JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 8/24/20

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Ben Clemens

2:00

Hey everybody, and welcome to the chat.

Today, I wrote about David Fletcher being goofy:

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/david-fletcher-made-a-bad-swing-decision/

And as we speak, I am ignoring actual baseball to simulate baseball for an article tomorrow

2:01

But let's go away from the simulation, and talk real baseball for a while

Plus board games or food or whatever, I'm flexible

James

2:01

With the success the Padres have shown this week why don’t more teams employ the strategy of hitting grand slams in every game?

Ben Clemens

2:01

It's an excellent question, because it clearly works well

I think there are unwritten rules against it, though.

That's why you don't see the Rangers doing it, for example.

2:02

They prefer to focus on dropping pop ups to hunt statistical milestones

Please Talk About Max Fried

2:02

Is there evidence that Max Fried has really turned a corner and developed into a #1-type starting pitcher? His peripherals indicate some regression, but still demonstrate high-caliber expected results.

Ben Clemens

2:02

This is a tricky one, because I think the right answer could be that it happened last year and we just didn't notice

2:03

He's getting pretty lucky on home run rate at the moment, and you have to assume that he won't keep allowing literal zero dingers, but yeah, I buy Fried as a front-of-the-rotation type

Nick

2:04

what are your thoughts on Brady Singer and Kris Bubic for the Royals? They both started strong and now hitters are adjusting to them. Do you think they can adjust back or could that take a while?

Ben Clemens

2:04

I haven't actually watched any of Singer yet, but I've seen parts of two starts for Bubic

2:05

I think he might take a bit to adjust back, because he doesn't seem to be able to get swings at his putaway stuff

That's a huge issue

2:06

With two strikes, batters are only chasing pitches out of the zone a third of the time for him

And they're making contact a lot when they do

League average is up closer to 40% with way less contact

This might be a refine the breaking ball kind of situation, and I think you do that in the offseason

Scotty

2:06

I haven’t been able to watch any of his outings, but what is your first impression of Kwang Hyun Kim?

Ben Clemens

2:07

I buy him as an overqualified swingman in the Kenta Maeda/Ross Stripling mold

Or heck, Carlos Martinez if we're staying on the Cardinals

2:08

Has the stuff to miss bats, but I don' think he's quite ace level, and he relies a lot on his slider so it's not shocking that the Cardinals are interested in seeing how he'd work as a reliever

Both because it gets him better platoon matchups on average and because it limits the number of looks batters get at the slider

konondrum

2:08

Kyle's Lewis' first 200 PA ~ 6.5 WAR pace. How common is that for a rookie debut?

Ben Clemens

2:09

Sadly I don't have this handy, but it's not common. He's fallen off a little from the insane pace he was on at the very start of the season (looks like defense may have played a role, though, so maybe take that with a grain of salt)

2:10

But that's why everyone is so excited about him -- putting up this kind of performance, even with a .444 BABIP tailwind, is just not something you see every year

(Yordan last year and Soto the year before aside)

pss

2:10

The playoffs still have normal extra innings rules, right? I like the runner on second for regular season but not for playoffs

Ben Clemens

2:10

They do indeed

I'm actually liking the runner more than I thought I would

2:11

but I think I still want the playoffs to be old style

So I'm glad baseball recognized that

Appa Yip Yip