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Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 7/13/20

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Ben Clemens

2:38

and brought him up

But they were saying he just didn't have the defensive chops to play while he was winning defensive player of hte month awards in the minors and hitting a trillion bombs

Curious

2:38

Alonso wasn't actually really impacted by the decision to promote him, and the team had a legit competitor that they gave time to in September- Dom Smith, who is actually even younger

Ben Clemens

2:39

Like I said, it's not as egregious of an example

But if you could ask them privately, of course they were conserving options by keeping him down in 2018

Roger

2:39

Who wins the NL Central this year?

Ben Clemens

2:39

Gimme the Reds, but if I'm being honest, it's just a 4 way tossup

60 games, whatever

Ufh

2:39

"Don't blame the player, blame the game." The rules of service time sucks and needs to change. But do we need to blame the FO for doing what's best for the organization?

Ben Clemens

2:40

Sure, this is a really good question to think about

2:41

I think it's reasonable to blame the FO for their callousness while understanding that their incentives are aligned with doing this thing

But if you say it's just the front offices and that baseball is blameless, c'mon buddy

That's clearly untrue

The front offices are doing ownership's bidding

2:42

And their job is to do that bidding most effectively, etc.

Curious

2:42

Is it worth mentioning prominently in your first sentence about Alonso? That's my beef. Feels really unnecessary and somehow personal.

Ben Clemens

2:42

Eh, read it, think it's fine, and look, we're all writing like 15-20 thousand words and need a blurb for each team, if that's a thing you are going to get worked up about, look forward to my lobbing bombs at random teams b/c I didn't have an interesting hook for their section

asnbrv

2:42

A little late, but Tango Tiger has said 1B scoops are part of future iterations of OAA

Ben Clemens

2:42

Nice, thanks man

asnbrv

2:43

http://tangotiger.com/index.php/site/comments/statcast-infield-defense...

Ben Clemens

2:43

Ugh, I overuse 'man' on the end of sentences

Pretend that wasn't there

Jon

2:43

What's the most fun team to follow this year?

Ben Clemens

2:43

The Reds!

I think they're going to be a blast

They play in a bandbox, they have all kinds of fun hitters, Shogo Akiyama is a wild card, and the NL Central is going to be super competitive

2:44

Failing that, I always have fun watching the endlessly interlocking offense of the Rays, and they have the best camera angle in baseball

2:45

Anthony Rendon is my single favorite player to watch, and he's on the Angels, so if you're on the West Coast that's a good option

But their games are going to be on late every single night this year due to the way the schedule works

So that's a big commitment if you're in eastern time

Highway61

2:45

Sorry if I've missed this, but when are the actual 30-man rosters for Opening Day to be finalized? Have they already? I see the projected on RosterResource. Thanks

Ben Clemens

2:46

I am, quite frankly, not sure. Would imagine it's just the same as opening day, teams have up until that day to announce it but generally do so before

Fromage

2:46

Do you have any sense if Voit is going to timeshare with Andujar/Ford, at least one start per week?

Ben Clemens

2:46

This seems like a great time to mention that Jason Martinez obsessively curates our depth chart projections

Right now, we have Voit projected for 155 PA at first and the Ford/Andujar double at 96

So that seems like a time share to me

2:47

Jason is reading every beat writer, talking to team people where he can, combing news wires, everything

It is honestly mildly unsettling how much effort he puts into it. I was eating dinner with him in San Diego for winter meetings when someone signed

And he went to his car, turned on a hot spot, and made the requisite roster changes

2:48

On his laptop

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