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Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 6/29/26

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Ben Clemens

2:19

oh man, the first time I heard that one, I was like 'um excuse me???'

2:20

bye bye baby is overdone too

anyway the Giants broadcasts are great, truly one of my favorites, but you need a dictionary

and I think it might be slightly better if you didn't

PC1970

2:20

So, Detroit needs to tear it down now right? 2-5 at home last week with 2-3 bullpen implosions is the death knell, right?

Ben Clemens

2:20

well, maybe not 'tear it down', but realistically, they need to at least mostly be thinking about next year

they're only a half game out of last in the whole AL

2:21

nothing wrong with setting a high price and waiting a few weeks before action picks up to see if you go on a crazy run, but if I'm them, I'm putting my scouting/front office resources into looking for Skubal trade returns at the moment

Jeremy Fox

2:21

Isn't the biggest problem with Stearns the fact that he's way too willing to spend big money on free agents who aren't superstars? Throwing a giant pile of cash at Juan Soto: good way to spend money. Throwing large-but-not-gigantic piles of cash at Bo Bichette and Jorge Polanco: bad way to spend money.

Ben Clemens

2:21

yeah, that's kind of what I"m talking about

the evaluation of acquisitions seems a little bit off to me

like, maybe these were all just unlucky and the model was right. but eh, I wouldn't want to assume that

war2d2

2:22

Re: Mets/Pond Scum: My brothers and I exclusively referred to the Cardinals as the “the deviants” and the Brewers as “the degenerates” for years.

clemlibby

2:22

Ben's grandfather was a long time Tigers fan and preferred really awful to mediocre!

Ben Clemens

2:22

that's true. He always wanted to either have a putrid team or a contender

jmantell

2:22

Oh man. I grew up in NorCal and "grab some bench, meat" was one of my all-time favorite sayings. We would use that in Little League constantly

AutomatedTeller

2:22

It is never bad to like your team to win. if you worry they are making bad decisions, that's an indictment of the people making those decisions but a sweep of the yankees? always good ;)

ajake57

2:22

With the league tossing out ridiculous, non-starter proposals one after the other, it really feels like a negotiating tactic. With the the players unlikely to go for any of the major overhauls, is there anything you see as a realistic result for anything they've suggested so far? They're literally implying no one should be a free agent until they're 29 or older with a cap on money and years for the players and a cap for the team. I don't even see compromises to these suggestions.

Ben Clemens

2:22

Yeah, I agree with this

2:23

This just feels like negotiating tactics

I talked about this a little bit on Effectively Wild last week, so you can get a more extended version of my thoughts there, but I think that TV revenue reallocation is going to be something that both sides agree with, that maybe there'll be some movement about giving the owners something in exchange for ending QO's, and that there's interest in the pre-arb salary pool being bigger and a bigger driver of early-career earnings

appayipyip

2:24

Why is vladdy broken?

Ben Clemens

2:24

Funny story. I spent a few days trying to write a story about this earlier in the month

and I had to give it up because I just couldn't figure out an angle

everything I looked at, I'd go huh, no ,not that, let's keep digging

and eventually I ran out of places to dig

Jeremy Fox

2:24

https://medium.com/@robertloerzel/when-the-cubs-were-the-microbes-ca41...

dubykoff

2:25

How do you think the 3B playing time will shake out in Baltimore with Basallo, Beavers, and Holliday all healthy for the first time in a while? Will it be mostly Blaze Alexander, or mostly Coby Mayo, with Alexander moving into a utility role and no longer playing just about every day?

Ben Clemens

2:25

I think the latter, but I think they'll do a bit of a hot hand thing too

2:26

like, if Alexander keeps hitting and Mayo keeps not, maybe you get more of a time share, with Alexander continuing to moonlight elsewhere to get him more PT

HappyFunBall

2:26

Given his continued struggles at the MLB level, do the Nats entertain selling Dylan Crews for pitching help? Does anyone else in MLB still see the 1.2 shine on him?

Ben Clemens

2:26

I think that they are unlikely to, becuase i don't think they'd fetch much of that 1.2 shine, pitching is expensive in-season, and the feeling of buying high, selling low, and seeing a reboudn is just really negative

bosoxforlife

2:26

One of the surprising developments that I have seen from the ABS challenge system is how accurate the much maligned strike zone box has been. I can't think of many, if any, times that the TV box hasn't been correct.

Ben Clemens

2:27

yeah it's been pretty good. I thinkt hat not making it immediately clear whetehr something is a strike or ball is good too

I continue to like the low-impact looking strike zone boxes more than the bright white line ones, just from an aesthetic standpoint, but standardizing the strike zone height for every batter (so that it's not moving around based on their stance) has massively improved the accuracy of it

InsertWittyNameHere

2:28

Is the increase in fraternization better or worse for the enjoyment of the game? The benches cleared in a Red Sox/Yanks game the other day and it was all smiles and even a hug between two of them. Imagine showing that to someone even 20 years ago...

Ben Clemens

2:28

I like it more, but I recognize that it's not obviously one way or the other to all people

I'm in baseball for the incredible feats of athleticism, the central tension of the game, and the funny moments

I don't think that any of thoes things are harmed by increased fraternization. These guys are still competing as hard as they can. Probably more so now

2:29

I can see other people liking different things. But for me, the players being friendlier off the field is completely okay with me

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