Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat – 8/11/25

Ben Clemens: Hey everybody, let’s chat

James: Did Carlos Correa just need to get out of Minnesota to get his groove back?

Ben Clemens: Look, I’m not saying that’s definitely the case, but we’re all thinking it, right?

Ben Clemens: I don’t think that I’m the only person to have thought it, and I even put it in my trade deadline winners and losers

Ben Clemens: sometimes you’re just cursed and need to change things up

Dylan: I’m late on this, but is Ohtani the top trade value guy since FanGraphs started the exercise? Contenders would probably be 2008 Longoria and 2012 Trout. Would you think it’s even possible for someone to match his value as just a typical player?

Ben Clemens: Hmmmm, I’m not really sure, and honestly the concept of the series has changed a ton since the days it first started

Ben Clemens: It used to be more that no one even understood surplus value and DC was spreading that gospel

Ben Clemens: I feel like the early days of the trade value series were much more about ‘contract is more important than you think’

Ben Clemens: but someone like Ohtani has never really existed in this series

Ben Clemens: I still think that maybe 2012 Trout is the best, because you don’t have to think about the off-field aspects, whetehr your city is well-positioned to market him ,etc.

Ben Clemens: it’s just like hey look, this guy’s a future hall of famer and you have him forever

fanoftheman: Hey Ben! Thanks for the articles on pitcher/hitter performance vs expectations. The pitching article had me curious about what it would look like for defense.

Ben Clemens: great question!

Ben Clemens: we don’t really have defensive projections that I feel comfortable using, though

Hot Corner: I’m in need of a replacement 3B for Austin Riley. Probably prefer power a bit more if it’s close, but really just need best available, with most consistent daily ABs. Here are the most relevant names available. Who would you lean towards?

Noelvi Marte
Mark Vientos
Colson Montgomery
Josh Jung
Ryan McMahon
Jake Burger

Ben Clemens: Oof, tough one

Ben Clemens: I think I’d lean Noelvi but I don’t feel strongly about it

Guest: Is Peralta, Miz, Woodruff, Priester good enough for a strong postseason run or is it built for the regular season?

Ben Clemens: I think the top 3 are great and that they’ll go pseudo bullpen in the Prister game

Oaktown Blues: The A’s rookie SS has 1 K in his last 45 PAs. That doesn’t sound remarkable until you remember that Jacob Wilson is on the IL. Do you think Hernaiz can be good despite mediocre AAA numbers?

Ben Clemens: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/less-heralded-hitting-prospects-i-like-in-…

Ben Clemens: Hernaiz was one of my random statistical prospect crushes last year

Ben Clemens: Do I think he’s this good? I do not

Ben Clemens: Do I think that he’s going to continue to do a great job of making a crap ton of contact and playing acceptable defense while doing so? I sure do

Justin: Brewers are fun and it’s great for baseball.  Yet, I can’t help but think the regression monster is coming making the NL Central race really fun in Sept.

Ben Clemens: Yeah, I mean, the Brewers probably aren’t as good as they’ve been playing

Ben Clemens: because no one’s that good?

Ben Clemens: NLC race being good and at a high level is really nice! I’m kind of tired of two teams racing to 89 wins, this is gonna be more fun

JDizzle: Can A Vaughn keep up his recent pace?

Ben Clemens: No, lol

Ben Clemens: I mean, Michael Baumann’s article about him was delightful, and I really do buy the ‘get out of CHW and get the stink off of you’ boost

Ben Clemens: but, he’s not THIS good

Judgement Day: On June 16th or so, in thesr hallowed halls, I jokingly asked, “Did the Red Sox break Aaron Judge?” Prior to that weekend series, Judge had a 239 wRC+ and was worth 5.8 fWAR in just 67 games.  He then went 1-12 with 9Ks on Boston, i joked, we all laughed, ha ha.  But in the 41 games since the start if that series, Aaron has a 135 wRC+ and 1.2 fWAR. That’s a well above average player, but its also a quarter season of not ‘Aaron Judge’. Any concerns *now*?

Ben Clemens: Nope!

Ben Clemens: Still feeling good

Ben Clemens: He’s really good

Oaktown Blues: Looking at your 2024 piece on Hernaiz. I think the Nick Allen downside risk is still there, but his max EVs are much better than Allen which gives some hope

Ben Clemens: yeah

Ben Clemens: and hey, nick allen is reasonably valuable this year with a 56 wRC+

Ben Clemens: not that it has anything to do with Hernaiz, I just like pointing it out b/c he was one of my original prospect crushes

Ben Clemens: the man can pick it

Greg: As a Reds fan I’ve grown really frustrated with the organizational emphasis on drafting/developing athletic middle infield types over getting guys that can hit. I understand that versatility and athleticism has come back more and more into the game with recent rule changes, etc. But the Reds play half their games at GABP and haven’t had anyone hit more than 25 HRs since 2021. To me, that’s unacceptable. If any franchise should be emphasizing power in their drafting/development process it’s Cincinnati. Am I wrong?

Ben Clemens: I agree, but I also think that their two middle infielders might be the most powerful people on the team

Ben Clemens: like I get what you’re talking about in general, and yet I look at their lineup and I’m like “oh okay these guy sshould hit homers”

Ben Clemens: I assume that 25 HR stat will stop being true this year, Elly’s already at 19

Reed: Does any player make more errors (not Errors) than Willson Contreras? Botched cutoffs, TOOTBLAN, etc.

Ben Clemens: The throw from first to third that he ripped through three defenders for a run-scoring throwing error was absolutely amazing

Ben Clemens: That was almost a 5 things

Ben Clemens: He’s having a pretty rough one at first base this year

Ben Clemens: at least in terms of shocking errors that when I watch I go ‘oooooohh’

Bubba: Absolutely brutal stretch by the Mets.  Do they make the playoffs?  The Reds are only 1.5 behind and are getting Hunter Greene back soon.

Ben Clemens: They do

Ben Clemens: but yeah, this has been rough

Ben Clemens: they’re just completely falling apart

Pepsi: Are the Cardinals right to move Herrera to 1B/OF/DH, or was his bat only going to play at catcher?

Ben Clemens: mmmmm….. I think they kind of have to do it, they just really don’t believe in him at catcher

Ben Clemens: and I do think he hits well enough to play a corner position

Ben Clemens: it’s really a bummer that he’s not gonna stick at C though

Guest: if it turns out 2 straight mackenzie gore seasons have just come down to “figure out what’s wrong sooner” does that say more about him or the nats

Ben Clemens: lol

Ben Clemens: both?

Ben Clemens: man I was doing the over/under performing pitchers thing

Ben Clemens: I saw Gore’s wOBA allowed, was like, wtf

Ben Clemens: then I looked at his four starts since I put out the trade value series, and oh my GOD he’s been bad

Ben Clemens: it was even worse b/c I was looking before yesterday’s gem against the Giants

Ben Clemens: so WITH that 6 IP, 10k, 0ER masterpiece, he has a 9.55 ERA and 6.66 FIP in his past five starts

Ben Clemens: I just truly don’t know what to think of it

Anon21: Michael Harris snapping out of it? Running a 143 wRC+ since the beginning of July with a lot of power.

Ben Clemens: my fantasy team thanks him

Ben Clemens: I, on the other hand, really don’t know if I’m buying it

Ben Clemens: how is he still only walking 2% of the time?

Ben Clemens: i just don’t think he can keep hitting for enough power to make it work if he doesn’t walk more

Birdbath: Every Orioles hitter that comes up struggles tremendously at first with ML pitching. Has anyone studied what early career struggles typically look like and whether certain teams avoid them better?

Ben Clemens: I haven’t seen anything about it

Ben Clemens: but I don’t get the sense that it’s meaningfully more severe for the O’s than other teams

Ben Clemens: there’s just a lot of variance when you go from the minors to the majors

Guest: Does Cal Raleigh have a realistic shot at winning AL MVP? Right now he has 6.5 fWAR compared to Judge’s 7.0. Also somewhat related, has the margin of error for WAR shrunk over the past decade, with the increased accuracy of defensive data through Statcast?

Ben Clemens: ehhhh…. I don’t really think the margin for error has shrunk that much

Ben Clemens: the defensive data is better, but like, perfect defensive data would still be really noisy

Ben Clemens: the noise isn’t in the measurement, it’s in the fact that you don’t get the same set of plays to make every year, and even if your true talent is the same, it’s a pretty random process

Ben Clemens: it’s not like people’s defensive metrics are now perfectly consistent from year to year

Ben Clemens: Heck, look at Raleigh. The best defensive season of his career was 2024, the worst might end up being 2025

Ben Clemens: ceratinly the worst receiving season

Ben Clemens: and i don’t really beleive that those two things are both true

Guest: Brooks Lee an answer at SS or more utility?

Ben Clemens: so I’m not 100% sure on this, but I’ve been watching a bit more of the Twins since the deadline (rubbernecking, basically)

Ben Clemens: and he’s making a lot of rookie type mistakes, errors of commission not omission

Ben Clemens: I’m hopeful, honestly, despite it not looking great so far

Ben Clemens: and I love that they’re trying

Elbow Macaroni: Milwaukee does not have a SP in the top 30 in FIP since July 1.  Are they showing that you can get to the playoffs without elite starting pitching?  Didn’t work too well for Baltimore last year…

Bosoxforlife: Can you explain how the Milwaukee Brewers can go 48-16 in their last 64 games? Is it time to take a closer look at how teams are constructed because I don’t think any projection system has had the Brewers as the dominant team in the NL Central since 2021 with only one 2nd place finish marring their string of 1st place finishes.

Ben Clemens: I really can’t

Ben Clemens: I will say that ‘models underestimate the Brewers b/c they over-regress baserunning and defense’ is the most bankable gambling play in the world in my view of it

Ben Clemens: it’s seemed to work every year

Ben Clemens: like, their team construction is poorly understood by models

Ben Clemens: I think that they’re showing that you can make the playoffs wihtout elite pitching…. but like, still pretty good pitching?

Ben Clemens: and also, great everything else

CleGuy: What are the odds that Jose Ramirez wins the AL MVP instead of Judge or Raleigh? He’s having a good year, the Guardians are storming back?

Ben Clemens: sorry, zero

Ben Clemens: not happening

Ben Clemens: you’re gonna pick the guy batting .289/.365/.509 over the two hitting .337/.446/.691 or .247/.354/.593 as a catcher?

Ben Clemens: and the second one is doing it in a dead ball park

Ben Clemens: I think Jose Ramirez is great and I feel like I’m meaningfully higher than consensus on him

Ben Clemens: but nah, can’t do it

Willy Loman: Dealing for Luzardo was a masterstroke.  Injuries have kept him under 101 innings in all but one season.  Now he is lighting it up.

Ben Clemens: I truly don’t know what to think of Luzardo

Ben Clemens: like, is he lighting it up?

Ben Clemens: he was amazing to start the season, but he’s been completely forgettable since then

Ben Clemens: nice pitcher, don’t get me wrong, but lighting it up seems like a stretch

roger ebert: think you were a little dismissive of the judge question. obviously he’s still good. but judge being merely “elite”, say a 150-170 wrc+, rather than “god” with a 220 is still a huge difference and genuinely could sink the yankees this year and even worse into the future

Ben Clemens: sure

Ben Clemens: I just don’t think he’s worse

defensive metrics: I understand why, for example, PCA in CF would have different opportunities every year – but wouldn’t a catcher have so many opportunities to frame compared to any other position their metrics would be better? I think you could explain Cal’s defense this year as him ‘focusing on hitting’ or something (not sure if that works) but as a Giants fan, just as an example, Bailey has been very consistent with his framing metrics

Ben Clemens: sure but the umpires are different, the measurements are different, umpires adapt to the way people receive, you get different balls at different times in different counts

Ben Clemens: Bailey’s framing numbers have been consistent

Ben Clemens: no one else’s in freaking all of baseball have been

Ben Clemens: trying to deal with catcher defense advanced metrics is endlessly difficult for me

Ben Clemens: the truly elite guys (Hedges, Bailey) seem to always be able to do it

Ben Clemens: but then the guys below that are all over the place

Tim Tiny: Quick, name the best defensive shortstop in baseball this year according to FG leaderboards.  

How many names did you say before Masyn Winn?

Ben Clemens: Well okay, I said zero names before Winn, but that’s because I pay attention to this stuff

Ben Clemens: yeah, he’s good!

Ben Clemens: I don’ tthink he’s the best defensive shortstop in baseball, but I mean, DRS thought he was the best in baseball last year, OAA does this year, there’s soemthing to it

Ben Clemens: he could feasibly have the quietest 5 win season in recent memory

Ben Clemens: nice little player

CleGuy: As a Cleveland fan I feel resigned to just having my team never appreciated, Jose was completely screwed out of an MVP at least once and probably twice. I don’t think we’ll ever win one. We haven’t won one since ’53

tortycraig: We talked a lot post COVID and minor league consolidation about the talent gap b/w minors and majors. Worse/same/not as bad a problem as two years ago? Meaningful observations in how leagues are treating AA vs. AAA in light of this?

Ben Clemens: whoops, double clicked here

Ben Clemens: I don’t have a solid answer to the second one, I haven’t done enough reserach on it

Bosoxforlife: Now that Jose Ramirez, one of my favorite players, has shed his cloak of invisibility who do you think is next to join the list of grossly underrated and overlooked excellent players in the Placido Polanco mode? My vote goes to Ketel Marte.

Ben Clemens: oh it’s definitely Ketel Marte

Ben Clemens: unless he’s too visible already

Ben Clemens: Cris Sanchez!

Ben Clemens: although like you said before, he’s probably too good for that now too

Ben Clemens: here’s a weird one, I think taht Corbin Carroll is going to end up in this range too

Ben Clemens: like I know that here at FanGraphs we think of him as a star but I don’t think he gets that billing everywhere

J: A big thing for Bailey is that the Giants locked down Webb, who gives Bailey tons of opportunities to frame the pitches he’s best at framing. Webb’s ranks in framing runs by year: 1st (2025), 2nd (2024), 1st (2023). It’s really hard to separate out pitcher from catcher there, but I’d wager if Webb left the Giants next season he’d lose a half win or so of value.

This of course leads me to believe that catch framing metrics don’t necessarily adequately capture value that comes from the pitcher, but boy is that hard to suss out.

Ben Clemens: yes, very serious complication that I just have no way to tease out, honestly

Guest: Kristian Campbell or Luke Keaschall long term?

Ben Clemens: boy, I really have no idea

Ben Clemens: I guess I’d take Keaschall? But huge error bars

Ben Clemens: Campbell looked so overwhelmed defensively that there’s no chance it wasn’t leaking into his hitting

Ben Clemens: Keaschall is obviously off to a much better start. but Campbell is hitting again in the minors and I really do like the tools

Victoria: error bars? is that where Willson serves drinks?

Ben Clemens: oh man

Ben Clemens: well done

Arn Anderson: re: Gore’s last four starts – he was tipping pitches, right? Like it seems obvious that he was tipping pitches. Stuff the same, locations the same.

Ben Clemens: maybe

Ben Clemens: hard to say, though, right?

Ben Clemens: like, I see your comment

Ben Clemens: PitchingBot thikns that his cutter, fastball, slider, and curveball are all worse, and that his location on every single pitch has been worse

Ben Clemens: it thinks that his stuff in the last 5 starts is a 53 (down from 58) and 41 command (down from 49)

Ben Clemens: stuff+ says his stuff is wn less but his location is down more

Ben Clemens: so like…. I hear what you’re saying

Ben Clemens: I will say that analytically, our models that attempt to measure stuff and location think he’s been meaningfully worse, even counting the good recent start

Phil: I’ve beeb thinking about your take on Ohtani’s value, and I agree but I also find it depressing. I mean, are you saying that if de la Cruz suddenly started hitting like Judge but with elite defense and baserunning, he’d still be less valuable than Ohtani, just because he’s from a tiny, poor island instead of a big, wealthy one?

Ben Clemens: I mean, yeah

Ben Clemens: I thought some about whether I could put the toothpaste back in the tube if I ranked Ohtani first

Ben Clemens: or whether I should just completely exclude off-field stuff

Ben Clemens: but ultimately it just felt dishonest to talk about player value and not talk about the fact that Ohtani is powering the Dodgers to a degree we’ve rarely seen

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

Ben Clemens: leftover Burmese food from last night, very exciting

J: DRS thinks Matt Shaw is one of the better defensive third basemen in baseball. OAA/FRV thinks he’s one of the worst. I get that defense is wonky over small samples and that DRS includes aspects of defense that FRV ignores, but it’s just hard to believe that those could both be reasonable descriptions of what has happened. Do you tend to trust one over the other here? The Statcast methodology is a lot more opaque for infielders than outfielders.

Ben Clemens: So, I looked into this quite a bit for myself last year when I was voting for Fielding Bible awards

Ben Clemens: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/how-i-voted-for-the-fielding-bible-awards-…

Ben Clemens: I found that OAA does a lot better in terms of both correlating to broad aggregates, correlating to itself, and correlating to a simplified measure of fielding than DRS does

Ben Clemens: for infielders specifically

Ben Clemens: they were a lot closer in the outfield

Ben Clemens: not that OAA is amazing, they’re all super noisy

Ben Clemens: but if you’re forced to pick, I’d do like 50% OAA, 20% OAA (last year’s), 20% DRS, 10% DRS (last year’s)

Ben Clemens: blend weights slightly differently if you’d like

Mama Pajama: On the Orioles underperforming pitching staff:

In numbers, out of the five Orioles who have made the most starts, Dean Kremer is the only one to beat his preseason projections (by six points of wOBA). The other four have missed their projections by an average of 37 points of wOBA. Oof.

You also mentioned health, and yeah, Bradish/Eflin/Rodriguez and even Rogers have been limited.  The fanbase is not impressed by any of this.  Dylan Cease?  Is there in fact a bias among pitchers to not sign in Baltimore?  Did the wall hijinks help at all?

Ben Clemens: I don’t think the wall hijinks helped much, but I don’t completely buy the bias not to sign in Baltimore

Ben Clemens: I do buy that the O’s aren’t super aggressive on pitching

Ben Clemens: it’s kind of an organizational philosophy

Ben Clemens: so maybe that feeds into how they approach free agency?

Steve O: If you’re the Yankees do you trade Ben Rice to a team that thinks he can catch full time or rotate him through 1B/C/DH(well, before Giancarlo came back)? I feel if they can get some young SP back it might be worth it. They can just sign Naylor or someone for 1B in the offseason.

Ben Clemens: I’m not sure exactly where the industry as a whole sees Rice, but yes, I think I agree that if a team wants to let him catch full time, he’d be more valuable to them than to the Yankees

Ben Clemens: that does seem like it should make for a trade

MVP Race: Can you say some nice things about the mariners? I’m riding a high and want to keep on riding

Ben Clemens: just about to catch the Astros for first place, perhaps the scariest playoff rotation imaginable (four deep with beasts), and oh yeah they have Babe Ruth catching for them

Sodo Mojo: What do you think Naylor get as a FA in the off season is 4/60 a good target given he is 1B only bat?

Ben Clemens: honestly I think he’s gonna get more than that

Ben Clemens: I can’t quite pin down why I think that

Ben Clemens: but I do, and I think that he’s going to get valued more highly than the FG set thinks is reasonable (still lower than the RBI’s 4L crowd)

Opifijikl: Do you put any value on RBIs as a metric when evaluating players or teams? I’ve heard that clutch may not stick year to year. Kind of related, but with someone on 2nd base, is it better to have a singles hitter or someone who may get extra bases?

Ben Clemens: Eh, I don’t, but I do like to look at RE24 and similar things

Ben Clemens: singles hitter depending on the speed of the runner, I’d say, for the second question

Phil: If you were redoing the trade values now, would you move Anthony? Re: both the extension and his play. I mean, I watch him every day, and he just looks like a lefty Wade Boggs to me.

cletus: where is roman anthony on trade value now

Ben Clemens: Yeah, I mean I’d slide him up…. he’s played meaningfully more in the majors, played better, and also signed a great contract

Ben Clemens: I would still have him below Ketel Marte for sure

Ben Clemens: but higher

Ben Clemens: philosophically, I put a lot more stock in hitter performance the more they do it in the majors, and he’s improving as he continues, very good sign

sb4321: Is there anything that can be done to make defensive metrics less noisy and more reliable?

Ben Clemens: regress them. blend in previous years. take the average of multiple models

G4: More surprising second half development — Rays dropping out of the playoff hunt or Guards climbing back in it?

Ben Clemens: I’d say the Guards climbing back in

Ben Clemens: the Clase thing just felt so scary

Ben Clemens: the Rays looked like they were trying to pivot to 2026 so that kinda makes sense

Bosoxforlife: Is it conceivable that the Yankees, 27-36 in the last 63 games, are really nothing more than a very mediocre team, as opposed to the team that roared through the first 55 games of the year, 35-20?

Ben Clemens: conceivable? Definitely

Ben Clemens: I’d just say that the DOdgers peeled off a 3-15 stretch this year, good teams play bad and then get good again all the time

Ben Clemens: that’s kind of why baseball is so fun

Ben Clemens: I don’t know what to make of the Yankees aside from saying that they really are carrying enough dead weight that they need Judge to pop

Yokozuna: Both Gore and Rice mentioned….that actually feels like a good foundation for an offseason trade? Nats have the worst catching situation in baseball, Yankees love lefties with the short porch.

Ben Clemens: oh maybe!

Ben Clemens: I dunno if the Nats want Rice but if they do, those are good opposing headlinres, the Yankees would presumably have to kick in more

Guest: Odds Marlins get into the playoffs?

Ben Clemens: love it

Ben Clemens: I also love that they’ve been on a sneaky little tear of late

Ben Clemens: we have them at 0.7%

Ben Clemens: that’s way higher than I would have expected, to be honest

Oaktown Blues: I think you will appreciate this: A’s recent callup Carlos Cortes plays IF and OF. In the infield, he throws righty (of course), but in the outfield, he throws lefty! Never seen that before.

Ben Clemens: oh yeah that’s something else I’ve been considering working into 5 things

Ben Clemens: I do a few too many NorCal items, and I feel like too many of my features on the A’s are “I like this player”

Ben Clemens: like I’ve already done one of those for Clarke, Wilson, and Butler

Ben Clemens: but yes, it’s pretty amazing, and makes up for the fact that Cortes is not that interesting as a prospect otherwise

Guest: What’s up with Eric Lauer? He’s getting up to a respectable innings total.

Ben Clemens: Eric Lauer’s fastball is an enduring mystery

Ben Clemens: how is it so effective?

Ben Clemens: it’s just incredible

Oaktown Blues: Not the A’s fault they have so many likeable players

Ben Clemens: it’s true

Ben Clemens: I still haven’t made it to Sacremento for a game this year, but I’m gonna try to fix that in September

Ben Clemens: I really like that stadium, too

Ben Clemens: I wanna see what they’ve done with it to make it a big league park, but the tap room situation down the left field line is one of my favorite minor league park areas, period

Chicks Dig the Fundamentals: MacKenzie Gore, recent great start non-withstanding, has really been fading in the second half, the same as he did in 2023 and 2024.

Would you buy that he’s just a guy who loses steam as the season goes on and can’t sustain performance?

Ben Clemens: I absolutely would

Ben Clemens: i’m not saying it’s definitely that…. but it definitely might be that

Oaktown Blues: (I appreciate how much you write about them though! A’s coverage is often hard to find on a national level)

Ben Clemens: maybe more national writers should a)write a weekly observations column b)live in the bay c)watch a lot of baseball at night when the A’s or Giants are always on

Ben Clemens: b/c trust me, if they did, they’d have a ton of A’s games in their head and a lot to write about

Guest: why isn’t Jesus Sanchez better? will he be in the new org?

Ben Clemens: i truly have no idea

Ben Clemens: i’ve kinda given up, and to be fair, that’s because he’s batted 2000 times and has been dead league average

Ben Clemens: but man, the guy has power

Steve O: Part of the Yankees bad luck is Devin Williams blew a ton of games and Aaron Boone never took him out of important spots until like 2 games ago. Had they put in basically anyone else, they’d have a comfy WC spot. The Yankees are cursed. They trade for a top 3 reliever in the sport and he immediately turns into a pumpkin.

Ben Clemens: i love that they had little old Luke Weaver be historically dominant last year

Ben Clemens: and thought eh, no good, let’s get a MONSTER closer

Ben Clemens: and then yeah ,the high profile guy is bad

Ben Clemens: Weaver’s still great though

HJ: Hi Ben, as an Athletics fan I’m beginning to fear that Lawrence Butler has zero chance of a second half surge offensively. Anything positive you see that can give me hope on Law Dawg? Thanks a lot!

Ben Clemens: sadly I’m probably the wrong person to ask on Butler because I think he’s a roleplayer

Ben Clemens: rather than a star

Ben Clemens: but what I’d be looking for is better swing decisions, or at least more aggressive swings in the zone

Ben Clemens: looking through his numbers I kind of think last year’s strikeout rate was a mirage, he made an absolute ton of contact on bad swings that kept him at a reasonable level

Ben Clemens: i think he’s more like a 25-30% strikeout guy, which means that he should be looking to detonate the ball when he swings

Ben Clemens: oh, but here’s a positive thing, he’s 24 and an incredible athlete, so I like his odds of continuing to both dynamically improve and add tons of value in random things like defense and baserunning in the meantime

Guest: As are playing at home 9/15 – 24!

Ben Clemens: there you go

Big Buckston: Do we see a Sam Basallo major league debut before season’s end? And what do you think Baltimore’s plan for him next year is – full-time 1B? A mix of C/1B/DH? The guy really doesn’t have much left to prove in AAA on the offensive side.

Ben Clemens: I’m thinking the latter, C/1B/DH with mostly 1B/DH as his role

Ben Clemens: if I were them I’d give him a classic September callup, but make sure he’s eligible for rookie of the year in 26

Ben Clemens: as an earlier commenter pointed out, O’s prospects have had a rough transition to the bigs of late, why not give him a soft opening?

MATT DAMON: MATT. DAMON.

DeeBo: Feels like vlad guerrero Jr has never had the same season twice. After looking like his power outage 2023 self earlier in the year, he’s now knocking on the door of a .900 OPS despite a pretty pedestrian home run rate for a 1B. BB% way up and still getting to enough doubles power to pad the slug

Ben Clemens: Vlad is a great hitter without an obviously consistent approach

Ben Clemens: which is how you get years like htis. the man just demolishes the baseball and hasn’t quite figured out how he wants to turn that into production

Ben Clemens: alright, sorry for the abbreviated chat but I have to run and take care of some errands. I hope a strong hour of baseball commentary sated your desire for it for now, and let’s do this again, same time next week. Have a wonderful day, everyone