JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 6/3/26

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 6/3/26

powered by

Prev Page View Full Chat Next Page

This chat is available to members only. Please log in to participate.

Ben Clemens

12:13

um, no

is my thoughts

who's the best baseball player? the mvp

JustinPBG

12:13

At what point does the extremely annoying "over .500" yankees discourse actually matter? As in it shows something meaningful because the standings have spread out, not that it's predictive. September? If they win this Cleveland series and Cleveland tumbles for a bit, then Cleveland "doesn't count." When they lost a series to the A's it counted, but this weekend's series didn't because they'd slipped. etc.

Ben Clemens

12:14

I have truly no idea what this discourse is so I would say..... never

it's dumb

it's a bad way to measure things

it's good sports radio fodder, but that's not how baseball works

Azizal

12:14

the FV system is great for individual players but it stinks as a method for measuring systems. We all know a 50 FV prospect with say, the Dodgers or Brewers, has a better chance of reaching their potential than a 50 FV with the Angels or Rockies.

It's obvious and blatant but I'm not aware of anyone in the industry addressing it. Am I wrong here?

Ben Clemens

12:14

I've posted this not because I particularly agree with it, but becuase a PREVIOUS comment said we overrate Dodgers prospects, and this one says underrate

so.... opinions differ

12:15

I'm actually working on an enormous update to our prospect valuation numbesr right now. But I can tell you that it will not differentiate by system, because I don't have any interest in trying to do that math, and I'm not sure it would even be a good idea to

jonathanpiech

12:15

Is Reid Detmers good? Should the Angels trade him?

Ben Clemens

12:16

I saw someone call Detmers a 'reliever conversion' earlier this year

and ooh, steam almost came out of my ears

12:17

anyway, um, should the Angels trade him? probably. They stink, pitchers get hurt all the time, he has kinda sneaky long team control given the fact that he debuted in 2021. I think they might get solid return and they need to do SOMETHING with this team

Zachhuston

12:17

What's your take on this Roki breakout? Real or should I not get my hopes up?

Ben Clemens

12:17

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/roki-sasaki-is-putting-it-all-together/

I have no clue. But luckily one of my colleagues JUST wrote about him

oh! Late notice on this but

12:18

We're trying out a new system where you're required to log in to FanGraphs to ask a question. You don't need to be a Member, but you do need to have an account, just like you need an account to comment on any article. We'll see how it goes. If you have feedback, feel free to just leave it as a question, or you can send a note to support@fangraphs.com.

Sorry for not mentioning that earlier; I'm still a little off my game

sammysamsam

12:19

How long can Taylor Ward possibly keep this up? His walk rate is more than twice his ISO lol

Ben Clemens

12:19

I mean.... he's not keeping it up

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/taylor-ward/17548/graphs?position=NP...

12:20

I held off on writing about Ward because I was like this is weird, this can't possibly persist

I think it's on him to make the next change. He's just getting no respect from pitchers (with reason, he's not trying to hit the ball hard)

12:21

28% strikeout rate for the last month, he needs to try something else

4onejr

12:21

Is Bleday for real? Did the Reds somehow manage to actually find an outfielder?

Ben Clemens

12:21

I'm always gonna be skeptical of a guy who breaks out on his fourth or fifth shot at it

12:22

I do really like Bleday, I've been irrationally high on him a few times before

12:23

but like.... let's let him do it for longer. We know that he's capable of insanely hot streaks. He had similar spikes in 2024 (good!) and 2025 (bad!). I think the honest answer is that he's probably a capable major leaguer (he has a career 105 wRC+), but not a perennial all star or anything. classic roster crunch outfielder

K’d Cavalli

12:23

Are you buying even more DJ Herz stock before he returns from TJS or are you going to be late?

Ben Clemens

12:24

Ha, I'm not a huge believer, even though I like the idea of the Jeimer Candelario trade tree

there are just so many blowout/surgery/rehab arcs these days that it's really hard to get invested in any single one as 'gonna be amazing' etc. it's sadly a numbers game. so many dudes are getting TJ now that some of them will be rusty coming back, some will be sharp, some will look totally different, and you just can't know until they're back ont he mount

mound*

johncarroll31

12:25

push back on MVP. Value does not mean best. And I hate that those terms get used interchangeably. On value alone, someone like James Wood, for example, is more valuable than Ohtani. Not only is he putting up better numbers to date, he also costs about 2% of what Ohtani costs. THAT is VALUABLE. And if we think of it in terms of roster construction, the dodgers could lose Ohtani and be fine for quite a while. The roster is stacked. If the nationals lose Wood, they go from being just bad to being the worst team in baseball. This is just an example.

Ben Clemens

12:25

so uh, ew

it's not a money award

no thank you

Connecting…

Register

Message History

On Off

On Off

On Off

On Off

Your current subscriptions

None

Register now to continue managing your subscriptions

E-mail Address	Chat Owner	Status	Remove

Enter your email address to be notified when Ben Clemens hosts a chat