JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 5/6/24

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Ben Clemens

2:38

I don't think either side would want to do this deal, to be honest

2:39

the contract is weird for the O's given that they haven't started spending money to lock up their own guys yet

and I think that the Mets would probably not get the kind of prospect they want to give up on an iconic player for the city when they're still near competing. you give up edwin diaz for not much, hear the trumpets elsewhere while Coby Mayo has a 102 wRC+ and bounces up and down, and the faithful will get ornery really quickly

Brian

2:40

"I was chatting with an acquaintance who is a baseball fan and knows I work for FanGraphs, but doesn't read my stuff"...that's harsh

Ben Clemens

2:40

I mean, not everyone who's a baseball fan reads a lot about baseball

but yes I definitely give him some grief for it

Baseball Savant

2:40

On Savant's pitch leaderboard it lists a ton of pitchers with arm-side movement on cutters. I thought all cutters had glove-side movement by nature? What am I missing here?

Ben Clemens

2:40

I used to think that but it seems like some cutters these days are kinda hybrid 4s/cutter

2:41

so like, they cut relative to a four-seamer

Josh

2:41

I want to ask an intelligent question about the Astros, but it all basically comes down to me being sad. The frustrating part is that they're not a bad team (1-9 in one-run games, all stars at multiple positions, etc), but you could say the same thing about the Padres last year. Sometimes it be like that I guess.

Ben Clemens

2:41

yeah my going-forward view on the Astros hasn't changed a ton but they've just had a lot of bad stuff happen all at once in the last month

and you can't always climb out of that hole

dominik-keul@gmx.de

2:42

Regarding pitcher injuries: we all know throwing hard is bad and mlb was hoping that stuff like 3 batter minimum and the pitch clock causes pitchers to pace themselves, sit farther from their Max and go deeper into games but obv that is not happening. So if pitchers won't pace themselves why not increase rest by making pitching roster larger? Npb has pitchers pitch once a week and less injuries. So why not make it 30 player/18 pitcher rosters and give everyone rest?

Ben Clemens

2:42

well, what would stop teams from just bullpenning the hell out of things then?

'oh, i have five extra spots? i'm going to have five extra single-inning relievers so that i never have to worry about pulling a starter early'

2:43

it's tough to define rules to incentivize your preferred style of play

greenfrog

2:43

Davis Schneider: underrated or appropriately rated across baseball? He has a 165 wRC+ in his major-league career (227 PA). That is really good. And his defense has been surprising adequate for a bat-first player.

Ben Clemens

2:43

oh, underrated for sure

2:44

honestly I don't think this is close

I've been meaning to write about him again

just, there are a lot of things to cover this early in the season

Billy

2:44

Do the Guards have a shot at Tatis Jr or Chisholm? Also heard rumors about Kjerstad

Ben Clemens

2:44

umm.....

tatis jr? definitely not??

Chisholm, sure, it's weird b/c I'd prefer him at 2b but that obviously isn't an option in Cleveland

2:45

like they're playing a better infield defener out of position in center already

as for Kjerstad, I mean, I don't see a trade that makes sense but I could see the O's dealing him at least

whereas Tatis isn't getting traded

André René Roussimoff

2:46

Is the sweeper a new pitch or just a new way of naming a pitch?

Ben Clemens

2:46

It's more the second, but also a bit of the first?

sliders have always lived on a continuum of hard vs. sweepy

2:47

recent advances in training have allowed more pitchers to capture the very sweepy end of the distribution

and it got to the point where sliders were really two dissimilar pitches more so than a continuum, either cutter-y or sweeping. so the naming just followed that

Matt Damon

2:47

MATT. DAMON.

bosoxforlife

2:47

The Orioles situation is unlike anything I have seen in my long time of baseball watching. How would you handle? Trade the established major leaguers who aren't great but are good or the untried youngsters who might turn into stars or bust?

Ben Clemens

2:48

It's so crazy

I would be looking for stars in any trade I made

they've been smart about this, too

Corbin Burnes is the exact kind of player I'd be looking for

so for me, it's more about what you can get than what you give up

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