JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 5/6/24

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Ben Clemens

3:35

Springer for me

just b/c like I said earlier, I think the Castellanos thing is over

Cursed laser show

3:35

Considering his below average base running, what kind of triple slash line does Masataka Yoshida needs to have to be a 3 WAR player with 500 AB? Would 290/350/450 be close?

Ben Clemens

3:35

hm, at Fenway? let's look for some examples

3:36

I think that'd be close but it would depend on his LF defense, and he wouldn't make it there if he ends up as a pure DH

Devers was 271/351/500 last year, and that was a 124 wRC+

Kendrick Won

3:36

What are the best statcast stats to predict homeruns for batters and pitchers?

Ben Clemens

3:37

for hitters, I think Statcast has a bunch of good exmaples

barrel rate, sweet spot percentage, exit velo

those things all correlate well

It's tricky with pitchers b/c hitters do a lot more of the 'supplying power' side of things

like once the hitter CAN make contact with your pitch, you're kind of at their mercy in terms of how hard they hit it

that said: fly ball rate, and ball in play rate, are both good

Jake Rogers Appreciator

3:38

As a lifelong Midwesterner I'm suggesting you try some Culver's expeditiously, best fast food burger out there by far

Ben Clemens

3:38

I mean.... not a lot of Culvers on the road from here to Yosemite, sadly

My wife is from Milwaukee, my dad's from St. Louis, and I do enjoy Culver's

Showbusiness77

3:38

PIT should debut Skenes at home to sell tickets. He lines up for home starts Fri, May-10 (CHC), or Tue, May-21 (SFG). If they wait then we are looking at (ATL) or (LAD). Those are tough. I worry if not 10th or 21st then we are looking at blatant Service time manipulation pushing out to Tue, Jun-18 (CIN). What's your best guess?

Ben Clemens

3:38

I'm loving the bolding here

3:39

I sadly think Jun 18 is likely

b/c it gives them a shot at squeezing him under Super 2 eligibility and gaining an even cheaper 7th year

like the Rays did with Franco back in the day

HappyFunBall

3:39

Rather than incentives, just make a rule, something like "Any pitcher who throws more than X innings or Y pitches can't pitch again for Z days".

Re: pitcher incentive XYZ, the amusing thing would be watching the players union come out against it because of what it would do to starting pitcher salaries when starters lose 10-20% of their starts

Ben Clemens

3:39

right, incentives and rules are SO hard

3:40

I don't feel comfortable coming up with a specific one off the top of my head b/c teams and players are good at gaming rules

the world is good at gaming rules

that's how you end up with a byzantine tax code, legal code, etc. etc.

Cortes Jr

3:40

Speaking of solid K/BB, turns out not being injured is good

Ben Clemens

3:40

Baseball is more fun when you are pitching, my friend

Oddball Herrera

3:40

*something* clearly got exposed for Holliday in his callup, and they are clearly still exploiting it in AAA. What I can’t find: any idea what precisely that something was?

Ben Clemens

3:40

I have no idea!

I have been wondering this

I do think that some of it is just that he got his teeth kicked in and that feels bad

and it's hard to bounce back immediately sometimes

I'm pretty sure he will

bosoxforlife

3:41

The Royals did pretty well when Salvy was donning the tools of ignorance in almost every game. That is important by the way, so a team doesn't have to put Otto Out in the lineup. A perfect example of a player who has passed the eye test in every way but is hammered by secondary things which are very subjective. 5 Gold Gloves, 4 Silver Sluggers, 10th in HR's all-time. World Series MVP. Baseball is better when he is on the field.

Ben Clemens

3:42

Yeah, I like Salvy quite a bit. I'm not a huge buyer of those Gold Gloves, to be fair, like if we're excluding measurable fielding stuff, I think we have to exclude those. I think you could make a vibes-based argument for putting him in the hall, he was the face of an important franchise for a decade, and kind of still is even as they've declined and rebounded

I'm a big hall guy, though

3:43

if you think the Hall should be about as expansive, in terms of percentage of players, as it currently is, I don't think he hits the bar

there are only 17 catchers in the hall, that's wild

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