JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 5/4/20

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 5/4/20

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Ben Clemens

2:00

Hey everyone, and welcome to the chat.

Before we start, a programming note: I'm going to be live-chatting tonight's KBO opener, which begins at 1 a.m. ET/10 p.m. PT.

2:01

I'm unbelievably excited for some real, high-caliber baseball, and also to see a ton of players I vaguely remember, which is a consistently fun lure to foreign leagues.

So I'm going to keep this chat reasonably short -- gotta preserve the chatting muscles, as it were.

But let's get to as much as we can in the meantime.

Jeff

2:02

How do you feel about the likely windfall of public funding coming to teams post-COVID19 for private stadiums and entertainment centers? Do you think we'll still hear about lost revenues due to COVID anyway?

Ben Clemens

2:02

Boy, I really hope this isn't going to happen, though I kind of think you're right. It'd be a very frustrating use of public resources.

There hasn't really been much move towards infrastructure spending that I've seen yet.

But I could totally see that happening after things start to head back towards normal.

2:03

The past few months, and the extreme weirdness of having no sports, seem to have really emphasized how much people love watching adults play games against each other.

Derek

2:03

Is virtual Lorenzo Cain still utter trash?

Ben Clemens

2:03

He briefly got up to a 0 wRC+.

He's now back down to -2.

2:04

It's, uh, it's not great.

I'm trying to get him as many AB's against lefties as I can, hoping he'll get a little help from that, but yeah, it's not great so far.

Devin

2:04

Am curious about what happens with the small number of players recovering from TJ surgery who have already been placed on the 60-day IL by their teams - like Jordan Hicks or Michael Fulmer. If they are close to ready by the time the season actually starts do they still have to sit out the 60 days?

Ben Clemens

2:05

I haven't seen anything specific about this but I'm looking up IL rules right now, one second.

2:06

It looks to me like they'll be able to come back.

Given the days they were placed on the IL.

But I'm going to keep looking in the background to confirm that.

Derek

2:06

Just finished listening to the FanGraphs audio podcast where you stated that you like drinking plain, hot water. My first thought was "weird, that's gross", but then I thought I would reserve judgement until I tried it myslef. So I put a tea kettle on, poured myself a mug of the plain hot water, took a sip... And yeah, that's gross.

Ben Clemens

2:07

Haha, I won't claim it's for everyone. I just realllllly like a hot drink.

I'd prefer a coffee or tea, but if those aren't available I'm perfectly happy with just hot water.

Obviously though, I know that's not a popular view.

clemlibby

2:07

When will I be able to wear my Fangraphs gear to a ballgame?

Ben Clemens

2:08

Hopefully this year, but realistically probably next year at this point unless you live in the state of Florida. I just don't see MLB coming back with a crowd this year, though I'm increasingly optimistic that there will be a season.

Matt Greene

2:08

How disappointing is ESPN's decision to only broadcast KBO live? I get something is lost with later broadcast, but are folks really going to be rushing to check KBO scores before primetime? Seems like they're not really giving it a chance

Ben Clemens

2:09

I'm hoping they'll come around on this. They just really need content at the moment, and I actually think their numbers for tonight's game could be huge.

I mean, I'm not at all a 90s Bulls fan and I've been watching the last dance

There really isn't much substitute for live sports.

Get one sweet bat flip highlight to go viral, and I think people are going to be all over it.

Fingers crossed.

Sam

2:09

How high did "Lorenzo Cain being terrible" rate on your list of concerns about the Brewers going into the season?

Ben Clemens

2:10

It was higher than you think because I was kind of down on him last year, but I didn't really expect OOTP to share my view.

So it was somewhat high, but that was irrational.

When I was drawing up contingency plans for the year, I didn't have a single one that included Cain being bad.

Whereas I had about 15 about how I'd try to handle pitchers scuffling.

In fairness, that has happened too.

But the Cain thing caught me flat-footed.

Sam

2:11

Be honest, were you picked for the live chat since you live on the west coast and Meg didn't want to stay up late?

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