JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 1/13/20

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 1/13/20

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Average sports fan

2:18

I'm willing to turn a blind eye on the increasing public funds "voted" towards paying for private baseball stadiums. I'm willing to ignore that teams don't actually care whether I, an average sports fan with average means, can afford to show up to games or not. What's taking it too far is these player salaries I have the right to know! Why am I just so fucking ungodly stupid?

How can I help the owners shrink $/WAR? I hate my job and with some luck could have done what these guys do, no reason they should be making the kind of money they make

Ben Clemens

2:18

Hi, average sports fan. First time/long time?

2:19

Sarcasm aside, man, it's a tough balance to strike!

Like you can say it's dumb for fans to root for laundry, but the team is going to be there a long time.

I think that's one of the key things that's kept sports popular all these years as we have backlash against other rich-people-owned enterprises

2:24

Sorry guys!

Had a bit of a technical snafu th ere.

I wasn't linked to the main FG chat account, so I ran out of juice fast.

We're back now though.

2:25

In any case, I think that being pro-player is a reasonable take. But it's complicated, because I'm not sure how much I care if Bryce Harper makes 330 million or 270 million

But I do super care how much minor leaguers and taxi squad-ers make

ke'bryan mays hayes

2:25

Were you surprised to see alex wood wind up back in LA? I see how it makes sense for them but I expected / wanted to see a mediocre team to gamble on his upside

Ben Clemens

2:25

So, I wrote about this earlier today:

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/dodgers-sign-alex-wood-human-lottery-ticke...

2:26

I think the Dodgers are the perfect team to try for it. One of the big downsides of Wood is that he might suck

And the Dodgers don't actually care if he sucks.

Because they'll just toss him in the bulk reliever bin.

Whereas if you're the White Sox, and you put all your eggs in the Alex Wood, starter basket and he's bad.

Woof.

2:27

Think of Alex Wood as either nothing (85% of the time) or great (15% of the time) and you can see why most teams don't like the shape of that production.

noname

2:27

congrats on being the chatter while the astros news dropped! how do you feel about MLB being able to effectively sweep the taubman suspension under the rug by bundling it with the rest of it?

Ben Clemens

2:28

I do not like that part of it. I'm broadly in favor of the punishments overall, and I think suspending Luhnow for a year really sends a message.

But I think they should have separately fined the Astros for the handling of the Taubman thing, and earmarked that money for charity.

2:29

It's frustrating that making an example of a franchise for cheating somehow glosses over other bad things they did.

Stripping the title

2:29

For the history books, taking down the banner means something. We also know Lance Armstrong crossed the finish line first... I get that you can't award a title to a runner up like you could in individual sports, but you could just declare there was "no winner" in 2017. There were no WS winners prior to 1903, and no winner in 1994 and 1904. It's not like it is mandatory to have a winner every year.

cool

2

Ben Clemens

2:29

Yeah I mean, they could have done that too!

But would you rather fine them $1 million or strip the title? I'd do the fine.

Taubman

2:29

Fine that they process it at the same time but make a statement regarding his behavior as well. We don't have the full run of show (run of train-wreck?) yet.

Ben Clemens

2:30

Yeah if the official statement comes out about this and it's clear that they are two things, I'll revise my judgment. But betting on baseball to be sensitive around handling issues of misogyny/domestic violence/general poor behavior towards women hasn't been a good bet.

Morbo

2:30

Hey, the chat is finally working

Ben Clemens

2:31

Yes, as it turns out, I'm a dope, but Meg helped me fix it.

Johnnt5Alive

2:31

I was pretty excited about the mets moves earlier in the offseason, but then the nats went and did a bunch of shrewd signings and i remember that the braves are excellent and the phillies have money and it makes me sad. Do the mets have the most variance of any team in the east? That is, I think they can easily do a 2015, but they could also easily do a 2017. I don't see as much variance around the outcomes of the other 3.

Ben Clemens

2:32

I don't know what to make of the Mets. They're built pretty well; if we didn't know these were the Mets, you could say things like 'they've made decent decisions to prioritize offense over defense given their pitching is so strikeout-heavy'

And 'they do an incredible job developing mid-round picks into serviceable major leaguers'

Some of the criticism they come in for is unfair, because people like mocking the Mets.

2:33

That said, I'm kind of missing the point of your question and talking about how I like the Mets.

I don't think they have particularly more variance than the other teams. The Nats have a lot of old dudes on their team, I'd maybe put them highest in variance.

2:34

The Mets feel more variable because they've been so hot and cold, but I don't really think that's predictive.

Morbo

2:34

I'm guessing the Red Sox aren't happy right now. It also seems safe to assume that Alex Cora is going to be taking a year long vacation as well

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