Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks, and welcome to today’s chat, where I plan to talk about baseball in at least some shape and form. I hope you’re doing all right; the Jaffe-Span household is trying to keep it together in downtown Brooklyn, where we’ve got a reasonable stockpile of supplies and are taking plenty of precautions when we do need to walk our dog (Sandy) and get our daughter some outdoor exercise.

Jay Jaffe: Some housekeeping: Please read this message from David Appelman. Like just about everyone else in the world of sports, we’re facing some lean times, and we hope that you’ll think of us.  https://blogs.fangraphs.com/a-fangraphs-update-were-asking-for-your-he…

Jay Jaffe: The Ringer’s Bryan Curtis has a piece about our situation and those of several other sports media outlets https://www.theringer.com/2020/3/30/21199460/coronavirus-sports-media-…

Jay Jaffe: I’m currently working on an obituary of Jimmy Wynn, the Toy Cannon — a highly-underrated ballplayer who was a stathead favorite. That will run tomorrow.

Jay Jaffe: And now, on with the show…

Dave: How is Sandy doing?

Eric A Longenhagen: Howdy from Tempe. I’ve got a busy day today so I’m gonna keep this to the 45-60min territory. Hope you’re all hanging in there, executing your scientific, humanitarian and patriotic duty of social distancing relatively free of mental imbalance.

Noah: Do you have an I-Love-You-Even-Though-You-Always-Hurt-Me prospect?

Eric A Longenhagen: I assume it’ll be Monte Harrison when all is said and done

Andrew: If there is a minor league “season”, would it be played at spring training sites?

Eric A Longenhagen: I have no idea. If I did I’d report it in a way that fed my ego and sense of self importance and you’d already have heard about it.

Old guy: A few weeks ago you mentioned wishing you could have seen Barry Bonds at ASU. I got that chance during a college visit. Incredible physically. Obviously stood out even on a quality college team. 80 grade arrogance. Warmed up apart from the rest of the team. Legendary coach Brock called everyone in, and everyone but Bonds hustled over. Bonds kept playing catch with a ball boy and later sauntered in when he felt like it.

Dan Szymborski: Here is Dan, with #PanicDoritos

Daniel: So, favorite and least favorite baseball movie?

Dan Szymborski: Favorite: Sandlot

Dan Szymborski: LEast: Field of Dreams. I find it treacly and overwrought.

LAXTONTO: Where, of all people, did a confernces select me to review a qualitative paper? I do heavy quant stuff all the time and I got stuck with this?!?!?!

LAXTONTO: How are you and the cats my friend?

Meg Rowley: Hi everyone, and welcome to the chat

Meg Rowley: Apologies for being a little late – had to brush my teeth. You know, how we still observe the trappings of a civilization?

I miss baseball: If there is a 2020 season, would you personally put an * next to the winner?

Meg Rowley: I think we’ll have to be aware of the statistical oddity, but in terms of it having an asterisks because it feels less valid somehow, not really – we’re going to be so happy to have baseball back

Adam: I’m sure I’m only about the 67th person to ask this, but can we please make the Carson/Dayn podcasts a regular thing again?

Meg Rowley: Regular? Likely not – I’m not sure how much we can impose on the Blue Jays generosity. But they have a standing invite.

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon and welcome to the rescheduled, on-the-fly version of my weekly chat. It’s been a rough eight days since we last connected here, for you as surely as it’s been for me, but last night I saw a flicker of hope via a YouTube broadcast from Busan, South Korea, where the Lotte Giants (who employ FanGraphs alum Sung Min Kim) played an intrasquad scrimmage, with former MLB hurlers Dan Straily and Adrian Sampson starting for their respective squads.

Jay Jaffe: I wrote more about that in today’s COVID-19 roundup, as well as some other developments involving a minor league advocacy group and the use of Marlins Park as a spot for drive-through testing https://blogs.fangraphs.com/covid-19-roundup-flickers-of-hope-and-even…

Jay Jaffe: The hope for the KBO is that they can start their season in mid-April, in which case I plan to become as well-versed as possible in the league, because baseball.

Jay Jaffe: Last year I did a bit of poking around KBO stat sites when the Blue Jays brought up Ryan Feierabend, a lefty who remade himself as a knuckleballer while pitching for the Nexen Heroes and KT Wiz https://blogs.fangraphs.com/ryan-feierabend-and-the-disappearing-knuck…

Jay Jaffe: Anyway, I’m chatting here with my 3 1/2-year daughter and her partner in crime, our mutt Sandy, underfoot. The queue is filling slowly. I’ll start tackling questions but if there’s a delay in my responses, it’s because I’m keeping the apartment from burning down or at least sticking two LEGOs together.

STRAY: Will we see 125+ games this season?

Eric A Longenhagen: Good morning from Tempe, folks. Lots of smoke to talk about today…

The West is Wild: If the draft were to get canceled, how much of the reasoning would you put on: a) lost revenues for team and, b) the fact that scouts have no one to, uh, scout right now?

Scott: If MLB cancels the 2020 draft but plays a partial 2020 season (say, e.g., 81 games), how would the 2021 draft order be determined. Perhaps use teams’ combined records from 2019 and 2020?

The West is Wild: If the draft were to get canceled, what happens with those prospects? Does a draft happen in October/November? Do they get rolled into the 2021 draft, and if so, does baseball enlarge bonus pools? Is this the precursor to abolishing the draft altogether?

Garland: If the 2020 MLB season is canceled, but they still hold the 2020 MLB draft…how do they determine the draft order for the 2021 draft?

Eric A Longenhagen: There are lots of questions regarding 2020 draft cancellation in the queue. I’ll start by saying Idon’t think it’l happen, that it creates too many logistial problems for the following year to be worth MLB cramming two draft classes into one year so they can play one year’s worth of bonuses for two years of talent. I think cancelling the draft is one of many possible things the league has indeed discussed and that it was floated to see how everyone would respond, including the MLBPA, just in case it presents MLB with the most cost-effective course of action.