Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat – 4/13/20

April 13, 2020

2:01	Ben Clemens: Hey everyone, and welcome to the chat.

2:01	Ben Clemens: Today we’ll surely cover some of the various permutations of here’s-how-we-baseball plans.

2:01	Ben Clemens: Maybe some OOTP Brewers as well.

2:01	Ben Clemens: Plus, as always, plenty of room for nonsense.

2:01	Ben Clemens: Let’s go!

2:02	Adam: Odds on there being a minor league “season” have to be below 25% right?

2:02	Ben Clemens: Uh, yeah, for sure.

2:02	Ben Clemens: That’s really weird to think about, because baseball usually means all baseball.

2:03	Ben Clemens: But just looking at the hoops MLB is talking about jumping through to get the major leaguers to play, there’s no way they are doing anything similar for minor leaguers.

2:03	Ben Clemens: You might see some shuttle squads of players who play enough to keep in shape for call-ups

2:03	Ben Clemens: Instructs and back field scrimmages and such

2:03	Ben Clemens: If one of the Spring Training-centric plans goes forward.

2:03	Ben Clemens: But like, regular minor league season? How?

2:04	Desperate parent: Ben, thanks for doing these chats and keeping some normalcy! I have two teenage daughters and want to get them into board games. We currently enjoy playing Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, and similar games. Do you have any suggestions for games that are a step up strategically?

2:04	Ben Clemens: Ooh I think Ticket to Ride is already awesome.

2:04	Ben Clemens: There’s a lot of fun depth there, and it’s also a fun theme for me.

2:05	Ben Clemens: I’m assuming it’s the three of you playing, or potentially four, so games that hit that amount of players well:

2:05	Ben Clemens: I played Carcassonne for the first time ever this weekend and it was quite fun

2:05	Ben Clemens: Played it on an online board game site, boardgameareana, because I’m a big nerd.

2:06	Ben Clemens: I absolutely love Aeon’s End, which is a cooperative game, and then I know people like Dominion, which is similarly styled but competitive.

2:06	Ben Clemens: Seven Wonders is pretty fun with four as well.

2:06	Ben Clemens: Ticket to Ride is awesome, though, this makes me want to play it again.

2:06	Jerome: Good piece today on the AZ/FL plan. If games begin on, say, July 4th, when should the season end? I don’t see why they couldn’t play through November, thus making negating the doubleheaders issue. When is the latest date the season could end?

2:06

Magic Kingdome: Wouldn’t the easiest solution to the FL-AZ plan be one team gets a day off but also plays a doubleheader that same week (against another team that gets a doubleheader that week)? Weekend day offs really do not matter with all teams so close and no fans attending in person. P.S. Fangraphs Ad-Free is fantastic.

2:08	Ben Clemens: So if they can start on July 4 and are going to play 108 games a team, they could do that entire slate without double headers in 116 days with a team getting an off day every day.

2:08	Ben Clemens: That would have the season end on October 28th assuming no rain-related nonsense delays the very end.

2:09	Ben Clemens: That’s probably the very limit of doable, because that’s pushing up against games in December. But that’s possible if they can start right on July 4.

2:09	Ben Clemens: That would negate the whole double header issue, which is nice.

2:10	Ben Clemens: As to the second question, that’s one of the two solutions I think could work. I still don’t see why you wouldn’t split 16/14, but if you don’t want to, I think the day off plus doubleheader plan is the way to go.

2:10	Ben Clemens: And yeah, Ad Free makes the website really hum. I’ve had it for a while now, because I was a person who ran a lot of queries for my own curiosity long before I was a writer here.

2:11	Ben Clemens: To the point where I had kind of forgotten that I had it until we started this most recent membership drive.

2:11	Ben Clemens: But yeah it’s great!

2:11	Appa Yip Yip: For anyone else who panic bought a cabbage because they last forever and now just have a whole cabbage in the fridge – 8 equal wedges, salt and olive oil both sides, lay them flat on a baking sheet and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, flipping halfway.

2:11	Appa Yip Yip: Oh, at 425

2:11	Ben Clemens: This sounds pretty great.

2:12	Ben Clemens: We’ve been making a lot of broccoli and cauliflower recently but don’t have any cabbage. But if we did, I’d try to make this. Baked veggies with a good amount of olive oil are awesome.

2:12	Brian: Any rumblings on how teams may treat those prospects who normally would have had their service time manipulated (i.e. Pearson, Howard, Carlson, potentially Adell/Gore)?

2:13	Ben Clemens: I haven’t heard of anything at all yet on that front aside from the initial agreement.

2:13	Ben Clemens: That said, that agreement calls for service time to be given out proportionally.

2:13	Ben Clemens: If I’m understanding it right, if you play in half of your team’s games, that’s half a season’s days of service time, and so on.

2:13	Ben Clemens: So there’ll still be a Super Two deadline to game, it’ll just be a smaller number of games.

2:14	Ben Clemens: So normally that’s 172 days out of the 187 in a league year.

2:15	Ben Clemens: If the new season is, to use my earlier math, 108 games in 116 days, teams could avoid a full year of service time by keeping their players down for ten days.

2:15	Ben Clemens: That sucks! Service time manipulation is lame.

2:16	Ben Clemens: But they’ll probably do it.

2:16	Nolan: MLB Network has been running a lot of old games recently to fill their schedule. What is the single game from the last 50 years you would most like to see?

2:16	Ben Clemens: I’ve been pondering this question in the queue for a few minutes now, so if other people have good answers let me know.

2:18	Ben Clemens: I think I’m going with the Kirk Gibson home run game.

2:18	Ben Clemens: It was before my time (I was only 3 then), so I don’t remember it live, but it would be absolutely thrilling to experience live.

2:18	John: Arizona is super hot. Seems like you would want games out there at 8-9 am start times which would get you games in EST at 11-12 pm start time. Florida games would need probably need to be at night because of the afternoon rains. Agree/disagree?

2:19	Ben Clemens: Totally agree. I talked about this a bit with Eric to vet the Arizona side, and he was a little skeptical that you’d be able to play every day, because it does get really hot sometimes, but if you did play it’d be morning and night.

2:19	Ben Clemens: On the Florida side, yeah, basically all evening games.

2:20	Ben Clemens: I personally like the post-rain feeling in the Southeastern summer, that seems like great baseball weather

2:20	Ben Clemens: That said, I’m from Tennessee, not Florida, so the heat and humidity are both a bit lower.

2:20	Ben Clemens: I think that’d work though.

2:20	pirates hurdles: 1960 WS game 7 was really fun to watch, lots of scoring, back and forth. Enjoyed the 2013 NLWC game too, tons of emotion from 20 years of losing flushed in one night.

2:21	Ben Clemens: Yeah the 2013 NLWC game was my pick for best game you can watch on youtube right now:

2:21	Ben Clemens: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/our-favorite-games-to-rewatch-part-1/

2:21	Ben Clemens: Boy that game was fun.

2:21	Ben Clemens: I’m not a Pirates fan, either.

2:21	Ben Clemens: It was just awesome.

2:22	Davey: Passan said on ESPN just now it’s Arizona or bust for the season— thoughts?

2:22	Ben Clemens: So, I have to assume these plans are still fluid, and that the thikning could change if a new logistical plan comes out.

2:23	Ben Clemens: To me, the big sticking point is the isolation side.

2:23	Ben Clemens: I do like the AZ/FL plan better when it comes to tv viewing

2:23	Ben Clemens: But if one or the other plan handles the isolation/logistics side better, they just have to go with that.

2:24	Ben Clemens: That part of the equation is WAY harder than working out a schedule with 15 teams or seeing if the East Coast can get night tv games or whatever

2:24	Aceman: Clemens K’s 17 first game back at Boston

2:24

John: games Id like to see: Reggie Jackson 3 hr World Series game, fosse/rose all star game, any sidd finch spring training outing, the first few games of Stephen strasburgs career, fernando tatis game with 2 grand slams off same pitcher in same inning, any game from Mr Goodens inaugural season, the Carlton Fisk WS game

2:24	Ben Clemens: The first Strasburg game was one of the ones I was thinking about for my best game available to watch column.

2:25	Ben Clemens: I watched that live on TV with two friends who are big Nats fans.

2:25	Ben Clemens: Their giddiness was just awesome.

2:25	Ben Clemens: They were basically bouncing off the walls, just like the entire stadium.

2:25	Ben Clemens: It’s interesting; when I go to a game in person, I often just want a nice afternoon at the stadium.

2:25	Ben Clemens: But there’s really something about going to a charged atmosphere for a baseball game.

2:26	Ben Clemens: I thikn because so much of the sport is built around anticipation?

2:26	Ben Clemens: But the whole place feels like it’s about to explode the entire time, it’s awesome. Playoff baseball is so fun in person, and the Strasburg game was like that.

2:26	#1 Flan: Recs for baseball books to read? I just finished “Nine Innings” and “Summer of ’49”, and I can’t get enough!!

2:27	Ben Clemens: So I’m going to avoid the textbook-y types here: Hidden Game of Baseball and The Book are both awesome if you want those, but I’m assuming you have a different vibe in mind.

2:28	Ben Clemens: Given that, let’s see: The Arm, The Only Rule is it Has to Work, and Triumph and Tragedy in Mudville by Stephen Jay Gould are some of my all time favorites.

2:28	Ben Clemens: Plus everything Roger Angell of course, that almost goes without saying.

2:28	Trent: The 2013 NLWC was pretty miserable to watch for us Reds fans. And to add insult to injury, Fangraphs didn’t even spell Cincinnati correctly in the piece you linked.

2:29	Ben Clemens: Oh my! The pain.

2:29	Ben Clemens: But yes, that game was, uh, not great for Reds fans.

2:29	Derek: The Wax Pack (discussed on Effectively Wild) came out last week I think (what is time?). I’m about 85% of the way through it and it has been an extremely enjoyable read so far!

2:29	Ben Clemens: I’ve ordered it based on listening to that interview.

2:29	Ben Clemens: Also, I’m going to crack into Eric and Kiley’s book, Future Value, soon.

2:30	Ben Clemens: But that’s more of a nuts-and-bolts kind of thing. Something I still like, and if you’re into that genre, Dollar Sign on the Muscle is still great.

2:30	Ben Clemens: But different genre than the narrative type ones.

2:30	Ben Clemens: Off topic, but Cincinnati is the city I misspell most frequently, and it’s not close.

2:31	Ben Clemens: I’m not even sure what would come in second.

2:31	Dan: I wonder if anyone is paying attention to pro baseball in Taiwan (CPBL). They just started the season with empty stadium; it’s the only pro baseball going on right now. Some former major league players (mostly pitchers) are playing there.

2:31	Ben Clemens: I almost joined a CPBL fantasy league.

2:31	Ben Clemens: I could use some dang real baseball in my life.

2:32	Ben Clemens: That said, I didn’t watch Opening Day. I’ve watched a few of the KBO scrimmages though, Sung Min Kim has been awesome about getting the word out when they’re streaming.

2:32	Magic Kingdome: When does MLB take the H-O-R-S-E route and set up remote HR derbies? They can use minimum standardized dimensions with temporary fencing to make it fair (and even adjust for elevation so the Rockies player waiting it out in the Denver suburbs does not automatically win).

2:33	Ben Clemens: I actually think the trash-talking MLB The Show league is a better format than virtual HR derby.

2:33	Ben Clemens: I’d watch a HORSE-style trick hit competition, though I doubt many would.

2:33	Ben Clemens: Put a bucket on second base and pop a ball into it, that kind of thing.

2:33	Ben Clemens: But I’m not sure that HR derby would really work in a remote format.

2:34	pirates hurdles: Having been there, it was the 1st time I watched it on TV when local sports channel reran a few weeks ago. Amazing what you forget in just 7 years lol

2:34	Ben Clemens: Yeah I rewatched about half of the games we suggested. I’d seen some of them live, but watching games years later is a really different experience.

2:35

Derek: It’s great to be able to talk about potentially playing baseball again, but it still seems like all of the logistical hurdles you wrote about last week seem… “insurmountable” feels strong and depressing, but… insurmountable. The isolating/testing/separation from families all seem like dealbreakers and I haven’t really seen any solid plans covering any of them. It sucks, but all this scheduling talk seems almost pointless in the absence of plans for the logistical side of things.

2:35	Ben Clemens: Yeah… I think that without more details, it’s hard to like any plan.

2:36	Ben Clemens: Like, most of what people are talking about is how to play the baseball.

2:36	Ben Clemens: MLB isn’t going out there and saying how many rubber gloves they’d need or anything.

2:36	Ben Clemens: I imagine that behind the scenes, that’s a lot of what they’re working on, and that the reason we’re seeing leaks of various plans is just to test public opinion.

2:37	Ben Clemens: I get the sense that if they actually announce they’re coming back, it will be with a well-engineered plan that’s seen a lot of stress testing.

2:37	Ben Clemens: The PR disaster if some of the support employees or coaches or whatnot get sick or die is just not something they could handle.

2:37	Ben Clemens: Nevermind actual criminal liability.

2:39	TKDC: If there is no season, how will the 2021 draft order be determined?

2:39	Ben Clemens: Hm. I guess based on 2019 finishing order?

2:39	Ben Clemens: I kind of think that if the whole season is canceled there might not be a draft this year.

2:39	Ben Clemens: You could imagine that as a good excuse.

2:40	Ben Clemens: But if they do, I still don’t see how they get away from just running the order back.

2:40

Dan: Looks like CPBL games will be streamed online for free from official team accounts. Games take place early morning ET. I guess this could be an opportunity for this league that has never received any attention outside Taiwan. I heard Baseball-reference will start to include stats from this league. Wonder if Fangraph will consider it as well!

2:41

Ben Clemens: Not sure on the stats front; that’s not a side of our site that I work on, but we have stats providers and such, and I dunno how that works for various foreign leagues. That said, watching and talking about it seems right up our alley, and maybe that aligns with the stats; who knows. Taiwan is really baseball crazy, though, so I bet it’d be fun to watch.

2:41	John: The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book. My favorite baseball book ever

2:42	Ben Clemens: I hadn’t heard of this book, so I just googled it, and this game looks sweet!

2:43	Ben Clemens: Sorry, this book

2:43	Ben Clemens: I love old baseball cards.

2:43	Ben Clemens: I think this is more Paul Sporer’s domain than mine, but I’ve started playing Perfect Team in OOTP (it’s a little minigame competition kind of thing)

2:43	Ben Clemens: And the best part of it is that you get your 26-man roster by opening packs of baseball cards.

2:44	Ben Clemens: Makes me feel like a little kid again.

2:44	Boof Bonser: When’s the next FG Live Show stream? Is there a tag or schedule posted in advance?

2:45	Ben Clemens: Asking Dan and Paul about it now; I don’t think we have a schedule posted just yet, though we will soon.

2:45	Ben Clemens: Hopefully!

2:46	Ben Clemens: But we’ll definitely be streaming a game this week, and I’m going to try my potentially-disastrous solo stream of OOTP decision-making as well.

2:46	Ben Clemens: I’ll come back to this later in the chat after talking to them.

2:46	John: Phillies beat the cubs 23-22 may 17 1979. It’s a got some good hitting

2:46	Ben Clemens: Time for some peripheral connections to various things.

2:46	Ben Clemens: First, uh, that’s awesome.

2:46	Ben Clemens: Yes, I’d watch that.

2:47	Ben Clemens: I’m not usually a fan of, say, a 14-7 game.

2:47	Ben Clemens: But 23-22 is amazing.

2:47	Ben Clemens: Second, my OOTP Brewers lost to the Mets over the weekend 26-1

2:47	Ben Clemens: Just like, what?

2:47	Ben Clemens: I can’t even…

2:47	Ben Clemens: I’m going to write about it this week, because trying to imagine how a 26-1 game happens is amusing.

2:47	Ben Clemens: And potentially more fun than 23-22.

2:48	Derek: Sounds like that Brewers team needs a new manager!

2:48	Derek: Oh wait…

2:48	Ben Clemens: We’re all fired!

2:49	Ben Clemens: They did come back to win the next day, but woof.

2:49	Ben Clemens: RIP, Pythagorean record

2:49	Sammi from a Brooklyn Park Bench: Who is up sooner and who has the better career out of Mountcastle and Oneil Cruz? Comps?

2:50	Ben Clemens: Normally, I’d just say ask Eric.

2:50	Ben Clemens: That said, I happen to have looked up Cruz recently after hearing how much Eric likes him.

2:51	Ben Clemens: Big fan of his comp in our top 100; Giannis Antetokounmpo

2:51	Ben Clemens: In that he almost seems like an alien, because he doesn’t make sense for the position.

2:52	Ben Clemens: Up sooner is trickier, because it comes down to how long the Orioles are willing to hold Mountcastle down. He’s presumably ready now given how bad the major league Orioles are and his last two minor league seasons.

2:52	Ben Clemens: But the thing with Cruz is that his upside is so high

2:53	Ben Clemens: And his floor might actually be higher than you think too, because he’s big and fast.

2:53	Ben Clemens: And massively powerful.

2:53	MikeL: Would NL teams object to having all games played with a DH? AL teams are constructed based on a DH. NL teams are constructed based on double switches. Neither league would want to play using the other league’s rules without adequate preparation in the off season.

2:53	Ben Clemens: I mean, they might. It’s just way down the list of things that they should care about.

2:53	Ben Clemens: Like, that’s definitely a smaller deal than being transported into a tougher division.

2:54	Ben Clemens: I think that there’s just no chance the DH will be a sticking point.

2:54	Ben Clemens: If there can be baseball, baseball teams will make it happen.

2:54	Ben Clemens: Imagine being the GM complaining about the marginal disadvantage you’re getting in 40% of your games, and your owner is going to lose $100 million or whatever if the TV contracts get scuttled.

2:54	Ben Clemens: DH is just too small of an issue to cause a hangup.

2:56	Sam: Game to watch: the 33 inning Pawtucket-Rochester game. I would love to hear the broadcasters by the time you hit 20+ innings

2:57	Ben Clemens: Oh man, I’ve read about this but haven’t seen it.

2:57	Ben Clemens: I do not think I’d listen/watch.

2:57	Ben Clemens: But it’s great as a piece of baseball trivia.

2:57	Chris: Is Corey seager going to be good this year? I have a fantasy draft coming up!!

2:57	Ben Clemens: Missed this one earlier.

2:58	Ben Clemens: I’m kinda down on him relative to projection systems.

2:58	Ben Clemens: The lineup is great, but the stadium is bad.

2:59	Ben Clemens: Let’s see — according to a quick look at fantasy pros adp, he’s the 19th shortstop off the board.

2:59	Ben Clemens: Hm, okay, maybe I’m in at that price.

3:01	Brian: Do you see the Rays platooning Vidal Brujan given his righty vs lefty splits or too early to tell?

3:02	Ben Clemens: I do! Not because his splits are super meaningful (he’s a switch hitter without a ton of PA’s), but because they’re big into platooning people where possible. I find platooning to be underused in the majors and the Rays excel at it.

3:03	Sammi from a Brooklyn Park Bench: Have you heard of any minor league clubs folding as a result of this shut down?

3:03	Ben Clemens: I haven’t yet. I’m sure it will happen. Minor league teams aren’t penniless, they’re not charity cases or anything, but I do think that some of their financial situations are dicey.

3:03	Ben Clemens: This is a step down but my step-cousin ran a wood bat summer league team in Wyoming for a while.

3:04	Ben Clemens: And yeah, it was a dang hassle, sounded like the whole thing was always on the verge of collapse and he was doing everything.

3:04	Ben Clemens: That’s far lower level than the minors, and I don’t think Triple-A teams will feel the heat, but short season A ball teams? Definitely

3:05	Ben Clemens: Small businesses, and businesses that make a lot of their money from attendance, are just going to be in huge trouble.

3:06	Ben Clemens: Minor league team, exercise studio, concert venue; gonna be rough.

3:07	Ben Clemens: I guess there’s some chance that the bailout will eventually lift all ships, or whatever.

3:07	Ben Clemens: But for now, and not to get political or anything, but it feels like the priorities have been a little window dressing for common people and then a ton of money for Fortune 500 type companies.

3:07	Ben Clemens: We’ll see if the loan program ends up being a bigger deal but I’ve heard of early issues with the loan approval pipeline, ugh.

3:08	See! You! Later!: Can you tell us about FanGraphs Prep?

3:08	Ben Clemens: I can tell you that we’re really excited about it and that the exact final shape it won’t take hasn’t been finalized yet, but that we’ve gotten some really good feedback on it, both positive and constructive, and are looking forward to it now more than ever.

3:09	Dave: The Rockies’ 8-7 win over the Padres in extra innings in the 2007 “play in” game would be discussed as one of the greatest games in history had it been Yankees – Red Sox.

3:09	Ben Clemens: This was the Matt Holliday game, I believe

3:10	Ben Clemens: Those Rockies were just ridiculous overall.

3:10	Ben Clemens: That was the Rocktober year, where they just wouldn’t lose, right until they ran into the Red Sox

3:10	Ben Clemens: And they played a lot of exciting games as well.

3:11	Ben Clemens: As the Rockies are wont to do. Coors is awesome.

3:12

Dave: Rockies get ahead 5-0 off Cy Young winner Peavy. Padres come back to tie. Padres go ahead by two in top of the 13th or 14th. Rockies win it with three in the bottom half off Trevor Hoffman. Winning run scores on Matt Holliday faceplant slide into home, and replays are inconclusive re whether he touched home plate or not.

3:12	Ben Clemens: “Replays are inconclusive” is a kind way of saying it, I was pretty sure he didn’t get it.

3:12	Ben Clemens: But yeah that game was awesome

3:13	Mountie Votto: Are the Reds a sneaky-strong contender in a shortened season? Pretty strong rotation 1 through 6, and some relievers who tend to fade over the course of a longer season.

3:13	Ben Clemens: I thikn that the fading thing might be a bit of an issue, because this season is going to be COMPRESSED

3:13	Ben Clemens: Like, reliever rest will be a real thing.

3:13	Ben Clemens: That said, yeah.

3:14	Ben Clemens: I think the Reds were contenders in a 162-game season.

3:14	Ben Clemens: The new structure would generally help them, give or take the division they land in if the AZ/FL plan wins.

3:15	Ben Clemens: Dan’s projected standings thing had them actually gaining a little from the new divisions:

3:15	Ben Clemens: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/projecting-the-cactus-grapefruit-league-st…

3:15	Ben Clemens: And heck, having a DH probably helps them.

3:15	Ben Clemens: Hide one of Castellanos or Winker there, for example.

3:15	Ben Clemens: So yes

3:15	Ben Clemens: I’d say yes.

3:15	Ben Clemens: I think the Reds are just good overall though.

3:15	Misspeleed: Albuquerque

3:16	Ben Clemens: Ooh, strong contender!

3:16	Ben Clemens: I write it much less often than I write cincy, which is a limiting factor, but dang look at all them vowels.

3:17	Mountie Votto: Definitely hide Castellanos at DH. Winker is passable in LF, it’s just that they tried to put him in CF for some reason and that was an abject disaster

3:17	Ben Clemens: I kiiiiind of buy Mike Petriello’s take that Castellanos isn’t as disastrous as we think in the field, and that a lot of his issue was a learning curve.

3:17	Ben Clemens: https://www.mlb.com/news/nicholas-castellanos-improving-outfield

3:19

Ben Clemens: If that’s the case, then you can kinda slot either in there. But either way, they built their team with more bats than can play, so an extra hitting position would be great. I already liked their construction because it was so redundant, but this would be a good way to get more talent on the field.

3:20	Misspeleed: The PHI/CHC 23-22 game also has Dave Kingman’s HR. Quite probable the longest in MLB history. Gotta know Wrigly, but OMG, three houses NORTH OF Waveland!

3:20	Ben Clemens: Jeez it seems like this game had everything.

3:20	blue: Rank: K. Wong, K. Newman, S. Castro

3:20	Ben Clemens: Is this for fantasy, or real life?

3:20	blue: fantasy

3:21	Ben Clemens: In fantasy I think they’re all really close.

3:21	Ben Clemens: You can use our handy auction calculator if you just want a rough cut of things:

3:22	Ben Clemens: https://www.fangraphs.com/auctiontool.aspx?type=2B&proj=steamer&pos=2,…

3:22	Ben Clemens: It has Newman>Wong>Castro but all in a very close tier to where it doesn’t matter much.

3:22	Ben Clemens: That said, I think I’d lean towards Castro, because he’s been going much later in drafts and you’re not giving much up there.

3:23	Ben Clemens: Think he gets enough playing time to make it worth it, and that Nats lineup should score some runs.

3:23	Ben Clemens: But it’s not soooooo good that he’s batting 8th or anything.

3:23	Ben Clemens: in fact:

3:23	Ben Clemens: RotoWire News: Manager Dave Martinez indicated Wednesday that Castro is the most likely candidate to open the season as the Nationals’ No. 3 hitter, Jesse Dougherty of The Washington Post reports. (3/11/2020)

3:23	Ben Clemens: like, nice!

3:24

Sammi from a Brooklyn Park Bench: Was having a discussion with my brother about steroids in baseball last night when he reminded me of a news clip in where Brett Boones says to the camera that he thinks steroids are OK if done responsibly. I vividly remember that interview and was like, wtf? I haven’t been able to locate it on the interwebs. Any suggestions?

3:24	Ben Clemens: Hm, I don’t remember this

3:25	Ben Clemens: Yeah, I dunno how you’d go about finding it.

3:25	Ben Clemens: Sorry!

3:25	2-D: For the Matt Holliday slide;

3:25	Ben Clemens: Lol

3:25	Ben Clemens: Worth a watch

3:26	Jeff: Re the Florida/Arizona plan how bout just go with no divisions have the top seven teams in both Florida and Arizona while playing teams in close proximity?

3:26	Ben Clemens: Hm, not sure I quite understand this, but yeah, I think it’s totally defensible to go away from divisions

3:27	BASEBALL SZN: A constant in Dan’s chats are updates about his seemingly ever-growing number of cats. Are there any pets in the Clemens household?

3:27	Ben Clemens: Oh my, there is one pet.

3:27	Ben Clemens: But she likely outweighs all of Dan’s cats combined.

3:27	Ben Clemens: We have a lovely pit/retriever mix named Ruby

3:28	Ben Clemens: She’s between 10 and 11 months old and weighs like 80 pounds.

3:28	Ben Clemens: Let me find a picture really quickly, but yeah, she’s the best.

3:30	Ben Clemens: https://imgur.com/a/xwa2hEM

3:30	Ben Clemens: Couldn’t figure out how to drop that into the chat directly, but there she is being happy at daycare.

3:30	BASEBALL SZN: I have an 11 month old beagle/retriever mix and she is also the best, so I know the feeling!

3:30	Ben Clemens: 🙂 dogs are the best

3:30	Ben Clemens: No offense to Dan or anything.

3:30	Ben Clemens: But the best.

3:31	Jim Bouton: If anyone needs a baseball book rec, please read Ball Four. It’s as good as advertised

3:31	Ben Clemens: Another great one that I inexplicably missed.

3:31	Ben Clemens: Yeah, definitely read Ball Four if you haven’t.

3:31	NatsFan37: What do you think of Keeper Fantasty Leagues

3:32	Ben Clemens: It’s a cool idea

3:32	Ben Clemens: I haven’t done one before, because I haven’t generally had strong enough groups that will definitely keep playing over time.

3:32	Ben Clemens: But I like how much it rewards time spent, thats pretty awesome really.

3:34	NatsFan37: Or K A history of baseball in 10 pitches

3:34	Ben Clemens: This is one I haven’t read but would like to

3:35	Ben Clemens: I wonder if a baseball book club would get any traction in this baseball-light time.

3:35	Ben Clemens: Would be a good excuse to do a little more reading, at the very least.

3:35	Trevor Hoffman: Can we go ahead and give Dave a lifetime ban for trying to act like there was even a chance that Holliday might have touched home plate? Thanks.

3:36	Ben Clemens: Haha, I do thikn it’s pretty conclusive that he didn’t touch.

3:36	Ben Clemens: But also, I understand that different people can perceive the same event quite differently.

3:36	Ben Clemens: Even down to the facts.

3:37	Ben Clemens: That said, uh, yeha, I don’t think he touched.

3:38	Ben Clemens: On that note, I’m going to call it a day for this chat. Not quite as much random trivia as I’d hoped, but Albuquerque is definitely a hard-to-spell city.

3:38	Ben Clemens: See you guys same time next week. Be safe!

BAL	CHW	LAA
BOS	CLE	OAK
NYY	DET	SEA
TBR	KCR	TEX
TOR	MIN	HOU

ATL	CHC*	ARI
MIA	CIN	COL
WSN	MIL	LAD
NYM*	PIT	SDP*
PHI	STL	SFG