Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks! Welcome to my first official chat of the 2021 regular season.

Jay Jaffe: I’m pleased to report that I’m freshly vaccinated with my second shot, but I have to admit that while I wasn’t feeling any negative effects when I set this chat in motion about 90 minutes ago, the mere act of going to pick up my lunch seems to have set off some wobbly legs and general fatigue. Gonna try to power through this for as long as I can, but you might want to have the bullpen ready.

Jay Jaffe: I was up late playing beat-the-clock to finish this piece on Fernando Valenzuela and the 40th anniversary of Fernandomania before my symptoms kicked in https://blogs.fangraphs.com/remembering-fernandomania-40-years-later/. Remarkably, in 20 years of writing about baseball, I had never written more than a few hundred words at a time on one of my all-time favorite players.

Jay Jaffe: anyway, on with the show

Mike Trout: I am inevitable

Jay Jaffe:

Dan Szymborski: April!

Dan Szymborski: April.

LFC Mike: The over/under for the answer  “It’s April” has been set at 5 and a half for this first chat after a week of baseball. And now….the man you would let punch you in the face and then give you his autograph….Heeeeeeeere’s  DAN…

Dan Szymborski: Aprilteen

Guest: FYI – the current link on the homepage for this chat 404’s

Dan Szymborski: Should be working now!

Dave: Are you available to hit for the Cubs?

Meg Rowley: I have to chat!

Meg Rowley: Sorry, Cubs! Also, hello all, and welcome to the chat. Let’s get going here.

Saul: 6 games in, what are your way-too-early takes for the season

Meg Rowley: That it’s very cool to see Yermín Mercedes doing this, and that despite the risk and it perhaps not being the totally optimal way to use him, I hope Shohei Ohtani is healthy enough to justify him doing the two-way thing all season.

Meg Rowley: Really groundbreaking stuff, I know.

Kevin Goldstein: Hey everyone. We have baseball! Real games! Stats! Data! Video! Fights! All sorts of fun stuff. Let’s get to the questions….

Kevin Goldstein: It’s 2% of the season. No real conclusions to be made. Obviously Oakland had a horrendous weekend, but would you be shocked if they were over .500 in a couple of weeks? I wouldn’t. Some teams looked great like the Phillies and Astros, and some looked like dogcrap, like Oakland and Boston. Feel like it’s too early to get super excited or pessimistic until somewhere towards the end of the month.

Larry: Would Jud Fabian be better off opting out of the draft and going back to Florida for another year?

Kevin Goldstein: No. He’ll get picked and get paid, just not as much as he expected in say February. I wrote about his swing and miss issues in the first week of the season, and it hasn’t gone away. Last I looked he was the NCAA leader in whiffs. It’s a real concern, but he does have tools.

workermonkey: what’s it finally going to take to get rid of local market tv blackout restrictions for baseball?

Kevin Goldstein: RSNs generate an enormous chunk of revenue for teams, and as long as that’s the case, and it will be for quite some time, this isn’t going to change.

Kevin Goldstein: FanGraph After Dark in full effect! Good evening everyone!

Dodger Fan: I am very excited to watch Lucas Giolito face this Angels lineup.

Kevin Goldstein: You should be excited to see him face any lineup, no?

Eric A Longenhagen: Howdy from Phoenix Muni. I’m here to see Chase Silseth and will also be popping in and out of here.

P: This gap in live games seems like an oversite by MLB on opening day. Couple this with the fact that I couldn’t stream my team from the office and It kinda feels like MLB just can’t get out of it’s own way getting it’s product to the people. I know this is a broken record at this point by man, for a day we are all hyped for, the flaw is just so obvious.

Kevin Goldstein: I mean, hard to blame MLB for the Nats’ COVID issues.

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks! Welcome to the 2021 baseball season and this, our Opening Day marathon chat.

Kevin Goldstein: Hi everyone, Jay is starting with the Yankees/Jays, while I’m sticking to my Midwest roots with Indians/Tigers in the SNOW.

Jay Jaffe: I’ll be joined here by Kevin Goldstein and David Laurila for the first leg of today’s action, and other colleagues will take the ball as the day (and night) continues.

JT in Town: For Kev – obviously everyone’s going to ask you about your time with the Astros from now until forever, so here goes – what’s the funniest/quirkiest thing you can remember from past Opening Days during your time with the team? Any kind of  superstitions or just general oddness? And I’ll hang up and listen.

Kevin Goldstein: I wish I had a good one, but I only think I did one Opening Day in Houston. I was a player evaluator and I didn’t live in Houston. I remember spending Opening Days watching college and high school games and I remember spending Opening Day night watching a amazing low-budget MLB whip around like show in my hotel in the Dominican. I wish I could get that channel here.

Kiermaier’s Piercing Green Eyes: Oh boy, every team will play today!

Justin: what kind of things should an awful rebuilding team like the Pirates be doing over the next 6 months?  Maybe you learned lessons from good and bad things from your early Astros days that they should apply.

Kevin Goldstein: Hi everyone! Welcome to the chat and happy Opening Day Week (is that a thing?). I look forward to your questions. The Pirates have some decent arms and they should be looking to deal them this summer to improve their long-term outlook. Pretty simple, really.

DaleMurphy: You’re building a dynasty team and can start with either Wander Franco or Bobby Witt. Who do you choose?

Kevin Goldstein: Franco is the No. 1 prospect in baseball, no question. So it’s Franco. That’s not an insult to Bobby Witt, who is really damn good.

Scott: Hi Kevin!  What is your outlook for Cristian Javier and Jose Urquidy this season and for the future?

Kevin Goldstein: I don’t see any reason they can’t be soild middle of the rotation starters now and for years to come.