JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 5/9/22

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Depot

2:38

Do you have a favorite baseball YouTuber?

Ben Clemens

2:38

I don't watch a ton of YouTube, but it's easily Bailey (Foolish Baseball)

It's very much my vibe of baseball enjoying

kcbbq

2:38

Will Twins send Royce Lewis back down when Correa returns? I know they brought him up as they thought the worst for Correa but his injury hasn't even landed him on the IL. Seems like it'd be foolish to use him as a DH as his defense is as good if not better than his bat.

Ben Clemens

2:38

I think so?

For me, he's just up until Correa stops hurting

2:39

I know they haven't actually said that, but I'd like to keep getting Lewis AB's full time

Trout

2:39

The points you're making in the chat would've been great for the article

Ben Clemens

2:39

I wasn't hoping to do a sweeping defense of FIP, because I'm not sure it's the perfect WAR metric or anything (it's surely not), but maybe I should have

I find the FIP/ERA argument to be tiresome, to be honest

2:40

I thought that article was an interesting way of looking at it, and one that Appelman suggested to me, so I wrote about it, but a full-blown 'here's why your ERA WAR is weird' was never really the plan

Ryan

2:40

I do, too. Why'd you write an article about it then? Just wanted to settle the score?

Ben Clemens

2:40

Well, I find the argument that FIP 'ignores 60% of what a pitcher does' to be even MORE tedious than the debate

2:41

And since I write about statistics at FanGraphs, I'm getting the debate whether I want it or not. So I'd like to at least be rid of that particular line. But yeah, I'd be happy if there were less of it

Guest

2:41

What you're not counting on Ben is that by the time Correa is healthy three more Twins will be on the IL, with how things are going for them

Ben Clemens

2:41

Oh boy, I hope not

But it's been a tough injury start for them, no doubt

Lars

2:41

When a team is down 2+ runs how do you feel about a slugger bunting against the shift leading off an inning?

Ben Clemens

2:42

If they can bunt well, I'm into it. I think that bunting is quite hard, but that successful bunters against the shift (Brandon Belt is my personal favorite) should keep doing it. Getting on base is valuable, particularly in a situation where you need multiple runs

Kuff66

2:42

Following up on the pet pig question, when my daughter was like 7 years old, she drew a picture of a pig wearing a Phillies jersey for me and called it Cole Ham-els. I’ve never been more proud.

Ben Clemens

2:42

Should we just do pig content here? That's also an excellent name

2:43

I'm not sure that I should steal from Effectively Wild, but I really enjoyed Max Purrzher as a cat name

Animals named after sports are just fun to me

Guest

2:43

I was always a big fan of Royals great Mike Swiney

Ben Clemens

2:43

and of course, Babe "The Great Hambino" Ruth

Farhandrew Zaidman

2:43

Has Buehler's stuff gotten just a littttle bit worse over the years? Seems like the velo is down a tick, command is only great not stellar, and the reliance on the cutter grows each year. This is purely anecdotal by the way, I'm interested in what the numbers say.

Ben Clemens

2:45

Sorry, digging up a point about Buehler that someone else made, gimme a second

2:46

Ai yai yai I failed

His fastball has gotten worse, is the point

2:47

Sorry about that pause and don't find a thing

But it's a little slower, the movement isn't quite as good (seems like his release point has changed quite a bit, as Alex Fast shows here

Walker Buehler's fastball release point is changing.

From 2019 - 2020 it moved closer and closer to the first base side while this year it's dropped lower than ever.

), and he's not locating it quite as well

2:48

So overall I'm worried about him being not as good as he was in the past -- while recognizing that there's room below that to still be great

Marshall

2:48

Clayton Purrshaw, Justin Purrlander and Max Purrzer are all locks for the HOF.

Ben Clemens

2:48

Clawton Purrshaw imo

The Ghost of Bobby Thigpen

2:48

The White Sox just told the Twins (and everyone else) to hold their beer while they count their injuries...

Ben Clemens

2:48

Two straight years of this nonsense for them

Their trainer must be worrrrrrried

Mork Borg

2:48

So, have the Red Sox played themselves out of the expanded post-season? It looks like the current projections are for 80 wins, but they _seem_ worse than that.

Ben Clemens

2:49

I think they have played themselves out of the playoffs, yeah

Our standings basically agree

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