Dan Szymborski: And away we go!

Peter Thomas: How’s that ZiPS 101 article coming?  I know it feels to you like self promotion, but there are sooooo many projection skeptics out there who could be converted if they better understood the process.

Dan Szymborski: Not even thinking about it until my two big year-end/winter projects (the elegies and the ZiPS are done).

Dan Szymborski: I had process writing.

Jeff: What’s $/WAR at these days and how can I help make it better for the owners?

Dan Szymborski: Depends who you ask. Based on ZiPS projections, I still get the best predictor of salaries players get in the mid 7s.

Kiley McDaniel: Hello from ATL! Scout is patrolling the backyard and Eric and I are readying ourselves for the NYC live event and the first batch of team prospect lists

Kiley McDaniel: Don’t know if he’s mentioned this yet, but we’ll be doing lists by spring training pod, since lots of pro coverage groups teams that way and it makes it easier to talk to each source once in the offseason instead of circling back a bunch of times

Kiley McDaniel: https://plus.fangraphs.com/product/fangraphs-live-new-york-city-2019/

Kiley McDaniel: and I just noticed it appears to be sold out already

Kiley McDaniel: so I’m just being a tease now

Kiley McDaniel: here’s the last thing i contributed to: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2020-top-50-free-agents/

Meg Rowley: Hey pals, will get started in a second here, just need to fetch a cup of coffee.

Meg Rowley: Ok, am returned, caffeine in hand.

Meg Rowley: A few things to highlight from today:

Meg Rowley: Dan detailed his NL ROY ballot: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/a-deep-dive-into-my-national-league-rookie…

Meg Rowley: Jay made the case for Ted Simmons to be in the HOF: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/ted-simmons-election-to-the-hall-of-fame-i…

Meg Rowley: David Laurila continued his excellent pitching series with a look at the evolution of a couple of changeups: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/dylan-bundy-cory-gearrin-and-dereck-rodrig…

Dan Szymborski: Greetings, there is no baseball!

Dan Szymborski: But there is pretend baseball that may lead to future baseball.

Dan Szymborski: Unless, you know, the world ends in March or something. But then you won’t be aware of no baseball so our demise works out also!

Dan Szymborski: I like existing, but no longer needing to finish cleaning out the basement is cool too.

Bill G: Where can I get plate appearances per lineup slot.  Thanks!

Dan Szymborski: Our Split Leaderboards are just the tincture you need for revitalization, good sir!

Kiley McDaniel: Hello from ATL! Scout is sunbathing on the porch and the grout for the backsplash should be going in later today. Big changes to the chat as I figured out how to add a picture so you can tell me apart from people that ask questions as me. To your questions:

Archer: As a recent home purchaser whose kitchen  could use a slight face lift, I’d love to see the pictures of your new backsplash! Did you install yourself?

Kiley McDaniel: I knew this would be the backsplash chat

Kiley McDaniel:

Kiley McDaniel: that’s mid installation, it’ll eventually go to the ceiling behind the vent

Kiley McDaniel: Had the contractor’s guys do it. 5th contractor was the charm!

David Laurila: Hello fellow baseball fans. Let’s get this thing started.

Dan Szymborski: Greetings chatters and chatees.

Dan Szymborski: The end. The end of baseball.

Magic Kingdome: Let’s pretend the Mariners make the World Series in the next few years [hearty chuckle].  Who throws out the first pitch?

David Laurila: Don’t know what we’re going to see tonight, but I’m rooting for a nail-biter with no ump-show controversies.

Dan Szymborski: Unless he’s signed with a team, no way King Felix doesn’t get to throw out a first pitch in this case.

Ben Clemens: Hey guys, thanks for chatting with us tonight. Meg and I will be here for all inevitable four hours of baseball. We’re going to let the chat queue fill up with a few questions, but I’ll throw in some links while you wait.

Ben Clemens: First, there’s an artisanally hand-crafted World Series preview that is, in my opinion, excellent:
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/postseason-preview-the-2019-world-series/

Ben Clemens: Craig Edwards wrote about how Stephen Strasburg is god*:
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/stephen-strasburg-is-a-postseason-god/

Ben Clemens: *not in a religious way or anything

Ben Clemens: And as a quick recap of how we got here, Jay Jaffe on Game 5:
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/road-warriors-again-astros-take-third-stra…

Ben Clemens: And if you aren’t interested in the World Series, well first of all, weird place to be if that’s the case! But second of all, here’s Dan Szymborski on the Texas Rangers, in case that’s more your speed:
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-texas-rangers-were-surprisingly-releva…