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?

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.