Ben Clemens
@benclemens.bsky.social
Writer at FanGraphs. Part-time developer, too. Dog lover. Wife guy. Got the talking down, we'll have to see about the listening.
A real quote I turned up while working on my Angels sale article, presented with no context and no editing from a 2012 ESPN piece. "I will say that Albert Pujols' age to me is not a concern," Dipoto said. "He's an honorable man and a very respectful man. I'm not a scientist..."
Satisfying graphs from some research I'm working on for tomorrow:
We're releasing a new @fangraphs.com Lab tool today, Count Progression. It's for looking at how count leverage (and outcomes after a given count) have changed over time. blogs.fangraphs.com/new-fangraph...
New FanGraphs Lab Feature: Count Progression Tool
Our newest Lab offering helps investigate how the relative frequency of counts has changed over time.
blogs.fangraphs.com
Yessss, you love to see it. Great article about one of my favorite topics: getting your contact hitter out of the leadoff spot
Mike Petriello@mikepetriello.bsky.social · 4w agoThe Phillies new defensive alignment doesn't seem to make a ton of sense. But hitting slugging whiffmaster Kyle Schwarber at the top, and power-less contact god Luis Arraez at cleanup? Well, that makes a lot more sense than it might otherwise seem. --> www.mlb.com/phillies/new...
After another frenetic deadline, I tried to make sense of who did well, who did poorly, and who marched to the beat of their own drum
FanGraphs Baseball@fangraphs.com · last mo.Winners and Losers From the 2026 Trade Deadline blogs.fangraphs.com/winners-and-...
With the deadline behind us, a few summary pieces to check out at @fangraphs.com! First, @benclemens.bsky.social takes you through some of the deadline's winners and losers:
Winners and Losers From the 2026 Trade Deadline
Let’s make some snap judgments about the tsunami of deadline activity we saw over the last few days.
blogs.fangraphs.com
This trade? Low impact. But it's also high interest, and a chance to make some jokes after the Very Serious trade value series, so I had fun writing it up
FanGraphs Baseball@fangraphs.com · last mo.The Curious Incident Of The Angels/Rangers Trade In The Night-Time blogs.fangraphs.com/the-curious-...
This is the capper of the biggest week (month?) of the year for me - the top ten trade values in baseball. It's Ohtani, duh, plus nine other awesome players. Complete with my take plus what I heard from some team evaluators while I was compiling the list. Hope you like it.
FanGraphs Baseball@fangraphs.com · 2mo ago2026 Trade Value: Nos. 1-10 blogs.fangraphs.com/2026-trade-v...
Hello Michael Harris my old friend I struggled to rank you in the trade value series again
FanGraphs Baseball@fangraphs.com · 2mo agoThe group of players ranked 41-50 on our Trade Value list includes a former MVP, the best reliever in baseball and several other tough calls and value plays. @benclemens.bsky.social breaks it all down:
It's trade value season, which means I'll spend this week turning my last month of work into a ton of words about the best players in baseball. Starting here:
FanGraphs Baseball@fangraphs.com · 2mo agoHappy Trade Value Series Season to all who celebrate! That's right, @benclemens.bsky.social’s annual rundown of the most valuable trade candidates in baseball kicked off this morning with the introduction and honorable mentions, which you can find here:
Cross-sport comparison: Argentina is a team of one Steph Curry and nine Draymond Greens
Wrote up a way-too-detailed analysis of the Atlanta Braves' bullpen for FanSided, featuring @benclemens.bsky.social's awesome new RE-RA9 stat (which I suggest we call RERUNS). Check it out! fansided.com/mlb/the-brav...
The Braves’ impossibly good bullpen could be the ultimate advantage
We all knew Atlanta's bullpen was good, but a possibly-overdoing-it number of stats shows they are even better than we thought.
fansided.com
It makes me a little sad that the broadcasters are currently discussing, in a positive light, Argentina's strategy of surrounding the referee to put pressure on him to give them calls. Like, isn't that not the point of sports?
Egypt is doing an absolutely awful job of being a team that FIFA wants to advance
Our new prospect values are live - here's a breakdown of how we got to our numbers and why we think they're right
FanGraphs Baseball@fangraphs.com · 2mo agoIntroducing an Updated Method for Prospect Valuation blogs.fangraphs.com/introducing-...
After realizing that every time he touches a German player it's a foul on Germany, the Paraguayan goalie is seeking out contact like prime Jerome Bettis out there
As a baseball analyst, this doesn't mean much of anything to me (on the field, at least). As a San Franciscan, I'm appalled. Hard to imagine a team representing its city's values less than the Giants at the moment.
Maria I. Guardado@miguardado.bsky.social · 3mo agoBuster Posey on Pride Night: “I understand that there's strong feelings on this topic. There's differing perspectives, and out of respect to everybody involved, it's not something that I'm going to revisit.”
This is a great look by @leomorgenstern.bsky.social at a trend I didn't even know existed, but that will change the game enormously if it keeps up.
FanGraphs Baseball@fangraphs.com · 3mo agoThe Year of the Left-Handed Hitter blogs.fangraphs.com/the-year-of-...
This year's best hitters look very little like last year's best hitters. So unlike them, in fact, that I wondered how rare this type of upheaval was (it's very rare!)
FanGraphs Baseball@fangraphs.com · 3mo agoHey, Who Are These Guys Anyway? blogs.fangraphs.com/hey-who-are-...
Shocking/fun trivia question that came up while I was writing an article for tomorrow. Only five batters were in the top 25 for batting WAR both last year and so far this year. Bobby Witt is one; can you name the other four?
Hey everyone, I'm feeling under the weather today, so my normal @fangraphs.com Monday chat will move to Wednesday at noon ET. Hope to talk to you then.
I've heard people describe a lot of things as "the worst". My newest entry:
This question seems very easy to answer. Yet many public figures seem to be consistently getting it wrong, and in one consistent direction. Curious!
Ben Clemens@benclemens.bsky.social · 3mo agoTeam A pays $200 million to its players and receives $40 million in revenue sharing, total outlay $160 million. Team B pays $220 million to its players, and pays $40 million into revenue sharing, total outlay $260 million. How much more did Team B pay its players?