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Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 8/28/23

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Ben Clemens

2:14

Yeah defense essentially. Whatever you think of his offense, I don't think it'd play well at first base. And his defense is 'maybe he should just play first' level

2:15

I'm not enamored by the offensive production, just because it's really reliant on softly hit line drives

Like, his quality of contact is not great! He's below average in hard hit rate, barrel rate, average exit velocity

2:16

He does MAKE a lot of it, but he's really slow, so grounders aren't great. He needs line drives to make it click

it just doesn't sound like a profile I want from a bad defensive catcher

2:16

Do you ever play Marvel legendary? If so, what are your thoughts?

Ben Clemens

2:17

I played it early on in my adult board game journey, as in when my wife and I walked into a store and were like 'recommend us some games;

Loved it, played a ton, I think that deckbuilders like that are super fun. We've moved on, but we play a lot of similarly styled games. Aeon's End is probably my favorite of the genre

Princess Leia

2:17

Help us Obi-wan Clemon-obi, You're our only hope!

Roll with CES, Ke'Bryan Hayes, or Candelario in a points league this week?

Ben Clemens

2:17

This was the full message in Star Wars, kinda messed up that they cut it off short

2:18

also this is a good spread of Star Wars sounding names. Jeimer Candelario could totally be a smuggler in Mos Eisley

2:19

Let's see. I might actually go outside hte box and take Ke'Bryan

2:20

The other two have tough pitching slates, whereas he gets the Royals and the bad part of the Cardinals rotation (Hudson, Drew Rom, Wainwright)

He's been leading off, too, so lots of opportunities against these awful pitchers

(I'm assuming this is weekly rosters)

Derek

2:20

Don't look now, but Ke'Bryan Hayes is raking! And his underlying metrics seem to support the results! Is he finally "figuring it out"?

Ben Clemens

2:20

Oh, I'm looking now

I'm always looking, I can't help it

2:21

I'm sure I'll get sucked in again next year

Nick

2:21

With Strasburg's retirement, I've been thinking about how everyone was freaking out about how he had a *changeup* that could top 90. We've always had elite changeup specialists but never ones that threw them that hard. Was he the first of his kind in that regard? He feels like the harbinger of pitch gifs.

Ben Clemens

2:21

My initial instinct was Felix

and looking back at it, he averaged 89.2 on his changeup in 2009

2:22

and hey, now that I look at it, Strasburg never actually topped 90 in average velo, though obviously he threw quite a few of them that hard

so yeah, I'll say Felix slightly predated him, but that both did a lot to put the pitch GIF era on the map

Bryzzo

2:23

I am still very sad about Shohei. What do you believe to be the most likely outcome for his rest-of-career pitching? If he turned into a relieve like Kerry Wood, how does that work with the DH? Can you DH and then come into the game later on from the bullpen?

Ben Clemens

2:23

I think that warming up would be really difficult, and you'd have to lose the DH, but there's no rule against it specifically. I think I'd prefer to have him play outfield if he wasn't going to start, though. Hey, it worked for Babe Ruth

bosoxforlife

2:23

The Mets are now comfortably ensconced in last place. It is very seldom that anything drops to its 1% probability but this has to come awfully close. The story of the season is actually the complete disintegration of so many highly rated teams. Even a $10 parlay on the Mets, Cardinals, Padres and Yankees all finishing below .500 would have set one up for life.

Ben Clemens

2:24

Yeah, the story is less 'topsy-turvy standings' than 'some good teams were BAD'

AGain, the Yankees didn't completely disintegrate, they're in last place with a better record than the Guardians, but still a very disappointing year

The other three? Hindenburgian

Insert Witty Name Here

2:24

Food ?: how often do you stick with what you like vs making something new that may or may not be good? Follow up question, how do I tell my partner to make meals that don’t use our entire supply of cookware that I have to clean afterward?

Ben Clemens

2:25

Ah, now THIS is a question that's in my wheelhouse

I try new things a lot when I'm cooking for two, and almost exclusively old standards when I'm cooking for one

2:26

As for cookware, I don't mind that so much, I'm a clean as you go type. The big adjustment for me has been buying a lot of bowls so that I don't have to IMMEDIATELY clean something for use later in a recipe

Guest

2:26

Also worth pointing out re: "Strasburg isn't honoring his contract" that the injuries have taken a toll on him to the point where even basic everyday tasks are painful for him, so it's not exactly an apples-to-apples argument.

Ben Clemens

2:26

Yeah I mean, he's not able to play

no one is disputing that

2:27

the question is just whether he's obligated to keep faking the motions in order to get his money, and I think it's reasonable for team and player to decide that the right answer is no

Jrod

2:27

Am I putting myself in consideration for AL mvp votes?

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