JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 6/21/21

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Guest

3:14

Worst prospect take you’ve ever had? Best?

Ben Clemens

3:14

My best prospect take was probably Arozarena

Cardinals fan-boy-ism and all, but boy I was really high on him

3:15

Worst take? It's either being low on Nolan Gorman before this year (remains to be seen) or being a true Steven Matz believer for far too long

Fill In The Blank

3:16

Bryan Reynolds finishes the season in a _____ uniform

Ben Clemens

3:16

well-fitting

but, Pirates

FannyGraphy

3:17

Hell Ben, thanks for the chat. I had a question about wOBA. Why is the wOBA lower than the OBP every season? I thought they were supposed to be equal?

Ben Clemens

3:17

An interesting question that I'm going to look into behind the scenes

But hopefully I just don't know

and it's some obvious reason

Appa Yip Yip

3:17

What the hell are the Jays going to do at catcher? It's a big mess with so many names and no one just grabbing the job.

Is there some analysis paralysis going on where they're just keeping their options too open instead of making a choice and rolling the bones?

Ben Clemens

3:18

I definitely think there's some analysis paralysis, but to some extent they're just playing it as it lies

3:19

Jansen was really bad so McGuire is gettin run, and he's been good enough that he'll probably keep getting it for now

Kirk will steal some of that when he's back

But I'm not sure what they could have done better, they just had kind of similar guys and picked the wrong one at first

FannyGraphy

3:20

Thanks for fielding my previous question, even if you don't know the answer yet. How about this one:
Why do you need the wOBA Scale? If you have all the Constants for each event and go through the formula, the answer is always similar to OBP anyway so I don’t know where the Scale comes in, because I though the Scale was to get the number like OBP, similar to FIP and the FIP Constant. And piggybacking off of that, if you have all the Constants and the wOBA of a season, can you find the Scale with just that information? Is there a formula to find the wOBA Scale?

Ben Clemens

3:20

The scale is to convert wOBA to runs

So if you do (playerwOBA-lgwOBA)*PA

Then divide that by the scale

You'll get wRAA

3:22

I don't exactly understand why the initial formula was scaled to OBP, but that's why you need the scale

Mercedes is an Edsel

3:22

How much longer can Tony LaRussa rely on first-two-week success of Yermin Mercedes? He has -9 wRC+ in June, 48 since May 1.

Ben Clemens

3:22

Who would you like them to play again? That's kinda the problem

3:23

play instead*

Like, Andrew Vaughn is the obvious answer except he's their everyday left fielder

Maybe Collins? He's their only backup catcher though

Collins will hopefully get more AB's

Mercedes is an Edsel

3:23

Collins, Lamb, Engel

Ben Clemens

3:23

Lamb has been starting in right!

3:24

Now maybe you can play Engel in right and DH Lamb

But Adam Engel is a career .223/.277/.348 hitter sooooo

Mercedes is an Edsel

3:24

Make a trade!

Ben Clemens

3:24

Oh yeah, they should absolutely make a trade

That's definitely the right answer here

3:25

They just don't have enough ML bats

I 100% agree with this

FannyGraphy

3:25

Ah ok, thanks! So you don't need the scale to get a player's wOBA, you just need it for other calculations.
Is there any way to get the Scale with a formula, or do you have to get it from the Guts page?

Ben Clemens

3:25

Yeah, exactly

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