JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 8/8/22

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Vedder Cup

2:57

He is a Cubs fan! The better question is how many times teams that share a Spring Training facility have faced each other in the WS. (Astros & Nats share one, so it's happened at least once.)

Ben Clemens

2:57

I think that the San Diego/Seattle 'natural rivalry' was the peak of bad MLB decision making around interleague play, but since I really like both cities, I find the whole 'Vedder Cup' thing endearing anyway

GBS42

2:58

The NL Central crown will be worn by the Cardinals, right?

Ben Clemens

2:58

It's looking pretty good for them at the moment. The Brewers side-grading (I kept wanting to call it a downgrade in my post-deadline wrapup but Meg disagreed) while the Cardinals added was big for them, as was sweeping a tough opponent while the Brewers got punked by the Reds

Tacoby Bellsbury

2:58

Is the MLB logo left-handed or right-handed?

Ben Clemens

2:58

Yes

Ryan

2:59

How do you feel about all the pitching development going on in the Cubs system? Feels like they might be breaking out between Steele/Thompson and bringing in guys like Wicks and Horton into the system

Ben Clemens

2:59

I'm very interested in continuing to watch it percolate up to the majors

3:00

I want to see what Caleb Killian turns into, he really caught my eye on the Giants last year and I had fun watching him in Fall League

Does this make sense?

3:00

What do you think is the franchise with the greatest percentage of those within a 25-mile radius invested in the team's success? The least?

Ben Clemens

3:01

Oh, great question. The least has to be one of the Florida teams, just based on viewership and attendance numbers. Probably Miami b/c it's a bigger city without a commensurate bump in revenue

Most? I'd guess the Cardinals, Red Sox, or Brewers

Steezus

3:01

Is it time to drink the Cincinatti Reds punch? I think they had an outstanding deadline and have a pretty intriguing core coming up.

Ben Clemens

3:01

In my opinion, no

3:02

intriguing cores are a dime a dozen, and they're kinda out of good major leaguers if India doesn't work things out

Michael Scott

3:02

Over/under on the number of starts for deGrom the rest of the season?

Ben Clemens

3:02

I refuse to set this line, but I'm watching every start I can the rest of the season

Rob

3:02

This isn't a question, just wanted to pop in and say for this "old timer" (50 yrs old) yeah it's Pedro > Jake for me in terms of actually watching both (which I did see plenty of Pedro.) But close.

Ben Clemens

3:03

Pedro was truly a force of nature

GBS42

3:03

The Trade Value series was tremendous!! Thanks for all the hard work!

Ben Clemens

3:03

Thanks very much. It's a fun FanGraphs tradition and I'm glad it runs exactly once a year

Old Timer

3:03

Why do the A's seemingly mostly trade for mediocrity. Kevin Smith, Logue, Oller, Medina (AKA Nuke LaLoosh), Sears, Bowman, the list goes on. The model seems high floor, lower ceiling. I do not get it.

Ben Clemens

3:04

It's very clearly the way they prefer to structure trades. They seem to target bulk in service of having a ton of major-league-caliber players in the system at all times

I don't quite understand it in the context of their budget constraints, I feel like they should YOLO a little bit more and try to hit big on toolsy guys, but they're very comfortable working this way and it has paid off over the past decade in general. It's just a really frustrating team b/c of ownership constraints on spending (and yeah, the stadium sucks, etc)

Appa Yip Yip

3:05

Ben, I think you're underestimating how much canadians love beating Americans at things. When the Jays are good the fever sweeps the whole city.

Ben Clemens

3:05

That's a fair one; the Blue Jays have a rabid fanbase that always shocks me when I write about them or do Toronto radio spots. That's a city that really knows his baseball, which you might not guess from the coverage they get in the States

Phil

3:05

I think both the Sale and Kimbrel trades make Dombrowski look pretty good, particularly since in both cases prospects under consideration who weren't traded (e.g. Devers) have been better than those who were. Does this logic make sense--is it evidence that Dombrowski was actually a better judge of prospects than people (including on this site) thought--or is it basically random?

Ben Clemens

3:06

I think that it's a good sign for his skill. He's actually been good at it for a long time, before those trades you mentioned even

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/dave-dombrowski-has-been-good-at-trading-p...

Farhandrew Zaidman

3:07

What's a commonly-held belief for talent evaluators in the industry that might surprise (or even shock) average joe fans?

Ben Clemens

3:07

I don't know a ton of talent evaluators. I do know SOME. I'd say the thing that is, as best as I can tell, commonly held belief on the team side but still under-appreciated by average fans is how much more fastball shape matters than fastball velocity

Your Name

3:08

Which org is happiest 5 years from now in the TB/HOU/BAL 3 team trade?

Ben Clemens

3:08

I think they'll all be equally nonplussed

Brian

3:08

Dave Cameron once said that the ceiling for every player in professional baseball is "best player in the sport". Do you agree with that?

Ben Clemens

3:09

Maybe not quite, but I agree with the essence of the idea. Players change in unpredictable ways all the time, and take huge leaps forward or backward

3:10

I think that there are some players who aren't going to be the best in baseball no matter what happens, so I guess I'd differ from Dave there. But in general, I think that 'ceiling' and 'floor' are really more probabilistic than certain

Jose Ramirez happens

Lou Perltzman

3:10

I don't think you're using nonplussed correctly.

Ben Clemens

3:10

Oh I sure am, wow that word does not mean what I thought it did