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Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 4/12/21

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Ben Clemens

2:00

Hey everyone

Someone asked a question that I feel very passionately about, and it seems like a perfect thing to start the chat on. This one is going to be participatory -- if you come up with any ideas, let me know, and I'll keep talking about it throughout the chat

Guest

2:00

What actions should teams be taking to discourage wooing in the ballpark?

Ben Clemens

2:01

I hadn't thought about this until now, but it's of GREAT import to me as a baseball watcher

What the HECK makes people want to woo?

Dee Arby

2:01

If it’s in Philly, throw a battery at them.

Appa Yip Yip

2:02

Have you ever thought about doing historical comparisons of stuff and velocity between great pitchers of bygone eras and their closest modern counterparts? It would be interesting to see like, ah yes, Sandy Koufax's closest comp is ... Jaime Garcia. Baseball be hard.

Ben Clemens

2:02

Yikes

Yeah, the comparisons aren't really 1:1 right? Koufax would have much better access to training and recovery in modern day

2:03

But yes, it's always remarkable how much bigger/faster/stronger/etc athletes of today rae

Sad, Confused Marlins Fan

2:03

I have heard for it seems like my whole life that baseball is 70% mental, but then when it comes to positions change it shouldnt affect your hitting. Cant it be said that part of Kingery and Senzel (I know hes hitting now) struggles be from not having a position every day you know you are going to play?

Ben Clemens

2:04

Oh, I think that it for sure matters

2:05

I think that the mental aspect of the game is a place with a big "sabermetric" blindspot and something that good managers excel at

And of course constantly switching positions is tough on you as a player if you're not feeling confident as is

CI lover

2:06

we know baseball stats are random, why aren't confidence intervals used widely? It's weird that we accept that small samples aren't trustworthy but then don't take that far enough and actually figure out how trustworthy it is

Ben Clemens

2:06

Excellent question. I think they should be reported more for sure. I cite this a lot, but

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/a-new-way-to-look-at-sample-size/

2:07

This thing displays stats with confidence intervals and I love it

Plutarch

2:07

Give people actually songs to sing (as in European football). Much more unifying experience and nimrods don't feel the need to woop

Ben Clemens

2:07

I like the idea of this a lot

Jason

2:07

I think Josh Reddick is partly to blame for this - at least, that's what brought on a bunch of woo-ing in Houston, because of his ties to wrestling and Ric Flair

David

2:07

What is wooing?

Ben Clemens

2:08

Wooing is that sharp 'woooo!!!!' that you'll hear in the background of some games

Seems to happen more in Midwestern games, th ough that could be confirmation bias on my part, b/c I first noticed it at Reds games

Appa Yip Yip

2:08

How is wooing any worse than any other kind of cheering?

Ben Clemens

2:08

The sound drives me crazy

2:09

It's so constant... the woo-ers seem to woo totally disconnected from the flow of the game, they're just wooing

and b/c of the pitch it really pops relative to most crowd noise

2:09

Trout is leading MLB in WAR, so stats now officially matter, correct?

Ben Clemens

2:09

Sam Miller's Rule is an excellent one

That said, haha, no, it's supposed to take Trout longer to get in front!

Guest

2:10

My first trip out of San Diego (got the J&J a month ago) in a year was to see my Padres in Arlington. I highly recommend seeing your team throw their first no-hitter. Also, the ballpark sucks. Old Arlington was way better (also the opinion of the Ranger fans behind us).

Ben Clemens

2:10

Amazing on both counts

Congrats, and congrats

2:11

As a Musgrove stock owner, I'm into it too

James

2:11

Is Cronenworth better than we thought? He has swung and missed only 2 times on over 180 pitches so far. His at bats looked super quality on all of the broadcast I’ve seen.

Ben Clemens

2:11

If there's something I wasn't worried about translating to the majors in his game, it's the hit tool

His minor league k/bb numbers and whiff rates really popped

2:12

I don't think he's going to continue his current 0.5% swinging strike rate (lol!) but I do think he'll continue making a ton of contact with good plate discipline

Appa Yip Yip

2:12

Okay so to stop wooing you should give everyone vuvezelas problem solved

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