Author Archive: Ben Lindbergh

Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan talk about the Brewers’ trade for Christian Yelich and signing of Lorenzo Cain, how the Brewers stack up in the NL Central, whether they’re the new model for a rebuilding team, how Yelich and Cain could perform in their new park, what the Cain contract says about the slow-moving market, and where the Yelich move leaves the Marlins. Then they talk to Patrick Dubuque of Baseball Prospectus about how moving away from a “winning is everything” mindset can make baseball better for fans.

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Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about the Padres’ social-media accounts getting hacked, Scott Boras’ “volcano” comment, Hall of Fame voting results, and Jeff’s article about batting practice, then answer listener emails about team construction and the wild card, consistency and Carlos Santana, the baseball equivalents of football’s recent Super Bowl staples, the decline and comeback of four-man rotations, a knuckleball hitter, three Mike Trout hypotheticals, baseball owners opening their books, and a change to free-agent eligibility, plus a Stat Blast on teams that have been better or worse than their underlying stats.

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Ben Lindbergh, Jeff Sullivan, and ESPN’s Sam Miller conduct the fifth annual Effectively Wild Minor League Free Agent Draft, selecting 10 minor league free agents each and competing to see whose roster will accumulate the most combined major league playing time in 2018.

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Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about a few recent trade demands (or non-demands), then bring on Yahoo Sports MLB columnist Jeff Passan to talk about what’s behind baseball’s slow-moving labor market, who and/or what is to blame for the sport’s present economic stalemate, and what can be done to avert disaster. Lastly, Ben provides a brief addendum on baseball’s most and least productive names.

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Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan answer listener emails about rebuilding teams absorbing bad contracts, bad teams signing good players, an MLB amnesty clause, fans switching team allegiances, pitchers wearing jackets on the bases, how to maximize playing time with a limited number of hits, baseball on an Olympian schedule, how catchers could transition to a world with robot umps, and the effect of facing two pitchers simultaneously, plus a trio of Stat Blasts on the most valuable baseball names, “Mickey Mantle’s Legs,” and extreme batted-ball changes.

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Ben Lindbergh and a newly engaged Jeff Sullivan banter about Jeff’s absence and return, Willson Contreras and Jon Lester, and the Astros’ and Giants’ ends of the Gerrit Cole and Andrew McCutchen trades, respectively. Then they bring on FanGraphs writer Travis Sawchik to break down the Pirates’ past, present, and future, including their returns in the aforementioned trades, the ways in which baseball has caught up with the Pirates in the past few years, Pirates ownership continuing to cry poor, what Andrew McCutchen meant to Pittsburgh, and more.

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Ben Lindbergh talks to SB Nation’s Grant Brisbee about the Mets’ Jay Bruce signing and finding ways to engage with baseball and keep the content coming during an excruciatingly slow offseason, then brings on Forbes contributor David Seideman to talk about trends in baseball memorabilia collecting, the enduring appeal of historic relics and signatures, and the most unlikely finds and valuable discoveries in recent years.

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Ben Lindbergh and outgoing FanGraphs Managing Editor Dave Cameron review Dave’s decision to retire from writing to take a job as an analyst in the San Diego Padres’ front office, discussing his personal and professional past and future and the past, present, and future of public and private baseball analysis.

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Ben Lindbergh and his Ringer MLB Show co-host Michael Baumann speculate about how the slow offseason will end, answer listener emails about sabermetrics and salary depression, sumo wrestling and the Hall of Fame, and baseball in winter weather, compare the careers of Omar Vizquel and Nomar Garciaparra, and analyze unorthodox new Padres relief pitcher Kazuhisa Makita. Then Michael makes a case for college baseball, and he and Ben talk to Justin Volman, founder and CEO of the Collegiate Baseball Scouting Network, about how he’s assembled and trained a nationwide network of (mostly) college-aged scouts to cover games that MLB scouts might miss.

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Ben Lindbergh talks to FanGraphs’ newest hire, Meg Rowley, about her transition to full-time baseball writing, becoming a professional writer after starting out in a very different occupation, and her gravitation toward increasingly less lucrative industries. Then Ben, Meg, and ESPN’s Bill Barnwell talk to Minnesota Twins Director of Baseball Operations Daniel Adler about Adler’s recent move from football front offices to a baseball front office and how the two sports differ in work culture, their embrace of analysis, statistics, and technology, their respective risks of injury, and much more.

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