JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 5/1/23

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Ben Clemens

2:41

I do not

2:42

I do think they might juice home run derby balls

C-Low

2:42

Thoughts on Gray Rod last outing? Starting to put it together or was it just an overmatched Tigers lineup?

Ben Clemens

2:42

I'm in!

I was always in, tbh

Madier Yolina

2:42

ROS projections now have the Pirates finishing above .500. True or false?

Ben Clemens

2:42

I'm gonna say false, but only by the barest margin

such a fun story

Yo-Yo

2:42

A couple of weeks ago, I asked if the Brewers' five game lead over STL was enough to say MIL now had better odds of winning the NLC. You said it's April and why even play the games, which I get. Who knew you were probably right, but only because the Pirates could soon be the odds-on favorite!

Ben Clemens

2:42

Lol yeah this is not how I saw it going!

that said the Cards have played themselves into a VERY big hole now

2:43

8.5 with two weeks less to catch up is a lot worse than 5

Jfast

2:43

With Soto’s slow start (plus last year), is Yordan pretty much the best LHH on the planet in your opinion? Best hitter overall?

Ben Clemens

2:43

Yes, and yes

looooove me some Yordan

This feels like the first year where I will not be able to write my annual 'you're underrating Yordan Alvarez' post

to be fair only the first one was called that, but the guy bops

Stuff

2:44

Is there any reason to worry about Clase yet?

Ben Clemens

2:44

It depends what you mean by worry

I think it's reasonable to be worried that he won't sustain what he was doing the past two years

Because I don't think anyone in baseball is likely to pitch at that level

I'm not worried that he's anything less than an absolutely elite closer, though

2:45

Except for this one thing: what if he's hurt

And that, yeah, I'm a little worried. His cutter shape is not the same, his velo is down a little

TuckerNeedsaNewJob

2:46

Are the starts the Cubs and White Sox having evidence that building up the middle with defense is better than collecting corner sluggers that can't hit?

Ben Clemens

2:46

Are they evidence? Yes. Are they all tha tmuch evidence? No

2:47

And uh, 'corner sluggers that can't hit' is not a good building block for any team

Seems like you might have already made up your mind

Yo-Yo

2:47

Were you referring to anyone in particular when you said STL should entertain trading fan favorites for pitching? Off the top of my head, that sounds like Nootbaar, Donovan, or Edman, but I think those three are too important to winning now and in the future. Walker, maybe?

Ben Clemens

2:47

I meant Nootbaar or Edman, and I really hope it doesn't happen

Mag-Neto

2:48

Zach Neto is running a 12% HBP rate and 1.5% BB rate. What conclusions do we draw here, if any?

Ben Clemens

2:48

Amazingly I've written about a version of this player before

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/whats-the-de-santiago-line-and-why-should-...

a fake baseball player, but still

Marshall

2:48

I really enjoy your "what I liked" articles. I'd love to see more content (from you and other writers) highlighting interesting plays or just anything else cool that the average fan would miss from not watching a ton of games. It could be very light on analysis/writing to minimize the time required.

Ben Clemens

2:49

Let me say this: those articles are the most time-consuming thing I write by far despite being low on analysis

They are the most fun things I write, and I'm not going to stop doing them

But I'm not surprised that people aren't rushing out to copy me. It seems easier than it is

Padres Big 4

2:50

Bogaerts leads the Padres in WAR by a large margin despite generally being seen as the 4th best player of the group. Who finishes with the most WAR at the end of the season?

Ben Clemens

2:50

ooh this is a fun one

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