Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about two spectacular games by Shohei Ohtani and Ohtani’s extraordinary playing-time pace and relay a sinker-iffic response from Michael Lorenzen to a previous discussion about baseball grip, then (24:22) answer listener emails about using different-colored balls to denote different levels of liveliness, how much time to train players have in-season, whether fielders are to blame when their gloves develop holes, outlawing webbed gloves to raise BABIP, single-game team home-run records, whether players who come up now are already conditioned by pitch clocks, PitchCom and pace, which single stat they would most want to know about hitters and pitchers, and how many appeals a ball-strike challenge system should allow, plus (1:23:17) a Past Blast from 1866.

Audio intro: Jon Brion, “Hook, Line and Sinker”
Audio outro: Japanese Breakfast, “Boyish”

Link to Ohtani game stories
Link to FG combined WAR leaderboard
Link to Langs tweet
Link to pre-2022 combined BF+PA data
Link to Lorenzen comments
Link to MLB mud memo
Link to sinker HBP rate
Link to Annie Hall clip
Link to Justin Choi on sinkers
Link to Ben on pitching machines
Link to Diaz glove video
Link to Vlad glove video
Link to Rob Arthur on low BABIP
Link to 2015 story on age and pace
Link to Rob on pace and velo
Link to Russell on pace and velo
Link to Rob on batter age and pace
Link to 27-and-under SP pace
Link to 28-and-over SP pace
Link to team homer records in game
Link to team homer records in season
Link to MiLB experimental rules
Link to Richard Hershberger’s Strike Four
Link to 1866 story source
Link to Creighton SABR bio
Link to tweet about Pabor’s nickname
Link to Thorn on Pabor’s nickname
Link to Gavarni illustration

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about whether changing managers is at all responsible for the Phillies’ recent success, the Yankees’ almost unparalleled winning-percentage pace, the Royals’ historically terrible pitching performance and the pressure on their pitching coach, another Taylor Ward/Tyler Wade broadcaster slipup, Anthony Rendon’s season-ending surgery, Michael Lorenzen’s comments about baseball slipperiness and MLB’s new mud mandate, a tough-negotiating teen fan’s price for J.J. Matijevic’s first career home run ball, a persuasive display of the minor-league ball/strike challenge system, the major league promotions of Riley Greene and Oneil Cruz, and Lorenzo Cain’s career, plus Stat Blasts (1:15:51) about an entire lineup turning over in a single game and losing pitchers who made the last out of a game, and (1:30:21) a Past Blast from 1865.

Audio intro: Pulp, “Can I Have My Balls Back, Please?”
Audio outro: The Moody Blues, “Steppin’ in a Slide Zone”

Link to Joe Sheehan’s poll
Link to The Athletic writers on Girardi
Link to Jay Jaffe on the Yankees
Link to B-Ref newsletter on the Yankees
Link to tweet with Moore quote
Link to follow-up tweet about Moore
Link to Moore audio
Link to Moore video
Link to Royals’ staff’s + stats
Link to Lorenzen comments
Link to MLB mud memo
Link to Matijevic game story
Link to Matijevic video
Link to story on Jeter’s 3000th
Link to ball/strike challenge video
Link to MiLB experimental rules
Link to news about the zone
Link to story on Cruz’s debut
Link to story on Madris’s debut
Link to Andy McCullough on Cain
Link to Stathead
Link to new Stathead feature explainer
Link to lineup-changes Stat Blast data
Link to losing P/last out Stat Blast data
Link to Ryan Nelson’s Twitter account
Link to Forsch game story
Link to first DH story
Link to second DH story
Link to Richard Hershberger’s Strike Four
Link to 1865 story source
Link to first diamond image
Link to second diamond image
Link to history of spike use

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about a broadcaster relatably mixing up Taylor Ward and Tyler Wade, the Dodgers “fixing” former Rockies pitcher Yency Almonte, a deep, perplexing rabbit hole (7:46) of baseball-themed CarShield commercials, the bat spike as the new bat flip, an umpire’s close call with a broken-bat shard, and the building backlash against position-player pitchers. After that (39:13), they welcome back former major leaguer and current Giants director of video coaching Fernando Perez to talk about how he got his gig with the Giants, what a video coach does, the advantages of the Giants’ giant coaching staff, the disintegrating distinctions between front office and field, the player-development variation among teams, how the Giants beat preseason projections by a record margin in 2021, the upsides and downsides of being in a difficult division, some veterans the Giants’ development philosophies have helped improve (including Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford), how coaching and player dev have evolved since his playing days, the next player-dev frontiers, the Giants’ anti-unwritten-rules approach, and how new technology and information have affected the pitcher-batter balance, plus detours into Joe Maddon’s mohawk, trick plays he wants to see, and the Joc Pederson–Tommy Pham fantasy-football dispute. Then (1:43:18) Ben ends with a Past Blast from 1864, a fun fact, and a few followups.

Audio intro: Small Faces, “Things Are Going to Get Better”
Audio interstitial: Ry Cooder, “Fernando Sez”
Audio outro: Isotopes, “Infield Fly”

Link to Petriello’s Almonte tweet
Link to Cameron Grove on Almonte
Link to Nick Groke on Almonte
Link to CarShield MLB ad playlist
Link to other CarShield ad playlists
Link to Vierling article
Link to Vierling homer off Hader
Link to CarShield Collegiate League wiki
Link to CarShield Field wiki
Link to Stubbs bat spike video
Link to Stubbs EW episode
Link to umpire bat-shard photo
Link to umpire bat-shard article
Link to umpire bat-shard video
Link to Nightengale tweet about Hinch
Link to Jay Jaffe on the Tigers
Link to McCarthy position-player P tweet
Link to live EW episode with Fernando
Link to Rob Mains on PECOTA and the Giants
Link to 2008 Rays mohawk story
Link to 2020 story on the Dodgers’ player dev
Link to story on the Giants’ new training facility
Link to 2020 story on the Giants’ coaching staff
Link to 2022 story on the Giants’ coaching staff
Link to Tim Kurkjian on bad baserunning
Link to Kapler’s unwritten-rules comments
Link to MLB.com on the Giants’ rewritten rules
Link to Ben Clemens on the Giants’ bunting
Link to Yaz deke video
Link to story about the outfield deke
Link to Coghlan leap video
Link to Susan Slusser on the Giants’ t-shirts
Link to Tom Ley on the Giants’ t-shirts
Link to 2019 Pham interview video
Link to latest Pham comments
Link to Richard Hershberger’s Strike Four
Link to Richard on the infield fly rule
Link to story on Houston’s immaculate innings
Link to video of the immaculate innings
Link to Sarah Langs’ immaculate-innings tweet
Link to list of three-pitch-strikeout streaks
Link to Clemens on three-pitch strikeouts
Link to 2016 Albies injury video
Link to Jayson Stark on second base’s location
Link to hyper-punny ad

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about what it means to be humbled, whether Joe Maddon’s mohawk could have caught on and caused a Shohawk had he not been fired, another point about Aaron Judge’s potentially historic home-run pace, a Byron Buxton fun fact, whether Buxton or Luis Arraez is a more entertaining hitter, Ozzie Albies’ fluky foot fracture, and a smart baserunning play by the Cardinals’ Nolan Gorman. Then (37:10) they answer listener emails about Pete Alonso ads for extended car warranties, Alejandro Kirk and the Blue Jays’ catching corps, line drives up the middle, whether the World Series winner is more likely to come out of either the AL East or NL West or the rest of baseball, and how splits by out count work, followed (1:16:19) by pedantic questions about swinging bunts, “contact hitting,” bloop hits, the baseball “diamond,” and “back-to-back-to-back” home runs, a Stat Blast (1:34:22) about power hitters who haven’t homered in consecutive plate appearances or at-bats, and a Past Blast (1:40:18) from 1863.

Audio intro: Willie Nelson, “Hard to Be Humble”
Audio outro: Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, “Humble Me”

Link to Buxton fun fact article
Link to Albies injury video
Link to story about Albies foot fracture
Link to Jay Jaffe on Atlanta’s streak
Link to hamate-fracture study
Link to second hamate-fracture study
Link to later hamate-fracture study
Link to video of Cardinals play
Link to article on The Only Nolan
Link to first Alonso ad
Link to second Alonso ad
Link to info on Alonso accident
Link to Kershaw ad
Link to article on 30 Rock joke rate
Link to leaders in balls hit toward pitcher
Link to leaders in straightaway liners
Link to yearly BA on balls hit toward pitchers
Link to yearly BA on straightaway grounders
Link to 2022 catcher WAR leaders
Link to 2022 team catcher WAR
Link to Effectively Wild t-shirts
Link to Giants shirts
Link to Pham’s response
Link to Stathead
Link to new Stathead feature explainer
Link to Stat Blast results list
Link to article on Grace’s first slam
Link to Richard Hershberger’s Strike Four
Link to 1863 story source
Link to Jeff Fogle on getaway days
Link to Bill James on getaway days

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Joe Maddon’s mohawk, the latest details about Mike Trout’s (and Tommy Pham’s and Joc Pederson’s) legendary fantasy football league, a rash of hidden-ball-trick attempts, the “old guy’s still got it” resurgences of Nelson Cruz and Joey Votto, how big a deal Aaron Judge’s potentially historic home-run pace should be, the two-way dominance and unsurpassed hard-hitting of the Yankees (including Matt Carpenter’s hot start with the team), the AL East hogging half of the AL’s prospective playoff berths, the excellence of José Ramírez, Tommy Edman’s breakout, Ben’s new peeve about a certain type of homer, the latest extremes in position-player pitching, Walker Buehler’s injury and the NL West race, the longest-ever collective winning and losing streaks by a division, the NL East race, the winning ways of the Braves and Ronald Acuña Jr., and the history of the “base hit,” plus a Past Blast from 1862.

Audio intro: Francis Lung, “Bad Hair Day”
Audio outro: Vanessa Peters, “A Good Judge”

Link to Maddon mohawk report
Link to 2008 mohawk story
Link to Gonzalez firing story
Link to Randolph firing story
Link to clip of Trout on ESPN
Link to Votto’s May 2 tweet
Link to Dan Szymborski on Votto
Link to story on Votto’s hot streak
Link to FG on-pace leaderboard
Link to expected HR leaderboard
Link to Stanton’s 120 mph homer
Link to Ben on Stanton in 2017
Link to list of hardest-hit balls
Link to Rosenthal on rebuilding Carpenter
Link to Ohtani HR off the wall
Link to Stark on position-player pitchers
Link to story on Higashioka’s homer
Link to Mike Fast on the slowest pitch
Link to Jay Jaffe on Buehler
Link to Richard Hershberger’s Strike Four
Link to 1862 story source

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Joe Maddon’s firing, the impact and end of the Angels’ 14-game losing streak, and whether the Angels or Phillies are in a worse position for the future, Tony La Russa’s intentional walk on a 1-2 count, whether the weather and the humidor can explain MLB’s sudden upticks in fly-ball distance and home-run rate, the testing of experimental, legalized sticky stuff in the minor leagues, Hunter Greene’s rain-shortened run at a Statcast no-hitter, how the Cardinals and Rays played a nine-inning game in less than two hours, Joey Bart’s demotion and the wide range in the performance of this season’s promoted top prospects, the return of Stephen Strasburg (sort of), an update on Cody Bellinger and Christian Yelich and observations about Alex Bregman, David Robertson, Sandy Alcantara, Willians Astudillo, and Tony Gonsolin and the Dodgers, the teaser for the latest TV adaptation of A League of Their Own, Angel Hernandez filing an appeal over his discrimination lawsuit, the Rays’ Pride Night debacle, a NYT crossword conflating plate appearances and at-bats, and pedantry about whether home-run hitters are actually on base, plus a Past Blast about 1861.

Audio intro: Nick Lowe, “14 Days”
Audio outro: Imperial Teen, “One Two”

Link to Jay Jaffe on Maddon
Link to Sam Blum on Maddon
Link to Rosenthal Q&A with Maddon
Link to Ohtani’s streak-ending highlights
Link to story about signature significance
Link to James Fegan on La Russa
Link to Ginny Searle on La Russa
Link to Ben Clemens on La Russa
Link to broadcast clip of La Russa IBB
Link to La Russa explanation video
Link to Seager 1-2 IBB
Link to Trout 1-2 IBB
Link to Ballpark Pal home-runs thread
Link to Alan Nathan on Twitter
Link to Mike Axisa on homers and Greene
Link to Evan Drellich on MiLB sticky stuff
Link to Sam on Statcast no-hitters
Link to Greene’s batted balls allowed
Link to short Rays-Cardinals game
Link to MLB.com on McClanahan
Link to pitcher pace leaderboard
Link to Jay on Bart’s demotion
Link to Ben on the minors-to-majors gap
Link to MLB.com on Strasburg
Link to David Laurila on Bregman
Link to Ben on Longoria
Link to Jay on Gonsolin
Link to Astudillo scoring video
Link to A League of Their Own teaser
Link to story about Hernandez’s appeal
Link to Hernandez at Umpire Scorecards
Link to Ginny on the Rays
Link to Emma’s crossword tweet
Link to tweet about NL Central losing streak
Link to Richard Hershberger’s Strike Four
Link to 1861 story source
Link to Cabrera’s spring hidden-ball trick

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With Meg Rowley on the road, Ben Lindbergh talks to a trio of guests. First (4:10), he’s joined by Mr. King, the creator of Northwoods Baseball Sleep Radio, to talk about baseball as ASMR, crafting a fictional league, broadcaster, and collection of players, replicating the soothing, white-noise sounds of a baseball broadcast, putting his listeners to sleep, and more. Then (34:32) Ben brings on coach and journalist John W. Miller to examine how the rise of private travel baseball clubs and pay-to-play tournaments has reshaped youth baseball and excluded some kids from the sport, discuss the ramifications from Little League to the major leagues, and propose some solutions. After that (1:18:12), former major leaguer (and former EW guest) John Poff rejoins, along with John Brave Bull and Ardyce Taken Alive from the Standing Rock Reservation, to talk about their histories, explain their efforts to bring baseball to kids at Standing Rock, and ask the EW audience for help (plus a reading of a Poff poem). Finally (1:50:05), Ben shares a baseball-history anecdote from 1860.

Audio intro: Julie Andrews, “Stay Awake”
Audio interstitial 1: Dave Dudley, “George (and the North Woods)”
Audio interstitial 2: Peter, Paul and Mary, “Right Field”
Audio outro: Raye Zaragoza, “Driving to Standing Rock”

Link to Baseball Sleep Radio website
Link to Baseball Sleep Radio on Spotify
Link to FG post on Baseball Sleep Radio
Link to the real Northwoods League
Link to Bloomberg on white noise podcasts
Link to The Universal Baseball Association
Link to old baseball broadcasts on YouTube
Link to old baseball broadcasts on archive.org
Link to GameChanger Plays Announcer post
Link to John Miller on youth baseball
Link to John on improving youth baseball
Link to Tom House baseball-size tweet
Link to McCutchen at The Players’ Tribune
Link to Pittsburgh Hardball Academy site
Link to info on the Dream Series
Link to RBI Baseball site
Link to article on commercializing youth sports
Link to data on youth sports participation
Link to John Miller’s baseball resume
Link to John Miller’s website
Link to John Poff’s SABR bio
Link to John’s first podcast appearance
Link to Poff Stat Blast episode
Link to Standing Rock Reservation wiki
Link to KLND website
Link to Community Alliance Group website
Link to John’s North Dakota Quarterly poems
Link to John’s GoFundMe fundraiser page
Link to Richard Hershberger’s Strike Four
Link to 1860 story source 1
Link to 1860 story source 2

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Mike Yastrzemski trying the “KK play,” the distinctive smell of rat urine, Buck Showalter making a mid-PA pitching change, Dave Roberts running afoul of a position-player-pitcher rule, the wording of the zombie-runner rule, Nick Pivetta’s near-miraculous mechanical adjustment, and Mike Trout’s slump, plus a baseball-history fact from 1859. Then (38:54) they talk to former Phillies front-office executive Lewie Pollis about how working for an MLB team became his dream job and why, several years after fulfilling that dream, he decided to walk away from it by changing careers—a choice with wide-ranging lessons to offer about work-life balance in baseball and beyond (plus a postscript).

Audio intro: The Walkmen, “This Job is Killing Me”
Audio interstitial: Ramones, “The Job That Ate My Brain”
Audio outro: Dan Bern, “Burned Out Case”

Link to Yaz play video
Link to play in full game highlights
Link to story about the “KK play”
Link to video of the “KK play”
Link to posts about unwritten rules of deking
Link to “rat urine” report
Link to Ben on mid-PA pitching changes
Link to Showalter pitching-change video
Link to article about the pitching change
Link to Mookie quote
Link to article on Girardi’s “Strategy”
Link to 2020 zombie-runner rule
Link to article about Roberts’ confusion
Link to 4/17 story on Pivetta’s mechanics
Link to 4/20 story on Pivetta’s mechanics
Link to other 4/20 story on Pivetta
Link to story on Pivetta’s turnaround
Link to EW episode about Trout going hitless
Link to story about the Angels’ losing streak
Link to Richard Hershberger’s Strike Four
Link to 1859 story source
Link to Lewie’s 2014 story on front-office pay
Link to Lewie’s Baseball Prospectus archive
Link to Lewie’s newsletter
Link to Lewie on leaving his dream job
Link to Lewie on the response to his essay
Link to “Great Resignation” wiki
Link to R.J. Anderson on MLB brain drain

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Joe Girardi’s firing and where the Phillies go from here, the Astros’ Yordan Alvarez extension, the dip in DH offense, and the trade deadline, then answer listener emails about MLB.TV highlights, the upside of ignoring playoff odds, getting plunked on a full count, things that haven’t happened in an MLB game, players being coached by their romantic partners, and what would happen if no one wanted to play catcher, plus a history tidbit from 1858 and a few followups.

Audio intro: Ezra Furman, “Wobbly”
Audio outro: Liz Phair, “Uncle Alvarez”

Link to MLB.com on the Girardi firing
Link to ESPN on the Girardi firing
Link to Andy McCullough on Girardi
Link to wobbly chair/squid is fried explainer
Link to MLB.com on the Alvarez extension
Link to Dan on extension candidates
Link to Dan on more extension candidates
Link to Dan on the trade deadline
Link to Passan on the trade deadline
Link to DH stats by season
Link to Russell Carleton on resting hitters
Link to story about DH and roster decisions
Link to FanGraphs WPA Inquirer
Link to Ben Clemens on Holmes
Link to Smeltzer interview video
Link to Smeltzer story
Link to subsequent Smeltzer story
Link to EW listener emails database
Link to Richard Hershberger’s Strike Four
Link to story about the Mets’ pitching machine
Link to video of the machine
Link to Ben on “perfect” pitching machines
Link to story about the Turner deke
Link to Turner deke video

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley announce the availability of new Effectively Wild T-shirts, then follow up on the latest, Mike Trout-related developments in the Tommy Pham–Joc Pederson fantasy-football/slap story as well as Josh Donaldson’s comments about his teammates not supporting him. After that, they banter about a home-run robbery that wasn’t, the homer hitting of Aaron Judge, a successful use of the “KK play” to deke a runner into leaving third base early, the return of MVP-caliber Mookie Betts, the Kevin Gausman vs. Robbie Ray debate revisited, unlikely contenders for the pitcher WAR lead (including Martín Pérez), and whether the Phillies are hopeless this season and long term, followed by the latest edition of Today’s Episode Number in Baseball History (plus a postscript).

Audio intro: The Skygreen Leopards, “Selling T-shirts”
Audio outro: The Lemonheads, “It’s a Shame About Ray”

Link to FG post about t-shirts
Link to t-shirts
Link to C. Trent on Trout
Link to Andy McCullough on Trout
Link to MLB.com on Trout
Link to Donaldson comments
Link to tweet about Ohtani’s rescheduling
Link to Ohtani game story
Link to Ohtani non-robbery video
Link to Ben on homer robberies
Link to Dan Szymborski on Judge
Link to “ordinary effort” definition
Link to story about the “KK play”
Link to video of the “KK play”
Link to Ben on mid-PA pitching changes
Link to story about Ray and vaccination
Link to Shapiro’s comments
Link to Levi Weaver on Pérez
Link to Sports-Reference newsletter
Link to changes in playoff odds
Link to Girardi on his job
Link to Ken Rosenthal on Girardi’s job
Link to The Ringer’s preseason predictions
Link to RosterResource payroll page
Link to 1857 convention story
Link to Richard Hershberger’s Strike Four
Link to 1857 story source 1
Link to 1857 story source 2
Link to 1857 story source 3
Link to Shanghaiing wiki
Link to sticky wicket wiki
Link to story on crank/fan
Link to “good hair day” clip
Link to overheard Hallion clip
Link to Hallion hot-mic clip
Link to “ass in the jackpot” video

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