JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 4/14/25

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 4/14/25

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Ben Clemens

3:22

That's Allen, for me, and honestly I like his bat more too

3:23

if he has an 85 wRC+, he can be a good player

Matthew

3:23

Does Jackson Chourio have a legit shot at a top 5 MVP finish? He has been on fire to start the year despite taking no walks. He has also improved a ton in the field this year.

Ben Clemens

3:23

most certainly he does

it's also funny, I wrote about the Brewers' cold start not two weeks ago, and people were freaking out about his SLOW start

April!

Steve O

3:23

Is Ceddanne Rafaela’s approach unfixable? I was hoping he could get to a 90-95 wRC+ but even that feels a bit optimistic.

Ben Clemens

3:23

To me, it's unfixable

3:24

Not like.... guy can't play in the majors unfixable

He's a phenomenal defender

but swing that much, with that little oomph behind those swings, and what do you think is gonna happen

3:25

He's 21st percentile for bat speed, first percentile for chase rate, and only average when it comes to contact

like, how do you see this playing out well? I can't wrap my head around a good outcome here without a LOT changing

MoonBeamMcSwine

3:25

Better long term catching talent: Daniel Susac or Henry Ford?

Ben Clemens

3:26

I mean, I've got Ford, as long as we're talking Harry Ford

3:27

Big fan of his overall skillset and I kinda fell in love with the goofy Team GB celebrations at the world baseball classic

Strider

3:27

Any concern for Strider losing a few mph early going on his FB? Results have been great but competition is suspect. 99 to 95avg is a big change. Think this gets better with time or try to move R.Greene and Strider for Skenes or something?

Ben Clemens

3:28

I'm not concerned, but I'm with you, I'm kind of ignoring the results, the copmetition is just not meaningful

give him a bit to ramp up. and honestly, the velo's nice but the shape is the thing I want to see on the fastball

diadem

3:28

What does Preister's future look like?

Ben Clemens

3:29

So, maybe he'll be a diamond in the rough, suddenly a great pitcher after years of being quite bad

leaving the pirates is generally good for your development as a pitcher, though

3:30

and if nothing else I could see him as a nice reliever

BP wrote a nice piece that was essentially wishcasting, like what if Priester learned to throw his best pitches better and also used them more, and it was kinda convincing

but I'm going to stick to my take from last year's PPR

Let’s just say that if Priester were named “Jared Jones” instead of “Quinn Priester,” I think he would have gotten a lot less prospect buzz.

Bencle Mens

3:31

Quinn Mathews to the DL. Sadness.

Ben Clemens

3:31

Disaster

New UK fan

3:31

Re Rafaela: why do some players have a bad approach? Recognising pitches, accumulated bad habits? Feels much more intangible to me than e.g., lack of power

Ben Clemens

3:31

I think it's largely pitch recognition

3:32

to some extent, it comes down to a conscious choice, too. like, you could swing less hard or swing later and give yourself more margin of error

but 'approach' is kind of nebulous and includes many things

Rafaela's weakness to me jsut seems to be trouble with pitch recognition. Which is really hard

Oaktown Blues

3:32

Batting seems so hard, I'm never surprised when someone has a bad approach. Pitchers are too good

Ben Clemens

3:33

Yeah, I'm with you. I'm more impressed when someone has a good approach than I am annoyed that someone has a bad approach

Dfan

3:33

Is there a way Rice can stay in the line-up when Stanton returns? If he keeps hitting where will they play him?

Ben Clemens

3:33

I think he's earned himself a platoon at the very least

3:34

the Yankees like Stanton a good deal more than I do, to be fair

But like.... yes, I get that he's very powerful, but he wasn't even that great last year? in addition to being inflexible (DH only) and frequently unavailable

3:36

if Rice somehow ends up as a bench player this year, I'm going to be surprised and disappointed. Give GOldy frequent rest days and have Rice back him up. Squeeze him in at catcher very occasionally. Sit Stanton liberally against righties, the guy has a 105 wRC+ against them in the past three years in aggregate

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