JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 9/15/20

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2-D

12:42

Carlos Santana had a 7 game walkless streak, SEVEN. He's dipped below the 20% mark now.

Ben Clemens

12:42

Oh noooooooo

But he doesn't have any lineup protection!

I thought he was going to run a 100% walk rate without a Proven Slugger behind him

Chamaco

12:42

What gets an * in this short season?

Ben Clemens

12:42

Hm.....

12:43

I mean I want to say nothing

12:44

How about if someone sets a record for runs scored per game and they were frequently the guy on 2nd base in extras?

I dunno basically nothing

Big Fan

12:44

Hi Ben, Austin Riley has really turned it around after struggling to start the season. Have you seen anything in the data to say he's really turned a corner?

Ben Clemens

12:45

Basically, yes

12:46

His ISO and BABIP are still trash

but seeing him make adjustments to swing and miss less is a big deal to me

I was never as down on him as most, and ot be fair he's been bad overall this year

But yeah I think it's encouraging to see that he doesn't have an 'i can never make contact' issue

12:46

So the Red Sox should've kept Betts for "fun"?

That take is appalling. "They decided to be rich." If you were in their shoes, even with their money, how many millions would you spend to make your team "fun"?

And to suggest that the Red Sox of all teams is greedy or penny pinching is ridiculous.

Ben Clemens

12:47

If I were in their shoes, I don't know how I'd act, becaues I'm nothing like John Henry

Keep rooting for luxury tax savings, I'm sure you're having fun. I prefer to root for generational players, which True Red Sox Believers clearly don't

Different strokes for different folks

Chip Chipperson

12:47

Are you bummed that the Arizona Fall League was cancelled? I am (I go to about five AFL games each year)

Ben Clemens

12:47

Incredibly bummed

I was going to go this year

12:48

And I've been before, it's a blast

Highly recommend it if you can find a way to get out there

If you're picking between that and spring training, easily fall league

resumeman

12:48

re: xHR - I really wish there was also directional data available - the angle between the LF foul line to the RF line. Having only speed and vertical angle just seems to miss too much. A guy who's a dead pull hitter is going to have very different outcomes on a given range of velo/angles from someone who sprays the ball all over...

Ben Clemens

12:48

You can kind of hack directional data out of Statcast based on the x,y coordinates

The problem is that it's not at all predictive

12:49

Or rather, what you'd want to do

Is decouple the directional data from each ball

That might be interesting, and it's something I'll look into

But If you start giving people credit for the fact that hte medium-hit ball was a dead pull while the hard hit one was to center (0HR) vs the alternative (1HR) you lose predictive power faster than you pick up descriptive power

SteelThunder

12:50

Do you think the Nats still have a chance? I'm a fan and don't like Davey as a manager, more as a motivator. Kieboom seems to have no swing.