Eric A Longenhagen: Hello from stormy Tempe, we’ll probably have a shorter chat today so I can batten down the hatches before this enormous cell hits the city.

Eric A Longenhagen: This week I wrote about the defense of more shortstops

Eric A Longenhagen: Let’s Scout More Top Shortstop Prospects’ Defense: Franklin Arias, George Lombard Jr., JJ Wetherholt, Edwin Arroyo | FanGraphs Baseball

Eric A Longenhagen: Meg and I also wrote a job posting looking for a second full time prospect writer. FanGraphs Is Hiring! Seeking a Full-Time Prospect Writer | FanGraphs Baseball

Jeb: Konnor Griffin, whoof. AA doesn’t seem to be phasing him at all so far. As a pirate fan, can he actually work out and be great? What does his ceiling look like? What can we dream on?

Eric A Longenhagen: Yeah, he’s quite good. I still think it’s a round down hit tool to some degree, but the power/speed combo is great. He’s a top 5 prospect.

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks! I hope you all enjoyed your three-day weekends. I had a lovely one here, one that included a surprise solo parenting job as I took my daughter and her friend to see the Brooklyn Cyclones on Sunday; my wife planned to go instead of the friend, but came down with a migraine (ugh). Fortunately, it all went well, everybody had fun and I came home with the same number of kids I brought.

Jay Jaffe: I’ve got a thing on Walker Buehler joining the Phillies that’s about to go live. Did some injury roundups as they pertain to contenders late last week. Here’s the NL one: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/watch-those-fingers-a-roundup-of-recent-in…

Jay Jaffe: And here’s the AL one: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/a-roundup-of-recent-injuries-among-the-al-…

Jay Jaffe: pour one out for Corey Seager, yeesh.

Jay Jaffe: Ok, on with the show…

Thank you!: Would you try to extend any yanks?

Eric A Longenhagen: Good morning everyone, let’s dive into your questions immediately.

Ben: Hey Eric, love these chats! We have two exciting SP debuts tonight. If you only could watch Tong or Tolle tonight, which would you choose and why?

Eric A Longenhagen: If you have to pick one (both *matchups* tonight are also incredible, Tolle vs Skenes, Tong vs Eury) I’d go Tolle just because we’ll get to learn more about him tonight than I think we will Tong. Tolle’s power fastball will play, how about the other stuff? How does he approach big league hitters the second and third time through? Tong’s question marks are more going to be answered over longer period because it has to do with him sustaining big stuff at his size.

Drew: Is Eduardo Quintero really a top 50 prospect like I’ve seen in other publications?

Eric A Longenhagen: That’s rich for me, clearly, or I’d have him in that area.

Rob: What have your impressions of Cam Cam been this year?

Dan Szymborski: And thus the chat began. Suspiciously, it began on time as well.

Philly Fan: How much of a hit did Phillies’ WS prospects take with Wheeler’s injury?

Dan Szymborski: I didn’t do an article on the topic, but I did run the numbers and at the time, they dropped from 11.7 to 9.8 in ZiPS purely for the Wheeler injury

Ben: If/when expansion happens, which cities are you hoping get  team?  Which ones would you bet on getting a team?

Dan Szymborski: I hope Nashville gets one. That’s purely for selfish reasons – gives me yet another park five hours or less away!

Dan Szymborski: And I like excuses to visit Nashville. The state of hot chicken in SW Ohio, at least in the Dayton area, is truly sad.

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, folks! Welcome to another edition of my weekly chat.

Jay Jaffe: It’s my daughter’s birthday today so I’ve been running around like crazy, but the second installment of my annual Hall of Fame progress report is up: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/cooperstown-notebook-the-2025-progress-rep…

Jay Jaffe: Part I, covering pitchers and catchers, ran last week https://blogs.fangraphs.com/cooperstown-notebook-the-2025-progress-rep…

Jay Jaffe: Before I get going, thanks to a couple participants in last week’s chat for ideas that directly led to articles. Reader Your Name pointed out that at the time, the Pirates didn’t have a single player with a wRC+ of 100 or better, regardless of playing time. That would be a first if they pulled it off, as I discovered: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/aargh-the-pirates-are-in-danger-of-making-… Since then, however, Tommy Pham and Spencer Horwitz have nosed over the line. We’ll see if they can maintain that

Jay Jaffe: Also, reader Nasty Nate asked for a look at Nathan Eovaldi, who’s having a sneaky great season: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/nathan-eovaldis-sneaky-great-season/

Jay Jaffe: For tomorrow, I’m looking at the AL MVP race, which is far from the Aaron Judge cakewalk that it looked like during the first half of the season — particularly if you take note of Cal Raleigh’s pitch framing as well as his prolific home run pace

Eric A Longenhagen: Hello from sweaty, stormy Tempe where we’ve had a weird mix of 110+ degree heat and moisture the last few days. There were several heat-related incidents with players at Bridge Camp yesterday. Looks like it’s going to break next week and our weather patterns will change.

Eric A Longenhagen: Let’s get to your questions, might be a shorter chat this week as the only game in town is west valley today, which means a longer commute for you friendly neighborhood prospect writer.

Mike: Minnesota going to keep Abel and Bradley in the minors to lose every game?

Eric A Longenhagen: Their deadline was the only one that felt like a true, complete bottoming out, so maybe? I can see them wanting to give Zebby all the runway, but Urena and Hatch idk. Did Hatch tweak something in Japan they want to see vs MLB hitters for an extended spell? Trying to take the most generous read of the situation but yeah they might just be tanking. Which, ok.

Alex: Do the Braves have a chance to have more than one(Didier Fuentes) Top 100-ish prospects for 2026?

Eric A Longenhagen: Ritchie’s had a good year and held his stuff even though his innings load has doubled. Will they be as aggressive with him as the other young arms, or will they be gun shy because AJSS and Fuentes were clearly undercooked?