JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

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Ben Clemens

2:33

Say what you want about whether teams make or lose money this year, and I've said plenty

2:34

If there are going to be no fans in the stands for several years, that severely impacts the economics of the game

So teams are probably not making offers that would make sense in the context of a return to regular baseball right now.

Derek

2:34

A 60 game season seems like heaven for in-his-prime Andrew Miller!

Ben Clemens

2:34

Yeah

Too bad the Cards signed old Andrew Miller

But he's a good example

2:35

Hader isn't really the modern analog for that, though. Heck maybe Chad Green will just start every other day this year as an opener!

Chris Gionta

2:35

Thought of a new potential stat that can combine offensive production from the batter's box and on the bases. It's called Base Running Slugging Percentage (BRSLG) which then can be added into BROPS. BRSLG = (TB + SB - CS)/AB. BROPS = OBP + BRSLG. This way, a single + a stolen base is valued the same as a double, and a single + a caught stealing is valued as nothing at all. I'd love to get an expert's thought on this. Thanks!

Ben Clemens

2:35

Let me think about this one a little bit

I mean, the first thing is that a caught stealing isn't worth -1 base, that's not quite right.

2:36

Because that needs to impact OBP as well

2:37

if you made BROBP (and my friend, let's work on these names) be H+BB+HBP-CS/PA, that'd be a little bit better

The thing is, though, how much better would this stat be than just OPS?

OPS gets you so close to all the way there!

2:38

(this has been my weekly ode to OPS as a sweet and underrated stat)

Eel Ffilc

2:38

A team name change appears to be coming in Cleveland, what would you rename them to?

Ben Clemens

2:38

Sounds like Spiders is in the lead in early suggestions, but what about the Cleveland Naps?

Won't happen but Nap Lajoie is awesome and the concept of a team being named after a player is great too!

Kramer

2:38

Any teams that you feel should be looking to line up trades with each other? Feels like Cards/Giants are a great match for some of Cardinals OF depth.

Ben Clemens

2:38

Hm, I hadn't really considered that.

2:39

I don't exactly see a match, in that I don't know who the Giants have who the Cardinals want, but let me ponder

It'd have to be pitching, because I think you can make a case that the Cards are better at every position in the field

So like, Tyler ROgers? eh

2:41

Maybe they could match on some more peripheral outfield names like Austin Dean or Justin Williams

But I don't think that's what you meant.

Kramer

2:41

How many ties are we going to have this season at the division level. Chances for a 3 way tie? I think we end with with a few...more than we have had in the past. Maybe 5 across the 2 leagues (including wildcards). Could be a crazy “pre” postseason

Ben Clemens

2:42

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/team-entropy-could-be-the-real-winner-in-a...

Jay wrote about this

I sure hope it happens

Morbo

2:43

Re Cards Giants trade candidates: Tyler Anderson might benefit from some development in the Cardinals system (I 100% stole him from Dan's Breakout candidate list)

Ben Clemens

2:43

Ugh I picked the wrong Tyler!

Chris Gionta

2:43

I would think this would give us a grasp on the combined effort of what a guy can do with the bat and on the bases. We can see if a guy with a lower OPS but more stolen bases was better or worse than the guy with a higher OPS and less stolen bases. And yeah, I couldn't really think of a better name for it.

Ben Clemens

2:43

Yeah, I suppose. I just think that at the point that you're adding that much complexity, why not just use BsR or something

2:44

Sadly a good rule of thumb is that the stolen bases don't add that much after accounting for the extra outs

Like, you can definitely do it

And it would probably add a little bit of precision to our offensive statistics if correctly handled. I just don't know if it hadds enough, essentially

adds*

Derek

2:44

I think Cleveland Spiders is great. We need more teams named after insects and insect-adjacents.

Maybe Cleveland should just always be named after a team-voted best player. We'd get one season of the Cleveland Franciscos! And then maybe the Cleveland Biebers? They'd consistently have new jerseys to sell and merchandise to market!

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