JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 8/7/23

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Guest

2:26

So after a week of thinking…yeah, I still don’t get the Royals’ side of the Nicky Lopez trade. Not only would they have saved more money simply by letting him get claimed on waivers, but if they wanted Hearn, they could have claimed him straight-up on waivers not long before. At least a flier arm would make more sense than getting Hearn back. Small deal in the grand scheme of things, but arguably the single dumbest decision for this trade deadline.

Ben Clemens

2:26

It makes no sense whatsoever

it's like bad process bad results

RA Niekro

2:27

Favorite Immaculate Grid guys? I find myself being able to use Dan Haren pretty often, and he typically gets a low %.

Guest

2:27

you play immaculate grid?

Also what makes Lars Nootbaar the greatest second half performer in MLB history?

Ben Clemens

2:27

I play immaculate grid sometimes; very extremely minor spoiler but I'm grumpy b/c Phil Maton does not count as an Astros WS champion

2:28

I think he was injured and missed the playoffs, c'est la vie

Northside

2:28

Is Steele regressing just as the Cubs need their starting pitchers to step up?

Ben Clemens

2:28

Eh, it's two rough games

To be honest, I have not watched those two starts particularly closely

2:29

but I'd hold off on sounding the alarm just yet, nothing jumps out at me from looking over the stats superficially

O's Fan

2:29

The Orioles seem intent on finding a role for Jorge Mateo, even giving him a start in CF, who simply can't hit. Would they be better off promoting Joey Ortiz who is smashing the ball in Norfolk and just cutting bait on Mateo.

Ben Clemens

2:29

Yeah if you aren't playing Mateo for his 65/70 shortstop defense, I don't get it

2:30

like, he can really pick it, he's a valuable defensive infielder

truly cannot hit

Mike M

2:30

Does this current skid change your views about the Angels trade-deadline strategy?

Ben Clemens

2:30

Nope, not really. Pretty bad beat to go 2-8 and lose two key contributors to injury in that stretch. I'm actually writing about this tomorrow

2:31

Their odds of making the playoffs weren't great or anything

I'd still have gone for it

clearly, it has not turned out well

David

2:31

Are the Yankees to blame for how they handled Rizzo or are concussions just really tricky?

Ben Clemens

2:31

I think this is a question that can't really be answered without being on the inside or getting inside sources

concussions are definitely really tricky, particularly post-concussion symptoms and so on

Dave

2:32

Does the fact that seemingly every advanced defensive metric is a comparison to average at a given position cause evaluation issues? If there’s a sudden influx of new players at a given position that shift the average noticeably, is there any way to tease that out of the data? Or does it create the possibility that it looks like player X became a worse defender when in reality his competition just got better?

Ben Clemens

2:32

oh, that's totally possible

On the other hand.... that's kind of what we're trying to measure

rizzless rizzo

2:32

who would be the most exciting non-Atlanta team to root for down the stretch?

Ben Clemens

2:33

Okay, I have a few options for you depending on what style of baseball you like

kids sitting at the grownup table? O's and Reds, probably O's because the Reds are fading fat

fast*

defense and pitching? I'm partial to the Giants, and you get the gorgeous bay views on the broadcast too

do you like Bryce Harper a lot? the Phillies

2:34

do you want to root against the Astros, which I feel like a lot of fans do? The Rangers

JRod

2:34

Am I just going to be a slow starter?

Ben Clemens

2:34

Hard to say after two seasons, one of which was his rookie year

rowdy and adames

2:34

is this who we are, or did we hit our 20th percentile outcome this season?

Ben Clemens

2:35

I'm gonna say that this is close to who Rowdy is, like not this bad but not an impact bat, maybe a 90 wRC+ type

not a good 1b

I think Adames just hit a 20th percentile outcome

2:36

I've spent a long time trying to figure out why his numbers are so bad and I just don't see a clear culprit. He's also started pressing it seems, swinging and chasing more, trying to get it back. Feels like the kind of thing that an offseason presses reset on

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