JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 8/7/23

Prev Page View Full Chat

Ben Clemens

3:33

but the whole idea of bubble wrapping someone is at odds with the fact that pitching is inherently dangerous

3:34

like, for your arm

Board Game Enjoyer

3:34

CJ Abrams - is there a change or two to point at for why he's been red hot lately? Is it as simple as "he was 21 last season, give him some time"?

Ben Clemens

3:34

nothing stands out to me

I mean, I think this is kinda who he is, there's not really much more power to get to, and I don't think he's ever going to walk much

3:35

but he can hit

RTJ

3:35

The Mrs. was watching a game with me and asked me a question I'm ashamed to admit I was befuddled by: Why are there no female umpires in the MLB (at least to my knowledge)?

Ben Clemens

3:35

I mean.... I think the answer is just that sports are really sexist?

why aren't there more female sportswriters, or commentators? why does Jessica Mendoza get slammed when A Rod gets a pass on a relative basis?

3:36

Why does MLB shop consistently have 23 options for stuff for men and two for women?

I will say, it's getting better. I got my wife a really nice Giants sweater (from the Erin Andrews collection, which apparently exists) this year

That was not an option a few years ago

DetroitBeisbolKats

3:36

How bad did Detroit blow the trade deadline? ERod and relievers to move and only got rid of Lorenzen. Also, why dont they kick tires on AAAA guys like Hiura or Adell? Not like the team is competing anytime soon and might get lucky like JD Martinez fix.

Ben Clemens

3:37

It was not great! Largely the keeping relievers thing, the biggest error in the E Rod fiasco was just that they didn't take more time

like, do that two days before the deadline and you can pivot

The Batman

3:37

Is it possible that the Mariners can only be truly good if their entire fanbase turns on them? I know this isn’t true, but sometimes it seems like they need to be a “nobody believes in us!” team to make it work. Also: MOP.

Ben Clemens

3:38

the team the city needs, not the one it deserves

Danny

3:38

any thoughts on the current positional adjustments? I've seen a few interesting pieces suggesting that the spread is too big and the 1b/dh penalty should be lowered

Ben Clemens

3:38

That is my suspicion as well. When I tried to replicate the numbers by looking at position switchers in the majors using OAA data, I got answers that were surprisingly clsoe to the adjustments we use

3:39

But with a huge grain of salt: 1b/other position switchers are just rare and weird

and DH, I mean, that's very hard to handle

I just have a hard time believing the number of runs in the 1b/DH adjustments particularly

Alright, this has been a long and fruitful chat, though I wish there were more gaming/cooking questions, I guess I've gone too mainstream

Something to aspire to next time

3:40

I'm off to go eat some doubanjiang and vinegar marinated tofu

And then play a board game tonight

Gotta stay on brand

Have a great week, everyone, talk to you again next week

Connecting…

Message History

On Off

Your current subscriptions

None

E-mail Address	Chat Owner	Status	Remove

Enter your email address to be notified when Ben Clemens hosts a chat