JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 8/8/22

Prev Page View Full Chat Next Page

Jacob

2:26

David Laurila suggested in the last Sunday notes that AJ Hinch could move from manager to GM for the Tigers (anything to get Avila out of there), is there any precedent for that particular move?

Ben Clemens

2:26

TLR

The Great Giambino

2:26

Appreciate the thoughts on defense, eye test definitely makes a lot of sense! As a follow-up, in cases where it isn't so clear cut and the metrics disagree, do you default to the fielder being average? Case in point for me this year: Steven Kwan has a great OAA and DRS, but below average for UZR

Ben Clemens

2:26

Yup, I just assume average

Natsfan

2:27

I’m so depressed about the Soto trade. Which of the players in return has the best chance to be a star? (These types of trades never work, so they?)

Ben Clemens

2:28

I think the player with the best chance to be a star is Robert Hassell III, but I'd give MacKenzie Gore decent marks too. Gore's trajectory is really scary -- I can't think of any top pitching prospects that missed a season basically because their mechanics got out of whack, and he's hurt again -- but he really does have special stuff+athleticism. And Hassell just feels like one of those guys that could hit so much that it doesn't really matter how much power he has

I don't think either are LIKELY to become stars but those are my two favorites

RTJ

2:29

post-trade deadline, the best team in the AL Central is ______

Ben Clemens

2:29

It's the Twins for me, I had it closer before the deadline but they did a lot more to shore up weaknesses than anyone else

Brian

2:29

I feel like Petco Park looks like the best/coolest stadium on TV and yet it never seems to be mentioned as such

Ben Clemens

2:30

Petco is great, and I feel like San Diego is rightly heralded as a wonderful place to watch baseball. I particularly like the outfield berm, it's really cool to see kids running around out there. My one quibble is that the concourses get kind of tangly and confusing, so if you're going to get food or beer (amazing beer there btw), you can't really see the action and it might take a while to get back to your seat depending on how well you know the layout

Guest

2:31

Shot in the dark but do you happen to know what it takes for 2022 data to populate Baseball Savant pages for a given player? For example looking at Steven Brault, 5 appearances and 5.2 IP this year and yet about half the sections don't have anything for 2022.

Ben Clemens

2:31

I'm not exactly sure, but it seems to me like it's over 100 pa/bf for a lot of stats

Jesse

2:31

Pedro in '99 and '00, in the middle of the best hitters era in the game's history, felt more dominant to me than deGrom right now. But it's super close.

The Ghost of Bobby Thigpen

2:31

re. Most dominant pitcher of recent vintage

Pedro says hi...

Ben Clemens

2:32

I didn't really watch a lot of Pedro in '99 because you couldn't, TV didn't work the same way then

but his numbers are comparably silly

Sharps

2:33

Call me the contrary nats fan, but I'm fine with the trade. It seemed like Rizzo was caught between a player who wanted more information than he could give about the future of ownership and a party interested in purchase who wanted a definitive answer on Soto's future. It isn't great as a fan for the next 2.5 years to not get to watch him more than once a year, but to the powers that be, baseball as a business will always triumph.

Ben Clemens

2:33

Yeah, to be clear, I think that Rizzo did a good job given the hand he was dealt.

2:34

The ownership situation made an extension kind of a long shot; though Boras clients have signed extensions before, doing so with an unknown future and for 15 years but not a colossal AAV always seemed unlikely

And if you're going to trade him, I think this deadline was the time to do it

We don't know the other offers the Nats got, but this one was pretty good!

It's just, you know, bad to trade a 23-year-old who's one of the best hitters in the game and on a Hall of Fame trajectory

Guest

2:34

what do you think the cardinals will do if dejong/edman/gorman are all playing well. a great problem to have but one nonetheless. maybe Gorman would have a better time adjusting to mlb as a DH?

Ben Clemens

2:35

My guess is that Gorman/DeJong will end up in a semi-platoon. DeJong will start against some righties but not all, hitting the bench for a Gorman/Edman middle infield. Gorman will sit against lefties. And then Gorman will also DH some against righties. I think it's a totally workable situation

Wireless Joe Jackson

2:35

Gotta go with the mystery box! The box! The box!

Ben Clemens

2:36

The mystery box got more votes, 2:1

That just goes to show you how hard it is to pick prospects. Moncada was the best prospect in baseball at the time and has done well with that pedigree... and like, yeah, still not very exciting

In a 'return for Juan Soto' context at least

Dan

2:37

Do players consider DHing much of a day off? If your pitcher is dealing most of your physical exertion is warming up right?

Ben Clemens

2:37

They do, I think largely to get off their feet and have less of an always-on mentality in the field of play

Melissa

2:38

Can Ashcraft continue to have this much success without the strikeouts?

Ben Clemens

2:39

It's a wonderful question that I have no idea about. He's a strange pitcher. Eno Sarris, Dan Aucoin, and Cameron Grove had a good thread on Twitter (that I haven't found with quick googling) about how hard his stuff is to quantify. It's amazing to me that he doesn't strike more people out, but his fastball is really great, and I think that wiht some time to hone the secondaries around it he'll be a force

Farhandrew Zaidman

2:39

Am I insane to be REALLY high on the AAA bats in the Dodgers' system - Vargas especially, but also Outman, Cartaya, Amaya, Busch...

Ben Clemens

2:40

I'm not sold on Cartaya and Amaya yet, but to be honest i haven't given their numbers a thorough comb-through so it's more just inherent conservatism about prospects than anything

Vargas is one of my favorite hitting prospects. He made my data-driven mid-tier hitters list last year and has done nothing but hit since then. Definitely a believer

The Ghost of Bobby Thigpen

2:41

Maybe I'm overreacting to an underwhelming season...but has Rick Hahn (or Kenny Williams...whoever is pulling the strings) actually done a good job? You could argue that aside from the Fire Sale Trades (which were hard to mess up), he has pulled off exactly one significant trade that has actually worked out (Lance Lynn). I mean, he couldn't find a reliever in THIS market?

Ben Clemens

2:42

I think that this year's lack of moves is actually somewhat defensible. I don't love the White Sox's spot here, even if they got a few reinforcements; they've banked a lot of kind of blah play, and one of their biggest problems is stars underperforming

2:43

It'd be one thing if the whole problem were Leury Garcia and Josh Harrison playing too much, but the problem is more that Pollock, Moncada, and Grnadal have been really bad so far

Tim Anderson has been dinged up and also a step below his last few years

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