JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 2/28/22

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 2/28/22

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Ben Clemens

2:09

Here's mine: if you like spicy food, it's actually really easy to make your own chili oil

2:10

You can find some recipes online, but it boils down to heating up vegetable oil and putting red pepper flakes (plus some other stuff) into it

I added star anise, a cinnamon stick, a bay leaf, nutmeg, and ground sichuan peppers, but different recipes use different things

It's super simple and gives your food a nice spicy and flavorful kick, also it lasts forever b/c it's just oil

Jacques Pederson

2:11

Ben, very nice article on financial stuff that makes my head spin. It brought up a very important question though. Is OIBDA an acronym you say in your head like "Oh-Eye-Bee-Dee-Ay" or is it more like "Oyb-duh"?

Ben Clemens

2:11

I didn't do balance sheet stuff when I was in finance, so I don't know how people "in the industry" say it

But in my head I say either "oh-ib-duh" or "oyb-duh"

Jason N

2:12

If MLB teams don’t want to open their book (esp to the Union), why did they approve public corporations to become owners? Do you think it’s likely a public corp would gain approval to own a franchise in the future?

Ben Clemens

2:12

Teams do open their books to the union

That's a required part of the bargaining process

2:15

I do think that teams are generally not huge fans of reported profit lines though

Dan

2:16

Imagine you're a GM on the west and a time traveler tells you in 2016 that Juan Soto will be the best player I'm baseball from 2021-2025, What can you do with this information?

Ben Clemens

2:16

Trade for him?

It's not like the Nats would be likely to take you up on it, they were super high on Soto

But make them an offer they can't refuse, I guess? Otherwise there's not much you can do about it

Mike

2:17

Whoops missed the Cohen question. Guess I'll rephrase. Do the Mets potentially just go all in for 2022? Like trade the whole farm away, punt all draft picks, sign Correa etc. followed by a full scale rebuild in 2023 if the CBT is this harsh?

Ben Clemens

2:17

Umm... I'm gonna say no

2:18

I don't exactly understand why this would make sense, or how they'd go big this year and then small in the future, or the point of trading away the farm in 2022 only to rebuild in 2023

BobbyAce

2:18

why do top amateurs even acknowledge the draft? Shouldn’t they be considered free agents by the law of the land until they are part of an organization?

Ben Clemens

2:18

I don't understand the legal stuff that goes on here

2:19

But yeah, drafts are by their nature anti competitive, but they're allowed, b/c as we all know, billionaires are socialists when it comes to working together for the common good of billionaries

Insert Witty Name Here

2:19

Hypothetical: each major US city starts their own baseball club as a civic pride idea, modeled after soccer’s pyramid. How many years until this would be a legitimate league?

Ben Clemens

2:19

Sadly I think it wouldn't take off unless they got MLB players

2:20

An under-mentioned thing about the lockout is that the players are the product. I think Jeff Passan has done a good job highlighting this recently, but the reason MLB is great is to a great extent b/c the players are awesome and make for good games

Without that kind of talent pool, I don't think another baseball league would be intriguing

Dan

2:21

I guess I was more asking what would an "offer they can't refuse" for soto look like

Ben Clemens

2:21

Right, in that case I don't know, a top 15 prospect with a productive major leaguer attached? The Nats needed outfield help, so maybe you trade them an average regular outfielder who is on a good contract plus your best prospect (who is really good)

Appa Yip Yip

2:21

Underrated aspect of Juan Soto is how fun his name is to say. Just the complete package of a ballplayer in every way.

Ben Clemens

2:21

There are a lot of things underrated about Soto despite his being rated very highly

but I totally agree, whta a fun name

2:22

"3-2 Juan" a la Effectively Wild discussion of 3-2 Jack only enhances how great the name is

Insert Witty Name Here

2:23

The idea would be for each city to use the current big leave players, considering how profitable baseball already is, they would be able to pay the players relatively quickly once the money starts pouring in. ESP since the teams would be city owned with no greedy owners, wouldn’t the players be able to make even more money?

Ben Clemens

2:23

I guess I don't know how that works given that all of those players are under contract with teams

Or at least, most of them

I'm not a lawyer but I am fairly certain this league would get sued to the moon and back immediately

Jordan

2:24

It feels like a prolonged lock out will hurt the owners more than the players...RSN's will need to be paid back for missed game, no ticket sales, no concessions, merch sales likely through he floors, no parking, ect (plus potential future damage to sales). Whereas the players making little money will still make little money through union payments and the more established players are unlikely to even need the union stipend. Seems like the longer this goes the more pressure MLBPA can put on MLB, your thoughlits?

Ben Clemens

2:24

ticket sales and concessions aren't a huge deal in April, but the RSN repayments are

The real pressure for the league comes if anything happens to their precious playoffs

If I'm the players, I absolutely say that expanded playoffs are off the table if the season doesn't go 162 games

2:25

If the owners could make the entire season be two games but keep the same playoff structure, they absolutely would

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