bases? Do you think pitchers would be more careful? How about combining that with 3 ball walks? I think it would juice offense and balls in play by making pitchers have to aim more.

Dan Szymborski: Seems a little too niche to be worth such a major change?

Dan Szymborski: And in that, you also greatly incentivize a player to try and get hit very strongly

CT9: Is vegan chili still chili?

Dan Szymborski: No.

Brendan Gawlowski: Hey everybody, I got the post up a little late today, so I’m going to give this a few more minutes before starting.

Brendan Gawlowski: Okay folks, thanks for your patience, let’s get going

Brendan Gawlowski: ICYMI, Eric had a prospect buyer’s guide for the Dodgers go live today: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/trade-deadline-prospect-guide-los-angeles-…

Brendan Gawlowski: I’ll have the Rangers version tomorrow or Thursday

Brendan Gawlowski: And let’s get going

aglossman: Thoughts on Early-Mead?

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks! I’m back from my Induction Weekend trip to Cooperstown, with my final chat before the August 3 trade deadline.

Jay Jaffe: My writeup of Sunday’s induction ceremony and  the weekend’s other festivities is in the editorial pipeline. Compared to last year, this was a subdued weekend. Jeff Kent (who gave the best of the three speeches), Carlos Beltrán, and Andruw Jones just don’t have the universal appeal of Ichiro Suzuki — who does? — at least not enough to compel as many people to travel to Cooperstown in high season. Last year an estimated 30,000 people were at induction day, compared to 12,000 — a number that looks very inflated to these eyes but it’s what was officially reported — this year.

Matt: How many times have you been to Cooperstown and what’s your favorite restaurant there? Partial to breakfast at the Doubleday Cafe myself

Jay Jaffe: I think this was my 14th trip to Cooperstown, and this is the first calendar year I’ve made it twice. I first went in 2000, via a spur-of-the-moment detour on an upstate trip suggested by my then-girlfriend (bless her wherever she is), then in 2003, and annually from ’16–25 plus twice this year. I was supposed to go twice in 2020, but after a February Hot Stove Weekend fundraiser for the Friends of Doubleday Field, the pandemic scrubbed that year’s induction ceremonies.

Jay Jaffe: I honestly don’t eat particularly well when I’m in C’town except at the home of my hosts, former Cooperstown mayor Jeff Katz and his wife Karen. I do like the burgers at Doubleday Cafe but they’re not as good as the ones at the tiny Cooperstown Diner across the street. Spurbeck’s Grocery has very good sandwiches but they’re not open on weekends, and Danny’s, which was once my weekend-sandwich-of-choice spot, is under new management and was dealing only pre-made Sandwiches of Sadness this weekend. I did have a couple of excellent meals at Mel’s at 22, which is a somewhat elevated menu and probably my top recommendation.

BuccoFan: Hi Jay – if you had to bet, who do you think gets the 3rd NLWC spot?

Brendan Gawlowski: Hello everybody

Eric A Longenhagen: Hello from a dangerously hot Arizona where there is thankfully an off day before ACL playoffs begin.

Eric A Longenhagen: Though tomorrow’s forecast high is 115 so just delaying the inevitable.

Brendan Gawlowski: We made another list, as I’m sure you’re all aware.

Eric A Longenhagen: Thanks for coming to our joint chat about it

Brendan Gawlowski: Eric, would you say we had more daylight guys here than on the offseason list?

Ben Clemens: Hey everyone. Welcome to the chat.

Ben Clemens: I’m going to let the queue fill up with just a few more questions because I got a late start on posting this, but I’m going to be ready to go in a few minutes.

Ben Clemens: In the meantime, a good rule of thumb in these discussions is that I’m going to end up answering questions about a lot of players. But probably not about the same player many times, if that makes sense

Ben Clemens: So plan on long answers to some of these, longer than my normal chat format for sure.

Ben Clemens: And of course, if you’re not asking a question about trade value, I think you’ve found the wrong place. I have a weekly chat on Mondays that is a great place for all kinds of off-topic stuff, or baseball-related but not trade value related

Ben Clemens: This particular chat is supposed to be about this article series that I just spent weeks and weeks making. So yeah, not answering your question if it’s like, how bout them Cards. we can talk about that later

Dan Szymborski: And awaaaaaaaay we go?

Larry Mahnken: But why male models?

Dan Szymborski: Larry! Option J?

furiousherbivore: Is Jim Jarvis sort of, kind of good?

Dan Szymborski: He might be!

Dan Szymborski: He was one of the biggest ZiPS movers earlier this season

Brendan Gawlowski: Hello everybody

Brendan Gawlowski: Some housekeeping

Brendan Gawlowski: I wrote about Manuel Pena so that people would (hopefully) stop asking about him in the chat: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/because-you-asked-evaluating-manuel-pena/

Brendan Gawlowski: In about 30 minutes, I also have a new series starting where I take a look at the guys whose performance has most deviated from where I had them projected this offseason

Brendan Gawlowski: I’m pretty excited about this. First up is Brandon Valenzuela, I’ll link out to it when it goes live

Brendan Gawlowski: I’ve also got a Braves trade deadline/prospect list re-order in the hopper, that should run tomorrow or Thursday

Jay Jaffe: Howdy, folks! Apologies for the late notice on today’s chat. I was wrapping up a piece on Shohei Ohtani’s pause from pitching and had some away-from-keyboard responsibilities that prevented me from putting together the nuts and bolts for this chat.

Jay Jaffe: It’s been a few weeks since I was able to pull one of these off due to my annual trip to Cape Cod (which was lovely) and then being buried neck-deep in my annual Replacement-Level Killers series spotlighting the most glaring holes on contending teams. That series wrapped up yesterday with the entry on designated hitters (https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-2026-replacement-level-killers-designa…). You can use the navbar atop the article to find the other five entries of the series.

Jay Jaffe: I had a lot of fun this past weekend at Yankee Stadium for the biennial Dodgers-Yankees regular season series. I went on Friday night as a fan and saw Roki Sasaki pitch well and Max Muncy ruin the nights of Gerrit Cole and Aaron Boone, then returned on Sunday for the doubleheader after rain washed away Saturday night’s game. It was a split-admission doubleheader; I was at the ballpark for just over 12 hours and watched most of the World Cup final between games while plugging away at those DHs.

Jay Jaffe: Anyway, the question queue is still filling up due to the late notice of this chat, but i’ll dive in.

daml91: Nolan Arenado, the newest member of the 2,000 hit club. Is he in for you?

Jay Jaffe: Oh, i missed this last night as it happened after I wrapped up work and baseball attention. https://www.mlb.com/news/nolan-arenado-reaches-2-000-career-hits