Eric A Longenhagen: Howdy from Tempe, let’s do it

AJ: Odds we ever get a NYY rotation with the 3 Luis: Severino, Medina and Gil

Eric A Longenhagen: All in a rotation? Like 10%?

Todd: Royals brass hyped Nick Pratto’s change big time before season. How much are you buying on him? Is he up to a 50?

Eric A Longenhagen: I think what I wrote on the Royals list holds up, not a 50. Still has holes but definitely better now, has the look of a piece but not a 50. I 50’d Alonso and Hoskins, it’s tough to be a 50 1B.

Dave: When do you think you’ll do your first mock? Enough info now to start connecting team to players?

Dan Szymborski: IT IS CHAT TIME

J: More likely to be moved by the deadline: Haniger or Seager?

Dan Szymborski: Haniger

CeddyBReady: So, all it took was giving up on hitting righty to get my stuff together.  Can you comment on how a change in handedness will impact the projection for Ceddy Mullins going forward?  Viva la Switchies!

Dan Szymborski: It should have some impact in season-to-season. less so in-season since it’s a simpler model

Dan Szymborski: You see switch-hitters with platoon splits give it up from time to time

Meg Rowley: Hi all and welcome to the chat!

Chris: I don’t understand how the mariners have the worst offense in the game let alone baseball history. They have averagish players at a lot of positions, understandably they have no depth and a few holes, but lots of teams have had those two things before. They are going to start hitting right? Right?

Meg Rowley: (hi sorry, minor internet hiccup, am returned)

Meg Rowley: I mean, I think that the odds that they hit below .200 as a team going forward are pretty small but this lineup beyond Seager and Haniger has been very bad so far. Evan White has a 28 wRC+. He famously is a first baseman.

Meg Rowley: I think it is likely to improve if only because I don’t think Dylan Moore is actually this bad and they have Kelenic now but there is a real lack of depth here that is concerning, and was fairly easy to see coming before the season started.

Sad Rockes Fan: The Rockies are 2-16 on the road. Feel like we should marvel at that.

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks! Welcome to another edition of my Friday chat. It’s a gorgeous day here in Brooklyn, and I’ve already treated myself to tacos al fresco so my mood is more chipper than Larry Jones.

Today I’ve got a piece on the very different COVID-19 outbreaks of the Padres and Yankees, https://blogs.fangraphs.com/even-amid-vaccinations-outbreaks-on-padres…

Jay Jaffe: Earlier this week, I wrote about Max Scherzer’s pursuit of 3,000 strikeouts, and who might be next https://blogs.fangraphs.com/max-scherzer-and-the-coming-wave-of-3000-s…

The scourge of the runner-on-second extra innings rule https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-runner-on-second-in-extras-rule-has-wo…

And yet another Byron Buxton injury https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-twins-lose-byron-buxton-again-but-thei…

Jay Jaffe: Anywho, let’s get the show on the road…

Hmmm: Why do teams like the Marlins, Cardinals, and Nats get games postponed due to outbreaks while the Padres are forced to play with a AAA squad? Anti-Padre bias?

Jay Jaffe: The difference, as I noted in today’s piece, is that the vast majority of the Padres (and also the Yankees) are vaccinated and thus there’s far less fear of a team-wide outbreak, whereas that wasn’t the case even for the Nationals in April. It’s actually a bit messed up when you think about the possibility of *dis*incentivizing vaccinations, but that’s not to say that the league wouldn’t have nudged the Padres to play if they were really lagging behind

MLB The Shohei: Cilantro/onion or lettuce/tomato/cheese?

Dan Szymborski: THE APPOINTED TIME FOR CHATS HAS ARRIVE

Jim Leyland Palmer: Who does ZiPS have as the most cromulent current player in the MLB?

Dan Szymborski: I dunno. Starlin Castro?

Dan Szymborski: He’s not good

Dan Szymborski: Well, not REALLY good

Dan Szymborski: but he’s acceptable