Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon folks, and welcome to another edition of my Monday chat. Apparently, I screwed something up and the queue has been open for awhile, but that just gives us a good stock of questions to start with.

Jay Jaffe: My piece for today, on the premature end of Mike Trout’s season, went up a little while ago https://blogs.fangraphs.com/mike-trouts-season-is-over-which-completel…. It’s a bummer, but not half as much a bummer as the death of Ric Ocasek, news of which reached me (and everybody else) last night.

The Cars were an unstoppable hit machine when I was in grade school. Entry level new wave/post-punk, catchy as hell, icy cool. Only later did I appreciate the extent to which they were a gateway to so many great bands that influenced them — Kraftwerk, Roxy Music, Bowie, Suicide, the Modern Lovers, etc. Their first album is utter perfection, and the ones that followed are pretty damn good as well.

Jay Jaffe: Anyway, on with the show.

MVP: Do you think Trout hangs on to win the AL MVP vote despite missing effectively the last 3 weeks of the season?

Jay Jaffe: I address that in the piece. While we’ve seen a handful of players win while toiling for sub-.500 teams, and win while playing in 140 or fewer games in a 162-game schedule, we’ve never seen anybody who’s at the intersection of that Venn diagram. Alex Bregman is closing in on Trout, and while he won’t overtake him, I can see the strong possibility of voters screwing the best player on Planet Earth yet again. Brace yourselves.

stever20: How crazy is it that in the last 3 years Trout has missed now 98 games.  Costing him 30 homers and 106 hits based on what he’s done in those 3 years on average.  How worried are you that he’s gonig to turn into this generations Ken Griffey Jr.?

Dan Szymborski: It’s a’me, Mario!

Pat: Are you always on Thursdays now?

Dan Szymborski: Well, until something else changes or I die or something.

Dan Szymborski: I’m not doing chats after I die.

Dan Szymborski: Am I supposed to be haunted in my grave, my eternal rest disturbed by sasndwich questions?

Joe: If you’re Bob Melvin, how would you use Luzardo coming down the stretch?

Kiley McDaniel: Hello from ATL. Scout is eating lunch and I’ll get to that after I’m done with you people

Kiley McDaniel: We’ve done some board adjusting and video on the usual FG_Prospects twitter and fangraphs instagram but are mostly doing behind the scenes work now that you’ll be aware of in the coming weeks

Kiley McDaniel: some reading, if you’re so inclined:

Kiley McDaniel: Rosenthal on the Rockies and trading Arenado?: https://theathletic.com/1202375/2019/09/11/rosenthal-after-the-teams-s…

Kiley McDaniel: Sawchik on if the minor leagues are necessary: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/do-we-even-need-minor-league-base…

Kiley McDaniel: to your questions:

Meg Rowley: Hi all, and welcome to the chat. Allow me a brief moment to refill my coffee, and we’ll get started.

Meg Rowley: Ok, am sufficiently caffeinated. Let us begin.

Spider Puig: Do you give Gray any chance at the Cy Young this year?

Meg Rowley: This year? No. The top is too good, he doesn’t edge anyone in ERA or FIP, doesn’t lead the second half. But if you’re the Reds you have to be thrilled with his season. Dude looks great.

JustCurious: Who wins the NL awards?

Meg Rowley: Yelich, Scherzer (though deGrom will keep it interesting), and Alonso imo.

Jay Jaffe: Hello and good afternoon! Welcome to my first chat in this new time slot — real life events (mainly my daughter starting preschool) have necessitated changing from my Thursday slot, and thankfully, Dan Szymborski was able to accommodate. You’ll still get the same artisanal blend of sense and nonsense as I usually dish out.

Jay Jaffe: I’ve got a thing in the pipeline today about Michael Pineda’s suspension and its impact on the Twins. And now, onto the questions…

JH: How weak is it that Red Sox ownership isn’t going to discuss Dombrowski’s firing with the media?

Jay Jaffe: That is a particularly weak move as it leaves Alex Cora and the players to answer questions without knowing all that went into the decision or what the future holds

Wicho: Presumably, the new regime is going to have to cut payroll in Boston but how are they going to do that? Most of their big money players are not worth their contracts and they don’t have the prospects to attach to them.

Jay Jaffe: Well, I suspect that J.D. Martinez will opt out and that the Sox might decide that their chances of re-signing Betts are better if they haven’t committed $100M+ to him. Beyond that… they’re going to have to get creative and hope that some of their young players pan out.

Eric A Longenhagen: Good morning from AZ, where we’re waiting for the heat to start to break.

Tank: A few weeks back in a chat you said you didn’t really trust pitchers stats in the Texas League. Any reason?

Eric A Longenhagen: did I phrase it like that? and did I say Texas or Southern? If I said Texas, I meant Southern. It’s just been a putrid offensive season in the Southern League, most team ERA’s are below 4 and the ones that aren’t are just barely above it. So what I meant, more specifically, is that pitcher’s stats should be viewed through that lens

Nick A: Over/under on Yermin Mercedes career homers: 19.5

Eric A Longenhagen: under, but the wager is void if an electronic strike zone gets implemented

Guest: What do you make of the Yankees trading for international slot money right after missing out on Diaz? Also does reneging on that deal affect their ability to sign J2 prospects in the future?

Dan Szymborski: And thus it begins.

Matt: So about the zips prospect rankings? When it happening?

Dan Szymborski: Yup!

Guest: What do you make of the Yankees missing out on Jhon Diaz and then immediately trading for international spending money? Also does the Yankees reneging on their deal with a J2 prospect impact their ability to make future deals?

Dan Szymborski: There’s perhaps something in the story I have missed as I only know the basics. IIRC, the Yankees ran into cap issues from previous international signing.

Dan Szymborski: I doubt it will affect anything long-term.

Kiley McDaniel: Hello from ATL, Scout is resting alongside me as she’s about to begin nap #3 of the day.

Kiley McDaniel: We just posted some changes to THE BOARD on twitter that are reflected on the site

Kiley McDaniel: here is the board link: https://www.fangraphs.com/prospects/the-board/2019-in-season-prospect-…

Kiley McDaniel: here be the tweet:

Kiley McDaniel: I’ll probably be sneaking out to the Gwinnett/Columbus playoff game tomorrow, waiting to hear back but expecting Logan Allen v Kyle Wright with Pache, Waters, Riley, Alex Jackson vs. Zimmer, Daniel Johnson, Bobby Bradley. That would be good

Kiley McDaniel: the prospects landing page has prospect leaderboards, graduation tracker and all of our content: https://www.fangraphs.com/prospects/