JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 8/18/25

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Ben Clemens

2:22

oh yeah brain lapse there

2:23

I was thinking we're past the trade deadline and so the roster stuff is locked but no, that's just trades, you're right

2:24

so take back that reservation, I'm even more into it

Snek fan

2:24

Why so confident the Dbacks give Gallen a QO when he had such a terrible year (2 years getting worse in a row) and it'll be for around double his current salary? I think they'd take him back, but not at a 100% raise

Ben Clemens

2:24

because they want to make the playoffs soon

and imagine finding a player as good as Zac Gallen for less than he's getting paid in 2025

sure, yes, he's had a terrible year

do you really think you could sign a guy who feasibly projects as well as Gallen for, like, 1/15

2:25

the downside here is just small. one-year deal, guy who's been very good for you

2:26

'they'd take him back'

people will be offering Zac Gallen tens of millions of dollars to pitch for them this winter

2:27

Charlie Morton got a bunch after being bad in 2024, then after being worse for months in 2025 a playoff team went out and traded for him

drplantwrench

2:27

i, an angels fan, would be one of those guys willing to offer tens of millions for zac gallen

Ben Clemens

2:27

yeah, I mean, look, he might be broken for good

it could definitely happen

2:28

but given the relatively low opportunity cost of giving him a QO, and the multiple ways to win (free draft pick, boucneback season) I think it'd be a poor and overly-short-term-influenced decision not to offer him a QO

Oddball Herrera

2:28

I keep reading about how hard it is to hit in Seattle and how the batter’s eye is the problem…and it’s talked about like the batter’s eye is not something under the control of the team and I have yet to read of some effort to correct things. Why can’t they just go try and fix it? Or is the batter’s eye thing wholly speculative

Ben Clemens

2:28

as best as I know, it's speculative

2:29

I have looked into the Comerica Park BB/K park factor before for similar reasons and never made any headway

Bob Myrick

2:29

Do you think Oneil Cruz has another gear or is he just a tremendous athlete without consistent baseball skills?

Ben Clemens

2:29

I lean the second way at this point. to be clear, that's still a great player

or, well, 'great' is subjective

valuable?

2:30

but we're 1500 PA into his big league career and he has a 103 wRC+

and is hitting like 25 HR/600 PA

I don't think he's going to turn into Barry Bonds

EccentricATLFan

2:30

If drplantwrench indeed has those tens of millions available, petition to make him the owner of the Pirates, he’d instantly be an improvement.

Ben Clemens

2:30

Oh man, could we crowdsource the Pirates and do better than them?

2:31

I'd chip in a few bucks for sure

Wes

2:31

Some FanGraphs slander on the Cubs broadcast this afternoon. Boog Sciambi mentioned the recent article describing about Cade Horton that compared his windup to a gnarled tree trunk. Jim Deshaies responded "Normally you don't think of FanGraphs when you think of great literature and poetic language!" I like JD, but he needs to read more of your articles!

Ben Clemens

2:31

hey, respect to JD and Boog, and honestly I'm kinda with them on that one. come here for the math, stay here for the literary references

2:32

but presumably you're coming here for the math first

as an aside, they're both great and I believe both FG users for stats? not 100% on that but I am a huge fan of both

DBRuns

2:32

Cleveland fan here. If you were to redo the 2024 draft today, where does Bazzana go? I would have to think he goes outside the top 5, after Kurtz, Wetherholt, Cags, Burns, and Konnor Griffin.

Ben Clemens

2:33

I think it's really hard to do these without a lot of detailed knowledge of the players, and as a mainly MLB analyst I don't have that. i mean, I don't think I feel tremendously different about Cags's development than Bazzana's

2:34

Yes, I think that Kurtz/Griffin/Wetherholt/Burns have all absolutely shoved

but I'm not super confident in my evaluations thereof, and i'm definitely not confident that Bazzana (138 wRC+ in the minors and already in Triple-A) is gonna be bad

Bob Myrick

2:34

Does it look like the first round of the 2024 draft was far better than average?

Ben Clemens

2:35

it really does, right??

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