JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 3/20/23

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 3/20/23

powered by

Ben Clemens

2:00

Hey everybody, welcome to the chat.

2:01

There's a lot of baseball content coming out at FanGraphs this week, highlighted by the positional power rankings that we've all been churning away at over the past week or two. I find it a tiring but fun exercise every year, and I hope you'll enjoy my shortstop and starting pitching blurbs.

trophy

2

Preview: the guys who teams gave giant boatloads of money over the past two years are mostly very good

So is Wander Franco

2:02

There's also the WBC semifinal tonight and final tomorrow, both of which should be great. I wrote some WBC content that will be coming out tomorrow

So a quick word of warning: I'm going to avoid treading on my PPR colleagues' toes today, so if you want to know whether I like x first baseman over y first baseman, bad luck, you'll have to wait for Jay Jaffe to tell you tomorrow

Let's begin!

Will

2:02

Will Brett Baty make the team? Should he?

Ben Clemens

2:04

I think he's going to start the season in the minors, but I'm a lot less sure of that than I was before ST

I also don't think it matters *that* much. He's gonna end up playing a lot in the majors this year whether he breaks camp with the team or not

2:05

I just think they'll roll with Guillorme as the backup infielder to start; it's hard to squeeze in Guillorme, Escobar, and Baty unless they let go of Darin Ruf

2:06

That's where push will come to shove, and I think it'll happen, but it wouldn't be surprising to see him start in Triple-A

CP

2:06

Not a question, but I've really enjoyed binge listening to FanGraphs Backstories lately. Really cool hearing about everyone's different experiences.

Ben Clemens

2:06

Oh man, they're extremely fun to record as well.

We're taking a hiatus to get production sorted out with Dylan leaving, but I'm excited to continue the series when we start FG Audio back up again

My colleagues are fascinating

Hampton

2:07

Do you think Yankees SS Volpe will make the team come opening day? If not, why?

Ben Clemens

2:07

I think he will

Mr Met

2:07

Who would you rather have on your team for the next three years (especially in a OBP fantasy league): Wander Franco or Gunnar Henderson?

Wander

2:07

is Wander Franco better than peak Jean Segura?

Ben Clemens

2:08

Lot of Wander questions today, so I'll try to blend these two together

2:09

I think that Wander is already better than peak Segura, though it's a good shape-of-production comp in broad strokes

Franco walks more and hits for more power, but has similar swing-a-lot-never-miss tendencies at the plate

2:10

And I'd take Franco for the next three years. I think he's a better real life player than fantasy player, but I'm also less worried about both his playing time and whether it'll take him a year to adjust to the majors

Not that Henderson is particularly blocked, but I think you have to bake in some risk of him starting slow and getting a quick MiLB assignment to shake off the rust

2:11

plenty of rookies work out and just jam from day one but it's not a given. I don't think it'll happen to Henderson, but if you're being responsible, you have to bake in more risk

bosoxforlife

2:11

Do the Rockies have an opening for a closer?

Ben Clemens

2:11

Ever heard of this guy Daniel Bard?

Oh, you have and that's why you're asking?

2:12

I like Pierce Johnson's upside, so I think he has a shot at taking over the closer role if Bard continues to have 20 command

Sonny

2:12

I believe tonight’s semifinal game has a great chance to be the best professional baseball game played until September. More WBC please!

Ben Clemens

2:12

I'm very excited for this game. I haven't seen Sasaki pitch aside from highlights

It's gonna be good. What about tomorrow's game though??

NOOOOTTTT

2:12

I've heard that Nootbaar might be up for a platoon role with Walker's strong showing. It'd be a shame to see him not get close to 550+ PAs this year

Ben Clemens

2:13

I would be extremely shocked if this were the case. Is the idea that he'd sit in favor of Yepez against lefties? I'd rather sit Carlson than Nootbaar

Oaktown Blues

2:13

The A's looking at Vegas is just one giant bluff by Fisher/Manfred to put pressure on the city of Oakland, right? If Manfred wants to expand, why would he move a team from a viable locale (which Oakland absolutely is) to one of the more desirable expansion sites?

Ben Clemens

2:14

That's my guess, but Fisher has consistently managed the team into the ground in Oakland, and may have poisoned the well, so to speak

Guest

2:14

What am I missing about Alek Manoah? A basic look at his stats suggests he's a decent pitcher who had very good luck last year.

Ben Clemens

2:15

I think you're missing his durability and the fact that his fastball is really good. It's one of those fastballs that just works thanks to shape, and workhorses like that are valuable at least partially because of their rarity

Planet Dust

2:15

In a piece on US-Cuba Passan referred to Japan as "still the favorite" in WBC and it was sort of an aside but--he's wrong, isn't he?

Load More Messages

Connecting…

Register

Message History

On Off

On Off

On Off

Your current subscriptions

None

Register now to continue managing your subscriptions

E-mail Address	Chat Owner	Status	Remove

Enter your email address to be notified when Ben Clemens hosts a chat