JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 5/18/20

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Billy

3:10

Do you think part of the agreement involves no spitting and no snot rockets?

Ben Clemens

3:10

For sure!

Will it be followed? who knows

Jeff

3:11

What do you think of more and more athletes turning to PRP and stem cells before they even get to the point of talking surgery?

Ben Clemens

3:13

Honestly, I don't really know the science of it. I feel like players should do what they think is best for htem.

I'm honestly tremendously unsure what that is.

Jeff

3:14

The future!

Ben Clemens

3:14

Heck yeah.

Eventually players might be able to just be holograms. That'd be sweet!

Marshall

3:15

My sense is that the owners actually have a lot more to lose from losing a season than the players. Total player salaries are something like 1.5B/year (I think), and much less after taxes. Wouldn't the collective value of teams drop by much less than that due to losing fans from the layoff (people will lose interest, move on, etc.). How long after the '94 strike before MLB's popularity recovered?

Ben Clemens

3:16

Yeah, I think that is probably the case, which is why owners are on the aggressive rather than waiting for players to come for them

come to th em*

But look I actually don't have any idea, that's just my speculation

I think the TV deals matter a lot too

They're also proactively trying to move some of the blame towards players which implies that they're aware it's not great for them

In my opinion, at least

Billy's mom

3:17

Will Spencer Howard be a starter for the Phillies this year? And if so will he be elite.....very good....pretty good....or worse.

Ben Clemens

3:17

I think that the shortened season makes it a little less likely

Maybe a lot less likely

I'll go with pretty good, though

That sounds about right

The Stranger

3:17

Odds that the MLB protocol is scrupulously followed for like a week and then players gradually revert to their unconscious rituals of spitting, finger-licking, and crotch-adjusting?

Ben Clemens

3:17

Yeah like, 60%? 80%?

3:18

I don't think the crotch-adjusting will stop at any point lo

lol

the Electrician

3:18

What do you think of the idea of making certain PEDs part of the game, where drugs that could improve the human condition as a whole are tested on (willing) athletes openly as a study? I remember reading an old SI article about PEDs where there was an opinion that every human could benefit from HGH.. don't quote me on veracity, but THE SPIRIT of the idea: Could sports have a higher purpose for the betterment of mankind?

Ben Clemens

3:19

Boy, I certainly don't like the idea of any semi-voluntary use of drugs so that we can *study* people.

But then, I find the uproar over PED's to be really a whole lot of eyewash too

I guess I need more time to think about my stance on this.

If you make HGH voluntary, it's not really voluntary for players from poor families

b/c baseball is their out

3:20

So that feels kind of gross!

But the false moralizing about how players are these awful, immoral goons b/c they try to get better at their craft

Also very frustrating!

3:21

I guess generally I'm in favor of it. But I'd want a lot more actual clinical trials as well, rather than just all of us agreeing we're doing an experiment on baseball players.

Or heck, if they can get paid for it, that's probably okay as well?

I dunno I'm having trouble staking out a consistent position here. That's the mark of an excellent question

Marshall

3:22

I really liked Craig's pieces a few weeks back on best decades. I was actually a bit surprised Kershaw doesn't stack up better historically, and it seems like a lot of that is due to the changing pitcher workloads across MLB. Any thoughts on how to adjust pitcher WAR to make it more comparable across eras? For example, maybe adjusting it based on IP/start?

Ben Clemens

3:22

The best decade stuff is fun

3:23

It's an interesting question. You could do some kind of adjustment to peers, like to the average war per starter, or something

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