Eric A Longenhagen: Good morning from Tempe, everyone.

Eric A Longenhagen: Today is prospect week’s halfway point, which means the 100 is out. You know where to find it. Let’s get right to your questions…

Jeff: I love Brujan too, amazing plate discipline plus athleticism combo. Is Perdomo with the D’Backs a potential giant version? Maybe not as twitchy but similarly crazy easily

Eric A Longenhagen: Perhaps. Perdomo’s swing really started to have juice in the fall, more from the left side than right. He also has a better shot to stay at SS, in my opinion.

Adam: Is there anything that Wander Franco needs to improve upon?

Eric A Longenhagen: I don’t think I’d say he *needs* to improve, but as I wrote in the piece, he’s a lower launch guy. But are you really gonna tweak the swing?

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon and welcome to today’s chat. As I spent the weekend in Cooperstown at the Friends of Doubleday Hot Stove Weekend event, i’m scrambling to catch up. The chat will begin in a few minutes; thank you for your patience…

Jay Jaffe: OK, I’m back.

Sirras: Are you surprised that LAD somehow managed to pay both MIN and BOS more to complete this deal?

Jay Jaffe: they paid more but they got more, I think. Giving up Downs and Wong was trading from considerable organizational depth — they already have lots of 2B options including Lux, a top-10 prospect ready to take over, and they still have both Will Smith and Keibert Ruiz as catchers, with Wong looking more like an Austin Barnes type. Graterol works as a win-now addition in the bullpen, something that IMO they still needed to add. And if they intend to trade Joc and Stripling, they can further reconfigure.

Jay Jaffe: Leaving the Angels non-deal aside, I’d say that the Dodgers paid more but in doing so also improved their 2020 roster by a larger increment than they had previously done

Nick: Any thoughts on Hinch’s interview regarding sign stealing?  His decision not to expressly deny the use of buzzers was interesting, to say the least.

Meg Rowley: Hi everyone, and welcome to the chat.

Meg Rowley: Any news that’s of interest?

Meg Rowley: Let’s get a couple of Kiley-related questions out of the way.

BJ: Meg, thanks for taking the time to chat. Will Kiley’s departure affect Prospect Week and the release of the rest of the team prospect lists?

Meg Rowley: Prospects Week will kick off as planned on February 10 – it’ll feature Eric’s Top 100 among other things, and we’re really excited for it.

Meg Rowley: Obviously the prospect team going from two people to one person will have some effect on the lists, but we’re working on a good pace (Orioles will drop tomorrow) and have been planning for Kiley’s potential and eminent departure for a little while now.

Jay Jaffe: Hey folks, good afternoon and welcome to today’s chat, which — as the first day after the Super Bowl — marks the dawn of baseball season, as far as I’m concerned. Pitchers and catchers is so close I can see it.

Jay Jaffe: I’m working on the laptop today, as my desktop computer — the Mac Mini I bought in December 2018 — melted down like 5 minutes after I set off my Dusty Baker piece last Thursday. Hence, this may not be a full-length chat as I can only take so much one-window-at-a-time nonsense with this setup. Anyway, please bear with me.

Chris: So mookie to the dodgers and prospects to the redsox? Is Jerry dipoto gonna take on salary and get involved in this?

Jay Jaffe: From what I’ve heard, Price may be in the deal as well. If this does go down, we’ll have lots of stuff here, including me on the main trade writeup

Guest: How concerned are you about Sale’s arm injuries going forward?

Jay Jaffe: people have been predicting gloom and doom with Sale since before he even reached the majors, but until the past 2 years, he’d always been remarkably healhty. Now, he’s made just 52 starts over the past two seasons and saw a fall-off in performance and velo — down 2 mph from 2018, via Pitch Info — so yeah, I’d say it’s time to be at least somewhat concerned.

Dan Szymborski: We are here, Live from Szym’s Baseball Nerdery Lab, which primarily consists of computers and cat toys.

Jared: Thoughts on the rumored Mookie for Verdugo, Downs trade?

Dan Szymborski: I’ll have more when/if it happens (I’m on the instant react). Now we’re getting into reality territory, unlike those fanciful Lux/May scenarios.

Justin: Would it be stupid to start Billy Hamilton in CF, and then pinch hit for him once he comes up in a medium-to-high leverage situation?   My gut says this is doable with 26 man roster.

Dan Szymborski: The thing is, he makes situations *worse* overall. The standard defensive replacement is a better thing, because you’re leveraging the thing he does when you *know* he’s valuable.

Dan Szymborski: Relatively speaking.

Eric A Longenhagen: Hey, chat. Good morning from Tempe, where it’ll be a sunny 72 today and we’re a week away from relevant local baseball. Prospect Week is in two Mondays. Let’s chat.

Frank: You on board with Dylan Carlson as top 10 overall prospect? What is his 2020 outllok/Rookie of Year upside?

Eric A Longenhagen: Nah. We 55’d him on the Cardinals list (still very strong, typically somewheere in the 20-50 overall range) which is short of that. I think he ends up in left field and that the cement is dry on the power, or at least close to it. Still a very good player.

Rob: Any hope for angels’ fans holding out for one more pitching move?

Eric A Longenhagen: I think that the Will Wilson deal is an indication they’re up against what ownership is willing to do. But I also like Suarez, Canning and Barria and think it’ll be fine.

The West is Wild: Hey Eric, quick question. When a player is listed with 50-60 tools across the board but gets given an overall grade of 40 or 45, what informs that final number? I’d suppose it’s something physical or something to do with projection. Take Orioles prospect Brandon Bailey for example. 50-60 grades, 40 future value. What jives?