JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 8/4/25

Prev Page View Full Chat Next Page

Ben Clemens

1:16

I do try to watch a lot, though

let's just say that not every game has an interesting thing, and if you force it to, they'd probably be boring

Aarrrgh!

1:16

How many "The Pirates don't seem to know what they're doing, beyond even being cheap" questions are you likely to take?

Ben Clemens

1:16

haha, no more

that was enough

Bighen

1:16

Mets did fine adding to the pen but it’s no lock they make playoffs. I feel like they set up their playoff roster but have too many innings with bad starting pitching to get through first. I think they needed to add another dependable SP.

Ben Clemens

1:16

I.... is it not?

1:17

we have them at 93.2% to make the playoffs, you could get like 9:1 betting on them to miss, very similar

that's not a LOCK but like..... it's kind of close?

1:18

I think it was fine. I thought the price for good starting pitching was quite high, and I don't think anyone who got traded other than Merrill Kelly was really gonna move the needle for them all that much in the rotation. I thought they gave up a decent amount of prospects, but all kinda 40-man crunch guys

1:19

I think this is consistent with having a nice 2025 team without going all in, which I think is appropriate given their goal of being in a perpetual contention window

Smokin' Jim Leyland

1:19

Charlie Morton looked pretty good last night, and against a quality team too! Do you think there is anything to his obvious comfort/fit playing for AJ Hinch as a reason to expect more outings like last night's going forward? Or is that just Tigers fan hopium?

Ben Clemens

1:19

I'm not really buying the Hinch thing, but he's been quietly good for a while now

1:20

I don't think he's gonna keep being that good but he has a 3.57 ERA in his last 10 starts

and similar peripherals

1:21

whoops, last 12 starts, weird clicking issue on game logs

I was researching a pre-deadline article about how signing guys like Morton and Verlander was a nice bet because of the possibility of flipping them at the deadline

1:22

ended up not writing it because Verlander didn't get traded but I think that Morton has showed good enough form after a really bad start that I'm perfectly willing to believe he's a playoff starter

GA Blood

1:22

James Wood has been one of the worst players in baseball since the calendar flipped to July. Please console me.

Ben Clemens

1:23

Mickey Moniak has a 180 wRC+ over the same time frame, and Mookie Betts checks in at 43. Weird stuff happens in 100-PA samples

CheapPohlad

1:23

Did the twins chances of competing in the central get any better for next year? Or are they looking at starting again in 2027? Does this affect their remaining contracts on the book for this coming offseason?

Ben Clemens

1:24

I mean, I'm not really seeing how but I haven't done a deep dive into it yet

1:26

I see holes at a ton of positions and not enough prospects to fill all of them

and like, they're not gonna be active in the free agent market, right? they're blowing the team up to try to clean up the books for a sale

Jordan Walker

1:27

Jordan Walker has been hitting well since coming off his IL stint and rehab assignment. Is there anything to it or just good luck?

Ben Clemens

1:27

Let's just say that he has a .417 BABIP and a 111 wRC+

wordbird

1:27

What's your evaluation of Taj Bradley? Do you think he can find consistency to take next step to be a frontline sp? See the Twins being able to help him in ways the Rays haven't been able?

Ben Clemens

1:28

I have thought a lot about Bradley over the years because he's been a fringe-y top 50 guy multiple times

never on the right side of the fringe, to be clear

1:30

umm.... I mean, I've given up. that doesn't mean I'll be right but what are we hanging our hat on at this point? he doesn't miss many bats, he's got blah command, he's thrown 350 innings without a lot of spark

I think it is generally a good idea for guys like that to go elsewhere

sometimes just hearing new things from new people can unlock something. But I woul'dn't count on it

GBS42

1:30

I know I'm late, Ben, but thank you and congratulations on the Trade Value Series. It's a tremendous labor (hopefully) of love and one of my favorite annual reads.

Ben Clemens

1:30

Thank you very much

Rox

1:30

Does it really help baseball having teams like the Rockies not be top 9 draft pick eligible next year? They aren't purposely tanking but are just poorly ran.

Ben Clemens

1:30

I think it's incredibly helpful

1:31

get better run!

why are we giving the teams that can't figure out how to run themselves the good players? put them on the teams who do good things with their players

GA Blood

1:31

Another fun thing about the Sanoja MHRG was that he nearly hit both foul poles. Would love to see a tracker that accounted for the distance between where HR landed for players who hit more than 1 in a game.

Ben Clemens

1:31

now THAT is cool

Connecting…