JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 6/8/20

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 6/8/20

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Ben Clemens

2:58

They'd have to find places to play, and hire a league office, and so on

This should really be a symbiotic relationship

Nathan

2:58

this whole reducing the minor leagues seems like a bad marketing idea. Most of the other sports don’t have them, so in a lot of parts of the country, if you want a live professional sporting event, you go watch baseball. With fewer minor league teams it puts more pressure on baseball to compete with other sports on TV (which everyone seems to think it fails at) as well as all the other entertainment options. The league is giving up a competitive advantage.

Ben Clemens

2:58

Yeah I agree SO much with this point

I love minor league baseball

It is my favorite in-person sporting event by so far

2:59

And I love that you can get it almost anywhere in the country

Meg and I wrote about this in December:

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/take-me-out-to-the-ballgame-mapping-the-ne...

Using some sweet mapping software

It's just a tragedy that this is happening, from a kids having fun doing things standpoint

Curtis

3:00

Who is the best catcher in MLB today? how far away will Adley be when he debuts?

Ben Clemens

3:00

Oh hm

Gotta be Realmuto right now

With Grandal in the mix as well

Catcher is not at a high point right now, I think it's fair to say

3:01

I do not think Adley is better than either of them, but when he debuts, assuming he follows the trajectory I expect, he'll be in the top 10. How well he adjusts to high-minors pitching will tell us a lot more about where in that group

Curtis

3:01

Extend to who is currently the best player at each position? real life, not fantasy

Ben Clemens

3:03

Let's do this as a lightning round: Freddie Freeman, Ketel Marte (if he plays second), Bregman, Lindor, Yelich, Trout, Mookie

Going around the diamond 3-9

Nathan

3:03

Are we going to see more offensive oriented catchers in the near future or will good hitters always be moved off the position to limit wear and tear?

Ben Clemens

3:03

Love this question

I think it can be a little bit of both, to be honest, though I know that's a cop out

Bryce Harper is still not going to be a catcher

3:04

But it's a lot more reasonable to put someone back there without plus framing when framing stops mattering

I think that the offensive bar at catcher will go up significantl

But there are actually two things keeping catcher offense down; one is that we like good-framing catchers, sure

3:05

we being the general league consensus these days

but two is that catching is miserably hard on the body, and that will still be the case

Everyone knows Ryan Doumit was the worst framer ever, but he wasn't even a good hitter.

3:06

So catchers in 2019 batted .236/.308/.405

That's awful, and will go up

But it won't suddenly be league average or anything

Nathan

3:06

Does the salary tax actually help the super rich teams? It seems like many teams can run their budget up to that point, but only a few can really go over it for multiple seasons.

Ben Clemens

3:06

Interesting. I'd say it benefits all teams, because free agency is a winner's curse type deal

If you win a free agency negotiation, you've offered the most money

3:07

Removing the ability for one team to win, say, 10 free agency auctions (they're basically negotiated auctions) over three years

3:08

Because they won't just not spend up in those 10

Them not being there will lower the winning price in others

I really don't have enough clarity on how much teams are aware of each others' offers though

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