JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 9/26/22

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Ben Clemens

2:54

I have one really good one: does anyone know a good recipe I can make with sweet chili sauce? I've been dying to make my own sweet chili and I'm goin to this week, I just don't know what to do with it

Ted

2:54

I'm a sample of one and I sucked at baseball, but I played catcher specifically because I was fat/slow. I'm sure the same is true for Buster Posey.

Ben Clemens

2:54

Marshall

2:55

Do you think Pujols is unanimously elected to the HOF? I feel like this season has really changed the narrative and perception of his career (i.e., erased the memories from the prior ten years).

Ben Clemens

2:55

I don't think it'll be unanimous, but I do think that he'll be a first-ballot guy with a ton of votes

Captain Moonlight

2:55

Yo Ben! How much do right-on-right changeups rule and why isn't every right-on-right pitch a changeup?

Ben Clemens

2:55

This is great, b/c my article got held for tomorrow; I was writing about Trevor Rogers throwing more letft/left changeups just this morning

2:56

I got a great gif of Ohtani swinging through a Rogers changeup and then blinking his eyes like he just saw a ghost

delightful

Safety Stegosaurus

2:56

Do you think we'll see more teams try and emulate the Guardians' model (high contact, low strikeout) in the coming years?

Ben Clemens

2:57

Eh... depends what you mean. Do I think teams should (and will) pay attention to Kwan-esque prospects in their own systems more? Definitely

Production-over-tools guys, I'd say

2:58

Those players are great and are in general underrated by scouting departments, in my opinion. When I do my mid-tier prospect hitter lists in spring training, I'm often finding guys with mini-Kwan profiles

Do I think teams will try to build their team around a bunch of guys who don't hit homers, sending out power hitters for worse hitters but who make more contact? No

I mean, the Guardians aren't scoring many runs! That's one downside of their offense

Scout

2:58

What does meta mean?

Ben Clemens

2:59

Boy, I won't define this well. But: if your job is writing about baseball, a meta article might be 'writing about writing about baseball'

a meta topic rather

Guest

2:59

I guess you could look how catchers’ speed declines compared to other positions.,.

Ben Clemens

2:59

Shhhh that's what I was gonna do!

Sanford

3:00

What do you make of Soto's defensive metrics? Do you think this will impact his long-term value in any way (in terms of his production/WAR as well as his contract negotiations)?

(For the record, I say give Soto the bag despite the defense—he's Juan Soto—but if he makes it to FA, I reckon some teams [though perhaps not Preller] might make that a sticking point)

Ben Clemens

3:00

I think if it doesn't rebound next year it starts to become a question

Derek

3:00

Meta is self-referential!

Safety Stegosaurus

3:00

Mattingly out after this year, do you think he manages a team next season?

Ben Clemens

3:01

I don't. Maybe the year after that, but I don't look at his run with the Dodgers and Marlins and think yes, this is the man I need in the job asap

Izzy

3:01

Speaking of Oswaldo, how many league average players can a contender have on a team? And how many players need to be superstars? I know there's no absolute number. Unless you're the Dodgers, it's impossible to pay to have a superstar at every position... but at the same time, you can only have so many "glue" guys like Oswaldo or a guy like Kolton Wong.

Ben Clemens

3:01

The number is pretty high. I think you could have a team of five average players and a few superstars and be great

Really depends on which stars you get, though. For this team shape to work they can't be perennial all star types. They need to be perennial MVP contender types

i read fangraphs

3:02

Why did they install a hill in the first place in Minute Maid? It was delightful, but what motivated somebody to put one there in the first place?

Ben Clemens

3:02

I have truly no idea, but I loved it. And don't even get me started on an in-play flagpole. Like, what the heck guys?

Dan

3:02

Have you looked at Jonathan India's season? His numbers vs fastballs look really concerning

Ben Clemens

3:02

Yeah downright terrifying

If you're a Reds fan, your hope is that he's just playing a little hurt

3:03

He's missing top end power, essentially, which makes everything look worse

And given that fastballs are the pitches where a lot of hitters get to their top end power, it looks worst th ere

3:04

I could totally see this being a case of him rushing back before he was ready b/c he wanted to back up 2021 and because the Reds just felt so hopeless without him

But that's just a guess

OKC Dave

3:04

Are you bullish on the likes of Josiah Gray and Hunter Greene moving forward? 5+ ERA for both, but they have elite stuff and high K rates...

Ben Clemens

3:04

More so on Gray than Greene, which I think is a minority opinion

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