JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 4/3/23

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Ben Clemens

3:11

What a description

A Boy Named Yu

3:11

How about adding 5 seconds to the pitch clock when the count is full to prevent PAs being determined by it?

Ben Clemens

3:11

Into it

3:12

maybe instead of infield hits we should really be trying to look at GB to the pull side hit percentage year over year. I actually think more infield hits could happen with the extra defender just not getting it to 1B in time (what would have been a ground ball through the infield).

Ben Clemens

3:12

Yeah, I'll probably spend the time to figure out how to look at this more specifically as we get more data in

This is probably the right-ish way to look at it, you might want to adjust for handedness and speed and all that good stuff but pull side gb hit% is a great start

Derek

3:12

how are you feeling about your Ottoneu team(s) as the season gets underway?

Ben Clemens

3:13

I'm feeling solid for once. Rostering Rhys Hoskins hurt, but I'm getting the cap back at least, and my Ashcraft/Senga duo for cheap-ish is feeling nice

I also have dG, so uh, I'm just ignoring his first start. And $1 Moncada, Grandal both feel good

3:14

I went with a bet on bouncebacks strategy for my hitters this year, and if it pays off I'm gonna feel amazing

James

3:14

Could you see them dropping the clock in the 9th inning of close games? Or allowing a little more time? The idea of the clock is to reduce down time, not rush the dramatic parts.

Guest

3:14

Why remove the stakes from the clock for specific situations? Its a rule and needs to be followed and penalized... if we start having exceptions for random situations they'll just cause confusion

Ben Clemens

3:14

I don't like the idea of getting rid of it entirely, but as long as it's rule-based, I don't mind having a tick or two extra in specific situations. I would be fine keeping it as is, though, to be clear, I haven't really minded the hilarity of guys getting rung up

3:15

It might annoy me if it happened in the plyaoffs, though

RTJ

3:15

I do like the new rule changes. But, as a researcher, I will say I am a little disappointed they made all the changes at once. I'd love to know the independent effects of say "disengagements vs base size" or "pitch clock vs shift"

Ben Clemens

3:15

They did them in batches in the minors, if you're interested in digging into it

Flip

3:15

Im at first-time Ottoneu player this year. Any tips?

Ben Clemens

3:16

Read Chad Young's articles. And doing the re-auction dance adds up

That is, if you cut someone, they hit your cap for half their salary. But in 30 days you can re-auction them, get them for half their salary, then re-cut them, which drops your cap hit in half. Repeat to taste

B'ryce Szymbobski

3:16

Ben, I need some help! Shallow points league and someone floated N. Lowe or Vinny P and Verlander for my Ashcraft and Matt Olson. I have a rotation of Castillo, Strider, Cease, Senga, Cortes, Detmers, J Ryan, Gilbert, T. Mackenzie....

feels like Verlander isn't worth the drop off right?

Ben Clemens

3:17

So, I'm not always great at htese, because I play a bit of fantasy but not a ton. I don't think that trade is worth it, because I'm a little bit worried about Verlander's health, but I'm down on Olson so I'd consider it if it were, say, Scherzer

Weekend Hack

3:17

Do you see the "add 5 seconds" to the pitch clock as actually being a realistic possibility? Like, would MLB actually tweak it? (I think I'd like to see ~18s with nobody on and 22s with runners)

Ben Clemens

3:18

Yeah, I do. I think that the league would like players to vote in favor of a change to the rules (every player on the rules committee voted against the pitch clock), so if they thought that players would get on board with a few exstra seconds, they'd do it

bosoxforlife

3:18

SSS alert! Alex Bregman, while still a good player, has never reached the level predicted and is off to an 0 for the series start. The Astros lineup looks a little shaky when David Hensley is the DH and hitting 5th.

Ben Clemens

3:18

I still think Bregman is excellent, he was excellent last year, but that doesn't change your central point, which is that there are a sneaky amount of 'who is that?' types in the Astros lineup at the moment

3:19

Getting Altuve and Brantley back might be more necessary than I thought

A Boy Named Yu

3:19

MLB Opening Day, Super Bowl, or first day of March Madness?

Ben Clemens

3:19

oh, first day of March Madness for me

Just my favorite sports day period, and I don't even like college basketball that much

carlo

3:19

i was thinking alex cobb's new sweeper would be used as a get ahead in the count pitch vs righties, but it had a 110 stuff+, his best pitch in the model. do you think he could use that as his go to out pitch vs righties?

Ben Clemens

3:21

I do, particularly if he's using it in conjunction with a lot of other things. As you mentioned, it's definitely platoon-reliant, but having a good anti-righty pitch seems like an excellent move for a guy with a nasty offspeed pitch already

cpins

3:21

How about 1 warning per player? Dramatically lower the odds of the final play of the game being determined by a clock violation without situationally changing the time limit which feels arbitrary to me.

Ben Clemens

3:21

Mayyyyyyyybe, I'd have to think about that one more

I feel like it's not quite what I want, though

Tstats

3:21

Is it possible that a Bruin takes home both the CY and ROY this year? (Cole and Mitchell?)

Ben Clemens

3:21

Yeah, obviously Cole more likely than Mitchell

Wireless Joe Jackson

3:21

My current impression is that the pitch clock is an enormous change, and the rest of the rule changes are inconsequential. The pace of play increase is really quite startling. The ratio of commercial time to game time is a little brutal, though.

Ben Clemens

3:21

I completely agree with the first part of your statement. I haven't really noticed the commercial time/game time ratio yet, maybe I'll see it when I watch more

Brendan Donovan future MVP

3:22

Do I get extra MVP consideration each time my helmet falls off running the bases?

Ben Clemens

3:22

Funny you mention this, in a few innings of watching the Mets/Marlins series, I saw Jazz lose his hat in center like four times