Archive for Chat

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

Brendan Gawlowski: Hello everybody from steamy Philly

Brendan Gawlowski: I just got back to my hotel from the coffee shop, please give me a couple minutes to get settled, my apologies

Brendan Gawlowski: Okay, thanks for your patience

liljebbie10: Do you think Seth Hernandez will end the year in AA? If so, it seems that end of next year is in play if he stays healthy? Is he the top pitching prospect in baseball at the moment?

Brendan Gawlowski: 50/50, don’t think it impacts his big league arrival time one way or the other

rainingmozzarella: Hello! Sad Dbacks fan here. Am I wrong to be underwhelmed by the team’s draft? It seems they targeted a lot of safety and low upside players after the first two picks. I was especially unimpressed by their third and fourth rounders.

Eric A Longenhagen: Hello hello from an earsplittingly loud Convention Center in Philadelphia!

Eric A Longenhagen: It’s nearly time for the draft to begin, we just published my final mock.

Eric A Longenhagen: 2026 Mock Draft 2.0: The Day Of | FanGraphs Baseball

Eric A Longenhagen: I’ll be joined in the chat by other FanGraphs friends throughout the evening. We’re in for the longest first day of the draft ever, and I’ll be here for as long as is possible, which will at least be through the comp rounds.

Eric A Longenhagen: People are filing into chat, tell your friends to come hang out.

Eric A Longenhagen: Reminder that all of our scouting reports are here:

Eric A Longenhagen: Good afternoon from a hotel room in the City of Brotherly Love! I feel a special sense of appreciation for being able to do this for a living, coming home to PA ten years after I was hired. I’m sure you guys know where to find the draft content. Remember I’ll be chatting here tomorrow during the draft which, if you’re new, is a buck wild time and you don’t wanna miss it.

nebravesfan33: Have you heard anything on DSL Braves RH pitching prospect Martires Polanco? Struck out another 9 today – seems to be performing well and the Braves have done very little w/ Latin prospects over last decade. Thanks!

Eric A Longenhagen: Listed at 6ft 190, looks a little bigger than that, sitting 95-97 with bad shape, slider has been dominant. Nice prospect, little old for the DSL, belongs toward the bottom of their list because he’s a DSL pitcher but still a good development for the org.

maxjusttyped: Do you think the White Sox are just posturing or could they really not know who they’ll take at 1?

Eric A Longenhagen: I think some measure of it is posturing because, at the end of the day, you have to agree to a bonus with the guy and keeping all three of them alive helps you do that.

Eric A Longenhagen: I don’t think they scrambling to decide who they like best, even though it’d be natural if some of that group had slightly different notions about who they consider to be the best guy.

Brendan Gawlowski: Hello everybody

Brendan Gawlowski: Eric and I are working furiously a T100 update and all manner of draft coverage. He’s running point on most things draft but I’m hammering away at college pitchers and we’ll both be in Philly to cover proceedings.

Brendan Gawlowski: For now, let’s chat. My goal for today is to spend more time on guys who generally do not get asked about. Y’all can help with this, of course.

wiguy94: You asked me to check back in this week on Josiah Ragsdale and here I am.

Brendan Gawlowski: Good start!

Brendan Gawlowski: Stock way up. Good eye, measurable power is average, which is ahead of where it was in college and a good bit better than how it looked in his debut cameo last season.