Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat – 8/4/25

Ben Clemens: Hey everyone, welcome to the chat. I’m starting an hour early today because I’m taking my dog to the vet and couldn’t get the appointment moved, so I’ll have to end around 2:15 ET

Ben Clemens: Let’s just get right into it

Ken: What do the A’s need to do to be legitimate contenders for the postseason in 2026?

Ben Clemens: They need to fill in the gaps, basically. They have a core of some very interesting players. They’re also starting 3-ish guys who don’t really belong as major league regulars, and both the rotation and bullpen are way short of a full unit

Ben Clemens: I think the pitching is a bigger deal, particularly in Sacramento’s offense-happy environment

Kevin: i recently read someone say the Rockies playing half their games at high elevation is the biggest environmental/ ballpark challenge any team in history has faced and it’s not close. What do you think?

Ben Clemens: Yeah, it’d be my pick. Seems so difficult to deal with having to play half your games in an extremely different environment from the other half. also, pitching in Colorado tires out pitching staffs. so having yours pitch there seems extra tough

Dallas: Why can’t the pirates develop any hitters? Look at Henry Davis. Why can’t the man hit! Him and Triolo both are hitting like .150-170 with a lot of sample size

Ben Clemens: I don’t have a great answer for this

Ben Clemens: like, if I had to guess, it’s a mixture of bad luck and bad process, but this is the kind of thing hyou don’t hear about until the existing regime is gone

David Engel: I realize teams have ups and downs during the season. Always has happened. But in what world, do the Yankees have an 8.5% chance of winning the World Series?

Ben Clemens: I dunno man, Vegas has them about right there too

Ben Clemens: like, sometimes your team has a bad series against the Marlins but also is good

Ben Clemens: it has happened before

Aaron: Any idea why the Pirates held onto so many expiring contracts? It seems like they could’ve been worth a couple lottery tickets in return, and they would’ve freed up playing time to evaluate players in the system. Was there just not a market for them?

Ben Clemens: I’m not really sure, honestly

Ben Clemens: probably not the market they wanted

War2d2: Hi Ben! This is already in the rear view mirror, but I missed your last couple chats: you had Masyn Winn in your top-50 trade value guys, even though his only real carrying tool is defense. You made sure to point out multiple times that you discounted pretty much everyone’s D because it wasn’t something people traded for. Winn appears to be regressing with the bat (lost 30pts of SLG year over year, Statcast x-stats are all in the 30th percentile, OPS+ of 99 and wRC+ of 101), and while Statcast likes his base running, FG has him right at league avg this year. At this point would teams really offer much more for him than what the Cubs gave up for Willi Castro? I can’t help but think every HM would bring back more than he would.

Ben Clemens: um…. I mean, obviously none of this is provable

Ben Clemens: but I really don’t think that the guy putting up a very similar batting line to willi castro, with a 103 wRC+ over the last two years to Castro’s 108 and gold glove defense instead of below average, and also 23 and controllable through 2029 instead of for two months, would get the exact same back in trade

Ben Clemens: I’ll tell you this – call the Cubs up and ask if they’d trade Willi Castro for Masyn Winn

Aaron: I don’t understand why the Pirates traded Falter away for basically nothing. There are reports he was a DFA candidate this offseason as well. I realize he’s outperforming his peripherals but he’s been doing that for a while so maybe it’s sustainable. He’s an inexpensive lefty with 3 years of control left and has given them dependable innings. Is there any reason for doing this besides that they may save a couple million by replacing him with a pre-arb pitcher?

Ben Clemens: I think it’s the arb thing, but I mean, I’m not 100%

Ben Clemens: Not a big fan of that move, though

Ben Clemens: or like, it’s fine, found money, i don’t really think he’s that great

Ben Clemens: but it makes very little sense if you’re hanging on to the expiring deals

Ben Clemens: I just don’t quite get their plans, basically

KC Pain: Are Bobby Witt and CJ Abrams as close in talent as their statlines suggest?

Ben Clemens: I mean…. no

Opifijikl: What does your daily baseball consumption look like? Do you review box scores, highlights, do you have any custom Fangraphs dashboards you use/would recommend?

Ben Clemens: i watch a ton of baseball on TV to try to find things for 5 things

Ben Clemens: my conversion rate of watching to ‘interesting tidbit’ tends to be pretty low so I need to watch a TON to get enough items

Ben Clemens: i review box scores too, and watch cut up starts (I just watch every pitch sequentially on Savant) if there were any starters I wanted to see the day before but didn’t

Ben Clemens: I would absolutely not suggest consuming baseball like this, though

Ben Clemens: it only makes sense if you need to write a bunch of analytical articles and also a whimsical article every week

MoonBeamMcSwine: Are you self described as being “…too picky…” about your five things / interesting tidbits to report on?

Ben Clemens: who knows

Ben Clemens: it’s hard to say

Ben Clemens: I always enjoy the ‘no the thing IIIIII liked the most this week was….’ comments

Ben Clemens: like, yeah, sorry, I did not manage to watch all the games

Ben Clemens: I do try to watch a lot, though

Ben Clemens: let’s just say that not every game has an interesting thing, and if you force it to, they’d probably be boring

Aarrrgh!: How many “The Pirates don’t seem to know what they’re doing, beyond even being cheap” questions are you likely to take?

Ben Clemens: haha, no more

Ben Clemens: that was enough

Bighen: Mets did fine adding to the pen but it’s no lock they make playoffs.  I feel like they set up their playoff roster but have too many innings with bad starting pitching to get through first.   I think they needed to add another dependable SP.

Ben Clemens: I…. is it not?

Ben Clemens: we have them at 93.2% to make the playoffs, you could get like 9:1 betting on them to miss, very similar

Ben Clemens: that’s not a LOCK but like….. it’s kind of close?

Ben Clemens: I think it was fine. I thought the price for good starting pitching was quite high, and I don’t think anyone who got traded other than Merrill Kelly was really gonna move the needle for them all that much in the rotation. I thought they gave up a decent amount of prospects, but all kinda 40-man crunch guys

Ben Clemens: I think this is consistent with having a nice 2025 team without going all in, which I think is appropriate given their goal of being in a perpetual contention window

Smokin’ Jim Leyland: Charlie Morton looked pretty good last night, and against a quality team too! Do you think there is anything to his obvious comfort/fit playing for AJ Hinch as a reason to expect more outings like last night’s going forward? Or is that just Tigers fan hopium?

Ben Clemens: I’m not really buying the Hinch thing, but he’s been quietly good for a while now

Ben Clemens: I don’t think he’s gonna keep being that good but he has a 3.57 ERA in his last 10 starts

Ben Clemens: and similar peripherals

Ben Clemens: whoops, last 12 starts, weird clicking issue on game logs

Ben Clemens: I was researching a pre-deadline article about how signing guys like Morton and Verlander was a nice bet because of the possibility of flipping them at the deadline

Ben Clemens: ended up not writing it because Verlander didn’t get traded but I think that Morton has showed good enough form after a really bad start that I’m perfectly willing to believe he’s a playoff starter

GA Blood: James Wood has been one of the worst players in baseball since the calendar flipped to July. Please console me.

Ben Clemens: Mickey Moniak has a 180 wRC+ over the same time frame, and Mookie Betts checks in at 43. Weird stuff happens in 100-PA samples

CheapPohlad: Did the twins chances of competing in the central get any  better for next year? Or are they looking at starting again in 2027? Does this affect their remaining contracts on the book for this coming offseason?

Ben Clemens: I mean, I’m not really seeing how but I haven’t done a deep dive into it yet

Ben Clemens: I see holes at a ton of positions and not enough prospects to fill all of them

Ben Clemens: and like, they’re not gonna be active in the free agent market, right? they’re blowing the team up to try to clean up the books for a sale

Jordan Walker: Jordan Walker has been hitting well since coming off his IL stint and rehab assignment. Is there anything to it or just good luck?

Ben Clemens: Let’s just say that he has a .417 BABIP and a 111 wRC+

wordbird: What’s your evaluation of Taj Bradley? Do you think he can find consistency to take next step to be a frontline sp? See the Twins being able to help him in ways the Rays haven’t been able?

Ben Clemens: I have thought a lot about Bradley over the years because he’s been a fringe-y top 50 guy multiple times

Ben Clemens: never on the right side of the fringe, to be clear

Ben Clemens: umm…. I mean, I’ve given up. that doesn’t mean I’ll be right but what are we hanging our hat on at this point? he doesn’t miss many bats, he’s got blah command, he’s thrown 350 innings without a lot of spark

Ben Clemens: I think it is generally a good idea for guys like that to go elsewhere

Ben Clemens: sometimes just hearing new things from new people can unlock something. But I woul’dn’t count on it

GBS42: I know I’m late, Ben, but thank you and congratulations on the Trade Value Series. It’s a tremendous labor (hopefully) of love and one of my favorite annual reads.

Ben Clemens: Thank you very much

Rox: Does it really help baseball having teams like the Rockies not be top 9 draft pick eligible next year? They aren’t purposely tanking but are just poorly ran.

Ben Clemens: I think it’s incredibly helpful

Ben Clemens: get better run!

Ben Clemens: why are we giving the teams that can’t figure out how to run themselves the good players? put them on the teams who do good things with their players

GA Blood: Another fun thing about the Sanoja MHRG was that he nearly hit both foul poles. Would love to see a tracker that accounted for the distance between where HR landed for players who hit more than 1 in a game.

Ben Clemens: now THAT is cool

Ben Clemens: hitting both foul poles would be an all-time achievement

CFH: You mentioned in some trade value chats that 2 wins of defense isn’t as valuable as 2 wins of offense because it’s easier to develop – but only wins (not offense/defense) matter in the standings, so why wouldn’t teams just go all in on developing good defense if that’s the case? Ditto for why hitters seem to go for less than pitchers – if you’re a game out, why not try and get a win better on hitting if it’s cheaper?

Ben Clemens: okay, there are a few things here

Ben Clemens: one, most teams are getting a ton of defense for very cheap already, they’re doing this

Ben Clemens: two, the Brewers are doing what you’re talking about, and it works pretty well

Ben Clemens: it does feel like it puts a bit of a cap on you, but yes, very clearly this is a thing you can try to do

Ben Clemens: the pitching thing is a little more complicated, even, because the share of pitching value goes up in the playoffs

Ben Clemens: your best guys can go more often

Ben Clemens: i guess my point is this

Ben Clemens: maybe I’d pay up for a 4 WAR hitter who does it all with the bat. I can’t get that skillset for less elsewhere

Ben Clemens: on the other hand, there’s probably a slick-fielding CF or SS who can be a 1.5-2 WAR guy with a full allocation of playing time that you could have for less than that

Ben Clemens: Myles Straw was freely available, is posting a 78 wRC+ this year, and is on pace for a 3 WAR/600 season. he’s a career 2 WAR/600 player

Ben Clemens: I’m not exactly sure on where the line is, what the tradeoffs are, but I think what the league is doing makes sense becuase of the variable cost of acquiring each skill

Ben Clemens: also offense stacks better than defense, which is a tricky thing to fit into war but definitely feels true

Guest: Why do the Pirates trade for AAA players like Nick Yorke and Cam Devanney and then not play them?

Ben Clemens: it’s so weird!

Ben Clemens: I’ve been a big Nick Yorke fan since he had a cool card in OOTP a few years ago

Ben Clemens: not that I think he’s super likely to hit, but why not find out??

Guest: Do you really believe that small market teams not spending enough money is on par with pitchers intentionally throwing balls as your said in a previous chat?

Ben Clemens: I think both are pernicious and terrible for the game

Ben Clemens: if there were as many pitchers throwing balls intentionally as teams just not even trying to win, obviously the pitching thing would be much worse

Ben Clemens: but at the relative incidences of each in teh game today? i think that the Pirates just not even caring is worse for baseball than Luis Ortiz’s alleged misdeeds

Okra: I don’t think the Twins can be good next year.  They only control Lopez/Ryan/Ober thru 2027.  Is it smart to keep all three and hope ’27 is the year?  Feels like they would likely be better off completely blowing it up given what they just did (trade every else of value, piss off fan base by trading Varland) and the slim chance: a) all three of their good starters remain healthy, b) they spend some money on FA’s, c) several in-house prospects take a big leap by ’27

Ben Clemens: yeah…. I dunno, it all felt bad to me

Ben Clemens: I just think that you can’t look at this through a lens of trying to be a good baseball team

Ben Clemens: they’re trying to be a good asset for sale

Ben Clemens: so that someone will pay them a few extra hundred million

Ben Clemens: they may yet blow it all up this winter

Ben Clemens: but maybe they wanted to keep a few names that they could pitch prospective ownership groups on?

wheelhouse: will the yankees make any of the changes they need to when they miss the playoffs, or will they just say “cole needed tjs” and throw their hands up

Ben Clemens: Boy, Yankees fans are having a tough one

Ben Clemens: WHEN they miss the playoffs

Ben Clemens: look, I get it, the Yankees have put together a not so fun team to watch and they haven’t been to the world series in months

Ben Clemens: let’s let the season end before we decide what they need to do to fix things

Agreed, but…: “i think that the Pirates just not even caring is worse for baseball than Luis Ortiz’s alleged misdeeds” Agreed! But here’s the thing: the Pirates and other teams not trying are doing so within the rules. Ortiz is doing something (allegedly) that’s clearly outside the rules.

Ben Clemens: sure

Ben Clemens: i want them to change the rules

Ben Clemens: i mean, to be clear, not to allow what Ortiz allegedly did

Ben Clemens: ‘just following the rules don’t blame me!’ is generally not an argument that gains a lot of sympathy with me

Ben Clemens: lots of bad things have been done within the letter of the rules

Eli: Can you weigh in on an aggrieved fan debate? My BoSox loving spouse feels that trading Mookie and Devers is a much worse insult to fans than keeping Aaron Boone, while I argue that the Boone aspect is a sign of a front office/ownership that is very comfortable with mediocrity and a bigger finger-flip to fans than trading expensive (and maybe declining) stars. Thoughts?

Ben Clemens: I lean towards your spouse’s perspective because I have a ton of baseball fans in my life who are not FanGraphs readers, and the number one thing they care about is their team’s stars

Ben Clemens: I went with a bunch of friends to the Dead and Company show this weekend

Ben Clemens: (side note, it was incredible, I’ve wanted to go see them and they literally played the park a mile from my apartment, 10/10 experience)

Ben Clemens: and they’re casual baseball fans

Ben Clemens: they were upset about the GIants trading the dudes they knew, who weren’t even stars

Ben Clemens: I think that overall, players just matter more than managers

Ben Clemens: and so trading the recognizable players whose jerseys fans own is a bummer

Ben Clemens: how correlated it is with wining? I’m not sure. but how correlated it is with enjoying fandom? stars matter a lot

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

Ben Clemens: buffalo caesar

Ben Clemens: it’s semi-premade, just gotta assemble some stuff and air fry the chicken

>this person<at *B*: On the Twins -and team sales writ large- are we really believing that *B*illionaires won’t buy a Billion dollar vanity asset that will only appreciate because one guy gets get paid 30 mil/yr? Is there even background documentation of this in real life in some past sales?

Edouard Boolean: Re the Twins: maybe I’m naive, but why is it gospel that you need to tear the team down to the studs if you’re going to sell? (I recall a similar dynamic with the Nationals and trading vs trying to extend Soto when they were considering selling) Basically, why does selling the team=moving good players? I know franchise value is not tied to onfield performance meaningfully, but surely a team with established stars who can put butts in seats and sell a few more jerseys is worth more than one without

Ben Clemens: I mean, I’m generally with you guys. I think this behavior is kinda silly

Ben Clemens: I’m not a billionaire, though

Ben Clemens: it’s definitely been the case that teams seem to lop off their debt before trying to sell

Ben Clemens: so maybe some purchasing group is pushing this? maybe there’s some discounted cash flow model that all the teams share that cares a lot about that? I don’t have a great answer for you on this

Ben Clemens: but it does seem clear to me that teams dislike having long contracts (unless they’re clearly good) when they are trying to sell

>this person<: “it’s definitely been the case that teams seem to lop off their debt before trying to sell” yet they will allow a group with tons of debt financing to buy

Ben Clemens: how are you gonna do the debt financing to buy if the team’s already in debt??

Ben Clemens: (there’s probably some truth to this, honestly)

Mariners Fan: Did the returns for Duran and Miller change your perspective on the trade value of elite closers? Would a team have given up the #3 prospect in baseball for Jordan Westburg and JP Sears?

Ben Clemens: like, maybe a little?

Ben Clemens: I don’t think De Vries is the #3 prospect in baseball, for the record

Ben Clemens: if anything, it’s made me even more sure that I should keep pushing accumulators and okay players down the list

Ben Clemens: so maybe that’s Westburg and Jacob Wilson, those kinds of guys

Ben Clemens: but like, on the other hand, there were some interesting long control players (Ryan, Duran, Abreu, etc) who De Vries couldn’t get in trade even though the Padres surely wanted those guys

DeeBo: There’s a lot to say about AJ Preller  – and a lot has been said – but do you think that at least some part of his freewheeling approach to prospects owes to the fact that he sees the Padres as X% better than the rest of the league at drafting and developing? Otherwise the discount rate he places on future value makes little sense

Ben Clemens: I think there’s some of this

Ben Clemens: I alluded to it a bit in my trade deadline writeup, but I think that he values minor league spots pretty highly

Ben Clemens: as in, if I trade a bunch of volume of prospects, I will have more plyaing time and developmental focus from coaches to give to new guys

Ben Clemens: and honestly, it seems to work for them

Ben Clemens: they do a great job of churning the mid-tier prospects in their org

Ben Clemens: I bet you they’ll find some more interesting names in R5/UDFA/late rounds, etc.

Guest: Do fans really care about who is on the back of the jersey or do they mostly care about winning?

Ben Clemens: well, that’s a pretty tough question to answer of course

Ben Clemens: but surely it’s both?

Dan’l: When “should” the Cards start spending again? Their payroll drops a decent amount the next two years, and they continue to have a decent-but-no-stars roster.

Ben Clemens: Tough question based on how Wetherholt and the youths do

Ben Clemens: but like…. soon?

Ben Clemens: 2027? try to do a bunch of extensions in 2026?

GOMS🔱: hi Ben!chances of mariners making the postseason and ws with this roster?

Ben Clemens: I’m sure this is not as helpful as you hoped, but our playoff odds have them at 81% and 8%, and gambling markets are probably more like 70-75% and 6%?

Ben Clemens: that range seems fine with me

Opifijikl: Re the Padres and Preller valuing MiLB spots highly – do they cut players more/less than the average team to try to keep the churn of prospects if they can’t trade them?

Ben Clemens: We may never know because he’s just so dang good at trading guys

Vinnie Capicola: I see a lot of talking heads down on the Giants for their trade deadline – I imagine it mostly comes from having a win-now move with bringing in Devers. Is it homerism or do you also think they did a good job of “threading the needle” for 2025 *and* 2026?

Ben Clemens: yeah, I was fine with their deadline

Ben Clemens: like I’m not saying it’s a good thing to be in a place where the guys the Mets can’t easily fit on their 40-man roster are way better than your 40-man options

Ben Clemens: but here they are! and so they did the write thing in my opinion

Ben Clemens: right* jeez

Ben Clemens: I just don’t think they could have done a lot differently. not a notably great deadline but certainly not bad in my opinion

TooDamnTall: Hey Ben, I just arrived in Vietnam an hour ago and appreciate the Kurtz article tie-in.

Ben Clemens: love it

>this person<: re debt financing I meant that an incoming group can borrow a lot to buy (even if they have the cash) and then cry poverty and budgets when they fire all the scouts and increase the hot dog prices 84%

Ben Clemens: yeah, I’m with you

Ben Clemens: but it’s tough to get that debt at a good rate if the team is already levered up

Ben Clemens: so maybe the idea is that you try to make the team debt-free so that the new guy can burden it

Oaktown Blues: Even though the A’s did really well in the Miller trade, would you agree that it probably made them worse in 2026?

Ben Clemens: oh most definitely

Ben Clemens: i mean, the most common outcome is that it makes them worse, period

Ben Clemens: you make up for that by having really good right tails

Ben Clemens: like in the cases where it makes them better, it makes them a LOT better

Ben Clemens: the ceiling on De Vries is meaningfully higher than the ceiling on Miller

Sorpresas: Playoff Odds have all six of the current NL teams over 90% and all six of the current AL teams over 75%, will it go all chalk or will somebody sneak in over the last two months?

Ben Clemens: I think 2 teams not currently in playoff position will end up th ere

Ben Clemens: just to pick a number

Rox: Re-Rockies in the top 10. Do you think the Orioles would have been as fun team the last couple of years with the same rules?

Ben Clemens: NO

Ben Clemens: but why are we rewarding them for being anti-competitive/

Ben Clemens: the O’s hvae made baseball in Baltimore worse for a generation

Ben Clemens: attendance isn’t great there

Ben Clemens: it didn’t rebound that much when they won 100 games and it’s way back down this year

Ben Clemens: why should MLB encourage that behavior?

Barcode Bo: I promise that Tigers fans were plenty happy to support their playoff team last year even without Flaherty. Winning cures all.

Ben Clemens: ah yes, the biggest star on the Tigers, Jack Flaherty

Ben Clemens: what are we talking about here?

Ben Clemens: the Tigers kept their stars!

Ben Clemens: there were rumors of a Skubal trade last summer

Ben Clemens: and they held pat

Dakota mckee: Does miami spend anything this winter to bolster a surprisingly comeptitive club or do they sell alcantara and ecabrera anyway?

Ben Clemens: I dont’ have a strong view here

Ben Clemens: I’m guessing they’ll try to trade Sandy still but will keep Cabrera and try to do some marginal adding

G4: Alek Thomas is somehow still only 25 and appears to have Arizona’s regular CF job to himself in 2026. Do you have any confidence in him achieving a league-average wOBA?

Ben Clemens: I really do not, which is sad b/c I want him to be great

Ben Clemens: he’s another OOTP all star, his future legend cards were consistently excellent. I convinced myself he’d be a perennial 30 double 20 homer guy

Ben Clemens: I guess I’m gonna say…. not happening, but I really hope I’m incorrect

Joe Bob: Loyal Rangers fan here – nominating them for dumbest trade deadline decision. They already had a top-line pitching staff but desperately need a dependable right-handed hitter. So what do they do? Trade for another starter. Sheesh!

Ben Clemens: Yeah I didn’t like the Kelly trade

Ben Clemens: I liked both reliever trades quite a bit

Ben Clemens: but I was kinda confused by why they got a TOP sp when they could have gone much more budget if they were concerned about volume

Edouard Boolean: Obviously plenty of time for the answer to become obvious but who of the Tigers current rotation would you set up as the playoff starters behind Skubal rn? Flaherty and Morton?

Ben Clemens: yeah, for now

Ben Clemens: let Mize and Paddack duke it out for the last spot

Guest: Just got and offer for Bryce Harper for my Nick Kurtz. Do you think Kurtz will slow the rest of the way?

Ben Clemens: just wrote about Kurtz today

Ben Clemens: I think I’d do it

Ben Clemens: new is always better

Ben Clemens: or at least more fun

Justin: How much is your choice of which game to watch or listen to based on the quality of the announcers/broadcast

Ben Clemens: if I’m choosing between several games without something else guiding me (pitching matchup, guy I’m working on an article about, team who hasn’t been in 5 things for a while) I will consider the broadcasters for sure

Ben Clemens: I like to always listen to home broadcasts so that I get a good sample of the league and don’t skip anyone every time

Ben Clemens: but I definitely enjoy myself more with the good booths

Ben Clemens: and I’ll always listen to the Mets booth even if they’re on the road, great memories of them from my time in new york

Oaktown Blues: Hope your dog is okay, btw

Ben Clemens: just an annual checkup, thank you

Ben Clemens: she hates the vet so that is the tough part

Guest: How much do you think recency bias impacts the crowds trade values?

Ben Clemens: i mean, a good deal

Ben Clemens: it affects mine too!

Ben Clemens: I try to control for stuff but I’m not arrogant enough to think I’ve fully screened it out

Pat: The Tigers-Phillies series this weekend was great, felt like a playoff series. Great comeback by Philly on Friday, Skubal-Wheeler on Saturday with a Philly rally just falling short, then a very fun game last night with GREAT defense & Sanchez. Add in the Durantula stuff & it was great theatre..& I’m a Tigers fan!

Ben Clemens: yeah that was super fun

Ben Clemens: lots of fun plays and close games too

Ben Clemens: the Sunday night game was probably my favorite

Ben Clemens: Cris Sanchez going nuclear has been a lot of fun

Mike: Joe Ryan not offered to people to rank in the trade values, or he’s not worth anything? (how did the tool not include him?)

Ben Clemens: just an oversight from us trying to curate a list

Ben Clemens: he was an HM on the real list and guys I talked to had him in the same general vicinity as MacKenzie Gore, i.e. just off the list on my list but could be in your top 50 if you wanted without looking weird

Guest: What/who is your favorite style of bad player?

Ben Clemens: oh, babip-y speed guys

Ben Clemens: like man I love Jung Hoo Lee’s slap hitting ways

Ben Clemens: I had Luis Arraez on a trade value top 50 once!

Ben Clemens: i think guys who ocmpletely subvert the normal way the game works are fun

Victoria: What is your least favorite style of good player?

Ben Clemens: high-K high-BB closers

Ben Clemens: unless they throw a unicorn pitch

N8: For rest of season – do you think Luis Gil or Nestor Cortes are worth hanging on to?

Ben Clemens: really depends on who your alternatives are but I think the opportunity is there for both. format-dependent and roster-dependent but playing time is a positive factor for both and I’d be happy to roster either in my current Ottoneu team

Guest: Do elite defenders add or subtract from each other? As in, would an elite SS and 3B take away opportunities from each other, lowering their value?

Ben Clemens: I would assume so, but then you’ve got the fact that maybe the team leans more into sinkerballers with those two guys

Ben Clemens: I haven’t really done the math on this one and I think it’d be quite hard to actually do

Brian: Since he was the inspiration for the 5 Things column, I have to say that Zach’s “Mets Corner” is delightful

Ben Clemens: I’m not a big podcast guy these days b/c I don’t commute and don’t wear headphones when I walk my dog, so I didn’t know what this was and had to look it up

Ben Clemens: cool! love it

JM: If your goal was to build the most fun and entertaining bad team, who’d be at the top of your list for players to get? And I mean entertaining in a good way, not watching a car crash entertaining.

Ben Clemens: Arraez for SURE

Ben Clemens: oh, maybe Nestor Cortes and some super weird pitchers too

PUJOLS5: You mentioned watching cut up starts on Savant. What search do you use to get that?

Ben Clemens: just put in the pitcher and the game date

Ben Clemens: and then watch all their pitches in sequence

Ben Clemens: alright, gotta load up the pup for the vet, so I’ll talk to you guys next week

Ben Clemens: have a wonderful day, everyone