JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 7/1/24

Ben Clemens

2:02

Hey everyone, welcome to the chat

section 34

2:02

Who is the best starting pitcher likely to be available and which prospects must the Orioles deal to get him?

Ben Clemens

2:02

I mean, the BEST? Crochet

I think the White Sox are going to want a haul, though, and rightly so

2:03

He's an interesting case, I've been doing a lot of due diligence on mover and shaker type pitchers for the trade value list

coming at you at the end of the month, etc

2:04

I'm really not quite sure what to do with guys like him, Skubal, basically the people in Dan's article today

so okay, Skubal and Crochet are both free agents after the 2026 season

2:05

we think they'll both be excellent over those years

like, 8-ish WAR in 2.5 years, that's a pretty good projection for a pitcher

2:06

but also... by the same projections, Coby Mayo, for example, is at 8 for those years

I'd trade Mayo for either of those dudes

but I'm struggling to wrap my head around how the league will behave

Matt VW

2:06

Which fringe-ish pre-Statcast era player do you wish we had the new numbers on? I want Wily Mo Pena exit velocities.

Ben Clemens

2:07

We've talked about this one before, and yes, it's Wily Mo and then I would love bat tracking on Bonds

his homers per swing got so ludicrous at his steroid-aided peak

like, it would just be a spectacle

Stephen

2:07

So Volpe seems to be an average hitter so far (hot start and trending down towards 100 wRC+, not great statcast sliders). How confident are you that he'll become a good hitter?

Ben Clemens

2:08

I'm above average confident that he'll end up in the 100-120 wRC+ range

which is great for a plus defensive shortstop

I think there's very little debate on that front, btw

baserunning and defense dude with marginally plus hitting, he's like Lindor Lite

2:09

works for me!

bigtimetimmyjim

2:09

giants homestand looked good! I feel like the ahmed wisely middle infield combo is better than the wisely estrada right now, any thoughts on that?

Ben Clemens

2:09

I was at two of the games and watched most of the rest, feeling very Giants-y of late

man, this is tough

strangely i feel like the one you have to play is Wisely?

2:10

the otehr two can't hit

i might prefer Wisely SS Estrada 2B though

I can't quite talk myself into Ahmed

Nate

2:10

Is Paul Skenes a top 10 pitcher yet

Ben Clemens

2:10

for me, yes

Guest

2:10

Any hope that the Nats could sign Soto?

Ben Clemens

2:10

I hope this is Cheng, if so hi

if not, though.... I mean, it's within the realm of possibility

2:11

I don't think it's likely, but it gets a lot more likely if the Yankees do worse than expected adn the Nats have a crazy good second half

Kevin

2:11

What do you know or imagine teams might be doing with artificial intelligence tools? Have you heard of anyone digging in to this topic?

Ben Clemens

2:11

There was a really good series on increasing velo in the Athletic last week

I'd highly recommend reading that

2:12

I'm not sure to what extent this is mirrored across the game but they had some interviews with the Driveline folks talking about using AI to try to develop optimized pitching mechanics

Load More Messages

Connecting…

Message History

On Off

Your current subscriptions

None

E-mail Address	Chat Owner	Status	Remove

Enter your email address to be notified when Ben Clemens hosts a chat