Jay Jaffe: Hello, sports fans! Welcome to another edition of my Thursday chat. In 24 hours, I’ll be arriving in Boston for this week’s Saberseminar along with several of my colleagues, and if you’re in the area tomorrow night, we’d like you to join us for some snacks, adult beverages, and baseball chatter https://blogs.fangraphs.com/instagraphs/fangraphs-saberseminar-boston-…

Jay Jaffe: Now, on with the show…

Chris: What would it take for you to advocate the MVP for someone who didn’t lead the league in war?

Jay Jaffe: I don’t think one has to go strictly by a WAR leaderboard to choose an MVP. First off, we have multiple versions of WAR that have different inputs, both with regards to pitching models and defensive metrics, and each of them can help illuminate different aspects of what we’re trying to reward.

Jay Jaffe: Second, we can certainly bring some other stats and context there. WPA and clutch metrics can be part of the discussion. Absences due to injury (that player may have missed some games but been better on a prorated basis as far as WAR is concerned, or he may have come up big while a key teammate was injured), changes in role, particularly strong performances against a division rival or down the stretch… The bottom line is that we don’t need to be slaves to the decimals. The WAR leader is still gonna be the WAR leader whether or not he gets the hardware.

Jim: Tony’s article got me thinking… how many homeruns would Cruz need to hit to even have a shot at the HOF? Or will the PED suspension be too much to overcome regarldess?

Meg Rowley: Hello, and welcome to a Wednesday Meg chat.

Meg Rowley: This one isn’t likely to go overly long, as I have a pretty gnarly head cold and have to head to the ballpark later.

Meg Rowley: But for now, a chat! Let’s get started.

Rich K: Hi Meg.  Hope you feel better soon.  Are you chatting on Wednesdays now?  I thought you were on Tuesdays. . . .

Meg Rowley: I normally am — Dan had a conflict on Monday, which pushed him to Tuesday, which pushed me to today. I don’t know how, but eventually this ends with someone at FanGraphs being next in the constitutional line of succession. Should be back to normal next week.

Nahtan: If the season ended today, would you vote for Yelich or Belli as NL MVP (and why)?

Kiley McDaniel: Hello from ATL! Scout is eating her lunch and I’m still experimenting with grilled/smoked meats and various formulations of frose

Kiley McDaniel: I was at the East Coast Pro showcase this past week, so I’m updating the draft rankings this week, along with some pro adjustments while Eric is at Area Codes and the PG All-American game this week

Kiley McDaniel: There was some important content on the FG prospects social channels today

Kiley McDaniel: All of our rankings and stats and content and whatnot can be conveniently found here: https://www.fangraphs.com/prospects

Kiley McDaniel: to your questions:

Yay: Levi Kelly ranked top 10 for D Backs on other sites. Not on board for you guys. Isn’t he at least a 35+ at this point even if he’s just a reliever?

Dan Szymborski: IT IS CHAT TIME

Appa Yip Yip: Is Marcus Stroman the Mets best infielder now?

Dan Szymborski: It’s possible, lol!

Zipp: LFGM

Dan Szymborski: My favorite thing about the Mets is that they essentially had a terrific deadline (picking up Stroman and NOT trading Thor or Wheeler) because they failed their second part of that plan.

Philip: 2 questions: Is the zips stats only prospect ranking going to happen? And with the 3 year Zips projections is there a plan to have auto daily updates based on new statistical changing info?

Jay Jaffe: Good afternoon and welcome to today’s post-deadline chat with what’s left of my brain after writing, filing and/or publishing 8,600 words in the last 27 hours…

Jay Jaffe: I’ve got to quickly buy some tickets to tomorrow’s Tarantino showing and I’ve got a radio spot in the middle of this chat so the going might be slow at first.

stever20: Do you think the Dodgers can win the World Series with the back end of the bullpen they currently have?

Jay Jaffe: To quote the late, great Graham Chapman in the “Flying Sheep” sketch, “A fair question and one that in recent weeks has been much on my mind” https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2v9uxz

Jay Jaffe: The Dodgers’ failure to get a late-inning arm made my list of five least-favorite moves and non-moves. I thought the price the Pirates were reportedly asking for Vazquez — two of the top 12 prospects in the game (per our Board, in May, Lux, and Ruiz) was too high but there had to be some middle ground between that and the sinkerballing lefty they got from the Rays, who’s nice but…

Jay Jaffe: If Jansen recovers from, if Kelly keeps up what he’s been doing since June started, if Maeda dominates the way he did in late 2017, if Baez can recover form, if some of Ferguson, Stripling, and Floro can still help, and if Urias keeps doing what he’s been doing, then yes, I think the bullpen can hold together. Obviously, that is one big basket of ifs

Dan Szymborski: Good afternoon!

Anj: Does Mancini move in the next hour???  If so, for what?

Dan Szymborski: I believe no.

Anj: Do the Orioles sell anything, or stand pat?  Everyone pretty controllable, can afford to wait.

Dan Szymborski: They could theoretically trade Givens or Villar, though I haven’t heard anything.

Dan Szymborski: Though stuff tends to pop up super quickly.

Meg Rowley: Hello and welcome to the chat!

Meg Rowley: With a little over 24 hours to the trade deadline the most of exciting move of the season is Stroman, and the Phillies trying to talk themselves into being excited about Jason Vargas!

Meg Rowley: What a time to be alive.

Theo Epstein: Do I need to do more this deadline than sit and hope Hamels, Zobrist, and Morrow come back healthy?

Meg Rowley: Some reinforcements would be nice. Whether ownership let’s you do more… that I’m unsure of. The Cubs aren’t in terrible shape. If you look at our projected WAR totals for the rest of the season, they aren’t languishing at the bottom, and are the best in the Central. But I like insurance. I am perhaps inclined to being overinsured.

Meg Rowley: That bullpen seems like an obvious spot, though that is also an obvious spot for a lot of teams with more to offer.