Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat – 7/28/25

Ben Clemens: Hey everyone, welcome to the chat

Ben Clemens: Let’s just get going right away

Smokin’ Jim Leyland: Any reason to panic re: the Tigers recent struggles? They’re still in great shape overall and more likely to play like first half Tigers from here on out, right??? Especially with Kerry Carpenter returning yesterday. Please talk us Tigers fans down from the ledge 🙂

Ben Clemens: Yeah, I’m not that worried. I mean, I don’t think the Tigers were THAT good, surely it’s reasonable to say that they played a little above their long-term level in the first half. But Carpenter coming back is great, the pitching staff is a plus, the offense has planty of good contributors. The division is already a lock, so it’s mostly about playing for a playoff bye, which is also nice

Pat Murphy Rage Monster: How upset am I going to get when we trot into October with the 23rd ranked slugging %? Nobody outside the top 10 has made the WS recently. Bring me O’Hearn

Ben Clemens: I feel like the Brewers are in a weird spot. O’Hearn, Suarez, one of the bats basically – that’d be good

Ben Clemens: The problem is that the pool of hitters is quite thin this year, and the kinds of guys available don’t fit MY conception of who the Brewers like

Ben Clemens: I mean, realistically, they’re gonna tread water right? They are very good at what they do, and what they do tends to be mostly stand pat while making small, value-positive moves, sometimes a buy/sell double even

Look At This Sotograph: Is there realistically any decent way to retrospectively grade your Trade Value Lists over the years? All you can do is compare the very few trades of these guys that actually occur, yes?

Ben Clemens: Yeah, it’s very hard to grade THAT part of it, the ‘how does the industry value players in general’

Ben Clemens: it’s easier to retrospectively grade individual players, and I do that…. basically total up the value they accrued, add in the current projections, see how I would have ranked players if I knew the future up to now back when I ranked them in (say) 2022

Ben Clemens: I have used that to inform my views of position groupings, essentially

Ben Clemens: like, where I have catchers on the list is informed somewhat by how difficult they’ve been to rank in the phast

Ben Clemens: past*

Ben Clemens: same deal with, say, top prospects with little ML playing time

Ben Clemens: for the most part, though, yeah it’s really difficult to back check

JJ: Sounds like the Padres are looking to buy/sell/reshuffle to get away from rentals or lengthy contracts while still adding major league talent, how would you rank the likelihood of Cease, Cronenworth, Arraez, or Suarez potentially being moved in a deal? Any fits stand out as win-wins to you?

Ben Clemens: Cease as part of a deal for a hitter makes the most sense to me I think

Ben Clemens: there are a lot of playoff teams who would love Cease and have, for one reason or another, some blocked offensive performers

Ben Clemens: Arraez, look, peopel talk themselves into him but as a rental, first-base-only bat, I mean, Arraez barely has a higher batting average than Ryan O’Hearn. And all the other numbers are WAY worse. That’s gonna be a tough one to spin into value. Suarez? Totally, though. So maybe a Cease+ Suarez + maybe some prospects for cost-controlled ML talent?

Reed: What does your investment portfolio look like?

Ben Clemens: it’s pretty boring, lot of index tracking

Guest: Do you like going to concerts? If so, what’s the most you’d pay to see an act?

Ben Clemens: I do!

Ben Clemens: I’m going to see Dead and Co in Golden Gate Park this weekend, for example

Ben Clemens: actually I think that’s also the most I’ve paid for a ticket (unless you adjust for inflation), $300

Ben Clemens: not a big deadhead, never seen them in concert before, but how can I turn down the chance to see the most iconic SF band play a venue where I literally walk my dog most weeks

Hazmat Corntail: How do you rate Shane Baz, and do you see him taking steps to at least be a good mid-rotation arm? I’m being offered him in dynasty and am not sure just how good he really is moving forward

Ben Clemens: Eh, maybe he could, but I’m going to wait until he proves it to me

Ben Clemens: Like, he has unexciting numbers this season, his career numbers are unexciting, he’s not even breaking out if you slice things into smaller samples, I don’t see much more than ‘solid but unexciting back-of-rotation pitcher’ as a median outcome here

Pat: Great job on the Trade Value series..Love it!   Looking at the trade value series & how teams (& you!) value offense over defense, does that mean WAR should be re-evaluated to increase offense/decrease defense measures as how they’re weighted in WAR? Or is it just that offensive skill is “stickier”? I guess that’s assuming how teams operate as the correct balance of measuring offense vs defense..which may or may not be correct?

Ben Clemens: I don’t think this needs to be changed. It’s not that the wins are worth less or something, they’re just cheaper to acquire

Ben Clemens: or at least, that’s how I’m wrapping my head around it

Ben Clemens: like, most good teams can construct a 2-3 WAR player at either CF, 2B, or SS for very cheap from their farm system, as long as you’re okay with that value coming mostly from defense

Ben Clemens: call it the Jacob Young/Michael Siani corollary

Ben Clemens: Siani is a great example in that he was never a prospect, never even came close to hitting well enough to play in the majors, and still played at roughly a 2 WAR/600 pace in 2024

Ben Clemens: like, the wins are the wins. just…. you can buy that type of performance fairly cheaply. so you can’t value it as much in trade, yhou know?

Ben Clemens: it’s like saying people pay more for 1 calorie of delicious steak than 1 calorie of delicious brocollini (i went to a fancy steakhouse to celebrate a friend’s new job this weekend so it’s on my mind)

Ben Clemens: shoudl we readjust calories? nope

Ben Clemens: just means that you have to take that into consideration when considering value

Road: The news of the day is Clase getting investigated for gambling – Do you have a take on that?

Ben Clemens: Michael Baumann is writing something up on it as we speak, I believe

Ben Clemens: I’d say that it’s too soon for me to have much of a view

Ben Clemens: haven’t had time to see all the reported evidence, but generally speaking I’m glad MLB is taking a really hard look at this and think that they probably didn’t do enough thinking/vetting of their gambling partners and how this would all work before signing all these partnerships

Ben Clemens: no opinion on whether Clase did what he’s accused of doing

Oaktown Blues: Kurtz really put an exclamation point on his hot streak, huh? Trying not to overreact to one game, but it’s starting to feel like he’s potentially on a generational hitter trajectory…would you agree?

Guest: I was quite amused reading your trade value chat friday evening after Kurtz’ HR barrage and seeing how much you hedged about his value. Good timing

Ben Clemens: Lucky  hedging! Slash I mean, noticeable thing once I finalized the list. easier to see things when you’re not also moving them around all the time

Ben Clemens: um, potentially on a generational hitter trajectory? definitely agree

Ben Clemens: very excited to keep watching him this year

Ben Clemens: still haven’t been to a major league game in Sacramento but there’s no time like August

Ben Clemens: I actually went to Friday night’s Giants game to celebrate being done with this project and watched the A’s game at a bar beforehand

T2: Given what you wrote in your Trade Value series (it was really fun, BTW. Thank you!), would Ohtani get even bigger contract now, if he were a free agent?  And, what would be a “fair” contract?

Ben Clemens: I don’t think so b/c in his actual free agency, he told the teams what deal he wanted

Ben Clemens: and they just offered him that

Ben Clemens: so it wasn’t really an open market bidding anyway? or at least, it was a weird version of one

Unspellable: The Mets kinda got a trade deadline addition with the return of S. Manaea (sp?). Am I wrong to be optimistic he can be a key part of their rotation down the stretch?

Ben Clemens: oh for sure

Ben Clemens: i mean, will he stay healthy? obviously not 100%. will his changes from last year stick? through two starts it looks okay

Bosoxforlife: The Red Sox logjam is a joke but trading Duran would be a catastrophe. I don’t care if he is hitting only .260. He is a catalyst of the first order and brings an energy level that is infectious. Please give me a clue as to how the Red Sox handle this surplus in a lot better way than the Orioles did. It is ironic that the Orioles traded the only tradable prospect, Henderson were Rutschman untouchable, who can actually hit in Stowers even though Rogers has suddenly emerged from his cocoon.

Ben Clemens: I don’t really know how the Sox are supposed to handle this one, to be honest. It feels like they’re going to have to sacrifice some value somewhere, particularly if you take their in-house valuations of these outfielders

Ben Clemens: basically, I don’t think they’re trading Rafaela or Anthony, and I don’t think they should eitehr

Ben Clemens: They also seem to want to play Yoshida against righties pretty often, and honestly even against lefties (?)

Ben Clemens: I don’t see them as the kind of team to eat money to trade Yoshida

Ben Clemens: they don’t seem like the kind of team to eat money to trade anyone, tbh

Ben Clemens: so that means they have to trade one of Abreu or Duran. But yeah, I would hate trading Duran

Ben Clemens: he’s so fun to watch. I’m a habitual Duran fantasy owner, I love the triples-over-homers thing, it’s so neat

Ben Clemens: if I were them, I think I’d just bite the bullet and trade Abreu for less than he’s worth

Ben Clemens: the problem is that even if they cut Yoshida’s playing time, I don’t want to play Anthony solely at DH, and the Rafaela 2b thing is clearly not a good long-term plan

Dom: When does the crowd sourced trade value drop?

Ben Clemens: I’m redoing the editorial part of the introductory article, should be out tomorrow morning

appa yip yip: the blue jays?

Ben Clemens: a delight

Ben Clemens: they’re so good

Bosoxforlife: Mitch Keller or Dylan Cease? I see at as a no brainer. Keller is pitching well and is under control at a reasonable price while Cease is none of the above.

Ben Clemens: yeah I’d prefer Keller, I’ve never really been into Cease for whatever reason

Ben Clemens: like, I’ve just always regarded him a hair below consensus. and I guess I’m still there now

Ben Clemens: it’s not like Keller is an ace, but he’s bulk solid rate pitching

Ben Clemens: you’d feel just fine having him on your team. and yeah, it doesn’t hurt that the rate is reasonable. like i’d rather have a better pitcher and pay a little more, but I don’t have the combo

Ben Clemens: I don’t actually think the Pirates are going to trade him though

Ben Clemens: I think that if the current front office starts getting rid of team-controlled players, they’ll just get fired

Justin: There is a lot of stress in Piratesland about getting close-to-majors hitting.  I personally think it’s fine to just get “Best return available” and then get that hitting in the offseason, but let’s just put that aside.   Am I being unreasonable in either direction when I think that something like “Jhostynxon Garcia and a few smaller pieces for Mitch Keller” would be fine for both teams?

Ben Clemens: yeah I mean my issue with it is just that if you’re trading from the present for the future while you have Paul Skenes, you’re basically saying you don’t think you’ll ever be able to compete

L. Cohen: If you were the Mets, would you trade 4.5 seasons of Mark Vientos for a good rental at a position of need?

Ben Clemens: I would, I am down on Vientos though

Ben Clemens: I was shocked by how good he was last year

Ben Clemens: I think he’s more an average bat than a difference maker, and that skillset, just not to my liking

Bosoxforlife: A follow-up. I, very reluctantly, agree that Abreu is the one that they should move. Mitch Keller is at the top of my radar screen and the Pirates have to acquire some offense and I am offering Abreu, Franklin Arias and Jhostynxon Garcia. Who says no?

Ben Clemens: now THIS would probably get the deal done. I think you’d get a reliever or two as well

Ben Clemens: Abreu is really good

Ben Clemens: that would satisfy the Pirates’ need to improve the team

Guest: I understand why you didn’t answer this during the trade value chat but favorite pastry/ cafe / coffee spot in sf ?

Ben Clemens: haha yes, this is a weekly chat question, and I’ll happily answer

Ben Clemens: b patisserie is probably my favorite overall pastry place. I like The Mill a lot, it’s right near where I live and I’m a sucker for good bread

Ben Clemens: Jane the Bakery and Arismendy (the one in the mission, nothing against the other one but that’s just hte one I’ve been to more) are both in my top 5 too

Justin: If Kebryan Hayes went to a “smart team”, how likely is it that he suddenly starts opsing over 700?

Ben Clemens: hope springs eternal, of course

Ben Clemens: but I’ve kinda given up. maybe….. 30%? Just totally guessing. the tools still seem great to me! but they have for four years

Karl Hungus: Better nickname: The Big Amish or The Big Dumper?

Ben Clemens: oh man…. for me, Big Dumper can’t be topped

Japanese TV star: Is your interview about the Ohtani 50/50 tracker that you mentioned on EW available to watch anywhere?

Ben Clemens: sadly not because of licensing/tv rights stuff. It was on NKTV if that helps but presumably it doesn’t. I have a dropbox’ed copy but I agreed not to share it, etc.

dan’l: Is there anything to stop a team like the Cards from selling a lot of relievers at once (up to 3-4)? Would it that present an issue for them filling the roster spots?

Ben Clemens: Nah, they definitely could

Ben Clemens: I think it’d require a little coordination in that they’d want to get some relievers from Memphis ready to be called up and on the roster to avoid a completely silly game where tehre’s just no bullpen to speak of

Ben Clemens: but totally doable

Transmission: With the news that Clase has been put on leave over a sports betting investigation, that’s two Guardians pitchers in two months. What level of confidence should fans have at this point that every pitch and plate appearance of every game is a good-faith competitive effort meant to help your team win?

Ben Clemens: i mean, let me put it this wya

Ben Clemens: if what you’re wondering about is good-faith competitive efforts to win, you should be looking at the front offices and ownership groups, not the players

Ben Clemens: Ortiz threw two pitches that were clearly non-competitive. Allegedly, that was for monetary gain. I’m not going to get into my exact views on it because I don’t think that’s appropriate here, but obviously, that’s not okay

Ben Clemens: let’s not pretend that the Pirates are making a good-faith competitive effort to compete in major league baseball

Ben Clemens: and I don’t want to pick on them exclusively

Ben Clemens: there are lots of these teams!

Ben Clemens: I’m absolutely worried that the pernicious influence of gambling will lead to some non-competitive results

Ben Clemens: because it’s so clear that money can make baseball decision makers make poor decisions

Ben Clemens: if you can’t trust the billionaires to say ‘eh money is just money let’s try to win’ how in the world can you expect the players, for whom a marginal dollar is far more valuable, to do so?

Big Buckston: No relievers in the top 50 or honorable mentions of the trade value series this year. What would it take for a reliever to make it on the list, or is that really just a non-starter (pun intended)?

Ben Clemens: I think it’s easiest to say that team behavior would have to change. like, the kind of reliever to hit this list would be reallllly good, probably unrealistically so

Ben Clemens: I put Mason Miller on the HM’s last year but I didn’t feel great about that

Darryl Vanilla: What should the Mets do with their glut of young infielders: Baty, Vientos, Acuna, Mauricio?

Ben Clemens: I mean, it’s a funny surplus

Ben Clemens: in that two of them are basically replacement level this year (acuna, Vientos), one of them is 25 and putting up his best season (Baty, 101 wRC+ is 18 clear of his previous high)

Ben Clemens: I think I’m highest on Mauricio

Ben Clemens: but I don’t count Acuna and Vientos as part of a glut. Acuna seems like a nice utility player. As I mentioned, I dno’t think Vientos is anything special. If you make meaningful decisiosn about your long-term trajectory trying to accomodate Vientos, I think you’re managing the team wrong. I feel the same way about Acuna too. And honestly? I am highest on Baty of the group but I feel similarly about him too

Bobby Digital: Curious about your take on three pitchers: 1) Woo – can he be a legit ace? 2) Schwellenbach – any long-term concern re: his elbow fracture? 3) Zebby – can he develop into a 2/3 inside of the next 365 days?

Ben Clemens: Sure. 1)see trade value series, like him though
2) I mean, you’d have to be crazy not to be worried. The history of players who fractured their pitching elbows this way is not great. Hopefully it’s just totally fine but it’s a scary injury.
3)I mean… can? sure. Likelihood? Below 20% for me

Ken: Man, getting a question chosen in this chat is the toughest of the baseball chats, lol.

Ben Clemens: blame our ridiculously diligent and chatty readers

Bazooka Joseph: I know Jarred Kelenic’s career hasn’t turned out as well as many scouts thought, but he gave Cal Raleigh that nickname and no one can ever take that away from him.

Ben Clemens: can’t argue with that

Wrights_back: Baty + Sproat enough to land Alcantra?

Ben Clemens: I mean, it would be for me. I haven’t heard a lot of reporting about how seriously the Marlins are pushing Alcantara, but this seems like it’s in range. I liek Sproat a lot

Ben Clemens: Not sure I’d do this trade if I were the Mets, though. like, Alcantara isn’t an obvious upgrade and he’s not THAT much of a bargain that you could say it’s a complement to spending on Soto and Lindor

Ben Clemens: I think Mitch Keller would be more the Mets’ speed if they were getting pitching

Bosoxforlife: I watch a lot of Mets games and Mauricio just sends off a lot of O’Neill Cruz vibes to me. He has a chance to be a real power hitter

Ben Clemens: Yeah I can see that for sure. I actually saw him in person for the first time Friday, and yes, I was like ‘hey this is a big strong dude’

Ben Clemens: not that I didn’t already know that from watching him on TV. but it was definitely more notable up close

Pinstriped Problems: Judge news is so sad. Should the Yankees stand pat, or even sell?

Ben Clemens: somewhere between stand pat and light add for me

Ben Clemens: they continue to develop more pitching and catching prospects than they can keep on a 40-man roster, trading from those surpluses has generally been good business for them

Ben Clemens: and like, you’re gonna sell b/c Judge is out for two weeks? Why are you paying judge 40 million a year, then? THey’re in playoff position!

RetireNutting: “Oneil Cruz vibes” would be interpreted as a reason not to trade for Mauricio by Pirates fans.

Ben Clemens: Oneil Cruz is a controversial player ,which is funny b/c how can you not love him?

Ben Clemens: but I can understand being wary of ending up with another guy where the potential is so high that you have no choice but to play him, even while the on-field results don’t quite click

Ben Clemens: it’s wild to me that Oneil Cruz debuted in 2021

JK: Not that I have subscribed to this view much in the past but man, the Giants’ vibes are real bad right now, yeah? Do you see them making a push for the WC3 spot?

Ben Clemens: their vibes are SO bad

Ben Clemens: I mean, I think vibes are not long-term determining factors and that a five-game hot streak might cure a lot of that

Ben Clemens: but the team does not look like they’re having much fun right now

MrMet: Can you put Eury Perez into context? Is he doing things that show he can be special?

Ben Clemens: Yeah, sure, I’ll give it a shot. In his last 5 games, he’s got 32 strikeouts, 5 walks, 1 homer, 4 earned runs in 28 innings

Ben Clemens: that’s a 1.29 ERA, 2.02 FIP. 14.6% swinging strike rate in those games, wild stuff grades

Ben Clemens: some of these games have just been ‘oh well thanks for playing’ types two. 6 k’s over 7 scoreless (no walks, 3 hits) vs. the O’s was one that I watched. I mean, the O’s aren’t hitting, but that game just didn’t feel competitive

Ben Clemens: (also it ended 11-1 so that helped)

Carl: I understand why the Nationals don’t want to trade Gore. But if ownership isn’t going to spend next season (and they probably won’t), isn’t doing so the smart move?

Ben Clemens: Yeah, I don’t actually understand why the Nats don’t want to trade Gore

Ben Clemens: they don’t seem very interested in trying to improve, right? they’re not spending much money, their biggest deal this year was Josh Bell or Trevor Williams (maybe Mike Soroka?)

Ben Clemens: they looked at their squad this offseason and said ‘no need to accelerate’

Ben Clemens: that squad, uh, sucks

Ben Clemens: so if they are’nt interested in trying to get better, which it doesn’t really seem like

Ben Clemens: then shouldn’t they try to get something back for Gore?

Ben Clemens: the Lerners definitely seem to be running out the clock on their ownership and waiting for a big bid

Matt Damon: MATT. DAMON.

Joey Caltrain: Why are the Red Sox playing Rafaela at 2nd instead of playing a corner outfielder at 1st? Even if you buy that Abraham Toro and Romy Gonzalez are better than their 2nd base options, isn’t that a smaller margin than the difference that Rafaela’s CF defense (and, as a result, Duran’s corner outfield defense) provide?

Ben Clemens: I truly don’t know

Ben Clemens: I mean, it shows you that they don’t think centerfield or second base defense are THAT important

Ben Clemens: right? like if you really think Rafaela is worth 20 runs a year in center, and is below average in the infield (lots of evidence for both of these points), the gap is bigger than the offensive upgrade they’re getting out of it

Ben Clemens: I just truly don’t get it. But you have to say “Red Sox don’t think defense is as valuable as the models”

Ben Clemens: because like, it just cannot be otherwise

Ken: Did you hear the story about Matt Damon asking Prince about living in Minnesota? Prince responded “I live inside my own heart, Matt Damon.” Of Severino, Springs and Sears, who do you think gets moved by the deadline?

Ben Clemens: now THAT deserves an answer

Ben Clemens: um…. maybe Springs?

Ben Clemens: I don’t think that Severino is gonna be of much interest and I also just don’t see Fisher eating money, amybe I’ll be wrong about that?

Bosoxforlife: I find it hard to imagine but the D’Backs are threatening a complete teardown. Do you see them jettisoning Gallen and Kelly? Suarez is already booked on a flight out of town. Carroll and Marte in their primes deserve a decent supporting cast.

Ben Clemens: it’s a really interesting question because those guys are on expiring deals, but it’s not like you can imagine a great 2026 team without doing some re-adding this winter

Ben Clemens: I don’t know any of the idiosyncratic details about which players the DBacks are more interested in re-signing, but I’d be tempted to try to go Royals/Lugo with one of the two and trade the other

Big Buckston: RE: The Nats. Team is near the bottom of the league in baserunning and defense, again. They’ve finally found some young guys who can hit a bit, but they seem to really struggle at, well, doing the other things winning teams tend to do to.

SPArn: I also think since the Nats have maybe (I’m choosing to remain high on Crews) 4 for sure core players right now, and a blend of question marks and probably not’s beyond that, it probably makes sense to 1) deconsolidate talent and get someone more on Wood and Abrms timeline and 2) accept the reality that we aren’t going to extend Gore or compete in 2026 with him. Coupled with the fact that pitchers break and 2027 is by no means guaranteed anyway, as long as they get someone on Wood’s timeline rather than Single A’ers, I think it makes perfect sense

Ben Clemens: Yeah, I’m generally in agreement with this view. The best thing to do would be to try to use some money, spending back up to the previous levels that the Nats are clearly capable, as they try to transition from ‘good young team with way too many holes’ to ‘playoff team fueled by a pre-arb superstar’

Ben Clemens: that clearly doesn’t seem to be on the table, though – honestly, 120 million for the Nats! they had a 210m salary when they won the world series and the game has gotten bigger since then

Ben Clemens: so with that in mind, yeah, trying to be really good in 2027-2028 seems like a better plan

Ben Clemens: I kinda hate it but I think that if you’re going to accept these constraints, you have to admit that the way they’re doing it right now just isn’t working

Henry Dodger: The Giants are continuing to try adding pieces to a foundation that’s just not good. I thought before they made the Devers deal the best thing for them would be to rebuild and stop the dreaming.

Ben Clemens: that’s definitely a tricky thing about the Giants

Ben Clemens: they have plenty of kind of interesting players, including some who are good right now

Ben Clemens: but for whatever reason, the Zaidi era didn’t really churn out a ton of young talent, so the team has a shape that few good teams have

Ben Clemens: Bailey and Ramos are probably the best of the current crop, and like…. I love Bailey, I think he’s maybe talented enough to figure out how to hit and the defense is great

Ben Clemens: Ramos is not really a foundational player

Guest: it’s wilder to me that NL pitchers were still hitting in 2021. that feels like a decade ago

Ben Clemens: wow, that’s nuts

Ben Clemens: it does feel like a long time

Henry Dodger: Should the Yankees deadline strategy be to do small Amed Rosario things around the margins?

Ben Clemens: yeah, I think so

David: As bad as the Pirates ownership is, there’s a world of difference between refusing to spend money vs deliberately throwing a bad pitch. One is very public: fans know certain owners are cheap (an issue that’s always haunted baseball). The other is secretive — and a betrayal of every fan who expects players to be trying their hardest.

Ben Clemens: I don’t really agree with this. like, if a player were doing this in a categorical way, over and over, absolutely. but ‘oh well we know those guys are ruining the sanctity of the game by not trying to win so it’s okay’ doesnt’ seem like a great argument to forgive teams who do actively anti-competitive stuff to make money

Ben Clemens: like it’s okay to say both are abd

Ben Clemens: bad*

Ben Clemens: both are bad!

TheJack20: Should the Yanks consider moving Dominguez for a starter? Not sure how much if at all they want to play him in the field come October, especially with a healthy Bellinger, Grisham, and Judge. Playoff Stanton deserves the nod at DH as well.

Ben Clemens: hmmmmmm….. maybe for a good starter

Ben Clemens: I really like Dominguez, though. i’d be wary of trading him just to trade him, if that makes sense

the person who asks the lunch question: what’s for lunch?

Ben Clemens: honestly I don’t know yet todya, so probably ordering something

Ben Clemens: my wife’s working from home and we don’t have leftovers, so whipping up food for two people seems hard

Bosoxforlife: Dominguez or Abreu gets a better return?

Ben Clemens: Without spending a ton of time on this I think they’re pretty comparable

Ben Clemens: I’d prefer Abreu probably. I would imagine there are some teams that would prefer Dominguez by a decent bit though

Pistol Pete: Who do you have?  Mets or Phillies?  And is it close enough that a 7th inning RP here or a 4th starter there makes much of a difference?

Ben Clemens: Yeah I think it does

Ben Clemens: Our odds have it as basically a dead heat, that makes sense to me

Ben Clemens: one weird thing is that wining the NLE might not get you a bye this year?

Ben Clemens: the brewers and cubs are HOT

Ben Clemens: so I think that should probably make both teams slightly less interested in going crazy trying to improve

Ben Clemens: but they’re both WS contenders, they should both try to shore up weaknesses, and both have GM’s who historically have done so

Ben Clemens: alright, I gotta run and figure out lunch

Ben Clemens: it’s gonna be tricky today!

Ben Clemens: have a wonderful day, everyone, and I’ll talk to you next week