JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 1/11/21

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Ben Clemens

2:45

I just like Edman

Ben Clemens Replacement

2:45

I have decided to only accept questions on baseball, no more silly cooking or games

I now won't answer questions about baseball, just cooking and games.

Ben Clemens

2:46

This robot is getting uncomfortably close to replicating the way I chat

Amdoru

2:46

Does Bauer get $30 mil AAV, assuming he gets a long-term deal?

Ben Clemens

2:46

I don't think so, but I think it's close

I think it'll be more 28 than 32, but more 30 than 20, if that makes sense

Sodo Mojo

2:47

Kikuchi 2020 looked much like his 2019 except for a marked improvement in FIP. Do you think he breaks out in 2021 and will the Mariners exercise his option?

Ben Clemens

2:47

I would sya that I disagree with the premise here

He went from getting swinging strikes on 8.8% of pitches to 12.1%

His velo was up more than 2 mph

His strikeout and groundball rates spiked

2:48

I think he looks unfamiliar in every way except ERA

And even there, his ERA in 2019 was flattered a little bit b/c he had a bunch of earned runs and also stranded runners at a roughly average rate

2:49

In 2020 he had a super-low strand rate and also 100% of the runs he allowed were earned

NashvilleSounds

2:49

Is cribbage a board game or a card game?

Ben Clemens

2:49

I think it's a card game

Given that the board is only used for scoring

Tacoby Bellsbury

2:50

Card game, and how could you even ask that

Ben Clemens

2:51

It does have a board

But I think it's stlil squarely a card game

Prophet

2:51

Did the Yankees provide a model of the Red Sox to rebuild by flipping players (relievers) even when in the wildcard playoff hunt? if so, shouldn't overpay a few one year pillow "contracts" for players to flip in June and July?

Ben Clemens

2:51

If the Yankees provided that model (and to be fair I'm not sure that any team can duplicate that, the returns for relievers aren't what they used to be)

The Red Sox looked at that manual, laughed, and then threw Mookie Betts out of a speeding car

kcbg

2:52

Commish says no to expansion until Oakland and Tampa get better stadiums. That won't happen. So expansion won't either. Is his stance going to hurt the game in the long run?

Ben Clemens

2:52

I think that this negotiating ploy is generally understood to be a leverage game

2:53

As in, he doesn't mean it, but he'll continue to take that stance publicly to help those teams' negotiations because this way there are more markets they can threaten to move to

I don't think it does much to change the expansion timetable, because owners as a whole want expansion to give them money

Guest

2:53

Idea to combat tanking: distribute the league’s central revenue proportional to win totals. What do you think? As central revenue grows while attendance stagnates (even pre-pandemic), it seems worthwhile to link central revenue to on-field performance in some way, otherwise there is a continuously reduced incentive to spend.

Ben Clemens

2:53

I like the idea of linking money distribution to playoff appearances, but I do think it's easy to go too far

2:54

There really are teams that simply don't have the revenues to run themselves like the Yankees

Plenty of them

I'd prefer seeing baseball go more the way of basketball, with a cap/floor system and more revenue sharing overall

Like, imagine being the Royals and suddenly you're getting less money unless you make the playoffs

Jefferson

2:55

Does Cleveland give gimenez and Rosario each 600 PAs this season regardless of performance? I can't see any better options unless they call up Nolan Jones

Ben Clemens

2:55

Very likely so

That said, I think a lot of teams would be happy to do that

Rosario is still a sleeper pick to turn into a stud for me

2:56

Maybe I'm just a sucker, I just like what he was doing on offense in 2019, and think that people with his skillset don't come aorund often

Reparations

2:56

Do you have a pick for AL and NL MVP next season?

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