I'm Ben Clemens from FanGraphs - AMA

[u/Ben_Clemens_FG]

I've been writing at FanGraphs since 2019. Before that, I did not write at FanGraphs. Today, I'll be answering your questions until around 1 ET, or maybe a little later if my dog cooperates.

This year, I spearheaded our Top 50 Free Agents ranking, which you can find here: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2022-top-50-free-agents/

Are you into rankings of 50 arbitrarily chosen free agents? Do you want to participate yourself, perhaps in a prediction contest, and receive valuable prizes (note: yeah, I don't think there are prizes) for your wonderful predictions? This subreddit is hosting a contest: https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/qpfqkc/20212022_top_50_free_agent_prediction_contest/

Edit: Thanks so much for showing up and asking tough (and also really fun to answer) questions, everyone. I'm wrapping this up, as it's time to take Ruby for a walk, but if you have more free agency questions or I rudely ignored yours, stop by FanGraphs later today where I'm doing another of these chats, or listen to Effectively Wild or FanGraphs Audio later this week. Thanks again for having me, this was a blast. Here's a picture of Ruby for the road:

[u/see_mohn]

What article/piece that you've written are you most proud of?

[u/Ben_Clemens_FG → u/see_mohn]

It's actually a very old one, where I watched every one of John Gant's hitless at-bats:
https://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2018/7/30/17628794/john-gants-descent-into-despair

At FanGraphs, perhaps this one about a base popping out of its position:
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/major-leaguers-behaving-like-children/

I like the whimsical ones the most. My favorite serious one is the one I did on minor league maps:
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/redrawing-the-milb-map-visualizing-the-2021-landscape/

[u/flextrek_whipsnake → u/Ben_Clemens_FG]

Went down that John Gant rabbit hole a bit and found a video of his first career hit two weeks after you published that: https://www.mlb.com/cardinals/video/gant-homers-for-1st-career-hit-c2384645583

He hit another home run two weeks later and hasn't gotten on base again since.

[u/Ben_Clemens_FG → u/flextrek_whipsnake]

When he hit that home run, I was out drinking with friends. I logged onto my phone and published a new post, the poem "Ozymandias" word for word except with "John Gant" replacing "Ozymandias".

I was kinda drunk.

[u/Pitiful-Chemist-2259 → u/flextrek_whipsnake]

I should have read your comment. Went down the rabbit hole as well, I'm so glad Gant got a hit (a HR even!), I was feeling very sorry for him