JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 9/21/20

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Ben Clemens

2:31

That said, I'd vote Lewis if I had a vote because I think his season was more impressive

Derek

2:31

Have you kept playing OOTP (specifically Perfect Team) throughout the season? I thought that once real baseball started I'd lose some interest but it's so fun (and discovering random players from bygone eras never gets old) that I've stuck with it!

Ben Clemens

2:31

I've kept playing Perfect Team for basically this reason

Also becaues the chase for Face of the Franchise (collect all of a team's old players, and you get the best player in team history)

has been so fun

I'm spending less time on it for sure though.

Stats leaders

2:31

Any (traditional) stats leaders you are surprised about even in a short season? Voit and home runs?

Ben Clemens

2:32

Bieber's 8 trillion strikeouts (I'm approximating)

But yeah Voit

That's deifnitely the craziest one

Larry Jones

2:32

What are your thoughts on Jurikson Profar and the Padres LF/DH situation. Should they bench Pham against RHP in the playoffs?

Guest

2:32

If everyone is healthy, who should start for the Padres in LF, 1B and DH between Morland, Hosmer, Pham and Profar?

Ben Clemens

2:33

I'd probably split RHP about 50/50 between Pham and Profar to keep Pham fresh

in left, to be clear

Going Moreland/Hosmer in DH/1B

2:34

I'd still expect Pham to outperform Profar against RHP, but not by enough to outweigh the benefits of a little rest

And then I'd go Pham for sure against lefties

And one of Profar/Moreland at DH

mmddyyyy

2:35

Which stats would you recommend to a relative looking to go beyond ba/obp/slg?

Ben Clemens

2:35

Strikeout and walk rates are an easy one

And swinging strike rate

Because they are really grokkable

You tell someone what they are, and they go ohhhhhh I can watch for that

And they're also really important and really stable

2:36

As a bonus, you can pretty easily show the weird 'strikeouts are good for pitchers but not necessarily bad for hitters' thing

Where you look at the strikeout rates of the best pitchers

And they're all high

And then you look at the strikeout rates of the top hitters and they're all over the place

Neat little baseball thing there

And then swinging strike rate is just a raw obvious way a pitcher can be great

2:37

And anyone who watches baseball understands how good it is when a batter swings and misses at your pitch

2:37

Should the Cubs bring up potential ace Brailyn Marquez as a potential bullpen weapon for the playoffs? Or are their odds to win the WS so low that they should opt to keep him down and increase the length of their team control over him?

Ben Clemens

2:37

Bring him up!

The team control aspect of this is MINISCULE

2:38

it's a slightly discounted rate on a pitching prospect six years in the future if it pans out and he's not hurt that year

And they might suck then

Jam it now, figure the rest out later

Particularly with pitchers

TKDC

2:38

Is it starting to get weird how allergic to fun the American League seems to be in Septembers?