JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 7/12/21

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John Olerud’s Helmet

2:29

Your Grace Lord Ben! First of his name! All hail thee!! Any hope for Zack Collins as a relevant starting C now that Grandal is out?

Ben Clemens

2:29

In fantasy? Sure

2:30

Not super into him in real life, the glove just isn't there

Armadillofury

2:30

Rizzo has a 111 wrc+ this season and a 103 wrc+ in 2020. Is this who he is now?

Ben Clemens

2:30

Blah, maybe

2:31

So lame

Padres458

2:33

Can you explain "Estimated player benefits to be paid" In the luxury tax area on the roster pages? Why is it included in the luxury tax when it isn

when it isnt salary?

Ben Clemens

2:33

Luxury tax includes non-salary benefits like health insurance and so on

Fat Spielberg

2:33

Do the Mets really need to trade for a starting pitcher, especially if Carrasco is really (finally) joining the team this month? I hate to see them give up any prospects.

Ben Clemens

2:34

I think they could trade for a back-of-the-rotation type, but will generally stand pat

Dirty Craig

2:34

Have I pitched my last (non-exhibition) game in a Cubs uniform? Can’t see my value getting higher, right?

Ben Clemens

2:34

I'm a definite no on this

I think the Cubs are going to run it down to the deadline before trading, despite all the trial balloons they're floating in the media about selling

2:35

They very clearly WANT to sell

2:36

But you can't sell, then win five in a row

So he'll pitch again before then

Guest

2:37

Do any of the guys the royals have picked day 2 justify picking frank mozzicato #7?

Ben Clemens

2:37

A periodic plug for Kevin and Eric, who are excellent draft mavens who can give you a reasonable answer on this question

I most certainly cannot, sadly

Enlightening Round

2:37

Ben, my man all things STL, have you heard of Brysen Nepute at CBC, hearing crazy velo on him as a SP

Ben Clemens

2:37

Haven't heard anything, but yeah, not really my jam

Mr. Redlegs

2:39

Just watched Luis Urias play for 4 games against the Reds and came away really impressed with his glove at 3rd and his bat. I'd skip the 3rd base upgrade if I were the Brewers

Ben Clemens

2:39

That's what I'd try to do with Urias, but I don't think the Brewers are thinking that way

2:40

I thikn he'd be a totally useful 3B, but they seem to want him as a utility type more so

Highway

2:40

Newer to these parts, so not sure if y'all do this already or not: is their a trade value scale, similar to RC+? Basically, instead of asking if a team would trade this player for that player...is their a comparable scale, including age, contract, prospect status, etc....as I type this, I realize this would be too large to accomplish?

Ben Clemens

2:41

It's staggeringly difficult to turn into a scale that you could just put on every player's page, because a lot goes into it and it's beyond us to dynamically generate all of that

2:42

That said, we publish a once-a-year look at who we consider to be the top 50 players when it comes to trade value leaguewide

Along with honorable mentions and so on

Based both on what we believe and checks with team sources

As fortune would have it, it's coming out next week

Twinkies

2:42

So ... uh ... the Twins, what the heck?! Do they just ship out the impending free agents and try to get right in 2022 or do they go all-in on a hard reset and move Berrios, Buxton, Rogers, Duffey, Donaldson (if they can), Sano (if anyone wants him), etc.

Ben Clemens

2:43

I think it's something in between those two, as boring of an answer as that is

2:44

I think they'd move some of the medium-term pieces (like Buxton and Berrios) if they can get some players of similar value but who are major league ready back

I've mentioned Nate Pearson for Berrios before, things like that

2:45

I don't think they want to try to rebuild, and why would they? They have a lot of good major league players right now, and not a good farm system, you're looking at a long time in the wilderness if you trade a bunch of these guys for medium prospects

Hard resetting is not some panacea that makes you automatically awesome in three years

degrominator

2:45

Any plan for Fangraphs to switch to OAA as defensive input for WAR rather than UZR. Seems to be an obviously better metric just based on what the extra information allows.

Ben Clemens

2:45

Under consideration

Fat Spielberg

2:46

The Twins are clearly the most disappointing team in baseball this year, but who is second? Yankees or Braves?

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