JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 8/5/24

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 8/5/24

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Ben Clemens

2:14

Kinda hard to figure out how he's generally perceived

I think he's one of the best players and most valuable contract/player combos in baseball

so definitely not within the game. by fans, I'm not 100% sure iether way

Appa Yip Yip

2:14

I think the Acuña and Albies deals broke something in a lot of fans' brains because too many people have unrealistic expectations about locking up every young player on their team.

Ben Clemens

2:14

Yeah I agree with this

2:15

there are many contracts that work for everyone

honestly the Braves have signed a lot of those

maybe the Michael Harris II contract is a more realistic standard

good deal for everyone, he surely left money on the table, but he traded that for plenty of certainty and no one is too sad about it

2:17

those Albies/Acuna deals are just not happening anymore. the players are aware that deals like that just don't work

Kwanbelievable

2:17

Do the Guardians have enough starting pitching to hold on to the 1st overall seed in the AL? I think the Cobb deal was a stroke of genius, but unsure if it moves the needle enough

Ben Clemens

2:17

I think it's probably just a little short

2:19

which is okay as far as I'm concerned

I think they did a really good job of setting the team up for success and also working within themselves given a deadline that didn't line up particularly well for them, in terms of being starter-needy

Guest

2:20

Reds, Cubs, Nats, Rangers: All seem to be out of it this season; which team has the best hopes for the playoffs next season?

Ben Clemens

2:20

probably the Rangers

I thought that the sheer amount of pitching injuries in their projected rotation meant that they'd have trouble hitting the playoffs this year

That doesn't change what I think about their long-term trajectory, though: they have a bunch of good players and a nice youth movement, and they're gonna spend

2:21

They also play in a division with the Angels and A's, neither of whom are going to be great next year

Sonny

2:21

Leaks about Manfred’s gag order around Oakland buyers seems bizarre. Didn’t the rest of the league waive the relocation fee? What is the point of all of this? Who believes any part of MLB is better for Fishers ownership?

Ben Clemens

2:21

I think that trying to figure out what's going on here is a good way to drive yourself crazy

cool

2

i have absolutely no idea what the league is doing here and I'm not sure they do either

2:22

There's a good article up at BP about what might actually happen to drive FIsher out, btw

Derek

2:22

It's pretty easy to crap on the Angels, but it actually seems like they're in a very weird spot. Obviously a perpetually injured Trout is complicated, but they've also got a couple real foundational-looking pieces in O'Hoppe and Neto. Schanuel has been hitting a bit and Rengifo just seems like he's good now. Is their pitching so far gone that you just trade all of those guys ASAP and tear it down to start over? Or is there enough there to try to go for a quick "reload" or whatever euphemism you prefer? How does Trout factor into all this, either healthy or injured?

Ben Clemens

2:22

I think it depends what your goal is

2:23

if you're trying to build a team that makes the playoffs over some sustainable amount of time, you have to blow it all up

tehre's just so little going on in the farm system, and also the big league club is 15 games below .500 with these nice foundational pieces (I like Neto more than O'Hoppe but I agree they're good)

2:24

We have them dead last in farm system rankings, and we're not alone in that. It makes sense, they emptied everything out last year trying to make one last run with Mike and Shohei

so like, it's unlikely that things will improve organically

if your goal is just to not be embarrassing while Mike Trout is on your team, I'd probably keep everyone young and just try to be respectable around him

2:25

really depends on what the team wants to do, but I cannot look at this roster and general organization and say 'yep, they're pretty close'

bosoxforlife

2:25

I would like to give a shout out to George Kirby for his honoring Tim Wakefield with an opening pitch knuckleball in his recent start against the Red Sox.

Ben Clemens

2:25

Kirby seems really cool in addition to being really good, and this is a good reminder

Shoeless Joe

2:25

Man, how did the White Sox get THIS bad? Can't they find enough replacement-level players to play, you know, replacement-level baseball?

Ben Clemens

2:25

you know, shockingly enough, we all kind of saw this coming

2:26

this offseason I wrote an article specifically about how awful the White Sox' depth is

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/how-not-to-build-for-depth/

2:27

we looked at them going into the season when we were looking at new ways of calculating depth and found something similar:

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/a-new-way-of-looking-at-depth/

basically the upper minors just don't have replacement level players

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