JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 9/1/26

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 9/1/26

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Ben Clemens

2:16

it has a lot of IVB, so it's not quite a gyro slider, but it diverges like 10 inches from his fastball horizontally, sounds like a brekaing ball to me. it just happens to move 95 mph

2:17

i have been slow moving Schlittler up in my mental list for basically the reasons you're talking about. I definitely was below consensus on him when I talked to people about trade value

2:18

basically i'd say the breaking balls aren't that bad. our models love all his stuff, more than I do probably

and he gets away with it because no one can square anything he throws up

Iain Bernhoft

2:18

It seems like most things in baseball that could be chalked up to “mentality” are actually sample size variance. And yet: the Mariners continue to find new bullshit ways to lose games via careless mental mistakes and meltdowns. At what point does one point the finger at the team (and fire the manager)?

Ben Clemens

2:18

yeah it's like, MOST things are, but not all

and it really is hard to distinguish

2:19

I think that from my perspective, this is kind of a tough call, but lots of managerial firings are like "well we don't know if it's the manager or not, but it might be, and we don't like the good stuff they do enough to offset the risk that this downside comes from the manager'

no one really *knows* ever, you know? but at some poitn the risk/reward tips over into 'yeah it might be'

SPArn

2:20

Verlander was getting flashbacks to World Series Bregman and Soto and nipping it in the bud. I think there's a false Max Clark perception because of the Tik Tok, tattoos, chains, etc. But he’s revealing himself as an introspective data nerd. Books, covers, etc.

Ben Clemens

2:20

oh wow, I totally forgot Verlander was a character in that world series even though of course I was thinking of Soto when I saw Clark

Like, Bregman's not so much, but the childlike glee Soto did it with

marz

2:22

Did WPA award Colton Cowser +1.000 points for that catch? (also holy hell did you see that catch?)

Ben Clemens

2:23

it doesn't. in fact, wpa doesn't award anything to fielders

2:24

but like, yeah, that was a win. one win exactly of value. hard to argue otherwise. you can argue who deserves the credit on many of these - like, if an outfielder makes a routine catch that ends the game, do they get credit for that?

but in this particular instance, very few outfielders make that play, hard to argue he deserves less than, say, 95% of the credit

Alexander

2:24

Hi Ben! Fellow Ben, Ben Brown had a neck injury setback last week. I'm concerned about his long term outlook. What does a like named person say about this?

Ben Clemens

2:25

loved Eric's notes about seeing Brown pitch

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/scouting-notes-on-the-rehabbing-cubs-and-d...

2:26

I mean, I'm worried! He doesn't have a long track record and he's been hurt a lot, so my mind immediately goes to 'how many times can he get hurt while still throwing the same high quality stuff'

i hope it works out. i'm worried for him, and for the Ben Cinematic Universe

drplantwrench

2:26

BREAKING NEWS: ARTE MORENO SOLD THE ANGELS

cool

1

Ben Clemens

2:26

this is huge

2:27

man

Vee

2:27

i dislike the implication that data nerds don't have tattoos!

Ben Clemens

2:27

agree

I have a tattoo

no one would argue that I'm not a data nerd

drplantwrench

2:27

BEN THIS IS THE HAPPIEST IVE FELT IN A DECADE

canderson20

2:27

New just broke that Arte Moreno is finally selling the Angels to Stan Kroenke of all people. How long do you think before we start to see things take shape under new ownership? As a person from St. Louis I have a particular disdain for Kroenke but he does own some pretty successful franchises in different sports already.

Ben Clemens

2:28

yeah, look, the St. Louis stuff rubs me the wrong way still too

as a longtime Cardinals fan whose family still lives in St. Louis (hi Roy)

I have to imagine things are gonna get better, though. gimme the devil I don't know after the last 20 years of the Angels

Swings Low

2:29

Considering Imanaga has too much trouble keeping the ball in the park, seems likely he won't have a rotation spot for Cubs in playoffs. Cubs will probably not have a single pitcher making a playoff start with over 1 WAR contributed to the team in the regular season.

Ben Clemens

2:30

man

that's crazy

2:31

it does look like it'll possibly be true, though, depending on how the rest of the regula rseason goes

for flukish reasons, of course, like injuries and trades and all. but still, what a stat

jackbauer

2:31

Shouldn't the Dodgers move to a five-man rotation (or, at a minimum, have Skubal and Snell throw every five days)? In a seven-game series, the 1/5 and 3/7 starters throw on four days of rest (2/6 is the only one with five days of rest, which was Yamamoto in the 2024 WS and 2025 NLCS and WS). Glasnow was excellent on four days of rest over the weekend.

Ben Clemens

2:32

they appear to have made the calculation that it's less important to get guys acclimated to the amount of rest they'll have in the plyoaffs, and more important to just use them less

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