JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 4/29/24

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Ben Clemens

2:00

Hey everybody, welcome to the chat

2:01

Let's talk baseball!

Randy

2:01

A testament to just how good he is that the sky was falling for Aaron Judge and his 125 wRC+. How good is the NYY team if they get 2022-2023 Judge?

Ben Clemens

2:01

It's so true. When you have the kind of two-year run that Judge just put up, merely good offense feels like a huge letdown

2:02

His power production this year has been shockingly low for Aaron Freaking Judge

Nothing has really changed, in my opinion, though. He still looks like one of the best hitters in the game to me

2:03

This offense is impressive, it's doing very well even with Judge and Torres struggling on a relative basis

scrrrrrr

2:03

The next time you chat we can commemorate Imagaga's rookie of the month award

Ben Clemens

2:03

What a marvelous start to the season

RAGBRAI

2:04

A month in, are SBs about where they were last year at this time? More? Less? Will we continue to see an increase by season’s end?

Ben Clemens

2:04

Stolen base attempt rate has accelerated in the past two weeks, now basically in line with 2023, but success rate is still down

2:05

I think that we'll see things stabilize with slightly fewer steals than we're seeing now. Pitchers and catchers have been very good at defending the running game this year

#1MetsFan

2:05

Whats for lunch
Ever since Francisco Alvarez went down, Mets pitching has reverted back to where it was before he was in the bigs. Its a small sample size, but am I right when I tell everybody that Alvarez is a catching superstar in the making?

The person who asks the lunch question

2:05

What's for lunch?

Ben Clemens

2:06

I haven't decided what's for lunch today. I was supposed to cook some mapo tofu last night and have leftovers today but I got lazy and ordered in. Maybe a kitchen sink style sandwich instead

I think that Alvarez is a catching superstar in the making, but I didn't come to that opinion b/c of the pitching, more b/c I think he's a pretty good defender and a great hitter

It's just too small of a sample to say much about his effect on the staff. a year is too small of a sample, eve

even*

Anon21

2:06

Balls are dead, right? 92 fewer homers than 2023 through the same number of games. Can't just be the weather.

Ben Clemens

2:06

Yeah carry seems down markedly. Not just the weather, agree

Stan Javier

2:07

Looking back at the Padres trade for Soto, do you consider the trade to be fair? Lopsided?

Ben Clemens

2:07

Boy, I definitely need to read what I wrote to be sure of what I thought at the time

2:08

I said that I didn't like the trade but that if they had to trade Soto, I liked getting a grab bag of pitchers

Fair enough

Uh, I have an article coming out tomorrow that will touch on Michael King but woof

2:10

He's down a tick and a half, his sweeper lost three inches of run, and he's locating worse

2:11

A lot of that is because he just can't throw the same way as a starter, a lot of his best performances are in relief

but if that breaking ball isn't there for him, everything doesn't work quite as well

I think that given that the Padres were forced sellers, they were always gonna take some risks, and King not working out is a pretty bad run out

BallFourFan

2:11

When (if

) Cole makes it back, who do you see as the weakest link in the current Yankee rotation?

Ben Clemens

2:12

This is not a bad problem to have, but I'd say either Schmidt or Gil

Gil seems to me like he'd be an incredible reliever, so maybe him

Casey

2:12

With John Means AND Kyle Bradish set to return to Orioles rotation, who gets moved to the (up-and-down) bullpen?

Ben Clemens

2:12

AL East rotation return double dip

2:13

Dean Kremer seems like a likely one

2:14

And honestly I bet they move Suarez even though he's been really good. Irvin has been kind of a revelation of late, I feel like the change in sinker shape has really done him well

2:15

The thing that has always held him back is that his fastball is a weak main pitch despite a big pile of nice things he could use with it

But he's throwing as hard as he ever has and with better shape, so that seems preeeeetty interesting

Fish Johner

2:15

Re: Mason Miller, is he more valuable as an elite reliever or a potential mid-rotation starter?

What should the A’s do with Mason Miller? Should they trade him to a team that needs a premier closer or should they keep him for whenever they try to be competitive again?

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