JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 5/4/26

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 5/4/26

powered by

View Full Chat Next Page

This chat is available to members only. Please log in to participate.

Ben Clemens

2:01

Hey everybody, welcome to the chat

Let's talk baseball

Cody Bellinger's 5 O'Clock Shadow

2:01

!!ALERT!!
Konnor Griffin is now a qualified hitter with a wRC+ of over 100

Ben Clemens

2:01

I was just looking at this htis morning, believe it or not

2:02

It's funny b/c on Friday he was at 76

and then he had two pretty nice games over the weekend. Great reminder that you should not read too much into early season results

I sure hope we're watching him figure it out in real time. But maybe he was never even that confused? Who knows

Sid the Astros Kid

2:03

Hi Ben, watched the battle of the titans over the weekend (Red Sox vs the Astros), I'm not really sure how to feel about the Astros finally getting a series win here. Is it a pyrrhic victory in beating a team that's somehow floundering even worse than ours or should I just be happy that we're somehow in the division and wildcard race? Or is it just early season baseball

Ben Clemens

2:03

omg yesterday's game was so good

party

1

the top of the 10th inning was morbidly fascinating

like a race to see who could make more unforced errors

Oaktown Blues

2:03

I ended up at a A-ball game for my FIL's birthday on Saturday. Imagine my surprise when the SP for the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes was one Alek Manoah! Alas, none of my in-laws grasped why that was interesting. He unfortunately looked like he belonged at the level

Ben Clemens

2:03

Alek Manoah, man, what a crazy career trajectory

2:04

He looked like he was on one of those meteoric rise trajectories, and then bam, just not good anymore

I think it's amazing that he's back in A ball (rehabbing, to be fair)

but yeah, I just looked up this game and five earned on 2 and and 2 walks in 4 innings? yees

bosoxforlife

2:04

Ildemaro Vargas leads baseball in batting average and Mickie Moniak leads the National league in HR's and OPS. "You can't predict baseball, Suzyn."

Ben Clemens

2:05

RIP John Sterling

it is truly a weird start to the year. I mean, it's often truly a weird start to the year. But Vargas taking over the Geraldo Perdomo Memorial This Diamondback Is Good I Swear role is a development I did not see coming

2:06

I thought that would be Geraldo Perdomo again this year

Pete Alonso

2:06

Why was Bo Bichette so highly valued as a bad defender and baserunner whose offense is BABIP-dependent? I'm exaggerating on purpose, please make Mets fans feel better.

Ben Clemens

2:07

Well, I guess I'd quibble with a lots of those classifications

but like... they signed him because his WAR is basically 4 a year, for a long time, and they needed an infielder? and I think that the defensive side of things looks totally fine

2:08

I've watched a lot of Mets games this year both because i like the booth and because they're absolutely a fascinating team

and he looks fine. And they're even using him at short now, and he doesn't look like an immediate disaster

I guess I'd say that Bichette is not the biggest problem with this team. The fact that no one except Juan Soto can hit is a bigger problem

Don Caglianone

2:08

not to alarm anyone but it's May and the Chicago White Sox are currently in a playoff spot

Ben Clemens

2:08

now THIS is exciting

2:09

another team I've watched a lot of this year

2:10

They're just full of really fun players who are playing with no expectations. Good mix for good vibes

bosoxforlife

2:10

The baseball world is a lesser place today with the passing of a legend in the booth. Mel Allen will always be The Voice of the Yankees to me but John Sterling is a close second. Whether it is (“Yankees win … theeeeee Yankees win!”) or {"It is high, it is far, it is gone"} his calls are part of lexicon of the game which will be remembered by Yankee fans for years to come.

Ben Clemens

2:11

Yeah. I was often annoyed by Sterling. I bet a lot of others were too. But as I wrote in my sendoff to him when he retired (https://blogs.fangraphs.com/five-things-i-liked-or-didnt-like-this-wee...), his voice was the pulse of the city for the decade I lived in New York

I feel like I heard him more than almost anyone else in my time there, and the bombastic nature of a lot of the calls, the really ridiculous catchphrases, etc., really provided structure to Yankees games

21127

2:12

I hereby nominate Nico's double play from yesterday for Five Things.

Ben Clemens

2:12

I have a 'cubs veteran defender savvy' running list of things to put into a 5 things at some point

I'll add that one on

2:13

there was a two-play sequence on April 24 where Hoerner just made two ridiculous, and also very cerebral, plays in a row

and I was like ugh is this just a hoerner post? but Bregman and Swanson (when healthy) are fun defenders too

Josh

2:13

It’s only been 6.1 IP, and the first start was a disaster, but Christian Scott has a 113 Stuff+. How excited should we be about him?

Guest

2:13

How much rope does Christian Scott have as a member of the Mets rotation? Will he reach the end of it?

Connecting…

Register

Message History

On Off

On Off

On Off

On Off

Your current subscriptions

None

Register now to continue managing your subscriptions

E-mail Address	Chat Owner	Status	Remove

Enter your email address to be notified when Ben Clemens hosts a chat