JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 9/10/24

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 9/10/24

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Brad

12:41

Ben...is it me or does Spencer Horwitz look like he could be an above average hitter? I have seen him go the other way and also drop the bat head and pull the ball. Where do you see his position in the future?

Ben Clemens

12:41

I could totally see it

12:42

I was trying to find something to write about for this week and ALMOST landed on Horwitz

I might still before long

it doesn't look fake, and the minor league numbers look real

12:43

I think that he's gonna be a positionless wanderer defensively, though

Sanford

12:43

Juan Soto is younger than 16 of the top 35 rookies (45%) by fWAR this year. That's all

Ben Clemens

12:43

Ha, wow

Dan

12:44

Cooking with a LLM is fun because you can't be 100% certain it didn't hallucinate the recipe. Well maybe an experienced chef can but not me

Ben Clemens

12:44

I think that's part of the fun

I try a lot of weird combinations as it is

Adam

12:44

Is DJ Herz anything?

Ben Clemens

12:44

I'm trying to answer this exact question for a friend of mine who's a big Nats fan

12:45

I think yes? But I don't have a perfectly reasoned opinion just yet

Adam

12:45

Do you have an internal heuristic for the relative importance of the aspects of catcher defense? I.e. what % is framing vs. blocking vs. throwing out baserunners?

Ben Clemens

12:45

HEre's one way of looking at it

12:46

the worst blocker this year, per Statcast, is Shea Langeliers at -6, best is six players at +3. No one else is worse than -3. So 9 run gap. The run game gap is 12 runs (Will Smith +7, Yasmani Grandal -5). The framing gap is 25 runs (Patrick Bailey +16, Yainer Diaz -9)

so that's the order, and framing is, roughly speaking, worth as much as the other two skills combined

Ed Kranepool

12:47

12 team pts league, 9 keepers. Time to drop 1 of my keepers, Michael Harris?

Ben Clemens

12:47

I think Michael Harris is great. I would definitely not drop him

I'm slow to update my priors, though

Brett

12:47

What is more likely to happen, someone other than Ohtani to be in 50/50 club or someone other than Judge hitting more than 62 HR in your lifetime?

Ben Clemens

12:47

I think 50/50 club

12:48

it's only been a year since we had a legit contender in Acuna

Insert Witty Name Here

12:48

Naming kids are hard. I once thought about naming it after my favorite baseball player, but it didn’t quite sound right. If you had to name your future son after a big leaguer, who would it be?

Ben Clemens

12:48

I don't think we'll do this, but Curtis Granderson

12:49

great player, great guy, and I happen to like the name

Adam

12:49

Are we at the point where, push come to shove, the Dodgers would just employ bullpen games in the playoffs rather than throw Buehler or Miller out there?

Ben Clemens

12:49

Yeah, I think they should employ bullpen games with those guys as part of the plan

Jared

12:50

Which of these rookies do you think will have the best career? Holliday, Chourio, Merrill, or Langford?

Ben Clemens

12:50

Gimme Chourio

I would have said Merrill a month ago, so I have those close

I'm down on Holliday

so I'd go Chourio Merril (tier gap) Langford (mini tier gap) Holliday

Mark Seaman

12:51

Rangers pitching might not suck next season. The offense wasn't great this year, do they just hope the young guys figure it out?

Ben Clemens

12:51

uh, yeah

they still project well, I think

12:52

plenty of good options, Carter will hopefully be back and better

hope that Adolis Garcia is an average to slightly above average hitter instead of a tire fire

etc

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