Dan Szymborski: And away we go

LAXTONTO: Have you ever tried using SAS Enterprise Miner?

Dan Szymborski: I have not.

LAXTONTO: How do you reconsile that one of your cats can levitate and yet you have never caught him in the act?

Dan Szymborski: There’s lots of weird things in the world.

Connor: Dan, will you ever make the zips projected career war remaining that you occasionally reference in your articles publicly available?

Kiley McDaniel: Hello from ATL! Scout is perched beside me watching every owner walking their dog outside and somehow choosing to bark at 10% of them

Kiley McDaniel: We put up the Tigers list yesterday: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/top-38-prospects-detroit-tigers/

Kiley McDaniel: and we’ve got a couple of other list in progress, some prospect week/top 100 as well. amateur draft season is just around the corner, with JC games already starting, so keep an eye on our draft rankings here: https://www.fangraphs.com/prospects/the-board/2020-mlb-draft/summary?s…

Kiley McDaniel: we have exactly 1,225 players in the 2020, 2021 and 2022 draft rankings so I feel like you can’t want more than that

Kiley McDaniel: I also added some notes to the scouting reports with notes from scrimmages last week. Emerson Hancock, Cole Wilcox, Tanner Burns and Carmen Mlodzinski are ones I can remember that are potential first rounders with new notes/tools/ranks as a result

Kiley McDaniel: to your questions:

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

Meg Rowley: Couple of things from the site to highlight. First, Eric and Kiley released the Tigers’ prospects list today: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/top-38-prospects-detroit-tigers/

Meg Rowley: Jay wrote about yesterday’s D-backs/Pirates trade: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/diamondbacks-add-a-full-time-center-fielde…

Meg Rowley: Dan has the Mariners’ ZiPS for 2020. Woof: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2020-zips-projections-seattle-mariners/

Meg Rowley: And Ben wrote about just how much baseball there was last year that didn’t end up meaning a whole lot: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2019-had-a-lot-of-meaningless-baseball/

Meg Rowley: Also, if you’re going to be in AZ for spring training on March 13, we’re having a reader meetup, so come hang out with us: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/instagraphs/fangraphs-phoenix-meetup-march…

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, and welcome to my first chat since the end of the Hall of Fame cycle. I’m running a few minutes behind, but hang tight and I’ll be along to tackle some questions shortly.

Jay Jaffe: In the meantime, feel free to poke your nose into my five-year outlook for the BBWAA ballot, which just went live a short time ago: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/big-battles-looming-the-next-five-years-of…

Jay Jaffe: OK back

Dave: Any thoughts on yesterday’s news?

Jay Jaffe: Assuming you’re talking about the death of Kobe Bryant, obviously, it’s tragic and shocking not just that he died but that his daughter was among the other eight who died too. I think my view of Bryant lagged far behind that of the general public because I stopped following the NBA closely when the Stockton/Malone Jazz dismantled (I grew up in Salt Lake City), and that was around the time of his sexual assault trial; to me, he was just a young, irresponsible punk who had game. I’ve never been comfortable with how the legal stuff played out, and I don’t think it should be kept under erasure, but I guess he grew into quite the beloved athlete. I mostly missed that.

Fiers Mustache: Jeter not being a unanimous vote is a travesty. Who (if anyone) will be the next unanimously voted HOFer?

Eric A Longenhagen: Good morning from lovely Tempe, chat. Hope you’ve had a good week, let’s talk baseball.

Wander Franco: Is it reasonable to give me an 80-grade hit tool when I haven’t seen Double-A pitching yet?

Eric A Longenhagen: Yeah, in addition to the visual evaluation, there’s data to support it. Franco has one of the lowest swinging strike rates in the minors, the best quality of contact among those with the lowest swinging strike rates. Totally reasonable. And that’s coming from the guy who wouldn’t 80 Vlad’s raw power, I’m pretty miserly.

Flappy Bois: Can we reasonably expect Xavier Edwards to add strength?

Eric A Longenhagen: I think you can hope for it but shouldn’t expect it.

Eric A Longenhagen: He’s pretty maxed out.

Kiley McDaniel: Hello from ATL! Scout is eating lunch and I’ve got a busy day so let’s get going before a quick review of recent pieces

Kiley McDaniel: Braves list is out: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/top-27-prospects-atlanta-braves/

Kiley McDaniel: and post Ozuna signing, there’s lots of ATL questions in the queue but I’ll try to limit them

Kiley McDaniel: I also wrote about what’s next for the Astros: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/whats-next-for-the-astros/

Kiley McDaniel: and Prospects Week is set for February but lemme find the actual date for you

Kiley McDaniel: on Feb 10