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.

Kiley McDaniel: Hello from ATL! Scout is eating lunch and I’ve got a busy day so let’s get going before a quick review of recent pieces

Kiley McDaniel: Braves list is out: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/top-27-prospects-atlanta-braves/

Kiley McDaniel: and post Ozuna signing, there’s lots of ATL questions in the queue but I’ll try to limit them

Kiley McDaniel: I also wrote about what’s next for the Astros: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/whats-next-for-the-astros/

Kiley McDaniel: and Prospects Week is set for February but lemme find the actual date for you

Kiley McDaniel: on Feb 10

Kiley McDaniel: Hello from ATL! Just wrapped up some calls and I see that we have new font options in the chat software now.

COOL DOPE

Kiley McDaniel: We did the Cardinals prospect list today and the Braves should be coming either this week or on Monday. Handy nav bar under prospects at the top of the screen for the other lists we’ve done so far.

Kiley McDaniel: THE BOARD is always changing and I’ve been adding draft guys the last few weeks, so there’s dozens of new guys on all the lists if you haven’t checked in for awhile :https://www.fangraphs.com/prospects/the-board/2020-prospect-list/summa…

Kiley McDaniel: I wrote this week about the Rays roster churn and unique posture: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/instagraphs/rays-continue-their-roster-chu…

Kiley McDaniel: Jay wrote about the Houston sign stealing stuff: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/rob-manfred-hammers-the-astros/

Kiley McDaniel: and I’ve got something in for editing now about how the Astros will proceed from a baseball ops perspective

Jay Jaffe: Hey hey folks, happy almost mid-January. Welcome to today’s chat. I’m going to give the queue a few minutes to get stocked. Hot Stove and Hall of Fame questions, ask away

Larry Walker: Can I snatch victory from the JAWS of defeat?

Jay Jaffe: I certainly hope so! But I’m nervous because this doesn’t look like the election days of Raines and Edgar, both of whom sailed in with like 85% in their final years. The recent projections I’ve seen based upon the tracker and various models have gone both ways — just over the line and just short, but with the odds tilting towards the former. I have to admit I’m quite nervous

Dave: Hi Jay, what does your crystal ball say about next week’s announcement of the HOF voting results?

Jay Jaffe: Aside from the nailbiter with Walker, I do think jeter will be unanimous, that Schilling will be in high 60s and Bonds/Clemens in the low 60s.

Travis: The number of ballots tracked by the HoF Tracker is behind last year’s pace – do you sense a reticence from some voters to reveal their choices before the big reveal itself? Is there a reaction by writers with votes to the vitriol on social media? (The Purdy ratio immediately comes to mind)

Eric A Longenhagen: Good morning, chat. Busy day on the site for a Friday. Go peep the Mets list. Cardinals and Braves run next week (non-zero chance we rope Detroit in with Atlanta) before we move on to the Northwest Valley cluster (TEX, SEA, KCR, SDP)

Eric A Longenhagen: And now, i shall take your questions with gusto

Adam : Do major league teams ever sign veteran players to minor league deals thinking “if we ever have to call this guy up, we’re screwed?”

Eric A Longenhagen: I’m sure if you’re Anaheim and sign an minor league free agent CF youh’re probably thinking that, but generally teams are enthused about the players they’re signing, even when those signigns are just for emergency depth or a shot their player dev can make a relevant change to create viable depth

Trumbo No. 5: Where is in-person scouting most valuable still? At the amateur/HS level? More rural/cold-weather areas without easy showcase access? Where would you aim as a young scout looking to cover under-tread territory?

Eric A Longenhagen: Wherever the data and video are least present (you nailed the general settings) as well as where context is important. The lower you go, the less technological infrastructure there is, the more important scouts are. Unless you have some visual machine learning concept that can identify mechanical inefficiencies, you need an eyeball scout to unearth that stuff, too.