Paul Sporer: Welcome to the chat, everyone! Ben and I will be with your for the evening. Brutal news for the Nats shortly before game time with Max Scherzer being scratched due to severe back spasms. An uphill battle against Cole gets even tougher now!

Paul Sporer:

Sonny: So…not a great 48 hours for the Nats

This is Lude-i-cris: Wow! Ya gotta feel terrible for Scherzer. It’s only the biggest game of his life!

kershaws the GOAT: lets go nats!!!

Belli Flop: I never thought I would say this: Go Joe Ross!

Eric A Longenhagen: Howdy from Tempe, everyone. Hope your weekend started off well.

Meg Rowley: And hello from Seattle. I similarly hope you’ve all enjoyed your Saturday.

Eric A Longenhagen:

Meg Rowley: Who gets to write the World Series montage intros?

Meg Rowley: I feel like we’d be good at that. They should let us do it.

Eric A Longenhagen: Does the FCC have a pun cap?

Dan Szymborski: Welcome to the Game 3 chat!

Dan Szymborski: This could be the penultimate chat of the 2019 season or possibly only the preantepenultimate chat!

Andrew: Let’s go, Nats!

Dan Szymborski: not let’s go Nats?

Dan Szymborski: Are you suggesting that you and the Nats should go somewhere? THERE’S AN IMPORTANT GAME STARTING

kevinthecomic: Walter Johnson throwing out the first pitch tonight?

Dan Szymborski: And here we are as the clock strikes 8.

Dan Szymborski: Not that I have an actual clock anymore.

Dan Szymborski: Not even my grandfather clock because my grandfather did not have one.

JKD: Hey I’m a Nats fan and I listened to Sam and Ben today and now I’m sad about baseball at the time when I’m most happy about baseball which makes me sad about baseball. Thanks I’ll hang up and take my answer off the air.

Dan Szymborski: DAN IS NOT SMART ENOUGH TO IDENTIFY THE QUESTION

kevinthecomic: If this series comes down to managerial decisions, who wins?

Meg Rowley: Hello all, and welcome to the chat.

Meg Rowley: A few World Series bits and bobs for you in case you missed them.

Meg Rowley: Ben Clemens previewed the series: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/postseason-preview-the-2019-world-series/

Meg Rowley: and also entertained a pitching hypothetical that is Interesting: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/should-the-nationals-duck-gerrit-cole/

Meg Rowley: Devan wrote about Fernando Rodney’s interesting postseason resume: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/fernando-rodneys-next-incredible-feat/

Meg Rowley: Craig put tonight’s Game 1 matchup in perspective: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-greatest-world-series-game-1-matchup-h…

Meg Rowley: Hi! Craig Edwards, Eric Longenhagen, and I will be your chatters for Game 5. Craig and Eric for the duration, me until about 6:15 PT or so.  We’ll get started closer to first pitch, but until then, so good reading you may have missed.

Meg Rowley: Here’s Jay Jaffe on CC Sabathia: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/cc-sabathias-storied-career-reaches-a-roug…

Meg Rowley: Jake Mailhot on Yordan Alvarez’s October slump: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/how-to-neutralize-a-rookie-sensation/

Meg Rowley: Craig on all the many innings Justin Verlander has thrown: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/justin-verlanders-innings-could-fill-a-boa…

Meg Rowley: Devan Fink on Ottavino, and how the Yankees still need him: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-yankees-still-need-adam-ottavino/

Meg Rowley: And Ben Clemens on yesterday’s Game 4: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-astros-edge-toward-the-world-series/

Kiley McDaniel: Hello from ATL! I think we’re about a week away from announcing more about the project that Eric and I have been hinting at over the last few weeks…because it should be done soon.

Kiley McDaniel: And for those asking about the podcast project we’ve mentioned…that also will be disclosed in the coming weeks

Kiley McDaniel: Scout is eating lunch and I’m hopped up on caffeine, so let’s see what you guys have for me today

Theo: Looking at The Board, I see 14 60 FV prospects. If I’m trading Kris Bryant, could I realistically expect to get someone from that group in return?

Kiley McDaniel: We can tackle this in a broad way using  surplus value calculations:

Kiley McDaniel: and my internet is getting wonky, hold on a second

Jay Jaffe: Hello folks, and welcome to the FanGraphs ALCS Game 1 chat. I’ll be joined by Dan Szymborski shortly and we’ll get this thing up to speed. For the moment, here’s my ALCS preview: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/postseason-preview-new-york-yankees-vs-hou…

And here’s Dan’s ZiPS-driven game-by-game odds. https://www.fangraphs.com/standings/playoff-odds/post-season-zips?seas…

Shaun: Is this a “must-win” for the Yankees? Down 1-0 with Verlander and Cole on full rest in games 2-3 doesn’t sound great.

Jay Jaffe: I’m hesitant to call any single game outside of an elimination game a must-win, but obviously, the Yankees’ road to four wins is more difficult if they lose tonight, and the likelihood that they can beat both Verlander AND Cole in back-to-back games would mean that they’re almost certainly playing from behind.

Guest: It is a pleasure to share this evening with you in this chat, Jay.

Jay Jaffe: Thanks, it’s good to be here. I previewed this series and I’ll be covering the New York leg of the series on-site, so I thought it would be worth chatting during it as well. Emma and I are home watching baseball anyway

Dan Szymborski: Good evening!