JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 6/7/22

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Ben Clemens

2:24

As long as the players are generally desirable and there are multiple interested parties, leverage shouldn't be a huge deal here. Now if you end up in the DBacks situation where you're trying to trade an outfielder (Starling Marte) into a crowded trade deadline market and everyone knows you have no leverage, that's diff

Guest

2:24

What's going on with Max Muncy? Has one of the weirdest slash lines you'll see with .150/.327/.263 buoyed by a 20% BB rate. Obviously a .183 BABIP is impossible, but his batted ball quality is also way down

Ben Clemens

2:24

Still hurt, I'd guess?

Smiling Politely

2:24

This is the exact song our Spanish teacher used to teach us the South American capitals in the mid 90s:

Bill DeWallet

2:24

Masyn Winn seems to have gone from a 20 hit tool to a 55 or 60 hit tool this season. Couple that with his pop, speed, and arm at SS and is he a top 25 prospect next year?

Ben Clemens

2:24

Yes

Guest

2:24

Are you more impressed by the Tiger's inability to score runs or the Yankees' inability to allow runs?

Ben Clemens

2:25

Oh, by the Yankees

Man, are the Yankees good this year

Sometimes I just go back to the positional power rankings for starting pitchers and laugh and laugh at the comments

Lots of very smart people who consider themselves even smarter than that berated our power rankings for overrating them

josh

2:25

What stats do you look at for relievers? I have always felt ERA, FIP, etc matter less for them because they operate in small sample sizes. One bad partial inning can blow up their line. Or am I wrong and FIP is good actually

Ben Clemens

2:26

So, you're definitely right ,but I still look at FIP (and xFIP) because you have to look at SOMETHING

I also really like looking at strikeout and walk rates

Guest

2:26

Should MJ Melendez be moved to the OF full time? His defensive stats at catcher are not good.

Ben Clemens

2:27

If you mean his 2022 major league stats, he's only played 161 innings, so I think it's a bit early to pass judgment on him

2:28

So I think this is more of a question for Eric or Tess; I'd defer to talent evaluators there

Jose Miranda

2:28

Crawdads have another Llamas de Hickory hat out this year. It's my favorite. Trash Pandas is good too but goes with less.

Derek

2:28

Seager -> 3B somewhat solves that problem too, no?

Ben Clemens

2:28

An excellent point, but still, if Seager stays at short you could just move the prospect of your choice (Jung probably?) to third

2:29

So eh, to some extent it's zero sum

Matt Damon

2:29

MATT. DAMON.

Ben Clemens

2:29

Oh hello again

Rick

2:29

How much of a concern is it for Jung to be losing almost two full years due to injury?

Ben Clemens

2:29

Yeah, extremely concerning

Another reason not to get too worked up about prospects; they bust more than you think

For just completely uncontrollable reasons

2:29

At this point, would you drop Cronenworth (my current 2B) for someone like Espinal? Or do you see bounce back potential?

Ben Clemens

2:30

I would not, but Espinal sure makes it tempting. Must be a shallow league if Espinal is available; I looked just at my Ottoneu team and he's rostered in 80% of Otto leagues

2:31

I do see bounceback potential in Cronenworth, but Espinal is a really similar hitter to Cronenworth if his power is real (I don't think it's this real)

Matt

2:31

as far as what changes they can make, would firing Joe Maddon be prudent? To me, he seems overhyped. Managers may not make much of a difference, but you can’t get much worse than 0-12.

Ben Clemens

2:32

Could always go 0-12 against worse teams. I'm a Joe Maddon skeptic when it comes to tactical advantages -- I write about silly/dumb things he does more often than most managers (TLR, you're not most managers). I can't speak to how he is in the clubhouse, though, which is more important than whether he walks Corey Seager with the bases loaded

Grant

2:32

re: Angels - their entire bullpen is imploding simultaneously, including their 'big 3' of Tepera, Loup, Iglesias, all of whom were performing well up until 3 weeks ago. Coupled with Trout's struggles, I think at some point you have to throw up your hands and hope for improvement from your current roster. Am I off base?

Ben Clemens

2:33

I don't think so. That's exactly what I'd do. It would be one thing if they had obvious reinforcements or if some experiment they were trying wouldn't work but... Ohtani and Trout aren't hitting, and their best relievers have been bad. What are you gonna do about that?

Guest

2:33

When can we decide Luis Guillorme is good?

Ben Clemens

2:33

2021

Love me some Guillorme. Don't think he's going to keep hitting this well but the man caught a bat on the fly in the dugout, and survived going from a great beard to a TERRIBLE clean-shaven look

2:34

He's immortal

Babe Lincoln

2:34

Dom Smith’s trade value at 0 now?

Ben Clemens

2:34

The only word in this sentence that doesn't make sense to me is 'now'. Dom Smith hasn't had much trade value for a while. Not that he's a bad player, just, so-so-hitting first basemen aren't hot commodities

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