JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 8/11/25

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Ben Clemens

2:38

but ultimately it just felt dishonest to talk about player value and not talk about the fact that Ohtani is powering the Dodgers to a degree we've rarely seen

the person who asks the lunch question

2:38

What's for lunch?

Ben Clemens

2:38

leftover Burmese food from last night, very exciting

2:39

DRS thinks Matt Shaw is one of the better defensive third basemen in baseball. OAA/FRV thinks he's one of the worst. I get that defense is wonky over small samples and that DRS includes aspects of defense that FRV ignores, but it's just hard to believe that those could both be reasonable descriptions of what has happened. Do you tend to trust one over the other here? The Statcast methodology is a lot more opaque for infielders than outfielders.

Ben Clemens

2:39

So, I looked into this quite a bit for myself last year when I was voting for Fielding Bible awards

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/how-i-voted-for-the-fielding-bible-awards-...

I found that OAA does a lot better in terms of both correlating to broad aggregates, correlating to itself, and correlating to a simplified measure of fielding than DRS does

for infielders specifically

2:40

they were a lot closer in the outfield

not that OAA is amazing, they're all super noisy

but if you're forced to pick, I'd do like 50% OAA, 20% OAA (last year's), 20% DRS, 10% DRS (last year's)

blend weights slightly differently if you'd like

Mama Pajama

2:41

On the Orioles underperforming pitching staff:

In numbers, out of the five Orioles who have made the most starts, Dean Kremer is the only one to beat his preseason projections (by six points of wOBA). The other four have missed their projections by an average of 37 points of wOBA. Oof.

You also mentioned health, and yeah, Bradish/Eflin/Rodriguez and even Rogers have been limited. The fanbase is not impressed by any of this. Dylan Cease? Is there in fact a bias among pitchers to not sign in Baltimore? Did the wall hijinks help at all?

Ben Clemens

2:41

I don't think the wall hijinks helped much, but I don't completely buy the bias not to sign in Baltimore

I do buy that the O's aren't super aggressive on pitching

it's kind of an organizational philosophy

so maybe that feeds into how they approach free agency?

Steve O

2:41

If you're the Yankees do you trade Ben Rice to a team that thinks he can catch full time or rotate him through 1B/C/DH(well, before Giancarlo came back)? I feel if they can get some young SP back it might be worth it. They can just sign Naylor or someone for 1B in the offseason.

Ben Clemens

2:42

I'm not sure exactly where the industry as a whole sees Rice, but yes, I think I agree that if a team wants to let him catch full time, he'd be more valuable to them than to the Yankees

that does seem like it should make for a trade

MVP Race

2:43

Can you say some nice things about the mariners? I'm riding a high and want to keep on riding

Ben Clemens

2:43

just about to catch the Astros for first place, perhaps the scariest playoff rotation imaginable (four deep with beasts), and oh yeah they have Babe Ruth catching for them

Sodo Mojo

2:43

What do you think Naylor get as a FA in the off season is 4/60 a good target given he is 1B only bat?

Ben Clemens

2:43

honestly I think he's gonna get more than that

I can't quite pin down why I think that

2:44

but I do, and I think that he's going to get valued more highly than the FG set thinks is reasonable (still lower than the RBI's 4L crowd)

Opifijikl

2:44

Do you put any value on RBIs as a metric when evaluating players or teams? I've heard that clutch may not stick year to year. Kind of related, but with someone on 2nd base, is it better to have a singles hitter or someone who may get extra bases?

Ben Clemens

2:44

Eh, I don't, but I do like to look at RE24 and similar things

singles hitter depending on the speed of the runner, I'd say, for the second question

Phil

2:45

If you were redoing the trade values now, would you move Anthony? Re: both the extension and his play. I mean, I watch him every day, and he just looks like a lefty Wade Boggs to me.

cletus

2:45

where is roman anthony on trade value now

Ben Clemens

2:45

Yeah, I mean I'd slide him up.... he's played meaningfully more in the majors, played better, and also signed a great contract

2:46

I would still have him below Ketel Marte for sure

but higher

philosophically, I put a lot more stock in hitter performance the more they do it in the majors, and he's improving as he continues, very good sign

sb4321

2:46