Dan Szymborski: G’Afternoon!

Dbo: Since you published your article “The Cubs Are Slowly Pulling Away”, the Cubs have gone 5-7. Why do you hate the cubs and why did you feel it necessary to jinx them?

Dan Szymborski: If only I had such powers.

Derek Falvey: How highly should I rate Mitch Garver’s breakout year?

Dan Szymborski: Pretty highly. He’s getting a power boost even for power boosts

CamdenWarehouse: I’m so sorry for your loss, Dan. Galileo seemed like the best of cats.

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon, and welcome to another edition of my Thursday chat. Lunch (dumplings) is on the way, my piece on Bo Bichette is in the pipeline [now live], and here’s a GIF of Kermit the Frog and Vincent Price, for no reason at all.  

Ben: Do you think MLB and Rawlings will change the ball this offseason?

Jay Jaffe: I think they’d be foolish not to. For as exciting as home runs are, they’ve got a PR problem on their hands now, and the so-called steroid era taught us that MLB gets very squeamish when the sanctity of home run records is threatened. I doubt they’ll be transparent about it, but I think we’ll see some kind of attempt to return to more normal levels.

Pujols: Do you think I care about round numbers? close to losing my career .300 average. Do I retire before that happens?

Jay Jaffe: No. Maybe if the contract was up at the end of this year, but bypassing two more years and a total of $59 million to keep it .300? Nobody cares about batting average that much.

Trevor Collicott: How do you write for fan graphs?

Kiley McDaniel: Hello from ATL! Scout is in the backyard investigating squirrel-like movements in the trees

Kiley McDaniel: Eric and I still have about a half dozen pro prospects to move before things will slow down update-wise around Sept 1 in preparation for offseason lists

Kiley McDaniel: for the latest moves: https://twitter.com/fg_prospects

Kiley McDaniel: and for the updated farm rankings: https://www.fangraphs.com/prospects/the-board/2019-in-season-prospect-…

Kiley McDaniel: and the top 1254 prospects in the minors: https://www.fangraphs.com/prospects/the-board/2019-in-season-prospect-…

cuvamc: What’s your take on Riley Greene in CF? Saw him myself a few weeks ago, looked more athletic/competent than I originally thought he would be. I know he’s most likely a RF, but how likely is it that he could play an average CF in the big leagues?

Meg Rowley: Hi all, and welcome to the chat — allow me a few minutes to schedule a piece and then we’ll get started

Meg Rowley: Ok, I am back.

Meg Rowley: Thanks for your patience

Lunar verLander: Do you think baseball players (on average) have more fun at their jobs than non-baseball players (again, on average)? I know it’s their job & they get evaluated based on their performance just like non-baseball players, but they ARE doing something they’ve wanted to do since they were a kid, so that has to contribute to it somewhat, yeah?

Meg Rowley: I think probably, yes. I think all jobs have things that are not fun (I love my job very, very much and I have weeks where a beer on Friday evening is quite welcome) but the highs of getting to do a thing you’ve worked toward forever have to be pretty great. Now, I’m sure there is variation year to year. I don’t imagine anyone playing for the Orioles is having as much fun as anyone on the Astros. But it’s a pretty great job, even though it is a deeply weird job, and a hard one.

Ryan: I know they can’t really discuss their jobs, but do you get the feeling that Carson and Jeff are enjoying what they do?

Eric A Longenhagen: Good morning, all. I’m back from showcase stuff. The prospect mover piece will be up soon and that will answer a lot of questions currently in the queue.

Crackjacketityjack: Zion Bannister is apparently in the AZL now. Isn’t that quick for a J-2 guy who just signed?

Eric A Longenhagen: He is but with fewer teams doing instructional league (though I think TEX still is) this is an opportunity to get into games now, and Bannister isn’t physically weak such that I think he’s clearly overmatched.

jjjj: If you are the Rangers, what do you do with Nick Solak long term? Have him replace Odor? Try him at 1B? Put him at LF or DH with Willie Calhoun?

Eric A Longenhagen: try to make him a 4 at 2B

Azfan : Who should I be more excited for, Liover pegeuro or Geraldo Perdomo?

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon and welcome to my “Ides of August” chat! Today is the third anniversary of my daughter’s due date; she put off her arrival for another 11 days while we tore our hair out, in marked contrast to the way her two writer-parents approach deadlines.

Anyhoo, my piece staring into the heart of darkness that is the 2019 Tigers just went live https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-tigers-might-be-historically-bad/

And in honor of getting to use the phrase “heart of darkness” into my work, I’m spinning the Peter Laughner box set this afternoon. Laughner was the original guitar player for Pere Ubu when they did their first two singles (“30 Seconds over Tokyo” b/w “Heart of Darkness” came first) and left behind an incredible legacy for somebody who died young at age 24.

Jay Jaffe: Anyway… on with the show.

Ay Ay Ron: Hi, Jay.  Who do you greatly helped their HOF case the most based on their 2019 performance?  Who do you think hurt it the most?

Jay Jaffe: This is quite likely my next article, so look for it either tomorrow or early next week at FG.

nibbish: In your recent article, you mentioned that the Twins could have upgraded at first by trading for Tyler White or Miguel Andújar. Could you elaborate about that? Neither of them (particularly White) seem to be upgrades, or at least not enough to actually *trade* for.

nibbish: I mean “Jesús Aguilar” my mistake, sorry.

Kiley McDaniel: Hello from ATL! Scout is outside chasing chipmunks and I’m inside chatting with you people

Kiley McDaniel: Eric just finished up Area Codes and the PG All American game so our summer looks are done and the draft rankings will get tons of names added/moved in the next couple days

Kiley McDaniel: The tops of the lists are done, just adding some names to the bottoms to fill them out some

Kiley McDaniel: We’re working on a big project that we’ll announce soon and the main other things that’s going on now is doing sweeps through systems and moving the obvious prospects around based on new reports, so that will continue to happen this summer

Kiley McDaniel: Aristedes Aquino was added today, Thad Ward to the Red Sox, Breidy Encarnacion for Miami, a little shuffling to the CIN list, a couple ARI moves, some new video, etc.

Jerry: Does Will Smith’s early production in the big leagues help vault him at all on THE BOARD?

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

Meg Rowley: I have returned from Boston, and most of my summer head cold.

Meg Rowley: Pro-tip: don’t get sick and then have to fly to a conference across the country. It is not fun.

Reminder!!: Meg doesn’t answer fantasy baseball questions!

Meg Rowley: Promise.

Lunar verLander: Everyone should strive to find someone who loves them as much as Gleyber Torres hates the Orioles.