Jay Jaffe FanGraphs Chat – 6/9/26
powered byJotCast
Prev Page View Full Chat
This chat is available to members only. Please log in to participate.
AvatarJay Jaffe
1:05
I kid — gotta find some levity here — but I knew what you meant in both instances
leoneforthird
1:05
Kade Anderson is better than Luis Castillo at this point right?  Should the Mariners just go with a 6 man rotation with Anderson and either trade Castillo or convince him to move to the bullpen?
AvatarJay Jaffe
1:10
Anderson definitely looks like something special but he's also got 49 pro innings, at Double-A, and Castillo, for as high as his ERA is, is basically in line with his strikeout and home run rates; it's largely his walk rate that's out of walk. I'll never count out the likelihood of Dipoto making trades, and I think we'll see Anderson in the majors at some point this year if he stays healthy, but I don't think they're going to simply swap him in for Castillo before moving him to Triple-A and taking a longer look.
Ragbrai
1:12
Dotel in Pittsburgh spent time in the bullpen in AAA. Since being called up I think his usage is more as a SP. where do you think is future lays?
AvatarJay Jaffe
1:14
Luckily for you, Eric Longenhagen just wrote about Dotel for the Pirates prospect list last week: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/pittsburgh-pirates-top-50-prospects/

So far he's made seven appearances in relief, four of them in the 3-4 inning range. It sounds like the team is in the midst of tweaking a whole bunch of things but probably still views him as a starter.
1:15
Here's Eric's conclusion but I'd suggest you read the whole thing:

"Dotel’s long-term role is likely going to be in a rotation, as industry inventory demands that the durable strike-throwers like this end up eating innings. Here he’s graded as a rock solid no. 4/5 starter who needs to sharpen a secondary pitch to profile as a contender’s mid-rotation guy."
Ragbrai
1:16
Love the HOF but if there was an Almost-HOF, which would have more members?
AvatarJay Jaffe
1:17
By far the Almost-HOF. Baseball talent at the professional level is at the far end of a bell curve, with many more replacement level players than average-or-better ones, and in turn far more of those than HOF-caliber superstars.
Brendan Gawlowski
1:19
Jay, I need help with the Marlins list. Who do you like in the Pensacola bullpen?
AvatarJay Jaffe
1:22
I was going to go with Jeckferxon Hernandez because HOLY SHIT is that a first name, then I realized i was looking at 2025 stats.
1:23
So I'll say Nate Payne based on his strikeout rate

(btw, i have confirmed this really was Brendan, who helps me far more than I help him in this area I can assure you all)
jzmaxson27
1:25
Are the Brewers platooning Andrew Vaughn too much, or the exact right amount?
AvatarJay Jaffe
1:26
Small sample because he's coming back from hamate surgery, but his 80 wRC+ so far (in 59 PA) against righties is in line with his numbers from the past two seasons so, I don't think the answer is too much.
showbusiness77
1:26
Are you familiar with Adam Darowski's Hall of Stats website/project and do you think it is feasible for someone to take ownership/make it actively updating again?
AvatarJay Jaffe
1:28
I'm familiar with it of course, but I think Adam decided to retire it while moving on to other projects — he has a forthcoming book (https://bsky.app/profile/adarowski.bsky.social/post/3mdvavux7js22). You'd have to ask him whether he's interested.
Phillip Denny
1:28
Do you have Mookie and/or Freddie going into the hall as a Dodger, their respective former teams, or blank caps?
AvatarJay Jaffe
1:30
Having been alerted that a previous assertion of mine about Freeman with an LA cap was more or less outside of precedent given his time with Atlanta (I forget the specifics) I suspect both wind up with blank caps
Cosmo
1:30
You're from NY... did you hear the MSG boos all the way in Brooklyn last night?
AvatarJay Jaffe
1:31
I could feel them through the terrain. Gotta hand it to the boo-birds, they represented our fair city well last night!
1:32
Ok folks. that's it from me for today. Thanks so much for stopping by, — look for that White Sox article at 2 pm ET — and we'll do this again next week.
Connecting…