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Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 5/18/26

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PokeyReese'04

2:43

Are the Brewers the new school Rays in being the smartest team in baseball? (trade Durbin, Kyle Harrison, Miz, etc.)

Ben Clemens

2:43

definitely. the question is how long that title will last - but right now they have it

Guest

2:43

On the topic of Drew Gilbert and the value of high-energy teammates, could this be a factor in Detroit's poor performance? Guys like Greene, Tork, Dingler, and now McGonigle all have a similar quiet, keep-it-professional attitude, which I'm not knocking, but maybe what they need is a little more fire and passion? For a largely young team, they are kinda... boring?

Ben Clemens

2:43

haha perhaps. It might also hurt that their best player is out, and that Tork is just not that guy

2:44

but I mean, yeah, they might have more fun if there was someone going berserk in the dugout after wins

He who can but won’t be named

2:44

Should Bryce Eldridge go back to Sac to get regular playing time? Or should the Giants start him regularly in SF so he can work it out?

Ben Clemens

2:44

I think they should definitely send him back down, because it's very clear he's not gonna plya

I understand why he's not getting a ton of run. The team just doesn't have a spot for him

2:45

Like, it's one thing to say that he should play over Casey Schmitt because it's a good long term plan. But uh, he's not hitting well and I don't expect him to suddenly become great, whereas Schmitt has been the best hitter on the team this year

and what, you're going to bench Devers for him? Whatever your view on Eldridge's career arc, I don't think he's in Devers's league right now

2:46

so yeah, I'd send him down. I truly don't understand the idea of just parking him on the bench

Guest

2:46

the first syllable of "noodles" does not rhyme with "good" - this is the biggest wordplay scandal since "palmeranian" in connections the other day

JakeJakeJake

2:46

Any reason for optimism for guys like Freddy Peralta, Yoshi Yamamoto, Cole Ragans? Came into the year thinking they'd be elite and just not seeing it yet.

Ben Clemens

2:46

Oh, I have a good one

those are three elite pitchers

so like, that makes me optimistic that they'll pitch better at some point

I'm sorry, any reasons for optimism on Yamamoto? Watch the dude pitch!

PC1970

2:47

Feels like with all of the Red Sox/Mets talk, the Tigers terrible stretch is undernoticed- Other than Dingler, Mcgonigle, Greene, the hitting is just so bad. Keith with 0 HR's, Tork with 1 HR in 38 games other than a 5 game HR streak, Carp was bad, now hurt..They just look awful.

Ben Clemens

2:47

I mean, you're not wrong, but there's some confirmation bias here: I bet you the fans of a LOT of teams think their team's slump is under-discussed

like 'the hitting is really bad other than our top 3 hitters' is an affliction that strikes many teams

2:48

as is 'this guy has been really crappy and you just don't notice it because he had one hot streak'

lmb2020

2:48

Are you more of a "tarps off" guy or a "group thrusting" guy?

eeyorethedog

2:48

Whole new environment at Busch Stadium this weekend!

Ben Clemens

2:48

really a spectacular week in weird dudes being dudes celebrations

stephen1249

2:48

I have current M’s SS Crawford in a very deep 10x10. Is there any chance the M’s will dump Crawford and play the rookie Emerson at SS this season?

Ben Clemens

2:49

any chance? clearly yes, they just called Emerson up

but it's gonna entail Crawford not having one of the best batting lines on the team

oaktownblues

2:50

Switched from my work laptop (not logged into FG) to my phone and saw that JotCast now says "Hi oaktownblues". Does it tell you which of us is a FG member when submitt

Ben Clemens

2:50

no, but we're experimenting with various stuff around this - not requiring you to be a member, but requiring you to be logged in, even as a non-member

I don't keep up with the specifics but it's something along thoes lines

mopete12

2:50

I've been going crossed eye trying to really understand the following baseball savant items: Barrels, Squared Up, Hard Hit %, and LA Sweet Spot %. My basic take away is that barrels are good and squared up % is essentially useless. Is there a real benefit to tracking squared up % or is it just there to let Arraez and Kwan have a bright red bar in their bat tracking metrics?

Ben Clemens

2:50

I mean, you're not wrong in the aggregate

2:51

I think that squared up % is generally speaking a tough statistic to interpret

I built a whole tool because I wanted to pull something that made sense to ME out of it:
https://www.fangraphs.com/lab/squared-up-explorer

but basically, raw squared up rate doesn't tell you a ton. I care about squaring the ball up at home run angles for guys wtih power, and at line drive angles for guys without it

2:52

LA Sweet spot is another tricky one. it's not so good if you don't have more context around power

bosoxforlife

2:53

I believe that today's TTO game demands that power is the only driving force in modern offense. I follow batting average as a method of discerning if there is an alternative to the home run. With an AL league batting average of .238 it is clear that stringing hits together just isn't an alternative. Simply making contact is too difficult and credit the Rays for recognizing that any contact is beneficial and their judicious use of the bunt exemplifies this.

Ben Clemens

2:53

I definitely agree with your observation that power is the driving hitting force

I think the reason for this is that defenses and pitching have done two things that are really tough to adapt to. They catch more balls in play than ever because they're getting better at standing in the right places. They also throw pitches that move more than ever, and that are harder to make contact with than ever

2:54

We know from tons of research that pitchers don't exert a lot of control on how hard the ball gets hit, contingent on batters making contact, though

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