JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 1/9/23

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Insert Witty Name Here

3:41

My wife and I just gave each other our yelp reviews of our cooking skills. What would you give your partner and what would she give you? For the record I got a 3.5 and she got a 4.5.

Ben Clemens

3:41

I'll ask!

I'd give her a 4.7

3:42

she has a wide range of Asian, Mediterranean, and Italian dishes in her repertoire

Asian kinda like pan-Asian, southeast asian/chinese flavors

3:43

that's a lto of the food I like the most

CistulliStan

3:43

Last week I think you mentioned Wingspan and my family is obsessed with it. Love how different it is every time we play and it a beautiful, simple, but satisfyingly complex game. We have all the expansions :P

Ben Clemens

3:43

It's an excellent one

I'm now going to tell you about my newest gaming obsession, though: Terraforming Mars

I'm way late to the party on this one, but it's a tremendously satisfying game

3:44

it FEELS like it's going to be too busy, but it just magically isn't. The various economic engines are well tied together, the science in it might not actually be accurate but is good enough to fool me if it isn't, and there are all kinds of viable strategies

CistulliStan

3:44

Any chance you can give us an early preview of "Clemens' guys" type underrated prospects?? You ID'd some real gems last year and I've got a deeeeep dynasty FA draft coming up!

Ben Clemens

3:44

Sadly I haven't even started looking at it yet, but I'd say if you're drafting soon I love power guys who are young for Triple-A and low-K guys who are young for A ball

Birds

3:44

Orioles said they would "significantly escalate" their payroll. So far they've swapped Lyles for Gibson and added a utility infielder. Best explanation:

It was always lies
Arbitration raises make it not technically lying
They badly misjudged the market
There's still time for some magical trade / extension

Ben Clemens

3:44

I think it's a mixture of 2 and 3

3:45

and that they'll adjust in 2024

I give them a lot of credit as a front office for doing the drudgery stuff well, and I think that a lot of teams were caught off guard by this year's free agent market

if they're still scrimping and saving after next year, I'll look more askance

3:46

but for me, this is the kind of team that wanted a marquee free agent if they were going to add in free agency

3:47

And well, if they missed on those 5-10 guys, I'm not sure signing Jurickson Profar or Anthony Rizzo was gonna fix things

Bob OdenKirk

3:47

Terraforming Mars is great! There’s a really intuitive iPhone app to play it as well.

Ben Clemens

3:47

We played yesterday, and my friend (who owns the game and finished last) said he'd been practicing on his phone

Hugh Duffy

3:47

Ingredient that gets you more bang for your buck? MSG. Undervalued by home chefs, valued highly by the culinary industry.

Ben Clemens

3:47

Yeah, that's a good call

umami flavor is a surefire hit

Cove Dweller

3:48

Giants fans have criticized the Giants FO/Ownership a fair amount this offseason. It’s hard for me to see that much of it is deserved; the team was rather broken when Zaidi came aboard. Despite improving overall, the team isn’t where it or its fans would like. Is there anything that you would point to as a major misstep by Zaidi & Co that was actually in their control?

Ben Clemens

3:48

Things broke poorly for them, but I think that my biggest issue with how they acted was urgency. They clearly wanted to blow the doors off with a signing, so if they were worried about Correa's medicals, why not act sooner

3:49

I dont know how much of that was them and how much was that the timing just didn't work out, but they've set themselves up for criticism because they made it known that they wanted to make a big splash

and then they didn't

If you're a fan, it's hard to look at that and think 'great, I'm confident in the Giants' when it's clear that they themslves aren't

FInley

3:50

Conspiracy theory: Aaron Judge is only 5'9" but he's standing on a box like Tom Cruise

Ben Clemens

3:50

Brandon Nimmo should adopt a Tom Cruise run down to first base

he already looks fast... why not look faster?

Guest

3:50

Hey Ben, hope you had a happy holiday season/new year! Thanks for chatting

With the Correa saga, it feels like all the recent reports have basically been posturing/presumption by writers about what one more day without an official signing means. It seems like it flip flops back and forth and then every column reports on the recent musing of Heyman or Bowden. It seems to me the Mets are Correa's best chance at a large guarantee and joining a contender. Cohen certainly will have the highest financial risk tolerance, and once two teams have passed at 10+ year deals, you have to think the next team in will be capping the years they offer.

He's gotta end up a Met, right?

Ben Clemens

3:51

Yeah I think so

3:52

At this point it feels like something has to get done, it's in both sides' interests to find a middle ground

Colton

3:52

Was reading an article earlier about key players for the Pirates next year and the first one they mentioned was surprising Suwinski and then Cruz. I liked Suwinski already last year, but was dumbfounded when I read that he was a 15 wRC+ on the road and a 172 at home. Is there a reason I shouldn't see him as a real potential breakout candidate?

Ben Clemens

3:52

Oh yeah I like Suwinski as a breakout candidate

3:53

hugely volatile profile, but the power looks very real

Appa Yip Yip

3:53

If you can't find msg adding a tsp or tbsp of fish sauce to literally any soup will really kick it up a notch

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