JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 5/1/23

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 5/1/23

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Ben Clemens

2:22

Health has been a major problem. I don't think the boom/bust thing has hurt them THAT badly, enough guys have mostly boomed

But one thing that has undoubtedly hurt them is an inability to properly self-assess and add from the outside

How many times have we looked at the White Sox and said 'wow, they're really thin and they don't have any (X POSITION) on their roster'?

2:23

They build themselves to be paper-thin every year, both with the boom/bust thing and b/c for years they were like "Oh we have Leury Garcia, he's our backup at six positions and also starts at second'

Marshall

2:24

Kershaw has generally been fantastic but frequently unavailable for the last several years. Is he still a legit Cy Young candidate if he can get to 180 IP?

Ben Clemens

2:24

Yeah, I think so

2:25

He's been awesome so far this year

BenB

2:25

Any reason to hold back optimism on Rooker and Suwinski outside of small track record of success ?

Ben Clemens

2:25

I mean, that's the key thing for sure

Rooker's stats look immaculate so far, it's really something

2:26

Suwinski has some strikeouts in his game, but his process is really good, which makes me more tolerant of those

Phil

2:26

Duran looked terrible in center on some pop-ups last year and it felt like people gave up on him, but that always seemed fixablr

Ben Clemens

2:26

Yeah, I agree with this

That seems like a pretty nit-picky thing for a guy who was an IF/OF coming up

bosoxforlife

2:26

Should the Cardinals trade one of their excess OF's and Ivan Herrera plus a couple of lesser prospects to the Tigers for Eduardo Rodriquez?

Ben Clemens

2:27

Hilarious how the E Rod narrative has changed

party

1

I do not think that the Cardinals would do that deal, that's a lot of stuff going out the door for a pitcher who everyone thought was cooked last year

I think that they should be looking really hard at pitching, though, even if it takes trading fan favorites

Phil

2:27

Would you agree that the Yoshida deal looks like it may, in the end, be basically fine? I feel like people were down on it because they were mad at Bloom about some other moves (which I was also mad at him about, but I like Yoshida).

Ben Clemens

2:27

Oh totally

2:28

It might end up being a marginal overpay, or a marginal steal, but I think at this point I'm fine saying that it was in the ballpark of fair

I do think that the biggest reason for the negative reactions is all the other decisions Bloom has made

trophy

1

Genesis Cabrera

2:29

My slider is legit and I’m now one of the better non-closer relievers in baseball

Ben Clemens

2:29

That's a tough one; I agree with the first part, but there are a lot of good relievers

Jeremy

2:29

but don’t the creators of xFIP explicitly state that HR/FB% can be a lot flukier than K%, BB%, and GB%?

Gant

2:29

There’s a difference between giving people credit for what they’ve done (FIP and WAR) and predicting what they’re going to do (xFIP)

Appa Yip Yip

2:29

How many good Kikuchi starts would you need to see before you began to believe he had baked himself from pumpkin into pumpkin pie?

Ben Clemens

2:29

Hmmmm..... like 5?

2:30

It's very easy to convince me a pitcher has turned the corner

b/c they have a much easier time changing their plan proacdtively than a hitter

RTJ

2:30

Petition to have every home run derby in Mexico City

Guest

2:30

Can Mexico City ever get an MLB franchise with a joke of a ballpark like the one the Padres and Giants played in? It makes Coors look like a band box.

Ben Clemens

2:30

So, I read that MLB set the humidor settings there as if it were one of the 29 non-Coors parks instead of Coors

that seems, uh, dumb

2:31

But no, I do not think so. I got asked this question by several friends this weekend and so I've thought about it a bit already

I think that baseball would be best served by continuing to play series there, maybe adding one or two more than the current one per year, but I don't think you could feasibly have an MLB team at that altitude

Lim

2:31

How much upside does Vaughn have at this point?

Ben Clemens

2:31

A lot! I think he could be one of the 5 best first basemen in baseball over the next three years

2:32

Central case is lower than that obv, but htat's good upside

Guest

2:32

Is there any fire to the Juan-Soto related smoke we've seen recently in other outlets?

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