In the third episode of Effectively Wild recorded live at Saber Seminar in Boston, Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley talk to Boston Globe sportswriter Alex Speier, author of the new book Homegrown: How the Red Sox Built a Champion From the Ground Up, about Boston’s championship core, the twists and turns of player development, why clubhouse chemistry is so unpredictable, player development before big data, how scouting and player development machines break, the future importance of player development, what’s next for the Red Sox, and more.

Audio intro: Derek and the Dominoes, "Keep on Growing"
Audio outro: Jason Isbell, "Grown"

Link to Saber Seminar site
Link to Alex’s book
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Bo Bichette fun facts vs. Travis Demeritte fun facts, Javier Báez batting left-handed against a position player and why the shift appears to be exempt from unwritten rules, and umpire perfect games, then (30:46) talk to The Athletic’s New York Yankees beat writer Lindsey Adler about how to explain the team’s injury-riddled yet somehow ultra-successful season.

Audio intro: The Pretenders, "Almost Perfect"
Audio interstitial: James Brown, "I Refuse to Lose"
Audio outro: Bing Crosby, "Out of Nowhere"

Link to Bichette fun facts
Link to story on Báez batting lefty
Link to video of Báez batting lefty
Link to diagram of shift on Báez
Link to Sam on unwritten rules and the shift
Link to Ben on umpire perfect games
Link to story on compassionate umpires
Link to Jay Jaffe on the Yankees
Link to Mike Petriello on the Yankees
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller banter about Mike Trout’s 28th birthday, the stats he’s led the league in, and the stats he still might lead the league in for the first time, the Mets’ recent hot streak and the way in which their season has been both tumultuous and predictable, Max Muncy and a cycle/walk-off triple attempt, and whether the basepaths should be wider, then answer listener emails about the best era in which to hit for the cycle, how teams should decide whether they’re out of contention, and baseball without timeouts, plus email-inspired Stat Blasts about whether it’s good to get a lot of walk-off wins and whether pitchers should swing away with the bases loaded and one out.

Audio intro: Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, "Forever 28"
Audio outro: The Breeders, "Walk it Off"

Link to Ben on Trout’s league leadership
Link to Sam on walk-off triples
Link to Phil Birnbaum on forecasting team wins
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller banter about the non-running Royals and Terrance Gore, the Diamondbacks’ stolen-base success rate and Zack Godley’s disastrous season, the Phillies’ roster crunch, Sam’s recurring nightmare, a Roman Quinn fun fact, and the outfield exploits of Vince Velasquez, whether the 40-man roster should be bigger, what Velasquez has in common with EW legend Ned Garver, the trials and travails of baseball’s forgotten “bullpen jeep” and the sport’s perpetual efforts to shorten games, lying about Babe Ruth, a new nickname for combined no-hitters, the Astros debut of Aaron Sanchez and Houston’s continued way with pitchers, plus a postscript tribute to the late, great unknown comic, Ted Berkelmann.

Audio intro: T. Rex, "Jeepster"
Audio outro: John Entwistle, "Ted End"

Link to post on Gore’s 2019 baserunning misadventures
Link to post on Arizona’s success rate
Link to story on the Phillies’ wild Friday
Link to video of Velasquez’s 14th-inning play
Link to video of Velasquez’s 15th-inning plays
Link to Schifman on the rise of MLB’s minimum earners
Link to Schifman on roster rules and player churn
Link to photo of Garver throw
Link to bullpen jeep photo album
Link to Axisa on Sanchez’s pitch usage
Link to FanGraphs post on Sanchez’s pitch usage
Link to Travis on the Astros and spin
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about FanGraphs’ completist coverage of the frantic trade deadline, the backlash to a perceived lack of activity at the deadline and whether the deadline was really a manifestation of baseball’s structural problems, the appropriate balance between trying to win now and trying to win later, what we can learn from the Chris Archer trade one year later, the significance of the suspensions for the Reds’ and Pirates’ bad brawling behavior, the Hall of Famers Mike Trout passed in July, Bobby Wallace and another reminder that baseball is a wonder of human ingenuity, Jeff McNeil’s netting-assisted snag, a vintage Zack Greinke story, and more.

Audio intro: Belle and Sebastian, "Dirty Dream Number Two"
Audio outro: Robyn Hitchcock, "The Man Who Invented Himself"

Link to FanGraphs trade deadline coverage
Link to Ben Clemens on trade deadline activity
Link to Ken Rosenthal on the deadline
Link to Marc Carig on the deadline
Link to Ben on the Greinke trade
Link to Ben on revisiting the Archer trade
Link to Sam on the Hall of Famers Trout passed in July
Link to Pirates-Reds brawl suspensions
Link to Eno on purpose pitches
Link to article about McNeil’s net catch
Link to Rob Arthur on ejections
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller banter about bigger bases in the Atlantic League, then recap and dissect the trade deadline, focusing on why the market took so long to develop, the significance of multiple teams both buying and selling, why some top contenders didn’t do much, what a wild card is worth, the Trevor Bauer three-team trade, the Zack Greinke trade and the Astros as World Series favorites, and many more moves along the way.

Audio intro: Son Volt, "Last Minute Shakedown"
Audio outro: Great Lake Swimmers, "Let’s Trade Skins"

Link to Putterman Atlantic League article
Link to Baccellieri Atlantic League article
Link to Sam’s study on the wild card
Link to Ben on the Greinke trade
Link to Gammons trade deadline article
Link to FanGraphs trade coverage
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller banter about the Gerrit Cole strikeout fun fact, listed heights and weights and Ketel Marte, running the bases clockwise, and a Ramon Laureano postgame comment, then answer listener emails about come-from-behind (and comeback) victories, whether the 2015 season was good or bad for Bryce Harper (and how players’ success is perceived), and whether umpiring crews should expand to include replacement umps, plus Stat Blasts about the benefit of running on 3-2 counts and the record for most MLB ballparks played in.

Audio intro: The Bevis Frond, "Enjoy"
Audio outro: Willie Nelson, "I’d Trade All of My Tomorrows (For Just One Yesterday)"

Link to Laureano video
Link to list of players who played in 40+ parks
Link to Jeff on minor-league umpires
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley follow up on the feedback to the preceding “best players of the decade” episode and minimum innings vs. three-pitch innings, then banter about Mike Trout‘s new-and-improved throwing arm (and Ross Stripling’s new-and-improved ability to retire Mike Trout), trade-deadline procrastination, the Giants’ and Mets’ outlooks, the future of Noah Syndergaard, the newly slider-iffic (and highly effective) Jacob deGrom, the retirement and legacy of Troy Tulowitzki, which of baseball’s best pitchers are appointment viewing, Stevie Wilkerson and the first position-player save, and Ben’s feature article on the mid-PA-pitching-change strategy previously discussed on the podcast.

Audio intro: Dire Straits, "Your Latest Trick"
Audio outro: Dr. Dog, "Do the Trick"

Link to Eric Stephen on Trout’s throw and throwing arm
Link to Michael Baumann on Strasburg
Link to Zach Kram on Tulowitzki
Link to video of Wilkerson save
Link to Ben on mid-PA pitching changes
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh, Sam Miller, and Meg Rowley banter about “minimum innings,” striking out the side, and an anecdote about Barry Larkin bunting, then spend the rest of the episode answering a listener request to name the five best hitters and five best pitchers of the decade—but to make matters more interesting, they do so without looking at WAR and then compare their picks to the stats at the end.

Audio intro: Hot Snakes, "This Mystic Decade"
Audio outro: The Muppets, "Mah Na Mah Na"

Link to Larkin bunting story
Link to spring training Greinke story
Link to Joe Posnanski’s Greinke story
Link to Jeff’s Greinke tweet
Link to Jay on Greinke’s HOF trajectory
Link to Ben’s Beltré story
Link to 2010-19 B-Ref batting WAR leaderboard
Link to 2010-19 FanGraphs batting WAR leaderboard
Link to 2010-19 B-Ref pitching WAR leaderboard
Link to 2010-19 FanGraphs pitching WAR leaderboard
Link to order The MVP Machine

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Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller banter about a bat in front of home plate that deflected a ball, the José Ramírez resurgence, the base stealer in a Statcast ad, an Andrelton Simmons shift that wasn’t, the Atlantic League, a viral Oliver Drake pitch, and a misguided (and unguided) bunt by Fernando Tatís, Jr., then discuss what a wild card is worth, how hard teams should pursue a spot in the play-in game, and what this year’s trade deadline will look like. Lastly (55:40), Ben talks to Rangers outfielder/DH and four-time all-star Hunter Pence about how and why he reinvented his swing, working with swing whisperer Doug Latta, playing in the Dominican Republic, and recent improvements in pitching and player development.

Audio intro: Peter Matthew Bauer, "Wild Light"
Audio interstitial: Everclear, "The Swing"
Audio outro: Laura Marling, "Master Hunter"

Link to GIF of bat deflection
Link to Sam on bat dropping
Link to picture of supposed Simmons shift
Link to Sam on the breakdown of traditional defense
Link to viral Drake splitter
Link to non-viral Drake splitter 1
Link to non-viral Drake splitter 2
Link to teaser for The Pence Method
Link to story on The Pence Method
Link to Ben on the trade deadline
Link to order The MVP Machine

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