JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 2/7/22

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 2/7/22

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Ben Clemens

2:00

Hey everybody, welcome to yet another edition of Chatting During Lockout

Let's talk about whatever people are interested in -- although probably mostly baseball, this is a baseball website after all.

Let's start off with the exact type of question I'm looking for

Appa Yip Yip

2:00

If you could add one Pokemon to a big league team, which would it be and why?

Ben Clemens

2:02

I should mention before I answer this question that I don't really know many Pokemon past 151

2:03

So if there are some new ones that really blow the original set out of the water, maybe we can redo this

But I think you have to start from Mewtwo and work backwards

It's hard to imagine doing much better than a Pokemon that could just mind control your opponent into walking every batter

2:04

Onyx would be interesting if it could tail whip the ball, but I'm just going Mewtwo until proven otherwise

Stormin' Norman

2:04

I heard that Scott Boras has taken the lead union negotiation duties. NY Times reporter Mike Schmidt stated this A.M. If true, is a strike all but guaranteed?

Ben Clemens

2:05

Well a)I haven't heard that, and I'm reasonably dialed in to baseball news

but there's a lockout CURRENTLY GOING ON

you can't strike if you're locked out

the owners have caused a work stoppage

Work is stopped

Marty

2:06

Thanks for the recommendation for the ORO di Oliva. I got my wife a set from their for our anniversary last year. We have really enjoyed it.

Ben Clemens

2:06

Oh, amazing!

I've been making my own chili oil this year, so we've used a bit less olive oil and cooked more Asian-influenced food, but we just used some olive oil last night and Oro di Oliva still brings the fastball

Thank you to Dan

2:07

For pushing back against expanded playoffs. Seems like most hardcore fans are for it.

Ben Clemens

2:07

Are.... they?

I don't claim to have an encyclopedic knowledge of baseball fans but the ones I know who I'd consider serious are pretty universally against it

Inaccessible Rail

2:07

My family has been playing a lot of board games since the pandemic started, many of them games we first heard about through your chats! About a month ago, I ordered two games you've mentioned from my local game store (one was Taverns of Tiefenthal) but neither has come in yet (I had been told a week or two.) Have you run into supply chain issues with games you're looking for?

Ben Clemens

2:07

Yeah, though it was mostly during 2020

2:08

We were one of seemingly infinite people trying to get a copy of Wingspan

When it was out of stock forever

It was really annoying, to the point where (when stores re-opened) we just went in and bought games that were on the shelf

Appa Yip Yip

2:08

Machamp as 1B would be a force. Unreal power potential, can wear three gloves to catch all the wayward throws. Can swing two bats once it gets to two strikes for unreal plate coverage. (The second bat would mess with its kinetic chain so you'd definitely want it swinging away with one at one and two strikes)

Dylan

2:09

Any Psychic pokemon with Teleport would be broken. They could just teleport into the stands and catch home runs. Or teleport right in front of the baserunner to tag him.

Appa Yip Yip

2:09

On the bump, I gotta go with Grimer/Muk due to the natural gunkball it's a literal garbage mud creature you'd get absurd RPMs on the breaking stuff. Plus being an amorphous blob it could mix in subtle changes to its height of an inch or two either way without having to meaningfully change arm action.

Ben Clemens

2:10

So we've got plenty of options here, I'm definitely not going for Machamp though

Sounds like Eric Hosmer

Scoops! and barrels, brah

2:11

Teleport seems really good, but what about one of the ghost types?

And Grimer/Muk, that seems good, natural spitball

Come On Phillz the Noize

2:11

What do you make of Ranger Suarez's breakout? What's his stat line look ik at the end of 2022?

Ben Clemens

2:12

I'm really curious to see how the Phillies use him. He definitely has the stuff to be a great reliever, but I assume he'll start again

2:13

I think he'll be good, but there will be some adjustments necessary -- it's hard to throw a breaking pitch only 10% of hte time and succeed as a starter

Helps that he has a great changeup and is a lefty, so he'll get to use that a lot, but I'd still like to see a different pitch mix before I'm confident this will work for 2-3 times through the rotation long-term

171

2:13

Ditto is the clear answer to best Pokemon to have on a baseball team.

Ben Clemens

2:14

Eh, disagree. That only copies their best player. You can do better than that if you're getting a Pokemon

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