JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 5/22/23

Ben Clemens

2:00

Hey everybody, welcome to the chat

Let's just get started right away

Joshua

2:01

Can you complete the sentence so that it’s fair and realistic: Lane Thomas to the Guardians for….?

Ben Clemens

2:02

I don't think there's a realistic answer for this one. The Guardians need a little more juice than Thomas in their outfield, in my opinion. Adding Thomas would be like getting rid of a nickel and replacing it with some new-fashioned six cent coin

One of the big problems in Guardians team building -- to the extent that there are problems, they've been really good on a low budget -- is that they prioritize roughly average depth pieces, and then look up and too much of their team is made up of roughly average players

2:03

Thomas is a roughly average player, it's just not how I'd go about improving them

Taylor Jungmann Truther

2:03

Which team is more surprising in how bad they are this year, STL or CHW?

Ben Clemens

2:03

I mean, the Cardinals would have been the answer if they continued to play really poorly, but I think it's clearly the White Sox now. That said, I think I'd put the A's ahead of either

IT's SHOCKING how bad the A's are

Jason

2:04

I know lineup construction doesn't matter a whole lot, but how do I not get angry at Dusty for continuing to bat Abreu 4th every single day?

Ben Clemens

2:04

Yeah, just take a deep breath and remember that the Astros won the world series last year

LeftyCurve66

2:04

I know they're still under .500 but should the Cardinals be a testament to media and sports writers to stop overreacting to a bad month when baseball is such a long season? I can't believe all the ridiculous claims I was reading.

Ben Clemens

2:04

Ah yes, the media is what was wrong here :)

To be fair I think the media overdid things slightly

and that a lot of the team's early slow start was the bad pitching that we all knew was there

2:05

But the real kerfuffle came from the Contreras benching/unbenching, and I think that the coverage of that was pretty fair

It was silly on its face, and obviously not going to last, just felt panicky

I think I'm probably with you overall that no one is ever as bad as they feel when they're running bad

And people saying the Cardinals should tear down were going too far

2:06

But the most media pushback was around the Contreras stuff and that makes sense to me

jackson

2:06

do you think the diamondbacks have a shot at winning the nl west or securing a wild card?

Ben Clemens

2:06

Wild Card, sure

lot of banked wins and a lof of teams make the palyoffs

We have them at 50% to make the playoffs basically, for example

NashvilleSounds

2:06

Why don’t baseball stadiums build in more shade? I know you can’t do much for the players, but it would make the viewing experience way better. In summer day games, you always get one narrow strip of shade (due to an accident of stadium design) that’s 100% occupied and vast swathes of empty plastic that you can cook eggs on.

Ben Clemens

2:06

I think this has to do with unobstructed view lines

2:07

But I'm truly not sure

>this guy<

2:07

Ben, what is up with the Cubs? Their "quality" on the new FG power rankings is 3rd at 147 but they just dipped to 6 games under?

Ben Clemens

2:07

They've been playing way worse than their underlying statistics, and the quality thing is based on underlying statistics

2:08

That said! I don't think that they do a very good job of bullpen management

I feel like the wrong relievers are coming in at the wrong spots

2:09

Not enough to justify this amount of underperformance, but I'm not shocked that they're doing worse than run differential would suggest. They lead the league in times I've tuned into their games and gone "huh he's coming in?"

v2micca

2:09

If the A's get their stadium deal in Las Vegas, and John Fisher still refuses to spend above $60 million on player salary, would there actually be any consequences?

Ben Clemens

2:09

No, of course not

The main consequences he's actually faced so far have been an unending string of wealth

Bob

2:09

Alec Bohms has a 48% ground rate and 38% flyball rate. His GB/FB ratio is 1.24. Would he be considered a neutral batter of a flyball batter? Thank u

Ben Clemens

2:10

Yeah pretty close to neutral. The league as a whole this year has a 1.15 GB/FB ratio and 42.6/37.2 gb and fb rates respectively

Anything between 1 and 1.5 feels 'neutral' to me

v2micca

2:10

Vaughn Grissom appears to be blocked at the SS position for the foreseeable future. Why aren't the Braves at least entertaining the possibility of playing him in the outfield? Are they worried it would hurt his trade value?

Ben Clemens

2:10

Legitimately no clue what their plan is here

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