JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 2/6/2020

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Ben Clemens

12:43

As someone with a financial background I noodled around what I'd think of Cohen buying the Mets.

Never really turned it into anything concrete, but I think it probably would have been a positive for the team.

But after accounting for the Wilpon haircut (never assume anything is over untli it's over), I'm not too surprised by the result.

12:43

benintendi will always have a special place in my heart too, because my baseball career ended with him scoring on a walkoff throwing error that i made in the state tournament

Ben Clemens

12:44

Bruuuuuuuuutal

Reds not retreads

12:44

Yo, Benjamin. What is your best prediction for what the Cincy OF looks like on opening day?

Ben Clemens

12:44

Hm.

12:45

They open with the Cardinals, so Winker will be in to face Flaherty probably?

Castellanos is a lock

And then I guess Akiyama in center?

12:46

That said, I think Aquino will take a ton of playing time from Winker overall.

SparkyMcGuffey

12:46

What do you expect from Verdugo?

Ben Clemens

12:46

I think he's Benintendesque?

Fine, not great, nice player to have, not too many kids are gonna have Fat Heads of him on their wall.

Fringe-average facial hair

Guest

12:47

Prediction time: What ultimately ends up deciding the NLE?

Ben Clemens

12:47

I'm going to say wins and losses

But second place: dance off

Early 2017

12:47

I think it's just, you know, AL East rookies same position same year.

Ben Clemens

12:47

Yeah very much agreed.

Andrew

12:47

How do you expect Ryu's numbers to play out this year, being in the AL East?

Ben Clemens

12:47

I mean.... worse? Let's be more specific though.

12:48

One really helpful thing about Ryu is that he gets a ton of value from limiting walks

That matters more in high-homer environments.

12:49

So I think he'll continue to be a FIP beater, because of the way he limits the value of homers relative to context-neutral values

Which I don't really see in any projections

Yankees' Injured List

12:50

Speaking of Aquino, what's his ceiling?

Ben Clemens

12:51

I dislike the concept of ceilings. His ceiling is that he's great! Aaron Judge, basically. His 90th percentile outcome makes more sense to me, and that's maybe what people mean, and I would have that as perennial All-Star type.

Scott

12:52

The Betts trade got me reading a lot about the sexual assault case involving the Dodgers. How did they and Gabe Kapler escape that without any punishment? It's far worse than what the Astros did

Ben Clemens

12:52

This is a hard thing to get into in a chat, because it deserves nuance and seriousness, and I tend towards hot takes and sarcasm.

But people don't talk about this nearly enough, it's wild that Kapler is still a major league manager, and yes, deifnitely read about this and tlak about it, it was awful!

Tabletop Talk

12:53

Board games are great, but do video games have a spot in your heart? If so, what types usually get you going?

Ben Clemens

12:54

I probably play a video game once a year on average

As in play through, not play at all.

RPG's are my genre of choice.

Though that doesn't count kinda mindless digital card games that you can play either on your phone or laptop -- I'll fire up Slay the Spire, or Eternal (not mindless but you can play it that way), or Hearthstone Battlegrounds to kill time.

andy

12:54

do you think the red sox's median number of projected playoff appearances over the next five seasons went up or down because of this trade (presuming it goes through)?

Ben Clemens

12:54

Down

12:55

I think it's very hard for them to avoid hitting a bump in the road as Sale ages and guys start hitting arb

2020 was a big year for them, and now it's gotten a lot tougher.

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