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Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 9/19/22

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Ben Clemens

2:10

think Chase Utley or early-career Trout

2:11

Bader back tomorrow. If you're the Yankees, do you see if young Oswaldo can handle LF given how exceptional his defense is? And then your OF defense is Cabrera/Bader/Judge

Ben Clemens

2:12

I mean, I don't think there's much question he can handle left. The bigger question is whether they try to go with some max-offense lineup with Stanton in the outfield or something wild like that

jas

2:12

Not asking who you would vote for, but how do you think the NL MVP vote will shake out? Top 5?

Ben Clemens

2:13

I think Goldschmidt will comfortably win, with Freeman second and Arenado third. I guess I'd say Mookie 4th Manny 5th?

Average

2:13

Judge is also half a point behind Arraez and Bogaerts, hitting .460 in September. I would say that has to stop but... why?

Self-hating Sox fan

2:13

Gut instinct: does Judge get the triple crown?

Ben Clemens

2:14

I'm gonna say yes. I don't know how to quantify this but the form he's in right now is just awe-inspiring. I think Dan had him up to 25% likely to do it after last night's game

2:14

Ben, thank you for being Ben! When do you think MLB clubs will clue in that they will make more money for their organization if they invest in the club and put a better product on the field? What is the worst thing that can happen? Clubs are still worth hundreds of millions of dollars at the end of the day...

Ben Clemens

2:14

Always happy to be Ben, it's one of the things I'm best at

2:15

I think that teams are increasingly figuring this out

2:16

Not that every team is, but I'm encouraged that the free agent market doesn't seem to have taken a lasting post-covid hit. There are also more teams bringing rookies up early than there had been of late, another good sign

2:17

I'm not ready to plant a victory flag, I think that the general mindset of the league is still cost minimization rather than talent maximization, but I'm encouraged by the fact that, at least in my eyes, there are more teams going for it or at least not blowing it up this year

baseballenjoyer

2:17

What to make of Yordan's extended power outage prior to this past week? I think the assumption was that his hands were bothering him, but they certainly seem fine after last weekend

Ben Clemens

2:17

I would make very little of it. Baseball has a long season and people go on ups and downs

2:18

I know that's not a very satisfying answer but dude is hitting .304/.407/.630 and has a 273 wRC+ in September. He had a down August but hitters are allowed to have bad months

GrandyisaSadist

2:18

Price or Vesia?

Ben Clemens

2:18

I really like David Price, so I'd find it hard to be objective here. I'm picking Price

Guest

2:18

What do you think about comparison across eras? To me it's the most pointless thing since baseball has changed so much, and only serves to diminish current players, who can't put up those monstrous numbers anymore. I don't see other sports fans argue so vehemently for dudes that don't have a single game on video.

Ben Clemens

2:19

I think it's fun so long as you don't try to say whether this guy is better or worse than Ted WIlliams

he's probably better. He's probably worse relative to the other people playing in the major leagues at the time

I'm generally in agreement with you, though. I don't really care whether a given quarterback is better than Bart Starr or whatnot

2:20

and it's nice that football generally seems to think the same way. Basketball gets caught up in those GOAT discussions but I try to steer clera of them

Jenna

2:20

Is aaron judge having the greatest clean season of all time

Ben Clemens

2:20

Who knows who was clean when, and who knows how to contextualize things relative to the past, etc.

I'm partial to Mookie's 2017 for just the all-encompassing greatness, and of course Bob Gibson and Pedro have claims on the pitching side

GrandyisaSadist

2:21

Coney Island or Sedona?

Ben Clemens

2:21

Okay, so I lived in NYC for ten years and have never been to Coney Island. Is that weird?

MikeD

2:21

I can't construct an Ohtani-is-MVP argument beyond: he's pitching and hitting. He still isn't out-WARing Judge despite pitching and hitting. Ohtani is an historic player; Judge is having an historic season. Can you construct a legitimate argument that places Ohtani ahead of Judge?

Ben Clemens

2:22

Nope. If I had a vote I'd vote for Judge by a mile. All the arguments that I've seen are basically ordinal arguments. "Well Ohtani is the xth-best pitcher and yth-best hitter. Judge can't even pitch"

Yeah but have you seen how much better Judge has been this season than Ohtani while hitting?

2:23

Ohtani is hitting .266/.357/.534 in 600 PA's. that's freaking great. Judge is FIFTY offensive runs ahead of him

Ohtani's offense has only been worth 30 runs!

Judge is having an otherworldly hitting season. He's not your normal 'best slugger in baseball' that the well-rounded guy can beat. He's having a season that will go down as one of the all-time best offensive performances. If you look at the numbers in sum, there's no argument

Mike

2:24

Freeman vs Olson- Looks like Team Freeman won this year? & when you look at what ATL gave up in prospects to get Olson, has the momentum switched to "maybe we just should have gotten Freddie signed?"

Ben Clemens

2:25

I think it was always that way tbh. I didn't like the move very much for Atlanta at the time. I thought it was too cute by half. It's not like the particular prospects you've given up are the issue; it's more that Matt Olson's performance doesn't feel like as much of a given to me as Freeman's

It may not end up costing the Braves, they look pretty good anyway obviously. But is anyone surprised that Olson is merely pretty good and Freeman is a generational talent?

Coney Island

2:25

It's nice though. It's fun!

Ben Clemens

2:26

You know, I've heard that! I didn't do a lot of NY things. Never went to the Hamptons, for example, despite working in finance the entire time I was there. And I guess at this point I'll probably never go; whenever I go back I just want to spend the whole time seeing friends

RTJ

2:26

Does FG have a stat for like "HR+" that adjusts for home runs year-by-year based on league averages? If yes, where can I find it?

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