JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 9/13/21

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Ben Clemens

2:47

Heck yeah

The Jays have consistently been fun in the past 10 years

Contending or trying to, and doing it with fun players

Also Ben

2:47

Correa to Yankees seems too obvious to actually happen. Of course, the same could be said about Cole.

Ben Clemens

2:47

Exactly haha

I like predicting obvious things though

Also Ben

2:47

As an Astros fan who can't entirely give them up, but can't root wholeheartedly for them either, I decided to root for expansion teams in general.

Ben Clemens

2:48

I support picking up auxiliary teams who you can feel happy about without completely investing in

TomBruno23

2:48

I saw Rich Hill pitch for the Cardinals in Spring Training 2010 when he was nearing the end of the line. How about that?

Ben Clemens

2:48

I hope he was the same Rich Hill that is now dominant, snapping off curveballs and being a curmudgeon

Derek

2:48

Who is your bet to take the 2nd NL wildcard? Feels inevitable that the Cardinals take the spot like, two days before the season ends and don't even give us a fun tiebreaker game.

Ben Clemens

2:48

As a Cardinals fan, it's my lot in life to be pessimistic about them despite their historically solid run

2:49

So I think they will falter, and the Reds will end up with the spot

Aaron Ashby

2:49

Am I the next in line, homegrown Brewers starter, to become an all star? Or am I simply a solid mid-rotation to back end starter?

Ben Clemens

2:50

I'll take Adrian Houser first

2:51

Also I think we can pump the brakes a liiiiitle here. Ashby looks great and looked solid in Triple-A (walk rates a little concerning but that aside), but I'd like to see a little more in the majors

Just consistency-wise

corvette corvette

2:51

this has been touched on before, but what do you expect the rays to get back if they decide to offload glasnow this winter? as undeniably talented as he is it's probably gonna be a hard sell for a team to pay him 15 million over the next two years for one post-tj season AND give the rays prospects for that privilege. is his upside that high that some team will take the risk, will the rays adjust their ask accordingly, and what are the odds that they just end up non-tendering him to save money and hassle?

Ben Clemens

2:52

I don't think there's much chance they non-tender him

It's not a significant savings, and someone would take him off their hands for at least a light prospect return

2:53

I think they'll shop him aggressively while tendering him a contract, and end up trading him for less than we all think makes sense

Probably some lottery tickets who don't need to be on their 40-man, but Glasnow is great, some team might think he's worth enough to chuck in a real return

Mitch

2:53

Back to Glasnow, apparently the Rays offered him for short-term win now players at the deadline. If they keep that same mindset into the winter, how does a Glasnow for Buxton deal sound? 2023 seems like a target year for MIN to try to compete anyway and this would give them an ace to lead that staff

Ben Clemens

2:54

I think this is a little high, though; Buxton is an MVP-caliber talent when healthy, and trading 2022 wins for 2023 wins without saving money (or at least, much money) or getting something else out of it is a weird thing for Minnesota to do

2:54

Jorge Polanco is going OFF in the second half.

Ben Clemens

2:54

I've been looking for an in to write about him

It's really funny how he was great in 2019, so Craig put him on the 2020 trade value list

2:55

Then he tanked it so bad that everyone was like 'wait Jorge Polanco was good once?'

And now he's one of the hottest middle infielders in the game again

He's 25th in position player WAR from 2019 to now

2:56

Ahead of Kris Bryant, Francisco Lindor, Cody Bellinger, Willy Adames, FanGraphs heartthrob Bryan Reynolds... take your pick

And everyone thinks he's bad!

CoryMC

2:56

Is the Rays trading Hill one of the few trades they've messed up on? He was really struggling with them before the trade but now there's belief they'll be using bullpen games in the playoffs.

Given they are the Rays they'll most likely pull it off anyway.

Ben Clemens

2:57

Nah, I think that their decision there was reasonable. They couldn't control their subsequent injury issues, a bullpen game in the playoffs, isn't the end of the world, and a mid-4 ERA starter is not a panacea if you're light on pitching

It's a very marginal trade, of course, but I see where they were coming from on it

2:58

I think I'm indifferent btw. Patino and Hill starting a playoff game, so might as well get a bit of value out of it. I do think they sold low... but that's when the trade deadline was, so what are you gonna do

Dan

2:58

It feels like only a couple years ago project systems (I says systems but it was probably zips) were saying Gleyber Torres had a chance to be the best player in baseball later this decade. Him Tatis and Franco where in the top three in chance to be the top player I think. Two out of three isn't bad for a long run open ended projection I guess and even then the field had the vast majority of the wins.

Ben Clemens

2:58

Yeah, that was a swing and a miss by projection systems for sure

I'm not sure what's gone wrong with Gleyber... it's not like projection systems were the only people hot on him

2:59

A Rod was borderline NSFW when talking about Torres's clutchness and composure during that playoff run

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