JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 4/10/23

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Ben Clemens

2:28

Fake baseball, real baseball, I love baseball

Chris

2:28

Odds that the Mets or Phillies overcome injuries to catch the Braves?

Ben Clemens

2:28

Our playoff odds say 32% overall

Seems.... close enough to me

Farhandrew Zaidman

2:29

Talking about pitchers who have a clear stuff improvement - Pablo Lopez added a sweeper and it's DESTROYING righties right now.

Ben Clemens

2:30

I haven't written about him yet, and it sounds like BP has something coming out on the sweeper specifically tomorrow so I'm probably not gonna write the same thing

2:31

But yeah, he's awesome. I have always liked Pablo, liked the trade for the Twins, feeling good about him looking good early in the year

Jack

2:31

I'm annoyed by Sean Murphy's playing time and considering dropping him for Logan O'Hoppe - how crazy am I

Ben Clemens

2:31

Yeah, kinda crazy

bosoxforlife

2:31

Who might the Red Sox have to give up to try to get Jo Adell, who is blocked in LA, if Duvall is seriously injured?

Ben Clemens

2:32

Ooh, interesting question. I'm not sure I think Adell can play center, but given that I also think that about Duvall, that's probably fine

2:33

As for what they'd have to give up, it's an awkward fit b/c the Angels are weakest up the middle defensively, and the Red Sox aren't exactly swimming in options there either

2:34

Maybe a nice cost-controlled reliever, or a swingman type? Tanner Houck or something? I dunno, I haven't given this a lot of thought and I am overall not great at generating prospective trade ideas without putting a lot of time into it

Krusty

2:34

Kodai Senga's ghost fork: it's been outstanding so far, but how quickly do we think MLB hitters adjust to it? and how well?

Ben Clemens

2:34

I don't think there's a lot of reason to think they're going to suddenly start crushing it, but I also don't think you can expect it to perform better than Ohtani's splitter or something of that nature

Biggest Card's fan

2:34

Jordan Walker!! Seriously though he looks great, but are you worried about his groundball rate at all? He seems to nail the ball into the ground a lot.

Ben Clemens

2:34

Nah, too early to be worried about something like that

Shawn

2:35

Hello how do you tell if a batter is groundball hitter or a flyball hitter. Pitchers also?

Ben Clemens

2:36

From the data it's pretty easy. If you have to do it from first principles, you'd have to look at the batter's swing path and the pitches the pitcher throws. Sinkers and changeups tend to get grounders; generally, things that have downward vertical movement (excluding gravity) lead to more grounders

Guest

2:36

I know it only a week but do you think Jose Miranda and Oscar Gonzalez will turn things around

Ben Clemens

2:36

I'm more bullish on Miranda than Gonzalez. I didn't really believe in Gonzalez last year, and I did in Miranda, so I'm just letting those continue

Jazzy

2:36

EXISTENCE IS A ROAD TO NOWHERE

Ben Clemens

2:36

Why do anything

Oaktown Blues

2:36

A's have had some terrible SP performances so far between Fujinami, Waldichuk, and Kaprielian. Which of that group (if any) do you expect to bounce back and pitch decently this year?

Ben Clemens

2:36

I have the most hope for Fujinami, just because he's going through the biggest adjustment

Alan

2:37

Re: Busch & St. Louis, I've sat all over the stadium and never found a bad seat, especially in April before it gets too hot. Ballpark Village offers some mediocre food and entertainment, but there are better restaurants around if you don't mind a bit of a walk. The best food and entertainment exists outside of downtown, though, so if you have transportation, you should head toward the Central West End, The Grove, South Grand, etc.

Ben Clemens

2:37

Some food answers!

Derek

2:37

The home plate umpire made Nestor Cortez black out white lettering on his white glove. I have never seen anyone do that before, and pitchers pitch with white on their gloves all the time. Just wanted to know your thoughts on this.

Ben Clemens

2:38

I'm fine with it b/c I totally understand the reasoning behind banning white detailing on gloves

I think it should be more consistently enforced

bosoxforlife

2:38

Do you trust Toronto's rotation? Berrios has looked like he is toast, Bassitt is no guarantee and I don't think Kikuchi belongs in a big league rotation.

Ben Clemens

2:38

I abbbbbsolutely do not trust it

2:39

I don't hate Kikuchi as a 5/6 starter type, because there are limits to what you can expect from that, but I'm kinda down on Bassitt given that he seems to not be adjusting very well to the pitch clock (from my limited views of his starts)

Berrios, yeah.... I've picked him to win the Cy Young before

what a collapse

Matt Damon

2:39

MATT. DAMON.

Matt Arnold

2:39

Should I think this start for the Brewers is sustainable? Best start in franchise history a year ago and we know how it ended. Is there reason to believe in the Brewers > Cardinals?

Ben Clemens

2:40

You should probably not think it's sustainable, because they have a .365 team OBP, and their highest season-long mark in the last decade is .329

2:41

Sustainable in terms of winning the Central? totally

Yo-Yo

2:41

STL's pitching looks quite bad. Wainwright and his lesser velocity probably won't help much. With a four game lead, the Brewers are the likely NLC winners, right? STL probably isn't four games better than MIL going forward.

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