Dan Szymborski: Hello friends! And enemies! (We don’t have any kind of wall that would distinguish between the two)

Guest: What is going on with Austin Meadows?  Any idea?

Dan Szymborski: Gentrification continues. The trendy bars have pushed away a lot of the old historic businesses.

Dan Szymborski: (Sorry, Austin Meadows always sounds like an obnoxious trendy city neighborhood)

Dan Szymborski: I haven’t heard much about what was going on with him.

Dan Szymborski: I wonder if he’d do what I’d do if I was an MLB player? I’d probably use this opportunity to get a vacation right up until opening day by being vaguel absent! Maybe cough a few times

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon folks and welcome to another edition of my Tuesday chat. Apologies in advance for what’s likely to be a shortened one this week, as I have to bolt to pick up my daughter at some point. 

I’ve been pretty buried in Positional Power Rankings lately. My first one, tackling the first basemen — much of which was written before the pandemic — went up Monday: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2020-positional-power-rankings-first-base/ , and I’ll have right field up Friday.

Sonny: If the bouncy ball is here for the foreseeable future how does that impact the way we might view HR totals? Will 400-which is at the outer band of Josh Donaldson’s potential between now and 40y-be diminished like it was in pre-testing steroid era?

Jay Jaffe: Well, the steroid era already turned 500 homers into a milestone of questionable value; where attaining it once meant virtually automatic enshrinement, now a player has to have reached it almost without a hint of scandal. There have long been 400-homer players who didn’t come close to sniffing the Hall, even before PEDs were on the scene, such as Dave Kingman. As always, i advocate taking a more complete look at a player in terms of evaluating him for Hall fitness than just one number.

viceroy: How worried are you abot Ohtani’s inability to throw strikes at summer camp?

Jay Jaffe: Not particularly — it’s pretty common for TJ returnees to struggle with control and command initially. So long as he’s pain free, I think he’ll come around.

sympathy: poor Byron Buxton

Eric A Longenhagen: Good morning from Tempe, where I remain very isolated as our summer heat peaks. Hope everyone is doing okay (covid-adjusted).

Harry: If the virus remains a serious issue in FL/ARZ and fall league/instructs are cancelled how do you plan on adjusting The Board going into next season with so little new info?

Eric A Longenhagen: I’ll have to change how I source info. There will be stuff to glean from the offsite camps (though it’ll require filtering team’s info/thoughts on their own players, which is typically more favorable than comes from external sources) and guys who stayed at the spring facility all throughout this time may have changed in relevant ways even though they haven’t played in games. Kids in Latin America are also playing sandlot ball on their own accord and, it’ll be tough, but surely I can find people who’ve seen that and move some guys based on that intel.

Eric A Longenhagen: There’d almost certainly be less movement than a typical offseason, but that’s fine because it isn’t a typical offseason.

Zay: Is there any realistic way to add more revenue to MiLB?

Eric A Longenhagen: Via improved streaming. I think MiLB knows that and that’s why they cracked down on online video from affiliates last year, sent cease and desist letters to some publications.

Dan Szymborski: Greetings all! So begins another Chatxperience!

Matt: In your opinion, who is the best person currently playing in mlb? Not the best player, the best person.

Dan Szymborski: I don’t feel comfortable making those kinds of evaluations. I’m very qualified to evaluate players at playing baseball. I have no such qualifications at determing quality of a person.

Dan Szymborski: When we do the chapter BBWAA awards for the local team (Reds in my case), I always abstain from the Good Guy award.

Szan Dymborski: Szmbob! Why do I still think this season is not going to happen?

Dan Szymborski: Well, there’s a raging epidemic going on, so no matter how great a job MLB does, there’s always significant risk.

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon and welcome to my first chat of … summer camp? Spring training 2.0? The long-delayed preseason? I’m still working on what to call it. What’s in no dispute is that I’d like to start the chat with some entry music from the most badass soundtrack composer of all, Ennio Morricone:

Tacoby Bellsbury: Is the bungled start to testing grievable? If so, do you expect the players to pursue that as an Avenue? Should they?

Jay Jaffe: That’s a good question, and not being a lawyer myself, I don’t have a definitive answer. I do know that the discussion of grievances with  regards to the negotiations concerning the return to play centered around whether MLB was making a good-faith effort to schedule as many games as possible, so I would think that the union would have to prove something similar here, and I bet it would be harder given that they did in fact sign off on the health and safety protocol involving this testing regimen just a couple of weeks ago.

Jay Jaffe: Eugene Freedman, who often writes about labor relations, including for FanGraphs, would be a better person to ask on that score.

TheBighen: First round of Mets bids are due 7/9 — whatever that means.  Think Jeff Wilpon gets to stay on as COO for 5 years for all buyers?  Seemed like a reasonable request last time. Cohen has to wind up with this team right?  He’s a lifelong Mets fan and has the most cash, I just can’t see him letting someone else buy the team.

Jay Jaffe: I have to admit my eyebrows did some funny things when I saw the report that Cohen is re-entering the fray. I’d assume that he’s the best capitalized of any potential buyer, and no, I don’t think Jeff Wilpon is going to get five years this time around because I don’t think the Wilpons have the kind of leverage that they believed they did a few months ago.