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Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 9/1/26

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cyanocitta

2:48

Also, I know that the sample size is miniscule, but what's your read on Brett Bateman so far? His BABIP is .433, which is clearly unsustainable, but he was already trending high for multiple seasons in the minors. It has been discussed before how predictions of a "regression to the mean BABIP" can sometimes be fallacious, in that there can be casual factors—either some element of skill, or a lack thereof—driving core batted-ball trends. How much of Bateman's profile holds up in the long run, and to what extent can he reliably keep squeezing weak line drives through the infield gap?

Ben Clemens

2:50

i don't know the specific numbers to answer your question in its entirety, but basically I don't believe much of it

2:51

he doesn't hit a ton of line drives, which is something that would make me believe

he might be a true talent somewhat high babip guy, his minor league numbers are somewhat suggestive

2:52

but this is the best BABIP of his career by some margin

and like, eh

2:53

you don't generally go wrong betting against that continuing

I'll likely do a deeper dive on this later in the month because you've intrigued me and I'm light on topics

Roman Ajzen

2:54

re playoff format, isn't the easiest fix to go back to 2 divisions? Maybe that would require expanding to 32 teams (great) but MLB lived with a 4 team AL West for a while so I don't see why it would be a huge issue

Ben Clemens

2:54

yeah something along these lines

maybe no divisions!

2:55

the balanced shedule kinda rocks anyway

2:56

let's just lean into it more and give the teams with the best records the best spots

mike sixel

2:56

Every team makes the second season.....but man, the best teams get byes and the worst teams need to win A LOT more games than the middle teams to advance.....every fanbase is engaged all year long, and into the second season for at least a game.....

Less playoff teams, more cities that don't care about August and September baseball.

Ben Clemens

2:56

i was wondering about this, but I think that in the end, I don't like it enough

2:57

it's a fun idea but I think the idea of getting rid of some of the existing guaranteed home games is too hard of a pitch

canderson20

2:58

To add on to my Click question, I think if he comes in and immediately overhauls the pitching department for the organization I'll feel more comfortable giving him additional credit for them being as good as they were for so long. Maybe some of that is the current pitching situation being so dire for the org, but they always seemed to turn out good arms under his direction.

Ben Clemens

2:59

yeah, I think I roughly agree with this

it's an unknown

but I'm willing to believe that he is doing some good stuff

oriolesbullpen

2:59

What are your thoughts on Luis Robert Jr. being signed, and Luis de León being called up?

Ben Clemens

2:59

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/like-a-bird-on-the-wire-orioles-get-robert...

3:00

that's Michael's take

I don't have much take period on De Leon, but I think Baumann nailed it on Robert

why not try?

surely they're not picking up his option

but this just feels like good busniess for everyone

3:04

alright, on that note, I'm giong to call the chat for today and go figure out what's for lunch today

3:05

sorry if I wasn't able to get to your question today, there were just too many good ones

I am now switching to reading a bunch about the Angels sale for an article tomorrow

have a wonderful week, and of course a wonderful Labor Day weekend

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