JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 4/17/23

Ben Clemens

2:00

Hey everybody, welcome to the chat. Let's talk some baseball

Leland

2:00

Ian Hamilton seems to consistently pitch every 3rd game, is that something you would try and stream. Has strong K/9

Ben Clemens

2:01

Depends a lot on the context of your roster and the way your league does points, but I'm considering it myself

Jack

2:01

A rough 2+ innings for Bello this morning, but are you optimistic longer-term?

Ben Clemens

2:02

I am, and today I'm just giving everyone a pass. Super early start time, terrible weather, tons of stops and starts, and as a bonus it's his first start of the season

There are just a lot of reasons to think that today will be a little bit weird

Ohtani walked Raimel Tapia on four pitches to start the bottom of the first, for example

BookerT

2:02

When do you think Mike Soroka will be back in the Braves rotation?

Ben Clemens

2:02

Ugh, if I had to set a 50% likelihood number, I think the right answer would be "never", which sucks

2:03

at least, in the rotation permanently again

I just think there's too much risk of him not being the same guy after so much time on the shelf

That said his rehab starts have been encouraging. I think they will try him out sooner rather than later, say by the end of the month

I just don't know if I believe, basically

2:04

are the cubs for real? the pitching looks legit and the offense seems to be just enough. what do you make of it?

Name

2:04

Am I insane to think the Cubs could have a top 5 rotation this year?

Ben Clemens

2:04

Lots of Cubs questions today. Yeah, top 5 rotation is a big stretch. Top half of rotations in baseball sure

Ko Clem

2:04

fWAR bet between Jordan Walker and Miguel Vargas this year, who wins

Ben Clemens

2:05

gimme Vargas, and boy does that sound depressing to Cardinals fans, but Walker is young and Vargas is great

Kevin

2:05

Should the Sox not have started Bello today given all of the things you just mentioned?

Ben Clemens

2:06

I think that anyone starting today was gonna have some difficulties. The Angels started Ohtani, one of the best pitchers in baseball, and he's had mixed results (though he looked quite good in the second)

But yeah, I would not have started him today

Give the hardship to someone who has had a bit more time to acclimate

I'm a big kid-gloves guy when it comes to pitchers ramping up

2:06

are you at all worried about michael harris not living up to his batting numbers from last year?

Ben Clemens

2:06

100%

2:07

I thought he had like a 90th percentile outcome batting wise

That doesn't have anything to do with his 25 PA's from this year, just, it's not all that common for a guy to hit better in the majors than he did in Double-A in the same year

And then be even better in the majors the year after that

2:08

He really needs to do a ton of damage on contact to make his approach work

2:08

the projections still seem to be pretty high on harris though. basically enough to repeat last year

Ben Clemens

2:08

They project him for a 117 wRC+, which would be 20 points lower than last year. Still good!

Pete

2:08

Good afternoon Ben, which starting pitcher is your preference rest of season - Ashcraft, Bradley, DeSclafani, Megill, Kikuchi, Elder or Lugo?

Ben Clemens

2:08

Ashcraft for me

He looks great

Sirras

2:08

I feel bad for Oakland fans. Watching that team for 3 games wasn't the best and now that the series is done I don't have to keep watching them walk the world

Ben Clemens

2:09

It's no fun. I liked living in NY because there were two baseball teams worth of fun stories going on, and the bay felt the same in 2020 when the A's made the playoffs. Now, uh...

Air Yordan

2:09

Worry meter 1-10 on mikolas? The luck hasn’t been on his side but it hasn’t been pretty

Ben Clemens

2:09

2:10

unlucky, like you said, but he hasn't looked sharp at all

I'm hoping as a Cards fan that it's just because he played two offenses that are really poor matchups and then played in Colorado, but yikes

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