Eric A Longenhagen: Morning. Abbreviated chat today, but I’ll try to move fast to get to a ton of questions.

Vern: After the draft and the Cubs and A’s lists, what do you see yourself doing for the next year without a minor league season? Any fun projects in the works that you normally wouldn’t have had the time for?

Eric A Longenhagen: Yeah, my hope is to make some structural changes to the board, do some research with all this TM data I’ve collected and publish those pieces, etc. Mostly tho I need a break after the draft.

Mike: Do you plan to update your draft board again prior to Wednesday?

Eric A Longenhagen: I’ll brush it up this weekend and Monday morning it’ll be final.

Evan: Hancock or Meyer?

Dan Szymborski: And welcome to the chat!

Who’s Fabio?: Dan, is it more accurate to say MLB owners are going to lose 4B or MLB owners are going to earn 4B less?

Dan Szymborski: That’s like asking if it’s more accurate to say that I’m the King of Siam or I’m sexier than George Clooney.

Dan Szymborski: Or whoever people are into these days.

BeefLoaf108: Which team does a potential 50 game regular season help the most?

Dan Szymborski: On a general level, the mediocre teams that needed help to make serious playoff runs.

Eric A Longenhagen: Good morning from scorching hot tempe, where it’ll be 107 today. Boiling everywhere, it seems.

Eric A Longenhagen: I assume most of the chat is aware of this week’s mock, but if you’re not might wanna familiarize yourself with it quickly since I expect it’ll be a focal point of our discussion today.

Eric A Longenhagen: Let’s begin

Jefferson: Whats the story on Nick Gonzales defensive skills? So many reports completely skip over that. Is it not a concern? Is he definitely going to stay in the middle of the infield?

Eric A Longenhagen: I think he stays on the middle infield but that there’s a chance he’s not a good one. He’ll make some spectacular plays, boot some easy ones and we didn’t get a full spring to stamp the position. It’s another reason the Kesotn Hiura comps fit from a profile perspective. You’re drafting him for the bat, it’s a bonus if he sticks.

RS: Pretty much every mock has the Giants either taking or linking Tyler Soderstrom, is that the buzz you’re hearing?

Dan Szymborski: And so starts the show!

Daryl: Who do you have the Reds taking with their first pick?

Dan Szymborski: Eric’s the mock draft guy!

Dan Szymborski: It’s hard to say depending on who goes there, but I expect the team to take a pitcher

Dan Szymborski: Or at least prioritize a pitcher

Dan Szymborski: Maybe if someone like Bailey drops to them?

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon and welcome to the second edition of my chat in this Tuesday time slot, which thankfully is working better than Monday did in these pandemic-ridden times.

Jay Jaffe: Before I dive in, a bit of housekeeping: I’ve been very focussed on the Korea Baseball Organization lately, and at the end of today’s piece on Doosan Bears hitting machine Jose Miguel Fernandez (https://blogs.fangraphs.com/doosan-bears-fernandez-is-tearing-up-the-k…) I noted that I’ll be a guest on tomorrow’s ESPB KBO broadcast. I’ll be joining a Bears-SK Wyverns game, talking with hots Jon Sciambi and Eduardo Perez at around 7:30 AM ET. It’s my first time being part of a game broadcast, even under theses strange conditions, and it should be a lot of fun. I’ll have an Instagraphs post with further details including re-airing times.

Magic Kingdome: What is your best interaction with a Hall of Fame candidate?

Jay Jaffe: Hmmmm. I haven’t had a ton of them that particularly stand out. The first, though, was when I got Willie Mays’ autograph, which might have been 1981 or ’82. He was appearing at some grocery store expo at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, one of several players (Don Sutton was also on the list) but the one that I somehow convinced my mom to take me to. I had a 1973 Topps card of Mays as a Met, a hand-me-down from my cousin Allan. We stood in line, and he autographed the card without even making eye contact; he was bored as hell and didn’t care who knew it.

Jay Jaffe: More fun was my Vin Scully interaction, from 1989 at Vero Beach, which I wrote about as part of a 2016 Sports Illustrated piece (https://www.si.com/mlb/2016/09/30/vin-scully-tribute-dodgers-jay-jaffe). When I was a college freshman, my parents took my brother and me to Dodgertown during my spring break, and I had a chance encounter with the great announcer himself. From the piece

Jay Jaffe: En route to the concession stand before one ballgame, I crossed paths with Scully himself, decked out in a cream-colored golf sweater. I asked for an autograph, then realized I had just a scrap of paper and no pen. Seeing how flustered I was, he agreed to wait while I fetched one from my mother, who was on her way to the restroom. Somehow, I not only got the pen, but Vin waited in place, and signed what might have been a golf scorecard or a ticket stub. I’ve long since lost that piece of paper—inevitable while moving half a dozen times in four years—and I’ve never gotten to meet Scully again despite being now being armed with a credential. But I’ve never forgotten the man’s small gesture of patience and humanity toward a star-struck 19-year-old.

Eric A Longenhagen: Howdy, letting the coffee drip a few moments more and I’ll be right with you…

Eric A Longenhagen: Okay

Eric A Longenhagen: thanks for stopping by, let’s do the thing

Mike: Is draft intel starting to flow or is it still pretty sparse given all the question marks leading up to the draft?

Eric A Longenhagen: It’s starting and you’ll get a mock when we’re back from Memorial Day, though it’s a lot of potential strategy stuff now and less about players tied to teams. It’s clear teams just don’t have some guys on their board competitively because they didn’t see them this spring, which I don’t like.

Pete: If Carlos Colmenarez and Cristian Hernandez we’re available for the draft where would they likely go? Would this demographic be considered as risky as HS Pitching?