Ben Clemens KBO Opening Day Chat
by Ben Clemens
May 5, 2020
| 12:28 |
: Hey everybody, let’s get this chat started.
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| 12:28 |
: I’m really looking forward to the game tonight. The matchup should be great, but as much as everything, I just want the sound of baseball to be back in my life.
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| 12:29 |
: Jay Jaffe had a nice little roundup of our KBO coverage today, which you can find here:
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| 12:30 |
: Tonight’s game features the NC Dinos against the Samsung Lions.
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| 12:31 |
: The Lions feature the player I most identify with Korean baseball: Seung Hwan Kim, who was an absolute beast one year with the Cardinals
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| 12:31 |
: And has the best nickname in baseball history, as far as I’m concerned: Final Boss
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| 12:31 |
: Also Stone Buddha, but that’s not quite as good.
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| 12:31 |
: He’s returning to the Lions this year, and he was an absolute beast with them earlier in his career.
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| 12:31 |
: Hello Ben. Go Giants
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| 12:31 |
: I think I can admit that I’m going to be a huge Giants fan this year.
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| 12:31 |
: It helps that SMK and Josh Herzenberg work there now (hi!)
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| 12:32 |
: But also, they’re just tremendously interesting.
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| 12:32 |
: They signed, in my opinion, two of the three most interesting imports this year (Dixon Machado and Dan Straily)
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| 12:32 |
: And heck, probably three of the top five — Adrian Sampson might be awesome.
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| 12:33 |
: Straily has reportedly been good in spring training, and I mean, if you haven’t seen the Dixon Machado outfield catch, go watch it now:
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| 12:34 |
:
I swooned. I have a feeling he’s going to be my favorite player to watch this year.
Lotte’s Dixon Machado with the nice play to start the game off today
 |
| 12:34 |
: Hey Ben. Any players you are particularly excited to watch in KBO? And as a related question, has anybody (or anything else, really) in particular caught your eye in the CPBL games this past month?
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| 12:35 |
: Hey Lucas. I’m pretty curious to see Ha Seung Kim (and preemptive apologies for all the Anglicizations I’m going to botch tonight) on the Heroes.
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| 12:35 |
: He’s a shortstop who was absolutely incredible last year at age 25
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| 12:36 |
: He hit .307/.389/.491
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| 12:36 |
: And it wasn’t completely BABIP-fueled or anything, that came in at .328.
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| 12:37 |
: Walked almost as much as he struck out.
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| 12:37 |
: That’s a really premium bat at an up-the-middle defensive position, and he had some real pop too.
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| 12:37 |
: I haven’t seen him play yet, which makes me really excited to see what he looks like in action.
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| 12:38 |
: Incidentally, Josh introduced me to statiz.co.kr, which is an incredible site for KBO stats
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| 12:38 |
: I’m using Google Translate, so you occasionally get some funky translations you have to interpret, but I highly recommend it
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| 12:38 |
: I haven’t dug into the way they calculate WAR or anything, but if you want BB%, K%, a triple slash line, whatever
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| 12:38 |
: it’s the place to go
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| 12:39 |
: Over/Under on number of Bat Flips we’ll see today? I have it at 1.5
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| 12:39 |
: That’s a pretty good line honestly.
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| 12:39 |
: I’d take the over, but I think it’s close.
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| 12:40 |
: Drew Rucinski, who’s starting for the Dinos tonight, was pretty great last year.
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| 12:40 |
: So that might dull the offensive fireworks a bit
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| 12:41 |
: I realllllly wish ESPN was carrying the Giants/Wiz game tonight, because that’s Dan Straily vs. Odrisamer Despaigne.
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| 12:41 |
: And I mean, yes please.
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| 12:41 |
: who is starting for the Lions?
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| 12:42 |
: Baek Jung-Hyun is starting for the Lions
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| 12:42 |
: He was so so last year; his 4.24 ERA was right around league average, but he had a FIP approaching 5
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| 12:43 |
: 12% strikeouts, 8% walks
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| 12:43 |
: Could be an interesting one.
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| 12:44 |
: Thanks Ben. What peripheral stats do you recommend looking at when analysing the KBO? Anything must different than MLB for you?
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| 12:44 |
: Hey, Ben. Excited for live baseball. Been reading up on the KBO and as NY Mets/Chicago Bears fan I’m going to adopt the Doosan Bears with Chris Flexen as my team. Seems like with fewer Ks, HRs and more BIP the game may resemble the 1980s MLB environment I grew up on.
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| 12:44 |
: I think this is actually a pretty good comparison.
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| 12:44 |
: The game has a lot more balls in play overall, particularly since the ball was de-juiced
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| 12:45 |
: If you like defense and baserunning, this should be fun.
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| 12:45 |
: That’s another reason I’m so amped for Dixon Machado
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| 12:45 |
: He was born in the wrong generation for the majors
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| 12:46 |
: Also, if you’re a Mets fan, you’re in luck. Chris Flexen, Drew Gagnon, heck maybe even Aaron Altherr
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| 12:46 |
: If you really count his brief stay there last year as being a Met
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| 12:46 |
: I also always thought Flexen would be better than he was, so I have high hopes for him here.
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| 12:46 |
: Who is one of the more talented players that you are keeping your eye on tonight?
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| 12:47 |
: I’m very focused on Altherr tonight.
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| 12:47 |
: He looked like he could be one of those average, sometimes spike an All Star appearance type corner outfielders in the majors.
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| 12:48 |
: And then bam, it was gone.
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| 12:48 |
: I want to know what the heck happened, and this is a fun way to find out.
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| 12:49 |
: Eui-Ji Yang, the Dinos catcher, can, according to eyewitness accounts, rake.
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| 12:49 |
: He hit an lol-worthy .354/.438/.574 last year
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| 12:50 |
: Like, as a catcher!
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| 12:50 |
: He walked more than he struck out.
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| 12:50 |
: I want to see what that looks like.
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| 12:50 |
: Poll who we’re rooting for?
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| 12:50 |
: Let’s do it!
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| 12:50 |
:
Who Are you rooting for?
NC Dinos (75.0% | 30 votes)
Samsung Lions (25.0% | 10 votes)
Total Votes: 40
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| 12:51 |
: I checked my mail five minutes ago and discovered that my FanGraphs tshirt arrived! I’m taking that as a good omen!
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| 12:51 |
: Love it. My wife is wearing her FG t-shirt, and I might throw my hoodie on at some point.
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| 12:51 |
: Is there a gameday-like site for keeping track of games that aren’t being streamed?
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| 12:51 |
: If you’re interested in watching a Korean-language stream, you’re in luck, because the KBO has you covered:
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| 12:52 |
| 12:52 |
: MyKBO also has some GameDay-looking stuff
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| 12:52 |
: If that’s what you’re looking for
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| 12:53 |
: Oh, I forgot to mention: I think Tyler Saladino should be fun.
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| 12:53 |
: He’s probably a quad A guy
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| 12:53 |
: He always hit in Triple A and never really did in the majors
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| 12:53 |
: Curious to see how that translates
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| 12:54 |
: How closely do you think MLB is watching this in terms of possible things to tweak in terms of rules?
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| 12:54 |
: Eh, decently closely? I think they’re going to be looking way more for the viewership numbers
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| 12:54 |
: They’re already interested in almost everything the KBO does.
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| 12:54 |
: Controlling the offensive level effectively, keeping the games a reasonable length, universal DH
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| 12:54 |
: Yang with an OPS on par with 2016 Gary Sanchez, wow
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| 12:54 |
: Yeah like that line is just ridiculous.
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| 12:55 |
: That’s a 180 wRC+
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| 12:55 |
: If statiz’s park adjustments work
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| 12:56 |
: we have baseball on TV right now…..
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| 12:56 |
: Praise be.
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| 12:56 |
: I realllllly hope this doesn’t get delayed.
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| 12:56 |
: Ben, Thank you so much for doing this chat!
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| 12:56 |
: Thank you for showing up!
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| 12:57 |
: Us baseball degenerates have to stick together.
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| 12:57 |
: It’s only 10:00 here but for people tuning in from the East Coast, thanks!
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| 12:57 |
: I’d watch baseball at any hour of the day
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| 12:57 |
: But it’s literally my job
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| 12:57 |
: Ben, try kbofancystats.com. They do use BR WAR but at least you have familiarity with how that’s calculated. It also has Elo ratings for each team. And guess what? All English!
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| 12:57 |
: Ooh a second one!
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| 12:58 |
: Hey this looks quite nice.
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| 12:58 |
: Yeah, you can see that they rated Baek Jung-Hyun a bit more highly than statiz did.
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| 12:59 |
: Unsurprisingly, it’s because of his FIP/ERA differential.
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| 12:59 |
: what would be more 2020 than a rain out tonight?
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| 12:59 |
: Yeah, seriously.
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| 12:59 |
: I somehow hope the streams between Karl and Ed get slightly unsync’d just for goofs for an inning lol.
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| 1:00 |
: I really like how jammed in those books on Eduardo’s shelf look
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| 1:00 |
: What is going on there?? Some of the books are at crazy angles even
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| 1:00 |
: Thought you might like that one. There are a ton of ones like the one you mentioned (statiz.co.kr). I am Korean and I even laugh at the translations. But it is very very in-depth. Probably even more so than MLB!
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| 1:00 |
: Yeah I’ve been tolerating Google Translate because the stats are so in-depth, like you said
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| 1:01 |
: It just feels like FG almost exactly
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| 1:01 |
: WHich I mean as an extreme compliment; I spent years and years as a baseball fan using FG before working here
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| 1:01 |
: how does the best team have no pitcher with above 2.5 war last season? is pitching really that bad in the kbo?
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| 1:02 |
: Uh, no, I don’t see that.
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| 1:03 |
: For example, Hyeon-Jong Yang (again, sorry!) on the Tigers was preposterous last year
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| 1:03 |
: 22.3% strikeout rate, 4.3% walk rate, FIP in the 2’s
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| 1:03 |
: ERA in the low 2’s even.
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| 1:04 |
: Given the lower true outcomes rate in Korea, FIPS are naturally going to be more compressed
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| 1:05 |
: But translate those numbers to the majors and they’d look about the same. If you have a K-BB% approaching 20 and don’t give up dingers, that’s just elite in any run-scoring environment.
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| 1:05 |
: I need to find a streaming link for the Eagles so I can watch my dude Warwick Saupold.
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| 1:05 |
: Check out that mykbo link again
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| 1:05 |
: Let me find it really quickly:
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| 1:05 |
| 1:06 |
: There’s an FAQ there for streaming all the games.
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| 1:07 |
: Sung Min wrote that, and it walks you through how to stream everything, complete with a quick character guide and everything.
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| 1:07 |
: Ben, I think he’s talking about the Doosan Bears (2019 KBO champs). Without Lindblom who’s coming back to US (and on the kbofancy metric of WAR), he is right. They have no current players that posted a 2.5 +WAR from last year.
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| 1:07 |
: Ohhhhhhh
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| 1:07 |
: I see
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| 1:07 |
: Yeah, sorry about that, totally misunderstood you.
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| 1:07 |
: Yeah, Lindblom is a big loss for the Bears
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| 1:07 |
: He’s going to be a good pitcher in the majors, so like…. that’ll do.
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| 1:08 |
: As a Tigers fan, I have to be an Eagles fan with Saupold and Chad Bell. But then there’s Dixon Machado out there, too on the Giants…hmm…
Thank you very much for the link, Ben! |
| 1:08 |
: Yeah it’s actually really hard to know who to root for!
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| 1:09 |
: When I was writing up the blurbs for all the foreign-born players I changed allegiances about five times.
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| 1:09 |
: bullpens look really weird, lots of below average pitchers. kinda like older times where getting to the bullpen seems to be a good thing!
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| 1:09 |
: Yeah one thing that I’ve been told to keep an eye on is foul balls
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| 1:10 |
: And pitch counts generally
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| 1:10 |
: I just opened the app – seems to need a VPN to work. It gave me “not available in your country” message when I tried to watch the SK game.
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| 1:10 |
: 🙁
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| 1:10 |
: Basically if you get to the bullpen here, it’s more valuable, it seems
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| 1:11 |
: I allowed my first grand slam to Aaron Altherr!
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| 1:11 |
: That’s quite the stat there
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| 1:11 |
: Odds that Kershaw is watching this game are certainly higher than 0%
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| 1:12 |
: I know he has kids and all, but he seems to like baseball well enough and major leaguers are really big baseball fans overall
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| 1:12 |
: Like look at Mookie
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| 1:12 |
: like the tweet from Mookie Betts….
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| 1:12 |
: He’s just the best.
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| 1:12 |
: I find myself liking the Dodgers more just b/c Mookie plays for them
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| 1:12 |
: That’s silly, he didn’t have any say in it, but he’s just awesome
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| 1:12 |
: Is the pitching similar to NPB with a lot of off-speed and big pitch arsenals?
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| 1:13 |
: Velo’s a little lower but it’s not, as far as I can tell, exactly like that. Some of the spin and velo numbers I’ve seen would look right at home in the majors
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| 1:14 |
: If someone has a better idea I’d be happy to be corrected, but yeah, I think of it as a midpoint between the NPB and MLB in terms of style
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| 1:14 |
: pretty sure naver needs a vpn bc of the espn deal.
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| 1:14 |
: Ohhhh uh yeah that makes sense
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| 1:14 |
: 🙁
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| 1:14 |
: Fair enough, though.
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| 1:14 |
: Hello! Is fangraphs going to run metrics on kbo?
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| 1:14 |
: I am actually not sure. I know we’re going to have projections up tomorrow, but I haven’t talked to David about that yet.
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| 1:15 |
: Maybe a question for Meg tomorrow?
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| 1:15 |
: Yes, pitching velo is slightly lower than MLB on average but more off-speed pitches
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| 1:15 |
: Thanks!
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| 1:15 |
: All the games!
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| 1:16 |
: My man
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| 1:16 |
: Warwick Saupold……very quietly put up some amazing statistics in the 2nd half of last season. 68 IP, 1.85 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, 6.09 K/9, 6-2 W-L for a last place team
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| 1:16 |
: Yeah, I used to only know Warwick Saupold as the most ridiculous name in the majors
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| 1:16 |
: But in previewing this year I learned that he’s actually pretty solid
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| 1:16 |
: Eric Thames’ voice is very different from what I expected
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| 1:16 |
: Haha yeah I was thinking that as well
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| 1:16 |
: The beard makes me think he’ll have a suuuuuuper low voice
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| 1:18 |
: Man, Thames is going to fit in so perfectly with the Nats.
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| 1:18 |
: I’m enjoying his interview setup.
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| 1:18 |
: Nice cabinet situation going on
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| 1:18 |
: I wonder what Kiley would think
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| 1:18 |
: I don’t think he’d approve.
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| 1:19 |
: If I was going to do an interview in my kitchen, I would 100% straighten out my dish towel first
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| 1:19 |
: FYI, looks like the KBO is streaming all their games on Twitch here: https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Korean%20Baseball%20League
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| 1:19 |
: Player to watch (for MLB): Lee Jung-hoo, father was a KBO MVP. 22 years old. Plays for Kiwoom (who has best offense in KBO). .336/.386/.456 with an .842 OPS in 2019. Won Rookie of the Year in 2017 in the KBO.
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| 1:21 |
: Another guy with more walks than strikeouts last year.
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| 1:21 |
: Someone’s 80s comparison is apt here as well; there are farrrrrrr more players here with more walks than striekouts than there are in the majors
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| 1:21 |
: 21 years old (American age). 22 years old (Korean age). 1 minor detail. On Korean sites, everyone is listed a year older than they really are.
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| 1:22 |
: Oh this is interesting
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| 1:22 |
: Worth noting, and I definitely would have gotten that wrong
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| 1:22 |
: The lag in broadcasting is kind of amusing
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| 1:22 |
: Thames, Ravech, and Eduardo have clearly not rehearsed this
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| 1:23 |
: How would they rehearse this?
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| 1:23 |
: Oh just how to work out who talks when
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| 1:23 |
: Not the exact questions, just the order of talking
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| 1:23 |
: This is making me an Eric Thames fan, to be honest.
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| 1:23 |
: Yeah he’s fun! I really enjoyed the moment when he was destroying baseball right after joining the Brewers
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| 1:24 |
: Travis Sawchik had some really cool interviews with him
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| 1:24 |
: The one that springs to mind for me is that he wore a hole in his carpet just swinging his bat in his living room.
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| 1:24 |
: Watching old videos of Bonds
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| 1:24 |
: ^ this is one of the better interviews I’ve seen in a while
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| 1:25 |
: He’s having a great time
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| 1:25 |
: It is really cool to see players outside of the ‘both teams played hard’ paradigm
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| 1:25 |
: I love that he loves telling these stories
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| 1:26 |
: Yeah, Thames is like this at all times too. Never gets old (Brewers fan here) Will be missed.
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| 1:26 |
: My wife’s family are all huge Brewers fans
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| 1:26 |
: (they’re from Wisconsin)
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| 1:26 |
: And my mother-in-law was QUITE angry that they let Thames leave
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| 1:27 |
: She watches the postgame show more or less every game, though, and he was apparently a great interview there as well
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| 1:27 |
: Ben when will your next OOTP stream be? I really enjoyed the last one.
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| 1:27 |
: Tomorrow! Same time, noon ET, and this one should run around 1-1.5 hours
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| 1:28 |
: I have very little idea what we’ll talk about
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| 1:28 |
: The team is still stuck in neutral, though Lorenzo Cain had a huge 4 times on base day and got his wRC+ up to 14.
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| 1:28 |
: But I had an awesome time doing it and learned some stuff about OOTP, so why not run it back?
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| 1:28 |
: Beer update: grabbing a pale ale from Cellarmaker.
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| 1:29 |
: My coffee is now done
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| 1:29 |
: Any idea of reliable site to order KBO team hats from? Checked quick and wasn’t able to find anything in US. Thought New Era may have had something.
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| 1:29 |
: I am not sure, but if anyone here knows, let us know! I’d be in as well
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| 1:29 |
: Though what I really want is a Julio Franco soju bottle if those exist
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| 1:29 |
: Mel Rojas Jr. just dropped a fly ball in left field to let in a run in another game.
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| 1:29 |
: Oof 🙁
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| 1:30 |
: Gives you some with the bat, takes some away with the glove
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| 1:30 |
: If you guys aren’t familiar, Mel Rojas Jr. is the highest-paid foreign player in the KBO and he absolutely rakes
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| 1:30 |
: Very difficult to get KBO merchandise especially now as they don’t ship overseas.
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| 1:30 |
: David quickly approaching chat MVP status
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| 1:30 |
: That’s sad but understandable at the moment
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| 1:31 |
: Hard to get anything shipped
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| 1:31 |
: This is honestly delightful, and that’s coming from someone who never watches pre/post game shows
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| 1:31 |
: Yeah it’s also amazing that he’s keeping up the enthusiasm
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| 1:32 |
: He’s just legit happy to be talking to people and loves mentioning it, which is so coo
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| 1:32 |
: cool
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| 1:32 |
: I don’t think I’ve seen someone as happy as Marcus Thames right now in over two months
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| 1:32 |
: I know you meant Eric, but let’s remember Marcus Thames.
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| 1:32 |
: I’m surprised that he wasn’t better for his career
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| 1:33 |
: 2.7 career WAR, though he lasted a long time
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| 1:33 |
: Just trying to help the community. I’ve missed baseball but I used to grow up watching the KBO. It’s a different game than MLB. More old school baseball. Contact hitting, moving baserunners.
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| 1:33 |
: I hope everyone can get used to that and not miss the 3-outcome baseball that seems to be prevalent in MLB
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| 1:33 |
: I don’t like homers
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| 1:33 |
: So
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| 1:33 |
: This is perfect!
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| 1:33 |
: I do like strikeouts, to be honest
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| 1:33 |
: But I’ll take fewer strikeouts for more balls in play
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| 1:33 |
: oh whoops that’s the Yankees fan + 1:30 AM coming through
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| 1:34 |
: If you stick it out, you’ll see plenty of dumb commentary from me too
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| 1:34 |
: Marcus was a ‘tems’, right?
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| 1:34 |
: not a thay-mes?
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| 1:34 |
: webgem!
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| 1:34 |
: a double in the gap. weeping
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| 1:34 |
: That was a heck of a play.
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| 1:35 |
: His first step, beautiful
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| 1:35 |
: Sorry Ben, not a lot of strikeouts either. Way more balls in play. If you like fundamentally sound baseball, this league is up your alley. If you like the long ball or 100 mph heat, well, sorry….
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| 1:35 |
: Oh sorry, I misspoke
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| 1:35 |
: I wouldn’t mind if KBO had a few more strikeouts, but I prefer the current KBO environment to the current MLB one
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| 1:35 |
: Altherr gave that one a charge
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| 1:36 |
: Can’t be super happy if you’re Baek — these guys aren’t missing by much
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| 1:36 |
: Also had one of the coolest debuts in MLB history:
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| 1:36 |
: Is there a limit to how many “foreign” players a KBO team can have, like overseas basketball teams sometimes have?
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| 1:36 |
: Indeed there is. Each team can have three foreign-born players, and only two of them can be pitchers
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| 1:37 |
: is it me or did it not seem like much catcher framing there?
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| 1:37 |
: I haven’t really been able to tell
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| 1:37 |
: Baek seems to be ‘pitching to contact’ if you’ll forgive that platitude
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| 1:38 |
| 1:38 |
: Yup, Marcus is pronounced “tems” like the river too
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| 1:38 |
: kbofancystats.com and statiz.co.kr
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| 1:38 |
: already have a web gem and a base coach diving out of the way, this is fun
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| 1:39 |
: That first catch was exactly what I needed
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| 1:39 |
: to get me excited about baseball again
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| 1:39 |
: Those field level seats with no barrier look awesome. I hope US stadiums embrace these with more netting coming about.
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| 1:40 |
: Yeah I’d sign up for it. I think it’s like a party area if I remember correctly
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| 1:40 |
: I wish American fans getting first exposure to this league could see what the KBO would be like with fans in the stands. It’s a totally different environment. Almost like a party / cook-out atmosphere. BBQs are allowed IN THE STADIUM. Legit cook on the spot BBQ outdoors in the outfield. Chants, beers flowing. It’s like a soccer environment in baseball.
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| 1:40 |
: I mentioned this earlier today, but I was planning on attending a KBO game next year on the way to a wedding in Thailand
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| 1:40 |
: I don’t know if the wedding is still happening, or how the season will work next year, but I’m dying to go
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| 1:40 |
: I feel like KT with Rojas, Despaigne, and Cuevas is definitely the best trio of foreign guys in this league.
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| 1:41 |
: They’re up there. I think that the Giants are high-volatility but their trio is pretty solid as well
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| 1:41 |
: Adrian Sampson was kind of good last year!
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| 1:42 |
: The Wyverns are up there too
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| 1:42 |
: Jamie Romak can smash
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| 1:42 |
: And Ricardo Pinto throws harrrrrrd
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| 1:42 |
: as a rangers fan was def surprised sampson just signed in kbo. he was a mediocre innings eater but theres value in that.
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| 1:42 |
: Yeah and I mean, yeah, Straily was bad last year
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| 1:43 |
: But he’s also Dan Straily
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| 1:43 |
: And Dixon Machado was thisclose to putting it all together
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| 1:43 |
: Ben, you’ll have an amazing time. I think you’ll come back and say to yourself, “Why do MLB parks not do these things?” More fan interaction, more festive atmospheres……
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| 1:43 |
: I thought that after going to an NPB game, but I’ve heard that KBO is another level above that.
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| 1:43 |
: Following the league for more than 10 years, would never have imagined a KBO opening day live chat here at fangraphs!
|
| 1:43 |
: It’s strange times, and it’s nice to know that in strange times there’s still baseball
|
| 1:43 |
: Rucinksi’s breaking stuff looks wild btw
|
| 1:44 |
: Wild in a ‘hard to believe’ kind of way, not in a way where he can’t control it
|
| 1:44 |
: Is Luis Castillo the best player ever traded for someone who ended up in the KBO?
|
| 1:44 |
: Haha well now I partially want to research this
|
| 1:44 |
: But I’m going to start by saying yes
|
| 1:44 |
: And I’ll revise if necessary
|
| 1:44 |
: Wouldn’t be a FanGraphs chat without a nice little dig on the Marlins
|
| 1:45 |
: Warwick Saupold perfect through 3 with 36 pitches thrown. Someone tweet out the Perfect Game Alert.
|
| 1:45 |
: Dealing!
|
| 1:45 |
: dannnnnnng
|
| 1:45 |
: Now that’s a heck of a catch
|
| 1:46 |
: This is a small sample, obviously, but the defense here has been ML-caliber
|
| 1:46 |
: Oh boy, Saladino looking ridiculous
|
| 1:46 |
: Rucinski is another guy who was just a fine major leaguer
|
| 1:47 |
: He was good enough to get innings in a lot of bullpens
|
| 1:47 |
: But he probably never would have made above the minimum and he would never be THAT far away from getting cut
|
| 1:47 |
: But like, that’s major league stuff
|
| 1:47 |
: Saladino looked very comfortable in that at-bat, but his hair is making me a little uncomforatble
|
| 1:47 |
: It also wouldn’t be a FanGraphs chat without a food discussion.
|
| 1:48 |
: That is true, and I had some delicious Thai food for dinner tonight but this talk of Korean barbeque is making me hungry
|
| 1:48 |
: I was *supposed* to get barbecue tonight, Texas barbecue, but we called a last-minute audbile
|
| 1:49 |
: It was takeout night, we try to get takeout once or twice a week from local places we like
|
| 1:49 |
: I saw rumors today about a June 6th spring training date and a July 1 start date for MLB? Was that made up? Or did that come from someone legitimate?
|
| 1:49 |
: I haven’t seen that but the July 1 thing has popped up a bunch of times
|
| 1:50 |
: I think it’d be a little early but I dunno, I’m increasingly thinking there will be baseball this year
|
| 1:50 |
: I think Stark tweeted that was not a valid rumor
|
| 1:50 |
: Thanks!
|
| 1:50 |
: These Rucinski sliders are pretty good.
|
| 1:50 |
: Yeah and his two-seamer is fine too
|
| 1:50 |
: I love that get-me-over curve
|
| 1:51 |
: I mean, I’m not sure it’s a good pitch
|
| 1:51 |
: But he threw one that just kinda whiffled in there
|
| 1:51 |
: it was Trevor Plouffe who reported it, he’s a former MN Twin who I believe is doing media stuff with Jomboy these days
|
| 1:51 |
: Seems like a start date is still very much at the rumor stage but it had to come from somewhere. I saw multiple players talking about it.
|
| 1:51 |
: We’ll see. I feel reasonably confident that they’ll make something happen at least for the playoffs
|
| 1:51 |
: Just because of the money at stake.
|
| 1:52 |
: Lions Jerseys > Dinos Jerseys
|
| 1:52 |
: I feel like the Dinos font is a little too aggressive for me
|
| 1:52 |
: But I like the helmet
|
| 1:52 |
: Manfred doesn’t want to lose an opportunity to give out the “piece of metal”?
|
| 1:53 |
: Haha well as I understand it, the ESPN, TBS, and FOX contracts matter a lot
|
| 1:53 |
: And they’re more or less playoff contracts
|
| 1:53 |
: Pretty tough job last-minute for Ravech and Perez, think they’re acquitting themselves nicely thus far
|
| 1:53 |
: I agree with this
|
| 1:53 |
: This would be hard!
|
| 1:54 |
: Dan, Paul Sporer, and I have been doing commentary over the show
|
| 1:54 |
: And we have issues with cross-talk
|
| 1:54 |
: And we don’t actually have to do play by play or anything
|
| 1:54 |
: Any idea on current plans for baseball in Japan?
|
| 1:54 |
: Last I saw (last week) it was still postponed indefinitely
|
| 1:55 |
: Baek looks to be settling down
|
| 1:55 |
: I really like Baek’s motion, it is just so aesthetically pleasing…
|
| 1:55 |
: One thing I’ve noticed from my extensive watching of twitter and youtube clips of the kbo
|
| 1:55 |
: Is that pitching motions are way more diverse
|
| 1:55 |
: And I love it
|
| 1:56 |
: Baek dealing now!
|
| 1:56 |
: “Establish the fastball.” Drink
|
| 1:56 |
: haha yeah you can take baseball out of the US, but you can’t get rid of the platitudes
|
| 1:56 |
: How are people choosing which KBO team to support? I’m an SF Giants fan, so I went with the unsophisticated answer..
|
| 1:57 |
: Anyone with a good way of doing it, feel free to chime in. I checked out the mascots and the players I knew
|
| 1:57 |
: I’m going Dinos in honor of Eric Thames being a Nats fan.
|
| 1:57 |
: Sweet name too
|
| 1:58 |
: Is there an equivalent that MLB front offices estimate off of? Meaning do they assume say a .320 hitter in the KBO is a .240 hitter in the MLB? Or something along those line?
|
| 1:58 |
: Dan wrote about this recently:
|
| 1:58 |
: Ben – any idea how the KBO and CPBL compare? I was watching some of the CPBL games the last couple weeks, mostly because they had English announcers on their streams, and it seemed like pretty good ball.
|
| 1:58 |
: KBO is significantly higher-level
|
| 1:58 |
: I haven’t seen any equivalency numbers for the CPBL but it’s like indy ball I believe
|
| 1:59 |
: This is Double-A, Triple-A, somewhere in between those?
|
| 1:59 |
: There’s big talent disaprity though
|
| 1:59 |
: Among players. You might face a veteran of a 20 year old
|
| 1:59 |
: Though a Dodger fan through and through, I’m originally from Busan, so was a Giants fan before I was a Dodger fan.
|
| 1:59 |
: Yeah my buddy and I went Dinos for the name
|
| 1:59 |
: I gotta go with Dixon Machado’s Lotte Giants
|
| 2:00 |
: Every Ben Clemens chat is now a Dixon Machado lovefest
|
| 2:00 |
:
Just for reference, here is the hierarchy of how evaluators and front office officials generally view the quality of the various Asian leagues compared to MLB and MiLB.
MLB |
| 2:00 |
: Hey, I was pretty close!
|
| 2:01 |
: Rucinski’s two seam is looking really nice so far tonight
|
| 2:01 |
: I don’t know how much I like the third-base-side foot positioning for righties
|
| 2:01 |
: I wasn’t paying attention to see if he shifts to the first base side against lefties
|
| 2:02 |
: That’s something I’d been considering writing about. The Rays seem very into having their relievers move spots against opposite handed hitters
|
| 2:02 |
: Meanwhile lol that slider
|
| 2:02 |
: That was filthy
|
| 2:02 |
: Thanks for the context, Ben! Warwick Saupold perfect through five on 52 pitches! Let’s gooooooooo Aussies!
|
| 2:02 |
: Suppold with 5 no hit innings in the Eagles x Lions game
|
| 2:03 |
: this rucinski’s slider is terrific
|
| 2:03 |
: Yeah uh, it’s nasty
|
| 2:04 |
: He’s spotting it off the sinker really well too
|
| 2:04 |
: Loved that article from Dan but thought he kinda skipped over Ui-Ji Yang’s absurd projections
|
| 2:04 |
: That’s coming tomorrow!
|
| 2:04 |
: What if Mike Piazza were reborn as a KBO catcher?
|
| 2:04 |
: Looks like the Giants/Wiz game is getting underway shortly, too
|
| 2:05 |
: ohhhhhhh my goodness that latest Rucinski strikeout
|
| 2:05 |
: That’s unfair
|
| 2:05 |
: Do you think the diversity in pitching and hitting styles is due to the newer league and no big names to copy or something different?
|
| 2:05 |
: I’m honestly not sure
|
| 2:05 |
: how did the Marlins not keep him after 2018? He wasn’t bad for them in 2018.
|
| 2:05 |
: Money, basically
|
| 2:05 |
: He got more in the KBO
|
| 2:06 |
: Since the bat flips are big here, do the pitchers celebrate more as well?
|
| 2:06 |
: Because he should be dancing after these Ks
|
| 2:06 |
: I’d be in for it
|
| 2:06 |
: If you are having trouble choosing teams, you can choose by your favorite corporation (lol) since they are all owned by corporations, or city (3 in Seoul, 2 in neighboring counties, 1 by the bay (Lotte), 1 near the bay (NC), and the 3 others in rural areas)
|
| 2:06 |
: The Heroes aren’t owned by a corporation, right?
|
| 2:07 |
: But yeah, that’s another way of doing it
|
| 2:07 |
: Check out the Wiz’s mascots when you get a chance, though
|
| 2:07 |
: Need moar batflips. The pitching has been fun though, especially Rucinski.
|
| 2:07 |
: Yeah that first inning made me think we might be getting a shootout
|
| 2:07 |
: The top of the first, specifically
|
| 2:07 |
: But Baek has actually looked quite good since then
|
| 2:08 |
: kt wiz’s corporation is a huge starcraft esports team apparently
|
| 2:08 |
: Whoa really?
|
| 2:08 |
: Yes the Heroes are sponsored, but not owned.
|
| 2:08 |
: Yes Ben, not owned technically by a corporation. Just a collection of people
|
| 2:08 |
: So maybe that’s a selling point for fan loyalty
|
| 2:08 |
: Thanks! That’s quite cool. The Green Bay Packers are like that in the US, but it’s quite rare here, and that’s a fun thing
|
| 2:09 |
: maybe not kt wiz actually now that i’m looking it up. but one of the teams was a starcraft team
|
| 2:09 |
: Haha ah dang
|
| 2:09 |
: Thank you all for being part of one of my happiest moments in months. I’ll be hitting the sack now. Go Rucinski!
|
| 2:09 |
: Have a great night!
|
| 2:09 |
: Loved him but can you really say BK Kim won the WS for the Diamondbacks?
|
| 2:09 |
: He wore Jeter down
|
| 2:09 |
: For Randy and Curt
|
| 2:09 |
: “The owners of the team also own KT Rolster, one of the world’s top Starcraft e-sports teams”
|
| 2:09 |
: Bang, right all along
|
| 2:09 |
: The English broadcast is honestly quite good, especially for doing it the first time and it being 2 AM on the east coast. Impressive!
|
| 2:10 |
: 100% agreed. It’s tough not to be in person, and Ravech sometimes has an ‘I’m looking at this small buffering monitor’ face
|
| 2:10 |
: But they’re making it work
|
| 2:10 |
: If you are from SF, or maybe Miami, you can choose Lotte who is in Busan. The “beach” city in the southern coast of Korea.
|
| 2:10 |
: one person I’m pretty impressed with is the home plate umpire. he’s calling a great game.
|
| 2:11 |
: Concur
|
| 2:11 |
: Adding Thames and Passan always helps too.
|
| 2:11 |
: Passan is the man
|
| 2:11 |
: I think I can tell this story, so I will: when I started working full time here, he DM’ed me to say congratulations and to say that he was super sorry he didn’t have more time to talk to me at the winter meetings
|
| 2:11 |
: I had talked to him for about five seconds when he was literally on his way to meet someone else
|
| 2:12 |
: How in the world did he remember me?
|
| 2:12 |
: And then apologize for it?
|
| 2:12 |
: What a guy
|
| 2:12 |
: Like, just the nicest dude in the world in addition to, you know, breaking all the news and writing a sweet book
|
| 2:12 |
: Home plate ump is double masked too, right?
|
| 2:12 |
: Yep
|
| 2:12 |
: cant wait to hear what he has to say about MLB here now.
|
| 2:12 |
: Yeah that was a killer cut to commercial
|
| 2:12 |
: Ravech showed his setup towards the end of the SVP Sportscenter and he’s just watching the feed on an iPad. Seemed not ideal lol
|
| 2:13 |
: lolllll
|
| 2:13 |
: Getting to about halfway through beer number two on the night. Passan’s ‘I’m not sure if the broadcast has started up again yet’ stare is weirding me out
|
| 2:14 |
: Wow getting a bat on the slider at all is kind of impressive at this point.
|
| 2:14 |
: oh this is great
|
| 2:14 |
: So this seems overall positive right?
|
| 2:15 |
: this 3b for the dinos is solid
|
| 2:15 |
: Yeah that little adjustment on the in-between hop was hard
|
| 2:15 |
: Do you guys have the online stream link that’s free by any chance?
|
| 2:16 |
: It is kind of nice with all these balls in play
|
| 2:16 |
: two nice throws back to back
|
| 2:16 |
: Yeah I am enjoying this so far
|
| 2:16 |
: The defense has been CRISP
|
| 2:16 |
: I wouldn’t mind a few more baserunners and some plays on the basepaths
|
| 2:17 |
: But there have been I think 4 great defensive plays already
|
| 2:17 |
: Thoughts on the artificial noise being pumped in?
|
| 2:17 |
: I’m fine with it
|
| 2:17 |
: I like my baseball with a little sound
|
| 2:18 |
: I think it’d be weird if they had fake cheers and such
|
| 2:18 |
: BUt I don’t mind just some chatter
|
| 2:18 |
: Saladino lost a year off of his life on that check swing
|
| 2:18 |
: So ESPN said they plan on showing postseason play. I wonder if that will hold true if MLB is playing? They said “for the next 6-8 weeks” showing games 6 days a week. What if MLB is playing by then? I guess there’s no time overlap, but surely there’d be some resource issues in terms of announcers?
|
| 2:19 |
: They can dig up some announcers.
|
| 2:19 |
: I think they’ll show the playoffs if they’re getting ratings
|
| 2:19 |
: And I mean, they’ll be getting ratings
|
| 2:19 |
: This game is 0-0 and I’m having fun
|
| 2:19 |
: It’s such a shame that the games are held without any audiences. The most unique part of the korean baseball experience is the cheerleaders and the theme songs each player has. It’s like merging WWE and baseball together. It’s really awesome.
|
| 2:20 |
: I wish they’d show more of the fan experience in the previews of these
|
| 2:20 |
: Boy, I can’t really tell if that was a hanging slider or if it was on prupose
|
| 2:20 |
: i’m curious what the ratings end up being for the 5est start games
|
| 2:20 |
: I’m so glad tonight’s game is one that’s doable in Pacific time
|
| 2:21 |
: I volunteered to chat during it without knowing when it would be
|
| 2:21 |
: my takeaway from seeing people in this chat talk about the fan experience is that I am going to a live game in Korea at some point in my life
|
| 2:21 |
: Haha I know right?
|
| 2:21 |
: That’s my takeaway too
|
| 2:21 |
: Saupold through six on 63 pitches. Just made a spectacular defensive play, kicking a ball down coming back at him, then running towards the second baseman, barehanding, and throwing while spinning.
|
| 2:21 |
: I hope you just saw the defensive play by Saupold to hold his no-hitter!!! What a play!
|
| 2:22 |
: Ugh I missed it. I need to get a second monitor for my laptop to go along with the tv
|
| 2:22 |
: Saupold no-hitter on opening day would be awwwwwesome
|
| 2:22 |
: Chances we can get a Petriello Stactast broadcast for one of these KBO games?
|
| 2:22 |
: Everyone bug Mike about it and maybe!
|
| 2:22 |
: Those Statcast broadcasts are phenomenal
|
| 2:22 |
: (realistically I don’t think he’ll do one)
|
| 2:23 |
: But I think I speak for all of us when I say that we need more of them
|
| 2:23 |
: @Matt this will give you an idea as to what it’s like being there
|
| 2:23 |
: What are the ratings for those statcast games?
|
| 2:23 |
: I have no clue actually
|
| 2:23 |
: I’ll see if I can look it up
|
| 2:23 |
: IT’s baseball the way I’d like to consume it, though
|
| 2:23 |
: It doesn’t hurt that they have Benetti
|
| 2:23 |
: For my money he’s the best play-by-play guy in the game today, and I watch a lot of RSN games
|
| 2:24 |
: Mike is great, but Benetti makes that booth hum
|
| 2:24 |
: Did anyone see Passan’s bookshelf, btw?
|
| 2:24 |
: The two things with pride of place were his book (sure) and a Rage Against the Machine album
|
| 2:25 |
: It’s a good thing I’m laid off so I can stay up until 3:30 watching all this.
|
| 2:25 |
: I’m sorry to hear that — but at least there’s sports again
|
| 2:26 |
: Wishing all the best, and I hope whoever you’re rooting for tonight wins!
|
| 2:26 |
: one of my group chats recently posed the question of what everyone’s home studio bookshelf Would have on it
|
| 2:26 |
: Fun question
|
| 2:26 |
: Benetti must be the only person to share a booth with both Mike AND Bill Walton
|
| 2:26 |
: OMG did you listen to the Walton game too?
|
| 2:26 |
: It was amazing
|
| 2:26 |
: Uh, sorry, I missed a home run
|
| 2:26 |
: a idinger!!!
|
| 2:26 |
: that might be the weirdest homer I’ve ever seen.
|
| 2:27 |
: What the heck
|
| 2:27 |
: I mean, it might have been foul
|
| 2:28 |
: Too bad they didn’t spring for another 15 feet worth of pole
|
| 2:28 |
: oh this game has everything
|
| 2:28 |
: The umpire with the mirror shades is sweet
|
| 2:29 |
: NOW baseball is back baby. Extended replay review.
|
| 2:29 |
: see that’s where the KBO – MLB difference lies: Top 7 in Hanwha – SK game. Hanwha up 1-0. 1st and 2nd, 0 outs. They bunt to move runners to 2nd and 3rd. In MLB, they are 100% swinging away (especially since KBO has DH like AL)
|
| 2:30 |
: Yeah. It’s not as extreme as NPB, where it’s bunt city, but KBO is definitely more 80s or early 90s in terms of bunts than MLB
|
| 2:30 |
: it starts with controversial replay reviews, and the next thing you know the Doosan Bears are beating a trash can in the dugout to signal pitches to their batters
|
| 2:30 |
: Eu-Ji Yang, Mike Piazza 2.0, strikes again
|
| 2:30 |
: He’s got a nice swing huh?
|
| 2:31 |
: [code-block]
uh
 [/code-block] |
| 2:31 |
: Oh baby
|
| 2:31 |
: A huge base hit to put Hanwha up 3-0
|
| 2:31 |
: eagles have a nice 3-0 cushion now for saupold
|
| 2:31 |
: Baek starting to struggle.
|
| 2:31 |
: Yeah Baek has had a weird outing tonight
|
| 2:32 |
: He was rocky, then he looked great, and now he’s falling apart again
|
| 2:32 |
: Fair or foul, that home run ball was smashed
|
| 2:32 |
: was lucky 1st inning it wasn’t 2-0 after 2 batters
|
| 2:32 |
: Yeah it easily could have been
|
| 2:32 |
: With Hanwha, 3-0 is usually far from a nice cushion once the bullpen is in!
|
| 2:33 |
: Oh man, Hanwha, the Nationals of the KBO
|
| 2:33 |
: That’s the kind of fatalism that lets me know baseball is really back
|
| 2:33 |
: Baek’s delivery is so smooth
|
| 2:34 |
: I’m used to the deceleration snap you see in a lot of ML pitchers
|
| 2:34 |
: he’s just fluid in and out
|
| 2:34 |
: Their comparison for Baek was Brett Anderson
|
| 2:34 |
: Very frustrating for me — Anderson has now hit the IL twice in a month in my OOTP simulation
|
| 2:35 |
: But I can kinda see it — he’s definitely a pitch to contact type, though it doesn’t seem like he gets as many grounders
|
| 2:35 |
:  Swole daddy. lol
|
| 2:35 |
: He is jacked
|
| 2:35 |
: Swole indeed
|
| 2:36 |
: dinos again!
|
| 2:37 |
: The hard contact just continues against Baek
|
| 2:37 |
: Does a better route get that one? Maybe
|
| 2:37 |
: But he was right into the wall
|
| 2:37 |
: that wall didn’t look soft.
|
| 2:37 |
: Yeah that’s a tough catch there with the wall in play
|
| 2:38 |
: saupold walks a runner on in the 7th
|
| 2:38 |
: 1st walk for Saupold. No-hitter still alive
|
| 2:38 |
: And now the no-hitter is gone. BOOOOOOOOOOO.
|
| 2:38 |
: nooooooooo
|
| 2:38 |
: Boo, that would have been fun
|
| 2:38 |
: It’s still quite the start from Saupold
|
| 2:38 |
: And Baek just reached back for a little extra for a strikeout, which puts him at 5k in four innings
|
| 2:39 |
: He’s somehow both striking everyone out and getting rocke
|
| 2:39 |
: d
|
| 2:39 |
: Tigers-Heroes suspended due to smoke coming from a fire near the stadium. Already crazy!
|
| 2:39 |
: Uh, what?
|
| 2:39 |
: Can’t predict live sports!
|
| 2:39 |
: i’m drinking this korean beer and unfortunately am onto my final one left
|
| 2:40 |
: I have a bunch of beer but I think that this one is my last for the night. Big day of writing tomorrow plus a stream. If this werne’t the first baseball game of the year I would have turned in by now
|
| 2:40 |
: Jamie Romak broke the no-hitter up.
|
| 2:40 |
: I know very little about Romak but he has just hit and hit and hit in the KBO
|
| 2:40 |
: in KBO?
|
| 2:40 |
: Either way
|
| 2:40 |
: Dude can hit
|
| 2:41 |
: They rarely are, that padding doesn’t give much. If you ever get to tour a major league or similar field I recommend jumping up against the wall, but don’t dislocate a shoulder!
|
| 2:42 |
: Kim is taking ‘taking all the way’ to new heights here
|
| 2:42 |
: Just straight up stepping out mid-pitch
|
| 2:42 |
: let’s see if rucinski can stay composed here
|
| 2:42 |
: Yeah that plate appearance did not go well
|
| 2:42 |
: He just couldn’t get his fastball over
|
| 2:42 |
: Romak hit 43 HRs in 2018…….that’s impressive in the KBO
|
| 2:43 |
: Yeah and even with the de-juiced ball in 2019 he was quite good
|
| 2:43 |
: He strikes out a bit more often than average but makes up for it
|
| 2:45 |
: straily gives up his first run
|
| 2:45 |
: Boo again
|
| 2:45 |
: This is poor social distancing all around. Translator needs a mask too.
|
| 2:45 |
: Haha well he probably got his temperature checked already
|
| 2:46 |
: I just tuned in. Where is the crowd noise coming from?
|
| 2:46 |
: It’s piped in
|
| 2:47 |
: This is a delightful batting stance, by the way
|
| 2:47 |
: I don’t exactly know what comp I’d put on it
|
| 2:47 |
: Okay, I guess Eu-Ji Yang is not Piazza
|
| 2:47 |
: That throws was right on the money
|
| 2:47 |
: An out on the bases!
|
| 2:48 |
: And an error! We’re getting the kitchen sink now
|
| 2:48 |
: Though in fairness that wasn’t an easy play
|
| 2:48 |
: Still an error though
|
| 2:49 |
: 4 innings in about 75 minutes. Not too bad.
|
| 2:49 |
: Yeah this game is humming right along
|
| 2:49 |
: That was a heck of a pitch there by Rucinski
|
| 2:49 |
: nice by rucinski there to get out
|
| 2:49 |
: Yeah he didn’t look sharp in that inning but he bore down in the end
|
| 2:49 |
: Detroit Tigers really need a Pizza Pizza ad on their batting helmets. Why not?
|
| 2:50 |
: I dislike the batting helmet ads less than most
|
| 2:50 |
: The International Series games have them and I know people complain
|
| 2:50 |
: BUt eh, I don’t care
|
| 2:50 |
: I just want baseball
|
| 2:51 |
: I don’t care either. A least soccer teams are honest about it.
|
| 2:51 |
: Chances of an mlb expansion team being named after a dinosaur? Lots of birds and animals.
|
| 2:51 |
: Yeah exactly
|
| 2:51 |
: Whoops grabbed the wrong one
|
| 2:51 |
: my lifetime of watching international soccer has desensitized me to uniform ads
|
| 2:52 |
: Odds aren’t super high, but hey, Toronto Raptors
|
| 2:52 |
: this is amazing. i’m watching 5 games at once. i don’t remember the last time i’ve done that for mlb
|
| 2:52 |
: I do it once in a while, but yeah, this game is really driving home how much I’ve missed baseball
|
| 2:53 |
: Bah, guess they still have some tech kinks to work out
|
| 2:53 |
: hopefully they aren’t discouraged lol, cause it has been pretty good so far
|
| 2:54 |
: Yeah totally agreed
|
| 2:54 |
: They’re fading into the background for me, which is PERFECT
|
| 2:54 |
: That’s exactly what I want to have happen
|
| 2:54 |
: I catch the high points and mostly they are just letting the game happen
|
| 2:54 |
: Saupold with an 8IP, 1H, 0 ER performance on opening day
|
| 2:54 |
: I mean that is quite an opening day start
|
| 2:54 |
: Love
|
| 2:54 |
: It
|
| 2:55 |
: Baek continues to confuse me. He’s looking great again!
|
| 2:56 |
: does the KBO have any 3 batter rule for relievers?
|
| 2:56 |
: They do not
|
| 2:56 |
: Altherr is getting a chance to break the game open here
|
| 2:57 |
: Third time through, platoon advantage
|
| 2:57 |
: He’s a big dude
|
| 2:57 |
: Like, I knew that, but I hadn’t seen him hit in a while
|
| 2:57 |
: He’s large
|
| 2:58 |
: Aaron Altherr (as a Phillie, my fav team), used to crush lefties in the MLB. Should be effective vs this type
|
| 2:59 |
: 2017 Altherr has hit a home run already here
|
| 2:59 |
: I think the true test of the broadcasts is how they will allow the announcers to showcase the player’s personality as the Season progresses.
|
| 2:59 |
: I’m curious to see how they’ll handle these broadcasts as they continue
|
| 2:59 |
: Today’s is just ‘here’s baseball, revel in it!’
|
| 3:00 |
: I’ll be interested to see how they follow stories and so on
|
| 3:00 |
: ahhhh unlucky there for altherr
|
| 3:00 |
: Altherr has had the close but no cigar day for sure….
|
| 3:00 |
: Owie
|
| 3:00 |
: Two of three balls have been absolutely stung
|
| 3:01 |
: I really wish the US was on the metric system
|
| 3:01 |
: I mean…. I have some bigger wishes right now, but fair
|
| 3:02 |
: A quick programming note: I’m going to call it a night in 30 minutes
|
| 3:02 |
: Hahahaha wow are you guys seeing this KT Wiz socially distanced first pitch ceremony?
|
| 3:02 |
: That’s tremendous
|
| 3:03 |
: The bubble? lol
|
| 3:03 |
: to hell with social distancing, let’s just all climb in bubbles for the next month!
|
| 3:03 |
: What is the level of hitting Lee Jung-Hoo?
|
| 3:03 |
: I haven’t yet seen him hit, but the numbers look good!
|
| 3:04 |
: More singles and doubles than dingers, but a very solid line
|
| 3:04 |
: The Heroes just mash
|
| 3:05 |
: They are the best hitting team in the league
|
| 3:05 |
: Ravech with the good understanding of wyverns vs dragons – he’s correct, the “dragons” on GoT were actually wyverns
|
| 3:05 |
: dragons have four legs, wyverns have two
|
| 3:05 |
: Lol, late night proper technical mythological animals
|
| 3:07 |
: I like the cement design in the outfield with the park sort of built into the hillside
|
| 3:07 |
: This stadium feels like an upper-minors park to me, I’m into it
|
| 3:07 |
: Rucinski is working the two-seamer off the plate away to lefties
|
| 3:08 |
: That’s a great pitch against lefties. I wondered how he’d fare given his slider matters so much, but yeah, it’s fine
|
| 3:08 |
: Saupold finishes off the CG SHO 2-hitter on 101 pitches. Not bad.
|
| 3:08 |
: So close to the sub-100 pitch shutout
|
| 3:08 |
: But yeah, that’s dealing
|
| 3:08 |
: Looking up some older articles on these KBO players is fun. Altherr/Thames comparison…
|
| 3:09 |
: Yeah, Altherr was a real thing then!
|
| 3:09 |
: I mean, that 2017 didn’t really look fluky
|
| 3:10 |
: He just smashed the ball, basically
|
| 3:11 |
: He was great, and his xwOBA was telling you it wasn’t completely fake
|
| 3:11 |
: He really did hit the ball really hard and get it in the air
|
| 3:11 |
: And then……
|
| 3:13 |
: They’re talking about Sung-Bum Na as a potential MLB posting
|
| 3:13 |
: I didn’t really know that much about him, but I’m taking a look at his stats now
|
| 3:13 |
: Na Sung-bum rocked a 1.089 OPS with only 4 HR last year. must have crushed the gap
|
| 3:13 |
: Nah he just missed a lot of the season
|
| 3:13 |
: 280 ISO but only 100-ish PA
|
| 3:13 |
: Ben, hope you enjoyed KBO opening day. Hope for more
|
| 3:13 |
: I did! This was a ton of fun
|
| 3:14 |
: Ha woops. Good call
|
| 3:14 |
: Yeah I did the same thing at first.
|
| 3:14 |
: His career line is bonkers though
|
| 3:14 |
: .316/.383/.534
|
| 3:14 |
: In center
|
| 3:14 |
: Yes please
|
| 3:14 |
: Adios pelota
|
| 3:14 |
: dinger!
|
| 3:15 |
: The Dinos are not messing around now
|
| 3:15 |
: I’m not completely sure why Baek is still out there
|
| 3:15 |
: Not only are the bat flips clean, but the KBO umps coming out firing, too.
This ump’s strike three looking call is like he’s starting a lawnmower.
 |
| 3:15 |
: Lolll
|
| 3:16 |
: Oh now we’re really cooking with gas
|
| 3:16 |
: THERE’S A BAT FLIP
|
| 3:16 |
: BP in Daegu
|
| 3:17 |
: He really got all of that one
|
| 3:17 |
: One last KBO prospect: Kang Baek-ho of KT. 19 years old. Hit 29 HRs as a 18 yr old last year
|
| 3:18 |
: I’m starting to fade so I’m gonna call it a night, but that was a nice way to end it. Thanks for the great chat Ben!
|
| 3:19 |
: Have a great night
|
| 3:19 |
: You’re beating me out the door by about 10 minutes.
|
| 3:19 |
: David – Is he related to Jung-Ho?
|
| 3:19 |
: Neat little tidbit in the broadcast there; the Dinos were early adopters of second-wave analytical stuff, and the Lions are catching up
|
| 3:20 |
: The Giants are pushing that way as well; their GM is from the Theo Epstein GM tree
|
| 3:20 |
: Winning candidate Heroes 8 : 0 Tigers lol
|
| 3:20 |
: No no relation to Kang Jung Ho of the Pittsburgh Pirates
|
| 3:22 |
: The Kiwoom Heroes just rake. Have 2 young studs. They could be your title contenders this year
|
| 3:22 |
: Their offense is going to be fun to watch
|
| 3:23 |
: Ha Seong Kim just hits and hits
|
| 3:23 |
: Ben, where are you watching from?
|
| 3:23 |
: Lovely San Francisco
|
| 3:24 |
: It’s late here, but not unreasonably so
|
| 3:24 |
: Have Park Byung-Ho if you remember Ben of the Minnesota Twins. Didn’t turn out well for him there but in KBO, he’s back to being a monster hitter
|
| 3:24 |
: Yeah I never thought he got enough of a chance with the twins
|
| 3:24 |
: I was worried the same thing would happen to Choi Ji-Man before the Rays started giving him playing time
|
| 3:24 |
: According to BA, Kiwoom has 4 of the top 10 MLB prospects in the league. Probably fun to watch for the future!
|
| 3:25 |
: Rucinski has been quietly effective tonight
|
| 3:25 |
: I jinxed him nicely there
|
| 3:25 |
: But that’s the first outfield contact in a while
|
| 3:26 |
: His sinker/slider combo is just not hittable. He’s had some walk issues but no one’s getting anything on it
|
| 3:26 |
: four walks/hbp in 5.2 though isn’t gonna play.
|
| 3:27 |
: Yeah he had a serious control lapse in the middle innings there
|
| 3:28 |
: I dunno what got into him
|
| 3:28 |
: But I was very impressed by his ability to miss bats
|
| 3:28 |
: Alright, 3:30 is the best I’m gonna do here in Michigan. Thanks for the chat, Ben!
|
| 3:29 |
: Have a great night Kyle! Thanks for hanging out
|
| 3:29 |
: I’m staying up for the next half inning to see Baek’s replacement and then I’m heading to bed
|
| 3:29 |
: Very difficult to tell a KBO hitter, give him 200 ABs in MLB, and expect him to produce. It’s why it’s so much easier for pitchers to make the transition.
|
| 3:29 |
: Yeah you see this with NPB players as well
|
| 3:29 |
: Pitching is proactive and hitting is reactive, so pitchers fare better when they switch leagues
|
| 3:30 |
: Another delightful delivery, btw
|
| 3:30 |
: Leg pop, long pause, let it fly
|
| 3:30 |
: Big fan
|
| 3:30 |
: Passan is still up live-tweeting bat flips
|
| 3:31 |
: Right and also as you are seeing tonight, the pitching style is very different. Lot more breaking balls early in counts. You don’t have guys coming in for 1 hitter throwing 100
|
| 3:31 |
: That delivery wouldn’t be legal in MLB would it? He is putting his foot back down on the mound. Kershaw does a similar thing, but never retouches the mound.
|
| 3:32 |
: I’m not convinced his foot touches down
|
| 3:32 |
: It hovers there, and I think sometimes it touches
|
| 3:32 |
: This would be a weird corollary of the Carter Capps rule, and I don’t know how they’d handle it
|
| 3:33 |
: This is like the Carl Edwards thing
|
| 3:33 |
: on cue with the close up!
|
| 3:33 |
: looks like it touched
|
| 3:33 |
: Yeah I thiiiiink it touched
|
| 3:33 |
: It was crazy close though
|
| 3:33 |
:
Carl Edwards, Jr.’s Foot Plant vs Sean Doolittle’s Toe Tap.
OBR 5.07(a): |
| 3:33 |
: I report, you decide
|
| 3:34 |
: I honestly don’t know. I think they might not allow it?
|
| 3:34 |
: It’s somewhere in between those
|
| 3:34 |
: I think the Carl Edwards one is soooooo a balk everytime he does it
|
| 3:34 |
: To me the Edwards one is a balk
|
| 3:35 |
: And the Doolittle one is not
|
| 3:35 |
: Lee’s is somewhere in between
|
| 3:35 |
: It’s somewhat rhythmic, but his shoulders stop pretty completely
|
| 3:36 |
: Alright, on that note, I’m going to head to bed. Thanks so much to everyone, and especially to you David, for chatting with me tonight.
|
| 3:36 |
: I really wanted to get some baseball back, and this was perfect.
|
| 3:36 |
: Have a tremendous night everyone, or day if you’re tuning in from Korea, and let’s do this again some time. Watching baseball and talking with other poeple who love baseball on the internet is my favorite thing in the world.
|
Ben is a writer at FanGraphs. He can be found on Bluesky @benclemens.