Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat – 4/10/23

Ben Clemens: Hey everyone, welcome to the chat. Today is going to be a fast and furious one hour of chatting, so let’s get right into some questions. A quick reminder: not very much baseball has been played this year, so a lot of my answers will be ‘it’s too soon to say’.

Erik: Is this the Wander Franco breakout season, or is this a Wander Franco who’s faced the Tigers, Nationals and A’s? Some clear parallels to Vlad Jr., who took off in his third season after debuting very young and producing a pair of good but not elite seasons at the plate, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

Ben Clemens: I hope so! I don’t think Vlad Jr. is a reasonable bat comparison to Franco, he’s more of a hit tool over power kind of guy while Vlad was hit plus power, but there’s a reason that projection systems and analysts have been so high on Franco’s potential

Ben Clemens: His bat control is so excellent that he can be a great hitter with average power, and he also plays a premium defensive position

comish4lif: 12 team NL only, Francisco Alvarez has been called up. Who do you drop? Alvarez, Rodolfo Castro (playing more with Cruz injury) or Ezekial (slow start) Tovar?

Ben Clemens: I’d probably go Castro, but I think you have to give some thought to dropping Alvarez even though he’s been called up. He’s in a weird backup catcher/not quite DH role, which I don’t love. The reason to keep him would be if you’re not starting any of these guys very frequently, b/c he has the highest upside. I still really like Tovar’s potential in Coors

The Pirate Parrot: Odds the pirates still win the world series despite losing oneil cruz?

Ben Clemens: About the same as before, sadly

Guest: How significant are stats like oswing% at this point? Trying to gauge how excited I should be about Nolan Gorman’s phenomenal discipline this year

Ben Clemens: I don’t have a strong rule for you here, but here’s a nice check: look at Gorman’s performance last year sliced up into seven-game sets (that’s how many games he’s played this year)

Ben Clemens: And slice it up by o-swing, obviously

Ben Clemens: This last seven-game set is a lower O-Swing than any seven-game set last year. Seems like he’s doing something different

Pumpsie Green: Has Kris Bubic turned a corner? His stuff+ is looking good. Has he pitched enough for those numbers to stabilize?

Ben Clemens: I don’t know how stuff+ stabilization works, or stuff-based metrics in general, and it’s tough to figure it out exactly without a nice daily history of it, which I don’t have. Maybe I’ll look at this problem more if i can get the data split up that way. For now I’d just say this: his stuff undoubtedly looks better this year. If he comes out in his next few starts and continues to have good stuff, you have to start discounting his projections, b/c he’s a different pitcher

Ben Clemens: I just don’t have a good answer for you on when you should believe these things stabilizing

YardGoat: Oneil Cruz 🙁

Ben Clemens: Booooooo, yeah

Guest: Alek Thomas — underlying metrics look fantastic, true breakout ahead?!

Ben Clemens: I sure hope so. Alek Thomas is a fun player, I love super-speedy outfielders

Hi: FanGraphs playoff odds now say the Rays are the clear favorite for the division. (46.1% vs Yankees at 32%) Is that a change in what the projections think about the team, or just their lead in the division?

Ben Clemens: It’s a little bit of both. Before the season, we projected them for a .529 winning percentage with a .504 strength of schedule. Now, we’re projecting them for a .543 win percentage with a .508 strength of schedule

Ben Clemens: So their remaining schedule is harder, but we think they’re better. On the other hand, we project the Yankees for a .549 ROS W%, and the Jays for .537. Both of those are close enough to the Rays as to be a tossup, mathematically speaking. So the reason their division odds are higher than the other two is because of the three games they have in hand, but we also rate them more highly than we did before the season

Chris: Are you a believer in Trayce Thompson or Jayson Heyward?

Ben Clemens: Yes to both, I’d say

Ben Clemens: Not as all stars, but as valuable role players, particularly in some kind of semi-platoon situation

Ben Clemens: The Dodgers are so good at this

Guest: How much does the Rays start shift your priors for them?

Ben Clemens: A tiny bit. I’m not gonna shift any of my priors about teams very much after two weeks of games

DJ: Keston Hiura and Jo Adell were selected with back to back picks in the 1st round of the 2017 MLB Draft, and both have demolished minor league pitching while struggling at the major league level. Which of the two would you bet on having more career WAR going forward?

Ben Clemens: Gimme Adell, without strong conviction though

Guest: Jo Adell doing some damage in AAA — could this be the makings of a post-hype breakout for the once heralded prospect?

Ben Clemens: Right, this is why I’m taking Adell. We’ve had more data points to say that Hiura’s plan of attack isn’t working in the majors

Ben Clemens: Whereas Hiura has twice the PA’s in the majors

Ben Clemens: The thing that makes me less sure about this is that Hiura has had more good stretches than Adell by a mile, but maybe I’m just a sucker for untested talent

Trev: It’s been a couple seasons, thoughts on the zombie runner?

Ben Clemens: I love it

Ben Clemens: I know that’s not a popular opinion, but I think the action it leads to is fun and that different rules in overtime are completely fine

Ben Clemens: I like the stress and tension of runners on base in tie games, and I get more of it as a result

Ben Clemens: I also think it’s completely fine to change the rules between the regular season and postseason. Clearly, they’re different. Other sports do that too, and no one argues that it’s an abomination or anything. If anything, we want football overtime to be MORE different from regulation

Early Season Hopeful: Thoughts on the Bryson Scott (aka hitting machine) and should he be picked up over someone like Brendan Donovan?

Ben Clemens: In an OBP league, I don’t think so. In an average league…. I’d be tempted, but I dunno, a lot of people I think are smart are really buying into the Donovan power breakout. I can’t say eitehr way but that would certainly tempt me

Tony Plush: I know it’s only two starts but my goodness gracious what have they done with Bubic??

Nate: Kris Bubic – only two starts, but looks like a completely different pitcher under the direction of Brian Sweeney. Added a slider and the stuff seems to be playing much better. Any hope for him to become more than a swingman/back of the rotation guy?

Ben Clemens: Just posting all these so we can all revel in Bubic’s newfound competence together

Guest: Loved the 5 things I liked this week piece, almost as good as O’Neil Cruz’s injury is bad. 😢

Ben Clemens: Thank you!

Oneil’s Biggest Fan: O’Neil Cruz has 7 walks to 8 Ks 18%/20% BB/K) and Ked only 25% in spring training. Small samples, but for us Bucs’ fans it was starting to feel like he could be the real thing. He was even playing better defense. Now he will be out for 3ish months. In light of this sad news I want to get a happy answer so: Is he going to be a superstar or the greatest superstar? And why can’t the Pirates ever have nice things?

Ben Clemens: Speaking of: I can’t answer your second question, but I continue to think Cruz will be a superstar

Appa Yip Yip: Daulton Varsho already has two bunt singles. Do you think he eclipses his total from last year?

Ben Clemens: He had 9 bunt singles last year

Ben Clemens: I’ll say yes

Appa Yip Yip: One concern I’ve seen with the pitch clock is that it will hurt the tension late in close games because there won’t be time for that tension to build. Having just come off of watching a bonkers finale to the Jays/Angels series I gotta say that is unfounded, for me at least. I found the opposite, that when the batters were at two strikes or the pitcher was at three balls I got hyper aware of the clock in a way that ratcheted it up. A whole new dimension and thing to stress about in the moment. It was great.

Ben Clemens: I’m with you on this, but I am going to give it more time to see how I feel after, I don’t know, 30 close and late games

Ben Clemens: I find clocks often add to tension, but I’m gonna let myself watch a lot of games to find out

Greg: Going to Busch for the first time this Thursday and Saturday.

Any seating recommendations? Food recommendations within the stadium? Outside the stadium bar/restaurant/area recommendations? Stuff to do in STL outside of the Cardinals?

Ben Clemens: Weirdly, I haven’t been to Busch very often; I don’t live in St. Louis, and I went a lot more when I was a kid. I usually sit down the first base line, I just like those seats in general, but I got the sense that the whole lower bowl had pretty decent views. I got a pastrami hot dog (which is a hot dog with pastrami on top of it) on the recommendation of some Cardinals fan friends, and I don’t really know the stadium scene that well

Guest: Matt  Mervis seems to be building a case for a starting gig with the Cubs with only Hosmer in his way — anything to note here in a dynasty format or should we temper our excitement?

Ben Clemens: Worth keeping an eye on. Hosmer is not going to stop the Cubs from playing Mervis if they think he needs the ML reps

Ben Clemens: I know that sounds like one of those empty analyst promises, but I really think that’s the case here

Yeah Well Hiura Towel: The Rays have 37 plate appearances this year from a batter with a wRC+ less than 132. Out of 351 plate appearances.

Ben Clemens: I mean… it’s a little early for stats like this, but yeah, it is true, they are hitting very well to start out

David: How many games do you see the Braves winning the East by this year? Seems like the Mets aren’t the contenders we thought and the Phillies are more of a fluke

Ben Clemens: It’s April

Erik: Nick Castellanos has the highest K% among qualified hitters and has yet to record a barrel. He’s on the wrong side of 30 and is coming off a down year. How worried should Phillies fans be that he’s already cooked?

Ben Clemens: It’s April… but they should be really worried, b/c he was bad last year too

El Tim: April, but Giancarlo is running an 11% K rate and still hitting the snot out of the ball. Is he just on one of his heaters, or is something going on there?

Ben Clemens: To me, I’m gonna assume he’s on one of those heaters until he keeps it going longer. He’s always been really streaky

Sir Nerdlington: An anonymous owner says analytics are a ‘road to nowhere’ and Manfred agrees. I understand the ultimate zero sum nature of it all, but how do you legislate out teams competing with one another for an edge?

Ben Clemens: You don’t

Ben Clemens: That’s just Manfred throwing some red meat to the old guard

JB: should i give up the dream on Michael Massey already? i thought i might get a nice , 30 combined HR/SB guy to fill in for Altuve, but it hasnt gone well so far and he isnt getting consistent PT. Is the talent there to bet on the talent even though he plays for a trash organization , or do i cut bait?

Ben Clemens: I’m more worried about the playing time than the early production

Kyle: 14 Team H2h Cat league (QS/W/K/K9/WHIP/ERA) – Jose Suarez or German Marquez going forward?

Ben Clemens: Suarez if you need them to be on the roster the whole time and are’nt crazy deep. You can’t use him when he’s in Coors, so it’s just a really frustrating roster spot

Farhandrew Zaidman: Dodger fans have been screaming to take Muncy out of the 4 hole. But how much does lineup construction ACTUALLY affect run production over the course of 162?

Ben Clemens: Not much as long as you exclude things like batting Freeman 8th and Betts 9th

Ben Clemens: It’s more about making players and fans happy, imo

shortstop: LAA relievers are top 5 (best) in barrel% and EV, but top 5 (worst) in BABIP. They are also 29th in WPA. Is this a problem area for them, or are they getting unlucky with timing and batted ball luck?

Ben Clemens: Way too early to be making staff-level conclusions on something like this. I think about the same about their bullpen as I did before the season — which, to be fair, means that I think it’s very bad and might be the worst in baseball

Yeah Well Hiura Towel: Ben Clemens loves fake baseball, got it

Ben Clemens: Fake baseball, real baseball, I love baseball

Chris: Odds that the Mets or Phillies overcome injuries to catch the Braves?

Ben Clemens: Our playoff odds say 32% overall

Ben Clemens: Seems…. close enough to me

Farhandrew Zaidman: Talking about pitchers who have a clear stuff improvement – Pablo Lopez added a sweeper and it’s DESTROYING righties right now.

Ben Clemens: I haven’t written about him yet, and it sounds like BP has something coming out on the sweeper specifically tomorrow so I’m probably not gonna write the same thing

Ben Clemens: But yeah, he’s awesome. I have always liked Pablo, liked the trade for the Twins, feeling good about him looking good early in the year

Jack: I’m annoyed by Sean Murphy’s playing time and considering dropping him for Logan O’Hoppe – how crazy am I

Ben Clemens: Yeah, kinda crazy

bosoxforlife: Who might the Red Sox have to give up to try to get Jo Adell, who is blocked in LA, if Duvall is seriously injured?

Ben Clemens: Ooh, interesting question. I’m not sure I think Adell can play center, but given that I also think that about Duvall, that’s probably fine

Ben Clemens: As for what they’d have to give up, it’s an awkward fit b/c the Angels are weakest up the middle defensively, and the Red Sox aren’t exactly swimming in options there either

Ben Clemens: Maybe a nice cost-controlled reliever, or a swingman type? Tanner Houck or something? I dunno, I haven’t given this a lot of thought and I am overall not great at generating prospective trade ideas without putting a lot of time into it

Krusty: Kodai Senga’s ghost fork: it’s been outstanding so far, but how quickly do we think MLB hitters adjust to it? and how well?

Ben Clemens: I don’t think there’s a lot of reason to think they’re going to suddenly start crushing it, but I also don’t think you can expect it to perform better than Ohtani’s splitter or something of that nature

Biggest Card’s fan: Jordan Walker!! Seriously though he looks great,  but are you worried about his groundball rate at all? He seems to nail the ball into the ground a lot.

Ben Clemens: Nah, too early to be worried about something like that

Shawn: Hello how do you tell if a batter is groundball hitter or a flyball hitter. Pitchers also?

Ben Clemens: From the data it’s pretty easy. If you have to do it from first principles, you’d have to look at the batter’s swing path and the pitches the pitcher throws. Sinkers and changeups tend to get grounders; generally, things that have downward vertical movement (excluding gravity) lead to more grounders

Guest: I know it only a week but do you think Jose Miranda and Oscar Gonzalez will turn things around

Ben Clemens: I’m more bullish on Miranda than Gonzalez. I didn’t really believe in Gonzalez last year, and I did in Miranda, so I’m just letting those continue

Jazzy: EXISTENCE IS A ROAD TO NOWHERE

Ben Clemens: Why do anything

Oaktown Blues: A’s have had some terrible SP performances so far between Fujinami, Waldichuk, and Kaprielian. Which of that group (if any) do you expect to bounce back and pitch decently this year?

Ben Clemens: I have the most hope for Fujinami, just because he’s going through the biggest adjustment

Alan: Re: Busch & St. Louis, I’ve sat all over the stadium and never found a bad seat, especially in April before it gets too hot. Ballpark Village offers some mediocre food and entertainment, but there are better restaurants around if you don’t mind a bit of a walk. The best food and entertainment exists outside of downtown, though, so if you have transportation, you should head toward the Central West End, The Grove, South Grand, etc.

Ben Clemens: Some food answers!

Derek: The home plate umpire made Nestor Cortez black out white lettering on his white glove. I have never seen anyone do that before, and pitchers pitch with white on their gloves all the time. Just wanted to know your thoughts on this.

Ben Clemens: I’m fine with it b/c I totally understand the reasoning behind banning white detailing on gloves

Ben Clemens: I think it should be more consistently enforced

bosoxforlife: Do you trust Toronto’s rotation? Berrios has looked like he is toast, Bassitt is no guarantee and I don’t think Kikuchi belongs in a big league rotation.

Ben Clemens: I abbbbbsolutely do not trust it

Ben Clemens: I don’t hate Kikuchi as a 5/6 starter type, because there are limits to what you can expect from that, but I’m kinda down on Bassitt given that he seems to not be adjusting very well to the pitch clock (from my limited views of his starts)

Ben Clemens: Berrios, yeah…. I’ve picked him to win the Cy Young before

Ben Clemens: what a collapse

Matt Damon: MATT. DAMON.

Matt Arnold: Should I think this start for the Brewers is sustainable? Best start in franchise history a year ago and we know how it ended. Is there reason to believe in the Brewers > Cardinals?

Ben Clemens: You should probably not think it’s sustainable, because they have a .365 team OBP, and their highest season-long mark in the last decade is .329

Ben Clemens: Sustainable in terms of winning the Central? totally

Yo-Yo: STL’s pitching looks quite bad. Wainwright and his lesser velocity probably won’t help much. With a four game lead, the Brewers are the likely NLC winners, right? STL probably isn’t four games better than MIL going forward.

Ben Clemens: Lol everyone is ready to just skip the next six months of baseball after 11 days

Yeah Well Hiura Towel: Is Yoshida’s power on its way, or is he just an OBP guy?

Ben Clemens: OBP guys

Daniel: How worried are you about Corbin Burnes? He has…not been good this season.

Ben Clemens: Not worried yet but starting to warm up the worry-o-meter

shortstop: What stats do you look for at this point in the season to cut through SSS noise? Statcast, plate discipline, etc. or is it all just noise at this point?

Ben Clemens: I look at plate discipline first for sure. Not necessarily to say it’s real and going to stick, but I look for changes. I look at batted ball distribution, guys who are lifting the ball a lot more or a lot less than they used to are interesting. New pitches, big changes in stuff, that kinda thing. I try to look at the most process-driven stuff and then I’ll expand out as there are more games

The Real Ben Clemens: hot take: Vinnie Pasquantino is the funniest MLBer right now and also will probably be an excellent hitter this year

Ben Clemens: I’m not sure that EITHER of these is a hot take

Ben Clemens: in other words, I agree

I Would Die 4 YU: I’m kinda worried about the coming AI singularity.
What can we be doing today to ensure our future AI overlords enjoy baseball on some level and allow us to continue MLB?

Ben Clemens: I think baseball has an edge on other sports because it feels more computer-y

Ben Clemens: Maybe we could rename Ohtani ShohAI OhtAI and appeal to their vanity

Phanatic: Does Jose Alvarado get a chance to close games for the Phillies any time soon? Worth a speculative add in a 12 teamer H2H 5×5 or would you prioritize Puk or Fulmer?

Ben Clemens: I think he’ll get a chance against some lefty-heavy ninth inning lineups

Ben Clemens: Whether that’s worth holding onto him for is up to you

Jacob: Matt Vierling looks like he’s found a way to hit balls hard in the air, Greene and Work are both hitting the ball hard, Carpenter seems to be carrying over what he did at the end of last year, are the bones of a good Tigers offense there if you really really squint?

Ben Clemens: Yeah, they are. I’m not completely bought in yet, of course, but I think you put it well. The bones are there, I like to look for things that could work out and Vierling/Greene/Tork all are showing flashes that make me interested

Darren: Thoughts on Miguel Vargas’s chances for appearances and production this season given the small sample size we have seen?

Ben Clemens: Appearances? I’m feeling good

Ben Clemens: It’s a really awkward lineup construction, too many good players, but I don’t think Trayce Thompson is gonna play vs. righties every day, and I think the Mookie at second experiment is too cute by half and won’t last the entire season

Ben Clemens: Production? Too soon to say but I’m loving the plate discipline without becoming excessively passive

Guest: What’s the craziest overreaction to the first 1.5 weeks of the season you’ve seen? There probably are some pretty good ones.

Ben Clemens: Anything about the Rays either being one of the best teams ever, or of needing to ignore their results b/c they were against bad teams

Spring Training is Stupid: Luis Garcia looked competent in spring training and has since been an absolute mess. Maeda looked like he couldn’t throw a strike and now looks fine. Sigh

Ben Clemens: Yeah, but THESE 11 days, let’s draw a lot of signal from them

Ben Clemens: That’ll fix things

Trendy or Spiffy?: Are Cease and Strider bringing back the mustache? Is it here to stay?

Ben Clemens: Matt Carpenter slander

Ben Clemens: but yeah, I don’t think baseball players will ever give up goofy mustaches

Ben Clemens: the younger generation is carrying the torch

JG6: You have the choice between 3 players:  a 2 WAR utility guy that play anywhere except pitcher and catcher, a 6 WAR 150 wRC+ type that only gets hits and walks in low leverage (ignore pinch hitting), or a 2 way player with 10 WAR hitter and 8 WAR pitching talent thats only healthy for a random 10% of games.

Ben Clemens: wow

Ben Clemens: This is probably too involved of a question to answer at the speed I’m taking these with

Ben Clemens: But I’m gonna try anyway

Ben Clemens: I think I’d take the 2 way player b/c I think I could get enough other value out of the roster spot when he’s hurt

Ben Clemens: the utility guy is tempting though

Ben Clemens: I guess it depends on how you define leverage, the second player is really hard to evaluate naturally

LouBob: Luis Robert has been the third most valuable position player in baseball without drawing a walk so far. Is there any reason to think he might ever get more patient or should we just take him for what he is at this point (read: still immensely valuable)

Ben Clemens: Yeah, I don’t think he’s going to suddenly learn how to take walks after this long but that’s just fine

Re: Trilemma: You have to take the 6 WAR guy and hope someone is clutch while he produces. Basically Pirates Barry Bonds

Ben Clemens: I think it depends a lot on how the leverage works

Ben Clemens: What if he only produces when you’re up or down 5 runs?

Brandon Belt: If I fell out of a boat, what would I hit?

Ben Clemens: About a buck eighty

Guest: Buying any of the Geraldo Perdomo early season success?

Ben Clemens: Nah not yet

Farhandrew Zaidman: Yonathan Daza appears to be a legit .300ish hitter who can stick in CF. Do we just forget about him/exclude him because Coors? Or does the no pop hurt him that much in an evaluation sense?

Ben Clemens: Little bit of both I think

bosoxforlife: What is your opinion of Hunter Renfroe? This trade is the #1 reason Bloom lost Red Sox Nation when he sent him to the Brewers for the corpse of JBJ and and 2 doubtful prospects.

Ben Clemens: Eh, not particuarly bought in

Ben Clemens: I think the trade is a six of one half dozen of another deal, just moving deck chairs around

Alan: No question, really, just wanted to say how impressed I’ve been with Jordan Walker. Small samples and all, but for all the concerns about the swing and miss in his game, the dude is only sporting an 18.9 K%, and to my untrained eye looks like he just has such a great approach, especially for a 20 year old.

Ben Clemens: Him not falling on his face has to be a great sign

Ben Clemens: There’s always uncertainty in going from Double A to the bigs

Oaktown Blues: A’s only giving Nick Allen the short side of the platoon at SS is a weird choice for his development, right? Do you think it indicates their feeling that he’ll never hit enough to be a starter?

Ben Clemens: Yeah verrrrry weird choice. I agree that they seem to have given up on him being a first division starter

JK: There seem to be so many positives for the Giants, even with their 4-5 record – 7 players hitting above 120 wRC+, Disco and Manea look great, Webb looks like himself – am I being a homer or does it feel/look like they have something here to be a solid Wild Card contender?

Ben Clemens: Nah, I feel the same way

Ben Clemens: I was digging through some Giants numbers this weekend and going ‘hey this could totally work’

Ben Clemens: Not like they’re automatically great or anything, but records can be deciving early in the year, I like looking at whether I’m worried about core things with core players, and I think Webb’s performance has been good, Conforto has shown some pop

Ben Clemens: If you were making a checklist of things that would have to go right for the Giants to be good this year, there are positive signs on a lot of those things so far

Ben Clemens: It’s early, obviously

bosoxforlife: I am angry at you Ben, It is 70 degrees and you are making me spend an hour on the chat instead of doing the required gardening here in the State of Champions. Quinnipiac won the Frozen Four Saturday after the UConn men swept the floor with all their competition,

Ben Clemens: Saw one of my out-of-town friends this weekend, he’s a big UConn fan. He mentioned that they’ve won 5 men’s NCAA titles since 1999, the most in the country. That’s wild

Appa Yip Yip: Bo Bichette’s problems at short have less to do with his range than his arm, yea or nah?

Ben Clemens: Yes. He’s scattershot

Won’tson: While we’re jumping to conclusions too early, is it okay if I note that the Cubs let a catcher who isn’t stellar with pitchers go to their division rival, only for the Cards’ ERA to blow up while the Cubs’ has gone down?

Ben Clemens: You can note it, but I’m not gonna care

Ben Clemens: That cardinals pitching staff is ewwwwwwwwww

Ben Clemens: You could put Molina back there and like, those pitchers would still not be good

A-wristed Development: I don’t even like the Red Sox and I thought the Duvall injury is a bummer. How do they replace that production?

Ben Clemens: I think that if they are serious about contending this year, they need to replace it via trade. If they’re not…. I guess they’ll just use Jarren Duran or something

Ben Clemens: I even kinda like Duran, but I think you want more than that if you’re serious about winning this year

Activate Polymerization: If you fused the Miami pitching staff with the Cardinals hitting line-up you have a frightening team.

Ben Clemens: If you fused the Cardinals hitting lineup with a league average pitching staff you’d have a fearsome team. But yeah that’d be fun!

Yo-Yo: Do you think Walker is better than Carlson in 2023? Walker’s bat looks as good as his defense looks bad (second-worst DRS in MLB).

Ben Clemens: Way too early to pay much attention to defensive metrics, they’re still noisy at hte season-long level, but I agree he’s looked bad out there

Ben Clemens: I’d take Walker over Carlson ROS though, even despite that. Let Walker DH some too

Appa Yip Yip: Forgot the second part of the Bichette question. Moving him to second doesn’t seem like it would help?

Ben Clemens: Yeah, I mean, the main way it’d help is to give him fewer plays and generally with more margin

Ben Clemens: From my amateur-ish evaluation of his problems, he seems to be most scattershot when he has to rush and put everything behind it

Mustache Mayhem: Date, marry, kill. Cease, Strider, Carpenter

Ben Clemens: Date Cease, marry Strider, kill Carpenter; sorry Matt, I’m a pitching kinda guy

I’m just Wandering: So far this season Wander Franco has a 21.9% barrel rate and 16.8 launch angle (up from 9.7 and 8.2 the past two seasons). Is it realistic to expect him to become a consistent home run threat or do you think these are more likely just early season aberrations?

Ben Clemens: I’d say early season aberrations if you made me pick one or the other, but I think he could be a 25-30 HR guy even if things cool down on the barrel front

Vandy Boys: Is Charlie Morton cooked? The command hasn’t been there so far (only 2 starts). The stuff still looks like it’s there, so I’m loath to give up without giving it another month

Ben Clemens: I’m extremely worried about this

Ben Clemens: I was worried about it already last year

Ben Clemens: Ooh, Hanser Alberto home run

Ben Clemens: I think that’s a sign that it’s time to end the chat

Ben Clemens: Hope your day is more like Alberto (3-run homer) than Maeda (allowed 3-run homer to Alberto) today