JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 4/8/24

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George Hendrick

2:39

If a trend develops in which teams try to be proactive preventing injuries with their pitchers, could we see a lot of pitchers just go fastball/changeup with different fastball speeds? In other words don't max effort every fastball throw some 92 instead of 96.

Ben Clemens

2:39

I think Robert Stock said it best in a great Twitter (now known as "X, formerly known as Twitter") thread

https://twitter.com/RobertStock6/status/1777137636911755447

here was his takeaway:

2:40

Do you want to guarantee yourself a healthy UCL? Throw slower than your capabilities. But would you also like to be pitching in the big leagues? Good luck doing so with anything less than your maximum.

KC Pain

2:40

Campusano a good sell high or legit? I have Raleigh

Ben Clemens

2:40

sell high for me, but I've been lower on him than consensus for a while so take that with a grain of salt

Guest

2:40

If there are no injuries to the current starters (Webb Snell Harrison Hicks Winn), what do you think the Giants do when Ray and Cobb come back?

Martin

2:41

With Hicks succeeding as a starter, do you think Ray can pitch out of the pen when he returns from TJ?

Ben Clemens

2:41

I think that Winn is on the chopping block for now. I'm not a very big Harrison believer either, I think he's probably going to end up as a (very good) reliever

So.....

2:41

What's for lunch?

Ben Clemens

2:42

We just got back from a ski trip last night, so tehre's very little food in the apartment. We got one of those ready-to-heat meal kits, Thistle, for a trial, so we'll see how those go

Dmx

2:42

I don’t know if this is a stupid question- but is there a way to view what league average is with a given stat?

Ben Clemens

2:43

nah, very reasonable question. On our player pages, some tabs have an 'average' button you can click to see league averages for that year

so on the 'advanced' tab on a hitter, you could hit 'averages' and see that the league average batting line this year is .240/.317/.385, with 9.1% walk rate and 22.7% strikeout rate

you could do the same for plate discipline, for example

2:44

that said, not all of our stats have those, so what to do?

on any of our leaderboards, we have the option to get "League Stats" up at the top right

so anything you can query on our leaderboards, you can see how the league as a whole does at it

Yamamoto

2:44

Initial impressions? A couple bad innings aside he looks as-advertised

Ben Clemens

2:44

Yep, looks good to me

Jordan Rules

2:46

NYY bullpen #1 ERA last yr. Consistently good last couple. Projections very meh. Bug or feature? Projections don't factor in a good FO + coaching staff? GB% underrated by fWAR? Or will they struggle this year?

Ben Clemens

2:46

I think that it's more of a bug than anything, but a pretty tough error to strip out

I think they will do better than their projection because the Yankees are good at figuring out who is excelling and getting them into the bullpen

Nervous in ATL

2:47

I understand that we are well equipped with pitching depth to weather the Strider injury, probably moreso than most other teams. I get that. But now our rotation is headlined by Fried and Sale, who we all know are no locks to stay healthy, then Morton on the wrong side of 40. Time to trade for an OAK starter now instead of waiting until the deadline?

Ben Clemens

2:47

That makes a lot of sense to me

Oakland has so many fifth starters available

joe

2:49

Blanco staying in the rotation when Verlander comes back?

Ben Clemens

2:50

I mean, at this point he has to right?

RoyalsFan2195

2:50

What do you make of Yandy Diaz's slow start?

Ben Clemens

2:50

I'm not too worried yet

2:51

he's hitting too many grounders, basically, and I feel like he does that from time to time

KC Pain

2:52

What is your opinion on Bibee? I acquired in offseason and for some reason league (18teamer dynasty 6x6) seems to think he is ...not good. My vibe was #3 w #2 upside young guy

Ben Clemens

2:52

I'd say a #3 median projection sounds about right

Insert Witty Name Here

2:52

Re: my 200 innings 4 ERA question, I was throwing numbers out my ass. My question really should have been, is a high IP, average ERA (or whatever stat you choose) better than a low IP, above average ERA a market inefficiency for a starting pitcher?

Ben Clemens

2:52

ah yeah. wellllllllll, ask the Cardinals, I guess I'd say. If you can actually eat a bunch of innings at a league average rate, that's clearly valuable. The problem is that there aren't that many pitchers who can do that

DBRuns

2:53

Where did you ski? (curious Colorado resident asks)

Ben Clemens

2:53

Mount Bachelor

We planned it early this year with the backup plan of just hanging out in Bend if the conditions were terrible

It did not disappoint

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