Kevin Goldstein FanGraphs Chat – 8/30/2021

Kevin Goldstein: Hi everyone, I’m going to start taking questions now, despite the homepage saying 1pm!

Scotty: What do you think is a bigger problem for the game, tanking or the pace of play?

Kevin Goldstein: Tanking, but (and you might not like this part of the answer) I don’t blame teams who do. It’s a bit of a don’t hate the player, hate the game situation. The rules need to change so that teams are not incentivized to do so, as they are now.

Ryan: Is Nick Lodolo injured? He only threw 1 inning in his last outing and hasn’t pitched since.

Kevin Goldstein: He was coming back from a shoulder issue and they’re managing his workload.

Tyler: Is it reasonable to argue that Robert Hassell has the best hit tool in the minors? Do you see him ever developing enough power for 20hr?

Kevin Goldstein: I’m a big Hassell fan, and do think there’s 20 HR power in there, but ‘best hit tool in the minors’ is a bit strong.

Ben Cherington: Can we get some Ed Asner love in the chat? RIP to a real one.

Kevin Goldstein: Awesome actor, awesome dude.

EP: Is Nick Yorke going to break into a top 100 prospects list? He just doesn’t stop hitting.

Kevin Goldstein: I believe he will, yes.

Club Dub: Baseball’s Save and Hold rules are weird. Case in point, Michael Lorenzen’s 0.1IP, 108ERA, 12WHIP on Tuesday. Hold, plus loss. I don’t get it

Kevin Goldstein: I mean, yeah, it’s dumb, but don’t worry about them?

JJ: Hello from exclusive Twitter land. Have you and Eric gotten any more details on Mac Gore’s time in the ACL after his first start? Good results subsequently as well…

Kevin Goldstein: He’s definitely changed some things mechanically and so far the results are promising. As they say on Love Island UK, it’s early days.

Evan: Can Patino thrive as a starter at the mlb level with only 2 pitches? Do you see him focusing on developing a 3rd offering this offseason?

Kevin Goldstein: I think he can do well, especially on the Rays where 5 IP is often the expectation for starters.

Toy Cannon: Will the Astros attempt to bring back both Greinke and Verlander? If so what kind of contract will Greinke command and does Verlander take the QO?

Kevin Goldstein: I think Verlander should take a QO, but I’m not sure he’ll get one. That’s a close call. Greinke is hard to say as well. We just don’t have enough info on how the GM operates.

Thomas: Do you think changing the way draft order is assigned would be enough to stop tanking, or is a more general re-alignment of salaries toward younger players necessary?

Kevin Goldstein: I think one could argue both are necessary, along with a solution to service time issues.

BranÍk best: For an exec at a team where Baez has never played how much would his comments about the fans play into making a decision to offer him a large FA contract this off season?

Kevin Goldstein: Pretty much none. His K rate and OBP are going to hurt him FAR MORE than those comments.

Maddoning: Can Patrick Wisdom be a viable player with his extreme batting profile?  Z-Contact and K-Rates are alarming, but he doesn’t chase badly and hits the ball very hard

Kevin Goldstein: I agree it’s a very weird profile, but hitting balls hard is a very good thing. I think he’s viable. Not a star, but viable. He’ll certainly get a chance to prove it next year with that roster.

Maddoning: Ohtani is the AL MVP or I riot.  Agreed?

Kevin Goldstein: Disagree. Not that he shouldn’t be MVP, but why riot? Why care so much about how a group of writers vote?

Jason: Thoughts on the Mariners 2021 season?

Kevin Goldstein: I wrote that they were sneaky good in April. They still are. Not a playoff team, but sneaky good.

Bdubs: Giants WS favorites if they had some combo similar to Lincecum, Cain, Bumgarner? But they don’t so…right?

Kevin Goldstein: It’s hard to be an overwhelming favorite in a short series. Playoffs are pretty random.

Jefferson: Over/under date on when we get to see nick pratto in the majors?

Kevin Goldstein: May 22, 2022?

Will: Jo Adell is looking much more comfortable this time around… Could you see him carving out a career similar to Justin Upton?

Kevin Goldstein: Justin Upton has had a pretty fantastic career. Tough to project that.

JJ: What are front office members of out of contention teams focusing on this time of year?

Kevin Goldstein: Using the rest of the season to evaluate young talent, using the rest of the season to evaluate potential FAs and trade targets, going to see minor league affiliates,

Roger: What are teams doing to try to advance the state of the art in hitting development?

Kevin Goldstein: Dodgers, Yankees, Astros come to mind….

Next best manager: What do you think the top 3 requisite skills for a successful manager are? And who do you think will be the next best manager? Either first time manager or overlooked

Kevin Goldstein: Ability to maintain the clubhouse in the sense on generating consistent effort and getting the best performance out of their players. Will Venable comes to mind as a future mgr.

JC: If Correa leaves in free agency, do you see either Jeremy Pena or Pedro Leon being capable replacements?  Do you favor one over the other?

Kevin Goldstein: Pena is the MUCH better defender and the likely SS of the future, but I’m not sure he’ll be ready by 2022.

Who’s Fabio?: Hey Kevin – I wanted to ask you this after the trade value series but do you think Bo Bichette could play CF for a few years if the Jays move him off SS?

Kevin Goldstein: I think that would be a dangerous assumption.

Ben: Fact or Fiction… Grayson Rodriguez is the best pitching prospect in baseball?

Kevin Goldstein: Fact.

Jon G: Ed Howard has made a little bit of a run as of late, but he’s largely been eaten alive by his first real taste of pro pitching. How much have his struggles this season soured you on his bat? What does real progress for him look like to you?

Kevin Goldstein: Not to be overly simplistic, but real progress would be performing better, no? I had concerns about the bat heading into the season, and those concerns seem well-founded so far.

MJ: What would your advice be to college kids trying to break into the baseball industry? Feels like the demand for jobs is so high that you just have to be in the right place at the right time.

Kevin Goldstein: My best advice might be to decide what you want to do in baseball and focus on that. Saying I’ll do anything is not a good way to go. Explain what you can do and how you can help a team.

Guest: T/F the twitter account “MLB front office executive burner” guy is actually in the front office of a team. I’m 60% leaning “false”

Kevin Goldstein: Yeah, I’ll take the over and bet HARD.

Steven: % odds that minor leaguers get some meaningful pay/benefits increase in the CBA? what’s the 1 issue you’d want to see changed or improved (other than just straight pay increase)?

Kevin Goldstein: Very low. They’re not in the union, so they really don’t have an advocate at the table.

Guest: Are front office employees barred from playing fantasy baseball, or is it just frowned upon?

Kevin Goldstein: Not barred from fantasy. Barred from gambling though.

Waiver trade deadline: Would you bring it back? I kind of miss the smaller moves we would see there

Kevin Goldstein: I actually like it better without it.

Will: This Mets blowup is less consequential than people are acting like it is, right? I wonder how much of a story it would even be were it a non NY team.

Kevin Goldstein: Being in NY certainly magnifies things, but it’s certainly not good.

szakyl: When do teams first begin to throw around potential offseason trades to other teams? After the World Series, or do teams start gauging interest prior to being able to legally complete the trade?

Kevin Goldstein: There’s a check in period, usually right after the World Series. I’m not saying convos don’t happen before that, but they’re rare.

Paul: Hey Kevin – I see corner OF types like Grossman & Duval making $5m a year. Does this hurt guys like Andrew Benintendi in arbitration or is that kept separate?

Kevin Goldstein: Not seperate at all. Arbitration is all about comps.

Doug: Angels gotta try this winter, yeah? I’d love Gausman, Stroman, or Scherzer

Kevin Goldstein: They have to try at some point….

Eric: How concerned are you with Garrett Mitchell’s struggles in AA?

Kevin Goldstein: Not very. He got to AA in his first full season. That’s impressive in and of itself.

Matt: Why doesn’t Priester have higher K rates given his stuff? Does his fastball have low spin?

Kevin Goldstein: His fastball has not-great shape. Always been a concern for me.

Guest: When you were working for the Astros, did you ever join a FG writer’s chat ?

Kevin Goldstein: Read? yes. Participate? no.

Harry: Is Robbie Ray a $100 million free agent this winter?

Kevin Goldstein: Gonna be close.

Roger: How much stock do you put into certain intangibles? I saw someone saying that, despite leading the league in OPS, Bryce Harper doesn’t “know how to win.” Does he need to cheer more in the dugout or give more clubhouse speeches? Seems to me that being one of the best performers is knowing how to win. Whether or not the teammates around you do is a different question. Funny how Derek Jeter, the poster boy for knowing how to win, constantly had good/great teammates around him.

Kevin Goldstein: “Knowing how to win” is a very weird cliche. Derek Jeter certainly provided presence, and that’s worth something, but so does Bryce Harper. Taking about ‘knowing how to win’ is just some kind of weird hot take.

Umps: The K zone on TV just makes umpires look horrible with how often they miss calls… not to mention how frustrating it makes it to watch…are we O/U 5 years from robo-umps?

Kevin Goldstein: That’s a good place to set the o/u. It’s probably 4-6 years away, but it’s coming.

Nate: Ian Happ has struggled mightily this year to the point where people are questioning if he’ll get non-tendered. He’s picked things up as of late but the non-tender question hasn’t gone away yet. Considering the Cubs aren’t gonna be good in 2022 anyway do you really think he should be non-tendered

Kevin Goldstein: It would be somewhere in the $5m range, which feels pretty reasonable. I worry that the Ricketts might define that decision more than anyone else.

Guest: why don’t the Jays push harder for Re-alignment / balanced schedule

Kevin Goldstein: To what end? I want to answer this, but I’m not sure where you are going . . .

Alvin: What stats should I be looking at to judge early returns on the 17 years olds in the DSL? Or is it all noise?

Kevin Goldstein: It’s really mostly noise. Look at the usual. Contact rates, power, adjusted for age.

Guest: Any word on what’s up with TJ Sikkema?

Kevin Goldstein: Shoulder problems.

Mick Boogie and the Monster: The FanGraphs staff is handed control of an expansion team. How competitive are they compared to other front offices?

Kevin Goldstein: It really depends on what you mean by handed control. Like, there’s nobody here that could run player development. There’s nobody here that can handle the operations aspects of baseball operations. Good decisions for the big league team could be made, but it takes hundreds to run a successful operations.

Monty Brewster: Your reaction to the Dodgers deciding to not send out Julio Urias, Walker Buehler and Max Scherzer on four days of rest after their previous starts were on four days of rest?

Kevin Goldstein: I’m fine with it. Marathon not a sprint.

Tequilasunset: What do you see as Luis Garcia ceiling? He has been impressive this year

Kevin Goldstein: He’s really struggled of late, but I think he’s just running out of gas. Should settle in as solid No. 3 starter type.

Kevin Goldstein: I don’t think there’s that kind of power in him.

Coors Lightyear: Nick Yorke a 60/60 hit/power guy?

Kevin Goldstein: That was an answer to that!

Chris: You were optimistic about Bryce Ball before this season began. Has his performance this year tanked your optimism?

Kevin Goldstein: Tanked feels strong. Greatly diminished.

Ed H: How to teams determine when a player’s minor league career will start? For example, of Cleveland’s recent draftees, I believe only their 3rd, 6th, 9th, 12th, and 15th round picks have debuted. The rest have signed but so far haven’t played.

Kevin Goldstein: Tons of pitchers are getting shut down.

Andrew: How stringent were the restrictions on Twitter and other social media use while working for a team? Would you have been theoretically even allowed to participate in a FG chat while employed with a team?

Kevin Goldstein: Yeah, it shouldn’t have been a real problem as long as I wasn’t exposing any company secrets or anything. We had to sign a social media thing that defined what we could and couldn’t post/do.

Appa Yip Yip: Bryce Harper committed the grave sin of not being Mike Trout and it will forever haunt him

Kevin Goldstein: Kyle Glaser and I went into detail on him on last week’s podcast….

Joshua: If the Nats move on from Victor Robles, what type of return do you think he could bring back?

Kevin Goldstein: Very little.

Cole: How do the Rays do it? I mean, they practically lost their entire bullpen to injury over the last few months and haven’t skipped a beat. Nearly every new arm they call up/acquire is effective. Do rival front offices take note and try to dig in and crack the code of other successful teams?

Kevin Goldstein: They absolutely do. The Rays are phenomenal on identifying pitchers with interesting data points, and just as importantly, giving them a real chance to succeeed.

Rick: Barrero the starting shortstop for the Reds next year?

Kevin Goldstein: A month ago, I would have said he should be, but go look at what Kyle Farmer has done in the second half….

Harry: They are by far the least eastern team in the east – have a historic rivalry with Detroit and should want to get out of 17 games against BOS NYY TB

Kevin Goldstein: I think arguing for realignment because you are in a tough division is pretty week, and do they really have a big rivalry with Detroit?

Steven: how did you / would you institutionalize learning from “misses” on players? is there real learning from misses, or is every player evaluation unique and therefore no need to systematically go back and do a post-mortem?

Kevin Goldstein: It’s very important to try to learn from misses, but you have to understand that there are also times where players change in unexpected ways because they are human beings and not Strat-o-matic cards.

John b: does adley R fit the Orioles time line or could he be dealt to sweeten the lower levels further ?  He seems like he will arrive 2-3!years too early

Kevin Goldstein: I can’t see any scenario in which they trade him, or even should.

Jacques Pederson: Do you think the Rays are better with player development or player scouting?

Kevin Goldstein: To do what they do, you have to be really good at both.

Steven: follow-up… can you learn from “misses” where the players change in unexpected ways? maybe realizing which players are more likely to change, and therefore your probabiliy tails need to be adjusted?

Kevin Goldstein: You do try to see if you missed any indications of the change coming . . . sometimes you find it, and then you’ve learned something. Sometimes you don’t . . . .

barney gumble: do the Rays non-tender Glasnow? can’t imagine they’ll want to pay him $8M to rehab his injury in 2022

Kevin Goldstein: That’s my expectation.

Eric: Do you think Sal Frelick cracks the top 100 next year?

Kevin Goldstein: Top 100? No. But I do like him.

Guest: I know you talk about how each team has their own player evaluation system that differs slightly from what we see. Is it possible the Rays / As (teams we frequently underrate) have a system that’s able to better identify player value ?

Kevin Goldstein: With pitching, I do think that’s the case.

John: How much have the mets beefed up their analytics department compared to the league since Cohen bought the team?

Kevin Goldstein: A bit, but I hear they’re looking to do a lot this offseason.

Guest: in your time in a FO, were there any wacky, outside the box ideas that were considered, like the time the A’s employed an olympic sprinter as a pinch runner? or are front offices mainly pretty standardized/routinized and there’s not much room for wild ideas?

Kevin Goldstein: When you are 24/7 baseball, wacky ideas get thrown out all of time. Most are quickly shut down.

Mike Scott: What’s the earliest you think we see Hunter Brown? Has he progressed this year the way you expected him to?

Kevin Goldstein: I don’t think 2022 is out of the question.

Guest: I agree with you that reliever WAR kind of sucks, but is there any single stat that’s better ?

Kevin Goldstein: Probably not, but I’m not the biggest fan of single stat numbers.

barney gumble: how legit does Anthoy Volpe’s surge look to you? he’s been raking

Kevin Goldstein: Yeah, the underlying stuff beyond that stat line supports the breakout for the most part.

John: Any advice/starting points for college student with moderate stats/coding knowledge looking to get into baseball analytics? YouTube videos? books? Work on your own projects?

Kevin Goldstein: Learn R.

Guest: what do you think the max velocity we’ll ever see a pitcher throw is? or have we reached that peak already?

Kevin Goldstein: Sounds like a better question for a biomechanist. I’d just be guessing. I do think we are going to see AVERAGE velocity increase for some time still.

Mike Scott: If you squint hard enough, can you see Luis Medina being a 5-inning SP for the Yankees? Or does his command send him to the pen?

Kevin Goldstein: You’re not going to like my answer, but it’s how I feel. The jury is still out. He certainly has reliever risk, but neither role is a certainty at this point.

Joe: T/F: Luis Gil can be an effective MLB starter

Kevin Goldstein: T

ralph: What was your favorite scene in Brand New Cherry Flavor?

Kevin Goldstein: What a wonderful piece of escapist TV. Really enjoyed it. I’ll take the first kitten vomit scene.

Guest: rank these movies: tootsie, rosemary’s baby, jurassic park, alita, rear window, his girl friday

Kevin Goldstein: Rosemary’s baby and Rear Window clearly above the pack there.

Chris: Do you think Albies could move over to SS if Swanson outprices himself for the Braves? Or is it better to keep him at 2B?

Kevin Goldstein: He’s a 2B.

Votto still Bangs: more of a suggestion than a question re: tanking…I’d be curious to see an article laying out your suggestions for fixing the current tanking issues.  And then another article (or a separate section in the original article) playing devil’s advocate against your own suggestions.  Anytime I read in your chats your very brief thoughts on this topic, I always wonder what consequences (unintended or intended) that you specifically consider when thinking about fixes.

Kevin Goldstein: Duly noted. Something I’m likely going to save for when we have labor issues (so unfortunately, soon).

Steve O: If you’re the Yankees do you move Loasiga back to the rotation? He’s got his control right and he gets a ton of ground balls. He could be amazing as a starter. Or do you just leave him in the role he’s comfortable with and take what you’ve gotten?

Kevin Goldstein: It’s not broke, don’t fix it.

Mr. Wacky: As a follow up to the “wacky front office ideas” question…  What do you think would happen if a team decided to bunt nearly every at bat in a game.  Would it eventually wear out the pitcher, 3B, and Catcher?  Would it result in anything other than 27 consecutive outs if you had good bunters and runners?

Kevin Goldstein: LOL. I doubt there would be many perfect games, but there certainly would be a bunch of shutouts.

John: Most likely to make playoffs: Cardinals, Mets or Blue Jays

Kevin Goldstein: I’ll take the Jays, but don’t think any are likely.

Joshua: Bigger contract this offseasons, Marte or Schwarber? Thanks.

Kevin Goldstein: Marte. Far more dimensions to the game.

JB: Has there been any noticeable or measurable difference in the game since the sticky stuff crackdown? A few suspensions  aside, it seems like a lot of speculation of who used what based on before/after numbers. But is MLB getting what it wanted out of this yet?

Kevin Goldstein: I think a few players here and there have suffered, but overall feel the impact has been negligible.

Appa Yip Yip: Steven Matz is a bit overshadowed in the Jays rotation by Ray and Manoah, but he’s quietly putting together a nice year . Would you extend him the qualifying offer?

Kevin Goldstein: It’s close, but I’d be a no.

Mike: How do you take notes? Scouting form templates, notebooks, digitally?

Kevin Goldstein: I’m a notebook guy. I have a desk filled with small journals packed with more than a decade worth of notes. I’m also very picky about pens.

Billy Beanie: Hey Kevin, you’ve mentioned in a number of chats that you think the manager role is underrated. Would love to see a full article on this from you, if you have the time and interest

Kevin Goldstein: Noted.

Paul: ETA for Julio Rodriguez in the majors?

Kevin Goldstein: Next year.

Billy Beanie: Also—do you, too, treasure the films of the Czech New Wave as I do? The collection on the Criterion Channel right now is stupendous

Kevin Goldstein: Been meaning to watch more of these, and will. My wife did introduce me to Daisies, which was wonderful.

JB: Follow up on sticky stuff: If it continues to be negligible, is this something that they eventually let return to some more regulated extent beyond rosin and sun screen? Or at least stop the pitcher checks?

Kevin Goldstein: I doubt it. I don’t think the pitcher checks have really hurt the game or game flow at all.

Mike Truk: You’ve make a few references to the Giants’ ability to maximize their lineup beyond platoon splits. What else are they doing that has been so effective?

Kevin Goldstein: It’s all theory at this point. Lots of stuff going on with pitch type and location tendencies. I know a person with a team who is trying to reverse engineer their lineups.

Guest: Back to Barrero, I agree Farmer has been a pleasant surprise, but he has really just had one hot month. Doesn’t seem like a reason to derail Barrero as the SS?

Kevin Goldstein: Farmer has earned a right to prove this is for real.

Monty Brewster: Is there any viability to a 20-second pitch clock at the major-league level?

Kevin Goldstein: Kyle and I talked about this on last week’s podcast! (short answer, yes, and it would be a VERY good thing.)

Joe: If you had unlimited power to make three changes to baseball what would they be?

Kevin Goldstein: Eliminate the cap, eliminate the draft, reconfigure service time/arb/fa rules.

4min33: wouldn’t you first eliminate the anti-trust exemption?

Kevin Goldstein: Certainly another fine suggestion.

Chamaco: Do teams have any special programs to support Latin American players who are from countries with considerable socio-economic and political challenges, like Venezuela? Or do support programs—if they exist—not differentiate by a players’ country of origin?

Kevin Goldstein: Absolutely. All 30 do. Education, mental health and life skills programs are essential.

Danny: Given Torres’s play over the last 2 years and LeMahieu coming down from his last 2 seasons, do you think Peraza or Volpe is a starting MIF for the Yankees next season?

Kevin Goldstein: I think it’s really great to be excited about Volpe, he’s also still in A ball. So next season is a no.

Will: Which foreign country besides the DR, Venezuela, Japan, and South Korea do you think is the next hotbed of baseball talent?

Kevin Goldstein: I don’t see them as future hotbeds, but Columbia and Brazil are both potential emerging markets, as is Taiwan. I have a scouting friend who is convinced that while it will never be a hotbed, at some point we will have a Yao Ming situation with some person in China throwing 103 mph.

Appa Yip Yip: When you were in the front office did you ever talk about sending scouts to India to see if cricket players could play baseball?

Kevin Goldstein: Yes! I was part of that study! It was super fun and came to a quick end when we learned how much money top cricket players earned.

Chamaco: Thanks! Curious if they have special programs for Venezuelan players, given the number of issues going on there, or if the support program are more one size fits all for all Latin American players? A player from Venezuela or Cuba is going to have a  different life experience than a player from the DR, for example

Kevin Goldstein: There are certainly special considerations for VZ players, and many are supported in terms of not having to go back . . .

Chamaco: Colombia* Columbia is a university in NYC

Kevin Goldstein: Sorry, I type fast, but also type with tons of errors. I don’t slow the game down as it were.

Roger: What kind of line do you think an average big league hitter would put up in AA?

Kevin Goldstein: Better than whatever that league’s MVP line is.

Kevin Goldstein: Ok kids, about 15 minutes to go….

Guest: French new wave movies… yea or nay?

Kevin Goldstein: Big yeah.

4min33: Lots of A’s fans calling for the head of the hitting coach.  Do you believe such coaches matter much and/or making a change late in the season could be worthwhile?

Kevin Goldstein: Hitting coaches can have a tremendous impact, but also are often used as scapegoats. I don’t see how a change now is worthwhile.

Votto still Bangs: Jonathan India, future all-star 2B?

Kevin Goldstein: Perennial? Probably not, but wouldn’t be surprised if he got there one or two times.

Danny V: Seth Corry has been a mess this year. Should SF protect him from the rule 5 draft this offseason?

Kevin Goldstein: Rule 5 protects are complicated discussions. Beyond the player, you have to consider your own roster crunch, the chances the player would be taken, and the chances the player would stick.

Lunar verLander: re. eliminating the draft – I’ve seen that idea mentioned several times, but what would prevent a team from just scooping up all of the best talent for several years in a row & becoming a perennial unstoppable powerhouse?

Kevin Goldstein: I mean, the 29 others teams could stop that by also trying to scoop up the talent, no?

Guest: MLB draft league: Success or failure?

Kevin Goldstein: It’s a long play. Not much in the first year, but it get going and the hope is it will really be something down the road.

Joe: Would you tie eliminating the draft to something like the bonus pools we have now?

Kevin Goldstein: Don’t people like free markets?

BarryBondsJuicedForOurSins: Is it me or has there been more TJs than usual this year?  Maybe it’s recency bias.

Kevin Goldstein: I haven’t seen a TJ count, but there are definitely more injuries this year, for a variety of reasons related to the nightmare that the world is right now.

Appa Yip Yip: Damn cricketers get the bag good for them

Kevin Goldstein: Absolutely. The best cricket players make more that Betts/Trout. Hard to ask one of them to go to A ball…..

Margin Walker: Enjoyed the O’s article last week. If they end the year with the top pick, they can’t cut an under slot deal for the third year in a row, cam they? I get that it’s a good system, but it’s missing star level players, and that’s what you need to build around, right?

Kevin Goldstein: Impact players win titles. As for their 2022 draft strategy, that will depend on how it plays out. I think what Pittsburgh did this year is totally defendable.

Steven: fans shouldn’t care imo, but for a player’s development (skills/social/emotional) how important is learning English?

Kevin Goldstein: It helps, but most coaches (most) work hard on their Spanish.

Bret: Is Triston Casas part of the Red Sox 1B equation in 2022? Statistically he hasn’t had a *great* season, for whatever that’s worth.

Kevin Goldstein: Certainly not to start the year. I’m still bullish on his potential.

Jeb: Picky on pens….have you tried Ohto?

Kevin Goldstein: I don’t think so. I do prefer Japanese pens, because they tend to mass produce the needle point ones I like so much.

Kevin Goldstein: Ok folks, I’m off. I believe Ben Clemens is showing up soon!

Kevin Goldstein: Thanks for all the great questions!