Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat – 1/9/23

3:02
Ben Clemens: Hey everyone, welcome to the chat

3:03
Ben Clemens: Let’s get going, I was a bit delayed by some plumbing issues, or really keeping my dog out of the apartment while a handyman was here issues

3:03
Bernardo: I’m higher on Matt Vierling as a player than Soto even—I don’t know why so many people think that trade is a win for the Phillies. Do you?

3:03
Ben Clemens: Yeah, I like Vierling as a short-side platoon CF/4th outfielder guy, and that’s a valuable role I think

3:05
Ben Clemens: I like the trade for the Tigers, but I get why the Phillies did it; Vierling is a little bit less interesting if Harper starts playing the field again and I do think Soto is a solid reliever. Maybe the Phillies didn’t get the maximum return for Vierling, but I think their major league team is better with Soto/Clemens than Vierling/Maton/Sands

3:05
Inaccessible Rail: If a ballplayer goes undrafted, then plays well in an independent league, is the player then essential a free agent? Has there ever been anything like a bidding war for such a player?

3:05
Ben Clemens: yeah; the best example of this (ish) is when TJ Friedl went undrafted as an eligible sophomore and then was on team USA that summer

3:05
Ben Clemens: he shoved and got the better part of a million bucks in signing bonus

3:06
Ben Clemens: there was a cap on signing bonuses to UDFA’s that got instituted around the COVID-shortened draft, but it looks like that cap got rescinded last year

3:06
Ben Clemens: so yes, it could absolutely happen

3:06
Lou Perltzman: Why don’t you guys keep Eric chained to a radiator in a locked room so that he can focus on prospect lists and nothing else?

3:06
Ben Clemens: you think we have the money for chains? in this economy?!?

3:07
Guest: Happy New Year!

3:07
Ben Clemens: Happy new year! I love that all of you are here to talk about baseball on January 9

3:07
Ben Clemens: delightful

3:07
ryan: Is it just me or is the Tigers Phillies trade … just kinda weird? Soto has serious control issues, and I don’t think the Phils are better at fixing pitchers than the Tigers, and the new Tigers don’t meaningfully make the team that much better, but could have been good depth/platoon compliments in injuries happen. Marsh goes down and the Phillies OF is really bad!

3:07
Ben Clemens: I see why the Phillies went for Soto, they really want to have a lengthy bullpen. But yeah, I think I would have preferred to just sign Taylor Rogers by a long shot. Vierling is a nice player for sure

3:08
Guest: I read an article in the Times today about Noma, a Copenhagen restaurant famous for its unconventional ingredients and presentations. It’s a good read and made me wonder what’s the weirdest dish you’ve prepared that ended up tasting really good?

3:08
Ben Clemens: I’m sad that Noma is closing before I ever got the chance to go there

3:08
Ben Clemens: I’ll give you the weirdest dish I’ve ever tasted, as well as the weirdest I’ve ever made

3:09
Ben Clemens: I ate at Pujol, an extremely fancy restaurant in Mexico City, over Thanksgiving this year

3:09
Ben Clemens: They had an ant larva tostada with some kind of ant mayo

3:09
Ben Clemens: It was really amazing!

3:10
Ben Clemens: Weirdest dish I ever made was eggplant “nigiri”, where I cut an eggplant into pieces that were generally shaped like the fish on top of nigiri, basted it in brown butter, and then pan fried it until it kinda looked like a piece of fish. Then I served it over sushi rice. Pretty good

3:11
Marty: Could Houston be a fit for Gary Sanchez? They definitely need another catcher.

3:11
Ben Clemens: I feel like that’s kind of a problem for them, because he’s not much of a catcher

3:11
Ben Clemens: He does have a cannon arm, though

3:12
Ben Clemens: So maybe that offsets it?

3:12
Ben Clemens: My biggest issue is that I’d want to give him some run at DH, and there’s just no room to do it

3:12
Ben Clemens: Between Brantley and Yordan, it just won’t work

3:12
Bruce C.: About your free agent total dollar predictions, did you consider using net present values to dampen the interest rate issues?

3:13
Ben Clemens: Maybe I’ll do that next year; working out discount rates and stuff seems hard but doable

3:13
Ben Clemens: I might also just ignore it in terms of a lazy ‘change in rates’ term b/c that’s close enough for modeling, given that contracts only come in whole years

3:13
TomBruno23: Ben…the Cardinals…no real question.

3:14
Ben Clemens: I feel like the Cardinals had an acceptable offseason, just by signing Contreras

3:14
Ben Clemens: It’s really hard to find a good catcher, it fits the shape of the team well, and I love Yepez so I didn’t want them to go overboard adding bats

3:14
Ben Clemens: Time will tell if their eh-we’ll-fix-it-later approach to the rotation was smart, but I don’t hate it

3:14
Armchair GMing: Cronenworth and Grisham for Luis Robert, add in a couple smaller pieces, is it reasonable?  solves White Sox 2b needs and gives Pads CFer with more upside

3:15
Ben Clemens: I am really high on Grisham, but I wouldn’t do this trade if I were the Padres

3:16
Ben Clemens: Also who would end up as the 2b in San Diego in that case? Tatis I guess? I don’t think that’s what they’re trying to do

3:16
Ben Clemens: I think it’s roughly in the right ballpark value wise but I’d just prefer the two above average player side, even though I like Robert

3:16
Joe Don: Assumption- you are now the Rangers GM: What have you identified as your biggest need and how do you plan to fill it?

3:17
Ben Clemens: It’s the outfield, basically

3:18
Ben Clemens: How would I plan to fill it? I assume money isn’t an option, though that would change things of course

3:19
Ben Clemens: I’d target a lot of quad A guys and also try really hard to trade for Grisham, just in case he’s on the block

3:19
Ben Clemens: I like the Rangers team for this year though

3:19
Inaccessible Rail: I can’t decide if next year will be a career renaissance for Noah Syndergaard because of Dodger coaching or it will be a disaster for him since he’s terrible at stopping the run. Which do you think it will be?

3:19
Ben Clemens: I’m thinking renaissance thanks to the Dodgers, but yeah, he will also get run on a lot

3:19
Ben Clemens: He’s maybe the worst pitcher I’ve seen in person when it comes to holding the run

3:19
Ben Clemens: You can just see it

3:19
Ben Clemens: Mostly, pitchers’ abillity to hold runners on is indistinguishable ot me

3:19
Ben Clemens: But with Syndergaard it’s evident right away

3:19
Guest: The weirdest thing I ever ate was my failed attempt at ceviche…

3:20
Ben Clemens: Oh man, that’s a tough thing to try to make, I’ve never even attempted it

3:20
Ben Clemens: My new cooking project is to learn how to make a consistent stirfry. I got a wok and Kenji Lopez-Alt’s wok cookbook for Christmas

3:21
Ben Clemens: It seems like a fun thing to master, and very easy to make consistent meals when you get it right

3:21
Ben Clemens: using dobanjian (and I’m really sorry for the misspelling that I’m sure I made) really leveled up the Szechuan flavoring for me

3:21
CistulliStan: Ben! Just want to say I really appreciate all your work and your appearances on FG Audio have been awesome lately. Great rapport with EL.

3:21
Ben Clemens: Thanks very much

3:21
CistulliStan: Any off-the-cuff thoughts on Kerry Carpenter? Or Alex Kirilloff? I was researching Carpenter’s profile and was surprised at how good it looked. Will Kirrilloff ever trade some of those groundballs for flyballs/line drives??

3:22
Ben Clemens: I have nothin to say about Kerry Carpenter, just no informed opinion. I’m out on Kirilloff, though, I think the fly balls will never show up

3:22
Brian: If SEA stops spending now – will they be a finalist for Ohtani next offseason? Dipoto supposedly finished second the last time he was a “Free agent” and it seems like he’s keeping his powder dry for next summer…

3:22
Ben Clemens: Yes

3:23
Ben Clemens: I think they will be in the running, and that they’ll go all out

3:23
TomBruno23: Kim would be the 2b in SD, right?

3:23
Ben Clemens: oh obviously yeah. And I guess Carpenter 1b and… yeah, they’d have to sign someone maybe

3:23
Guest: Is Brian Reynolds closer value to a 5/75M contract or closer value to a package centered around a top 10 prospect (i.e. Varsho)?

3:24
Ben Clemens: mmmm… for me, the 5/75 sounds about right. I’m low on Reynolds relative to industry consensus though

3:24
Inaccessible Rail: The White Sox seem to me the team to most likely collapse early this season and have a sell off at the deadline.

3:24
Ben Clemens: I agree with this. They seem like they’re stuck between geras of something

3:24
Guest: In your opinion, what’s the culinary equivalent of moneyball? In other words, what’s a technique, ingredient, or even recipe that gets you more bang for your grocery budget buck these days?

3:25
Ben Clemens: So, that’s what I’m hoping stir fry will be

3:25
Ben Clemens: For me, my go-to meal at the moment is kind of a poor man’s stir fry. I will cook some vegetable, pan fry some chickpeas, and make rice (that’s all super cheap)

3:25
Ben Clemens: I also make my own chili oil, which is very easy

3:26
Ben Clemens: and then make a dressing of chili oil and some other stuff… maybe black vinegar and soy, maybe tahini, it varies depending on how I’m feeling

3:26
Ben Clemens: It’s pretty easy to make, good nutritional value, and fairly cheap depending on what veggies cost you

3:26
SEATAC: Seattle Mariners weren’t  really cooking on The HOT STOVE this Winter. But in reality do you think they really needed to be?

3:26
Ben Clemens: Nah, I think that they were smart to pre-empt the market by trading for and extending Castillo over the summer

3:27
Ben Clemens: If they hadn’t done that, and then signed someone of his caliber in free agency, I’d say it was a good offseason. They just did it out of order

3:27
Ben Clemens: I do think they’re clearing the decks for Ohtani, which makes good sense

3:27
Guest: Kenji is the best! I love a scientific method-based, data driven approach to cooking. Really helps me understand why certain arcane methods are so favored when attempting to make tasty food.

3:27
Ben Clemens: 100%

3:28
Ben Clemens: I made his chocolate chip cookies recently and a)they were good b)the recipe describes in great detail how you can adjust every single component of their cooking to make them taste more like how you want it, i.e. chewier/crisper, taller/wider, etc

3:29
Nick: Any thoughts on the Nationals’ offseason? They’re clearly hamstrung money-wise with the ownership situation but they’ve sprinkled some cash around the holes in the roster

3:29
Ben Clemens: Priority one is to sell the team, since it’s going to happen

3:29
Ben Clemens: They weren’t turning themselves into contenders with a single offseason, and I totally get not wanting to sign new long-term deals while simultaneously trying to sell the team

3:30
Ben Clemens: Given those constraints, I like the idea of getting some interesting fringey guys. Candelario, Garrett, Hill, Harris, and Dom Smith all seem like good flyers to me

3:31
John: Hi Ben, I think I asked this one other time but didn’t really understand the answer. Why do we use 9 innings as the denominator for HR rate when we’ve moved towards batters faced as the denominator for every other pitcher outcome (Ks, BBs mainly)?

3:31
Ben Clemens: No idea, I think it’s bad

3:31
Fat Matt: One time I made a pizza at work with summer sausage, pickled eggs, cheese curds and jalapenos.  It was delicious.  But we all also had to use the bathroom within an hour

3:31
Ben Clemens: lol cheese curds on a pizza, what a world we live in

3:32
Appa Yip Yip: It’s probably safe to say the Jays are done taking big swings, and their remaining business is just a 4th OF/bench bat and maybe a reliever if it’s a clear upgrade. Assuming that, is the team that enters 2023 better than the one that finished 2022?

3:32
Ben Clemens: so this is basically: -Stripling, Gurriel, Hernandez

3:33
Ben Clemens: +Varsho, Swanson, Kiermaier, Bassitt

3:33
Ben Clemens: plus of course whatever they would have gotten out of Moreno in the majors

3:33
Ben Clemens: Uh…. I think they’re marginally better, but not by a ton. Teoscar is really underrated imo

3:34
Ben Clemens: I just have more faith in Bassitt sustaining acceptable 3rd starter numbers than Stripling

3:34
Ben Clemens: and I think that overwhelms the offensive downgrade

3:34
Phil: From a historical perspective, how would you rank Verlander, Kershaw and Scherzer?

3:35
Ben Clemens: Man, this is a tough one

3:35
Ben Clemens: For me, it’s Kershaw > Verlander = Scherzer

3:35
Ben Clemens: they’re the best three of this generation, of course

3:36
Ben Clemens: Effectively Wild has covered the striking similarity between Scherzer’s and Verlander’s careers

3:36
Ben Clemens: Kershaw is a weird case b/c of his playoff record, but his peak was just ludicrous, and then he’s been an above average pitcher for another six years after everyone wrote him off

3:37
Dan: Who is a prospect that you’re most interested to see how they perform this year?

3:37
Ben Clemens: Miguel Vargas

3:37
Ben Clemens: I’ve been high on him for years, every time I build a predictive model he comes up as exceptional

3:37
Ben Clemens: I think that the Dodgers giving him a fair shake is awesome, and I’d love to see him rake

3:38
John Mozeliak: Any pitchers you think the Cardinals should be targeting? Seems like what they really need is top-of-rotation upside and I’m not sure any trade candidates — even expensive ones like Pablo Lopez — really fit the bill.

3:38
Ben Clemens: Yeah…. if I’m them, I think I might just chill out and wait for a huge ace to come on the market or for next year

3:39
Ben Clemens: Maybe explore an extension with Montgomery?

3:39
Ben Clemens: I’m with you, I think a top-tier guy would move the needle but given the way their rotation sets up, getting a solid but not great pitcher is just less of an improvement than it is for most team

3:39
Ben Clemens: teams*

3:39
Cen Blemens: If you’re Brian Cashman, what do you do in LF? Stick with the Cabrera/Hicks combo until the Reynolds situation resolves or another option comes up at the deadline?

3:39
Ben Clemens: I’d stick it out. Cabrera might be the long-term answer!

3:40
Farhandrew Zaidman: Anyone who doesn’t have Kershaw at the top of that list (include DeGrom in there too) has some extreme recently bias affecting them.

3:40
Ben Clemens: deGrom is a tough call

3:40
Ben Clemens: his peak is higher than any of them but he just hasn’t done it long

3:40
Ben Clemens: what happens for the remainder of his career will have a lot to say about how he’s perceived historically

3:41
Ben Clemens: whereas the other three could retire tomorrow and be secure in their spots

3:41
Insert Witty Name Here: My wife and I just gave each other our yelp reviews of our cooking skills. What would you give your partner and what would she give you? For the record I got a 3.5 and she got a 4.5.

3:41
Ben Clemens: I’ll ask!

3:41
Ben Clemens: I’d give her a 4.7

3:42
Ben Clemens: she has a wide range of Asian, Mediterranean, and Italian dishes in her repertoire

3:42
Ben Clemens: Asian kinda like pan-Asian, southeast asian/chinese flavors

3:43
Ben Clemens: that’s a lto of the food I like the most

3:43
CistulliStan: Last week I think you mentioned Wingspan and my family is obsessed with it. Love how different it is every time we play and it a beautiful, simple, but satisfyingly complex game. We have all the expansions 😛

3:43
Ben Clemens: It’s an excellent one

3:43
Ben Clemens: I’m now going to tell you about my newest gaming obsession, though: Terraforming Mars

3:43
Ben Clemens: I’m way late to the party on this one, but it’s a tremendously satisfying game

3:44
Ben Clemens: it FEELS like it’s going to be too busy, but it just magically isn’t. The various economic engines are well tied together, the science in it might not actually be accurate but is good enough to fool me if it isn’t, and there are all kinds of viable strategies

3:44
CistulliStan: Any chance you can give us an early preview of “Clemens’ guys” type underrated prospects?? You ID’d some real gems last year and I’ve got a deeeeep dynasty FA draft coming up!

3:44
Ben Clemens: Sadly I haven’t even started looking at it yet, but I’d say if you’re drafting soon I love power guys who are young for Triple-A and low-K guys who are young for A ball

3:44
Birds: Orioles said they would “significantly escalate” their payroll.  So far they’ve swapped Lyles for Gibson and added a utility infielder.  Best explanation:

  1. It was always lies
  2. Arbitration raises make it not technically lying
  3. They badly misjudged the market
  4. There’s still time for some magical trade / extension
3:44
Ben Clemens: I think it’s a mixture of 2 and 3

3:45
Ben Clemens: and that they’ll adjust in 2024

3:45
Ben Clemens: I give them a lot of credit as a front office for doing the drudgery stuff well, and I think that a lot of teams were caught off guard by this year’s free agent market

3:45
Ben Clemens: if they’re still scrimping and saving after next year, I’ll look more askance

3:46
Ben Clemens: but for me, this is the kind of team that wanted a marquee free agent if they were going to add in free agency

3:47
Ben Clemens: And well, if they missed on those 5-10 guys, I’m not sure signing Jurickson Profar or Anthony Rizzo was gonna fix things

3:47
Bob OdenKirk: Terraforming Mars is great! There’s a really intuitive iPhone app to play it as well.

3:47
Ben Clemens: We played yesterday, and my friend (who owns the game and finished last) said he’d been practicing on his phone

3:47
Hugh Duffy: Ingredient that gets you more bang for your buck? MSG.  Undervalued by home chefs, valued highly by the culinary industry.

3:47
Ben Clemens: Yeah, that’s a good call

3:47
Ben Clemens: umami flavor is a surefire hit

3:48
Cove Dweller: Giants fans have criticized the Giants FO/Ownership a fair amount this offseason. It’s hard for me to see that much of it is deserved; the team was rather broken when Zaidi came aboard. Despite improving overall, the team isn’t where it or its fans would like. Is there anything that you would point to as a major misstep by Zaidi & Co that was actually in their control?

3:48
Ben Clemens: Things broke poorly for them, but I think that my biggest issue with how they acted was urgency. They clearly wanted to blow the doors off with a signing, so if they were worried about Correa’s medicals, why not act sooner

3:49
Ben Clemens: I dont know how much of that was them and how much was that the timing just didn’t work out, but they’ve set themselves up for criticism because they made it known that they wanted to make a big splash

3:49
Ben Clemens: and then they didn’t

3:49
Ben Clemens: If you’re a fan, it’s hard to look at that and think ‘great, I’m confident in the Giants’ when it’s clear that they themslves aren’t

3:50
FInley: Conspiracy theory: Aaron Judge is only 5’9″ but he’s standing on a box like Tom Cruise

3:50
Ben Clemens: Brandon Nimmo should adopt a Tom Cruise run down to first base

3:50
Ben Clemens: he already looks fast… why not look faster?

3:50
Guest: Hey Ben, hope you had a happy holiday season/new year! Thanks for chatting

With the Correa saga, it feels like all the recent reports have basically been posturing/presumption by writers about what one more day without an official signing means. It seems like it flip flops back and forth and then every column reports on the recent musing of Heyman or Bowden. It seems to me the Mets are Correa’s best chance at a large guarantee and joining a contender. Cohen certainly will have the highest financial risk tolerance, and once two teams have passed at 10+ year deals, you have to think the next team in will be capping the years they offer.

He’s gotta end up a Met, right?

3:51
Ben Clemens: Yeah I think so

3:52
Ben Clemens: At this point it feels like something has to get done, it’s in both sides’ interests to find a middle ground

3:52
Colton: Was reading an article earlier about key players for the Pirates next year and the first one they mentioned was surprising Suwinski and then Cruz. I liked Suwinski already last year, but was dumbfounded when I read that he was a 15 wRC+ on the road and a 172 at home. Is there a reason I shouldn’t see him as a real potential breakout candidate?

3:52
Ben Clemens: Oh yeah I like Suwinski as a breakout candidate

3:53
Ben Clemens: hugely volatile profile, but the power looks very real

3:53
Appa Yip Yip: If you can’t find msg adding a tsp or tbsp of fish sauce to literally any soup will really kick it up a notch

3:54
Ben Clemens: The cooking tip hits just keep coming in this chat

3:54
Ben Clemens: Fish sauce is wildly underrated

3:54
Ben Clemens: but yeah, a little goes a long way

3:54
Ben Clemens: don’t use it like you would a condiment or you’ll taste nothing else

3:55
Phil: re: Kershaw and recency bias, i respectfully disagree.  No doubt Kershaw had the best 5-year peak of the three (possibly the best 5-year peak of all time).  But In terms of career accomplishments, cases can be made for any of them.  Kershaw has 3 Cy Young awards.  So does Verlander.  So does Scherzer.  Kershaw has 7 Top 5 Cy Young finishes.  Verlander has 9.  Scherzer has 9.  Kershaw has pitched ~2,600 innings.  Verlander has pitched ~3,100.  Scherzer ~2,700.  Kershaw has a significantly better ERA+.

3:55
Ben Clemens: I think it’s reasonable to take the average of career and peak – royalties to Jay Jaffe pending

3:55
Ben Clemens: and that peak puts Kershaw over the top for me

3:55
Ben Clemens: they’re all great, though

3:55
Bob OdenKirk: Yeah for me personally, a lot of the game’s mechanics clicked in more fully in my brain after I stomped some  AI players a few times without having to worry about managing physical cards and pieces and resource trackers, etc.

3:55
Ben Clemens: this makes sense to me

3:56
Ben Clemens: my friend bought some special organizing boards that also helped a lot. They had slight indents so that the cubes wouldn’t fly around

3:57
Ben Clemens: not having to worry about keeping everything just so was nice

3:57
J luhnow: Do you think the MLB just juiced the balls for Judge lat year or Pujols too?

3:57
Ben Clemens: I don’t

3:57
Ben Clemens: I read the Insider article about it, and I mean, maybe!

3:57
Ben Clemens: But I just don’t buy it

3:57
Ben Clemens: Never ascribe to malice what is better explained by incompetence, imo

3:58
Ben Clemens: it seems like the baseball manufacturing and storage stuff is just bad

3:58
Eric Vealy: Does Chad Green’s pre-injury drop in velo last year scare you?

3:58
Ben Clemens: it probably should hvae, but to be honest I didn’t really notice until it was too late

3:58
Matt: Do you think that one of the reasons the Braves went after Sean Murphy so hard is that they are anticipating more SB attempts due to the rule changes? Murphy is just light years better than D’Arnaud or Contreras in this regard.

3:58
Ben Clemens: Eh…. I’m sure it helps, but he’s also light years ahead of them just overall

3:59
Ben Clemens: There’s a reason that he’s been in our last two Top 50 Trade Value lists, and that there’s never been much disagreement about it

3:59
Matt: I think the Orioles should aim to have multiple lefty starters in their rotation, given how much that park has changed and made it difficult to hit for power as a righty bat. Would you build this rotation out the same way, or am I overreacting to one year of data?

3:59
Ben Clemens: I think for choice, I’d agree with you, but that it’s easier said than done

3:59
Ben Clemens: Like, maybe Quintana would have made sense this year? Or Rodon

3:59
Ben Clemens: But it’s more important to get good pitchers imo

4:00
Ben Clemens: handedness is more of a tiebreaker, even in an extreme park like the re-designed Camden

4:00
Jeffrey: Thoughts on Colin Barber as a legitimate replacement to McCormick in CF for the Astros?

4:01
Ben Clemens: I dunno, I like Meyers and McCormick, and know very little about Barber, so I’m gonna say stick with the proven commodities for now and give Barber another year to see what’s cooking

4:01
J: Presumably home run rate is usually per 9 and not per batter faced because you end up with really low numbers that are hard to relate to. It would only work if you normalize it like e.g. ERA+

4:01
Ben Clemens: Reasonable argument. I think a trickier thing is that small differences matter more

4:01
Ben Clemens: so like, 6% walk rate 7% walk rate, w/e

4:01
Ben Clemens: 2% HR rate 3% HR rate, that hurts!

4:01
Tiger Fan: Which of the following players do you think will return to 2021 form…Juan Soto, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Ronald Acuna Jr., Fernando Tatis Jr., Wander Franco?

4:02
Ben Clemens: In order: Soto, Vlad, Tatis, Franco, Acuna

4:02
Ben Clemens: I didn’t put a ton of thought into it, those are my flash impressions

4:02
Birds: Is Trout ever going to the playoffs again?  Astros still excellent, Mariners good now, Texas all in, AL East grabbing lots of WC spots…

4:02
Ben Clemens: Boy, it’s not looking great

4:02
Ben Clemens: It does kinda feel like it’s 2023 or bust

4:02
Ben Clemens: the Angels do not appear to be headed the right way with Ohtani leaving

4:03
ryan: Follow up to the other Jays Q asked, do you see the Jays platooning one of their lefty OFs with Merrifield/Biggio who can do fine in the OF? Also, out of Espinal, Biggio, and Merrifield, who would you most want to get PAs?

4:04
Ben Clemens: I could see them doing a weird semi-platoon with Kiermaier where all of his rest days fall against lefties. That doesn’t really work with Biggio since he’s also a lefty, so I guess that’s just more PT for Merrifield in the outfield

4:04
Ben Clemens: I think in order I’d go Biggio, Espinal, Merrifield

4:04
Daniel Bardo Pond: When is the Competitive Balance Tax calculated? Opening Day? After game 162? On a per-day basis similar to how the NHL counts money against its salary cap?

4:05
Ben Clemens: It’s calculated at the end of the year. Contracts are pro-rated, so if you have a guy for half the year, you’re responsible for half his salary

4:05
Fast: How is Yordan so good, in your opinion?

4:05
Ben Clemens: It’s because he combines the three most important tools (by a mile) for a hitter

4:06
Ben Clemens: approach, bat-to-ball, and power

4:06
Ben Clemens: I do think that his ludicrously easy power makes the whole thing tick though

4:06
Ben Clemens: Like, he can afford to be more variable in his swing and not sell out b/c he can flick the ball 500 feet

4:06
Ben Clemens: but he’s just so good at everything now

4:07
Ben Clemens: Alright, on that note, I’m going to call it a day. Thank you for indulging my desire to talk Yordan, cooking, and board games today

4:07
Ben Clemens: I’ll be back in two weeks (next week is MLK) to do more of the same

4:07
Ben Clemens: Have a great day and week, everyone.





Ben is a writer at FanGraphs. He can be found on Twitter @_Ben_Clemens.

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