JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 1/24/22

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 1/24/22

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Ben Clemens

2:00

Hey everyone, welcome to a Monday chat

Let's talk about some baseball, plus I don't know, some other stuff

Josh

2:00

Best guess, if/when a new CBA is finally agreed to, how many years of service will a team have over a player before free agency?

Ben Clemens

2:00

Six

2:01

I could see the Super 2 stuff getting eliminated, because it's kind of absurd and owners keep acknowledging that in their proposals

What the Rays did to Wander, the ultra-Super-Two move, might have started happening to more stars otherwise

(they signed an extension obviously, so all is forgiven in that instance)

2:02

But I don't see the owners budging below six and I don't see the PA being willing to make enough sacrifices elsewhere to come up with a palatable deal with less than 6 years to FA

Conner

2:02

What do you think of Jordan Walker? He’s only 19 and has some crazy exit velocities.

Ben Clemens

2:02

Love him

2:03

Don't know that much about him, because yeah, he's only 19 and hasn't played above Hi-A, but dude can mash. I'd be marginally worried about the strikeout rate but doing that well at his age and level is a HUGE plus as far as I'm concerned

and the power seems very real

Inaccessible Rail

2:03

I recently listened to "The Rumor" podcast. One thing that came up during it that surprised me was that one of the podcasters attended an Orioles tryout in what sounded like the early 90s. Do teams still actually do such things? If so, do they ever actually find players this way?

Ben Clemens

2:03

I don't think teams actually still do such things, though I remember some NFL teams having punter/kicker tryouts at some point in my adult life

2:04

I've been meaning to listen to it ever since I heard the EW episode about it

Farhandrew Zaidman

2:04

Randomly re-watched The Last Dance this weekend and remembered that Tito Francona was MJ's skipper at AA, where MJ batted .200 with 50 RBIs as a 31 y.o. who hadn't swung a bat in about 14 years. Francona in the doc says that if they gave MJ about 1500 MiLB ABs, he would have been big league ready. Do you buy it?

Ben Clemens

2:04

No

I could say more but uh.... no

It's very impressive and all, but no

Inaccessible Rail

2:04

When reading about the Rays Montreal gambit, I noticed that such a thing would have to be approved by the MLBPA. Does MLB need signoff from the MLBPA on any expansion? Or just this because it's a weird situation? Or maybe because Canada?

Ben Clemens

2:05

I don't know the answer to this, so I'm just selecting it here to say that hey this is a good question that I'm curious about

But uh.... I haven't done the research. I'll do some poking around

DK

2:05

Are you planning on reprising your "Mid-Tier Hitters I Like" article during Prospect Week 2022? I really enjoyed it last year!

Ben Clemens

2:05

Thank you!

And yes, I'm going to be reprising it, and I've been tinkering with more things I could use in it

2:07

I was actually pretty pleased with my success ratio last year, looking back on it

I had some misses (Hudson Potts was probably the worst of them)

Oh and Omar Estevez was not ready for AAA

2:08

But I was happy with the thought process, hit some guys who I think deserved more shine, and had a lot of fun designing my models

Appa Yip Yip

2:08

From a pure fun differential standpoint where would you like to see Freddie Freeman sign?

Ben Clemens

2:08

The Marlins

2:09

I'd love to see him come back to the Atlanta suburbs 10 times a year in a different jersey for a bad team and just crush the Braves.... while the Braves continue to excel otherwise

I mean, the actual answer is just Atlanta!

2:10

He should be a career Brave, the team has a ton of fun players, why not keep going?

Marnell

2:10

Kyle Tucker or Cedrick Mullins?

Ben Clemens

2:10

Great question!

I like that they are pretty close

I'm a big Tucker guy, so I'll say Tucker

2:12

Mullins improved in so many different facets in '21 that some part of my brain just doesn't want to accept that this is the new normal

171

2:12

If players accumulate any more service time than say, Oniell Cruz last year, that should count as a full year. I feel that that is a happy medium for the two sides. Enough incentive to have your best players on the opening day roster but teams can still call up guys for a few series at the end of the year to get them some PA/IPs and not have it count as them playing all year. Thoughts?

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